Fedora Core 4: A New User's First Impressions

[QBRADQ 0]

Hello all!

 

I've been messing around with Linux for the past couple of days, and in the process I destroyed my Windows 2K installation. I tried Gentoo, however that's a story for another post. What I'm focusing on here is Fedoracore 4 Linux, i386.

 

Installing

 

I must say that it was a major let down to see a graphical installation system. It's not that I have anything against GUI s, it's just that it doesn't feel like Linux, ya' know?

 

The GUI lets you manually partition your drives and select all the packages you want installed. However, you can't compile anything for yourself, not even the kernel. While this might have seemed like a plus to me just a few days ago, after messing around with Gentoo this is a definite black-ball point. It's got ISDN, PCMCIA, and a whole bunch of other things compiled in that I simply don't need.

 

I am very happy with the fact that the install process does leave you with a GUI desktop environment if you want it to. Compared with Gentoo, this is the only reason that I am currently using (and plan to continue using) Fedora.

 

Configuration

 

Configuring Fedora was a breeze. It's got this nice GUI for it that holds your hand all the way through, kinda like Windows. All of the nitty-gritty stuff like fstab is taken care of for you. Even network configuration is done through a GUI (actually during the install process).

 

Opperating Environment

 

Fedora is running quite fast on my system (AthXP1700+, 1GB RAM, nVidia GeForce 3), much faster than Mandrake 9 did. A comparison between Fedora and Gentoo would be irrelevant for me, as I never got Gentoo out of Xterm.

 

The KDE environment that Fedora installs (the minimal environment) is quite slick. All the administrative tools run very well and function properly.

 

Hardware

 

As expected, all hardware other than my modem works great. I had a US Robotics 56K that was supposed to be hardware-controller based (I.E., that's what it said on the box). However, that is not the case. In fact it's printed right on the board, "US Robotics 56K WM. I HATE WIN MODEMS! Yesh!

 

Anyway, after calling literally every computer shop in the county (including Best Buy, Office Depot, and even Wal Mart), I found a single serial modem collecting dust on a shelf at a local custom build shop. It set me back $75 USD, but it's the best modem I've ever owned

 

BTW, after figuring out that my serial port is /dev/ttyS0, the networking GUI worked perfectly.

 

Conclusion

 

All in all, Fedoracore 4 seems a good mix of ease-of-use and customization for the amateur Linux user. For an MCP that rarely spends any time outside the Microsoft shop, Fedora is treating me well. However, as I said before, I am disappointed that I didn't get to compile anything. Ahh well, you can't have it all I suppose

 

Once I've had some time to play around with installing new packages and mucking around in Gnome, I'll reply here with thoughts on those topics as well. Till then, it's good to be back!

 

P.S. I don't know if it's Konqueror or KDE that's doing this auto-spellcheck inside the browser window, but I friggin' love it! That's what I've always needed

 

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Edited August 21, 2005 by microscopic^earthling (see edit history)

[QBRADQ 0]

Sorry, forgot to put a link in to the Fedora page.

fedora.redhat.com

It's four CDs, but it's worth it in my opion, as you can load it on a networkless system.

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[vizskywalker 0]

Actually, a couple of points:1: You can shoose to install without the GUI, it's one of the boot options for the CD.2: You can also download 1 DVD instead of 4 CDsNow my question, for download, did you use a mirror, and if so, which one because I've had trouble downloading discs 1 and 4.~Viz

[abhiram 0]

I've had some trouble with FC4. I've been trying to install it on some computers which use SATA drives. For some reason, it just comes up to the install options window (where you have to choose GUI or text install) and then, no matter what parameters I pass, I get a kernel panic and the installation hangs in seconds. I've tried giving all the options but it didn't work. I thought there was a problem with the CDs. But then I got a DVD from a friend of mine and still it didn't work. Finally I got pissed off and installed Mepis which fortunately is working quite well. Has anyone installed FC4 on systems with SATA drives?

[miCRoSCoPiC^eaRthLinG 0]

I faced the same problem of Kernel Panic with SATA drives at my home recently - although it had installed all fine on my office comp. Anyone with solutions ?? It's not corrupt CD for sure.A word about downloads - don't ever try downloading from the main Redhat Archives - it'll take yearssssss. Their servers are extremely overloaded and very slow. I invariably always go for mirrors. I can't recall which one, right now - but there are a couple of university hosted mirrors. Those are the fastest ones around the block.

[unimatrix 0]

Funny thing is that Linux still has issues with a lot of drivers. I remember when I first installed SuSE 6.4 on my old PII 400 (now running FreeBSD 3.4 still. I guess I should update, but its only a 200GB file server. So until it dies...) Anyway, I finally ripped out a 33.6 modem that had jumpers from the old 486 and installed. Linux loved it. I think its funny that after all these years there are still modem issues with Linux.I learned a lot of the Unix basics from Linux, but I graduated to the real Unixes including AIX, Solaris, and then FreeBSD & OpenBSD's.

[QBRADQ 0]

Well, I downloaded from the main archives and had no troubles at all. Got full speed too. Then again, full speed at the office is ~40KB/Sec.

As far as the so-called "text mode" install, it actualy uses some type of curses. It's not really text mode, it's just rendered in text mode.

As far as SATA drives, I did not have a problem with mine. Then again, I didn't have it pluged in when I installed on my 40GB EIDE. However, now that Fedora is up and runing, it sees my SATA just fine. It doesn't really matter though, 'cause it's NTFS for now.

As far as the drivers issues, I am assuming that you are refering to non-hardware controller modems (know as Winmodems or Linmodems). Those aren't worth the silicon they're printed on for all I am conserned. Here's a one to one comparison of my old Winmodem and my new (I.E. recently purchased, but manufactured in 2000) serial modem: Post in Hardware Forum

Anyway, long story short on that one is my new serial modem doesn't need drivers at all (it does need serial and PPP support in the kernal however).

Here's some more observations on Fedora Core 4:

Application Management: yum (Fedora's AM) isn't nearly as good as emerge (Gentoo's AM, emerge is the command, Portage is the app name) in my opinion. That's mainly because yum is online-only(from what I can find out), and emerge can be set to install from packages and GRPs. However, the Add / Remove Programs applet Fedora has for installing apps from thier install disk(s) is really cool. I'd like a front end like that for yum and emerge.

Application Choices: Fedora comes with full X, GNOME, and KDE packages on the install disk(s), where as Gentoo's install and package CD contains the GNOME and KDE base application set, but not thier respective base packages (which is an outrage to a dial-up user like myself). In addition to this, Fedora comes with installs for OpenOffice(GNOME / KDE) and FireFox(GNOME), which are the two programs I use most often.

Anyway, I'ma cut this off now, as it's getting very late. Ohh, and now that I'm in GNOME running FireFox, there is no spell check in the browser. This makes me sad.

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[qwijibow 0]

As far as the so-called "text mode" install, it actualy uses some type of curses. It's not really text mode, it's just rendered in text mode.

You mean the frame buffer ?

Regardless of wether the linux console is written to the screen by manipulating the frame buffer or using the video cards BIOS, The console is still the console.

Some distro's just use the frame buffer because it allows a higher resolution that the video cards default BIOS.

You can make the kernel go back to using BIOS calls to write to the screen in console mode by removing the video= and vga= options from the kernel line of the boot loader.

The cursor you see is the gpm daemon.
It allows you to copy and paste in a console environment. you can remove this by stopping the gpm daemon from starting by default dureing boot up.

[xboxrulz1405241485 0]

nice review there, I like it. What will you rate it out of 10?xboxrulz

[yordan 10]

I rate this review 8 over 10. I was interested to see that several people installed Fedora 4 without problems, some others had problems with unadequate drivers (probably disks, but maybe also graphic adapters are forgotten as source of crashes).maybe too many posts on serial modems, are serial modems so often used till now?

[QBRADQ 0]

Analog modems are not used very much at all anymore, because a lot of people have broadband. However, if you do have to use dial-up for whatever reason, you should definatly go with a hardware contorled modem. They rock.

 

Umm, about the "text mode" setup, what I ment was it isn't actualy a console installation. Rather, it uses a curses lib to render a GUI. It's basicaly the same as the GUI installer, just compatible with older PCs. Also, when I was installing Fedora Core 1, the GUI installer would hang durring the partitioning step. Using the text mode install allowed me to sucessfuly install Fedora Core 1, although the bootloader didn't work (hung on the GRUB prompt).

 

Anyway, I would rate Fedora Core 4 a 6 out of 10. I would have given it a 9, however the Fedora RPM repository servers are giving me a lot of trouble. Many of the RPMs I tried to download were invalid, and the throughput was pathetic (500 KB in just under an hour for LAME lib). This is using yum BTW.

 

Also, Fedora, nor it's RPM repo contain any kind of MP3 support what so ever. I guess this isn't a big deal if you plan on using XMMS or something like that. But to a new Linux user, finding XMMS took a while

 

Anyhow, other than it's native package manager, Fedora Core 4 is a definate home run for those that don't want to compile anything. Plus, most popular software packages have FC4 RPMs available, such as RealPlayer (avoid if you can), and even linux-NTFS.

 

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[xboxrulz1405241485 0]

try http://rpm.pbone.net/ it has tonnes of RPMs to use!

xboxrulz

[QBRADQ 0]

try http://rpm.pbone.net/ it has tonnes of RPMs to use!

Yea, I've used that once. However, I like rpmfind.net better. It's based in France, but it's basicaly a search engine for the various repositories out there.

 

Now if only I could figure out what GTK+ packages MPlayer is needing...

 

GRR! If I had broadband this would all be a lot more easy... like, emerge. Heck, if the Fedora repos worked for me, it'd be easier. But I realy wana use Gentoo

 

BTW, if anyone knows anything about WiFi networks, check out the networking forum. Gots a question.

/shameless-plug.py

 

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[xboxrulz1405241485 0]

it'd be easier if u had YaST since u can just in put the library filename & it will show the package u need.xboxrulz

[yordan 10]

I had a problem when doing my first fedora 4 install, it has something to do with the terminal. I must confess I am using a system without graphical display. The install failed saying "you can safely reboot now", so no panic. I would like to know something : is there a way of using yaboot with a remote display ? I remember some old Suze had an option for installing with a display being on a vnc display, there was a syntax like vnc=1, ip=blabla. Is there a way for doing that with fedora core 4 ?