Appendix A: About the Media

Overview

If you have a CD-ROM or DVD drive, you can install Fedora Core 6 from the media that come with this book. Those media include:

• FC6 Install DVD -The complete Fedora Core 6 distribution is available on the DVD that comes with this book. This is the preferred medium to use, provided you have a DVD drive, for installing Fedora Core 6.

• FC6 Live/Install CD - Boot this CD to try out a live version of a Fedora Core desktop system. This CD can also be used to start a Fedora Core network install.

  Caution 

  The Live CD that comes with this book is built with tools from the Fedora Kadischi Live CD project and packages from Fedora Core 6. Kadischi is still in early stages of development and the CD is not an official CD from the Fedora Project. While the CD should not be used in a production environment, it is a good way to test many desktop features found in Fedora Core 6.

  After you boot the CD, be sure to add a new user account (as prompted in the firstboot procedure). Once you log in to that account, change the root password, as described on your desktop background.

• Fedora Extras CD - This CD contains packages from the Fedora Extras software repository. This repository contains hundreds of packages that, for one reason or another, are not included in Fedora Core. Although some of these packages may not meet the Fedora Core standard for quality testing, they do meet the Fedora Project standard relating to open source and patent issues.

If you have a drive that supports both DVDs and CDs, use the DVD. It gives you greater options for selecting software and does not require you to change media during the installation. However, for the average desktop user, the CD set will work well, provided that you have an Internet connection.

To install Fedora Core 6 from the DVD or CDs follow the instructions provided in Chapter 2 and on the README files on the DVD or first CD.

If for some reason you don't have your DVD handy, you can find information on how to download a complete set of installation CDs from the Fedora Project Web site at fedora.redhat.com/download . If you don't have a DVD drive, and you want a full Fedora Core 6 installation set, you can download those installation CD images, burn them to CDs, and install from those CDs.

Repositories such as rpm.livna.org/fedora can help you find extra, useful software packages that are not in Fedora (or any other Red Hat distribution). Some of these sites act as yum or apt repositories that allow you to download sets of dependent packages (see the descriptions of yum in Chapter 5).