Monday, July 4, 2011

Agilia Linux Commands You Must know .

If you are a fan of this Slackware based Russian Linux distribution the following mpkg commands which I collected from their forum requesting for them frequently will save your time and keep you safe from accidents with their package manager GUI which is quite tricky to use . Following commands are quite straightforward .


Summary of mpkg Commands:

mpkg-install PKGNAME - Installs a package

mpkg-remove PKGNAME - Removes a package

mpkg-show PKGNAME - Shows info about a package. By default, it shows currently the installed version .

mpkg-getrepositorylist - Receives repository list from central Server

mpkg-update - Updates packages from repository info

mpkg-upgradeall - To upgrade the whole system , use mpkg-upgradeall

mpkg-install PKGNAME - To upgrade only a specific package


I hope this is going to be helpful for Non-Russian AgiliaLinux Users to have these commands handy.

Here are some additional command posted by Valdos the Fat Troll in comments section, I will paste them here for quick access .

mpkg --help now in English
mpkg-add_rep [URI of repository] — adding repository. URI may be http://, ftp:// and file//.
mpkg-altlist — [don't know, where it's useful] shows all provides pairs.
mpkg-altshow [PKGNAME] — shows avaliable replacements for PKGNAME in argument.
mpkg-build — deprecated package build command
mpkg-check — (full?) dependency and consistency check?
mpkg-checkdeps [URI of repository] — checking consistency of repo.
mpkg-checklibdeps — checks broken library dependencies (also includes revdep-rebuild analog (mpkg-checklibdeps -Rd)).
mpkg-clean — wipe package cache.
mpkg-commit — ?
mpkg-conflicts [PKGNAME] — checks, does PKGNAME have some conflicts, that cannot be installed in system.
mpkg-convert_dir — (maybe) some part of deprecated build system.
mpkg-delete_rep [NUMBER OF REPO] — deletes repo from system. For list repo numbers use mpkg-list_rep.
mpkg-deleteprofile — ?
mpkg-depgraph [PKGNAME] — prints dependency tree of PKGNAME.
mpkg-deporder — ?
mpkg-disable_rep [NUMBER OF REPO] — disables repo without deleting.
mpkg-enable_rep [NUMBER OF REPO] — enables repo without deleting.
mpkg-export — ?
mpkg-exportinstalled — export installed packages to installable text file (setup list).
mpkg-filesearch [FILENAME] — search file in all avaliable packages.
mpkg-fixdeps — ?
mpkg-gendeps — deprecated dependency generator.
mpkg-gendeps2 — new dependency generator.
mpkg-getrepositorylist — gets repo list from main server.
mpkg-index — generates index for directory with packages, which needed for using directory as repo.
mpkg-install [PKGNAME] — installing PKGNAME.
mpkg-installfromlist [SETUP LIST NAME] — installing all packages from setup list.
mpkg-list — lists all avaliable packages.
mpkg-list_rep — lists repositories which present in system.
mpkg-listgroup [GROUPNAME] — shows packages with selected GROUPNAME.
mpkg-listgroups — shows avaliable grous (GROUPNAME from previous command).
mpkg-listprofiles — ?
mpkg-listupdates — shows avaliable updates.
mpkg-maintainer — tool for setting maintainer name and email in mkpkg.
mpkg-menu — buggy TUI for mpkg.
mpkg-purge [PKGNAME] — removes PKGNAME with all config files.
mpkg-quicklist — ?
mpkg-reinstall [PKGNAME] — suddenly, reinstalls PKGNAME.
mpkg-remove [PKGNAME] — removes package without configuration files.
mpkg-removegroup [GROUPNAME] — removes all packages from selected GROUPNAME.
mpkg-reset — initialize mpkg's sqlite database. DON'T USE IT!
mpkg-rollback [DATE/TRANSACTION] — rollback last update (without parameter), or all updates after DATE or TRANSACTION.
mpkg-saveprofile — ?
mpkg-search [KEYWORD] — search packages.
mpkg-searchdescription [KEYWORD] — search package by description.
mpkg-setmeta — change package metainformation.
mpkg-setprofile — ?
mpkg-show [PKGNAME] — shows full information about package.
mpkg-show_queue — shows planned things.
mpkg-spkg2abuild — converts old package build binary script to new text script.
mpkg-transactions [NUMBER OF TRANSACTION] — shows history of updates, installs, purges and other related things. Without parameter shows full log from zero-install to last.
mpkg-update — updates repo metadata.
mpkg-upgrade [PKGNAME] — updates PKGNAME.
mpkg-upgradeall — upgradeall all packages to latest avaliable versions.
mpkg-validate — ?
mpkg-version — shows version, lol.
mpkg-which [FILENAME] — shows, what package contains selected FILENAME.
mpkg-whodepend — shows reversdeps.

And he says there are some more which he doesn`t know himself and the list is growing :)

Sunday, May 8, 2011

How to MULTI-BOOT with GRUB Legacy

I still use GRUB Legacy but I have no animosity with GRUB2 either . They both work perfectly for me when required . I prefer booting multi-distros with GRUB Legacy no matter if they use GRUB Legacy, GRUB2 or Lilo. 

I will post the "simple" trick I always adopt to "load/boot" my multi-distros
with GRUB Legacy here.

First I will paste my PCLinuxOS`s menu.lst here with some boot lines entries.


title PCLinuxOS 
kernel (hd0,5)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda6 ro splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,5)/boot/initrd.img


title antiX
root (hd0,8)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38-5.dmz.1-liquorix-686 root=/dev/sda9 ro nomodeset nouveau.modeset=0 quiet nomodeset nouveau.modeset=0
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.38-5.dmz.1-liquorix-686

title ALT Linux
root (hd0,10)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-std-def root=/dev/sda11 ro  quiet=1 panic=30 splash
initrd /boot/initrd-std-def.img


The above entries show GRUB Legacy lines from PCLinuxOS in red color text and GRUB 2 lines from antiX and ALT Linux in blue .

Instead of allowing GRUB Legacy to mess with my different installations on various partitions I simply copy the GRUB/GRUB2 lines from menu.lst and grub.conf files respectively and paste them into the master GRUB`s menu.lst file as shown above and all the distros boot without any trouble .

I am sure this "trick" will benefit many people . 

Friday, May 6, 2011

How to Install GRUB Legacy

All major distributions are switching over or have already switched over to GRUB2 , but there are few which are still using GRUB Legacy. Below is a simple method of installing GRUB Legacy on debian which can be used on other distros also using their own package managers .

  •  Install grub package    
       # apt-get install grub

  • Edit /boot/grub/menu.lst (Use can use for sample /usr/share/doc/grub-0.97/menu.lst) 
      #
# Sample boot menu configuration file
   # Boot automatically after 5 secs.
    timeout 5
# By default, boot the first entry.
     default 0

      title Linux
  kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda5
  initrd /boot/initrd.img
(replace /dev/sda5 with your root partition name)
  • Install loader to MBR
# grub-install /dev/sda
  • Reboot system to check that bootloader works properly
    or not