Category: How To

Installing Firefox 3 beta3

I mostly followed Ubuntu Geek’ instructions.

I made the backup of the profile directory:

sudo cp -R ~/.mozilla ~/.mozillabackup

I checked in Synpatic package manager and found that libstdc++5 was already installed.

I followed the link they provided for downloading the new version.

I extracted it as they suggested to the /opt directory:

sudo tar -C /opt -jxvf firefox-3.0b3.tar.bz2

For the plugins, I created the link that they suggested. Make sure you see that you have the right plugins directory — it looked like there could be various locations for the plugins.

cd /opt/firefox/plugins/
ls /usr/lib/firefox/plugins/
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/firefox/plugins/* .
I found some information about controlling profiles, and so, I created a different profile for Firefox3. First, I created a copy for Firefox:

cp -r .mozilla .firefox3
/opt/firefox/firefox -P “firefox3”

The first time, it brought up the “Choose User Profile” dialog. So, I clicked on the Create Profile button and created a new profile by the name of firefox3. For the path, I chose $HOME/.firefox3/firefox/tgvjuj9r.default (the copy of my default profile).

How To: Scan a Hard Drive with Fedora 8 Live CD

I had downloaded the i386 version of the Fedora 8 Live CD. Since I already had it downloaded and burned to a CD, I decided to use this to scan a laptop’s drive for viruses. There is probably an easier way, but I thought this would be a good exercise.

Once booted, open a terminal and run the following commands:

su -
yum install gcc zlib zlib-devel make

Then, I downloaded clamav from the SourceForge website. The version I downloaded was 0.92rc2. Firefox automatically saves files to the Desktop, and so, I just let it do its thing.

Next, back in the terminal window, I compiled the program:

cd /home/fedora/Desktop
tar -xzvvf clamav*.tar.gz
cd clamav*
useradd clamav
./configure
make
make install

Then, I had to update the configuration files. You can do this from the terminal with:

freshclam
sed -e 's/^Example$/#Example/i' /usr/local/etc/freshclam.conf > freshclam.conf
mv -f freshclam.conf /usr/local/etc/freshclam.conf
sed -e 's/^Example$/#Example/i' /usr/local/etc/clamd.conf > clamd.conf
mv -f clamd.conf /usr/local/etc/clamd.conf

Next, download the most recent virus definitions.

freshclam

Finally, do your scan (You may need to mount it first).

clamscan /media/disk

Using sha1sum to Verify CDs

Verify an iso image

The simple way:

sha1sum Fedora-7-Live-i686.iso

If an sha1sum file was delivered with the iso image, you can use this command.

sha1sum -c SHA1SUM

The -c tells the program to read files out of the SHA1SUM text file and generate sha1sums on all of those files. Then, it compares the generated value to the value in the text file and tells you if it matches.

Verify a CD

Use this after you have burn the iso image to the CD.

sha1sum /dev/hdc

The source that I found says to use the actual device rather than a link (instead of /dev/cdrom).

Using Windows

Versions of md5sum for Windows:

You can get sha1sum from here:

Resources

Verify downloaded iso integrity with md5sum or sha1sum

sha1sum(1) – Linux man page

Video Driver

Applies To: Acer Aspire 9300 Laptop

The Laptop has an nVidia GeForce Go 6100 video card.

Manual Install

The driver was downloaded from this link:
nVidia website

The problem with the manual install is that you manually have to reinstall each time you update the kernel. If you update the kernel with yum and you have installed the video driver with yum, yum will install the driver in the new kernel for you.

Using Yum

Make sure to configure yum with freshrpms repository.

You can run the following command to see which packages are available:

yum list | grep nvidia

This is what it gave me:

nvidia-x11-drv.x86_64 1.0.9746-1 freshrpms

To install, run the following:

yum install nvidia-x11-drv

Installing Beryl

Beryl is the eye-candy effects for X-Windows. I have heard it compared to Windows’ Aero. It allows windows to shake like jello as you drag them and display previews of windows as you hover over them on the task bar.

Installing

Used yum to install: beryl-gnome

Note: This is a meta-package that will install the necessary packages.

Resolving Problems

I had to remove previously installed nvidia driver libraries:
[skp@localhost lib64]$ ls lib*9631
libGLcore.so.1.0.9631 libnvidia-cfg.so.1.0.9631 libXvMCNVIDIA.so.1.0.9631
libGL.so.1.0.9631 libnvidia-tls.so.1.0.9631

Starting Automatically

I created this script: /usr/local/bin/start-beryl
#!/bin/sh
LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib64/nvidia/libGL.so.1 beryl-manager

I had to make it executable:
chmod a+x start-beryl

From the command-line, I ran gnome-session-properties and:

  • on Startup Programs
  • clicked add — /usr/local/bin/start-beryl

Resources

Install Beryl on Fedora Core

Resources for White Screen Issue

Most helpful list
Beryl White Screen Issue
Beryl: White screen of death
Beryl White Cube White Screen XGL whats up?