Installing and enabling GNOME-Shell 3.2 Extensions

Posted on November 7, 2011 by

Latest GNOME 3.2 uses new shell extension syntax so “old” GNOME 3.0 extensions don’t work on Fedora 16 or UBUNTU 11.10 using GNOME 3.2

Even when you copy extension to your /home/username/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions folder extensions are disabled by default.

To enable them you need to use gsettings command in terminal.

For example download, extract and copy noa11y@fpmurphy.com extension to your extensions folder.

Then enable extension with gsettings command:
gsettings set org.gnome.shell enabled-extensions "['noa11y@fpmurphy.com']"

If you are aware of GUI for enabling/disabling GNOME Shell extensions please share that info.

Posted in Fedora, Howto | Tagged , , , , | 13 Comments

Pre-release Fedora Remixing with RPM Fusion

Posted on November 1, 2011 by

Most Fedora Remixes use RPM Fusion repo for additional packages not found in Fedora repos.

For last few releases Fedora branches off development Rawhide branch from current in-development release few weeks before release. For few week you could build your own Fedora Remix using F16 repos even if F16 is not yet released.

RPM Fusion repo doesn’t follow this development path so there is no accompanying F16 RPM Fusion repo, there are only F15 and rawhide. RPM Fusion repo usually is available few weeks after Fedora release.

For us who make Fedora Remixes and use RPM Fusion this makes life a bit harder, because we also need time to test development releases before releasing them.

I found one clever way to produce Fedora Remix iso files that will work both now and after RPM Fusion makes F16 branch available.

This needs to be done in two places, first you need to edit sources in kickstart files that are used to produce your Remix. This is the easy part. Just add these sources:

repo --name=rpmfusion-free --baseurl=http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/development/$basearch/os/

repo --name=rpmfusion-nonfree --baseurl=http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/development/$basearch/os/

More tricky part is how to start using RPM Fusion F16 repos and stop using Development one when it becomes available. Trick is to edit RPM Fusion .repo files and add Development source AFTER original source line. That way original source will fail and yum will try next source in order.

This is how rpmfusion-free.repo file should look like:

[rpmfusion-free]
name=RPM Fusion for Fedora $releasever - Free
#baseurl=http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/releases/$releasever/Everything/$basearch/os/
mirrorlist=http://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/mirrorlist?repo=free-fedora-$releasever&arch=$basearch
mirrorlist=http://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/mirrorlist?repo=free-fedora-rawhide&arch=$basearch
enabled=1
metadata_expire=7d
gpgcheck=0
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-rpmfusion-free-fedora-$releasever-$basearch

If you have any suggestions or comments please share them regarding this hack.

Posted in Fedora, Fusion Linux, Howto | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Fusion Linux status update

Posted on September 21, 2011 by

Fusion Linux 15 is out, but no official blog post has been made yet.

Why has it taken so long to release it?

First I lost a loooot of time trying to implement Blue Pill project into Fusion Linux. That would integrate Gnome 2 instead of Gnome 3. That didn’t work because Blue Pill project still had some Gnome 3 dependencies that they didn’t resolve.

In July I also joined one big international wifi project and that also consumes lots of my time. During August I was on a holiday and when I returned I was ready to ship Fusion 15 but then disaster struck – main distribution servers of Croatian Linux Users Group died :(

I hope to pick up the pace and keep on schedule with new Fedora releases.

I’ll keep working on this project for next few releases, but I don’t want to keep doing it alone. If more people join Fusion Linux project then it will grow.

Posted in Fedora | 12 Comments

Fusion Linux 15.1 almost ready

Posted on August 23, 2011 by

This post is just a tease ;) Fusion Linux 15 will be released shortly so stay tuned.

Posted in Fedora | 7 Comments

Ubuntu Hardware Driver Installer on Fusion Linux

Posted on August 17, 2011 by

Guys from Parsidora Fedora Remix have migrated Ubuntu Hardware Driver Installer to Fedora.

This is a really nice usability feature for users that are new to Linux desktop and have issue with open source drivers, like I heard a lot of nVidia users have with current nouveau drivers. I’m lucky and always get laptops with Intel video chips ;)

There is an easy way to test this out on Fedora and Fusion Linux just by following this guide.

Posted in Fedora, Fusion Linux | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Fusion Linux going Mono free?

Posted on July 5, 2011 by

 
As you probably know Fusion Linux is a Fedora Remix that uses quite a few Mono based applications. We had requests in the past to remove all Mono based apps from Fusion Linux, but those were no constructive criticism and suggestions but just bunch of people shouting “We hate mono”.
 
Apps that were supposed to replace Mono based ones were non-existent or if they existed they were nowhere near the Mono based ones regarding quality and features. We didn’t see any point in removing apps and disabling features that our users want just because of some Mono haters are out there are shouting “We hate mono”, and they weren’t even using Fusion Linux!
If they were Fusion Linux users then we would listen to them and work together with moving away from Mono.
 
Biggest issue I have with Mono is the size of Mono library that needs to be installed as a dependency for any of the apps – Gnome-Do, Tomboy, F-Spot, Beagle or Banshee. So there is no point if you replace 4 out of 5 because you still have Mono library installed.
 
The good news is that I might have found replacement for the last Mono based app that I didn’t find before – Gnome-Do.
 
Today I have discovered Synapse written by Michal Hruby written in Vala. I’ll be testing Synapse to see how it works, if you have used both Gnome-Do and Synapse please share your feedback on both.
 
Here is the list of alternatives that I have found so far, please post any other in the comments if you know:
 
Tomboy – GNote
Gnome-Do – Synapse
Banshee – Rhythmbox
Beagle – Tracker
F-Spot – Shotwell
 
Also please post in the comments if you agree or disagree with the move away from Mono, also write in the comments if you are Fusion, Fedora, Ubuntu or user of any other distro.
 

Posted in Fedora | 17 Comments

Fusion Linux donation drive

Posted on July 2, 2011 by

Hi everyone. As you probably know Fusion Linux 14.1 has been released. All releases so far have been released from my personal laptop. As I can’t share my laptop with others we would like to buy second-hand server and have it used for Fusion Linux project. Other costs include our domain and wordpress.com hosting. We need your help in order for Fusion Linux to continue with new releases and to improve.
 
So if you can please donate via Paypal or Flattr.
 
Thank you.
 

Posted in Fedora | 2 Comments