Stage 1: Portable Multi-Distro Linux USB Drive

June 14, 2008 at 7:09 am (3d, AMD, Adobe, Adobe Reader, Amarok, ArchLinux, CLI, Debian, FSB, Fedora, Feisty Fawn, Firefox, Gutsy Gibbon, Hardy Heron, IDE, IDE cable, Linux Mint, MEPIS, Mandriva, Mint, NTFS, PSU, RAM, Sabayon, Sidux, SimplyMEPIS, USB, action, add-on, administration, administrator, asrock k7vm3, audio, avi, boot, boot loader, clone, compiz, compiz-fusion, computers, conky, coordination, cpu, cpu temp, cube, customize, dd, desktop, desktop effects, effects, entertainment, error, ext3, eyecandy, fiction, fix, free, grub, hard disk temperature, hard drive, hitachi, international, linux, lm sensors, maintenance, management, maxtor, media, mem test, mods, monitor, network, online, operating system, partition, pc, plugin, portable, programs, samsung, seagate, sempron, slave drive, stack, stress test, sudo, syntax, system, temperature, temperature monitor, ubuntu, upgrade, usb drive, watch, windows xp)

Like the title says, I want to install 5 Linux distributions on my USB drive. It is a Western Digital Scorpio drive with 80GB of space. I thought it was broken and unusable until I plugged it in recently. Seems it was the pc that wasn’t reading it right after all. Now that I have a new power supply unit in this old box, everything seems peachy. I was using the drive as a back up but I already have 3 hard drives and only 2 are currently plugged in. I ran out of IDE connectors. Did I mention it’s old? :p

I have my drives set up to work independently as I sometimes take them out and test them on other pc’s. I don’t need all of them to be hooked up just to boot up one drive or OS. I just invoke the BIOS Boot Menu using F11 during POST and pick the one I want. Simple and easy for me.

I used my GParted Live CD to make the partitions the way they are now. See image below. Shrunk my NTFS I use as a windows back up sometimes. Next up was 2 Gigs of swap then an extended 60GB partition for my /home and 5 partitions for the Linux distributions I want to try. Looks nice and organized and most importantly – it works fine.

GParted Screenshot of USB Drive Partitions

I got the torrent from LinuxMint.com and got some rest while waiting for it to finish. Burned it at the lowest possible speed using the simple CD writer in Linux Ubuntu 8.04, my primary distribution. I had some issues booting up the Live CD. I got an “(initramfs)” prompt instead of a regular desktop. Using the Compatibility Mode, I found out that it was some error with it not detecting the floppy and SCSI devices. I used the Live CD troubleshooting guide provided by nice people in the Mint Forums. Pressed F6 during splash, pressed tab, deleted “quiet splash–” and entered “all_generic_ide”. That worked and let me into the Live environment. I liked what I saw, was curious and proceeded.

The installation was smooth. My first boot was met with the famous Grub Error 17 and 18. The reason being how the BIOS and the Live CD arranged the drives. In the Live CD, the usb drive was third and my BIOS read it as the first drive. The solution was to edit the menu.lst and change all references to (hd2,4) to (hd0,4), which is where my Mint is.

Tried again and here I am posting the results. Four more distributions to go. I’ve narrowed down my choices based on release date, number of packages and most important is the community or support. I did not include Linux Ubuntu since I’m already using that and it has its own hard drive in my pc. The list goes:

  • ArchLinux – 10/07/2007 with 15,000 packages
  • Debian – 04/08/2007 with 26,000 packages
  • Fedora – 05/13/2008 with 8,000 packages
  • Mandriva – 04/09/2008 with 16,000 packages
  • Sabayon – 09/07/2007 with 12,000 packages
  • Sidux – 04/12/2008 with 22,950 packages
  • [Simply]MEPIS – 12/23/2007 with 20,000 packages

*data is based on http://en.wikipedia.org

I wanted the distribution to be recent, within the last year or 2 years, so I wouldn’t be learning something that’s at the end of its life cycle. I wanted as much packages as possible because… just because. I’m still a beginner and still have a lot to learn. Now I have not looked into the community or support sites for these distributions yet. Well, I went into Debian once but for after reading some threads, I felt unwelcome because of my choice of OS – Ubuntu. I will give it another go and keep an open mind.

That’s about it for today. The rest is yet to be determined. Hopefully, I’ll get more information in a few days and start installing a 2nd OS on my USB drive. Until then…

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Next Project 0.2: Portable Multi-Distro Linux USB Drive

June 13, 2008 at 4:49 am (3d, AMD, Acronis, Adobe, Adobe Reader, Amarok, CLI, Debian, FSB, Feisty Fawn, Firefox, Gutsy Gibbon, Hardy Heron, IDE, IDE cable, Linux Mint, Mint, NTFS, USB, action, add-on, administration, administrator, asrock k7vm3, audio, avi, boot, boot loader, clone, compiz, compiz-fusion, computers, conky, coordination, cpu, cpu temp, cube, customize, dd, desktop, desktop effects, effects, entertainment, error, ext3, eyecandy, fiction, fix, free, game, grub, hard disk temperature, hard drive, hitachi, linux, lm sensors, maintenance, management, maxtor, media, mem test, mods, monitor, network, online, operating system, partition, pc, portable, programs, samsung, seagate, search, sempron, slave drive, stress test, sudo, syntax, system, temperature, temperature monitor, ubuntu, upgrade, usb drive, war, watch, windows xp, xsensors)

Change of plans. Instead of a using only Ubuntu, I’ve decided to add other Linux flavors. I’m currently downloading Linux Mint 5 Elyssa. I still have space for more Linux distributions in my 80GB Western Digital Scorpio drive. I like the Mint philosophy about ease of use. Maybe as I progress and learn more, I’ll look into non-Debian based distributions. Aside from usability, my biggest issue will be community support. Mint has the same positive and helpful community that I like in Ubuntu. I’ve only been to their parent’s forum once and it felt kinda hostile. I was disappointed since it came highly recommended by my fellow Ubuntu users. But I’ll give it another look. Like everything else in life – gotta learn the roots.

I have an NTFS partition in my WD Scorpio that I’ve already backed up into my Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron installation. I’m experiencing a lil sentimentality and hesitation in wiping it off the drive. There’s still plenty of space though. I can shrink the NTFS and use the rest for swap, /home and an extended partition to house the distributions I would try.

I have another concern. These distributions usually have their own bootloader. Although I don’t really use Grub that much as I use my hard drives independently by choosing which one to boot in the BIOS Boot Menu, that won’t be possible in this planned drive. I guess I can pick only the ones that use Grub but I’m not sure how much variety that would give me. I’ll have to look into that in the days that come. For now, looks like my partitions are set. Will try Mint first on my USB drive and go from there. Good luck to me.

(“,)

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Voip on Linux 7.04

September 4, 2007 at 8:06 pm (3d, Amarok, Brother DCP-115C, Feisty Fawn, Firefox, IDE, Mplayer, PSU, RAM, Rhythmbox, Totem, Totem-Xine, Xine, add-on, audio, avi, calculator, call, cellphone, compiz, compiz-fusion, computers, conky, cpu, cpu temp, cube, customize, desktop, desktop effects, dial, divx, effects, entertainment, eyecandy, fiction, free, iPod, international, landline, linux, lm sensors, maintenance, management, media, mods, monitor, mp3, online, operating system, pc, phone, pidgin, plugin, programs, sci-fi, slave drive, softphone, system, temperature, ubuntu, video, voip, wattage, xsensors)

A friend of mine who works for a research company found out today that I have switched to Linux Ubuntu. They use Fedora and Centos in all their workstations. Asked if I knew anything about Asterisk programming, I’ve never heard of it so I said no. Turns out that they’ve been looking for a way to install softphones on their linux boxes. I’ve been scouring the forums for a good softphone and voip provider. There’s Ekiga, Wengophone, Gizmo and Skype. So far the best bet is Ekiga which came with Ubuntu. And for the provider, based on what I’ve read it seems that most of them are from one company – Betamax. But in order to register, you will have to use a windows box since they ask you to install their software first before you can get a username and password. And the installer is an exe file. Some have tried running that in Wine though but I forgot if it worked or not. I will have to research on that further. As far as hardware is concerned, I think I will just keep the headset. A handset will be too much for something that I think I will rarely use. Although that might change if I get this to work and I’ll find plenty of uses for it.

At this point, it looks like Ekiga is more widely used and has a good success rate. The newer versions fix any audio issues. I have no idea if Ekiga works with Fedora or Centos. I’d like to think that it should since they’re still linux. I will test this and see what happens. The search continues…

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PC Maintenance and Modifications

August 28, 2007 at 3:20 am (3d, Feisty Fawn, IDE, PSU, RAM, add-on, audio, calculator, computers, conky, coordination, cpu, cpu temp, customize, desktop, effects, free, linux, lm sensors, maintenance, management, media, mods, monitor, online, operating system, pc, programs, slave drive, system, temperature, ubuntu, wattage, xsensors)

How do you extend the life of an old PC? The obvious answer would be to swap out the parts with newer and better ones. This is the first time I’m tinkering with a PC. My experience with computer hardware prior to installing Linux Ubuntu on an old unit is just plugging it in and pressing the on switch. What I have done so far is clean the inside of the case. So much dust has accumulated over time. I just opened both sides of the case, pointed a big fan into it and flicked the dust with tissue paper. All while making sure I’m grounded. I know static electricity can kill a computer. It’s not super clean but it is cleaner now. This pc has the following components: AMD Sempron 2200+, Asrock K7VM3 Motherboard, PQI 512MB DDR400 RAM, GeForce FX5200 Video Card, 40GB Maxtor IDE Drive, and a generic 300W PSU to support it. The 40GB hard drive has Windows XP SP2. I bought an 80GB Hitachi IDE Drive for Ubuntu. I asked my brother how to connect the drive and then I was on my way. It was done with no hitches and the new hard drive was already set to slave. Good for me. Because I have no idea how to do the jumpers.

I’ve been having problems with my RAM for a while now. I was convinced that it was dying because both XP and Linux Ubuntu could only detect about 250MB of it. A few days ago, I was tinkering with it again and actually unplugged and replugged the card into the slot. Lo and behold, when I booted up the pc my RAM was back to 512MB. I tested it on both operating systems and they say the same thing. It’s running better now. I had contemplated getting a whole new ram card but that can wait.

My next concern is the heat and noise that it is generating. On Linux Ubuntu, I have Conky running which shows the ambient and cpu temperature. Ambient is about 40C while CPU can go up to 59C. I’m not sure what the threshold is for Sempron processors. I will have to research on that more. I also looked into checking how much power the pc consumes. Using this calculator, the estimate is about 257 watts. Although my PSU can still handle that, I can’t handle the noise my PSU’s fan is creating. I’m thinking about replacing the PSU’s fan or the whole thing. Replacing the fan sounds easier but for a person who’s just starting to learn about the hardware, it’s a daunting task. And so is replacing the PSU itself! I do not want to fry the components. It’s either learn to live with it or get someone who can do it for me.

Heat management. I’ve been reading up on PC cooling for the past few days and in summary, it’s about air flow. The current setup on my pc has only 1 fan – an exhaust on the side. I consider the PSU’s fan as part of the PSU itself since it is. My plan is to transfer the exhaust fan to the back on the my and add an intake fan in the front. I’ve also unplugged the IDE cable for the floppy and folded it neatly inside since I do not use it anymore and it bothers the air flow. I’ve also adjusted the location of my two hard drives to a few bays down. I’m thinking about getting rounded IDE cables so it looks neater. I don’t think spiral wraps will help my wire management but I’ll have to look in the case again for a more detailed plan of action.

Wish me luck!

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Completed Conky on Linux Ubuntu 7.04

August 14, 2007 at 8:38 am (3d, Amarok, Brother DCP-115C, Feisty Fawn, Firefox, Mplayer, Rhythmbox, Totem, Totem-Xine, Xine, add-on, audio, avi, compiz, compiz-fusion, computers, conky, cpu, cpu temp, cube, customize, desktop, desktop effects, divx, effects, entertainment, eyecandy, free, game, guild, iPod, linux, lm sensors, media, monitor, mp3, online, operating system, pidgin, plugin, programs, sci-fi, system, temperature, ubuntu, watch, xsensors)

Finally, I have everything I wanted on Conky. I had a chance to research and edit the .conkyrc file today. I just added the downstream / download and upstream / upload graph with the borders. I think that’s about it. But who knows, maybe tomorrow there’s a new feature to be added. But for now, it is complete.

On another note, I’ve been watching videos/episode/movies on tv-links. What I do is that I download the source first through wget and then play it on VLC. It’s more steps than what it should be but I don’t mind. Only bothersome when the broadband connection is slow. But other than that, it’s all good. Most videos/episodes I can view directly on the pop up window. I added Xchat for my mIRC needs. Although pidgin worked great but I wanted a separate program for that. I’m looking for a way to be able to use and view a webcam since Pidgin doesn’t support that. I also added Bluefish since I will be taking up a web authoring project soon. Haven’t tested it yet. Looks promising and the reviews are good.

My Sony Ericsson w810i was automatically detected by Ubuntu. Although the desktop icon looks an iPod, no big deal. I can download the pictures I’ve taken and add new songs. Very happy it works! My iPod is automatically detected as well. Haven’t tried changing the songs using Ubuntu though. But since Ubuntu mounts it on the desktop, that shouldn’t be a problem.

Great help from Ubuntu Forums. Here’s the .conkyrc code I used:

background yes
use_xft yes
xftfont HandelGotD:size=9
xftalpha 0.5
update_interval 1.0
total_run_times 0
own_window yes
own_window_type normal
own_window_transparent yes
own_window_hints undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager
double_buffer yes
minimum_size 200 5
maximum_width 200
draw_shades no
draw_outline no
draw_borders no
draw_graph_borders yes
default_color white
default_shade_color red
default_outline_color green
alignment top_right
gap_x 12
gap_y 48
no_buffers yes
uppercase no
cpu_avg_samples 2
override_utf8_locale no

TEXT
$sysname $kernel on $machine

Uptime $alignr $uptime
Load $alignr $loadavg
Temp $alignr ${i2c 9191-0290 temp 1}C ${i2c 9191-0290 temp 2}C

Hostname $alignr $nodename
eth0 $alignr ${addr eth0}

CPU $alignr ${cpu cpu0}%
${cpubar cpu0}

MEM $alignc $mem / $memmax $alignr $memperc%
$membar

/root $alignc ${fs_used /} / ${fs_size /} $alignr ${fs_free_perc /}%
${fs_bar /}

/disk $alignc ${fs_used /media/disk} / ${fs_size /media/disk} $alignr ${fs_free_perc /media/disk}%
${fs_bar /media/disk}

swap $alignc $swap / $swapmax $alignr $swapperc%
${swapbar}

$processes processes ($running_processes running)

${color white}Highest CPU:
${color de0b0b}${top name 1}${top_mem cpu 1}
${color white}${top name 2}${top cpu 2}
${top name 3}${top cpu 3}
${top name 4}${top cpu 4}
${top name 5}${top cpu 5}

${color white}Highest MEM:
${color de0b0b}${top_mem name 1}${top_mem mem 1}
${color white}${top_mem name 2}${top_mem mem 2}
${top_mem name 3}${top_mem mem 3}
${top_mem name 4}${top_mem mem 4}
${top_mem name 5}${top_mem mem 5}

${color}Networking:
Down:${color} $alignr ${downspeed eth0} k/s${color} ${offset 80}
$alignc ${downspeedgraph eth0 32,150 de0b0b de0b0b}
Up:${color} $alignr ${upspeed eth0} k/s ${offset 80}
$alignc ${upspeedgraph eth0 32,150 de0b0b de0b0b}

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Linux Ubuntu 7.04 Checklist

August 1, 2007 at 1:39 am (3d, Amarok, Brother DCP-115C, Feisty Fawn, Firefox, Mplayer, Rhythmbox, Totem, Totem-Xine, Xine, action, add-on, audio, avi, compiz, compiz-fusion, computers, conky, cpu, cpu temp, cube, customize, desktop, desktop effects, divx, effects, entertainment, eyecandy, free, iPod, linux, lm sensors, media, monitor, mp3, multiplayer, online, operating system, pidgin, plugin, programs, system, temperature, tv, ubuntu, video, watch, xsensors)

I’ve been using Ubuntu for a few weeks now. I still have winXP on my smaller drive. I think there’s still a lot of things I’ve yet to explore in Ubuntu. So far I’ve been able to get almost all of the things I want working fine. The forum is an awesome resource that I’d definitely point out to. Without it, I wouldn’t have known the things that I could make this operating system do for me. I’ll list down the things that I have working and the things I want to work on when I have time.

1) Compiz-Fusion : Of course! This is the first thing I wanted on my Ubuntu. The desktop effects are just awesome! Beats that of any other OS in the industry.

2) Conky : Great match with Compiz-Fusion. Provides information about my system and is relatively easy to configure. Mostly copy/paste. Not all systems are the same so I had to ask around about the cpu temp gauge. Got it working with help from the forum.

3) Amarok : It’s nice. Easy to configure. Plays .mp3’s just fine. Although I’d like to turn off that pop up thing that tells me what the next song is. Don’t think that’s necessary but it’s all good.

4) Pidgin : Nifty little thing. I had used Trillian on winXP before. I like the functionality and the convenience it provides. I don’t know how to get the webcam working on the yahoo part. Not sure if it even does. Will look into it later.

5) Totem : I got it to play my .avi files with sound. I had to switch between other movie players but this one finally worked. I don’t need an uber video player. I just want it to play videos and it gets the job done.

6) VLC Media Player : Installed it because I want to want xvid / divx files online. Kinda buggy but at least I get something. Will explore more options when I have time.

7) Brother DCP-115C : Prints and scans fine. Thanks again to the people in the forum for creating How-To threads. Was very happy when I got it to work.

8) Things I still have on winXP : iPod, sony ericsson w810i, games and divx player. I’m not ready to plug in my iPod yet. I’ve heard of gtkpod (sp?) but I’ve yet to try it. I don’t know if it’s gonna mess up the iPod if I plug it into winXP one day and Ubuntu the next or vice versa. More research needed. The same goes for my phone. I will look into installing wine for the games. That’s not important though. The divx player I use a lot for watching shows on http://www.tv-links.co.uk. I hope VLC will be enough. I haven’t tested it fully. I’ve been watching Kyle XY and it seems to pick the episodes it wants to run. We’ll see…

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Screenshots of Linux Ubuntu with Compiz-Fusion

July 19, 2007 at 3:05 am (3d, Amarok, Brother DCP-115C, Firefox, Mplayer, Rhythmbox, Totem, Totem-Xine, Xine, action, add-on, audio, avi, compiz, compiz-fusion, computers, conky, cpu, cpu temp, cube, customize, desktop, desktop effects, divx, effects, entertainment, eyecandy, free, iPod, linux, lm sensors, media, monitor, mp3, online, operating system, pidgin, plugin, programs, system, temperature, ubuntu, watch, xsensors)

screenshot 1

top of the cube

screenshot 3

The desktop effects of Linux Ubuntu’s Compiz-Fusion is impressive. I love the timer on the screenshot tool! Being a new user, I haven’t tried Beryl or Compiz but I expect that they’re able to do the same on their desktops. I finally got Conky’s temperature gauge working fine thanks to someone in the forum. Instead of using acpitemp I used “Temp $alignr ${i2c 9191-0290 temp 1}C ${i2c 9191-0290 temp 2}C ” to show the temperature. It works great!

So far everything I wanted to work on Linux Ubuntu are working. Only 1 thing left for me to tweak. I still haven’t been able to make divx work on Firefox. When I have a bit more time, I’ll look into that. I’ll also be looking for other nifty tools/programs to add. There’s so much potential in this OS. I’m glad I don’t have to search for cracked versions of software that I want to install. The updates keep coming. Based on what I’ve read on the forum, I will not be needing an anti-virus software nor a firewall. But I’ll look more into that in the future. For now, I’m completely sold on this free product!

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Hardware and Software on Linux Ubuntu

July 18, 2007 at 9:40 am (3d, Amarok, Brother DCP-115C, Firefox, Mplayer, Rhythmbox, Totem, Totem-Xine, Xine, action, add-on, audio, avi, compiz, compiz-fusion, computers, conky, cpu, cpu temp, cube, customize, desktop, divx, effects, entertainment, eyecandy, free, linux, lm sensors, media, monitor, mp3, online, operating system, pidgin, plugin, programs, system, temperature, ubuntu, video, watch, xsensors)

I was surfing the net when my brother asked me to print something for school. It occurred to me that I had forgotten to install my printer when I was setting everything up. I had to reboot into XP for him. And once that was done, proceeded to install my Brother DCP-115C Multifunction Printer. It wasn’t hard to search the forums for a guide. I used this to set it up. I have my printer working fine as well as it’s scanner. I haven’t tried the card reader yet but I hardly ever use that, even on XP. So that’s not an issue.

I have Compiz-Fusion running smoothly and Conky showing the information I wanted it to. To monitor my pc’s temperature, I used this guide. Worked fine. I have Xsensors installed to show the temperatures and voltages on my pc. I have yet to make the temperature show up on Conky. But it’s something I can work on later. Xsensors is more than enough for now. I am able to see my processor’s load, cpu & memory consumption as well as disk usage on my desktop’s screen. Very happy with the results.

I switched to Totem-Xine as my movie player. Now I am able to play .avi files with no problems. The sound is ok. I was able to get the Mplayer plugin on Firefox to play divx files online. But when it’s paused, it doesn’t play again and freezes Firefox. I always have to restart Firefox to get it working again. I watch shows on tv-links every now and then. I will search for more possible solutions and try it out when I have more time on my hands. The way things are going, it seems like nothing remains unsolved for long on Linux Ubuntu.

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Conky on Compiz-Fusion

July 17, 2007 at 10:20 am (3d, Amarok, Rhythmbox, add-on, audio, avi, compiz, compiz-fusion, computers, conky, cube, customize, desktop, effects, entertainment, eyecandy, iPod, linux, media, monitor, mp3, online, operating system, plugin, programs, system, video, watch)

I wanted something that would show my system information like cpu/ram/disk usage, temps, etc. that would blend with my desktop. After browsing through the forum, Conky seemed to be the logical choice. I have been trying to get it working for a few hours. I don’t get any error messages during installation but it doesn’t show up on my desktop. I’ve tried the how-to’s and tutorials on UbuntuForums but no go. I did ask if there were any issues with Conky being run on Compiz-Fusion. No answer yet. Although I think I remember seeing screenshots of it. I’ll have to check again later.

So far, everything’s working great. I ran into a little problem in playing .avi files in Totem. I’ve read on the forum that most of them use a diffent video player like mplayer or xmms. I still want to give it a try on Totem. I think Ubuntu wouldn’t ship with that movie player if it wasn’t worth something. I’m not very fond of Rhythmbox though. I chose to install Amarok and it runs great and plays all my .mp3 files with no problems. Rythmbox reminds me of iTunes. I had a hard time navigating through that when I first got my iPod. I guess for the most part it was just me being a windows user for so long and that being my very first Apple product. So the experience wasn’t good. Happy with the iPod though.

Aside from Conky and Totem troubles, I’m looking for an alternative for both if I can’t get them to work. I’m thinking about removing Rhythmbox altogether. Still looking for more ways to customize my Linux Ubuntu 7.04.

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