I've just reinstalled Fedora to have another look at it and it announced that there were updated packages available. Could someone tell me whether this information is contained in the installation itself, or has the program surreptitiously connected to the internet? If the latter, could you tell me whether this is logged anywhere, so that I can find out what it has done? Thank you.

Usually reinstalling the OS isn't necessary, unless there's structural problems like using a "bad" partitioning scheme or fscking up the installation beyond repair.


The latter. Probably a service ('yumupdatesd'?).


From the console try 'yum check-update'. From within your Desktop Environment try 'pirut'. Yum logs actions to /var/log/yum.log or syslog.

It is when the OS isn't on the computer (sorry, I couldn't resist...) I should have just said "installed again"... (I'd looked at it before, but it wasn't on the computer any more.)
Yes, having trawled through the menus, I think you're right, thanks.

Is it possible to control the network connection at all? I'd ticked the box for it NOT to start on boot, so I was not impressed that it connected without my settings having been entered. I have no idea what settings it used to connect itself.

There's a network setting with buttons to activate and deactivate, but deactivating is pointless - if the modem is on, it just reconnects itself after briefly disconnecting.

If I do ifconfig eth0 down/up will that work and stay off, or will it just ignore that too?

Heh, the default settings of course.


There's GUI tools for that but commandline is easier to remember and explain: in /etc/sysconfig/network check if "NETWORKING=no" and in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 has "ONBOOT=no".


No, on reboot the device will come up unless the configuration is changed.

Thanks, unSpawn, the settings were as you said. What is the point in having settings if they are of no effect? (That's just an exclamation of frustration, not a question requiring answer.) Thanks anyway.

Hmm. Any "weird" messages in /var/log/messages?

Although I expected to find something along the lines of "This computer has detected that you are a useless lump. Your inadequacy as a computer user is scheduled for display every 5 minutes.", no, there's nothing in there.

OK. Does 'chkconfig --list network' show it's off for all runlevels? If not, say you want to disable it in runlevels 3, 4 and 5 do 'chkconfig --level 345 network off', then list again to see if it worked.

Yes, and it continues to say it is off, even when the "plug" icon lights up to announce that it is connected.

Sorry, but I don't know what taskbar icon that relates to. Yum update daemon? Network device? ...and maybe it's time to spill some info about your network connection and hardware too because this sounds like it's gonna be, uh, interesting.

It's called Network Manager (and interestingly I found a checkbox when you right click it which is for "enabling network". I wonder where that fits in....)
The computer's connected by ethernet cable to the router/modem (but the switch is packing up from all of this turning off and on, so I am going to start using a new one.)

Well, if you really don't want it on the net, unplug the eth cable

I want to control it, and for it to do what it is told. Maybe I should stick with the OS that does let me control it - Windows????