Installing msttcorefonts on Fedora

I wanted to be able to use Times New Roman on my Fedora machine with OpenOffice. To do this, I did the following:

1. Install the chkfontpath package from ATRPMS. I did this just by going to http://atrpms.net/dist/f12/chkfontpath/ and clicking on the appropriate rpm. When the dialogue popped up, instead of saving the file, I told it to install it.

2. Follow the instructions here.

Fedora Core 12 on my Dual Boot Dell Inspiron 600m

I finally installed Fedora Core 12 on my ageing Dell. To do it, I followed pretty much the same procedure as I have before.

Converting LaTeX to OpenOffice, Google docs, Word, etc.

I vastly prefer to create documents using Emacs and LaTeX on my linux machine, but sometimes it's necessary to convert a document created using LaTeX to OpenOffice, Google Docs, Word, etc. I do this by using latex2rtf to convert the LaTeX document to rich text format.

latex2rtf -o mydoc.rtf mydoc.tex

After running the command above, simply open mydoc.rtf in the desired word processor and change margins, spacing, etc. as needed.

Keeping nohup from Hanging

There seems to be a glitch in nohup. Contrary to its name (No Hang UP), if I ssh into a machine and run

nohup myprogram &

it hangs when I try to exit.

I found the trick for fixing it at Wikipedia here in the Overcoming Hanging section.

Installing JDE for Emacs

I'm working on a project that requires me to keep track of many Java classes more or less at once. Until now, I haven't felt that Emacs' default Java mode lacks anything I need for coding, but for this project, I'd like something that can help me keep track of everything. I looked briefly at the various IDEs out there, but the truth is that I like Emacs and don't want to start using another tool. Instead I decided to try the Java Development Environment for Emacs.

The first step is getting it installed. Here are the steps I followed which are basically the same as those outlined on the JDE page.

1. Install the Collection of Emacs Development Environment Tools (CEDET):
   
   • I downloaded the cedet-1.0pre4.tar.gz file from the CEDET page. As of this writing it appears that they are working on a 1.0 version, but only pre-releases are available.
   • I uncompressed the file and followed the instructions in the INSTALL file. For me, I just had to type make, and copy the load hooks (specified in the INSTALL file) into my .emacs file. Note that the load hooks try to load the file ~/cedet-VERSION/common/cedet.el. You'll need to change VERSION to the actual version you are using and change the path to point where you actually have the cedet directory. I put mine in my .emacs.d directory. To test this, load your .emacs file. Hopefully, you won't get any errors.
     
2. Install the Emacs Lisp library (elib) package. I did this by downloading and following the instructions on the requirements section of the JDE page.
3. You'll need Java (of course) which you can get at the Java site.
4. Download the JDE which you can do at the JDE page and follow the install directions on the install page.
   
   • Uncompress the file in the directory you want the JDE files to reside. I chose my .emacs.d directory.
   • Add some lisp forms which are on the install page to your .emacs. Note that you'll have to change the paths in the lisp forms according to your setup.
   • Follow the remaining instructions. There's an example .emacs file that you can compare to which is helpful. You'll also need to set up a variety of variables that tell the JDE about your JDK, etc. It takes a bit of tweaking.
     

I have it installed now. I'll post any problems or quirks I find along with solutions if I find them in a separate post.

Software to Install After (or During) Fedora Update

After my recent update, there were several software packages that I still needed to update. I should have made a list of these before I upgraded my system, but I didn't. Perhaps I will when Fedora Core 10 comes out in November. Here's the list.

• gv: The graphical front-end for ghostscript
• auctex
• xfig
• Adobe-Flash player
• mplayer

I used yum or the Add/Remove Software menu item for each of these. Note that to install mplayer, I first had to add the livna repository. For the Flash player I did the same as I did with Fedora 8.

Disabling Shutdown/Reboot Beep in Fedora 9

I recently installed Fedora Core 9 on my Dell. The procedure was pretty much the same as it was for Fedora Core 8. One minor problem was on every shutdown or reboot the computer would emit an annoying system beep. To make it stop, as root, I added

blacklist pcspkr

to my /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist file.