Steps to install and optimize Fedora 11 VMware virtual machine
February 15, 2010Start install from Fedora DVD
(When asked during installation, create a regular user account called ‘admin’ or whatever username you want)
———–
use default values during the installation except for:
Software packages to install (Customize now):
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Check “Customize now”
Select these packages:
Desktop environments – default (GNOME)
Applications – default
Development – Development Libraries, Development Tools
Servers – default
Base – Admin Tools, Base, Fonts, Java, X window system
Languages – NONE
Wait for package installations to complete then reboot.
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At first boot:
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Enable NTP and remove Fedora NTP servers and use pool.ntp.org
Disable annoying SELinux protection
———–
SELinux set to permissive.
System -> SELinux Administration
System Default Enforcing Mode to Disabled
Current Enforcing Mode to Permissive.
Bring system up to date:
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Login as admin
su
yum update
Disable IPv6 (some network programs try to bind to all interfaces and don’t handle IPv6 well)
———–
Inside /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-ipv6.conf
install ipv6 /bin/true
blacklist ipv6
Inside /etc/sysconfig/network
make sure have this line:
NETWORKING_IPV6=no
turn off ip6tables firewall:
service ip6tables stop
chkconfig ip6tables off
Reboot system to use latest kernel
———–
reboot
Install VMware Tools for better VM performance
———–
Host -> VM -> Install VMware Tools
mount (see which directory /dev/hdc was mounted on)
cp /media/VMware\ Tools/VMwareTools-xxx.tar.gz ~admin/
cd ~admin/
tar -zxvf VMwareTools-xxx.tar.gz
su
cd vmware-tools-distrib
./vmware-install.pl
install using default values and select a screen resolution (1280×960
works well)
Ensure VMware Tools survives future kernel upgrades
———–
Place this script inside /etc/rc.local
# Automatically install vmware tools modules after a kernel upgrade.
# Installing new vmware tools modules causes network to go down and up.
# (The pcnet32 module is swapped out for vmxnet driver)
# This may have adverse effect on network-aware programs already running.
# So is safer to reboot to ensure everything is working properly.
if [ ! -e /lib/modules/`uname -r`/misc/.vmware_installed ]; then
printf “\nDetected absence of VM Tools- starting the modules compiling.\n\n”
/usr/bin/vmware-config-tools.pl –default
VMToolsVersion=`/usr/bin/vmware-config-tools.pl –help 2>&1 | awk ‘$0 ~ /^VMware Tools [0-9]/ { print $3,$4 }’`
printf “\nNewly installed VM Tools version: $VMToolsVersion\n\n”
touch /lib/modules/`uname -r`/misc/.vmware_installed
depmod -a
printf “\n *** REBOOTING *** Ensure a clean system with VM
Tools loaded.\n\n”
reboot
fi
As root superuser:
touch /lib/modules/`uname -r`/misc/.vmware_installed
reboot
Shutdown and turn off services unnecessary for a Fedora desktop
———–
bluetooth – no need to use bluetooth.
btseed – bittorrent only.
bttrack – bittorrent only.
firstboot – no longer needed.
mdmonitor – monitors LVM or RAID information. not necessary for VM.
microcode_ctl – utility for Intel IA32 processors. not necessary for VM.
nfs – Not planned to be used.
nfslock – good only for NFSv4
rpcgssd – good only for NFSv4
rpcsvcgssd – good only for NFSv4
rpcidmapd – good only for NFSv4
sendmail – will be replaced with postfix
chkconfig –list (shows services)
for i in \
bluetooth btseed bttrack firstboot \
mdmonitor microcode_ctl nfs nfslock \
rpcgssd rpcsvcgssd rpcidmapd sendmail; \
do (chkconfig $i off ; service $i stop) ; done
Important post-installation steps
———–
# Install Postfix so we can remove Sendmail
yum -y install postfix
# Remove Sendmail
# pcsc-lite generates lots of spurious log entries with our NIS/Kerberos setup.
# We’re not using smart cards, so we’ll just remove it
yum -y remove sendmail pcsc-lite
Optional: improve several aspects of the root superuser account
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Enhance the path for root superuser to make it easier to run commands
add to root superuser’s .bashrc
PATH=$PATH:/usr/sbin:/sbin:$HOME/bin
export PATH
Better colors inside shell:
cp /etc/DIR_COLORS /root/.dircolors
Install the additional repos for Fedora to gain access to more software packages
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RPM Fusion (free and non-free)
rpm -Uvh http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm \
http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm
yum update
Livna RPMs (mostly merged into rpmfusion, but not everything was)
rpm -Uvh http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release.rpm
yum update
Get the Adobe YUM repo installation via web.
Download and install the Adobe Release RPM.
Chromium for Linux
In file: /etc/yum.repos.d/chromium.repo
[chromium]
name=Chromium Test Packages
baseurl=http://spot.fedorapeople.org/chromium/F$releasever/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=0
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