MKLinuxOS ...HowTos and News in a neat way.

Sorry

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 18:29:00 +0000

..for not posting new screenshots and reviews... lots of issues have to be solved in my life :) but in a two or three weeks, I'll be here, with lots of news like Mandriva review, Ubuntu rev, PUD, Gentoo rev... etc etc... thanks for the understanding and don't forget this blog!

NEWS: Mandriva 2008.1 RC2 Released

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 21:22:00 +0000

So, this is the final release candidate, and pretty much this will be almost the same as the final release.. To read this review, read first NEWS: Mandriva 2008.1 RC1 Released because I don't want to write half the same stuff again, and I'll only note some stuff I didn't said in the RC 1 review, and point some new stuff found in RC 2.

First of all, here is the release announcement:

The sixth pre-release of Mandriva Linux 2008.1 is here. This pre-release includes support for easy synchronization of Windows Mobile 5+, Blackberry and Nokia devices, the Codeina multimedia codec installation system, support for Radeon HD 3xxx series graphics cards, more improvements to the Mandriva software installation tools, the finalized 2008 Spring theme, a new metapackage for easily installing a complete LAMP setup, and KDE 4.0.2.

Here the Live CD (with KDE) is being tested and written about. Here are some screenshots:

The screens show that most of the artwork is the same as in RC1, which is great. As in 2008.0 and in 2008.1 RC 1, an in almost every release before, you are asked to choose language, keyboard layout, time zone etc. Also it did recognized my display size, my graphics card (nVidia) and loaded the drivers. It also asked whether to use compiz-fusion, metisse or none of them. Now, i chose to use compiz, and it went with no glitches. OK, so let's what's different.

The first change (an eye-candy one) is the new colors in the wallaper.. It's not blue on both sides (left and right) but on the right an orange blend can be seen.
This is what was all about, it uses an XML file with several wallapers/color schemes (the orange one, a greenish one, and a blueish one), instead one wallaper. Something in the style of Fedora Infinity (Fedora 8 Wallpaper).

When it comes to multimedia, I saw a new item in the KDE menu, and that was Codeina. Codeina is meant for buying codecs (as I understood) that are missing from your OS, if you want them (legally at least). But, when the application was launched, I got this screen:

Now (the time of writing of this article) is March the 26th. So, Codeina/The Fluendo (Web) Shop has 5 days to launch ;).

Now I'm going to mention some nice things that are included in Mandriva.. One of them is KRandR.

It's used for changing monitor resolution and refresh rate with no fuss. Another thing, which I really, and I would like to see similar implementations in other distros is the 'Network and Internet Configuration'.

Which is the easiest way to set up your connection, with minimum knowledge. When all the steps are finished, you will get a notification.

Hoping to see a nice PowerPack DVD in the Final relase, and I also hope that some of my local magazines will give it with their issues :) :)

NEWS: openSUSE 11.0 Alpha 3 Released

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 14:09:00 +0000

First of all, for all people interested in downloading it, the download link. The single-CD installation media can be found also here: openSUSE-11.0-Alpha3-KDE-i386.iso, openSUSE-11.0-Alpha3-GNOME-i386.iso, openSUSE-11.0-Alpha3-KDE-x86_64.iso, openSUSE-11.0-Alpha3-GNOME-x86_64.iso. DVD torrents and live CD images are also available. The release announcement goes like this:

We are very happy to announce openSUSE 11.0 Alpha 3. The highlight is the re-worked Zypp framework, which gives you a much faster package management experience. This release also contains a new and professional installer theme. Many packages were also updated to newer versions: Linux kernel 2.6.25-rc5, GCC 4.3 final, GNOME 2.22 final, Compiz 0.7.2, KDE 4.0.2 and 3.5.9, Zypper 0.10.2. Due to the huge amount of changes, there are also quite a few bugs that slipped in.

Also there were 1855 checkins since Alpha 2.

So, lets take a look at the new artwork of the installer (artwork for the GNOME and KDE desktops is being made but it's not integrated in this Alpha):

GNOME, KDE, and XFCE are the three desktops that will be openSUSE-polished, and they are available for installation from the DVD media. Fluxbox and others are found in openSUSE repository and can be installed online, but they are not recommended always.

KDE 4.0.2 is included, and in the final release, a descent release with KDE 4.1.X should be included. Which we all hope to. As a Alpha release, it has many bugs, which all releases which are in development do. So, an up-to-date bug list can be found here: Most_Annoying_Bugs_11.0_dev.

Note: All images/screens taken from Screenshots/openSUSE_11.0_Alpha3 wiki page.

NEWS: Clonezilla Live 1.0.9-19 Released

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 09:34:00 +0000

If you are in search of a tool like Norton Ghost, Clonezilla is the one you need. This is a Debian based distro, made in Taiwan, which works as a live CD only. In case you want to download the 90MB iso, here is the link. And also, here is the release announcement:

Clonezilla Live 1.0.9-19 (stable) released. This release is a bug-fixed one with some minor updates: fixed - Memtest86, FreeDOS and Etherboot were not listed in syslinux boot; fixed - CCISS RAID device restoration was broken; fixed - when 'ocs-iso -s' or 'ocs-live-dev -c -s' was run, Etherboot and FreeDOS images were not copied; syslinux related files are now in /syslinux; added sdparm, zip and unzip; makeboot.exe is replaced by makeboot.sh so that USB flash drive will boot successfully with kernel under /casper; Partclone 0.0.6 is used now so clone.fat is available; more descriptions were added to the boot menu; an option for VGA mode 640x480 was added.

When the CD was booted, I didn't knew what to expect, this was the first time I had tried Clonezilla. So, here is the first screen:

Because of the file size of the disk, I expected to see XFCE and a GUI tool for cloning.. But, I was wrong, the whole process is text mode. The developers have indeed made a real Norton Ghost replacement ;)

Although the whole process in text mode, it is very easy and intuitive. You enter the keyboard layout, language, select whether to make image of partition, or to make a partition out of an image, or to clone one partition to another. Very easy. I made an image of my root partition with no fuss.

For everything else about Clonezilla, here is their page at Sourceforge. There are docs, wikis, mailinglists, etc...

NEWS: Foresight Linux 2.0 Released

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 09:10:00 +0000

So, after all the Alpha and Beta releases, here is the final one. For download go here. There are a lot of new features in this release, as well as the newest in the GNOME desktop and applications. Before commenting and posting screenshots, here is the official release announcement:

Foresight Linux 2.0 has been released. New in version 2.0: a new tar-based installer that should install in less than 10 minutes, including formatting a 200 GB hard drive; PackageKit to help users update their system and add and remove software; Syslinux, a new bootloader to replace GRUB; GNOME-Do to quickly search for many items present in a GNOME desktop environment (applications, Evolution contacts, Firefox bookmarks, files, artists and albums in Rhythmbox, Pidgin buddies, etc.) and perform commonly used actions on those items. Users should also find it much easier to use binary video card drivers from NVIDIA and ATI than in Foresight 1.x. Transmission is also included as the default Bittorrent application.

It comes in two choices, x86, and 64bit one. The DVDs are install only, there is no Live Session available. When the media is booted, the following screen appears:

Yeah, the boot loader is not GRUB, nor LILO. It's SysLinux, and as the creators state, it's supposed to replace GRUB.

The installer is Anaconda (made by Red Hat, and used in Fedora also), the installation is really about 10 mins, as stated in the release announcement. Thanks to the new tar-based installer. Now, after the installation, the greenish theme will welcome you.

The theme is little different than in Foresight 1.4, the previous one was green-to-yellow somehow. A large selection of wallpapers is offered also.

Now, when it comes to applications, PackageKit is here to manage adding and removing packages, as well as updating the whole system. Also, GNOME 2.22 was included with all of its packages. When it comes to GNOME 2.22 here is their release announcement:

Addition of Cheese, a tool for taking photos from webcams and Remote Desktop Viewer; basic window compositing support in Metacity; introduction of GVFS; improved playback support for DVDs and Youtube, MythTV support in Totem; internationalised clock applet; Google Calendar support and message tagging in Evolution; improvements in Evince, Tomboy, Sound Juicer and Calculator.

Cheese is a nice funny application, and it can take and save photos or clips from your webcam.

Only one package was missing, and that was GIMP. But, the developer/s of Foresight said that GIMP was removed due to they wanted to shrink the whole media from a DVD to a single CD. Besides GIMP, everything else was here, all the Office needed packages, all the games that are included in GNOME project, even Transmission was included, as the default torrent client. Firefox was also here, as the default web browser. And if you want to search for an item in the GNOME desktop enviroment (applications, Evolution contacts, Firefox bookmarks, files, artists and albums in Rhythmbox, Pidgin buddies... ) GNOME-Do in there for you. Brasero is the CD/DVD burning solution, and Banshee was also included, which is a nice audio media player. Popular media codecs were lacking, and proprietary video drivers, which is understandable why.

There was one thing that i really liked, and that is the Foresight Linux User Guide. Just click System, and click on the icon which launches the guide.

For everything lacking, here is explained how to get to it. Meaning popular media codecs, video card drivers, getting compiz, Conary and PackageKit are explained, and so on... A great introduction for newbies, which will solve a lot of their problems :)

Only one weird thing happened to me. When i started the OS, and the first time it booted, there was no sound. The icon showed that it was muted. I launched the sound mixer, and all the channels were OK. Then i figured, PulseAudio. I started the PulseAudio volume control, and there, the mute button was ticked. So I unticked it, and Banshee was playing with no fuss.

Nevertheless PulseAudio is well integrated and the sound is great, with no glitches. One great thing about it is that you can control the volume of separate applications, or even mute a separate application/stream.

Overall, the installation went great, the user experience was great, PackageKit is easy to use, the User Guide is a great plus, all GNOMEish apps (except GIMP) are included... So, if there is someone who wants a different and fresh GNOME based desktop, Foresight is one of the best choices.

HOWTO: install Oracle-XE in Mint 4.0 KDE CE

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 16:35:00 +0000

Although this is a very specific HowTo, except the installation of the package, the other steps are identical in all Linux distributions.

Step 1: go to the official oracle-xe site, and download the package. Because we want to install it on Mint, we download the deb package, oracle-xe-universal_10.2.0.1-1.0_i386.deb. In order to download the package, you'll have to register, but fear not, it's free :). Then, before installing this package, in the package manager install libaio, because in order to install oracle-xe this package must be preinstalled. Libaio can be installed using Adept, only run this package manager, type in the search bar libaio, click request install, click apply, and it's done.

Step 2: Now we are going to install oracle-xe-universal_10.2.0.1-1.0_i386.deb. This cannot be done using Adept, because this package cannot be found in Ubuntu or Mint's repositories because is proprietary software.

So, double click on oracle-xe-universal_10.2.0.1-1.0_i386.deb, and KPackage will appear. You will get a screen like this one:

Click on Install, and wait for a moment for the installation process to finish.

Step 3: Open Konsole, type su, and enter the root password. Next, type /etc/init.d/oracle-xe configure and press enter. The next text will appear:

This will configure on-boot properties of Oracle Database 10g Express
Edition.  The following questions will determine whether the database should
be starting upon system boot, the ports it will use, and the passwords that
will be used for database accounts.  Press  to accept the defaults.
Ctrl-C will abort.

Next, it will ask for a port number, which will be used to access oracle-xe, so change the default one (which is 8080) with the desired one, e.g. 5050:

Specify the HTTP port that will be used for Oracle Application Express [8080]:5050

The next port number can be left the same, which is used for the database listener. So instead inserting a new number, just press enter, and leave the default one (which is 1521).

Specify a port that will be used for the database listener [1521]:
Specify a password to be used for database accounts.  Note that the same
password will be used for SYS and SYSTEM.  Oracle recommends the use of
different passwords for each database account.  This can be done after
initial configuration:

So, enter the password, and after that it will ask You again for confirmation, so enter it again. The last input is whether to start or not the database service at startup.

Do you want Oracle Database 10g Express Edition to be started on boot (y/n) [y]:y
Starting Oracle Net Listener...Done
Configuring Database...Done
Starting Oracle Database 10g Express Edition Instance...Done
Installation Completed Successfully.
To access the Database Home Page go to "http://127.0.0.1:5050/apex"

And it's done. New icons should appear in the menu, meaning something like this:

Step 4: Click on 'Go To Database Homepage' login with the account SYS, and with your entered password. When you login, you can create more accounts, with different passwords, and different restrictions. For more tricks and tips on working with Oracle XE here is a nice official tutorial.

Life Saviour: Root Actions Servicemenu

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 11:34:00 +0000

In case you use Kubuntu, Mint KDE edition, Mandriva, or another KDE based desktop, 'Root Actions Servicemenu' allows admin users to perform several root only actions from Konqueror (the KDE file/web browser). That is a very good thing, not everybody likes to use Konsole/Terminal.

Lets take a look at it now:

Infact, this works with all distros that have sudo/kdesu installed and that the user is authorized to use sudo/kdesu. The installation is pretty simple, there are three *.desktop files in the archive that need to be placed in ~/.kde/share/apps/konqueror/servicemenus and one script rootactions-servicemenu.pl which needs to be pasted in /usr/local/bin or /usr/bin. I prefer in /usr/bin. Note, if you want all of the users to have the menu, copy the three *.desktop files in /usr/share/apps/konqueror/servicemenus instead.

When a folder is selected, the service menu gives the following options:

Open With - opens the selected item/items with a program of our choice;
Copy/Move/Rename/Delete - basic file operations, but in ROOT mode, so be carfeul;
Ownership to Root - changes ownership of the selected items to root:root;
Ownership to Active User - changes ownership of the selected items to current user e.g. martin:martin;
Ownership to ... - changes ownership of the selected items to a UserID:GroupID which we want;
Change Permissions - changes permissions of the selected items;
Open Terminal Here - opens a terminal session in the folder we are located in ROOT mode;
Open in File Manager - opens Konqueror but in ROOT mode, meaning there are no restrictions;

When a file is selected, the service menu gives the following options:

Open as Text - opens the selected item/items in Kate (the default text editor)
Open With - opens the selected item/items with a program of our choice;
Copy/Move/Rename/Delete - basic file operations, but in ROOT mode, so be carfeul;
Ownership to Root - changes ownership of the selected items to root:root;
Ownership to Active User - changes ownership of the selected items to current user e.g. martin:martin;
Ownership to ... - changes ownership of the selected items to a UserID:GroupID which we want;
Change Permissions - changes permissions of the selected items;

To download this great menu, go to kde-apps.org. There you can also post comments, suggestions, submit a translation (although there are a lot of translations already) and get help if needed.

For Mandriva users, there is a similar RPM package, so you don't need to copy all those files... Just install the package 'openasroot-kmenu'.

NEWS: Linux MINT 4.0 KDE CE Released

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 10:13:00 +0000

The latest edition of Mint, in KDE flavor, in it's Community Edition... The download links are available, as well as the release notes. Here is the announcement:

Linux Mint 4.0 KDE released. Daryna KDE is nearly as 'minty' as the main edition now. The packages are (safely) up to date and the kernel is the Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon kernel 2.6.22. Mint applications: mintInstall, mintwifi, mintUpdate, mintAssistant, mintUpload. Minted versions of Firefox, Sunbird. Changes since the beta release: fixed the HAL USB NTFS problem; changed some Compiz default settings to make it more KDEish and fix a known bug; added a Linux Mint user agent to Konqueror and pre-added some sites to use the Mint user agent. This helps people know Linux Mint is out and about.

When the DVD (yes this one comes on a DVD, and is 1GB) is booted, the following screens appears:

In the Main edition everything was greenish, but here everything is blueish, which gives a better feel. When booting, tree options are given, to boot the DVD in 'normal' and safe mode, and to boot the HDD (meaning to skip the DVD). The bootsplash is simple, infact, all of the artwork is simple, but it's nicer. The default window decoration is 'Domino' and the default window border is 'Crystal'. That is a very nice combination indeed. So, lets install the Mint.

A lots of languages are available in which the installer is localized:

Now find yourself in the world ;)

Is asks for keyboard layout, and if manual partition setup is selected, this nice screen will appear. One thing I don't know, is this installer the same as in Ubuntu, or is it ported in QT? Nevertheless it does it job as it should.

When the installation finishes, you can remain in the Live Session, or restart and take a look at the newly installed Linux distro.

MINT features KDE 3.5.8, and Linux kernel 2.6.22. These are not the newest packages, but are pretty stable, which is more important. Homebrew Mint packages are: mintInstall, mintWiFi, mintUpdate, mintAssistant, and mintUpload. Ohter highlights in the default applications are: Internet: Firefox, KFTPGrabber, KGet, Kopete, Krdc, Krfb, KTorrent, Thunderbird, and so on... Graphics: digiKam, GIMP, Gwenview, Hugin panorama creator, Inkscape, KPdf, Scribus... Multimedia: AmaroK, K3b, k9copy, Kaffeine, KAudioCreator, KMix, KsCD and MPlayer.

MPlayer and Kaffeine are here for video playback, and AmaroK is for all of the audio filetypes. Almost all multimedia formats are playable. So, next, in Office: HPLIP Fax Utility and Fax address book, KArm, KMyMoney, KNotes, the whole OpenOffice.org suite, and an Online Dictionary.

OpenOffice.org in the latest stable version, 2.3. And, now, lets continue, in Settings: Compiz, Enable KWin, Emerald Theme Manager, mintInstall, Ndiswrapper, and so on... in System: Adept, Envy, HPLIP Toolbox, kbluetooth, KCron, Keep, KInfoCenter, Konsole, Kpackage, kpowersafe and so on... in Utilities: Ark, Filelight, KArm, Katapult, Kate, KJobViewer, Skim and lots more.... I also liked that Java was preinstalled here, and I'm glad to see that Envy is still here, to take care of installing nVidia drivers without fuss.

Mint Offers a healthy package selection, and for the average desktop user, everything is given. The packages are not the newest/beta/rc but are the latest stable ones, which is also a big plus. Another thing that I liked is that the Filelight was associated in the file browser.

So, on whichever folder you like, right-click it, and open it in Filelight, to have it analyzed. To sum up, this is a really nice Community Edition, and if you are in search of a new desktop replacement for your Linux PC, give this one a try, it wont dissapint you. But if you want commercial support, try the Main edition. Imagine Kubuntu, with everything it misses included, well, Mint 4.0 KDE CE it the answer.

NEWS: SLAX 6.0.2 Released

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 18:36:00 +0000

So, here is the new release announcement:

What is the point of a new release every week? Well, I guess there is none. If you don’t need it, don’t download it The version 6.0.2 fixes several bad bugs introduced by the previous release, and it also adds patched Gtk+2, to fix the konqueror+flash hangups. So now you can watch this youtube’s video in Slax as well, just to celebrate with me that I’ve just lost $17000 on forex thanks to InterbankFX’s idiotic rules.

As stated, this release compared with the previous one (6.0.1) features several bugfixes. The downloaded iso image is 192.2MB, and when it's booted the following screen appears:

Several options can be seen, Graphics Mode which loads KDE 3.5.9 as the default desktop, the second options copies the whole SLAX to RAM, Vesa mode, Text mode, and Memtest, which tests your system RAM.

If Graphics Mode is selected, the following screens will appear soon:

As seen, except the wallpaper, almost everything seems the same as in Slax 5 at first sight. The same applications are here, Juk, Kopete, K3B etc... The KDE theme remains unchanged (why?), it seems that the developers don't want or don't have time for wasting on eye candy. But that's not a problem, kde-look.org is always here ;)

Modules are easily added, although there aren't many, the key ones are here. The Slax Module Manager is the package management system, and installing modules is very easy, just download a module from HERE, click Add a new Module, find it, and it's done. NOTE, currently the modules page is in development and only four modules are available, Firefox, Thunderbird, Krusader and Wine. We all hope that this page will have more healthy selection soon.

And, in the end, some stats. Linux Kernel 2.6.24 is used, KDE 3.5.9 is featured, and (almost) all of the default desktop applications are KDE based. They are: the most important first, Internet: Konqueror, KMail, Kopete, Akregator, Krdc, Krfb, KNetAttach; then in Games: KBattleship, KBounce, Patience; Graphics: Kuickshow, KolourPaint, KSnapshot, KColorChooser; Office: Word, KPresenter, KSpread, KPDF, Kontact; in Utilities are found: KCalc, Kjots, KWrite, Ark, KNotes, Klipper; and finally in System: KInfoCenter, KSysGuard, KDE Printer and the Slax Module Manager. It's a nice set of applications for a 192MB.

Although a lot of improvement is done since SLAX 5, and a lot of bugs are fixed, I think that a lot of improvement is still needed. Multimedia features are still lacking although it played all my video files, hardware support is OK, but (as some people say) some specific dirvers aren't found by default. I tried it in VirtualBox and on a standard Office P4 PC, and everything worked fine (when it comes to hardware recognition).

It's a nice distro, and it's easy customizable, but when it comes about customization, there will be another post/howto about that ;) I recommend SLAX to everyone who wants a light KDE based Live CD.

NEWS: Parted Magic 2.1 Released

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 08:50:00 +0000

If, you are tired of reading, and only for the screenshots, it's Okay, the important thing you should know compared between PM2.1 and PM2.0 is that this release is mainly bugfix release. It features: Linux kernel 2.6.24.2, NTFS-3G 1.2216, VisParted is now able to create ext4 partitions. Bugs are fixed, and drivers have been added.

Parted Magic comes in Live CD, USB, and PXE. Here the Live CD is tried. When you boot the disk, the image above is given.

After booting, you can notice the XFCE desktop enviroment. PM 2.0 featured GTK+ H20 theme, but in 2.1 is replaced with Clearlooks.

This CD is a tool for managing disk partitions, and for this feature, VisParted does the job. VisParted is a fork of GParted, and is improved by the lead developer, Patrik. You can create, restore, backup and delete partitions. Supported file systems are: forext2, ext2, ext3, ext4, fat16, fat32, hfs, hfs+, jfs, xfs, inux-swap, ntfs, reiserfs, and reiser4.

Besides VisParted, lots of other tools are included. One of them is Test Disk, which is used for scanning and repairing partitions. There is also a tool to create a Live USB, but, you should know that, for a Live USB to boot, the PC should be able to boot USB drives. Other tools included are Partition Image, List Partition Table, Test Disk, PhotoRec, Iso Master, Conky, Galculator, Hardware Lister, Save Files, Find Utility and so on..

If you wish for a complete list of all of the programs found in Parted Magic (X based, and Command Line Based ones), go HERE.

The package management system is simple and in 7zip compression, and adding new programs is much more easier. Besides the tools for managing partitions, new programs found here (and in 2.0) are: Start Network, Firefox, Grsync, and lftp.

Start Network is used to establish a working connection, to configure the LAN, etc. It's a simple and powerful tool. Also, Firefox is included, for web browsing, and it's a nice touch. My overall impression is really good, and I think that everyone who reinstalls their operating system once in a while needs this disk.

NEWS: Mandriva 2008.1 RC1 Released

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 07:31:00 +0000

It was March the first, and Mandriva 2008.1 RC 1 was released.. Several download options are given, mandriva...dvd-i586.iso (X86 DVD, 3,882MB, MD5), mandriva...dvd-x86_64.iso (64Bit DVD, 3,894MB, MD5), mandriva...GNOME-int-cdrom-i586.iso (X86 "One" GNOME CD, 700MB, MD5), mandriva...KDE-int-cdrom-i586.iso (X86 "One" KDE CD, 696MB, MD5).

Here, the Live KDE CD "One" is being tested. I couldn't find nowhere whether KDE 3.5.9 or KDE 4.0.1 is found on the CD. On the DVD, it's noted that both are given. Is that so hard to write it somewhere? So, now I'm gonna clear it for those who are interested, in the Live CD, KDE 3.5.9 in given. AND what I noticed first, was the beautiful new artwork.

The new artwork is really better than the one found in 2008.0 (it's 'techy' and clear), first thing I did when I installed 2008.0 was getting new themes and screens (didn't liked the one with the small vector people, maybe they wanted to make it look 'for the people' who knows..). So, after booting, the new bootsplash looks like this,

As 2008.0 and the releases before, you are asked to choose language, keyboard layout, time zone etc. Also it did recognized my display size, my graphics card (nVidia) and loaded the drivers during booting. It also asked whether to use compiz-fusion, metisse or none of them. I chose none of them, cause I'm not for the eye candy and bling bling, functionality and performance are more important for me.

The theme is not much changed, it is still "La Ora", but I kinda like it. The "Menu" button is very similar to the one found in 2008.0 but it's nicer. The default menu and app browser is not KickOff, but it's the old one, the default kde 3.5 menu. It woild be nice if KickOff finds it's way here in the final release. The overall look and feel is very similar to the one in 2008.0.

Pulse Audio is integrated, and I didn't had any problems playing mp3's and hearing the system sounds.

When it comes to packages, the default package selection seems the same, but with lots of updates. OpenOffice.org is included with the latest pre-release, 2.4. In the Final version of 2008.1 the final version of OpenOffice.org 2.4 will be included.

Gimp is in 2.4.4 version, and Firefox is in 2.0.0.12 and it's (still) the default web browser. As in 2008.0, Flash plugin is included, and I didn't had problems playing clips from YouTube (this seems to be a thing everybody checks when talking about a new release).

Movies in varuous codecs are playable, Kaffeine is still the default movie player, and in my opinion the best one for KDE. I think that Mandirva supports more media formats by default than OS X supports. I tried movies in DivX, Xvid, x264, 3gp... everything was playable.

What I really liked in this release (and in 2008.0) is that the system is reliable and stable. I hope that the final release of 2008.1 will also be like that.

The kernel included is 2.6.24.2 by the way. The Mandriva Control Center, and the KDE Control Panel haven't changed, and they still do their job as they should ;). NOW, what i really liked in this release, and It wasn't included in the previous KDE releases, is that the removable media has an icon in the 'tray' (the floppy, the USB, etc). So, when you plug your USB, a new icon will appear and you can easily click safely remove (only click on the icon, and click on the label). The other (old skool) way to do this, is to go to the 'Storage Media' folder, do a left click on the desired USB, and then to select the label. This is a nice touch for all newbies, and it makes it easier for everyone.

Only one thing I miss, and that is Wine. Some distros like Ubuntu have Wine in their default package selection, and it would be nice to see it in here also.

To give some stats in the end, KDE 3.5.9, KDE 4.0.1, and GNOME (with new default applications like Transmission, Brasero, and HomeBank) are given in RC1. And, to sum up, this release is a nice upgrade from 2008.0 and if the Mandriva developers stay on the track they found themselves with 2008.0, the final release of 2008.1 will be something what lot's of people look for.

HOWTO: installing Ubuntu 8.04 Alpha 5

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 17:44:00 +0000

As the new release of Ubuntu (8.04) coming i decided to give it a try, and made a simple HOWTO for those people who never installed Ubuntu. So, let's start.

Step 1: Insert the Disk, and select Install Ubuntu.

Step 2: Only wait a minute ;)

Step 3: Here click Forward, to start with the installation process.

Step 4: Select Your desired language, and then click Forward.

Step 5: Select Your location, and then click Forward.

Step 6: Select the Keyboard Layout, and then click Forward.

Step 7: Guided partition is recommended for first-time users, so leave it, and click Forward.

Step 8: Here input Name, Surname, Username and Password, and click Forward.

Step 9: Here a simple overview will be shown, if some of the settings aren't as desired, you can click Back, if the settings are OK, then click Install, and let the installer do it's job ;)

Step 10: The installing starts...

...and this procedure will finish in about 20 min, then the PC restarts, and you have your Ubuntu installed. Download links for Ubuntu 8.04 Alpha 5: Download: hardy-desktop-i386.iso, hardy-desktop-amd64.iso.

HOWTO: restore GRUB after XP/Vista install

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 18:30:00 +0000

Imagine the next scenario, you install a Linux Distribution, then install a Windows operating system. All of the sudden, you cannot boot the Linux, and the computer directly boots up the XP, or Vista. You don't have to be afraid, the Linux isn't deleted, it's untouched, only the boot selector is overwritten with the one of the Windows.

All you have to do is download 'Super Grub Disk' and burn the image to a blank CD. It's about 4MB, and it does it job as it's supposed to.

When you boot it up, the following screen will show up:

Then press Enter, and the following screen will appear:

Now, here is what you can do:
First of the easier options is to select 'GRUB => MBR & !LINUX! AUTO' and then the Live CD will find the overwritten Grub, and give it's options (which it had, the operating systems listed and etc.) and you can select your installed Linux Distribution now. And when you are logged in Your Linux Distribution, you can install the GRUB again, and add in it the newly installed Windows as one of the options in the GRUB.
Second of the easier options is to select 'Super Grub Disk (WITH HELP)' where first you choose your language, then a few lines of explanations first will be shown, and then a list of options will be listed as in the last screenshot posted in this post/HowTo. Cause we want to restore GRUB, we select 'Gnu/Linux' and follow the next steps.

In my case, i had openSUSE 10.3 installed. And I installed Windows SP 2 (need it for college/studying). Then I chose 'GRUB => MBR & !LINUX! AUTO' and I booted in openSUSE, logged in, started YaST, clicked on the BOOT icon, installed GRUB again, and the problem was solved.

NEWS: DreamLinux 3.0 Beta 3 Released

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 16:57:00 +0000

I'm happy to copy/paste the official release announcement:

We are proud to announce the 3rd and last beta before the final release. The following applications were included in this release: gThumb replacing GQview, Pidgin instant messenger, NDISwrapper module, WineQ + Wine Doors installer. Fixes and improvements: now booting from any CD-ROM unit; improved Dreamlinux control panel and installer; theme switcher on GNOME changes theme without the need to restart X; network now set up to automatically start during boot; CUPS also starting up on boot; new wizard for Emerald themes; new wallpapers and icons; new Avant window manager themes; new GDM themes, now featuring countdown; other minor overall improvements.

This is the final/third Beta release, and here are some screenshots:

pic 1: the boot selector

GNOME DESKTOP

pic 2,3...6: GNOME Desktop screenshots

XFCE DESKTOP

pic 7,8...11: XFCE Desktop screenshots

All of the screens taken are in PNG quality, and the more important screens are taken, as Dreamlinux Control Panel, GNOME Control Center, XFCE Settings Manager, etc.

Only one thing I didn't liked. I had write support on the NTFS partitions on my Computer. Is that OK from security aspects? Except that, my overall one-hour-live-cd impression is really good.

HOWTO: change the boot theme in Mandriva 2008.0 and PCLinuxOS

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 12:16:00 +0000

Customizing your installed Linux distribution is getting more and more easier. And adding a personal touch to it is a very nice thing everyone feels happy to do. Here we are going to change the boot theme in a few easy steps. Note that this HowTo is made only for Mandriva and therefore it is made also for PCLinuxOS (which is a fork of Mandriva). So, let's start.

Step 1: start the Mandriva Linux Control center, and click on the boot tab. You should get the following screeen:

Step 2: click on the 'Set up boot graphical theme of system' icon. If you click this icon for the first time, a new window will appear asking you to download some packages which are needed. You will approve that. After it downloads and installs the packages, automatically, a new window will appear.

Step 3: to create a new theme, click on the 'Create new theme' button. If you one to selest one from the ones premade, select one from the 'Theme' box in the up left corner of the window. So, we click 'Create new theme'. The following screen appears and we proceed to step 4:

Step 4: and this is where it is all about. This new window is the package we downloaded, called DrakSplash. (I mentioned that this is a HowTo only for Mandriva and it's forks cause DrakSplash is a Mandriva produced package. Every application which has 'drak' od 'drake' in it's name is made by Mandriva, or formerly Mandrake.)

You will see two tabs in DrakSplash called 'Silent bootsplash' and 'Verbose bootsplash'. Set first a theme name, and leave the resolution in 800X600 (recommended). Now go to Silent bootsplash. Select a picture, and position the progress bar (either with your mouse pointer, or with the sliders on the DrakSplash) on your desired location. Then pick the colors for the progress bar, and the coordinates for the text. Move now to the tab Verbose bootsplash. I recommend you to choose the same picture. Now customize this part by moving the X and Y coordinate of the text box, and by making the width and height of the same text box. In the end, click on the button Save theme and there you go! Reboot the PC to see your success.

NEWS: OpenSolaris Developer Preview 2 Available

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 11:53:00 +0000

Project Indiana is a great project, which aims to put the OpenSolaris platform line by line with the Linux one which dominates the open source desktop. The aim is to create a binary distribution based on OpenSolaris source code, and the end product should be an attractive installable Live CD. First things first, here is the release announcement:

I'm pleased to announce that OpenSolaris Developer Preview 2 is now available for your download pleasure. This is an x86-based live CD install image, containing some new and emerging OpenSolaris technologies and should be considered a developer preview only. Among the spiffy features contained in this release are: based on Nevada build 79b; pkg(1) improvements, including progress reporting, verification support and incremental catalog update; ksh93 is the default system shell (bash remains the default user shell); introduction of /usr/has/bin (experimental); addition of several new packages, including OpenOffice.org 2.3.1; JRE included by default.

The following drivers are included:
NVIDIA Graphics System Software (nvidia)
ADMtek Ethernet Driver (afe)
AMD8111 Fast Ethernet Driver (amd8111s)
Davicom 9102 Fast Ethernet Driver (dmfe)
Macronix Fast Ethernet Driver (mxfe)
Nvidia ck804 pro / mcp55 pro combo SATA driver (nvsata)
Sun NIU leaf driver (nxge)
Ralink RT2500 802.11b/g Wireless Driver (ralink)
realtek 8180L 802.11b driver (rtw)
USB Keyspan serial driver (usbsksp)

This release is a big thing, and these days I'm hoping to install it and test it. For anyone else interested in doing the same thing, here is the download link. For more details see the official release annoucement in which the OpenSolaris team says that users to provide feedback and bugs on the hardware recognition and issues. So if you want to contribute, here is how to report bugs.

NEWS: openSUSE 11.0 Alpha 2 Released

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 17:14:00 +0000

The Alpha 2 of the upcoming openSUSE 11 was announced. Note that it's still alpha version, and is not to be used for day-to-day work, but for testing purposes. So, here is the release announcement:

Only three weeks after Alpha 1, we are glad to announce the release of openSUSE 11.0 Alpha 2. There are various exciting changes in there that we would like to have feedback on. Changes since openSUSE 11.0 Alpha 1: KDE 4.0.1 replaced KDE 3.5.8 as the default KDE; GNOME 2.21.90 was integrated; continued work on the installation workflow; live CDs for both GNOME and KDE; CDs support German as an additional language; DVDs have only open source software; Linux 2.6.24; OpenOffice.org 2.4 Beta; ALSA 1.0.16rc2; D-Bus 1.2rc2.

If you wish to download an iso, go to software.openSUSE.org/developer for direct links to all the available media. Since Alpha 1, the installer was rewritten in Qt4, and is really nice and stable, and since Alpha 2, KDE 3.5.8 is replaced with 4.0.1. I must say that this is the first distribution with somewhat stable KDE 4 packages.

So, here are some screens of the installer:

According to the roadmap, on April 17th the first Beta will be released, on May 29th RC1, and the Public Release will be on June the 19th. We all hope that the final (public) release will be alive and kickin'. Detailed info about the roadmap can be found here. I think it's our (the community) obligation to test and submit bugs, so if someone wants to contribute and submit bugs, here's how to do that.

NEWS: Finnix 91.0 Released

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 23:52:00 +0000

First I will post the official release announcement, then I will introduce and explain Finnix "the LiveCD for system administrators" to those who don't know what it is, and in the end, some screenshots.

Finnix is a small, self-contained, bootable Linux CD distribution for system administrators, based on Debian testing. Today marks the release of version 91.0 for the x86/AMD64, PowerPC, and UML/Xen platforms.
Finnix 91.0 includes a new Linux kernel (2.6.24), automatic 32-bit/64-bit detection on the x86 platform, stackable RAID/LUKS/LVM detection and setup, and several bug fixes.

Automatic 32-bit/64-bit detection (x86)

If you press “enter” at the boot screen of Finnix 91.0 x86, the boot loader will now detect if you have a 64-bit capable CPU, and will load the appropriate kernel. You can still force 32-bit or 64-bit by entering the “finnix” or “finnix64″ boot profiles. Note that this is for the x86 Finnix CD only; PowerPC G5 users will still have to enter the “finnix64″ boot profile manually, as the yaboot boot loader does not have this capability.

Stackable RAID/LUKS/LVM

While RAID, LUKS (encryption) and LVM detection have been in Finnix for awhile now, they were loaded in a certain order, and some configurations were not detected as a result. With Finnix 91.0, most configurations should be detected. For example, an encrypted LVM set on top of two RAID disks should be set up automatically.

Bug fixes

While not a “major new feature”, several bug fixes were made for Finnix 91.0, including LVM/LUKS fixes, and multiple-level /dev block device detection corrections.

Home page: http://www.finnix.org/
Download: http://www.finnix.org/Download
Release notes: http://www.finnix.org/Finnix_91.0_release_notes

Finnix is based on Debian, but the name Finnix is no coincidently similar to Knoppix. Finnix has borrowed scripts from Knoppix which are after modified and are used for autodetection. It (Finnix) includes the following handy utilities LVM2, cryptsetup, cdpr, iftop, irssi, OTP calculator, VLAN tools, and robotfindskitten.

The good thing about Finnix is that can be run in only 192MB. Not all Live CD's run in 192MB. This is very good, considered that Finnix is aimed to be system rescue and administration CD.

The text editors found in Finnix are nvi as default editor, which is a small implementation of vi/vim. Also available are zile, nano, joe.

pic 1, pic 2: Finnix in VirtualBox

Finnix can be run on a Mac based on Intel processor also. This is fully supported and explained how here: Intel Macs. Also a lot of cheatcodes are available here. Cheatcodes are the startup options specified at the boot: prompt. One boot profile is selected, and after, multiple boot options can be appended by the user.

To conclude, Finnix is a nice non-general-purpose distro, aimed towards admins, which lacks bigger community and some HowTos and tricks, but for the purpouse for which is made, it does the job.

Exaile Vs. Amarok

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 12:57:00 +0000

Exaile is a free software audio player for Unix-like operating systems that aims to be similar to KDE's Amarok, but based on the GTK+ toolkit instead of the Qt toolkit Amarok uses.

First of all, I compared these two players, cause Exaile developers state that

"Exaile is a music player aiming to be similar to KDE's Amarok, but for GTK+ and written in Python."

or in other words, as Amarok is for KDE, Exaile is the same for GNOME. So, Exaile incorporates lot of the features found in Amarok, such as: fetching of album art (images are taken from Amazon) , easy handling of large music libraries, fetching of lyrics, getting artist and album information via Wikipedia, integration with last.fm, playlists, etc...

pic 1: Exaile in it's minimal possible dimensions, and Amarok in player mode

Exaile uses the GStreamer engine for playback, whereas Amarok uses XINE. There is a large list of plugins available in Exaile:

- Alarm Clock
Plays music at a specific time.
Note that when the specified time arrives, Exaile will just act like you pressed the play button, so be sure you have the music you want to hear in your playlist.

- AWN
Displays the current album's cover art, progress and/or remaining time in AWN.

- Music Sharing
Allows playing of DAAP music shares.
Depends: python-daap, python-avahi.

- Desktop Cover
Displays the current album cover on the desktop.

- Did You Know
Displays a 'did you know..' information from Wikipedia.
Press the 'i' icon the show the popup window. Double click on popup window to hide it.

- LibNotify
Uses libnotify to inform you when a new song starts.

- Global Hotkeys
Enables support for Global Hotkeys in metacity (default gnome window manager).

- iPod Device Driver
iPod Driver for the Devices Panel.

- Mass Storage Driver
Mass Storage Driver for the Devices Panel.

- No Taskbar Entry
Removes exaile from the taskbar.

- Resume Playback
Resumes playback after restarting exaile.

- Serpentine Plugin
Opens the songs in the current playlist for burning in.

- Shoutcast Radio
Allows you to browse the Shoutcast Streaming Radio network.

- Sound Juicer
Allows importing of cds with sound-juicer.

- Streamripper!
Allows you to record streams with streamripper.
Requires the command line version of streamripper to be installed.

- Update Notifier
Notifies the user of Exaile and plugin updates.

From all of these plugins, I only use streamripper (I listen to di.fm frequently, and the plugin does the job as It's supposed to), but It's a nice pugin list indeed. Only one thing really annoys me. The look and feel. Even Banshee (featured in openSUSE and written in MONO) has better look and feel (great look and feel infact) but cannot handle large libraries easily. And another thing is that It has set minimal height and width so it cannot be made smaller than some fixed dimension, and that is a bad thing. And the final con, the minimal mode if far worse than the player mode in Amarok.

To sum up, Exaile is a great player, but if It wants to dominate the GNOME desktop (like Amarok dominates the KDE deskop) a lots of work should be done, cause with competitors like Banshee, it isn't easy.

HOWTO: install openSUSE 10.3

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 22:16:00 +0000

Let's install openSUSE. It's a great distro, with big community, and a lot of support and on-line documentation. First lets download it, go to software.opensuse.org, I'll download and install Live CD KDE.

Now, burn the image to disk and reboot the PC with the disk inserted in it. It is very important to select properly the boot sequence in your BIOS. If the HDD if placed first in the sequence the CD/DVD-ROM will never boot the CD. If the boot sequence is properly set, you should get the following screen:

Select Installation and continue. In the next screen select the desired language, and click Next. Then, in the next window accept the license agreement and click Next.

What you will do here depends on a few things. Under Select Mode, choose New Installation. If you are installing openSUSE from your DVD, or an openSUSE retail boxed edition, then you can deselect Add Online Repositories Before Installation. In addition, if you have no wired Internet connection available at your computer, you will be unable to add these repositories and must deselect the option. However, we are installing openSUSE from a single CD and have a working Internet connection, so we'll keep the option selected and click Next.Click Next. The next screen has options that an advanced user may wish to change, but you can simply click Next. In this screen, you are able to select different repositories, or catalogs of software for your computer. The default selected includes all open source and proprietary software. Click Next and wait for the software catalog to build.

Select your region of the world in the left, and then your time zone in the right. Below the time zones, ensure that YaST is displaying the correct time and date. If not, click Change and adjust the time. After few Next clicks You'll get to the screen where it asks about Partitioning, where is how your computer is going to look after the installation is complete. If, for example, you have a Windows system installed currently, YaST will resize Windows to make enough room for openSUSE, but Windows will remain on your computer. Software are the applications YaST will install on your computer. Language lists what language packs YaST will install, and what will be the default language in the installed openSUSE system.

Read over the list and if you would like to change an option, click the title of the section. Consult the help text in YaST and in the Documentation for what to do in these screens.
If you're ready, click Accept.

Finally, the installation will begin. You can wait until the installation is complete.

Now that the installation has finished properly, and that the system has rebooted, you will set up a password for your Administrator account (root). Be sure to make the password easy to remember, but hard to guess. Repeat the password, then click Next.

On the next screen you can set up your host name. If you are not a part of a network, or you do not know what you should enter here, simply accept the defaults. Make any changes you wish, then click Next. In the next screen you will setup your network configuration. In most cases, you should click Next. If you notice any issues, you can change the option by clicking on the title of the option. Few Next clicks and screens go next, and the Users setup screen appears.

In the User's Full Name field, enter your full name. In Username, type a username. Usernames must be all lowercase. The enter your password and repeat it. It's recommended you deselect Autologin for security reasons. In the next screen YaST will write the configuration of your system to a file. You can simply wait for it to finish. The release notes are in the next screen, and here information about the setup and changes of the openSUSE system is displayed.

The next screen is the Hardware Setup screen, here YaST will auto-detect and auto-configure most hardware, and the hardware YaST has detected on your computer will appear here. If you see anything that is incorrect, or that you would like to change, select the title of that option. If not, click Next.

Sooooo, in the next screen you are finished setting up your openSUSE computer, and you can now log in to openSUSE. So simply click Finish.

Installation is now complete. Have a lot of fun!

images and tutorial taken, simplified and reinterpreted from openSUSE
http://en.opensuse.org/INSTALL_Local

HOWTO: try LIVE CD in VirtualBox

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 09:16:00 +0000

Isn't it nice to try the Live CD from any Linux Distro without the need to restart the computer, isn't it? It can be done using a 'virtual pc' program. First of all, why would you use such a program. The point is, before you install a Linux distro, try it, and it doest suits you, don't install it later. I'm going to show you how, using VirtualBox. To introduce you quickly to this application, I'll quote wikiperdia:

Compared with the other established commercial virtualization software such as VMware Workstation and Microsoft Virtual PC, VirtualBox lacks some features, but in turn provides others. Such unique features are running virtual machines remotely over the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), iSCSI support and USB support with remote devices over RDP.

Now, how to install it, and get it running. There are two variants of the application. One under a proprietary license, which is good if you want to make commercial use of it, and another called the VirtualBox Open Source Edition (OSE) released under the GPL.

I'll assume that you know how to install the packages in your distro. If you know, find the package using the search keyword "virtualbox" and install it.

Now, let's get running. The first screen looks like this:

pic 1: My desktop running VirtualBox

Step 1: click New. New window form will show up, click Next there. Under name type whatever you like e.g. LiveCD. Under OS Type select Linux 2.6. That means It will be capable of running every Linux with kernel version 2.6.X.

Step 2: click Next again. Here you decide how much memory to be dedicated to the LiveCD session. Select not less than 256mb, my recommendation. Click Next.

Step 3: here you can make a virtual Hard Disk, if you wish to install it, so you will be able to use it extensively, not only in LiveCD mode, but we don't want that for now, so click Next, and continue on.

Step 4: click Finish. Now locate on the tab details. Click on the label "CD/DVD ROM". Tick "mount cd/dvd drive". Select "iso image file" and locate the CD image you have previously downloaded. Click OK.

Step 5: click Start and have fun!

A quick introductory...

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 21:04:00 +0000

First of all, let me inroduce myself, I'm Martin, living and breathing in Macedonia. My goal and biggest hope is that everything what you read here will be at least a little helpful...

...what you can expect is news and howtos ;)

...as a daily Linux user, now I'm going to make my top 5 distro chart, and explain why:

1. Mandriva - 2008.0 - because it's friendly, stable, and out-of-the-box
2. openSUSE - 10.3 - same as Mandriva, but it lacks drivers and codecs and it has slow installation of packages
3. Debian - 4 - because it's rock solid stable, but a lot of packages have to be installed aditionaly
4. Linux Mint - 4 - because it's based on Ubuntu, which is based on Debian, plus it has codecs and Java
5. Parsix - 1 - I've tried it few days ago, and it's really nice, plus it's based on Debian

I'll be writing soon again... cheers...