April 2011 Archives

I tried out the Fedora 15 Alpha. GNOME Shell wasn't working on my hardware for some reason. I also tried Ubuntu 11.04, and Unity does work. OpenBSD 4.9's release is imminent.

Am I excited? No.

I'm in user mode. Not fanboy mode. I'm in no mood to run alpha-level software, or the dot-0 release of a new desktop environment (as in GNOME Shell and/or Unity). I kind of, sort of, need Flash on occasion.

I'm liking NetworkManager. I've been testing 3G/4G devices, and it's amazing how the Clear 4G device will actually auto-configure and run in Debian Squeeze, albeit in the Sprint-connected 3G mode. Still, better to have 3G than no G. Maybe a 4G USB device will make its way into the Linux kernel eventually. Would be nice.

But right here now, Debian Squeeze is too good, needs so little geeky attention, and just keeps on working as it does that I really can't distro-hop at present.

I've made concessions to Linux-style modernity: new kernels from Liquorix, and most recently new Iceweasel/Firefox 4.0 and Icedove/Thunderbird 3.1 from the Debian Mozilla team. (Note of caution: my existing Debian-packaged Icedove add-ons all ceased to work after going from 3.0.x to 3.1, but they never worked that well anyway, so I don't miss them.)

The reason the Debian "philosophy" about the Stable release works is that while there is an occasional package that might be a somewhat of a dud, version-wise, in the release, when it comes to major infrastructure choices, Debian is very conservative, and you're not going to find bleeding-edge technologies that have not been road-tested by lots of other people beforehand.

(That said, I'm surprised that Grub 2 made it into Squeeze, and I'm equally surprised that Grub 1 hung around so long in Fedora.)

Thanks to (and admiration for) the Debian development team for putting together such a great release -- you've made it a pleasure to run Linux.

I contend that it's not necessary nor even desirable to upgrade an entire Linux distribution or BSD installation just to get some shiny newness like Firefox 4.

It's still a "selling" point for free operating systems: "Upgrade and you'll get the new Firefox/OpenOffice/Thunderbird, etc."

But what if you don't want to upgrade every last package just to get the latest web browser?

I'm running Debian Squeeze -- the Stable distribution -- and have been happily doing so since late November 2010.

My only concession to life after Squeeze has been to add a newer kernel from the Liquorix repositories, which offer the latest, desktop-optimized Linux kernels for Debian users. Going from the stock 2.6.32 to 2.6.37 has fixed a few niggling problems, and I couldn't be happier that I did it.

But I've stuck with the Squeeze defaults on just about everything else.

Until today.

I wrote in my Debian blog a while ago about the Debian Mozilla Team's APT archive and how to choose the version of Iceweasel/Firefox you wish to run. Today I went to said archive, followed the recipe for adding to my sources.list (I opted for a new file in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ -- it's cleaner that way), bringing in the GPG key and then replacing Iceweasel 3.5.x with 4.0.

And here I am in a cutting-edge Mozilla browser while Debian Squeeze (albeit with a newer Linux kernel) handles my hardware as well as it ever did.

If I find a compelling reason to do so, I imagine I could bring in LibreOffice the same way, replacing the OpenOffice.org 3.2.1 that ships with Squeeze. Right now I'm not sufficiently offended by OO.

I know I'll probably want to try a newer version of my go-to image-editing app gThumb, and I really need to see what the OpenShot 1.3 video editor has to offer; I find the 1.1.3 in Squeeze to be a little wanting (transitions can be rough, and it's hard to precisely trim clips). Trading Icedove/Thunderbird 3.0.x for 3.1.x is another change I might benefit from.

But for now, I'm running Iceweasel/Firefox 4.0, and I fell pretty darn good about it.

This just in (from the openbsd-misc mailing list): The FlashVideoReplacer add-on for Firefox works in OpenBSD with the help of gecko-mediaplayer, which is now an OpenBSD package.

For OpenBSD, the testers reported this combination working in OpenBSD-current. I've since found that it works for Vimeo videos in OpenBSD 4.8-release and could very well work for YouTube in 4.9-release.

This just hit the openbsd-misc mailing list today, and I hope more reports to flow in over the next day or so, helping us figure out exactly what this Firefox add-on is capable of.

The package that makes this happen for OpenBSD, gecko-mediaplayer, is available for OpenBSD 4.8 in version 0.9.9.2.

Gecko-mediaplayer is at version 1.0.0 in snapshots today, and at the same rev in Ports.

Find out more about gecko-mediaplayer at the project home page.

So how do you get FlashVideoReplacer and gecko-mediaplayer working on your OpenBSD box?

(I use sudo, but you can always su to root if you wish):

This works with Firefox, so you need to have that:

$ sudo pkg_add -iv mozilla-firefox

Then install gecko-mediaplayer

$ sudo pkg_add -iv gecko-mediaplayer

Then you need to add the FlashVideoReplacer add-on

Running OpenBSD 4.8-release, the version of FlashVideoReplacer I found while searching in Tools - Add-ons within the Firefox version that shipped with OpenBSD did not work. Instead, I went to https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/flashvideoreplacer/ and clicked the "Add to Firefox" button. I'm not sure of the differences between the two add-ons, but the second method worked for me.

Once the add-on is installed you are prompted to restart Firefox. Do so.

When Firefox reloads, Go to Vimeo.com to try a video.

It works! Sometimes you get a Flash error message before the add-on takes over, and you then have to wait for the video to load, but once it does you can see and hear the video in surprisingly high quality.

At this point I went to YouTube. That didn't work. For a split second it looks like it will, but then you get the "upgrade Flash" message again.

Judging from the messages in openbsd-misc, it looks like this problem has been resolved in the newer versions of gecko-mediaplayer, and I figure you'll see better results in OpenBSD 4.9-release and OpenBSD-current.

I don't have a whole lot to say about FreeBSD needs fresh blood, other than to say it's worth reading.

I'm not aware of any barrier to contributions to FreeBSD, but some of those writing in the comments appear to feel differently. I previously assumed that FreeBSD was more welcoming than some.

A very interesting article in Undeadly — the OpenBSD Journal tells the story of m:tier, a London consultancy that works with Fortune 500 companies to equip them with OpenBSD firewalls, servers and desktops.

For such a short article, there are about three good ideas per sentence for just about any OpenBSD user:

• They deploy GNOME with LibreOffice and allow users to automount and encrypt USB drives
  
• They set up automatic backups for /home directories
  
• Puppet takes care of system maintenance
  
• Updates are done with signed packages (which they create)
  
• Snapshot-style desktop backup with backintime
  
• Server backup with bacula

I can totally see this working, especially as you scale up to dozens, hundreds or thousands of desktops. Full system upgrades can be done over the local network. Admins can watch ports and create packages between releases for users when updates are available (and have those updates installed via scripts).

In my view, OpenBSD is both forward-looking and conservative at the same time. Change is constant yet incremental (no huge surprises), the "bones" of the system are extremely solid, port/package quality is generally very high, and everything is locked down in the default.

I've said it before: Somebody way smarter than I am should do this as an OpenBSD distribution optimized for the desktop. Like PC-BSD. But with OpenBSD.

As I mentioned at the end of my last entry, I wanted to install OpenBSD to a bootable USB drive.

Did that.

It's as easy as installing to any other drive. You just need to look in the dmesg for what the system is calling your preferred target drive (sd2 in my case).

The install process in OpenBSD is blazing fast. I don't think there's a Unix/Linux system you can install faster, especially now that the installer will auto-partition the drive for you. And yes, I select this option every time (and I've done a few OpenBSD installs over the last month while playing around with my Sparcstation 20).

I used OpenBSD 4.8. The release of 4.9 is imminent. Early May, in fact. Order a CD set (or poster or coffee mug) today.

One thing about running any OS from a USB flash drive (I used an 8 GB A-Data drive) -- the disk-access slowness makes a system that doesn't run wholly in RAM a slow system, indeed.

So this is a testing situation, not a long-term installation.

That said, OpenBSD is a great project. The system is solid. Documentation excellent. Try.

After a bit of searching I found a new-to-me OpenBSD Live project called MarBSD. I downloaded the X image, burned it to a CD and fired it up on the Lenovo G555.

It had been awhile since I tested an OpenBSD live image on the Lenovo. I still had to manually bring up the network, since no BSDs automatically bring it to life. My previous method worked.

You really can't create user accounts in MarBSD, I think, due to the nature of the read-only filesystem. You can create them, but you have no /home directory. I stayed logged in as root and switched from CWM to FVWM, as instructed, by typing CTRL-ALT-w and then typing in fvwm.

I started Firefox in the terminal, and here I am.

What I learned from the experience is that X in what is basically OpenBSD 4.8 works perfectly on this AMD/ATI Mobility Radeon 4200 HD video-chip system. I haven't had such luck recently with FreeBSD-based live systems (GhostBSD and PC-BSD).

But ... Debian Squeeze works extremely well on this laptop. It's already set up. In OpenBSD, video-editing options in OpenBSD are few (pretty much Blender). I'd have to figure out how to disable the touchpad (it's easy in GNOME in Debian). I'd miss network-manager (which works so well at this point in its development). It's not like I couldn't keep track of my network interfaces with text files, because I've done it before. But it's nice to have a utility do it for you.

But OpenBSD is fun. It's different. It's stable (as is Debian).

Back to OpenBSD live images. I used to use Jggimi's live images, but he hasn't updated since OpenBSD 4.7. I hope he's just skipping a release and will be back with 4.9.

One thing I'd like to do is install OpenBSD to a flash drive and boot off of that. It's as easy as installing to any other drive, or so I'm told.

The Linux Mint team, led by Clement Lefebvre, has released a Linux Mint Xfce edition for 32- and 64-bit based not on Ubuntu but on Debian Testing.

The post says that this Xfce spin is a good alternative for those who aren't eager to move from GNOME 2.x to GNOME 3/GNOME Shell. And it's based on Debian. (Did I say that already?)

Also included are a FAQ-like array of answers from Clem on the direction of Mint and what's going to happen with both the Ubuntu- and Debian-based releases.

I say the same thing I usually say about Mint in all forms: I want/need/have-to-have encryption available in the installer, either fully encrypted LVM like in the Debian installer (and the Ubuntu alternate installer), or encrypted /home and /swap like in the main Ubuntu installer. However they can do it, that's what I want.

Desktops are one thing, and even there I want encryption. But dragging an unencrypted laptop around and risking theft/loss and subsequent opening up of your data to who knows who? No. No. No!

The best installer for encryption in my opinion in the Anaconda installer for Fedora. With Debian, fully encrypted LVM is only possible if you use the whole disk, at least in my experience. You can't keep another partition on the drive and use that option.

As such, in my current Debian installation, I opted for LVM but created two encrypted volumes, one for /swap, one for /home. Unfortunately I have to enter the passphrase twice, which is a pain in the ass.

If I could figure out how to fix this, I would. But I haven't yet.

In Fedora, you can install alongside another OS (I'm keeping Windows 7 at the ready for those few times when Linux won't get it done, as well as to test Windows software) yet you can still easily encrypt the whole of the Linux installation and boot with a single passphrase.

I'd love to do this in Debian, and I'd really, really love to do something like this (anything like this) in Mint.

The rant's over. You can all go about your business. Nothing to see here.

Attention freedom haters! There's a new version of Skype for Linux, announces The H.

Since my podcast-production duties have dwindled to none lately, I haven't been using Skype, but when I was doing podcasts I was using Skype for Macintosh and Windows because of the ease of recording the Skype call with Audio Hijack Pro.

I could never figure out how to record the Skype call -- for free -- from either Windows or Linux. And no, Skype Call Recorder didn't work for me in Linux.

I'd like to figure out how to do VOIP calls with non-geeks and record them in Linux without Skype, and I need it to be doable by mortals.

I resorted to Audio Hijack Pro for Macintosh because it was easy, it works well and doesn't charge a monthly/by-minute fee. All of those Skype add-ons that want you to pay more than you're already paying Skype just to record your call are wronger than wrong.

Skype not offering a native recording capability? Also wrong.

If anybody knows how to do good-quality VOIP with working recording of both sides of the call in Linux and with open-source software and has actually done it, I'd love to know your secret(s).

I go to The H just about every day looking for open source news. Today I saw a very detailed look at GNOME 3 that is well worth reading.

I occasionally hear about wattOS, as I did today in this Linux Journal article. Unfortunately, the wattOS web site seems to be down at present.

This could be a nice Ubuntu spin for older computers, or for those who like to run with lower resources in general, all the while saving power due to onboard utilities aimed at just that.

Hopefully the distro's web site will return to the living soon, and we can all take a closer look.

I came across this entry, How to Become a Forbes Blogger, then this one, How to Reinvent Your Personal Brand When Your Personal Brand Is Sex.

You should just start at the top and read your way down.

Can you handle the truth about writing in the 2010s? That's what Susannah Breslin is about.

Here's what I'm talking about:

TIP #2: Be a hustler.

At my last job, I was an editor, but I was also part of the marketing team. I generated multiple blog posts daily, did a brief stretch as a copy editor, and worked with freelance contributors.

I was also tasked with increasing site traffic. I used a variety of means to drive traffic to the site. The site had very, very ambitious traffic goals. We met those goals in a variety of ways, from social media to relationships with blogger influencers to partner sites.

That means I am familiar with how to drive traffic to a blog or site. This is what it means to be an online writer today. If you think that is sad, corrupting, or indicates the demise of journalism, I suppose you are a more moral person than I am.

These days, it's not enough to be a good writer online. You have to be a smart marketer, your own content factory, your own publicist. If you can do it all, you are golden. If you cannot, you are screwed.

Somebody mentioned this on the Debian User mailing list (it's not in the archive yet), and it intrigued me:

The Ruby on Rails-based Redmine is an open-source, cross-platform web application for project management that seems to do it all.

Aside from version control (using either SVN, CVS, Git, Mercurial, Bazaar or Darcs do do it), Redmine offers bug tracking, per-project wikis, forums, documentation management, news, feeds, a diff viewer and more.

It also is flexible enough to use MySQL, PostgreSQL or SQLite on the back end.

You can run Debian on a Seagate Dockstar hard-drive-networking thingy. The Dockstar is selling for $21.99 from Amazon, and of course you need a Seagate portable hard drive to make it all hang together. A 640 GB model is $69.99 from Amazon.

You're starting to talk about real money here, but you do get a big hard drive in the package.

So what do you do with your Debian Docstar? Here are some ideas from David Darts Wiki, the same site that offers the tutorial.

Also look at Jeff Doozan's Debian tutorial on Dockstar, PogoPlug and GoFlex devices and an accompanying forum.

I just listened to this (audio and video available from Hacker Public Radio).

It's all about rethinking our "relationship" with services such as Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Microsoft and the like -- and what we can do about it to reclaim our freedom from a technological standpoint.

Eben Moglen of the Software Freedom Law Center talks about how there should be alternatives to ceding our rights and freedoms for "free" services -- and how free, open-source software can attack this problem with cheap hardware in the new Freedom Box project.

I'm still absorbing all of this and turning it over in my head, and I'll have more to say when that process is further along.

Now that I need a traditional e-mail client application to access one of my primary e-mail accounts, for which I'm using IMAP and suffering immense pain due to the terrible mail server on the other end, I'm growing wary of using said mail client (Thunderbird 3.0.x in Debian, Thunderbird 3.1.x in Windows XP) , and I decided to explore IMAP-compatible webmail alternatives for my secondary mail accounts.

To that end, I'm using Roundcube, one of three webmail interfaces my provider offers (the other two are Horde and SquirrelMail).

This way I can tap into the relative ubiquity of web-based e-mail services such as Gmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL Mail, etc., that you can get from any web browser yet not be subjected to the advertising, spying and general lack of control inherent in those "free" (but not free) services.

(Note: I pay for a hosting service that includes e-mail; it's cheap and well worth it; my e-mail is mine. It would be more "mine" if I were running my own e-mail server. I just might do that. Not this week, though.)

Can you tell I'm falling under the influence of Eben Moglen?

More on that later.

But for now I'm enjoying not having to juggle multiple e-mail client programs in multiple OSes on multiple computers with multiple sets of filters.

Web-based e-mail without a supposedly benevolent corporation reading your mail (or having machines do so) in order to better market to you (and who knows what else)? Yep.

Chromatic is very well-regarded in the world of Perl, from what I can see. Read his blog.

TinyApps.org features a great little blog that happens to use the Bloxsom tiny blogging platform.