On behalf of the Livna ( http://rpm.livna.org ) contributors I'd like to announce the availability of the Livna package repository for Fedora 9 (Sulphur). The Livna repository hosts software as RPM packages which cannot be shipped in the official Fedora repository for various reasons and support8s the i386, x86_64 and ppc architectures.

Using the Livna repository gives Fedora 9 the ability to play all kinds of audio such as MP3 files and plays DVDs. You can browse the repository at http://rpm.livna.org/fedora/9/ To make it available on a freshly installed Fedora 9 system run the following command:

{{{
$ su -c 'rpm -ivh http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release-9.rpm'
}}}

Further below you'll find some more examples on getting the important bits for a modern system installed from livna.

Note: The graphics drivers from AMD and Nvidia are not available in the standard repos, as they are known to not work with the X-Server 1.4.99 that is shipped with Fedora 9. Thus the drivers remain in the livna testing repos for F9 -- that's a service for experienced users that know all those complicated and dangerous things to work around the problem (don't ask me how to do it; better stay on F8 for a while if you really need those drivers). The drivers will be moved to the proper repos once they support X-Server 1.4.99 (or newer).

On another note, I have to admit that I lied. Last November on this list I wrote:

> Fedora 8 will be the last release livna will be offering its add-on
> packages for. But don't despair, the future is bright: The Livna
> contributers are busy working together with the guys behind dribble and
> freshrpms to offer a unified repository in the future bringing you
> games, multimedia software and other tools from a single source. This
> merged repository is called "RPM Fusion"; you can find more information
> about it at http://rpmfusion.org/
>
> Interested? Want to help? Then don't hesitate and subscribe to the
> developers mailing lists at
> http://lists.rpmfusion.org/mailman/listinfo/rpmfusion-developers
> or meet us in the #rpmfusion channel on freenode.

That in fact didn't happen, but is about to happen soon; the whole idea got delayed as we had lots of interested packagers but a lack of infrastructure and people willing to work on infrastructure bits. That slowed things down a whole lot, but we have most bits in place now and will start soon. The plan is to migrate users automatically over from Livna to RPM Fusion slowly once the repos are available.

Bye!
Thorsten Leemhuis

== More details =

=== Reminder for the folks that plan to yum-update to Fedora 9 ==

If you have livna-packages installed on your system and plan to live-update to Fedora 9 using yum then please leave the livna-repos enabled for the big "yum update" run. Then you'll get all the updated packages from livna as well, which is important, as their dependencies get fulfilled by the Fedora 9 packages -- that's not the case for the old Livna packages on your system. Those have deps on the older Fedora bits you are about to update, which can create a lot of trouble.

=== Examples to get the most important bits from livna ==

Once you installed the release-rpm you can install software using the graphical software installation tool called pirut, which is part of Fedora. You as root-users can also use yum on a command line to install packages; for example:

* if you'd like to install xine as a video-player run
{{{
# yum install xine-lib-extras-nonfree xine
}}}
That will improve Totems capabilities as well, as the Totem from F9 can use xine as backend as well.

* if you prefer mplayer run
{{{
# yum install mplayer-gui
}}}

* if you prefer vlc run
{{{
# yum install vlc
}}}

* you want to get MP3-Support in Gnome apps? run
{{{
# yum install gstreamer-plugins-ugly
}}}

=== Problems? ==

Let us know via http://bugzilla.livna.org/

=== Need support? ==

Many people in #fedora on freenode, on fedora-list redhat com and in the forums know how to help.

=== Developer contact ==

Meet us in #livna on freenode or join the mailing list at http://livna.org/mailman/listinfo/freeworld

=== EOF ==

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