FC3 post-install questions

[null]

I finally got around to installing a newer distro than FC2 (which I liked alot). I used an FC3 DVD that was a coverdisc on a lilnux mag. I spent a couple of nights backing up stuff in my home dir (was under / and not separate) and then did a fresh install of FC3 over FC2. Hopefully I correctly made a separate home dir during manual partitioning. In the past, I've always selected "automatic partitioning" during install, and so end up with home under /.

 

Anyway, first I deleted the original yum.conf and went to fedorafaq and copied and pasted their yum.conf into a new file. Then I imported all the gpg keys, then I did the flash-plugin install, and nvidia install (both with yum) as recommended by fedorafaq. I actually copied and pasted their statements into my # console. Yum reported that both things installed successfully.

 

However, when I go to sites that use flash (I'm using firefox) the sites don't display the flash and they say I need to install flash. also my screen resolution looks like crap. It is set on 800x600 and won't let me select anything other than that or 640x480. I have a 19" LCD monitor and 800x600 looks like you know what.

 

So, what else do I have to do to get flash working, and why didn't my yum install of the nvidia driver do anything, even though yum reported everything successful?

[null]

well, I got the above 2 problems fixed. Last night I did a "yum update" and let it run overnight. This morning, without doing anything else, my screen resolution allowed me to pick higher numbers than 800x600 and flash now works in firefox.

 

Guess I should have done a yum update first off after installing FC3, so to get an entirely updated distro.

[null]

hmmm... does FC3 even install grip ? I looked for it but can't find it. Also, Sound Juicer still says that a Quality Setting is "coming soon!" Last year it was "coming soon" too... What's the default quality setting on Sound Juicer? The so-called help screens don't mention anything about what quality setting it uses.

 

The sound juicer in my fc3 install is something like 0.5.14, but when I go to the sound juicer website, it shows the latest version being 2.10. what gives?

Edited April 4, 2005 by null

[jlc]

Currently in rawhide sound-juicer is 2.10, BUT it seg faults on the preferences so I couldn't tell you if it isn't "Coming Soon"

[null]

well, yesterday I yum installed grip. I'm surprised that it wasn't in my original install. Probably cuz I selected Workstation install instead of the Home Desktop install. I did look over each category of default software though, and marked some things that were not selected. Guess I didn't notice grip was not checked.

 

Anyway, so far I like FC3. I'm getting all set up how I used to be on FC2 - all my bookmarks, etc. Unfortunately I don't have my email history anymore. I forgot to back up my FC2 tbird email before I installed FC3 on top of it.

 

I'm dreading getting java sdk set up on FC3. I had a hell of a time getting it on FC2 last year - had to get a lot of help from this place.

 

What CD ripping options do I have besides grip? I guess grip is OK, but what else is available - does k3b do ripping?

[jlc]

http://www.fedorafaq.org/custom_java.html

 

I like grip my self.

[null]

yeah, that's the same place I used last year for instructions. Still didn't go all smooth & easy. I don't remember what the problems were. After a few posts here, it was working. I'll start a new thread later if I have the same trouble with FC3 and java. I need the SDK, not the JRE.

 

Well, after using Grip to rip some of my CDs last night, its not as bad as I remembered. Actually, I like it now. Maybe I'm finally coming around to the linux/open source way of doing things. Now if can ever burn a DVD backup of a DVD movie with linux, I won't need my winblows computer anymore.

[jlc]

Graveman or k3b should handle your dvd needs.

[null]

Now I'm trying to view some of my various investment statements (most websites display .pdf) with my FC3 machine. Kept getting message about "you need acrobat version 4.0 or greater..." So I headed over to FedoraFAQ and read about how I should run #yum --enablerepo=dag install mozilla-acroread (as long as I am using their yum.conf (I am). I did that, and it all said Sucessful...

 

However, the financial sites STILL say that I need adobe acrobat to view my statements online. I was viewing .pdf files just fine when I had FC2.

 

This whole "linux experiment" over the past couple years is just getting worse & worse.

[scarecrow]

You need Acrobat 7 to view pdf forms. kpdf has improved a hell of a lot, but still it's not suitable for the job.

Your Linux experiment will improve dramatically as soon as you drop crippo Fedora.

[null]

Your Linux experiment will improve dramatically as soon as you drop crippo Fedora.

 

is that what my problem is...? you're probably right. The majority of my "linux experiment" has been with FC2. Although before that I was using RH9 for a few months (liked it) and before that, my very first experience was with mandriva, first 8.1 and then a little 9.0. But most of my learning, and problems, and complaints have been while using FC.

 

So what are you suggesting? I know you all are tired of "what distro is right for me..." questions. Maybe I should change distros on this machine before I spend more time, and headaches, getting FC3 working in a usable "home user" way. It is still a fairly new install, and I don't mind putting something else on that will avoid some of these little hassles.

[Guest Adriano1]

Fedora is not a bad distro. I notice Mandriva 2005 to be faster than FC3, but then again FC4 is around the corner and should be faster too. It's a very nice desktop, with good console tools and sensible defaults for me. Having livna and freshrpms/dag makes it almost trivial to add stuff not-included-for-legal-reasons. Although I prefer urpm to yum, it's not a bad package manager.

 

So my advice is to upgrade to FC4 when it's ready if you don't see any obvious problems. That or get Mandriva 2005 when the iso's are available.

[null]

Having livna and freshrpms/dag makes it almost trivial to add stuff not-included-for-legal-reasons. Although I prefer urpm to yum, it's not a bad package manager.

yes, I agree. First thing I did a couple weeks ago after installing FC3, was to head over to fedoraFAQ and replace my original yum.conf with their yum.conf (with livna, dag, and all the good stuff). And then I immediately did the yum check-update, and then the yum installs of various "missing" stuff - like mp3 support, pdf, etc etc.

 

My complaint is, for example, like mentioned above... when I find I need Adobe Acrobat to view some forms on the web, and so I do the yum install of acroreader (exactly as fedoraFAQ says to do) and yet I STILL get error messages when trying to view pdf files on the web. How long have pdf files been around? I mean, its totally stupid that I have to be screwing with this crap - crap that has been a standard for as long as I can remember.

 

Last year I don't remember this little stuff being as much of a hassle with FC2. Once I got my yum.conf replaced with FedoraFAQ's version, and did all the installs of the missing stuff, FC2 worked fine from then on. FC3 has been a dissapointment so far. And another thing, many times while browsing the web with FC3 and Firefox, the browser will just shut down without warning and return me to the desktop. When I go back to the webpage that it happened on, and click on the same link that it happened on, it works fine. This has happened many times. It NEVER happened with FC2. And this is on the same machine.

 

I think I'm gonna try mandriva, whatevers the newest "official" version... is it on 10.2 yet?

[Guest Adriano1]

Mandriva 10.2 is Mandriva Limited Edition 2005, they're the same thing. But the iso's aren't out yet for a couple of weeks.

[null]

If I decide to try mandriva 10.2, I'll probably buy it off the shelf, if I can find it. Both mandrake versions I tried before (8.1 and 9.0) I also bought off the shelf. I like to support mandriva financially. The other distros I've used - RH9, FC2 and FC3 I downloaded free.

 

While we are discussing this, since I have not used mandrake|mandriva in quite some time, let me get a few questions out of the way: from being a member of this board for quite a while, I gather that mp3 works out of the box with mandriva. What about the other stuff - like pdf support and stuff? And I've been using gnome for the past year, so I'm not that familiar with kde - can I use gnome with mandriva? I've never used urpmi|easy urpmi - I hope its better than yum or apt - which I kind of like. Lastly, I like firefox - don't want to use Konq - so hopefully there arent any problems there when using mandriva.

 

thanks