Fedora 9 on Dell Latitude D610

Introduction Hardware overview Disk partition Install Fedora 9 Update software with yum Video Wireless connection

Introduction

I've been looking forward to install Fedora 9 for some months now. Getting a new major version of Fedora is usually a good experience, and this time was no disappointment.

I downloaded the CD installation iso's (disk 1, 2 and 3) but for some reason, disk 2 failed the media check. This has never happened to me before, and I tried downloading and burning the iso again - still no luck. But luckily a friend of mine had F9 on a DVD from a magazine. I started the installation, configured the partitions and reformatted the harddisk. Then an error appeared telling me that a specific rpm could not be opened. I rebooted and started from scratch - this time the installation went smoothly - whew!. These errors could indicate that my CD drive is getting old - but then again, this laptop was bought back when Fedora 4 was released.

Hardware overview

The hardware howtos in this document is based on the following (you can also visit my smolt profile):

Disk partition

It is of cause always a good idea to backup your data, but it is still nice to be able to keep data on the laptop during installation. With this in mind, I decided to follow the recommendations:

+---------------------------+
| /boot               100MB |
+---------------------------+
|   LVM physical volume:    |
| /swap                 2GB |
| /                     3GB |
| /usr                  8GB |
| /usr/local            2GB |
| /var                  4GB |
| /var/lib/mysql        1GB |
| /home                37GB |
+---------------------------+

The swap partition must be at least twice the size of your ram. You can ommit the mysql partition if you do not plan to use databases on your laptop.

The great thing about LVM volumes, is that you can grow/shrink them without loosing data. But be aware that the boot loader can't read LVM volumes, and therefore you must create a standard disk partition for your boot partition. If you don't know what LVM is, have a look at 12.3 Understanding LVM in Fedora's installation guide.

Install Fedora 9

Installing Fedora is extremely easy. But if you need a detailed guide, go to the Fedora website

Update software with yum

When your Fedora is installed and ready to run, you should update the software added during the installation.:

su -c 'yum update'

...or...

System -> Administration -> Update System

The first update may take hours, depending on your internet connection and the number of available updates.

You will at some point need to install software from repositories other than the default Fedora repository - for example livna and/or FreshRPMs. But they tend to overlap, and therefore you will want to make sure, that FreshRPMs do not attempt to update your livna packages and so on. One way to overcome this, is by installling the yum-priorities package.

After installation, make sure that /etc/yum/pluginconf.d/priorities.conf contain these lines:

[main]
enabled = 1
check_obsoletes = 1

You can now add priorities to all enabled repositories on your system. 1 is the highest priority, and 99 is the lowest priority you can give a repository. Fedora and Fedora update should both have a priority of 1.:

Open /etc/yum.repos.d/fedora.repo and add priority = 1 as a new line in the [fedora] section. Also open /etc/yum.repos.d/fedora-updates.repo and add priority = 1 as a new line in the [updates] section.

The default priority is 99 for enabled repositories.

See this link for more details about yum-priorities.

Native screen resolution

No problemo...

Video

The default software for video on Fedora is "Totem Player". It sucks... Go to "System"->"Administration"->"Add/Remove Software" and remove anything with the name "Totem" in it. Then install mplayer and/or vlc and vlc-plugin.

I also recommed that you install the Firefox Add-on called MediaPlayerConnectivity. It makes it a lot easier to play different video formats online.

To be able to play wma files, associate mplayer with Windows Media in MediaPlayerConnectivity.:

1. In Firefox, go to 'Tools'->'Add-ons'
2. Select mediaplayerconnectivity and click 'Preferences'
3. In the 'Window Media' textbox, fill in '/usr/bin/mplayer' (without the quotes)

To play rtsp:// streams, associate them with FireFox:

1. Go to about:config in the browser address bar
2. Right-click anywhere on the page and select 'New' -> 'String'
3. Write 'network.protocol-handler.app.rtsp' (without the quotes) in the input field and click 'OK'
4. Fill in the path to vlc: /usr/bin/vlc

You may have to restart Firefox, for the changes to take effect.

Wireless connection

If there is an open unprotected wireless access point near you, it is automatically connected. If that is not the case start NetWorkManager... open a terminal and do:

$ su
Password:
# /usr/sbin/NetworkManager

A new icon appears in the panel, click it to open a list of available access points. The rest is self-explanatory.

If you backed up your network scripts from Fedora 8 (/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-* and keys-*), you can just put them back in there.