The two distro's that will not make you headache when building a system are available from Bodhi Linux and iqunix. Both big systems with minimal  software. Iqunix is new to me and I liked it instantly and will use it for a build. Huge improvements by Bodhi. I tested Bodhi Linux about a year ago and although it had the best looking eye candy there were too many bugs to enjoy and it felt danty. This time no issues and it still looks Pimp offering various levals of distros to choose from on install including one with ( I forget maybe 3 apps at most) . Bohdi and iqunix are calling you if you want to build your own system!!! And yes they have the software to remaster your dev.

The Free Technology Academy (FTA), an advanced virtual campus which seeks to educate and promote the adoption of Free Software and other Free Technologies, just partnered with the Association of Greek Users and Friends of Free/Open Source Software. Details and contact info here.

In April 2011 there was a Forum at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum in Rome devoted to “Youth Communication in the Social Media Age”. A Microsoft manager explained that, if we care about young people as future digital entrepreneurs, we should be worried about... lack of protection for creativity and intellectual property". No, seriously!

Hi all,
thought I would put down the steps I had to go through to get the VM Tools for ESXi to work on my latest Debian Squeeze deployments, as by default ESXi doesnt recognise the OS as a Debian distro, I initially posted this in the forums.itrc.hp.com site and my own blog, but figured I would put it here too.

Wow,

I thought this was amazing, cheap and innovative..

The people at the Raspberry Pi Foundation have designed a tiny embedded desktop linux device slightly larger than a 20 pence piece, and it will be available for approximately $25.

It includes a HDMI and composite port and is designed to be plugged into a TV.

Take a look at its proposed key features:

• 700MHz ARM11
• 128MB of SDRAM
• OpenGL ES 2.0
• 1080p30 H.264 high-profile decode
• Composite and HDMI video output
• USB 2.0
• SD/MMC/SDIO memory card slot
• General-purpose I/O
• Open software (Ubuntu, Iceweasel, KOffice, Python)

The thought behind this is that its a really cheap way of introducing computer science into educational institutes. Its great because it gives schools an alternative platform environment to teach the students apart from the candidates that are usually on offer.

Take a look at their site for details on how to purchase/get involved

http://www.raspberrypi.org/

I think the amazing thing about this (apart from its size and feature set) is the possibilities it opens up for poorer communities/developing world and establishments on a budgets to learn computing skills.

Cant wait to get my one!

There's been a lot of talk lately about GNOME 3 and Unity - when I take a look at my news feeds, it looks like there is a storm in the Linux world. It got me thinking about desktop environments and user interfaces in general.

building Celestia is normally very easy .

The recommended way has been to go grab a copy from SVN and build the standard GTK or Gnome or older kde3 (QT3) .Now seeing as kde3 is , for the most part, no more and qt4 is becoming the DEFAULT across all 3 major platforms . A qt 4 build is now needed .

BUT That is easier said than done qt4 is still a bit "experimental " and still has a few bugs to work out . not everything 100% working and the auto tools ?? well it basically is a 'makefile' project using QT-Creator ( celesita.pro) some things need to be done by hand .
 The *.pro file needs to have a minor edit , or you install some software where it is listed in the pro file .

The config.h is NOT made and is needed --an oops & bug , being worked on  -- some system values need setting using the config.h

So to begin make sure software is installed Nvidia.run warning  ( some are VERY familiar with this - most do not know about this ) the .run REPLACES mesa system files and headers that celestia DOSE need to match mesa that is installed .
so if you use the .run driver you need reinstall the correct GL.h ( -dev or -devel )
for fedora that is " yum reinstall mesa-devel " after you install the .run after the kernel update ---- consult your own distro . on this issue ----

read the README and INSTALL install all the source packages needed for png,lua, ogg ,...

Install SPICE http://naif.jpl.nasa.gov/naif/index.html
so you can use the spacecraft pointing and location kernels -- this is optional BUT NICE to use a link to using spice for Cassini at Saturn http://www.shatters.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=12275&hilit=cassini&start=0
and my update to it on the second page . spice is used by the cassini imaging team http://www.ciclops.org/news/looking_ahead.php?js=1



the current SVN pull "5162" builds using gcc 4.5 and png14 ( will also build using png12)  "  svn co https://celestia.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/celestia/trunk celestia  "

copy celestia/celestia to your WORKING directory !!!!!!!!!! I build code on a labeled DATA partition to keep things separate from the OS /DATA/src/QTcelestia -- or your install folder ( there is NO install script !) Now run "  autoreconf -v -i   "
as normal for svn the missing "config.h" and system variables for the basic file i DO use the qt3 configure option to make it BUT this will sill have to be edited " ./configure --with-kde " there will be errors but seeing as all you need is ONE file . Add to the "config.h"  the install folder YOU ARE GOING TO USE this is VERY important so celestia can find it's config file !!!!
if you do not there WILL be a start error !!!
-- copy/paste #######################

#define CELESTIA_DATA_DIR "/Your/install/folder"
#define CONFIG_DATA_DIR "/Your/install/folder"

#######################

i use -- CELESTIA_DATA_DIR "/usr/opt/Qtcelestia"

Now almost there edit the pro file in the src folder celestia/src/celestia.pro near the end is ###########

unix {
    INCLUDEPATH += /usr/local/cspice/include
    LIBS += -ljpeg -llua  /usr/local/cspice/lib/cspice.a
}
#############

edit that to reflect YOUR system ready to build fire up QT Creator use "open an existing project" navigate to celestia/src/celestia.pro and click on " build all " ( debug is the DEFAULT ) if there are no errors then build the release -- there will be some warnings  about 8 -- copy the contents of the build folder to your install folder ( unless you built in place ) --these are the required / needed files celestia-qt4

data
extras
extras-standard
fonts
locale
models
scripts
shaders
textures


win32-installer-image.bmp
splash.png

celestia.cfg
demo.cel
guide.cel
start.cel


now make a "celestia.desktop " file - Gnome or a desktop launcher file ( if you did NOT add the #define's to "config.h" - the launcher WILL NOT WORK !!! )

<!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } A:link { so-language: zxx } -->

LINUX COLLABORATION SUMMIT: Celebrating 20 Years of Linux

On April 6-8, was a memorial event. From all over the world, individuals with marvelous talents came together under one building to share ideas, teach one another and meet for the first time. Most importantly, we all came to celebrate linux’s 20th anniversary.

I was one of the lucky ones to have been honorably invited to sit and chat with some of the greatest minds the world had produced. It was intimidating at first, since I have never been to such a gathering of this caliber. Plus, these gurus knew more about linux than I can ever dream of. To keep pace with these specialists, I said little and kept my ears opened to learned as much as possible.

The atmosphere was peaceful, the people were friendly, and most importantly, they encouraged you to participate, add thoughts, ask questions and just plain mingle. It was almost like a family reunion, reconnecting with long lost relatives.

I met up with three friends who's skills in linux are very unique. This was the first time we met face-to-face, from constant online chatting, and gotten along very well. One of them, who is actually the “2011 Ultimate linux Guru” on Linux.com, Mathew Fillpot, had been there last year and showed us around. We had the honor of meeting Jennifer Cloer, Director of Communications & Community at The Linux Foundation, and PR Director at linux.com, a site that allowed me to enter the world of linux. It was also through this site that allowed me to meet these fascinating individuals.

After meeting a few special attendees, the four of us, and all the other guests gathered in an auditorium at hotel Kabuki, where Jim Zemblim, Co executive of the Linux foundation, opened with a speech explaining the direction linux was heading. Afterwards, the attention was turned to members of various companies to talk about opensource projects they were engaged in. From these panels, it was made aware of the increasing activities involving linux. And, more is to come.

After the panel speeches were done, we were all invited to a prestigious restaurant that served delicious food all night. This was good to break the ice for newer members. There is nothing better than good food and good conversation with people of the same genre. Have to admit, during this particular time, away from the keyboard and monitor, we were just a bunch of ordinary people having a good time. You wouldn't notice the difference.

The next 2 days involved workshops sessions for various linux projects, for example, Yocto, Embedded linux, linux standard base, etc. In these sessions, detailed explanation were given regarding project motives and how they function. The audience of these sessions freely gave their opinion about the development of these projects and any concerns and confusion they had. The speakers did a very good job distributing the information and answering questions. This assures the projects are being handed by the most dedicated and skillful professionals. Ok, I will say it, it was like being back in college on the first day.

Yet I’ve saved the best for last. Not only was I invited because I was within the top 5 2011 Linux.com Gurus, but also, I’m one of the 4 moderators of linux.com. As a moderator, you are in-charge of hunting down spam and any kind of site abuse, with the addition of information contribution and consulting. Moderation was voluntary, however, it allowed me to give back to the community that helped so much in my progression of learning GNU/Linux.

linux.com had a session at the Summit called the “linux.com planning meeting” where the site admins and the moderators got together to discuss any improvements and concerns about the site's community section. This was a thrilling experience. In that room, giving input on how the site could perform better on its relation to the community couldn’t feel any better. Even as nervous as I was, there was no hesitation to take advantage of the opportunity to have make an impact, and I;m ready for more.

I wished I picked up on linux a long time ago. One of the important things that I've learned is that linux is also a community of collaboration not just people programming and building the latest hardware for maximum optimization, although, a lot of that goes on. Yet we all share ideas and look for opportunities to improve business operations and help one another. Couldn't be more happier to part of this great organization. 

Ever needed to add some extra space to that LUN on your server, but doing so you think you might need a reboot for the server to recognise the additional space?

The following set of steps talks through what needs doing to avoid that reboot!

Firstly, I should make it clear that this article assumes that any volumes needing expansion are additional volumes and do not include the disk or volume containing the running operating system, the steps required to extend OS partition are different. Also a warning point, several of these steps carry potential risk for data loss if you are unsure or make an error, always have a backup handy before manipulating your filesystems and devices

Here is the scenario: I have a SAN-based data volume named "/my_data" which is currently 20GB in size. I need to extend this filesystem to a new size of 40GB.

My first job is to log into my SAN appliance and extend the LUN containing "/my_data", as there are many SAN vendors and technologies available I have omitted describing this step in any detail. Suffice to say in my SAN administration console I will add an additional 20GB to the LUN containing "/my_data" to make it a total of 40GB. 

One warning point for my current SAN is that I need to umount "/my_data" so that it is not being accessed whilst the SAN extends the LUN. Once this task is completed we are ready to move back onto our Linux Server to prepare the volume for its new space.

If we now remount "/my_data" we will see that it still shows as having still only 20GB available, for the purposes of this article the disk device we are presenting to the operating system from the SAN shows in the server logs as /dev/sdb1, and is mounted at "/my_data".

1.  mount /dev/sdb1 /my_data

2. df /my_data which shows 20GB. - Utils like fdisk at this point will also still see the old value.

3. unmount /my_data again to perform the next step.

Running scripts like rescan-scsi-bus.sh will also normally fail to pick up the changes.

Next step is to type the following command into the shell, Here is the magic bit that means we dont have to reboot:

echo 1 > /sys/block/sdb/device/rescan (where sdb is your chosen disk device number).

As the command suggests this instructs the system to rescan the specified device, and check for changes.

After this operation completes using fdisk or something like YaST partition manger will reveal the extra space. However, this doesnt mean that the new space is available for use yet, the filesystem that is already on the disk needs to be told about the extra space.

You can then use GParted(Very user friendly) or your preferred partition manager to extend the extra space into partition /dev/sdb1. When this is done, re-issuing the mount command will reflect the new space, all of which was possible with no reboot!

If you are setting off on your new GNU/Linux adventure, there are some must have things that you'll be needing to take along with you.

When you're at the kitchen table packing that backpack for your big adventure, don't forget to stuff these items in there with your lantern, matches, water purification pills, and lip balm. You'll find this stuff will come in very handy along the trail.

A little history --

Linux, which specifically means the kernel portion of the operating system, was born in 1991 when Finnish student Linus Torvalds decided he wanted something to run on his 80386 processor based PC. Linus turned the code for his new kernel lose on USENET.

Within a short while Softlanding Linux System (SLS) was born of a mating of Linus' new kernel and Richard Stallman's GNU Operating System. The SLS project was taken over by Patrick Volkerding, who morphed it into Slackware Linux, the oldest still living GNU/Linux distribution. You can view the Linux family tree to see how things progressed from there.

Some handy documentation --

C'mon. Quit whining. Sometimes, it's a good thing to read the fine manual. The "man" pages, short for manual, are available to you from within any GNU/Linux distribution. They're already in your backpack even if you didn't know it. To access a manual page for a certain command within Linux, just use this from the command line:

$ man <command or application name>

For example, let's say you want to know how to use the ls command. You would type this into the command line:

$ man ls

LS(1)                            User Commands                           LS(1)

NAME
       ls - list directory contents

SYNOPSIS
       ls [OPTION]... [FILE]...

DESCRIPTION
       List  information  about  the FILEs (the current directory by default).
       Sort entries alphabetically if none of -cftuvSUX nor --sort.

       Mandatory arguments to long options are  mandatory  for  short  options
       too.

       -a, --all
              do not ignore entries starting with .<snip>

...and the manual page for the ls command will magically appear. Cool, huh? You can also refer to that same manual page by using online websites that make that same information available to you. You can use Linux Man Pages, Linux Man Pages Online, or other similar sites.

For some more in depth GNU/Linux documentation, you can check out The Linux Documentation Project (TLDP), LinuxDocs.org, or DistroWatch.com. The last provides brief synopses and reviews of most of the GNU/Linux distributions available today.

Which distribution to start the adventure? --

If you clicked on that DistroWatch link above, you'd see that there are many, many GNU/Linux distributions out there in the world. While choice is a good thing, numerous choices can sometimes be overwhelming for new adventurers; what trail should I take? Every GNU/Linux advocate will have their own favorite list of distributions that they recommend to all the new adventurers they run across. Following is my list of the five easiest transition distributions. What's a transition distribution? I define that as a GNU/Linux distribution that is easy to install and use right out of the box for new adventurers who are mostly used to using Microsoft Windows products.

Ubuntu - this is the distro that took GNU/Linux from the desktops of geeks like me and put it on Gramps and Granny's system. It did more to popularize the GNU/Linux operating system than any other distribution prior.

Linux Mint - this distro from the land of Eire is slam packed with all the great stuff you'd want in an operating system. It's good to go right out of the box.

Mepis - while not the most popular GNU/Linux out there, this Debian-based distribution is a fine product, and most suitable for new adventurers.

PCLinuxOS - this distro is a branch of the old and venerable Mandrake/Mandriva GNU/Linux. It's easy to install and to operate.

Ultimate Edition - this distribution gets its foundation from its Debian and Ubuntu roots. It is also easy to install and has loads and loads of useful software included the moment you boot up.

OK, then. We have some history, some documentation, and a choice of distributions in our backpack now. We're almost ready to begin the adventure. But wait! There are a couple more very important items that we'll be needing.

Tips and Tutorials --

Tutorials are documents that teach in a step-by-step fashion. They can cover a lot of information in a small space. They're usually simplified so that amateurs and novices can follow along without the need to know the really complicated stuff underneath it all. Tips are just that; little tid-bits of information to make things go easier on your adventure.

There was once a man called Bruno, he was my friend. He was also a serious GNU/Linux advocate and teacher. He selflessly spent many hours of his daily life teaching others about GNU/Linux. Many of us who knew him learned from him and were inspired by him to carry on his tradition of teaching. While Bruno may no longer be with us, part of the legacy he left us is his Tips for Linux Explorers site. Yes, some of the info there is a bit dated, but most of it is still very relevant and helpful.

As far as tutorials go, there are many sites with wonderful GNU/Linux tutorials. Here are a few that I use regularly: The Linux Tutorial, YoLinux Tutorials, Linux Survival, HowtoForge, Tutorialized, and Linux Planet Tutorials. Believe me, if there's something you want to accomplish within GNU/Linux, there is a tutorial somewhere that will show you how. Remember, when searching for answers to your GNU/Linux questions, Google is your friend.

And lastly, but never last, this most necessary thing to have in your GNU/Linux adventurer's backpack:

Community --

We come into this world alone and we leave it alone, but fortunately, while in this world, we have each other. Were it not for the GNU/Linux - Open Source community, there wouldn't be any GNU/Linux; or if there were, it would be some ghastly thing used by a few uber-geeks in the darkness of night on their own desktop systems. Joyfully, that isn't so because we have community; arguably the most important ingredient in the brewing pot.

There is a large and very active GNU/Linux - Open Source community every where in the world. You can access and interact with that community in many ways; boards and forums, USENET Groups, mailing lists, websites and portals, blogs like this one, etc. Community means a lot to me. Below you'll find my list of favorite places where I go to learn what I need to continue on my own adventure:

Boards and Forums

Scot's Newsletter Forums - Bruno's All Things Linux - a Linux support forum and much more. This site is run by Scot Finnie, Editor-in-chief of ComputerWorld.com.

Jeremy's LinuxQuestions.org - a Linux support forum and community dedicated to assisting adventurers of all skill levels and abilities.

TechSupportGuy Forums - Linux and Unix - another excellent Linux community forum.

The Linux Foundation's Linux.com Community - a relatively new and growing community with many helpful members.

Just Linux Forums - a great community resource.

Linux Forums - search this place for great tips and assistance as you travel along in your adventure.

Also, don't forget... nearly every distribution of GNU/Linux has its own very helpful support community. Check out the main websites for links to their forums and such. All the distros mentioned above have their own forums. Check 'em out.

Linux News Sites

Tux Machines - Susan Linton's wonderful Linux community site.

Linux Today - news you can use.

Linux Insider - more informative Linux news.

LXer Linux News - the world is talking about GNU/Linux and Free/Open Source Software.

The above are just a sampling. There are literally hundreds of top level, informative Linux news sites on the Net. Search!

Linux Learning Blogs

Linux Operating System - Guillermo Garron's very helpful and informative blog.

Linuxaria - Ricardo Capecchi's bi-lingual Everything About Linux blog.

All About Linux - a self-professed "very" popular blog about Linux, Open Source, and Free Software.

Linux Notes from Dark Duck - helpful information on choosing and running Linux on your systems.

Dedoimedo - a place to learn a lot about a lot. A unique experience, I might add.

There are many more sites out there, too. Each distribution usually has a handful of dedicated bloggers and teachers running from their own websites. Don't forget to search online. You'll find some wonderful stuff.

One other thing you can do when starting out on your adventure is to register with The Linux Counter and be counted as part of the community. Proudly display your Linux Registered User number for all to see. Sorry, they're out of stock on the super-dooper decoder rings, though. You may find one in that Cap'n Crunch serial box on your kitchen table. ;)

I've tried to make this as all-inclusive as I could, but of course, I've failed miserably. GNU/Linux is a topic that volumes have been written about. How could I possibly give you all that information in one short article? Oh well. I hope that what you do find here will help you along in your adventure. I leave you with three bits of wisdom that I learned early on when I first started out on my adventure:

• First and foremost, GNU/Linux is NOT MS Windows. Please don't expect it to be.
• Secondly, KEEP notes! You will find this an immeasurably important practice to discipline yourself into doing regularly. I don't care if your notes are on your iPad or your main system or on a dead tree note book (my choice medium). Just keep notes. You won't regret it.
• Lastly, but again NEVER last, the community is there for you. Take from it all that is offered, so that you can learn and expand your horizons on your great GNU/Linux adventure. We ask only one thing from you in return; when the time comes that you have reached a level of knowledge where you can comfortably (and accurately) do so, please give back to the community that supported you. This way there will always be those willing to help the new GNU/Linux Adventurers coming along the trail.

Happy adventuring!

~Eric

P.S. I intend this document to be a living device. I will probably be amending it from time to time.

*This article originally appeared on my Nocturnal Slacker v1.0 blog at Wordpress.com