Time Unknown (Entries tagged as linux)

Warning for Liferea users upgrading to Ubuntu Intrepid (8.10)

nospam@example.com (Lynoure) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 13:27:00 +0200

Ungrading to Ubuntu Intrepid or rather to a newer Liferea than 8.04 has will wipe out your news bin contents, permanently putting all those interesting blog posts you have been gathering out of your reach. You can either not do it at all, or prepare yourself to declaring a news bin bankruptcy. If you are at all like me, this will feel like having to run the marathon naked... bad, difficult and like something is missing, but take my word on it, those news bins will be pretty full in a very short time again.

If you have backups, move only the .db file from backups to your updated .liferea_1.4 directory and your news bins should be restored to their former glory. Enjoy! (and thanks for #liferea people on this)

Kubuntu 8.10 Alternative and P5Q Pro network card

nospam@example.com (Lynoure) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 08:14:07 +0200

If you are installing Kubuntu 8.10 to a computer having a P5Q Pro (or possibly other type of P5Q) motherboard using the alternative install cd and the installer refuses to find the network card, there is no need to panic. Just install as you would normally, then do

sudo apt-get install linux-generic

which will install the ever so slightly newer version of the kernel. After a boot you'll have network normally.

MaraDNS goodness

nospam@example.com (Lynoure) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 09:08:49 +0300

If you use Bind as your DNS server, you have probably upgraded it already. If you use MaraDNS, you just didn't need to. How's that for goodness.

Stuck with two browsers

nospam@example.com (Lynoure) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:21:31 +0300

I'm currently using Konqueror and Firefox 3, mostly because Konqueror is not as tolerant about page quirks as FF and FF on the other hand is still somewhat hoggy. I'd like to change to just one of them for most of my uses, but kind of feel I'd be giving something up in the process. It might be I still like Konqueror better, for some reason. Hmm. Any hints to ease the transition?

Versalaser Linux driver not planned

nospam@example.com (Lynoure) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 18:52:02 +0300

According to the answer I got from Universal Laser Systems, the makers of Versalaser, they have no plans to release a Linux driver for the device and zero plans to ever release specs so that an open source driver could be developed.

There seems to be other Windows-only laser engravers/cutters out there, I wonder if some of them might be a bit more Linux friendly. I'd assume tech geeks to be a non-tiny potential market.

My next targets for inquiry are IEHK, Epilog and GCC. Feel free to point me to another companies too, or let me know if you know any to be Linux friendly.

One needy Fox

nospam@example.com (Lynoure) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 14:35:50 +0300

Powertop result with idling Firefox3:

Power usage (ACPI estimate): 22.1W (2.6 hours)

Without:

Power usage (ACPI estimate): 19.2W (2.9 hours)

That's one needy Fox!

Mobile hard drive recommendation

nospam@example.com (Lynoure) — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 19:33:18 +0200

If you want a mobile hard disk for backups or other purposes, WD Passport is a quite cool drive. Unlike many of the drives of this type, it only requires one usb slot from your computer, no external power source, and does not spin down automatically so it's a new filesystem away from being just perfect for Linux backups.

Confessions of a gamer

nospam@example.com (Lynoure) — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 13:08:15 +0200

Every time I get a new computer, I wish I did not like computer games so much. If I did not play PC games, I could skip having Microsoft Windows on the computer.

I don't like Microsoft Windows, but I do like the games and this puts me in an annoying Catch-22 situation. Outside gaming I'm an enthusiastic Linux person. I wish someone solved my troubles by making adventure games for Linux.

Make your own iPhone killer

nospam@example.com (Lynoure) — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 14:27:40 +0200

If you want to make your own Linux phone, with wifi and gps goodness, EM-X270, a screen and a pretty case might be a really good start. Even X270 on its own looks yummy. I cannot wait to see someone using it.

n+w is not nw

nospam@example.com (Lynoure) — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 15:28:47 +0200

When troubleshooting dhcp on a remote network with dhclient, do remember that while -n is usually used with -w, those two together is not -nw, which is something else altogether and can mess up the ip settings of the remote system you are testing on.

Hopefully this reminder saves someone from pointless suffering.

It's not just us geeks anymore

nospam@example.com (Lynoure) — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 10:36:53 +0200

Couple of days ago, when attending a networking event of Hyny I had an eye-opening experience. It's not just geeks anymore that know what Linux is. Every entrepreneur that I talked to, even ones in the fields of wellness and cleaning, knew what Linux is. Earlier I had been in the impression it has become more well known, but I had no idea Linux has become this well known.

Dappling in music on Linux?

nospam@example.com (Lynoure) — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 15:48:12 +0200

I would want to dapple in music but my efforts today were not very fruitful and resulted mostly in crashing applications and people telling me I need a real-time kernel. As the result I found myself pondering booting into Microsoft Windows in order to try that there. It was the first time for ages I wanted MS Win for something else than games. Certainty there must be something I can do on Linux to find out if I want to try dabbling in music more? Currently it feels Linux is less suited for making music than Commodore 64 was, and that cannot be, right?

Dear reader

nospam@example.com (Lynoure) — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 07:15:43 +0200

Do you have hardware that is not completely supported in Linux? Did it's manufacturer release its full specs? If the device is listed on Drivers needed page, the answer is a resounding "No". Contact them today and tell them that you will not continue to buy from them if they will not supply the specs. Then stick to that when it comes the time to buy new hardware.

This kind of consumer-provided pressure is essentially important for getting manufacturers release specs. Without specs driver development for Linux is difficult and slow work. If you care about Linux, let the manufacturers know.

Interesting games

nospam@example.com (Lynoure) — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 21:46:08 +0300

Today I found a site of annoyingly interesting games. What's annoying about them is that they are for Windows, not for Linux. I wonder if they could be ported... with his permission, of course.

Using Amarok as a podcatcher

nospam@example.com (Lynoure) — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 07:26:00 +0300

I found a way to use Amarok that fits my criteria for a usable podcatcher. Maybe someday I’ll maka a plugin that removes some of these steps, but here is what I do currently:

I only move podcasts to my portable player with Amarok. That way I can easily get them all to be under ‘podcasts’ directory without having to meddle with the path of each individual podcast.

1. Choose Transfer to Media player from the context menu of the episode.

2. Choose Mark to Listened from the context menu of the episode. Now you can tell which ones are in your transfer queue.

3. When done with your selections, attach your device, go to Devices tab and choose Transfer. For this method to work, you should transfer all of your queue.

4. Enjoy the podcasts on your device.

5. Next time when you work through your podcasts in order to choose the ones to Transfer to Media Player, choose Delete Downloaded Podcast from the context menu of those episodes the way you marked them in step 2. As you go through them in order, you can be sure that the ones below you have been transferred and that the ones above you are what you just marked for transfer.