Full Circle THE INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE FOR THE UBUNTU LINUX COMMUNITY ISSUE #61 - May 2012 AUDIO FLUX NEW SECTION ON FREE CC MUSIC ) m o c . r k c i l F ( 4 8 9 1 m o d l l i h n w o d : o t o h p DDVVDD RRIIPPPPIINNGG && EENNCCOODDIINNGG FFOOUURR SSYYSSTTEEMMSS:: TTIIMMEEDD AANNDD TTEESSTTEEDD

full circle magazine #61 1 full circle magazine is neither affiliated with, nor endorsed by, Canonical Ltd. contents ^ HowTo Full Circle Opinions THE INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE FOR THE UBUNTU LINUX COMMUNITY My Story p.38 Python - Part 33 p.07 Columns

Use The TOP Command p.10 Linux News p.04 Audio Flux p.52 My Opinion p.42

VirtualBox Networking p.15 Command & Conquer p.05 Ubuntu Games p.53 I Think... p.43

GIMP - Beanstalk Pt2 p.21 Linux Labs p.29 Q&A p.50 Book Review p.45

BACK NEXT MONTH

Inkscape - Part 1 p.24 Ubuntu Women p.XX Closing Windows p.32 Letters p.46 Graphics

The articles contained in this magazine are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. This means you can adapt, copy, distribute and transmit the articles but only under the following conditions: you must attribute the work to the original author in some way (at least a name, email or URL) and to this magazine by name ('Full Circle Magazine') and the URL www.fullcirclemagazine.org (but not attribute the article(s) in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you must distribute the resulting work under the same, similar or a compatible license. Full Circle magazine is entirely independent of Canonical, the sponsor of the Ubuntu projects, and the views and opinions in the magazine should in no way be assumed tfoulhl acivrecleCamnaognaiczainlee#nd6o1rseme2nt. contents ^ EEDDIITTOORRIIAALL

This magazine was created using :

Welcome to another issue of Full Circle!

ave you all finished playing with 12.04 yet? I upgraded my Kubuntu 11.10 to 12.04 a couple of days after the release and, I have to admit, the upgrade was flawless. I had to leave it downloading overnight though, as I assume the servers H were being hammered. Top marks to the Kubuntu team. I hope your upgrades went just as well.

No LibreOffice this month, Elmer is a bit busy in the real-world. Instead, you have an excellent tutorial on the TOP command. Top is a task manager app which you run from the command line. Robin Catling (he of the missing podcast) has written a four-part article on Full Circle Podcast VirtualBox networking. Rather than run it across four issues, I've crammed it into this one Released monthly, each episode issue. He's already called me 'nuts' (among other names) for running it in one article. We're covers all the latest Ubuntu news, adding a village and the beanstalk in my GIMP tutorial, and, while it's a bit early in the year, opinions, reviews, interviews and you'll be making a snowman in the Inkscape tutorial. Instead of a software review, we have listener feedback. The Side-Pod is a new addition, it's an extra a book review this month. Have a read through my review, then click the link to get a (irregular) short-form podcast discount. Exclusive to Full Circle readers! which is intended to be a branch of the main podcast. It's Returning like a blast from the past - which he is - is Nicola Cappellini. Nicola was a somewhere to put all the general technology and non-Ubuntu stuff proofreader many moons ago, and actually came up with, and wrote, our writers’ that doesn’t fit in the main guidelines. He has returned with a music column - where he'll suggest Creative Commons podcast. songs (next month), sites (this month) and software. Hosts: Robin Catling All the best, and keep in touch! Ed Hewitt Ronnie Dave Wilkins [email protected] http://fullcirclemagazine.org

full circle magazine #61 3 contents ^ LLIINNUUXX NNEEWWSS

Ubuntu 12.10 named as Tiny PC Runs Linux and Linux Mint 13 “Maya” "Quantal Quetzal" Android 4.0--and Costs RC released! EPUB Just $74 Finally, we have mobile editions of Full Circle on the downloads irst we saw the Raspberry page. At the moment, there are Pi and the Cotton Candy only a couple of issues online, devices emerge. The but we're hoping to have back F latest to appear [is] the issues online shortly. If you've MK802 micro-PC, a USB-sized any problems with the epub device priced at $74. file/formatting, you can drop an he challenge of coming email to Jens at: Featuring a single-core 1.5GHz [email protected] up with a code name for AllWinner A10 Cortex A8 ARM the successor to Ubuntu processor, Android 4.0, 512MB of Big thanks to Jens, and the 12.04 LTS, "Precise vailable in two editions, T DDR3 high-capacity memory, and beta testers, for making them a Pangolin" which is due to be Linux Mint 13 features WiFi connectivity. reality. released this week, has been met the choice between a by Mark Shuttleworth announcing With a MALI400 graphics A productive, stable and the new name for 12.10. "Quantal processing unit, the device [...] mature MATE 1.2 desktop and the Quetzal" is the name announced in brand new modern-looking and features 4GB Flash storage, a Google Currents a blog posting by Shuttleworth, microSD slot, and two USB ports: exciting Cinnamon 1.4. These two who writes that it would be one full-sized and one micro. Video desktops are among the best Google Currents has been redundant to use "Quality" as part output is via 1080p HDMI and users available, they’re perfectly Every release released worldwide, so install it of the code name, as " can tap either an Android virtual integrated within Linux Mint and has quality first these days on your Android/Apple devices, ". keyboard or add a wireless mouse represent great alternatives to search for 'full circle' (in the and keyboard. Perhaps best of all is Gnome 2 users. Linux Mint 13 is app) and add issues 55-60 to The Quetzal is a family of birds that users can run Ubuntu, Debian, also an LTS (Long Term Support) your app. Or, you can click the found in western Mexico with or another Linux distribution of release and it will be supported links on the FCM download mostly iridescent green plumage. their choice via microSD card. until April 2017. page for those issues. Source: h-online.com Source: pcadvisor.co.uk Source: linuxmint.com

full circle magazine #61 4 contents ^ CCOOMMMMAANNDD && CCOONNQQUUEERR Written by Lucas Westermann TTiippss && TTrriicckkss IIII

n last month's article, I posed referred back to them). Any Music Player Daemon information. Dvol: a script to adjust volume the question whether or not specific questions can always be This could be adapted, but it's (including an on screen display readers would be interested in directed to me at the email essentially useless to anyone who using dzen) I a thorough article covering my address listed below. doesn't use MPD (though, I don't configuration files. The response I see a reason why you wouldn't use volstate: A volume state script had to this question made me feel Window Manager MPD!). that pulls information about the like there may be some interest in volume (muted, or a percentage of the files, and so I will be posting The .xmonad.hs is the The .conkyrc file is my “main” total volume if unmuted). links to my configuration files, and configuration file for my window conky instance with a bit of system explanations of what they do and manager of choice (XMonad), and information in it. It uses a lua file Mpd-cover: A script (not why I need them. The scripts are in is unimportant for anyone who to create a smooth semi- created by me) that downloads my github here: isn't using it. I combine this with transparent background, but could album art for a song using https://github.com/lswest/dotfiles the .conkyrc_dwm_bar file to easily be used without it. information from MPD, and saves it /tree/master/C&C (this folder is create my task bar (it was originally into a .covers folder. Works fairly not going to be updated unless I used in DWM, hence the name). The .conkyrc_reminders file well, unless you have weird have to make corrections – my contains a front-end for my python symbols or exotic music. actual current files will always be General terminal settings: To Do scripts (see issue #46). It in master/). The rest of the files are more formats text documents into a Packages-short: An indicator general. The .Xdefaults file bulleted list using the file names script for new updates (using An example screenshot of my contains my colors and settings for for the section names. pacman, an alternative with apt- system: rxvt-unicode. I also use Zshell, so get would be: ) http://lswest.deviantart.com/art/M my .zshrc file is a bit more detailed Further scripts include: arch-2012-Screenshot-289550803 than a similar .bashrc file. I do, jDate: a customized Japanese- however, use the Vim-Powerline Wallpapers.sh, which selects a language date and clock that I use I won't be going in-depth about symbols (see issue #59), so be random wallpaper from a specific with conky and dzen as a taskbar. all the options I use in my files, aware of that if you carry over my folder every 15 minutes (easily since it would result in a very, very PS1 prompt. extendable). That essentially sums up my list long article, and most of it of configuration files. It may seem wouldn't apply to every reader. Conky files Mpd-info: a script to yank music like a lot (or very little, depending Instead, I feel most of the files are (all lua scripts are in scripts/): state & song information, and on what you're used to), but it clear (and, where I have discussed The .conkyl_mpd file creates a format them for a single-line covers a rather wide range of them in previous articles, I have lua-based conky instance with conky. settings. Occasionally, I find myself

full circle magazine #61 5 contents ^ COMMAND & CONQUER CCOODDEEWWOORRDD Every number in the codewords grid is 'code' for a letter of the alphabet. At the end you should have a different letter in each numbered box, and a word in English in each of the horizontal and vertical runs on the codeword grid.

tweaking a single file or adding a email me, please include “C&C” or small script to solve a particular “FCM” in the subject line, so that I issue I have, but otherwise I'm don't overlook it. For anyone who quite content with the current does use one of my configuration setup. I also find this combination files, consider letting me know if to be the most efficient I've used you find a new use for it (or adjust to date. So, for anyone who's it any way). Who knows? Maybe looking for a way to work more someone else will find it useful – or efficiently, I highly recommend maybe I've been trying to do using conky to display relevant something similar for a long time. information on the desktop, and a tiling window manager for actual work.

If you have any questions, Lucas has learned all he knows from comments, or suggestions, feel repeatedly breaking his system, then Solutions are on the second last page. having no other option but to free to email me at discover how to fix it. You can email puzzles are copyright, and kindly provided by, [email protected]. If you do Lucas at: [email protected]. The Puzzle Club - www.thepuzzleclub.com

full circle magazine #61 6 contents ^ HHOOWW--TTOO Written by Greg D. Walters BBeeggiinnnniinngg PPyytthhoonn -- PPaarrtt 3333

his time, we’ll set up the over to Save the file and move on to and update the platforms that are Android SDK on our Linux http://developer.android.com/sdk/i step 2. available. I will warn you now that desktop. We’ll also create nstalling.html to see all the steps this process will take some time, so in the suggested order. Let’s get don’t bother if you don’t have a lot T a virtual Android device, STEP 2 - Android SDK install SL4A and python on it, and started. of time to deal with it. For the sake do a quick test. Starter Pack of brevity, I would suggest you get STEP 1 - Java JDK 6 only one platform to start. A good Please be aware, this is not Now the actual “fun” begins. one to begin with is the Android something you would want to do From everything I’ve read and You’ll want to go to 2.1 platform, since, for the most for machines that have less than 1 tried, it must be the actual Sun developer.android.com/sdk/index. part, if you develop for an older GB of ram. The emulator eats up a release. OpenJDK is not supposed html. This is where the SDK is platform, there should be no huge amount of memory. I’ve tried to work. You can find information located. Download the latest problem running on a newer it on a laptop running Ubuntu with on this on the web, but here’s the version for Linux, which, at the platform. You also need to get the only 512 MB of ram. It WILL work, steps that I did. In a terminal, type time of this writing, is android- Tools set as well. Simply check the but it is REALLY slow. the following... sdk_r18-linux.tgz. Using Archive box next to those two items, then Manager, unpack it somewhere click on the install button. Once Here’s a quick list of what we’ll sudo add­apt­repository convenient. I put it in my home you get the platform of your do. We’ll go step-by-step in a ppa:ferramroberto/java directory. Everything runs directly choice, and the tool set, you are minute. from this folder, so you really don’t almost ready to create your first • Install the Java JDK6. sudo apt­get update have to install anything. So the virtual machine. • Install the Android SDK starter path for me is sudo apt­get install sun­ pack. java6­jdk /home/greg/android-sdk-linux. STEP 3 - Create and set • Create and setup AVDs. Navigate to this folder, then go to up your first AVD • Test AVD, and install SL4A and Once everything here is done, the tools folder. There you will find Python. you will want to edit your .bashrc a file called “android”. This is what runs the actual SDK. I created a Back in the Android SDK file to set “JAVA_HOME” so Manager, select Tools from the In reality, we should also install launcher on my desktop to make it everything runs correctly. I used main menu, then select Manage Eclipse and the Android ADT plugin easy to get to. gedit and, at the bottom of the AVDs. This will open a new window. for Eclipse, but, since we won’t be file, I added the following line... Since this is the first time, there dealing with Eclipse in this set of Now the boring part. Run the won’t be any virtual devices set up. articles, we can bypass that. If you export android file, and the Android SDK Click on the “New” button. This want to include those steps, head JAVA_HOME=”/usr/lib/jvm/java­ Manager will start. It will go out 6­sun­1.6.0.06” opens yet another window where

full circle magazine #61 7 contents ^ HOWTO - BEGINNING PYTHON 33 we define the properties of the button. In the dialog box that pops make your programming transition Home - Home virtual Android device. Here’s the up, simply click the “Launch” easier. You’ll see the download Menu - F2 steps that you should use to set up button. Now, you have to wait a start. You may have to pull down a simple Android emulator device: few minutes for the virtual device the notification bar at the top to Now we will want to download • Set the name of the device. This to be created in memory, and the get to the downloaded file. Tap on and install python into SL4A. To do is important if you have more than Android platform to be that, then tap the install this, first tap Menu (press F2). one device. loaded and started. button. Select “View” from the menu. Now • Set the target platform level. (We’ll talk about select “Interpreters”. It looks like • Set the size of the SD card (see speeding this Once the file is nothing happened, but tap Menu below). process up in downloaded, again (F2), then select “Add” from • Set the skin resolution. later runs.) you’ll be the popup. Now scroll down and • Create the device. presented with select “Python 2.6.2”. This will Once the the option to download the base package for So, In the name text box, type AVD starts up open the Python for Android. Install the “Test1”. Under the target combo- and you have downloaded package, then open it. You will be box, select Android 2.1 - API Level the “home” app or to tap presented with four options. 7. In the text box for “SD Card:” screen up, you “Done” to exit Install, Import Modules, Browse enter 512 and make sure the will install SL4A. the installer. Modules, and Uninstall Module. dropdown shows “MiB”. Under Using the Here we will want Tap on Install. This will start “Skin”, set the resolution to browser or the to tap “Open”. downloading and installing all the 800x600. (You can play with the google web search pieces of the latest Python for other built-in sizes on your own.) box on the home screen, Now SL4A will start. Android. This can take a few Finally, click the “Create AVD” search for “sl4a”. Go to the You’ll probably see a dialog minutes. button. Soon, you’ll see a message downloads page, and you’ll asking if you will agree to usage box saying that the AVD was eventually find the web page for tracking. Either accept or refuse Once everything is done, tap created. the downloads at this - it’s up to you. Before we go Back (escape key) until you get to http://code.google.com/p/android- any farther, you should know some the SL4A Interpreters screen. Now STEP 4 - Testing the scripting/downloads/list. keyboard shortcuts that will help everything is loaded for us to play you move around. Since we don’t in Python on Android. Tap Python AVD and installing Scroll down the page until you have a “real” Android device, 2.6.2, and you’ll be in the SL4A and Python get to the sl4a_r5 link. Open the buttons like Back, Home, and “standard” Python shell. This is just link and tap on the “sl4a_r5.apk” Menu, aren’t available. You’ll need like the shell on your desktop. Type Now, finally, we can have a bit link. Notice I said “tap” rather than them to navigate around. Here’s a the following three lines, one at a of fun. Highlight the AVD you just “click”. Start thinking about using few important shortcuts. time, into the shell. Be sure to wait created and click on the Start your finger to tap the screen rather for the “>>>” prompt each time. than clicking the mouse. It will Back - Escape

full circle magazine #61 8 contents ^ HOWTO - BEGINNING PYTHON 33 import android You should be presented with the Name the file andtest1.py, then sample scripts that come with droid = android.Android() tap Done, and tap “Save & Run”. If Python 4 Android. Tap the Menu everything worked, you should see button and select “Add”. Select droid.makeToast(“Hello from a dialog box asking for your name. Python on Android”) “Python 2.6.2” from the list. You’ll After you enter it, you should see be presented with the script editor. the alert at the bottom of the O'Reilly are looking forward to celebrating Velocity's 5th Year with you After you type the last line and At the top is the filename box with screen saying “Hello Your Name “.py” already filled out. Below that June 25-27, at the Santa Clara press Enter, you’ll see a rounded from Python on Android”. Convention Center. You'll meet the corner box at the center bottom of is the editor window that already smartest people working in web the shell that says “Hello from has the first two lines of our That’s all for this time. For now, performance and operations at the O'Reilly Velocity Conference. Web and Python on Android”. That’s what program entered for us. (I included there’s a TON of documentation them below in italics so you can mobile users expect better the “droid.makeToast” command about SL4A for free on the web. performance than ever before. To check it. We also used these two does. You can play a bit on your own until meet, and exceed, their expectations, lines in our first sample.) next time. I’d suggest that you you need to master a daunting array of web performance, operations, and You’ve written your first Python start by going to import android mobile performance issues. Velocity script for Android. Neat, huh? http://code.google.com/p/android- offers the best opportunity to learn the droid = android.Android() scripting/wiki/Tutorials. newest info on what you need to know Now let’s create a shortcut on to build a faster and stronger web. the Android home screen. Tap the Now, enter the following two Take advantage of this rare opportunity Home key (Home button). If you lines to the python script. to meet face-to-face with a cadre of chose the 2.1 platform, you should industry leaders who are taking web see a slider bar on the far right of uname = performance and operations to the the screen. If you chose another droid.dialogGetInput(“What’s next level. Velocity packs a wealth of your name?”) big ideas, know-how, and connections platform, it might be a square or into three concentrated days. You'll be rectangle consisting of small able to apply what you've learned droid.makeToast(“Hello %s immediately and you'll be well squares. Either way, this gets you from Python on Android”) % to the Apps screen. Tap that, and prepared for what lies ahead with four uname.result in-depth tracks covering the key find the SL4A icon. Now perform a aspects of web performance, “long tap” (long click), which will The first new line will create a operations, mobile performance, and create a shortcut on the Home dialog box (droid.dialogGetInput()) Greg is the owner of RainyDay Velocity culture. screen. Move the shortcut Solutions, LLC, a consulting company that asks for the user’s name. The in Aurora, Colorado, and has been Velocity has sold out the last two years, wherever you want it. response is returned to our programming since 1972. He enjoys so if you want to reserve your spot at program in uname.result. We’ve cooking, hiking, music, and spending Velocity 2012, register now and save an Next, we will create our first already used the droid.makeToast() time with his family. His website is additional 20% with code FULLCIR. www.thedesignatedgeek.net. saved script. Go back into SL4A. function.

full circle magazine #61 9 contents ^ HHOOWW--TTOO Written by Kevin O’Brien UUssee TThhee TTOOPP CCoommmmaanndd

ne of the great usage maxed out at 100% and advantages of using stayed there (usually as a result of Linux is that there are Flash, which cannot die soon O some great tools enough, but that is a rant for available to help you understand another day). When that happens, what is going on with your the top command lets me quickly computer and diagnose possible check and see what application is problems. One of the most useful problematic so I can kill it. is the top command. I am going to cover some of the things you can One of the nice things about do, and maybe mention one or two the top command is that it is other commands as well. interactive as long as you have it up in the terminal. So, you can kill a First of all, just to get it out of process quite easily by simply the way, there is an alternative typing a k with the terminal open called htop, and I do plan to cover and top running. This will open a it later. But htop generally needs computer, and you can see the percentage of the total available. prompt above the process list to be installed before you can use Process ID for each one, how much This is important to know, since if asking you which process to kill. it, while top should already be on RAM each one is using, what your CPU is maxing out you will see Just enter the Process ID of the your system, making it a good percentage of the CPU each one is degraded performance. This can misbehaving application and it will starting point. Usage of the using, the owner of each process, show up as lags in responding to be gone. command is simple: just open a etc. Then you can see all sorts of keyboard and/or mouse input, terminal/console and type top. The cryptic numbers above this listing. jerkiness on audio or video Now, if you are looking at the result will be something like the We will cover all of it either in this playback, etc. On my Kubuntu screenshot of top running on my image shown right. article or one to follow, but to get desktop, I have a side panel set up computer you may have noticed there we need to get going! with monitors for CPU usage, CPU something. I said that it gave the There is a lot of information on temperature, Memory usage, Swap CPU usage as a percentage of the this screen, so it will take us a little CPU Usage usage, and network traffic - so that total. And if you looked carefully time to go through all of the I can monitor these critical you might have seen that the options. What you can see right percentages add up to more than By default, top lists processes in functions and prevent problems away is that this is listing 100%. How can that be, you ask? order of the amount of CPU each from getting out of hand. I have processes running on your Well, the answer is that it is one is using, expressed as a seen situations where the CPU

full circle magazine #61 10 contents ^ HOWTO - USE THE TOP COMMAND looking at these as percentages of niceness number, which appears in press a lower case letter n, then the core that the process is the column NI. In the screen Memory enter, and get a listing in order of running on. Since this computer is capture you see that all of these memory percentage used. Or you a dual-core machine, it has two processes are running at a Next to the column on CPU can sort in other ways if needed. processors and can distribute niceness number of 0. What that usage in the screenshot is a individual processes to whichever means is that they are running at a column for memory usage, again Again, this is useful if you find core it wishes. So I could default priority which has not been expressed as a percentage of the you are running out of memory theoretically see up to 200% if I altered in any way. Niceness total available. In this case, it and need to know where it is added up the numbers here numbers run from -20 to +19, with happens that the process using the going. If one process is using a lot (though that would be bad since it -20 being the highest priority. I most CPU is also the one using the of memory unexpectedly, that would indicate I was maxed out). If said that 0 is the default, but you most memory, which is not would definitely be an indication. I had a quad-core, I could have up can check it on your system by unusual. But suppose you wanted That does imply you have some to 400%, etc. running the command nice without to see your processes sorted in the idea of what constitutes normal in any arguments. What is returned is order of the memory they these situations. The best way to Priority and Niceness the default niceness level. I will consume? Well, as I mentioned build a sense of that is to check leave this topic here for now, but if before, the top command is periodically, and observe what is you want to know more there is a interactive. To change the sort going on. In my case, I build my The idea of niceness is to order, just press an upper-case determine which processes should good web page on this topic at machines with 16GB of RAM these http://www.ibm.com/developerwo letter O while the command is days, so I don't expect to see very get more goodies when running, running in the terminal. This brings and which should be put in the rks/linux/library/l-lpic1-v3-103-6/. high percentage usage in most This article will explain how you up a very useful screenful of sort cases. For instance, right now I background. In other words, to set options (shown below). some priorities of access to the can change niceness levels for have my bottom panel filled with CPU. This is done by using a certain processes if you wish to do program icons for programs I have so. With this screen open you can open (18 of them right now), and a

full circle magazine #61 11 contents ^ HOWTO - USE THE TOP COMMAND quick scan of the output of top One of the users is root, but you shows I am using somewhere in the should never run as root for 35-40% range of my total memory. ordinary activities. That is a dangerous and insecure practice. In the screenshot, you do see System Data As long as you are logged in as one big memory hog, but that is Line 1, the Top line root, any software that runs on actually expected. I had VirtualBox We’ve looked at some basics of your system has root-level On the first line (above), we open and running a virtual machine the top command, and focused on privileges. The preferred way to have the uptime. Actually, this is at the time, and I had configured it looking at the process listings to run is to create an ordinary user information you could get using to use 4GB of RAM (plus other spot and correct possible who does not have quite so high a the uptime command as well: resources, of course.) So, in this problems. This is still a very useful level of rights, and run as that user. case, I did see what I expected to thing, of course, but there is also a In this case, that user is kevin. By So this is a clue that the top see. But if I saw Firefox using that lot of system data in the output the way, Ubuntu makes it very command is gathering information much memory, I would know it was that is useful. Recall the difficult for you to do anything that is available individually from a problem and I would shut it down screenshot we used last time to other than this procedure. If you other commands and bringing it promptly. display the output of this need higher rights, you use the together in one package of command (shown below) sudo command to give yourself awesome goodness. Very temporary privileges. q for Quit convenient that is. Now we want to focus on those numbers on the top that are The last part of this line is called If you have top running in your So in order we see that the time presenting some very useful load. These three numbers are terminal, you might want to know is 15:52:05, and the computer has system data. So let's start at the giving the load for the previous 1, how to get out of it, and that is been up over 17 days. It has two top (literally): 5, and 15 minutes. But what is simple, just press the letter q (for users right now, which is normal. Quit), and you will be back at your load? It is the average number of terminal prompt. You can get more processes that are runnable, or are information in either of two ways: uninterruptible. Basically, without the old-school way is to type man getting too technical, it is how top in the terminal, but the new, occupied the CPU is most of the improved, way is to type info top. time. But the wrinkle is that it is Though I think you will find the not adjusted (normalized) for the same result either way. The point number of CPUs. What this means is that this is a rich command with is that a single CPU system with a a lot of options load of 1 is loaded all of the time. But on my dual core system, I never got to 2, so I am OK. If you had a Interpretation of quad-core, the magic number

full circle magazine #61 12 contents ^ HOWTO - USE THE TOP COMMAND would be 4, and so on. Apache, MySQL, etc. If this read from the swap area, and more percentage is very high, it can be Lines 4 & 5, Memory RAM would eliminate this problem. Line 2, Tasks an indication of a problem, since and Swap we have other demands to Now, one of the things you There is nothing interesting to consider. For example, the next These two lines are best need to understand to interpret see here. That last category, statistic is %sy, which is the addressed together, since you this data is that writing to the hard zombie, sounds like it ought to be percentage of CPU cycles that are need to combine this information drive and reading from it is at least interesting, but it really taken up by the kernel and by to tell a complete story. What we approximately 4 gazillion times isn't. Zombie processes are runs other system processes. Obviously need to know is how much memory slower than reading and writing to that have finished running, and will you need to have some cycles is being used, and how much is RAM. So you want to minimize the shortly be closed. available for this or you won't have available, at any one time. This is use of swap for performance a functioning computer. The third important because lack of RAM is reasons. But because RAM is so one, %id, is percentage of time the the most common cause of a slow, much faster than the hard drive, Line 3, CPU(s) CPU is idle, and the higher the sluggish computer. This can the operating system will prefer to better here (within reason, you sometimes look like a different use it whenever possible. One way This is worth a look or two. Last need to actually use the problem altogether, which is why it to speed things up is to keep code time we looked at the processes computer!). As long as you have is important to look at the actual in memory even when you have on the bottom of the top some reasonable idle time data. For instance, if you noticed closed the program. After all, you command's output to see if any available, you probably don't have your hard drive was constantly might open it up again, and pulling one process was hogging things. a problem. You can double-check “chattering” (known as thrashing), it from RAM will speed it up a lot. On this line, instead of looking at this by looking at the fourth you might think you had a hard So the operating system caches a the individual processes, we are statistic, %wa. This is the drive or I/O problem, but in fact lot of code in RAM that is not looking at the total picture of what percentage of time that a process this is most commonly caused by a currently being actively used. is going on. And here we don't had to wait for access to the CPU. lack of RAM. When there is not Because of this, the reported RAM need to worry about how many In this case, .2% is good. You won't enough RAM to hold all of the usage will look like you are on the cores we have, these numbers be likely to see this at 0.0% too program code and data currently in verge of running out, but this may aggregate all of the data for all much, since, by the nature of use, some of it gets copied out to not be the case. You need to look cores. computing, processes are the hard drive (called paging) to at all of the data to assess this. competing for CPU time, but a high free up space for other code and The first statistic is %us, which number here would definitely data. The place where this data In this case, we start off by in this case is 32.0%. This is the indicate a problem. gets copied is called the swap area. noting that this machine has percentage of the CPU cycles that So when your hard drive is 15,949,272k of RAM. In other are taken up by user processes. The rest of the statistics are constantly thrashing, it usually words, 16GB, which I knew because This does not necessarily mean pretty ignorable, as they deal with means that code and data is that is what I installed in this box. ones that a person started, they really obscure issues, but you can constantly being written to and And the next number says that can mean processes kicked off by look them in the man page for top. practically all of this 16GB is being

full circle magazine #61 13 contents ^ HOWTO - USE THE TOP COMMAND used. Is this a problem? Not really. individual processes as the top If you look at the second line, you command. Processes are still listed see that I have 6GB of swap space, in order of CPU usage by default, but hardly any of it is being used (I you still see the process ID, User, am using just under 2MB of RAM CPU%, and MEM%, just as before. here). And the last number tells You can see the command that the story. Of my 16GB of RAM, launched the process, instead of fully half of it, 8GB, is being used just the program name. Unlike top, to cache code. If I wanted to open htop lets you scroll horizontally a program that was already in the using the arrow keys. cache, great, the code is already there and it will open quickly. If I On htop, you do have one want to open some other program, interesting addition, which is a the operating system will delete separate graphical display of the some of the code that is in cache CPU usage for each CPU or core to free up the space, so there is no that you have, in this case 1 and 2 problem. since it is a dual-core machine. And you can see the memory and swap priority by raising the nice number. In summary, I think htop is very Htop, the Alternative usage in ways that you might find But be aware that to give a really useful, but I tend to use top more easier to read. Uptime. Loads, and high priority to a process you often for two reasons. First is that I I actually prefer top, but some Tasks, are shown on the top right. would need to have root access, like the more detailed information people like htop better, and I think perhaps by using the command it gives me. And second is that I you will see why. For some things it The real advantage of htop know it will be available on any sudo htop is easier to work with, particularly comes when you want to do system I am likely to sit down to, if you need to do some tasks something to one or more of your while htop will need to be Personally, I don't have much related to processes. But note that processes. You simply use the up installed, and that means a reason to mess with this, but the it is not installed by default on and down arrow to highlight the working Internet connection, worst that could happen is that many systems, so you will need to process, then use one of the which I might not have. But, in you would need to reboot your install it first. On Ubuntu machines, function keys shown on the general, these two commands do computer if you really screw it up. install it with bottom. For instance, if you much the same thing, and are a highlight a process and then press crucial addition to your Linux tool sudo apt­get install htop F9 you will kill the process. Other function keys let you kit. Pressing F7 (Nice -) will lower the quickly change the sort order, First, you can see that it nice number, thus increasing the change the field to sort on, and so presents much the same data on priority (yes, this is not intuitive). on. And pressing F8 will reduce the

full circle magazine #61 14 contents ^ HHOOWW--TTOO Written by Robin Catling VViirrttuuaallBBooxx NNeettwwoorrkkiinngg

his all started when I time, you'll need just one. Usually hardware available to your virtual Mode : the rather racy sounding needed to run a when you create a virtual machine, machine (VM). VirtualBox will do 'Promiscuous Mode' has to do with sandboxed instance of you can leave VirtualBox to get on its best to mediate the virtual the behaviour of the virtual switch T Wordpress. The simple with creating a single network network card with whatever used by Internal Networking; part was creating a virtual Ubuntu adapter - allowing you to see out physical adapters you have on your Bridged and Host Only. You can 11.10 server as a guest inside my onto the Internet. host machine. Open the Advanced make a VM's network port accept VirtualBox host. Then I discovered I pane and you get additional traffic targeted for other virtual knew much less about networking You might need multiple options for setting up your machines, or even the host, in than I thought, a topic full of adapters of different types, or the network adapter. I'm going to run addition to traffic addressed packets and switches and routing. I same type with different settings, through the settings deliberately specifically to it. Promiscuous know even less about networking according to the use of your virtual out of sequence, starting with the Mode is something 99% of users in VirtualBox, where all that stuff machine and the networks - Adapter type. should never touch, and is there in is virtualized in software. Several physical and virtual - to which it is cases where you need to diagnose attempts and a networking crash- connected. Adapter Type : VirtualBox will the cause of certain network course later, mission accomplished, attempt to emulate some common problems. and, to save you my pain, here's types of network cards for which it what I found. has the drivers and protocols. MAC Address : short for Media PCnet-FAST III is the default Access Control, the MAC address is VirtualBox Network selection, although I often select a hardware address that uniquely the Intel PRO/1000MT adapters if identifies each network resource Options I'm looking for better compatibility or node of a network. It is a unique with Intel hardware. There are two identifying number for something Install any version of VirtualBox server versions for higher that is usually hard coded into from 3.0 onwards, and you'll find throughput if you intend your VM physical network adapters. similar layouts and capabilities. to run hot in a production VirtualBox generates the MAC environment. Desktop users addresses of virtual machine For any of your installed virtual needn't worry. If you have a network cards. machines, click on Settings > problem with one of the Adapter Network. This is the default view. For my virtual web-server types, you can try another, There is a little button on the Any virtual machine can have up to running Wordpress, things get a bit including a PCnet-FAST II for older right to regenerate the MAC four network adapters - which you more complex, so here we go... The machines. address; should you clone a virtual can enable as needed. Most of the Adapter Type defines the virtual machine, it will need its own

full circle magazine #61 15 contents ^ HOWTO - VIRTUALBOX NETWORKING unique MAC to run on your virtual across the other controls. This is via a private IP address that cannot updates and web-surfing, but is network alongside the original. where VirtualBox networking can be seen from the host, or indeed, invisible to the rest of your seem like medieval sorcery. the rest of your physical network. network. The Cable connected check-box Following through the right It will allow you to browse the web, does the same thing as plugging or selection for your given purpose download files, and view e-mail The VirtualBox manual is a little unplugging a physical cable. This is can be simple. There may even be inside the guest, but the outside more explicit: the setting that connects your multiple right answers to achieve world will never be able to virtual network adapter to your your goal. But everything else communicate with the guest “In NAT mode, the guest virtual network. It is different from looks doomed to failure: I know... machine directly. network interface is assigned to the top-most check-box for Enable the IPv4 range 10.0.x.0/24 by Network Adapter, which allows you Attached to Network When a guest machine sends an default, where x corresponds to to effectively insert or pull the IP packet to some remote machine, the instance of the NAT interface network adapter from the types the VirtualBox NAT service will +2. So x is 2 when there is only one machine. intercept the packet, extract the NAT instance active. In that case, We have four workable options TCP/IP segments, change the IP the guest is assigned to the Finally, the Port Forwarding here: address to the IP address of the address 10.0.2.15, the gateway is button opens another dialog • Network Address Translation, host machine, then send it. The set to 10.0.2.2 and the name server allowing you to define the traffic which is the default, outside world only sees the IP can be found at 10.0.2.3.” (Oracle rules for the adapter; how traffic • Bridged, address of the host machine. Corporation, 2012, Chapter 9) of certain types is routed between • Host Only, and Replies are received by the host NAT is useful when you don't host and guest. This applies only to • Internal Network. machine and sent on to the Guest really care what IP addresses your certain network attachments Machine. guest machines use, so long as which we will look at next. This is 'Not attached' is also a type, but they are unique. You will need to determined by the Attached to used for the purpose of keeping an For example, on your home do more configuration when you option (with its little pal, the Name adapter in place for network, your host and other need to forward traffic or expose option), which is the sharp end of troubleshooting. In this mode, physical machines will typically services like a web-server to the networking in VirtualBox, and the VirtualBox reports to the guest have addresses starting in the outside world. Additionally, you thing that gave me most trouble at that a network card is present, but 192.168.x.x range. In VirtualBox, cannot enable file and folder the start of my experiment. that there is no connection. NAT adapters will be begin at sharing over the network. 10.0.2.1, incrementing addresses 'Here be dragons.' Network Address up to 10.0.2.24 in what's called a Bridged Adapter Translation (NAT) sub-net. This is not usually routed There are four types of network onto the main network, so this sub- Under the Bridged Adapter, net will be inaccessible from your attachment available, and many NAT enables the guest machine your virtual machines behave as host. Your guest is able to see out possible combinations of settings to see out onto the Internet, but any other computer on the onto the Internet for software

full circle magazine #61 16 contents ^ HOWTO - VIRTUALBOX NETWORKING network where the hosting system to access them, we need to set up network device on your hosts, so resides; the bridged adapter port forwarding to access the there is no direct network access bridges the virtual and physical guests from the host (I have to NAT-ed machines and no access networks. The outside world can servers on some of my guests). to applications and data on the directly communicate with the Bridged Networking allows access, host itself. Let's look at an guest machine. but the guests are exposed. example. If your network access device The Bridged Adapter connects (be it a router, switch, or hard through the host to your default configuration by your ISP) will not network device that allocates IP allocate more than one IP address, addresses for your physical you probably can't use Bridged network. VirtualBox connects to eth0 doesn't even have a cable. networking. one of your installed network So my host connects as cards and exchanges network Host-only Adapter packets directly; it bridges the 192.168.0.2, allocated by the router. My bridged virtual machine virtual and physical networks. In Under the Host-only adapter, normal use, it will try to get a pops up and requests its own IP address which the router allocates virtual machines can communicate standard 192.168.x.x IP address between each other and with the Typically your host has its own from your router, so that your as 192.168.2.6, neither knowing network address, the one it uses to nor caring that VirtualBox is hosting system but not outside. virtual machine can look like a The Host-only adapter uses its own access the Internet - commonly perfectly respectable physical handling the pass-through of 192.168.0.101. Under Host-only, traffic via the host. My virtual dedicated network device, called device alongside all the other vboxnet0, to set up a sub-net and the host machine also becomes the ironmongery on your network. machine becomes just another VirtualBox router, with the default device on the local network. If I allocates IP addresses to guest machines. The guest machines IP address of 192.168.56.1. The You may have more than one count my host and three VM's Host creates an internal local area under Bridged, then I have four cannot communicate with the active network device available to outside world, since they are not network serving all the guest your host; for example, my laptop machines visible on my physical machines set-up for Host-only, network. connected via a physical interface. has a wired ethernet port (called Host-only provides restricted visible to the rest of your network. eth0) and a wireless card (called services, useful for creating private The vboxnet0 adapter starts wlan0). The Name options allows Come here, there's networks under a VirtualBox host issuing IP addresses from you to choose which one you want more... for its guests. 192.168.56.101 onward, but you to bridge with VirtualBox. can change the default IP address NAT is useful because it Unlike other virtualization allocation, if you want. In my case, I use the Wireless protects our guest systems from products, the VirtualBox NAT adapter wlan0, because that is the Internet at large, but in order adapter doesn't bridge the default Similar to the Bridged adapter, connected to the router, while Host-only uses different address

full circle magazine #61 17 contents ^ HOWTO - VIRTUALBOX NETWORKING ranges. You can easily allow guest the packets are sent/received from conducting penetration testing or I begin by keeping the default machines to obtain addresses the physical network adapter in the otherwise creating a secure networking NAT adapter. This using the DCHP (dynamic Host machine, and the traffic can Intranet for a team or organisation. allows the guest machine to access allocation, which will likely be a be tapped (say, by attaching a It's an ideal way to lock down an the Internet through my host’s different address per session) that packet sniffer to the Host). environment against unauthorised connection. The guest isn't visible VirtualBox provides. software installs, downloads, to anyone else on my network; I uploads and Facebook-ing during cannot access any guest resources Additionally, the Host-only work time. from my host machine either, nor network for the host and guest can any guest machines access does not have a gateway out to the This is where you begin to see each other. Internet. It's used to just connect the different types of network the host and the guest, much like a setups come into their own, being Configure Host-only network switch. Therefore Host- fit for different purposes. Which only adapter does not provide brings me back to my start-point; Adapter in VirtualBox guest machines with Internet creating a virtual server for Manager access; vboxnet0 has no default Wordpress development and gateway, so while the addition of testing. The easy method is to use the vboxnet0 greatly simplifies The Internal network option default Host-only adapter provided networking between the Host and creates, according to the Guest Access to the by VirtualBox, this is the one guests using it, you don't get VirtualBox manual, "a software- named vboxnet0, but you can add external access or port forwarding, based network which is visible to Internet more if you want several separate so you may still need a second NAT selected virtual machines, but not Host-only networks. If you go to or Bridged adapter attached to to applications running on the host First, I need my guest machine the VirtualBox Manager main your guest to achieve full access. or to the outside world." This to be able to access the internet window and select File > provides a network containing the for installing updates, Preferences > Network, you can Internal network host and a set of virtual machines, downloading packages, and the configure vboxnet0 or add new but none of it goes through the like. I need to access it from my adapters. host machine, but I don’t want the If you want several guests host's physical network interface - it is entirely virtual, with VirtualBox server to be accessible from Click on the “Edit” button for machines to communicate with anywhere else on the network. each other on one host, but with acting as a network switch. What your Host-only network, that's the nothing else, then we can use this you get is a private LAN for your screwdriver icon titled "Edit host guest machines only, without any Selecting my guest machine only network," and you'll find the Internal network mode. Although from the VirtualBox Manager you can use Bridged Networking access to the external world, which default settings. The IP address makes it very secure. Possible uses window, I then select Settings > 192.168.56.1 is the address at for this, Internal Network is more Network. secure. In Bridged networking, all might be running a top-secret which the guests can access the development server and clients, host. I'll leave this as-is.

full circle magazine #61 18 contents ^ HOWTO - VIRTUALBOX NETWORKING shell (SSH) or browse to the guest from the host using this IP address as a test. However, this is just temporary; if I reboot, this configuration will disappear. To make it permanent, I need to add it to the /etc/network/interfaces file (as root) in the form:

I need my guest's virtual server # The host­only network to have a static IP address on the interface auto eth1 host-only network, otherwise the iface eth1 inet static address changes for every session address 192.168.56.101 and I have to work out what it is netmask 255.255.255.0 before I can access it from the network 192.168.56.0 broadcast 192.168.56.255 host. Logging into the guest, I open a terminal and issue the Once I reboot, this interface will following command: be raised automatically. I can check By default, vboxnet0 has a network consisting solely of my that it's present using the ifconfig host and any guests using host- ifconfig eth1 192.168.56.101 DHCP server set up to dynamically netmask 255.255.255.0 up command in a terminal on the allocate IP addresses on a per only. Any of the member machines guest. can access each other, but nothing session basis. I want my Wordpress This sets the IP address on my outside it can get in. virtual server to keep static IP host-only adapter for this guest, Naming of parts addresses, so on the DHCP tab, I and brings up the network So on my Adapter 2 tab for my uncheck the “Enable Server” box interface. It uses the 192 network guest, I set the Attached to option Since I'm not so good with for DHCP. prefix for domestic networks, to Host-only, and the name is the numbers and IP addresses, I'd followed by .168 for the start of Add Host-only Adapter default vboxnet0. Promiscuous rather use the guest machine name the host ID, .56 as the host-only mode doesn't matter, but I do need over the IP address. To do this I can to Guest sub-net range, and I could use use the Cable Connected checkbox add an alias to the /etc/hosts file any final identifier above .1 (my on my Host machine, so that I can I'll add another network enabled. host) on my host-only network. The browse by name to my running adapter to my guest machine, a NAT adapter is sitting on eth0, so guest. Host-Only Adapter, that enables a Configure the Guest logically the Host-only adapter is self-contained, private, virtual bound to eth1. I can now secure I edit the file (as root) adding

full circle magazine #61 19 contents ^ HOWTO - VIRTUALBOX NETWORKING the line:

192.168.56.101 ocelotsvr

If I add more guests to the host- only network, I can do the same so The Ubuntu Podcast covers all that I can address any of them, the latest news and issues facing from any of them, by name. Ubuntu Linux users and Free Software fans in general. The Any Port in a Storm? show appeals to the newest user and the oldest coder. Our The networking experts out discussions cover the there will have spotted an development of Ubuntu but alternate route to accessing my aren’t overly technical. We are virtual server. lucky enough to have some great guests on the show, telling Using my default NAT adapter, I us first hand about the latest could run some extra configuration exciting developments they are there to let me access my virtual working on, in a way that we can server from the host - without all understand! We also talk guest, the other to handle all the This also means any other using Host-only networking. other TCP traffic (http requests, about the Ubuntu community guests I wish to run can't access and what it gets up to. mostly). this virtual server, as no network I can set up port forwarding in route exists under NAT. VirtualBox, using the guest's Keeping it simple, I'll name The show is presented by Network Adapter settings panel. them Apache and TCP; and both members of the UK’s Ubuntu Going to the NAT adapter, the big use the TCP protocol. If I stick to Linux community. Because it is button at the bottom is for Port the common port numbers, 8888 covered by the Ubuntu Code of forwarding. This opens a further on the host forwarding to port 80 Conduct it is suitable for all. configuration dialog box so I can on the guest for Apache; then 2222 set the port forwarding rules for on the host forwarding to port 22 The show is broadcast live every this network adapter for this guest on the guest; this gives me specific fortnight on a Tuesday evening only. access on the guest for those (British time) and is available for service requests. Anything else will download the following day. I need two rules; one to access be rejected by VirtualBox as the Apache web-server on my there's no viable route. podcast.ubuntu-uk.org

full circle magazine #61 20 contents ^ HHOOWW--TTOO Written by Ronnie Tucker GGIIMMPP -- TThhee BBeeaannssttaallkk PPtt22

K, so, we’ve got our sky bottom of the image. loop back to where you started. recoloured and fading Press the Enter key on your into the background; We’re going to chop away some keyboard to complete the O next, we want to have excess trees that are behind the selection. a little village below the sky. village to give us a nice landscape. You can, of course, go clockwise Sources: Selections if you prefer. Village: http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f The selection tools are some of Press the Delete key on your =view&id=1215281 the most important tools in GIMP keyboard, and anything inside that Tree: as they allow you to be as detailed selection will be removed. http://alfoart.com/flash/beanstalk as you need to be when selecting _tutorial/625100_53361668.jpg?ht an outline. For this, our first big TIP: If you press the Delete key tp://www.2textured.com/main.php If you look at the list of layers, tutorial, we’ll go with a quick and and the selected area shows black, ?g2_itemId=281 you’ll see that the village layer is dirty selection. then you’ll have to go to the menu, sandwiched between the sky and click Edit > Undo. Right click on the YouTube: background images. We need the Click the ‘Free Select Tool’ layers thumbnail, and choose ‘Add http://www.youtube.com/watch?v village to be at the top of the list. (shown left) and draw around the Alpha Channel’. Now you can press =KTmehu8x2j4 Simply drag it up above the sky treeline keeping only Delete to remove your selection. layer. full trees. Draw out the This extra ‘Add Alpha Channel’ step The Village side of the image, and isn’t always necessary.

Bring the village photo into your scene. How? This is where I test if you’ve read part one or not. Same idea: open the village image and drag it into our main scene. You’ll probably have to resize it to about 750 pixels wide, though.

Should you see something like Click the move icon, and drag this, don’t panic the village layer down to the

full circle magazine #61 21 contents ^ HOWTO - GIMP: THE BEANSTALK Pt2

Use the rectangle select tool to The idea here (shown below select the top half of the village right) is to (on the layer mask!) (below left) and, like last time, use paint white over some of the a black and white linear gradient to foreground trees to remove them fade the top part of the village. from the fog effect in the background. Remember last time how I spoke about the OK, let’s get our whopping layer mask as being great tree inserted and we’ll finish non-destructive? Well, up part two. here’s your chance to try it out. We created a white layer which was I’ll show you another quick way completely transparent, so choose of inserting an image. Click the link a foreground colour of white and above for the tree source. In your click the ‘Paintbrush’ icon (shown browser, right click the image and left). copy the image to the clipboard. remember how to create a layer You can, if you like, go around Go to your main image in GIMP, mask, don’t you? Yep, right clicking the treeline and tweak it with the TIP: If you need to enlarge/shrink and, in the menu, click Edit > Paste on the village layer, and choosing eraser, but for now we’ll cover it up the paintbrush you can use the As > New Layer. Voila! with a layer mask. You do to add a white layer mask. square bracket keys (that’s [ and ]).

full circle magazine #61 22 contents ^ HOWTO - GIMP: THE BEANSTALK Pt2 You’ll have to resize the layer to about 600 pixels wide, and move it down to have the tree roots halfway down the grassy part of the village. Clicking resize, and then on the tree, I’m unlinking the width and height numbers as I just want to stretch the tree vertically to about 650 high.

the menu, click Select > Invert and layer to paint a shadow from the press Delete. One tree. But I think tree across the grass. I’d like it growing up to the right, so click Layer > Transform > Flip In the final part of the Horizontally. I’d also like it to have Beanstalk image we’ll add some a tint of green like the rest of the pizazz to the image. image, so click Colors > Colorize, and move the ‘Hue’ slider until you get a greenish tint to the tree. Finally, apply a layer mask to Like we did with the village, it’s the tree layer, and select the top time to trim out the excess third of the tree and use the blend background, we just want to keep tool to fade the tree into the the tree. Time to click the free clouds. Ronnie is the founder, and editor, of Full Circle, an official Ubuntu select tool and get to work. member, and part-time artist who's One last thing, your homework work can be seen at: This time we want to keep for this lesson: use the http://ronnietucker.co.uk what’s inside the selection, so, in Dodge/Burn tool on the village

full circle magazine #61 23 contents ^ HHOOWW--TTOO Written by Mark Crutch IInnkkssccaappee -- PPtt11

efore you skip on past natural artist, why not have a try Let's begin by getting a copy of On first launching Inkscape, this tutorial thinking it's anyway – you might surprise Inkscape. It's in the repositories of you'll be presented with a blank not for you, I'm going to yourself. If art comes naturally to most desktop Linux distributions, working area, surrounded by a B let you in on a little you, then you've already got a so just use your normal package variety of toolbars, and a menu bar secret: I can't draw. If you give me head start, but, hopefully, you'll be installer. These tutorials will be at the top of the window (or at the a pencil and paper, or sit me in able to pick up some Inkscape- based on the 0.48 series, which has top of the screen if you're using front of The GIMP with an specific tricks and tips along the been the stable version for some Unity on a recent Ubuntu release). expensive graphics tablet, then I'll way. time now. The exact arrangement of the easily be bested by a four-year-old. toolbars can be modified to a Yet, somehow, I'm one of the limited degree: you can show and artists for a regular webcomic. So, hide them using the View > how does a fat-fingered cave Show/Hide menu, and you can painter like me manage to produce switch between three predefined artistic works? I use Inkscape. layouts using the Default, Custom, and Wide options at the bottom of Inkscape is no replacement for the View menu. For these tutorials, an artistic eye, or three years at art I'll be using the Custom layout school, but, if your problem is (which is badly named, as it doesn't largely one of hand-eye let you customise it at all), with all coordination, then it offers you the toolbars visible, and resulting something that pencils and The in a main window that looks GIMP don't. It gives you the something like that shown left. opportunity to tweak and modify every line and shape that you draw Now, let's draw - until you're happy with the result. something. From the If your hand-drawn lines are close, Toolbox (which runs but not quite what you'd imagined, down the left regardless of your Inkscape gives you the time and screen layout), click on the Circles tools to alter them, rather than and Ellipses tool (left). having to throw them away and try again. So, before you dismiss this Move your cursor back into the tutorial because you're not a working area and you should

full circle magazine #61 24 contents ^ HOWTO - INKSCAPE notice that the pointer has you've drawn. To re-select your Above those two swatches, changed to indicate that you're ellipse just click on it with the you'll find a whole load more using the Circle tool. In the Circles and Ellipsis tool still active. swatches stretching the width of working area is an outline that the window. This is referred to as represents your page – although As well as the dotted line, you the color palette. Click on a swatch Inkscape will happily let you draw should see two small squares and a in the palette to set the fill color of outside its boundaries - which small circle on the edge of your the currently selected object, and provides you with a large area for ellipse. These are referred to as SHIFT-click to set the stroke color. rough work, reference images or “handles”, and are a graphical way At the far left of the palette is a anything else that you don't want for you to modify some of the swatch with a cross through it to appear on your printed page or properties of your objects. Try which can be used to set the fill or exported image. Click within the moving one of the square handles stroke to transparent. Try setting page, and drag to the right and by dragging it with the mouse: it the fill to transparent and giving downwards to create an ellipse, changes the radius of the ellipse in the stroke a color. Now play with releasing the mouse button when one direction. The second square the circular handles and the you're happy with its size and handle changes on the other Segment and Arc buttons – it shape. Yours will probably be a radius. should be a bit clearer why the different color, but we'll sort that latter is so named. out shortly. The circle is a little different – Let's give your ellipse a little it's actually a pair of circles on top color. Select it and look down to Finally let's move of each other. They allow you to the bottom-left of the Inkscape the ellipse around on turn your circle into a segment or window. There you will find a pair the page. For this you'll an arc. Try dragging one round the of colored swatches labelled Fill need to click on the outline of the ellipse. Now drag and Stroke. Fill shows the color Select tool, which is the first the other. Inkscape tries to guess that is used to draw the inside of button in the toolbox and looks whether you want a segment or an your ellipse, while Stroke shows like an arrow (left). arc, so will flip between the two the color that is used to draw its Your ellipse should have a modes as you move the handles. outline. You can right-click on the With this tool enabled, you can dotted line around it, indicating You can switch between them number next to the Stroke swatch move an object simply by clicking that it's currently selected. Many manually using the buttons on the to pick from a few standard sizes if and dragging it. When an object is operations in Inkscape only work Tool Control Bar, just above the your stroke is too thick or thin. selected using the Select tool, on the objects that are currently drawing area. Clicking on the third you'll see a dotted line around it, selected. The quickest way to de- button will put the handles on top but rather than the small square select everything is to click on a of each other once more, returning and circular handles we saw when blank section of the working area, you to a full ellipse. the Circle tool was active, you'll away from any of the objects

full circle magazine #61 25 contents ^ HOWTO - INKSCAPE see some arrow-shaped handles can drag the little cross around to object down and up by one work using the File > Save (or Save arranged around the outside of change the center of rotation; position at a time. As...) menu. There's a pop-up menu the dotted line. SHIFT-click on it to return it to the in the save dialogue that lets you middle of the object. A single click choose between various formats. on the ellipse will switch back and For now just choose Inkscape SVG, forth between the resize and the first item on the list – I'll cover rotate modes. some of the other options in a future instalment. A double-click will switch you to Sometimes you might need to the Circle tool, letting you gain get a closer view of the objects you access to the small square and create – or zoom out for an Dragging these arrows will let circular handles once more. Try overview. We'll cover that in detail you change the width and height rotating an ellipse using the Select in a later article, but for now you of the ellipse. Although they may tool, then double-click to access can simply use the plus (+) and seem to have the same effect as the square handles and change the minus (-) keys on your keyboard to the small square handles you used ellipse using them. Back to the zoom in and out, and use the earlier, they're subtly different. Try Select tool and change the width scrollbars to move your view clicking on the ellipse a second and height using the arrow around. time, as though you're trying to handles. See, I told you they were select it again. The handles change different! Now you know how to create to a different collection of arrows, ellipses, segments, and arcs, and a small cross appears in the If you draw a few more circles change their colors, and adjust the center of the object. and ellipses and move them thickness of the stroke. You can around, you'll soon find that they move them around on the page can overlap or obscure each other and nudge them up and down in as though they're stacked on top the stack of objects you've created. of one another. When you select an You can zoom in and out and move object with the Select tool, you'll around the canvas. Next time we'll find a group of four icons which let introduce some other shapes, but you move your objects up and even with just ellipses, segments, down so that they appear in front and arcs, you can start to make Mark has been using Linux since By dragging the arrows at the of or behind other objects. The some simple images: although it's 1994, and uses Inkscape to create corners you can rotate your object. first and last buttons will make not really the right season for it, two webcomics, 'The Greys' and The handles at the sides let you your object jump to the back or how about drawing a snowman. 'Monsters, Inked' which can both be found at: skew it. Try playing with them to front of the stack, whereas the http://www.peppertop.com/ get a feel for how they work. You second and third let you nudge the Finally, you should save your

full circle magazine #61 26 contents ^ HHOOWW--TTOO Written by Ronnie Tucker WWrriittee FFoorr FFuullll CCiirrccllee MMaaggaazziinnee

Guidelines If you are writing a review, REVIEWS please follow these guidelines : he single rule for an Games/Applications article is that it must For a more detailed list of the When reviewing games/applications please state clearly: somehow be linked to style rules and common pitfalls T Ubuntu or one of the please refer to: • title of the game many derivatives of Ubuntu https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuM • who makes the game (Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, etc). agazine/Style - in short: US • is it free, or a paid download? spelling, no l33t speak and no • where to get it from (give download/homepage URL) Write your article in whichever smilies. • is it Linux native, or did you use Wine? software you choose. I would • your marks out of five recommend LibreOffice, but When you are ready to submit • a summary with positive and negative points PLEASE SPELL AND GRAMMAR your article please email it to: CHECK IT! [email protected] Hardware When reviewing hardware please state clearly: Writing If you can't write articles, but hang out in Ubuntu Forums, send • make and model of the hardware us interesting forum threads that There is no word limit for • what category would you put this hardware into? we could print. articles, but be advised that long • any glitches that you may have had while using the hardware? articles may be split across several • easy to get the hardware working in Linux? issues. In your article, please place Non-English Writers • did you have to use Windows drivers? where you would like a particular • marks out of five image to be. Please do not use any If your native language isn't • a summary with positive and negative points formatting in your document. English, don't worry. Write your article, and the proof-readers will Images read it for you and correct any grammatical or spelling errors. Not You don't need to be an expert to write an Images should be no wider than only are you helping the magazine article - write about the games, applications 800 pixels, in JPG format, and use and the community, but we'll help low compression. you with your English! and hardware that you use every day.

full circle magazine #61 27 contents ^ https://spideroak.com

full circle magazine #61 28 contents ^ LLIINNUUXX LLAABB Written by Charles McColm DDVVDD RRiippppiinngg && EEnnccooddiinngg EExxppeerriimmeenntt

specifications for each system Warning: Ripping a Commercial used are as follows: DVD, even for backup purposes, is illegal in many countries. • pluto - AMD Athlon XP 2800+ However, ripping your own home (2.1GHz) with 512MB RAM (2 x videos is not illegal. 256MB), onboard SiS video (128MB), LG GSA-H55N DVD burner, and a Maxtor 6L040J2 hard hether you’re filling drive. out your home-built media centre, or • venus - Intel Core 2 Duo (3.2GHz) transferring video with 1GB RAM (2 x 512MB), W onboard ATI Radeon X1300 video from DVD to another format, at some point you’re likely to need to (128MB), a Benq DW1650 DVD rip a DVD and encode it to a burner, and a 250GB Western different format. Depending on Digital WD2500JS-60N hard drive. your media and your system, the process can be really fast or really • saturn - AMD Phenom II X4 905e slow. (2.5GHz) with 4GB RAM (4 x 1GB), an ATI Radeon HD3450 video card (256MB), a TSSTCorp SH-S183L So, what do you need to rip and At the end of the experiment I time for the total process down I DVD burner, and a 2TB Seagate encode video, and just how quick is also changed up the first system, made some adjustments to ST2000DL003-9VT1 hard drive. the process? I set out to find the pluto, doubling the RAM, changing Acidrip’s default settings. answers to these questions using 4 out the DVD burner, and adding a • jupiter - a stock Dell Inspiron 545, test systems. The systems ranged 256MB video card. On the general screen I used from a single core Athlon XP 2800+ Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300 (2.5GHz), the settings shown above. 4GB RAM (4 x 1GB), ATI Radeon with 512MB of RAM to an Intel For software I used Ubuntu X800 onboard video (128MB), a Core 2 Quad CPU Q8300 with 4GB 10.04-LTS on pluto, venus, and The settings here are not much TSSTCorp TS-H653G DVD burner, of RAM. For the experiment, I used jupiter, and 12.04-LTS on saturn. different from the defaults - other and a 500GB Western Digital 2 AMD-based systems and 2 Intel- For ripping and encoding I’m fond than the fact that I chose to WD5000AAKS-7 hard drive. based systems. Some of the results of Acidrip, I find it synchronizes encode with the pcm Codec, and were quite surprising. The exact audio and video well. To keep the selected English. The file size

full circle magazine #61 29 contents ^ LINUX LAB - RIPPING & ENCODING EXPERIMENT

adjusts when I adjust the settings reads between 0.150 and 0.200. encoding the DVD contents to a core, slowest system, performed on the Video settings tab. The The higher the number, the larger compressed format. The DVD the slowest - it took 12 minutes Video settings tab of Acidrip is the file size on the general tab. I ripping process can be very quick and 9 seconds to rip the DVD, and shown above. also set the Video codec to lavc. depending on the hardware used. a whopping 2 hours, 39 minutes The last changes I made were on The encoding process is normally and 27 seconds to complete both Most of the changes I made to the Settings tab which is shown much longer. Interestingly, wrong the ripping and encoding process. the default settings of Acidrip are above right. or bad hardware can actually make on the Video settings tab. It's the ripping process take almost as Venus, the dual core system, important to note here that I did On the settings screen, I set long as the encoding process produced some very surprising not set the width and height to Acidrip to Cache DVD and to Eject (more on this later). results - clocking in hands down 480x320, more specifically note the DVD when it's done caching. with the fastest DVD rip at 4 that I unchecked the scale and crop For the experiment I chose a minutes and 52 seconds. The check boxes. What I did check was The whole process is really 2 DVD that was 91 minutes long, the entire process, ripping and the Lock Bits/Px box. Once the box steps: ripping the DVD, which length of a typical feature movie. encoding, took 51 minutes and 33 is adjusted, I adjust the bitrate up consists of copying the DVD seconds. or down so that the Lock Bits/Px contents to the hard drive, and As expected, pluto, the single

full circle magazine #61 30 contents ^ LINUX LAB - RIPPING & ENCODING EXPERIMENT Another surprise came from performance. If you're only ripping access to this system ran out, but I like to think the AMD system was saturn which beat all the systems one DVD, this might not be much was able to get some results. The simply better than the stock Dell by completing the whole process of a concern, but multiply it by 10, DVD ripping process took a Intel-based quad core. The one in 37 minutes and 14 seconds, but 20 or 50 DVDs, and you're talking whopping 15 minutes and 7 sure thing is that if you're planning took 11 minutes and 37 seconds to about a fair amount of time. seconds. Whether the DVD burner on ripping a large DVD collection, rip the DVD. was just slow or bad I'm not sure, you can save a significant amount I was also surprised that the but it lagged far behind all the of time by picking up a DVD burner Jupiter, the stock quad core AMD quad core outperformed the others. After 1 hour, this revised like the one mentioned in this Dell, ripped the DVD slightly Intel quad core. I chocked up the pluto had encoded just 28 minutes article. slower than saturn, with 3 seconds win to the fact that I had a 256MB and 7 seconds of video. The slow difference between the two, but video card in the AMD system - DVD burner no doubt slowed down took over 3 minutes longer for the until I ran one more experiment. the whole process, but what's whole process at 40 minutes and really telling here is that the better 25 seconds. For the last test I added a video card doesn't seem to help as 256MB AGP video card to pluto, much as having more CPU cores. From these results we can draw the single core AMD Athlon XP Even if we took off the 15 minutes some interesting conclusions: a 2800+ system. I also added 1GB of for ripping, it's still only 28 good DVD burner does matter in RAM (2GB actually, but the system minutes of video (of 91) ripped in the large scheme of things. only recognized 1GB despite the 45 minutes. Despite having a slower CPU and motherboard manual indicating less memory, venus, the dual core the system would recognize 2GB), Given the choice between a system out-ripped both quad core and a Memorex 3202-3269 DVD better video card and more CPU systems with less than half the burner. I used the same DVD and cores, I'd buy more CPU cores. time. The Benq DW1650 literally settings. Whether the AMD quad core won destroyed the other DVD burners because of the video card or not I'll when it came to ripping Unfortunately, the time I had leave up to you to judge, but I'd

Charles is a step-father, husband, and Linux fan who runs a not-for- profit computer refurbishing project. When not breaking hardware/servers he maintains a blog at http://www.charlesmccolm.com/.

full circle magazine #61 31 contents ^ CCLLOOSSIINNGG WWIINNDDOOWWSS AAdddd//RReemmoovvee SSooffttwwaarree Windows. Written by: Ronnie Tucker (KDE) Jan Mussche (Gnome) Elizabeth Krumbach (XFCE) Mark Boyajian (LXDE) David Tigue (Unity)

ost Windows applications will have an Uninstall option that can be As you can see from the M screenshot, you can uninstall and can get, or have (left panel), and Clicking the application name, seen either in the appropriate menu on the Start button, or it’ll add new programs, and even categorizing software you can get then the ‘info’ button will show you be listed in the Add/Remove Windows components. Obviously (right panel). You can, if you wish, more detailed information about Programs function. The latter is care should be taken when search for applications by entering the application such as a started from the Control Panel: uninstalling Windows components. some text in the search box at the description, add-ons, and even user top right of the window. reviews. Clicking the install/remove Adding/Removing button at the top of the info screen Software

Kubuntu

Adding/removing software in Kubuntu is done using an application called Muon Software Centre. This is located in K > Applications > System. You are then presented with a list of all applications installed in It’s far from elegant, but it does the job of listing applications you

full circle magazine #61 32 contents ^ CLOSING WINDOWS

thing you do is type your password - otherwise the program won’t even start.

In the button-bar, you find a will do the relevant action. version of Ubuntu has the old small Quick-filter field. As soon as Ubuntu Package manager called you start typing, the filter starts Another way of Synaptic. Synaptic is a one-stop working, and shows only those adding/removing software is via place for installing and uninstalling packages which comply with your the Muon Package Manager. It’s software, adding/removing filter. When clicking a package, in also in K > Applications > System, repositories (handled in the next the bottom part of the screen you and is more like the old Ubuntu section), and fixing broken can find a description of it. Package Manager. This Muon packages. well, the program will tell you now. Package Manager is for fine tuning When you want to install a of files such as libraries, broken It works pretty much the same package you simply click the small After installation, the little box files, and such like. as Muon, although I always find box in front of the package name, in front of the package name is one difference very striking: in and select Mark for installation. In colored green to indicate this Muon you can choose your desired the menu bar you find the Apply Gnome-Shell package is installed. To find the software, and prepare it for option - which will start the meaning of the different colors, installing, and then type in your installation process. Should any As was so nicely put in the choose Help menu > Icon legend to previous section, the Gnome password; in Synaptic, the first dependency have to be installed as

full circle magazine #61 33 contents ^ CLOSING WINDOWS get the full list: Center to add and remove software. The menu Edit holds the Fix broken packages option. Broken The Ubuntu Software Center is packages make it impossible to launched simply via Mouse menu > install anything, so you need to fix Ubuntu Software Center them first. The Ubuntu Software Center Another option is Repository, features thousands of applications but this will be described in the from the Ubuntu repositories and next section of this issue. beyond, including featured free and paid applications, and content XFCE including books and magazines.

In Xubuntu, just like Ubuntu, When you click on a piece of you will use the Ubuntu Software software or content in the Ubuntu Software Center, you will be presented with a page of information with a description, and application. You open it by clicking (greyed out) options would be possibly add-ons, a screenshot, on the Main Menu icon and available for selection. what people have “also installed,” selecting System > Synaptic Also, once you have selected an and user reviews. There will also be Package Manager. application (as indicated by the an Install button on the right which “blue highlight” - part of the will allow you to easily install the You will immediately be default Theme in LXDE), you not software. prompted to enter your “root” only get a description of the (administrator) password; Synaptic program in the lower pane (the See the Unity section for more won’t open without it. Once you’ve pane below the list of available about the Ubuntu Software Center. entered your “root” password, applications), but the “Properties” Synaptic will open. icon in the toolbar activates. LXDE Clicking the “Properties” icon The previous screenshot shows opens a window with more an application selected; the pop-up information about the selected As with the other “*buntu’s” menu displays the options which, program. described above, LXDE also uses in this case, is only to “Mark for the Synaptic Package Manager as Installation”. If this application was As you can see, each of the five the default software management already installed, then the other tabs provides more detailed

full circle magazine #61 34 contents ^ CLOSING WINDOWS information than what is available them. For example, if you would button in your launcher on the you will notice that the cost of this from the main Synaptic window, like to use the “Ubuntu Software right-hand-side of the screen that application is ‘US $0.00’. So click including all program Center” application that is looks like an orange shopping bag ‘Buy/Install’, type in your password dependencies. It is very handy to discussed above for XFCE, simply with bubbles coming out of it. This when prompted, and watch your know, prior to beginning the install search for “Software Center” in will open a window that will show application being installed. Once process, what other software Synaptic, and it will find the you a list of some of the more the Ubuntu Software Center shows dependencies must be met in “Ubuntu Software Center. As popular titles, and a picture of the application as being installed order for the selected program to described above, mark it for them at the top. Below that you you will be able to find it in the work on your system. You would, in installation and use it alongside or will see a list of some of the newer Dash. fact, be able to review this list instead of Synaptic. software added to the Software prior to committing the install, as This is one of the great Center. Let’s say you want to install Now, you may be saying, “How Synaptic identifies and displays strengths and pleasures of open “Lord of Ultima”. You will need to do I remove an application?”. Well and marks all required source software: having the search and find the application. if you are asking yourself that, no dependencies prior to starting the freedom to explore and use You have several options to do this. worries, I’ll explain. The Ubuntu actual software installation; software not only for free (no First you can type in ‘Lords of Software Center has made things however, it is sometimes handy to cost), but freely (no compromising Ultima’ in the search bar in the pretty easy for you as far as review these requirements licenses). And applications like upper right-hand corner of the uninstalling applications go. To get without actually initiating the Synaptic, the Ubuntu Software window. Another way to do this is a list of all the applications install process. Center, and others, make exploring to click on the ‘Games’ label on the installed on your system click the new applications fun and easy. left-hand side. Once you find the button near the top center of the Again, I must emphasize that application you want to install, Ubuntu Software Center labelled the primary goal of LXDE is to Unity select it and click on the ‘More ‘Installed’. Doing this will show a provide a “lean” distribution with Info’ button. Doing this will show list of all the software you have minimal resource requirements, In Unity, just like Xfce/Xubuntu, you the overview page of the installed. It gives you this list and this drives the development of you will use the Ubuntu Software application. You will see a short broken down into sections. (i.e., everything in this “distro” right Center application to add/remove description of the application, how Accessories, Games, Internet, etc.) down to the default installed software. The Ubuntu Software much the application costs, and a So, let’s uninstall ‘Lords of Ultima’. software applications. That said, Center is an excellent application button on the right-hand side that Since you should have the list in and as mentioned in previous that has been in development for a will either say ‘Install’ or ‘Buy’. front of you now, click on the installments of this series, while long time now, and the developers Don’t get frightened, most arrow next to ‘Games’ to expand it. you’re in Synaptic, you can search have continuously made it better applications are free, but some do Scroll down until you find ‘Lords of for and install other programs to with each release. Ok, you want to cost a little bit of cash. The game Ultima,’ and select it. You will see your liking. If your computer install some software? Let’s do it. we are installing in this example, two buttons when you highlight resources will accommodate more First open the Ubuntu Software “Lords of Ultima”, has a ‘Buy’ the installed application, ‘More resource-hungry programs, then Center by clicking on the the button, but it is still free. If you Info’ and ‘Remove’. If all you want you can certainly choose to install look to the left of the ‘Buy’ button, to do is uninstall the application,

full circle magazine #61 35 contents ^ CLOSING WINDOWS then click on the ‘Remove’ button. allowing you to better refine what You will be prompted to type in you are searching for. Just your password; do that. Once you remember, you can always remove have typed in your password, and an application if you decide that hit the ‘Enter’ button, the Ubuntu you don’t like it, so why not try out Software Center does the rest. any application that sounds like it Before you know it, the application might be interesting to you. has been removed, and you will be able to go on to the next Adding/Removing application you want to remove. Repositories The thing I have noticed with the Ubuntu Software Center is that The one thing that Windows it is set up to be pretty much ‘fool lacks, which we have in Linux, is proof’. So don’t be afraid to mess repositories. Think of repositories around with it. If you try to as being libraries that you can uninstall an important application, borrow books from. If a new library then the Ubuntu Software Center opens up in your neighborhood will let you know about it. If you you can go and browse the books repositories - by going to the menu try to install an application that they have, and they might have http://www.winehq.org/download/ and clicking Settings > Configure will cause a conflict with other something the other library didn’t ubuntu I’d click ‘Add,’ and then Software Sources. applications, again you will be told have. It’s the same with paste in: about it and given the option to repositories. On installing your Before you are even allowed to ppa:ubuntu­wine/ppa cancel the install. My best advice is chosen *buntu, you’ll get access to see the software sources, you’ll to just ‘play’ with it. Get to know the Ubuntu repositories, but you can (if you wish) add repositories need to enter your admin NOTE: the old format for repos the application, and don’t be afraid deb from other folks which will grant password. (for example: to try different things with it. You http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu- will notice there is a ‘History’ you access to newer versions of From here, you can add a repo, wine/ppa/ubuntu precise main) is button; it will show you all software, or software that isn’t in edit a current repo, or remove a still valid. applications that have been the Ubuntu repos. current repo. Clicking ‘Add’ will installed or removed. Also there is present you with a window where Then follow the prompts to an ‘All Software’ button that will Kubuntu you paste in the repo as given by allow the Software Centre (or show you all the software the software supplier. So, for Package Manager) to grab the available. Beside those buttons are Both the Muon Software Centre example, if I were to add the Wine contents of the new repo, and small triangles, if clicked you will and Muon Package Manager let repo, as given on their site at: reload its list of available see a small drop down menu you view, add, and remove

full circle magazine #61 36 contents ^ CLOSING WINDOWS applications. from safe sources, many repo’s Linuxes; all this choice is too come with an authentication key confusing - users don’t know which Gnome-Shell which goes in here. When adding a one to use.” That’s like saying you new repo using the ppa:ubuntu- have too much freedom or too Synaptic also makes use of wine/ppa line, the key will many flavors of ice cream! But, to repositories as described above. automatically be added. concretely address this accusation, Click Settings > Repositories to see I must point out that if you are which ones are installed already In Statistics, you can enable a inclined to explore/test different and what can be done with them. tickbox to upload info about your distros, much with what you’ve system. become familiar in one distro will The first tab shows you which translate robustly to others. As a main parts are enabled and which After adding a new repo, or contributing author to this series, I server you normally use when removing one, make sure to use am struck by the richness this kind using Synaptic. the Reload button in the main of knowledge and experience screen to synchronize the list of brings to the user, and the world of about handling software packages with the latest list of options and opportunities it yields The second Tab, Other repositories. Software, shows you which repos. compared with other technology “monocultures.” So, do be repositories are enabled to install LXDE from. Here you can add new repos XFCE encouraged to explore and learn, manually. Look at the example in and use this series as a great Thanks to Jan Mussche for the the Kubuntu section; in Synaptic it Since Xubuntu uses the Ubuntu starting point for your journey! excellent description of managing works just the same. Software Center, you add repositories in the section above additional repositories by going to Unity on Gnome-Shell; the same The Updates tab shows you how Edit > Software Sources... in the procedures apply to LXDE, so they the program will handle updates of Ubuntu Software Center. With Unity using the Ubuntu do not bear repeating. This is a installed packages. When you want Software Center just like great opportunity to emphasize to keep your OS in shape then be This will open up a window with Xubuntu/Xfce, you can refer to the something you have already careful which update sections you a series of tabs for different Xfce section to see how easy it is learned from this series (Closing enable. Proposed and Backports software repository types that are to add extra repositories. The Windows): knowledge and might have versions of software available. There are many instructions in that section are experience gained in one Linux that are not fully tested and safe, repositories already available to exactly the same in Unity. distribution (distro) can go a long which might endanger your select and deselect, and you can way to familiarizing you with other installation. also add your own repositories. distros. We’ve all read from detractors [of Linux and open To make sure you install only See the Unity section for more source] that “there are too many

full circle magazine #61 37 contents ^ MMYY SSTTOORRYY Written by Jens Leineweber FFuullll CCiirrccllee EEppuubb EEddiittiioonn

s Ronnie mentioned When I'm done, I must make already in the last issue, one final preparation before I can I'm responsible for begin the “real” work, the layout of A ensuring that you, dear the EPUB edition. readers, can read our Full Circle Magazine on your tablet and But before I continue here, I Android devices would like to make a short detour. As mentioned earlier, we create But, what is needed to get you our issues of FCM with a program the finished product on your called Sigil. A short visit with our devices? Well, in short we need the G-Docs. I do so normally in two small as possible, we have decided friend Google will tell you that this four different things: versions: ODT, and HTML. to minimize the images within the is a so-called WYSIWYG (What you • IrfanView articles to a maximum height of see, is what you get) editor. That • a text-based Web editor But why in two variants you ask? 300 pixels. means that we could – • Sigil A legitimate question, but one that theoretically - create our issues • Calibre. we will be answering this within To achieve this, I use the solely with this software. But, if the article. software "IrfanView". I open the you look closer, you will recognize You will forgive me if I do not file, use ctrl + r for resizing, and that the document markup source include all the details, for that I Ok, the two downloads have thereafter ctrl + s for saving as code is far from good. would need a completely separate been completed. Now we can PNG. issue. However, I would like to proceed to the next step: the So I've decided to create the offer you a little insight into my editing of the photos. This is source code in a web editor (I use work. Therefore, I will describe an necessary because the authors the editor Scriptly in Windows, and example in this article, the hand in their screenshots in JPG Blue Fish in Linux). For those who emergence of an article within the files as well as in PNG files. That is are not familiar with HTML Markup EPUB file. And which article is to why I need the HTML download. Language, there is also Kompozer, be better than Ronnie's Birthday Each article is located in a separate available in the Ubuntu Software article? folder, so I can easily get the Center. pictures from the "images" folder. OK! Let's get it on! Once I got But enough of theory. Let's get the invitation from Ronnie that I Because we want our Full Circle back to the practice. may download the articles from Magazine Mobile Edition to be as

full circle magazine #61 38 contents ^ MY STORY As I addressed earlier, we need go through and format into proper one last little thing before we HTML source! begin the real work. We create a small web project on our So Instead we take a clean ODT computer. What do we need? like the one shown below. Three folders and a CSS file: the three folders bearing the following That will save us a lot of time. names: a) Images, b) Styles, and c) Believe you me! Texts. The CSS file, inside the Styles folder, we name "fcm- So, with these three things design.css". open, we could create a new CSS- no problem for Sigil. And it makes created “webproject”, your File with the Code given in the box Now we have it all together. Let our job much easier. preferred web-editor (like below, and start our work. us now have a new file in our Web bluefish), and the Article you want Editor, which includes the Ok, then. That is enough theory. to layout in ODT. Why ODT and not h1.headline { following basic structure: Let's layout an article! the HTML Version? Well, I'll show text­align: center; you. font­size: xx­large; font­family: monospace; text­align: justify; div.photos { text­align:center; EPUB-Layout: The Headlines (h1.headline), the Paragraphs (p.text), and a box for screenshots / pictures you would like to insert. I'll skip the details for now, but, if As you can see, we link the CSS you are interested in learning more file directly in HTML style. That's about CSS / HTML, Google will

full circle magazine #61 39 contents ^ MY STORY show you a lot of good tutorials And when we are done, it looks like SelfHTML.org or W3C. like that shown below left.

Ok, all things are set: We have Once I am done copying and our ODT, our editor, our CSS- have the article ready in HTML Design, and our pictures ready. Source Code, I start Sigil which looks very similar (right). Step # 2 Let me give you a short Now the actual coding begins: introduction into the software: As for every paragraph in the ODT, I you can see, we can find our three folders Texts (in the picture create a new “Section.xhtml” by So! WE ARE DONE! You just prepare a line with

and duplicate it referred to as “Text” because I am writing this article from a German a whole Ebook, but an article several times, then I check on how inside an Ebook. Just click File => many pictures there are, and insert system), Styles (“Formatierung”), Step #3 and Images (“Bilder”) - on the left Save (as) now, and give your Ebook

as a Title. often as needed. side. On the Upper Side, you see Ok, we have inserted our HTML two buttons marked: the red one is Code into Sigil. But we forgot one Now we can switch between for the source-code-view in the – well, actually two – things that Conclusion the ODT and our editor to copy / software. This is where you need to are rather important: our pictures paste the article into the HTML copy and paste the HTML source AND our css-file which gives the For those of you who want a Source-Code we prepared. you created in your editor. But layout-design to our article. So how short list to work with, here are the before you do this, you'll need to do we get those things into Sigil? most important things: That is easy: Sigil has a function to include already existing files into a) Resize your pictures to max. 300 the epub-project you are currently px of height (more is not working in. Therefore you need to recommended here!) click on the folder “Styles” (“Formatierungen”) or “Images” b) Collect all Content in Plain Text (“Bilder”) once with your right mouse button, and say “include c) Create a “web-project” with existing files”. That will open a three folders named: “Images”; popup window to enable you to “Styles” and “Texts” browse to the location of the web project. d) Create a CSS-Design for your Ebook (For Help, see the W3C

full circle magazine #61 40 contents ^ MY STORY Short Reference via Google) read the links I've included below. And, if there are any questions, e) Prepare a first (x)html Page with please don’t hesitate to drop me 1166xx1166 SSUUDDOOKKUU some

and

for Text and an email to pictures [email protected]! Numbers 0 to 9 and letters A to F are to be filled into the 16x16 grid so that every row, every column, and every f) Copy all the Content into the 4x4 box contains 0 to 9 and A - F.

-tags, and link your pictures from the “Images”-folder into the

g) Start Sigil and prepare some “Section.xhtml” chapters h) Copy and paste the generated HTML-Source Code from your Web- Editor into the Code-View of Sigil i) Include your CSS File (into the “Styles”-Folder of Sigil) and Pictures (into the “Images-Folder of Sigil) j) Save your Ebook

DONE

Now you have a short insight Useful Links: into what I do every month to web.sigil.googlecode.com/git/intro provide you an epub of Full Circle. I .html#linux hope you enjoyed the article and web.sigil.googlecode.com/git/toc_ will enjoy many issues of FCM as an editor.html Solutions are on the second last page. e-publication! web.sigil.googlecode.com/git/cont ents.html Puzzles are copyright, and kindly provided by, For now, I need to get to work The Puzzle Club - www.thepuzzleclub.com converting this issue. But you can

full circle magazine #61 41 contents ^ MMYY OOPPIINNIIOONN Written by Mattias Nykkel

t’s interesting that people Just playing around with it for a labs.de/index.php/MCP_Mod_Syst as if I was building it in Visual prefer to use the wrong tool couple of days, he discovered em Studio. There were some rather than realize what is something called mods. I realized advantages like the simplicity of I best in each situation, and this what it was, but initially thought I started here, and followed the addressing a folder instead of a goes for both Microsoftish guys someone unlawfully instructions by the letter. Solution file, and some and Unixish guys. What’s the big had hacked Downloaded jre, disadvantages like the complexity deal? Why not just ask each other the game. the jdk, of addressing a folder instead of a what fun stuff you guys are doing? He is 8 Eclipse, and Solution file. If we talked a bit, You answer us truthfully, both the years old, the MCP these problems could be solved! advantages and the disadvantages and source which Easily! Hmm.... you might have when compared extremely contained with the Microsoft community. eager to learn everything Now, I have created a Christmas Then you do the same. Ask us what new stuff - required. mod with Reindeers that explode we see as the big benefit using one could People had when killed, Christmas presents Microsoft stuff. I am not a purist, argue too done this on that can be crafted and give you rather the opposite. I have just eager! But, their spare time, lots of random items, but they can never heard a Linux/Java/Mac guy with a great for free. Just so explode as well, sometimes. tell me anything in terms other deal of patience, I everyone can Before Christmas, I will have a than to brag. This is not helping me survived. Discovering contribute to the Santa flying in with his reindeers to understand the good stuff in that it was not only NOT enormous creativity out and sled every evening when night your world. hacked, but the creator there, building bigger worlds, falls, dropping lots of presents approved development kit more fun stuff, more sick stuff!, that can be harvested. I just have I can make a qualified guess, (MCP – MineCraft Coder Pack) but it is fun as hell. I continued to figure out how to create the but that is not good enough. Let’s was released! Not only did I want following the instructions, de- same code in multiplayer mode… start talking. to install some funny mods, but I compiling the source code, de- Anyone..? The code base is wanted to create them! This is the obfuscating it, and opened it in different. I am 40 years old, living just first time I have gotten in contact Eclipse. A new world opened up… outside Gothenburg in Sweden. A with Java as a programmer. I am a or not.. This is almost exactly the So, to my real question. Can’t month ago, my son got into the .NET programmer, and had no idea same as working in C#. Some we just stop sulking, and begin wonderful world of MineCraft - where to start, apart from what differences like base is called sharing our knowledge? Please…? what I would relate to as what was available via the MCP wiki site super, etc, but that is just LEGO was for me when I was 8. http://mcp.ocean- semantics. I could write code just

full circle magazine #61 42 contents ^ Last month's question was: II TTHHIINNKK...... Have you helped fund a Kickstarter game?

Coming Soon!

The Fullcircle Podcast Returns!

It may be a new team of podcasters, but the format will be the same.

We'll be talking about Full Circle Magazine, news, Yes 5 10% as their Kickstarter picks. reviews and interviews.

No 45 90% Thanks to everyone who Your new team are: responded, and don't forget to • Les Pounder his month, we wanted to check out next month's poll! • Tony Hughes know how many of you • Jon Chamberlain have funded a Kickstarter • Oliver Clark T game. The vast majority of those who responded either This month I'd like to ask: All are members of the don't play (computer) games, Blackpool (UK) LUG and/or weren't aware of what a After the current issue, which [of http://blackpool.lug.org.uk Kickstarter project was. Some of the gamers who answered “No” the two options] would you like to Keep an eye out are the cautious type and prefer to see converted to epub? for our debut wait and see if the project is worth episode, coming the time and money. As far as To give your tuppence worth go to: http://goo.gl/i9CeY soon. specific titles go, a few of our generous Ubuntu gamers cited Closing date for this question is Sunday 10th June 2012. Leisure Suit Larry and Steel Storm 2

full circle magazine #61 43 contents ^ full circle magazine #61 44 contents ^ BBOOOOKK RREEVVIIEEWW Written by Ronnie Tucker LLiinnuuxx FFoorr NNeewwbbiieess

he book begins with a Mac-like. have it two inches thick and injure brief history/description your back lifting it, this is an of Linux, and then we’re Next come graphics and excellent choice for beginners. Not into preparing a computer multimedia. Using brief examples, only are you getting a helpful T we are shown GIMP, DigiKam, and book, but you’re helping a self for an install. And it’s the installation that pleasantly Amarok. The book finishes up with publishing author. surprised me about the book. a piece on Konsole, and installing Marek focuses entirely on more applications. Kubuntu. My favorite distro! In this edition, he’s covering 11.04, but I’m The last chapter is very handy told that in future updates he will for those used to Windows; it’s be using a more recent version. here that Marek gives Kubuntu SPECIAL OFFER Nonetheless, it’s good to see a equivalents for Outlook, Internet book that doesn’t use Ubuntu. Explorer, MSN, Skype, NotePad, As a Full Circle reader you can Nero, Illustrator, Photoshop, and buy the EPUB/PDF of Marek's Now that you’ve got Kubuntu more. Very handy. book for just £4.99 by clicking installed, the book takes you this link: http://goo.gl/Cyo2l through the basics of virtual All in all, this is a good book. It desktops, installing software and does have a couple of downsides - Linux for Newbies the main one being that it’s based COMPETITION become an Open-Source such things. Getting you up to on an old version (11.04), but I’m To enter win a copy of the computer hero speed, Marek dives into showing told future versions will address book, simply answer this by Marek Mularczyk you various email applications, as well as browsers, telephony, and this. Marek also switches between question: which distro is used standard desktop screens (what in the book? 210 pages, available in print, PDF compression/extraction. you see after install) to his own Email your answer to: and EPUB from: desktop (with Docky) which might competition@fullcirclemagazin http://saitraining.co.uk/bookLinux. Productivity is discussed using confuse some, but it’s a minor e.org html LibreOffice, and a quick runthrough of Docky - which Marek quibble. The competition will close on Friday 15th June, and the Printed: £12.99 shows in several of his screenshots. If you want a nice introduction winners will be chosen at Printed & PDF/EPUB: £17.99 For those not in the know, Docky is to Kubuntu, but don’t want to random. Good luck! PDF/EPUB: £7.99 that bar at the bottom of the screen to make your OS look more mortgage your home to buy it, nor

full circle magazine #61 45 contents ^ Every month we like to publish some of the emails we receive. If you would like to submit a letter for publication, compliment or complaint, please email it to: LLEETTTTEERRSS [email protected]. PLEASE NOTE: some letters may be edited for space.

Join us on:

goo.gl/FRTMl

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twitter.com/#!/fullcirclemag Table Of Contents Tune Out, Drop Out Europe) and other official offices linkedin.com/company/full- with such a disc. Although it works circle-magazine am looking for an easy way to egarding FCM#58 (Tune fine with Linux Mint Debian 64-bit ubuntuforums.org/forum find articles in your magazines out, Drop Out, Get things Live CD. Maybe with other Linux display.php?f=270 without having to pull out a Done, by Allan J Smithie), distros it works? dvd and look through each he is absolutely right - I R That is a very great I'm pretty sure the 24-hour rule issue. I love all the articles and Tune out, Drop Out, Get things tutorials, but its so hard to Done - is the only way to be more disadvantage when using the live- regarding ROM’s in the U.S. is remember which stories are in productive in doing and learning to edition with banking - especially false. Gamefaqs has an FAQ on the which issue. I am running Natty make better use of computers, be for security reasons. subject matter (11.04) with gnome classic desktop it at home or at work! The main (http://www.gamefaqs.com/featur on an old inspiron 1545 laptop. problem I've found is getting used René Gruneisen es/help/entry.html?cat=24), as to the sudden silence! lol. does Nintendo Howard (http://www.nintendo.com/corp/le Rodney Shinkfield gal.jsp). I just want to point out Ronnie says: Ifyou look at the 24hr Rule that articles regarding emulation top ofthe FCM site and ROM’s should have the disclaimer of said article being for (http://fullcirclemagazine.org), irst off, I enjoyed FCM#58 No Java information purposes only. I'm not you’ll see a link to our‘Table of of Full Circle. I would like opposed to the idea of emulation Contents’which is quite regularly to point out something he live-CD/DVD of Ubuntu as it can be used to bring back old updatedby Robin Catling. that Riku Järvinen stated has no Sun/Oracle Java; F favorites, especially when a in his article regarding bsnes. I so it is impossible to company goes out of business. don't know about his country, but T contact my bank (in However, one needs to exercise full circle magazine #61 46 contents ^ LETTERS some caution when relaying none-the-less, it is a tablet, and argument in saying that "Unity may Much better and especially information on said subject matter. actually does quite well to counter be great for tablets". Great, that's designed for Linux is Redshift: all (most) of the issues that Art has what we are talking about, and, for http://jonls.dk/redshift/ Thomas Holbrook II with Android. I would have been the Ubuntu fans, that's what we fine with this argument if nearly were hoping to hear. Ludo Beckers eight paragraphs of this article had Tablet Trouble not be devoted to discussing the So, that being said, I doubt we Windows tablet offerings. I are looking at a near "curtain call" typically try to take "My thought we were sticking to for tablets. I think it is fair to Opinion" with a grain of salt, Android for the definition of question Canonical's play in the but I felt really compelled to tablet? So why are we discussing space (although they haven't comment after reading the the Windows tablet for so many officially made it to the game yet) My Sad Inbox I paragraphs? and I think it would be wise to "My Opinion" by Art Schreckengost consider the entire market - and in FCM #60. My inbox is looking rather Art asks the question, "will not just one small segment - when empty again folks. Surely you tablets progress far enough in the trying to decide the fate of a First, I'd like to say thanks for have something on your mind evolutionary chain to survive, or booming technology market. stepping up and writing an article that you want to say. Doesn't will they go the way of previous for Full Circle. I know that it is a need to be just about Ubuntu. but now doomed technology Brad Tumy struggle to get articles composed, It can be about any of the wizardry?". I think by excluding and every article is appreciated. other *buntu's, in fact, it can Apple and Microsoft from the Secondly, I appreciate Art's be about anything Linux. experience and years of wisdom. I discussion, then, yes, maybe f.lux and Redshift "tablets" do seem doomed but think we can benefit from Art's Whether you've written an when you look at the analysts experience in the Linux world, and n the Q&A section of FCM#60 app, need help with discussing the full market, you see we all can appreciate hearing the subject "Two Tips and something, have a quick (non- that the tablet market is quite about his experiences with tablets. Techniques - Day and Night" technical) question, or just large and quite lucrative. My complaint however is that the I mentioned f.lux want to show us something article was written as an opinion you've done, this is the place Ok, so onto my last issue, Unity piece on "tablet devices," yet Art for it. purposely avoids the largest player [not Unity again! - Ed]. So, Art's gripe with Unity is that it "may be in this market space, which is Send it to: great for tablets ... but it has Apple. [email protected] severe shortcomings when used on I understand the point as it is computers with a lot of programs". not an "Android" device ... but, Aren't we discussing tablets? I think Art countered his own

full circle magazine #61 47 contents ^ If you would like to submit a puzzle for publication, please email it to: [email protected]. Solutions are on PPUUZZZZLLEESS the second last page of this issue. No peeking!

Across 7 Cartridge, say, filled first and last with double magenta, initially (4) 8 Recipes arranged for 13 release (7) 9 Already bundled in sent message involving concerning group (11) 10 The first woman included to solve kernel progress (6) 13 Rectified a mistaken 12 (6) 16 Optician pal ordered something from Software Centre (11) 18 User friendly environment - in soft English notation - beginning to develop Linux icon (7) 19 disarray("neon") returns NULL (4)

Down 1 Make better daemon to perform random walk (7) 2 Create object code from small computer stack (7) 3 A cheap sort of server (6) 4 Immature Greek characters? (5) 5 Text Editor, German, has love for moving pictures (5) 6 Document network taken up centrally from, maybe, worldwide (3) 11 Changing when one metal guitarist initially supports head journalist (7) 12 Correcting mistakes leads to downfall (7) 13 Young, or about 100? (6) 14 How the best kind of source begins? (5) 15 Programming language has strong support - not limited to the desktop (5) 17 Fitting package manager (3)

Crossword by Marlon Mann The solutions to all the puzzles are on the second last page of this issue. No peeking!

full circle magazine #61 48 contents ^ full circle magazine #61 49 contents ^ If you have Ubuntu-related questions, email them to: Q&A [email protected], and Gord will answer them in a future Q&A Please include as much information as you can about your problem. Compiled by Gord Campbell issue.

I want to try Ubuntu, but then handling drawing of the this message from appearing? I'm worried about the desktop. I have a Lenovo laptop. Q valuable pictures, (Thanks to audiomick in The function-keys default documents, music, and Try: the Ubuntu Forums) to controlling brightness, videos on my computer. Open a terminal and Q volume etc. I would A enter this command: rather have them be F1, F2 etc. Before you do anything, Agksudo 'nautilus ­­no­ gksudo gedit /etc/fstab go and buy an external desktop' To change this in the drive, and copy all your Find the line which includes BIOS, see this page: valuable files onto the A "40GB" and turn it into a comment http://forums.lenovo.co external drive. Or buy a spindle of I'm not getting any by inserting a number-sign as the m/t5/ThinkPad-Edge- DVD-R discs, and burn copies of A sound from VLC in Mint first character. Save the file. Knowledge-Base/Fn-Fx- your files onto DVD. Q 12. All the other sound remapping/ta-p/237588 apps work fine. Where can I find Open VLC, select Tools, When I run Disk Utility, I Can I use Skydrive from information about what's Preferences, the Audio get the message, "The Ubuntu? going on when Ubuntu Q tab. For "Output partition is misalignedby boots? Q Q 1024 bytes. This may module," select ALSA. A result in very poorperformance. For device, select the appropriate one. Click on Save and close the Repartitioning is suggested." I have Yes, there is a web http://upstart.ubuntu.co window. Or, run software manager a new "Advanced Format" drive. interface which allows m/cookbook/ and install the VLC "pulse" plugin. dragging files into A Use the latest GPartEd A Skydrive, and you can Live to partition the download from Skydrive. You will The boot process stops HDD to the nearest MB. need a Windows Live ID, such as a If I do gksudo nautilus in at a screen that says The partition needs to Hotmail account. 12.04, the desktop A "40GB drive missing. begin on a 4K boundary, which is 8 background changes Q Q Continue to wait or press of the old 512-byte sectors. It from what I have S to skip mounting, or M for really does affect system selected to the Ubuntu default manual recovery". How can I stop performance. wallpaper, and the file manager is

full circle magazine #61 50 contents ^ Q & A I have a Belkin gksudo gedit /etc/vlc/http/.hosts Components F5D8053 N Q Wireless USB Adapter v3000, and when I upgraded to 12.04, it doesn't connect to my wireless router.

(Thanks to Chili555 in the Ubuntu Forums) Open Terminal, and A enter this command: sudo modprobe rt2800usb I have the Nvidia driver When that works, add the driver 295.40 installed in permanently with these Q Ubuntu 12.04. Using commands: Banshee, video playback stutters randomly and uses about sudo su 50-60% of CPU, and VLC is even Ubuntu computer using an ad-hoc worse. Is there a weather applet echo rt2800usb >> for Ubuntu 12.04? wireless connection. /etc/modules (Thanks to Christopher Q Step one: go to the exit Suttles) I ran: Google web site Yes, install indicator- A weather from the I am trying to use A ubuntu ad-hoc 2. search for: Remote for VLC on my sudo apt­get install vdpau­ software center, then va­driver vainfo libva1 wireless network Android phone, but I get A run it. Provide your Q location and other preferences the "connection refused." CPU usage is the same with first time you run it. 3. go to the first link: Banshee, but video playback is now https://help.ubuntu.com/communi (Thanks to Steve flawless. ty/WifiDocs/Adhoc Beresford) You need to edit VLC's "hosts" file, to Please give me step-by- include the IP address of step instructions on how A to connect my your Android phone: Q Beagleboard to my

full circle magazine #61 51 contents ^ AAUUDDIIOO FFLLUUXX Written by Nicola Cappellini

n this new section, Nicola include this in the list because it's Cappellini will introduce you so interesting! Midi sounds can be to not only music sites, but AudioTool saved, emailed, and even exported also recommend some tracks (audiotool.com) as cellphone ringtones. This I Free Music Archive across a wide range of musical Launch the app on the site, and “compositional engine” is a great genres. start making music right away. tool for inspiring philosophical (freemusicarchive.org) Drag loops, synths, and drum discussions about the nature of Just as the radio made music There’s lots of Creative sounds into an effects chain of music, compositional methods, available to anybody with a radio, Commons music out there, here is your making. Does the flange musical perception and the Free Music Archive provides a list of some of the more effect sound better before or after intentionality. John Cage would the same service for internet interesting sites. the tube distortion? You make the certainly approve! users. Browse through the call. The interface is really slick, interactive library, and discover arrange the boxes however you like new tracks meticulously organized and take control over every by usage trends, genre, as well as parameter in the mix. When you're by curator. Information about the done export the audio and see tracks and artists is good for CcMixter your work on the audio tool site. getting an idea of the context in (ccmixter.org) SoundCloud which the music was made. A treasure trove of samples and (soundcloud.com) sound clips. Browse through the The waveform playbox-- you've library and download whatever you probably seen it before. Browse want, listen to other users being WolframTones through the uploads or explore the creative. This is a wonderful (wolframtones.com) tags to listen to the music. Users resource to practice mixing and Choose a starting pattern and can publish under any creative mastering. The featured samples an algorithm. Then play with the commons license they wish, and are excellent quality, and many of instrumentation and musical mode, can also choose to make the tracks the non-featured samples are also and hear the result back instantly. available for download or not. great. How to make a remix: Electronic works created on the Listening is free even for non- Nicola is a freelance musician, download the audio, have your way site can be distributed under an users, premium accounts allow for translator, and web-whiz. He can be with it, upload it back to ccMixter, Attribution-Noncommercial-No more uploads (measured in seen on the stage, behind the scenes, and be a part of the community. Derivative Works policy. minutes), downloads of your music, and in the zone - for whatever task is Admittedly restrictive, I wanted to stats, and more tools for sharing. at hand.

full circle magazine #61 52 contents ^ UUBBUUNNTTUU GGAAMMEESS Written by Dougn Redhammer NNEEWWSS

renewing the subscription of the app and the purchase fee. Of course, if all you bought was the old Crossover Games app, then the price has gone up for you, I believe, and come down for everyone else who bought Crossover Standard or FreeBSD, and Mac (http://arx- Crossover Pro: the starting price is here has been a fan-port of a Windows-only game libertatis.org/). The game SDK was US$39.95. The price increases as officially released as open source, you add more support/upgrade to Linux recently; the Arx Libertatis Project has but not the game data, so you will time, maxing out at US$59.95 - T need a copy of the game/demo to successfully ported and updated which gives you 12 months, I play it. The game can be purchased believe, the graphics of the game Arx Fatalis to Linux, Windows, at Gog.com, and follow the http://www.codeweavers.com/ instructions on how to extract it. No need to compile Arx Libertatis yourself as there is a PPA for it.

odeweavers, the people responsible for the Crossover application C and the Open Source WINE project, have discontinued support for Crossover Professional, Crossover Standard, and Crossover Games (basically the payware versions of WINE), and have now combined all three tiers into one program called Crossover (catchy name eh?), and have reduced the price of both

full circle magazine #61 53 contents ^ UUBBUUNNTTUU GGAAMMEESS Written by Riku Järvinen 00 AADD

his month, we take a brief by a team of hobbyist game look at 0AD, a free open- developers, 0AD has a load of source real-time strategy features - including unique T game of ancient warfare. civilizations, versatile units, and It has been under development by extended moddability (with GPL- Wildfire games available source code and a (http://wildfiregames.com) since scenario editor). In addition, a 2001, while the latest stable great deal of time and effort has release was announced about a been spent on 3D graphics cause a problem; I noticed a slow- much to do for a fully-fledged RTS. month ago. Focusing on the history modelling, and research in pursuit down on my rig (E6750, 4GB DDR2, While there are quite a few of Western civilization, the game of historical realism. One thing I GTS 8800) when tens of units were scenarios and the possibility for might become a noteworthy especially liked about the units is battling each other. The minimum customization and multiplayer competitor for commercial titles that you can use them requirements (1 GHz processor, (peer to peer), the lack of such as the Age of Empires and interchangeably for collecting 512 MB RAM and GeForce 3) campaigns and interesting Rise of Nations. goods and combat, a feature not stated on the homepage probably storylines doesn’t really do the readily available in many RTS titles. haven’t been updated for some game justice. Nevertheless, this Installation & Features time. seems to be the core problem with Gameplay open source games in general, and I truly hope that developers would Since Precise 12.04 LTS, 0AD is Conclusions start to pay more attention on available directly from the I was pleasantly surprised by storylines rather than graphics, Universe repository. Using the the fact that 0AD runs very All in all, 0AD is a promising etc. I probably over-emphasize this command line, simply type: smoothly for an alpha version. It candidate which has great shows that the game has been potential as a standard RTS, but since I’m a fan of great stories. sudo apt­get update && sudo under development for quite some doesn’t offer anything very special apt­get install 0ad. time since there are no major bugs to the genre. Beautiful graphics, present. This, however, means the historical realism, smooth and If you’re interested in choices you can make are versatile gameplay, and all development versions, check out somewhat limited, i.e. there are no combined with cross-platform the PPA from the 0AD homepage Campaigns, and the Options panel support, are likely to attract (http://wildfiregames.com/0ad/). does not yet work at all, so you just Riku Järvinen (rierjarv) is a CS major players who enjoy history and student from Finland who delves into have to use the default settings. strategy. However, because the the Linux and Open Source gaming For an open-source project, and For lower-end machines, this might project is still in alpha, there is world once in a while.

full circle magazine #61 54 contents ^ UUBBUUNNTTUU GGAAMMEESS Written by Dougn Redhammer OOiill RRuusshh

il Rush (http://oilrush- and runs great - provided you have As the game progresses, and as requires the player to spend game.com/) by Unigine, a modern pc; anything more than with all RTS games, you get new research points differently; one a real-time strategy three to four years old that doesn’t types of units to command. mission may see you spend points O game first announced have a hardware upgrade in However, unlike other RTS games, in beefing up the defense of your in the fall of 2010, was released RAM/CPU/video card will struggle you don't get to carry over units and bases, while another may this January for the Linux, Mac and to run this game. anything you have learned via call for you to spend points in Windows operating systems. research, nor do your units keep weapons research, sabotage and At its core, Oil Rush is a very their upgrades. Every new mission speed upgrades, and yet another Is Oil Rush worth your time basic RTS game, but, being basic in Oil Rush sees your units starting mission may call for you to mix all after an almost two-year wait? doesn't mean that it’s not fun to anew from scratch. Each mission your research points into both play. defense and offense. However, The Game features three your research of both offense and gaming options: defense will not be as in-depth as • Campaign, aka the Story Mode if you had focused on just one. • Quick Game (for those who want to just wet their beaks with a quick Research Points are earned via play of the game) combat and/or successfully • Multiplayer, consisting of LAN capturing bases/facilities. Since and Online. there is a limited number of bases and enemy units, you have to This review will focus on the carefully think about where you Campaign Mode of Oil Rush. The wish to spend your points; invest Campaign Mode has a total of four too heavily in defending your chapters - with each chapter bases and providing support for containing three to five missions, your units and you may find that, and, depending on your playing with no weapons research done, style and at what difficulty the you are able to only hold the game is set, you will have around enemy to a stalemate. On the fifteen to twenty-three hours of other hand, invest too heavily in game play. weapons and the speed of your units, and you may lose your bases First off, the game looks great as you didn’t invest in defense.

full circle magazine #61 55 contents ^ UBUNTU GAMES - OIL RUSH

As was said before, Oil Rush is a basic RTS, so, as a result, there is no true base building within the game. Instead, there are bases that you can capture, and then upgrade their defenses. Each base represents a different unit that you can capture, categorized into heavy, medium and light builds, and whether they are good or vulnerable against other units.

As the name of the game implies, Oil is key to your survival - it is the resource that you depend on for the upkeep of your units and bases. Without oil, you will be unable to create defenses or use any of the active skills you learn via research. Some of these skills include sabotaging enemy bases, propaganda to increase the defense of your own base/units, deploying support vehicles that easily lose ownership of an oil rig Pros : can repair your units, increasing Oil Rush is available for purchase within the blink of an eye. • Good Game to get your feet wet via the Ubuntu Software Center, the production speed of your with if you have never played an units, seeing what the enemy is up Desura All in all, the Campaign Mode of RTS game before. to on an unexplored region of the (http://www.desura.com/games/oil Oil Rush is a fun ride, good for the • Beautiful Graphics. map, or even nuking your enemies. -rush), and The Unigine Store asking price of US$19.99. Which, if Oil can be obtained via the (http://unigine.com/products/oilru purchased via the Unigine Store, Cons : capturing of oil rigs. However, sh/). nets you the Linux, Mac, and • Requires a modern PC/Mac; not defense turrets, etc, cannot be set Windows DRM-free versions, and for an old computer more than around oil rigs, so it’s up to the also the Steam version. three to four years old. player to decide what units to • For RTS veteran Gamers, the lack deploy around them - you can of options will be off-putting.

full circle magazine #61 56 contents ^ Your chance to show the world your desktop or PC. Email your screenshots and MY DESKTOP photos to: [email protected] and include a brief paragraph about your MY DESKTOP desktop, your PC's specs and any other interesting tidbits about your setup.

My laptop runs Ubuntu Studio 10.04. I create podcasts in Audacity, edit videos with Openshot, and edit graphics with Gimp. I'm a fan of the movie TRON:Legacy, so I decided to theme up my desktop around the movie. As can be seen, the icons, I'm using the Ubuntu Studio theme and icons. The wallpaper the controls, and the window borders are according to the is called "eternalstudio," and was originally created in pov- movie. raytrace by Garry Parker of ubuntusatanic fame. With Mr. Parker's permission, I updated this and his ubuntulogo The font in the window border is not part of the original wallpaper with new Ubuntu logos. I've made emerald theme, so I changed it. Also I'm using Avant these wallpapers available for download at: Window Navigator as a panel, so I can quickly access my files. http://tinyurl.com/Ubuntustudio-Wallpaper My OS is Ubuntu 10.04, and I'm using a Compaq Presario My computer is a Dell 1545 Inspiron with an Intel dual-core at C700 with 1GB of RAM and a 120 GB hard disk. 2.3GHz, 4 GB of ram and an Intel GMA 450 gpu Christian Ali Morales Hernández (aka: Kerochris) Charles F. Howlett

full circle magazine #61 57 contents ^ MY DESKTOP

I have handmade wallpaper with the Ubuntu logo and metal- like colorized background. I have used Linux since 7.10. So, here I am showing you my Linux Mint 11 Desktop. I have used Ubuntu since 11.04, and, after a few weeks, it is now my main System. I like this sytem. It is free, and, best of I love using Mint, since it's an Ubuntu derivative and has all, it doesn’t need any tweaks. It works right out of the box. many codecs included. I love simplicity and love Ubuntu Classic desktop, but not Unity or Gnome Shell. I’m using System: Nautilus Elementary, replacing default Nautilus, it's much Ubuntu 11.10 with default Unity theme simpler and nicer. Dell Inspiron M5010 AMD Turion x64 2.5 GHz The screenshot was taken on my ASUS A43E, 2G RAM, CPU Mobility Radeon v550 1GB Intel Pentium B950 2.1GHz. I've also installed this Mint on RAM 4GB my ACER AOP 531 netbook, and on my PC (RAM 2G, CPU HDD 500GB Dual Core 1.6G, Mainboard ASUS P5G41T).

Evgeny Kozlov thom

full circle magazine #61 58 contents ^ PUZZLE SOLUTIONS O K U D U D S R 6 O 1 W X 6 E 1 D O C D R O W S S

O Codeword and 16x16 Suduko puzzles are R

C copyright, and kindly provided by, The Puzzle Club - www.thepuzzleclub.com

full circle magazine #61 59 contents ^ Full Circle Team

HHOOWW TTOO CCOONNTTRRIIBBUUTTEE Editor - Ronnie Tucker [email protected] Webmaster - Rob Kerfia We are always looking for new articles to include in Full Circle. For article [email protected] guidelines, ideas, and for issue translation, please see our wiki: Comms Mgr - Robert Clipsham http://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuMagazine [email protected] Please email your articles to: [email protected] Podcast - Robin Catling [email protected]

Editing & Proofreading Mike Kennedy If you would like to submit news, email it to: [email protected] Lucas Westermann Gord Campbell Send your comments or Linux experiences to: [email protected] Robert Orsino Josh Hertel Hardware/software reviews should be sent to: [email protected] Our thanks go out to Canonical, the Questions for Q&A should go to: [email protected] many translation teams around the world and to Thorsten Wilms for the Desktop screens should be emailed to: [email protected] current Full Circle logo. ... or you can visit our forum via: www.fullcirclemagazine.org Deadline for FCM#62: Sunday 10th June 2012.

Release date for FCM#62: FULL CIRCLE NEEDS YOU! Friday 29th June 2012. A magazine isn't a magazine without articles and Full Circle is no exception. We need your Opinions, Desktops and Stories. We also need Reviews (games, apps & hardware), How-To articles (on any K/X/Ubuntu subject) and any questions, or suggestions, you may have. Send them to: [email protected]

full circle magazine #61 60 contents ^