Fedora?

[steppenwolf1984]

I'm seriously thinking of investing in a second computer. My box at home is a Mandrake10.1 and XP dual boot, with a caseload of live cds and other distro cds that ive had varying degrees of success and frustration with. Im thinking of getting another box to install more and learn more and have at least one place to thoroughly trash my setup and start over.

 

Because of the availability here of books and software for Fedora and RedHat, Im thinking theres something Im missing about Fedora. Every time I install it , it stays up for about an hour and a half and its back to MDK. Am I missing something? My impression is that FC3 is bulky, awkward and slow, with limited media function out of box. But I heard Arctic say in one of these boards that Fedora is an intermediate level distro. My first installed OS was RedHat 9 and I remember I finally had gotten it running fast and smooth. But given the mandriva experience, its hard to go back to what it took to get the system that smooth. Any advice on the whole RedHat distro/ Fedora experience these days?

 

Its either that or Suse 9.2 which is - dare I say it? - too user friendly and non-threatening. I used it for a while when my XP crashed and I had lots of freelance work due.

 

The main reason for the FC thought is that its the easiest to find cds, piles of books and stuff for, not to mention all the software I already have which is mostly redhat from 7 on up. Would love to hear some pros to beat down all my cons for my previous limited Fedora exploits

[jlc]

FC4 imo isn't slow, but your hardware might make a difference, but I do run it on a p3@700 to and don't have any problems.

 

Bulky, depends if you install everything :)

 

As far as media, ogg/theora is avaible out of the box. The thing people have to keep in mind is that Fedora/RH is all about OPEN SOURCE! Instead of complaining about not having mp3/css decription, use the OS stuff :)

 

That being said, I still use mp3s and there easy to get through yum or yumex(gui).

 

As far as mild/medium/hard, I dunno any more, I've been using Linux for about 7 years now so it is harder for me to look at something like that. I know plenty of people in fedoraforums that are new to Linux and use Fedora, so it is certianly possible for it to be usable by new or less than comfortable linux users to use it.

 

Id just say install it, check it out and see if it works for you.

 

I posted some links here that will be usefull

 

https://mandrivausers.org/index.php?showtopic=27486

 

THis should be a good guide for people new to Fedora Core that want to install mp3/css type stuff:

 

http://www.evolutioncolt.com/fedoraguide/

[arctic]

First of all, not everyone likes Fedora and that is okay. But if you think of using Fedora as a second, alternative distro, there are some thing you will need to adjust to. First of all, Fedora does not have a graphical frontend for yum by default although it can be installed in some seconds (yum install yumex). Fedora has a lot of configuration tools, but they are not packed in one central place like the MCC. This is not an advantage, nor a disadvantage. It is simply different.

 

Fedora has more experimental stuff than Mandriva, as it is a testbed for RedHat. Think of SELinux. There is a whole book at the RedHat homepage that deals exclusively with SELinux, so you will have to read some stuff and you have to do more finetuning in order to have the "system you want". You will have to alter running system services, you will most likely have to tinker with the one or the other configuration file, although not to that extend, that you have to configure everything like e.g. Slackware, where you do not have any graphical configuration tool but only the config file and an editor to work with. Until Fedora is fast and "your machine", you have to work a bit on it. Not much in many cases, but nonetheless...

 

Fedora is (for a test-distro) extremely stable, but there are risks, too. Having both, Gnome and KDE installed can ocasionally lead to problems, but if you stick with only one desktop, you probably won't experience any strange things.

 

Fedora will teach you to look more into Linux. Into desktop configuration stuff, into server stuff, into simple and advanced administration tasks. Not simply because the system urges you to do that but because there is so much information available. You will get curious. And if you feel very comfy with Fedora, you can try the next stage, with e.g Gentoo, Slackware and pure Debian.

 

Just my opinnion. ;)

[Aomighty]

If you ever want to switch to pure Debian, it's a bit difficult, but somehow I stumbled my way through it lol, and the benefits are quite obvious if you do. I find the documentation around the net for it quite good, so it shoudln't be too hard (I've only been using Linux as my #1 OS for a few months)

[null]

I've been using FC exclusively since FC1, so I guess I can call myself an "advanced beginner". My very first experience with linux was mandrake, back in 2001 or something, and since then I've been farting around with RH9, and FC 1,2,3. I just d/l the FC4 DVD iso yesterday, and burned it to DVD today. Can't wait to throw it on... I'm sure I'll be back here, bitching about stuff afterwards though...

 

I admit that I get frustrated with having to "fix" all the multimedia stuff with FC, but we all know why FC does not include alot of that stuff. I have been choosing to use FC, so that means its my choice to have to fix the multimedia limitations. First thing I do after installing an FC distro is get my yum conf set up. There's examples on the Fedora sites. When I installed FC3, I simply replaced my yum file with the one from fedoraFAQ.org. From then on it was simple to keep my system updated.

 

I can't wait to try out the new yum & yumex after I put on FC4.

 

Plus, with FC, there's tons of info all over the web about any problem you're having. Every time I'm having a problem, after googling a bit, I find that many others have the same problem. Plus my favorite linux board, this one, has an FC guru on it... cybr !

 

So the bottom line for me is that I was still in the mid-noob stage when I first started using FC, but I've learned alot since then. I don't see any problem with intalling FC and playing around - especially on a second box...

[steppenwolf1984]

Thanks for all the feedback....still looking around but Im thinking I'll devote half of a new system to Fedora, or a bit more, and half to Suse for easy, newb configuration and flashy lil lizards and stuff. If I got redhat9 zipping along, i should eventually be able to do it on Fedora. I may get a laptop so, the Suse will be good PR for shoulder surfers. Getting it without XP saves a bucket of cash!

 

Given my limited experience, the coment about working up to pure Deb or Slack makes sense...Looking forward to reinstalling Mdk 10 again tonight...heheh....made a bit of a mess with an Nvidia driver and lost all open GL functions. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.......

[steppenwolf1984]

Sometime later....

 

Ive put FC up. Twice. Now my second box has Mepis. What can I say? I just want SOUND...IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK??!!?

 

Scuse me. I got carried away. I agree with the ideals behind Fedora and will go without mp3 and maybe even DVDs on my laptop till I can set em up. But sound? After days and days of trying and only setting off an alarm sound, Im giving FC a rest. For now...

 

Come to think of it, I have sound....it just sounds like an electric alarm clock and doesnt stop. Sigh.

[arctic]

What sound chip does your computer use?

[steppenwolf1984]

What sound chip does your computer use?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Integrated chip that reads as via 87(?)xxx or AC97, I keep forgetting the name cause im at work and the box is home. Its a Fujitsu notebook Amilo Pro v7010. Ive been wondering if this has anything to do with my choosing packages rather than allowing a default install. Ive certainly botched many a Mandriva install by selecting pkgs..... but there are so many posts on FC sites about sound that Im pretty sure its not just a rare card (its not) or my own screwup. FC3 worked on my desktop, which also had an integrated card....

[arctic]

If it is an AC97 Chip, then it might be some configuration problems. Try to run Alsaconf from a terminal and set up the sound with it. Maybe that fixes it.

 

My laptop (ECS transmeta 5800) has the AC97 soundchip, too and it runs with FC4, without any major problems (except multiple USB device popups sometimes... but that is another story. *sigh*)

[jlc]

Something I have to do on my Dell Latitude D600 to get sound

 

As your user in a terminal

 

$ gnome-volume-control

 

Go to

 

Edit -> Preferences

check on [b]External Amplifier[/b]

 

You will notice you have a 3rd category on the main menu for "Switches", make sure the External Amplifier has the Check and test your sound.

 

Might/not work on your laptop but that is how I got mine to work.

[steppenwolf1984]

Checked the switches and for the life of me, I cant find alsaconf, even by reinstalling every alsa package I can get my hands on....alsa libs, alsa utils, you name it...where would I get alsaconf on CL if it says no such file or directory exists at present? Does anyone think maybe Im loading conflicting packages when I custom choose during install? Would a straightforward Workstation for example make a difference? I get sound on the desktop but not the laptop....grrrrr.

[jlc]

Get the following info and paste it here:

 

# more /etc/modprobe.conf

 

# lspci -v | grep -i audio

[steppenwolf1984]

Will give it a try....I normally run KDE on FC, so does gnome volume control still apply?

Just (re)installed FC again on the laptop (WOOT!) as a dual boot with Mepis...and pretty much went along with the Workstation Default, except for a few packages that I didnt want to install later - like KDE - so I dont think my install choices are blocking the sound...will let y'all know if it works.

[steppenwolf1984]

Reinstalled Fedora after a dual boot with Ubuntu/Mepis went wrong ( mepis booted Mepis or Ubuntu, when you boot into Ubuntu, you got Grub again asking if you wanted to boot into Ubuntu or Mepis, and it wouldnt go past the boot choice screen) and again with FC, no sound but using a number of config tools did result in a weird warning kind of beep, which thankfully went away in few seconds...modprobed it and got the following, but the lspci told me " no file or directory" which is just like alsaconf- (which works fine on Mepis where I dont need it). Alsaconf on FC3 gave me PERMISSION DENIED as root ?!?! Heres the stats from modprobe:

 

alias eth0 via-rhine

 

alias snd-card-0 snd-via82xx

 

options snd-card-0 index=0

 

install snd-via82xx /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-via82xx && /usr/sbin/als

 

actl restore >/dev/null 2>&1 || :

 

remove snd-via82xx { /usr/sbin/alsactl store >/dev/null 2>&1 || : ; }; /sbin/mod

 

probe -r --ignore-remove snd-via82xx

 

alias usb-controller ehci-hcd

 

alias usb-controller1 uhci-hcd

 

Anybody know what this " remove snd, ignore remove snd" is all about? I know there is the possibility of sound because it does make obnoxious sounds sometimes. The gnome volume control didnt have an effect either. There seems to be something wrong when I read the above but dont have a clue how to fix it.