Friday, May 30, 2008

SeLinux

Here is a good write up on how to deal with selinux:
http://www.crypt.gen.nz/selinux/disable_selinux.html

NetworkManager

Fedora 9 comes with the new NetworkManager on by default. This works fine for laptops, but for a wired desktop you may not want to use it. Here is how to disable it and set up the old Network service.
Run these commands:
sudo /etc/init.d/NetworkManager stop
(This disables NetworkManager)
sudo /sbin/chkconfig --level 35 NetworkManager off
(This stops it from starting on boot)
sudo /etc/init.d/network start
(This starts Network service)
sudo /sbin/chkconfig --level 35 network on
(This sets it to start on boot)

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Connect to Windows machine with RDP

I found this one very exciting (yeah, I guess I still find Windows somewhat useful).
All you need to do is install a couple programs and you can RDP (remote desktop) to Windows machines just like you do from one Windows box to another using Remote Desktop Connection.

From Fedora run these two commands as root:
yum install rdesktop
yum install tsclient

After the installs finish you will then have "Terminal Server Client" under the Applications>Accessories drop down menu. The application is self explanatory and very easy to use.

Mount a network drive

Here is how I am mounting network drives at the moment. I am having trouble getting this working in /etc/fstab, but it works fine manually as root. The command will look like this:

mount -t cifs //servername/share /mountpoint -o user=username

Mine looks like this:
mount -t cifs //192.168.47.63/tmp /mnt/Abyss_tmp -0 user=jzachari

You should also be able to use the FQDN instead of IP, and you can put in the password, or reference a password file. If you leave it like mine it prompts you for the password.
Use "man mount.cifs" for the manual.


Nautilus side pane.

In Fedora 9 you can open Nautilus from the applications menu and it works with a side pane. With it like this it doesn't open a new window every time you select a directory. If you want the "Computer" icon on the desktop to react the same way do this:

Open Nautilus and select Edit>Preferences and go to the Behavior tab.
Check "Always open in browser windows".

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

DNS look-up problem in Firefox 3.0b5...

I had a problem with Firefox 3.0b5 in Fedora 9 where internet browsing was very slow. It seemed to be stalling with a message in the status bar that said "looking up...." and after several seconds it would eventually "look up" the website and go like normal.

The cause of this problem is IPv6 in Firefox being enabled. It seems that if you disable IP6 when installing Fedora this is not a problem, but if you forget like I did then there is a quick fix...
Type about:config in the address bar of Firefox.
Search for "network.dns." and change the value of network.dns.disableipv6 to "true"