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This is based on my Fedora Core 8 Tips and Tricks page. I've also just begun a Fedora 10 Tips and Tricks page but it's still very preliminary.
I've started to add x86_64 specific instructions below when they differ from traditional 32-bit instructions. The biggest issue is with multimedia plug-ins which are still often available only in 32-bit versions. Please note that I have yet to test the 64-bit instructions personally so if you do try them please do so with care and use the comments section at the bottom to send corrections.
As such you cannot upgrade your Fedora installation you need to make a simple update before automatic updates will accept packages signed by the new key:
# yum -y update fedora-releaseThat's it! Then you can do an update and it will "just work".
# yum -y install preupgrade # preupgradeThis process does take a LONG TIME, requires a high speed internet connection and has a couple minor gotchas but so far I've done a couple upgrades with no data loss and pretty much everything has "just worked" afterwards. You don't need to download and burn any ISOs as the upgrade is done on top of your current installation.
After the preupgrade script downloads a ton of packages it will reboot and begin the upgrade procedure automatically. Follow the instructions and after the upgrade is complete log back in and you'll have to fix a couple little things. One things is that you'll need to update the Livna repository file below and then clear the yum cache. Once you do that you'll have to do an update again and this time yum will automatically update any extra software you had installed from Livna with the previous version.
# rpm -Uhv http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release-9.rpm # yum clean all # yum -y updateThis too will take a while since it's likely that dozens of packages will need to be updated. Once it's done it's a good idea to reboot again for good measure and if all goes well you should be done!
These instructions can vary depending on 32bit or 64bit architecture. If there is a difference it will be noted. If you don't know which architecture you're running you can run the following command:
$ uname -m x86_64 ...or... i686I'm still working on the 64 bit specific instructions so your feedback is very important.
Before you add repositories it's probably a good idea to make sure your system is fully updated first. At this point I'm prefering the Livna repository as it's the most useful and complete but at some point I might need to add another one for things that are lacking there. The easiest way to get started is to install the livna-release packages:
# rpm -ihv http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release-9.rpmPlease note: If you are upgrading from a previous release this command will fail with a conflict. Skip to the next section on upgrading from a previous release instead.
When adding additional repositories be very careful as many respositories don't mix well. It's ok to add specialized repositories such as the one for Flash below, but when mixing general repositories such as FreshRPMs, Livna or ATrpms there are often conflicts that are difficult to recover from.
You can browse the packages available there at http://livna-dl.reloumirrors.net/fedora/9/.
# yum -y install xmms xmms-mp3 xmms-faad2 gstreamer-plugins-ugly \ gstreamer-plugins-bad libmad libid3tagWhile you're here you might as well install my personal favorite (this week at least) music player Banshee:
# yum -y install bansheeThe -y flag is to automatically answer yes to any question. If you want to be able to say no you can ignore that flag.
While you're there I highly recommend the grip CD ripper which supports both MP3 and Ogg formats. Once again installation is quite simple:
# yum -y install grip
# yum -y install libflashsupport32-bit instructions:
Just click on Install Missing Plugins and follow the prompts. It will install the plug-in for the currently installed user only, not system wide.
64-bit instructions:
Thnks to Tristian for the following instructions. I haven't
been able to try them myself yet, hopefully soon.
# rpm -ivh http://linuxdownload.adobe.com/adobe-release/adobe-release-i386-1.0-1.noarch.rpm
# rpm --import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-adobe-linux
# mkdir -p /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins
# yum install nspluginwrapper.{i386,x86_64} pulseaudio-lib.i386
# yum install flash-plugin
# mozilla-plugin-config -i -g -v
# yum -y install xine xine-lib xine-skins xine-lib-extras-nonfree libdvdcssThis will install the xine DVD/VCD/CD player. Now to get xine to automatically play a DVD upon insertion instead of the Totem player which can't actually play DVDs, you can simply use the gconftool-2 utility as follows:
$ gconftool-2 --set /desktop/gnome/volume_manager/autoplay_dvd_command \ 'xine --auto-play --auto-scan dvd' --type='string'
# yum -y install mplayer mplayer-gui mplayer-skins mplayer-fonts gecko-mediaplayerThis command line will download the whole kit and kaboodle, command line utilities, plug-ins, etc. If you want to play content from a command line you will want to use the gmplayer version which will include a skin-able control panel. Restart your web browser after that whole mess is done installing and you'll also have a plug-in for Mozilla so you can play embedded content. While you're at it be sure to configure mplayer to use the Pulse sound system rather than the default. It just works better. Edit the file ~/.mplayer/config and add the following line:
ao=pulse
You can enable support for mms streaming by opening Firefox and click on the special URL about:config. Right click on the list and choose New then choose String. For the preference name enter network.protocol-handler.app.mms then for the string value enter gmplayer.
Special 64-bit instructions:
The above installs the 64-bit version of everything but because your other
plug-ins are 32-bits you need to run the 32-bit version of Firefox, which
won't be able to use the 64-bit version of the plug-in you just installed. The
plug-in can use the 64-bit version of the mplayer application just fine so all
you need to do then is to install the 32-bit mplayerplug-in plus a dependency
it requires. If you know of any easier way to do this please let me know below.
# rpm -ihv http://ftp.freshrpms.net/pub/freshrpms/fedora/linux/7/mplayerplug-in/mplayerplug-in-3.40-1.fc7.i386.rpmAnd finally you'll probably also want some additional codecs to play all that proprietary video that seems to have infected the Internet. Go to the MPlayer Download page and find the Binaries Codec Package section then follow the link for codecs directory. There you will grab the latest all codecs file. You'll need to install those files in /usr/local/lib/codecs. Here are the steps. Remember the exact file names may change at some point. If you also installed xine you will need a symlink since it expects codecs to be in a different directory.
# gtar xjvf all-20071007.tar.bz2 # mv all-20071007/* /usr/local/lib/codecs # ln -s /usr/local/lib/codecs /usr/lib/codecs # ln -s /usr/local/lib/codecs /usr/local/lib/win32
# yum -y install vlcOnce the client and a zillion dependencies get installed you can play a huge variety of video formats easy with the command vlc
Just install it:
$ rpm -ihv RealPlayer11GOLD.rpmThen whenever you want to view something just use /usr/bin/realplay. Here is a link to a cute test video to make sure it's working for you.
If you also installed Mplayer above then you will likely run into a problem where the Mplayer provided Real Media plug-in will be run instead of the one installed by the RealPlayer package. The mplayer verison of the plug-in does not work correctly in most cases and causes more problems than it solves. The only way I've found to get rid of it is to just simply delete the plug-in files:
# cd /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins # rm mplayerplug-in-rm.*You'll of course need to do that again should you re-install or upgrade the mplayer plug-ins.
$ java -version java version "1.6.0" OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0-b09) OpenJDK Client VM (build 1.6.0-b09, mixed mode)And you can verify the Firefox plug-in works using one of the Java testers at http://java.com/en/download/installed.jsp or http://www.javatester.org/version.html
In some cases you need to run applications that require the REAL Java. In my case I need to be able to run the Cisco ASDM application which is a Java application that is very picky about what version it runs on. Fortunately it's not horribly difficult to install and configure the real Sun Java.
Download Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 6 Update 6 (at the time I wrote this) from Java.com. You'll want to grab the Linux RPM in self-extracting file. Then you want to install it with:
# sh jre-6u6-linux-i586-rpm.bin
Now comes the tricky part. You need to tell Fedora which verison of the Java command line and plug-in you're going to want to use. This uses the alternative command which does some magic with symlinks to "make it work" properly.
# /usr/sbin/alternatives --install /usr/bin/java java \ /usr/java/jre1.6.0_06/bin/java 1606 # /usr/sbin/alternatives --config java There are 2 programs which provide 'java'. Selection Command ----------------------------------------------- *+ 1 /usr/lib/jvm/jre-1.6.0-openjdk/bin/java 2 /usr/java/jre1.6.0_05/bin/java Enter to keep the current selection[+], or type selection number: 2 # java -version java version "1.6.0_06" Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_06-b02) Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 10.0-b22, mixed mode, sharing)
And now something very similar to configure the plug-in:
# alternatives --install /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libjavaplugin.so \ libjavaplugin.so \ /usr/java/jre1.6.0_06/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so 1606 # alternatives --config libjavaplugin.so There are 2 programs which provide 'libjavaplugin.so'. Selection Command ----------------------------------------------- *+ 1 /usr/lib/jvm/jre-1.6.0-openjdk/lib/i386/gcjwebplugin.so 2 /usr/java/jre1.6.0_06/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so Enter to keep the current selection[+], or type selection number: 2
# yum -y install wine cabextract
Then just download the latest script, extract and run it. The example below is based on
version BETA 2.99.0, just adjust the version number as
necessary. Please
note that you will want to install and run this as your own user, NOT
as root. I used the defaults except that I installed all the versions
of IE. I do some web development and I always find myself needing to resolve
some goofy incompatibilites with older versions of IE.
$ gtar xzvf ies4linux-2.99.0.tar.gz $ cd ies4linux-2.99.0 $ ./ies4linuxThis brings up a little GUI (see right) that gives you a couple options. The defaults are fine more most people but you can play with others if you feel brave.
You can read more about this feature on my Internet Explorer with ActiveX on Linux page. It goes into a little more detail about using IE on Linux.
# yum -y install gnomebaker testdisk thunderbird screen cups-pdf \ unrar deluge
deluge - Advanced graphical Bittorrent client
cups-pdf - Add-on to CUPS which creates a PDF Printer which you can use to print any document in PDF format. The file is written to your Desktop.
gnomebaker - GTK based CD/DVD burning utility
screen - If you do a lot with the command line you'll find screen invaluable
testdisk - Two command line utilities to recover lost partitions and undelete files on FAT filesystems. VERY handy for undeleting files on flash memory cards.
thunderbird - Excellent E-mail client that complements Firefox
unrar - Useful utility to extract RAR archives
FedoraForum - Linux Support Community - This is now the official way to get community support of the Fedora Linux system. There is no official Red Hat mailing list for any version of Fedora any more.Mauriat Miranda's F8 Installation Guide - Great guide that goes into more depth of selecting options during the installation process. If you do need the MS TrueType fonts for whatever reason this is also the source for them.
The Unofficial Fedora FAQ - Another great guide that should answer most general questions about Fedora. Fedora 9 doesn't seem to be addressed there yet but most answers are the same for both F8 and F9.
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| The comments section below is only for comments, suggestions or corrections for this guide only. Please do not use this for general Fedora/Linux support. If you do require support for something other than what's described here I recommend using Fedora Forums. |
| Comments From People Like You! Fedora 9 Tips and Tricks |  add a comment |
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Vickey 24-Jan-2009 23:29 |
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when I hit:
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Kim 16-Aug-2008 08:56 |
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Marc asked about the wine error message when installing ies4linux. Ignore it. It did the same for me, but I had the latest version of wine. I just ran the script. The first time or two, it failed to install. However, I just kept running the script and it eventually worked. I've now installed it for every user on my system, and it works perfectly.
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tony z 12-Jul-2008 14:53 |
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The java section needs a rewrite. After I explode the bin file I had to create a /usr/java directory, and move the jre1.6.0_07 directory to it., Then using the commands given with 1.6.0_07 substitututed in...
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Marc 10-Jul-2008 09:42 |
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Hi. I'm getting a funny message for ies4linux while running wine-1.0. Here it is:
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Rick Richardson 28-Jun-2008 08:10 |
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Used "livna" for mplayer.
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Werner Fischer 31-May-2008 07:15 |
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Openjdk replaced java - see
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AMP 29-May-2008 17:59 |
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A nvidia graphic card driver for new Xorg is available on its website:
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Bo 24-May-2008 00:34 |
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In addition to what Herald 19-May-2008 07:37 said about flash.
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Mya 22-May-2008 17:00 |
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Mplayer fails to launch with the following error:
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Mya 22-May-2008 15:57 |
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Here is a link for people who has problems with Nvidia cards due to changes in xorg
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Pawn 21-May-2008 18:49 |
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The video codecs from the Mplayer section don't seem to be working for fedora 9 64-bit, has anyone else gotten them to work?
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Vadim 21-May-2008 08:54 |
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Java section is completely wrong. iced-tea 1.7 was replaced with open-jdk-1.6 which still not compatible with java nor certified
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Herald 19-May-2008 07:37 |
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When following the tips to get Adobe's flash working, I got no sound.
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Sonu Yadav 18-May-2008 12:03 |
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Thanks a ton Sir
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