I see alot of problems that people ask time and time again regarding new installs. Fedora is like any operating system (Windows included) in that it needs to be "personalized" after install. I recently installed Fedora on my home PC and have since installed in on an entire network for a friend. I noticed that I had to do most of the same things over and over again for all PC's. My friend asked why I didn't write it down for him so he could use it when he installs Fedora on other people's computers (pay it foward so to speak).

Well, here is my list. Pleas post your own and maybe this thread can be a great reference for new Fedora users to see where we have all struggled and what they may want to try. I

If you do any configuration that is "card specific" please post the specific hardware so that people without that hardware won't mess up their settings.

If you have set up a small home network, put your smb.conf file for others to copy and us.
If you have changed fstab, lilo, grub, XF86Config, etc... post it to show others why and what you did.

I will post mine in the next post.

Out of the box I see that Fedora needs a few programs and tweaks to work on my computer.

I have the following hardware
asus p4s533 mother board
Celeron 2.8Ghz processor
1GB SDRam
HP OfficeJet T45x1 Printer
HP P910 Monitor
CA surround sound

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To open console as root.....

in start menu find the program terminal
open it and type
su root
enter your password
---you are now logged in to terminal as root
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sound Card

When I installed Fedora, I had no sound when I hit test. To fix this I had to move the output cable that goes to my speakers from the speaker output to the mic in jack. It worked fine after that.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
First thing I did once I got in was to change desktop to KDE instead of default Gnome for the following reasons
1) I like the ability to change permissions from the destop and have it filter down to subdirectories.
2) I like the ability to right-click and add CDrom devices to the desktop.

to do this, when Gnome opens, open the start menue (red hat in lower left corner) choose system settings ---> more settings------> desktop switcher.
it will boot into KDE if you log out and back in after choosing KDE.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CDROM
Next I changed the fstab to optimize my CDrom's. Do this to keep your CD rom from locking closed.
In the fstab entry for each cdrom and dvdrom device, I removed the word "kudzu" and changed the word "owner" to "user".

Example:
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso9660 noauto,user,ro 0 0

to do this open console as root
type vim /etc/fstab

when it opens you can move the cursor over the items you want to change and hit the insert key once to add to and twice to replace characters as you type. Hit escape when you finish typing. When you finish with changes, hit escape and type :wq! to save and exit. or q! to exit without saving

I then added the two CDROM devoces to my desktop

I right-clicked on the desktop and chose create new cdrom device from the menu.

I named it and chose the device from the drop down.

Now, when I want to eject a cd I simply right click on the icon, hit "unmount" then hit "eject"

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
USER Permissions

The next step was to gime my default user more permissions for administrative purposes

In the start menue under
system settings ----> Users and groups

I double clicked on my name and then went to the group tab. I added my name to the sys group, root group and to the burning group.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NVIDIA DRIVER

Install NVIDIA Driver for 3d support
Download I32A driver from Nvidia website
save in /home/yourname directory
open terminal
su root
password

vim /etc/inittab
-arrow down to line with init:5: and place cursor over the 5
-hit the insert key twice and type 3
-hit escape
-type :
-type wq!
-hit enter to save and exit
REBOOT NOW
--now when you reboot you will be in console mode only. This will allow you to install NVIDIA drivers

After reboot, login as root

type:
cd /home/yourname
sh ./NV* (this runs the NVIDIA setup program)
-when it completes, type the following:

now type:
vim /etc/X11/XF86Config
arrow down until you see Load "DRI"
put the cursor in from of the line and hit insert key once
type #
hit escape
arrow down until you see a line that says Driver "nv"
place the cursor over the nv and hit insert two times
type "nvidia" in quotations should look like Driver "nvidia" when you finish
hit escape
type :
Type wq!

next do the following:
vim /etc/inittab
-arrow down to line with init:3: and place cursor over the 3
-hit the insert key twice and type 5
-hit escape
-type :
-type wq!
-hit enter to save and exit
REBOOT NOW
--you will now reboot in graphical mode again
--look for the quick NVIDIA splash screen and you will know it was successful

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Printer Setup
Go to start bar and find printer settings under system settings
add your printer and follow the prompts.

Do not use the standard cups setup method (localhost:631) as it can conflict with the RH Print manager.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Fedora UPDATES
The red ! in the bottom right side of your screen is an old Red Hat program that lets you know when you are not up to date. It doesn't work very well with Fedora but the red icon is useful to let you know there are updates available. To update use yum instead.

Open a terminal as root (you must use root or it won't work) and type the following:

updatedb
-after it completes type:
yum update (this takes a while as it finds the files on the update site and compares it to the ones on your computer

after it finishes you may choose specific programs to upgrade or upgrade the whole system. Upgrading the entire system takes a few hours so do this when you are done playing for the day. Type yum to see a list of commands.

typing:
yum upgrade (as root of course)
will upgrade all programs on your computer that were originally installed. No programs that you installed outside of the Fedora core 1 environment will update. If you want to update just a few programs, its easy to do as well.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Programs not included in Fedora
DVD software
MP3 support
Good CD burner (it comes with XCD Roast but I prefer K3b)

To download and install these programs or any other programs you may want, I recommend using a program called apt-get
go to freshrpms.net and download the 2 files you need to run apt-get. They must be installed together for it to work. This must be done from the command line to work properly.

Here are the two files

http://ftp.freshrpms.net/pub/freshr...0.1.fr.i386.rpm

http://ftp.freshrpms.net/pub/freshr...0.1.fr.i386.rpm

download both of these, put them in a directory like /home/yourname

afterwards go in to console and type

su (root password) * no ( ) just type your root password

cd /home/yourname

rpm -Uvh apt* *this will install both packages at the same time.

apt-get update *this sets up apt-get with the proper list of available software

now you can get a player for DVDs. Mplayer and xine are good for this so just use apt-get to go get it for you and install it. To do that type:

apt-get install mplayer*
apt-get install xmms-mp3
apt-get install xine*

aptget will go get the file, install it and make it ready for use.

If you go to the Fedora menu Mplayer should now be listed under Sound & Video as "movie Player" It will play divx, dvd, etc... you may need to change the dvd drive in it to the correct one on your system though in preferences.

Xine will be listed as xine in the menue

xmms will be listed as "audio player" just like it was when you installed Fedora but will now play MP3's as well. To play standard CD's you may need to change the preference in xmms. To do that open xmms
right click on it and choose options preferences
left click on cdaudio player and hit configure. change the play mode to digital instead of analog.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
K3B
I installed K3B using apt-get
To do this I needed to let apt-get know where to find k3b on the web. I went in to apt-get config file by typing: (as root of course)
vim /etc/apt/sources.list
arrow down to a blank spot in the fedora section. hit the insert key once and hit return to make a blank spot where the cursor is. I then pasted the following lines and saved it by typing :wq!

rpm http://rpms.xcyb.org/fedora/1 i386 stable bleeding
rpm-src http://rpms.xcyb.org/fedora/1 i386 stable bleeding

After I saved it, I typed:

apt-get update
apt-get install k3b

in the start menu I found k3b under sound and video.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My Fstab

I changed a few things to keep CD's from getting stuck. I also changed the dvd rom from the default by changing line 9 to /mnt/dvd

then creating the directory /mnt/dvd
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LABEL=/ / ext3 defaults 1 1
none /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
LABEL=/home /home ext3 defaults 1 2
/dev/hda5 /mnt/windows vfat defaults 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
/dev/hda3 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso9660 noauto,user,ro 0 0
/dev/cdrom1 /mnt/dvd iso9660 noauto,user,ro 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,owner,kudzu 0 0

Nice work Frank,

we could do with more help like this for n00bs like myself

OK, this is how to mount a windows share on a Windows 2000 or Windows XP computer found on your lan. I need this because my laptop has Win2k on it and must remain that way for business.

This can be needed if you have documents on another computer and you want to open the docs while in an office program. You can also burn CD's or images from the other drive without moving them first.

*****This assumes that you have setup Samba and can get to the share drive already through smb://xxx

If not, you need to configure Samba first.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Manual Method:

In Console as root make a directory that you will use when surfing the windows computer. (example /mnt/laptop) Do this by making that directlry with the mkdir command.....
mkdir /mnt/laptop

Next, you will need to mount the drive using Samba. This can be done by typing the following command:

smbmount //sharename/sharedfolder /directory_you_created_above -o username=windows_user_name,password=your_windows_password

mine looks like this

smbmount //laptop/C$ /mnt/laptop -o username=joblow,password=xxxxx

I can now use either konquerer or console to view the windows share.

cd /mnt/laptop

This shows me the entire C drive of my laptop (it has been enabled to share in windows by right clicking on the drive in windows explorer and putting an x in the share box.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If this works for you then you can copy that command and use it to build a desktop icon with that command.

If you want fedora to mount this everytime you boot, you need to add the drive to your /etc/fstab

//sharename/sharedfolder /directory_you_created_above smbfs username=windows_user_name,password=your_windows_password 0 0

Mine looks like this

//laptop/C$ /mnt/laptop smbfs username=joblow,password=xxx 0 0

Now whenever I boot the computer, it automounts the drive for me.
I built a desktop icon that points to /mnt/laptop

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hope this helps someone.

Frank

I upgraded my system to KDE 3.2 in about 30mins (including download time) last night.

Here's how.


Downloaded the KDE Stable 3.2 files from a mirror at

http://www.kde.org/mirrors/ftp.php

Specifically, I used the following mirror...

ftp://ftp.oregonstate.edu/pub/kde/st...at/Fedora/i386

I performed a "drag and drop" (in groups of 8) with the files into a directory I had created in my desktop until all 42 files were downloaded. It took about 15mins total to get the 188meg.

Next, I entered console as root and typed the following command

rpm -Uvh kde* q* ar* p* t* s* red*

Now, when I did this it failed dependencies, but thats ok because I just simply used apt-get to install any files that failed. There were 4 total that I had to get. Your's may differ.

For Example
(root&localhost):$ apt-get install missing_file_name

I then tried again until all dependencies were met.

It completed with no problems and I logged out of KDE3.1 and restarted X. It booted straight into KDE 3.2 with no problems.

I will add that some of the old desktop buttons were not valid anymore and had to be rebuilt for the new programs that replaced the ones for the old icons.

Good Luck

Frank_Drebin

Your suggestion that people exchange basic configuration details is a good one - I have lost countless days trying to solve problems that someone else has already solved.

However, I am not sure about one of your tips. You suggest changing your permissions to include being a member of 'root' group. Surely, this is a bad idea. If you are a member of the root group anything you do, at any time, is valid. This includes mistakes! Making a definate action to log as root helps protect against this sort of error. it only takes seconds to type su + password. I would recommend not changing your default permissions to avoid the accidental deletion of critical files etc.

Just a point of view.....


bscbrit

Making yourself a member of the group 'root' does not give you all of the permissions of the 'root' user id. It allows you some flexibility with various programs but will not allow you to make any changes as root unless you log in as root. It is not the same thing as loging in as root.

Thanks for the feedback and if I am wrong, someone please correct me.

Thanks

Thanks, Frank. That's the most helpful and clearest post I've ever seen on a Linux forum.

Great stuff. As a relative n00b, there are so many things that more experienced users assume _everyone_ should know. I'll be back again and again to this thread.

Bucky

You are correct about it not giving you root user permissions but I personally would never add any user account to the root group. There is no need to give yourself more permissions as a regular user than what is necessary. The potential costs outweigh the benefits. A more secure solution would be to setup users in /etc/sudoers. That way you at least require a password when doing something that requires more privileges and it will make you think twice about what you are doing. If it was a good idea to do it you'd already be in the group by default. Where it could really come back to bite you is if you have multiple users on your machine and you start putting all users in the root group. Do you really want every user of your system being able to read all of the configuration files on a machine? I also would stay away from the sys group for the same reasons.

Also, when you log in as root add a hyphen after su. So to log in as root, at a prompt type:

su -

then type in the password when prompted. The hyphen makes it a login shell which gives you root's environment. When you don't use the hyphen you are simply 'changing the effective id and groupid' and you end up with the environment variables of the user you were when you su'd.

Frank, it is a very nice thing you have done... but... can you please give me the file names that http://ftp.freshrpms.net/pub/freshr...0.1.fr.i386.rpm and http://ftp.freshrpms.net/pub/freshr...0.1.fr.i386.rpm point to? The "Great Firewall of China" will not allow connection to freshrpms... So I need to locate them elsewhere...

Thanks a million!

OK, I got this thing cooking now. You might need to change the apt.conf file to this:

rpm http://apt.ccl.kuleuven.ac.be fedora/fc1/i386 os updates freshrpms dag
rpm-src http://apt.ccl.kuleuven.ac.be fedora/fc1/i386 os updates freshrpms dag

works very well...

If I might be so bold, I also suggest you apt-get synaptic:

# apt-get install synaptic

After apt-get finishes, you will find synaptic under settings.

Take a look at: http://voidmain.is-a-geek.net/redhat...must_have.html

for a couple more suggestions.

apt-get is dope.

Sorry Profjohn, I just got back home and saw that you had asked some apt-get questions.

Glad to see you got it straightened out. Thanks for posting what you found. Please continue to share anything "new" that you learn so that others won't spend hours looking for an answer that you find.

I like Apt-get but make sure you read everything it tells you before you hit "y". I had it remove some programs to install a file and it killed another program by deleting a dependency.