note to self....

Building the OTR 3.0.0 Plugin for Gaim 1.5.x

A how-to text from cypherpunks.ca describing how to build and install the OTR plugin under SuSE 9.2 using the guru packages: howto-build-otr-plugin-for-gaim-1.5.txt

Building libotr-3.0.0 for SuSE 9.2

A how-to text that describes how to build libotr-3.0.0 for SuSE v9.2: howto-build-libotr-for-suse-92.txt

Note that the two operations - building the plugin and building libotr are only loosely related, particularly since we used a pre-built libotr from the guru site to build the plugin. Logically one might prefer to use the libotr built from sources instead of the guru pre-built RPM package.

Labels: gaim, linux, otr, plugin, suse

Desktop Guerrilla Tactics: a Portable Thin Client Approach (from Linux Journal [LJ]) talks about using http://www.tightvnc.com and http://packages.qa.debian.org/s/svncviewer.html to create a VNC client without resorting to running an X server for the VNC client.

Labels: debian, linux, lj, portable, svga, thin client, vnc, x

These links are culled from the Ask Slashdot discussion entitled Where should one go for Unix/Linux Training?.

• The C Programming Language - this is the classic "K&R book" - one post [the one that provided this link] makes the point that "you can't *know* UNIX/*nix if you don't know how to program"
• SlackBook - an online electronic book mostly specific to the Slackware distribution.
• Linux Administration Handbook - also home to the Unix System Administration Handbook
• Real World Linux Security [book]
• Linux International
• "For complete newbies" try Linux Questions or The Linux Documentation Project
• Unix Guru Universe
• O'Reilly [the publishing house]
• distrowatch.com
• LearningLinux.com

Labels: admin, linux, security, slashdot, training, tutorial, unix

Okay, here's a solution to one that's been bugging me for awhile:

The problem is that Mozilla Firefox 1.x under SuSE 9.2 KDE 3.3 has some weirdness with the text select foreground / background color. The fix for this was found [tweaked] from http://www.mozilla.org/unix/customizing.html#prefs.

This fix is documented on the mozilla.org website for Mozilla, but this works [seems to] for Mozilla Firefox [curr ver 1.5.0.4], as well.

The tweak was that my X server didn't like the color names that were used in the example from the website - not sure why "green" or "white" are not being mapped by the X RGB color database, but using the [somewhat] standard HTML color hex number format ('#rrggbb', where rr == red, gg == green, bb == blue, and each color is a 2-digit (8-bit) hexadecimal color component value) seems to work fine.

Note that this fix might be possible in the ${ff_user_app_dir}/chrome/userChrome.css file, but I haven't found the CSS definitions of Firefox user interface elements, yet. That should exist, I believe, but it may be wrapped some sort of XUL implementation verbiage.

Anyway - here are the pertinent entries from my newly created ${ff_user_prof_dir}/user.js file [user.js did not exist by default for Firefox - simply create it and add whatever of the available Javascsript UI style commands are desired - the page linked above has more examples]:

// Set select colors for text:
user_pref("ui.textSelectBackground", "#00ff00");
user_pref("ui.textSelectForeground", "#000000");
// Select color for typeahead find is slightly different:
user_pref("ui.textSelectBackgroundAttention", "blue");
// Not clear when/if widgetSelectBackground ever gets called: let's find out.
user_pref("ui.widgetSelectBackground", "orange");

Notes:

For the shell variables used above -

${ff_user_app_dir} - this is the user's application config and state directory (typically something like $HOME/$USER/.mozilla/firefox/)

${ff_user_prof_dir} - this is the Firefox user profile directory (typically something like $HOME/$USER/.mozilla/firefox/${profilename} where ${profilename} is a string randomly generated for the [default] profile when Firefox starts up - usually the first time.

Labels: 1.5, 3.3, 9.2, color, config, firefox, fix, hack, kde, linux, mozilla, rgb, suse, x

1. Install Win32 Codecs - downloaded Win32-Codecs (w32codec-all-20060501-0.pm.0.i586)
   from Links2Linux.de
   
   • w32codec-all-20060501-0.pm.0.i586.rpm
   • w32codec-all-20060501-0.pm.0.src.rpm
   
   the .i586 package had to be installed as an upgrade ('rpm -U')
   
2. Install libdvdread - downloaded libdvdread from Links2Linux.de
3. Install libdvdcss - downloaded libdvdcss from www.videolan.org (http://download.videolan.org/pub/libdvdcss/1.2.9/rpm/)

Labels: 9.2, codec, dvd, libdvdcss, libdvdread, linux, packman, rpm, suse, videolan, win32

jsMath (Download): Download TeX fonts for jsMath has the following about how to install TTF fonts under Unix:

• Move the .ttf files to /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TTF
• CD to that directory and run 'mkfontscale' and then 'mkfontdir'
• Run 'fc-cache' to rebuild the cache
• Restart the X server

Labels: font, linux, ttf

Enabling TrueType Fonts

Labels: font, linux, ttf

Why does kamix take more memory than Emacs?  I mean, for that matter, why does Emacs take more memory than Firefox?  Still, wtF?  Fully graphical web browser - Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.2 is listed in top as taking 0.5% of memory (we're talking 512M here, I believe) - and that's running maximized and with the Performancing blogging extension open.

GNU Emacs, on the other hand - a text editor with a text inerface, but running under X (so I guess there are a few widgets allocated there) - Emacs is taking up (again: according to top) 3.7% of RAM, with no files open, and no child processes running (?). 

Now, this is nothing, really (3.7%) as we look up the list from bottom to top - in the same vicinity as Emacs on this listing (sorted by %MEM) we have such notable applications and services as kalarmd (3.8%), gkrellm (3.3%), and (less than 3%) xterm, artsd, etc.  No, this is nothing - we're in the lightweight end of the listing - let's look closer to the top.

Let's see ... kdeinit (4.1%), kdeinit (4.2%), kdeinit (4.5%) ... the list goes on - altogether there are something like 16 instances of kdeinit running, each of them taking up more RAM individually than either Emacs or Firefox - more, in fact than any other of the 15-odd applications running except for e.g. X (7.9%), kgpg (6.3%), kamix (5.4%) ... whoops - wait, I've overlooked something: firefox-bin is running up at the top, consuming some 12.7% - followed by the #1 instance of kdeinit (10.5%) second, and X itself (7.9%) third....

So please ignore what I said about Firefox at the beginning - that was 'firefox' the script that starts 'firefox-bin' - everything else was [i think] pretty accurate.

Labels: kde, linux, memory

Apparently the blogger.com | "Publish Status" | "Publishing in progress..." throbber page is causing memory leakage and ultimately crashage in Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.2 (Linux) - I caught it when the CPU load was up to 37%, and the available RAM was down to around 20M (these numbers according to Gkrellm) - I killed it (successfully) before it locked up X, but I am becoming more convinced that it is page content like this that is crashing the bitch...

Labels: 1.5, firefox, linux, mozilla

And furthermore, why is the sound Notification system in KDE such a piece of crap?

First it was Konsole - SCREAMING at me each time I touched the Backspace key while the cursor was at the beginning of the line -WtF? Now it's Konqueror BLASTING the same damned noise at me each time I push the down arrow key to scroll down the page!?

And on my system, each of those staticy, noisy, piece of shit system beeps is about 100Db - that is, I have this PoS notebook plugged into a rather high-powered speaker system (not that the crappy system beep isn't too loud even on crappy little laptop speakers), and no matter what I do, it seems that KDE just won't agree to either shut up with the stupid system beeps, or even just turn them down to something a lot lower in amplitude than what I want from e.g. XMMS or JuK or whatever media player I'm using to blast rock'n'roll to the rest of the neighborhood...

Put it on the to do list to fix this crap...

Labels: kde, keyboard, konsole, linux, sound

Fukking Klipper! Goddess save us all, the Advertisers have learned what a browser extension is. Can the spyware spooks and the virus kiddies be far behind?

A little while ago, as Firefox 1.5.0.2 (Linux) was crashing spectacularly on one workstation (vertigo) - and this time w/o the help of any extensions or themes, i might add - I was browsing the prefs.js file for another Firefox install on another workstation (spirit).

The first thing I noticed about the install on spirit (and this would have been true for the vertigo install until I blew away the user profile directory in an effort to get Firefox to quit locking up the X server) is that there are an entire assload of settings that are added by extensions, and (in one case) by something that is not even an extension (I think - still looking at this one).

The next thing I noticed was that certain of the settings contained information about me - or rather, about some things that were on my disc drive.

Some examples - not all of these are "intrusive", I suppose, but most of them are remarkable (in some way), to me:
Interesting - Firefox Edit menu options don't seem to interoperate as expected with the Klipboard tool under KDE - more of Gnomish foolishness.

Labels: add-ons, extensions, firefox, howto, linux

I had some problems getting Firefox to accept/provide arguments to a protocol handler command entered in the about:config page [see previous post for about:config settings], but I have found a workaround, and posted a HOWTO document about it. See: HOWTO Enable Telnet URI Handling in Firefox.

The gripe here is that telnet://host.name:portnum/ URLs didn't work by default in Firefox. The HOWTO gives a fix.

Labels: bash, config, firefox, hack, howto, linux, protocol, script, telnet, x11, xterm

Register Protocol from the Mozillazine Knowledge Base.

Gecko DOM Reference

About:config entries from the Mozillazine Knowledge Base.

pound-perl perl mongers wiki posting about settings for telnet URL.

Labels: config, firefox, gui, hack, howto, linux, x11

Well, it seems like it's been about a day now, and wurx is still up and running - have not started Mozilla Firefox this session. Posting this under Opera 8.52 -

Went so far before now - okay here it is:

a) Firefox 1.0.7 with various extensions and themes loading was crashing a not-quite-stock install of whatever X server shipped with SuSE 9.2

2) Remove 1.0.7 and install Newest Whizbang 2.5.0.2 or something

[NOTE: Couldn't figure out how to do a system-wide, multi-user install for the newest Firefox - may want to look into that later - running local this time]

3) Only a few extensions plugged in this time.

BANG) it didn't work anyway.

So what do YOU think. This is not life it is a SOAP-OPERA

For the record, just a few moments ago,

$uptime
10:01pm up 10:29, 3 users, load average: 0.05, 0.31, 0.31

Labels: 10.07, 2.5, add-ons, crash, extensions, firefox, linux, mozilla, opera, problem, suse

To fix problems with BS and DEL keys generating ^H and ^? garbage and more arcane problems like the Emacs help screen popping up when you hit the backspace key, there is an excellent page by Anne Baretta entitled BackSpace and Delete Configuration for Linux (VT, xterm, bash, tcsh, netscape and more)

Labels: gui, linux, x11

There is a Linux mini-HowTo entitled How to change the title of an xterm. This how to covers several shells and has a lot of good information about the various escape sequences of various shells and how to use them.

The section 4.3 Bash has example code for setting the XTerm title from within Bash.

The Bash shell uses the value of the environment variable PS1 as the prompt. The default Bash prompt set during the installation of the Cygwin environment uses the escape sequences described in the How-To to set the title of an XTerm.

This is fine, unless you want to use the same prompt value in the .bashrc file on a Linux box. The technique does work, but cases some annoying behaviour at the console when you log in to the Linux box without the benefit of the X environment.

Also, the dynamic setting of the XTerm title can interfere with static title settings you may try to use.

Now that we know the escape sequences that are used to set the XTerm title, we can examine the default Cygwin prompt and re-write it to leave the XTerm title alone, while still giving us the two-line prompt that can be useful for readability.

The default value is something like:

export PS1='\[\033]0;\w\007\033[32m\]\u@\h: \[\033[33m\w\033[0m\]
\$'

We can re-write this as

export PS1='\033[32m\]\u@\h: \[\033[33m\w\033[0m\]
\$'

This keeps the Bash prompt, but doesn't try to set the XTerm title.

Note that the bashrc file can contain code that checks the value of $TERM before setting the prompt. That would eliminate the problem that occurs for console logins, but still won't help us when we're setting the XTerm title ourselves e.g. using -n and -T. We prefer to simply remove the dynamic setting of the XTerm title as a default.

references

Labels: bash, cygwin, faq, gui, link, linux, prompt, ps1, x11, xterm

VIA EPIA-M10000 Mini-ITX Motherboard With NEHEMIAH 1GHz CPU for $159.95 from ComputerGate.

Damn Small Linux on a bootable 128MB USB Pen Drive

Labels: hardware, link, linux, miniITX, small, software, USB