View Source: FedoraRepositories - Waikato Linux Users Group

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FedoraCore is missing a number of important features that most desktop Linux users are looking for.  There are some things that they have decided not to package for political reasons, and some are left out because there exists an alternative which is better accepted.

In order to get all this extra software, you can tell your automated package management system, be it [APT|AptForRpm] or [Yum], to use some extra repositories of software that is expressely packaged for your distribution.

!!Multimedia installation howto

EricRaymond has created a [Fedora multimedia HOWTO|http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Fedora-Multimedia-Installation-HOWTO/] which covers how to do all of this with the built in up2date tool.

!!Use FedoraExtras

Fedora Extras, previously known as fedora.us, is the official place for extra Fedora packages.  It's as hard to get a package included in Fedora Extras as it is on the official FC CDs, and the administrators have pissed a lot of people off with statements that effectively say "It's impossible for any other repositories to exist but ours".

Complementing fedora.us is [livna.org|http://rpm.livna.org/], the official unofficial companion site that contains all the stuff that Fedora aren't allowed to do, such as the [MP3] plugin for [XMMS], [DVD]/[CSS] code, etc.

!!Use the third-party packagers

There are a number of people that package RPMs for FedoraCore and other similar distributions (RedHatEnterpriseLinux and older RedHatLinux versions).

There are five of these repositories that collaborate closely, and they are listed below.

* [List of packages available from these repositories (and who is responsible for them)|http://dag.wieers.com/home-made/apt/mega-merge.php]
* [Mailing list|http://lists.freshrpms.net/mailman/listinfo/freshrpms-list]
* [Bugzilla|http://bugzilla.atrpms.net/]

!FreshRpms ([Matthias Saou|http://freshrpms.net/about/])

See our FreshRpms page.

!Dag ([Dag Wieers|http://dag.wieers.com/personal/])

The second most prolific packager behind Matthias Saou.  Very general purpose.  One of the only people packaging for RedHatEnterpriseLinux.

Repository homepage: http://dag.wieers.com/home-made/apt/

!ATrpms ([Axel Thimm|mailto:Axel.Thimm at ATrpms dot net])

Originally some physics-related packages, ATrpms has become a multimedia focused repository, packaging useful things like MythTv.

However, some people don't like some of Axel's [packaging|http://lists.freshrpms.net/pipermail/freshrpms-list/2004-May/009100.html] [policies|http://lists.freshrpms.net/pipermail/freshrpms-list/2004-May/009606.html].

Repository homepage: http://atrpms.net/

!~NewRpms ([Rudolf Kastl|mailto:che666 at uni.de])

Repository homepage: http://newrpms.sunsite.dk/index.php?section=2

!Dries ([Dries Verachtert|http://dries.studentenweb.org/CV/CV-DriesVerachtert-EN.html])

Some esoteric packages that, in the most part, depend on packages from ~NewRpms, Dag and FreshRpms.

Repository homepage: http://dries.studentenweb.org/ayo/

!!Don't use both.

It's clearly possible to cooperate between repositories (see below), but fedora.us [don't believe in playing nice|http://www.fedora.us/wiki/RepositoryMixingProblems], so if you pick fedora/livna, don't use Freshrpms et al, or be prepared for things to break if you do.  Most stuff that fedora.us package is also done by someone else; also remember you can install packages manually with little trouble.

!!How to get started

A good way to start is to [download FedoraFaq's yum.conf|http://fedorafaq.org/samples/yum.conf] and select the repositories you want to use by uncommenting them and commenting out the others.

Then, you can install software like the xmms MP3 plugin with 'yum install xmms', and no more thinking is required.

Matt Brown adds ''I think you can safely live without fedora.us. I use apt for my package management, although I still use yum through the RHN applet to keep up to date with newly released packages from RedHat.''

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CategoryFedora
4 pages link to FedoraRepositories:
Last edited on Monday, October 25, 2004 5:28:43 pm by CraigBox
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