Save time with Fedora quick tips for small problems / Fix Fedora Workstation 36 issues fast.

Fedora Quick Tips and Fixes for minor issues that don’t impact usage

This page hosts quick fixes to Fedora issues and small problems which could pop up from time to time. If it is not mentioned here on the tips page then it is possible that a blog article exists which has instructions on how to solve various issues.
Likewise, if a blog article is not needed to provide a fix for Fedora then it will be posted here at the tips page.

Firewall: How to check if firewall is running

Open the terminal and type or copy/paste:
sudo systemctl status firewalld (enter password when prompted)

Hardware: After logging out, my keyboard and mouse stay illuminated

Go to Settings > Power and turn on Automatic Suspend.
The recommended time-out value when idle is 30 minutes.

Hardware: My Zephyrus laptop will not connect to an external display via display port

asusctl allows ASUS laptops to switch profiles and the DP connection will only work when set to dedicated mode.

LAMP Server: Can not display PHP pages

You just installed and configured the LAMP stack for a local developer environment. Now you run a text.php page and instead get an html page, showing you the actual PHP code instead of running it.
Here is the fix. Open a terminal and issue this command:
sudo dnf install httpd php-fpm
Lastly, restart the httpd daemon with: sudo systemctl restart httpd

Network: Should use WIFI or network cables? Which is more secure?

If you live in a high-rise then it’s better to use an inexpensive network switch and connect each computer with a CAT 6 network cable. This will also give you better transfer speeds.

Network: Can I turn IPv6 off and use IPv4 only?

Yes, that will work fine. Down the road, IPv6 will become necessary but we are not there yet. And as they say “less is more”. There is no harm in leaving it turned on and Gnome has a setting to use it for local network traffic only via Settings > Network > cogwheel > IPv6 tab > check mark at the bottom of the window.

Network: How do I turn off internet access while keeping a computer on the LAN?

Go to Settings > Network and click the small cog wheel. A new window will pop up. Select IPv4 and check the bottom option “Use this connection only for resources on its network“.
Click on the blue APPLY button to close the window and then toggle the switch beside the cog wheel off and on to restart the network.

Network: Wake up on LAN is not working. Is there another way?

Go to Settings > Power and turn off Automatic Suspend.
This way, your computer won’t enter suspend mode although the monitor will turn off while the system accepts SSH access.

Network: I can access computers on local network but can’t go online

Go to Settings > Network and click the little cog wheel. From the popup window, select the IPv4 tab and uncheck the “Use this connection only for resources on its network” option at the bottom of the window. Click the blue APPLY button and lastly restart the network by turning the switch next to the small cog wheel off and then on again.

Network: How do I access Windows 10 files from Fedora?

First, share a Windows directory (like Downloads) and assign the Windows user for access.
From Fedora, open Gnome Files > Other Locations (type): smb/192.168.x.xxx and press ENTER.
Provide your windows user name and password, press CONNECT and you should see the contents of the Windows user directory.
Why I am including Microsoft Windows tips? (after all, there is an “m” in Fedorum)

Software: Etherape error message “You don’t have permission to capture …”

Error message: You don’t have permission to capture on that device socket: Operation not permitted)
Etherape must be run as root in order to capture network traffic so extreme caution is advised. After installing the application it is also necessary to reboot. To learn more about the options, it’s best to watch

UE5: No usable version of libssl was found

If you install Unreal Engine 5 and get this error “No usable version of libssl was found” then open the terminal and use: sudo dnf install openssl1.1 to install the missing package.
Here is some more information: https://linux-packages.com/fedora-36/package/openssl11x86-64

XAMPP: Hto access local website over LAN

Open XAMPP GUI and stop all services
Select Apache Web Server and click on the Configure button
Change port 80 to 8080.
Restart XAMPP services

Zephyrus: Turn off touch pad if USB mouse is plugged in

Disable the touch pad while USB mouse is plugged in:
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad send-events disabled-on-external-mouse

Enable (revert above comment) touch pad if no USB mouse is detected:
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad send-events enabled

Zephyrus: The backlit keyboard feature is not working

After installing Fedora and configuring asusctl, you can turn on the backlit keys by pressing Fn + F3.
Every time you press this key combination, the brightness level increases.
To decrease, press Fn + F2.

Featured Quick Tip
How to enable webp support in Fedora 36 (not necessary for Fedora 37)
sudo dnf install webp-pixbuf-loader

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.
Alvin Toffler

XAMPP instead of LAMP
Many so called “experts” tell us that the LAMP stack is the way to go. I say the opposite. When you are starting out, use XAMPP and save yourself time and frustration combing trough outdated and incorrect solutions.
The LAMP stack is very good if your profession includes administering website back-end tasks but for casual web designers working with mostly WordPress, XAMPP is hard to beat.
If you still want to install the three individual components then read on.

MariaDB

As a web designer, I constantly need to add new databases and users. Here are some helpful copy/paste commands. To use them, I establish an SSH connection to the server and begin with:
sudo mariadb

CREATE DATABASE ‘yourDB’;
SHOW DATABASES;
CREATE USER ‘a_username’@’localhost’ IDENTIFIED BY ‘a_password’;
Check status: SELECT User FROM mysql.user;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON . TO ‘a_username’@’localhost’ IDENTIFIED BY ‘a_password’;
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
SHOW GRANTS FOR ‘a_username’@’localhost’;

To delete a user:
DROP USER ‘username_to_be_deleted’@’localhost’;