F11
Post-Installation Changes
Before a
Linux distribution such as Fedora 11 is really ready for
general use, there are a number of important changes that need
to
first be made. Some of these, though trivial, provide
added measures of security, flexibility, and robustness to the system.
Others
are simply a matter of personal preference and taste. In
light of
this,
I have tried to break down the changes with respect to their
relative "Order of Importance." The steps in this subsection
of
the Installation
Notes should thus be
performed in order, because some of the later changes depend
upon ones earlier on.
Before any post-installation changes are made, one of the
first things
I typically like to do is quickly adjust various Gnome
settings before proceeding any further (even though I'll soon be using
Enlightenment as a replacement for Gnome). These
include:
gnome-terminal
Preferences
Open
a gnome-terminal
(Applications -> System Tools -> Terminal), and click on Edit -> Profiles...
-> Default -> Edit -> Colors. Deselect
the "Use colors
from system theme" box, and choose the White
on Black option from the drop-down menu. Much
better. Hit Close
twice.
Desktop
Background
If
you want to
change the Fedora background click System
->
Preferences -> Look and Feel -> Appearance
-> Background.
You may have to choose the Fill
Screen
option from the drop down box, depending upon your resolution. Hit Close when
finished.
Screensaver
The
screensaver is
an unnecessary drain on resources —
especially for my server.
Click on System
->
Preferences -> Look and Feel -> Screensaver.
Choose the "Blank
Screen"
option and unclick the "Lock
screen when
screensaver is active" box. Hit Close when
finished.
Theme
I
do not
particularly care for the Clearlooks theme, so click
on System
-> Preferences -> Look and Feel -> Appearance
-> Customize... . Under Window
Border, choose Crux.
If you want, then click on Icons
and make sure Bluecurve
or Clearlooks
is chosen (although I do not mind the default Fedora
icons). Hit Close
twice.
Windows
I
am extremely
preferential with respect to windows options.
Click on System
-> Preferences -> Look and Feel -> Windows,
and make sure the
"Select windows
when the mouse moves over them" option is set under Window Selection,
but the "Raise
selected windows after an interval" is not.
Under Titlebar
Action, choose Roll
up from the drop-down box. Hit Close when
finished.
Display
I
sometimes have to
tell the system the exact monitor I am using (although
not as of Fedora 7), so
click on System
-> Administration -> Display. You
will be prompted for the root
password, and afterward, click on Hardware.
Under Monitor
Type, click on Configure...
. Select the proper monitor, and click OK.
Next verify that the Video Card is correct. If you have two monitors
(as I do for my server), click on the Dual Head
tab, and configure the second monitor and video card. You will
need to restart the X server and log back into Gnome (press and hold
down Ctrl - Alt -
Backspace to do so). Be careful when setting up a dual
head monitor system! If you make a mistake, you may need to edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
by hand to fix it... If you do not have a second monitor, hit OK
once more
to close the window.
Gnome vs.
Enlightenment
Part of the
reason for not
necessarily sticking with Gnome is that development of
its old windows manager, Sawfish (which was a thing of beauty), died
years ago —
and the default
windows manager as of Fedora Core 3, Metacity,
is useless. Although, I do have to admit that due to the new
CFS
Scheduler as of Fedora 9, Gnome seems to finally more responsive and
Metacity does not seem to be as annoying as it used to be in days past.
Once we get to the Enlightenment
section in the HOWTOs,
I'll explain further. But for now, this will do.
3. Post-Installation
Changes
3.1 sudo
3.2 Shell
Environment (bash)
3.3
.bashrc
Script
3.4 Services
