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LXF151 LXF December 2011 Issue 151 Conquer the command line Mandriva 2011 XBMC Recycle old hardware LibreOffice vs Word RigRigaLinuxrouter a Linux router DoDoNotTrack Not Track ProtectProtectyourselfatalltimes yourself at all times Printed in the UK

Welcome

The #1 source forLinux What we do We support the open source community by providing aresourceofinformation, anda forum for debate. We help all readers get more from Linux with our tutorial section – we’ve something for everyone! We license all the we print in our tutorials section under the GNU GPLv3. We give you the most accurate, unbiased and up-to-date information on all things Linux. Who we are This month we help you to conquer your fears of the command line. We asked our team: what part of Linux are you most afraid of? Shellshock If youask someone who knows very little about Linux whytheyhaven’ttried it,inmyexperience, they’ll often say something like: “Oh, it seems far too complicated. I’dnever be able to remember all those commands.” They’re referring to the command line,and I’m alwayssurprised they think of this when talking about Linux, and not rotating cubes, Mike Saunders Andrew Gregory Efrain Hernandez- The letterX.There’s My neophobia means Mendoza community development and penguins. too much of it. Linux, that I’mstill running Who is Colonel Panic, The command line has become synonymous with Linux, and Firefox,The X Window Turbolinux 8. What’s and whydoeshewant manypeople still seem to think youneed to masterittoget a System, Xfce, Latex... this KDE 3 thing people to fsck my drive? are talking about? working system. We all know this isn’t true.You can use Linux justasyou would OS XorWindows, and there’sabsolutely no need to resort to typing fdisk unless youwant to.I’veforgotten how many people I’ve needed to say this to, and they all seem to leavelooking unconvinced, as if taking the command line from Linux removes some of its mythical allure. But maybe I shouldn’t be so apologetic, and maybe the shell deserves to be lauded as our ’s best Neil Bothwick Mayank Sharma Jonathan As a leet Gentoo user, Starting LibreOffice.I Roberts feature rather than a relic from a bygone era. Yo u can still do I’mafraid of installing always know I’ll regret Seeing aBSOD. No things quicker, more efficiently and more effectively with just binary packages, it, 15 minutes into wait, a row of bombs. a couple of commands than you ever could from the desktop. rather than using my staring at that splash No wait, aguru And with consumers losing more control over their hardware 3,927-character long screen. meditation error... CFLAGS settings. with every new shiny product they buy, the CLI represents the true nature of Linux – an operating system to play with, to experiment on, to tear apart and put back again. All thanks to a couple of commands. Graham Morrison Editor [email protected] Andy Channelle David Cartwright Nick Veitch Someone telling me I fear the day my VAX I’mnot scaredof that my choiceof 11/780 stops running, Linux. Truth be told, distroiswrong. Don’t and Ihavetopay Linux is scared of me. you know that digs into £12,000 for a 256k Mwahaha! my soul? Boo hoo... stick of RAM.

Susan Linton Shashank Sharma Bob Moss I’mscaredthat RMS Spheniscidaeaphobia. I’mgenuinely scared will condemn my If Iget that, I’ll just that Gnome 4will just favouritedistroas have to move overto have asingle button non-free.Nooooooooo! BSD. Or MikeOS. that saysLog Out. You Subscribetoday know, as part of the drive for simplicity. and get five issues FREE!

www.tuxradar.com December 2011 LXF151 3 Contents The world is at your fingertips. Command and conquer. Reviews Mandriva 2011 ...... 22 Can anew direction turn the distro’s fortunes around?

$ conquer the\

Seen this somewherebefore? FlightGear 2.4...... 25 > command line Chocksawayfor the latest instalment of the classic indie flight sim. TaTakekechchargeargeof Creator 2.3...... 27 Nokia deliversamajor updatetoits your computer p40 development environment.

Creator’s clever application window.

RawTherapee 3.0...... 29 Transform your RAWimages with this scarily feature-packed photo converter. Books...... 36 Awesome algorithms and free tool tipsfor messing with your images. WhWhatatOnEaEarthrthiis...s... Roundup: Email clients p30 Do Not Track? p60 Talking heads Thebiggest challenge with Xisthatitdefined a protocol and said we all must conform to this. ChaseDouglas on bringing multi-touch to Ubuntu p48

4 LXF151 December 2011 www.linuxformat.com On your free DVD Mandriva 2011 CAINE 2.5 FlightGear 2.4 Subscribe today Puppy 5.2.8 and getfive PLUS: Games, tools & guides... p126 issues FREE! p66

Don’tmiss... Recycle old kit...... 50 Breathe new life into old computers. 18 data security tips...... 54 Hang on to your valuables. Inside Mandriva...... 56 A year in the life of a troubled distro. Coding Academy Tutorials

Perl...... 102 Beginners Keep track of your books with a simple . Encryption...... 76 The secret world of file security. Coding Concepts...... 106 Conditionals – the ifs and buts of coding. Python...... 108 Make custom tooltips for a new music player. Android ...... 112 Build your own MP3 player.

Regulars at aglance Create an encrypted virtual disk.

News...... 6 What on Earth is? ....60 Answers ...... 118 Compatibility LibreOffice & MS Word ...80 Releasecycle madness and Microsoft Do Not Track: keep those pesky YOUR PROBLEMS SOLVED Word processors working in harmony. moves to lock out Linux. advertisers off your tail. Grappling with Grub?Need softphone solutions? Help’s at hand. Package management User groups...... 14 Sysadmin...... 62 Arch Linux ...... 86 Barcamp MediaCityreport and find Server setup made simple and all you Next month...... 124 Get to grips with the user repository. a friendly LUG near you. need to know about virtualisation. LikeaRoman haruspex, we study the entrails and tell you what’s in store. Electronics Mailserver...... 16 Subscriptions ...... 66 Arduino ...... 88 Custom build your own. Vent your spleen and if it’snot too Fivefreeissuesand they’re all rude we’ll put it in print. delivered to your door. Media centre XBMC...... 92 Roundup ...... 30 HotPicks...... 68 Tu rn a spare PC into a media centre. Fiveofthe best email clientsgo Hotter than Death Valleyonavery head-to-head. sunny day. Hardcore Build a firewall ...... 96 Distrowatch...... 38 Back issues...... 117 Protect your system with aLinux-based installation that does what you want it to. Anew Mandriva, the latest Arch and Missedatutorial? It’snot toolateto Oursubscriptions team is a look at how Fedora 16’s shaping up. get your hands on an old mag. waiting for your call.

www.tuxradar.com December 2011 LXF151 5 9000 THIS ISSUE: Ubuntu Google KDE RedHat Patents MS Lockdown ReLeAseCYCLes Ubuntu to go monthly? Canonical devsuggestsrevitalisingdistro’sreleasecycle.

member of the Ubuntu At the moment, Ubuntu releases business-oriented long-term support Te chnical Board, the body come twiceayear, in April and October, (LTS)releases, which Canonical Aresponsible fordeciding the and this predictability–along with an continuestosupport forthree yearson direction that Canonical’sdistroshould up-to-dateimplementation of the takewhen it comestotechnical matters, Gnome desktop–isone of the key has proposedthat the distroabandon its features that made it such asuccess “Monthly distro current six-monthly development cycle when it launched as aDebian spin-off in updatescould be too and switch to amonthly releaseinstead, October 2004.These releases are as used by Firefox. supported for18months,except forthe much hassle for some.”

Arch Arch

Ubuntu (proposed) Intrepid Ibex JauntyJackalope Karmic Koala Lucid Lynx (LTS) Maverick Meerkat

Fedora Cambridge Leonidas Constantine Goddard Laugh

OpenSUSE OpenSUSE 11.1 OpenSUSE 11.2 OpenSUSE 11.3

Debian Etch

2009 2010 2011

6 LXF151 December 2011 www.linuxformat.com the desktop, and on the server forfiveyears.The releasebyfeaturefreeze. It’snot the only requirement, systemseems to work well as it is,sowhy changeit? but it’sthe biggest one.” Scott JamesRemnant, the author of the proposal, Summing up,hegavethree reasons forUbuntu to said: “Thereisanincredible emphasis on the Ubuntu switch to the monthly releasecycle: “The original planning process of targeting features forparticular reason forthe six-month cycle has already been releases. This is the exact thing you’renot supposedto forgotten: features aretargetedtowardsreleases, do with atime-based releaseschedule.” rather than released when ready; becausethe original base forthe releaseschedule (Gnome)isnolonger a Abetterway keycomponent of the distribution; becausenoother He then went on to criticisethe motivations of the keycomponent has adopted this schedule.” Ubuntu developers: “Unfortunately Canonical’sown We’veplotted what amonthly releasecycle would performancereviewand management is alsobased look likefor Ubuntu compared with afew other big around this schedule.The Ubuntu developersso hittersonthe distrolandscape.Updating adistroisa employed(the vast majority) have such fundamentals time-consuming process, and while it is satisfying to as their pay,bonuses, etc, dictated by howmanyof have the latest and greatestsoftware,monthly distro their assigned features and work items areintothe updates could be toomuch hassle forsome. thethird way

The problem that Remnant has adopt astructurethat enabled it identified seems to us to be to releasemoreoften, the logical moreclosely related to the waywould be arolling release Ubuntu developers’ pay cycle,asusedtobrilliant effect structurerather than any by Arch. Even OpenSUSEis problem inherent in the release getting on the bandwagon now cycle.But if Canonical wasto with Tu mbleweed.

ck Meerkat Natty Narwhal

Laughlin Lovelock Verne

OpenSUSE 11.4 OpenSUSE 12.1

Lenny Squeeze

2012 2013 newsdesk

Comment deVeLopMent Ubuntu reachesout Compiler Developerportaltobring coders into thefold. upgrade anonical has finished work on a development portal to makeit C easier forprogrammersto MichaelMeeks contributecode and ultimately getit featured in Ubuntu. Whatmost The siteincludesacounter so excitedme that developersofexisting applications cansee howmany at therecent downloads they’regetting, and forthe OpenSUSE absolutebeginner there’saguide to conferencewastheworkbyJanHubickaconference wasthe work by JanHubicka on on getting started, including avideo Canonical aims to simplify GCC’s Link Time Optimisation (LTO). This has tutorial and adetailed -by-step meta-tasksfor potential contributors. hugepotential to speed up apps such guide forcreating anew project. as LibreOffice. Canonical mustbehoping that, by Traditionally,complex software hasbeen Simplifiedprocess streamlining the process that Each distroseems to have aslightly developersneed to followinorder to get fragmented into lots of small, manageable different process forcontributing work included in Ubuntu, it cantap into pieces. Compilers buildand optimise each software,with the guidelinesfor awider pool of programming talent and piece in isolationtothe rest,then stitch them inclusion in Debian, on which Ubuntu is getthe edgeonits rivals.However, if it together at theend.Thatgives asubstantial based, being particularly strict. works, it will be good foreveryone.Win! down side –the compiler’s optimisercan only ‘see’the code in this onepiece.Thisisnot ideal, as poorly performingpatternsofcodecan appear at theinterface betweenthe fragments. MoRedeVeLopMent With LTO, availableinthe latest GCCs, it is finally possible to seethe bigpicture.This allows thecompiler lots of ‘ah-hah’ moments, KDE gainsfrom findingand removing code that’s notused, or noticing complexcodeusedtomakemuch Summer of Code simplerpatterns. Google-sponsored program helpskooldesktop. Codeinthe real world Anotherbig wincombines this global view with oogle’sSummer of Code with KDE and help us create the future. tracinghow apps arereallyused. This makes it project, which sponsors But even if some of them don’t, I’m sure possible to put frequently usedpiecestogether G studentstowritesoftware in this Summer of Code made adifference the summer breakfromuniversity, has in their lives.” in a‘hot’ section, andless frequently used benefitted Linux onceagain, with bitselsewhere, along withpiecesonly used contributions to,among others, the Notbeing evil at startup. This extrainformation makesnew KDE desktopenvironment. When the Summer of Code launched, it things possible,suchasaccurateremoval of The project has produced some wasseen as away forGoogle to give unused code,global in-lining, de-virtualisation intriguing results, with work on something back to the free software andvariableoptimisation levels inside a integration between KDE and Gnome’s community, as well as away forthe function. In some caseswe’ve suddenly Zeitgeistactivityjournal as well as lots companytoidentify talent. of work on Nepomuk and other It still retains those attributes, but noticedcomplex-looking functionsthatare semantic technologies. with growing disquiet overAndroid’s only usedinsimpleways, andbeenableto Lydia Pintscher,aKDE contributor relativenon-freeness, the Summer of evaporateseveral thousand of these, from and Summer of Code monitor basedat Code has arguably become more Firefox forexample. the UniversityofKarlsruhe,said: “At important to Google forthe positivePR Traditionally optimisation hasbeenatrade- KDE, we’rethrilled to have been given it brings. The work on KDE is alsoa offbetween code sizeand speed.Nowadays, the opportunityagain to work with so vindication of the structural changes it with LTO, we canhaveour cake andeat it –big manybright and enthusiastic students. underwent with the releaseofKDE 4.0. applications that arebothfaster We’vegiven them agood introduction At the time it wascriticised forfocusing to the world of free software and helped on abstraction layers and newwaysfor andsmaller. them seejusthow much theyare programmerstowork, rather than capable of when theyput their minds to Michael is apseudo-engineer,semi-colon lover, providing features forthe end user,but SUSE LibreOffice hacker and amateur pundit. it. Iobviously want all of them to stay that work is paying offnow.

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Comment Hittingthe mirrors Free traffic What’s behind thefreesoftwaresofa? solutions LinUXdistRo The latest version of Ubuntu DavidCartwright should be available from an internet near youon13October. As aglobal Ubuntu 11.10(codename: Oneiric network Ocelot) wasreleased in beta form in lateSeptember,and new manager,a features include improvementsto fairchunk multiarch, asystemthat enables of my budget findsits wayeachyearintothe usersrunning a64-bit systemto Ocelots: nowinpurple. pockets of Cisco Systems. Iwas thinking about install 32-bit binaries. OneConf,the this yesterdayasIwas stuffing anew IDS/IPS configuration tool, has alsobeen applications between severalUbuntu moduleintoone of my ASA5510 firewalls,and brought intothe Ubuntu Software installations,and we cannodoubt it made me reminisce. Centretohelp uses sync their expect lotsmoreUnityfun too. Back in theearly 1990sIworked on a campus whosenetwork wasone big, flat, desKtopenViRonMent scaryClassBnetwork withthousandsof Gnome 3.2had auserinterface connecteddevices;given that 10Mbit/s freeze at the beginning of September, Ethernetwas as fast as it gotinthose days which means that it should be (atleast on thedesktop), this wasaproblem. available by the time youreadthis. As theITteachingdepartmentwegenerated ThankstoGoogle’sSummer of Code, afairamount of traffic, with thebroadcast the desktopenvironment has an onscreen keyboard(as accessibility rubbishthatimplies. is such an important aspect of free Oneofmycolleagues broughtusa software,this really should have been solution, though.Hewanderedinand told included from 3.0) and an integrated me:“If youcan find me an old PC andapairof contact searchfacility. Of course,no 3Com 3C509 LANcards,I’ll makeusarouter.” desktopthese days is complete Andthat’swhathedid –and it didn’tcosta without webapps, and the teamhas Gnome 3.2will alsoinclude anew bean becausethe router software he’d found included plentyofthose. version of Gnome Shell. wasfreely available. So we ranupour no- pounds-and-no-pencerouterand the oFFiCe sUite world wasahappy place. ,the successortothe KOffice paintbrushes. Theycan be productivitysuitefor KDE, has moved semantically tagged, and there’sa Open source router intobeta 1, the stageatwhich all new new, easier-to-usepop-up palette. By nowyou’reshouting“Vyatta”atme. features should have been added and Images cannow be dragged and Andquite rightly so –it’sadarned good the developersfocus insteadon dropped intothe whole suitefrom consideration. But theproblem Ihaveisthis. polishing what’sthere. manymoresources,making it easier If IwereinLondon, Iwould be hard-pressed to ,the suite’sstar app,now has to work with, and Calligra now getthe levelofresponse Ineed on aVyatta- an improvedsystemfor managing supportsthe SVG graphicsformat. basednetwork.WithCisco IknowIcan geta replacement forablown-uprouterwithinfour LinUXdistRo hours, andthat if IwantedanengineerIcould By the time youreadthis,the have oneofthose as well;the same isn’ttrue latest version of Germany’s withthe open source alternative. number one distroshould be But I’monasmall rock in themiddle of the available fortesting. OpenSUSE Channel Islands,whichasfar as Iknowhas an 12.1 promises the usual smattering of cutting-edge open source router skill base of approximately technology,including support for OpenSUSE12.1 should be with us zero.Let’s hope this changes soon, because Btrfssnapshots. Perhapsthe on 11 November. thecommercialrouterworld is biggest changethough is that ripe forsomecompetition. Tu mbleweed,the Arch-style rolling in OpenSUSE11.4, will nowwork

David is an IT consultant withapenchant for packagemanager that wastrialled across the whole system. cross-platform integration, CTIand proper beer.

10 LXF151 December 2011 www.linuxformat.com