Table of Contents

- Welcome From The Chief Editor

1. Telltale Signs of a Phishing Email

2. Inkscape Tutorial: Design a Simple Brochure

3. ms_meme's Nook: Thanksgiving with ms_meme

4. Game Zone: Altitude

5. HTPC: Running Kodi as a Standalone Environment

6. PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner

7. Multiple Command Line Windows Using Tmux

8. GIMP Tutorial: Using Levels to Correct Photo Colors

9. Playing King's Road on PCLinuxOS

10. PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight: IsaacM

11. Tip Top Tips: Create a Tray Toggle Icon

12. PCLinuxOS Puzzled Partitions

13. Screenshot Showcase

Welcome From The Chief Editor

p> How ironic that just as we finish up our HTPC series of articles, PopcornTime -- the topic of the very first article in our HTPC series -- has closed up shop. Certainly, we're talking about popcorntime.io, the most popular fork of the original PopcornTime. The plug for the server has been pulled, and any and all logs that might prove "harmful" to any other developer(s) have been deleted.

The reports point to a dispute between the developers involved with the project at popcorntime.io. According to a report at The Verge, "a number of popcorntime.io's core developers left the project, fearing that the proposed inclusion of a paid anonymizing VPN service would lead to legal trouble." As a result, the program no longer works and the website has been shut down. There are other forks of the original PopcornTime program, but the popcorntime.io one was generally considered the safest.

There are some alternatives, though. Time4Popcorn, hosted at the popcorn-time.se site, is another fork of the original PopcornTime, but it has frequently been accused of hosting adware and viruses that infect users computers. When you launch it, it will also proclaim itself "PopcornTime," but the interface is slightly different from the popcorntime.io version. To be perfectly honest, I haven't used the Time4Popcorn version enough to be able to say whether the accusations are true or not. Running on Linux, namely PCLinuxOS, I'm not too worried about the reports of adware and viruses, but I certainly wouldn't recommend its use on Windows or Android platforms.

Another alternative recently came to light, as well. It is called Stremio. However, since I only run 32 bit PCLinuxOS on my computers, I'm unable to give it a whirl on the dance floor. While there is a Linux version available for download, it appears that Stremio only works on 64 bit versions. Attempting to run it on my 32 bit operating system throws an error about the executable being in the wrong format -- which is exactly what you'd expect to see when attempting to run a 64 bit executable on a 32 bit operating system.

Does this mean that PopcornTime -- namely, the popcorntime.io version we've all come to love -- is dead? That depends on how you look at it. After some of the developers left, those who remained wanted to carry on the project. However, those who remained could not convince the host of the server that they were who they say they are. The developer who maintained the domain was among those who left, and was the one who shut the server down. As a result, the remaining developers have moved to the Butter Project. However, there are no binaries yet offered on their website. There is quite a bit of activity on the binaries on GitHub, where they are currently under development.

While the developers over at the Butter Project state that they would in no way stream content that has even one shred of doubt about copyright, they also state that users can stream movies and TV shows. Either they have a very warped view of what content is copyrighted (which is almost all of it), or what they offer will be of little to no use. Unfortunately, we'll have to wait until the Butter Project binaries are released to see which it is ... unless you compile your own from the files on GitHub.

There are many who proclaimed that it was too good to last. Technology has a way of outpacing marketing models and the laws. Plus, with the MPAA filing suit against users who were streaming content from torrents, the handwriting has been on the wall for a while. Whatever service you choose to replace popcorntime.io, I would strongly recommend using a good, anonymizing VPN to mask your activity, and to provide you some protection from the often overreaching legal arms of the MPAA.

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

Telltale Signs of a Phishing Email

by Paul Arnote (parnote)

Linux users, as a group, are pretty savvy. It's difficult to slip something by them, or to fool them. But occasionally, it does happen.

Phishing is a year-round problem. As the winter holidays approach, you can expect to see an increase of phishing emails in your email account's inbox. The reasons should be fairly obvious, as those who wish to steal your information use ploys that are particularly effective during the holidays. It is a time of year when nearly everyone is seeking great deals as they purchase holiday gifts.

Wikipedia defines phishing as follows:

Phishing is the attempt to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details (and sometimes, indirectly, money), often for malicious reasons, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. The word is a neologism created as a homophone of fishing due to the similarity of using fake bait in an attempt to catch a victim. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, banks, online payment processors or IT administrators are commonly used to lure unsuspecting victims. Phishing emails may contain links to websites that are infected with malware. Phishing is typically carried out by email spoofing or instant messaging, and it often directs users to enter details at a fake website whose look and feel are almost identical to the legitimate one. Phishing is an example of social engineering techniques used to deceive users, and exploits the poor usability of current web security technologies. Attempts to deal with the growing number of reported phishing incidents include legislation, user training, public awareness, and technical security measures. Many websites have now created secondary tools for applications, like maps for games, but they should be clearly marked as to who wrote them, and users should not use the same passwords anywhere on the internet.

So, what can alert us to the possibility that an email is likely a phishing scam?

Too good to be true. This is a frequent ploy. List an object for sale at prices that are too good to be true. This is a particularly effective tactic, especially during the holidays, since most people are trying to fit as many gifts as possible into diminishing budgets. Someone you don't know + big promises = most likely a scam. The old adage "if something seems too good to be true, it probably is" goes a long way.

Mismatched URLs. Unless you're paying close attention, this one is very easy to miss. The hyperlink may appear on the up and up within the body of the message, but the actual website it is sending you to is anything but up and up. In most modern email programs, as well as most web based emails, just hovering your mouse over the hyperlink will display a destination URL that is different from the one displayed in the body of the email.

Misleading domain names. This one catches a lot of people off guard. Knowing proper DNS naming structure for domains is a huge help with this one. For example, https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/ is a valid child domain of the microsoft.com web domain, because the modifier -- msdn -- appears to the left of the domain name. However, https://msdn.microsoft.com.yourinfosnowmine.com is not a valid domain of microsoft.com, directing the user to the yourinfosnowmine.com website. In this URL, https://msdn.microsoft.com appears to the left of the real domain. So, even though it incorporates Microsoft's domain name within the URL, the final destination will be a site that is designed to soak up and steal every bit of information you are willing to provide -- including name, address, phone number, user name, password, credit card information, date of birth, and anything else you're willing to hand over.

Often times, the fraudulent website will be designed to look like the legitimate website. Based off appearance alone, it may be virtually impossible to distinguish between the legitimate website and the fraudulent one. However, paying close attention to the domain name/URL should help you make the distinction.

Poor spelling and grammar. Let's face it. Those who send out the malicious phishing emails may be clever in their methods, but it seems that they are all spelling and grammar class dropouts. Quite frequently, the emails and/or the fraudulent websites will be overflowing with spelling and grammatical errors. This is something that NO self-respecting marketing department would ever allow. And trust me, the marketing department for a major business has a hand in the things that appear on the website, as well as information that is sent out via email mass mailings.

Send money to cover expenses. Although happening rarely in the first email encounter (some credibility-challenged individuals do cut to the chase right up front, however), if they get around to asking for some money up front to help cover expenses -- shipping, taxes, fees, grandma's bootlaces, etc. -- you can pretty much kiss your money goodbye if you comply. These are nearly always scams.

Asking for personal information. The scammer did his homework and plied his skills well. The email looks "official" and seems credible. That is, until they ask for your personal information. Your bank shouldn't be asking you for information on your accounts -- they already have and know that information. Other reputable companies won't be emailing you to gain access to your credit card number, passwords or answers to security questions.

You didn't initiate the exchange. I can't even count the number of times I've received an email (usually caught by my spam filter) informing me that I've won the EU Lottery. Not only did I NOT ever buy a ticket for the EU Lottery, I don't even know if the EU has a lottery. I've also not ever had enough of an interest to seek an answer via an internet search. Since I've never purchased such a lottery ticket, there's absolutely no way I could have won. That is how lotteries work, at least around my neck of the woods, and I suspect everywhere else, too.

And yes, I do play the lottery from time to time, but I usually restrict myself to the smaller lotto-type number games that are restricted to the state where I live. Although still astronomical, my odds are WAY better than with the popular multi-state lotteries -- where my odds are infinitesimally small. Plus, at no time when I've ever purchased a lottery ticket was I ever asked to provide my email address. Thus, they would have no way to know how to contact me in the rather unlikely chance that my tickets were the winning tickets. In fact, there is no way to match me up with the "winning numbers" unless and until I turn in the winning ticket -- and by then, I already know I'm a "winner."

The above is an obvious attempt to corral me into giving up vital, private information. Similarly, if you get an email from someone telling you that you won some contest you did not enter, rest assured that it is most assuredly a scam. This also goes for phony contests on social media sites.

Makes unrealistic threats. While trickery is a common ploy, some nefarious individuals rely on intimidation to get you to provide your sensitive and private information. Along with the lottery "you're a winner" emails, I've gotten numerous emails (caught by spam filters) that unless I provide the requested information (usually includes your account number) and copies of two picture IDs, my bank accounts will be frozen and their assets seized. Except, I've never had bank accounts at those particular banks. Even if I did, it's unlikely that the bank will communicate such matters outside of the more secure internal email system on their site. It's also most likely against the law for any bank to freeze/seize your accounts, just because you didn't respond to an email.

In the past, I've also received numerous emails telling me my Facebook account has been compromised. Traveling to the website (curiosity be damned), there were form fields asking for all kinds of my sensitive and private information. These were things that Facebook really had no need to know, anyways, even if it were legit. But there's one small problem ... I've NEVER had (and probably never will have) a Facebook account.

Pose as a government agency. There is little else in life that's as intimidating as dealing with a government agency. They write the rules, and they usually hold all the cards. Some scammers try to tap into that intimidation factor by posing as a government agency. Although government agencies can and do use email, the initial contact with an individual is rarely, if ever, via an email.

It just doesn't look or feel right. If you receive an email and get the gut feeling that something about it just isn't right or just doesn't feel right, TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS! There is something that is setting off those alarm bells. It probably isn't on the "up and up." Responding to it and providing the information they are seeking is just going to (most likely) be expensive for you and provide you years of pain and heartache.

Fake charities. Since the holidays are the season for giving, many consumers try to give back by donating to their favorite charity or charities. Scammers are attuned to this sense of philanthropy and good will, and will try hard to separate you from (minimally) some of your hard earned money, and at worse, your sensitive and private information. Be extra vigilant if you are in the position to be able to give to a charity. Fake charities and fake charity websites abound, especially during the holiday season.

Your package has shipped ... One way scammers target their victims is sending out fake shipping notifications. They send out a shipping notification and the unsuspecting recipient clicks on the link. During the visit to the malicious website, you may pick up some spyware, viruses or other malware (if you're using Windows ... Linux users are safe from these major annoyances), or they may ask for "confirmation" of your sensitive and private information. Be mindful about from whom you've bought items during your online shopping trips, and don't click on any links from a company you did not make a purchase from. Also, follow the other "rules" listed here.

Summary

I'm sure there are other ways that scammers will attempt to gain access to your information, if not your hard earned cash. I've attempted to cover the most common methods here.

Apply the knowledge shared here to make your holidays a lot brighter, and to help prevent them from becoming a real bummer. Coupled with the other security-minded articles we've run in The PCLinuxOS Magazine, you can get through the holidays with your wallet and identity fully intact.

Inkscape Tutorial: Design a Simple Brochure

by Khadis

When designing a brochure, leaflet or flyer, we might be more inclined to use Scribus instead of Inkscape. But, some people also rely on Inkscape, as it has richer capabilities and more flexible tools, especially the ability to draw lots of items right in the application.

In this article, I'd like to imitate a simple brochure made by my friend using proprietary software for a seminar in his workplace. But here, besides re-designing it using Inkscape, I will also change the content. OK, let's go!

- Create an A4 sized document and draw a rectangle the same size as the document.

- Give it a 7.5% gray as the fill color and no stroke.

- Create a circle with diameter 5 cm. Give it 7.5% gray as the fill color and 20% or 30% gray as the stroke color.

- Duplicate (Ctrl + D) the circle and re-size it to 4 cm. Duplicate again and re-size again, so that the diameter is now 3 cm. Repeat duplicating the circle until you have a circle with diameter 1 cm.

- Open up Align and Distribute (Shift + Ctrl + A) panel, select all circles, then on the Relative to option, choose Last selection. Click on Center on vertical axis and Center on horizontal axis.

- Group these circles (Ctrl + G), then duplicate the group several times (Ctrl + D), and spread them above the main rectangle.

- Create a rectangle with the same width as the document and give it orange as the fill color without stroke. For the height, it is up to you. Put the new rectangle down a bit from the top side of the gray one.

- Duplicate (Ctrl + D) the orange rectangle and fill it with yellow. Then, duplicate this new yellow rectangle and fill it with 40% gray. Open up Fill and Stroke (Shift + Ctrl + F) panel, then reduce the Alpha (A) value of this gray rectangle into 150. The orange and grey rectangles will be spaced out further down the page.

- Now, create a new yellow rectangle (about 8 x 9 cm) and reduce the Alpha (A) value to 150. Later, you can play with this Alpha value to make a proper color combination.

- Convert this new yellow rectangle into path through Path -- Object to Path (Shift + Ctrl + C) menu. Use your Edit Paths by Nodes (F2) tool to raise the bottom right corner node of this rectangle.

- The result might be like this:

- Put this new shape in the top left corner of the main A4-sized rectangle by opening up Align and Distribute (Shift + Ctrl + A) panel. There, set the Relative to option to Last selected.

- Click this new shape, hold your Shift button, then click the main rectangle. Choose Align left edges and Align top edges.

- Create new orange rectangle (about 6 x 26 cm). Again, reduce the Alpha (A) value through Fill and Stroke panel. Convert into path, and modify it using Edit by nodes (F2) tool.

- Here is the temporary look. Yours might be better :)

- Create an ellipse (about 7.5 x 3 cm) and fill it with orange color. Then, duplicate and give it different color. I chose gray (again).

- Put these ellipses above the long yellow rectangle like this:

- Later, you can duplicate the ellipse and make it different colors for the next part.

- Now, let's add some text and picture/logo. For the texts, I use some fonts: Belwe Bd BT, Helvetica Neue LT Std, and Arial. Meanwhile, for the Gimp logo, Inkscape logo, and Scribus logo, I took randomly from Google Images.

The final result:

ms_meme's Nook: Thanksgiving with ms_meme

Game Zone: Altitude

by daiashi

About The Game

Blast your way across the cartoon skies in this fast-paced game of aerial combat. Nimbly Games has crafted an instantly accessible, rewardingly deep, and ravishingly fun multiplayer action game. The sirens have sounded, bogies are coming in hot ... Jump into the fast and agile Loopy and drop your enemies from the sky with a tactical EMP blast. Barrel roll through the enemy minefield and arm your nuke as you enter the drop zone. There it is, the enemy base, but two Mirandas just warped in with lasers hot and an Explodet is lumbering into position over their hangar decks - will you carry your team to victory?

Multiplayer Done Right: Altitude combines Call-of-Duty style perks with the gameplay variety of Team Fortress 2 in a fresh multiplayer experience. Carefully refined controls, netcode, and balance make for hundreds of hours of deep, rewarding gameplay.

Want something to do in your free time? You like gaming? Try this one out. It is a non-frustrating game that will not cause you to throw your coffee across the room. From its loops and turns to the sound of aerial combat, it's sure to keep you occupied. It is much more addicting than it seems. I hope you enjoy it.

System requirements:

Fully updated PCLinuxOS and Steam

Hardware:

Minimum:

OS: PCLinuxOS

Processor: 1.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

Memory: 256 GB RAM

Graphics: Intel, AMD, Nvidia. Will play on most anything that has a screen,

Linux and Steam.

Hard Drive: 251MB available space

About The Company

Nimbly Games is two guys following their dream to make games. We're inspired by classics like Mario Kart, Starcraft, Counter-Strike, and more recently Call of Duty 4 and DotA. We live and work out of a cheap apartment in Las Cruces, NM and survive mainly on cereal, pizza, and unfulfilled ambition.

Erik on the left, Karl on the right.

Erik Measure is a wannabe entrepreneur who's split his productive life between video games and theoretical physics. He'd better hope this "indie game studio" thing works out.

Karl Sabo used to write missile defense software for the US Government. Keep that in mind the next time Altitude crashes on you.

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 Altitude. Click on and download the demo. If you have updated your system, including graphics drivers, you should be good to go.

Altitude

h3>HTPC: Running Kodi as a Standalone Environment

by Paul Arnote (parnote)

I thought I was finished with the HTPC series of articles ... until I remembered one more thing I wanted to share with you.

Did you know that you could run Kodi as its own standalone environment? Unless you've changed the session attributes when you boot into your machine, chances are high that you are not even aware that this is possible.

Here's the deal. When you install Kodi to your PCLinuxOS computer, it also sets up Kodi to run in its own independent, standalone session.

Since I run Xfce, I get the Gtk Display Manager (GDM) when I boot into my computer. You'll most likely see the same thing if you run LXDE, Openbox or Mate as your primary desktop environment. The process is virtually the same for the KDM (KDE Display Manager).

Click your mouse on the word "Session" (lower left corner), and you should see something like the image shown above. A dialog box will appear with a list of different sessions you can run. This image, taken from my VirtualBox installation of LXDE, shows Kodi listed as the fourth item down, as number three. Select Kodi from the list, and you can run Kodi in your copy of PCLinuxOS without a desktop environment and window manager.

Say what? Now, why would anyone want to do that?

Well, let's say you have a lower spec machine that you want to repurpose as a media center PC. Instead of loading a desktop environment and window manager -- and wasting all the RAM and video RAM it takes to support those -- you can just run Kodi as a standalone program.

It will run just fine on top of X. It takes care of its own display needs, and even allows you access to setting up networking, if needed. It even has its own built-in file manager, too (which we've used in some of the other articles about Kodi).

As added benefits, Kodi will always start up in full screen mode, it will automount removable drives, and it will shut down the computer by default when you exit -- instead of just closing the Kodi window.

Without the overhead of running the other programs you really don't need while using a HTPC, running Kodi in its standalone mode may help improve performance. This may be particularly noticeable when trying to stream HD video content. Plus, on a lower spec computer, every little extra bit can help a lot.

Who knows? Maybe this little nugget of knowledge will allow you to take an otherwise unused, marginal laptop and convert it into your own personal traveling HTPC.

PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner

Honey-Garlic Slow Cooker Chicken Thighs

INGREDIENTS:

4 skinless, boneless chicken thighs

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup ketchup

1/3 cup honey

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon dried basil

DIRECTIONS:

1. Lay chicken thighs into the bottom of a 4-quart slow cooker.

2. Whisk soy sauce, ketchup, honey, garlic, and basil together in a bowl; pour over the chicken.

3. Cook on Low for 6 hours.

Multiple Command Line Windows Using Tmux

By Peter Kelly (critter)

In a recent article about the GNU Screen utility, I briefly mentioned tmux as an alternative and then said little more about it. Screen is, and has been for many years, the de-facto upgrade for terminal users and was first released in 1987. The new kid on the block is tmux, which has itself been around since 2009, an age in modern computer life times, and in that time has become a popular and stable alternative to screen.

The two programs are similar, but tmux packs in some extra features, and is generally a little easier to configure. If GNU screen does what you want, then fine. If, however, you find yourself thinking, "I wish I could do this in screen,” then that is why tmux was developed. In tmux, you probably can do this.

Screen is released under the GNU General Public license, while tmux is released under a BSD license. Both are approved by the Free Software Foundation.

Tmux is described as a 'terminal multiplexer application,' which is not something that will set many hearts beating faster, but the program can be extremely useful if you spend any amount of time using a terminal. The application inherits most of the functions of screen, improves on many of them, and adds a few tricks and features of its own. It can be found in most Linux distributions and is a part of the basic OpenBSD system.

Also in the previous article, I drew an analogy with graphical desktop environments, their virtual desktops and with KDE’s activities. Tmux comes a little closer to realising the truth in that statement utilising sessions, windows and panes to achieve a more efficient workflow.

The base work unit of tmux is the 'session', of which there can be as many as you find necessary -- although in reality, very few will be required. Tmux uses a client-server relationship, and sessions can be attached to or detached from the server as required. Detaching a session allows it to continue as long as the host machine is running (or until it is deliberately killed). Re-attaching the session is seamless, and it allows you to then continue where you left off.

The theory

Each session will contain one or more 'windows', only one of which will be visible at any time. Each window will start with a single 'pane' which can be split into many panes each containing a separate process.

The schematics above show how things fit together. In a terminal you will see only one window and the panes that it both contains and are currently visible.

In this screenshot, I am running a session that I named 'admin', and I have divided the initial window into three panes: one showing a bash prompt, the one below running the top command and another one on the right displaying a list of current configuration settings. Other than that, this is the way it looks on first run.

Most users will want to configure further, and there is an awful lot of stuff that can be configured here. The status bar at the bottom of the screen is not how I would like it and I want to change some of the key-bindings.

Both GNU screen and tmux require that you press a command key combination or 'prefix' then some other key to enter a command. In screen this prefix is control-a, but in tmux, the default is control-b (noted as C-b from here) which I find confusing and so later I will change that to control-a, as used in screen.

Getting started

To get started we need to create a new session. If you don't name the session it will be given a name starting with '1' which is not very descriptive. Windows can also be named and this is also very helpful, especially if you re-attach to a session on a server that you haven't visited for a while. To create the 'admin' session with a window named 'log-files', I used the command:

tmux new -s admin -n log-files

This also opens the session with the cursor in the single pane of the window, which has an index of 0 and is named log-files. This is displayed in the status bar, bottom left.

Now that we have a session up and running, I'll do a quick tour to demonstrate some of the available features. Then you can decide if this is something that you would find useful. After this, we can look at customizing things to provide a utility tailor-made to your personal tastes. To detach a session use C-b d, and then to re-attach to the last session you have used, the command is tmux attach. If more than one session is available, then use the sessions title like this: tmux attach -t admin. Pretty obvious, really!

To list available sessions, use tmux ls.

When first opened, the terminal, in the single pane window, is running your preferred shell, usually bash, and waiting for user input. In this first non-customized look around I will use the default C-b prefix, If you later decide to change this, as I intend to do, then substitute the new key combination. All of the key combinations below are the default settings -- and there are a lot to remember -- but when we get to the configuration section, you will see how to make key combinations that are easier for you to remember.

Controlling window panes

To make this something more than a standard terminal, we can split the current screen into panes. The split can be either horizontal or vertical. The command to make a horizontal split is C-b %.

After the split is created, the cursor is placed into the new pane. If I issue the command 'top' in this pane, I can leave the top command running, and then switch back to the left hand pane to do something else. To switch between left and right panes, use the commands C-b left-arrow and C-b right-arrow.

To split this pane vertically, the command is C-b ".

To move between vertical splits, use C-b up_arrow and C-b down-arrow. By now, the size of each pane is getting rather small; too small, in fact, to be of much practical use. To see what is really going on with top, we can zoom in on that pane with the C-b z command.

Switch to the pane you want to view with C-b right-arrow then zoom in with C-b z. The status bar now shows ,b>'0:log-files*Z' to report the fact that window log-files is active (that's the asterisk), and zoomed to a single pane.

To zoom out use C-b z again. Even with the zoom facility, we soon reach the usability limit of screen splitting. We can create a new window in the current session with C-b c, and give it a name with C-b , (that's a comma). When the rename prompt appears, backspace over the default name (probably bash), and type in your new name.

Press return and the status bar shows two current windows in the session with window index 1 named scripts active '*'.

You can switch between next and previous windows with C-b n and C-b p. You can chose a window by its index, e.g. C-b 0 for our log-files window, call up a prompt for the window index with C-b ' ( an apostrophe), or you can call up an interactive list of windows to select from with C-b w.

You can call up a list of command key combinations at any time with C-b ?, and remove it by pressing the enter or return key.

To remove a pane, use C-b x. You will be asked for confirmation in the default settings. A window, and all its panes, can be removed with C-b &. Again, you will probably be asked for confirmation, as this is a one-way operation -- when it's gone it's gone!

When splitting a pane, the result is always a 50/50 split. However, you don't need to settle for that. Panes can be resized using the commands:

C-b C-up (Control b Control up arrow)

C-b C-down

C-b C-left

C-b C-right

Resizing is done one character or line at a time. To increase this to five (5) characters/lines, use C-b Alt-up etc. The value of five (5) is configurable.

The command C-b ! will break the current pane out of the window, creating a new window containing only that pane. The previous window panes will be resized accordingly.

Tmux has its own command prompt that can be called up with C-b :. Here, you get total command of tmux. The command :list-commands, or its shorter form :lscm, will bring up a scrollable list of all available commands, although to make full use of this, I'm afraid that you really will need to read the man page. The tmux man page is in fact one of the best man pages out there, and is extremely helpful.

Copying and pasting

To copy and paste text between panes, the text is first copied into a paste buffer. To paste the text, you first choose the buffer, or accept the default, which is the most recently created buffer.

To enter copy mode, use the command C-b [, and then move to where you want copying to start. Press C-space (you don't need to type C-b first) to begin copying. Then, as you move around, the text is highlighted. Press Alt-w (again, no C-b) to accept the text and to copy it to a paste buffer, or press the escape key to reject it.

Now move to where you want to paste the text, another pane or window. Paste the text into an editor or similar. Do not paste directly to the shell prompt, as bash will attempt to execute each line with unpredictable and possibly harmful results. To paste the text type C-b ].

If you have copied more than one text selection, then each selection will be stored in its own paste buffer, and these can be displayed with the command C-b =. Use the up/down arrow keys to select the required text, and press enter to immediately paste that text. The text remains in the buffer for further use.

To simply list the contents of the buffers without selecting one, use the command C-b #.

Miscellany

Utilities such as tmux are often used across network connections, such as ssh (secure shell connections), where they can be detached, and then later re-attached when a new connection is established.

A useful feature of tmux is the synchronize-panes command (use C-b : to get the command prompt then type in the command. This command allows you to type commands into one pane and have the same text echoed to all other panes in the window. This is ideal for comparing directory contents or execution times across computers.

I think the remote computer is in need of an upgrade.

Two commands of rather limited use are C-b t and C-b q.

The first displays the time:

The second command displays the index of each pane in large text, the current pane in red, others in blue. This enables you to switch to a pane by simply pressing the number key corresponding to that pane - as long as the numbers are displayed. You will have to be quick, though, as the numbers are displayed for only about one second or less!

Configuring tmux

There are (at least) four types of things to configure in tmux:

- Basic tmux option settings

- The status bar

- The key bindings that you prefer

- The decision whether to use emacs or vi bindings as defaults in copy mode for those that you don't configure yourself

If you are comfortable with vi, then use those bindings. This is particularly helpful as the vi movement commands are extremely rapid. If vi is not your favorite editor, and I can understand why that might be, then even if you have never heard of emacs, use the emacs bindings, as these are the default key bindings used by bash/readline to edit the command line: C-e to go to end of line, C-a to go to beginning of line, and so forth. However, don't concern yourself too much about this, as you do not have to learn a new language. Just set things up so that you are comfortable with them.

To alter the appearance and behaviour of tmux, create a file in your home folder named .tmux.conf. Anything in here will override the tmux default behaviour. Although there are many options that can be set, most people will want to use only a few and leave the rest at the default settings.

There are options for server, session and window, and these may each be global or per instance. There are also user options. If this sounds complicated, take heart, as the helpful man page has an abundance of examples and explanatory notes. There are also several examples of configuration files on the internet.

To change the prefix key combination from C-b to ,b>C-a, as used by GNU screen, add set -g prefix C-a to your configuration file. The -g makes it apply globally to all sessions. To force tmux to use vi or emacs mode, add either

setw -g mode-keys vi or

setw -g mode-keys emacs

When a window is split into several panes, it is not always obvious which pane is active. To make this a little easier to see, I changed the default pane border to blue and the active pane border to bright yellow.

set-option -g pane-border-fg blue

set-option -g pane-active-border-fg brightyellow

set-option -g pane-active-border-bg default

You can add comments to make the configuration file more readable. A comment begins with a #, and extends to the end of the line.

Tmux has limited mouse support, and I set this to allow pane selection.

setw -g mode-mouse on

set -g mouse-select-pane on

According to the man pages, the mouse can be used for a lot more, but I didn't bother to implement other features. Hey -- this is command line stuff after all.

To make splitting windows easier to remember, I changed % and " to -- and | which seems more logical to me. The lines that do this are

bind-key - split-window -v # split pane vertically

bind-key | split-window -h # split pane horizontally

If you look at the default key bindings with C-b ?, you will notice that some of the commands begin with bind-key -r. The -r means the key will repeat if held down. This is particularly useful when resizing panes.

The configuration file is read when a new tmux session is started, but it would be nice if we could refresh this after we edit the file, particularly when starting out with configuration. With our new C-a prefix, this becomes possible with C-a r by adding this line:

bind-key r source-file ~/.tmux.conf

The status bar consists of a left hand part and a right hand part. What can be displayed here is pretty impressive, and consists mainly of plain text and the contents of some tmux variables, all of which are listed in the man page with instructions on how to use them. Some variables have an abbreviation identified with a # such as #S for the name of a session, ## displays a single #. Colors and their attributes (bold etc.) are described in #[] statements, such as #[fg=blue,bold].

The statement #[default] resets colors and attributes to the global default. Time and date formats conform to the strftime standard. The rest is common sense, sweat and swearing.

This is how my configuration file finished and how it looked. I use vi/vim even though I don't particularly like it, although I do have to admit that it is good (better than good actually) -- how would you do it?

The configuration file - ~/.tmux.conf

setw -g mode-keys vi

set -g prefix C-a

bind-key a send-prefix

set-option -g history-limit 10000

setw -g mode-bg black

set-option -g default-terminal "screen-256color"

set-option -g pane-border-fg blue

set-option -g pane-active-border-fg brightyellow

set-option -g pane-active-border-bg default

set-window-option -g utf8 on

set-window-option -g xterm-keys on # for vim

set-window-option -g mode-keys vi # vi key

set-window-option -g monitor-activity on

set-window-option -g window-status-current-fg white

setw -g window-status-current-attr bold

setw -g automatic-rename

setw -g mode-mouse on

set -g mouse-select-pane on

set -g terminal-overrides 'xterm*'

set-option -g status-utf8 on

set-option -g status-justify right

set-option -g status-bg black

set-option -g status-interval 5

set-option -g status-left-length 30

set-option -g status-left '#[fg=blue,bold]#T#[default]'

set-option -g status-right '#[fg=blue,bold]#S #[fg=green]%R %a %d %b#[default]'

set-option -g visual-activity on

bind-key r source-file ~/.tmux.conf

bind-key - split-window -v

bind-key | split-window -h

bind-key Space list-panes

bind-key Enter break-pane

bind-key -n C-up prev

bind-key -n C-left prev

bind-key -n C-right next

bind-key -n C-down next

set-window-option -g window-status-current-bg red

bind A command-prompt "rename-window %%"

setw -g aggressive-resize on

bind-key -r Left select-pane -L

bind-key -r Down select-pane -D

bind-key -r Up select-pane -U

bind-key -r Right select-pane -R

setw -g mode-keys vi

GIMP Tutorial: Using Levels to Correct Photo Colors

by Meemaw

How many of us have older photos of family? We want to put them in a family album, but the photo has darkened or changed over the years, and the color looks off. We may even have some more recent photos that are off because of the light in the location they were taken. Let's try to fix them with levels in GIMP. I am using a photo of a local 4-H club. The photo that was taken shows a bit too much yellow.

Open a copy (always work on a COPY of your image, rather than your original) of your photo in GIMP, then click Colors > Levels and the Levels window will open. Some of your photos can be edited using the settings that are already there, which is using all colors at once. You can try it, but you may have better results if you choose one color at a time from the dropdown.

Choose the red first, and you will see the histogram (that graph in the center of the window) change to show the red levels. Look for a gap in the curve, usually on the right side, where there is no curve except the line at the bottom. It will most likely be at one of the ends. Using the arrow there, click on it and drag it toward the graph where the gap ends and the curve starts, and stop there. You should already see an improvement in your photo, depending on the color balance of the photo you are using. Choose the green, and do the same thing, then the blue. As with all photo work, this is a process that you have to "fine-tune" according to your own photo and histogram. Truthfully, I didn't see much change with the red or the green, but when I chose the blue, my photo was changed as shown:

These colors look much more realistic. Here's another older photo:

I tried red, but there was not much change. However, I then tried green:

(still not much yet), and then blue:

While it isn't perfect, it's a bit more clear than it was, and will now only need to be lightened a bit (if desired) and possibly repaired a little, with the dark spots towards the bottom left of the photo removed.

Most photos may not need this degree of editing, but you might find that some of your photos will benefit from using the levels editor. You can always try some of the other color editing features in GIMP. This photo might have been edited simply by using Desaturate, leaving a plain black & white photo, but I wanted to preserve the "old photo" flavor (since it was likely taken in 1945).

It is fun to experiment with these old photos to keep them for coming generations! As always, each photo is different, and you will need to experiment using small changes, but adding Color Levels to your group of editing tricks should help you with those hard-to-edit older photos.

Playing King's Road on PCLinuxOS

By Alessandro Ebersol (Agent Smith)

In a land on the brink of destruction, a hero will rise to fight evil. The kingdom of Alderstone is in danger, the king is gone, and can no longer defend it. An army of darkness, the Shroud, rose against the kingdom. Led by Adamar, an ancient practitioner of the black arts, the army razed the villages, towns and cities, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake. In this bleak scenario, only one hero is brave enough to confront evil. That hero is you.

The game's plot is like a fairy tale. In the absence of the king, a kingdom was captured by some evil enemies. As King's Warriors, players team up to fight enemies in order to free the princess. The game has 3D graphics style using Flash Player, but only for the characters. The scenarios are 2D pre-rendered, very beautiful by the way.

When you finish the main game task you will unlock the dungeon. In this dungeon you can get powerful items. Also, every two weeks there is an event to attend. For the bronze series (first grade of 4 degrees), you need a level of 1100 points of energy. In this case, you can get the most powerful items around the game.

There are 3 classes, Knight, Archer and Wizard. The game is fast, visceral and with action-packed battles. You can play alone, or form a party, to confront the soldiers and monsters of the Shroud.

The game goes through several towns and villages, destroyed by Adamar's attack, and is very linear. Once you have played a scenario, you may come back to it to accumulate experience, treasures and items.

To help you on your adventure, you will receive dragon pets, which you must care for, so they can grow and strengthen, and improve your chances in battle. There is a whole part of strategy and resource management, to improve the Dragons: feed them, teach them new tricks and fight other players (raids) that occur outside of the RPG game.

The square of Alderstone.

The status and inventory.

It's a very fun game for everyone. Play together with friends, or make new friends in the game and go out blasting by Alderstone, trying to defeat Adamar.

How to play this great game in PCLinuxOS? Follow the steps below.

You will need: Only an updated Google Chrome browser. But for it to work, you should have 3D acceleration enabled in Chrome.

How to check? Easy. Open the browser and in the address bar, type: chrome://gpu. A screen like the following should open:

In order to run Kings Road, every status has to be green. Therefore, it is necessary to change the flags browser to accept 3D acceleration for video cards that are not listed. Then, type in the browser tab chrome://flags. The screen below will appear.

Now, in Experiments, click Override software rendering list, click Enable, and restart the browser for the changes to take effect. Now, in the browser, type chrome://gpu. The result should be this:

Now you can play Kings Road. After these minor adjustments, just open the address: https://www.rumblegames.com/kingsroad/play, create an account and start playing!

Have fun experiencing the dangers of Alderstone!

PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight: IsaacM

As told to Smileeb.

IsaacM with his "pup-son" Peanut

How old are you?

I am 53.

Married, single or what?

Married for 25 years.

Children, grandchildren?

No children, but I do have nieces and great nephews on my wife's side and I love them as much as if they were my own.

Retired or working and for how long and at what?

Due to things beyond my control I will never be able to retire. I am currently working in customer service and have been in the same job since 2008.

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

I live in northeastern Oklahoma, but not near most of the tornados. It is relatively flat, very hot in the summer and bitter cold in the winter.

Are you handy with your hands and have any hobbies?

I can do most anything except woodworking. I couldn't cut in a straight line with a laser guided computer automated saw, and I always cut things too big!!! lol. My hobby is Linux.

What is your education level?

Some college. Mostly worked very hard to get all the education I have on my own. Most people think I have a degree. I guess I do ... it's 98.6.

Do you like to travel, go camping?

I love to travel and camp. I don't get to, but I love to. I have been to most states, Europe and the Mideast in the army. I have family in various parts of the world that I would love to visit.

What caused you to try Linux and join this forum?

When I first heard about computer programming it was 1970?? I was fascinated by the idea. I wanted to be a programmer but family circumstances did not allow me to get the education I would need. My first computer was an 8088. I bought it second hand in 1993. It had no graphics. I had to learn DOS. I followed it with a 286 in 1995 a 486dx in 1997 my first Pentium in 2001. I kept trying to learn, kept having to buy, buy, buy. I could not afford Windows upgrades, Visual Basic and other programming languages, college etc... I was getting dizzy and moths were flying out of my wallet. I started wondering how I could create my own OS. I was looking around at books at Barnes and Noble and found a book on Slackware. It was a do-it-yourself OS and I had to figure out everything! I was relegated to using Windows though for the next several years. I discovered Ubuntu 6.04 in Barnes and Noble in a magazine.

I tried it and loved it. It was Gnome 2 and it was great! I used Ubuntu for the next several years, but Ubuntu is bleeding edge and my hardware would not keep up. They changed to their Unity desktop and I hated it. I tried my different distros, then about 3 years ago I found PCLinuxOS. I have loved it and the community ever since. I work on the side on other people's computers. I encourage people to use Linux and especially PCLinuxOS whenever possible.

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, parnote or Meemaw in the PCLinuxOS forum expressing your interest.

Tip Top Tips: Create a Tray Toggle Icon

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 Bill Grubbs.

Add a tray closing icon on the desktop.

Right click the desktop, and choose Create New --> Link to Application.

A Properties box opens, with "Link to Application" in the title box, highlighted for you to create a new name for the link.

Type "Tray Door" (without the quotes) as the new title.

Click the gearwheel icon, and in the pop up, click the Applications button and choose Devices from the drop down menu. Choose a CDROM or DVD icon, whichever best describes your device. (Note: did not work for me.)

Next click the Application tab.

In the box next to Command type, "eject -T" (without the quotes). Click OK.

Alter permissions if necessary.

If you have more than one optical drive, you'll need an icon for each. Label them as you feel appropriate, and type the command as:

eject -T cdrom

eject -T dvdrecorder

eject -T dvdrom (see additional explanation below)

The -T is for toggle. The tray link both opens and closes the tray.

How you call the appropriate drive depends on what your /etc/fstab shows the device to be named. If you don't like the icon on the desktop proper, or like having it available even when the desktop is covered, drag it to the kicker panel, or the "quick launcher" on the panel, if you like really small, space saving, icons. You can then delete the original desktop icon, if you wish.

When your cat or dog walks by, toggle the tray door and watch the fun.

*****

If you take a look at the command line options for the eject command, this is what you will find:

Running eject -n at a command line will list all the devices the command recognizes and finds. On the laptop I'm writing on, it lists the DVD-RW drive as /dev/sr0. On my desktop, it lists my DVD-RW drives as /dev/sr0 and /dev/sr1.

So, on my laptop, the command to open the DVD-RW tray would be eject -T /dev/sr0. Since the laptop has a spring loaded tray door, the actual "toggle" command doesn't work except to open the tray. The tray has to be manually closed by pressing it firmly in, against the spring pressure until it latches in the closed position. On my desktop, which has drives with motorized trays, the "toggle" command will both open and close the drive tray. Thus, on a laptop -- or any computer with the spring loaded drive tray -- the eject -r /dev/sr0 command works equally well.

Also, to change the icon for the shortcut, (as pointed out by forum member pags) go back in and edit the shortcut after you save it initially (at least on KDE). Then, the icon will change to whatever icon you select.

PCLinuxOS Puzzled Partitions

Scrappler

Download Puzzle Solutions Here!

Sudoku

Download Puzzle Solutions Here!

PCLinuxOS Crossword Puzzle: November 2015

Veterans Day

Download Puzzle Solutions Here!

Veternas Day Word Find

Veterans Day is the U.S. holiday celebrating the official end of World War I on November 11, 1918. It commemorates the anniversary of the signing of the armistice that ended World War I and was originally celebrated as Armistice Day. It now honors the men and women who served in the US Armed Forces. November 11 is called Armistice Day in many countries (including France, New Zealand, and others). In Canada, Australia, and the UK, November 11 is called Remembrance Day or Poppy Day (named after the red flower that bloomed so profusely on the bloody battlefields of Europe).

Download Puzzle Solutions Here!

Screenshot Showcase

Posted by Agent_Smith, October 29, 2015, running e19

Posted by dalefritz, October 23, 2015, running Xfce

Posted by daniel, October 15, 2015, running LXDE

Posted by Edd_juglans, October 24, 2015, running Mate

Posted by lee1762, October 10, 2015, running KDE

Posted by luikki, October 8, 2015, running KDE

Posted by Meemaw, October 2, 2015, running Xfce

Posted by Mr_600, October 2015

Posted by parnote, October 26, 2015, running Xfce

Posted by Yankee, October 25, 2015, running LXDE