Re: [BLUG] document management

You just went way over my head dude. I have a whole list of stuff to research tonight now ... :-)

On Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 3:48 PM, Steven Black <blacks@indiana.edu> wrote:

On Thu, Jun 04, 2009 at 09:32:40AM -0400, Barry Schatz wrote:
> Kirk Gleason wrote:
> >     * We are working on implementing document management using OSS
> >       with a Linux backend.
> >
> In a pinch, you can use SVN. It's not pretty (and doesn't do diffs), but
> it does version binaries. I take it you have a more appropriate solution
> in mind?

Heh. I've been such a fan of transparent document formats for so long,
that at first I had no idea what Barry was talking about. My group
manages our internal documents quite well using Subversion...
but then our documents are primarily written in Markdown. We use the
Ikiwiki wiki compiler for the presentation details.

Even for my own documents, I keep them under source control. However for
my own documents I prefer reStructuredText. It gives easy outputs to
HTML, LaTeX, Postscript, PDF... and with a little web research, you can
get others, such as ODT. Through it all, the source file also provides
the plain-text form.

--
Steven Black <blacks@indiana.edu> / KeyID: 8596FA8E
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Re: [BLUG] Alternative focus

Quoting Barry Schatz <sorbetninja@gmail.com>:

> On Wednesday 03 June 2009 11:18:13 pm Gillis, Chad wrote:
>> I guess it would also be possible
>> to just resize the windows so that they don't overlap,
>
> Use a tiling window manager like ratpoison or awesomewm if that's your goal.
> :)
>
> -Barry
>

Now there's something I'd never actually noticed or paid attention to.
I'll definitely consider one of those if I ever want to make things
really sleek or just so people can be like, what the heck is that? :)

Chad

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Re: [BLUG] document management

On Thu, Jun 04, 2009 at 09:32:40AM -0400, Barry Schatz wrote:
> Kirk Gleason wrote:
> > * We are working on implementing document management using OSS
> > with a Linux backend.
> >
> In a pinch, you can use SVN. It's not pretty (and doesn't do diffs), but
> it does version binaries. I take it you have a more appropriate solution
> in mind?

Heh. I've been such a fan of transparent document formats for so long,
that at first I had no idea what Barry was talking about. My group
manages our internal documents quite well using Subversion...
but then our documents are primarily written in Markdown. We use the
Ikiwiki wiki compiler for the presentation details.

Even for my own documents, I keep them under source control. However for
my own documents I prefer reStructuredText. It gives easy outputs to
HTML, LaTeX, Postscript, PDF... and with a little web research, you can
get others, such as ODT. Through it all, the source file also provides
the plain-text form.

--
Steven Black <blacks@indiana.edu> / KeyID: 8596FA8E
Fingerprint: 108C 089C EFA4 832C BF07 78C2 DE71 5433 8596 FA8E

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Re: [BLUG] Alternative focus

Quoting Steven Black <blacks@indiana.edu>:

> Apparently in GNOME it was considered a "raise-on-click controversy."

Gotta love how these things can develop into full-blown controversies.

> So as of at least 2008, there is a general GNOME setting for this. (This
> as a result of almost every distribution patching metacity to add the
> feature. They all used different -- frequently buggy -- patches.)
>
> In http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=14289 the instructions
> for setting it is:
> |1) click alt+f2 and type in gconf-editor
> |2) go to apps>metacity>general
> |3) remove the tick in raise_on_click
>
> More information about this can be found on:
> * http://blogs.gnome.org/metacity/2007/11/14/journal-2007-11-13/
> * http://lwn.net/Articles/148007/
>

Awesome, thanks. I'll probably get around to using a big desktop soon,
then I can put this to good use. I think the reason I decided to use a
minimal WM was to force myself to get used to using the resources at a
more basic level.
I still have that goal, but on the other hand the desktops come
packaged with so much neat stuff that keeps changing, and just
wandering around or using the defaults in the desktop for a while can
give you an idea of things that exist that you might never have known.

> What can actually become more of an annoyance if you don't find it
> elsewhere are the easy titlebar one-clicks to raise and lower the
> window. I can be otherwise accepting of a click-to-raise/click-to-focus
> environment, but still annoyed if I can't easily raise and lower a
> window.

I agree. I hadn't mentioned that with FVWM's MouseFocusClickRaisesOff
the window still raises if you click the titlebar, and I use that from
time to time. I've never used though, or even thought of for that
matter, a titlebar click to lower the window... sounds interesting.

By the way I just read my original message on this topic and see how it
might not have been totally clear at first what I meant.

Later,
Chad

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Re: [BLUG] Laconica, Enlightenment, and LFS

I ran Gentoo for a long time when it first came out (back when it had old-fashioned version numbers. I still have a stage 1 Gentoo 1.4 cd around somewhere at home), and I used to love it -- after I got through the 2 days of compiling software on my celeron 800 MHz at the time.

LFS would totally be for learning ... the boot process in particular is something that I have always wanted to understand better, and I will admit that I learned a TON about Linux while doing the gentoo stage 1 builds; seems like LFS is the next logical progression.

I do think though that I will look at Debian as a desktop distro for a change.

On Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 2:49 PM, Steven Black <blacks@indiana.edu> wrote:

On Wed, Jun 03, 2009 at 10:06:01PM -0400, Kirk Gleason wrote:
>   • I just finished installed laconica microblogging service on a Linux host
>     for a pilot program at work.

I once did a quick personal time tracking app which relyied upon the
fact that I only did one thing at a time, and any time I mark I'm doing
something new, it implied I was done with the old activity. (This was an
aid to time-billing for a side project.)

This means that every task had a start time, and the end time was
implied by the start of the next task. At the end of the day, I'd mark
an "end" task. I then found the length of time between each transition,
and tallied up the billable parts. (Really, it was an order of magnitude
simpler than other time-tracking systems I've seen. 18 lines of BASH, 44
lines of Python, for 62 lines total.)

The thing is, this same approach is doable with Twitter/Laconica. I've
been thinking of a Twitter/Laconica-based time-tracking system, but I've
just never gotten around to writing it.

>   So I have a load of fairly stock linux servers running a bunch of
> different software (almost all OSS). The fun part is that all of my
> admins are Windows guys. We have no $$ for extra Windows licenses, so
> Linux it is. I suppose the most exciting thing I am doing with Linux
> right now is my own in-house training for all of these admins who are
> hesitant (or is it stubborn) to embrace linux.

That is super sweet.

I hope more of them embrace it than fight it. Of course, it won't happen
immediately, but a surprising number of Windows folks have never seen
any other option.

>   Since work bought me a Mac laptop, I have not run a Linux desktop.
> However, that itch is starting to come back, so maybe someday soon.
> Anyone know of any new promising looking distros? Maybe something with
> E17?

Now, E16 is one thing. It is stable, and should be available as a
package (called e16) in any Debian-derived distribution. (Speaking of
which, if you have PPC Macs, Debian may be one of the last Linux distros
which actively supports them. I found the Debian support better than the
"community" Ubuntu support last I tried it.)

E17 is another matter, though. It is considered experimental. You can
get packages for a number of distributions from the website:

   http://www.enlightenment.org/p.php?p=download&l=en

This may be your best bet. However, as that page says "There are no
guarentees if these packages will work as expected. If you experience
any problems with DR17 or the EFL using the packages, please first refer
to the packagers, not to the Enlightenment team."

>   Last thing. I have also been toying with the idea of an LFS system.
> Has anyone ever done it?

I've done LFS. I went as far as some of the Extended LFS stuff. (That
is, I completed LFS, and installed other apps which actually made the
system usable on a daily basis.)

My big problem with LFS is simple: If you use any new software (whether
new versions, or different apps) and you experience unexpected flaws
in things you expect to work, the first person to blame is yourself.
(If you use a distribution, the first person to blame is the package
maintainer. Since you're the maintainer, you get the blame.)

This is to say: If you treat LFS as a learning experience, then go
for it. It *is* a learning experience. It is really designed to be a
learning experience.

Do *not* do it, if you think that it is a short-cut to newer "cutting
edge" apps, or if you think it is at all feasable for a long-term
distribution. It isn't designed as a long-term distribution. If you try
to use it as a long-term distribution, then not only are you claiming
first responsibility for any bugs you find, you're also claiming sole
responsiblity for tracking and fixing security flaws. (You'd need to
monitor security sites, as well as the authors website, then installing
the patch, recompile, and reinstall. Sometimes, you'd need to track down
all apps and libraries that link to lib${SOMETHING} and recompile or
relink them.)

That being said, I think Gentoo, being source-based, is probably the
current best-bet for a long-term distribution similar to LFS. If you do
LFS, and decide you have an unhealthy fondness for waiting for compiles
to finish, you can leverage all your LFS-generated "mad skills" as a
Gentoo user.

Cheers,

--
Steven Black <blacks@indiana.edu> / KeyID: 8596FA8E
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Re: [BLUG] Linux in Commercial Aircraft

In the college mall in Bloomington, one of the photo booths had crashed one time .... it was a GTK error in GIMP. Looked to be running in KNOPPIX. My wife had no idea what I was so excited about ...

--Kirk

On Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 2:27 PM, Peter G. Brown <pgb@kiva.net> wrote:

In line with David's post I was recently on a flight where the aircraft had touch screens (select movies etc). As we were in the process of being pushed back from the gate the airline lost what appeared to be all power (it was certainly not the normal chain of events). When the power came back on the inflight entertainment system started. In the row in front I noticed one screen displaying output - looking closer I saw the typical linux boot up messages! Made me chuckle - I wasn't aware of this. The airline was Air Canada, eh.
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Re: [BLUG] Linux in HDTVs

David Ernst wrote:
> It was. Apparently the TV has an AMD chip of some sort in it and it's
> running some kind of embedded linux with just a few features enabled.
> This wasn't a guide to hacking the TV, this was a license, and I think
> it included little more than what was required of them by law. But it
> did list a few bits of software by name. curl, in particular, caught
> my eye.

I was at the Linux Foundation's Collaboration Summit last year and the
executive from Motorola mentioned that Embedded Linux is quite common in
digital TVs (I think she said "all digital TVs have embedded Linux" but
I may have remembered wrong).
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Re: [BLUG] Laconica, Enlightenment, and LFS

On Wed, Jun 03, 2009 at 10:06:01PM -0400, Kirk Gleason wrote:
> • I just finished installed laconica microblogging service on a Linux host
> for a pilot program at work.

I once did a quick personal time tracking app which relyied upon the
fact that I only did one thing at a time, and any time I mark I'm doing
something new, it implied I was done with the old activity. (This was an
aid to time-billing for a side project.)

This means that every task had a start time, and the end time was
implied by the start of the next task. At the end of the day, I'd mark
an "end" task. I then found the length of time between each transition,
and tallied up the billable parts. (Really, it was an order of magnitude
simpler than other time-tracking systems I've seen. 18 lines of BASH, 44
lines of Python, for 62 lines total.)

The thing is, this same approach is doable with Twitter/Laconica. I've
been thinking of a Twitter/Laconica-based time-tracking system, but I've
just never gotten around to writing it.

> So I have a load of fairly stock linux servers running a bunch of
> different software (almost all OSS). The fun part is that all of my
> admins are Windows guys. We have no $$ for extra Windows licenses, so
> Linux it is. I suppose the most exciting thing I am doing with Linux
> right now is my own in-house training for all of these admins who are
> hesitant (or is it stubborn) to embrace linux.

That is super sweet.

I hope more of them embrace it than fight it. Of course, it won't happen
immediately, but a surprising number of Windows folks have never seen
any other option.

> Since work bought me a Mac laptop, I have not run a Linux desktop.
> However, that itch is starting to come back, so maybe someday soon.
> Anyone know of any new promising looking distros? Maybe something with
> E17?

Now, E16 is one thing. It is stable, and should be available as a
package (called e16) in any Debian-derived distribution. (Speaking of
which, if you have PPC Macs, Debian may be one of the last Linux distros
which actively supports them. I found the Debian support better than the
"community" Ubuntu support last I tried it.)

E17 is another matter, though. It is considered experimental. You can
get packages for a number of distributions from the website:

http://www.enlightenment.org/p.php?p=download&l=en

This may be your best bet. However, as that page says "There are no
guarentees if these packages will work as expected. If you experience
any problems with DR17 or the EFL using the packages, please first refer
to the packagers, not to the Enlightenment team."

> Last thing. I have also been toying with the idea of an LFS system.
> Has anyone ever done it?

I've done LFS. I went as far as some of the Extended LFS stuff. (That
is, I completed LFS, and installed other apps which actually made the
system usable on a daily basis.)

My big problem with LFS is simple: If you use any new software (whether
new versions, or different apps) and you experience unexpected flaws
in things you expect to work, the first person to blame is yourself.
(If you use a distribution, the first person to blame is the package
maintainer. Since you're the maintainer, you get the blame.)

This is to say: If you treat LFS as a learning experience, then go
for it. It *is* a learning experience. It is really designed to be a
learning experience.

Do *not* do it, if you think that it is a short-cut to newer "cutting
edge" apps, or if you think it is at all feasable for a long-term
distribution. It isn't designed as a long-term distribution. If you try
to use it as a long-term distribution, then not only are you claiming
first responsibility for any bugs you find, you're also claiming sole
responsiblity for tracking and fixing security flaws. (You'd need to
monitor security sites, as well as the authors website, then installing
the patch, recompile, and reinstall. Sometimes, you'd need to track down
all apps and libraries that link to lib${SOMETHING} and recompile or
relink them.)

That being said, I think Gentoo, being source-based, is probably the
current best-bet for a long-term distribution similar to LFS. If you do
LFS, and decide you have an unhealthy fondness for waiting for compiles
to finish, you can leverage all your LFS-generated "mad skills" as a
Gentoo user.

Cheers,

--
Steven Black <blacks@indiana.edu> / KeyID: 8596FA8E
Fingerprint: 108C 089C EFA4 832C BF07 78C2 DE71 5433 8596 FA8E

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[BLUG] Linux in Commercial Aircraft

In line with David's post I was recently on a flight where the aircraft
had touch screens (select movies etc). As we were in the process of
being pushed back from the gate the airline lost what appeared to be all
power (it was certainly not the normal chain of events). When the power
came back on the inflight entertainment system started. In the row in
front I noticed one screen displaying output - looking closer I saw the
typical linux boot up messages! Made me chuckle - I wasn't aware of
this. The airline was Air Canada, eh.
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[BLUG] Linux in HDTVs

Just an observation/story, and perhaps one that everyone else knows
about, but I was surprised...

I don't deal much with TVs, but that didn't stop my somewhat-elderly
neighbors from asking me if I could come over and help them get their
new Comcast HD setup running with their brand new HDTV. I was unable
to get it working, but that's another story....

While I was leafing through their multiple manuals, I found one
talking about licensing agreements for the TV. Whatever, right? But,
something jumped out at me... I think first I saw "gcc" and then the
word "preamble" near the beginning of the fine print... and I thought
"Holy %#^t! This is the GNU Public License!"

It was. Apparently the TV has an AMD chip of some sort in it and it's
running some kind of embedded linux with just a few features enabled.
This wasn't a guide to hacking the TV, this was a license, and I think
it included little more than what was required of them by law. But it
did list a few bits of software by name. curl, in particular, caught
my eye.

It must make RMS proud to know that corporate lawyers are now advising
their clients to include the GPL with TV sets because they are
including free software -- some of which he wrote -- in their products
like this. Actually, I'm sure it doesn't make him proud, he probably
still gripes about it for some reason. :)

David
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Re: [BLUG] What have you done with Linux lately?

On Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 9:32 AM, Barry Schatz <sorbetninja@gmail.com> wrote:

Kirk Gleason wrote:
> So I may be joinging this thread late, and it has probably been a
> couple of years since my last post to this list. Oh well, I'm back.

You are not late! I want this thread to be epic!

>
> I have been doing way more with linux than ever before, but nothing
> really all that spectacular. Here is a rundown from the last few
> months (this is all on virtual servers -- no desktop stuff for me).
>
>     * I replaced our mail platform at works. We moved from
>       CommunigatePro running on OS X to Zimbra running on Zimbra. I
>       was (am) excited about the change. The users were less so.
>

I might ask you about Zimbra. I'm playing around with it on my own time.
Unfortunately, It's hard to get used to because it takes over the
machine and does everything its own way. Then again, I'm biased because
I'm used to Debian's packaging.

Ask away. I am now running 3 separate mail systems using Zimbra Community. One of them is the beta of 6.0. The Linux guy in me is somewhat put off by the my-way-or-the-highway nature of Zimbra; but then the manager in me remembers that I am not the only managing these mail systems, and no one else has CLI skills to speak of (training is underway). In the end, what I ended up with was a functional, stable, manageable Collaboration platform. Perfect for what I needed.

If I were just looking for a mail server, it would be qmail all the way.

>
>     * We are in the process of revamping our CRM system, and migrating

>       from Act! running on Windows to SugarCRM. RIght now our testing
>       of Sugar is on a linux server, but that will likely change (too
>       much advantage to having the CRM database in SQL Server).
>     * Last July we cut from a trditional PBX with POTS lines to 100%
>       SIP based Asterisk.
>     * I just finished installed laconica microblogging service on a
>       Linux host for a pilot program at work.
>

I'm a huge fan of Laconica. I look forward to a federated system of
Laconica servers replacing Twitter.
>
>     * We are working on implementing document management using OSS
>       with a Linux backend.
>
In a pinch, you can use SVN. It's not pretty (and doesn't do diffs), but
it does version binaries. I take it you have a more appropriate solution
in mind?

Heh, I did try the SVN approach at one point, but non-programmer end users dont get it, and don't really like it. I am looking for something a little more enterprise appropriate -- KnowledgeTree should fit the bill. Already have a test of it installed.

>
>   So I have a load of fairly stock linux servers running a bunch of
> different software (almost all OSS). The fun part is that all of my
> admins are Windows guys. We have no $$ for extra Windows licenses, so
> Linux it is. I suppose the most exciting thing I am doing with Linux
> right now is my own in-house training for all of these admins who are
> hesitant (or is it stubborn) to embrace linux.
>   Since work bought me a Mac laptop, I have not run a Linux desktop.
> However, that itch is starting to come back, so maybe someday soon.
> Anyone know of any new promising looking distros? Maybe something with
> E17?

Debian just released Lenny in February. That means Squeeze (testing) has
current software again. There are e17 packages, but they're in
experimental.

You know, in all of my F/OSS meanderings, I have never once run a stock install of debian. Maybe I should look into that. Of course the Linux From Scratch is still calling my name ....

>   Last thing. I have also been toying with the idea of an LFS system.
> Has anyone ever done it?
>
> Kirk

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Re: [BLUG] Alternative focus

On Wed, Jun 03, 2009 at 11:18:13PM -0400, Gillis, Chad wrote:
> So you're right Steven, the focus following the mouse is called
> SloppyFocus in FVWM. Then what I'm talking about has the added
> MouseFocusClickRaisesOff feature.

I may not have out-right said it. KDE has this capacity. It is
configured in the same preference I mentioned previously.

The ability of turning off click-to-raise *should* be a fairly
standard feature.

Apparently in GNOME it was considered a "raise-on-click controversy."

In http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=326156 the brunt of the
controversy appeared to be:
|I still think this one is pretty detrimental to any ambitions GNOME
|may have to be a good desktop, but it's required for the UNIX and tech
|workstation market. The two are just in conflict. [...]

So as of at least 2008, there is a general GNOME setting for this. (This
as a result of almost every distribution patching metacity to add the
feature. They all used different -- frequently buggy -- patches.)

In http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=14289 the instructions
for setting it is:
|1) click alt+f2 and type in gconf-editor
|2) go to apps>metacity>general
|3) remove the tick in raise_on_click

More information about this can be found on:
* http://blogs.gnome.org/metacity/2007/11/14/journal-2007-11-13/
* http://lwn.net/Articles/148007/

> It might sound pointless if you've never used it, but now that I've
> been using it for a while I've gotten used to it. [...]

I've explored a lot of window managers, and in most I either configured
some form of Focus Follows Mouse, or I gave up on it quickly. (The
only time I do neither is when I want to learn to accept the normal
behavior.)

What can actually become more of an annoyance if you don't find it
elsewhere are the easy titlebar one-clicks to raise and lower the
window. I can be otherwise accepting of a click-to-raise/click-to-focus
environment, but still annoyed if I can't easily raise and lower a
window.

Cheers,

--
Steven Black <blacks@indiana.edu> / KeyID: 8596FA8E
Fingerprint: 108C 089C EFA4 832C BF07 78C2 DE71 5433 8596 FA8E

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Re: [BLUG] Grepping the output from the Asterisk console

Mark,
  Thanks. I didn't know about the strings command, so I will have a look. The box I was trying to monitor has way too much traffic to have full logging turned on, so when I get stuck, I connect to the Asterisk console and 'core set verbose 10' and then focus for everything I am worth until I find what I need. You suggestion may just cut down on some of my headaches :-)

  I have am managing 4 Asterisk boxes right now, and each has a different setup.

• The main PBX for Finelight is 100% SIP. 15 SIP trunks ring in, and SIP desktop phones. There is a Zaptel card in it, but simply to be used as a timing source forMeetMe.
• The main backoffice PBX for Bloom has 2 PRIs running into it, and SIP desktop phones.
• The telephony engine for Bloom's calling efforts is Asterisk based. It uses a SIP connection to another telephony box that used Aculab hardware. That Aculab box has 2 DS3s worth of lines coming into it.
• There is also a box for playing standard recordings that is internal only and only uses IAX.

The 2 that I mess with mostly are the first 2. When we first went all SIP with Finelight's PBX we had a horrible time with echo. For all of the talk about SIP it is a pretty picky protocol. I managed to resolve the issues but making sure that all of the telephony was on the same subnet. This allowed Asterisk to remove itself from the media path (making the 2 SIP endpoint use peer to peer SIP). Since I made that change (over the Christmas holiday) we haven't had any issues with echo.

On Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 8:32 AM, Mark Krenz <mark@slugbug.org> wrote:

 Its complaining because there are color escape sequences in the
asterisk -r output.  I'd recommend greping from /var/log/asterisk/full
or from wherever your full logging is done.  If you really need to grep
the output from asterisk -r, then pass it through the strings program
like this:

 tail -f /tmp/asterisk_output.txt | strings | grep <pattern>

strings will strip binary data from stdout.


 As for Asterisk, just curious what kind of setup you have. Are you
still using POTS lines into the asterisk box or do you have a PRI line
or anything like that?  At Suso we have two POTS lines going into a 4
port Rhino card and it works pretty well. Sometimes we have trouble with
echoing, but I think that's because of some settings on our Linksys IP
phones.

On Thu, Jun 04, 2009 at 12:09:20PM GMT, Kirk Gleason [kgleason@gmail.com] said the following:

> Does anyone out there know of a way to feed the output from "asterisk -r" to
> stdout so that I can grep it for certain events? I was trying to
> troubleshoot a problem yesterday, and it would have been extremely.
>
> I did try:
>
> on screen 1
> asterisk -r > /tmp/asterisk_output.txt
>
> on screen 2
> tail -f /tmp/asterisk_output.txt | grep <pattern>
>
> but whenever a pattern was matched (or so I suspect), grep would complain
> about the source being a binary file.
>
> --Kirk

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--
Mark Krenz
Bloomington Linux Users Group
http://www.bloomingtonlinux.org/
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Re: [BLUG] What have you done with Linux lately?

On Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 10:57 AM, Reafsnyder, Charles B
<creafsny@indiana.edu> wrote:
> One issue with any of the EEEPC desktops described above is finding a way to disable the touchpad when typing. It is very annoying to have one's cursor jump around when typing because of accidentally brushing the touchpad.  There are several fixes described in the online various forums, but so far, I haven't found the one that works. Apart from this, I've been pretty happy with my EeeBuntu netbook.

Not that it helps you, but you remind me that one nice feature of the
HP Mini 1000 is it has a touchpad toggle button right between the
touchpad and the keyboard.

> Charles Reafsnyder

Simón

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RE: [BLUG] What have you done with Linux lately?

I have an ASUS EEEPC 1000. As a Linux newcomer, I opted to replace the Xandros desktop with EasyPeasy (after a period of experimentation with standard Ubuntu). Everything worked "out of the box" with EasyPeasy and was comparatively user friendly for someone new to Linux. In a few months, however, I grew tired of the EasyPeasy screen which can't easily be tweaked with backgrounds and etc. and installed "desktop-switcher" so that I could switch back and forth between EasyPeasy and Ubuntu eee. With Compiz effects on the latter, however, switching back and forth between them never really worked satisfactorily. There always seemed to be artifacts from the Ubuntu eee desktop that carried over and interfered with the EasyPeasy desktop. After a while, I switched to EeeBuntu which I've been using every since. EeeBuntu takes a little more work (than the alternatives) to get the function keys and sound to work they way they are supposed to but seems very stable.

One issue with any of the EEEPC desktops described above is finding a way to disable the touchpad when typing. It is very annoying to have one's cursor jump around when typing because of accidentally brushing the touchpad. There are several fixes described in the online various forums, but so far, I haven't found the one that works. Apart from this, I've been pretty happy with my EeeBuntu netbook.

Charles Reafsnyder

-----Original Message-----
From: blug-bounces@cs.indiana.edu [mailto:blug-bounces@cs.indiana.edu] On Behalf Of Simón Ruiz
Sent: Thursday, June 04, 2009 8:01 AM
To: Bloomington LINUX Users Group
Subject: Re: [BLUG] What have you done with Linux lately?

On Wed, Jun 3, 2009 at 10:10 PM, Kirk Gleason <kgleason@gmail.com> wrote:
> Have you installed Linux on the Asus Eee PC? I just bought one for yet
> another project at work, and I was wondering if the thing would run Linux.

Yeah, that's why it had such a big buzz in the Linux community when it
came out. It comes pre-installed with some version of Linux, and I
think the Ubuntu Netbook Remix is designed to work flawlessly on it.

I've also been testing out a bunch of different netbooks at work. The
EeePC is one I haven't gotten my hands on, yet, actually.

I've played with an Asus Aspire One, a Dell Mini 9, and an HP Mini
1000; the Mini 1000 hardware is the worst supported in UNR, but as a
widescreen netbook, the keyboard is almost human sized.

When my 70-year-old mother-in-law was asking about getting a tiny
laptop to take notes at meetings. She wanted it too soon for Dell Mini
10 to be a viable option, so I recommended getting the HP Mini 1000 Mi
edition and leaving the HP flavor of Ubuntu it comes with, at least
until Karmic(here's hoping...) gets the audio hardware figured out
upstream.

At that point, I can make her netbook's desktop look just like her
desktop's desktop by installing stock Ubuntu on it if she likes.

Simón

P.S. I also played a bit with a Kindle 2. I gotta say I was pretty
impressed with it for reading. As a hardware device it's totally O.S.
agnostic; I only interacted with it from Linux and I didn't feel like
a second-class citizen.

It's only *amazingly* easy if you get everything from Amazon, though
it's still pretty easy to put "foreign" content on their.

You can load content onto it as if it were any old USB flash drive,
though it *is* picky about what *kind* of files it reads. (Kindle
format, Mobi format, plain text (though it will recognize and honor
some basic html tags inside plain text files, which made it really
great for reading some of Cory Doctorow's CC-licensed books which come
in HTML)).

And you have to put them in the right directories, if you put an mp3
file in the "secret" "music" folder, you can play it through the
Kindle speakers while you're reading other things. If you put the same
file into the "Audible" directory, it'll treat them like an audiobook
to be listened to all by itself.

_______________________________________________
BLUG mailing list
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http://mailman.cs.indiana.edu/mailman/listinfo/blug

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Re: [BLUG] EeePC (was What have you done ...)

I too have a 701. Currently running Ubuntu Netbook Remix (9.04). There were a couple tweaks, but it all installed quite nicely, and I'm really in favor.

Truly the only problem/issue I have right now (and it's totally, easily fixable, just a matter of time!) is the dreadful Ubuntu-brown color scheme.

For a white EeePC in a black case, and for an owner/handler of lovely, classic black and white border collies...the brown is dreadful....

Ana

Jett & Xen

On Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 10:23 AM, Beartooth <beartooth@beartooth.info> wrote:

On Wed, 3 Jun 2009, Kirk Gleason wrote:

Have you installed Linux on the Asus Eee PC? I just bought one for yet another project at work, and I was wondering if the thing would run Linux.

       See http://forum.eeeuser.com/index.php

       My 701 (the first or maybe second version to hit the market) *came* with Linux.

       It was Xandros, which had sold out to the Gates of Hell, and had an interface so much like Windows I had to get it off there or barf after half an hour.

       I've now tried out eight or ten distros on it. Some are slow, or slow to boot (including Fedora 10, but the Fedora list says that was my fault); and many are ubuntoid, which I happen to be allergic to. But I can't think of one that doesn't at least install and run, one way or another.

--
Beartooth Implacable, Curmudgeonly Codger Learning Linux
On the Internet, you can never tell who is a dog --
supposing you care -- but you can tell who has a mind.
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[BLUG] EeePC (was What have you done ...)

On Wed, 3 Jun 2009, Kirk Gleason wrote:

> Have you installed Linux on the Asus Eee PC? I just bought one
> for yet another project at work, and I was wondering if the
> thing would run Linux.

See http://forum.eeeuser.com/index.php

My 701 (the first or maybe second version to hit the
market) *came* with Linux.

It was Xandros, which had sold out to the Gates of Hell,
and had an interface so much like Windows I had to get it off
there or barf after half an hour.

I've now tried out eight or ten distros on it. Some are
slow, or slow to boot (including Fedora 10, but the Fedora list
says that was my fault); and many are ubuntoid, which I happen to
be allergic to. But I can't think of one that doesn't at least
install and run, one way or another.

--
Beartooth Implacable, Curmudgeonly Codger Learning Linux
On the Internet, you can never tell who is a dog --
supposing you care -- but you can tell who has a mind.
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BLUG mailing list
BLUG@linuxfan.com
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Re: [BLUG] What have you done with Linux lately?

Kirk Gleason wrote:
> So I may be joinging this thread late, and it has probably been a
> couple of years since my last post to this list. Oh well, I'm back.
You are not late! I want this thread to be epic!
>
> I have been doing way more with linux than ever before, but nothing
> really all that spectacular. Here is a rundown from the last few
> months (this is all on virtual servers -- no desktop stuff for me).
>
> * I replaced our mail platform at works. We moved from
> CommunigatePro running on OS X to Zimbra running on Zimbra. I
> was (am) excited about the change. The users were less so.
>
I might ask you about Zimbra. I'm playing around with it on my own time.
Unfortunately, It's hard to get used to because it takes over the
machine and does everything its own way. Then again, I'm biased because
I'm used to Debian's packaging.
>
> * We are in the process of revamping our CRM system, and migrating
> from Act! running on Windows to SugarCRM. RIght now our testing
> of Sugar is on a linux server, but that will likely change (too
> much advantage to having the CRM database in SQL Server).
> * Last July we cut from a trditional PBX with POTS lines to 100%
> SIP based Asterisk.
> * I just finished installed laconica microblogging service on a
> Linux host for a pilot program at work.
>
I'm a huge fan of Laconica. I look forward to a federated system of
Laconica servers replacing Twitter.
>
> * We are working on implementing document management using OSS
> with a Linux backend.
>
In a pinch, you can use SVN. It's not pretty (and doesn't do diffs), but
it does version binaries. I take it you have a more appropriate solution
in mind?
>
> So I have a load of fairly stock linux servers running a bunch of
> different software (almost all OSS). The fun part is that all of my
> admins are Windows guys. We have no $$ for extra Windows licenses, so
> Linux it is. I suppose the most exciting thing I am doing with Linux
> right now is my own in-house training for all of these admins who are
> hesitant (or is it stubborn) to embrace linux.
> Since work bought me a Mac laptop, I have not run a Linux desktop.
> However, that itch is starting to come back, so maybe someday soon.
> Anyone know of any new promising looking distros? Maybe something with
> E17?
Debian just released Lenny in February. That means Squeeze (testing) has
current software again. There are e17 packages, but they're in
experimental.
> Last thing. I have also been toying with the idea of an LFS system.
> Has anyone ever done it?
>
> Kirk

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Re: [BLUG] Grepping the output from the Asterisk console

Its complaining because there are color escape sequences in the
asterisk -r output. I'd recommend greping from /var/log/asterisk/full
or from wherever your full logging is done. If you really need to grep
the output from asterisk -r, then pass it through the strings program
like this:

tail -f /tmp/asterisk_output.txt | strings | grep <pattern>

strings will strip binary data from stdout.

As for Asterisk, just curious what kind of setup you have. Are you
still using POTS lines into the asterisk box or do you have a PRI line
or anything like that? At Suso we have two POTS lines going into a 4
port Rhino card and it works pretty well. Sometimes we have trouble with
echoing, but I think that's because of some settings on our Linksys IP
phones.

On Thu, Jun 04, 2009 at 12:09:20PM GMT, Kirk Gleason [kgleason@gmail.com] said the following:
> Does anyone out there know of a way to feed the output from "asterisk -r" to
> stdout so that I can grep it for certain events? I was trying to
> troubleshoot a problem yesterday, and it would have been extremely.
>
> I did try:
>
> on screen 1
> asterisk -r > /tmp/asterisk_output.txt
>
> on screen 2
> tail -f /tmp/asterisk_output.txt | grep <pattern>
>
> but whenever a pattern was matched (or so I suspect), grep would complain
> about the source being a binary file.
>
> --Kirk

> _______________________________________________
> BLUG mailing list
> BLUG@linuxfan.com
> http://mailman.cs.indiana.edu/mailman/listinfo/blug

--
Mark Krenz
Bloomington Linux Users Group
http://www.bloomingtonlinux.org/
_______________________________________________
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[BLUG] Grepping the output from the Asterisk console

Does anyone out there know of a way to feed the output from "asterisk -r" to stdout so that I can grep it for certain events? I was trying to troubleshoot a problem yesterday, and it would have been extremely.

I did try:

on screen 1
asterisk -r > /tmp/asterisk_output.txt

on screen 2
tail -f /tmp/asterisk_output.txt | grep <pattern>

but whenever a pattern was matched (or so I suspect), grep would complain about the source being a binary file.

--Kirk

Re: [BLUG] What have you done with Linux lately?

See the one that I bought didn't come with Linux (even though I do remember some buzz about an Asus Netbook coming with Linux OEM) but Windows XP Home. I was fairly impressed with the thing, and wondered if I might be able to pick one up for my wife and not violate my "No WIndows" policy at home that I have managed to stick to for almost 2 years.

Thanks for the input.

On Thu, Jun 4, 2009 at 8:00 AM, Simón Ruiz <simon.a.ruiz@gmail.com> wrote:

On Wed, Jun 3, 2009 at 10:10 PM, Kirk Gleason <kgleason@gmail.com> wrote:
> Have you installed Linux on the Asus Eee PC? I just bought one for yet
> another project at work, and I was wondering if the thing would run Linux.

Yeah, that's why it had such a big buzz in the Linux community when it
came out. It comes pre-installed with some version of Linux, and I
think the Ubuntu Netbook Remix is designed to work flawlessly on it.

I've also been testing out a bunch of different netbooks at work. The
EeePC is one I haven't gotten my hands on, yet, actually.

I've played with an Asus Aspire One, a Dell Mini 9, and an HP Mini
1000; the Mini 1000 hardware is the worst supported in UNR, but as a
widescreen netbook, the keyboard is almost human sized.

When my 70-year-old mother-in-law was asking about getting a tiny
laptop to take notes at meetings. She wanted it too soon for Dell Mini
10 to be a viable option, so I recommended getting the HP Mini 1000 Mi
edition and leaving the HP flavor of Ubuntu it comes with, at least
until Karmic(here's hoping...) gets the audio hardware figured out
upstream.

At that point, I can make her netbook's desktop look just like her
desktop's desktop by installing stock Ubuntu on it if she likes.

Simón

P.S. I also played a bit with a Kindle 2. I gotta say I was pretty
impressed with it for reading. As a hardware device it's totally O.S.
agnostic; I only interacted with it from Linux and I didn't feel like
a second-class citizen.

It's only *amazingly* easy if you get everything from Amazon, though
it's still pretty easy to put "foreign" content on their.

You can load content onto it as if it were any old USB flash drive,
though it *is* picky about what *kind* of files it reads. (Kindle
format, Mobi format, plain text (though it will recognize and honor
some basic html tags inside plain text files, which made it really
great for reading some of Cory Doctorow's CC-licensed books which come
in HTML)).

And you have to put them in the right directories, if you put an mp3
file in the "secret" "music" folder, you can play it through the
Kindle speakers while you're reading other things. If you put the same
file into the "Audible" directory, it'll treat them like an audiobook
to be listened to all by itself.

_______________________________________________
BLUG mailing list
BLUG@linuxfan.com
http://mailman.cs.indiana.edu/mailman/listinfo/blug

Re: [BLUG] What have you done with Linux lately?

On Wed, Jun 3, 2009 at 10:10 PM, Kirk Gleason <kgleason@gmail.com> wrote:
> Have you installed Linux on the Asus Eee PC? I just bought one for yet
> another project at work, and I was wondering if the thing would run Linux.

Yeah, that's why it had such a big buzz in the Linux community when it
came out. It comes pre-installed with some version of Linux, and I
think the Ubuntu Netbook Remix is designed to work flawlessly on it.

I've also been testing out a bunch of different netbooks at work. The
EeePC is one I haven't gotten my hands on, yet, actually.

I've played with an Asus Aspire One, a Dell Mini 9, and an HP Mini
1000; the Mini 1000 hardware is the worst supported in UNR, but as a
widescreen netbook, the keyboard is almost human sized.

When my 70-year-old mother-in-law was asking about getting a tiny
laptop to take notes at meetings. She wanted it too soon for Dell Mini
10 to be a viable option, so I recommended getting the HP Mini 1000 Mi
edition and leaving the HP flavor of Ubuntu it comes with, at least
until Karmic(here's hoping...) gets the audio hardware figured out
upstream.

At that point, I can make her netbook's desktop look just like her
desktop's desktop by installing stock Ubuntu on it if she likes.

Simón

P.S. I also played a bit with a Kindle 2. I gotta say I was pretty
impressed with it for reading. As a hardware device it's totally O.S.
agnostic; I only interacted with it from Linux and I didn't feel like
a second-class citizen.

It's only *amazingly* easy if you get everything from Amazon, though
it's still pretty easy to put "foreign" content on their.

You can load content onto it as if it were any old USB flash drive,
though it *is* picky about what *kind* of files it reads. (Kindle
format, Mobi format, plain text (though it will recognize and honor
some basic html tags inside plain text files, which made it really
great for reading some of Cory Doctorow's CC-licensed books which come
in HTML)).

And you have to put them in the right directories, if you put an mp3
file in the "secret" "music" folder, you can play it through the
Kindle speakers while you're reading other things. If you put the same
file into the "Audible" directory, it'll treat them like an audiobook
to be listened to all by itself.

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BLUG mailing list
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