George’s Wonder Blog

I was looking at replacing my current linux machine with a hopefully more powerful one, and after loading a Linux distro onto it I found it had a 650MHz CPU with only 128MB of RAM. Needless to say I was disappointed. According to a badge on its case it was built by Quest, or the tower case is by Quest. I really don’t know much about it besides I’m taking its 16GB drive to use as a scratch drive for Photoshop on my work machine and the rest is going into the trash can.

After using the Linux Hardware Lister tool on the other one, I ran it on my current Linux machine, a Pavilion 8766C.

To run Linux Hardware Lister, open a console and  type:

sudo lshw

I was glad to see I had upgraded the RAM significantly, so all in all this 900 MHz P3 with 128MB of RAM, onboard video, onboard sound (Rockwell Chameleon combo card) has been upgraded with a total of 512MB of RAM, a 128MB GeForce4 MX4000 video card and a Creative Labs Sound Blaster Ensoniq ES1371 sound card.

Today should have been really easy, but it was a bigger deal than I expected. It should be easy to figure out how to get your NUMLOCK key to be on when you boot up right? Wrong. In all of the Windows PC’s I’ve used NUMLOCK is always onwhen booting up, so I expected to find a simple checkbox somewhere in Ubuntu for this simple feature. Nope.

GDM and GNOME

After looking around here’s what worked for me. I run Gnome sessions, so that means I run GDM (I learned form some quick reading). According to Gnome.org’s GDM page , GDM is the Gnome Display Manager that presents you with a graphical logon screen like this one:

If you like it, you can find this login screen at http://art.gnome.org/themes/gdm_greeter/1374

Ubuntuguide to the Rescue

You can click on the link above and do a lot of scrolling or just use the steps below. For some reason I could not do an apt-get install to install numlockx, here’s what I did:

1) In Synaptic, install numlockx

2) Make a backup of the file you are about to edit. In your console window type:

sudo cp /etc/gdm/Init/Default /etc/gdm/Init/Default.bak
_________________________________________

3) Now back into the console window to edit your file:

gksudo gedit /etc/gdm/Init/Default
_________________________________________

4) Now your file opens in gedit. Scroll down to the very bottom, and just above the bottom line that says “exit 0″ add this and save, then close the file:

if [ -x /usr/bin/numlockx ]; then
/usr/bin/numlockx on
fi
_________________________________________

5) Now if everything’s gone well when you reboot next time you will see your NUMLOCK key is ON.

I’m not going to say anything about the movie, but rather the credits. If you are watching the credits for any more info or after-the-movie scenes, there aren’t any hints, additional info, or foreshadowing for any possible follow up movie. There is an unintelligible audio bit at the very, very end, but nothing I found worth waiting for.

When credits roll if you get up and walk away you aren’t going to miss anything.

Just a quick note with more detail later…..

I’ve installed Wine, and to test it installed Notepad++. That seems to have gone well.

Also since my Linux machine only has 128MB 512MB of RAM with a PIII 900MHz CPU, and because I wanted a larger monitor with higher resolution I’ve installed BFG Technologies ASLMX4000 GeForce4 MX4000 128MB AGP (GeForce4 MX 4000) and a Philips Brilliance 202P4. This seems to be working well so far.

Oh and how about a cool screenshot:

Okay, I’ve gotten started with the Quanta HTML editor because Bluefish just didn’t do it for me. Mainly there was no color picker, and I’m not going to use an external program, my memory, or a website for colors.

So Quanta is installed and in action here:

This is pretty cool because its also my first time using GIMP. Simple image re-size was the order for the day, but it was pretty cool to be using 100% free software to do all of this. SO here are the beginnings of my web design suite on my linux machine:

• Quanta HTML Editor
  http://quanta.kdewebdev.org
  installed with command line:
  $ sudo apt-get install quanta
• GIMP (came pre-installed on my system)
  http://www.gimp.org/
  can be installed from command line:
  $ sudo apt-get install gimp
• gFTP
  http://gftp.seul.org/
  $ sudo apt-get install gftp

The workflow is different with Quanta + gFTP + Photoshop than it is for Dreamweaver, but its easy enough to get used to. First off, I don’t have a dual monitor setup on my linux machine yet, so I’ll rely on virtual desktops to separate Quanta + gFTP from GIMP.

More later, I think this is off to a decent start.

More on my monitor resolution again, and its not good news (though not terrible). I booted up today to check for updates when I got an 800×600 screen resolution again. After a reboot (no changes, just a restart) I’ve again got 1280×1024. I’m going to guess that I need to look into turning off the restricted drivers.

I decided to get some work programs on the linux machine here, so decided to install Bluefish HTML editor, and GIMP. So, I jumped into Synpatic:

System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager

As I was about to install GIMP, it occurred to me I hadn’t checked the menus yet. A quick look at Applications > Graphics showed it was already installed. Cool. Next onto Bluefish. I didn’t even check, I just installed it via Synaptic and I have it opened now.

Next, I am thinking about installing Wine (Windows Emulator) to run Internet Explorer because sadly there are some sites you *must* rely on Internet Explorer to visit because the developer doesn’t know what their doing, or its done on purpose because Microsoft if evil. Well, okay maybe not evil, but you get the idea. More on Wine later.

I just *had* to post where you can find this video. I heard about it last night on the news because of the impending release of the Tom Cruise (unauthorized) biography by Andrew Norton. Evidently this The Tom Cruise Scientology indoctrination video was put on YouTube (as a publicity stunt??) but the Church of Scientology rather quickly had the video removed. Its kind of shocking to me, its a side of Tom Cruise I wasn’t very aware of.

Bravely enough WordPress.com has the video ‘disembedded’. You can see the Tom Cruise Scientology video (until the Chruch of Scientology sues and gets it removed ??) from the WordPress site, just scroll down a bit and you’ll see it under the first paragraph:

Tom Cruise Scientology video
Transcript of Tom Cruise Scientology video

FLASH INSTALLED

Finally! I found a working HOWTO for installing Adbobe/Macromedia Flash 9 for Linux, and more specifically Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon). First, open your favorite console. Next, visit this Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) How-To page. Once you get to the instructions (below) its a simple matter of copy/pasting 4 lines of commands, or if your console doesn’t support paste, typing them in by hand (not so fun):

• direct link: http://www.funnestra.org/ubuntu/gutsy/#flashplayer
• OR scroll down to the Useful Packages section, and click “Adobe Flash”

Either way, ignore the instructions 1 & 2 at the top since they do not work at this point due to a bug. Follow the instructions below that start 1. Manually download and… to get Flash installed and running.

PRINTER INSTALLED
I installed an Epson Stylus Photo 820, and it worked right off, not counting that I need new ink cartridges. The physical install was the easiest, power plug and parallel cord. Next, System > Administration > Printing, then click New Printer. It did a quick search returning several options of which I chose LPT:1. Going from memory now, the next choice was the brand of printer, Epson. After that I was presented with a list of Epson printers and selected the Epson Stylus Photo 820 from the list and finished.

Next was the part I’m having trouble with, ink. The ink cartridges are old and dry and the printer was given to me with a refill kit. The refill wasn’t too difficult after I figured the was ink for black, blue, light blue, red, light red and yellow. The blues and reds looked alike butthe light-colors were marked with a capital “L” on top. After refilling, including many ink spills on my hand its done, but not printing very well. I’ll give it some more time before I give up an attempt to buy new ink cartridges.

THIS IS NOT
This is not an article about drive mirroring, which I will have to save for some future date. Drive mirroring is more important for a) those with the know-how and b) those who really need a more bullet-proof option than hard drive backups.

This is also not a step-by-step HOWTO written by someone who has actually done this - I just know its important and I’ll get around to it….. someday. Soon hopefully.

THIS IS
A wake up call for those of you who may not have thought of backing up your hard drive or a reminder for those of you who have forgotten, along with some tips.

WHAT IS BACK UP VS MIRRORING?
Imagine mirroring as a copy of your entire hard drive - all of your installed programs, data files, everything. Back up of your hard drive backs up specific data, but not programs. Sure you can backup C:/Program Files, but if you ever have to restore from your backup many/most of your programs will not work because you have not backed up other essential parts of the program such as Windows Registry entires.

BACKING UP YOUR HARD DRIVE
I subscribe to the Lifehacker RSS feed and found a real jewel - back up your hard drive. This is probably more important than most people realize, especially for those who rely on certain data and files on our computers. In my case my hard drive has countless files in My Documents, like many Windows users, plus I also have upwards of 175 websites. You can read Lifehacker.com’s Geek To Live: Automatically back up your hard drive for more nitty gritty details than I will mention here. My comments on the Lifehacker article:

• SyncBack freeware is now SyncBack Freeware V3.2.14, scroll down the page past the paid versions
• External Drives - A quick comparison of 320GB External USB Drives VS 320GB External Firewire/USB tonight on Tigerdirect.com (my friend swears by them). Anyway the USB drive was only about $20 less than the USB/Firewire, so if you have the money go for the US/Firewire combo.
• FTP Back up - if you need to or have to start out backing up to your external hard drive and add FTP back up when and if you can. Running back up only mean if your original drive gets fried, your data is safe, but if your house burns down your goose is cooked.

Recently I powered on my Linux machine to show it off to my Dad, and the drivers weren’t playing nicely. For some reason the screen looked exactly the same as when I was using the Nvidia Drivers (see My Linux Journal Day 2 for more), and it booted into an 800×600 screen. Lucky for me simply turning it off and then back on later in the day somehow fixed the issue. So, if you change your video drivers and decide to change back, and find later that your monitor has reverted to the undesirable state, try powering off and back on and maybe you’ll get lucky, too.

I set up Pidgin today, very nice program (Applications > Internet > Pidgin Instant Messenger). It came pre-installed with Ubuntu 7.10, and was very easy to setup and begin running. Pidgin supports AIM, Google Talk, ICQ, and Yahoo IM accounts among others. Plus simply right-clicking it on the menu, and selecting “Add this to launcher panel” put it right up on top of my launcher panel at the top of my screen. Next, a right-click on each item on the launcher panel allowed me to unlock it from the panel (click the “Lock to Panel” menu item to toggle on and off). Then some simple dragging and dropping to re-order my launcher panel and voila!