Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 Test Run

A while back I mentioned that I was leaving Windows for Linux, I have been very busy at work though so I hadn't had the time to actually install anything on my desktop at work until a few days ago. Because of my line of work, I was unable to use Ubuntu like I had originally planned and had a choice between RedHat Enterprise Linux or Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop. Taking the advice from my friend Sontek I decided to use Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 over RedHat. After some asking around at work I found out where to get my hands on SLED 10 and got to downloading. Unfortunately the most recent version of SLED I found was version 10 ( although I might be able to get 10 SP 2 now).

I had always heard how easy it was to install SLED 10 and how well most hardware was supported. It is actually pretty nice on the hardware support... if you are using the latest version (10 SP2). I, on the other hand was only using version 10.0. I popped in the 1st install CD and rebooted my machine. It booted onto the Suse installer where it stalled for a few seconds and dropped into the console installer saying it couldn't find CD1. I checked the md5 sum of the CD, it was fine, so the installer must not be recognizing the CD. I didn't have time to investigate until the next day so I went home without Suse installed.

The next morning I did some research and discovered an issue with some motherboards not actually running a real PATA controller and instead handing the duty off to a host controller. Because of this, the default modules loaded up by the installer weren't enough. The fix was easy enough though, I just loaded a few pata modules and the CD recognized properly. After that, the install was a breeze albeit very slow.

After about an hour and a half the install was finally complete and Gnome booted up... unfortunately the video wasn't recognized and was not displaying correctly at all. I squinted at the screen for a second and switched over to a virtual console and booted up Yast. Suse wasn't recognizing my video card correctly and had the color settings wrong so I fixed that and restarted Gnome. OK, no we are good. EXCEPT... now my Ethernet connection is not being recognized. Apparently the NIC I was using needed a module that wasn't in the 2.6.16 kernel that was installed. After some research I found out that I needed the e1000e module that was introduced in the 2.6.23 kernel!

No big deal though, since I want to learn more about Linux I got my chance to try out compiling my own kernel! So I jumped onto my laptop and downloaded the 2.6.25.4 kernel and went through the the how to at Howtoforge. I actually found the process to be very interesting and a great learning process for myself. Obviously I'm still a kernel noob but at least now I have some experience compiling my own kernel. After I compiled the kernel and got the GRUB settings right I restarted Suse into my brand new kernel! After a successful login I was ecstatic I actually got a working compiled kernel!

That leads me to where I am today with Suse, my first install and a kernel compilation later everything seems to be working out well. There are some things I don't like about SLED so far, but I'll write those up later after I've had some time to use SLED and get used to it. This experience has been a good one for me though as it has taught me how to troubleshoot issues better and introduced me to compiling my own kernel. After all that I'm ready to install openSUSE 10.3 on my desktop at home!

Hasta la Vista, Windows

Dear Windows,

You are a long time pal of mine, we've been friends since you were just 3.1. I've grown up with you on my computer and we have many fond memories together (except during your ME years), but I have to tell you something old pal. I've found someone else. I know, I know, this may come as a shock to you, but ever since you grew out of XP and into your new Vista body things just haven't been the same. Its not you, its me... ok its you too, but you just don't have the tools and stability that I need. Plus I'm tired of telling you that I'm your Genuine® friend all the time. Why are you so insecure about that?

Now I know who you think I've found, but you're wrong. They may have better looks then you (sorry) and seem to be cooler than you (again, sorry) but they are even more controlling than you are. I just can't be with an operating system that is so willing to lock me down in both hardware and software. Instead, I've found someone else, and they aren't afraid of a little choice. And not just between Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, or Ultimate (what do they all mean anyway?).

I'm sorry Windows, but I will not be installing another version at home again and I will avoid you as much as I can at work as well. Of course, we'll see each other from time to time since I have to make sure my code works with you, but thats all it will be. Linux is my new best friend and we are happy to have superior tools and the freedom to use and modify them how we choose. Its been fun Windows, but your day has passed.

Tee'd off

Recently I was trying to figure out how to output text from a command to both a text file and the console. My twitter friends weren't sure how to do this but fortunately a friend of mine reminded me of a handy little tool named tee.

from the tee man file:
tee - read from standard input and write to standard output and files

A simple example of using tee:
`cat somefile.txt | tee output.txt`

So next time you need to write to both the console and a text file don't get so Tee'd off! (cheesy I know)

My Top 15 Commands

After some searching I found the command to list your top 10 (or any other number you wanted) commands in the terminal. So here is the command:

history | awk '{print $2}' | awk 'BEGIN {FS="|"} {print $1}'|sort|uniq -c | sort -n | tail -n 15 | sort -nr

and here are my top 15 commands:

85 ls
36 vim
34 hg
32 find
30 cd
16 java
14 pd
14 hist
10 stat
8 zip
8 rm
7 screen
7 scp
6 history
6 echo

Compiz Fusion Time

I got bored a couple of days ago and I installed Compiz Fusion for the first time. I must say that is really great software and even in its early alpha phases it is very impressive. It looks like much of Beryl and its settings manager were used for Compiz Fusion's settings manager as well as many if the effects. A couple of changes though, the cube now can have a reflection as well as a new way to move through the desktops using ctr+alt+down. There are many other changes they have made to Compiz Fusion but I'm too lazy to write about them right now so enjoy my little video I made of my desktop.

Ubuntu Fun

I just recently installed Ubuntu Feisty Fawn on my T60 again and I have to say I'm loving it. Most everything is running smoothly and I have most things I need installed. It makes me happy to see that the Sun JDK 6 is in the main repository along with Netbeans, Java DB, and Glassfish. Well, Netbeans and Java DB are sort of in the repository, you still have to download Netbeans and Java DB before you can actually install them.

Other than that my experience with Feisty has been going quite well. I have managed to set most everything set up easily and without any major problems. I even have managed to install IBM Rational without messing up my laptop. The only thing I haven't set up yet is XGL. There are a couple reasons for my delay there. First, Compiz Fusion, the merge of Beryl and Compiz is still in an alpha phase and second, I have always had problems getting the ATI driver working properly and getting all the features I need working well with Compiz. I probably will get to installing it later though, because of this video I saw.

SCP Fun

Just a little thing I found out. To copy a directory with SCP just use the -r flag. (r for recursive duh!)