bodom_lx at task3 dot cc|

I love to be back to Slackware, my very first distribution. However, there are a couple of things that I'm missing from the other more comfortable distributions. From among them, I totally miss Network Manager.
I saw many people asking in forums on how to install Network Manager in Slackware 13.0. There is Wicd, already present in Slackware "repositories". Every Slackware maniac will tell you that it does the same job of Network Manager, but I don't agree. It does not always work and is more complicated to be configured than NM.

Anyway, I'm going to explain to Slackware newbies the dirty way to have a fully working Network Manager on Slackware 13.0. This method is totally against Slackware philosophy and will also replace some important libraries of the system! Anyway, the packages being replaced are prepared from the guys behind GNOME SlackBuild, a project to bring Gnome in every Slackware release.
You have two way to have Network Manager in your Slackware: either install the entire Gnome from them (or any other similar project) or use slapt-get against their repositories and just install Network-Manager. Here are the instructions. All the following actions must be performed as root user:

1. Download, install and configure slapt-get. Instructions are provided on their website.
2. Update your system with:
   

   slapt-get --update
   slapt-get --dist-upgrade

3. Add GNOME SlackBuild repository in /etc/slapt-get/slapt-getrc:

   SOURCE=http://mirror.switch.ch/ftp/mirror/gsb/gsb-current/

4. Update the list of available packages and replace some system packages:

   slapt-get --update
   slapt-get --add-keys
   slapt-get --install --reinstall alsa-lib bluez glib2 gtk+2 libwnck

5. Now install Network Manager and its GTK applet:

   slapt-get --install NetworkManager network-manager-applet

6. Be sure that dbus, hal and NetworkManager daemons will be loaded at boot time:

   chmod +x /etc/rc.d/rc.messagebus /etc/rc.d/rc.hald /etc/rc.d/rc.networkmanager

7. Add your user to the plugdev group. Edit /etc/group, find the line

   netdev:x:86:root

   Add your username after root (bodom_lx is my case)

   netdev:x:86:root,bodom_lx

8. You are quite finished now! Log back as normal user and create a startup script for network-manager-applet:

   cd ~/.kde/Autostart/

   Create a file called nm-applet.sh with the following content:

   #!/usr/bin/bash
   nm-applet --sm-disable &

   Give it execution permission:

   chmod +x nm-applet.sh

   .

Reboot your system. Everything should work fine now.

To uninstall Network Manager and restore the system as it was before the installation follow these instructions, as root::

1. remove any GNOME SlackBuild package using:
   

   removepkg /var/log/packages/*gsb

2. Comment GNOME SlackBuild entry in /etc/slapt-get/slapt-getrc:

   #SOURCE=http://mirror.switch.ch/ftp/mirror/gsb/gsb-current/

3. Update your slapt-get sources and re-install the replaced Slackware packages:

   slapt-get --update
   slapt-get --reinstall --install glib2 libwnck alsa-lib gtk+2

4. Toggle execution permission to the auto-started network-manager-applet. Log back as normal user and type:

   chmod -x ~/.kde/Autostart/nm-applet.sh

Feel free to comment any suggestion.

If you are running Debian Sid (i386) and are trying to install Gnome using

apt-get install gnome

You will probably might be disappointed because of problems regarding gnome-desktop-environment, ekiga, ptlib (libpt2.6.4) and opal (libopal3.6.4). Everything seems related to a missing 386 version of libpt2.6.4 on Debian Sid. Also libpt2.6.4-plugins is missing. Packages are also reported to be broken.

Well, I was tired to wait for the right solution of Debian's Gnome maintainers (respect to all of them!) and have just built my version of ptlib with built-in plugins. If you download it, install it and try again to install gnome, everything works fine.
Obviously, there are reasons behind the absence of a i386 version of libpt2.6.4 and libpt2.6.4-plugins from Debian Sid repositories. My workaround is surely not the right way to fix the problem, as I don't know the reasons of the blocks on those packages. It may be either serious technical reasons or "simpler" political reasons. You might prefer to wait for the heroes to fix the problem in the Debian way. You are advised, anyway.

If you feel brave and just want to see your Gnome Desktop Environment appear on your Sid box then follow these steps:
1) Download my libt2.6.4 Debian Sid package. It provides libpt.2.6.4 and libpt2.6.4-plugins required by Ekiga, which is required by gnome-desktop-environment
2) Install it:

dpkg -i libpt2.6.4_2.6.4-1_i386.deb

3) Try again to install gnome:

apt-get install gnome

Stop here if everything is fine!

If it doesn't work:
4) Try first to install libopal3.6.4:

apt-get install libopal3.6.4

If it works, go back to step 3.

If it doesn't:
a) Try first to install Ekiga:

apt-get install ekiga

If there are still problems with libopal:
b) Download my libopal3.6.4 Debian Sid package. It provides libopal3.6.4, which is also required by Ekiga.
c) Install it:

dkpg -i libopal3.6.4_3.6.4-1_i386.deb

Go back to step 3.

Good luck!

It's a very long time since I abandoned Ubuntu, 1 year and 9 months being precise, although I continued to use Ubuntu derived distros.
I decided today to give Ubuntu 8.10 beta a try. Obviously, every time I decide to try a Gnu/Linux distribution it happens that a new release comes out: I downloaded Alpha 6 yesterday, I fell into problems with it and a apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade brought me Ubuntu 8.10 beta, correcting some of them
(more...)

Introduction

This guide will help you to install OpenGEU and every other Ubuntu based linux distribution on your Macbook (either "normal" or pro). Even Ubuntu will work with this how-to.
The tutorial is aimed on how to succesfully partition the hard disk and to correctly boot the distribution. For a better post-install configuration I suggest you to follow the Ubuntu Wiki.

This tutorial is also posted on the OpenGEU Wiki
(more...)

Time for a review. Thanks to the always useful DistroWatch.com service, I discovered a new Gnu/Linux distribution, called gOS. gOS stands for Good Os, born in 2007 in California. The version I'm reviewing is the so-called "gOS 3 'Gadgets'", their third release. gOS 3 Gadgets BETA is based on Ubuntu 8.04.1, and the final release is to be expected in the next 1-2 months.
This distribution is built around Goggle apps and services, comes with Google Gadgets for Linux pre-installed, as well other nice programs, like Google Picasa, Wine, Mozilla Prism for Google web applications and Wbar as launch bar. I've never heard about this bar, it's very quick and light. Good choice! The distro also includes proprietary codecs for multimedia content.
(more...)

Archlinux é potenzialmente un'eccellente distribuzione per chiunque non voglia sentirsi troppo ubuntista, in quanto non user-friendly alla windows, ma semplice e user-friendly alla Kiss (leggere questo post sul mio iniziale entusiasmo per Archlinux per saperne di piú).
Ha tutte le carte in regola per essere tra le piú diffuse, e nominata insieme alle piú famose Slackware e Gentoo, il suo package manager pacman é in assoluto il migliore che esista. Si é meglio di apt-get, non so quanto meglio di emerge, anche se fanno compiti diversi.
Con Archlinux puoi scegliere tra pacchetti pre-compilati e ottimizzati per 686, oppure compilare con un sistema simile a Portage, anche se non cosí efficace.
Archlinux lo puoi configurare quasi interamente editando un singolo file...
Possiede vari kernel pre-compilati con diversi patchsets.
I repositories di Archlinux sono praticamente allineati con l'ultima release di ogni singolo programma si voglia installare.
Insomma figo! Ma perché non decolla? Perché la usano in pochi?
Ho utilizzato Archlinux per mesi, pure sulla mia VPS.
Dal mio portatile é sparita da circa 1 mese. Dalla mia VPS é sparita oggi.
Perché, mi chiederete?
Archlinux ha tutte le carte in regola per diventare una delle distribuzioni piú utilizzata al mondo, ma per diventarlo ha bisogno di una cosa: stabilitá. Archlinux é maledettamente instabile, i repositories abilitati di default sono current e extra. Il ramo current ha pacchetti piú recenti di quelli di Debian Sid, mentre il repository testing manca poco che abbia versioni piú recenti di quelle rilasciati dagli sviluppatori
Anche utilizzando la distribuzione con i repositories di default, state sicuri che in poco tempo, magari dopo qualche aggiornamento, qualcosa si impallerá. E spesso e volentieri non é colpa vostra, come dovrebbe essere Linux, ma é perché ci sono problemi con i pacchetti installati.
Archlinux ha un release schedule parecchio strano, cambiato pure da poco: una release esce ad ogni rilascio del kernel. Insomma, un nuovo rilascio della distribuzione non si ha ogni tot mesi fissi (Ubuntu, Fedora) oppure quando é pronta (Slackware, Debian), ma semplicemente quando un kernel nuovo viene rilasciato (es: quando uscirá il kernel 2.6.22, si avrá una nuova release), verranno costruite le iso di Archlinux.
Scelte..
Pure su un server, Archlinux non é per niente adatto, tenendo fermi i repositories, un semplice aggiornamento puó bloccare tutto (nel mio caso, php5 e lighttpd, sono completamente morti). Spesso mi succedeva anche che la macchina crashasse da sola, ogni 10-12 giorni, dovevo riavviarla manualmente. Oggi é stata l'ultima goccia, siano benedetti i backup.. Ho dovuto formattare il server ed installare un'altra distribuzione (ho scelto di nuovo Debian tra le tante disponibili).
A mio avviso, per affermarsi sul serio, questa distribuzione dovrebbe organizzare delle policy di release, e concentrarsi di piú sulla stabilitá. Per il resto é ottima, facile da configurare e veloce.
Tanti auguri Archie, ci rivedremo un giorno!