WE ARE BACK!
After a long hiatus LinuxRants is back on the map! The main reason for our hiatus was Sorteal's battle with Crohn's disease. Crohn's disease is an autoimmune deficiency where ones white blood cells attack areas of the digestive track causing painful inflammation and possibly infection. For more information please visit The Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America's website.
While Sorteal recovers I, Roolean, will be posting all the updates and articles. I'll be checking Sorteal's email for the time being. So if you have any questions, comments, or would like to send some get well wishes to him please do so! Also, the CCFA (Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America) is always looking for donations and volunteer help. If you want more information please visit their site listed above.
Okay, I'm a little new to the whole journalism thing so please bear with me.
So, what's new in the world of Linux/GNU and OSS? Well, the big thing is probably the newest version of Ubuntu. Dubbed "Oneiric Ocelot", Ubuntu 11.10 is really, more or less, a shine job of 11.04. Unity makes an unfortunate return and Canonical moves Ubuntu to kernel 3.0. For general users the changes are not that drastic. The move to Linux kernel 3.0 is a welcome addition but depending on your hardware could end up being a nightmare! The new kernel provides a lot of performance enhancements but the net is flooded with horror stories regarding the new kernel. The fuss seems to come from from people using older hardware. We at LinuxRants have tested the kernel on four different machines, two of which were aged PC's. All four test machines ran the kernel like a champ, no issues what-so-ever. This is not to say that your older PC won't have any issues with the new kernel, but it does seem like the kernel devs have ironed out all the kinks.
Overall, I'm not that impressed with Ubuntu 11.10. I am no fan of Unity and Ubuntu's continued used of it makes me want to switch to KDE. Speaking of KDE, Kubuntu 11.10 is, in my humble opinion, the second release in a row to top Ubuntu. The current version of Kubuntu is very slick and comes with a brand new package manager! Muon is the package manager the Kubuntu devs went with over KPackageKit (now called Apper). If you run the upgrade over a fresh install you will end up with both Muon and Apper. What are the differences? Well, Muon is new....and buggy...and not that great. Apper is the new updated version of KPackageKit and in my opinion much better than Muon. The direction and ideas behind Muon (all in one package management with lightning-fast search and filters) are outstanding but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. One of the main issues with Muon is its use on KDE 4.6.2 but the Muon devs have released a bug fix for the issue. Muon seems like it will be a very good package management system once all the bugs are works out but for the time being LinuxRants recommends Apper. Apper is faster, more responsive, more accurate, and possesses a much nicer and user friendly interface. For all the outstanding updates and tweaks to Kubuntu 11.10 please visit the Kubuntu 11.10 highlights page.
With Ubuntu's insistence on Unity and GNOME 3's convoluted presentation, KDE and Kubuntu are poised to take back their crown that they lost after KDE 3.5.10's demise.
Indiana Linux Fest is Right Around the Corner!
One of the coolest things about Linux and Open Source Software/Hardware is all the conventions! Everyone knows about Defcon, Notacon, PhreakNIC, Shmoocon, etc, but a new convention has popped up this year. Enter, Indiana Linux Fest! State Linux Fest's are rather common. Ohio has a large Linux Fest ever year, along with Texas and several other states. So what makes Indiana Linux Fest special? The focus on community, free culture, and copyleft hardware.
Indiana Linux Fest is promoting the idea of a "March to Freedom". Everything about the con is focused on the idea that everything should be open. Not only should your software and operating system be open, but also the culture that supports it and the hardware it runs on.
A post on the Indiana Linux Fest Home Page announced the official dates of the convention, "After weeks of planning, we have decided on dates for the inaugural Indiana LinuxFest. It will take place on March 25-27, 2011 at the Wyndham Indianapolis West hotel near the Indianapolis International Airport. We are planning to hold day long classes on Friday the 25th. The major part of the conference will take place on Saturday the 26th and on Sunday the 27th we will be holding a DrupalCamp and LPI certification exam."
I've been to a lot of Linux cons over the years and I must say that Indiana Linux Fest sounds like it will be one of the best! With its focus on free culture, open hardware, and FOSS, ILF is sure to be a huge success and a definite convention destination for those that still believe that Linux and FOSS are not just software, they are a philosophy and guiding example of where society and human nature should be heading!
For all the information on Indiana Linux Fest that you could ever want head on over to the ILF home page. There is also an IRC channel on the Freenode network under #indianalinuxfest or if you're registered with ILF there is also a private IRC channel. To access the private channel you must first be a registered visitor and then head on over to www.indianalinux.org/cms/connect. Also, check out their Facebook page and follow them on Twitter.
PeppermintOS, quite possibly THE best distro for netbooks ever made!
Linux and netbooks go together like peanut-butter and jelly! It is safe to say that the rise of desktop Linux over the past few years is in no small part thanks to the rise of the netbook industry. Several manufacturers offer Linux as the default OS on their netbooks, and the ones that don't usually offer it as an option. Larger distributions like Ubuntu even offer "Netbook Editions". The choice of Linux distributions for your netbook are vast! So which one is the best fit? I've been pointing netbook owners in the direction of Linux Mint XFCE and Linux Mint Fluxbox for over a year now. Both distros run great on any netbook and being in the Mint family means that you get a lot more "out-of-the-box" than most distributions. Also, I'm a huge fan of the Mint-Tools (MintUpdate, MintBackup, etc).
Recently I've become increasingly interested in LXDE, a relatively new desktop environment like XFCE or GNOME. I tried Lubuntu, the LXDE flavor of Ubuntu, on my netbook and was pleasantly surprised at the results. LXDE is fast, insanely fast, and unlike Fluxbox, it doesn't skimp on modern functionality. Lubuntu, while very nice, seems like it's still "beta", so I kept on searching and found PeppermintOS.
PeppermintOS is developed by Kendall Weaver, Shane Remington, Joel Mathison, and a group of other contributors. Kendall is also the maintainer for Linux Mint Fluxbox and LXDE Community Editions. PeppermintOS comes in two flavors, One and Ice. The PeppermintOS One version uses Firefox 4 Beta and Mozilla's Prism, while Ice uses Chromium (my personal favorite at the moment) and Ice, Kendall Weavers own version of Prism. If you're not familiar with Prism it's what's called a SSB or Site Specific Browser. SSB just means that Prism creates a cloud application of sorts for one single site, like say Facebook. The question at this point that is usually asked is, "Well why would I use that when I can just go there in my browser?" and the answer is resources. A browser like Firefox or Chromium uses a lot of resources because they are fairly large applications, while an SSB uses far less resources because each applet it creates is meant only for one specific site and provides nothing else that a full on browser would like extensions, bookmark management, history and the like. It doesn't need to because all it is concerned with is one site. Get it? With both Ice and Prism you can create SSB applets for any site complete with an icon and LXDE menu entry, just like a normal application would. It's this focus on cloud applications and SSB's that makes PeppermintOS one the fastest Linux distributions I've ever used! While most distros are happy with the speed enhancements that naturally come with using LXDE, PeppermintOS goes the extra mile with the use of SSB's and a minimalist attitude!
So other than all the SSB and LXDE jazz what does PeppermintOS have to offer? A lot! Just like Linux Mint and Ubuntu, PeppermintOS has a healthy and friendly community behind it willing to help new and experienced users a like. The look of PeppermintOS is also one of the cool things about it. If you've ever used Linux Mint Fluxbox or LXDE versions then you'll be instantly familiar with the sleek login screen. The desktop is equally pleasing to the eye as is the menu, taskbar, and default artwork. And, with its Ubuntu base PeppermintOS offers a stable OS with support for all the newest technologies.
What's the downside? Not much really. The only complaint I have isn't really a PeppermintOS or LXDE complaint, it's a PCMan complaint. LXDE uses the PCMan file manager by default because it is one of the fastest and simplest file managers available for Linux. The problem with this is that PCMan does not offer some of the features I like such as video thumbnails. Yet, this is an easy fix with PeppermintOS. All I did was install Thunar (XFCE's default file manager) and Thunar-Thumbnailers then made that my default file manager and wah-lah all the file management features I like are there and I didn't take too much of a power or speed hit.
So, if you're in the "market" for an OS on that shiny netbook you got for Christmas I can't recommend PeppermintOS enough. Everything about this distro is perfect for a netbook or small laptop. Kendall Weaver and the PeppermintOS team have gone above and beyond when creating this excellent Linux distro! You can find out all the information your heart desires on the PeppermintOS home page, and for any questions you may have head on over to the PeppermintOS forums. Now go download this excellent Linux distribution today!
PhreakNIC 14 Is Going On In Nashville, TN & I'M NOT THERE! :(
If you've
never heard of PhreakNIC, it's a technology/hacker/phreaker con that is held in
mid to late October at the Days Inn Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee. As far as
tech/hacker cons go it is one of the best! Being a bit smaller than most cons
really works to PN's advantage. By the time you're checking out Sunday
afternoon you've had a very memorable experience and met damn near every person
at the convention. The talks are always excellent (other than the horrible one
I gave two years ago ;P ), the staff at the Days Inn Stadium is gracious and
tolerant, and you're sure to learn something new or see plenty of great ideas
in motion.
This years convention is going on right now! I was unable to head to down to Nashville this year for the con due to my job and my home's desperate need of remodeling. If you're not there this year but want to see what all the fuss is about head on over to www.irongeek.com later next week for Irongeek's usual video footage of the convention.
While it is too late this year to check out the convention, next years event is sure to be just as fun and exciting as every year prior! To give you an example of the unique talks that are given at PhreakNIC, here is a few of the talks listed for this years convention.
Mirovengi - Puppet for Data Automation
Puppet is an open source data center automation toolkit that can used to unify configurations, installations and tasks across multiple computers and environments. My talk will cover some of the basics of deployment/installation, how to use Puppet and cover my experiences using it in my University Department's environment.
John McNabb - Environmental Impacts of the IT Industry
From the manufacturing of integrated circuits in Silicon Valley, to the assembly of computers and their sale to end users and eventual use and disposal, the life-cycle of the hardware used in the IT industry has an environmental impact. These impacts include hazardous waste, energy and water use, and dumping of discarded computers in landfills, incinerators, and in the developing world. In this talk, the impacts from each stage in the life cycle of a computer will be examined, and potential means to reduce those impacts, such as requiring computer manufacturers to be financially responsible for the collection & processing of their used computers (called Extended Producer Responsibility), will be discussed.
Iridium - Introduction to QA: Testing really isn't that hard!
Often overlooked except in a security context, many developers focus on the new or interesting things they can do with their applications. Work flow diagrams, input sanitization (not just SQL injection based!), and UI sketches are just some of many basic steps that developers (or testers) can use to ensure software can flow as it needs to be. Various development methodologies (AGILE, SCRUM, Waterfall, etc) are also explained - pros and cons of each.. While having a test plan or outline for your software might not win you sales - end users finding bugs in a corporate environment can certainly lose you a lot of money/time supporting it after release.
James Ruffer - Using Information Gathering and how it can change your attack.
Whether you are attacking a target alone or with a team, information gathering is still key in being successful. James will talk about how his team was setting up for one attack but changed it last min due to the information. He will show how social media and social engineering was used to breach a Canadian financial institute.
Mog - How to create free hardware
There is currently an explosion in the creation of free hardware, arduino, usrp, pandora, reprap etc etc. Why let everyone else have the fun. Learn how to scratch your own itch and build your own pcbs to get what you need done.
Decius - Drunken Rant Lawful Intercept technology
Changed his mind, he's gonna go on a drunken rant per tradition. This
talk will review published architectures for lawful intercept and explain how a
number of different technical weaknesses in their design and implementation
could be exploited to gain unauthorized access and spy on communications
without leaving a trace. The talk will explain how these systems are deployed
in practice and how unauthorized access is likely to be obtained in real world
scenarios. The talk will also introduce several architectural changes that
would improve their resilience to attack if adopted. Finally, we'll consider
what all this means for the future of surveillance in the Internet - what are
the possible scenarios and what is actually likely to happen over
time.
My Surprise when Running LiVES on a Netbook
As I was cleaning up some files on my Netbook (Acer Aspire One running Ubuntu Netbook Edition 10.04), the thought hit me that if I could edit video files on my netbook then making video podcasts for LinuxRants would be much easier for me. Of course Ubuntu pushes Pitivi for video editing, but I find it rather useless for any kind of serious editing needs. Kdenlive is an excellent video editor but for me nothing on Linux comes close to the power of LiVES.
I had several concerns before installing LiVES on my netbook. First, would my little Atom processor be able to handle video editing at all? Second, how would the integrated GPU hold up when thrown a program as massive and demanding as LiVES? Finally, how would LiVES handle the small screen size of a netbook?
The Atom processor in my netbook held up like a champ! Everything ran smooth with no glitches. Encoding did take quite a bit longer than on my AMD Phenom powered desktop but that was to be expected. Multi-track mode worked great. Dragging new clips down onto the video track layers worked perfect with 0 glitching or pauses. Selecting just sections of a video to load instead of the whole clip did crash on me once but worked great the other 9 times it was done.
On the GPU end I did have some issues with the real time effects. I could use any of the effects or real-time-FX if I was simply rendering them to a section of the clip through the effects drop down menu, but when attempting to use them as part of the VJ Tools the more demanding effects, such as Rotozoom, would crash the application. Again, this little set back was to be expected. I'm confident that a netbook with Nvidia or ATI integrated graphics would be able to use the RTFX with no problem, but where my little netbook is one of the older models I was not shocked by my lack of sufficient power to run the VJ Tools RTFX.
Correction: After this article was released I spoke to Salsaman about the crash that I had involving the Rotozoom effect. He requested more information about the crash, and for two days I attempted to recreate the crash and record the possible cause using GDB with no success. At most, the real time effects ran slower, as Salsaman had claimed would be the worst case scenario. I'm still unsure as to what caused the crash, but it was not LiVES. While the real time effects do run considerably slower on the netbook, the attempt will not crash LiVES, and as I stated above, a Nvidia or ATI GPU should handle the RTFX just fine on a netbook.
Finally, on the issue of screen size LiVES worked great. The smaller screen did not hinder my ability to use the application in any way. The only obvious draw back is that you're doing a visual task (aka video editing duh) on a small screen. If you have bad eyes I guess it may pose a problem for you but the scaled down interface and clip editor were very minor annoyances for myself.
All in all, LiVES works amazingly well on a netbook running Ubuntu Netbook Edition. Everything from multi-track to encoding works flawlessly. As I stated before encoding will take a bit longer, and the VJ Tools RTFX may or may not work for your netbook depending on its GPU. My hat is off to Salsaman for designing an amazing and extremely flexible video editor that works on so many different machines. LiVES can be downloaded by apt using sudo apt-get install lives on Ubuntu based systems but the recommended download is the LiVES PPA or from getdeb.net. You can add the LiVES PPA by opening a terminal and typing sudo add-apt-repository ppa:hrickards/lives then install LiVES using sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install lives. If you prefer to compile LiVES you can download the latest source at lives.sourceforge.net.
Gearing up for Ubuntu 10.10!
All the various Ubuntu related IRC rooms, forums, and mailing lists are a blaze with excitement and anticipation for the upcoming release of Maverick Meerkat. If you've tried out either the beta or the release candidate then you know 10.10 is what 10.04 LTS should have been. The whole feel of Maverick Meerkat is far more polished than the previous release. Software Center has a much more natural feel to it along with an updated interface, easy access to download history, and the new "Featured" and "What's New" views for showcasing applications. F-Spot has been replaced by Shotwell. Ubuntu One now acts and feels like I had originally imagined it would when it was first announced. The new "Sign In" and "Sign Up" process is integrated into the desktop experience much better this time around. There's also a new Nautilus enhancement for managing folder sync preferences.
Kubuntu has really stepped up for this release as well. Updates include, KDE 4.5.1, Qt 4.7, and Pulseaudio as the new default sound server. Rekonq is now the new (and welcome) default web browser. KPackageKit updates bring a faster backend and an updated UI that provides an application focused view. Also, both the standard and netbook editions are available on the same ISO. You can switch between the two in System Settings.
Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat has officially restored my faith in Canonical. Everything about this release is polished and improved in all the right places. Improved looks, more natural feel, better Ubuntu One integration, faster boot, and a revamped Software Center equal a rock solid release and quite possibly Canonical's best work to date. If the last couple releases have made you leery of installing Ubuntu I highly recommend you give Maverick Meerkat a fair chance. I'm confident you'll be pleased you took a second look. If you're a long time Ubuntu user then get ready for an amazing release from the planets most popular distribution.
Mageia, Born from Necessity
Mandriva Linux is one the most popular distributions available today. Recently though, Mandriva has fallen on hard times. With a revenue loss of nearly 30 million Euros over the past twelve years, Mandriva was forced to not only sell off a controlling interest in the company to Russian firm NGI, but also had to layoff a large number of employees. CTO Arnaud Laprevote stated, "We had the choice: kill Mandriva with a totally unsecure future on who was going to continue the distribution, or keep Mandriva alive and finding a fast path to economic equilibrium." The fast path Mr. Laprevote is referring to is the push to hand off desktop development efforts to emerging countries, primarily in Brazil where KDE development will be focused. Meanwhile, the European team (all be it much smaller now) will direct its attention to the server version of the OS.
While all of this sounds like the death throws of Mandriva, all is not lost. Emerge Mageia! Organized by the former Mandriva employees, Mageia will be a completely community driven distribution. The Mageia group stated on September 18th that, "We do not trust the plans of Mandriva SA anymore and we don't think the company (or any company) is a safe host for such a project. People working on it just do not want to be dependent on the economic fluctuations and erratic, unexplained strategic moves of the company."
While it seems that Mandriva will continue on in some form or another, the people that really made the distribution so popular in the first place will now be working on Mageia. You can get all the up to date news about this new distribution HERE. Also, the Mageia team has setup several different mailing lists. If you are interested in giving suggestions or keeping up with the development process, please check out the Mageia Mailing Lists. You're sure to see your friendly neighborhood Sorteal on those very lists!
My Thoughts and Opinion of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. (Or, "My Clearification to the Ubuntu Users so They Stop Emailing Me. :)"
Okay Ubuntu users (am I talking to myself as well right now??) I'm here to set the record straight on my impression and current opinion of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS! If you read my recent rant about the "Ubuntu Conundrum" then you know that I'm currently in a love/hate relationship with the 10.04 LTS release of Ubuntu. Since I posted that rant I have received a LOT of email from Ubuntu users who either explained why they thought I was wrong, or told me a bunch of crap I already knew about things like, removing Pulse Audio, changing login screens, how to stop Nautilus from freaking out, and how the terminal lets you do ANYTHING! All of these I already knew but what I didn't know was that Ubuntu users are defensive about their distro of choice. So, with this in mind I'm going to give you (and those crazy Ubuntu users that now "hate you with a passion") my full review of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS three months after its release. Queue triumphant music!
Ubuntu 10.04 LTS is Ubuntu's newest long term support release. Many changes, both cosmetic and internal, are apparent after only a few minutes with the OS. First, Ubuntu has changed its usual color scheme from its classic brown and orange to a both darker and lighter scheme. The new default color scheme is purple, tan, and some sleek black panels. I like the new colors and I thought it was about time Ubuntu went with something different. Speaking of "something different", Ubuntu has moved the default location of the window control buttons from the right side to the left side. While this may seem like a minor change, it gets very annoying, very quick. Obviously the window boarder and window control themes can be changed rather easily, but as a default setup it's just odd. Ubuntu claims they are just trying something new but the whole thing seems rather fishy. Why move the buttoms? What point is there to moving them? Yet, as I stated before, if you don't like the new window control setup you can change themes and get everything back to the right side of the window boarder.
Cosmetic changes are not the only changes to Ubuntu. Ubuntu Software Center is a lot more responsive, a lot faster, and the look is a bit more polished this time around. While I myself still find the Software Center to be pointless, it is a lot easier to navigate than Synaptics or the old Add/Remove. Ubuntu is planning on making Software Center the only package managment system on Ubuntu in the future and with Ubuntu's commitment to ease of use, that seems like a smart decision. My only concern is that it will annoy a lot of users who like Synaptic or don't want to have to resort to the terminal just to install that one missing lib.
On the performance side Ubuntu keeps getting better and better! This release has one of the fastest boot times in the Linux world. Applications seems to respond a lot faster and when I was encoding a video using LiVES it finished at an amazing pace! On my PCLinuxOS install on the same machine the same video took nearly 5 minutes longer to encode. Also, while I'm not a fan of pulseaudio AT ALL, it does seem to work okay here. I really wish every Linux distro would get away from using sound servers period, but if they have to use one I'm still wondering why they don't use Jack.
Okay folks here's the skinny (does anyone even use that expression anymore?), I like Ubuntu 10.04 overall. I just don't think, as a LTS, that it's a worthy successor to 8.04. I do not like the way Ubuntu is going, as far as ease of use. I think it's overkill in a way. It simply makes the OS feel kind of un-linux. As a whole Ubuntu 10.04 performs excellent! Everything is faster, everything is more responsive, and it seems to just work. I find that applications I use on a regular basis seem to work better on Ubuntu 10.04 than any other distro out there. LiVES, DeVeDe, Acidrip, GIMP, and Inkscape all work SO MUCH better on Ubuntu than any other distro I've ever used. So, YES I DO LIKE 10.04, but I still DO NOT LIKE the direction Ubuntu is headed in, and I think that this release would have been better suited to a regular release and not an LTS, due to all the experimentation that is present. Overall I give Ubuntu 10.04 LTS a 10 on performance, a 7 on presentation, and a 9 on stability. So there you have it. I do like the distro I just worry it's going to feel less and less like a Linux distro as it goes along.
Linux Mint goes Debian
Linux Mint is a distro that has always been labled "the easy Ubuntu". The reason for this is that Linux Mint is a distribution that is based off of Ubuntu but comes with almost all of the multimedia packages and codecs that you could ever need. Linux Mint 9 is the latest release, based on Ubuntu 10.04, and while I find it to be a great distro, I just don't think it measures up to Ubuntu. Usually I wouldn't mind if a distro didn't live up to the distribution it's based on, (look how long it took Ubuntu to even get close to catching up with Debian), but considering I'm not very impressed with Ubuntu 10.04 overall, this could have spelled doom for my faith in Linux Mint. Then came the announcement that Linux Mint was working with a Debian base for a future release. Woohoo!! I tend to think that Debian is by far the best distribution to use as a base. It is faster, more responsive, and far more stable than Ubuntu 10.04 or almost any of the previous releases (I'm not counting 8.04 since it was a stellar release) making it a much better choice as a base for Linux Mint. You can read the whole story here. I for one cannot wait to see what Clement Lefebvre and the rest of the Linux Mint Development team have in store for us in the future!
LinuxRants IRC Channel
LinuxRants now has an IRC channel on the Freenode network! So fire up your favorite IRC client, point it to irc.freenode.net and join channel ##linuxrants! For those new to IRC, simply add a network and put irc.freenode.net in the address bar. Once your client finds the network be sure to register your nickname. After that just type /join ##linuxrants and your all set! We really want this channel to be a helpful place for users new to Linux and BSD. So jump on in and help us build a channel worth ranting about!
Ubuntu Setup Part 2
Last time we covered installing Ubuntu, and its relatives, on your computer. Now we're going to move on to setting up your install!
First thing you should do after your logged into your desktop is install all the available updates. Either wait for the Update Manager to pop up, or go to System->Administration->Update Manager. You will be asked to enter your password, then the Update Manager will fetch all the available updates. Click "Update" and wait for everything to finish. If the Update Manager installs a new Linux kernel you will need to restart the computer but this is one of the very few cases that you'll be asked to restart your computer after any kind of installation.
The next thing to consider is your video card drivers. If your using Intel graphics or some other integrated graphics card, you won't really need to worry about this so much. Linux comes with open source drivers for most integrated graphics chips. The graphics cards you will need to worry about are NVIDIA and ATI cards. These cards will usually require a proprietary driver be installed to take full advantage of your card. For ATI cards, there are open source drivers for most cards, but these drivers are not likely to take full advantage of your graphics card, yet. NVIDIA cards are another beast totally! The NVIDIA company refuses to open source their drivers. This makes installing the proprietary drivers a must. Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and "most" of the Ubuntu based distributions out there offer a convenient hardware driver installer utility. Currently this is the option to use unless your NVIDIA card is of the 8 series or higher. Why? Well, the most current version of X.org (which handles your graphics drivers and display configuration) is no longer compatible with the NVIDIA 185 driver that the Ubuntu Hardware Installer grabs. If you don't have an 8 series or higher NVIDIA card then using the installer is the easiest way to go, and if your computer is 4 or so years old you likely do not have an 8 series card. LinuxRants recommends that you get the latest Linux driver from either AMD/ATI or NVIDIA. Both companies provide instructions for installing the drivers. ATI drivers can be found here, and NVIDIA drivers can be found here. In both cases you'll need to stop X (the huge program that draws all the windows and makes GNOME and KDE possible). First, download the driver for your card from one the links above. Make sure you know what directory it saved to when it finished. To stop X in KDE open a terminal (K menu ->Applications->System->Konsole) then type sudo /etc/init.d/kdm stop if your using GNOME open a terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal) and type sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop. These commands will stop X and spit you out to a terminal. You'll need to log in just as you would if you had started up your computer normally. Then you need to make sure your in the right directory. If you simply downloaded the file to home/(your username) your ready to go, but with Ubuntu 9.10 it will most likely be in /home/yourusername/Downloads. So lets say your user name is bob, to start the NVIDIA or ATI installer you'd type cd /home/bob/Downloads and press enter. This will change you to the Downloads directory. Next, you'll want to type sudo sh [name of the driver] and hit enter. Taking the NVIDIA driver as an example, driver names can be rather long. One cool trick on the Linux terminal is called tab completion. So you can type sudo sh NV and then press the tab key and it'll type the rest of the file name as long as your in the right directory and nothing else in that directory has a very similar name. Neat huh! After you've launched the installer it will have you agree to licensing, and ask you if you'd like to run nvidia-xconfig. In both cases select yes and in a few moments it will finish the installation. Finally, type sudo reboot, this will restart your computer with the latest driver for your graphics card!
One side note regarding installing the latest NVIDIA drivers. When you receive a Linux kernel update, you will have to reinstall the driver. The easiest way is to simply keep the downloaded driver installer on your system. So if the NVIDIA driver installer was downloaded to /home/bob/Downloads just leave the driver installer in that directory and don't delete it, that way, when you update to a new kernel you simply run the installer again. What happens is, when you install a new kernel and restart your machine you'll get a command line login. Log into the system just as you normally would, change to the directory the installer resides in, such as /home/bob/Downloads, by using the cd command. An example is, cd /home/bob/Downloads press enter, now your in the Downloads directory, or change to wherever you driver is, if it downloads to simply your home directory you'd type cd /home/bob instead. Now simply run the installer by typing sudo sh [name of the driver installer], don't forget tab completion, once the driver is installed type, sudo reboot. Once your machine reboots you'll be good to go!
Okay, so your system is up to date and your graphics card drivers are installed. What next? First, make sure your sound is working good, your internet connection is good, and that your monitor is the correct resolution you want it. To modify and trouble shoot any of these just look under System and either Preferences or Administration. Ubuntu comes with all kinds of tools for modifying and trouble shooting your computers hardware. Also, you can check out www.ubuntu.com/support and find links to several places that will either have the information your looking for or put you in touch with someone who can help.
After you've done all that it's time to add some software and get all the audio and video codecs up and running! Ya know, the fun stuff. First thing you need to do is open up either Ubuntu Software Center or a Terminal. In Ubuntu Software Center you'll want to download ubuntu-restricted-extras and any other software you see that strikes your fancy. If you use the terminal type sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras. This package will add almost all the audio and video codecs you'll need, plus it will install Flash, and Java for Firefox, so you can browse sites like YouTube and Facebook.
If you were paying attention you noticed I said ubuntu-restricted-extras would install almost every codec you would need/want. Well, due to certain legal restrictions, Ubuntu can't add all the codecs in one package without running the risk of getting sued by companies like Microsoft. So in order to get all the codecs you need you'll need to go here. This will take you to the Ubuntu support page that explains how to add the Medibuntu repositories. Follow all the steps under "Adding the Repositories". After you've done that, open up a terminal and type sudo apt-get install w32codecs libdvdcss2 mplayer ffmpeg totem-xine this will add everything else you need plus install MPlayer. MPlayer is the greatest media player I've ever used hands down. Also, I threw totem-xine in there because the Totem media player is integrated into Ubuntu, so it is set to launch media such as DVD's, and totem-xine is simply a better version. Now your up and running!
One note, if your using Linux Mint in any of its forms, you won't need to add the Medibuntu repository, totem-xine, mplayer, ffmpeg, ubuntu-restricted-extras, or libdvdcss2 as they all come pre-installed. Now you see why I like Linux Mint for new users!? Makes everything a bit easier.
Next time we'll cover setting up printers, useful software, and customizing the look of your new OS to suite you perfectly!
Ubuntu Setup Part 1
While Linux does offer up more flavors than Baskin Robbins, the majority of Linux users tend to choose Ubuntu or one of its many relatives, and it's very easy to see why! Ubuntu is fast, easy to install, very user friendly, and still extremely powerful. The community surrounding Ubuntu is outstanding and very helpful (sure there are a lot of jerk offs too but that's inevitable). Plus, documentation and commercial support are first rate. All in all, it is the perfect distro for users new and old (that's right I said it, WHAT!). It is with this in mind that I begin a three part series that explains how to setup Ubuntu (and its cousins) with all the bells and whistles.
Okay, so first things first, choose which Ubuntu variant you want. If you choose Linux Mint then a lot of what we'll be covering in part two will not apply to you, as Linux Mint comes with the Medibuntu repositories and most of the popular audio/video codecs right "out-of-the-box". I'm going to simply focus on Ubuntu 9.10. The other Ubuntu based distros out there all have very similar setup procedures (aside from Linux Mint as I stated before).
Once you've chosen the Ubuntu based distro you want and have burned the ISO to a CD or DVD, it's time to load that bad boy up and give it some space on the hard drive! First thing you'll want to do is test it out in live mode to make sure you don't have any major hardware issues. Once you've booted to the desktop and played around a bit (make sure to test your sound, video, and internet connection, including wireless) double click on the "Install" icon on the desktop. This will launch the Ubuntu installer. The first few sections are very self explanatory, choose your language, keyboard setup, and time zone. The next section is where you'll want to do some work, the partitioner. Ubuntu will offer several partitioning options, but I recommend you click on "Manually Edit Partitions" at the bottom. This will bring up a partition table showing you all the partitions on your disk. If you've got Windows installed on the disk you'll need to make some room for Ubuntu to reside in. You can do this by clicking on the Windows partition (usually the NTFS or FAT32 partition) then selecting the resize option. The partitioner will offer up a convenient slider for the resizing or you can alter the actual numerical size yourself.
Next, you'll need to create three new partitions in the space you just freed up. To do this simply click on the "Unallocated" area and either right click on the mouse and select new or simply click on the icon for "New".
Once you've selected "New" a box will pop up asking you what you want to do. First, lets create the root partition. From the "Filesystem" drop down menu select Ext4, then check the box next to "Format". You'll need to decide how much space to give your root partition. If your using a whole hard drive I recommend about 12GB, which is really a bit of overkill but you never know just how much software your gonna want. If your on a more limited space set the size to about half that, 6GB. In reality your / partition can be sized much smaller or much larger depending on your needs. Just do some research and find out what you can work with in the space you have available. Finally click on the drop down menu beside "Mount Point" and select / then click Ok and then Apply.
For your /home partition follow the same steps. The only difference is the "Mount Point", which you'll need to select from the drop down menu, will be /home. Just remember that your /home partition is where all your major data (music, video, documents) is going to be held so you'll want to give as much space to it as possible. Also, don't forget that you still need to add a linux-swap partition. So make sure when you size your /home partition you leave at least 1.5 times the amount of RAM you have. I recommend 2 times the amount of RAM you have just to be safe. So if you've got 2GB of RAM make sure you leave "Unallocated" room of 4GB for swap. For setting up swap all the steps are the same just choose "linux-swap" from the "Filesystem" drop down menu instead of Ext4.
Once you've set all these partitions up simply click apply then forward. Next, the installer will ask for all your logon info such as username and password. Once you've finished that all up it'll give you a summary of all the changes about to be made. Click the "Install" button and Ubuntu will install to your hard drive.
One final note the above procedure has one small change when you do a clean install to another version of Ubuntu. In order to keep your data on your home directory follow all these steps but DO NOT select "format" after you designate the /home mount point. That way Ubuntu will still associate that partition as /home but won't erase all your data.
In part two we'll cover driver installation, adding repositories, configuring video drivers, and running updates.
openSUSE 11.2 KDE Focused
With heavy weights like Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Fedora, and Mandriva to compete with, openSUSE, and their sponsor Novell, had their work cut out for them when it came time to develop openSUSE 11.2. Did they hit a home run, a foul ball, or strike out? Well, I'd say they hit a grand slam!
I've never been a big fan of openSUSE, I really liked Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise, but openSUSE always left me wanting more. YaST, openSUSE's package manager, never impressed me very much. It was slow like YUM, had a tendency to downgrade your programs without asking you, and never seemed well organized to me. Now, I have not used openSUSE since 10.0, so much of the features I like about 11.2 could have been in place for a few releases and if so I've really missed out!
YaST is now one of my favorite package managers! Why? Because it's better organized than KPackageKit, and Synaptic, it's just as fast as any APT based package manager, and it makes adding repositories even easier than Ubuntu does! To add repositories such as Pacman, VideoLAN, and the repos for the Nvidia or ATI drivers, it was as simple as clicking on the Community Repo button and selecting the desired repository. That's it! Now that's quick and easy! Also, adding a repository that is not listed by default, all you have to do it click the "Add URL" button, copy and paste the repos URL, and click refresh. I really like this feature because it makes adding repositories easy for users new to Linux. It also makes adding drivers, codecs, and programs easier. I do wish openSUSE had a program similar to Ubuntu when it came to proprietary hardware drivers though. Ubuntu's automated driver installer is a wonderful touch for new users, and openSUSE would be wise to follow suit on this. Had that one small feature along with something to rival Ubuntu Software Center been present, I'd like this distro even more than Ubuntu and all it's relatives. Yet, as it is, I must say Ubuntu still has the upper hand when it comes to user friendliness.
KDE has really always been the default desktop environment for openSUSE users. Something like 80% of openSUSE users choose KDE. With the release of 11.2, openSUSE has made it official. KDE is selected as the default desktop environment during installation, and openSUSE has optimized Firefox and OpenOffice.org so that both programs integrate much better with KDE and Qt.
The openSUSE installer is very user friendly and quite well built. Most of the default settings are perfect for new users. One area of complaint that I have is the partitioner. During installation, the partitioner defaulted to several partitions for root, home, var, and usr. While I can understand openSUSE's thinking on this, I find it odd that this is the default configuration. The root partition took up most of the hard drive space while /home was left with just a few gigs. Most people installing openSUSE are home desktop users and as such really have no need to mount /var and /usr on a separate partition. Plus, home desktop users would have a much greater need for a large /home partition. Of course these partition setting can be changed but most new users are going to opt for the default. With my install I changed the partition table to a larger swap partition, a smaller root partition, and the rest to /home. That minor complaint aside, installation was fast and came with plenty of options to customize your install.
After installation, openSUSE ran fast and smooth. The desktop effects were not choppy at all like they were on my Kubuntu install, and video playback was much smoother as well. The custom openSUSE tools, such as YaST2, were very user friendly and ran tasks quick and efficient. The newer Network Manager for KDE worked great on openSUSE. I was able to log into my home wireless network which uses WPA encryption with no problems, and even logging in to a more robust network such as a University was a snap!
Overall, I am very, very impressed with openSUSE 11.2. It's just as user friendly, in almost every area, as Ubuntu is, and it's just as powerful and smooth as Mandriva (which I consider the king of rpm systems and tied with Ubuntu for best desktop distro). YaST is vastly improved from the last time I used it, and the focus on KDE this time around was one of the best moves openSUSE could have made! So if you want more power than Ubuntu offers with just as much of a user friendly touch, go download and install openSUSE 11.2, you will not be disappointed!
Is Linux Right for the Desktop
Linux on the desktop has always been an area of high debate in the computer world. Some people feel that Linux is just not made correctly for the desktop and that its best features lean toward server implementation. Others feel its perfect for the desktop and that, in some ways, it was originally designed for home PC's (this is in reference to Linus Torvald building the Linux kernel originally to run on the Intel 386 architecture, although a lot of servers run on the same or similar architecture). Distributions such as Ubuntu, Mandriva, and openSUSE would, I'm sure, beg to differ.
Throughout the last seven or eight years, I've read countless articles debating the usefulness of Linux on the desktop. Claims such as, "Windows is everywhere so why change?" to, "Windows comes pre-installed on almost any PC you could want so why go through the hassle of installing Linux?" have brought up good, if not blatantly obvious, points. The problem with most of the reasons used for why Linux isn't desktop worthy, seem to assume that the end user is a total idiot! Another key area where I feel the debate gets problematic is many journalists, bloggers, and irc users focus too much on the wrong things. Many writers and journalists focus way too much on the "free" aspect of Linux, as if that's it only worthy "selling" point. Also, too many people run around screaming that Linux was touted to be some Windows and Mac OS X killer. No it wasn't. The thing is Linux wasn't marketed as anything other than reliable, flexible, portable, light-weight, and powerful. I don't ever remember Linus Torvalds or any of the main kernel developers over the years claiming that Linux was a Windows killer or that it was only a matter of time before Linux ruled the desktop market. The only companies that have really marketed Linux on the desktop to the mass public in the United States are Novell and IBM.
One thing that everyone needs to think about is that Linux wasn't truly designed for the desktop. It was sort-of hacked "to" the desktop. Yet, it was one hell of a hack, and now kernel development has shifted to focus a bit more on the desktop end. As this process of development continues we'll see Linux itself (which is really at its most base just a kernel and kernel modules) geared even more towards the desktop. At the present moment Linux on the desktop is still in its infancy or adolescents at best. What tends to get people, Linux supporter or not, all fired up is the fact that even as an infant desktop Linux is far more secure, stable, and virus free than Windows, and more flexible, portable, and secure than Mac OS X. In my opinion the "free" aspect that many people tend to bring up actually holds desktop Linux back in a way. Being a free OS tends to frighten many hardware and software designers who feel that it would be hard to make money through Linux. Granted a large enough user base would mean that they couldn't ignore desktop Linux any longer, but we just haven't seen that kind market penetration as of yet.
Even as I sit here and write this I (and I'm sure you) know that this whole article is coming from a bias point of view. I love Linux and feel that Linux on the desktop is the best choice a home PC user could make. I couldn't go back to Windows even if I tried. I'd simply get too frustrated and too jaded far too quickly. Everything from virus scans, malware scans, spy bot scans, blue screens of death, root kits, defragmentation, to inflexibility would simply drive me crazy. I can't believe Windows users actually put up with these types of things. I'd much rather edit a couple configuration files (which is rather rare now a days unless you've got some exotic hardware) than be forced to deal with all the time wasting upkeep Windows requires.
I will say this, Bill Gates is a business genius! I know he's not at the helm any longer but he's the reason Windows and Microsoft are everywhere. Any electronics store you go to your guaranteed to find Windows. It'll be on 90% of the desktops, laptops, and netbooks they sell. Best Buy is about the only major electronics store where these percentages might be lower. Still, Windows is everywhere! If you go to Wal-Mart more than likely all the PC's they carry will have Windows on them. Sure you may run into a Dell with Ubuntu on it but there will probably only be one in a sea of Windows boxes. Any boxed software you buy will most likely be Windows software, possibly Mac software, but sure as hell not Linux.
Linux doesn't have a very big desktop market share and with companies like Microsoft and Apple to compete with it may be a while before we see Linux with a large desktop user base, or it very well could be never. Yet, the thing to consider is, Linux got the small hand hold it has on the desktop market through nothing but word of mouth. There is another company I can think of that used nothing but word of mouth marketing and became huge. The company I'm referring to is Starbucks. Ever seen a Starbucks commercial? Unless it's a local information channel reporting new business openings I'm highly doubting that you have. I think there may have been a couple in recent years but definitely not while they rose to the coffee shop throne. I'm not saying this will happen to Linux but the similarities are there.
On one final note, I would like to throw out an example of what I consider bad journalism when it comes to discussing Linux on the desktop. Now I know I'm probably not supposed to bad mouth another writer but this article had me rolling my eyes and raising a few eyebrows. The author, in my opinion, brings up more myths than facts really, but you be the judge. Please email me and tell me what you think of the article. Tell me if you thinks it's good journalism, or if you think it's bad journalism in any way. Tell me I'm wrong, tell me I'm right, but give me your opinion. The article can be found here.
Ubuntu 9.10 vs. Windows 7
First off, yes this is LinuxRants and as such I am sure you can guess which OS out of these two that I prefer. Yet, I have to say that Windows 7 is the best version of Windows I've seen in a long time. I actually like Window 7 in a way. Now we all know that almost anything Microsoft released had to be better than Vista, but would it be better than XP? My opinion is, yes, it is a better OS overall than XP. Sure XP is still faster and it has available drivers for everything under the sun, but it's not that much faster than 7 and driver support will improve as 7 goes along. Does any of this mean I would install Windows 7 on one of my machines....hell no it doesn't!
The reason I'd rather burn in a thousand hells than install Windows 7 comes down to a few simple reasons. One, Windows 7 is an expensive OS. The Upgrade/Install for it runs around $119.99. Two, the upgrade process is not likely to work. I've already talked to 11 people I know personally that had the upgrade fail miserably and ended up having to run the fresh install anyway. Plus, even if you do get the upgrade to work correctly it's likely going to take around 10 hours for an XP upgrade and Microsoft themselves have admitted that a Vista Upgrade can take up to 20 hours!!! Compare that to the hour it took me to upgrade from Ubuntu 9.04 to 9.10! Third, installation itself is no where near as customizable as Linux! Microsofts NTFS is one of the worst file systems on the planet! Using any version of Ext (Ext4 for me) or almost any other Linux file system I can designate a partition to root and one to /home making clean installs a breeze and leaving me with all my data and most all of my settings intact! Fourth, Windows 7 is still the OS version of a petri dish just like Vista and XP. Sure it's totally possible to make Windows 7, Vista, or XP relatively secure but to most people it is just not worth all the hassle involved and even then your still going to get infected with minor bugs from time to time. With Ubuntu you don't really have to worry about these things. Viruses are almost non-existent and the ones that are out there can't really do much damage due too the robust permission system of Linux.
Windows 7 did deliver on its promise of out performing Vista in almost every way, but that wasn't really that hard now was it!? Ubuntu on the other hand really out did itself with this newest release. They added online data backup with Ubuntu One, introduced the Ubuntu Software Center, made Grub 2 default, and made Ext 4 the default file system. The introduction of the Ubuntu Software Center was one of 9.10's features that I really wanted to check out, and I was in no way disappointed! Ubuntu Software Center is the program that now replaces Add or Remove. The cool thing is it seems to be somewhat independent of APT and Synaptic. If for some reason you started several software downloads in Ubuntu Software Center and then opened Synaptic and began to download a few programs and libraries through it, Ubuntu Software Center will actually pause its downloads while Synaptic runs APT. Now I know Ubuntu plans on having Ubuntu Software Center eventually "replace" Synaptic in some form so this could be why the program seems to be independent of Synaptic and APT. Whatever the case may be its damn cool! From what I've read Ubuntu Software Center is not yet truly independent of Synaptic but it will become a full on replacement for it along with Gdebi, Software Sources, and possibly Update Manager.
So in this hackers humble opinion Ubuntu 9.10 not only vastly out shines Windows 7, it vastly out shines all other desktop Linux distributions available today. I know there are plenty of Ubuntu hating people out there, whether you just hate deb systems, hate how Ubuntu tries to make Linux a bit easier to use for newbies, or if you just hate anything thats reasonably popular, you should put your dislike on the back burner and give this distro another spin! As for Windows 7, I do like it more than I've liked any other version of Redmond's OS, but that's kind of like saying I like having a tooth pulled better than I like having a root canal!
LiVES 1.0! Open Source Video Editing at its Finest!
When I wrote the "Myth Busting! Linux Style" rant I talked about software like Photoshop, Microsoft Office, and Windows Games. These were a few of the software catagories people tend to point to when talking about the holes (the mythological ones) in open source software. There was a key area in that section of my rant that I intentionally neglected to bring up....video editing. Why did I leave a software topic such as that out of my rant? Well, because for a long time now that hasn't really been a myth. Video editing on Linux kind of fell in the same catagory as gaming. It sucked! Sure you could splice together your home movies in Kino or do a few more advanced techniques with Cinelerra but over all there was nothing that rivaled the software available on Windows and Mac OS X.
Until LiVES hit the scene!
LiVES is a fully featured video editor with enough power, customization options, and flexability to give programs like Vegas or Cinematize a run for their money! Linux Journal ran an article about the 1.0 release of LiVES and also wrote a review. The story can be found here and the review here.
For more information about LiVES including, add on scripts, tutorials, news, and installation requirements go to lives.sourceforge.net. Also, like most FOSS projects, LiVES has a rather large community. There is a users mailing list and a developers mailing list, both of which you can sign up for from the LiVES home page. If you prefer a more personal and instant medium try the LiVES irc channel on Freenode at #lives.
Function Junction!
If you're new to Bash and Bash shell scripting, you need to become familiar with functions. Writing functions can greatly simplify a program. If a chunk of code is used multiple times in different parts of a script, the code can be enclosed within a function and run using only the function name.
Now, some people may think that I'm throwing functions into the mix a bit to early but one of the ways I learned was by looking at more advanced shell scripts. At first I had little to no idea about much of the code in some of these shell scripts but as I continued to learn more, these advanced scripts began to make sense. I could go through the scripts and figure out for myself what each segement of code or each functions intended output was supposed to be. This made much of the more advanced scripting techniques click with me probably far earlier than they would have normally.
Also, this is just intended to describe what functions are, what they're meant to do, and how to recognize them. As you get better with shell scripting you'll find yourself using functions all the time. You may also find yourself writing a library of functions that you can source at the begin of a suit of scripts so you don't have to keep typing the same functions over and over.
Alright, we've covered basic shell scripts and I've tried to give you guys/gals some useful yet easily understandable scripts to get you started on your road to becoming a script ninja! Next up is recognizing and understanding the basics of functions. Functions encapsulate a small piece of code that will be used often. You can recognize a function by the () that succeeds its call name and the { and } that encapsulate the code of the function.
Here is a simple function. Notice the () succeeding the call name (a call name is just really the name of the function and what you need to type to call the function). Also, pay attention to the { and }, all the code that falls between these is the function itself.
#!/bin/sh
# A simple script with a function...
add_a_user()
{
USER=$1
PASSWORD=$2
shift; shift;
# Having shifted twice, the rest is now comments ...
COMMENTS=$@
echo "Adding user $USER ..."
echo useradd -c "$COMMENTS" $USER
echo passwd $USER $PASSWORD
echo "Added user $USER ($COMMENTS) with pass $PASSWORD"
}
###
# Main body of script starts here
###
echo "Start of script..."
add_a_user bob letmein Bob Holness the presenter
add_a_user fred badpassword Fred Durst the singer
add_a_user bilko worsepassword Sgt. Bilko the role model
echo "End of script..."
As you can see line 4 is the call name because the () succeeding the name identifies it as such. All the code between { and } is the actual add_a_user function. Now you'll notice that from line 21 to line 23 the call name is invoked. The call name is simply running the previously coded function using one simple command instead of writing all that code over and over again.
Functions can make shell scripting much easier! As you go along you'll find yourself using functions more and more. One easy way to remember just what functions are is (as a friend of mine put it) to think of them like tiny shell scripts inside of your shell script. You know, now that I type that it sounds even more confusing than saying if a chunk of code is used multiple times in different parts of a script, the code can be enclosed within a function and run using only the function name. Remind me to slap that friend. :P
I want Feedback!
I consider this the alpha version of the site and as such want visitors to feel free to throw their two cents (or twenty) into the ring. Tell me what you like and what you don't like. Tell me how my xhtml and css suck or could be improved. Let me know what you want to see in the future. Got an obscure or home rolled distro you want reviewed? Got a cool hack or work around you think people would be interested in reading about? Whatever the case or critism may be email it to me at sorteal@linuxrants.net
Remember Linux and FOSS is about community, so lets work together to build a site worth ranting about!
A Note About Our Slogan
For those who don't quite get the whole "Site with Kernel Panic!" slogan: Kernel panic is something that almost anyone who has ever compiled a kernel themselves has run into. It means exactly what it sounds like, you freaked the fuck out of the kernel! It means you did something terribly wrong! I'd imagine that a lot of people that read through this site (I'm talk to you Linus worshipping fanboys!) will freak the fuck out and feel I've done something terribly wrong by making a site that not only praises linux and FOSS, but points out its downfalls and weakness at the same time! To those people I say "Why don't you go Tux yourself!" -sorteal
