Fedora 11
From TheGredil
We're back! The laptop is still refusing to upgrade to Fedora 11, possibly due to the hard drive encryption on that machine, but below are the notes from the fresh desktop install which is now up and running after removing the RAID in the machine. I still haven't gone anywhere near the server with it yet. So for now the laptop's still on Fedora 10 and the desktop is 11 and the notes from that follow. Will keep you posted.
Contents |
Introduction and Thoughts
Before I start I just wanted to recognise a couple of useful resources. Firstly, the Unofficial Fedora FAQ and, of course, the Fedora Forum, great for finding problems that other people are having (and sometimes a solution).
At first glance there isn't a huge amount of change from Fedora 10 to 11. I did a fresh install on a desktop machine and an "upgrade" on a Toshiba laptop.
On the fresh install I added the extra two on-line repositories to the mix so that the system could download the latest packages right from the start. It saves you going through all that installing and then having to update most of the packages when you run it for the first time. It does require having an internet connection during install though. The fresh install took about 15 minutes to set up followed by 90 minutes to actually install. Bearing in mind that much of this would have been download time.
Making Fedora 11 More Usable
All command line examples below are run using the "Terminal" program logged in as root (type "su -" and then your 'root' password).
Install Repositories
RPMFusion
This is where you tell Fedora where to look on the web for the programs you wish to install. Livna, FreshRPMS etc have now been merged into RPMFusion which makes things easier. They have a free, non-free and both repository options.
Install through the Website - Go to http://rpmfusion.org/Configuration and follow the instructions there.
Command Line Install - The following commands will install both.
rpm -Uvh http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm rpm -Uvh http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm
Adobe
Install the Adobe Repository as follows
rpm -ivh http://linuxdownload.adobe.com/adobe-release/adobe-release-i386-1.0-1.noarch.rpm
Java
There's still no easy way to get proper Java onto Fedora. You have to navigate through java.com, download it and install it manually. Very annoying. If anyone knows an easy way please let me know.
Download the latest JRE from http://www.java.com/. Go to the directory it downloaded to and run.
./jre-6u15-linux-i586-rpm.bin
/usr/sbin/alternatives --install /usr/bin/java java /usr/java/jre1.6.0_15/bin/java 1606
/usr/sbin/alternatives --config java There are 3 programs which provide 'java'. Selection Command ----------------------------------------------- *+ 1 /usr/lib/jvm/jre-1.6.0-openjdk/bin/java 2 /usr/lib/jvm/jre-1.5.0-gcj/bin/java 3 /usr/java/jre1.6.0_15/bin/java Enter to keep the current selection[+], or type selection number: 3
And for the plugin...
alternatives --install /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libjavaplugin.so libjavaplugin.so\ /usr/java/jre1.6.0_15/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so 1606
/usr/sbin/alternatives --config libjavaplugin.so There are 2 programs which provide 'libjavaplugin.so'. Selection Command ----------------------------------------------- *+ 1 /usr/lib/jvm/jre-1.6.0-openjdk/lib/i386/IcedTeaPlugin.so 2 /usr/java/jre1.6.0_15/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so Enter to keep the current selection[+], or type selection number: 2 [root@random data]#
Pulseaudio
Pulseaudio] (the default audio management system) is broken out-of-the-box in Fedora 11 and Fedora 10. Installing using the default packages misses vital packages that can cause audio to become choppy and eventually cease in almost all audio-bearing packages including things like Flash. To fix the problem just force Fedora to install all the Pulseaudio utilities as recommended by the Pulseaudio wiki page. In short, run the following command:
yum -y install pavucontrol pavumeter paman padevchooser paprefs
Additional Program Install
There are a number of programs that Fedora doesn't come with natively that are very useful (or even required) now that you have the repositories installed. They include:
Essentials
- Thunderbird e-mail client (faster, stronger, cleaner and easier than Evolution) plus the calendar extension Lightning
- Adobe Reader and Flash
- CUPSpdf for printing any file to a PDF document
- UnRAR for decompressing RAR archive files
Media
- VideoLAN VLC media player (this is a must have if you want to use your system for a variety of media)
- XMMS media player
- Xine DVD/Video player
Extras
- Unison file synchronisation tool
- Wireshark and NMAP for network sniffing and troubleshooting
- gHex hexadecimal viewer/editor for looking at the binary data within files
- GQ LDAP viewer (most folk won't need this one)
These can either be installed using the Add/Remove Software program or in bulk using the following command:
yum -y install thunderbird-lightning cups-pdf AdobeReader_enu flash-plugin \ unrar vlc grip xine xine-lib xine-lib-extras-nonfree mplayer mplayer-gui \ gq wireshark wireshark-gnome nmap-frontend unison ghex
Hardware
ATI Video Drivers
No proprietary drivers are available from ATI for F11 yet. ATI, pull your finger out, how many betas do you need!. Having said that the main machine has been running the free drivers and they seem to work quite well.
NVidia Video Drivers
Whilst we believe they're available they have not been tested yet... Coming soon.
