For a general overview of installing Linux at home, see Installing Linux at Home. For a general overview of installing Linux at work, see Installing Linux at Work.

There are my personal notes about installing Fedora 9 on a Thinkpad laptop.

Fedora Core 9 Installation Notes

0. Before You Begin
   If you are upgrading or replacing another Linux system:
   a. Save your root crontab (with crontab -l) so you won't lose any nightly
      scripts or backup programs you may have installed.
   b. Backup any databases.  With MySQL, use "mysqldump -p db_name >
      sql_command_file_to_build_db.sql".  With PostgreSQL, use "pg_dumpall >
      output.dat".
   c. Backup /root with tar cfvz root.tgz /root
      Especially important so you can save your SSH keys (in the .ssh
      directory), email inbox and other configuration settings.  It may be a
      good idea to back up /home and /etc as well.

1. Basic Installation

   Perform the basic Fedora Core 9 installation.
   Note: my laptop requires DVD-R (not DVD+R).

2. Networking

   Configure your networking:
   DNS
    host kirika.pegasoft.ca
    Primary 192.168.100.1
   Device / General
    Auto with DHCP / Get DNS 

  You must reboot the machine for DNS changes to take effect.
  Ping a local machine.
  If you're configuring on a holiday weekend, make sure that the Internet
  is up with a different computer before you despair that you can't get out.
  Auto startup on book doesn't work.

3. Restoring home directory
   If you backed up /home/, unpack it.  Create your first user.

4. Applying Updates

  If your network connectivity is working, run the online update to upgrade
  to the latest versions of your installed files.

  You must reboot the machine for DHCP changes to take effect or your
  network card will fail (e.g. ifup eth0 gives a warning that upgrades
  were done).

  After applying the latest updates to Fedora, DHCP (dhclient) failed.
  Releasing the IP number had no effect.
  Hard-code a static IP and rebooted: unable to access local network.

4. Installing Core Software

   In the event that you cannot get your network connectivity working,
   you can download files manually from a Fedora Core 9 mirror and copy
   them to your computer with a device such as a USB Flash drive.  Use
   RPM to install.  If you get dependency warning, go back and download
   the required files from the mirror site.

   o gcc-gnat and libgnat - GCC Ada
   o GtkAda, GtkAda-devel, GTkAda-doc - GCC Ada support packages
   o freeglut, freeglut-devel - OpenGL programming
   o tidy and libtidy - HTML development
   o unison - file synchronization
   o SDL_image and SDL_image-devel - PegaSoft software
   o SDL_ttf and SDL_ttf-devel - PegaSoft software
   o lynx - text-based browser
   o postgresql, postgresql-libs and postgresql-server - database
   o mysql, mysql-libs, mysql-server - database
   o perl-DBI, perl-DBD-MySQL and perl-DBD-Pg - Perl database support

   I discovered that I had DNS problems with my firewall computer.  Changing
   the DNS settings allowed me to restore network connectivity, but only
   intermittently.   I attached the networking to the toolbar Network Manager
   applet hoping to reduce the problems.

   Even then the add/remove software tool wasn't working.  The networking
   connection would intermittently fail.  Even with a working network
   connection, you can use the add/remove software tool to search and show the
   descriptions, but not to show package categories or install anything.  I
   had no choice but to log in as root and use "yum install [package name]"
   instead of the desktop graphical installer.

   o kdevelop - integrated development environment
   o eclipse - integrated development environment
   o taskjuggler - personal scheduler
   o audacity - sound editor
   o ddd - program debugger
   x jogl - Java OpenGL package
   x apache - web server
   o keyjnote - presentation software
   o quanta - web development tool

   rpm -ivh http://linuxdownload.adobe.com/adobe-release/adobe-release-i386-1.0-1.noarch.rpm
   To add the Adobe Linux repository.  Then add Flash and Acrobat Reader.

   o AdobeReader_enu - Adobe Acrobat reader
   o flash-plugin - Macromedia/Adobe Flash plugin

   To install Real Player

   o rpm -ivh RealPlayer11GOLD.rpm (from http://www.real.com/linux/)

6. Firefox Configuration
   If you have an old /home, Firefox should still work with all your installed
   themes and extensions.

7. Bash and CVS Setup
   Copied conf/bashrc to /etc/bash.bashrc.local for new CVSROOT, LS_COLORS
   and PS1 prompt.  If you're using CVS, create the CVS repository as well.

# Ken was here --------------------------------------------------------------

# CVS repository string

export CVSROOT="/home/repository/cvs"

# Shell colours

export LS_COLORS="$LS_COLORS""*.dio=00;35:*.ali=00;31:*.o=00;31:*.html=00;33:*.php=00;35"

# Shell prompt

PS1='\n\w\n\u@\h \['`/usr/bin/tput smso`'\]$\['`/usr/bin/tput sgr0`'\] ' ; export PS1

8. Third Party Repositories

   The two most popular are FreshRPMs (http://sulphur.freshrpms.net/)
   OR Linva (http://rpm.livna.org/rlowiki/).  They are not compatible wit
   each other: choose only one.  The basic process is the same.  Install
   the RPM file for the repository and then install packages as usual
   through the yum command.  Usually I use FreshRPMs.  I tried Livna this
   time.

   rpm -ivh http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release-9.rpm (for livna)

   o xmms*
   o audacious
   o audacious-plugins-nonfree*
   o xine: yum install xine xine-lib-extras xine-lib-extras-nonfree libdvdcss

   To finish Xine, install the MPlayer codecs from mplayerhq.hu.
   mkdir -p /usr/lib/codecs
   tar -jxvf all-20071007.tar.bz2 --strip-components 1 -C /usr/lib/codecs/


   whatever "game" games looked interesting
   whatever "gnome" applets looked interesting
   whatever "fonts" are applicable

9. Desktop Setup
Check for anything desktop items that you need to setup (e.g. terminal
launchers or other custom setup.)