Bhupendra Atre's blog

Fedora 15 with gnome 3 - my howto

2011-06-19T08:26:00.000-07:00

Installed live image from Fedora 15 64bit running gnome 3
I had to reinstalled since first time around, it loaded into fallback mode.

-disable selinux
vi /etc/selinux/config
change SELINUX=targetted to SELINUX=disabled
save and close

-enable sudo
vi /etc/sudoers
add following
yourusername ALL=(ALL) ALL

-enable left click on touchpad of laptop
click 'Activities' (top left)
click 'System tools' (right)
click 'Mouse and Touchpad'
goto Touchpad tab and check following boxes
Disable touchpad while typing
Enable mouse clicks with touchpad

-intall new programs
sudo yum install yum-fastestmirror

-install plugins for the new gnome-shell
sudo yum install gnome-shell-extensions-alternative-status-menu [to have shutdown(power off) along with suspend menu]
sudo yum install gnome-shell-extensions-places-menu [adds places menu to right hand system indicator aread on top panel]
sudo yum install gnome-tweak-tool

-install flash plugin,for my 64 bit installation I did following
sudo yum install wget
cd /tmp
wget http://download.macromedia.com/pub/labs/flashplayer10/flashplayer10_2_p3_64bit_linux_111710.tar.gz
tar xzvf flashplayer10_2_p3_64bit_linux_111710.tar.gz
sudo mv /tmp/libflashplayer.so /usr/lib64/mozilla/plugins/
For 32 bit, recommended approach is to download rpm from adobe site and install flash-plugin.

-skype
sudo yum -y install pulseaudio-libs.i686 pulseaudio-libs-devel.i686 alsa-plugins-pulseaudio.i686 libv4l.i686 libXv.i686 libXv-devel.i686 libXScrnSaver.i686 libXScrnSaver-devel.i686 dbus-qt-devel.i686 qt.i686 qt-devel.i686 dus-qt.i686
Then download and install fedora10+ rpm from skype site.
sudo rpm -Uvh skype-2.2.0.35-fedora.i586.rpm

-Install office
sudo yum install libreoffice-writer libreoffice-calc libreoffice-draw libreoffice-impress

-install webstart and java applet support for firefox
icetea-web

-install other programs that I use
gimp p7zip p7zip-plugins xboard gnuchess unrar wget

-Install repo for third party apps
su -c 'yum localinstall --nogpgcheck http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm'

-For mp3 player needs I use audacious, simple and winap like.
sudo yum install audacious audacious-plugins-freeworld*
change theme to winamp from view menu

-install play it all video player and fierfox plugin for videos.
sudo yum install vlc vlc-extras
God knows where vlc plugin for firefox went. It used to be available via rpmfusion repos. Anyways I downloaded it from ATrpms. Also got libdvdcss for dvd playback
http://dl.atrpms.net/all/vlc-plugin-1.1.9-69.fc15.x86_64.rpm at http://packages.atrpms.net/dist/f15/vlc/
http://dl.atrpms.net/all/libdvdcss2-1.2.10-5.fc15.x86_64.rpm at http://packages.atrpms.net/dist/f15/libdvdcss/
NOTE:After few days, once I updated using yum update, I was not able to update vlc due to vlc-plugin hard dependency. So I uninstalled vlc-plugin only to find out mozilla-vlc was back in repo. This was good news so no manual rpm installation required just do
sudo yum install vlc vlc-extras

-Enable ssh
system-config-services was missing on fedora 15, so I manually installed it only to find that I cannot enable/disable services only start/stop them. So I uninstalled it and googled for more info and found this http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Systemd#How_do_I_start.2Fstop_or_enable.2Fdisable_services.3F
So after reading that, it was easy
sudo systemctl enable sshd.service
sudo systemctl start sshd.service

-Enable remote desktop
sudo yum install x11vnc x11vnc-javaviewers
x11vnc -storepasswd
The above command creates /home/yourusername/.vnc/passwd file where yourusername is your usernmae
To run server
sudo /usr/bin/x11vnc -o /var/log/x11vnc.log -display :0 -rfbauth /home/bhupendra/.vnc/passwd -many -bg -http
access via java enabled browser using http://hostOrIP:5800
access via vnc client hostOrIP:5900
To disconnect all connected clients
x11vnc -R disconnect:all
To stop running x11vnc server
x11vnc -R stop
To autostart x11vnc server on logon
cd /etc/gdm/PostLogin
sudo cp Default.sample Default
Add following line to Default file
/usr/bin/x11vnc -o /var/log/x11vnc.log -display :0 -rfbauth /home/bhupendra/.vnc/passwd -many -bg -http

-make fast firefox 4 faster, in browser open about:config
Search and update following
network.http.max-connections change to 60 (default: 30)
network.http.max-connections-per-server change to 20 (default: 15)
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server change to 8 (default: 6)
network.http.pipelining change to true (default: false)
network.http.pipelining.ssl change to true (default: false)

-Added following firefox addons
fireftp
User Agent switcher
Download helper
Awesome screenshot
fast dial
firecookie
firebug
colorzilla
live http header
measureit
refcontrol
JSONview
poster
jsview
flashblock

-share media on dlna enabled devices [Samsung BD-6500]
sudo yum install ffmpeg java-1.6.0-openjdk
Open TCP 8895 and UDP 1900 ports in firewall
Download serviio-0.5.2-linux.tar.gz from http://www.serviio.org/download
cp serviio-0.5.2-linux.tar.gz /home/bhupendra [where bhupendra is my home directory]
tar xzvf serviio-0.5.2-linux.tar.gz
rm serviio-0.5.2-linux.tar.gz
cd serviio-0.5.2/bin
Now turn on your dlan enabled device
Then run
./serviio.sh
Then run following to add media directory
./serviio-console.sh
If you are not knowing what's happening take a look at serviio-0.5.2/log/serviio.log
I was tailing the log in seperate conosle to see which all media got added.

-remove unwated apps
sudo yum remove totem totem-mozplugin totem-nautilus orca evince evince-nautilus rhythmbox evolution sound-juicer cdparanoia
ran package-cleanup --leaves
and uninstalled unwanted apps from it.

-organize photos and upload to picasa. I used to install picasa and run it with wine installation, but no more now.
sudo yum install shotwell
shotwell has dependency on totem, waiting for 0.10 version which removes it. Till then totem needs to be installed.
If shotwell fails to upload, check upload limit on picasa web, we may have exceeded limit.
[Update: switched back to picasa since needed it for collage creation]
Downloaded the rpm from http://picasa.google.com/linux/download.html#picasa30
sudo yum localinstall picasa-3.0-current.i386.rpm
This installed all the dependency rpms too.
sudo yum install wine
Had to install wine since default picasa gives segmentation fault.
So to run picasa I use following:
wine "/opt/google/picasa/3.0/wine/drive_c/Program Files/Google/Picasa3/Picasa3.exe"

-Enable ssh
system-config-services was missing on fedora 15, so I manually installed it only to find that I cannot enable/disable services only start/stop them. So I uninstalled it and googled for more info and found this http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Systemd#How_do_I_start.2Fstop_or_enable.2Fdisable_services.3F
So after reading that, it was easy
sudo systemctl enable sshd.service
sudo systemctl start sshd.service

-Enable remote desktop
sudo yum install x11vnc x11vnc-javaviewers
x11vnc -storepasswd
The above command creates /home/yourusername/.vnc/passwd file where yourusername is your usernmae
To run server
sudo /usr/bin/x11vnc -o /var/log/x11vnc.log -display :0 -rfbauth /home/bhupendra/.vnc/passwd -many -bg -http
access via java enabled browser using http://hostOrIP:5800
access via vnc client hostOrIP:5900
To disconnect all connected clients
x11vnc -R disconnect:all
To stop running x11vnc server
x11vnc -R stop
To autostart x11vnc server on logon
cd /etc/gdm/PostLogin
sudo cp Default.sample Default
Add following line to Default file
/usr/bin/x11vnc -o /var/log/x11vnc.log -display :0 -rfbauth /home/bhupendra/.vnc/passwd -many -bg -http

-make fast firefox 4 faster
in browser open about:config
Search and update following
network.http.max-connections change to 60 (default: 30)
network.http.max-connections-per-server change to 20 (default: 15)
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server change to 8 (default: 6)
network.http.pipelining change to true (default: false)
network.http.pipelining.ssl change to true (default: false)
-Added following firefox addons
fireftp
User Agent switcher
Download helper
Awesome screenshot
fast dial
firecookie
firebug
colorzilla
live http header
measureit
refcontrol
JSONview
poster
jsview
flashblock

-share media on dlna enabled devices [Samsung BD-6500]
#USING SERVIO
sudo yum install ffmpeg java-1.6.0-openjdk
Open TCP 8895 and UDP 1900 ports in firewall
Download serviio-0.5.2-linux.tar.gz from http://www.serviio.org/download
cp serviio-0.5.2-linux.tar.gz /home/bhupendra [where bhupendra is my home directory]
tar xzvf serviio-0.5.2-linux.tar.gz
rm serviio-0.5.2-linux.tar.gz
cd serviio-0.5.2/bin
Now turn on your dlan enabled device
Then run
./serviio.sh
Then run following to add media directory
./serviio-console.sh
If you are not knowing what's happening take a look at serviio-0.5.2/log/serviio.log
I was tailing the log in seperate conosle to see which all media got added.
Added shortcut for serviio
/etc/share/applications/serviio-start.desktop with following in it.
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Serviio-start
Comment=Starts serviio
Icon=Serviio
Exec=/home/bhupendra/serviio-0.5.2/bin/serviio.sh
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=AudioVideo;Player;
StartupNotify=true
#USING TVMOBILI
I found video buffering issue with serviio and also intermittently the connection was breaking with my blue ray. So I downloaded rpm from http://www.tvmobili.com/download.php, installed it. And that's it - all done. It installs service which runs when my laptop starts. It picked up wifi and immediatly my Videos, PIctures, Music folders were available on my blue ray player.
Ensure 30888 port is enabled on firewall.
TVmobili comes with a web console which can be accessed as http://yourLocalNetworkIP:30888/__index?page=information

-Run ftp server
sudo yum install proftpd
sudo vi /etc/proftpd.conf
Change DefaultRoot to some specific directory. By default it opens up user's home directory. ftp credentials is same as user's login credentials on the machine.
to start ftp as service
sudo systemctl enable proftpd.service
sudo systemctl start proftpd.service

-Enable bluetooth
systemctl status bluetooth.service
systemctl enable bluetooth.service
systemctl start bluetooth.service
I still was unable to send files from my cell to laptop after pairing. Dmsg showed following
Parsing /etc/bluetooth/input.conf failed: No such file or directory
I am still looking at solutions, will post once I get.

vnc to current session on fedora

2011-05-22T17:18:00.000-07:00

Been using fedora 14 and wanted to set up vnc to current session on the running gnome desktop

#install server
sudo yum install x11vnc-javaviewers x11vnc

#set x11vnc password, it is written to /home/yourusername/.vnc/passwd where yourusername is your usernmae
x11vnc -storepasswd

#run server
#-forever so that it does not disconnect when client disconnets
#-display :0 so that client shadows current logged in session
#-usepw so that client uses password from /home/yourusername/.vnc/passwd on server
#-bg can be used for the x11vnc to go into into the background after screen setup.Messages to
stderr are lost unless -o logfile is used
x11vnc -forever -usepw -display :0

#set up x11vnc startup in xinetd for autostart
sudo yum install xinetd
sudo vi /etc/xinetd.d/x11vnc
Enter following in the file
service x11vnc
{
port = 5900
type = UNLISTED
socket_type = stream
protocol = tcp
wait = no
user = root
server = /usr/bin/x11vnc
server_args = -inetd -o /var/log/x11vnc.log -display :0 -rfbauth /home/yourusername/.vnc/passwd -many -bg
disable = no
}
Note here we are running the service as root so that it can access /var/log/x11vnc.log but use /home/yourusername/.vnc/passwd file created by yourusername

UPDATE:
my x11vnc server was sometimes giving error, probably it may be starting before x windows. So I removed inetd and it's config and instead added following to /etc/gdm/PostLogin/Default

#!/bin/sh
#Running x11vnc server
/usr/bin/x11vnc -o /var/log/x11vnc.log -display :0 -rfbauth /home/bhupendra/.vnc/passwd -many -bg

Nokia N8 - loving it

2010-12-04T07:36:00.000-08:00

Tips and tricks for nokia N8 for more battery life for daily use
-use default theme and screensaver since it's already loaded. The AMOLED display in your device consumes more power with white color. Therefore the themes with a lot of white colors (e.g. in wallpaper image) may consume more power than the other themes. Makes sense to use black wallpaper. When I go on vacation trips I use the black image as wallpaper.
-Turn off theme effects. This also speeds up homescreens. Settings -> Themes -> Options -> Theme Effects -> Off
-keep bluetooth off. Menu > Settings > Connectivity > Bluetooth > Bluetooth = Off)
-In the tone profile for normal:
--Set vibrating alert off
--Set volume to 6 bars or less (to reduce sound pollution :-) )
--Set touch screen vibration off instead of level 2
-turn off notification lights. Select Menu > Settings > Phone > Notification lights and disable the breathing light in Breathing light and adjust the light settings for different events in Notification light menu.
-close unused applications whenever possible. Leaving applications running in the background increases the demand on battery power. To close the applications you do not use, press and hold the menu key, swipe to the application in the list and close it by selecting X.

Tips to reduce battery usage under critical conditions
-Change the synchronisation frequency for your mailbox. Select Menu > Applications > Mail, your mailbox, and Options > Settings, and the relevant sync frequency settings.
-Deactivate the Big clock screen saver. Select Menu > Settings > Themes > Screen saver > None.
-Home screen widgets may periodically connect to internet if the home screen is in online mode. If you are not actively using the widgets, the automatic connection can be disabled by selecting Options > Widgets to offline mode on the home screen.
-Features that use wireless LAN (WLAN) increase the demand on battery power. WLAN on your Nokia device switches off when you are not trying to connect, not connected to another access point, or not scanning for available networks. To further reduce battery consumption, you can specify that your device does not scan, or scans less often, for available networks in the background. WLAN switches off in between background scans. When Menu > Settings > Connectivity > WLAN > Options > Settings > Show WLAN availability is set to Never, the WLAN availability icon is not shown in the standby mode. However, you can still manually scan for available WLAN networks and connect to WLAN networks as usual.

Let me know any more tips n tricks and I'll add up.

Updated: Got this link on nokia site, has more tips
http://www.nokiausa.com/get-support-and-software/product-support/n8-00/faq#00

Switched back to Fedora 13 Gnome

2010-08-18T15:40:00.000-07:00

After playing a lot with lxde on fedora 12,13 I got bored of it's plain looks, gmixer issue and occasional lxpanel and FF crashes. After looking at kde vs gnome vs xfce vs lxde comparisions I decided to go back to gnome. Above is the screenshot of my system after everything was done.

Downloaded Fedora-13-i686-Live.iso and installed. After installation did following:

echo 'bhupendra ALL=(ALL) ALL' >> /etc/sudoers
After this we can logout as root and run sudo yum ...

vi /etc/selinux/config
Change SELINUX=enforcing to SELINUX=disabled

-Enable touchpag clicks
sudo yum install gconf-editor
Open gconf-editor (not as root) and goto /desktop/gnome/peripherals/touchpad
select tap_to_click
select horiz_scroll_enable
select disable_while_typing

-Download 'yum for linux rpm' from http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/ for flash player in browser and adobe reader
yum install flash-plugin AdobeReader_enu

-Download and install skype rpm for fedora 10+
sudo rpm -ivh skype-2.1.0.81-fc10.i586.rpm

-Download picasa rpm from http://picasa.google.com/linux/download.html
sudo yum install lsb libgphoto2 openssl sane-backends audiofile esound-libs openssl-devel
sudo rpm -Uvh picasa-3.0-current.i386.rpm

-Install rpmfusion repos
sudo yum localinstall --nogpgcheck http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm

-Enable mp3 playback on rythmbox
sudo yum install gstreamer-plugins-ugly gstreamer-plugins-bad

-install java 6 and firefox java plugin for applet support
sudo yum install java-1.6.0-openjdk java-1.6.0-openjdk-plugin

-I tried microsoft office 2007 with wine and then with the trial version of code weaver's crossover. Let me tell you, crossover works great and seamless. However I later came to know that openoffice supports word 2007 formats (though partially). If I need full support and I my wish of using linux in my workplace comes true will definatly buy licensed copy of crossover for personal use as it's not at all expensive.
installed openoffice writer(word) and calc(excel)
sudo yum install openoffice.org-writer openoffice.org-calc
Install microsoft fonts for dealing with microsoft word documents
I always refer to mjwired for his excellent work on this. http://www.mjmwired.net/resources/mjm-fedora-f13.html

-removed unwated apps, also ran package-cleanup --leaves to see which packages are not being used
sudo yum remove pino gnome-games vinagre totem brasero sound-juicer

-Install other programs I need, vlc for videos, gimp for image manupulation and xboard as frontend to gnuchess
sudo yum install vlc mozilla-vlc gimp xboard gnuchess proftpd

-Update system
sudo yum update
I rebooted once done for sanity check

-Bluetooth
Bluetooth packages were installed by default
Enabled bluetooth service under services
to get services sudo yum install system-config-services
Bluetooth applet also sows up by default. Right click goto preferences, click 'recieve files' and check 'Recieve files in Downloads folder over bluetooth' and changed accpet files to 'always'.

-Virtual machines using virtualbox
Download Fedora repo file and move to /etc/yum.repos.d from http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads
yum install dkms gcc kernel-headers kernel-devel VirtualBox-3.2
I already had images of windows exported from my previous virtual box so just imported them.
Dont forget to add your user to vboxuser group for usb support on guests.

Show desktop icon available in panel configuration. By default ctrl+alt+D toggles desktop
set top and bottom panels transparent
Enable compiz via system->preferences->desktop effects
Change background image by right click on desktop. Set it default so that it reflects on login screen also.
open terminal goto edit->profile preferences->colors
uncheck use colors from system theme
select white on black system theme
goto background tab, and set transparent background to 50%
I also changed background image to Aqua and made panels transparent.
speed up firefox page loading, type about:config, search for network.dns.disableIPv6 and set it to true

Downloaded screenlets rpm but eventually removed it all since screenlets kept on crashing. Following dependencies were required for it.
sudo yum install gnome-python2-rsvg gnome-python2-rsvg python-imaging python-dateutil

to connect to other machines
sudo yum install rdesktop vpnc NetworkManager-vpnc
I configured vpnc under network manager to connect to my office nw and created office.sh with following
rdesktop -u username -p password -f hostOrIp
Open nautilus, goto edit->preferences->behaviour tab
select 'Run executable text files when they are opened'
This way our script executes directly instead of opening dialog box telling what to do.

Fedora 13 lxde spin - my personal installation

2010-06-07T20:10:00.000-07:00

Downloaded fedora 13 lxde spin cd and installed on my dell xps 1210 harddisk. By default it created seperate volumes for root and home partition which was a problem for me due to very less space. It's more convinient for me to have one volume to manage the diskspace so chaged the disk management while installaion.

Download rpmfusion from http://rpmfusion.org/Configuration
rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm
rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm
rpm -Uvh rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm

[All yum and rpm commands needs to be run as root]

yum update

echo 'bhupendra ALL=(ALL) ALL' >> /etc/sudoers
After this we can logout as root and run sudo yum ...

vi /etc/selinux/config
Change SELINUX=enforcing to SELINUX=disabled

-Enable left clicks and scrolling on mousepad
I added following lines to /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-synaptics.conf. If you do not have this file, check which conf file is present under /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d
Option "TapButton1" "1"
Option "HorizEdgeScroll" "1"
Option "VertEdgeScroll" "1"
Here is an interesting page to test scrolling: http://www.richinstyle.com/test/dynamic/overflowscroll.html
Reboot system.

-Download flash-plugin-10.0.45.2-release.i386.rpm for adobe flash from adobe's site
rpm -Uvh flash-plugin-10.0.45.2-release.i386.rpm

-Installed needed apps
yum install vlc mozilla-vlc audacious audacious-plugins-freeworld* NetworkManager-vpnc vpnc proftpd

-Default volume on system was less. Gmixer still annoyingly defaults to the mic options instead of speaker volume.
yum install pulseaudio-equalizer
I was able to ehance audio levels using this one.

-gtalk video calls
yum install x264 ffmpeg empathy
Unfortunalty this did not work for me. Though I was testing with 2 laptops where in only one had webcam. Hope this works for all.

-Download and install skype rpm for fedora 10+
rpm -Uvh skype-2.1.0.81-fc10.i586.rpm

-Disable screensaver
-enable ftp in firewall

-Remove unwated stuff
yum remove liberation-mono-fonts liberation-sans-fonts liberation-serif-fonts libertas-usb8388-firmware iok sylpheed lostirc asunder gxine xmms2 gnomebaker lxmusic libdiscid liberation-fonts-common m17n-lib

-cd/dvd burning. Though for kde, this is the best tool for the purpose.
sudo yum install k3b k3b-extras-freeworld
While burning cd-rw, I had to black out existing content which did not work. I got this error
/usr/bin/wodim: Operation not permitted. Warning: Cannot raise RLIMIT_MEMLOCK limits.
After looking at k3b site, it was recommended to disable automount and/or use unpatched cdrtools(wodim)
After looking around real hard, I opened pcmanfm, goto edit->preferences-> volume management tab, uncheck 'mount removable media automatically when inserted'. This did the trick instead of various other good suggestions.

-VirtualBox can now be installed from fpmfusion repos, installing dependencies has never been easier with manual rpm install.
yum install dkms VirtualBox-OSE VirtualBox-OSE-guest
Evils of using opensource edition is that after 2 days when I needed to connect my phone to xp guest, I was not able to add usb. Aparently open source edition does not support it.
So downloaded http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/3.2.0/VirtualBox-3.2-3.2.0_61806_fedora13-1.i686.rpm
yum remove VirtualBox-OSE VirtualBox-OSE-guest
yum install dkms gcc kernel-headers
rpm -Uvh VirtualBox-3.2-3.2.0_61806_fedora13-1.i686.rpm
Add virtualbox group to your user.
Any installation errors can be seen in and reinitialization done via /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup as root
Boot xp guest. I had to change network to intel pro/100 T server for my xps 1210.
Loaded guest additions cd from /usr/share/virtualbox/VBoxGuestAdditions.iso and installed on my xp guest
Added shared permanent folder.
To access shared folder under xp, open windows exporer, goto tools, map network drive.
select drive say eg. V
Browse for folder and you should see 'Virtualbox shared folders->//Vboxsrv'
Map it and create shortcut to desktop for easy access.

-Want video chat on yahoo
yum install gyachi

-google picasa. Download rpm from http://picasa.google.com/linux/download.html#picasa30. Will have to install few dependecies first.
yum install lsb libgphoto2 openssl sane-backends audiofile esound-libs openssl-devel
rpm -Uvh picasa-3.0-current.i386.rpm

-ssh between laptops on wireless network
enable and start sshd service under services
ensure firewall has ssh enabled

-ftp between 2 laptops on wireless network
install proftpd on one laptop
start ftp service using
sudo service proftpd start
Ensure ftp is enabled on firewall
Enable port 21 port forwading on router for ip of laptop having proftpd service.

-download google chrome and install rpm
http://www.google.com/chrome/eula.html?hl=en&brand=CHMA&utm_campaign=en&utm_source=en-ha-na-us-bk&utm_medium=ha

-My desktop folders and icons went missing after an update. To get back the icons open following
sudo vi /etc/xdg/lxsession/LXDE/autostar
Change @pcmanfm2 --desktop --profile lxde
to @pcmanfm --desktop --profile lxde

-Missing java plugin on firefox 3.6
Install openjdk
sudo yum install java-1.6.0-openjdk java-1.6.0-openjdk-plugin
Restart firefox and check if plugin comes up in about:plugins. If not then
sudo alternatives --config libjavaplugin.so
Enter the number for other .so file and restart firefox.

Picasa on fedora 12 lxde spin

2010-04-05T00:18:00.000-07:00

Download picasa rpm from http://picasa.google.com/linux/
I downloaded picasa-3.0-current.i386.rpm
sudo rpm -ivh picasa-3.0-current.i386.rpm

Above will ask for bunch of dependencies are required. Hence installed following:
sudo yum install openssl-devel openssl redhat-lsb libexif libgpohoto2 sane-backends-libs esound-libs

Note that without openssl-devel you will not be able to login to web using picasa.

Mount Lvm Partition and backup data using Live linux CD

2010-03-31T17:13:00.000-07:00

Once I ran yum update on my fedora 12 lxde spin and it broke. System was unable to boot. I had to take backup before reinstalling so booted with the fedora 12 lxde live cd and ran regular mount command mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/hdd but got error - "mount: unknown filesystem type 'LVM2_member'"

After lot of googling I came across [http://forums.opensuse.org/archives/sf-archives/archives-software/337006-can-not-mount-lvm-partition-2.html] which was a life saver for me and my data. Then I ran following commands with output [indented] to mount my volume.

pvscan

PV /dev/sda2 VG vg_xps lvm2 [74.33 GB / 0 free]

Total: 1 [74.33 GB] / in use: 1 [74.33 GB] / in no VG: 0 [0 ]

vgscan -v

Wiping cache of LVM-capable devices

Wiping internal VG cache

Reading all physical volumes. This may take a while...

Finding all volume groups

Finding volume group "vg_xps"

Found volume group "vg_xps" using metadata type lvm2

vgchange -ay -v

Finding all volume groups

Finding volume group "vg_xps"

2 logical volume(s) in volume group "vg_xps" already active

2 existing logical volume(s) in volume group "vg_xps" monitored

Found volume group "vg_xps"

Activated logical volumes in volume group "vg_xps"

2 logical volume(s) in volume group "vg_xps" now active

vgdisplay -v

Finding all volume groups

Finding volume group "vg_xps"

--- Volume group ---

VG Name vg_xps

System ID

Format lvm2

Metadata Areas 1

Metadata Sequence No 3

VG Access read/write

VG Status resizable

MAX LV 0

Cur LV 2

Open LV 1

Max PV 0

Cur PV 1

Act PV 1

VG Size 74.33 GB

PE Size 4.00 MB

Total PE 19029

Alloc PE / Size 19029 / 74.33 GB

Free PE / Size 0 / 0

VG UUID wDR2Xa-8km9-Q5f3-4y4f-jCyE-ebkn-pQbTev

--- Logical volume ---

LV Name /dev/vg_xps/lv_root

VG Name vg_xps

LV UUID OshzOn-H2WY-6GXP-W0D9-HBJ2-fqRD-6heWXi

LV Write Access read/write

LV Status available

# open 0

LV Size 72.33 GB

Current LE 18517

Segments 1

Allocation inherit

Read ahead sectors auto

- currently set to 256

Block device 253:2

--- Logical volume ---

LV Name /dev/vg_xps/lv_swap

VG Name vg_xps

LV UUID ScYasH-efcp-0yyP-i0FK-lcFJ-g33x-lo3bie

LV Write Access read/write

LV Status available

# open 1

LV Size 2.00 GB

Current LE 512

Segments 1

Allocation inherit

Read ahead sectors auto

- currently set to 256

Block device 253:3

--- Physical volumes ---

PV Name /dev/sda2

PV UUID oENBs0-bYPL-8Uh3-bZsJ-H6nZ-tjDv-DUH99M

PV Status allocatable

Total PE / Free PE 19029 / 0

Note down the "LV Name" for running next command. Here LV name is /dev/vg_xps/lv_root

lvchange -ay -v /dev/vg_xps/lv_root

Using logical volume(s) on command line

Activating logical volume "lv_root"

Found volume group "vg_xps"

cd /mnt

mkdir hdd

mount /dev/vg_xps/lv_root /mnt/hdd

The logical volume has been mounted under /mnt/hdd and we can take backup now.

For those interested in knowing why the yum update created issue with my fedora 12 lxde boot, it's because of kernel update of kernel-2.6.32.10-90 on system. Defect at https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=578217#c8. I tried to install kernel-2.6.32.10-94.fc12.i686.rpm and kernel-2.6.32.10-94.fc12.src.rpm from http://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji/buildinfo?buildID=164636 but same issue. Hence reinstalled lxde spin and sticking to 2.6.31.5-127.fc12.i686 by disabling updates untill fedora 13 comes out.

FEDORA 12 LXDE SPIN

2009-12-12T22:43:00.000-08:00

After reading about super effecient lxde and having xfce earlier, I was glad that fedora came up with lxde spin. After some trial and errors and lot of googling here is my personal installation guide for my dell xps 1210

-Download and install lxde spin for fedora 12. I used the 64bit spin on my dell xps 1210

-setup sudo
login as root and execute following
echo 'loginname ALL=(ALL) ALL' >> /etc/sudoers

-disabled selinux. Though this provides great security, sometimes it is very irritating for home use.
sudo vi /etc/selinux/config
Change SELINUX=enforcing to SELINUX=disabled

-setup rpmfusion and fastestmirror
sudo rpm -ivh http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm
sudo rpm -ivh http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm
run 'sudo yum install yum-plugin-fastestmirror'

-install apps that i like to use :-)
sudo yum install firefox mplayer gecko-mediaplayer mencoder gnome-mplayer java-1.6.0-openjdk java-1.6.0-openjdk-devel java-1.6.0-openjdk-plugin pidgin audacious audacious-plugins-freeworld* gpicview brasero

-Firefox tweaks
Installed following add-ons
firebug
firecookie
codeburner for firebug
colorzilla
downloadhelper
fastdial
http resource test
jsview
live http headers
measureit
modify headers
refcontrol
screengrab
Also set following params in about:config for better performace
network.dn.disableIPv6=true
network.http.pipelining=true
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests=8
network.http.pipelining.ssl=true
network.http.proxy.pipelining=true
ui.submenuDelay=0
nglayout.initialpaint.delay=0

-install flash plugin
For 32 bit sudo yum install flash-plugin should do it, but since I have 64 bit dual core, I downloaded http://download.macromedia.com/pub/labs/flashplayer10/libflashplayer-10.0.42.34.linux-x86_64.so.tar.gz and installed the plugin manually.
sudo tar -zxvf libflashplayer-10.0.32.18.linux-x86_64.so.tar.gz -C /usr/lib64/mozilla/plugins
[Well, make sure you get the latest version of the flash from this page http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/flashplayer10_64bit.html]

-install chromium instead of googe chrome
Download following rpm from http://spot.fedorapeople.org/chromium/F12/
v8-2.0.0-1.20091118svn3334.fc12.x86_64.rpm
chromium-4.0.252.0-0.1.20091119svn32498.fc12.x86_64.rpm

sudo yum install minizip nss-mdns
sudo rpm -ivh v8-2.0.0-1.20091118svn3334.fc12.x86_64.rpm chromium-4.0.252.0-0.1.20091119svn32498.fc12.x86_64.rpm

-install opera - seriosly page loads are faster than firefox
sudo yum install qt3
Download opera-10.10.gcc4.shared.qt3.x86_64.rpm from http://www.opera.com/download/
sudo rpm -ivh opera-10.10.gcc4.shared.qt3.x86_64.rpm

-install microsfot fonts.
Download the rpm created by at Mauriat. Many thanks to Mauriat Miranda for the rpm and notes at http://www.mjmwired.net/resources/mjm-fedora-f12.html
run 'sudo rpm -ivh msttcore-fonts-2.0-3.noarch.rpm'

-remove unwanted apps
run 'sudo yum remove midori gxine lxmusic xmms2 abiword iok osmo'
I also removed lot of unwanted font packages. eg. I dont read arabic, chinese, japanese and many more so why install the fonts.
run 'package-cleanup --leaves' and uninstall the listed packages
run 'sudo yum update' to update all the installed packages.
Once done reboot system

-webcam, worked out of the box with cheese application
sudo yum install cheese

-Install skype
sudo gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys 0xD66B746E
sudo gpg -a -o /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-skype --export 0xD66B746E
Add following to /etc/yum.repos.d/skype.repo and then call yum installed skype
[skype]
name=Skype Repository
baseurl=http://download.skype.com/linux/repos/fedora/updates/i586/
#gpgkey=http://www.skype.com/products/skype/linux/rpm-public-key.asc
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-skype
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1

Unfortunatly I found that this is the old version of skype. So I downloaded the new version from http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-linux-beta-fc10 and manually installed it
sudo rpm -Uvh skype-2.1.0.47-fc10.i586.rpm
Good thing with using the repo first was that the dependencies got installed and I need not manually hunt for those rpm packages.
Unfortunatly again, the new skype had issues with my webcam so i reverted back to the repo based skype version.

-Install Virtual box. I have win xp virtual machine in VirtualBox which I used for windows specific use eg. office apps.
Visit virtualbox site and check instructions for repo installation. But before that make sure you have following installed.
sudo yum install dkms gcc kernel-headers

-issue with touch pad. Scrolling and clicks did not work out of the box. I enabled click using following
sudo yum install xorg-x11-drv-synaptics
cp /usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/20thirdparty/10-synaptics.fdi /etc/hal/fdi/policy/
vi /etc/hal/fdi/policy/10-synaptics.fdi
Remove the comments around the match section in the file.
Either reboot or run following to see if touchpad click works
synclient TapButton1=1
Now for vertical scroll To verify if it's on or off, do the following
synclient -l | grep -i vertedge
If it reports VertEdgeScroll = 0, try to manually enable it
synclient VertEdgeScroll=1
If above works then add following merge line in /etc/hal/fdi/policy/10-synaptics.fdi
<merge key="input.x11_options.VertEdgeScroll" type="string">1</merge>
Many thanks to Walter Francis for his post http://fedorasolved.org/Members/khaytsus/configuring-synaptics-using-hal/?searchterm=None

-issue with keyring. When I setup my wireless, keyring popup asked me for password and I set up one. Then on every reboot if promted me to enter it which was annoying. So went and deleted /home/bhupendra/.gnome2/keyrings/default.keyring. Next time I logged back in, left keyring password emty and chose unprotected keyring settings.

-remove wallpaper, modify slim background
Slim's login screen wallpaper is background.jpg in /usr/share/slim/themes/default. I removed the symlink and dropped my own plain wallpaper.
Next to remove wallpaper on desktop, I right clicked desktop, click desktop settings and unchecked wallpaper. Instead set background color to #1B144D which was close to my login screen background image.
I wanted to remove use of wallpaper to minimize system resource use.

-disable plymouth boot screen
The plymouth graphical boot in fedora is nice but I wanted to remove it and see the conole log.
Removed rhgb quite from /boot/grub/grub.conf to achive this.
If you just want to try out other plymouth theme eg. solar (I was using this for a long time even in F11)
sudo yum install plymouth-theme-solar
plymouth-set-default-theme solar
/usr/libexec/plymouth/plymouth-update-initrd

-easy vpnc setup
I need to use cisco vpn to connect to office network. Originally I was using vpnc package and configured the setup in /etc/vpnc/default.conf. But F12 comes with nice gui setup via network manager. Make sure you have following packages for cisco
sudo yum install NetworkManager-vpnc vpnc

-bluetooth
Since lxde does not have it's own bluetooth manager, I installed bluez and hoped it would work. It did work but few gnome specific packages were also installed. Atleast I was able to see my nokia n80's bluetooth.

-minor issue with gmixer and volume control buttons on laptop
Gmixer is good but by default it sets control buttons to my mic instead of speaker. I have to manually select HDA intel alsa mixer in the selection and then change volume

-connecting to tv
Miss the gnome system-config-monitor. Using monitor settings in lxde i.e lxrandr I could only change screen resolution. I wanted to replicate my laptop screen to tv when connected with svideo and came up with following scripts.
#tvconnect
xrandr --auto --output LVDS1 --mode 800x600
xrandr --auto --output TV1 --mode 800x600 --same-as LVDS1

#tvdisconnect
xrandr --output TV1 --off
xrandr --output LVDS1 --mode 1280x800

I had to change the resolution from 1280x800 to 800x600 since that was the correct fit for my big non hd toshiba tv.

With all of the above changes, my cpu usage has seldom crossed 20% and memory usage was always under 500mb under normal use. Think my F12 lxde xps 1210 is faster than better high end laptops running bloted win* :-)

speed up gnome on fedora 11

2009-09-09T20:08:00.000-07:00

disable unnecessary services eg. bluetooth and print services when not in use.

cd
touch .gtkrc-2.0
echo "gtk-menu-popup-delay = 0"| tee -a .gtkrc-2.0

login as root or sudo
yum install gconf-editor
open gconf-editor by typing it on terminal
goto /->apps->metacity->general and check 'reduced resources'

Need two OS on single laptop/machine

2009-03-22T19:52:00.000-07:00

-Download virtualbox from http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads. Downloads available for multiple host OS.
-I installed rpm for fedora 10 and also installed dkms so that my kernel upgrades do not give probelms
-The install creates a group vboxusers. my user being 'bhupendra' I added it to this group.
-To start virtulbox gui type in VirtualBox [V abd B should be capital] and follow the instructions.

Well I thought things would be ok, but while launching VirtualBox, I got following error:
WARNING: The vboxdrv kernel module is not loaded. Either there is no module
available for the current kernel (2.6.27.19-170.2.35.fc10.i686) or it failed to
load. Please recompile the kernel module and install it by

sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup

You will not be able to start VMs until this problem is fixed.
WARNING: The compilation of the vboxdrv.ko kernel module failed during the
installation for some reason. Starting a VM will not be possible.
Please consult the User Manual for build instructions.

So changed to root user and ran /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup only to find out that the setup failed. Fortunately the log showed that I did not have gcc installed so did yum install gcc. After that the setup was smooth and VirtualBox gui was up.

disk full on fedora 10? clean it up...

2009-02-06T14:30:00.000-08:00

Use gnome's disk usage analyser to get insight on possible junk data. It came handy for me.

I saw deleted torrent data from my transmission in /home/myusername/.local/share/Trash/files. Ran 'rm-rf *' to delete everything here.

Have heard that tempwatch is good to delete /tmp folder. Run or add tmpwatch to cron tab. 'tmpwatch -maf 4 /tmp' deletes tmp files older than 4 hours.

run 'yum clean all' to clear yum cache.

Sometimes we install a package which install bunch of dependencies. Later when we remove using yum, the dependencies are not removed. Use
package-cleanup --leaves
to get list of unused packages and remove them.

After doing above 3 things my 'df -h' statistics jumped from 25% / usage to 13% / usage :-)

connect office networks with vpn on linux

2009-01-21T20:27:00.000-08:00

-install licensed cisco vpn client on windows os to check if it works fine.
-copy the *.pcf file which is the configuration file.
-on your linux install vpnc
-run following to get the value for [decrypted enc_GroupPwd]
cisco-decrypt [value of enc_GroupPwd from the *.pfc]
-now edit /etc/vpnc/default.conf with values from pfc file
IPSec gateway [Host]
IPSec ID [GroupName]
IPSec secret [decrypted enc_GroupPwd]
Xauth username [your username for vpn connection]
-now run "sudo vpnc", it would ask for password key and once set runs as a background process
-to disconnect type "vpnc-disconnect"

Register and create your website - all for free

2009-01-18T16:26:00.000-08:00

DOMAIN REGISTRATION AND DNS FOR FREE
-Open account on freedns.afraid.org
-I did not have any domain registered. once logged in, click the "registry" to choose your domain eg. mooo.com and click on it. Ensure that the domain is public.
-Now you are creating a subdomain from the available domains. Select type A, type your subdomain eg. I did bhupendra. Your external ip would already be captured. Hit save and you are done.

SETTING UP LOCAL SITE
-I have a laptop running fedora 10 configured to netgear wireless router and had to make few changes as follow:
#router changes ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-keep router as DHCP for devices attached to the network eg. my laptop however I reserved 192.168.1.2 for my laptop
-enable port forwarding for http on port 80 from my router to 192.168.1.2
-both the above steps can vary depending on your router however most of the basic router do come with these features. Also be sure to upgrade your firmware just to get best security and features.
#laptop changes-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-system should be aware of the network ip address. I removed the dhcp setting for my wlan0 and set static ip of 192.168.1.2 with subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 as specified by my router.
-open system-config-firewall and enable http/80 which is disabled by default
-install apache. yum install httpd httpd-tools
-edit /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf to remove welcome page include and/or comment entries in /etc/httpd/conf.d/welcome.conf
-create /var/www/html/index.html to serve your custom welcome page
-"apachectl start" to start your apache.

TEST
-goto http://localhost to verify if your apache is up and default index.html is picking up
-goto http://192.168.1.2 or http://yournetworkip to see if your static ip for network is all ok
-goto http://bhupendra.mooo.com to check if your external domain is working

A WORD FOR IMPATIENT
If you are impatient like me, just take a break go out for a smoke or something. And even after few hours things dont work, get a manual for your router which I did and found about a NAT filtering option which is a firewall on the router which was blocking the port forwading. I changed the NAT filtering from secured to open and things began to work.

EXTERNAL IP ALWAYS CHANGES? no probs
-download script to update the external ip from http://freedns.afraid.org/scripts/freedns.clients.php
-I use http://freedns.afraid.org/scripts/dnsactual.sh.txt simple and clean. Just download the script, remove txt, give permission of your default user on linux and add crontab entry to schedule it to run say 5 min or more as per your ip lease expiry.

THE DOWNSIDE AS I SEE IT........
http://freedns.afraid.org/faq/#16
alternative: If you want your site to be google seo friendly then register a domain (not free) and set the domain in your freedns account. you can then create subdomain on the registered domain instead of using it off the available freedns public domains.

Fedora 10 out and on my xps 1210

2008-11-27T07:21:00.000-08:00

Fedora 10 went GA on 25th nov 08 and I was counting days for over a month. I was pretty happy with fedora 9 with few exception of system crashes when using skype. In any case I had to try out the new version. Believe me, I never had a troublefree all working linux before. Always something or other had problems. Audio, else video or flash or jdk.......but not this time.

-INSTALL
This time instead of downloading the dvd image, i decided to get the gnome live cd since the download times is less for this.
Booted through the cd, click the desktop item and the install started. If you have installed fedora before this should not be any different.
My wireless internet was easy to configure and less cranky than on fedora 9.

-POST INSTALL
no open office, no jdk
instead found abiword
Fine good for me, I prefer to install openoffice and jdk manually myself.
Here is the list of packages I removed/added:
yum remove pidgin
yum install empathy [bye bye pidgin and hello empathy - gtalk call support]
yum install vlc [for all my video needs]
I had xmms on fedora 9 but decided to use rythmbox going forward as it was already installed. There are radio channels in it. free music :-)
yum install gnome-applet-netspeed [I like to see how much bandwidth my comcast internet connection gives, I had to configure the applet on panel]
yum remove abiword
yum install wget
wget http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-linux-fc7 [downloading skype rpm]
rpm -ivh skype-2.0.0.72-fc5.i586.rpm [after install, had to chage audio settings]
Also downloaded the rpm for adobe reader and flash player from adobe site and installed them. The flash plugin showed up on about:plugins on firefox and youtube was working without any headaches [really surprised]y
yum install gstreamer-plugin* [to add mp3 support to rythmbox]
For java and openoffice, I followed the install instruction on respective sites. [quite similar to my install on fedora 9 actually]

Ahh.....after a day, when I actually installed jdk1.6.0.10, my logmein on firefox did not work. firefox started hanging on remote connectivity. Suspecting java plugin issue, reverted back to the old version i had on fedora 9 which was jdk1.6.0.07. Everything works fine now.

oops few more days and I found that I am not able to connect my laptop to tv to watch youtube videos. After heavy googling, i came to know that something has broken in f10 and was forced to play around with randr
-to see connections run
xrandr
-to configure dual monitor
xrandr --output TV --mode 800x600 --set TV_FORMAT NTSC-M
-to stop replication to tv
xrandr --output TV --off

Though my entire 12 inch monitor is not correctly replicated on tv screen, it's sufficient to see youtube videos on full screen mode.

My personal Fedora 9 installation

2008-10-26T08:27:00.000-07:00

I have dell xps 1210 and fedora 9 works superb with it.

-partition layout
2 primary partition one for winxp and one for linux. Third partition for data to be shared by both OS. First and third NTFS and formatted 2nd as ext3 using partition magic.

-Dual booting
My winxp was always present but i rarely use it. In order to experint with other OS (to name a few: FreeBSD and fedoras) I installed GAG boot manager.

-Install fedora 9
Download fedora 9 dvd for gnome preferably using torrent. Boot the dvd for install. Do not forget to "remove all linux partitions" (since we had preformatted 3rd partition using ext3) and select advanced boot loader configuration to install linux boot loader on first sector of boot partion instead of MBR.

-what to install
I did not select to install games and java or any other developer tools since i wanted to install them manually. Also do not install open office if you plan intall java manually. open office from software repo install jre 1.5. I wanted everything to run on jdk 6

-post installation
1. Firs thing i configured was my wireless network.
2. Once internet was available i got loads of software updates, of which i updated most using yum and ignored rest.
3. download EasyLife for fedora 9. This does most of the boring but much needed tasks like adding livna repo, installing skype, add flash support to firefox etc. Select whatever you like when you run the script, note that here also i selected not to install java since i wanted the complete sun version instead of almost perfect open jdk implementation.
4. configure skype
Go to skype options - sound devices. For my laptop configuration following works when earphones and mic are plugged in
sound in: usb device 0x46d:0x8c6 (hw:U0x46d0x8c6,0)
sound out:HDA intel (hw:intel,0)
ringing:HDA intel (hw:intel,0)
Play around with the options till you figure out which one is for you. I did the same.
5. install pidgin for all my yahoo/gmail/aol messenger needs using yum
6. installed xmms and vlc for all my audio and video needs
7. installed k3b for all my cd/dvd burning needs
8. I hated the default desktop on this one and even if i changed it, the same old image was appearing on logon screen. Seems some modifications are in plan and i had to use a hack to get what i want. I liked the sulphur wallpaper. So i went to /usr/share/background/waves and edited all the image paths in waves.xml to point to sulphur-on-waves.png located in same folder.

-Note though rpm provides easy interface for installing uninstalling packages, for developer tools i always prefer installing manually for 2 reaons:
1. I can intall latest version which may not be available in rpm
2. I have control over what to install and where to install.

-installing jdk
Downloaded and installed jdk-6u7-linux-i586.bin under /opt. Follow instructions for jdk install for non-rpm binary. It's really sweet.
I had to edit /home/bhupendra/.bashrc to have java_home and path available to bhupendra. However finally decided to add the path to /etc/profile so that it gets available to all users just in case.
As for java plugin for firefox, followed sun java instructions. In /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins made a symlink as follow:
ls -s /opt/jdk1.6.0_07/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so and restarted firefox.

-open office
for open office downloaded OOo_2.4.1_LinuxIntel_install_wJRE_en-US.tar.gz and followed install instructions on site
to uninstall goto /opt/open... and ./setup to start the uninstallation wizard.

-eclipse
downloaded eclipse-jee-ganymede-SR1-linux-gtk.tar.gz and moved to /opt
tar xvzf eclipse-jee-ganymede-SR1-linux-gtk.tar.gz
to run eclipse /opt/eclipse/eclipse or goto /opt/eclipse and ./eclipse
if eclipse is ran as user bhupendra, default workspace is created at /home/bhupendra/workspace which was fine with me

-Tomcat 6
downloaded apache-tomcat-6.0.18.tar.gz, copied to /opt
tar xvzf apache-tomcat-6.0.18.tar.gz
mv apache-tomcat-6.0.18.tar.gz tomcat6 (renames the folder)
goto /opt/tomcat6/bin and to start ./catalina start and to stop ./catalina stop
Also added CATALINA_HOME and tomcat's bin on PATH
I was root when i installed tomcat as mentioned above. Hence i always had to login as root to start/stop tomcat. Note if you do not want to start/stop tomcat using root then goto /opt/tomcat6 and change owner
chown -R bhupendra *

-RDBMS
I was in dilema to install mysql or oracle. Though I had installed and used mysql on windows before, i was using oracle in my office. Hence thought of giving it a try. Plus my friend madhav had already installed oracle on centOS so i knew it would work. After googling for some time, found an excellent writeup for oracle on fedora 9. Only modification i made was instead of having a new oracle user, i used my existing user id so that i could start stop oracle using same user. Also instead of installing to /u01/app/oracle/product/11.1.0/db_1, installed at /opt/oracle/product/11.1.0/db_1. Being a lazy bum i created scripts to start and stop oracle from desktop.
#-------------------------------------
#ora_dbca.sh (opens oracle database configuration assistant)
#-------------------------------------
#!/bin/bash
/opt/oracle/product/11.1.0/db_1/bin/dbca

#------------------------------------------------------------------------
#ora_DB11G_start.sh (starts the DB11G database and listener)
#------------------------------------------------------------------------
#!/bin/bash
$ORACLE_HOME/bin/lsnrctl start
$ORACLE_HOME/bin/dbstart $ORACLE_HOME
emctl start dbconsole

#------------------------------------------------------------------------
#ora_DB11G_stop.sh (stops the DB11G database and listener)
#------------------------------------------------------------------------
#!/bin/bash
emctl stop dbconsole
$ORACLE_HOME/bin/dbshut $ORACLE_HOME
$ORACLE_HOME/bin/lsnrctl stop