Linux Mint 10 screen capture tour

Linux Mint 10 (Julia) was released Nov 12, 2010 which feels like eons ago in Linux land. But hey I wanna play around with it before I jump to Linux Mint 11.

Overall feel is good, installation was uneventful. The interface is pretty clean and well structured. This is what I like best with Mint. Anyway, this is old news but would like to keep a log of how the installation screen looks like. Below are the screen captures.

Of course Linux distribution comes with thousands of utilities but I think the following are worth to mention:

Linux kernel: 2.6.35

GNOME: 2.32.0

X org: 1.9.0

~ts

Tidy up xml file from the command line

Tools to clean up xml files abound in  the internet. But if you have a need to do batch processing of a bunch of files or just the plan joy of doing it from the command line then you can use xmllint. If you are using openSUSE, Ubuntu or Linux Mint 10 (and many other Linux distro) then this is come pre-installed. xmllint is flexible and have way more features than shown below but this should give you a taste of the tools usefulness. So to tidy up an xml file do:

xmllint –format ugly.xml –output pretty.xml

~ts

openSUSE 11.4 KDE installation screen capture tour

I just got the time to play around openSUSE 11.4 which was released last March 10, 2011. From the outside, nothing much changed between 11.3 and 11.4 especially in the installation department (seems like they are exactly the same except for the new artwork/background). Why change if it is working?

Without too much ado... here comes the screen grabs.

Additional information:
kernel: 2.6.37
KDE: 4.6.00 (4.6.0) "release 6"
X org: 1.9.3

Have fun!!!

~ts

Update OpenSUSE 11.4 with good looking fonts

Font smoothing and subpixel rendering is not configured/enabled by default in OpenSUSE 11.4. It seems like there are patents (see link) around subpixel rendering that prevents FOSS distros from enabling this be default.

For smallish installation (home use or experimentation) this might not be too much of a deal but of course who really knows that the patent owner will do to enforce it. So if you are not comfortable doing this, please stop.

First, need to download subpixel package by muzlocker. This can be done in a console.

sudo zypper addrepo http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/muzlocker/openSUSE_11.4/ subpixel
sudo zypper ref
sudo zypper dup

Next, create .Xdefaults, from a console do:

cd ~
touch .Xdefaults
kwrite .Xdefaults

Then copy the following:

Xft.autohint: 0
Xft.lcdfilter: lcddefault
Xft.hintstyle: hintslight
Xft.hinting: 1
Xft.antialias: 1
Xft.dpi: 96
Xft.rgba: rgb 

Next up, create .fonts.conf file, can be created in console, like:

cd ~
touch .fonts.conf
kwrite .fonts.conf

Then copy/paste the following:

  
    
      rgb
    
  
  
    
      true
    
  
  
    
      hintslight
    
  
  
    
      true
    
  

To ensure that changes take effect, logout then log back in. If not working, reboot.

Enjoy!

References:
subpixel packages by MuZlockER

Keywords:
OpenSUSE, font smoothing, subpixel rendering

~ts

Debian Squeeze minimal text based install - screenshot tour

Debian provides you with a lot of options in terms of how you setup/install your system. You can do it via GUI, through live CDs and of course the proven text based install.

With Debian Squeeze out, it is time for me to install the latest that the Debian community has to offer. I find that the installation is very straightforward so I will just post screen captures where the user would need to interact with the installation for bare bones configuration. So here we go....

Figure 1. Installer Boot Menu

Figure 2. Language selection

Figure 3. Set your location, this is for time zone

Figure 4. Keyboard map to use

Figure 5. Set machine hostname

Figure 6. Set domain name. For internal/home use, pick whatever you like

Figure 7. Set root (administrator) password

Figure 8. Verify root password

Figure 9. Create user, this would be what you will be using most of the time

Figure 10. Username for the new account

Figure 11. Password for the new account

Figure 12. Verify password for new account

Figure 13. Set your correct time zone

Figure 14. Select partition method

Figure 15. Confirm partition layout

Figure 16. Partition scheme

Figure 17. Partition overview

Figure 18. Commit partition to disk

Figure 19. Select Debian mirror, pick closest to your location (this should be good for most of the cases)

Figure 20. Select the mirror server

Figure 21. Setup HTTP proxy server (for internal/home use normally blank should work) otherwise ask your network administrator

Figure 22. Participate in survey, Yes please.

Figure 23. Since this is bare bones install, select nothing

Figure 24. For virtual guest machines, Yes should be safe. If this is on bare metal, please check if you have existing OS and configure as appropriate

Figure 25. Installation complete

That was easy. 

Additional info:

Linux kernel: 2.6.32-5-686

~ts

Change Unity keyboard shortcut for the dash/launcher

Ubuntu Natty Narwhal (11.04) dash (or launcher) by default is tied to super key (Windows key on most keyboards). This default configuration is good for most situation but can interfere with some applications notably VirtualBox.

As most things in Linux land, this can be modified. And of course this can be done in various ways. To make it easier for non-Linux/Ubuntu guru we will try to do this via CompizConfig Settings Manager (ccsm as this is the name of the python script).

Unfortunately this is not installed by default but this is so easy in Ubuntu. Again this can be done in various way but will try to do this in Ubuntu Software Center.  In Software Center search box type ccsm. Select Advanced Desktop Effects Settings then follow instructions to install it.

Now run ccsm (using console/terminal or using dash). Select Desktop category then select Ubuntu Unity Plugin.

Figure 1. Ubuntu Unity Plugin

In Ubuntu Unity Plugin, change Key to show the launcher to desired key sequence. From Figure 2 below it is changed to <super>z (Windows Key + z).

Figure 2.

Enjoy playing with Unity!!!

~ts