Sam Lesher » Fedora

Install Fedora 8 on a Dell Vostro 1500

Sam Lesher — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 22:10:15 +0000

I attempted to install Fedora 8 on a Dell Vostro 1500. I booted from the DVD, then started the installation in graphical mode. The install froze at:

running install...
running /sbin/loader

To get around this, I restarted the computer, booted from the DVD, highlighted the installation in graphical mode option, then hit the TAB key and entered these pararmeters at the end of the line:

linux apm=off acpi=off pci=noacpi

Hit ENTER and your install should be on its way.

*EDIT* – Looks like I was wrong. If you let the install process sit on ‘running /sbin/loader’ for about 5 minutes, it eventually responds and moves past that step. However, adding those boot options makes it proceed immediately

Remove all settings for Evolution

Sam Lesher — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 18:32:18 +0000

If you ever want to delete your entire Evolution account, history, configuration, settings, etc and start over from scratch, here’s how to do it:

Back up all of your files first (of course).
$ rm -rf ~/.evolution
$ rm -rf ~/.gconf/apps/evolution
$ evolution --force-shutdown

Find the process id for ‘gconfd’ and kill it:
$ ps -ef|grep gconfd
yourusername 30515 1 0 13:24 ? 00:00:00 /usr/libexec/gconfd-2 12
$ kill 30515

Restart Evolution and you should be prompted to set up your acccount.

Bridge network interface on VirtualBox in Fedora

Sam Lesher — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 23:04:12 +0000

These instructions are for using a virtual machine in VirtualBox using a bridged network connection instead of a NAT connection. This makes the virtual machine behave more like a regular machine on your network, using its own IP from your network, etc. These instructions assume static ip addresses. These changes will remain in place after the machine is rebooted.

1. If you don’t have VirtualBox installed yet, install it. You can download it here, the Fedora 7 RPM installed correctly for me on Fedora 8. I downloaded it, then installed it with this command:
$ su - # yum --nogpgcheck install VirtualBox-1.5.2_25433_fedora7-1

2. Install the bridge-utils package from Yum:
$ su -
# yum install bridge-utils

3. Create a configuration file for the bridge (br0):
# gedit /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-br0

Enter the following in this file and save it:
DEVICE=br0 TYPE=Bridge BOOTPROTO=static ONBOOT=yes IPADDR=192.168.100.2 #enter the IP you use for the host machine here NETMASK=255.255.255.0 #enter the correct subnet mask for your network GATEWAY=192.168.100.1 #enter the correct default gateway for your network DELAY=0 STP=off

4. Add your NIC card (eth0 for me) to the bridge:
# gedit /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0

Add this to the end of the file and save it:
# BRIDGE=br0

Adding this line results in the eth0 interface being added to the br0 bridge whenever the host machine boots.

5. As root, create a permanent virtual interface for the virtual machine to use and add it to the bridge:
# VBoxAddIF vbox0 YOURUSERNAME br0

Replace YOURUSERNAME with your username that you log into Linux as.

6. Restart the network and vboxnet services:
# service network restart
# service vboxnet restart

7. In your virtual machine settings in Virtual Box, in the Network section, choose ‘Host Interface’. The Interface Name is vbox0.

8. If you are using Windows XP in your virtual machine, boot into it, go into the TCP/IP settings, and specify the IP address, Default Gateway, and DNS servers as if you are adding a normal client to your network.

You should now be able to access your WIndows XP virtual machine as if it were a normal machine on your network. Note that you may have to disable or modify the Windows XP firewall for some network activities.

Add Livna Repository to Fedora 8

Sam Lesher — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 23:26:23 +0000

rpm.livna.org is a repository of add-on packages for Fedora maintained by a group of volunteers. rpm.livna.org is not a standalone repository, but an extension of Fedora (previously Fedora Core and Fedora Extras). rpm.livna.org distributes packages that have been deemed unacceptable to Fedora due to licensing or patent issues.

Here is how I add the Livna repository to Fedora 8:

Go to http://rpm.livna.org/rlowiki/ and download the Fedora 8 Repository RPM.

Use Yum to install the RPM (as root):
$ su Password: # yum --nogpgcheck install livna-release-8.rpm

If you want to avoid the GPG warning whenever you install something from the livna repository, you can import their GPG key. Go here to access their public key, save the contents of this page to a file (e.g. livna.asc).

Import the key.
$ gpg --import livna.asc