Review: Absolute Linux 12.1.05 – Slackware Made Easier

INSTALLING Slackware is a Linux rite of passage.
It is the computing equivalent of wandering off alone into the bush for a month armed with nothing more than a pointy stick and grim determination.
That is to say, it is quite a testing experience that is not to be entered into lightly.
It is also something you only want to have to do once, if at all possible.
My own Slackware experience (v9.0, I think it was) was such a tense affair that, once the KDE desktop loaded, I jumped around the room whooping like I had just killed my first antelope.
So I am pleased to report that Absolute Linux is here to make your Slackware experience much less painful.
Here is what Paul Sherman, a PC engineer who is the driving force behind Absolute Linux, says about his distribution on its website:

Absolute is a customised Slackware distribution:
Assembled to make installation and maintenance of Slackware easier.
It is an easy install (no package selection)
kernel build that is set to accept CPUs down to a Pentium Classic and tuned for desktop performance. You CAN run Absolute on a Pentium 200 with 64MB of RAM (although it would be really slow) - but with a Pentium II or above and at least 128MB of RAM you can expect zippy and stable performance
Accepts packages made for same Slackware Version, so you can use Slackware software repositories.

Noble aims, indeed.
Now, I am going to start this review proper by referring back to previous Linux reviews, in which I have lamented the poor state of the documentation in many distributions.
And I wish to say now that Absolute Linux is, without any shadow of doubt, the best documented Linux distribution I have ever used.
If Paul is to be praised for nothing else, he deserves the respect of every developer for showing how Linux documentation should be done.
For starters, the zipped package you download contains the Absolute ISO plus a folder full of HTML files which cover installation and configuration issues.
There is a terrific installation guide, complete with helpful screenshots, on the Absolute website here.
Absolute uses the Slackware ncurses-style installation routine but it has been simplified by Paul to the extent that it is simply a case of clicking on the defaults as you go along, particularly if you use the Auto Setup option as I did for my old Dell Inspiron 8000.Then, once your installation is complete, the main Absolute menu includes a sub-menu with a wealth of useful information – check out the screenshot – including the awesome tome that is The Slackware Book (real Linux geek bedtime reading!).
When Absolute says Auto Setup, it really means Auto Setup – you have no control over which packages are installed, nor over the configuration of your partitions or the installation of the LILO boot manager.
I would not worry, however, as the default partition choices are eminently sensible and the package list is comprehensive – the full list is here.
It is still perfectly possible to take the manual route in Absolute – except that it negates the whole point of the distribution in the first place.
Pleasingly, Absolute had detected and correctly configured my Inspiron's troublesome 1400x1050 screen resolution, and my ESS Maestro sound was up and running.
While my Linksys PCMCIA network card was detected and configured, I did run into problems getting my Sitecom WL-113 USB wi-fi dongle to work (I probably need to download the zd1211 firmware for it, first).
Given that one of Absolute's intended aims is to be usable on old machines, I cannot fault its use of IceWM as the default window manager – it is certainly a quick and stable environment in which to work, even if it does look horribly like Windows circa 1995.Obviously, you can have whichever window manager you prefer - personally I prefer Fluxbox - given that Absolute is designed to work with the relevant current Slackware packages.
Configuring Slackware systems has always been as difficult as installing them, so it is good to see a number of custom scripts – some Python, some bash – to guide the new user through setting up Absolute.
The full list of config utilities is here.
What I must point out is that there is no automatic user setup when you first run Absolute, which I am not too impressed with.
However, here is what Paul has to say about this issue:

I should point out that about half of these utlities are System configuration tools, and that they only show up in the menu if you are running as root.
And I'll take a moment to point out a basic point in the design of Absolute: sudo (giving root access to users) does not feel natural to me.
It does not feel secure.
Logging out and logging back in as root takes but a few seconds - and that is how I set up Absolute to be configured.
All configuration and software adding/removal is done from the root account in Absolute.
There are 2 exceptions to this to facilitate comfortable use as a friendly desktop, changing the system time and shutting down the machine.
If you need to secure Absolute for use in the workplace, or safeguard things from those satanic children, then run visudo and comment out the following line:

%users ALL=NOPASSWD: /sbin/shutdown, /sbin/hwclock

At that point, users will not be able to make any system-wide changes whatsoever. Alternatively, you could simply uninstall sudo from the machine. It is used for nothing else.

I am not sure I agree with Paul's line of thinking on this – I prefer to have both the root and user setup done during the install routine, but at least he is clear and up-front about his reasoning.
He also points out that his configuration scripts are not the only way to set up Absolute – Slackware veterans can still roll their sleeves up and get their hands dirty the old-fashioned way, if they choose to.
Another thing new users may find off-putting on their first boot is the fact that you are dropped to a commandline where you must enter 'startx' to fire up your graphical IceWM desktop.
As Paul hinted in his comments above, the first thing you may want to do once you have IceWM running is set up your user account which, thanks to his simple utility, is very straightforward.
My next job was to sort out my multimedia codecs: The Help Pages contain a section on getting multimedia codecs installed, using the Absolute utility – it's here.
One important area where Absolute strives to simplify things for Slackware fans is in package management.
Absolute comes with Gslapt, which can install, upgrade and uninstall packages from a local or remote repository.
As a graphical front end to slapt-get, it works very much like Debian's apt-get.
I found Absolute to be very quick on my old machine and I have so far not encountered a single freeze-up, bug or instability – which is pretty much what you would expect from a distribution based on Slackware.
I have some issues with the usability of IceWM, plus some serious concerns about Absolute's root policy.
Those things aside, this is a very interesting distribution with a commendable remit – to make Slackware easier for new users – and Paul Sherman has done an extremely good job.
There's a small Absolute forum here in case you run into any problems (I doubt you will, what with the astonishing amount of documentation included).

FOOTNOTE:
This review finally saw the death of my dear old Dell Inspiron 8000.
The machine has been a trusty friend for the best part of a decade, but the power supply/motherboard/optical drive were all showing signs of giving up the ghost during this and previous Linux reviews.
If any reader has an old but fully functioning laptop they are willing to sell for a (very) small amount (or better still, are willing to donate!), I would be interested to hear from them.

Stuff That Works With Linux #2

Epson Stylus DX6000 multi-function device + Linux Mint 5.0

I HAVE only ever had Epson printers, going right back to my early Windows days.
A while back I swapped a Stylus 1290 capable of lovely A3-sized prints for a Stylus DX6000 multi-function device.
The decision was driven by cost – A3 prints really eat up ink – and desk space: The DX6000 prints snaps from 6x4s up to 10x8s (I'm old fashioned!), plus it means I can free up room taken up by a standalone scanner.The DX6000 is a remarkably versatile device whichever operating system you use it with.
It copies, scans and prints and you do not even need a PC attached because it can print from memory cards or direct from your camera.
It has an admittedly small screen on which you preview your images, and a limited amount of photo editing functions.
But how does it perform with Linux – specifically, Linux Mint 5.0?
Pretty well, actually.
Plug the USB cable in and switch the DX6000 on and Mint automatically detects it and loads the driver for the Epson DX4800 – the model below the DX6000 in the range.
This is not actually a problem as the driver works fine – and not just in Mint, I have had it work in many, many Linux distributions.
One thing I had not tried so far, however, was scanning.
I have little need of a scanner now that most of my images are digital, but it is nice to know you can digitise old photographs for the sake of posterity.
Getting the DX6000's scanner functions to work requires a bit of file editing, but it is really only about 10 minutes' work, plus a bit of Googling/forum surfing.
Firstly, I needed a scanning application: I knew of Sane, which seems very widely used and supported, but I also read somewhere about a GNOME-specific utility called Flegita.
Flegita can be installed easily using the MintInstall application, while for Sane I fired up Synaptic and got it from the Mint repository.
While these two applications do the same job, they are worlds apart in terms of their ease of use and GUIs (graphic user interface).
Where Flegita is very simplistic, Sane's options and configuration can be a bit overwhelming, in a GIMP sort of way.
Still, with both installed I began my scanning test.
When I first launched Sane an error message told me that no device had been detected.
I checked on the Linux Mint forum to see if anyone else had been successful getting the DX6000 scanner working.
I found a posting which referred to the steps needed to configure a Stylus 4400, which looked like they might be helpful and which go something like this:

In a terminal run:

lsusb

and look for the line that contains “Buses xxx Device xxx: ID 04b8: xxxx Sieko Epson Corp.”
Note the Buses xxx and Device xxx, just for future reference, but the important part is the xxxx - this is your printer model (the 04b8 bit = Epson).
In a terminal run:

sudo gedit/etc/sane.d/epson.conf

Find the line reading:

#usb 0x? 0x?

and delete the hash, delete the 1st ? and replace it with 04b8, then delete the 2nd ? and replace it with the xxxx printer model

Look further down and delete the hashes on these lines:

#usb /dev/usbscanner0
#usb/dev/usb/scanner0

and now save epson.conf.

Once I had done this, I restarted Sane and it detected my scanner, correctly identified as a DX6000, and launched the busy Sane GUI.To test Sane I decided to scan a photograph of my sister and me taken around 40 years ago, hence the blotchy, tatty nature of the image (but doesn't she look cute!).
After checking a few preferences to make sure Sane would scan in greyscale, and setting the dpi to 300, I set it off scanning and it worked beautifully.The image was saved into my Pictures folder and I opened it in GIMP to do some cleaning up.Score one for Sane, the DX6000 and Mint!
Next up was Flegita which, while initially much simpler to use, lacks a lot of Sane's options.
Still, the same image was scanned just as quickly and with pretty much the same results.Of the two programs I think I would prefer to spend time getting to know the ins and outs of Sane, simply because I felt it gave me more scanning options.
But whichever application you choose, you now know that, with a little effort, the Epson Stylus DX600's scanning function works just as well in Linux as does its printing.

News: New Technology Site With Linux Leanings

I received a message a few days ago asking me if I would like to register my blog on a new aggregator which concentrates on technology sites, but with a particular leaning toward Linux and Free/Open Source Software.
It is called technoSNACK - there's a link to it in my sidebar - and, although still in its infacy, it is worth a look just to pick up on some of the great blogs being written.
I particularly recommend Celettu's Weblog, which is always entertaining.
If you have any good blogs in your bookmarks, why not recommend them?

Review: NimbleX 2008 - Going Places, Quickly

The Rambling But Really Very Interesting Introduction..

I have an odd relationship with ultra-lightweight, live CD/USB Flash-based Linux distributions.
I love them in a proof-of-concept kind of way.
It is an amazing feat of programming/developing skill to cram an entire computer operating system, plus programs, onto something so small as a USB flash drive.
I particularly love the way their stripped-down, speeded up nature breathes new life into old computers – this is important to me because the majority of the PCs in my house are old.
I realised recently, however, that I never actually use live CD distributions, at least not beyond initially testing them out for reviews or out of curiosity.
I have countless discs sat on my home office shelf gathering dust.
None of them has been out on the road with me.
I cannot remember ever having gone to a friend's or family member's house and asking them if they would mind, terribly, if I popped a live CD into their PC so I could do some work.

My Problem Is..

If you have a live Linux CD, all it takes is a quick BIOS boot-sequence tweak (ie making the machine boot from the CD drive before the hard disk) to get you up and running on any PC, anywhere.
If the machine in question is RAM-rich, you are able to load the whole distribution into the system memory, eject the live CD and things should blaze along.
But if the PC has low RAM, there is a real performance issue which is exacerbated by that CD drive sitting between you and your OS.
My other problem is permanence.
I do not like also having to carry a USB drive on which to save my personal data from a live CD session: I find it a clunky way of working.
It is possible, I know, to use a rewritable disk to save your data/settings etc back to the live CD, but I do not like this way of working either.
Another possibility is to use a USB Flash drive-based distribution which holds both your OS and your data.
I tend to lose Flash drives quite often, so there is a major security issue with this option.
Plus, a lot of PCs are unable to boot from a USB drive, so you are forced to carry a CD with a boot image on it!
It is certainly something of a conundrum.

The Uncomfortable Compromise..

My personal mobile solution involves carrying my tiny Dell Latitude X1 laptop around with me.
I recently re-installed Windows XP Pro on the X1, purely because I need to be able to use my SonyEricsson mobile phone as a modem and the software for it is Windows-only.
Plus, I plan on buying a 3G mobile broadband dongle to work with the laptop, and this is not yet possible with any Linux distribution I know of (I'll happily be corrected on both these issues).
As an Open Source/Linux fan this mobile-reliance on Windows does not sit easily with me.
Therefore, dual-booting between XP Pro and a hard drive-based lightweight Linux distribution is my conscience-salving compromise.
This is what brought me to the door of NimbleX 2008.

At Last, The Review Bit..

NimbleX is a small, versatile operating system which is able to boot from mini CDs, flash memory, hard drives and even from the network. Based on Slackware, it uses Linux-Live scripts and comes with a reputation for speed and excellent package choices.
When version 2008 launched recently, NimbleX's Romanian creator, Bogdan Radulescu, promised a number of improvements and enhancements:

# The USB installer has been improved
# RC was drastically slimmed to fit more usable things
# VirtualBox OSE is now standard
# Partimage is included so you can backup/restore stuff
# Added some initial clustering support with OpenMPI
# A basic Firefox Kiosk mode can be booted from the CD
# A lot of software was updated to the latest version
# Bluetooth was fixed
# Basic servers are available
# Compiz was cleaned up and some usability features added

NimbleX runs beautifully on my Dell laptop in live CD mode – my Intel/Pro wireless NIC was automatically detected and configured, requiring just my ESSID and encryption key to get me online via Wireless Assistant.Sound was working, the resolution was almost correct – 1280x768 instead of 1280x800 – my touchpad worked fine, USB memory sticks were automounted, and I had a battery icon in the panel accurately reporting my power.
NimbleX 2008 runs remarkably quickly – I have never seen KDE respond so fast to commands and programs launched faster than on many HD install distributions.
This was looking very promising, so time to try out that installer.
It is a custom-built program which, at best, can be described as minimalist.
That is not necessarily a criticism, however, more a reflection on its simple approach.
I should point out here that you should not use the installer unless you already have Windows or GRUB already installed on your machine, the reasons for which will hopefully become clear.
The installer gives you the option of auto-installing but, because Windows was present on my X1, I chose to input some information during the process.
There is very little feedback during the install routine, which completes in just a few, slightly nervy minutes.
There is no partitioning, no user configuration, no bootloader options – nothing.
This blind leap of faith approach had me more than a little worried – but I need not have fretted because once I rebooted, Windows and NimbleX were both listed in the bootloader, and both booted fine.
The initial bootloader hands the NimbleX boot off to a second bootloader which offers the options of either a KDM login or a commandline login.
I had some questions about this installation routine, so I emailed Bogdan who, despite being extremely busy, was generous enough to reply immediately.
Here's what I asked him, followed by his responses, repeated in their entirety.

Red Devil:
“From what I can tell, NimbleX doesn't create its own partition - I've looked from within Windows and can't find a separate partition, and all the NimbleX files appear to be in a folder on my Windows drive. Where/how does NimbleX install itself?
During the install (which works fine, BTW), there is no bootloader installation - where does that nice , simple bootloader come from then?
What is it called?”

Bogdan:
“Let me tell you how the safe installer works. I don't know if you are aware but there are 2 separate installers (USB and HDD).
I'll describe the Safe Installer (HDD). First the installer detects your setup and depending on what it finds it modifies the bootloader configuration file so it can also boot NimbleX.
Since NimbleX can be loaded from any filesystem it doesn't matter much where you boot it from so there is not need to repartition the HDD. This way it's much faster, safer and simpler.
I guess this is more a matter of vision/creativity because the code is very simple ...and has a lot of room for improvement.
Unfortunately, it's impossible for me to think of all the possible configurations out there so even though it works for most people I can't make it work for all of them.
The second bootloder you see is grub4dos.
There aren't additional options because in my current vision the installation process should be fast and simple, with minimum interaction so that people can get the job done with a minimum effort.
In the previous version the only think that users where prompted for if they want to install.
It used to be only one key people had to press but I think it's a little better now.”

Red Devil:
“Do you have any plans to introduce a more traditional installer, featuring partitioning/root and user config/localisation/network etc?”

Bogdan:
“At this moment I don't plan to introduce a conventional installer because I believe the concept I have now in my mind it's better for NimbleX.”

Red Devil:
“I'm a bit concerned about how easy it is to access the root account - it's actually the only account available, or have I missed something? Isn't that a bit dangerous?”

Bogdan:
“root is the only default (super)user. You should embrace the power this gives you and not be afraid of it! You can't break NimbleX and your other OSs could be damaged only if you decide to do something like delete important files or smash the computer with a hammer. :)
root is good. root is generally not dangerous in NimbleX”

Red Devil:
“I have never, ever seen KDE work so quickly.. how do you do it?”

Bogdan:
“Regarding why KDE is quick, I can only answer with another question. Why is it slow in some of the other distros? Why are some of the other distros slow in general?”

I am very grateful to Bogdan for taking the trouble to explain his thinking.
Anyway, what is NimbleX like to use from the hard drive?
Well, it's a mixed experience which, if anything, leads toward the positive.
Firstly, the software included is extensive and very well chosen – check out the packages list I quoted earlier for a full run-down.
It certainly contains everything I need to keep me productive and entertained on the road.
I am particularly pleased with the ease with which I am able to use my wireless card to get online – it is probably the easiest, most straightforward setup I have ever encountered.That amazing speed is, if anything, enhanced by working from the hard drive – you will be amazed, I promise, to see usually sluggish starters pinging onto your desktop in an instant!
On the downside, there is a lot of user configuration to be done once you have the system installed – language, locale, keyboard, user (I disagree with Bogdan, being root all the time is just plain dangerous).
My curiosity about NimbleX's file structure led me to investigate through Konqueror – my Windows partition was accessible with no problems and I found all the NimbleX system folders sitting on what, in the Windows world, would be my C: drive.
This was living proof of Bogdan's statement that NimbleX will install on any filesystem, something I have never previously realised was possible.
And now I come to what has proved to be the most frustrating part of my whole NimbleX experience: Saving my changes.
Because of its live heritage, NimbleX uses a configuration file, nimblex.data, to store all your settings.
The command changes=nimblex is written into the GRUB boot menu.lst to automatically write your changes oto the data file each time you logout.
Firstly, however, you have to configure your nimblex.data file, and you do this by running the command 'Save to NimbleX', which is found in the System menu.
Here, you tell NimbleX the size you wish to have for the data file – the larger the file, the more settings it can hold.
It is also important to make sure you save this file directly onto either your partition – for example, in my setup it would be C:/nimblex.data
I went for 2GB and saved the file, then rebooted to see if my settings changes had been saved – they hadn't.
I checked on the NimbleX forum (I am not alone with this problem, by the way) to make sure I was following the correct procedure.
I was, but this process has repeatedly failed to save my changes, causing me untold frustration and disappointment.
I can live with using an American keyboard setting but having to re-enter my network details on every boot is too much to ask.
I wondered if it might make any difference if I saved the nimblex.data file to a USB flash drive, but despite following the instructions carefully, I got the same disappointing result.
I like NimbleX a lot so I will persist with trying to solve this save-changes problem, plus I hope it is something Bogdan will look into sooner rather than later.
I would like to end by congratulating Bogdan on his great work, and for being so patient with the users of his distro – he answers queries on the forum quickly and politely, which goes a long way toward endearing him and his distribution to the end user.

Stuff That Works With Linux #1

Sitecom WL-113 Wireless Network USB Adaptor 54g + TinyMe 2008

THIS is the first article in what I hope will become a regular blog feature on devices I have been able to get working with Linux distributions.
My hope is that featuring such successful device/distribution combinations might prove useful to other Linux users.
There are already websites which maintain databases of devices which can be made to work with Linux: I am not seeking to replicate or replace their lists, but perhaps by matching devices with distributions I might complement them.
Wireless networking is a frequent thorn in the side of many Linux users: Visit any distribution's forum and look in the networking section to see just how big a thorn.
That is why I have chosen the Sitecom for my first "Stuff That Works..." article.
I have been using it in conjunction with my old Dell Inspiron 8000 to connect to my wireless ADSL router.
The Dell is running the excellent TinyMe 2008, a lightweight derivative of PCLinuxOS.
I know from previous investigations that the WL-113 adaptor uses the zd1211 chipset, and that many distributions include a zd1211 kernel module.
But I also know that the zd1211 chipset often requires a firmware upgrade before it can be used.
Fortunately, the TinyMe/PCLOS repository contains the firmware which, once I had downloaded and installed it, enabled me to use the WL-113.
The adaptor was immediately detected - and correctly named - by TinyMe's network setup routine; all I had to do was tell it my ESSID and encryption key, tell it to start at boot-up and then agree to the network being started immediately.

FOOTNOTE:
Obviously there are only so many devices I can use/buy/test, so I am happy to hear success stories from other Linux users.
All I ask is that you clearly identify both the device and distribution you are using.
It might also be helpful to know any special steps you had to take to get the device working - as in the zd1211 firmware issue I mention above.
Or better still, let me know if you have a device that "just worked" with your distribution.
Email your suggestions to: the dot red dot devil dot 62 at gmail dot com

TV Triumphs And Tribulations

A WHILE ago I wrote a review for an American website of earOS, a multimedia distribution developed in Scandinavia, and which aims to do for Linux what Windows Media Centre does for Microsoft.
In it, I reported my surprise and delight that I was able to get digital TV to play through Kaffeine, although I glossed over the detail a little, so I thought it would be helpful to cover the subject in greater detail here.
So, let me start by detailing the hardware I am using: I have a Terratec Cinergy DTusb XS Diversity adaptor (currently £62 from here) which, as its name suggests, connects to my PC via a USB 2.0 slot.Connected to the Terratec is a TV cable linked to a standard roof-top digital TV aerial which, in my Windows days, was able to receive all the Freeview TV and radio channels broadcast here in the UK (around 70 channels in total).
There are some minimum system requirements for the Terratec adaptor: a 2GHz or higher processor and 512MB of RAM.
My machine easily meets those standards, and I have to confess I have not tested the Terratec with anything less powerful. I currently have the Terratec working in conjunction with Kaffeine within an Ubuntu Hardy Heron install, but I have also had it working in Mandriva 2008 Spring with equally good results.
Actually getting the Terratec/Kaffeine combination going is extremely simple, so I suppose this article serves mainly to report that the Terratec works well in Linux, and that it is well worth considering if you plan on buying a TV tuner for your PC.
Anyway, here are the steps I took to get TV playing.
Obviously, you'll need Kaffeine in the first place – I used Synaptic to download it from the Ubuntu repository and I'm pretty sure every major distribution will have it.
Make sure your Terratec adaptor is plugged in etc, then launch Kaffeine, and you should have a screen like this:Click on the 'DVB' tab in the menu at the top of the window and scroll down to 'Configure DVB' and select it. You will get this window:It is here that you will see the good news: Your Terratec adaptor (and Kaffeine) supports auto-scanning, which saves a whole heap of trouble (I will come to this issue later, when discussing watching TV via Totem and Xine).
Close the settings box and return to the DVB menu, only this time select 'Channels', and you will see this window:With the Search On tab set to 'Auto', just hit 'Start Scan' and sit back for a while – the scan takes a few minutes.
Once it is complete you should have a list of channels in the right-hand window. Select them all, click on 'Add Selected' to load them into the channels list on the left, then click on 'Done'.
You should now return to the main Kaffeine window, where you select No.6, 'Digital TV'.
Under the 'DVB' menu tab you wil see an option named 'EPG' – Electronic Programme Guide.
Click on this and you will see the list of channels picked up by your scan – select one and that's you done – I told you it was simple.Kaffeine is able to record broadcasts to your hard drive, and I particularly like the Time-Shift facility, whereby you pause live TV and then re-start it at the same point when you are ready – Kaffeine stores the catch-up files on your hard drive until you are back in synch with the live broadcast.
If only things were as easy with Totem and Xine, two other Linux multimedia applications.
Both claim to be able to play broadcast television, but so far I have failed to get either to work.
At the heart of the problem appears to be their inability to auto-scan for channels, although the Totem website makes clear this is currently being worked on.
Totem currently requires a third-party application to scan, and recommends w-scan which you use to generate the channels.conf file required before Totem can look for channels in your area.
Plus, you will need to install gst-plugins-bad 0.10.6, as well as Fluendo's MPEG demuxer to get DVB playback working.
Despite following the Totem instructions to the letter, I have so far been unable to get beyond an error message which tells me Totem cannot find channels.conf.
I have been equally unsuccessful with Xine, which requires a slightly different approach.
Here, you need to download dvb-utils from your repository, then take a look in the folder it creates (/usr/share/doc/dvb-utils/examples/scan/) to get the name of the transmitter in your country/region.
In my case it is in the dvb-t folder, and the transmitter is the UK's Black Hills station – there are transmitters listed for most of Europe in this folder.
Then, in a terminal, I entered:

cd /usr/share/doc/dvb-utils/examples/scan/dvb-t/

and then:

scan uk-BlackHill > ~/.xine/channels.conf

This should, in theory, scan for channels and create a channels.conf file in my ~.xine folder, which Xine then uses to play broadcasts.
Other users who have followed this path have reported success, but I am still to get beyond an error message which tells me that 'tuning failed'.
If you try this, and are successful, please let me know what/how you achieved it!

BLAG 90000: The Rebel Distro

THERE'S an alluring whiff of rebellion about the Linux/Open Source community.
I like it that way because it reminds me of the days when I was young and argumentative and had the energy to try to make a difference.
Back then I brandished my principles like a weapon; my targets were conservatives and tyrants, racists and bigots, religions, polluters, torturers and corporate thieves.
Now I am older and wearier, and it is all I can do to put food on the table and keep a roof over the heads of my young family.
I think this partly explains the attraction of Linux to me.
Using Linux, writing about Linux, championing Linux - it is like sticking up two fingers (or one, if you are reading this in America) to a corporate world that insists on telling me what I can and cannot do with my own computers.
Linux appeals to the bloody-minded, anti-authoritarian, rebel in me.
It appeals to the part of me that always cheers the little guy in the movies, as he takes on faceless, Kafka-esque agencies and regimes.
And perhaps all this explains why I like the attitude taken by BLAG Linux and Gnu, a Linux distribution which is largely the work of 37-year-old Jeff Moe, aka Jebba.
The operating system's name derives from the Brixton Linux Action Group, which "works to overthrow corporate control of information and technology through community action and spreading free software".
Great, I am with you there guys.
I recently installed BLAG 90000 on one of my computers, but I am not going to trouble you with a traditional Linux review.
Suffice it to say that BLAG 90000 is based on Fedora, uses the outstanding Anaconda installer and is easy to use and maintain.Check it out and see for yourselves.
What I want to focus on instead is what I hinted at earlier: BLAG 90000's attitude, the spirit it represents.
Every time I use BLAG 90000, I cannot help thinking of rebels like Che Guevara.
I do not know Jeff Moe, nor do I know anything about his political beliefs.
So, this is my imagination at work and should not be interpreted as any kind of intention or propaganda on the behalf of BLAG 90000's creator.
It is quite possible that there exists a whole generation of kids who think Che Guevara is just a cool-looking dude on a T-shirt.
Guevara was a lot more than just a poster boy for rebellion.
He was a Marxist revolutionary and guerrilla leader and, as such, was no stranger to the use of violence as a means to his ends.
He was also an author and physician (I highly recommend you watch The Motorcycle Diaries, which is based on his early life).
He campaigned and fought against inequality, monopolistic capitalism, neo-colonialism and imperialism.
Or, if you are George W Bush, he was a PITA lefty terrorist with dubious friends.
Anyway, what is it about BLAG 90000 that sets my mind wandering off down this leftish fork in the road?
Well, for starters, when you first launch BLAG 90000, the boot splash contains a message: "Novelty is oblivion".
This is a paraphrase of a quotation from Francis Bacon's essay, 'Of Vicissitude Of Things', and references Bacon's supposition that there is little that is new in the world.
I cannot explain why Jeff Moe decided this was a fitting introduction to his creation, but you have to admit it is a distinctive way to kick things off.
It is also a precursor of what is to follow, once you start to dig beneath the surface of BLAG 90000.
For example, when you launch Firefox.
You know how most Linux distributions often include links to their wiki or forum?
BLAG does that, too, but there is much, much more in the BLAG 90000 bookmarks folder.
In fact, there are so many entries I could not possibly list them all here, so what follows is a small sample that is relevant to the theme of my article:

Aktivix - Linux for Activists
Free Software Foundation
Democracy Now!
SchNEWS - direct action newsletter
Antiwar.com
The Spirit of Resistance Lives
Reporters Without Borders
Guerrilla News Network
Squall - Radical Quality Journalism
Disinformation
Anarchist Resistance in the Capital of the Empire
Anarcho-Syndicalist Review
Anarchy for Anybody
Bureau of Public Secrets
CounterPunch
Disinfopedia
Federation of Revolutionary Anarchist Collectives
Green Anarchy
Institute for Anarchist Studies
Peoples' Global Action
Primitivism.com
Raise the Fist
Resist.ca
Turning the Tide
Amnesty International
Banksy
CorpWatch
Earth First! Journal
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Guerrilla News Network
Human Rights Watch
NO TO WAR
Protest.Net: A calendar of protest, meetings, and conferences
Electronic Privacy Information Center

..and there are more - lots, lots more.
Now, is my admittedly left-field analogy starting to make sense yet?
There is more.
In the release announcement for BLAG 90000, Jeff Moe declares that it is a 100% free software operating system.
Plus, it is the first major BLAG release to feature the Linux-libre kernel.
Linux-libre is a project to make a branch of the Linux kernel with all the non-free software bits removed.
BLAG's parent distribution, Fedora, has a long history of striving to adhere to the strict principles of 100% free software, and 90000 tracks Fedora 9 (plus there's a BLAGHEAD repository which tracks 'Rawhide).
So, this is clearly a distribution with its own finely-honed set of principles; if you do not like that, fine, there are lots of other distributions which are happy to give you all the non-free software you desire.
And isn't that another great thing about Linux - the freedom to choose?
Finally, you know how on most Linux forums you are discouraged from posting anything which is even vaguely political?
Well, the BLAG forum has a separate section for 'Politics', where rants and trolls are encouraged!
Now, where did I put my beret...

FOOTNOTE:

This post has been edited to better reflect my original intention.
Plus, this has just been posted on Distrowatch.com:

Jeff Moe announced a bug fix release of BLAG Linux And GNU labeled as 90001, a single-CD desktop distribution based on Fedora: "It comes on a single CD (684 megs), is easily installed, and user friendly. This release follows quickly on the heels of BLAG 90000, as there were a few annoying issues with that, some of which have been sorted, such as some broken dependencies. A number of packages have been added to the CD, some of which appeared in earlier BLAG releases, such as: bittorrent, freej, gcc, gqview, gthumb, thunderbird, vnc-server, xchat. The CD has 97 package updates including a new kernel-libre-2.6.25.10-86.fc9.1, firefox 3.0.1, gnome/gtk2/nautilus packages, pidgin, xorg and more... Known issues with this release: Use yum instead of apt, or uncomment GPG line in /etc/apt/apt.conf (or install those keys); Automajick kickstart installs are not currently available; On some installs you have to hit ctrl-alt-f7 after first boot when you add a user; this is only needed the first time."

My 10 Favourite Free/Open Source Applications

IT is easy, if you are a Microsoft Windows user, to get tied-in to certain applications.
Music lovers seem drawn toward iTunes, businessmen and women cannot live without their Microsoft Office, artists and photographers gravitate toward Adobe's products.
And everyone, but everyone, absolutely has to have at least one up-to-date security application running – and preferably lots more, given Windows' notorious security issues.
But what about Linux and Free/Open Source users?
We are fortunate not to have the same security paranoia as Windows users.
Although there are some excellent Linux security tools, there is nowhere near the same pressing need to have them running all the time, if at all.
Your own must-have applications will obviously depend on what you use your computers for.
My own everyday needs are quite modest – my PC is used for web surfing, emailing, listening to music, watching the occasional movie, writing, photoediting and printing and, last but by no means least, testing Linux distributions, proprietary software and hardware for my job (I write a technology column for a national newspaper in Scotland).
The latter part of that last point has meant having to retain a Microsoft Windows machine in my home office (my wife and kids use it).
Otherwise, the other PCs in our home all run Linux distributions of one form or another.
What is common to all the PCs – Linux or otherwise – is that, where possible, I have replaced proprietary software with Free/Open Source applications.
Anyway, here's my list of must-have applications:


VirtualBox – My first experiences of the benefits of virtualisation came when I was fortunate enough to acquire a full copy of Vmware Workstation 5.5 through my newspaper column. I still have it, although I have stopped using it in favour of VirtualBox. Wherever possible, I download VirtualBox from my distribution's repository – configuration and dependencies are handled automatically that way - but I have also downloaded distribution-specific versions and installed them 'by hand'. VirtualBox is a wonderfully simple application for a wonderfully complex concept – running one operating system from within another. It allows me to test Linux distributions without always having to re-format my hard drive partitions (although that is still the preferred method, in the interests of authenticity). I test an awful lot of distributions, so I would have to say VirtualBox is my favourite Open Source tool.

Leafpad/Mousepad – For editing text configuration files and making quick notes I always turn to whichever of these two lightweight text editors I have installed. Fuss and frill-free, they do what's required with admirable simplicity.

OpenOffice.org – For when Leafpad is too simplistic, I roll out the big gun of the Open Source office suite world. Most of my writing, for my blog or newspaper column, is done in OpenOffice.org Writer. The ability to save files in .doc format is invaluable for my work – everything else gets saved in .odt format. I am possibly the least business-minded person on the planet, so OpenOffice.org's spreadsheet, database and presentational abilities are pretty much lost on me. Still, nice to know they are there for those occasions when people send me documents I cannot understand.

GIMP – Digital photography is another of my 'when I find the time' hobbies and GIMP is where I go to try to clean up the mess my limited photographic skills have made. As a former Windows user and fan of Adobe Photoshop Elements, I find the GIMP interface a little confusing, and printing or quick-fixing pictures are not as straightforward as they should be. Still, GIMP is by far the best Free/Open Source image editor I have come across, and is usually the fourth shortcut icon to appear in my panel alongside Firefox, Thunderbird and OpenOffice Writer.

Firefox - I have tried with Opera, I really have, but it has the most confusing, most user-unfriendly interface of any browser currently available. Firefox, on the other hand, is simple to use, highly customisable through a huge range of extensions, themes and add-ons, plenty quick enough for my needs and, now in v3.0, stable and secure.

Thunderbird – In the past I have tried Balsa (I liked it), Claws (I liked it, too) and Evolution (not a big fan), but I always return to Thunderbird for my Linux machines, and it is also on our one Windows machine (as is Firefox).
My email needs are modest and Thunderbird handles them well – the occasional attachment, some junk-mail filtering, my signature and that is it, job done.

Mplayer and its Firefox Plugin - I do not really watch a lot of movies on my PCs - I find DVDs on our 37inch LCD HDTV more watchable – but when I do, Mplayer is my chosen platform. Plus, I find the Firefox plugin handles everything I like to watch or listen to online, such as Apple movie trailers and BBC Radio 5 Live streaming broadcasts. If a distribution does not have these two by default, they are always among the first batch of downloads I carry out.

Exaile - I could never be described as an audiophile – my MP3 collection only stretches to around 400 songs – but I do like to listen to music in the background while I am doing something else. I do not own an iPod, so synchronising with my music collection is not an issue. Over the years I have tried most of the music jukeboxes, from the basic ones like Audacious, Beep and XMMS, to the more feature-filled ones like Amarok, Banshee and Rhythmbox. I find that Exaile has everything I need. The interface is clean and simple, unlike Amarok which I find confusing and cluttered, and in the time I have used it, Exaile has never crashed.

Evince – My son's football team post their fixtures in PDF format on their website. Without Evince, or whichever PDF reader comes with whatever distribution I am working on, Saturday mornings would be an impossible scramble and St Cadocs City would be down to 10 men. Oh, and it is occasionally useful for work too.

GTK-Gnutella – possibly the ugliest, untidiest default interface in the known world but worth it if it means not having to use Limewire or Frostwire, which for some inexplicable reason, I really dislike.
Who said my selections had to be logical?

The Dragon Roars: Myah OS 3.0 KDE Edition Review

SOME Linux distributions are fair game for a reviewer's criticism.
I am thinking of the mega-distros like Ubuntu, Mandriva, openSUSE, Fedora, Debian – the big boys with deep pockets, large teams of developers, or both.
But how is a reviewer to approach a distribution born of one person's many long, frustrating, sleepless nights?
Here is my thinking on the issue: It requires the same balancing act between accurate, reasoned criticism and praise where it is due.
But if one is to err, it always ought to be on the side of giving the lone developer the benefit of the doubt.
I raise this issue with 30-year-old, Oxford, UK-based American, Jeremiah Cheatham in mind.
Prior to writing this review I emailed Jeremiah to ask him how much help he gets in producing his Linux distribution, Myah OS.
He told me:

"I get some good info from the small group of people on my forum. Outside of the forum, I am the only developer.
I created and maintain all the websites. I own the domain names. I created the package management and the whole system.
All the packages are created by me. All the Myah tools are created by me. Basically everything you see is created by me."

Jeremiah has just released a KDE version of Myah OS 3.0, codenamed 'Dragon'.
Dragon promises users a full multimedia experience out of the box, married to the rock-solid stability of KDE 3.5.9.
I remember earlier versions of Myah OS for their cheery, cartoon-penguin boot splashes and desktops, and Dragon continues the theme. It's a refreshing change.
In its early days, Myah OS was built on Slackware but since version 3.0 it is no longer tied to any other distribution.
Instead, packages have been compiled by Jeremiah from his own build scripts, it works as a live CD and comes with a custom-built installer and package manager.
There are 6 Myah OS 3.0 editions in total.
The flagship is the Mouse Pro edition, featuring Xfce as the default desktop, and it is this edition that Jeremiah is most proud of.
The Box and Lite editions use the lightweight LXDE desktop, which I plan to cover at a later date (LXDE is also available as a backup desktop in 3.0 Dragon - it features PCmanFM, Lxpanel and Metacity, and you can access it through Myah System Settings > Desktop).
For Gnome lovers Jeremiah plans a Troll edition, and to bring his KDE complement up to date, a Dragon4, KDE4 edition will join this latest 3.0 Dragon release.
Did I say that Jeremiah is a busy guy?
Anyway, to the nuts and bolts of my review.
I planned to install Dragon onto my Dell Inspiron 8000, which was something of a gamble.
As I've mentioned previously, it is an old machine with a Pentium III, 900MHz processor, 10GB HDD, Nvidia graphics and 512MB of RAM.
I was slightly concerned that it might struggle with KDE 3.5.9 but as things turned out, I need not have worried – even the live CD environment was surprisingly quick.
Dragon is certainly a lot cuter than the name might suggest – the boot splash boasts a cartoon penguin reclining on a cloud, while the default desktop wallpaper is another penguin bouncing on a trampoline!I was not surprised that the live CD failed to detect the proper resolution for my Dell (it is 1400x1050, I got 1024x768) because pretty much every distribution gets it wrong.
No matter, it is easily fixed by editing xorg.conf later.
Now on to the serious stuff of installing to the hard drive.
Jeremiah has written his own installation scripts and married them with a simple but highly effective GUI – once you find the live installer (it is in the System menu – why not have a desktop link to it?).
The installer includes an Xterm window and the gui itself, which comes with a host of installation options, including a HDD option, a Live USB option and a Net Install option for all the Myah OS editions.
Once you start the install there's not much to see apart from a few Xterm readouts as things progress.
By the time the Lilo bootloader was installed to my MBR, I had counted ten minutes from start to finish, which is pretty rapid by any standard.
Once I rebooted into the installed system I found my sound, touchpad and network (via Linksys PCMCIA NIC hard-wired to Netgear router) all working fine, with no intervention required.
The resolution was still wrong, so I quickly fixed it and restarted X before continuing.
I should mention here the user and root configurations in Myah OS – there are none.
According to a forum posting I read, Jeremiah has them on his To-Do list.
What you have is a root account (password 'myah') and a user account called 'myah' which does not require a password – if you want anything else, you have to do it yourself.I also needed to set up the Inspiron with a UK keyboard as Dragon comes with a default USA keyboard – and to do that you need to activate keyboard layouts in the KDE control centre.
Jeremiah's custom-built package manager intially seems a fairly simple application but it packs plenty of power – this Dragon release is actually the first time Myah OS has had a GUI for its package handling.
My update launcher was flashing almost immediately, telling me there were updates available.
The manager gives you the options to Add, Remove and Update your software - I had four programs requiring updating and I have to say using the manager is as fuss-free as any I have encountered. Nice job, Jeremiah.In terms of default software, try to imagine Dragon as Knoppix-Lite, but only a little bit Lite, because it is jam-packed with just about every program you can think of that is prefixed with a 'K' – and loads more besides.
Konqueror is here as your default file manager but I was particularly pleased to see PCmanFM as a lightweight alternative.
Time, now to test that multimedia pledge.
My commercial CD of Haydn's cello concerto No.1 played in Amarok.
The Mplayer plugin for Firefox handled Apple movie trailers fine, along with live BBC Radio 5 Live streams and YouTube videos.
My external USB storage drive was detected and I copied across an .avi movie, which played perfectly in Xine.
And my MP3s played equally well in Xmms.
The Inspiron does not have a DVD drive so I cannot comment on that media format.
I had far less success, however getting two different wireless NICs to work: A USB Sitecom WL113 (it uses the zd1211 chipset) and a Netgear WG511 PCMCIA adaptor (the difficult, Chinese-made model!).
Whenever I entered the necessary network details and enabled the wireless device, it automatically reverted to 'disabled' and I was unable to connect.
It's an issue I plan on returning to later, possibly with the use of Ndiswrapper and some Windows drivers.
Setting up other things like your printer or display are as straightforward as they always are in any KDE-based distribution, with a wealth of system utilities at your disposal, plus some of Jeremiah's own system utilities.In the week or so I have had Dragon running, it has never faltered – no bugs in the software, no crashes or freezes – so Myah OS scores highly in terms of system stability.
I am finding it hard to find something major to criticise in Dragon.
That root/user configuration issue needs resolving sooner rather than later as it is the one thing that makes this distribution seem unfinished.
I am sure that given time, Jeremiah's already excellent installer will be refined and improved upon, as will his package manager.
So the only major question I was left asking myself was: Is this a distribution which will endure once that cartoon cute factor wears off?
And the answer, in my opinion, is a resounding 'Yes'.

Review: GoblinX 2.7 Micro Edition

GoblinX is a Slackware-based Linux distribution which comes in live CD format, and is developed and maintained in Brazil by Flavio de Oliveira, aka Grobsch.
The Micro Edition is GoblinX's smallest version - the ISO only measures around 100MB – and it comes with only Fluxbox and several GTK/GTK2-based applications.
It was the inclusion of Fluxbox which drew me to the Micro Edition, as I was looking for a lightweight distribution to install on my old Dell 8000 Inspiron.
The Inspiron is a trusty old workhorse with a Pentium III, 900Mhz processor, Nvidia GeForce 2Go graphics, 10GB HDD and 512MB RAM.
What makes the Inspiron particularly useful as a test machine is its 1400x1050 screen resolution, which regularly causes problems for Linux distributions.
The distro that detects it and configures it correctly is one that is worth recommending.
I had some previous experience of GoblinX and remembered it as an extremely stylish distro; the Micro edition continues the trend.The live CD loads quickly to a sophisticated looking desktop, where you have the goMurrina Fluxbox style, based on the Murrina Cappuccino theme, a central toolbar and six Idesk launcher icons.
Pleasingly, my network (via a Linksys PCMCIA Ethernet adaptor) was up and running without any configuration.
Less pleasingly, the live CD failed to correctly detect the Inspiron's 1400x1050 resolution - I had a 1280x960 desktop instead.
Undaunted, I fired up the quirky installer.
I say 'quirky' because you need to read everything very carefully.
To misquote the late, great Eric Morecambe, all the right tools are there, but not necessarily in the right order.
You do, however, get the opportunity to get your hands dirty – it's possible to manually edit the default Lilo.conf the installer creates for you before you finally accept it, for example.
GoblinX is one of those distributions where you enter your user and root details before the install.
The install itself is reasonably quick, which it should be given the small amount of packages being copied across.
Once into the installed desktop I found I still had a 1280x960 resolution – looked like there would have to be some xorg.conf editing to be done.
No big deal but, still, this was a disappointing black mark.
GoblinX's hardware detection is otherwise pretty good: My network and sound were working fine, the USB mouse was working and USB memory sticks were picked up immediately by the gtkUSBmanager, which I really like a lot.As far as help for a new user, there's little in the way of useful documentation on your new GoblinX system.
The best it gets is when you launch Firefox or the Fluxbox menu: both have links to the GoblinX website, where there are FAQs and Help sections, plus another link to the user forum.
If you have any extra system configuration to do, your first port of call will be the Magic Centre, which gives you an easy and fast way to access several applications to control and configure things.Now, here's a quick run-through of the main applications on board:
For commandline applications you have alsa-utils, cdrtools, cdrdao, cdparanoia, curl, diffstat, dvd+rw-tools, findutils, gettext, hdparm, lilo, logrotate, mc, ntfsprogs, open-ssh, openssl, slapt-get, sudo, wget.
For GUI applications you will find audacious, evince, file-roller, firefox, gcalctool, gdhcpd, gimp, gnome-terminal, gpicview, gslapt, grip, hardinfo, leafpad, lkmonitor, nautilus and totem.
That's not half bad for 100MB, is it?
Given GoblinX's Slackware heritage, it is no surprise to find Gslapt included as the package manager.
There's really very little to say about Gslapt, except that it does what it is supposed to do with a minimum of fuss (I used it to install Abiword and Mozilla Thunderbird, both without drama).
While GoblinX played my MP3s without any problems, the same could not be said for web-based multimedia: Apple Movie Players would not play via the Totem plugin, nor would BBC Radio 5 Live streams, so there's some work to be done before GoblinX can be described as being multimedia-friendly out of the box.
I am afraid I cannot recommend GoblinX if you are looking for a distribution that handles printers well, either.
Firstly, there is nothing obvious in the Fluxbox menu which would help you to configure your printer: It would have been useful to have at least had a link to a web browser so I could access the CUPS setup routine.
There is nothing in the Magic Centre, either, apart from a greyed-out printer icon which, I eventually discovered was greyed-out because the CUPS daemon was disabled by default!
To be fair to GoblinX, it does come with some very handy GTK-based GUI utilities:

gtkIdesk: a graphical interface built with Gtkdialog to let you reconfigure, add and/or remove icons displayed for the Idesk application.
gtkSetbg: a graphical interface to let you change the background of your desktop.
gtkautoapps: a graphical interface to let you add and/or remove applications autostarted at X login.
gx-shutdown: a simple Shutdown/Logout Interface with hibernate option.
gtkdaemons: It lets you enable or disable boot scripts to your system.
gtkfstab: It lets you configure, change and create your mount points.
gtkkeyout: It allows you to configure and change the deafult keyboard map used by Xorg.
gtklilo: It lets you configure lilo.conf and rewrite lilo.
gtksplitz: It lets you divide files into small pieces to save later.
gtkswaps: It allows you to create and enable a file swap memory.
gtkdsl: It allows you to configure an adsl account.

Another reflection of GoblinX's Slackware heritage comes in its basic stability. I have not encountered any major system glitches since my HDD install.
I think some more thought needs to go into how the default install is presented: That CUPS issue is a major oversight and while GoblinX was not the first distribution to fail at detecting my Inspiron's resolution, I was still disappointed at having to manually edit my xorg.conf to get things right.
I would also recommend the GoblinX developers look hard at their multimedia codecs: Totem plugins have rarely worked for me, while Mplayer always seems to work fine.
I cannot fault GoblinX for looks – it is a beautiful looking distribution – but looks are not everything, and I can't help feeling there is still a bit of work to be done before GoblinX can be considered a Premier League distribution.

POSTSCRIPT
Grobsch, the GoblinX development leader, has been in touch to clarify the position re multimedia codecs and also to address the issue I raised regarding problems configuring a printer.
Basically, it's a space issue - the codecs couldn't be included in the Micro Edition without breaking its 100MB limit and the same applies to the printer utilities.
He also points out that the other editions of GoblinX do contain all the multimedia codecs needed, along with the printer utilities, and that it's possible to download the codecs module and include it in your own remaster.
I'm happy to clarify that for him!

In A State Of Flux

I CAME quite late to the Fluxbox party, and now I am here I wish I had arrived earlier.
Fluxbox is a lightweight window manager for the X window system used by Linux distributions.
When I say “lightweight”, I mean it is not resource-hungry like, say, the KDE and GNOME desktop environments, and that once it is installed on your machine and configured properly, it is both stable and very quick.
If you like your desktop cluttered with icons and shortcuts, or enjoy fancy 3D, Compiz-driven eye candy, then Fluxbox (http://fluxbox.sourceforge.net/) may not be for you.
Anyway, you cannot mix Fluxbox and Compiz – they are both window managers and will not work together in any desktop environment; either can be added to KDE, GNOME or Xfce, but not at the same time.
It is perfectly possible to have an iconified Fluxbox desktop – by using it with the Rox-Filer application or fbdesk - but I think this defeats the object, because Fluxbox's strength is the way it keeps things clean and lean.
That does not mean, however, that a Fluxbox desktop is plain and boring: It is easy to have a beautiful Fluxbox desktop which is also highly functional.
Here are some examples I found on the internet:What I particularly like about using Fluxbox is that it allows someone like me, who has no real coding or programming experience, to edit simple text configuration files to achieve the look and functionality that I desire.
This makes me feel like I have had more involvement in the structure, appearance and functionality of my PC desktop, particularly if I have downloaded and installed Fluxbox to start with.
I am currently running Fluxbox on my main PC with Linux Mint 4.0 and the GNOME desktop environment).
It's not a particularly powerful machine, but with Fluxbox on board my applications load quickly and I am able to multi-task well, despite having only 512MB of RAM.
Of course, if you pair Fluxbox with a powerful PC, then you really have a seriously fast machine.

Acquiring and Installing Fluxbox

My recommendation is that, if your distribution has Fluxbox and its associated utilities in its repository, you should get it from there using your package manager.
It is easier – there is far less configuring to be done - and once Fluxbox has been installed you will find it available as an option in your session login window.
The other way is to acquire the Fluxbox source and build it yourself.
The source tarball for the latest version, v1.0.0, can be found here, along with a selection of binaries for various distributions.
Once you have downloaded the source tarball you must extract it.
Fire up a terminal and, as root, 'cd' (Change directory) into the directory where you downloaded the source tarball, then enter the following command:

tar xzvf fluxbox-1.0.0.tar.gz

(the filename will vary according to the version you download)
This command will unpack the archive and once it is done, use the 'cd' command to change into the directory your file archiver created.
The next step is to configure and make Fluxbox.
It is a fairly safe to accept the default choices during this process, but experienced Linuxers may wish to enable or disable various flags during the process.
So, to get things going, you need to enter the following commands while in the Fluxbox directory:

./configure
make

Once Fluxbox is compiled, and still as root, enter

make install

And that should be it, Fluxbox ought to be compiled and installed.

Using and Configuring Fluxbox

If you used your package manager to install Fluxbox then it will already be available as a login choice in your session manager (XDM/GDM/KDM).
You select it and log in just like you would if changing from, say, KDE to IceWM.
If you compiled Fluxbox from source, there is still work to be done before you have it available as a session login option.
If you start your sessions via a display manager you need to look for the file '.xsession' which should be in your home directory (as a Hidden file – hit Ctrl-H to reveal it).
The next step is to find the executable for Fluxbox.
In most cases this will be in /usr/local/bin/fluxbox, the default location when compiling from source.
Now you need to edit the '.xsession' file by adding the following to the bottom of the file:

exec /usr/local/bin/fluxbox

Once that is done, save it and close your text editor.
Next, you should create the directory in which Fluxbox stores its configuration files:

mkdir .fluxbox

If you don't create it, when you exit Fluxbox and restart, you will lose all your settings.
Now we are ready to start using and configuring Fluxbox, so reboot into your new window manager.
If everything has gone according to plan, you should have a plain desktop with a thin toolbar along the bottom of your screen.
You access the Fluxbox menu by right-clicking anywhere on the desktop.
If you installed from your repository, you will probably find a menu has already been created for you by the Fluxbox package manager.
But if they didn't, or if you compiled from source you will need to create your own menu – don't worry, it is easy.
Fire up a terminal and enter the following command:

fluxbox-generate_menu

This will give you a menu based on your installed programs, but not necessarily in the order you want them (we'll cover editing the menu next).
Another way of getting a menu is to look in your /usr/local/share/fluxbox directory and copy/paste both the specimen init and menu files from there into the .fluxbox directory in your home directory (remember, the one we created earlier!).
If you take this path, however, be prepared for a lot of editing before the menu looks like you want it to.
So now we have a Fluxbox desktop and a menu. Let's now get things looking like we want them.

Tweaking Fluxbox

There is an excellent guide to changing pretty much everything in your Fluxbox desktop at http://fluxbox-wiki.org/index.php/Category:English_howtos, so I do not propose to cover much more than a few basics here.
What I will say is that there is no better way to learn about how Fluxbox works than by dipping in to your .fluxbox folder and reading the various configuration files in there using your text editor.
That said, here are a few simple ways in which you can personalise things.

Editing your Fluxbox Menu
This is a lot easier than you might imagine. You will find your menu file in the .fluxbox directory in your Home directory.
Right-click on it and select the option to open it with your text editor.
Here is a small section of my edited (Linux Mint) Fluxbox menu

# This is an automatically generated file.
# Please see for information.

# to use your own menu, copy this to ~/.fluxbox/menu, then edit
# ~/.fluxbox/init and change the session.menuFile path to ~/.fluxbox/menu

[begin] (Fluxbox)

# Automatically generated file. Do not edit (see /usr/share/doc/menu/html/index.html)


[exec] (PCManFM) {pcmanfm}
[exec] (Firefox) {firefox}
[exec] (Writer) {/usr/bin/oowriter}
[exec] (Thunderbird) {thunderbird}
[exec] (Terminal) {/usr/bin/gnome-terminal}
[exec] (Synaptic) {/usr/bin/gksu /usr/sbin/synaptic}
[exec] (The GIMP) {/usr/bin/gimp}
[exec] (Leafpad) {/usr/bin/leafpad}
[separator]
[submenu] (Internet)
[exec] (Gnutella) {gtk-gnutella}
[exec] (Pidgin) {/usr/bin/pidgin}
[exec] (FTP) {/usr/bin/gftp}
[end]
[submenu] (Office)
[exec] (OpenOffice.org Calc) {/usr/bin/oocalc}
[exec] (OpenOffice.org Impress) {/usr/bin/ooimpress}
[exec] (OpenOffice.org Math) {/usr/bin/oomath}
[exec] (OpenOffice.org Draw) {/usr/bin/oodraw}
[exec] (OpenOffice.org Base) {/usr/bin/oobase}
[end]

Compare the text above with the screenshot to get an idea of how the commands relate to the menu structure.Now, editing the menu is as simple as this: Let's, for example, add the music program Exaile to what I call my quick-list – those programs listed at the top of the menu.
All you would need to add is the following:

[exec] (Exaile) {/usr/bin/exaile}

underneath the 'Leafpad' entry, save the menu file and relaunch your menu by right-clicking. Scroll down to the Exaile entry, click once on it and Exaile will run.
How wonderfully simple and efficient is that?
You can add icons to your Fluxbox menu with the addition of one more command, which basically points to the location of the program icon, thus:

[exec] (Exaile) {usr/bin/exaile}

Setting Your Fluxbox Background
Fluxbox comes with a number of Styles which set how your window borders, menu, toolbar and, in some instances, your background look.
However, these backgrounds tend to be solid colours: If you want a jazzy wallpaper, you're going to have to add it yourself.
For this we use a tool called fbsetbg.
This tool is a wrapper that tries to find a suitable background-setting application and then sets the wallpaper using that application.
You don't have to configure fbsetbg, it just uses the first application it can find.
First we need to make sure fbsetbg has a suitable application to use, so open up a terminal and, as user, enter:

fbsetbg -i

If you have one of the supported applications installed you will get a message like this:

'Esetroot is a nice wallpapersetter. You won't have any problems.'

If you do not have a suitable app installed you will recieve an error message like this:

'display doesn't set the wallpaper properly. Transparency for fluxbox
and apps like aterm and xchat won't work right with it. Consider
installing feh, wmsetbg (from windowmaker) or Esetroot (from Eterm) and
I'll use them instead.'

There are several ways of making sure fbsetbg loads the correct wallpaper at each login, but the method I prefer is to edit the following line in your init file in .fluxbox:

session.screen0.rootCommand: fbsetbg -f /home/steve/Wallpapers/carlights.jpg

The bit that says '-f /home/steve/Wallpapers/carlights.jpg' is pointing to the 'carlights' image file I use for my background and because it is in my init file, it loads automatically each time I log in.
A word of warning: fbsetbg does not like filenames with spaces in them, so name your wallpapers carefully.

Changing Your Fluxbox Style
By Styles, Fluxbox generally means window borders, the look of your toolbar, menu and, occasionally, your desktop background too.
When I installed Fluxbox from the Linux Mint repository (I'm lazy!), it came with 27 Styles pre-installed, and many other versions of Fluxbox I have tried have been similarly well-endowed.
However, if you don't have quite the right Style, installing new ones is simple.
There are lots of Fluxbox Styles (the website calls them Themes) at http://www.box-look.org/ - find one you like and download it.Once downloaded, unpack the file (as user, not root) which you then simply need to move to your .fluxbox/styles folder in your Home directory (remember, it's Hidden, so Ctrl-H will reveal it).
Now, when you next right-click on your desktop, navigate to the Styles menu and the new one will be available – click on it to load it.
If, by the way, your menu does not have the Styles section, add it as follows:

[submenu] (Styles) {}
[stylesdir] (/usr/share/fluxbox/styles)
[stylesdir] (~/.fluxbox/styles)
[end]

For your information, the Style I am using is called Blackened, which gives a nice, glossy black finish to my windows and toolbar.

Changing Fluxbox Fonts
Fluxbox 0.9.15 introduced something called session.styleOverlay which allows the user to override some or even all elements of a style.
This comes in very handy for keeping fonts the same for every style.
If it doesn't already contain it, add this line to your ~/.fluxbox/init file:

session.styleOverlay: ~/.fluxbox/overlay

Then edit the file ~/.fluxbox/overlay like you would edit any style. Add your custom fonts there for example:

menu.title.font: sans-10:bold
toolbar.clock.font: sans-10:bold
toolbar.workspace.font: sans-10:bold
.font: sans-8

Fluxbox Tools and Utilities

fbrun
fbrun is equivalent to the "Run..." dialog in other desktop environment.
It is an easy way to start a program that isn't contained in the menu.

Pagers
Pretty much every Linux desktop environment and window manager has pagers and Fluxbox is no exception.
For those who have never used them they are handy for working in more than one virtual workspace.
The pager allows the user to display workspaces in a small view and drag windows into this view.

Tabs
Think of the way Firefox and Opera allow you to have several websites open I tabs at the same time; well, Fluxbox does the same thing, only with applications.
It's a really efficient way of working.
Youy hold down your mouse's scroll wheel over the title bar in your application's window border and drag it onto an adjacent program's title bar and, voila, the two are merged into one window.

The Slit
More questions are asked about Fluxbox's Slit than just about anything else.
The slit was from the Blackbox window manager, and is designed to hold docked applications – this is also know as running them in 'withdrawn' mode.
These days every version of Fluxbox should have a Slit compiled within it, so do not worry about installing it.
The Slit occupies no screen space and very little memory, so it fits perfectly within the Fluxbox remit.
Try http://dockapps.org/ for dockable applications – there are hundreds!
Like everything else in Fluxbox, the Slit is easily customised - right-click on the visible portion of the slit and select options.

There is much, much more to Fluxbox than I am able to feature here, and I am sure there will be many who are far more experienced with Fluxbox and who can offer better advice than me - I will be glad to hear it.
For those who like to spend time and care customising their desktop and who are looking for a light, fast window manager, I highly recommend Fluxbox.
There are several websites offering more detailed guides and HowTos – here are two official Fluxbox sites I particularly recommend:

http://fluxbox-wiki.org/index.php/Category:English_howtos

http://fluxbox.sourceforge.net/docbook/en/fluxbox-docs.html

Pardus 2008 is out

I had planned to do a review of Pardus 2008 - the highly-regarded Linux distribution created from scratch by a team of government-backed Turkish developers - but a couple of fellow bloggers have beaten me to it... and done a fine job in the process.
So instead of simply repeating their conclusions, I'll point you in their directions.
The always-excellent Jun Auza takes an in-depth look at Pardus 2008 here, while a blogger I only know as 'San' gives the KDE-based distro a thorough going-over here.
I actually tried Pardus 2008 in beta format a few weeks ago and would concur with pretty much everything these guys say, including their recommendations that Pardus is a seriously good distro that's well worth trying.

Laying Down Some Criteria

I HAVE been reviewing Linux distributions for a few years now but I realised recently that my reviews follow a too relaxed narrative form, rather than a structured form.
While this may (hopefully) be more entertaining to read, it does mean that I sometimes overlook things which need covering.
Therefore, I have come up with a reviews checklist which, in future, I will endeavour to stick to as closely as possible, while maintaining some narrative form to the review so it doesn't simply become a tick-list.
I'm not looking for approval from anyone about the structure or content of my checklist - these are my reviews and I'll write them as I see fit - but I will point out that a lot of thought has gone into the content of the list.
Where I stray or overlook something, no doubt someone will correct me - they usually do, and that's great because at least it means people are reading my articles.
Also, I intend to make a clearer distinction between news coverage and in-depth reviews.
If I can't review a distribution in-depth - ie. properly - I'll simply report on its release; this will also involve more careful headlining of my articles to keep things as clear as possible.
You may think, having read this, that I am taking this too seriously: Fair enough, but I'm a journalist by profession, and accuracy, detail and research are important to me.
Anyway, here's my checklist.

1.Brief history of distribution

2.Installation – Simplicity; Speed; Hardware detection and configuration

3.Default desktop – Appearance; User guide/documentation; Initial configuration assistance

4.Default software

5.Package manager and repositories

6.Multimedia codecs

7.Graphics

8.Printer and other hardware (USB memory sticks, cameras etc)

9.Bugs and Stability

10.Conclusion

So, let's see how we get on!