Fedora 8 Install Guide
Written by Jeremy French
11.14.2007 at 04:15pm
Section: Tutorials
Printer Friendly Version
I decided to document how I set up my
Fedora system so others could see the steps I take to get to a perfect
(for me) desktop environment. Please note that this is not your average
"Newbies Guide To Installing Linux". this is merely how I set up my
system and only includes the programs I use.
So, I've just installed Fedora 8 as a fresh install and I'm now looking
at a default desktop. There's a security alert telling me I need to
update my system, but I'm going to forgo that for the moment.
First thing I'm going to do is fix my display because it
defaulted to 1600x1200 and I prefer 1280x1024. So, on the top panel,
System > Administration > Display brings up the panel that allows
me to change that. After changing it, I need to reload X for the new
settings to take effect. CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE gets me back to a login
screen.
Once I've reloaded X, I'm going to ignore the update notice
again and add the Livna repository. To do this, I open Firefox and
browse to http://rpm.livna.org/rlowiki/
Before I actually install the Livna repo rpm, I'm going to middle-click
(click the mouse wheel or right-click > Open in a new tab) the link
next to "The repository packages are located here:". Click on "Parent
Directory", then right-click "RPM-LIVNA-GPG-KEY" and select "Copy link
location". Next, I'll open a terminal from the top panel menu by going
to Applications > System Tools > Terminal. Enter the following
command, followed by your root password to become root:
su
then do:
rpm --import <CTRL+SHIFT+V (or right-click > Paste)> Hitting
"Enter" will import the Livna repository's RPM key - NEVER install
software that isn't signed unless you have *really* good reason to do
so.
Back in Firefox, close the tab that you got the signature file
from and then click the "Fedora 8 repository RPM" link and save it to
disk. Once that finishes, double click the livna-release rpm on your
desktop, enter your root password, then click "Apply" on the package
installation window that pops up, then OK. You can now delete the
package from your desktop.
Before we run our initial update, we might as well remove
things that we're going to replace or remove anyway. No sense in
updating something you're just going to turn around and remove, right?
yum -y remove totem*
Unless you're using a laptop:
yum -y remove bluez-libs pcmciautils
Now that the Livna repos are installed, it's time to start the initial system update. Back in the terminal window, type in:
yum -y update This could take a while,
depending on the number of updates your system requires, so we'll use
this time to make some preferential changes.
If your desktop is full of windows, click the "Show Desktop"
icon in the bottom left corner (where a Windows Start button would be).
Double-click "Computer" and you'll be met with a sorry excuse for a
file manager. Don't worry, it gets better - right now. Click Edit >
Preferences, then the "Behavior" tab and check "Always open in browser
windows". Close the preferences dialog, then close the file manager and
double click on "Computer" on your desktop again. Better already, isn't
it? In the side pane, next to the pane close button, click "Places" and
select "Tree". All of a sudden, your file manager is actually useful
for something like finding files. Go ahead and close that.
Back to Firefox, I have a couple tweaks I like to apply to
make things easier on me. Right-click the menu bar and uncheck
"Bookmarks Toolbar". Click Edit > Preferences and select "Always ask
me where to save files" (unless you want every file you download to go
on your desktop - which many people do) and paste the following into
the "Home Page" field (or type in whatever URL you want): http://www.google.com/firefox?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official
Select "Tabs" in the top menu of this applet and reverse the check
marks so you have only the following selected: "a new tab", "Always
show the tab bar" and "When I open a link in a new tab, switch to it
immediately".
Close the preferences dialog and go to Tools > Add-ons >
Get extensions, or just follow these links (you don't have to restart
Firefox until you've installed all of the ones you want):
Feel
free to search around for other extensions you might find useful. Once
you've finished installing them, go ahead and hit the "Restart Firefox"
button on the Add-ons window. When it restarts, Adblock will ask if you
want to subscribe to a list. I personally don't use these, preferring
to block things on an as needed basis. If you want to visit the Image
Zoom website, hit "Continue" on that window, otherwise, just hit
"Close".
Most of these extensions I use for web development, so
probably won't be relevant to you. The only modifications I make to the
default options is to disable the "User Agent Switcher" (I only use
this when I'm trying to troubleshoot things) and set "Snap Links" to
read my middle (scroll) button instead of a right button - if you don't
change this, Firefox can freak out with right-click menus from time to
time. To make these changes, go to Tools > Add-ons, select "User
Agent Switcher" > Disable, then "Snap Links" > Preferences >
Middle Button > OK. Restart Firefox and everything should work
right.
Now to fix my Windows. The default desktop setup is set to
resemble Microsoft Windows behaviors, which I don't really care for.
From the top panel, System > Preferences > Look and feel >
Windows brings up the appropriate applet. Check the box next to "Select
windows when the mouse moves over them", click "Maximize" and select
"Roll up" from the list. If you've never worked like this, it takes
some getting used to, but it's well worth it.
The next thing I'm going to do is get rid of Tomboy on my top
panel and add a system monitor, force quit and a terminal launcher. To
remove Tomboy, just right-click it and select "Remove from panel". To
add the system monitor, force quite applet and terminal, right-click
the panel and select "Add to Panel". Scroll down the list and
double-click "Force Quit", scoll further and double-click "System
Monitor", then, back up at the top, click "Application Launcher", then
the arrow next to "System Tools" and double-click "Terminal" then
"Close" (or browse around for other nifty stuff to add to your panel).
Once done, if an application is locked up or otherwise misbehaving,
just click the "Force Quit" icon, then click the offending window.
Right-click the system monitor on your panel and choose
"Preferences", then select "Memory" and "Network", then click "Close".
Right-click the system monitor again and select "Move" to move it where
you want it on the panel.
Check on your terminal to see if it's finished updating yet.
If it is, go ahead and reboot. If it isn't, well, you'll just have to
wait because the next thing I'm installing is a kernel module. When
it's done, type the following to reboot the system:
reboot
Once you're back in your desktop environment again, click
Applications > Add/Remove Software. When the "Insert CD" dialog pops
up, click "Repository Manager" and Uncheck "Install Media". Click the
"List" tab in the package manger and scoll down to the "yum" packages.
Put a check next to yum-cron, yum-fastestmirror, yum-fedorakmod,
yum-kernel-module, yum-skip-broken, yum-utils and yumex and hit
"Apply". Once that finishes, close the package manager.
Click the terminal launcher you added to your panel and log in as root by issuing:
su
I use an nVidia graphics card, so I'm going to issue:
yum -y install kmod-nvidia
If you have an ATI video card, this is what you want:
yum -y install kmod-fglxr Oops! The
kmod-nvidia package is expecting a newer kernel than the one I have.
This happens from time to time when the core Fedora repository is
updated and the mirrors haven't updated to it yet. Being that Fedora 8
was just released and the mirrors are swamped with people upgrading,
this is bound to happen from time to time. So, what to do?
Issue the following:
uname -r Then open the package manager
again (Applications > Add/Remove Software), select the "List" tab,
and scroll down to "kmod-nvidia" (or whatever package you need). You'll
notice there are a couple of them listed and one of them has the same
version number "uname -r" responded with. Select that one and hit
"Apply". Once the repositories all get synced up, we'll get our kernel
upgrade through an update notification. The important thing is to get
some version of the package installed now so we don't have to worry
about it later.
Since we just installed a kernel module, it's best to reboot again. So issue:
reboot
Now to get most of our goodies. The following can be simply copied and pasted into a root terminal.
yum -y install abcde abiword acpi acpitool \
aiksaurus-gtk akode acode-extras anjuta-gdl azureus bluecurve* buoh contacts \
dates dia emerald emerald-themes ffmpeg* fonts* gconf-editor gdesklets geany \
gedit-plugins gftp gnash-plugin gnochm gnomad2 gnome-applet* gnome-audio-extra \
gnome-compiz-manager gnome-keyring-manager gnome-nettool gnome-pilot-conduits \
gnome-speech gnomescan gnome-theme* gnotime gnucash gnumeric \
gstreamer-plugins* gtkpod gtweakui libdvdcss mmv mplayer* nautilus-* numlockx \
openoffice.org-base openoffice.org-calc openoffice.org-core \
openoffice.org-draw openoffice.org-emailmerge openoffice.org-graphicfilter \
openoffice.org-impress openoffice.org-math openoffice.org-pyuno \
openoffice.org-writer openoffice.org-xsltfilter planner swfdec-mozilla tango* \
themes-backgrounds-gnome thunderbird totem-xine totem-xine-mozplugin unrar \
vinagre wallpapoz xine xine-lib xine-lib-arts xine-lib-extras* xine-pligin \
xmms* xorg-x11-docs xorg-x11-fonts* xosd yum -y install rhythmbox Once that's
done, I'll reboot just because it was such a massive update that
affected quite a bit of the system. Once I'm back in my desktop, I find
that I suddenly have full support for mp3, wmv, avi, mpeg, ogg - and
DVD movies that I put into my DVD drive automatically play in
Totem-xine.
Next, I'm going to enable the open source flash plugin (gnash) for Firefox. In the same terminal window (as root):
mkdir /usr/lib64/mozilla/plugins-wrapped
ln -s /usr/lib64/mozilla/plugins/libgnashplugin.so /usr/lib64/mozilla/plugins-wrapped/libgnashplugin.so
Beryl apparently isn't included with Fedora 8. However,
clicking System > Preferences > Look and feel > Desktop
Effects and checking the options there brings back some of the eye
candy - but it's in need of some tweaking. My primary desire for using
Compiz it the ability to rotate my desktop cube with my mouse, both by
grabbing it with my middle button and by scrolling left and right.
Unfortunately, the CompizConfig Settings Manager is pratically useless
for this for whatever reason. I've activated the "Viewport Switcher"
extension, but nothing I do there has any effect. I've gone into the
"Rotate Cube" extension settings and tried setting the "Initiate Event"
handler to the middle button to no effect.
As it turns out, this is a bug with the package. To fix this, open a terminal and su to root and do:
nano /usr/bin/gnome-wm
Page down to the bottom of the file, then arrow up to this section:
case `basename $WINDOW_MANAGER` in
compiz)
export LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT=1
gtk-window-decorator &
OPT3=glib
OPT4=gconf
;;
beryl)
emerald &
;;
esaccase `basename $WINDOW_MANAGER` in
compiz)
export LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT=1
gtk-window-decorator &
OPT3=glib
# OPT4=gconf
OPT4=ccp
;;
beryl)
emerald &
;;
esac
The last thing I'm going to set up is Thunderbird. By default,
Fedora uses Evolution, so I have to change the default mail client by
going to System > Preferences > Personal > Preferred
Applications and selecting Thunderbird under the "Mail Reader" option.
You'll notice the icon in the top panel immediately changes to
Thunderbird's logo when you do this. Clicking on that will open an
email account setup wizard.
That's it, Fedora 8 is now ready for business on my workstation.
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