Last Updated: 12 November 2007

The Unofficial Fedora FAQ - Fedora 8

Table of Contents

About Fedora

1. What is this Fedora 8 thing?
2. What is the difference between Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux?
3. Is it unstable?
4. Has it been released? (Updated 8 Nov 2007)
5. Where can I find a list of all the programs that come with Fedora (a package list)?
6. When is the next version of Fedora coming out?
7. How can I help out the Fedora Project?

Installing Fedora

1. Where do I get it?
2. Can I install on ReiserFS, JFS, or XFS?
3. Can Fedora run on a 64-bit (AMD-64 or Intel-64) computer?
4. Can I run Fedora on a Mac?
5. Where is the floppy disk install image for Fedora?

Using Fedora and Installing Software

1. Where can I get software for Fedora?
2. How do I install software in Fedora? (How to use yum or an RPM) (Updated 12 Nov 2007)
3. Is there a Graphical User Interface (GUI) for yum?
4. Is there anything like apt for Fedora?
5. How do I install a working Java plugin for my web browser? (Updated 7 Nov 2007)
6. How can I install Flash in my web browser? (Updated 12 Nov 2007)
7. How can I see PDF files inside my browser?
8. How can I watch movies in my web browser?
9. Can I use MSN Messenger/AIM/ICQ/Yahoo instant messaging in Fedora?
10. How do I install fonts? Can I use Windows (.ttf) fonts? (Updated 9 Nov 2007)
11. Where can I get drivers for my hardware for Fedora?
12. How do I play MP3s in Fedora?
13. How do I read my NTFS (Windows NT/2000/XP/2003) drive in Fedora?
14. How do I edit the menus in the panel?
15. How do I get Wine to work?
16. How do I play DVDs in Fedora?
17. How do I get Flash and Java in my browser on a 64-bit version of Fedora? (Updated 12 Nov 2007)

Problems and Their Solutions

1. I get a NOKEY warning from RPM, or I get a gpg signature error when using yum!
2. How do I enable 3D support for my ATI Radeon card in Fedora? (Updated 12 Nov 2007)
3. How do I enable 3D support for my nVidia graphics card in Fedora? (Updated 12 Nov 2007)
4. The installer's media check says all my CDs are bad!
5. I have strange installation problems.
6. How do I make all my folders open in the same window, in Nautilus?
7. I can't access my Windows network shares anymore! People tell me to use the smbmount command, but it doesn't work!
8. i h8 u and ur F4q 2!!1!

The FAQ

About Fedora

1. Q: What is this Fedora 8 thing?
   A: First, read About Fedora. You can also read the Fedora Project FAQ, if you want.

   Now, I'll give you a summary. You can think of Fedora 8 as something like "Red Hat Linux 17," 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, if you want.
   • A new version of Fedora comes out every six months or so.
   • When a new version comes out, the previous version becomes unsupported about a year later.

   This means upgrading or re-installing your OS every 6 - 8 months. The advantage is that you're always on the cutting edge of Linux development, while still having a stable operating system.

   Red Hat Enterprise Linux is based on Fedora, so if you want to learn a little about RHEL for free, use Fedora. RHEL5 was based on Fedora Core 6.

2. Q: What is the difference between Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux?
   A: 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 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.

3. Q: Is it unstable?
   A: No!
4. Q: Has it been released? (Updated 8 November 2007)
   A:

   What if every software developer could gain the knowledge of long experience without having to go through the pain of repeated failure? Read my book, Code Simplicity, and find out.

   Yes! Fedora 8 was released on November 8, 2007. To see when new releases are coming out, see the release schedule.
5. Q: Where can I find a list of all the programs that come with Fedora (a package list)?
   A: There's a list of the main Fedora packages over at the Distrowatch Fedora Page.
6. Q: When is the next version of Fedora coming out?
   A: 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.)

7. Q: How can I help out the Fedora Project?
   A: The Fedora Project needs a lot of people to help in a lot of areas! Can you write documentation? Can you code? Do you know anything about bugs? Can you translate? Would you like to learn about any of these? Are you artistic? Do you just want to help out in any way you can? The Fedora Project has a great page that describes how you can help. Check it out!

Installing Fedora

1. Q: Where do I get it?
   A: The Fedora Download Page.

   There are many versions:

   "Live" in the name means it's a LiveCD--you can just put the CD into your computer and start the OS without installing it. You can also use the LiveCD to install Fedora from the Internet, if you want, though.

   "Everything" is the DVD that contains all the Fedora packages, and you can install from that without having an Internet connection.

   Then there's the choice between i386, x86_64, and ppc. Here's how to figure out which one you need:

   • i386 - If you have a Pentium or Celeron (meaning any Pentium or Celeron, including a Pentium 4, Pentium M, etc.) or the original Core Duo (not a Core 2 Duo).
   • x86_64 - If you have a Core 2 Duo, Core Solo, Opteron, Athlon 64, Turion 64, or Sempron. (This also includes the new "Intel Mac" machines.)
   • ppc - Any modern Mac that's not an Intel Mac.

   For more details on how to get Fedora, including how to buy a CD (if you can't download one), see the Distribution page on the Fedora Project site.

2. Q: Can I install on ReiserFS, JFS, or XFS?
   A: 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.)

3. Q: Can Fedora run on a 64-bit (AMD-64 or Intel-64) computer?
   A: Yes, it can! A 64-bit version of Fedora is currently available to download. It works very well. See the question about getting Fedora.

   You can also run the normal 32-bit version of Fedora on your 64-bit computer, although that's rarely required nowadays.

4. Q: Can I run Fedora on a Mac?
   A: Yes, you can!

   If you have a new Intel Mac, you want the x86_64 version of Fedora, described in the question about getting Fedora. Note that some things may not yet work perfectly on Intel Macs. The Fedora Project has a page about Fedora on Mactel. There's also mactel-linux.org, which has a page about Fedora 8.

   If you have a G3, G4, or G5 Mac, you can just install the "ppc" version of Fedora, See the question about getting Fedora.

5. Q: Where is the floppy disk install image for Fedora?
   A: You can't install Fedora from your floppy drive, because the 2.6 kernel in Fedora is too big to fit on a floppy. Perhaps try using a USB drive instead--that works.

   If you have a CD-ROM drive, but you can't boot from it, you can try Smart Boot Manager to work around that.

   (Thanks to Charles Curley for reminding me about Smart Boot Manager.)

Using Fedora and Installing Software

1. Q: Where can I get software for Fedora?
   A: The best way to get software is to use yum.

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

2. Q: How do I install software in Fedora? (How to use yum or an RPM) (Updated 12 November 2007)
   A: The easiest way to install software in Fedora is to use yum.

   What if every software developer could gain the knowledge of long experience without having to go through the pain of repeated failure? Read my book, Code Simplicity, and find out.

   Configuring Yum

   Here's how to configure your yum:

   1. Open a Terminal.
   2. Become root:

      su -

   3. Install the yum-priorities package:

      yum -y install yum-priorities

   4. Fix the yum-priorities configuration, by opening up a file:

      nano /etc/yum/pluginconf.d/priorities.conf

   5. The contents of that file look like:

      [main]
      enabled = 1

      You need to add the line check_obsoletes = 1 to the bottom of the file, so that it looks like:

      [main]
      enabled = 1
      check_obsoletes = 1
      

      And then save the file and close it.

   6. Now, install my yum configuration (Updated 12 Nov 2007), using this command:

      rpm -Uvh http://www.fedorafaq.org/f8/yum http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release-8.rpm

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

   Using Yum

   If you have graphical access to your desktop, you can access yum by going to the "Applications" menu and choosing "Add/Remove Software." (It is called "pirut" when you access it graphically.)

   However, often people want to use yum at the command line. To use yum, 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 Fedora documentation about yum and proxies.

   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

3. Q: Is there a Graphical User Interface (GUI) for yum?
   A: Yes! There's one for adding new programs, and one for updating software you already have installed.

   • To install new software, just open up the "Applications" menu and choose "Add/Remove Programs." That's actually just a GUI for yum.
   • When your software needs updates, a little icon will appear on your top panel (usually at the top right of your screen), and Fedora will tell you that you need updates.

     If this doesn't happen, you need to install the yum-updatesd package:

     1. Open a Terminal.
     2. Become root:

        su -

     3. Run the following command:

        yum install yum-updatesd

     Now you will be automatically notified when there are new updates available for the software you have installed!

4. Q: Is there anything like apt for Fedora?
   A: APT is a program for Debian Linux that installs not only the software you specify, but also all of that software's dependencies. It makes installing software much easier.

   There is a piece of software like this for Fedora, that comes in the standard Fedora installation. It's called yum. It can automatically download and install a program and all of its dependencies, with just one command. I even provide a special configuration that I use for yum on my computer, in the question where I explain how to use yum.

   If you really want to use APT, there is a version for Fedora. You can install it using yum--the package name is apt. It's not supported officially by the Fedora Project, though.

5. Q: How do I install a working Java plugin for my web browser? (Updated 7 November 2007)
   A: For Java programmers, Fedora actually comes with everything you need. Just install the java-1.7.0-icedtea package.

   However, if you want Java applets on the web to actually work in your web browser, you'll need to follow these instructions to install Java in a way that works well with Fedora:

   1. Make sure that you're using my yum configuration from the installing software question.
   2. Download Sun's JDK 6 Update 3. Choose "Accept" and then choose the "Linux self-extracting file" version (not the RPM version).
   3. You should have the Java Software Development Kit on your desktop. It is a file whose name looks like:

      jdk-6u3-linux-i586.bin

   4. Open a Terminal.
   5. Become root:

      su -

   6. Install some software that you will need to continue (these are small downloads):

      yum install yum-utils jpackage-utils rpm-build

   7. Change back to your home directory (instead of root's home directory):

      cd ~username

      Where "username" is your normal username.

   8. Move the file that you downloaded into the correct place:

      mv Desktop/jdk*bin /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES/

   9. Download the JPackage Java RPM:

      yumdownloader --enablerepo=jpackage-nonfree java-1.6.0-sun

   10. Build the JPackage Java RPM:

       setarch i586 rpmbuild --rebuild java-1.6.0-sun*nosrc.rpm

   11. Remove some broken packages that won't install on Fedora:

       rm -f /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i586/java-1.6.0-sun-fonts* /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i586/java-1.6.0-sun-jdbc*

   12. Install Java:

       yum localinstall --nogpgcheck /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i586/java-1.6.0-sun-*

   13. Enable the Java Plugin:

       ln -s /usr/lib/jvm/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/

   What if every software developer could gain the knowledge of long experience without having to go through the pain of repeated failure? Read my book, Code Simplicity, and find out.

   Java should now be installed and working properly! You may need to log out and then log in again for some things to work properly.

   (Thanks to Kai Thomsen for noting that you only have to login-logout, not reboot. hanks to Rob Ramirez for the --nogpgcheck tip!)

6. Q: How can I install Flash in my web browser? (Updated 12 November 2007)
   A:

   1. Make sure that you're using my yum configuration from the installing software question.
   2. Open a Terminal.
   3. Become root:

      su -

   4. Type:

      yum install flash-plugin

   If you have any questions, see the Flash Plugin FAQ! (Thanks to Warren Togami for that link.)

7. Q: How can I see PDF files inside my browser?
   A: Yeah, just install mozplugger:

   1. Open a Terminal.
   2. Become root:

      su -

   3. Install mozplugger:

      yum install mozplugger evince

   This also enables Firefox to open lots of other types of files, like movies, audio, Word documents, etc.

8. Q: How can I watch movies in my web browser?
   A: Just install the mplayer plug-in:

   1. Make sure that you're using my yum configuration from the installing software question.
   2. Open a Terminal.
   3. Become root:

      su -

   4. Install the plug-in:

      yum install mplayerplug-in

   5. Close all the windows of your web browser and then open it again.

   Now, you can see movies on web sites!

   You might also want to install the various Windows movie decoders. Note that there may be some legal issues with these decoders. You can get them from the mplayer download site, in the "Binary Codec Packages" section.

9. Q: Can I use MSN Messenger/AIM/ICQ/Yahoo instant messaging in Fedora?
   A: Yes, Fedora comes with an instant messaging program called Pidgin. When you use Pidgin, you can use MSN Messenger, ICQ, AIM, Yahoo! Messenger, and Jabber, all at the same time.

   To start Pidgin, click on the Applications menu, go to "Internet," and choose "Internet Messenger."

   See the Pidgin documentation for information about how to set up Pidgin with your IM accounts.

10. Q: How do I install fonts? Can I use Windows (.ttf) fonts? (Updated 9 November 2007)
    A: Yes, you can. Here's how you install fonts:

    1. Under the "System" menu in the tray, choose "Preferences" and then "Fonts."
    2. Click on the "Details..." button.
    3. Click on "Go to font folder."

    Now simply drag & drop your fonts into the "Fonts" window to add them. You may have to log out and log in again to see them actually show up in that folder.

    If you have any programs open, you will need to close then and then open them again, to have the new fonts show up in those programs.

    By the way, there's also a very easy way to install all of the common Windows fonts on Linux. This can sometimes make web pages display more nicely:

    1. Open a Terminal.
    2. Become root:

       su -

    3. Download the MS Core Fonts Smart Package File:

       wget http://corefonts.sourceforge.net/msttcorefonts-2.0-1.spec

    4. Make sure that the rpm-build and cabextract packages are installed:

       yum install rpm-build cabextract

    5. Build the Core Fonts package:

       rpmbuild -ba msttcorefonts-2.0-1.spec

    6. Install the Core Fonts package:

       yum localinstall --nogpgcheck /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/noarch/msttcorefonts-2.0-1.noarch.rpm

    (Thanks to David A. Wheeler and others for convincing me to add the MS Core Fonts instructions. Thanks to byro for pointing out the URL to the 2.0 package!)

11. Q: Where can I get drivers for my hardware for Fedora?
    A: Most drivers come with Fedora. However, if your driver doesn't come with Fedora, you can see what drivers are available for automatic download:

    1. Make sure that you're using my yum configuration from the installing software question.
    2. Open a Terminal.
    3. Become root:

       su -

    4. yum list kmod-* dkms-*

    If you don't find what you need this way, try Googling for:

    Fedora NameOfHardware

    or:

    Linux NameOfHardware

    Where NameOfHardware is the normal name of your hardware. If it has more than one name, keep trying different ones until you get a result.

12. Q: How do I play MP3s in Fedora?
    A: Before I talk about this, you should know: In the United States and some other countries, you may have to pay patent royalties to use MP3 players or encoders. However, for home users, there is no legal problem with MP3 players. (Thanks to Doug McClean for clearing that up for me!)

    With that said, the plugins for these things are usually in the rpm.livna.org repository. You install a different package depending on which Fedora MP3 player you want to use. If you're not sure which one to pick, Rhythmbox is the standard. It's in the "Applications" menu, under "Sound & Video" -- it's called "Music Player." It looks kind of like iTunes when you run it.

    What if every software developer could gain the knowledge of long experience without having to go through the pain of repeated failure? Read my book, Code Simplicity, and find out.

    Here's how to install the correct MP3 plugin:

    1. Make sure that you're using my yum configuration from the installing software question.
    2. Open a Terminal.
    3. Become root:

       su -

    4. Now, install the correct plugin depending on which MP3 player you want to use:
       • For Rhythmbox or Totem:

         yum install gstreamer-plugins-ugly

       • For Audacious (which is like XMMS or Winamp):

         yum install audacious-plugins-nonfree-mp3

       • For KDE MP3 players, like Noatun or Juk:

         yum install kdemultimedia-extras-nonfree

    Now you should be able to play MP3s in your favorite Fedora MP3 player!

    (Thanks to Dave Stevens for catching a typo in this question! Thanks to Dawid Gajownik for letting me know that the KDE package changed to nonfree.)

13. Q: How do I read my NTFS (Windows NT/2000/XP/2003) drive in Fedora?
    A: Well, now, that's an easy one! You just have to install the ntfs-3g program!

    1. Open a Terminal.
    2. Become root:

       su -

    3. Type:

       yum install ntfs-3g

    Now you can read and write to your NTFS drives!

    For information on how to use your NTFS drive, you can read the NTFS FAQ. (You don't need to worry about /proc/filesystems like it says there, though.)

14. Q: How do I edit the menus in the panel?
    A: You can use a program called Alacarte Menu Editor.

    1. Open a Terminal.
    2. Become root:

       su -

    3. Install alacarte:

       yum install alacarte

    4. Now, in the menu at the top of your screen, go to System → Preferences → Look and Feel → Main Menu. That's your menu editor!

    For KDE users, there is a program called kmenuedit that you can run to edit the menu.

    (Thanks to Conor O'Neill for telling me about SMEG/Alacarte! Thanks to Dawid Gajownik for letting me know that it is now in Extras.)

15. Q: How do I get Wine to work?
    A: Wine is a way of running some Windows programs on Linux. It's available using yum:

    1. Open a Terminal.
    2. Become root:

       su -

    3. Install wine:

       yum install wine

16. Q: How do I play DVDs in Fedora?
    A: Easy! You just have to install a new version of the Totem Movie Player:

    1. Make sure that you're using my yum configuration from the installing software question.
    2. Open a Terminal.
    3. Become root:

       su -

    4. Now we remove the version of Totem that comes with Fedora, and install a different version of Totem (along with the files you need you play DVDs):

       echo -e "remove totem\n install totem-xine totem-xine-plparser libdvdcss libdvdnav xine-lib-extras-nonfree\n run\n quit" | yum -y shell

    And now you can play DVDs! You can find Totem in the "Applications" menu, under "Sound and Video." It's just called "Movie Player." To play a DVD you have to go to the File menu and choose Open Location, and then type dvd:// into the box.

    By the way, this is also a great way to watch movies that Totem normally can't play. The totem-xine package can play almost any movie file in existence!

17. Q: How do I get Flash and Java in my browser on a 64-bit version of Fedora? (Updated 12 November 2007)
    A: For Flash

    What if every software developer could gain the knowledge of long experience without having to go through the pain of repeated failure? Read my book, Code Simplicity, and find out.

    1. Make sure that you're using my yum configuration from the installing software question.
    2. Open a Terminal.
    3. Become root:

       su -

    4. Install Flash and a wrapper that makes it work in your 64-bit browser:

       yum install flash-plugin nspluginwrapper

    5. Enable the plugin:

       mozilla-plugin-config

    Java Plugin

    For Java, things are trickier.

    The basic problem is that there isn't a 64-bit Java Plugin, and nspluginwrapper doesn't work with Sun's Java Plugin. There will be a 64-bit Java Plugin in Java 7.

    First you have to install a 32-bit version of Firefox. It runs just as fast as the 64-bit version. Here's how:

    1. Open a Terminal.
    2. Become root:

       su -

    3. Install the 32-bit version of Firefox:

       yum install firefox.i386 firefox-32

    4. Open up the "Preferred Applications" Preferences screen, by going to the System menu, then "Preferences" and then "Personal".
    5. Under "Web Browser", choose "Custom".
    6. In the "Command" box under "Web Browser", put:

       firefox-32 %s

    Now, to get the Java Plugin working, you have to:

    1. Open a Terminal.
    2. Become root:

       su -

    3. Temporarily move a file that's going to cause you trouble:

       mv /etc/rpm/platform /etc/rpm/platform.bak

    4. Install an additional package that you'll need, so that installing Java will work:

       yum install unixODBC-devel.i386

    5. Follow the normal Java instructions.
    6. Put back in place the file that you moved:

       mv /etc/rpm/platform.bak /etc/rpm/platform

    And now you have working Java!

Problems and Their Solutions

1. Q: I get a NOKEY warning from RPM, or I get a gpg signature error when using yum!
   A: The NOKEY warning is not really a problem. It won't prevent you from doing anything. (The yum error, though, will usually prevent you from installing software.)

   If you'd like to resolve it, do the following command to get the correct key for the site you're downloading from:

   You must be root to do any of this.

   • Red Hat and Fedora Extras:

     rpm --import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY*

   • rpm.livna.org:

     rpm --import http://rpm.livna.org/RPM-LIVNA-GPG-KEY

   • FreshRPMs:

     rpm --import http://freshrpms.net/RPM-GPG-KEY-freshrpms

   • DAG:

     rpm --import http://dag.wieers.com/packages/RPM-GPG-KEY.dag.txt

   • ATrpms:

     rpm --import http://atrpms.net/RPM-GPG-KEY.atrpms

   • NewRPMs:

     rpm --import http://newrpms.sunsite.dk/gpg-pubkey-newrpms.txt

   • Dries (RPMForge):

     rpm --import http://apt.sw.be/dries/RPM-GPG-KEY.dries.txt

   • JPackage:

     rpm --import http://www.jpackage.org/jpackage.asc

   • kde-redhat:

     rpm --import http://kde-redhat.sourceforge.net/gpg-pubkey-ff6382fa-3e1ab2ca

   • PlanetCCRMA:

     rpm --import http://ccrma.stanford.edu/planetccrma/RPM-GPG-KEY.planetccrma.txt

   NOTE: If you install my yum configuration, most of these keys are installed for you automatically.

   (Thanks to Kai Thomsen for the original location of the ATrpms key, and thanks to Tom Householder for the new location! Thanks to Pim Rupert for the location of the Dries key. Thanks to Anduin Withers for a good idea about how to reorganize this question. Thanks to Dieter Komendera for the new location of the FreshRPMs key.)

2. Q: How do I enable 3D support for my ATI Radeon card in Fedora? (Updated 12 November 2007)
   A: livna.org provides ATI driver RPMs that are designed especially for Fedora.

   NOTE: If you have nVidia drivers installed, you must un-install them before installing these ATI drivers. (Thanks to Ajay for telling me this!)

   Here's how to install them:

   1. Make sure that you're using my yum configuration from the installing software question.
   2. Open a Terminal.
   3. Become root:

      su -

   4. Install the driver:

      yum install --disablerepo=freshrpms kmod-fglrx

   5. Shut down X:

      init 3

   6. Log in as root.
   7. Enable the driver:

      fglrx-config-display enable

   8. Reboot your machine:

      reboot

   If you have an Intel motherboard, you will have to modify your xorg.conf file after installing the drivers:

   1. Open a Terminal.
   2. Become root:

      su -

   3. Open the xorg.conf file in a text editor:

      gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

   4. Find the line that looks like:

      Driver "fglrx"

   5. Add the following line right below it:

      Option "UseInternalAGPGART" "no"

   6. Save the file, and reboot your computer.

   (Thanks to Anton Andreev for telling me about that Intel thing.)

   If you have any trouble with the livna.org RPMs, please report a bug to the Livna.org Bugzilla.

   If you encounter a bug in the ATI driver, please report it using the ATI Feedback Form!

   (Thanks to everybody who reminded me and encouraged me to update the FAQ with this information! Thanks to Peter Lawler for a lot of help with this question. Thanks to Sindre for writing the original instructions.)

3. Q: How do I enable 3D support for my nVidia graphics card in Fedora? (Updated 12 November 2007)
   A: There are now nVidia driver RPMs provided by livna.org that are designed especially for Fedora. Here's how to install them:

   What if every software developer could gain the knowledge of long experience without having to go through the pain of repeated failure? Read my book, Code Simplicity, and find out.

   1. Make sure that you're using my yum configuration from the installing software question.
   2. Open a Terminal.
   3. Become root:

      su -

   4. Install the driver:

      yum install --disablerepo=freshrpms kmod-nvidia

   5. Shut down X:

      init 3

   6. Log in as root.
   7. Enable the driver:

      nvidia-config-display enable

   8. Reboot the machine:

      reboot

   And now you should have working 3D with your nVidia card!

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

4. Q: The installer's media check says all my CDs are bad!
   A: 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:

   1. At the installer prompt, type:

      linux mediacheck ide=nodma

   2. Run the media check on your CDs/DVD.
   3. Reboot, and run the installer normally.

   Note that sometimes mediacheck will report that only some CDs are bad, but this will still fix that problem. (Thanks to Tony Nelson for reminding me of that!)

5. Q: I have strange installation problems.
   A: 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 acpi=off

   linux acpi=off apm=off

   linux ide=nodma

   linux i8042.nomux

   linux nofb

   The "i8042.nomux" is especially helpful if you have keyboard or mouse problems, and the "nofb" is helpful if you have video problems.

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

   (Thanks to Alan Cox for most of this information, and to Nilanjan Lahiri for the nofb one.)

6. Q: How do I make all my folders open in the same window, in Nautilus?
   A: 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:

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

   (Thanks to Eugéne Roux for this method of doing it! And thanks to Raivis Dejus for a better phrasing of the question.)

7. Q: I can't access my Windows network shares anymore! People tell me to use the smbmount command, but it doesn't work!
   A: Modern version of Linux use a cool new type of Windows file sharing called "The Common Internet File System" (CIFS). Instead of using "smbmount", try:

   mount -t cifs //1.2.3.4/share /mnt/somedirectory

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

   man mount.cifs

   Note that CIFS can't resolve Windows computer names, so you're better off using their IP addresses.

8. Q: i h8 u and ur F4q 2!!1!
   A: I'm really feeling the love. It's like a hurricane of love.

   I CAN HAS LUVS.

   It's all about the luvs I can has.