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Topic: General Unix/Linux Thread (Read 183806 times)
  • Frenzie
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General Unix/Linux Thread
There is more to discuss, but opening a new topic for everything might be a bit much. Here's a quick overview of what exists already:



Some other subjects I might talk about include the compose key, Geeqie, Pandoc, qBittorrent, tmux, and VirtualBox. I semi-regularly write something about such matters on my blog.

Re: General Unix/Linux Thread

Reply #101 –
unarchive blabla.zip is a clear-cut command plus its target. It does not qualify as a human-language sentence.

It's like saying "Fetch!" to a dog. To you it may seem that the dog understands the word "fetch", but in reality the dog may be trained to do the same action to any combination of sounds.

Re: General Unix/Linux Thread

Reply #103 –
Quote from: Frenzie – on

Quote from: Barulheira – on
tar? http://xkcd.com/1168/

Yup. tar -x blabla.tar.gz doesn't work, I think, because you also need -f. Maybe. But try compressing some files. That's when the fun really starts. :P

Can't remember tar cvzf whatever.tar.gz blah/ ? Or tar cvjf ... if you want bz2 instead of gzip? :left: :right:

Re: General Unix/Linux Thread

Reply #104 –
There was a time when I mentioned the inflexible time format of Cinnamon screensaver https://dndsanctuary.eu/index.php?topic=68.msg3996#msg3996

Now there's this news at Mint Blog: Cinnamon Date and  Time improvements

Quote
The ability to switch between a 12 and 24 hour clock is back. Many of you requested it after Mint 16 was out. I was the one who thought it needed to go, and that translations could take care of that… and I was wrong :)

How can a programmer be mistaken about what a translation/localisation does in his program? And why ever remove a configuration option, seriously? Well, okay, he fixed it eventually. This particular detail ended well, luckily. Good job of fixing something back to how it was when it was perfect.

Re: General Unix/Linux Thread

Reply #105 –
Translations? Seriously? I use my system in American English, but that doesn't mean I want a clock that says AM and PM. Or that I use this currency known as the Dollar. Or for that matter, that I want all clocks to display time the same way.

Re: General Unix/Linux Thread

Reply #106 –
Quote from: Frenzie – on

I use my system in American English, but that doesn't mean I want a clock that says AM and PM.

I do the same thing. Also, american vs. metric units :right:

Re: General Unix/Linux Thread

Reply #107 –
Today Linux Mint released version 17, codenamed Qiana, based on Ubuntu Trusty. Highlights:

- Long Term Support
- Cinnamon 2.2 in the Cinnamon Edition
- Mate 1.8 in the Mate Edition

Cinnamon 2.2 highlights:

- Hot corners feature enhanced (off by default)
- Date and time settings more configurable (24 h clock finally also applies to the screensaver!)
- Advanced applet roles in systray icons

Mate 1.8 highlights:

- An implementation of tiling of windows (similar to Cinnamon and some Xfce configurations)
- Support for Metacity window manager
- Date and time in screensaver

Personally, I have found out that Long Term Support is not an entirely good thing in Linux world. Updating packages over a long period of time tends to gradually break things, and this is particularly true of Ubuntu, on which Mint is based. Then again, users who rarely install anything new, who simply use what's on their computer, for whom the concept of "updates" provides a sense of security and a warm sense of being cared for, definitely appreciate such releases. Enjoy!

Re: General Unix/Linux Thread

Reply #108 –
Quote from: Frenzie – on

Here's a quick overview of some text editors: http://netrunner-mag.com/war-best-text-editor-of-them-all/

I mostly use SciTE and Geany, myself.

This week I found a dark theme for Geany and this makes it my favourite now https://code.google.com/p/geany-dark-scheme/

In the terminal I am used to Nano. I have configured things so that Vi never pops up. Vi really gave me the creeps every time I ended up in it. Is there a distro that comes with Emacs rather than Vi?

In the graphical section I recently replaced Gedit with Medit. Looks like a good replacement, if one prefers Gedit over Geany. In Windows, Notepad++ was my favourite for over a decade.

Re: General Unix/Linux Thread

Reply #109 –
Quote from: ersi – on

In the terminal I am used to Nano. I have configured things so that Vi never pops up. Vi really gave me the creeps every time I ended up in it. Is there a distro that comes with Emacs rather than Vi?

I memorized the handful shortcuts I need for basic vi operation ages ago, so it doesn't really bother me that much. All I ever use it for is basic config work on fresh installations ( once in a blue moon ) before I can install something like joe ( which has a pico / nano mode IIRC ).
Emacs is probably too fat to put into the base system. At least that's more or less the reason we don't ship emacs in base - the code base is big enough as it is and emacs is much more of a maintenance headache than vi ( or rather nvi, since original 4BSD vi is pretty much dead ).

Quote from: ersi – on

In the graphical section I recently replaced Gedit with Medit.

Looks interesting.

Re: General Unix/Linux Thread

Reply #110 –
Quote from: Macallan – on

I memorized the handful shortcuts I need for basic vi operation ages ago, so it doesn't really bother me that much.

So did I. When I end up in it, I frantically hit z key or look for an opportunity to type :quit and :exit, whatever works to get out of it.

Quote from: Macallan – on

All I ever use it for is basic config work on fresh installations ( once in a blue moon ) before I can install something like joe ( which has a pico / nano mode IIRC ).
Emacs is probably too fat to put into the base system. At least that's more or less the reason we don't ship emacs in base - the code base is big enough as it is and emacs is much more of a maintenance headache than vi ( or rather nvi, since original 4BSD vi is pretty much dead ).

What is "basic config work on fresh installations"? Is it similar to following Linux From Scratch website where you set kernel parameters etc. before installing the rest of the OS?

I have taken a look at kernel parameters a few times when some distro failed to boot post installation. GRUB grants friendly entrance behind any line that is displayed as a boot option. It's possible to edit what is behind those lines by means of "minimum Emacs-like editing", as it says right there. This implies that at least for the creators of GRUB, Emacs seemed a more intuitive solution and perhaps more readily recognisable for the masses than Vi. I am by no means competent in making the final verdict either way, but Vi, with which I have had a number of recent encounters, never helped me in any kind of configuration.

By "basic config work on fresh installation" do you mean the kind of modification of bootup lines that I described? In GRUB, there's "minimum Emacs-like editing" on offer, which works for me. I would be totally lost if there was only Vi-like editing on offer in that place. Of course, I would also be lost if the help text were not there in GRUB interface, no matter what kind of editor it emulated. A bootloader is definitely not the place to try and see what happens if I press this or that. Intuitive operation and sufficient immediate guidance is important there.

Re: General Unix/Linux Thread

Reply #111 –
Quote from: ersi – on

Quote from: Macallan – on

All I ever use it for is basic config work on fresh installations ( once in a blue moon ) before I can install something like joe ( which has a pico / nano mode IIRC ).
Emacs is probably too fat to put into the base system. At least that's more or less the reason we don't ship emacs in base - the code base is big enough as it is and emacs is much more of a maintenance headache than vi ( or rather nvi, since original 4BSD vi is pretty much dead ).

What is "basic config work on fresh installations"? Is it similar to following Linux From Scratch website where you set kernel parameters etc. before installing the rest of the OS?

Probably similar enough. I usually install on 'new' hardware by netbooting it ( I have netboot environments set up for the kind of hardware that interests me - mostly Sun, SGI and PowerMacs ) and setting things up by hand, as in partitioning/newfs-ing/mounting disk(s), untaring the base OS, write appropriate fstab, rc.conf etc., copy hosts, resolv.conf, nsswitch.conf and such, make the whole thing bootable and so on. Using the installer instead doesn't really speed things up - to me typing mountpoints into a sysinst dialog isn't any faster or less difficult or whatever than writing directly to fstab. Same with network setup and pretty much everything else. When everything works it's time to write a kernel config - for old and unusual hardware it's usually helpful to strip the kernel down as much as possible. Not strictly necessary on newer machines with plenty of RAM but it's kind of a habit.

Quote from: ersi – on

I have taken a look at kernel parameters a few times when some distro failed to boot post installation.

Another reason for me to have netboot environments set up - if something doesn't boot normally I can always boot over the network and poke around.

Quote from: ersi – on

By "basic config work on fresh installation" do you mean the kind of modification of bootup lines that I described?

Not really. I meant config files the installer would normally take care of.

Quote from: ersi – on

In GRUB, there's "minimum Emacs-like editing" on offer, which works for me. I would be totally lost if there was only Vi-like editing on offer in that place. Of course, I would also be lost if the help text were not there in GRUB interface, no matter what kind of editor it emulated. A bootloader is definitely not the place to try and see what happens if I press this or that. Intuitive operation and sufficient immediate guidance is important there.

That's what comments and examples in config files are for. Nothing to do with the editor you use.
Either way, you shouldn't really have to mess with the boot stuff directly at all. Then again, I'm used to Sun and SGI hardware where you set this sort of parameters ( what disk/partition/whatever to boot from, which file(s) to load and so on ) via firmware variables. In most cases there's no need to touch any of those either.

Re: General Unix/Linux Thread

Reply #113 –
Quote
VSIDO is a front line Debian Sid installation built with the goal of providing both basic and advanced users the toolset needed to be productive, protected yet flexible enough to enjoy

VSIDO is built on Debian's latest to date kernel ...

x64 Boot less than 125 MB Proof
x32 Boot less than 100 MB Proof
Installation less than 3:30 proof
http://vsido.org/index.php?topic=12.0

This is a distro that Distrowatch knows nothing about. Where goes the line between a distro and a mere ISO?

GTK color theming

Reply #114 –
Here's a fresh video tutorial to tweak GTK themes. This really makes me appreciate the possibility to style all apps centrally in harmony with the desktop environment.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KREXq26f6Mw[/video]

Skype

Reply #115 –
Skype is being force-updated. Old versions discontinued. I cannot log in to an old version any more. On my smartphone I had an old version for a long time and had to update it to be able to log in, but I am not sure at all if it stays logged in when I need it. When I turn to the app, it does weird things, such as it changes the icon to logged out and then logged in again. It's becoming ever more urgent to find a replacement for this thing.

On a seemingly related note, Hotmail.com has acquired a Skype panel. When you log in to Hotmail account, you log in to Skype too with that account.

Re: General Unix/Linux Thread

Reply #116 –
Skype 4.2 still seems to be working. How's 4.3?

Re: General Unix/Linux Thread

Reply #117 –
Quote from: Frenzie – on

Skype 4.2 still seems to be working. How's 4.3?

4.3 is the newest version, but very crashy for me. In Manjaro it doesn't even open up properly. In Mint it stays open and I can do stuff, but it occasionally crashes. Often, not occasionally.

4.2 threw me out yesterday in the middle of nothing (when I was simply logged in) and does not allow to log in any more.

And two days ago I received an email from Skype that said that my Android version of Skype would soon be retired and I was encouraged to update it, even though I did that already weeks earlier when my Android version of Skype had thrown me out and prevented logging back in the way 4.2 is doing now.

I guess it's the East versus West thing again. My location is treated like scum.

Re: General Unix/Linux Thread

Reply #118 –
I'm using 4.2.0.11 at the moment. Maybe the problem was with a slightly older revision?

Re: General Unix/Linux Thread

Reply #119 –
Exactly the same version that threw me out.

Re: General Unix/Linux Thread

Reply #120 –
Here's what I love about Linux: today I swapped out my motherboard (an upgrade from my '07 Core 2 Duo E6600 to an '09 Phenom II X4 955 BE, so somewhat less exciting than it sounds; my wife's the one who upgraded to a nice i5), plugged in all of my disks and after booting it's almost as if nothing changed.

Re: General Unix/Linux Thread

Reply #121 –
Nice. But I am stuck right now with a machine where i486 and i386 systems install, but i686 don't. And those systems that install lose keyboard and mouse after a few reboots. The bootup screen tells sometimes that all USB slots are overheated.

This machine has never been cleaned inside. I will start there. And then I will maybe try to change the keyboard and mouse from USB-connected to PS/2-connected, even though this is silly - USB should work, otherwise there's not much point to the whole machine. And then I will be out of ideas.

Re: General Unix/Linux Thread

Reply #122 –
I figure something that deals with the i386 instruction set is a Pentium 4 at best, correct? I just checked and unfortunately the cost of shipping to Estonia seem to be something like €30 (add in the fact that I'd prefer to get some money for the actual components to fund the purchase of e.g. a Scythe Mugen 4 and/or some extra memory), but my now discarded Abit Ab9 Pro motherboard with a Core 2 Duo E6600 would likely blow whatever you've got out of the water in every single aspect imaginable.

In case you're interested I took a couple of quick pictures (not pictured: some kind of GPU I could include if you want; I've got two spare ones atm). Full product info here. Incidentally, I was running the CPU at a stable 2.7 GHz overclock (without changing the voltage) for the past year.

(Full pictures are over 4MB.)






Re: General Unix/Linux Thread

Reply #123 –
Quote from: Frenzie – on

I figure something that deals with the i386 instruction set is a Pentium 4 at best, correct?

I guess so. Thanks for the pictures and for the offer.

The machine is a leftover from someone else and I am trying to make it work for a child in early teens. In my opinion it's more important to spend time cleaning the components, looking at the cooling, maybe rearranging some parts, etc. i.e. giving some sense of problem-solving and cooperation to the child, than making the machine actually work. Even though it would be nice to get it to work too. I actually did it for a moment, but then after a few reboots it loses mouse and keyboard. Buggers.

Unfortunately my basic living budget is bust for this month. I may consider your offer next month. I'll write something in this thread to let you know.

Re: General Unix/Linux Thread

Reply #124 –
Quote from: Frenzie – on
my now discarded Abit Ab9 Pro motherboard with a Core 2 Duo E6600 would likely blow whatever you've got out of the water in every single aspect imaginable.

Just to be completely clear, I meant that besides performing better it'll likely also use less electricity for more performance.

Quote from: ersi – on
giving some sense of problem-solving and cooperation to the child, than making the machine actually work.

True enough. :up:

Quote from: ersi – on
Unfortunately my basic living budget is bust for this month. I may consider your offer next month. I'll write something in this thread to let you know.

My offer may not be terribly attractive thanks to the shipping costs, even if I ask very little for it. As a quick comparison, consider the more or less equivalent Intel Celeron G1840, which retails for a little over €40 (comparison). Add about €50 for a motherboard and €40 for RAM and you'd have a brand-new more or less equivalent computer for €130ish.*

* I'm overlooking €60-70 for something like a Crucial MX100 128GB and €40 for a sufficiently decent PSU, but you may or may not have those costs regardless.

Edit:
Back on topic.

While I've been hailing /etc/fstab with its UUID's for partitions which always mount the same regardless of the physical connections, I just found out your computer will not boot if your /etc/fstab contains an incorrect line. I deleted a partition and following that my computer wouldn't boot. Unfortunately the Grub command line doesn't seem to come with an editor (no nano, vi or vim), so I had to boot with a LiveCD to fix it.

In this case the cause was easy to identify, but what if one of my HDDs had some kind of failure? I'm not quite sure what to think of this.