Fedora 15 A perfect Desktop

Things to do after install fedora 15

Things to do after install fedora 15 is a good quesiton always. For a Complete desktop for a user we need more softwares for MP3, DVD and Video playback/recording etc… For this reason you have to install that software from third party repositories. RPM Fusion is a third party repository consists all of other softwares for better media support.

Gnome shell Tweaks for Fedora 15

You need some tweaks for gnome shell to use in fedora 15. You can have the gnome-tweak-tool to tweak the settings, interface, fonts, themes etc..
Just install

yum install gnome-tweak-tool

Prepare Yum for Fast Installation in Fedora 15

* Fastest Mirror Plugin

yum install yum-fastestmirror

The fasterstmirror will find the fastest mirror near you and download with great speed.

Install Adobe Acrobat Reader in Fedora 15

Next we add the adobe repository for downloading Acrobat Reader, by running this at the terminal

rpm -Uvh http://linuxdownload.adobe.com/adobe-release/adobe-release-i386-1.0-1.noarch.rpmrpm --import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-adobe-linuxyum install AdobeReader_enu

Just Start the Acrobat Reader from Applicaitons > office > Acrobat reader.

Internet Applicaitons for fedora 15

The firefox 4.0.1 is the default browser in fedora 15. But Chrome is a better alternative. You can add the repository and install google chrome on fedora 15 very easly.

Installing Google chrome in Fedora 15

To add the google repository edit the file.

gedit /etc/yum.repos.d/google.repo

for 32 bit OS Version
[google]

name=Google - i386ff

baseurl=http://dl.google.com/linux/rpm/stable/i386

enabled=1

gpgcheck=1

gpgkey=https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub

for 64-bit OS Version

[google64]

name=Google - x86_64

baseurl=http://dl.google.com/linux/rpm/stable/x86_64

enabled=1

gpgcheck=1

gpgkey=https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub

Install Google Chrome Stable Version on Fedora 15

Just type this line on the root terminal

yum install google-chrome-stable


Or You can download the google chrome browser from chrome website. Download the rpm file
to install you need the dependency lsb
to install that

yum install redhat-lsb

Then try to install the downloaded rpm by just double click on it or in terminal

rpm -ivh google-chrome-stable_current.rpm

Install Opera on Fedora 15

You can download Opera browser from opera’s Official Webiste. Opera is the most advanced browser with HTML 5 and CSS 3 support.
Just double click on the rpm will install the browser without a hazile.

Install Pidgin on Fedora 15

Pidgin is an alternative for the default empathy IM Client. Some times it works better with webcams.

yum install pidgin

Install Google talk Plugin in Fedora 15

Just download the rpm from Google Talk Website and install it. Download from http://www.google.com/chat/video/download.html . 

Just double click on the rpm on the downloads. Type the root password. It will automatically install.

Install skype on Fedora 15

Skype is a good IM client for all operating system. You can chat, Video and Audio call with unmatched voice clarity and video quality over internet.
Just download from skype website.
Just double click on the rpm. It will install automatically.

Install Google talk on Fedora 15

The google talk plugin will help you to call your friends from gmail interface. It now supports video calling. You can download this plugin from google website

Graphics Appications for fedora 15

Gimp

the most advanced Image Editor in Linux. The latest Coming Version will have great features. This is included in the default package. If not just install

yum install gimp

Inkscape

The best vector editor application in free software. Good for creating svg files.

yum install inkscape

Google Picasa

picasa application for organizing and editing digital photos. You can download picasa from google.

rpm, for Red Hat/Fedora/Suse/Mandriva i386 or x86_64:

http://dl.google.com/linux/rpm/testing/i386/picasa-3.0-current.i386.rpm

Xara Xtreme

Xara is a powerful, general purpose graphics program for Unix platforms including Linux, FreeBSD and (in development) OS-X.

Office Applications for Fedora 15

Libreoffice is the official office package for Fedora 15

The total libreoffice package is available on the DVD package. You can install openoffice.org seperatly.

Libre Office 3.3.0 on Fedora 15

LibreOffice is a productivity suite that is compatible with other major office suites, and available on a variety of platforms. It is the clone of Openoffice.org from document foundation. Lot of improvements and bug fixes from openoffice.org done by the libreoffice team. Also other distros are supporting this office suite.
Download : Libreoffice
Extract the file and install
rpm -ivh RPMS/*.rpm

Scribus on fedora 15

Scribus is an desktop open source page layout program with the aim of producing commercial grade output in PDF and Postscript, primarily, though not exclusively for Linux.While the goals of the program are for ease of use and simple easy to understand tools, Scribus offers support for professional publishing features, such as CMYK color, easy PDF creation, Encapsulated Postscript import/export and creation of color separations.

yum install scribus

Video Codecs for Fedora 15

To play various Video formats we need some codecs.

Gstreamer

yum install gstreamer gstreamer-plugins-good gstreamer-plugins-bad gstreamer-plugins-ugly

FFMpeg

FFMpeg is a complete and free Internet live audio and video broadcasting solution for Linux/Unix. It also includes a digital VCR. It can encode in real time in many formats including MPEG1 audio and video, MPEG4, h263, ac3, asf, avi, real, mjpeg, and flash.

yum install ffmpeg ffmpeg-libs

K3b MP3 decoder plugin

When you start k3b it says no mp3 decoder plugin. to install
yum install k3b-extras-freeworld.

DVD and Video Players for Fedora 15

DVD playback
In order to play DVDs you must install the appropriate codecs.

yum install libdvdread libdvdnav lsdvd

you can use Livna for installing libdvdcss.

su -

rpm -Uvh http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release.rpm

yum install libdvdcss

VLC

VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player and multimedia framework capable of reading most audio and video formats as well as DVDs, Audio CDs VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a media converter or a server to stream in uni-cast or multi-cast in IPv4 or IPv6 on networks.

Mplayer / SMplayer / Gnome Mplayer

MPlayer is a movie player that plays most MPEG, VOB, AVI, OGG/OGM, VIVO, ASF/WMA/WMV, QT/MOV/MP4, FLI, RM, NuppelVideo, yuv4mpeg, FILM, RoQ, and PVA files. You can also use it to watch VCDs, SVCDs, DVDs, 3ivx, RealMedia, and DivX movies. It supports a wide range of output drivers including X11, XVideo, DGA, OpenGL, SVGAlib, fbdev, AAlib, DirectFB etc. There are also nice antialiased shaded subtitles and OSD.

yum install mplayer mplayer-gui smplayer gnome-mplayer

Kaffeine

Kaffeine is KDE Mediaplayer with xine engine.

yum install kaffeine

Avidemux

Avidemux is a very good video editor. Install it like this

yum install avidemux

Mp3 and Audio Players for Fedora 15.

Audacity

Audacity is a cross-platform multitrack audio editor. It allows you to record sounds directly or to import files in various formats. It features a few simple effects, all of the editing features you should need, and unlimited undo. The GUI was built with wxWidgets and the audio I/O supports PulseAudio, OSS and ALSA under Linux. This
build has support for mp3 and ffmpeg import/export.
yum install audacityOr you can install Audacity with mp3 export support.

yum install audacity-freeworld

Audacious

Audacious is a media player that currently uses a skinned user interface (based on Winamp 2.x skins) as well as a separate GTK2 based front end. Historically, it started as a fork of Beep Media Player (BMP), which itself forked from XMMS.
yum install audacious audacious-libs audacious-plugins audacious-plugins-freeworld audacious

yum install vlc

Banshee

Banshee allows you to import CDs, sync your music collection to an iPod, play music directly from an iPod, create playlists with songs from your library, and create audio and MP3 CDs from subsets of your library.

yum install banshee banshee-community-extensions

Xmms

XMMS is a multimedia (Ogg Vorbis, CDs) player for the X Window System with an interface similar to Winamp’s. XMMS supports playlists and streaming content and has a configurable interface.

Torrent Clients for Fedora 15

Transmission

Transmission is a free, lightweight BitTorrent client. It features a simple, intuitive interface on top on an efficient, cross-platform back-end.

yum install transmission

Azureus

Azureus (now Vuze) implements the BitTorrent protocol using java and comes bundled with many invaluable features for both beginners and advanced users.

yum install azureus

Ktorrent

Ktorrent is a torrent client for KDE Users. If you install on Gnome only System. You have the overhead of KDE Libraries.

yum install ktorrent

Nautilus Extensions for Fedora 15

Nautilus Actions

Nautilus actions is an extension for Nautilus, the GNOME file manager. It provides an easy way to configure programs to be launch on files selected in Nautilus interface

yum install nautilus-actions

Nautilus Image Converter

Adds a “Resize Images…” menu item to the context menu of all images. This opens a dialog where you set the desired image size and file name. A click on “Resize” finally resizes the image(s) using ImageMagick’s convert tool.

yum install nautilus-image-converter

Nautilus Open Terminal

The nautilus-open-terminal extension provides a right-click “Open Terminal” option for nautilus users who prefer that option.

yum install nautilus-open-terminal

Nautilus Paste Bin

A Nautilus extension written in Python, which allows users to upload text-only files to a pastebin service just by right-clicking on them. Users can also add their favorite service just by creating new presets.

yum install nautilus-pastebin

Tools for Fedora 15

Here we are installing some usefull tools for various purpose.

Unrar

The unrar utility is a freeware program for extracting, testing and viewing the contents of archives created with the RAR archiver version 1.50 and above.

yum install unrar

7Zip

p7zip is a port of 7za.exe for Unix. 7-Zip is a file archiver with a very high compression ratio. The original version can be found at http://www.7-zip.org/.

yum install p7zip p7zip-plugins

gftp

gFTP is a multi-threaded FTP client for the X Window System. gFTP supports simultaneous downloads, resumption of interrupted file transfers, file transfer queues to allow downloading of multiple files, support for downloading entire directories/subdirectories, a bookmarks menu to allow quick connection to FTP sites, caching of remote directory listings, local and remote chmod, drag and drop, a connection manager and much more

yum install gftp

Filezilla

FileZilla is a FTP, FTPS and SFTP client for Linux with a lot of features.
* Supports FTP, FTP over SSL/TLS (FTPS) and SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP)
* Cross-platform
* Available in many languages
* Supports resume and transfer of large files >4GB
* Easy to use Site Manager and transfer queue
* Drag & drop support
* Speed limits
* Filename filters
* Network configuration wizard

yum install filezilla

gnochm

A CHM file viewer for Gnome. Features are:
* Full text search * Bookmarks * Support for external ms-its links * Configurable support for http links * Internationalisation * Displays HTML page source

yum install gnochm

gtkpod

gtkpod is a platform independent Graphical User Interface for Apple’s iPod using GTK2. It supports all current iPod models, including the Mini, Photo, Shuffle, Nano, Video, Classic, Touch, and iPhone.

yum install gtkpod
All Packages with their functions

Internet:

• flash-plugin: Adobe Flash Player: to be installed
• Firefox: web browser: already installed
• Chrome: web browser by Google: to be installed separately
  
• Opera: web browser: to be installed separately
• thunderbird: An email and news client: to be installed
• Evolution: e-mail/calendar – Outlook style application: already installed (see Applications > Office)
  
• transmission: A BitTorrent Client: Bittorrent client: already installed
• Empathy IM Client: multi-platform instant messaging client: already installed
• skype: VOIP software: to be installed
  
• Google Earth: Map software by Google: to be installed separately

Graphics:

• gimp: replacement for Adobe Photoshop: to be installed
• f-spot: feature rich personal photo management application for the GNOME desktop: to be installed
• Google Picasa: application for organizing and editing digital photos: to be installed separately

Office:

• libreoffice-writer: replacement for Microsoft Word (new Openoffice Avatar): to be installed
• libreoffice-calc: replacement for Microsoft Excel: to be installed
• libreoffice-impress: replacement for Microsoft Powerpoint: to be installed
• AdobeReader_enu: Adobe Reader: to be installed (choose the package for your language)
  
• scribus: open source desktop publishing (DTP) application: to be installed

Sound & Video:

• audacity: free, open source, cross platform digital audio editor: to be installed
• audacious: Winamp like music player: to be installed
• banshee: media management and playback and synchronize music with Apple iPods: to be installed
• gnome-mplayer: media player (video/audio), supports practically all formats: to be installed
• vlc: media player (video/audio), supports practically all formats: to be installed
• Rhythmbox Music Player: audio player, similar to Apple’s iTunes, with support for iPods: already installed
• gtkpod: iPod manager, supports iPod, iPod nano, iPod shuffle, iPod photo, and iPod mini: to be installed
• dvdrip: full featured DVD copy program: to be installed
• dvd95: dvd shrink like program to convert DVD9 to DVD5: to be installed
• kino: digital video editor: to be installed
• sound-juicer: CD ripping tool, supports various audio codecs: already installed
• Totem – media player (video/audio): already installed
• gxine: media player, supports various formats; can play DVDs: to be installed
• Brasero: CD/DVD burning program: already installed
• k3b: CD/DVD burning program: to be installed

Programming:

• emacs: Feature rich extensible self-documenting text editor: to be installed
• vim: Terminal based power text editor: to be installed
• bluefish: HTML editor: to be installed
• kdewebdev: includes quanta: web development environment, including a WYSIWYG editor: to be installed

Other:

• VirtualBox-OSE: run your old Windows desktop as a virtual machine under your Linux desktop, so you don’t have to entirely abandon Windows: to be installed
• ffmpeg: Useful video conversion application: to be installed

Home Theater (HTPC):

• mythtv: State-of-art Home Theater and Personal Video Recorder (PVR) application.
• xbmc: Awesome easy to use Home Theater (HTPC) application for playing videos, music, photo slide show etc., no PVR though!

Fedora Wifi

Table of Contents

Introduction
Step 1: Identify the chipset of the wireless device
Step 2: Choose the right driver
Step 3: Install the driver
....How to install and use b43 and b43legacy
....How to install and use the Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA driver (broadcom-wl)
....How to install and use b43-openfwwf
....How to install and use rndis_wlan
....How to install and use ndiswrapper



Introduction

Wireless cards using Broadcom chipsets are very common. Until recently, support for these Broadcom wireless cards in Linux was poor, and the only way to use them in Linux was with software that could act as an adapter for Windows drivers in Linux. That worked well in many cases and still does today. But in the last few years, Linux drivers for these Broadcom wireless cards have increased in number and quality. That happened first through reverse engineering efforts which produced the bcm43xx Linux driver several years ago, and later through the belated but nevertheless appreciated cooperation of the Broadcom Corporation which released a partially open source Linux driver for several Broadcom chipsets. So nowadays there are several Linux drivers or driver methods that can be used to make many of the Broadcom wireless chipsets work in Fedora. Broadcom recently released at least one additional fully open source Linux driver that likely will be available for use with Fedora soon.



Step 1: Identify the chipset of the wireless device

The driver or driver method to use depends upon the chipset used by the wireless card. Nearly all of the Broadcom wireless cards that are commonly discussed around here use the PCI bus, and their chipsets usually can be positively identified by the following command in a Fedora terminal...

Code:

lspci

Look in the lspci report for a Broadcom wireless network controller and find its chipset number which will be in the format of BCM43xx. If there is no such wireless device revealed in the lspci report, then it may be a USB device listed in the lsusb report. The wireless device may be less obvious in the lsusb report which identifies USB devices by their vendor ID and device ID numbers (venderID:deviceID) and may not have much other information. Nevertheless, the information in the lsusb report is still something that may be helpful in deciding what to do next. If nothing at all is found to identify the wireless card, then it may be disabled by BIOS, a software switch or hotkey, or a physical on-off switch.

Once the chipset is identified, maybe one of the driver methods described next will work with it in Fedora. The following Broadcom wireless chipsets are known to be capable of working in Fedora with one or more of those driver methods. There may be other Broadcom wireless chipsets that also can work in Fedora, but these are the ones commonly discussed around here and that I know about...

BCM4301
BCM4303
BCM4306
BCM4309
BCM4310 USB (but it uses the PCI bus)
BCM4311
BCM4312
BCM4313
BCM4318
BCM4320 USB
BCM4321
BCM4322
BCM43224
BCM43225
BCM43227
BCM43228
BCM4328
BCM43XG

Step 2: Choose the right driver

All versions of all chipsets in that list above are known to work in Fedora with at least one of the driver methods described next. Many of them are known to work with more than one of the driver methods described next. But none of the chipsets in that list work with all of the driver methods described next. So choose a driver method below that is known to work with your chipset. The section for each driver method below lists which chipsets are known to work with that driver method. For additional help with deciding which driver method to start out with, study the following algorithm.

Code:

lspci
                                         |
                                Any of these listed?
                                        4301
                                        4303
                                        4306
                                        4309
                                        4311
                                        4312
                                        4313 
                                        4318
                                       /    \
                                      /      \
                                     /        \
                                    /          \
                                  Yes           No
                                  /              \
                                 /                \
                                /                  \
                             lsmod                4310?
                              /                   /   \
                             /                   /     \
                            /                  Yes      No
                          b43                  /         \
                        loaded?               /           \
                        /    \           ndiswrapper   4321,43224
                       /      No                        4322,43225
                      /        \                         4328,43227
                     /          \                         43XG,43228
                   Yes       b43legacy                      /   \
                   /          loaded?                      /     \
                  /           /     \                    Yes      No
                 /          Yes      No                  /         \
                /           /         \                 /           \
             4306?         /         4311?        broadcom-wl      4320?

4311?      Install        4312?                     (from lsusb

Step 3: Install the driver

IMPORTANT NOTE: The steps and examples below are intended for use with NetworkManager managing the wireless connection. For other connection managers or techniques, adapt the information as appropriate for the particular situation. The steps and examples below also require the Fedora system to have an Internet connection via a wired NIC for the steps that involve wget or yum. For a Fedora system with no Internet connection, the relevant files can be downloaded using another computer or operating system and manually installed. For help with that, start a new thread in the Networking forum and mention your running kernel and Broadcom chipset.

How to install and use b43 and b43legacy

History and background

The b43 Linux driver is the current descendant of the now obsolete bcm43xx driver. The bcm43xx driver was the result of reverse engineering of proprietary Broadcom drivers. The process involved manually translating machine code back into C from which a guide to writing drivers for the Broadcom chipsets could be written. The bcm43xx driver module began shipping with Fedora Core 5 kernels in 2006, but it required firmware that had to be extracted from proprietary drivers using a software application for that purpose. That application was named bcm43xx-fwcutter and was also available in the Fedora Core 5 Extras repository. During the life cycle of Fedora 7 in 2007, the bcm43xx driver module was replaced by two new driver modules: b43 and b43legacy. They both still required the installation of firmware. The b43legacy module was for use with some older cards which also have to use an older version of firmware. The b43 and b43legacy driver modules and b43-fwcutter to extract their firmware are still included in Fedora today. They are known to work with the following Broadcom wireless chipsets:

BCM4301
BCM4303
BCM4306
BCM4309
BCM4311
BCM4312
BCM4313
BCM4318

IMPORTANT NOTE: Not all wireless modes are supported for all of those chipsets. And some chipsets in that list may exist in more than one version that may each require a different driver or driver method or firmware. The official "home" of the b43 and b43legacy drivers is now Linux Wireless. Go there for additional details about the current status of support and the driver/firmware requirements for Broadcom chipsets. If you do not have success trying b43 for one of those listed chipsets, then it's reasonable to try an alternate driver or driver method known to work with your chipset.

Firmware installation

The firmware required by b43 and b43legacy is extracted from proprietary Broadcom drivers. The best results nowadays are obtained by extracting the firmware from source object files of Broadcom drivers available from a legal distribution point such as OpenWrt.org. The firmware is copyrighted and cannot be redistributed. The b43 module requires so-called version 4 firmware which can be extracted from a broadcom-wl tarball from OpenWrt, and probably any of the version 4 broadcom-wl tarballs can used as a firmware source for the b43 driver in the latest Fedoras. But if the wireless card must use the b43legacy driver, then it must use older version 3 firmware extracted from an older driver file. The version 3 firmware is maintained at OpenWrt not as a broadcom driver tarball but as a single object file named wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o. In both cases, as explained next, the firmware is extracted from the driver file with b43-fwcutter which is a software package available from the Fedora repository.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The following steps are ones often used successfully around here. If they don't work for a particular Broadcom wireless card, then go to linuxwireless.org for more complex explanations and specialized instructions for the various chipsets and versions. These steps assume that the Fedora system has a wired NIC connection to the Internet for the download steps. If the Fedora system does not have an Internet connection, then all of the packages and files mentioned can be downloaded using another computer or operating system and transferred to the Fedora filesystem. Modify the steps accordingly for that scenario.

1. Install b43-fwcutter. This is the software package that does the extraction of the firmware from the proprietary driver.
   Code:

   su
   yum install b43-fwcutter

2. Determine which native driver is being used by the wireless card (b43 or b43legacy). The kernel is generally good about detecting a Broadcom wireless card and loading the correct driver module for it. The following terminal command will list the loaded kernel modules in alphabetical order. Look for b43 or b43legacy.
   Code:

   lsmod | sort

3. Do this step only if you need to install version 4 firmware for the b43 driver module. Copy and execute the following command lines one after the other in a Fedora terminal.
   Code:

   wget http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2
   tar xjf broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5.tar.bz2
   cd broadcom-wl-4.150.10.5/driver 
   su
   b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware wl_apsta_mimo.o

4. Do this step only if you need to install version 3 firmware for the b43legacy module.
   Code:

   wget http://downloads.openwrt.org/sources/wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o
   su
   b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware wl_apsta-3.130.20.0.o

5. Now reboot or restart NetworkManager and look in the NetworkManager panel icon for available networks (left-click the icon).

Some things to try if it doesn't work

1. Check the firmware files. There should be about three dozen .fw files in /lib/firmware/b43 (or /lib/firmware/b43legacy). If they're not there, then review the steps and re-install the firmware.
   Code:

   ls /lib/firmware/b43

2. Check the loaded kernel modules again. The b43 or b43legacy module should be loaded, and potentially conflicting modules such as wl or ndiswrapper should not be loaded.
   Code:

   lsmod | sort

3. If a conflicting module is being loaded from a previous driver effort, then either undo the steps from that previous effort, or blacklist the unwanted module. Example...
   Code:

   su
   echo "blacklist ndiswrapper" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

Next... How to install and use the Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA driver (broadcom-wl)

How to install and use the Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA driver (broadcom-wl)

History and background

This is the partially open source Linux wireless driver released by Broadcom in 2008. It is commonly referred to as broadcom-wl. Once loaded, the kernel module is listed in the lsmod report as "wl". It is available as source code from the Broadcom website. But a more popular pre-compiled binary version of the same driver is available from the RPM Fusion repositories in a kmod version and an akmod version that can be installed in Fedora using the YUM package manager as described in detail below. This driver is "advertised" to work with these Broadcom chipsets:

BCM4311
BCM4312
BCM4313
BCM4321
BCM4322
BCM43224
BCM43225
BCM43227
BCM43228

However, it also has been discovered by members here and documented in threads here to work with the following additional chipsets:

BCM4328
BCM43XG

Installation of the RPM Fusion broadcom-wl driver

The broadcom-wl driver maintained by RPM Fusion is available in a kmod version which is actually a trio of packages: the broadcom-wl package, a kmod-wl metapackage, and a kernel specific kmod-wl package. These three packages are dependent upon each other, and installing any one of them generally installs the others as dependencies. The two kmod-wl packages will be updated every time the Fedora kernel is updated if the RPM Fusion repos are enabled. The broadcom-wl package is updated only when new versions of it become available. The broadcom-wl driver is also available in an akmod version which automatically creates updated kmod-wl packages when the Fedora kernel is updated. It is a matter of personal preference whether to install the kmod version or the akmod version. The active RPM Fusion repos follow the life cycle of Fedora versions. That means versions of the broadcom-wl driver for archived versions of Fedora will also be archived at RPM Fusion.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The following steps are for installing the RPM Fusion binary version of this driver because of its popularity and simplicity. These steps assume that the Fedora system has a wired NIC connection to the Internet for the download steps. If the Fedora system does not have an Internet connection, then all of the packages and files mentioned can be downloaded using another computer or operating system and transferred to the Fedora filesystem. For help with that, start a new thread in the Networking forum and mention your running kernel and Broadcom chipset.

1. Install the RPM Fusion repositories.

   http://rpmfusion.org/Configuration

2. Determine the architecture of the running kernel.
   Code:

   uname -r

3. Do this step only if you need to install the kmod version of the driver for the i686 or x86_64 kernels.
   Code:

   su
   yum install kmod-wl

4. Do this step only if you need to install the kmod version of the driver for the PAE driver.
   Code:

   su
   yum install kmod-wl-PAE

5. Do this step only if you want to install the akmod version of the driver for any kernel.
   Code:

   su
   yum install akmod-wl

6. Now reboot or restart NetworkManager and look in the NetworkManager panel icon for available networks (left-click the icon).

Some things to try if it doesn't work

1. Check the installed packages against the running kernel. It should all make sense by the version numbers. If it doesn't, then fix the installed packages situation. And make sure the correct kernel is running for the installed kmod package versions (a very common mistake).
   Code:

   uname -r
   rpm -qa | grep -e kernel -e broadcom-wl -e kmod-wl | sort

2. Check the loaded kernel modules. The wl module should be loaded, and potentially conflicting modules such as b43, b43legacy, and ssb should not be loaded.
   Code:

   lsmod | sort

3. If wl is not loaded, then try manually loading it.
   Code:

   su
   modprobe wl
   service NetworkManager restart

4. If manually loading the module worked, then add that modprobe command to /etc/rc.local.
   Code:

   su
   echo "modprobe wl" >> /etc/rc.local

5. If a conflicting module is being loaded, then blacklist the unwanted module. Examples...
   Code:

   su
   echo "blacklist b43" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
   echo "blacklist ssb" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

   IMPORTANT NOTE: Some wired ethernet cards use the b44 kernel module which requires the ssb kernel module. It's a potential complication to blacklisting ssb in this situation. People deal with it in various ways.

How to install and use b43-openfwwf

History and background

OpenFWWF (Open FirmWare for WiFi networks) is not a Broadcom Linux driver itself. It is a new project that provides an open source firmware for Broadcom chipsets using the b43 kernel module. It became included with Fedora starting with Fedora 12 as a package named b43-openfwwf. It also became available for Fedora 10 and 11 in their updates repos. It can be thought of as built-in firmware for the b43 module that works with a few of the Broadcom chipsets which currently are as follows:

BCM4306
BCM4311
BCM4318
BCM4320

IMPORTANT NOTE: There is at least anecdotal evidence that this b43-openfwwf firmware also works with a version of the BCM4309 chipset. Some versions of that chipset use the b43 driver and some use the b43legacy driver. The version that uses b43 may be able to use the b43-openfwwf firmware. To find out which driver is being used by a BCM4309 chipset, check the lsmod report for the driver module that was auto-loaded. If the b43 module is in the lsmod report when a BCM4309 chipset is present, then try using the b43-openfwwf firmware with it.

Installation and use of b43-openfwwf

There are no special steps needed to use this driver with a supported device. If a supported wireless card is present, then the firmware package was probably installed. That can be confirmed this way...

Code:

rpm -q b43-openfwwf

If the package is not installed, then it can be installed this way...

Code:

su
yum install b43-openfwwf

Go the the OpenFWWF website for details about the status this project and additional configuration details.



How to install and use rndis_wlan

The rndis_wlan driver was added to the stock kernel as of 2.6.25 and is still included with Fedora kernels today. The Broadcom 4320 USB WLAN chipset is currently the only wireless RNDIS chip known, and it has been documented here to work with this driver module. Although rndis_wlan has a vendor/device-id list, the driver can also autodetect new wireless RNDIS devices in the future. There are no special steps needed to use this driver with a supported device. Go to Linux Wireless for details about the current status of this driver.

How to install and use ndiswrapper

History and background

Ndiswrapper was initially released in 2003 and is software that acts as a sort of "adapter" to make a Windows driver work in Linux. After it is installed, ndiswrapper commands are then used to install the Windows driver and to configure the system to load and use the ndiswrapper module. Windows XP drivers are preferred, but some people still use drivers for Windows 2000 and even Windows 98. Wireless drivers for Vista and later Windows versions are known not to work well with ndiswrapper and should be avoided. And for 64-bit Fedora, use a 64-bit Windows driver with ndiswrapper. Not all chipsets and Windows drivers work with ndiswrapper. If the appropriate packages are installed for compiling, then ndiswrapper can be compiled from the source code. The source code can be downloaded from Sourceforge.net. But a popular pre-compiled binary version of ndiswrapper also is available from the RPM Fusion repositories in a kmod version and an akmod version that can be installed in Fedora using the YUM package manager as described in detail below. The ndiswrapper documentation and database of supported chipsets are still available at the Sourceforge wiki. According to the ndiswrapper database, most of the chipsets described here so far are known to work with ndiswrapper. Here they are...

BCM4301
BCM4303
BCM4306
BCM4309
BCM4310 USB
BCM4311
BCM4312
BCM4318
BCM4320 USB
BCM4321
BCM4328
BCM43XG

And one of those in that list will only work with ndiswrapper because there is no Linux driver for it (yet)...

BCM4310 USB

So with more chipsets working with Linux drivers, ndiswrapper has gradually assumed its new role as "the last resort". Nevertheless, some people still prefer ndiswrapper even when a Linux driver is available for their chipset.

Installation of the RPM Fusion version of ndiswrapper

The ndiswrapper maintained by RPM Fusion is available in a kmod version which is actually a trio of packages: the ndiswrapper package, a kmod-ndiswrapper metapackage, and a kernel specific kmod-ndiswrapper package. These three packages are dependent upon each other, and installing any one of them generally installs the others as dependencies. The two kmod-ndiswrapper packages will be updated every time the Fedora kernel is updated if the RPM Fusion repos are enabled. The ndiswrapper package is updated only when new versions of it become available. Ndiswrapper is also available in an akmod version which automatically creates updated kmod-ndiswrapper packages when the Fedora kernel is updated. It is a matter of personal preference whether to install the kmod version or the akmod version. The active RPM Fusion repos follow the life cycle of Fedora versions. That means versions of the ndiswrapper for archived versions of Fedora will also be archived at RPM Fusion.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The following steps are for installing the RPM Fusion binary version of ndiswrapper because of its popularity and simplicity. These steps assume that the Fedora system has a wired NIC connection to the Internet for the download steps. If the Fedora system does not have an Internet connection, then all of the packages and files mentioned can be downloaded using another computer or operating system and transferred to the Fedora filesystem. For help with that, start a new thread in the Networking forum and mention your running kernel and Broadcom chipset.

1. Install the RPM Fusion repositories.

   http://rpmfusion.org/Configuration

2. Update the system and reboot. This step potentially may take a long time and can be considered optional. But I recommend it if time and bandwidth allow it. A system update eventually needs to be done anyway, and it may avoid some kmod-ndiswrapper dependency issues if the system is up-to-date before attempting to install ndiswrapper.
   Code:

   su
   yum update
   reboot

3. Determine the architecture of the running kernel.
   Code:

   uname -r

4. Do this step only if you need to install the kmod version of ndiswrapper for the i686 or x86_64 kernels.
   Code:

   su
   yum install kmod-ndiswrapper

5. Do this step only if you need to install the kmod version of ndiswrapper for the PAE kernel.
   Code:

   su
   yum install kmod-ndiswrapper-PAE

6. Do this step only if you want to install the akmod version of ndiswrapper for any kernel.
   Code:

   su
   yum install akmod-ndiswrapper

Acquire and prepare the Windows driver

1. Places to find the Windows driver files for the wireless card include the CD that came with the wireless card, the Internet, or Windows system folders.
2. The files needed are the .sys and .inf files for the Windows driver.
3. Put those two files together in one place, open a terminal, and change directories (cd) to that directory.

Install the Windows driver

Code:

su
ndiswrapper -i [driver INF filename here]
ndiswrapper -mi

IMPORTANT NOTE: That last ndiswrapper command creates the file /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper. For Fedora 11 and later, that file should have a .conf ending. Give it one now and allow it to replace the previous file.

Code:

su
mv /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper.conf

Now reboot and look in the NetworkManager panel icon for available networks (left-click the icon).

Some things to try if it doesn't work.

1. Check the loaded kernel modules. The ndiswrapper module should be loaded, and potentially conflicting modules such as b43 or b43legacy should not be loaded...
   Code:

   lsmod | sort

2. If ndiswrapper is not being loaded, then try manually loading it.
   Code:

   su
   modprobe ndiswrapper
   lsmod | sort

3. If manually loading the module worked, then try the -ma option and reboot...
   Code:

   su
   ndiswrapper -ma

   IMPORTANT NOTE: That last ndiswrapper command creates the file /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper. For Fedora 11 and later, that file should have a .conf ending. Give it one now and allow it to replace the previous file.
   Code:

   su
   mv /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper.conf

4. If a conflicting module is being loaded, then blacklist the unwanted module and reboot. Example...
   Code:

   su
   echo "blacklist b43" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
   reboot

5. Confirm that the Windows driver was installed...
   Code:

   ndiswrapper -l

The End. Good Luck.
 

yum command: Update / Install Packages Under Redhat Enterprise / CentOS Linux Version 5.x

REGISTER MY SYSTEM WITH RHN

To register your system with RHN type the following command and just follow on screen instructions (CentOS user skip to next step):
 
# rhn_register

Display list of updated software (security fix) 
Type the following command at shell prompt:
 
# yum list updates

PATCH UP SYSTEM BY APPLYING ALL UPDATES

To download and install all updates type the following command:
 
# yum update 

LIST ALL INSTALLED PACKAGES

List all installed packages, enter:
 
# rpm -qa
 
# yum list installed 

Find out if httpd package installed or not, enter:
 
# rpm -qa | grep httpd*
 
# yum list installed httpd

CHECK FOR AND UPDATE SPECIFIED PACKAGES

# yum update {package-name-1}

To check for and update httpd package, enter:
 
# yum update httpd

SEARCH FOR PACKAGES BY NAME

Search httpd and all matching perl packages, enter:
 
# yum list {package-name}
 
# yum list {regex}
 
# yum list httpd
 
# yum list perl*

Sample output:

Loading "installonlyn" plugin
Loading "security" plugin
Setting up repositories
Reading repository metadata in from local files
Installed Packages
perl.i386                                4:5.8.8-10.el5_0.2     installed
perl-Archive-Tar.noarch                  1.30-1.fc6             installed
perl-BSD-Resource.i386                   1.28-1.fc6.1           installed
perl-Compress-Zlib.i386                  1.42-1.fc6             installed
perl-DBD-MySQL.i386                      3.0007-1.fc6           installed
perl-DBI.i386                            1.52-1.fc6             installed
perl-Digest-HMAC.noarch                  1.01-15                installed
perl-Digest-SHA1.i386                    2.11-1.2.1             installed
perl-HTML-Parser.i386                    3.55-1.fc6             installed
.....
.......
..
perl-libxml-perl.noarch                  0.08-1.2.1             base
perl-suidperl.i386                       4:5.8.8-10.el5_0.2     updates 

INSTALL THE SPECIFIED PACKAGES [ RPM(S) ]

Install package called httpd:
 
# yum install {package-name-1} {package-name-2}
 
# yum install httpd

REMOVE / UNINSTALL THE SPECIFIED PACKAGES [ RPM(S) ]

Remove package called httpd, enter:
 
# yum remove {package-name-1} {package-name-2}
 
# yum remove httpd

Display the list of available packages 

# yum list all

DISPLAY LIST OF GROUP SOFTWARE

Type the following command:
 
# yum grouplist

Output:

Installed Groups:
   Engineering and Scientific
   MySQL Database
   Editors
   System Tools
   Text-based Internet
   Legacy Network Server
   DNS Name Server
   Dialup Networking Support
   FTP Server
   Network Servers
   Legacy Software Development
   Legacy Software Support
   Development Libraries
   Graphics
   Web Server
   Ruby
   Printing Support
   Mail Server
   Server Configuration Tools
   PostgreSQL Database
Available Groups:
   Office/Productivity
   Administration Tools
   Beagle
   Development Tools
   GNOME Software Development
   X Software Development
   Virtualization
   GNOME Desktop Environment
   Authoring and Publishing
   Mono
   Games and Entertainment
   XFCE-4.4
   Tomboy
   Java
   Java Development
   Emacs
   X Window System
   Windows File Server
   KDE Software Development
   KDE (K Desktop Environment)
   Horde
   Sound and Video
   FreeNX and NX
   News Server
   Yum Utilities
   Graphical Internet
Done

INSTALL ALL THE DEFAULT PACKAGES BY GROUP

Install all 'Development Tools' group packages, enter:
 
# yum groupinstall "Development Tools"

UPDATE ALL THE DEFAULT PACKAGES BY GROUP

Update all 'Development Tools' group packages, enter:
 
# yum groupupdate "Development Tools"

REMOVE ALL PACKAGES IN A GROUP

Remove all 'Development Tools' group packages, enter:
 
# yum groupremove "Development Tools"

INSTALL PARTICULAR ARCHITECTURE PACKAGE

If you are using 64 bit RHEL version it is possible to install 32 packages:
 
# yum install {package-name}.{architecture}
 
# yum install mysql.i386

DISPLAY PACKAGES NOT INSTALLED VIA OFFICIAL RHN SUBSCRIBED REPOS

Show all packages not available via subscribed channels or repositories i.e show packages installed via other repos:
 
# yum list extras

Sample output:

Loading "installonlyn" plugin
Loading "security" plugin
Setting up repositories
Reading repository metadata in from local files
Extra Packages
DenyHosts.noarch                         2.6-python2.4          installed
VMwareTools.i386                         6532-44356             installed
john.i386                                1.7.0.2-3.el5.rf