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Fedora Core 1 Tips and Tricks (v1.0)
Last modified: Monday March 23, 2026

I've seen documents like this for various versions of Red Hat but not yet for Fedora so here goes. I'm just getting started here so please be patient. Please feel free to add your own tips at the bottom of this page.

Use an update mirror

 It's obviously very important to keep your system up to date especially if your server is accessible from the Internet. Security updates are released frequently. The main Fedora server often gets overloaded especially after an update is released so it's a very good idea to use a mirror for your updates. Fortunately it's very easy. First go to the list of Fedora mirrors at http://fedora.redhat.com/download/mirrors.html and choose one that's geographically close to you and seems fast when you browse it.

Then you need to edit your /etc/sysconfig/rhn/sources and comment out the current updates-released line and add a replacement. For example if you chose http://rpmfind.net/linux/fedora/core as your mirror of choice then just add /updates/1/i386 to your URL and it should all just work. 

# yum updates-released http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/updates/1/i386
yum updates-released http://rpmfind.net/linux/fedora/core/updates/1/i386

Add support for Livna packages

 Fedora comes with a ton of software but there are still plenty of packages of interest to most users that are not included for a variety of reasons. This is where you find the MP3 plug-in and a ton of other packages. A nice side effect of setting it up this way is that the Red Hat Network Alert icon on your GNOME desktop will also let you know of updates to these user contributed packages as well.

Adding support is easy, just add the following lines to your /etc/sysconfig/rhn/sources You'll need to add the second line to include the fedora.us repository as the they work together hand in hand. 

# User contributed archive
yum livna-stable http://rpm.livna.org/fedora/1/i386/yum/stable/
yum fedora-us-stable-fc1 http://download.fedora.us/fedora/fedora/1/i386/yum/stable
For security reasons the packages at this repository are GPG signed to protect their integrity so you'll need to get and install the public key: 
# rpm --import http://rpm.livna.org/RPM-LIVNA-GPG-KEY
You can browse the packages available there at http://rpm.livna.org/fedora/1/i386/RPMS.stable/ and http://www.fedora.us/pkglists/fedora-1-stable.html.

Install MP3 Plug-in

 Since you've been following along this next step is about as easy as it gets. Just use up2date  to automatically install the MP3 plug-ins for XMMS and Rhythmbox like this: 
# up2date xmms-mp3 gstreamer-plugins-mp3
One thing you'll need to do is fire up xmms and go to Options -> Preferences then choose Audio I/O Plugins. In that list scroll down and find the MPEG Layer 1/2/3 Placeholder Plugin and disable it. Then enable the new plug-in you just downloaded which is listed as MPEG Layer 1/2/3 Player. Now MP3s should play just fine.

Install Macromedia Flash/Shockwave plug-in

 Ok, this one is a little trickier. The first thing you'll need to do is get the C++ compatibility library installed before you can install the Flash plugin. Fortunately that's very easy: 
# up2date compat-libstdc++
Now you can download the latest Macromedia Flash plug-in for Fedora Core 1 at http://ruslug.rutgers.edu/macromedia/site_ru.html then install it as follows. You may need to adjust the filename slightly if the version changes since I wrote this document. Before the plug-in gets installed you'll need to agree to the terms of the license. 
# rpm -ihv flash-plugin-6.0.79-2.i386.rpm

Install DVD player

 This is a bit more complicated. The easiest DVD player I've found is ogle and the easiest way to get it running is to download the following modules from http://yarrow.freshrpms.net/:
alsa-lib http://yarrow.freshrpms.net/rpm.html?id=590
libdvdcss http://yarrow.freshrpms.net/rpm.html?id=128
libdvdread http://yarrow.freshrpms.net/rpm.html?id=137
libmad http://yarrow.freshrpms.net/rpm.html?id=152
ogle http://yarrow.freshrpms.net/rpm.html?id=193
ogle_gui http://yarrow.freshrpms.net/rpm.html?id=191
Then just install them as follows. Please note that the exact version numbers may change by the time you read this. 
# rpm -ihv alsa-lib-1.0.1-2.fr.i386.rpm libdvdcss-1.2.8-2.fr.i386.rpm \
libdvdread-0.9.4-4.fr.i386.rpm libmad-0.15.0b-3.fr.i386.rpm \
ogle-0.9.2-1.1.fr.i386.rpm ogle_gui-0.9.2-1.1.fr.i386.rpm
Make sure there is a symlink /dev/dvd pointing at the device name for your DVD drive. If you don't know the device name you can usually find it easily in the dmesg  output that's been saved during your last boot. Here's how I found it on my Toshiba laptop: 
# grep -i dvd /var/log/dmesg
hdc: TOSHIBA DVD-ROM SD-C2612, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
# ln -s /dev/hdc /dev/dvd
Now you'll have the Ogle DVD player under the Sound & Video menu.

Install MPlayer Media Player

 At some point you're probably going to want to play a QuickTime, AVI or ASF file so you'll want the MPlayer media player. Fortunately with the Livna/Fedora.us repositories it's also very install to download and install. 
# up2date mplayer mplayerplug-in mplayer-gui mplayer-skins mplayer-fonts
This command line will download the whole kit and kaboodle. Restart your web browser after that whole mess is done installing and you'll also have a plug-in for Mozilla so you can play embedded content. I recommend that if you want to play content from a command line that you use the gmplayer  version which will include a skin-able control panel.

Install Java J2RE and Mozilla Plug-in

 It's also very handy to have the Java run-time environment available and most importantly a Mozilla plug-in so you can view dynamic content. It's unfortunate that Mozilla will actually crash if you go to a site containing Java and you don't have the plug-in installed.

The best site for the plug-in is the Dag Wieers repository. I would normally recommend just putting it in your up2date sources but I've had problems with conflicting packages. In this case I recommend you just go to the site and download and install just the packages you need. Just go to http://dag.wieers.com/packages/j2re/ and download the latest j2re and mozilla-j2re  packages as appropriate for your system. Then just install them as follows: 

# rpm -ihv j2re-1.4.2-5.rhfc1.dag.i586.rpm mozilla-j2re-1.4.2-5.rhfc1.dag.i586.rpm

Install NTFS driver

 If you need access to NT file systems you'll probably want to download the Linux ntfs driver. There is a site that maintains pre-built modules for all released Fedora kernels at http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/rpm/fedora1.html. A pre-built ntfs module usually appears just a few days after a new Fedora kernel gets released. Be sure to match your kernel version and processor type. If you're not sure what version you're running do this: 
# uname -r -p
For example if you're using the latest kernel (as of this writing) which is 2.4.22-1.2149.nptl and the i686 processor then you will want to download and install it as such: 
# rpm -ihv kernel-ntfs-2.4.22-1.2149.nptl.i686.rpm
Once installed the ntfs driver will be a dynamically loadable module and you can mount NT file systems with mount -t ntfs -o utf8 /dev/hdXX /mnt .

Other Useful Resources

I've tried to not just copy other people's tips so I've included a list of other people's tips and tricks I've found to be useful. There should be little or no overlap.
The Unofficial #fedora FAQ - Great place that contains a wealth of information about Fedora Core.

Fedora Multimedia Installation HOWTO - I discovered this great resource after I wrote this. This document goes into more detail than mine so it's a great resource.