[jrc]

Just thought I'd share my thoughts on the latest version of Fedora.

A few quick notes,

1) I am using a LiveUSB with persistence enabled that I created with the "liveusb-creator" tool from Fedora-Redhat on a windows xp home laptop. Here is the link: https://fedorahosted.org/liveusb-creator/

2) I have a Dell Mini 9 with A04 bios, 8Gb SSD, 2Gb OCZ Ram, and have Fedora 11 Live-Gnome-32bit running off of a 2gb DataTraveler Thumb Drive.


Okay. The first thing most people will notice, which has already been stated around the web is that Fedora loads pretty fast. At least as fast as Windows XP on the SSD, and faster than a LiveUSB-persistent version of Ubuntu 9.04. Least in my experience thus far. The second thing people will notice is no wifi :-(

However it is quick and easy to rectify this, simply plug your Mini9 into an Ethernet network and point your browser to Configuration - RPM Fusion . This page tells you how to setup the RPM Fusion repositories, you'll need them to get wireless working. They have instructions for using Firefox to load the repositories, but personally I just went to the command line. All I did was copy the command line code the have on their page and pasted it into the Terminal.

Once the repositories are loaded simply do a

su -c yum update
yum install kmod-wl

Restart the Mini9. Now I am not sure about other people but sometimes I have an issue with USB OSes and restarts. For some reason the Mini9 doesn't recognize the USB drive and boots into Windows. To rectify this I simply shutdown the computer unplug than replug the USB drive than turn the Mini9 back on. Works for me.

Anyways once you have gotten back to the desktop simply left-click on the network icon and choose your wireless network. I haven't tried WEP or WPA-xx, but open networks work just fine. If you want to do WEP and/or WPA-xx please feel free to post your results.

Other than that everything for what I want to do, web-surfing, and a bit of light goofing around seems to work on the Mini9 with Fedora 11.

I know there are people out there who like compiz fusion and while it doesn't come activated by default on Fedora 11 it is there under System->Preferences->Desktop Effects. I tested it a little bit, you get cuby workspace switching, transparent window borders, and wobbly windows too. I personally do not use it because with the resolution of the Mini9 I find that I often have to do an Alt-Leftclick to see the bottom of configuration windows. Other than that if ya like that sorta stuff it seems to work.

I've just started trying to play around with Conky and have gotten a basic little setup goint with it. I guess it works, I however cannot figure out how to display all the Conky info along the bottom of the desktop. Right now it is just a big blah mass on the right-side of the screen.

For those out there that are more adventures and want to install [ Fedora Project ] Fedora 11 on their Mini9's let us all know how it turns out.

One last note, I'm not at all convinced of Firefox 3.5 yet. Fedora 11 runs 3.5 beta 4 by default. Just thought I'd mention that.

[jdcnosse]

I followed your instructions to Fedora 11 on my Mini 10v, and I have to say it works perfectly. I even have it working with my wireless router, which I use WPA2 personal encryption.

[fdalbor]

The install went fine and it runs like a bandit; but for some reason I cannot get it to save to the presistent area. I am using a 16gig USB drive and everything works fine; but it won't save any new settings or any files.
I have reformated the drive several times and reinstalled Fedora with different size setting for the presistent area; but still cannot get it to save anything. fdalbor

[fdalbor]

Went to the Fedora forum and found a couple of guys that had problems getting persistent to work. They suggested to redo the USB drive into a 16 instead of 32 drive. Tried it; reformated and same results. Both the 4meg drive I used the second time and the 16meg drive I used the first time are PNY drives; maybe it is a problem with this brand of USB drive. fdalbor

[jdcnosse]

I couldn't say whether the persistence file worked, I just set mine up as a Live "CD" and installed Fedora to my HDD.

[fdalbor]

Originally Posted by jdcnosse

I couldn't say whether the persistence file worked, I just set mine up as a Live "CD" and installed Fedora to my HDD.

I have found this problem with several distros (Mandriva 2010 for one). Mandriva works pretty good and has drivers for the GMA 500 chipset so the display is very good. But once again I cannot save changes I make to the distro or even bookmarks in the browser.

Plus Mandriva has lock up problems much the same as Ubuntu 9.04 using the GMA 500 drivers. Fedora works great and is fast as hell; but I can only use it in 800X576 mode as I have not been able to obtain any GMA 500 drivers for it. Too bad as it would be the best of the bunch.

I do have Ubuntu 9.04 installed to a SD/HC 8gig drive and it works great. Saving files data and anything else. It also locks up less than the 9.04 I have sharing space on my hard drive with XP. Don't know why but it does work much better than the hard drive install. fdalbor

[sugar2k]

I got Fedora 14 Xfce installed on the Dell Mini 9, using my portable DVD drive. After the typical Fedora install, I had head over to RPM Fusion with Firefox to load the Free and Nonfree Repositories, but this was very easy just click-and-load and authorize as root. I loaded the “non-free” kmod-wl driver due to the Broadcom wireless card in the Mini 9. After a restart, we got wireless LAN. Perfect O/S for the Mini 9

If you run Fedora, the RPM Fusion Repositories are at: Configuration - RPM Fusion