2003 August

Michael writes (ironically) regarding last week’s GnomeVOICE:

“Hello Dee-ann,

“In the GnomeVOICE below, maybe he can point his bosses to your
OSDL article and to the OSDL
web site. That might help his cause and calm his boss’s
nerves.”
Dee-Ann responds: I do get around, don’t I?

Another interesting backup solution showed up in my e-mail, from
Robert Burns (perhaps unrelated to the writer):
“I’ve followed the past few issues with respect to
backup solutions, and thought I’d throw just one more into the
mix. It’s mostly a disaster recovery tool, but can be used for
creating regular system ‘diffs’. It’s one I’ve used a couple [...]

Compiling Software from Source, Part IX

This week I’m trying to compile another part of the overall GNOME
package for a change. One item that the last error complained
about is pango (an internationalization tool - trying saying that
one three times fast!), so I’ll get started with:

bunzip2 pango[TAB]
tar xvf pango[TAB]
cd pango[TAB]
./configure

And it configures with no errors. [...]

Learning about Commands, Part V

There are so many references out there for Linux users, both
online and in print, it’s hard to know where to turn. I’m going to
focus exclusively on references that have a nice density of
information about commands, here. Let’s start with Web sites:

Alphabetical Directory of Linux Commands
LinuxCommand.org
Linux Commands and Shell Commands Libraries
Linux ABCs
Some [...]

And it’s been another crazy week in the saga of SCO against
Reality. Between proof that SCO in fact is in violation of the BSD
license, proof that SCO lied about a team of MIT math students
agreeing with their assessment of the stolen code, and even Linus
Torvalds beginning to muse in public that the folks at SCO [...]

A helpful thread from ExtremeTech:

“Which budget sound card would you recommend as the most likely to
be configured automatically by a majority of Linux distros? Which
high-end card?”
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,1224102,00.asp?kc=ETRSS02129TX1K0000532

More Backup Solutions

I had asked the PENGUINS to send in backup solutions, and included
the first batch in the previous newsletter. Now I’ve got a second
batch to share with you. Let’s take a look!
Dwaine Felch writes:
“Here is a program I’ve used for the last 1½ years to
do full system backup and restore on my [...]

Compiling Software from Source, Part VIII

I had a huge breakthrough last week when working to get gnome-vfs
applied. It resulted in me having to change my libraries back to
their previous settings once the compilation succeeded … if I
wanted to be able to get into my GUI, that is! All I did was
comment out the line I [...]

Learning about Commands, Part IV

I promised you a trick for filtering out section 3 entries from
apropos (or man -k, as many readers reminded
me) output. This trick involves two tricks: a pipe, and the grep tool. Pipes in Linux are
denoted by the | symbol, and are-as I’ve mentioned before-used to
send the output of one file as [...]

This week, the SCO dog and pony circus continues in the background
like a bad smell you can’t quite identify. Amidst the fact that
they’re pumping their stocks and dumping them when the values go
up (SCO execs unloading shares), they also showed a pair of slides
with the alleged stolen code. I had a chance to do my [...]

Nigel Ridley writes:
“Just because you mentioned an
[e]card generator for Web servers, I, too, was looking for
something for my website. Although not specific to Linux, I found
it to be a much cheaper alternative to the software that you
linked to. It can be found at http://cgi2k.com/.”
Thanks Nigel!

A reader has written in with a problem that [...]

Last week, I asked you PENGUINS about your favorite backup
solutions. I’ll include the responses here, and if anyone else has
something to share, I can include those the following week.
Otherwise, we’ll move on to another topic. There’s a good range of
material here, so let’s get started with Hook’s suggestions:
“You asked about backups. Well, I’ve got [...]

Compiling Software from Source, Part VII

(Had a little misnumbering problem last time. Sorry about that.)

Let’s see, I was still trying to compile gnome-vfs. It occured to
me that perhaps the problem is that the libraries somehow haven’t
been properly registered with the system. The ldconfig command might be just what I need.
This command updates a database of [...]

Learning about Commands, Part III man, or “Manual” pages in Linux (and Unix) are
organized in a series of groups according to topics, called
“sections.” The man sections
are:

User commands.
System commands offered by the
kernel.
Library functions (like C programming libraries)
Device commands (try typing man
hd)
File formats, typically for configuration files
Game-related commands
Miscellaneous
Root only system
administration tools
Linux-specific system commands (as
opposed [...]

Boy, I was sitting around last week wondering why not a single
Gnomie had written me. Once “She who is already embarassed and so
will not be named” realized that the newsletter hadn’t gone out, I
definitely felt better! I even knew the moment it went out.
Suddenly I had 10 messages from Gnomies. Life was good again.
Then, [...]

A techie took the time (and expense) to really try and get into
Linux. He ran into various problems along the way as he tried a
variety of distributions, and ended up writing quite an
interesting article about his experience. You can find it here:

http://www.majorgeeks.net/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=175957

You PENGUINS this week get homework. Yes, homework! I want to hear
all about your favorite Linux backup solutions. Scripts, software,
techniques, tricks, tips, and more. They can be for anything from
Linux backup servers in a multi-OS enterprise environment, or for
a single machine at home. I’ll include the best answers in one or
more PENGUIN articles in the [...]

Compiling Software from Source, Part IV

You might remember from last week that I’d gotten to the gnome-vfs
package and ended up with it telling me to install the same
library I’d just finished installing. Oops! Well, I tried running
make install again for that
library, just in case I forgot that silly step, but that didn’t
fix the problem. So, [...]

Learning about Commands, Part II

In addition to man and info, there are two other major
commands that will give you information about the tools available
in your Linux toolbox. whatis
gives you a short blurb explaining what a command is used for, and
apropos finds searches for
commands whose descriptions contain the keyword you specify. Let’s
start with whatis, since
ultimately this [...]

What a week! LinuxWorld
Conference and Expo starts on August 5th, and I wish I could
say I was going - especially since I think I’ve been asked by at
least 100 different people if I’m going - but not this time. Too
busy and too “underfunded.” For those who are going, I’d love to
hear your thoughts during or [...]