Upgrade Fedora 18 to Fedora 19 using an ISO

To upgrade fedora the fedup package must first be installed, which can be accomplished by typing
# yum install fedup

There are three options for sourcing the packages needed for upgrade - using a network repository (--network) , a local ISO (--iso) file or a local device (--device) (hard drive, optical disk etc.).

In order to use an ISO file, it needs to exist locally on the filesystem of the system to be upgraded. The documentation is written as if that file is /home/user/fedora19dvd.iso but you will need to replace all instances of that path with the actual path of the ISO. Updates will be pulled in if you have network access on the machine to be upgraded.

Vi Editor Tips & Tricks

The most popular text editor for Linux and Unix operating system is vi (visual editor). It is the most robust and comprehensive text editor to work in CLI mode. Of course there are other text editor emacs, nano etc. The choice is yours.

Vi is the default text editor in Linux and Unix systems. So you don't need to install this package.

Add Maximize & Minimize Buttons in Gnome 3.6 (Fedora 18)

By default there is only close button on windows in Fedora 18. Users may get confused by this. But the maximize and minimize buttons can easily be included in either the following ways.

Show Desktop Icons in Gnome 3 (Fedora 18)

By default there are no visible icons on Gnome 3 desktop. You can make icons be visible through either of the following way.

Setting Default Entry - GRUB 2 Configuration On BIOS Systems (Fedora 18 - Windows 7 Dual Boot)

In this tutorial I am going to show how to set the default entry in GRUB 2 in my Fedora 18 - Windows 7 dual boot system.
I already had Windows 7 in my system. I decided to start using Fedora 18. So I installed F18 in my system but found out that F18 boots default. I want Windows 7 to load by default because other users in my system is not familiar with this OS. So I changed the default entry in GRUB 2 according to the following.
Note that you need to be root to apply the following command.

Change Fedora 17 boot from GUI (graphical mode) to CLI (text mode)

A variety of distributions now let systemd, rather than sysvinit, take care of bringing the system up. The newest of the three big init system promises to speed up booting. One of its particular characteristics is that it starts background services in parallel without requiring the dependencies between these services to be specified in advance; this uses hardware resources more efficiently and allows the system to start quickly.

To change the booting from GUI to CLI first you have to first rename or remove default.target from /etc/systemd/system/.

Fedora Postinstall Configuration

This article will guide you to configure your Fedora Desktop. This is based on Fedora 14. This configuration worked for me. But still there is margin for error. So take backup of your important files.

Note: To do any of the following operation you have to be root.

Linux Shortcut

Graphical - Gnome


Ctrl + Alt + Right/Left arrow = Use these to change between workspace.

Windows + E = Show all workspace in thumbnail view. Double click on any to get into it.

Ctrl + Alt + d = Show desktop. Minimizes all windows, and gives focus to the desktop..

Alt + F2 = Run command.

Change SSH Welcome Banner

When I login to my Ubuntu desktop through SSH, I see the following information. It gives some basic info about my linux box.

Linux russell-desktop 2.6.32-28-generic #55-Ubuntu SMP Mon Jan 10 21:21:01 UTC 2011 i686 GNU/Linux
Ubuntu 10.04.2 LTS
Welcome to Ubuntu!
 * Documentation:  https://help.ubuntu.com/
Last login: Thu Apr 21 10:13:20 2011

Linux PPPoE Configuration

In this tutorial I'm going to show you how to install and configure PPPoE connection on Linux. First you have to install the required package. You need to be root to do so.

The following procedure does not work on Ubuntu. Depending on your distro enter the following command.

Install Foxit Reader In Linux

In this tutorial I am going to show you how to install Foxit PDF reader in Linux and how to make it your default PDF viewer.

From the developer about Foxit Reader
Foxit Reader is a free PDF document viewer for the Linux platform, user-customized toolbar, incredibly small size, breezing-fast launch speed and rich features. This empowers PDF document users with Zoom function, Navigation function, Bookmarks, Thumbnails, Text Selection Tool, Snapshot, and Full Screen capabilities. Foxit Reader for Desktop Linux is provided by Foxit Corporation free for non-commercial use.

Grub Bootloader Recovery

In this method that I am going to describe Grub boot-loader will be installed into the Master Boot Record (MBR) of the main computer hard drive. I have Ubuntu & OpenSUSE dual boot. I first installed Ubuntu and then OpenSUSE. So OpenSUSE's bootloader overwrites Ubuntu's. But the new bootloader couldn't load Ubuntu. So I had to reinstall the Ubuntu bootloader and then able to load Ubuntu. It has no problem loading OpenSUSE .

Linux Related Websites

I've been using Linux for some time now. During this time I came around lots of websites about Linux. Following are some of the web sites I came around. These sites are very good and very popular in the Linux community. You can check these out and see if any of these can meet your demand.
If you know any site which is not included here please reveal it in the comment section.
Linux is fun. Learn and enjoy yourself.

Pre-defined Tuning Of Linux Kernel With Sysctl

If you have no idea what sysctl is, read this article.
In this article I tried to explain with which parameter you can work with in the beginning. I tried all these setting in Ubuntu 10 and OpenSuse 11.3 system.

Tuning Linux Kernel With Sysctl (System Control)

The Linux kernel is flexible, and you can even modify the way it works on the fly by dynamically changing some of its parameters, thanks to the sysctl command. Sysctl provides an interface that allows you to examine and change several hundred kernel parameters in Linux or BSD. Changes take effect immediately, and there's even a way to make them persist after a reboot. By using sysctl judiciously, you can optimize your box without having to recompile your kernel, and get the results immediately.

Package Management in Linux

Package management in Linux has come a long way. Not so long ago installing software in Linux was a nightmare. But these days it becomes a smooth ride in most cases because of excellent software tools (package managers) available in different distributions. Red Has has up2date, Fedora has yum, Debian/Ubuntu has apt-get, openSUSE has Yast2, zypper. To some people Yast2 is the most powerful tool available.