LincolnBlogs

From the twisted mind of me!

Nov 30

Saved by Stuart

By linc FreeLinuxBox, Friends, Hardware, Home Life, Linux No Comments »

This is the final chapter in the saga of my broken Thinkpad T23.

Many of you know that I have been using my T23 for testing distributions lately, and before that for a headless server. The reason for that is that the machine has this flaky video problem where sometimes it works, sometimes it does not and other times it “sort of” works. As you can imagine, that is not very conducive to testing out desktop distributions. I certainly has been problematic lately.

I have been lamenting what to do with this especially this month as I have been trying to generate some content for the blog. How am I to do distro testing and such without a desktop machine to test on? The solution came the other day in an email from an old LUG member.

It seems that Stuart, a member of my old LUG, who’s mailing list I am still subscribed to, had a couple spare laptops he was offering up. He posted them to the list and I just happened to be watching my email when the post went through. I jumped at the chance to replace my old beater with something almost as old but fully functional. I arranged to go pick up my new(old) machine that very night.

For a measly $25 and 4 hours worth of drive time I picked up a nice little Thinkpad X31. It has 1.5gb of ram, 120gb hdd, internal wireless B and G and will make a great little laptop to do multitudes of testing on. It even came with Windows 7.

Now I didn’t keep Windows on the laptop, in fact it got a clean Linux install the second it hit my house, but on the way home, I did get a change to check out W7 a little bit. Honestly, I think XP was windows done in crayon and 7 is windows done in maybe sharpie or something. In my opinion, Windows 7 is trying very hard to be a rip-off of OS X, except they have this cartoonish interface. It’s not very professional looking (to me anyway) and I can tell you for sure that Linux on the same machine completely blows it out of the water. In two words, I found it cartoonish and clunky.

Just to tantalise you a little, since I brought the machine home I have attempted to install 5 concurrent distributions on it and actually put 2 of them on. I also learned a lot in the process about Grub 2, but all that is for a different post on a different day, so keep watching and reading!

Nov 29

It’s so easy!

By linc Linux No Comments »

I have heard, so many times now, that windows is simply just easier to use than Linux. Some people say it’s more intuitive. Well, today I had the pleasure of having to configure a network printer on my windows xp vm, and I call bullcrap.

Now let me put things in perspective a little bit. I have been using Linux almost exclusively for a very long time now and I do recall watching and using it through it’s growing pains when many things weren’t quite as easy as they should have been. We, however, have come a long way, baby.

Now I haven’t really extensively used windows in quite a while so I may be a little handicap for me, and it also might insinuate that I am partial to Linux’s way of doing things. You’d probably be right, but let’s just compare what needed to happen to get the very same printer configured on windows xp and on Ubuntu 8.04(lts).

Windows XP:
Start->Settings->Printers and Faxes->Add a Printer->Next->Local Printer. Now this is where it completely lost me. *I* was under the impression that I was trying to access a NETWORK printer. However, the local windows admin assured me that I had to choose “local”. You click next and let windows *fail* scanning for a local printer and then click next again and “Create a new port” (Whaa??). Pick standard TCP port->Next-Enter your printer’s IP address which will create a port name for you, then click next. Click finish and wait for windows to find your printer. Then you select your printer make and model from the dropdowns. The rest is a series of clicking “next” or “finish” until it finally prints a test page.

Ubuntu 8.04:
System->Administration->Printing->New Printer->Pick printer from scanned printers list->pick make (already highlighted)->pick model (already highlighted)->Look through additional hardware list (or just press forward)->pick a printer name and click apply. Yes, that’s it. Really. And, I am told it’s easier yet on the new Ubuntu (haven’t tried yet).

To be fair, I do remember when getting printing working on a Linux/Unix box was a complete nightmare, but my point is that *Linux* has advanced _considerably_. ‘Nuff said.

Nov 28

More CentOS

By linc CentOS, Hardware No Comments »

I know, I know. I wrote earlier about how the T23 was suffering some sort of display death again and would undoubtedly end up on freelinuxbox.org. While that is definitely true, I was looking at it today and thought I’d start it up again and let it do it’s updates. I did and the display was working the whole time, so I thought I would play with it a little more….:

I wanted to test getting some multimedia playback on this distribution. You see, RedHat based distributions are notorious for following the letter of the law and not letting you have access to any of those nasty codecs we all like to use. You know the ones I am talking about, mp3, wmv, dvd, etc.. Well, since I just happened to be traveling abroad in europe for a few minutes where this is completely legal, I decided to have a go at it.

A quick search brought me to this website and the directions looked pretty thorough so that’s where I started. The only thing I added to the process was adding vlc, my favorite media player, and everything else worked beautifully. To recap, follow these instructions, taken from the previously mentioned website and only edited to add vlc.

rpm -Uhv http://apt.sw.be/redhat/el5/en/i386/RPMS.dag/rpmforge-release-0.3.6-1.el5.rf.i386.rpm
rpm -Uhv http://linuxdownload.adobe.com/adobe-release/adobe-release-i386-1.0-1.noarch.rpm
yum -y install libdvdcss libdvdread libdvdplay libdvdnav lsdvd mplayerplug-in mplayer mplayer-gui compat-libstdc++-33 flash-plugin gstreamer-plugins-bad gstreamer-plugins-ugly vlc
wget www1.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/releases/codecs/mplayer-codecs-20061022-1.i386.rpm ; rpm -ivh mplayer-codecs-20061022-1.i386.rpm
wget www1.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/releases/codecs/mplayer-codecs-extra-20061022-1.i386.rpm; rpm -ivh mplayer-codecs-extra-20061022-1.i386.rpm

Now a couple notes….

Although I have not yet rebooted to check if that has any effect, the default media player, Totem, still does not play very much. While slightly dissapointed, I never really liked Totem anyhow and found that to be the case on almost every distribution. VLC, however, works exactly as expected, which is, perfectly.

I also took pains to install xmms, my favorite mp3 player on the T23 as well and, although it installed fine from the Dag repos, it doesn’t play a dang thing. VLC to the rescue again. In fact, I hadn’t realized that VLC actually makes such a good audio player!

It is important to also note that I still really feel that this CentOS desktop runs quite well – very snappy. I know I keep saying that, but it really is quite noticeable on this older laptop.

Nov 27

What I am not thankful for:

By linc Home Life, Humor No Comments »

A few days ago my storage facility emailed me and asked me to take a quick customer survey. I obliged.

Dear Lincoln, Is there anything else that you would like to tell us about your experience with Extra Space Storage?

My understanding is that you folks just took over the storage space I have been using for some time now so I am not entirely sure most of my problems are related to your company. What I can say for sure is when I initially signed up there, the clerk was really a jerk to us and obviously had no idea what he was doing. He made several snide comments and it took me 4 phone calls to get our access code. I would have left then, but this was the closest facility to me that didn’t charge exorbitant prices. You have since fixed the price point and are charging me as much as possible. The last time I visited my non-climate controlled unit, I found all my possessions covered in leaves and cobwebs and other miscellaneous flora, as if there has been some squirrel or rat or other critter in there. I didn’t bother even reporting it since I had such a horrible experience with the worker I ran into when I first signed up. At this point, the moment I can find a cheaper facility I am gone to take my chances there. At almost $50 a month for a 5×5 non-climate controlled unit with a crappy door and some mongoose living in it unattended I feel as if I am truly getting ripped off every time the bill comes due. And someone needs to fix the exit keypad that you literally have to hold up while you punch the digits. Apparently someone ran it over and the resourceful staff there have it professionally fixed with an old bungee cord.

Nov 26

Happy Thanksgiving

By linc Friends, Home Life 1 Comment »

Today in the U.S.A. we are celebrating Thanksgiving Day, which is a day where we try and remember what we are really thankful for. I thought I would share my hot list.

I am thankful for my God. Many don’t like it and most don’t understand, but my life changed dramatically when I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior. Before that point I felt that I was simply spiraling into the abyss. I was in a bad place. He turned that around for me.

I am thankful for my family. I may not always say it, but these people are my immediate support system and it’s for them and because of them that I can manage to get up in the morning most days and function.

I am thankful for my friends. This includes all of you, who read this stuff and send me encouraging emails and such. Thank you wherever you are and I hope you have a great Thanksgiving day too!

Nov 25

Macaroni Salad

By linc Recipe No Comments »

Ok, one more recipe. I just love this stuff.

* 1/2 lb of elbow noodles
* 1 cucumbers
* 1 small onion (red is pretty)
* 1 cup your favorite mayonnaise
* Salt / Pepper
* 3 or 4 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
* 3 or 4 Tbsp milk

Cook noodles, dice cucumber, dice small onion extra small, mix in bowl.
Mix together cup of mayo, 2 or 3 tablespoons of vinegar, salt, pepper and 2 or 3 tablespoons of milk to make the dressing. Taste it – you may need/want to add more vinegar. Should be thin enough to pour over macaroni mix. Mix it up and let it sit a while for best tastiness.

Note that I do not like eggs, so there are none in this salad, however, this macaroni salad recipe is particularly forgiving and you can easily add eggs, celery, bell peppers, etc. with a wonderful result.

This is making me hungry just reading it. MMMmmmmm.

Nov 24

Ugly Sweater Day

By linc Humor, work No Comments »

For quite sometime, as a little morale booster, we have been having Hawaiian Shirt Fridays at work. It’s fun and I, personally like Hawaiian shirts. The gaudier the better.

Well, recently, it has been decided that in lieu of the warmer weather, perhaps we should temporarily switch to Ugly Sweater Fridays instead. What you see included in this post is my first attempt. I asked my wife the day before to run to the thrift store and get me the ugliest sweater she could find.

She really deserves the credit here, although I did wear it proudly. I was *easily* given the title for the most hideous sweater. We’ll have to see what happens next week, but I believe this will be hard to beat unless someone finds one of those light-up Rudolph holiday sweaters.

Let’s see the pics of YOUR ugly sweaters!

Nov 23

New Business Cards

By linc Home Life No Comments »

Nothing tool wonderful to post about today, just that I finally got some business cards. I have long carried some around for the LinuxLink TechShow and other things, but never seem to get around to anything general about me or more recently, anything that even has my name and number on it. Well, a few days ago I got an email from Overnight Prints about a sale they were having and decided to hit their website and take a peek. 10 minutes and 10 dollars later I had 100 business cards ordered and I think they turned out pretty well. This is a great service that turns out good quality cards fast at a reasonable price.

Nov 22

Pepper Pot

By linc Friends, Recipe No Comments »

Not to be outdone by Danns fantastic sounding fried wontons, I figured since it’s getting colder a little pepper pot would be tasty for those long days where geeking out is making you fiercely hungry.

* 1-2 lbs Ground Beef
* Couple cans cubed Potatoes
* 1 or 2 cans Carrots
* 2 quarts Beef Stock
* 1 Med Onion
* 1 bag Pot-pie noodle squares
* Black pepper
* Red Pepper Flakes
* Hot Sauce

Chop onion and put in large pot with ground beef. Add a couple shots of your favorite hot sauce and a quarter to half teaspoon of red pepper flakes. Brown ground beef with onions in large pot. When beef is cooked, add potatoes and carrots. Cover everything with beef stock until about 3 inches above solid ingredients. Bring to a boil. Turn heat down to simmer and add appropriate amount of noodles. Cook until noodles are tender. Add ground black pepper to taste. Serve!

Nov 21

Linux to the rescue again

By linc Linux, Ubuntu, work No Comments »

I have to keep a windows xp vm kicking around that I use almost never for those nagging few windows apps that the smart developers didn’t make at least a web version for. Well, I needed to to some modifications to a project on MS Project server (Firefox/Linux compatibility in next release BTW) so I fired up the xp vm to find that it was effectively out of disk space. Back when I built it 2+ yrs ago I only made it an 8gb vm and with all the little proprietary apps over the years is has just gotten full.

A quick google search on the subject showed that I could, indeed, increase the drive space in the vmdk with the “vmware-vdiskmanager” command (vmware serer 1 – I told you this vm was old). I simply went to my virtual machines directory (where the vmdk files are stored) and issued “vmware-vdiskmanager -x 12gb -t 1 winxp.vmdk”. This says (-x) extend the volume to 12gb and that the volume type (-t 1) is split into the 2gb files. The command did it’s job in just a few seconds and presented me with a warning that I would need a third party program in the virtual machine to expand the partition there to get use of the new volume free space.

I learned from my favorite windows admin that there is a diskmanager utility in xp that *can* do this, however, not on the system partition, which is what I needed. I just happened to have an Ubuntu 9.10 iso handy and told the xp vm to boot that up instead. From there I started up GParted and quickly told it to extend the size of the partition to fill all the remaining free space on the volume. I clicked on the green checkmark to tell GParted to “Go” and off it went. The entire resize for GParted took only maybe 10 seconds. It’s just amazing to me. I remember when Linux couldn’t even figure out what an NTFS partition and here I was fixing one in mere seconds.

Needless to say, only a minute later I had my windows xp vm booting up and working in it’s newly extended NTFS partition. Once again, Linux saved the day!