Configure Fedora 19 Desktop

Word in advance

After several years I wanted to try Linux as a desktop again and was quite amazed how good I got along.

I have tried Ubuntu but I soon discovered that the evil of marketing got over them and they are turning Ubuntu in to a Windows Clone. Not only that. They are sending all queries made with their Unitiy search to Amazon and other third parties. ALL queries. Even those made on the file system. Do you really want Amazon to see what you are searching on the file system? After trying to turn the feature off by deinstalling certain packages it killed my desktop and I had to re-install it over the console. Additionally I had problems with sound drivers and the Unity Desktop is far from being user friendly. So what is the conclusion of all this?

As soon the money is invested in to Marketing instead of Product Management the quality of products drops dramatically. The revenue and maybe also the profit will rise short term but many of these products will somewhen hit the ground hard.

I tried with Fedora and the Gnome Desktop and just stuck to it as it is running rock solid and has good driver support. The only lack are the Wireless network drivers. But this is the case for all Linux distributions.

Install Vim

sudo yum install vim

Install dconf-editor

Install the dconf-editor over the Software Center.

Set Logout Link

You can define that the logout link is displayed in the menu on the top of the right hand side. Open the dconf-editor and choose org -> gnome -> shell. Then tick always-show-logout.

Installing Flash

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Flash

Install Flash Browser Plugin

Open a terminal window and install flash.

sudo yum install http://linuxdownload.adobe.com/adobe-release/adobe-release-x86_64-1.0-1.noarch.rpm -y

Add flash plugin to use with browsers.

sudo rpm --import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-adobe-linux
sudo yum install flash-plugin -y

Install Shutter

Shutter is a screenshot application for gnome. You can install it over the Software Center.

Transparent Terminal Window

By default the gnome terminal window does not support transparent background. To add this feature again you can use devilspie.

sudo yum install devilspie

mkdir ~/.devilspie

vim ~/.devilspie/terminal-opacity.ds

(if
  (matches (window_name) "Terminal")
  (opacity 85)
) 

Add devilspie to Gnome Startup

Open a terminal window and start gnome-session-properties.

gnome-session-properties

Click on to the Add button to create a new session startup application and add devilspie as displayed on the picture.

Resources

• Bunwich Website

Install Google Chrome

Firefox is my most beloved Browser. But sometimes I have problems opening content such as the Swiss News Videos. For this I use Chrome that is working in such cases. Install Chrome over the Chrome Website.

Install Wuala

Wuala is a secure cloud storage service such as Dropbox. The great thing about it is that it splits the files in chunks, encrypts the chunks before uploading and uploads the chunks to servers in Switzerland, Germany and England. So it at least looks pretty secure. You can install Wuala over the Wuala Website. To start Wuala when you login you can add Wuala to the startup applications.

Name: Wuala
Command: wuala -nogui login <your login> <your password>: "$@"
Description: Wuala

Install MongoDB for Dev

tar -xvzf mongodb-linux-x86_64-2.4.7.tgz
sudo mv mongodb-linux-x86_64-2.4.7 /opt/mongodb

Add MongoDB as Development Database to Gnome Startup

Click on to the Add button to create a new session startup application and add MongoDB with following parameters:

Name: MongoDB
Command: /opt/mongodb/bin/mongod --dbpath /tmp --setParameter textSearchEnabled=true
Description: MongoDB

Add MongoDB bin directory to PATH

Edit /etc/profile and add following line before the general export command:

PATH=$PATH:/opt/mongodb/bin # <- Add this line
export PATH USER LOGNAME MAIL HOSTNAME HISTSIZE HISTCONTROL

Install Oracle Java 7 SDK

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jdk7-downloads-1880260.html

cd /etc/alternatives/
sudo rm java
sudo rm javaws
sudo rm javac
sudo rm jar
sudo rm libnpjp2.so

sudo ln -s /usr/java/latest/bin/java .
sudo ln -s /usr/java/latest/bin/javaws .
sudo ln -s /usr/java/latest/bin/javac .
sudo ln -s /usr/java/latest/bin/jar . 
sudo ln -s /usr/java/latest/jre/lib/amd64/libnpjp2.so .

java -version
java version "1.7.0_45"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0_45-b18)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 24.45-b08, mixed mode)

vim /etc/profile
export JAVA_HOME="/usr/java/latest"

Install Apache Maven

tar -xvzf apache-maven-3.1.1-bin.tar.gz
sudo mv apache-maven-3.1.1-bin /opt/apache-maven

vim /etc/profile
export M2_HOME=/opt/apache-maven

Install Intellij Idea

tar -xvzf ideaIU-12.1.6.tar.gz
sudo mv ideaIU-12.1.6 /opt/idea

Create .desktop file

Create a file in ~/.local/share/applications/idea.desktop:

[Desktop Entry]
Comment=Intellij Idea
Terminal=false
Name=Idea
Exec=/opt/idea/bin/idea.sh
Type=Application
Icon=/opt/idea/bin/idea.png

Install HPLip

Download hplip http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/downloads.html restart Install hplip-gui

Install KeePass 2

Install Mono

sudo yum -y install mono-core
sudo yum -y install mono-devel

Download the KeePass Zipfile (not the installer) from http://keepass.info/download.html in to ~/Downloads.

sudo yum install wget
cd ~/Downloads
mkdir keepass
mv KeePass-2.24.zip keepass
cd keepass
unzip KeePass-2.24.zip
wget http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/KeePass_icon.png
cd ..
sudo mv keepass /opt/

Create keepass.desktop file /usr/share/applications/

sudo vim keepass.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Name=KeePass
Exec=mono /opt/keepass/KeePass.exe
Icon=/opt/keepass/KeePass_icon.png
Categories=Other
Type=Application