Fedora 10 stumbling blocks

Hey Guys,

Having used Fedora (6, and subsequently, 8) for the past two years, I was excited to download the Fed10 DVD within the first few days of its release. The 'few days' was owing to my rather slow 256 kbps connection; the download began on the release day itself :). After 35 excruciating hours, the download was complete. Hurriedly, I burned the DVD and set it to work.

Unfortunately, my excitement was short-lived as I couldn't get it to work. The problem was fundamental: the installer screen appeared scrambled/corrupted. So, indeed, there was no question of proceeding any further. At that time, there were scant threads on any of the help forums, so I was unable to fix the problem. Now, however, things have been sorted out.

Here are the first two stumbling blocks any new Fedora 10 user is likely to encounter:

Installation screen is garbled / scrambled / corrupted / blank

The problem lies with 'Anaconda', Fedora's installer program. Here's how to fix it:

1. At the install screen of Fedora, press tab
2. A command line statement will appear. At the end of that statement, leave a single blank space, and type xdriver=vesa
3. Hit enter, and the installation will begin

That should take care of the problem. The rest of the installation is a piece of cake. Experienced Fedora users will find that there are fewer 'steps' in the installation process, and the dialogs are less ambiguous than previous editions.

Can't login as root from the login screen

Stupid thing (with the OS). Just follow the steps below:

1. Login as any user
2. $ su
3. Enter the correct root password
   
4. $ gedit /etc/pam.d/gdm
5. Find the line that reads auth required pam_succeed_if.so user != root quiet
6. Place a # (hash, or pound sign) at the beginning of that line. This will comment it out.
7. Save the file
8. Logout, and you shall have the right of passage as root
   

Cant connect to the internet using static IP

Now this is a cool one!! There is a bug in the configuration tool. It copies your default gateway address, to the subnet mask, irrespective of what subnet mask you specify !! Here's the solution:

1. Login as any user
2. Go to Applications > System Tools > Terminals
3. $ su
4. Enter the root password and hit enter
   
5. $ gedit /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
6. Step 5 assumes your network device is called eth0
7. This will open the network configuration file for the said device
8. Type the required subnet mask after NETMASK=
9. Save the file
10. Quit the text editor
11. Go to System > Administration > Services >
12. Disable network
    
13. Save settings and quit that dialog box
14. Go to Network Preferences > eth0 > Edit > Deselect 'Controlled by NetworkManager'
15. Reactivate eth0 (disable and enable, if already in the active state)
16. Test connection using your web-browser
    

That should set things straight. I am still wondering how such a big bug went unnoticed while testing.......

Remember that if you are using DHCP, you are unlikely to face any such problem. DHCP requires the Network-Manager to be enabled.

If you ask my opinion, I have to say, I am pretty disappointed with Fed10, because of these silly bugs and deficiencies, which were not present in the earlier versions, and which you certainly do not expect from any OS that is in its tenth edition!

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Note: The above guide assumes the reader is familiar with Linux in general, and Fedora in particular. Hence, several basic steps and commands have not been mentioned, assuming the reader knows where to find the desired option, and how to set the stuff....

Initial follow up on openSolaris (oSol)

Okay, now that I've booted from my oSol live CD at least 15~20 times, I think I can say a few words about it. 

1. Its a breeze for newbies (like me) to get going with this OS. You have an ISO image of the live CD which you just need to Download > Burn > Insert. The OS loads pretty quickly and requires no login in this mode.
2. It auto-detects and auto-configures your network (at least did that for my cable internet with static IP). It enables the LAN interface when your router/modem stabilises after powering on, and disables the interface when you power it off, or disconnect. Of course, it gives appropriate alerts after taking such actions. You can also turn this feature off, if you want manual control over the network connections.
3. Like Bjourn (see comment on previous post) said, its a very well-documented OS (what else can you expect from Sun! ), and that helps learners a lot. I found it extremely useful to have a link to the 'guide' located on the desktop, and the entire guide being there on the CD. Sometimes, you cannot / do not want to connect to the internet, and it helps a lot having some offline material to get started with.

Now, here are some shortcomings:

1. A big bug that exists in oSol 2008.05 is regarding the Screen Resolution setting. The system boots with a default setting of 800x600 px. If you try to change it to 1024x768, the screen goes irrecoverably blank, even though it is not turned off. And one is forced to shut down the system (using the 'soft' power switch; no need to soft-boot using the restart button; the system is still very much alive, even if one can't see anything..) and then start all over again. However, you can prevent this thing from happening by checking the "always use....." option in the same dialogue box. Strange !!
2. There's no OpenOffice :( Now, I know I'd be asking too much from Sun to providea copy of OO within the 700 MB live CD. Yet, I haven't been able to find a way to get a copy of OO working on oSol
3. Creating a user directory on a pen-drive doesn't seem to work in the live mode, at least. Will have to retry after making a disk installation