Fedora Core 1 Tips & Tricks

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Fedora Core 1 Tips and Tricks (v1.0)
Last modified: Friday November 9, 2012

I've seen documents like this for various versions of Red Hat but not yet for Fedora so here goes. I'm just getting started here so please be patient. Please feel free to add your own tips at the bottom of this page.

Use an update mirror
Add support for Livna packages
Install MP3 plug-in
Install Macromedia Flash/Shockwave Plug-in
Install DVD player
Install MPlayer Media Player
Install Java J2RE and Mozilla Plug-in
Install NTFS driver

Use an update mirror

It's obviously very important to keep your system up to date especially if your server is accessible from the Internet. Security updates are released frequently. The main Fedora server often gets overloaded especially after an update is released so it's a very good idea to use a mirror for your updates. Fortunately it's very easy. First go to the list of Fedora mirrors at http://fedora.redhat.com/download/mirrors.html and choose one that's geographically close to you and seems fast when you browse it.

Then you need to edit your /etc/sysconfig/rhn/sources and comment out the current updates-released line and add a replacement. For example if you chose http://rpmfind.net/linux/fedora/core as your mirror of choice then just add /updates/1/i386 to your URL and it should all just work.

# yum updates-released http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/updates/1/i386
yum updates-released http://rpmfind.net/linux/fedora/core/updates/1/i386

Add support for Livna packages

Fedora comes with a ton of software but there are still plenty of packages of interest to most users that are not included for a variety of reasons. This is where you find the MP3 plug-in and a ton of other packages. A nice side effect of setting it up this way is that the Red Hat Network Alert icon on your GNOME desktop will also let you know of updates to these user contributed packages as well.

Adding support is easy, just add the following lines to your /etc/sysconfig/rhn/sources You'll need to add the second line to include the fedora.us repository as the they work together hand in hand.

# User contributed archive
yum livna-stable http://rpm.livna.org/fedora/1/i386/yum/stable/
yum fedora-us-stable-fc1 http://download.fedora.us/fedora/fedora/1/i386/yum/stable

For security reasons the packages at this repository are GPG signed to protect their integrity so you'll need to get and install the public key:

# rpm --import http://rpm.livna.org/RPM-LIVNA-GPG-KEY

You can browse the packages available there at http://rpm.livna.org/fedora/1/i386/RPMS.stable/ and http://www.fedora.us/pkglists/fedora-1-stable.html.

Install MP3 Plug-in

Since you've been following along this next step is about as easy as it gets. Just use up2date to automatically install the MP3 plug-ins for XMMS and Rhythmbox like this:

# up2date xmms-mp3 gstreamer-plugins-mp3

One thing you'll need to do is fire up xmms and go to Options -> Preferences then choose Audio I/O Plugins. In that list scroll down and find the MPEG Layer 1/2/3 Placeholder Plugin and disable it. Then enable the new plug-in you just downloaded which is listed as MPEG Layer 1/2/3 Player. Now MP3s should play just fine.

Install Macromedia Flash/Shockwave plug-in

Ok, this one is a little trickier. The first thing you'll need to do is get the C++ compatibility library installed before you can install the Flash plugin. Fortunately that's very easy:

# up2date compat-libstdc++

Now you can download the latest Macromedia Flash plug-in for Fedora Core 1 at http://ruslug.rutgers.edu/macromedia/site_ru.html then install it as follows. You may need to adjust the filename slightly if the version changes since I wrote this document. Before the plug-in gets installed you'll need to agree to the terms of the license.

# rpm -ihv flash-plugin-6.0.79-2.i386.rpm

Install DVD player

This is a bit more complicated. The easiest DVD player I've found is ogle and the easiest way to get it running is to download the following modules from http://yarrow.freshrpms.net/:

alsa-lib	http://yarrow.freshrpms.net/rpm.html?id=590
libdvdcss	http://yarrow.freshrpms.net/rpm.html?id=128
libdvdread	http://yarrow.freshrpms.net/rpm.html?id=137
libmad	http://yarrow.freshrpms.net/rpm.html?id=152
ogle	http://yarrow.freshrpms.net/rpm.html?id=193
ogle_gui	http://yarrow.freshrpms.net/rpm.html?id=191

Then just install them as follows. Please note that the exact version numbers may change by the time you read this.

# rpm -ihv alsa-lib-1.0.1-2.fr.i386.rpm libdvdcss-1.2.8-2.fr.i386.rpm \
libdvdread-0.9.4-4.fr.i386.rpm libmad-0.15.0b-3.fr.i386.rpm \
ogle-0.9.2-1.1.fr.i386.rpm ogle_gui-0.9.2-1.1.fr.i386.rpm

Make sure there is a symlink /dev/dvd pointing at the device name for your DVD drive. If you don't know the device name you can usually find it easily in the dmesg output that's been saved during your last boot. Here's how I found it on my Toshiba laptop:

# grep -i dvd /var/log/dmesg
hdc: TOSHIBA DVD-ROM SD-C2612, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
# ln -s /dev/hdc /dev/dvd

Now you'll have the Ogle DVD player under the Sound & Video menu.

Install MPlayer Media Player

At some point you're probably going to want to play a QuickTime, AVI or ASF file so you'll want the MPlayer media player. Fortunately with the Livna/Fedora.us repositories it's also very install to download and install.

# up2date mplayer mplayerplug-in mplayer-gui mplayer-skins mplayer-fonts

This command line will download the whole kit and kaboodle. 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. I recommend that if you want to play content from a command line that you use the gmplayer version which will include a skin-able control panel.

Install Java J2RE and Mozilla Plug-in

It's also very handy to have the Java run-time environment available and most importantly a Mozilla plug-in so you can view dynamic content. It's unfortunate that Mozilla will actually crash if you go to a site containing Java and you don't have the plug-in installed.

The best site for the plug-in is the Dag Wieers repository. I would normally recommend just putting it in your up2date sources but I've had problems with conflicting packages. In this case I recommend you just go to the site and download and install just the packages you need. Just go to http://dag.wieers.com/packages/j2re/ and download the latest j2re and mozilla-j2re packages as appropriate for your system. Then just install them as follows:

# rpm -ihv j2re-1.4.2-5.rhfc1.dag.i586.rpm mozilla-j2re-1.4.2-5.rhfc1.dag.i586.rpm

Install NTFS driver

If you need access to NT file systems you'll probably want to download the Linux ntfs driver. There is a site that maintains pre-built modules for all released Fedora kernels at http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/rpm/fedora1.html. A pre-built ntfs module usually appears just a few days after a new Fedora kernel gets released. Be sure to match your kernel version and processor type. If you're not sure what version you're running do this:

# uname -r -p

For example if you're using the latest kernel (as of this writing) which is 2.4.22-1.2149.nptl and the i686 processor then you will want to download and install it as such:

# rpm -ihv kernel-ntfs-2.4.22-1.2149.nptl.i686.rpm

Once installed the ntfs driver will be a dynamically loadable module and you can mount NT file systems with mount -t ntfs -o utf8 /dev/hdXX /mnt .

Other Useful Resources

I've tried to not just copy other people's tips so I've included a list of other people's tips and tricks I've found to be useful. There should be little or no overlap.

The Unofficial #fedora FAQ - Great place that contains a wealth of information about Fedora Core.
Fedora Multimedia Installation HOWTO - I discovered this great resource after I wrote this. This document goes into more detail than mine so it's a great resource.

Comments From People Like You! Fedora Core 1 Tips and Tricks	add a comment
hasan 04-Apr-2005 04:25
`I have installed redhat 10 fedor5a core 1.. the operating system detected my soundcard but im not able to play mp3s and other music and video files.. i have mounted windows partitions but still i m not able to play music in xmms player.. plz help me to get it done my email id is hasan_asian@yahoo.com`
aizat 07-Sep-2004 04:27
`my linux fedora core 1 detect my soundcard already.....i can play the cd but i cant hear any sound. plzz mail me if somebody know howto fix it.....and i want 2 know where i can find linux fedora tutorial....and any tips plzz tell me...i'm new in linux.`
milu 15-Aug-2004 21:06
`i have installed redhat 10 fedor5a core 1.. the operating system detected my soundcard but im not able to play mp3s and other music and video files.. i have mounted windows partitions but still i m not able to play music in xmms player.. plz help me to get it done my email id is ilumilu333@yahoo.com`
milu 15-Aug-2004 21:03
`i had installed redhat 10 fedora core 1.. but i m not able to run java programs there... whenever i give the command javac filename.java it is writing bash javac command not found. can anyone help me wht to do. kindly mail me at ilumilu333@yahoo.com kindly help me`
bhagwan singh 11-Aug-2004 07:38
`I want to learn linux fedora command on net but I could not found these command in a sequenace.`
Zaheer M K 11-Jul-2004 01:18
`Odin, 'java: command not found' is because the Java path has not been added to PATH. However you could find where is Java by 'locate java' and go to the directory where Java is installed and execute it.`
Colin 07-Jul-2004 15:38
`for those with the missing GPG keys: rpm --import http://www.fedora.us/FEDORA-GPG-KEY check out: http://www.fedorafaq.org/#gpgsig`
c0mm0n3r 26-May-2004 14:49
`@Douglas Had the same problem as you... Pretty much a linux n00b at the moment, but first tried command: # up2date --help (use this for all programs run from the command line, is extremely handy...) Found out that you can get a list of available resources with: # up2date --show-available mplayer is not in this list... Which means downloading in this manner won't work... Try some other way... gl finding other easy way :-)`
erik weibust 24-May-2004 22:01
`Hello Greg. I'm back with more questions. I made the update to /etc/sysconfig/rhn/sources that you mentioned above, but now what? Running the update program doesn't work. It kind of just hangs when it's checking rpm "stuff". I've seen people talking about using yum from the cmd line. Should I be doing that? Thanks, Erik`
Rose Dotten 19-May-2004 04:40
`note that the livna/stable packages seem to be very lacking. if you change your dists to 1.90 or 1, mplayer, xine and all that goodness is there. however, author - any comments on if this is a good idea or not? (untested packages with a new core etc)`
odin 14-May-2004 13:22
`i try to install java, the plug in for mozilla works, also i install the rpm but if i open a terminal and write java --version appers "bash: java: command not found", as you can see im new in linux fedora core and i need help, i read many way to install java, but this one is more easy, but .....`
BadHabit 18-Apr-2004 19:05
`Doglas: U need to add support for livna packages to get it to work.. read from the top... =)`
Mark 20-Mar-2004 22:56
Hi, I'm Really new to linux and i feel like a fool to be honest. I'm trying to add support for livna packages but i don't have the gpg key installed and don't know how to install it. I tried running rpm --import http://rpm.livna.org/RPM-LIVNA-GPG-KEY in console...if i do it just skips to the next line. was that wrong? because when i try : up2date xmms-mp3 gstreamer-plugins-mp3 it says the following: Fetching package list for channel: fedora-core-1... Fetching http://gulus.usherbrooke.ca/pub/distro/fedora/linux/core/updates/1/i386/headers/header.info... ######################################## Fetching package list for channel: updates-released... Fetching http://gulus.usherbrooke.ca/pub/distro/fedora/linux/core/updates/1/i386/headers/header.info... ######################################## Fetching package list for channel: livna-stable... Fetching http://rpm.livna.org/fedora/1/i386/yum/stable//headers/header.info... ######################################## Fetching package list for channel: fedora-us-stable-fc1... Fetching http://download.fedora.us/fedora/fedora/1/i386/yum/stable/headers/header.info... ######################################## Fetching Obsoletes list for channel: fedora-core-1... Fetching Obsoletes list for channel: updates-released... Fetching Obsoletes list for channel: livna-stable... Fetching Obsoletes list for channel: fedora-us-stable-fc1... Fetching rpm headers... ######################################## Name Version Rel ---------------------------------------------------------- gstreamer-plugins-mp3 0.6.3 3.lvn.1.1 i386 xmms-mp3 1.2.10 0.lvn.1.1 i386 Testing package set / solving RPM inter-dependencies... ######################################## gstreamer-plugins-mp3-0.6.3 ########################## Done. xmms-mp3-1.2.10-0.lvn.1.1.i ########################## Done. libid3tag-0.15.1-0.fdr.1.b. ########################## Done. The package libid3tag-0.15.1-0.fdr.1.b.1 is not signed with a GPG signature. Aborting... Package libid3tag-0.15.1-0.fdr.1.b.1 does not have a GPG signature. Aborting... I realise this is probably a simple problem but ...i dont' know what to do. I tried saving the public key as a text file and putting it's path after --import but it still didn't work. it would be great if you could help! thanks mark
Dostyvsky 19-Mar-2004 10:32
`Douglas: Try adding the Livna sources as instructed above first.`
erik weibust 18-Mar-2004 10:30
I'm having problems getting Ogle working. I have the exact same laptop as you. In fact I've used and abused you site a number of times. Here is where I stand... Well, I've followed you instructions to the "T". I've downloaded and installed the rpms you listed. I verified via dmesg that I using /dev/hdc and I created the syslink. When I try to start Ogle via the cmd line I get this: WARNING[dvd_gui]: add_keybinding(): No such action: 'SaveScreenshot' WARNING[dvd_gui]: add_keybinding(): No such action: 'SaveScreenshotWithSPU' libdvdread: Using libdvdcss version 1.2.8 for DVD access Then I get the following when trying to open or play a dvd: libdvdread: Could not open /dev/dvd with libdvdcss. libdvdread: Can't open /dev/dvd for reading ERROR[ogle_nav]: faild to open/read the DVD callbacks.on_opendvd_activate(): DVDSetDVDRoot: Root not set Note[ogle_gui]: GetDiscID failed msg close FIX Any ideas? Thanks again... Erik Weibust
Douglas Smith 12-Mar-2004 17:39
`Well I tried: up2date mplayer mplayerplug-in mplayer-gui mplayer-skins mplayer-fonts And this is what I was told: The following packages you requested were not found: mplayer mplayerplug-in mplayer-gui mplayer-skins mplayer-fonts Douglas`

Please E-mail Me with any questions, comments or corrections.