Last Post of 2007

This post is dedicated to the year 2007 !

In 2007 I started my writings about GNU/Linux ,my articles got published & I received lots of positive feed backs.

In 2007 I made friends at Raiden`s Realm.

In 2007 I discovered new frontiers in GNU/Linux as home user.

I am glad that I contributed my little part into the enormous work of GNU/Linux & OSS , one small sand particle of my writings.

Happy new year 2008 to all my readers & friends.

KANOTIX 2007-Thorhammer-RC7 Installation & Configuration

KANOTIX is a GNU/Linux distribution Live CD based on Debian with advanced hardware detection. It can run from a CD-ROM drive without using a hard disk but can be installed to hard disk if intended . Current version is KANOTIX 2007-Thorhammer-RC6b released on 24/10/2007 is based on Debian Etch and can be downloaded from here.

KANOTIX uses KDE as the default desktop environment as Kano is KDE fan . GNOME and other window managers can be downloaded using APT.

The name "KANOTIX" is derived from the founder's nickname "Kano".Kano is a famous character from Mortal Kombat PC Game. KANOTIX's mascot is a Fangtooth.

KANOTIX Live-CD
Hint: If your /dev/hdX drives are running without DMA then hdX=none should be used as cheatcode. This is most often needed for motherboards based on Intel chipsets.

How to Install KANOTIX

"acritoxinstaller" could be (from livecd)

In shell follow these commands to update "acritoxinstaller" as follows.
su
fix-unionfs
apt-get update
apt-get install acritoxinstaller acritoxinstaller-kanotix
Acritox Installer from Andreas Loibl is a graphical install program with many new functions and installs KANOTIX easily in 15-20 minutes to hard disk.

Install new Kernel

Once KANOTIX is installed to hard disk the latest updated 2.6.24 kernel can be installed via shell as follows.
su
1 : wget -N http://kanotix.com/files/kernel/kernel-update-pack-generic.tar.gz ; unp kernel-update-pack-generic-.tar.gz ; cd kernel-update-pack-generic ; ./install.sh

OR manually install the Kernel downloaded and saved in home as
2: unp kernel-update-pack-generic.tar.gz ; cd kernel-update-pack-generic ; ./install.sh

When Kernel is successfully installed after reboot run
install-nvidia-debian.sh
or
install-fglrx-debian.sh
if you had installed binary gfx drivers before.

As devices names for CD-ROM could also change on boot you should run fix/fix-fstab.sh
after reboot.
In case of boot problems boot old kernel.

Install Nvidia Driver
"nvidia" could be installed as update-scripts-kanotix.sh as follows
[Alt] + [Ctrl] + [F1] --> login as root ; install-nvidia-debian.sh

Install KDE 3.5.8
You have to add deb http://kanotix.com/files/fix/kde to your /etc/apt/sources.list as below
echo deb http://kanotix.com/files/fix/kde ./ >> /etc/apt/sources.list
then do this
apt-get dist-upgrade

These are just basic notes, will add more to it on regular basis, stay tuned please and enjoy KANOTIX experience, use it ,share it with others!

Common KDE Tools for Home Users

KDE 4 is around the corner and I as a GNU/Linux home user often wonder what it will offer me at the end of the day when it has been finally released ?

I am writing a new article on this topic and hopefully will be published on Raiden`s Realm this week.

Stay tuned and please honor me with your valuable feed backs.

Frugalware Linux 0.7 "Sayshell"

Frugalware Linux from Hungary is a nicely crafted Desktop Linux Distribution ( DLD ) for general and home use , forked out of Slackware Linux and utilizing Arch Linux "pacman" package manager.

Frugalware means " Little on resources " and as
VMiklos from Frugalware team says " Ware is stuff, frugal is frugal , something simple and humble" so is this nice Linux distribution.

A new stable version Frugalware Linux 0.7 "Sayshell" was released on Sat Oct 13, 2007 ref page Frugalware for further details .

The DVDs for i686 can be downloaded from here

DVD1

DVD2

SHA1SUMs:

f6f731a45467274bcc1f7d987f3ccef6697dec03 frugalware-0.7-i686-dvd1.iso

0443681c558f231b408e4add725635afe1b48af6 frugalware-0.7-i686-dvd2.iso

NOTE: Don't get the second DVD unless you don't have an internet connection or you are on dial up.

Installation is simple, straight forward Slackware text based installation which any intermediate Linux user can handle easily . Post installation system runs smooth and stable and offers all tools any Linux home user needs.

Additional packages and upgrades can be easily installed via GUI Ggpm which is new addition to current version and works flawlessly.





I faced small problem with KPPP which was resolved easily by creating options file and copying /etc/resolv.conf file , further details can be found here I am sure Frugalware will attract more and more masses as it is ineed another Best Linux Distribution for Home Users.

Happy Frugalware Linux experience to everybody !

Road to GNU/Linux , Linux found on Highway!

I was hooked to Windows for years and years on and I never thought I would be using any other operating system than Windows.

This was time of sadness,boredom and irritability as I could not think of or find any alternate to Windows.

It was a cold , cloudy evening of Dec 2003 and I was walking back home from PIMS ( Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences ) Islamabad where I was working as a Psychiatry resident.

Crossing the road in G-8 Markaz I saw a pack of "some CDs" lying on road. I just picked up the pack ,put them in my bag and went home.

That night was my first step into the world of GNU/Linux when I pulled out that pack of CDs from my bag to check what it contained. The label read as Red Hat 9 Linux 3CDs.

Not knowing what it was I plunged the CD 1 into CD-ROM to see what it contained but there were some weird looking files on it. While I was almost ready to throw the pack into trash bin a thought clicked and I started looking online for Red Hat 9 Linux.

When I got up from my chair that night it was already 3 am and a "New Operating System" was running on my PC!

From that point onwards my world has changed altogether and so I always tell myself ....

Road to GNU/Linux , Linux found on Highway!

Wait for some new exciting articles !

Hello everybody,

It looks like as if I am in dormant state, well I am not :)

Working on some new articles, will be posting them soon at Raiden`s Realm , just little more wait .

I request for your feed backs.

I am glad you visit and read my posts.

Take cares.

Linus Torvalds famous words for KDE

Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2005 17:46:21 -0800 (PST)
"I personally just encourage people to switch to KDE.
This 'users are idiots, and are confused by functionality' mentality of Gnome is a disease. If you think your users are idiots, only idiots will use it. I don't use Gnome, because in striving to be simple, it has long since reached the point where it simply doesn't do what I need it to do.
Please, just tell people to use KDE."

Linus

Don`t Underestimate Chinese,forgive them for Bugs!

I downloaded recently released Red Flag Linux 6.0 "Desktop", a Chinese distribution based on the recently announced Asianux 3.0 server editions and gave it a test install.

I have yet to see any Red Hat based Linux distribution so polished regarding installation, general looks and over all system performance as is Red Flag Linux 6.0 Desktop.

Everything works out of the box , I saw little or no bugs or issues with the whole system.

But then you have to forgive Chinese along with praising them. Their updated package management infrastructure with APT for RPM is a total disaster . It returned with broken packages and when I tried to fix/repair those broken packages APT refused to work altogether.

I wonder if they did any home work before introducing APT into Red Flag Linux 6.0 Desktop as it does not work at all destroying the face of a such a nice desktop Linux distribution.

For details about Red Flag Linux 6.0 Desktop please refer to the notes I picked from DistroWatch.com

" Red Flag Linux 6.0 "Desktop", a Chinese distribution based on the recently announced Asianux 3.0, has been released. As with any past releases, Red Flag Linux 6.0 continues to focus on providing an easy-to-use desktop that resembles the Windows user interface as much as possible and includes a number of Windows-like utilities. New in this release is the inclusion of 3D desktop features with Beryl, updated package management infrastructure with APT for RPM, automatic dual-boot setup, and multi-language support. The distribution uses the latest 2.6.22 kernel with modules for a large number of modern hardware devices and wireless network cards, as well as read/write support to NTFS file systems. On the desktop, the system is built around X.Org 7.2 and KDE 3.5.7, now with automatic mounting of storage devices, and OpenOffice.org 2.2. For more details please see the product features page (in Chinese). Red Flag Linux 6.0 is available as a 2-CD image set - an installation CD and an optional "Tools" CD with extra software; both can be downloaded from here: RedFlag-dt6-sys.iso (680MB, MD5), RedFlag-dt6-Tool.iso (587MB, MD5) "

GNU/Linux Vs Windows: Myths and Realities

My fresh article for GNU/Linux Home users and experts published 05/10/2007 at

Raiden`s Realm .

I am thankful to all our readers for their valuable feed backs and comments both at Raiden`s Realm and various websites.

I am always looking for comments, feed backs and suggestions from everybody i.e GNU/Linux newbies and experts, keeps me involved to continue my writings.

My next article is almost ready, hopefully it will be published in this week.

Best wishes to everybody.

Pashtoons ( Khans )

The Great philosopher Pashto poet Ghani Khan wrote a little skittish poem about Pashtoons that depicts their temperament given below:

The great pot maker of fate was sitting in heaven.

This great potter of fate was making a donkey,

when the order came to make a Khan.

So the potter cut off its tail and sculpted its ears,

on its forehead he put a spot of temper

and in the donkey`s brain he put the disease

of being ahead of everyone, being a leader, and

then he put a beautiful turban on his head and

shooed him towards the world.

How to Quit Windows and cope with Windows Withdrawal Syndrome

My new article is up on Raiden`s Realm today. I hope everybody gives me feed backs and I will continue writing .

Why do we use Linux as Home Users?

My new article based on my previous post on my blog page is published on Raiden`s Realm today on 17/09/2007.

I hope everybody from Linux world and Open Source Community likes my small effort once again and I will appreciate feed backs and comments from everybody once again.

Image Editing Tools on GNU/Linux

Dr.Rana Samir Mahmood is my best friend and class mate who is a born artist and an art lover. He is an Amateur Digital Photographer working on portraits, landscapes & macros.

He recently asked me what is the best Image Editing Tool on Linux.

He said

“I do a lot of photo editing on Adobe Photoshop and I need an alternate of Adobe on Linux other than GIMP because it sucks. Is Adobe compatible with Linux because it is the best? "


GNU/Linux Graphics / Image editing Softwares

The following is a selection of Freeware and GNU/Linux based graphics and image editing software.

GIMP

GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. If somebody likes Photoshop and wants an equal equivalent of it on Linux he/she can install the Gimpshop UI for it which makes Gimp look like Photoshop. So GIMP doesn`t suck at all as Dr.Samir says :)

Inkscape

Inkscape is an Open Source and powerful Scalable Vector Graphics ( SVG ) editor. Inkscape has capabilities similar to Adobe Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw, or Xara X.

ImageMagick

ImageMagick is a free software suite to create, edit, and compose bitmap images. It can read, convert and write images in a variety of formats.
ImageMagick can translate, flip, mirror, rotate, scale, shear and transform images, adjust image colors, apply various special effects, or draw text, lines, polygons, ellipses and Bézier curves.

For further info read this thread on Raiden`s Realm

Disclaimer

The information about these softwares are from their main websites and Wiki pages.

Best Linux Desktop Distribution for Home Users

This is my recently published article on Raiden`s Realm

Being as an advocate of GNU/Linux Home User I am speaking for myself and for thousands like me who are not Linux experts but either hobbyists or just using Linux as an alternate Operating System on their home computers.

I received a generous response from world over , I am thankful to Steve Lake for encouraging me by posting my article on his website . I am positive that I shall write more articles for all my friends at my earliest .

Please leave your comments for adding and aiding into my little knowledge.

ALT Linux Desktop 4.0 Released

The long awaited ALT Linux Desktop 4.0 from Russia has been released on Friday 24Th Aug 2007.

The official release announcement & release notes are still awaited.

ALT Linux supports English along with Russian language. To select English language on ALT Linux Desktop 4.0, press F2 & then select the 3rd option from the top.

The ALT Linux Desktop 4.0 offers KDE 3.5.7 in the base system & Gnome 2.16, Ice WM 1.2.30 in contrib. (thanks to gvy for this info)

ALT Linux offers an English mailing list at Community-en Info Page

ALT Linux Bugzilla page with English language support at Bugzilla Main Page

Download

The DVD ISO can be downloaded from main ALT Linux ftp server & mirrors links.

Here are quick links for the ALT Linux Desktop 4.0 DVD

1: Main Link for Download: dvd4.iso

2: Mirror link for Download: dvd4.iso

Torrent for ALT Linux 4.0: ALTLinux Desktop 4.0.0 i586 dvd4

Please virify MD5SUM after downloading the torrent with : 4.0.0/iso/MD5SUM

Happy ALT Linux Desktop 4.0 experience to everybody and many thanks for ALT Linux team & developers for releasing another nicely crafted Desktop Linux Distribution for Linux users world over.

Why do we use Linux as Home Users?

Why does a common Linux Home User who has little knowledge of the technicalities of an Operating System he or she uses e.g Windows , Mac OS or in that matter any other Operating System has any reasons to switch from the above Operating Systems and switch over to Linux?

1: Is Linux easy to use for a Linux non expert home user?

2: Is it because Linux is free of cost & people don`t want to pay for Commercial Operating Systems?

3: Is he or she worried about his/her system security and bothered by the viruses and spy wares ?

4: Is Linux more eye candy than other Operating Systems?

5: Does Linux offer lot more innovative tools than other Operating Systems?

Please answer these questions and let us find out why do we use Linux as a home user.

Please suggest any other reasons if you have in your mind .

KDE & KDE Lite

KDE is a great Desktop Environment for GNU/Linux, KDE is growing fast but KDE is getting bloated & fatter than ever. A poll from DesktopLinux.com shows that 43.5 % of people used KDE as their Desktop Environment as compared to the other major counterpart GNOME 26.5 %.

Today many Linux end users are just plain non professional Home Users & not Linux experts or Gurus.

While most users would prefer using the fully loaded KDE with all the available tools on it, most of newbies and Home Users only prefer basic and selective tools like a chat client, a torrent client, an ftp client, a download manager, media players and media burning tools .

Rapidly growing KDE is doing good but has it`s developers ever thought with the Linux beginner’s point of view and offering them an official alternate of KDE Lite along with KDE ?

In pursuit of such KDE Lite version few Linux Distributions offer such a choice.

1: Arch Linux offers its own customized KDE (KDEmod , KDE on steroids)

2: Easys GNU/Linux also offers a Lite version of KDE.

3: Independent project like Simple KDE is another alternative offering a lightweight, clean and user-friendly desktop environment based on KDE.

All these all these efforts are exerted to create a non bloated, clean, uncluttered version of KDE for Linux Beginners & Home Users along with experts who are not interested in lots of tools on their desktops. But all these efforts are individual, community driven and it will be more appropriate if Official KDE Project offers an alternate KDE Lite to all such users.

Distro behind curtains

When everybody is looking with high hopes and expectations for main stream liners distributions from countries like US & Canada then has anybody ever thought of those unsung heroes who sit quietly and work persistently to create a distribution of its own uniqueness?

ALT Linux from Russia is a Linux Distribution which I think is not much known to many people outside Russia but is certainly competing at it’s best with many well know distributions.

I was first introduced to its Compact 2.3 version while I was browsing DistroWatch.com looking for a Desktop Linux Distribution. It was a nice experience with a different looking Mandrake Linux based (at that stage) Russian origin ALT Linux, simple & elegant. I kept using it for quite some time when I switched back & forth to different distributions in quest for a perfect distribution.

Later on I got its 3.0.1 version but could not use it for much time because it had a bug? with KDE installation.

Recently I joined IRC #altlinux & got introduced to many helpful & friendly ALT Linux developers and team members & I came to know about the currently under development ALT Linux Desktop 4.0.

I downloaded one of the weekly built DVD ISO of ALT Linux Desktop 4.0 & I was plainly amazed how much things have changed with ALT Linux & it has grown to a mature & robust distro, almost better than Fedora Core and SUSE Linux ( IMHO ).

The DVD gives a live boot with later on disk install option & even at that early beta stage it was almost out of box hardly giving any problems with either hardware or with any of major soft wares.

I rushed for a hard disk install and it went smooth without any issue. The installer has thoroughly been rewritten with English language support by pressing F2 during boot. Installer of ALT Linux 4.0 is quite unique , it will ask few questions regarding basic system configuration & then goes for base system installation & Desktop Environment choice either between KDE ,GNOME & XFCE .

Once ALT Linux is installed to hard disc one gets a clean desktop with cool icons and simple background.

I kept using ALT Linux for quite few days on my system & reported appropriate bugs and requested for lots of tools & packages to their Bugzilla page and Users Mailing List which have English language support.

ALT Linux 4.0 is developing at a very good pace, lots of improvements introduced & recently an RC ISO has been released at their main ftp & mirror servers & hopefully soon its final version will be released.

I am quite sure that this release will be at its best in comparison to the other major Giants out there. Happy ALT Linux and Open Source experience from Russia :)

Break Through !

After years of stumbling around not knowing how & where to put my thoughts & experiences with Linux Distributions & Open Source world together finally my friend Babar Haq put me on the track of writing down blogs and share what I have to offer with whole world.

So here I dedicate my first post in the name of my ever supportive friend Babar Haq from Copyleft Solutions

Hope this blog takes its shape with time and I will be able to post things on regular basis.