(Mis)adventures

Writing by admin on Thursday, 31 of May , 2007 at 6:09 pm

Yesterday afternoon I realized it was time for me to change my main Linux distribution in hopes of learning more about a different offering. At the time I was using Ubuntu Feisty Fawn (7.04) and was considering 2 other flavours of the Ubuntu code-base:

• Kubuntu (KDE version of Ubuntu 7.04)

• LinuxMint 3 Cassandra (based on Ubuntu 7.04)

As with any Linux distribution it is possible to make it whatever you want, as interface and software packages. Before installing I did to create two rules to ensure that I was choosing a sustainable flavour. After default installation (little, if no tweaking necessary) the distribution had to:

• run natively in 1680×1050 resolution

• run Beryl with no extra configuration of xorg.conf

Yes, both of these requirements involve my video card, but that is because I use an ATI X800XL and Linux has always had poor support for ATI vide cards (mostly due to ATI not supporting the open-source community; however, it looks like that will be changing shortly). Before Ubuntu Feisty Fawn, I was never able to configure these video drivers properly and easily spent many days trying to get acceleration to function. This is why I want them to work out-of-the-box.

Kubuntu 7.04. I decided to give Kubuntu a shot because I have always found myself using GNOME and thought it would be nice to give a go to the KDE desktop environment. I popped in the LiveCD and was immediately concerned about driver issues as my screen was at a low resolution of 1024×768. I continued on as I thought this may just be due to the use of the LiveCD and that after installation everything would be great. I was wrong. The resolution remained low, but I thought it should be working so I tinkered for a half hour and managed to get the resolution back to 1680×1050.

After that, I installed Beryl and gave it a run. Oh, it is not working! More issues with my video card configuration. I really wanted to give Kubuntu a shot as one of my friends swears by it, so I thought I would at least play around (without the goodness of Beryl). I was not as impressed as I had thought I would be. The menu seemed so cluttered with application after application starting with “K” (I realize why they do this) and installing .deb files was not nearly as clear as when using GNOME. I gave Kubuntu the axe (for now) and moved on to LinuxMint.

LinuxMint 3 Cassandra. LinuxMint is known for being a complete “out-of-the-box” distribution of Ubuntu. What do I mean by this? While Ubuntu is lean on the applications included (with such a large user base this is necessary), LinuxMint focuses on users that do not want to install additional, and common, applications after loading the operating system on their computer. Such software includes Java, Amarok, Pidgin, Azureus, Envy, Beryl, and the list goes on. Mint also uses the SLAB menu by default, which I find is particularly useful. So, LinuxMint is now installed and the same video issues exist. Once again I was able to get back the 1680×1050 resolution, but Beryl refused to work.

At this point I was frustrated, not at these wonderful distributions, but at the fact I am using an ATI video card. Ubuntu, Kubuntu, and LinuxMint all work great on my laptop at native resolution with Beryl working like a charm, even with the old, but Nvidia, video card. I realized it was time for me to return to Ubuntu and the commonalities provided by the GNOME environment and a functioning Beryl. But wait! Those Ubuntu discs I received in the mail have the exact problem Kubuntu and LinuxMint had with the video card. I kept trying to figure out why Feisty was working so well before without any video card configuration needed, then it hit me. I had always been installing the release candidate of Ubuntu Feisty Fawn.

I returned to my RC version of Ubuntu (which easily updates to the full-release edition) and I was able to have Beryl working as easily I had hoped it would be with Kubuntu and LinuxMint. Now, all I have to do is wait for AMD/ATI to release some open-source drivers that actually work or wait for Ubuntu to return to whatever driver they used in their release candidate of Feisty Fawn.

There you have it! Let me finish by saying this is by no means a review of these 2 other distributions, but a tale of my misadventures with my video card. I definitely believe that LinuxMint will have much success in the future because of the “bundle” they offer to users.

Cole

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Category: Linux, Ubuntu, My Computer

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Get Ubuntu on CD (with FREE stickers!)

Writing by admin on Monday, 28 of May , 2007 at 5:46 pm

There are many computer users throughout the world that either do not have access to the internet or do not own a CD/DVD burner. In the past, this has made acquiring Linux, or more specifically, Ubuntu, very difficult. Of course, you could always ask your friend for a copy of Ubuntu or use a neighbours computer to burn the image, but lets assume you have no friends and no neighbours. Basically, if you live in an area where there is postal service you can ask Ubuntu to send some discs to you!

I decided to take advantage of this opportunity. While Ubuntu states that it normally takes 4-6 weeks for delivery, I sent away for the discs on May 9th and received them today, May 28th. Why would I want Ubuntu discs when I already have the burned myself? Well, I am hoping to convince friends to convert from Windows and I feel that giving them an official CD shows that Ubuntu (and all Linux distributions) are serious contenders in the operating system arena. The discs, and their packaging, also have notes all over them asking users to “Pass it on!” to others as each copy can be installed on an unlimited number of computers, encouraging sharing. Selfishly, I also wanted the 4 free Ubuntu stickers that come with the discs.

I was very impressed with both the CDs and the stickers. Curious about the packaging and what the stickers look like? Check out these images I took earlier today:

The whole package

Disc art

Interested in requesting some discs? Order them here.

Time for some food,

Cole

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Category: Linux, Open-source, Ubuntu

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Unable to Boot Linux After Installing Windows - A Solution

Writing by admin on Monday, 28 of May , 2007 at 12:21 pm

So, you had Linux running perfectly in a dual boot with Windows, but then Windows became “junked-up” and you needed to reinstall. You went through the agony of spending nearly an hour with the Windows setup and then many more hours installing drivers and software. Everything in Windows was now working appropriately so you decided to boot back into your Linux flavour of choice only to find that you could not boot it! Why? Windows took over the master boot record (MBR).

Allow me first to qualify why some Linux users still use Windows occasionally. Some games still do not run well in Linux even with the development of Wine and Cedega. For me, Battlefield 2 installed and ran using Wine; however, online play was not working properly because of the need to use PunkBuster. For this reason I must have a Windows installation on my PC.

When installing Linux after Windows, both GRUB and LILO boot loaders recognize that Windows exists and offers a menu during startup to select the operating system you wish to boot. Windows, on the other hand, believes it is the only operating system around and does not recognize a Linux installation exists and therefore does not offer a menu during the system boot. When I first came across this issue many years ago I figured there was nothing I could do about it and ever since have been installing Windows followed by Linux (however, I often feel my Linux installs do not require being reinstalled).

The solution

The current Windows XP install on my machine was once again slowing down, possibly due to driver conflicts, but the reason is neither here nor there. I simply wanted to reinstall Windows as many Linux users would like to. I decided this time to find a solution so I would not have to ruin my near-perfect installation of Ubuntu. Venturing to the Ubuntu forums, I quickly found a thread offering a tutorial on accessing the Ubuntu installation. Basically, the issued is resolved by restoring GRUB (or LILO) and then pointing GRUB (or LILO) to both the Linux and Windows partitions, thereby allowing selection of the operating system of choice during boot. You can read the thread here.

Another excellent article on editing GRUB can be found on the tuxmachines.org website, here.

Until next time,

Cole

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Category: Linux, Ubuntu, Windows

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About

Writing by admin on Sunday, 27 of May , 2007 at 10:19 pm

The Site

Shift+Backspace was created in April of 2007 with the hopes of providing various technology news as well as various computer-related insights. The site quickly began focusing on Linux and the open-source community with occasional articles regarding other technology.

The Creator

My name is Cole and I am a 23-year-old student attending Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. I am in the Honours Bachelor of Business Administration and Honours Bachelor of Science (HBBA/HBSc) double degree program with graduation occurring in August 2008.

My interests, in no particular order, include:

• Photography
• Gadget and technology news
• Linux
• Open-source news and software
• Baseball
• Hockey
• Golf
• Television
• Gaming (Wii, PC)
• Music/Television/Movies

If you wish to contact me with any interesting news, comments, or want me to review any technology-related products please email me at cole@shiftbackspace.com.

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Category: Uncategorized

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The Open Source Initiative

Writing by admin on Sunday, 27 of May , 2007 at 12:55 pm

Every so often I come across pages on the web that sparks an interest and further research. After a couple of months of running Shift+Backspace, a website with a focus on free and open-source software (commonly referred as FOSS), I figured it was time to share the definition of open-source for the general reader. Now, I do realize that there are many different licenses such as Creative Commons Attribution, GNU GPL, GPL 2, the forthcoming GPL 3 and many other(see most licenses here), but this article is simply a generalization from the simple definition on The Open Source Initiative (OSI) website.

What exactly does the OSI do for open-source? Here is a short blurb from their website about who they are and what OSI sets out to do:

The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is a non-profit corporation formed to educate about and advocate for the benefits of open source and to build bridges among different constituencies in the open-source community.

One of our most important activities is as a standards body, maintaining the Open Source Definition for the good of the community. The OSI Certified Open Source Software certification mark and program creates a nexus of trust around which developers, users, corporations and governments can organize open-source cooperation.

Recently I ordered a few books about open-source software in hopes of furthering my education of the open-source community. It is my hopes that sometime in the near future I can become a part of the OSI and help spread the word of open-source and the good it provides not only to users but to the sharing of knowledge around the globe.

But what classifies a project as open-source? For this we must read the Open Source Definition (OSD). Below are the 10 official OSD criteria (from the OSI website here) projects must satisfy in order to be classified as officially open-source (yes, it’s more than just releasing the source code):

1. Free Redistribution

The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the software as a component of an aggregate software distribution containing programs from several different sources. The license shall not require a royalty or other fee for such sale.

2. Source Code

The program must include source code, and must allow distribution in source code as well as compiled form. Where some form of a product is not distributed with source code, there must be a well-publicized means of obtaining the source code for no more than a reasonable reproduction cost preferably, downloading via the Internet without charge. The source code must be the preferred form in which a programmer would modify the program. Deliberately obfuscated source code is not allowed. Intermediate forms such as the output of a preprocessor or translator are not allowed.

3. Derived Works

The license must allow modifications and derived works, and must allow them to be distributed under the same terms as the license of the original software.

4. Integrity of The Author’s Source Code

The license may restrict source-code from being distributed in modified form only if the license allows the distribution of “patch files” with the source code for the purpose of modifying the program at build time. The license must explicitly permit distribution of software built from modified source code. The license may require derived works to carry a different name or version number from the original software.

5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups

The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons.

6. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor

The license must not restrict anyone from making use of the program in a specific field of endeavor. For example, it may not restrict the program from being used in a business, or from being used for genetic research.

7. Distribution of License

The rights attached to the program must apply to all to whom the program is redistributed without the need for execution of an additional license by those parties.

8. License Must Not Be Specific to a Product

The rights attached to the program must not depend on the program’s being part of a particular software distribution. If the program is extracted from that distribution and used or distributed within the terms of the program’s license, all parties to whom the program is redistributed should have the same rights as those that are granted in conjunction with the original software distribution.

9. License Must Not Restrict Other Software

The license must not place restrictions on other software that is distributed along with the licensed software. For example, the license must not insist that all other programs distributed on the same medium must be open-source software.

10. License Must Be Technology-Neutral

No provision of the license may be predicated on any individual technology or style of interface.

If you want clarification on any of these 10 criteria the OSI has provided an annoted version of the OSD here. Stating the obvious, open-source is something I am very passionate about. I am still in the early stages of my research and understanding of everything open-source but hope that with time I will become both an expert and advocate on the subject.

Time for some R&R,

Cole

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Category: Open-source

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DistroWatch Rankings

Writing by admin on Saturday, 26 of May , 2007 at 1:53 pm

If you follow the Linux community there is no doubt you frequent the DistroWatch website. For those of you who have never heard of DistroWatch, Wikipedia defines it well by saying:

DistroWatch is a popular website which provides news, popularity rankings, and other general information about various Linux distributions as well as other free software/open-source operating systems such as OpenSolaris and BSD. It now contains information on several hundreds of distributions.

It is by far the best resource for comparing different Linux distributions and being the first to provide release information for hundreds of Linux and other OS flavours.

One of the greatest features of DistroWatch is how they rank all of the distributions in their database based on the number of hits each gets per day. You can see the rankings on the right side of the landing page or (for more details) check out the popularity page here. When I looked at the rankings over the different time periods I noticed some pretty cool stuff. There is definitely a relationship between ranking and major releases, most notably on the shorter time periods.

Here are some other semi-interesting observations:

• the same 4 distributions (Ubuntu, openSUSE, PCLinuxOS, and Fedora) make up the top 4 in each of the last 4 time periods
• Ubuntu is the overwhelming most popular distribution; however, with the release of PCLinuxOS 2007, Ubuntu has been pushed to a distant 2nd over the last month
• Ubuntu Studio has started off strong since its release and is current #10
• prior to 2005, Red Hat and Mandrake (now known as Fedora and Mandriva) dominated the top 2 positions

If you’re interested in Linux but are not quite sure what distribution to try, search around on DistroWatch, you will definitely find something that appeals to you. As always, if you have any questions about choosing a distro please feel free to email me, I always love talking Linux!

Cole

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Category: Linux, Open-source

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Gmail Increases Attachment Size to 20MB

Writing by admin on Thursday, 24 of May , 2007 at 7:53 am

Once again, RSS brings me good things in the morning! Todays feed included an article mentioning that Google’s Gmail has increased allowable attachment size from 10MB to 20MB. On the Gmail help site it is officially stated as:

With Gmail, you can send and receive messages up to 20 megabytes (MB) in size. However, the precise amount allowable will depend on the attachment.

Many readers have probably noticed the “the precise amount allowable will depend on the attachment” and are not quite sure what that means. For this reason I quickly jumped into Google Groups in search of an answer. This is the one I found and it makes a lot of sense:

When you add an attachment, the size of a file may increase because
transport encodings are automatically added. (Transport encodings are
the information that allows your message to be safely sent and read.)

The 10MB increase is very welcomed, but I will take th greedy route and say I wished it was increased to around 50MB. I have been treating Gmail as a safe storage place for many of my documents just in case of disaster (that is to my computer, my backup DVDs and my portable hard drive all at once). Hopefully Google is noticing this trend with users and will eventually offer a Google Storage allowing users a simple interface to upload any sized file with a maximum storage capacity of that remaining with the Google account (I would gladly pay monthly for 10GB in Google Storage). Think about it Google!

Embracing the Google,

Cole

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Category: Tech news, Google

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Zonbu

Writing by admin on Wednesday, 23 of May , 2007 at 5:49 pm

 

Earlier today my Google Reader fed me some news about Zonbu, the new “$99 Linux PC”. The first thing I should point out about Zonbu is that in order to buy one for $99 you must sign a 2-year contract ($249 without). But what would a contract be without monthly payments? Well, Zonbu has 3 different plans (25GB, 50GB and 100GB models for $12.95, $14.95 and $19.95 respectively). Assuming the middle-of-the-road 50GB plan this amounts to $457.80 (US dollars without taxes) over the 2-year period. What exactly does the subscription get you? According to their website subscription costs provide:

Zonbu offers three different storage plans, all of them with automatic backup, applications and OS maintenance, free upgrade to the latest version of all the applications, three-year free box replacement guarantee, and unlimited Internet support.

Time to get into some of the Zonbu technology. On the Zonbu website the hardware is summarized as follows:

• Intel-like ultra-low power CPU
• 256 MB RAM + 2GB flash-based local storage
• Graphics up to 1400 x 1050 (16 million colors).
  Hardware graphics and MPEG2 acceleration
• PC-compatible ports for keyboard and mouse
• 6 USB ports to plug-and-play all standard USB accessories
• Broadband ready: 10/100MB Ethernet built-in.

While many of components appear lower-end we must realize that this is not a gaming PC or media-editing powerhouse. It is built to be quiet and functional for the average user. Also, the operating system is a custom version of Gentoo that has been tweaked for the specific hardware in Zonbu.

The different capacities mentioned with the three subscriptions revolve around allocated storage space on Amazons S3 servers. This means that all user data is stored on remote servers and uses the flash storage in Zonbu as a cache for the data. I think that this is a brilliant idea, particularly for ensuring protection against data loss. Problems with this concept may include speed of uploading/downloading but I feel that most Zonbu users should not have a problem with these factors. Lets take a look at Amazons S3 pricing. Assuming 50GB of storage and 25GB of uploading/downloading of data throughout the month the total is $12.50 per month. This makes Zonbu’s monthly pricing look even better as it includes all of the other services mentioned previously.

When reading the Zonbu “hands-on” article on Gizmodo I was initially skeptical about the inability to install software, but further reading provided me with a better feeling. First, the subscription services includes OS updates such as new software (and apparently the people behind Zonbu are committed to high-quality open-source software. Also, while I require control over the software on my computer, I do not feel that the target market for Zonbu needs this control. The software list includes most of the open-source software I use right down to using Nvu as a development environment for websites. My readings on both news sites and the Zonbu site I have the feeling that if increased function is required (via software) it will be implemented.

In the hopes of avoiding a comments flame-war I want to say that I do not believe Zonbu will change the way computing is done overnight, but instead, provide an option to the average home user that wants to create documents, browse the internet and interact with media. I think that the use of Amazons S3 servers is a fantastic idea.