Tales from a Linux User

New Desktop

2010-09-27T20:41:00.003-05:00

here is new screenshot of my current Arch Linux desktop.

Update Computer Stats

2010-05-20T23:39:00.003-05:00

Motherboard: ECS GeForce6100SM-M2

Processor: AMD Sempron 3000+ (overclocked from 1,601Mhz to 2,006Mhz)

RAM: OCZ 2x1GB DDR2 800Mhz

HDD: Maxtor 6B200P0 (ARCH LINUX/IDE/189.9 GB)

- /dev/sda1: /boot (ext2 - 101MB)

-/dev/sda2: linux-swap (1.95GB)

-/dev/sda3: / (ext4 - 12.21GB)

-/dev/sda4: /home (ext4 - 175.65GB)

HDD2: Maxtor 92041U4 (WINDOWS XP SP3/IDE/19.08GB)

CD/DVD Drives:

- /dev/sdb1: ASUS DRW-2014L1T (CD RW+Lightscribe/ DVD -/+RW DL SATA)

Video: Jaton Corporation Nvidia GeForce 8400 GS (PCI-E 16x, 512MB DDR2-400Mhz)

LAN: On-Board Nvidia MCP61 Ethernet

Sound: On-Board Nvidia MCP61 High Def Audio (RealTek ALC662)

Keyboard & Mouse: Logitech Wireless S510

PSU: 400 WATT PowerMax

Case: Generic with Side Window (5x 3.5 drive bays, 4x 5.25 drive bays,1x 3.5" Floppy drive bay)

I am also on Youtube

2009-08-02T19:36:00.003-05:00

so give it a whirl... i have a lot of subscriptions and a lot of Favourite Videos. a lot of what I have on youtube is Music Videos and Game Reviews.

My Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/xaer0knight

That Guy with The Glasses.com Free For All.

2009-07-30T13:40:00.002-05:00

Fun Fun, Angry video game nerd, nostalgia critic, little miss gamer, spoony one, linkara, nostalgia chick, etc. pretty much 20+ reviewers from www.thatguywiththeglasses.com

My current LXDE Desktop

2009-07-23T20:03:00.002-05:00

My current Fedora 11 LXDE Layout :)

LXDE Environment

2009-07-16T22:34:00.001-05:00

A list of Features from Fedora 11 LXDE's wiki :

* PCManFM: File manager, provides desktop icons
* LXPanel: Feature-rich desktop panel
* LXSession Lite: Standard-compliant X11 session manager with shutdown/reboot/suspend support via HAL and gdm
* LXAppearance: LXAppearance is a new feature-rich GTK+ theme switcher able to change GTK+ themes, icon themes, and fonts used by applications
* LXTask: Lightweight task manager derived from xfce4 task manager with all xfce4 dependencies removed, some bugs fixed, and some improvements of the UI
* LXTerminal: Desktop-independent VTE-based terminal emulator
* LXLauncher: Open source replacement for the Asus Launcher on the EeePC
* LXNM (still under development): Lightweight network manager for LXDE supporting wireless connections
* LXRandR (still under development): Monitor configuring tool.
* Openbox: Lightweight, standard-compliant, and highly-configurable window manager. This can be replaced by any other window manager like icewm, fluxbox, metacity, ...etc.
* GPicView: A very simple, fast, and lightweight image viewer featuring immediate startup
* Leafpad: Lightweight and simple text editor
* XArchiver: Lightweight, fast, and desktop-independent gtk+-based file archiver

Official Site : http://www.lxde.org/

after reading about XFCE vs LXDE discussions, it seems that LXDE can save from 15-50MBs in your RAM usage. Can run any Gtk and QT application but you must have Gnome and/or KDE installed. You should have no problem finding it in your Distribution's repository and if all else fails you could install from source. I also found that LXDE has a lot, for less than a 10 MB install in most distributions (my Fedora 11 install was less 3 MBs)

I have to give them a plus for using OpenBox and Leafpad. Leafpad is the most lightweight Graphical Text Manager I can think of. OpenBox is a nice addition but lacks some easy configuration tools that XFCE has. PCManFC is an excellent File Manager and takes a little to get used to but as many features of Thunar. I would seriously give LXDE a whirl. I'm currently going to try to go 7 days with it. Myself, I'm usually a XFCE boy and used GNOME occasionally. I tend to flip flop between Windows Managers.

Many Blessings
Jason Hicks

Kenosha Linux User Group : Next Meetup

2009-07-13T00:35:00.000-05:00

Kenosha Linux User Group will have a meeting on July 25th @ 2-4:30pm
at Kenosha Library Southwest in there Meeting Room. The topic will
be Advanced Terminal Commands.

Location: 7979 38th Avenue, Kenosha, WI 53142

Chip Millholland will be going over some commands in the terminal as well as teaching how to make "alias" for common commands. Chip has been a Linux user since Fedora Core 1 and is very knowledgeable. Any other wish to contribute can contact us here.

Drinks and Snacks are allowed in the conference room. Feel free to
bring you laptops or desktops. Wi-Fi is available but you must have a
Kenosha Public Library Card and a pin number.

Instant Messaging

2009-07-10T13:33:00.002-05:00

for the sake of Instant Messaging... I'm xaer0knight on AIM/Skype, wood_elves with Yahoo IM.

Meeting: June 20th @ Kenosha Northside Library

2009-06-17T17:38:00.001-05:00

Kenosha Linux User Group will have a meeting on June 20th @ 2-4:30pm at
Kenosha Library North in there Meeting Room. The topic will
be Web Browsers. The timetable is a general/floating time line.

Location: Kenosha North side Library, 1500 27th Avenue, Kenosha, WI

2:00-2:30: Greets and Meets, Introductions.
2:30-4:00: Discussion about Web Browsers (also Richard will be showing of elinks)
4:00-4:30: General Questions, Suggestions.

I will be going over the XFCE Browser (Midori) and comparing system resources between Opera, Firefox, and Midori while using JAVA in Facebook and FLASH via Youtube. Any other who wish to discuss extensions, plug-ins, add-on, and themes fell free to contact me and I will work you into the meeting :)

Drinks and Snacks are allowed in the conference room. Feel free to
bring you laptops or desktops. Wi-Fi is available but you must have a Kenosha Public Library Card and a pin number.

++
Jason Hicks
"Event Coordinator"

XFCE 4 theme

2009-05-31T19:38:00.002-05:00

Playing around with XFCE settings. love my new theme i picked up on www.customize.org ALSO Fedora 11 has been delayed for the second time now :(

Youtube used to be my favorite site :(

2009-04-19T13:39:00.001-05:00

I've had an account for about 4 yrs now and its really starting to bother me off all the suspended and account closers :(

System Updates

2009-03-06T11:42:00.003-06:00

Nvidia, Memory, CPU, and Kernel Information with Htop.Virtual Box's Virtual Machines

Right now, I've installed GNOME 2.24.3 for Fedora 10 because KDE4.2 even tho I have enjoyed it, I need a better proccessor. I would like to install a AMD Athlon 64x2 Dual Core and the Max CPU would be a 6000+ at 3.1 GHz.

Thanks to the nice 2GBs of RAM, I can distro-hop using my Virtual Box. As you can tell, I been trying out light-weight Slackware Distros :) As of right now, Wolvix but its based on Slackware 11 which is about 4 releases behind.

I've enabled Compiz, Emerald, and Avant Windows Navigator and just a little lag but not to bad. Emerald's theme is CleanNSimpL and AWN theme is Sunflower.

Next Kenosha LUG Meetup: Feb 21st

2009-02-18T11:46:00.000-06:00

Taken from our Google Mailing List:
" Hey all,

Looks like the next meeting will be February 21st, at my apartment. 6pm - 9pm.

4134 Washington Road Apt 206
Kenosha, WI 53144
(when you find the apartment building, park across from the building - adjacent spots are for residents.)

We need to start having topics/an agenda for meetings. Any suggestions for this one? I'll likely show off my MythTV box to those who are interested, but have no plans other than that.

Feel free to bring snacks, drinks, etc. to the meeting.

--
-Jameson
Omnipresent Garage Banjo"

New Parts

2009-02-18T11:19:00.003-06:00

I recently invested in a Jaton GeForce 8400GS 256MB DDR2 PCIe x16. Awesome video card that was about 25 bucks open box on www.newegg.com. The problem is, my motherboard only does PCIe x8 even thou the MB and manual state x16. Thank god for backwards compatibility. The card also requires a 450W PSU but my 400W works good with it. Came with all the cable for out to devices, so experimenting with Nvidia's Twin View to out 21" TV. Flash video's from fancast, hulu, youtube, etc look freaking sweet. - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814139018R

Got myself a 2x1GB DDR2 800Mhz (PC6400) Kit by OCZ from newegg.com as well. The price of RAM just made me go "whoa!" at about 24.99. - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227124

I had to sacrifice some OverClocking speed from my Semperon 3000+ 1.6GHz because of the RAM and Video card. Instead of a CPU Multiplier of 300 for a 2.4GHz had to settle for a Multiplier of 263 for a 2.1GHz. Still a nice gain and with 2 80mm Fans (back), an 80mm (front), a Video Card Fan, and a nice CPU fan... Still runs about 40C for Case, 48C for the Nvidia, and 55C for the CPU. Nice if you ask me :) Also, took my PCIe from 100Mhz to 150Mhz as well.

Hrm, Compiz + Emerald works with out a hitch. The problem is trying to narrow it down to KDE 4.2 with its system settings manager and more complex customization features. Or do I stay with Gnome 2.24 with its simplicity.

The KDE widgets/plasmanoids are nice to have so I can post to twitter, gmail notifications, and folder view.

Foresight Linux

2009-01-15T19:23:00.004-06:00

I have to say, I'm really pleased with Foresight Linux thus far. FL uses the Conary Package Manager. Conary can be hard to learn but there are many benefits you can gain from it. Foresight is ran by rPath Linux which is based out of North Carolina (Go Mid-Atlantic!)

+ Only downloads what it needs, it doesn't have to uninstall, then download, and then install. Just downloads what it needs for the update. Which makes for faster updates.
+ Say you download a package from a server, not a server you use all the time, Conary will also search that server for updates :)
+ It can do roll backs.

The most useful function is when it update a package not listed in your repositories. also using things like Troves which is like a version number. Grant it, Learn how to packages from a server is quite confusing at first but it goes something like this:

rBuilder will display every label the package is available on, including Foresight 1.x, Foresight 2, and Foresight's two testing branches (fl:2-devel and fl:2-qa)
Packages available in fl:2 are available for installation using Conary or PackageKit on your Foresight computer
If the package shows available in fl:2-devel or fl:2-qa you can install it, but you are installing beta software.
To install you will have to use Conary in the command line. To install, in a terminal type:

 Ya, not easy to explain. so lets try this: http://www.rpath.org/repos/foresight/troveInfo?t=xchat 
It works like this "package=shadowed from (minus everything past the /)" that you got off the
link above. So you get this: 

CODE:
sudo conary update xchat=contrib.rpath.org@rpl:2

That's the best way i can explain it. Other than that, not much different. One thing not corrected
is that you can go full screen with flash in Firefox or Opera.

Linux Windows Emulator (WINE) testing

2009-01-03T22:57:00.011-06:00

All testing done in Fedora 10 GNOME with WINE 1.0.6 (Windows Emulator)... No hiccups yet. The PSOne and N64 emulators need work, thats a Windows problem, and not a Linux problem. Quake 3 Arena plays online Flawlessly at the highest settings @ 1024x768 Fullscreen. Return to Castle Wolfenstein plays 100% at full screen at highest settings. Quake 2 doesn't even touch the system resources :) Plus all the sound works!

BoycottAdvance (Gameboy Advanced Emulator)

Magic PCEngine (Turbografx-16 Emulator)Project64 (Nintendo 64 Emulator)ePSXe 1.7 (Playstation 1 emulator)Quake 2Quake 3 Arena

Return to Castle Wolfenstein

Current Fedora Desktop

2008-12-21T00:38:00.000-06:00

Just a few screens of my current desktop. I'm currently using Clearlooks-Compact2 as a GTK2 Theme and Compiz. Also, found this awesome article on how to get the most "space" in GNOME. I got it here http://tuxtraining.com/2008/12/20/how-to-best-utilize-screen-real-estate-in-gnome and everything worked :)

Computer Stats Update

2008-12-16T13:55:00.001-06:00

My Distro-Hopping has stopped at:

HDD: Maxtor 6B200P0 (IDE/189.9 GB)
- /dev/sda1: 142.87 GB ext3 HOME/Backup
- /dev/sda2: 21.41 GB ext3 Omega 10 (Fedora 10 Remix) (GNOME / RPM Based)
- /dev/sda4: 21.63 GB XFS Zenwalk 5.2 (Enligthenment 17, XFCE, GNOME, KDE / Slackware Based)
+Extended (1 GB)
- /dev/sda6: 1 GB Swap

Fedora 10 = Success

2008-12-13T12:21:00.000-06:00

i must say that i'm very satisfied... i ditched the Fedora 10 KDE4 for GNOME. I tripped over a Fedora 10 remix called Omega 10. Omega 10 comes with DVD, MP3, and Codec support out of the box along with a few extra video playback program. It also has preinstalled extra repositories (rpmfusion) so added Nvidia and other "non-free" software was easy as cutting pie :) KDE4 just eats memory and flashy eyecandy....

other than that.. i just have Omega 10 and Zenwalk 5.2 as my distos. Slackware will always have a home on my desktop.

Day 1 with Fedora 10 KDE4

2008-12-03T11:35:00.000-06:00

The goal is trying to use all the programs and things I do in Mint work here. Samba shares, NTFS, DeVeDe, K3B, Firefox, Picasa, Krusader, SMPlayer, etc. Keep in mind that I haven't been a fan of KDE in any version. I did try Fedora 9 KDE4 and PC-BSD 7.0 KDE4, those were the beginnings of KDE4 and should of never been released as finished. At best those versions should of been Beta or a RC1. I've been distro hopping as of late, so why not try Fedora 10 because the reviews have been so positive. For a general list of packages included with CD: http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=fedora

Day One: Installations, Nvidia Drivers, Getting used to KDE4. Okay off the bat, K3B in Linux Mint failed a burn at 4x (what?). 2nd shot at Automatic speed worked.. weird. Using the Fedora 10 KDE4 LiveCD. Installation as really easy, just as friendly as other popular distros (*buntu, SUSE, Mandriva). Just the generic blah blah of all distros. Hardware Detection found everything but my On-Board Nvidia Card... i kinda expected that. A lot of distros try to use all the free drivers and Nvidia/ATi aren't free. They tant your Kernel.

Off the bat KDE4, like Vista, uses what i call a Kickoff menu style. If your a Gnome, XFCE, or even Enlightenment, it will take while to get used to it. Click on the Fedora icon and get a menu with tabs, in each tab has a menu. In that menu, has a list as well and a list.. so like this.. Fedora Icon -> Application Tab -> Click Utilities -> Pick the program. Okay, i found myself stuck.. Well there is arrow to the left that it like a Back Button. I'm trying to get used to this. But if you hate it like I do. You can right click the Menu Button and switch it to Classic Menu Style.

This is always the pain in the ass part, just like with Fedora 8 and 9. Hardly used Konqueror as my Browser, so lets use it. Off to www.fedoraproject.org after about 20 mins of searching and getting nothing but Fedora 9 help. Hello 10 was just released!! So, off to www.google.com and what do ya know, off the bat found http://rpmfusion.org/FAQ. Followed that completely and after 30 mins, Nvidia Drivers. Okay no 3d effects but that is okay. Also used RPMfusion to add all non-free video codecs

Konqueror is the default Internet Browser and the only one... I didn't like that. So, off to get Firefox 3. Menu -> Applications -> System -> Software Management. Started Kpackageget... searched for Firefox 3 then added my add-ons to Firefox and bam that easy.

Simple Filemanager: Dolphin (not as indept as Konqueror or Krusader) is nice and polished looking. Does the job.

So, a 3rd way there. and just as fast as Mint XFCE with Compiz and Emerald.

Day 2: deeper explanations of KDE4 interface (Plasmanoids, settings, and of course Desktop Icons). Everyone biggest problems were trying to get desktop icons.. so i dive into it. I may take pics as well.

Kenosha Linux User Group

2008-12-02T11:13:00.000-06:00

Posted on http://www.kenoshalinux.org/

" hello everyone,
i'm looking forward to meeting with all of you at some point. i'm
posting this to find out if any of you would like to go out for some
coffee or meal. Currently, I work for Kenosha Unified School District
but my schedule isn't set in stone because I'm a substitute. My
availability for the job has to be 2:45p-12a M-F and a sporadic
weekday off . Weekends seems to be the most open for me.

Anyone interested can contact me here or at these sites below
Blogspot (http://xaer0knight.blogspot.com/).
Myspace (http://www.myspace.com/xaer0knight)
Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1614432437)

Many Blessings
Happy Winter Holidays
Jason "

#!CrunchBang Linux: Flash! Bang! Wallop! What A Distro!

2008-11-30T13:31:00.001-06:00

and i would agree: http://reddevil62-techhead.blogspot.com/2008/11/crunchbang-linux-flash-bang-wallop-what.ht ml
everything Red Devil's Post says is 100% accurate. Ive been waiting to see a Distro that used OpenBox and Ubuntu/Debian Repositories. I'm not disappointed with CrunchBang. Fast as hell, low resource use, and 100% Ubuntu 8.10 compatible. SCORE!

I even removed my MEPIS Partition to install it... because MEPIS repositories and Debian Lenny repositories are always unresolved :( I need a distro that can stay current and MEPIS just wasn't doing it for me.

Sabayon and Gentoo

2008-11-28T11:17:00.000-06:00

I have experimented with a Gentoo Based linux distribution and that was Sabayon Linux 3.5 POD.
I have had heard that Gentoo is very stable but takes a long time to install, update, or upgrade. The idea of Gentoo is having a very stable machine and making every package custom tailored to your machines. For instance, you want to install Firefox.. you have to download the package and then it have to compile it. Compiling takes a long time because it being built from source and being made specifically for your system.

Well, took me over 2 hr using there Spritz Package Manager to update my system. But, before that I have had Spritz crash twice and had to bird-dog the internet to find a way to UPGRADE Spritz before continuing, that took about 4 hrs of head aches. 170+ packages to download, compile, and building for my machine. Also, Sabayon Linux have like 3 different package management... what the heck. Emerge (command prompt) , Equo (command prompt), and Spritz (GUI) why?

You shouldn't need 20 mins to install and 15 mins to download Open Office on a 768Kbps DSL line. I shouldn't have to pick between 3 package managers. After the updates, upgrades, and installations of my favorite programs, the performance was hardly visible by me. Yes, slightly faster but not enof for me to make it my main Linux.

Well, If I want Stability, I stick with Slackware-based Distros. Like Zenwalk, Puppy, or GoblinX.
If I want Bleeding Edge, I'll go with Fedora or SUSE. But for the best of both worlds I'll stick with Linux Mint 5 XFCE CE. Gentoo in the last few years has lost a lot of its Developers and I can see why they fight. Stability over Easiness or Snappiness over Stability. So, at this point Sabayon is partitioned off my hard drive.

On another note for you Debian/Ubuntu users, SimplyMEPIS shouldn't be overlooked. KDE 3.5 is growing on me.

Computer Pics

2008-11-24T12:37:00.000-06:00

Just some screen shots of my current Linux Desktops, DosBox 0.72, and VirtualBox Machines.

View Album

Get your own

My Current Box:

From Tower Pics

Current Computer Stats

2008-11-23T14:32:00.000-06:00

Currently Running:

Motherboard: ECS GeForce6100SM-M2
Processor: AMD Sempron 3000+ (overclocked from 1601Mhz to 2403Mhz)
RAM: Super Talent 1x1GB DDR2 800Mhz
HDD: Maxtor 6B200P0 (IDE/189.9 GB)
- /dev/sda1: 128.19 GB ext3 HOME/Backup
- /dev/sda2: 10.00 GB ext3 SimplyMepis 7.0 (KDE 3.9/Debian Based)
- /dev/sda4: 21.63 GB XFS Zenwalk 5.2 (Enligthenment + XFCE/Slackware Based)
+Extended (30.11 GB)
- /dev/sda5: 14.55 GB ext3 Linux Mint 5 XFCE CE (using with Open Box/Ubuntu Based)
- /dev/sda6: 1 GB Swap
- /dev/sda7: 14.55 GB ext3 Sabayon Linux 3.5 POD (XFCE/Gentoo Based)
CD/DVD Drives:
- /dev/scd0: NEC DVD_RW ND-3550A (CD RW / DVD -/+RW DL IDE)
- /dev/scd1: ASUS DRW-2014L1T (CD RW+Lightscribe/ DVD -/+RW DL SATA)
Video: On-Board Nvidia 6100 nForce 405 (Shared 64MB RAM)
LAN: On-Board Nvidia MCP61 Ethernet
Sound: On-Board Nvidia MCP61 High Def Audio (RealTek ALC662)
Keyboard: Logitech Wireless S510
Mouse: Microsoft Wireless Intellimouse Explorer 2.0
PSU: 400 WATT PowMax
Case: Generic with Side Window (5x 3.5 drive bays 4x 5.25 drive bays)

Using Sun VirtualBox's Virtual Machines in Linux Mint
-OpenSUSE Gnome+Xfce 11.0
-Fedora Gnome 10 Preview
-Mandriva 2009.0 Gnome+Xfce One
-Windows XP + SP3