Tag: GNU+Linux

Posts tagged with GNU+Linux, GNU/Linux or GNU-Linux relate to the GNU operating system, managed primarily through the Free Software Foundation, and the Linux kernel, managed by the Linux Foundation.  GNU/Linux is the basis of most free software operating systems in use today.

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I recently upgraded to Fedora 15 on my netbook (a Samsung N130).  For a while I used Ubuntu 10.04 (nice and quick, reliable wireless, good battery), then 10.10 (bit slower, still reliable, reasonable battery) and then 11.04 (sadly a bit more sappy towards the battery and – subjectively- more laggy too).

But saying that, I like Ubuntu 11.04 in many ways.  I think Unity is good, despite much antipathy towards it elsewhere on t’internet, and the intregration of social networking, media player, messaging and so on makes for a pretty swish experience.  One problem that started plaguing it on my netbook, however, was that wireless became increasingly unreliable.  Sometimes I’d have to reboot multiple times to get a conneciton to my Access Point.  Connecting to wireless when coming out of standby never worked, period.  

The netbook contains a Realtek RTL8192e wireless chip – a problem in Linux due to Realtek not really pushing development as proactively as possible into the Linux kernel.

So, what to do?

If you’re reading this then you’re probably thinking you have two options:
1) Struggle for an eternity to get the native Linux driver working properly, or
2) Install ndis-wrapper, download the Windows driver binaries and use that instead.

There were the options I felt I had after reading this fedoraforum thread  (F15, RTL8192 and Staging Drivers) and this thread too (F14 RTL8192E Staging Driver).

I almost swayed completely to option 2), but as if by magic I managed to get option 1) working.  This was mainly thanks to this ubuntu forum post.  In the post is a link to a download with the native linux RTL8192e driver files (I have taken the liberty of copying this archive and uploading here, in case that link stops working).

Here’s what I did:

In a terminal, type (as root)

# yum groupinstall “Development Tools” -y

Then, as your normal user:

# wget http://www.dirk-hoeschen.de/temp/rtl819Xe.tar.gz
  (or my link, above)
# tar xfz rtl819Xe.tar.gz
# cd rtl819Xe

Then, again as root:
# ./install.sh
(this step compiles the driver and loads the resultant kernel module)

Because Linux loads drivers (modules) dynamically, the device is brought up immediately.

My wireless card was then recognised and visible in Network Manager.  My access point was recognised and easy to connect to.  I have noticed that negotiation times are a bit longer than before, but I can confirm that after a little testing I can now put my netbook into standby, then awaken it and hey presto! my wireless reconnects automatically.  This is not a fringe use case; I for one am very glad this works as it should now.

Unlike the ubuntu post, I didn’t download the latest sources to compile.  I just went with the files in the archive. If you have difficulties, it may be worth investigating this – YMMV.

Although Fedora 15 was a pain to start off with, due to this issue, I found that once sorted it’s now becoming a real joy to use.  The extended battery life is really something to behold too – I’m getting a 20-30% increase in operating time now (up to 4 hours instead of 3 on Ubuntu 11.04).

Hope this helps someone out there.  If not, you may still want to follow some ndis-wrapper instructions – this might be a better alternative for you.

Good luck!

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Thunderbird and Firefox are GTK+ apps.  GTK+ is a windowing toolkit that GNU/Linux application developers tend to use when creating software on the GNOME Desktop Environment.

If you decide to switch to an alternative desktop environment, such as KDE, the default settings for GNOME/GTK applications may be ignored.  This is because KDE uses the Qt windowing toolkit instead.

To fix this, you need to do it tell KDE to pick up the GTK settings and apply them to your GTK apps.

In Fedora/CentOS, this is simple:

# yum install qtcurve-gtk2.x86_64

Then in KDE, point to Kicker (the application menu) > system settings > Application Appearance > GTK+ Appearance

Change the Widget Style (dropdown) from Redmond to qtCurve.

More information for Ubuntu users is here:

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Ok, so I check my email first thing on Wed 16 Feb to find a message from a close friend.

“What’s that email all about then mate?”, he asks.  “No idea – which email?” I reply.

Turns out, it was this email (I have removed private email addresses, etc):

Join me on Ecademy

Connect to the right people
Market your business
Grow revenue

photoSteve Dowe
@dot.com>
Upgrade to PowerNetworker
7 day FREE Trial
ps. Join today and receive a free trial PowerNetworker subscription>

This email was sent to
To avoid receiving these emails in the future go to
http://www.ecademy.com/blockinvites.php?e=
The Ecademy Limited. Registered in England and Wales. Company Registration:3651083 VAT:718037736@dotcom>@domain.com>

So, from a contact list I’d imported probably 2 years ago, since which I’d downgraded from a PowerNetworker to a Free member, suddenly is sent a whole load of invites to people I’ve not spoken to.  This is not good.

Now, before the critics chime in, yes I know that the terms of importing the contact list are that ecademy will send out invites on my behalf.  This is not an issue – I agreed to that…2+ years ago.  A lot changes in that time.

Miffed as I was that this had happened, I considered blogging about it and finally let it lie … until the same message was again dispatched, early this morning (24 Feb), to the 180-odd contacts who had not yet responded or read their email.  This, in my book, is tantamount to spamming.  “Oh, you didn’t buy my product?  Here, try again…”.  Ad infinitum.  This, a happy member does not make (especially since finding out that a customer of mine has received 3!).

So, sorry to all the contacts past and present who have endured these messages.  At least I was able to obtain the list of contact data back out of ecademy so that I could message everyone separately and invite them personally to LinkedIn.

Let me just say, however, that despite this I have otherwise been happy using ecademy.  Support has been good and the web site is useful in connecting people.  But this method of increasing memberships is a little too covert for my liking, and the time is coming for one or more new platforms in business/social networking, with open, user-controlled features and content.

In the meantime, I await with interest, the outcome of my correspondance with ecademy’s support team:

Sent 24 Feb 2011

Hello,

I wish to close my account.

Can you also promise that the details of people who are in my contact list, but who are not members of ecademy, will be removed from your database?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Many thanks,
Steve

Update – 24 Deb 2011

Well, an automaton can do that for me too! I quote:

Delete Your Account

Deleting an account is a major step. Once the account has been deleted, you will not be able to re-join using the same email address. All your records, contacts, posts, comments and messages will also be deleted. Deleted records cannot be recovered.

This process is irreversible.
Are you absolutely sure you want to do this?
As an alternative, Click on ‘No. Just hide my profile’ to hide your profile and turn off all email messages, leaving your account intact.
If you definitely want to be permanently removed from Ecademy, type in your password, check the confirmation box and choose the ‘Yes. Please delete my account’ button below.

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Linux User & Developer magazine
– a good read while having your car MOT’d

I was delighted to take my car to Swiftest in Aldershot this morning, for one simple reason (see pic – and no, it wasn’t because of the coffee, although that helps!)

Female Friendly policy:
A Good ThingTM

In fact, there are two good reasons to use Swiftest in Aldershot.  Three, actually.

First, the aforementioned reading material.

Second, the professional, helpful and polite staff (Rob, James & co).

Lastly, it has to be the “Female Friendly” policy.  I was there first thing (7:30am) for my car to be MOT’d, and the only other two customers to come in at this early hour were both female.  I’d say that was testimony enough.

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I confess: this is a problem without an obvious solution.

As a server administrator managing tens, possibly hundreds, of domains via Parallels’ Plesk control panel system, you may be forgiven for getting frustrated, from time to time.  It happens.

While Plesk is a big time-saver for many tasks, there are occasional quirks which only help to irritate.  One of these being SSL certificates.

Security warning in Chromium

The Plesk control panel comes with a standard SSL certificate which is used to encrypt all HTTPS connections to/from the server by default.  Most server administrators will probably want to replace this with a certificate that correctly identifies their specific server.

The usual route, through Plesk 9.5.x would be to log in, click Settings, click SSL Certificates, and then create / delete certificates accordingly until you have a new default server certificate.  The final step would be to tick the checkbox next to the new default certificate and click “Secure Control Panel”.

This gives you the impression that the new certificate is now used by the control panel.  It isn’t.

So, the next morning, you’ll probably receive one of these by email:

################# SSL Certificate Warning ################

 Certificate for hostname 'plesk', in file:
    /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.pem

 The certificate needs to be renewed; this can be done
 using the 'genkey' program.

 Browsers will not be able to correctly connect to this
 web site using SSL until the certificate is renewed.

 ##########################################################
                                 Generated by certwatch(1)
"Hmm", you think, "this should have been updated when I 'Secured the Control Panel'".  Yes, it should.  So, the next logical step would be to edit httpd.pem and replace the Key and Certificate values of this file with those displayed through Plesk's SSL Certificates section.  Then simply restart the web server.  Ha ha! Fail!  Browsing to the control panel still results in the security warning. What gives?!! 
 
After you have restarted the web server many times, both via the operating system's /etc/init.d method and via /usr/local/psa/admin/bin/websrvmng, you conclude that, actually, this is also not the certificate that requires updating.  So, which certificate file stored on the system is the one being served by Plesk?

Good question.  While you're searching for an answer, try checking/editing /usr/local/psa/admin/conf/httpsd.pem  and  /usr/local/psa/etc/httpsd.pem.  Nope?

Oh well, how about just resorting to a reboot and taking down everyone's services for a moment? ... Not ideal, but it works.  But this is not the right way!!!  :-(
 
********* UPDATE 23/11/2011 ***********
 
I have stumbled upon the right way to do this.  In a shell: 
cd /usr/local/psa/etc/
mv httpsd.pem httpsd.pem.old
cp /usr/local/psa/admin/conf/httpsd.pem .
service psa restart
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I remember once watching a documentary on Arnold Schwarzenegger’s bodybuilding career (or was it this one?) in the ’70s and early ’80s.
All of the bodybuilders in that golden era had their own training programme managers and promoters.  I recall that one manager/promoter, working for another bodybuilder, loved his own quotes.
These quotes would range from the urbane, “the pen is mightier than the muscle”, to somewhat more characteristically humorous: “remember the golden rule: he who has the gold, makes the rules“.
Well, in the completely unrelated world of PHP programming, this perl of wisdom (sic joke) is worth hanging on to.  Why?  Well, if you have ever used PHP’s variable variables, knowledge of the correct syntax is worth its weight in gold.  It’ll save hours, if not days, of debugging.
 So, anyway, I’ve been coding a calendar system for a valued client for the past ten days or so.  My first attempt I pretty much scrapped as it got too complex and almost impossible to debug.  The second version is much better, except for one issue which has been giving me grief until now.
Variable variables in PHP are extremely useful, but I throw in a word of caution immediately: use them sparingly.  It can be easy to quickly lose track of what’s called what and why it’s there.  Especially if any single script is 400+ lines long.
To set a variable variable, it’s easier to start off giving a value to an ordinary variable:
$myVar = "myVarVar";
Now, I want to create a variable variable with the name $myVarVar, so this is how it’s done:

 $$myVar = "this is my variable variable";
To see the contents of the variable variable, you can do either of the following:

 echo $$myVar;     // or
 echo $myVarVar; 
Both will output “this is my variable variable” to the screen/page.
Snooker Loopy
 Things start getting interesting when you introduce arrays and loops. Take the following example:

 for($i=0; $i<4; $i++) {
 $myVar = "myVarVar".$i;
 $$myVar = "  Variable variable £".$i;
 }
 creates and produces:
 
 echo $myVarVar0; // "Variable variable #0"
 echo $myVarVar1; // "Variable variable #1"
 echo $myVarVar2; // "Variable variable #2"
 echo $myVarVar3; // "Variable variable #3"
 
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Boy, I am always amazed at the breadth of stuff that goes on weekly, surrounding people’s preferred operating systems, new hardware press releases and so on.  For me, it’s one of the best things about the internet: constant information from all corners of the globe, seeking an audience and advocate elsewhere.
Intel, AMD and the new kid in town
Image via CrunchBase
So, this week there has been loads of stuff which caught my attention, only a short list of which I have time to share.  First things first, Ars Technica : a constantly vibrant source of interesting news out there in the technosphere.  Featured in its hallowed pages was the title “ARM’s Eagle has landed: meet the A15“.  Indeedy, ARM is developing more processor chips which are beginning to compete with the likes of Intel’s Atom and AMD’s lesser-known Geode.
AMD Geode™ LX 800@0.9W Processor
The exciting thing here is that a third player is entering the midst of a traditionally two-horse race: GPU/CPU design and manufacture (AKA AMD vs Intel).  Similarly to the console race of 2007-ish, a third player getting involved (in the console war, this being Microsoft‘s XBox 360) does great things for the market and the larger picture.  Who would have thought, against the mighty 360 or PS3, that the Wii would have competed so well? 
 
We’ll see how this plays out in a different way with chip manufacturers though but, as with most of these things, the early adopters of SmartBooks (Netbooks with phone capabilities, typically powered by ARM processors) will likely be Business types and Linux users who aren’t just taken in by the big names.
The Apple is finally ripening 
 Finally. Sense at Apple.  Well, some at least. Developers are creative, resourceful individuals.  So throwing down the gauntlet by restricting their development languages was kind of a draconian, hard-line gesture by a company pimping itself as cool and trendy.  Sorry Fanbois, but it was a bit Microsofty, actually.  Which is actually unfair to Microsoft, as they are generally far less restrictive about this (as this list of programming languages illustrates..).  Then again, 99.4% of malware is aimed at Windows users.


But back to Apple, this Ars story describes the change in stance at Cappuccino. 


How nice of them to open up their policy as well as opening up their iOS 4.1 BootROM in the same week!  In case anyone thinks I have a grudge against Apple, far from it.  This vulnerability intended feature clearly demonstrates that Apple are committed to opening up their systems and allowing users to fully use what they have purchased.  Brilliant!
Oh, but then there are still situations which make you wonder.  Like the stealthy Apple OS-X update that kept “fanbois strangely silent“…   I’m not sure I would have described Apple’d products as a “mutant virus“, but their loyal customers’ thinking probably is.  But then, Apple build fashion statements, not computers.


Open systems continue to gather pace


There’s an interesting article at O’Reilly on debunking the 1% myth.  The 1% myth is the idea, forever purported by some in the industry, that Linux only has 1% of desktop market share.  Succinctly put, as there is no way of actually measuring this accurately, it’s a false claim (as the article details).


Talking of open software, media player Amarok is looking more and more beautiful.  What’s not to like about this, especially when it’s free?
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(to view all photos in this article, visit my flickr photoset) 
I’ve been needing a netbook for work for a little while.  So, chancing upon Martin Lewis‘s wonderful MoneySavingExpert web site, this article on cheaper netbooks was the prompt I needed.
My main criteria for a netbook were:
     
  • Battery life as long as possible.
    •  
  • With my large hands, it must be as ergonomic and accommodating as possible.
    •  
  • Preferably without Windows.  What’s the point of paying for something I won’t use? 
    •  
  • Linux must work well on it.
    •  
  • As light & small as possible. 
Given that nearly all early (pre dual core) netbooks are based on Intel’s Atom / 945 mobile chipset, most of the above criteria were already met.  Ergonomically, I’d read that each netbook had its foibles, so this point was moot.  The battery life was, for me, the deciding factor, which is why I chose a Samsung N130: the only model in the discounted range which ships with a 6-cell battery.  In ideal circumstances, this will last 6 hours.


Order process, shipping, packing and unpacking
The Argos outlet on eBay accepted only PayPal payments, but this didn’t matter to me.  The purchase process was as painless as you could expect.  I ordered the unit on a Friday morning.  On a Monday morning, at my office, it arrived courtesy of a cheery DHL delivery chap.  No complaints so far!
The packing itself was as you’d expect: satisfactory for the job, with nothing much else to note.  Unboxing the unit was a quick affair, and before long I had a shiny netbook on my desk.  Considering this unit is classed as “refurbished”, I could see absolutely no defect or mark on it whatsoever.  I would have been very happy were this brand new.
Plugging in, powering on, first impressions
When unpacking the device, I was impressed with the general feel of it.  The plastic shell feels robust and the lid action is smooth.  Instead of a clasp, the lid clamps to the base by means (I’m guessing) of a magnet arrangement, which has a lovely feel about it.  Furthermore, Fedora behaves as expected, going straight into standby when the lid is closed.
The weight of the unit was good too.  Before I put the battery in, that is.  After that, the weight felt subjectively like it had more than doubled, which would put some people off I’d imagine. However, it’s hardly as heavy as my laptop so by my standards it’s still very light.  A positive effect of the battery unit is in providing more stability while on a desk, and more resistance to the motion of closing/opening the lid.  All together, it works well.
Along the front, left of the touchpad, are 5 LEDs.  I question the value of having an “on” LED in addition to a “charging” LED, but these are tiny devices so power consumption is likely to be equally tiny.  Besides, if unplugged, the charging LED isn’t illuminated. Again, another moot point.
The feel of the keyboard is good. There isn’t a compromise in terms of key press action, although to fit in a full QWERTY keyboard, some compromises in layout have had to take place. As you can see, the hash (#)/tilde and right square-bracket/brace keys are squashed in, but the compromise is acceptable.
Fedora installation and general usage
I use Fedora, CentOS and Red Hat in my day job, so for me it’s the architecture that I prefer due to familiarity (which, in this case, has not yet bred contempt!).
Using the usblive-creator tool in F13 on my laptop, I was able to set up a USB drive with a Fedora 12 live CD image, ready to boot and install on the netbook.  I’d opted for F12 because I’ve had issues with mobile broadband on F13 that worked fine on F12, and mobility is the primary goal here.  A quick change to the boot order in the BIOS and it was good to go.

I was surprised how quickly the installation completed.  After having read about Atoms generally being slow processors, I’d expected an unhealthy dose of lethargy when installing the OS.  The first boot wasn’t particularly tardy either (and this is running on a 160GB Toshiba hard drive with Fedora’s default encrypted LVM set up).  It’s comparable to my HP laptop (2007 model) with a Turion TL-60 (@2GHz) w/4GiB RAM (@667MHz).  In usage, though, it’s somewhat slower than the AMD laptop, taking considerably longer to load up Firefox (with half as many extensions, too).
As hoped, my Huawei E270 mobile broadband dongle worked straight away.  I was also pleased that the webcam worked with no effort whatsoever (screenshot shows Cheese; ’nuff said)! So, what doesn’t work straight away?
     
  • Brightness controls on the keyboard.  Probably fixed easily by identifying the char code generated with the keystroke and binding it to the dim/brightening function in GConf (he says, having no real clue..)
    •  
  • Wireless.  I believe a Broadcom 4312 is under the bonnet, so this shouldn’t be a hard fix with a quick visit to linuxwireless.org.
    •  
  • Some things I haven’t tested yet, like monitor switching and the built-in microphone.  But everything else seems to work fine.
A bit more on ergnomics
It has taken me a little while to get used to the layout of the keyboard and touchpad.  A problem I am overcoming slowly is that the touchpad’s two buttons are actually a single, rocker-style button.  It sits flush to the surface of the base, and this lack of tactile feel I find awkward.  I often find my thumb in the wrong position, mistakenly pressing on the bottom of the touchpad rather than the left button.  The pointer then jumps across the screen instead of clicking on the intended widget.  A small but annoying issue.
Also, the keyboard is great to use while typing (as I do here, writing this review on the N130) but for cursor positioning it can become more tricky.  Hitting CTRL-End to position the cursor at the end of some text, for example, is now CTRL-Fn-PgDn(End), given the multi-function aspect of the PgDn(End) key.  Likewise, the cursor keys are just a shade on the small side.  But these are minor complaints in the overall picture.
Final analysis
Taking into account the annoyances, weighing them against the needs of the many… I would have to have to award this machine 8/10.  At £150 (incl VAT) + £4 postage, it has exceeded my expectations.  Sure, it’s not perfect, but the price, utility and solid build get my vote.  I would recommend one for a partner, friend or colleague….. maybe even a parent 😉
Oh, there is one thing about it that I couldn’t understand.  There was this sticker on the top which made no sense (“Designed for Windows XP”).  Surely you design an operating system for target hardware and not the other way around..?  Well, regardless, I think the new location for the sticker makes much more sense.  🙂

< – old
new ->
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Well Apple-lovers, you sure do choose interesting products. Like the iPod; a “revolutionary” portable audio player, being probably the first to have a non-replaceable battery. I might be wrong, having done no research on the subject, but this was enough to turn me off. Let alone the insistence of using iTunes.
Or the iPad; the computer-but-not-a-computer consumer device that let’s you do anything you want with your media.  So long as it is on Apple’s terms.  I don’t get why someone as apparently intellectual as Stephen Fry gets so excited about it.  Yes, it’s so exciting, in fact, that I’d go immediately to iPad.com and check it out!
The iPad. I mean, for goodness sake, it’s a  laptop without a keyboard, but with potentially harmful restrictions, a proprietary operating system and about as much appeal as a colonoscopy. According to Fry, it also has no “multitasking, still no Adobe Flash. No camera, no GPS”.  But it does have a touch-screen and 3D desktop effects… Perhaps that’s why the Free Software Foundation dropped “Freedom” Fry’s video from their homepage: who’d want to appear as hypocritical as that?
And then there’s the iPhone. This is the biggy. Apple are using typical Microsoft-like tactics here.  Make an “irresistable” upgrade, probably for free or very cheap, and subtly attach some conditions to it. This time, as exposed in Giorgio Sironi’s blog post, The Apple of Sin, the condition is that you must only develop iPhone applications in languages prescribed to you by Apple.
The reasons, given by Giorgio, are pretty clear: Apple want to kill any chance of Flash appearing on the iPhone, else it might be inconsistent with the new iPad policy.
So, Mac users, be aware that your choice of platform may well come to haunt you in a year or two, when Apple extends this anti-Flash policy to OS X.  There is one nice aspect of this, though: Apple might just force Adobe to open-source Flash.  Then will follow a review-and-embrace process, where Flash gains recognition as an open standard.
Then we’ll see if Apple is embracing open standards as it “seems” to be with its current policies.  If not, then you’ll get more choice of hardware and software if you choose Windows. And even more if you opt for Linux and, not only would that be cheaper, you would also retain your right to choose what you do with it.
Sorry about that.  😉