Debian + ATI --> how to

Lot of people are crayig that debiab dos`t work with ati cards.
It works!!
But there are 2 methods.
1.) OSS driver
2.) property driver

So lets start with oss driver.

Run this command to determine what kind of video card you have:

lspci -v | grep VGA

The radeon driver supports R100/R200 (Radeon 7000 – Radeon 9250) and R300/R400/R500 (Radeon 9500 – Radeon X1950) class chips. See the radeon page on the X wiki for more information. The radeonhd driver is for R500 and newer cards. See the the radeonhd page on the X wiki for more info.

For Debian Squeeze and later releases, you will need to install proprietary firmware if you have one of the following Radeon-based cards:

• Radeon R100-family
• Radeon R200-family
• Radeon R300-family
• Radeon R400-family
• Radeon R500-family
• Radeon R600
• Radeon RS600
• Radeon RS690
• Radeon RS780
• Radeon RV610
• Radeon RV620
• Radeon RV630
• Radeon RV635
• Radeon RV670
• Radeon RV710
• Radeon RV730
• Radeon RV770

The firmware in question, id est the CP/PFP microcode, can be installed by first enabling the non-free repository for your Debian release and issuing the following command:

aptitude install firmware-linux-nonfree

You will need Direct Rendering Manager as well as Accelerated Graphics Port support in your kernel, preferably as modules. If you are using the stock Debian kernel, you should already have these. To check for DRM support, issue this command:

grep DRM_RADEON /boot/config-$(uname -r) 

The output should be:

CONFIG_DRM_RADEON=m

If this value is n, then you will have to rebuild your kernel.

To check for AGP support, run:

grep AGP /boot/config-$(uname -r)

The output should be:

CONFIG_AGP=y
CONFIG_AGP_AMD64=y
CONFIG_AGP_INTEL=m
CONFIG_AGP_SIS=m
CONFIG_AGP_VIA=m

Note that you will only need support for your specific chipset.

If you do need to rebuild your kernel, you can find AGP under:

• Device Drivers --->
  • Graphics Support --->
    • /dev/agpgart (AGP Support) --->
      • (Your chipset)

and DRM under:

• Device Drivers --->
  • Graphics Support --->
    • Direct Rendering Manager --->
      • ATI Radeon

Essentially, you need to set your device's driver to either "radeon" or "radeonhd" as such:

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "radeon"
EndSection

There are also plenty of options for the driver too. You can find out about them in radeon's man page:

man 4 radeon

It is necessary to install driver libraries in order to utilize the card's 3D capabilities:

aptitude install libgl1-mesa-dri

Property:

Just open terminal and add non-free to the sources.lis
and type
sudo aptitude install fglrx-control
sudo aticonfig --initial

shutdow -r now

and you should be running with 3d acceleration.

Making custome debs

Lot of people don`t know how to build custome debs from source.
It`s simple and i will show you how to do it.

First you have to install from repos checkinstall.
Just download the source from the app that you wann to put in a deb.
Like wine.Just download the new 1.3.9 wine source file.It`s in tar.bz2.

Make directory in your $HOME folder called build
 mkdir ~/build

and copy the source in build.
cd to build and just tipe tar xjf wine-version.tar.bz2
New folder caled wine-version was created and simle cd into it and
./configure
make
sudo checkinstall

after the checkinstall you have your own custome wine build that you can simple install with dpkg.

Dwm

dwm is a dynamic tiling window manager for X11 exhibiting the principles of minimalism which is known for having influenced the development of other window managers, including xmonadand awesome.It is externally similar to wmii, but internally much simpler. dwm is written purely in C and, for simplicity, lacks any configuration interface besides editing the source code. One of the project's guidelines is that the source code will never exceed 2000 lines, and options meant to be user-configurable are all contained in a single header file.
dwm supports multiple workspaces and unlike ratpoison allows moving and resizing windows with the mouse. Older versions of dwm optionally displayed their stdin in a status bar at the top of the screen. Recent versions use the root window name, which can be changed by an independent process. This is often used to show information that would appear in the notification area of other desktop environments—a clock, system load info, laptop battery and network status, music player information and the like. This status line is often complemented with dmenu, a textual application launcher from the same developer as dwm. dwm uses a focus-follows-mouse model and lacks any window decoration other than a border to show focus.

And here are some my screenshots





and i will share with you my custome .deb
http://uploading.com/files/57b53cd4/dwm ... amd64.deb/

Perfect desktop : Debian minimal install + xfce

This guide will show you how to install the Xfce desktop environment on Debian  without getting GNOME in the process. It will also show you how to tweak the Xfce install to become a perfect desktop environment.
The guide will also suggest a list of applications to install in addition to Xfce, to make it a fully functional desktop install.
 Debian will install by default the entire GNOME desktop environment and the X Window System. This means many applications which you may never use will also be installed, so here is a solution in order to get only a basic system and then install only the packages you need.

First download a netinstall ico from debian page.I use for my laptop debian testing and for desktop debian sid.
Proceed with the install as instructed and when the installer reaches the window where it asks what software you want to install (like Desktop Environment, Web Server, Basic System etc.), just de-select the Desktop Environment option using the SPACE key, and also make sure the Basic System option remains selected.
After the installation is over, reboot, logi in ass root and let`s begin.

apt-get update to update APT
Now we'll install the X-server. A login manager. ALSA to get sound working. HAL (for auto mounting CDs) and Xfce. I've also included the 'goodies' and 'mixer' package for Xfce and the archive plugin for Thunar.
apt-get install xserver-xorg-core xorg alsa-base alsa-utils hal udev gdm xfce4 xfce4-goodies xfce4-mixer xfce4-mixer-alsa thunar-archive-plugin
This will give us a minimal, but functional Xfce desktop, but we won't stop here since we're looking for the prefect Xfce install.For  graphic card drivers please look on debian wiki.

Reconfigure your xorg 
dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

and alsa
alsaconf

If all went well you should now get the login manager if you reboot or type gdm .

Suggestions to additional fonts are: ttf-bitstream-vera, ttf-dejavu and msttcorefonts.
apt-get install ttf-bitstream-vera ttf-dejavu msttcorefonts

It seems that Conky is a rather popular system monitor to use with Xfce. If you want Conky then simply install it with
apt-get install conky
Once Conky is installed you need a configuration file for it. The package comes with a sample .conkyrc, so we'll use that. (Do this as your regualr user, not as root)
zcat /usr/share/doc/conky/examples/conkyrc.sample.gz > .conkyrc

And here is a simple conkyrc

alignment bottom_right
background yes
border_width 1
cpu_avg_samples 2
default_color white
default_outline_color white
default_shade_color white
draw_borders no
draw_graph_borders yes
draw_outline no
draw_shades no
font 6x10
gap_x 5
gap_y 10
minimum_size 5 5
net_avg_samples 2
no_buffers yes
out_to_console no
own_window yes
own_window_type desktop
own_window_hints below,skip_taskbar
own_window_transparent yes
double_buffer yes
stippled_borders 0
update_interval 3.0
uppercase no
use_spacer none

TEXT
$nodename - $sysname $kernel on $machine
$hr
${color grey}Uptime:$color $uptime
${color grey}Frequency (in MHz):$color $freq
${color grey}Frequency (in GHz):$color $freq_g
${color grey}RAM Usage:$color $mem/$memmax - $memperc%
${color grey}Swap Usage:$color $swap/$swapmax - $swapperc%
${color grey}CPU Usage:$color $cpu% ${cpubar 4}
${color grey}Processes:$color $processes  ${color grey}Running:$color $running_processes
$hr
${color grey}File systems:
${color grey} /     $color${fs_free /}/${fs_size /} ${fs_bar 6 /}
${color grey} /home $color${fs_free /mnt/spare}/${fs_size /mnt/spare} ${fs_bar 6 /mnt/spare}
${color grey}Networking:
Up:$color ${upspeed eth0} k/s${color grey} - Down:$color ${downspeed eth0} k/s
$hr
${color grey}Cpu/MoBo:$color ${platform w83627hf.656 temp 2}/${platform w83627hf.656 temp 1}
${color grey}/dev/hda;/dev/hdb:$color ${hddtemp /dev/hda};${hddtemp /dev/hdb}
$hr
${color grey}Name                  PID   CPU%   MEM%
${color lightgrey} ${top name 1} ${top pid 1} ${top cpu 1} ${top mem 1}
${color lightgrey} ${top name 2} ${top pid 2} ${top cpu 2} ${top mem 2}
${color lightgrey} ${top name 3} ${top pid 3} ${top cpu 3} ${top mem 3}
${color lightgrey} ${top name 4} ${top pid 4} ${top cpu 4} ${top mem 4}
 

Since Xfce use the GTK+2 toolkit I choose to only install GTK+2 based applications to keep things looking unified. Which applications you install is of course up to you, but here are my suggestions. Your additions to this list are welcome.

Accessories:
Gedit -- Text Editor
Xarchiver -- Archive Manager
Xpad -- Sticky Note Application

Development:
Bluefish Editor -- Advanced Web Editor
Geany -- Integrated Development Environment

Graphics:
Comix -- Comic Book Viewer
Evince -- Document Reader (PDF, etc)
Inkscape -- SVG Vector Illustrator
GIMP -- Image Editor
GQview -- Image Browser

Multimedia:
Audacious -- Audio Player
EasyTAG -- Audio Tag Editor
GnomeBaker -- DVD/CD Writer
Grip -- CD Ripper and Encoder
Smplayer -- Multimedia Player (Video, audio, DVD)
streamtuner -- Stream Directory Browser (Internet radio)

Network:
Freeloader -- Bittorrent Client
Gaim -- Multi-protocol Instant Messenger
gFTP -- FTP Client
Icedove -- E-mail Client
Iceweasel -- Web Browser
Liferea -- Internet Feed Reader
Xchat -- IRC Client

Office:
AbiWord -- Word Processor
gLabels -- Label Designer (CDs, buisiness cards, etc)
Gnumeric -- A Spreadsheet
Orage -- Calendar for Xfce

System:
Synaptic -- Package Manager (Front end to APT)
xscreensaver -- Screensaver

 

XFCE the cholesterol free Desktop Environment

Xfce is a Desktop Environment, like GNOME or KDE. It contains a suite of apps like a root window app, window manager, file manager, panel, etc. Xfce is written using the GTK2 toolkit, and contains its own development environment (libraries, daemons, etc), similar to other big DEs. Unlike GNOME or KDE, Xfce is lightweight and designed more around han Windows or Mac. It has a much slower development cycle, but is very stable and extremely fast. Xfce is great for older hardware.

Xfce (pronounced as four individual letters) is a free software desktop environment for Unix and other Unix-like platforms, such as Linux, Solaris and BSD. It aims to be fast and lightweight, while still being visually appealing and easy to use. The current version, 4.6, is modular and reusable. It consists of separately packaged components that together provide the full functionality of the desktop environment, but which can be selected in subsets to create the user's preferred personal working environment. Xfce is mainly used for its ability to run a modern desktop environment on relatively modest hardware.
It is based on the GTK+ 2 toolkit (the same as GNOME). It uses the Xfwm window manager, described below. Its configuration is entirely mouse-driven, and the configuration files are hidden from the casual user.
Xfce will be included with the Pandora handheld gaming system.

Olivier Fourdan started the project in 1996. The name "Xfce" originally stood for "XForms Common Environment", but since that time Xfce has been rewritten twice and no longer uses the XForms toolkit. The name survived, but it is no longer capitalized as "XFce", but rather as "Xfce". The developers' current stance is that the initialism no longer stands for anything specific.



Xfce provides a development framework for applications. Other than Xfce itself, there are third-party programs which use the Xfce libraries, most notably the Mousepad text editor, Orage calendar and Terminal. One of the services provided to applications by the framework is a red banner across the top of the window when the application is running with root privileges warning the user that they could damage system files.
Other Xfce components include:

• Xfmedia, a xine-based media player for Xfce; currently unmaintained
• Xfprint, a print manager
• Xfburn, a CD/DVD burner

Leopold Ružička

Lavoslav Ružička born as Lavoslav ( Leopold ) Ružička (13 September 1887 – 26 September 1976) was a Croatian scientist and winner of the 1939 Nobel Prize in Chemistry who worked most of his life in Switzerland. He received eight honoris causa doctorates in science, medicine, and law; seven prizes and medals; and twenty-four honorary memberships in chemical, biochemical, and other scientific societies.
Ružička was born in Vukovar, Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His family of craftsmen and farmers was of Croatian, Czech, and German origin.[1]
Ružička attended the classics-program secondary school in Osijek. He changed his original idea of becoming a priest and switched to studying technical disciplines. Chemistry was his choice, probably because he hoped to get a position at the newly opened sugar refinery built in Osijek.
Due to the excessive hardship of everyday and political life, he left and chose the High Technical School in Karlsruhe in Germany. He was a good student in areas he liked and that he thought would be necessary and beneficial in future, which was organic chemistry. That is why his physical chemistry professor, Fritz Haber (Nobel laureate in 1918), opposed his summa cum laude degree. However, in the course of his studies, Ružička set up excellent cooperation with Hermann Staudinger (a Nobel laureate in 1953). Studying within Staudinger's department, he obtained his doctor's degree in 1910. With Staudinger, Ružička went to Zurich and was his assistant.

Work and research

Ružička's first works originated during that period in the field of chemistry of natural compounds. He remained in this field of research all his life. He investigated the ingredients of the Dalmatian insect powder (Pyrethrum cinerariifolium), a highly esteemed insecticide. In this way, he came into contact with the chemistry of terpene, a fragrant oil of vegetable origin, interesting to the perfume industry. He intended to start individual research and even started successful and productive cooperation with the Chuit & Naef Company (later known as Firmenich) in Geneva.
In 1916-1917, he received the support of the oldest perfume manufacturer in the world Haarman & Reimer, of Holzminden in Germany. With expertise in the terpene field, he became senior lecturer in 1918, and in 1923, honorary professor at the ETH (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule) as well the University in Zurich. Here, with a group of his doctoral students, he proved the structure and existence of the compounds of muscone and civet, the scents derived from the musk deer and the civet cat. The Ruzicka large ring synthesis is a method in organic chemistry for the organic synthesis of these type of compounds.
In 1921, the Geneva perfume manufacturers Chuit & Naef asked him to collaborate. Working here, Ružička achieved financial independence, but not as big as he did plan so he left Zurich to start working for the Ciba, Basel- based company. In 1927, he took over the organic chemistry chair at Utrecht University in Netherlands. In Netherlands he remained for three years, and then returned to Switzerland, which was superior in its chemical industry.
Back to Zurich, at ETH he became professor of organic chemistry and started the most brilliant period of his professional career. He widened the area of his research, adding to it the chemistry of higher terpenes and steroids. After the successful synthesis of sex hormones (androsterone and testosterone), his laboratory became the world center of organic chemistry.
In 1939, he won the Nobel prize for chemistry with Adolf Butenandt. In 1940, following the award, he was invited by the Croatian Chemical Association, where he delivered a lecture to an over packed hall of dignitaries. The topic of the lecture was From the Dalmatian Insect Powder to Sex Hormones. During the World War II, some of his excellent collaborators were lost, but Ružička restructured his laboratory with new, younger and promising people; among them was young scientist Vladimir Prelog. With new people and ideas new research areas were opened.
Following 1950, Ružička returned to chemistry, which had entered a new era of research. Now he turned to the field of biochemistry, the problems of evolution and genesis of life, particularly to the biogenesis of terpenes. He published his hypothesis, Biogenetic Isoprene Rule, which was the peak of his scientific career.[2] Ružička retired in 1957, turning over the running of the laboratory to his assistant and future Nobel laureate Vladimir Prelog.
Ružička dedicated significant efforts to the problems of education. He insisted on a better organization of academic education and scientific work in the new Yugoslavia, and established the Swiss-Yugoslav Society. Ružička became an honorary academician at the then Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts in Zagreb. In Switzerland, the Ružička Award was established, for young chemists working in Switzerland. In his native Vukovar, a museum was opened in his honour in 1977.

Do you wanna dance

Do you wanna dance?

Reflektorom na Linux

Ljudi često pitaju koju distribuciju odabrati ukoliko žele naučiti kako linux zbilja radi.Najčešći odgovori su Arch,Gentoo,Debian i u zadnje vrijeme sve rijeđe Slackware.Arch,Gentoo,Debian su odlične distre ali neuče nas pravome linuxu već nas svaka uči svojoj vrsti linuxa.
No Slackware za razliku od ostalih nas uči čistome linux iskustvu.
Neću se vraćati kroz povijest jer smatram da je nepotrebno pričati o samim počecima linuxa i razvoju prvih distribucija.


Eye-candy, dependencies check, grub,...nije sve oko toga.
Prava narav linuxa je da nam nudi mogučnost odabira,mogučnost da odaberemo što volimo.Slično je i sa kupnjom auta.Ako ti treba samo auto brine te samo boja.Odabereš auto u boji koju voliš i spreman si za nekoliko šopinga.
Ako se smatraš fanatikom razgledaš i testiraš nekoliko modela prije nego odabereš onaj koj ti najbolje odgovara.No ako si tuner iz auta izbaciš sve ono što ti neodgovara i ugradiš sve što ti odgovara.Ako nešto neodgovara ili nestane unutra,prilagodiš i ugradiš.
Sličan je i duh slackwarea.Ali nismo svi tuneri i nismo svi fanatici.
Najjednostavnije se zapitajte tko sam ja?Kakav OS meni treba i dobit će te odgovor na to pitanje.

Opensuse , savršena zamjena za Ubuntu

Sa verzijom 11.0 opensusea svugdje pronalazim na raznorazne savijete i trikove za bolje,lakše,brže korištenje opensuse distre.Trenutno je aktualna 11.3 sa kojom se družim već punih 10 dana.
Opensuse vidim kao savršenu zamjenu za korisnike koji su već kročili u svijet linuxa a sad ga žele i pobliže upoznati.

Masa ljudi priča o lakoči instalacije Ubunta dok zapostavlja "lakoću" instalacije drugih distribucija.
Debian,Mandriva,OpenSuse, nije h ništa teže instalirati nego ubuntu i ubuntufork distribucije.
Opensuse također nudi brdo mogučnosti prilikom instalacije.Prednost guštera nad kružićem je što suse omogućava izbor desktop okruženja prilikom instalacije ali se može i naknadno nakon promjeniti dok ubuntu instalira okruženje sa live cda ali omogučava naknadnu promjenu čime grafički dobivate sasvim novu distibuciju.Kod susea također postoji i live DVD instalacija koja također kao i ubuntu nudi mogučnost downloada vaše distribucije sa željenim GUIem no za razliku od ubuntu, suse nudi prilikom instalacije sa live DVD medija i opciju dodavanja/micanja programa koja će možda nekima doći vrlo korisna.
Po meni instaler opensusea nije uope kompliciran, daleko je ljepše izvedene nego onaj na ubuntu,fedori ili mandrivi i daleko kvalitetnije i sa više opcija nego onaj windowsa ili mac os-x.
Moram priznati da gušterov QT4 instaler izgleda izvanredno.
Suse ima mogučnost,dok je lakoća ipak na strani sveprisutnog ubunta.
Zatvoreni formati nisu podržani ni kod jedne distre.Kod susea se to vrlo elegantno riješi sa 1click instalacijom dok se na ubuntu automatski skine sa neta kad pokušavate reproducirati/otvoriti nepodržan format potreban kodek no također postoji i ubuntu software centre u sa kojeg se može instalirati ubuntu restricted.

I Ubuntu i Opensuse su vrlo zrele i ozbiljne distribucije no ipak ubuntu preporučam ljudima koji žele zakoračiti u svijet linuxa dok suse preporučam onima koji su zakoračili a sad ga žele i pobliže upoznati uz opasku da postoji i debian čija instalacija također nije mudrost.

full multimedia i Squeeze

Po meni je ovo najbrži i najlakši način kako dobiti cjelu multimediu.Zvuk,flash,dobiti da playeri rade.

staviti multimedia repoe u source list

Kod: 

su kate /etc/apt/sources/sources.list

i obaciti

Kod: 

deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org/ squeeze main non-free deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ squeeze main contrib non-free deb http://mirror.home-dn.net/debian-multimedia/ squeeze main

ok,kad je to gotovo, u terminalu posati root ( u debianu i memphisu je to su ) i dodati multimedia keyring

Kod: 

apt-get install debian-multimedia-keyring

a sad idemo na flash

Kod: 

apt-get install flashplayer-nonfree

i zatim

Kod: 

update-flashplugin-nonfree --install

flash se također može instalirati preko ubuntu deb paketa sa dpkg -i .......xxx.deb

ostale korisne stvarčice su ovdije

Kod: 

apt-get install dvdauthor apt-get install dvdbackup apt-get install dvdrtools apt-get install dvd+rw-tools apt-get install k9copy ....or for Gnome Desktop consider Brasero apt-get install libmad0 apt-get install lame apt-get install libavifile-0.7c2 apt-get install libdvdcss2 apt-get install libdvdnav4 apt-get install libdvdread3 apt-get install liblame0 apt-get install libxine1-ffmpeg apt-get install mencoder apt-get install msttcorefonts  ...(this one will take a bit of time) apt-get install transcode apt-get install vamps apt-get install w32codecs    ......or w64codiecs where applicable apt-get install kaffeine   ..... or for Gnome Desktop consider Mplayer or Totem apt-get install vlc apt-get install flac apt-get install gstreamer0.10-ffmeg apt-get install gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3 apt-get install gsteamer0.10-plugins-bad apt-get install xine-console and the libxine plugin support ....libxine1-misc-plugins ....libxine1-ffmpeg ....libxine1-plugins ....libxine1-x

ako netkome zatreba virtualbox

Kod: 

apt-get install gcc g++ bcc iasl xsltproc uuid-dev zlib1g-dev libidl-dev \                 libsdl1.2-dev libxcursor-dev libasound2-dev libstdc++5 \                 libhal-dev libpulse-dev libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev \                 python2.5-dev libqt4-dev qt4-dev-tools libcap-dev \                 libxmu-dev mesa-common-dev libglu1-mesa-dev \                 linux-kernel-headers libcurl4-openssl-dev

Kod:

apt-get install libqt4-opengl-dev

Kod: 

aptitude update # aptitude install linux-headers-2.6-$(uname -r | sed 's,.*-,,')

Kod:

su nano /etc/apt/sources.lst deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian lenny non-free

Kod: 

sudo apt-get update           apt-get install dkms

ključ se skine sa http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualb ... n_vbox.asc i doda pomoću

Kod:

apt-key add sun_vbox.asc

i instalira se virtualbox sa lenny paketa ili univerzalnog .run

Overview of the ten major Linux distributions

Introduction

The Microsoft Windows operating system is developed and released by a single company. It comes with a minimal set of applications (a calculator, a few games, some networking tools, an Internet browser.. etc). Other software can be obtained by users from various sources and installed on the operating system.

GNU/Linux is different. A GNU/Linux operating system is made of a Linux kernel, a set of GNU tools, an installation program, a package management system and a lot of other software components. Because all these components are free to use and to distribute, anybody can assemble and configure them according to their needs and create their very own GNU/Linux operating system. Since 1993, a lot of people and companies have been distributing Linux operating systems. These distributions made it easy for people to get and to install a working GNU/Linux system on their personal computer.

At first only a few distributions were available. Nowadays there are so many, that it would be pointless to compare all of them. The website http://www.distrowatch.com lists more than 350 active distributions and reports new releases almost every day. Of course, some distributions are quite similar, although some others are very different to each others. Depending on your needs you'll prefer some more than others.

All distributions include the Linux kernel developed by Linus Torvalds and the GNU tools developed by Richard Stallman but they don't necessarily use their latest versions. Some distributions even make their own changes to the kernel. Distributions usually differ in the choice of software applications they offer, in the way these software applications are configured and in the way they are installed and upgraded. Distributions also differ in many aspects such as their philosophy towards proprietary software, their priorities between ease of use and efficiency or between stability and latest technology. In fact, every distribution is different and this means you have more than 350 ways to run GNU/Linux!

Of course some distributions are more popular than others. This article is dedicated to the 10 most famous and popular: Debian, Slackware, Fedora, Mandriva, Suse, Ubuntu, Knoppix, Gentoo, Mepis and Xandros.

Debian

Debian is one of the oldest GNU/Linux distributions. It was created in 1993 by Ian Murdock who named it after the combination of his own name and the one of his then-girlfriend (now wife) Debra. The Debian project is non-commercial and gathers more than a thousand developers throughout the world. A strict organization and clear guidelines made its releases famous for their stability and reliability. The project is very ambitious and supports more than 15,000 packages on 11 architectures: m68k, SPARC, Alpha, PowerPC, x86, IA-64, PA-RISC, MIPS (big and little endian), ARM and S/390. AMD64 is also supported although it is not officially included in the distribution. Debian is known for its strong adherence to the Unix and free software philosophies, its stability and its huge community. It is also very well documented and translated in many languages. Its software package management is extremely powerful and was adopted by many other distributions. Although it is meant to be a general-purpose distribution, the quality of its releases made Debian a distribution of choice for servers.

Debian provides three branches: "Stable" which corresponds to the latest release, "Unstable", which is in perpetual evolution and "Testing" which represents the next release to-be. Although it is possible to use "Testing" and to stay up to date, a lot of people are unhappy with the slow release cycle, which makes the "Stable" branch quickly outdated. For this reason Debian is seen as a serious and stable distribution but not as a cutting-edge and reactive one. This "outdated" reputation combined with the absence of graphical installation or configuration tools made Debian look hard to use and slow to evolve. When it comes to desktop, a lot of people prefer fast release cycle, eye-candy configuration tools, graphical installers and ease of use.. and this is not what Debian is.

Official website: http://www.debian.org

Pros: Open-Source philosophy, non-commercial project, strong community, huge selection of packages and supported architectures, one of the best package management, excellent documentation, extremely stable and well-tested releases, modular, fast.

Cons: Slow release cycle, text-based installer, lack of configuration tools

Slackware

Founded in 1992 by Patrick Volkerding, Slackware is the oldest surviving GNU/Linux distribution. It is very secure, stable and it is often recommended for server installations. The package management is minimal and doesn't deal with dependencies, the installer and configuration tools are text-based and almost everything is done through configuration files. Slackware doesn't offer graphical frontends nor eye-candy configuration tools. When Patrick was asked why Slackware releases do not have code names, he simply replied that there was no need. In fact the distribution focuses on stability and is well known for being bug-free. System administrators usually say that Slackware is the most Unix-Like GNU/Linux distribution. Most packages are used in their pristine form without any Slackware made improvements. Slackware is usually not recommended to novice users although it is easy to configure and probably one of the most formative distributions. What a user learns while configuring Slackware usually applies to any distribution. Rather than using distribution-specific configuration tools, the user has to modify settings in configuration files and so he has to learn about Linux internals which are common to all distributions. For these reason the Slackware distribution is usually used by system administrators, eager to learn novice users or simply Slackware fans :)

Official website: http://www.slackware.com

Pros: Stability, security, strong adherence to Unix principles, speed and performance.

Cons: Minimal package management, infrequent releases, limited hardware detection.

Fedora

One of the best known Linux company in the world is Red Hat, founded in 1995 by Bob Young and Marc Ewing. In 2003, Red Hat decided to focus on business and stopped releasing its public distribution. The company chose to sponsor a community driven project called Fedora. Red Hat Linux 9 was the last version in the Red Hat product line and was replaced by Fedora Core. This distribution is quite unique and mixes leading edge features and conservatism. The result is a stable and secure system with frequent releases and up to date packages which suits both server and desktop installations. The package management is based on RPM, invented by Red Hat, and it is enhanced by a set of tools like Yum, which bring additional features similar to the Debian package management. Because of its close relationship with Red Hat this distribution is very popular among companies. Efforts were also made to make it attractive to the public and Fedora is full of graphical configuration and administration tools. The installation is also graphical and special attention was put to the look and feel of the distribution. As a result Fedora is a popular choice for both desktop and servers among Linux users.

Official website: http://fedora.redhat.com

Pros: Widely used, good support, innovation, good-looking desktop, configuration tools.

Cons: Not as stable as Debian or Slackware for server use, not as easy and up to date as Suse or Mandrake for desktop use. Fedora is truly a general-purpose distribution.

Mandriva

Originally called Mandrake and created by Gael Duval in 1998, Mandriva is based on Red Hat. It uses a RPM-based package management, which is enhanced with a tool called urpmi. Mandriva became famous and popular since its first release thanks to an efficient and powerful graphical installer, which is still considered the best nowadays. The default Gnome desktop environment used in Red Hat was replaced in favor of KDE and some good looking configuration tools were added. Also, Mandriva tends to include new versions of software applications as soon as possible and to stay up to date as much as possible, relying on the users to report bugs a posteriori. As a result, Mandriva is highly up-to-date and even though some of its releases are buggy it remains the best distribution for people who are new to Linux or people who find it acceptable to experience some crashes if this means benefiting from the latest versions of applications.

Official website: http://www.mandriva.com

Pros: Highly up-to-date, easy to use, good looking desktop, good community support.

Cons: Unstable, releases are initially reserved to mandrivaClub members and then made public after several weeks.

Suse

Since its creation, Suse has always been seen as a distribution of choice for desktop installations. It benefits from a powerful installer and configuration tool called YaST. Professional attention is made to detail, the default KDE desktop environment, the boot process, everything is tailored to make Suse pleasant to the eyes and a serious choice for professional desktops. In 2003, Novell acquired the company and made ISOs of Suse releases freely available on the Internet. Novell also opened the development to public participation and released YaST under the General Public License. Since the launch of OpenSuse, the distribution is now completely free. Suse is stable, polished and pleasant to use. It is probably one of the best desktop solutions.

Official website: http://www.suse.com , http://www.opensuse.org

Pros: Up-to-date, easy to use, good looking, stable.

Cons: Speed and performance.

Ubuntu

In 2004 a distribution which was never heard of before, quickly became the most popular and famous of all distributions: Ubuntu. Based on the "Unstable" branch of Debian, Ubuntu features a fast release cycle, up to date and numerous packages, fast download mirrors, great documentation and even free shipment of CDs. Even though the installer is text-based and the configuration tools are not as good looking or integrated as those found in Fedora, Suse or Mandriva, this distribution quickly became the most used for desktop use. Ubuntu was created by Mark Shuttleworth and is distributed by his company Canonical Ltd. It is not clear whether or not Ubuntu is profitable to Canonical Ltd, but according to the multi-millionaire Mark Shuttleworth, this is not the main priority nor purpose of the distribution. Instead, Ubuntu aims to be an innovative and dynamic general purpose distribution which tackles issues that were not addressed by other distributions. Since its creation, Ubuntu has been the most popular GNU/Linux distribution and every single release is better than the previous one.

Official website: http://www.ubuntu.com

Pros: Great community of users and developers, great documentation, up to date packages, fast release cycle.

Cons: The business model doesn't seem to be viable.

Knoppix

Created in 2003 by Klaus Knopper, Knoppix is a live-CD distribution, which means the user can run it directly from the CD without having to install it on the hard drive. Thanks to an efficient compression mechanism, the Knoppix CD features a huge selection of software. Knoppix also provides a great automatic hardware detection, which is far better than those of other distributions. The CD can be used as a recovery or administration tool, as a Linux demonstration, as a hardware test tool or even as a full GNU/Linux desktop distribution since it is possible to install it on the hard drive once booted from the CD. Releases are frequent and packages, based on Debian's "Unstable" branch are quite up-to-date.

Official website: http://www.knoppix.com

Pros: Live-CD, excellent hardware detection, good and up to date package selection.

Cons: Slow if run from the CD.

Gentoo

Created in 2002 by Daniel Robbins, Gentoo comes from the idea of adding the FreeBSD autobuild feature, "ports" into GNU/Linux. Gentoo is a source-distribution, which means that its packages are not binary but source packages. Each package is meant to be compiled on the user's computer in order to get the best performance and speed out of the resulting compiled binary software. Because repositories use source-packages, they are also very quick to get new software releases as soon as they come out. This results in a very fast and highly up-to-date distribution. The package management is also very efficient and easy to use. On the other hand, the installation of the system and of big packages can be very long and tedious, even with a fast processor.

Official website: http://www.gentoo.org

Pros: Highly up-to-date, very fast, good documentation.

Cons: Long and tedious installation, can be unstable.

Mepis

Created in 2003 by Warren Woodford, Mepis is a mix between Debian "Unstable" and Knoppix. It is a live-CD which, once booted, features a graphical installation program. Users can simply boot on the CD, try the distribution, and if they like it.. run the graphical installation program. Also, the distribution chose a different path regarding the use of proprietary software, arguing that the user's comfort was more important than the adherence to open-source philosophy. By default, Mepis includes NVIDIA drivers, Flash and Java plugins, Java runtime, multimedia codecs, and other non-free software. The hardware automatic detection is very good and even detects some winmodems. In-house configuration utilities are also provided.

Official website: http://www.mepis.com

Pros: Installable Live-CD, pre-configured with latest plugins and codecs.

Cons: Not yet well-established, poor adherence to open-source principles.

Xandros

In 2001 Xandros acquired Corel Linux. The distribution was based on Debian and aimed at making it easy for novice users to use GNU/Linux. Nowadays Xandros Desktop is the most user-friendly distribution on the market and is recommended to first time Linux users. In its Deluxe edition Xandros Desktop also includes a NTFS resizing tool and a Windows compatibility layer called CrossOver, which makes it possible to run some Windows applications.

Official website: http://www.xandros.com

Pros: Designed for beginners, easy to use, very stable.

Cons: Small package selection, includes proprietary components, only free for personal use.

Conclusion

People often ask "so which distribution is right for me?". The answer is very simple: "It depends!". It depends on your needs, it depends on your experience, on your philosophy or your tastes. It depends on a lot of things, and even if you found the one you preferred among these 10 majors distributions, don't forget that there are about 340 other distributions available, which could potentially suit your needs. If you're ready for the adventure, go and explore. Read reviews, try as many as you can and make your own mind. Otherwise, if you just need something good without the hassle, stick to these 10 major distributions. If you're running a server, consider Debian or Slackware. If you want to install Linux on your home computer for desktop use, consider them all. If you're new to Linux you could try Xandros, Mepis, Suse or Mandriva. Different people have different tastes and this is exactly why GNU/Linux comes in so many flavors...

XFCE 4.6

Pokretačka ideja za grafičko sučelje Xfce oduvijek je bila stvaranje brzog i laganog radnog okruženja koje ne smeta krajnjem korisniku upotrebom jednostavnih specijaliziranih programa koji se međusobno dopunjavaju. To je ostalo tako i danas, iako se drugi aspekt Xfce-a, način rada sa samim sučeljem i njegov izgled, od početaka sredinom prošlog desetljeća do danas polagano transformirao kako su se uzori mijenjali iz grafičkih sučelja na Unixima prema Windowsima i OS-u X.
Xfce je dugo ostajao vjeran tradicionalnoj unixoidnoj implementaciji radne površine (desktopa) na koju nije bilo moguće smještati ikone ili datoteke, s također tradicionalnim izbornikom za pokretanje programa koji se prikazivao desnim klikom na radnu površinu. U prethodnoj je glavnoj verziji Xfce-a (4.4) podrška ikonama na desktopu još uvijek bila rudimentarna, i tek je u novoj verziji ovaj aspekt sučelja do kraja moderniziran. Manipulacija ikonama na radnoj površini sada je u skladu s očekivanjima, a kontekstualni izbornik desktopa u prvoj razini nudi uobičajene opcije za njegovo konfiguriranje, a tek u drugoj nudi i programe za pokretanje. Slično je i alatna traka s aktivnim prozorima (programima) relativno kasno zamijenila starije načine upravljanja koji su vukli korijene iz arhaičnih sučelja prošlosti, ali se promjena ipak dogodila i Xfce nije dopustio da se svede na uski krug korisnika kojima su po ukusu neobična sučelja. Kroz godine se pokazao kao izdržljiv (i jedini pravi) suparnik teškaškom dvojcu Gnome-KDE, hvatajući korak s modernim zahtjevima dodavanjem modularnih pluginova i programa bez značajnijeg kresanja postojeće funkcionalnosti. Time je uspijevao privlačiti nove korisnike a da ne iznevjeri one postojeće, ali od zadnjeg velikog izdanja prošle su dvije godine i to se na njemu vidjelo.

Nova verzija i novi početakNovi Xfce došao je kao naručen: donosi tražena poboljšanja u pravom trenutku da odvrati postojeće korisnike od prelaska na alternative i da još više iskoristi svoju popularnost na računalima zasnovanim oko slabijih (štedljivijih) procesora. Ponajprije dobrodošlo unapređenje s novom verzijom Xfce-a jest podrška za suspendiranje i hibernaciju računala, pogotovo s obzirom na njegovu popularnost na netbook računalima i laptopima općenito. Ono je rezultat prepravljenog upravitelja radnim sjednicama (session manager), koji sada zna prepoznati smrznute programe, ali i automatski ponovo pokretati osnovne dijelove sučelja ako se ikada sruše. Xfce-ov upravitelj prozorima podržava 3D efekte, ali samo u najosnovnijem obliku prozirnosti i pretapanja pri minimizaciji i otvaranju prozora; dovoljno da se iskoristi udobnost ubrzavanja grafičkih kartica, ali ništa suvišno što bi usporavalo rad ili odvraćalo pažnju. Prepravljeni kontekstualni izbornici za upravljanje prozorima omogućavaju njihovo jednostavno prebacivanje između radnih površina i druge operacije, kao što to već rade Gnome i KDE upravitelji prozorima.
Skup prerađenih konfiguracijskih alata objedinjenih u novom kontrolnom centru uvelike olakšava snalaženje i upravljanje postavkama. Podešavanje opcija sučelja sada je lakše i preglednije, pojedini su alati jasno navedeni, a omogućavaju upravljanje svim aspektima sučelja koje bismo i očekivali – od tipkovničkog rasporeda i kratica, postavki ekrana, radne površine, miša ili programa koji se automatski pokreću, do detalja rada s eksternim medijima i pojedinosti upravitelja prozora. Uz ovako predočene opcije i mogućnosti reorganiziranja pozicija i sadržaja radnih traka, Xfce je lako prilagoditi svojim željama. Alat za podešavanje glasnoće zvuka sada koristi popularne biblioteke Gstreamer, što mu omogućava upravljanje s više zvučnih kartica istovremeno, a njegova ikona u panelu mijenja glasnoću na okretaje kotačića miša iznad nje – intuitivno i vrlo praktično.

Debian Sqeeze

Ako niste Debian usser sljedeča vijest vam najvjerojatnije neće ništa značiti , no ipak ću je podijeliti sa vama.Jučer navečer sam svoj Debian laptop pretvoril od Lennya u Sqeeze.Kako ? Prvo sam koristil Clonzillu da napravim backup svoje root particije a zatim sam otišao u /etc/apt/sources.list i sve Lenny zamjenil sa testing i odkomntiral security.debian.org.

a zatm terminal i

aptitude update
aptitude install apt dpkg aptitude
aptitude full-upgrade


pa restart mašine nakon kojega sam čekal 10 minuta prije ponovno pokretanja(to je moj ritual poslije svakog updatea).I sad ima sqeeze.

G33k projekt #1

Vlastiti Archiso live :

Imate viška vremena?Zašto nebi napravili vlastiti Archiso live.
Evo uputa :

1) instaliraj archiso-git AUR package
2)napravi folder u kojem ćeš raditi i nazovi ga my-arch
3)izradi Makefile
Ovdje se nalazi moj rađen prema uputstvim sa wiki.Tko želi može ga kopirati.

4) napravi mkinitcpio.conf sljedećeg sadržaja

HOOKS="base archiso-early udev archiso pata scsi sata usb fw filesystems usbinput"

5) ovim korakom možeš unjeti malo okusa u svoj Archlive , naime idu paketi.

packages.list

i unutra upiši pakete koje želiš da budu uključeni.
Ovdje je moja lista paketa.

6) napravi isomounts

overlay.sqfs @ARCH@ / squashfs
root-image.sqfs @ARCH@ / squashfs

7.1) mkdir -p boot-files/isolinux/ i u tome folderu isolinux.cfg

prompt 1
timeout 0
display my-arch.msg
DEFAULT my-arch

LABEL my-arch
KERNEL /boot/vmlinuz26
APPEND lang=en locale=en_US.UTF-8 usbdelay=5 ramdisk_size=75% initrd=/boot/my-arch.img archisolabel=XXX

#LABEL memtest86+
#KERNEL /boot/memtest86+-2.10.bin

ukoliko primječuješ memtest je opcija pa ga možemo odkomentirati

7.2)ukoliko želiš da se na ekranu ispiše poruka u istome folderu naapravi

my-arch.cfg

WellCome TO ArchCro_Bang

8.)u my-arch napravi folder overlay gdje ćeš potrpati druge stvari koje želis na live cd-u.

9.) u my-arch napravi etc folder u koji ćes smjestiti fstab koj mora izgledati ovako

aufs                   /             aufs      noauto              0      0
none                   /dev/pts      devpts    defaults            0      0
none                   /dev/shm      tmpfs     defaults            0      0
/dev/cdrom             /bootcd       iso9660   ro,user,noauto      0      0

10) rc.local u etc

useradd -u 1000 -g users -G storage,floppy,optical,audio,video,network,games,wheel,disk -d /home/live live

11) u etc napravi folder naziva skel gdje ćeš pobacati sve stvari koje će se po startupu smjestiti u home folder kao što su config filovi

Sad kao root pokreni make all u my-arch mapi i dobiš iso .
Zaprži ga na cd i uživaj.

G33k projekt #1

Nakon manjih problema sa uploadom blog se skrpan sad (nadam se sve radi kako treba i bez problema).
Torrent još uvijek neradi i dobio izgon sa nekoliko tracera ali zato je iso ovdije.
Lista paketa se može vidjeti ovdje.

Konačno je i Archbang Cro zaživio neđu nama!
Želim zahvaliti ekipi sa službenog Arch linux foruma posebice Willu i Godanu na djeljenju kodova i savjetima i ekipi sa Linux za sve.

Ovo je probna verzija i prva objaljena(nakon 3 promašaja) i nažalost trenutno je samo live cd bez mogučnosti instalacije no na tome se ubrzano radi pa bi već kroz par dana trebala izaći i prva verzija sa opcijom instalacije.
Paketi su malo izmjenjeni u odnosu na one objevljene na linuxzasve.com/forum.
Evo liste paketa a iso možete preuzeti ovdije ili preko torrenta vašim omiljenim torrent klijentom.