List,
A little flashback. I had earlier posted a query about non-destructive resizing of NTFS partitions (where free space is not consolidated even after defragmentation) with gparted, for which there was no clear reply. Looking further, I found that ntfsresize, which is used by gparted, does not need free space consolidation. However, the only catch is that defragmentation should not leave any data near the end of the disk.
OK, so partitioning done, I have installed Fedora 8 on my laptop with only KDE on it (space constraints). I want to add some packages not on the DVD, but I am facing some problems currently, as follows:
1. Environmental proxy settings: my internet connection goes through an open proxy that does not require any UID or password. I have manually configured firefox and konqueror's proxy settings and I can connect to the internet through them. However, yum / pup / pirut do not work. I have specified the proxy settings in the root bash profile, my (user) bash profile, and in the global profile under /etc/profile, but I cannot still connect. Any pointers?
2. Crashes: The network card control applets under KDE available as nm-applet or system-control-network crash when run. This happened even before I had specified any network settings. system-config-network works properly, methinks. Has anybody else faced this problem, and is there a solution?
3. Multimedia: Kaffeine, Amarok, etc. are unable to play even audio CDs. I wonder why. Is this what bleeding edge is supposed to be?
Remember, my system is not updated, as yum doesn't work.
Oh, and having installed grub on /dev/sda3 and not the MBR, I have found and started using Super Grub Disk (http://supergrub.forjamari.linex.org/) to boot Fedora. I have burnt its ISO to a CD/RW. It is really wonderful. I think all distros should offer it as a part of their live CD distributions. The ISO is just 3.5 MB, and a bz2 archive is only 500k odd in size.