New to Fedora/Linux - Quick Questions

AlexOceanic

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Hi All

I'm trying to convince my partner to move from Windows to Linux and, after reviewing a number of distros, decided to give Fedora (with the Pantheon DE) a try!

If anyone has 2 minutes to answer some initial noob questions below to get me up and running that would be much appreciated:

1. Where's the right click menu?
I know this isn't windows (and the DE is more Mac based) but is there an easy way to create/rename folders, extract tar files to a directory and run the sh install etc from a menu/GUI or does that all have to be done in terminal with commands like mkdir etc?

2. Any idea why the video stream won't play on musichq.net?
Guessing it might be something to do with codecs - if so, could you advise how I find out which codecs are needed and how I install them please.

3. Has anyone managed to get Phoenix Firestorm (Second Life viewer) working in Fedora?
I managed to install it (in the default "Temporary folder" and didn't see any errors but the launcher does nothing when I click it.

4. I'd like to install Bluemail but its not listed in the approved software installer (https://bluemail.me/desktop/linux/)
Hitting "Download" takes me to Snapcraft and it has an install guide for Fedora but thought I saw some folks having doubts about using Snap and wondered if its better to do this manually with the .rpm file on the above downloads landing page perhaps.

Many thanks

Alex
 


Don't know about the Pantheon DE. But the right click works in KDE, Gnome and Mate.
You can create directories with Dolphin, Nautilus and Caja. I know at least two of these will extract
compressed tar files.

For video/audio
dnf install ffmpeg

I would also recommend, you enable the rpmfusion repositories.
and grab VLC
dnf install vlc

Snaps have pros and cons. But the "default" way is to use rpms.
Download the rpm. By default it always goes to /home/user/Downloads
To install a rpm...
rpm -Uhv mycool.rpm

The advantage to snaps, is that you get all the dependencies included.
With rpms, you may have to install some other packages. It isn't really a big deal.

Note: You either have to be root or have sudo to run dnf and rpm.
 
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Don't know about the Pantheon DE. But the right click works in KDE, Gnome and Mate.
You can create directories with Dolphin, Nautilus and Caja. I know at least two of these will extract
compressed tar files.

For video/audio
dnf install ffmpeg

I would also recommend, you enable the rpmfusion repositories.
and grab VLC
dnf install vlc

Snaps have pros and cons. But the "default" way is to use rpms.
Download the rpm. By default it always goes to /home/user/Downloads
To install a rpm...
rpm -Uhv mycool.rpm

The advantage to snaps, is that you get all the dependencies included.
With rpms, you may have to install some other packages. It isn't really a big deal.

Note: You either have to be root or have sudo to run dnf and rpm.
Thanks very much dos

Video/Audio
Hit an error on that command?

~]$ sudo dnf install ffmpeg
[sudo] password for :
Last metadata expiration check: 2:10:34 ago on Wed 06 Jul 2022 05:35:16 EDT.
No match for argument: ffmpeg
Error: Unable to find a match: ffmpeg

Right Click
I'll have to dig into the right click issue a bit further then - I'm not going for a Mac setup persay but I really liked how clean Pantheon looked but I'm sure there are other DE's out there with right click functionality I might switch to.
I thought I could make Gnome look like Pantheon with the transparent top bar and smart disappearing application dock at the bottom but couldn't see any settings to do so in Gnome (in live or the fully installed Fedora pre the Pantheon DE install)

Date and Time Setting
One other issue I'm having is setting the date and time which seems to have got messed up during the various live distros I Was trying.

I tried following the solutions here but to no avail - any ideas on how to get around this or perhaps try to set this in my hardware via BIOS for Fedora to pickup perhaps?

~]$ sudo timedatectl set-ntp yes
No error message

~]$ date --set 12:32:00
date: cannot set date: Operation not permitted

~]$ hwclock --set --date "06 Jul 2022 12:33" --verbose
hwclock from util-linux 2.38
System Time: 1657107214.972901
Trying to open: /dev/rtc0
hwclock: cannot open /dev/rtc0: Permission denied
No usable clock interface found.
hwclock: Cannot access the Hardware Clock via any known method.

UPDATE:
Set time in BIOS (I have BIOS admin password locking settings).
Fedora Time not updated - think it might check every 11 mins? so hopefully will resolve.

UPDATE2:
It didn't seem to update so I ran

~]$ sudo timedatectl set-ntp no
No error

~]$ sudo date --set 13:24:00
No error

Took a minute or so but then did update this time
Not sure if it was the ntp or unlocking BIOS but it worked!


Thanks again
 
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Enable the rpmfusion repo's.
Thanks again

repos enabled

codecs installed

vlc installed

rpm failed

~]$ sudo rpm -Uhv /home/User*/Downloads/bluemail.rpm
error: open of /home/User*/Downloads/bluemail.rpm failed: No such file or directory
* User* was replaced as my username

I checked that the rpm was in Home/Downloads using a file manager
If I double click the .rpm folder the archive manager opens it up but not seeing any sh.install file
Screenshot from 2022-07-06 13.42.43.png

UPDATE
Bluemail installed successfully.
I used the terminal to access the Downloads folder directly and ran:

sudo dnf install BlueMail.rpm
 
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When I said /home/user I meant /home/(who ever you login as)

In caja and nautilus, you can right click on the rpm and install it with dnfdragora.

If you aren't able to right click. You may have to install it from the command line.
 
When I said /home/user I meant /home/(who ever you login as)

In caja and nautilus, you can right click on the rpm and install it with dnfdragora.

If you aren't able to right click. You may have to install it from the command line.
Yes I did replace "user" with my actual username but it still failed - all sorted now though

Starting to think I should try UltraMarine where some people who actually know what they're doing have setup Fedora to run Pantheon and make it more user friendly on the desktop rather than me just forcing Pantheon onto the standard Fedora and making everything twice as hard!
 
When I said /home/user I meant /home/(who ever you login as)

In caja and nautilus, you can right click on the rpm and install it with dnfdragora.

If you aren't able to right click. You may have to install it from the command line.
Just to add there's two ways to right click in case any other noobs read this:

1. Tap two fingers on the touchpad whilst an item is selected (knew it would be something simple :rolleyes:)
2. Under Mouse and Touchpad settings you can enable "Dwell" which allows you to long click an item to bring up the "right click" menu.
 
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I'm trying to convince my partner to move from Windows to Linux and ...
This very first sentence concerns me. Why do you need to convince them to use Linux? Do they have an active interest, or other purpose for using Linux over Windows? Very often, a user who isn't specifically interested in using Linux will not remain with Linux, and the "forced" experience will leave a bad taste.
 
This very first sentence concerns me. Why do you need to convince them to use Linux? Do they have an active interest, or other purpose for using Linux over Windows? Very often, a user who isn't specifically interested in using Linux will not remain with Linux, and the "forced" experience will leave a bad taste.
Hi Slow

No need for concern.

I'm not forcing this onto her, she understands why I'd like her to switch and is willing to providing she can do everything she currently does on the Windows spyware machine. She likes what she's seen so far and now I've got the OS setup for her, she'll be giving it a test drive for "final approval" and last minute tweaks no doubt.

Its also setup as a dual booting system with Win10 for now so she can use that if she has to for any reason but so far I've matched every app and activity she does on Windows and even improved on some.

As to why I want to move us both to Linux, given the blatant and ever increasing abuses of our online privacy by various nefarious organisations and knowing that Microsoft is a willing accomplice, you'd be mad not to...

There's also the increases in performance, security , the malleability of the system and just not supporting companies that are complicit in infringing our online privacy (amongst other crimes).

Hope this puts your mind at rest

All the best

Alex
 

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