Fedora Questions

Although I think I'm likely to keep using Mandriva (especially after trying the LiveCD of the 2009.0), I decided to give another Linux a chance and tried Fedora. So far I like it, but there's a wonky thing going with my disc space. The requirements say you need 3 GB for a workstation-style installation, so I figured my typical 5 GB virtual disc (in Virtual Box) would be plenty. But I kept getting "not enough space" errors. I kept on unticking items - first a few things I likely wouldn't use, then Open Office, then the KDE - still I got errors going from 2.2 GB to 1.8 GB to 1.1 GB of additional space needed. Finally unchecking all development tools, Java support, and nigh everything else brought it to where it would install.

But the odd stuff didn't end there. When I started Fedora, I got this disk usage picture:



Somehow, it sees 5.7 GB total when I only allocated 5 GB. Seems unlikely even given a quirk of the filesystem in the VM. Virtual Box, meanwhile, reports a virtual hard disk size of 2.64 GB (it's dynamically expanding) relative to the 4.6 GB used that Fedora reports.

But to compound the situation farther, the "/" partition that's listed only has 2.2 GB in use! Yet right above there it says that 4.6 GB is in use! But as can be seen on "Computer", I have no other drives. It's most bamboozling. All I can figure is there is a gigantic swap drive around there somewhere I can't see that's eating up gobs of space (I set aside 1 GB RAM for the VM fyi), but I still don't know where the 5.7 GB figure would come from.

Any Virtual Box or Fedora fans out there who can explain what's happening here? I'd like to install a bit more proggies on Fedora but with this kind of wonky stuff happening I'm not sure it'll agree that it has adequate space even though VirtualBox assures me that it does.

And the other question - when I go to set resolutions, it only displays standard display options, so I'm stuck at 1024x768 with a nice big frame around my screen. How do I convince Fedora that I have a widescreen monitor and that it should use widescreen resolutions?

 

You need drivers for graphics. I had the same problem with fedora 9, and even worse, Catalyst drivers works but it's space science to make them to work properly (that's why I quit using fedora as no drivers means no 3d acceleration, so no Compiz Fusion, no TV out). I tried new fedora 10 beta and it recognized my widescreen and set up proper resolution.

 

OK, thanks. I may try Fedora 10 at some point then - part of the reason I'm trying multiple distros is to see which ones work without extraneous effort and it looks like Fedora 9 didn't quite meet that. But if Fedora 10 does, good for it! Perhaps Fedora 10 will solve the mysterious hard drive space usage issue as well.

Still with Mandriva 2008.1 as my main Linux because it works and I have it set up already, even though 2009.0 is better IMO.

 

if you install a basic distro install and only the stuff you need, then it will fit on 5 gb easy, but if you want all the goodies and junk that is on the 3.3gb install dvd that comes with fedora, I would recommend no less than 10gb and maybe even 15gb to give you some working space.
If you install from the live cd then you will only 3 gb to get up and running, but that dont leave you much space to do anything.

Now the issue with having only 5gb allocated and it showing 5.7gb, well dont complain, as much as possible is compressed for your convenience, my system has an 78gb drive, shows the drive as being 97gb...
As for Fedora 10, yeh its not too bad, but changing the look of icons and swapping a few applications around, is not going to convert me to 10 and quitting 9..9 has a few bugs but considering some of the alternatives and the alternative problems, 9 has faired quite well...