Richmond Open Source Community - Linux

Try Open Source

Sun, 13 Nov 2005 13:16:31 -0500

These are starting for people around Richmond, Indiana who are ready to try
open source software.

There are lot of options.

Screencasts. Screencasts are movies, usually about two minutes along, that you can watch right in browser. It's not really "using" Linux yourself, but you can get feel what's it is like to to experience a Linux desktop immediately. See LinClips for Linux desktop screencasts. There will be many options. "Mandriva" is recommended! ubuntuclips.org and UbuntuVideo.com have even more Linux video clips.

Linux - A Social Justice Issue

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 23:21:59 -0400

Local pastor Matt McKimmy has new post on Linux as Social Justice Issue. He writes: Open source allows people and populations to adapt and use software in ways that are most useful to their situation, whether it is because of language issues, social context, cultural differences, and so on. Large, closed-source software companies are often less interested in smaller, less economically viable markets because of their primarily profit-based nature. Meanwhile open source allows programs to be translated into many different languages and settings and to be easily (and legally) distributed.

This topic has been covered before on RichmondComputes.org in Mark Stosberg's post Open Source: Culture Shifting Software.

Read Matt's full article.

Hidden Gem in Ubuntu 7.10: "Run Command"

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 17:10:36 -0500

For several years Linux has enabled to run a command by name with a little "Run Command" application, often accessed by pressing Alt-F2.

This is my favorite way to launch applications since it can be done with the keyboard by just remembering the name of the application.

In Ubuntu Gutsy, this little tool has become more useful.

No longer do I need to remember that the program run by OpenOffice is called 'oowriter'.

Now I can just start typing "OpenOffice", and it will show me the icon and name for "OpenOffice Writer" as an option.

If I type "Mail", it shows me the options for the "Thunderbird" and "Evolution" e-mail programs. Great!

Fixing sound in Firefox Flash Plugin on Mandriva Linux 2007

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 12:45:27 -0400

Sound was generally working fine on my Mandriva 2007 workstation, but sound in the Flash plugin was not. Here's how I debugged the problem and fixed it.

First, running Firefox from a terminal provided a great clue. To launch Firefox this way it may work to use Alt-F2 to have the run box appear, and then type "mozilla-firefox" and make sure "Run in terminal" is selected".

This should lots of ALSA-related errors, including "device not found".

By launching the Mandriva Control Center (Alt-F2 then 'mcc'), I was able to review the sound drivers in use. I navigated to "Hardware : Look and Configure Hardware" and then selected my soundcard below the "Soundcard" option. My soundcard was listed as "82801EB AC'97 Audio". From there, I could select "Run Config Tool", which provided a list of driver options. Only one of them was listed as "ALSA", so I switched the driver to that.

Microsoft Windows helpfully protects user from accessing the internet. At all.

Sat, 28 Jul 2007 15:22:13 -0400

Restricting freedoms in the name of safety and security can go too far.

Take this recent tech support call from a family member. She hadn't been able to get on the internet for days. She called Comcast, which provides her cable modem. Things looked fine on their side, they said. They suggested something on her computer wasn't working right. Using Firefox instead of Internet Explorer as the web browser might be the problem, they offered.

Having used this Windows XP computer myself, I'm familar with all the popups that the ZoneAlarm security utility generates. "Someone is trying to attack your computer on Port 80. Do you want to allow it? [YES] [NO]".

An Important Security Patch to the MadWiFi driver

Sat, 30 Jun 2007 16:25:18 -0400

!!!ATTENTION THIS POST IS REALLY TECHNICAL!!! I'm posting all of this info becuase I'm sure there are many of you use this non-free driver in you Linux (and other free desktop systems) this is a huge flaw that isn't usually the kind of problem that you find in Linux...

At about 6:30 UTC, the flaw in the MadWifi driver has been patched for Ubuntu Feisty. Here is why this is important:

This patch fixes susceptibility to remote abuse of Channel Switch
Announcement Information Elements by injection of Beacon Frame
packets and improves the reliability of channel switch procedure under

K Menu Gnome (Fedora Core Package)

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 20:41:32 -0400

I was looking through the KDE Apps site to today and came across this,
and wish that it was for Ubuntu:

K Menu Gnome (Fedora Core Package)
Description:
K Menu with Gnome folder and extra icons for KDE 3.2 or later.

If you install both KDE and Gnome then K Menu will become a mess with
overpopulated submenus. Some distributions try to solve this by hiding
many Gnome apps in KDE and most KDE apps in Gnome. I do not like that.
I want to access Gnome apps in KDE and KDE apps in Gnome. So this is
my attempt to both maintain desktop interoperability and unmess the
menus.

Why should one install both KDE and Gnome at all? You might share your

Email Productivity Tip: Sending without Checking

Sat, 10 Feb 2007 09:29:35 -0500

Checking E-mail can be a big distraction when I'm involved in a task and just want to send an email and move on. Sometimes if I have new e-mail, I just don't even want to know.

Sure, I could close my eyes while the Inbox opens and I press "Control-N" for the new message window, but I've found a method for opening just the "Compose Message" window without first opening the Inbox.

I tested this with Thunderbird on Linux, but I suspect that at least the Mac can suppor something like this as well.

The "trick" is open the program as if an email address had been clicked on a web page. Many e-mail programs support this kind of integration. With Thunderbird, the following can be entered in the "Run Box" on Linux, usually invoked with "Alt-F2"

Open Source Totem Beats RealPlayer with RealAudio stream

Thu, 21 Dec 2006 08:26:10 -0500

I was disappointed that Realplayer 10 wouldn't play this RealAudio stream I made several years ago, using official Real-branded tools as I recall. Instead, the message returned is:

The content you are trying to play uses an audio codec that is obsolete and no longer supported. Please contact the content provider about using a supported codec.

It appears Real quit supporting their own format. However, the open source totem player had no problem with it.

Performance Tips for Linux

Sun, 03 Dec 2006 13:01:56 -0500

Here are some easy tips to make your Linux desktop run even faster.

Give up the wallpaper Try right clicking on the desktop and selecting the "Configure Desktop" to find an option to use a plain color instead of a photo wall paper. Ubuntuclips.org has a video walk through of this task.
Disable File Previews UbuntuClips shows you how to do this for Ubuntu.
Avoid OpenOffice OpenOffice is powerful and easy to use. It's also a memory hog. Consider Abiword for basic word processing and Gnumeric for spreadsheets. You could still install OpenOffice, but only launch it if you need it. In Ubuntu, the abiword-plugins package adds support for more file formats, making it easier to work with Word and OpenOffice files.

Local Linux group gets new website

Fri, 27 Oct 2006 14:41:47 -0400

The Richmond Linux User's Group has a new website at Richmondlug.googlepages.com.
This is the third home for the website, and we intend to stay here until Google dies. I chose Google Pages because of the generous support that Google gives to the Open Source community.

Firewire Cards for use with Linux

Thu, 19 Oct 2006 19:03:20 -0400

Firewire are USB 2 offer high speed ways to connect to devices, making them ideal ways to connect to external hard drives or digital video cameras.

For Linux Laptops, the Zonet ZUC2700 FireWire/USB2 PCMCIA card is recommended for laptops. In Mark's testing with Mandriva 2006, the card Just Worked by plugging it in, no special drivers or configuration were required. It includes a port plug in an additional power adapter. It's not needed for low-power applications like flash card readers, or when the external drive supplies it's own power, but may be need for an external drive that depends on USB for power. No power supply is included, but ZoNet support reports that the kind that should be used with it is: "a 5v, center positive, DC power adapter".

Linux's answer to .msi and .exe installers

Mon, 07 Aug 2006 14:16:13 -0400

Autopackage makes software installation on Linux easy. Software distributed using Autopackage can be installed on multiple Linux distributions and integrate well into the desktop environment.Autopackage is stable, tested software that has been deployed by high profile projects. It has a strong commitment to backwards compatibility: your packages will continue to install as they add new features, although you may need to recompile them to get the new functionality.

It can resolve dependencies either from local files or from remote servers. It currently has simple support for package updates. It does not support integration with the native package manager although these features are planned for after the 1.0 release.

Using Linux

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 20:11:28 -0500

Here are resources for current users of Linux.

TUX Magazine is an excellent, online magazine for everyday Linux desktop users. It's well produced and fun to read. It has a layout made for the size and shape of a computer screen, making it a pleasure to read on the screen.

Linux: The Tinker Factor Wins the Day

Sun, 26 Feb 2006 14:54:29 -0500

The Ritchie family had a classic computer problem to solve. They had used digital camera which didn't "just work" with either Linux or Windows in their home. The photos from the camera showed up on both, but didn't download properly on either.

They needed help from a geek.

After an afternoon of conversation and pie, the camera was working flawlessly with Linux, and no better on Windows. Here's why.

Showing Up

Linux got the the geek to show up. If you've got a modern Ford Taurus, and a '67 Ford Mustang, which one do you think your local shade tree mechanic will want to give you some free help with?