There are the daring Minis and LiveCDs (Knoppix), the specialized ones (Linux-on-a-toilet), the “techdemo” distros (Kororaa), the “Mighty Underdog” distros (Frugalware; Zenwalk), the retard OSes. (Linspire; Mepis), and finally the uber-1337 Gnu/Linux distros (Debian; Slackware; Gentoo.)

I like the way TechNews put it.

On Linux, Skype’s not a very good citizen, so if you’re getting “Problem with sound device” errors and “/dev/dsp-1: Device or resource busy” errors, here’s what to do:

• Install alsa-oss package, wraps around software that uses OSS and makes it ALSA-compatible. Most distributions (at least Fedora, Ubuntu and Arch) call this package the same.
• Run aoss /usr/bin/skype
• (Optional) Rename /usr/bin/skype and put a bash script in its place to run aoss
• Enjoy free calls!

Update: You don’t need to this anymore because Skype have already released an ALSA-compatible version for Linux. Let’s go nuts.

Ubuntu’s Wiki has many out-dated documents on how to do that, and they all say that it’s as easy as running:

apt-get install nvidia-glx
nvidia-glx-config enable

After rebooting, nVidia drivers should be installed. If you want to check, run:

glxgears -printfps

On my GeForce 6800 Ultra I’m getting around 14,000 FPS, I’m sure I can speed it up with more tweaking, but I don’t really have the time for it.

The thing is, enabling nVidia GLX drivers isn’t enough to get the performance these drivers are capable of. So here’s what you need to do:

First, check whether you’re using AGPGART or NVIDIA AGP drivers:

$ cat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/status
Status:          Enabled
Driver:          NVIDIA
AGP Rate:        8x
Fast Writes:     Disabled
SBA:             Enabled

If it says AGPGART instead of NVIDIA then you should add nvidia-agp to your /etc/modules just before the line that says nvidia (assuming you already run nvidia-glx-config enable).

This tells the system to load nVidia AGP drivers on start-up, but that’s not it, you need to also disable loading AGPGART, nvidia-agp doesn’t work with AGPGART loaded, so add it to hotplug’s blacklist:

$ tail /etc/hotplug/blacklist

# snd_intel8x0m can interfere with snd_intel8x0, doesn't seem to support much
# hardware on its own (Ubuntu bug #2011, #6810)
snd_intel8x0m

# causes failure to suspend on HP compaq nc6000 (Ubuntu: #10306)
i2c_i801

amd64_agp
agpgart

I had to blacklist amd64_agp too because it depeneds on agpgart. Note that this doesn’t prevent AGPGART from loading again, but this makes sure that NVIDIA AGP is loaded before it.

Next, you should add a few performance-enhancing options to your /etc/X11/xorg.conf. Just above the line that says Driver   "nvidia" add these:

    Option "NoLogo" "true"  # Disables nVidia's logo on start-up
    Option "NvAGP" "1"  # Tries internal nVidia AGP drivers first
    Option "RenderAccel" "true"  # Duh :)
    Option "CursorShadow" "true"  # Adds an alpha-shadow to your cursor
    Option "AllowGLXWithComposite" "true"  # Mostly used for cool effects

Note that using AllowGLXWithComposite can cause the system to act a little flaky when you enable Composite extension. This is used for cute Vista-like effects, like transparent windows, drop-shadows, etc. Use with caution.

Well, I hope that’s it. I didn’t have to recompile my kernel or nVidia drivers, most went out smoothly, except for the fact that I had to search a lot for this information.

One last tip, try to install an optimized kernel as soon as possible. Ubuntu comes with linux-386 package, try to upgrade it to linux-686 or linux-k7, depeneding on your hardware, you’ll notice a performance increase.

Best of luck.

P.S. Turns out most of my performance gripes with Ubuntu was because of nVidia’s “inproper” installation. Like I said nvidia-glx-config enable didn’t quite do the trick.

Boy was I wrong…

In all honesty, I simply don’t get it. I tried and tried to fix whatever’s wrong with its Gnome defaults to no avail. It’s too damn slow! Yes, really. I’ve heard about a Firefox issue eating up all the CPU on Breezy and that it should be fixed with a simple install of the latest binary from Mozilla.org, but it’s not just the browser, everything in the system feels sluggish as hell.

I thought maybe I did something wrong, maybe I installed a package I shouldn’t have, maybe I unleashed the wrath of “humanity”, I’m really not sure, so I reinstalled. Then, I reinstalled again. One more time, reinstalled. I still kept coming back to the same issues over and over again. Even Hoary wasn’t this slow.

I even downloaded and installed OpenSuSE (I’m sorry about the caps, I’m still not sure hOw tO sPEll SuSe :), Slackware with Dropline, did a Stage3 Gentoo installation, even FreeBSD delivered great performance. I’m astonished. How could a distribution this cool release a version this crappy?!

They say Droopy Drapper is going to be the be-all-end-all distribution, and I have to give Ubuntu guys their credit, they’ve done some really hard work until now, after which I can’t explain this sudden decline in quality. They’ve already released their first nightly of Dapper. Now guys, why on earth would you be working on a newer release when you still haven’t fixed the old one?

Remember how Ubuntu used to toot their own horn about a periodic 6-month release? Come to think about it now, I believe it’s a bad idea. Maybe Ubuntu devs felt some pressure to release and they just had to go for it. Well, I’d be much happier if you do a 6-year release period but do it right, I mean really right.

I’m not sure what to think right now about Ubuntu. They’ve impressed me once, but they can’t seem to do it again.

Wish you best of luck Ubuntu team. Hopefully, you won’t need it.

Yesterday, while emerge sync && emerge -uDN world, amaroK crashed. I’m not sure why it did, probably because of some library incompatibilities since the update wasn’t finished yet. But anyhow, when amaroK crashed, Kmail popped up with a new message reading:

amaroK has crashed! We’re terribly sorry about this :(

But all is not lost! You could potentially help us fix the crash. amaroK has attached a backtrace that describes the crash, so just click send, or if you have time, write a brief description of how the crash happened first.

Many thanks.

That’s got to be the cutest crash I’ve come across, it makes me actually want to send crash reports. All I had to do is click on send and get back to work, no hassles, no interruptions, just a little smile.

By the way, in case I haven’t mentioned this before, amaroK is the only media player that got me to switch from Winamp! I absolutely adored Winamp and had it running under Wine, amaroK changed that; but that’s a whole different story.

Let me cut this short. Turns out that Windows is better than Linux because you need to buy software to “ensure” its security! This is stupidity at its finest.

(more…)

Have Ballmer give a speech in Asia, or any place that is switching hogwild for Linux, and warn them that Linux has legal issues that can bite them, and have your salesmen mention that in their sales pitch. Use the phony baloney lawsuit as evidence. Next announce indemnification for your own products and make a pleasant contrast. Have the lawyers delay and delay and delay any litigation outcome to maximize PR benefits. Cross your fingers behind your back and say Microsoft is cheaper to run than Linux. Play with numbers until it can be “proven” in your paid-for “studies”. A mainframe computer might help out there.

This must be the perfect strategy to destroy Linux.

Honestly, I don’t know how people think that Linux can be destroyed. Corporates might be able to stop Linux from growing in the desktop market, or cut its (tiny) share from mobile devices, but trust me, Linux is here to stay.

There are many things that can change Linux’s fate, especially without proper corporate backing. Think Apple’s switch to Intel, Intel’s “plans” to cut off Linux of the media, DRM, the RIAA, the MPAA, extraterrestrials, and god-knows-what-else. Everyone seems to try their best they can to stop Linux from growing, and for some reason, they’re failing.

Intel thinks that if they start on the hardware level they’ll be able to stop Linux from playing legitimate content, or force Linux vendors to buy licenses for “special” software that can play such protected content. The fact is, Linux is made by a huge list of extremely talented developers who aren’t going to let this go, and I’m pretty sure that if Intel does utilize a hardware-level media protection layer, developers are still going to deconstruct, dissect and disassemble it, find a work around, write a kernel module and distribute it anyway. Nobody likes having his rights taken off, and that’s precisely what Intel’s trying to do.

A free operating system is particularly difficult to stop, since it’s commoditizing an essential part of computers, a part that we usually pay for; Linux is making that available to everyone for close-to-nothing cost. The only problem is that Linux isn’t represented by a single entity, and without proper commercial backing Linux is going to have a hard time dealing with licensing, IP, and legal trouble.

Essentially, it’s all about the money. Why would Apple, Intel or Microsoft want to hurt Linux unless it’s going to get them more money? Isn’t it a business strategy? If any of these companies finds a way to make Linux work for them rather than against, don’t you think they’d start evangelizing Linux as an “alternative” solution? I bet they would.

It’s still possible to stop Linux, only it’s not very easy. As long as its generating revenues for a few companies, you’re still going to see it around.

MAILTO="" 
#################################################################### 
#minute (0-59),                                                    # 
#|      hour (0-23),                                               # 
#|      |       day of the month (1-31),                           # 
#|      |       |       month of the year (1-12),                  # 
#|      |       |       |       day of the week (0-6 with 0=Sunday)# 
#|      |       |       |       |       commands                   # 
#################################################################### 
30      01      *       *       *       /home/jim/bin/cleartmp 

Thanks Jim

Don’t get this wrong, you can by all means install and run Gentoo on VMWare, since most of the hardware VMWare emulates is known to Linux, like LSI Logic SCSI interface, or AMD’s PCNet32 network interface. Only when it comes to graphics, VMWare uses its own device and doesn’t emulate any known one, that’s why you need to install VMWare tools before running X, otherwise, you’ll just end up with crappy colors and resolutions.

On Gentoo, the installation was fairly easy, I only had to look around the VMWare Tools package a little and figured it out. Here’s what you have to do:

• In VMWare, click on VM -> Install VMWare Tools…
• mount /mnt/cdrom
• Extract /mnt/cdrom/vmware-linux-tools.tar.gz somewhere.
• cp /path/to/vmware-tools-distrib/lib/configurator/XFree86-4/4.3.x/vmware_drv.o\
   /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/
• Now use /path/to/vmware-tools-distrib/lib/configurator/XF86Config-4 as a reference to setup your /etc/X11/xorg.conf. The only two things that really matter are the “Monitor” section XF86Config-4, and that you make sure you’re using vmware as a drive in the “Device” section. Tip: Xorg -configure might do a decent job in figuring out most of the details, it only leaves the monitor undetected, so just copy it from the sample configuration.
• startx, and everything should work fine.

I’m still not sure about the rest of VMWare tools, haven’t compiled them yet, but I’ll try working on them later on, maybe even end up with an ebuild. Personally, I only needed to get X.org to run at a 1600×1200 resolution, I don’t need the rest of the tools much, but then again, why not get the rest?

Well, at that time I didn’t know I had defect hardware, I thought that Gentoo had too many problems on my architecture to deal with. So I decided to install Ubuntu, and like I said before, it’s a great distribution, it got everything up and and running in no time. Ubuntu’s Warty was a little bit outdated for my tastes, so I got Hoary Array-4 and installed it. The installer’s been improved a lot, at least it now asks whether to install Grub or not. However, my personal advice is not to use it on AMD64, since although it has bleeding-edge software, right now it’s very unstable.

(more…)