I came across this post about the Fedora naming process. Name origins are always interesting, and so, it is interesting to read how they choose their names for each version. Each version name has to have some sort of obscure relationship to the previous name.
You can read more about it and suggest your own idea here: Name suggestions for Fedora 14
I am not much of a game player, but I am always up for a list of software for Linux. I just recently ran across this list of games on the Fedora Wiki:
I noticed though, that they didn’t list the one game that I have been playing: Super Tux Kart. My 3-year old enjoys watching me play it, and I enjoy playing it, so it makes a good combination. I have version 0.6.2, and I just noticed that they are coming out with a 0.7 version!
The other game that my son used to like to watch was Ri-Li. I didn’t see that one in the list either.
LXF just pointed me to an article listing some of the new features of Fedora 10.
While staying at a hotel, I had trouble connecting to https web sites. Basically, I couldn’t log into anything: email, blogging, etc. The hotel where I was staying had a company called StayOnline managing their network.
First, figuring out what network to connect to was rather confusing. The card in the room said to connect to the SSID called “stayonline”. But, that network did not exist. Instead the right one was called “etwireless”. When I called the support line, they answered LodgeNet.
Here is what I noticed:
The solution is to disable TCP Window Scaling. Run this command as root:
echo 0 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_window_scaling
I found this information from this post:
SSL Problems with StayOnline Hotel Internet Providers
The post mentions that they did not support Linux. I have to give them credit. When I told them that I have Linux, they did not turn me away. I was a little perterbed that they did not know the solution. This post has been out there since February. It would be even nicer if they could fix the problem so that Linux user’s don’t have to worry about it.
I tried to install gDesklets, but I had trouble with them. I found a post that explained how to do it in Ubuntu. And, I found a package in the Fedora repository for yum. But, I had the following problems:
So, I decided to try screenlets instead. Maybe I am a little impatient, but I had had trouble with them in Ubuntu too. I thought a change of scenery might me nice.
To save you a few steps, you might want to run the following command right now. That will save you from the errors I got as I went through:
yum install python-devel gnome-python2-gnomekeyring
I found the installation instructions on the FAQ. I found the latest download on the main page at launch pad. I downloaded it to my Download directory and ran the following in a terminal:
cd ~/Download tar -xzvf screenlets-0.1.1.tar.gz cd screenlets sudo python setup.py install
I did get the following error:
error: invalid Python installation: unable to open /usr/lib/python2.5/config/Makefile (No such file or directory)
That was easily fixed by using yum to install python-devel (see this post).
At this point, screenlets was installed, but the next step was to configure it. I ran:
screenlets-manager
That command gave me this error message:
ImportError: No module named gnomekeyring
This was easily fixed by using yum to install gnome-python2-gnomekeyring (see this post).
After fixing that, the Screenlets Manager opened, and that was all that I had to do. I rebooted at that point, not that I had to, but I wanted to for another reason. Amazingly enough, the screenlets was already running by the clock. I didn’t need to do anything to get it to auto start.
I chose to add the following screenlets:
When I first added the screenlets, they were on the top all of the time. But, I found that I could hide them by making them a widget and removing the Keep Above option:
right click > Window > Widget (checked)
right click > Window > Keep above (unchecked)
Then, I had to configure Compiz. I opened the CompizConfig Settings Manager, and found Widget Layer under Desktop. I checked this option, and then looked at the settings. F9 was the shortcut key, and I added the bottom right corner as another option.
Here are the additional Screenlets I downloaded:
I installed Gnome Do and really like it. Just one problem: the keyboard shortcut would not work! Here is what I did to fix it:
From this thread, I found that I could create this text file —
File Name: $HOME/.xmodmaprc
Put the following two lines in the text file:
keycode 115 = Super_L
add Mod4 = Super_L
Run the following command in a terminal window:
xmodmap ~/.xmodmaprc
The Start key worked right away, but when I rebooted, it asked me if I wanted to load the file. I put the file in the loaded column and it continued to work after the reboot.
I decided to change the command from Start + Space to Start + R (like Windows Start … Run). Here is what I did:
I used Yum to install gconf-editor. You may already have the tool, but I did not.
Then, I opened the Configuration Editor — Applications > System Tools > Configuration Editor.
On the left side, I opened the path: / > apps > gnome-do > preferences.
Then, I changed the key_binding on the right to <Super>r.
Now that my 3D driver is working, I can play with making things look nice (or, at least different). Here are some of the things I did:
Installed the Zekton font. To do so, I downloaded the tar file. I unzipped it into my Download directory and copied the files to /usr/share/fonts/zekton.
I installed Emerald and got it working. I lost track of the steps that I went through, and so, I am not the best resource for how to do this. But, basically, I installed the emerald package from yum along with the compiz-fusion packages.
One package that was very helpful was the ccsm package. It provided a menu by the clock that would allow me to pick Emerald as the Window decorator or restart it if something broke. It also had a quick link to the emerald settings and the compiz settings. To get it to start automatically, I had to add “fusion-icon” to the session (System > Preferences > Personal > Sessions).
Next, I downloaded and installed the Smoke theme. I used the Emerald Theme Manager to install the theme, and then, I tweaked it a little:
I tried to update the login screen, but that proved to be a little more difficult. Here are some links that might help, if you want to try it:
Just a quick update: NVidia is fixed!
The 173 version of the driver has been released out of the beta stage. Now, my desktop effects are enabled, and things seem to be working very well!
Ok, Fedora 9 was released yesterday, and the driver issue was not fixed.
As far as I can find on the Internet, Xorg 7.4 is supposed to come out this month (May 2008). An exact date is not mentioned anywhere. I read somewhere that NVidia will wait until Xorg releases the version before releasing their driver.
In the meantime, RandR is my goal. I want to take advantage of this new feature:
Xorg RandR 1.2 howto
This will probably be fixed by the time Fedora 9 is released, but I had trouble getting the NVidia drivers to work.
I tried the rpm packages from AtRPMS, but I couldn’t get them to work. First of all, they forced me to downgrade to the kernel version 2.6.25-1 (I was at 2.6.25-8). Then, they didn’t install the nvidia-settings program and didn’t update xorg.conf. Finally, when I tried to update xorg.conf, XWindows wouldn’t start.
So, I decided to manually install the drivers.
The latest version that I found on the website was:
NVIDIA-Linux-x86-169.12-pkg1.run
I had to update to the latest kernel release again because I couldn’t find drivers for the one that I was on. And, when I tried to compile it, I got an error. Looking in /var/log/nvidia-installer.log, I found:
/tmp/selfgz5981/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-169.12-pkg1/usr/src/nv/nv-vm.c: In function
‘nv_flush_caches’:
/tmp/selfgz5981/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-169.12-pkg1/usr/src/nv/nv-vm.c:364: error:
implicit declaration of function ‘global_flush_tlb’
make[4]: *** [/tmp/selfgz5981/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-169.12-pkg1/usr/src/nv/nv-vm.
o] Error 1
make[3]: *** [_module_/tmp/selfgz5981/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-169.12-pkg1/usr/src/n
v] Error 2
make[2]: *** [sub-make] Error 2
NVIDIA: left KBUILD.
nvidia.ko failed to build!
make[1]: *** [module] Error 1
make: *** [module] Error 2
Then, I found an FTP link where later drivers were listed. I tried the 173.08 version. After manually deleting a broken link created by the previous install (/usr/lib/xorg/modules/libwfb.so), it compiled without a problem. But, I could not start the XWindows.
Here is what I got:
(EE) module ABI major version (0) doesn't match the server's version (1)
(EE) Failed to load module "glx" (module requirement mismatch, 0)
================ WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING ================
This server has a video driver ABI version of 4.0 that this
driver does not officially support. Please check
http://www.nvidia.com/ for driver updates or downgrade to an X
server with a supported driver ABI.
=================================================================
dlopen: /usr/lib/xorg/modules//libwfb.so: undefined symbol: miZeroLineScreenIndex
(EE) Failed to load /usr/lib/xorg/modules//libwfb.so
(EE) Failed to load module "wfb" (loader failed, 7)
(EE) NVIDIA(0): This video driver ABI is not supported.
(EE) NVIDIA(0): Use the -ignoreABI option to override this check.
The best information that I can find so far, is that NVidia does not support the latest version of XWindows yet.
So far, I have determined I have to wait for NVidia to update their drivers. I am hoping they will have it done in the next couple of weeks only because Fedora 9’s release dates is in 14 days.
Linux Sagas 