Troubleshooters.Com
Presents
Linux
Productivity
Magazine
August 2009
Desktop Linux that Just Works
|
Copyright (C) 2009 by
Steve Litt. All rights
reserved.
Materials from guest authors copyrighted by them and licensed for
perpetual
use to Linux Productivity Magazine. All rights reserved to the
copyright
holder, except for items specifically marked otherwise (certain free
software
source code, GNU/GPL, etc.). All material herein provided "As-Is". User
assumes
all risk and responsibility for any outcome.
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Linux is a
wishing well. --
Steve Litt, from the December
2002 Linux Productivity Magazine
|
CONTENTS
Editor's Desk
By Steve Litt
After 9 years of Mandrake/Mandriva desktop Linux
usage, I tried out Linux Mint and fell in love. It just worked! Up to
date Flash for easy YouTube cruising. Excellent hardware detection
(except wifi). Easy user GUI configuration that actually worked every
time. Great looking fonts enabling my weak eyes to work long into the
night.
Imagine my disappointment upon learning that Linux Mint
issued a statement that people supporting one side of an international
conflict were not welcome within the Mint Community. That statement was
quickly removed from the Mint blog, and partially retracted on a
personal blog. But as far as I could tell was never fully retracted on
the Mint website.
Is free software that demands a political
litmus test really free software? Not in my opinion. I stopped moving
forward with Mint.
Yet knowledge cannot be unlearned. Now I
wanted a GUI configurable true desktop Linux requiring no geekiness. A
desktop Linux that "just works." A desktop Linux that's easy to use. A
desktop Linux that totally precludes the need for Windows. If I
couldn't use Mint, I'd have to make it myself.
So I told
everyone who would listen what I was doing. At a GoLUG meeting I
presented Mint, showing each feature making it so special. Time after
time, as I showed off a feature, the audience said "hey, that's just
Gnome" or "hey, Ubuntu has the same thing!" When I said "but look, Mint
has the latest Flash right out of the box", they pointed out that
behavior is just two checkboxes away in Ubuntu.
So when my
Mandriva 2008 system disk permanently malfunctioned a few weeks later,
I put my money where my mouth was, bought a new system disk, and
installed Ubuntu. This was the first time in 9 years when
Mandrake/Mandriva wasn't my daily driver operating system, and I'm
quite pleased with the results. Ubuntu rocks if you want a "just works"
desktop operating system.
As you read the instructions on making
Ubuntu into a "just works" desktop, keep in mind that most of these
instructions add extra capabilities. You can have a simple "just works"
desktop, suitable for the average Windows user, five minutes after
installing Ubuntu.
Pre-Installation Decisions
By Steve Litt
Any Linux installation requires pre-installation decisions. The three I'd
like to discuss here are:
- Syncing of user id numbers
- Quick installation of software you want
- Wifi
Syncing of user id numbers
Every user has a distinct user number (uid). For instance, on every
system I've seen the user number of user root
is 0. Typically, special users have lower numbers, while regular users
have numbers starting at a specific number such as 500 or 1000.
Certain communication protocols such as NFS are simpler if user slitt on system
A has the same user number as slitt
on system B. I have a home office with a family LAN, and every computer
has an slitt
user with the same user number.
Before
installing, you need to decide whether you want to sync user numbers or
install with a special user number. If the latter, you'll need to install with
a dummy user (I use username "init" for this purpose). Otherwise, just
install with your desired username (slitt in my case).
Directions for assigning user numbers to user names will be given later
in this document.
Quick installation of software you want
DVD
based distros like Mandriva contain large package repositories right on
the DVD. You choose which packages to install at installation time.
Distros such as Knoppix, Mint and Ubuntu install a tiny system from
which you can use the package manager to add software via the Internet.
There are benefits and drawbacks to both. I think the choice
boils down to this: If you have broadband, the tiny installation
followed by Internet package installation is the way to go. If you have
dialup, package installation from DVD is vastly preferable.
In
other words, I wouldn't recommend Ubuntu or any like distros for
dialup, so from this point forward I assume if you're still reading,
you have broadband.
Getting that "It Just Works" feeling
In order to get that "It just works!" feeling, you will be needing at
the very least acroread and the flash utilities:
- acroread
- flashplugin-installer
- flashplugin-nonfree
- flashplugin-nonfree-extrasound
Put
those at the top of your list in preparation for later use. If you just
want a good general purpose desktop machine your list is done. If
you're more of a power user, you need to install more
packages.
Wifi
Ubuntu
is, and was designed to be, a "just works desktop" distribution. This
means that you should NOT try to enable wifi with the iwconfig or
ifconfig commands, or by editing configuration files. You should not
manually download, compile and install wifi components unless you've
tried ABSOLUTELY everything else. "Just work" desktops can get
squirrely when half the config is via GUI and the other half is via Vim.
Manual downloads and installs harm the integrity of the package manager
database.
Getting
a computer's Wifi to work dwarfs all other Linux difficulties. While it
might not lead to the most incompatibilities (scanners, cameras and
video cameras certainly give it a run for the money), it's by far the
most burdomsome. Most people can live at least temporarily without
transferrance from their camera or video camera, or even scanner. But
nobody can use a laptop without an operable Wifi.
So
before
putting hours or days into setting up the perfect notebook, make sure
you can get the wifi to work. If you can't, you need to make a
different plan -- either an external wifi dongle, or different
hardware, or a different version of the distro, or a different
architecture (32 or 64), or a comletely different distro. Just make
sure on any computer where wifi is important (laptops, for instance),
that before you spend hours or days configuring it to your exact needs,
you can get Wifi to work. Please read on...
Check Wifi, Part I: Off the live CD
By Steve Litt
If
you're lucky, the Ubuntu live CD will boot up with functional Wifi.
This is more the exception than the rule, so don't despair if it
doesn't happen, but maybe you'll get lucky.
A Wifi check has two prerequisites:
- You're
in range of a known good, open, non-encrypted wifi access point. You
should know the SSID of the access point. A library's a great place to
do this.
- Your
computer's physical wireless networking switch is set to enable
wireless if it's the kind of switch that persists between reboots. If
it's a toggle switch that doesn't persist (my Asus laptop ALWAYS starts
up with the wifi hardware enabled, and then you can depress the toggle
switch to turn it off), then you can ignore this prerequisite.
Boot the computer, wait about a minute, and look for the NetworkManager Applet icon,
which by default appears on the taskbar just to the left of the volume
control and the date. Depending on the state of your computer's
networking, it should look like one of these:
Network State | | Icon |
No networking | | No icon |
Networking, but no connection | | |
Networking, wired connection | | |
Networking, wireless only, wireless not associated | | |
Networking, wireless only, wireless is associated | | |
If there's no icon, you have trouble and will need to investigate further.
If it looks like the "wireless associated" icon (),
it's probably working. Verify by making sure there's no wired network
connection (there almost certainly won't be with a wireless icon) and
then surf the web. If you can surf, Ubuntu works with your wireless
hardware right out of the box.
If it looks like the wireless nonassociated icon (), leftclick the icon and you'll see the following little screen:
| | This
screen shows all wired interfaces and all wireless access points. In
this case the wireless access point is called "piano", and it's the
access point to which I'm connected. I did this at home, so piano is my
home wifi access point, and it's locked down with WPA2 encryption,
which acounts for the little lock symbol between the name and the
strength meter.
|
The access point
"linksys" belongs to someone in the neighborhood, and as you can see
it's wide open. If I were to click on it, the computer would detach
from piano and attach to linksys, after which I'd be able to surf the
net using the linksys access point. But of course it's both wrong and
illegal to use non-public access points belonging to others, so I won't
do that. This is one reason I recommend the library -- you probably
want your wireless network locked down with WPA or WPA2, which makes it
very hard to use for troubleshooting, and it's really not a good idea
to use neighbors' wireless access points.
Anyway, click any
unsecured access point that you're allowed to (either public or owned
by you, but not private and owned by others). If it associates there
will be a brief message in the upper left saying so. Then try to surf
the net, and if you can, that's it, your live distro automatically
works with your wifi.
If it looks like the wired connection icon (),
disconnect the wired network and note the change in the icon. If it's
one of the wireless icons, follow the instructions already given. If
the icon disappears or you get the broken networking icon (), then it doesn't work and you'll need to do some diagnostics.
If wireless worked right off the live CD, you can be confident it will work when installed.
WARNING Be
careful with versions and architectures. Just because it works at 32
bits doesn't mean it will work at 64, and vice versa. Test live CDs for
all versions and architectures you're considering. Remember, Wifi is
usually the most challenging part of Linux installation.
|
Check Wifi, Part II: Troubleshooting
By Steve Litt
If you're reading this it means Wifi didn't work the minute you booted the live Ubuntu CD. That's OK, it usually doesn't.
If
you have a known good access point and your computer is unable to
network though it, you probably have a driver problem. See what's in
the computer by using the lspci command:
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ lspci | grep -i netw
03:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN (rev 01)
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ lspci | grep -i eth
00:14.0 Bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP51 Ethernet Controller (rev a3)
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$
This example shows bad
news, it's a Broadcom. Broadcom makes little effort to make its' wifi
adapters easier to use in Linux. But you can have trouble with almost
any Wifi manufacturer -- that's the nature of the game.
The way NetworkManager
is supposed to work is that it always gives you the best connection, no
matter where you go. If wired networking is plugged in, your access
will be through the wired network. If the wired network gets unplugged,
it will automatically migrate to the strongest open, unencrypted wifi
access point. As you walk through town, it continually shifts to the
strongest access point. If you get on an access point that for some
reason is "bad", you can always leftclick the NetworkManager icon and
pick a more suitable access point.
If
you can't a NetworkManager icon, or you can't find a known good access
point, or you can't associate with that access point, do
System->Administration->Hardware_drivers. In the list, try to
find anything relating to the hardware you found in your lspci command. Try enabling that hardware and check again.
Be
careful though. Some of the drivers tell you to reboot in order that
the driver be instantiated. Obviously, you can't keep a driver setting
through a live CD reboot. In this case, you'll need to do a quick
install and then try to enable the hardware from there. You might even
need to enable third party repositories and run a Synaptic update to get the proper drivers.
If,
after trying all drivers, you still can't get wifi working, it might be
best to find an older (at least 6 months old) wifi dongle, which will
probably be supported by Ubuntu, and use that.
Installing Ubuntu
By Steve Litt
Ubuntu
installs pretty much like any modern distro. It's simple enough for
anyone. Plug the computer's wired network adapter into any DHCP
equipped wired network and boot the Ubuntu CD. Boot into the live CD --
you want to make everything's OK before actual installation. Also,
installation works much better out of the live version than it does if
you boot into installation.
Why not
boot directly into installation mode?
Running
the installation from a running live Ubuntu distro gives you a full GUI
environment. Booting into it gives you a sort of framebuffer
environment in which some of the text, and even the buttons to click,
are off the screen. |
When asked how to
partition your installation, the simplest selection is to let it take
over your whole disk. Personally I partition manually to get it just
how I want, but the easy way is to let it take over the whole disk.
Aside
from that, just answer the questions and let the installation proceed.
It should take between 20 minutes and an hour, depending on the speed
of your computer. Like most modern distros, you answer questions first
and then let it do its thing unattended, so it doesn't waste your time.
Once Ubuntu has installed, the result looks something like the
following screenshot:
Your New Ubuntu Installation
By Steve Litt
Your new Ubuntu installation looks like this:
The
bottom bar is mainly for showing gui applications in the current
workspace. However, the leftmost icon minimizes all apps in the
workspace, while on the right is a workspace list and a trash can.
The
top bar is, for want of a better word, the menu bar. The bottom bar is
a list of applications opened in the current workspace. Both these are
generalizations, but they'll serve for now.
As mentioned, the
top bar is the menu bar. Here is a close up photograph of the menu bar, with the
right end shown below the left and lots of the empty center left out in
order to fit comfortably on this web page:
The
main menu has three entries: Applications, Places and System. To the
right of those is an icon for Mozilla, an icon for Evolution email, and
an icon for Ubuntu Help. Oh the right end, from left to right, are the
network icon, the volume control icon, the date and time, and finally
the user name and an icon to shut down, restart, log out, and lots of
other options.
Here is the menu structure:
Applications |
Places |
System |
Accessories Calculator CD/DVD Creator Character Map Disk Usage Analyzer Manage Print Jobs Passwords and Encryption Keys Take Screenshot Terminal Text Editor Tomboy Notes Games Not of interest in this document Graphics F-Spot Photo Manager GIMP Image Editor OpenOffice.org Drawing XSane Image scanning program Internet Ekiga Softphone Evolution Mail Firefox Web Browser Pidgin Internet Messenger Remote Desktop Viewer Terminal Server Client Transmission BitTorrent Client Office Dictionary Evolution Mail and Calendar OpenOffice.org Presentation OpenOffice.org Spreadsheet OpenOffice.org Word Processor Sound and Video Brasero Disc Burner Movie Player Rhythmbox Music Player Sound Recorder Add/Remove Pulls up an applet to add and remove
|
Places Home Folder Desktop Documents Music Pictures Videos Computer Network Connect to Server Search for Files Recent Documents
|
Preferences About Me Appearance Assistive Technologies Bluetooth Default Printer Display Encryption and Keyrings Keyboard Keyboard Shortcuts Main Menu Mouse Network Connections Network Proxy PalmOS Devices Power Management Preferred Applications Remote Desktop SCIM Input Method Setup Screensaver Sound Startup Applications Windows Administration Authorizations Computer Janitor Hardware Drivers Language Support Log File Viewer Login Window Network Tools Printing Services Software Sources Synaptic Package Manager System Monitor System Testing Time and Date Update Manager USB Startup Disk Creator Users and Groups Help and Support About GNOME About Ubuntu
|
Including Nonfree Software
By Steve Litt
The
biggest difference I see between Ubuntu and Mint is that by default
Mint includes nonfree applications including up to date Flash and
codecs, whereas by default Ubuntu doesn't. This is a big reason why
Mint "just works".
In
order to make Ubuntu into a "just works" distro, you need some nonfree
software. You can get that by adding the nonfree software repositories
via the following process:
- System->Administration->Software_Sources
- Enter your password. The Software Sources app appears
- Click Third-Party software tab
- Check both of these:
- http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu jaunty partner
- http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu jaunty partner
(Source Code)
- NOTE: Different Ubuntu versions might have different URLs
- Click the Close Button
- You are presented with a dialog box saying your available
software is out of date.
- Click Reload.
- Wait for downloads to register. There could be a lot of them and it could take some time.
- The Update Manager appears
- Click the Install Updates button
- Wait for updates to execute. This could take up to an hour.
Find something else to do.
- You
are presented with windows that tell you your system is up to date and
asking you to restart your computer. Make sure no apps are open, then
click the Restart Now button.
Now your computer is very close to "just works."
NOTE
If
for some reason the download or update is interrupted, you can start it
again with the Update Manager.
System->Administration->Update_manager. |
Install "Must Have" Nonfree Apps
By Steve Litt
- System->Administration->Synaptic_Package_manager
- Type your password
- Type "flash" without the quotes into the Quick Search field
- Place a checkmark in the following:
- flashplugin-nonfree-extrasound
- flashplugin-nonfree
- flashplugin-installer
- Click Apply and confirm
- From the command prompt type the following:
- sudo apt-get install acroread
That's
it. You have Acrobat reader and the latest Flash, and your computer is
pretty much a "just works" computer. There will be a few outliers that
don't work as expected, but for the most part this is a computer the average Windows user would be comfortable with.
That's
right -- Ubuntu has done away with the need for Windows. And Ubuntu has
done that without giving up the quality we've all expected of Linux. As
a matter of fact, Ubuntu strikes me as one of the most solidly reliable
operating systems I've ever used.
Play Quicktime via Mplayer in Mozilla
By Steve Litt
The
.mov files created by my wife's Kodak DX4530 digital camera have no
sound if Mozilla uses its Quicktime player. Setting Mozilla's Quicktime
plugin to Mplayer solves this:
- Within Mozilla, Edit->Preferences
- Click the Applications tab
- Scroll down to the Quicktime video line
- Click the "Action" side of the line
- Use Other...
- Navigate to /usr/bin/mplayer
- Click the Close button
THAT'S IT!
By Steve Litt
That's it! You've set up a sure fire "it just works" Linux desktop. You
did that with these steps:
- You did a standard install of Ubuntu.
- You've set the software sources to include nonfree software.
- You've installed "Must Have" Nonfree Apps.
- You've set up Mozilla to play Quicktime movies with mplayer.
As
you read the increasingly complex instructions in the rest of this
magazine, it's important you keep in mind these instructions are to
make the computer into a power-user's dream box, and would be as hard
in Linux Mint and harder in Windows.
Power Users
By Steve Litt
Some
people use a computer as an appliance. As long as they can get email,
IM, browse the web, access YouTube, Twitter, and their favorite social
networking sites, they're happy. The Ubuntu computer set up previously
in this document more than fulfills their needs.
Other
people tailor their computer to facilitate what they do in their lives.
The electrical engineer's computer contains CAD and circuit design
programs. The graduate student's computer contains document creation
software capable of creating a thesis. The tax pro's computer contains
specialized tax software. My rock guitarist son's computer has TuxGuitar.
These people are power users. Their
computer isn't an appliance they buy, use and enjoy. For them, the
computer is a maleable tool molded to what they do in their lives.
Every power user's computer is set up differently, because every power
user does different things in life.
Each power user requires
special software, special configuration, and special resources.
Sometimes these things are bought, sometimes they're installed as free
software, and sometimes, as a matter of fact more often than you would
suspect, the power user programs these functionalities into the
computer.
Here is a list of some of my life's activities:
- Author Troubleshooters.Com content
- Author courseware
- Author books
- Personalize courseware
- Personalize eBooks
- Ship print books
- Account for book orders
- Think
- Plan
- Research
- Communicate
- Program computers
- Backup
Activity |
|
Software |
Author Troubleshooters.Com content |
|
I use the komposer
GUI web page creator plus Vim. |
Author courseware |
|
OpenOffice, LyX, and Microsoft Word. This is the last
usage I have for the headless Win98 machine sitting int he corner. |
Author books |
|
VimOutliner, Vim and LyX |
Personalize courseware |
|
LyX, custom shellscripts, and a custom Powerpoint
binary
modifier |
Personalize eBooks |
|
LyX, pdftk, latex, ps2pdf, and lots of customized
shellscripts |
Ship print books |
|
Gnumeric, latex, customized shellscripts and Perl scripts |
Account for book orders |
|
Gnumeric |
Think |
|
VimOutliner |
Plan |
|
VimOutliner |
Research |
|
Wikipedia, search engines |
Communicate |
|
kmail, xchat |
Program computers |
|
gcc, perl, python, ruby, guile |
Backup |
|
rsync, ssh, customized shellscripts, Ruby "best fit" DVD fitters |
The preceding just scratches the surface of what I do and how the
computer helps me, but it illustrates the fact that my computer is a
very customized device. I'm a power user. Despite the trade press's
preachings that we're entering the age of "cloud computing", there are
plenty more like me.
Activate Root User
By Steve Litt
To
best please the unsophisticated user, Ubuntu has no root user by
default. Instead, everything, and I mean everything, is done via sudo, which
requires only the user's password, not a root password.
We
power users know that's bad for security and it also makes it easier
for us to make a stupid mistake and wipe out lots of things, so we're
going to fix that. But before criticizing Ubuntu for this, keep in mind
that it's how Windows works, and Ubuntu is probably the distro that
will dethrone Windows on the desktop.
So do this:
- System->Administration->Users_and_Groups
- Click the (grayed out) line that says "root"
- Click the Unlock button
- Enter your user password when asked for it
- Re-click the root line
- Click the Properties button
- Enter and confirm the desired root password
That's it, you now have a root password.
You
still have a normal user with huge amounts of power -- to much many
might say. You can greatly reduce the power of this and all other
normal users with tools like
System->Administration->Authorizations and
System->Administration->Users_and_Groups. You can also
use visudo
to eliminate the widely granted priveleges in the sudoers file.
Security vs. Convenience
If
security were our one and only priority, we'd all be running BSD
without X (GUI). In fact, many servers are run exactly this way. Or we
could run Slackware with an empty sudoers file.
If convenience
were our one and only priority, every user would have access to every
command and process. Kind of like Windows 9x. This would benefit botnet
herders, but it guarantees regular users constant malware and
user-caused problems.
A realistic desktop Linux requires a
compromise between security and convenience, based on the assumption
that the computer will mostly be used by one user. So we lighten up a
little on the security (demanding a password to mount a CD is sooooo
1998). A newly connected USB connection gets automatically mounted if
it's mountable. The ordinary user can passwordlessly do user-centric
things like changing the screen resolution or the window manager theme. After all, this is meant to be a desktop computer, not a server.
On
the other hand, the power user probably wants to beef up Ubuntu's
default security. Ubuntu "ships" with no firewall -- everybody can grab
whatever they can see. The console user can do every conceiveable thing
with his own password, and there's no root user.
As the desktop
computer's user, you have to decide where to draw the line in security
vs. convenience. It's almost bound to be closer to the security end
than how Ubuntu defaults on initial install.
Install Custom Software
By Steve Litt
As
the preceding article points out, the power user needs to install
custom software. The Synaptic Package Manager
(System->Administration->Synaptic_package_manager) is
ideally
suited for installing software except one thing -- if you're going to
be installing 50 packages, you don't want to point and click through
the whole thing. The better way to do it is make a list of the packages
and then turn that list into an installation script.
The following is my personal install list, with over 150 items:
a2ps
abiword
abiword-common
abiword-help
abiword-plugin-grammar
abiword-plugin-mathview
acl
acroread
alacarte
alsa-base
alsa-oss
alsa-tools
alsa-tools-gui
alsa-utils
alsamixergui
alsaplayer-alsa
alsaplayer-common
alsaplayer-gtk
apache2
aterm
audacity
aumix-gtk
bluetooth
bluez
boa-constructor
boxes
clisp
cpio
cups |
dc
dcraw
dhcp3-client
dhcp3-common
dia
digikam
dvd+rw-tools
dvi2dvi
dvipng
eclipse
electric-fence
enscript
eog
eterm
festival
fetchmail
fetchmailconf
flashplugin-installer
flashplugin-nonfree
flashplugin-nonfree-extrasound
fontconfig
fontconfig-config
fontypython
gawk
gcc
gdb
ghostscript
ghostscript-x
gkrellm
gnome-alsamixer |
gnome-terminal
gnumeric
gnupg
gnupg-agent
gphoto2
gphotofs
gsfonts
gsfonts-x11
gtkam
guile-1.8
gv
gxine
gxineplugin
gufw
imagemagick
imagemagick-doc
k3b
kmail
kompozer
konqueror
konqueror-plugins
konsole
kuickshow
kwalletmanager
laptop-detect
laptop-mode-tools
linux-sound-base
lmodern
lsof
lyx |
mawk
mc
minicom
mplayer
mscompress
mtools
mtr-tiny
mutt
mysql-common
ncurses-base
ncurses-bin
nullmailer
nut
openssh-client
openssh-server
openssl
parted
perl
perl-tk
perlmagick
pidgin
playmidi
pmidi
postgresql
postgresql-8.3
procmail
prosper
ps2eps
psfontmgr
pulseaudio |
python
python-tk
quicktime-utils
quicktime-x11utils
rhythmbox
rsync
ruby
samba
samba-common
sane-utils
screen
scribus
sdparm
seahorse
spamassassin
spamc
ssh
ssh-askpass-gnome
tar
tcpdump
tcsh
thunderbird
thunderbird-nostalgy
time
timidity
totem
ttf-freefont
ttf2tex
unzip
vim
|
vim-gnome
wget
whois
wpasupplicant
xchat
xfonts-100dpi
xfonts-75dpi
xfonts-base
xfonts-encodings
xfonts-mathml
xfonts-scalable
xfonts-utils
xfs
xfstt
xsane
xterm |
Some
of those are already installed by default, but rather than check a
virgin install, I just put them in to make sure. A few of these are
vital enough to warrant special mention:
gufw |
This is an easy to use graphical front end to the very
cryptic ufw firewall that Ubuntu uses by default. Gufw is a must-have. |
gnome-alsamixer |
All
volume controls are not created equal. Some have just one adjustment.
gnome-alsamixer is likely to have all the volume controls supported by
your sound card. |
imagemagick |
This contains conversions between the various types of
graphic files. You'll almost certainly be using this. |
sox |
Called the "swiss army knife of sound processing", if
you ever work on sound files, or need to convert them, this is a must. |
ssh |
Client and server for secure server and secure ftp.
Using ssh relieves you of the security risk of typing your password
unencrypted, as well as encrypting everything sent over the wire. |
perl-tk |
This gives perl programs, whether written by you or others, a
graphical interface. You'll almost certainly need this sooner or later,
and lack of it creates difficult to diagnose symptoms. |
vim |
The Unix world's most ubiquitous editor, and a highly productive
one. Vim installs by default, but installing the vim package yields
extra capabilities |
vim-gnome |
This gives you a graphical Vim editor, which is much more convenient than running the editor in a terminal. |
xfonts-100dpi
xfonts-75dpi
xfonts-base
xfonts-encodings
xfonts-mathml
xfonts-scalable
xfonts-utils |
Make sure you have good looking screen fonts by installing the xfonts.
You'll
also need to install Windows Arial, Courier and Times New Roman so your
PDFs and presentations will be identical on Windows computers, but that
will be covered later in this document. |
Shellscripts to Make Installation Easier
OK, so you've made a list of packages to install, one package name on each line. That's great. What do you do now?
First
of all, it's very likely you got some of your package names wrong. You
need to get them all right, or you won't have all the software you
think you have. Here are two shellscripts, called checkall.sh and
check1.sh, that check to see that every package name exactly matches
the name of a downloadable package:
checkall.sh | check1.sh |
#!/bin/bash while true; do read myline || break ./check1.sh $myline done | #!/bin/bash returncode=1 foundpackages=$(aptitude --disable-columns -F %p search $1) for i in $foundpackages; do if test "$1" == "$i"; then returncode=0 break fi done if test $returncode == 1; then echo -n 'Package >' echo -n $1 echo '< not found, investigate' fi exit $returncode |
You run this command like this:
cat mypackagelist.txt | ./checkall.sh > mymistakes.txt
After running the preceding command, file mymistakes.txt
contains all of your package names that didn't exactly match a
downloadable package. Investigate each one. The following commands
might help:
aptitude search --disable-columns packagename #### finds packages with name containing packagename
aptitude search --disable-columns ^pack #### finds packages with name starting with "pack"
aptitude search --disable-columns . | grep regex #### finds packages whose names or descriptions contain "regex"
There might even be some packagenames that are good but do not register a hit with an aptitude search. Whatever, check out all package names before proceeding.
Once you have a good list of package names, you can turn it into an installation script with make_installscript.sh:
#!/bin/bash echo '#!/bin/bash' echo while true; do read myline || break echo -n "apt-get install " echo $myline done |
The output is a list where each row is an apt-get install command. Use it like this:
cat mypackagelist.txt | ./make_installscript.sh > myinstall.sh
Then, wait til you don't have to use the computer for a few hours, make myinstall.sh executable and execute it.
Checking What Got Installed
Wouldn't it be nice if every one of those apt-get install
commands in the install script resulted in a successful installation?
Dream on. You have to check which ones failed to install. Here are a
shellscript and called perl script to do the checking.
verify_installs.sh |
#!/bin/bash
############################### # $dashcol is the 1's based column in which the dash preceding # the package description occurs, when running this command: # aptitude search . # # Note that your version of aptitude might format differently, # in which case you'll need to change the value of dashcol for # this script to work correctly. # # To verify correctness, look at file insts_temp.txt, # and use an editor to find the 1's based column number # of the dash. ############################### let dashcol=37 let b4dashcol=$dashcol-1
############################### # Get sorted version of installation list ############################### cat $1 | sort >temp.txt
############################### # Record separator ############################### echo '%%%sep%%%' >> temp.txt
############################### # Get sorted list of installed packages ############################### aptitude search . | grep ^i > insts_temp.txt cat insts_temp.txt | cut -b5-$b4dashcol | sed -e "s/ *$//" | sort >> temp.txt
############################### # Send the whole thing to perl to match ############################### cat temp.txt | ./verify_installs.pl
|
The
preceding verify_installs.sh takes the list of desired packages (which
you made earlier) as arg1, creates a list of installed packages, then
pipes the desired and installed packages separated by %%%sep%%% to
verify_installs.pl, which contains the logic to match desired with
installed. The verify_installs.pl script follows:
verify_installs.pl |
#!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; use warnings;
########################################################## # LOAD THE @DESIRED AND @ INSTALLED ARRAYS ########################################################## my @desired = (); my @installed = (); my $state = 0; while(<>){ my $line = $_; chomp $line; if($line eq "%%%sep%%%"){ $state = 1; next; } push(@desired,($line)) if $state == 0; push(@installed, ($line)) if $state == 1; }
########################################################## # REPORT ANY @DESIRED PACKAGES THAT ARE NOT IN @INSTALLED ########################################################## my $installedss = 0; my $installed_rec = shift(@installed); foreach my $desired_rec (@desired){ while($desired_rec gt $installed_rec){ $installed_rec = shift(@installed); } if(!defined($installed_rec) || $desired_rec ne $installed_rec){ printf("%s NOT installed.\n", $desired_rec); }else{ #printf("%s successfully installed.\n", $desired_rec); }
} |
The following is a typical run:
slitt@mydesk:~$ cat mypackagelist.txt | ./verify_installs.sh
alsa-oss NOT installed.
alsa-tools NOT installed.
alsa-tools-gui NOT installed.
alsa-utils NOT installed.
perl-tk NOT installed.
python-tk NOT installed.
ttf-freefont NOT installed.
slitt@mydesk:~$
You
then check each of those. Perhaps aptitude was wrong about their being
installed. It happens. Try running each one in its own apt-get install
command and manually see what happens. If it says it's already
installed, aptitude was wrong. Perhaps there's an unresolvable conflict
and it's not worth working around to install the package. Just make
sure you research each reported failure so you know what is and is not
on your machine.
Summary
You
could have manually installed each package with Synaptic Package
Manager. It would have taken less thought and less preparation.
However, making an install list that converts to an install script has
two benefits:
- The install script method takes less time and MUCH less human intervention.
- Your install list can be kept to ease your next reinstallation or new installation.
The
basic method is to make a list of names of packages to install, check
the names with a script, investigate and fix the non-matches, use a
script to convert the list to an install script, and run the install
script. Do this when you don't need your computer for several hours,
because it's likely to take over an hour to install a large number of
packages. Fire it off at night, and wake up in the morning with a fully
loaded computer.
Once the mass installation is finished, use scripts to see which packages didn't get installed, and investigate.
Fire Up Your Firewall
By Steve Litt
In
the Windows world, millions of people type away, blissfully unaware
that their computers are being used as bots to send spam or deny
service to websites. Many others are blissfully unaware of the
keystroke logger malware on their machines, giving mobsters their bank
account passwords and their most secure information.
Badguys can
get into your computer many different ways. Firewalls prevent one way
-- coming in through an unused port. A firewall disables all unused
ports so the badguy bounces harmlessly off it. Even if the badguy gets
in via an email virus, a buffer overrun or a purloined password, the
firewall has closed off a lot of ports he might have used to get back
out. Sure, the badguy could include code to tweak your firewall, but
every additional piece of code makes his job harder -- writing good
reliable code is just as hard for a badguy as it is for a legitimate
software developer.
So start by running gufw,
or System->Administration->Firewall_configuration. Input your
password when asked and you'll be presented with a screen like the
following:
| | As
you can see, Ubuntu ships with the firewall disabled, so your ports are
hanging out in the breeze for anyone to access. Now of course, if your
LAN has a firewall at its gateway, like it should, this possibility is
lessened, but desktop computer firewalls are still desireable. Also, a
gateway based firewall does nothing to protect you against hostility or
fun and games on your own LAN. You need a firewall!
The first
thing you need to do is enable the firewall by clicking the "Firewall
enabled" clickbox. Then, click the "Deny incoming traffic" radio
button. A firewall whose default rule is "allow" isn't much better than
no firewall at all. |
| | Once your firewall is running, click the "preconfigured" tab, so gufw looks like the image at the right.
This is for quick and dirty pinholing of major well known services such as ftp, ssh, pop3, smtp, ipp and the like.
The
first dropdown lets you choose allow or deny. Given the fact that the
default is deny, you'll leave all of these at allow. The service
dropdown, which is marked "ftp" in the image on the right lists a
choice of several common and well known services. |
| | Click on the service dropdown and select a service to allow. Then click the "Add " button to add it to the list of rules. |
| | The screen on the left shows an allowance for ssh (port 22) and the ipp print sharing protocol (port 631).
Now click on the "Advanced" tab... |
| | Here
we enabled this computer to be a DNS server. It will handle queries
from anywhere on the 192.168.100 subnet and reject queries from
anywhere else. It opens both (tcp and udp) port 53, the DNS port, for
queries coming in through interface 192.168.100.1. Finally the "Add"
button is clicked, and the rule is formed. |
Wifi the Ubuntu Way
By Steve Litt
The
December 2006 issue of Linux Productivity Magazine took great pains to
advocate network invocation and administration from the command prompt.
That's great for "near the metal" distros like Slackware and maybe even
Mandriva, but Ubuntu is a "just works" desktop distribution intended to
be used graphically. Ubuntus tools are so good that graphical
administration is usually perfect. In fact, in many distros, if you
configure sometimes in GUI and sometimes in CLI, things often get out
of sync resulting in hard to diagnose problems. You're using
Ubuntu as an easy to admin desktop computer -- I suggest you administer
it in the Ubuntu intended way.
Optional: Install Custom Usernames
By Steve Litt
If you just want to use one machine alone, you can install with your desired username (in my case that would be slitt).
But sometimes you want specific numerical IDs for specific usernames.
In that case, you need to follow the procedures outlined in this
article.
To start with, you must have installed using an
unwanted username. I typically use "init" for such a username. Then you
must figure out all user/id and group/id combos you want, and make
Ubuntu recognize these as regular users rather than system users. Find
the lowest numerical ID, and change three files to change what users
are special system and which ones are ordinary users. I got this info
from http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=575537. Assume here that
you want to change the system/ordinary border from the Ubuntu default
of 1000, to the old Mandrake default of 500. Here's what you do:
- /etc/login.defs: Change value of UID_MIN from 1000 to 500.
- /etc/gnome-system-tools/users/profiles changing: Change every uid-min=1000 to uid-min=500.
- /etc/adduser.conf: Change LAST_SYSTEM_UID=999 to 499 and FIRST_UID=1000 to 500.
- Just for fun, reboot.
Custom Keystrokes
By Steve Litt
Many, especially touch typists, want to work
with keystrokes as well as the mouse. For instance, I always associate
the Ctrl+9 key combination with the UMENU program. Here's how I do it:
- System->Preferences->Keyboard_shortcuts.
- Click the Add button. The Custom Shortcut dialog box appears.
- Insert "mykey" (minus the quotes) in the name, and "xterm" (minus the quotes) in the command.
- Click the Apply button. A new row whose action is "mykey" appears in the keyboard shortcuts list.
- Click on the Shortcut column of the mykey row. That column changes to "New shortcut..."
- With
the keyboard, hit the keyboard combo that you want to invoke the new
command. In this case we'll use Ctrl+1, so hit the Ctrl+1 keystroke
combination.
- Test the new shortcut by hitting the Ctrl+1 keystroke combination. A copy of xterm should appear on the screen.
The Politics of Free Software: Free Software Fanaticism
By Steve Litt
When Linus Torvalds forbid restoration of ndiswrapper
in the kernel on the grounds that it loaded non-GPL code, he became
eligible for the Ralph Nader Screw Your Constituancy award. He set Linux adoption back considerably.
Here's
why. The
existance of ndiswrapper enables the prospective laptop buyer to be
pretty darned sure that when he buys a laptop he can get its wireless
networking to work. Without ndiswrapper, prospects for wifi on a brand
new laptop are bleak because
the free software community hasn't yet reverse engineered drivers.
Linus'
abandonment of ndiswrapper materially reduced Linux usage. I don't have
the tools to measure the reduction, but it's common sense. Let's say
you're on the fence between staying with Windows or going with Linux on
your next laptop. You know it's likely that the wireless networking on
that brand new $600 laptop at Costco won't work with Linux. Here are
your choices:
- Buy one of those farcically overpriced Linux Preload laptops
- Buy the Costco laptop and wait several months for Linux drivers to catch up
- Buy a Linksys wifi dongle and hope you can get THAT to work under Linux
- Stick with Windows
Is it any wonder you see so few people with Linux laptops?
In a 2/29/2008 email, Linus stated the following:
"Quite frankly, I don't care about ndiswrapper enough (at all) to push this along in the least." |
Linus
has his own priorities, but frankly, I care a lot. Here's why. We have
a vicious circle going here. Hardware vendors won't help Linux
developers because Linux has only 1% of the desktop market. Linux has
only 1% of the desktop market because the hardware vendors won't help
the Linux developers.
If and when we push our desktop market share up
to 20%, hardware vendors won't blow us off. Innovative products like
ndiswrapper, which form a connector between the Linux kernel and the
vendor's Windows driver, help promote market share growth. By
opposing things like ndiswrapper, we're relegating ourselves to
permanent hobbyhood. Personally, I look forward to a day when I can go
to Costco and buy a Linux computer for $600, but that will only happen
if we quit blowing off curious Windows users with stuff like
anti-binary discrimination.
The Twentieth Century is Gone
Remember
the late 1990's? Thousands of Geeky people migrated to Linux, made it
work, made it work on hostile hardware, did whatever it took. We
dreamed of world domination by Linux. Our viewpoint in those ancient
times -- hey, all the user has to do is find and
download the latest drivers, sort out all dependencies, compile the
driver, recompile the kernel, and he'll have a computer just as convenient as his Windows
computer.
We could be forgiven our irrational exhuberance --
those were times of endless possibility. Linux was on the lips
of the great unwashed. Retirees were investing in Linux stocks and
asking whether they should switch their computers to this promising new
operating system. Microsoft was in serious danger of being broken up
like monopolies of the past. The dot com implosion, 9/11, the 2001-2003
recession, the wimpout of the Justice department in the Microsoft antitrust case, and the 2008-2009
recession were in the unseen future.
Now we know better,
or at least we should. Rank and file computer users don't view Linux as
compelling because it's the darling of Wall Street. They just want a
useful computer, and don't want to spend brainpower getting it useful.
And these people have their own definition of useful, which includes
being able to work on Microsoft documents, interface with Microsoft
servers and middleware, and have their hardware and various
multimedia just work. These
things are obvious to anyone paying attention. These things are
imperative if Linux is to garner the market share necessary for
hardware vendors to give us drivers.
And
yet, within our own
Linux community, free software fanatics continue to blow off the very
convertees who could force the change, enabling purchase of a Linux
Laptop at Costco. Our own free software fanatics denigrate the
intelligence and free software credentials of those using binary
drivers. They criticize ndiswrapper, the last resort of wifi. They
believe coexistence of nonfree software and free software on a Linux
box makes the free software impure.
The
free software fanatics don't evangelize Linux, but instead treat Linux
as an exclusive club in which membership must be earned through trial
by fire. It's not their problem if people don't use Linux. It's not
their problem if, for marketshare reasons, hardware manufacturers don't
help with drivers and software vendors don't port their commercial
software to Linux. They cannot imagine why a businessperson might want
to keep on using Quickbooks after converting to Linux, or might see
lack of Quickbooks as an impediment to conversion.
This is the Twenty First Century
We
long ago converted all the free software enthusiasts to Linux. We long
ago converted the true Geeks who wanted the best OS, and had the knowledge
to put the best OS together. We've even converted a few power users. All
these conversions have gotten us 1% of the desktop market share. The
other 19%, or better, 49%, must come from normal, everyday Windows
users. You know, those guys we used to laugh at.
Those everyday
Windows users have an expectation born of pre-sale installations,
hardware vendors who write drivers for Windows, software vendors who
write apps for Windows, and file formats that originated as Windows
apps. That expectation: "It Just Works!"
They don't give a
flying flamingo about free software purism, or the details of a
software license, they just want it to work. The extent of their
impression that Linux "just works" will the be extent of their
conversion. Very few people in the 21st century believe Windows is the
best -- they just believe it's the easiest. Eliminate that belief and
they'll migrate in record numbers.
Achieving "It Just Works"
There
are a million and one ways to achieve "It Just Works." The oldest is
probably the equivalent app -- Mozilla does just about everything
Internet Explorer does, and OpenOffice does most of what Windows does,
and does it with the same files. Another is providing access to nonfree
software. The United States DMCA law makes this harder, but it's
obviously doable -- all the distros make it available whether or not
they turn it on by default.
And
of course an important method to achieve "just works" is the nonfree
binary, such as the binary drivers hardware manufacturers give us, or
the free software interfaces to nonfree Windows drivers: ndiswrapper.
If we blow off this method of achieving "just works", we might feel
freesoftwarily pure, but we've just relegated Linux to an upper limit
of one or two percent of the desktop market, and relegated ourselves to
forever being denied drivers and ports of important commercial software.
The Politics of Free Software: Pet Predjudices
By Steve Litt
This
Linux Productivity Magazine was planned to be on Linux Mint. It was
planned to be authored on a Linux Mint machine. Then this verbiage
appeared on the Linux Mint official blog, posted by Linux Mint founder Clem LeFebvre, on or about May 3, 2009:
"If you do not agree I kindly ask you not to use Linux Mint and not to donate money to it." |
and this:
"I don’t want any money or help coming from Israel or people who support the action of their current government." |
Excuse
me? I thought free software was about freedom as in speech, not as
in cost. If software requires a certain political viewpoint, it's not
free software. Your mileage may vary, but if it's not free software, I
don't use it.
Clem LeFebvre chose sides in a conflict. That's
fine and admirable. He expressed his opinions. That's fine and
admirable. But when he posted it on Linux Mint's website, he crossed
the line. He made Mint nonfree.
Everyone makes mistakes. That's
why pencils have erasers. Clem made a mistake. He admitted as much. His
post was wiped from the official Mint blog within a day, and moved to a
personal blog. He even moderated his position to express sympathy for
victims on both sides of the conflict. The trouble is, the Linux Mint
website has never placed a prominent retraction on their front page.
On 6/15/2009 I emailed Clem asking that Mint place the following on their front page:
"The
Linux Mint project welcomes users, contributors and community members
from all political persuasions. We regret earlier Linux Mint Blog
statements to the contrary. We continue to hope that the world's
differences can be solved peacefully." |
That's
not exactly asking for a public self-flogging or a term in the
public-square pillory. But they did not do it, or anything close. And
so today, Mint's latest prominent stance on the subject is contributors
need to pass a mideast conflict litmus test.
You want to know
the real shame of this? Free software is our generation's version of
the 1971 ping pong game that reopened Chinese/American relations. The
LGPLed FriBidi software was written by cooperative Iranian and Israeli
developers. Here are two countries who could very possibly incinerate
one another in a radioactive maelstrom, yet through free software there
is cooperation. At least among those developers, there will be a second
thought when someone says "they're evil, nuke em!" By excluding one
side, Linux Mint has effectively prevented this avenue of communication.
This
serves as an object lesson for every free software project leader.
Leave your personal beliefs on your personal blog, make it clear
your personal beliefs have nothing to do with your software, and if you
stray from that policy, quickly and prominently post a retraction on the project website. Otherwise, how long will it be until there is an "all Christian project" or an "all White project?"
It's a slippery slope, so stay well away.
Life After
Windows: When the Revolution Ends
By Steve Litt
Most Linux users; at least we old timers who came to Linux in the 20th
century, came to Linux in a wave of revolutionary zeal. How well I
remember the euphoric evangelism of the 1999 LinuxExpo in Raleigh,
North Carolina. We all came to Raleigh to celebrate our ascendency. We
were working for Linux world domination. Our every word and thought was
on Linux. We bought Linux stocks. We were the new way. We would soon
bury Microsoft.
How
well I remember my May 1999 Troubleshooting Professional Magazine,
themed "Where Have All the Heroes Gone?", a pro-Linux issue that was
Slashdotted and broke all Troubleshooters.Com page traffic records. I
remember those heady 1999 and 2000 days writing chapters for "Red Hat
Linux 6 Unleashed", "Linux Unleashed", "Red Hat Linux 7 Unleashed", and
becoming the main author of the highly acclaimed "Samba Unleashed."
I
remember the triumph of those March 2001 days when I put my business
where my mouth was and converted my business from Windows to Linux.
When my email headers said "Kmail" instead of "Eudora." My business's
Windows to Linux conversion happened in one big step followed by many
small steps as I moved first backup, then outlining, then book
authoring from Windows to Linux.
Most
of all, I remember the excitement of new discovery. Making my first
Samba setup. My first DHCP server. My first kernel compile. DNS
servers. HTTP servers. VNC servers. NFS servers. Socket programming.
IPChains, and then IPTables. Config files xorg.conf, fstab, inittab,
printer config files (pre-cups), network config files, cron config. I
felt more powerful with each discovery.
Where did those wonderful times go?
Today
all I do with Linux is use it. Today, Linux is just the tool I use to
keep my business running. I don't remember all the config files and
their syntax. Once an acknowledged authority on Samba, today I've
forgotten most of what I knew, and haven't kept up on its gains since
2000. Samba's not part of my world -- my one and only Windows box sits
headless in the corner, used once a month if it's lucky. You don't need
Samba if your office and your entire household is Linux.
By
2004, not only did I have a Linux computer, but so did each of my three
children. Now admin and troubleshooting weren't fun any more -- they
were a pain in the petunias. The kids took over minor admin and
troubleshooting, and I began to look for distros that would be easier
for them.
It's 2009 now. My wife and each of the kids has a
Linux Mint box -- soon to become Ubuntu in the "just works"
configuration discussed in this Linux Productivity Magazine issue. My
two laptops are Ubuntu "just works." I get less calls for
troubleshooting, and when I do, modern distros' graphical tools mean I
don't have to try to remember which config file and which syntax the
config file uses. I can quickly fix or enhance, and get back to the
business of writing and teaching.
In 1999 I was considered a
Linux hotshot. Today I'm just a Linux desktop power user. How far I've
fallen. In 1999 I was the Linux revolutionary fighting for a world
where Windows would be unnecessary. Today I'm a boring desktop Linux
user who uses his Windows 98 box maybe 3 hours a month. How the mighty
have fallen.
Of course, there's another way to look at it. Our vision as
revolutionaries was a world where Linux was our OS -- nothing more,
nothing less. Thanks in no small part to the modern "just works" Linux
distros, 2009 is the embodyment of our 1999 revolutionary vision.
What happens when the Revolution Ends? You win!
Life After Windows is a regular Linux
Productivity Magazine
column,
by Steve Litt, bringing you observations and tips subsequent to
Troubleshooters.Com's
Windows to Linux conversion.
GNU/Linux, open
source and free software
By Steve Litt
Linux is a kernel. The operating system often described as "Linux" is
that
kernel combined with software from many different sources. One of the
most
prominent, and oldest of those sources, is the GNU project.
"GNU/Linux" is probably the most accurate moniker one can
give to this
operating system. Please be aware that in all of
Troubleshooters.Com,
when I say "Linux" I really mean "GNU/Linux". I completely believe that
without
the GNU project, without the GNU Manifesto and the GNU/GPL license it
spawned,
the operating system the press calls "Linux" never would have happened.
I'm part of the press and there are times when it's easier to
say "Linux"
than explain to certain audiences that "GNU/Linux" is the same as what
the
press calls "Linux". So I abbreviate. Additionally, I abbreviate in the
same
way one might abbreviate the name of a multi-partner law firm. But make
no
mistake about it. In any article in Troubleshooting Professional
Magazine,
in the whole of Troubleshooters.Com, and even in the technical books I
write,
when I say "Linux", I mean "GNU/Linux".
There are those who think FSF is making too big a deal of this. Nothing
could be farther from the truth. The GNU General Public License,
combined
with Richard Stallman's GNU Manifesto and the resulting GNU-GPL
License,
are the only reason we can enjoy this wonderful alternative to
proprietary
operating systems, and the only reason proprietary operating systems
aren't
even more flaky than they are now.
For practical purposes, the license requirements of "free software" and
"open
source" are almost identical. Generally speaking, a license that
complies
with one complies with the other. The difference between these two is a
difference
in philosophy. The "free software" crowd believes the most important
aspect
is freedom. The "open source" crowd believes the most important aspect
is
the practical marketplace advantage that freedom produces.
I think they're both right. I wouldn't use the software without the
freedom
guaranteeing me the right to improve the software, and the guarantee
that
my improvements will not later be withheld from me. Freedom is
essential.
And so are the practical benefits. Because tens of thousands of
programmers
feel the way I do, huge amounts of free software/open source is
available,
and its quality exceeds that of most proprietary software.
In summary, I use the terms "Linux" and "GNU/Linux" interchangably,
with
the former being an abbreviation for the latter. I usually use the
terms "free
software" and "open source" interchangably, as from a licensing
perspective
they're very similar. Occasionally I'll prefer one or the other
depending
if I'm writing about freedom, or business advantage.
Steve Litt has used GNU/Linux since 1998, and written about
it since 1999. Steve can be reached at his email address.
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Submissions should be emailed to Steve Litt's email address,
with
subject
line Article Submission. The first paragraph of your message should
read
as follows (unless other arrangements are previously made in writing):
Copyright (c) 2003 by
<your name>. This
material
may be distributed only subject to the terms and conditions set forth
in
the Open Publication License, version Draft v1.0, 8 June 1999
(Available
at http://www.troubleshooters.com/openpub04.txt/ (wordwrapped for
readability
at http://www.troubleshooters.com/openpub04_wrapped.txt). The latest
version
is presently available at
http://www.opencontent.org/openpub/).
Open Publication License
Option A [ is | is not]
elected,
so this document [may | may not] be modified. Option B is not elected,
so
this material may be published for commercial purposes.
After that paragraph, write the title, text of the article,
and a
two
sentence description of the author.
Why not Draft v1.0, 8 June 1999 OR LATER
The Open Publication License recommends using the word "or later" to
describe
the version of the license. That is unacceptable for Troubleshooting
Professional
Magazine because we do not know the provisions of that newer version,
so
it makes no sense to commit to it. We all hope later versions will be
better,
but there's always a chance that leadership will change. We cannot take
the
chance that the disclaimer of warranty will be dropped in a later
version.
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