Table of Contents

- Welcome From The Chief Editor

1. Happy 12th Birthday, PCLinuxOS!

2. HTPC: Watching Videos/Movies With Kodi

3. ms_meme's Nook: Be Happy

4. PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner: Gluten-Free Mini Meatloaves

5. HTPC: Installing Netflix In Kodi

6. Inkscape Tutorial: Six Helpful Inkscape Tips

7. Playing Resident Evil 4 On PCLinuxOS

8. Multiple Command Line Windows Using GNU Screen

9. Tip Top Tips: SketchUpMake 2015 On PCLOS64

10. PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight: Rudge

11. Game Zone: Coffin Dodgers

12. ms_meme's Nook: How Sweet It Is

13. PCLinuxOS Puzzled Partitions

14. Screenshot Showcase

Yes, I know that it's a bit early for a Christmas "wish list." But right at the top of my wish list is something that I've been wishing for during my entire time as a Linux user. And the bad thing about it is that I'm not sure who is to blame for its absence.

This month pretty much wraps up our article series on Kodi, the home theater, multimedia mega-program. The end comes without me having found a simple way to view and record live TV, by way of an accessory TV tuner, with Kodi. I know it's possible, but at the same time, it really shouldn't be THIS difficult. Windows wins this race, hands down.

What I have longed for is better support for TV tuners in Linux. First of all, it's not as if TV -- and TV tuners -- are new things. TV tuners have been around for, well, as long as there have been TVs. It really shouldn't require coexisting degrees in astrophysics and rocket science to get them to work under Linux.

Actually, I think the blame for the abysmal state of TV tuners on Linux has to be shared. First, the equipment manufacturers -- those making the TV tuners -- make them dedicated to work with Windows, using procedures and processes that ONLY work under Windows. The icing on the cake is that they keep the key parts of the hardware and software "closed source" so no one can possibly get them working on anything but Windows. Second, there hasn't been a concerted effort by the open source community to get TV tuners working under Linux. Sure, there are small pockets of people working on the problem, but it hasn't received nearly enough attention to make a significant impact. To really make users frustrated, some programs will see a particular TV tuner and others won't. All this tells me is that the groups working on this problem really aren't talking to one another or comparing notes, or that their egos are creating an insurmountable obstacle to the solution.

I bought a USB TV tuner that had positive reports of users getting it running under Linux. The results, should we say, are lackluster. Some applications -- such as SMPlayer -- can see the TV tuner and display the TV programming. Most others, such as VLC, MPlayer and Kodi ... well, not so much. To date, the ONLY Linux program that works consistently is SMPlayer, and it's marginal (as in barely watchable) at best. And this is after spending HOURS pouring over obscure forums and mailing list posts, in attempts to get the other programs to see and display the output from the TV tuner.

This was not my first attempt with a TV tuner under Linux, either. A few years back, when I built my desktop computer (which I chronicled here in the pages of The PCLinuxOS Magazine), I installed a TV tuner card -- one that, once again, had positive comments on Newegg of users getting it up and running under Linux. The ONLY thing that can see this particular TV tuner card is MythTV, which I've abandoned long ago due to it being way, overly complicated. Literally no other program can see, use or display images from this TV tuner card.

New users coming to Linux will want to do the things with their computers that they have done previously with the commercially available operating system ... namely, Windows. When they are faced with such a daunting task as getting their TV tuner working under Linux, that even someone (me) with a fairly extensive and long history with Linux can't get working, they will run back to their old proprietary operating system (Windows) with their tail between their legs, like the proverbial whipped puppy. Upon their return, they will regale their comrades with tales of how Linux is not yet ready for "prime time," and about how challenging it was to (not) get their TV tuner card recognized.

Eight years after joining the "Linux Revolution," I'm still waiting for proper support for TV tuner cards and devices. While I'm not running back to Windows ... or any other operating system ... my exercise in futility with TV tuners has left me frustrated and somewhat discouraged.

Occasionally, I'll drag it (the USB TV tuner) back out of the drawer or off the shelf I've banished it to out of frustration, and give it another try (which usually ends in yet another round of frustration and another subsequent banishment of the TV tuner). Each new Linux kernel release causes hope to spring eternal, with hopes that maybe THIS new kernel will finally allow my device(s) to work as they should. I have yet to experience the euphoria of my device(s) working as they should. Like I mentioned earlier, it really shouldn't be THIS difficult.

If I EVER get either of the TV tuners to work, and work well and consistently under Linux, you all will be the first to know. I'm sure there's a process to undertake that won't be for the faint of heart. I'll do my best to detail that process, step by step, if I ever arrive at a solution myself.

Until next month, I bid you peace, happiness, serenity and prosperity.

Happy 12th Birthday, PCLinuxOS!

by Paul Arnote (parnote)

Happy 12th Birthday, PCLinuxOS!

At the young age of 12 years old, PCLinuxOS is a grandparent among Linux distributions. There are only a handful of surviving Linux distributions that have been around longer -- Red Hat, Slackware, Debian, Arch, Knoppix, Vector Linux, BLFS (Beyond Linux From Scratch) and Oracle Linux (plus a few localized versions of Linux built especially for residents of specific countries). PCLinuxOS has been around longer than Ubuntu, Mint, openSUSE, Android, Mageia, Fedora and CentOS. During the 12 year run of PCLinuxOS, many Linux distributions have come and gone. Some have seen the plug pulled, only to be reborn at a later date.

The many "flavors" of Linux is what's largely responsible for its broad appeal. Linux is about choice, and with so many distributions, there are a lot of choices for Linux users. Currently, Distrowatch.com lists and tracks page hits for 278 Linux distributions. For many new Linux users coming from "one-size-fits-all" commercial operating systems, the enormous number of choices can be very overwhelming.

What follows next will be a "repeat" or "rerun" for PCLinuxOS users who've been around for a while. If you're new to PCLinuxOS, you might be wondering about the origins of PCLinuxOS. If you're a PCLinuxOS veteran, few tire of hearing this story again.

*****

It began on October 24, 2003. PCLinuxOS Preview .4 was released as a fork of Linux Mandrake (Mandriva) 9.2. Since that time, PCLinuxOS has matured into its own independent Linux distribution. Just uttering the all-still-too-common line that PCLinuxOS is still a fork of Mandriva may cause sparks to fly. While PCLinuxOS may have been originally forked from Mandriva, it also borrows from openSUSE, Fedora, Ubuntu, Knoppix, Mepis, Debian, Slackware, Arch and just about any/every other Linux distro around.

Unlike some other Linux distros, PCLinuxOS thrives as a community distribution. It doesn't have multimillionaires and/or billionaires funneling cash into its coffers, and it doesn't have the backing of any corporation. Rather, a dedicated group of volunteers keep PCLinuxOS current by developing new programs unique to PCLinuxOS, packaging and updating the repositories, or by donating their services for various tasks that need to be done -- and that make PCLinuxOS truly unique among Linux distros.

What Is PCLinuxOS?

PCLinuxOS is a Linux distro, just like Ubuntu, openSUSE, Fedora, Mepis, Knoppix, Debian, Slackware, Arch and about 300 others. Probably the best way to describe PCLinuxOS is to provide a brief history from the founder of PCLinuxOS, Texstar -- a.k.a. Bill Reynolds (pictured below).

In the summer of 2003, I became interested in Live CD technology after looking at Knoppix and a fresh distribution from a fellow named Warren, called Mepis. I was interested in helping Warren with Mepis at the time, but I had no clue how to build DEB files. Coming from 5 years of packaging RPMS and not really wanting to learn a new packaging system, I happened to come across a South African fellow by the name of Jaco Greef. He was developing a script called mklivecd and porting it to Mandrake Linux. I, along with Buchanan Milne (Mandrake contributor) and a few others, began working with Jaco to help debug the scripts. I got an idea to make a livecd based on Mandrake Linux 9.2, along with all my customizations, just for fun. I had previously provided an unofficial 3rd party repository for the users of Mandrake for many years, but had since parted ways. Since Mandrake was a trademarked name, myself and others decided to name the Live CD after our news site and forum, pclinuxonline, thus PCLinuxOS.

Preview .3 was my first attempt to make a livecd. I distributed it initially to about 20 people to get their reaction and feedback. Everyone who tested it loved the livecd but there was one thing missing. There wasn't a way to install the thing to the hard drive! srlinuxx from tuxmachines.org came up with a novel way to copy the livecd to the hard drive and posted it on our forums. Jaco utilized this information and inspiration from the Mepis installer and wrote a pyqt script to make the Live CD installable, thus the birth of a new distribution.

On October 24, 2003, PCLinuxOS Preview .4 was released as a fork of Linux Mandrake (Mandriva) 9.2 utilizing mklivecd scripts from Jaco Greef, a multimedia kernel from Thomas Buckland (2.4.22-tmb) and a customized KDE (3.1.4-tex). Preview .5 through .93 were built upon on previous PCLinuxOS releases. After three years of updating one release from the other using the same gcc and glibc core library, we found too many programs would no longer compile or work properly against this aging code base.

In November 2006, we utilized a one time source code snapshot from our friends at Mandriva to pull in an updated glibc/gcc core and associated libraries. We spent the following 6 months rebuilding, debugging, customizing, patching and updating our new code base. We pulled in stuff from our old code base, utilized patches/code from Fedora, Gentoo and Debian just to name a few. This is why you will never see me distro bashing, as it would be hypocritical to do such a thing. We are still dependent in many areas on other distros development processes due to our limited but hard working volunteer development team.

On May 20th, 2007, we felt we had reached a pretty stable base and released PCLinuxOS 2007. It utilized our own kernel from Oclient1, KDE built by MDE developer Ze, updated mklivecd scripts from IKerekes & Ejtr, a heavily patched Control Center, graphics from the PCLinuxOS beautification team, and many application updates from Thac and Neverstopdreaming. Development continues as work is being done for a Minime release and an international DVD. A future release of PCLinuxOS will feature an updated kernel, KDE 4, fresh Xorg server and all the latest applications. All in all it has been a great ride and we have made many friends along the way. Some have gone on to other distributions and many are still here from our first release. As I've always said, we're just enjoying Linux technology and sharing it with friends who might like it too. We hope you have enjoyed the ride as well.

While the above was written a few years ago, PCLinuxOS has continued to thrive and evolve. Shortly thereafter, MiniMe was released. MiniMe represented a barebones KDE installation, with little else than the bare desktop and core Linux OS files. Designed for more advanced users, MiniMe allows users to install only those applications that they want. Even though this distro uses the "rolling release" update method, new Live CDs were released every year (and recently, even more often) so a user wouldn't have to download a huge number of updates after installing to make sure they had the most up-to-date system available.

In 2009, several developers left PCLinuxOS to start their own distro. While this happens in many other distros, PCLinuxOS hasn't suffered from it, and is still one of the top distros. In the wake of their departure, others stepped up to fill the vacated developer roles. Several other users stepped up to create the various "flavors" of PCLinuxOS. Today, there are several "flavors" of PCLinuxOS available to users, each presenting PCLinuxOS users a choice of which desktop environment to use.

To this day, the KDE desktop is still employed in the "main" PCLinuxOS release. However, all of the other desktop versions utilize the exact same Linux core, as well as the same repositories.

Following the rolling release design, improvements are always being made, and things evolve. First Texstar, followed by the PCLinuxOS development team, expanded their focus a bit, and a much-wished-for 64-bit edition of PCLinuxOS has recently been offered.

Watching Videos/Movies With Kodi

by Paul Arnote (parnote)

Be sure to check out Ramchu's article on watching NetFlix in Kodi, elsewhere in this issue.

OK. Let's be honest. The REAL reason you installed Kodi is/was to watch movies and videos. For me, I know that was one of the main reasons I installed Kodi. If you recall from the first installment of the HTPC article series (the one where I described building an inexpensive set top computer on which to run Kodi), we talked about "cutting the cord" with the cable company ... or at least drastically lowering our monthly payments to them. To do that effectively, you will need access to things that you rely on the cable company to deliver, such as movies and cable programming.

Kodi achieves those objectives to varying degrees, depending on your expectations. Without a question, Kodi gives you much more access to varied programming content than just relying on over-the-air (OTA) broadcasts. Certainly, Kodi will deliver a fairly decent selection of cable-only channels -- although, it probably won't be as many as your cable company delivers to your home.

You may also gain access to programming content that your cable company didn't give you access to in their "one size fits all" programming packages. If you're merely "trimming" your cable bill, rather than cutting the cord altogether, this latter point will give you more programming choices than you've ever had before. In our house, were trimming the fat from the monthly cable bill by eliminating all of the so-called "premium" channels that do little more than rerun the same old, tired movies over and over and over (and we have absolutely no interest in watching most of them).

So I would advise you to proceed with caution. By the time you've finished reading this article, you may have more viewing choices than you have ever had. Don't blame me if your list of unfinished tasks around the house grows because you are spending more time in front of the TV.

To get started, go to the "Videos" menu and select the "Add-ons" submenu.

Next, select the "Get more..." item.

A list of available "Video Add-ons" will be displayed. Each one represents a particular channel or programming stream. Select each one you want to install, one by one. In the image above, I've selected the "ABC Family" video add-on.

You should see a screen similar to the one above. Select "Install" from the dialog box that appears, and your selected video add-on will be added.

Repeat the process for each add-on that represents the content you want to watch.

"60 Minutes" from the CBS News add-on.

"Diners, Drive-ins, & Dives" from the Food Network add-on.

Jack Black in "Yo-Gabba-Gabba!" from the Nick Jr. add-on.

As you can see, there is quite a varied amount of free content available as Kodi add-ons. Some other popular ones are:

Classic Cinema (plays old movies)

Bravo

CBS News

Popcorn Flix (plays old "B" movies)

PopcornTV

Sprout (kid's programming)

DIY Network

F1 (Formula 1 racing)

Food Network

Travel Network

HGTV

Hallmark Channel

Kid's Place

NASA TV

ESA Videos

MeTV

NASCAR

NBC Sports Live Extra

Oxygen

PBS Think (U.S. Public Broadcasting)

Project Free TV

Smithsonian Channel

Syfy Channel

Toonjet

VEVO

Vimeo

YouTube

That's just a sampling of add-ons that are available. Many, many more are available for your viewing pleasure. On some add-ons, you might find it a rather "hit-or-miss" proposition (and sometimes, more miss than hit) whether some of the listed content is available or not. Sometimes, a movie or show will be listed, but cannot be loaded/displayed. Often times, it's because the URL has changed and the add-on hasn't been updated to reflect the new URL. Still, there is a lot of content ready for your consumption.

Is There More?

You betcha! There's a LOT more available ... if you know where to look.

You can download individual "specialty" add-ons to give you access to certain content providers, or you can download a whole group of add-ons that give you access to a wide range of extra content. These are typically called "repos," short for repository (just like with PCLinuxOS). Whichever you choose depends on what content you're trying to access, and the process is basically the same for adding either. The links below offer excellent step-by-step, illustrated instructions for installation. Repeating them here would simply be just that ... repetitious. Follow the instructions explicitly for each of the links below, and you will be fine.

Let me offer up a word of caution here, as well (unlike my previous caution, this "caution" is a rather serious one, too). If you are going to be viewing/streaming/downloading copyrighted content, you would be wise to do so while connected to a good VPN (virtual private network). To define "good," I mean a VPN provider who won't surrender your real IP address to law enforcement authorities at the drop of a hat. A good VPN provider won't keep any connection logs. A good VPN will completely mask your real IP address, allowing you a considerable level of "anonymity" with regards to your downloading/viewing habits.

Users have been getting "sued" for copyright infringements for downloading/viewing copyrighted material that they have not purchased. And, not just in the U.S. Users have been facing the wrath of the movie studios in the Netherlands and Germany, just to name a couple. In some cases, they are "asking" for $150,000 (U.S.) in damages. In other cases, the content producer is sending a "cease and desist" letter to the user's ISP, who in turn, threatens to terminate the user's internet service if the "illegal" activity continues. So, an ounce of prevention (subscribing to a good quality VPN) is worth a pound cure (not getting drug into court or having your internet service terminated). An added benefit of subscribing to and using a good VPN is that it will help minimize your digital footprint with other online activities, as well.

So, you have to know where to get these other "specialty" add-ons. Let's start with Icefilms. With this add-on, you will have access to over 77,000 movies and TV shows. Most of them are "first run" movies, and appear here quite some time before they ever air on the so-called "premium" movie channels, or on the "pay-per-view" channels. I'm not sure from where all of the Icefilms content hails from, but they have pretty much everything you might ever want. You can get the Icefilms add-on by going to MJD's website and downloading the El Dorado Repo ZIP file. Rather than provide a link directly to the file that might someday soon be made obsolete by newer releases, I'll provide a link to this website instead. The website is updated with each new release.

Another good add-on is Yify. It works a LOT like Popcorn Time, in that it sequentially downloads torrent files and plays them back on your video device. In fact, Yify is one of the major torrent networks that Popcorn Time uses to deliver its content to your computer. Again, head on over to MJD's website and download the Yify Movies HD ZIP file. The Yify add-on is also part of Lambda's Repo, and it can be installed from here. You can also view all of MJD's Kodi "How-To's" here. I've found his website to be very well done, with easy, simple to follow instructions.

You can, if you want, install the SuperRepo Repository. It gives you access to over 2,000 Kodi add-ons, including the two we just discussed. It's very tempting to want to install all of these add-ons, but use some caution. It's very easy to get lost in the hierarchical structure of the SuperRepo after drilling down just a few levels. It's also very easy to become overwhelmed with all of the add-ons it provides. Many work as you expect, but there are some that barely work at all, and others merely duplicate other offerings. You can follow the instructions here.

I like baseball, so installing MLB.TV for Kodi piques my interest. You can download the MLB.TV add-on for Kodi, which will give you access to your MLB.TV subscription. No, it isn't free -- meaning it doesn't circumvent the need for a bona fide subscription. The add-on is, however, free. It will allow you to watch all eligible games on the video device that is running Kodi.

I don't have a MLB.TV account, but I do have a MLB Gameday Audio account, which enables me to listen to any MLB game's radio broadcast. Because I have that, I can also access the "Free Game Of The Day" on MLB.TV. Because MLB.TV is subject to local blackout rules (and is the ONLY major league sport to still have black out restrictions, thanks to the current contracts with the major league baseball players union and the broadcasters), I would HIGHLY advise only connecting to MLB.TV by way of a VPN. Since MLB determines whether or not to impose the blackout restrictions based on your IP address, use of a VPN will allow you to circumvent the blackout restrictions. This is especially helpful if you live within some arbitrarily defined "home" region of your favorite team. I live less than five miles from Kauffman Stadium, where my favorite team, the Kansas City Royals, play. So, I'm definitely well within that arbitrary blackout zone. It's also worth noting that archived games are available to MLB.TV subscribers, sans blackout restrictions, an hour and a half after the conclusion of the blacked out game.

Finding other "specialty" add-ons can be both easy and difficult. For example, searching for "hbo kodi" yields a fair number of add-ons that claim to offer access to HBO content. There are others that claim to offer access to the content of lots of other "live TV" channels. As Scooby-Doo would say, "rotsa ruck." Access to the Live TV channels is hit and miss. Or, should I say, more miss than hit. Yes, I can find Live TV channels for AMC, HBO, and many other channels. And, I would be ecstatically happy -- if I spoke Spanish fluently. There are a LARGE number of Live TV stations available, but most of them appear to ONLY be available in Spanish. But since I don't speak Spanish fluently, the audio might as well be in Swahili or any other language I don't speak.

I simply have not yet found a listing of Live TV channels that provide the current U.S. streams in English. I'm sure they exist, but finding them among all of the "bad lists" is rather difficult, and akin to finding a needle in a haystack. Other than taking up permanent residence in the appropriate sections of the Kodi forums, the only way to know if a Live TV list provides what you're looking for is by trial and error. I'll continue searching, but it does get frustrating and discouraging the longer I search and keep coming up with less than perfect Live TV lists.

Summary

As you can see, Kodi gives you many, many options for expanding your TV programming choices. Granted, this is what most people use Kodi for. This is also the reason I saved this part for near the end of the HTPC article series. I wanted to insure that the other uses for Kodi were covered adequately, and that you realized the power that Kodi unleashes for your multimedia entertainment needs.

This article series only highlights some of what can be done with Kodi. It was never meant to be a complete guide to Kodi. That would take a book to cover, and the book would be obsolete before the first copy was ever sold. Kodi is always in a state of flux, always evolving and growing.

Fortunately, TONS of information about Kodi is freely available on the internet. A decently worded internet search should net you the information you are seeking, with a minimum of effort. Indeed, Kodi is well positioned to allow you to either cut the cable cord altogether, or to at least "trim the fat" from your cable bill.

ms_meme's Nook: Be Happy

MP3                             OGG

PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner: Gluten-Free Mini Meatloaves

Gluten-Free Mini Meatloaves

INGREDIENTS:

For the meatloaf mixture

2 eggs (120 g, weighed out of shell), lightly beaten

3/4 cup (6 fluid ounces) milk (any kind)

1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce (Lea & Perrins brand is gluten free, at least in the U.S.)

1 cup (110 g) quick-cooking certified gluten free oats *

1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon mustard powder

2 teaspoons dried onion flakes (can substitute 1 teaspoon onion powder)

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

4 ounces (about 1 cup) grated sharp cheddar cheese

2 pounds lean ground beef

For the glaze

2/3 cup (180 g) gluten free ketchup (Heinz is gluten free, but I really like Organicville ketchup as it has no added sugar)

1/4 cup (55 g) packed light brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

* NOTE: I rarely buy quick-cooking certified gluten free oats. I simply place certified gluten free old fashioned rolled oats in a food processor and pulse them 2 to 3 times. The difference is only one of grind.

Bob's Red Mill has Gluten free quick cooking steel cut oats available in most stores, in the baking section.

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and set it aside.

Make the meatloaf mixture. In a large bowl, place the eggs, milk, Worcestershire sauce, oats, parsley, salt, cumin, mustard powder, onion flakes and garlic powder, and mix to combine well. Add the grated cheddar and ground beef, and mix gently with clean hands to combine. Do not overwork the beef, or the meatloaves will be tough. Divide the mixture into 10 equal pieces. With clean, moistened hands, shape each piece into an oval and place about 2 inches apart from one another on the prepared baking sheet. Place the baking sheet in the preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes.

Make the glaze. While the meatloaves are baking, place the glaze ingredients in a small bowl, and mix to combine well. After 20 minutes of baking, remove the baking sheet from the oven and brush the tops of the meatloaves generously with the ketchup glaze using a pastry brush or spoon. Return the baking sheet to the oven and continue to bake until the meat loaves are browned on the outside and cooked all the way through (about another 20 minutes). Remove from the oven and serve immediately.

HTPC: Installing Netflix In Kodi

by Ramchu

I am going to show you how to install Netflix into Kodi.

Step 1

Install Google Chrome Web Browser from Synaptic onto your computer. Open your favorite web browser and download the aelec repository. Enter this web address into the address bar of your browser http://www.alelec.net/kodi/repository.alelec.zip. Save the file, and remember where you save it. I saved it to my Downloads folder.

Step 2

Start Kodi, and on the Home page go to System > Settings.

Then select Add-ons.

Now select Install from zip file.

Step 3

Navigate to where you saved the downloaded file. For me it was Home Folder, ...

... then Downloads,

... and finally you are going to click on the repository.alelec.zip file and let it install.

Now you need to reboot Kodi by selecting the Back Button or Home Button in the lower right corner of the screen and EXIT.

Step 4

Start Kodi again and go to System > Settings > Add-ons > Get Add-ons > alelec Kodi Repo > Program Add-ons. Here you will select Chrome Launcher to enable it.

After you have enabled the Chrome Launcher, click the Back button and look for Video Add-ons.

Click Video Add-ons and look for NetfliXBMC and enable it.

Now click the Back or Home button and navigate to Videos and click on Add-ons.

Look for NetfliXBMC.

When you click the NetfliXBMC icon for the first run, you will be taken to the Settings Dialog screen, where you will enter your Netflix login information. Under the General tab, click on the email box.

Enter the email address that you used to sign up for Netflix, and click "Done."

Now, click on the password box and enter your Netflix account password, then click "Done."

Now go to the Advanced Tab. Click on Chrome: Don't use kiosk mode and click OK.

You should now be taken to Netflix.

Even though you are going to be able to run Netflix in Kodi, you are still going to have to have an account with Netflix. It isn't going to be FREE. Still, $8 (U.S.) per month isn't too much to pay for unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows -- if Netflix is available in your part of the world. It's far less than you would pay for cable TV, or even just one of the so-called "premium" movie channels. In fact, it's even less than the ticket price to see a single movie at the movie theater. Also, you won't find yourself in potential trouble with the "authorities" for downloading/viewing copyrighted content without paying for it.

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Inkscape Tutorial: Six Helpful Inkscape Tricks

by Meemaw

Inkscape has a great deal to offer any artist. One can find tutorial after tutorial on the internet to help learn to use it, and I have tried to share some really excellent tutorials to help you make some really great creations. Many of the features of Inkscape can be plainly seen, but some of them aren't so evident. Let's look at six items that might help a bit.

Sometimes you need to manipulate nodes in an object you have drawn in order to make it into what you really need. (Not all objects are regular objects!) Draw the object you want, and click on Path > Object to Path to get the nodes you need. Select at least 2 nodes. In the Nodes toolbar directly above your workspace, click on the Show Transformation Handles button (see button above red arrow below). You will get handles around your nodes and can resize or rotate them just as you would a regular object. You may have to experiment a bit, but you will have more choices in your object manipulations.

While making star shapes, pay attention to the nodes. Moving the outer node towards or away from center will let you change the size of your star or the angle sizes, but if you move it left to right, all it will do is rotate your star. The inner node, however, will let you change the angles differently and even make a new type of figure. In the top illustration, I changed from the right figure to the left simply by moving the outer node toward the center of the star. In the bottom illustration, I changed the star by moving the inner node. The left star was made by moving the inner node to the left just a little. The right object was made by moving the inner node clear across to the opposite side of the star

I know we always use the Fill & Stroke window when we are creating. As there is always more than one way to do anything, coloring an object is just as easy with the color palette at the bottom of your Inkscape window. Draw your object, then Click on your desired color for the fill, and <CTRL> + Click for the stroke. There are many colors so the palette has its own scroll bar.

If you have another object and you want the two the same, use the color dropper (left side toolbar near the bottom). Click on the object you want to color, choose the dropper, then click on the object color you are trying to match.

Rulers can be used to give you guide lines. Make sure your rulers are enabled, then click and drag - vertical and horizontal lines will move to the desired position on your page. You can now align objects using the guide lines. If you enable your snapping toolbar (in View > Show/Hide, you can show the Snap Controls bar), items can snap to the intersection or along the guide lines, or even to each other. Experiment!

Sometimes when I am making a tapered line, Inkscape acts a little squirrelly, and it doesn't turn out exactly the way I want it. Another way to do it is to make a diamond shape, then choose the top and bottom nodes. Click on Make selected nodes symmetric (to round the diamond shape) in your nodes bar (See blue object below.) Copy it to the clipboard (<CTRL> + C), then use it as model for your Freehand or Bezier lines (Shape from Clipboard).

I think I have covered the status bar before, but it bears repeating. Pay attention to the information in the status bar, as it can tell you what's happening in your drawing. You can see loads of information in the bar below (left to right):

The fill and stroke color of the item selected (red fill and black stroke)

The stroke size (3)

The opacity of the figure (0 meaning no opacity)

The layer that object is on (and even if the layer is locked or made invisible)

The type of object selected (Rectangle)

X and Y coordinates of your mouse (147.48 x 72.23)

The zoom percent of your project (68%)

One of the things that is really great is where it shows the type of object selected. If you have more than one object selected, the status bar will tell you how many objects. I use this when I do the word search puzzle solution every month. I put the puzzle on one layer, and the lines showing the answers on a higher layer. I make sure I have them all when I can select everything on that layer and it will tell me the correct number of objects (if I have 30 words, the status bar will report 30 lines).

I hope I've provided a few tips to help you use Inkscape. I'm sure there are tons more!

Playing Resident Evil 4 On PCLinuxOS

by Agent Smith

It's been almost 10 years since Resident Evil 4 was released for PC compatible computers. Still, it's a timeless game, and very cool, I finished it and still play it. I even play it in PCLinuxOS, even though the PC version is a bit worse, in graphic terms, compared to the PS2 or Gamecube versions. In terms of gameplay, there are no differences. It's an amazing, immersive and addictive game.

Now, here is the tutorial on how to play RE4 on PCLinuxOS.

What You'll Need

1 - DVD RE4 game (as it's been some time since it was released, it can be bought inexpensively. I got my copy in a magazine).

2 - Wine updated (in repos).

3 - Winetricks (also in repos).

Now, follow these steps

1. In Winetricks, choose Select Default Wine Prefix, and click OK

2. Select Install a Windows DLL or Component and click OK.

3. In the list that will show up, choose d3dx9_36 and click OK.

Now, install the game normally, via the retail DVD. It will install, create entries in the applications menu and also a shortcut on the desktop.

The game is installed, but if you play it without installing the video codecs, the first video in the game will crash it and stop.

To solve this problem, you must download the codecs used in the game and register them in the wine registry. Luckily, a user named Inukaze has already done so, packaged the codecs and the registry entries and made them available for download. You need to download the following package Wine_RE4_Codecs.tar.bz2, in the following link:

https://mega.nz/#!gdJHWBgI!WY4Cvz8ruGJQ0oJw7u3IkPhDTCdt_jsc3fHJpBXk8d8

With the downloaded package in your machine, create a folder, name it something like /re_4_wine_codecs/ and unzip the package into it. In the unzipped folder there will be a windows folder and a file, Codecs.reg. The windows folder has the correct folder structure to install the codecs, ie / windows / system32. The codecs will be in this folder. Copy all the files of the codecs within that folder to the wine folder of your machine, ~/.wine/drive_c/windows/system32/

Once all codecs are copied, we will have to register them in the wine registry. To do this, open the Registry Editor and click Register. Then click Import Registry File. Point to the folder where you unzipped the codecs and click Codecs.reg.

That's it. It's ready to play. The codecs will be registered in the wine registry, and will be used during the game, in the cinematics, with no more crashes and rendering the game 100% playable.

Save the game often, because despite being 100% playable, it crashes from time to time. I've finished the game 100%, and it has high replay value, with all the extras, Assignment Ada, Separate Ways, Mercenaries, new characters and objectives to be achieved.

So, enjoy killing the Ganados!

Multiple Command Line Windows Using GNU Screen

by Peter Kelly (critter)

When you are working in KDE, or whatever your favourite PCLinuxOS graphical environment happens to be, each application opens in its own window. This allows you to hop about between applications leaving your work open in previously visited windows until you return to save your work and close the window. You also have the option to switch to a different virtual workspace and open more applications, perhaps different ones, perhaps more of the same applications you have already open. KDE even takes this a step further with the introduction of activities.

This freedom is very convenient when you need to reference some other information, change the music or answer an incoming message. It allows a massive amount of flexibility. Unfortunately, this freedom is not possible when working in a command line environment, or is it?

Of course it is. Unix and Linux are command line based operating systems, although most modern distributions now bolt on a graphical user interface. Because of these terminal based origins, the demand more flexibility has been around for decades and one solution, screen, since 1987.

There are several solutions to this. Two utilities that you will find in the PCLinuxOS repositories are named screen and tmux. Screen is now part of the GNU project, and tmux is released under the BSD licence. You might also be interested in byobu, a front-end to GNU screen and tmux, but this is not currently available from the PCLinuxOS repositories.

Both screen and tmux work in a similar manner, but screen is the 'standard,' will be available in almost all Linux distributions, and so here I will concentrate on screen. If you read this article and decide that you could use some of these features, then do please try tmux. You may prefer it, or find some feature you like that is not available in screen.

The screen utility is not another terminal emulator, but a window manager for the command line (also called a terminal multiplexer), allowing you to have multiple windows open in a single terminal, virtual terminal (as found when pressing Control+Alt+F1 - F6) or terminal emulator. Admittedly you can't move them about as you can in KDE. They are all contained within the boundaries of the terminal, but you can switch between them, add and delete windows and give them names for easy reference. You can also give a name to a session (set of windows) for later recall. It is possible to have multiple screen sessions open and detach or re-attach them at will. You can even start a screen session on one machine, detach the session, and then log in and re-attach from another machine to continue your work.

Getting started

After installing screen from the PCLinuxOS repositories, you will need to run the following command as your normal user and from your home directory, or you will get a warning similar to this. “Directory /home/pete/tmp must have mode 700.”

chmod 700 ~/tmp

When you first start screen, by typing 'screen' into a terminal or terminal emulator window, you are greeted with a welcome screen which requests that you press space to continue.

When you do, it may look as though nothing has happened and that the program has aborted, although in reality screen is running just fine. It just got out of your way as a well behaved utility should do.

We can change this default behaviour so that we get seamless integration, but also so that we can still tell where we are.

The screen utility, like many things Linux, uses a plain text file for its configuration settings. A basic configuration file is installed as /etc/screenrc which is used for users who don't have their own, personalized configuration file. Screen will first look for a hidden file named .screenrc in your home directory. If such a file exists, then it is used in preference to the global file. You can then have your own version of screen set up exactly as you like it, which is a much better prospect.

Unfortunately, like many things Linux, although the configuration file is in plain text, the contents are not exactly plain, and it can take a while to get to understand them. All is explained in the documentation, but I will show how I have set up my .screenrc file, and you can take it from there.

The first thing that we need to do is to get rid of that introductory screen. To do this, open a plain text editor and enter this one line:

startup_message off

Save the file into your home directory as .screenrc (include the leading period). The next thing is to have a different prompt when we are in screen from the one normally displayed. I have the following lines in my ~/.bashrc file to define two different prompts:

It is then followed by this line to export the correct prompt to the system environment:

export PS1

The prompts don't need to be as fancy as those as long as they are different. If you need more info on the prompts, have a look at the end of this page http://pclosmag.com/html/Issues/200911/page19.html

This should produce the following prompt when you enter screen, leaving you with no doubt as to where you are.

Before we do any more customizing, let's see some of the things that we can do with screen. I'll run through some of the more useful commands, and then provide a summary in the form of a cheat sheet at the end of the article for reference.

The Commands

To issue a command to screen, you need first to type the 'command character,' which defaults to Control+a (written as C-a after this), followed by the command, which is a single character or key press. The command character ensures that the keystrokes go to screen, and not to the process running in screen. So for example, to quit screen type C-a \.

Helpfully, for most of the commands screen accepts both the key-press and Control plus the key-press for those occasions when you forget to take your finger off the control key.

The default, C-a, can be changed, a feature which will be welcomed by those people who use that combination to move the cursor to the beginning of the line on the command line (me), but C-a a will will send a literal C-a to the screen, which also works.

A list of available commands can be seen by pressing C-a ?.

To demonstrate some of the features of screen start it up and then type

top

Now we have a continuously running process in the terminal, and one that fills the terminal window. Next, issue the command C-a c. This will create and switch to a new, blank terminal window. Enter another command. mc is good if you have midnight commander installed (if you don't then install it now, you won't regret it). Type C-a c again to create a third window, and then type C-a “ to get a list of currently available windows.

Move the arrow keys to select window zero, hit return and you'll find yourself back looking at top, the very first process that we started in the very first screen window.

The problem with that listing is that all three windows are named bash which is of course the process that screen is actually running in each of the windows. But which screen window is doing what? We can improve this situation by naming the windows more realistically. Type C-a A (that's an uppercase A) to bring up a panel in lower left where you can rename the window. Backspace over the name bash to delete it and type top.

Now type C-a n or C-a space to switch to the next window (C-a p or C-a backspace will change to the previous window, as this process is cyclic) and name that one mc. Repeat the process for the final window, and rename it shell as any newly created windows will start with the name bash. Now type C-a “ again, and you will see your changes, and it now all makes a little more sense.

Select window 2, (the one named shell) and type C-a k. You will be prompted “Really kill this window [y/n]” Answer “y”. The window will be deleted and you will be placed in the next lowest numbered window, in this case window 1, which we named “mc”.

To switch to a particular window, use C-a ' and you will prompted in lower left for the required window. You may use either the window number or name. If you specify the current window, you will get the rather terse message “This is window 1 (mc).” For windows numbered 0-9 you can use C-a {number}. The previously used window can be returned to with C-a C-a.

The split command C-a S (upper case S) is used to divide the current window horizontally. The newly created window is blank and has no session running in it. You may switch to the newly created window with C-a tab and then use C-a c to create a session in it. To delete the region use C-a X (upper case X).

Screen allows you to copy and paste between windows with the commands

C-a [ and C-a ].

When you issue the command C-a [, you enter a full screen copy mode. From here you can use the arrow keys to move around. The 0 key takes you to the beginning of a line, and $ to the end of the line. You can search forward in the text with /, and backwards with ?. To move backwards and forwards a screen at a time in long documents, use Control b and Control f. When you reach the start of the text that you want to copy, press enter then navigate to the end of the text you want to copy. The text is highlighted as you move around, and press enter again. The highlighted text is now copied into what is known as the copy buffer, and you will get a confirmation of the amount of text copied at the bottom of the screen.

Now open your preferred text editor, either in this or another window, and type c-a ]. The text is pasted into the editor.

Do not copy the text directly into a window containing only the command prompt, as the shell will attempt to execute each line with unpredictable and potentially disastrous results.

Now comes the clever part. Type C-a d and you will be dumped out of screen, returned to a command prompt, which is different from the one displayed when we were in screen, and the simple message “[detached]” will be printed out.

Now it looks as though top and Midnight Commander have gone but they are in fact still available to screen. Type Control-Alt F1 to go to one of the virtual terminals and login (Control-alt F8 will get you back to your graphical environment if you get homesick).

Now type screen -r and there are your two screens, “top” and “mc.”

You can even do this over different machines. If you have access to another networked machine, you can log in and connect to a screen session that you previously detached and continue working.

Here I establish a secure shell connection to another machine on my network named asgard, and pick up a screen session I started some time back.

This is great for working on a remote server, or for having a set of command line tools always open on a long running machine. If you are working remotely and suddenly lose the connection simply reconnect, log in and re-attach to your screen session. You may log in and out, but as long as you don't power down to re-start the machine hosting the screen session the processes started in screen will be available from that screen session.

If you intend to use more than one screen session you may name the session by starting screen with the command

screen -S {session-name}

This will make it easier to switch between sessions. Without a name, you will have to supply the sessions PID. To get a list of current screen sessions use

screen -ls

This screenshot shows two sessions both currently detached, but to re-attach to one of them, I need to type the full name

screen -r 8891.pts-0.elysium

This can get a little tedious. When the sessions are named, then I get something like this:

Now I have two named sessions so to check my system logs I can use

screen -r logs

This is much easier. Make the session names unique. If you have names like 'test1' and 'test2,' screen will not be able to differentiate. Perhaps there is a way, but I haven't found it yet.

If you want to connect to a session that is already attached, perhaps on a remote system, then you will have to combine, then detach and re-attach commands, like this.

Which gets you into the session ...

The remote terminal will show something like this.

Screen has a command prompt of its own, which you can access with C-a : The prompt appears as a colon in lower left of the window, where you will type in the command. The commands you can enter here are all described in the documentation for the benefit of power users, but most commands will be issued in the configuration file ~/.screenrc or /etc/screenrc. The three commands that you may want to execute from within screen are:

C-a : quit Which will close all windows and quit the screen session. This means that it cannot be reattached.

C-a : source ~/.screenrc This command will reload your configuration file or load a new configuration file if that is specified.

C-a : sessionname name This will name or re-name the current screen session.

If you look at the screenshots of screen running on the remote machine, you will notice a status line at the bottom that we don't currently have. This is done in the ~/.screenrc file with some configurations that we will look at now.

Customizing screen

The status line at the bottom of the screen can be as simple or as complex as you like. However, setting up the line is no mean feat, and how you do it seems to depend on what kind of terminal you are using. The code is explained in the documentation, but still seems pretty obscure, so I cheat. I copy one I find online, then 'hack it around a bit' until it does what I want. The one I use started as something I found on the arch wiki (a very useful reference). I have changed things quite a bit, but it works in mate-terminal, konsole, xterm and over a ssh connection. These are the two lines I added to my .screenrc.

This gives me the current time and date, in UK format, and my current screen highlighted in blue. The string consists of a series of macros or 'string escapes', attributes, modifiers and literal characters. I told you it wasn't simple. This is how the first line works:

This is not overly difficult, but it does seem a lot of work to display and format some simple information.

The second line simply tells screen to always display this line.

Other text, such as the window list provided by C-a w, will temporarily overwrite it.

If your terminal supports 256 colors and you want to take advantage of this, then you need to add a line like this.

term xterm-256color

Often, when you use a utility such as the vi or nano text editors, the text remains on the screen after you exit the utility. To overcome this, add this line.

altscreen on

Some terminals flash to represent the bell, a feature inherited from the days of typewriters. To turn off this annoying habit, add this line.

vbell off

The format of the display of the window list provided by C-a “ can be adjusted in a similar manner to the caption string.

windowlist string "%3n %{= kG}%t"

The '%3n' provides the screen number padded out to three characters wide. '%{= kG}%t' displays the screen title in bright green on black.

To start screen with some pre-defined windows.

screen -t top 1 top

screen -t mc 2 mc

screen -t shell 3 bash

The format above is

screen -t {title} {number} {command}

Finally, you can create your own shortcut keystrokes.

bind m screen -t 'mc' 8 mc

This would allow C-a m to open midnight commander in window 8, name the window mc and then switch to it. Or, if window 8 is currently in use, the next highest available slot.

This introduction covers only a small sample of the abilities of the screen utility, but what I have demonstrated here are the features that I have found most useful.

Tip Top Tips: SketchUpMake 2015 On PCLOS64

Editor's Note: Tip Top Tips is a new monthly column in The PCLinuxOS Magazine. Each month, we will feature -- and possibly even expand upon -- one tip from the PCLinuxOS forum. The magazine will not accept independent tip submissions specifically intended for inclusion in the Tip Top Tips column. Rather, if you have a tip, share it in the PCLinuxOS forum's "Tips & Tricks" section. Your tip just may be selected for publication in The PCLinuxOS Magazine.

This month's tip comes from PCLinuxOS forum member One_Beerhunter.

First, let me make this perfectly clear, I am not an authority on either WINE or SketchUpMake. I am, on the other hand, more persistent than many … willing to devote untold hours to get something working out of an innate compulsion to never give up.

Editor's Note: If you are unfamiliar with SketchUp, here is the Wikipedia description: "SketchUp (formerly Google Sketchup) is a 3D modeling computer program for a wide range of drawing applications such as architectural, interior design, civil and mechanical engineering, film, and video game design—and available in a freeware version, SketchUp Make, and a paid version with additional functionality, SketchUp Pro.

This is, to the best of my recollection, how I got SketchUpMake to actually work under WINE on PCLinuxOS 64.

First, open Synaptic and select PlayOnLinux. The following will be installed:

PlayOnLinux

wine32.32bit

wine64

wine-gecko

Second, download SketchUpMake2015 from here http://www.sketchup.com/download/all. Download the 64 bit Windows version.

Third, open PlayOnLinux and from the tools menu select, Manage Wine versions and add the latest version of Wine versions (amd64), currently version 1.7.37.

Fourth, from PlayOnLinux select "Install a program." At first, you may be presented with a window that lacks the "Install an unlisted program" button. If that happens, close the install window and try again. Once you have located the "Install an unlisted program" button, click it and follow the prompts. Create a new 64 bit PlayOnLinux virtual drive. I labeled mine SketchUp2015.

Fifth, a window will appears offering checkboxes for selecting the wine version, running wine config, and adding windows components; check all the boxes. At that time I could only select "system" for wine version. In wineconfig on the applications tab, I changed the Windows version from "XP" to "7." From the add components section, install "vcrun2010."

Sixth, browse to your downloaded file, "SketchUpMake-en-x64.exe," and install.

Seventh, PlayOnLinux will offer to make shortcuts to the executables. I only selected SketchUp.exe, and then chose to not make any more shortcuts.

Finally, with your new shortcut to SketchUp highlighted, select configure and change the wine version in the drop down box from "system" to "1.7.37."

With your highlighted shortcut, you may start the program via run or debug. Debug allows you to review the numerous error messages. One might complain about a missing mfc100u.dll. I copied that dll from the /home/"yourusername"/PlayOnLinux's virtual drives/SketchUp2015/drive_c/windows/syswow64 folder into the /home/"yourusername"/PlayOnLinux's virtual drives/SketchUp2015/drive_c/Program Files(x86)/Sketchup/SketchUp 2015 folder, and the error went away.

MOVING THIS DLL HAS PROVED ITSELF TO BE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SUCCESS AND FAILURE. Following my own advice, I just installed Sketchup on my laptop after a fresh install of PCLOS64. I forgot to move the dll and was greeted by the frowning penguin program crash error message. I moved the DLL, and the problem was resolved.

I also discovered the tooltips do not display properly when you hover your mouse over the icons - those tips can be turned off as they also appear at the bottom of the drawing window. So, they are somewhat redundant.

In the end, this has been quite a trip, and I still have a couple of errors in debug such as "(process:779): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_slice_set_config: assertion 'sys_page_size == 0' failed." I have no idea what that means, or if it is even significant. All I can say with certainty is this: The above worked for me, and I hope this helps others here. Now all I have left to do is start watching some tutorials on how to use SketchUp.

PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight: Rudge

As Told To Smileeb

This month we have Rudge

How old are you?

Ugh, let's see, do you have a calculator? Looks like, 54 now.

Married, single or what?

Very happily married to JRex.

Children, grandchildren?

No children oddly enough. My first two marriages had hopes of producing kids but they both ended within 7 years having produced only arguments. When JRex and I got married, the decision not to have kids was already established by us both. I have no regrets.

Retired or working and for how long and at what.

This is complicated. I once had a promising career in IT starting in 1980 and progressing nicely along, producing a nice resume with names like Wachovia, Johnson Controls, Bell South, MCI, AT&T and IBM. But, I was laid off in 2006 and well we know what happened after that. The timing sucked. After a few short years of looking for a job in the only field I had ever known, I was suddenly "unemployable." I guess I have finally accepted my position as one of "Housewife." Hey, it's supposed to be the hardest job there is right? I do it pretty well.

What is the area you live in like. Weather, Quietness, Scenery.

I'm originally from just south of Atlanta Ga. but I'm currently comfortably settled in a quiet town called Huntersville, NC. It's an awesome place. It's about 10 minutes from cows or the mall, depending on which direction you head out. It's also about 10 minutes from two major North Carolina lakes, again, depending on what direction you go. It's very nice to be so close to two major worlds right where they collide. Access to both has suited us nicely because I'm a "country boy" and JRex is a "city girl."

Are you handy with your hands and have any hobbies.

Like this "isn't" the only thing I ever talk about. LOL!

What is your education level?

There were "levels?" I didn't notice that part. However, I DID graduate high school in 1980 and was the first, in the entire history of my father's family to do so.

Do you like to travel, go camping?

I like to fish. My dad taught me to fish when I was knee high to a toad. It stuck with me. I still suck at it, but I still like it.

What caused you to try Linux and join this forum.

I first tried Linux because way back when DOS was the norm in the workplace, I was already using UNIX, and I was way more familiar with it than DOS (although many DOS commands were surprisingly similar). Once Win95 hit the scene, DOS took a back seat, and to be honest, I missed my command lines and the feel of UNIX while I was at work.

When I first got word of a *nix like desktop environment that would run on a PC, I was all over it! The forum was something I found after many years of distro hopping. I've been Green, I've been Red, heck, I've even been Brown but when I stumbled on that PCLinuxOS Blue and the people and personalities behind it, I quite literally felt like I was "Home".

This is me and JRex at the Blue Ridge Parkway back in November of last year. It's about a three hour drive from us.

PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight is an exclusive, monthly column by smileeb, featuring PCLinuxOS forum members. This column will allow "the rest of us" to get to know our forum family members better, and will give those featured an opportunity to share their PCLinuxOS story with the rest of the world.

If you would like to be featured in PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight, please send a private message to smileeb in the PCLinuxOS forum expressing your interest.

Game Zone: Coffin Dodgers

by daiashi

About The Game

Coffin Dodgers sees you take on the role of saving one of seven quirky retirement village residents, each racing for their soul in "pimped up" mobility scooters against none other than the Grim Reaper himself. Our old heroes are armed with a variety of homemade weapons and gadgets to take on anything the Grim Reaper and his Zombie army may throw at them. This game has the feel of Diddy Kong racing. However, you are the best the retirement home has to offer. The carts they ride are not your typical grocery getter plugins. They're packing the best armament that their social security can buy. If you see them in your neighborhood racing around, it would be best to turn the other direction.

Key Features

Players must battle it out against The Grim Reaper and other competitors over a 13 race Championship, where only the most skilled racer will survive. There are four distinct areas within the Sunny Pines Retirement Community, each featuring its own mini tournament in which your rank against other competitors will ensure you progress to the next stage. However, finish at the bottom of the pile and the Reaper gets to take your soul. The final race takes place over each of the four areas in a straight shootout between you and the Grim Reaper. See if you can beat Mr. Grim before his shadow covers all of Sunny Pines neighborhood. Zombies on octane boosted mobility scooters! What next?

- Race & Battle the Grim Reaper and his army of zombies.

- Save one of the 7 quirky retirement village residents

- Customise and modify your mobility scooter

- Player to player combat & rag doll physics

- 3D open world game environment

- 13 unique race tracks

- Single player Story and Time Trial modes

- Online Multiplayer race mode

- 3D Open world single & online multiplayer game modes

- Local multiplayer versus race mode (2-4 players)

- Full controller & keyboard support

- Steam Trading Cards and Achievements

System requirements:

Fully updated PCLinuxOS and Steam

Hardware:

Minimum:

OS: PCLinuxOS

Processor: 2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

Memory: 4 GB RAM

Graphics: Graphics card with 256mb

Hard Drive: available space

Recommended:

OS: PCLinuxOS

Processor: 2.5 Intel i5 or Amd Fx 4

Memory: 4 GB RAM

Graphics: Nvidia Geforce Gtx Gpu 2 Gb

Hard Drive: 1500 mb available space

About The Company

Milky Tea is an award winning, independent creative production studio established in the UK in 2005. The studio was set up to bring the best in 3D, gaming, animation, design and digital talent together under one roof to produce breathtaking creative content.

The majority of the team have come from the world of high end AAA console game development and were involved in games, such as Project Gotham Racing, Blur, Bang Bang Racing and Drive Club. So, Milky Tea has always had game development at its core.

Over the past eight years, the studio has gone on to build a global client list that includes the likes of Sony, BBC, Channel 4, Kraft, Nestle, Unilever, Toyota, Bose to name but a few.

The business shot to fame in 2007, winning the opportunity to work with Lloyds TSB on the advertising campaign called “for the journey.” Here, they developed those retro, recognizable, long nosed quirky characters that became one of the longest serving advertising campaigns in the UK. It was their job to produce breathtaking illustrations and interactive content.

Over the years, they started to build up their games portfolio, mainly working on browser based games. One of those was for the BBC, called “The Well,” which went on to win two BAFTA awards and an EMMY award.

In 2012, after meeting Apple in California, they decided to refocus the business and start developing their own games. In December 2012, they launched the first game on iOS and Android called Roller Rally, which went on to be nominated for a BIMA and DADI award. Coffin Dodgers is the second of their very own projects to come out of the studio, and includes the same vibrancy and attention to fun, story and detail that people have come to expect from the studio.

Some Gameplay Screenshots

Getting It To Run

Install Steam (if you don't have it installed already), then start it. You will need to create a new account, if you do not already have one. Once you have Steam up and running, go to the store tab. Click on the Linux tab if you wish and search for it. Click on and download the demo. If you have updated your system, including graphics drivers, you should be good to go. Although I did not try it out, this game can use a gamepad. The keyboard is a little difficult to use while turning. With a little practice on the time trials, it gets much easier.

Steam/Coffin Dodgers

ms_meme's Nook: How Sweet It Is

MP3                         OGG

PCLinuxOS Puzzled Partitions

Scrappler

Download Puzzle Solutions Here!

Sudoku

Download Puzzle Solutions Here!

PCLinuxOS Crossword Puzzle:October 2015

Happy Birthday PCLinuxOS!

Download Puzzle Solutions Here!

Birthday Word Find

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h3>Screenshot Showcase

Posted by Agent_Smith, September 9, 2015, running e19

Posted by Archie, September 25, 2015, running KDE

Posted by JohnW_57, September 8, 2015, running KDE

Posted by luikki, September 27, 2015, running KDE

Posted by Meemaw, September 9, 2015, running Xfce

Posted by Mr. Smarty Pants-Present_arms, September 27, 2015, running Trinity

Posted by Parnote, September 28, 2015, running Xfce

Posted by tbschommer, September 15, 2015, running Xfce

Posted by TerryH, September 22, 2015, running KDE

Posted by tuxlink, September 27, 2015, running Mate