RedHat Linux and Fedora Core Stuff

Modified yum.conf

You can get RH/Fedora stuff on campus at rha.uwaterloo.ca or mirror.cscf.uwaterloo.ca. See also attached files (scroll to the bottom) for some example yum repo files.

The simplest approach (as of Fedora Core 4) is to put the following in /etc/yum.repos.d/fedora-updates.repo

[updates-released]
name=Fedora Core $releasever - $basearch - Released Updates
baseurl=ftp://mirror.cscf.uwaterloo.ca/fedora/linux/core/updates/$releasever/$basearch
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-fedora

and the following in /etc/yum.repos.d/fedora-extras.repo

[extras]
name=Fedora Extras $releasever - $basearch
baseurl=ftp://mirror.cscf.uwaterloo.ca/fedora-linux-extras/$releasever/$basearch
enabled=1
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-fedora-extras
gpgcheck=1

According to your preferences, all related repositories can be grouped into a single file.

Older versions of Fedora Core use a single /etc/yum.conf file. Sample yum.conf using local repositories at rha.uwaterloo.ca:

[main]
cachedir=/var/cache/yum
debuglevel=2
logfile=/var/log/yum.log
pkgpolicy=newest
distroverpkg=redhat-release
tolerant=1
exactarch=1

[Local-base]
name=Red Hat Linux $releasever - $basearch - UW Base
baseurl=http://rha.uwaterloo.ca/linux/RedHat-distros/$releasever/Fedora/RPMS

[Local-updates]
name=Red Hat Linux $releasever - UW Updates
baseurl=http://rha.uwaterloo.ca/linux/RedHat-updates/$releasever/

# Broken at least as of 10 February 2005
#[Local-addons]
#name=UW-isms repository
#baseurl=http://rha.uwaterloo.ca/yum

##EXTRA repositories
#[dag] 
#name=Dag RPM Repository for Fedora Core 
#baseurl=http://apt.sw.be/fedora/$releasever/en/$basearch/dag

Using YUM to upgrade across releases

Notes: I have tested this process for upgrading from FC6 to FC8 - it works but the process is slow to do

• See http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/YumUpgradeFaq

apt

Certain Debian afficionados (who are suspected granola and bean sprout munchers) are, for technical reasons, of the humble opinion that yum sucks, despite its ease of use for the non-specialist. One can do yum install apt with the above yum.conf, and get yummy apt. Try the following in /etc/apt/sources.list:

rpm http://redhat-archive.uwaterloo.ca/apt fedora/3/i386 os updates uw

where the digit fedora/3 matches your FC release. One can get brave and try upgrading a system in-place by incrementing this digit. (Decrementing it is not at all recommended.) After that, you can pretend it's a Debian system that uses rpm.

Atheros Wireless Card in Fedora Core 4

• All you have to do is run the following script!

cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/madwifi co madwifi
cd madwifi
make clean
make
sudo make install
modprobe ath_pci

Atheros Wireless Card in Fedora Core 3

Assumptions

• All the following commands will be executed as the super user, root
• A kernel upgrade removes these installed drivers, thus requiring a re-build of these drivers
• I was running Fedora Core 3, with kernel 2.6.9-1.667!
• The kernel source package must match your kernel's version, thus in the future, download the corresponding .src.rpm file

Pre-requisites

• Install development packages through the system-config-packages --isodir=/home/cscf-adm/ utility
  • NOTE: You must have the ISOs of FC3 in the isodir directory. Otherwise, remove that parameter and use your FC3 CDs
• yum install sharutils -- needed by madwifi
• Get kernel source: ftp://ftp.nrc.ca/pub/systems/linux/redhat/fedora/linux/core/3/i386/os/SRPMS/kernel-2.6.9-1.667.src.rpm
• rpm -Uvh kernelsourcepackage.src.rpm
• cd /usr/src
• tar -xvjf redhat/SOURCES/linux-2.6.9.tar.bz2
• wait
• cp redhat/SOURCES/linux-2.6.9-i686.config linux/.config

Getting the madwifi sources

• cd
• cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/madwifi * co madwifi

Building the kernel modules

• cd madwifi
• make
• make install

Load the modules

• modprobe ath_pci

Final Steps

• Used the network configuration application to configure the card
• Activate the connection
• Enjoy!

Selinux and Apache

You may have difficulty with Apache if you've enabled Selinux. I found that system-config-securitylevel was somewhat counterintuitive in that if you check everything under the httpd dropdown, it won't work as expected. Rather, just check "Disable selinux for httpd" and leave it at that. That's probably not very safe, but it seems to let everything Just Work, anyway. For light-duty workstations, is selinux really best anyway? See attached image.

Intel D925XECV2 and D925XCV2 motherboard

Network install for updated sk98lin drivers

• Note a percompiled kernel module can be found on the application server \\asimov.cscf.uwaterloo.ca\exports\linux\ethernet\mervel_yukon\fedora_fc3\DriverInstall\sk98lin
• Support Web http://www.syskonnect.com/syskonnect/support/driver/
• Driver http://www.syskonnect.com/syskonnect/support/driver/zip/linux/install-8_16.tar.bz2
• Readme http://www.syskonnect.com/syskonnect/support/driver/readme/linux/sk98lin.html
• Get the kernel source for your kernel ether from http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/3/SRPMS/ or http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/updates/3/SRPMS/ replace directory 3 with the version you are running
• Install kernel source rpm with rpm -ivh
• Build kernel from spec file (easy to do!) - read the steps in this web page http://wiki.tuxemu.com/index.php/Recompiling_a_Kernel_for_Fedora_Core_3)
• Run install.sh from the DriverInstall directory (extracted from install-8_16.tar.bz2)
• Verify the driver loads