Volume 63 April, 2012 Gnome 2.32: Say Cheese! Gnome 2.32: Graphics Extras Some PCLinuxOS Gnome Post Install Tips Linux Hardware In A Windows Landscape Linux Financial Apps: iFreeBudget 2011 LinuxQuestions.org Members Choice Awards Alternate OS: PC­BSD, Part 1 A Really Large Monitor Linux File System Heirarchy Explained Searching For Answers On The PCLinuxOS Forum Linux Liaison In New Zealand High Schools KMix Keyboard Volume Controls PCLinuxOS Magazine Plus More Inside! Page 1 Table Of Contents 3 Welcome From The Chief Editor 4 Keep Your System Up­To­Date With Update Notifier 6 Gnome 2.32: Say Cheese! The PCLinuxOS name, logo and colors are the trademark of Texstar. 8 Screenshot Showcase The PCLinuxOS Magazine is a monthly online publication 9 Forum Foibles: Crumbs Between The Keys containing PCLinuxOS­related materials. It is published primarily for members of the PCLinuxOS community. The 12 Mark's Quick Gimp Tip & Double Take magazine staff is comprised of volunteers from the 13 Linux Hardware In A Windows Landscape PCLinuxOS community. 17 Gnome 2.32: Graphics Extras Visit us online at http://www.pclosmag.com 19 Alternate OS: PC­BSD, Part 1 This release was made possible by the following volunteers: 24 Screenshot Showcase Chief Editor: Paul Arnote (parnote) Assistant Editor: Meemaw 25 Searching For Answers On The PCLinuxOS Forum Artwork: Sproggy, Timeth, ms_meme, Meemaw Magazine Layout: Paul Arnote, Meemaw, ms_meme 26 Linux Financial Apps: iFreeBudget HTML Layout: Rudge, Sproggy 29 Some PCLinuxOS Gnome Post Installation Tips Staff: Neal Brooks ms_meme 31 Screenshot Showcase Galen Seaman Mark Szorady Patrick Horneker Darrel Johnston 32 KMix Keyboard Volume Controls Guy Taylor Meemaw Andrew Huff Gary L. Ratliff, Sr. 32 Screenshot Showcase Pete Kelly Daniel Meiß­Wilhelm 33 2011 LinuxQuestions.org Members Choice Awards Archie Arevalo Contributors: 37 Screenshot Showcase Jim Wilkinson longtomjr 38 A Short Review: MuseScore Chuck Rice David Lally 39 Linux File System Heirarchy Explained 43 ms_meme's Nook: Linux River The PCLinuxOS Magazine is released under the Creative 44 A Really Large Monitor Commons Attribution­NonCommercial­Share­Alike 3.0 Unported license. Some rights are reserved. 45 Screenshot Showcase Copyright © 2012. 46 Linux Liaison In New Zealand High Schools 47 More Screenshot Showcase PCLinuxOS Magazine Page 2 Welcome From The Chief Editor Surprise! Welcome to the unveiling of the us using PCLinuxOS already magazine’s new layout. It is, after all, Spring in the knew that. Northern Hemisphere, and a time of rebirth and renewal. It seemed only fitting to reveal the new This month’s cover was layout with an edition of the magazine appearing in created by one of Timeth’s the Spring. students in Japan. Due to laws and customs over To be perfectly honest, it’s something that I’ve been there, I do not know the toying with for the past six months or so. I’d work on identity of the young lady it a bit, then step away, then come back to it, then who created the wonderful step away, then come back to it … until it was finally anime drawing we are using finished. At various stages, I’d run ideas and for our cover this month. So proposals past Meemaw, for her input. We’d discuss I’d like to express my sincere each item, making sure I hadn’t forgotten anything thanks to her, whomever she along the various steps of creating the templates may be. I hope Timeth will that her and I use to layout the magazine. convey my gratitude to her. The result is a layout that maximizes the amount of Until next month, I wish each space we can utilize on the page, while still and every one of you peace, appearing stylish and attractive. One key theme in happiness, prosperity and my thought process throughout making this new My father­in­law shot this picture of me working on the magazine, March 10, 2012, serenity. layout was to eliminate any unnecessary use of during a visit to my in­laws house. large blocks of color, to help those who may print pages from the magazine from having to bleed their scan to be completed, I was looking over the color inkjet cartridges dry. Another idea in creating shoulder of the MRI technician who was the layout templates was to streamline the magazine administering the scan. Lo and behold, if that screen layout process as much as possible. I can tell you didn’t look familiar. Yep! That’s it! The MRI scanner that after laying out articles this month, and putting was being controlled by software … ran on Linux! everything together into the final copy of the PDF for The screen was neatly laid out, using the Motif the April, 2012 issue, that I think I’ve managed to Window Manager. This MRI scanner – and the achieve that latter goal. software to run it – are just slightly over one year old. So no, this isn’t any old setup. Rather, this On another note, I recently had to accompany one of scanner and the special building built to hold it, was my patients at the hospital to the MRI (Magnetic a multi­million dollar expenditure by the hospital I Resonance Imaging) scanner in a different part of work for. I guess when you have mission­critical the building. While I was waiting for my patient’s data, Linux is what you turn to, huh? Of course, all of PCLinuxOS Magazine Page 3 Keep Your System Up-To-Date With Update-Notifier by Darrel Johnston (djohnston) The blue question mark is an indication that Update­ To show on screen notifications when Update­ Notifier is not configured. Left­click the icon to see Notifier is checking for updates, check the Enable According to the About Update­Notifier window, it the following configuration window. pop­up notifications box. If you don’t want apt­get to was created by maik3531 and has been updated by prompt for installation verification when updates are travisn000, rogaven and leiche. I believe leiche is available, check the Disable apt­get verification the current maintainer. The program has undergone prompt box. You can hide Synaptic’s main window extensive modifications since it was first written. when installing updates by checking the box for that option. All the previous choices are optional. The one thing you must do at this stage is select the update check frequency. The interval can be either days (1 through 40) or hours (1 through 18). This is the amount of time to go between checks for software updates. Once you are satisfied with your choices, click the Save button. The next window will pop up. Check for updates is highlighted by default. But, selecting that option will put the program in the same loop we just encountered. Highlight Change settings This program is designed to check for available and click OK, or simply double­click Change updates on a time interval selected by the user, and settings. This will bring up the configuration window. to notify the user of updates status via screen and system tray icon notifications. To install the program, open Synaptic and mark the update­notifier package We are instructed to exit and restart Update­Notifier for installation. Once the program has been in order to begin the software update checks. Click installed, you will find it in the main menu in the OK. Select Exit Update­Notifier and click OK in the Software Center section. next window. Before starting the program, be sure that Synaptic has been configured to connect to your selected repository and that your network connection is working. When the program is first launched, you will see a status window pop up on your desktop. Shortly thereafter, the following icon will appear in your system tray. PCLinuxOS Magazine Page 4 Keep Your System Up­To­Date With Update­Notifier At this point, Update­Notifier should no longer be Select one of the two Install updates choices. Mark the changes to be made and Synaptic will running. Start it from the main menu in the Software Personally, I prefer using Synaptic for its visual display the marked changes in the main window, Center section. You may receive an on screen indications. Either selection will bring up a prompt to unless you chose to hide it. message that Update­Notifier is already running. In enter user root’s password. that case, wait a couple of minutes and start it again. If you receive the same error message again, either find and terminate the Update­Notifier task or close all programs and reboot. The Update­Notifier will start automatically at each login. If you enabled popup notifications, the following on screen window will appear right after login. After the check, if there updates available and you enabled popup notifications, you will see something similar to the following on screen message. After entering the password, the package list will again be refreshed, with a visual indicator. Click the Apply button in the Synaptic window to install the updates. After closing Synaptic, update­ notifier will again check for new updates. In addition, the Update­Notifier status icon in the system tray will look like this. At this point, you should click the icon in the system tray, opening the Update­Notifier status window as Depending on whether you chose to use apt­get or shown below. Synaptic, either a terminal window or the Synaptic If there are no more updates, the on screen status main window will appear. If you chose Synaptic, a window will show none and the icon in the sub window will indicate the packages to be updated system tray will look like this.