Tom Shield

Configuring Fedora Core


Here are a few things I've learned about configuring Fedora Core 3 and later. I'm now running Fedora 7 and 9.

No remote X connections accepted
Set 'DisallowTCP=false' in /etc/X11/gdm/gdm.conf, default is true. I also had to delete my .Xauthority file to get things working correctly (do this when not logged in thru X).
SSH will not correctly forward X clients.
Add ' ForwardX11Trusted yes' to your .ssh/config file or to /etc/ssh/ssh_config.
Advansys scsi card not supported.
Upgrade to kernel 2.6.10-1.760_FC3 or later. See here for more information.
Sandisk ImageMate 6 in 1 USB media card reader
add 'options scsi_mod max_luns=8' to /etc/modprobe.conf. Each slot is a different LUN and number of LUNs defaults to 1. After adding this and a reboot (only needed if you have scsi disks, otherwise just unload scsi_mod), fstab, etc, was updated automatically when a card is inserted.
XFS Filesystem
To install onto an XFS filesystem start the fedora installer with 'linux xfs', note that grub supports xfs, so you don't need a separate /boot partition.
Extra RPM packages
Daq Wieers has a great repository of rpms for Fedora Core, etc. I've had nothing but good luck with these rpms.
3Ware controllers
3dm no longer works with 2.6.10 or later kernels, at least for 6xxx and 7xxx series boards. The good news is that smartd does. It's installed by default on Fedora Core 3. Be sure to use the /dev/twe0, etc, devices and not the scsi devices when you setup smartd or you may hang your machine. UPDATE: 3dm2 does work. Just remember to point at it using https or you will get no response.
Prolink PCI TV/FM Tuner Card, Model "PixelView PlayTV Pro Ultra(PV-TV304P+ FM.RC)"
Note that the cx88xx drivers are Video 4 Linux 2 (v4l2) only, I can capture video from this card using transcode or view with tvtime. I set 'options cx88xx card=11' in /etc/modprobe.conf, but the tuner does not work. Let me know if you get it to work. I've got a version of gv4l hacked to handle v4l2, let me know if you want a copy. UPDATE: Use And it all works.
Extra loop devices
What more than 8? Put 'options loop max_loop=32' in /etc/modprobe.conf.
Kingston DataTraveller Elite USB flash drives
Work and are very fast. Kingston's web site has a nice search for the lowest price on the web.
PDF's created from dvi files look lousy in Windows.
It's a type one font issue, add -Ppdf to the dvips options in last line of /usr/bin/dvipdf. Have to redo this everytime you update ghostscript.
Vmware 4.5.2
I've had no problems running this under FC3. You have to rebuild the modules every time you update the kernel.
NFS mounts from SGI machines running IRIX
Doing rm -rf directory, generates a Unknown error 525 and the top directory is not removed. Not a problem from Linux based servers.
Startech PCI2S1P multi-io card
Works, config is as follows
        setserial /dev/ttyS1 port 0x8400 uart 16550 irq 3 baud_base 115200
        setserial /dev/ttyS2 port 0x8000 uart 16550 irq 3 baud_base 115200
	
	port addresses and irq are from cat /proc/pci
parallel port is automatically detected.
Building kernel modules
You no longer need the kernel source to do this, there is a tree under /lib/modules/2.6.10-1.760_FC3/build with enough of the properly configured kernel source to build modules. See the release notes. If a package does not find this during the make process, make a link of this to /usr/src/linux.
Patches for Vmware
Are here: http://platan.vc.cvut.cz/ftp/pub/vmware/. I did not need them until the release of the 2.6.11 kernel.

Last updated 2009-3-6