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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

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

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.

Well, I have been running Ubuntu on my desktop for over a month.  In that short period of time, I found that Ubuntu is just not for me.  I love it on my Thinkpad, do not get me wrong but on my desktop, I need something different.

I miss not having to edit something, really.  I even stopped developing on my desktop.  Weird since many developers gave up Gentoo or other distros so they could have a stable system.

Isn’t is strange that I could get a server to run on Gentoo, Arch, or FreeBSD, but not on Ubuntu.  Seriously, this is not right.  Ubuntu is supposed to make things easier for me.  That’s what all the Ubuntu users tell me.

To be honest, I got a lot of things done when I was running Gentoo and FreeBSD systems.  Arch Linux opened up a new world to me as well though I preferred to do things the Gentoo/BSD way.  If it wasn’t for that bad battery in my motherboard, I would probably still be running either PC-BSD or Gentoo now.

Right now I need a stable system to get Django to run properly.  For me, that means doing it with Gentoo, possibly with FreeBSD.

Will I give up on Ubuntu, no way.  As I mentioned many times, Ubuntu is the choice of users in Vietnam. I still need to use it but if I want to go back to my geek roots, I got to use Gentoo again.

I am not a distro hopper, I am just a Gentoo ‘jump back and forth-er’

For some odd reason, many Linux users have been configuring their Linux desktops to look exactly like Apple’s Leopard desktop.  After reading this tutorial, http://maketecheasier.com/turn-your-ubuntu-hardy-to-mac-osx-leopard/2008/07/23, I decided to give it a try on my Thinkpad T60.

The tutorial was fairly good and straightforward.  I had no problems making my desktop look exactly like an Apple desktop.  After I got everything to work, I decided to convert part of the Apple theme back to Ubuntu’s theme.  I kept the nice dock and screenlets, even parts of the top menu replacing Apple’s logo with Ubuntu’s.

Since I am a fan of Firefly, I replaced Apple’s wallpaper with an image of Serenity.  Now I have a nice, clean, and simple desktop.

Amazing, got another student to use Ubuntu. Actually, he chose to install Ubuntu himself which greatly impressed me. Today at AIS, I watched him install Ubuntu himself. I helped a little with the partitioning but most of the work was performed by him There were some issues at the end. Windows Vista would not boot up but then we found out he was booting the wrong Vista partition. Everything was A okay.

Another student, after watching us, plans to install Ubuntu on his computer at home as well. This could become a new trend among my students, I hope. I hope to teach at least one more year before switching full time to my company, maybe I can get some more Linux converts

One issue that I feel that needs to be addressed in regards to Ubuntu is that they should make their CDs more country specific. For example, scim should be installed with working Vietnamese fonts as default for Vietnam. Maybe the community in Vietnam can prepare more remastersys LiveCDs with Vietnamese support in the future…

(Successful install of Ubuntu!)

(Time to update his Ubuntu system)

Just a writing a post for my students.  I want them to set up LAMP and Laconica on their Ubuntu desktops for their projects.

LAMP is a software bundle that includes Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP.  In Ubuntu, it is quite simple to set up LAMP.  Laconica is an open source microblogging application similar to Twitter.  For beginners and even intermediate Linux users, installing Laconica can be frustrating but it need not be.  I have successfully installed the basic Laconica package two times already so I will jot down how I did it below for my students.

1. Install LAMP

Install LAMP using this excellent guide from the MAKETECHEASIER blog:

http://maketecheasier.com/setting-up-a-lamp-server-in-ubuntu-hardy-heron/2008/08/06

This blog does a very good job in helping the user seting up a root MySQL password with a graphic user interface.  When this is done through the command line, most of us, umm, end up setting our root passwords as password by mistake :-)  If that happened to any of you, go to this link to recover your root password.

As per the LAMP install guide, test out LAMP with Wordpress or just do nano -w /var/www/test.php then write ‘This works with PHP!’ in the file.  Go to localhost/test.php to see if it works.  If you see ‘This works in PHP!’ then everything is okay.  If not, start over, seriously

2. Install Laconica

I am going to use and edit 0xDECAFBAD’s guide to getting Laconica running.  First, you need to install darcs as follows with apt-get:

$ sudo apt-get install darcs
$ darcs get --partial http://laconi.ca/darcs/

This should create a darcs directory in /home/YOURUSERNAME/darcs. Of course YOURUSERNAME should be replaced with your actual username (type whoami in command line if you forgot).  Change directory into darcs right now before continuing:

$ cd /home/YOURUSERNAME/darcs

Now you will install all the PHP and PEAR based prerequisites and libraries. I also included curl and unzip since some of you may not have already installed it with apt-get yet:

$ sudo apt-get install libapache2-mod-php5 php5-cgi php5-cli php-pear php5-gd php5-mysql unzip curl



$ sudo pear channel-update pear.php.net
$ sudo pear install channel://pear.php.net/Validate-0.8.1
$ sudo pear install DB_DataObject
$ sudo pear install Mail
$ sudo pear install Net_SMTP



$ mkdir extlib xfers
$ cd xfers
$ curl -O http://openidenabled.com/files/php-openid/packages/php-openid-2.1.1.zip
$ curl -O http://michelf.com/docs/projets/php-markdown-1.0.1m.zip
$ curl -O http://oauth.googlecode.com/svn/code/php/OAuth.php
$ curl -O http://xmpphp.googlecode.com/files/xmpphp-0.1beta-r21.tar.gz
$ unzip php-markdown-1.0.1m.zip
$ cp 'PHP Markdown 1.0.1m/markdown.php' ../extlib/
$ unzip php-openid-2.1.1.zip
$ cp -r php-openid-2.1.1/Auth ../extlib/
$ cp OAuth.php ../extlib/
$ tar -zxf xmpphp-0.1beta-r21.tar.gz
$ cp xmpphp/*.php ../extlib/
$ cd ..
$ rm -rf xfers


Now, here is one edit from 0xDEFCAFBAD’s install guide. You will need to obtain the latest release of XMPP to avoid getting errors with your current Laconica install (I got the following from Nick’s comments on OxDECAFBAD’s blog):


$ cd extlib
$ curl -O http://www.saigonnezumi.com/XMPPHP.tar.gz
$ tar -zxf XMPPHP.tar.gz
$ cd ..


Now you will set up the Laconica database in MySQL. Make sure you are in /home/YOURUSERNAME/darcs to avoid getting a dataname not found error. Of course PASSWORD in capitals should be YOUR password:


$ mysql -uroot -p -e 'create database laconica';
$ mysql -uroot -p -e "grant all privileges on laconica.* to laconica@localhost identified by 'PASSWORD'";
$ mysql -uroot -p laconica < db/laconica.sql


Now for the configurations which I think can be the most toughest part in installing Laconica:


$ cp config.php.sample config.php
$ nano -w config.php


Add the following to line 6 (Control-C will tell you the line number in nano):

#If you have downloaded libraries in random little places, you
#can add the paths here
define(’INSTALLDIR’, dirname(__FILE__));
set_include_path(get_include_path() . PATH_SEPARATOR . INSTALLDIR . ‘/extlib’);

Edit the rest of the settings, read my comments (followed by # to explanations).  (The author ASSUMES that you created a laconica database under root).

$config['site']['name'] = ‘Laconica Microblog’; #Your Microblog Name
$config['site']['server'] = ‘localhost’; #Your server name, I used localhost for now
$config['site']['path'] = ‘laconica’; #The directory name in /var/www/laconica
$config['site']['fancy'] = true; #See OxDECAFBAD for more explanation
$config['site']['theme'] = ‘default’; #You actually have two theme choices
$config['site']['email'] = ‘webmaster@domain.com’; #Your Email
$config['site']['broughtby'] = ‘Laconica Microblog, Inc.’; #You of course
$config['site']['broughtbyurl'] = ‘http://yourdomain.com’; #Your website URL
$config['db']['database'] = ‘mysql://root:PASSWORD@localhost/laconica’; #Your ROOT MySQL password;
$config['db']['ini_laconica'] = $config['db']['schema_location'].’/stoica.ini’;

After you made your changes, press Control-X to exit and save.

Now we will edit dataobject.ini (The author ASSUMES that you created a laconica MySQL database under root):


$ nano -w dataobject.ini


database = mysql://root:PASSWORD@localhost/laconica #Your Laconica password, not root password
schema_location = /var/www/localhost/docs/laconica/classes
class_location = /var/www/localhost/docs/laconica/classes
require_prefix = /var/www/localhost/docs/laconica/classes/

Control-X to exit and save.

As you noticed, I selected the server name to be localhost instead of a domain name. You can add this later. I just wanted to write this tutorial for my students. You can also use your computers IP address to test Laconica locally in your home or classroom. I like to keep things simple with my students.

Be sure to change user and file permissions for the avatar folder:


$ sudo chown -R www-data avatar
$ sudo chmod -R ug+rw avatar/


Now, since this guide is for my students, I will make things easier for them to get Laconica running on their servers.

$ cd ..
$ sudo ln -s darcs /var/www/laconica
$ cd /var/www/
$ ls


You should see laconica listed as one of the directories. I also changed the ownership and file permissions as well just to keep things simple for my students. We will make their projects live, then we will focus more on security.


$ sudo chown YOURUSERNAME laconica
$ sudo chmod 777 laconica


Now, to see if Laconica works, click the following link:

localhost/laconica

If you get any errors, they are normally with the configurations files in config.php and/or dataobject.ini.

That’s all for now. Now, I have not tested Jabber or the mail server features with the current install of Laconica yet. Hopefully I will get to it sometime this week. In the meantime, I hope my students can have fun with their own Twitter-like application

Any input and corrections to this guide are greatly appreciated.  Thanks to OxDECAFBAD for his excellent guide.

Edit 1: I got the original symlinks backwards, corrected now.  Thanks Tommy for bringing it up.

Edit 2: added cp config.php.sample config.php to make it easier for my students

Edit 3: added bold/strong tags so students would not forget to add two lines for config.php

Edit 4: You can download an edited version of config.php here in case you lost your copy (Yeah, this is for my students). I renamed it to config.txt so it would appear online so do the following: mv config.txt config.php

Edit 5: Forgot to add cd extlib so the XMPPHP ended being in the wrong director. Corrected.

Edit 6: For some, connecting the database to Laconica was difficult.  I edited both config.php and dataobject.ini and replaced the username laconica with root.  I have a hunch many new users created their MySQL database under root.

Edit 7: Added curl to apt-get install since some of you may not have installed it yet.

I decided to finally install Ubuntu 8.04.1 on my desktop today.  One issue I seem to always have with a new Linux distribution is trying to figure out how to get surround sound to work with my sound card.  My desktop is currently using the Creative Audigy SE sound card (ca0106) which can be very un-Linux friendly.

With Arch and Gentoo Linux, I was able to get surround sound on all five speakers with the following .asoundrc file:

pcm.!dmix {
type plug
slave {
pcm surround51
channels 6
}
}
pcm.!default {
type plug
slave.pcm “dmix”
slave.channels 6
route_policy duplicate
}

In Ubuntu, I was not getting surround sound with the above file.  I decided to copy it to /etc/asound.conf to make the settings system wide.  When I rebooted Ubuntu, I got surround sound when the login screen (gdm) popped up but once I logged in, only three speakers were working.

Then I found this post:

http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-586411.html

load-module module-alsa-sink device=”surround51″ channels=6 sink_name=sur51

to /etc/pulse/default.pa

It worked for me and should work for others as well.  Now I have surround sound

Well, I finally did it today.  I was able to remaster Ubuntu 8.04.1 with Vietnamese language support.  I used remastersys to essentially create a replica Ubuntu system from my Thinkpad to create a new bootable LiveDVD image.  I tested out the LiveDVD and scim was installed by default with working Vietnamese keyboard options.  Those of you used to unikey will have no problem adjusting to scim, they are pretty much the same thing.  VNI is included with scim.

My remastered version of Ubuntu is about 1.1 gig and catered to my Vietnamese students.

Thanks to Vu for getting scim to work properly on my Thinkpad and to Stephane for telling me about scim.

I wil try to add some Vietnamese langauge documentation in the future, maybe one of my students can do that.  Everything is in Vietnamese which seems to be the preference of my students anyway.  They did not like Hacao Linux’s cluttered approach to the desktop.

If you want a copy, just tell me.  I can burn a DVD for you over coffee