As you read in the previous post I made some time ago concerning which linux distro I’d choose depending on my girlfriend’s choice of a window manager. Well after trying two different distros I again settled upon Arch Linux. This time around however I wasn’t using version 2007.XX but 2008.04 RC (release candidate) and it works flawlessly! As I’m typing this up, pacman, Arch’s package manager is installing a cvs build of e17 (enlightenment 17) for me along with all the needed dependencies. After this I’ll finish setting up the configuration files needed to have e17 start at boot and then move on to setting up WINE as well as any needed programs.

After a recent dist-upgrade ended up preventing me from either installing or uninstalling any package due a dangerous and unsupported fll-live-initscripts being partially installed (and having Arch Linux fail to install properly again), I decided to go back to Ubuntu. With the next version ‘Hardy Heron’ (8.04) dropping next week, I believe it’ll be better to test Sidux on a non-production system before bringing it back to prime time. Since Sidux ended up being a bit of a bust due upgrade pains and the fact that I need to be able to set up and maintain it on three computers (one of them having only 203MB of usable RAM), I decided to look else where. Considering the memory requirements I had chosen three different Ubuntu-based distributions. One was Shift Linux which uses the Fluxbox window manager in one of its variants. The second was Fluxbuntu which also uses the same window manager. The last I chose was Elbuntu, an Ubuntu-based distribution using the Enlightenment window manager. But I’m not the one choosing which *buntu I’ll be using though as I’ve decided to let my girlfriend pick which the to use. Her computer is the third of three computers I’ll be setting up and maintaining so it’ll be her choice as to what to use.

It’s old, and slow by today’s standards (and by today’s standards I mean Windows ME, 2000, XP and Vista). It does however run Sidux like a champion. From what I’ve seen on my newly setup workstation, I’m not at all surprised. But I’m just testing this on my girlfriend’s laptop using a live cd … and it’s quick. I’m using the older Tartaros (2007-02) version of Sidux as that is the latest live I have to date (plus I’m getting sick and tired of having to burn all those live cds!). It is an IBM Thinkpad T22 and it just sings with Sidux on it, even in live cd form with only 68 - 74MB taken up out of the 249MB reported by the system (at idle). By comparison, Sidux only uses 55 - 57MB out a reported 503MB of main memory. Being based on Debian (even if it is the ‘unstable’ Sid), I have no doubts about its rock solid build. The fact that it is using the ‘unstable’ repos means that my girlfriend and I are getting the latest and greatest software available (almost) and that I makes me very happy. All I need to do now is install Sidux (Tartaros) on the harddrive and do a apt-get dist-upgrade to install the latest version. Now that I think about it, aside from wireless-n networking and important firmware updates, Mac OS X would be better off placed on a small-ish partition with Sidux (for general purpose use) and Windows XP SP2 (for gaming) on my MacBook. I’ll post pictures once I’ve set up the system (or even sooner if I can get a better camera ;-)).

Well after getting up this morning, and coming over to my office (about two meters away), I turned the monitor only to be greeted by a warning screen for upgrading glibc. Basically all I had to do was stop kdm. Now I know I have some degree of experience at the command line, but for the life of me, I couldn’t remember what the command would have been. I did a quick search for “stop kdm” in Google and got the command needed for the job. Since I didn’t have a proper working sudo (great for security but can get annoying), I had to first switch to root:

su - root

And then stop kdm (k desktop manager):

/etc/init.d/kdm stop

After that it was just having certain services such a cron restarted by the scripts and rebooting the computer. This time however I was treated to Sidux’s login screen instead of the black screen caused by the broken xorg.conf I received from the live cd upon installation. Well that’s all there is for now since I have to get back to studying.

As stated in the title, I will be installing a different OS instead of what I had been using before. Why? I wanted to squeeze out as much of the power from the computer’s hardware as possible. Thus, I required an optimized or frugal OS. My choice? Sidux. Arch Linux would have been my first pick except for two snags I encountered on previous experiences with it: 1. The most important thing of all is that I had trouble connecting to the same repo more than once which is quite benifical to installing and/or upgrading the OS. 2. It takes quite some time to set everything up; time which I did not have.

For anyone having trouble with the installation, the Sidux community has an excellent manual. Don’t take my word for it though: Read The Friendly Manual.

Also use the:

sidux-installer

command to start installing Sidux in text-mode if you wish to (or ending up with a bad xorg config on bootup like I had)

After installation, I’ll put the system through its paces before deciding which Debian based OS I’ll stick with.

UPDATE: The installation process went through beautifully. I am currently having Sidux upgraded to the newest ’stable’ version. I’ll let you all know if everything went alright in the next post. P.S.: 1h35m to go.

Yes, I will be changing directions again but I will be focused on the goals that these new exciting projects will have me accomplishing. Until then thanks for reading and see you in April!

It’s not gonna be a server anymore, but a workstation for me to work on programs for whatever devices I have in my possession. It’ll run Arch Linux and will use a stripped down Gnome desktop environment for speed. I’ll post more information on it as I continue to work on it.

Sorry for the lateness but school has to come first. Instead of waxing poetic about how great Android is and how its can change our lives due to being able interact with our data on the go in a very productive and intuitive manner, I’ll just post a few links so you can check it out for yourselves.

Information on the Android ’software stack’? Click here. Videos about the Android platform and how it all works? Click here. Want to start developing applications for the Android platform? Click here for Android’s documentation, here for Android’s Software Development Kit (SDK), here for Eclipse (highly recommended), here if you still need the Java Runtime Environment and here for installation instructions. After that, I recommend reading this simple article and tutorial on the LinuxDevices website. Google is also holding a contest for software developers developing applications on the Android platform. Click here to find out more on the Android Developer Challenge.

After reading yesterday’s post, some of you may be wondering,”Why OpenBSD will be used on the server?” Well to sum it up, the server will be running almost 24/7 even though I have it currently as a private server, I might open it up to the internet someday. As for Linux and FreeBSD? I love them both but, as a desktop OS. Either Damn Small Linux or NetBSD will be going on a NAS device I plan to build in H1/2009 - H2/2010. Why either of them? 1) They’re small (for those who maybe still skeptical, you should try them of yourselves or if you want, e-mail me at nolanhaynes at gmail dot com and I’ll post the disk usage of an actual installation.) 2) They are (to myself and many others at least) easily modifiable to suit your needs. 3) They are light on resources. I ran Damn Small Linux from a CD on the server (while it was still my primary computer) and it felt like I had a brand new system instead of (at the time) a two year old computer. 4) They can be installed to a 256 - 512 MB flash drive with room to spare. 5) Did I already mention that they’re incredibly tiny? Only embedded and super small ‘CLI’ operating systems can go smaller as far I know. As for the configuration of the NAS I intend to build, I will be posting the list of parts tomorrow as part of a series called Dream Builds. How long the series will run or how often I will post them will depend on my schedule but I hope to post a new Dream Build every two weeks to a month as time permits. I also will be entering a contest for developing applications for the Open Handset Alliance’s Android platform in Q1/2008. I’ll post more details about it on Thursday.

Well after dealing with NixOS (missing nixos directory and other problems after it was created manually) and being the impatient person that I am right now, I’m thinking of changing away from Linux on my server. As you would have read in my sadly unfinished and deleted post which was due too Mac OS X freezing up (not to mention that I accidentally erased over half this post a this morning with no hope of retrieving those lost words): 1) How easy or hard is it to acquire and burn to installation image as well as installing the software? Is like trying to acquire and install Solaris 10 (6 months ago) or OpenBSD 4.0? Or is it like trying to acquire and install PCLinuxOS 2007? 2) How easy or hard is it going to be to maintain the OS once its installed? Will it be like Linux From Scratch where you must find some way of manually upgrading the packages and software or will it be like Ubuntu with a simple command or a click of the mouse? 3) How easy or hard will it be to lock down the OS once its installed? Will it be like Arch Linux and many other Linux as well as FreeBSD where much work has to be done to harden the system (this excludes the server oriented Linux) or will it be like OpenBSD and NetBSD where they are already locked down and thus must have certain services, ports and daemons activated? Am I biased against Linux and FreeBSD in general? No, but I want something that is secure, and easier to maintain than some (Linux From Scratch, NixOS) and so I’ve decided to use OpenBSD.