September 2012 - Issue 68

- Welcome From The Chief Editor

1. KDE Upgrade Cheat Sheet

2. Linux Financial Apps: Skrooge

3. Mark's Quick Gimp Tip & Double Take

4. Forum Foibles: PCLinuxOS Summer Cookbook

5. Copy Files Securely Between Local Machine & Shell Account

6. KompoZer, Part 3: Special Formatting

7. Graphics Tutorials: GIMP, Part 3

8. Watching Online Television On PCLinuxOS

9. Use Synaptic To Clone Installed Software On Another Computer

10. Installing & Configuring VSFTPD

11. Running Wireshark As A Regular User

12. ms_meme's Nook: PCLOS Waltz

13. Remaster YOUR PCLinuxOS Installation

14. LibreOffice 3.6: New Features Galore

15. Syncing Files Via SSH Using rsync

16. Screenshot Showcase

17. Disclaimer

Welcome From The Chief Editor

Hear ye, hear ye! The 2012.08 maintenance release of 32-bit PCLinuxOS KDE and 32-bit PCLinuxOS Minime KDE have been released. Both have been produced by Pinoc. Unfortunately, if you want a LiveCD, your only choice is to download the Minime version, since the full KDE desktop now fits only on a DVD sized optical medium, with the ISO weighing in at 1,283 MB. Or, you could install the PCLinuxOS LXDE 2012.06 release, which fits easily onto a LiveCD.

The latest maintenance release contains KDE 4.8.3, an upgrade from the previous KDE 4.6.x desktop. On the full KDE version, LibreOffice is also included, along with a whole host of other applications. Minime (with an ISO weighing in at only 508 MB) is a good choice for advanced users who know what applications they want installed on their PCLinuxOS installation. This helps you to avoid having a whole host of applications you may never use and that you may not want installed, and that unnecessarily take up room on your hard drive. Of course, you can take your pick of the over 13,500 packages in the PCLinuxOS repository to tailor your Minime installation to be just how you want it.

Along the Riverfront Heritage Trail in Kansas City, MO.

Also, due to changes in the KDE desktop from the old 4.6.x version to the 4.8.3 version, there is not a “clean” upgrade path to the newer KDE desktop. To help you out, we’ve published a couple of “cheat sheets” to help you with the upgrade of your 4.6.x KDE desktop to the 4.8.3 KDE desktop. While either method by itself will get you there, some users are reporting success using a combination of the two approaches. To help prevent data loss, it is highly recommended that you backup your data before attempting the upgrade. Of course, one other option exists – to reinstall from the freshly updated maintenance release. If you choose the latter, be extra sure to backup your data before reinstalling – or risk losing it altogether.

With the new upgrades and the new ISOs having been released, most of us will have plenty to do to occupy our time. So, until next month, I bid each of you peace, prosperity, serenity and happiness.

KDE Upgrade Cheat Sheet

by OldGuy & Old-Polack

OldGuy’s Cheat Sheet

I just wrote a cheat sheet for a few friends who use the KDE version of PCLinuxOS, and would like comments referencing any incorrect advice. My friends are usually older, and at times, need some hand holding. Ergo, this letter:

Hi Friends of PCLinuxOS,

If you have noticed that your update-notifier seems to be stuck in “can't update mode,” it's due to the switch from the older KDE to a newer version.

Yesterday I did the work required to update, and it wasn't bad. However, without checking off another package, some of your widgets may appear as a red "X." This means a widget can't be found.

Asking some of the members of the forum, I discovered the fix and it's very simple.

Here is what I did to insure a successful update.

Backing up your data before any major modification is always a good rule of thumb. I use LuckyBackup to backup all my data (home folder) to an external drive. Then, just to prove I'm paranoid, I create a LiveCD using mylivecd. You can burn a copy of the LiveCD to a DVD, or just move it to an external drive. Of course this is just in case the whole process goes bloomers up. And reinstall.

If you just moved the iso to an external drive you will have to burn it first for the reinstall.

Next, modify the repository information in Synaptic. Close all windows first, then open Synaptic. When the Synaptic window opens, go to Settings > Repositories. Highlight the repository your use (for me that's heanet.ie). When highlighted, you will see a line in Sections that reads:

main updates nonfree kde4 games special

Change it to read:

main updates nonfree kde games special

Click OK, then click reload.

Select “Mark All Upgrades,” and be sure that "kde-plasma-addons" is also selected. If it isn't, check it for installation. If you leave it unchecked, it could be the cause for the missing widgets in your panel.

Take a stiff drink, and press apply. After it’s complete, reboot your machine.

All done.

Now you should be ready with the newest version of KDE. Should your desktop be different (and I'm sure it will be), there is another icon added that can be used to bring back your older widgets. Click on the "RestoreMyDesktop" icon.

After restoring, you can safely delete the "RestoreMyDesktop" icon from your desktop.

Note from the forums: RestoreMyDesktop is a backup of your desktop settings before you updated. Once you make changes on your current desktop, these new changes will not be moved to restoring your previous desktop settings. RestoreMyDesktop is best used immediately.

I didn't bother with RestoreMyDesktop, since I have only one extra widget on mine. I just added it to my desktop, and changed the way time/date is shown to show the day and date. I also use “Hard Disk status” to show my current disk usage on the desktop.

One warning, though. During my change, I somehow screwed up my taskbar and everything was smushed to the left. This was an easy fix. I went to Synaptic and reinstalled kde4-config. That fixed it right up.

Good luck. Drop me a message in the forum if you need further assistance, or visit this post in the forum.

Afterwards, O-P posted this ...

The PCLinuxOS development team has been trying to make the KDE upgrade to the 4.8.3 version as near to a normal Synaptic upgrade as we have all become used to. Unfortunately, the KDE developers have changed a lot of the package names, which causes insurmountable problems with some packages when a dynamic/rolling upgrade method is used. A clear upgrade path simply can't be established.

The KDE packages are designed for a static release method of upgrading, where each upgrade means a complete re-installation of the entire system, so our dynamic release system must sometimes accept slight deviations in our normal procedure to accommodate situations like this.

Note: Your personal desktop settings may be changed to the default desktop settings during this process. If this occurs, a new desktop icon, RestoreMyKDEdesktop will appear, to do just what it says. A backup of your personal desktop settings will have been made, and running the RestoreMyKDEdesktop script will restore your personal settings from that backup. As an extra precaution, you may wish to make your own backup of your/home/<you>/.kde4 directory, or even your entire $HOME directory, before running the upgrade procedure.

There will be two methods available to do the upgrade from KDE 4.6.5 to KDE 4.8.3, only one of which is currently available. It will require a change in the Synaptic Settings --> Repositories window's Section(s): box, changing the section kde4 to simply kde.

If you have apt-sources-list version 1.0.2 currently installed, or can still install it from your chosen mirror, it has already made, or will make, the necessary change for you on all current mirror entries.

If you do not have apt-sources-list version 1.0.2 currently installed, and Synaptic will not now install it, for any reason, the following will allow you to make the change manually, allowing the KDE upgrade to commence.

In the Synaptic Settings --> Repositories window, click on the currently used active mirror to fill the lower data entry fields. In the bottom Section(s): field, if there is currently a kde4 section, place the mouse cursor directly behind the 4, click, then press the keyboard Backspace key once, then click the OK button below.

Click the Reload button, and wait for the package lists to be updated. At this point, you can continue to perform the actual upgrade.

Normal upgrade with manual cleanup:

Do the normal Reload --> Mark All Upgrades --> Apply --> Apply upgrade. If no packages are listed as broken, proceed as usual. Some packages will be shown as being removed, without being replaced. Take note of these package names, for use later. Which packages these will be will vary, depending on what is actually installed on any given individual's system.

When the upgrade has finished, leave Synaptic open, open a terminal and enter the command:

[<you>@localhost ~]$ rpm -qa |grep 4.6.5    <Enter>

A list of remaining KDE 4.6.5 packages that were not upgraded will be presented. Leave the terminal window open for reference.

In Synaptic, Search for each individual package in the terminal list and mark it for Removal. When all are marked, click Apply --> Apply.

When finished, again in Search, enter kde and click the Search button.

Scroll down the results in the upper right pane to find the package name that most closely resembles the name of the removed 4.6.5 package and Mark for Installation. If any package with a similar name cannot be found, it has been obsoleted and is no longer needed. When all that can be found have been properly marked, and the removed but not replaced packages from the initial upgrade are also marked, again click Apply --> Apply to complete the package upgrades, then close Synaptic and reboot.

For most users, the above method works quite well, even though a bit clumsy in execution.

If you experience difficulties, such as broken packages being reported, or packages missing dependencies, those packages should be unmarked/removed from the upgrade list, so the rest of the upgrade can proceed. If that still doesn't work, stop where you are and report the exact problem in the appropriate forum section, giving as much detail as you can, then wait for a reply to receive help.

The second upgrade method referred to, at the beginning of this announcement would be installing, or reinstalling, from the finalized, reluctantly delayed, quarterly release ISO image.

The quarterly ISO has been released as well.

Linux Financial Apps: Skrooge

by Meemaw

To wrap up our coverage of Linux financial apps, we’ll take a look at Skrooge.  It is available for Linux, Mac and Windows. The online user guide is here.

When you open Skrooge the first time, the Welcome window is shown, as follows:

It looks a little like Dolphin to me because of the tabs at the lower left of the window. I ended up removing the Properties and History tabs, but you might want to keep them.

As with the other programs, you must either create your account file or import it. File formats that are compatible are OFX (Open Financial Exchange), QFX (Quicken file), QIF (also a Quicken file) and CSV. I created my normal accounts, Meemaw’s Checking and Meemaw’s Savings.

You will also see tabs in the right-hand section. This is handy, since you can have several sections open at once. You only have to click View > New Tab to add another, then click the section in the left-hand column that you desire.

The first thing you see in the left-hand column is the Dashboard. It is like the Home Page in KMyMoney, giving you a quick overview of your accounts. As you add normal and scheduled transactions, along with your budget, many of the items in your Dashboard will be items that will interest you or need your attention when you first open Skrooge. All items can be removed or added (if they aren’t there already). To remove an item, you should hover your mouse over that item and a toolbar will appear. The left end of the toolbar has a red X, which you can click to remove that item. Each toolbar also has left and right arrows to allow you to arrange your Dashboard in a way that works for you. If you find that you have removed something in error, a green plus sign at the top right of the window section will allow you to re-add it.

In the column on the left, we see the additional following sections:

Accounts

This section shows the accounts you created at setup. You can also add any new accounts from here. Using the editing section at the bottom, enter the important information, then click the Add button. If you make a mistake, simply correct it, then click the Modify button. This method is used throughout the program.

Operations

This section is where you enter all your transactions. One thing that makes Skrooge different is that in this window you have to actually enter the outgoing money using a minus sign (-250.00) to designate the subtraction from your account. Debits to the account will show in a red font, and credits in black, so if you enter one incorrectly, you can see it.

After you get a few operations entered, you will probably start entering the same basic few every month. Skrooge has a method to make this a little faster. Enter the Payee or Category for the operation, then click on the Fast Edition button to the right of the Tracker drop-down (it looks like a magic wand). Skrooge will find the last operation that matches the field you are currently in and fill in the rest of the operation for you.

Scheduled Operations

Just as the title says, scheduled transactions (like rent that you pay once a month or that life insurance payment that comes out automatically every month) are added and edited here. Choose the operation you want to schedule (I chose the life insurance payment) and click on Templates at the bottom of your Operations screen, then open a tab with Scheduled Operations, and edit the template you just saved.

Trackers

A tracker allows you to group specific transactions together in order to give yourself a total for those expenses. Suppose you are going on vacation and want a total amount spent on the trip. You can group the transactions for fuel, lodging, recreation and food in a tracker and you will have a total cost for your vacation. This will work really well if the expenses you track are some for which you will get reimbursed. You can add the deposits to your tracker as well, and thus will know when you have been completely paid. I added a tracker named Hawaii Trip in this window. When I enter data in the Operations tab, I have a selection along with the other items called Tracker. This dropdown now contains the tracker called Hawaii Trip. As I add expenses, I can go to the Tracker tab and see what my total is.

Payees

As in the other programs, you add the payees as you enter your transactions. Here you can add, edit and delete them.

Categories

Skrooge includes an assortment of standard categories, which can be edited. If you decide to delete a category, any operation you have assigned to that category will then have no category related to it - so make sure you re-assign those to other categories.

Budget

The User Guide has nothing about the budget section, so I have only experimented. As far as I can tell, you have to add your categories one-at-a-time and give the budgeted amount for it (and if anyone uses Skrooge, please post on the forum if it is different).

Search & Process

Search and Process is a way to find certain operations and apply some sort of transformation. What comes to my mind is when I was using a different program and decided to change the categories so they were more meaningful. I remember having to search for every transaction in one category and assign it to the new, better category. With Search and Process, you could find them all, and change them all at once.

Report

In Skrooge, every report has to be setup manually. The standard items you must decide are the date range to use, account(s) included and categories and/or payees  The Users Guide has some examples to help set up some of the more standard reports.

Monthly Report

The Monthly Report is an overview of a particular month.

Units

In Skrooge, you can use more than one unit, not only your standard unit of currency, but others if needed. Units can also be stock shares, or even autos or property.

Simulations

Simulations are not covered in the User Guide, but I think it may be a prediction of your future finances, based on the information you have already entered.

Configuring your Window

One of the things I like and also dislike about Skrooge is that each section can be configured to include only the information you want to see. In the operations tab, I want to see the standard items I might see in my checkbook: Date, Check Number, Payee, Check Amount, Deposit Amount and Balance. In Skrooge, there are many more choices, as seen below. You simply have to right-click one of the columns and look at the drop down menu.

As you can see there are many items you can use in your Operations list. You can have the check amount and deposit amount in the same column (+/- Amount), or you can have them separate (-Expenditure and +Income). Simply click the checkmark in front of each item on or off depending on whether or not you want to include it. At the top you can turn on or off the item “Auto Resize”. Unchecking it will allow you to resize your columns the way you want them, and checking it will set specific column widths. When you have it the way you want it, click on the save icon on the tab itself. You can also go to View > Save Page State to do the same thing. I like it because I can configure the page the way I like, but I don’t like it because it doesn’t always stay exactly the way I have configured and saved it (like sometimes the columns jump to a smaller size than I chose).

I also don’t like the fact that each section has to be configured separately. I know each has its own information and should be configured on its own, but I’m thinking there should be a better way to do it, maybe from the Configure Skrooge window in the Settings menu.

On the other hand, I like the zoom feature in the window, which allows you to make the font whatever size is easiest for you. Also, you can remove any of the docks in the left column from the main window if you wish, and let it sit by itself. I haven’t tried that feature but it might be useful to some people.

Skrooge seems like a good program, and it has features that are very good. I hope they get the User Guide completed for the people that use it.

We have reviewed seven financial programs, and hope you can find one that works perfectly for your needs!

Mark's Quick Gimp Tip & Double Take

Find the Answers Here

Mark Szorady is a nationally syndicated cartoonist with georgetoon.com.

He blogs at georgetoon.com/blog.

Email Mark at georgetoon@gmail.com.

Forum Foibles: PCLinuxOS Summer Cookbook

Copy Files Securely Between Local Machine & Shell Account

by AndrzejL

Lets say that I have created a VERY important file. Its a file called example.txt, and it’s placed in my home (~) folder:

touch ~/example.txt

I want to copy this file to my remotemachine.net, mylogin’s home folder, but I don’t want anyone to be able to sniff the file’s content. The remote machine has SSH server running. Scp is perfect for this task. It uses encrypted ssh.

How to use it?

Syntax:

scp /path/to/secret/file.ext who@host:/where/to/save/

Example:

scp ~/example.txt mylogin@remotemachine.net:~

Result:

example.txt 100% 0 0.0KB/s 00:00

Check procedure:

Log into the remote machine:

ssh -l mylogin remotemachine.net

List the file:

ls ~/example.txt

Tada!

/home/mylogin/example.txt

I hope you find this helpful.

KompoZer, Part 3: Special Formatting

by Paul Arnote (parnote)

In our short series about KompoZer, the Gtk+ based WYSIWYG HTML editor in the PCLinuxOS repository, we’ve covered the basic layout of the KompoZer application window, and how to use KompoZer to create a rudimentary web page. This month, we’ll learn about special formatting you can do to your HTML page to add even more features.

Tables

Tables are ideal for presenting information in a very organized manner, and keeping similar content grouped together under a common heading.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always dreaded creating tables in HTML. They always seemed to be unnecessarily complex – so much so, that one mistyped command just sent it over the edge. Fortunately, KompoZer makes the creation of tables very simple.

Open the HTML file we created last month, and position your text caret at the end of the text we previously entered. Hit the Enter key a few times, then select the “Table” icon on the KompoZer toolbar.

Clicking on the “Table” icon on the KompoZer toolbar causes the “Insert Table” dialog to be displayed. Here, you can decide how many columns and rows you will need in your table. Just as it is when you start to lay out your web site, having a good plan in place helps in helping to make a proper HTML table.

In the graphic above, the default value is a 2 x 2 table. That means that you have two columns and two rows. The dialog box allows you to select a table with up to a 6 x 6 table, or as small as a 1 x 1 table.

So you may be asking yourself, “why would I want a 1 x 1 table?” The easy answer is so that you can have more control over how your text appears in the web browser. In fact, I use 1 x 1 tables when I produce the magazine’s web site. It enables me to limit the width of the text I’m entering, without resorting to inserting a “hard return” in the text. I do this to help achieve a cleaner look, where the text and data are all the same width. Using the 1 x 1 table as a formatting tool has worked to help achieve the look that I was after.

You should now have something on your screen that looks similar to that in the image above. Right click your mouse in the representation of your table, then select “Table Properties” from the context menu.

Click on the “Table” tab in the Table Properties dialog box, and your dialog box should look similar to the one shown above. We have to alter a few settings. First, under the “Size” settings, set the width of your table to how many pixels you want your table to be. The default value is “% of window.” Just click on that dropdown listbox and change it to “pixels.” Then enter the number of pixels for the width of your table. In the example above, I have set that value to 300 pixels.

Next, under “Borders and Spacing,” you can optionally change the “Border” setting to zero (0) pixels. This will make your table invisible to your website visitors, yet allow you to use the table to help your format the text on your website. Feel free to “play around” with the “Spacing” and “Padding” setting values until you achieve the look and feel that you are after.

Now, click on the “Cells” tab.

Under the “Cells” tab, you can change the height and width of individual cells, as well as the vertical and horizontal alignment of items that appear within the cell. One thing that you will most likely want to enable is “Text Wrap.” Place a checkmark in the box next to “Text Wrap,” and insure that “Wrap” is selected from the dropdown listbox. Click on the “Apply” button to apply your settings, and then the “OK” button to dismiss the dialog box.

Now, all that’s left is to enter the text you want to appear in the table. Since I’ve created a 1 x 1 table, that allows me to essentially use a table as a text/content formatting tool. You can place whatever you want within the table, and any/all content within a table is subject to the formatting set up in the Table Properties dialog box.

It may take you a time or two to get the hang of using tables, but once you do, I think you will soon see the worth of using tables to help you format the content of your web page.

Anchor Links

Sometimes you want to give your website visitors quick access to a particular section of your web page. The use of “anchor links” makes this easy.

On my website for respiratory care practitioners, I have a “menu” of sorts, listing all of the sections of my web page. In part, it looks like this in Firefox:

Each one of those links in the “menu” link directly to that specific part of my web page. That makes my web page “menu” act very similar to a table of contents. Quite simply, anchors allow you to link to different areas of a web page.

Within KompoZer, an “anchor” appears just as that – it has an image of an anchor in front of the text. Here’s one such example, taken from my respiratory web page loaded into KompoZer:

Notice the “anchor” symbol right in front of “Government Sponsored Sites.” That indicates that the text that follows (or part of the text) is an anchor. That text can be linked to, either from within the same HTML document, or via an external web link. For example, to link directly with the “Publications” section of my respiratory care web page, the address would look like http://home.comcast.net/~parnote/#Publications. The last part of the URL – the part that contains the “#” and the text after it – links up directly with that specific portion of my web page. Go ahead and try it. Just click on the link and you’ll see how it works.

Creating an anchor is very easy in KompoZer. Simply highlight the text you want to use as an anchor point, then click on the “Anchor” icon on the KompoZer toolbar.

Typically, you’ll find the “Anchor Name” field already filled in with the text that you highlighted. If you’d prefer, you can give it another name. However, I tend to just accept what already appears in the “Anchor Name” field. It helps to keep things simple. If no text appears, just give it a name that closely resembles the text you highlighted. It makes it much easier to find the proper anchor when you go to link to it.

Now that you have the anchor defined, you can create an anchor link. When you create a link, select the anchor you defined from the dropdown list. That’s pretty much all there is to it.

Publication

One of the nice features about KompoZer is that you can not only create your entire website using the WYSIWYG editing environment, but you can also publish your website – or just the changes to individual files – to your web host, right from inside KompoZer when you are finished.

Before you can publish your website to your web host, you will first need to set up the necessary information for KompoZer to use to connect to and negotiate file transfers between your computer and your web host.

First, go to “Edit > Publish Site Settings...” and you will see a dialog box similar to the one above. Under the “General Settings” tab, fill in all of the information that you can. Then, click on the “FTP Settings” tab.

Fill in all of the settings you can in this tab, as well, much as I’ve done above. You will need to check the “Save Password” box if you want KompoZer to remember your password.

Under “Connection Type,” be sure to check with your web host provider whether or not their server settings allow you to use “Passive Mode.” If so, place a checkmark in the box. If you are using IPv6, place a checkmark in that box. FTP is typically an insecure file transfer protocol, and you’re usually fine with not messing with the “Security” settings. Since “Port 21” is the typical port to use for FTP transfers, you should be fine with leaving the port number assigned to 21, unless your web host provider specifies otherwise.

Once you’re ready to publish your website content, click on “Publish” on the KompoZer toolbar. The entire directory contents of your web site will be uploaded to your web host. Alternatively, if you’re updating only a few files, right click on the files as they appear in the left hand pane of your KompoZer window, and select “Publish” from the context menu for each file you want to update.

Summary

As you have seen, KompoZer is a very good and useful tool to use to create your web pages. Since KompoZer uses an older version of the Gecko engine (as we discussed in the first article), there are a few slight differences in how the current Gecko engine displays things. But that difference is not represent a huge or insurmountable issue. Generally, I’ve found KompoZer more than up to the task for creating and maintaining a website.

There’s a lot more to learn about HTML, along with web page and website creation. There are entire sites and books devoted to the topic. This short article series is not meant to be a complete or full tutorial over HTML. Rather, its intent is to showcase some of the capabilities of KompoZer, which is a very useful tool to help facilitate the construction of web pages and websites.

If you want to learn more about HTML, I would recommend that you start with the tutorials at w3c.org, since they are the body that sets the standards for HTML. You can then use the information you gain there to branch out to other, deeper discussions and tutorials about HTML.

Graphics Tutorials: GIMP, Part 3

by Meemaw

So far we’ve learned a little about the layout of the Gimp, and used some of the tools to draw a face and a bow. Let’s experiment a little more.

You may wonder what is going on with the Bow layer because we can see the edge of it on our drawing. That is because that layer is selected at the moment. When you choose or create another layer, that line won’t show.

Let’s create another layer named “Text” (you can rename it or leave it as “New Layer”).  Make it transparent as well, so we can see our drawing through it. Click on the Text tool, and you will see another window pop up. It is the text editor window and, working together with the toolbox window, it contains anything you might want to use to edit text in your image. In the text editor box, you should type the text you want. I typed, “I Love GIMP” in the box. Notice that I spaced it the way I want it as well (with each word on its own line). In the tool box are the text formatting tools (font, size, color, alignment, etc) so you can make it look however you want.

I chose the font called Die Nasty, size 44, black, centered. If you check the box “Use selected font” in the text editor box, you’ll be able to see what it looks like in the editor. This is good if you want to try different fonts.

Notice in your layers window that your text is not on the layer you created, but rather it is “Floating” above it. Until you are finished editing your text, it will remain as a Floating layer.

Let’s do something different to our text. Right-click on the floating layer in your layer window and choose “Alpha to Selection”. You will now see that your letters of text are outlined with dotted lines. Click on the gradient tool in the toolbox and pick one of the gradients there. (I picked dark blue to light blue.) Click on one side of your text and drag to the other side. The gradient you picked should be inside the text outlines now. If you click in the top left corner and go to bottom right, your gradient will be diagonal. If you don’t like it you can press <CTRL> + <Z> to undo it and try something else. After I chose the blue, I changed it to a tropical gradient.

When you have it colored the way you want it, go to Select > None in the menu. This will change your floating text to an image file, which can be moved to any place you want in your drawing.

All this time, you have been saving your creation as a Gimp native .xcf file. This is good, because it preserves the layers for you so you can make changes to any of them. So what do you do if you have your drawing finished and you want to post it on the Internet as a .jpg or a .png file? With the new version of Gimp, the File menu is a little different. Save... means save your drawing as an .xcf file.  Save As... means save it as an .xcf file (still) but with a different file name. If you want to save it as a .png file (or any of the other recognized file formats), you will have to Export your drawing. It is easy, though: go to File > Export... and edit the entries that are there.

The folder location can be changed, but will probably be the same folder that your .xcf file is in. The program will assign the same name to this file as the name of the .xcf file you’ve been editing, but that can be changed as well. In the drop-down at the right side of the window, you will see all the file formats you can use. I use .png and .jpg most of the time, but use what you want. You will probably get at least one window with options. I generally use the defaults that are there. You will now have your basic file to edit however you want, and also an image file you can insert into another document, use as wallpaper, or print.

The new version of Gimp has the single window display. You simply Click on Windows > Single Window Mode. When it is checked, your windows are fused together. When you uncheck it, the sections are separate. You should choose whatever mode you are most comfortable with.

Next time we’ll explore more tools.

Watching Online Television On PCLinuxOS

by Patrick G Horneker (phorneker)

Television has been a primary source of entertainment for as long as we can remember. The way we watch television these days has changed, from the transition to all digital broadcasts back in 2009, to streaming video on the Internet, to Internet enabled television sets (of which most of them embed Linux in one form or another).

PCLinuxOS provides a number of applications that allow us to watch online video. However, there are some video services and media types that are not compatible with a stock PCLinuxOS installation. Hence, to be able to watch online video, we need to install some packages from Synaptic.

Preparing your PCLinuxOS installation for video streaming

The first thing we need to do is to launch Synaptic. Be sure to update PCLinuxOS itself first using the Reload, Mark All Upgrades, and Apply method. Once PCLinuxOS has been updated, click on Sections, select Tasks, then select task-multimedia. This package brings in the basic components needed to view common multimedia types (and play your favorite DVDs as well). Click on Apply to install what you need.

Next, we should install the following packages for support for the most multimedia types:

gstreamer0.10-speex

gstreamer0.10-mpeg

gstreamer0.10-x264

gstreamer0.10-vdpau

gstreamer0.10-dirac

gstreamer0.10-twolame

gstreamer0.10-cdparanoia

gstreamer0.10-aalib

gstreamer0.10-jack

gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly

gstreamer0.10-cog

gstreamer0.10-plugins-base

gstreamer0.10-amrwb

phonon-gstreamer

gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad

gstreamer0.10-faac

gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs

gstreamer0.10-caca

gstreamer0.10-amrwbdec

gstreamer0.10-directfb

gstreamer0.10-soup

gstreamer0.10-soundtouch

bluez-gstreamer

gstreamer0.10-mpeg2enc

gstreamer0.10-faad

gstreamer0.10-celt

gstreamer0.10-cdio

libgstreamer0.10_0.10

gstreamer0.10-dv

gstreamer0.10-pulse

gstreamer0.10-resindvd

gstreamer0.10-vp8

gstreamer0.10-ladspa

gstreamer0.10-jp2k

gstreamer0.10-vaapi

gstreamer0.10-a52dec

gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg

gstreamer0.10-plugins-good

gstreamer0.10-python

gstreamer0.10-libvisual

gstreamer0.10-lame

gstreamer0.10-kate

gstreamer0.10-amrnb

gstreamer0.10-gsm

libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10

gstreamer0.10-xvid

gstreamer0.10-dts

gstreamer0.10-flac

libquicktime0

libquicktime

libquicktime-progs

openquicktime

libquicktime-lame

openquicktime-apps

libquicktime-dv

libquicktime-x264

libquicktime-faad

libquicktime-faac

Be Sure PulseAudio Is Activated

Next thing we should do is to be sure PulseAudio has been installed and activated. PulseAudio allows more than one application or process to use the audio card or audio input devices at the same time. This is useful when running audio applications under the KDE or GNOME desktops, of which both environments have processes running that use your system’s audio card.

The easiest way to get PulseAudio on your system is to launch Synaptic and install the task-pulseaudio package. This installs PulseAudio and all packages it depends on to function. I recommend installing paman and pulseaudio-esound-compat as well for added functionality.

Once installed, run PCLinuxOS Control Center (also called Configure Your Computer), supplying the root (administrator) password when requested.

Select Hardware from the sidebar, then click on Sound Configuration.

Next, click on Enable PulseAudio to activate PulseAudio. If you are connecting your PCLinuxOS machine to a home theater, or a 5.1 channel audio system, click on Enable 5.1 sound with PulseAudio. Otherwise, leave everything else as it is. Click on OK. You will get a message asking you to reboot to enable PulseAudio. Click on OK again to clear this message. Close PCLinuxOS Control Center, then reboot PCLinuxOS to enable PulseAudio, as PulseAudio system is a process that replaces ALSA for the audio subsystem.

PulseAudio works with any application that works with OSS (Open Sound System) and ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture). The reason I recommended the pulseaudio-esound-compat package is that this package allows PulseAudio to accommodate applications that use ESound (Enlightenment Sound daemon, the audio process daemon designed for the Enlightenment window manager).

Once rebooted, you will no longer have access to audio mixers that work with ALSA or OSS, but then you will not need them. PulseAudio has its own mixer applications that work with KDE or GNOME, as well as other window managers.

We now have PCLinuxOS ready to handle online video and audio without interference from the GNOME or KDE daemons that take over audio functionality.

Watch On-Line Television With a Web Browser

Applications such as Firefox, Opera, and Chromium allow you to view online videos from websites that provide such services. This is the easiest way to watch online videos as all you need is a web browser and appropriate browser plugins.

Youtube is the definitive source for online video of any kind. The people who maintain the fan site of Jim Carrey, http://www.jimcarreyonline.com, uploaded all thirteen episodes of Duck Factory to Youtube. Duck Factory was a sitcom produced in 1984 starring Jim Carrey about a Hollywood studio that produced a cartoon called Dippy Duck. Type duck factory jim carrey into the Youtube search to view these episodes.

Enough said here.

Hulu is a source for television shows and movies. The free service allows you to access television shows and movies (not the newest or the most popular) with a web browser and their embedded viewer. Hulu Plus is a paid service that allows you to view the newest television programming and videos, not only with a web browser, but with smartphones, tablets, television streaming devices and Internet enabled television sets.

Owned in part by NBC Universal (Comcast/General Electric), News Corporation, and Disney, Hulu provides some great classic television, including Saturday Night Live (every episode ever produced), Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart (both the original series and Newhart), The Dick Van Dyke Show, McHale’s Navy, Green Acres, Night Gallery, and older classics such as Flash Gordon (from 1936) and Lone Ranger.

This service is paid for with advertising, and you do not have to login to view content. You may signup for an account for personalized recommendations.

Many media companies provide video on demand services (in addition to separate accounts at Youtube).

Russia Today offers videos you can not only watch, but freely use! http://freevideo.rt.com

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has an archive you can browse for television and radio clips. Streaming video cannot be viewed from the US due to Canadian copyright restrictions. However, you can stream radio broadcasts from the CBC.

Media Center Suites

There are several products installable from Synaptic that transform your PCLinuxOS installation into a media center. These suites are full screen applications designed for playback of media from configurable sources, including local files on your machine.

Moovida is a Hewlett-Packard sponsored suite written entirely in Python. Currently, only Youtube is configured for streaming video.

This is what you see when you launch Moovida. Clearly, this interface works best on tablets and smartphones, yet Moovida was implemented for desktops, laptops and netbooks. Navigation here is best done with your computer’s keyboard (using the arrow keys, the escape key and the return key), or the scroll wheel on your mouse.

Moovida comes with a sparse collection of plugins, two of which need to be updated just after launching Moovida for the first time as we can see above. For streaming video, Youtube is currently the only service available from Moovida. Here, you can search Youtube, or browse a list of top rated videos, most popular, most viewed, or recently uploaded videos.

When you launch Moovida for the first time, Moovida will recursively scan the Pictures, Videos, Music, and Movies directories in your home directory for usable media files.

XBMC

This media center suite can run within a window manager, a desktop environment such as KDE, XFCE or GNOME, or it can take the place of a window manager. When installed from Synaptic, XBMC appears as a selection in the session menu, the same as KDE, GNOME or WindowMaker, from the login screen, either kdm or gdm.

XBMC stands for XBOX Media Center, and as the name implies, was designed to create a media center using the original X-Box gaming console.

When you launch XBMC for the first time, the following appears:

You can use a mouse to navigate the menu system (which is in the center of the screen). Notice that submenus appear while highlighting the current selection.

Sources for video and audio are configurable through downloadable applications designed for XBMC. Applications can be activated by selecting Programs from the main menu.

As shown here, the first thing we need to do is to change a few settings. The current temperature for my location has not been set.

The System menu is where we configure XBMC options.

Here, we want to select Settings to start configuring XBMC.

Here, we can select Appearance, where we can change themes (called skins). Skins are packages that are written in XML, and embed graphics in the same directory (not unlike themes in WindowMaker). The xbmctex package available in Synaptic allows you to compile your own skin packages for use with XBMC.

On the main screen, there is a current temperature displayed at the top, not unlike the GNOME Weather applet. Weather allows you to retrieve the current temperature for your city using the Weather Underground service (recently acquired by the Weather Channel).

Add-Ons is the applications manager for XBMC. It is here where we can add sources for viewing television shows and movies, as well as photography archive services such as Flickr and Picasa, and streaming radio and customized music services.

Video Sources Available to XBMC

Configuring sources for online video in XBMC is only two clicks away. From the main screen, select Videos, then select Add-Ons.

As we can see, XBMC offers 139 sources for video, including Youtube. As you scroll through the list, you will see descriptions to the right of what each application (called Add-On) provides to XBMC.

Note: Not all add-ons are functional. Avoid installing add-ons that are marked broken.

Here, I have one of my favorite networks highlighted (Food Network). To install any add-on, simply double click on the menu item.

...and here is the Youtube add-on that allows XBMC to access Youtube videos. Also note that WatchItLater and Ziggo TV Streams are not functional add-ons.

Here, we are ready to install the Youtube add-on. Click on Install and it instantly becomes available for use.

Click on the Home icon, at the upper left hand corner of your screen, then click on Videos.

Here, we are now able to view videos on Youtube. Click on Youtube and we get the following:

If you have a Google account, you can login to Youtube by filling in the Username and Password fields.

Click on OK to exit this screen.

This is what you see when you click on Youtube after the initial setup. Let us click on Explore Youtube. There are numerous categories to explore. For the next example, we shall select Classic TV. (This article is called Watching On-Line Television, after all.)

We can see that whatever is classified as Classic TV on Youtube shows up here.

OK, so The Brady Bunch is not a great example here. But then, public television’s Sesame Street is classified as a Comedy on Youtube.

Within the results here are the number of clips that you can watch.

Boxee

The Boxee client, installable from Synaptic, is a reworking of XBMC for use with the Boxee service (including the branding). This, of course, means you must create a user account at Boxee, which could then be used with applications for your smartphone or tablet, or on Boxee’s router for television sets.

Signing up for Boxee is free, and can be done either with a web browser, or through the Boxee client.

Like XBMC, video, audio and photographic services are configurable through applications downloadable from within the Boxee client.

This is what you see when you launch Boxee. Here, we can login to boxee.tv using this client. If this is the first time you launch Boxee, the following will appear. Display settings will automatically be detected, so you can just click on Next to get to the main screen.

The newsfeed on the left is enabled if you have a Twitter account, and that account is enabled from the boxee.tv website.

Click on TV Shows to access a library of television programs. Boxee displays 200 of their most popular television series. The Apps item allows you to access more services, including Youtube, where you can watch online video.

Banshee Media Player

Banshee allows for viewing of online and local video files. The default Banshee configuration allows for viewing of videos from the Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org) and from the Miro Guide (http://www.miroguide.com).

The following screenshots show Banshee displaying the Miro Guide and Internet Archive pages.

Miro Standalone Player

This application provides a bit more functionality than the Miro plugin for Banshee.

When Miro Internet TV is launched for the first time, you will be asked some questions in order for Miro to be setup. The first of these questions asks for the language the application is to be displayed. Obviously, we want to click Next here to use the English language (or whatever language is set for your PCLinuxOS installation).

As Miro uses large quantities of system resources, the default is for Miro not to start when KDE is launched. I recommend clicking on Next to this question.

You can choose to select a directory where your video or audio files are stored. Once Miro is launched, you can add directories for Miro to search later. Click on Finish to setup Miro.

This message appears because there is no subdirectory called Miro in your Videos directory. This directory is not created by default. You can click on Continue and Miro will use the Videos directory within your home directory instead.

Alternately, you can click on Quit, then create the directory using a file manager or a terminal window (type mkdir ~/Videos/Miro to create the directory). Then relaunch Miro.

As we can see, there are five sources preconfigured for watching online video, namely Youtube, Hulu, PBS Online, Youtorrent, and Clearbits. Additional sources can be manually configured as shown below:

One could say that Miro is a cross between a media player and a web browser.

Of course, we can playback podcasts on Miro, with five sources here preconfigured: TED Talk, Lifehacker, This American Life (from National Public Radio), The Moth Podcast, and VODO Promoted Works.

Note: Most of the content provided with Lifehacker is targeted for Windows and Mac OS-X users, and may or may not be relevant to PCLinuxOS. This of course can be changed as we use and select podcasts for viewing.

This article is about viewing online television programs, movies and video using software available on PCLinuxOS without additional hardware such as television cards or adapters, webcams, or video capture devices.

Use Synaptic To Clone Installed Software On Another Computer

by Paul Arnote (parnote)

We’re all familiar with Synaptic. You know, that front-end GUI to apt-get that we all use to keep our PCLinuxOS installation up-to-date. You are updating regularly, right?

But let’s say you have just bought a new solid state drive (SSD), and you need to re-install PCLinuxOS after you install the SSD. Or, maybe you bought a new laptop and you want to duplicate the installed applications from your desktop computer onto the new laptop. Or, maybe you just need to do a fresh installation – for whatever reason – but you don’t want to spend hours opening and closing Synaptic to install all of your favorite applications.

I’ve been there, with that latter scenario. Just as soon as I close Synaptic, I remember one or two more applications that I frequently use, but forgot to install. So I open Synaptic again, install those applications (plus a few more that get jogged in my memory, usually), install those, then close out of Synaptic. A few minutes later, I remember a couple more applications. Then the cycle repeats – several times, unfortunately.

Luckily, there is a better way to help insure that all of your favorite applications are installed, the first time. Synaptic provides you with this tool, but does so in such a way that you may not even know it’s even there and available. Here’s what you need to do.

First, open Synaptic and make sure you are fully updated before proceeding any further. You know – Reload, Mark All Updates, Apply, etc., etc.

Then, select “File > Save Markings As...” to display the “Save As” dialog box. Since Synaptic is running as root, you will have to select where to save it. I would suggest saving your markings to a USB flash/thumb drive, especially if you are moving that list to a different computer.

Do you notice the extra little checkbox in the lower left corner? The one that says “Save full state, not only changes”? The “secret” to this working is that you have to check this checkbox. Then, give your “markings” file a name at the top of the Save As dialog box. I use something simple and descriptive, such as “SynapticMarkingsMMDDYY.txt.”

Next, click on the “Save” button to save your Synaptic markings to your USB flash/thumb drive.

Once you’ve done that, getting the markings onto the other computer (or the same computer, if you’re reinstalling) is very easy. Go to “File > Read Markings” in Synaptic, and select the file you saved them to in the previous steps. Then click on “Apply.”

Now, go have some pizza and a soda, or go fix yourself a BLT sandwich (we all know how much PCLinuxOS users LOVE bacon) while Synaptic downloads and installs the files in your markings list. Duplicate files will be skipped. When it’s all done and over, your belly will be full and all of your favorite applications that were previously installed will be present and available on your new installation.

Installing & Configuring VSFTPD

by D. Moore  (YouCanToo)

This how-to focuses on how to setup vsftpd server on your PCLinuxOS based computer. The vsftpd stands for “Very Secure FTP Daemon”. It is not just secure as the name suggests but also delivers excellent performance by consuming less memory. The tutorial also teaches you how to configure by adding FTP users and locking the directory to individual users.

Installing vsftpd on PCLinuxOS

Open the Synaptic Package Manager and do a search for vsftpd.

Now Mark the package for installation and click apply.

WARNING: if you have any other ftp server installed, it will be removed when you install vsftpd.

Click apply again. VSFTPD will now be installed onto your system. Click "close" and then you can exit Synaptic.

--- How to configure vsftpd ---

Before we get started we need to make sure the vsftpd daemon is stopped. You can do this in a console window as root. You should see something like this:

[root@laptop dwmoar]# service vsftpd stop

Shutting down vsftpd:                                                 [FAILED]

[root@laptop dwmoar]#

Now we need to edit the vsftp.conf file. In your favorite text editor as the root user, open the /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf file.

We need to change the following options:

1. We don't want any anonymous logins:

uncomment the following and change to the following

anonymous_enable=NO

2. Enable local users:

uncomment the following and change to the following

local_enable=YES

3. The ftpuser should be able to write data:

uncomment the following and change to the following

write_enable=YES

4. Set umask to 022 to make sure all files and folders have proper permissions.

files (644)  folders (755)

uncomment the following and change to the following

local_umask=022

5. Turn off port 20, this makes vsftpd run less privileged:

uncomment the following and change to the following

connect_from_port_20=NO

6. Chroot everyone:  Make sure no one can snoop in anyone else’s directory.

uncomment the following and change to the following

chroot_local_user=YES

--- Our basic configuration is now complete. ---

Let's now start the vsftpd service.

In a console window as the root user, type in the following

service vsftpd start

you should see something like this:

[root@laptop etc]# service vsftpd start

Starting vsftpd for vsftpd:                                           [  OK  ]

[root@laptop etc]#

If you see the word "FAILED" this means there was a mistake in the configuration file. Go back, double check your work and try again.

Congratulations if you got the "OK". Your ftp server is up and running.

Now let’s add a new ftpuser.

Since vsftpd has no gui we will need to do the following from a console window as root.

adduser -d /path/to/the/ftpusers/home/directory -s /usr/bin/bash ftpuser*

where ftpuser* is the ftpuser’s name.

--- EXAMPLE ---

[root@laptop etc]# useradd -d  /home/mastermind -s /usr/bin/bash mastermind

[root@laptop etc]#

Setup a password for the ftpuser

passwd ftpuser*

where ftpuser* is the name of the user.

--- EXAMPLE ---

[root@laptop etc]# passwd mastermind

Changing password for user mastermind.

New password:

Retype new password:

passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.

[root@laptop etc]#

NOTE:  the password is not echoed to the screen so make sure it is entered the same both times.

In order to enable the ftpuser to read and write the data in the home directory, change the permission and take ownership:

chown -R ftpuser /path/to/the/ftpusers/home/directory

chmod 755 /path/to/the/ftpusers/home/directory

--- EXAMPLE ---

[root@laptop etc]# chown -R mastermind /home/mastermind

[root@laptop etc]# chmod 755 /home/mastermind

Create a userlist file and add the user.

nano /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.userlist

and add the user

ftpuser*

where ftpuser* is the actual username

on a new line add the following

userlist_file=/etc/vsftpd.userlist

Now save your file.

--- EXAMPLE ---

One last change. Now create a usergroup and add the ftpuser to it:

usermod -G ftpuser ftpuser*

where  ftpuser* is the actual username.

--- EXAMPLE ---

[root@laptop vsftpd]# usermod -G mastermind mastermind

Now restart the vsftpd service

service vsftpd restart

You should see something like this

[root@laptop vsftpd]# service vsftpd restart

Shutting down vsftpd:                                                 [  OK  ]

Starting vsftpd for vsftpd:                                           [  OK  ]

[root@laptop vsftpd]#

If you see "FAILED" go back and recheck your work.

That’s it. Now you have a secure installation of vsftpd on your machine.

Running Wireshark As A Regular User

by AndrzejL

Wireshark is a network packet sniffer. When opening it as a regular user, I had no capturing interfaces to use as a source for sniffing. I don’t feel comfortable running Wireshark as root. Nothing should be run with root privileges unless there is absolutely no other option. So I have decided to mess around with Wireshark and to enable the packet capturing for a non-root user. After a bit of search online I was able to do so.

Here is how.

I assume that you have PCLinuxOS installed / fully upgraded and that you have installed Wireshark.

Run those commands to allow non-root user the Wireshark access:

su

give it a root password

apt-get --yes install libpcap libcap-utils

give it some time to finish.

groupadd wireshark

usermod -a -G wireshark andrzejl

you need to change andrzejl to your login.

chgrp wireshark /usr/bin/dumpcap

chmod 750 /usr/bin/dumpcap

chmod o+x /usr/bin/dumpcap

setcap cap_net_raw,cap_net_admin=eip /usr/sbin/dumpcap

getcap /usr/bin/dumpcap

after that you can run:

exit

wireshark

This will start Wireshark from your user account. You should now have access to the capturing interfaces.

ms_meme's Nook: PCLOS Waltz

MP3       OGG

Remaster YOUR PCLinuxOS Installation

by AndrzejL

I have seen this question on multiple occasions: “My PCLinuxOS works just the way I wanted it to and I want to back it up. How do I create ISO from it?” Today, I have decided to show you how I do it.

First step: Check that you have drakx-finish-install installed. Issue this command:

rpm -qa | grep drakx-finish-install

If the output looks something like this:

[andrzejl@wishmasbell ~]$ rpm -qa | grep drakx-finish-install

drakx-finish-install-12.80-2pclos2011

[andrzejl@wishmasbell ~]$

you are good to go. If not, issue this command:

su -c "apt-get update && apt-get --yes install drakx-finish-install"

Give it the root password when asked, and some time to finish. Then, run

rpm -qa | grep drakx-finish-install

again. This time system should indicate that the package is installed.

Second step: Check for free space. Issue this command:

df

The output will look something like this. Of course you can have less (or more) partitions mounted in different mount points, but you will have at least one / partition.

[andrzejl@wishmasbell ~]$ df

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on

/dev/sda1 25G 19G 5.1G 79% /

/dev/sda6 9.9G 8.8G 1.1G 89% /home

/dev/sda7 37G 35G 895M 98% /media/Disk_1

/dev/sda8 37G 33G 2.4G 94% /media/Disk_2

/dev/sda9 20G 9.9G 8.9G 53% /media/Disk_3

/dev/sdb1 74G 26G 44G 37% /media/Disk_4

[andrzejl@wishmasbell ~]$

Now you can see which disk has enough space in it to create the ISO. In my case, it’s the /media/Disk_4 because it has 44 GB of space available.

So, let’s say I want to remaster to this partition, and place it in the folder called Remaster. And that I want to have all my data included.

Third step: Prep the folder and the remaster command. Run this commands:

su

Give root password and then run this command:

mkdir /media/Disk_4/Remaster

This will create a folder where we will find out iso later. Don’t close this terminal window.

Now for the remastering command:

mylivecd --xz --nodir ^/media/Disk_4/Remaster/ --tmp=/media/Disk_4/Remaster/ --md5sum --ufs unionfs /media/Disk_4/Remaster/my.iso

– mylivecd – script that will remaster the PCLinuxOS to the ISO file.

– xz – this will specify the compression method (there are other as well. Read mylivecd –help if you want to know more).

– nodir – the folders listed will not be added to the ISO.

– tmp – this will be our temporary folder for the mylivecd process.

– md5sum – this will embed md5sum in the ISO.

– ufs – this will specify the union file system.

– /media/Disk_4/Remaster/my.iso – this specifies where the ISO will be written.

So, in general, the command should look something like this:

su

mkdir /whatever1/whatever2

mylivecd --xz --nodir ^/whatever1/whatever2/ --tmp=/whatever1/whatever2/ --md5sum --ufs unionfs /whatever1/whatever2/whatever.iso

If your installation is not massive and bloated, after running this command, it should create a remaster iso. However, sometimes you will receive error like this one:

mylivecd, version 0.9.4, http://pclinuxos.com/

Copyright (C) 2010, Texstar

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or

modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License

as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2

of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

Disabling Services not needed on the LiveCD

running: /sbin/chkconfig –list

running: /sbin/chkconfig –list

running: /sbin/chkconfig –list

running: /sbin/chkconfig –list

running: /sbin/chkconfig –list

Creating initrd: [100.00% 00:00:07/00:00:07]

Setting filesystem parameters: [100.00% 00:00:04/00:00:04]

Creating compressed image: [100.00% 00:14:10/00:14:10]

Creating isolinux boot: [100.00% 00:00:01/00:00:01]

Creating final iso: [100.00% 00:00:00/00:00:00]

Restoring Services on the installed system

ls: cannot access whatever.iso: No such file or directory

Argument “” isn’t numeric in division (/) at /usr/sbin/mylivecd line 244.

Created ‘whatever.iso’ (0,000 bytes) in 00:14:25

This happens if you try to add too much to your ISO. Mylivecd command can create an ISO of a maximum size 4.3 GB (single layer DVD size). If you want to remaster your installation, you will have to exclude some data from it. Now, if you have few partitions and you only want some of them added, you can exclude the rest of them by adding them to the nodir part of the command.

Let’s see…

[andrzejl@wishmasbell ~]$ df

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on

/dev/sda1 25G 19G 5.1G 79% /

/dev/sda6 9.9G 8.8G 1.1G 89% /home

/dev/sda7 37G 35G 895M 98% /media/Disk_1

/dev/sda8 37G 33G 2.4G 94% /media/Disk_2

/dev/sda9 20G 9.9G 8.9G 53% /media/Disk_3

/dev/sdb1 74G 26G 44G 37% /media/Disk_4

[andrzejl@wishmasbell ~]$

All I want in my iso is my / and my /home and I want to skip all the rest of the partitions…

The remastering command will now look something like this (all on one line):

mylivecd --xz --nodir ^/whatever1/whatever2/,^/media/Disk_1/,^/media/Disk_2/,^/media/Disk_3/,^/media/Disk_4/ --tmp=/whatever1/whatever2/ --md5sum --ufs unionfs /whatever1/whatever2/whatever.iso

As you can see, I have excluded 4 partitions.

The rule of thumb for adding new exclusions is (all on one line): ,^/where/is/it/mounted/

mylivecd --xz --nodir ^/whatever1/whatever2/,^/where/is/it/mounted/ --tmp=/whatever1/whatever2/ --md5sum --ufs unionfs /whatever1/whatever2/whatever.iso

If you want to exclude just one user’s home from the entire /home partition, add (all on one line):

,^/home/oneuser/

mylivecd --xz --nodir ^/whatever1/whatever2/,^/home/oneuser/ --tmp=/whatever1/whatever2/ --md5sum --ufs unionfs /whatever1/whatever2/whatever.iso

If you want to exclude your entire /home partition, add ,^/home/(all on one line):

mylivecd --xz --nodir ^/whatever1/whatever2/,^/home/ --tmp=/whatever1/whatever2/ --md5sum --ufs unionfs /whatever1/whatever2/whatever.iso

After properly adjusting your command, you should be able to create a good working ISO. Try it in VirtualBox before you burn it to the CD/DVD. Sometimes, the remaster process creates an unusable ISO, and I wouldn’t want you to create a whole bunch of coasters before you get it right.

Now to get the md5sum file:

I assume that you created the ISO in /whatever1/whatever2/whatever.iso location.

Issue those commands then:

cd /whatever1/whatever2/

md5sum ./whatever.iso > ./whatever.md5sum

This will create the whatever.md5sum in the /whatever1/whatever2/ folder. The file will contain the checksum of your ISO.

Example:

[andrzejl@wishmasbell whatever2]$ cat ./whatever.md5sum

d784fa8b6d98d27699781bd9a7cf19f0 ./whatever.iso

[andrzejl@wishmasbell whatever2]$

What if your command line contains spaces?

If you have partitions or folders that contain spaces, you will be interested in this “special case” scenario. Say, for example, you have the following partition:

/dev/sda7 37G 35G 895M 98% /media/Windows 7

If you want to exclude this mount point from the remastering process you need to add \ before the space in the command like this:

--nodir ^/whatever1/Windows\ 7/

Otherwise, you will receive a FATAL: Too many command-line arguments error.

LibreOffice 3.6: New Features Galore

by Paul Arnote (parnote)

Ever since the Document Foundation forked development of OpenOffice to LibreOffice, the development team has forged steadily ahead with improvements to the OpenOffice code base.

Initially, most improvements were to clean up the code by removing unused sections of code that still existed, removing outdated and seldom used functions, and improving the structure of the remaining code.

Now, several releases later, the LibreOffice development team has hit full stride. With the August 2012 release of LibreOffice 3.6, there are many enhancements to the open source office suite that has become the favorite of office suite users around the world.

Below is a rundown of many of those enhancements. To update your LibreOffice installation on PCLinuxOS, simply re-run lomanager and follow the prompts. New features and improvements that were labeled as being exclusive to either Windows or OS-X users have been omitted. You can view the entire list of features and improvements here.

Featured Updates

1. Support for color scales and data bars. Import from .xlsx and import/export from/to .ods in ODF 1.2 (extended). Warning: Some limitations still apply which will be fixed in 3.7.0.

2. Added Word Count to status bar.

3. PDF Export with Watermark option.

4. 10 new Impress master pages.

5. Support for importing Office SmartArt.

6. Import Filter for Corel Draw documents.

New Writer Features

1. Format paintbrush can now differentiate character automatic formating applied to paragraphs from those applied to text portion inside the paragraph.

2. Support for contextual spacing.

3. VML import now handles lines, rotations and flips.

4. DOCX import now handles GetExpression and SetExpression fields.

5. RTF/DOCX import/export handles document zoom settings.

6. Pressing "Ctrl+[" will decrease or "Ctrl+]" will increase the font size of the selected text, respectively. (Note that this function is not available for all localizations but will soon be updated to offer full support to all.)

7. Updates to Word Count. Added Word Count to status bar. Fixed two miscounting bugs.

8. Table AutoFormats now record the following table-level properties: Break, Keep with next paragraph, Repeat heading, Allow table split across pages, Allow rows to break across pages, Merge adjacent line styles, Table shadow.

9. Shows Text Boundaries depending on the choice to display unprintable characters.

10. Support for importing Office SmartArt.

11. Extension of label definitions with form (paper, page) size. Labels which are not centred on the form are created correctly.

12. All 1700+ predefined label definitions have been modified to include the form size and obsolete definitions have been removed.

13. Recalculation of label positions on the form. Label definitions with gaps between labels that are wider than the right margin now produce correct documents. Existing user defined labels are automatically extended with form size.

14. The form size can be entered/modified in the wizard dialog.

New Calc Features

1. "Ctrl+D" fills down in more familiar ways, filling with contents of the cell above if no cell is selected, and, filling down multiple cells with larger selections.

2. New option to specify a custom sheet name prefix in new documents.

3. Merge cells option added to right-click menu.

4. Sheets can now be hidden and/or shown by using the sheets tab context menu.

5. Improved error message for invalid sheet name.

6. Export conditional formatting to .xlsx.

7. Improved CSV file import, including: handle lines with more than 64k characters, differentiated different error messages, better handling of broken CSV files where generator didn't follow RFC 4180 quote rules, import numbers in scientific notation without having to check "import special numbers," better initial default separators, comma, semicolon and tab.

8. Added a "Save cell formulas instead of calculated values" option to CSV export.

9. New spreadsheet functions as defined in ODF OpenFormula: DATEDIF, IMTAN, IMSEC, IMCSC, IMCOT, IMSINH, IMCOSH, IMSECH and IMCSCH

10. Added support for field items in cells.

11. Calc now allows sorting of data from the autofilter menu.

12. Calc now supports allowing pasting only text, value, or formula from the context menu.

13. Detailed configuration options for formula calculation. You can now configure the reference syntax for built-in function: INDIRECT.

14. The limitation of 3 sort entries has been removed.

15. Default number of sheets for new spreadsheets has been changed to 1.

16. Support for X errorbars  in scatter and bar charts, importing and exporting to .xls and .ods when using ODF 1.2 (extended).

17. Support for color scales and data bars. Import from .xlsx and import/export from/to .ods in ODF 1.2 (extended). Warning: Some limitations still apply which will be fixed in 3.7.0

18. New dialogs for conditional formats to support color scales and data bars.

New Impress Features

1. Added widescreen format for Impress slideshows.

1. Impress now correctly detects the external display and puts the presenter console on the local display.

2. 10 new Impress master pages.

New Math Features

1. Format dialogues (Font, Font Size and Spacing) and the Symbols dialogue (Tools -> Catalog) now have a button linking to Help.

“Other” New Features

1. Basic IDE: Docked Object Catalog pane.

2. Filters: ODF Export now comes with a "ODF 1.2 Extended (compact mode)" that gives better interoperability with older consumers of the Open Document Format.

3. Added Lanczos algorithm for resizing of images.

4. Macro recording can be activated with a separate option: Tools -> Options -> General -> Enable macro recording.

5. Support for Japanese postcard paper size in all applications.

6. Recent Documents list is updated on Save, Save As and Close.

7. Allow for editing of read-only documents.

8. Added "Support for assistive technology tools" to installation process.

New GUI Features

1. Rulers are now much cleaner and more lightweight.

2. New Splash Screen.

3. A redesigned "About" dialog for a cleaner look.

4. New artwork for the Start Office.

1. Clicking the ">>" overflow button will not show toolbar options anymore. The full options can be shown by right-clicking the toolbar.

2. GTK themes are now able to render background gradient.

3. GTK themes now have a way for tab prelight rendering.

4. Writer and Calc now use split color buttons making it possible to apply the last used color with one mouse click for font, background, border and highlight colors.

5. GTK theming is implemented for fixed lines and frames.

6. Support for Trinity Desktop Environment integration.

7. Dictionary choice removed in spellchecker when there is only one dictionary active.

8. Zooming now is based on a geometric progression.

New Localization Features

1. Implemented locale dependent date acceptance patterns for input of incomplete dates. This prevents erroneous detection of dates in Calc and Writer cell inputand CSV file import.

2. Added en-MW locale data.

3. Added myv-RU locale data.

4. Improved language tools (spellchecker, thesaurus and hyphenation patterns): updated pt-BR spellchecker, updated Swedish spell-check dictionary, updated French spell-check dictionary and thesaurus, updated Czech thesaurus, greatly improved German language tools with over 30,000 new words added to the German spell-check dictionary and over 7000 new symbols added to the German thesaurus, hyphenation patterns are also improved, substantial improvements to the Danish spellchecker and thesaurus.

5. The default locale is now the default locale of the operating system.

New Performance Features

1. Substantially improved simple .doc/.docx import.

2. Large document scrolling/re-layout/interactive editing improvements.

3. Large autocorrect lists handled around twice as fast.

4. Improved performance for pivot tables in Calc. Refreshing of pivot table should be 35-50% faster than 3.5. In addition, the memory footprint of the pivot table is greatly reduced.

5. Improved performance of raw cell value import from .xlsx spreadsheets.

6. Improved performance of merged cell and matrix range import from .ods files.

7. Embedded HSQLDB databases are now size-minimized before being saved because Base uses "CHECKPOINT DEFRAG" instead of "CHECKPOINT". This means that the space occupied by deleted rows is really freed up.

Syncing Files Via SSH Using rsync

by AndrzejL

I own a few machines. One of them is my main, everyday machine. Others are my backup machines that I use when the main machine is doing a heavy task, or when I cannot access it for another reason.

Sometimes it’s annoying. Really annoying. Why? Oh, for example, the pidgin config files were not synchronized between the machines. I added some contacts to the main machine pidgin configuration and I never had a chance to set them up on the rest of my machines. I had a chat or two with a friend, and the logs were not available on my other machines, so I could not check the history of the chat. I changed the configuration of Firefox on my main machine, and the other machines were not updated. Same goes for Thunderbird / e-mail settings and synchronization. Even my folders with data. It was seriously bothering me. So, I have found a perfect solution.

It’s extremely simple. Assuming that you have passwordless authentication working, all you need is one command. The command should be run on the ssh client machine. In other words,  you should run it on the machine you want to synchronize files to. It will connect to the remote SSH server machine and download the files from it.

rsync -avz -e ssh andrzejl@192.168.0.100:/home/andrzejl/.purple /home/andrzejl/

This command will connect with login andrzejl to the SSH server running on the 192.168.0.100 machine and it will incrementally synchronize the /home/andrzejl/.purple folder to the /home/andrzejl/ folder on a local machine. I didn’t add the .purple folder at the end of the command as the synchronization process will create it if it’s not there. If I did add it, it would create /home/andrzejl/.purple/.purple folder.

Now imagine the possibilities. Put that command in a script and then create an automated job in crontab so it will be executed every, let’s say, one hour. I did it here and it works perfectly! Your client (backup/spare) machine config files will always be synchronized with your main  server machine. Your data folders can be synchronized between all your machines. Perfect. That’s what I wanted.

OH BOY! Is this faster than copying the files with midnight commander. When syncing my pidgin folder to a fresh install and using mc, it could take up to 3 hours due to the fact that the logs folder has almost 60 megs, and it contains over 41,000 small files. Rsync does it in less than 20 minutes. And, later it just copies the “new” files thanks to the “increment” option. So it takes several seconds. Rsync rocks.

If that’s not cool, I don’t know what is.

If you have tightened up SSH server security and changed the SSH port from the standard use of port 22, you will have to slightly modify the command to add the port number.

Here is what it looks like:

rsync -avz -e 'ssh -p 20202' andrzejl@192.168.0.100:/home/andrzejl/.purple /home/andrzejl/

Screenshot Showcase

gseaman  08-03-12 kde4

weirdwolf 08-20-12 LXDE

ferry_th 08-22-12 OB

cstrike77 08-01-12 kde4

YouCanToo 08-10-12 kde4

T6 08-11-12 kde4

RobNj 08-11-12 e17

Crow 08-13-12 LXDE

MBGguy 08-11-12 kde4

Celchu 08-17-12

Disclaimer

1. All the contents of the NEW PCLinuxOS Magazine are only for general information and/or use. Such contents do not constitute advice and should not be relied upon in making (or refraining from making) any decision. Any specific advice or replies to queries in any part of the magazine is/are the personal opinion of such experts/consultants/persons and are not subscribed to by the NEW PCLinuxOS Magazine.

2. The information in the NEW PCLinuxOS Magazine is provided on an "AS IS" basis, and all warranties, expressed or implied of any kind, regarding any matter pertaining to any information, advice or replies are disclaimed and excluded.

3. The NEW PCLinuxOS Magazine and its associates shall not be liable, at any time for damages (including, without limitation, damages for loss of any kind) arising in contract, tort or otherwise from the use of or inability to use the magazine, or any of its contents, or from any action taken (or refrained from being taken) as a result of using the magazine or any such contents or for any failure of performance, error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, computer virus, communications line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorised access to, alteration of, or use of information contained on the magazine.

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A majority of sections in the magazine contain materials submitted by users. The NEW PCLinuxOS Magazine accepts no responsibility for the content, accuracy, and conformity to applicable laws of such material.

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Table of Contents

Forum Foibles: PCLinuxOS Summer Cookbook

KompoZer, Part 3: Special Formatting

Graphics Tutorials: GIMP, Part 3

Welcome From The Chief Editor

KDE Upgrade Cheat Sheet

Linux Financial Apps: Skrooge

Mark's Quick Gimp Tip & Double Take

Copy Files Securely Between Local Machine & Shell Account

Watching Online Television On PCLinuxOS

Use Synaptic To Clone Installed Software On Another Computer

Installing & Configuring VSFTPD

Running Wireshark As A Regular User

ms_meme's Nook: PCLOS Waltz

Remaster YOUR PCLinuxOS Installation

LibreOffice 3.6: New Features Galore

Syncing Files Via SSH Using rsync

Screenshot Showcase

Disclaimer

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