Chapter 14. Software Selection

[Important] Installing from a Live Image

If you install from a Fedora Live image, you cannot make package selections. This installation method transfers a copy of the Live image rather than installing packages from a repository. To change the package selection, complete the installation, then use the Add/Remove Software application to make desired changes.

By default, the Fedora installation process loads a selection of software that is suitable for a desktop system. To include or remove software for common tasks, select the relevant items from the list:

Office and Productivity

This option provides the OpenOffice.org productivity suite, the Planner project management application, graphical tools such as the GIMP, and multimedia applications.

Software Development

This option provides the necessary tools to compile software on your Fedora system.

Web server

This option provides the Apache Web server.

14.1. Installing from Additional Repositories

You can define additional repositories to increase the software available to your system during installation. A repository is a network location that stores software packages along with metadata that describes them. Many of the software packages used in Fedora require other software to be installed. The installer uses the metadata to ensure that these requirements are met for every piece of software you select for installation.

The Fedora software repository is automatically selected for you. The Additional Fedora Software repository contains software beyond the selection found on the default installation source. All software in Fedora is entirely free and open source.

To include software from repositories other than the Fedora package collection, select Add additional software repositories. You may provide the location of a repository of third-party software. Depending on the configuration of that repository, you may be able to select non-Fedora software during installation.

To edit an existing software repository location, select the repository in the list and then select Modify repository.

[Note] Network Access Required

If you change the repository information during a non-network installation, such as from a Fedora DVD, the installer prompts you for network configuration information.

If you select Add additional software repositories, the Add repository dialog appears. Provide a Repository name and the Repository URL for its location.

[Tip] Fedora Software Mirrors

To find a Fedora software mirror near you, refer to http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mirrors.

Once you have located a mirror, to determine the URL to use, find the directory on the mirror that contains a directory named repodata. For instance, the "Everything" repository for Fedora is typically located in a directory tree releases/9/Everything/arch/os, where arch is a system architecture name.

Once you provide information for an additional repository, the installer reads the package metadata over the network. Software that is specially marked is then included in the package group selection system. See Section 14.2, “Customizing the Software Selection” for more information on selecting packages.

[Note] Backtracking Removes Repository Metadata

If you choose Back from the package selection screen, any extra repository data you may have entered is lost. This allows you to effectively cancel extra repositories. Currently there is no way to cancel only a single repository once entered.