Once you install those repos, I reccomend installing yumex unless you want to stick with PackageKit.
I think I know what the deal with the sound might be. I had issues with Fedora 12, where it looked like all the sound stuff should have been working, and in fact, if I went to a program to play MP3s, it looked like it was working, but ... no sound. Fortunately the fix for this is pretty easy if you installed Gnome as well as KDE. You simply logout and log back in under Gnome, then select the volume icon up top, unmute it, and turn the sound up. I have no idea why the KDE sound program didn't turn on by default, but that was how I fixed it. Log out and back in under KDE and you're all set.
Normally, when I do a new system load with Fedora, when I get to the point where it asks which package groups I want to install select the button for "customize now", and go throught and pick all the things I want, and deselect what I don't want. Makes it a heck of a lot easier to get the Openoffice stuff and lots of other stuff as well.
I didn't notice before that you're installing this on a 64-bit box. Flash is problematic on all 64-bit systems from what I understand. I eventually gave up trying to get the adobe flash plugin to work correctly, and just installed gnash which suprisingly enough, works for most sites. Personally I hate flash anyway, so I just don't visit the few annoying sites that don't work for me.
If you want to have a fairly trouble-free multimedia experience, you'll want some packages from the rpmfusion repos.
Here's a list of everything I have installed from rpmfusion on my home box. Some of them, you probably won't need, but it's my motto these days that it's better to be safe than sorry...
yum install a52dec audacity-freeworld faad2-libs ffmpeg ffmpeg-libs gpac gpac-libs \
gstreamer-ffmpeg gstreamer-plugins-bad gstreamer-plugins-ugly k3b-extras-freeworld \
lame lame-libs libdca libdvbpsi libmad libmimic libmms libmpeg2 libquicktime \
live555 mencoder mjpegtools-libs mozilla-vlc mplayer mplayer-common ogmrip \
opencore-amr subtitleripper thunderbird-enigmail transcode twolame-libs \
vcdimager vcdimager-libs vlc vlc-core xine-lib-extras-freeworld xmms-faad2 \
xmms-mp3 xmms-mplayer xvidcore
I haven't seen the issues you describe of USB devices not being seen. As a matter of fact, USB devices have been one of the most trouble-free things I've found in Fedora over the past few years. It's seen everything I've tried to plug. Saw my printer, and installed the correct driver on install actually.
Thanks. I actually do not have a 64 bit box; i just responded to a freeper who had one.
I am able to umute the volume, butt will try Gnome, though i did not see that optionm at login.
As for codecs, as i mentioned in other posts, the legality of them is an issue with me, and i would ask if this are?