03 Jun 09 Restoring GRUB for Linux
Frequent Linux users who dual boot their machines with Linux and Windows will inevitably find their GRUB boot loader corrupted at some point in time. This post will help you restore your GRUB boot loader.
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29 Aug 08 Converting PS files to PDF
In openSUSE 10.3, there is no readily available solution (that I know of) that lets a user print to PDF. The closest thing there is to that is a PostScript (PS) file. Fortunately there is a easy way to convert PS files to PDF. There is a command called ps2pdf which does exactly that. Its usage is very straightforward as well:
ps2pdf document.ps document.pdf
How much simpler can that get?
Tags: tips
14 Aug 08 Eee PC – Installing openSUSE 10.3 on SD Card
I’ve always read that installing an operating system, regardless of Windows XP or Linux, on a SD card in the Eee PC is possible. But I haven’t got the chance to prove that – until now.
Tags: dual-boot
07 Aug 08 Making the USB Thumbdrive Bootable
In my previous post, I mentioned that I sometimes have trouble using the mksusebootdisk script make the thumb drive bootable. In a recent endeavour to install openSUSE 10.3 onto the Eee PC again, I encountered the same problem. This time though, I was in a rush for time and simply refused to do the whole process from formatting the file system (till this date I still have not figured out what is the cause of the problem).
So I turned to Google. Lo and behold, by chance I bumped into John Anderson’s blog. In this particular page he described the manual steps that can be taken to make the thumb drive bootable. And it works!
All that needs to be done are but just a few steps. First step is to simply copy ALL the files under <installation_dvd>/boot/i386/loader/ to the root directory of the thumb drive.
Then rename the file isolinux.cfg to syslinux.cfg in the thumb drive.
Finally unmount the thumb drive and run the command below (the syslinux package has to be installed), assuming that the thumb drive device name is /dev/sdb:
syslinux /dev/sdb1
And you’re done!
07 Apr 08 Using Inkscape on the Eee PC with openSUSE
After getting the Eee PC installed with openSUSE using the USB installation method (http://en.opensuse.org/SuSE_install_from_USB_drive), I’m now trying to use the Eee PC as what a ‘normal’ user would (versus a power user/developer). What I’ve found out in the short period of usage is that the application Inkscape, a vector drawing program, does not work quite well out of the box.
Let me describe the problem more clearly. After Inkscape is started, you don’t see the entire window of the application for one simple reason – there is a minimum size that the program is displayed with. Even if you maximize the window, what happens is that the screen will show a portion of the window. When you click on any part of the window, the screen will show the other part of the window that was hidden. This is a toggling behaviour, making it nearly impossible to click on any widget on the program.
Thankfully in Linux, you can use the ALT-button together with the left mouse click to move the window around. However, by default (assuming you’ve got Compiz running), the title bar of the window cannot go above the top of the screen. This makes it impossible for you to move the window above the screen to see the hidden part of the application. To remove this default behaviour, you need to use the gconf-editor program.
To start gconf-editor, you can search for it in the list of applications if you are using the SLAB menu. If you are using the old-styled menu, you can find this program at Applications > System > Configuration > GNOME Configuration Editor. The easiest way to me is to simply press ALT-F2 to start the Run Application dialog box and type in the dialog box “gconf-editor” without the quotes.
After gconf-editor is started, you use its search function to search for the keyword “constrain”. This will bring up two results: /apps/compiz/plugins/move/allscreens/options/constrain_y and /schemas/apps/compiz/plugins/move/allscreens/options/constrain_y
What I did was simply double-click on the first result (the one with /apps) and un-check the box under the Value column. This will allow you to move any window above the top of the screen.
I have not figured out how to do this in KDE though. Will write a post about this if I manage to find it.
20 Feb 08 Entering Symbols in Linux
From the blog aggregator planetsuse.org, Garrett LeSage posted about using the Compose key to enter different typographical characters such as —, ®, ©, ², ¿, ¡, ÷ etc
Interested? Read his posting to see how it works.
By the way, the post is for Linux only. Enjoy.
Tags: tips
06 Feb 08 Getting Specific Memory Usage Per Process
This Bash command does the job pretty well…
ps axo com,sz
Tags: memory usage
03 Jan 08 Trouble with Java Applets with Firefox on openSUSE
If you are using Linux and are facing problem with Java applets running correctly on Firefox, AND you have googled to the ends of the earth but still can’t solve the problem, check this post out. The solution in my scenario is remarkably simple.
Tags: java firefox plugin
02 Jan 08 Searching openSUSE’s Mailing List
While openSUSE is a great Linux distribution, I can’t say the same for the mailing list’s search function. For many weeks now, the only result that came back from the search is:
Sorry, the search is disabled! Come back later
Someone in the mailing list suggested that a workaround is to use Google’s site specific search function. In the search box, prefix the search terms with the term:
site:lists.opensuse.org
For example, if I want to search for “usb boot support”, I will type the following in the search box.
site:lists.opensuse.org usb boot support
Granted, it’s not perfect, but it’s a temporary workaround. *shrug*
Tags: mailing list
