Feodra – Setup Desktop Environment

In a recent turn of events I’ve been asked to setup a proof of concept (POC) UNIX desktop environment for a work location.

Below I will work through some of the process.

First I chose to start with Fedora KDE Spin available at https://spins.fedoraproject.org/kde/ as the users will be coming from a Windows world KDE is a fair match.

NOTE: In most cases the dnf commands below can be replaced with yum if you want to try to use similar setup on Red Hat or CentOS

1. Setup Fedora using the DVD image
2. For support purposes enable SSH

   sudo systemctl start sshd.service
   sudo systemctl enable sshd.service
   
   

3. OPTIONAL But suggested: Modify SELinux

   clear
   sudo cp /etc/selinux/config /etc/selinux/config.bk
   sudo sed -i '/^#/d' /etc/selinux/config
   sudo sed -i '/^$/d' /etc/selinux/config
   SELinuxStatus=$(cat /etc/selinux/config | grep SELINUX=|cut -d'=' -f2)
   echo Current Status: $SELinuxStatus
   sudo sed -i "s|SELINUX=$SELinuxStatus|SELINUX=permissive|" /etc/selinux/config
   SELinuxStatus=$(cat /etc/selinux/config | grep SELINUX=|cut -d'=' -f2)
   echo New Status: $SELinuxStatus
   sudo reboot
   
   

4. Set the hostname

   sudo -s
   echo -e "\033[01m\e[4mType your desired hostname for the server, followed by [ENTER]:\e[0m\033[0m"
   read hostname
   sudo hostnamectl set-hostname --static "$hostname"
   sudo hostnamectl set-hostname "$hostname"
   hostnamectl status
   #sudo restorecon -v /etc/hostname
   
   

5. Run Update

   sudo dnf update -y
   # OR
   # sudo yum update -y
   
   Note: If you get an error like “Error: Failed to synchronize cache for repo ‘updates'” you may need to disable SSL validation in your yum repositories.
   
   Some companies like to decrypt SSL traffic to analyze it and then repackage the SSL certificate, in these cases some repositories may have problems.
   # Remove SSL Verify
   # Archive the original config
   sudo cp /etc/yum.repos.d/fedora.repo /etc/yum.repos.d/fedora.repo.orig
   sudo cp /etc/yum.repos.d/fedora-updates.repo /etc/yum.repos.d/fedora-updates.repo.orig
   sudo cp /etc/yum.repos.d/fedora-updates-testing.repo /etc/yum.repos.d/fedora-updates-testing.repo.orig
   # Add sslverify=false
   sudo sed -i 's|failovermethod=priority|failovermethod=priority\nsslverify=false|' /etc/yum.repos.d/fedora.repo
   sudo sed -i 's|failovermethod=priority|failovermethod=priority\nsslverify=false|' /etc/yum.repos.d/fedora-updates.repo
   sudo sed -i 's|failovermethod=priority|failovermethod=priority\nsslverify=false|' /etc/yum.repos.d/fedora-updates-testing.repo
   
   

6. Install additional tools

   echo -e "\033[32mInstalling Needed Applications\033[0m"
   sudo dnf -y install net-tools bind-utils nano wget tcl unzip bzip2 ed gcc make libstdc++.so.6 telnet
   sudo dnf -y install --best dbus-python nss-mdns.i686 nss-mdns.x86_64 pygtk2
   
   

7. Set Timezone

   # Set Timezone
   sudo timedatectl set-timezone America/Detroit
   
   Note: If you’re not sure what timezone to set you can look them up with this
   ls /usr/share/zoneinfo/
   ls /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/
   
   

8. Remove Preloaded Applications That Are Not Needed

   # Remove Preloaded Applications That Are Not Needed
   # rpm -qa | grep '^qt5'
   sudo dnf remove -y qt5-qdbusviewer-5.7.1-5.fc26.x86_64 kmahjongg-16.12.3-1.fc26.x86_64 kpat-16.12.3-1.fc26.x86_64 kmines-16.12.3-1.fc26.x86_64 ktorrent-5.0.1-3.fc26.x86_64 ktorrent-libs-5.0.1-3.fc26.x86_64 akregator-17.04.1-1.fc26.x86_64 akregator-libs-17.04.1-1.fc26.x86_64 konversation-1.7.2-3.fc26.x86_64 knode-4.14.10-31.fc26.x86_64 knode-libs-4.14.10-31.fc26.x86_64 firefox-56.0-5.fc26.x86_64 konqueror-libs-17.04.1-1.fc26.x86_64 konqueror-17.04.1-1.fc26.x86_64 qupzilla-2.1.2-4.fc26.x86_64 kf5-ktnef-17.04.1-1.fc26.x86_64 kf5-ktnef-17.04.1-1.fc26.x86_64 kget-libs-16.12.3-1.fc26.x86_64 kget-16.12.3-1.fc26.x86_64 kolourpaint-16.12.3-1.fc26.x86_64 kolourpaint-libs-16.12.3-1.fc26.x86_64 kruler-16.12.3-1.fc26.x86_64
   
   

9. Install Java

   # Install Java Plugins
   #   icedtea-web java-openjdk
   sudo dnf install -y icedtea-web java-openjdk
   
   

10. Install Adobe Reader

    # Install Adobe Reader
    sudo dnf install -y ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/unix/9.x/9.5.5/enu/AdbeRdr9.5.5-1_i486linux_enu.rpm
    
    

11. Install Google Chrome

    # Install Google Chrome
    sudo dnf install -y https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_x86_64.rpm
    
    
    # OR
    cd ~/
    wget --no-check-certificate https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_x86_64.rpm
    sudo dnf install -y google-chrome-stable_current_x86_64.rpm
    
    

12. Install Visual Studio Code (VSCode)

    sudo rpm --import https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc
    sudo sh -c 'echo -e "[code]\nname=Visual Studio Code\nbaseurl=https://packages.microsoft.com/yumrepos/vscode\nenabled=1\ngpgcheck=1\ngpgkey=https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc" > /etc/yum.repos.d/vscode.repo'
    

    dnf check-update
    sudo dnf install code