Linux Mint 8 - Fluxbox edition

This edition of Linux Mint works great on my old IBM Thinkpad R40e.
BUT... some applications (e.g. Decibel Audio Player) shows weird, garbage display. Must be the video driver.

So looking around, found out that this laptop uses ATI Radeon drivers, and found this link in the AMD website.

Linux Mint 8 (Helena)

Packages for the workplace:

1. Google Chrome - downloaded .deb package from Google website, with update to etc-sources list

2. Thunderbird 3 - tar.gz download; uninstall the Thunderbird 2 first, then run the thunderbird file. Not as painless an installation as Chrome was.

3. 7z - p7Zip-full package in Mint's Synaptic is more than enough. Installing this automatically makes 7z available as a format to extract or add archives to with the built-in right-click Compress option of Linux Mint.

4. VLC - again... already in Synaptic.

5. IPMsg - using instructions and dependencies from my earlier posts.

My favorite Linux on a USB

One word: Knoppix.

Click here for instructions. Thanks to www.pendrivelinux.com for this gold find.

• Detected my hardware, including my wifi.
• Configuration of broadband wireless a snap - since its Debian roots, very much the same as Ubuntu.
• Using XFCE desktop - blazingly fast!
• Installed AVAST Linux edition for my antivirus utility
• Detected my Windows partitions without hitches (unlike the Debian Live USB)
  

How to make your own antivirus rescue bootable USB

Project: custom antivirus rescue solution

** using a USB instead of a CD
** signatures can be updated constantly, unlike most available rescue CDs out there
; some (like Kaspersky, Bitdefender or Avira) will offer updating the signatures but will require 1) cable LAN connection to Internet, and 2) a lot of your time - more than an hour to just update the obsolete definitions in the Live CDs

What I wanted: a rewritable antivirus "Live CD" that I can update database definitions in, that I can boot up on infected Windows computers, and remove viruses.

Strategy:
1. figure out how to create a GUI-based Linux that will run in a USB drive.
2. install clamtk on that system, with ability to connect to Internet to get updates for virus signatures.


Implementation (this actually work):
1. Using the Ubuntu 9.10 Live CD, create a bootable Ubuntu USB drive (aka Live USB, instead of Live CD) -

I used a 2gb USB, formatted with a volume label and FAT32.

reference: the pendrivelinux.com site

2. Plug in the USB, change BIOS to boot from USB.

3. Connected my Sun Cellular Huawei USB modem.

4. Set up a new broadband mobile connection using the Ubuntu network manager.

5. Change APN setting of the broadband to fbband.

6. Once the Internet was alive,

- sudo apt-get update
- changed repositories to pick the best server
- sudo apt get install clamav
- set a new location in the clock (Manila)
- downloaded the deb for clamtk at the sourceforge site

7. sudo dpkg -i {deb package}

8. if error message appears (w/c happened to me),
sudo apt-get -f install

to fix the broken dependencies, and just repeat 7.


After all these, I know have a bootable USB of Ubuntu plus CLAMTK - for my own antivirus rescue solution.

audacity in karmic, ffmpeg source to package

OPEN ISSUE: below steps didn't work. removed everything afterwards.

had another steep learning curve to get a simple thing done here.
making audacity work and import audio from a video (mp4) file. it complained about not having ffmpeg.

wish the ubuntu guys would get their act together - if you already have a package in the repository, why do you have to download SOURCE, then COMPILE, then do all these geeky stuff? all the more intimidating for the millions of computer users out there.

my references:

1. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=786095

2. http://daily-hacking.blogspot.com/2009/08/ffmpeg-with-amr-support-on-ubuntu.html

Bluetooth on Karmic

went to this site: http://blueman-project.org/downloads.html

then :
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:blueman/ppa

then:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install blueman

Karmic Upgrade

It's been a while.

Yesterday and today I upgraded 9.04 with 9.10. Yesterday for downloading the packages, and today for the actual upgrade. After rebooting, it couldn't boot up at first.

Turns out the culprit was the AVIRA Guard, that kept some DazukoFS entries in my /etc/fstab.

Commenting those out solved the problem.

Still in ext3, though.