DavidFarning/fedorafaq

Frequently Asked Questions

NOTE: This is not an official form of support. This is not an official service of Red Hat. These things may solve your worst nightmare, or they may eat all of the cheese in your house. I make no guarantees. YMMV.

This FAQ is outdated!!!! Please go here: link official FAQ

About Fedora

What is this Fedora Core 4 thing?

First, read the official Fedora page a bit. Now, i'll give you a summary. You can think of Fedora Core 4 as something like "Red Hat Linux 13," except it differs from the old Red Hat Linux in the following ways:

• It's a community-supported project. That means that you can be involved in creating Fedora Core, if you want.
• A new version of Fedora Core comes out every six months.
• When a new version comes out, the previous version becomes unsupported after another 6 - 8 months.

This means upgrading your OS every 6 - 8 months. The upgrades are usually very easy, much like Red Hat Linux 8 - Red Hat Linux 9. The easiness is not guaranteed.

If you don't want to upgrade every 6 - 8 months, there is something called the Fedora Legacy Project . They provide security patches for each version of Fedora for an additional 1 1/2 years after the Fedora Project stops their support.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is based on Fedora Core, so if you want to learn a little about RHEL for free, use Fedora Core.

What is the difference between Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux?

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is officially supported by Red Hat for 7 years. It's a better choice if you're running important machines in production, and you don't want to upgrade your OS all the time. It also has many nice features that are useful if you are running more than a few servers. Also, you can (sometimes) actually call Red Hat and get support for RHEL, which you will never be able to do for Fedora.

Fedora is distributed for free, and RHEL costs money.

Fedora is also much more cutting-edge than RHEL is, and Fedora has a larger community of users willing to help out and give free support (like this web page).

Red Hat also has a cool page that answers this question .

Is it unstable?

No!

Has it been released?

Yes! Fedora Core 4 was released on June 13, 2005. To see when new versions of Fedora are going to be released, you can look at the release schedule .

Where can I find a list of all the programs that come with Fedora Core 4 (a package list)?

There's a list of the main Core 4 packages over at the Distrowatch Fedora Page .

When is the next version of Fedora coming out?

A new version of Fedora is released every 6 - 8 months. Specific dates are usually in the Release Schedule .

(Thanks to Tom Van Vleck for suggesting this question.)

What are the Fedora Extras?

The "Fedora Extras" are a set software packages supported by the Fedora Project, but they are not distributed with Fedora Core. They are available on Hat's Fedora download site . To install them, just see the question about installing software.

Installing Fedora

Where do I get it?

Normal Download or BitTorrent . You probably want the "binary" or "i386" version, not the "source" or "SRPM" version.

If you don't want to download the CDs, you can buy them from an official vendor .

(Thanks to Beartooth for pointing out that not everybody can easily download CDs, and to Jef Spaleta for the vendor link.)

Can I install on ReiserFS, JFS, or XFS?

Yes, you can install Fedora on ReiserFS, JFS, or XFS.

None of these file systems are officially supported by the Fedora Project. (That means that you can use them, but you won't find a lot of official help from the Fedora Project if things go wrong.)

At the installer prompt, type this for ReiserFS:

linux selinux=0 reiserfs

or this for JFS:

linux selinux=0 jfs

or this for XFS:

linux xfs

NOTE: You cannot use SELinux on ReiserFS or JFS. XFS is OK. (If you don't know what SELinux is, you can ignore this warning.)

(Thanks to whiprush [quoting Jesse Keating] for this. Thanks to Kai Thomsen for catching an important typo. Thanks to Colin Charles for the XFS part and the SELinux warning.)

Can Fedora run on a 64-bit (AMD-64 or Intel EM64T) computer?

Yes, it can! A 64-bit version of Fedora Core 4 is currently available to download. See the question about getting Fedora .

You can also run the normal 32-bit version of Fedora on your 64-bit computer.

(Thanks to David Faustini and John P. Kole for finding typos in this question.)

Can I run Fedora on a Mac (PowerPC)?

Yes, you can! A PowerPC version of Fedora Core 4 is currently available to download. See the question about getting Fedora .

Where is the floppy disk install image for Fedora Core 4? (Updated 10 August 2005)

Normally, you can't install Fedora from your floppy drive, because the new 2.6 kernel in Fedora is too big to fit on a floppy.

However, there is a way to start the Fedora Core installer using several floppies .

(Thanks to Mohan Embar and many others for sending me that link!)

Using Fedora and Installing Software

Where can I get software for Fedora? (Updated 25 July 2005)

There are a few "repositories" (sites that hold software). The primary sites are the highly unofficial rpm.livna.org (for packages with licensing or USA patent problems) and the official Fedora Extras . They hold different software.

For an alternate choice, look at RPMForge . There are some packages in RPMForge that aren't in Extras or livna.org. You can see the list of available packages on the "Mega-Merge" page.

To search for software in all the major repositories, use the FedoraTracker search engine or rpm.pbone.net .

How do I install software for Fedora? (How to use yum or an RPM) (Updated 29 July 2005)

The easiest way to install software in Fedora is to use yum.
Configuring Yum

Here's how to configure your yum: 1. Open a Terminal. 2. Become root. 3. Run these commands to remove your yum.conf file and replace it with a fresh one (Updated 29 July 2005):
cd /etc
rm -f yum.conf
wget http://www.fedorafaq.org/samples/yum.conf 4. Now, install my yum configuration (Updated 25 July 2005), using this command: rpm -Uvh http://www.fedorafaq.org/yum

NOTE: The yum configuration provided here is updated from time to time, for various reasons.
Using Yum

To use yum, open a terminal, become root, and then you can use the following commands:

• To see a list of available software:
  yum list available
• To install some software, you type:
  yum install packagename
• To update some software, you type:
  yum update packagename

If you leave out "packagename" yum will update all your software.

• To see what updates are available, you can do:
  yum check-update
• To search for a package, you can do:
  yum search word'

For more info about yum, see the yum project page. (Thanks to Ron Kuris for this tip.)

To get yum through a proxy, see the FedoraForum thread about yum and proxies. (Thanks to Reinhard Herzfeld for that link.) Installing Software Without Yum

To install an RPM file that you downloaded outside of yum, open up a terminal, and as root do:

rpm -Uvh filename.rpm

Is there anything like apt for Fedora?

Does up2date still work?

How do I install Java?

How can I install Flash in my web browser?

How can I see PDF files inside my web browser?

How can I watch movies in my web browser?

Can I use MSN Messenger/AIM/ICQ/Yahoo instant messaging in Fedora?

How do I install fonts? Can I use Windows (.ttf) fonts? (Updated 25 July 2005)

Where can I get drivers for my hardware for Fedora?

How do I play MP3s in Fedora?

How do I read my NTFS (Windows NT/2000/XP/2003) drive in Fedora? (Updated 25 July 2005)

How do I edit the menus in the panel? (Updated 25 July 2005)

How do I get Wine to work?

Problems and Their Solutions

The update servers hosted by Red Hat are slow! What can I do?

I get a NOKEY warning from RPM, or I get a gpg signature error when using Apt / Yum / up2date! (Updated 27 July 2005)

How do I enable 3D support for my ATI Radeon card in Fedora Core 4?

!!!How do I enable 3D support for my nVidia graphics card in Fedora Core 4?

There are now nVidia driver RPMs provided by livna.org that are designed especially for Fedora. If you're using yum, and you're using my yum configuration, you should be able to install the drivers easily:

1. Open a Terminal. 2. Become root. 3. Type:

yum install nvidia-glx kernel-module-nvidia-$(uname -r)

That installs the nVidia driver for your current kernel.

If you update your kernel, make sure that you install the newest nVidia driver before you start the new kernel. Here's a shortcut command that you can type in the terminal as root that makes installing the new driver easy:

yum install kernel-module-nvidia-$(rpm -q --queryformat="%{version}-%{release}\n" kernel | tail -n 1)

(That's actually just a fancy way of getting the version number of your latest kernel.)

If you need support for the nVidia drivers, check out the nV News "Linux and nVidia Graphics" forum. (Thanks to Exile in Paradise for this tip.)

If you have any trouble with the livna.org RPMs, see the alternate instructions.

(Thanks to Jeff Spaleta for letting me know that the RPMs had been released.)

The installer's media check says all my CDs are bad!

There is a bug in the kernel which causes the media check to say some CDs are bad when they are not, on some systems. To do a successful media check, do the following:

• At the installer prompt, type:

linux mediacheck ide=nodma

• Run the media check on your CDs/DVD.

• Reboot, and run the installer normally.

I have strange installation problems.

If your installation doesn't work, or you have problems during or after installation, first read the Latest Release Notes .

Also, the Fedora Project provides a detailed installation guide if you'd like any other help while installing.

If the Release Notes and Installation Guide don't have a solution for your problem, try booting the installer with one of the following commands:

linux ide=nodma

linux acpi=off

linux i8042.nomux

linux acpi=off apm=off

The "i8042.nomux" is especially helpful if you have keyboard or mouse problems.

If any of those commands fixes your problem, please file a bug in Red Hat's Bugzilla .

(Thanks to !!!Alan Cox for all this information.)

I don't like the new spatial file manager (nautilus), how can I turn it off?

If you want to set the file manager so that it doesn't open a new window for each folder, you can follow these steps:

• Double-click on the "Computer" icon on your desktop.
• Go to the "Edit" menu and choose "Preferences."
• Click on the "Behavior" tab.
• Put a check in the box marked "Always open in browser windows."

(Thanks to Eugéne Roux for this method of doing it!)

I can't access my Windows network shares anymore! People tell me to use the smbmount command, but it doesn't work!

Fedora Core 4 uses a cool new type of Windows file sharing called "The Common Internet File System" (CIFS). Instead of using "smbmount", try:

mount -t cifs //computername/share /mnt/somedirectory

For more information about this, in a !!!terminal you can do:

man mount.cifs

d00d, u is sukc

Wow, I really like your spelling, and I'm happy you are so kind.

Unfortunately, that's not really a question.

But just in case you'd like an answer anyway:

Goats!