24 April 2007
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Robert B. White
24 April 2007 |
This is a brief review of installing Fedora Core6 done by a person familiar with SuSE 10.2 and earlier, as well as other Linux distributions and with Solaris / SunOS experience.
For more help see:
http://www.howtoforge.com/the_perfect_desktop_fedora_core6
and in general, since it indexes several Linux distributions and
at least a score of applications:
http://www.howtoforge.com/
Also see:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Fedora-Core-6-Post-Install-Guide-50400.shtml
which offers a "Fedora Core 6 Post-Install Guide".
This site with an unlikely name offers Fedora FC6 help:
http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Fedora_fc5
Local login detection for tcsh:
Have to use:
if ( 1 == `echo $WMI| grep -c '(:0)'` ) then
since a local login also reports hostname in parentheses.
Allow rlogin:
Doesn't initially work, attempt gets "no route to host"
Disabling firewall removes that message, now rlogin hangs waiting.
Add software:
rsh-server - 0.17-38.fc6.i386
telnet-server - 1:0.17-37.i386
These plus (at least) xinetd were downloaded over network and installed. However, this didn't start either service.
Try K-menu -> System -> Services:
On "Background Services" tab start xinetd.
View -> Refresh Service List
Select "On Demand Services" tab
select rlogin, rsh
File -> Save
rlogin now works, ftp does not.
But see ftpd below.
NB: per my SuSE notes, pure-ftpd cannot be successfully started
from xinetd. A return to Try K-menu -> System -> Services
shows that it is not on the "On Demand Services" list,
and is on the "Background Services" list.
Enabling firewall prevents rlogin.
Fedora Desktop launcher icons behave like windows ones: one click selects, two are required to launch. SuSE icons launch with a single click.
Look for these (no particular order, just as I thought of them)
I think this is in the distribution, but I lost track! It works correctly with the distribution's Firefox (1.5) without having to do any additional installation.
Possibly equivalent to man -u.
man page for whatis says use: /usr/sbin/makewhatis
which works.
rup / rstatd are available from
sourceforge
as a tarball.
After following the instructions in INSTALL, also (as root) execute the
command:
make install-man
to install the man pages.
Then install (as root) the following file as /etc/xinetd.d/rstatd:
# default: off
# description: The rpc.statd server implements the NSM (Network Status Monitor)
# RPC protocol..
service rstatd
{
rpc_version = 1-5
socket_type = dgram
protocol = udp
wait = yes
user = root
group = root
server = /usr/local/sbin/rpc.rstatd
type = RPC
type = RPC
type = RPC
flags = IPv4
}
These appear to build & install without incident. For Fedora rstatd is listed in "On Demand Services" instead of the expected "Background Services" tab. Nonetheless, the machine responds to rup from another machine on the LAN, and successfully reports other machines from rup.
Get this from:
http://rpmseek.com/rpm-pl/qps.html?hl=com&cx=0::
or:
http://rpmfind.net/linux/rpm2html/search.php?query=qps
Installed with:
rpm -i qps-1.9.7-852.i586.rpm
No problems reported. Immediately, without rehash.
which qps
responds: /usr/bin/qps. It starts & runs perfectly.
Created launcher icon which works correctly.
It's supplied in package vim-X11.
Try a download from
http://sourceforge.net/projects/xosview/
2 complaints: iostream and fstream present but cannot be compiled-
missing but unspecified libraries. Appears to not install.
Version from SuSE 10.2 Linux works! Needed to copy 2 files:
/usr/bin/xosview
/usr/bin/xosview.bin
Curiously Fedora Core 6 includes an Xosview icon, even though
it lacks xosview
There is a Core 3 .rpm file, xosview-1.8.3-1.fc3.rf.i386.rpm at:
http://dag.wieers.com/rpm/packages/xosview/
which I haven't tried.
This is from
Dag Wieers
web site, which has over 3000 .rpm packages for Red Hat and Fedora.
This is included in the core6 distribution.
Fedora has this, and as with SuSE, you have to ask for it.
Have not been able to ftp to Fedora system from another machine on LAN.
Try proftpd - 1.3.0a-3fc6.i386
proftpd accepts connections but connects only to "/" and doesn't
allow cd. It also won't get a file from a path.
Try: http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Fedora_fc5 and look for the section: " FTP Server"
Command from SuSE 10.2 install notes works, and the clock persists over logout.
I didn't take the time to look into this. It would have the same problems as kaffeine.
See the Softpedia URL mentioned above and look for: "Install DVD/avi/mpeg/etc Player" which looks as if it can handle the situation.
This is included in the core6 distribution. As installed, it does not play my Monty Python DVD.
This is included in the core6 distribution. As installed the system detected an audio CD and played it after selecting kscd.
A SuSE user area does not start correctly in Fedora system.
Need to find out why, but can get most of this review done
as root. It's apparently not .cshrc, .aliases, or .xterm-labels.
The key appears to be one or more of the
".*"
files or directories.
I took the Draconian approach of replacing all of these, except
for the above list and a few other obvious ones, from a new user area.
This resulted in a usable login, but the desktop, not too surprisingly,
needed some cleanup.
Core 6 lacks Verdana or any obvious means to get it- no offer during installation to download Microsoft fonts.
A likely solution is to go the the Softpedia URL mentioned above and look for: "Installing Microsoft Truetype Fonts"
See (for example):
http://rpmfind.net/linux/rpm2html/search.php?query=xv
and download xv-3.10a-28.fc6.i386.rpm