I'm a big fan of Fedora and It's been my desktop of choice since version 1 - but the default desktop for me is, well, boring...

I don't want lots of wizz-bang flying features all over my desktop, but I do want it to look attractive and must be functional.

I've settled on this rather basic setup - it works for me.

Ok, first install the Rpm Fusion repository - specifically the rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm
and then rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm repository configurations.

This enables all the non licence happy things like propriety display drivers, media codecs, etc

To install the required applications use [System->Administration->Add/Remove Software]

Step 1 - Your video card - hardware accelerated 3D

If you've got an nVidia or Ati card you will most likely want to install the propriety drivers - these have always worked best for me.

To find out what video card you have, from a terminal, run: lspci | grep VGA

On machines with nVidia or ati cards I install the propriety drivers as these have always worked best for me. If you have an nvidia or ati card install the correct kmod package. For nVidia, one of: kmod-nvidia, kmod-nvidia-173xx or kmod-nvidia-96xx and for Ati: kmod-catalyst

Note the different nvidia modules are for the different generations of nvidia cards - most new cards will just want the kmod-nvidia module.

Step 2 - Installing required packages

Once you have your video capable of 3D, install the following packages:

• compiz-fusion
• fusion-icon
• emerald
• emerald-themes
• cairo-dock
• avant-window-navigator
• awn-extras-applets

Then reboot to make the new video driver take effect (for 3d acceleration).

Step 3 - Starting Compiz with the Fusion Icon

Start the fusion-icon [Applications->System Tools->Compiz Fusion Icon] - this will start compiz-fusion - The Fusion Icon will give you access to all the configuration you'll need for compiz.

If compiz starts fine, then add fusion-icon to your startup programs [System->Preferences->Statup Applications] then drag and drop the app from [Applications->System Tools->Compiz Fusion Icon] into the Startup Applications window to have them start at startup. This will start compiz at login.

Step 4 - Move the top gnome panel

I keep the top gnome panel collapsed sitting in the bottom right corner of my screen (just in case I need it).

Right click on the top panel and select Properties and change the Orientation to Right and select Show hide buttons. Click close.

Step 5 - Using Cairo for our Application launcher

Start cairo-dock [Application->System Tools->GLX Dock (Cairo dock with HW 3D)] and configure it to be at the top of the screen and turn off it's task bar behaviour. Position=Top, Taskbar=None.

You can drag and drop applications from the Applications menus onto the Cairo dock to add them to the launcher.

Add GLX Dock to your startup applications.

Step 6 - Using AWN Avant Window Navigator for the taskbar

Then start [Applications->Accessories->Avant Window Navigator] and configure it to be at the bottom of the screen, and remove the applets the are already added (this we use just as a taskbar) I change the look and theme to make it look sexy...

Right click on AWN and select Preferences

Either select "Start AWN Automatically" in the AWN preferences or Add AWN to your startup applications.

Now remove the bottom taskbar... (Right click and select "Delete this Panel")

Collapse the top sidebar that was moved to the right...

Then you can use the fusion-icon to configure compiz, select the window decorator (emerald is a good one) and choose window decorations.

No Application menu icons?

If you find you have no icons showing in your Application menus follow the steps in my post here: Fedora no icons in menus - fix to show menu icons

Suggested compiz plugins

Launch the compiz configuration tool (via fusion-icon) and turn on Cube, Cube rotate and wobbly windows (and any other crazy effects you want)..

Done!

Each time I install Fedora (10, 11, 12, 13 & 14) I don't have any icons in my system menus.

My typical setup is, kmod-nvidia, compiz-fusion, cairo-dock (top as launcher), avant-window-navigator (at bottom as taskbar).

With this setup (and maybe the default 2d gnome setup(?)) I don't have any icons in the gnome system menus (Accessories, Preferences, Administration, etc) - Even the Applications Menu shown in Cairo are missing their icons.

To fix this install the package gconf-editor, run it and go to desktop->gnome->interface there you will find a setting menus_have_icons - check this setting and your menus will now have icons.

I have no idea why this is always unchecked after a fresh install with this setup..

Here's how I got Citrix Presentation Server (Citrix Client) running on Fedora 12.

• Install the rpmfusion repo if not already installed

• Make sure your system is up-to-date

• Install OpenMotif - at this time is version 2.3.2 which works fine.

• There is a conflict with the cjkuni-uming-fonts package - if you have it installed, remove it

• Download the Citrix ICA Client rpm from:

• Install the Citrix ICA Client:

• Configure for use with Firefox:

When Firefox asks you how to open an .ica file choose to open it with /usr/lib/ICAClient/wfica and select to do this automatically.

Done!

On some installs I have seen been a VeriSign cert error, that reads:

To fix this problem, I added the missing certificates by exporting them from firefox into the ICA client's cacerts folder.

If you have a local install of the ICA client this is usually in:

Otherwise it will usually be in:

Ok, to export the certs from firefox go to: [Edit->Preferences->Advanced->Encryption->View Certificates]

Scroll down to the set of VeriSign certificates - Now for each that has "Class 3" in its name, export it in X.509 (PEM) format to .../ICAClient/keystore/cacerts/

For me there were 8 Class 3 VeriSign certificates to export.

That's it, you should be all set to go.

Soon after upgrading to Fedora 11, Deluge would not start. It turns out that a missing include statement in my /usr/lib/deluged was causing it to fail. Adding a import zlib fixed it for me.

My /usr/lib/deluged:

I've finally got the popcorn hour toolchain to compile on fedora 10.

Here I'll present a step-by-step how-to.

Step 1: Get the toolchain source

First you'll need to get the toolchain source: Syabas NMT (SMP8634) toolchain.

I used the version smp86xx_toolchain.20080505.tar.bz2.

Step 2: Ensure some dependent packages are installed

Next ensure that the following packages are installed, you can use Add/Remove software if you prefer:

Enabling USB support in VirtualBox on a Fedora host is rather easy, just follow these steps.

Create a group called usb

In F9 that is [System->Administration->Users and Groups] Click the groups tab and click the add group icon. Enter the group name usb and note the group id being assigned (usually something like 502).

Modify /etc/fstab (as root)

Modify /etc/fstab adding the line (this assumes the group id of 502, replace with the correct id):

Remount file systems

You can either reboot or run the following command to make the fstab changes take effect (as root):

Start VirtualBox

Start VirtualBox and you should now be able to activate USB devices using the USB icon in the lower right of the VM window.

Given that Fedora has made it so easy to put a live cd image onto a usb or other external drive to provide a bootable take anywhere OS.

First off, you'll need the Fedora Live CD or DVD iso image, they can be found on the Fedora home page http://fedoraproject.org/en/get-fedora

You'll also need to install some other packages available in the standard repos.

Install livecd-tools with your package manager.

Console mode is great for some tasks, but why live with 80x25 when by adding vga=775 to your grub line will give you 160x160 mode (using 1280x1024)... Simple and sweet.

Fedora 9 (F9 Sulphur) has been released. Here I will record my personal setup. Note, this is a work in progress and will be updated as I (slowly) configure my system.

My setup: Dell Inspiron 9400 (E1705)

• Audio device: Intel 82801G High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)
• IDE interface: Intel 82801GBM/GHM SATA IDE Controller (rev 01)
• Video: nVidia Corporation GeForce Go 7900 GS (rev a1)
• Ethernet: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX (rev 02)
• FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller
• Network controller: Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (rev 02)

On the usual Fedora (6,7,8) setup the NetworkManager will use the gnome-keyring to retrieve and store connection credentials. One nasty side effect is that on each boot it will require you to unlock your keyring before your wireless connection can be established.

To avoid this make your login password and keyring password the same, ensure that gnome-keyring, gnome-keyring-pam and pam-keyring are installed and make your /etc/pam.d/gdm file look like:

Upon restarting you should no longer be required to open your keyring.