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I have been wanting to try out Sidux Linux for a long time.  I have tested it but since it only comes with the KDE and XFCE window managers, I never used beyond the testing phase.  I am a fan of the Gnome desktop but it is not stable with Sidux.  Then about two weeks ago, Mario Behling, who I met through FOSS Bridge here in Vietnam, introduced me to LXDE.  Here are my first impressions using Sidux with LXDE.

Sidux is a Linux distribution based on Debian’s unstable branch known as ‘sid‘.  It is one of the geek distros along the line with Arch Linux, Gentoo, and Slackware.  It is not a distribution for those new to Linux, especially those who are not familiar, or comfortable, with the command line.  And since Sidux is based on sid, things will break if you are not careful.  Those who really want a bleeding edge system may like Sidux.

Installation

Sidux was quite easy to install.  I downloaded the latest version, sidux-2008-04 Πόντος, and created a LiveCD.  I decided to whip out my Ubuntu install on my Thinkpad T60 and start from scratch.  I originally wanted Sidux to run on my Thinkpad but I hated XFCE at the time.

Installing is rather easy and quick.  The most difficult part was figuring out how to partition.  Sidux includes a nice, easy to use, graphic user interface (GUI) to help with the installation.  After I finished configuring the GUI, it took less than 7 minutes to install Sidux on my Thinkpad.  That was one of the fastest installs ever.

After you reboot, Sidux will check the hard drives (since you are using ext3).  Do not worry if it reboots after Sidux notices the time is off.  It will reboot and boot up no problem.  The only error I dealt with Sidux not being able to load the modules for VirtualBox.  Despite this, you will be amazed at how fast Sidux boots up.  Less than 30 seconds for me which makes it the second fastest Linux bootup for me (Arch Linux can boot up in about 19 seconds).

Everything worked out of the box including wifi.  One nice thing about Sidux is that it includes ‘hints‘ with each release cycle so you can get everything working right.  You do not have to search through forums and wikis which is nice to troubleshoot.

One of the first things you will after you finishing installing Sidux is read the Sidux  Qucikstart Manual.  It is one of the best manuals for a distro out there.

Updating/Upgrading Software

With Debian or Ubuntu, you normally used apt-get update && apt-get upgrade to update your system.  With Sidux, you cannot, you have to use apt-get dist-upgrade in a Runlevel 3.  This is where you have to be comfortable working in the command line.  Once you are in init 3, Sidux provides a very good tool that helps you update your system.  It is called smxi which is used to manage packages in the sid repository.

smxi is relatively easy to use.  Just read and enter the options.  I used smxi to install openoffice, apache2, mysql, php, python, perl, etc.  It is really a great tool.  You can even configure and install the latest kernel and get your graphics card configured, properly, through smxi.

Once you have updated your system, you can go back to init 5 (Runlevel 5) and install packages by using apt-get install <package> relatively easily.  You just got to remember to use apt-get dist-upgrade in init 3 once  week to keep your system updated.

ceni

One nice tool that Sidux provides to configure your network connections is ceni.  ceni is by far one of the best network configuration tools out there.  It is a command line tool but a powerful one.  It can detect and configure wifi networks easily.

LXDE

LXDE has the looks of KDE, the feel of Gnome and the simplicty of XFCE.  It is nice windows manager for a laptop.  Not too bloated, not too simple.  It took me less than 5 minutes to get a feel for it.  I still have much to learn about LXDE but I fell in love with it instantly.  There are still features that I want to add, such as a dock, since I got used to it in Gnome.  I read somewhere I can add one but I will need to research it more.

Though it is only in beta, it is still stable enough to use on a laptop.  Together with Sidux, it mades a great distro combination (Hint hint Sidux developers).  Many of use like the Gnome desktop but I think we will settle for LXDE for Sidux.  Read more about LXDE at their website: http://www.lxde.org.

Conclusions

I am still new to Sidux and LXDE but I will give it a throrough test.  I use my Thinkpad for much of my work when I travel Saigon by motorbike.  Ubuntu kept locking up on my Thinkpad and Debian Lenny was just not ready yet (though I will probably install it at another time).  Thinkpads in general can be finicky in regards to Linux but the Debian variants seem to work well on them.

Pictures

(LXDE on Sidux Screenshot)

(PCmanFM file manager)

(Filezilla on Sidux)

(ceni network managing tool for Sidux)

(LXDE Panel Preferences)

(Sidux online manual - a great resource)

Sidux website: http://www.sidux.org
LXDE website: http://www.lxde.org

Saigonica is now in compliance with AGPL.

There is a new Twitter-clone in Vietnam called Saigonica.  It is based on the open source micro-blogging tool called Laconica, currently one of the most popular Twitter-clones.  It is nice to see the Vietnamese technology community embracing open source software.  Their contribution to the open source community will be very valuable in the upcoming years.  The Vietnamese localization of Ubuntu, OpenSUSE, and OpenOffice are some clear examples of their contributions so far.  Their contributions demonstrates a willingness to give back to the open source community and keeping the open source software free.

Unfortunately, Saigonica does not seem willing to give back to the open source community.  According to the Affero General Public License (AGPL), Saigonica must allow users to download the ‘modified’ version of this software.  Furthermore, Saigonica MUST NOT remove the Source link from their Laconica site.  By removing the Source link, Saigonica has  openly violated of the AGPL.

For some people, this may mean nothing to you but to the open source community, it is a big deal.  Saigonica is denying the Authors, Developers and Users of Laconica the freedom to see the modified source code for their own personal gain without contributing back.  If they do not want to share their modified source code with the open source community, then Saigonica should either develop their own micro-blogging tool or purchase a propriety one.

Saigonica even took their name from Identi.ca, the creaters of Laconica, without giving them any credit.

Saigonica will be a good test for open source developers here in Vietnam and around the world.  If successful, I am curious to see how the Laconica community, Free Software Foundation, and most specifically, the Vietnamese Linux Users, such as HanoiLUG, will react to their violation of the AGPL.

Read more about the Affero General License here -> http://www.affero.org/oagf.html

This link contains a list of sites using Laconica that abide by the AGPL rules -> http://laconi.ca/trac/wiki/ListOfServers

Edit 1: Vietnamese language discussion of Saigonica, AGPL violation, etc., here  -> http://linkhay.com/link/t/Saigonica-Vua-chat-vua-blog-Vui-lam

Edit 2: Saigonica says they are trying to abide by AGPL: http://www.saigonica.com/notice/6801

Edit 3: Saigonica is starting to abide by AGPL.

Edit 4: Saigonica is now in compliance with AGPL according to Laconica.

Finally, all laptops and netbooks have a variant of Ubuntu Linux running.  Our first lesson focused on using the command line and apt-get for updates.

(Ubuntu eee on the projector)

Past Ubuntu Linux Articles at AIS:

• Ubuntu Linux Install Week at AIS Picture Gallery
• Using Ubuntu Linux at the American International School
• Another new Ubuntu User

AIS Linux Related Articles:

• My Students using the Asus Eee PC
• AIS Linux Lab Redesigned
• Using TuxType with my Vietnamese Students
• First Day of Python for my Vietnamese Students
• Linux Mint in the Classroom
• My Computer Lab Nearly Ready
• Introducing my Vietnamese Students to GIMP
• Students Using PCLinuxOS in Vietnam

It all started at the beginning of last week.  I wanted my American International School 11th and 12th Grade ICT students to start using Ubuntu Linux on their laptops/netbooks at the beginning of the second quarter.  I knew it would take me nearly two weeks to get them working Ubuntu Linux systems on their laptops or netbooks.  Tommy (11A), Michael (11A), Cindy (11B), Tyler (11B) and Wade (12) were instrumental in helping me get all the Linux systems running.

My students had four options to run Ubuntu Linux on their laptops or netbooks.  They could:

1. Use VirtualBox running an Ubuntu Linux virtual machine,
2. Install Ubuntu Linux in Windows with the Wubi Installer,
3. Install Ubuntu Linux through a dual boot with Windows, or
4. They could purchase a netbook and install Ubuntu eee.

Only a couple students used the VirtualBox option.  Most of my students were using Windows Vista wished had some issues running VirtualBox.  Others were running different versions of Windows XP which, due to hardware issues, was not fast enough to run VirtualBox on.  It took forever for them to install and eventually boot Ubuntu Linux.  Kids these days are quite impatient so I decided to give them other options.

For most, install Ubuntu Linux with Wubi proved the easiest and most successful way to install Linux.  I had no idea it was that easy to use.  They just installed it and never asked me any questions.  After the initial installation, my students rebooted and Ubuntu loaded up and finished the installation itself including the partition.  The Ubuntu Developers should be patted on their back for this one.  Finally, they gave something back to the Linux community worthy of praise.

So Remember, USE Wubi to install Ubuntu Linux for Window users.  It will save you time and headache.  Dual partitions can be a pain, even with the Ubuntu Installer.  I think I would have saved a couple of days if I had chosen Wubi initially.  The Install CD is great but even the partition graphic user interface can confuse the advanced Linus users.

At least one of my students accidentally loss her entire Windows partition when she installed Ubuntu right over it (she was the only one that did not ask for help.  Yes, my instructions were clear, BACK UP everything!!!).  Several laptops had errors during the installation yet they were able to get a successful install when using Wubi.  Interesting….

Finally, the last group of students had netbooks already, mainly Eee PC 1000s, Asus Aspire Ones, and MSI Winds.  My new bright student, Katherine, installed Ubuntu 8.10 herself without even asking me.  Yeah, that makes an IT teacher proud.  The rest used Ubuntu eee with my LiveUSB.

Several students have not finsihed installing yet.  They know by next week, they had to have Ubuntu Linux installed or I would deduct points from their grade.  My first lesson will focus on using the command line to update their systems.

This should be an interesting year.  Below are many pictures from this week.  This is my first time seeing many Ubuntu Linux systems in one room at a time outside of a Linux User Group meeting.  I get a chuckle out of this one since I am not a fan of Ubuntu Linux myself

Picture Gallery and Previous American International School Linux posts below:

(Ubuntu eee on Eee PC 1000)

(Ubuntu 8.10 on Sony laptop)

(More Ubuntu laptops - This was lost it’s Window’s partition)

(Ubuntu 8.10 on an AMD64 Asus laptop - Had some problems)

(Nice Ubuntu Install Picture)

(Another Eee PC 1000 Ubuntu eee install)

(Taking turns using the Ubuntu Install LiveCD)

(Finally got the Ubuntu LiveCD to run on an unknown brand laptop)

(My Korean student, Jinn, got Ubuntu running in Korean)

(Joanna installed Ubuntu herself using Wubi)

(Another Wubi Ubuntu installation in progress)

(Three new Ubuntu users in the back, they are first time users of Linux)

(Eagerly waiting for the Ubuntu Linux installations to finish)

(Fresh Ubuntu install with Wubi)

(Gwen installing Ubuntu herself, thanks Wubi)

(One Ubuntu installation finishing, another one close behind)

(My last Ubuntu eee install of the day)

Previous Using Ubuntu Linux at AIS entries:

• Using Ubuntu Linux at the American International School
• Another new Ubuntu User

AIS Linux Related Articles:

• My Students using the Asus Eee PC
• AIS Linux Lab Redesigned
• Using TuxType with my Vietnamese Students
• First Day of Python for my Vietnamese Students
• Linux Mint in the Classroom
• My Computer Lab Nearly Ready
• Introducing my Vietnamese Students to GIMP
• Students Using PCLinuxOS in Vietnam

Hard to believe that nearly 5 months ago, I posted an entry about organizing the first Barcamp in Saigon.  Nearly 5 months later, Barcamp Saigon was held at RMIT Vietnam.  Nearly 300 participants attended Barcamp Saigon 1.  Barcamp Saigon had visitors from Cambodia, Singapore and far away as the US (Washington, DC).

VinaConsulting helped sponsor the event.  It was nice to see that the two VinaConsulting banners were well placed.  You can see the banners on two of the five photos from PC World Vietnam’s piece on Barcamp Saigon.

Both Leon and I gave presentations.  I decided not to present on Open Source Business Applications at this Barcamp.  I will save it for next year.  Instead, I wanted to focus on my use of Ubuntu Linux at the American International School, where I teach IT.  You can see my presentation at Slideshare #barcampsaigon.  You can view the presentations from other Barcamp Saigon presentors as well.

We had to keep our eye on the Live Schedule to figure out which sessions to attend.  I missed many good Linux presentations.  My favorite presentation focused on virtualization.  The Sexy Cambodian Bloggers session was enjoyable though many of the popular Vietnamese and Expat Vietnam Bloggers were not present at Barcamp Saigon.

I really have no complaints for Barcamp Saigon 1.  I did not even notice that the WiFi was down until some people complained about it. Despite this, RMIT should host Barcamp Saigon 2 next year.  There was even a discussion to collaborate with the organizers of Barcamp Phnom Penh and host a joint Barcamp Southeast Asia in 2009.  In short, Barcamp Phnom Penh would host the event on a Saturday.  At the end of this event, then participants would board a bus for Saigon and attend Barcamp Saigon on a Sunday.

Here are some good links and reviews in regards to Barcamp Saigon:

• Barcamp Saigon Live Schedule
• Slideshare Barcamp Saigon Presentations
• Barcamp Saigon (Chris Harvey)
• ducban’s blog entry about Barcamp Saigon
• Thomas Wanhoff’s entry on Barcamp Saigon
• Goodbye BarCamp Saigon
• Barcamp Saigon 1 Recap
• PC World Vietnam on Barcamp Saigon
• Barcamp Saigon Flickr Photos
• YouTube Barcamp Saigon Videos

(Introduction of Barcamp Saigon by Huy)

(Chris Harvey’s Presentation on ‘Building a Successful Web Business)

(Hung talking about ELearning 2.0)

(Leon speaking about IT Strategy for VinaConsulting)

(Closing Ceremonies for Barcamp Saigon)

See you all Next Year.

Edit: Subtracting volunteers, staff, and RMIT students, the actual number at Barcamp Saigon 1 may be around 200 participant.  Barcamp Saigon 1 and the Google Devfest 2008 had roughly the same attendence rate.

Edit 2: There were some complaints that Barcamp Saigon should have been hosted at a Vietnamese university, not at a private university such as RMIT.  They argued that RMIT was not representative of Vietnam or the Vietnamese people.  Unfortunately, we had little choice since the other venues candidates were either not ready or never showed interest in barcamp saigon.

Edit 2: Actual number of participants, excluding organizing committee and volunteers, was around 159.

I gave the following ad hoc presentation at Barcamp Saigon last Saturday.  Just want to share the presentation with everyone.

I am currently at Java Cafe playing around with my Acer Aspire One netbook.  I am really quite impressed with it.  In the past, I was not a fan of netbooks but after having Rich’s Aspire One for nearly 2 weeks, my opinions have changed.  Rich needed to have Windows XP Lite and Ubuntu eee installed on his Aspire One.  Since I did not have time, I gave it to my student, Tommy, from AIS to do it.

Tommy returned to me this week.  I spent a couple days playing with Ubuntu eee on Rich’s Aspire One.  Wow, I really love it.  The Ubuntu eee Developers did a great job on the desktop GUI.

Yesterday I purchased my own brown Acer Aspire One yesterday from Long Binh Computers.  It came with a licensed version of Windows XP Home, not the Lite version.  I was asked if I wanted a cracked version of Office 2007 but I declined.

When I got home, I tested Windows XP Home out.  Yeah, it is still slow.  I then downloaded unetbootin and created a Ubuntu eee LiveUSB.  I installed Ubuntu eee relatively easily and booted into Ubuntu.  Wow, I am still impressed with the nice Gnome desktop environment.

I managed to update the system but it took most of the night due the poor bandwidth here.

I will test it out at Barcamp Saigon tomorrow hopefully with some pictures of the event.  A review of both Barcamp Saigon and the Acer Aspire One will come within the week.

So far, I am impressed………..with the Aspire One.  My colleague plans to get one as well.

ubuwalker31 maybe surprised but I support his “Two New Software Freedoms” idea.  After I posted Use nv, not nvidia drivers -> Save the headache, he accused me not allowing him “…to have the freedom to install proprietary software on my Linux system” at two separate sites:

• Two New Software Freedoms
• Tuxmachines.org

Edit: Pierre removed the comment after I commented on his site and apologized.  I greatly respect Pierre for taking a stance on this issue though.  It is much needed in the open source community now.

That is far from the truth.  I was merely ranting my frustration I was having with the nvidia drivers on my Gigabyte GeForce 7300GT graphics card on my desktop.  Sometimes they work, sometimes they do not.  AND yes, the nvidia drivers are working fine now at my preferred resolution but I WILL revert back to nv for stability reasons.  That is my preference, it is my FREEDOM.

ubuwalker31 states that we should have:

1. The Freedom to run any hardware, for any purpose
2. The Freedom to run proprietary software, to run any hardware

I agree with him 100 percent.  I want the FREEDOM to use propriety media codecs and drivers on my BSD/Linux system if I want to.  Granted, the usage of propriety drivers and codecs should abide by the intellectual property and media laws of the country a person resides in, ie libdvdcss in the US.  I just agree to the licenses and install them so I can watch and listen to Windows media files or watch dvds.

On my Thinkpad T60, I use the ATI propriety drivers which do, on occassion, break during updates.  I can revert back to an older driver or just use vesa.  It depends what I am doing at the time.  If I am at a coffeeshop working on a presentation, I rather use vesa until I can get the time to figure out what the actual problem is (Debian Lenny is a godsend in this respect, it configured xorg.conf for me and I had not had any problems since using Lenny).

So to reiterate, I support ubuwalker31’s two new software freedoms and so should you!

Comments are welcome

As the majority of BSD/Linux users, I use X.org for my X Window System.  I have a preference to edit my own xorg.conf to ensure that X runs properly on any of my system.  To this date, I have never failed to get X configured.  It is actually not that difficult.  Today, distros such as Debian Lenny, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Sabayon, to name a few, can automatically create a working xorg.conf for users during installs.  With the distros like Gentoo and Arch Linux, users are required to configure their own xorg.conf.  Regardless of the configuration type you choose, you are eventually going to have to choose whether you want to use a propriety driver or open source driver.  This can be a nightmare in itself if you are not careful.

Regardless of which distro I use, I have a preference to start out with the open source drivers.  vesa is a common open source driver that I tend to start out with.  It ends to work with most video cards.  On my desktop, I have an Nvidia card so I decided to use the nv open source driver.  Both vesa and nv work on my desktop.

I decided to try the nvidia driver on my Arch Linux desktop.  Arch has a good wiki to get nvidia with 3D rendering to work. I got it to work and was quite happy, for about a month at least.  So what happened?

The nvidia drivers, like it’s propriety counterpart, ati, have a tendency to break.  For some computer users, it breaks a lot.  With Gentoo, I never install the latest nvidia drivers.  It breaks X forcing me to either revert to an older driver or switch to nv or vesa.  With Arch, an update to the Gnome desktop broke X with the cause attributed to my nvidia driver.  In Ubuntu, yes Ubuntu systems do break, an update to the kernel caused X to break as well.  In PC-BSD, I was forced to rebuild X.Org.  In all cases, I was either using the nvidia or ati propriety drivers.

When X broke earlier this week on my Arch system, I first had to find out what was the culprit (I mentioned above that I upgraded my Gnome desktop).  X was working but I was getting a low resolution with the nvidia drivers.  It did not matter if I set the Modes to reflect the resolution of my monitor, the lower resolution remained default.

Finally I decided to switch to vesa and the higher resolution (1440X900) returned.  I made some more configurations to xorg.conf and I got the open source nvidia drivers, nv, to work at the higher resolution as well.  The nvidia driver still do not work.  No problem, I will not use them on my desktop again, I will stick to open source drivers which, from my experience, have never broke on me.  Save the headache, stick with nv

I am eagerly waiting for an open source graphics card.  There is one available but the price is quite expensive, $1500 US, higher than many custom-built desktops!  Prices should drop in the future though.

Edit: This is a blog posting, not a news article, Beginner Howto, etc.  The above posting mentioned that I preferred to use open source drivers on my DESKTOP, it does not mention that I use them on my other laptops and systems.  I am also not denying anyone’s RIGHT to use propriety drivers, I use them as well.

See my latest blog posting and response to ‘Two New Software Freedoms’.

Okay, I know Debian Lenny is still in Beta but I just had to try it on my Thinkpad T60.  My Thinkpad is very picky when it comes to BSD/Linux distributions.  Normally the Debian-based systems tend to function very well on my Thinkpad.

In the past, I have run Debian Etch, Ubuntu Hardy Heron, Linux Mint and Sidux on my Thinkpad.  Etch had problems and I was not in the mood to compile the entire kernel to make a minor change.  Linux Mint is really nice but I did not like having to do a full install each time they came out with a new release.  Sidux rocks BUT no Gnome desktop.  I am not a fan of XFCE or KDE anymore.  Got to have Gnome.  Ubuntu Hardy Heron was great BUT I needed a more stable system I can easily configure so I can test some open source business applications for clients.

So a couple days ago I decided to try Lenny.  Well, Linux Mint and Ubuntu get flying colors for detecting all the hardware on the Thinkpad and configuring the settings.  Well, Lenny does the same thing.  The only thing I needed to configure was ALSA and my wifi. I used this Installing Debian Lenny on Thinkpad T60 guide to help me.  After that, I used alsaconf and alsamixer to configure ALSA.  I installed iwl3945 to easily get wireless to work.  I have some other minor configurations but at the moment, I am quite happy with my Lenny system.

Is Lenny an Ubuntu killer?  Probably not but Ubuntu developers lives became much easier due Lenny’s upcoming release.