Fedora Installation
R Cubed Technologies starts with a standard installation of Fedora Core 4. The hard drive is partitioned as per the user request. Typically there are 3 partitions on a Fedora Core installation and 4 partitions on a dual boot system. Listed are the partitions:
- 2 GB Swap partition
- 512MB VFAT partition (useful for BIOS updates and provides a data exchange area for dual boot systems)
- Root file system We typically use standard partitions vs Logical Volume manager.
We feel that in a desktop setting the Logical Volume manager is not an effective way to manage a single disk. It also makes dual booting and hibernation more difficult.
Next we perform the install and install all packages. This provides many applications, games, development tools.
R Cubed Special Features
Once the installation is complete R Cubed takes Fedora Core 4 to the next level. Many customizations are made to make Fedora run well on a laptop. Our laptops take advantage of as may laptop features as possible.
Power Management
Suspend to Disk (Hibernate) – We modified the Fedora Kernel to add Software Suspend 2 from http://suspend2.net. This provides suspend feature. When hibernated the laptop draws no power. It can take less than 30 seconds to resume from the suspend and pick up where you left off.
AC Power/Battery Life
R Cubed laptops are configured with 5 different modes of operation designed to lengthen battery life when not plugged in. Each mode will change the speed of the processor , dim the screen and setup hard drive spin down and greatly enlarge the read and look ahead caching to avoid powering the hard drive back up. The less the hard drive runs the longer the batter lasts. This enlargement of the cache also assists the CD/DVD player. This can result in the same or better battery life compared to Windows XP. The user has full control of the screen brightness in AC Power mode or Battery Mode.
Special Buttons
Every laptop has special buttons for things like Web Browser, Email, Wireless, Touch Pad Control, Power Management, Sleep/Hibernate, Volume Control and Multimedia Playback control. These do not work on the standard Fedora Core install. R Cubed has worked hard to provide this functionality. For instance, when the Web Browser button is pushed the default Web Browser is launched. Or when the Stop button is pushed then the multimedia application is notified and the playback is stopped. Currently xmms, xine, totem and CD Player are configured to work with the multimedia buttons. If a new user is added to the system their environment is automatically configured for use with the buttons. Users can customize what happens when a button pressed or acpi event occurs. Each user has a .asus_acpi directory in their home that determines what actions are taken when a given event occurs.
Extra Packages
Above and beyond the Fedora Core 4 install R Cubed adds additional packages to greatly enhance the desktop experience. The following packages are automatically installed:
- XOSD (X On Screen Display, used to provide feed back when a Special Button is pressed.)
- Clam Antivirus – Provides anti virus solution for desktop environment.
- Kino – Digital Video Editing Package capable of grabing video from Fire wire enabled camcorder device.
- Yum Extendedr – Graphical Yum Package Management System (makes it easy to install/update/remove packages)
- Java – Sun Java virtual machine
- MS True Type Core Fonts
- Adobe Acrobat Reader 7.0
- NetworkManager – Manages Network Connections
The Following Applications can be easily installed by the user (An Icon is provided on the desktop of the root user to install these)
Multimedia Applications
- xmms – X Multimedia System, provides a variety of media play back including MP3.
- Xine - Plays back CDs, DVDs, and VCDs. It can also decode AVI, MOV WMV, MP3.
- Macromedia Flash – Integrates into Mozilla Firefox and can play all Flash content.
Gaming Applications
- Torcs -Race Car Simulation Game
- Star Fighter – Space Shoot em up game
- BZ Flag – Tank Simulator Game – network enabled
- Foo Billiard – Billiards Game
- gl-117 – Flight Simulator Game
- pprace – Good old tux racer
- gnuchess – Classic Chess Game
Networking/Wireless
R Cubed laptops contain integrated Intel Wireless Network interfaces. We take advantage of the power of NetworkManager to manage wireless connections. If the Network Cable is plugged in then the Wireless interface will be disabled and the Wired Network Interface will be configured. If the network cable is unplugged then the Wired Network Interface is disabled and the Wireless Network Interface attempts to find a wireless network. If it finds one the NetworkManager will attempt to connect and configure the interface. This is a very nice feature for the mobile worker. The Wireless interface can be enabled and disable by pressing the Wireless button on the keyboard or the Wireless special button. This overrides network manager.
Touch Pad
The touch pad is fully featured and supports scrolling and tapping. There is also a button to disable/enable to touch pad. An external usb mouse can be easily plugged in with no further configuration.
X Windows
R Cubed has been working hard to provide the best possible video capabilities. Out of the box Fedora Core 4 does not understand the video cards in our laptops. We have made the graphics work well. However, 3D Acceleration has been a problem. The Nvidia and ATI drivers do not support Software Suspend well. The open source drives do not support DRI well. We have settled on using the open source drivers to make software suspend work well. We have had to use some special utilities to make the X Windows server support the proper resolution of each laptop.
Audio
Fedora Core 4 uses ALSA as its sound system. R Cubed has had to make several adjustments to make the audio/audio mixer work properly.
R Cubed Customized Kernel
In order to provide the power management and Special Button functionality R Cubed has had to make many changes to the Kernel. We start with the standard Fedora Core 4 Kernel and add Software suspend as well as other patches to make the laptops perform as required. R Cubed provides periodic updates to the kernel and provides an easy way to update your kernel. We also provide source RPMs if you want to see what we have done or need to add further customization of your own.
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