Nc6120
This computer is used by myself (Alan/Administrator) as a desktop for internet, office and some remote admin, et al. The OS is regally updated to the latest stable Fedora, currently being Fedora 16, although I install VirtualBox to run other operating systems on it (namely Windows.) The model is Compaq nc6120 with 2GB ram installed. The network cards use DHCP.
So here's all the stuff I ran, after first boot...
Contents |
Disable Services
Since Fedora 15 chkconfig is out and the command systemctl is in. To list services you can either do
systemctl | grep .services
or install the gui (which is buggy so don't rely on it to stop services, only for browsing them)
su root -c "yum install systemd-gtk" systemadm
The services I remove are
systemctl disable lvm2-monitor.service systemctl disable sandbox.service systemctl disable mdmonitor-takeover.service systemctl disable ebtables.service systemctl disable iptables.service systemctl disable ip6tables.service systemctl disable ipsec.server systemctl disable netconsole.service systemctl disable rpcbind.service systemctl disable nfs-lock.service systemctl disable nfs-idmap.service systemctl disable avahi-daemon.service systemctl disable livesys-late.service systemctl disable abrtd.service systemctl disable sm-client.service systemctl disable sshd.service systemctl disable sshd-keygen.service systemctl disable mdmonitor.service systemctl disable abrt-ccpp.service systemctl disable abrt-vmcore.service systemctl disable abrt-oops.service systemctl disable fedora-storage-init-late.service systemctl disable sendmail.service
Yes, I've disabled iptables. I'm aware this is a security risk.
Another thing you can do to speed up the installation, specificity concerning boot times, is to run in terminal
systemd-analyze blame
which will give a pretty list of services and commands run on boot and how long they took. The longest is at the top. When I last ran that command, I noticed some other stuff slowing down the boot. This list will probably change, but for now what I did based on the command is as follows...
systemctl disable dirsrv-admin.service systemctl disable var-lib-nfs-rpc_pipefs.mount systemctl mask var-lib-nfs-rpc_pipefs.mount systemctl disable systemd-readahead-replay.service systemctl disable systemd-readahead-collect.service systemctl disable nfs-lock.service
General Junk
Most of the junk I install is listed on the Main Page under Clients so go there and do that stuff first.
- General Install
After the general client programs I install, there are a few more I like to install on this PC. Some of this stuff requires the extra repo's to be added first. When I did this last it ended up becoming 137 packages worth 329M Download (922M install) due to all the dependants! If you want to check what any of these packages are for (and anyone not myself should as you'll probably find you have no use for half of these) then use e.g. yum info BlockOutII .
We need root for this simple wget of the repo's, because of the repo folder being protected.
su root -c "wget http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/rpm/fedora/virtualbox.repo --directory-prefix=/etc/yum.repos.d/"
Now the packages (herby known as the yum megaline)
su root -c "yum install rfkill grsync inkscape ettercap wireshark 389-admin gimp VirtualBox-4.1 gwibber gnome-games-extra rdesktop BlockOutII preload guake -ty"
- Guake
Yes, that's with a 'G' not a 'Q'. This rather useful program for terminal lovers needs a slight bit of extra setup after being installed in the yum megaline. Firstly, to get it to start automatically on boot edit the startup scripts file in Gnome3.
mkdir ~/.config/autostart cd ~/.config/autostart vim guake.desktop
then inside that file, copy, paste....
[Desktop Entry] Type=Application Exec=/usr/bin/guake Hidden=true X-GNOME-Autostart-enabled=true Name[en_US]=guake Name=guake Comment[en_US]=Drop down terminal Comment=Drop down terminal
Start the program and edit the settings by going into terminal (the old fashion way) with
guake -p &
Anytime you want terminal, just hit F12!
Firefox Tweaks
Not such a serious part of setting up my laptop, but I still find there are a few tweaks to Firefox 8 that make things more enjoyable. No, I don't use Chrome. Yet.
The first annoyance is when I use the "Pin As App Tab" by right clicking on a new tab (basicly Twitter and Facebook, Google Mail,) the created 'App Tabs' disappear after reloading Firefox by default. This can be fixed by using putting about:config in the address bar, clicking on 'I'll be careful' and then searching for
browser.showQuitWarning.
and simply enabling it. Oddly, this seems to have no effect on any quit warnings, but it does mean the pinned app tabs remain.
On my network I don't really have much in the way of IPv6 yet, although I'm working on it, and at least my ISP has no support at all for it yet. So a speed improvement can be made by going back to about:config and changing
network.dns.disableIPv6
to true and restarting Firefox.
Another must have for new installations is going to Tools , Add-ons. I install the following...
- Adblock Plus - For blocking adverts and the odd cookie
- Firebug - For developing websites, lots of features
- Web Developer - Like the name suggests, for developing websites. Allows CSS to be turned off, very usefull.
Gnome 3
- Themes and Basic Extensions
Gnome 3 is rapidly growing on me, even though I find I have to use gnome-tweak-tool to turn the minimize and maximize buttons back on. The disappointing thing about it for me is the lack of colour with the default theme. There is only so much black I can handle, so first thing I do is install a new theme. By chance I like the YUM installable themes, so I just install them, but if anyone reading this wants some more try looking on www.half-left.deviantart.com
su root -c "yum install gnome-shell-theme* gnome-shell-extensions-common gnome-shell-extensions-user-theme -ty"
Unfortunately after installing these themes, Fedora 16 neglected to install a program to select any of them, so install the gnome-tweak-tool
su root -c "yum install gnome-tweak-tool -ty"
Then reset Gnome3 so that the extensions get loaded by ALT+F2 and running command restart, finally we can then tweak the theme by running
gnome-tweak-tool
Ignore the crazy hat man picture, and click on Shell Extensions and turn on User Theme Extension. Then click Themes on the left menu, and you can change the Shell Theme. Except there is a currently a bug mentioned here (12/12/11) with this, meaning even after you enable the User Theme Extension you get a message "Shell user-theme extension not enabled."! Until this gets sorted out in the repos, you can fix it by renaming - WHILE ROOT -
cd /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/ mv user-theme@gnome-shell-extensions.gcampax.github.com/ user-theme@gnome-shell-extensions.gnome.org/ cd user-theme@gnome-shell-extensions.gnome.org/ vim extension.js
and in that file, change any references of gcampax.github.com to gnome.org like in the file mv command.
My favourite theme is called Smooth-Inset, much lighter then the default! Now, while we are playing around with the tweaks, I do really miss the minimize, so I re-enable it by Arrangement of Buttons on Taskbar and generally play around with the settings. After each change to the settings, remember to ALT+F2 and restart for the changes to take effect.
Finally, because they are incredibly small, I just go ahead and install the other extensions, even though I don't ever use half of them. I've added a few excludes because they are known to cause problems or just don't work any more.
yum install gnome-shell-extension-* -x gnome-shell-extension-pidgin -x gnome-shell-extension-gpaste -x gnome shell-extension-theme-selector
and again
gnome-tweak-tool
to enable the tweaks. I highly recommend aternative-status-menu which lets you shutdown your computer using the top right drop down.
Finally, if you want to install even more extensions you can use the somewhat excellent [1] which is still in Alpha and doesn't have a search, but already looks very impressive and lets you turn on, off, and install extensions all from the comfort of the Firefox browser. From the site I personally use...
Advanced Settings (Tweet Tool) In Username
Music Integration in/on Volume Icon
GMail Notify Icon & Status
Display just an icon for status menu (Removes your name)
When done do the ALT+F2, restart thing.
- Google Calendar GNOME Shell Integration (without Evolution)
While the Gnome Online Account's feature is very useful (even though at time of writing it only supports Google) there is a annoyance that the Calendar feature, by default, relies on Evolution to be install to work. Not that having Evolution installed in the background is really an issue, but there is a work around to remove it and still use the Calendar Shell integration with Google. Also, when you click 'Open Calendar' I want it to open Google Contacts and not Evolution. That way, I only have to use one interface for my emails.
There are two tricks to this. First is a trick that I've developed slightly from what's on the Web UPD8 website. To start with download and install dependencies and the package itself...
sudo yum install git-core pygtk2 dbus-python python-gdata python-iso8601 gnome-python2-gnomekeyring cd ~/Downloads/ git clone https://github.com/vintitres/gnome-shell-google-calendar.git
Now move the download and hide it away so I can't see it...
mv ~/Downloads/gnome-shell-google-calendar/ ~/.gnome-shell-google-calendar/ cd ~/.gnome-shell-google-calendar
Now run it for the first time in the CLI so we can configure it, the email settings come from the Gnome Online Accounts, cool huh?
./gnome-shell-google-calendar.py
Leave it running for awhile for everything to sync up, then you'll get Scheduler waiting for updater thread to end... which seems to mean everything is done so end the sync with CTRL - C. Next step is to get the sync running on Gnome3 startup, which is done by
vim ~/.config/autostart/gshellgcalendar
and putting in...
[Desktop Entry] Type=Application Exec=~/.gnome-shell-google-calendar/gnome-shell-google-calendar.py Hidden=false X-GNOME-Autostart-enabled=true Name[en_GB]=GCalendar Sync Name=GCalendar Sync Comment[en_GB]=Google Calendar Sync for Gnome Shell Comment=Google Calendar Sync for Gnome Shell
or you can just use the GUI - gnome-session-properties
That's the sync sorted, but one bug remains. If you click the "open calendar" button when looking at the calendar in gnome shell a box will pop up complaining that it can't find evolution. There are two ways to fix this, the more professional way seems to be editing a dconf key by installing and launching dconf-editor and changing the schema path org.gnome.desktop.default-applications.office.calendar / exec or the ugly hack way is how I like to do it. Just create a bash file called 'evolution'.
sudo vim /usr/bin/evolution
with just two lines in it...
#!/bin/bash /usr/bin/firefox -new-tab 'http://calendar.megazirt.co.uk'>/dev/null 2>&1 &
not forgetting...
sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/evolution
And hay presto, Gnome 3 Shell, syncing Google Calendar without Evolution.
- Online Accounts and Chat
A fantastic new feature of Gnome 3.1 is the "online accounts" feature that links in very nicely with Empathy. I'm in love with the chat bar on the bottom of the screen! Unfortunately when setting up there is a small problem on laptop that doesn't seem well documented, where Empathy won't let me sign into MSN Live Messenger. After much searching I've found the problem lies in the telepathy-butterfly package and to fix remove any existing MSN accounts and then run..
sudo rpm -e --nodeps telepathy-butterfly
Note that you really have to use the rpm command as yum will remove the Empathy as well due to what it thinks is a dependency. Once telepathy-butterfly is removed, reinstall the accounts. A strange issue I found sometimes is I have to log into Hotmail via a browser, then with the browser open setup the MSN / Hotmail account again and it works.
Drivers
- Ensure rfkill installed, so that the ipw2200 wireless can be turned off and on using the hardkey correctly.
su root -c "yum install rfkill -ty"
In case the wireless is already hard off, use
rfkill list rfkill unblock all
- Install Dad's printer drivers - Cannon MP600. The MP610 drivers that come with Fedora 14 don't work correctly.
su root -c "yum install libxml gtk+ -ty"
Then install common drivers
rpm -i cnijfilter-common-2.70-1.i386.rpm
and then the specific drivers
rpm -i cnijfilter-mp600-2.70-2.i386.rpm
The required files are on the samba server, under the drivers/printers/canon folder. When the rpm's are installed goto System -> Administration -> Printers and add the printer, the drivers appear as M600.
- Install my printer drivers - HP Deskjet F4180. This time, the drivers work perfectly!
First, install all the HP printer drivers.
su root -c "yum install hpijs* -ty"
If you then plug in the printer via USB everything is setup automagicly, though you can always add it manually. The scanner drivers are slightly different. The command I use also installs what I consider to be a better scanner program than the "simple scan" software installed by default, called xSANE or "Scanner Tool".
su root -c "yum install libsane-hpaio xsane xsane-gimp -ty"
- Setup a decent Bluetooth manager. The default gnome-bluetooth works great for quick day-to-day use, but if I want to pair up new devices I find Blueman has a few extra features. Note that in Fedora 16 at least, removing gnome-bluetooth now removes gnome-shell, so leave it be!!
su root -c "yum install blueman -ty"
Blueman seems to setup itself to start automatic after login.
