After Installing Fedora Core 5

This file contains a list of steps needed to setup additional programs I use on a RedHat Linux system. To find out answers I used various sites on the Internet. You can find an incomplete list at the end of this file.

Before you install a new OS

You will have to do the following steps to ensure that you you will be able to see your data with the new OS.

  1. Backup PostgreSQL database into text format

    To save a database into text format execute: pg_dump dbname > dumpfile

    To restore a text dump of a database

  2. Backup subversion into text format

    Execute svnadmin dump <myrepo> > dumpfile for every repository you have.

    To restore a repository into the newly installed OS type svnadmin create newrepo;svnadmin load newrepo < dumpfile

  3. Save user password files and home directories

    User home directories are in /home/user. These need to be saved only if you don't have the users data on a separate logical volume (LVM).

    Users,groups and shadow files are /etc/passwd, /etc/group and /etc/shadow.

  4. Print the partition table and mounting points

    fdisk -l /dev/hda > log.txt
    df -h >> log.txt
    mount >> log.txt
    lvdisplay -m >> log.txt

Install Fedora Core 5 and Updates

I use two computers: a Dell Latitude C840 Laptop and a Dell Precision 530 Desktop.

Common Settings

  1. Partitions

    I use a dual-boot Linux/Windows system with the following partitions:

    /dev/hda1 /boot 100MB
    /dev/hda2 /mnt/windows 26GB
    /dev/hda3 Linux LVM
    LogVol00 / 10GB
    LogVol01 /home 7GB
    LogVol02 /home/data 17GB
    LogVol03 /usr/local 2GB
    This configuration allows me to reinstall the OS on / without affecting /home. Logical Volumes can be resized, which is of great help if you want to move things around, or you didn't get the partition sizes right the first time.
  2. Yum Configuration File

    Follow the instructions form fedorafaq.org

  3. Root setup

    Create the following two links:

    /root/.bashrc --> /home/<user</.bashrc
    /root/.bash_login --> /home/<user>/.bash_login
  4. Read-Only NTFS Driver

    yum install kmod-ntfs. If this doesn't work, you will have to download manually the packages appropriate for your kernel version: kmod-ntfs-2.1.26-4.2.6.16_1.2096_FC5.i686.rpm and ntfs-kmod-common-2.1.26-2.lvn5.noarch.rpm

    Check your kernel version: uname -r and your processor: rpm -q --queryformat "%{ARCH}\n" kernel

    Install NTFS rpm for your kernel and processor from http://rpm.livna.org

    Load the driver: modprobe ntfs, check the kernel logs: dmesg|grep NTFS, and check if the kernel understands NTFS: cat /proc/filesystems

    Find out the partition with the NTFS file system: fdisk -l, mount the partition: mount /dev/hda2 /media/windows -r -o -umask=0222. If you want the partition to be mounted at start-up, update /etc/fstab, by adding the following line:

    /dev/hda2 /media/windows ntfs ro,defaults,umask=0222 0 0
  5. Gnome Terminal

    If you want a bigger window and no menu for the terminal use the following parameters in the Launcher Properties: gnome-terminal --geometry 80x40 --hide-menubar

  6. beagle search tool

    yum install beagle wv gnumeric

  7. Nvu Web Authoriting

    Install xorg-x11-deprecated-libs from a FC4 repository and then intall nvu-1.0-1.rhel4.fs.i386.rpm.

  8. Prosper Presentation, Octave, Flash Plugin, Mozplugger, Timidity++, Unace, Totem Movie Player plugin, MP3 player plugin, Alacarte Menu Editor, Yum Extender, Mplayer plugin, Unison, pgAdmin3, python-imaging (for PyOpenGL), psgml (for HTML editing with Emacs), mpg123

    rpm -e --nodeps totem;yum install tetex-prosper octave octave-forge flash-plugin unace totem-xine libdvdcss libdvdnav gstreamer-plugins-ugly alacarte yumex, mplayerplug-in vnc-server unison pgadmin3 python-imaging psgml html401-dtds.noarch latex2html timidity++ mozplugger

    yum --enablerepo=dag install mpg123

    Disable handling of Real Media by adding in /etc/mplayerplug-in.conf to lines

    enable-helix=0
    enable-rm=0
  9. Install VTK and ParaView, Win32 codecs for mplayer, rapidsvn, PyOpenGL

    yum -y --enablerepo=atrpms install 'vtk*' cmake paraview PyOpenGL w32codec rapidsvn

  10. Formating Support for ACM and SPIE Conferences

  11. American Psychological Association (APA) formating and citations

    Install apa and apacite (layout for American Psychological Association papers) and enumitem (layout for enumerate, itemize and description) from CTAN in /usr/local/share/texmf/tex/latex.

  12. Real Player 10 Gold

    Remove HelixPlayer-1.0.1.gold-6, install RealPlayer10GOLD.rpm from http://www.real.com/linux/ and then reset FireFox cache rm ~/.mozilla/firefox/pluginreg.dat.

  13. Install rar, unace, nrg2iso

    yum --enablerepo=dries install rar unace To install nrg2iso find the rpm and install it. I could not find a rpm for Fedora, but the one for Suse I found works fine. rpm -ivh nrg2iso-0.4-2.guru.suse102.i686.rpm
  14. Acrobat 7.0

    Install AdobeReader_enu-7.0.5-1.i386.rpm, and then go to System>Administration>Security Level and Firewall>SELinux>Modify SELinux Policy>Compatibility>Allow the use of shared libraries with Text Relocation

    Setup Firefox plugin:

    cd /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins
    ln -s /usr/local/Adobe/Acrobat7.0/Browser/intellinux/nppdf.so
  15. GNU Cash

    Install Finance::Quote perl module that allows automatic updating of the price of stocks and mutual funds you own. You have to run the command update-finance-quote as root. See GnuCash Tutorial and Concept Guide/Investment/Setting Stock Price Automatically.

  16. Users

    Add your users to users group. I use this to provide everybody with access to CVS.

  17. Printers

    HP Color LaserJet 4600
    Add a printer with a Queue Type, Networked JetDirect, Printer ip address of the printer and Port: 9100. and a printer driver Color LaserJet 4600
    HP LaserJet 4100
    Add a printer with a Queue Type, Networked JetDirect, Printer ip address of the printer and Port: 9100. and a printer driver LaserJet 4100
    Canon Pixma MP760
    • Install ftp://download.canon.jp/pub/driver/bj/linux/bjfilter-common-2.50-2.i386.rpm and ftp://download.canon.jp/pub/driver/bj/linux/bjfilter-pixusip4100-2.50-2.i386.rpm
    • Restart cups daemon /etc/init.d/cups restart.
    • Add the printer in cups by connecting to http://localhost:631 and then Add Printer, Device: Canon MP760 (Canon MP760), Model: Canon Pixus IP4100 Ver.2.50 (en)
    All that was read from The Linux Foundation
  18. Scanners

    Epson Perfection 1660 Photo Scanner
    It is automatically recognized and configured.
    Canon Pixma MP760
    You can use Wittawat Yamwong's software for getting the scanner to work. To be able to use the scanner in user mode add to /etc/udev/rules.d/60-libsane.rules the following line
    #    Canon    Inc.|PIXMA760
    SYSFS{idVendor}=="04a9", SYSFS{idProduct}=="1708", SYMLINK+="scanner-%k"
  19. Palm Pilot

    Create a file /etc/udev/rules.d/10-visor.rules that contains:

    KERNEL="ttyUSB[13579]", SYMLINK="pilot"

    See http://www.clasohm.com/blog/one-entry?entry_id=12096 for more informations about this.

  20. PostgreSQL Database Server

    You have to login as user postgres and then use psql template1 to create a PostgreSQL user that will match your username. Use create user <user> superuser; for this. This will allow you to connect directly to a database without specifying your user name, if you are doing this from your account, and will allow you to create databases. Exit psql with \q.

    In /var/lib/pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf you have to set what computers you accept connections from . If you want to accept connections only from localhost your IPv4 connections should look like the following:

    #host all all 127.0.0.1/32 ident sameuser
    host all all 127.0.0.1 255.255.255.255 trust

    Install pgaccess, a user friendly database editor. Untar pgaccess-0.98.7.tar.gz in /usr/local.

  21. Install Microsoft Fonts

    Install msttcorefonts-1.3-3.noarch.rpm from http://www.mjmwired.net/resources/mjm-fedora-fc3.html#ttf and then restart the X Font Server: service xfs restart

  22. Apache Web Server

    Set the DocumentRoot in your /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf to point to the root of your web pages: /home/<user>/public_html.

    Set global read permisitons on public_html

    cd ~;chmod ugo+x .
    chmod -R ugo+r public_html
    For SELinux, change the security context of public_html and its content:
    ls -Zd public_html
    chcon -R -t httpd_user_content_t public_html
    If the chcon command fails you might need to relabel the files system:
    touch /.autorelabel
    reboot
    or fixfiles relabel.

    To specify the administrator of the web server set ServerAdmin your@email.address.

  23. Install Java & Additional Packages using JPackage Repository

    Upgrade jpackage-utils with yum --enablerepo=jpackage-generic update jpackage-utils.

    Download the following non-free packages from http://www.jpackage.org: java-1.5.0-sun, java-1.4.2-sun, jta, java3d, java-1.5.0-sun-manual

    Non-free packages need to be rebuild by executing the following steps:

    1. Try to build the package using rpmbuild --rebuild <package>. This will tell you what non-free binaries are missing.
    2. Download the non-free binaries into /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES
    3. Rebuild the nosrc package.
    4. Install the created binary packages from a subdirectory of /usr/src/redhat/RPMS
    If you downloaded a binary file with a different version than the nosrc package, you might be able to fix this by:
    1. cd /usr/src/redhat/SPECS
    2. Edit the spec file and change the version to the one of the binary
    3. Rebuild the source rpm rpmbuild -bs <specfile>
    4. Build the binary rpm cd ../SRPMS;rpmbuild --rebuild <srpm>

    Install the Firefox plug-in:

    cd /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins
    ln -s /usr/lib/jvm/java-1.5.0-sun/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so

    Install Java Libraries: yum install tomcat5-admin-webapps tomcat5-webapps jakarta-commons-cli jakarta-commons-cli-javadoc jakarta-commons-fileupload-javadoc

    More information about JPackage at:

  24. Error: Missing Dependency: geronimo-specs = 1.0-0.M2.2jpp_7fc is needed by package geronimo-specs-compat

    I removed the offending package: rpm -e --nodeps geronimo-specs-compat

  25. Configure the transfer between httpd and Tomcat5

    In the past I did this with mod_jk. The same thing can be achieved with mod_proxy which comes with httpd package. Add the following lines in /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

    #LoadModule proxy_ajp_module modules/mod_proxy_ajp.so
    ProxyRequests Off
    
    # transfer URLs for 'convert'
    ProxyPass /convert/ http://localhost.localdomain:8080/convert/
    
    # transfer URLs for 'hs'
    ProxyPass /hs/ http://localhost.localdomain:8080/hs/
    
    # URL conversion for redirect from Tomcat to httpd
    ProxyPassReverse / http://localhost.localdomain:8080/
    

    Make SELinux happy by checking System>Administration>Security Level and Firewall>SELinux>Modify SELinux Policy>HTTPD Service>Allow HTTPD scripts and modules to connect to the network.

    To access the root of the Tomcat installation type http://localhost:8080. To be able to deploy applications using Tomcat Manager you will have to change /usr/share/tomcat5/conf/tomcat-users.xml, add two roles manager and admin and a user having these two roles. See the existing file as an example on how to do this.

    To deploy an application, use Tomcat Manager and Select WAR to upload and then press Deploy. The .war file will be copied to /usr/share/tomcat5/webapps and the context file will be copied to /usr/share/tomcat5/conf/Catalina/localhost.

  26. Configure Additional Java Libraries

    Libraries installed by hand:

    cd /usr/share/java/
    ln -s /home/<user>/external/acme.jar
    ln -s /usr/local/jogl-1.1/jogl.jar jogl-1.1.jar
    ln -s jogl-1.1.jar jogl.jar

    mkdir saxon8;cd saxon8
    for i in /usr/local/saxonb8/*.jar; do ln -s $i; done

    cd /usr/lib/jvm/java/jre/lib/i386
    ln -s /usr/local/jogl-1.1/natives-linux/libjogl_cg.so
    ln -s /usr/local/jogl-1.1/natives-linux/libjogl.so
    Libraries installed using JPackage:
    cd ${JAVA_HOME}/jre/lib
    build-jar-repository ext xerces-j2 postgresql-jdbc3.jar java3d acme jogl commons-cli saxon8
  27. OOoLatex

    Copy OOoLatex-2.3.1/bin/OOoLatex to ~/bin. Install the macro from OOoLatexMacro-test2/macro-2.0/script.xlb by selecting Tools/Macros/Organize Macros/OpenOffice.org Basic.../Organizer.../Libraries/Append....

    Assign Ctrl-M shortcut to the operation that creates the equation dialog, by selecting Tools>Customize>Keyboard, for Category select OpenOffice.org Macros>user>OOoLatex>OOoLatexEquation and for Function select main, select OpenOffice.org radio button and select Control+M and press Modify

  28. VMware 4.5

    Install vmware-any-any-update103.tar.gz from here before you run vmware-config.pl.

    Add the folders you want to share between the host OS (GNU/Linux) and the quest OS (Windows). VM>Settings...>Options>Shared Folders>Add. To access a shared folder you can explore My Computer and then navigate to My Network Places>Entire Network>VMware Shared Folders.

  29. Install a VRML player

    Install the RPM from FreeWRL home page. You will need the following aditional packages: yum install libXp-devel openmotif openmotif-devel mesa-libGLw mesa-libGLw-devel mesa-libGLU-devel. See this for more links.

Dell Latitute C840

  1. NVIDIA GeForce 440 Go AGP

    The driver configured by default nv works well.

    To install the hardware accelerated driver type yum install kmod-nvidia.

    To make suspend work

    Change /etc/pm/functions-nvidia and change inside function resume_video() from: /usr/sbin/vbetool post to #/usr/sbin/vbetool post.

    Change /etc/grub.conf and add after kernel ... agp=off. See the following fedoraforum.org discution for more about this

  2. 3Com 3CRSHPW_96 PCMCIA Wireless Card

    Download atmel-firmware-1.3.tar.gz from here, and copy atmel_at76c502_3com.bin and atmel_at76c502_3com-wpa.bin to /lib/firmware.

Dell Precision 530 Desktop

  1. Setting the optimum vertical refresh for Dell 1900FP

    Change in /etc/X11/XF86Config, VertRefresh 56.0- 61.0 (instead of up to 76.0). That will make the graphic card to choose the refresh rate of 60Hz (instead of 75Hz) which is said to be optimal for the display.

  2. APC Back-UPS ES 350

    yum install apcupsd. See more information at www.apcupsd.org

References: