Setting Up My System... Again

[Urmas]

I guess a good reason is that 2.0.0.1 has been out for a while but Synaptic don't have an update for it.

Yeah... Firefox updates seem to take time... Opera updates, on the other hand, are in the repos... well... yesterday.

[Bruno]

Where did you find the quote about illegal software?I think if Automatix is used to install codecs, some of them are illegal in the USA.

and

Post #1... have to say, I'm a bit ... but that's not unusual...

Yep that was me who placed it there . . . it is an admin thing: in every thread that mentions either libdvdcss, automatics or other software that installs software/codecs to play/copy/edit DVDs we have to place the following disclamer:

Scot's Newsletter Forums does not encourage or condone violating any law regarding copyright or DRM/DMCA (U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act) in the USA, or similar laws that may exist in other countries. Some of the software mentioned in this thread may be illegal to use in your location. Copying certain CDs/DVDs may also be illegal in your location. Even if you may believe these laws to be unconstitutional, unethical, silly, and a violation of consumer fair use rights, please check the laws for your location before following the advice in this thread. . . . . . -- Forum Admins & Moderators

I did sent Eric a PM about it because this was his thread. The same disclamer was placed ( since yesterday ) in all threads found with the search on "libdvdcss" and "the Jem report" and posted in 2006. Bruno

[Urmas]

Just a wee FYI: Automatix does inform the user - every time the program is opened - about this issue.

Edited December 23, 2006 by Urmas

[Bruno]

Just a wee FYI: Automatix does inform the user - every time the program is opened - about this issue.

Yep I know . . . . . . but all this is not really a thing to worry about, it is just to protect Scot the owner of the forum . . . we can still post about copy/play DVDs and about where to get the codecs to do so, nothing really changes and you can safely ignore the disclamer Bruno

[Urmas]

Yep I know . . . . . . but all this is not really a thing to worry about, it is just to protect Scot the owner of the forum . . . we can still post about copy/play DVDs and about where to get the codecs to do so, nothing really changes and you can safely ignore the disclamer Bruno

I hear you, my friend... O tempora o mores!

[Frank Golden]

I hear you, my friend... O tempora o mores!

I don't know about you guys over in Europe, but since installing the non free codecs I am just waiting for the FBI to knock down my door. Edited December 23, 2006 by Frank Golden

[Urmas]

In the fight between you and the world, back the world. --Franz Kafka

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Partimage... Ghost... ? Writes Eric, the crash boom bang man:Use Psychocat's script:http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/firefox(Then, whenever there'll be FF 2+ updates in the future:

gksudo firefox

... and run FF's updater. Let it install updates. Close... reopen "the normal way"... that's it.)

The "disclaimer" was put there by Bruno due to the mention of Automatix in this thread. Automatix allows installation of illegal (in the U.S) codecs and software.Anywho... I used someone's script to install FF 2.0:

#!/bin/bashecho "Updating repositories list"sudo apt-get updateecho "Making sure libstdc++5 and the old Firefox are installed"sudo apt-get -y install firefox libstdc++5echo "Backing up old Firefox preferences"cp -R ~/.mozilla ~/.mozilla_backupecho "Changing to home directory"cdecho "Downloading Firefox from the Mozilla site"wget -c http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/2.0/linux-i686/en-GB/firefox-2.0.tar.gzecho "Unzipping the .tar.gz file"sudo tar -C /opt -x -z -v -f firefox-2.0.tar.gzecho "Removing the unzipped .tar.gz"rm firefox-2.0.tar.gzecho "Linking plugins"cd /opt/firefox/plugins/sudo ln -s /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/plugins/* .echo "Linking launcher to new Firefox"sudo dpkg-divert --divert /usr/bin/firefox.ubuntu --rename /usr/bin/firefoxsudo ln -s /opt/firefox/firefox /usr/bin/firefoxsudo dpkg-divert --divert /usr/bin/mozilla-firefox.ubuntu --rename /usr/bin/mozilla-firefoxsudo ln -s /opt/firefox/firefox /usr/bin/mozilla-firefoxecho "The new Firefox is installed."

Don't know whose it was, but it worked fine.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Any Seahorse (Gnome front end for GNUPGP) experts out here? I seem to be having troubles encrypting files with my Seahorse on this iteration of Ubuntu.

[réjean]

Just want to let you know that Linux Mint comes with FF 2.0 by default if anyone is interested.

[quint]

Any Seahorse (Gnome front end for GNUPGP) experts out here? I seem to be having troubles encrypting files with my Seahorse on this iteration of Ubuntu.

Found this:

We require encryption to protect any sensitive information whilst we are travelling. Linux has OpenPGP which offers a superset of the usual PGP standard but defaults to be compatible with the encryption levels available in PGP 8 which we are using. It is accessed by the gpg program which operates in terminal mode. gpg --encrypt ~/Desktop/homewine.htm > ~/Desktop/homewine.htm.pgpgpg --decrypt ~/Desktop/homewine.htm.pgp > ~/Desktop/homewine.htm There is also a GUI interface called Seahorse which can be installed by Add/Remove which handles the creation and management of keys much easier tha using gpg directly. It is also supposed to add facilities into the text editor and file browser. The right click encryption of a file and encryption/decryption in the text editor work fine as does the GUI programme to create and manage keys. In theory double clicking on a PGP file ought to bring up the screens to open it but there seems to be a problem in Seahorse 8.1 or Ubuntu Dapper Drake which prevent that. After a bit of searching and playing about I realised that it worked if the .gpg extension was used so it was a simple job to add the same program as an option for opening .pgp files namely seahorse --decrypt using the right click menu on a .pgp file -> Open with other application -> Use a Custom Command and filling in the box with seahorse --decrypt . Evolution has built in encryption and signing for emails using keys created in terminal mode or managed by Seahorse. Full details of how to set it up and use it are in the Evolution help files. Thunderbird does not have secure encryption in the main program however it is added by an extension which can be downloaded by the usual Applications -> Add/Remove _> Advanced and search for monzilla-thunderbird-enigmail. This adds inline style pgp encryption and also provides a key manager interface. It found my existing keys etc set up by seahorse and gnupg and works well.

Merry Christmas !!

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Yup. That's what Seahorse is supposed to do. However, on my system, I can encrypt, but not decrypt the files. It's weird. I know it's something simple that I'm overlooking. I had Seahorse working fine in all my distros before the recent system harikari.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Well, I learned an important lesson tonight...When transferring Sbackup files to CD, you must be ROOT! This is why my Ubuntu backup that I tried to use to revive my system was no good. It was just an empty directory on the disk. Tonight I burned a new Sbackup file to CD, but I did it while ROOT. This time the burn was successful. I have a full Sbackup on CD now. Yay! I also used the "cp -a" command to make a complete, non-compressed backup of my entire /home directory. I burned it to CD also. I'm right at the limit, though. Next time I make a copy of /home/vtel57 for backup I'll either have to compress it or burn it to DVD.Off I go...

[Frank Golden]

Well, I learned an important lesson tonight...When transferring Sbackup files to CD, you must be ROOT! This is why my Ubuntu backup that I tried to use to revive my system was no good. It was just an empty directory on the disk. Tonight I burned a new Sbackup file to CD, but I did it while ROOT. This time the burn was successful. I have a full Sbackup on CD now. Yay! I also used the "cp -a" command to make a complete, non-compressed backup of my entire /home directory. I burned it to CD also. I'm right at the limit, though. Next time I make a copy of /home/vtel57 for backup I'll either have to compress it or burn it to DVD.Off I go...

Eric, you would think some kind of error message would appear.Been playing around with running Ubuntu Edgy off an external USB HDD.Works quite well except that for a while it wouldn't boot past a certain point.No error message or nothing. I finally traced the problem by setting boot parametersto "verbose". It would hang after detecting my HP Photosmart printers card readers.The problem seems to have fixed it self however? I haven't had a hang since settingverbose mode. This is one of my pet peeves with computers, the lack of meaningful errormessages. Or spurious messages.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Nope. No error. It just apparently burned the Sbackup file to the CD. I should have checked the content of the burn, though. I didn't. Later, when I needed it is when I found out that it was just an empty directory. That's something that I almost always do... check the content of the burned CD, just to make sure. Unfortunately, I didn't check that last one I burned. Oh well, I'll be checking them from now on. :)Those hardware bugaboos will drive you nuts, buddy. I'm sure you remember the bootup problems I was having on my other system with my original installation of Ubuntu. It was enough to seriously discourage a less determined person. No error messages there either. Sometimes the OS itself doesn't realize that there's been an error, so no messages.It's not a perfect world. We're not perfect beings. And we definitely don't design and code perfect software. HA! ;)Merry Christmas, Frank!~Eric

[Frank Golden]

Nope. No error. It just apparently burned the Sbackup file to the CD. I should have checked the content of the burn, though. I didn't. Later, when I needed it is when I found out that it was just an empty directory. That's something that I almost always do... check the content of the burned CD, just to make sure. Unfortunately, I didn't check that last one I burned. Oh well, I'll be checking them from now on. :)Those hardware bugaboos will drive you nuts, buddy. I'm sure you remember the bootup problems I was having on my other system with my original installation of Ubuntu. It was enough to seriously discourage a less determined person. No error messages there either. Sometimes the OS itself doesn't realize that there's been an error, so no messages.It's not a perfect world. We're not perfect beings. And we definitely don't design and code perfect software. HA! ;)Merry Christmas, Frank!~Eric

Merry Christmas to you Eric

[V.T. Eric Layton]

OK, well... I pretty much have Ubuntu back to normal. I'm getting good at setting up this OS. Practice makes perfect, I guess.I'm off to Debian now...

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Well, Debian is moving along quite well. I'll have it set up in just another day or so. Tonight I setup the desktop and Gnome preferences, copied my /home/vtel57 directory from backup, installed Nvidia drivers, installed FF 2.0 (Ice Weasel). I still have a few items that need to be done, though.Off I go...

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Almost finished up with Debian. I just have a few kinks to work out. I found that I can't get Seahorse to work in Debian either. I know it's something stupid. I'll figure it out eventually.Fedora will be the next challenge, but not just yet. I'm gonna' finish up in Debian first... and make BACK UPS!

[Bruno]

Man . . . Eric . . . . I sure hope you will be fully recovered before 2007 hits the clock ! ;)Maybe it is a good idea to get yourself ( simple ) a test-system where you can experiment with distros like Gentoo ( or early beta's ) before you drop it on your main system. That would avoid the collateral damage you had last time. Bruno. . . . . . . .

[striker]

Yeah, a spare rig would be an ideal test bed. Only problem I see with that you need something with relatively similar hardware in regard to what you're using for main machine right now.But I think it's doable.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

I still have my old system (the one I danced the Irish jig on). It's in a new case. I just don't have the room to set it up on this desk. The five distros I normally have on this system are pretty stable. I don't think there will be in more harikari attempts once I get everything back to normal with these five. If I want to experiment in the future, it'll be on that other system.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

OK, I started on Fedora tonight. I've made some good progress... I updated the OS. I installed the Nvidia drivers. I set up my desktop and /home directories. I installed NVU and some other miscellaneous software. I installed FF 2.0 on this OS too. That was fun! Anywho, still have some minor stuff to take care of, but I should be finished up with Fedora in the next day, I think. Then on to SuSE.

[striker]

I would do the updates first now, there has been a kernel change. (2.6.18-1.2868.fc6 is actual now)What is the outcome of this command:

$ rpm -qa --queryformat "%{NAME}-%{VERSION}-%{RELEASE}.%{ARCH}\n"|grep kernel|sort

If it is i586 stop right there, in that case you have a problem which can be rectified easily.If it is i686 you're Ok.See this thread for more info:http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=139751

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Yup! I have the newest kernel. The output of that command is rather long, but everything is either "x86_64" or "i386" on my system.

[striker]

And the kernel itself ? Don 't tell me it is i386 too ...

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Uh... nevermind. I must have entered that command in incorrectly to get that really long output. Here's the actual output:

kernel-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6.x86_64kernel-2.6.18-1.2868.fc6.x86_64kernel-devel-2.6.18-1.2868.fc6.x86_64kernel-headers-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6.x86_64kernel-headers-2.6.18-1.2868.fc6.x86_64

[striker]

This is what I have on 32 bits (!):kernel-2.6.18-1.2849.fc6.i686kernel-2.6.18-1.2868.fc6.i686kernel-devel-2.6.18-1.2849.fc6.i686kernel-devel-2.6.18-1.2868.fc6.i686kernel-headers-2.6.18-1.2868.fc6.i386I think I shall go and do some research for the 64 bit version.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

OK...

[striker]

Found this:http://forums.fedoraforum.org/forum/showth...ight=bit+kernelSeems that the 64 bit version on some hardware shows problems.Anyway, another trick while installing might be to only select the absolute bare minimum, so deselect office & productivity and all other pieces you don't need to set it up.Once installed update and after that install what you need; this way it gives less outdated packages which might be replaced by now with more recent (and bug fixed) ones.