Linux Wisdom

How to use hg by ssh at LaCIM

2010-09-15T09:53:00.000-07:00

D'abord, je vérifie que hg est bien installé sur le serveur :

$ ssh USERNAME@thales.math.uqam.ca
Password:
Last login: Wed Sep 15 12:56:35 2010 from 1.1.1.1
thales:~ USERNAME$ hg version
Mercurial Distributed SCM (version 1.3.1)

Copyright (C) 2005-2009 Matt Mackall  and others
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Ensuite, je teste si je peux utiliser Mercurial via ssh en mode non interactif :

sbeaudry:~ slabbe$ ssh USERNAME@thales.math.uqam.ca hg version
Password:
bash: hg: command not found

Je me reconnecte au serveur ssh et j'édite le fichier .bashrc afin d'ajouter dans le PATH le chemin où se trouve Mercurial.

$ ssh USERNAME@thales.math.uqam.ca
Password:
Last login: Wed Sep 15 13:00:18 2010 from 1.2.6.4
thales:~ USERNAME$ which hg
/usr/local/bin/hg
thales:~ USERNAME$ cat .bashrc
export PATH=/usr/local/bin:$PATH

Je me déconnecte à nouveau et je teste si je peux utiliser Mercurial en mode non interactif :

$ ssh USERNAME@thales.math.uqam.ca hg version
Password:
Mercurial Distributed SCM (version 1.6.3+20100826)

Copyright (C) 2005-2010 Matt Mackall  and others
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Ça fonctionne!

Ensuite, je peux utiliser Mercurial pour synchroniser des répertoires (via push, pull et update). Pour le répertoire de mon site web, j'ai initialisé avec hg init mon répertoire Sites. Ensuite, j'ai fait un clone de la manière suivante:


hg clone ssh://USERNAME@thales.math.uqam.ca//Users/USERNAME/Sites Sites

Puis, j'ai édité le fichier .hg/hgrc sur ma machine locale dans le répertoire de mon site web de la manière suivante :

# file .hg/hgrc
[paths]
default = ssh://USERNAME@thales.math.uqam.ca//Users/USERNAME/Sites

Au LIRMM, j'ai édité le fichier .cshrc (plutôt que le .bashrc) de la manière suivante :

# fichier : .cshrc
# Ajout par Slabbe en mars 2010
# http://web.bilkent.edu.tr/Online/unixman/subsubsection3_3_6_1.html
# Set path shell variable
# (See description of path in the paragraph followin this example .cshrc)
set path = ( /usr/bin /usr/local /usr/local/bin /usr/bin/X11 \
    /usr/ucb /usr/opt/bin ~ )

Convert an svn repository to an hg repository

2009-07-01T03:47:00.000-07:00

[The following is a very condensed version of the instructions found here.]

Suppose svn-working-copy is a working copy of the svn repo.

hgimportsvn svn-working-copy hg-repo

Pull all SVN history with hgpullsvn

cd hg-repo
hgpullsvn

Do an update for good measure

hg update (optional)

Clean up the .svn and .hgignore directories.

cd hg-repo
find . -name .svn | xargs -0 rm -rf
find . -name .hgignore | xargs -0 rm -rf

Done. Yay.

Install hg in a custom location

2009-07-01T03:27:00.000-07:00

The hg installation scripts allow you do a system-wide installation or an installation in $HOME (~/bin, ~/lib,...). To use a different location, do the following.

The install-home option for make installs hg into $HOME so we redefine the $HOME variable.

export HOME=/home/username/Applications/mercurial-1.2.1/
mkdir $HOME

Then run make.

make install-home

Create symlinks, if desired.

cd /home/username/Applications/bin
ln -s ../mercurial-1.2.1/bin/hg .

Add the following to .bashrc (change appropriately; for example, lib vs lib64, ...).

export PYTHONPATH=$HOME/Applications/mercurial-1.2.1/lib64/python/
export PATH=$HOME/Applications/bin:$HOME/bin:$PATH

Set $HOME back to the original location.

export HOME=/home/username/

Vim and Zip files

2009-05-12T04:04:00.000-07:00

Today, by mistake, I tried to open a zipfile using vim.

vim archive.zip

I was presented with a list of the files contained in the zipfile, and was instructed to Select a file with cursor and press ENTER. I didn't know that Vim had a zipfile brower! Very nice.

(If this doesn't work for you, you need to install the zipfile browser plugin. Google for zip.vim to find it.)

Sage prompt in color

2009-05-04T15:26:00.000-07:00

It is possible to activate colors for sage prompts in the terminal which is done by editing the file

$HOME/.sage/ipython/ipythonrc

As said by W. Stein on sage-devel :

"It has numerous color options, which are off by default since it is not possible to tell if the user's terminal has a white or black background, and any choice of colors looks like crap if you guess wrong about the background color."

Since the background of my terminal is light, my settings are :

# keep uncommented only the one you want:
#colors Linux
colors LightBG
#colors NoColor

Installing sagetex in sage

2009-05-04T14:22:00.000-07:00

This post describes how I installed sagetex-2.0 recently. Of course, sage was already installed on my computer as well as texlive-full. First, I installed sagetex :

sage -i sagetex-2.0

Then, I created the folder ~/.texmf/tex (for *.sty files) and I edited the file /etc/texmf/texmf.cnf by replacing the line

HOMETEXMF = $HOME/texmf

HOMETEXMF = $HOME/.texmf

Then, I copied the sagetex.sty :

cp sage-3.4/examples/latex_embed/sagetex.sty ~/.texmf/tex/

and I ran the command

sudo texhash

This allowed me to use sagetex from any repository without sagetex.sty inside. I found how to do it on the Ubuntu-fr forum.

Reinstall deleted or damaged files in Debian/Ubuntu

2009-01-20T04:17:00.000-08:00

Suppose you delete or damage a system file named idoit.iam. To recover the file, do the following.

1. Locate the package which installed idoit.iam:

dpkg-query -S idiot.iam

Say the package name is idiotic. (It is possible that there is more than one package, especially if you deleted a directory. Replace the package name with all the package names in what follows.)

2. Try to reinstall the package:

apt-get --reinstall install idoitic

3. Check to see whether your file has been replaced. If so, then you are happy and owe me a beer . If not, then it must be a configuration file (the previous command will not restore configuration files). But all is not lost. Proceed.

4. Download the package without installing:

apt-get -d --reinstall install idiotic

(Technically you don't have to do this because the command in step 2 should have downloaded the packages already.)

5. Change to the directory containing the packages:

cd /var/cache/apt/archives/

6. Now install the packages using dpkg, but forcing it to reinstall the missing configuration files:

dpkg --install --force-confmiss idoitic

Now you should be happy , and still owe me a beer .

PS: Technically, I prefer a good glass of red wine over any beer, but there is no Google icon for wine.

Install Ubuntu Hardy Heron (8.04.1) on Macbook

2008-07-13T11:11:00.000-07:00

I was forced to upgrade my MacBook a few days ago. I don't mean upgrading the software, AppleCare replaced the MacBook. So I have 4 times the RAM and double the hard disk space now, and a whole bunch of components that don't work with Ubuntu out of the box.

I have a MacBook4,1 (Apple --> About this Mac --> More Info...; look at the "Model Identifier" entry), and the relevent Ubuntu community document pages are:

How to install Ubuntu on a MacBook
MacBook_Santa_Rosa

There are three parts:

Installation: install Ubuntu.
Hardward configuration: configure devices.
Enable some neat software.

Installation

Software Update.

Update Mac OS X.
Apple Menu -> Software Update...
Update Firmware if needed. See the following webpage.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1237

Install the rEFIt Boot Menu.

Download from http://refit.sourceforge.net.
Mount the image.
Double-click on the "rEFIt.mpkg" icon.
Reboot to make sure rEFIt is installed.

Resize Hard Drive.
From the output of the mount command, look for the disk mounted on /. In my case it is disk0s2. Change the following command accordingly.

diskutil resizeVolume disk0s2 50G

Reboot.

Install Ubuntu 8.04.1.

Download and burn the Ubuntu CD image from www.ubuntu.com. (I used the 64 bit version because I have the Core 2 Duo Macbook.)
Put it in your computer and reboot.
Select the penguin from the rEFIt menu. (Or hold down C while booting.)
Select "Check CD for defects". It takes a while, but is good to do.
Reboot.
Select the penguin from the rEFIt menu.
Select "Start or install Ubuntu". The Ubuntu desktop will load.
Click the Install icon.
Follow the on-screen instructions. Some notes:
- Make sure to select the US English -- Macintosh keyboard layout.
- Choose to manually edit the partition table.
- Make sure that EFI GPT partition is not mounted.
- Create some partitions (I created: 10G for /; 10G for /scratch; 2G swap; the rest for /home).
- Also make sure that your partitions are mounted in the correct spots (/, /home,...).
Reboot.
Select "Start Partitioning Tool" at the rEFIt menu. It might ask you to sync the MBR GPT maps. Select yes.
Reboot.
Select the Penguin at the rEFIt menu.

Hardware Configuration

Wireless (BROADCOM BCM4328)

You need to have a wired internet connect for this.

Install firmware:

apt-get update
aptitude install ndiswrapper-utils-1.9

wget http://ftp.us.dell.com/network/R151517.EXE
mkdir driver
unzip -a R151517.EXE -d driver/
cd driver/DRIVER/

Activate:

ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf
ndiswrapper -l
ndiswrapper -m
modprobe ndiswrapper

Activate on startup:

echo ndiswrapper >> /etc/modules

Sound

Add to /etc/modprobe.d/options:

options snd_hda_intel model=mbp3

Reboot.
Right click volume control icon.
Select the Switches tab.
Enable Speaker.

iSight

Reference: Ubuntu Forum Post.

Grab firmware from OSX partition.

sudo mount -t hfsplus /dev/sdax /mnt
sudo cp /mnt/System/Library/Extensions/IOUSBFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleUSBVideoSupport.kext/Contents/MacOS/* /lib/firmware/$(uname -r)

Add Mactel repositories to /etc/apt/sources.list.

# Mactel PPA
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/mactel-support/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/mactel-support/ubuntu hardy main

Installation.

apt-get update
apt-get install isight-firmware-tools
ift-extract -a /lib/firmware/$(uname -r)/AppleUSBVideoSupport

Enable changes:

/etc/init.d/hal restart

Test with cheese:

apt-get install cheese
cheese

Touchpad

Add the following InputDevice section to /etc/X11/sorg.conf.

Section "InputDevice"
 Identifier      "MacBook Touchpad"
 Driver          "synaptics"
 Option          "AccelFactor"           "0.015"
 Option          "BottomEdge"            "310"
 Option          "Device"                "/dev/psaux"
 Option          "FingerHigh"            "30"
 Option          "FingerLow"             "20"
 Option          "HorizScrollDelta"      "0"
 Option          "LeftEdge"              "100"
 Option          "MaxDoubleTapTime"      "180"
 Option          "MaxSpeed"              "0.88"
 Option          "MaxTapMove"            "220"
 Option          "MaxTapTime"            "150"
 Option          "MinSpeed"              "0.79"
 Option          "Protocol"              "auto-dev"
 Option          "RightEdge"             "1120"
 Option          "SendCoreEvents"        "true"
 Option          "SHMConfig"             "on"
 Option          "TapButton2"            "3"
 Option          "TapButton3"            "2"
 Option          "TopEdge"               "50"
 Option          "VertScrollDelta"       "25"
 Option          "VertTwoFingerScroll"   "true"
EndSection

Change the InputDevice to "Macbook Touchpad" in the ServerLayout section.

Add syndaemon to the startup programs (System --> Preferences --> Sessions).

syndaemon -i 2 -t -d

Mic

It works, the settings just need to be adjusted: open volume control, unmute Mic and Capture; and make sure that Mic is the Input Source.

Software Configuration

Power Consumption

Install powertop.

apt-get install powertop

Run powertop, wait and implement suggestions.

powertop

I got the following suggestions:

Suggestion: turn bluetooth off.
```
hciconfig hci0 down ; rmmod hci_usb
```
Suggestion: increase the VM dirty writeback time from 5.00 to 15 seconds.
```
echo 1500 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_writeback_centisecs
```
Suggestion: Disable 'hal' from polling your cdrom.
```
hal-disable-polling --device /dev/cdrom
```

Compiz

Enable:

System --> Preferences --> Appearance --> Visual Effects --> Extra

Install settings manager:

apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager

Edit settings:

System --> Preferences --> Advanced Desktop Effects Settings

Amarok


apt-get install amarok k3b libk3b2-extracodecs

Note: k3b and libk3b2-extracodecs are needed to enable disc burning
from Amarok

Google Gadgets

Add repositories to /etc/apt/sources.list.

## Google Gadgets
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/googlegadgets/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/googlegadgets/ubuntu hardy main

Install:

aptitude install google-gadgets

Add to list of startup programs:

System --> Preferences --> Sessions --> Startup Programs --> Add
Name: Google Gadgets
Command: /usr/bin/ggl-gtk -bg
Comment: Google Gadgets

You can add the Google Gadgets to the Widget layer of Compiz.

LaTeX

aptitude install texlive-full vim-latexsuite subversion vim-gtk xpdf

Sage

Install software for compiling Sage:

aptitude apt-get install gcc-4.2-base make m4 bison flex tar perl binutils libstdc++6-dev g++ openssh-client

Download and Install Sage:

wget http://www.sagemath.org/src/sage-3.0.5.tar
tar cvf sage-3.0.5
cd sage-3.0.5
make

Dual-Booting Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon (7.10) on a MacBook

2008-01-10T11:40:00.000-08:00

The following explains how to dual-boot Mac OS X and Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon (7.10) on an (Intel Core Duo) Macbook. This post will only deal with installation, post-installation setup will be dealt with in a later post.

Software Update.

Update Mac OS X.
Apple Menu -> Software Update...
Update Firmware if needed. See the following webpage.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303880

Install the rEFIt Boot Menu.

Download from http://refit.sourceforge.net.
Mount the image.
Double-click on the "rEFIt.mpkg" icon.
Reboot to make sure rEFIt is installed.

Resize Hard Drive.
I have a 74G hard drive, which I will partition in half. From the output of the mount command, look for the disk mounted on /. In my case it is disk0s2. Change the following command accordingly.

diskutil resizeVolume disk0s2 37G

Reboot.

Install Ubuntu 7.10.

Download and burn the Ubuntu CD image (i386 Desktop) from www.ubuntu.com.
Put it in your computer and reboot.
Select the penguin from the rEFIt menu. (Or hold down C while booting.)
Select "Check CD for defects". It takes a while, but is good to do.
Reboot.
Select the penguin from the rEFIt menu.
Select "Start or install Ubuntu". The Ubuntu desktop will load.
Click the Install icon.
Follow the on-screen instructions. Some notes:
- Make sure to select the US English -- Macintosh keyboard layout.
- Choose to manually edit the partition table.
- Make sure that EFI GPT partition is not mounted.
- I created: 2G swap; 10G for /; 25G for /home.
- Also make sure that your partitions are mounted in the correct spots (swap, /home, /).
Reboot.
Select "Start Partitioning Tool" at the rEFIt menu. It might ask you to sync the MBR GPT maps. Select yes.
Reboot.
Select the Penguin at the rEFIt menu.

Synergy: share a mouse and keyboard among computers.

2007-11-01T15:03:00.000-07:00

From the project website:

Synergy lets you easily share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems, each with its own display, without special hardware. It's intended for users with multiple computers on their desk since each system uses its own monitor(s).

Configuration and use. Create a configuration file synergy.conf defining the hostname of the server, the hostnames of the clients and the geometry of the machines, as follows.

section: screens
   servername:
   clientname:
end
section: links
   servername:
       right = clientname
   clientname:
       left = servername
end

Start the server (Linux or Mac OS X).

synergys -f --config synergy.conf

Connect the clients (Linux or Mac OS X).

synergyc -f --name clientname server

where clientname is the hostname of the client as defined in synergy.conf above, and server is the ip address (or hostname) of the server.

Paper size configuration for LaTeX

2007-10-30T14:58:00.000-07:00

Run texconfig, choose PAPER, then select LETTER. Now wait until all the appropriate configuration files are created.

Then return to the menu, select DVIPS, then select PAPER, then select LETTER.

The settings are saved in ~/.texmf-config and ~/.texmf-var, so if something goes wrong, delete those directories and start again.

Import a repository into another repository.

2007-08-30T13:27:00.000-07:00

1. First dump the first repository.

svnadmin dump repo1 > repo1.dumpfile

2. Filter if necessary (see svndumpfilter). Not necessary for me.

3. Create a directory in your repository for the project.

svn mkdir projectdir
svn commit -m "getting ready to import new project"

4. Load the project into the repository.

svnadmin load --parent-dir relative/path/to/projectdir repo2 < repo1.dumpfile

5. Now update your working copies.

svn update

Convert a Subversion repository from BDB to FSFS

2007-08-30T13:20:00.000-07:00

Create a FSFS repository.

svnadmin --fs-type create repo2

Dump the first repository.

svnadmin dump repo1 > repo2.dumpfile

Load the dumpfile into the new FSFS repository.

svnadmin load repo2 < repo2.dumpfile

A lot more information is available in the Subversion FAQ http://subversion.tigris.org/faq.html#bdb-fsfs-convert

Fixing LaTeX-Suite's jump to error feature.

2007-08-29T06:45:00.000-07:00

LaTeX-Suite's jump to error feature doesn't always work correctly. The following is a fix proposed by Martin Sander on the vim-latex-dev mailing list.

The key observation is that passing the option -file-line-error-style to latex formats the output in a parser-friendly manner. So add the following to your .vimrc file.

let g:Tex_CompileRule_dvi = 'latex -interaction=nonstopmode -file-line-error-style $*'

And the following line needs to be added (at the appropriate place; see the patch below for context) to the tex.vim script of the LaTeX-Suite Package.

setlocal efm+=%E%f:%l:\ %m

Here is Martin's patch.

--- /usr/share/vim/addons/compiler/tex.vim      2007-01-29
13:39:58.000000000 +0100
+++ /home/lennox/.vim/compiler/tex.vim  2007-06-14 23:33:33.000000000
+0200
@@ -202,6 +202,7 @@ function! SetLatexEfm()

     setlocal efm+=%E!\ LaTeX\ %trror:\ %m
     setlocal efm+=%E!\ %m
+       setlocal efm+=%E%f:%l:\ %m

     setlocal efm+=%+WLaTeX\ %.%#Warning:\ %.%#line\ %l%.%#
     setlocal efm+=%+W%.%#\ at\ lines\ %l--%*\\d

AIGLX + Compiz Fusion on MacBook

2007-08-20T20:07:00.000-07:00

Install AIGLX. Following the instructions for setting up AIGLX, I did the following.

Edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf file as suggested in the above instructions. My xorg.conf file is below.
Restart the X server with '/etc/init.d/gdm restart'.
# /etc/X11/xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file) # # This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using # values from the debconf database. # # Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf(5) manual page. # (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.) # # This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only* # if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg # package. # # If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated # again, run the following command: # sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg Section "Files" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi" # path to defoma fonts FontPath "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType" EndSection Section "Module" Load "i2c" Load "bitmap" Load "ddc" Load "dri" Load "extmod" Load "freetype" Load "glx" Load "int10" Load "vbe" Load "dbe" EndSection Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Generic Keyboard" Driver "kbd" Option "CoreKeyboard" Option "XkbRules" "xorg" Option "XkbModel" "pc105" Option "XkbLayout" "us" EndSection Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Configured Mouse" Driver "mouse" Option "CorePointer" Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice" Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2" Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5" Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true" EndSection Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Synaptics Touchpad" Driver "synaptics" Option "SendCoreEvents" "true" Option "Device" "/dev/psaux" Option "Protocol" "auto-dev" Option "HorizScrollDelta" "0" Option "SHMConfig" "on" EndSection Section "InputDevice" Identifier "MacBook Touchpad" Driver "synaptics" Option "AccelFactor" "0.015" Option "BottomEdge" "310" Option "Device" "/dev/psaux" Option "FingerHigh" "30" Option "FingerLow" "20" Option "HorizScrollDelta" "0" Option "LeftEdge" "100" Option "MaxDoubleTapTime" "180" Option "MaxSpeed" "0.88" Option "MaxTapMove" "220" Option "MaxTapTime" "150" Option "MinSpeed" "0.79" Option "Protocol" "auto-dev" Option "RightEdge" "1120" Option "SendCoreEvents" "true" Option "SHMConfig" "on" Option "TapButton2" "3" Option "TapButton3" "2" Option "TopEdge" "50" Option "VertScrollDelta" "25" Option "VertTwoFingerScroll" "true" EndSection Section "InputDevice" Driver "wacom" Identifier "stylus" Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom" Option "Type" "stylus" Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY EndSection Section "InputDevice" Driver "wacom" Identifier "eraser" Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom" Option "Type" "eraser" Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY EndSection Section "InputDevice" Driver "wacom" Identifier "cursor" Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom" Option "Type" "cursor" Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller" Driver "i810" Option "XAANoOffscreenPixmaps" BusID "PCI:0:2:0" EndSection Section "Monitor" Identifier "Generic Monitor" Option "DPMS" HorizSync 28-64 VertRefresh 43-60 EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Default Screen" Device "Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller" Monitor "Generic Monitor" DefaultDepth 24 SubSection "Display" Depth 1 Modes "1280x800" EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Depth 4 Modes "1280x800" EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Depth 8 Modes "1280x800" EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Depth 15 Modes "1280x800" EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Depth 16 Modes "1280x800" EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Depth 24 Modes "1280x800" EndSubSection EndSection Section "ServerLayout" Identifier "Default Layout" Screen "Default Screen" InputDevice "Generic Keyboard" InputDevice "Configured Mouse" InputDevice "stylus" "SendCoreEvents" InputDevice "cursor" "SendCoreEvents" InputDevice "eraser" "SendCoreEvents" # InputDevice "Synaptics Touchpad" InputDevice "MacBook Touchpad" Option "AIGLX" "true" EndSection Section "DRI" Mode 0666 EndSection Section "Extensions" Option "Composite" "Enable" EndSection

Un-install Beryl, Compiz, Emerald, etc.

apt-get remove compiz-core desktop-effects
apt-get remove beryl-ubuntu beryl-manager emerald

Install Compiz Fusion.

Add repositories.

deb http://download.tuxfamily.org/3v1deb feisty eyecandy
deb-src http://download.tuxfamily.org/3v1deb feisty eyecandy

Import key.

wget http://download.tuxfamily.org/3v1deb/DD800CD9.gpg -O - | sudo apt-key add -

Install Compiz Fusion.

apt-get update
apt-get install compiz compizconfig-settings-manager compiz-plugins compiz-gnome compiz-fusion-plugins-extra compiz-fusion-plugins-unofficial libcompizconfig-backend-gconf
apt-get install sexy-python
apt-get upgrade

[Optional] Test.

compiz --replace

Setup with the Compiz Config Settings Manager.
```
ccsm
```
Add compiz to AutoStarted Programs.
Restart the X server with '/etc/init.d/gdm restart'.

Macbook/Synaptics Trackpad Configuration

2007-07-13T09:22:00.000-07:00

A while back I upgraded my Macbook to Ubuntu Feisty Fawn. The installation was extremely smooth, and everything just worked.

But I have tweaked my TrackPad configuration. Make sure to edit the ServerLayout section to use the MacBook Touchpad input device.

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "MacBook Touchpad"
        Driver          "synaptics"
        Option          "AccelFactor"           "0.015"
        Option          "BottomEdge"            "310"
        Option          "Device"                "/dev/psaux"
        Option          "FingerHigh"            "30"
        Option          "FingerLow"             "20"
        Option          "HorizScrollDelta"      "0"
        Option          "LeftEdge"              "100"
        Option          "MaxDoubleTapTime"      "180"
        Option          "MaxSpeed"              "0.88"
        Option          "MaxTapMove"            "220"
        Option          "MaxTapTime"            "150"
        Option          "MinSpeed"              "0.79"
        Option          "Protocol"              "auto-dev"
        Option          "RightEdge"             "1120"
        Option          "SendCoreEvents"        "true"
        Option          "SHMConfig"             "on"
        Option          "TapButton2"            "3"
        Option          "TapButton3"            "2"
        Option          "TopEdge"               "50"
        Option          "VertScrollDelta"       "25"
        Option          "VertTwoFingerScroll"   "true"
EndSection

There are several advantages to this configuration, including mimicking the Mac OS X two finger scrolling and two finger tapping for a right click. But most importantly: SHMConfig is activated; and so we can enable syndaemon (at startup)

syndaemon -i 2 -t -d

syndaemon is a program that monitors keyboard activity and disables the touchpad when the keyboard is being used. The -i option specifics the time in seconds to wait after the last keypress before enabling the touchpad; -t disables only tapping, not mouse movements; there are -k and -K options to ignore modifier keys or modifier+key combinations; finally, -d starts the program as a daemon.

Linux workstation setup (LaTeX+Vim+Xpdf+SVN+LaTeXSuite)

2007-07-08T11:28:00.000-07:00

Here is what I do with a fresh Ubuntu/Debian installation to get my optimal LaTeX configuration setup.

Installation. Install LaTeX, Vim, LaTeXSuite, Subversion and XPDF.

aptitude install texlive-full
aptitude install vim-latexsuite
aptitude install subversion
aptitude install vim-gtk
aptitude install xpdf

Configuration.

Xmodmap. Swap the CapsLock and Control keys. Add the following to the file ~/.xmodmaprc.

 ! Swap Caps_Lock and Control_L
remove Lock = Caps_Lock
remove Control = Control_L
keysym Control_L = Caps_Lock
keysym Caps_Lock = Control_L
add Lock = Caps_Lock
add Control = Control_L

Run xmodmap to implement the changes.

xmodmap ~/.xmodmaprc

Xpdf. Configure XPDF to use vi keybindings for navigation. Add the following to the file ~/.Xresouces.
```
xpdf.viKeys: true
```
Enable the changes with xrdb:
```
xrdb ~/.Xresouces.
```
Vim. Download my .vimrc and .gvimrc files.

XPDF with vi keybindings

2007-07-08T11:24:00.000-07:00

Here is how to enable vi keybindings for xpdf navigation (j for up, k for down, h for left, l for right).

Add the following line to your ~/.Xresouces file.

xpdf.viKeys: true

Then run xrdb to load the changes:

xrdb ~/.Xresouces

PDFEdit: Edit PDF files in Linux

2007-07-08T11:07:00.000-07:00

PDFEdit is the PDF editor that I have been looking for. It supports drawing and annotating PDF documents. It isn't included in the Ubuntu repositories yet, but there is a Debian/Ubuntu package.

Installation. Get the latest version of the software from here. The filename begins with pdfedit. Then install it with dpkg:

dpkg -i pdfedit_0.3.1-1~3v1ubuntu0_i386.deb

Use. Launch; load a PDF file; annotate.

Vim + LaTeXSuite + XPDF for LaTeX editing

2007-07-08T10:15:00.000-07:00

Here is my LaTeX editing configuration.

Since XPDF has a refresh feature, I have set up my LaTeX editor (Vim + LaTeXSuite) to generate a PDF file and automatically refresh the XPDF window. Hence, one command compiles the LaTeX file (an appropriate number of times to get the references and citations correct!), converts the dvi file to a PDF file and refreshes the XPDF window.

General comment. If you spend a lot of time editing text, then it is well worth your time to learn to use an efficient editor. Vim is one example of such an editor. Another is Emacs.

Installation. Use apt-get to install all the software.

apt-get install vim-gtk vim-latexsuite xpdf

Configuration. Here are the relevant entries of my .vimrc file.

" General features.
syntax enable " enable syntax highlighting
set hlsearch " hightlight search
set textwidth=70 " set textwidth to 70 to cause wrapping
set history=50 " 50 lines of command lines history
set viminfo='20,\"50 " read/write a .viminfo file with at most 50 lines
set ruler " show the cursor position all the time
set spell " turn on speel checking
set nojoinspaces " only put one space after periods

"""""
" For latex-suite, as suggested by the LatexSuite documentation.
filetype plugin on " to enable latex-suite when a tex file is loaded
set shellslash
set grepprg=grep\ -nH\ $*
filetype indent off

" Run latex, then dvipdf, then refresh the xpdf window.
let g:Tex_FormatDependency_pdf = 'dvi,pdf'
let g:Tex_CompileRule_pdf = 'dvipdf $*.dvi; xpdf -remote 127.0.0.1 -reload -raise'
let g:Tex_ViewRule_pdf = 'xpdf -remote 127.0.0.1'
let g:Tex_DefaultTargetFormat = 'pdf'
" Set the target format to pdf.

" Set the warning messages to ignore.
let g:Tex_IgnoredWarnings =
\"Underfull\n".
\"Overfull\n".
\"specifier changed to\n".
\"You have requested\n".
\"Missing number, treated as zero.\n".
\"There were undefined references\n".
\"Citation %.%# undefined\n".
\'LaTeX Font Warning:'"
" This number N says that latex-suite should ignore the first N of the above.
let g:Tex_IgnoreLevel = 8

" TIP: if you write your \label's as \label{fig:something}, then if you
" type in \ref{fig: and press Ctrl-N you will automatically cycle through
" all the figure labels. Very useful!
set iskeyword+=:

Use. The command \lv launches xpdf and \ll runs latex, dvipdf, xpdf -reload. LaTeXSuite has many interesting features to allow for quick writing of LaTeX documents. For example, typing `a will insert \alpha and F5 offers a shortcut to inserting an environment (e.g., displaymath). Check out the online tutorial.

Set svn to ignore auxiliary LaTeX files

2007-07-08T10:03:00.000-07:00

Using SubVersion for LaTeX document management is great. (See my earlier post on setting this up.) However, there are certain files (.aux, .log, etc.) that are best not put under revision control because they change very often. The following describes how to set svn to ignore these files, so that the output of 'svn status' doesn't report them.

1) Create a file called "ignore-these" with the (patterns of) files you want svn to ignore. For example,

*.aux
*.bbl
*.blg
*.bst
*.dvi
*.idx
*.lof
*.log
*.pdf
*.toc
includeonly.tex

2) Then run the command,

svn -R propset svn:ignore . -F ignore-these

3) Should you need to edit these properties, use the following command.

svn propedit svn:ignore .

(On Mac OS X you need to set the EDITOR variable: 'export EDITOR=vim')

KeyJNote: stylish presentations

2007-07-08T09:45:00.000-07:00

KeyJNote is a PDF presentation displaying application. It is a python script that uses pdf and ghostscript for PDF rendering. It is very stylish and includes many cool page transitions, an overview feature and the ability to highlight and spotlight parts of the slide during the presentation. The above image shows the overview feature.

Installation. On Ubuntu, use apt-get:

apt-get install keyjnote

Otherwise download the software from the project site.

Use. Just launch the program from the command line with the name of a pdf file; it will use random transitions. You can specify which transitions to use through an auxiliary file.

More information. There is an online manual, and a demo presentation that highlights KeyJNote's features. It is best viewed with KeyJNote.

Mathematics on Linux

2007-07-08T09:42:00.000-07:00

I should probably change the name of this blog to Mathematics on Linux, or something to that effect.

LaTeXDraw -- Pictue drawing for LaTeX and PSTricks: Part 2

2007-07-08T09:24:00.000-07:00

LaTeXDraw is another GPL'd graphical PSTricks editor for LateX. It is developed in java, so it's independent of the OS, and it's available in English, in Spanish and in French.

Installation. Download and unzip. There is a readme.txt file with instructions, but you need only run 'java -jar installer.jar'.

Configuration. You need to configure some things, but the program lets you know if you try to do something that needs configuration.

Use. Draw. Cut and paste the PSTricks code into your LaTeX document.

Comparison with JPicEdt. Both have their strengths. It seems JPicEdt implements more drawing functions, but that is something that can easily change with some development. I like that one can see the PSTricks code generated by LaTeXDraw as one draws. I also prefer the look of the LaTeXDraw interface.

JPicEdt -- Picture drawing for LaTeX and PSTricks: Part 1

2007-07-08T08:55:00.000-07:00

JPicEdt is an open source, multi-platform and interactive picture editor for LaTeX and PSTricks. You use a GUI to draw your pictures and the pictures are saved as tex source code, so you just paste the code into your latex document.

Installation. The webpage has installation instructions. Basically: download and launch the installer and follow the on-screen instructions.

Configuration. You must configure the program to point to the location of latex and friends. But I have already done this, so just copy the contents in the box below to the file ~/.jpicedt/preferences, and change USERNAME to your username.

Use. Use the TeX button to compile the image, the DviPS button to convert the image to PostScript, and the PS button to view the PostScript file. When completed, save it as a TeX file, then copy and paste it into your LaTeX document.

Comparison with LaTeXDraw. Both have their strengths. It seems JPicEdt implements more drawing functions, but that is something that can easily change with some development. I like that one can see the PSTricks code generated by LaTeXDraw as one draws. I also prefer the look of the LaTeXDraw interface.

#jPicEdt Preferences
#Sun Jul 08 11:55:29 EDT 2007
view.page-format=170 100 5 5
command.user2=
command.user1=
latex.max-emulated-line-slope=1000
latex.max-circle-diameter=14
latex.file-wrapper-prolog=\\documentclass{article} \n\\thispagestyle{empty}\n\\begin{document} \n
directory.files=/home/USERNAME
ui.dockable-panel.Toolkit.y=7
grid.snap-on=true
ui.dockable-panel.Toolkit.x=651
ui.dockable-panel.Toolkit.visible=true
eepic.thicklines=0.3
ui.desktop-color=-9803313
rendering.render=speed
pstricks.file-wrapper-epilog=\\end{document}
command.ghostview={i}/unix/tetex/ext_proc.sh {p} evince {f}.ps
ui.dockable-panel.Toolkit.width=165
canvas.zoom=100%
canvas.max-undoable-steps=100
app.language=en
ui.dockable-panel.Attributes.width=128
eepic.file-wrapper-prolog=\\documentclass{article} \n\\usepackage{epic,eepic} \n\\thispagestyle{empty}\n\\begin{document}\n
command.dvips={i}/unix/tetex/ext_proc.sh {p} dvips {f}
eepic.thinlines=0.15
latex.max-emulated-circle-segment-length=1
ui.dockable-panel.Attributes.y=0
latex.file-wrapper-epilog=\\end{document}
ui.dockable-panel.Attributes.x=0
ui.dockable-panel.Attributes.height=0
command.dvi={i}/unix/tetex/ext_proc.sh {p} xdvi {f}
view.text-font=SansSerif-10
grid.color=-4144960
latex.emulated-line-length=0.12
app.tmpdir=/tmp
grid.visible=true
ui.mdimgr=child-frames
ui.dockable-panel.Toolkit.height=343
menu.recent-file.1=/tmp/foo.tex
rendering.antialiasing=off
grid.snap-step=5.0
ui.look-and-feel=Metal
grid.line-style=solid
ui.geometry.height=720
eepic.file-wrapper-epilog=\\end{document}
ui.dockable-panel.Attributes.visible=false
rendering.fractional-metrics=off
pstricks.file-wrapper-prolog=\\documentclass{article} \n\\usepackage{pst-all} \n\\thispagestyle{empty}\n\\begin{document} \n
ui.geometry.y=0
ui.geometry.x=53
grid.display-step=10.0
rendering.text-antialiasing=off
ui.geometry.width=823
command.latex={i}/unix/tetex/ext_proc.sh {p} latex {f}
latex.max-disk-diameter=5.4
rendering.dither=off
canvas.content-type=jpicedt.format.output.latex.LatexContentType

Nokia 770 Connectivity: WPA with PEAP and .p7b Certificates

2007-02-01T11:33:00.000-08:00

(I've had a Nokia 770 Internet Tablet for almost a year now; this seems to be my first post about the device.)

Here are instructions for connecting to a wireless network with the Nokia 770 via WPA with PEAP and a pre-issued .p7b certificate.

Convert the .p7b certificate to .cer certificates.The Certificate Manager cannot import .p7b certificates, so they must be converted to .cer files. Since .p7b files can contain individual certificates, you need to unpack the certificates and import each one individually. I did this in Mac OS X since it was the nearest machine at the time:
- Double click the .p7b file;
- KeyChain Access launches; choose to import the key;
- One at a time, select each certificate and select Export from the File menu; export as .cer files.
Import the keys. Copy the .cer files to the Nokia 770; launch the Certificate Manager (found on the Control Panel) and import each key individually.
Connect to the network. Start the network connection process.
- Security method: WPA with EAP;
- EAP Type: PEAP;
- Certificate: None;
- EAP Method: MSCHAPv2;
- User name: ********;
- Password: ********;
- As recommended, in the Advanced section, under the EAP tab, select "Use manual user name" and enter your username there as well.

Including Code Samples in Blogger Posts

2006-12-31T05:42:00.000-08:00

To include code samples as nice as mine, do the following. Of course, the following instructions are blogger specific. Also, the code was copied from All about Linux.

Go to your template and select "Edit HTML". Add the following code to the section entitled Posts.

.post pre {
background-color: #efefef;
font-family: 'andale mono','Courier New', Monaco, monospace;
font-size: 1.25em;
padding: 1em 1em;
width: 90%;
border: 2px dotted #ddd;
overflow: auto;
}

Now if you want to include some code in your post, then just do the following.

<pre><code>Include code here.</code></pre>

You will have to replace HTML characters (like <>) with the appropriate decimal codes. There are plenty of sites with character tables.

Subversion for Document Management

2006-12-30T19:30:00.000-08:00

I am going to use subversion and ssh for document management and off-site document storage. Subversion is a revision control system. It will allow me to work on the project from any computer since I can download the project files, work on them, and then upload the changes. Moreover, Subversion will keep track of the revisions, allowing me to revert to older versions if necessary. This post describes how to use subversion for document or small project management. See the work cycle section of the Subversion Book for a more detailed exposition. [I recommend using ssh-keys and ssh-agent on your main computer so you don't have to type your ssh password several times per session; see the post on creating and using ssh-keys.]

Setup. Install Subversion. Both on your client machines and on the server (ask your sysadmin). On Ubuntu:

apt-get install subversion

Below the subversion server will be called svn.server.com, and the username will be username. I ssh'd to svn.server.com and ran the following command to create a Subversion repository where Subversion will store the projects.

svnadmin create ~/subversion-repo

Create Project. To create a new project, create a new directory and populate the directory with files that you will need.

mkdir brilliant-paper

Import Project. Import the project into your subversion repository with the following command.

 svn import -m "My Brilliant Paper" brilliant-paper svn+ssh://username@svn.server.com/home/username/subversion-repo/brilliant-paper

Now delete your project directory. (You will download a working copy in the next step.)

 rm -rf brilliant-paper/*

Work Cycle. The following steps describe how to use Subversion to work on the project.

Download Project. Sit down at a computer, any computer, install Subversion if necessary, and download the latest version of the project. Either:

download the project, if is hasn't been downloaded before:

svn checkout svn+ssh://username@svn.server.com/home/username/subversion-repo/brilliant-paper

or update the project if you've already downloaded a version of the project: in the project directory run,
```
svn update
```

Make changes.
- You can edit any files that exist and subversion will detect those changes.
- If you want to add a new file, then use the add command.
```
svn add newfile
```
- Similarly, you can delete, copy and move files or directories.
```
svn delete filename
svn copy filename copyname
svn move filename newname
```
Examine Changes. Nothing above makes changes to the project in the repository. Before you commit any changes you might want to examine the changes you have made. Use the 'svn status' and 'svn diff' commands. If a file has changed and you want to revert to a previous version, then revert to the most recent version of that file in the repository with the command 'svn revert filename'.
Commit Changes. Commit your changes with the commit command.
```
svn commit -m 'Write a summary of your changes here.'
```
Check Commit. In the top of your project directory run the status command.
```
svn status
```
If there is no output, then all changes have been committed. If there is some output, then there are files that have been changed or added, but not committed for some reason. See the help page to decode the output: svn help status

References.

SSH-Keys to simplify SSH Logins

2006-12-30T19:10:00.000-08:00

By creating an ssh key you can login to a remote machine multiple times with only one password.

Setup: Create the ssh-key.

Create the ssh-key with the following command. Hit enter; pick a good passphrase.

ssh-keygen -t rsa

Copy the resulting public key to the remote machine:

scp ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub remote.server.com:~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Enter you password.

Using ssh-agent.

The following command adds your new ssh key to your 'keyring'. You will be prompted for the passphrase.

ssh-add

[If the above command fails, then ssh-agent is not running. Start it with eval `ssh-agent`.]

Now you won't be prompted for the passphrase again until the next time you log in. You can ssh into the remote machine using ssh as usual without being prompted for a password.

LaTeX Editing on the 13.3" Macbook (on Linux)

2006-12-20T10:14:00.000-08:00

Here is my configuration for LaTeX editing on the 13.3" Macbook (running Linux). I configured gvim and xdvi so that the former occupies the left half of the screen and the latter occupies the right half of the screen. I then use a program that watches the tex file for changes; when I save any changes, the file is compiled and the xdvi window is updated. (One such program is atchange.)

My ~/.gvimrc file sets the window position and geometry of the gvim window.

set lines=39 columns=73
winpos 0 0

My ~/.Xresources file sets the window position, geometry and other options for xdvi.

xdvi*paper: us
xdvi*expert: true
xdvi*pixelsPerInch: 300
xdvi*mfMode: ljfour:600
xdvi*thorough: true
xdvi*background: light yellow
xdvi*shrinkFactor: 7
xdvi*geometry: 590x745-0+0
xdvi.sideMargin: 2cm
xdvi.topMargin: 2cm
xdvi.mainTranslations: #override\
Shift<key>space: up-or-previous()\n\
<key>space: unpause-or-next()\n\
<key>j: down(0.015)\n\
<key>k: up(0.015)\n\
<key>l: right(0.015)\n\
<key>h: left(0.015)

My ~/.vimrc file sets the textwidth, syntax-highlighting and some other options.

" enable syntax highlighting
syntax enable

" hightlight search
set hlsearch

" set textwidth to 70 to cause wrapping
set textwidth=70

" autoindenting
set ai

" 50 lines of command lines history
set history=50

" .viminfo file with 50 lines of registers
set viminfo='20,\"50

" show the cursor position all the time
set ruler

" turn on speel cheqing
set spell

Finally, check out the LaTeX Suite package that provides several useful tools for LaTeX editing with vim.

Enable Shift-Space in XDvi for Page-Up

2006-12-20T10:00:00.000-08:00

I use evince and xdvi for document viewing and I want the page navigation to be same: while both use Space for page down, the page up keys are difference (evince uses Shift-Space; xdvi uses Delete). This is how to set Shift-Space to act as page up for xdvi.

Add the following lines to ~/.Xresources (or ~/.Xdefaults).

xdvi.mainTranslations: #override\
Shiftspace: up-or-previous()\n\
space: unpause-or-next()\n

Then run the following command

xrdb ~/.Xresources

You're all set.

Some notes.

The order is important. The translation table is searched from top to bottom, so if the line beginning space... appeared before the line Shiftspace..., then both Space and Shift-Space would trigger unpause-or-next().
There are many other options for xdvi (and other programs) that can be set in ~/.Xresources. See the man page for xdvi for more information.

Making the Apple Command Key work Properly in Linux

2006-11-09T08:23:00.000-08:00

This post explains how to get the Apple Command key to behave like an Alt key; and how to configure Firefox to use the Alt key instead of the Control key as its accelerator key. The goal is to get Firefox and the Apple Command key to work similarly under both Mac OS X and Linux.

Map Command Key to Alt. Add the following lines to ~/.xmodmaprc.

! Set the left Apple key act as an alt key.
keycode 115 = Alt_L Meta_L
add mod1 = Alt_L Meta_L

The following command enacts these changes.

xmodmap .xmodmaprc

(These changes can be set to begin at boot time. Gnome notices the files and will ask you if you want to use it. There is an earlier post here on getting it to work in XFce4.)

Change Accelerator Key in Firefox. Launch Firefox. Type about:config in the location bar and hit enter. Set the following two attributes as follows.

ui.key.accelkey 18
ui.key.menuAccessKey 0

The first defines the accelerator key to be the Alt key, while the second disables accessing the menu from the keyboard, which is the usual behaviour for the Alt key.

Now restart Firfox. The menus should reflect the change by reading "Alt+" instead of "Ctrl+" in defining the shortcuts.

Automatix: Automated Post-Installation Setup for Ubuntu

2006-11-05T13:01:00.000-08:00

Automatix is a python script that automates some post-installation setup of Ubuntu. From the website, Automatix is a graphical interface for automating the installation of the most commonly requested applications in Debian based linux operating systems. This includes multimedia codecs, multimedia players, browser plugins, etc. The Automatix website includes a page delineating all the software installed by this script.

Add the Automatix repository to /etc/apt/sources.list.

## Automatix Repository
deb http://www.getautomatix.com/apt edgy main

Download and import the gpg key.

wget http://www.getautomatix.com/apt/key.gpg.asc
gpg --import key.gpg.asc
gpg --export --armor 521A9C7C | sudo apt-key add -

Install Automatix.

apt-get update
apt-get install automatix2

Run Automatix and select what you want to install. I selected just about everything (no wine).

automatix2

Resolution on the MacBook

2006-11-05T12:03:00.000-08:00

To fix the resolution on the MacBook: activate the universe repositories and install 915resolution:

apt-get install 915resolution

AIGLX + Beryl on MacBook

2006-10-29T09:51:00.000-08:00

Install AIGLX. Following the instructions for setting up AIGLX, I did the following.

Edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. My xorg.conf file is below.
Restart the X server with '/etc/init.d/gdm restart'.
# /etc/X11/xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file) # # This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using # values from the debconf database. # # Edit this file with caution, and see the /etc/X11/xorg.conf manual page. # (Type "man /etc/X11/xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.) # # This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only* # if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg # package. # # If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated # again, run the following command: # sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg Section "Files" FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/misc" FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/cyrillic" FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled" FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled" FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/Type1" FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi" FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc" # path to defoma fonts FontPath "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType" EndSection Section "Module" Load "i2c" Load "bitmap" Load "ddc" Load "dri" Load "extmod" Load "freetype" Load "glx" Load "int10" Load "type1" Load "vbe" Load "dbe" EndSection Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Generic Keyboard" Driver "kbd" Option "CoreKeyboard" Option "XkbRules" "xorg" Option "XkbModel" "pc105" Option "XkbLayout" "us" Option "XkbOptions" "lv3:ralt_switch" EndSection Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Configured Mouse" Driver "mouse" Option "CorePointer" Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice" Option "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2" Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5" Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true" EndSection Section "InputDevice" Driver "wacom" Identifier "stylus" Option "Device" "/dev/wacom" # Change to # /dev/input/event # for USB Option "Type" "stylus" Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY EndSection Section "InputDevice" Driver "wacom" Identifier "eraser" Option "Device" "/dev/wacom" # Change to # /dev/input/event # for USB Option "Type" "eraser" Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY EndSection Section "InputDevice" Driver "wacom" Identifier "cursor" Option "Device" "/dev/wacom" # Change to # /dev/input/event # for USB Option "Type" "cursor" Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "Intel Corporation Mobile Integrated Graphics Controller" Driver "i810" Option "XAANoOffscreenPixmaps" BusID "PCI:0:2:0" EndSection Section "Monitor" Identifier "Color LCD" Option "DPMS" HorizSync 28-64 VertRefresh 43-60 EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Default Screen" Device "Intel Corporation Mobile Integrated Graphics Controller" Monitor "Color LCD" DefaultDepth 24 SubSection "Display" Depth 1 Modes "1280x800" EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Depth 4 Modes "1280x800" EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Depth 8 Modes "1280x800" EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Depth 15 Modes "1280x800" EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Depth 16 Modes "1280x800" EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Depth 24 Modes "1280x800" EndSubSection EndSection Section "ServerLayout" Identifier "Default Layout" Screen "Default Screen" InputDevice "Generic Keyboard" InputDevice "Configured Mouse" InputDevice "stylus" "SendCoreEvents" InputDevice "cursor" "SendCoreEvents" InputDevice "eraser" "SendCoreEvents" Option "AIGLX" "true" EndSection Section "DRI" Mode 0666 EndSection Section "Extensions" Option "Composite" "Enable" EndSection

Install Beryl. Follow the instructions:

Add repository.
deb http://ubuntu.beryl-project.org/ edgy main-edgy

Import key.

wget http://ubuntu.beryl-project.org/quinn.key.asc -O - | sudo apt-key add -

Install Beryl.
apt-get update
apt-get install beryl emerald-themes
[Optional] Test the Beryl window manager.

beryl-manager

Add beryl-manager to System -> Preferences -> Sessions -> Startup Programs.
Restart the X server with '/etc/init.d/gdm restart'.

Dual-Boot Ubuntu Edgy Eft (6.10) on a MacBook

2006-10-28T23:35:00.000-07:00

The following explains how to dual-boot Mac OS X and Ubuntu Edge Eft (6.10) on the new Intel Macbooks. This will only deal with the installation, post-installation setup will be dealt with in a later post.

This is an amalgamation of instructions for Ubuntu Dapper Dan (6.06) from various sources. Most notably, Felipe Alfaro Solana's blog entry about
Installing Ubuntu Linux on a MacBook Pro.

Software Update.

Update Mac OS X.
Apple Menu -> Software Update...
Update Firmware if needed. See the following webpage.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303880

Install the rEFIt Boot Menu.

Download from http://refit.sourceforge.net.
Mount the image.
Drag the efi folder to Macintosh HD icon on desktop.
Open a terminal.
cd /efi/refit
./enable-always.sh
Unmount the image.

Resize Hard Drive.

I have a 80G hard drive. I will create a 50G partition for OS X and the rest for Linux. I will further partition the latter partition into three partitions during the Ubuntu installation: one of 15G (/home); one of 2G (swap); and the rest for the root partition /.

diskutil resizeVolume disk0s2 50G

I got the name of my disk (disk0s2) from the output of the mount command. Look for the disk mounted on /.

[You can use Bootcamp for partitioning instead, if you'd like.]

Install Ubuntu.

Download the Ubuntu CD image (i386 Desktop) from www.ubuntu.com.
Create a CD.
Put it in your computer and reboot.
During startup hold the C key.
Check CD for defects. It takes a while, but is good to do.
Reboot.
Select Start or install Ubuntu. The Ubuntu desktop loads.
Click the Install icon.
Follow the on screen instructions. Some notes on partitioning:
- Manually edit the partition table. I created: 2G swap; 15G /home; 7+G /.
- On the next screen make sure that EFI GPT partition is not mounted.
- Also make sure that your partitions are mounted in the correct spots (swap, /home, /).
- Remember what your / partition is (mine is /dev/sda5).
Grub will fail to install. This is expected. We'll install LILO later.
Make the / partition bootable (mine is /dev/sda5).
parted /dev/sda
set 5
boot
on
quit
Install LILO.
mount -t proc none /target/proc
mount -o bind /dev /target/dev
chroot /target
apt-get install lilo lilo-doc linux-686-smp
Create /etc/lilo.conf, adjusting /dev/sda5 to reflect your / partition.
boot=/dev/sda5
default=Ubuntu
map=/boot/map
delay=20
image=/vmlinuz initrd=/initrd.img
root=/dev/sda5
append=noapic
label=Ubuntu
read-only
Install LILO.
lilo -b /dev/sda
Exit the chrooted environment.
exit
Check that LILO is installed. Look for LILO at the beginning of the output of the following command.
hexdump -C /dev/sda | less
Reboot.
umount /target/proc
umount /target/dev
umount /target
reboot
Select "Start Partitioning Tool" at the rEFIt menu. It might ask you to sync the MBR GPT maps. Select yes.
Reboot.
Select the Penguin at the rEFIt menu.

Avoiding Google's Local Redirection

2006-09-20T22:14:00.000-07:00

When visiting www.google.com from a Canadian IP address I am automatically redirected to www.google.ca. To correct this unwanted behaviour click on Go to Google.com at the bottom of the latter page.

Editing PDFs in Linux

2006-09-20T18:21:00.000-07:00

Evince is my document viewer of choice these days because it supports PDF, PostScript, DVI and DejaVu files. But it doesn't support annotating documents. So far, I have found the following programs for editing PDF files.

flpsed is a PostScript annotator. So convert PDF files to PostScript using pdftops and use flpsed.

Scribus is an open-source application for "professional page layout". This means that it is overkill for a PDF viewer if you only annotate occasionally. Hmm. It seems that you have to convert to PostScript here as well (then File -> Import -> Import PS).

These programs can be installed with apt-get.

apt-get install evince
apt-get install scribus
apt-get install flpsed

I wonder how hard it would be to merge flpsed and evince.

Xournal (or Annotating PDF files)

2006-09-14T11:36:00.000-07:00

Xournal is software written specifically for tablet computers for hand writing notes, or journals, say. I've used it on my Nokia 770. But it has an excellent feature that makes it useful on a non-tablet computer: It allows you to annotate pdf files! This includes highlighting and doodling. Here is a screenshot.

To install it, download the latest version from the project website. Unpack it and run the script called install-binary.

tar -xzvf xournal.tar.gz
cd xournal-0.3.1
sudo ./install-binary

iPod Shuffle and (X)Ubuntu

2006-09-13T22:19:00.000-07:00

I got a free iPod shuffle for switching banks. Yeah, I'm a gadget whore.

Here is how to use it with (X)Ubuntu.

Software. Install GNUPod.

apt-get install gnupod-tools

Install iPod Shuffle DB Rebuilder (shuffle_db).

Download the script from the project website.

Initialization. This only needs to be done once (or anytime you mess up the shuffle).

mount /dev/sda1 /media/ipod/
gnupod_INIT -m /media/ipod/
mkdir /media/ipod/music/
cp rebuild_db.py /media/ipod/

The device file /dev/sda1 might differ on different machines.

Transfering Music is a four step process: mount; copy mp3s into the music directory; rebuild the database; umount.

mount -o exec /dev/sda1 /media/ipod
cp ~/music/songs /media/ipod/music/
/media/ipod/rebuild_db.py -l music
umount /media/ipod

Alternatives. You can transfer music to the Shuffle with GNUPod or GTKPod, but I like the shuffle_db better because it is very simple and because it maintains directory structure.

Google Picasa

2006-09-10T21:28:00.000-07:00

Install Google's Picasa. Download the .deb package for Debian/Ubuntu and install with

dpkg -i picasa_2.2.2820-5_i386.deb

Pipe Panic!

2006-09-10T20:41:00.000-07:00

I came across Pipe Panic for the Nokia 770, and I really like it. It's a pipe connecting game: the goal is to connect pipes to create a leak-proof path from a water source to its destination.

Requirements. Install the libSDL libraries with apt-get.

apt-get install libsdl1.2-dev

Installation. Download the sourcecode from the Pipe Panic website.

Extract and compile the package.

tar -xzvf pipepanic-0.1.3-source.tar.gz
cd pipepanic
make

(For the last step above you need to have the build tools installed. See my earlier post on post-installation setup.)

Test it.

./pipepanic -f

Install system wide.

mv pipepanic pipepanic.bin

Create a file called pipepanic containing the following three lines.

#!/bin/bash
cd /usr/local/pipepanic-0.1.3
exec ./pipepanic.bin -f

Copy the pipepanic directory into /usr/local.

cd ..
mv pipepanic-0.1.3-source /usr/local/pipepanic-0.1.3

Create symbolic links

cd /usr/local/bin
ln -s ../pipepanic-0.1.3/pipepanic .

Add a menu entry. To add an entry to the Xfce menu, create a file called /usr/share/applications/pipepanic.desktop containing the following.

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Pipe Panic
Comment=Connect the Pipes!
Exec=pipepanic
Icon=
Terminal=false
X-MultipleArgs=false
Type=Application
Categories=Application;Game;ArcadeGame;

Start GNU Screen Automatically

2006-08-20T08:58:00.000-07:00

GNU Screen is a very useful program that creates multiple interactive shells inside one physical terminal. It is extremely useful for system administrators and for using with SSH connections and tunnels. See the webpage for more information, guides and manuals.

To have screen start automatically upon login, add the following line to ~/.bash_profile.

exec /usr/bin/screen

Add the following to ~/.bashrc. This produces a message acknowledging screen is activated.

if [ "$TERM" = "screen" ]; then echo "[ screen is activated ]" fi

Add the following to ~/.screenrc. It prevents screen from popping up its startup message; and defines the number of scrollback lines available.

startup_message off
defscrollback 10000

Finally, to force xterm to start bash as a login shell (so that bash reads ~/.bash_profile), add the following line to ~/.Xresources. (This will have to be modified appropriately for other terminals.)

Xterm*loginShell: true

You can implement the changes to ~/.Xresources with the following command.

xrdb ~/.Xresources

Vi editing mode on the command line

2006-08-18T11:18:00.000-07:00

To set the default command line editing mode to vi (instead of emacs), add the following to ~/.inputrc.

set editing-mode vi
set keymap vi-insert

Or add the following to ~/.bashrc.

set -o vi

Xmodmap on login.

2006-08-18T11:03:00.000-07:00

I use xmodmap to change a few keybindings. This post describes how to get xmodmap to load your settings upon login.

Create ~/.xinitrc (or maybe ~/.xsession) with two lines: the first loads your xmodmap file; the second starts the windowmanager. Since I am using xfce4, my .xinitrc file looks like so.

/usr/bin/xmodmap ~/.xmodmaprc
exec /usr/bin/startxfce4

Exit. At the login screen change the "session" setting to "Default System Session" and log in.

Here is my .xmodmaprc file.

keycode 112 = 30

! Swap Caps_Lock and Control_L
! since my pinkie hurts.

remove Lock = Caps_Lock
remove Control = Control_L
keysym Control_L = Caps_Lock
keysym Caps_Lock = Control_L
add Lock = Caps_Lock
add Control = Control_L

! bind the menu key to the right control key
! since my laptop does not have a right CTRL.

keycode 117 = Control_R
add Control = Control_R

! On the Compaq Presario 2800CA, the the following
! keycodes are listed for the special keys at the
! top of the keyboard.
!
! 163 i
! 158 envelope
! 154 magnifying glass
! 239 music note
! 174 - (volume down)
! 176 + (volume up)

keycode 174 = F18
keycode 176 = F19

Two-Finger Scrolling on the Trackpad

2006-08-18T10:53:00.000-07:00

Pre-requisites. You will need the xorg-dev package.

apt-get install xorg-dev

(You must also have compliers and libraries installed; see the Xubuntu 6.06 LTS post.)

Install the new Synaptics driver. The included synaptics mouse driver does not support two-finger scrolling, but the latest one does (0.14.6). So download the latest synaptics driver.

http://web.telia.com/~u89404340/touchpad

Extract and compile using 'make'.

Copy synaptics_drv.o into place. (I crashed my systems doing this, so you
may want to exit X before you put the driver in place.)

cp synaptics_drv.o /usr/lib/xorg/modules/input/

Now edit the InputDevice section of your xorg.conf file. My InputDevice section now reads like so.

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Synaptics Touchpad"
Driver "synaptics"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
Option "HorizScrollDelta" "0"
Option "HorizTwoFingerScroll" "1"
Option "VertTwoFingerScroll" "1"
EndSection

(I only added the two *TwoFingerScroll options.)

Restart X.

Firefox. In about:config make the following changes.

mousewheel.withnokey.action 0
mousewheel.withnokey.numlines 1
mousewheel.withnokey.sysnumlines false
mousewheel.horizscroll.withnokey.action 0
mousewheel.horizscroll.withnokey.numlines 1
mousewheel.horizscroll.withnokey.sysnumlines false
general.smoothScroll true

Xubuntu 6.06 Installation

2006-08-18T10:12:00.000-07:00

I installed Xubuntu 6.06 because I wanted to try XFce4.

Initial impression: XFce is quite nice and seems fast. I just need to learn the keyboard shortcuts.

Post-Installation: Followed some of the suggestions on http://www.cs.cornell.edu/~djm/ubuntu; did the following.

Add networking information (essid, keys, etc.).

vi /etc/network/interfaces
/etc/init.d/networking restart

Update and Upgrade.

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

Copy my xorg.conf into place.

cd /etc/X11
mv xorg.conf{,.original}
cp /scratch/etc/X11/xorg.conf .

Edit sources.list.

cp sources.list sources.list.original
vi sources.list
apt-get update

Install Microsoft fonts.

apt-get install msttcorefonts

Install mutlimedia codecs.

wget -c -O /tmp/w32codecs.deb http://packages.freecontrib.org/ubuntu/plf/pool/dapper/i386/non-free/w32codecs/w32codecs_20060611-1plf1_i386.deb
dpkg -i /tmp/w32codecs.deb
apt-get install libdvdread3
/usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/examples/install-css.sh

Install mutlimedia players.

apt-get install lame sox ffmpeg mjpegtools mpg321 vorbis-tools
apt-get install mplayer
sed -i.backup -e's@vo=x11,@vo=xv,@g' /etc/mplayer/mplayer.conf
apt-get install sound-juicer

Install Acrobat Reader.

apt-get install acroread

Install Flash plugins.

apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree
update-flashplugin

Install Java (Sun).

apt-get install sun-java5-jre sun-java5-plugin
update-alternatives --config java

Install LaTeX.

apt-get install tetex-base tetex-bin tetex-extra gv xpdf-reader texinfo texi2html dvipng sam2p tetex-doc dialog psutils

Install Octave (Matlab replacement) and Gnuplot.

apt-get install octave
apt-get install gnuplot{,-doc}

Install subversion.

apt-get install subversion

Install vim-gtk and set it as the default editor.

apt-get install vim-gtk vim-doc
sed -i.backup.gvim -e's@gedit.desktop@gvim.desktop@g'
-e's@text/x-csrc=gvim.desktop@text/x-csrc=gvim.desktop\ntext/x-c++hdr=gvim.desktop\ntext/x-c++src=gvim.desktop\ntext/x-csharp=gvim.desktop\ntext/x-tex=gvim.desktop@g'
/usr/share/applications/defaults.list
sed -i.backup
-e's@MimeType=text/plain;@MimeType=text/plain;text/html;text/css;text/xml;text/x-dtd;text/x-chdr;text/x-csrc;text/x-c++hdr;text/x-c++src;text/x-java;text/x-csharp;text/x-tex;text/x-bibtex;text/x-readme;@g'
-e's@NoDisplay=true@NoDisplay=false@g' /usr/share/applications/gvim.desktop

Install games.

apt-get install supertux
apt-get install frozen-bubble

Install Openssh-server.

apt-get install openssh-server

Install basic compilers and libraries.

apt-get install build-essential manpages-dev

Linux Wisdom

2006-08-18T09:42:00.000-07:00

The following posts document various linux tasks.

For the record, I generally use Ubuntu, most recently Xubuntu.

Linux Wisdom

How to use hg by ssh at LaCIM

Convert an svn repository to an hg repository

Install hg in a custom location

Vim and Zip files

Sage prompt in color

Installing sagetex in sage

Reinstall deleted or damaged files in Debian/Ubuntu

Install Ubuntu Hardy Heron (8.04.1) on Macbook

Dual-Booting Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon (7.10) on a MacBook

Synergy: share a mouse and keyboard among computers.

Paper size configuration for LaTeX

Import a repository into another repository.

Convert a Subversion repository from BDB to FSFS

Fixing LaTeX-Suite's jump to error feature.

AIGLX + Compiz Fusion on MacBook

Macbook/Synaptics Trackpad Configuration

Linux workstation setup (LaTeX+Vim+Xpdf+SVN+LaTeXSuite)

XPDF with vi keybindings

PDFEdit: Edit PDF files in Linux

Vim + LaTeXSuite + XPDF for LaTeX editing

Set svn to ignore auxiliary LaTeX files

KeyJNote: stylish presentations

Mathematics on Linux

LaTeXDraw -- Pictue drawing for LaTeX and PSTricks: Part 2

JPicEdt -- Picture drawing for LaTeX and PSTricks: Part 1

Nokia 770 Connectivity: WPA with PEAP and .p7b Certificates

Including Code Samples in Blogger Posts

Subversion for Document Management

SSH-Keys to simplify SSH Logins

LaTeX Editing on the 13.3" Macbook (on Linux)

Enable Shift-Space in XDvi for Page-Up

Making the Apple Command Key work Properly in Linux

Automatix: Automated Post-Installation Setup for Ubuntu

Resolution on the MacBook

AIGLX + Beryl on MacBook

Dual-Boot Ubuntu Edgy Eft (6.10) on a MacBook

Avoiding Google's Local Redirection

Editing PDFs in Linux

Xournal (or Annotating PDF files)

iPod Shuffle and (X)Ubuntu

Google Picasa

Pipe Panic!

Start GNU Screen Automatically

Vi editing mode on the command line

Xmodmap on login.

Two-Finger Scrolling on the Trackpad

More Post-Installation Packages

Xubuntu 6.06 Installation

Linux Wisdom