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Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 10 2009, 09:53 PM

If all goes according to plan, sometime in the next couple weeks I'll be sporting this new linux bar in my siggy:



I'm planning on installing Arch Linux, Gentoo, and Slackware 13/64 (experimental).

That will give me Slackware 12.2 (primary operating system), Debian 5.03 (secondary operating system), CentOS, Gentoo, Slackware 13/64, Ark Linux, Arch Linux. Those ought to keep me busy, huh? Hopefully, I can overcome the curse of Gentoo.*

*For those of you who don't know... my last two attempts to install Gentoo (in '06 and again in early '07) were catastrophic failures (crashed my entire system and required re-installation of all operating systems). It was ugly.

I've already d-loaded Arch Linux tonight. I'll d-load Slack and Gentoo in the next few days.

Wish me luck!

Posted by: LilBambi Oct 10 2009, 10:14 PM

Excellent! I am wishing you good luck for sure!

Posted by: réjean Oct 10 2009, 11:15 PM

Have fun Eric!
But why don't you try Sabayon instead of Gentoo? I had it installed for some months a year or two ago. I was never able to figure out Gentoo but maybe now I could.
Anyway Enjoy your installfest.

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 11 2009, 12:07 AM

Good luck with your endeavor. I am glad to see Archlinux in that list.

Also, good luck with Gentoo, you will need it. My problem with Gentoo is the time it takes to install anything. 10 minutes to install firefox, I do not think so. That was with a slower machine, but still.
I look forward to seeing how it goes.

Thanks

Posted by: Bruno Oct 11 2009, 02:12 AM

Wishing all the luck you need Eric . . . looks like you will have loads of fun doing this.



Bruno

Posted by: sunrat Oct 11 2009, 07:56 AM

Good timing to install Gentoo! Version 10 was released a week ago to celebrate their 10th birthday. Its a live DVD version. http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=05703
Also I think you need one of these in your sig:

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 11 2009, 11:32 AM

Thanks everyone!

@ Réjean... tried Sabayon once. Couldn't get it to install properly. Besides, Sabayon is like "virtual Gentoo". I want to experience the real thing.

I'm logged in earlier than usual today because I wanted to get those big downloads going while I'm doing my usual Sunday chores and routines. Off I go to check on the d-load status of Gentoo right now. After that... Slack 13/64.

Off I go...

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 11 2009, 01:25 PM

I don't know why I pay all that money for "high speed" DSL. My download speeds today are running between 90 and 150 kbps all day. It's going to take me till the wee hours tonight to download Gentoo and Slackware. There just has to be something WRONG when it takes 10 hours to download 3.7Gig.

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 11 2009, 06:42 PM

OK, Arch is downloaded. Slackware 13 is downloaded. I'm about 1/2 way through with Gentoo. Man! I've had a heck of a time finding a fast server for that one. I ended up vvget-ing it from http://mirrors.sfo1.gni.com. It seemed to be the fastest, which ain't saying much. The Gentoo official server is kernel.org... and it was crawling like a dying snail today. Sadly, there are no torrents of Gentoo AMD64 10.1 currently.

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 11 2009, 06:46 PM

securitybreach,

I'm posting the link to your http://forums.scotsnewsletter.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=27596&view=findpost&p=275813 here, so I'll have it handy when I need it... very soon, hopefully.

Posted by: LilBambi Oct 11 2009, 07:03 PM

Woohoo! Won't be long now till the Install Fest truly starts!

Good luck again Eric!

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 11 2009, 08:10 PM

Would you believe that I was 77% completed with my download of Gentoo when their server failed... could not reconnect. Seem my Gentoo curse is still in effect. I'm now trying to download the darn thing from Georgia Tech via ftp... another 4-6 hours. ARRRRRRRGH!

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 11 2009, 09:31 PM

Cool!!!
Thanks

Posted by: sunrat Oct 11 2009, 09:59 PM

Hope its not an omen like Apollo 13 lifting off at 13.13.

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 11 2009, 10:35 PM

I just noticed, your Arch icon is the really OLD one from over a year ago.
Here is the current one:



With or without the writing. The avatar I use is just the archlinux logo with the Xmonad logo in the middle. Here is a huge list of custom Archlinux ones: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=79538&p=1

Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 11 2009, 10:55 PM

Yeah... but the glass-looking logo was COOL!

FINALLY! Gentoo AMD64 Live CD 10.1 is now completely downloaded. YAY!

Let the InstallFest Fall 2009 begin! Well, maybe tomorrow... it's too late tonight. I'm not on the Count Dracula dusk to dawn schedule these days.

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 11 2009, 10:56 PM

Glass-looking?

THanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 11 2009, 11:04 PM

Uh-huh... glass-looking -->

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 11 2009, 11:05 PM

I guess, I do not really see it but ok.
Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 11 2009, 11:36 PM

Glossy?

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 12 2009, 10:08 PM

OK, everything burned. Next up... the actual installations. Weeeeeeeeeeee!

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 13 2009, 12:07 AM

And the problems begin...

I wanted to get Arch installed first. The last couple times I installed Arch, it went relatively well. Not this time. The installer couldn't make the new file systems on the partitions I chose. I had to use the existing partitions. Fine. Then I installed all the packages and the installer crashes (or seems to) while checking dependencies after the package installation. The drive light stays lit. The system seems locked up. When I hit a key, a prompt pops up. That's it. All done. Have to CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart the system. I got to this point three times. I give up.

Tomorrow... Gentoo.

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 13 2009, 12:19 AM

It has to be the image you downloaded. Did you check the md5? I have never had the installer crash on me or even heard of it crashing before. First all, if the installer will not let you make a new file system on the partition, then either your partitions are not correct or the disk is bad. As far as the dependancy checking, archlinux fetches nothing from the internet so the iso is not correct or the burn has an error. The errors you experience are not common installer errors for Archlinux. I know I said it a few times. but you need to burn the image again or fetch another one.

If all else failes, try the 2009.02 image. I have not used the 2009.08 image myself.
Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 13 2009, 12:39 PM

Well, first off... I'm using the Arch recommended (at their website) net install disk, so it does fetch the entire base system 160M+ from the I-net. The drive and partitions are fine. I had a working PCLinuxOS Phoenix on there till last night.

I'm going to use gparted to scrub and reformat the partitions, then I'll try to install again. If it fails again, I'll d-load the entire core DVD and do it that way. I just hate 4 hour downloads to get these darn DVD iso's, you know.

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 13 2009, 04:38 PM

OK... Arch is in! Slackware 13-64 is in!

And the Gentoo curse is still in effect. I just can't do anything right when it comes to Gentoo. I downloaded (for 4+ hours) their darn Live DVD. Well, it's REALLY neato! However, what they don't tell you is that there's NO MEANS TO INSTALL GENTOO FROM THE LIVE DVD. Is that not RIDICULOUS! ARRRRRRRRRRRRRGH! I'm off to download their net install CD right now. *sigh*

Arch installed fine once I wiped and reformatted the partitions with Gparted (using my trusty Ubuntu 6.06 Live CD ). I can install Slackware in my sleep, practically; having done it so many times in the past. I have to laugh when I think back to how much that Slack installer scared me when I first booted it up back in '06.

Off I go...

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 13 2009, 06:59 PM

OK. OK. I'm just going to come straight out and admit it. Gentoo is waaaay beyond my GNU/Linux skills and knowledge level at this time. I cannot believe I attempted this three years ago when I was really a new fish in the pond. Gentoo is a 100% command line installation. It's just too much for me at this time. I don't know enough to manually configure networks and compile kernels from knowledge off the top of my head. The http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-amd64.xml?style=printable&full=1 is not very helpful, in my opinion. For you new Linux adventurers out there, if you think Slackware and Debian are scary, don't even think about trying Gentoo. Maybe I'll manage it one day. It's going to take a lot of study time first, though. In the meantime, my linux bar in my sigline will have to be sans Gentoo.

Off I go to modify my Debian GRUB to boot Arch and Slack 13. Later...

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 13 2009, 07:38 PM

I wouldnt call the core a dvd, it is only 330MB. But I always use the core, I have never tried the netinstall since the process is so quick (around 8 minutes).

Thanks

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 13 2009, 07:48 PM

I run Archlinux, which is close to Gentoo as far as building from the ground up http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_Compared_To_Other_Distros#Arch_vs_Gentoo, but I would not try to install Gentoo. Have you seen the installation guide, it is unreal. I would rather try LFS(Linux From Scratch) than install Gentoo. Also, Gentoo takes forever to install a simple package even with a QuadCore. It took 10 minutes to install Firefox last time I tried Gentoo. Just my opinion.
Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 13 2009, 07:49 PM

Ah... I thought the core was a big download. My mistake. Anyway. It's in! It's in! Now to boot and play with it.

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 13 2009, 07:51 PM

Cool. Follow the beginner's guide to finish the setup.

Thanks

I LOVE the X through Gentoo

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 13 2009, 07:54 PM

So are they in order? If so Arch is moving up.

Thanks

Posted by: LilBambi Oct 13 2009, 07:55 PM

Way to go Eric!!!!

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 13 2009, 07:57 PM

There's a method to my madness about which distros I'm interested in having on my system. I like the old mainline branches that are still being maintained... Slackware, Debian, Redhat (CentOS), Arch, Ark, and Gentoo. That's why I keep trying to get those up and running on my systems.

I will have to pass on Gentoo for a while, though. It's just more than I can handle at my current level of GNU/Linux experience. Arch is not quite as ridiculous as Gentoo... at least it wasn't the last time I had it on my system. Took all of 30 minutes to have a perfectly operational graphical Arch installation. It takes 30 minutes just for me to figure out how to configure my network in Gentoo.

Never tried LFS. Probably won't.

Yes. Arch got promoted.


Thanks, Fran. Haven't done anything special to deserve the accolades, though. Now if I had gotten Gentoo working... that would have been worth a pat-on-the-back for sure!

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 13 2009, 07:59 PM

Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 13 2009, 08:48 PM

Well, Arch is kernel panic-ing and Slack can't mount its root partition. I'm sad and tired. I give up for tonight. I'm batting .000 on installations so far.

Posted by: LilBambi Oct 13 2009, 08:54 PM

Maybe Gentoo knew what it was talking about with that hard drive the first time around? Maybe repartitioning it and then reformatting it gave it a little more life, but maybe it was on its way out?

That is very weird if not a hardware issue.

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 13 2009, 09:08 PM

Why do all the other operating systems on that drive work fine?

Posted by: LilBambi Oct 13 2009, 09:17 PM

Ah, ok, didn't realize there were other OSes also on that drive. But doesn't prove that there isn't a defect in that area of the drive.
However, less likely if everything else works on that drive.

Are you thinking that Gentoo did something to the other two that you installed? Or all three that you installed are screwed for some other reason?

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 13 2009, 09:51 PM

I am stumped. What is the last dmesg before the kernel panic. Did you add the entry correctly for Archlinux to grub. I always you the arch grub but here is my grub entry for my x86 machine:

The only time I have had a kernel panic in Archlinux was when grub was not pointing to the correct entry in grub.

Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 13 2009, 10:09 PM

@ Fran --> Nah... I don't think Gentoo had anything to do with it. In Slackware 13's case, I think it was just a buggy install. I re-installed Slack13-64 and all is well now. I'm posting this from within Slack13-64 right now, actually... using Konqueror as the web browser.

@ SB --> Don't remember, buddy. Something about root file system not recognized. I'm going to re-install Arch too and see what happens.

P.S. KDE4 is pretty COOL! I might get to like it.

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 13 2009, 10:18 PM

SB, my Arch GRUB entry is pretty close to yours...

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 13 2009, 10:20 PM

Archlinux has a special arch version of KDE called KDEmod:

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/KDEmod

Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 13 2009, 11:18 PM

Thanks for the tip on the KDEmod, SB.

Well, I guess sometimes do-overs are all that it takes. I re-reformatted with Gparted again, then reinstalled Arch. All's well now. I've booted up and created my regular user. Now I'm off to read SB's tutorial to see if I can get X and all that baloney installed... just not tonight. Tired. Going beddy-bye!

OK, batting .666 now... 2 out of 3 ain't bad, right. Gentoo... one day. I'll leave a couple of open partitions for it.

Toodles...

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 13 2009, 11:38 PM

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 13 2009, 11:47 PM

Heheheheh

Good luck with the arch setup. Let me know if there is anything I can help you with.

Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 13 2009, 11:49 PM

I appreciate it, my friend. Don't you worry. I consider you the resident Arch Linux guru here at ATL, if I have a problem, you'll be the first person I post to.

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 13 2009, 11:53 PM

Cool sound good.
Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 13 2009, 11:54 PM

Now I really am going to beddy-bye.

Goodnight all...

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 13 2009, 11:56 PM

Night night.

Thanks

Posted by: Bruno Oct 14 2009, 02:12 AM

Still no luck with Gentoo ?? . . . That is very frustrating ! Maybe after a good nights sleep ?



Bruno

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 14 2009, 12:43 PM

It's not a matter of luck this time, Bruno. It's just lack of knowledge. The latest Gentoo installation CD is 100% command line. There is no anaconda-like installer or any graphics at all. You are expected to set up your network, install certain files and apps, compile your own kernel, edit all the necessary configuration files, etc. It's just beyond my skill level. I was stumped at the set up network via command line, never mind getting anything else done.

On a brighter note, the Live DVD is very COOL, but it has no facility for installation of the operating system. Evidently, it's designed solely as a Live operating system DVD. Kinda' stupid, I'd think. But then, making it installable would violate Gentoo's philosophy of making everything up as you go along. Sheeeesh! And I thought the "Debian Way" was a pain in the posterior area.

Like I said... maybe one day. It's going to take a lot of study and time to do the Gentoo thing, I think. It's definitely a distro for the much advanced GNU/Linux adventurer, not the relative novice that I still am.

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 14 2009, 12:45 PM

I wonder, since it's rarely spoken of here, has anyone here ever successfully installed and run Gentoo on one of their systems? Bruno? Striker? Hmm...

Posted by: Bruno Oct 14 2009, 12:55 PM

I know Teacher ( Julia ) did run Gentoo for a while. Personally I never did, but that is a personal thing I have with the "Gentoo crowd"


Bruno

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 14 2009, 01:07 PM

Well, I'm not ready to jump into the Gentoo sandbox to play right now, so I'll just play with my Slackware and Arch chums instead.

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 14 2009, 03:11 PM

I did a stage3 insallation a few years ago. I remember it took like 2 days to finish. After setting it all up, I did not think it was really worth the trouble. I did not notice it being any faster, even though everything is compiled to your exact system. Archlinux is much better and alot quicker than Gentoo is, IMHO.

Thanks

Posted by: kamicota Oct 14 2009, 05:21 PM

Eric
Boy I do ADMIRE your tenacity here's me struggles with the laymans linux installs MDV and PCLinuxOS and even KDE4 with the ODD bump Like Gentoo with other varieties

SURE HOPE things improve on the .666 with another distro to help out which = ??? Centos etc etc etc

Cheers for years
Colin

Posted by: striker Oct 14 2009, 05:56 PM

Julia aka Teacher.
I had the discs (and manual) but sabayon came in and I fighted with that; suffice to say both sabayon and gentoo went out to somewhere else. I do appreciate the time and efforts the developers put in it but I haven't had that much time for every application as they obviously have or presume one has.

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 14 2009, 09:42 PM

***UPDATE***

Arch is rocking and rolling. I'm posting this with Konqureror from within Arch/KDE4! YIPPEE! Set up and installation of all the necessary items for the graphical interface went along very smoothly. It was a learning experience, too. I could get to like Arch. I remember now why I was originally impressed with Arch back a couple years ago when Louis (Steel) was helping with my first installation of it. It's a very cool distro... not for new Linux adventurers though. You must be comfy with the command line for Arch.

Anywho... a few tweaks here and there are needed; starting with installation of proprietary nvidia drivers. That's no big deal... done it many times in many distros. Also gotta' get FF and TB installed. I love Konq as a file manager, but not as a browser.

Enough tinkering with Linux for today. I'm outta' here...

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 14 2009, 10:20 PM

OK, Nvidia installed. Now I'm done for the evening. Headed back to Slack.

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 14 2009, 11:26 PM

A simple and restart X. After that, you should be good to go.

No need to run the script from Nvidia.
Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 14 2009, 11:37 PM

Too late. I already ran the Nvidia script. I've done it so many times that I can do that with my eyes closed almost.

What version of FF is in the Arch repos?

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 14 2009, 11:50 PM

Ah... it's the current version. I just checked. COOL!

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 14 2009, 11:59 PM

Of course it is, it is Archlinux after all.

Also, if something is not in the regular repos, check out yaourt. AUR(Arch USer Repository) has over 11,000 extra packages. http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Yaourt
Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 15 2009, 12:35 AM

Fun! Fun! Fun!

G'night for now, though.

Posted by: Bruno Oct 15 2009, 02:08 AM

Congrats !! Well done . . .


Bruno

Posted by: LilBambi Oct 15 2009, 09:25 AM

Awesome! You definitely rock!

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 15 2009, 12:37 PM

Believe it or not, I think that Arch may assist me to figure out Gentoo.

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 15 2009, 04:03 PM

In what way?
Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 15 2009, 06:38 PM

Just the logical step by step method the Arch uses in the installation guide would probably be useful for setting up Gentoo. The Gentoo guide kinda' sucked, in my opinion.

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 15 2009, 08:39 PM

Yup, I agree.
Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 15 2009, 10:09 PM

I'm having some issues with getting Moz FF and Moz TB to work properly. I manually installed them from Moz downloads because I didn't like how the Arch repo versions behaved with my profiles. They were buggy and strange. Anyway, I was probably just tired and aggravated when I was trying the Moz versions. I'll get them squared away later tomorrow, probably.

I spent the rest of my time in Arch today playing around with KDE4. Man! In some ways it's really cool, but in others it's a PAIN IN THE rear area! It's going to take some getting used to.

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 15 2009, 10:27 PM

Hmm... should I change my custom forum ID from Nocturnal Slacker to Nocturnal SlackiantOSArchtooArk-er? Nah.

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 15 2009, 10:33 PM

QUOTE

Arch provides non-patched, vanilla software; packages are offered from pure upstream sources, how the author originally intended it be distributed. Patching only occurs in extremely rare cases, to prevent severe breakage in the instance of version mismatches that may occur within a rolling release model.

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_Linux%20

Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 15 2009, 11:39 PM

I think what happened is that I installed the Arch repo versions first:

which also automagically installed some dependency apps/files. When I removed Firefox and Thunderbird using pacman, I believe that it may also have removed those dependencies, breaking the Moz versions. I'll reinstall the Arch repo versions and leave it at that, maybe.

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 15 2009, 11:44 PM

Sounds good. Look here: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pacman Let me know how it goes.

Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 15 2009, 11:47 PM

I'm off to read the Arch Wiki some more. It's become my reading material of choice the past couple days. Wish I had a laptop with wireless so I could read it in the can.

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 15 2009, 11:48 PM

Cool

Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 15 2009, 11:59 PM

I'm also thinking of installing Xfce. KDE4 is a bit heavy. They're trying to compete with MS Windows Vista Aero, I think. It's getting really nice looking, but very heavy. I won't remove KDE4. I'll just enable "exec xfce" in .xinitrc and disable KDE. We'll see... that's what experimental distros are for on my system... to experiment with.

Actually, seeing how bloated/heavy KDE has gotten, I'm very surprised Pat V. (Slacker #1) chose to go with it for Slack 13.

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 16 2009, 12:27 AM

Yeah, me too!!

Thanks

Posted by: sunrat Oct 16 2009, 07:21 AM

I gotta put in a good word for KDE4. It runs OK on my 900MHz EeePC900 although I usually use LXDE there. It runs beautifully on my 3.16GHz Core2Duo and the new Air theme is very pretty.
I admit it does take more resources than KDE 3.5 though.
Check out these reviews of http://celettu.wordpress.com/2009/10/10/kde-4-3-boom-baby/ and http://celettu.wordpress.com/2009/10/09/chakra-alpha-3-a-review/.

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 16 2009, 11:54 AM

Myeh... I'm not whining about KDE4's quality or appearance, it's just that... well... it seems to be busy and much more complicated than a windows manager needs to be. But then again, back when I was a Gnomie, I thought the same about KDE3. Once I learn the ins and outs of KDE4, I'll probably love it as much as I always have. Learning and using KDE3 is, after all, what converted me from being a Gnomie.

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 16 2009, 08:28 PM

OK, boys and girls. I'm sorry but KDE4 in Arch is buggier than a five year old mattress in a discount motel on the strip. It kept losing my settings or corrupting settings. I spent all afternoon playing with it. It's really NEATO, but I just can't deal with bugginess. I removed KDE4 and installed Xfce4 in Arch. Here are a couple screenshots:

http://img63.imageshack.us/i/85355259.png/

http://img63.imageshack.us/i/archtheme01.png/

Oh, and I pride myself on not being that dependent on the graphic interface in Linux. HA! If you think the same about yourself, go install IceWM or Fluxbox if you want to see "minimal" desktop managers. Whew! They ARE minimal alright! And I used to think Xfce was minimal. It's downright bloated compared to these other two.

Here's hoping KDE4 isn't so buggy in Slack13. I'll be playing around in there sometime this week coming up.

Having fun!

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 16 2009, 09:59 PM

Well I have never ran KDE on Archlinux so I can not comment on that. Did you install KdeMod or regular KDE? I actually think IceWM and Fluxbox are really bloated. Also, did you try searching the forums http://bbs.archlinux.org for your kde problems

Thanks
BTW It looks great!!!!!!!

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 16 2009, 10:04 PM

Just the regular KDE.

They're bloated compared to Xterm.

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 16 2009, 10:11 PM

Well Xterm (framebuffer) is a bit extreme but then again with Gnuscreen, it could be useable. I like it better when window managers do just that "manage windows". No need for menus or taskbars. Maybe a conky or something for monitoring but I am comfortable with using mainly CLI tools or very lightweight ones. Just my opinion. I used Openbox for about 6 months but lately went to tiling wms.

Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 16 2009, 10:43 PM

Well, I like fancy-schmancy desktops and stuff. Minimal is fine, but I like pretty, techy, spiffy, and COOL, too. Xfce is a decent DE. I used to like it when I used it in Zenwalk.

I've been adding apps most of the night. I just added numlockx and configured my .xinitrc to turn it on at startx. I'm trying to figure out how to configure Conky now.

Off I go...

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 16 2009, 11:08 PM

Cool but have you looked at my screenshots. I think I have all that you listed except I do not adhour to a start-menu type setup. Well that and I do not run compiz or any 3d effects.
But to each, his own. I like a keyboard driven wm and others like a mouse-driven one, anyone can choose anything. That is the beauty of Linux,
Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 16 2009, 11:27 PM

Conky is strange. I want my gkrellm back.

OK, installed gkrellm. Now have to find a theme pack for it.

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 16 2009, 11:32 PM

Odd, I see it the other way around. Look at this from the Archlinux forums and wiki:

http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=630718

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Conky

Although, Archlinux has tons of gkrellm plugins, etc. If you have yaourt installed:



or go here:

http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?O=0&K=gkrellm&do_Search=Go

Download the tar.gz and extract it then cd to folder. Next type:



Then as root:



to install it. Hope that helps.

Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 17 2009, 12:04 AM

Got all my themes for gkrellm. I just mounted my Slack /home partition and copied them from there.

Conky is pretty neato. It's just that without a graphic front end to configure it, it becomes quite a bit of work to do so. I change my gkrellm theme almost daily... to match my desktop, etc. Configuring Conky would be a chore for that.

Well, I've been playing around in Arch nearly the entire day. Too bad I don't get paid to do this.

I'm off to bed... I think.

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 17 2009, 12:11 AM

There is a graphical conky config app in AUR. Hold on I will find it for you. http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=26600 Not like gkrellm since conky is mainly a text configuration but it does help some. You should look at the link for the "Conky Configs and Screenshots" link I posted. It helped me greatly to figure out conky.

Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 17 2009, 12:16 AM

Oh, and why is Firefox called "Shiretoko" in Arch?

Thanks for the Conky help. I'll tackle it again tomorrow.

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 17 2009, 12:17 AM

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Firefox


Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 17 2009, 12:23 AM

Hmm... it is a branded browser, though. Read more about it here --> http://www.discovershiretoko.org/en/ ... not that I have any problem with that.

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 17 2009, 12:55 AM

Nice one.
Thanks

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 18 2009, 11:26 AM

Ok this is all I can remember of what I wrote last night for you Eric since we lost yesterday's forum posts.
There is no need for 32-bit libs in Archlinux 64. All the plugins for Firefox work on Archlinux64: Flashplugin, mplayer-plugin, and jre. The Arch wiki entry on 64bit is a little outdated, there is no need for 32bit libs anymore. To install the plugins type:

To install the the Firefox build from Mozilla instead of the patched Arch one, go here and download the tar.gz: http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=18019

Then extract and as user type:



and as root:



to install it. Either install Firefox first or reinstall the plugin packages to put the plugins in the directories or you can manually do it with ln -s.

Let me know if I missed anything from Yesterday.

Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 18 2009, 01:13 PM

Thanks, SB. I think you also posted a link to the non-Arch (regular Moz version) of FF in the AUR repos. If you can't remember, that's OK. I'll find it. I need to activate those repos anyway.

Hmm... just got a IPS server error. Got a couple late last night too.



Man! We lost a lot of posts from last night in this thread. That vacuums!

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 18 2009, 01:16 PM

That is the one above.



As far as adding repos, you use yaourt for AUR builds. The syntax is the same as pacman; http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=5863
To update both pacman packages and AUR packages you:

CODE

$ yaourt -Syu --aur

as user not root.

Thanks

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 18 2009, 01:23 PM

NM.
Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 18 2009, 02:16 PM

Yaourt, huh? Think I'll go read up on that in the Arch Wiki.

Thanks!

Posted by: Urmas Oct 18 2009, 02:29 PM

Or... raid your fridge.

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 18 2009, 07:13 PM

SB,

I'm going to try to stay with the 64 bit Arch-FF for now. I'm installing the plugins as you suggested right now. If all works, I think I can use this browser without any major issues. I'll stick with the 32 bit TB, though. It's working fine in Arch 64 right now. The Arch-64 version did not play well with my profile for TB.

I have a minor sound issue, but I think I can solve that pretty easily.

Anyway, off I go...

Urmie!

I've sure missed you around these parts! Hope you'll be coming back a bit more often. Will things slow down for you once Helsinki becomes a big ice cube?

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 18 2009, 07:18 PM

Plugins a SUCCESS!

Thanks, securitybreech! You are the Arch Guru here at ATL!

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 18 2009, 07:23 PM

Cool!!!!!
I never used Thunderbird much so I could not tell you what is wrong but I am thrilled you got everything working. If you cannot fix the sound issue, let me know.Thanks alot, I feel special. At ATL anyway

Thanks

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 18 2009, 07:34 PM

Have you tried mounting a usb drive or anything? The reason I am asking is there used to be a problem with Hal and Policykit.conf when mounting devices. The workaround is to make your /etc/PolicyKit/PolicyKit.conf look like this:

Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 18 2009, 08:26 PM

I've got lots of sound... just don't have any for alerts in TB. I think it might be a 32/64 bit issue, though. I'm not going to sweat it. I just set TB for visual alerts (pop up in system area of panel) instead.

I also fixed the branding of the Shiretoko FF. I just copied the en-US.jar from the Moz package over to the Arch installed package. All's well now. It says Mozilla Firefox in my title bar. I don't know why that bothered me. *shrugging*

Playing with this and that now... looking for bugs. Will try the USB... now, actually. OK, no auto-mount for USB. No biggie... will play around with it later. Hopefully, these posts won't disappear again.

Progress has been made. Maybe I can live with 64 bit after all. We'll see... off to watch some TV now.

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 18 2009, 08:38 PM

I would not think mixing 32/64 bit would be the cause of not getting alerts, but who knows.
Arch strived to make everything worked in a mixed architechture because previously flash and others did not work properly in 64bit . You can also make x86 chroot inside arch64: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch64_Install_bundled_32bit_system NOTE: I have never attempted it but have heard it works fine.

It basically runs everything 32bit from a folder in a chroot and does not disturb the 64bit system. Therefore making it cleaner:

I personally would never mix architechures if possible since it seems more like a hack than a fix. I try to not even mix libraries like gnome and kde. I use some gtk apps so I have some gnome-libs installed but only the bare minimal. I will not even mix QT apps with GTK since I like to have a cleaner system, if that makes sense. Even though I have tons of diskspace, I still like to keep my / as minimal as possible.

But if mixing libs works for you, cool.

As far as mounting, just add what I posted above to /etc/PolicyKit/PolicyKit.conf and it will fix it perfectly. No need to reboot, just


The problem has somthing to do with hal and udev, if I remember correctly. It is not a Archlinux problem but an issue with the new version of Hal.

Thanks

BTW I was looking at your profile and I was wondering will Archlinux will replace Debian as your secondary OS?

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 20 2009, 12:14 AM

Well, sad InstallFest news, friends...

My fun with Arch has come to a temporary end. I was having some issues with Xfce - one in particular... it seems that in the rush to get 4.6.1 released, a few things were left out. One of great importance, I think... the graphic menu editor. Can't add/remove apps from the main Xfce menu in 4.6. Hmm... wha? Huh? Have to manually edit a config file as root to change menu items. I don't think so. That was the last straw for me and Xfce in Arch. I completely removed it using "# pacman -R -s xfce4". All gone.

Next, I reinstalled KDE4. It was still in the cache, so it installed quickly... no downloading necessary. Spent about an hour customizing and setting up my preferences in KDE4, then WHAMMO! No more settings. No preferences. KDE lost all my settings that I had just spent an hour changing. They just reverted to default. To add insult to injury, KDE decided to clean out my /home directory also... or something did, anyway. That wiped all my config files for all my apps, of course.

That was it for me. I whipped out my trusty Ubuntu Live CD with gparted and plowed the Arch partitions under. I will reinstall some version of Arch in the near future. I need to step back from it for a while. Don't want to sling my system out the window, you know.

I'm going to go play with KDE4 in Slack13-64 for a few days to see if it's just as buggy in that distro as it was in Arch. Of course, with all the installing and removing going on in Arch the past few days, I may have corrupted the installation. Oh well, not Arch's fault.

I did manage to update Debian, CentOS, and Ark Linux today, so the day wasn't totally wasted.

Off I go...

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 20 2009, 12:17 AM

Oh, and about Arch replacing Debian as my secondary OS... you never know. However, I'm going to have to figure out a windows manager that plays well with Arch first. Must be VERY STABLE to bump Debian from that #2 spot, you know.

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 20 2009, 01:08 AM

Well be warned, I have read countless times of KDE4 corrupting or removing configs from tons of distro including Arch. That is why I asked for you to install KDEMod which is patched according to Arch startards, only necessary patches for stability. If I am not mistaken, I read the other week of someone here having issues with kde settings getting deleted.

Also, you might want to check the changelogs for XFCE 4.6 from the XFCE website since they have totally revamped XFCE from previous releases? What you call an error is just the how the new version of XFCE works.

http://blog.xfce.org/2009/04/27/




http://xubuntublog.wordpress.com/2009/03/01/xfce-making-great-strides-with-version-46/%20


Most of the time, if something has changed for an application or in this case a window manager, it is best to check the app's webpage for their changelog since Arch rarely patches packages and usually stays vanilla. Remember with most distros, you hear about the changes weeks before a distro incoporates a window manager. That is because they have actual releases instead of a continuous update. With Archlinux you have to check the actual package's website for changes or either the Archlinux forums if you notice something odd or buggy. Most of the time it is best to check bug reports or post one yourself if it has not been reported. You do not have to completely follow every package but it helps to understand that they might have incorporated changes. If nothing there, someone at the Arch forums have definetly patched or complained about the packege being buggy, so it helps to search before giving up. Remember that Archlinux use the newest stable packages of the package maintainer's website. Unlike most distros, Archlinux only patches if there is an extreme problem with the package as far as stability or other. Archlinux does not patch for usability only stability. Some distros change the way the application acts just to suite the distro, not with Archlinux. With Archlinux, bleeding-edge does not mean "testing" versions of application but the newest stable versions of the apps.

People often complain that the Archlinux forums are elitest because most forum users are coders/devs and there are not many beginner Linux users. I have heard countless times of people wondering why a package does not act like it did before and getting a "You need to read the changelogs for the updated package from the the archlinux homepage". Since Archlinux uses the stable versions that the acual package developers released, there are really no Arch-specific bugs just normal upstream application bugs. This does not happen much and when it does Archlinux devs patch so called "stable" versions of software to provide stability not change. It also helps that whenever a configuration change has been made from updating or upgrading, Archlinux automatically backs up the config file, usually as config.backup in case of a stable release causing problems or being buggy. Also Archlinux tends to follow stable releases. if a release says it is stable but is really not (in the case of most KDE 4x releases), then really it is not an issue with Archlinux. I could understand if Arch used alpha or testing applications, but 99.9% of the time they use the vanilla stable releases of the applications. For instance, I have Gnome running on one of my Archlinux machines and every release works as it should and if something changes I either read about it on package changelog from http://www.archlinux.org or from the Gnome website. But others like KDE4 are buggy even using their stable release.


So before completely giving up next time, check the Archlinux forums for changes or issues: http://bbs.archlinux.org

Archlinux is sorta like Slackware, where you have to follow the changelog for issues or changes. I have only had problems maybe once a year with Archlinux, of course I do not run KDE4. I also check forums and changelogs if something seems different in another window manager or application. The last time something happen was when the new Xorg was released and it was a simple fix. Sorry for the rant but I think you are confused about how Archlinux handles updates/upgrades from application's source tree.

Thanks

Posted by: Bruno Oct 20 2009, 02:03 AM

Sorry to read about your Arch adventures Eric . . . . it looked so promising ! I hope another windowmanager will solve the stability problems.


Bruno

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 20 2009, 02:28 AM

I don't think this was anything to do with Arch. I do search and read quite a bit when researching bugs and other problems online. I found quite a few bad reviews about the "new" Xfce. As to the solutions for menu editing posted around the net... most are slightly less fun than sticking yourself in the eye with a sharp stick. I like EASY! I'm too old to be wasting time editing 63 lines of XML in a text editor just to add my gkrellm entry to a menu.

Plowing Arch under is no big thing. Nothing lost. All the experience and knowledge I gained from playing around with it is still in my head and my Linux note book. I'll reinstall in a few days and pick a better windows manager. Maybe I'll try the KDEMod you mentioned, SB. Anyway, as much stuff as I tweaked, added, removed, modified, re-modified, etc. in Arch, I just felt better off with a nice new installation. I've learned that distros that have been played with too much like that sometimes become a bit buggy... corrupted libs and all that. It's best to start new.

If KDE4 is that bad in Slack 13, I definitely will NOT be upgrading. I'll stick with my nice, stable KDE3.5 and Slack12.2.

Anyway... I'll keep ya' posted on upcoming plans and progress. Can't learn if I don't push the buttons, you know.

Later...

Posted by: Bruno Oct 20 2009, 01:07 PM

Actually, I think KDE4 in Slack 13.0 is pretty good . . . runs smooth, no issues at all


Bruno

Posted by: zlim Oct 20 2009, 01:17 PM

Frustrating and sad for you Eric but I note you have mellowed. Instead of throwing the computer out the window or tap dancing on it, you merely shut it off and walk away. Quite well done!
Chalk it up to another learning experience. Lately, I've had a few of those unplanned ones myself. At one point, I thought I might have to revert my old notebook from 2001 back to the ME restore/recovery - shivers went up and down my spine. I walked away, worried for two days until I came up with a plan A, B and C. Three guesses where a ME install from 2001 fit into those plans.

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 20 2009, 01:39 PM

@ Bruno... good news! We'll see...

@ Liz... well, I'm normally a very patient person. You have to be to be a component level electronics technician for as long as I was (20+ years). Can't be throwing BIG COMPANY customer's $2000 Motorola radio system out in the parking lot and running it over with the delivery truck, you know. That being said... WHEW! That was a frustrating time back in '06 when I could not resolve the issues I was having with data corruption on that brand new Seagate hard drive. The Irish jig on the box on the kitchen floor did not solve the issue, I'll grant you that, but is SURE DID FEEL GOOD at the time.

=====

I thought of the solution to my Arch dilemma last night just before falling asleep. I will be reinstalling and rocking and rolling with Arch before the day is over. I'll explain once I confirm that it works.

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 20 2009, 04:56 PM

SWEET. I will be here if ya need me.

Thanks

Posted by: ebrke Oct 20 2009, 05:39 PM

After all these years, I still remember reading your post when that happened!

Posted by: LilBambi Oct 20 2009, 06:24 PM

Me too! Come a long way since then Eric! And weirdness like you experienced back then would try the patience of a saint!

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 20 2009, 06:44 PM

Yeah... that was and will always be my last Seagate drive, too! NEVER again. NEVER, I tells ya'!

=====

OK...

What's up? I'll tell you what's up. I'm posting this from a brand new Arch Linux installation that is smooth and stable and HAPPY! Why is it happy? Because it's running with what is probably the most stable windows manager known to the penguin community...

GNOME!



That's right, folks. I'm an old X-Gnomie, anyway. It's old hat to me to set up and customize Gnome.

Now for the next step in the Arch process... I have to install all my apps and goodies. YAY! Should be no tribbles at all.

-----

The baseball game (Game 4 ALCS) starts in a few minutes. I'll be tweaking and twiddling with Arch while I watch. Off I go...

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 20 2009, 06:46 PM

Good Job!!

Welcome new Archer!!!
I just noticed you put 64 on top of the 64 distros in your signature. Nice.

Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 20 2009, 06:49 PM

See! I recovered pretty quickly from last night's wipe out.

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 20 2009, 06:54 PM

Yes you did. I am glad you did not give up on Archlinux.

Thanks

Posted by: LilBambi Oct 20 2009, 07:08 PM

Way to go Eric!!! :-)

Will we get to see some screenshots anytime soon?

Haven't tried Arch and would like to know whether it's something my hubby might like.
(He and I both love Debian these days)

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 20 2009, 07:17 PM

Look here: http://forums.scotsnewsletter.com/index.php?showtopic=27596


Archlinux screenshots would not help anyway since every installation and setup is different. All you would see after installation is a command prompt, you build it from there.. Archlinux is like clay you mold to your likings. No standards as far as setup besides the ncurses installer.

Thanks

Posted by: LilBambi Oct 20 2009, 07:35 PM

Thanks securitybreach!

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 20 2009, 07:47 PM

Yup. As soon as I get The GIMP installed so I can mod a nice Arch wallpaper, I'll post my Arch-Gnome for ya'.

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 20 2009, 07:53 PM

How bout a cool non-windowmanager Archlinux wallpaper?
Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 20 2009, 10:35 PM

No window manager? You mean like this?



Pretty boring, huh?

These look prettier...

Arch Linux w/ Gnome:

http://img190.imageshack.us/i/archshot01.png/

Gnome:

http://img190.imageshack.us/i/gnomeshot01.png/

+++++

Installed the following tonight:

vim
Firefox and Thunderbird (Arch versions)
The Gimp
K3B
AmaroK
Mplayer
FF plugins --> flashplugin, mplayer-plugin, jre
Xpdf
Xscreensaver
gkrellm
numlockX
vlc
archlinux-wallpaper
lm_sensors

Busy! Busy!

Posted by: LilBambi Oct 20 2009, 10:55 PM

Awesome!

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 20 2009, 10:59 PM

Looks excellent!!!!


Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 20 2009, 11:34 PM

I just fixed a small Nautilus (Gnome file manager app) issue. It wouldn't remember the window size after closing and reopening. There was a very helpful post at the Arch forums that explained why --> http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=78500

I did what that poster suggested and it worked like a champ! YAY!

I have all my drives properly mounting, including my Zip100 drive.

I used an old 10ignore-disks.fdi hal trick that I've used in Debian and Slack to force hal to ignore volumes on my hard drives that I do NOT want to see in the file manager or volume manager. I'm going to reboot now and see if that trick works in Arch also.

Off I go...

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 21 2009, 12:20 AM

Hmm... my 10ignore-disks.fdi trick didn't work.

Also, I'm having a wee little problem getting one of my backup drives to mount at boot up. My fstab entry is the same one I use in all my distros, yet Arch is saying that the mount directory that I'm trying to mount it in doesn't exist. I can mount manually in that directory as Root. What gives? Myeh... minor probs. I'll figure them out tomorrow.

I'm tired. The Angels got their butts kicked by the Yankees. I'm going to bed now...

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 21 2009, 12:57 AM

FF is VERY SLOW and jerky. Scrolling up and down the forum list here is terrible. Sucking up some major CPU cycles, too. Hmm...

TB is BUGGY!

I'll work on them both tomorrow.

OK, NOW I'm going to bed... really!

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 21 2009, 02:02 AM

That is very odd since my firefox runs perfectly and does not use much system resources either. I run Firefox on Arch64 on 5 of 6 machines at home and none of them act this way?
Maybe check the forums, I dunno. Also, it could be a plugin although it if it worked on other distros then maybe it is not that. Also, are you using the firefox-branded package from AUR or the Shiretoko version? I run a version of Firefox called Firefox-pgo from AUR on one of my slower machines and it is extremely quick and all plugins, etc work perfectly. Also, it is not Shiretoko but a "Firefox" version. http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=22296

or

CODE

yaourt -S firefox-pgo

I am basically shooting in the dark since I have do not know all the details of the issue with firefox. Try starting from the terminal and seeing the output. As far as Thunderbird, I have no ideal since I do not run TB. I I do not know if it is anything you are doing, but I have like 8 people I helped them to install Archlinux and help them with questions also. None of them have had an issue with Firefox or Thunderbird of which they all use. They have had some other issues that have been resolved though.


Maybe tomorrow we will figure it out. After 5pm EST, I will be on.

Thanks

I just installed and setup TB, and it works beautifully. It will not be replaceing Alpine but it works great.

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 21 2009, 01:32 PM

Just briefly because I'm walking out the door in a few minutes...

I installed the Arch versions of FF (Shiretoko) and TB. I'm running them with Profiles from my backups of FF and TB... the same Profiles I run FF and TB in all my distros.

In FF, when scrolling up and down on a web page, the motion is very herky-jerky, almost like a vid acceleration issue. It sucks MAX CPU when this happens. This wasn't happening with FF (Shiretoko) in my last installation of Arch. The only difference (other than windows managers) is that I compiled my own Nvidia drivers from the Nvidia script at the Nvidia website in the previous installation of Arch. I think it's a newer version than the one I'm using now from the Arch repos. Oddly though, I'm getting three times faster frame rates with the Arch version than I did with the Nvidia version. Go figure...

In TB, my preferences for the interface are not being remembered after shutting down and restarting the app. The "Today Pane" (Lightning calendar extension) does not open with TB after TB has been shut down and restarted. Also the "Invitations" thingie shows up in the folder tree after restart of the app even after I uncheck the box in View --> Invitations. The 32 bit TB worked fine in Arch with my Profile.

I tend to think that this is just an issue with my Profiles for FF and TB and the Arch versions of the apps. I'll play with it some more later this evening... maybe try one of the other FF's that you mention. I may have to install the 32 bit libs and run the 32 bit TB from Mozilla to solve the problem with that application.

Off I go...

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 21 2009, 01:36 PM

A bit of good news, though... the sound notifications work in TB in this installation of Arch.

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 21 2009, 06:18 PM

I run the nvidia package from the Arch repos and everything seems great, I personally would always use the driver from the repos versus compiling your own. This is more than likely to be the cause of your firefox issues. Although, all pacman does is fetch the sources from nividia.com and compile them as well when you type:

See:



Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 21 2009, 08:59 PM

Uh... I did use the Nvidia drivers from the Arch repos. It was the previous installation that I compiled my own. The FF issue is occurring now... with the Arch repo Nvidia drivers. It did not do this with the Nvidia compiled drivers on the previous installation. *shrugging* I'm not really sure what the issue is... whether FF (Shiretoko) or the video drivers.

On another note... why does Arch have so much stuff running in the background on my system at boot up (180+) compared to Slack or Debian (less than 90, usually)?

Anywho... probably won't get time to tinker tonight... maybe tomorrow. Thanks for the above info... will check it out.

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 21 2009, 10:08 PM

Well remember everything that is started, you made it happen. With Archlinux nothing at all starts by itself. Slackare and others manager startup application, archlinux leaves it to you and to only.

Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 21 2009, 11:57 PM

Securitybreech,

That nvidia-173xx driver that I had installed was causing the FF problem, I believe. Installing the newer version, as you demonstrate above, seems to have solved the issue. Thanks again!

When I went through the Beginners Guide, it tells how to install the Nvidia drivers from the repos, but it only shows two options... nvidia-96xx and nvidia-173xx. I guess the BG is a bit out of date. No harm done. All's well with FF now, I think. No more jerky scrolling.

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 22 2009, 02:05 AM

Progress made tonight...

FF all fixed up now.

Thunderbird was having issues because the Lightning calendar extension (32 bit) was not compatible with the x86_64 version of Arch TB. The solution was to find an x84_64 version of the Lightning extension to download. Google is my friend --> http://mozilla.cdn.cacheboy.net/calendar/lightning/releases/0.9/contrib/linux-x86_64/lightning-0.9-linux-x86_64.xpi

I have one other pressing problem now. I cannot get my backup partition to automount. All my other partitions are mounting fine. Here's a copy of my fstab:

I can mount the drive using:



But it will not mount on boot up. I get this error:



Strange, huh? I know the mount point exists because I can manually mount there.

Any ideas? Oh, this fstab works fine for all my other distros.

Off to beddy-bye now... G'night!

Posted by: LilBambi Oct 22 2009, 09:15 AM

Missing a lower case L in vte57/vtel57 in the fstab listing.

I bet if you fix that ... it will work like manual mount

Posted by: Bruno Oct 22 2009, 01:00 PM

Woooow . . sharp eyes Fran !!!


Bruno

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 22 2009, 01:17 PM

HAHAHAHAHAHA!

I'll be darned. It's amazing how you can stare at something like that numerous times and just never see it. THANKS SO MUCH, Fran! That did it!

Posted by: LilBambi Oct 22 2009, 01:22 PM

Thanks Bruno! You're welcome Eric! Sometimes it just takes a second set of eyes.

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 22 2009, 07:23 PM

Or stronger glasses...

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 22 2009, 07:28 PM

Well, folks...

My Arch Linux installation is nearly ready-for-prime-time!

Have a looksee...

http://img97.imageshack.us/i/archshot02.png/

http://img24.imageshack.us/i/archtheme02.png/

Posted by: LilBambi Oct 22 2009, 07:40 PM

LOL!

Nice! Looks like it's really getting there!

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 22 2009, 08:33 PM

Looks excellent. I especially like the avatar in the right top corner. Nice job!!!!

Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 22 2009, 10:58 PM

How'd ya' like my custom Arch/Gnome icon on the left side-center?

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 22 2009, 11:10 PM

Very nice.

Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 23 2009, 01:01 AM

OK, I did a little test...

At boot up...

Arch --> 170 to 175 apps running
Debian --> 100 to 105 apps running
Slackware --> 120 to 125 apps running (with FF and TB initializing at boot)

Arch is sure starting up with a lot of stuff running. I'm going to have to figure out why. There are three or four dbus entries running, also three udev entries running, and a lot of "k" stuff... kjournald, kbla-bla, etc.

I also need to add a few more apps to this installation... GNUPaint, Xsane, and some others.

Once I get the boot up apps squared away and add these few more apps that I need, Arch will be a completed, customized, and 100% usable distribution on my computer. YAY!

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 23 2009, 01:24 AM

I would imagine it has to do with all the K apps you are running at login. You might have more K things in Archlinux than the others. You might have to slim it down some.
Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 23 2009, 01:03 PM

That's the odd part. I don't knowingly have any KDE apps running at start up. The only two KDE apps that I installed on this installation are K3B and Amarok, neither of which is running at boot time. Weird. I'll post a complete list of the running boot up apps later today sometime.

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 23 2009, 01:19 PM

Also, the only way something can start at boot is listed in the dameon list at the botttom of /etc/rc.conf. If you mean at login, check ~/.xinitrc if you use startx, check whatever login manager you decided to install, or check kde autostart. Other than that pastebin your processes and I will take a look.

THanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 23 2009, 01:57 PM

That's not really correct. Many apps start when you boot any Linux distro. Just the Gnome desktop manager starts numerous apps that it requires to run. Gnome Panel initializes apps by itself. None of these apps are in rc.conf. Of course, "exec gnome" is in .xinitrc, but it has to be.

rc.conf --> DAEMONS=(syslog-ng network netfs crond alsa hal fam)

.xinitrc --> nvidia-settings --load-config-only & numlockx & exec gnome-session

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 23 2009, 05:39 PM

OK, I'm not too worried about the running processes at bootup non-issue with Arch. It actually seems to be thing with the way gkrellm's proc krell monitor counts processes and forks. Using top from the command line at boot up shows me that I have a total of 104 processes running. I tend to trust top more than gkrellm.

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 23 2009, 06:21 PM

OK, are we speaking of booting or logging in(starting wm)? If we are speaking of booting, archlinux only starts what is in rc.conf and some init scripts at boot. Nothing more. If you use KDM or GDM then they start but that is because they are in rc.conf.
Look here: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Startup_files and here http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/The_Arch_boot_process/

If you mean window managers, I do not use Gnome or KDE so I do not have any apps that start by themselves. Thats another reason why I use lightweight window managers versus the heavier ones. Although, I do have some things start automtically. For instance, I background a bunch of daemons and autostart a few apps/scripts in ~/.xinitrc but I choose to start them. I think I would have a problem with something starting on its own. When I ran KDE, I stripped everything possible out of it so I could make it minimal as possible and I did the same with Gnome when I ran it.

I just noticed that you do not background your daemons. If you put an @ in front of the daemons in /etc/rc.conf, it will background the processes and make the boot process quicker:




Also, the process list from top looks a little better. You had me wondering what was going on.

Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 24 2009, 12:39 AM

Yes... all is well with the process thing. I was speaking of processes running after "startx". Sorry for the misuse of terminology. Top is currently showing 109 apps running... that's FF and TB and all the other baloney. That's pretty much normal. CPU usage is okee-dokee, as is resource usage. All's well with my happy Arch Linux installation.

Thanks for all your help, SB. I'm sure I'll be inquiring about other things from time to time. Right now though, Arch is pretty much ready-for-prime-time. It is now to the point where I could easily switch over to Arch should something happen with Slack or Debian.

Next up for sometime this weekend... either another attempt at Gentoo or Slack 13-64.

Off I go...

P.S. Check out my Arch Halloween wallpaper over in the "Show Us Your GNU/Linux Desktop" thread.

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 24 2009, 09:16 AM

I am glad to hear that everything is working great for you. Anytime you need something Arch related, I will do my best to help you along.

I saw the wallpaper and its cool. I do not like red so I would not use it, but it is a very nice Halloween wallpaper.
Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 24 2009, 02:15 PM

I'm not into red anything much either, but it looked good with the Halloween additions.

Posted by: Urmas Oct 24 2009, 02:54 PM

Psst, Eric:

Now that you're a Gnomie again, have you tried a screenshot proggy called "Shutter"? Looks & feels promising!

http://shutter-project.org/

Arch package: http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=24443

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 24 2009, 03:18 PM

I never really stopped being a Gnomie. I've always had a Debian installation on my systems since 2006; using Gnome. I like Gnome. It's simple and it works... two really good points in its favor.

That app looks pretty cool. I might install that baby in Debian (for starters) and see how it works. Thanks!

What I REALLY need, though, is a decent paint app for Gnome. Gnupaint sucks. Gnome-Paint sucks. MTPaint is OK. Is there anything out there as simple and usable as Kolourpaint (KDE)?

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 24 2009, 07:09 PM

Wow thats pretty cool!! I do not think that it will replace scrot but it does have some really nice features.

Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 26 2009, 11:32 PM

OK, folks... it's a whole new day and I'm in Slack 13-64 trying to get this thing all set up to make sure that I'm going to like it before I commit to installing in over my 12.2 primary OS.

So far, I've set up my KDE4 preferences. I've updated/upgraded with slackpkg. I've set up fstab and my /home directories. All seems OK, so far. Can't say I'm really liking KDE4 yet, but maybe it'll grow on me.

Next up, I believe I'll have to manually install the Nvidia drivers via the Nvidia script because there don't seem to be any in the slackpkg repos. That figures, though. It's not to bad manually installing Nvidia in Slack, though, because Slack rarely ever upgrades the kernel.

Off I go to kill X and run the Nvidia script. Back in a bit...

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 26 2009, 11:57 PM

OK, Flash is in and working. That was easy. I just downloaded the 64 bit source from SlackBuilds and copied the libflashplayer.so to /usr/lib64/firefox-3.5.3/plugins and to /usr/lib64/mozilla/plugins (for Seamonkey). Yay!

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 27 2009, 12:04 AM

Great!!! So everything in 64bit Slackware is working as it should, plugins and such?

Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 27 2009, 01:05 AM

No. There are problems with KDE4, I'm afraid. It won't keep my settings. It's buggy as heck. Just lost my Kmix... get the bouncy mouse but no app starts. Click on FF, get bouncy mouse for about 30 seconds after the app starts. One of my entire panels disappeared after reboot. I AM NOT LIKING KDE4 or SLACK 13 so far.

Going to bed now... before I put my foot through my monitor.

Posted by: Bruno Oct 27 2009, 03:00 AM

Maybe it's the 64 bits version, because I have no problems at all with the 32 bits Slack13.0 KDE4 . . . ??



Bruno

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 27 2009, 02:54 PM

I don't know, B. I'm wondering if Slack 13 can be installed with KDE3. I'm going to do some Googling today and see what I can find out. To tell you the truth, though, I'm really not liking KDE4 even when it works. It's just too bloated, complicated, eye-candy, Windows Vista-like for my tastes. I'm kinda' surprised at Pat V. about this.

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 27 2009, 05:15 PM

Found this interesting blogpost --> http://linuxcritic.wordpress.com/2009/08/31/upgrading-from-kde-4-2-4-to-kde-3-5-10-in-slackware-13/

However, I also found that Pat V. has already anticipated the need for this --> ftp://ftp.gtlib.gatech.edu/pub/linux/distributions/slackware/unsupported/kde-3.5.10-for-slack13.0/README

I think I'll try Pat's method first.

I'm currently vvget-ting the entire contents (all .txz's) in the x86-64 directory for the unsupported KDE3.5.10. It's about a 250Meg download. Once I have that, I'll boot into Slack 13 (no X running) and follow Pat's directions to swap out KDE4 for the KDE3.5.10.

I'll keep ya' posted...

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 27 2009, 08:30 PM

Who said it couldn't be done?

http://img21.imageshack.us/i/slackshot71.png/

Man! I love Linux... and I love Pat V. for even thinking of this.

Posted by: Temmu Oct 27 2009, 09:51 PM

i looked into kde 3 with one of my debian installs... the files are there, but, yikes! i'd hate to be the one picking and choosing what goes and what stays!

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 27 2009, 10:55 PM

Well, Pat V.'s instructions were pretty plain. It works, but I'm still having a buggy problem with FF starting up. That is probably a Slack 13 issue, not a KDE3.5 issue, though, because it was doing it in KDE4 also.

Posted by: Bruno Oct 28 2009, 01:54 PM

Good, excellent . . . Now I hope you can solve the FF problem and you're set for the next year up to 13.1


Bruno

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 28 2009, 04:33 PM

I've seen the symptom I'm seeing with FF in Slack 13 before elsewhere. It almost seem as if clicking on the icon in the panel or the menu is trying to open two instances of the app. I may remove and reinstall FF and see if that resolves it.

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 28 2009, 08:31 PM

You may have noticed that my linux bar in my sig has changed. I'm reinstalling PCLinuxOS Phoenix edition. Why? Well, because I've come to the conclusion that it may be a long, long (maybe never) time before I get Gentoo installed on one of my systems. Gentoo is just a bit much for me, I'm afraid.

Off I go...

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 28 2009, 09:18 PM

Wow, never heard of the Phoenix edition of PCLinuxOS. Looks pretty cool. Gonna check it out in VirtualBox.

Or not:

Bandwidth Limit Exceeded
The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to the site owner reaching his/her bandwidth limit. Please try again later.

Oh well I will try later. Got another mirror Eric?
Thanks

Posted by: kamicota Oct 28 2009, 10:09 PM

Hi Security
Here's the download link
http://pclinuxos.com/?page_id=213

Cheers for Years
Colin

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 28 2009, 10:46 PM

Thanks

Posted by: kamicota Oct 28 2009, 10:46 PM

OOPS!!!

OFF to tryi it in the Quad first Ha

Cheers for years
Colin

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 28 2009, 10:50 PM

Yup. That's the link! Try PCLOS-Phoenix (Xfce) it's pretty darned cool. I'm done with Gentoo for this lifetime, I think. I needed to fill that partition. I was considering Zenwalk or Vector Linux, but I don't have a Mandiriva-based distro on any of my systems, so...

I'm in PCLOS right now, actually. I'm updating/upgrading right now, then I'm going to continue with my desktop preferences and customizations. Cool little distro... relatively light weight with Xfce, too.

Posted by: kamicota Oct 28 2009, 10:55 PM

Hi Eric & Security
Am not too happy with Basero and see there is no Open office
BUT will play for a while and SEE if HP Lappy needs this one

And like you Eric AM IMPRESSED with the latest 2009.4

Cheers for years
Colin

Posted by: kamicota Oct 28 2009, 10:59 PM

OOPS!!! Just installing it on thew Quad Bye Byes PCLinuxOS 2009.2

Cheers for Years
Colin

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 28 2009, 11:00 PM

NM

Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 28 2009, 11:00 PM

It's easy enough to install K3b and OpenOffice, Colin. No biggie. I'll end up doing that on my installation because I prefer those apps over the others usually available in these distros.

Posted by: kamicota Oct 28 2009, 11:01 PM

Security that = PCLinuxOS Phoenix 2009.4 (from that download link)
Cheers for years
Colin

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 28 2009, 11:03 PM

PCLOS - Phoenix
Release Date: 09-14-2009
Version: 2009.4


Wow! We all posted within seconds of one another.

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 28 2009, 11:03 PM

Thanks, I figured it out.


Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 28 2009, 11:04 PM

If you plan on using PCLOS-Phoenix, be sure to do the update/upgrade. There are 800+ updates; some fix some bugs in Xfce 4.6.

Posted by: kamicota Oct 28 2009, 11:04 PM

Shoot this is getting to be like a soap opera ALL talking at the same time

Cheers for years
Colin

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 28 2009, 11:07 PM

I do not have any version of PCLinuxOS installed presently, I just thought I would try it out in VirtualBox since Archlinux is not going anywhere anytime soon.

Thanks for the information though Eric.

Thanks

Posted by: kamicota Oct 28 2009, 11:08 PM

Eric
Thanks for the heads up re OpenOffice and K3b etc but for me Synaptic is the way to update etc

Is this not so rather than Apt get

Cheers for Years
Colin

Posted by: kamicota Oct 28 2009, 11:18 PM

Well Eric

Am Updating from Synaptic = 447 to download about 336 MB and not too fast (40 - 60KB/sec heatnet)

Cheers for Years
Colin

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 28 2009, 11:24 PM

Hey, Colin...

Two things... you might find that about 7 items were not located on the server during the update. Just open the repos and change to another server. And OpenOffice and K3B are both installable via synaptic. I just checked.

Posted by: kamicota Oct 28 2009, 11:28 PM

Thank YOU SO much Eric

Will see what happens in and HOURs' PLUS time

Heatnet has never been a favorite here 4000+ miles North west of Miami OOPS!!! that was Tampa

Cheers for years
Colin

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 29 2009, 12:06 AM

I usually use the Georgia Tech servers for most of my distros. They're fast and nearby me. I would recommend you use something a bit closer to your, though, Colin. You can go to the server in your browser, copy the URL, and then paste it into Synaptic as a "New" repo. Be sure to uncheck the old one and check your new one. Always leave the Tex - Open Source repo checked. You'll need some of that stuff.

Off I go to beddy bye...

Posted by: kamicota Oct 29 2009, 12:28 AM

Thank you Eric
Georgia tech did have some reasonable downloads here in the frozen North hehehe.

Have never seen the --->>>Tex - Open Source repo anywhere in my travels but will NOW look out for it as Phoenix is just about updated
Cheers for years
Colin

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 29 2009, 01:02 PM

It's the last repo checked at the bottom of the list in the Repository window in PCLOS - Phoenix Synaptic. "Tex - Opensource" is just my abbreviation.

Posted by: kamicota Oct 29 2009, 01:33 PM

Thanks again Eric

Did see that one ticked when I updated last night and will revisit it today when it is the Quads time to fire up.

Cheers for years
Colin

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 30 2009, 01:00 AM

Well, fellow penguins...

The Slackware 13 saga continues.

Earlier today I decided that while it was really cool that I could run KDE 3.5 on Slackware 13, it just wasn't practical because it's not going to be supported. So, why bother? I can just keep running the more stable 12.2 w/ KDE 3.5 and be happy with that. I decided to reinstall Slackware 13-64 today without installing any of the KDE or QT apps. Instead, I'm running Slackware 13-64 with Xfce 4.6 now. It's stable and it works; the way Slackware is supposed to be.

I've spent most of tonight customizing my Xfce installation. It's pretty cool. I think I can live with it. I'll miss KDE, but one day when KDE4 gets a bit more stable I might try it again... maybe when Slack 13.1 or 13.2 comes out. In the meantime, I'm enjoying my Xfce installation. I like Xfce. My only gripe about version 4.6 is that there is no graphical menu editor. They're supposed to put that back in when 4.8 comes out. I just finished adding a few panel applets and Thunar addons from the http://goodies.xfce.org/startwebsite. Here's a screenshot...

http://img4.imageshack.us/i/slackxfceshot01.png/

It ain't nothin' fancy, but it's OK.

It's late... I'm off to bed. G'night!

Posted by: securitybreach Oct 30 2009, 01:02 AM

Looks nice!!

Thanks

Posted by: Bruno Oct 30 2009, 03:11 AM

I've said it before: on my Slackware 13.0 install I have no trouble at all with KDE 4 . . . . but indeed Xfce is a fine alternative and very good windowmanager !


Bruno

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Oct 30 2009, 02:47 PM

If I were the only one in the world with KDE4 issues, I'd think it was something on my system. However, a quick Google search reveals many folks with similar buggy KDE4 problems. KDE4 has been buggy for me on two different distros even... Arch and Slackware13 (both x86_64). Oh well... I'll miss the Xtreme customizing that I can do with KDE3.5, but I'm learning to tweak Xfce now.

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 1 2009, 07:26 PM

Well, just doing some odds and ends stuff today:

- I made SURE that ntp was working in Slack 12.2, Debian, Arch, and Slack 13. I'll check CentOS, PCLOS, and Ark later.
- Fixed an annoying Gnome panel issue in Arch.
- Set PCLOS to boot up RL:3 (no X) as default (It's Slacker thing ).
- Set Gnome prefs in Debian and Arch to be similar.
- Simplified my setup in Slack 12.2... no more stuff on the desktop. Nice and clean looking now.
- Did all my backups.

It's not easy being mother hen to two main distributions and five experimentals, you know.

Posted by: securitybreach Nov 1 2009, 09:16 PM

Nice job. I have tried to maintain multiple distros on one machine but I always end up neglecting all but Archlinux. I guess this is because I do not reboot much except for a kernel upgrade every once in awhile. I do manage to maintain 6 computers running Archlinux though. I guess I am a one distro per machine type of user.
Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 2 2009, 12:17 AM

A one-distro man, huh? Nothing wrong with that. I'm in a meaningful relationship with one distro, but I'm still a young enough penguin to be sewing some wild oats elsewhere at the same time.

This week, I'll probably spend my time finishing setting up CentOS, Ark, and PCLOS-Phoenix. I've only done prelim stuff in those distros.

Posted by: sunrat Nov 2 2009, 03:26 AM

I'm a multi distro man. Debian No.1, sidux and 64Studio. Oh wait they're Debian too. Planning to replace 64Studio with AVLinux soon. AAaaaaah, that's Debian too!

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 2 2009, 04:18 PM

You are definitely a Debian-centric penguin, Debrat... er, I mean Sunrat.

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 2 2009, 04:20 PM

I'm downloading the new CentOS 5.4 in x86_64 version. I'm planning on installing it over my old CentOS 5.3 - i686. I'm seriously thinking about running it with LXDE instead of KDE, too. How 'bout them apples?

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 2 2009, 05:03 PM

Or maybe I won't install it with LXDE because I have to mod a Fedora RPM to get it to work in CentOS. Sounds like too much trouble to me.

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 2 2009, 10:44 PM

Changed my mind about CentOS. Forgot that YUM has a really cool distro upgrade (sorta' like pacman in Arch) that upgrades the entire distribution to the current release. I did that. It worked flawlessly. I'm now running CentOS 5.4 i686 w/ KDE 3.5. Pretty cool. Here it is...

http://img44.imageshack.us/i/centosshot01.png/

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 3 2009, 07:15 PM

Well, I tried a dist-upgrade in Ark Linux today. It seemed to work at first, but then began to bug out. No biggie. I'm downloading the newest version now.

Anyone know how to install LXDE from source? Hmm? Ark uses KDE as default. However, the new Ark coming out next year will be using KDE4. I'm planning ahead. I'm considering LXDE in Ark, but it's not in their repos. I'd have to install from source.

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 4 2009, 02:36 AM

Well, after experiencing a bad day with Ark Linux, I've come to the conclusion that I'm just going to have to leave that distro behind. The newest release is not as good as the 2007 version that I was using. It's buggy.

That leaves a set of partitions available on my system; hence the revised Linux bar in my siggy.

I'm considering Mandriva One... or maybe even OpenSuse. I don't know yet. Any suggestions? I'm kinda' looking for something light and fast that doesn't use KDE. I'd like to try LXDE, Fluxbox, or IceWM, maybe. We'll see...

Later...

Posted by: sunrat Nov 4 2009, 04:25 AM

Read my sig.
Debian base install and aptitude install lxde or
Sidux XFCE and apt-get install lxde This is what I run on my EeePC.

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 4 2009, 01:30 PM

OK, Ratus Solarus... just for argument's sake, why do I need another Debian-based distro? What's special about Sidux that would interest me? Hmm? C'mon now... make the sale!

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 4 2009, 01:42 PM

Hmm... I may have sold myself:

1) good looking website
2) apparent quality support
3) large user community
4) small and fast
5) Debian-based
6) et cetera...

I believe I may give 'er a go. Downloading now...

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 4 2009, 01:44 PM

++++++

Once I get Slack 13 to where I trust it as a primary distro, I'll be installing it fresh over my primary Slack 12 partitions. That will leave a set of partitions vacant. I'm considering an old favorite, Zenwalk, again... or possibly Mandrive One 2010 in 64 bit, if I can ever find it.

Posted by: sunrat Nov 4 2009, 07:14 PM

Why I like Sidux, apart from the reasons you already posted:
-Rolling release
-Up-to-date versions from Debian Sid
-Fast and fairly lean, esp. with Xfce or LXDE
-I've had almost zero problems
-Devs are on the ball eg. the recent http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Hole-in-the-Linux-kernel-allows-root-access-850016.html which affects Red Hat, Debian and others has already been fixed.

2009.3 release due very soon, although you can apt-get dist-upgrade from the preview or earlier release.

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 5 2009, 12:32 AM

OK, Sidux is in and running. It did elevate my blood pressure and cause a few mild expletives due to its using libATA and UUID/LABEL for the drive partitions in menu.lst and fstab. ARRRRRRRRRRRRGH! I HATE libATA! Anyway, finally got my controller GRUB (Debian) and fstab squared away.

Next I installed LXDE. I'm using Openbox windows manager with LXDE in Sidux. Here's the first (very basic) shot:

http://img44.imageshack.us/i/siduxshot01.png/

I have a lot of work to do in Sidux. I have to hunt down and install my fav apps. I have to configure everything. Et cetera... FUN! That should keep me busy for a few days. Being Debian, I do have wee bit of a headstart with the learning curve, though.

Thanks Sunrat! I think I'm going to like it.

Posted by: sunrat Nov 5 2009, 01:02 AM

Welcome to Sidux World Eric!
I never thought about libATA, and I don't think I ever looked at fstab either - the installer has always set up my partitions just how I want them. I think the installer is one of the best I've used and it is simple and fast. The DVD version completes in about 6 minutes on my C2D.
When the 2009.3 final is released I plan to make it my new No.1 system, relegating Lenny to No.2. Of course equal No.2 will be my studio distro, can't decide between Musix and AVLinux.

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 5 2009, 01:17 AM

That's another thing that caused some purple verbiage... the gparted on the Sidux CD kept erroring out when trying to format one of my partitions. I had to reboot into my trusty Ubuntu Dapper Live CD and use that gparted to format the partitions.

It's difficult for any distro's installer to properly set up my partitions the way I want them. I'm running three 250 Gig hard drives (one EIDE and two SATAs). It's confusing for most distros to look at that hardware and figure it out. How would you like to be a Live CD installer trying to figure out this hardware setup?

HAHA!

Posted by: securitybreach Nov 5 2009, 01:33 AM

Looks nice!!!
Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 5 2009, 01:35 PM

My to-do list for Sidux today:

- open all the good repos
- find x86_64 compiled FF and TB (I don't like Ice Weasel)
- set up java, mplayer, and other plugins
- install other necessary apps... K3B, Amarok, xpdf, etc.
- check boot up apps and lean down installation a bit... kill stuff like Samba and PCMCIA that I don't use/need.
- install and configure proprietary Nvidia drivers (along with necessary gcc, make, glibc, kernel-headers, etc.)

Hmm... that should keep me busy and out of trouble for rest of today and this evening.

Posted by: sunrat Nov 5 2009, 07:57 PM

I never had any GParted problems either (unless the partition was mounted, still easy to unmount). Then I only have 2 SATA disks in C2D, and 2 SSDs in EeePC.

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 5 2009, 08:43 PM

Progress is being made...

- Nvidia installed and working
- Iceweasel 3.4.x and Icedove installed and working with my common profiles (YAY!).
- Fixed buggy issue with Vim as root by removing /home/root/.viminfo.
- Set up /home/vtel57 directories.
- Installed GIMP (error, broken)
- Fixed GIMP with a complete dist-upgrade... may have been a buggy library.

- Still playing with and learning some of the ins and outs of LXDE.
> cannot get wallpaper to stay after rebooting
> cannot make side panel do transparency nor auto-hide
> and other misc. stuff...

Fun! Fun! Fun!

Hey Sun... what do your sources.list files look like?

I have three:

debian.list

sidux.list



non-free.list

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 5 2009, 09:47 PM

Shaping up a bit...

http://img149.imageshack.us/i/siduxshot02.png/

Posted by: sunrat Nov 5 2009, 11:26 PM

Nice wallpaper! Never changed my EeePC/LXDE one from default, and use KDE4 on Core2Duo.I wasn't aware that LXDE supported transparent panels though. Tell me if you make it so.

sidux.list

debian.list
These were modded by smxi, which I use for updates, graphics drivers, clean-ups and some other things. I think spline.de will be replaced by debian.tu-bs.de or the new sidux.cybermirror.org when I install the new 2009.3 when it's released. No separate non-free list - these are included in debian.list. Note that this is from 2009.1 install. I missed 2009.2 release as I was overseas for 3 months.

Cheers!

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 5 2009, 11:33 PM

I swiped that wallpaper from here --> http://spacepenguin.de/download/sidux/ ...and then modded it a wee bit with the GIMP.

Posted by: sunrat Nov 6 2009, 12:03 AM

Good wallpaper site, images in .xcf too - very cool.
Here's my totally untweaked Sidux/KDE4. Air theme and KDE4 wallpaper. I had to test out my freshly subscribed Imageshack account.

http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/8015/snapshot1.png

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 6 2009, 12:09 AM

Wow! Aussie red bud!

Posted by: securitybreach Nov 6 2009, 01:15 AM

Hmmmmmm, not quite, but yeah

BTW I like the "winter" avatar!!!

Thanks

Posted by: sunrat Nov 6 2009, 01:18 AM

Sorry to disappoint you Rastamen, but it's Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum).
We do have purple ones though.

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 6 2009, 02:30 PM

Purple bud? COOL!

Reality strikes... my "rasta-ing" days are about 26 years behind me.

Yup... that time of the year.

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 7 2009, 06:21 PM

Man... I'm tired. I've spent two entire days stumped with Sidux trying to find out how to set my desktop wallpaper with feh and have it stick after restarting. It's been a tiresome journey.

The disadvantage for us lazy folks to light weight windows managers and desktop environments is the fact that many seemingly simple operations in more point 'n click-ish desktops are quite a bit more complicated to perform in these light weight setups. Setting wallpaper on your desktop, for instance.

In KDE or Gnome, it's just a matter of set it and forget it. It comes right back up after reboot/restart. Not so with Openbox-LXDE. With that WM/DE, you have to play around with autostart scripts and xinitrc scripts and separate imaging apps like feh. Lotsa' FUN! Two days! Two day have gone by and I've done nothing but try to figure this out in Sidux.

I'm tired now.

Posted by: securitybreach Nov 7 2009, 07:29 PM

Try nitrogen, it is a simple lightweight wallpaper selector.

Then put
in ~/.xinitrc or whever you autostart applications.
It uses feh to set the wallpaper but it is point and click. It works great with Openbox, Fluxbox, Gnome, Xmonad, etc.

It should be the distro's repos but if not here is more info:
http://l3ib.org/nitrogen/
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Nitrogenhttp://maketecheasier.com/nitrogen-a-background-setter-for-lightweight-desktop-manager/2008/12/02

Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 7 2009, 09:06 PM

I have nitrogen already installed. I may try it. The problem is that on this Sidux installation, LXDE initializes Openbox using /etc/X11/xsession, not ~/.xinitrc. I can get Openbox to start using "openbox-session" from the command line and then it will load the autostart.sh script with my feh instructions. I'm afraid I'll have the same issue with nitrogen because I'm starting from run level 3 (no X) with the "xinit" (startx) command. I can only seem to get a custom ~/.xinitrc to start openbox or openbox-session, not both. This xinitrc and autostart stuff's all kinda' new to me. I thought Slackware was confusing.

Posted by: sunrat Nov 7 2009, 09:10 PM

Maybe you need Enlightenment E17 - http://download.enlightenment.org/snapshots/LATEST/

I just fired up MoonOS Makara (released in September) in VBox and decided I will have to try E17 in Sidux some time. It seems very functional and attractive.

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 7 2009, 09:17 PM

Feh works. It's just that I can't figure out how to initialize the necessary "openbox-session" at startup. If I set my wallpaper with Pcman, it works fine, but Pcman shows that annoying "My Docs" icon on the desk and there's no way, short of modifying code and recompiling Pcman, to get it to go away. I can also solve this problem if I'd just start in RL 5 with the graphic login. Openbox-session starts fine from the graphic login.

ARRRRRRRRRRRRGH! I want to do things MY WAY. That's why I use Linux, dimmit! I don't want to have to install Ubuntu 9.10!

Posted by: securitybreach Nov 7 2009, 10:27 PM

Openbox uses ~/.config/openbox/autostart.sh to autostart things.
Here is my Openbox autostart:



http://github.com/securitybreach/Config-files/blob/master/openbox/autostart.sh

Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 7 2009, 11:45 PM

Doesn't work that way in Sidux when you startx from RL 3, though.

Anyway, I got it beat! Here's what I had to do:

1 - choose wallpaper and set it with feh
2 - create autostart.sh file in /home/<user>/.config/openbox
2a - add /home/<user>/.fehbg to the autostart.sh in step 2
3 - create .fehbg in /home/<user>, if necessary
3a - add feh --bg-center '<path to wallpaper>' to .fehbg in step 3
4 - add @openbox-session to /etc/xdg/xsession/lxde/autostart.sh

Yay!

=====

Now I have to find out why I have no sound.

Posted by: securitybreach Nov 7 2009, 11:48 PM

Thats one way to do it.

Why not just add

to ~/.config/openbox/autostart.sh, instead of making a ~/.fehbg and using autostart.sh to link it?

Seems a little backwards, you could of just put the command in autostart.sh?

Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 8 2009, 12:33 AM

As explained above Openbox does NOT initialize the ~/.config/openbox/autostart.sh when startx from the run level 3 (no X running) is invoked. I would have to be using a graphic login on RL 5 for that autostart.sh to run. Since I'm starting in RL 3 with no X, I have to place the startup stuff in /etc/xdg/xsession/lxde/autostart.sh file instead.

There are two commands to invoke an openbox session. One is "openbox", which is what's used by LXDE when you startx from the non-graphical RL 3. This will NOT run Openbox's autostart.sh script. The other command to invoke an openbox session is "openbox-session". This one is for non-graphical startups and needs to be in xsession because xsession starts before openbox.

At least this is how I understand it. It's the only way for it to work on a non-graphical (RL 3) startup, though. I tried every other way the past two days.

Oh, and my sound is OK.

Posted by: securitybreach Nov 8 2009, 01:04 AM

Wow and I thought Arch was complicated. Openbox starts the "autostart.sh" just fine with startx on RL3 using Arch. To start openbox/autostart, I just use "exec openbox-session" in ~/.xinitrc and the autostart.sh works just fine. I figured something like this would be in Sidux too.

Did you make autostart.sh executable? Just throwing out ideals since it seems overly complicated to simply autostart something in Sidux.

Since LXDE is a bit different from regular Openbox, maybe try this from Archwiki LXDE???:


http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/LXDE

It might be the same in Sidux since Arch tries to use the program defaults for config locations.

Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 8 2009, 02:38 PM

It's funny, but I get a lot of answers from that Arch Wiki about stuff that I'm doing in other distros. This wouldn't be the first time I get info that way.

Yuppers!

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 8 2009, 04:48 PM

We're still shaping up here.

http://img526.imageshack.us/i/siduxshot03.png/

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 9 2009, 10:31 PM

OK, spent some time this evening setting up PCLOS-Phoenix. It's about done now... just need to install some of my fav apps. All else is taken care of. Easy-peasy, actually. No screaming or hair-pulling with PCLOS-Phoenix.

Posted by: securitybreach Nov 10 2009, 12:10 AM

Yeah the wiki is great. I have a couple of friends on Ubuntu (sorry just not my cup of tea) and I frequently send them references from the Archwiki to solve various linux problems. I am not saying this because I use Archlinux, but I think the Archlinux wiki has some of the best documentation of any distribution out there. Just my opinion though.

Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 10 2009, 12:14 AM

Here's PCLinuxOS - Phoenix w/ Xfce:

http://img691.imageshack.us/i/pclosshot01.png/

Simple but... it works!

=====

I agree. Arch has exceptionally well done and maintained documentation and wiki pages. Too bad all distros don't have excellent support like that.

Posted by: securitybreach Nov 10 2009, 12:15 AM

Looks nice and I agree!!!

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 10 2009, 06:03 PM

I need numlockx for Slackware 13-64, but all I can find are the Slack Build and the source. Neither will compile properly. I keep getting some gc c error. What am I doing wrong?

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 10 2009, 06:11 PM

Part of the config.log in the SBo directory after attempting to run the SlackBuild script:

Note anywhere above that there was a g c c, I had to make it like this --> gc>c or the board wouldn't let me post it.

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 10 2009, 06:15 PM

Here's the terminal output when trying to compile from source:

Posted by: sunrat Nov 10 2009, 08:01 PM

Do you have dev files for xorg and xorg-server?

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 11 2009, 12:19 AM

Uh... I dunno.

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 11 2009, 08:40 PM

Hmm... I'm sorely disappointed with Slackware 13-64. I can't run it with that buggy KDE4. I can't seem to get Xfce to function well in it either. Man! It's so terrible. I feel like I'm losing my best friend. I'm so aggravated with Slack that I haven't even booted into my 12.2 primary installation this week. I've been using Debian instead.

Posted by: securitybreach Nov 11 2009, 10:00 PM

Looking out the window for flying pigs......Eric not happy with Slackware. Oh no!!!!


Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 11 2009, 11:19 PM

Sad, ain't it?

Posted by: securitybreach Nov 11 2009, 11:27 PM

Well do not forget about Arch.....

Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 11 2009, 11:36 PM

I spent most of the day in Arch on Monday, actually. It works. It's nice. Arch with Gnome has been rock solid... I have no complaints about that distro, my friend.

I spent yesterday with Slack 13-64. I'm using Slack 13-64 right now, actually... trying to iron out a few things. Wish I could figure out why I can't compile that numlockx.

Made my first GRUB splash yesterday. It's simple, but I think it's cool.

Posted by: securitybreach Nov 11 2009, 11:43 PM

Thats pretty cool!! I like it.

Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 12 2009, 01:19 AM

It looks really good with white GRUB menu fonts. Wish I knew how to screenshot GRUB or had a digital camera to take a pic.

=====

Anyway, back to the numlockx in Slack13-64 issue. It seems to be some sort of issue with this particular SlackBuild. I just install Pysolfc from SlackBuild with no probs at all. *scratching head* I can't compile numlock from source either. I'll bet this is some 64 bit do-do.

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 13 2009, 05:44 PM

Want to see something utterly ridiculous? Here's what is required to add/remove menu entries in Xfce 4.6 --> http://wiki.xfce.org/howto/customize-menu

I just spent two hours trying to add one crummy entry to my menu. Still didn't get it to work. I give up.

I can't even begin to imagine needing to do this for all the apps I add to Slack 13 w/ Xfce.

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 13 2009, 06:18 PM

If I could get this numlockx issue and a few other minor ones solved in Slackware 13-64/Xfce, I think it would be ready-for-prime-time (moving to the primary distro slot) on my system.

I can live with the menu editing issue. Besides, I could make one lump category and put all my added apps in there. It would be easier that way. I could call it "Eric's Apps" or something like that. The editing would be simplified if I used on category like that. However, it's a real pain in the posterior area to remember to click the Num Lock button on my keyboard at startup every time. I sure would like to get numlockx to compile on this system. *sigh* Wish I knew more about configuring/building from source.

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 13 2009, 06:20 PM

I'd like to get Slack experimental finalized so that I can be sure that it will be satisfactory to me as my primary distro. I want to clear that last set of partitions that I'm currently using for the experimental Slack so that I can install either Mandriva Free x86_64 or OpenSuse x86_64. I don't know which; I may just flip a coin.

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 13 2009, 06:22 PM

Once I succeed in setting up Slack 13-64 w/ Xfce as my primary distro and then set up either Mandy or Suse as my 5th experimental, the Installfest Fall '09 will be officially ended and I can close out this boring thread that no one reads anymore anyway. I could probably post porn here and no one would notice.

Off I go...

Posted by: kamicota Nov 13 2009, 07:06 PM

Now Now Eric enough of the doldrums
Cheers for Years
Colin

Posted by: securitybreach Nov 13 2009, 07:55 PM

So I take it that Archlinux is more than just one of your "experiments".... I read this thread so feel free to post porn, I wont mind


Thanks

Posted by: sunrat Nov 13 2009, 08:31 PM

It's a major pain not having a menu editor. Hopefully it does return in Xfce 4.8 as mentioned in the linked page. Xfce is a very nice DE, but I wouldn't be bothered doing menus manually. It's easier in LXDE isn't it? I'm still tempted to try E17, but have a major model helicopter build project ATM, so not yet.
My sidux install fest is finished now. I switched totally from Lenny to momos almost overnight. Got Flash, Nvidia drivers, bookmarks, mail, favourite apps all set up in record time. It actually is much faster with KDE4.2.3 than Lenny ever was with KDE3.5.

Please don't post any pr0n here, I only like looking at funny pics of cute kitties. Maybe kitty pr0n?

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 14 2009, 03:51 AM

WAAAAAAAAAAHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I solved the numlockx problem in Slack 13-64. YAY!

I decided earlier today to just go ahead and take the plunge. I backed up my important stuff in Slack 12 and plowed that baby under. I installed Slack 13-64 w/ Xfce as my primary distro. I've been working on it all night, with a short break to watch Alien vs. Predator on the Friday Night Movie a little while ago. I'm downloading and working on installing some of my most needed apps (OpenOffice, Xfburn, etc.) from SlackBuilds right now. Everything seems to be going smoothly. 13 is one of my lucky numbers, actually.

The problem with the numlockx SlackBuild was that I need to specify my ARCH in the command line like this:

Once I did that, it compiled flawlessly. Silly me. I just haven't gotten the hang of this fancy, new-fangled 64 bit computing stuff yet.

So, I'll be putting the finishing touches on my new Slack 13 over the coming weekend, then I'll be installing something (leaning toward OpenSuse) on those available experimental partitions left over from the experimental Slack 13-64.

And no, SB... Arch is something more than just an experiment now. I will always have Arch on my system from now on. The main purpose for me to have all these different distros on my system is to learn how the all work. You'll notice that I try to install distros with completely different windows and desktop managers, different package managers, etc. I have a couple Gnomes, an old KDE3.5, a couple Xfces, and an LXDE/Openbox. I use Apt, Yum, Slackpkg, Pacman to manage .tgz, .txz, .deb, .rpm, etc. It's definitely a learning environment.

Well, off I go now...

Posted by: sunrat Nov 14 2009, 03:59 AM

I won't comment on this, I'll just post the link:
http://pipemanmusic.blogspot.com/2009/10/slacker-madness.html

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 14 2009, 04:38 AM

HAHAHA! It's 3:38AM here. Yes. That's an accurate comic strip.

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 14 2009, 05:27 AM

And here it is, folks...

Slackware 13 x86_64 with the Xfce desktop:

http://img513.imageshack.us/i/slack13xfceshot03.png/

http://img513.imageshack.us/i/slack13xfcethemeshot03.png/

Posted by: securitybreach Nov 14 2009, 10:29 AM

Awesome!!!!
Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 14 2009, 06:36 PM

Who needs AmaroK and K3b?

Installed today in Slack 13-64/Xfce:

vlc
audacity

xfburn

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 14 2009, 07:05 PM

Oh, and I am noticing a speed/performance increase in Slack64; also more efficient CPU usage, it seems. I think I'm going to be happy with it!

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 14 2009, 11:06 PM

Burning OpenSuse netinstall to CD right now, then I'm off to install Suse on my system for the first time in three years.

Posted by: sunrat Nov 14 2009, 11:40 PM

That's probably where I'm seeing the performance increase in sidux64, my Lenny was always 32bit. Also Iceweasel3.5 is very noticeably faster.
Now just have to find a 64bit super pi to measure it.

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 15 2009, 03:08 PM

MISSING POSTS HERE AGAIN! What is up with this board's server lately?

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 15 2009, 03:14 PM

Well, as I POSTED LAST NIGHT but since disappeared...

Suse is in and running.

I have to work around a couple items. I can't mount any of my partitions as root using standard commands (# mount /dev/sdx /mnt). Suse is using libATA and it only seems to recognize /dev/disk/by-id or uuid. I HATE libATA! If I were going to use this as my primary distro, I would custom compile my own kernel WITHOUT libATA support.

Posted by: sunrat Nov 15 2009, 07:21 PM

Weird that the board lost your Suse posts. Maybe its an omen.

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 16 2009, 02:07 AM

Maybe it was...

I HATE OpenSuse. It's do-do. They've taken everything simple and clean about GNU/Linux and complicated it. Yast... /dev/disk/by-id... root not allowed to perform standard mount (not easily, anyway)... what's up with this? Novell has turned Suse into *GASP* MS Windows... ARRRRRRRRRRRGH! I'd have to install 10x or older to enjoy OpenSuse again. Oh well, another distro for the toilet. I won't be revisiting OpenSuse again anytime soon.

So, now I have a dilemma. I have two nice partitions just waiting for a / and a /home for some deserving GNU/Linux distribution. Suggestions?

Posted by: Bruno Nov 16 2009, 03:46 AM

Yep, I noticed that too . . . .



Bruno

Posted by: LilBambi Nov 16 2009, 09:07 AM

Waiting to hear back from Scot. Email him when I posted in your Forum Feedback topic, but haven't heard back yet.

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 16 2009, 03:45 PM

Well, it's aggravating, but it's not the end of the world. Maybe it was just a one time glitchy-thing. I wouldn't even bother Scot about it unless it occurs again.

Thanks.

=====

So, I'm ready to d-load and install something. Still waiting on suggestions.

Posted by: sunrat Nov 16 2009, 07:49 PM

http://www.moonos.co.cc/?page_id=2

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 16 2009, 08:10 PM

HAHA! I actually checked out MoonOS just before I installed Sidux w/ LXDE.

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 18 2009, 12:10 AM

Well, when you just can't seem to find a distro that really thrills you, fall back on an old faithful. I'm installing the new Zenwalk 6.2 w/ Xfce right now.

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 18 2009, 02:21 AM

OK, Zen is in! This is another one of those distros like Slack and Debian that I've installed so many times that I could probably do it in my sleep.

It's mostly configured. The Nvidia drivers are in. FF and TB profiles are installed and working. All seems well. This distro is greased lightning with Xfce. I had forgotten how light and fast Zen is. Great Slackware progeny! Tomorrow or the next day, I'll start adding my fav apps, Xfce extras, and putting the finishing touches on this baby.

With that folks, this just about wraps up the InstallFest Fall '09. It's been fun and will continue to be fun as I play with and learn more about all this distros I have installed nowadays. Thanks to Securitybreach (Arch) and Sunrat (Sidux) for their much needed help. Thanks to anyone else who popped in here and read or participated. Scot's is a wonderful board! Thank you, Scot!

It's nearly 0130hrs. I'm tired now. Off I go...

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 18 2009, 10:21 PM

And here's Zenwalk...

http://img188.imageshack.us/i/zenshot01.png/

Posted by: securitybreach Nov 18 2009, 10:26 PM

No problem!!! Glad to have a converted another Arch user hehehhe

BTW Nice pic

Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 19 2009, 12:42 AM

I'm glad I stuck with it and got a working Arch on my system. It was fun... and a learning experience. I learn so much playing with Linux. Too bad none of that knowledge will ever earn me a living. It's fun, anyway.

Posted by: sunrat Nov 19 2009, 05:01 AM

InstallFest over, what will you do now? Glad that Sidux works for you and all the others. I'm too busy (or lazy) to keep more than a couple of distros these days. I will try out Zenwalk's new release though.

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 19 2009, 01:27 PM

What will I do now? I'll probably continue playing around with these distros and learning their ins and outs. I'll continue to get my new primary Slack installation rocking and rolling. I'll also be http://forums.scotsnewsletter.com/index.php?showtopic=30435.

Bits, bits...
They're good for your 'puter.
The more you have,
The faster you scooter.
The faster you scooter,
The more you get done.
Have more bits in every 'puter!

I'm a slightly sick individual. Oh well, at least I realize it, right?

Posted by: securitybreach Nov 19 2009, 02:20 PM

They say admitting you have a problem is the first step towards recovery.

BTW where do you get all the extra emoticons?

Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 19 2009, 02:22 PM

But I don't wanna' recover. That wouldn't be any fun.

Posted by: securitybreach Nov 19 2009, 02:24 PM

Rehab is for quitters, and quitters never win !!!

Thanks

Posted by: V.T. Eric Layton Nov 19 2009, 02:29 PM

HAHA!

Posted by: zlim Nov 19 2009, 10:27 PM

security, the motherlode of Eric's smilies? http://www.vvdrienerlo.nl/smileys/
I checked out his source.
Here's a site I use http://planetsmilies.net/
warning: only go there if you have an hout to kill browsing.

Posted by: securitybreach Nov 19 2009, 11:17 PM

Awesome, thank for the links. http://planetsmilies.net
http://planetsmilies.net

Thanks