Random Thoughts

Upcoming in zypp.. Download all, then install!

2009-09-27T12:55:00.007-04:00

YaST and zypper will finally have the ability to download all packages first and then install (commit post)! No more broken packages because of an aborted download due to connection issues!

'Download in Advance' in action!

Notice the slight glitch in the 'Actions performed' List where 'Downloading XXX' line gets repeated

This was a much needed and essential feature which has finally been implemented. Though zypper will be getting configurable command line options for this soon, YaST can be setup by editing /etc/zypp/zypp.conf.

Here's the relevant part to be edited with 4 options available.

##
## Commit download policy to use as default.
##
## DownloadOnly,       Just download all packages to the local cache.
##                      Do not install. Implies a dry-run.
##
## DownloadInAdvance, First download all packages to the local cache.
##                      Then start to install.
##
## DownloadInHeaps,    Similar to DownloadInAdvance, but try to split
##                      the transaction into heaps, where at the end of
##                      each heap a consistent system state is reached.
##
## DownloadAsNeeded    Alternating download and install. Packages are
##                      cached just to avid CD/DVD hopping. This is the
##                      traditional behaviour.
##
##              If a value is not set, empty or unknown, we pick
##                      some save default.
##
commit.downloadMode = DownloadInAdvance

Now 'download in advance' policy should really be made default for 11.2. Right now it is 'download as needed'.

YaST also has configurable behavior for closing after installation. This is configurable via sysconfig editor. Three options: Close (closes after installation/removal finishes), Summary (which gives a nice summary of things that were done) and Restart (which sends you back to the default startup screen with search tab active).

Again 'Close' is still the default which is the worst possible option to keep as default. This should be changed to 'Summary' which should be more convenient for new users and which they can change later if they want, once they become more familiar with openSUSE.

A small rant about the Summary Screen: There always seems to be a difficulty with finding the correct names for buttons in YaST modules. Button names should be very clear regarding what the buttons are going to do. In the summary screen, there are two buttons "Back" and "Finish". Now an average user who is mostly familiar with the "Back" and "Forward" buttons used in a browser is most likely to think that the back button will send him to the previous page, which was the "Perform Installation" page with the flashing download/install progress bars. Hence, the user will click "Finish" which sounds more appropriate, with the effect that the window very rudely disappears. The current button names are more appropriate from the point of view of the installation workflow but are not good from the user's point of view. Some suggestions would be to rename "Back" as "OK" and the "Finish" button as "Quit". Also it would be better if the OK button was moved to the extreme right corner since users instinctively click corner buttons. The OK button also needs to be made default instead of Quit. Users like to click shiny highlighted buttons. Abort buttons should also be changed to Cancel and where ever they are not required, they should be removed or made invisible instead of just disabling them.

Thanks to the devs again for the new features. Their efforts are commendable. One more step in catching upto the debian based distributions, though openSUSE has superior package management features of its own too. Now come the next essential features: Resuming downloads, downloading multiple packages in parallel and orphaned package removal!

Vpnc and Kde3 KNetworkManager in openSUSE 11.1

2009-01-14T17:31:00.004-03:00

I was trying to connect to a VPN network today but network manager failed to connect. A dig through Network Manager's logs revealed an error message 'property 'Disable NAT Traversal' invalid or not supported'.

I googled and found a similar bug report in Ubuntu. It seems that at some point, the option of 'Disable NAT Traversal' got removed from vpnc but knetworkmanager never got updated. As a consequence, the connection fails.

The workaround described is simple and works for me. Just edit .kde/share/config/knetworkmanagerrc manually. Remove the lines:

<string>Disable NAT Traversal</string>\n <string>none</string>\n </entry>\n <entry>\n <string>Enable Single DES</string>\n <string>no</string>\n </entry>\n <entry>\n

Restart networkmanager (sudo /sbin/rcnetwork restart) and knetworkmanager, and try to connect again. This time, the connection should be successful.

I recall a similar bug report filed in bugzilla for opensuse but I am not able to find it now. The bug, if I remember correctly, has being fixed in svn but the fix still hasn't been backported or provided in an update. Till then, this workaround should help you to connect to your vpn network.

Package Search Module in YaST2

2009-01-10T01:50:00.005-03:00

I came to know from this blog that there is a YaST module for searching software in openSUSE package repositories and Packman! Very cool indeed!

But it seems that the devs decided to keep this module invisible in YaST2 even though its there in openSUSE 11.1. Right now, the module can be launched from the command line as follows:

/sbin/yast2 webpin_package_search

But since I find this module to be incredibly useful, I added it to YaST. Here's how to do it. Just open your favorite editor (gedit/kwrite/kate) and paste the following lines in it.

[Desktop Entry]
X-SuSE-translate=true
X-SuSE-DocTeamID=ycc_webpin_package_search
Type=Application
Categories=Settings;System;Qt;X-SuSE-YaST;X-SuSE-YaST-Software;

X-KDE-ModuleType=Library
X-KDE-RootOnly=true
X-KDE-HasReadOnlyMode=true
X-KDE-Library=yast2
X-SuSE-YaST-Call=webpin_package_search

X-SuSE-YaST-Group=Software
X-SuSE-YaST-Argument=
X-SuSE-YaST-RootOnly=true
X-SuSE-YaST-AutoInst=
X-SuSE-YaST-Geometry=
X-SuSE-YaST-SortKey=
X-SuSE-YaST-AutoInstResource=

Icon=yast-sw_source
Exec=/sbin/yast2 webpin_package_search

Name=Software Search
GenericName=Search for software in openSUSE package repositories
X-KDE-SubstituteUID=true
StartupNotify=true

Save the file as webpin_package_search.desktop and move it to /usr/share/applications/YaST2 folder. Start YaST2 and you should now see a module called "Software Search" in YaST2.

Launch it to test if the module starts correctly. You now have the package search module easily accessible from YaST.

The devs also mention in the article comments that they are working on an application uninstaller which should do something equivalent to 'apt-get autoremove' in Debian and Ubuntu. Hopefully we should be able to see this in the next release, openSUSE 11.2. Even better would be if the devs can also implement an add/remove software module like the one available in Ubuntu. But I imagine the application uninstaller itself involves a lot of work, so even if they can get that into the next release, it would be really great!

Hope you enjoy using the package search module in YaST! Cheers!

Kdm3 in openSUSE 11.1

2009-01-05T20:37:00.014-03:00

The KDE3 desktop installation for openSUSE 11.1 installs, by default, kdm4 or the kde display manager from the kde4 desktop.

Anyone who uses kde3 and finds the switch user options for 'start a new session' and 'Lock current and start new session' particularly useful, installing kdm3 will give you these options back.

For getting kdm3 back, install kdebase3-kdm.

sudo zypper in kdebase3-kdm

Then goto YaST2->System->/etc/sysconfig Editor.

In the tree listing on the left, go into Desktop->Display manager->DISPLAYMANAGER and change its setting from 'kdm4' to 'kdm' (Note: Don't use kdm3).

Save the changes (Click OK Button) and reboot. Kdm3 will now be used instead of Kdm4.

And on a side note, just noticed a lot of new visitors coming from tuxmachines.org. Welcome to my blog everyone!

Kima in openSUSE 11.1

2009-01-04T19:43:00.004-03:00

Just realized that openSUSE 11.1 does not have kima packaged in the KDE community repository. Going through the build service repository, it seems that the build fails on suse 11.1 because of a few additional rpm checks which the build service has added.

A little bit of digging into the new checks and a small patch to the spec file and voila! Kima builds successfully for 11.1!

Get your kima from my home project repository here.

YaST Software Management module in openSUSE 11.1

2009-01-04T00:38:00.005-03:00

For anyone who does not like automatically closing behavior of YaST Software Management module (or sw_single) in openSUSE 11.1, I have made a modified package (yast2-packager) which does not close automatically. Get it from my build service home project repository here.

I do not like the self closing behavior myself. No other package manager in any distribution does this. Even add/remove programs in Windows does not do this either. In 10.3, YaST used to ask if we want to install more packages or not, using a popup window. But as people find this popup irritating, the developers removed it. But I don't think whoever who wanted this also wanted the module to automatically close either. In terms of the user, I think the user will find both these things irritating: 1) Popups and 2) Windows which abruptly close without warning. A proper design would be where the number of clicks a user has to perform is least without experiencing the two behaviors described above. Now consider three use cases: 1) Popup removed and window closes automatically 2) Popup removed but the module does not quit. 3) Popup present.

For the first case, if a user does not want to do any futher software changes -> 0 clicks, or if YaST is open too, 1 click to close YaST. Let's give an average of 0.5 clicks.
If user want to make software changes -> if YaST is open, click software module (1 click); or go to openSUSE kickoff menu and click 'Install Software' (1 click); or go to openSUSE menu and click YaST, then click Software Management (2 clicks); All these can increase by one click if the user has the traditional KDE menu or the 'open on hover' feature does not work correctly for the buttons in the kickoff menu. Lets give this case an average of 1.25 clicks. (Note that making the user go through the menu again is not good design).

For the second use case, if a user does not want to do any further software changes-> 1 click to close the module, 2 clicks to close both the module and YaST if open. Let's give this one an average of 1.5 clicks.
If user wants to make software changes-> 0 clicks (module is already open).

For the third use case, if a user wants to make any software changes, click yes when popup is displayed (1 click).
If user does not want to make any changes, click no when popup is displayed (1 click).

Now, lets assign a fixed number of clicks (say 1 click each) to both popup and a self-closing window. So the first case will now have 1 click contribution from the abruptly closing window, the second case will have no contribution and the third case will have 1 click contribution from the popup (Here we are not counting the window closing as the user should be expecting the window to close when he says no).

On tabulating and averaging the clicks for the three cases, you can see that the second case has the lowest number of clicks.

	Case 1	Case 2	Case 3
No software changes	0.5	1.5	1
Software changes	1.25	0	1
Popups/closing window	1	0	1
Average	0.92	0.5	1

Some more observations: If for the first case, we reduce the clicks for 'more software changes' condition to 1, the average no of clicks will be 0.83 which is still larger than 0.5 for the second case. Further, if we reduce the number of clicks for software changes for the first case and then assume that the user gets accustomed to the window closing on its own, then making the contribution from it zero, the average number of clicks then matches the second case.

Some people may argue that they need something to tell them that software installation was successful or not at the end of the installation process. But then, if something does go wrong, the module does pop up more notifications/warnings than needed already!

In any case, I feel that its best to trust the developers to make the appropriate decision. Since openSUSE is open source free software, we can always make our own customized packages. Feel free to use the package in my repository but remember that its at your own risk!

Linux and Vista Hibernation problems

2008-12-31T00:45:00.014-03:00

Are you experiencing problems hibernating Windows Vista when you have linux installed in a dual boot setting? Does Vista log you out and show you the login/welcome screen when you try to hibernate your computer? The following may be the cause of your problem.

Vista needs the Windows partition to be marked as the active partition in order to hibernate successfully. To do this, you can use cfdisk utility available on most linux distributions. If you want to use Vista to do this, see the update at the end of the post.

For Ubuntu,

sudo apt-get install cfdisk

My openSUSE already had this installed by default. So fire up the terminal/konsole and sudo/su to cfdisk.

Be very careful with this. Do not make changes you do not understand as if you corrupt the partition table, you might lose all your data, along with the OSs. Be sure to backup your important files.

Look at the partitions and change the 'Boot' flag from the linux partition to the Windows partition. Then select 'Write' to change the partition table. cfdisk may give a message that re-reading the partition table failed. This is normal so don't worry about this.

Reboot to Vista and test hibernation.

Cheers!

Update: Much simpler and easier method using Vista, thanks to Marco:

Boot to Vista
Go to Start menu, right click Computer and select Manage to get the Computer Management window.
Select Disk Management under the Storage category. Your partitions will be shown at the right.
Right click on your Vista partition and choose "Mark Partition as Active". Your Vista partition will most probably be an NTFS partition and will be labelled 'C:'

It's that simple! Now why can't we have something like this in YaST2?

A word of caution: If you have grub setup to boot from the boot partition, this method will cause grub to be skipped while booting and Vista will get booted directly. If this happens to you, use a live cd and restore the boot flags for partitions. Set grub to boot from the master boot record to avoid this from happening.

It works! Broadcom Official Wireless driver (wl) with hidden networks!

2008-12-26T13:59:00.013-03:00

If you are using the official Broadcom hybrid wireless driver, either manually compiled or downloaded the one available for openSUSE from Packman, here is a quick fix you can try if you are experiencing problems connecting to hidden wireless networks.

I have a Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g.
You can find which one you have using

/sbin/lspci | grep Broadcom

My wireless network uses WPA2 (WPA-PSK) with hidden SSID. My kernel is 2.6.27 and Network Manager 0.7. A description of the bug (or what I think is the bug) follows:

Description of the bug:

After spending long hours going through the source code for Network Manager, wpa_supplicant and the Broadcom driver itself, I have narrowed down the buggy part to the driver. The problem seems to lie in Broadcom's driver. It does not support 'scan_capa'. So to add this support, you can recompile the driver from the source RPM from Packman along with this additional patch.

diff -uNr hybrid-portsrc-x86-32_5_10_27_11/src/wl/sys/wl_iw.c hybrid-portsrc-x86-32_5_10_27_11_new/src/wl/sys/wl_iw.c
--- hybrid-portsrc-x86-32_5_10_27_11/src/wl/sys/wl_iw.c 2008-12-05 14:41:46.000000000 -0500
+++ hybrid-portsrc-x86-32_5_10_27_11_new/src/wl/sys/wl_iw.c 2008-12-26 11:34:11.000000000 -0500
@@ -580,6 +580,7 @@
range->enc_capa |= IW_ENC_CAPA_CIPHER_TKIP;
range->enc_capa |= IW_ENC_CAPA_CIPHER_CCMP;
range->enc_capa |= IW_ENC_CAPA_WPA2;
+ range->scan_capa = IW_SCAN_CAPA_ESSID;
#endif

return 0;

If you are manually compiling, just make the changes specified by the patch i.e. add this line 'range->scan_capa = IW_SCAN_CAPA_ESSID;' to 'src/wl/sys/wl_iw.c' at the specified place.

Network Manager now uses AP_SCAN 1 for the wl driver, as the driver now reports that it supports SSID scans (scan_capa 0x01). This seems to work for me and Network manager now connects easily to my hidden network without failing 10 times before connecting, like it used to do before. In fact, using AP_SCAN 2, the original wl driver should not even have connected but association is successful even though the connection fails. Network manager caches the SSID of the network and recognizes it next time for which then it uses AP_SCAN 1. Hence the driver sometimes connects successfully after a lot of unsuccessful attempts.

Please let me know if this patch works for you. If something is wrong with this patch or if you want to suggest changes or have anything to say, please feel free to leave a comment.

Change YaST2 Fonts

2008-12-25T18:23:00.007-03:00

Don't like the default fonts in YaST2 modules? Here's how to change them. Just use su to get root access and then use 'qtconfig' to change the fonts.

Qt Configuration with openSUSE default settings

I prefer DejaVu fonts with size 10. You can use these or any other fonts you like.

Qt Configuration after changing font and font size

See the difference between the old and new YaST2 modules! Much more better on the eyes, I think you will agree.

YaST2 Software Management Module (Before)

YaST2 Software Management Module (After)

The best looking XP theme for linux/gnome ever..

2008-11-19T22:12:00.003-03:00

Among all the XP themes for gnome I have seen so far, this theme really looks very close to Windows XP. Plus it’s very easy to install than other themes. Just unpack the theme and run the “InstallXpGnome.sh” file.

Kudos to whoever who made this theme. It must have taken a good amount of work to get the theme and installer properly finished and working.

Although some people might just ask ‘Why?’, themes like this help people who are new to Linux get adjusted to the new user interface easily. This theme makes them feel comfortable since it resembles an environment which they are already used to (namely Windows).

Beware: This theme does not have an uninstaller! You have to do it manually!

Tip: Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) users have the option of switching to the guest user account rather than their normal account in order to try this theme and see if they like it or not..

PDF Printer on openSUSE

2008-06-28T09:35:00.006-04:00

PDF Printer is really a necessary feature that should be included by default in openSUSE. But since it is not, we shall install it quickly and effortlessly.

Go to openSUSE Software Search. Search for 'cups-pdf'. Make sure the proper version of openSUSE is selected before you start searching.
Choose the latest version from the results. I chose the one from gcoste's home repository. But you can choose any other too. You can install the rpm by using the 1-click install.
Next we need to add the PDF Printer to cups. So open up CUPS Administration by clicking this link (http://localhost:631/admin).
If cups has already not found the new printer, click 'Find New Printers' under the 'Printers' category. CUPS will have now detected the 'Virtual PDF Printer'. In the next screen, leave the 'Make' section blank. Fill up the 'Provide a PPD File' section by browsing to '/usr/share/cups/model/' directory and selecting the PPD file that came with the cups-pdf rpm. You can find this file by using
rpm -ql cups-pdf
The file with the .ppd extension in the list is the one you require to select here. Next, click the 'add printer' button and the pdf printer will be added to cups.
Next we need to configure the default directory in which the created pdf files will be stored. This is by default '/var/spool/cups-pdf/${USER}'. Hence, to store the pdf files onto the desktop, edit '/etc/cups/cups-pdf.conf' file. Change the line
#Out /var/spool/cups-pdf/${USER}
to
Out /home/${USER}/Desktop

There! Now you have successfully installed PDF printer in openSUSE. Try a few pdf prints to verify that the pdf printer is working properly.

For more details including about how to compile pdf printer from source, refer the opensuse documentation here.

openSUSE 11.0 Released!

2008-06-22T23:12:00.003-04:00

After a long wait, the new openSUSE 11.0 has been released! With the fastest package management to date, and the best stable KDE 4 distro available yet, openSUSE is definitely worth the download. Get yours today! And have a lot of fun!

Doom 3 for Linux

2008-02-17T10:43:00.018-03:00

ID Software has always been a good supporter of open source, from releasing the source code for older versions of it's games (quake and doom series) to making available native versions of its games for the Linux platform. Unlike other Windows games which linux users can only hope to run using wine, ID games run natively on linux, requiring lesser resources and also provide better performance.

Doom 3 is one of the great and stunning games made by ID Software. Here's how to install it.

First of all, you would require a legitimate copy of Doom 3 purchased from ID Software.

For the next step, go here and download

doom3-linux-1.3.1.1304.x86.run

onto your desktop.

If you want to try a demo version, download the other file

doom3-linux-1.1.1286-demo.x86.run

If there is a newer version, of either files, download the newer ones.

Now run this file putting the following into a terminal.

sh ~/Desktop/doom3-linux-1.3.1.1304.x86.run

The install program will first detect your distro and system. Press Enter.

Next, it will show you the license. Press Enter.

You will be then asked if you want to accept the license in the next step. You have to accept if you want to proceed.

You will be asked if you want to read the readme file. Select your choice. In the next step, you have to enter the installation path. By default, the installer will install the files to '/usr/local/games/doom3'.

If you want to install Doom 3 for all users, you need to exit here and start the installer again with root permissions in order to write to /usr/local/games. Just put a 'sudo' before the command to start the installer as root. But if you want that all files be handled by the package management of your distro and are a single user, it would be better to install Doom 3 into your home directory.

Create a directory 'Doom3' using the command

mkdir ~/Doom3

in a second terminal. Now give the installation path as '~/Doom3'.

Next, you will be asked for the Symlink path. Keep the default path if you are installing as root. Else, change it to '~/bin' if you are installing as a normal user.

Next choose if you want to install Punkbuster. If you do, you will have to accept a second license agreement.

Next, say 'yes' to install startup menu entries.

The installer will install the files and should finish successfully.

It's not over yet. There's still one last step. Now you will need to copy pak000.pk4, pak001.pk4, pak002.pk4, pak003.pk4, pak004.pk4 files from the Doom 3 Cds. They are available in '/SETUP/DATA/BASE' folder of the CDs.

CD1 -> pak002.pk4
CD2-> pak000.pk4, pak001.pk4
CD3-> pak003.pk4, pak004.pk4

These need to be copied to '/usr/local/games/doom3/base' or '~/Doom3/base' depending upon what you chose as the installation path during the setup.

Now upon restarting your computer or just your DE, you should have menu entries for Doom 3 and Doom 3 dedicated server. If you don't have them, create them, or just do Alt+F2 and run 'doom3' to start the game.

Now, Doom 3 should start without any problems and will ask for the CD key. Put in your key here.

Now you are ready to play Doom 3 on linux. If you face any problems with the installation, consult this page. Enjoy!

Kima, a kicker monitoring applet

2008-02-14T13:05:00.012-03:00

I have tried many different hardware monitoring applications for my linux desktop. But most of them either did not work properly or slowed down my computer or occupied my precious desktop space unnecessarily, distracting me with graphs and plots. Then I found the perfect little KDE kicker applet which gave me exactly what I wanted - a simple monitor. It's called Kima.

It can monitor various temperature, frequency and fan sources and sits inconspicuously in the kde kicker panel. It can monitor hard disk temperatures, CPU temperatures, motherboard zone temperatures, laptop battery charge, system uptime, CPU usage and also fan speeds in rpm. It even supports monitoring the GPU temperature of an Nvidia card.

From Kima's website,

Features
Supported thermal sources:

the Linux ACPI Thermal Zone driver. The corresponding kernel module is called thermal.
the thermal sources of the Linux ACPI driver for the IBM ThinkPad laptops. The corresponding kernel module is called ibm-acpi.
the IBM Hard Drive Active Protection System (HDAPS) driver. The corresponding kernel module is called hdaps.
the Omnibook Configuration Tools & Patches. The corresponding kernel module is called omnibook.
the iBook G4 CPU and GPU thermal zones. It may work on other Apple machines as well (please let me know).
the thermal sensors available through hwmon (I2C, lm_sensors, ...).
the CPU thermal sensor of the i8k kernel driver for Dell Inspiron and Latitude notebooks.
the GPU thermal sensors of nvidia-settings (provided by the nVidia GPU card driver tools)
the termal sensors provided by hddtemp daemon (make sure hddtemp runs on 127.0.0.1 port 7634 before kima starts)

Supported frequency sources:

the Linux kernel /proc/cpuinfo interface
the Linux kernel cpufreq subsystem

Supported fan sources:

the fan sensors available through hwmon (I2C, lm_sensors, ...)
the fan sources of the Linux ACPI driver for the IBM ThinkPad laptops. The corresponding kernel module is called ibm-acpi.
the fan sources of the i8k kernel driver for Dell Inspiron and Latitude notebooks.

Misc sources:

CPU usage source (for each CPU and/or commulative for all CPUs)
uptime source that displays the current system uptime
battery source that displays the current state of charge of your batteries

Misc:

cpufreqd control module to switch cpufreqd profiles via cpufreqd remote interface

Give this little applet a try if you are looking for a simple monitoring application. I am sure you will like this one. For openSUSE 10.3, you will need to add the KDE:Community repository. To start the applet in KDE, right-click on kicker and select 'Add applet'. Choose Kima from the list of applets. Packages are also available for Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, Mandriva, Slackware, Pardus and Gentoo on Kima's website. Cheers!

Why 'sudo rm -rf /' is BAD!

2008-02-11T01:39:00.001-03:00

Here's what happens when you run 'sudo rm -rf /'. Really an excellent example why you should not run this command on your linux machine. Thanks to alwayschooseford for this great video!

Compiz with Nvidia

2008-02-11T01:03:00.001-03:00

For all those who are using compiz with nvidia and unable to start it using the Compiz Fusion icon and are getting the error 'No GLXFBConfig for default depth', here's what to do.

This is presently for compiz-0.7.0-5.1, fusion-icon-0.0.1_080201-2.1 and nvidia driver version 169.09. Use the latest nvidia driver if you are not using it. I presume you must have installed compiz, compiz fusion and the compiz fusion icon from the openSUSE repository. If you haven't already, then go here to find out how to install it.

Compiz with nvidia needs to first have the option 'composite' enabled in xorg.conf file. If you haven't done this, add this to your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file.

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

Next compiz with nvidia also needs to be started with '--no-libgl-fallback' option. This is presently not taken care of in compiz fusion icon. Hence open up

/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/FusionIcon/data.py

with root permissions. Use 'sudo' or 'su', whichever you like and any text editor you prefer.

Find the line

compiz_args = ['--replace', '--sm-disable', '--ignore-desktop-hints', 'ccp']

Replace it with

compiz_args = ['--replace', '--sm-disable', '--ignore-desktop-hints', 'ccp', '--no-libgl-fallback']

Save the file.

Restart X to be safe and fire up compiz fusion icon and select compiz as the window manager. Compiz should start now. Hope this helps! Bye.

Bootsplash in openSUSE

2007-05-21T10:46:00.000-04:00

openSUSE has one of the most gorgeous looking bootsplash than most other Linux distros out there. In all my previous installs of openSUSE, for some mysterious reason, the bootsplash never showed up during boot. This was mainly due to the fact that the screen resolution for the splash was not set properly during install. In Yast2, the bootloader module does not give you options to choose the appropriate resolution from, as can be seen below.

You have to manually enter the corresponding code for your screen resolution. In my case, it was 794. Remember that bootsplash currently works only up to 16bit. If bootsplash still does not work, choose a lesser resolution and see if it works. To get the appropriate vga mode for your screen resolution, refer the table below:

	640x480	800x600	1024x768	1280x1024
Colors
256 (8 bit)	769	771	773	775
32000 (15 bit)	784	787	790	793
65000 (16 bit)	785	788	791	794
16.7M (24 bit)	786	789	792	795

Note: If the above does not work, also try running additionally with root permissions

mkinitrd -s screen_size

where 'screen_size' will be 1280x1024 for an LCD monitor with 1280x1024 as the maximum screen resolution.

How to install Internet Explorer in Linux

2007-05-09T11:04:00.000-04:00

Although using Firefox is preferable than using IE, sometimes you really require IE to open a page which is IE only. This can be problematic especially if you are running Linux. Also, if you are a web developer and using Linux, installing IE can prove to be be useful.

Internet Explorer can be used in Linux using Wine. Wine can be easily obtained on any Linux distribution easily using the appropriate repository or it may even come pre-installed. But the difficult part is to get IE installed and working properly. To get the latest wine package for openSUSE 10.2, just add this repo as a source to Yast2 and then install wine.

Next, to install IE, use IEs4Linux. This provides a very convenient way to install IE and automatically downloads all required components. It also provides you with an icon on the desktop for launching IE. I have found it to be bug-free and the installed IE has worked flawlessly till now. Although you should be aware that the installed IE is as insecure as actual IE itself and so you would be better off using Firefox and use IE only when absolutely required.

How to change MAC address in openSUSE 10.2

2007-05-08T09:21:00.000-04:00

Yast2 is a great tool in openSUSE for configuring all your network settings but one thing it lacks is the option to change the MAC address of the network card. This option is available in Windows so I see no reason why it should not be available in Yast.

Luckily, there is an alternate way to change your MAC address. I am assuming that you would want to change the MAC address on every boot. Otherwise 'ifconfig' is always available to change the MAC address.

To change the MAC address automatically on every boot, just create a file named 'rclocal' in /etc/init.d folder. Enter the following in this file:

#! /bin/sh

## This script simulates redhat's rc.local (Add commands at the end)

### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: rclocal
# Required-Start: $local_fs $remote_fs $network
# X-UnitedLinux-Should-Start: $ALL
# Required-Stop:
# X-UnitedLinux-Should-Stop:
# Default-Start: 3 5
# Default-Stop: 0 1 2 6
# Short-Description: Simulates rc.local
# Description: Simulates redhat's rc.local: contains
# commands to execute after system has booted (all services are already
# available)
### END INIT INFO

## Execute ony when service is started
case "$1" in
start)
## commands will be executed
;;
*)
exit 0
;;
esac

# vvvvv Add your commands bellow this line vvvvv
/sbin/ifconfig eth0 hw ether 'Your New MAC address here'

Enter the MAC address that you want in the last line. After this, open up Yast2 and goto System-> System Services (Runlevel). In the list of services, select rclocal and enable it.

Save the changes. Reboot your computer. On reboot, the MAC address of your network card should now have been changed to the new one.

Note that this file can also be used like redhat's rc.local and so you can also add other stuff here.

Hope this has been useful! Please let me know if I have written anything incorrectly. Bye!

Yay! I finally got lirc working...

2007-05-07T06:45:00.000-04:00

I have a Pinnacle PCTV Stereo card that comes along with a remote which I finally got working today. So here's what I did to get it working on my distro, openSUSE 10.2:

install lirc and lirc-kmp-default using Yast2.
changed entries 'LIRCD_DEV_PERMISSIONS="666"', 'LIRCD_DRIVER=pinsys' and 'LIRCD_DEVICE=/dev/ttyS0' (for receiver connected to COM1) in /etc/sysconfig/lirc file.
used 'irrecord' command to create a config file for the remote and copied it over to /etc/lircd.conf. (You can also use the provided config file for Pinnacle remote in remotes directory of lirc source.)
Got lirc to start as service on boot using Yast2 (System->System Services).
Started irkick and configured modes and events as per my convenience.

If you want irkick to start automatically on login, just start irkick once and exit from it using the pop-up menu from the irkick panel icon. At this time irkick will ask if you want it to start automatically on login. Select your choice at this time.

One can use control tvtime using irkick by using the command 'tvtime-command'. See it's man page for the available control options. Use the 'Kde Program Launcher' option available when you are assigning a new function to the remote control button. For starting tvtime initially, just use the Kde Program Launcher to start 'tvtime' command.

Now that I have lirc setup properly, I can control both tvtime and amarok using my remote. This is great! Also, using DCOP, I can shut down my computer using the remote.

I still haven't found out how to simulate a keyboard key event so that I can browse through the kmenu. If anyone knows about this, please tell me. Cheers!

New KDE 4 games

2007-05-06T02:27:00.000-04:00

There are 2 new games to be included in KDE 4.0 - KSquares, a KDE implementation of the paper "squares" game and Kiriki, a Tali dice game. But around 10 games wont be making it because there is no maintainer to work for the transition from kde 3 to kde 4.

Atlantik
KFouleggs
Klickety
KPoker
Kenolaba
KAsteroids
KSnake
KSokoban
KJumpingcube
KTron

So, if any of your favorite games are listed above, join the kdegames-devel mailing list and volunteer to help your game to be included in KDE 4.1. I myself would really like KTron and Ksnake to be ported.

Oh, by the way, the ported games look really polished and beautiful. For more information, refer this announcement or the kdegames module release co-ordinator's blog here.

Preview of new KDE4!

2007-05-05T11:26:00.000-04:00

Saw some great videos of KDE4 on youtube today. You can watch them below. I wonder if this means the end of compiz and beryl as we know it. Regardless, just can't wait for kde 4 to be released. It's gonna be great! Gnome developers better do something to keep up.

Even Bender hates Windows... lol

2007-04-28T10:26:00.000-04:00

I just saw an episode of Futurama today where Bender makes a hilarious joke about Windows. Check it out!

See? Even machines hate running Windows...

Ntfs read/write on openSUSE with ntfs-3g!

2007-04-24T01:59:00.000-04:00

Ntfs-3g has reached 1.0 and this means that you can now safely write on your Windows ntfs partitions!

To install ntfs-3g for openSUSE, you need to add this repository as source to Yast. Just install ntfs-3g and fuse from the repo.

Also change the type from ntfs to ntfs-3g in your /etc/fstab file for the ntfs partitions. Remember to remove the 'ro' (read only) option from the fstab entries for the ntfs partitions. Reboot and your ntfs partitions will now be writable!

Installing SUSE without CD

2007-04-23T08:40:00.000-04:00

Like many linux distros, openSUSE has a fast release cycle of about 6-9 months. Burning 5 CDs for the distribution or a DVD every time a new version is released, wastes a lot of CDs and DVDs. It's also bad for the environment.

There is an alternate method to install openSUSE using a DVD iso image only, without burning it to CD/DVD. Also if your PC does not, for some reason, boot from CD/DVD this method can be useful. An existing Windows FAT32 partition from a dual-boot setup has been used here. Also, I am assuming that you have grub as the boot-loader and have an existing Linux distribution, preferably SUSE, installed.

First, download the latest openSUSE Goldmaster DVD iso image on a FAT32 partition. You can do that from here.

Next unpack the iso image contents into a folder on the partition and name that folder 'openSUSE'. This folder should be created in the root of the FAT32 partition.

Next, in the openSUSE folder, go into boot -> i386 -> loader. From this folder you will need to pick up two files - linux and initrd. Copy these somewhere and rename then as 'suselinux' and 'suseinitrd' respectively. Move them over to /boot folder of your Linux partition or whichever partition you have the bootloader installed.

Next, in /boot/grub/menu.lst file of your Linux partition, add an entry with the title as 'Install openSUSE' and the lines specifying kernel and initrd to 'kernel /boot/suselinux' and 'initrd /boot/suseinitrd'. The entry for 'root' should be the same as that for your existing Linux distro entry in the file. The new entry should look something like this:

title Install openSUSE
root (hd0,1) ---> change to whatever is appropriate for your system
kernel /boot/suselinux
initrd /boot/suseinitrd

Sometimes in some distros, it is not necessary to specify '/boot' in the entries. So look out for the syntax in the other similar entries in the file. Save the file.

Find out the name for the FAT32 partition where you unpacked the DVD iso (it will be something like hda1, hda5, hdb1 etc). Restart your computer.

In the grub menu, select 'Install openSUSE'. The installation of openSUSE should start now.

The installer will ask you to insert CD1 as the first step of the installation. Select OK without inserting any CD.

Next select the language and the keyboard layout. The installation should now show you a list of options to select from. In the middle, there will be an option 'Start installation or System'. Select it and then select 'Start installation or Update'.

Then, the installer will give a list of methods which you can use for installation. Select the hard disk option here.

Next the installer will show a list a partitions from which you can choose. Choose the entry corresponding to the FAT32 partition.

Then the installer will ask for the installation directory on the partition. Enter 'openSUSE' as the directory name. It should now detect the installation directory and begin loading Yast2 and the graphical installation should start as normal.

During this installation, make sure that you do not enter the mount point for the FAT32 partition as the installation fails later. Be very very careful here. You can set the mount point later after openSUSE has been installed. Also, do not set the FAT32 partition to be formatted during installation.

The installation should complete normally now and you should have a brand new openSUSE distro installed and all without burning any CDs/DVD. The unpacked DVD folder is not required after the installation and you can safely delete it. Also, you can copy the DVD iso over to the linux partition and set it as an installation source in Yast2.

If you have less than 512MB ram, you might face some problems like the installer asking to activate a swap partition or even refusing to start giving a 'no catalogue found' error. Hence, it would be better if you have at least 512MB of ram in order to install without major hassles.

The above method is the one which I generally use to upgrade my SUSE installations. For more detailed information and other methods of installation without CD, refer this page.

Keeping your PC secure and malware free

2007-04-23T04:19:00.000-04:00

Windows is the most dominant OS in the market today. But it is definitely not very secure. Windows has a history of critical security flaws which can virtually take full control over any PC running Windows. But there are a few simple steps that you can follow to make sure that your PC does not get infected. Here's a list -

1. Windows XP SP2.

Install Windows XP Service Pack 2 if you haven't done so already. It usually should have been already installed on your PC unless you have disabled automatic updates feature of XP. It contains many fixes for Windows vulnerabilities and most importantly, it activates the in-built firewall of XP.

2. Use a good Anti-Virus.

There are a number of anti-viruses available for Windows XP. Some of the popular ones include Norton, Mcafee, Nod32, Kaspersky, Trend Micro etc. If you have an old computer, I would recommend getting Nod32 as it uses very less memory and is also very fast. Do not use Windows Onecare. Most anti-viruses are not free but some like AVG are completely free and offer a decent level of protection against viruses.

3. Use a good Personal Firewall.

Although Windows firewall offers a decent level of protection, you would be better off it you use a good commercial firewall especially if you run a server on your PC. There are many firewalls available. I personally use ZoneAlarm as a firewall. I found it to be quite efficient, non-intrusive and also, it's completely free!

4. Use a good Anti-spyware.

What's the difference between virus and spyware? Well roughly, a virus tries to delete important system files and personal files on your computer causing serious problems for which you might have to reinstall Windows. But spyware installs itself on your computer to track your browsing habits and installs malicious adware and spyware on your PC and it does so without you even knowing it. It has very badly written hackish code because of which your PC can slow down, cause it to freeze unexpectedly and prevent it from even booting.
Anti-spyware software like Lavasoft Ad-aware, Spybot are available for free. Nowadays, most anti-virus companies also offer anti-spyware bundled in their internet security suites. But Ad-aware and Spybot offer much better protection.

5. Turn off File and Printer Sharing.

Unless you want to transfer files between computers directly very frequently or have a home network, you would not need this feature enabled. To disable File and Print Sharing, goto Control Panel -> Network and Internet Connections -> Network Connections. Right-click on the network connection shown as connected, select properties. De-select 'Client for Microsoft Networks' and 'File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks'. Click OK and you are done.

6. Make sure Automatic Updates is turned on.

Microsoft keeps on releasing fixes for critical flaws found in Windows on a monthly basis.
So it is better to have automatic updates turned on so that your PC keeps itself up-to-date with the fixes and you don't have to manually do it. Go to Control Panel and click Security Center (If you haven't installed SP2 first, you wont see this entry in the Control Panel.). Make sure all three lights for firewall, updates and anti-virus are green and their status is 'ON'. If not, click on them and Windows will tell you how you can turn them on.

7. Use a safe browser, use Firefox.

The browser is your interface to the internet and the gateway for malware to enter into your PC. Most malware problems are caused in the first place because of loopholes in Microsoft Internet Explorer which most people use. Firefox is a much safer browser to use than Internet Explorer. Plus, it's free! But if you really need Internet Explorer, at least use IE7. It is bit more secure. But I personally would still recommend using Firefox.

8. Don't install unknown software.

Tons and tons of software are available out there but all may not necessarily be well-behaved. Do not use software which you have never heard about. Make sure the software has a good review done somewhere. Most softwares which contain spyware are offered free of cost to make them attractive to the user. But once you install them, they open up a gateway for other such spyware to get installed on your PC.

9. Browse safely.

Don't visit shady sites or warez websites. Many are specifically built only to take advantage of vulnerabilites in Windows and takeover control of your computer. If you really want to browse such sites, use Firefox and disable javascript. Don't click on any pop-ups you might get unexpectedly. If you want to close a pop-up while browsing such sites, click the close button of the window.

10. Use Linux.

If you use your PC only for browsing the internet, use Linux OS instead of Windows. It is much more safer and reliable although installing it might be difficult. But once you have installed it, you can be sure that you will never get any virus, spyware or malware related problems ever. It is also available for free. There are any varieties of Linux available. If you have never used Linux before, you should use Ubuntu Linux.

If you follow the above measures, you should be free of any malware problems while using Windows. Happy surfing!

My Desktop.. (It's not Vista)

2007-04-22T05:34:00.000-04:00

This is a screenshot of my desktop that I use at home. To Windows users everywhere, it's not Vista. It's Linux!

Many people especially Windows users are unaware that you can have a PC without Windows loaded on it. But you can!

Linux is an operating system just like Windows or OSX.

Linux, however, is a totally free and you don't have to pay for it like you have to for Windows. Also, it's open source i.e. anyone can view the source code. This means that it is more secure as a lot of people have had a look at it's source. Windows however is closed-source so no one knows how many security holes it has.

Linux also is very much configurable, has tons of free quality software that works on it and all this comes in one package!

So, do you want to know how to get linux?

There are many linux distributions (i.e. flavors like mango, stawberry etc but it is still all ice-cream). The most easy to install is probably Ubuntu. This will get you started but wont overwhelm you as you make the switch from Windows.

Beware that since Windows has been dominant for many years, Linux is ideal for you if you use the PC only for surfing the net, playing music, movies etc, as specialized software is made only with Windows in mind. However, if you really want to run your Windows programs, it just might work on Linux using wine. Even Microsoft Office can run with Crossover Office. And games like WoW, Half-life, Counter-strike are just a click away with Cedega. Keep in mind that wine is free but Crossover Office and Cedega are not.

The Linux distro (short for distribution) I am using above is called openSUSE. It's made by Novell which has been popular for a long time for it's Netware operating system. I would recommend it to someone who is a little more technically inclined.

When installing Linux, you should dual-boot it with Windows i.e. keep both Windows and Linux on your PC (yes, two or more operating systems can be installed on a PC). This is because most probably, you are going to require Windows at some point of time.

Now, you might ask me, why Linux?

First of all, it's free!! (nothing can beat economics, right?) However, you may need to pay for getting manuals and technical support, if you really want them.

Secondly, it does not have viruses, spyware and a plethora of other such malware that plagues Windows. So it really gives you a sense of security and also increases your productivity.

Linux has a lot of excellent applications which you don't have in Windows. They are also all free! Let me list a few of them.

1. Amarok

This media player really rocks! It easily beats Windows Media Player hands down and is much better than iTunes or Winamp. Check it out and you wont regret that you got Linux!

2. OpenOffice.org

This is a free alternative to Microsoft Office and is somewhat compatible with Microsoft Office documents.. (It's not now because Microsoft does not want it to be so that it can sell it's own Office.)

3. Firefox Web Browser

This web browser is an alternative to Internet Explorer and also runs on Windows. It is very secure and web standards-compliant. You will not get any virus, spyware problems if you browse the net with this browser.

4. The GIMP

The GIMP is an advanced image editing software and can be used also as an excellent paint program. It's got tons of features and effects which you can use.

There are many more excellent applications available (all free) like Mplayer, Kaffeine, tvtime, Mythtv, Beagle Search, Apollon and more, but listing them all down here would be nearly impossible.

Linux also is a lot more configurable and if you are even a little bit technically inclined, you can make it look exactly like Vista, XP or even Mac OSX!

Now, to the fun part! The cube-like desktop which you see above is because of an application called Compiz. You can see in action in a Youtube video below. Check it out.

It is still in development and offers many cool desktop effects without sacrificing on stability and usability. And for the enthusiasts, it also offers effects which provide more eye-candy but sacrifices usability a little bit though.

Linux can be very useful especially when Windows is giving you trouble. I found it very handy to recover my data on a hard-disk when Windows refused to start and kept rebooting because of a virus problem. Just a quick boot to Linux, copy the essential files over to Linux partition or CD and it's done.

Linux is a very stable operating system and you cannot bring it down if you don't enter the root password (it's like a master key to all locks) anywhere. So you can give it to absolutely anyone to use without disclosing the root password and they wont be able to make serious changes like delete essential system files etc. Just create a new user account and you are ready to go again.

So with this, I hope to have convinced you to try Linux or even if you do not like it, just install it as a backup for your computer. Try it and I am sure you will like it.