A Doctor`s Blog about GNU/Linux

How to make a "PCLiunuxOS KDE 4 Minime" ?

drmarwat@gmail.com (Dr.Saleem Khan) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:28:00 +0000

"MiniME" is a Live CD based on PCLinuxOS. It's called "MiniME" as it has a minimal set of packages to install and runs with the latest kernel and KDE as a desktop environment.It also comes with PCLinuxOS Control Center, the Synaptic Software Installer and xorg server.

With the PCLinuxOS draklive installer the installation is straight forward just like any PCLinuxOS installation.

PCLinuxOS MiniME 2009.1 was the last release of the Minime series from PCLinuxOS team which I have installed on my system and keep it updated regularly so it stays at the recent updated status always and I make remasters from that at regular intervals for me and my friends.

PCLinuxOS MiniME is what I always love to have handy for installation on any system .It is fast to install and build a system upon it according to my own needs.My purpose of making a KDE4 Minime is to have a fully functional and updated base system so I can install PCLinuxOS KDE4 anytime and distribute its copies too. Many of my friends have switched over to PCLInuxOS and many of the computers in our hospital now run PCLinuxOS.

Here are the few steps I followed to build this KDE Minime.

a) Installed fully updated PCLinuxOS Minime 2009.1 .

b) Replaced kde4 in place of kde in the repository line of synaptic .

c) After reload I installed " task-kde4-minimal "

This brought me to a nicely running KDE4 Minimal desktop.

d) As root deleted .kde older folder from home.

e) Changed looks of this Minime, Oxygen Icons theme is always very boring looking. I installed Glass Icon theme for which I placed a request on PCLinuxOS forum few weeks back,it really looks nice on my PCLinuxOS KDE4 Minime.

Minime is supposed to be of a minimal size to fit on a CD . The size of this Minime remastered ISO is over 630 mb and I don't know how to shrink it more. This remaster has just base packages so I am wondering what to do more to bring it to around 400 mb.

I have started a thread about this remaster on PCLinuxOS forum and I am hoping I will be getting more tips there soon.

My PCLinuxOS 2009.2 KDE3 Deskop

drmarwat@gmail.com (Dr.Saleem Khan) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 06:19:00 +0000

Here is a new screenshot of my fully updated PCLinuxOS 2009.2 KDE3 Desktop.

I am really loving this Best Desktop Linux Distribution for Home Users.

My Custom-made PCLinuxOS LXDE 2009.4

drmarwat@gmail.com (Dr.Saleem Khan) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 08:29:00 +0000

I like KDE as my sole working DE on PCLinuxOS but LXDE has always fascinated me. Neal has ultimately released the working LXDE Remaster of PCLinuxOS and I installed it as dual boot with my PCLinuxOS KDE4 .

It has no apparent issues,everything is running perfectly smooth because it has PCLinuxOS as backbone plus Neal has worked a lot on this LXDE remaster .

Graphics are purely LXDE oriented and that is a good addition. LXDE Control Center along with PCLinuxOS Control Center gives me full control to configure my system according to my computer`s hardware and desktop requirement.

Neal released a basic ISO upon which one can build a system according to one`s own requirements. I added some packages which me and my daughter share on this computer.

I am sure this LXDE version of PCLinuxOS is going to be yet another successful addition to already existing sister projects.

Thanks to Neal and Texstar for all his good and efforts.

MY PCLinuxOS LXDE Remaster

drmarwat@gmail.com (Dr.Saleem Khan) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 17:16:00 +0000

Me and Neal from PCLinuxOS are trying to make a working PCLinuxOS LXDE Remaster for those users who are not easy with KDE4 and apprehend KDE3 will be gone with time and for those with aging computers.

I had been doing remastering for quite some time on PCLinuxOS and recently when I expressed my interest at PCLinuxOS forum about LXDE Remaster Neal asked me to join him as he is also interested in making such a remaster.

We both are working on it bits by bits, things are quite good in shape and I hope soon Neal might release a test iso.

Here is a a scheenshot of my remaster,it is all set from my side, just one minor issue left which if I can`t fix then Neal will do it. I am going to upload my ISO to Neal soon and he will be doing the rest of testing.

I used PCLinuxOS Minime 2009.2 and Neal is using ZenMini 2009 as base for this remaster.

I hope it will be a nice addition to the PCLinuxOS family.

More reading about what is happening about this remaster can be found in these two threads on PCLinuxOS Forum and on MyPCLinuxOS Forum.

My PCLinuxOS KDE4 remaster Desktop

drmarwat@gmail.com (Dr.Saleem Khan) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:06:00 +0000

Finally I am posting a screenshot of my PCLinuxOS KDE4 remaster Desktop I just made from PCLinuxOS Minime 2009.

More details of how I made this remsater are to be put here soon.

PCLinuxOS going to get KDE4

drmarwat@gmail.com (Dr.Saleem Khan) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 02:31:00 +0000

I will not say much to avoid spreading rumors but what I came to know last night from Texstar on PCLinuxOS forums is that PCLinuxOS will be getting KDE4 packages as Tex said:

"KDE4 will be available before the end of June for PCLinuxOS."

How will this update be applied and what changes will be made to current stable PCLinuxOS before and after this update is still awaited.

Hope it will be a good change.

My PCLinuxOS 2009 "MiniMe"

drmarwat@gmail.com (Dr.Saleem Khan) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 12:57:00 +0000

I am not just a big fan of PCLinuxOS rather my computing life becomes difficult without it. Doing my routine home and office work on my computer is always a risky task on Windows and Linux is the best safe alternative for that. My daily Linux experimentation also compel me to have something as a backup and as a "rescuer". PCLinuxOS 2008 "MiniMe" is the best candidate for that and it is always lying on my desk and in my office bag to be handy.

PCLinuxOS 2008 "MiniMe" is quite an old release and it needed to be updated to current 2009 status and I was looking for some perfect way to do it. PCLinuxOS forums are always full of valuable information and there I found what I was looking for .

Texstar says it in his own words as:

How to do full update on clean install Minime 08 as of 5-23-09??

OK here's my steps from a clean install of minime 08 to full update:

1. Install the following:

GConf2
bootloader-utils
dbus
findutils
gtk+2.0
libcairo2
module-init-tools
which

2. Install the following:

kernel-2.6.26.8.tex3

3. Mark All and Click Apply.

I followed these steps and changed the looks of my PCLinuxOS 2009 "MiniMe" by adding a wallpaper of my choice and installing nuoveXT-aero icons and added Opera browser for me and made a new custom iso with "mklivecd" and everything is working perfectly on my PCLinuxOS 2009 "MiniMe". The size of the iso is not true minime as the updates made it bit bigger than actual minime but it is still the original basic minime with changed graphics and Opera added.

Happy home,Office and rescue with with my PCLinuxOS 2009 "MiniMe" is all ready and working great.

Hymera Open Not so easy and stable

drmarwat@gmail.com (Dr.Saleem Khan) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 10:19:00 +0000

My story about this new debian based distro goes like this :: although the DW Hymera page says it is multilingual including en but they installer is only italian and all you have to do during installation is to do a guess work plus the installer is not easy at all as compared to what Hymera people say, and after installation the system refuse to boot at all beyond GRUB:::something related to kernel???

I adopted a different method for installing Hymera:::grabbed a lenny netinstall cd:::installed base system and added hymera repo ( http://mirror.hymera.it/standard/ ) removing lenny official repos and installed full hymera system maintaing ext3 file system instead of ext4 and lenny kernel . You can see my Hymera installed system in these screenshots.

Now the repository from hymera has huge packages available but lots of packages are still missing and you have to re add lenny official repos to get a working system despite the warning from hymera team to use only their own repos. Also you have to set keyboard ley out from italian to en.

This distro has potential but needs lot of work and despite the adds given by hymera at DW this distro is not yet ready for its claimed potentials and I am sure not everybody would either think of or adopt an alternate method of installing this distro as I did.

To be honest and not too critical it doesn`t have something really exciting except some latest packages e.g Open Office which is again broken, ext4 file system and latest kernel which gives problem after installation .

The boot loader gets installed to mbr: I checked grub menu to confirm but something is wrong with the kernel that prevents system to boot at all and many has reported this issue on their forum.

Still wish best of luck to Hymera team .

How to install GRUB & set repositories for ALT Linux 4.1.1 Desktop

drmarwat@gmail.com (Dr.Saleem Khan) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 08:05:00 +0000

ALT Linux is a Russian Desktop Linux and Alexey "Ktirf" Rusakov is the Head of Systems development dept. ALT Linux Technology. He announced the availability of an updated release of ALT Linux "Desktop" edition, version 4.1.1 today on 15/01/2009.

This updated release of ALT Linux "Desktop" edition 4.1.1 also offers an English only install DVD with English as the default language so that those who want to install ALT Linux in English will not be choosing English from the cryptic Russian letters on boot menu by pressing F2.

The English only DVD of ALT Linux can be downloaded from the main ALT Linux Server.

There are two small issues I want to mention here regards ALT Linux Desktop which might be of interest to many.

1: How to install GRUB on ALT Linux

LILO is the default boot loader for ALT Linux and somehow ALT Linux team loves to stick with LILO despite the fact that most of the latest desktop distributions are switching over to GRUB than LILO e.g Vector Linux due to many reasons which is a separate topic. I personally like GRUB , thanks to "silicium" one of the development team member of ALT Linux Desktop who sent me this ALT Linux Wiki page for how to install GRUB on ALT Linux.

2: How to choose ALT Linux Repositories for Desktop Version.

ALT Linux Desktop should be set on Desktop/current repositories rather than on branch or Sisyphus which are equivalent to Debian "testing" & "sid" accordingly. I thanks "thresh" for clarifying this ALT Linux repositories setting to me. So you can enable these repositories on your ALT Linux Desktop 4.1.1 to if you want all the security updates/updated packages and stable softwares packages.

rpm [updates] ftp://updates.altlinux.org/4.1 i586 updates
rpm [updates] ftp://ftp.altlinux.org/pub/distributions/ALTLinux/4.1/branch i586 classic
rpm [updates] ftp://ftp.altlinux.org/pub/distributions/ALTLinux/4.1/branch noarch classic

I will add the recommendations of Alexey Rusakov the Head of Systems development dept. ALT Linux Technology regarding the repositories for ALT Linux Desktop 4.1.1 in his own words here which he sent me in an email regards the settings for repositories.

"Concerning repositories - try our new 'Update sources' module in ALT Linux SystemManagement Center, it is much more obvious than the list in Synaptic :)And yes, you'll be able to run Synaptic from it afterwards.Under the hood, it is rather simple anyway: we have branch/4.1 repo,that is a branch new distributions are built on; we have 4.1.1/Desktop,which is the repo of the vanilla Desktop distro, and 4.1/updates, thatis updates to Desktop. thresh was right, using 4.1/branch is not reallyrecommended, they may be some occasional instabilities there. Use4.1/updates instead, it is as stable as we can make it. "

"

I wish everybody happy home computing with the latest ALT Linux Desktop 4.1.1 !

Lapis Linux KDE4 ,Can Anything be more pretty than this?

drmarwat@gmail.com (Dr.Saleem Khan) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 19:08:00 +0000

Erkan Kaplan is a workaholic , never tiring guy who is on the pursuit of something interesting and pure from GNU/Linux.

I installed the GNOME version of recently release Lapis Linux and installed KDE 4 on it as somehow I am unable to live with GNOME. I was facing problems here and there and Erkan Kaplan was never hesitant to help me with those issues.

He personally prefers KDE 4 than KDE 3 as he believes KDE3 has no more future. I was constantly pushing him for issues I was facing with my Lapis Linux KDE4 and then came a news from him that he is working on a pure KDE4 version of Lapis Linux .

It was hardly a week and here is the KDE 4 Lapis Linux released. I am posting from the Live DVD of it at the moment . I have tested many KDE 4 distributions and nothing could be as pretty as this Lapis Linux KDE4 desktop is.Erkan has put all his best efforts to make this version in a very short time.The Lapis Linux KDE4 can be downloaded from Lapis Linux official site .It is a DVD ISO with size over 700MB so you have to burn it to a DVD.

There is another good news with this release. Those who want Lapis Linux in English are not supposed to worry about setting locales this time. Just press F2 on boot menu and your Lapis system will boot to this nice looking desktop in English language .

Installation is straightforward from the icon Lapis Linux Harddisk Installer with no hassles.The most beautiful part of the Lapis Linux Installer is that it added my BRLIX installation automatically to the GRUB menu so I don`t have to worry about reinstalling GRUB later and chain loading BRLIX.

Once you have installed Lapis Linux you boot into a perfect KDE4 desktop and the only words I can say are " Just enjoy it " :)

I am a big fan of PCLiunxOS, KDE and wanted to use KDE4 and lots of distro-hopping did not satisfy my demands .

I have no hesitation to recommend Lapis Linux to all those who want PCLinxuOS based distribution and want to have KDE4 . There might be some issues but I saw so many issues with openSuse,Fedora 10, Kubuntu 8.10 so these issues seem minor to me.Lapis Linux might not be up to the highest mark and standards but it does need testing and exploration.

I appreciate the devotion of Erkan Kaplan and I will request and urge everybody to test his work and offer him words of appreciation.

I am loving it !

Famelix is BRLIX Now

drmarwat@gmail.com (Dr.Saleem Khan) — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 02:40:00 +0000

Remember Famelix? Famelix was a GNU/Linux distribution developed by Brazilian Faculdade Metropolitana de Guaramirim (FAMEG) and based on the work of famous Kurumin Linux. It particularly stressed in the adaptation of the user interface so that it resembled Window$ as much as possible.

If you have tried recently to access the Famelix GNU/Linux official site you will receive such message " Oops! This link appears broken.Page not found - connection failure." So neither the Famelix official site nor any of their forum works at all and they are dead!

But the project in not dead infact. I sent an email to Diogo V. kersting ,one of the developer of former Famelix project asking him what happened to the fate of Famelix project and he replied me with these words

" We the students and the professor (developer of Famelix), have made a company to continue the development of famelix.But the name Famelix is owned by FAMEG (the University) so we changed the name to BRLIX. The BRLIX have the themes XP and Vista, which you can choose on the Control Panel."

So Famelix is not dead and the project is being run under the new name BRLIX . Their new official site is cool looking with a mascot of a cute looking parrot wearing brlix t-shirt with a Tux sitting next to him.

They offers both free and paid download for the current BRLix 1.0 Release Candidate 1. The paid download is offered with these words " if you want to help the developers to continue the work in the BRlix, you can pay for a pre-release, where you will receive before all the releases of the BRLix, you will have a priority on the support, and you will can suggest new stuff’s to BRLix."

I have an interest in the former Famelix and current BRLIX because my daughter and wife are very Window$ oriented and they get nostalgic without Window$ so I wanted to install a Linux distribution on their computer which resembles as much as possible to Window$ XP and still I am free of hassles to get their computer free of viruses and all Window$ related problems.

So if any of you wants to try this new BRLIX you can access their official site and try the free or paid download whichever suits you. Their site is not working in English and not much help is available at the present but the download link can be easily accessed. For any additional help that you need you can drop an email to me and I will get you through to Diogo V. kersting and he might help you accordingly.

I will urge Ladislav Bodnar of DistroWatch to update the home link for Famelix to BRLIX as many of the people like me might be trying to access the former Famelix page facing that Oops! message at the end.

How to set locales-en on Lapis Linux

drmarwat@gmail.com (Dr.Saleem Khan) — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 07:55:00 +0000

After I posted about Lapis Linux some of the friends asked me how to set the Locales into English from the scary looking Turkish language.

Well, I know zero of Turkish myself but this is how I set my locales into English and it was quite easy.

1: Locales-en is installed by default in the current testing version 1.0.2 Yavuz (RC4) of Lapis Linux so you don`t have to worry about installing it.

2: Just boot from CD as live, no need to boot in safe mode, press F2 at boot and choose English. For additional settings change language to en from tr in boot command.

3: Once you are at login manager just type root as user and lapis as password , you don`t have to worry about Turkish language here because you had already set language to English at boot time.

4: Once you are on Lapis Linux Desktop just run apt-get update to update all packages list to avoid any conflict of packages later on when you will set locales into English.

5: Open Control center from the menu on top and set locales to English as shown in the screenshots.It will ask you to logout to set the locales so logout and login again as root.

6: Open Synaptic and un install locales-tr as shown in screenshot here.

7: Logout from System menu once again and then login again as root

Your desktop and Lapis Linux system will be all English this time and you can easily install it from the Install Icon on desktop or by running command "draklive-isnatll from shell which will bring the GUI installer running in front of you.

A bit of warning once again. Some of the packages might not work and you might face off & on crashes here and there but please keep in mind this is a testing version so things will gradually settle down. Report back issues at users-mailing list and you will get prompt reply.

At this stage Lapis Linux might not be up to the high expectations for many but it does work and works almost 99 % perfect.

Just test it and have fun from this pearl from Turkey : )

I am loving it guys!

Lapis Linux I Not yet another PCLinuxOS remaster

drmarwat@gmail.com (Dr.Saleem Khan) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 02:18:00 +0000

While PCLinuxOS development is stale and going on behind curtains where no one from the development team is willing to answer any question either at forum , to emails and nor at IRC #pclinuxos help , there is another project lead by Erkan Kaplan a Germany based Turkish who is working tirelessly on Lapis Linux .

Lapis Linux is not just yet another community remastered copy of PCLinuxOS but a total pure work started from scratch. They started their project basing it on Tinyme 2008 but building it from zero ,making and baking every brick themselves. So it is not reinventing wheel again but getting an idea from an existing project but putting all the efforts with their own hard work.

Lapis Linux is purely Turkish Language distribution and GNOME is the main desktop environment. Till version 1.0.1 released on 11/08/2008 it was almost impossible to use it in English but everything was in Turkish and it was impossible to boot it and proceed. But since it is under extremely active development they have moved to 1.0.2 Yavuz (RC4) released on 03/11/2008. This time it has locale English enabled by default and after little tweaking around one can easily set English as default language as I did posting this post from Lapis desktop.

Lapis Linux is GNOME oriented distribution but from current version onward they are offering KDE 3 ,KDE 4 & XFCE along to be downloaded and installed . Lapis Linux version 1.0.2 Yavuz (RC4) is sporting Linux 2.6.26.7.lapis1 kernel & GNOME 2.24. All the art work and graphics are from the Lapis Linux team and very pleasant looking.Compiz support is also present.The PCLinuxOS control center and Synaptic are also present for easy access.

At current development phase many packages are not properly working but as Serkan one of the developer said " We are moving forward to lzma supported RPM packages with this version.So, there are lots of packages which should be packaged again. As we see those packages, we'll fix them. And yes there will be English support with this version." it is clear that the development is going on progressively and things will settle down sooner.

There is an active forum for Lapis Linux but since everybody speaks Turkish there so it might not of much help to English speaking people but those interested to participate and report issue can reach the development team on Lapislivecd mailing list & Lapis Linux .

The current development version of Lapis Linux 1.0.2 RC4 can be downloaded from Lapis Linux main website for testing purpose.The development team can also be reached at IRC Freenode #turklug & #lapislinux but many of them don`t speak English so that might not of much help.

Lapis Linux is indeed a great news for those who want to use PCLinuxOS and are not happy with their development pace. Lapis Linux is a good alternate and a pure work .

I urge all to give it a try, they might be disappointed currently if it did not work but will not be once it comes up with another stable release which does not look too far with their fast development work going on tirelessly.

Distro Lost!

drmarwat@gmail.com (Dr.Saleem Khan) — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 16:38:00 +0000

PCLinuxOS is stale and nobody from PCLinuxOS is willing to say anything about the repositories which are frozen despite the fact that it was said "just few days" on their forum.

It is the time to move on to something other than PCLinuxOS and I have two distributions in my list.

1: SIDUX

2:KANOTIX

I request all those who drop by here to suggest pros and cons of both and which one is superior to other in different aspects.

I am patiently waiting for your kind suggestions and remarks.

Regards,

Arch Linux I Arch-live Development Blog

drmarwat@gmail.com (Dr.Saleem Khan) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 10:21:00 +0000

Godane, a rather quiet natured young man who is always present at IRC #archlinux is doing an amazing job of making custom made ISO files of Arch Linux, one of the notorious newbies "non-friendly" distribution regarding installation and configuration.

Arch-live Development Blog & Godane’s Development Blog are two main sites with all the info and ISO files download links released by Godane till now.

I am in the process of " learning Arch Linux" way myself these days and Godane`s ISO are of real help indeed.

Anybody interested in straight forward & simple Arch Linux installation other than pure Arch way should check Godane`s work.

Desktop Linux Distributions | Expectations of a home user

drmarwat@gmail.com (Dr.Saleem Khan) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 10:59:00 +0000

Here is my fresh article, which can be read at Raiden`s Realm too.

Desktop Linux Distribution is getting fame in every day use among home users and even office users. Given the choice to select from a huge list of Desktop Linux Distributions home users are ought to get confused and it`s not unusual that they do distro-hopping in the quest of what is so called "the best" for them.

I have discussed these issues on various occasions in my previous articles and I still believe that home users need a clear demarcation of what they are looking for when they select a desktop Linux for their home and office needs.

There might be many reasons according to everybody`s own desires and requirements leading to a home user`s selection of a Linux distribution but I am highlighting those which I have learned with my own quest of a desktop Linux distribution and I consider them of the factual importance.

Rock Solid Stability

Nothing can be literally and truly "rock solid" in Linux world or in that case in any other operating system but this is the only thing that really matters when a desktop Linux is selected. The notion of "latest and greatest" might sound appealing but home user needs stability more than the latest softwares on a desktop Linux. Well tested, bugs free softwares with stable and a fully functional system is of utmost importance. Frequent crashes, packages failures or popping up bugs are both annoying and hush away home users who are trying to adopt to something different that their traditional operating systems they had before.

Well Populated Repositories

Give me a base system, an APT and a large pool of well tested, stable packages and updates and I am all happy with a desktop Linux distribution. I remember occasions when I could not find some package in one distribution's repositories and found it on another distribution and vice versa. I know it takes great resources and lots of hard work to have a huge and well maintained repository for a desktop Linux distribution but I personally believe that it is really mandatory.

Hardware Compatibility

One of the major reason that distracts away a home user from one to another Linux distribution is lack of compatibility with common or in some cases a special hardware. This is indeed a huge task for the developers of Linux distributions to test and make sure that their distribution works flawlessly with every hardware available in the market. All major Linux distributions are offering full support for common hardware but still home users sometimes complain about support for some of their hardware at forums and IRC support rooms.

Customizability

For a beginner home user a preconfigured desktop Linux distribution with all the commonly used packages installed sounds a working idea so that they don`t have to worry about how and where to get them. But for a seasoned home user a base system only with full control over the customization according to one own needs is the best policy to be adopted by the Linux distributions projects. Open Source gives a huge variety of options and choices and I feel the home user should be allowed the choice to get whatever they like e.g. Abiword in place of Open Office. I am a true fan of "remasterme "option offered and fully working by PCLinuxOS and Ubuntu projects. I personally feel that if I want any control over my system, I would ask for how can I back up my custom made system with even my personal favorites and wallpapers. I wish we have such back up and remasterme system on all major desktop distribution e.g. Debian GNU/Linux and Fedora.

Desktop Linux Beautification

This is the least important aspect that one has to consider as a desktop Linux user but since home users are not technical people they should be given abundance of beautification options for their chosen distributions so that home computing is both fun and ease. Beautification also includes desktop environments and the home users need a provision to get a working desktop environment from repositories along with the one already installed by default. I remember having problem getting open box on PCLinuxOS even though the packages were available from repositories but they never worked. I was forced to get Tinyme just because the open box packages did not work on PCLinuxOS.

Documentation

Regularly updated, easy and comprehensive documentations are of great help to resolve the issues and to work around a desktop Linux distribution. Documentation are important, I wish all the major desktop Linux distributions projects add "read before you proceed" sentence to the documentations part and put it on top along with download links for their distributions ISO files as this will lessen the problems of home users and burden on developers at IRC rooms where users come asking for small problems when the solution is already there in documentations.

Online Help

IRC help rooms play a major role in the learning and fixing of Linux problems for most of the user. This trend is growing but unfortunately the help is at the cost of personal insults and degrading remarks by many of the developers and regulars at these IRC rooms to the home users and other help seekers along with useless, childish questions put by users who come asking for help without doing any home work on their problems. If we have good documentation and those with problems have read them well, I am sure half of the problems will already be fixed before they come to IRC room seeking help for minor issues. We need a professional environment and code of ethics for all these rooms to be maintained both by help seekers and the helpers and it will help to improve the outlook of desktop Linux distribution for everyone

Conclusion

Much has been said, read and done in the field of desktop Linux distribution. If we want to reach our target users for desktop Linux we have to address the core needs and requirements of a home user. I have tried my best to pin point what I see as my own requirement being a home user. I wish everyone else shares what they think will improve this vision of a desktop Linux.

CCux Linux 0.9.9 | Dawn of New Era or a Promise Broken Again?

drmarwat@gmail.com (Dr.Saleem Khan) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 09:08:00 +0000

CCux Linux is an Open Source i686 RPM Linux distribution and is not based upon any other distribution. It offers graphical installer and is optimized for speed.

News are that CCux Linux 0.9.9 has been released today on Monday, 04 August 2008 , this time as a DVD ISO as compared to previous version 0.9.8 released 2 years back .

Amazingly there are no public test releases for this version , so I wonder if it`s a bug-fix release of 0.9.8 with some major updates?

This release is reported to sport Kernel 2.6.26 , KDE 4.1.0 ,Gnome, XFCE and Fluxbox as Desktop environments through the installer.

Talking of the Installer this distribution was a total disappointment regards to installer in previous version.

The developers are promising that the installer and the whole installation process has been overhauled this time with major improvements. Hope these work as they promise as I had to try installing the previous version almost 4 times with no success.

Also reported on their website that the current version is available in English too once again.

CCux Linux is claimed to be designed for desktop use and for inexperienced users but my bitter experience with the previous version makes me little paranoid to get this version and even try it.It was a release in haste previously and I hope the history is not repeated once again this time.

I wonder if somebody will be ahead of me to try and review it or do I have to do it myself and know how it works this time with so many promises being made by the CCux Linux project.

Distro hopping by Linux Newbies

drmarwat@gmail.com (Dr.Saleem Khan) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 15:25:00 +0000

I am posting my previous articles published at Raiden`s Realm for my readers here one by one.

"Distro hopping by Linux Newbies" was published on 10.15.2007.
So much is happening in the world of Linux and Open Source every day. New versions of all the major Linux distributions are released regularly throughout the year, with new versions of some distributions croping up almost every week. And then there are also the new distributions introduced from around the world as well. On one hand, it is great that development is so active, but on the other it can be disastrous for Linux newbies to choose amongst such a huge list of Linux distributions and to find out which is the one that suits them best.

Some people, mostly the newbies, hop from one distribution to another, downloading and trying out one after another endlessly, resulting in huge piles of burned media in their shelves like a pack rat. I remember how I suffered myself from this phenomenon in the early days of my Linux experience. I only realized that I have this obsessive problem of distribution hopping when I had already tried out more than 50 Linux distributions.

I believe Linux distribution hopping is a frenzied state of mind which possess GNU/Linux newbies to download and try out any new Linux distribution about which they come to hear about, not considering whether they really need it or not, or if it will fulfill their requirements. Downloading, installing and trashing away a Linux distribution recklessly without giving it much time for testing and exploration are the salient land marks of distribution hopping.

Causes of distributions hopping

Striving for the best

"I am always in search of the best distribution for me. Maybe their isn't one and I am doomed to distribution hop until I die."
I feel that one of the biggest reasons for Linux distribution hopping is the desire to look for the best, 100 percent perfect distribution. This is a fanatic and non realistic approach as there is no one perfect operating system out there let alone a best Linux distribution. But this illusion of its existance keeps distribution hopping alive and growing obsessionally.

Freedom of choice

After years of sticking with Windows, once a newbie has discovered that he/she could download a free Linux ISO, burn it to a bootable CD/DVD and run a whole new operating system, distribution hopping begins. Out of the 366 active Linux distributions it is really not unexpected to see distribution hopping as they all look so tempting and attractive, and cry to be tried out.

Curiosity

Curiosity is the mother of distribution hopping. Most of the Linux newbies are ready to try out any new Linux distribution out of curiosity. Release notes and screenshots of new distributions add to this curiosity and excitement. It's just the background thinking that every new distribution might be better than the previous ones and so newbies start collecting distributions at a constant pace.

Experimentation

Experimentation and fiddling with every new Linux distribution is lots of fun for a Linux newbie. He/she moves on non-stop from one distribution to another. It is just a causal and non serious approach rather than a serious attempt to try out a new distribution. It is like a challenge to test and experiment with every new distribution.

Eye Candy

A distribution that looks nice and cool always attracts newbies, they will get hold of it just because of its looks, and later throw it away, as looks are not always the true reflector of a Linux distribution's real potential. Boredom with the looks of one distribution will lead to jumping to another one.

Hardware Incompatibility

Some people face difficulties configuring their hardware, such as modems, web cams, sound cards, printers, etc. on various distributions. So they drop distributions endlessly in hope that the next one will work for them.

Trying out rare distributions

Some people like to discover those rare and non famous distributions amongst the huge list of available distributions just to feel unique. Having a rare distribution on your system sounds quite appealing and so they keep on hunting for those rare distributions.

What is so bad about distribution hopping?

Wastage of bandwidth

It's a waste of bandwidth for both for the end user and the hosting servers. The greater the amount of unnecessary traffic, the slower the hosting servers get. Plus the download bandwidth used to download the distribution gets wasted when the distribution is trashed soon after.

Wastage of media

Unnecessary burning of distribution CDs/DVDs without ever using them leads to huge piles of media both at home and later at dumpsters when those media are dumped, leading to environmental pollution.

Wastage of money

Purchasing Linux CDs/DVDs from different organizations without utilizing them properly is a waste of money which could be better spent on something more productive e.g. purchasing some hardware accessories for a PC or purchasing a small system for the kids.

Little learning

Not much is learned about Linux or a specific distribution by superficially going through it and then throwing it away.

Little or no contribution to Open Source

When a Linux distribution is just hopped, nothing is gained from it and hence no positive feedback is created in regards to bugs or hardware issues that would normally be reported back to the developers as the newbie just moves on to another distribution quickly. This doesn't help the spirit of Open Source by voicing out your opinion about a distribution over which the developers spent so much time and energies.

How to cope with Linux distribution hopping

From my own experience with distribution hopping I have found that the following points help to overcome distribution hopping.

Choose free Open Source Linux distributions. The commercial versions offer not as much as the free versions do, but if you opt for commercial versions then there are many which offer full support upon payment.

Next, if you are a Linux newbie, it is better to choose a main streamline distribution rather than non famous and unknown ones.

Select Linux distributions which offer live CD/DVDs. Run live sessions of a distribution and thoroughly checkout it's hardware support, your favorite programs and system performance in general. This will help you get a feel for the Linux distribution you are about to choose and install for your use. Currently many desktop Linux distributions (DLDs) offer live CD/DVDs.

Install the Linux distribution you have chosen for yourself knowing that it will accomplish your requirements as you have checked them out in a live cd session. Installation is mandatory, live sessions will not let you enjoy all the benefits of a specific Linux distribution.

Once you have installed your selected Linux distribution it is the time to dissect it stepwise. It's your system now; explore it as much as you like, nobody will mind.

I personally keep a few things in my check list for selecting a Linux distribution for my personal use which are given below.

Hardware support
Does it support all the hardware on my system such as video, sound card, modems, mouse, monitor, key board, etc?

Aesthetics
I choose the desktop environment of my choice i.e. KDE. I look for fonts, icons and themes, system menus, tool bars etc. I prefer a distribution which visually appeals to me because I don't like working on a dull looking Linux distribution.

Applications
I prefer a Linux distribution that has all the required tools such as AbiWord, Firefox, gFTP, GIMP, Xpdf, etc., plus offers java run time environment, flash and other necessary plug-ins available out of the box.

Multimedia
I am a multimedia fan, whenever I choose a Linux distribution I thoroughly check whether it plays all the multimedia formats I use out of box or after a little tinkering around. Kaffeine, VLC media player, MPlayer, Amarok and XMMS are my favorite media players.

GUI configuration tools
For system management I am personally in favor of graphical front end tools. Life is much easier with graphical installers, control centers and system management tools.

Package management
I thoroughly check what front-end package manager comes on my chosen Linux distribution and how does that package manager behave on my system. I am big fan of the Synaptic package manager myself.

Repositories
Do I get lots of working repositories with many tools and packages and do they work properly for me for getting things I want.

Overall system performance
I closely observe how a Linux distribution works on my system from bootup to shut down. Does it run slow? Do applications work properly? Do I have any issues with any hardware or tools? I use a Linux distribution with the eyes of an anatomist, looking for every single component I can.

Community support
I go for a Linux distribution which has documentations, man pages, an IRC room, a live forum, a bugzilla and a users mailing list as these factors help me to figure out and get support for any issues I might encounter.

The benefits of fully exploring a Linux distribution

Exploring a Linux distribution for some time is better than throwing it away instantly just because it did not work for you out of the box. Exploration will help you and Open source community as.

It helps you learn by doing common tasks on your system e.g. if you find that your system has no sound and you have checked that it wasn't muted from the sound mixer then running a simple command like "alsaconf" will let you explore and tinker with your sound card further. If you face any issue, by exploring, you will know whether is it just a configuration problem or if it is that the Linux distribution doesn't actually support your hardware.
Report bugs if you find any on a Linux distribution, or if it did not support some of your specific hardware or any tool you wanted that didn't work. The developers of that Linux distribution will strive to rectify that problem by releasing fixes/updates for that or they will fix them in the next release.

GNU/Linux is a wonderful experience and offers so much more everyday. We all want to enjoy all those new enhancements but not at the cost of our precious resources. Being faithful to one Linux distribution makes it fun and educational. I urge everybody to stick to one distribution for at least some time, say three months, before you move on to another distribution. I am positive that if you choose the right Linux distribution for yourself and stay with it for some time you will not move to another one unless it is really needed.

My Chinese made Mobile Phone | Adevnture with Linux Mobile Tools

drmarwat@gmail.com (Dr.Saleem Khan) — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 16:35:00 +0000

Recently I purchased a new Chinese made GSM Mobile Phone by Microtech. It is ¨ MT6227 MTK1 Media Player¨ , a rather funny named but nice looking GSM mobile phone .I like it because it offers so many functions than my previous ancient Nokia 66010i mobile phone. But beauty always brings problems with it ! So did my new Chinese made moobile phone.

It was a great mystry for me how to access it and update and customize my various data as the Chinese did not bother to pack a PC suite software CD with my set . Even their website does not offer any download link for this software.

Windows mounted it as a mass storage device and I could only access the ¨memory card ¨ data . I found a software called ¨PCSyncManager¨ with USB driver for my mobile phone but after full ¨normal¨ installation it refused to access my phone.

So it was time to look around for some open source alternatives on my Linux system. Searching on synaptic I found gammu and wammu and I immediately installed them on my PCLinuxOS . Through online search I found about a kde project known as KmobileTools but unfortunately PCLinuxOS repositories did not contain this package.

Kurumin NG 8.06 was a pleasant surprize because I could get both the gammu/wammu and KmoblieTools easily from the repositories .

Gammu & Wammu

Gammu is mobile phone manager running on Linux. The communication is made by Gammu library. Wammu is a Mobile phone manager using Gammu as it's backend.

It was easy to configure and browse my phone book,messages ,contacts and calender. Wammu worked flawlessly to work around and clean various menus on my phone.

KmoblieTools

KmobileTools work similarly with few additional fuctions like signals levels and battery levels.

GmobileMedia

gMobileMedia is a simple GTK based tool used to browse and handle a mobile phone filesystem. You can easily upload and download images, ringtones, photos, and applications to & from your mobile phone through a data cable . I installed gMobileMedia from synaptic but unfortunaely it did not support my mobile phone.

Mount as a ¨mass storage media¨

My mobile fone can be easily mounted just like any storage media e.g a flash drive and I can upload and download different files to and from my computer to my mobile phone.

I was really disappointed to purchase a chinese mobile phone initially because I thought I could never access it and modify or retrieve its contents. But just a little effort and search on Linux gave me so many options to enjoy and customize my mobile phone and I am really enjoying it now.Thanks to Open Source and GNU/Linux :)

Simplis GNU/Linux: A new face in GNU/Linux Town

drmarwat@gmail.com (Dr.Saleem Khan) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 09:45:00 +0000

We see many new Linux distributions released on regular basis. Some are based upon already existing major Linux distributions while others are independent projects. But not all will attract your attention until there is something really unique about them.

I read about the new release (Vixta.org 3D 9.03) of Vixta.org which is an easy-to-use, Fedora-based distribution with a user interface that resembles Window$ Vista. In the live session of
Vixta.org I ran Firefox and off the tradition and routine the home page was set on a flash based cool looking website LINUX Technology than on Vixta.org. Out of curiosity I browsed around the various menus as I thought the Vixta.org has migrated to a new home page despite the fact that the home page of Vixta.org is same as before. Browsing through the pages I came to realize that this is in fact a new Linux project which is being promoted by Vixta.org: what is the relationship between the two is still not clear to me.

The LINUX Technology website defines only the basic about this new distribution at the moment .This project is run by Portuguese & Swiss IT Professors, IT Engineers and IT Students. They call themselves as “a group of Open Source Addicts “and define the aims and objectives of their project in very simple words :

“We all think the way UP to spread LINUX Technology is to make it SIMPLE! “

So this clarifies the rationale of choosing the name “Simplis” for this distribution. They further extend the aims of this project by stating that they strive for these two goals :

FREE and SIMPLE: This is the main goal of simplis!
Everybody should "play" with it, from sysadmins to Desktop users!

SECURE and FAST: The other 2 main goals!
Secure: LINUX TECHNOLGY doesn’t suffer from virus and instability!
Fast: 5 min to INSTALL!

So as I stated in the start some “uniqueness” about a new Linux distribution will make you stop and look into details about it.

Let’s take a brief look into Simplis Linux here.

Since their website does not tell much about Simplis Linux I emailed the Simplis people and asked what is Simplis based upon and whether it is a sister project of Vixta.org ? A. Paulo Santos from LINUX Technology is kind enough to reply back and inform me that it is based upon Fedora with KDE 4.0 and that these two are different project in fact. .

Simplis is currently offering simplis 9.0.1 Eng CD & DVD ISO which can be downloaded from simplis sourceforge.net page.

LiveDVD Session

The Live DVD ran smoothly and all my system’s hardware was configured properly without any errors. The Simplis desktop is typical desktop of latest Vixta.org 3D 9.03 with the graphics added by Simplis team which make it look more appealing to eyes. Multimedia and Internet work out of the box on Live session.

3D Desktop ScreenShot

Installation

It is a straight forward Fedora installation with anaconda installer and upon reboot all the Windows FAT32 & NTFS partitions are auto mounted without the need to edit fstab.

So what is good about Simplis?

It offers all the fedora 9 packages with KDE 4.0.5 and Multimedia and all the other packages included by default to facilitate home users to use Simplis out of the box both as Live and installed system.

Problem I faced with Simplis

I had to install the Livna repository manually and upon the command su -c 'yum update' in shell I would get repeated error of failure to load update from mirrors and yum would start looking for another mirror. Another problem I faced that some mirrors would do get the updates but then I would get the error that package md5sums is not matching. Since I am not a Fedora guy I was literally lost what kind of error this is.

Overall Impression

For the first public release of Simplis it is almost a perfectly stable distribution with some small issues with package management which I think can be easily fixed.

Relationship with Vixta.org

I personally feel that Simplis team has adopted Vixta.org as base and added their own graphics and included the commonly used packages and multimedia support so that the end users don’t have to worry getting these later. There is an additional point to note here that Simplis team has avoided saying that Simplis resembles in looks to Window$ which identifies them from Vixta.org. I will recommend Simplis to those who want to have Fedora system with everything working out of the box.

Virus : A paralysed object on GNU/Linux

drmarwat@gmail.com (Dr.Saleem Khan) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:15:00 +0000

Recently I faced two incidents when I had to format my flash drive as it would simply refuse to open at all just because it was infected with some nasty viruses ( New Folder.exe Virus ) from my office computers.

Both of the times I lost all my data in the flash because the viruses in it were so nasty that the Avast Pro antivirus on my Window$ totally refused to open it or let me scan it and I was only left with one choice : format my poor little flash drive. After formatting it I had to run R-Studio Network edition data recovery software to retrieve my data. So it was a mess, a frustration and a waste of time .

When for the third the same event hit me, suddenly it sparked in my mind that if there is any solution available to retrieve my data without formatting my flash is to open it in PCLinuxOS.

It was an amazing experience. My drive was picked up and opened up promptly on PCLinuxOS and along with my data files I could see some weird looking files lying around and staring at me with blank eyes! Out of rage and hatred that was flowing through my veins for those nasty virus files because of the sufferings they put on me twice , I just cut and pasted them into a new folder on desktop to deal with them later .

First I copied all my data and saved it at proper place and then went to fix the nasty creatures. Since I have installed Clam AntiVirus on my PCLinuxOS so I scanned my flash drive with it and once it was all clear I safely removed it : it was a rescue this time from yet another format of the poor little flash!

What did I do with those nasty little creatures who would bite me on my carotids in Windwo$ and were looking at me with the looks of "have mercy on us " in PCLinuxOS !

Well, I scanned them , and guaranteed them with Clam AntiVirus and when still my fury and anger was not pacified I shredded them with shredder mercilessly!

Revenge taken, justice done to the innocent looking little evils, thanks to my PCLinuxOS :)

PCLinuxOS : The Best Desktop GNU/Linux

drmarwat@gmail.com (Dr.Saleem Khan) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 07:21:00 +0000

While reading the tuxmachines.org " today's leftovers " I came across two interesting posts :
1: Top Tip: What Linux version for a newcomer to Linux?
2: What version of linux seems to be the least buggiest ?

These both posts point towards two basic and very important factors which play a role in the selection of any GNU/Linux distribution by a newcomer or a home user.

There are many Desktop Linux distributions out there today but the PCLinuxOS by Texstar is one of well known distribution which fulfills both of these criteria. It works both for newcomers and seasoned Linux users and along with its user friendliness it offers the stability and bug free computing environment .

The excellent hardware support , availability of huge number of stable packages at the repositories and pleasant to eyes graphics make PCLinuxOS stand out high of the huge number of currently available Linux distributions.

I have created numerous successful remaster copies of my custom installed PCLinuxOS 2008 Minime and I regularly distribute the copies to my friends and colleagues. There are two amazing facts which come into my observation with my distributed copies of my PCLinuxOS DVD.
1: I have always seen yet another "satisfied" Linux user once they install and use PCLinuxOS.
2: I have yet to see a person out of all of them who reports any issues with PCLinuxOS.

PCLinxOS 2008 final version is pending and impending . I think they will start releasing Test Releases
( TR ) the way they did in case of PCLinuxOS 2007. I am also interested to know if they will continue with KDE 3.5 series in the final release or will adopt KDE 4.1 when it is released.

I have no reservations or doubts of any kind to recommend PCLinxOS to a newcomer or a home user with a reassurance that this distribution will rarely fail upon you. Just go and spin the PCLinuxOS CD and see what wonders it brings for you.

Intux 1.0 A Clone of PCLinuxOS with New Graphics

drmarwat@gmail.com (Dr.Saleem Khan) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:15:00 +0000

I heard and read about Intux Linux project many a times. Being a PCLinuxOS fan I do give a try to any distribution which is based upon PCLinuxOS. So when I read and found the ISO of "stable" release of Intux Linux 1.0 named "Orion" from India I downloaded the DVD ISO despite the fact that they offer to send a free DVD to your door step just like Ubuntu Project.

The server doesn`t offer any MD5SUMS for the ISO so you are point blank regarding the health of your downloaded ISO.

The Intux Linux home page is displaying the message of "Intux v 1.0 release notes coming soon" for last many days but still no news about it anywhere.

It was a typical PCLinuxOS 2008 custom made DVD with the addition of Intux Linux team personal graphics, so nothing exciting till that stage.

The Project Leader has reported on PCLinuxOS forum that this release will have both KDE & Gnome but I opted for KDE and went for install straight away.

It was a plain PCLinuxOS installation with nothing additional.

Upon reboot the first thing I faced on running apt-get update was a weird error shown here.

I tried correcting it from repositories settings by enabling direct connect to the Internet but that did not work. I sent an email to the Intux Project Leader Rupesh Kumar Shah regarinding this issue but I have not heard from it till now.

The Intux Control center is graphically modified PCLinuxOS center with no additions. Overall Intux 1.0 is a remaster of PCLinuxOS 2008 with added graphics and theme adopted from Granular Linux 1.0.

Since the repositories error left me with a dead Intux system so I had no choice but to kill it as my excitement was over soon with it.

I read on Granular Linux , it was a suggestion for Intux Project to join and help build Granular Linux rather than to take a solo flight. I believe Intux Project has the right and choice to continue with their efforts but they should consider what they offer to the end users . I have no hesitation to say that it was a waste of bandwidth, a DVD and time that I put in Intux 1.0 as I have a far better working personal custom made PCLinuxOS DVD than what Intux 1.0 offered me.

My three wishes from Elive

drmarwat@gmail.com (Dr.Saleem Khan) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:57:00 +0000

Elive is good enough out of all those who offer this windows manager ( like opengeu and pce17os ) , it is stable and it works. Elive is cleanly dissected like you see clean dissected muscles,nerves,vessels,facia etc in Gray`s anatomy diagrams.

I have 3 points to raise for elive

1: The packages, panels ,menus, etc should have at least names/tags....permanent or visible when you point at them.

2: remasterme or mklivecd option: I would be more than happy if somehow i could make my custom made remaster copies of elive.That's the ultimate power an end user have over a distro. You do fine resection, tweaking, selective packages installation , updates and then spin your own iso and just use that at any time.

3: Elive team should not charge whatsoever amount is when end user is downloading it, this hush away so many users who fall for other useless distros.
I might be wrong, but that's what i feel will benefit elive end users.I just want everyone to benefit from elive , it`s worth usage as are Suse and Mandriva and others.