HowTo: Installing Fedora 10 on machine with old Intel video chipset

[DrewP]

2009/01/13 Datu Puti describes an alternative configuration that worked for his eeepc here: http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showpost.php?p=1148052&postcount=22
2009/01/07 What to do if you don't have internet access appears at #12
2009/01/05 Howto for LiveCD appears at #8
Updated 2008/12/12 (Previously recommended disabling acceleration, but have now learned that changing acceleration method works much better)

I have seen a few posts from people with similar problems to mine. This documents the results of three days work getting my system up and running. I hope it helps...


Why you are reading this:
You have tried to install Fedora 10 on your PC which worked just fine with Fedora 8 and Fedora 9, but with Fedora 10 when you finished the initial text mode part of the installation the graphical part of the installation started and the computer hung. The only thing you could do was power off the computer.
Your PC has an Intel graphics chip (mine was an Intel 82830 Chipset Graphic Controller in a Dell Latitude C400)

What is the issue?
"The new Fedora 10 driver uses the new EXA acceleration method. If you use xorg.conf to force XAA Acceleration, the driver works just like the Fedora 9 driver. No corrupt background, infinite loops, or text/font corruption." - see reference 1 below

How can it be fixed?
Just add a line to the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf to force XAA acceleration

So why bother to create such a long howto? That sounds simple...

1) You can't edit the file until the installation is complete, but you can't do a graphical installation until the file is done.
2) You can install in text mode (see further below) but if you do that the graphical Firstboot process does not run on first boot and it is inhibited from running on a subsequent boot.
3) Fedora 10 appears not to need an xorg.conf file. This file defines what sort of screen, graphics adapter etc are installed. Fedora 10 can usually work out this information by probing the hardware. In order to modify the file you first have to create the file, populate it with sensible data and then modify it
4)Because the install happened in text mode the computer will, by default, boot into text mode requiring you to login and then run startx to get the graphical interface. I would prefer it to boot into graphical mode every time.

The steps I will describe below show how each of these issues is worked around. There will be details that many readers may find insultingly obvious, but I still remember my first experience of Linux (Fedora Core 7) and I know I would have given up and gone back to Windows if I had had to work out this kind of thing myself.

So this is addressed primarily to noobs from a recent noob.

Here are the steps.
1) Install Fedora in Text mode
2) Respond to the text mode firstboot questions
3) Login as root
4) Install and run system-config-display
5) Update xorg.conf
6) Re-enable firstboot
7) Configure linux to startup in graphical mode
8) Re-boot.

These instructions assume you have an ethernet connection to the internet and that your ethernet adapter will "just work" correctly. Mine did. You will need internet access for step 4

1) Install Fedora in Text mode

(As a general rule - if you don't understand the question or the implications of your response to a question, just accept the default response)

1.1 Boot from the DVD and wait for the "Welcome to Fedora 10!" screen

1.2 Select "Install or upgrade an existing system" (By default it is already selected)
1.3 Hit the Tab key
1.4 add " text" to the command line that appears - see below

> vmlinuz initrd=initrd.img text

1.5 Then hit <Enter>

1.6 "Disc Found"
If this is the first attempt at installing leave "OK" selected and hit enter to launch an integrity test of the DVD. When done the DVD will be ejected. Push it back in and wait for at least 30 seconds before hitting continue. If you don't wait long enough it will tell you no disk was found.

If you have already tested the DVD hit <Tab> to select "Skip" and press <Enter>

1.7 "Welcome to Fedora!"
Hit <Enter>

1.8 "Language Selection"
Select the language you would prefer to use then <Tab> to select OK and <Enter>

1.9 "Keyboard Selection"
Select the keyboard type that you are using then <Tab> to OK and <Enter>

1.10 "System to Upgrade"
This appears if there is already a Linux system on the disk and gives the choice of upgrading or doing a fresh install. These instructions are for a fresh install. I don't know what will happen if you choose to do an upgrade.

If you choose to do a fresh install select "Reinstall System", <Tab> to OK and <Enter>

1.11 "Hostname Configuration"
Choose a name for your computer. If this will be your only Linux box you could leave the default "localhost.localdomain"
<Tab> to select "OK" and <Enter>

1.12 "Time Zone Selection"

Choose with the space bar whether or not your system clock uses UTC (mine does)

<Tab> to the timezone selection and select your region. If - like me - you live in Europe you could hit the 'E' key which will take you immediately to regions starting with E

<Tab> to OK and <Enter>

1.13 "Root Password"

Enter the password twice.

<Tab> to OK and <Enter>

1.14 "Partitioning Type"
If you have data on your disk that you don't want to lose then study these options carefully. I am not a lawyer or a linux guru. This is not legal advice and not technical consultation - it is just recounting how I set up my system.

Select the appropriate options, <Tab> to OK and <Enter>

1.15 "Review Partition Layout"
Review and change the partitioning layout if you wish. I'll meet you at the next page

1.16 "Writing partitioning to disk"
If you are happy with your choice and have no worries about losing data, <Tab> to "Write changes to disk" and <Enter>

1.17 "Package Selection"
If you are just testing these instructions I suggest you de-select all options so you can continue to the next step as quickly as possible. If you have plenty of time you could choose to install and customize now.

Make your choices and <Tab> to "OK" and <Enter>


Installation is now in progress

Time to make a coffee (and bake a cake)...

1.18 "Complete"

<Enter> to reboot. (Take out the DVD so it boots from hard disk)

2) Respond to the text mode firstboot questions
"Choose a Tool"

Choose any of these tools and configure as you wish (Default settings should be OK if you are unsure)

When done <Tab> to "Quit" and <Enter>

3) Login as root

"Fedora Release 10 (Cambridge)
Kernel 2.6.27.5-117.fc10.i686 on an i686 (tty1)

<computername> login:"

type root <Enter>

"Password:"
type the root password you entered earlier, then <Enter>

"[root@<computername> ~]# "
You are now logged in as root


If you have logged in successfully there will be a '#' prompt signalling that you are logged in as root.

Further down there will be instructions to type things preceded by a '#'. Don't type the # - it is there just as a signal that the following is a command line instruction to be run from the root account.

4. Install and Run system-config-display

4.1 first verify that the file xorg.conf does not exist:

# ls /etc/X11

applink fontpath.d prefdm xinit Xmodmap Xresources

4.2 Not there - so let's create one

# yum -y install system-config-display

This downloads and installs system-config-display

4.3 Now run it

# system-config-display --noui

Verify if the file has been created:

# ls /etc/X11

applink fontpath.d prefdm xinit Xmodmap xorg.conf Xresources

OK now we need to modify it

5) Update xorg.conf

We will be using the vi editor which is incredibly powerful and rather daunting the first time you use it.
As we need to do nothing more complex than we would attempt with Windows Notepad there are only three commands to master:

5.1) Open the file you wish to edit

# vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf

You should see a number of Sections containing Device Identifiers and Drivers. We are interested in the "Device" section. Mine looked like this:

Section "Device"

Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "intel"

EndSection

5.2) Go into "Insert" Mode

Hit the 'I' key. 'I' is the first letter of "Insert"

Use the arrow keys to move the cursor down to the section and change it so it looks like this:

Section "Device"

Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "intel"
Option "AccelMethod" "XAA"

EndSection

5.3) Save and Quit

<ESC>:wq<Enter>

Note there is a colon (':') between hitting <ESC> and typing w
(If you make a mistake and want to quit without saving just do <ESC>:q<Enter>)

6) Re-enable the graphical firstboot

6.1We need to delete the file which is created to say that firstboot has been run

# rm /etc/sysconfig/firstboot

You will be prompted to confirm you really want to do this
rm: remove regular file '/etc/systconfig/firstboot'?

Hit Y<Enter>

6.2 Enable firstboot
# chkconfig --level 5 firstboot on

7) Configure linux to startup in graphical mode
edit /etc/inittab as follows:

7.1 open the file for editing
# vi /etc/inittab

7.2 Hit 'I' for Insert mode and navigate to the bottom of the file

Change the line:
id:3:initdefault:

To:
id:5:initdefault:

7.3 Save changes by hitting <ESC>:wq<Enter>

8) Re-boot.

# shutdown -r now

On rebooting you should now see a graphical page "Welcome. There are a few more steps to take before your system is ready to use...."

You are now back on the standard installation and this howto ends here.

(Apply updates from the network at your earliest opportunity - the intel driver on the Distribution DVD is version 2.5.0-3. After updating to version 2.5.0-4 my machine now works with Compiz - wobbling windows, workspaces on a cube.)

[glennzo]

Moved to Guides & How-To Articles

[clearer]

This guide does not work with i815 chips -- install the Fedora 8 X server to fix it (there are guide in the forum about it).

[DrewP]

The top post of this thread occupies 9,998 bytes of a possible 10,000 so I did not have room to credit the sources of data.

In case anyone confuses me for someone with in-depth knowledge of linux internals here are my sources of information: (Thank you, Google)

1) Fix that worked for my hardware
http://n2.nabble.com/Problem-with-xo...td1597767.html ("Nabble - fedora - Problem with xorg-x11-drv-i810 on Fedora 10" - Michael Young, Jason Dickerson)

2) Information about Intel issues:
http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=206003 ("fedora 10 intel video regression thread - FedoraForum.org" - Hlingler, Datu Puti...

3) How to change startup from text mode to graphic mode:
http://forums.fedoraforum.org/archiv.../t-138750.html ("change runlevel 5 to runlevel 3 - FedoraForum.org" - rappermas, carlainz)

4) How to re-enable firstboot:
http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=206610 ("Unable to install Fedora10 on a system I can install Fedora9 - FedoraForum.org" - marko, invictabob)

[Daily Activist]

Thanks for all the work you put into this Drew. It worked for me!

[niaxilin]

Installing from the newest Fedora 10 Live CD I ran into a few discrepancies with the text mode install above. First, after hitting <TAB> the vmlinuz line was actually 'vmlinuz0 initrd=initrd0.img ..." and adding 'text' to that line didn't stop X from loading. So instead, I improvised with these modifies setup steps:

1. Use the normal CD boot option.

2. After everything is loaded, X11 will try to start (notice the flickering screen). For my Dell Dimension 2350 at least X would load partially, giving me time to hit <b>CTRL+ALT+F2</b> to get to a command console.

2.1 Sometimes the console log-in text won't show up. Go back to the X screen (CRTL+ALT+F6) and hit CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE to reset X. While it's resetting try to get to the console (hit CTRL+ALT+F2 repeatedly). If there is a more scientific approach, please let me know! Does CTRL+Z help?

3. Log in as 'root' (no password) and then 'init 3' to turn off the X system.

# init 3

4.2 Hope your network loaded and proceed with step 4.2:

# yum -y install system-config-display

4.3 Run it

# system-config-display --noui

5. Update xorg.conf (see original post)

6. Run 'init 5' to restart the X process and continue normally.

# init 5

Like I said, that worked to start the installation. But after the copying of the files to the HD, the system reboots, and the process has to be repeated after rebooting to the new installation.

The only problem I had was at the end of the initial start-up configuration where it asked me to submit my installation information to Fedora. I selected 'yes' and hit Finish or Next and got a black screen with one quotation mark at the bottom. Locked. Had to reboot, and now the system seems to be running X. I haven't had time to really explore yet, so it might be a big pile of junk after-all. I'll let you know if that's the case

Thanks again!

[DrewP]

niaxilin,

Thanks VERY much for your feedback. Your technique was much smarter than mine and after doing some testing I am prepared to believe that for single computer installations the LiveCD install is much more efficient than the DVD install (the basic OS installation seems quicker and once you have chosen all the extras to install you don't need to be there while it does it stuff)

I have created a new howto which incorporates your ideas and will post it below. It's a couple of hundred bytes too long so I am just trying to cut out enough to make it fit while remaining (I hope) noob friendly

Thanks again!

DrewP

[DrewP]

You will need internet access for section 3. My ethernet adapter was recognized and correctly driven by Linux. My network uses DHCP so all necessary parameters were automatically setup on the network adapter. Internet access was seamless for me. Ymmv.

Part 1: Modify volatile Live CD configuration to enable system installation to progress
1 Start the install process
2 Interrupt it before the graphical system has time to load and crash
3 Download and install system-config-display
4 Run system-config-display to create an xorg.conf file
5 Modify xorg.conf
6 Restart graphical system
7 Perform normal installation process

Part 2: Modify Hard Disk configuration files so that graphical system will work after re-boot
8 Identify location of operating system on hard disk
9 Mount hard disk operating system in a temporary location
10 Copy xorg.conf from LiveCD ram-disk to hard disk
11 Reboot

1) Start the install process
1.1 Startup the computer with the live CD and wait for the Automatic Boot window to appear

"Automatic boot in 10 seconds"

1.2 Hit <Esc> to get the "Welcome to F10-i686-Live! screen

1.3 If this is the first time you have used the CD select 'Verify and Boot' then hit 'Enter'

Otherwise select Boot and hit '<Enter>'

The progress bar at the bottom of the screen will gradually turn white and then the screen will blank. A few seconds later the graphic system will start up

2 Interrupt it before the graphical system has time to load and crash

(Note for noobs) Linux by design supports multiple simultaneous logins. Even the Live CD allows you to do this. You can switch between them by hitting Ctrl-Alt-F2, Ctrl-Alt-F3 etc. Ctrl-Alt-F2 will bring up a text mode terminal session which is exactly what we want at this point.
You can read more about this here http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/docs/DOC-5231
or here http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-HOWTO...nal-HOWTO.html


2.1 When the graphic system starts up (you see a mouse pointer and a ring of pulsating blue circles) hit Ctrl-Alt-F2

This opens a new session in text mode

Fedora release 10 (Cambridge)
Kernel 2.6.27.5-117.fc10.i686 on and i686 (tty2)

localhost login: root

2.2 Now turn off the X (graphical interface) system before we create / modify xorg.conf

[root@localhost ~]# init 3

(Screen goes blank then the text below appears - note we are now on tty1 not tty2

Fedora release 10 (Cambridge)
Kernel 2.6.27.5-117.fc10.i686 on and i686 (tty1)

localhost login: root

3 Download and install system-config-display

[root@localhost ~]# yum -y install system-config-display
Loaded plugins: refresh-packagekit
.
. (progress display)
.
Complete!

4 Run system-config-display to create an xorg.conf file

[root@localhost ~]# system-config-display --noui
[root@localhost ~]# ls /etc/X11
applink fontpath.d prefdm X xinit Xmodmap xorg.conf Xresources

OK xorg.conf has been created.

5) Update xorg.conf

We will be using the vi editor which is incredibly powerful and rather daunting the first time you use it.
As we need to do nothing more complex than we would attempt with Windows Notepad there are only three commands to master:

5.1) Open the file you wish to edit

[root@localhost ~]# vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf

You should see a number of Sections containing Device Identifiers and Drivers. We are interested in the "Device" section. Mine looked like this:

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "intel"
EndSection

5.2) Go into "Insert" Mode

Hit the 'I' key. 'I' is the first letter of "Insert"

Use the arrow keys to move the cursor down to the section and change it so it looks like this:

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "intel"
Option "AccelMethod" "XAA"
EndSection

5.3) Save and Quit

<ESC>:wq<Enter>

Note there is a colon (':') between hitting <ESC> and typing w
(If you make a mistake and want to quit without saving just do <ESC>:q<Enter>)

When done you should see a status line similar to that below

"/etc/X11/xorg.conf" 32L, 635C written (your line and character counts may vary)
[root@localhost ~]#


6 Restart graphical system

[root@localhost ~]# init 5

This brings you back to the normal graphical login. Click on 'Log in'

NOTE: It looks like there should be the option of selecting a language at this point but my English version Live CD does not appear to support this (I think it is DVD-only option).

NOTE ALSO: Up to this point you have modified a file that exists in volatile memory - not on a hard disk. If you restart the computer you will need to repeat the process. If you install the system on your disk you may need to repeat the process one more time, but this can be avoided. Please read on...

After a certain delay and a considerable amount of CD access you will see a default Fedora Desktop.


7 Perform normal installation proces

Assuming you wish to install this version and not just evaluate it, double click the "Install to Hard Drive" Icon

After a pause a "Fedora Installer" window will pop up - click on the "Next" button

The rest of the install process is described very well here:

http://docs.fedoraproject.org/instal...-keyboard.html

Before you start I will assume you use the Fedora default partitioning scheme (you will be prompted for this as part of the install process). I further assume that if you are knowledgeable enough to use your own partitioning scheme you also know enough to customize the following instructions to suit your configuration


I'll meet you back here when you have done all that but BEFORE YOU RE-BOOT THE PC


PART 2
... OK so you've closed the last window which congratulated you on successfully installing your system and asked you to re-boot.

Before re-booting open a terminal using the menu Applications | System Tools | Terminal

8 Identify location of operating system on hard disk

8.1 Become superuser (root). At this time there is no password for root so just enter su

[liveuser@localhost ~]$  su

root@localhost liveuser]#

Just a quick note for noobs about cutting and pasting in Linux.
Many Linux graphical applications allow you to cut and paste just like other OSes you may know (Ctrl-C copy, Ctrl-V paste, Ctrl-X cut)
As Ctrl-C means something else to a linux terminal the commands to copy and paste are Ctrl-Shift-C and Ctrl-Shift-V. You may find it easier to implement the instructions below by copying and pasting the information you see in the terminal window


Now find out where your hard disk installation is and modify it before shutting down.

8.2 lvscan locates logical volumes on attached disks

[root@localhost liveuser]# lvscan
  ACTIVE            '/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00'  [17.41 GB] inherit
  ACTIVE            '/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01'  [1.00 GB] inherit

For me it is easy with my test disk. There is a 1 GB volume for swap (/def/VolGroup00/LogVol01) and the rest is the root directory which is the top of my directory tree. Looking at another box which has a non-default separate volume for /home I see three volumes:

ACTIVE '/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00' [19.53 GB] inherit
ACTIVE '/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol02' [24.41 GB] inherit
ACTIVE '/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01' [1.00 GB] inherit

In this case it is harder to tell but I know from using the Logical Volume Manager that /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 is the root partition. It is probably safe to assume that the root partition is always /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00

So now we know where our data probably is - how do we access it?

9 Mount hard disk operating system in a temporary location

9.1 First we create a 'mount point' - this is a way of saying where we would like the data to appear. I would like to make the contents of the hard disk's root partition appear at /mnt/temp so I create a directory of that name

[root@localhost liveuser]# mkdir /mnt/temp

9.2 Now I tell the system to 'mount' the disk. This tells the system where that data is on the disk (in this case it identifies the logical volume created on the disk), what file system it uses (by default Fedora 10 uses ext3), and where I would like the data to appear in the directory tree (/mnt/temp)

[root@localhost liveuser]# mount -t  ext3  /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00  /mnt/temp

9.3 Now check that we have mounted the correct volume

[root@localhost liveuser]# ls /mnt/temp
bin dev home lost+found mnt proc sbin srv tmp var
boot etc lib media   opt root selinux sys usr

OK that looks correct. If you don't see that and had multiple logical volumes defined you can try another one by unmounting the mounted volume using the command 'umount /mnt/temp' and mounting a different logical volume.

9.4 Check that the etc/X11 directory on hard disk looks right (but doesn't have the file xorg.conf)

[root@localhost liveuser]# ls /mnt/temp/etc/X11
applink fontpath.d prefdm xinit Xmodmap Xresources

9.5 Compare it to the directory on the LiveCD memory-based filesystem

[root@localhost liveuser]# ls /etc/X11
applink fontpath.d prefdm X xinit Xmodmap xorg.conf Xresources

10 Copy xorg.conf from LiveCD ram-disk to hard disk

[root@localhost liveuser]# cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /mnt/temp/etc/X11/

11 Reboot

[root@localhost liveuser]# shutdown -r now

(remove the CD when the PC has shutdown and is starting to re-start)

You should now arrive at the FirstBoot section of the normal install and this is where the howto ends.

[SeymourLick]

is there a way to connect to the Internet via a belkin wireless usb to a wpa secure network instead of with the Ethernet because i don't have a spare cord

[cheetahwind]

Thank you for your tutorials Drew!

[DrewP]

Originally Posted by SeymourLick

is there a way to connect to the Internet via a belkin wireless usb to a wpa secure network instead of with the Ethernet because i don't have a spare cord

If you have another internet connected computer and a flash drive you can install the necessary to fix your video problem from flash. I will post another how to below for that situation.

If your wifi adapter is recognized out of the box you are ok. I just finished yet another F10 installation, this time without any ethernet connection and the newly installed system recognized my USB wifi adapter and I am now downloading all the recent updates with wifi. It took me half a day to research and get that USB card working on Fedora 8.

If your wifi card is not recognized you need to post another question on the forum but not in this thread. This thread concerns Intel video issues.

Good Luck!

DrewP

[DrewP]

This is in response to the question of how to do the installation without an ethernet link but with a wireless card which we hope is recognized by the system. I never managed to drive wpa_supplicant successfully but network manager seems to do a good job nowadays of connecting to WPA networks.

It is necessary to download and install system-config-display in order to bring up a basic system.
The process is to download the required files using another computer and save them on a USB flash drive. We then install the files from flash and continue the basic installation.

This process worked for me. I was able to bring up a basic system which recognized my wireless card and I connected to the internet effortlessly. We then hope that the basic system has all it takes to drive YOUR wireless card.

credits:
http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/lin...ves-linux.html

NOTE: This thread concerns aging Intel graphics adapters which I believe will almost certainly be installed on an i386 architecture. Anyone reading this post to learn how to install system-config-display to resolve issues with a different adapter may be using a different architecture. If this applies to you please replace 'i386' with 'ppc', 'ppc64' or 'x86_64' as appropriate in the URLs below. Hopefully this issue will never happen again but if you are using this information for a different release please replace 'fc10' with whatever version of Fedora you are using

Download these 2 files and save them on a usb flash disk

http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pu...c10.noarch.rpm (system-config-display-1.1.1-1.fc10.noarch.rpm)
http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pu....fc10.i386.rpm (rhpxl-1.9-3.fc10.i386.rpm)

(Anyone trying this at a future date should go to this page http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pu...6/os/Packages/ and download whatever is the latest version of system-config-display and rhpxl)

I copied them into a directory 'rpms' on the flash disk.

Follow instructions in post #8 until you have completed section 2 (Don't insert the flash disk yet)

Use this section 3 To install system-config-display from the USB flash drive

3 Copy and install system-config-display

3.1 Create a mount point

[root@localhost ~]# mkdir /mnt/usbflash

3.2 Mount the flash disk

Insert the flash disk into a USB socket. You should see a series of messages similar to these (The details will depend on your hardware)

usb 1-4: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 1-4: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
scsi2 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
usb 1-4: New USB device found, idVendor=1307, idProduct=0163
usb 1-4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
usb 1-4: Product: USB Mass Storage Device
usb 1-4: Manufacturer: USBest Technology
usb 1-4: SerialNumber: 00000000000107
usb-storage: device found at 2
usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
usb-storage: device scan complete
scsi 2:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Ut163    USB2FlashStorage 0.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2
sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] 501760 512-byte hardware sectors (257 MB)
sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 00 00 00 00
sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] 501760 512-byte hardware sectors (257 MB)
sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 00 00 00 00
sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
 sdb: sdb1
sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk
sd 2:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 0

(Note to noobs)
The lines including '[sdb]' show us that the flash disk is recognised as sdb, the second SCSI disk on the system, so it can be addressed as /dev/sdb. The first disk is sda. Don't be confused by the mention of SCSI. Linux kernel versions from 2.6.20 onwards treat most non-volatile writable storage as a SCSI disk, and the Fedora 10 installation media uses version 2.6.27. Many on-line linux tutorials do not yet reflect this change so this may be very confusing to noobs who have read up on Linux and expect their disks to be called hda, hdb etc. One article I found that gives a rundown of the changes is here: http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/osr...Disk+Names.htm

Last time I looked, the operating system installed on most PCs on the planet could only access one partition on a flash disk so the data is more than likely to be stored on partition 1, which we represent as /dev/sdb1

Mount the flash disk at /mnt/usbflash. If for any reason (such as having multiple hard drives installed on your system) the messages displayed on your terminal show a different device ([sdc], [sdd]...) then use that device identifier instead of 'sdb' in the instruction below:

[root@localhost ~]# mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usbflash

3.3 Check we have correctly mounted the disk:

[root@localhost ~]# ls /mnt/usbflash
rpms
[root@localhost ~]# ls /mnt/usbflash/rpms
rhpxl-1.9-3.fc10.i386.rpm  system-config-display-1.1.1-1.fc10.noarch.rpm

Ok we know where the updates are (I am relying on your intelligence to navigate to wherever you stored the files on your flash disk)

3.4 Change default directory to the updates directory

[root@localhost ~]# cd /mnt/usbflash/rpms

3.5 Install rhpxl (This is required before installing system-config-display)

(Sorry there is a lot of typing here. Note that when you type the filename you only need to type first few letters then <TAB> and the system will auto-complete it)

[root@localhost rpms]# yum -y --disablerepo=fedora --disablerepo=updates localinstall rhpxl-1.9-3.fc10.i386.rpm
.
.
.
Complete!

3.6 Install system-config-display

(You can use up-arrow, backspace and tab to speed up typing this line considerably)

[root@localhost rpms]# yum -y --disablerepo=fedora --disablerepo=updates localinstall system-config-display-1.1.1-1.fc10.noarch.rpm
.
.
.
Complete!

3.7 Return to the original default directory so that the prompts are consistent for the next section (and so that the system will allow you to unmount the flash drive)

[root@localhost rpms]# cd  ~/

3.8 Unmount the flash drive

[root@localhost ~]# umount /mnt/usbflash

You may now remove the flash drive

return to post #8 section 4 and continue until finished

When re-booting insert your wireless card (if not already built in) and cross your fingers!

[SeymourLick]

Thank you very much for your help, much appreciated

[Rubberman]

Thank you !! This was exactly what i was looking for! I've hit wall after wall so far, but this is the first all encompassing answer to something i've needed!

[tsorvoja]

DrewP: Hopefully you drink beer, because I owe you one.