Dr. Rockhopper

Splitting a File into Smaller Pieces

2010-01-28T10:38:00.002-06:00

On occasion, there will be a need to split a file up into smaller pieces for easier transportation. Be it email, FTP, CD's, or any other method. Here's how to do it with the split command.

$ split -b 1024m large_file.tbz chunk-

This will produce the following files:

-rwxr--r-- 1 owner group 1073741824 Jan 28 19:00 chunk-aa
-rwxr--r-- 1 owner group  134987776 Jan 28 19:00 chunk-ab

And to assemble them back into one piece, it's just as easy:

$ cat chunk-* >> large_file.tbz

--DRH

Putty + Vi + 10 Key = Trouble

2009-09-30T08:38:00.004-05:00

So here's my situation. And don't lynch me for this one either. I just recently learned how to use VI. Shocking, isn't it? I never had time to learn it, as system administration was only a part of my job description. even though I'm the only sys admin on site. Nano was my choice of editing text files as I didn't need anything elegant for a quick modification of a conf file.

I chose to learn vi so I could develop websites on a terminal without firing up a VNC session - and wasting screen real estate in the process. Vi with syntax highlighting just can't be beat. A quick trip through vimtutor, a couple of Googles for setting up my .vimrc file, and I'm in business. But, I digress.

The Problem

When on a Windows computer, I use Putty to access my Linux computer. The number pad works just fine on the command line. It was only when I started using Vi that I noticed when you attempt to use the keypad, Vi interprets them as a different series of keystrokes. Not being able to use the 10-key is a big problem in my book.

The Solution

So, here's the solution. In Putty settings, go to Terminal - Features. Check the Disable application keypad mode and apply the setting. The 10-key in Vi now works as expected!

My .vimrc file

For those that are interested, these are my basic Vi settings.

~/.vimrc

hi Comment   ctermfg=darkcyan
set ruler
set showcmd
set tabstop=4
set linebreak

Enjoy!

-- DRH

Use RSA Keypairs with SSH

2009-08-06T08:07:00.013-05:00

Introduction

SSH is program that allows for secure remote access to another computer. All traffic through the SSH connection is encrypted. That's great! It's an excellent replacement for Telnet, which is insecure, and shouldn't be used anymore. But logging in is still susceptible to brute force attacks.

However if one uses RSA keypairs, an attacker would have to have the private key in order to login to your system, even if they had the right password. It is also possible to have keypairs for passwordless authentication; however that is better suited for automated tasks (bash scripts) that are executed via cron. And y0u really have to safegaurd those keys!

I'll show you how to use RSA keypairs with OpenSSH. I will assume that you already have OpenSSH Server installed, configured, and are able to login remotely with SSH using the standard authentication method. I'm doing this on OpenSUSE 11.1, so things may be different on your distro or version of SSH. So let's get going!

Generate Keypairs

On your Linux computer (server or client), enter this at the command prompt (as your user)

ssh-keygen -t rsa

The response

user@linux-ftim:~> ssh-keygen -t rsa
Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/home/user/.ssh/id_rsa):

The default should be fine, so just press Enter

And now we're asked for a passphrase. Enter and confirm your password. You could choose not to enter a password, but again, unless you're running automated scripts or have a specific reason to, it's not a good idea to do that.

The response

user@linux-ftim:~> ssh-keygen -t rsa
Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/home/user/.ssh/id_rsa):
Created directory '/home/user/.ssh'.
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
Enter same passphrase again:
Your identification has been saved in /home/user/.ssh/id_rsa.
Your public key has been saved in /home/user/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.
The key fingerprint is:
7f:1b:12:15:15:7f:ce:f0:83:fa:87:a5:36:77:d8:76 user@linux-ftim
The key's randomart image is:
+--[ RSA 2048]----+
|            ..o. |
|             . . |
|            . . o|
|           .  .=.|
|        S .  . .+|
|         . ..  ..|
|          o.o +o |
|           o.B.oE|
|            o.+.o|
+-----------------+
user@linux-ftim:~>

Now we have a public key (~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub) and a private key (~/.ssh/id_rsa). The public key is what will be installed on the SSH server. The private key is the key that you take with you and use on the computer you will be loggin in from.

Configure the Client

Edit the /etc/ssh/ssh_config file. This controls how ssh is employed from the command line. Make sure the following lines exist, and are uncommented:

/etc/ssh/ssh_config

IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa
Protocol 2

Configuring the Server

This will control the SSH server daemon

/etc/ssh/sshd_config

Protocol 2
PubkeyAuthentication yes

Using the Keypair

Take the public key (id_rsa.pub) and copy it into the ~/.ssh directory on the server computer. You'll have to add the new key to a file called authorized_keys.

cat id_rsa.pub >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys"
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Now take the private key file id_rsa and put that into ~/.ssh on the client computer. Also change the permissions to 600, just like the authorized_keys file. At this point, you should be able to ssh into your server, using the keypair. If everything went correctly, instead of being asked for a password, you should be asked for a passphrase. If you chose to not use a password for the keypair, you'll already be logged in!

Using Putty on Windows

You can also generate RSA keypairs using Putty on Windows. However, I'm imagining that using Putty on Windows will be an afterthought after several servers and/or client computers will already be configured with existing keypairs. That's how we're going to proceed here.

Getting Putty

Go to either http://www.putty.org, or directly to the download page. The version I'm using is 0.60, which is the lastest as of this writing. Install it per the installation guidelines. I used putty-0.60-installer.exe, but you can also download individual components. You'll need putty.exe, and puttygen.exe.

Copy your private key, id_rsa, to the Windows computer.

Open PuTTYgen. Select "Conversions" from the menubar, and click on "Import key".

Select your id_rsa key and click open.

Enter your passphrase for the key, and click OK

Now we're ready to work with the key. Putty stores keys in its own format, for whatever reason. But hey, we can work with that!

Now click on "Save private key", and give your key a name. Now you can close the key generator.

Now, open PuTTY. Enter the hostname or IP address of the computer you want to connect to.

On the left side, under Connection, expand SSH and click on Auth. Under Private key file for authentication, enter the path to the PPK file, or click on Browse and select it. If you c,lick Open, you'll continue to connect. Or if you go back to Session, you can save the configuration and use it later. This is particularly handy if you manage several servers with different keys, different SSH ports, etc.

You will get the security alert, saying that you haven't connected to this computer befire. Click on yes to contine.

Enter your username. You should get a prompt telling you that you're using a public to to authenticate, and asking for a passphrase, not a password. Enter your passphrase, and you're in!!

-- DRH

The Perfect CentOS 5 and Zimbra 5 Server

2009-07-29T09:55:00.009-05:00

Introduction

This guide will show you how to install a Linux email server. After completion, you'll have the following capabilities:

Retrieve email from a remote POP account and deliver it to a local user
Access your email locally, through webmail or an email client
Access your email remotely, through webmail, while on the road (if you choose to)

The environment that this server will integrate into is as follows:

Website hosted by an outside service
POP email accounts hosted by the same outside service
High-speed Internet connection
An Internet router/firewall device

Please note that Zimbra does not support installing on CentOS. It does however provide binaries for RHEL, which is what we will be using. CentOS is 100% binary compatible to RHEL. Provided that you do not activate and use anything in the CentOS Plus repository, which potentially breaks the 100% compatiblily claim. This is because the CentOS Plus repo upgrades several components in the Base repo.

Because this server is geared towards a small (and possibly medium) sized business, I do not want that business to host the website and the email. Why? The website for a business has to be up 24/7/365 with 99.99% uptime. A small business (in my opinion) can neither afford the infrastructure to maintain such a system, nor can they afford to hire talented personnel to maintain it. And even with all that hardware and expertise, all it takes is a power failure to last longer than your battery backups, and you're down.

For this tutorial, we're going on the assumption that your company is called Example. Your website is called Example.com. And, one of your email addresses is sales@example.com. All this is hosted by XYZ company, whose website is xyz.com.

Here's the software we're going to install.

CentOS 5 Linux distribution
Zimbra Collaboration Suite - Open Source Edition

Caveat

There is one thing to be aware of with this installation. We have to disable sendmail in order to install Zimbra, as Zimbra has its own MTA. You can remove sendmail, provided that you are not using software RAID. For reason, mdadm is dependant on sendmail.

What You'll Need

The following system requirements were taken from the System Requirements link found on the Zimbra Documentation page.

A late model computer (2+ Gigahertz)
At least 2 Gigabytes of RAM
10 Gigs of hard drive space for software and install logs
Ample storage space for mailboxes and other user data
CentOS installation media, downloadable from here

The exact partitioning scheme is up to you. I cannot cover that here. I'm going to use the default partition scheme the CentOS installer uses. So, let's get going!

Installing CentOS

Insert installation media in the CD/DVD drive and boot the computer. Press 'Enter' to boot the system

This screen presents you with the option to test your media. Typically, one should test the ISO image downloaded before you burn it to disk to insure the download didn't get mangled. This check eliminates the possibility of a bad burn. It's highly recommended you do this test, and not skip it.

This screen presents you with the option to test your media. Typically, one should test the ISO image downloaded before you burn it to disk to insure the download didn't get mangled. This check eliminates the possibility of a bad burn. It's highly recommended you do this test, and not skip it.

I love it when this happens! Press OK, and on the next screen press Continue.

This is self-explanatory. Click Next

Select your language.

Select your keyboard

This warning only shows up if you are using a new disk, or a disk without a partition table. Click on Yes.

For this tutorial, I'm going with the default layout. This will give you an LVM setup, with everything thrown in one partition. Click Next. Another window will open warning that all data will be destroyed. Click Yes. (If you choose something different, help yourself!)

Now it's time to configure the network.

Click on Edit under Network Devices.
Click on Manual configuration under Enable IPv4 support
Enter your IP address (192.168.1.2)
Enter your Netmask (255.255.255.0)
Uncheck IPv6 support.
Click OK
Enter server.local.zzz in the hostname area (next to manually)
Enter your Gateway address (probably 192.168.1.1)
Enter your Primary DNS server (probably 192.168.1.1)

Item 7 matches the host.domain.tld convention
Items 8 and 9 should be the address of your router

Click Next

Select your timezone. And select whether your hardware clock uses UTC. If the time on your hardware clock is set to local time, uncheck it.

Select a password for the root account. This is equivalent to Administrator for that 'other' operating system.

Here you can select additional packages. Let's just go with the default of Desktop - Gnome. Click Next.

OK, let her rip! Click Next to install.

OK, now we're done. Let's reboot!

Welcome to the first time boot screen. Just click next

Let's turn off the firewall. Why? Because our router has a firewall on it. And, if we are going to configure a firewall, we'll just use iptables to do it. So change Enabled to Disabled and click Forward. The installer will give you a warning. Just tell it Yes.

SELinux, or Security Enabled Linux adds to the security of Linux. It also adds complexity, and makes debugging your installation more difficult. Should you decide to use it, don't turn it on until after you have a working setup. Set it to Disabled and click Forward. It will warn you that you'll have to reboot. That's OK. It's one of the few times you'll have to do it!

Configure your time.

Add a user. Our username for the tutorial is user.

You can test your sound card, if one is detected. I don't have one, so I'll move past this.

If you have additional CD's with software packages on them, you can install them here. Since we don't, let's click Finish and continue with a reboot (because we changed SELinux).

Let's login.

Yep, it's Gnome. Right click on the desktop, and select Terminal. First off, we need to update the system. Even though the GUI is telling us that there are updates for the system, we'll use the command line to do the update. In the terminal, do the following.

su - root
Enter your root password
yum upgrade -y

If the kernel got updated, you'll need to reboot. If not, just continue.

Install DNS

Now that the updates are done (however long that took), it's time to install the DNS server that Scalix needs. In the same terminal window (login in as root), do

yum install -y bind caching-nameserver

Now, we need to do some configuring. Modify the following configuration files, using your favorite text editor.

/etc/hosts -- Edit this file

# Do not remove the following line, or various programs
# that require network functionality will fail.
127.0.0.1       localhost.localdomain   localhost
192.168.1.2     server.local.zzz server

The last line should use your IP address, and your FQDN and hostname.

/etc/resolv.conf -- Edit this file

search local.zzz
nameserver 192.168.1.2

/etc/named.conf -- Create this file

include "/etc/rndc.key";
zone "local.zzz" {
type master;
file "/etc/named.zzz.fwd";
allow-update { key "rndckey"; };
notify yes;
};

zone "1.168.192.in-addr.arpa" {
type master;
file "/etc/named.zzz.rev";
allow-update { key "rndckey"; };
notify yes;
};

options {
forwarders { 192.168.1.1; } ;
};

/etc/named.zzz.fwd -- Create this file

$TTL 14400;
@       14400   IN      SOA     zimbra.localhost.        root@zimbra. (
2009073001      ; Serial in YYYYMMDDXX - tab indented
28800           ; Refresh
3600            ; Retry
604800          ; Expire
14400           ; Default TTL
)

@     IN     NS          zimbra.localhost.    ; 
@     IN     A           192.168.1.2
@     IN     MX   10     zimbra

zimbra                  IN      A       192.168.1.2

/etc/named.zzz.rev -- Create this file

$TTL 14400;
@       IN      SOA     zimbra.localhost.        root.localhost. (
20090731001      ; Serial
28800           ; Refresh
3600            ; Retry
604800          ; Expire
38400           ; Default TTL
)

 IN     NS             zimbra.localhost.   ; tab intented

2     IN     PTR     zimbra.localhost.    ;
2     IN     PTR     zimbra ;cd /

And, now for security, in a terminal as root, enter

chmod 640 /etc/named.zzz*
chmod 644 /etc/named.conf

And let's start everything up

service named start
chkconfig --level 2345 named on

This starts the service, and tells the computer to run named when the computer boots. Specifically, in run levels 2, 3, 4, and 5.

A few things to remember. Be sure to enter your own info in the config files. This is just a sample you can modify for yourself. And, if you modify the forward or reverse zone files, you need to index the serial number. I chose a serial number of year, month, day, version. 2008011501. You can index numbers starting from 1. But with my format, it's easier to tell if you've actually changed the serial number.

Install Zimbra

Now, it's on to install Zimbra. First, we need to install a few packages before we do that. Once again, in a terminal, as root, enter:

yum install -y compat-libstdc++-296 compat-libstdc++-33
service sendmail stop
chkconfig --level 12345 sendmail off

We're ready to install Zimbra. In your terminal window, go to the location where you downloaded Zimbra. If you used Firefox, it should be on the desktop of the user you created during the install (assuming you haven't changed anything). As root, enter:

cd /home/user/Desktop
tar xvfz zcs-5.0.18_GA_3011.RHEL5.20090707164432.tgz
cd zcs-5.0.18_GA_3011.RHEL5.20090707164432
./install.sh --platform-override

The --platform-override switch allows Zimbra to install on CentOS.

The installer will check to see what's installed. Being a fresh install, you'll have a series of NOT FOUND. At the end, press Return to continue

The installer checks for needed packages. If it finds everything it needs, it will then search for what's available to install (ie, what's in the extracted archive). Now it will ask you what to install, item by item.

Install zimbra-ldap [Y]                   --  Press Enter
Install zimbra-logger [Y]                 --  Press Enter
Install zimbra-mta [Y]                    --  Press Enter
Install zimbra-snmp [Y]                   --  Press Enter
Install zimbra-store [Y]                  --  Press Enter
Install zimbra-apache [Y]                 --  Press Enter
Install zimbra-spell [Y]                  --  Press Enter
Install zimbra-proxy [N]                  --  Press Enter

Checking required space for zimbra-core
checking space for zimbra-store

Installing:
zimbra-core
zimbra-ldap
zimbra-logger
zimbra-mta
zimbra-snmp
zimbra-store
zimbra-apache
zimbra-spell

Install anyway? [N]  -- Enter Y and press enter.  This answers the warning about CentOS

The system will be modified.  Continue? [N]  -- Enter Y and press Enter

Note:

I get a DNS warning message. You'll be asked if you want to reconfigure your domain name. Enter NO. Even though the installer warns of an incorrect MX record, it will not prevent mail retreival via POP or IMAP. If this were to be a 'real' mail exchanger, it would be an issue. I'm working on an alternative DNS config, and will post it when completed. This will, however, depend heavily on the configuration of DynDNS.

Several packages will now be installed. The next screen come up to configure Zimbra. The only thing that needs to be configured is the Administrator password. Enter 3, and 4. Enter the password. Enter R to return to the previous menu. Enter A to apply the settings. And Enter again to save the configuration data to a file. The default config file should suffice. Rename it if you like, or press Enter. Enter Yes to modify the system and finalize the install.

You'll be asked whether you want to notify Zimbra of your installation. Enter your desired response and press Enter.

A few more items will be setup. After it's finished, press return to exit.

Configuration

To access the configuration web page, go to https://[server]:7071. Login with admin@fqdn, and the password you setup.

Getting Your Email

Each user has the option of configuring external accounts. This is done through the Preferences, Accounts tab in the webmail interface. More information can be found in Zimbra's docs.

That's it! Enjoy your Zimbra email server!

The Perfect Ubuntu 9.04 Desktop

2009-07-20T11:21:00.018-05:00

Introduction

OK, I have to say that OpenSUSE lived on my desktop for 1 week. The reasons for its death are twofold. One, it was slow on my hardware. Two, I had an issue with converting RAW images from my digital camera. That was a showstopper for me. I could handle the speed issues, but I honestly didn't feel like mucking around with Image Magick and UFRAW to get things to work.

After a short vacation, Ubuntu has found its way home again. I can say that there's definite speed improvments with 9.04, than there were with 8.04 LTS. Despite the fact that I'm a fan of the LTS versions, I still chose 9.04. There's just a better feel of coherence, and better speed than the recent LTS version. This has restored my faith in Ubuntu. It took 30 seconds to boot, after POST, to get to the sleek login screen. For reference, my box is a P4 HT, 3GHz (dual cores @ 1.5GHz, not 1 core at 3GHz.), with 1.5 Gigs of RAM, and I use software RAID 1 on the boot disks, which are SATAII.

UPDATE

I have now figured out the problem with Image Magick and UFRAW. I am now putting OpenSUSE back on my system. It feels more solid that Ubuntu 9.04. Wine+Firefox works so I can upload photos to online stores in bulk with third-party add-ons that only work with the Windows version of Firefox. Sorry Ubuntu. The last 3 years have been great. But it's now off to OpenSUSE.

But nevermind my specific reasons for choosing it. Let's get to installing it, and doing a few tweaks.

Get the Install Media

Go to the Ubuntu website and download the ISO. The ISO I used is ubuntu-9.04-desktop.i386.iso.

Install Ubuntu

Select Your Language

Select Try Ubuntu without any change to your computer

Here's the desktop. Double Click on Install.

Click on Next

Select your location

Select your keyboard layout

Partition your drive. Note that if you want to install to a RAID array, you'll need to use the "Alternate" install disk.

Enter your name and login credintials

Double check settings, and Install. This is the point of no return.

We're done! Click on Restart Now

Log in. This is one slick looking GDM theme. It's about time!

After a few moments the update manager will let you know there's updates. Click Install Updates to install them.

Since we're modifying the core system, you'll need to enter your password

And away we go.

Reboot, and log back in

Customizing

Gnome Control Center

Let's turn on the Gnome Control Center. Go to System -> Preferences -> Main Menu. Click on System, and turn on the Control Center and click Close.

Now you can go to Syste -> Control Center, and get a panel that resembles OpenSUSE's YaST. I rather like it, but the rest of the tutorial will not use this.

Static IP Address

Go to System -> Preferences -> Network Connection. Edit eth0. You'll have to supply your password. Go to the IPv4 tab. Change Method to Manual. Enter you IP address, subnet mask, and gateway. Click apply, and close. You'll have to ifup eth0 and /etc/init.d/network restart for the settings to take hold. You may alternatively reboot.

Media Codecs

You'll probably want to be able to play any media file you come across. Let's load the codecs.

sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/jaunty.list --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get update

That adds the repositories. Now let's add the codecs and additional goodies

sudo apt-get install non-free-codecs w32codecs mencoder libdvdcss2 gxine libxine1-ffmpeg vlc

Now we're ready to rock!

Email

If you prefer Thunderbird to Evolution, install it.

sudo apt-get install thunderbird thunderbird-gnome-support
sudo apt-get purge evolution evolution-common evolution-exchange evolution-plugins evolution-webcal

Compiz Settings Manager

If you're using the restricted drivers for your graphics card, you can add the Compiz settings manager to fine-tune your eye-candy.

sudo apt-get install compiz-config-settings-manager

Startup Manager

Install this if you would like to adjust the boot process.

sudo apt-get install startupmanager

AmaroK

I prefer Amarok to any other music player. Let's add it.

sudo apt-get install amarok
sudo apt-get purge rythmbox

Note: If this is the first time you're installing a KDE app, you'll need to logout and login so that new environment variables can take effect.

DigiKam

This is my preference over F-Spot

sudo apt-get install digikam
sudo apt-get purge f-spot

Tomboy

Maybe it's just me, but I don't find much use for Tomboy. Eradicate it.

sudo apt-get purge tomboy

And since I've pulled both F-Spot and Tomboy, I can pull their dependencies also

sudo apt-get purge libmono0 mono-common

A few other goodies

apt-get install bluefish inkscape scribus blender

And there you have it! A computer that's the perfect blend of speed and usability.

-- DRH

The Perfect OpenSUSE 11.1 Gnome Desktop

2009-06-24T16:07:00.026-05:00

Introduction

The last time I looked at OpenSUSE was somewhere in version 10. I didn't like it, as YaST was buggy. And when the package manager is buggy, I don't walk away. I run away. I don't remember the specific details, but I went right back home to Synaptic in Ubuntu.

Despite the notorius deal Novel made with Microsoft, I took a look at OpenSUSE 11.1. This is well after a friend of mine said that she really liked SuSE. I'm glad I took another look at it. (Thanks, Kimberlie!!) OpenSUSE found its way on my father's computer, and now it's on mine as well.

YaST got an overhaul, and the biggest thing I like is the partitioner. Sure, I can mdadm -A /dev/md5 /dev/whatever /dev/whatever. But having a functional GUI is important for when moving LVM's around 2am after way too much coffee! And I can install to a RAID array using the DVD. I don't have to download the "Alternate Install" like Ubuntu.

I don't want to go into a full-fledged review of a distro here. But I felt the above was worth mentioning in the event that someone else felt the same as I did about older versions. Without further ado, let's get going!

Get the Install Media

The media I used was openSUSE-11.1-DVD-i586.iso, and is available here. There is documentation that OpenSUSE provides, and is never a bad thing to take a look at. So burn the ISO to a DVD, and let's install!

Installing OpenSUSE

Boot from the CD

Choose Install

Click NEXT to accept the licence agreement.

And now for a little hardware probing

Choose New Installation

Choose your Time Zone

Pick your GUI. Gnome is my choice. KDE is still in a state of flux, and not all apps are ported to KDE4. Don't get me wrong, KDE4 is nice. But is just too 'not there yet' for my taste. Oh, and if you choose XFCE, it installs an unthemed XDM. Hmm....

Create your partitioning scheme. For the tutorial, I'm sticking with the default. But you can create anything from static partitions, to LVM on top of RAID rather easily.

Create your user. Also, I would normally uncheck the Automatic User login. I'm leaving it alone for the tutorial, and I'll show you where to turn it off afterwards. If your password is too simple, you'll be warned!

Here you can review you installion choices. Click install to continue.

This is the point of no return. If you click install here, your disk drive will be modified. Let's go!

Installation time will vary, especially if you happen to be installing on a RAID array. So just kick back and enjoy the view, or go grab another cup of coffee.

Now I'll take the time to offer a few more of my opinions. OpenSUSE feels like a well put together, stable OS. There's some things that bug me about Ubuntu. I've always liked Synaptic, and the YaST package manager leaves a few things to be desired. But what the package manager lacks, the rest of the system more than makes up for.

For example, typical RPM based systems (Fedora, CentOS) rely heavily on the GUI for configuration. To the point where once you configure something via GUI, and subsequently edit a conf file, the conf file will get stepped on by the GUI. But with SuSE, there's a console version of YaST. And (so far) it seems like conf files don't get stomped on by the GUI.

As with any Linux distro, there's pro's and con's. SuSE is more resource hungry than Ubuntu. But SuSE is easier to configure. Yes, I do prefer editing config files. by hand. I can do that with SuSE. But I can also use the GUI if I choose to without fear of my conf files getting stomped on later. (You hear that, Fedora!)

Well, look at that. It's time for a reboot.

Now SuSE will do a little auto configuring

Including probing the graphics card. If hardware requires additional packages installed, this is where you'll be asked. My TV tuner card needed more packages to operate, and this is where I was told.

And here we are. The first thing you'll notice is the Gnome menu is radically differnt than most implementations of Gnome. This was strange to me at first, but then it grew on me.

The first thing I like to do after a fresh install is update the system. Go to the Computer menu and select Yast. Select Online Update under Software. Enter your password. The system will update package manifests against the repos. This may take a few minutes.

To no surprise, there's a long list of updates. However, they're applied in stages since there have been many updates since initial release. First the package manager, then on to the rest of the updates.

Click on Apply to install the first wave of updates. The Adobe Flash player gets installed, and packages get updated. The interesting thing to note is that the updater is downloading delta.rpm files. So if there's an update to a package, the entire package is not re-downloaded. Only the changes are. Nice!! After the first set, we have to reboot.

Go to YaSt and Online update again. This will update the bulk of the packages. And reboot once again.

Go to YaSt and Online update again. Select fetchmsttfonts and click on Install, then Apply. This will be the last time the updater needs to be run to bring the system up to date (for today, anyways!)

Looking Around

While everything was updating, I took a look around too see what applications were installed by default. I found that with the exception of video editing software, I now have a perfectly usable desktop! I suppose I could tell you to install Kino or Cinelerra and call it a day. But since I'm using this on my own system, I'll push this a little further.

Automatic Login

Let's get rid of this. Nothing says insecure like a computer that boots up into a working desktop. Unless it's a public system. Go to YaST - User and Group Management. Go to Expert Options - Login Settings. Uncheck Auto Login.

Hostname

Let's give your computer a real hostname, instead of linux-f26k. Go to YaST - Network Settings. Click on Hostname, and change the hostname, and if you like, the domain name. Click OK. If you log out, and log in, the name will be updated across the board.

Network

If you're like me, and use a router to connect to the outside world, then you may want to change some network settings. The default install of SuSE treats the network adapter as if it faced directly to the internet, so it blocks all services. I want to change that, since the network adapter connects to a trusted LAN, that which is behind a firewall.

Go to YaST - Network Settings. In the Overview tab, select your network card and click Edit. Go to the General tab, and change the Firewall Zone from External Zone to Internal.

OpenSSH server

If you work remotly, or have several computers networked together, this is a must-have. The SSH daemon is alreay running. If you followed the above in the Network section above, you're good to go. If not, then press on.

Go to YaST - Firewall. Click on Allowed Services. Click on Service to Allow, and select Secure Shell Server, and Add. Click on Next, and Finish.

VNC Server

Another great tool for working remotly. This allows you to see your X desktop remotely. The VNC server is already installed. If you followed the above in the Network section above, you're good to go. If not, then press on.

Go to YaST - Firewall. Click on Allowed Services. Click on Service to Allow, and select VNC, and Add. Click on Next, and Finish.

Open a console, and type vncserver :1. Enter a password for the VNC server. This should be a tough password, if it will face the Internet. Don't enter a View Only password unless you really need it. Now, we have a basic VNC setup. All this does is fire up a generic X server with a terminal open. Let's make it functional!

Edit ~/.vnc/xstartup
comment out (or remove) twm &, and add gnome-session & on its own line.

Now at the comand line, kill the existing VNC session with vncserver -kill :1. Log out of your computer, and start the VNC server from while either SSH'd into the computer, or while logged in as a different user and switch users from a terminal. And then start it up again with vncserver :1.

Please note, if you start the VNC server while logged in to your user account, Gnome will not start. Only TWM. The VNC server has to be started while loged out of the physical machine. Obsecure? Perhaps. But it prevents being loggin in the the machine and VNC at the same time. It doesn't sound so odd now. At least to me. The solution: Create a user account strictly for VNC. This method is more secure.

Keep in mind there's always the Remote Desktop under the Control Center to view your active desktop. Should you so desire.

Firefox

OpenSUSE comes with Firefox. But my wife likes to upload photos to a well known pharmacy website, and pick up the photos at the store. As with many photo sites, the "multiple photo" add-ins do not support the Linux version. (I complain to them every chance I get!) So let's install the Windows version of Firefox, under Wine, and the add-ins will work just fine! As a sidenote, I was amazed that the later versions of Wine also support printing to CUPS. So your Windows apps will print directly to your printer!

Go to Install Software, search for Wine, and install. Alternativly, you could run, at the command prompt, sudo zypper in wine. After Wine is installed, go to the command prompt and enter winecfg. This wil create the ~/.wine directory structure in your home directory.

Open Firefox and go to http://www.mozilla.com. Since the Mozilla site knows your viewing the site from a Linux computer, the main download button will download the Linux version. This is not what we want. We want the actual Windows binary install file. Click on Other System & Languages. Click on the Windows version that corresonds with your language, and choose to save it.

Open a terminal from the Desktop, and type wine "Firefox Setup 3.0.11.exe" This will begin the installation of the Windows version of Firefox. Run through the setup progam. When you're finished, there will be a Mozilla Firefox icon on the desktop. I choose to create a desktop folder called Windows Programs, and move the icon into there. Feel free to delete the Firefox Setup 3.0.11.exe file on the desktop.

Since you have to two copies of Firefox installed (one Linux, and one Windows) you may choose to install the Xmarks add on. This synchronizes your bookmarks to a central server, and any other computer (or copy of Firefox) you like. It's a great add-on, whether you use multiple computers or not!

F-Spot / digiKam

Sorry, I don't like F-Spot. So let's do the swap. On the command line, enter

zypper remove fspot
zypper install digikam digikam-doc digikamimageplugins digikamimageplugins-superimpose

Banshee / Amarok

Same thing here. Just personal preference.

zypper remove banshee-1
zypper in amarok

Multimedia Codecs

This deserves its own heading. We're going to load up on codecs. First, we'll have to add two repositories. Go to Yast -> Software Repositories. Click on Add, Specify URL, and Next. Add the following repository:

Repository Name: VLC
URL: http://download.videolan.org/pub/videolan/vlc/SuSE/11.1

Do the same for this one.

Repository Name: Packman
URL: http://packman.mirrors.skynet.be/pub/packman/suse/11.1

Now go to Yast -> Software Management. Change the way packages are shown from Groups to Repositories. Go to the VLC repository. Install libdvdcss.

Go back to Yast -> Software Repositories. Disable the VLC repo.

Go to Yast -> Software Management. Install the following packages:

libavcodec52 libdvdnav4 libdvdplay0 libdvdread4 libffmpeg0 libquicktime0 libxine1 libxine1- odecs libxvidcore4 smplayer vlc w32codec-all xvidcore

Note that libxine1-codecs required a newer version of libxine1. I ignored this dependency and installed it anyways.

There's the basics. I will add a few more packages from the Packman repository. Feel free to pick and choose (if any) from the following list.

ardour2 beast cdnavigator cinelerra datacrow frostwire gdvdcreator mandvd wired xine-ui

After installation, be sure to disable the Packman repository.

So there you have it. So far, I'm very pleased with OpenSUSE 11.1!

The Perfect ArchLinux Semi-Lightweight Desktop / LXDE

2009-02-25T15:27:00.066-06:00

Introduction

Arch is a rolling-release, binary based distribution. Like Gentoo, you can piece your distro together, but you don't have to compile anything. Like Slack, you install only what you want, but you have dependency resolution. Like Gentoo and PCLinuxOS there are no versions of the distro; you simply update your system as usual to get the latest and greatest.

Unlike most of the 'top ten' distros, Arch can be lean and mean. It can also be a bloat fest. It's all up to you, the user.

Arch follows the KISS principal (Keep It Simple Stupid). The Simple aspect of the Arch Way refers to the ability to install a no-nonsense base system, and build upon that. You do have to configure the packages you install, as no assumptions are made by the installer.

Get the Install Media

The media I used is archlinux-2009.02-core-i686.iso, located here. I would highly recommend following the official Arch Installation Guide as you're installing your system. I have loosely based my guide on their guide. While it makes no sense for me to duplicate their content in this How-To, there's a lot of good information to be had in their guide. Specifically when it comes to installing the graphical interface. My install procedure is lean and mean, but theirs is much more comprehensive. So until you've got a GUI up and running, I recommend following both.

Keep in mind, that while this tutorial is rather verbose, it's not targeted to neophytes. Some basic understanding of Linux or UNIX will go a long way in helping you out. As well as some experience in using nano. Have Fun!

Installing ArchLinux

Boot off the CD.

Login as root. There is no password.

Run the Arch installer /arch/setup. Here's the welcome screen to the installer. Nothing special to note. Press Enter

Press Enter to select Select Source

Press Enter to select CD-ROM or OTHER SOURCE

Press Enter after taking note of where the CD ROM is mounted. You really won't need to know this for the install.

Select Set Clock

Pick whether your system clock (ie, what your BIOS is set to) is set to UTC or localtime. It is generally a better idea to set your system clock to UTC. But, if you dual boot with Windows, it'll be better to set your system clock to Local time. Either way will work fine.

Setting it to local time will require selecting a part of the world you're located in.

Narrow down your location.

I'm in Chicago, so I'll pick Central Time.

Verify that your time zone information is correct.

Set the date

Set the time

Select Prepare Hard Drive

Select Auto-Prepare

Select a size for your /boot partition

Select a size for your swap partition

Select a size for your root partition. For the tutorial, I'll increase the size. I won't have any documents stored on this system.

The remaining space will be used for your home partition. Verify the size.

Select a filesystem for root and home. If you don't know what to select, differ from the default and choose EXT3.

Verify your choice in filesystems

Your hard drive is about to be completely erased. Select Yes to continue. Your drive will be partitioned and formatted.

If all went well, you should get this message.

Select Return to Main Menu, as we're finished here.

Select Select Packages

This tells you that there are two stages of package selection. A basic selectioin, and a finer-grained section. Press Enter

Press enter to accept the current choice. We won't install any of the devel packages. We'll do that later, only if we need to.

Feel free to browse the packages that will be installed. If you know of anything you need, or dont' need, use the space bar to select/deselect packages. I'm fine with the defaults.

Select Install Packages.

You're ready to install! Press Enter to start installing.

If you scroll all the way down, you'll see the Package Installation Complete message. Press Enter.

Now it's time to configure your system

Pick a text editor. If you've never used vi, select nano as an editor.

Here is a list of configuration files. It would be wise to review the Configure the System section of the Arch Install Wiki for a comprehensive look at the configuration. I'll itemize the basics that need tending to.

/etc/rc.conf
Networking Section

HOSTNAME="myhost" - Enter your hostname
eth0="eth0 192.168.0.2 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.0.255" - Modify, or replace bold type with dhcp if you have a router/dhcp server
gateway="default gw 192.168.0.1" - Comment out line if using a router/dhcp server

/etc/hosts
Add your hostname to the aliases on the loopback line.

Root-Password. Use this to set the root password.

When finished, select Return at the bottom of the list. It'll take a few moments to configure the system.

Select Install Bootloader

Unless you know what you're doing, select GRUB.

Before GRUB will install, you'll have to review its contents.

Again, unless you need to add lines for another Operating System, just Ctrl-X to exit out of Nano.

Select the device file that represents your hard drive, not a specific partition.

Since we don't have software RAID, we can overlook this. This would important in a RAID 1 array because the MBR (where the boot loader is installed) is not mirrored. So, if the main disk fails, the boot loader is gone. But we don't have RAID.

GRUB install was successful!

Select Exit Install

Reboot the system, and you'll boot into your new Arch install.

Login as root. So far, this install is weighing in at around 578 MB. But this is just for a base system that is not capable of doing much of anything useful.

Since we installed off the CD-ROM, there's a good chance some packages are out of date. Let's update the system.

pacman -Syu

If the kernel gets updated, then you'll need to reboot. After upgrading, total system usage shoots up to 656 MB. That's because when packages are installed, the install files are kept in /var/cache/pacman/pkg. Since we're looking for a minimalistic desktop, let's clean up the package cache.

pacman -Scc

Enter Y to remove ALL packages from the cache. And Yes to remove unused repositories.

Now we're down to 622 MB. Next, add your user account, and give it a password. We'll call it archie.

useradd -m -G users,audio,lp,optical,storage,video,wheel,power -s /bin/bash archie
passwd archie

Install sudo, and configure it

pacman -S sudo
EDITOR=nano visudo

Uncomment the # %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL line and exit. This will allow all users in the wheel group to do everything. Or, adjust to your taste.

For sound, I would read over the Arch Installation Guide . You've been following that too, right?

Installing a Graphical User Interface

OK, here comes the fun part. Let's install a GUI. To do this, we have to install the graphic server, and then install a window manager. Remember to follow the Arch guide also. We'll digress from the guide after the window manger is installed. There's still a lot of useful info in the Arch guide.

pacman -S libgl
pacman -S xorg
pacman -S xf86-input-evdev
pacman -S mesa
pacman -S xf86-video-vmware - or the video driver you need
Xorg -configure
cp /root/xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf
/etc/rc.d/hal start
/etc/rc.d/fam start
startx

Be sure to edit /etc/rc.conf, and add hal and fam to the list of daemons started. It's at the end of the file. You also may like the xorgcfg utility. It fires up X and has a graphical tool for configuring X. xorgconfig is a text base configurator, but requires a little more detailed knowledge of your hardware.

At this point, the graphic display should come up, with a few terminals windows and a clock. Press Ctrl-Alt-Backspace to kill the X server

Here's a few more additions to the xorg.conf file.

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

Switch to your user account

su - archie

You could alternatively log out and log in.

Add exec xterm to the .xinitrc file. If you startx, you should get a GUI with a single terminal window. Press Ctrl-Alt-Backspace to kill X and get back to your terminal.

Install a Desktop Environment

Now that X is working, we can have a little more fun. The Arch Guide show how to install (in order from heaviest to lightest) KDE, Gnome, XFCE, and LXDE. Since we're going for a lightweight yet comfortable desktop, we'll use LXDE. If you don't like LXDE, XFCE would be a good alternative.

Also, there's no GUI tools in LXDE to administer your computer.

So, let's go!

Let's install some fonts, and install the GUI. As root,

pacman -S ttf-ms-fonts ttf-dejavu ttf-bitstream-vera lxde

Add exec startlxde to the .xinitrc file in your user's home folder. You could add this to root's as well. As your user,

startx

Inside of a virtual machine, on a P4 HT CPU, running other VMs, it took 3 seconds to load the LXDE desktop. That is unbelievably fast.

After a pacman -Scc, the total install size is 924 MB. My system is using 75M out of 256M installed in the system.

Add Applications

This is where the Arch guide ends, and the real work takes place. Since we have a lightweight, yet usable GUI, we'll have to be careful in our package selection so as not to chew up RAM and overload the CPU. This is assuming Arch is being installed on an older system. Even on a new system using heavyweight apps, LXDE will still outperform both Gnome and KDE, since the GUI overhead is kept at a minimum.

I must admit, I turned to DamnSmallLinux when it came to looking for light applications. Simply because they do a "damn fine job" at cramming all that functionality into a 50 megabyte distro. I entertained the possibility of using some of the software used by that distro for this guide. But for a modern desktop, it just didn't fit. DSL has it's purpose, and I use it myself. But for a desktop, it just doesn't suit me.

Before continuing with my software selections, you may want to review the Arch Common Apps page.

Package Management

pacman is fine for text mode installations. But let's install a package manager that we can use from the GUI.

pacman -S shaman

If you're new to Linux, this can be a great asset. It will also help you out as you get used to pacman. It makes it easier to browse for packages when you don't know the package name. This is the only package in this tutoria that uses the QT libraries. All others use GTK, if any. This package is optional, and is not needed to proceed.

Want to remove Shaman after using it, including all added dependancies? Here's how:

pacman -Rs shaman

Note that downloaded files for installation are kept in /var/cache/pacman/pkg
Note that the local sync'd database is kept in /var/lib/pacman/sync
Note that installed package listing is kept in /var/lib/pacman/local

Web Browser

This is where we're going to have to install the most useable browser. You could certainly install Dillo, but then you'd be limited as to the webistes you could visit. Here's an article on Dillo.

You could also try Midori. It has a slick feature that allows you to not download images on a web page, right in the status bar. Amaya is the w3c's web browser/editor.

But I think anything other than Firefox will just not do for today's websites. Not to mention, if you're considering Midori or Amaya, just spring for the extra few megs and use Firefox. Just be conservative as to the extentions you add. So let's install Firefox, and make one vital tweak.

pacman -S firefox

Lauch Firefox. In the address bar, enter about:config. Click the 'I'll be careful, I promise!' button. In the filter box, enter general. Double click general.useragent.extra.firefox. Change it from GranPardiso/3.0.6 to Firefox/3.0.6 - just maintain your existing version number. This will allow you to add third-party add-ons and toolbars designed for Firefox. Gran Pardiso is a Mozilla sponsored rebranding of Firefox. The user agent is how your browser identifies itself to websites. For example, the Yahoo Toolbar website checks your user agent. If it doesn't match Firefox, it tells you it can't install it. Aggravating, since GranPardiso (and IceWeasel) are 99.9% Firefox.

Opera is another alternative, but is QT-centric. Firefox is GTK-centric, so we're sticking with the minimalistic approach here. Sort of. I like Opera a lot, but there's some sites that it just doesn't work with.

Email

Sylpheed is DSL's choice in email clients. It's really not a bad choice at all. The limitations I see are not having the ability to add extensions to the program. For basic IMAP or POP emails, it's quite nice. And it integrates well into a GTK environment.

But, I have to pass on Sylpheed. There's too many extensions for Thunderbird that make it the better choice. And, we also have chosen its sibling as a web browser. So Thunderbird wins, by a hair.

pacman -S thunderbird

Instant Messaging

pacman -S pidgin

Office Suites

OpenOffice is probably the most usable office suite around. Koffice is another good choice, second to OpenOffice. GnomeOffice is the lightest of the 'Big Three', lets lacks on some of the more advanced feature. . OpenOffice provides the best compatibility with MS Office, though it's not perfect. If you only need to keep documents for personal use and not share them with the outside world, then you can use pretty much anything. If you do need to distribute a file, there's always the option of sending a PDF. While I've made my selections below, you may want to choose to install OpenOffice instead. It all depends on your needs.

Word Processors

Abiword is the word processor of the Gnome Office suite of apps. It has decent MS Word import abilities. Feels modern. And has most of what an at-home user would need. It's not as complete as OO Writer, but it doesn't choke your system, either.

pacman -Ss abiword

The abiword-plugins package is optional, but it does extend the functionality. This adds a thesaurus, as well as some other handy tools. Install this if you like.

Spreadsheets

Siag is DSL's spreadsheet. It really doesn't feel like a spredsheet should. I must be used to OO. I'm taking Siag off the table as a possible option. Since I've used Abiword for a word processor, I'm sticking with that line of thought.

pacman -S gnumeric

Looks like Gnome Office is going to be the way to go. That's OK. We need to be lightweight, but useable.

PDF Reader

Always a good idea

pacman -S xpdf

Photo Management

My choice here is Gthumb. OK, it's not the primo photo management tool. But it's capable of doing the job. Complete with minor photo enhancements. F-spot is a good choice too, but in this case, the lighter package won out

pacman -S gthumb

Photo Manipulation

The de-facto Linux standard is the Gimp. Certain photo album software has stripped-down editing software. But for any serious work, it's the Gimp. If you're concerned about hard drive space, you need not install this, as gthumb has a basic set of tools for photo editing that should suit the needs of the casual user.

pacman -S gimp

An alternative to the Gimp, is gimpshop. It modifies the layout of the interface to match that of Adobe Photoshop. It's not my choice, as I'd rather use the real thing.

Vector Graphics

Inkscape is the Linux answer to Adobe Illustrator. It's no where near as robust. But it's done everything I've needed to do. Note that I'm not a graphic artist!

pacman -S inkscape

Personal Finance

Of the good options, only one fits into the GTK ecosystem. As much as I like KMyMoney, it's got to be Gnucash for our little QT free system. Except for Shaman, if you installed it.

pacman -S gnucash

Movie Player

Keeping with the GTK-centric applications chosen, we'll install the Totem movie player, and the plugin for Mozilla browsers.

pacman -S totem totem-plugin

Music Player

The slim, yet powerful Quod Libet would be a great choice in a music player. But Exaile edged it out because of iPod support. Rhythmbox would be a fair choice also, but it depends on a lot of Gnome stuff, including Nautilus.

pacman -S exaile

Additional Media Codecs

Gotta have the codecs. The more the merrier.

pacman -S flashplugin codecs xvidcore libdvdcss

CD/DVD Burning

Graveman would be a tempting choice in burning software. However it is not quite mature, and lacks the ability to burn video DVD's. Brasero wins.

pacman -S brasero

Printing System

OK, I guess you'll want to print at some point. So let's install CUPS, the Common Unix Printing System.

pacman -S cups cups-pdf
/etc/rc.d/cups start

Be sure to add cups to the list of daemons in /etc/rc.conf so it starts on the next boot. Also, add the following line in /etc/cups/cups-pdf.conf, under the Pathname heading.

/etc/cups/cups-pdf.conf

Out /home/${USER}

This will insure your PDF file gets placed in your home directory, instead of /var/spool/cups-pdf/archie, or whatever your username is.

Physical printers will require installing additional drivers. Check out foomatic and hpijs.

Login Manager

This step is optional. Instead of booting to a console, logging in, and starting X, this will boot to a login manager where you enter your username and password.

pacman -S slim slim-themes archlinux-themes-slim

We'll need to edit a line in the config file for slim.

/etc/slim.conf

current_theme           archlinux-simplyblack

Additional themes can be found in /usr/share/slim/themes.

Now, let's modify the /etc/inittab file to fire up slim at boot. Using the daemon method would work, but if you wanted to change run levels to single user mode, it wouldn't work.

/etc/inittab

# Boot to console
#id:3:initdefault:
# Boot to X11
id:5:initdefault:

# Example lines for starting a login manager
x:5:respawn:/usr/bin/slim >& /dev/null

This first set of lines tells Arch to boot in to graphical mode instead of text mode. The second set tells which login manager to use. Some examples may be present. Make sure that all other login managers are commented out except for slim.

Please note that .xinitrc still controls which desktop to load. Further info can be found on the Arch Slim tutorial page, and the Adding a Login Manager page.

First Stage Summary

Now our install size is about 1.8 Gigs. When I reboot now, login, and check memory, I show 41 Megs used, and 21 Megs cached. That's a total of 20 megs used. Not bad at all!

There is, however, a few more things we could install if we want to. The following items are strictly eye-candy, and are optional.

Eye Candy

Nitrogen - For wallpaper

In order for Conky to work properly, as you'll see in the next section, we'll have to stop letting PCmanFM control the desktop. For that to work, we'll have to use something else to use wallpaper. Black screens get really boring.

Right click on the desktop, and select Desktop Settings. Click on the Desktop tab. Uncheck Manage the desktop and show file icons. Click OK.

Now, as root,

pacman -S nitrogen

As your user, enter

nitrogen /usr/share/lxde/wallpapers

Select a wallpaper to use. You can safely ignore any error messages on the console

Edit your ~/.xinitrc file so it looks like the following.

~/.xinitrc

( sleep 3 && nitrogen --restore /usr/share/lxde/wallpapers ) &
exec startlxde

That's all there is to it. You can specify an alternate location for wallpaper, something like ~/wallpaper that is located in your home directory. It's up to you. Just create the directory, and edit the above as necessary.

Conky - System Monitor

This piece of eyecandy is somewhat useful. What it does is place a transparent system monitor on the desktop, that updates itself at an interval you determine. Let's go!

pacman -S conky

And now create/edit your ~/.conkyrc file

/home/user/.conkyrc

update_interval 3.0
alignment top_right
minimum_size 250
gap_x 5
gap_y 5


own_window yes
own_window_type desktop
own_window_transparent yes
own_window_hints undecorated,below,skip_taskbar
double_buffer yes
draw_shades no

TEXT
SYSTEM ${hr 2}
${time %a %b %d %Y}    ${time %I:%M%p}
$nodename - $kernel

CPU ${hr 2}
${freq} MHz    ${color red}Load: ${loadavg}${color}
${cpugraph 000000 ffffff}
${cpubar}

NAME           PID    CPU%   MEM%
${top name 1} ${top pid 1} ${top cpu 1} ${top mem 1}
${top name 2} ${top pid 2} ${top cpu 2} ${top mem 2}
${top name 3} ${top pid 3} ${top cpu 3} ${top mem 3}
${top name 4} ${top pid 4} ${top cpu 4} ${top mem 4}

PHYSICAL MEMORY ${hr 2}
RAM:  ${mem} of ${memmax} / ${memperc}%
${membar 6}

SWAP ${hr 2}
Swap: ${swap} of ${swapmax} / ${swapperc}%
${swapbar 6}

DISK ${hr 2}
/boot sda1: ${fs_bar 6 /boot}
/     sda3: ${fs_bar 6 /}
/home sda4: ${fs_bar 6 /home}

NETWORK ${addr eth0} ${hr 2}
Down: ${downspeed eth0} k/s ${alignr}Up: ${upspeed eth0} k/s
${downspeedgraph eth0 25,140 00000 ffffff} ${alignr}${upspeedgraph eth0 25,140 000000 ff0000}
Total Down: ${totaldown eth0} ${alignr}Total Up: ${totalup eth0}

This begets the following display

Now, let's make it start every time you log in. Note that this is on a per-user basis

mkdir -P ~/.config/lxsession/LXDE

Inside of the newly created directory, create the following file

~/.config/lxsession/LXDE/autostart

#/bin/bash
conky &

And at the console, as your user, enter

chmod 755 ~/.config/lxsession/LXDE/autostart

This will make it executable. Now every time you log in, conky will start.

Wbar - OSX style launch bar

If you're familiar with OSX, you no doubt are familiar with the launch bar on the bottom of the screen. We have something similar called wbar. All this panel does is provide a bar for launching applications. It unfortunately does not have a dock bar for minimized apps

pacman -S wbar

Make it start at login. Add this line to the .xinitrc file, above the exec startlxde

~/.xinitrc

( sleep 5 && wbar -above-desk -pos top -isize 30 -nanim 3 -balfa 0 -bpress ) &
( sleep 3 && nitrogen --restore /usr/share/lxde/wallpapers ) &

exec startlxde

The idea behind using sleep functions is to allow the desktop environment to start, then put up wallpaper, and then put up wbar. The desktop should load before the wallpaper, and the wallpaper should load before wbar. You may need to adjust the sleep time for everything to work properly.

Now let's configure wbar with the installed applications.

~/.wbar

# The Bar && Font
i: /usr/share/wbar/iconpack/wbar.osx/osxbarback.png
t: /usr/share/wbar/iconpack/comic/12
c:

i: /usr/share/pcmanfm/icons/folder.png
c: pcmanfm
t: PCmanFM

i: /usr/share/pixmaps/lxterminal.png
c: lxterminal
t: LXterminal

i: /usr/share/wbar/iconpack/wbar.osx/firefox.png
c: firefox
t: Firefox

i: /usr/share/pixmaps/thunderbird.png
c: thunderbird
t: Thunderbird

i: /usr/share/icons/hicolor/48x48/apps/pidgin.png
c: pidgin
t: Pidgin

i: /usr/share/pixmaps/abiword_48.png
c: abiword
t: Abiword

i: /usr/share/pixmaps/gnome-gnumeric.png
c: gnumeric
t: Gnumeric

i: /usr/share/icons/hicolor/48x48/apps/gnucash-icon.png
c: gnucash
t: Gnucash

i: /usr/share/icons/hicolor/48x48/apps/gimp.png
c: gimp
t: The Gimp

i: /usr/share/pixmaps/inkscape.png
c: inkscape
t: Inkscape

i: /usr/share/icons/hicolor/48x48/apps/gthumb.png
c: gthumb
t: Gthumb

i: /usr/share/icons/hicolor/48x48/apps/brasero.png
c: brasero
t: Brasero

i: /usr/share/pixmaps/exaile.png
c: exaile
t: Exaile

i: /usr/share/icons/hicolor/48x48/apps/totem.png
c: totem
t: Totem

Note that if you change the config file or the wallpaper, wbar will not automatically update. If you right click anywhere on the bar, it wiil reread the config file and redraw the launch bar.

LXpanel

Since we have wbar installed, we don't really need all the stuff in the lxpanel. We will keep a few things, though.

Right click in the taskbar area of the panel and select Panel Settings.
Under Background, select Enable Transparency. The default tint should suffice, but feel free to modify it to your taste.
Right click on the open folder towards the bottom left corner of the screen
Select "Application Launch Bar" Settings
Remove all buttons
Click Close

This will leave you with the standard menu, the Iconify Windows button, a pager, a transparent dock bar, a clock, and a CPU load meter.

System Management

If you like, you could install some of the Gnome tools for system management.

pacman -S gnome-system-tools

This will give you tools for the network, services, shared folder, time and date, and users and groups. This is optional, and it will pull in some Gnome components like Nautilus.

Summary

Now you should have a lilghtweight, and very responsive desktop. I'm amazed how quickly things lauch, and the small memory footprint that the desktop takes up. Add to that the functionality of the desktop. It's no KDE, but then again, that may be a good thing!

For grins, I installed OpenOffice, just to see how much faster it starts under LXDE. It took about 14 seconds to lauch Writer the first time, and about 3 seconds to lauch it the second time -- Inside of a virtual machine! Not bad at all!

-- Dr. Rockhopper

Upgrading Ubuntu to the Next Release

2009-02-11T10:45:00.017-06:00

So you're running Ubuntu. Now there's a new release. While the upgrade path is fairly smooth, I'm inclined to do a fresh install. Below, I'll show you an easy way to reinstall all your softare. And I'll show you two slightly different ways of upgrading to the next release. I've upgraded Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) to Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron), and all went smooth as silk. The choice is yours.

Re-installation

Again, this is my choice. As a desktop system, re-installation should go fairly smooth. As a server, reconfiguring all your server components (apache, mysql, nfs, samba, openssh, etc) could be a little aggravating. But then I'd never choose Ubuntu for a server. I'd go for Debian or CentOS, depending on the circumstances and hosted services.

After installing the new version, you'll have to install all your software again. You can either take note of what additional software is installed, or you can do it the semi-automatic easy way.

Keep in mind that any packages you've installed that are not in the Ubuntu repositories, you'll have to manually add them later.

Before you reinstall, do the following at the command line on your existing system:

dpkg --get-selections > /home/user/software.list

What this does is take a snapshot of all installed software packages on your computer, and dumps the list into a file called software.list. Save this file. Email it to yourself, put it on a flash stick, or whatever.

Now, make sure you have backups of all your data. All /home directories, anything you've changed in /var, or any other files located elsewhere. This is all on you.

Now, reinstall your new OS. You could even follow my Ubuntu 8.04 Perfect Desktop how-to if you'd like.

After you're up and running, let's install all the software you had installed before. As root, do

apt-get update
dpkg --set-selections < /home/user/software.list

This will select software to be installed. Now, let's install it with dselect. You may have to install dselect. As root, do

apt-get dselect-upgrade

Instead of using apt-get dselect-upgrade, you could use dselect, provided you have it installed. At the dselect menu, press "I" to install, and enter to begin installation. This process may take some time. My system needs to download about 2.7 Gigs of packages. Yours will vary. When prompted, press Enter to continue. Press "Q" and Enter to quit dselect

Now, update the entire system. As root, do

apt-get -y upgrade

It is feasible that the above command will not bring in any updates. Now if you've installed any packages that are not in the Ubuntu repos (built your own, or installed a deb package from the web), you'll have to install those separately.

All you have to do now is reboot and restore all your files. That's it!!

Upgrade Your System - Method 1

If you choose not to re-install your system, don't fret. There's an easy way to upgrade. This has worked for me to upgrade Ubuntu 7.10 to Ubuntu 8.04.

At a terminal window, as root, enter

update-manager

This will start the update manager. After the window opens, it should tell you at the top that there is a "New distribution release 'some new version' is available". In my case, it tells me that 8.04 LTS is available.

Click on Upgrade. A window will pop up describing the new release. Click on the Upgrade button in the new window. This will download and start the upgrade tool.

After the upgrade tool examines your system, it will tell you how many packages will be removed, how many will be installed new, and how many will be upgraded. This is the last chance. Click on Start Upgrade, and forever hold your peace!

During installation, you'll no doubt encounter packages that want to replace existing configuration files. Each package has its own way of dealing with additions. Just follow the prompts. Usually, if you have no idea what it's updating, is generally safe to accept the default.

After the new packages are installed, you'll be asked whether you want to remove obsolete packages. Be sure to remove them.

Upon completion, you'll be asked to reboot your system. It'll reboot to your new upgraded version! Also, depending on how long it took to do the upgrade, you may have a few more updates to do. You can install them with the following commands, as root.

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

Welcome to Hardy Heron!

Upgrade Your System - Method 2

This method requires editing one simple file. Here's a portion of the sources.list file. This is only part of the file, not the entire file.

/etc/apt/sources.list

deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy universe
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy universe
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy-updates universe
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy-updates universe

All you have to do is edit this file with your favorite text editor, and change all occurrences of gutsy to hardy, so it reads like the following:

/etc/apt/sources.list

deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy universe
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy universe
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates universe
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates universe

Again, this is only a portion of the sources.list file. Don't replace the contents of your file with the above 4 lines!

After you save the file, update the package list on your computer, and upgrade your system.

apt-get update
apt-get -y dist-upgrade

After installation, you'll need to reboot. Again, there may be a few packages that need to be updated, if any packages were updated during your upgrade.

Welcome to Hardy Heron!

P.S. Upgrade method 2 works for Debian also. Just change etch to lenny, instead of gutsy to hardy.

How-To - The Perfect Ubuntu 8.04 Desktop

2009-02-02T12:28:00.027-06:00

Introduction

This guide will help you install many of the additional components that will turn Ubuntu 8.04 into a perfect Desktop operating system.

What You'll Need

Ubuntu recommends a computer with 384 megabytes of RAM, and needs 4 gigabytes of disk space just for the install. I wouldn't go less than 512 megs of RAM, and a 20 gig hard drive.

You'll also have to download and burn (or otherwise acquire) the install CD for Ubuntu. I used ubuntu-8.04-desktop-i386.iso, located here. Be sure to choose the 8.04 LTS version.

Install Ubuntu

Choose your language

Check CD for defects. I highly recommend doing this. Even if you checked the download file, somehing wrong could have happened with the burning process. This ensures that the disk was not only downloaded properly, but burned properly

Be patient while the CD is checked for defects

This is the result you want to see. The CD should be free of defects. Press Enter and your system will be rebooted

Choose your language

Try Ubuntu without any change to your computer

The computer will boot, and you will be presented with a live desktop. From here, you can play around with Ubuntu to see if you like it, or we can get started with the installer. Double click the Installer on the desktop.

Here's the main install window. Feel free to read through the info, or click Forward.

Select your timezone

Select your keyboard layout

Configure your specific partitioning scheme, or Click forward to continue.

Enter your username, password, and computer name.

After clicking Install, the hard drive will be partitioned, formatted, and the system will be installed. Feel free to poke around the Internet or the desktop as installation proceedes.

Click on restart, and Ubuntu will shutdown

Press Enter to eject the CD, and continue to to reboot into your new system.

After the system boots, we're greeted with the Gnome Display Manager (GDM) asking us to log in

Here's the default Ubuntu desktop. It's great if you like orange. After a few moments, you'll get the warning on the top bar that tells you there's updates.

Click on the red down arrow in the top bar, towards the right of the screen. This starts the update manager. You can review the list of software to update. To install the updates selected in the list, click Install Updates.

When asked, enter your password. Since you are modifying the system, you have to authenticate yourself since you're logged in as a normal user.

The progress meter now pops up. I click on the arrow next to "Show progress of single files". After the downloads complete, the updater will install the updates. If the kernel gets updated, you'll have to reboot.

Now that we have an up to date system, let's start by adding a few items. There is an Add/Remove program under the Applications menu for adding and removing software. Feel free to use it if you like. I don't like it. The one nice feature that it has a popularity column. This is useful for new users unfamiliar with Linux.

Let's start by installing my GUI package management tool of choice, Synaptic. Enter synaptic in the search box, and press enter. You'll see as list of matching items (1 only one in this case) in the upper right box. Listed in the lower right box is a description of the package. By the check mark next to synaptic in the upper right box, you can tell the Synaptic is already installed. Close out Add/Remove Applications.

Open Synaptic from System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager. Enter your password at the prompt. The default configuration has the necessary repos enabled. If you go to Settings -> Repositories, and go to the Third Party Software tab, you can enable http://archive/canonical.com/ubuntu hardy partner and click close. You'll get a warning the the repos have changed, and that you'll need to update the system. Click close. Click on Reload. This will update the software listing on your computer with the current data from Ubuntu.

There is a search tool located in the top toolbar. Search terms are collected and posted under the search results tab on the lower left. Another nifty feature is that you can click on an item in the upper right side, and start typing a search term. It will search through the currently listed packages, even if it is search results. This is useful if you already know the name of the package you want to install, if you don't want to use the search tool at the top of the window.

So now you've seen both tools for installing software. Now, let's install a bunch of software from the command line. Go to Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal. As root, enter the following at the command line:

apt-get install -y bluefish scribus k9copy inkscape kmymoney2 blender imagemagick amarok adobe-flashplugin thunderbird k3b sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin audacity digikam

Medibuntu

Medibuntu is not another spin-off of Ubuntu. It is a repository of software to extend the functionality of Ubuntu, specifically media related.

Now, let's add another repository to the list. Using your favorite text editor, add the following lines to /etc/apt/sources.list

deb http://packages.medibuntu.org/ hardy free non-free
#deb-src http://packages.medibuntu.org/ hardy free non-free

As root, enter the following at the command line

apt-get update
apt-get install --force-yes mediabuntu-keyring
apt-get update

Now let's install some more software

apt-get install -y libdvdcss2 w32codecs acroread acroread-plugins mozilla-acroread

To avoid any unfortunate updates to the Ubuntu (like amarok being replaced with the medibuntu version), edit /etc/apt/sources.list, and comment out all the medibuntu line.

#deb http://packages.medibuntu.org/ hardy free non-free
#deb-src http://packages.medibuntu.org/ hardy free non-free

And at the command line, as root, enter

apt-get update

Bonus

If you don't like to orange themes, then feel free to install the following:

apt-get install -y blubuntu-look

Now activate the theme. Go to System -> Preferences -> Appearance. Select Blubuntu from the theme tab. Click Close.

Then go to System -> Administration -> Login Window. Click on the Local tab. Select the Blubutu GDM theme (be sure to click in the small radio button). Click on Background color. In Color Name, enger #3966A3. Click OK. Click close.

Say goodbye to orange!

HowTo - CentOS 5 Samba Server

2009-01-23T08:41:00.008-06:00

Introduction

This guide will show you how to install a Linux file server. After completion, you'll have the following capabilities:

A file server that Linux and Windows computers can access

The environment that this server will integrate into is as follows:

Any network that requires Windows clients to connect to it.

Here's the software we're going to install.

CentOS 5 Linux distribution
Samba, from the CentOS 5 repositories

What You'll Need

A late model computer (somewhere in the 1+ Gigahertz range)
At least 512 Megabyte of RAM
Adequate hard drive space for files
CentOS installation media, downloadable from here

The exact partitioning scheme is up to you. I cannot cover that here. I'm going to use the default partition scheme the CentOS installer uses. So, let's get going!

Installing CentOS

Insert installation media in the CD/DVD drive and boot the computer. Press 'Enter' to boot the system

Click on Edit under Network Devices.
Click on Manual configuration under Enable IPv4 support
Enter your IP address (192.168.1.2)
Enter your Netmask (255.255.255.0)
Uncheck IPv6 support.
Click OK
Enter server.local.zzz in the hostname area (next to manually)
Enter your Gateway address (probably 192.168.1.1)
Enter your Primary DNS server (probably 192.168.1.1)

The exact host/domain name and network settings must be tailored to your network.

Click Next

Select your timezone. And select whether your hardware clock uses UTC. If the time on your hardware clock is set to local time, uncheck it.

Select a password for the root account. This is equivalent to Administrator for that 'other' operating system.

Here you can select additional packages. Let's just go with the default of Desktop - Gnome. Click Next.

OK, let her rip! Click Next to install.

OK, now we're done. Let's reboot!

Welcome to the first time boot screen. Just click next

Let's turn off the firewall. Why? Because our router has a firewall on it. And, if we are going to configure a firewall, we'll just use iptables to do it. So change Enabled to Disabled and click Forward. The installer will give you a warning. Just tell it Yes.

SELinux, or Security Enabled Linux adds to the security of Linux. It also adds complexity, and makes debugging your installation more difficult. Should you decide to use it, don't turn it on until after you have a working setup. Set it to Disabled and click Forward. It will warn you that you'll have to reboot. That's OK. It's one of the few times you'll have to do it!

Configure your time.

Add a user. Our username for the tutorial is user.

You can test your sound card, if one is detected. I don't have one, so I'll move past this.

If you have additional CD's with software packages on them, you can install them here. Since we don't, let's click Finish and continue with a reboot (because we changed SELinux).

Let's login.

Yep, it's Gnome. Right click on the desktop, and select Terminal. First off, we need to update the system. Even though the GUI is telling us that there are updates for the system, we'll use the command line to do the update. In the terminal, do the following.

su - root
Enter your root password
yum upgrade -y

If the kernel got updated, you'll need to reboot. If not, just continue.

Fileserver

Install Samba, which will allow Windows to connect to the Linux file server

yum install -y samba

Edit the Samba configuration file to include your folder shares. I have the home folders shared out, a /files partition, and printers. Here's my config file. You'll have to change things to match your desired setup

/etc/samba/smb.conf -- Edit this file


# This is the main Samba configuration file. You should read the
# smb.conf(5) manual page in order to understand the options listed
# here. Samba has a huge number of configurable options (perhaps too
# many!) most of which are not shown in this example
#
# For a step to step guide on installing, configuring and using samba,
# read the Samba-HOWTO-Collection. This may be obtained from:
#  http://www.samba.org/samba/docs/Samba-HOWTO-Collection.pdf
#
# Many working examples of smb.conf files can be found in the
# Samba-Guide which is generated daily and can be downloaded from:
#  http://www.samba.org/samba/docs/Samba-Guide.pdf
#
# Any line which starts with a ; (semi-colon) or a # (hash)
# is a comment and is ignored. In this example we will use a #
# for commentry and a ; for parts of the config file that you
# may wish to enable
#
# NOTE: Whenever you modify this file you should run the command "testparm"
# to check that you have not made any basic syntactic errors.
#
#---------------
# SELINUX NOTES:
#
# If you want to use the useradd/groupadd family of binaries please run:
# setsebool -P samba_domain_controller on
#
# If you want to share home directories via samba please run:
# setsebool -P samba_enable_home_dirs on
#
# If you create a new directory you want to share you should mark it as
# "samba-share_t" so that selinux will let you write into it.
# Make sure not to do that on system directories as they may already have
# been marked with othe SELinux labels.
#
# Use ls -ldZ /path to see which context a directory has
#
# Set labels only on directories you created!
# To set a label use the following: chcon -t samba_share_t /path
#
# If you need to share a system created directory you can use one of the
# following (read-only/read-write):
# setsebool -P samba_export_all_ro on
# or
# setsebool -P samba_export_all_rw on
#
# If you want to run scripts (preexec/root prexec/print command/...) please
# put them into the /var/lib/samba/scripts directory so that smbd will be
# allowed to run them.
# Make sure you COPY them and not MOVE them so that the right SELinux context
# is applied, to check all is ok use restorecon -R -v /var/lib/samba/scripts
#
#--------------
#
#======================= Global Settings =====================================

[global]

# ----------------------- Netwrok Related Options -------------------------
#
# workgroup = NT-Domain-Name or Workgroup-Name, eg: MIDEARTH
#
# server string is the equivalent of the NT Description field
#
# netbios name can be used to specify a server name not tied to the hostname
#
# Interfaces lets you configure Samba to use multiple interfaces
# If you have multiple network interfaces then you can list the ones
# you want to listen on (never omit localhost)
#
# Hosts Allow/Hosts Deny lets you restrict who can connect, and you can
# specifiy it as a per share option as well
#
workgroup = workgroup
server string = CentosSambaServer
netbios name = Server
announce version = 5.0

;       interfaces = lo eth0 192.168.12.2/24 192.168.13.2/24
;       hosts allow = 127. 192.168.12. 192.168.13.

# --------------------------- Logging Options -----------------------------
#
# Log File let you specify where to put logs and how to split them up.
#
# Max Log Size let you specify the max size log files should reach

# logs split per machine
;       log file = /var/log/samba/%m.log
# max 50KB per log file, then rotate
;       max log size = 50

# ----------------------- Standalone Server Options ------------------------
#
# Scurity can be set to user, share(deprecated) or server(deprecated)
#
# Backend to store user information in. New installations should
# use either tdbsam or ldapsam. smbpasswd is available for backwards
# compatibility. tdbsam requires no further configuration.

security = user
passdb backend = tdbsam


# ----------------------- Domain Members Options ------------------------
#
# Security must be set to domain or ads
#
# Use the realm option only with security = ads
# Specifies the Active Directory realm the host is part of
#
# Backend to store user information in. New installations should
# use either tdbsam or ldapsam. smbpasswd is available for backwards
# compatibility. tdbsam requires no further configuration.
#
# Use password server option only with security = server or if you can't
# use the DNS to locate Domain Controllers
# The argument list may include:
#   password server = My_PDC_Name [My_BDC_Name] [My_Next_BDC_Name]
# or to auto-locate the domain controller/s
#   password server = *


;       security = domain
;       passdb backend = tdbsam
;       realm = MY_REALM

;       password server =

# ----------------------- Domain Controller Options ------------------------
#
# Security must be set to user for domain controllers
#
# Backend to store user information in. New installations should
# use either tdbsam or ldapsam. smbpasswd is available for backwards
# compatibility. tdbsam requires no further configuration.
#
# Domain Master specifies Samba to be the Domain Master Browser. This
# allows Samba to collate browse lists between subnets. Don't use this
# if you already have a Windows NT domain controller doing this job
#
# Domain Logons let Samba be a domain logon server for Windows workstations.
#
# Logon Scrpit let yuou specify a script to be run at login time on the client
# You need to provide it in a share called NETLOGON
#
# Logon Path let you specify where user profiles are stored (UNC path)
#
# Various scripts can be used on a domain controller or stand-alone
# machine to add or delete corresponding unix accounts
#
;       security = user
;       passdb backend = tdbsam

;       domain master = yes
;       domain logons = yes

# the login script name depends on the machine name
;       logon script = %m.bat
# the login script name depends on the unix user used
;       logon script = %u.bat
;       logon path = \\%L\Profiles\%u
# disables profiles support by specifing an empty path
;       logon path =

;       add user script = /usr/sbin/useradd "%u" -n -g users
;       add group script = /usr/sbin/groupadd "%g"
;       add machine script = /usr/sbin/useradd -n -c "Workstation (%u)" -M -d /nohome -s /bin/false "%u"
;       delete user script = /usr/sbin/userdel "%u"
;       delete user from group script = /usr/sbin/userdel "%u" "%g"
;       delete group script = /usr/sbin/groupdel "%g"


# ----------------------- Browser Control Options ----------------------------
#
# set local master to no if you don't want Samba to become a master
# browser on your network. Otherwise the normal election rules apply
#
# OS Level determines the precedence of this server in master browser
# elections. The default value should be reasonable
#
# Preferred Master causes Samba to force a local browser election on startup
# and gives it a slightly higher chance of winning the election
;       local master = no
;       os level = 33
;       preferred master = yes

#----------------------------- Name Resolution -------------------------------
# Windows Internet Name Serving Support Section:
# Note: Samba can be either a WINS Server, or a WINS Client, but NOT both
#
# - WINS Support: Tells the NMBD component of Samba to enable it's WINS Server
#
# - WINS Server: Tells the NMBD components of Samba to be a WINS Client
#
# - WINS Proxy: Tells Samba to answer name resolution queries on
#   behalf of a non WINS capable client, for this to work there must be
#   at least one        WINS Server on the network. The default is NO.
#
# DNS Proxy - tells Samba whether or not to try to resolve NetBIOS names
# via DNS nslookups.

wins support = yes
;       wins server = w.x.y.z
;       wins proxy = yes

;       dns proxy = yes

# --------------------------- Printing Options -----------------------------
#
# Load Printers let you load automatically the list of printers rather
# than setting them up individually
#
# Cups Options let you pass the cups libs custom options, setting it to raw
# for example will let you use drivers on your Windows clients
#
# Printcap Name let you specify an alternative printcap file
#
# You can choose a non default printing system using the Printing option

#       load printers = yes
#       cups options = raw

;       printcap name = /etc/printcap
#obtain list of printers automatically on SystemV
;       printcap name = lpstat
printcap name = cups
printing = cups
security = user

# --------------------------- Filesystem Options ---------------------------
#
# The following options can be uncommented if the filesystem supports
# Extended Attributes and they are enabled (usually by the mount option
# user_xattr). Thess options will let the admin store the DOS attributes
# in an EA and make samba not mess with the permission bits.
#
# Note: these options can also be set just per share, setting them in global
# makes them the default for all shares

;       map archive = no
;       map hidden = no
;       map read only = no
;       map system = no
;       store dos attributes = yes


#============================ Share Definitions ==============================

[homes]
comment = Home Directories
browseable = no
writable = yes
;       valid users = %S
;       valid users = MYDOMAIN\%S

[files]
path = /files
browseable = yes
writeable = yes

[printers]
browseable = yes
printable = yes
#       public = yes
create mode = 7770
#       guest only = yes
#       use client driver = yes
path = /var/spool/samba
#       guest ok = yes
#       writable = no
valid users = user

[print$]
comment = Printer drivers
#       path = /usr/share/cups/drivers
path = /tmp
browseable = yes
guest ok = yes
read only = yes
write list = root


# Un-comment the following and create the netlogon directory for Domain Logons
;       [netlogon]
;       comment = Network Logon Service
;       path = /var/lib/samba/netlogon
;       guest ok = yes
;       writable = no
;       share modes = no


# Un-comment the following to provide a specific roving profile share
# the default is to use the user's home directory
;       [Profiles]
;       path = /var/lib/samba/profiles
;       browseable = no
;       guest ok = yes


# A publicly accessible directory, but read only, except for people in
# the "staff" group
;       [public]
;       comment = Public Stuff
;       path = /home/samba
;       public = yes
;       writable = yes
;       printable = no
;       write list = +staff

After modifying your file, restart the Samba services

service smb restart

And create Samba users. This must be done for each user you create

smbpasswd -a user
Enter password for this user (must match Windows machines)
smbpasswd -e user

Again, you'll want to customize this config file to your environment. This is just a working example.

That's it! Enjoy your CentOS Samba File Server

-- Doctor Rockhopper

HowTo - The Perfect Debian 4 and Zimbra 5 Small Business Server

2009-01-20T08:21:00.012-06:00

Introduction

This guide will show you how to install a Linux server. After completion, you'll have the following capabilities:

Retrieve email from a remote POP account and deliver it to a local user
Access your email locally, through webmail, Thunderbird, or Outlook
Access your email remotely, through webmail, while on the road (if you choose to)

The environment that this server will integrate into is as follows:

Website hosted by an outside service
POP email accounts hosted by the same outside service
High-speed Internet connection
An Internet router/firewall device

Because this server is geared towards a small (and possibly medium) sized business, I do not want that business to host the website and the email. Why? The website for a business has to be up 24/7/365 with 99.99% uptime. A small business (in my opinion) can neither afford the infrastructure to maintain such a system, nor can they afford to hire talented personnel to maintain it. And even with all that hardware and expertise, all it takes is a power failure to last longer than your battery backups, and you're down.

For this tutorial, we're going on the assumption that your company is called Example. Your website is called Example.com. And, one of your email addresses is sales@example.com. All this is hosted by XYZ company, whose website is xyz.com.

Here's the software we're going to install.

Debian 4.0 (Etch) Linux distribution
Zimbra Collaboration Suite - Community Edition

I've chosen this configuration for a few reasons. One is I love Debian. It's rock-solid. Easy to update through its excellent package management system, and easily upgraded to the new major release (Debian 5.0, codenamed Lenny, in testing as of this writing).

Zimbra is a self-contained collaboration suite, complete with antispam and antivirus capabilities. It's a turnkey system. Included in the open source version is a foundation for cloud computing -- being able to store documents in Zimbra, accessible and editable through the web interface.

Both Debian and Zimbra are stable and mature. It makes an excellent combination for a server.

What You'll Need

Zimbra recommends a 2.0 GHz CPU or faster, with 2+ Gigs of RAM. For hard drives, I always recommend at least a RAID 1 configuration.

A late model computer (somewhere in the 2+ Gigahertz range)
At least 2 Gigabytes of RAM
Plenty of hard drive space (preferably in a RAID-1 setup)
Debian installation media, downloadable from here

The exact partitioning scheme is up to you. I cannot cover that here. I'm going to use the default partition scheme the CentOS installer uses. So, let's get going!

Installing Debian Etch

Insert the Debian boot CD in the drive and boot the computer. I'm using the debian-40r5-i386-CD-1.iso disk image.

Press Enter to boot the system

Select the language to use for installation

Select your country

Select your keyboard. Hardware detection will take place now, and could take a few minutes.

Enter your hostname. Here, I use server

Enter your domain name. Here, I use local.zzz.

Choose Guided - use entire disk for partitioning

Choose the disk to partition

Choose All files in one partition

Choose Finish partitioning and write changes to disk

Choose Yes to write partitions to disk

Choose your timezone

Choose your root password

Verify your root password

Select your username

Choose a login (if you don't like the suggestion)

Choose a password

Verify your password. The base system will be installed. This will take a few minutes

Use Network mirror. Select no. (We'll update the system later. Let's just use the CD)

Choose whether or not to participate in the package survey. No is fine.

Choose Continue, as the default software selection is fine.

Set your video resolution

Install GRUB

And reboot into your new Debian system

Looks like GDM. Let's login

The desktop. And it warns us to update packages. But we won't update it via the GUI tool.

Open a terminal (Applications - Accessories - Teminal) and as root, edit the following file.

/etc/apt/sources.list -- Modify this file

# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 r5 _Etch_ - Official i386 CD Binary-1 20081023-23:20]/ etch contrib main

deb     http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ etch main contrib non-free
deb-src http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ etch main contrib non-free

deb     http://security.debian.org/ etch/updates main contrib
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ etch/updates main contrib

The cdrom line should be commented out, unless you have a disk that has updates that you'd like to install from. The security lines are repositories for security updates. Software is in the 2 added lines, and will give you access to everything you should ever need. Also, by using the name etch instead of stable will insure you stay on Debian 4 when Debian 5 (Lenny) becomes stable.

Then, at the root command prompt, enter:

aptitude update
aptitude upgrade -y

This will refresh the local list of available software, and the second line will perform the update. Now your system is up to date, and has lots of software available through the package manager.

Sometimes you'll get a warning telling you the kernel is either being upgraded, or updated. Either way, you'll have to do a reboot to utilize the new kernel (and avoid problems down the road)

Configure a static IP

/etc/network/interfaces -- Modify this file

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
allow-hotplug eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.1.2
netmask 255.255.255.0
network 192.168.1.0
gateway 192.168.1.1
broadcast 192.168.1.255

Modify according to your network settings and interface name. After modifying the file, reboot the computer. Open a root terminal and confirm the new network settings with ifconfig.

Install DNS

Now we need to install a DNS server for Zimbra. In a root terminal window, enter the following:

apt-get install -y bind9

/etc/hosts -- Modify this file

127.0.0.1        localhost.localdomain localhost
192.168.1.2      server.local.zzz server

# The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts
::1     ip6-localhost ip6-loopback
fe00::0 ip6-localnet
ff00::0 ip6-mcastprefix
ff02::1 ip6-allnodes
ff02::2 ip6-allrouters
ff02::3 ip6-allhosts

Feel free to leave in any IPv6 addresses.

/etc/resolv.conf -- Edit this file

search local.zzz
nameserver 192.168.1.2

/etc/bind/named.conf.local -- Edit this file

zone "local.zzz" {
type master;
file "/etc/named.zzz.fwd";
};

zone "1.168.192.in-addr.arpa" {
type master;
file "/etc/named.zzz.rev";
};

options {
forwarders { 192.168.1.1; } ;
};

/etc/bind/named.zzz.fwd -- Create this file

local.zzz   IN      SOA     server.local.zzz.        root.local.zzz. (
2009011501      ; Serial in YYYYMMDDXX - tab indented
28800           ; Refresh
3600            ; Retry
604800          ; Expire
14400           ; Default TTL
)

local.zzz.   IN     NS     server.local.zzz.
local.zzz.   IN     MX     10  server.local.zzz.

mta          IN     A      192.168.1.2
server       IN     A      192.168.1.2
www          IN     A      192.168.1.2

/etc/bind/named.zzz.rev -- Create this file

@       IN      SOA     server.local.zzz.        root.local.zzz. (
2009011501      ; Serial
28800           ; Refresh
3600            ; Retry
604800          ; Expire
38400           ; Default TTL
)

IN     NS      server.local.zzz.
2     IN     PTR     server.local.zzz.
2     IN     PTR     local.zzz.

At a root terminal window, enter

/etc/init.d/bind9 force-reload

DNS should be up and running

Install Additional Software For Zimbra

Zimbra needs some additional software in order to function on Debian. Here's what to add

apt-get install -y fetchmail libgmp3c2 libltdl3
apt-get remove –purge exim4 exim4-base exim4-config exim4-daemon-light network-manager

This is all the dependencies Zimbra needs to install.

Install Zimbra

Download the Zimbra Open Source package from here. You'll want to download the Debian 4 package. After the download is complete, open a root terminal and cd into the directory where the download . In my case, it's in root's home directory.

cd /root (or to where you downloaded the tarball
tar xfz zcs-5.0.11_GA_2695.DEVIAL4.0.20081117055537.tgz
cd zcs-5.0.11_GA_2695.DEVIAL4.0.20081117055537.tgz
./install.sh

The installer will check to see what's installed. Being a fresh install, you'll have a series of NOT FOUND. At the end, press Return to continue

The installer checks for needed packages. If it finds everything it needs, it will then search for what's available to install (ie, what's in the extracted archive). Now it will ask you what to install, item by item.

Install zimbra-ldap [Y]                   --  Press Enter
Install zimbra-logger [Y]                 --  Press Enter
Install zimbra-mta [Y]                    --  Press Enter
Install zimbra-snmp [Y]                   --  Press Enter
Install zimbra-store [Y]                  --  Press Enter
Install zimbra-apache [Y]                 --  Press Enter
Install zimbra-spell [Y]                  --  Press Enter
Install zimbra-proxy [N]                  --  Press Enter

Checking required space for zimbra-core
checking space for zimbra-store

Installing:
zimbra-core
zimbra-ldap
zimbra-logger
zimbra-mta
zimbra-snmp
zimbra-store
zimbra-apache
zimbra-spell

The system will be modified.  Continue? [N]  -- Enter Y and press Enter

Note:

I get a DNS warning message. You'll be asked if you want to reconfigure your domain name. Enter NO. Even though the installer warns of an incorrect MX record, it will not prevent mail retreival via POP or IMAP. If this were to be a 'real' mail exchanger, it would be an issue. I'm working on an alternative DNS config, and will post it when completed. This will, however, depend heavily on the configuration of DynDNS.

Getting Your Email

Each user has the option of configuring external accounts. This is done through the Preferences, Accounts tab in the webmail interface. More information can be found in Zimbra's docs.

That's it! Enjoy your Zimbra email server!

What Every Linux Desktop Should Have

2009-01-20T08:10:00.003-06:00

This blog is the yardstick that I will be judging different Linux distros by. All computer users, regardless of the operating system they use, need software to either be productive, or for enjoyment. As I test out each distro, I'll look at what's included, and how easy it is to install what's missing.

This blog will be a living document, with edits made but not noted. Some edits will be my own, and some will be a result of comments made to this blog. I just don't want the "meat and potatoes" to get lost in the edit notes.

So here's my history, if anyone cares. My first Linux experience was with Red Hat 7.0 after managing 2 HP-UX Unix workstations for a number of years. Things were different, but I was able to find my way around without too much of a problem. At the time, I hadn't realized all the different distros out there. I was completely green, and simply bought a book with a Linux CD inside of it.

The main purpose for this was to move a ksh script over to the Linux box. The script was designed to dismantle and reassemble a tool path created from CAD/CAM software. I took quite some time to execute, and sucked the CPU and disk I/O from the Unix machine, hence the desire to move. It was a success, and I was hooked.

Since then, I've experimented on an off with Gentoo, Debian, LFS, and several derivatives and spin offs of the aforementioned. To be honest, I've yet to dive into Slackware or any of its children. I haven't been compelled enough to sacrifice my precious spare time - yet. But perhaps one day.

All over the web you'll find discussions of how Linux cannot fully replace Microsoft Windows. Trying to pull out real information from discussions between Windows die-hards and Linux die-hards is difficult at best. That would be like a Cubs fan and a Sox fan having a peaceful discussion about baseball. Not gonna happen.

Linux can replace Windows for your at-home PC. It's replaced Windows on my home PC. It just depends on your needs, and most needs can easily be met. I have no interest in the latest recipe management software. I can buy one for Windows. I can use an open source Linux program already in my repo. But I don't want to be locked in to anything. Each of my recipes resides in its own OpenOffice Writer document, and is assembled in a master document so I can print out one large book by printing one document. The same can be done with MS Word and MS Binder. But then, I'd be locked in to Microsoft. Yes, I dislike Microsoft, but I can be objective about it.

On to the real issue. There are programs that everyone has to have, like web browsers and all the add-ons. There's programs most want to have, like music players and photo editors. And programs that many want to have. Most needs can be met with Linux. Below is a list of categories. Under each category is a list of Windows and Linux programs that will do the job. A problem with Linux adoption is the lack of knowing what programs are available to do the job you need to do. (The others are resistance to change, and unwillingness to learn. But you're here, so that doesn't apply to you!) If one doesn't know about AmaroK, how could one get away from MusicMatch? So, on with the show . . .

Operating Systems

Yes, I show the different operating system options. I do this partially to attempt to separate an operating system from software, as many people do not realize they are separate. Many people think a computer is Microsoft. Or that Office is an operating system. Or the operating system is Internet Explorer. This isn't the case. MS Windows is an operating system. An OS controls the actual computer hardware (ie, all the circuitry). Technically, an operating system is software. But one cannot run any software (such as a word processor) without an OS. Hence, my reasoning for making the distinction. -- MS Office is office productivity software -- MS Internet Explorer is web browsing software.

Microsoft

Windows Vista - Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate.

Linux

Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Gentoo, Sabayon, PCLinuxOS, OpenSUSE, Mint, Mandriva, Puppy, Mepis, Arch, Slackware, Xandros, Freespire, Linspire, Linux From Scratch, Kiwi, TurboLinux, Knoppix, Slax, Damn Small Linux, CentOS, Sorcerer, and well, I'll tell you what. Just go to Distrowatch.com and take a look for yourself.

Desktop Environments

The actual graphic interface that the user interacts with via a mouse and keyboard. Windows has its single desktop environment, and (I believe) Mac OSX has its single desktop environment.

Windows

Just one.

Linux

KDE, Gnome, XFCE, Enlightenment, Blackbox, Fluxbox, Openbox, IceWM, JWM, FLWM, FVWM, 9WM, AEWM, Ion2, LWM, UDE, UWM, XFE, and on and on . . .

Web Browsers

Windows

Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Seamonkey, Safari, Chrome

Linux

Internet Explorer*, Firefox, Opera, Seamonkey, Konqueror, Epiphany, Flock, Galeon, Dillo

Let's also add the Adobe Flash player to this list. Or, at least, the non-Adobe open source Flash player.

* Internet Explorer does not run natively on Linux. An emulator is required. IES4LINUX is an automated installer of the emulator and IE. I only recommend it for web developers seeking to test their code.

Email Clients

Windows

Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird

Linux

Thunderbird, Kmail, Evolution, Sylpheed

Instant Messaging

Windows

Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo Instant Messenger, AIM, Pidgin

Linux

Pidgin, Kopete, AIM,

Word Processing

Windows

MS Word, OpenOffice Writer, WordPerfect, Abiword

Linux

OpenOffice, Kword, Abiword

Spreadsheets

Windows

MS Excel, OpenOffice Calc, Quattro Pro,

Linux

OpenOffice Calc, Kspread, Gnumeric

Presentations

Windows

MS Powerpoint, Presentations, OpenOffice Impress,

Linux

OpenOffice Impress,

Desktop Publishing

Windows

MS Publisher, Adobe Pagemaker, Quark Xpress, Scribus

Linux

Scribus,

Web Development

Windows

MS Frontpage, Adobe Dreamweaver

Linux

Quanta Plus,

Flowcharts

Windows

Linux

Kivio,

Photo Manipulation

Windows

Adobe Photoshop, The Gimp,

Linux

The Gimp, Krita, Cinepaint,

Vector Graphics

Windows

Adobe Illustrator, Inkscape,

Linux

Inkscape,

Personal Finance

Windows

MS Money, Quicken

Linux

KMyMoney2, Gnucash

Photo Albums

Windows

Linux

digiKam, Fspot,

Video Editing

Windows

Adobe Premier

Linux

Kino, Cinelerra,

Other Programs

Other programs I use frequently are:

Bluefish - Code editor, including HTML, PHP, C, and many others

Conclusion

This list will be ever growing. Also, I have not included console apps. Only software that has a GUI have been included. I consider anyone working in text mode to be beyond the intent of my documentation.

On the Linux side, note that I have not included software that must be purchased. While not all software is open source (as in freedom), is it available free of charge (as in free beer).

I have also included free programs (freedom and/or beer) on the Windows side. This will help in finding cross-platform apps for streamlining a home or small office, and providing familiar apps on both sides.

-- Doctor Rockhopper

PCLinuxOS 2007 - Desktop Review

2009-01-20T08:05:00.000-06:00

I've tested out PCLinuxOS back in early 2008 (or was it late 2007?). Now I'm taking a harder look at it as a desktop system for everyday use because I'll be installing this on my Dad's computer. And I'll have to deal with any aftermath.

I know. This is a bad time to review 2007, as the 2009 betas are now in testing, and release is imminent. I think for that very reason, now is a good time for a review, and a follow-up later on.

PCLinuxOS Basics

PCLinuxOS is a rolling update distribution. This means there are no versions. Updates to packages are pushed to the online repository, which can be downloaded via Synaptic or apt-get at any time. Once enough changes have been made, a new ISO image is generated. In theory, one could install a system with a 5 year old CD, update the system, and you'll have the same system as installing from last year's CD and doing the same updates. The only differences would be anything related to the installer.

Booting

Let's get started! I used the pclinuxos-2007.iso CD image to do the install. I fired up the computer and was greeted by a nice looking spash screen with several options. I used the default of LiveCD. Note: If ever you have to enter kernel parameters, this is where you do it.

After the CD booted into X, I was asked a few questions regarding keyboard, location, and timezone. Now I'm being asked to configure a connection. Specifically, a network connection. Options include standard ethernet, DVB satellite, cable modem, DSL, ISDN, Wireless 802.11, GPRS/Edge/3G, Bluetooth DUN, and basic DUN with a modem. This is a really great feature to be able to configure the network before booting to the desktop. This way you'll know if there's a problem before getting to the desktop. So, I start my network and tell it to use DHCP.

This live CD boots to a login manager. Here, there's the choice of logging in as root or guest. The account passwords are listed in the upper-left hand corner of the screen, so there's no need to look for the passwords. Let's log in as root and start installing.

Installation

After logging in, I'm presented with an easy-on-the-eyes, uncluttered KDE desktop. So let's click on the Install PCLinuxOS icon. I want to do custom partitioning. Even for a desktop, there's a few things I like to do other than cramming everything in one partition. I'm surprised that I'm warned to backup all my data before continuing, but it's a good safety feature for those who click without thinking.

I am, however, a little underwhelmed by the partitioner. It feels kind of clutsy to use a slider to adjust the size of a partition. This is certainly not the best partition program out there. But, I like customizing, and many people just go with the defaults.

The bigger issue is that it seems like there would be difficulty in setting up the logical volume manager on install. After attempting to create a logical volume, the partitioner tells me that the lvm2 package is not installed. If one wanted LVM, it would be off to the documents, and/or the forums. I decided not to pursue this any further, as I typically use static partitions.

After partitioning and formatting, the installation went smooth. Install GRUB, add a user, reboot, login, and I was working in a desktop.

Besides an overly basic partitioner, I do have a few thoughts about the entire install process. Where's the Back button? And why not collect all the information, install, and then reboot? Instead of: Enter info. Wait for install. Enter info. This isn't as bad a Debian install. But it's not Ubuntu or Fedora, either.

Working Install

Clean, simple, and visually pleasing - if you like the color blue. Residing in the bottom panel is the K menu, Show Desktop button, Home Folder, KDE Control Center, Mandriva style Configure Your Computer, Synaptic Package Manager, and Firefox. For someone who is looking at their first Linux desktop, I think this is about perfect. Maybe add an OpenOffice launcher - maybe. If it were my desktop I'd yank Synaptic and the Mandriva style configuration panel, and replace it with Bluefish and KMyMoney. I use those far more often.

After logging in, it's time to go through and see how the default install compares against my list of basic needs from an OS.

Internet Software

We've got our familiar Firefox. The nice thing is the Flash player is already installed, and it's the official Flash player from Adobe. No screwing around. If memory serves, on Ubuntu, installing the Adobe Flash player required downloading and installing it - for each user. Also nice is the fact that Opera and Konqueror are partially supported (as of this writing).

Thunderbird is installed and ready for action. As are other goodies, such as Frostwire (Gnutella client), Ktorrent (in lieu of Bittorrent), Xirc, and Kopete for instant messaging across Yahoo, MSN, AOL, and some others.

EDIT: After using this for a while, I had to install Flash Player 10 from Adobe's site. There was a website that required Flash 9 (which PCLOS, has in Beta form) but it did not work.

Home Office

PCLOS comes with the cross-platform, 99% Microsoft Office compatible, OpenOffice.org. Equipped with a word processor, spreadsheet, slide show creator, flowchart/diagram maker, and database creator. And, for those interested, there is another integrated office program called Koffice, available in the repos.

For those looking for a MS Publisher replacement, one is not installed by default. But Scribus is easily installed.

The Adobe Acrobat Reader is not installed. But don't let that disturb you. The Acrobat Reader is just Adobe's offering for a PDF viewer. There's about half a dozen PDF readers in the repos. Konqueror, KDE's all-in-one file manager, web browser, and network browser, has built in support for displaying PDF files. If you can double click a PDF file, Konqueror will respond by displaying its contents, bookmarks and all.

One thing that is lacking is a personal finance program. The two main programs are KMyMoney and Gnucash. They are in the repos. My personal choice is KMyMoney. I just don't care for Gnucash. But check it out. You just might like it!

Music

My favorite music player, regardless of what desktop you use is Amarok. It's amazing what this program will do. It'll organize your music, put playists together, connect to the Wikipedia and get info on the currently playing artist, and even retrieve lyrics to the current song. There is even support for portable MP3 players. I own a non-iPod music player that doesn't support playlists. So I just drag my music files into the player via a file manger.

MP3 and OGG codes come with the default install of PCLOS. OGG is the Vorbis audio format. Due to a potential licence problem with MP3, (and my ideals), I'll stick with Vorbis. My player supports it. So I'm fine with that.

K3B, a CD/DVD buring software, has the ability to rip audio CDs. Since I've been on Ubuntu for a number of years, I've been using Sound Juicer for this task.

Photos

For photo editing, the Gimp is old faithful. I've touched up some pictures, taken out red-eye, and even turned parts of a color picture into black and white. There's a lot I like about the Gimp, and there's some I don't like. Red-eye removal is sort of an art, and takes patience. The Gimp is fairly comparable to Adobe Photoshop, and equally comparable in its complexity. It does take some patience to grasp certain, shall we say, elements. But if you do things with any sort of frequency, as with anything, it turns into a no-brainer.

You'd think, that after taking over 13,000 digital pictures, that I'd use some sort of photo album software. Well, I don't. I organize my pictures in a hierarchy based on dates the pictures were taken. But as this is my first Linux distro review, I thought it would be prudent to include this in a review. PCLOS includes Kalbum, and digiKam. After looking at both interfaces, I'm immediately drawn to digiKam. It's laid out similar to Amarok, so I feel right at home. After poking around for a bit, I like it.

Video

There are 3 video players that come shipped with PCLOS. They are Kaffeine, KMplayer, and Mplayer. Each have their own quirks. Between those, and the other available in the repos, you should find one or two that will serve your needs

Codecs are another issue. If you have any kind of existing media collection, you'll want to install w32-codecs-all. This will allow playing of several popular formats that Windows supports. I find it odd that it doesn't include this right off the bat, considering MP3 support is installed by default.

Update the System

Just like every operation system, PCLOS needs to be updated. It's highly recommended to update the system after installation, before installing any other software. This is really easy.

Open the Synaptic Package Manager. It's the red and gray "S" on the bottom next to Firefox. Enter the password for root. After Synaptic comes up, click on "Reload". This updates the software list on your computer with the current list in the repo. Some packages have been removed, replaced, or updated. Then, click on "Mark All Updates". This check marks all packages that need to be updated. Then, click "Apply", and grab yourself a cup of coffee. Preferably coffee flavored coffee ;) You may need to reboot after all is done. That's it.

What to Add

So, here's my bullet list of programs that need to be added to bring PCLinuxOS up to my personal standards. As always, your ideas may vary.

Scribus -- Desktop publishing (scribus)
KMyMoney2 or Gnucash - Personal finance management (kmymoney2 or gnucash)
Additional video codecs (w32-codecs-all)

Final Review

There's over 8300 packages in the PCLOS repo, compared to Ubuntu's over 23,000. And unless I figure out exactly what Ubuntu has, that PCLOS doesn't, that I really need, I can't find a reason to miss the almost 15,000 packages. The only thing I can do is recommend LinuxOS to just about any newcomer to Linux. I'd even recommend it someone who's been using another distro for a while.

After a week or so of messing around with this distro, I have to say that PCLinuxOS's tagline of "The Distro Hopper-Stopper" is really accurate. I'll venture a guess that most people who use this distro will stick with it for quite some time. I can't see why this distro wouldn't fill the computing needs of most people out there.

So far the only snag was having to install the Flash player from Adobe's site. A minor annoyance, but nothing that can't be easily done.

-- Doctor Rockhopper

HowTo - The Perfect CentOS 5 and Scalix 11.4.3 Email Server Install

2009-01-20T08:00:00.010-06:00

Introduction

This guide will show you how to install a Linux email server. After completion, you'll have the following capabilities:

Retrieve email from a remote POP account and deliver it to a local user
Access your email locally, through webmail or Outlook/Thunderbird
Access your email remotely, through webmail, while on the road (if you choose to)

The environment that this server will integrate into is as follows:

Website hosted by an outside service
POP email accounts hosted by the same outside service
High-speed Internet connection
An Internet router/firewall device

CentOS 5 Linux distribution
Scalix Collaboration Suite - Community Edition

I've chosen this configuration for two reasons. One, they are both available free of charge. Second, they can both be upgraded to a paid-for version for the purpose of support.

CentOS is a clone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Upgrading from CentOS to RHEL is rather smooth, and would be done for the purpose of having paid support. Scalix offers the Community Edition free of charge. You'll have unlimited webmail users, and 10 premium users (that is, 10 users able to connect to Scalix with Outlook). They also have a paid-for network edition. Upgrading is smooth as well.

So you can start off by not shelling out one dime to get a working setup for testing and deployment. And, you can upgrade to paid-for support at any time. Now that's sweet!!

I'll also mention that Scalix is a Xandros company. Xandros produces Linux. (Xandros is based on Debian. I prefer Debian over Red Hat. Well, at least I prefer apt over yum, and Synaptic over YumEx, but that's grounds for a flame war!) That would lead me to believe that Xandros would be better than CentOS for installing Scalix. And that may be. But CentOS has proven to be a reliable distro to run Scalix. CentOS is directly based on RHEL. Right now, I have a server in place that hasn't been rebooting in over 260 days. Feel free to draw your own conclusion.

What You'll Need

Scalix recommends a RAID 1+0 configuration, as it is heavy on the disk I/O. I use RAID 1. I gain redundancy, but I loose speed because I'm not using RAID 0. The only loss of speed is with the webmail interface. If a user has hundreds of emails in one folder, accessing them could be a bit of a pain. But if things are kept fairly tidy, you won't notice a thing. Outlook connects fine. So does Thunderbird through IMAP. Also, my entire first disk is mirrored to the second disk, including swap. This way, if one disk completely dies, I'm still up and running.

A late model computer (somewhere in the 2+ Gigahertz range)
At least 1 Gigabyte of RAM
2 identical hard drives (for a RAID 1 setup, more for RAID 1+0)
CentOS installation media, downloadable from here

The exact partitioning scheme is up to you. I cannot cover that here. I'm going to use the default partition scheme the CentOS installer uses. So, let's get going!

Installing CentOS

Insert installation media in the CD/DVD drive and boot the computer. Press 'Enter' to boot the system

Click on Edit under Network Devices.
Click on Manual configuration under Enable IPv4 support
Enter your IP address (192.168.1.2)
Enter your Netmask (255.255.255.0)
Uncheck IPv6 support.
Click OK
Enter server.local.zzz in the hostname area (next to manually)
Enter your Gateway address (probably 192.168.1.1)
Enter your Primary DNS server (probably 192.168.1.1)

su - root
Enter your root password
yum upgrade -y

If the kernel got updated, you'll need to reboot. If not, just continue.

Install DNS

Now that the updates are done (however long that took), it's time to install the DNS server that Scalix needs. In the same terminal window (login in as root), do

yum install -y bind caching-nameserver

Now, we need to do some configuring. Modify the following configuration files, using your favorite text editor.

/etc/hosts -- Edit this file

# Do not remove the following line, or various programs
# that require network functionality will fail.
127.0.0.1       localhost.localdomain   localhost
192.168.1.2     server.local.zzz server

The last line should use your IP address, and your FQDN and hostname.

/etc/resolv.conf -- Edit this file

search local.zzz
nameserver 192.168.1.2

/etc/named.conf -- Create this file

include "/etc/rndc.key";
zone "local.zzz" {
type master;
file "/etc/named.zzz.fwd";
allow-update { key "rndckey"; };
notify yes;
};

zone "1.168.192.in-addr.arpa" {
type master;
file "/etc/named.zzz.rev";
allow-update { key "rndckey"; };
notify yes;
};

options {
forwarders { 192.168.1.1; } ;
};

/etc/named.zzz.fwd -- Create this file

$TTL 14400;
@       14400   IN      SOA     server.local.zzz.        root@local.zzz. (
2009011501      ; Serial in YYYYMMDDXX - tab indented
28800           ; Refresh
3600            ; Retry
604800          ; Expire
14400           ; Default TTL
)

@     IN     NS          server.local.zzz.    ; 
@     IN     A           192.168.1.2
@     IN     MX   10     server.local.zzz.

server                  IN      A       192.168.1.2
scalix-default-mail     IN      A       192.168.1.2

/etc/named.zzz.rev -- Create this file

$TTL 14400;
@       IN      SOA     server.local.zzz.        root.local.zzz. (
2009011501      ; Serial
28800           ; Refresh
3600            ; Retry
604800          ; Expire
38400           ; Default TTL
)

IN     NS             server.local.zzz.   ; tab intented

2     IN     PTR     server.local.zzz.    ;  
2     IN     PTR     scalix-default-mail.local.zzz.

And, now for security, in a terminal as root, enter

chmod 640 /etc/named.zzz*
chmod 644 /etc/named.conf

And let's start everything up

service named start
chkconfig --level 2345 named on

Install Scalix

Now, it's on to install Scalix. First, we need to install a few packages before we do that. Once again, in a terminal, as root, enter:

yum install -y tk cyrus-sasl-md5 cyrus-sasl-plain sendmail-cf postgresql-server postgresql-libs mx compat-libstdc++-296

We're ready to install Scalix. In your terminal window, go to the location where you downloaded Scalix. If you used Firefox, it should be on the desktop of the user you created during the install (assuming you haven't changed anything). As root, enter:

cd /home/user/Desktop
chmod 755 scalix-11.4.3-GA-community-rhel5-intel.bin (or whatever the download name is)
./scalix-11.4.3-GA-community-rhel5-intel.bin

Now, read through the license and choose whether or not to agree to it.

The archive gets extracted, and you're presented with a readme. Read through it, and when asked if ou want to run the package that was extrated, say yes. The file executed it is ~/Desktop/scalix-11.4.3-GA/scalix-installer.

Here's the Welcome screen to the installer. Not much to do here except cancel, or go forward.

You now have two options. Install all Scalix components, or only some of them. Click forward to install ALL components.

After a short while (and a change in my screen resolution), the installer will now search for available packages to install. You should have green checkmarks next to 13 components. Click Forward.

The installer will now verify the installation environment. All should be well. Click on forward.

Everything is installed. Now it's time to configure.

Mailnode name - You can leave it as the default, which should be your hostname.

Default Address Format - Add your domain name here. local.zzz. You can change the default display if you like.

Create Admin User - sxadmin is the default administrator for the email system. Enter a password. After this, it will take a few minutes to create the message store

License Activation - Only required if you purchased Scalix. Just click Forward. A warning will pop up telling you the license key was not entered correctly. Just click OK.

Third Party Components. Click Forward to install Java

Java Runtime Configuration - Accept the defaults my clicking Forward.

Secure Communication - This is the password needed for Scalix components to talk to each other. Enter a password, and click Forward

Messaging Services (Database) - Enter a password for the PostgreSQL database.

Congratulations!! You've finished the install. Click OK to close the installer, and to open your web browser and go to the admin console.

In case this browser fails to open (as it has done to me in the past) open your browser and go to http://server/sac. You'll probably have to allow pop-ups, and refresh the page. Use the sxadmin username and the proper password. You'll also have to click on the "Not using a secure https connection" box. You can add and manage your system here.

Webmail can be accessed by pointing your browswer to http://server/webmail. Again, after you login, a popup window will apear with the webmail interface.

If you use Outlook, you'll have to download and install the connector on each Windows machine.

Getting Your Email

After configuring Scalix with a user (consult Scalix docs)Now we need a way for your email to get downloaded from your POP3 server into your Scalix server. Here's how

/home/user/.fetchmailrc -- Create this file

poll pop.example.com proto pop3
user sales@example.com there with password secretpassword is user sales@example.com here

Remeber to replace "user" with a real username. One username can download all emails for all people. Just add entries to .fetchmailrc for each user, one user per line.

/var/spool/cron/user -- Create this file

*/5 * * * * fetchmail -a

This cron file will check for new email every 5 minutes.

Backups

Backing up the server is easy. Here's a little script I use to back things up with:

scalix-backup -- create this file and give it execution permissions

#!/bin/bash

dest=/media/disk/
tmpath=/files/

if [ `date +%a` = "Sun" ] ; then

file=scalix-week-`date +%V`.tar
else

file=scalix-`date +%u-%a`.tar

fi

/opt/scalix/bin/omshut

tar cfP $tmpath$file /var/opt/scalix/*
tar rfP $tmpath$file /opt/scalix
tar rfP $tmpath$file /opt/scalix-chardet
tar rfP $tmpath$file /opt/scalix-libical
tar rfP $tmpath$file /opt/scalix-postgres
tar rfP $tmpath$file /opt/scalix-tomcat

/opt/scalix/bin/omrc

bzip2 -9 $tmpath$file
rm $dest$file.bz2
cp $tmpath$file.bz2 $dest$file.bz2
rm $tmpath$file.bz2

I create the tar file on an internal disk, compress it, and then move the file to the backup device. I do this for speed. The compression takes a really long time on a USB disk. In case you were wondering why.

Recovery

scalix-recover -- Create this file and give it execution permissions

#!/bin/bash

/opt/scalix/bin/omshut
rm -R /var/opt/scalix /opt/scalix*

tar xvfjP scalix.tar.bz2
/opt/scalix/bin/omrc

Access Mail Remotely

There's a few things you'll need to access the Scalix webmail interface remotely.

Assuming you have a dynamic IP address, you'll need

A DynDNS account (or similar)
A router that can be programmed with DynDNS information
To program the router to forward TCP port 80 to the Scalix server
To open port 80 in the firewall (if any) on the Scalix server

Here's the URL to access the Scalix webmail -- http://server/webmail. If you are not hosting a website on the email server, you could setup an http redirect, by creating the following file

/var/www/html/index.html -- Create this file

<html>
<head>
<meta equiv="refresh" content="XXX; URL=http://xx.yy.zzz/webmail">
</html>
</head>

XXX = the number of seconds before the page is redirected. xx.yy.zzz is the hostname you configured with DynDNS.

That's it! Enjoy your Scalix 11.4.3 installation on CentOS 5!

Gentoo 2008.0 - Desktop Review

2009-01-20T06:23:00.009-06:00

I used Gentoo sometime back in 2005. I really liked the concept behind Gentoo. That is, being able to compile software for the specific processor it will run on. Each new CPU type adds new functionality. Unfortunately, in order to maintain the most compatibility, most operating systems and software do not take full advantage of newer CPU's, as they're built to the least common denominator - the Intel 386 processor.

Considering that the i386 architecture is, as of this writing, about 24 years old, as noted in the Wikipedia, it's safe to assume it's rather outdated. Yes, you'll get to enjoy 3,000+ megahertz of power with a new CPU (as compared to the 16 megahertz the 386 ran at). But there's new instruction sets present on current chips that didn't exist in 1985. That functionality is underused.

Gentoo allows you to exploit every ounce of power your CPU can give you. The drawback is you have to compile the system yourself. That sounds very tedious, and something that wouldn't interest most people. However, Gentoo has a mechanism to download source code, compile it, and install as easily as installing software on any other Linux distribution.

Source-based distributions are not for the faint of heart. I would advise someone new to Linux or UNIX to avoid source based distros. Unless you use CPU intensive apps, or you're up for a challenge, I'd look elsewhere. Even with *nix experience, Gentoo can be a bit of a challenge. I found it more tedious than anything. My first round with Gentoo occurred before I even had a distro chosen for my desktop. Although I did have 5 years of administering 2 HP-UX boxes, part-time, under my belt.

Gentoo Basics

Gentoo is a rolling update distribution. This means there are no versions. Updates to packages are pushed to the online repository, which can be downloaded and compiled at any time. Once enough changes have been made, a new ISO image is generated. In theory, one could install a system with a 5 year old CD, update the system, and you'll have the same system as installing from last year's CD and doing the same updates. The only differences would be anything related to the installer.

Even though Gentoo is a source-based distro, you do have the option of installing pre-compiled binaries. However, after going through the steps to install Gentoo, I'm not sure why someone would not want to compile for their CPU.

Booting

Let's get started! I used the install-x86-minimal-2008.0.iso CD image to do the install. I fired up the computer and was greeted by an extremely plain looking screen. Here, I could list different kernels to boot, among other options. I'll just press enter and let it boot. Note: If ever you have to enter kernel parameters, this is where you do it.

Installation

At this point one would be scratching their head. Your computer boots up into a text console. There's no installer that you can find. In fact, one doesn't exist. How are you supposed to install Gentoo? The answer is . . . brace yourself . . . . MANUALLY! Well, not completely manually. Many things have been done for you already (from the perspective of building a system from scratch, not that it's going to make you feel any better).

There's no way for you to install Gentoo with the guide. So here it is. The documentation is pretty good, considering what you'll be doing. And the Gentoo forums are by far the best I've seen, so feel free to ask for help there. So here's the short list as to what you'll be doing:

Test that the network is functioning (vital for the "minimal install cd" I've chosen to use)
Partition and format your disk
Mount your partitions
Download and unpack the "stage3 tarball"
Download and unpack Portage
Chroot into your new system
Update portage
Configure timezone, and build options
Install kernel sources and other software
Build your kernel from scratch (much easier than it sounds)
Install a boot loader
Reboot your new Gentoo system
Install graphical interface and software (This is the time consuming part)

So, I had some problems compiling the kernel. But, I'm running Gentoo inside of VMWare server 1.05 (old, I know). Probably just some driver I didn't select in the kernel tree. Luckily, I also created a kernel with Genkernel. That worked perfectly, and I'm greeted with a login prompt.

Working Install

This is extremely bare bones. So, we'll need to install some software in order to really review anything (for a desktop review, that is). I'm going to install KDE.

For what it's worth, here's my USE= line of my make.conf file

/etc/make.conf

USE="-gtk -gnome qt3 qt4 kde dvd alsa cdr opengl X"

Let's go with the full-blown KDE desktop. The package kde-meta is what I'm going to install. There's also the kdebase-startkde (minimal) and kdebase-meta (somewhere in between).

emerge -p kde-meta | less reveals that there's around 380 packages to install. I'm under no delusion. This is going to take hours. I'm running Gentoo inside of VMware 1.05, giving Gentoo 512 megs of RAM (I'd give it more RAM, but this is a server in production). The host system is a P4 3.0 GHz HT box (that's configured as 2 - 1.5 GHz CPU's, not 1 3 GHz), with 3 Gigs of RAM, and 3 Gigs of swap. Only 16% of the memory is in use by programs, and 77% is in use by cache. Only 168 Megs of swap is being used. Load average varies from .88 - 1.15. ie, this server has virtually no load.

time ( emerge kde-meta xorg-xserver-x11 xf86-input-mouse ) will let us see how long this will take. Since I may be sleeping when this finishes, I'd like to know how long it took so I can let you know. OK, it's off to the races.

Sysload on the host box is fluctuating between 3 and 5. CPU is up to 50% (maxing out one core). Memory hasn't really changed. Time to do something other than watch this thing download, compile, install, repeat 379 times. Especially when it's Xorg andKDE!

It's finished. Here's the time output:

real - 1856m
user - 787m
sys 1022m

That's about 31 hours to a KDE desktop. Granted, I did have a few things going on the server, so real time on bare metal might be a little faster. Let's take a look at what a day of compiling gets us.

Internet SoftwareFirefox is not installed by default. Makes sense, as it's certainly not part of KDE. Konqueror is installed, and serves not only as a file browser, but also as a web browser. I suppose that fills the full time browser. We'll want to add Firefox. And the Adobe Flash player
Home OfficeSame. Need to add Openoffice.orgMusicSame. Need to add Amarok and codecs

Photos

Same. Need to add Gimp, anddigiKam

Video

Same. Need to add Kaffeine, KMplayer or Mplayer, and codecs need to be installed too.Update

Our System

Surprise! We're already up to date, since we downloaded and compiled all current packages.

What to Add

So, here's my bullet list of programs that need to be added to bring Gentoo up to my personal standards. As always, your ideas may vary.

Firefox - Web Browser (mozilla-firefox)
Thunderbird - Email Reader (mozilla-thunderbird)
OpenOffice- Office suite (openoffice)
Amarok- Music Player (amarok)
Gimp - Photo Editing (gimp)
digiKam- Photo Library (digikam)
Kaffeine - Video Player - (kaffeine)
Scribus- Desktop publishing (scribus)
KMyMoney2 or Gnucash- Personal finance management (kmymoney2 or gnucash)
Additional video codecs (win32codecs)

So, I'll time ( emerge mozilla-firefox mozilla-thunderbird openoffice gimp digikam amarok kaffeine scribus kmymoney2 win32codecs) to install the goodies I want. And it took another 6 hours.

Final Review

This is going to be simple review.

Gentoo is bad if you're just a casual user looking for a Linux desktop to use, have little knowledge (or desire) to learn a few command line tools, and don't have a fair understanding of computer hardware.

Gentoo is great if you're looking for speed, or a flexible package manager. It'll take some time to tweak things. But when things are tweaked and optimized, Gentoo will rock.

Seems I need to carve out a little free time to write a Gentoo How-To.

-- Doctor Rockhopper