Software Free

Just to try what is new in word of virtual machines ( In my opinion it is not long now :) )

No idea why it can be best solution for any of common tasks.

Used file for filesystem, non-xen kernel (due to still having no network on -xen with my card).

Extremely slow.30 minutes to load Xubuntu Gutsy in machine.
(2-3 minutes on low-end Asus eeePC).

Host is CentOS 5.1 AMD Opteron x64 machine. Target i686 500 mb memory eeeXubuntu (Xubuntu gutsy 7.10).

Let's face it, open source software runs the Internet. Without it we wouldn't have basic services like DNS, or even the web server that's sending you this page. This isn't a new phenomenon. People have been writing and distributing OSS software since the Internet was born. I'm always amused when people characterize it as a new-fangled thing.

read more

finally I have got it working under 'standard' (non-xen) kernel
using the guides from wolfy and wikipedia (http://wolfy.fedorapeople.org/) :

http://wiki.centos.org/HardwareList/RealTekRTL8111b
http://wolfy.fedorapeople.org/dkms-r8168/quick_install.html

However I still have no network under xen-kernel,
that is boring :(

"... «A weakness has been discovered in the random number generator used by OpenSSL on Debian and Ubuntu systems. As a result of this weakness, certain encryption keys are much more common than they should be, such that an attacker could guess the key through a brute-force attack given minimal knowledge of the system.

read more

"This is meant as a quick tutorial to get gitweb up and running on gentoo with apache as the web server..."

A long time Ubuntu user tries Kubuntu Linux 8.04 live CD with KDE 4.0 desktop and shares his experience.

After lots of waiting Red Hat Released their latest Desktop/Server version of Fedora Linux Lets take a quick look at its feature Fedora is a Linux-based operating system that showcases the latest in free and open source software. Fedora is always free for anyone to use, modify, and distribute. It is built by people across the globe who work together as a community: the Fedora Project.

read more

"Why should we care to have a 100 per cent free operating system? Isn't being almost free enough? Not if you value freedom itself.

The Free Software Movement was founded to win freedom for software users. Its offshoot, Open Source, was founded to downplay freedom as a value. This difference, which may seem subtle, has big consequences and this is one example of them..."

Basically all this systems are GNU/Linux systems.

The main difference from the point of desktop user is set of applications that already present on fresh install, default configuration of desktop (graphics and theme mainly) and kernel version used.

All these distributions support kernel upgrade (through update manager, and manually, through recompilation of kernel downloaded from kernel.org (but in different recommended way for this distro's; however, seems make oldconfig;
make all works on all distro's).

Main way of installing applications on the distributions is installing from packages.

Debian (with Knoppix) and Ubuntu are .deb-based distributions, where .deb is extension of package on these systems.

RedHat (CentOS, Fedora) and Suse are .rpm based distributions. Package extension is .rpm.

Also these systems support user-friendly layer for installing applications.

For .deb-based distro's main tool is apt (also different graphical front-ends used), and for .rpm based such tool is yum.

Page that works for installing plugin on 64-bit firefox 1.5 under CentOS 5.1 on my box:
http://www.linuxheadquarters.com/howto/64-bit/flash64.shtml

My lspci output:

rtg]# lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS690 Host Bridge
00:01.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS690 PCI to PCI Bridge (Internal gfx)
00:07.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS690 PCI to PCI Bridge (PCI Express Port 3)
00:12.0 SATA controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 Non-Raid-5 SATA
00:13.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI0)
00:13.1 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI1)
00:13.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI2)
00:13.3 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI3)
00:13.4 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI4)
00:13.5 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB Controller (EHCI)
00:14.0 SMBus: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 SMBus Controller (rev 14)
00:14.1 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 IDE
00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia
00:14.3 ISA bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 PCI to LPC Bridge
00:14.4 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 PCI to PCI Bridge

The Brazilian Debian GNU / Linux SuiteTelecentro benefits more than 4 millions users every year.

The Brazilian Debian GNU / Linux SuiteTelecentro is a custom solution which is currently being deployed in the Digital Inclusion Program of Banco do Brasil. SuiteTelecentro is used in approximately 2000 telecentres and computer rooms.

read more

tar vjxf file.tar.bz2

-or- 'verbose' way:

tar vjxf file.tar.bz2 > /dev/null

Found page:

http://wiki.centos.org/HardwareList/RealTekRTL8111b

Thats way I hve to download some staff to install it on machine without internet.

I have used my laptop with Xubuntu 8.04 to download staff, and USB drive to move to machine with CentOS.

Copyied bz2 driver from link there (r8168-8.005.00.tar.bz2) to flash
and then on CentOS 5 machine.

no tar and bz2 in folder where it is copied, so

bzip2 -d *.bz2
tar -xf *.tar

-or-

tar vjxf r816*

made me folder with driver src.
less readme

tells that you should
1) make clean modules,
However, it is not working (errors reported, that pathes not exist)
because linux headers are not installed by default on system.

To resolve:
2) go there: http://mirror.centos.org/centos/5/os/x86_64/CentOS/
get

search kernel-xen-dev on page (ctrl-f in browser like firefox)

Bought Athlon 64 desk (<400 usd) and 19" wide monitor (~210 USD).
all on Asus hardware

Now CentOS 5.0 x64 is installing on it.

Installation is smooth, however very different from Debian based distributions.

By default selected all types from list (Desktop KDE, Desktop GUI, Server, Server GUI, Cluster ... )

Left some space on device for further playing with different file systems.

First problems:
a) It requires login and password of user on first boot , and I cannot switch from local encoding .
skip user addition (to install further).
b) No network after install on fresh machine.
(to compare,
Xubuntu 7.10 livecd detected network and internet without any effort)

In Gnome Network Preferences, no any adapter installed.

However it a lot of fun staff from the box (like sftp , and one virtual machine running).

Overall expression : Amazing thing, but need some work to make it working with such basic things as Internet.