I decided to install the i686 KDE spin version of Fedora 14.

Unfortunately there are still third party applications like flash player or skype that seem to have better compatibility with x86 instead of X86_64.

I know the ultimate goal is to make this a MythTV media centre computer, but I like browsing the web, going to youtube or making skype calls through my lounge TV.

I downloaded the KDE spin version of Fedora 14 and put it in a USB stick with unetbootin. Please note that you have to use version 549 or above of unetbootin, otherwise it wont work.

After the system starts it offers the option to install to hard drive.

1. The installer will pop up, click on next.
2. Select your keyboard, click on next.
3. Select your storage type, in my case I'm choosing basic storage devices. Click on next.
4. Then I choose to re-initialize the device since it is a new hard drive. Be careful here, in case you have some data you don't want to lose.
5. Hostname: I name my media centres mythbox-master.omcentre.com.au
6. Now select your timezone (my timezone is Australia/Brisbane), I tick system clock uses UTC.
7. Set your root password, click on next
8. Now to patition the drive, I select create custom layout.
9. I usually select 100MB for a boot partition, 20GB for the operating system, 2GB for swap and the rest for storage mounted on /video.
10. Once you finish here, you have to select the boot loader, I ticked install boot loader on /dev/sda click on next.
11. Now the system copies live image to hard drive.
12. Now that the system is installed click on close and then reboot.
13. After rebooting the welcome screen appears. Click on forward.
14. Licence Information. Read the licensing and if agreed, click on forward.
15. Now create a user. I'm creating a user called mythtv. Set the password and click on Forward.
16. Set the date and time and tick syncronize date and time over the network.
17. I decided to send the hardware profile of my system. Then clicked on finish.
18. Now the system asks you to log on for the first time using the previously selected username and password.

In Fedora 14 ssh is disabled by default. Most of the installations I do on this systems I do in the console using putty from my Windows notebook. It makes things easy as you can copy and paste most commands.

To enable ssh it log on in a console as root. To go to a console press (ctrl+alt+F2). In username select root and in password the password you wrote before.

#chkconfig sshd on
#service sshd start

Disable selinux

I knowselinux improves security, but for a home media centre connected to the Internet through a router it is a bit too much, so I will disable it.

Disable Firewall

I'm also disabling the firewall.

vi /etc/sysconfig/selinux

... and set SELINUX to disabled:

# This file controls the state of SELinux on the system.
# SELINUX= can take one of these three values:
#       enforcing - SELinux security policy is enforced.
#       permissive - SELinux prints warnings instead of enforcing.
#       disabled - SELinux is fully disabled.
SELINUX=disabled
# SELINUXTYPE= type of policy in use. Possible values are:
#       targeted - Only targeted network daemons are protected.
#       strict - Full SELinux protection.
SELINUXTYPE=targeted

Now that the system is the way we want it we can restart to apply all these changes.

#reboot