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.

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For those that chose ext4 as default file-system type for their boot partition, and are having problems booting their Slackware 13.0 distribution, I built a .tgz package containing the latest Grub 2 release (currently 1.97-beta4).
It also contains a default grub.cfg file.

Please download the file here: grub-1.97~beta4-i486-1.tgz for Slackware 13.0

It should also work for Slackware 12.x and 11.0.

Enjoy!

P.S. The package is based on the one created for Grub-1.96 by user mbvo on linuxquestions.org. I simply adapted it for Grub-1.97. I also provided a new description for the package and a simpler grub.cfg file.

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Summary

Pomotux is  a C++ activity manager for the Pomodoro Technique created by Francesco Cirillo, a member of the XPlabs crew. The program focuses on the basic features of the technique. It does not focus on advanced techniques, such as the prediction of the number of pomodoros needed for an activity.

About the Pomodoro Technique

The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method that can be used for any kind of task. For many people, time is an enemy. The anxiety triggered by “the ticking clock”, especially when a deadline is involved, leads to ineffective work and study habits which in turn lead to procrastination. The aim of the Pomodoro Technique is to use time as a valuable ally in accomplishing what we want to do in the way we want to do it, and to enable us to continually improve the way we work or study.

The Technique is heavily explained on a 60+ pages book published on the website. Please visit the official website for more explanations.

A running Pomodoro

Get Pomotux

Pomotux has been developed for the Software Engineering Project course at the Free University Of Bolzano by Daniel Graziotin, Riccardo Buttarelli and Massimiliano Pergher. We decided to release it under the GPL 3 license and host the code on Google Code. Everybody is free to contribute and join the project.

Pomotux is hosted on: http://code.google.com/p/pomotux/

Source code is available on: http://code.google.com/p/pomotux/downloads/list

The wiki contains more information and installation instruction, and a better description of the of the system implementation and Software Engineering outcomes

Activity Inventory Sheet

Technology Overview
The System has been developed using

• C++ programming language (coding standard)
• QT framework (4.5)
• SQLite Database library
• LiteSQL Object Relational Mapper framework

Useful tools used during development:

• CXXTEST Testing Framework
• CPPCHECK code analyzer
• Artistic Style code formatter

Project Status
The project succesfully passed the exam with a maximum degree. It has been developed under Gnu/Linux and has only been tested under Gnu/Linux (various distributions). It should be cross-platform. The only component that brakes cross-platform is LiteSQL, that should work on any *NIX system but not Windows. We are looking for testers and people to port it under Max Os X (and possibly) under Windows

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After a short period with Slackware, I took the decision to switch to Archlinux again. I’m using it since one month and I’m very happy about the stability it finally reached. I encountered no freezes using it on my macbook (take a look on their interesting wiki page for info).
I hope that this will last forever I’ve always found Archlinux, its philosophy and its package manager the best combination for a Linux Distribution. Now that it is also stable, there are no reasons to keep away from Archlinux!

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I’ve never been a big fan of rpm-based Gnu/Linux distributions, since I’ve always preferred the stability of Debian and Debian based distros, with their great dpkg system.
The problem with Debian on Macbooks is that I do not see both the stability and performance anymore, as I have to use Lenny/Sid. Etch is too old and I don’t have the time (*sic*) to play with it to make it work well. Lenny should be next to be released but I don’t feel the very famous stability AND lightness of Debian distributions on this release, like I was accustomed in the past years. Is this because I own a Macbook? Maybe, but a Macbook Santa Rosa is nothing more than an Intel-powered notebook with some strange input devices and a strange non-bios system

Regarding Ubuntu, I believe that this distribution has become naff and really slow. See this Slashdot discussion on this topic.

Yesterday I stumbled to Scientechie review of Fedora 10, which convinced me to try it out.
The software shipped with Fedora 10 is aligned with the one provided with the other distributions: Gnome 2.24.0, kernel 2.6.27.5, NetworkManager 0.7.0 (svn) and so on. Read the release notes for more information.

Fedora 10 really surprises me, as it is the first Gnu/Linux distribution in many, many years that makes me feel again the great stability and performance of the Penguin. Therefore I’m writing this review that is also a how-to, as it contains some fixes for Fedora 10 and Macbooks.

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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
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