Fedora 9 PC Installation Notes

The following steps apply to a Dell Vostro 200.

1. Change the BIOS settings for the HD to RAID.

2. Disable stop on error if no keyboard is present.
   

3. Insert a DVD with the Fedora 9 .iso image and boot the PC.

4. Choose English as the language, NY as the city, and system uses UTC.
5. Choose the default partition, deleting any existing partitions if necessary. 
6. Clear all the default software to install choices and click the Customize now button to make sure you have Firefox installed under "Applications, Graphical Internet". Most of the other choices can just be cleared as you want the PC to be as plain vanilla as possible. There are still 884 packages to install!
   
7. Create a single user account. 
8. Set the date and time. Enable Network Time Protocol.
   
9. Send profile to SMOLT so that Fedora can build the hardware profile in their database of which hardware works under Fedora. 
10. Remove unwanted items from the Fedora desktop workspace:
    Remove mail icon next to Firefox
    Remove tomboy notes at upper right
    Remove account info moniker at upper right
    
11. Cause the PC to automatically login to that user account on boot:
    Add these lines to /etc/gdm/custom.conf:
    [daemon]
    TimedLoginEnable=true
    TimedLogin=[account name]
    TimedLoginDelay=0
    
    
12. Disable the screen saver:
    <http://bytes.com/forum/thread578371.html>
    
    service acpid stop
    chkconfig acpid --level 345 off
    
    Set the screensaver preferences:
    Clear the checkbox "Activate screensaver when computer is idle" and move the slider to 2 hours.
    
    Also, perhaps:
    

    xset +dpms

    
    Or:
    http://www.groupsrv.com/linux/post-859955.html
    
    In /etc/X11/xorg.conf add
    
    Section "ServerFlags"
    Option "blank time" "0"
    Option "standby time" "0"
    Option "suspend time" "0"
    Option "off time" "0"
    Option "dpms" "false"
    EndSection
    
    Restart X11.
    
    Someone posted that they had to remove the dpms line.
    
    EVS instructions of 2008-11-20, applied at 13:45:
    
    /etc/cron.d/keep-screen-from-blanking contains:
    */20 * * * * root xset -display :0 s reset
    
    /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/allow-local-display-access contains:
    xhost +local:root
    
    You'll need to reboot.
    
    
13. Disable IP6 in Firefox to make it do DNS lookups immediately:
    Open a new tab by typing Ctrl-t
    Enter about:config in the address bar of Firefox
    Enter ip into the Filter: text box
    Look for the network.dns.disableIPv6 entry in the table below the Filter: text box
    Double click the network.dns.disableIPv6 entry
    Restart Firefox
    
    
14. Make Firefox start automatically at boot:
    Create a file named "~[account name]/.config/autostart/firefox.desktop
    
    Contents should be:
    -----------------------------------
    
    [Desktop Entry]
    Type=Application
    Encoding=UTF-8
    Version=1.0
    Name=No Name
    Name[en_US]=Cam Viewer
    Exec=firefox  [url of website to start with]
    X-GNOME-Autostart-enabled=true
    
    
15. Disable that prompt when Firefox starts after it was closed improperly:
       1. Open Firefox
       2. Type: "about:config" in address bar ( without quotes biggrin.gif )
       3. Search for "browser.sessionstore.resume_from_crash" in the list
       4. double click on that field and set that to "false"
    
    
16. Add the Firefox "AutoHide" extension add-in that permits the system to automatically start in full screen mode.
    http://www.mouserunner.com/FF_Tips_Full_Screen.html
    
    Some tweaks are required to the configuration of the Auto-Hide extension to make it work right.
    
17. Add the website you want to start automatically:
    http://192.168.201.103/CgiStart?page=Multi&Language=0
    
18. Don't run software updates?
19. Reduce the screen resolution to 800x600.