How-to setup FC3 for average desktop

[taylor65]

These are things I did to make FC3 (Fedora Core 3) more usable as a desktop for mysefl, and I figured some others out there would like to do the same steps. If you are setting up a server or laptop, you don't want to do all these steps since I disable many server daemons and laptop utilities. These steps were taken on an HP a720n.

Downloading FC3:
- I downloaded the DVD .iso via the bittorrent network.
- Use the torrent because most file transfer methods aren’t capable of doing that large a download, plus you usually end up with corrupt files if you try to ftp the iso files.
- I use the gui front-end azureus for running bittorrent. It’s very easy. Download at azureus.sourceforge.net. Azureus runs on all OSs that have java.
- After downloading my .iso file(s), I leave my machine running azureus for a few days so others can get the files also

Pre-Installation:
I have a PC that had XP installed on it. In order to dual boot, I had to remove space from the XP partition to make room for FC3 (unlike some other linux distributions, the FC3 installer doesn’t have the ability to take space away from the XP partition). I use Partition Magic to do this (about $30 US). I set aside a chunk of disk space with Partition Magic as ext3 filesystem (I would suggest no less than 10GB for linux).

Installation:
While installing FC3, I ran into a bug that prevented me from using the auto partition. I had to partition it manually with Disk Druid. I assigned the ‘/boot’ partition as ext3 100MB, the swap partition as swap of 2x memory, and the ‘/’ partition as ext3 with all the remaining linux space. I set the GRUB parameters to be able to boot from 3 different paritions. The first partition is the /boot partition (that will be automatically selected). The second partition is Windows XP and the third is the Windows XP restore partition. You can tell the difference between the two Windows partitions by their filesystem type – Windows XP is ‘ntfs’, while the restore partition is ‘vfat’. I set SELinux to disable, chose custom install and chose the ‘everything’ option at the bottom of the package list page.

Post-installation:
I disabled many daemons (processes) that I don’t use. Do this by going into System Settings -> Server Settings -> Services. From there, I unchecked the following services: apmd, arptables_if, auth, canna, gpm, ip6tables, isdn, mDNSResponder, mdmonitor, nfslock, nifd, pcmci, rhnsd, rpcgssd, rpcidmapd, rpcsvcgssd, sendmail, sshd. This will help speed up booting.

Next, I disabled many cron jobs (automated scripts that run at certain times). I do this by creating a new directory that cron doesn’t use and moving scripts into that directory. This way I still have the scripts, rather than just deleting them. As root, I did ‘mkdir /etc/cron.never’. Then I moved the following files from /etc/cron.daily to /etc/cron.never: squirrelmail.cron, 00webalizer, cyrus-imapd, inn-cron-expire, tetex.cron, yum.cron, certwatch, slrnpull-expire, yum.cron. Then, I moved the following files from /etc/cron.daily to /etc/cron.monthly: slocate.cron, prelink, makewhatis.cron. This will help speed up use of FC3 if you only turn your PC on when you're using it, like I do, because many of these cron jobs run when you first boot up.

Firewire:
To enable firewire, I added the following 2 lines to /etc/rc.local:
mknod –m 666 /dev/raw1394 c 171 0
/sbin/modprobe raw1394

USB 2.0:
I wasn’t able to get USB 2.0 to work with my USB 2.0 flash disk on a USB 2.0 port. I had to buy an external USB 1.1-only hub and plug the flash disk into that for it to work.

Playing CDs:
I wasn’t able to play CDs, or burn CDs or burn DVDs as a normal user. To fix, run, as root, ‘up2date udev’ to fix that.

Adding more software:
I use synaptic for installing new software because it’s very easy. However, synaptic isn’t installed with the FC3 disks, so the following is what I did, using java as an example program that I added:
1 - add dag repository to yum by creating a file called /etc/yum.repos.d/dag.repo and put the following 5 lines into the file:
[dag]
name=Dag
baseurl=http://apt.sw.be/fedora/$releasever/en/$basearch/dag/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=0
2 - Install gpg keys for dag (rpm --import http://dag.wieers.com/packages/RPM-GPG-KEY.dag.txt)
3 - Install synaptic (yum install synaptic)
4 - Run synaptic (System Settings -> Synaptic Package Manager)
5 - Click Refresh
6 - Click Find and look for j2re
7 - Mark mozilla-j2re for installation (right-click -> Mark for Installation)
8 - Click Apply
9 - Done. Mozilla and Firefox now have java.
10 - Do the same for flash and anything else you want to install. Some popular programs are mozilla-flash (for flash within a browser), mozilla-totem-xine (to play movies within a browser like mozilla or firefox), etc.


Realplayer:
- Install Realplayer (download RealPlayer10GOLD.bin from www.real.com and as root run ./RealPlayer10GOLD.bin)

Wondering how you can help with the open source community? I’m not a programmer, so here’s what I do:
- Write how-to docs
- Answer questions on a forum (www.fedoraforum.org for one)
- Report bugs to bugzilla.redhat.com (check forums first to see if it’s already been solved)
- Try test releases
- E-mail vendors, ask them to port programs to linux (like shockwave, HP printing software, ESPN video, etc.)
- E-mail vendors that support linux and tell them thanks (Sun for java, Macromedia for flash, Real for realplayer, hp for hpoj scanning driver, etc).

[RamR0d]

I actually disagree with your comment on downloads. Downloading ISO images from torrent files is very risky. They could have been modified and most people would have no idea on how to check the varacity. I definately recommend to download only from the FC3 site as this also provides a MD5 checksum so you know what you are getting. I downloaded the ISOs from FC3 using LeechFTP (freeware) and completed all FC3 and RPM ISO in 2 days on my broadband.

[taylor65]

that's incorrect, the files downloaded via bittorrent are checked with md5 to verify they are valid, so there is no chance of tampered code getting into the iso images. bittorrent is the best way to go.

[RamR0d]

Not at all! The MD5 check on bittorent only confirms that the torrent created from the ISO has not been tampered. It cannot confirm that the ISO is the original untampered version. You can only perform this check using the MD5 key from the supplier of the ISO and that is FC

[Jman]

If you don't trust the bittorrent client to check the file, run md5sum on the ISO itself. It should match the ones from the Fedora download site.

Thanks for sharing your install experience.

[imdeemvp]

And this is from the fedoranews.org contributing articles

[Spookster]

You can also download the ISOs from www.linuxiso.org. That's where I download all my ISOs from. They also provide the MD5s with each ISO.

[Woad_Warrior]

ramrod,
the fedora site also has the torrents for all their releases, so your arguement is pointless. plus with bittorrent, you can get the iso's in hours, not days. in fact, just about every distro is encouraging the use of bittorrent to get the images because it cuts down on their already expensive bandwidth. so it's actually in the communities best intrest to use this tool rather than disparrage it.

[TestingLinux]

Although I am writing on my own behlaf. However I am sure many others will agree with me.

Your post is what newbe's like myself are looking for to help us to get into Linux.
You have made it much easier to undestand and find our ways through the maze and tunnels of Linux.

Much thanks. Please keep them coming.

[owakroeger]

Thanks, Taylor65, for your well written and informative post. Good stuff.

owa

[bob]

Very good, Taylor. Personally, I did not 'select everything' since that ended up giving me every language option known to man and FC3, plus a ton of server programs that I will never use. Otherwise, a good 'how to' - picked up a couple of tips for my next installation, thanks!

[taylor65]

Glad to hear this was useful.

[taylor65]

Update to this:
To get USB 2.0 to work, I had to disable acpi: http://www.fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=31220

[TestingLinux]

how can I set my GRUB to start with KDE session instead of the default GNOM?

[bob]

Sign in a terminal as root (su) with password and type
switchdesk kde

Another way to change the default desktop is to edit your /etc/sysconfig/desktop as follows:
DESKTOP="KDE"
DISPLAYMANAGER="KDE"
This way, you boot directly into KDE and shutdown without switching to the menu (plus ya get that cute dragon).