TUX Issue8 Nov2005

8/4/2019 TUX Issue8 Nov2005

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ISSUE 8 NOVEMBER 2005The First and Only Magazine for the New LINUX User

SUITED UP: EIOffice is a miraculous but little known office suite Glue Linuxto HardwareNot Calling forCivil Disobedience

THIS MONTHSMANGO PARFAIT:Our Druish JapanesePrincess explains how toplay Windows Mediasong files, how to installKDE on Ubuntu, one way

to use fancy keyboards inKDE and more....

Inkscape DesignEssentials Part Deux

xfce Makes a PowerfulLightweight Desktop

Put All Your UnorganizedThoughts in a BasKet

Gadget Guy Keyboards and Mice

Reviewed Evince, Evolution and NVU

Two Most OftenAsked Technical

Questions AnsweredNow you can learn one technique tomulti-boot many Linux distributions

and how to set up one of the networkcards Linux does not normally support

all thanks to TUX .

Two Most OftenAsked Technical

Questions Answered


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39 Inkscape

CONTENTSP2P

3 L i n u x o n H a r d w a r ePH IL H U G H ES

5 C i v i l D i s o b e d i e n c e a n d L i n u xN I C H O L A S P E T R E L E Y

7 L e t t e r s

14 Q & A w i t h M a n g o P a r f a i tM A N G O PA R FA IT

TUX EXPLAINS

19 L i g h tw e i gh t D e s k to p s : X f c eJ O H N K N I G H T

23 B a s K e t Tu t o r i a lRYAN PAUL

27 Wi r e l e s s N e t w o r k i n g w i t h n d i s w r a p p e rJ E S H A L L

31 G i v e M u l t i p l e D i s t r o s t h e B o o tN I C H O L A S P E T R E L E Y

39 I n k sc a p e: T h e E l e m e n t s o f D e si g n , P a rt I IJ O N P H I L L I P S

ISSUE 8

NOVEMBER 2005

REVIEWS

45 E v e r m o r e I n t e g r a t e d O f f i c e K i c k s K e i s t e r R I C K Y F R E E D L A N D E R

50 G a d g e t G u y :U r g e n t a n d K e y M i c r o s o f t N a t u r a l

E r g o n o m i c K e y b o a r d 4 0 0 0

L o g i t e c h M X 3 0 0 0 L a s e rS E A N C A R R U T H E R S

52 C a p s u l e R e v i e w s E v i n c e N V U N o v e l l E v o l u t i o n X AV IER SPR IET

19 Xfce

23 BasKet

50

52

2www.tuxmagazine.com

NEXT MONTH Last in our series of tutorials

on Inkscape Use Klik to download and

install software TUX talks with a leading KDE

developer about KDE 3.5
http://www.tuxmagazine.com/http://www.tuxmagazine.com/


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A few months ago, I talked a bit about MicrosoftWindows vs. Linux in the context of which is easier.Well, TUX is here to help you use Linux, not to bashor even promote the other guys. There are, however,some valid comparisons that need to be made.

This month, I want to talk about what Applehas to offer vs. Linux. Although the Mac andLinux have close to the same market share, thereare some very significant differences. Thosedifferences may help answer some questionsthat you are asking.

If you look way back in computer history, peo-ple got their operating systems from the samevendor as they got their computer hardware. Thiswas mostly because operating systems were notportable between different types of hardware, so

it was only the hardware vendor that had aninterest. That is, the hardware vendors had todevelop the operating system in order to sell (orlease) their computers.

UNIX, the stepfather of Linux, initially carried onthis tradition as it was written specifically for a PDP-11 computer. UNIX, however, far outlived the practi-cality of the PDP-11 hardware, and UNIX proved

itself as a portable operating system.Linux carried on this tradition initially by being

written specifically for the Intel 386 processor. Therereally never was a lot of 386-specific design in Linux,and thus, it was easy for Linux to evolve as CPU

technology evolved. Because of this general design,it also was easy to make Linux run on virtually any-thing, including mainframes.

While this evolution was happening, Microsoftwas going the other way. That is, the Windows portsto the Alpha and MIPS chips faded away withoutmuch noticeprobably because of the combinationof Intels huge market share of commodity hardwareand the unsuitability of the Windows platform forlarge-scale computer systems.

During all this excitement, Apple quietly ported

Mac OS from the Motorola 68000 processor familyto the PowerPC. Next, Apple announced that thecore of Mac OS would move from a unique Applecreation to a UNIX base. Now, Apple has announcedthat they are moving from the PowerPC to the Intelx86 chipset.

What makes this story particularly interesting isthat while other operating systems have changed

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FROM THE PUBLISHER

Linux on HardwareIf more companies glue Linux to their hardware, Linux will conquer the desktop faster than ever.PHIL HUGHES


PUBLISHERPhil Hughes,[email protected]

EDITORIALEDITOR IN CHIEFNicholas PetreleyEXECUTIVEEDITORJill Franklin,[email protected] Antikajian,[email protected]

For Editorial inquiries, please write [email protected]

VP OF SALES AND MARKETINGCarlie Fairchild,[email protected]

MARKETINGDIRECTOR OF MARKETINGRebecca Cassity,[email protected] MARKET ANALYSTJames Gray, [email protected]

SALESADVERTISING COORDINATORLana Newlander,206-782-7733 ext. 2,[email protected]

For immediate information about advertising in thisdigital edition ofTUX or for information about bannerand text advertising on theTUX Web site, please visithttp://www.tuxmagazine.com/xstatic/advertising

CIRCULATIONCIRCULATION MANAGERKhris Goldberg,[email protected]

For immediate information about subscribing,renewing, or changing your method of deliveryor delivery address forTUX , please visithttp://www.tuxmagazine.com/xstatic/subscribe.

SSC PUBLISHING, LTD.http://www.ssc.com

A privately held company, SSC Publishing is the leadingLinux and Open Source authority, publishing referencematerials in these fields since 1983. Properties includeLinuxGazette.com, DocSearls.com, TUXMagazine.com,LinuxJournal.com,and the monthly international printmagazineLinux Journal .

Additional information can be found atwww.ssc.com.All product and company names featured in thispublication may be trademarks or registeredtrademarks of their respective holders.
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significantly at the user end, Mac OS hasmostly just grown as hardware capabilities

permitted that growth. That is, a Mac OSuser who was stranded on an island forten years would not have to start over touse todays Mac. This certainly wouldntbe true of a Windows or Linux user.

Why the difference? First, Applestarted with the ideas of Xeroxs PaloAlto Research Center (PARC). Thisoffered a lot more of a plan than youcould expect from a software companystarting from scratch. But, all the more

important, Apple has controlled thehardware. That is, Mac OS runs onhardware that Apple builds and onlyon hardware that Apple builds.

Being able to have hardware designand software design happen in parallel isa big win. It means you can plan for anorganized progression in your productline. Customer feedback and requests canshape all aspects of future products ratherthan just one piece.

Now it is time for me to predict thefuture. Linux is reaching critical mass onthe desktop. Linux will be easy to getrunning on new computer hardware.And, today, hardware vendors tend toship an operating system with theirhardware. What will happen is that ahardware vendor will seriously embrace

Linux on desktop systems and that willstart the flood.

Linux isnt new to hardware vendors.More than ten years ago, AMD startedusing Linux as part of its test suite fornew processor chips. IBM shipped Linuxon ThinkPad laptops. HP seems to be offand on with shipping Linux on somesystems. For IBM and HP, these clearlyhave been experiments. That is, Linuxfor servers has been taken seriously, butdesktops and laptops have been muchmore of an experiment.

There have been many reasons for thisbut the most obvious is that Linux wasnot ready for prime time on the desktop.Even today, we can debate whether it isready, but I think we can all agree that ifa large hardware vendor such as IBM, HPor Dell decided to take desktop Linuxseriously, any problems would be rectifiedvery quickly.

See the parallel? What I am saying isthat if the same company is responsible

for the hardware and the software, itgets so much easier to make Linux doeverything right and, in particular,everything the vendors customers areasking for.

Why would a vendor want to dothis? Profit and market share are twoconsiderations. First, hardware margins

are very low these days because the PChas become a commodity. Although

brand loyalty helps the big players (andthis loyalty is legitimate as companiessuch as IBM do a great job of support-ing their hardware), the premium youcan charge is finite. Market share is alot more interesting.

I am not suggesting a proprietaryversion of Linux here. The issue is justmaking Linux really support specifichardware. Today, when new hardware isreleased, the Linux community and com-

mercial Linux software vendors writesoftware to support these new features.The process works, but it would work somuch better if the hardware vendor wasdoing its Linux homework early in thedevelopment cycle.

What if a hardware giant startedoffering Linux-based hardware/software-integrated desktops for specific busi-ness markets? That could be lawyers,doctors, accountants or just about

any other well-defined office. Is thereanything holding this back? Today, Ifeel the only thing needed is for ahardware vendor to jump into theLinux desktop market seriously. I

Phil Hughes is Group Publisher for SSC Publishing, Ltd.

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In this issue, Mango Parfait explains to areader how to play wma (Windows Mediaaudio files) on Linux. The process involvesdownloading a set of Microsoft codec filesand installing them on your Linux distribu-

tion. I dont know of any Linux distribu-tions that include these proprietary fileswith their software. None of them wantto risk being sued for providing files thatmight be construed as encouraging cus-tomers to violate patents or end-userlicense agreements. Fewer and fewerLinux distributions are making these filesavailable from their package repositories,for the same reasons. Instead, they giveyou instructions on how to get these files

from another source, usually based inanother country where it is harder to pros-ecute the person(s) providing these files.

In this case, the problem is at leasttwo-fold, if not more complex. First, itrevolves around the fact that you needfiles that ship with Windows in order todecode music files in wma format. Whensomeone makes these files availableapart from Windows, it is possible thatsomeone who doesnt own Windows will

download them and use them. This isillegal, and I also believe it is unethical.

Let me put it this way. If I buy books, Idont see how it harms anyone if I makea copy of one or more chapters of these

books for my own use. Heck, I dont seehow it could harm anyone if I rewrite thechapters for my own pleasure.

I do not believe I have the right to makethose chapters publicly available, however.One could argue that to do so could helpor hurt the original publishers or authors.But it is up to them to decide whether ornot to publish sample chapters. It is not myplace to make these chapters publicly avail-able without their explicit permission.

Likewise, I dont think it is right tomake parts of Windows publicly available.So, for the record (Microsoft lawyers,please read this carefully), I suggest thatyou do not follow the instructions inMangos column if you do not own acopy of Windows. Do not download thew32codecs package and use it on Linux.

Now, what if you own a copy ofWindows? In that case, I do not see any-thing unethical about downloading and

using the w32codecs package. Youalready own these files, so what differencedoes it make if you download them? Imnot encouraging you to download them,but I dont see what harm there is in

doing so. Neither would it harm anyone ifI downloaded chapters of a book I alreadyown. So why shouldnt I be able to do so?

The problem is that those who makethe w32codes package available make itavailable to anyone, not only those whoown a copy of Windows.

Now, suppose that someone created asystem where it was impossible to down-load this package unless you alreadyowned a copy of Windows? Would you

have a right to download the w32codecspackage? Not according to Microsoft.This is the second part of the problem.

Notice that I said I do not see any-thing unethical about downloading thew32codecs package. I did not say I seenothing illegal about it. In fact, it violatesthe end-user license agreement to usethese files on Linux, whether you down-load them or get them directly from yourown copy of Windows.

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FROM THE EDITOR IN CHIEF

Civil Disobedience and LinuxThe editor in chief does not suggest that you violate license agreements and patent restrictions.NICHOLAS PETRELEY



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Microsoft defines Windows as some-thing you license, not something you buy,hence the company reasons that it cancontinue to control how you use the files

after you thought you purchased them.Of course, this doesnt really make senseto any sane person (which, of course,excludes most lawyers). If I purchaseWindows at a software store, I get a salesreceipt. I dont get a license or rentalreceipt. I bought a copy of the software justlike I would buy a book. Logically speaking,its mine, now, to do with as I please.

Microsoft, on the other hand, says youdont own it. Microsoft says it still owns the

software. You bought only the privilege touse it in the ways they have determinedyou can or cannot use it. Granted, you hadto agree to some outrageous terms whenyou installed Windows in order to finish theinstallation process. But Id love to seemany of the terms in the end-user licenseagreement tried in a justice system whereoutcomes are never determined by whocan afford the best lawyers, or who canafford to stay in the game long enough to

bankrupt the defendant before the courtcan reach a just verdict.To reiterate the point, logically speaking,

I say you own your copy of the Windowsbook, and if you want to make copies ofa few chapters (or in the case of Windows,system files) and even modify them for yourown pleasure, you are not harming anyone.Microsoft says it owns your copy ofWindows and Microsoft alone has ultimatecontrol over how you use Windows files.

Given that you agree with me, heres away one could solve the ethical side of thewma codecs problem without makingWindows files publicly available. Dont

publish a package with Windows files, likethe w32codecs package. Publish a programthat copies the files from your Windowsinstallation (or the Windows installationCD) to the right location on your Linuxdistribution so that Linux can use them. Ifyou approach the problem this way, then(ethically speaking, not necessarily legallyspeaking) it exonerates the people whoown a legitimate copy of Windows. Ofcourse, if someone uses the program to

copy files from an illegitimate copy ofWindows, thats a whole nother problem,and not worth addressing here, becausethat person is a law-breaker to begin with.

Im sure youre familiar with the expres-sion void where prohibited by law. Insome cases, this expression exists becausesomeone recognizes that an agreement isunfair and prohibits the agreement frombeing legally binding. Personally, I believethe Microsoft end-user license agreement

should be prohibited by law everywhere. IfI were encouraging civil disobedience, itwould be in the hope that Microsoftwould litigate against someone who violat-ed the end-user license agreement, losethe case and once and for all make theircurrent license agreement prohibited bylaw. That is, if I were encouraging civil dis-obedience, which Im not.

Heres what I am encouraging you todo. If you do not have songs in wma for-

mat, dont create or download any songsin that format. If you have legally obtainedsongs in wma format and you want to useLinux to listen to these songs, heres what

to do. Find a program that does not relyon Windows files to convert wma songsinto a nonproprietary format. Convert thesongs to a nonproprietary format and thenlisten to the songs on Linux.

What if there is no such thing as a pro-gram that converts these files without theuse of codecs found only in Windows? Ifyou have songs in wma format, its a no-brainer that you already have a copy ofWindows. But if you dont, buy one. Use a

program on Windows to convert these filesto a nonproprietary format. Im telling youto use the program on Windows because itprevents Microsoft from claiming you brokean end-user license agreement. Copy theseconverted files to media (such as a CD-ROM or DVD), delete Windows and thenlisten to the songs on Linux.

In principle, I would like to seeMicrosoft sue someone over the use ofWindows files on Linux, lose the case and

have its end-user license agreement tornto shreds. But it makes so much moresense to abandon proprietary formats ifyoure using them or, better still, avoidproprietary formats to begin with.

Okay, I did the CYA thing as best Icould. Now do what you think is right. I

TUX Editor in Chief Nicholas Petreley is an author,consultant, programmer, award-winning columnistand Linux analyst for Evans Data Corp.

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Quicken Replacement?What has prevented me from fully switching over to Linux on the desktop isa financial program to replace Quicken. Can you please do a review of finan-cial programs for Linux in a future issue?--Andy

See the October 2005 issues article on GnuCash.Ed.

GnuCash

I really like your magazine. I do not consider myself a newbie to Linux, but asfor the graphical interface program, you have taught me a lot. Anyway, Iwish to say, I read your article on GnuCash, and thought this is great. I am aKDE user, but for a program like this with a guide so well written, I am will-ing to switch to GNOME to activate it.

I am a Slackware user, and hence I needed to compile the source code. Iimmediately ran into a lot of compatibility issues and missing files/programsof GNOME (like gnome-config).

As a Linux user, I thought, well, if I am missing a program, I will upgrade my

GNOME program and have all the missing software. Imagine my surprisewhen after the upgrade, it is still not working and still missing files/programs.

I went and searched the Web for help, and found out that you should nottry to install GnuCash for any version above Slackware 9.0 and downgradesome GNOME features to what can be found on Slackware 8.1, and all thisis because GnuCash works only with GNOME 1 and not 2.

I believe that as a great magazine as you are, you should not writeon an absolute program, or a program that is known to be troublesome(mainly because of all the GNOME inconsistency in the software

upgrades). I would appreciate an article on a finance program thatworks. GNOME or KDE, but a tested programor at least a warningthat this program will work only if you have GNOME version 1 andbelow or even a KDE version.--Adi

You do not need to switch to GNOME as your desktop to run GnuCash. The support files for older versions of GNOME coexist fine with recent versions of GNOME, so there is no reason why you cant run older GNOME programs on

the latest version of GNOME.I believe the problems you are having stem from the fact that you are tryingto compile the program yourself. The foundation for GNOME is composed of a patchwork of many different projects, not a cohesive development effort by a single team. The projects arent always synchronized, especially after anew version comes out. Thats why it is hard to go back and find a set of older support libraries that work together properly for the GNOME program

you are trying to build. I know. Ive tried it. Sometimes Ive succeeded, other times I failed and gave up because it wasnt worth the effort. It is much easi-er to use a Linux distribution with precompiled packages, because theyve

worked out all these problems for you.Ed.

More GnuCashI was pleased to see the GnuCash article published in TUX magazine[October 2005]. I wonder if the author might revisit it. My wife, you see,handles the accounts. I showed her GnuCash, and she reckons it needs away of importing the bank details that my wife downloads over the Internet.She reckons its worth buying MS Money for that capability, so she must bepretty serious about it! Help me, Obi Wan, you are my only hope.--Vik

LETTERS


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XandrosIn regards to Mr Danforths letter and the editors somewhat unwarranted

comments about Xandros [October 2005, Letters], I have to respectfully dis-agree. I am a Windows Crossover Linux newb. Being sick of the MSmonopoly and the malware games being played, I tried the Knoppix live CD.Impressed at what I saw, I went for the real thing. I installed SUSE, Mandriva,Ubuntu and Mepis, before settling in with Xandros 3.02 OCE. It justworked. I have installed it on five machines to date with no problems: twoeMachines with AMD chips, two Wintergreen Celeron boxes and a CompaqPII. It detected all the hardware and hooks up with the Windows machineson my home network just fine. The biggest problem I had was my lackof knowledge.

The install was simple, and I felt comfortable with the interface. The userforum is one of its strongest points. Lots of people in there are willing tohelp. Maybe Mr Danforth should have given it a try. Maybe he should havetried the OCE release first before making a purchase. Its possible he mightbe singing a different tune.

Hardware issues face all distros. Xandros is not immune, but it worked forme. I had issues or just didnt like the other distros I mentioned above, but Ididnt go out and seek to discredit them. I tried another. I would think amagazine that boasts being for the new user would try to promote everydistro. There are a lot of satisfied Xandros users.

I feel the editors reply would have been in better taste if it were stated asSorry that didnt work out for you, hopefully youll find a distro that does.

(We can all wonder what would have happened if MS wouldnt have paidCorel to drop this distro.)

This distro may not be what an old-school Linux user wants, but to all younewbs out there that are not satisfied with your current distro, take a closer

look at Xandros. It might just be the one for you. If not, keep trying. Youhave a choice. Hopefully there will be a Live CD with the next release. The

goal we are all seeking is the same.--Scott

I still dont like Xandros. Thats my personal opinion, and nobody has toagree with it. Ill glady say, retroactively, Im sorry Xandros didnt work out for you. Hopefully youll find a distro that does.Ed.

More XandrosIm writing to share my experience with Xandros Deluxe 3.0 and XandrosBusiness 3.0. Ive had tremendous success with the Xandros distribution,

completely abandoning the Microsoft experience. Using Xandros 3.0Deluxe, were able to provide real-time support to Windows 98SE,Windows 2000 Professional, and Windows XP clients from our system.We use CrossOver Office Professional, DOSEMU, Win4Lin, Thunderbird,Firefox, Microsoft Word, Kword, etranscript from RealLegal.com (ourpersonal RealCAT real-time reporting software), and ALL our applicationsrun flawlessly, for which were eternally grateful to the Xandros peoplefor their distribution.

As for Mango Parfait, I personally look forward each month to her wonderfulcolumn from which I find inspiration, regardless of how others may feel. You

folks do a wonderful job, and for that please take the A+. As someone whocame from a Windows platform, Xandros was the right fit, making the tran-sition effortless. Im not the only real-time reporter using Xandros in a court-room setting to provide real-time output to Windows clients, and eachreporter here doing so is thrilled with the total application solution packageweve combined to meet our needs. Our advice to anyone unfamiliar with aLinux distro is seriously consider the Xandros distro to ease your migration.We can hardly wait for the Xandros Server to hit the market. Im foreverthankful to be able to say good-bye to Windows.

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If those who believe W indows is the be-all and end-all of softwarewould open their minds and take a close, long, hard look at Linux,

nobody in their right mind would ever use Windows again, IMO. Thanksfor a wonderful magazine.--Joseph A. Millikan

And, More on XandrosI read with horror of David Danforths experience of Xandros (and your not-so-helpful comment) in the Letters section of the October 2005 Issue. It wasvery unfair and unjust of you to give space to one persons bad experience ofXandros and then have the audacity to add a negative comment yourself.This is journalism at its worst, since you havent backed it up with any facts.

You have tarnished the reputation of Xandros, because one person has had aproblem and youve labeled it a Linspire wanna-be! How biased canreporting get!

Perhaps you would like to include my letter so as to give a more balancedview. I am a newbie to Linux and bought Xandros in March, and my experi-ence is that of a great product. The file manager system has worked a treatfor me and has the benefit of integrated ripping, burning and copying ofCDs. Initially, I had a problem, but this disappeared after I replaced a faultymemory module. Yes, I have had a few other problems too, but these haveall been due to operator error (i.e., me!), or hardware that is specifically

designed for Windows (for example, onboard sound and a Canon scanner).The e-mail support was excellent, and there is a very helpful community onthe Xandros forum to help you out after the support period has expired. Thisis my personal experienceif you dont like it dont print it!--David Wrigley

I like it. We printed it. Diverse opinions are good.Ed.

A RequestPlease consider publishing an article on how to use Windows software under

Linux. I am particularly interested in using my Shorter Oxford EnglishDictionary (SOED) on my Linux-only notebook.

A tutorial on how to set up and use WINE would be niceand an exampleof installing and using the SOED would be even better.

Thank you for your time and efforts in producing a great resource for newLinux users.--Ed Paski

A how-to for different ways to run Windows programs on Linux is on our to-do list!Ed.

InkscapeIm one of the Inkscape developers and noticed a question on Inkscape inyour October 2005 issue that I can help address.

First, let me thank Nicholas Petreley for correctly pointing out that Inkscape isnot specific to GNOME or KDE. (The Inkscape Project works most closelywith Scribus, a Qt app.) It often seems like the KDE/GNOME division dilutesenergies; what we need are open-source applications that just work well

anywhere and can stand on their merits alone.C. Dempsey asked about the differences between the Windows and Linuxversions of Inkscape. We use exactly the same code base for both our Linuxand Windows releases, so in theory, the functionality should be identical onboth. In practice, we find that the Linux version works better for the simplereason that we have more developers on Linux than we do on Windows cur-rently. Thus, issues on Linux get fixed faster than on Windows.

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Judging from our download stats, it looks like theres a LOT more Inkscapeusers on Windows than on Linux, so its strange that we dont have nearly as

much development participation from them. Maybe its just a cultural thing.Anyway, beyond just plain-old bugs, there may be differences in theimport/export functionality of Inkscape between Linux and Windows.Many of the conversion programs we use for import/export are themselvesopen-source applications, which may not have Windows versions. On theother hand, there are MANY very powerful conversion programs availableon Windows commercially, and Inkscape can be configured to detect anduse them.

Why should Linux developers and users care about Windows ports of one of

their applications? Simple: it removes one more hindrance for users who willwant to convert to Linux later.

On the topic of conversion support, it may be interesting to TUX s readershipto learn that Xara is sponsoring an open-source project to create a tool toconvert between their programs XAR format and SVG. See the Sep-22 itemat http://xara.com/press . I hope the approach being taken here inspires simi-lar efforts to improve document-level interoperability elsewhere.--Bryce Harrington

I Hated, I Read, I Learned, I Installed, I LovedA bit of a strange subject line I know, But then again, we are Linux userswe have to be strange....Right!? Your magazine is great, and I read everyissue at least four times. Im a bit slow I guess. Either that or I just enjoyreading it. Either way I finally decided after seven issues it was time for me toput my two cents in, okay maybe a buck fifty.

First off, I hate seeing people complain about TUX and what it writes about.Dont like it? Write your own e-zine.

Second, I love Mango. Shes just the type of smart-**s woman that theworld needs. I mean, just because somewhere in history someone said men

have two brains, most of them think that men for some reason must besmarter. And yes I am a guy. I just think those men are jealous ofMangos cool avatar in TUX magazine.

Lastly, Id like to add some of the stuff I use here at home to help me out. Iuse MPlayer a lot, and I also love my modded Xbox. So I created some scriptsto help me out with both.

First MPlayer or rather mencoder/mplayer. I rent and watch a lot of movies, andmost times I dont have time to watch them all before they are due back. So I liketo copy my rented DVDs to my laptop for future watching. (No I dont condone

the illegal copy and distribution of DVDs.) Im a watch once and thats prettymuch it type of person. I have a handful of movies I can watch more than once.Dark Crystal , Labrynth, anything with Angelina Jolie and a few older movies.

This script copies the DVD to my hard drive:

#!/bin/bashecho "Enter movie title"read moviemencoder -oac copy -ovc copy dvd://1 --dvd-device /dev/hdc -o $movie.avi

Then, chmod 711 the script file and cp it to your /usr/bin folder. Now you cantype cpdvd , or whatever you named it, from any directory as any user andcopy the movie in the DVD drive.

For some distros like Slackware you may have to mount the CD first anduse the /mnt/cdrom instead of /dev/hdc or /dev/dvd. Great e-zine, anddont let Mango quit.--Jeff L. Richtman

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http://xara.com/presshttp://xara.com/presshttp://dvd//1http://www.tuxmagazine.com/http://www.tuxmagazine.com/http://dvd//1http://xara.com/press


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Opera TipIn the June 2005 issue, I read the letter from Valerie Higgins about the missingeye in Opera for adjusting viewing size. The best thing is too use the short-cut Opera provides. Its easy and a lot faster than using the mouse. Increasingthe viewing size is done with the Numeric + key or the 0 key. Decreasing theviewing size is done with the Numeric - key or the 9 key. If you press Ctrl-B inOpera, you will get a overview of all the keyboard shortcuts.--Kai Stian Olstad

Polling ProblemsI dont know what your opinion regarding actively encouraging ones usersto participate in a poll is, but I suppose that your recent Readers Choice

Awards [September 2005] has been faulted without your knowledge.When DesktopLinux received lots of incoming votes for Yoper, the editors discov-ered that Yoper was actively pushing its users toward voting for it, thereby flawingthe results: http://www.desktoplinux.com/articles/AT2127420238.html .

As a reaction, DesktopLinux decided to exclude Yoper from that competition:our readers were quick to report a fishy smell, and a trip over to Yopers homepage today turned up evidence of a well-intended but survey-busting tendencyto encourage Yoper users to boost Yopers standing in online polls.

I was recently surprised by PCLinuxOSs excellent result in your usersawards, but reading through their forums I discovered an unpleasantexplanation. You will understand what I mean after skimmingthrough this thread: http://www.pclinuxonline.com/modules.php?mop=modload&name=Splatt_Forums&file=viewtopic&topic=7277&forum=50

To make my point clear, I provide a few quotes:

If you havent already please go to http://www.tuxmagazine.com/ TUX_Readers_Choice and vote for PCLinuxOS.

Donetwice ;-)

Bump. Sorry guys but I want to keep this thread visible for the next week oruntil the voting closes.

No problem. Ive set the thread to Sticky.

Thanks yama, but that doesnt keep it on visible on the index page inRecent Posts. Ill unset the sticky when the voting ends.

Now I wonder whether this is fair to the other distributions. Posting a news storyto tell the users that theres a poll going on is one thing, but spamming themwith constant voting incentives surely distorts the results. Ubuntu and SUSE

havent done anything like this, and neither have lower-ranked distributions doneit (I suspect, although I obviously havent been able to check them all).

Seeing this, one gathers the conclusion that the poll has been partly sabotaged.Maybe TUX magazine can publish a disclaimer, or something even better, to makethe situation clear to the audience (whilst mentioning that PCLOS is indeed a niceeffort, just probably not the third of them all)? This would surely raise the overalllevel of respect the readers have toward the magazine and the data it provides.--Juergen

Thanks for pointing this out. We will be discussing various ways to minimizethe possibility of this sort of thing happening again.Ed.

Lightweight DesktopsI really enjoyed that you included an article on lightweight desktops in yourSeptember 2005 issue. I have been using Linux on my desktop computers forabout five years now, and while I started with KDE, I have found that thelightweight alternatives accomplish pretty much the same end results, justwithout the eye-candy and occasional handy desktop tool. I think it ought tobe mentioned that distributions like Vector Linux are absolutely wonderful

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http://www.desktoplinux.com/articles/AT2127420238.htmlhttp://www.desktoplinux.com/articles/AT2127420238.htmlhttp://www.pclinuxonline.com/modules.php?mop=modload&name=Splatt_Forums&file=viewtopic&topic=7277&forum=50http://www.pclinuxonline.com/modules.php?mop=modload&name=Splatt_Forums&file=viewtopic&topic=7277&forum=50http://www.pclinuxonline.com/modules.php?mop=modload&name=Splatt_Forums&file=viewtopic&topic=7277&forum=50http://www.tuxmagazine.com/TUX_Readers_Choicehttp://www.tuxmagazine.com/TUX_Readers_Choicehttp://www.tuxmagazine.com/TUX_Readers_Choicehttp://www.tuxmagazine.com/TUX_Readers_Choicehttp://www.tuxmagazine.com/http://www.tuxmagazine.com/http://www.tuxmagazine.com/TUX_Readers_Choicehttp://www.pclinuxonline.com/modules.php?mop=modload&name=Splatt_Forums&file=viewtopic&topic=7277&forum=50http://www.desktoplinux.com/articles/AT2127420238.html


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for lower-end and older hardware.

Although Mepis and Ubuntu are great for machines that can handle KDE orGNOME, respectively, the default window manager in Vector Linux is IceWM,which makes my lowly 400MHz laptop scream with speed (well, compared tohow it used to perform with Win98). And as with Mepis and Ubuntu, VectorLinux is available for free and is geared for the nontechnical user, although thegurus can appreciate it as well. If you are using something like Fedora, Mandrivaor SUSE, you owe it to yourself to check out one of these lightweight distributions(live CDs are nice) and see how fast your machine can become!

PS: I am not affiliated with Vector Linux and do not work for them, and I normallyrun Arch Linux, which I love, on my main P4 desktop. I just find that Vector is agreat distribution, and I feel your readers should know about it.--Marko Vidberg

NeroLINUXI know its been said before, but your magazine is like a breath of spring to usnewbies (I wish there was another way of describing us, as its a bit of a putdown to someone who has been using computers since the days of the ZX81).

Anyway, to the pointyou have renewed my interest in Linux, and so I won-der if you could let your readers know about NeroLINUX for copying and

burning CDs and DVDs. And like Nero for Windows, it does everything; it istruly amazing. I downloaded it from http://www.nero.com , it compiled andworked on my distro (Mandrake...sorry Mandriva 2005 LE) the first time, andI was able to burn an iso of over 650MB in just under 2 min. 30 secs.

NeroLINUX is free to download till the 30th of November 2005, and then onoffer at $19.99 US. I would advise people to have a look, download, try itand see what it can do, and then make up their own minds whether theywant to buy. Thank you again for the light at the end of the Linux tunnel.--Chris Porter

MetadotYour September 2005 article on Metadot is the worst piece of article I readso far from your fine magazine. The whole article reads like an ad copy. Bythe end of the article, I still havent learned anything thats unique aboutMetadot. All the article said was how it helped so and so, and provides easychanges to Web sites and low costs. How is that different from what anyother open-source portal system offers?

Why is Metadot good? The article didnt mention anything about the softwareor hardware requirements. Nor did it detail its architecture, or the technologybehind it. And it didnt offer anything useful, like a sample installation ofMetadot or a run-through of its features. It totally breaks from TUX s usualhands-on approach to articles. And worst of all, the article is a bore to read. Ifelt like it totally wasted my time. Please keep up the good work with the restof the magazine, and refrain from accepting any more articles like Metadot.--Yi

Im sorry you didnt like the Metadot article. I installed it and tested it tomake sure it was a good piece of software before I allowed the article to be

published. I cant write a review for you in response to your letter, but as I said in my column in the same issue, it was not easy to install, but I thought it was terrific once you have it running.Ed.

TUX and MangoI have read TUX since it first came out and like it very much. My distro is

Linspire, and I really liked the review in the August 2005 issue of TUX . I wasable to install Linspire (then Lindows) and was delighted that it recognizedeverything on my no-name, homemade PC. I have installed and used variousLinux distros, but Linspire was by far the favorite just because of the CNRwarehouse. Linspire is not as configurable as distros like SUSE 9.2 (I really likeYAST), but CNR is the wave of the future.

I would also like to voice my support of Mango Parfait. I like her suggestions(like the quick browser) and even like her seasoning of humor. Being a KDE

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fan myself, I dont mind the friendly pokes at GNOME. I am sure there aremore KDE people who like her columns than the noise of the GNOMEaddicts would lead you to believe. Thanks for producing TUX and keep upthe good work.--Paul Pratt

Greetings from Costa RicaI would like to let you know that TUX magazine rocks! Its now my first refer-ence source for Linux and open-source information. Every word in the maga-zine is worth the download from your site (especially if you use a dial-up). Icannot figure out how I lived without it in the past.

I remember those old days when I first came to the Linux world, and using a333 Celeron machine, tried to install Red Hat 5.0how difficult it was.

Your magazine makes it easier for me. In fact, I am willing to share it withsome folks here so they can learn the TRUTH, and that is that Linux rocksand Windows su***.

It is a pleasure to to read your articles. What else can I say? KUDOS to every-body at TUX magazine. I also enjoy reading Mango Parfait...we have a lot ofmangos (fruit) here in my country. Pura Vida amigos , Feel the Force and usethe real Linux power.

--NAVEGADOR

Mango Is a GoddessI just wanted to say Im like SOOOO into TUX magazine and especiallyMango Parfait, who is like a goddess to me. Ive been using Mandrake (oh,scuze me, Mandriva now) for like three years and have been totally wantinga magazine like PC World , which is what got me started on Windows thesemany years ago. And now I have TUX , with all kinds of great articles an awe-some wannabe Linux high priestess like me can use. I LMAO at those guyswho say they dont like Mango or her humour, I mean its just SOOOO totally

obvious theyre just mad because they havent had a date with a cuteLinuxchick since like, wel l, ever, and anyway, most techie magazines are toostuffy and self-important anyway, so Im like psyched that TUX doesnt havea giant USB stick up its butt or anything. If I ever meet Mango, Im going tototally treat her to like a HUUUUGE mocha cappuccino latte espresso venti orsomething. She rocks!--Frenchy

SuggestionsAs an experienced Linux user, I still find some useful information in TUX magazine, and I also enjoy the full-screen PDF display, which unlike othere-documents, is very easy to read. However, I have a couple of suggestionsto make TUX even better:

1) Build an article index on the Web site, so that a reader can easily find arti-cles on the various topics. While direct links to articles would be great, even

just listing the issue of TUX and a page number would be a help.

2) Lose Mango Parfait. Her style is really not appropriate for a tech-supportcolumn. If Im looking for a solution to a problem, I dont want to be talkedto as though I were a child. Im also really not interested in the stupid com-ments she sometimes makes.--James Knott

Shiznit?Apparently your magazine is read by a bunch of humorless saps. MangoParfaits column is the shiznit. Imagine that, someone is actually writing abouttechnology with a sense of humor and good-hearted name-calling. She makesme laugh, and thats a good thing. Those dissenters that have spammed youwith hate mail need to, hmmm, I dont know, get out into the sunlight andhave fun sometimes. Maybe then their lives wouldnt be so miserable.--P3RR1N

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Otaku finally quit playing Everquest II . He says the companychanged the game, and it is more like work than play. Does hepay more attention to me because he does not play Everquest II ? No. Now he plays World of Warcraft . He made me try it. Ido not want to admit it, but it is very fun. Now we fight overwho gets to use his Windows PC to play. I play a druid. Mydruid is very pretty. She is an elf with bright blue hair like minebefore I dyed it yellow. A druid can change into a bear. Thebear is not pretty, but it is fun to fight as a bear. Now Otakucalls me his Druish Japanese Princess. I think this is romantic.

Otaku took me to lunch. I eat Otakus french fries. I likefrench fries with vinegar and extra salt. Otaku says he will noteat french fries because they are fried in Greece. I think he iswrong. Why do they call them French fries if they are fried inGreece? Otaku tells me a story while I eat them. He says a mangoes to the doctor. The doctor says the man has only sixmonths to live. The man asks, Is there anything I can do?The doctor says, You can marry a Druish Japanese Princessand move to Iowa. The man says, Will that help? The doc-tor says, No, but it will be the longest six months you everlived. Otaku asked me if I know what that means. I am notsure. Maybe he is telling me he wants to get married, but I donot know why he wants to live in Iowa.

I know what your questions mean. I always like your ques-tions. Please send me more.

Q Dear Mango, I have a music collection that I collected foryears, and it would be difficult, if possible at all, to collectit again. And the major part of that collection is made in wma[Windows Media Player] format. Is there any player to play orother software to make a different format of these files? I foundseveral scripts that make MP3s of them, but transition of onesong takes half an hourI really do not have patience like this.

The next question I have is how to make my machine useGNOME and KDE on one platformis it possible to [do thiswith] Ubuntu?

Thank you in advance, and I wish the best luck for TUX andyou personally. Gytis, Lithuania

A Dear Lithuania Gytis, I like your name. Lithuania soundslike a girls name so I think you are a girl. May I call youMs Lithy? Maybe not. Maybe people think your name is Lizzyand I have a lithp.

Okay, Lithuania, let me answer your questions. First, I seepeople say IANAL and I think they say I anal. I look up analin the dictionary and I see that it can mean meticulous andcareful. I am meticulous and careful, so I say, Hi, I anal too.Now I learn IANAL means I Am Not A Lawyer. It is true. I amnot a lawyer. So I still say Hi, I anal too.

I tell you this because I do not know if you break the law byplaying wma files on Linux. I do not think it is breaking the law,

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Q&Awith Mango ParfaitUbuntu and Kubuntu dominate Mangos attention this month as she explains how to install KDE on Ubuntu,how to make these distributions play Windows media files and more. MANGO PARFAIT


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but I anal. Many Linux distributions do not want to take thechance, so they do not include the packages you need to playwma files or DVDs. This does not mean you can never play wmafiles on Linux. But you have to be responsible for making it workso that Ubuntu is not arrested by the patent police. We printedyour name, so I suggest that you change your name if you areafraid of being arrested by the patent police. Abyssinia is a nicename. I could call you Abby.

The Ubuntu Web site gives instructions on how to play wmafiles. Do not follow those instructions. They do not work any-more. I copied those instructions and made some changes to theinstructions to make them work. Here is how to make the HoaryHedgehog version of Ubuntu (Ubuntu 5.04) play wma files.

Open a terminal and run this command:

$ sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

If you like a different editor more than gedit, use your favoriteeditor instead. Add the following line at the bottom of the file:

deb ftp://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat/ etch main

Then save the file. Now run these commands (each time yourun a command with sudo, you have to type in your password):

$ sudo apt-get update$ sudo apt-get install w32codecs

Now you want to remove the line you added because it canmake trouble for you later. Open the file again with this com-mand (or use your favorite editor instead of gedit):

$ sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

Delete the deb ftp://ftp.nerim.net ... line that youadded. Now add this line instead:

deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hoary universe multiverse

If you are running the latest version of Ubuntu or Kubuntu,add this line instead of the one you see above:

deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu breezy universe multiverse

Save the file and exit the editor.Now you need to run these commands:

$ sudo apt-get update$ sudo apt-get install totem-xine gstreamer0.8-misc gstreamer0.8-plugins$ sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.8-mad gstreamer0.8-ffmpeg libmad0$ sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts libdvdread3$ sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/examples/install-css.sh$ gst-register-0.8

Some of these commands make it possible to play wma files.Some of these commands are for making it possible to watch aDVD too.

Now you can play your wma files with the Totem player orthe GNOME music player (Rhythmbox). You cannot play wmafiles if they are encrypted to use digital rights management. I donot know any way to do that in Linux. You can play only wmafiles that are not encrypted.

It is very easy to run KDE on Ubuntu 5.04 (this works for Ubuntu5.10 too). Here is how to install KDE on Ubuntu. Run the Synapticpackage manager by clicking on System Administration SynapticPackage Manager from the GNOME main menu. Type in your pass-word. Click the Reload button in the toolbar. Select KDE DesktopEnvironment in the list on the left, and select kde-core in the list onthe right (see Figure 1).

Click on the check box and tell Synaptic that you want toinstall kde-core. Synaptic will want to install many more pack-ages. This is okay. This installs everything you need to run thebasic KDE programs. I am certain you will want to run manymore KDE programs. Browse through the list and pick other

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packages to install, like kdegraphics, kdemultimedia, kdenetworkand more. You can even install packages to make your systemlook like Kubuntu instead of Ubuntu, but this is not necessary.

If you run KDE, you can use the instructions above to playwma files with KDE music players like amaroK. The totem-xineprogram uses many GNOME packages. If you are adding KDE toUbuntu this is okay. If you are running Kubuntu, you do nothave to install totem-xine. You can install xine-ui instead.

Q Hello dear Mango, Im a new TUX reader and I like your col-umn. As I managed to run my Canon IP4000 printer withouthaving to buy Turbo Linux, youve become my favourite Linuxexpert. Unfortunately, Im a clumsy (almost) new Linux user....Imrunning Kubuntu, and Im using KDE (who would have guessed!).I do have some challenging questions to ask, so, here we go.

Question 1: I own a multimedia keyboard, namely a LogitechCordless Desktop LX700, which seems to be unsupported underLinux....When I go to the KDE Control Center, a lot of Logitech

keyboards are listed, but when I select a Cordless Desktopentry, only a few multimedia keys are supported. I just wonderedif you had a tip or two to have my nice multimedia keys running,without having to do weird stuff like recompiling the kernel orsummoning a coders good will.

Question 2: My computer is equipped with a SoundBlasterLive! card and a set of four speakers. Its running perfectly wellwith ALSA, but, when I lower or raise the volume, using KMix orwhatever sound manager, the volume changes only on my frontspeakers, leaving my rear speaker yelling....Is there a way to linkthe global volume of the sound card to PCM & Surround? (Justlike its Win****s behavior?)

Question 3: I have a Webcam, like many other people, butmine is an old one: its a Philips Vesta Pro. It runs on USB 1.1. Iwould like to try video conferencing, but Im facing two prob-lems: 1) when I plug the Webcam in to the computer, the systemuses it as the default sound card. On top of that, its leaking USBbandwidth and Im not able to connect even a simple pen drive. I

just think a driver for this device would help, but I cant find one!2) What video-conferencing software would you recommend?

Thank you for reading this very long mail, and I hope myquestions were desktop-related enough for you to answer.

Oh, by the way, Im a Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in the Shell fan, and a FLCLand One Piece addict (I hope these arentflaws). Yours, Etienne

AYay for Cowboy Bebop , Ghost in the Shell , FLCL(Fooly Cooly ) and One Piece ! I like other anime more but I like

Cowboy Bebop and One Piece a lot. Especially One Piece . Otakulikes Ghost in the Shell . He is always talking about how Matrix isa cheap copy of Ghost in the Shell . I do not care. I like Matrix ,too, but only the first movie.

These are not flaws. These things tell me that you are sophisti-cated. To readers who are not sophisticated and do not knowwhat we are talking about, these are all anime (Japanese car-toons). One Piece is about pirates and magic fruit that makes onepirate stretchy like Mr Fantastic in Fantastic Four . Did you know

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Figure 1. Install KDE with Synaptic

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that you can watch Naruto and Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo in Englishnow too? Naruto is fun and Bo-bobo is even more crazy thanCromartie High , one of my favorite mangas (Japanese comics). TheCromartie High TV cartoon is funny too, but the manga is funnier.

Thank you for your kind response about my instructions onhow to set up a Canon printer in the August 2005 issue of TUX .

Okay, let me try to answer your questions.Answer 1: You can turn off KDE keyboard layouts and use a

program called lineak. Install these programs from the packagemanager or command line:

I lineakd

I lineak-defaultplugin

I lineak-kdeplugins

I lineak-xosdplugin

lineak supports many keyboards, and I think it supportsyours. It is not easy to configure lineak. You have to create aconfiguration file and edit it to make it work the way you want.The KDE plugins make this easy if you do not mind creating andediting configuration files. The complete instructions are toocomplicated to explain in detail, but here are some commandsto help you get started. Type this command to look at the list ofkeyboards that lineakd supports:

$ lineakd -l

You will see many, many Logitech keyboards. Most of thekeyboard names do not match the product names exactly. Forexample, the Microsoft Natural Multimedia Keyboard 1.0A islisted as Microsoft Multimedia Keyboard 1.0A. The lineakd pro-gram leaves out the word Natural, but it is the same keyboard.You may have to pick a Logitech keyboard definition that doesnot match yours exactly, even though it is the same keyboard.

Just for example, maybe your keyboard is the same as theLogitech Cordless Desktop Deluxe Optical. You will find thisentry in the list of keyboards:

LTCDDO Logitech Cordless Desktop Deluxe Optical

Now, you create the lineakd configuration file. Use the fol-lowing command (it uses the abbreviation in the list to create aconfiguration file):

$ lineakd -c LTCDDO

Here is the hard part. Now you have to edit the configuration fileto make it do what you want. The file is called ~/.lineak/lineakd.conf.Open this file with your favorite editor, and you will see entrieslike these (here are just a few examples):

AudioLowerVolume =AudioMute =

See how the definitions are blank? You have to fill these inyourself. Do not worry, it is not as bad as it seems. Type thiscommand:

$ lineakd -L

This lists all the built-in commands you can use. Here aresome example definitions matching the example keys above:

KMIX_VOLUPKMIX_VOLDOWNKMIX_MUTE

If you are using KMix as your mixer, edit the file to look like this:

AudioLowerVolume = KMIX_VOLDOWNAudioMute = KMIX_MUTE

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TUX EXPLAINS


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In the second installment of this series, weexplore the increasingly popular Xfce desktop[see John Knights The World Beyond KDE andGNOME in the September 2005 issue of TUX for more on lightweight desktops]. In the wordsof the user manual, It aims to be fast andlightweight, while still being visually appealingand easy to use. If youre tired of the bulk ofKDE and GNOME, but still want eye-candy, thisis the desktop for you. With the ability tochange the desktop background and windowmanager easily, Xfce is pretty and trim withoutmaking you feel l ike youre compromising.

LOOKING AROUNDXfce started out as a CDE clone, the CommonDesktop Environment based on Motif. Althoughit has evolved into a much more powerful win-dow manager, it still will be familiar to anyonewho has used HP-UX or other flavors of UNIX orUNIX-like systems that adopted CDE as thedefault window manager.

At the bottom center of the screen is theXfce4 Panel (from here on referred to simply aspanel). This panel contains a number of icons, allsorted into different tasks, like a file manager,music player, settings manager and so on. In themiddle of the panel is a desktop pager thatallows you to switch between all four desktops,KDE- and GNOME-style.

At the top of thescreen is the taskbar.Not only does it allowyou to switch betweenwindows, but clickingon a windows buttonallows you to minimizeit as well. At the farright of the taskbar, is asmall icon: this is calledSession control, and itlets you browsethrough all of youropen windows andkill any windows thathave crashed.

At the bottom rightis something called theLil Star - Iconbox (oriconbox for short). Thisdisplays the icons of allyour minimized win-dows on all desktops,although it can be customized so that it displaysthe icons of all windows, sits somewhere else andso forth. If you hover the mouse pointer over oneof the icons, a small dialog box appears that tellsyou the name of the application it represents.

If you click your middle mouse button on thedesktop, a list of all your desktops and their win-

dows appears (press down on the scroll wheel ifyou have a wheel mouse, or click both the leftand right mouse buttons at the same time if youhave a basic two-button mouse). If you click yourright-mouse button, the Desktop Menu appears.This menu should contain a fairly comprehensivelisting of all the applications you have installed,

Lightweight Desktops: XfceXfce takes the Common Desktop Environment to new heights as an alternative desktop environment.

JOHN KNIGHT


TUX EXPLAINS

Figure 1. The Default Xfce Desktop


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TUX EXPLAINS


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and make your way to /usr/share/icons. Thereare hundreds of icons to choose from, butright down at the bottom, there should beone called xine.xpm, which will suit ourneeds perfectly.

5. Click the close button, and Xine is readyto play! Feel free to try it out, and thenwell add on a submenu with RealPlayerand VideoLAN.

ADDING A SUBMENU

1. Right-click on the Xine icon and chooseProperties again.

2. If its not already checked, check the box thatsays Attach menu to launcher.

3. Left-click on the new side menu and chooseAdd launcher.

4. Add in the command and choose anothericon. It will be basically the same as withXine, but this time, enter realplayer inthe command section and RealPlayer in thecaption section.

5. For VideoLAN, repeat the steps for RealPlayer,but use vlc for the command, and VideoLANas the caption.

If any of these buttons dont work, you probablydont have the program installed in the firstplace. To remove an entry, simply right-click onthe item and choose Remove. Now that youvestarted to change the environment to suit your

needs, lets add a realpersonal touch withthe way windows feel.

WINDOW MANAGERWere about to delveinto the SettingsManager; open itfrom the panel andchoose the WindowManager option. Youare now presentedwith a plethora ofDecoration styles, andthese will define howyour windows willlook. My favorite isagua, but feel free tochoose whatever youlike. On the right isan option for chang-ing the Title font. Thislets you play aroundwith the text at the top of your windows,allowing you to change the size and feel. If youlook around, youll see some more advancedoptions too; feel free to play with them ifyoure interested.

USER INTERFACEThe Window Manager utility changed your win-dows border, and this utility will change theinside parts of a window: font, sliders, tabs andso on. Under the Theme section, there are a vastselection of choices; I like SphereCrystal. If youwant to change the font, there is a button forthat on the right. For my own environment, I

use agua for my window manager,SphereCrystal for the user interface theme andthe Sans font at size 10 (Figure 3). There arehundreds of combinations when it comes tolooks, and its well worth experimenting.

ADDING DESKTOP ICONSAdding desktop icons is fairly easy, but beware,as Xfce wasnt designed around having them,you will lose your right- and middle-clickmenus. First, in the Desktop folder in yourhome directory, make a new folder calledAutostart (keep the correct capitalization). Withyour favourite text editor, make a new file in


Figure 3. My own taste in aestheticsnotice the cool Button Layout section?

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the Autostart directory (well call it icons forthis, but call it whatever you like). Enter yourdesktop icon choice in the file and save it.

Desktop icon choices:

I KDE users: kdesktop

I GNOME users: nautilus -n

I DFM users: dfm

The icons file now has to be made executable.If youre using Konqueror, right-click and choose

Properties. Click on thePermissions tab, andcheck the Is executablebox. Under Nautilusand Xffm (Xfcesdefault file manager),do the same, but inthe Permissions tab,check the Execute boxin the Owner section.

COOL FEATURESXfce acts not only as areplacement for biggerdesktops, but it hasplenty of unique touchesof its own. See thatprinter button on thepanel? Simply drag afile onto it, and itprints! (Note, this worksonly with Nautilus andXffm, not Konqueror.)For users who frequentlyuse multidesktops,

switching between them is easy. Aside from clickingon each space, you also can use the keyboard or themouse wheel. Hover your mouse over the desktoppager, roll your mouse wheel in either direction andyou will flit between them. If you want to use yourkeyboard for this, press Ctrl-Alt-left/right arrow.

If you click on the icons in the pager, you canactually drag them to other desktops from withinthe pager itself. For the ultimate control freak, youcan even change around the buttons on your win-dows title bar. As you may have noticed in theWindow Manager utility, here you can choosewhich buttons are visible and invisible, and even

what order theyre in.As you can see, Xfce isnt only a lightweight

window manager, it i s becoming a full-blown rivalfor GNOME and KDE. Xfce contains innovationsunique to itself and doesnt suffer from the samelegacies that GNOME and KDE have, allowing fora fresh new environment. The speed increase isquite noticeable for users of 3-D games and videoapplications; rendering was much faster thanunder KDE, especially with 3-D screensavers. Itmay be a put-off if youre desperate for desktopicons, and losing the desktop menu if you do, butthis desktop is gaining seriously popularity and forgood reasons. Weve barely touched the featuresin this desktop, and ultimately the best way tolearn your way around is to explore and have fun.

FINAL NOTEA package called Rox is now becoming the standardfor desktop file managers with lightweight desktops,and usually gets around the pesky right-click prob-lem. Unfortunately, it has problems with Xfce, due toRox conflicting with another program, xfdesktop. Ifyou still want to use Rox with Xfce or another light-weight window manager, try this command:

$ rox --pinboard=Default &

Keep your eyes open for Rox in futureinstallments of this series. I

John Knight is a 21-year-old, rock-climbing, Japan-loving megalomaniac,trying to take over the world fromhis bedroom via his keyboard. Hespends most of his time tinkeringwith MPlayer and headbanging tohis MP3s.


Figure 4. Making the icons file executable, using the lightweight Xffmfile manager.

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Organization is no trivial task. How does one keeptrack of the myriad figures, facts and files thatseem to fill our digital lives? As a journalist, I tendto accumulate information. With more than a thou-sand Web pages in my browser bookmarks, I canalmost never find what I need. I often drop quota-tions and URLs in temporary files so I have them forfuture articles. Over time, the number of temporaryfiles has become obscene, and I can no longerscrounge up the data I require in a timely manner.

A number of excellent, open-source data man-agement utilities are available for Linux. Many ofyou are probably familiar with Tomboy, a handynote-taking application for GNOME. Tomboy sim-plifies information control, but its GNOME biasand awkward spatial interface make it a poorchoice for KDE users. When I use KDE, I rely uponBasKet, a versatile data management tool with agreat interface and lots of nifty features. If youneed a better way to keep track of notes, images,URLs, files, folders and applications on your KDEdesktop, BasKet is the tool for you.

ADDING CONTENTBasKet enables users to deposit data snippets inindividual containers, aptly called baskets. Theapplication displays the contents of each basket inan associated tab within the interface. Users candrag or paste existing objects into the baskets orcreate new objects for direct insertion.

The first time you start BasKet, you will seea default, empty basket tab for clips and notes.Lets add an object and see what happens. Fireup Firefox and navigate to your favorite Website. Click the icon that appears to the left ofthe URL, and drag it into the white space ofthe BasKet window. When you let go of themouse, a link to the URL appears in the list.When you click that link, the page launches inyour default browser.

Now, lets try to add some text from the page.Highlight a paragraph of text, then drag the high-lighted content to the BasKet window. As youhover over the drop space, you will notice that aline appears inside the window. That line indicateswhere the object will appear in the list when themouse button is released. You can use this featureto ensure that the new item is placed in theappropriate position within your list. Drag downand make sure that the line appears below theURL, and then let go of the mouse button to addthe text to the bottom your list.

Now, lets use the KDE file manager to add afew extra items to our list. Launch Konqueror andnavigate to an image file. Drag the file fromKonqueror into the BasKet list. When you releasethe mouse button, BasKet presents you with a con-text menu that asks whether you want to Copy,Link or Move the file. If you select Copy or Move,BasKet copies or moves the file to its own internal

data storage location and displays the image in thelist. If you select Link, BasKet adds a link to the filesURI to the list, but it does not display the actualimage. In this case, select Copy. You also can usethe BasKet system tray icon to add items to the list.Drop a directory from Konqueror onto the BasKettray icon, and select Link from the drop-down con-text menu. You should now see a link to the direc-tory in your basket.

It is also possible to create new list items withthe Insert menu. Select Import KMenu Launcherfrom the Insert menu to launch the applicationselection dialog. Use the dialog to select an

BasKet TutorialHow to use a nifty tool called BasKet to organize all the data you normally find impossible to track down.

RYAN PAUL

Figure 1. A Basket That Contains a URL and SomePage Text

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application that you use regularly, and then clickOK to add an application launcher to your basket.You can experiment with other types of itemsavailable on the Insert menu to learn more aboutwhat they are and how they work.

EDITING AND ANNOTATIONBasKet also facilitates editing and annotation. Letschange the text snippet we grabbed from theWeb site. Right-click the text snippet and selectEdit from the context menu. The formatting tool-bar appears above the basket tab, and the textbecomes editable. Change some of the font colorsand add some extra text to the end of the snip-pet. When you are done, click outside of the textsnippet to leave Edit mode. The Edit behavior isslightly different for other kinds of content. If youright-click the URL link and select Edit from thecontext menu, BasKet launches the Link ItemProperties dialog, which allows you to specify theURL, title and icon of the link.

Now we will add an annotation. Right-click thetext snippet and select Edit Meta-data from thecontext menu to launch the Meta-data dialog.Type a sentence or two into the Annotations text


Figure 2. Adding an Image and a Directory Link tothe Basket

Figure 3. Using the BasKet Tray Icon to Add aDirectory Link

Figure 4. The Insert Menu Figure 5. Editing a Text Snippet

Figure 6. The Link Item Properties Dialog

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box and click OK. Now when you hover the cursorover that list item, the annotation appears as atooltip. You can use annotations to associate noteswith various snippets to help you remember thesignificance of the content. Some list items comewith annotations by default. The image that you

copied from Konqueror, for instance, contains theURI of the original file in its annotation.

CREATING A NEW BASKETWith only one tab, it wont be long before our liststarts to look cluttered. Perhaps we should add extrabaskets. Select New from the Basket menu to initiatethe New Basket Wizard. The first step of the wizardrequires that you indicate the type of basket youwant to create. Your current default basket uses theNotes and Clips model, which is ideal for genericdata storage. The Check List basket model associatesa check box with each item in the list. The Stackmodel is just like the Notes and Clips model, butwhen a stack basket is active, the BasKet tray iconcan be used to access the item most recently addedto the list. The Clipboard Manager basket model islike a stack basket, but it intercepts and duplicatescontent sent to the clipboard via copy operations, sowhenever you copy content in any KDE application,that content is also automatically added to your clip-board baskets. In the New Basket Wizard dialog,select the a basket model, and click Next. The sec-ond page of the wizard asks you specify a name forthe new basket. Enter a name and then click theFinish button to complete the construction of a newbasket. You can experiment with various basketmodels to learn more about how they work.

SETTINGS AND PROPERTIESSelect Properties from the basket menu to alterthe settings of the active basket. The BasketProperties dialog window has four tabs that pro-vide an assortment of options for basket cus-tomization. The Properties tab allows you to alterthe name, icon, alignment and background colorsof the list, and it also lets you add check boxes.The Add Item Policy tab allows you to customize


Figure 7. The Annotation Dialog

Figure 9. The New Basket Wizard

Figure 8. An Annotation Tooltip

Figure 10. Basket Properties

Figure 11. The BasKet Settings Dialog


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Wireless cards can be quite a bit of trouble for Linux users. Very few manu-facturers have any interest in writing Linux drivers or releasing informationabout their cards so other people can use this information to write Linuxdrivers. There is a small selection of Linux-compatible Wi-Fi (wireless net-working) cards, but they tend to be rather expensive. Worse, you dont getvery much choice about which wireless networking chipset is built-in whenyou buy a laptop.

ndiswrapper is a project that provides a kernel module to load WindowsNDIS wireless card drivers under Linux. NDIS stands for Network DriverInterface Specification and is the Windows/DOS driver interface. Thendiswrapper module wraps around this driver, acting as a translator betweenit and the Linux kernel.

You can use ndiswrapper to get a great deal of cards working that donthave a native Linux driver. There is a lot of information on the ndiswrapperwiki (discussion site) about various card and driver combinations that workwell, but it often works with other cards too. There is no guarantee it willwork perfectly with your card, however. Although ndiswrapper has becomemany orders of magnitude more stable over time, it still can very rarelycrash or lock up your Linux system. You can visit the ndiswrapper wiki athttp://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/mediawiki/index.php/Main_Page .

Installing ndiswrapper is not for point-and-click users. It requires using thecommand line and being able to locate drivers and specialised instructions foryour card. If this sounds like something youd have difficulty doing, ask a geekto help. Your local Linux Users Group is a great place to find a friendly Linuxguru who can help you with this.

INSTALLING NDISWRAPPERMany Linux distributions have binary packages for ndiswrapper. Use thepackage updating tool for your distribution to make sure you have the latestversion available installed. Some distributions separate out the driver and the

command-line tools into two packages, so check to make sure that youhave ndiswrapper-utils or any similarly named package installed if typingndiswrapper at the command line as root results in command not found .

IDENTIFYING YOUR CARDTo install and set up ndiswrapper, you need to know the chipset of yourwireless card and find a suitable Windows driver to use. Then, you need toinstall ndiswrapper either from a package or by compiling the sources.

The chipset of your card differs from the brand or model. It refers to theactual chips inside the card that control its function. So a planet-, belkin- orgenius-branded card could all have the same chipset and be able to use thesame driver. Some manufacturers even have been known to use different

Wireless Net working with ndiswrapper How to use ndiswrapper to set up network cards normally unsupported by Linux.

JES HALL

Figure 1. Installing ndiswrapper

TUX EXPLAINS
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chipsets in cards with the same model number.As shown in Figure 2, Im using the KDE Info Center (kinfocenter) to

get information about my devices. Your wireless card should show upunder the PCI section, regardless of whether its built-in to your computeror is a PCMCIA card. The last item in the list in Figure 2 is my wireless card.According to this, it has a Realtek chipset, model 8180l, revision 20. This isa little cryptic, but all we need to do with this information is match it up to adriver that works with ndiswrapper.

If you dont have a graphical tool like the KDE Info Center at your dispos-al, you can get the same information from the command line using the com-mand lspci . If your shell tells you the command is not found, try specifyingthe full pathoften /sbin/lspci .

Armed with the knowledge of what chipset your card is, the next port ofcall is the ndiswrapper wikis card list: http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/ mediawiki/index.php/List .

FIND THE DRIVERIn some cases, you may have the original Windows driver disk. You can use thisdisk instead of downloading a driver, although youre likely to get a more recentdriver if you download one. The ndiswrapper wiki page says that most people

have had success using the Windows XP driver from the chipset manufacturersWeb site, http://realtek.com.tw . Once youve located a driver for your card, copyit from your driver CD/floppy or download it to disk and extract it.

If your driver is in the form of a Windows self-extracting zip file with a.EXE extension, its possible that Linux unzip can still extract it. Try usingunzip file.exe from the command line. Locate the driver installationinstructions file. It will have the extension INF. If there is more than one ofthese files, the ndiswrapper wiki will often point you to which one youshould use.

This step requires some command-line use. Open up a terminal and change tothe directory containing your drivers. If you use Konqueror as your file manager,you can bring up a terminal in the directory youre already in by usingWindow Open Terminal Emulator. This lets you see a graphical representation ofthe current directory in the top pane, and use the command line in the bottompane. You need root privileges for this step. Either use the su - command tochange to the root user, or if you have your system set up for it, use sudo .

# ndiswrapper -i filename.INF

This causes ndiswrapper to create a configuration directory in /etc to holdthe driver file and configuration pertaining to the driver and install the driverto it. Now if you issue the command:

# ndiswrapper -l

you should see something like the following:

[email protected]:~> /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper -l

net8180 driver present, hardware present

To load the module, type modprobe ndiswrapper as the root user. To setup the ndiswrapper module to be loaded on boot, type:

# ndiswrapper -m

This writes out a line in a system configuration fileusually /etc/modprobe.confto tell the system that your wireless card usesthe ndiswrapper driver.


Figure 2. The KDE Info Center

TUX EXPLAINS
http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/mediawiki/index.php/Listhttp://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/mediawiki/index.php/Listhttp://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/mediawiki/index.php/Listhttp://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/mediawiki/index.php/Listhttp://realtek.com.tw/http://realtek.com.tw/http://www.tuxmagazine.com/http://www.tuxmagazine.com/http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/mediawiki/index.php/Listhttp://realtek.com.tw/


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SET UP NETWORKINGNow that you have ndiswrapper installed and a driver for your card, youshould be able to set it up using the networking tools that come with yourdistribution. Here, Im using SUSE 9.3, but these settings would apply nomatter what distribution Im using.

The ndiswrapper device is called wlan0, which means the first wireless net-working device on the system. If the ndiswrapper -m step completed correctly,your system knows that the wlan0 device and the ndiswrapper driver are sup-posed to go together.

Generally, if you have a wireless access point set up, youd enable gettingan IP address assigned via DHCP. If you were going to use a static IP (one youspecify, rather than one assigned to you by your wireless router), youd specify

it here. Im also adding in the ESSID, which is the name of the access point towhich I want to connect. If your access point is using encryption, and you haveto specify a WEP key, this is the place to do so. It might require trying a fewdifferent options until you find the settings that work best with your particularcard. If you have any difficulties here, referring back to the ndiswrapper wikican give you hints about specific options required for your card.

POTENTIAL PROBLEMSIts very difficult to describe a method that will work on every possible Linuxdistribution. What if these instructions dont work for you? A few minutesspent in troubleshooting and gathering information makes i t much morelikely that youll find some help. Your first port of call should always be


Figure 3. One Step in Setting Up Networking Figure 4. Another Step in Setting Up Networking

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Google. Try to search for ndiswrapper SUSE, replacing SUSE with thename of your distribution.

1) Check that the module is loaded: open up a terminal and type inlsmod . This shows you a list of the currently loaded driver modules.Does ndiswrapper appear in this list? If it doesnt, try typing modprobendiswrapper and make a note of any errors. No output at all means themodule loaded fine.

2) Check that the card is associating with an access point: open up a terminaland type iwconfig as root. You should see some output something like this:

wlan0 IEEE 802.11b ESSID:"[email protected]" Nickname:"holly"Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437 GHz Access Point: 00:12:17:3A:51:E5Bit Rate=11 Mb/s Tx-Power:20 dBm Sensitivity=0/3RTS thr=2432 B Fragment thr=2432 BEncryption key:offPower Management:off

Link Quality:100/100 Signal level:-72 dBm Noise level:-256 dBmRx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

If the part after ESSID reads off/any and the part after Access Point is fullof 0 s, try manually associating. Type iwconfig wlan0 essid Name of your access point here , and see if the lights on your card light up.

3) Check that the card has a valid IP address: open up a terminal and typeifconfig as the root user. Look for the section that says inet addr underthe wlan0 section. Do you have a valid IP address there, on the right subnetfor your network? If so, try to ping some things on your home network. Tryto ping your wireless access point or any other computers to figure out if youhave any connectivity at all.

4) Check your default route: open up a terminal and type route -n asthe root user. Do you have a line that starts with 0.0.0.0 ? Under theGateway column, does it show you the address of your router?

5) Check your DNS: if you can ping local machines by their IP addresses,but you cannot see sites on the Web, its possible you dont have correctsettings for DNS.

If you need to ask for help on forums or mailing lists, listing the results ofthese steps will make it much easier for people to help you. I

Jes Hall is a UNIX systems consultant and KDE developer from NewZealand. Shes passionate about helping open-source software bringlife-changing information and tools to those who would otherwise nothave them.


ADVENTUROUS USERS ONLY!

So, what do you do if your Linux distribution doesnt ship ndiswrapper binaries?

Installing ndiswrapper from sources is always an option if you know your way

around a terminal.To do this, you need to have the kernel sources installed andthe development packages for your distribution that include the GNU CCompiler and other tools required to compile software. Remember, think twicebefore you press Enter if youre using the terminal with root permissions.

Download the ndiswrapper sources from the http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.netdownloads page. Either extract the sources with ark or file-roller or from thecommand line with:

# tar xjf ndiswrapper-$version.tar.bz2

Replace $version with the version of ndiswrapper youve downloaded.Hint: the terminal can complete commands and filenames for you. Trytyping in ndis and then press the Tab key.

Change into the directory youve just extracted:

# cd ndiswrapper-$version

Inside this directory are two files you should at least skim through: INSTALLand README. To compile and install ndiswrapper, issue the command as root:

# make install

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Based on the mail we get, it seems as thoughthere are countless TUX readers who are not con-tent to settle on a single Linux distribution. Theywant to be able to install more than one distribu-tion and choose which one to start at boot time.

Despite the fact that TUX normally assumes youare no more than desktop literate, you will need alittle more than average technical knowledge to fol-low this article. You need to know how to create,

manage and format disk partitions. You may alsoneed to know how to install a new hard drive.Most computers use hard drives called IDE drives(often referred to by many other names, such asATA drives and so on). If you are going to add anew drive to your system, you may need to knowhow to change jumpers on the drives to make onea master and another a slave. At the very least, youneed to know how to deal with the order of drivesin your system; which comes first, second, third andso forth. If these terms or concepts confuse you,you probably are not going to get much out of thisarticle, and it would be wise to skip it.

LINUX DOES ITOne advantage to Linux over operating systemslike Windows is that (within occasional limitsimposed by old hardware) you can boot Linuxfrom virtually any disk drive on your system, andeven boot Linux from an extended partitioninstead of a primary partition.

The latter capability is important if you want toput more than four versions of Linux (or fouroperating systems, some of which are Linux) on asingle drive. You can boot only what is called aprimary partition, and you can put only four pri-mary partitions on a single drive.

You can create up to three primary partitionsand one very large extension on a single drive.You can slice up the extension into many extend-

ed partitions. You can install as many versions ofLinux as you want on any of these extended parti-tions. The only problem is that you cannot makeany of these extended partitions bootable.

Yes, you can boot a copy of Linux that isinstalled on an extended partition, but you cannotdo so directly. You have to start the bo

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