Getting Compiz Fusion on Fedora 9

If by any chance you have not heard of Compiz fusion, its a compositing window manager which practically leaves all the Vista Aero fans in awe.. here is a small sample video of Compiz fusion, see it to beileve it.

Well its pretty easy to install it. Just install the following packages.

• emerald-themes
• compiz-fusion-extras
• emerald
• compiz-fusion
• compiz-manager
• compiz-fusion-extras-gnome
• gnome-compiz-manager
• libcompizconfig
• compiz-fusion-gnome
• ccsm
• compiz-fusion-icon

Emerald is the window decorator for Compiz. It is not absolutely necessary to install it but it  gives much more cool title bars and window borders than the default window decorators…

CCSM is the Config utility for Compiz fusion.

The Audio problem with flash plugin on linux

Hi..

Ever since i installed upgraded to opera 9.50 i got my flash videos working again but the audio was missing. And because i discovered that the audio was missing on firefox too, the problem was related to the flash plugin. Basically its some compatibility problem with Pulseaudio and the adobe’s proprietory flash plugin.

It seems the problem is due to removal of the package which helps flash plugin interface with Pulseaudio from the plugin’s dependency list.

Just install the package libflashsupport.i386 and one more sensory perception will be added to your flash.

Getting Video Codecs in Fedora 9

Okk so you have your audio working, now its time for video. Fedora comes with a lot of good media players installed by default and many more can be installed. Some good players for linux are

• Totem Player  (Gnome’s default)
• Kaffeine (KDE’s default)
• VLC Media Player (not in default install)
• MPlayer (not in default install)

The players are good but they are not very much useful in the default install as the codecs, which provide them their juice, for most common formats are missing.

Getting Audio (mp3) in Fedora 9

This is in my series of posts to get a base fedora install to a comfortable level for Desktop use. If you are a normal user (Normal User = Humans – Ultimate Uber Geeks, who would set up scripts, servers and blah blah before coming to this step) you will need some audio visual experience from your system. So here’s for the audio part…

The base install of fedora does not supply the codecs for proprietary formats like mp3. It does provide support for open formats like OGG but your around-the-corner audio vendor will surely start scratching his head if your ask him for ogg music.

The solution is simple

Fedora 9 (Sulphur) … First look

Got my hands on Fedora 9 finally and the first feeling based on superficial looks .. nice.

• The Installer (Anaconda) has been improved.
• The artwork -Good but nothing after FC6 comparable to the DNA theme.
• Greeter Application – Either i missed it or its missing but you can’t change the session type. And the look and feel of the greeter, naah … out of theme and lost the kool factor of the greeter of FC8.