Fedora 7 is out, and it installed without any serious problems on my test workstation. So now it is here are the instructions for installing and configuring it on my main workstations.

• Contents
• Install Fedora 7
• Stop unnecessary daemons
• Update packages
• Configure miscellaneous settings
• Configure Sendmail
• NFS exports and other mounts
• Backups
• Install anti-virus
• Install Uptimed
• Update Perl
• Install Webmin
• Install Vim
• Install Mutt
• Install MPlayer
• Using Grip for MP3s
• Install Keychain
• Install HTML Tidy
• Install KDirStat
• Customise

These instructions are for installing GNU/Linux onto a PC. If you have existing data or an operating system on the machine you are installing on, ensure that you know what you are doing, and that you have a full backup in case you overwrite anything you meant to keep.

1. Use the torrent to download the installation DVD . Mount the DVD on a loop mount, and copy the vmlinuz and initrd.img files into the boot directory of the CD to be installed. Then edit its grub.conf to boot directly into this installation kernel, without using any CDs. The installation can now be done from an NFS exported directory.
2. Reboot from the machine to start the install.
3. Leave the language as English and select OK.
4. Select the uk keyboard and select OK.
5. Select NFS directory when prompted for installation method and select OK.
6. De-select Enable IPv6 support when prompted to configure TCP/IP and select OK.
7. Enter the NFS server name and the Fedora Core directory and select OK. The directory must be exported on the server, and its firewall must allow NFS exports.
8. After running anaconda the grapical installation screen will be displayed. Click Next.
9. Select Install Fedora and click Next.
10. Select Create custom layout and click Next.
11. Delete any existing partitions and create the new ones according to the size of the hard drive(s). The /common and /img directories are non standard ones I create for my own use.

    40Gb hard drive
    hda1		150 MB		/boot
    hda2		4,000 MB		/home
    hda3		3,500 MB		/var
    hda5		2,000 MB		/tmp
    hda6		1,000 MB		(swap)
    hda7		27,500 MB		/

    80Gb hard drive
    hda1		1,000 MB		/boot
    hda2		37,000 MB		/
    hda3		17,500 MB		/home
    hda5		4,000 MB		/var
    hda6		4,000 MB		/tmp
    hda7		10,000 MB		/common
    hda8		3,000 MB		/img
    hda9		2,000 MB		(swap)

    190Gb hard drive
    hda1		1,000 MB		/boot
    hda2		112,000 MB		/
    hda3		22,000 MB		/home
    hda5		25,000 MB		/var
    hda6		5,000 MB		/tmp
    hda7		20,000 MB		/common
    hda8		3,000 MB		/img
    hda7		2,000 MB		(swap)

    Click Next. Click Format when warned about any partitions you have selceted to be formatted.
12. Leave the GRUB settings unchanged and click Next.
13. Leave the Network Devices settings unchanged (i.e. use DHCP). Set the hostname, e.g. fieldfare.stevesearle.com. Click Next.
14. Select London, Europe and System clock uses UTC and Next.
15. Set and confirm the Root Password and click Next.
16. Select Office and Productivity and Software Development and Customize now. Click Next.
17. Select/deselect packages as follows.

    Desktop Environments	Select KDE (K Desktop Environment)
    Applications	Editors	Deselect vim-enhanced (I prefer to build my own version)
    	Graphical Internet	Deselect evolution and evolution-webcal
    	Text-based Internet	Deselect mutt (I prefer to build my own version)
    Development	Select KDE Software Development

    Click Next.
18. Click Next and continue the installation.

Click on Reboot when the installation is complete.

1. Click Forward at the Welcome screen.
2. Click Forward on the license screen.
3. Accept the default firewall settings (only SSH allowed) and click Forward.
4. Change SELinux Setting: to Disabled and click Forward. Click Yes when prompted about rebooting.
5. Select Network Time Protocol at the Date and Time screen. Select Enable Network Time Protocol and add and delete time servers as appropriate. Click Forward.
6. Select Send Profile and click Forward.
7. Set yourself up as a user and click Forward.
8. Test the sound card and click Finish.
9. Click OK at the reboot prompt.

Contents

By default, Fedora installs with a number of daemons that nay not be needed. Turning these off saves system resources and makes the machine more secure. I stop:

• avahi-daemon : An implementation of zeroconf.
• bluetooth, hidd : Bluetooth support (unless required).
• cpuspeed : Throttles CPU runtime frequency.
• irqbalance : Increases performance on multiprocessor systems.
• isdn : Only required for ISDN modems.
• lm_sensors : Only required for monitoring motherboard sensors.
• mstrans : The SELinux Context Translation System Daemon.
• mdmonitor : Monitors software raid and LVM information.
• restorecond : Lookis for the creation of new files listed in the /etc/selinux/restorecond.conf file, and restores the correct security context.
• setroubleshoot : SELinux troubleshooting Daemon.

# chkconfig avahi-daemon off
# service avahi-daemon stop
# chkconfig bluetooth off
# service bluetooth stop
# chkconfig hidd off
# service hidd stop
# chkconfig cpuspeed off
# service cpuspeed stop
# chkconfig irqbalance off
# service irqbalance stop
# chkconfig isdn off
# service isdn stop
# chkconfig lm_sensors off
# service lm_sensors stop
# chkconfig mcstrans off
# service mcstrans stop
# chkconfig mdmonitor off
# service mdmonitor stop
# chkconfig setroubleshoot off
# service setroubleshoot stop

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By default, FC6 uses the yum-updatesd daemon to tell the user when updates are available, and then user can then manually download and install them. I prefer to stop this daemon, and create a cron job to download and install any yum updates. Stop the daemon and prevent it re-starting with:

# service yum-updatesd stop
# chkconfig yum-updatesd off

Run yum to update any RPM packages that are out of date.

# yum update

Create the following bash script in /etc/cron.daily

#!/bin/bash

yum -y update

exit 0

Clean the old yum headers occaisionally with a monthly cron job to run.

yum clean all

Now use yum to install the following:

• multitail - view and colorise multiple log files
• pan - newsreader
• sendmail-cf - needed for sendmail configuration
• switchdesk - interface for choosing the desktop environment
• unison - used to replicate directories between machines
• Xfce - lightweight desktop environment
• XMMS - X MultiMedia System
• screensavers - get them all :-)
• gnome-screensaver - removing this reverts the system to xscreensaver, which allows many more configuration options
• perl-gettext - perl module used by t-prot
• qiv - fast image viewer that works nicely in mailcap for mutt
• mail-notification - Email notification applet
• gnucash - to keep track of bank accounts
• gftp - graphical ftp client
• mysql - mysql database client
• grip - CD ripper
• lame - MP3 encoding library
• easytag - tags MP3 files
• system-config-language - MP3 encoding library
• k3b - CD burning software

# yum install multitail
# yum install pan
# yum install sendmail-cf
# yum install switchdesk-gui
# yum install unison
# yum groupinstall XFCE
# yum install xfce*
# yum install xmms*
# yum install xscreensaver*
# yum remove gnome-screensaver
# yum install perl-gettext
# yum install qiv
# yum install mail-notification
# yum install gnucash
# yum install gftp
# yum install mysql
# yum install grip
# yum install lame
# yum install easytag
# yum install system-config-language
# yum install k3b

Add a yum repo by downloading this rpm, installing it and then using yum to install the flash plugin.

# rpm -Uvh adobe-release-1.0-0.noarch.rpm
# yum install flash-plugin

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Set the correct locale for the UK by running system-config-language and selecting English (Great Britain).

---

Customise the shell prompt by adding the following lines to the end of /etc/bashrc.

ColourFuscia="\[\033[0;36m\]"
ColourGreen="\[\033[0;32m\]"
ColourDefault="\[\033[0m\]"

# Set green to red if root
if [ "$UID" = "0" ]; then
ColourGreen="\[\033[1;31m\]"
fi

PS1="$ColourGreen($ColourFuscia\u@\h$ColourGreen:$ColourFuscia\w$ColourGreen)$ColourFuscia\\$ $ColourDefault"

---

Change the resolution of the virtual terminals (running on Ctrl-Alt-1 through Ctrl-Alt-6). Edit /boot/grub/grub.conf and add vga=791 to the end of the menu kernel line, e.g.

kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-30.9 ro root=LABEL=/ hda=ide-scsi vga=790

790 produces a 1024x768 resolution with 32,768 colours. You could use any of the following (if you video card supports them).

Colours	640x480	800x600	1024x768	1280x1024	1600x1200
256	769	771	773	775	796
32,768	784	787	790	793	797
65,536	785	788	791	794	798
16.8M	786	789	792	795	799

---

Keep /tmp tidy. Create a script in /etc/cron.daily containing the following line. It will delete files and directories that are more than a week (168 hours) old.

tmpwatch --mtime --verbose --verbose 168 /tmp

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Sendmail is a mail transfer agent. MTAs are used to transfer messages between machines. Normally Sendmail will send out any mail with headers showing it as coming from the local client - in my case a from address of steve@gina.stevesearle.com. So the following changes to the Sendmail configuration make it look as if the email has come from steve@stevesearle.com. To do this, the following lines are added to the /etc/mail/sendmail.mc file (uncomment - remove dnl ... dnl - and edit where neccessary). The 'MAIL_HUB' line is added at the end of the first block of defines and causes email that would otherwise have been delivered to a local user on the machine to be sent to the network mail server.

 ...
 define(`SMART_HOST', `magpie.stevesearle.com.')
 ...
 define(`MAIL_HUB', `relay:stevesearle.com.')
 ...
 MASQUERADE_AS(`stevesearle.com')
 ...
 FEATURE(masquerade_envelope)
 ...

Note that the 'EXPOSED_USER' line in /etc/mail/sendmail.mc will prevent mail sent by root from being masqueraded, this should be removed if this is a problem.

Regenerate the /etc/mail/sendmail.cf (note the sendmail-cf package must be installed for this to work, and no warnings are displayed if it isn't installed).

 # make -C /etc/mail

Fire up system-config-network. With eth0 selected, click on Edit. Under DHCP Settings, change the Hostname (optional): so that only the machine name, and NOT the domain name is specified, e.g. gina not gina.stevesearle.com. Click on OK, then deactivate then activate.

Restart sendmail.

 # service sendmail restart

Change /etc/aliases so that root's email is redirected to your own account.

...
root:   steve

Now run newaliases for the change to be shown through sendmail.

# newaliases

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Add mount points for any NFS exports from other machines, by editing /etc/fstab and adding the appropriate lines, e.g.

hayley:/backups        /backups        nfs     rsize=8192,wsize=8192

This would automatically mount hayley's /backups directory under /backups on this machine. (Permission would have to be granted on hayley via the /etc/exports file to allow this.) Don't forget to create the /backups directories on the local machine.

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I run an old machine as a backup device. A backup folder is NFS exported to the rest of the network, and each machine runs a cron tar job to back up various files and directories.

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These instructions have been derived from the excelent SpamAssassin-ClamAV-Procmail-Howto.

Download Clam AntiVirus to /tmp.

Create a user group and user.

# groupadd clamav
# useradd -g clamav -s /bin/false -c "Clam AntiVirus" clamav

Install.

$ cd /tmp
$ tar -xzf clamav-0.80.tar.gz
$ cd clamav-0.80
$ ./configure
$ make
$ su -c "make install"

Edit both /usr/local/etc/clamd.conf and /usr/local/etc/freshclam.conf and remove or comment out the 'Example' directive.

...
# Comment or remove the line below.
# Example
...

Create /etc/init.d/clamd as follows.

#!/bin/bash

TMPDIR=/tmp
PATH=/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin

case "$1" in
  start)
    echo "Starting ClamAV..."
    if [ -S /tmp/clamd ]; then
      echo "ClamAV is already running!"
    else
      /usr/local/bin/freshclam -d -c 10 --datadir=/usr/local/share/clamav
      /usr/local/sbin/clamd
    fi
    echo "ClamAV is now up and running!"
  ;;
  stop)
    echo "Shutting down ClamAV..."
    array=(`ps ax | grep -iw '/usr/local/bin/freshclam' | grep -iv 'grep' \
      | awk '{print $1}' | cut -f1 -d/ | tr '\n' ' '`)
    element_count=${#array[@]}
    index=0
    while [ "$index" -lt "$element_count" ]
      do
        kill -9 ${array[$index]}
        let "index = $index + 1"
      done
    array=(`ps ax | grep -iw '/usr/local/sbin/clamd' | grep -iv 'grep' \
      | awk '{print $1}' | cut -f1 -d/ | tr '\n' ' '`)
    element_count=${#array[@]}
    index=0
    while [ "$index" -lt "$element_count" ]
      do
        kill -9 ${array[$index]}
        let "index = $index + 1"
      done
    if [ -S /tmp/clamd ]; then
      rm -f /tmp/clamd
    fi
    echo "ClamAV stopped!"
  ;;
  restart)
    $0 stop && sleep 3
    $0 start
  ;;
  *)
    echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart}"
    exit 1
esac
exit 0

Make it executable and start it.

# chmod  755 /etc/init.d/clamd
# /etc/init.d/clamd start

Make it start at boot up and stop at close down.

# ln -s /etc/init.d/clamd /etc/rc2.d/S20clamd
# ln -s /etc/init.d/clamd /etc/rc3.d/S20clamd
# ln -s /etc/init.d/clamd /etc/rc4.d/S20clamd
# ln -s /etc/init.d/clamd /etc/rc5.d/S20clamd
# ln -s /etc/init.d/clamd /etc/rc0.d/K20clamd
# ln -s /etc/init.d/clamd /etc/rc1.d/K20clamd
# ln -s /etc/init.d/clamd /etc/rc6.d/K20clamd

Schedule the following command to run regualry to check for viruses.

/usr/local/bin/clamscan -ir --stdout /

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Uptimed is used to keep track of the highest uptimes my GNU/Linux computers have.

Download it, and build and install it with

$ cd /tmp
$ tar -xjf uptimed-0.3.1.tar.bz2
$ cd uptimed-0.3.1
$ ./configure
$ make
$ su -c "make install"

Then add the following to /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit to create a unique id each time the server is booted.

echo "Creating unique uptime daemon bootid..."
/usr/local/sbin/uptimed -b

Now add these lines to /etc/rc.d/rc.local to start the uptime daemon.

echo "Starting uptime daemon..."
/usr/local/sbin/uptimed

Rename uptimed.conf-dist

# mv /usr/local/etc/uptimed.conf-dist /usr/local/etc/uptimed.conf

then edit this to set the EMAIL and SEND_EMAIL variables.

Reboot and enter:

$ uprecords

to see how long the server has been up for.

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Download various perl modules as follows. Getopt::Mixed is needed for t-prot. You need to be on-line for this.

# perl -MCPAN -e shell
cpan> install MD5
cpan> install Bundle::CPAN
cpan> reload CPAN
cpan> install Net::SSLeay
cpan> install Getopt::Mixed
cpan> exit

Contents

Install Webmin, a browser based tool for administering and configuring the system.

The tarball should be un-tarred in /usr/local or similar, as this is just configured in the directory it was un-tarred in.

# cd /usr/local
# tar -xzf webmin-1.130.tar.gz
# cd webmin-1.130
# ./setup.sh

If you want to access the webmin from another machine, you need to change the firewall settings. Add the following line to /etc/sysconfig/iptables (immediately before the '-A RH_Firewall-1-INPUT -j...' line).

# Webmin
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -p tcp -m tcp -m state --dport 10000 --state NEW -j ACCEPT

Restart the firewall.

# service iptables restart

Contents

Download and install Vim, the best editor around.

$ cd /tmp
$ tar -xjf vim-6.2.tar.bz2
$ cd vim62
$ make
$ su -c "make install"

Add the following line to your /etc/bashrc, to make Vim the default editor for mutt, crontab, etc. The "-f" will prevent it forking when invoked, and will avoid the update encoding warning when editing an email.

export EDITOR="gvim -f"

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Mutt is my email client of choice. Dowload it and build it.

$ cd /tmp
$ tar -xzf mutt-1.4.2.1i.tar.gz
$ cd mutt-1.4.2.1
$ ./configure --enable-pop --enable-imap --with-ssl
$ su -c "make install"

Now install urlview, a utility that will fire up the browser to display any URLs in any emails.

$ cd /tmp
$ tar -xzf urlview-0.9.tar.gz
$ cd urlview-0.9
$ ./configure
$ make
$ su -c "make install"
$ su -c "cp url_handler.sh /usr/local/bin"

Edit /usr/local/bin/url_handler.sh to select the preferred browser. Change any occurances of /usr/X11R6/bin/netscape to /usr/bin/firefox.

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Install MPlayer which is brilliant for watching mpegs, etc. Build and install it.

$ cd /tmp
$ tar -xjf essential-20060611.tar.bz2
$ cd essential-20060611
$ su -c "mkdir /usr/local/lib/codecs"
$ su -c "cp * /usr/local/lib/codecs"
$ cd /tmp
$ tar -xjf MPlayer-0.92.tar.bz2
$ cd MPlayer-0.92
$ ./configure --enable-gui --enable-largefiles --enable-menu
$ make
$ su -c "make install"
$ cd /tmp
$ tar -xjf font-arial-iso-8859-1.tar.bz2
$ cd font-arial-iso-8859-1/font-arial-18-iso-8859-1
$ su -c "cp * /usr/local/share/mplayer/font"
$ cd /tmp
$ tar -xjf Blue-1.4.tar.bz2
$ su -c "cp -r Blue /usr/local/share/mplayer/skins/default"

Enter gmplayer to run the gui version.

Contents

To use Grip to rip MP3s, it needs to be configured to use LAME. Use Yum to download them (see Update packages).

To use LAME from Grip, change Config->Encode->Encoder and set Encoder executable to /usr/local/bin/lame.

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Keychain is a script that makes the use of ssh-agent to ssh into other machines without entering passwords simple and easy. This section was put together with using Kimmo Suominen's Getting started with SSH. Download and install Keychain with

$ cd /tmp
$ tar -xjf keychain-2.0.3.tar.bz2
$ cd keychain-2.0.3
$ su -c "install -m0755 keychain /usr/bin/keychain"

Generate a public/private dsa key pair.

$ ssh-keygen -t dsa

Enter a passphrase when prompted. Then copy the public keys to all the machines you wish to connect to.

$ scp ~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub steve@emma:

On the machine you wish to connect to, add the contents of the file you have just copied to authorized_keys in .ssh directory. Also make sure that only you can write to the .ssh directory and the authorized_keys file.

$ cd     
$ cat id_dsa.pub >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
$ chmod go-w .ssh .ssh/authorized_keys

Now alter ~/.bash_profile to run keychain when you log in. If it is not already running, it will be started and you will be prompted for the passphrase, but then this will be remembered until the machine is rebooted. Also load the environment variables into the current shell.

...
keychain ~/.ssh/id_dsa
source ~/.keychain/${HOSTNAME}-sh > /dev/null
source ~/.bashrc

Alter ~/.bashrc to load the environment variables into any new shells.

...
source ~/.keychain/${HOSTNAME}-sh > /dev/null

Contents

HTML Tidy is a great application for tidying up HTML source code. There isn't a tarball generated containing the source code, instead you check out the code from the CVS repository.

$ cd /tmp
$ cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@tidy.cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/tidy logon
CVS password: <Enter>
$ cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@tidy.cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/tidy checkout tidy
$ cd tidy
$ /bin/sh build/gnuauto/setup.sh
$ ./configure --prefix=/usr
$ make
$ su -c "make install"

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I use KDirStat to monitor diskspace and identify what it is being used for. It is a great utility that graphically represents file sizes, so that you can easily identify where and who the largest users of filespace are.

Download it to /tmp and build and install with

$ cd /tmp
$ tar -xjf kdirstat-2.4.0.tar.bz2
$ cd kdirstat-2.4.0
$ ./configure
$ make
$ su -c "make install"

Contents

The following steps are personal customisations I setup for my own user.

To share a set of personal files in my user, I have a directory on the server that is mounted on each workstation. A similar situation exists so I can easily maintain the development version of my web site. These are setup as follows.

Add these lines to /etc/fstab.

ingrid:/home/steve/share  /home/steve/share       nfs     user,exec,rsize=8192,wsize=8192
ingrid:/var/www/steve     /home/steve/www         nfs     user,rsize=8192,wsize=8192

Then create mountpoints and mount these files.

$ cd ~
$ mkdir share
$ mount share
$ mkdir www
$ mount www

Now create links to my standard muttrc, vimrc amd sig files and gpg directory.

$ cd ~
$ ln -s share/.muttrc
s ln -s share/.mailcap
$ ln -s share/.vimrc
$ ln -s share/.signature
$ ln -s share/.gnupg

Now setup the directory for the Mutt SSL certificates file.

$ cd ~
$ mkdir .mutt

Now create an icon on the panel to run Mutt. Right-click on the panel and select Add to Panel.... Select Custom Application Launcher. Set Name: to Mutt, Comment: to Email client and command: to terminal --geometry 120x40 --hide-menubar -t "Mutt" -x my.mutt. Click on Icon: and select an appropriate one, then click OK (my.mutt is a simple script whuch sets the keychain environmental variables and runs mutt).

Now set GNOME to use Mutt as the default mail client. From the System menu select Preferences -> Personal -> Preferred Applications and select Mutt as the Mail Reader.

Right-click on the original panel email icon and remove it. Remove other panel icons as preferred.

Use the shared Firefox bookmark file. In Firefox, enter about:config as the URL. Right click on the screen, and select New -> String. Set the preference name to browser.bookmarks.file and the string value to /home/steve/share/.bookmarks.html. Exit Firefox, and restart.

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