Archive for the 'Ubuntu' Category

Ubuntu Tweaks (Part 2 - Repository and Packaging)

Published
by
Zz85
on March 8, 2007
in Interesting Stuff, Ubuntu, WebLinks and linux
. 3 Comments

Continued from Part 1 of my series on Ubuntu tweaking.

When I first planned to run Ubuntu 6.10 “Edgy Eft”, many reviews on the net showed that not everyone is happy, some whom might think its not edgy enough, some who had their systems broken because they tried to upgrade.

Remember one of my reason I installed Ubuntu? The nature of Ubuntu and its community makes it easy to use, customise and repair the system. In this post, I would show ways to play with your ubuntu system- using apt, guides on the net, and using some other packaging or unified installation software.

Ubuntu

Apts
Apt (Advanced Packaging Tool) was perhaps the reason why many chose Debian. The Ubuntu repositories could then be the very reason that others like me chose ubuntu. Apt-get, Aptitude are very useful and powerful commands to play with. However after trying Ubuntu Synaptic Package Manager for time, I love it for these reasons:

- It has a gui (Graphical User Interface) for those who wouldn’t even touch a shell.
- Its really easy to add, disable, delete sources
- Easy to find, mark and install many packages at one go
- Download packages simultaneously, with ability to resume, making downloads faster
- Notifies you of updates and easy to access via its tray icon.

Even now I use Synaptic a lot and recommend it, apt-get and aptitude are still as important and good to learn and use. Read about aptitude versus apt-get

Finding Ubuntu Repositories
Having nice repository sources is perhaps all you need for a long time. Using these packages, I find that it is even easier to search and install software compared to Windows.

1st, you can uncomment the less official but supported ubuntu sources from /etc/sources.list or preferably do so in Synaptic. Next try out source-o-matic a Ubuntu source.list generator which produces a source list based on selection of criteria you chose. Ubuntu geek has a source list for Edgy Eft which is worth taking a look. Lastly for sources, for the more adventurous, I would recommend Treviño source list which including many packages compiled by him.

Other Debian Packages
Automatix is an Automated GUI installation script which installs the common software people demands. Read here as their official site seems down.

When using lots of “super-cow powers” apts, dun forget they are basically Debian packages. Finding and downloading debian packages is a very simple way to install applications. See GetDeb - Click And Run - Software Portal

Other Packaging
One of Apt/Deb uses is that they are a solution to dependencies. However, it is not the only solution around. Many package management exists for other distros - portage (emerge) for Gentoo, packman for ArkLinux, rpm for Redhat… There are some which are distro independent.

Klik, its another innovative web-based click and install software manager. From its webpage, “Klik strives to be the easiest way to download and run software, without installation”. I love the way you install Klik, with at most 2 lines (in user mode without the dollar signs):


$ sudo apt-get install binutils libstdc++5 rpm gnome-about # for (k)Ubuntu
$ wget klik.atekon.de/client/install -O -|sh

Autopackage - Easy Linux Software Installations for both users and developers. “Autopackage doesn’t need to be downloaded or installed. When you install your first package, Autopackage will install itself automatically.” Check out their package listings

Zero Install system is a caching network filesystem, to make software installation completely automatic. This decentralised installation systems has been made to work with the Rox Desktop

Lastly, if you were to experiment building from sources, you would like to work with the command, esp. tar, cvs, svn, git. CVS (Concurrent Versioning System), SVN (Subversion), GIT(distributed revision control file system project) are also repositories system at a different level.

CheckInstall is a software which helps you keep track of installations done using make install, and creates distro based uninstallations like dpkg on debian.

Welcome to the addictive world of Linux software.

2 Users using a Single PC (Part I)

Published
by
Zz85
on February 25, 2007
in Multiseat, Technology, Ubuntu, linux and thesis
. 0 Comments

by using 2 sets of keyboard and mouse, 2 display device, a single dual-head card, running dual X. (In another words, its turning a computer into two)

Dual X
[photo of my current setup, shows the mess I have T home too :( ]

Introduction
Is was just the thought that the modern pcs is usually under-utilised if it is just used for normal tasks (like surfing internet, or using office tools.. I feel 1GHz is alot of power already). So I wondered why couldnt an extra, cheap usb mouse be added to allow more to use a computer at 1 time. After all, don’t modern OSes support multi video cards, multi display, multi users.

What I did (My Implementation)

My Desktop
My normal (messed) computer desktop.

Extension wire
Using a dvi-vga converter, I still needed a 3m vga extension cable which I bought about $10. This is to connect to my 15″ LCD screen which I placed on top of the piano. See 1st picture in this post (Creative, or horrible idea depending on how you look at it).

Viewsonic LCD
My Viewsonic LCD screen is paired up with my wireless microsoft keyboard and mouse. (My wired set is Logitech). The wireless set is placed on the closed piano, a white piece of paper placed under the optical mouse to make it work really good (because of the reflective surface of the piano).

Philips CRT
My Primary Philips 15″ CRT Flatscreen.

The Methods
At first I thought of writing a software in Windows that redirects keyboard and mouse events to a target window (become a 2nd virtual mouse), at least allow an extra user share 1 pc without too much effort, unfortunately it seems it wasnt as easy as I thought or it isnt within my capabilities. My orginal configuration was actually using a wireless set of keyboard&mouse with my extensions wires to my Tv.

Fast forward. After deciding to install Ubuntu 6.10 on my pc, I remembered reading implementations of multi-terminals/multi-users on linux basically using X configurations. With my nvidia support dual heads, an extra lcd monitor, and extra usb wireless keyboard mouse set I began to set up my “Dual X”.

The methods for implementing a multiple x/ dual-terminal system are not few. Although many used to be quite hackish, I thought there should be some easy way with the latest software. Looking for the implementation with the most convenience, I found Chris Tyler’s Blog article - Multiseat X Under X11R6.9/7.0

Basically this method’s simple - create multiple layout X configuration for each card, using evdev to map which keyboard and mouse to which screen. After much trying, the reason why it didn’t work for me because I was running a dual-head card (my 6600gt with vga, dvi and s-video outputs), rather than 2 graphics card. That means that we can only create 1 X server for each gpu (and 1 gpu on 1 video card).

I do have another pci video card, but I wanted to make full use of the dual heads of my 6600 so I tried another method. I found the walkthrough guide Multiseat computer with Ubuntu very useful and practical. His steps are almost based on Multiseat with Xephyr method

This Xephyr-based implementation uses a twinview/xinerama/extended desktop configuration which creates a screen or X server that covers 2 display device. Then 2 Xephyr (sort of a Nested-X) instances will be run, 1 on each screen. The Xephyr (A X server running in another X server, therefor itself being an X client) available to download from the links are compiled with hacks to make them response to their specified keyboard and mouse only.

More Reading
Multiseat article at Wikipedia

Food for Thoughts
are there any other easy pratical methods that increase the numbers of users to the numbers of cpu? Sure, a server maybe serving many users (eg as serving webpages or providing terminal services) but the total number of computers or cpu remain the same (computers at client side, even thin or diskless clients).

Conclusion
So this is how I configured my computer so my sisters and I can use the internet at the same time without needing to snatch or quallel (This is if they are willing to use linux ;)

I soon found out this implementation limitations like mentioned.. OpenGL (apps and games) couldn’t run on Xypher, Mplayer didnt have hardware acceleration, XGL was not supported (so my beryl window manager couldnt run)

To be continued…
(Part 2 of this series is on solving this problem :)


Explanation of Terms
X - The architectural, software for graphics display on *nix systems. The server term used seems to confuse others who think like servers are machines providing you a service. A X server refers to display device while X clients are software which connects to the screen (server). More

Multi-Terminals: to describe the multiple users using a single pc at a time using multiple screens, keyboard and mouse. Other words have been used to describe it like multiseats (contrast to multiheads), multi-X. And basically what this post is about :)

Ubuntu Customisation & Tweaks Part I - Documentation

Published
by
Zz85
on February 21, 2007
in Technology, Ubuntu and linux
. 1 Comment

When I first planned to run Ubuntu 6.10 “Edgy Eft”, many reviews on the net showed that not everyone is happy, some whom might think its not edgy enough, some who had their systems broken because they tried to upgrade.

Remember one of my reason I installed Ubuntu? The nature of Ubuntu and its community makes it easy to use, customise and repair the system.

Part 1 of this series is on Reading Guides, Documentations and Experiences

1. Here are 2 pretty good (if not the best) links to get started with

A good guide on customizing Ubuntu and its many software
http://doc.gwos.org/index.php/EdgyCust

A good tutorial on tweaking your Eft Ubuntu to make it more Edgy
http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2006/11/11/howto-set-up-edgy-for-speed/

More Readings:
Article about improving Ubuntu speed
Nice recommendation of applications and tweaks
Customisation Guide Link for Dapper
Another Speed improvement guide
More Speed Improvement related stuff

2. Next are the important hangout sites

So far, I have found almost every problem to be answered and solved in Ubuntu Forums.

In wanting to find out and learn in greater detail, with excellent examples, I found Gentoo’s and ArchLinux’s wiki documentation to be superb in almost every topic, perhaps because they are linux distros targeted towards more advanced users.

3. More help sources

Hang out at IRC, and browse through newsgroups, mailing lists, forums & blogs will help up alot

Asking your own shell is great way to learn. “man command“, “command –help | less“, “help command” can’t be less helpful.

Not forgetting a very good friend Google whether to troubleshoot or a look up a topic. Just search “Ubuntu problems“, “Ubuntu error message” or “Ubuntu topic” would usually give very specific solutions and guidance to what you need.

Conclusion

As you may know, the term RTM- Read the (Friendly) Manual, is often given to those who expects others to help them, but don’t help themselves by reading up first.

So, happy reading.