From lincoln@EmperorLinux.com Mon Feb 16 16:50:03 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: emperorlinux-lincolns-logbook@lists.emperorlinux.com Received: by sade.emperorlinux.com (Postfix, from userid 104) id 9C951620C7; Mon, 16 Feb 2004 16:50:02 -0500 (EST) Received: from tori.emperorlinux.com (unknown [192.168.1.5]) by sade.emperorlinux.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1C14E620C2; Mon, 16 Feb 2004 16:49:59 -0500 (EST) From: Lincoln Durey To: EmperorLinux Lincoln's Logbook Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Ximian Evolution 1.0.3 (1.0.3-4) Date: 16 Feb 2004 16:19:53 -0500 Message-Id: <1076966393.1461.2697.camel@tori> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-7.4 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_10,USER_AGENT_XIMIAN autolearn=ham version=2.55 X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.55 (1.174.2.19-2003-05-19-exp) cc: EmperorLinux Subject: [EmperorLinux-Lincolns-Logbook] Linux Journal Review: "Meteor" MM10: 2-pound Linux system X-BeenThere: emperorlinux-lincolns-logbook@lists.emperorlinux.com X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Views, tips, and tools from the president of EmperorLinux. List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2004 21:50:04 -0000 Portable Linux Enthusiast, Back in December the editors at The Linux Journal called me to ask if they might get an EmperorLinux Meteor MM10 to review. Well, The review is coming out in the March LJ (page 75), and it is quite nice. The reviewer was Tony Steidler-Dennison, and he was quite impressed with the smallness of the Meteor, and the features packed inside. I hope you'll run out and get a copy of the March LJ and read Tony's fine review. Figure 3 is especially wonderful, it really shows how small the Meteor is compared to typical portables. If you have any technical questions about the system, please give us a call. Here are just a few of the high points from Tony's review: - The Meteor clearly re-establishes the "notebook" class of portable PC, by being 0.52 inch thin, and 2.1 lbs. - Pre-installed Red Hat 9 "provides an extremely usable Linux desktop". - A custom EmperorLinux kernel provides "mobile-valuable features like software hibernation". - The Meteor is also "ultra-mobile" with included WiFi (and easy setup to DHCP), 10/100, and modem. - The USB docking cradle is the "quickest path to taking your data on the road". And a few amendments (no offense Tony, just covering the bases): - There is no FireWire on the Meteor. (just 2 USB 2.0 ports) - The internal 802.11b wireless can be turned off via keyboard function keys. - There is a higher capacity battery that runs 5-6 hours. - Linux Distributions other than RH9 are available: www.EmperorLinux.com/distro.php Complete Meteor specifications, accessories, pricing, and availability are listed on our web-site: http://www.EmperorLinux.com/meteor.php Our technical staff will happily discuss with you what _you_ need from a Linux ultra-portable. -- Lincoln "Lincoln's Logbook", is a very informative look at interesting things you can do with Linux on a portable, and our "Announce" list will keep you up-to date about all our services, and new systems/distros as they come out. Low-Traffic list details: http://www.EmperorLinux.com/mailing_lists.html *------------------------------------------------------------------* | Lincoln D. Durey, Ph.D. | Phone: 1-888-651-6686 | | Electrical Engineer | in GA: (770)-612-1205 | | EmperorLinux | Fax: (770)-612-1210 | | 900 Circle 75 Pkwy. | web: www.EmperorLinux.com | | Suite 1380 | support: support@EmperorLinux.com | | Atlanta, GA 30339 | email: lincoln@EmperorLinux.com | *------------------------------------------------------------------* From lincoln@EmperorLinux.com Wed May 5 16:58:39 2004 Return-Path: X-Original-To: EmperorLinux-Lincolns-Logbook@lists.EmperorLinux.com Delivered-To: EmperorLinux-Lincolns-Logbook@lists.EmperorLinux.com Received: by sade.emperorlinux.com (Postfix, from userid 104) id 0F15162474; Wed, 5 May 2004 16:58:38 -0400 (EDT) Received: from [192.168.1.7] (unknown [192.168.1.7]) by sade.emperorlinux.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 33E6862365; Wed, 5 May 2004 16:58:36 -0400 (EDT) From: Lincoln Durey To: EmperorLinux Lincoln's Logbook Content-Type: text/plain Organization: EmperorLinux Message-Id: <1083790251.9780.748.camel@localhost> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Ximian Evolution 1.4.5 (1.4.5-7) Date: Wed, 05 May 2004 16:50:51 -0400 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on sade.emperorlinux.com X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-3.4 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,HTML_MESSAGE, WEIRD_PORT autolearn=no version=2.63 cc: EmperorLinux Subject: [EmperorLinux-Lincolns-Logbook] How do I pick a new Linux Laptop system and distro? X-BeenThere: emperorlinux-lincolns-logbook@lists.emperorlinux.com X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Views, tips, and tools from the president of EmperorLinux. List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 05 May 2004 20:58:39 -0000 Portable Linux Enthusiast, Todays article has relevance to all of us at some time or another. It is the nature of hardware to get old and slow. So, we all find ourselves needing new Linux laptop about every 3 years. Lincoln's new Linux Laptop: =========================== As the founder and president of a Linux laptop company, I get quite a few questions about which machine I use, and which Linux distro I use. While those are interesting questions with easy answers which we'll get to, I also field the age old question of "how can I take my data with me" from our returning customers (as we've been at this Linux on laptops thing for 5 years now, we have many customers coming back after a 3-4 year run on one of our systems, and it's time to upgrade). So, I'm going to roll all these questions into one essay and answer: "How do I pick a new Linux laptop system and distro, and then move my data, and my work flow to it?" I took delivery of an EmperorLinux Toucan T21 in January of 2001, and used it approximately 12-16 hours a day for over three years. The Toucan T21 (named "tori") ran Red Hat 7.3, with all the same modifications to the kernel (the empkernel), and the config files that our customers enjoy. Recently, tori started making not-happy-disk noises, and the LCD back-light was flickering. So, on March 19th, 2004 I selected a nice new Toucan T41 with Fedora from our assembly line, and christened her "sophie". This will detail what I got hardware wise, and then all the extra tweaks I've made to sophie over the past few days to get her totally up to speed. I've had to get my data over, configure printing, and get user-space applications configured. It is interesting to look at how far Linux laptops have come in the past 3 years. By getting sophie, I've upgraded my CPU from a P-III 850 with 256MB cache to a Pentium M 1700 with 1MB cache, my disk from 32GB@4200rpm to 60GB@7200rpm, and ram from 384MB to 1GB. From a connectivity standpoint, I've jumped my ethernet from 10/100 to Gigabit, and my WiFi from a PCMCIA 'b' card to internal 802.11a/b/g Atheros (the best Linux WiFi card around), and now I can start playing with internal BlueTooth. Not all things change though. The T41, like the T21 still has a 1400x1050 LCD panel, and at 14 inches, it is still the smallest screen to be significantly over 1024x768. Data Transfer: ============== First, we have to get all the data copied over from tori to sophie. (tori had a daily rsync to our QuadXeon server, but I'm going to go the direct route here, since tori hasn't failed me yet.) (Shameless plug: Yes I really just pulled a Toucan T41 off our Fedora production line, and this is all I had to do, no config, no kernel, no effort!) for i in durey elf emperor; do useradd $i; passwd $i; done we can be on tori, and push to sophie: tori # rsync -e ssh -av /home/durey durey@sophie:/home/ or we can be on sophie and pull from tori: sophie # rsync -e ssh -av emperor@tori:/home/emperor /home/ Of course there are a few more files I need: rsync -e ssh -av /usr/local/bin/* root@sophie:/usr/local/bin/ rsync -e ssh -av /root root@sophie:/ Media: Xmms and Xine: ===================== As most of you know, most Linux distributions no longer ship xmms with support for playing mp3s. This is due to the Fraunhofer licensing fees for mp3 decoding. However, as an individual, you can easily add mp3 playback capability to Fedora with these RPMs: wget http://www.xmms.org/files/1.2.x/rpm/fc1/xmms-1.2.10-1.i386.rpm http://www.xmms.org/files/1.2.x/rpm/fc1/xmms-alsa-1.2.10-1.i386.rpm http://www.xmms.org/files/1.2.x/rpm/fc1/xmms-vorbis-1.2.10-1.i386.rpm http://www.xmms.org/files/1.2.x/rpm/fc1/xmms-gl-1.2.10-1.i386.rpm Then, just "rpm -Uvh xmms*.rpm" them onto your system. watching DVD movies on ones laptop is very nice if you travel, have no home DVD player, or just want to show your friends how cool Linux is. Xine has long been my favorite Linux DVD player, but xine in legendary for being a difficult build from source. Enter APT. Debian's apt has been ported to Fedora, and it makes finding and installing new stuff a breeze. Get apt from fedora.us, and install it: http://ftp.freshrpms.net/pub/freshrpms/fedora/linux/1/apt/apt-0.5.15cnc3-0.1.fr.i386.rpm http://ftp.freshrpms.net/pub/freshrpms/fedora/linux/1/apt/apt-devel-0.5.15cnc3-0.1.fr.i386.rpm rpm -Uvh apt-0.5.15cnc3-0.1.fr.i386.rpm apt-devel-0.5.15cnc3-0.1.fr.i386.rpm To get a local listing of all the Fedora apt packages you can choose from, run: apt-get update And then, to search that data for the Xine player: apt-cache search xine dvd libdvdcss - A portable abstraction library for DVD decryption. libdvdcss-devel - Development files from the libdvdcss DVD decryption library. xine - A free multimedia player. xine-lib - Core library for the xine video player xine-lib-devel - Development files for the xine library and then to install xine, and all of its dependencies, and all of the decryption plugins you'll need for your usual encrypted DVDs like the Matrix. apt-get install xine Galeon, Printing, AA Fonts: =========================== I really liked the Galeon web browser on my rh7.3 system, and was rather dismayed at the lack of Galeon in Fedora. They have replaced Galeon with the much less functional "Epiphany", which doesn't have near the flexibility of Galeon, especially with respect to tabs (and saving tabbed sessions). Thankfully, fedora.us has a wonderful trove of packages for Fedora, and there you can find Galeon for Fedora: http://download.fedora.us/fedora/fedora/1/i386/RPMS.testing/galeon-1.3.11-0.fdr.3.a.fixed.1.i386.rpm Here at EmperorLinux, we use an in-house system to generate automated e-mails for quotes, order confirmations, and shipping notices. The web form that does this spits out the mailto protocol (RFC 2368), which as far as I know, only Evolution can handle properly, so we need to send "mailto" URLs to evolution: This setting stored in GConf, in /desktop/gnome/url-handlers/mailto, and if there is no handler set, then the key will not exist, so: gconftool-2 --type=string --set /desktop/gnome/url-handlers/mailto/command 'evolution %s' gconftool-2 --type=bool --set /desktop/gnome/url-handlers/mailto/enabled true We have quite a few printers here, from a high-speed Optra for printing the manuals, to a dot matrix for shipping labels. Of course everything is done in latex and output as postscript files. We also have several different ways our printers are connected, so we can really give the Linux printing subsystem a workout. The chart below summarizes how I've configured CUPS on my new Toucan T41 Linux laptop to talk to a local (parallel-port connected) Laser Jet 2100, a remote dot matrix, and several postscript printers. On RH7.3 I had used "printtool" for this, and in Fedora, printtool is still there, and is the same as printconf-gui. printconf-tui is also available. cupsconfig will give you a different interface to the same printer configuration data. All cupsconfig does is run point a web-browser at http://localhost:631/ Printer Queue Type Details Driver Notes ---------------- ----- ---- ------- ------ ----- HP Laser Jet 2100 lp local /dev/lp0 pxlmono was ljet4 Epson dots unix LPD raw3@192.168.1.25 epson 360x180 Lexmark E312 lex unix LPD raw1@192.168.1.25 postscript Lexmark Optra optra JetDirect 192.168.1.6:9100 postscript You may find this handy for printing to remote Unix LPD hosts: mkdir -m 1777 /var/spool/cups/tmp apt-cache search gnome-terminal GNOME control center -> "File Types and Programs" -> Documents/Published Materials -> Call me old-fashioned, but I really do not like anti-aliased fonts in most applications. Don't get me wrong, I have _always_ used anti-aliasing in the gv Postscript viewer, but to have all my terminals and web-browsers be AA is a pain. It is harder to type while reading AA fonts, and you can not get as much information on the page clearly. You can turn off AA fonts in gnome on a per-process basis by simply setting the environment variable GDK_USE_XFT=0. i.e. run "export GDK_USE_XFT=0; galeon", and you'll have nice sharp fixed fonts. Conclusion: =========== My Toucan T41 Linux laptop has now been serving me well for the past month, and it is doing everything I need. I hack, and it compiles kernels very quickly (ccache). I've been using 2.6 on it, but that is another story. It plays mp3's, oggs, and DVDs. I can access all our intranet services via ssh encrypted tunnels, and everything else the president of a Linux laptop company needs to do to run the show. Yay! Note: ===== The compiled-into-pdf version of these notes will soon be available at www.EmperorLinux.com/lincoln/logbook.php -- Lincoln *------------------------------------------------------------------* | Lincoln D. Durey, Ph.D. | Phone: 1-888-651-6686 | | Electrical Engineer | in GA: (770)-612-1205 | | EmperorLinux, Inc. | Fax: (770)-612-1210 | | 900 Circle 75 Pkwy. | web: www.EmperorLinux.com | | Suite 1380 | support: support@EmperorLinux.com | | Atlanta, GA 30339 | email: lincoln@EmperorLinux.com | *------------------------------------------------------------------*