llawwehttam's blog

Blog deceased

2010-09-02T13:52:00.000-07:00

I will no longer be posting on this blog.

I am now running a linux blog @ http://matt-linux-log.blogspot.com/

I may start another blog in the future for this sort of content meaning the close of this blog. If this happens the content will be moved.

Bad DNS lookups.

2010-06-29T14:13:00.001-07:00

Today I tried to go to the coolermaster website and for some reason I got re-directed to an under construction page. I thought this was a bit wierd and after talking to a few people found out it was just me.

I found out that typing http://coolermaster.com gave a different result to typing http://www.coolermaster.com.

I thought this was a bit weird and especially after I found out that both went to the under construction page unless I cleared my dns cache.

I worked out that my ISP's DNS servers were a bit messed up after being sent to wrong websites several times so I decided to do something about it.

I was recommended a free DNS service called OpenDNS at http://www.opendns.com/ with dns server IP addresses of:
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

which worked fine.

I have a dlink router so I had to go to the configuration page, click advanced > Dns Setup and manually specify the dns servers there.

I have had no bad lookups since and highly recommend using these dns servers.

Do computers dream of electric sheep?

2010-05-29T05:17:00.000-07:00

Electric Sheep is a collaborative abstract artwork founded by Scott Draves. It's run by thousands of people all over the world, and can be installed on any ordinary PC or Mac. When these computers "sleep", the Electric Sheep comes on and the computers communicate with each other by the internet to share the work of creating morphing abstract animations known as "sheep". The result is a collective "android dream", an homage to Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.

Anyone watching one of these computers may vote for their favorite animations using the keyboard. The more popular sheep live longer and reproduce according to a genetic algorithm with mutation and cross-over. Hence the flock evolves to please its global audience. You can also design your own sheep and submit them to the gene pool.

Download page is here: http://community.electricsheep.org/download

When you first install it you may have to wait a while for it to download "sheep". Do not be alarmed if you just get a black screen for a while.

You can use this as a great screensaver in Linux windows or mac, or linux users who feel brave can use it as a constantly mutating desktop wallpaper. This may take some scripting and I wouldn't recommend you do this unless you have a good processor, plenty of ram and a lot of patience for scripting.

Where do I buy my components?

2010-05-14T14:58:00.000-07:00

I was recently asked where I get my computer parts.

I usually shop around to get the best deals but I like to get good customer service too.

I highly recommend Aria for their products and for their customer service.

Novatech are also very good for both prices and especially customer service.

If they do not stock what I want I would use Ebuyer.

For very custom PC's, watercooling etc I recommend scan and Kustompc.

I am not usually one to complain or moan but I have heard a lot of bad reviews about http://www.overclockers.co.uk/ and I would not recommend you buy there.

Ubuntu 10.04 is full of bugs. Everybody panic!!!!!

2010-05-14T09:44:00.000-07:00

I had a look on some of the forums today and there are a lot of new users who have just installed ubuntu 10.04 and have either encountered a bug or have had trouble booting etc..

As a regular user of linux I (and many others) can tell you that this happens every release. Last time I heard that 9.10 was 'the worst release ever' and similar horror stories. I have been using 9.10 since the release and es I have encountered a few bugs but they have been fixed very rapidly.

This happens with all OS's. With windows they have a lot more time to test it but with ubuntu they release every 6 months so time is very restricted and often a few bugs don't get squashed until after the release. If you are a new ubuntu user I recommend you wait at least a month before installing Lucid Lynx but if you are inpatient please do not get put off by bugs.

If you find a bug please report it as soon as possible and I'm sure it will be fixed. If not please use the ubuntu forums as there will be someone out there who will be able to help.

As with all releases it will get better over time and after maybe 2 months from the release it will be ultra stable.

I have money but what do I upgrade?

2010-05-14T06:30:00.000-07:00

I have seen a lot of posts on various forums recently saying they have a decent computer, want to upgrade something, have the money, but don't know what, so I thought I would give my recommendations. They are no particular order.

1.)PSU. If your computer has a generic ( non branded ) PSU I recommend you change it as soon as possible to a branded one. For modern machines most non branded PSU's are 300W but are rated at 800W etc because they have managed to do that in a lab on a good day.

You should upgrade to a Branded PSU as soon as possible. I personally recommend Corsair for their PSU's but Cooler-master, OCZ and several other brands sell good PSU's as well.

For the average machine 500W is plenty but if you want to overclock, use Xfire/ SLI or run a lot of high end components you may want more power getting closer to 1000W or even more in extreme systems.

I always recommend a modular PSU as this will help considerably in cable management.

2.) Monitor. If your graphics card is up to it I would always recommend a bigger monitor. 22" is a very good size at the moment and you can pick up a good one for about £150. Monitors can go up to some very large sizes but if you use a single monitor I would recommend 28" max as over that can be a strain on the eyes, especially if you sit quite close.

If you want dual display then any size up to about 24" is good. I have also seen 3 monitor + setups but I find these to be a bit overkill unless your an extreme gamer or need a lot of workspace.

3.)Graphics card; are always being improved. They lose their value more quickly than almost any other part of the computer. I wouldn't recommend spending over £250 on a GPU as they lose their value so fast it can be a waste of money. You can get a good card for £150 and many of these can be put into SLI or Crossfire with Nvidia and ATI cards respectively. A new card can let you stretch your gaming experience much further.

4.) RAM. Many computers now ship with 4GB or ram. However not so long ago computers commonly came with only 1-2GB. With a 32bit Operating System you shouldn't normally need more than 3 GB of ram but in a 64Bit system you may want to go to 8GB or higher. Usually 4GB is good enough at present but more is always good.

5.) Processor. If you have an older processor you may be able to get a new one without changing your motherboard. Some motherboards will support newer CPU's with a BIOS update etc... but always make sure you know whether you can use it or not before you buy. Always remember you may be able to give your current processor an overclock.

5.) HDD. You can never have enough hard drive space. Bill Gates one said nobody will ever use more than 6Mb of disk space and now you can get a 1Tb Hdd for under £50. If you think you can use it a larger HDD is always a good upgrade.

6.) Motherboard. Now and again your motherboard may reach its maximum potential and you may have to upgrade or maybe you just want to have the latest socket or chipset etc.. and I can't really give you advice on that. I personally am an AMD fanboy but some people prefer Intel. I would recommend you go with the best you can get at the time for your money.

7.) Peripherals. A new mouse, keyboard, speaker system, webcam etc is always a good investment. They lose their value very slowly compared to the rest of the computer and are always great to have. Even a new mouse-mat can be a good investment.

8.) Case. If you are serious about your system you may need a new case for the cooling you want in your system or maybe you need more space for gpu's or a large motherboard. Whatever the reason a case is always a good idea. You can get some great looking cases with great performance for about £100 or less.

9.) Cooling. You always want to keep your computer cool and quiet. Just adding a new fan or cpu cooler can be a great idea. Sometimes a new application of thermal paste under your heatsink can be a good idea. Just remember keeping your computer well cooled can increase its life. And watercooling is always an option.

10.) Cable management. Now some people may not consider this as an upgrade but getting some cable brading, cable ties and a few better cables for your system can be great. You can give your computer much better airflow and some good looks if you have a window.

And last of all remember to clean your system out and make sure it doesn't fill with dust.

Mouse mod

2010-05-11T09:42:00.000-07:00

To let you guys know, I HATE BRANDING.

If I get a keyboard with the Microsoft logo on it I peel it off or put a sticker over it.
Now I don't take this to extreme lengths as I like some logo's such as the saitek one.

However I bought a lazer mouse from Nikkai a few weeks ago and I just hated the fact that the name of the company was on my mouse. I also didn't really like that fact that the mouse was part silver. (I bought it because it was nice and cheap)

So this:

got taken to bits:

Out came the fiberglass paste:

The hole where the logo was got filled:

And nicely sanded down:

[I HAVE BEEN TOLD THAT MY IMAGES ARE TOO LARGE FOR PEOPLE ON NETBOOKS. FROM NOW ON I WILL POST THUMBNAILS. PLEASE CLICK THEM FOR THE FULL IMAGE SIZE]

The mouse is now sitting patiently for me to spray paint it metallic red.
As promised here are some pictures of the primer layer:

There were some quite glaring imperfections:

so after a bit more sanding and another coat:
(sorry about the lighting)

I decided that I could get the back quite smooth but there was always going to be a small poc mark so I started designing possible icons that I could paint on to cover it up:

Here are some of my designs. The cyborg head is the symbol saitek use on their cybork keyboards and as I am planning on getting the saitek cyborg V5 keyboard I thought it would go together quite well.

Some of my freehand attempts:

I have a lot more but won't post them. In the end I could freehand paint the image quite well and decided it looked best when reasonably wide, instead of tall and thin. It also looks good if the target eye is quite large.

Here is the saitek cyborg mouse mat. The picture on it is a bit clearer:

I have got a nice bright red that should look great. Once I am happy with the surface of the red I will paint the logo/icon onto the mouse freehand and then use clearcoat.

Here is a pic of the results of the first coat:

Some slight ripple on one side:

After a bit of sanding and a second coat:

After a good hour (and a lot of practice on postits) I went for the icon:

First line and target eye:

One side outlined:

Filled in with other side:

The surface wasn't very smooth:

After a few brush strokes with water:

I did touch it as little as possible as grease or even a slight amount of sweat off a finger could spoil the results.

And the finished product:

10.04 Lucid Lynx Released

2010-04-29T11:36:00.000-07:00

10.04 Lucid Lynx has just been released.

You should now be able to download the iso's.

Ubuntu, Edubuntu etc Download HERE

Kubuntu Download HERE

Xubuntu Download HERE
Lubuntu Download HERE

Link is HERE

HOWEVER.....

For the next 3-4 days the main download servers will be very slow due to the high demand. I have given up trying to download it as their servers are maxed out and I was getting a pitiful 18 KB/s

Ubuntu 10.04

2010-04-16T18:57:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't posted for such a long time. I have had a lot of work to do.

Anyway ubuntu 10.04 is very close to release.

The Beta 2 is now available to download from http://www.ubuntu.com

it has a load of new looks and features and as a long term support edition it looks highly promising.

For those who want to have a banner on their site like the one above you can get it and several others HERE.

F.lux . Better lighting for your computer inside linux.

2010-02-17T13:47:00.000-08:00

A friend pointed me towards F.Lux to change lighting on my screen depending on what time of day it is. When I had a look F.Lux comes as a tarball so I decided it would be nice to write some instructions on how to install it with a simple script.

Firstly open your editor and paste the following into it:

echo "Downloading F.lux . Please wait........" ;
wget -c https://secure.herf.org/flux/xflux.tgz ;
echo "Installing F.Lux ............." ;
tar  -xvzf xflux.tgz ;
rm -rf xflux.tgz ;
sudo  cp xflux /usr/bin/ ;
sudo chmod 755 /usr/bin/xflux ;
echo "F.lux installed" ;
echo "Please run 'xflux -l lat lon' replacing lat and lon with your latitude and longitude"

Save the file as "installflux.sh" with out quotes in your home folder.

Now open your shell, Applications>Accessories>Terminal for ubuntu users.

Type:

chmod +x installflux.sh
sh installflux.sh

You will be prompted to enter your 'sudo' password. This is generally the same as your login password. If you don't use sudo please run this script when logged in as root.

Once the script is finished you can remove the script and xflux from your home folder.

Now you can run flux with xflux command, you can also add it to your start up, But first you have to define your zipcode or latitude.Example :

xflux -l 33.55, 44.55

When i am posting this blog post, the f.lux does not support latitude over 60.

Or you can define zipcode -z instead of -l

Now add it to your startup :

System > Preferences > Sessions
(for ubuntu users)

for arch users edit your .xinitrc .

Name : Xflux
Command : xflux -l 33.55, 44.55 (DO NOT FORGET TO CHANGE the latitude or Zip!)
Comment : F.lux , Better lighting For Your Computer

Hope that helped.

Reset bad compizconfig settings in Ubuntu

2010-01-29T06:48:00.001-08:00

Today I saw a post on the ubuntu forums where someone had installed compiz-config-settingsmanager and had made their system un usable where they could not log in because of bad settings and the GDM was causing problems.

After I helped him to fix it he asked me to put it somewhere accessible so others could do the same.

Only use this if your problem is caused by compiz and you need to reset it.

If it is possible to get to the GDM (Gnome display manager....... or the login screen ) then use method 1.
If you can't see the login screen at all go to method 2.

Method 1.
This should be simple enough.

Press Ctrl+Alt+F1 when at the login. You will get a terminal in fullscreen.
DO NOT BE SCARED.

(You may want to print these instructions before doing this)

Login with your username and password.
When you type your password it will seem as if you are not typing.
This is normal as * shows how many characters you have so a blank is a security feature.

You then need to stop X. ( the graphics)

Code:

sudo service gdm stop

You will be asked for your password so type it in. Again you will not see typing.

you then need to reset compiz.

Code:

gconftool-2 --recursive-unset /apps/compiz

hope that works for you.

You can then restart your graphical display.

Code:

sudo service gdm start

use Ctrl+alt+F7 to get back to your gui.

Method 2.

If you can't get as far as the login screen due to graphics issues caused by compiz config the use this method.

As your computer boots up interrupt at GRUB.

In versions of ubuntu 9.04 and before you will see a prompt on boot saying click ESC to enter grub , do so.

In 9.10 and newer you will not see this so hold the Shift key during boot and you should get to grub. When there choose the newest recovery option.

Once you boot up in recovery mode you will be presented with a small box with some options. Select 'root'.

You now have a root access command line.

You then type:

Code:

su yourusername

( obviously replacing 'yourusername' with your login name) to login as you. You then run

Code:

gconftool-2 --recursive-unset /apps/compiz

You will not have to stop or start the gdm though. When you have run the commands instead of

Code:

sudo service gdm start

type

Code:

sudo shutdown -r now

Your computer should restart and your compiz settings will be reset.

Best cd/DVD writer for linux

2010-01-26T14:25:00.000-08:00

Every time I install a different Linux OS I am presented with another cd / DVD writing program.
When I installed Ubuntu 9.10 instead of the usual ubuntu burning program I was presented with Brasero. After trying it I did not like it at all. It was a bit unstable, made a few coasters and I did not like the interface. I did a bit of searching and tried a few and at last found gnomebaker.

As its name would suggest it is build for the gnome-desktop but I think you could probably install it in XFCE of KDE without too many dependancies.

Here is a screenshot from wikipedia.

What I really like about gnomebaker is it fits in very well with the gnome environment. It looks nice, its informative, it can do a lot but the interface still seems uncluttered and simple. Most of my common tasks to do with dvd writing or 'baking' as gnomebaker calls it , are under the 'tools' menu. You can also select your burning speed all the way down. For installation disks 4x is good but personally I like to get perfect burns so I use 2x.

Sourceforge: http://sourceforge.net/projects/gnomebaker/

Creator: http://www.gnomefiles.org/app.php/GnomeBaker

It is in the ubuntu repositories.

$ sudo apt-get install gnomebaker

Review: Novatech Corona Micro ATX Tower Case With a 450w PSU - Black

2010-01-24T14:19:00.000-08:00

As I am planning on setting up a home NAS with FreeNAS ( I will cover that in a later post) I decided to Beverly mod a case. I had an old grey case lying around to mod but I needed something to hold the NAS while I was modding. As I am planning on setting up a media centre computer later this year I spotted the Corona case from novatech. At only £25 and including a 450W PSU I snapped it up. Novatch have always been reliable for me and I wasn't too worried about the quality.

On arrival I was impressed. The case is very sleek and although the metal may seem a bit thin it is reasonably sturdy. It holds my microATX motherboard perfectly and the cable management inside is superb. For such a small and cheap case.
The package included some screws and twist ties for cable management.
To add an optical drive you must remove the front panel. DO NOT PULL IT!. This panel can pop out as any normal case but it has 4 screws holding it in place. To remove the front bezel remove the screws holding it on inside then pull from the bottom.

Overall I think this is a great case for the price.

Coolermaster Gladiator 600

2010-01-19T07:22:00.000-08:00

Sorry about not posting for such a long time after promising to post every day. I managed to get RSI all the way from my wrist, through my shoulder in in the right side of my neck.

Anyway I have decided that It is pointless just posting about linux as I do a lot with hardware too so I might as well post everything I do with computers.

I am aiming to build a gaming computer over the next sixth months, why so long? Because I'm a student so cash is limited.

I am aiming for an AMD Phenom II x4 and at least 4GB of ram on a full ATX motherboard with a decent graphics card.

I have already bought the case , a coolermaster gladiator 600 so in this post I am aiming to give it a decent review.

Here is the case on coolermaster's website. : http://www.coolermaster.com/product.php?product_id=6564

The case is quite roomy, although you might struggle to get larger cards in there. There is a lot of cable management and space for three more fans, two on the side and one on the back which I would recommend adding as even though it comes with two, one on the top and one on the front, cooling is very important for a computer. The fan on the front has blue LED's which can be turned off or on by the switch in the front panel.
The front panel comes off very easily if you pull from the bottom and it is very easy to un-clip the front bezels to add any drives. The bezels are all mesh and all have dust filters behind them. In fact the entire front of the case is lined with dust filters.

The case is tool-less and the side panels are detachable by thumbscrews on the back. Adding hard drives is very easy by clipping some rails on the sides and simply sliding them into the cage. On this case the hard drive cage is sideways ( facing towards the side of the case) making it much easier to add drives than it is in many cases.

The case has had a few bad reviews concerning the clips for the expansion slots. If handled incorrectly these clips can break off very easily but you can easily use screws there if you have to as the holes are there. If you read the instructions before opening the case ( recommended) then you should avoid and problems.

One noticeable difference to many cases is that the PSU goes on the bottom with the intake fan facing down, sucking air up from the bottom through a provided dust filter, and out the back. Personally I like this as my computer will be on a desk so the cables will be more accessible this way.

Personally I really liked this case and at only £55 it was well worth it to me.

Rsync

2010-01-10T05:53:00.001-08:00

Sorry I could not post a blog yesterday. We had a problem with the central heating and it was freezing.
Anyway my blog today is on rsync. For a long time I had heard of it but never plucked up the courage to use it.
Don't be worried by the name sync. It is just a 1 use file transfer program using ssh. For this I would have used sftp and get in the past but this is so much more efficient.

For instance when I set my laptop up I wanted to copy my entire home folder from my desktop to my new home.

As both computers had the same username from my laptop I simply used the command

rsync -avz 192.168.1.20:~/ .

to copy all my work over.

To make sure it was going to work i used

rsync -avzn 192.168.1.20:~/ .

the added n being a dry run so it outputs the file list without copying anything. AS it worked fine I then removed the n and it copied over.

in this example -avz compresses the files and keeps the permissions the same.
192.168.1.20 is the computer I was getting the data from and :~/ means my home folder on that machine as ~/ means HOME.

the . at the end means the folder I am in on the terminal running the comman from. It would be safer to do rsync -avz 192.168.1.20:~/ ~/ if you are unsure as to where your currend directory is in the command line. You can always type cd to return you to your home directory before running rsync.

You can also do it the other way round. For instance if I was on my desktop I could have run

rsync -avz ~/ 192.168.1.21:~/ to copy my home on the current machine to 192.168.1.21 (being my laptop).

It did take 3 hours to copy my entire 70 GB of data over as I was browsing the Internet while rsyncing.

If you want to see the progress of each file you can add P to it so rsync -avzP and it will show you the percentage copied.

Here is the rsync help file:

rsync version 3.0.6 protocol version 30
Copyright (C) 1996-2009 by Andrew Tridgell, Wayne Davison, and others.
Web site: http://rsync.samba.org/
Capabilities:
64-bit files, 64-bit inums, 64-bit timestamps, 64-bit long ints,
socketpairs, hardlinks, symlinks, IPv6, batchfiles, inplace,
append, ACLs, xattrs, iconv, symtimes

rsync comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. This is free software, and you
are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions. See the GNU
General Public Licence for details.

rsync is a file transfer program capable of efficient remote update
via a fast differencing algorithm.

Usage: rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... DEST
or rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST:DEST
or rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... [USER@]HOST::DEST
or rsync [OPTION]... SRC [SRC]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/DEST
or rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST:SRC [DEST]
or rsync [OPTION]... [USER@]HOST::SRC [DEST]
or rsync [OPTION]... rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC [DEST]
The ':' usages connect via remote shell, while '::' & 'rsync://' usages connect
to an rsync daemon, and require SRC or DEST to start with a module name.

Options
-v, --verbose increase verbosity
-q, --quiet suppress non-error messages
--no-motd suppress daemon-mode MOTD (see manpage caveat)
-c, --checksum skip based on checksum, not mod-time & size
-a, --archive archive mode; equals -rlptgoD (no -H,-A,-X)
--no-OPTION turn off an implied OPTION (e.g. --no-D)
-r, --recursive recurse into directories
-R, --relative use relative path names
--no-implied-dirs don't send implied dirs with --relative
-b, --backup make backups (see --suffix & --backup-dir)
--backup-dir=DIR make backups into hierarchy based in DIR
--suffix=SUFFIX set backup suffix (default ~ w/o --backup-dir)
-u, --update skip files that are newer on the receiver
--inplace update destination files in-place (SEE MAN PAGE)
--append append data onto shorter files
--append-verify like --append, but with old data in file checksum
-d, --dirs transfer directories without recursing
-l, --links copy symlinks as symlinks
-L, --copy-links transform symlink into referent file/dir
--copy-unsafe-links only "unsafe" symlinks are transformed
--safe-links ignore symlinks that point outside the source tree
-k, --copy-dirlinks transform symlink to a dir into referent dir
-K, --keep-dirlinks treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir
-H, --hard-links preserve hard links
-p, --perms preserve permissions
-E, --executability preserve the file's executability
--chmod=CHMOD affect file and/or directory permissions
-A, --acls preserve ACLs (implies --perms)
-X, --xattrs preserve extended attributes
-o, --owner preserve owner (super-user only)
-g, --group preserve group
--devices preserve device files (super-user only)
--specials preserve special files
-D same as --devices --specials
-t, --times preserve modification times
-O, --omit-dir-times omit directories from --times
--super receiver attempts super-user activities
--fake-super store/recover privileged attrs using xattrs
-S, --sparse handle sparse files efficiently
-n, --dry-run perform a trial run with no changes made
-W, --whole-file copy files whole (without delta-xfer algorithm)
-x, --one-file-system don't cross filesystem boundaries
-B, --block-size=SIZE force a fixed checksum block-size
-e, --rsh=COMMAND specify the remote shell to use
--rsync-path=PROGRAM specify the rsync to run on the remote machine
--existing skip creating new files on receiver
--ignore-existing skip updating files that already exist on receiver
--remove-source-files sender removes synchronized files (non-dirs)
--del an alias for --delete-during
--delete delete extraneous files from destination dirs
--delete-before receiver deletes before transfer, not during
--delete-during receiver deletes during transfer (default)
--delete-delay find deletions during, delete after
--delete-after receiver deletes after transfer, not during
--delete-excluded also delete excluded files from destination dirs
--ignore-errors delete even if there are I/O errors
--force force deletion of directories even if not empty
--max-delete=NUM don't delete more than NUM files
--max-size=SIZE don't transfer any file larger than SIZE
--min-size=SIZE don't transfer any file smaller than SIZE
--partial keep partially transferred files
--partial-dir=DIR put a partially transferred file into DIR
--delay-updates put all updated files into place at transfer's end
-m, --prune-empty-dirs prune empty directory chains from the file-list
--numeric-ids don't map uid/gid values by user/group name
--timeout=SECONDS set I/O timeout in seconds
--contimeout=SECONDS set daemon connection timeout in seconds
-I, --ignore-times don't skip files that match in size and mod-time
--size-only skip files that match in size
--modify-window=NUM compare mod-times with reduced accuracy
-T, --temp-dir=DIR create temporary files in directory DIR
-y, --fuzzy find similar file for basis if no dest file
--compare-dest=DIR also compare destination files relative to DIR
--copy-dest=DIR ... and include copies of unchanged files
--link-dest=DIR hardlink to files in DIR when unchanged
-z, --compress compress file data during the transfer
--compress-level=NUM explicitly set compression level
--skip-compress=LIST skip compressing files with a suffix in LIST
-C, --cvs-exclude auto-ignore files the same way CVS does
-f, --filter=RULE add a file-filtering RULE
-F same as --filter='dir-merge /.rsync-filter'
repeated: --filter='- .rsync-filter'
--exclude=PATTERN exclude files matching PATTERN
--exclude-from=FILE read exclude patterns from FILE
--include=PATTERN don't exclude files matching PATTERN
--include-from=FILE read include patterns from FILE
--files-from=FILE read list of source-file names from FILE
-0, --from0 all *-from/filter files are delimited by 0s
-s, --protect-args no space-splitting; only wildcard special-chars
--address=ADDRESS bind address for outgoing socket to daemon
--port=PORT specify double-colon alternate port number
--sockopts=OPTIONS specify custom TCP options
--blocking-io use blocking I/O for the remote shell
--stats give some file-transfer stats
-8, --8-bit-output leave high-bit chars unescaped in output
-h, --human-readable output numbers in a human-readable format
--progress show progress during transfer
-P same as --partial --progress
-i, --itemize-changes output a change-summary for all updates
--out-format=FORMAT output updates using the specified FORMAT
--log-file=FILE log what we're doing to the specified FILE
--log-file-format=FMT log updates using the specified FMT
--password-file=FILE read daemon-access password from FILE
--list-only list the files instead of copying them
--bwlimit=KBPS limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second
--write-batch=FILE write a batched update to FILE
--only-write-batch=FILE like --write-batch but w/o updating destination
--read-batch=FILE read a batched update from FILE
--protocol=NUM force an older protocol version to be used
--iconv=CONVERT_SPEC request charset conversion of filenames
-4, --ipv4 prefer IPv4
-6, --ipv6 prefer IPv6
--version print version number
(-h) --help show this help (-h works with no other options)

Use "rsync --daemon --help" to see the daemon-mode command-line options.
Please see the rsync(1) and rsyncd.conf(5) man pages for full documentation.
See http://rsync.samba.org/ for updates, bug reports, and answers

I hope this helps you.

Rsync is very useful for everything from backups to transfers.

Just to let you know FreeNAS works with rsync .

I will be setting up a FreeNAS in a later blog.

Software Patents

2010-01-08T05:06:00.000-08:00

From this point on I will also be blogging on political things that are happening as well as new software releases. I hope to have at least one post per day but this may not always be possible.

Today this blog is about software patenting in Europe.
Here are some examples of granted software patents:

Examples of granted software patents in Europe

Webshop: Selling things over a network using a server, client and payment processor, or using a client and a server - EP803105, EP738446, EP1016014
Order by cell phone: Selling over a mobile phone network - EP1090494
Shopping cart: Electronic shopping cart - EP807891
[CDs] [Films] [Books]: Tabbed palettes and restrict search - EP689133, EP1131752
Picture link: Preview window - EP537100
Get key via SMS: Sending key to decrypt bought data via mobile phone network - EP1374189
View film: Video streaming (segmented video on-demand) - EP633694
Copy protection: Encrypt file so it can only be played on authorised devices - EP1072143
Credit card: Pay with credit card on the Internet - EP779587
Adapt pages: Generate different web page depending on detected device - EP1320972
Request loan: Automated loan application - EP715740
Secure card payment: Secure online credit/debit card payment with PIN code - EP1218865
Send orders: Send orders in response to request - EP986016
Delivery: Ship items to the correct pick-up point of the used delivery service - EP1181655
Support system: Support system based on answers to questions - EP915422
Preview chapters: Use of TV as metaphor for selecting different video fragments - EP670652
Image: Reduce page loading time by automatically reducing image quality - EP992922
Related results: Show related results if customer likes the current ones - EP628919
Rebate code: Allow rebate codes to be entered by customers - EP929874
Web-to-Print: Generation of prepress formats or printouts from low resolution templates via the Internet - EP852359, EP1169848

Personally I think this is ridiculous.

Add your petition here http://petition.stopsoftwarepatents.eu/ .
And add a banner to your site.

2010-01-05T09:01:00.000-08:00

Since my last post I have had the time to play with conky a bit more. I followed the instructions in the weather script ( I posted the link in my last blog) and have added a few more lines to add a small calander. I also modded .conkyrc manually to add the motherboard fan speed, correct cpu temperatures on my desktop (as conky was having trouble) and the motherboard temperature.

Here is a picture of it now

I did encounter problems with the weather section where it would not show. It was easily fixed by restarting conky but as it happens time to time you don't really want to be continually opening terminal.

I wrote a sh script ( which was heavily refined by powdarrmonkey) to restart conky.

#!/bin/sh
TITLE='Restart Conky'
TEXT='Are you sure you want to restart Conky?'

`zenity --question --title="$TITLE" --text "$TEXT"` && (killall conky; sleep 5; conky)

You will have to make the file you put this in executable and I usually give it the .sh extention. I have been told this is not necessary but I do it anyway.

If you are using KDE this will not work for you. Zenity is a gnome program for visual elements.

Hope this helps

Conky

2009-12-25T14:54:00.000-08:00

This and my next few blogs are about what I did when I set up my new laptop but in no particular order.

I wanted an applet on my ubuntu laptop desktop telling me what my cpu was running at, its temperature and various other things.

I decided on conky as it is very graphical and fits in perfectly with my desktop. It is also very easy to mod.

There are various ways to set up conky. This is the one I used, I had to change several parts and I had to work out sections for myself. This guide is mainly for ubuntu but with work could be used for other distros.

I will go through what I did and why I did it.Firstly I needed to install conky.

Code:

sudo apt-get install conky

I new by reading ahead I would need more packages.

Code:

sudo aptitude install python-statgrab ttf-liberation hddtemp curl lm-sensors conky-all

You then need to allow all users to access the hdd temp file files.

Code:

sudo chmod u+s /usr/sbin/hddtemp

You then need to detect the sensors.

Code:

sudo sensors-detect

It will then ask you a series of questions. Answer 'yes' to all of them.

We are now ready to set up conky colours.

At this point you need to log out and in again.

The conky package is, to put it bluntly awful. The back-end is amazing but the GUI causes to many problems and looks awful.
To fix this I needed to download another package from Gnome-Look.

Click HERE to download conky colours.

Download this to a new folder freshly made for the purpose. You could put it anywhere but in my tutorial I will put it in a folder on the desktop named 'conky-install'.

Once you have 92328-conky_colors.tar.gz in this folder extract it.

You then need to use terminal again.

You need to navigate inside the folder you just extracted, in my case:

~/Desktop/conky-install/conky_colors

so

cd ~/Desktop/conky-install/conky_colors

You can now set up conky_colors.

make

You then can decide what you want in you conky.

Here is the selection provided.

llawwehttam@Joe-Pineapples:~/Desktop/Conky-Install/conky_colors$ ./conky-colors --help
./conky-colors

options:
--lang= - Set default language:
bulgarian OR bg
deutsch OR de
english OR en*
estonian OR et
italian OR it
polish OR pl
portuguese OR pt
russian OR ru
spanish OR es
--theme= - Set default theme color
gnome-brave
gnome-carbonite
gnome-human*
gnome-noble
gnome-tribute
gnome-wine
gnome-wise
shiki-brave
shiki-human
shiki-noble
shiki-wine
shiki-wise
shiki-dust
dust
--dark - Set Dark Brightness(Don't work with skiki-colors/shikidust/dust themes)'
--alldark - Set Dark Brightness for all(Don't work with any theme)'
--alllight - Set light Brightness for all(Don't work with any theme)'
--cpu= - Set number of cpu core
--cputemp - Enable CPU temperature widget
--swap - Enable SWAP in system widget
--battery - Enable battery
--updates - Show updates of Debian/Ubuntu
--proc= - Enable top processes widget and set the number of processes to show [Max = 10]
--clock= - Enable/disable clock widget and set type
--nodata - disable data widget
--calendar - Enable calendar widget
-m - Set monday as first day in the week in calendar
--nvidia - Enable nvidia gpu widget
--todo - Enable ToDo widget
--hd= - Enable HD widget and set style
--hdtemp1= - Enable HD temperature widget [Ex: --hdtemp1=sda]
--hdtemp2= - Enable HD temperature widget [Ex: --hdtemp2=sdb]
--hdtemp3= - Enable HD temperature widget [Ex: --hdtemp3=sdc]
--hdtemp4= - Enable HD temperature widget [Ex: --hdtemp4=sdd]
--photo - Enable Photo widget
--photord - Enable Photo widget in random mode
--mpd - Enable MPD widget
--rhythmbox= - Enable Rhythmbox widget
--banshee= - Enable Banshee widget
--exaile= - Enable Banshee widget
--pidgin - Enable Pidgin widget
--limit= - [default: 5] Set a limit to the number of buddies displayed
--gmail - Enable gmail notify
--user= - Type your username
--passwd= - Type your password
--network - Enable network widget
--eth= - Change ethernet device [Default=0]
--wlan= - Change wireless device [Default=0]
--ppp= - Change 3g modem device [Default=0]
--unit=- Force output temperature either in Celius or Fahrenheit
--bbcweather= - Enable weather widget and set your AreaID[Ex: --bbcweather=3849]
--weather= - Enable weather widget and set your AreaID[Ex: --weather=BRXX0043]
--weatherplus - Give a plus to the weather widget
--side= - Set side of widget in your screem
Choose your Distro Logo:
--ubuntu
--fedora
--opensuse
--debian
--arch
--gentoo
--pardus
--xfce
--gnome

(*)default values

I used

./conky-colors --swap --battery --ubuntu --cputemp

You will need extra scripts for these.

Conky Weather Script: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=869328
Conky SSL Mail Script: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=869771
Conky Pidgin Script: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=969933&highlight=pidgin+conky
Conky Rhythmbox Script: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=928168&highlight=conky+rhythmbox
Conky Banshee Script: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=7683570
Conky Exaile Script: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=926041

You can then install it.

make install

Now you want it to run at startup. There is a bug where it launches before your desktop loads so I worked around it.

Open text editor such as gedit.

#!/bin/bash
sleep 15 && conky

and save it in your home folder as

.startconkycustom.sh

You need to make it executable so right click on it ( if you can't see it press Ctrl+H to view hidden files) and click prop erties>permissions and check the box that says 'allow executing as a program' or similar.

Now got to System>preferences?startup applications (or similar) and press add.

Call it conky then where it says command browse to your .startconkycustom.sh file, select it but type 'sh ' before it including the space between sh and the filepath, for example for me it was,
'sh /home/llawwehttam/.startconkycustom.sh'

When you log out and in again, 15 seconds after logging in it should appear.
The pause prevents the bug.

Hope this worked for you.
Here is a picture of what mine looked like afterwards.

2009-12-20T09:50:00.000-08:00

Ubuntu sound control issue.

2009-12-17T07:44:00.000-08:00

From now on I see it most profitable to post every problem I encounter while using Linux and how I fixed it. I will mainly be using Ubuntu but as I also use fedora and debian posts concerning these will appear occasionally.

Today I noticed that the sound control on the keyboard was doing nothing. When the button was pressed ( on ubuntu 8.10 ) the volume icon appeared in the centre of the screen as normal and seemed to go up and down but there was no difference in the sound outputted and the volume control in the panel did not reflect the change either.

Looking for people witha similar problem to me I found many people that had the opposite problem to me, that the volume control in the panel did nothing but the keyboard controls worked fine.

Their fix for their problem was to right click on the volume control and make sure that the device it was controlling was the same as the device in System>preferences>sound and that both were set to master.

This was were I found the fix to my problem, as im my machine the mixer tracks were different and not set to master. I changed tham both back to Intel (alsa mixer) and the problem was solved.

I hope this helps others with similar problems.

How to reset root password on Linux machines

2009-12-11T07:37:00.000-08:00

For starters this post is not for people to crack other people's computers with but for users who have forgotten passwords to use, to get their computers back under control.

This guide is specifically for people using the GNU GRUB bootloader. I am not a fan of LILO and so don't know whether this will work for it. Here is a list of OS's that I have tested it on. You can try it on others but I cannot guarantee success.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Fedora
CentOS
Debian
Ubuntu

Step 1.) Interrupt the boot process at GRUB.

Step 2.) Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to choose the latest kernel in the list (usually at the top) and press 'e' to edit.

Step 3.) Go down to the line starting with 'kernel' that looks similar to.

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-26-386 root=/dev/hda1 ro quiet splash

and press 'e' for edit again.

Step 4.) Type

init=/bin/bash

at the end and press enter.

Step 5.) Press 'b' to boot.

Step 6.) once it has booted it will boot into a root access command line. Just type 'passwd' to create a new password. It will NOT ask for the old one.

Step 7.) Type 'shutdown -r now' to reboot. On some machines you may have to use 'init 6' or 'reboot' commands instead.

With older Red Hat based OS's you may be able to use the word 'single' instead of 'init=/bin/bash' in step 4.