Fedora 20 Post Installation Software Configuration Guide

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This is the post installation software configuration guide for Fedora 20. 

For installation of Fedora 20, please refer to Install Fedora 20 on VirtualBox with Guest Additions  or Installation Guide for Fedora 20. For netinstall, refer to Install Fedora 20 using Netinstall.

System Update

After installation of Fedora 20, the first thing you need to do is to update the system. 

You can perform system update by going to Activities and type in "software" in the search box. The result is shown below: 



Click Software and the system will launch the application as follows:

 You can search and install new software from this All tab.


Select Updates, any new updates will be reflected here.

Alternatively, you could perform system update using the command:
sudo yum update

You need to reboot the operating system if you have installed a new kernel.

Software Installation

Some of the essential software applications were preloaded with Fedora such as LibreOffice and Firefox. Click on Software to launch the program. 

Enter the software package you desire in the search bar and this utility will search through the software repository for the application you want. You have the option to download and install it. See Example below:



You can also browse through each categories looking for interesting software.

Alternatively, you can also use command line to install the software packages. 
To install a software package, first you need to know the name of the software package. Then use the command yum to install the software you want. This application installation utility will automatically search for all the dependencies files and software while installing the application you desire. 

To use yum, type in the command
sudo yum install <name_of_software_package>

To find out details about the software packages use the command:
sudo yum info <keyword_or_software_packages>

You can also perform group install using
sudo yum groupinstall <group_software_name>

If you can't find the software you want using the command yum. Then you may need to go to the web site where they host the software and download the rpm file.

To install the software use the command:
sudo rpm –ivh <name_of_software_package>.rpm

Please note that if the software is depended on other software package to operate, you need to install all other related software package. The disadvantage of using rpm is that rpm does not check for software dependencies. Use rpm method as the last resort.


Adding Software Repository

While yum utility automatically connects to the official mirror sites of Fedora to search and retrieve the latest software packages, you might want to add additional repositories that provide additional software. Two additional sites are recommended, they are rpmfusion.org and livna.org. Both sites provide additional software relating to media playing, such as playing DvD disc on Fedora.

The command to add repository from rpmfusion is follows:
sudo yum localinstall --nogpgcheck http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm

The command to add repository from livna.org are as follows:
sudo rpm -ivh http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release.rpm
sudo rpm --import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-livna

Note: Actually most of the software from livna.org is being hosted by rpmfusion, but there is one library file (libdvdcss) essential for DVD playback that is still hosted by livna.org. If you are not using DVD playback in your system, you can avoid adding livna as repository.

Listed below is some of the software which we recommend:

Web Browsing

Firefox is preloaded with Fedora but you need to install additional plug-ins and Adobe Flash Player.

If you prefer Google Chrome, please check my post:

Please refer to my other post regarding Adobe Flash Player. Check out:


Productivity Suite

Libre Office is preloaded in Fedora, no action is required.


Utilities

There are some useful utilities such as:

wget is a utility that allows you to download http files from the web using command line. This is a useful tool for automating download.
sudo yum install -y wget

Gparted is a utility that manages disk partition. You can resize your disk partition on the fly. To install this software:
sudo yum install -y gparted

For viewing chm files use xchm or kchmviewer. Use one of the following command:
sudo yum install -y xchm
sudo yum install -y kchmviewer

Unrar is a utility to unpack rar compressed folders. Use the command:
sudo yum install -y unrar

GCC is GNU C/C++ compiler. Kernel-devel is the kernel headers required to compile kernel files. Both files are required to rebuilt kernel or install drivers.
sudo yum install -y gcc kernel-devel
Administrators may prefer the following command emulators.
sudo yum install -y terminator
sudo yum install -y guake


Programmers may prefer the following text editors and IDE.
sudo yum install -y vim
sudo yum install -y emacs
sudo yum install -y kate
sudo yum install -y eclipse

Gimp is use for image editing and gthumb is a small image editor.
sudo yum install -y gimp
sudo yum install -y gthumb


PDF Document

Fedora has default PDF reader and writer so no installation is required. For Firefox, select Print >> Print to File, make sure you specify the document type as PDF and also specify the filename and location of the file. For LibreOffice, use ‘Export to PDF’ function.

You will need a PDF writer if you intend to use it on any other application that do not have print to PDF or export to PDF capabilities. In this case, you need to install cups-pdf. Use the command:
sudo yum install -y cups-pdf

PDF writer usually tie to the print function. You just need to use the print function and select PDF writer as the printer.


Playing Multimedia Files

To play the most common multimedia formats, including mp3, mpeg and wmv file, you need to install additional codec. We would recommend VLC Media Player because it provides many codec together with a player.

Installing VLC Media Player, use the command:
sudo yum install -y vlc

To set VLC as the default player, click your <username> on the top right corner. Select System Setting. Click Details on the last row. Select Default Applications. Under Video select VLC as your default application.



Installing DvD Playing Applications

Playing DVD is more complicated because it involves restricted format. In addition to media player, you need to install CSS Packages.

To check your region setting you need the package “regionset”.
sudo yum install -y regionset

After installation, use the command $regionset. Your region setting will be shown.

To install the CSS packages use the command:
sudo yum install -y libdvdcss


DVD Ripping

In the event you need to backup your DVD; you can install various DVD ripper. In this section we will install k9copy. Use the command:
sudo yum install -y k9copy

Please search the web on how to use k9copy.



Fedy (formerly Knowns as Fedora Utils)

Users can now choose to install Fedy (formerly Fedora Utils). This is an utility tools that helps to install codes and additional software Fedora don't ship. In addition, this utility also includes additional tweaks and configurations. This software is design for new user and provide a simple to install software at one click. Presently, this package is hosted in github and it is not in any repository.

To install the software, use the following command:
su -c "curl http://satya164.github.io/fedy/fedy-installer -o fedy-installer && chmod +x fedy-installer && ./fedy-installer"

Once the installation is complete, you can search for this package using the term "Fedy". Please visit the site for more information.

Additional Applications

For additional applications, please check my other post:

Note: Adobe AIR does not worked on Fedora 20. Users need to find other alternative.

Automation Script (For Advanced User)

You can download the script FC00-software-install-noarch to automate the installation for above-mentioned software.

After downloading the script, please read the script carefully and hash (#) out any installation option or command that you do not want to use. Any command with a hash (#) in front will not be executed.

You need to change the permission to executable by using the command:
sudo chmod +x FC00-software-install-noarch

To run the script use the command:
sudo ./FC00-software-install-noarch

Alternatively, use the following command to pipe the installation log to a text file:
sudo ./FC00-software-install-noarch >> log.txt

For those with difficulties downloading the script, listed below is the full content of the script, you can copy and paste the script to a plain text file:

#! /bin/bash
# This software installation script is for Fedora 18, 19
# You just need to hash out or remove any installation you don't want
# You can also add in additional software packages you like
 
#Updates
yum update -y yum
yum update -y
 
#Additional yum plugins
#yum install -y yum-plugin-fastestmirror
 
#Additional yum repository configuration for rpmfusion and livna
sudo yum localinstall -y --nogpgcheck http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm
 
rpm -ivh http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release.rpm
rpm --import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-livna
yum update -y

 
#Installing Essential Utilities
yum install -y gparted
yum install -y gcc kernel-devel
yum install -y unrar
#yum install -y cups-pdf
yum install -y wget

#Terminal Emulator
yum install -y terminator
yum install -y guake

#chm viewer
yum install -y xchm
#yum install -y kchmviewer

#Editor
yum install -y vim
#yum install -y emacs
#yum install -y kate
#yum install -y eclipse

#Image Editor
yum install -y gimp
#yum install -y gthumb




# Download and install Google Software Public Signing Key
wget https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub
sudo rpm --import linux_signing_key.pub
rm linux_signing_key.pub 

 
#Installing Media Players, DVD codec and Ripper
yum install -y vlc
yum install -y regionset libdvdcss
yum update -y
#yum install -y k9copy
#yum install -y xine xine-lib-extras xine-lib-extras-freeworld
 
#Installing Games
#yum install -y kdegames
 
#End message
echo "Installation Complete"

Note: Just updated the rpm fusion repository. Please comment below if you encounter any problem.


*****

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