‘Linux’ Archives
Getting Started With Linux
How To Get Started With Linux? Probably the most common question regarding Linux is how to get started. Keeners will ask what distro should they use or what desktop is best. Perhaps they will start investigating many distributions and comparing the pros and cons of each. The simple answer alludes these people. The simple answer is the best way [...]
Linux Bible 2010 Book Review
I picked up Linux Bible 2010 Edition the other day. I was skeptical I have to admit. I mean every scrap of information you could imagine about Linux is out there on the Internet. The value add for me was to have the information organized and to have a good read on a variety of topics from one source. The problem with the information on the [...]
Content Management and the Future of Publishing
I'm a publisher of sorts and I also have a background in content creation and management (can you say SGML?). Anyway the reuse of content and management of content is a fascinating area of interest for me. Some of it comes from my passion for information and the flip side of that, finding information when you have generated or collected a [...]
VIM Quick Reference
For those not interested in my ramblings, no offense taken, there is a great VIM Quick reference chart available in an impressive number of languages at Laurent Grégoire's web page http://tnerual.eriogerg.free.fr/vim.html. In the event you just want instant gratification or the original has moved here is the English version of the VIM [...]
Extracting Files From a .deb Debian Package (or RPM)
Today I was trying to extract a file from a debian package. It was actually a pretty silly move on my part. The package didn't install correctly so I decided I would install it by brute force by copying the files from the .deb package to the appropriate places and doing what I could with the pre and post install scripts. DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME - [...]
Reconfigure X in Debian
This may be obvious to experienced debian users but its saved me a couple of times so I'm capturing it here and passing it on. The problem I have is with my laptop sometimes the screen resolution gets messed up due to the use of multiple external monitors. In the early days I'd be in there tweaking xorg.conf to get things right again. Man does [...]
Taking a Screen Capture of Embedded Software
I'm frequently faced with the problem of needed a screenshot of my embedded software. Sometimes its just not practical to install an appropriate program so I've worked out a fairly simple technique using ssh that may be obvious to some but took me a bit of head scratching. You need ssh access to both machines and to know your IP address. My [...]
xev – Print Contents of X Events
Recently I was working with a remote control to interact with a Linux media center (more on that later). I was struggling a bit because I didn't really know the key events being generated by the remote control and interaction with the media center software was quite unpredictable. I found out about xev a nifty little utility that captures X events [...]
Linux Console as a Stop Watch
Here is a nifty little trick I use at work all the time when I need a stop watch. Open a Linux terminal type time cat and enter to start the timer Use CTRL+D to stop the timer You'll be left with the following output giving you a neat little report where the real value is the actual elapsed time between when you hit enter and the CTRL+D [...]
Debian vs Redhat Linux
I"m a Debian Linux user and have been for about 10 years now. I started using Debian after about the third failed attempt to fall in love with Linux using Redhat. With Redhat, at the time, virtually every sophisticated software application I installed resulted in hours of tracking down dependencies and resolving conflicts. Debian on the other [...]