Table of Contents

- From The Chief Editor's Desk

1. In Memorium: Tara-Rain-9.5β

2. PCLinuxOS Magazine: 10 Years

3. ms_meme's Nook: I'll Be Singing For You

4. PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner

5. PCLinuxOS Magazine: Memories

6. Inkscape Tutorial: Create A 3D Landscape

7. A Look Back at the Beginning: A View From the First Editor

8. Tip Top Tips: How To Activate XScreensaver on KDE5 Plasma

9. LibreOffice 5.2 Released: What's New, Changed

10. Git: The Ultimate Undo Button

11. A Day In The Life: An Anthology Of Sorts

12. PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight: bloomer

13. ms_meme's Nook: I Love Linux More Today

14. GIMP Tutorial: Fancy Text

15. PCLinuxOS Bonus Recipe

16. On Anniversaries ... And The Future Of PCLinuxOS

17. XFCE4: Using The General Monitor (Genmon)

18. Using Kanban on PCLinuxOS: Installing Kanboard

19. PCLinuxOS Puzzled Partitions

20. Screenshot Showcase

From The Chief Editor's Desk

To say that the last few weeks have been hectic would be the understatement of the relatively new millennium. So much has gone on and happened, it has been a whirlwind of activity that has left my head spinning still.

On the last weekend of July, we had my son's birthday party. Even though his birthday is August 6, we moved his party up a week because of the fear that Laura (my wife) would be delivering our second child. We wanted, if at all possible, to avoid spoiling his third birthday party with mom and dad having to be at the hospital, instead of being at his birthday party.

Except, we didn't calculate it quite right. The day that we chose for his birthday party was the exact time (gestationally) in this most recent pregnancy as when he was born: 36 weeks, 2 days (normal gestation is 40 weeks). Statistically speaking, if your first child comes early, then there's a great chance your second one will too.

So, we just held our collective breaths, and hoped for the best. Indeed, it looked at the end of his party as if we might be in for an extra dose of drama. As the party was winding down and we were starting to pack things up at the shelter house at the local park, my wife started having strong contractions. Fortunately, they subsided and the rest of the evening was calm and uneventful.

A week later, we celebrated his actual third birthday, with just him with mom and dad. He got a cool little Lil' Tikes 4x4 pickup truck that is foot powered and that you ride in. Just put your feet on the floor and push. He was so excited about his new toy truck, I'm a bit surprised he didn't try to sleep in it.

By this time, we're doing weekly doctor appointments with the OB/Gyn, along with weekly sonograms of baby's development. Mom was already dilated to 5 cm, which is half way (10 cm is considered "complete"). Just as with our first pregnancy, mom had a problem with PIH, or more commonly called "Pregnancy Induced Hypertension." Basically, it's high blood pressure as a result of the pregnancy. It can be cause for concern, as it can lead to (and is usually a precursor to) preeclampsia, a condition that can be dangerous for both mother and baby. Fortunately, mom had been taking blood pressure medication to control the condition since we discovered it early in the pregnancy, and it was pretty well controlled throughout the course of the pregnancy.

Because of the PIH, the OB/Gyn doctor scheduled an induction (where they "force" or nudge the delivery along) for Friday, August 12. The doctor also said she'd be surprised if we made it to Friday. The baby's gestational age at the time of induction would be 38 weeks and 1 day. Uhm ... we made it all the way to Friday without going into labor.

So, early on Friday morning, the three of us -- myself, Laura and Ryan -- dutifully were at the hospital at 6 a.m. By the time we got to the labor and delivery room, it was 7 a.m. (SO much paperwork!). The nurses started an IV to run the pitocin in with. Ryan, having endured -- like a champ, I might add -- the hour long paperwork BS, was getting a bit antsy. So, I took him on a walk so he could get out of the hospital room and see some different scenery.

Before we left on our walk, a call was placed to the anesthesiologist to place the epidural catheter for pain management during delivery. When we asked who the anesthesiologist was, my wife and I both rolled our eyes. We both used to work at this hospital, know this man well, have dealt with him a lot, and knew that he (or his associates) would be a while showing up.

However ... the OB/Gyn showed up before the anesthesia folks, so the epidural catheter had not been inserted yet. Ryan and I were still taking our walk. Dutifully, the OB/Gyn broke the water. What happened next happened VERY, VERY fast.

Finally, the anesthesia folks show up. One CRNA (certified registered nurse anesthetist) and a trainee. Great! Once the water was broke, contractions started coming very quickly and very hard. So, here's my wife, enduring not only frequent and hard contractions, but also enduring the anesthesia folks poking around on her back, trying to place the epidural catheter.

Unfortunately, the medication they run through the epidural takes about 10 to 15 minutes to take affect. Things are progressing VERY fast at this point. The epidural didn't kick in until the last two pushes of the delivery.

With only 10 minutes of "hard pushing," Alexandra Emily Arnote was born on August 12, 2016, at 8:36 a.m. Mom and baby are doing very well, and Lexi's big brother, Ryan, is already very smitten with his new baby sister. Several times a day, he will walk by and give her a kiss.

My son and mother-in-law had been "banished" to the waiting room while they placed epidural catheter. But things progressed so quickly, neither had a chance to come back into the room for the delivery. My mother-in-law said that our OB/Gyn doctor walked past her in the delivery room, saying "unbelievable," over and over again.

My two week vacation also started with Lexi's arrival. I haven't taken two weeks off from work at one time since my son was born in 2013. (The U.S. is the ONLY advanced country in the world where there is no paid maternity or paternity leave. We have to use "vacation time," if we have it accumulated.).

Thanks to knowing when we were going to be induced, I had already completed laying out the cover for the September 2016 issue of The PCLinuxOS Magazine ahead of time. I knew that things would be hectic, and boy were they ever!

To top it off, the September 2016 issue marks the 10 year anniversary of The PCLinuxOS Magazine. 10 years is a HUGE milestone, for any publication. It's an even grander milestone for a community based project ran by volunteers from that community. This month, we have several articles celebrating this momentous milestone, in addition to the "regular" stuff we usually have in each month's issue. So guiding this larger, milestone issue of the magazine has created even more tasks for me to keep track of.

In just my family alone, August is a very busy month with six birthdays (when you add in Lexi's birthday). My niece, my son, my daughter, mine, my great niece, and my niece's husband (my great niece's daddy). By the time you read this, all of those birthdays will have come and gone. Hopefully by then, things will start to slow down around here a bit. And I have only hit the highlights here.

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

In Memoriam: Tara-Rain-9.5β

by Paul Arnote [parnote]

On the morning of August 27, 2016, the PCLinuxOS community awoke to this sad message on the PCLinuxOS forum:

Hi, I am not exactly sure where to post this. I am not Tara. I live next door. She left me all her stuff, and did not believe in passwords.

I have read through a lot of this forum, and have seen that our dear girl was well liked and imparted her wisdom freely. I was never a member of this forum, but I did introduce her to PCLinuxOS.

It is my sad duty to inform you that Tara's consistent migraines were not caused by her love of Tequila or fine Whiskey. Seriously, that girl could drink me under the table. Unfortunately, she had a brain tumor, apparently inoperable, and she passed away this morning.

It has only been hours, but I miss her dearly. I suspect that many of you will too, even if you did not meet her in person, she had a way making people feel like they knew her.

I don't know what else to say. It was very unexpected.

If you didn't know, her birthday was November 6. I called her "Gall Faulkes, late for the party." We went to the same high school, Grove Park SS, Wrexham, aka Wrecsam, now just called "The Groves."

Her last wishes were that she be cremated and her ashes tossed in the Mersey. I promise, I will make it happen her way.

Also too, for those of you who were fond of her, I have many pictures of her with the Cessna, her Jaguar and her motorcycles.

The above was posted at 00:34:56 (CDT). Just three hours, 12 minutes, 16 seconds earlier, Tara Victoria Rain made her last post to the PCLinuxOS forum.

As the day wore on, many PCLinuxOS users expressed their sadness at hearing this unexpected and jolting news. Condolences and other heartfelt messages poured forth from many users.

Tara joined the PCLinuxOS forum family on July 15, 2013. Since that time, she made just over 1900 posts to the forum. In the short time she was a member of the PCLinuxOS forum, she managed to ingratiate herself to many forum members, becoming a welcome and well loved member of the PCLinuxOS family. While listing her age on her forum profile as 355, she did mention a couple of times in the forum that she was 28 years old.

The magazine staff had asked Tara on multiple occasions to "volunteer" to be featured in the magazine's monthly "PCLinuxOS Forum Family Member Spotlight" column that highlights and features a different forum member every month. Each time, Tara would turn down the invitation, believing that there were others more interesting and deserving than she was.

Included in Tara's signature was an image from DeviantArt artist and contributor ConceptsbyMiller, called "Fairies Wear Boots Betty Page." Betty Page is a famous pin-up image, and the image is inspired by a Black Sabbath song, called "Fairies Wear Boots."

Tara seems to have come to PCLinuxOS well versed in the "Linux way." Like many PCLinuxOS users, and despite her forum "sign up" date, Tara alluded to having run PCLinuxOS for a much longer period of time. In a forum post from October 2013, Tara indicated having run PCLinuxOS since October 2010. Elsewhere, Tara stated that she had been a Linux user since 2006.

Originally from Wrexham, a town in Wales, Tara appears to have made Ontario, Canada her home. There, she provided support to a high school computer class. They had previously purchased Dell laptop computers for their computer lab. When she discovered that they were limping along with the original Win2K that came installed on the laptop computers, she sought permission to upgrade the computers to a more modern operating system. That's right. She took it upon herself to upgrade the computer lab computers to PCLinuxOS. Plus, she provided any support they needed in keeping things running in top form.

In another forum post, Tara provided the GPS coordinates for where she was living, via http://www.thegpscoordinates.com. Undoubtedly, the students she was selflessly supporting are going to miss her.

As I read through all of Tara's posts (I started with her oldest forum post and read them all backwards in chronological order), I was amazed by several things. First, I was amazed by the incredible breadth of her knowledge. She exhibited more knowledge than most seasoned Linux hands. Second, I was amazed by how many people she helped (and touched) in the forum. She lent a helping hand whenever she could, and it was apparent that she did so with a smile. She never talked down to people. Third, I was quite taken by her sense of humor.

Evidence of Tara's knowledge of Linux came in another, later post in October 2013, where she shared the brilliant bash script she wrote to periodically clean her system, instead of using BleachBit.

Tara's knowledge really shined through when she wrote MyLiveGTK, a Gtk based GUI front end for MyLiveCD. Once a scary excursion to the command line for many PCLinuxOS users, MyLiveGTK demystifies using MyLiveCD and makes it super easy for anyone to remaster their PCLinuxOS installation, regardless of their proficiency with the command line. MyLiveGTK makes it a relatively simple point-and-click task.

Further evidence of her knowledge of Linux is evident on the web site that hosts Linux utilities that she and some of her Linux friends wrote. She also offered them up to PCLinuxOS, and allowed PCLinuxOS to apply branding to them.

While she never made a formal introduction of herself to the forum, she did occasionally stop by to welcome other new forum users. Below is one abridged example from June 2016, where she finally revealed a bit more about herself.

Hi Ray, welcome!

I discovered Linux in 2006. Before that, I was an Atari girl. The only version of Windows that I ever had was Win98. The only reason that I had it was because CoolEditPro II was not available for the Atari. Neither was Sims2 or Heroes of Might and Magic III. Continue laughing, but remember: I had fun!

When I moved to Canada, my neighbour was nice enough to mow my lawn for me. He also showed me the only OS that detected and configured itself to all my h/w out of the box (seriously, I was painting my nails, it proudly and efficiently did it's thing). This happened in Live Mode. I immediately installed it and never looked back. Okay, I did look back, but there was nothing to see there.

Despite the lack of a formal self introduction, Tara quickly became a fixture in the PCLinuxOS forum. She won folks over with her solid advice and quick wit. Most people didn't need a formal introduction, and instead felt like they were talking to an old friend. She had a way of putting people at ease. She was knowledgeable and conveyed that knowledge, without a hint of cockiness, sassiness or seeming like an egotistical know-it-all. Tara simply "inserted" herself into the PCLinuxOS forum family.

Tara will be greatly missed from the PCLinuxOS forum. It is saddening that often those we want to stick around are taken from us prematurely. By Tara leaving us so soon, it serves as a reminder to all of us to not take our time among friends and family lightly, and to make our best effort to leave the best mark possible on our little corner of the world.

Tara, you will be dearly missed by all.

The PCLinuxOS Forum Reacts

To The Loss Of Tara

Below is a sampling of the responses in the PCLinuxOS forum, after hearing about the loss of Tara Rains.

Maggie: Thank you for letting us know the devastating news. I can't express myself well in writing and won't even try... I'm really sad.

Not_yet_16: Thank you for taking the time to post to let us know. That is appreciated.

This is extremely sad news, Tara was one of 'the family' and contributed greatly to this forum.

I, and I am sure others, would appreciate it if you could post some links to pics. Please also feel free to post some more during these dreadful days while the full impact of her loss hits home.

Her software, myliveGTK, has a permanent place in this distro, and every time it is used she will be remembered.

Old-Polack: Tara was an instant hit upon her arrival here, and some of us felt very close to her. She was so bright and talented, with a great sense of humor, and quickly became both friend, and family, here. Our dear girl, as you called her, is an apt and fitting description. I will miss her terribly.

I think I speak for most of us here when I say that any stories you would wish to share, about happy memories you shared with Tara, would be well received and greatly appreciated.

tbschommer: I am truly devastated, losing such an integral part of the family.

Archie: I am saddened Tara can no longer be with us. She was a part of our big family, and she will be sorely missed. Rest in peace, fairy.

I've never seen a glimpse of her and I know I'm not alone who'd want to see who she was. Please post some of her photos. That way, we'll have a face to remember her by.

And thank you for taking time to inform us of the sad, sad news.

TerryN: I keep checking the calendar hoping to find that it is April 1st today but to no avail. So sad to hear this news; I am lost for words. Sincere condolences to those who knew Tara in the "real world".

MGBguy: Over the years I have come to appreciate many members in the PCLinuxOS community. Tara was one of the "personalities" whose knowledge and good humor distinguishes this forum from so many others. Her passing saddens me.

Frazelle09: Wow.   This is really sad. Thank you so much for posting this as well as whatever information you felt you could share.

She was a wonderful member of our community and we will miss her greatly.

Again, thanks for posting and we will have her in our prayers.

TerryH: After seeing the title of the post and having read the first paragraph numerous times, it is so saddening to read this terrible news. She will be sadly missed.

RIP TaraRain.

YouCanToo: This truly saddens my heart. This is another blow this year for the friends and family I have lost. We will surely miss you Tara with the laughter and knowledge you brought to the forum. May you find peace in your journey.

joechimp: Today the news has brought a tear.

News like this, is our biggest fear.

We have no answers..... there are none.

Tara would say let's have some fun.

I did not know her , yet she made me smile.

She had a way, she had some style.

We will remember, for time to come.

How we wish it could be undone.

Maurice: On a dull and cloudy winter's day a cheerful post from Tara was a real ray of sunshine. She will be so sadly missed.

Texstar: The news of Tara passing just breaks my heart. She was so young and full of life. What a sad sad day.

Pinoc: Totally shocked about this terrible news. I loved to read her posts, full of knowledge, great humour, joy, and fun. She will be greatly missed by all of us.

RIP Tara.

GOTHBITES: This is so sad. She is but a single shining soul now departed to from our mortal coil too soon for some.

tuxlink: While I didn't know her well, her name on a post at least meant that you had been contacted by someone who was really knowledgeable and very helpful. I had loaded her .ISO BabyMate and it is still running flawlessly today. What a really sad day for all of us here at PClinuxOS. Truly, a beloved family member sadly and sorely missed. RIP Tara Rain.

Andy Axnot: This is very sad news indeed. Tara was a special person on this forum; very bright, knowledgeable, helpful, and often very funny. As others have said, she will be sorely missed.

PCLinuxOS Magazine: 10 Years

by Paul Arnote (parnote)

It all started 10 years ago for The PCLinuxOS Magazine. It went like this, with an August 30, 2006 announcement on the old MyPCLinuxOS.com projects website.

PCLinuxOS Magazine September 2006 Initial Issue

It is my privilege to announce on behalf of the team members of the PCLinuxOS Magazine Project sponsored by MyPCLinuxOS.com, the September 2006 introductory issue is available for download! We've put a lot of effort into producing a quality magazine made for the community, by the community.

Contained inside are many articles written for the PCLinuxOS community and a few for those interested but not yet using it. Some highlights include:

1. An interview with Susan Linton of Tuxmachines.org

2. An RPM Tutorial for beginning users

3. Hunting rootkits with Rootkithunter on PCLinuxOS

3. Much, Much more!

Please note that the magazine is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 license unless otherwise stated on the articles themselves. By downloading this magazine you must acknowledge and accept this license agreement.

We've released the magazine in two versions in pdf format. We designed the magazine for viewing in KPDF but other viewers will work as well. The two formats of the magazine are Viewer Default (VD) and Presentation Mode (PM). Viewer default will display the magazine in the default mode your reader is setup with and Presentation Mode starts in full screen.

PCLinuxOS Editor-In-Chief, Archie, has further explanation of the downloads:

"The following files are best viewed in KPDF. Other readers, such as Adobe Reader, Ghostview, XPDF can also be used. The following instruction is based on using KPDF.

PCLinuxOS_Mag_200609_PM.pdf is initially in presentation. Moving pages forward is as easy as clicking the left mouse button. To go back a page, the user just right-click the mouse button. And exiting the Presentation Mode is not harder than pressing the ESC key.

A user can also hover the mouse cursor on the top of the screen and there will appear some navigation buttons. On the top left-hand side are the blue forward and back buttons; on the right-hand side is the exit button."

Head over to the downloads section to download the latest issue of the magazine. Thanks for your interest in PCLinuxOS! If you feel you'd like to contribute to future issues, please check out the contribute link in the main menu. You can also drop us a line via the contact link in the main menu. If you have any suggestions, comments, or letters to the editor feel free to submit them this way or send an email to mag@mypclinuxos.com. Thanks and enjoy!

PCLinuxOS Magazine Download

(link changed to reflect current download URL)

This announcement is all that remains of the discussions surrounding the first edition of The PCLinuxOS Magazine, and we only have that, thanks to the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. The rest of it has been long lost in the great digital ethernet, including (unfortunately) the discussions that lead up to the magazine's creation. Most likely, those discussions fell victim to numerous forum software changes on the MyPCLinuxOS.com project site. Only the memories and reminiscing of the individuals involved remain, and most of those individuals have scattered to the wind as they went about their way and moved on from PCLinuxOS. There are only a handful of individuals remaining from the time of the magazine's first issue, namely Texstar, Not_Yet_16, jaydot, Archie and Neal ManBear.

Of those who remain, Not_Yet_16 (then known as ClareOldie) remembered the magazine's beginnings like this:

The thing I most remember about the process is the emphasis on quality that was engendered from the very beginning.

Each submitted article was checked and edited for technical accuracy in the first place, and then went through at least three further checks & edits. These further checks were to ensure that the written article did not contain any spelling or grammar errors etc., but also to allow parts to be re-written for clarity if necessary. These checks were carried out by different proofreaders.

Of course the 'finished' article then had to have a final check for accuracy (to ensure the edits did not change the meaning of anything). Finally the writer of the submitted article had a chance to proofread before publication.

All articles, including the editorial, went through this process.

I believe it was this 'belt & braces' process that ensured the magazine, from the very first issue, was as good as it could be and much better than similar projects of the time (which have since faded away).

Congrats to all involved for maintaining the very high standard set from the beginning. Ten years is quite the achievement.

ClareOldie

In those days, the articles were submitted in OpenOffice *.odt format. Today, the magazine articles are all in Google Docs. Even articles that are submitted to the magazine in .odt format are placed into Google Docs. This allows for collaborative editing by the magazine staff. Sometimes, even multiple magazine staff members are editing the same article at the same time. This not only facilitates openness and transparency, but it is a lot more efficient than emailing files back and forth -- and hoping you have the most recent version. The use of Google Docs dramatically streamlines this whole process.

Today, "we" (The PCLinuxOS Magazine) will accept article submissions in any format you want to submit it in. Aside from Google Docs, we'll accept articles in LibreOffice *.odt format, AbiWord, in a *.tar.gz file that contains an annotated text file and pictures, or on paper napkins with stick figure drawings. All of them will be transferred to Google Docs by the magazine staff to facilitate the collaborative editing environment that we have all become accustomed to on today's magazine staff.

The changing of the "guard"

Archie served as the magazine's first Chief Editor, as well as the Chief Editor for the magazine's relaunch in July 2009. (Be sure to check out Archie's companion article in this issue, remembering how the magazine first came about.) The reins were then handed over to Tim Robinson. When Tim's health started to give him issues, he handed over the reins to a very capable John Paxton, a.k.a. Papawoob. Like his predecessor, Papawoob also encountered some health issues after about a year, so the Chief Editor position was handed over to Doug Wilson, a.k.a. historyb.

Previous editors, from left: Archie, Tim Robinson, Papawoob, historyb.

Editor's note: Attempts were made, unsuccessfully, to contact Tim Robinson and Papawoob for this article. Our emails were not returned, so their whereabouts and welfare are not known. No attempts were made to contact historyb, for reasons you'll come to understand below.

Also, the information immediately below isn't presented to reopen old wounds. Rather, it is a part of the history of PCLinuxOS and The PCLinuxOS Magazine. As such, it deserves coverage and remembering just as much as the successes of PCLinuxOS and The PCLinuxOS Magazine. After all, those who don't learn from history are bound to repeat it.

For the first few issues, things went reasonably well for the magazine under historyb's leadership. But then the monthly deadlines and release schedules were beginning to be missed. So, historyb took it upon himself to change the magazine's publication schedule to quarterly. He covered it by claiming that there simply wasn't enough to talk or write about. The general consensus at the time was that one large quarterly magazine was better than no magazine at all, so the community more or less went along with the quarterly release schedule.

That lasted for one quarterly issue before the second quarterly issue missed its scheduled release date. A couple more months (past the scheduled second quarterly release) went by before the PCLinuxOS community saw another release of the magazine released. That "special issue" was done primarily because enough articles had been submitted and amassed to warrant the publication of another issue.

Around the same time, there was a bit of turmoil among those who were given the task of safeguarding and maintaining PCLinuxOS, since Texstar had taken a sabbatical for health reasons. A "messy" February 2009 release, coupled with some questionable "behind the scenes" antics prompted Texstar to return early from his health sabbatical to take the lead in righting the ship. Things were said, feelings got hurt, and a group of packagers left to create their own distro, which they called "Unity Linux" (which never really saw any significant success for a number of reasons).

A "mutiny" of sorts ensued, and some regular users decided to follow the packagers who left to form Unity Linux. When the "special issue" of the magazine came out, the predominate (and often repeating) ad in that issue was for TinyMe, a stripped down, very small version of PCLinuxOS. Except, TinyMe was no longer an official PCLinuxOS release, especially since its maintainer was one of those who left for Unity Linux. When asked by Texstar to replace the ads, historyb refused. Instead, historyb tried to claim ownership of the magazine and attempted to kill the magazine off. Texstar ended up replacing the ads himself, and historyb fled to Unity Linux, as well.

The initial discussions involving the release of the "special issue" and historyb's attempts to kill off the magazine were open and public in the PCLinuxOS forum. I happened to be on the forum that morning when the shiitake mushrooms hit the fan, and I remember the exchanges as if it were yesterday. After a while, those heated exchanges were moved to a more secluded section of the forum that wasn't in public view.

As you might expect, the incident with historyb left Texstar "once bit, twice shy" in the trust department. For the next few years (yes, years) I would have to submit the monthly magazine to Texstar for his approval, before releasing it. Once we re-established trust with Texstar, that requirement was lifted and we could release on our own without prior approval.

Since then, we have maintained not only a monthly magazine -- with over 14,000 packages in the repos, there is plenty to write about, if you just look hard enough -- but we have also put out several "special editions" of the magazine.

Next in the evolving saga involved "negotiations" for the MyPCLinuxOS.com site, since the person who was hosting it -- and who owned the domain name -- was one of the Unity Linux defectors. The magazine also made its home on the MyPCLinuxOS server. Weric, who used to sell computers with PCLinuxOS already installed and configured through his company named LinPC.us, agreed to host the MyPCLinuxOS.com site, along with an expanded site for the magazine. (The site is still up, but does not appear to have been updated since sometime in 2015; thus, it's likely that the products listed can no longer be obtained or purchased).

After a few years, Weric found himself in a position where he could no longer host MyPCLinuxOS.com, nor the magazine website. So, YouCanToo took over both domains and the hosting duties on his servers. The MyPCLinuxOS.com forum had already been shut down and discussions about development and special projects had already been moved to the main PCLinuxOS forum. The magazine's separate forum was shut down at this time, and discussions pertaining to the magazine were transferred exclusively to the main PCLinuxOS forum, as well.

The April 2012 move from Weric's server, where the magazine site used Joomla CMS software (we "inherited" it that way), gave us the opportunity to revamp the magazine's website. While we looked at WordPress to replace Joomla, the ultimate decision was made to forego the use of any CMS (content management system) software, opting instead for just plain HTML. Since updates only occurred to the magazine website once or twice a month, use of CMS software seemed like overkill. As the Chief Editor, one of my responsibilities is updating the website every month (except for the HTML version of the magazine issues, which YouCanToo lays out and takes care of uploading). I can attest that it involved a LOT more work to update the website under Joomla than as plain HTML. Plus, the website also loads a lot faster with plain HTML -- and especially without the overhead of CMS software.

PDF, HTML and more

From the start, the magazine has been published both as a downloadable PDF, and as HTML pages for online access. Under my tenure as Chief Editor, most of the PDFs have been created by me and Meemaw, using Scribus. In the very early days, former assistant editor Andrew Strick also helped with layout. Ms_meme lays out her own pages, which we insert into the PDF during final layout.

The HTML pages have been under the oversight of four different individuals during my tenure. Initially, gseaman managed the HTML edition. When he was unable to continue doing the HTML pages (due to other commitments in his life), Sproggy took over. Rudge took over the HTML pages when Sproggy had to step back. Today, the HTML pages are managed and laid out by YouCanToo. We streamlined and simplified the HTML pages when we revamped the magazine website in April, 2012, enabling much faster layout. Faster layout helps us to better meet our release dates, so everyone wins.

Starting in May 2012, YouCanToo has produced ebook versions of The PCLinuxOS Magazine. He produces both MOBI and EPUB ebook versions, enabling the magazine to serve the vast majority of ebook users, regardless of which platform they are using.

Superman in our midst ...

I was initially familiar with YouCanToo from the time I spent in the PCLinuxOS forum. What I didn't appreciate -- and didn't know -- at the time was the remarkable breadth of his knowledge, skills and capabilities.

YouCanToo

Around PCLinuxOS, YouCanToo truly is our Superman. I'm going to try to give a rundown of the things that he does.

- Maintain the master PCLinuxOS repository server, against which all the other mirrors sync.

- Maintain and host the magazine's website.

- Create and maintain the magazine's HTML version every month.

- Create the magazine's ebook files every month.

- Write occasional articles for the magazine, produce the monthly PCLinuxOS Forum Family Member column, and produce his monthly recipe columns.

- Host and maintain the servers for PCLOS-Talk, the live chat service only for PCLinuxOS users.

- Host and maintain the servers for PCLOS-Cloud, the cloud service only for PCLinuxOS users.

- Host and maintain the servers for MyPCLinuxOS, which includes a photo sharing site and private email service, only for PCLinuxOS users.

- Host and maintain the PCLinuxOS Knowledge Base wiki site.

- Creator of the ChimpBox, a top notch computer assembled (and sold) with PCLinuxOS preinstalled and preconfigured.

As you can see, YouCanToo does some real heavy lifting not only for PCLinuxOS, but also for The PCLinuxOS Magazine. Quite frankly, I don't know where any of this would be with him. I know I tell him "thank you" all the time, but it really doesn't seem sufficient.

Like I said ... YouCanToo is OUR Superman.

Many contributors

I'd also like to take a moment to thank all of those who have contributed to The PCLinuxOS Magazine. Like with any Linux distro, people come and people go. Some move on to other adventures, others find a "home" and stay for a while, becoming a part of our PCLinuxOS "family."

It's a very similar situation with The PCLinuxOS Magazine. Many, many contributors have helped shape the magazine. Some contribute one or two articles, while others have contributed to the magazine for years on a very regular basis.

You probably know many of the names: ms_meme, georgetoon, daniel, Neal ManBear, jaydot, Not_Yet_16, loudog, critter, longtom, Hootiegibbon, Sproggy, cstrike77, Rudge, joechimp, YouCanToo, Archie, Rodney Adkins, and many, many others. Some are still with us, while others have moved on to other pastures. There are way too many to list here. Each and every contributor helps shape the magazine. Whether I listed your "name" or not, your contributions to the magazine are highly valued, and I thank each and every one of you.

Meemaw

One special contributor is Meemaw, the magazine's assistant editor. Quite frankly, I doubt I'd be able to do this or even still be here in this position without her. Besides being a regular, monthly article contributor, she helps with the layout of the articles for the PDF, and does the final assembly of the magazine every other month. Add in helping proofread each and every article that appears in the magazine. Thank you, thank you, thank you a gazillion times for all that you do (and for putting up with me!).

Summary

The PCLinuxOS Magazine has always been produced as a magazine of the community, by the community, for the community. Of course, that community is PCLinuxOS. Quite simply, The PCLinuxOS Magazine belongs to YOU! We are only its caretakers, its stewards.

At the same time, we strive to bring you a first rate, first class magazine that hits on topics that are of interest to PCLinuxOS users. The magazine is also an ambassador of sorts, introducing PCLinuxOS to those who don't use it or who aren't familiar with it. We are fully aware that non-PCLinuxOS users also read the magazine. I've heard and seen comments on other forums in Linux Land.

None of us who work on the magazine get paid, at least in the traditional monetary sense. We all have paying jobs that put a roof over our heads and food on our tables. We all have families and other "life" responsibilities. Instead, for us, it's a labor of love, and it's one way we can give back to the PCLinuxOS community.

A 10 year milestone is a huge accomplishment for any publication. It's an even bigger accomplishment for a completely free community based magazine, produced by volunteers from the community. As community projects go, most wither and die on the vine. People lose interest, move on to other projects, it turns out to be more work than they originally thought, etc. The PCLinuxOS Magazine is an exception to that, we feel. Because of that, it must go on. If there's something you want to see in the magazine, or a direction you want the magazine to go in, YOU must let us know. Or, you could join the magazine staff and help us attain those goals. Even better yet, you could write articles for the magazine (we can't possibly think of everything on our own).

So, here's to looking forward to the next 10 years of The PCLinuxOS Magazine. The faces and names may change, but we will always strive to produce a magazine that the PCLinuxOS community can be proud of.

ms_meme's Nook: I'll Be Singing For You

OGG                                                             MP3

PCLinuxOS Recipe Corner

Japanese Hamburg Steak

Hamburg Steak (pronounced hahm-bah-goo in Japan) is probably the most popular bento lunch entrée in Japan.

Ingredients

1 large Egg

1 small Onion (finely diced)

1 large clove Garlic (minced)

1 Lbs. Ground beef

6 Ozs. soft Tofu

1 cup Panko

2 tablespoons Ketchup

1 tablespoon Oyster sauce

1 tablespoon Parsley (minced)

1 teaspoon Soy sauce

1/4 teaspoon Black pepper

1/2 cup Dry red wine

1/4 cup Ketchup

1/4 cup Water

2 tablespoons Tonkatsu sauce (Worcestershire sauce also works)

1 tablespoon Demi-glace (optional)

Directions

1. Add a tablespoon of vegetable oil to a frying pan and sauté half the onions and all of the garlic until medium brown and caramelized. Let these cool to room temperature.

2. Combine the beef, tofu, sautéd onions, raw onions, panko, egg, 2 tablespoons of ketchup, oyster sauce, parsley, soy sauce and black pepper in a large bowl. Put some food-safe gloves on and knead the mixture together until it is uniform in color and texture.

3. Add a little bit more oil to the frying pan that you fried the onions in and place over medium heat. Because the patties are on the soft side, you'll want to form them and add them directly to the pan. I usually make about 8 oval patties about 1" thick.

4. Fry them until they've formed a dark brown crust on one side, then use a spatula to carefully flip them over and brown the other side. Unless you have a very large pan, you won't be able to do them all at once, so fry 4 at a time and transfer them to a plate when they're browned on both sides. Don't worry if they're not cooked all the way through as they will finish cooking in the sauce.

5. After you've fried all the patties, drain off any excess oil (but don't wash the pan as the brown stuff is what will give your sauce flavor). Add the red wine and boil until it's reduced by about half in volume. Add the ketchup, water, tonkatsu sauce, and demi-glace and stir to combine.

6. Place the patties back into the pan, cover, and cook for 7 minutes, flipping them over once in the middle. Cook uncovered for another 3 minutes to thicken the sauce a little. Serve with rice, pasta or boiled potatoes.

PCLinuxOS Magazine: Memories

By Meemaw

Wow, ten years! It doesn't seem like that long -- but then, time seems to go faster when you're older. I am honored to have been with the magazine staff almost that long.

I honestly don't remember any of the discussion that went into the start of the magazine, being a brand-new PCLinuxOS user and trying to learn all I felt I needed to know. I do remember reading the first few issues when they came out, and thinking that they were informative and great for anyone using this distro.

After a few issues came out, Chief Editor Tim Robinson sent out a request in the forum for proofreaders. Since I had been a teacher for twenty years before moving to my current job, I felt that I was qualified to proofread. I was sure I wasn't experienced enough yet to instruct anyone in how to accomplish something, but I was sure I could check articles for spelling and grammar, so I sent him a PM and agreed to proofread. Back then, we received an email with the document attached, and we did the edits and sent it back to Tim for review. I often wondered how hard this was for Tim, having emails zoom in and out all month, and having to keep track of them all.

I did, finally, summon the courage to write and submit an article. It was about creating your own favorite programs menu in KDE, in the April 2007 issue. I use Xfce now, but I still have a favorites menu.

In September 2007, Papawoob became the Chief Editor. He and Tim were both very easy to work for, and unfortunately, both resigned from the position due to health reasons. I always wonder how they are and hope that their situations are improved.

In September 2008, Doug became the new Chief Editor, and while he was very nice to me, I began noticing some things that bothered me. First, I noticed that even though I had edited an article for spelling and grammar, it would be changed back or the original version used in the final assembly. That disturbed me because I couldn't see why I worked so hard on proofreading if the final wasn't going to have the corrections. In January 2009, he announced that we would only be releasing the magazine every quarter. I also was asked to design a cover to go with the next issue, which would include parnote's excellent article about PCLinuxOS And Your Blackberry. I was surprised when it wasn't released until June! By this time there was trouble brewing behind the scenes at the forum (which other articles in this issue can cover better than I can). In my naivety, I just wanted everyone to get back to working together nicely, but that wasn't to be. Doug left, and so did the Unity Linux guys. I decided I would back off from the magazine until things quieted down a bit.

I was off the staff for two months, during which parnote kept asking me to come back. Since July and August are my busiest months at work, I was glad to have the break, but went back to proofreading in time for the September issue. I also found that parnote had changed the editing process over from OpenOffice documents being emailed to Google Docs, where everyone could view the article and make corrections if needed. This seemed to me to be much easier.

I've been on the staff ever since, even accepting the Assistant Editor position in March, 2012 when Stricktoo left to pursue his law degree. Actually, I became one of the co-Assistant Editors in August 2010, since Andrew was so busy with law school. Eventually, I became the only Assistant Editor. I've also been a regular contributor since September 2009, doing several series of articles on various subjects, including photo viewers, financial programs, OpenOffice/LibreOffice, Scribus, and GIMP and Inkscape tutorials. I have even designed many covers and created most of the puzzle pages.

I love working for the magazine, but I think my best place is Assistant Editor, because parnote is a wonderful leader for us all. I don't think I could do even half of the great job he's doing if he ever left! I hope we can continue for many more years!

Inkscape Tutorial: Create A 3D Landscape

by Khadis

Creating a 3D photo using image editing software isn't something new. How about if we create it using Inkscape? It is totally easy, and can be done in minutes. Let's start!

1. Create the following shapes. You can use the rectangle tool (F4), or manually draw them using the Bezier tool (Shift + F6).

2. Arrange those object like this:

3. Import a grass image. I took a random image from Google Images. Put the image behind the first shape. If the image isn't behind the first shape yet, press Page Down once, twice, or many times until it moves behind the first shape. Press Page Up to return it to upper position.

4. Select the grass and the shape, then go to Object - Clip - Set. The grass image should now fill the shape.

5. Import a soil texture image in PNG format. Again, I took randomly from Google Images. Before you put the image behind the second shape, it is better for you to duplicate the image (Ctrl + D) so we do not need to re-import the image to fill the third shape.

6. Put the first soil image behind the second shape like in the step #3. Select them, then go to Object - Clip - Set.

7. Before doing the same step to the third shape, let's make the second soil image darker than the first.

8. Select the second soil image, go to Filters - Color - Lightness-Contrast. Set the lightness lower than the original value (make the image darker). Check the Live Preview to see the changes, then click Apply once you are satisfied with the darkness level.

9. Put this second soil image under the third shape, then go to Object - Clip - Set.

10. Now, import some rock and tree images in PNG format. You can easily find them in Google Images using a search keyword like "rock png", "tree png", or something like that.

11. Arrange those rock and tree images. Mine is like this:

12. Later, you can add a lake, pond, or river, or even buildings. I added a pond by creating it manually, using the Bezier tool (Shift + F6).

13. Then place a water image using Object - Clip - Set action. Again, I took the sea water image from Google Images.

14. The final result might be like this:

A Look Back at the Beginning: A View From the First Editor

by Archie

Ten years ago this month, PCLinuxOS launched its first magazine issue, and as history would write it, PCLOS became the first ever independent Linux distro ever to publish an online magazine. The period of formation and organization leading up to September, 2006 was even more memorable. But the excitement and intrigue didn't stop there.

Oh, the magazine didn't just appear from a Linuxverse black hole, it was lovingly conceived, and it was given birth. In a coconut-size shell, the magazine was initially brewing and percolating in brilliance both within the PCLinuxOS Support Forum and the now defunct MyPCLinuxOS forum. Then, as it is with the life of a growing young child, it struggled with a tumultuous wrangling of identities. Finally, as we are now witnessing its stability and maturity, the magazine has found its rightful place amongst many of our hearts with many of our forum members actively participating in its compilation of useful and helpful articles month after month.

Here is one of its first stories from the magazine's first chief editor. It began a long, long time ago in a Linux galaxy far, far away when an arrogant Linux user hopped into the PCLinuxOS Support Forum from Ubuntu's searching for love and affection. Little did that user knew how much for the better his Linux experience would change. A prior year-and-a-half of using Linux and he thought he knew everything so he started throwing wild and crazy ideas of all sorts of projects around at the forum -- it's simply what he does best. He garnered the attention of several forum members who thought the noble idea of a magazine was to say the least, interesting. Come to think of it, the first issue was more of a ragtag binding of brochure clippings than anything else. But when the date to announce the release of the first issue arrived, it was with the greatest of pride that he celebrated this PCLinuxOS milestone, as surely did many others like himself.

That chief editor wasn't really taken to the ideas of the responsibilities and commitment which goes with the running of a magazine operation, so as quickly as he could type "third issue" on his Konsole, he handed the management and editorial responsibilities to the more capable hands of the magazine's second chief editor, Tim Robinson.

Tim goes by the handle, trobinson, an all-around great guy, and like many more of the forum members back then, he is no longer active and his account registration seems to be have been weeded out years back. He was, however, a much more responsible chief editor than his predecessor was. He had under his hat volumes upon volumes of issues supported and contributed by forum members. The psychological stage of the magazine during Tim's era was that of a toddler learning to walk.

But like most families, PCLinuxOS has seen a handful of ups and down, which, if memory serves me right, is a pinpoint accurate statement by Texstar's "roller-coaster ride" ... often smooth, and every now and then, a wild and scary experience! The magazine was never an exception and when Tim's health started to be a problem, he handed the management of the magazine to Papawoob, but he and his wife were both having health problems. So shortly afterwards, Papawoob handed it over to historyb, aka Doug. It was at the time when dissension among the PCLinuxOS developers was boiling, and spoiling the updates. What it was about is for another story but let me tell you this, the circumstances are pretty similar to what one group is now doing with the 32-bit. People don't seem to learn from history!

Anyway, the magazine was akin to a teenager who couldn't decide whether he wanted to be a know-it-all punk or a smart, learning individual. So when the inevitable happened, the then-chief editor supported the other group of developers and hijacked all the contents and resources of the PCLinuxOS magazine, claiming everything about the magazine was his. The project was single-handedly shut down!

The first chief editor was really offended by the plagiaristic claims and stepped in to negotiate the release of the magazine site and the removal of Doug. The negotiation with the then owner of the magazine's domain was amicable and a resolution was immediately reached with the help of some forum members. Weric, former proprietor of LinPC (which sold computers preloaded and preconfigured with PCLinuxOS), agreed to host the magazine site and all of MyPCLinuxOS on his servers. Parnote expressed his unequivocal intention to head the magazine. YouCanToo took over the hosting duties that Weric had been handling when Weric found himself unable to continue to host the various websites.

All well and good, one might think. Well, not quite. The reorganization of the magazine took a bit more effort to recover. Planning the symbolical re-launch with the original chief editor seemed like a good idea. Parnote, our current and longest-running chief editor can attest that with the resurrected PCLinuxOS Magazine, the process in which the magazine was glued together had to be quickly adapted and improved. To make the process more open and transparent, article submissions switched from OpenOffice documents (at that time) to using Google Docs. This allowed instant collaborative editing that included all of the magazine staff, instead of sharing files back and forth via email.

Now, all seems quiet on the magazine's virtual HQ, but from what I have seen in the many years that the magazine continues to grow, it is in very capable guidance and I have no doubt it will continue to develop and mature under its present team.

Lastly, let me congratulate everyone involved with the magazine, whether you are a one-time contributor or a regular, or whether you are one of the crew -- past or present, my sincerest and deepest gratitude for the PCLinuxOS magazine's celebratory 10-year anniversary, and thank you to Texstar and all the PCLinuxOS developers for your continuous support and friendship. I'm looking forward to the next 10 years!

Tip Top Tips: How To Activate XScreensaver on KDE5 Plasma

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

You can use xscreensaver (with KDE 5) if you like:

1) Install xscreensaver and any extra modules you want. This should give you a "Screensaver" entry in System Settings. The command it runs is "xscreensaver-demo," which opens the settings dialog.

2) In System Settings/Startup and Shutdown, click "Add Program" and enter "xscreensaver -no-splash." This starts the screensaver daemon when you log in.

3) Set a keyboard shortcut to transform your screen into a thing of beauty.

In System Settings, go to Shortcuts and click Custom Shortcuts.

Click the Edit button and select New -> Global Shortcut -> Command/URL.

Name it "Screen Saver." Set the trigger to Ctrl+Alt+S or many keyboard configurations, and the action to "xscreensaver-command -lock" (without quotation marks).

LibreOffice 5.2 Released: What's New, Changed

by Meemaw

LibreOffice updates on a regular basis, the most recent update being to version 5.2 on August 3, 2016. As it generally is with PCLinuxOS and its wonderful maintainers (thanks to everyone!), we had the update in our repo almost immediately.

I thought it would be nice to review some of the newest features of this version, so that when you get it installed (if you haven't already), you'll know what to look for. LibreOffice's Release Announcement has the following to start:

New Features of LibreOffice 5.2

- New drawing tools, including filled curves, polygons and freeform lines, have been added to all program modules.

Writer

- When printing a document, Print to File is now available in the list of printers.

- If you use Google Drive for storage, two-factor authentication support has been included.

- The Save toolbar button includes a quick Save as Template option, so you don't have to go through the menu.

Calc

- New functions have been added, along with extensive tooltips that describe what a function does as you type it.

- Multiple status bar functions can be active at the same time, to provide a quick overview of your data.

- The currency toolbar icon now includes a drop-down menu to quickly choose the currency you want to use.

- When removing the border from selected cells, you can also choose to remove the border from adjacent cells as well.

Impress

- When working with custom animations, you can now quickly add an effect to an element via the sidebar, instead of using a separate dialog box.

- The list of effects in the sidebar now includes a description of the effect, along with the element name.

- In the properties sidebar, a new Slide Background panel lets you quickly change the format, orientation and background image of a slide.

You can also enable the new Single toolbar mode in Writer and Calc, which has the most-used tools on it, or stay with Standard mode. The way to do it is to click View > Toolbars > Standard (Single Mode) and turn off the Standard and Formatting toolbars by clicking View > Toolbars > Standard and View > Toolbars > Formatting. While it seems a chore to do that for each program, it's wonderful that you can customize your single toolbar in each program so it has exactly what you need.

OK, let's look at some of the other additions listed above. If you have the Drawing toolbar enabled (from the View > Toolbars menu), you will see the buttons for the new drawing features. These should make for more variety in whatever you need to draw.

I always wondered where "Print to File" was, since it seems to be a function in most other programs. Now it is in LibreOffice as well.

If you use Google Drive, you already know that you have the feature to open documents remotely in LibreOffice, as that was introduced in a previous version. Security has been beefed up a bit now, and now requires two passwords, your Google Drive password plus a LibreOffice Master Password that you create the first time you use the feature.

I liked the earlier new feature that made a drop-down of the Save toolbar button and included Save As.. and Save Remote File... Now they have added another choice: Save As Template..., so I have one less reason to have to go through the menu.

In Calc, new functions have been added. I don't use too many functions so I'm not too familiar with much more than addition or multiplication. However, the improvement is in the tooltip, which explains a bit about the function you are using.

In many programs, the status bar at the bottom of the window shows loads of information. LibreOffice is no different. As a matter of fact, they have improved the status bar information in Calc because now you can set it to show more than one function. The lower right of the status bar has usually shown the sum of a series of numbers or maybe it's average. Right-clicking on that status bar location gives you a menu where you can choose which functions you want to see.

In the image below, I have average, count and sum selected. So for my series of numbers highlighted at left, the average is 56.00, there are 25 numbers, and their sum is 1,400.00.

This spreadsheet is a list of sponsors for an event and how much money they donated, and of course, at my house, the currency is US Dollars. However, there are many more currencies in the world. If you are customizing your spreadsheet, and are formatting the currency, LibreOffice now includes a drop-down to let you choose the currency you need. You can place it in the formatting toolbar, by adding the currency button to your toolbar. If you have to work with several units of currency, this feature will help you get it formatted faster.

The border function has a new addition as well. You can choose to remove the borders from the cells you highlight, but if you check the "Remove adjacent borders" check box, LibreOffice will remove them as well.

Here's the difference:

Impress has some new additions to its sidebar as well. Many of the effects can be configured directly in the sidebar, and even some menu items open in the sidebar rather than in a separate window.

Just to review, the sidebar is on the right side of your window (in each LO program). It can be opened or closed. Many of the things you do to whatever project you are creating can be done from the sidebar, and it changes according to the item you have selected. For example, in Impress, the Properties section of the sidebar displays the standard layout designs and formatting for a slide (Orientation, Background and Master Slide), shown below at left. If you design a slide and add text, the Properties sidebar changes to the text formatting tools (Font, Size, Alignment and so on), shown below at right.

The icons at the right side designate the sections of the sidebar. From top to bottom, Properties (the wrench), Slide Transition, Custom Animation, Master Pages, Styles and Formatting, Gallery and Navigator. The drop menu above the Properties button is the Sidebar Settings menu, where you can also designate which menus you want on the sidebar, close the sidebar or even undock it from the main window.

LibreOffice has had some wonderful additions, and from the release notes, they have improved several items "under the hood" as well, including a revamped Find and Replace window, more languages and a new template manager.

Hopefully, you will find that many items help you do more efficient work.

Git: The Ultimate Undo Button

by Peter Kelly (critter)

Most modern computer applications, such as word processors and graphic design programs, have some method of allowing the user to undo actions that are no longer required for some reason. Usually though, when you quit the application, that capability is lost. Unless you made a backup, the old version is gone forever.

Programmers realized a long time ago that this was an unsatisfactory situation and decided to do something about it. The result was known as a version control system and many of these systems soon appeared with varying abilities, complexities and the inevitable disadvantages of one solution compared to another.

For most of us who are not developers that are working concurrently on software projects with many other developers, these systems are complex beasts that require more effort from the user than is saved.

Git

One system though is different, and it is called Git. Git has an excellent pedigree, along with some definite advantages:

- It was developed by Linus Torvalds to help control the development of the Linux kernel.

- It is extremely stable as it has been around for a long time, since 2005, which is, in fact, longer even than the PCLinuxOS magazine.

- It is powerful, but can be used by people with modest requirements, and by mastering only a few of the many available commands.

- It does not require a client/server setup to operate.

- It is suitable for use by individuals in almost any type of project, not just coders.

- Although originally written for the Linux community, Git is available for use under most popular operating systems including Mac, Windows and Solaris.

So what is Git? It is described as a 'distributed revision control system,' but don't let that put you off. That description says what Git is capable of, not what it can be used for. Raw Git is a command line utility, but due to its wide adoption (it is now the most popular revision control system out there), there are graphical front ends to sweeten your life and to save your sanity.

Is Git for me?

Although designed to be used by many users on a project, a single user can benefit from the system just as well. I do a lot of my work on my main computer, and then continue to work on things from my laptop. The laptop is able to connect to the main computer over the network, but even a single laptop or desktop computer can utilize the benefits of Git.

How it will be useful to you depends on what you do, but let me give a simple example.

You have a large collection of music files ripped from a collection of CDs with the tracks from each CD in its own folder. Some of the CDs were compilations, and you would like the tracks to be reordered by artist. If your collection consists of thousands of tracks, then this is quite some task. If you later decide that the original order was better, then unless you made a backup and now have two collections, then you face another massive task. However, if you first create a Git repository, which requires just three simple commands, then to switch between the two sort orders is just another couple of simple commands. This is also pretty quick, as the actual music data does not have to be re-written, only the change of location is recorded. Also, once the repository is built, if you happen to lose a file then recovering it from the repository is another simple task.

Using Git

Git was designed as a command line utility, but there are now several graphical applications available. The graphical 'front ends' are great to help you visualize the progress of your project, and to show what changes you have made. We can utilize them to control our projects, but the real power of Git is on the command line. So, I'll show both.

There are an awful lot of commands and options in Git, but for the purpose of controlling a project and taking periodic snapshots to which you can revert at any time, we need very few.

In this demonstration project, I will create a Git repository, add some project files to it and take a snapshot of the project at that initial stage (in Git-talk these snapshots are known as commits, because you are committing your latest work to the current state of the project). In the next stage I will add some more files, modify some others and delete some of the original files and then take another snapshot. Finally I will revert back to the initial snapshot which will also reinstate the files that were deleted from the hard drive (yes, the files were actually deleted but Git can reconstruct the files from the data it recorded in the repository). To do all of this, I need to use only the commands:

init, add, commit, rm and revert.

During the explanation of the demo project, I shall use a handful of other commands that output useful information to help with running the repository. They should help to clarify exactly what is being done and why, but they are not absolutely necessary. There a few other commands that I occasionally use, but this is enough for most single user work, and it is only a tiny fraction of what is available.

Getting started

Git is not installed by default in PCLinuxOS, but is available from the repositories. Start up synaptic, reload, mark all upgrades and apply to get your system into a fully upgraded state. Next, scroll down to git, mark it for installation, and apply. This will pull in some other files that Git depends on. Just accept them. You now have Git installed. Before you use Git for the first time, you need to supply a little information. This is not a simple pleasantry, but a way of telling Git who has done what. Git needs your name and your email address, but as we are not collaborating with others, we can make these up as we wish. I entered the commands:

The 'connaught' in the e-mail address is actually the host-name I gave to this computer. Git is now ready for use.

To demonstrate the use of Git, I am going to create a simple web page with a couple of other pages we can link to. It does not have be a web page. It can be any type of document or set of documents that get changed from time to time. It could even be programming code! You also do not need to understand about web pages and HTML to follow along.

It is not difficult to use Git, but it is slightly different to most other applications. The screenshot shows the output of the few commands used in the demo, which does look rather overwhelming. But, if you follow along with the command line instructions, then it should become clear.

Don't worry. Git does almost all of that work for you.

The first thing we need to do is to create a directory to hold the files of our project, which will be called 'sunshine_island,' and then to switch to that directory. To do this, open a terminal and move to where you would like to store the project, then enter these two commands:

We will now be in the new projects directory, which is referred to as the 'working directory.' It is completely empty, so we need to tell Git that this is a 'Git repository,' and set things up so that files in this directory are tracked by Git. The command to set things up is the command git init

This creates a hidden directory structure in the current directory called .git that contains all of the information required by Git to monitor the files that you create, change or delete in this project. This directory is referred to as the 'Git directory.' You can explore this directory, but don't change anything, at least until you decide that you know what you are doing. Next, we need to add some files for Git to track.

First though, a little bit of theory.

The Git repository is currently just a blank template. When we add files to the working directory, Git needs to be told which of those files to track and which to ignore. To tell Git to ignore a file or file type, create a file named .gitignore and list them there. For example, some editors make a backup file with the name of the file beginning with a tilde '~myfile.txt'. If you add ~* to this file, then all files of that type will be totally ignored by Git.

Git uses the add command to place references to files in a holding or staging area, where they sit until we are ready to 'commit' them to the repository.

When a file is committed for the first time, all of the data in the file is is added to the repository with a reference key. The key is a unique string of 40 hexadecimal characters, known as an SHA-1 checksum, which is used not for security reasons, but for its uniqueness. Unlike file names, an SHA-1 key is unlikely to be repeated during the life of this universe, so Git knows exactly which data is to be referenced. We don't need to know too much about all this though to use Git.

If a file that Git has been told to track is changed in any way, then Git knows about it and can tell you. If you then 'add' the file to the staging area, only the data that has changed is recorded. Once the changed files have been 'committed' to the repository, those data changes are added to the Git database and referenced with a new checksum. From this database, Git is able to reconstruct any set of files to any previously committed state - as we shall see.

The demo project

This the scenario.

Sunshine Island is a holiday brochure for a resort that you are setting up. You don't yet know what sort of visitors it might attract or what facilities might be expected, so this is very much a 'test the water' sort of site which you may need to change rapidly if potential visitors have different expectations. You may also need to revert to the original specification if your interpretation proves to be misguided. And for legal reasons, you should have a record of what you offered, when and to whom.

Your first idea is for a resort that offers high class accommodation, a golf course, cocktail lounge, sauna, pool -- the full monty.

So far the web page description looks like this:

Within the Git enabled working directory, you can now create the necessary web pages.

Initial feedback is not good. It suggests that the golf course would frustrate visitors, as the monkeys love to steal golf balls. Also the sauna is a bad Idea, since this is a tropical location and a hot sauna is not popular. The rest is not too bad, but changes will have to be made. It is decided that the golf course be removed and replaced with extensive tropical gardens, birds of paradise and cute, tame animals. The sauna gets replaced with an air conditioned library where residents can relax if the weather gets a little too hot for them.

The following changes are required to be made to the original idea.

Using Git with the project

The web page files are created and added to the working directory, together with a folder named resources, which holds all the images, video clips and sound files used by the web pages. The directory listing looks like this.

Git has a status command to show the current state of the repository

There is quite a bit of information here.

In the output is a list of all the files Git knows about and has not been told to ignore. All our files are listed as untracked and appear in red. The resources directory ends with a slash to show that it is indeed a directory. Git helpfully tells us that we should use the command 'git add' to start tracking the files. As we want Git to track all of these files, we can use the '*' wild card (you could also use a period - 'git add .'), rather than name each file.

Now issue the status command again.

The status command now lists all of the files, including each of the files in the resources directory, as new files, and shows them in green.

The comment 'Initial commit' tells us that there is nothing in the repository yet, and any files that we commit will be the initial commit. These files have been added to the staging area and we say that they are 'staged.' From here they can be 'unstaged,' or they can be committed to the repository.

When we commit the files, we are prompted to specify a 'commit message' that will describe the reasons for this commit. Git will not proceed without the message. We can use the -m option on the command line to provide the message, or git will open an editor showing what we will commit, and with the cursor ready for us to type in the message. The default editor is vim, but this can be changed in the git config file, just as we provided our e-mail address. I'm going to use the -m option here.

We now have a working repository, and we can at any time revert to this current status.

Git also keeps a log which is displayed like this

The SHA-1 reference is displayed in brown, and we have who did it, when and why. This is repeated for each commit. The SHA-1 reference can be used to access a particular snapshot but just the first few characters are enough, about 6 or 7 usually suffices, as you can see in the output from the commit command.

To achieve this working repository, we have used the three commands

That's all. We had a few commands to set up Git initially, and we used the 'status' and 'log' commands to get some information, but those three commands were all that was needed to create the repository. It really is that easy.

Changing the project

Our test audience were not too impressed with our proposed resort, so some changes are needed.

- Two new files are created in the working directory: gardens.html and library.html.

- The main page, index.html is edited to reflect the changes.

- Some new images need to be added to the resources folder.

- Two files need to be removed from the working directory and from Gits list of tracked files.

To delete the files from the hard drive (don't worry, git has this covered), and to stop git tracking them, we use Gits 'rm' command -- not the usual terminal 'rm' command -- as we want git, not the usual operating system 'rm' command, to keep control of what is happening in the 'working directory'.

We can commit this change and a new SHA-1 reference is created to reference this change point in the project's history. Note that nothing is actually done until the commit command is issued.

The new files need to be added to the working directory, and then to Git's list of files to track. The files are separated by a single space.

Four files are ready to be committed. The main web page file, index.html, also needs to be modified before we commit.

We now add this file to the staging area.

We can see that now there are five files ready to be committed, so we perform the commit.

We now have three snapshots of our program, to which we can revert at any time: this current version 1.1.0, the initial version 1.0.0, and an intermediate stage we saved with just the golf and sauna pages removed. Even though some files were deleted, they can be recovered. This sounds as though the git repository could very soon grow to be excessively large, but in fact Git is very economical, as it doesn't work at the file level, but records only the changes in the files' data.

Reverting to a previous edition

You are just beginning to update the tariffs page, having written a new massage centre page to replace the library when you get a phone call. This is from Mr. Big, the guy who writes the checks, and he is mad. “This is not what I signed up to” he rants. “I liked the golf course. Put it back the way it was, or you're fired!”

Oh dear, we deleted some of those files.

No golf or sauna files there.

This is not a problem, we can easily jump back (or forward) in time with the help of the SHA-1 key. From the Git log, we find that the original commit had a key that began with f81a260. Git refers to your present position in the commit tree by the name HEAD, so you just need to reset HEAD to where you want to go. To roll back in one go through the range f81a260 to HEAD without being asked for a message for each stage in the process, we can use the Git revert command with the - -no-commit flag. Once we are in the desired place, we can commit this status to Git.

Listing the files now in the working directory, we get this:

The golf and sauna files are back, so it looks as though you get to keep your job. And, when he's calmed down, you can re-introduce the changes you made with just a couple of commands.

Disaster prevention

Git will never lose, misplace or corrupt any of the tracked files in your project, but there is always the danger of some fool (?) overwriting or deleting the repository or of hard drive failure. Git was designed to be a multi-repository system so that any user could have their own copy of the entire repository. From any of these copies, the entire project and all of its changes in history can be re-created. To prevent a disaster, it is wise to create a copy somewhere else, in a different directory, on a different partition or hard drive or on another computer, as I do with my desktop/laptop set up.

The new location is going to be my home directory on my laptop, and from there I can access my desktop computer. You simply need to be where you want the repository to be created, and to be able to access the original repository. From the home directory on the laptop, host-name 'elysium,' with the desktop mounted as /mnt/connaught-home I enter:

The cloning process is extremely quick, and I can now work with the project on either machine. If the original repository was lost, damaged or destroyed, then I could simply reverse the process.

Keeping things in sync

Obviously having two copies of the project and working on them independently can result in a hopeless mix up with the elements of the project being in different states. This is exactly what Git was designed to prevent, and it is exceedingly good at its job. Git is capable of handling differences in thousands of repositories all over the world over many years of project development, and it has the ability to revert to any previously committed state. With our simple single user, two location set up this really is just a walk in the park.

On my desktop computer 'connaught,' I add some image files to the resources folder and then check the repository status.

I add these files to the repository, then checked the status again.

Happy with that, I decide to make a commit. I'll incorporate these files into the source code of the HTML pages later.

The Git log shows this new entry (plus the others):

Later, I decide that I will use my laptop computer 'elysium' to incorporate the images into the source code of the HTML files. The repository on the laptop was 'cloned' from the one on the desktop, so the repository refers to the desktop as 'origin.' This is the default. To bring in any changes from the desktop to the laptop, I can use the pull command.

The laptop repository is now at exactly the same state as the desktop.

Local and remote repositories

To transfer information between repositories, Git has three main commands: fetch, pull and push. Fetch gets the changes from a remote repository. Pull, as we have seen, gets the changes and merges them into the local repository, while push is simply the converse of pull.

The Git 'remote' command will list all known remote repositories, and adding the -v option will give a more verbose output. The cloned repository on the laptop is automatically assigned the name 'origin' to its ancestor, but back on connaught, the desktop, we would have to supply the full URL of the laptop to perform the same operation. This is not very convenient, and can lead to errors. So, Git allows us to define aliases for remote locations with the 'remote add' command.

In our setup, the same URL is used for transfers in both directions. Now we can use the same 'git pull' command, as we did on the laptop substituting elysium for connaught.

Having done some work on the laptop, I now want to update the desktop to continue working, so I pull in the changes. However, this time I need to specify master as the branch to pull (we will cover branches soon).

git gui -- a graphical interface

There are many graphical interfaces available for Git, but the one I am going to demonstrate here is git gui (that's two words), which is part of the git installation. There are more available for installation in the PCLinuxOS repositories, such as QGit and Giggle. The Eclipse IDE (Integrated development Environment) also supports Git as a separate 'perspective.' Eclipse is also available from the PCLinuxOS repositories.

Actually git gui is a tool for making commits, branches and merges, and has access to another tool called gitk, which is a graphical history viewer, but we can do almost everything we need with these tools.

To launch the application, type git gui in a terminal, or in the alt+F2 run dialog, or you can add a shortcut to your desktops main menu. This is not done by default.

The options are pretty much self explanatory, and as I have used this before, my sunshine_island repository is offered in the recent repositories section. Selecting sunshine_island, I get this not very informative window.

A few minutes exploring the menu options should give you a good idea of what this tool can do, and you will recognize many of the options from our command line terminal sessions. In the previous sessions of our demo project, you were instructed by Mr. Big to revert to the original ideas, which you did, and subsequently added some images. In your heart of hearts, you know that Mr. Big will eventually come around to your way of thinking, so you decide to work on the alternative version alongside the current one. To do this, you will create a branch.

You can think of a branch as a fork in the road of your projects direction. Just like a fork in a real road, each branch leads to a different destination, although they may meet up again at some point in the future.

In a graphical environment, it is much easier to visualize the repository and the concept of branches, which is why I delayed explaining branches until now. From the menu, select Repository > visualize All Branch History. You will get something like this.

This page is a lot more interesting. In the top left window, we can see both the local and remote repositories and all of the commit history. Marked in green are the current branches of each repository, which at the moment is master, as this is the default created by Git, and we haven't yet created any others. Clicking on any of the lines in the history changes the contents of the other panels to reflect that commit. Above the bottom right panel are two radio buttons, Patch and Tree. Patch shows the changes at this point in the history, and Tree shows the files that would be found in the working directory at that point. Clicking on one of the files will show the contents of that file on the left (images are not rendered as images here, but in QGit they are which is a nice feature). Click on the line that has the commit message beginning with 'Version 1.1.0...' This is the snapshot that we want to start with in our new branch. Copy or make a note of the first 6 or 7 characters of the SHA-1 ID. Close this window and in git gui select branch > create.

In the dialog that appears, give the new branch a name, select 'Revision Expression' and enter the SHA-1 reference, then deselect Checkout After Creation. I would normally leave this box checked, but for this demo I will uncheck it.

Click create. Nothing seems to have changed but bring up the 'Visualize all Branch History' window, and you will see the new branch at the chosen revision point in the local repository.

Close this window, and from the git gui menu, select branch > checkout, select the version2 branch, click checkout, and then re-open the visualization window.

Branch version2 is now in bold indicating that it is now the current branch, and it is at the revision position that we chose. The remote repository remains at branch master. It is important to realize that the checkout command will also change the contents of the working directory as required.

We can now do some changes, and they will only be visible in the branch version2 while the master branch that is currently in use on the distributed web site will not change.

Reload the new images into the resources directory and edit the main page to show them. In the git gui window, press F5 to update the display and these changes will show as unstaged changes.

Highlight the changed files and select Commit > Stage Changed Files to stage them for committing, and they will move into the lower left pane.

Type a suitable commit message in the box lower right, and select Commit > Commit to perform the commit action.

In the visualisation window, we can now clearly see the effects of our branching and commit.

We can carry on working on this branch, but if we need to change things on the currently published web site, we can easily check out the master branch. We can also pull in these changes in the remote repository, or we can push them to the remote from the git gui menu option remote > push.

At some stage, you may want to merge the two branches together to incorporate changes in each. You can easily do this with the git gui merge menu option.

In the dialog that appears, your current branch is already selected, and you have only to select the branch that you want to merge in. There is also a very helpful Visualize button that allows you to see the results before actually performing the merge.

In our demonstration project, there is little to be gained from merging the branches, but we will do it anyway.

Uh-oh! That failed, but the situation is not as bad as it first seems. As the warning tell us, there is a conflict in index.html, and we must manually resolve this conflict, and then commit the adjusted file to complete the merge. Git has a tool called git mergetool, which uses one of several tools similar to the Linux diff command to show the conflicts. My personal favourite of these is meld, which is in the PCLinuxOS repositories. You can add this to your .gitconfig file by adding or changing these two lines:

From the Branch menu, checkout the master branch to make it the current branch, then issuing the command:

Displays this window, or something similar if you don't use meld.

This clearly shows the conflicts, and you can edit the centre panel to modify what will be put into to the merge, and then complete the merge by doing a commit.

After performing the final commit, the history looks like this:

Git is a very powerful tool and I have covered only the very basics of what it can do, but for many people this is enough. Once you get to be familiar with the basics and have used Git a couple of times, it is also easy to work with. This article was created using git, which helped enormously with getting the demo project synchronized with the images and terminal outputs.

There are many ways that I could have performed the operations used in the demonstration and Git purists will probably pour scorn on me for my minimalist approach, but it works and so this is how I do it. The steps outlined here are not suitable for a multi-user collaboration, as no consideration is given to other persons contributions, but for a single user, they work just fine.

If you want to learn more then the documentation on the git website is pretty good and includes a link to a book, 'Pro Git' written by Scott Chacon and Ben Straub. It is published under the creative commons license, can be read online and is very comprehensive, but is also suitable for beginners.

A Day In The Life: An Anthology Of Sorts

by joechimp

10 years. A sideways glance in the Universe. A mere blink of a cosmic eye. A Day in the Life, of many things. However, here on the Planet Earth, it is a significant passage of time.

Congratulations and Happy Anniversary, PCLinuxOS Magazine. Also to Paul Arnote and to Meemaw, ms_meme, YouCanToo and to all of you that create the magazine each month (don't know all the names, sorry, but I know there are more), and those from the past as well. Congratulations to Bill Reynolds, whom, without his creation, none of this would be possible. Also to all who have left their footprint on the surface of this fine magazine and excellent OS.

If I may indulge for a moment ... a Chimp's remembrances.

I did not come along at the beginning. It was a little later in the game. I just celebrated my seventh full year of being with PCLinuxOS.

In the beginning, I was helped by some of the greats. You all know who you are. I don't want to leave anyone out. I will mention a few names though. Our late friend Joble was so helpful to me when I first arrived. Neal, my dear Friend Neal, I miss him a lot. I do hope his life is peaceful. "Johnboy," do you remember him? Do any of you know who he is now? He helped me so much with my first attempt at creating a live USB. Then there was O-P. He used to yell at me for putting all caps in the titles of my threads. However, when it came to helping me with issues that I might have, he was always very helpful in my newbyship. Then we have the Top Gun ... Tex. Mr. Bill Reynolds. Taking the time to help out a chimp. There are not many places you could find that. LOL. He was and still is great. Thank you, Sir, for changing my life.

There were so many others, those who were so patient with me. I am sorry if I left anyone out. That is not my intention. No one looked down on me. I knew then I had found a home.

I made some good friends, too. My good friend Rudge. He and I have a great bond for two guys who never met in person. I think he is a great guy. He makes me laugh a lot, and has always been there if I wanted to share something. We came along about the same time, and have many things in common. I know that he is there for me, and he knows I am there for him. To me that is Friendship. He is also my fellow Bandmate in the now infamous PCLinuxOS Band. He is a world renowned drummer. He is also a lucky guy being married to a Super Model. It is an honor to call him my friend.

Then there is Archie. He is a great guy too. He has a way of peace in his heart that makes me appreciate his friendship very much. I remember so many times in my early days here, that he was helpful in more ways than I can describe. His steady approach to life helped me at times, when I needed it most. Archie, a man I appreciate, not just for that, but for what he is as a human being. Thank you my friend.

David (YCT) and Alie (present_arms), thank you for your generosity of time. Always there, for not only me, but for anyone seeking help. Really good guys. Friends worth having. Thank you both.

I wanted to mention the people I have the most interaction with. The rest of you that I call friend, know who you are. Please don't feel that I don't care about you as friends. You all mean a lot. I thank you.

10,000+ posts ... a "Super Villain." I can hardly believe it. I started out as a strange visitor from another planet ... able to leap ... oh, yeah, wait, that was someone else.

THE MAGAZINE:

10th Anniversary. Amazing.

I remember in the early days, discovering the Magazine. Wow, a wealth of information. In depth discussions of many subjects. All that you needed to know, to learn about a certain program or solve a problem. Lots of humor as well. I liked it right off.

There was that one dark period. One issue that fell through the cracks. Archie decided to do an expose, interview of yours truly. It's called filler. LOL. No, in all seriousness, I was honored to be included. It really made me feel like I belonged here. Archie did a great job with the little I gave to him to work with. Lots of fun.

I remember fondly another issue that featured the PCLinuxOS band. That's right. To all you new people, we really did have an international/ interstellar band. There was a great write up on us, and I think a link to our first song was included. Read more here. All the members of the band are included in the magazine article. Rudge, BubbaBlues (Great guy, miss him in the forum), HorusFalcon (another good friend and a wealth of information), Longtom (don't know where he went), ms_meme (ah, sweet girl she is), and ME! Great bunch of good people. Yes, I was part of the band. Lead Vocals.

ms_meme, a great lady and lyricist to the infamous Band. She is the sweetest thing since Tupelo Honey. Her contributions to the magazine are endless. Her humor and musical ability are sprinkled throughout the history of the magazine. She is talented beyond words. Her prose speaks volumes. I/We hold her dear to our hearts.

The magazine offers great recipes, if you like to cook. Currently, David (YouCanToo) has a monthly delicious recipe each issue. Sometimes two. Mouth watering. I have gotten to know David well in the last year or so. I admire his ingenuity and his selflessness. He does so much for PCLinuxOS. Many people are unaware of this. He is also my friend. Plus, he is creator of the CHIMPBOX. The best little computer that money can buy. The magazine, the forum and the OS are lucky to have him.

The Magazine offered and offers so much. I think it is reflects in large part, the popularity of our Distro. The willingness of people to work hard to prepare the magazine and those that contribute the content.

Someone new to PCLinuxOS would profit greatly from starting with the first issue and working their way to the current one. They would get a sense of not only the evolution of PCLinuxOS, but learn so many things about what programs are available to them.

I am honored to contribute to the 10th Anniversary of the PCLinuxOS Magazine. I hope I am around when the next 10 rolls around.

Thank you, Paul. The Magazine is and has been in good hands since you took over. Hope you continue for years to come.

Congratulations and Happy Anniversary, PCLinuxOS Magazine. Also to Paul Arnote and to MeeMaw , ms_meme, YouCanToo. Paul runs the ship, with Meemaw right by his side, YCT doing the HTML plus writing and recipes. Ms-meme contributes with her various artistic contributions. What a great job they do, and to all of you that create the magazine each month (don't know all the names, sorry, but I know there are more), and those from the past as well.

Congratulations to Bill Reynolds, whom, without his creation , none of this would be possible. Also to all who have left their footprint on the surface of this fine Magazine and excellent OS

David (YCT) and Alie (present_arms), thank you for your generosity of time. Always there, for not only me, but for anyone seeking help. Really good guys. Friends worth having. Thank you both.

Uncle V, my friend, is a great guy. Might be as crazy as me.

Wanted to mention the people I have the most interaction with. The rest of you that I call friend, know who you are. Please don't feel that I don't care about you as friends. You all mean a lot. I thank you.

May all of you ... Live Long and Prosper !

PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight: bloomer

As told to YouCanToo

What is your name/username?

Kurt Stokke/bloomer

How old are you?

67

Are you married, single?

Married for 40 years

How about Kids, Grandkids ?

We have one son, 34 yrs. old, and a granddaughter, 4 yrs. old

Do you have pets, what is your favorite?

We have an energetic, bouncing 3 yr. old NW Farm Terrier

Are you retired, still working and if working, what do you do?

Retired

Where do you call home? What is it like? IE: weather, scenery:

We live in Port Angeles on the beautiful Olympic Peninsula in Washington State just outside Olympic Nat. Park. There are the Olympic Mountains, ocean, and rainforest. The weather is temperate, with mild winters.

Where did you go to school and what is your education level?

Went to Roosevelt HS in Seattle and Peninsula College in Port Angeles

What kind of things you like doing? hobbies, travel, fishing, camping?

We have camped extensively here, and traveled to Belize, CA, and almost moved there. My hobbies are fishing, reading, fiddling with different Linux distros. I'm very interested in astrobiology, cosmology, astronomy, theoretical physics, and space exploration.

Why and when did you start using Linux?

I started using Linux in 1998 out of frustration with crashes, etc, and the proprietary nature of Windows, and lack of ability to configure things the way I wanted to. I haven't used Windows since Win98, other than to help my wife with her laptop, which has been updated to Windows 10. She's still resisting installing PCLinuxOS, even though she uses PCLinuxOS on my desktop whenever there's something really important she needs to work on, and needs to use a more stable platform.

PCLinuxOS Family Member Spotlight is an exclusive, monthly column by YouCanToo, featuring PCLinuxOS forum member. 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 youcantoo, parnote or Meemaw in the PCLinuxOS forum expressing your interest.

ms_meme's Nook: I Love Linux More Today

OGG                                                                       MP3

GIMP Tutorial: Fancy Text

by Meemaw

I thought we'd make some fancy text for the magazine's 10th birthday. Open your GIMP and create a new project at least 800 x 600 px. Using the text tool, enter your text and edit it to your liking (font and size). Now click on Layer > Text to path, which will outline your text with a path. However, we can't see the path yet. Go to the paths tab, choose the path and make it visible by clicking the eye next to it.

Click on the path tool in the toolbox and click on the text (within the outline somewhere). You now will see nodes on your path, and you can move nodes or part of the path to alter your text.

When you have your nodes edited, add a transparent layer above your text. With the path tool still selected, click on the new layer. Below your path tool (on the bottom left of your window, probably) are the settings for the path tool. Click on Stroke path, and in the window that appears, change the line width to 8 px, then click Stroke.

You have your text on a new layer now, so you can go back to the paths tab and “turn off” the visibility of the path. Save your work.

Making sure your new layer is selected, click on your ellipse select tool, and draw a small ellipse over one of the places you edited in your text. Click on Filters > Distorts > Whirl & Pinch, and set the Whirl to about 300. You can see that the path inside your ellipse with twist around into a curly shape. You can do that to each of the paths that you created simply by grabbing the ellipse (don't change tools) and moving it to the new spot, then choosing Filters > Repeat Whirl & Pinch, which is now at the top of the menu.

When you are finished changing your text, choose Filters > Alpha to Logo > Glossy. From the window that appears, choose the two gradients you want to use, then apply. You might have to experiment to get the look that you want, but remember, you can go to Edit > Undo, then start over on your gradients as many times as it takes to get what you want.

To finish, one option is to click on the layer Background 1 and put a gradient on it with the Blend tool. I used a background to foreground gradient. Now choose Filters > Artistic > Clothify or Filters > Artistic > Apply Canvas. Color it in a manner that will blend with your text. One way to do that is to choose Colors > Colorize. The Hue slider will change the color however you want, then move the Lightness and Saturation sliders until it looks good to you.

PCLinuxOS Bonus Recipe

Pig Candy

Have you ever wanted bacon and candy but you just couldn't make up your mind? Well, now you can have both! Pig Candy is a great treat that will impress your friends and make your neighbors jealous.

Ingredients

12 oz thick cut bacon. About 11-12 pieces.

1/3 cup brown sugar.

1/4 cup pure Grade A maple syrup.

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper.

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a small bowl, mix together the brown sugar, and cayenne powder.

2. Line a baking sheet with a sheet of tinfoil. Place a baking or cooling rack atop the lined baking sheet and lay the bacon side-by-side.

3. Sprinkle half of the brown sugar mixture onto the bacon, pressing it into the bacon to be sure it adheres.

4. Bake for 8 minutes, or until very lightly brown. Take the bacon out of the oven and brush the top side of the bacon with maple syrup. Return to the oven to bake for an additional 2-3 minutes. After the 3 minute mark, flip the bacon over, and sprinkle the bacon with the remaining brown sugar mixture. Return to the oven and bake for an additional 10 minutes. Brush the top side with maple syrup and bake for an additional 2-3 minutes.

5. Allow the bacon to reach room temperature or until it's cool enough to handle and then transfer the bacon to a sheet of parchment or a plate. Store any leftovers in refrigerator.

On Anniversaries ... And The Future Of PCLinuxOS

by Patrick G Horneker

First, my congratulations on the tenth anniversary of PCLinuxOS Magazine. I had the pleasure of writing what I did for this publication.

Speaking of anniversaries, this year marks the twentieth anniversary of my website which started out as an OS/2 support page on GeoCities (how many of you remember that hosting site before Yahoo! took over?), and evolved to a website now serving multiple Linux distributions.

Also, this year marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Linux kernel (established in 1991).

The fact that PCLinuxOS was built without corporate support and without billionaires getting involved is amazing. PCLinuxOS does well for those just starting out in the world of Linux, but we still have a long way to go as far as development goes.

No longer is Linux itself simply about replacing the operating system on your laptop or desktop. Cloud computing and virtualization are two of the latest trends for Linux.

For those of you not familiar, cloud computing is the use of networked machines accessible through the Internet, where data is stored and applications are developed and deployed making such applications available to the end user, where all the end user has to do is access the application through a web browser.

Google Docs is an example of a cloud computing application. The office suite that we use to produce these articles was developed at Google and stored on their servers. All we do is use a web browser to access that application.

Patrick Horneker, from 2009.

OpenShift is another platform where applications are developed and deployed in programming languages such as Java, PHP, and Python. You can install OpenShift on a server as part of a private cloud, or you can use Red Hat's cloud (http://www.openshift.com) to develop and test applications, and sync those applications on your local machine for offline development (and maybe deployment on a private cloud running OpenShift).

SuSE Studio (http://www.susestudio.com) is another cloud computing service that allows you to create your own Linux distribution (based on OpenSuSE or SuSE Linux Enterprise) and distribute your product on a DVD (or a flash drive), a virtual machine image for QEMU or VirtualBox, or a cloud image for Amazon Web Services.

Docker (http://www.docker.com) is another technology developed for the deployment of applications in virtual machines called containers. The concept of containers can be compared to shipping of merchandise in containers that are loaded at a factory in some far away place, then taken to a terminal for the container to be loaded onto a ship bound for Prince Rupert, at which the container is then loaded onto a container train bound for Chicago. Then at Chicago, the container is then loaded onto a truck for local delivery.

A Docker container is intended for deployment of self contained application running on an instance of Linux (so far Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian and OpenSuSE are supported), where the operating system image and its application (and dependencies) are stored on one image file.

The intent of Docker is to facilitate development and distribution of Internet applications, independent of the underlying operating system where the application was developed. Docker uses virtualization to execute containers.

Speaking of virtualization, we have QEMU, VirtualBox, Xen and VMWare available for Linux. Only VMWare is a commercial product. Hyper-V was designed as a virtual machine for Windows, and Parallels is a commercial product for Mac OS-X.

Installing and running PCLinuxOS on Parallels, fortunately, will not void the Apple warranty, and is a safe way to dual-boot between Mac OS-X and PCLinuxOS. In fact, you can run both operating systems at the same time on a Mac.

While I'm not as active on the PCLinuxOS forum as I once was, I have not given up on PCLinuxOS. On my laptop, it is running inside QEMU on the latest version of Fedora (which should be version 24 by the time you read this). I am deciding whether to convert to dual booting between Fedora and PCLinuxOS (an interesting American combination).

Which brings up the next topic: The future of PCLinuxOS.

December 1998 was when I first started using Linux. I obtained a AcerFrame 500 machine with a SCSI hard drive and a single floppy drive. The machine was running Novell Netware 3.x. I installed a CD-ROM drive (and an ATAPI controller), and replaced NetWare with Red Hat Linux 5.0.

This was a time when most people connected to the Internet through a 56K modem and a phone line, and data was backed up with a tape drive or on floppies.

Fast forward to 2007. I was introduced to PCLinuxOS when I purchased a magazine containing a DVD-ROM that had the distribution. It replaced the Mepis installation I was running at the time. (Note: Mepis itself is no longer being developed, but has continued on as Anti-X, and even that has not been as successful.)

I have tried other distributions over the years, and am now split between PCLinuxOS and Fedora, both of which are great products, and both keep up to date with what I consider to be essential software.

The fact that PCLinuxOS has dropped 32-bit support altogether is an indication that 64-bit operating systems are the future of computing. There are still plenty of distributions that support 32-bit machines (Pentium IV or earlier class), but then older machines will never be able to effectively run a modern Linux distribution and/or a modern desktop such as KDE 5 (which is still under development for PCLinuxOS).

So, dropping 32-bit support makes sense here. Where 32-bit support is needed, say for running Wine, there is a separate 32-bit libraries package in the repository.

Also the decision to not include systemd was a risk taken. (Some of you will disagree with me on this, but that is just my opinion.)

Yes, systemd is a complex system of controlling your Linux machine, but it is not that bad as it looks. In fact, systemd actually makes easier work when it comes to system administration.

Having said that, I would like to bring up another question.

Is PCLinuxOS ready for the future of information technology, especially when it comes to the enterprise, cybersecurity, and cloud computing?

I'll leave that for you the readers to decide.

In my opinion, PCLinuxOS is a great system for a desktop replacement. As of this writing, DistroWatch ranks PCLinuxOS as 15th, with Slackware just below that at 16th (creeping up from 20th last month), Fedora at 6th, CentOS at 7th, Manjaro at 5th, OpenSuSE at 4th, and Mint at the top of the list.

This is not the only thing of concern here. Microsoft has included some Linux functionality in Windows 10, with a compatibility layer that allows some Linux binaries to run on Windows, not unlike WINE that is available in the repository. Also, the Bourne Again Shell (or bash as we know it) has been ported to Windows 10. Microsoft in exchange has provided the Visual Studio Editor for Linux distributions.

All of this is thanks to Canonical and its recent partnership with Microsoft. From what I have seen going on with their flagship product lately, Canonical is fast becoming another Microsoft.

So now, we also have Windows 10 to compete with. Fortunately for us, PCLinuxOS does not automatically delete any software without the user's permission.

Ease of use in PCLinuxOS is one thing, but keeping PCLinuxOS safe and secure (just as Red Hat has done with SELinux) is another. While SELinux provides a second layer of security in the form of file and resource labelling and auditing, there is nothing like common sense and Internet safety to ensure that security.

As for cloud computing, I would like to be able to run Docker on PCLinuxOS. This would allow a database server, Apache, and a Java application server all running at the same time on PCLinuxOS, using fewer resources, not to mention a few instances of a few Linux distributions running inside those containers.

If this is not possible, then we could come up with a similar product (to add to the list of packages written specifically for PCLinuxOS) that does something similar to Docker.

Patrick Horneker was a contributor to The PCLinuxOS Magazine after its relaunch in July, 2009. He wrote several articles for the magazine back then, and accepted an invitation to write an article for the magazine's 10th anniversary.

XFCE4: Using The General Monitor (Genmon)

by Dave Spagnol [DaveCS]

Reprinted with permission from his blog

[Note that in the examples that follow, all quotes, single and double should be straight, even if they appear to be left and right quotes.]

The Xfce4 desktop is known as a lightweight, fast, functional desktop, yet it has many features. It has a Desktop Settings Manager which calls a number of applets, not as complex or as many the KDE Settings Manager, but all that most people will ever need. There are a number of Panel apps that can be added. The Launcher is the most flexible I have seen. It can appear as a single icon to launch one program, or as an icon with a small arrow, which can have a drop-down menu, and this is done simply by adding more than one program to the Launcher. The top launcher will be the main icon, and if you want the program to re-appear in the drop down, just add it again.

As you can see from the screenshot here, I have put all parts of LibreOffice onto a single launcher.

There's more. Unlike some desktop panel program launchers, you are not totally tied to menu items. When you add an item, it can be from your usual startup menu, but you can also create it from scratch if you know where to find the executable file, icon, and you can use your own text in the name and the description. Or you can create your own by amending it from the standard entry.

What about GenMon?

With all this power you'd be amazed that Xfce4 runs so smoothly. One panel applet it does lack, however, is a CPU temperature monitor. So I am going to design one using GenMon.

What I am about to write may not work for you, this is about technique. You will need to install psensor, available from Synaptic in PCLinuxOS. You may also have to root around in a folder called /sys/class/hwmon/ which is a "virtual folder" from which you can read stuff about your computer's hardware monitoring.

GenMon is a panel applet that runs a shell script that you write. The script must cause up to four lines to be echoed (printed). The lines are in this format:

Any of these can be variables, so that a number of conditions can be measured, and choices made as to the content of what is seen on the screen. The image will be an icon, the click will be a program that is run only where there is an icon to click on, the text can be any text, and the tooltip can also be any text.

My computer's processor is an Athlon FX4100. Its hardware monitor returns only two numbers, some return loads of them! The first is the temperature of the core of the processor. The second is the power being dissipated from the processor by its heatsink. Open your file manager at /sys/class/hwmon/hwmon0 and you may see this:

The virtual text file, temp1_input, contains the CPU core temperature, in 1000ths of a degree Celsius. You cannot open this file with Mousepad (Xfce's default text editor), but you can read its contents at any given time. Open up a terminal and type in

cat /sys/class/hwmon/hwmon0/temp1_input

You will get a figure, probably in the 10,000s. Or maybe you may have to look somewhere else for this file. But I am assuming for now that this is the right one. In order to capture that value into a variable in a script file, your line would be like this:

temp1=`cat /sys/class/hwmon/hwmon0/temp1_input`

Note that the reverse apostrophes cause the text output from a command to be returned so that you can allocate it to a variable, in this case, temp1. The folder /sys/class/hwmon/hwmon1/ contains a similar file called "power1_input". If you type into your terminal:

cat /sys/class/hwmon/hwmon1/power1_input

You will get a number in the 10,000,000s, indicating the power dissipation of the heat from the CPU. Many CPUs do not return this number, instead returning a fan speed. You will find something, somewhere in the hardware monitors folders which might be useful. But for me, this is useful, so I will add another line to my script file.

power1=`cat /sys/class/hwmon/hwmon1/power1_input`

Now, the question is to manipulate those two numbers so that they can show useful information on your Genmon applet on your panel. If the "cat" commands above do not return figures that may be usable to you, you'll need to find out more about your hardware. The stuff is all there, somewhere!

I did come up with some multi-line stuff, which manipulated the numbers, separating the division and the remainder and putting a decimal point between. What I wanted was 4 significant figures with a decimal point included, mainly so that the number would not change length, always consisting of 5 characters, i.e., 5.030, 54.37, or 120.2. Here is one way of going about it, dividing temp1 by 1000:

It works, and works well, but I wanted to find something tidier so I had a look around on the net to see if there was a tidier way to do floating point arithmetic. I chose awk rather than bc, because bc does not use a leading zero on numbers below 1.

awk is actually a quick and dirty programming language (you learn something new every day). It normally works from a file, but you can work it from a variable. I've not studied all of it yet, but from the little I read, I worked out how to do a floating point division. This page was very helpful: Awk Primer -- print and printf()

Anyway, the line I had to use was this (I'll explain what it all means in a minute)

The awk command returns a string in this case, so by placing the command inside brackets, preceded by a dollar sign, we can allocate the result to a string. The "-v m=$temp1" is important, because it defines a variable to be used by the command. Otherwise, it will require a file. 'BEGIN {....} ' is part of the syntax for awk, I don't pretend to understand it yet. printf() is a formatted string and the page I referred to above was very helpful in understanding it. The first, quoted, string inside the brackets, defines the format, in this case, %-.3f means left justified, floating point, to 3 decimal places. The following line just reduced the result to 4 significant figures (5 characters including the decimal point)

OK, with this knowledge, I can build a nice and short script, tailored to my own computer. I did this, then one day it returned an error! Why? Well due to the Linux system's hardware detection, it allocated hwmon0 and hwmon1 the other way around! So I added a test for this, and here is the final script.

This brought about a further problem. The temperature returned by my Athlon FX4100 CPU is unrealistically low. This is because the figure it returns is designed to show how much stress the CPU is under, and doesn't become accurate until the processor starts getting hot. Telling me that the processor is running at 8°C on a hot summer's day, is clearly wrong. I picked a number off the top of my head, and decided that the figure becomes accurate at 60°C, and that I would add a third of the difference between the recorded temperature and the 60. For most processors this would not be a problem, but of course, when you write your own script, you can do what you like!

So I added these few lines where indicated in the script.

These lines measure the difference if the figure returned is under 60, and if it is, divide it by 3 and add it to the temperature provided by the sensors. Note you're left with "temp2" here so you would have to make a change the following line, starting "temp3=", change "m=$temp1" to "m=$temp2".

Another thing you can do, if you prefer Fahrenheit, is, in the line starting "temp3=", change m/1000 to 32+9*m/5000. And in the following line, change "°C" to "°F".

You need to save the file, (I've called mine "correct-temp") in the /usr/local/bin folder, and make it executable, but before you attach it to a GenMon, you need to check that it works. If you run it in a terminal, you should see four lines of output, as shown further up this article. You will also need to have an icon called temperature-s.png in your /usr/bin/icons folder. There is one here for you:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/81695069/temperature-s.png

To add the script to GenMon, first you have to install xfce4-genmon-plugin from Synaptic, then add it to a panel. Right click on it, then select Properties, you just need to put the name of the script into the box labelled "Command" and set the time you want it to repeat, in seconds.

I hope that you can find a way of using genmon to expand the possibilities of XFCE4 on your desktop.

Using Kanban on PCLinuxOS: Installing Kanboard

by horusfalcon

DISCLAIMER: Kanboard is not a part of the official PCLinuxOS software repository. As such, you should not expect official support for it via the PCLinuxOS forums. If I see someone needing help, I'll do my best, but there are no guarantees expressed or implied with regard to its use.

PART I: WHAT IS KANBAN?

So what is Kanban, anyway? The word is Japanese for "billboard". The history of Kanban started with Toyota Motor Corporation. From there it has become an accepted part of lean manufacturing processes in businesses the world over.

Briefly, Kanban is a simple inventory control/project management tool that uses objects (task or signal cards) to track parts status and critical processes of a project.

Originally, Kanban used a tracking board (a corkboard, typically) on which signal cards were moved from one status lane to the next to indicate movement through the workflow. These, in turn, triggered the generation of Kanban cards that tell each supplier in the workflow when to have parts or subassemblies ready for their downstream customers.

A typical Kanban board is shown below with a few simple tasks:

(Figure 1: image courtesy of https://kanboard.net/)

A much more technical (and more accurate) description of Kanban is given at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanban for any who are interested.

As the information age matured, physical cards were replaced with software triggers and email notifications, but the principles remain the same. Electronic kanban boards are also good graphical representations of project status.

My tribulations in getting Kanboard to run are in this thread: Kanboard on PCLinuxOS . It's not necessary to read it unless you want to subject yourself to every step of my journey to install Kanboard on my PCLinuxOS-powered laptop. Fortunately, I have learned enough along the way that your journey to get Kanboard working should be much easier going than mine was.

So ... what do I use Kanban for? I've adopted and adapted it as a focus tool to help me control the flow of writing projects on which I'm presently working. This has different working principles than more orthodox Kanban does as I'm the sole supplier and customer, but it helps me stay focused on what's next to be done, and (especially) where interdependencies exist in my work. It has helped me meet deadlines, and that's the most important thing. When I first learned there was an application for creating and maintaining an electronic Kanban board in Linux, I knew I had to get it working.

If your business or even your personal projects could benefit from the type of tracking Kanban provides, the solution is at hand. Meet Kanboard.

PART II: DOWNLOADING KANBOARD:

Kanboard is a web-based Kanban board application written in PHP. It can be found at https://kanboard.net/downloads.

Once on the Kanboard website, look around. There is a comprehensive set of documentation, plugins (which I've not tried yet) to enhance its functionality, news about Kanboard's development, and other great resources for Kanboard users.

Download the latest stable version of Kanboard from the website, and save it somewhere you'll be able to find it for later use.

PART III: MEETING THE SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:

Hardware-wise, any system that can run PCLinuxOS and has reasonably good display resolution should be able to run Kanboard. There are, however, some software prerequisites that must be installed prior to installing the Kanboard software. For PCLinuxOS, these have been made very simple.

The system requirements for Kanboard are listed at https://kanboard.net/documentation/requirements.

The Kanboard website lists several non-PCLinuxOS distributions of Linux as being compatible. I can personally vouch for the compatibility of PCLinuxOS as well.

NOTE: Before adding any packages from the repository or installing software from an archive, it is always a good idea to ensure your PCLinuxOS system is fully updated. Instruction for how this is done may be found at http://pclinuxoshelp.com/index.php/Update_Your_PCLinuxOS

PCLinuxOS has made meeting all the software requirements for Kanboard truly easy. Open Synaptic Package Manager, give the root password when prompted, and install task-lamp. This will install and configure a web server (Apache), a database (MySQL), and PHP5 all in the same operation. It will also set up the locations to which Kanboard should be unpacked.

NOTE: It is best to install task-lamp on a freshly installed PCLinuxOS system, but so long as you have not previously re-configured PHP or MySQL, installing task-lamp will get you where you need to be in one step.

PART IV: INSTALLING KANBOARD:

Here's where we do something with that archive file downloaded in Part II. First, as root, copy the archive file to /var/www/html/. You will need to be root to be able to write to that folder. To do the copying using a shell session, do:

NOTE: the placeholder "username" above will be replaced with your user name. The placeholder "/path-to/" will be replaced by the actual path where the archive file is stored. The actual file name used should be that of the latest stable version of Kanboard (which, as of this writing, is 1.0.32.)

Once the archive is copied to /var/www/html/, give the following shell commands as root to unpack the archive:

This should unpack the archive to a new folder within /var/www/html, at /var/www/html/kanboard.

At this point Kanboard is installed. To get it to run properly we must first do a little post-install configuration.

PART V: CONFIGURING PERMISSIONS FOR KANBOARD

To be able to edit projects in Kanboard, the user must have write permissions on the folder /var/www/html/kanboard/data.

The best way to accomplish this is, as root, to add the user to the group apache, then assign ownership of the folder /var/www/html/kanboard/data to the apache group. Finally, assign write permission to the folder's owner and group.

The group and user operations can be done from the PCLinuxOS Control Center very easily without recourse to a shell. Click the icon on the panel for Configure your Computer to start PCLinuxOS Control Center, enter the administrative (root) password when prompted, and then select System from the sidebar at left as shown.

(Figure 2: PCLinuxOS Control Center System Menu)

From the System Menu, click on Manage users on system. This brings up:

(Figure 3: PCLinuxOS Control Center Users and Groups Dialog)

NOTE: my user details are obscured above for reasons of privacy and security.

In the Users and groups dialog, click to highlight your username, then click Actions and select Edit from the drop-down menu. This will open the user's profile dialog:

(Figure 4: Edit Groups/Users Dialog)

From here, click on Groups at the top right corner in the menu bar. This will open the group list for the selected user.

(Figure 5: Edit Groups/Users, showing Groups Tab)

From here, click to select the group apache as shown above. The check mark in the picture above shows it is already selected for my user, and if this is already checked for you, no further action is needed as you are already a member of the group. If the box has no check, click it to put one there, then click Ok. This completes the user edits needed, for this user. Do the same for any other users who may need access to Kanboard, and close the Users and Groups window and the PCLinuxOS Control Center windows when done.

The assigning of permissions to the folder /var/www/html/kanboard/data can be accomplished easily enough as root,/i> by editing the properties of the folder from within any file manager (Dolphin, Caja, PCManFM, Nautilus, and others should be able to do this easily). I will show PCManFM in use in my examples to follow, since I am using LXDE for my desktop environment.

Root PCManFM is available from the PCLinuxOS start menu under File Tools from LXDE. Click to start it, and a dialog box will open requesting the administrative (root) password. After this is entered correctly, the file manager window will open, showing root's home folder.

(Figure 6: Root PCManFM)

From here, click on the blue "up arrow" shown under Bookmarks in the picture above. Similar controls exist for most any file manager you might be using. The folder you wish to navigate to is /var/www/html/kanboard/, such that the folder /var/www/html/kanboard/data is displayed as an icon:

(Figure 7: PCManFM showing the data folder highlighted)

Right-click on the data folder icon and select Properties from the context menu. This will bring up the folder properties dialog:

(Figure 8: PCManFM showing Properties Dialog for the data folder)

Click on the Permission tab of this dialog, and it will display:

(Figure 9: Setting folder permissions)

If the values in the dialog box do not appear as shown, click, type and/or select to change them as shown. This will assign the folder to the proper owner and group (in the top section), and will grant the owner and selected group (and hence any users in that group) the proper permissions. Click OK after all selections are made, the dialog will close and all changes to the folder's permissions will be saved. Close Root PCManFM at this time (unless other actions requiring root access remain to be done).

PART VI: STARTING KANBOARD

The hard work is done. To start Kanboard, open a web browser (I use Pale Moon, but Firefox, Chrome, and others should also work fine) and point your browser to:

http://localhost/kanboard

This will open a login dialog. The first time you log in to Kanboard, you should log in as the user admin with the default password admin, and, as your first official act, change this default to something more secure. Click the purple circle icon in the upper right to open the admin user's settings menu

(Figure 10: Kanban Admin's Dashboard with Settings Menu open)

Click on My profile to open admin's profile. When the dashboard loads, look under Actions in the sidebar at left:

(Figure 11: Admin's Profile showing Actions Menu at left)

Click Change password and get to it. Please write your new password down in a notebook or otherwise ensure you can remember it. If you lose or forget it, you will be unable to login as admin.

While you're in the dashboard, look up at the top left. A set of links there allow for group and user management. Click "New local user" to add a new user (like your normal local user) to Kanboard as a user.

(Figure 12: Admin's Dashboard showing User/Group Management Links)

The shot below shows the dialog for adding a new local user. To be clear, the term local user means a Linux user local to the machine. All that is really required to be entered here is the username, password, and password confirmation. All the details at right can be added later on if other members need to be added to this user's projects.

If, for example, we wished to add the local user johnboy to kanboard, we would enter johnboy for the Username, and a temporary password (e.g., temp1234) that the user could change on their first time logging in. Click save, and the local user is added. Admin (or johnboy) could edit johnboy's details later via the dashboard.

PART VII: CONCLUSIONS

That's as far as I will take you for now. Once you create a local user for yourself, knock around and play with Kanboard. If you want to do it the easy way, the documentation is accessible from the dashboard (see Figure 10, above), and more information for Kanboard can be found at https://kanboard.net/features and elsewhere on the Kanboard website.

Such features as plugins, remote users and collaborative features others may find useful are beyond my present use case, so I leave them for you all to explore as you may need. Kanboard is really simple to use for something so packed with features, and should serve well for any Kanban needs most folks will have. Enjoy!

PCLinuxOS Puzzled Partitions

Scrappler

Download Puzzle Solutions Here!

Sudoku

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Anniversary Crossword

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PCLinuxOS Word Find: September 2015

Anniversary

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Screenshot Showcase

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