Episode 084 – No Tony…
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Un-edited Live session – http://youtu.be/33M7F6jEm3U
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show (at) smlr.us or the Contact us page
Summary
Kernel News: Mat
Time:
Distro Talk: Tony
Time:
Mary Distro Review
Time:
Tech News:
Time:
Toolbox
Time:
Is it Alive? – Mary
Time:
Listener Feedback
Time:
Outtro Music
Time:
Intro:
Tony Bemus, Mat Enders, and Mary Tomich
Sound bites by Mike Tanner
Kernel News: Mat
Time:
Release Candidate:
On Sat, 11 May 2013 18:00:09 PDT
Linus Torvalds released 3.10-rc1
Here is what he had to say about it:
“So this is the biggest -rc1 in the last several years (perhaps ever) at least as far as counting commits go, even if not necessarily in actual lines (I didn’t check the statistics on that).
Which was unexpected, because while linux-next was fairly big, it wasn’t exceptionally so. I’m sure Stephen Rothwell will talk about the statistics of commits that weren’t in -next, we’ll see if that was the reason..
Anyway, despite the large number of commits, hopefully it’s all boringly straightforward. Sure…”
Mainline:
3.10-rc1
Stable Updates:
On Sat, 11 May 2013 14:27:13 PDT
Greg Kroah-Hartman released longterm kernel 3.0.78
With 15 files changed, 82 lines inserted, and 71 lines deleted
On Sat, 11 May 2013 14:36:03 PDT
Greg Kroah-Hartman released longterm kernel 3.4.45
With 28 files changed, 247 lines inserted, and 103 lines deleted
On Sat, 11 May 2013 14:46:02 PDT
Greg Kroah-Hartman released kernel 3.8.13
With 87 files changed, 902 lines inserted, and 445 lines deleted
This kernel is EOL and will have no further updates, however with this announcement Canonical is going to continue long term support:
From: Kamal Mostafa
To: stable-AT-vger.kernel.org, kernel-team-AT-lists.ubuntu.com
Subject: [ANNOUNCE] Linux 3.8.y.z extended stable support
Date: Tue, 14 May 2013 09:18:59 -0700
Message-ID: <1368548339.22392.115.camel@fourier>
Cc: linux-kernel-AT-vger.kernel.org, gregkh-AT-linuxfoundation.org
Archive-link: Article, Thread
Since Ubuntu 13.04 “Raring” uses the 3.8 kernel, the Ubuntu kernel team
will pick up stable maintenance where Greg KH left off[0] with 3.8.13
(thanks, Greg!)…The Ubuntu kernel team is pleased to announce that we will be providing
extended stable support for the Linux 3.8 kernel until August 2014 as a
third party effort maintained on our infrastructure.Our linux-3.8.y{-queue,-review} stable branches will fork from 3.8.13
and will be published here:git://kernel.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/linux.git
We will use the same stable request/review workflow and follow the
standard upstream stable kernel rules. More details are available at
http://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/Dev/ExtendedStableWe welcome any feedback and contribution to this effort. We will be
posting the first review cycle patch set in a week or two.-Kamal Mostafa
Ubuntu Kernel Team, Canonical Ltd
On Sat, 11 May 2013 14:46:33 PDT
Greg Kroah-Hartman released kernel 3.9.2
With 90 files changed, 855 lines inserted, and 317 lines deleted
On Tue, 14 May 2013 13:55:00 GMT
Ben Hutchings released long term kernel 3.2.45
With 131 files changed, 1010 lines inserted, and 429 lines deleted
Kernel Developer Quote:
Comes from Greg Kroah-Hartman:
“It’s fun to watch experienced Linux kernel developers run smack into the hell that is the drivers/staging/ tree.”
–Greg Kroah-Hartman
Distro Talk: Tony
Time:
- 5-22 –
- 5-22 –
- 5-23 –
- 5-24 –
- 5-25 –
- 5-27 –
- 5-27 –
Distro of the Week: Tony
- Fedora – 1815
- LuninuX – 1834
- Ubuntu – 2534
- Mageia – 3194
- Mint – 5157
Mary Distro Review – Antergos
Time:
There’s an old question…what’s in a name? Plenty if it contains both the base Linux distribution from which your distro is derived and the name of the desktop it uses. That was the situation with CinnArch: Arch-based with a Cinnamon desktop as the default It’s an effective way to brand your distro provided that nothing needs to change. When it does, it’s back to the distro-name drawing board. Earlier this year, the CinnArch project determined the Cinnamon desktop was not being updated as frequently as they preferred. What’s a project do? Why, change the default desktop, of course! GnomeArch doesn’t have the panache that CinnArch did. So the project team came up with an entirely new name: Antergos.
So would a new name mean a new lease on life, or would Antergos wish it was in the witness protection program. Let’s find out….
The Vitals:
Name: Antergos
Maintainer: Antergos Team
Distro Latest Birthday: It’s a rolling release but it was 5/13/2013
Derivative: Arch Linux
Kernel: 3.9.2-1-Arch
Review Desktop: Razor-qt 0.5.2 Other options include Gnome (default), Cinnamon, and Xfce.
Live Environment:
Graphics: ( i915)
Wireless: (iwl3945)
The Defaults
Browser: Chromium
Office Suite: LibreOffice Installer. I’m not sure why an office suite wasn’t included since the iso was past the DVD threshold.
Mail Client: None
File Manager: QtFM – a qt-based, tri-panel file manager (devices, bookmarks, files)
The Install Process:
When Installing Antergos, it provides an option to install via graphical interface (Cnchi) in addition to CLI installer. I tested both and found them to be relatively problem free. And Grub 2 is installed by default and no editing of the not-to-be-edited Grub config file like I encountered when I reviewed CinnArch.
Antergos Install Options
When I originally reviewed CinnArch last August (E045), I used the CLI installer to set it up on my laptop. That install went mostly OK, except the grub.cfg file incident when I was instructed to edit the file that should not be edited….but other than that, everything else went OK and I enjoyed testing the distro…..lots of options to configure. And you can select from four different desktops during install The default desktop is Gnome, Razor-qt is option 4. Cinnamon is still available.
One small caution: Pay attention when assigning your partitions to the mount points. The first one presented to me for assignment was swap which I did not notice—shocking though it was—I was thinking root, or perhaps was not thinking and I didn’t notice, thinking root, and assigned my 30gb partition to it…oops. I just redid it.
Both installs give you four desktop install options: Gnome (default), Cinnamon, Xfce, Razor-qt
The graphical installer Cnchi has a pleasant, non-flashy but it gets the job done. You are not presented with the same number of configuration options that you see in the CLI installer but that did not adversely affect my install. Although it’s not explicit, I think the graphical installer automatically chose the same defaults you can change in the CLI install.
CLI: “You have to configure internet connection before proceed.” Option to fire up Gparted cli or graphic version.
GUI Install:
After the install concluded I had the option of rebooting or continuing to use the live system. I chose rebooting and experienced one small glitch—the CD tray does not eject like it does on many other distros after you complete the install. I just used the boot from hard drive option.
Installed Environment:
I rebooted to a clean crisp razor QT desktop.I need to make a couple of tweaks to the deskop and open the Razor QT configuration center. The options are a little on the light side—but I was pleasantly surprised ot see the KDE System settings icon in the bottom row. It contained 90% of KDE’s system setting icons, missing things like Bluetooth, printing (for some reason), etc.
I was interested in testing the revamped PacmanXG system, accessible from the Accessories menu. You’re prompted for your password and have the option of providing it from su, su -, or sudo. Additionally, there’s a “Run via ‘Export Display=:’ and a box to supply a number. Two buttons Run and Run as Current User are available, in addtion to Close. Despite trying several times to start pacmanxg as a root user, it refused to start. I would supply the password, select su, then click Run. Nothing. I tried sudo, still nothing. I could open PacmanXG as a regular user and but installing anything from this user session produced an error. Ironically, I pasted the output from the the failed install into a root terminal and installed the software—gimp–without a problem. I checked the forums an didn’t see anything noting an issue with PacmanXG, but I will say I was mightily disappointed in PacmanXG.
Intro Screen for PacmanXG
Package Management Options
Configure PacmanXG Look
Available Actions for a Package
There are four respositories: Core, Community, Extras, and Antergos. Antergos contained 21 packages, including some theme components, keyring, razor-qt etc.
One of the biggest changes I’ve noticed is the evolution of Razor-qt. I decided to take a closer look at it. The Razor-qt desktop is controlled by a right-click menu. Razor-qt offers a few widgets, all of which were useful but I was left wanting more. I was disappointed to see so few options. Let’s hope as Razor-qt matures, we’ll see more options in this area.
Other interesting Programs:
Antergos did not have a lot of programs that were installed by default. However
Several Avahi Server tools – (VNC Server browser, SSH Server Browser, Zeroconf browser) – Avahi is a free Zero Configuration Networking (Zeroconf) implementation, including a system for multicast DNS/DNS-SD service discovery. It allows programs to publish and discover services and hosts running on a local network with no specific configuration. For example you can plug into a network and instantly find printers to print to, files to look at and people to talk to. It is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
Nepomuk family of apps – Backup (Nepomuk was not running,thus this was not useable), Cleaner (clean up invalid and buggy data in your Nepomuk database, File Indexing Controller (appeared in the system tray after I clicked it.)
Programming – Four different Qt4 items: Qt4 Assistant, Designer, Linguist, and QdBusViewer)
Razor-qt page – with an RPM download:
http://qt-apps.org/content/show.php/?content=142545
Rating:
1.5 I suspect the witness protection program is getting in touch with them now… (just kidding of course!) The distro has a lot of potential, it just needs to work out a few of the kinks. When it does, it will get a 3.5. Its use of Arch as its base means you have access a wide variety of packages via the arch repository and the top-notch community support that goes along with it.
Tech News:
Time:
Newegg Puts Beatdown On Patent Troll Alcatel
Back in 2011 Alcatel-Lucent, the French telecom, eight of the biggest internet retailers along with Intuit, claiming they were infringing on Alcatel patents. These retailers started surrendering to Alcatel’s extortion. Kmart, QVC, Lands End, and Intuit folded their tents early and paid the extortion. Then right before trial was set to start Zappos, Sears, and Amazon also gave up and paid the extortion. This left only two companies to fight the good fight Overstock.com and Newegg. Newegg’s lead counsel has vowed publicly in the past that he will never settle with a patent troll.
Then things started to go south for Alcatel. First that East Texas jury instead of handing them the millions they were looking for, said they found no infringement. Then not only did they find there was no infringement they also invalidated US Patent No. 5,649,131, which was at the heart of Alcatel’s claims. Needless to say this put the kibosh on Alcatel’s plans to sue many more online retailers, so they had to appeal. Well the appeal was heard on 5/10/2013 by the three judge panel. Appellate Judges usually take months or sometimes even years to decide an appeal. Well these three Judges upheld Newegg’s win with no comment in just three days. If that doesn’t tell you something about the claims Alcatel was making I do not know what does.
Complete Samba 4 Packages Available At SerNet
Since the release of Samba 4 the open source implementation of Active Directory Domain Controller, Linux distributors have found it challenging to add the full feature set to their distribution. they will usually choose only one of the two daemons to include. They are the new Samba 4 AD daemon and the smbd daemon for the traditional Samba 3 file server. Because you can not run the two at the same time on a machine. You either have to run it as a domain controller or a file server. Well SerNet a major contributor to the Samba project has binaries available that contain both daemons and allow you to choose which one you are going to run. The one catch to getting these SerNet binaries is you must register with a full address. You are then sent the credentials to get access to the distribution specific binaries. SerNet says they will only use the address data to give registered users specific product information.
Google Tells Microsoft Cease And Desist
Google gave Microsoft until 5/22/2013 to remove its YouTube app from the market and to disable all downloaded copies. The app written by Microsoft violates YouTube’s terms of service. It strips the ads out of videos and allows users to download videos from YouTube.
Here is what the cease and desist letter had to say in part:
“These features directly harm our content creators and clearly violate our Terms of Service. We request that you immediately withdraw this application from the Windows Phone Store and disable existing downloads of the application by Wednesday, May 22, 2013.”
From the monkey-see-monkey-doo-doo department
Careful what links you paste into a private skype session…Microsoft is following them, albeit hours later.
Top 10 Sleeper Distros
http://www.linuxadvocates.com/2013/05/top-ten-sleeper-distros.html
KDE Korner
Skrooge 1.7.1 released
5/14/2013
Skrooge allows you to manage your personal finances, powered by KDE 4.x. Thanks to its many features, it is one of the most powerful way to enter, follow, and analyze your expenses.
Based on its KDE foundations, Skrooge can run on many platforms, including of course linux, BSD, Solaris, but also on Mac OS, and possibly on Windows.
Recoll – an excellent file indexing program/app.
http://kde-apps.org/content/show.php/Recoll?content=52353
On May 22, KDE SC will hit another milestone – Soft Feature Freeze
Trunk is frozen for feature commits that are not listed in the planned feature document. Only bugfixes and the code implementing the listed features are to be committed after this date. The feature list also closes today.
Features not already finished or not listed on the planned features page will have to wait until the next KDE SC release.
KDE SC 4.11 anticipated release: 17 Wednesday, August 14, 2013:
Some of the early features planned for 4.11 include:
* Up & down buttons added to Menu Editor for usability
* Ability to sort entries in sub-menus
* Notifications configuration button
* Lots of cool plugins for Kate
* Juk is getting Ogg Opus support
* Marble to receive interface, plugin, and map attention
* Several Plasma Add-ons are being rewritten in QML
* Konsole might see –separate option
* A quick preview feature is planned for Dolphin
* KWin to get Plasma theme refresh and removal of legacy themes
The Toolbox
The toolbox tip of the week is adding a timestamp to your bash history.
You just need to add the following line to your .bashrc or .profile
export HISTTIMEFORMAT=”%F %T ”
Then when you issue the history command you will get output that looks like this:
999 2013-05-17 23:22:33 ls -l
1000 2013-05-18 08:23:20 info su
1001 2013-05-18 21:20:00 history
So if you have some idea of when you last ran the command you are looking for it should make it easier to find.
Is it Alive?
Time:
None this week.
Listener Feedback:
show (at) smlr.us or 313-626-9140
Time:
Outtro Music
Time:
Planet of the users, from the BSD 4.6 release.
http://www.openbsd.org/lyrics.html#46
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