Picasa Install

To install Picasa on your Scientific linux machine follow the steps below

1. Run the following two commands when by one in terminal by logging in as root.
    wget https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub
    rpm --import linux_signing_key.pub

2. Create Google repo as shown below
    First create a repo file called google.repo
    vi /etc/yum.repos.d/google.repo

    Now insert the following lines in google.repo file
    [google]
    name=google
    baseurl=http://dl.google.com/linux/rpm/stable/i386
    enabled=1
    gpgcheck=1

   Save the file

3. Run command
    yum update

4  Install Picasa using the command
    yum install picasa

Scientific Linux Settings

Changing the host name
------------------------------------------------------
To change the hostname to your preferred name, you need to edit the network file

Steps:
Log in as root in terminal

cd /etc/sysconfig/
vi network

Change the HOSTNAME to your preferred name

Then save the file and reboot the computer

Menu Editor for GNOME

 alacarte

Alacarte is a simple menu editor for GNOME that lets you edit, add, and delete any menu entry. 


Install
-----------
Log in as root in terminal and type the following command 
yum install alacarte 


Run
------------
To run the alacarte program just type 'alacarte' 


Desktop Shortcut
----------------------
Create shortcut for 'alacarte' application in desktop
 
Right click on Desktop and click 'Create Launcher'
Type the following in interface
Type: Application
Name: Alacarte
Command:/usr/bin/alacarte

Trash Icon missing

If Trash icon is missing in desktop then here are the steps to enable

1. Click on 'Configuration Editor' found under 'System Tools'
   If 'Configuration Editor' option is not present, then you need to install it.
   Use the command 'yum install gconf-editor' to install
  
2. Click apps ---> click nautilus ---->click desktop

3. Check/Mark on 'trash_icon_visible'
This will create an icon linking to the trash  on the desktop.

Create yum repository from Scientific Linux DVD

Create yum repository from Scientific Linux DVD without copying the contents to hard disk

Steps:

1. Create a directory to mount DVD
    mkdir /mnt/dvd

2. Mount the Scientific Linux DVD
    mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/dvd

3. Create yum repo setting file at /etc/yum.repos.d/dvd.repo
    vi  /etc/yum.repos.d/dvd.repo

4. Copy the following contents into dvd.repo
[MyRepo]
name=MyRepo
baseurl=file:///mnt/dvd
enabled=1
gpgcheck=0

5. Run the following command to create yum database
createrepo /mnt/

Note: To run  'createrepo /mnt/' command 'createrepo' package should be installed first.

Install FTP client Filezilla in Linux

First download the FileZilla package from here

The downloaded package will be like FileZilla_3.5.1_i586-linux-gnu.tar.bz2

Now open terminal and log in as root.

Go to the folder where the package is saved

Extract the package using the command

tar -jxvf FileZilla_3.5.1_i586-linux-gnu.tar.bz2

The extracted files will be saved in FileZilla3 folder

Copy the folder 'FileZilla3' into /opt directory

Now create a shortcut in Desktop

Right click on Desktop and click 'Create Launcher'

Type the following in interface

Type: Application

Name: FileZilla

Command:/opt/FileZilla3/bin/filezilla

Double click on the Shortcut to launch

Install RAR package

Download the RAR package from

http://www.rarlab.com/rar/rarlinux-3.6.0.tar.gz

Now log in as root in terminal

Go to the folder where you have saved the file 'rarlinux-3.6.0.tar.gz' using terminal

Extract the file using the following command

tar -zxvf rarlinux-3.6.0.tar.gz

Go into the extracted folder

cd rar

Type the following in terminal

./unrar

Then copy the rar and unrar file to /bin

cp rar unrar /bin



Now when you right click over the rar files which you want to extract, you will be get extracted file without any issue

Update Firefox Browser in Scientific Linux

Scientific linux/Redhat linux instal Firefox bowser by default. However if you want to use the latest version of the browser you need to follow the steps given below

1. Download the latest Firefox package form the link

 The downloaded package will be with .tar.bz2 format (like firefox-6.0.2.tar.bz2)

2. Using terminal extract the package using following command

  tar -jxvf firefox-6.0.2.tar.bz2

 A folder named 'firefox' will be created

3. Now log in as root in terminal and copy the folder 'firefox' into '/opt' folder.

cp -Raf firefox /opt

4. Finally we will create a shortcut for our new firefox browser

Right click on Desktop and click 'Create Launcher'

Type the following in interface

Type: Application

Name: Firefox

Command:/opt/firefox/firefox

A new shortcut will be created in Desktop

Install Opera Browser in Scientific Linux

Access the Opera browser Download Page by clicking here

Download Opera browser 11.51 rpm package

The downloaded RPM package will be named as opera-11.51-1087.i386.rpm

Using terminal, log in as root and then go to the folder where RPM package  is downloaded

Type the following command in terminal  to install.

yum install opera-11.51-1087.i386.rpm

After the dependencies are resolved Opera browser will be installed successfully

You can then access the application from Internet section

Install Adobe Reader in Scientific Linux

Access the Abobe Reader Download Page by clicking here

Download Adobe Reader 9.4.2 rpm package

The downloaded RPM package will be named as AdbeRdr9.4.2-1_i486linux_enu.rpm

Using terminal log in as root and then go to the folder where RPM package  is downloaded.

Type the following command in terminal  to install.

yum install AdbeRdr9.4.2-1_i486linux_enu.rpm

After the dependencies are resolved Adobe Reader will be installed successfully

You can then access the application from Office section

EPEL software repository

EPEL packages are  free open source software. It is  EPEL community effort from the Fedora project to create a repository of high-quality add-on packages

su -c 'rpm -Uvh http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/epel/5/i386/epel-release-5-4.noarch.rpm'

Enable GUI after booting

Some times when we boot our linux systems, we get terminal screen(tty) instead of GUI screen or windows X screen.

To have graphical screen we have to manually do this by typing command 'init 5' as root.

If you do not want this manual method and want your system to automatically do this to you whenever you boot your system, you need to configure as given in steps below

Steps:
1. Log in as root
2. Open file /etc/inittab
    Command: vi /etc/inittab
2. You will find a line 'id:3:initdefault:'  at the end. Edit the line by changing it to 'id:5:initdefault:'