Tinypliny's Journal

09/03/2011 09:48 #55075

Wine + PDFXchange on Crunchbang
Category: linux

I tried some alternatives but they all appallingly bad (e:tinypliny,55072). So I am back to Wine + PDFXchange in my new crunchbang install. Running notes from the install:

The Wine for amd64 machines come from the dev.carbon-project.org repository as recommended by WineHQ for 64 bit systems:

The libraries that are essential to the wine install are:

lib32asound2
lib32bz2-1.0
lib32gcc1
lib32ncurses5
lib32stdc++6
lib32v4l-0
lib32z1
libc6-i386
libwine-bin-unstable
libwine-cms-unstable
libwine-gl-unstable
libwine-gphoto2-unstable
libwine-ldap-unstable
libwine-openal-unstable
libwine-oss-unstable
libwine-print-unstable
libwine-sane-unstable
libwine-unstable
wine-bin-unstable
wine-unstable

In that particular order. I discovered this nifty command that can tell you the exact date and time of the all the packages installed on your system.

ls /var/lib/dpkg/info/*.list -lh

Pipe it to a list on your home directory

ls /var/lib/dpkg/info/*.list -lh >packagelist.txt

Using gnumeric, I sorted the list by date and time and et voila, I have a neat list of what was installed as a part of what and in what order.

The next step is of course installing PDF Xchange Reader from the PDF Xchange website

tinypliny - 09/03/11 10:26
I couldn't locate a consolidated stable wine package for 64 bit systems. I looked for a while and then got lazy when I saw all of this was available in one place. Do you know where they are?

paul - 09/03/11 10:11
I see a lot of unstables there.

09/02/2011 19:14 #55072

GNU PDF project
Category: linux

I don't want to install wine and PDF XChange viewer just because it has some odd behaviour on linux. Scrolling does not work well at all. I wish the GNU PDF project would speed up and release the GNU Juggler

The code-named GNU Juggler will be a full-fledged PDF viewer and editor making use of the GNU PDF Library. Right now we are busy in the development of the library and the GNU Juggler is not even started.

I don't know why there isn't a decent PDF annotation program for linux yet. There just isn't. It's very odd. Evince 3.0 has note-taking but no highlighting and the developer told me he has no time to work on it anymore. Jarnal/Xournal/Mendeley etc. have fake highlighting where the annotation does not show up in other PDF readers and is not saved in the PDF file itself. Okular is fine but require installation of too many KDE components, is resource-hogging and kind of buggy as well.

Though linux has some really good PDF tools, sadly PDF annotation is not among them.

---
PS: I keep double clicking the post to edit it like in i2 and then I realize, I am not on i2! hah

paul - 09/02/11 19:56
Maybe I should change it to be like that someday. I had originally designed it to be like that during the last upgrade but two things stopped it.

1. People were used to the icon.
2. Double click does not work on ipad, iphone, ios which makes me crazy.

09/02/2011 09:43 #55068

Unsorted
Category: goals

I am at a weird point right now. Everything seems pretty unsorted in my life. I can't say that if I died tomorrow, I would be happy with the choices I made. That is not a nice place to be.

This needs to change, today and right now. I want to just take this weekend off the tracks and stop doing the same old things I do and the experience the same old panic. I want to start off anew.

I am promising myself that this weekend will be the most productive of any weekends thus far. And no other future weekends will end with panic ever more because they will all be better managed from now on.

Did you know that:

In 1752, the British Empire adopted the Gregorian calendar. In the British Empire that year, September 2 was immediately followed by September 14.

We will see how sorted I manage to be by September 14.

metalpeter - 09/03/11 10:17
I Hope she will be there maybe it would help?

libertad - 09/03/11 10:03
Does this mean you aren't coming to the party?

metalpeter - 09/02/11 20:44
You will decide that to embrace be "An all American American" you will go to a buffet or the chicken wing festival and try 30 different kinds....

In any event hope you get things Sorted as they say in the uk or here worked out....

metalpeter - 09/02/11 20:42
So in other words you will leave some of your hair long and shave the rest of your head?

paul - 09/02/11 13:04
I miss you.

08/31/2011 20:01 #55063

Arrgh, what's wrong now?!
Category: linux

Seriously, I can't seem to catch a break with my linux troubles. It's been hardly 14 days since my fresh install and things are already starting to act up with Crunchbang.

The stylus goes on insane object and text selecting sprees on its own and randomly refuses to be controlled. The bash history no longer takes orders from ~/.bashrc and never remembers even a line of history (even though I have set it to remember 10K lines). E4rat is installed and running, but applications have been slowing down.

I am SO sick of having to do fresh installs every fortnight. It borders on the illogical and for this reason alone windows XP seems rather appealing. Its rock solid and just as fast even after 1.5 years after a fresh install. Why OH WHY can't my favourite distro come even close to that kind of stability and consistency??

tinypliny - 09/02/11 16:43
Too late. I re-installed crunchbang and things are going okay now. If I face more problems in a fortnight, I will give scientific linux a whirl.

But yes, your point of having a distro for playing around and one for work makes sense. I am not sure I tweak so much though... In fact I am going to post my running installation notes here to see just what kind of tweaking is breaking my system. I don't think I am linux-y enough yet to make major changes, but who knows.

I really suspect that it is a hardware issue - mainly to do with the ATI card from hell that I have. I still maintain that System76 was a big mistake.

uncutsaniflush - 09/02/11 12:28
(e:paul) - that's what I think (e:tinypliny) is doing as well. I think your advice is very sound. I used to have two version of several distros on the same box - one for "production" and one that was a "sandbox" for lack of a better term to mess around with. I would try stuff on the sandbox and if worked eventually the production partition would get changed.

(e:tinypliny) - I like Fedora 15 so I'm hoping Fedora 16 will be even better. I like gnome 3 shell. I'm running Fedora 15 on my hex-core box and an asus eee netbook. I'm running Arch on a G3 ibook. I've been using PCLinuxos for about 7 years on the computer(s) that (e:leettee) uses. It is a fork of Mandrake/Mandriva. I consider PClinuxos to be a generalist distro. It is conservative and thus stable. I've had uptime of over 6 months using it. I still using it on her box because I really haven't had a reason to change. If it ain't broke don't fix it.

I really like Arch but I hate going through the install process. It's not hard or complicated but it can be time-consuming But I don't have the time for it these days. But Arch is great because one ends up with a customised distro that only has what one chooses to install.

I think that Linux Mint is a great generalist distro. It builds on your choice of Ubuntu or Debian.

Despite using Ubuntu Studio for over 6 months, I'm not a fan of Ubuntu. I prefer Fedora's automagic to Ubuntu's. I would recommend Linux Mint over Ubuntu.

I liked E-Live which was an E17 based debian distro; but the developer hasn't had a new release in over a year, so it is outdated.

Automagic installers like Fedora's anaconda are great until one wants to do something that isn't automagical. Yes, it is flexible enough to let you do customised installs but depending exactly what one wants to do, it isn't always intuitive or obvious.

paul - 09/02/11 10:23
I think you are either having an issue with your hardware being non standard or you are messing it up yourself by over configuration, unstable packages, and non stable distros, etc. I have Linux computers that have uptimes of 6 months to a year without even rebooting. And at that point the reboots are just for kernel changes.

I mean my parents could have easily assumed windows XP sucked and was broken until you fixed their computer by removing all of the problems they had.

I think you need to separate your experimental playground Linux space from your workspace using two partitions or harddrives so that when you continue to play and tweak you are not killing your productivity by having to reinstall.

That or use virtual machines for experimenting via virtual box.

You might also want to stick with a Linux that more people use. More people = more testers, more developers and bug fixes. Same with common hardware.

Have you tried scientific Linux? Its based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux which is extremely stable. It wont be as cutting edge as fedora Ubuntu, etc but it will be stable and it can definately run your r code.

tinypliny - 09/02/11 09:45
What kind of audio do you want to produce?

tinypliny - 09/02/11 09:44
15 different distros?! What were your favourites? What are your favourites now?

tinypliny - 09/01/11 18:22
I can't work on Win XP. Linux is pretty essential to the software I run. So for good or bad I have to stick to it. I don't have a choice really. It's either decent performance with Linux or fester in slowness in XP...

uncutsaniflush - 08/31/11 22:25
If WinXP works so well, why are you looking for alternatives?

I would suspect that you have made more changes to Crunchbang in the last month than you did to WinXP in the last year or so.

Did you ever consider having more than one distro on your computer at the same time? You don't have to wipe out everything everytime you change your mind about what distro you use. Unless of course you have a very small hard drive.

I, personally, at one point, when I was a distro whore, had 15 different distros (including several different releases of the same distro) spread across 2 hard drives totalling 70 gigs.

Like (e:paul), I'm liking Fedora 15 with gnome shell a lot and use it daily on the new box. I'm still looking for the perfect audio production disto. Ubuntu Studio ain't it.

Good luck with Linux. But if doesn't work for you, there isn't any shame in going back to WinXP.

09/02/2011 17:47 #55070

Crunchbang install notes
Category: linux

Just so I can keep track of the configuration changes I am making that messes up my system, I am going to post a running list here. Starting from a brand new install:

Started with crunchbang for 64 bit systems:

Downloaded google chrome beta and installed it
Windows Manager Tweaks: turned compositor on
Terminator
changed keybindings for copy and paste (ctrl-c & ctrl-v)
checked use system fixed width font
Orage
made clock fonts bigger.
Removed stuff:

sudo aptitude purge chromium-browser chromium-browser-inspector firmware-ipw2x00 firmware-iwlwifi firmware-ralink fortunes-min gftp gftp-common gftp-gtk heybuddy gdm avahi-utils avahi-daemon fortune-cookie-db conky

Checked if google chrome is the default

sudo update-alternatives --config gnome-www-browser

Set google-chrome in preferred applications
Cleanup old kernels and configurations

sudo apt-get --purge autoremove
sudo aptitude purge ~c

In /usr/games/fortune, deleted the fortune executable

gedit ~/.config/xfce4/autostart.sh

-- Comment out these lines

cb-fortune - have Statler say a little adage
(sleep 120s && cb-fortune) &
conky
cb-welcome
cb-setxkbmap live &
cb-bad-nautilus &

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

CRUNCHBANG
deb

statler main

DEBIAN
deb

stable main #contrib non-free
deb-src

stable main #contrib non-free

DEBIAN SECURITY
deb

squeeze/updates contrib non-free main
deb-src

squeeze/updates main

DEBIAN BACKPORTS
deb

squeeze-backports main contrib non-free
deb

squeeze-proposed-updates contrib non-free main
deb

squeeze-cran/

gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-key 381BA480
gpg -a --export 381BA480 > jranke_cran.asc
sudo apt-key add jranke_cran.asc

sudo gedit /etc/apt/preferences

Package: *
Pin: release a=squeeze-cran
Pin-Priority: 991

R-check

apt-get update
apt-cache policy r-base

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

added myself to the fuse group.
Copied apt archive files from my external harddrive

sudo apt-get install texlive r-base ghostscript subversion

Installed the following from .deb packages
R-studio
Mendeley

In R

install.packages(c("rms", "Hmisc", "ggplot2", "haplo.stats"))

Make a file /usr/local/sbin/autologin with

#! /bin/sh
/bin/login -f myusername

sudo gedit /etc/inittab

Changed

1:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty1

1:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty -n -l /usr/local/sbin/autologin 38400 tty1

Commented out

3:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty3
4:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty4
5:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty5
6:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty6

sudo gedit /etc/bash.bashrc

Make xfce4 start automatically after login

if [[ -z "$DISPLAY" ]] && [[ $(tty) = /dev/tty1 ]]; then
startx
logout
fi

Expand size of bash history

export HISTCONTROL=erasedups
export HISTSIZE=10000
shopt -s histappend

gedit ~./inputrc

"\ep": history-search-backward
"\en": history-search-forward

Changed xfce menu

gedit ~/.config/menus/xfce-applications.menu

tinypliny - 09/03/11 11:03
If I pipe your error/log/messages command into a txt file will it keep populating that text file with the newer messages? What do you think? Then I dont have to have a terminal open all the time.

tinypliny - 09/03/11 10:23
Where I comment out daemons? Pray tell! This is getting so interesting!

Yes, I was thinking of turning off bluetooth. I tried several times to pair my Nexus One to this laptop and do bluetooth transfers. For some reason it always fails so I guess I had better turn off something that doesn't work anyway.

uncutsaniflush - 09/03/11 10:06
(e:tinypliny) - Just in case you didn't know:

Launching daemons and services at start up can take a bit of time, so you should launch only the daemons you want to startup and comment out the rest.

Also, most BIOS have a quick start setting (that ignores some tests) at POST that can speed up the boot.

To significantly extend battery turn off your wi-fi and bluetooth on your laptop. Ironically enough, wi-fi (ards use more energy looking for networks than they do connected to a networks. I don't have bluetooth on anything, but I would assume the bluetooth cards would expend energy in the discovery mode.

On the Dell circa 2006 laptops we use at work, turning off the wi-fi nearly doubled the battery life.

I reckon I'm lucky I got a box from Zareason instead of System 76. But then again, I don't have your unique requirements and preferences. So who knows.

tinypliny - 09/03/11 09:28
Hmm... (e:Terry) too!?! Who knew.

tinypliny - 09/03/11 09:26
Hmm.. why am I so obsessed about getting rid of apps? Because they are clutter and pop up all over the place when I am searching for something else. I guess I have no valid space-related reason for getting rid of them but I just don't like things I don't use to be on the system. By that argument, there are a ton of components on there that I don't even know that I don't use... And that is why someday I want to take a shot at Linux from Scratch. But till then, I am honing my skills at "sudo apt-get purge"

Most of the other changes are aimed at making boot up quicker. I don't keep my laptop on all the time because it travels all the time between office and home and has a lamentable battery life of just under an hour even though it's only a few months old. I pretty much hate System76 because of so many reasons now.

Let me keep a watch on those errors when something strange happens.

paul - 09/02/11 23:54
I have to stop using their computers.

terry - 09/02/11 23:54
You have to really watch the errors while they are happening to know. The errors themselves are written by the developers so they could really say whatever that app's developer wants them to say. Same for OS X and windows. Looking at google that does seem to be about laptop hardware.

uncutsaniflush - 09/02/11 20:59
(e:paul) (e:tinypliny) - my theory that the changes made after the original install are the problem or a fresh install would not "solve" the problems.

I have a general question to tiny - why are you so obssessed with getting rid of apps? Are you trying to run r on a 1 gig hard drive? Are you really so short of space?

My guess is something(s) that tiny installs have unmet requirements that aren't covered the apt depends because the developer assumed that the box would already have it as part of a vanilla install.

I question getting rid gftp unless it is replaced with some other ftp app. For example some other app might call wget to do an ftp download. And wget will get confused and hilarity might ensue?

Why get rid of avahi? Why not just just change rc.d (or whatever the Crunchbang equiv is) so that that the avahi daemon doesn't start.

Why get rid of tty3 - tty6? In case of freezes or slow downs having another tty to killall apps or reboot can be very useful.

I'm not a big fall of gdm, I think slim is better; but starting x with a script can be a bit problematic.

Also, and this is based on personal experience. I would not mix using aptitude and apt-get. Use one or the other. I think that even though aptitude calls apt-get, apt-get has better dependecy handling.

I have to end by saying you are quite the Linux geek, (e:tinypliny)!! Well done!!!

tinypliny - 09/02/11 20:00
Should I be watching out for anything that starts with an "ERROR:" like this one:
Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\] (Node ffffffff8166d8d0), AE_ALREADY_EXISTS

How on earth will I know what it means?

tinypliny - 09/02/11 19:55
hahah yes, unless (e:matthew) has an secret obsession with linux that we didn't know about and suddenly decided to come out.

paul - 09/02/11 19:52
Oops that was me.

matthew - 09/02/11 19:52
I would start with /var/log/messages, its the main system log. You can read the end with tail. e.g. sudo tail -f -n 1000 /var/log/messages

That will display the last 1000 lines of the file and then continue to dump new lines to the terminal as they are added.

tinypliny - 09/02/11 18:43
Hmm.. I don't know what he runs. :::link::: Lemme see what I can find.

tinypliny - 09/02/11 18:41
What kind of logs should I be looking at?

paul - 09/02/11 18:21
I take it back none of those are too crazy. Either:
A. Your hardware sucks
OR
B. Crunchbang sucks
OR
C. Something with R.

Or a combo. What are you logs saying when the issues occur?

What type if computer does the crunchbang guy use.