Tweak Your Fedora System Using Fedy

Fedy, formerly known as Fedora utils, is an open source collection of useful utilities such as mp3 support, Adobe Flash, Oracle Java and much more that Fedora doesn’t ship by default. Fedy lets you to install all the utilities with just a single click and you can customize/tweak your Fedora Linux as per your liking. Not only utilities, we can easily add repositories, so don’t bother about downloading and adding. repo files manually.

Fedy has a built-in-updater, so that it can easily update itself. Also It will automatically find download links for updates of your software’s, and add repositories wherever possible. So you don’t have to worry about the updates. Fedy is developed by an Indian developer Satya Sahoo and released under GNU GPL V3.0. It can be easily extended via Plugin’s, and the source code is publicly available on GitHub for those who want to play with the source code, and to know what it does exactly.

Install Fedy On Fedora 20

Download the latest version using the command:

$ wget http://satya164.github.io/fedy/fedy-installer

Set executable permission and install as shown below:

$ chmod +x fedy-installer 
$ sudo ./fedy-installer

Fedy Usage

Open Fedy, Probably it will be found under System Tools. Make sure you have a decent internet connection. At first launch, it will check for internet connection. This is how Fedy looks at first launch.

Now select the option you want to perform. Here, i want to tweak my Fedora 20 a little bit, so i select Tweaks and tasks. A new window will open with a list of tweaks available.

I’d like to install multimedia codecs, so i checked the option Install Multimedia codecs.

Now Fedy will automatically add the relevant repositories that has multimedia codecs and install multimedia codecs on your system. In my system, Fedy automatically added the RPM Fusion repository and installed all required codecs.

You don’t have to manually search and install each codec. Fedy will do it for you automatically, all you have to do is just select the tasks that you want to perform and sit back. Everything will be done by Fedy. After completing the required tasks, click Back to go back to Fedy Main Menu. Interesting app, isn’t it?

After installing all softwares, you’ll be pleased with a message that says “Successfully completed” in your Terminal.

What about some other additional software?

Fedy has some useful additional softwares that you want to install them in your Fedora system. For example, we want to install Kingsoft Office in Fedora, what should we do? That’s very simple. Go back to the Fedy main menu and select Additional Software. There you will find a pleasant list of useful softwares. Just select the software you want to install and voila!

Please be mindful that, Fedy doesn’t have any own repository to install softwares. It just adds the repository which has the required software and automatically install them for you.

Adding additional repository made easy

So you want to add a new repository to your Fedora, what will you do? It’s very easy. From the Fedy main menu, select Repository Management and you’ll be able to add, backup or restore repositories.

To add a repository, click Add a repo file and add the .repo files from your local system. Also, you can add Fedora People repositories. Fedora People repositories have some useful repositories which are listed at repos.fedorapeople.org. Please beware, Fedora People repositories are not officially supported by Fedora community, add them at your own risk.

What about the Repository backup? Yes, it’s possible too. Fed has an option to backup the important repositories that you want to use later in your local system or in any other Fedora systems.

Select the repositories you want to backup and click Backup selected button. Save it in any location you want.

You can restore the repositories later using Restore repositories from backup option.

Miscellaneous

In this section, we can do some important tasks such as deleting old unused kernels, updating grub, viewing system information, deleting junk and backup files, fixing bad themes and rpmdb errors etc.

To go the Miscellaneous section, click on the Miscellaneous option from the Fedy main menu.

Working with Fedy from Command line

Fedy also allows us to perform operations from the command line, and even it’s possible to use it in scripts to automate tasks. To see all command line options supported, run the following in the Terminal,

$ fedy -e list

Sample output:

Usage:    fedy --exec [commands...]

    del_junkfiles                 Delete junk and backup files
    fix_rpmdb                     Fix rpmdb open failed error
    fix_theme                     Fix bad theme in root apps
    rem_oldkernels                Remove old kernels
    sys_info                      Show system info
    update_grub2                  Update GRUB2 config
    add_repofile                  Add a repo file
    backup_repos                  Backup repositories
    fedorapeople_repos            Fedora People repositories
    restore_repos                 Restore repositories from backup
    adobe_brackets                Install Brackets
    arista_transcoder             Install Arista Transcoder
    elegance_colors               Install Elegance Colors
    gnome_development             Install GNOME development tools
    google_chrome                 Install Google Chrome
    google_talkplugin             Install Google Talk plugin
    gtk_theme_config              Install Theme Configuration app
    kingsoft_office               Install Kingsoft Office
    light_table                   Install Light Table
    nautilus_dropbox              Install Dropbox
    numix_themes                  Install Numix GTK and icon themes
    oracle_jdk                    Install Oracle JDK
    skype_linux                   Install Skype
    sublime_text                  Install Sublime Text 3
    teamviewer_linux              Install TeamViewer
    tor_browser                   Install Tor Browser Bundle
    yum_keepcache                 Configure yum to keep cache
    adobe_flash                   Install Adobe flash plugin
    color_prompt                  Add color prompts to Terminal
    config_selinux                Set SELinux to permissive mode
    config_sudo                   Configure sudo for current user
    core_fonts                    Install Microsoft core fonts
    disk_io_scheduler             Set up SSD I/O scheduler
    dvd_playback                  Enable DVD playback
    essential_soft                Install essential software
    font_rendering                Improve font rendering
    media_codecs                  Install multimedia codecs
    oracle_jre                    Install Oracle Java
    rpmfusion_repos               Configure RPM Fusion repositories
    theme_engines                 Install GTK theme engines
    touchpad_tap                  Enable systemwide touchpad tap
    power_off                     Power off system when done

See '--help' for more options.

For example, to install Skype on your Fedora system, just execute the following command from Terminal with root privileges.

$ sudo fedy --exec skype_linux

The above command will automatically download and install Skype on your system.

Sample output:

Verifying root access
 registered as logged in User
Verifying minimum system requirements
Fedora version 20 detected
Architecture verified (32-bit)
Internet connection verified
Synchronizing files to /tmp/fedy
Checking update
Installing Skype
Downloading from: http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-linux-fc10
Saving to: skype-fedora.i586.rpm
--2014-02-13 17:20:20--  http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-linux-fc10
Resolving www.skype.com (www.skype.com)... 134.170.128.11
Connecting to www.skype.com (www.skype.com)|134.170.128.11|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 Found
Location: http://download.skype.com/linux/skype-4.2.0.13-fedora.i586.rpm [following]
--2014-02-13 17:20:21--  http://download.skype.com/linux/skype-4.2.0.13-fedora.i586.rpm
Resolving download.skype.com (download.skype.com)... 92.122.124.10, 92.122.124.19
Connecting to download.skype.com (download.skype.com)|92.122.124.10|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 15666841 (15M) [application/x-redhat-package-manager]
Saving to: ‘skype-fedora.i586.rpm’

100%[==============================================================

2014-02-13 17:20:48 (564 KB/s) - ‘skype-fedora.i586.rpm’ saved [15666841/15666841]

Download successful!
Loaded plugins: langpacks, refresh-packagekit
Examining skype-fedora.i586.rpm: skype-4.2.0.13-fc16.i586
Marking skype-fedora.i586.rpm to be installed
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package skype.i586 0:4.2.0.13-fc16 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: qt >= 4.6 for package: skype-4.2.0.13-fc16.i586
--> Processing Dependency: libQtCore.so.4 for package: skype-4.2.0.13-fc16.i586
--> Processing Dependency: libQtDBus.so.4 for package: skype-4.2.0.13-fc16.i586
--> Processing Dependency: libQtGui.so.4 for package: skype-4.2.0.13-fc16.i586
--> Processing Dependency: libQtNetwork.so.4 for package: skype-4.2.0.13-fc16.i586
--> Processing Dependency: libQtWebKit.so.4 for package: skype-4.2.0.13-fc16.i586
--> Processing Dependency: libQtXml.so.4 for package: skype-4.2.0.13-fc16.i586
--> Processing Dependency: libXScrnSaver for package: skype-4.2.0.13-fc16.i586
--> Processing Dependency: libXss.so.1 for package: skype-4.2.0.13-fc16.i586
--> Processing Dependency: qtwebkit for package: skype-4.2.0.13-fc16.i586
--> Running transaction check
---> Package libXScrnSaver.i686 0:1.2.2-6.fc20 will be installed
---> Package qt.i686 1:4.8.5-15.fc20 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: qt-settings for package: 1:qt-4.8.5-15.fc20.i686
---> Package qt-x11.i686 1:4.8.5-15.fc20 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: libmng.so.1 for package: 1:qt-x11-4.8.5-15.fc20.i686
---> Package qtwebkit.i686 0:2.3.3-3.fc20 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: libxslt.so.1(LIBXML2_1.1.9) for package: qtwebkit-2.3.3-3.fc20.i686
--> Processing Dependency: libxslt.so.1(LIBXML2_1.0.24) for package: qtwebkit-2.3.3-3.fc20.i686
--> Processing Dependency: libxslt.so.1(LIBXML2_1.0.22) for package: qtwebkit-2.3.3-3.fc20.i686
--> Processing Dependency: libxslt.so.1(LIBXML2_1.0.11) for package: qtwebkit-2.3.3-3.fc20.i686
--> Processing Dependency: libxslt.so.1 for package: qtwebkit-2.3.3-3.fc20.i686
--> Processing Dependency: libQtSensors.so.1 for package: qtwebkit-2.3.3-3.fc20.i686
--> Processing Dependency: libQtLocation.so.1 for package: qtwebkit-2.3.3-3.fc20.i686
--> Running transaction check
---> Package libmng.i686 0:1.0.10-12.fc20 will be installed
---> Package libxslt.i686 0:1.1.28-5.fc20 will be installed
---> Package qt-mobility.i686 0:1.2.2-0.5.20120224git.fc20 will be installed
---> Package qt-settings.noarch 0:20-12.fc20 will be installed
--> Finished Dependency Resolution

Dependencies Resolved

================================================================
 Package                            Arch                        Version                                
=================================================================
Installing:
 skype                              i586                        4.2.0.13-fc16                                    /skype-fedora.i586                       35 M
Installing for dependencies:
 libXScrnSaver                      i686                        1.2.2-6.fc20                                     fedora                                   24 k
 libmng                             i686                        1.0.10-12.fc20                                   fedora                                  174 k
 libxslt                            i686                        1.1.28-5.fc20                                    fedora                                  236 k
 qt                                 i686                        1:4.8.5-15.fc20                                  updates                                 4.7 M
 qt-mobility                        i686                        1.2.2-0.5.20120224git.fc20                       fedora                                  3.1 M
 qt-settings                        noarch                      20-12.fc20                                       fedora                                   18 k
 qt-x11                             i686                        1:4.8.5-15.fc20                                  updates                                  13 M
 qtwebkit                           i686                        2.3.3-3.fc20                                     updates                                  20 M

Transaction Summary
===============================================================
Install  1 Package (+8 Dependent packages)

Total size: 77 M
Total download size: 42 M
Installed size: 163 M
Downloading packages:
(1/8): libXScrnSaver-1.2.2-6.fc20.i686.rpm                                                                                              |  24 kB  00:00:03     
(2/8): qt-settings-20-12.fc20.noarch.rpm                                                                                                |  18 kB  00:00:00     
(3/8): libxslt-1.1.28-5.fc20.i686.rpm                                                                                                   | 236 kB  00:00:04     
(4/8): libmng-1.0.10-12.fc20.i686.rpm                                                                                                   | 174 kB  00:00:05     
(5/8): qt-mobility-1.2.2-0.5.20120224git.fc20.i686.rpm                                                                                  | 3.1 MB  00:00:17     
(6/8): qt-4.8.5-15.fc20.i686.rpm                                                                                                        | 4.7 MB  00:00:19     
(7/8): qt-x11-4.8.5-15.fc20.i686.rpm                                                                                                    |  13 MB  00:00:39     
^Z/8): qtwebkit-2.3.3-3.fc20.i686.rpm                            73% [========================================               ] 313 kB/s |  30 MB  00:00:36 ETA

The downloaded files are saved in a folder named “fedy_dl” in your home directory, so that you can use them on another computer, or if you need to reinstall Fedora, without having to re-download.

Conclusion

As far as I know, Fedy works great as it advertised and it is a must have tool for avid Fedora lovers. It reduces my work as easy as possible. Simply I selected the option that I want to perform, it installs the softwares including all dependencies and i am quite happy with it. Give it a try, you’ll love it

Cheers!

Source:

Fedy Home page