Neil's Open Source & Linux Blog

Here is one interesting software development environment, especially for web applications. Squeak is an open source implementation of Smalltalk. Seaside is a Web Framework for developing web applications in Squeak. Pier is a CMS built on Seaside. DabbleDB is also built on Seaside -- an incredibly impressive web app. So far, I've installed it on my Mac iFive (OS X 10.4.10).

Great tips on how to install and customize Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon), although a little slow to load with all the screen shots. It's a great way to get a sense of how to set up one of the best Linux desktops around these days. Some of my favorite tips include: powertop adding a new software repository adding the medibuntu repository

You can see the current version of Ubuntu by selecting System > About Ubuntu . It's in the second paragraph. The other method to find your version is a command line method. There are two commands you can use: cat /etc/issue or you can use cat /etc/lsb-release …and finally to find your kernel version and a few more details about your machine use the uname command which, per the man pages, shows system information. Examples: uname -a : print all information uname -r : print the kernel release uname -v : print the kernel version uname -o : print the operating system

I performed a clean install on a dedicated hard disk. No problems there. I really like the clean desktop: no icons! Although the boot up time seems unusually long, Sound card drivers: Creative X-fi XtremeGamer 64-bit driver for Linux Error: neil@area-51u:~/Desktop/XFiDrv_Linux_US-1.04$ sudo ./installer [sudo] password for neil: This product only support 64-bit Operating Systems Setup will now exit neil@area-51u:~/Desktop/XFiDrv_Linux_US-1.04$ Here's why: Requirements: Linux x86_64 OS Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi audio devices listed above. Still, this should work! neil@area-51u:~/Desktop/XFiDrv_Linux_US-1.04$ uname -a Linux area-51u 2.6.22-14-generic #1 SMP Sun Oct 14 21:45:15 GMT 2007 x86_64 GNU/Linux It's always something, on the bleeding edge...

Before I do a clean install of Ubuntu on my ShuttleX, I want to make a complete backup. This From The Linux Documentation Project, Linux Complete Backup and Recovery HOWTO : Total restore, sometimes called bare metal recovery, is the process of rebuilding a computer after a catastrophic failure. In order to make a total restoration, you must have complete backups, not only of your file system, but of partition information and other data. This HOWTO is a step-by-step tutorial on how to back up a Linux computer so as to be able to make a bare metal recovery, and how to make that bare metal recovery. It includes some related scripts.

Although I successfully upgraded my Feisty Fawn 7.04 installation to Gutsy Gibbon (7.10), I'm having some problems with desktop effects. Basically, none of the window manager elements appear. I've decided to do a clean install, so I'm downloading the CD image, but it's taking forever... The torrent files are listed at the bottom of the Gutsy Gibbon download page , but it turns out the that the torrent files take some time to download, too. In fact, the HTTP download from Columbia's servers is coming through at 140 KB/sec, or higher, whereas Bittorrent has topped out at, well, just about 130 KB/sec. Hardly much of a difference, but then I get spikes on the HTTP download up to 320 KB/sec. It looks like the issue is the torrent file in question. When I downloaded the AMD 64 bit torrent, I'm getting speeds of over 1000 KB/sec.

Kompozer picks up where Nvu seems to have left off. Nvu was my favorite Open Source WYSIWIG editor, but has been stuck at version 1.0 for some time now I am pleased to say that I find Kompozer very useful on Windows & Linux, and even run it off my U3 USB drive. Since I haven't figured out how to trigger the "accelerator keys" (like Alt-F for "File," Alt-O for "Open," instead of Ctrl-O) on the Mac, it's not very keyboard friendly on OS X. Post a comment if you know how to pilot these programs with the keyboard on the Mac, or let me know if you like a different Open Source HTML editor.

I want to put a current time stamp on my prompt, so I can see when I run a job. From Custom Bash Prompt How-To This How-To is to change the display of your bash prompt permanently. It will give you a list of different strings you can include into your bash prompt such as, the time of day, the date, and many other options. My prompt is already customized in ~/.bash_prompt

I downloaded HandBrake to my Ubuntu box, Shubuntu, and converted VOB files to MP4: ~/bin/HandBrakeCLI -i /media/MyBook500-ext3_/neil/media/DVDs/ -o /media/MyBook500-ext3_/neil/media/ipod/movie.mp4 -B 160 -R 48 -E AAC -e x264b30 -f MP4 -m -b 1500 -x frameref=1:bframes=0:nofast_pskip:subq=6:partitions=p8x8,p8x4,p4x8,i4x4:qcomp=0:me=umh:nodct_decimate Unfortunately, iTunes refused to transfer the result to my iPod: wrong format.

Sometimes, you just want to see the code ... Let's say you want to look at a bash script, but strip out all the comments. Here's a sample command using grep that will display a bash script, without comments, to stout: grep -v "^#" commented-script.sh Notes: "-v" means invert the selection; i.e., only display the lines in the file that don't match. "^#" is the regular expression that matches "lines that start with #". "^" means only match the beginning of the line. Replace "commented-script.sh" with the file name of the file you want to strip. Tips: This command strips single line comments from any programming language. Just change the comment line character (";" instead of "#" for example). If you just want to read the comments, drop the "-v" switch.

Since the keyboard commands for bash are the same no matter what platform you run your bsh shell on (Mac, Windows, Linux, etc.) it pays to learn a few choice command. Here's a great reference: The default shell on most Linux operating systems is called Bash. There are a couple of important hotkeys that you should get familiar with if you plan to spend a lot of time at the command line. These shortcuts will save you a ton of time if you learn them. Here is the List of Bash Shell Keyboard Shortcuts For Linux Users Ctrl + A - Go to the beginning of the line you are currently typing on Ctrl + E - Go to the end of the line you are currently typing on Ctrl + L - Clears the Screen, similar to the clear command Ctrl + U - Clears the line before the cursor position. If you are at the end of the line, clears the entire line. Ctrl + H - Same as backspace Ctrl + R - Let’s you search through previously used commands more , including Alt keys ... Read the rest of the listing at Bash Shell Keyboa

FreeMind is mind-mapping software written in Java. I use it to plan web sites, promotions, business plans. It’s great for brainstorming, capturing your ideas and organizing them. Since it’s a cross platform Java application, it will run on Windows, Macs and Linux computers, among others. All you need is the current Java Runtime Environment, which is probably already installed if your computer is up-to-date. I use it on the Mac, and I’ve created a SmartFolder to find my FreeMind (*.mm) files quickly. I’ve tested sharing files with Linux, and it works like a champ, although some of the keyboard shortcuts are a little different across platforms. You can (and will) use your mouse, though -- drag-and-drop, collapse and expand (with a double click) let you zip around your mind maps and focus on the details you want, or zoom out to see the big picture. Import/Export & Sharing FreeMind uses an XML file format, meaning that you can read it with a text editor (Text Edit, Notepad, etc.

Installing a private certificate server, Linux version: Edit /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf and change "<VirtualHost _default_:443>" to "<VirtualHost 192.168.10.200:443>" [root@dts conf]# cd /etc/httpd/conf/ssl.key [root@dts ssl.key]# openssl genrsa -out server.key 1024 [root@dts ssl.key]# cd ../ssl.crt [root@dts ssl.crt]# openssl req -new -key ../ssl.key/server.key -x509 -out server.crt Country Name (2 letter code) [AU]:US State or Province Name (full name) [Some-State]:New York Locality Name (eg, city) []:New York Organization Name (eg, company) [Internet Widgits Pty Ltd]:Grb-internal Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []:. Common Name (eg, your name or your server's hostname) []:192.168.10.200 Email Address []: larnd@grb.xxxxx.org [root@dts ssl.crt]# service httpd restart From What Keeps You Off of Windows?

I had to turn off the cool Desktop Effects in Ubutunu 7.04 today, because the computer stopped responding to the mouse again. When this happens, I can still move my cursor around, but clicks don't do anything. I end up killing X (Ctrl-Shift-Backspace) and rebooting, since logging back in results in another error: Nautilus can't load.

System76 ships their own computers with: open source and easy to use Ubuntu Linux operating system including a cool Darter Ultra portable ($995 with a spiffy Intel Core 2 Duo). It's hard to find a good ultra portable.

I want to move my Halo files from my NTFS volume to a USB drive (2 GB Attache). Where are they? I figured it out, but I have to set up Desktop Search to index all the volumes -- right now it's just /usr. No wonder it doesn't find anything. So, I found the folder the old fashioned way and copied it to the USB drive, which mounted no problem, and also ejected without a hitch. That's cool.