After downloading the DVD of FC6 (codenamed Zod) for 2 weeks I pretty disappointed by what I got. I did a nearly complete install of the thing since I am involved in development and web technologies a lot as a student in Telecommunications Engineering.

The first sight of the new interface and loading screen and all those very fine and polished graphics based on the DNA was more than amazing. Half of my thirst for Zod was blissfully quenching after experiencing this new and much refined system.

As soon as I logged in I tried to remove some software which I won't use and add others! To my great surprise, Zod won't allow me access to the software list without an internet connection!!! What the heck!? DO you need an internet connection to remove software! So, I switched on my wireless LAN card (I had FC6 set on my laptop). And the indicator lights for the card won't light up!! Ooops!! I check out the Device Manager - my card is well recognized but for some reason FC6 won't enable it! I can't even add new softwares for the DVD, it will ask me for repo0 or something. They such a mess out of what used to be a simple operating system. My first experience with Linux was Red Hat 8 and 9 years ago, on which FC is now based.

OK fine, let's move one and explore a bit more. I try enabling the Desktop Effects! It tells me it cannot enable it. This is utterly impossible since I do have a powerful enough graphics card on my laptop - an ATI mobility X1600 with 512MB HyperMemory. SO i say let's install the graphics drivers and to my even greater shock, my whole linux system crashed afterwards! The drivers worked fine in my other system, such as Ubuntu and Knoppix.

SO, obviously, after much dissatisfaction of Zod, I switched back to Ubuntu, which I dare rate as the premium Linux OS, after what I would call the fall the FC6. I am much disappointed! But still very satisfied with Ubuntu and Knoppix.

Hello:
You're funny

In the time it took you to post your thread, you could have gotten everything working. I can only conclude that you are either too lazy or incompetent to invest the time to read the release notes, or any other documentation for that matter ?

The instructions are on the other side of the disc you burned. Did you check ?

When you grow up and actually learn and understand a few more things, I can only hope you fair better.

After all, ubuntu is Swahili for those who are too stupid to configure debian.

Best of luck

Seve

What do you mean by "other side of the disc" ? If you are implying it is a dual-layer DVD, then you are more than mistaken!? The FC6 DVD image fits on only one DVD!!

Anyways, you sell yourself as a know-it-all in Linux! So, you tell me how to access the internet using my wifi card under FC6! Nothing about compatibility is mentioned in the Release Notes which concerns me!

Oh btw, could you also explain the meaning of "swahili" as my definition does not match in the context!

He's saying that ubuntu is a Swahili word (ie African dialect) for whatever was said above. Was meant to be a joke or a dig, depending on your view.

Don't get antsy though, it doesn't go down well on the list.

I've never used wifi under linux, but why don't you search for your card on google linux. Yes it requires a connection, but you seem to have that

btw - release notes are just that, not a hardware compat listing

..or it just means there still exists some Debian users not smart enough to do things the easy way?
Maybe you'll consider what was said and understand something great. Or then not, but it's up to how good you are in learning things.

It's possible that FC6, or any other operating system for that matter, either doesn't recognize your wireless card or it does, but it doesn't still work. I have the latter situation on my laptop; there are (native) drivers for my wireless device, but apparently they don't work all right (not alone, at least) and therefore I simply had to take 5 minutes to get things right: 3 minutes when I searched Google for an article that describes my card model and instructions to make it work on Linux, one minute to download the needed stuff and one to install them (actually, to run a script that did the job -- later inspection showed I could have done it manually and probably it didn't take any more time). My answer was ndiswrapper: since the native driver didn't function properly right out of the box and the manufacturer didn't kindly provide any other drivers than Windows (up to XP at the time), I picked up Windows .inf file and used ndiswrapper to use it as my driver. Working great at the moment, installation was easier and much quicker than ever on Windows: no need to locate install cd, put it in, wait, wait for virus scanning, run Setup, ok, ok, ok, reboot, ...

Now the package manager. It's actually a graphical front-end, the tool you'll probably use instead is called yum which works fine from command line, and I think it doesn't ask for an internet connection. Or you could alternatively just use rpm which lies behind everything: the original RedHat Package Manager.
..and that's is, shouldn't take long. No need for fancy GUI tools, internet connections, ...

I think also that you should have spent a bit more time with the problem(s). After all if you're student one could easily think you can study things and possibly find a solution -- in this case it shouldn't be too difficult with LQ and the rest of the web full of guides, faq's, instructions, how-tos and forum chats you noted the Search link at the top of the page, didn't you?

Thanks for these great tips. Shall try them as soon as I get the time.

Hmmm no matter what I do the only thing that will install without a connection, which I cant get to work BTW, is totem lib which must be going to the wrong place as the codecs never show up. Looked and looked but cant make out where they're suppose to be.

Anyway first things first, connection, so I can try to fix the other problems. Tried fc6 and now 7 off the live cd. Either way my EVDO refuses to "connect" on the linux box. Working fine on XP laptop. I've got ricoh socket showing up with proper driver. I get acmTTY0 assigned to card on insert. Dials, does everthing right but just sits there and timesout waiting. Tried the "carrier check=no" with no luck. I know theres several configs on google, tried every last version, no change. Any ideas as to what could be the problem? Anyone know where wvdial.conf gets its chat from? I see one in ppp/ peer but it just give the location of the exe. Theres 2 sections in the conf maybe the lower part? No matter what I change I get the same result. Leads me to believe the dialer is getting chat from somewhere else, yes? no?


Anyway, thanks for looking at my questions. Joe.

Did you mean to post this here? You need to start a new thread rather than hijacking one, but I don't think this was probably your intention given that it seems to bear no relation to the original post

At the risk of getting that other guy (Seve) calling me stupid and incompetent, I too am disapointed with FC6.
Look, I'm a total novice with Linux. I am not real interested in becoming a real Linux expert. I don't want to put in the hours to study it, I've got other things to do. I'm not a computer expert, nor do I want to be. I just want a reliable system that works with a few applications. I want it on my desktop and laptop. Is that to much to ask?
I don't like Windows, should I go to another distrubution of Linux or should I go to Mac?

Thanks Atwin for your comment.

Hi Bob, so what exactly is it you don't like with FC6?

I actually went the other way, from Ubuntu to FC6. My Ubuntu machine failed to boot several times after Ubuntu updates. I have had no such problems with FC6. FC6 also seem to be better able to handle my fakeraid (Silicon Image) SATA RAID drives during installation.

Very happy with FC6

Hi Bob,

I can see your point. And never mind the grumpiness of some posters here, some will have that craving to be smarter than all the rest.
I moved from Fedora to Suse, then Debian, then FreeBSD and Gentoo. Only then did I look into Ubuntu. And now it's what I'm using 90% of my time. So never mind people telling you that it's somehow more respectable to be running one of the harder distros.

Yes, Fedora does have its "limitations". I use the quotation marks because it all depends on your needs - some may actually call them strengths and they wouldn't be wrong. If you don't like doing a lot of configuration yourself, they are limitations.

It seems to me that, yes, Ubuntu does make a better choice for the casual user. Many things were already taken care of by the developers. Some things, however, are not installed by default: wind32codecs, flash, vlc, ... I assume Ubuntu is simply trying to avoid legal issues that way. But you'll find that they can be installed with a few simple mouse clicks.

Alternatively, you could look into PCLinuxOS or Mepis. These tend to have even more preconfigured.

My media player is not working. I've tried DVD's and am now trying to play an mp3 file. It says I need a decoder and that I don't have the plugins I need. How do I know what plugins are needed, and where are they?

Edit - removed erroneous comment

It is fedora's policy not to include packets that could legally harm it. Read this Fedora Core Guide. It might help you...

Difficult subject those decoders. I think most distributions are over-cautious when it comes to codecs and DeCss (or whatever that DVD playing library was called...). One place to get many of them is the MPlayer HQ: http://www.mplayerhq.hu

In most cases codecs unfortunately have to be installed separately from the main distribution. Normal MPEG, MP3 etc now have open source versions, so problems mostly arise with Windows AVI and DVD movies (well, I think so anyway, I just added all the codecs' I found and it all works now even Windows AVI files)

In terms of software, my favorite MP3 player is Audacious (those people have done a very good job). As media player more generally I like VLC best and I mostly use Oxine for my digital TV (DVB-T).

EDIT: Actually my statement on MP3 is almost certainly wrong, after all thats why things like OGG came along....