I have FC-6 and use KDE.

I've been using repositories but I don't know anything about them. I've used Stanton Finley's Fedora Core 5 Installation Notes. It works OK for FC-6 but not FC-7.

In the Installation Notes I enter this:

rpm -ivh
http://ftp.freshrpms.net/pub/freshrpms/fedora/linux/5/freshrpms-release/freshrpms-release-1.1-1.fc.noarch.rpm[/url]

but I don't know what exactly is done. And then I enter this:

rpm --import http://freshrpms.net/packages/RPM-GPG-KEY.txt - Can somebody tell me what this does or refer me to information on it.

I also do this:

gedit /etc/yum.repos.d/macromedia.repo - and paste in:

[macromedia]
name=Macromedia for i386 Linux
baseurl=http://macromedia.rediris.es/rpm/
#baseurl=http://macromedia.mplug.org/rpm/
#baseurl=http://sluglug.ucsc.edu/macromedia/rpm/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=http://macromedia.rediris.es/FEDORA-GPG-KEY

And:

gedit /etc/yum.repos.d/dries.repo - Then paste in:

[dries]
name=Extra Fedora rpms dries - $releasever - $basearch
baseurl=http://ftp.belnet.be/packages/dries.ulyssis.org/fedora/linux/$releasever/$basearch/dries/RPMS/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1

I know this sets up repositories but there's a lot I don't know. Like how to even find repos in the first place.

Thanks,

royeo

PS. Also, please be specific. Very often answers are given that seem like the person knows something about the subject being talked about. I don't know anything about this subject.

Also, the first RPM line doesn't end with [/url].

This command set up the freshrpms repository, now when you look at available software, packages they have will be available for you to install, they put together packages Fedora doesn't.
This is their key to verify the rpm packages came from a trusted source (freshrpms) and are not malicious. Without this key, every time you go to install a package that comes from this repository, yum would tell you it is not trusted and would ask for confirmation to install it.
The other two paste jobs set up two more repositories.
Now,
For Fedora Core 6 it was kinda alright to set up this many repositories, BUT, there were allot of update errors that had people crying here at LQ, because you'll end up getting dependencies from all these different repos and some are not compatible with packages from others. The worst ones were clashes between Livna and freshrpms or dries or both. And also, whenever you go check for updates or packages to install, it will take a long time for yum to download the repo data from the many repos, this gets frustrating when you have automatic updates enabled as your internet will be bogged down every time the repo data changes as new updates are available. And Fedora has many updates as it is always upgrading everything.
It is recommended to only have one repository for F7 which is Livna, you'll get pretty much anything non-free or extra from that one repository, they are needed for graphics drivers for nvidia and ati. The macromedia repo is not necessary as you'll only need one package from there because Fedora only has a seven month life span or so and Macromedia does not upgrade that often.
This guy here in the following link seems to give good advice with good explanations:
http://www.mjmwired.net/resources/mjm-fedora-f7.html
To see all available packages/software, go to main menu/system/add_remove_software in KDE. But be patient as yum checks all your repositories and possibly downloads new repo data before the list shows up.