Minimal Debian Lenny wiht Fluxbox on VirtualBox

Work in progress!!!!!

#: aptitude install x-window-system-core
#: aptitude install fluxbox fluxconf
#: exit (to user)
$: startx

From the fluxbox session, open a terminal. Do the following to install VirtualBox integration:

$: su
#: aptitude install build-essential
#: aptitude install linux-headers-`uname -r
#: mount /media/cdrom
#: cd /media/cdrom
#: sh VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run
#: reboot

We should have a nicely integrated. Note that this configuration will start in console mode (init 3). You should run startx to go to the X session.

Now try to change to one of the default styles, this case "flux".

menu | Styles | flux

Setting up fonts in Debian - link

CentOS 5.4 netinstall on Virtualbox

Note*:
This is applicable to both CentOS 5.4 and 5.5, maybe applicable to older versions as well.

Introduction:
One of the installation methods possible in installing CentOS 5.4 is network installation or NetInstall. There are good reasons why one would like to do NetInstall and not install from the full CDs. Installing from CD means you have to download monster files. In CentOS 5.4, NetInstall iso file is only 8.9MB whereas the CDs (6 sets) are ~700MB each. So if you are planning to install just once or if you are going to use VirtualBox (note snapshot functionality, branching and cloning), then netinstall would really make sense.

Note that to have good installation experience you have to have a fast connection to internet or a mirror in your intranet.

To start with, you need to have VirtualBox installed. I am using W7 Home Premium with 8GB as the host machine. This should not matter much actually if you are familiar with VirtualBox.

Then download netinstall iso from http://www.centos.org and select the appropriate mirror. I have downloaded my copy from http://centos.cs.wisc.edu/pub/mirrors/linux/centos/5.4/isos/i386/CentOS-5.4-i386-netinstall.iso. You should try to select the mirror that is close to you and hopefully that mirror is running on a fast machine with huge pipes.

We should now be ready to install. Run Virtual GUI and create a new guest machine. Since CentOS is essentially a RedHat rebuild less the trademarks and associated graphics and icons (etc), you should be fine selecting Redhat as the Linux version. Note that for these exercise we will be using 32bit version of CentOS.

Below is my VirtualBox configuration:
Base Memory: 512 MB
Processor(s): 1
Boot Order: CD/DVD-ROM, Hard Disk
VT-x/AMD-V: Enabled
Nested Paging: Enabled
Video Memory: 12 MB
3D Acceleration: Disabled
2D Video Acceleration: Disabled
Remote Display Server: Disabled
IDE Primary Master: centos54.vdi@80GB
Audio Host Driver: Windows DirectSound
Audio Controller: ICH AC97
Network 1: Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop bridged to Microsoft Loopback Adapter

Installation

Step 1.
Power-up CentOS 5.4 guest machine. Then mount CentOS netinstall iso. Screen capture follows with values I used to setup CentOS.
Figure 1.

Figure 2.

Figure 3.

Figure 4.

Figure 5.

Figure 6. You can unselect IPv6 if you are only using IPv4 here.

Figure 7. Select appropriate mirror for your location. Note that when I tried to poke around CentOS 5.5 three days after it was announced, I was having all sorts of errors using mirrors.centos.org, to the point that I can't even get a clean install. I am guessing that it is still syncing with the source. I switched to the mirror shown below and it was fantastic.

Web site name: mirrors.usc.edu
CentOS directory: pub/linux/distributions/centos/5.5/os/i386

Figure 8.

Figure 9.

Figure 10.

Figure 11.

Figure 12.

Figure 13.

Figure 14.

Figure 16.

Step 2: Updating the base install

yum update

Step 3: Installing Guest Additions

yum install gcc -y 
yum install kernel-devel -y

Mount VirtualBox guest additions using the GUI, then in CentOS terminal running as root do:

[root@localhost timus]# sh /media/VBOXADDITIONS_3.1.4_57640/VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run

Of course, for the above command, it changes depending on the version of VirtualBox you are using.
~ts

Installing QNX on Virtual Box

Configuration:
OS Type: QNX
Base Memory : 512 MB
Storage/IDE: 80 GB
Processor: 1
Boot Order: CD/DVD-ROM, Hard Disk
VT-x/AMD-V: Enabled
Nested Paging: Disabled
Audio/Host Driver: Windows DirectSound
Controller: ICH AC97
Network : Intel PRO/1000 T Server (Bridged adapter, Microsoft Loopback Adapter)

Installation:
Select boot option: F3 - Install QNX to a new disk partition
QNX partition: F1 to continue
License: Enter your license
EULA : F1 Accept
Choose disk: F1
Disk larger than 8.4 GB: F1 Allow the QNX partition to be anywhere on the disk
Partition Type: F1 or type 179
Partition size: F1 Use all available space
Install default location:  y
GNU Public License Utility package: y
Configuration information...following file:
Remove media:

On reboot:
phgrafx:
- Display : 1
- Driver: svga
- Color Mode: 32K (+1 bit alpha)
- Resolution: 800x600
- Refresh: 60Hz
- Cursor: Hardware

Observed that Photon GUI is faster with vesabios driver

~ts

Text Editors - Windows

EmEditor (link): text editor is a lightweight, yet extendable, easy-to-use text editor for Windows. EmEditor is very customizable, and it supports Unicode and powerful macros. EmEditor now supports very large files - up to 248 GB or 2.1 billion lines! EmEditor is certified for Windows Vista! The x64 Edition is also available! The portable version is also available for USB drive setup!

UltraEdit (link) is the ideal text, HTML and hex editor, and an advanced PHP, Perl, Java and JavaScript editor for programmers. UltraEdit is also an XML editor including a tree-style XML parser. An industry-award winner, UltraEdit supports disk-based 64-bit file handling (standard) on 32-bit Windows platforms (Windows 2000 and later). Download a free trial today and discover why UltraEdit is the defacto standard with over two million users worldwide.

Zeus Lite Editor (link) : Zeus is a powerful, full featured programmers IDE designed specifically for the task of software development. Zeus is packed full of features designed to make the task of writing code easier and more productive. The Zeus Lite editor is a free version of the Zeus for Windows IDE and it is in fact the original version 3.80 of Zeus for Windows.

EditPad Lite (link) : is a general-purpose text editor, designed to be small and compact, yet offer all the functionality you expect from a basic text editor. EditPad Lite works with Windows NT4, 98, 2000, ME, XP and Vista.
Note(s): Support text encoding conversion which is useful when doing localization work.


JujuEdit is a file editor, or alternatively a text editor with knobs-on. It is an application which is as non-destructive as possible: When you open a file, JujuEdit does NOT convert it into an internal file format. All conversion and interpretation is done on the fly, so that at any point during an edit you can choose to view your file in a different mode (ANSI/Unicode/UTF-8/Installed Code Pages/Binary), without the underlying data being converted. This was an important design decision which is to my knowledge unique to JujuEdit. It means that JujuEdit will tolerate unusual or unexpected characters (like NULLs or inconsistent CR/LF line endings) without clobbering them.
Filesize Max: 2GB

~ts