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Fedora Core 3 Installation Notes

by Stanton Finley on Nov 19, 2004 (Revised August 28, 2005)

The original article is located at http://stanton-finley.net/fedora_core_3_installation_notes.html

Notice: If you are looking for the new Fedora Core 4 Installation Notes they are here.


It is no longer necessary to be an expert practitioner of the arcane dark arts of the Unix command line in order to get a complete Linux distribution working on your PC including all of the productivity, multimedia, and entertainment applications you will need on your desktop and a fully functional web server as well.

This web page began as some notes to myself as I installed Fedora Core and has evolved into a popular guide for the new Linux user. Enjoy.

~ Stan Finley ~


These instructions assume an i386 to i686 (32 bit) system with, an "always on" LAN or broadband connection configured "DHCP" and at least 10 GB of free disk space for the Fedora partition. Instructions for dual booting Windows and Fedora are included as well as as a section on setting up an nVidia GeForce graphics card. For the most part the steps should be followed in the order that they were written as certain programs should be installed and certain configurations made in order to facilitate later steps. However after the base installation is complete additional user selected program installations are, of course, optional. For reasons that will become obvious as the reader follows this guide the author highly recommends the installation of Yum, Apt, and Synaptic for the purpose of obtaining updates and applications in RPM form. Instructions for doing so are included.

For x86_64 processors (64-bit AMD64, EM64T) you should probably get FC3-x86_64-disc1.iso, FC3-x86_64-disc2.iso, FC3-x86_64-disc3.iso, and FC3-x86_64-disc4.iso. These instructions will not strictly apply for 64 bit computers using the 64 bit isos. 64 bit capable processors like Athlon 64, Opteron and Xeon are supposed to be backwardly compatible with 32 bit instruction sets and are known to run 32 bit editions of Linux. Therefore the i386 isos may work with these. I understand that Fedora Core for 64 bit processors still has some unresolved issues. Your mileage may vary.

Contents:

Installation
Configuring your monitor
Firefox and Thunderbird
nVidia
True Type fonts and improved font rendering
Java
Flash
RealPlayer
A warning about mixing repositories
Yum
Apt and Synaptic
Acrobat Reader
MPlayer, Xmms, Rhythmbox, Xine, and Kaffeine
NTFS support
Bittorrent and bittorrent-gui
Azureus for bittorrent
Web Server
PHP and Perl
MySQL
phpMyAdmin
Resources

Installation:

  • Download and burn the five Fedora Core 3 CDs from iso images from your nearest mirror site. (You should get FC3-i386-disc1.iso, FC3-i386-disc2.iso, FC3-i386-disc3.iso, FC3-i386-disc4.iso and FC3-i386-rescuecd.iso.)
  • Partition your hard disk with something like one of the disk partition creation/editing tools on the System Rescue CD available at http://www.sysresccd.org/. You could also use a commercial product such as PartitionMagic. You may leave the partition that you wish to use for Fedora as unformatted space. The installation program will format this partition, create swap space within it, and make a directory structure.
  • Configure your bios settings to boot first from the CD drive.
  • Insert the first Fedora Core 3 CD and reboot your machine.
  • At the boot prompt hit enter.
  • Hit enter for "ok" to test your CD media or right arrow key and enter to skip this test. (I recommend testing your media to determine if your CDs are properly burned.)
  • Click "next" at the "welcome" page.
  • Click "next" at the "language selection" page for default English.
  • Click "next" at the "keyboard configuration" page for default U. S. English.
  • Select "custom" on the "installation type" page. Click "next".
  • Select "automatically partition" on the "disk partitioning setup" page. Click "next". If you elect to manually edit your partition with Disk Druid, double click on the partition, select the "swap" file type, and configure your swap space size to equal about twice your computer's physical memory size. Double click on the remainder of the partition to configure it as a Linux ext3 file system. At minimum you must designate this remaining space (probably /dev/hda2) as the root "/" partition mount point.
  • Select "keep all partitions and use existing free space" on the "automatic partitioning" page. Click "next".
  • Click "next" on the "disk setup" page.
  • If are dual booting Windows and Fedora Check the "other" check box on the "boot loader configuration" page. Click "edit". Type "Windows" in the "label" box and uncheck the "default boot target" check box. Click "ok".
  • Click the "default" check box next to "Fedora Core" to make it your default boot operating system. Click "next".
  • Leave "eth0" and hostname "automatically via DHCP" on the "network configuration" page. Click "next".
  • Leave "enable firewall" selected on the "firewall configuration" page and click the check boxes for "ssh", "http", "https", "ftp" and "smtp". Leave "Enable SELinux" "active". Click "next".
  • Click "next" at the "additional language support" page for default "English (USA)".
  • Click on the map for your location on the "time zone selection" page. Click "next".
  • Set your preferred root password on the "set root password" page. Click "next".
  • You will see a message "reading package information".
  • Scroll down the "package group selection" page and click in the "everything" box under "miscellaneous". Click "next". (There has been some criticism from some quarters regarding the fact that I recommend doing an "everything" installation. From my point of view there are several good reasons to do so: 1. There are many wonderful packages in a Fedora Core "everything" installation including a web server and all the packages needed to make it work with modern scripting language support. [I describe how to set up a web server with all the bells and whistles below.] Installing everything supplies the novice with a huge Linux playground containing thousands of great programs to explore. 2. If you install everything there will be no question that package dependencies and inter-dependencies are met. Everything will be there and everything will "just work" if you follow the yum and apt guidelines below. 3. Why not install everything? In this day and age bandwidth and disk space are cheap and plentiful.)
  • You will see a message "checking dependencies..."
  • Click "next" on "about to install" page.
  • Click "continue" to get to the "installing packages" page. You will eventually be prompted to insert the remainder of the installation CDs. (It took about an hour to install "everything" on my system.)
  • When the installation is complete remove the last CD and click "reboot" for the first boot screen.
  • Click "next" on the "welcome" page.
  • Click the appropriate radio button to agree to the license agreement and click "next".
  • If you are already connected to an "always on" LAN or broadband connection click on the "network time protocol" tab, click in the "enable network time protocol" check box, click the down arrow in the "server" box, select "clock.redhat.com" , click "add" and click "next".
  • On the "display" page select your preferred screen resolution and color depth based upon the capabilities of your monitor. Click "next".
  • On the "system user" page choose a user name (in lower case, not "root"), a full name (any case), and a password for that default user. Click "next".
  • Click "play test sound" on the "sound card" page to test your sound system. Your should hear three chords in sequence. If you don't you can try to configure your sound card later. Click "next".
  • Click "next" on the "additional CDs" page.
  • Click "next" on the "finish setup" page.
  • Log in as "root" with the root password you selected earlier.
  • Click "log in anyway" if a Gnome error message appears on first boot. We will correct this later.
  • When Fedora finishes booting to the graphical interface click on the top panel, hold your left mouse button down, drag the top panel to the bottom of the screen, and release the mouse button.
  • Click "Applications" > "System Tools". Right click on "Terminal" and select "Add this launcher to panel".
  • Right click on the terminal icon on the bottom panel and select "move". Move the icon to the left near the other icons and click to position it there.
  • Click on the terminal icon. This will open the terminal.
  • Type:
    gedit /boot/grub/grub.conf
  • Hit enter and gedit will open. Revise the "hiddenmenu" and "kernel" lines in grub.conf so that your file looks like this:
    # grub.conf generated by anaconda
    #
    # Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
    # NOTICE:  You have a /boot partition.  This means that
    #          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
    #          root (hd0,1)
    #          kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
    #          initrd /initrd-version.img
    #boot=/dev/hda
    default=0
    timeout=5
    splashimage=(hd0,1)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
    #hiddenmenu
    title Fedora Core (2.6.9-1.667)
    	root (hd0,1)
    	kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-1.667 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 vga=788 selinux=0
    	initrd /initrd-2.6.9-1.667.img
    title Windows
    	rootnoverify (hd0,0)
    	chainloader +1
    
    Disabling the "hiddenmenu" with the "#" comment and removing "rhgb quiet" from the kernel line will cause the menu to select Windows or Fedora to display immediately upon boot and will also disable the graphical boot screens so that you will see the boot sequence scroll by in text. You may also choose to disable SELinux by including "selinux=0" on the kernel line. Leave out the "selinux=0" if you wish to keep SELinux enabled. If you choose to use SELinux (Security Enhanced Linux) there are two good articles about it at http://fedora.redhat.com/docs/selinux-faq-fc3/ and http://fedora.redhat.com/docs/selinux-apache-fc3/. Click on the "save" icon in gedit and close it. Close the terminal.
  • Click on "Applications" > "System Settings" > "Server Settings" > "Services" and deselect system services that you will not immediately use. When you click on each of them you will see a description as to what they are for. If you're not sure, leave them in there. (I deselected "anacron", "apmd", "atd", "canna", "cpuspeed", "cups", "cups-config-daemon", "hpoj", "mDNSResponder", "mdmonitor", "nfs", "nfslock", "nifd", "pcmcia", "rpcgssd", "rpcidmapd", "rpcsvcgssd" and "sendmail".) Click the "save" icon. You should also select "Edit Runlevel" on the menu, select "Runlevel 3", deselect the same system services as you just did for run level 5, and save them as well by clicking the "save" icon. Then close the service configuration screen. (Run level 3 is for text mode only without X windows and we will use this run level later when configuring the nVidia driver.)
  • If a Gnome error message appeared on first boot and you had to click "log in anyway", open the terminal and type:
    gedit /etc/hosts
    Hit enter and gedit will open. Place your cursor after "localhost" and hit tab. Then type in the characters that appear on your root terminal screen after "root@" up to but not including the space and tilde (~). When you are finished, your hosts file should look something like this:
    # Do not remove the following line, or various programs
    # that require network functionality will fail.
    127.0.0.1		localhost.localdomain localhost	x1-6-00-04-5a-5e-ac-83
    
    Click on the "save" icon in gedit and close it. This will eliminate the Gnome error message that appears on boot-up on some systems.
  • In the root terminal type:
    gedit /etc/modprobe.conf
    Hit enter and gedit will open. Add these lines to the bottom of the file:
    alias net-pf-10 off
    alias ipv6 off
    
    Add a carriage return if required. (There should be a blank line at the bottom of these files.) Click on the "save" icon in gedit and close it. This will speed up browsing and file transfers in some cases by decreasing DNS lookup time.
  • Click on "Applications" > "System Settings" > "Login Screen". Click on the "login user automatically after a specified number of seconds" check box. Type your default user name that you selected during installation (lower case, not "root") in the "timed login username" box and select "5 seconds before login". Click "close".
  • Click "Actions" > "Log Out" > "Restart the computer" and click "ok".
  • After boot up you should be logged in as the default user. Click on the top panel, hold your left mouse button down, drag the top panel to the bottom of the screen, and release the mouse button.
  • Click the red flashing up2date icon in the lower right. Click "launch up2date". Type in your root password and click "ok". Click "ok" again. Click on "yes" to install the key. Click "forward". Click "forward" again. After the headers are downloaded click on the "select all packages" check box and click "forward". You will see a progress dialog "testing package set / solving RPM dependencies". When this is complete the updates will be downloaded. (This may take a very long time depending upon your connection speed the first time you run up2date and you may think that your installation has hung but it actually has not. If you don't have the patience for this read the "Yum" section below and do a "yum update" as root instead.) Click "forward" to install the updates and "forward" again to complete. You may want to reboot at this time.

Configuring your monitor:

  • If Fedora did not recognize your monitor during installation, log in as root. (If you are already logged in as your default user or a user other than root click "Actions" > "Log Out", click "OK", type "root" in the "Username:" box, hit enter, type your root password in the "Password:" box and hit enter.) Open a terminal. Alternately you may open a terminal, type, "su -", hit enter, type your root password when prompted, and hit enter again to log in as root.
  • Type:
    gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
    Hit enter and gedit will open. Scroll down to the "Monitor" section. Find the "HorizSync" line and enter your monitor's supported horizontal frequency range. The line should look something like "HorizSync 30.0 - 70.0". Enter your monitor's supported vertical frequency range opposite "VertRefresh". The line should look something like "VertRefresh 50.0 - 160.0". Scroll down to the "Screen" section and opposite each instance of "modes" enter you monitor's supported pixel resolution, starting with the highest. The line should look something like "Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"". You should be able to get these values from your monitor's manual or from a search for your monitor by manufacturer and model number on the Internet. Hit the "save" button in gedit and exit gedit. Reboot your machine.
  • Click "Applications" > "System Settings" > "Display". Type your root password in the dialog box presented and hit enter. Click the down arrow on the right of the "Resolution:" box and select your preferred pixel resolution. Click the down arrow on the right of the "Color Depth:" box and select your preferred color depth. Click "OK". Reboot your machine.
  • Click "Applications" > "Preferences" > "Screen Resolution". Click the down arrow on the right of the "Resolution:" box and select your preferred pixel resolution. Click the down arrow on the right of the "Refresh rate:" box and select the highest refresh rate available. A refresh rate of 85 Hz or more will decrease noticeable flicker significantly and may eliminate it completely. Click "Apply". Reboot your machine.

Firefox and Thunderbird:

  • Firefox is now the default web browser in Fedora Core Linux and Thunderbird is included as an email client. For Thunderbird go to "Applications" > "Internet" > "Thunderbird Email". You can choose Thunderbird as your default email client by going to "Applications" > "Preferences" > "More Preferences" > "Preferred Applications" and selecting "Thunderbird Mail" in the drop-down menu under the Mail Reader tab.

nVidia: (Use this section only if you have an nVidia GeForce graphics card.)

  • Log in as root. (If you are already logged in as your default user or a user other than root click "Actions" > "Log Out", click "OK", type "root" in the "Username:" box, hit enter, type your root password in the "Password:" box and hit enter.) Open a terminal.
  • Type:
    gedit /boot/grub/grub.conf
    Hit enter and gedit will open. If you have not already done so, remove "rhgb quiet" from the kernel line in grub.conf. Click the "save" button and then exit gedit. This will disable the "Red Hat Graphical Boot" at boot time which would otherwise interfere with the nVidia installation described below.
  • As root open the terminal and type:
    gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
    Hit enter and gedit will open. In the "module" section comment out (put a "#" in front of) load "dri" so that it reads # load "dri". In the "device" section change "nv" to "nvidia".
    Section "Module"
    	Load  "dbe"
    	Load  "extmod"
    	Load  "fbdevhw"
    	Load  "glx"
    	Load  "record"
    	Load  "freetype"
    	Load  "type1"
    #	Load  "dri"
    EndSection
    
    Section "Device"
    	Identifier  "Videocard0"
    	Driver      "nvidia"
    	VendorName  "Videocard vendor"
    	BoardName   "NVIDIA GeForce 4 MX (generic)"
    EndSection
    
    Click the "save" icon and exit gedit.
  • With the root terminal still open type:
    gedit /etc/rc.local
    Hit enter and gedit will open. At the end of the file add the line:
    /sbin/modprobe nvidia
    Add a carriage return as well if necessary to insure that there is a blank line at the bottom of the file. Click on the "save" icon and exit gedit. Close the terminal.
  • Click "Actions" > "Log Out" > "Restart the computer" and click "ok". When Fedora reboots it will try to load the nVidia driver (which has been downloaded but not yet installed). You will see the command line login prompt 3 or 4 times as it continues to try to load the driver and then you will see a text mode screen with the message "...cannot start the x server...". Answer "no" (right arrow and enter) to the question "would you like to view the x server output?". Answer "no" to the question "would you like me to run the x configuration program?". Answer "ok" to "...disable the x server for now...". You will then be presented with a text mode command line login prompt. Log in as root (type "root", hit enter, type your root password, hit enter), type "ls" and hit enter. You should see the nVidia driver file that you downloaded previously. If you have SELinux enabled type "/usr/sbin/setenforce 0" and hit enter. Type:
    sh *.run
    Hit enter. You will be presented with a text mode nVidia screen. Left arrow to "accept" and hit enter. Answer "yes" to "download...". Answer "ok" to "no matching kernel...". nVidia will build and install a kernel module for the nVidia driver. When the "...complete" screen appears hit enter on "ok". Type "/usr/sbin/setenforce 1" and hit enter if you had SELinux enabled when you began the nVidia installer to reenable SELinux. Type "reboot" and hit enter. You should see the nVidia splash screen when Fedora reboots indicating that the installation was successful.
  • Now if you wish to get rhgb (Red Hat Graphical Boot) working again open a terminal and type:
    su -
    Hit enter, type your root password and hit enter. Type:
    cp -a /dev/nvidia* /etc/udev/devices
    Type "y" and hit enter twice. Type:
    chown root.root /etc/udev/devices/nvidia*
    Hit enter. Type:
    gedit /etc/rc.local
    Hit enter and gedit will open. Remove the "/sbin/modprobe nvidia" line from rc.local, click on the "save" icon, and exit gedit. Type:
    gedit /boot/grub/grub.conf
    Hit enter and gedit will open. Add "rhgb quiet" back into the kernel line in grub.conf, click on the "save" icon, and exit gedit. Reboot. (If you upgrade your kernel be sure to remove "rhgb quiet" from grub.conf before you reboot into the new kernel. Then you can re-install the nVidia driver per these instructions again for the new kernel.)

True Type fonts and improved font rendering:

  • Open Firefox. Go to http://www.mjmwired.net/resources/mjm-fedora-fc3.shtml#ttf and download (save to disk) http://www.mjmwired.net/resources/files/msttcorefonts-1.3-3.noarch.rpm. This should save the file to your home directory. If you have already run up2date or yum update the file may have been saved to your desktop instead. If this is the case go to your desktop and drag the file into your "Home" folder. (Left mouse click on the file and drag it on top of your "Home" folder while holding the left mouse button down. Then release the mouse button.)
  • Click on the terminal icon. This will open the terminal. Type:
    su
    Hit enter, type your root password and hit enter. (This gives you root privileges in the terminal even though you are still in the default user's home directory.) Type:
    rpm -ivh *.rpm
    Hit enter. Wait for the installation to complete. Type:
    rm *.rpm
    Hit enter. Type "y" and hit enter. (This deletes the downloaded RPM file in your home directory, however the program is already installed into your system.) Close the terminal. Reboot your machine.
  • To improve font rendering dramatically in Fedora Core you should follow the steps recommended at http://fedorasolved.com/viewtopic.php?t=32. Use "rpm -Uvh *.rpm" as root to install the rpms available there over your existing freetype installation. Then create a ".fonts.conf" file in your home directory or for a global implementation (all users) create or edit (with gedit as we have been doing, as root) "/etc/fonts/local.conf". Either file should contain the following with the boolean value set to either true or false depending upon whether you prefer to have auto-hinting on or off. "On" (true) is the Fedora Core default. (For CRT screens I prefer the crisp and more edge-defined font look achieved with autohinting set to "true" which disbles the bytecode interpreter, restoring font rendering to its original state.):
    <?xml version="1.0"?>
    <!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
    <fontconfig>
        <match target="font">
            <edit mode="assign" name="autohint">
                <bool>true</bool>
            </edit>
        </match>
    </fontconfig>

Java:

  • Open Firefox. Go to http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/download.jsp, click on Download JRE 5.0 Update 4, click the radio button to accept the license agreement, under "Linux Platform - J2SE(TM) Runtime Environment 5.0 Update 4" click on "RPM in self-extracting file", to download jre-1_5_0_04-linux-i586-rpm.bin. This should save the file to your home directory. If you have already run up2date or yum update the file may have been saved to your desktop instead. If this is the case go to your desktop and drag the file into your "Home" folder. (Left mouse click on the file and drag it on top of your "Home" folder while holding the left mouse button down. Then release the mouse button.)
  • Open the terminal. Type:
    su
    Hit enter. Type your root password. Hit enter. Type:
    sh *.bin
    Hold the enter key down until the yes/no line appears to allow you to agree to the license agreement. Type "yes" and hit enter. Type:
    rpm -ivh *.rpm
    Hit enter. Wait for the installation to complete. (If you get a message that "package jre-1.5.0_04-fcs is already installed" just move on to the next step.) Type:
    rm *.rpm
    Hit enter. Type "y" and hit enter. Type:
    rm *.bin
    Hit enter. Type "y" and hit enter. Type:
    su -
    Hit enter. This gives you root privileges and also puts you in the /root directory. Type:
    ln -s /usr/java/jre1.5.0_04/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libjavaplugin_oji.so
    Hit enter. Close the terminal. Close and restart Firefox to enable the java plugin. You could go to http://www.dslreports.com/stest?loc=97 and click the start button to test your java plugin installation.
  • If you wish to run Java applications such as JAlbum or Azureus for bittorrent and you have installed the Sun J2SE JRE as described above, open a terminal and type:
    su -
    Hit enter. Type your root password. Hit enter. Type:
    gedit /etc/profile.d/java.sh
    Hit enter. In gedit type these lines:
    export J2RE_HOME=/usr/java/jre1.5.0_04
    export PATH=$J2RE_HOME/bin:$PATH
    Be sure to enter a carriage return after these lines. Click on the "save" icon in gedit and exit gedit. In the terminal (which should still be open) type:
    source /etc/profile.d/java.sh
    Hit enter. Type:
    which java
    Hit enter. You should see:
    /usr/java/jre1.5.0_04/bin/java
    Type:
    alternatives --install /usr/bin/java java /usr/java/jre1.5.0_04/bin/java 3
    Hit enter. Type:
    alternatives --config java
    Hit enter. You should see:
    There are 3 programs which provide 'java'.
    
      Selection    Command
    -----------------------------------------------
       1           /usr/share/java/libgcj-java-placeholder.sh
    *+ 2           /usr/lib/jvm/jre-1.4.2-gcj/bin/java
       3           /usr/java/jre1.5.0_04/bin/java
    
    Enter to keep the current selection[+], or type selection number:
    
    Type:
    3
    Hit enter. Type:
    /usr/sbin/alternatives --display java
    Hit enter. You should see:
    jjava - status is manual.
     link currently points to /usr/java/jre1.5.0_04/bin/java
    ...
    You should now be able to install and run Java applications.

Flash:

  • Open Firefox. Go to http://sluglug.ucsc.edu/macromedia/site_ucsc.html and download (save to disk) the flash-plugin for Fedora Core 3. This should save the file to your home directory. If you have already run up2date or yum update the file may have been saved to your desktop instead. If this is the case go to your desktop and drag the file into your "Home" folder. (Left mouse click on the file and drag it on top of your "Home" folder while holding the left mouse button down. Then release the mouse button.)
  • Open the terminal. Type:
    su
    Hit enter. Type your root password. Hit enter. Type:
    rpm -ivh *.rpm
    Hit enter. Click "accept" in the license agreement windows that appears. Wait for the installation to complete. Type:
    rm *.rpm
    Hit enter. Type "y" and hit enter. Close the terminal. Close and restart Firefox to enable the flash plugin, go to http://www.studiocleo.com/ to test your flash plugin installation.

RealPlayer:

  • Open Firefox. Go to http://www.real.com/linux/ and download (save to disk) the RealPlayer10GOLD.rpm package. This should save the file to your home directory. If you have already run up2date or yum update the file may have been saved to your desktop instead. If this is the case go to your desktop and drag the file into your "Home" folder. (Left mouse click on the file and drag it on top of your "Home" folder while holding the left mouse button down. Then release the mouse button.)
  • Open the terminal. Type:
    su
    Hit enter. Type your root password. Hit enter. Type:
    yum install libstdc++.so.5
    Hit enter. Type "y". Hit enter. Wait while the appropriate C++ compatibility library is installed. (If you get the message "Nothing to do" this means the library is already installed. In this case just move on to the next step.) Type:
    rpm -ivh *.rpm
    Hit enter. Wait for the installation to complete. Type:
    rm *.rpm
    Hit enter. Type "y" and hit enter. Close the terminal. Close and restart Firefox to enable the RealPlayer plugin, go to http://www.npr.org/, click on "NPR Program Stream", select "Listen to NPR audio with the Real player" to test your RealPlayer plugin installation.

Special warning regarding mixing incompatible repositories for up2date, yum, and apt:

  • As you continue please keep the following in mind: You should not use the livna.org/fedora extras repositories in conjunction with the dag/freshrpms/dries/newrpms/PlanetCCRMA (RPMforge) collection of rpms in your configuration files for automatic updates. Use one group or the other but not both. You should be made aware that there are two “schools” of rpm packagers for Fedora Core extra applications. One group consists of the livna.org/fedora extras repositories and the other group consists of the dag/freshrpms/dries/newrpms/PlanetCCRMA (RPMforge) repositories. One of the most common causes of errors and failures in a new Fedora Core installation is the mixing of these two incompatible repository collections for automatic updates. These two groups of rpm repositories are, for the most part, mutually incompatible and in some cases will cause serious errors in your installation if used together. It is unfortunate that these two groups have not found some common ground for consensus and have not gotten together and made their repositories compatible with one another. I myself subscribe to the RPMforge collection as you can see in my yum and apt repository selection instructions below. The dag/freshrpms/dries/newrpms/PlanetCCRMA (RPMforge) repositories have provided me with all of the programs I have needed as additions to the Fedora base. Note that if you use up2date with its default configuration, both of these groups will be compatible with your up2date updates. This is because the up2date default configuration file in /etc/sysconfig/rhn/sources specifies download.fedora.redhat.com which is the source of your core installation. Some additional information can be found here.

Yum:

  • Open the terminal. Type:
    su -
    Hit enter. Type your root password. Hit enter. Type:
    gedit /etc/yum.repos.d/dag.repo
    Hit enter and gedit will open. Type the following in gedit:
    [dag]
    name=Dag RPM Repository for Fedora Core
    baseurl=http://apt.sw.be/fedora/$releasever/en/$basearch/dag/
    enabled=1
    gpgcheck=1
    
    Be sure there is a carriage return (blank line) at the bottom of the file. Click the "save" icon in gedit and then close gedit. Type the following in the root terminal:
    gedit /etc/yum.repos.d/freshrpms.repo
    Hit enter and gedit will open. Type the following in gedit:
    [core]
    name=FreshRPMS-Core
    baseurl=http://ayo.freshrpms.net/fedora/linux/$releasever/$basearch/core
    enabled=1
    gpgcheck=1
    #[extras]
    #name=Fedora Linux $releasever - $basearch - extras
    #baseurl=http://ayo.freshrpms.net/fedora/linux/$releasever/$basearch/extras
    #enabled=0
    gpgcheck=1
    #[alternatives]
    #name=Fedora Linux $releasever - $basearch - alternatives
    #baseurl=http://ayo.freshrpms.net/fedora/linux/$releasever/$basearch/alternatives
    #enabled=0
    gpgcheck=1
    [updates]
    name=FreshRPMS-Updates
    baseurl=http://ayo.freshrpms.net/fedora/linux/$releasever/$basearch/updates
    enabled=1
    gpgcheck=1
    [freshrpms]
    name=FreshRPMS-Fresh
    baseurl=http://ayo.freshrpms.net/fedora/linux/$releasever/$basearch/freshrpms
    enabled=1
    gpgcheck=1
    
    Be sure there is a carriage return (blank line) at the bottom of the file. Click the "save" icon in gedit and then close gedit.
  • While still in the root terminal type:
    rpm --import http://dag.wieers.com/packages/RPM-GPG-KEY.dag.txt
    Hit enter. Type:
    rpm --import http://freshrpms.net/packages/RPM-GPG-KEY.txt
    Hit enter. Type:
    rpm --import /usr/share/doc/fedora-release-*/*GPG-KEY*
    Hit enter. You have just imported the GPG keys for your yum repositories. Type:
    yum update
    Hit enter. Your system will be updated. Answer "y" for "yes" in the appropriate places. Reboot.
  • Note: If you get errors when you do a yum update you could re-edit your /etc/yum.repos.d/dag.repo and /etc/yum.repos.d/freshrpms.repo with gedit and specify another mirror site for each. Here are two alternative mirrors:
    [dag]
    name=Dag RPM Repository for Fedora Core
    baseurl=http://rh-mirror.linux.iastate.edu/pub/dag/fedora/$releasever/en/$basearch/dag/
    enabled=1
    gpgcheck=1
    
    
    [core]
    name=FreshRPMS-Core
    baseurl=http://ayo.us5.freshrpms.net/fedora/linux/$releasever/$basearch/core
    enabled=1
    gpgcheck=1
    #[extras]
    #name=Fedora Linux $releasever - $basearch - extras
    #baseurl=http://ayo.us5.freshrpms.net/fedora/linux/$releasever/$basearch/extras
    #enabled=0
    gpgcheck=1
    #[alternatives]
    #name=Fedora Linux $releasever - $basearch - alternatives
    #baseurl=http://ayo.us5.freshrpms.net/fedora/linux/$releasever/$basearch/alternatives
    #enabled=0
    gpgcheck=1
    [updates]
    name=FreshRPMS-Updates
    baseurl=http://ayo.us5.freshrpms.net/fedora/linux/$releasever/$basearch/updates
    enabled=1
    gpgcheck=1
    [freshrpms]
    name=FreshRPMS-Fresh
    baseurl=http://ayo.us5.freshrpms.net/fedora/linux/$releasever/$basearch/freshrpms
    enabled=1
    gpgcheck=1
    

Apt and Synaptic:

  • Enable the repositories as described above for Yum, then simply open a terminal and type:
    su -
    Hit enter. Type your root password. Hit enter. Type:
    yum install apt
    Hit enter. Wait for the installation to complete. Type:
    yum install synaptic
    Hit enter. Wait for the installation to complete. Type:
    gedit /etc/apt/sources.list.d/dag.list
    Hit enter and gedit will open. If there is nothing in this file (blank page), type the following in gedit:
    # Name: Dag RPM Repository
    # URL: http://dag.wieers.com/apt/
    
    ### Dag RPM Repository for Fedora Core
    rpm http://apt.sw.be fedora/3/en/i386 dag
    
    Be sure there is a carriage return (blank line) at the bottom of the file. Click the "save" icon in gedit and then close gedit. While still in the root terminal, type:
    gedit /etc/apt/sources.list.d/freshrpms.list
    Hit enter and gedit will open. If there is nothing in this file (blank page), type the following in gedit:
    # Name: FreshRPMS
    # URL: http://ayo.freshrpms.net/
    
    ### Fedora Core
    rpm http://ayo.freshrpms.net fedora/linux/3/i386 freshrpms
    
    Be sure there is a carriage return (blank line) at the bottom of the file. Click the "save" icon in gedit and then close gedit. While still in the root terminal, type:
    gedit /etc/apt/sources.list.d/newrpms.list
    Hit enter and gedit will open. If there is nothing in this file (blank page), type the following in gedit:
    # Name: NewRPMS
    # URL: http://newrpms.sunsite.dk/
    
    ### Fedora Core
    rpm http://newrpms.sunsite.dk/apt/ redhat/en/i386/fc3 newrpms
    
    Be sure there is a carriage return (blank line) at the bottom of the file. Click the "save" icon in gedit and then close gedit. While still in the root terminal, type:
    gedit /etc/apt/sources.list.d/dries.list
    Hit enter and gedit will open. If there is nothing in this file (blank page), type the following in gedit:
    # Name: Dries RPM Repository
    # URL: http://dries.studentenweb.org/apt/
    
    ### Fedora Core
    rpm http://apt.sw.be dries/fedora/fc3/i386 dries
    
    Be sure there is a carriage return (blank line) at the bottom of the file. Click the "save" icon in gedit and then close gedit. While still in the root terminal, type:
    rpm --import http://dries.studentenweb.org/ayo/RPM-GPG-KEY.dries.txt
    Hit enter. Type:
    rpm --import http://dag.wieers.com/packages/RPM-GPG-KEY.dag.txt
    Hit enter. Type:
    rpm --import http://freshrpms.net/packages/RPM-GPG-KEY.txt
    Hit enter. Type:
    rpm --import http://newrpms.sunsite.dk/gpg-pubkey-newrpms.txt
    Hit enter. You have just imported the GPG keys for your apt repositories. Type:
    apt-get update
    Your apt repository package list will be updated. Close the terminal. Reboot.
  • After you have rebooted go to "Applications" > "System Settings" > "Synaptic package manager". You will be asked to enter your root password. In Synaptic click on the "reload" icon to update your package list. You may now add programs to your Fedora Core installation by scrolling down the package list and checking appropriate check boxes for packages that you wish to add. When you are finished selecting them, click "apply".

Acrobat Reader:

  • You must have Apt and Synaptic configured as described above to implement this step. Go to "Applications" > "System Settings" > "Synaptic package manager". You will be asked to enter your root password. In Synaptic click on the "reload" icon to update your package list. Scroll down the "all" list until you come to "acroread" and click its check box, then click "apply". Acrobat reader will be installed.

MPlayer, Xmms, Rhythmbox, Xine, and Kaffeine - all you need for multimedia:

  • You must have Apt and Synaptic configured as described above to implement this step. Go to "Applications" > "System Settings" > "Synaptic package manager". You will be asked to enter your root password. In Synaptic click on the "reload" icon to update your package list. Scroll down the "all" list and click in the check boxes for "gstreamer", "gstreamer-devel", "gstreamer-plugins", "gstreamer-plugins-devel", "gstreamer-plugins-extra-audio", "gstreamer-tools", "kaffeine", "mplayer", "mplayer-fonts", "mplayer-skins", "xine", "xine-lib", "xine-lib-devel", "xine-skins", and "xmms-mp3". You may also want to remove "totem" (right-click it and select "Mark for Removal") and then select to install "totem-xine". I find that totem (a movie player) works better with the xine back end. When you have selected all of these programs click "apply".
  • Open "Applications" > "Sound & Video" > "Audio Player". (This is xmms.) Click on the upper left corner down arrow. Go to "Options" > "Preferences". Select "MPEG Layer 1/2/3 Player..." and make sure that "Enable plugin" check box is checked. You may now play mp3s and streaming mp3 files with xmms (Audio Player) or if you like Rhythmbox (Music Player) you may use it to play your mp3 library. You could go to http://wholewheatradio.org/ to test your xmms mp3 installation. (The executable is /usr/bin/xmms.)
  • Open Firefox, go to http://www.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/releases/codecs/ and download (save to disk) all-20050412.tar.bz2. This should save the file to your home directory. If you have already run up2date or yum update the file may have been saved to your desktop instead. If this is the case go to your desktop and drag the file into your "Home" folder. (Left mouse click on the file and drag it on top of your "Home" folder while holding the left mouse button down. Then release the mouse button.)
  • Open the terminal. Type:
    su
    Hit enter. Type your root password. Hit enter. Type:
    mkdir temp
    Hit enter. Type:
    mv *.bz2 temp
    Hit enter. Type:
    cd temp
    Hit enter. Type:
    tar xvfj *.tar.bz2
    Hit enter. Type:
    cd all-20050412
    Hit enter. Type:
    mkdir /usr/local/lib/codecs/
    Hit enter. Type:
    cp *.* /usr/local/lib/codecs/
    Hit enter. Type:
    cd /usr/local/lib/codecs/
    Hit enter. Type:
    chmod 755 /usr/local/lib/codecs/*
    Hit enter. Type:
    ln -s /usr/local/lib/codecs /usr/lib/win32
    Hit enter. Type:
    cp /usr/local/lib/codecs/* /usr/lib/win32
    The codecs for MPlayer, Xine and Kaffeine are now installed.
  • Open Firefox, go to http://apt.kde-redhat.org/apt/kde-redhat/fedora/3/RPMS.stable/ and download (save to disk) kaffeine-mozilla-0.2-0.2.3.kde.i386.rpm. This should save the file to your home directory. If you have already run up2date or yum update the file may have been saved to your desktop instead. If this is the case go to your desktop and drag the file into your "Home" folder. (Left mouse click on the file and drag it on top of your "Home" folder while holding the left mouse button down. Then release the mouse button.)
  • Open the terminal. Type:
    su
    Hit enter. Type your root password. Hit enter. Type:
    rpm -Uvh *.rpm
    Hit enter.
    rm *.rpm
    Hit enter. Type "y" and hit enter. Close the terminal. Close and restart Firefox to enable the Kaffeine plugin. Reboot.

NTFS support (for mounting your Windows partition):

  • Open the terminal. Type:
    su
    Hit enter. Type your root password. Hit enter. Type:
    uname -r -p
    This will output your kernel version and processor type.
  • Open Firefox. Go to http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/rpm/fedora3.html and download (save to disk) the appropriate NTFS RPM for your kernel version and processor type. This should save the file to your home directory. If you have already run up2date or yum update the file may have been saved to your desktop instead. If this is the case go to your desktop and drag the file into your "Home" folder. (Left mouse click on the file and drag it on top of your "Home" folder while holding the left mouse button down. Then release the mouse button.)
  • With the root terminal still open type:
    rpm -ivh *.rpm
    Hit enter. Wait for the installation to complete. Type:
    rm *.rpm
    Hit enter. Type "y" and hit enter. Type:
    su -
    Hit enter. Type:
    mkdir /mnt/windows
    Hit enter. Type:
    /sbin/fdisk -l
    Hit enter. This will output your HPFS/NTFS partition identifier. Type:
    gedit /etc/fstab
    Hit enter and gedit will open. Type the following in gedit:
    /dev/hda1	/mnt/windows	ntfs	ro,defaults,umask=0222	0 0
    If your partition identifier is not "/dev/hda1" substitute the correct characters. (For example it might be "/dev/sda1" if you have a SATA drive.) Click the "save" icon in gedit and exit gedit. Close the terminal. Reboot. Your Windows partition should now be available in the file browser under "/mnt/windows".

Bittorrent and bittorrent-gui:

  • You must have yum configured as described above to implement this step. Open the terminal. Type:
    su -
    Hit enter. Type your root password. Hit enter. Type:
    yum install bittorrent
    Hit enter. Type "y" and hit enter when you see "Is this ok [y/N]:". Wait for the installation to complete. Type:
    yum install bittorrent-gui
    Hit enter. Type "y" and hit enter when you see "Is this ok [y/N]:". Wait for the installation to complete. Type:
    /sbin/iptables -I INPUT -p tcp --destination-port 6881:6999 -j ACCEPT
    Hit enter. This adds a rule to open TCP ports 6881 through 6999 in your firewall. These ports are required by Bittorent. Type:
    /sbin/iptables-save > /etc/sysconfig/iptables
    Hit enter. This saves the rule. Type:
    iptables -L
    Hit enter. This will output your iptables file so you can see if the rule was saved. Type:
    gedit /etc/mailcap
    Hit enter and gedit will open. Add these lines (and a carriage return) to /etc/mailcap:
    # bittorrent
    application/x-bittorrent; /usr/bin/btdownloadgui.py %s; test=test -n "$DISPLAY"
    
    Reboot your machine to implement the new firewall rule. Now you can download ".torrent" files with Firefox.

Azureus for bittorrent:

  • In order to install Azureus you must have previously installed Java and configured it to run Java applications. (See above.) Open Firefox. Go to http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=84122 and download (save to disk) Azureus_2.3.0.4_linux.GTK.tar.bz2. This should save the file to your home directory. If you have already run up2date or yum update the file may have been saved to your desktop instead. If this is the case go to your desktop and drag the file into your "Home" folder. (Left mouse click on the file and drag it on top of your "Home" folder while holding the left mouse button down. Then release the mouse button.)
  • Open the terminal. Type:
    su -
    Hit enter. Type your root password. Hit enter. Type:
    /sbin/iptables -I INPUT -p tcp --destination-port 6881:6999 -j ACCEPT
    Hit enter. This adds a rule to open TCP ports 6881 through 6999 in your firewall. These ports are required by bittorent and/or Azureus. Type:
    /sbin/iptables-save > /etc/sysconfig/iptables
    Hit enter. This saves the rule. Type:
    /sbin/iptables -I INPUT -p udp --destination-port 6881:6881 -j ACCEPT
    Hit enter. This adds a rule to open UDP port 6881 in your firewall. This port is required by Azureus. Type:
    /sbin/iptables-save > /etc/sysconfig/iptables
    Hit enter. This saves the rule. Type:
    iptables -L
    Hit enter. This will output your iptables file so you can see if the rules were saved. Type:
    cd /home/your_user_name
    Hit enter. Type:
    tar xvfj *.tar.bz2
    Hit enter. Type:
    rm *.bz2
    Hit enter. Type "y" and hit enter. Close the terminal. Reboot your machine to implement the new firewall rules. Open the terminal so that you are logged in as user rather than root. Type:
    cd azureus
    Hit enter. Type:
    ./azureus
    Hit enter. Azureus will open. Configure your preferences in the dialog box presented and update the plugin if asked. (If you get an error when auto-updating you may have to log in as root (su -), change to your home directory, and run azureus as root temporarily to successfully update.) When you click on a ".torrent" file in Firefox you will be presented with a dialog box. Click the radio button "open with" and click the checkbox "Do this automatically for files like this form now on", then click the "browse" button in the dialog box and browse to "home" > "azureus" and click on "azureus". Click "open". Click "OK". This will allow you to download ".torrent" files from within Firefox. Note: If you choose to download your files into a hidden directory such as the /home/your_user_name/.Azureus/shares folder you will have to click on "View" > "Show hidden files" in "Applications" > "File Browser" to get to them in the file browser.

Web Server:

  • Note: If you choose to enable SELinux in your Fedora Core 3 installation you must pay special attention to some SELinux considerations with regard to your web server setup. See http://fedora.redhat.com/docs/selinux-apache-fc3/. You may choose to disable SELinux for your web server installation only. To do this go to "Applications" > "System Settings" > "Security Level" > and under (expanded) "HTTPD Service" on the "SELinux" tab click in the checkbox for "Disable SELinux protection for httpd daemon". (Be sure to click the "OK" box when you're done.)
  • Apache 2.0.52 is available in Fedora Core 3 because we have done the "everything" installation previously. Subscribe to a service such as https://www.dyndns.org/ or http://www.easydns.com/ to register a new domain name (such as your-name.org) and to have their DNS service map your computer's IP address to your new registered domain name. (The command "ifconfig" at the root prompt will output your IP address.) If you have a "dynamic" (changeable) IP address you can use their dynamic DNS service.
  • Open the terminal. Type:
    su -
    Hit enter. Type your root password. Hit enter. Type:
    gedit /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
    Hit enter. In gedit scroll down to the "ServerAdmin" section and enter your email address instead of "root@localhost". Scroll down to the "#ServerName" section and uncomment it (take out the "#"). Then enter the registered DNS name of your web site ("whatever.com") or your server's IP address instead of "new.host.name". (If you don't know your IP address type "ifconfig" at the root prompt.) Scroll down and change "UseCanonicalName Off" to "UseCanonicalName On". Scroll down to the "Options" line and change "Options Indexes FollowSymLinks" to "Options Indexes Includes FollowSymLinks SymLinksifOwnerMatch ExecCGI MultiViews". Change "AllowOverride None" to "AllowOverride Options FileInfo AuthConfig Limit" in case you want to use .htaccess files in any of your web subdirectories. Change "DirectoryIndex index.html index.html.var" to "DirectoryIndex index.html index.html.var index.shtml index.cgi index.php index.phtml index.php3 index.htm home.html welcome.html". Under the "AddType application/x-compress .Z" and "AddType application/x-gzip .gz .tgz" lines add the line: "AddType application/x-httpd-php .php .phps .php3 .phtml .html .htm .shtml .fds". Uncomment the line "#AddHandler cgi-script .cgi" and add ".pl" so that it reads "AddHandler cgi-script .cgi .pl". Click on the "save" icon in gedit and exit gedit.
  • If you have a favicon.ico copy it to /var/www/html while still logged in as root (cp favicon.ico /var/www/html).
  • Go to "Applications" > "System Settings" > "Server Settings" > "Services". Type in your root password in the dialog box that appears and click on "OK". Scroll down the list and check the check box for "httpd". Click on the "save" icon in the Service Configuration window and then close the window. Go to "Applications" > "System Settings" > "Security Level" and make sure the check box is checked for "WWW (HTTP)" in the "Trusted services" pane. Reboot your machine.
  • Open Firefox and type "http://localhost/" in the URL window and hit enter. You should see the default Apache/Fedora Core test page. Type your server's IP address in the URL window and hit enter. You should see the test page again. Type the registered DNS name of your web site ("whatever.com") in the URL window and hit enter. You should see the test page yet again.
  • While still logged in as root copy your web site index.html and any other HTTP content you may have to /var/www/html. You are now serving web pages from your Fedora Core web server. You will find your server log files in /etc/httpd/logs and you will be able to view them while logged in as root.

PHP and Perl:

  • PHP and Perl are available in Fedora Core 3 because we have done the "everything" installation previously. If you have enabled the Apache web server (see above) you can test your PHP and Perl installations by doing the following: Open the terminal. Type:
    su -
    Hit enter. Type your root password. Hit enter. Type:
    gedit /var/www/html/phpinfo.php
    Hit enter and gedit will open. In gedit type:
    <?php phpinfo();?>
    Click the "save" icon in gedit and close gedit. While still in the root terminal type:
    gedit /var/www/html/printenv.pl
    Hit enter and gedit will open. In gedit type:
    #!/usr/bin/perl
    ##
    ##  printenv -- demo CGI program which just prints its environment
    ##
    
    print "Content-type: text/plain\n\n";
    foreach $var (sort(keys(%ENV))) {
        $val = $ENV{$var};
        $val =~ s|\n|\\n|g;
        $val =~ s|"|\\"|g;
        print "${var}=\"${val}\"\n";
    }
    
    Click the "save" icon in gedit and close gedit. Type:
    chmod 755 /var/www/html/printenv.pl
    Hit enter. Then type:
    chmod 755 /var/www/html/phpinfo.php
    Hit enter. Now when you open these files from your web server (http://whatever.com/phpinfo.php and http://whatever.com/printenv.pl) you will be able to prove the functionality of your PHP and Perl installations. (In order to allow cgi scripts to execute outside of the cgi-bin directory configure your httpd.conf as described in the web server section above.)
  • Special note on configuring sendmail for PHP using your email provider's SMTP (simple mail transport protocol): Your /etc/php.ini file uses sendmail as the default transport agent for sending email from PHP applications ("sendmail_path = /usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i"). The following quote is from Fedora Core 3 Release Notes: "By default, the Sendmail mail transport agent (MTA) does not accept network connections from any host other than the local computer. If you want to configure Sendmail as a server for other clients, you must edit /etc/mail/sendmail.mc and change the DAEMON_OPTIONS line to also listen on network devices (or comment out this option entirely using the dnl comment delimiter). You must then regenerate /etc/mail/sendmail.cf by running the following command (as root): 'make -C /etc/mail'. Note that you must have the sendmail-cf package installed for this to work." In order to accomplish this, edit "/etc/hosts" and add the line "your.ip.address whatever.org whatever" where "your.ip.address" is the IP address of your web server, "whatever.org" is the registered DNS name of your web site (your canonical domain name), and "whatever" is your short domain name (the characters before the dot). Separate the IP address from the domain name with a couple of tabs. Edit "/etc/sysconfig/network" and change "localhost.localdomain" to "whatever.org" where "whatever.org" is the registered DNS name of your web site (your canonical domain name). Reboot. Edit "/etc/mail/local-host-names" and include your domain name. Edit "/etc/mail/sendmail.mc" and change "dnl define(`SMART_HOST',`smtp.your.provider')dnl" to "define(`SMART_HOST',`smtp.your.provider')dnl" where "smtp.your.provider" is the smtp host that you use to send mail from your email client. Also change "DAEMON_OPTIONS(`Port=smtp,Addr=127.0.0.1, Name=MTA')dnl" to "dnl DAEMON_OPTIONS(`Port=smtp,Addr=127.0.0.1, Name=MTA')dnl". Also change "dnl MASQUERADE_AS(`mydomain.com')dnl" to "MASQUERADE_AS(`your.provider.com')dnl" where "your.provider.com" is the host that you use to send mail from your email client (the characters after the "@"). Add these lines (near the bottom of /etc/mail/sendmail.mc but above "MAILER"): "FEATURE(`genericstable',`hash -o /etc/mail/genericstable.db')dnl" and "GENERICS_DOMAIN_FILE(`/etc/mail/generics-domains')dnl". Edit or create if required: "/etc/mail/generics-domains". Include in "/etc/mail/generics-domains" your canonical domain name. (Be sure to add a carriage return.) Edit or create if required: "/etc/mail/genericstable". Include in "/etc/mail/genericstable" the line:"username mailusername@your.provider.com" where "username" is your non-root Fedora user name and "mailusername@your.provider.com" is your email address that you use with your email client. (Be sure to add a carriage return.) As root execute the command: "make -C /etc/mail". This will regenerate "/etc/mail/sendmail.cf". Reboot or start (or restart) sendmail from "Applications" > "System Settings" > "Server Settings" > "Services". (See http://www.linuxhomenetworking.com/linux-hn/sendmail.htm.)

MySQL:

  • MySQL version 3.23.58 is available in Fedora Core 3 because we have done the "everything" installation previously. Go to "Applications" > "System Settings" > "Server Settings" > "Services". Type in your root password in the dialog box that appears and click on "OK". Scroll down the list and check the check box for "mysqld". Click on the "save" icon in the Service Configuration window and then close the window. Reboot your machine.
  • Open the terminal. Type:
    su -
    Hit enter. Type your root password. Hit enter. Type:
    gedit /etc/my.cnf
    Hit enter. In the mysqld section of my.cnf add the line:
    skip-innodb
    Your my.cnf should now look something like this:
    [mysqld]
    datadir=/var/lib/mysql
    socket=/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock
    skip-innodb
    
    [mysql.server]
    user=mysql
    basedir=/var/lib
    
    [safe_mysqld]
    err-log=/var/log/mysqld.log
    pid-file=/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid
    
    Click the "save" icon in gedit and close gedit. While still in the root terminal type:
    mysql -u root
    Hit enter. You will see the mysql> query prompt. Type:
    select user, host, password, select_priv, update_priv, delete_priv, insert_priv from mysql.user;
    Hit enter. You will see something like this:
    +------+------------------------+----------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+
    | user | host                   | password | select_priv | update_priv | delete_priv | insert_priv |
    +------+------------------------+----------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+
    | root | localhost              |          | Y           | Y           | Y           | Y           |
    | root | x1-6-00-04-5a-5e-ac-83 |          | Y           | Y           | Y           | Y           |
    |      | localhost              |          | N           | N           | N           | N           |
    |      | x1-6-00-04-5a-5e-ac-83 |          | N           | N           | N           | N           |
    +------+------------------------+----------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+
    4 rows in set (0.17 sec)
    
    mysql>
    
    Type:
    set password for 'root'@'localhost' = password ('newpassword');
    where "newpassword" is the password that you want to use for the root MySQL super user. Hit enter. Type:
    set password for 'root'@'host' = password ('newpassword');
    where "host" is the name of your host as reported in the "host" column above and "newpassword" is the password that you want to use for the root MySQL super user. Hit enter. Type:
    select user, host, password, select_priv, update_priv, delete_priv, insert_priv from mysql.user;
    Hit enter. You will see something like this with your password hash-encrypted in the "password" column:
    +------+------------------------+------------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+
    | user | host                   | password         | select_priv | update_priv | delete_priv | insert_priv |
    +------+------------------------+------------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+
    | root | localhost              | 1e36745e3c0f99b0 | Y           | Y           | Y           | Y           |
    | root | x1-6-00-04-5a-5e-ac-83 | 1e36745e3c0f99b0 | Y           | Y           | Y           | Y           |
    |      | localhost              |                  | N           | N           | N           | N           |
    |      | x1-6-00-04-5a-5e-ac-83 |                  | N           | N           | N           | N           |
    +------+------------------------+------------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+
    4 rows in set (0.00 sec)
    
    mysql>
    
    Type:
    exit
    Close the terminal. Reboot your machine. Open a terminal. Type:
    su -
    Hit enter. Type your root password. Hit enter. Type:
    mysql -u root -p
    Hit enter. MySQL should ask for your MySQL super user password. Type it in. Hit enter. Type:
    exit
    You have successfully set up MySQL.

phpMyAdmin:

  • Configure and enable your web server, PHP, and MySQL as described above. Open Firefox. Go to http://www.phpmyadmin.net/ and download (save to disk) the latest stable version in bzip2 format (phpMyAdmin-2.6.3-pl1.tar.bz2). This should save the file to your home directory. If you have already run up2date or yum update the file may have been saved to your desktop instead. If this is the case go to your desktop and drag the file into your "Home" folder. (Left mouse click on the file and drag it on top of your "Home" folder while holding the left mouse button down. Then release the mouse button.)
  • Open a terminal. Type:
    su
    Hit enter. Type your root password. Hit enter. Type:
    mv *.tar.bz2 /var/www/html
    Hit enter. Type:
    cd /var/www/html
    Hit enter. Type:
    bzip2 -dc *.tar.bz2 | tar -xvf -
    Hit enter. Type:
    mv phpMyAdmin-2.6.3-pl1 phpmyadmin
    Hit enter. Type:
    su -
    Hit enter. Type:
    gedit /var/www/html/phpmyadmin/config.inc.php
    Hit enter and gedit will open. In /var/www/html/phpmyadmin/config.inc.php change "$cfg['PmaAbsoluteUri'] = '';" to "$cfg['PmaAbsoluteUri'] = ' http://whatever.com/phpmyadmin/';", change "$cfg['blowfish_secret'] = ''; to "$cfg['blowfish_secret'] = 'passphrase';" where "passphrase" is some arbitrary string of characters that the blowfish algorithm will use to encrypt your password when using cookie type authentication. Under "Server(s) configuration" change "$cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type'] = 'config';" to "$cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type'] = 'cookie';". Click on the "save" icon in gedit and close gedit. Open http://whatever.com/phpmyadmin/ in Firefox (where "whatever.com" is your web site). Type "root" in the "Username:" box and your MySQL super user password in the "Password:" box. Click the "Login" button. You should see the " Welcome to phpMyAdmin" web page. Open a terminal. Type:
    su -
    Hit enter. Type your root password. Hit enter. Type:
    mysql -u root -p
    Type in your MySQL super user password. Hit enter. For MySQL version 3.23.58 type:
    GRANT USAGE ON mysql.* TO 'pma'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'pmapassword';
    GRANT SELECT (
        Host, User, Select_priv, Insert_priv, Update_priv, Delete_priv,
        Create_priv, Drop_priv, Reload_priv, Shutdown_priv, Process_priv,
        File_priv, Grant_priv, References_priv, Index_priv, Alter_priv
        ) ON mysql.user TO 'pma'@'localhost';
    GRANT SELECT ON mysql.db TO 'pma'@'localhost';
    GRANT SELECT ON mysql.host TO 'pma'@'localhost';
    GRANT SELECT (Host, Db, User, Table_name, Table_priv, Column_priv)
        ON mysql.tables_priv TO 'pma'@'localhost';
    GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON phpmyadmin.* TO 'pma'@'localhost';
    
    where "pmapassword" is the password for the pma user that you select for the special "controluser" that has only the SELECT privilege on the mysql.user (all columns except "Password"), mysql.db (all columns), mysql.host (all columns) and mysql.tables_priv (all columns except "Grantor" & "Timestamp") tables. Hit enter. Hit enter. Open Firefox, go to http://whatever.org/phpmyadmin/scripts/create_tables.sql. (Substitute "whatever.org" for your web site registered DNS name or IP address.) Click "edit" > "select all", click "edit" > "copy", go back to the terminal and click "edit" > "paste". Hit enter. The entire query should be executed at the "mysql>" prompt. When the query finishes type "exit" at the mysql> prompt. Type:
    gedit /var/www/html/phpmyadmin/config.inc.php
    Hit enter and gedit will open. In /var/www/html/phpmyadmin/config.inc.php change "$cfg['Servers'][$i]['controluser'] = '';" to "$cfg['Servers'][$i]['controluser'] = 'pma';", change "$cfg['Servers'][$i]['controlpass'] = '';" to "$cfg['Servers'][$i]['controlpass'] = 'pmapassword';" where "pmapassword" is the password for the pma user that you selected earlier, change "$cfg['Servers'][$i]['pmadb'] = '';" to "$cfg['Servers'][$i]['pmadb'] = 'phpmyadmin';", change "$cfg['Servers'][$i]['bookmarktable'] = '';" to "$cfg['Servers'][$i]['bookmarktable'] = 'pma_bookmark';", change "$cfg['Servers'][$i]['relation'] = '';" to "$cfg['Servers'][$i]['relation'] = 'pma_relation';", change "$cfg['Servers'][$i]['table_info'] = '';" to "$cfg['Servers'][$i]['table_info'] = 'pma_table_info';", change "$cfg['Servers'][$i]['table_coords'] = '';" to "$cfg['Servers'][$i]['table_coords'] = 'pma_table_coords';", change "$cfg['Servers'][$i]['pdf_pages'] = '';" to "$cfg['Servers'][$i]['pdf_pages'] = 'pma_pdf_pages';", change "$cfg['Servers'][$i]['column_info'] = '';" to "$cfg['Servers'][$i]['column_info'] = 'pma_column_info';", change "$cfg['Servers'][$i]['history'] = '';" to "$cfg['Servers'][$i]['history'] = 'pma_history';". Click on the "save" icon in gedit and close gedit. Close the terminal. Open Firefox and go to http://whatever.com/phpmyadmin/ where "whatever.com" is your web site registered DNS name or IP address. Log into phpMyAdmin as root. Click on the down arrow in the "Database:" selection dialog box in the left column. You should see the "mysql", "phpmyadmin", and "test" databases listed. You may delete ("drop") the "test" database if you wish. You have now successfully configured phpMyAdmin.

Resources: