I wote this specifically with Fedora 6 in mind, but a lot of this applies to other distro users, and is especialy designed for new Linux users.
First tip ... adding user to sudoers.
What does this basically mean....
Let me use an example....Usually when one installs software using yum, you have to have root privileges. This would usually entail typing su root, and then the root password.
This can not only be a royal pain, but sometimes one does not really want to be root for certain tasks, which means that you have to switch back and forth between user and root or be working in one terminal as root and one as user (which can be confusing)
The easier way to do this, is to use sudo for example.... as user ArtfulDodger, instead of switching to root to install ntfs-3g.
I would type
sudo yum install ntfs-3g
Sudo basically gives the user temporary root permissions. To use this tool, one has to add the user (has to be done as root) to the sudoers file. This file basically tells the system that when invoking the sudo command, a specific user has certain permissions as set forth in the sudoers file.
I would suggest doing this in one of 2 possible ways (this adds a line to the sudoersfile)
Method #1.
Login as root in a terminal window and type the following (where loginname is the username)
echo 'loginname ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD::ALL' >> /etc/sudoers
this will give the user temporary root permissions without the need for a password.
Method #2.
login as root in a terminal window and type the following (where loginname is the username)
echo 'loginname ALL=(ALL) ALL' >> /etc/sudoers
this will give the user temporary root permissions, but they will have to enter the user (not the root password) to continue.
Now all you need to do is type sudo followed by the command as the user instead of root, just like the example
sudo yum install ntfs-3g
A good portion of these tips require the installation of Livna.org repo.(Livna is a Software Repository for Fedora)
To install Livna repo (if you have not yet edited the sudoers file, you will need to login as root)
sudo rpm -ivh http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release-6.rpm
(this will specifically install the livna repo for Fedora 6, for Fedora 5 replace the # 6 with the # 5)
Then import the key
sudo rpm --import http://rpm.livna.org/RPM-LIVNA-GPG-KEY
When you use the rpm packager to download the Livna repo information, it creates a text file in your /etc/yum.repos.d/
that is pertinent to your version of Fedora. (For example Fedora 5 x86_64 or Fedora 6 i386)
If you wish to check this, go to /etc/yum.repos.d/
Here you will see a list of a the repositories that are stored in text format for your specific fedora version. You can go ahead and open these up as text files, and you will see the format they are laid out in, it should help you understand how this works.
The yum program will read the information for any repo that has been added to the directory /etc/yum.repos.d
This text file tells yum where to look on ... for example Livna.org..... to find out what Software Packages it has stored there for your Fedora distribution.
Often when one wishes to install a program on Linux, the program will require that other libries or programs are already installed.
For example... in windows if you want to install a media player and play back an .avi divx file, you have to install the divx codec first, just installing the media payer by itself is not enough, as the media player depends on the fact that the codec is installed too.
In Linux these requirements are aptly named dependencies.
The beauty of yum, is that it will not only install the program for you, but it will try and figure out what dependencies this program needs for it to work, then it will check your system to make sure it has the correct versions of these dependencies, and will also offer to install the ones you are lacking. If you already have the dependency installed, it will let you know if you have the wrong version. At this point it will most likely give you an error message explaining you have the wrong version.
In most cases, fixing this problem is just a matter of using yum update.
For example, lets say you were trying to install a driver and yum gives you an error message and says that you have the wrong dependency version, one would then update the dependency as follows.
sudo yum update 'dependency'
Pretty simple really ...
Ok so here is a list of installations that a lot of people have problems with, but are often quite simple.
(a lot, but not all, need you to be able to use the Livna repo)
Upgrading Firefox to 2...... (does not require Livna)
sudo yum -y -t --enable=development update firefox
Installing Flash Plugin (does not require Livna)
First you need to install the Macromedia repository
wget http://macromedia.mplug.org/macromedia-i386.repo
This will download the Macromedia repo file to which ever directory your are currently in, unless you specify otherwise.
sudo cp macromedia-i386.repo /etc/yum.repos.d/
This will copy/install (using root permission) the repo file to your yum repository list, directory
Import the Macromedia repository key
sudo rpm --import http://macromedia.mplug.org/FEDORA-GPG-KEY
Now install Flash plugin using yum
sudo yum install flash-plugin
Installing Nvidia driver the easy way (requires Livna repo)
sudo yum install kmod-nvidia
If you are using the wrong kernel version for nvidia driver, yum should update it as a dependecy for you.
if you allready have an nvidia driver installed you should be able to do this as an update
sudo yum update kmod-nvidia
Installing nvidia driver the harder way
(personally I prefer this as I have found that I have less problems this way and the nvidia driver will compile the driver for you..... but you will have to manually install dependencies with yum)
1st download the nvdia driver for your distro from the nvidia website.
Then open up a terminal window and type
sudo /sbin/init 3
this will restart your system without xserver
First you will need to update your kernel
sudo yum update kernel
you MUST reboot here... but......
When you reboot to the graphical GRUB boot loader screen, hit the space bar to bring up choices, select the Fedora Linux boot
label (something like this 'Fedora Core 2.6.19-1.2911.fc6' )and press [e] to edit it, arrow down to the kernel line and
press [e] to edit it.
you should see as line similar to this
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-1.2239.fc6smp ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
remove quiet and add this to the end of the line
/sbin/init 3
and the system will boot into non-graphical mode
login as root
then you will need to install kernel headers (if you have previously installed these then use yum update instead of yum install)
sudo yum install kernel-devel
you MUST reboot here... but......
When you reboot to the graphical GRUB boot loader screen, hit the space bar to bring up choices, select the Fedora Linux boot
label (something like this 'Fedora Core 2.6.19-1.2911.fc6' )and press [e] to edit it, arrow down to the kernel line and
press [e] to edit it.
you should see as line similar to this
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-1.2239.fc6smp ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
remove quiet and add this to the end of the line
/sbin/init 3
and the system will boot into non-graphical mode
login as root
the rest of this will depend on what packages you have previously installed
navigate to the directory where you downloaded the nvidia driver and type the following
sh NVIDIA-Linux (and then hit the tab key to fill in the rest)
(The name of this file will end in .run, but will differ slightly depending on which version you downloaded.)
Follow the instructions on screen, if you get an error message that certain dependencies are needed, you will have to manually install these using yum install, just write down the package names given by Nvidia driver and install one by one. As you install these additional packages, yum may also need to install additional dependencies for these packages too, just go ahead and install them.
When you have finished installing dependencies, go ahead and and go back to the directory where you downloaded the Nvidia driver and again type
sh NVIDIA-Linux (and then hit the tab key to fill in the rest)
Be patient, it may again say that you need to install dependencies, go back to yum and manually install additional dependencies.
When finally done restart Nvidia installation as above
nvida driver will walk you throught the rest and should compile both video driver and opengl driver for you, when at the end, if it asks you if you want to run nvidia-xconfig to configure your X configuration file answer "Yes".
Voila you should now be able to reboot, and will see a nice shiny Nvidia logo. You should be able to edit Nvidia settings using Nvidia GUI by typing 'sudo nvidia-xconfig' from a terminal window.
How to install ATI drivers using yum and Livna repo
sudo yum install xorg-x11-drv-fglrx kmod-fglrx glx-utils
This installs the ATi driver and kernel module.
If you have an AMD64 processor, you will need to add iommu=off to the kernel line in your /etc/grub.conf file as follows
open /etc/grub.conf by typing following
sudo gedit /etc/grub.conf
(gedit is a test file editor, if you do not have gedit installed, open up any text editor as root, and navigate to, and open
/etc/grub.conf)
then edit file by adding iommu=off to the end of following line (will be similar but not identical)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet iommu=off
Installing NTFS read and write support (this is still experimental, so use at your own risk)
Requires Livna
sudo yum install ntfs-3g
again install dependencies as requested by yum
Installing vlc media player for divx playback (also plays many other file formats)
Requires Livna
sudo yum install vlc
again install dependencies as requested by yum
Installing Beryl
requires Livna
sudo yum install beryl
again install dependencies as requested by yum
This should get you on your way with Fedora good luck
First tip ... adding user to sudoers.
What does this basically mean....
Let me use an example....Usually when one installs software using yum, you have to have root privileges. This would usually entail typing su root, and then the root password.
This can not only be a royal pain, but sometimes one does not really want to be root for certain tasks, which means that you have to switch back and forth between user and root or be working in one terminal as root and one as user (which can be confusing)
The easier way to do this, is to use sudo for example.... as user ArtfulDodger, instead of switching to root to install ntfs-3g.
I would type
sudo yum install ntfs-3g
Sudo basically gives the user temporary root permissions. To use this tool, one has to add the user (has to be done as root) to the sudoers file. This file basically tells the system that when invoking the sudo command, a specific user has certain permissions as set forth in the sudoers file.
I would suggest doing this in one of 2 possible ways (this adds a line to the sudoersfile)
Method #1.
Login as root in a terminal window and type the following (where loginname is the username)
echo 'loginname ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD::ALL' >> /etc/sudoers
this will give the user temporary root permissions without the need for a password.
Method #2.
login as root in a terminal window and type the following (where loginname is the username)
echo 'loginname ALL=(ALL) ALL' >> /etc/sudoers
this will give the user temporary root permissions, but they will have to enter the user (not the root password) to continue.
Now all you need to do is type sudo followed by the command as the user instead of root, just like the example
sudo yum install ntfs-3g
A good portion of these tips require the installation of Livna.org repo.(Livna is a Software Repository for Fedora)
To install Livna repo (if you have not yet edited the sudoers file, you will need to login as root)
sudo rpm -ivh http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release-6.rpm
(this will specifically install the livna repo for Fedora 6, for Fedora 5 replace the # 6 with the # 5)
Then import the key
sudo rpm --import http://rpm.livna.org/RPM-LIVNA-GPG-KEY
When you use the rpm packager to download the Livna repo information, it creates a text file in your /etc/yum.repos.d/
that is pertinent to your version of Fedora. (For example Fedora 5 x86_64 or Fedora 6 i386)
If you wish to check this, go to /etc/yum.repos.d/
Here you will see a list of a the repositories that are stored in text format for your specific fedora version. You can go ahead and open these up as text files, and you will see the format they are laid out in, it should help you understand how this works.
The yum program will read the information for any repo that has been added to the directory /etc/yum.repos.d
This text file tells yum where to look on ... for example Livna.org..... to find out what Software Packages it has stored there for your Fedora distribution.
Often when one wishes to install a program on Linux, the program will require that other libries or programs are already installed.
For example... in windows if you want to install a media player and play back an .avi divx file, you have to install the divx codec first, just installing the media payer by itself is not enough, as the media player depends on the fact that the codec is installed too.
In Linux these requirements are aptly named dependencies.
The beauty of yum, is that it will not only install the program for you, but it will try and figure out what dependencies this program needs for it to work, then it will check your system to make sure it has the correct versions of these dependencies, and will also offer to install the ones you are lacking. If you already have the dependency installed, it will let you know if you have the wrong version. At this point it will most likely give you an error message explaining you have the wrong version.
In most cases, fixing this problem is just a matter of using yum update.
For example, lets say you were trying to install a driver and yum gives you an error message and says that you have the wrong dependency version, one would then update the dependency as follows.
sudo yum update 'dependency'
Pretty simple really ...
Ok so here is a list of installations that a lot of people have problems with, but are often quite simple.
(a lot, but not all, need you to be able to use the Livna repo)
Upgrading Firefox to 2...... (does not require Livna)
sudo yum -y -t --enable=development update firefox
Installing Flash Plugin (does not require Livna)
First you need to install the Macromedia repository
wget http://macromedia.mplug.org/macromedia-i386.repo
This will download the Macromedia repo file to which ever directory your are currently in, unless you specify otherwise.
sudo cp macromedia-i386.repo /etc/yum.repos.d/
This will copy/install (using root permission) the repo file to your yum repository list, directory
Import the Macromedia repository key
sudo rpm --import http://macromedia.mplug.org/FEDORA-GPG-KEY
Now install Flash plugin using yum
sudo yum install flash-plugin
Installing Nvidia driver the easy way (requires Livna repo)
sudo yum install kmod-nvidia
If you are using the wrong kernel version for nvidia driver, yum should update it as a dependecy for you.
if you allready have an nvidia driver installed you should be able to do this as an update
sudo yum update kmod-nvidia
Installing nvidia driver the harder way
(personally I prefer this as I have found that I have less problems this way and the nvidia driver will compile the driver for you..... but you will have to manually install dependencies with yum)
1st download the nvdia driver for your distro from the nvidia website.
Then open up a terminal window and type
sudo /sbin/init 3
this will restart your system without xserver
First you will need to update your kernel
sudo yum update kernel
you MUST reboot here... but......
When you reboot to the graphical GRUB boot loader screen, hit the space bar to bring up choices, select the Fedora Linux boot
label (something like this 'Fedora Core 2.6.19-1.2911.fc6' )and press [e] to edit it, arrow down to the kernel line and
press [e] to edit it.
you should see as line similar to this
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-1.2239.fc6smp ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
remove quiet and add this to the end of the line
/sbin/init 3
and the system will boot into non-graphical mode
login as root
then you will need to install kernel headers (if you have previously installed these then use yum update instead of yum install)
sudo yum install kernel-devel
you MUST reboot here... but......
When you reboot to the graphical GRUB boot loader screen, hit the space bar to bring up choices, select the Fedora Linux boot
label (something like this 'Fedora Core 2.6.19-1.2911.fc6' )and press [e] to edit it, arrow down to the kernel line and
press [e] to edit it.
you should see as line similar to this
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-1.2239.fc6smp ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
remove quiet and add this to the end of the line
/sbin/init 3
and the system will boot into non-graphical mode
login as root
the rest of this will depend on what packages you have previously installed
navigate to the directory where you downloaded the nvidia driver and type the following
sh NVIDIA-Linux (and then hit the tab key to fill in the rest)
(The name of this file will end in .run, but will differ slightly depending on which version you downloaded.)
Follow the instructions on screen, if you get an error message that certain dependencies are needed, you will have to manually install these using yum install, just write down the package names given by Nvidia driver and install one by one. As you install these additional packages, yum may also need to install additional dependencies for these packages too, just go ahead and install them.
When you have finished installing dependencies, go ahead and and go back to the directory where you downloaded the Nvidia driver and again type
sh NVIDIA-Linux (and then hit the tab key to fill in the rest)
Be patient, it may again say that you need to install dependencies, go back to yum and manually install additional dependencies.
When finally done restart Nvidia installation as above
nvida driver will walk you throught the rest and should compile both video driver and opengl driver for you, when at the end, if it asks you if you want to run nvidia-xconfig to configure your X configuration file answer "Yes".
Voila you should now be able to reboot, and will see a nice shiny Nvidia logo. You should be able to edit Nvidia settings using Nvidia GUI by typing 'sudo nvidia-xconfig' from a terminal window.
How to install ATI drivers using yum and Livna repo
sudo yum install xorg-x11-drv-fglrx kmod-fglrx glx-utils
This installs the ATi driver and kernel module.
If you have an AMD64 processor, you will need to add iommu=off to the kernel line in your /etc/grub.conf file as follows
open /etc/grub.conf by typing following
sudo gedit /etc/grub.conf
(gedit is a test file editor, if you do not have gedit installed, open up any text editor as root, and navigate to, and open
/etc/grub.conf)
then edit file by adding iommu=off to the end of following line (will be similar but not identical)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet iommu=off
Installing NTFS read and write support (this is still experimental, so use at your own risk)
Requires Livna
sudo yum install ntfs-3g
again install dependencies as requested by yum
Installing vlc media player for divx playback (also plays many other file formats)
Requires Livna
sudo yum install vlc
again install dependencies as requested by yum
Installing Beryl
requires Livna
sudo yum install beryl
again install dependencies as requested by yum
This should get you on your way with Fedora good luck
