Fedora 17, codename Beefy Miracle, is available for download and it comes with a lot of new features and bleeding edge software. It comes with Gnome Shell 3.4 and KDE SC 4.8 along with Linux kernel 3.3.4. You can also integrate your Google, Windows Live and Facebook accounts with Gnome Shell. If you haven't done already download Fedora, install it and let's continue with the post installation guide to configure some basic stuff for Fedora.
*Note: If you want to translate this guide in another language I will be glad to host it here. If you are interested contact me!
*Note: In the following tutorial I am using the command line to install software. Of course you can use the software center to install those applications.
1. Configure sudo
* Modifying sudoers file
Normally if you want to run a command which requires root privileges you first have to type 'su -', type your root password and then type the command. However you can bypass this by using the 'sudo' command. But first you have to configure it like this
su --login -c 'visudo'
Now go below the line:
root ALL=(ALL) ALL
press a, and type the following
username ALL=(ALL) ALL
where username is the username you use to login. Next press Escape. Now, if you want to be prompted for your root password each time you use the sudo command go to this line:
# %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL
and with your cursor pointing on # press x If you don't want to be prompted for your root password each time you use the sudo command go to this line:
# %wheel ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL
and with your cursor pointing on # press x Next, press :wq to save and exit. (type the : as well) * Adding your user to the wheel groupJust type: su -c 'gpasswd -a username wheel'
* Testing sudo
To test if you have done it correctly as a simple user type:
$ sudo whoami
If everything is working properly the command should return the word 'root'.
2. Configure yum
Fedora uses YUM to install and update its software and automatically resolve any dependencies needed.
Fedora software repositories don't include support for MP3, DVD and Video playback/recording because of patent licenses. For this reason you have to install that software from third party repositories. But don't worry, this is pretty easy! ;)
* RPMFusion repository
Now we are going to install the RPM Fusion Repository. RPM Fusion is a merger of the Dribble, Freshrpms and RPM Fusion package repositories for Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. A variety of applications is included in that repository such as codecs for mp3 and unencrypted DVDs, multimedia applications such as mplayer, VLX and xine and the closed source Nvidia and ATi video drivers! RPM Fusion has two main repositories: one named "free" for Open Source Software (as defined by the Fedora Licensing Guidelines) which can't be included in Fedora because it might be patent encumbered in the USone named "nonfree" for non-free software, that is everything else which can't be in free; this includes software with public available source-code that has "no commercial use"-like restrictions.
For the rest of this guide I will assume that you have installed and enabled the RPM Fusion Repository. To install it type:
su - yum localinstall --nogpgcheck http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm yum update
* Google repository
First we must install the key
su - yum install wget wget https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub rpm --import linux_signing_key.pub
Fedora 32bit
Add the following to a file called google.repo in /etc/yum.repos.d/:
[google] name=Google - i386 baseurl=http://dl.google.com/linux/rpm/stable/i386 enabled=1 gpgcheck=1 gpgkey=https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub
Fedora 64bit
Add the following to a file called google.repo in /etc/yum.repos.d/:
[google64] name=Google - x86_64 baseurl=http://dl.google.com/linux/rpm/stable/x86_64 enabled=1 gpgcheck=1 gpgkey=https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub
3. Installing video drivers
To be added soon.
4. Install Microsoft fonts
Fedora uses Liberation and DejaVu fonts which are installed by default and look pretty smooth and nice, plus they are open source. If you insist on using the Microsoft fonts you can download and install the msttcorefonts rpm like this.
wget http://www.my-guides.net/en/images/stories/fedora12/msttcore-fonts-2.0-3.noarch.rpm su -c 'rpm -ivh msttcore-fonts-2.0-3.noarch.rpm'
I built it myself using the msttcore-fonts-2.0-3.spec from Fedora-devel mailing list. It includes Arial, Andale, Comic Sans, Courier New, Georgia, Impact, Tahoma, Times, Trebuchet MS, Verdana and Webdings fonts. The procedure just in case you want to build it yourself is the following.
su -c 'yum install rpmdevtools rpm-build cabextract' rpmdev-setuptree cd ~/rpmbuild/SPECS/ wget http://www.my-guides.net/en/images/stories/fedora12/msttcore-fonts-2.0-3.spec rpmbuild -bb msttcore-fonts-2.0-3.spec cd ~/rpmbuild/RPMS/noarch/ su -c 'rpm -ivh msttcore-fonts-2.0-3.noarch.rpm'
Now you can change your fonts through System -> Preferences -> Appearance -> Fonts
5. MP3 and Audio players
**Note: To install many of the following packages you must enable RPM Fusion repository.
* Rhythmbox
su -c 'yum install gstreamer rhythmbox'
To make all mp3 files open by default with Rhytmbox right click on an mp3 file and select 'Open with Other Application...'. Click on Rhytmbox Music Player and you're done.
To add mp3 and other audio support type:
su -c 'yum install gstreamer-plugins-good gstreamer-plugins-bad gstreamer-plugins-ugly'
* Amarok
su -c 'yum install amarok phonon-backend-gstreamer'
* Audacious
Audacious is another audio player similar to old winamp 2.x. To install it type:
su -c 'yum install audacious audacious-plugins'
6. DVD & Video
**Note: To install many of the following packages you must have the RPM Fusion Repository enabled as described here . If you have most probably you will prompted to search automatically for the needed codecs. They will automatically installed. As simple as that!
* DVD playback
In order to play DVDs you must install the appropriate codecs.
su -c 'yum install libdvdread libdvdnav lsdvd'
Those files are enough for playing your non encrypted DVDs. However if you want to decrypt an encrypted DVD you need libdvdcss which isn't included in RPM Fusion because of legal issues in some countries such as the US. As mentioned in RPM Fusion . Opinions between the members of RPM Ffusion differ on the legality of libdvdcss, however no one is ready to vouch for it resuming the legal responsibilities. Therefore libdvdcss is being dropped. See also the comments on legal issues in the link above.
**Note: Instead you can use ATrpms for installing libdvdcss.
Add the following to a file called atrpms.repo in /etc/yum.repos.d/
[atrpms] name=Fedora Core $releasever - $basearch - ATrpms baseurl=http://dl.atrpms.net/f$releasever-$basearch/atrpms/stable gpgkey=http://ATrpms.net/RPM-GPG-KEY.atrpms enabled=0 gpgcheck=1
Afterwards install the package like this.
sudo rpm --import http://packages.atrpms.net/RPM-GPG-KEY.atrpms sudo yum --enablerepo=atrpms install libdvdcss
* Video files playback
When you will try to open a video file with Totem media player it will ask you to search for the necessary codecs. They will be automatically installed! If you have previously set up mp3 playback additional packages would have been installed as dependencies. These packages include video codecs such as xvidcore, ffmpeg and other.
To check some of them type: su -c 'yum install ffmpeg ffmpeg-libs gstreamer-ffmpeg libmatroska xvidcore'
* Totem
Fedora 17 has installed Totem Movie Player. If you want to play DVD files also with totem type:
su -c 'yum install totem-xine xine-lib xine-lib-extras-freeworld'
* Mplayer/SMPlayer
I prefer mplayer and smplayer (mplayer's GUI) for video playback. It supports almost any video type, external subtitles as well as DVD playback as long as you have the needed codecs installed as shown previously.
su -c 'yum install mplayer smplayer'
Open smplayer from Applications > Sound & Video > SMPlayer
* VLC
VLC (Video Lan Client) supports almost any video type without the need of installing external codecs.
su -c 'yum install vlc'
* kaffeine
kaffeine is another KDE media player that uses the xine engine.
su -c 'yum install kaffeine xine xine-lib xine-lib-extras-freeworld'
* RealPlayer
You can download RealPlayer rpm from here . Just choose to open it with the Package Installer. If this fails to install it manually open a terminal, go the directory you downloaded it and type:
su -c 'rpm -Uvh RealPlayer11GOLD.rpm --nodeps'
* Avidemux
Avidemux is a very good video editor. Install it like this:
su -c 'yum install avidemux'
It will be listed in Applications > Sound & Video > Avidemux Video Editor.
7. Flash Plugin
You can use the following commands to install flash player for both 32bit and 64bit.
su - rpm -ivh http://linuxdownload.adobe.com/adobe-release/adobe-release-i386-1.0-1.noarch.rpm rpm --import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-adobe-linux yum install flash-plugin
Restart Mozilla Firefox or Chrome and you should have flash plugin support. However consider using HTML5 at least for watching YouTube videos!
8. Java
Fedora 17 comes with java from the OpenJDK project. It is very easy to install it through yum (if it hasn't already been installed) and it works just fine. Try it! If you still want to install the Oracle (ex SUN) Java go a few lines below.
* OpenJDK
su -c 'yum install java-*-openjdk java-*-openjdk-plugin'
* Oracle's JAVA JRE
First go to the official Java site and download the latest JRE (Java SE 7 Update 4 at the moment).
Fedora 32bit
Select Linux as Platform and download the jre-7u4-linux-i586.rpm file.
Now open a terminal and type:
su - rpm -ivh jre-7u4-linux-i586.rpm
Fedora 64bit
Select Linux x64 as Platform and download the jre-7u4-linux-x64.rpm file.
Now open a terminal and type:
su - rpm -ivh jre-7u4-linux-x64.rpm
Now to setup java runtime perform the following.
/usr/sbin/alternatives --install /usr/bin/java java /usr/java/default/bin/java 20000
Setup the Mozilla/Firefox browser plugin.
For 32bit.
/usr/sbin/alternatives --install /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libjavaplugin.so \ libjavaplugin.so /usr/java/default/lib/i386/libnpjp2.so 20000
For 64bit
/usr/sbin/alternatives --install /usr/lib64/mozilla/plugins/libjavaplugin.so \ libjavaplugin.so.x86_64 /usr/java/default/lib/amd64/libnpjp2.so 20000
* Oracle's JAVA JDK
First go to the official Java site and download the latest JDK (Java Platform 7 Update 4 at the moment).
Fedora 32bit
Select Linux as Platform and download the jdk-7u4-linux-i586.rpm file.
Now open a terminal and type:
su - rpm -ivh jdk-7u4-linux-i586.rpm
Fedora 64bit
Select Linux x64 as Platform and download the jdk-7u4-linux-x64.bin file.
Now open a terminal and type:
su - rpm -ivh jdk-7u4-linux-x64.bin
su - ln -s /usr/java/jdk1.7.4/bin/java /usr/bin/java ln -s /usr/java/jdk1.7.4/bin/javac /usr/bin/javac
Now run java -version as a user. You should see java version "1.7.0_4"
9. Useful Applications
* Google Chrome browser
First you must enable the Google repository for Fedora as mentioned above.
Next install Chrome like this:
su -c 'yum install google-chrome-stable'
* Transmission bittorrent client
Transmission is a free, lightweight BitTorrent client. It features a simple, intuitive interface on top on an efficient, cross-platform back-end.
su -c 'yum install transmission'
* Unrar
The unrar utility is a freeware program for extracting, testing and viewing the contents of archives created with the RAR archiver version 1.50 and above.
su -c 'yum install unrar'
* Filezilla
FileZilla is a FTP, FTPS and SFTP client for Linux with a lot of features.
su -c 'yum install filezilla'
* Gnome Shell tweaks
Tweak the settings, interface, fonts, themes etc.
su -c 'yum install gnome-tweak-tool'
10. Install KDE
If you don't like the default Gnome Shell you can also try KDE. Just open a terminal and type:
yum groupinstall "KDE Software Compilation"
Comments (29)
Subscribe to this comment's feedSome changes to your tips
This will also uncomment the line
&#xwh;eel ALL=(ALL) ALL
in the /etc/sudoers file as well so that you don't have to!
However, I still like to change my sudoers file to re-comment the line
&#xwh;eel ALL=(ALL) ALL
line and then un-comment the line
&#xwh;eel ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL
This way I do not have to type my password every time.
NOTE:
Using sudo without password verification is not generally promoted as a good practice, but hey my Desktop is not public facing and is behind a firewall anyway so I am not extremely worried about it.
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oops
You should be able to get the point though, just refer to the lines above for clarity as I have not changed them in any way other than not showing the comment (hash or number) character in front of the line.
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visudo
Now go below the line:
root ALL=(ALL) ALL
press a, and type the following
username ALL=(ALL) ALL
where username is the username you use to login. Next press Escape
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sigh
rhythmbox and transmission is installed by default in the live iso when installed to hdd.
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jdk
"ln -s /usr/java/jdk1.7.4/bin/java /usr/bin/java
ln: failed to create symbolic link `/usr/bin/java': File exists"
same happens with javac
java -version gives me the following:
"java -version
java version "1.7.0_04"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0_04-b20)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 23.0-b21, mixed mode)"
looks ok... should I forget about the links?
I'm using Fedora 17 64 bits
thanks in advance
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during installation, while creating the first user there's a check box to make admin, which negates the need to perform this step.
Applications
Rhythmbox and transmission are in the default installation.
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Ignore this article
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Regarding Rhythmbox and Transmission I don't know if they are included in the KDE/LXDE/XFCE ISOs, that's why I still include them in the guide.
alain, yes there is no need for the symlinks.
Donnie thanks for the typo, I've fixed it.
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Google Repository
Thanks in advance!
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visudo - use the vi/vim command 'i'
I Just use the terminal to start the sudeors file editor by typeing 'visudo' then use the vim command 'i' to allow editing the sudoers file. Then move the cursor below the line that starts with 'root' and the following line, like so:
your-user-name ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL
when done press the 'esc' key, then ':' and 'w' (to write changes to file) and 'q'(to close the file)
best regards
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flash!!
thanks in advance!
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msttcorefonts
there's a fix to the spec i posted on this thread ...
http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=273302
there's two fixes on that thread ... the first fix is derived from 2.0-1 of the spec file and does not have the fedora 9 font system changes. the second fix, i called 2.0-4, has the sourceforge mirror fix and the font system fix from 2.0-3.
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HTML5 video in Chrome?
The Adobe Flash Player or an HTML5 supported browser is required for video playback.
Get the latest Flash Player
Learn more about upgrading to an HTML5 browser
Then when I click on "learn about upgrading to an HTML5 browser" it seems like I've already got an HTML5 browser (Chrome) though it mentions WebM. Do I need some kind of WebM plugin?
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Typing mistake
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msttcorefonts
su -
rpm -ivh http://downloads.sourceforge.n...noarch.rpm
the rpm does not include the fonts, it downloads them at install time, not rpmbuild time.
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decent post install page
Now I am going to google what I need to install gcc, g++ and ??? There is something else, I think it's gpp??? Anyway, I remember needing it for when I tried compiling something in C and/or C++. wish me luck!
CM
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c++
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setting up firewall for vlc (streaming)
By default this is my firewall setting. I'd appreciate any help.
[txe@Txarlie ~]$ sudo iptables -L
[sudo] password for txe:
Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination
ACCEPT all -- anywhere anywhere state RELATED,ESTABLISHED
ACCEPT icmp -- anywhere anywhere
ACCEPT all -- anywhere anywhere
ACCEPT udp -- anywhere 224.0.0.251 state NEW udp dpt:mdns
REJECT all -- anywhere anywhere reject-with icmp-host-prohibited
Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination
REJECT all -- anywhere anywhere reject-with icmp-host-prohibited
Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT)
target prot opt source destination
[txe@Txarlie ~]$
Txe
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g++, compiling, etc
yum groupinstall "Development Tools"
If you end up needing extra libraries, etc, use
yum groupinstall "Development Libraries"
yum groupinstall "X Software Development" (for X stuff)
There are others, you can use yum grouplist to see them all.
Dave
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