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The EADD Linux Technical Gibberings Thread
- Thread starter felix
- Start date
felix
Bluelight Crew
haha! :D
Little Ted looks huge! (or maybe I'm just very close to my screen. :D)
here is my Linux snoo for the day - I now have this on my computer room wall:
The GNU/Linux Distribution Timeline
Details: http://futurist.se/gldt/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_distribution
This shows exactly where our chosen place is in the Linux universe. It blew my mind when I first saw it.
It was also the centrepiece of an exceedingly dull presentation I gave Kate a few days ago - and I'm delighted to say that it kinda blew her mind too. This stuff has been going on for decades, and we've just dismissed it or ignorantly slagged it off, or simply not even known about it. This whole thing has been a revelation.
The Microsoft version of this would pretty much be a straight horizontal line with a few dots on it.
Little Ted looks huge! (or maybe I'm just very close to my screen. :D)
here is my Linux snoo for the day - I now have this on my computer room wall:
The GNU/Linux Distribution Timeline
Details: http://futurist.se/gldt/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_distribution
This shows exactly where our chosen place is in the Linux universe. It blew my mind when I first saw it.
It was also the centrepiece of an exceedingly dull presentation I gave Kate a few days ago - and I'm delighted to say that it kinda blew her mind too. This stuff has been going on for decades, and we've just dismissed it or ignorantly slagged it off, or simply not even known about it. This whole thing has been a revelation.
The Microsoft version of this would pretty much be a straight horizontal line with a few dots on it.
felix
Bluelight Crew
tragiclemming - still not got round to looking into that wifi adapter, hopefully soon.
I still get amazed by at least one new Linux thing every day, and I suspect that'll continue for quite some time.
Two today, so far:
1. In Terminal - press Ctrl+L to clear!
2. In Gimp - press '1' to zoom the image to 1:1
Excellent. :D
Any more?
I still get amazed by at least one new Linux thing every day, and I suspect that'll continue for quite some time.
Two today, so far:
1. In Terminal - press Ctrl+L to clear!
2. In Gimp - press '1' to zoom the image to 1:1
Excellent. :D
Any more?
knock
Bluelighter
You might already know these but they still amaze me after years of use! OK "amaze" might be too strong but they do get me excited.
Mousey things
The X Window System (and you're using it even if you're running GNOME or KDE or Unity or whatever) has not one but TWO clipboards (well, to be precise it has one clipboard and a primary selection but the effect is like two clipboards) - there's the usual windows-esque CTRL+C CTRL+V for Copy and Paste, but you can also just select something with the mouse and use the middle mouse button (if you are lucky enough to have one) to paste it. It gets pasted where you point the mouse, not where your "insertion point" is.
That was too long, here's a couple of short ones:
ALT+LEFT-MOUSE-DRAG = move window
ALT+MIDDLE-MOUSE-DRAG = resize window (mouse pointer needs to be near relevant window edge)
These last two depend on the window manager but they should work in many distros' default configurations. And the last one assumes you have a middle mouse button! A scroll wheel typically doubles as one (but not always).
Shambles
Bluelight Crew
I was deeply impressed when my friendly occasional 'puter burglar showed me you can make the terminal transparent so you can see the desktop through it. It almost entirely made up for the fact that he revealed this revelation to me by demonstrating to me that the "conversation" begun on my 'puter was now taking place on his and a similar thing had occurred with all the data on my HD. Was bloody impressive when the realisation finally sunk in that my fave desktop piccy (a photo of a Japanase woman with an octopus up her bum) was but a window within a window within a haze of way too much peevee and way too little password. Complete with Bob Dylan soundtrack.
You probably had to be there to appreciate it but thought it worth a mention if you like prettying up terminals I suppose. Pretty much every single thing on Linux can be tweaked to within an inch of its existance. Just ask an Emacs enthusiast :D
Moral of the story being: keep an eye on the thingy at the beginning of whatever you type in terminal ($, #, ~ or whatever they are cos they mean rather different things) and what the title bar in the window says (can also be changed for both comedy and fuckery purposes).
Or just use a password of more than one letter for sudo
You probably had to be there to appreciate it but thought it worth a mention if you like prettying up terminals I suppose. Pretty much every single thing on Linux can be tweaked to within an inch of its existance. Just ask an Emacs enthusiast :D
Moral of the story being: keep an eye on the thingy at the beginning of whatever you type in terminal ($, #, ~ or whatever they are cos they mean rather different things) and what the title bar in the window says (can also be changed for both comedy and fuckery purposes).
Or just use a password of more than one letter for sudo
I'd like to point out that I was full of drugs when this presentation happened :D The colourful and organic "leafy" chart really hooked me..I started going on about what if you applied forecasting formula and what not...oh deary me
what fun for the mind 
anyhoo...
Saying that, as a real-life idiot user, brought up on a mac (graphic / designer /media heavy) and then Windows I'm absolutely loving cinnamon mint - it's a real pleasure, very easy and intuitive and has made my "leisure time" online interface, well... so very lovely n' cuddly %)
I'm lucky I have a tech-geek on hand to troubleshoot for me, but I've hardly moaned about anything, just got on with my 'puter things as I do on me purple dell and been a much happier happy bunny.
On another point it's nice to know one can have the choice - to go fuck you Bill / Microsoft...online communities will crawl all over your architecture / infrastructure and know its shite and something better is out there...and its FREE
Linux Mint
knock
Bluelighter
seeing as you all seem to be getting into your terminals, I wonder if you know about TAB auto-completion?
Say you're in your terminal and want to have a look in your Downloads directory.
user@computer:~$ ls D* -d
Desktop Documents Downloads
user@computer:~$ cd D[TAB]
nothing happens, because D is ambiguous. So press [TAB] again to see the ambiguity spelled out.
Desktop/ Documents/ Downloads/
user@computer@~$ cd D
ok you wanted Downloads... type "ow" to resolve the ambiguity and press TAB again. Magically it auto-completes
user@computer:~$ cd Dow[TAB]nloads/ (I didn't type nloads!)
and you can press ENTER. This all happens much faster than it takes to explain it
The shell (for it is the shell - maybe dash or bash to be specific - which auto-completes) is clever enough to know you only cd into directories (the 20th century name for what kids now call folders). So if you have a file called "Dow Jones statistics.txt" it will be ignored in the auto-completion because it is not a directory.
Say you're in your terminal and want to have a look in your Downloads directory.
user@computer:~$ ls D* -d
Desktop Documents Downloads
user@computer:~$ cd D[TAB]
nothing happens, because D is ambiguous. So press [TAB] again to see the ambiguity spelled out.
Desktop/ Documents/ Downloads/
user@computer@~$ cd D
ok you wanted Downloads... type "ow" to resolve the ambiguity and press TAB again. Magically it auto-completes
user@computer:~$ cd Dow[TAB]nloads/ (I didn't type nloads!)
and you can press ENTER. This all happens much faster than it takes to explain it
The shell (for it is the shell - maybe dash or bash to be specific - which auto-completes) is clever enough to know you only cd into directories (the 20th century name for what kids now call folders). So if you have a file called "Dow Jones statistics.txt" it will be ignored in the auto-completion because it is not a directory.
Shambles
Bluelight Crew
I'm still working up to tackling the dualboot thang. Felix informs me that it's dead easy with W7 but MS stuff really doesn't like Linux stuff ime. Haven't been able to access a single file from my external HD (no more tunes on tap 
) nor any of the bazillion CD/DVDs burned with Linux. Most annoying. Windows must be needing wiping cos they can't seem to see a damn thing even slightly Linux-shaped. Actually that's not quite true. I did manage to recover one CD containing a few useful bits and bobs (well, would be useful with Linux installed) but it renames everything to BIGCAPITALLETTERS&@
P!Q*1113@ which have sod all to do with what the file actually is and then either can't open them or can but only in gibberised form. Protecting your propriety software is one thing but bending over backwards to make sure it's only compatible one way is just plain shit 
That aside, had a look at Cinnamon t'other day and looks good to me. Seems to be more popular than Ubuntu these days too. And also both freshens the breath and can be used to make hot cross buns.
PS: The Tab autocomplete button saved me from having to learn all kindsa things I probably should've known. Very handy timesaver but perhaps lends itself to blind guesswork for the novice... well... for me anyway 8)
PPS: Was also well chuffed when I learnt you could abbreviate "cd" to "." or ".." and the like (for lil baby jumps anyway) too - easily pleased me :D
) nor any of the bazillion CD/DVDs burned with Linux. Most annoying. Windows must be needing wiping cos they can't seem to see a damn thing even slightly Linux-shaped. Actually that's not quite true. I did manage to recover one CD containing a few useful bits and bobs (well, would be useful with Linux installed) but it renames everything to BIGCAPITALLETTERS&@P!Q*1113@ which have sod all to do with what the file actually is and then either can't open them or can but only in gibberised form. Protecting your propriety software is one thing but bending over backwards to make sure it's only compatible one way is just plain shit That aside, had a look at Cinnamon t'other day and looks good to me. Seems to be more popular than Ubuntu these days too. And also both freshens the breath and can be used to make hot cross buns.
PS: The Tab autocomplete button saved me from having to learn all kindsa things I probably should've known. Very handy timesaver but perhaps lends itself to blind guesswork for the novice... well... for me anyway 8)
PPS: Was also well chuffed when I learnt you could abbreviate "cd" to "." or ".." and the like (for lil baby jumps anyway) too - easily pleased me :D
felix
Bluelight Crew
I've read about the tab-autocomplete thing, but I've yet to get the hang of it. that looks like the best explanation I've seen yet though, knockando, so cheers! will give that a go (but not tonight )
just a wee point: LinuxMint12 is the OS in question, with Cinnamon as a desktop environment on top (just like Ubuntu is an OS, with Unity as a desktop environment on top). i'm sure you know that but others might not.
I sent this email to a family member the other week which is kinda similar to (but probably better written than) the PM I sent you, shambles:
If all of your media is locked away and unreadable by Windows, then you know you need to get Linux back in your life somehow.
And just by the way... your computer didn't get hacked because of Windows or Linux, it got hacked because you left your router wide open without any passwords or MAC filtering.
[please tell me you've dealt with that]
)shambles said:
just a wee point: LinuxMint12 is the OS in question, with Cinnamon as a desktop environment on top (just like Ubuntu is an OS, with Unity as a desktop environment on top). i'm sure you know that but others might not.
I sent this email to a family member the other week which is kinda similar to (but probably better written than) the PM I sent you, shambles:
NSFW:
If all of your media is locked away and unreadable by Windows, then you know you need to get Linux back in your life somehow.
And just by the way... your computer didn't get hacked because of Windows or Linux, it got hacked because you left your router wide open without any passwords or MAC filtering.
[please tell me you've dealt with that]
Shambles
Bluelight Crew
Hehe. I am well aware that passwords are Good Things. I am less able to put knowledge into practice tho. Have a new router but not read the instructions (obviously) and not entirely sure how to change passwords so... no
But thanks for the reminder. It really is something I should make a bit of effort with considering the malarky caused last time (which I notice is not being dismissed quite so roundly as paranoid fantasy these days).
So now we've established that Linux really is the shit and that rather lengthy and impressively intrusive (yet comedically creative) hacking really did occur that surely proves that I really do know it all, eh? :D
(other than how to effectively employ passwords perhaps)
But thanks for the reminder. It really is something I should make a bit of effort with considering the malarky caused last time (which I notice is not being dismissed quite so roundly as paranoid fantasy these days
).So now we've established that Linux really is the shit and that rather lengthy and impressively intrusive (yet comedically creative) hacking really did occur that surely proves that I really do know it all, eh? :D
(other than how to effectively employ passwords perhaps)
felix
Bluelight Crew
I'm gonna guess that if you type 192.168.1.1 into a browser window, it'll take you to your router setup page.
do it before you take any more drugs, please.
do it before you take any more drugs, please.
Shambles
Bluelight Crew
Suspect you'd be right there, Felix. Also suspect that I'm a tad too pissed to manage to both create a new password and make a note of it somewhere I'd ever find it again so it'll be a tomorrow thing. In the grand scheme I doubt my lil friend will put in an appearance in the meantime. Seems I lost novelty value since becoming just another Windozer
BecomingJulie
Bluelight Crew
Long-time Linux user, at home and at work (most of our workstations run Linux, with a web browser for in-house written web apps). Tried Debian, Mandriva, Slackware, Gentoo, back to Debian again but would have stuck with Gentoo if I hadn't discovered Debian -- little to choose between them, really; emerge and apt-get are both awesome. Prefer perl to python, occasionally write wonderful stuff in bash. Going off PHP slowly, the more I can work out to do in perl, the less need I feel for PHP.
All the servers on my home LAN are named after drugs ..... When I run out of drugs. I'm going to start using explosives.
I've even got a penguin tattoo!
All the servers on my home LAN are named after drugs ..... When I run out of drugs. I'm going to start using explosives.
I've even got a penguin tattoo!
tragiclemming
Bluelighter
Real servers run on CentOS/Redhat/Fedora. The rest are merely toys
knock
Bluelighter
Real servers run on CentOS/Redhat/Fedora. The rest are merely toys
That's what people used to say about Solaris.
BecomingJulie
Bluelight Crew
Can't get to grips with CentOS / Fedora after using Debian. They put all the files in the wrong place.
First thing I learned with Mandriva was how to build from Source Code cos I could never get anything to install from an RPM even if I could find one .....
First thing I learned with Mandriva was how to build from Source Code cos I could never get anything to install from an RPM even if I could find one .....
knock
Bluelighter
Me too, I have painful memories of downloading the many MB of Gnome 0.9.something over dial up and attempting to build it from source on RedHat. I quickly switched to Debian after that...
tragiclemming
Bluelighter
When we build servers at work we want to configure them once, power them up and leave them alone for the next 3-4 years in the knowledge that this is what they were built to do This is what CentOs/Redhat does well. No new features for a few years. Stable release and battle tested. Security & bug fixes only. Debian stable release offers a similar approach.
No 'desktops' required!
This is what CentOs/Redhat does well. No new features for a few years. Stable release and battle tested. Security & bug fixes only. Debian stable release offers a similar approach.No 'desktops' required!
tragiclemming
Bluelighter
felix
Bluelight Crew
i'm in the process of installing Arch on a spare disk in Big Ted. (from archlinux-2011.08.19-core-i686.iso)
using the entire disk (sdb), formatted with all default partitions, ext4, set date & time etc. OK.
next step is to 'install packages', but it's giving me this error and I'm in a bit of a loop here now:
"you must do worker prepare_disks first before going here!"
I did. when I go back to 'prepare disks', it tells me "you already went here". it appeared to prepare the disk OK, so I'm kinda stuck. google isn't coming up with that error message.
help for a n00b, please?
using the entire disk (sdb), formatted with all default partitions, ext4, set date & time etc. OK.
next step is to 'install packages', but it's giving me this error and I'm in a bit of a loop here now:
"you must do worker prepare_disks first before going here!"
I did.
when I go back to 'prepare disks', it tells me "you already went here". it appeared to prepare the disk OK, so I'm kinda stuck. google isn't coming up with that error message.help for a n00b, please?