Dont try this at home...

A new wallpaper

2 years with Linux:Five Things to know about Linux

These are just ramblings about what I came to know about Linux in the past 2 years I have been using it. Its fun all the time learning about stuff you never knew existed.

1) There are many paths leading to the top of a mountain, but there is only one summit.

You may ask what is the right way of doing a job on Linux. There is no right way or the only way. There are multiple options and each can be right. It depends on what you want and what you are comfortable with. Just because something doesn't work for you it is not wrong. Power of Linux remains in not only giving you the result but also the tools you can use to make it better.

2) If you light a lamp for somebody, it will also brighten your own path.

By trying to solve problems or helping others you will find solutions of your own troubles. Others may have a solution of your problems and you may have theirs. You can only gain by sharing.

3) The world is like a mirror you see? Smile and your friends smile back.

Everyone is busy, everyone likes to get their query solved first, but community is made up of friends. You have to be kind to get kindness and patient to get the answers. Remember the people who are answering you, do it for the community.

4) The answer is out there, if only thing to do is to look.

Every question you are looking for has been asked, every answer has been given. You just have to look for it. Searching the web is not a difficult thing, but it is important for you to search it. Linux is not for closed minds, its for a mind that questions, an alive mind which likes to think.

5) Journey of a thousand mile starts with a step.

You can only discover something good if you are willing to search for it. Try it before you can say it is worthless. Before you can say Linux is not for you try it once, it might not be for you but you might also find a new way to life.

Hope this helps you in understanding Linux better. May the source be with you...

Ideal BSOD...

Hey guys its been a long time since we have seen the Blue Screen Of Death, a bane for Windoze users and a unheard character for us. I got this BSOD Wallpaper and knew this could be made better.

I had got Windows XP and things were OK for sometime but then came Vista. It was an horrifying experience. Microsoft acknowledged that it was a mistake of an operating system but like a bunch of hoodlums, extorting money, said if you wish to save yourself from misery then cough up your hard earned money. I then tried Ubuntu, this was June 2010, and have never looked back. I went from Ubuntu to Fedora and have found utopia.

Ideal BSOD

Flash or no Flash that is the question...

Last week was hell it was my submission and my hard disk crashed. It was totally my bad but still shit happens. Got my new hard disk, thanks Lenovo for a swift service and loved the experience. So after a full marks service by Lenovo I got the computer up and running, installed Fedora and tweaked it to my preference. I had thought of installing Arch but was in no mood to spend the days configuring to do a simple job and also was a little short of time for my submission.

So that bring us to our post, this not just any rambling. Flash has decided to drop support for linux for its next version. Version 12 will only be available for Mac and Windoze users. We have read all the blogs and news flashes (he he he) Flash for linux will stop at version 11 and will only be supported for next 5 years. We all know that by that time we will (hopefully) have HTML5 and will never require the abomination called Flash. But are we ready for Flash free surfing today.

I am not gonna install Flash for as long as possible. I will try to use alternatives if I require it too badly, but no Flash for me for the near future. Wish me luck guys...

Waiting for the Miracle

Fedora 17 is a miracle, its a Beefy miracle. Just tried out Alpha and its looking great. Waiting to get hold of it and hopefully to help in the process.
Today I am just ironing out my online presence with having a similar face everywhere. Uploaded my hackergotchi...

I have also dabbled with Gimp and Inkscape to make a wallpaper in anticipation of the new release. Hope you like it.

1600 x 968

You all are free to use the wallpaper in any ways you like just would love to hear your comments. If you feel anything offensive or inappropriate, comment...

P.s.:
The hotodog i got from Mairin Duffy http://duffy.fedorapeople.org/hotdog/hotdogs-wallpaper-trans.png and the fedora stars constellation from Nicu B. much better artists http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/artwork/clipart/fedora_stars.svg

Noob's first step towards Geek

Weekend project - do what geeks love to do. Compile my own operating system!!!

I am taking my first step towards geekdom just fresh out of noobhood. Well this is not the first step. The first step was installing linux and there was never any looking back. What's the next logical next step, installing softwares from source tarball. Not an easy task but been there done that. Was it easy not at all, there have been lots of hits and misses. Now its time to take up the task of compiling the operating system whole.

Why to compile your OS???



Gee that's a tough one. Why would you go through a long, bitter process of downloading source code, fulfilling dependencies, compiling the source code to find that you misspelt a command and lost half an hour to get an result.

Because I can do it, I can learn while am at it. Learn how stuff works, how to break and rebuild it, and to be focused while doing it so. There are other reasons to you can read it at LFS official site. So not re-inventing the wheel.

Enough of idioms lets get down to business, I am trying to install LFS v7.0 on a VirtualBox. I tried using Fedora live cd but it doesn't have gcc installed. I am now using a custom built OpenSUSe from SUSEStudio without graphical user interface.

Linux God

This post took a lot of time coming because it has grown from a weekend project to a weekends project. Linux God give me power to complete this benediction. With my exams coming on and thesis in way I dont kno when can I complete it. Wish me luck, please I need it a lot.

Things to do after installing Fedora

Fedora is a great OS. Its Linux as it should be free and usable, at the cutting edge but completely stable. But it still lets a lot to be wanted such as the non free software, libraries which are essential in day to day life. Few nitty gritties installed and the make a wonderful environment to work and play.

1) Installing RPM Fusion, Livna Repos

Though most of the free softwares and codecs are quite capable of running the show, few restrictive and non free blobs such as mp3 support, VLC media player are the need of life. Most of these are not found on the official repos. These can be installed through the RPM Fusion repo. Livna repo is only needed for libdvdcss. Livna exist only for that package.

Adding or removing packages in Fedora is done through graphical frontend to yum, PackageKit. It is not possible to install yum repo through PackageKit. In order to install the RPM Fusion and Livna repo run in terminal;

yum --nogpgcheck install http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release.rpm http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm

2) MP3 support

Rhythmbox is the standard music player included in Fedora. Other players include Amarok, Audacious, etc.. The list goes on and on. In case of standard gnome install the default player is rhythmbox. For it to play mp3 gstreamer-plugin-ugly is needed.To install that,

yum install gstreamer-plugin-ugly

As pointed out by Kevin Kofler same command is also to be used in case of KDE and Amarok.

You can also install these plugins from the GUI by searching for them in the Add & Remove Software or PackageKit.

3) Install VLC

Totem is good but VLC is the best. Its open-source, light weight and so full of nifty features that you dont need anything else for all your media needs. It also supports many video codecs of the block.
yum install vlc

There are many features that can be done with VLC. You can read about it here.

 4) Install Flash player

Flash player was supposed to be dead but it isn't. It still drags on and you have to install it to use your favourite video site or online gaming site. Open source gnash is just not upto the mark to be used on an daily basis.


To install Adobe repo

yum --nogpgcheck install http://linuxdownload.adobe.com/adobe-release/adobe-release-i386-1.0-1.noarch.rpm

In order to install Flash plugin

yum install flash-plugin

Thanks mr.Edrk for this heads up. 

You can also download Flash plugin RPM from its website here.


5) Configure backup


Fedora comes pre-installed with a great backup software Deja-Dup. Its easy to use and easier to configure. Configure a twice weekly backup to maintain sanity and do a regular backup in background and secure your files.


That rounds off the 5 things to do after installing Fedora. I enjoy using Fedora and these tips make my life easier. There are many tips and tricks and this unofficial faq is a great place to know about it. Please add your tips and tricks in the comments and I will be grateful and will add them here.

Updates:

I always wanted GUI for installation of softwares and codecs for Fedora. I didn't know they existed before seeing the comments. Thank you all for the update. All the codec installation can be done using GUI scripts such as autoplus, Fedora utils. Other great way to manage your GNOME desktop is by using gnome-tweak-tool. Great thing about File Roller the default archive manager is that it is extendable. Rar file support can be installed just by installing unrar 

yum install unrar

ThinkPad Week 2

As I had written in the previous post my laptop has returned from its sojourn to Mumbai. My sister had reinstalled Windoze to try to get internet but that too didn't work out. There was some problem with the USB modem and I was not involved in it. So this was the to-do list I had...

• Reinstalling Fedora.
• Getting all the features to work right how I want it to work.
• Trackpoint
• Synaptic Touchpad
• Two finger scrolling
• Middle button gesture
• Pinch-zoom

I have the work cut out for the week as I want to understand and learn about the options as I make it work. Hopefully I will be able to do it...

Wish me luck.

Beautiful Nature - Wallpapers

Hey guys, Happy new year!!!

This is the first post of the new year. I am bringing you few wallpapers to adorn your computer screen. I will add to it as soon I take few more pictures. I love nature in all its blossom and fall. These few pictures I took looks brilliant on my desktop. I hope you like it too.

Source

Source

Source

Source

Please comment if you like it...

Happy New year 2012

Hey friends from a wannabe geek

Happy New year and a Bucketful of good wishes

May this new year bring you luck in all the endeavors and may the Open Source flourish.

1 down, 1 to go...

Yippeee...

This post has been written on the newest addition to my Fedora family. I have installed Fedora 16 Verne successfully on my new Lenovo ThinkPad T520. This is the second laptop to get converted. I also have an old desktop which I converted to Fedora. The new laptop came preloaded with Windows 7 but Fedora was installed in a jiffy. This was by far the easiest installation ever. I usually remove all the traces of Windows. Everything seems to work out of the box. Startup, suspend, resume is also flawless which was a pain in my HP dv4 laptop.

The computer is a lot more zippier than what I have used before. All the transitions is a lot more smooth on this. Keyboard is a bit tough to feel but is very sensitive, so no complaints. It's great to work on it even for a long time. The placement of a few buttons are different than the the HP that I had but its nice and will get used to it. Love the keyboard light, lets me work without disturbing my room-mate. TrackPad is easy to find because of the change in the texture.

TrackPad works nicely too but two finger scrolling is a pain with it. I will have to tweak some settings I think to make it work. Two finger pinch zooming doesn't work. Trackpoint also works but middle button scrolling doesn't. I haven't used it as yet as this is my first ThinkPad but would love to have it. Please help me if anyone can, post the help in comments.

Today is just day 1 and I am loving it. Will post soon after a thorough workout of the laptop.

Two computers, two distros

Hey guys I just got a peep of my future laptop. Its a Lenovo T520, brand new. It is gonna be used by my sis for next month but eventually its gonna be mine. Ever since Fedora 15 I am in love with Fedora. So its gonna be Fedora 16 on my new workhorse. I will post step by step account of my installation.

A very good friend of mine requested me to covert his old aging desktop to a linux desktop. I haven't seen the dino but have promised to give a Linux PC for him. He is a complete computer illiterate so are his kids. I am gonna install a noob-proof distro Linux Mint for him. I will post his experinces with it as soon as he uses it and likes it.

Wish me luck...

Firefox vs. Opera - Tab Management

I used Opera first on my Windows XP PC a long time back before I came on to Linux. It was Opera 6 at that time and was ad-sponsered but still it was my primary browser for a long time, till 2004. I changed to Firefox in 2004 as it was new and exciting and offered a new way to discover web. After installing Fedora I never had to look away form the default browser Firefox.
Though I missed a lot of features of Opera which it brought on in-built but Firefox was much more comfortable. The variety of extensions brought the features to a level better as compared to Opera. The latest version of Opera, Opera 11.60, intrigued me enough to try again. I wished to try the innovator's newest beast.

Firefox 8.0 vs. Opera 11.60
Firefox, evolving a lot faster than in those days, has reached its 8^th version while Opera is in its 11^th version. Opera is a feature ladden but suprisingly is a light-footed browser. While Firefox is a easy to use browser, fast evolving, extensible as compared to Opera. It has, but a heavy over-head as compared to Opera and take a bit longer to load. Opera has more in-built features than Firefox but a lot of sites are not well supported (this has reduced a lot).
Let us compare tab management in both of them.

Tab stacking vs. Panorama
Tab management is a big issue, with over 20 - 30 tabs per session it is very difficult to manage. These two are the only browsers which tackle this problem head-on with an in-built mechanism.

Firefox panorama
Firefox was the first browser to tackle this problem with Panorama in version 4 in 2008. It evolved from Tab Candy which gave a similar way to manage tabs in version 3.6. It is a brilliant way to organize your tabs. Each group gives you a new browser window which can be organized according to the work you are doing. Groups show a preview of all the tabs in that group and an option to close the group, tab in the group. It's like having multiple browser windows open at the same time. Lets you hide your tabs from prying eyes if need be.

Opera's Tabs Stacking
Tabs stacking is the latest addition to the overflowing list of features that Opera has to offer. It was introduced in version 11 itself in 2010. It is vastly different to Firefox's approach. As oppose to having hidden groups all the tabs stack are visible on the tab bar. Stack shows the last open/viewed tab. Tab view shows all the tabs in the stack and the tab we wish to view can be chosen from it. This though solves the problem of excessive tabs but only to an extent. Still there is a limit to total number of tabs that can be opened. It crashes on trying to drag the tab to form a new window.

Personally I prefer Firefox's method of tab managment. It gives a cleaner display in which less important tabs can be hidden away from view so you can concentrate on the work in hand. Opera's way of management is open and everything on display. But tabs can get a bit mixed if too many stacks and free tabs are opened together. A lot of tabs or stacks and it too can become a bit cluttered.

Testing, testing

This is a test blog for Planet Fedora. I hope I have followed all the instructions...

Fingers crossed.

P.S. Successful.

First Post

Installing Java on Fedora

Java is not usually included in Linux. OpenJDK is great but sorry to say it doesn't seem to work on my net-banking website. I have complained but till the situation betters I have to use the JDK supplied by Sun. Which is a closed source option.
Installing Java on Linux is a bit different than on Windows. There is point and click option available on most of the newer Linux flavours for the OpenJDK. But for the Sun Java only commandline option is there. The command-line option is a quick way to do it cleanly. I have tried this on Fedora, Ubuntu. It should work on most.

1. Download latest Java
Go to the Sun java website to download latest java binary.
http://www.java.com/en/download/linux_manual.jsp?locale=en
Current version is Java 6 Update 29.

2. Install Java
First make the downloaded file to executable.

$ chmod u+x jre-6u29-linux-i586.bin

Go root and make a folder /usr/java

$ su

# mkdir /usr/java

Copy the executable to the above made directory. Run the executable.

# cp /<Download Directory>/jre-6u29-linux-i586.bin /usr/java
# ./jre-6u29-linux-i586.bin 

3.Configuring the computer

This will create extract the required files and install the files in the folder /usr/java/jre1.6.0_29. The executable for java is present in the folder /usr/java/jre1.6.0_29/bin. It is possible to install multiple versions of java in your computer at the same time and use it as needed. It is possible with the help of alternatives command.

# alternatives --install /usr/bin/java java /usr/java/jre1.6.0_29/bin/java 120 --slave /usr/bin/keytool keytool /usr/java/jre1.6.0_29/bin/keytool --slave /usr/bin/rmiregistry rmiregistry /usr/java/jre1.6.0_29/bin/rmiregistr

# alternatives --config java

There are 4 programs which provide 'java'.

  Selection    Command
-----------------------------------------------
   1           /usr/java/jre1.6.0_27/bin/java
*  2           /usr/lib/jvm/jre-1.6.0-openjdk/bin/java
   3           /usr/lib/jvm/jre-1.5.0-gcj/bin/java
 + 4           /usr/java/jre1.6.0_29/bin/java

Enter to keep the current selection[+], or type selection number:

* shows the most appropriate choice, i.e. Open source Java ;-). Now you will have multiple Java installed and choice can be changed by alternatives --config java command. Most recently installed Java will be the lowest one and select it.


Installing Firefox Java plugin

This install also provides the latest java plugin for your favourite browser Firefox. Older plugin was named libjavaplugin.so or libjavaplugin_oji.so. The newer plugin is libnpjp2.so. Similar to the multiple versions of Java present in your computer you can have multiple versions of plugin installed and use whichever is appropriate for you. You install the plugin in a similar way with alternatives command.

alternatives --install /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libjavaplugin.so libjavaplugin.so /usr/java/jre1.6.0_29/lib/i386/libnpjp2.so 1
 

alternatives --config libjavaplugin.so
 
I hope this first post of mine helps you. Any comments will be helpful. If there is an easier way please add in the comments I will surely add it.

You can test the installation by visiting http://www.java.com/en/download/testjava.jsp 

In RPM based distros such as Fedora installation is simpler as the file jre-6u29-linux-i586-rpm.bin extracts RPM and installs the java at the above mentioned place /usr/java. Rest of the commands for configuring by alternatives remain the same.

These directions is for 32 bit Linux. I haven't tried 64 bit Linux as yet since I dont have a 64 bit computer, so any directions for that will be welcome. Or I will post it as soon as I get my hands on such a computer.