Installing Fedora Core 6 - First Time Desktop

After completing the first boot section and rebooting, I'm now working at the desktop of my new Fedora Core 6 installation. When I reach my Fedora Core desktop for the first time there are a few things I like to do to customize my operating system. I'll add a few icons to the top panel, set up auto login for my user, get rid of the password lock for the screensaver, add myself to the sudoers' list and configure my networking for a static ip address. Go to Applications/Accessories/Terminal. Right click on terminal and select 'add this launcher to panel'. This adds a terminal icon to the panel. Right click on the panel and select 'add to panel'. I like the network monitor and the weather report applets so I select them. Go to the panel and select /System/Administration/Login Screen. Enter root password. Under the users tab you need to add yourself to the list of included users. Click add. Enter your user name and apply user changes. Under the security tab select 'enable automatic login' and select your user. Alse select 'enable timed login' and select your user. Close the utility. Now you will be automatically logged in when you restart your x-session. I don't like the screen locked when the screensaver is activated. Go to the top panel and select System/Preferences/Screensaver. I prefer a simple blank screen for the screensaver, and i un-check 'lock screen when screensaver is active'. This way, a simple movement of the mouse gets me out of the screensaver and back to my desktop. The way I add myself to the sudoers list is by first opening a terminal and as root type '/usr/sbin/visudo'. Scroll down to the line that looks like this:

## Allows people in group wheel to run all commands
#%wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL

Remove the # from in front of the line '#%wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL and save the file. Then I go to the top panel and select /System/Administration/Users and Groups. Enter root password. Select the user that you want to add to sudoers and click on the 'properties' icon. In the properties window select the groups tab, scroll down and check off the 'wheel' group. Click 'ok' and close the two windows. That user is now added to the 'wheel' group and will be able to use the 'sudo' command in terminals. As far as networking in Linux goes, DHCP probably works well for the majority of users. I prefer to set a static ip address. I think, although I could be wrong, that it allows for better local area networking. At least that's been my experience with my 5 computer in house network. To make the necessary changes, I go to the top panel and select /system/administration/network. Enter root password. De-activate the network connection and select the 'edit' icon. Select 'statically set ip address. Enter your ip address, subnet mask and default gateway. Click 'ok'. Select the 'dns' tab. Enter whatever you want for the hostname. I use 'dad'. The primary dns and secondary dns should already be there, as should the dns search path. If they are not there you will need to find out what yours are and enter them now. Re-activate the ethernet card. Select ok for any notices that pop up. You now have a static ip address and a hostname that will not change. Additionally, type, in a terminal as root, or use 'sudo', gedit /etc/hosts'. On my home network there are 5 computers. I add them all and the loopback for myself. Here's what my /etc/hosts looks like after editing:

# Do not remove the following line, or various programs
# that require network functionality will fail.
::1 localhost.localdomain localhost
127.0.0.1 dad
192.168.1.100 meg
192.168.1.101 dad
192.168.1.102 neville
192.168.1.103 oldendorff
192.168.1.104 mom