[devils casper]

Fedora Core : Installation, Bugs/Fixes

Installation :

* For Dual Boot, create an Unpartitioned/Free space. You can use GParted for resizing existing Partitions. Don't Format newly created space. Leave it as Free, Unpartitioned. During installation, select "Use Free Space and Create Default Layout" option in partition section.

* In case, you have new Hard Disk OR you wish to install Fedora Core only ( wiping existing OS ), nothing to do.

Start Installation. Installer will do the Partitioning and Formatting stuff.

Boot Loader :

Dual boot is DEFAULT. Leave this section as it is. GRUB ( boot loader ) will recognize Windows OS.

Packages Selection:

A lot of essential packages are not included by default and its a bit problematic to install packages from DVD/CDs later on.
Select "Office and Productivity", "Software Development" and "Web Server". Click on 'Customize Now' button. Keep already selected packages and add ( tick checkboxes ) packages listed below :

* Desktop Environment -- KDE ( K Desktop Environment ).
* Applications ---

• Graphical Internet -- thunderbird, gftp and kdewebdev.
  Sound and Video – k3b, mikmod

* Development -- KDE Software Development.
* Servers --

• Server Configuration Tools.
  Windows File Server ( in case you need to share files with Windows computers).

* Base System --

• Legacy Software Support,
  System Tools.
  X Windows System - switchdesk.

Installer took around 35 minutes to complete FC6 installation. Reboot. Adjust Display, Date & Time etc. i disabled SELinux and FireWall. I have standalone Home PC and i dont need these.
Create one user account and always use that account only. Never login as 'root'.

Fedora Core 6 installed. System is up an running !!

* A lot of Services run in background that a Home PC User doesn't use/need. Stop these services to increase system's overall performance. Click on System -- Administration -- Server Settings -- Services and enter root password.
Un-check checkboxes of these services. (in case, you are not sure, read 'Description' of each service. top-right Description box.)
----------------------
anacron, apmd, atd, avahi-daemon, bluetooth, cpuspeed, cups, cups-config-daemon, mdmonitor, nfslock, rpcgssd, rpcidmapd and sendmail.
----------------------

Click the save icon. click on Edit Runlevel in Menu and select Runlevel 3, uncheck boxes here too. save and exit.

Yum Configuration

* All baseurl lines are commented by default. Yum will throw an error 'cannot fine valid baseurl...'
Yum repo files are in “/etc/yum.repos.d”. Remove '#' sign before the baseurl line in all files.

* Install repo file of Freshrpms.net repository from here. ( a download dialog box will pop up on clicking 'here' link, Select open with 'Software Installer default' ). A lot of other repositories are available for FC6. Freshrpms is enough for me and i didn't install other repos.

* GUI of Yum ( Yum Extender ).

yum -y install yumex

i prefer Yum Extender than 'yum'. Yum Extender shows a list of installed/upgradeable/available packages.

Package for playing mp3, mpeg and .dat files.

Fedora does not support these out of box. I prefer 'xmms' for mp3 and xine for mpeg, .dat files.

yum -y install xmms xmms-mp3 
yum -y install xine xine-lib xine-skins

Flash :

yum -y install flash-plugin

OR download Flash 9 beta from here.

Install NTFS Write Support

Note: ntfs-3g package is pre-installed in Fedora 7. skip install ntfs-3g section.
Install ntfs-3g :

su -
yum -y install ntfs-3g

It will install ntfs-3g, fuse, and fuse-libs.

Now create a folder to be used as 'mount point' for NTFS partition.

mkdir /mnt/ntfs_p

Edit /etc/fstab file so the partition is mounted at startup

su -
gedit /etc/fstab

You can use any editor. vi, kate or kwrite etc.
Add this code in fstab file

/dev/sda1      /mnt/ntfs_p    ntfs-3g      defaults,umask=0 0 0

/dev/sda1 might not be the correct partition, depending on your setup. check it...

/sbin/fdisk -l

Change SELinux to "Permissive Mode" in order for ntfs-3g to work properly at startup.

gedit /etc/selinux/config

and change the line

SELINUX=restrictive

to

SELINUX=permissive

Save and reboot. You should be able to read and write to your NTFS partition now.

BUGS/Fixes

* Add/Remove ( pirut ) doesn't work with DVD/CDs.

You can't install packages from DVD/CDs. i thought Fedora Team will sort out this problem in FC6. They didn't.
Solution : For installing Packages from DVD

Put '#' sign before first baseurl line in three files fedora-core.repo, fedora-extras.repo and fedora-updates.repo in folder /etc/yum.repos.d

#baseurl=http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/$releasever/$basearch/os/
add new line below it.

baseurl=file:///media/disk

---- create a folder 'disk' in /media

mkdir /media/disk

---- insert Fedora Core DVD and mount it

mount /dev/hdc /media/disk

---- clean 'yum' cache.

yum clean all

click on Add/Remove Softwares and install packages from DVD. for installing from internet again, put '#' sign before disk's 'baseurl' line and remove '#' before original 'baseurl' line.

For CDs, check these tutorials Tutorial1, Tutorial 2 written by src2206.

* No Option in GRUB to Bootup other installed Linux Distros.

like FC5, FC6 didn't recognize other installed *LINUX* distros. It recognized Windows though.
Solution :
Mount partition of other distro and copy 'title, root, kernel and initrd lines from its /boot/grub/grub.conf ( or menu.lst ) file and paste in Fedora's /boot/grub/grub.conf file.

* Yum throws an error “cannot find valid baseurl... “

Solution :
check "Yum Configuration" section above.



I didn't download and install a lot of packages. I will keep on updating/editing this thread. Members are Welcome to fill in install instructions for other packages and Bugs/Fixes.




casper

[sandra_777]

Wow ! awesome !
i am planning to install Fedora Core 6 and i was searching for this kinda tutorial only.

thanx
sandra

[fedrickha]

this tutorial is very much informative. thanx !

johny

[Redman]

Good work!

Glued it

[picasso_!!]

hiya devils_casper !

i followed your tutorial and installed FC6 last night. everything worked perfectly.
installed xine, xmms too.

i tried to install all available updates through Yum Extender. it didn't work. then i tried 'yum upgrade' in gnome-terminal.
i got these errors:

Loading "installonlyn" plugin
rpmdb: PANIC: fatal region error detected; run recovery
error: db4 error(-30977) from dbenv->open: DB_RUNRECOVERY: Fatal error, run database recovery
error: cannot open Packages index using db3 - (-30977)
error: cannot open Packages database in /var/lib/rpm
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/bin/yum", line 29, in ?
yummain.main(sys.argv[1:])
File "/usr/share/yum-cli/yummain.py", line 85, in main
base.getOptionsConfig(args)
File "/usr/share/yum-cli/cli.py", line 199, in getOptionsConfig
errorlevel=opts.errorlevel)
File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/yum/__init__.py", line 125, in doConfigSetup
self.conf = config.readMainConfig(startupconf)
File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/yum/config.py", line 597, in readMainConfig
vars['releasever'] = _getsysver(startupconf.installroot, startupconf.distroverpkg)
File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/yum/config.py", line 656, in _getsysver
idx = ts.dbMatch('provides', distroverpkg)
TypeError: rpmdb open failed


yum is not installing anything now. please help.

thanks a lot !!
Polly

[devils casper]

rpmdb: PANIC: fatal region error detected; run recovery

its a BUG in latest Yum. it is corrupting rpm database on upgrading system.
execute this command as 'root'

rpm --rebuilddb

this command will rebuild the rpm database. try to upgrade again.




casper

[anthq]

i accidentally didnt select customize now as i usually do - is there an easy way to do the same thing as the installer does to add those packages on the dvd rather than typing yum install like crazy?

was theat link for the dvds for yum wha im looking for, then do add/remove?

[devils casper]

Originally Posted by anthq

was theat link for the dvds for yum wha im looking for, then do add/remove?

yes ! follow instructions given in that link. Add/Remove will Fetch data from DVD.

EDIT : i removed that link and posted solution here only, in first post.



casper

[picasso_!!]

Originally Posted by devils_casper

rpmdb: PANIC: fatal region error detected; run recovery

its a BUG in latest Yum. it is corrupting rpm database on upgrading system.
execute this command as 'root'

rpm --rebuilddb

this command will rebuild the rpm database. try to upgrade again.




casper

Thank you very much Casper ! it worked.
Polly

[djmcmahon]

In hopes that others may benefit from my experience:

1. LCD monitor worked fine during install, but video mode selected by graphical boot-up was unusable. I still don't know why (frequency, resolution?). Solution was to re-install using character mode, and configure the display using system-config-display from the command line. Then startx can be used. Another option would be control-alt-F1 after a failed graphical install, this is supposed to bring up a character mode console where you should be able to fix the problem. Another option from character-mode console would be to edit xorg.conf and force the resolution to something that works on your screen.

2. USB keyboard doesn't work with boot loader. Have a PS2 keyboard handy or you won't even be able to press enter to start the install process. Afterward the USB keyboard works OK. Note, however, that Grub won't accept input from it, so if your system is dual-boot, you will need to keep the PS2 keyboard around. It is possible some BIOS setting would get around this problem.

3. USB keyboard not compatible with PS2 mouse. This a little-known 2.6 kernel bug of some sort. Apparently if you do not have a PS2 keyboard hooked up, and the kernel sees your USB keyboard, then it doesn't bother looking for a PS2 mouse. You will need a USB mouse as well. Or, you need to make sure a PS2 keyboard is hooked up during the boot-up when the system is discovering devices.

4. IPV6 turned on unless you disable it during the install. Big headache to edit scripts in /etc to fix this after the install. IPV6 creates problems with many types of connection locally to the box, and also can make DNS resolution really slow.

5. Software firewall turned on by default, again might be possible to disable during the install. You will not find it in the control panel, but it might be on the task bar menu. Failing that, system-config-securitylevel will let you configure ports to let through (e.g. 80 for Apache), or disable it, or whatever. This also lets you disable SELinux if you don't want it.

6. INET services not installed by default. You have to yum install xinetd and then configure them by editing scripts in /etc/xinetd.d. Legacy unsecure services such as rlogin, rsh are not available unless you install an rpm that delivers them.

7. X windows dpi may not work properly despite edits to xorg.conf. If you need to control it you will have to edit the right script in /etc/X11/xdm to force -dpi 100 onto the X server command line.

8. Grub default boot timeout is short, 5 seconds. This is shorter than the time it takes some LCD monitors to sync on DVI, giving the appearance that the system never gave you a chance to pick an OS in a multi-boot environment. Fix by editing /boot/grub/grub.conf and pick a longer timeout.

9. Sound is now on /dev/snd/*, and is protected except for root. You may need to chmod 666 /dev/snd/* to gain access as a normal user.

10. If you are behind a proxy server, yum will not work from the command line, and the GUI tool (pirut, launched from the task bar) also will fail. Setting the proxies in the control panel doesn't appear to fix this. What does fix it is to set environment variables http_proxy and ftp_proxy to something like http://yourproxy.yourdomain.com:80. Note that the leading http:// and trailing port number must be present. After this yum will work from that command line. You can also launch pirut from the command line and it will work.

11. The printing part of the control panel may fail with a CUPS error. I got around it by running system-config-printer instead. After this, the control panel sees the printer configured with the other tool and it appears to work OK.

12. In the Users and Groups GUI, you will not see "root" or any other user. If you want to change root's shell from "bash", you need to enable the tool to see "system users" from a drop-down menu.

13. Some legacy apps, including mozilla and acroread, will not work unless you install some fix-up libraries. yum install compat-libstdc++ will fix mozilla. Installing xorg-x11-deprecated-libs-6.8.1-12.i386.rpm will fix acroread. You may need some others as well.

14. Some apps that have been around a long time are missing, like xcalc. There is a list here: http://ftp.x.org/pub/unsupported/programs/

15. emacs was not installed by default. yum install emacs fixes it.