R e vie w s: Fre e spire 1.0 Final H ow Tos: Building RPM Pack age s Issue 1 Septem ber, 2006 Scanning for R ootk its h ttp://w w w.pclinuxos.com Spe e d Up Boot Proce ss
INTERVIEW TU XMACH INES' SU SAN LINTO N
W IND O W S VISTA RANT INSID E STAN W H ALLEY EELLIITTIISSMM Are th e forum s truly TEN REASO NS TO TRY PCLO S ne w use rs frie ndly? TIM RO BINSO N
jaydot's Clare O ldie 's
Exce pt w h e re oth e rw is e note d, conte nt of th is m agaz ine is lice ns e d unde r a ode to te xstar Run Live from H D D Cre ative Com m ons Atrribution-NonCom m e rcial-NoD e rvis 2.5 Lice ns e PCLinuxOS Magazine is a com m unity proje ct of MyPCLinuxOS.com to provide an From th e de sk top of th e Ch ie f Editor additional m e ans of com m unication to th e PCLinuxOS com m unity. H ello PCLinuxO S users and friends, It is w ith great pride, especially for m e, to be part of a w orth w h ile project for an enth usiastic com m unity serving an outstanding Linux distro, Proje ct Coordinator: De rrick De vine PCLinuxO S. Th e m agazine project is anoth er good exam ple of h ow w e can Publis h e r: MyPCLinuxOS.com Contact: m ag@ m ypclinuxos .com "give som eth ing back " to th e developers and th e w h ole com m unity. D o w e really need anoth er on-line m agazine in th is ever-so-bloated Ch ie f Editor: Arch ie Are valo inform ation library? W h at w ould be in th e m agazine? W h o w ould be doing it? And m ost im portant, w h o is it for? Th ese w ere th e very first q uestions Se nior Editors : Tim Robins on, Rodne y th at cam e to m y m ind w h en I took up th is post. My only answ er is Adk ins PCLinuxO S. Editors : Se án Le am y, Ne al Brook s Th e contents of th e m agazine w ill be m ainly contributions from com m unity m em bers. PCLO S users, lik e you or m e, can participate in th e Proofre ade rs : Clay Pe rrine , Guy Tyle r, Joh n Paxton, Doug W ils on, Se án Le am y, project. It w ill, as Canonical lik es to say, alw ays be free of ch arge to th e Jan Alle n, Danny Crane com m unity and th e digital universe. Look around you. Aren't w e am ong, if not th e first Linux com m unity Contributors : De rrick De vine , Joh n to publish our ow n on-line m agazine? Th is feat alone m ak es m e very proud, Paxton, Tim Robins on, Se án Le am y, Jan Alle n, Scott Mortim e r, Ivan Ke re k e s , Stan and I h ope you w ill be too. W h alle y [on Rants ], Ne al Brook s [on Dis tro In our m ilestone issue, w e h ave put togeth er th e first collection of Re vie w ] m aterial from our users. It w as going to be a sim ple layout; and it still is; and it w as to be m inim al yet w e believe w e h ave exceeded th e expectations w ith Graph ics : Jos e ph Pipe r, Scott Mortim e r our com m unity's accom plish m ents in th is project. Finally, a req uest. Let us all w ork togeth er, in w h atever sm all w ays w e can, to m ak e PCLinuxO S th e best Linux distribution.
Peace to th e w orld, H om e on th e Ne t: h ttp://w w w .pclinuxos .com h ttp://w w w .m ypclinuxos .com 1 PCLinuxOS Magazine
Announce m e nt: Digital Ph otos Digik am is a pre -ins talle d ph oto m anage m e nt program th at allow s you to dow nload, organiz e , e dit, and s h are your e ntire PCLinuxO S 0 .9 3a Trinity ph oto colle ction. Eas ily conne ct your digital cam e ra to your com pute r and im port all of your picture s w ith a fe w m ous e -click s . Re le ase d In addition to Digik am , PCLinuxOS als o include s th e pow e rful GIMP im age e ditor. Te xs tar announce d on Augus t 21, 2006 th e availability for dow nload or online orde ring of PCLinuxOS 0.9 3a Full Edition Digital Mus ic ak a Big Daddy. Manage your favorite tune s w ith Am arok , an all-in-one m us ic playe r built into PCLinuxOS. Burn and rip your favorite m us ic Th e full e dition com e s w ith Ke rne l 2.6.16.27, KDE 3.5.3, Ope n w ith Audio Cre ator. File s h are th rough Fros tw ire . Office , Fire fox, Th unde rbird and Nvu. Digik am , Gim p and Gq vie w for your digital ph oto ne e ds , Am arok , Audacity and Audio W e b Publis h ing Tools Cre ator for your digital m us ic ne e ds , Fros tw ire , bittorre nt and PCLinuxOS include s Nvu, a pow e rful, e as y-to-us e w e b de s ign gftp for file trans fe rs and p2p file s h aring, Mplaye r and Kaffe ine program th at is ope n-s ource . Anyone can cre ate w e b page s for vide o vie w ing. (libdvdcs s 2 re q uire d for dvd e ncrypte d now , e ve n th os e w ith no te ch nical e xpe rtis e or k now le dge of playback ), Kope te and Xch at for online ch atting, and Blogging H TML. and podcas t s oftw are als o include d. PCLinuxOS Big Daddy is th e full m onty! PCLinuxOS allow s you to try it in Live m ode w ith out touch ing your curre nt s ys te m . If you lik e PCLinuxOS you can e as ily ins tall it to your com pute r us ing th e e as y to us e ins tallation program . PCLinuxOS 0.9 3a Big Daddy Afte r ins talling PCLinuxOS to your com pute r, you can acce s s an additional 5000 program s and librarie s from our fre e s oftw are PCLinuxOS 0.9 3a - Full Edition ak a Big Daddy is now available . re pos itory. Th is is our full ve rs ion of th e PCLinuxOS Dis tribution. If you are tire d of W indow s cras h ing cons tantly, th e blue s cre e ns of de ath , th e nas ty virus e s /trojans , cons tant pop-ups , and Inte rne t Suite s luggis h pe rform ance th e n PCLinuxOS is for you. PCLinuxOS Inte rne t s uite include s Moz illa Fire fox W e b Brow s e r, Th unde rbird Em ail Clie nt, Kope te Ins tant Me s s e nge r, and m ore ! Sw itch to PCLinuxOS today!!!
Th e curre nt lis t of program s on th e Full Edition of PCLinuxOS Com ple te Ope n Office Suite 0.9 3a can be found at h ttp://w w w .pclinuxos .com //page .ph p?13l. PCLinuxOS com e s w ith a com ple te Ope n Office s uite for w ord proce s s ing, s pre ads h e e ts , draw ings and s lide pre s e ntations . Re ad about PCLinuxO S 0 .9 3a Junior on page 26 2 PCLinuxOS Magazine mm vv eelliittiissmm >> >> //ddeevv//nnuullll
W h e re and w h e n did Linux and ope n s ource be com e about th e m e ntality "you m us t be th is k now le dge able to ride ?" It pains m e to s e e pe ople do th is to ne w us e rs ...dis tancing th e m s e lve s from pote ntial advocate s of ope n s ource ...z e alous one s at th at. It's a re al te s tam e nt to s om e of th e s e ne w us e rs STILL w anting to plug ope n s ource and Linux, de s pite be ing s q uas h e d by e litis ts in forum s .
by Derrick Devine, devn3t@ gm ail.com (Th e original article can be found at joined th eir little group, I w as a com plete and h ttp://linux-blog.org/inde x.ph p?/arch ive s/9 0-m v-e litism -de vnull.h tm l total n00b. Not just a n00b to open source — but n th e beginning, open source w as about to com puters altogeth er. I h ad a Texas open everyth ing. I rem em ber joining an Instrum ents com puter back in 19 85 but only IRC (Internet Relay Ch at) ch annel on m essed w ith th at for about a year. M ice w ere Efnet back in 19 9 3 and ch atting w ith people w h o new to m e; I didn't k now anyth ing at all. In th e could m ak e th ings h appen w ith com puters — sh ort tim e th at I began ch atting on IRC, I w as really m ak e th ings h appen. Coders, m anagers, sh ow n h ow to do th ings. W h en I didn't k now h ack ers — th ey w ere all th ere and a tigh t k nit h ow to do som eth ing, I could count on one of core of about six of us stayed in touch for th e guys or girls in th e ch annel h elping m e solve approxim ately seven years, until w e w ent our m y problem w ith in a m atter of m inutes. Th ese separate w ays and began to use IRC less and people stepped dow n from th eir level of less. Th e th ing th at I rem em ber m ost is w h en I operation long enough to educate m e in th e w ays 3 PCLinuxOS Magazine
of th e open source. I look back at th is tim e to m e. I ch allenge you to tak e a closer look at fondly and h ave spok en about it before— not your com m unity and if you find elitism , sq uash because I don't th ink som eth ing lik e th is exists it. H aving personally been involved in q uite a now — just th at I th ink it is a rarity. Th ere w as a good sh are of com m unities of m ajor Linux tim e w h en th is "spirit of open source" w as all distros (let's just say, som e m ajor Debian and about educating and furth ering th e RPM based ones) I can assure you th at despite program /application th at you w ere w ork ing on. th e claim s of being new -user friendly, m ost h ad Now it seem s th at w h en a new user com es in to a fair sh are of elitists sw im m ing in th eir h elp any ch annel on IRC or forum , th ey are told off ch annels. w ith a h earty RTFM (Read th e 'Friendly' Elitism h as no place in open source. O pen M anual), and in oth er cases, th ey're told off w ith source is about freedom of everyone to look at a snappy put dow n or a not so funny insult. th e source of a program — e ve ryone . Th ere are W h ere did th is elitism com e from ? W h ere and no country clubs for open source; you do not w h en did Linux and open source becom e about need to pay to get in. Th ere are no q ualifications th e m entality "you m ust be th is k now ledgeable for people to use open source. Since th ere are no to ride?" It pains m e to see people do th is to new criteria, w h y are people h olding new users and users— distancing th em selves from potential oth ers w ith lim ited k now ledge to a m easurable advocates of open source— zealous ones at th at. standard as if th ere are criteria? It's a real testam ent to som e of th ese new users It's ridiculous for current 'expert' users or still w anting to prom ote open source and Linux, developers to w ith h old inform ation or h elp from despite being sq uash ed by elitists in forum s. new users sim ply because, "new users need to I'm sure th at som e of you are saying, "Th is k ind cut th eir teeth ." W h y? Because not everyone of th ing doesn't exist in m y application/project/ learns th e sam e w ay. In th e past, th e only people distro's com m unity. W e are open to all users, be w h o used Linux and open source w ere th ose th at th ey new or experienced.” It sounds lik e nirvana learned by reading and poring th rough 4 PCLinuxOS Magazine
docum ents. A m ore coder m entality existed Announce m e nt am ong th ose flock ing to open source banners th en. Fast forw ard to today's learner and you'll eduPCLO S is a PCLO S com m unity project see m any differences. Am ong th em is th e visual w h ich w ill create a custom ized PCLinuxO S learner. distribution focused on classroom use.
Th e visual learner learns by exam ples and seeing According to patred, th e project lead of th ings h appen w ith h is/h er ow n eyes. Th ere h as eduPCLO S, th e LiveCD/DVD w ill include been vast advancem ent in th is arena on th e tw o parts - th e desk top and th e server. Internet. Today, w e h ave w ebsites w ith em bedded videos, flash tutorials, and audio Th e project is in need of volunteers "w ith blogs w ith step-by-step processes and h ow -tos. experiences in script w riting (m ostly PH P) Despite all th is tech nology, people still send new and database k now ledge (m ost lik ely M ySQL users to th e sam e avenue to learn. RTFM or do a and PostgreSQL)." eduPCLO S also needs search . W h at if th at isn't good enough for th e designers w ith sk ills to give "th e look and person you're telling it to? W h at if th at person feel" of th e desk top and server. can't learn th ings th is w ay? W h at if th ey need to see th ings in action? For m ore inform ation, please visit In closing, w e m ust reth ink our approach to http://www.mypclinuxos.com/forumdisplay answ ering q uestions on forum s and in ch at .php?fid=34, and h elp in any w ays th at you clients. I ch allenge each and every one of you to can. th ink about your responses to new users or th ose lim ited in k now ledge. H elping th ese people to O ur ch ildren are th e future. Let's bring th em attain k now ledge in different m anners can m ak e up to th e spirit of PCLinuxO S. Let's give or break th eir w ill and create a friend of open th em freedom . source for life...or th rough not h elping, a foe. 5 PCLinuxOS Magazine SSuuss aann LLiinnttoonn && tthh ee TTuuxxmm aacchh iinnee ss
"Ye ah , s ure . It m igh t be fun," w as Sus an's firs t re ply w h e n I re q ue s te d an inte rvie w w ith h e r. Firs t im pre s s ion? I am not w rong w h e n I s ay th at Sus an, th e dynam ic flow of e ne rgy guiding Tuxm ach ine s , doe s w addle th e w addle ! In our s h ort but frie ndly e m ail e xch ange s , s h e re ve ale d a bit m ore of h e rs e lf, and Tuxm ach ine s . by Arch ie Arevalo, m ag at m ypclinuxos dot com Tuxm ach ine s ' Sus an Linton Arch ie Arevalo (AA): You are considered by draft or as I h eard som e new s w orth y enough for m any as a POW ER ade™ in th e Linux w orld. DW W , I'd w rite it up th en – instead of w aiting You w ere at th e driver's seat of DistroW atch until Saturday or Sunday and doing it all in one for th ree w eek s w h ile m ak ing sure everyth ing sw oop. gets done over at Tuxm ach ines. H ow do you As far as Tuxm ach ines and th e review s, it w as do it? really just an extension of a h obby I've h ad for Susan Linton (SL): W ell, it w asn't th at h ard years. I'd test new distros and w rite friends about really. I just carried on business as usual at th em , and th ey'd do th e sam e. So, w h en I started Tuxm ach ines, but I w ork ed on th e DistroW atch Tuxm ach ines, I'd just tak e m ore screensh ots th an all w eek long. M ore specifically, as a new Linux previously and try to m ak e th e descriptions into version w as released, I'd add it to th e colum n a m ore readable and interesting article – try to 6 PCLinuxOS Magazine m ak e it a bit m ore seq uential, add m ore detail, Just in th e 6 years since I began using Linux, I've and try to use proper gram m ar. seen a lot of im provem ent in m any areas. Th e For th e new s posts/link s, I h ave m any feeds in k ey areas are h ardw are detection and auto- Ak regator and m any, m any book m ark s. I try to configuration. M any users are com ing from h it th e book m ark s at least once a day and refresh W indow s w h ere all th ey need do is load a driver th e feeds several tim es a day. I ch eck som e w eb disk , click O K several tim es, and reboot; or th ey search engines a couple of tim es a day as w ell. h ave no experience at all. Linux h ardw are Basically, it's a lot of virtual leg-w ork . support h as com e to th e point of m erely booting th eir system . AA: In th e ligh t of th e increasing popularity of Linux, m ore com puter users are expected Softw are and desk top im provem ents are to join th e bandw agon. M any of th ese new abundant as w ell. Th ey h ave evolved into users w ill be young people dissatisfied w ith polish ed, com plete solutions. For exam ple, KDE th e proprietary O S th at cam e preinstalled in is so com plete th at I've seen several distros sh ip th eir m ach ines. Th ey w ill h ave lim ited w ith just it on top of a base system . W ith am ount of m onies to buy new softw are and O penO ffice.org, th ey h ave alm ost com plete upgrades. Do you th ink Linux IS th e answ er com patibility w ith M icrosoft O ffice. for th em ? Unless som eone needs to use proprietary or SL: O h sure, Linux is th e answ er. com m ercial softw are only available for M icrosoft, th en I th ink Linux could very w ell be Linux h as been m ak ing steady progress since a com plete solution for th em . even before I began using it. It's only logical th at after so m any m anh ours, Linux h as becom e not AA: Th ree of your "favorite bands" are only a viable option for geek s, but also for th e SUSE, PCLinuxO S and Gentoo. Th ere m ust general population. Just about any com m on task be certain sim ilarities and notable differences th at I can th ink of can be perform ed on Linux w h y th ey are your favorites. W h at w ould th ese faster and m ore efficiently. be? 7 PCLinuxOS Magazine SL: For m e, Linux is Linux is Linux. W h at's AA: A pretty face... and indeed, a large slice sim ilar? Th e underlying base system . Not th at of th e Linux pie goes for th ose suave, w ell- th ey are identical by any m eans, but as long as dressed new releases. But th ere are literally a som eone learns som e of th e m ore com m on tools. h undred different distros to ch oose from , and I k ept th at list sh ort for th e sak e of rh yth m of th e for m any users, distro-h opping seem s m ore of article. M y list of favorites includes m any oth ers. a quest th an a ch ance. In th e end, m ost users I h ate to say it th ough , but one of th e com m on do m anage to settle dow n. If you w ere th e factors in m y list of favorites, w ith few digital Z eus and h ad your w ay w ith all th ings exceptions, is th e system 's initial im pression or Linux, w ould you just flash your th underbolt curb appeal. I lik e th e pretty distros. Th at's th e and create th e Adonis of th e Linux distros? m ain sim ilarity betw een SUSE and PCLinuxO S SL: I suppose if I w as th e digital Z eus I m igh t – polish ed, professional, and beautiful. Also in try, but I'm not sure I could im prove upon th e th at list are W olvix, Elive, KateO S, current offerings available. As Ladislav once Dream Linux... even Xandros and Freespire. I've said, m ak ing a LiveCD th ese days is so easy th at alw ays been a suck er for a pretty face. every Tom , Dick , Jane h as m ade one - and yes, Exceptions to th at criteria on th e list are I've th ough t of it m yself. I've spent a lot of m y Slack w are and th e traditional Gentoo. Slack w are tim e over th e last 5 years testing and review ing doesn't dress-up th eir desk tops, but I h ave a long- oth ers' so you'd th ink I could possibly design th e standing love for it because of its sim plicity and perfect distro. But th e truth is, w h at is th e best stability. Slack w are is k ind of lik e Linux after a m eth od of pack age m anagem ent? W h at is th e good spring cleaning. Gentoo I began using best desk top environm ent? W h at is th e best w h en you could build your ow n environm ent startup and services m eth od? O r even, w h at are from th e ground up, w ith your optim izations, m y favorites? Answ er: I don't th ink I h ave your ch oices. I found it to be th e m ost liberating preferred m eth ods. I lik e apt-get, I lik e com puting experience one could h ave. Th is is rpm /urpm i, I lik e portage, I lik e source tarballs - w h y I continue to use it daily to th is day. all pretty m uch eq ually. Th ey all h ave th eir pros 8 PCLinuxOS Magazine and cons. KDE, Fluxbox, Xfce4? Pros & cons. closely lik e (open)SUSE or M andriva. I th ink And w h en it com es to eye candy - isn't th at in som e of m y visitors m ust be W indow s users th e eye of th e user? So, w h at w ould be th e m ost look ing for th eir first Linux distro as I sure see a functional, efficient, stable, inclusive, and lot of IE h its in th e logs. I w as surprised to see a beautiful distro in th e w orld? Ask 100 people lot of M ac h its too. And th en I h ave m y regulars and get 100 different answ ers. So, long answ er th at I th ink com e for th e link s to new s and oth er sh ort: No, probably not. interesting th ings I find around th e net. I h ave a really cute logo too! :D AA: Going back to Tuxm ach ines, it seem s th at th e h obby h as grow n to be one of th e AA: Do you h ave any plans for it in th e m ost preferred Linux sites on th e W eb. W h at future? could account for its success? SL: Just k eep on k eeping on. I'd lik e to get a SL: I've been luck y enough to h ave gotten a few second in com m and, som eone to h elp out w ith link s w ith som e of th e bigger boys regularly and h unting dow n stories and perh aps w riting one w ith th e big daw gs on occasion. If it w eren't for once in a w h ile. I h ave som eone in m ind, but I PCLinuxO nline and DistroW atch , I probably h aven't ask ed h im yet. Alternatively, I've th ough t w ould h ave never been h eard of. of posting for a co-editor; I still m igh t. I suppose folk s lik e to h ear w h at a distro offers I am also look ing forw ard to th e day I can afford and see w h at it look s lik e. M any w onder w h ich to m ove th e site to a h igh -speed dedicated server. distros w ork w ell and w h ich m igh t need furth er I tried out a couple of virtual dedicated servers, developm ent. Seem s th at even th e m ost loyal of but th ey didn't w ork out so w ell. So for now , users som etim es w ant to try out oth er distros w e're back w h ere w e started. from tim e to tim e and perh aps th ey use m y review s to h elp decide w h at to test. I reck on I'd lik e to expand m y testing eq uipm ent as w ell som e folk s lik e to just k eep up w ith th e so as to accom m odate m ore users. So m any developm ent of som e of th ose distros I w atch w onder about w ireless and laptop support. I 9 PCLinuxOS Magazine h ope to be able to cater to th em in th e near w alk th e w alk ? It's not m eant to be future. condescending, just an inspiration – or a goal. AA: W ill you continue your involvem ent at AA: O ne last question, and I've tak en so DistroW atch ? m uch of your tim e already. You've tested, review ed and use PCLO S. W h ere do you SL: W ell, it w as just th e one tim e th ing. Ladislav th ink it'll be, say in a year? (Bodnar) usually uses Adam (Doxtater) of M adPenguin to do h is W eek lies on th e rare SL: In 0.9 4 and w ork ing on 0.9 5. :D I don't occasion h e's on vacation or som eth ing. H e just k now h ow m any users th ey h ave now , but th e ask ed m e th is tim e because Adam w as going to num ber is sure to k eep rising. Th e developers are be on vacation during th e sam e period th is year. h oning th eir sk ills and th eir distro just gets better But if h e needs m e again, I w ill surely be th ere and better. Th ey listen to th eir users and design for h im . around th e feedback . Th ey h ave earned a large AA: I agree th at you really do h ave th e cutest and loyal follow ing as a result. I look for th em to logo. Free O nline Dictionary defined w addle continue th eir grow th and tak e a larger as to w alk w ith sh ort steps th at tilt th e body percentage of th e userbase. I th ink PCLO S can from side to side... sort of th e slow and sturdy h ave a real brigh t future. Tux w alk . Can you explain to our readers AA: Th ank you so m uch for your tim e and w h at "Do you w addle th e w addle?" on your consideration. logo m eans? SL: Th ank you. SL: W ell, it's a play on th e old saying "You talk th e talk , do you w alk th e w alk ?" th at m eans 'do you do as you say you do?' or 'do you practice w h at you preach ?' So, I guess in th e logo it m eans 'do you use Linux in your daily life?' or 'you say you use linux - do you really?' Do 10 PCLinuxOS Magazine WW iinnddooww ss VViissttaa RRaanntt by Stan W h alley, m ag at m ypclinuxos dot com h ere is com puting tak ing us? I ask is seriously flaw ed to begin w ith . m yself th is q uestion q uite often and I Th e situation is th at corporations believe in th e never get near to answ ering it. survival of th e fittest and th is w ork s w ell, W ill future com puting applications be w eb- particularly if you h ave created a virtual centric lik e th e M icrosoft w ants th em to be? m onopoly for your products. M icrosoft w ould love to rent us applications (it Th e ch ink in th e arm our is th at if th e product does already) and ch arge us for support. isn't th e fittest th en som eone w ill pull th e rug Com panies lik e Red H at and Suse Linux h ave from under you, no m atter th at you h ave a m ade a tidy living out of selling support for w h at m onopoly, sell a poor product and you w on't be is, essentially, free softw are. top dog. Ever. W h o really w ants th eir valuable data to be Th is is w h y I feel th at W indow s Vista is th e unnecessarily bounced back and forth over any w rong product for tom orrow ; it h as som e netw ork w ith th e potential risk s involved? M ost interesting and potentially useful features but is people lik e to h ave th eir data w ith in arm 's reach still built on a foundation of poor arch itecture. and to w ork on it w ith softw are installed on th eir For exam ple, Sym antec h as already voiced ow n com puter. I certainly do, it feels lik e I'm in concerns about th e stability and security in early control th at w ay. Control is very im portant, ask builds of Vista and th ese m ay not be th at sim ple M icrosoft, Sony e t al. to rectify. I don't h ave an issue w ith paying for support but M icrosoft w ill rectify m ost of th e problem s th at I don't w ant to pay for support to a product th at Vista w ill com e w ith in th e first version released 11 PCLinuxOS Magazine
to m anufacturing as it did w ith W indow s XP. I life I th ink its users w ill see m uch th e sam e. used W indow s XP from release client one and th e differences betw een th at and W indow s XP W indow s XP SP2 is reasonably safe and stable if SP2 are alm ost enough to consider it a new you look after it; it is certainly a better operation system in its ow n righ t. environm ent to w ork in th an th e W indow s (9 x) series of operating system s w ere. M any XP users W h y is Vista still flaw ed and w h y is it tak ing so are h appy w ith th at product and w ill be look ing long to bring to fruition? to Vista to provide som eth ing better, not just a Th e Vista concept (Longh orn) cam e about fancy new GUI but also in th e engine before W indow s XP w as released and is (if I'm com partm ent w h ere it m atters. Security h as not m istak en) based on th e NT k ernel lik e becom e a m ajor issue in com puting and W indow s 2000 and XP are. As all th e problem s custom ers don't just expect to be secure, th ey w ith securing XP becam e apparent th is sh ould w ant to be so w ith th e m inim um of effort and h ave forced close exam ination of any future NT expense. Users don't w ant to h ave to pay for based operating system . Th ere m ust h ave com e a softw are to secure a flaw ed product. point w h en th e ch oice to stay w ith th e NT k ernel or abandon it and create a new one w as reach ed. W h at about M icrosoft, w ill th e Vista delays h ave an im pact on h ow people perceive th e com pany? In m y opinion M icrosoft took th e w rong path ; re- w riting and patch ing som eth ing th at h ack ers W ill Vista sell? O f course it w ill; it w ill be th e k now inside out is not w h at th e clever m oney only option for m ost people w h o buy a new w ould do. But is th is issue dow n to cost or th e com puter, as w as W indow s XP. But w ill people inability to innovate? O r even dow n to upgrade to Vista as w illingly as th ey did from arrogance? W indow s 9 x to XP? I doubt it; XP w as a far I saw a lot of security fixes in W indow s XP from better product th an W indow s 9 x even at RC2 RC1 th rough to SP2 and over th e course of Vistas level. It w as based on a better k ernel after all. 12 PCLinuxOS Magazine Yes, I th ink th ey w ill. Not just th e sh areh olders ode to but also th ose w h o w ere led to believe th at TEXSTAR M icrosoft w as om nipotent because it m ade a a m igh ty h e ro, le an and bold cam e from te xas , s o i'm told superior product. You can play th e "k eep th em h e cam e to re s cue you and m e on th e edge of th eir seats" trick w h en you don't from durance vile and pe nury h ave th e Internet h aw k s on your back as w ith a life be yond th e grinding bore h e took a little bit of code of doing ye t anoth e r ch ore W indow s 9 5 but th at w on't w ash th ese days. and turne d it into pclos m ode to fix th at aw ful box of w oe s re m as te re d, tink e re d, m ade it th e one th at's fitte d w ith w indow s Th e pen is m igh tier th an th e sw ord but not th e righ t big m outh . re le as e d it on a friday nigh t th re e ch e e rs for te xs tar loud and cle ar It's not only th e delays to Vista th at w ill colour w e all ins talle d it s traigh t aw ay s o th e w h ole dam n w orld can and roare d and h olle re d h ip h e ar people's perception of M icrosoft, it is also th e h ooray! it's h e re for you, a be tte r life obvious incom petence, blatant greed and desire it look s s o good, it w ork s s o fine w ith out th e s truggle , te ars and for control over its custom ers th at is m ak ing it loads on all com pute rs m ine s trife m any of th ose w ith a voice in th e IT w orld look productivity is now as s ure d all th ank s to te xs tar and h is gang for alternatives to M icrosoft's w ares. w ith le is ure tim e als o e ns ure d for us th e y got out be lls and rang a w ork ing os th at ne e ds no a clarion call to w e lcom e all W h ere is com puting tak ing us? I don't k now but tw e ak s and h e nce be h e ld in te xs tar's w ill run unte nde d w e e k s and th rall I suspect th at if M icrosoft doesn't ch ange its w e e k s business m odel and get its softw are righ t th en long m ay h e live to do h is th ang now th e re 's tim e to go outs ide toge th e r w ith h is little gang piracy w ill be th e least of its w orries. w alk th e be ach , w atch th e tide of de dicate d code rs cle ve r rolling in and rolling out h e re 's to you, for e ve r and e ve r w h ile th row ing fris be e s , laugh and s h out jaydot, m ag at m ypclinuxos dot com
th e above tribute can be originally found at h ttp://w w w .pclinuxos .com /forum /inde x.ph p?topic=8371 13 PCLinuxOS Magazine TTeenn RReeaassoonnss TToo TTrryy PPCCLLiinnuuxxOOSS by Tim Robinson, trobins2006 at gm ail dot com rem ained on m y system for som e tim e h en I first cam e to Linux m ore th an 6 as environm ents w h ere Tim Robins on years ago, I tried to get Red H at to m ost th ings w ork ed and I could be productive. install. It cam e as a CD w ith a copy of “Linux for Dum m ies.” I w as not successful and I stayed w ith only a h andful over th e next year. finally gave up in frustration. I stayed in th e Th ese included Yoper, SUSE, Vector and M epis, W indow s w orld until 2004, w h en I saw a copy of and th en I began to notice th e freq uent positive SUSE on th e sh elf at Com pUSA. I'm ch eap, so I m entions of PCLinuxO S in th e com m ents got on th e w eb, dow nloaded th e ISO and burned section at Distrow atch .com . a CD. It installed and ran, but Linux w as a In Novem ber 2005, I dow nloaded an ISO foreign environm ent and I felt uncom fortable. available h ere: Th en I found Distrow atch .com . http://www.pclinuxos.com/page.php?7 From th en on, I dow nloaded and tried to install a I selected one to tak e advantage of m y new distro about every tw o or th ree days. M any NVIDIA® card; I ch eck ed th e M D5SUM and didn't find m y h ardw are (som e couldn't see m y burned th e CD. Th is w as also m y first “Live Logitech M arble M ouse or th e Logitech Internet CD,” one th at could be run strictly from th e CD Navigator k eyboard), oth ers w ere just plain ugly w ith out th e h assles of doing an install to h ard (I w on't identify th ose), and a few actually drive. 14 PCLinuxOS Magazine
W h at a surprise! I arrived at a clean, good “guest” respectively, so I selected guest and look ing desk top and began to explore – and I w aited w h ile th e desk top started. h aven't look ed back . Your m ileage m ay vary, but I spent a couple of h ours exploring th e m enus if you try PCLinuxO S and give it a ch ance, I and noted th at once I began, th e delay from th e believe at least one of th e reasons for doing so CD sh ortened. Apparently once accessed, th e listed below w ill be th e reason you m ay stay m enu resides in m em ory. Program s started in w ith us. reasonable tim es, and I w as on th e Internet in 1. Live CD just a few click s. PCLinuxO S h ad found m y eth 0 and set it up autom atically. As m entioned above, PCLinuxO S is a “Live CD” w h ich m eans it can run, and run effectively Surprise! Sound w ork ed from th e start, from th e CD, w ith out req uiring you to m ak e any som eth ing I h ad previously becom e used to ch anges w h atever to your existing h ard drives or h aving to set up and adjust m anually, som etim es th eir contents. It runs sligh tly slow er th at w ay even at th e com m and line. th an if it w ere installed to h ard drive, but Live CD m ode gives you th e ch ance to see exactly All th e usual applications w ere th ere, but not th e h ow it look s, feels and w h at softw are pack ages glut I h ad becom e accustom ed to. Th is is a are included by default. single CD distribution, so th ere w ere one or tw o ch oices for each th ing I w anted to do. I Th e initial bootup w as flaw less. I pressed esc so rem em ber a distribution th at h ad no few er th an I could w atch th e m essages fly by. I saw no 10 editors/w ord processors. PCLinuxO S tak es a errors. PCLinuxO S apparently found everyth ing different approach , providing a good starting on m y system . Soon I w as presented w ith a selection and letting th e user decide w h eth er to standard login w indow w ith tw o ch oices: root or add som eth ing else. For m ost task s, m any people guest. Th e initial boot m essage h ad already find th e default pack ages to be q uite adeq uate. I alerted m e th at th e passw ords w ere “root” and did. 15 PCLinuxOS Magazine
Intrigued, now , I decided to install to h ard drive. installed system . 2. Painle s s Ins tallation I logged in to m y ow n account and began to play. Th e desk top is clean and uncluttered, and th e Th is is w h ere PCLinuxO S sh ines. An icon on speed is im pressive. Everyth ing w ork ed exactly th e desk top starts th e installation to th e h ard as it did in LiveCD m ode, only faster. drive. Each step presents a single w indow w ith w ell w orded instructions and sim ple ch oices. 3. Adding Softw are Th e m ost com plicated, as w ith any installation O n th e desk top is an icon for Synaptic Softw are program , is th e h ard drive setup. PCLinuxO S M anager – a graph ical front end for apt. Th is is m ak es th at sim ple. Th e entire process is your gatew ay to th e PCLinuxO S repository of graph ical and th e default ch oices m ak e sense tried, tested and useful softw are – currently m ore under a w ide range of situations. th an 5000 ch oices. If PCLinuxO S didn't com e After setting up th e h ard drive partitions, th e w ith som eth ing you need, a few m inutes in next step is th e actual installation. Sim plicity Synaptic and it's installed, ready to use. And h ere, also, as th ere are no pack ages to select. It th ere are no h assles about dependencies, eith er. all gets installed. Feedback is provided to I've been to dependency h ell w ith oth er Linux reassure th e nervous th at th ings are progressing distributions and I didn't lik e it. No m ore. W h en nicely. you use Synaptic to install an application, all th e dependencies are tak en care of autom atically. Ultim ately, I set up a user account for m yself, Th e application w on't get into th e repository assigned passw ords for m yself and root, and unless it w ork s and does so w ith out break ing elected to leave th e guest account on th e system som eth ing else. Th e developers are very careful (in case m y broth er w anted to use th e system ). about th is. It m ak es life easier for us users. W h en all th e q uestions w ere answ ered, I exited th e install, w ent back to th e desk top, logged out, 4. De fault Applications and selected “reboot” so I could try out th e As m entioned above, PCLinuxO S includes a 16 PCLinuxOS Magazine
w ide range of softw are for m ost uses, w ith only everyth ing you could ask for is th ere in a a basic selection in each category. Th e carefully crafted user interface. developers spent a lot of tim e pick ing and ch oosing one or tw o applications th at a) w ork , 6. Multim e dia Re ady and b) are ligh t enough to fit w ith in th e one CD lim itation. Th e m enu is w ell laid out and m ost Got an audio disk you w ant to play? Just pop it th ings are easy to find. in. W ant to view video on th e W eb? Go for it. PCLinuxO S com es ready to use out of th e box. PCLinuxO S includes w h at m ay be th e m ost No m ore h unting th rough forum s and m ailing valuable application available: m k livecd. Th is lists, just to get sound to w ork on your box. gem allow s you to q uick ly and painlessly m ak e an ISO th at reflects th e current state of m y system , com plete w ith all m y custom izations, 7. Curre nt Softw are installed applications, even m y data files, if I so Look ing for th e latest and greatest? Ch eck in desire. Som etim e in th e near future, PCLinuxO S Synaptic for it first. You'll be surprised h ow M agazine w ill h ave a tutorial on h ow to use th is q uick ly after release a new version of softw are gem . Until th en, if you are interested, visit th e appears th ere (som etim es literally w ith in h ours). w ik i at: Need som eth ing th at's not th ere? Visit th e http://www.pclinuxonline.com/wiki/HomePage PCLinuxO S forum Pack age Req uest section: http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php? 5. PCLinuxOS Control Ce nte r board=21.0 O ne application of note is th e PCLinuxO S and req uest it. If it's practical, it w ill get added. Control Center, or PCC. Th is is a goldm ine for Be sure to provide enough inform ation to th e th ose of us w h o w ish to ch ange configuration developers so th ey can find th e sources, and settings, but for w h atever reason prefer to do so understand w h at th e softw are is, does, and w h y from w ith in a graph ical environm ent. Virtually it w ould be valuable to th e com m unity. 17 PCLinuxOS Magazine 8. Look and Fe e l w ith basic softw are to get online to th e Th e PCLinuxO S desk top is clean, uncluttered repositories. From th ere, you can pick and and h igh ly custom izable. Everyth ing “feels” ch oose w h ich applications YO U w ant on your sm ooth (subjective, I k now ) and “just w ork s.” box and m ak e PCLinuxO S exactly w h at you Th is is m ainly due to th e developers' position w ant it to be. th at noth ing is released/added to PCLinuxO S 10. Th e Support Forum until/unless it is ready, tested, and stable. I saved th e best for last, and th ough I could w rite 9 . H ardw are Support ad nauseum about th e PCLinuxO S Forum , I'll PCLinuxO S h as am azing h ardw are detection. It k eep it sh ort. It beats every oth er forum I ever runs on a very w ide range of system s. I h ad it up joined for friendliness and w ealth of and running, usably fast on an AM D K6II, inform ation. So you're a noobie and are ash am ed 350M H z w ith only 19 6M B of RAM , and oth ers th at you can't figure out h ow to ch ange your on th e forum are running it on less th an th at. Th e desk top w allpaper? Post a req uest and basic system req uirem ents are 256M B of som etim es w ith in m inutes you'll see a response m em ory and not m uch else, but as I indicated, from a patient, h elpful forum m em ber. In fact, I th at m inim um is subject to being busted. personally h ave h ad responses from all th e developers to w h at turned out to be th e sim plest PCLinuxO S com es in several “flavors” as ISO s req uests. Th ey all h aunt th e forum , and th ey pay already set up for eith er NVIDIA or ATI video attention to th e rest of us. 'Nuff said about th at. board. Th ere is also a general ISO w h ich you can H ere's th e link : th en custom ize for your video board. Additionally, th ere is now a “M iniM E” version http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php of PCLinuxO S w h ich is a very stripped dow n version. It com es w ith only enough softw are to Com e visit. Tak e your sh oes off. Sit a spell. get you up and running in a KDE desk top and You'll be m ost w elcom e. 18 PCLinuxOS Magazine Conclus ion Running M iniM e Live Th ere you h ave it. Ten reasons w h y you sh ould try PCLinuxO S. If you are already using from th e H ard Disk PCLinuxO S, th en send th is article to th at friend Drive you've been talk ing to about h ow great it is. If by ClareO ldie, m ag at m ypclinuxos dot com not, th en dow nload th e ISO of your ch oice and give PCLinuxO S a w h irl. I prom ise a good ride. LiveCDs are a m arvellous innovation. Th ey allow testing of th e O perating System to see if it Note s about th e auth or: suits you, before installing it. CDs are very Tim Robins on is a long-tim e re s ide nt of El Pas o, in far W e s t portable and allow you to carry your favourite Te xas . H e love s Me xican food and colle cts le ge nds of th e Old O S w ith you easily. W h en used freq uently th eir W e s t and am us ing ane cdote s of all k inds . As a te ch nical w rite r, re s um e w rite r, and le gal as s is tant, Tim e arne d h is living as a w rite r draw back s begin to sh ow . I find th at running an for m ore th an 25 ye ars . In 2002, h e publis h e d “Undying Love ”, O S from a CD is m uch slow er th an th at from a Double Dragon Publis h ing (h ttp://w w w .double -dragon- H ard Disk , and also m uch noisier. O n th e oth er e book s .com /). h and, it is a h assle to install th e O S, particularly Tim now m ak e s a living as a re tail s ale s m anage r for an auto parts if it is only for a sh ort tim e. ch ain. H e ofte n w rite s for, and is a m e m be r of, s e ve ral Inte rne t diabe tic s upport groups , and of cours e is an Editor for PCLinuxOS W ith PCLO S th ere is a h alf-w ay m easure Magaz ine . H e live s alone w ith tw o Ch ih uah uas , Goldie and 2K (born in 2000) in De nve r Colorado, USA. available. Th e files in th e “.iso” can be copied to a H DD and run “live” from th e H DD. Th is Adve rtis e m e nt: Are you a h appy PCLinuxOS us e r? W ould releases th e CD Drive for oth er operations, you h e lp m ak e PCLinuxOS be tte r? elim inates th e noise of a fast spinning CD, and Cons ide r a also runs m uch faster – m uch closer to th e speed of an actual install th an running live from a CD. DONATION I w ill try to describe th e steps I took to http://www.pclinuxos.com/page.php?1 im plem ent th is on an old H DD and using th e 19 PCLinuxOS Magazine
PCLO S M iniM e release. It could, I guess, be GRUB for th is as I h ad a copy h andy and am done w ith a re-m aster of an install w h ich fam iliar w ith it. included all th e extras you m igh t need. For th is I installed GRUB to h da1 and ran it to put th e exercise th at w as not necessary. bootloader into th e M BR of h da. I th en edited I attach ed th e H DD (only 1.6G in th is case) as th e m enu.lst file to boot h da3. Th e entry is:- th e only H DD in th e system , booted from title PCLinux Live from HDD M inim e CD, partitioned and m ounted th e H DD root (hd0,2) into th ree prim ary partitions - kernel /isolinux/vmlinuz 1. 50Mb to hold the bootloader hda1 root=/dev/hda3 ro ide=nodma 2. 500Mb as swap hda2 bootfrom=/dev/hda3 3. Approx 1Gig for the OS hda3 initrd /isolinux/initrd.gz I th en copied th e iso from a USB stick to th e boot 1Gig partition (h da3) and m ounted it using Note: Th e ide=nodma is to allow th e O S to run mount -r -t iso9660 -o loop on old h ardw are th at is not DM A com patible. /path/to/iso /mnt/iso bootfrom tells it to boot from th e H DD not th e as root in a console. Next, I copied th e CD as w ould be done norm ally. isolinux directory, from th e m ounted iso to Bugs:- Proper (clean) sh utdow n is not ach ieved hda3, and th e file livecd.sqfs, w h ich is – yet. Th is is no great problem , as it is a live rath er large, to be in th e sam e location. W h en session and noth ing is w ritten perm anently to th is w as done I unm ounted th e iso (delete it from th e O S. Just sh ut dow n as norm al until it stops h da3 if you w ish ). and th en turn off th e com puter. W h at w e h ave at th is point is a H DD partitioned After th at it w as just a m atter of rebooting th e to suit, w ith th e O S files on partition hda3 and com puter, tak ing out th e M inim e CD and letting a sw ap partition on hda2. W e also h ave th e th e new “install” boot. It w as noticeably faster partition hda1 aw aiting our bootloader. I used th an th e CD, and q uieter. 20 PCLinuxOS Magazine H H O O W AA SSiimm pplliiffiieedd LLooookk aatt W T T O BBaassiicc RRPPMM PPaacckk aaggiinngg O © David W underlich , 2006 notably Pyth on-based program s, do not. Such program s are beyond th e scope of th is article Pre lim inary Stuff because I don't k now enough to give good You sh ould be doing all of th is logged in as a advice in th e m atter. standard user and not as root. If a program ask s for a new er version of a library You w ill h ave som e root w indow s open during th an is already in th e repositories, be very th is process if you do th ings as I do. If you careful w h en th ink ing about upgrading it h aven't been told before, you sh ould alw ays be yourself. You could h ose your system very careful w h en doing th ings as root. I w ould easily. O ften tim es th e best m ove in such suggest ch anging th e color sch em e for th e root circum stances is to be patient, note th e need for account, eith er by logging in as root or by th e library update in order to build th e pack age, running "kcontrol" (w ith out th e q uotes) from and w ait for it to sh ow up in th e repositories. a root term inal. Doing th is h elps m e a lot Som e Lingo because it's a lot easier to distinguish root and If you're told you need h eaders of som e k ind non-root w indow s from each oth er. (usually KDE h eaders), th at m eans you need th e M ost program s com pile using th e "standard" developm ent pack ages for w h atever it ask ed for. w ay of th e th ree com m ands: ./configure, Installing th e kdebase-devel and kdelibs- make, and make install. Som e, m ost devel pack ages, for exam ple, sh ould resolve 21 PCLinuxOS Magazine
KDE h eader req uests. unpack it w ith Ark . If you are told th at you need a particular pack age Enter th e directory and open up a com m and to com pile som eth ing, th at usually m eans you prom pt (in Konq ueror, press F4 to open a need not just th e pack age but also its console for th e folder being displayed - a very developm ent pack age. If a pack age req uires useful sh ortcut). Now type "./configure" libarts, you m ay find th at libarts is already w ith out th e q uotes. Th is w ill ch eck to m ak e sure installed. In order to com pile a program th at uses you h ave all of th e req uired libraries for building it, you m ust also install libarts-devel. your application. Install any unm et dependencies from Synaptic, and repeat until you land back at Intro to Com piling th e prom pt w ith no errors. If you already k now about com piling source, you Now type "make" (w ith out th e q uotes). M ak e is can sk ip th is section. one of th e GNU utilities and it does all of th e As stated above, th ere is a standard w ay to dirty w ork for you w h en it com es to com piling com pile softw are: using ./configure, make, softw are. Th is is th e step th at tak es th e longest, and make install. It m ak es m ore sense to see and th e bigger th e source, th e longer it tak es. an exam ple. For th is, I'll h igh ligh t Solseek , a Solseek is sm all and h as no com plicated k ick er applet th at displays pictures of th e sun. dependencies, so th is sh ould be fairly q uick and Dow nload th e source from h ere: painless. http://www.kde- Next, you w ill need to elevate to root privileges apps.org/content/show.php?content=31311 using th e "su" com m and because th e next step is Pick a directory (I use th e tm p folder inside m y installing. After you h ave typed in your root h om e folder) for com piling sources. It doesn't passw ord, type "make install" (w ith out th e m atter, but it's h andy alw ays to do it in th e sam e q uotes) and it w ill install your fresh ly-com piled place so you don't end up w ith random stuff application. You sh ould now be able to add everyw h ere. Put th e Solseek source h ere and Solseek to your k ick er panel lik e any oth er 22 PCLinuxOS Magazine
applet. Congratulations, you h ave successfully Inside are m ore folders corresponding w ith com piled and installed a pack age! processors. Th e one w e're concerned w ith h ere is th e i586 folder because by default, th at's w h at Now w e're going to rem ove Solseek as it w ill PCLO S optim izes pack ages for. prove useful later and w e don't w ant th is • Th e SO UR CES folder is w h ere sources and installation of it to cause trouble. Rem ove spec files go. Spec files w ill be discussed m ore Solseek from you k ick er, th en still as root, type in depth later. "make uninstall" (w ith out th e q uotes). Th is • Th e SPECS folder som etim es h olds spec files. w ill uninstall Solseek . In order for "make I personally don't really use it m uch , if at all. uninstall" to w ork , it m ust be done from a • Th e SR PM S folder is w h ere th e SRPM s you console in th e sam e directory as th e program build w ill go. w as com piled w ith th e source still th ere. It's not lik e using apt-get at a root console w h ere th e A Quick Note on SRPMs directory doesn't m atter. SRPM s are source pack ages done up RPM -style W h e re th e Magic H appe ns so it's easy to com pile th em . Th ey h ave .src.rpm file extensions. In order to com pile RPM pack ages are alw ays m ade in th e sam e one into an RPM , sim ply place th e SRPM in th e place in PCLinuxO S - th e /usr/src/RPM SO URCES folder, and from th ere as root type directory. Th ere are several folders in h ere to "rpm --rebuild foo-1.2.3-1.src.rpm" look at: w h ere foo-1.2.3.src.rpm is th e one you w ant to com pile. • Th e BUILD folder is w h ere sources w ill be unpack ed. You w ill probably need to go h ere to SRPM s are easily unpack ed using th is com m and: m anually delete th e unpack ed sources after rpm2cpio foo-1.2.3-1.src.rpm | cpio - building an RPM to prevent w asted space. idmv --no-absolute-filenames • Th e R PM S folder is w h ere finish ed RPM s go. w h ere once again foo-1.2.3-1.src.rpm is 23 PCLinuxOS Magazine th e SRPM you w ish to com pile. Th is w ill yield Spe c File s th e sources used and th e spec file. Using oth ers' SRPM s is often a great place to start. So w h at are th ese spec files anyw ay? W ell, th ey For building PCLO S RPM s, start w ith M andriva are th e recipe for building RPM s. Th ey h ave a SRPM s because th e spec files for th em are done distinctive w ay of doing th ings, but once you get th e sam e w ay as are PCLO S's spec files and th e th e h ang of it, th ey're not bad. library nam ing sch em e betw een th e tw o is also Grab th e Solseek SRPM from h ere: th e sam e. http://files.filefront.com/solseek_07_1te A Fe w Good Link s xsrcrpm/;5269539;;/fileinfo.html Pardon th e ads, but it is free h osting w ith no O fficial PCLO S source RPM s: bandw idth restrictions. ftp://ftp.tuxmachines.org/pub/pclinuxos/s rpms/ In any event, copy it to SO URCES, th en unpack PCLO S contrib source RPM s: it using th e com m and from above. Th e folder http://texsrc.trident.kicks- w ill now h ave th ree files: th e SRPM , th e Solseek ass.net/contrib/ source, and th e solseek .spec file. O pen th e spec Th ac's source RPM s: file w ith your favorite text editor (e.g. Kw rite). http://www.mde.djura.org/pclinuxos/2005/S Th ere are certain predefined attributes for RPM RPMS.thac/ files th at you m ust supply, and you can see th em M andriva source RPM s: in bold now . Th ese sh ould m ak e sense. http://mirrors.evolva.ro/mandriva/officia Som etim es you'll see m ore th an th ese, l/current/SRPMS/ som etim es less, but th e im portant th ing is RPM Search : http://rpm.pbone.net/ getting th e im portant ones covered. H ere are a few notes on som e of th ese. 24 PCLinuxOS Magazine
Sum m ary: th is w ill be displayed in th e people k eep track of w h at ch anged across each description field in Synaptic. version or release ch ange. Th e form at is standardized, so alw ays k eep it in th e form at as R elease: th is tells w h at version of th e RPM sh ow n. H ere is th e form at in generalities: w e're on. It says 1 because it's th e first, and tex to signify th at it goes w ith Texstar's distro. You'll day month date year yourname need to ch ange th is field if you're rebuilding off
O pen up a console in th e SO URCES directory (use F4 in Konq ueror, rem em ber?) and type PCLinuxO S 0 .9 3a Junior "rpm -ba solseek.spec" (w ith out th e Te xs tar announce d th e re le as e of PCLinuxOS 0.9 3a Junior on q uotes). Th is invok es th e RPM com m and line Augus t 9 , 2006 interface in order to build your pack age. Th e "- PCLinuxOS 0.9 3a Junior w as th e ne xt s te p up from MiniMe . ba" option signifies th at you w ant to build both Junioir com e s w ith jus t th e bas ic de s k top allow ing full us e r th e RPM and th e SRPM ; using only a "-b" cus tom iz ation. option w ill just build th e RPM w ith out th e PCLinuxOS 0.9 3a Junior is a s e lf booting Live CD w ith source pack age. advance d h ardw are de te ction. In addition to running Junior in Live CD m ode , you can als o ins tall it to your com pute r. Eas y to O nce th is is done, a fresh solseek-0.7- follow ins tructions are include d on th e Live CD as w e ll as a ch at 1tex.i586.rpm file w ill appear in th e i586 ch anne l for ins tant h e lp. directory, and a solseek-0.7-1tex.src.rpm Junior com e s w ith a s e t of pre -s e le cte d program s for W e b file w ill appear in th e SRPM S directory. You can Brow s ing, Em ail, Ins tant Me s s aging, Blogging, IRC ch at, Mus ic, Graph ics , Vide o (additional s oftw are re q uire d for e ncrypte d DVD now install th e Solseek RPM eith er by righ t- playback and proprie tary form ats ), Digital Cam e ra, Gam e s , Ftp, click ing and selecting "O pen w ith KPack age" if Bit torre nt trans fe r, CD/DVD burning and m ore . you h ave KPack age installed, or at a root console If you are firs t tim e Linux us e r or s om e one m igrating from from th e i586 directory typing "rpm -i W indow s th e n PCLinuxOS 0.9 3a Junior is a gre at w ay to ge t solseek-0.7-1tex.i586.rpm" (w ith out th e s tarte d us ing Linux. Afte r ins talling PCLinuxOS to your com pute r, you can acce s s an additional 5000 program s and librarie s from q uotes). our fre e s oftw are re pos itory.
You now sh ould be able to add Solseek to your Th e curre nt lis t of program s on Junior can be found at k ick er. If so, th en congratulations, you h ave built h ttp://w w w .pclinuxos .com //page .ph p?12l. your first successful RPM ! Re ad about PCLinuxO S 0 .9 3a MiniMe on page 36 © David W underlich , 2006
26 PCLinuxOS Magazine H H O O W SSccaannnniinngg ffoorr RRooookk iittss W T T O O
P P A ww iitthh RRoooottkk iitt HH uunntteerr A R R T by m agian, support@ m agiansystem s.com T
I Th e Internet can be a w ild and dangerous place. Luck ily for us th ere is a great tool for scanning I W e, as Linux users, are generally spared th e your system for th ese nefarious invaders. It's w orst of th e viral and m alw are infestations, but called Rootk it H unter and w as created by th ere are tim es w h en overconfidence can lead to developer M ich ael Boelen. Som e of th e m ore a false sense of security. Linux is still salient features of Rootk it H unter are as follow s: susceptible to h aving a rootk it installed. • M D5 h ash com pare W h at is a rootk it you ask ? • Look for default files used by rootk its “A rootk it is a set of softw are tools intended to • W rong file perm issions for binaries conceal running processes, files or system data, • Look s for suspected strings in LKM and th ereby h elping an intruder to m aintain access to KLD m odules a system w h ilst avoiding detection. Rootk its are • Look s for h idden files k now n to exist for a variety of operating system s • O ptional scan w ith in plaintext and binary such as Linux, Solaris and x86 versions of files M icrosoft W indow s. Rootk its often m odify parts • Rootk it H unter is released as GPL licensed of th e operating system or install th em selves as project and free for everyone to use drivers or k ernel m odules.” (from h ttp://e n.w ik ipe dia.org/w ik i/Rootk its) I w ill now sh ow you h ow to install Rootk it 27 PCLinuxOS Magazine
H unter from th e PCLO S repositories, update it, and run a com plete ch eck of your system . Th ese actions need to be done as a superuser. APT-GET w ill locate and install Rootk it H unter by typing: [root@localhost ~]# apt-get install rkhunter
Next w e run a com plete scan w ith rk h unter -- ch eck all:
Next w e update th e program w ith rk h unter – update: [root@localhost ~]# rkhunter --update Rootk it H unter w ill dow nload and install all th e current signatures. 28 PCLinuxOS Magazine
O nce th e tests are com pleted, you w ill be presented w ith a sum m ary of scan results.
Got any GREAT ide as for a PCLinuxO S proje ct?
Pe ople are naturally cre ative and im aginative . W e com e up w ith outrage ous, practical, silly, fe asible , and m aybe uniq ue ide as. Th e re 's a place for you at M yPCLinuxO S.com .
M any gre at proje cts starte d w ith a sm all ste p, and w ith a bit of de dication and w ork , w e can m ak e a dre am com e true . You can run rk h unter w ith no argum ents to see a com plete lists of options. Rootk it H unter Lost for one ? O r your ide a w as can be included in sh ell scripts and can be run tak e n? No proble m . Th e re are as a cronjob. se ve ral ongoing proje cts at M yPCLinuxO S.com . Join one of Now , you h ave one m ore reason to feel safer th e m , and be a part of a te am th at and superior to your poor M icrosoft W indow s- "give s som e th ing back " to running breth ren. PCLinuxO S. Rootk it H unter http://www.rootkit.nl 29 PCLinuxOS Magazine H H O O W SSppeeeedd UUpp YYoouurr BBoooott W T T O PPrroocceessss O
Th is is a s h ort guide on h ow you m ay be able to s pe e d up your booting tim e a little . It is not m e ant to be an e xh aus tive e xplanation of h ow th e booting proce s s w ork s , but h ope fully to provide e nough inform ation to allow you to unde rs tand w h y th is m ay h e lp.
From th e w ritings of IKerek es, m ag at m ypclinuxos dot com Booting Proce s s m em ory. Th e solution involves using a special sm all program , called a bootstrap loader or boot M ost com puter system s can only execute code loader. Th is program doesn't h ave th e full found in m em ory (RO M or RAM ), but m odern functionality of an operating system , but is tailor- operating system s are m ostly stored on h ard m ade to load enough oth er softw are to start th e disk s (or occasionally LiveCDs, USB flash operating system . O ften, m ultiple-stage boot drives, etc.). W h en a com puter is turned on, it loaders are used, in w h ich several sm all doesn't h ave an operating system in m em ory. program s sum m on each oth er, until th e last of Th e com puter's h ardw are alone cannot perform th em loads th e operating system . th e com plex actions of w h ich an operating system is capable, such as loading a program In m odern com puters th e bootstrapping process from disk , so a seem ingly irresolvable paradox is begins w ith th e CPU executing softw are created: h ow to load th e operating system into contained at a predefined address in RO M , for 30 PCLinuxOS Magazine
exam ple, th e BIO S. Th e CPU is designed to you h ave on your com puter type th e follow ing execute th is softw are after reset w ith out outside into a term inal: h elp. Th is softw are contains rudim entary ls -l /boot/init* functionality to search for devices eligible to participate in booting, and load a sm all program Th is sh ould give you an output som ew h at from a special section (m ost com m only th e boot sim ilar to th is sector or M BR) of th e m ost prom ising device. [root@localhost boot]# ls -l Th e boot process is controlled by th e Bootloader, /boot/init* w h ich is placed in th e M aster Boot Record root root 124605 Jul 19 07:09 (M BR) of th e first booting device. /boot/initrd-2.6.16.27.dev2.img root root 25 Aug 7 07:43 /boot/initrd.img ->initrd- Th e Initrd and Booting 2.6.16.27.dev2.img In th is docum ent, I am referring to GRUB or LILO bootloaders, and am assum ing th at th e Note th e second entry is th e link w e spok e of booting device is an IDE h ard disk drive w ith an earlier. installation of PCLinuxO S already present. Th e specific initrd contains an initial root Th e bootloader, as m any of you w ill k now , loads filesystem w ith enough code to boot th e O S th e k ernel and th e initrd (Initial R am Disk ) of w ith th at k ernel. W h en th is file is generated th e th e installation. Th ese th en tak e care of th e inform ation in th e installk ernel file ( operating system boot up processes. Th e /etc/sysconfig/installk ernel ) is used – initrd.im g file is usually a link to an .im g file particularly for extra drivers th at m igh t be th at is specific to th e k ernel being used. Th e needed for th e h ardw are present. W h en th e specific file is generated w h en th e k ernel is original installation took place th e livecd installed and is nam ed som eth ing lik e "initrd- loaded all th e available drivers to ensure th at
m ach ines w ill never need m ajority of th ese
Edit th e "INITRDO PTS=" line in For exam ple if you need th e 'sata_ sil' driver, /etc/sysconfig/installk ernel (exam ple below ). th e line w ould look lik e: Install or re-install th e k ernel you h ave ch osen. INITRDOPTS=" --with sata_sil" Re-boot th e com puter. If you don't h ave SATA or SCSI drives, and Th at's it. You are now booting w ith out th e extra just IDE, th e contents of th e new Installk ernel drivers you didn't need. file InitrdO pts line m igh t look lik e th is: Th e follow ing is just an exam ple and is not to INITRDOPTS="" be used as an indication of w h at m ay be If you don't k now w h ich driver you req uire for suitable for your com puter. your H ard Disk go to "PCLinux Control Center/H ardw are/M anage your system Contents of old Installk ernel file InitrdO pts line : h ardw are" and select your drive, th en read th e INITRDOPTS=" --with libata --with inform ation from th e righ t panel. sd_mod --with ata_piix --with scsi_mod --with sr_mod --with sg -- M ore detailed inform ation on Booting, and with aic7xxx --with BusLogic --with Initrd can be found h ere:- ahci --with sata_qstor --with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootloader sata_sis --with sata_sx4 --with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initrd sata_uli --with sx8 --with sata_sis -- with sata_nv --with sata_promise -- Th e usual caveats apply — you m ak e ch anges with sata_sil --with sata_svw --with to your operating system entirely at your ow n sata_via --with sata_vsc --with risk . scsi_transport_spi " Th e above contains all th e SATA and SCSI disk device drivers. You need only th e drivers specific to your h ardw are. 33 PCLinuxOS Magazine D D I I S S T AA LLooookk aatt FFrreeeessppiirree T R R O by M yrddin, m ag at m ypclinuxos dot com prom pt, installation to your h ard drive, run as O
R LiveCD, create or m odify partitions on your R E W ell, it h as arrived. Th e release candidate for h ard drive or advanced options. I recom m end E V Freespire, derived from Linspire, is available for V I
running it as a LiveCD first, to see if your I E dow nload from th eir w ebsite, h ardw are is detected properly and if you lik e E W h ttp://w w w .freespire.org/ or by bittorrent. using Freespire. W Freespire legally supports, or h as one-click access to legal support, for Quick Tim e, M P3, Th e boot up tim e of th e CD w asn't fast, but Java, Flash , W indow s M edia, Real, DVD, ATI th ere is a pretty splash screen in sh ades of and nVidia graph ic drivers, proprietary W IFI silver and a m edium blue for eye candy w h ile drivers and m ore. Freespire is th e first distro to you w ait. O nce booted, you are presented w ith include all of th ese proprietary codecs, a license agreem ent and th ree ch oices of th e applications and drivers as legally part of th eir type of system you w ant. You can ch oose release. betw een th e free version w ith all of th e All togeth er, dow nload and burn req uired less proprietary extras, a com plete O SS version or a th an an h our and a h alf to h ave a w ork ing cd of com m ercial version. Click on your ch oice and Freespire on m y 1M b DSL connection. I used th en click in th e “I agree/disagree” box. If you th e slow est burn tim e m y m edia w ould support ch oose to agree to th e license, you w ill be for th e best possible outcom e of th e burn. Th is presented w ith th e Freespire desk top. extends th e burn tim e, but it reduces th e ch ance Th e Freespire team h as created th eir ow n of a bad burn. versions of com m on applications, such as You are given four ch oices on th e CD's boot Firefox and Th underbird. Th e blues th at th ey 34 PCLinuxOS Magazine
h ave used are paler th an th ose used by m ost accessible w ith a 'tree' layout th at puts th ings in distros and are q uite attractive. Th e reds of th e a logical order. If you need to m ak e ch anges or fox of th e brow ser's icon appear m ore fire-lik e adjustm ents, you sh ould h ave no trouble finding th an any I've seen previously, th ough th e brow ser th e section you need. itself functions just as you w ould expect from Freespire w as developed by th e people at Firefox. O n th e w h ole, Freespire's eye candy is Linspire as a com m unity project. It is offered as q uite attractive. an alw ays free to dow nload O S and h as sim ilar Just as th e boot up of th e cd tak es tim e, th e first features to th e original, Linspire. Th e tw o O Ses access of any application w ill be slow . Restarting use th e sam e softw are repositories, th ough any applications for th e second tim e is faster as separate repositories m ay be available in th e th ey w ill be loaded in m em ory already. future. Th e cd com es w ith Audio and M P3, Business If you w ant or need both open source and and Finance, Gam es, H om e and Education and com m ercial applications, Freespire h as an Internet applications. If you need or w ant any abundance of th em . Eith er type is available and applications th at are not included on th e cd, can be installed and run from it. For th ose w h o Freespire h as CNR (click and run), a one click prefer th at no com m ercial products be on th eir dow nload, install and run system for acq uiring system , Freespire h as an O SS version. th em . Th is program is free to try for th e first fifteen days and $20 per year, or $50 for gold If you're interested in an operating system th at m em bersh ip after th at tim e. Com m ercial can run both open source and com m ercial softw are, as w ell as open source is available softw are, Freespire m ay be th e one for you. Bear th rough CNR. For th ose w h o prefer it, th e apt- in m ind th at th ose com m ercial applications do get com m and m ay be used. h ave costs. If you're w anting an easy sw itch from W indow s and h ave th e need for th ose Th e com m and and control center is easily com m ercial applications, give Freespire a try. 35 PCLinuxOS Magazine
A note on h ard drive installation — PCLinuxO S MiniMe 0 .9 3a I've tried several tim es to install Freespire on a Te xs tar announce d on Augus t 9 , 2006 th e availability of partition of m y h ard drive. Th e first attem pt PCLinuxOS 0.9 3a MiniMe for dow nload. resulted in m y oth er Linux partitions becom ing PCLinuxOS MiniMe 0.9 3a is th e m inim al ve rs ion of our Live CD eith er unbootable or im possible to run th e O S. for th os e w h o jus t w ant a bas ic de s k top w ith out th e bloat Subseq uent attem pts to install h ave resulted in allow ing for full us e r cus tom iz ation. Sim ply put th e CD into your errors on every attem pt at booting to th e CD or DVD drive and run it in live m ode w ith out e ve r touch ing anyth ing on your com pute r. In addition to th e Live CD m ode you partition it is installed on. Being new to th e can als o s ave your ch ange s to a us b k e y dis k . w orld of Linux use, I h ave lim ited k now ledge of w ays to fix th e problem . I believe it to be th e PCLinuxOS MiniMe can be ins talle d to your com pute r by s im ply click ing on th e ins tall icon on th e de s k top and us ing th e e as y to bootloader th at is causing th e error, but I do not follow ins tructions provide d you lik e PCLinuxOS and it runs w e ll k now for certain. Th e issue m ay be h ardw are on your com pute r.
specific; th at is, it could be no problem w ith Afte r h ard drive ins tallation, you can acce s s ove r 5000 program s your h ardw are. to fully cus tom iz e your de s k top th e w ay YO U w ant.
I used an H P Pavilion a1016x desk top, w ith a PCLinuxOS MiniMe com e s w ith th e late s t 2.6.16.27 k e rne l, a 160 GB h ard drive, 512 M B RAM , a PTGO bas ic KDE 3.5.3 de s k top, CD Ins talle r, Synaptic Softw are Manage r and Control Ce nte r. m oth erboard and a ligh tscribe DVD R/RW drive for th is review . Adve rtis e m e nt: O n a scale of 1 to 10, w ith PCLinuxO S being a Are you a h appy PCLinuxOS us e r? W ould you h e lp m ak e PCLinuxOS be tte r? ten, I'd rate Freespire as an 8.5, if I can get th e h ard drive installation to w ork . It isn't q uite as Cons ide r a fast as PCLinuxO S nor is th e installation process DONATION as easy, th ough it does seem to be above th e http://www.pclinuxos.com/page.php?1 average.
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