[HOW TO] Change login background - Fedora 15/14

If you want to change the login background in Fedora 15/14 just do the following:

• Fedora 15

Open a terminal and log in as root:

su -

Now type:

su - gdm -s /bin/bash
dbus-launch

Once you type in the above command you will get an output like this(note that your output will be different):

[HOW TO] Install flash player in Linux

Here is a guide on how to install Adobe flash player to your Linux system.

First of all download the latest release of Adobe flash player.

You can find it here

Choose the .rpm version and click download.

Once the download is complete do the following:

Open a terminal and log in as root:

su -

then type the following to install the flash-plugin:

rpm -ivh flash-plugin-XXX.rpm
// (XXX is the release number)

Then(in order for flash-plugin to work) you need to locate the correct file and copy it to plugins.

Type the following:

locate libflashplayer.so

You should see something like this:

/usr/lib/flash-plugin/libflashplayer.so

Now change to ~/.mozilla/plugins directory and type as root:

cp /usr/lib/flash-plugin/libflashplayer.so /home/USER/.mozilla/pugins
// (USER is your username)

Finally, you need to change the ownership of the file so a non-root user to use it.

Type:

chown USER.USER libflashplayer.so
// (USER is your username)

Thats it! Restart your browser and type about:plugins to check if flash-plugin is installed.

If the above guide doen't work for you try the following:

Fedora

• 64bit

Open a terminal and type:

$ su -
$ yum install wget
$ cd /tmp
$ wget http://download.macromedia.com/pub/
labs/flashplayer10/flashplayer10_2_p3_64bit_linux_111710.tar.gz
$ tar xzvf flashplayer10_2_p3_64bit_linux_111710.tar.gz
$ mv /tmp/libflashplayer.so /usr/lib64/mozilla/plugins/

• 32bit

Open a terminal and type:

$ su -
$ rpm -ivh http://linuxdownload.adobe.com/adobe-release
/adobe-release-i386-1.0-1.noarch.rpm
$ rpm --import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-adobe-linux
$ yum update
$ yum install flash-plugin

Then restart your browser and type about:plugins to check if flash-plugin is installed.

[HOW TO] Show icons on Desktop in Gnome 3

The latest release of Fedora 15 lovelock with the new Gnome 3 is quite good by itself but personally I can't imagine my desktop without icons(its way too empty and boring) or the option to right click on the desktop or even the minimize and maximize option. Some maybe like the new Gnome 3 as it is and some maybe not, so for those who don't and want to add some previous Gnome features here is a way to do it:

Install Tweak Tool

• Fedora

sudo yum install gnome-tweak-tool

• Ubuntu

sudo apt-get install gnome-tweak-tool

When the installation is finished open Tweak Tool and go to section File Manager, then enable the option "Have file manager handle the desktop"

Your desktop is now enabled and you can click and also create launchers as before!!!

It is more user friendly this way in my opinion.

[HOW TO] Create an application launcher in Gnome 3

If you want to create custom application launchers in the new Gnome 3 try one of the following ways:

• Install Alacarte(the easy way)

su
yum -y install alacarte

then press ALT+F2 and type in alacarte or use the Terminal.

• 2nd way for those who want to go Manual

Do the following:

1)Install Nano*(if its not installed by default):

*Nano is a simple easy to use text editor.

yum install nano

2)Now we have to create the app launcher in /usr/share/applications.(All your app launchers can be found in /usr/share/applications.)

Type:

nano /usr/share/applications/nameoftheapp.desktop

An empty text editor will open.

3)Copy&Paste in the editor:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=
GenericName=
Comment=
Exec=
Icon=
Terminal=false
Type=Application
MimeType=text/plain;
Categories=
Name[en_US]=

4)Type the path and the name of the app you want to use.

Then press CTRL+X. It will ask you if you want to save the file, press Y and then hit Enter.

In order to put your app in the category that you want you have to type the correct category name next to Categories=.

Here is a list with the correct category names: Correct Category Names

Thats it! You can now find your app launcher in the Menu!

EXAMPLE: We want to create a launcher for Eclipse. It will look like this:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Eclipse
Comment=Eclipse SDK 3.6.2
Exec=eclipse
Icon=/opt/eclipse/icon.xpm
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=GNOME;Application;Development;
Name[en_US]=

[HOW TO] Open a .rar file in Linux

• Fedora

Install Unrar:

# yum install unrar

Then, to unpack the .rar file do one of the following:

$ unrar filename.rar

$ unrar e filename.rar

$ unrar x filename.rar

e and x stands for:

  e             Extract files to current directory
  x             Extract files with full path

[HOW TO] Shut down option - Fedora 15

If you installed the new Fedora 15 you would probably noticed that there is no shut-down option but only Switch User and Log Out.

How to add the shut-down button:

yum install gnome-shell-extensions-alternative-status-menu

or you can press the ALT key when you open the menu and then a Power Off option will appear.