Linux Operating System - Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Gentoo, Arch

vi: /usr/bin/view exists in filesystem

ggarron — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 20:43:44 +0000

Today, after a long time not updating my Linux Operating system (Arch distro), I decided to start a

sudo pacman -Syu

I got this error after downloading all the packages

error: failed to commit transaction (conflicting files)
vi: /usr/bin/view exists in filesystem
Errors occurred, no packages were upgraded.

Hopefully, the support for Arch Linux, is one of the bests out there, The solution is very simple, enter the next command.

sudo rm /usr/bin/{view,rview}

And then run again:

sudo pacman -Syu

for more info go to: http://www.archlinux.org/news/445/

GNU inetutils - ftp, telnet, rsh and more for your Linux

ggarron — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 20:00:24 +0000

Almost all major GNU Linux (operating system) distributions comes with inetutils installed by default, but that is not the case with Arch Linux, and maybe Gentoo as well.

If you are running one of these distributions, you may miss the command line

ftp or telnet, which are usually needed, if you are new to these distros, you may not know how to install them, well they all come in a bundle with other tools, all you need to install is the package inetutils with your package manager.

i.e. In Arch Linux run:

sudo pacman -S inetutils

And you will have:

An ftp client and server.
A telnet client and server.
An rsh client and server.
An rlogin client and server.
A tftp client and server.
And much more...

Note:

There is no inetutils package on Gentoo, so, you will need to install other packages depending on what app, you are looking for, it is ftp for example, run

sudo emerge ftp

You will get /net-ftp/ftp package, and it works like the GNU inetutils-ftp

Connect to Internet using 3G Huawei E156 B

ggarron — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 19:49:06 +0000

These days 3G connections are becoming more and more popular, and one of the most popular modems, at least in Latin America is the Huawei 156, which is a USB HSDPA modem, it works automatically on Windows, also with Ubuntu (at least with the last version) but with Arch or Debian no, that is mainly because you do not install all the packages needed by default on these distros.

Well the only needed package is wvdial, so install it using your package manager tool (pacman, aptitude, apt-get, etc).

Once installed, edit the file /etc/wvdial.conf/

and make it look like this

[Dialer usb]
;Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
init1 = AT+CGDCONT=1,”IP”,”internet.tigo.bo”
Modem Type = USB Modem
Phone = *99#
ISDN = 0
Username = ” “
Init1 = ATZ
Password = ” ”
Modem = /dev/ttyUSB0
Baud = 460800

Be sure to change it according to your needs, what you may need to change is
internet.tigo.bo, change it for your provider APN, you may need to insert a username and password.

The above configuration works with Tigo Bolivia

To connect just open a terminal, and enter this command.

su -c "wvdial usb"

wait some seconds, and you will be connected to the internet, if you have the working configurations for other carriers along the world, copy them in the comments please, (comments will need approval to go online).

Small Tip - Copy and paste on Linux operating system

ggarron — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 01:24:19 +0000

This is really easy on Linux, maybe even more that in Windows, you can use CRL+C and CTRL+V as in Windows, but the easy way is.

Select the text you want to copy, then go to the application where to want to paste it, and using the middle button of your mouse (the wheel in some models) you paste it.

Remember that to change from one app, to another you should use CRL+TAB, as if you use the mouse, you may loose your selection.

Linode.com - Linux VPS hosting

ggarron — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 00:58:40 +0000

Since Go2linux was born some years ago, has been hosted in four or five different places, it started in my office in a VMWare virtual machine with Debian Edge, then I moved it to shared web servers, but more or less six months ago, I have moved it to Linode.com, and what is Linode? well it stand from Linux node.

At Linode, you have VPS (Virtual private server), running Linux, that way you can be in total control of your server, you can install any software you may want, lets say, nginx+fastcgi instead of apache+mod_php, or anything you want.

You also have full root access, really useful when you want to debug and problem with your server.

What distros can you install at Linode.com?

You can choose, from:

ArchLinux
CentOS
Debian
Fedora
Gentoo
Slackware
Ubuntu

Plenty of options as you see, but wait, this does not end up here, you can also, manage all your features from only one dashboard, you can add memory, disk space, IP (remember you have a unique IP with your Linode by default).

You can also upgrade or downgrade from one package to another just with a click.

I have no complains since Go2Linux is there, they offer 99.9% uptime, and I can say that is that way, in fact I have not found any downtime since I am with them.

As you know, VPS is sharing your Linux with others in the same physical server, but how may?, well according to them.

Linodes of the same plan are grouped together onto a host. We adjust the number of slots on each host according to its resources and hardware specification. On average, a Linode 360 host has 40 Linodes on it. A Linode 540 host has on average 30. Linode 720 host: 20 Linodes; Linode 1080 host: 15; Linode 1440 host: 10; Linode 2880: 5.

If you are ready to go for your own Linux server, and you want to have great quality, low prices, you are looking for Linode.

How to install Chromium in Arch Linux (Google Chrome)

ggarron — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 13:17:52 +0000

Almost everybody have heard about Google Chrome, for those who not, it is the Google browser, it is a real good, fast Internet web browser, as almost everything from google.

The drawback of it is, that it is only available for Windows, so what about us, Linux Operating System users?, well there is an option and that is to install chromium, which according to Wikipedia is "Chromium is an open source web browser which Google Chrome is based on.[1] The project's aims are to build a safer, faster, and more stable way for all Internet users to experience the web".

Well it is not actually Google Chrome, but it is a good alternative for Linux users, now lets see how to install it on Arch Linux.

First install yaourt and once it is installed, run this command.

yaourt chromium

You will be given a lot of options, something like this:

1 community/chromium-bsu 0.9.12-1 [installed] 
     A 2d scrolling shooter                   
2 aur/bin32-cxchromium 0.9.0-1 (55)           
    A Mac and Linux port of the open source Chromium (basis for Googleu2019s Chrome browser) web browser. 32bit binaries.
3 aur/chrome-like-icons 1.3-1 (3)                                                                                        
    Icon theme which is like chromium web browser icons.                                                                 
4 aur/chromium-browser 4.0.204.0~svn20090831r24879-1 (Out of Date) (365)
    Chromium is an open-source browser project that aims to build a safer, faster, and more stable way for all Internet users to experience the web.
5 aur/chromium-browser-dev r25312-1 (63)
    Daily builds of the browser (32/64-bit native)
6 aur/chromium-browser-inspector r25312-1 (12)
    Daily builds of Chromium Browser Inspector
7 aur/chromium-browser-l10n 4.0.206.0~svn20090902r25168-1 (5)
    Chromium is an open-source browser project that aims to build a safer, faster, and more stable way for all Internet users to experience the web. This is locales of chromium.
8 aur/chromium-browser-svn r24436-7 (6)
    An open source web browser developed by Google.
9 aur/chromium-codecs-ffmpeg r25254-1 (22)
    Free codecs for Chromium Browser (HTML5)
10 aur/chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-nonfree r25436-1 (25)
    Free codecs for Chromium Browser (HTML5)
11 aur/chromium-continuous -latest (37)
    Up to date testing build of the Chromium Web Browser (basis for Google Chrome)
12 aur/chromium-fresh -latest (18)
    Up to date unstable build of the Chromium Web Browser (basis for Google Chrome)
13 aur/chromium-lkgr -latest [23643-latest installed] (Out of Date) (8)
    Up to date mostly stable build of the Chromium Web Browser (basis for Google Chrome)
14 aur/chromium-snapshot 25570-1 (367)
    The open-source project behind Google Chrome
15 aur/chromium-snapshot-64 25316-1 (57)
    The open-source project behind Google Chrome
16 aur/chromium-snapshot-64-last -1 (25)
    The open-source project behind Google Chrome
17 aur/cxchromium 0.9.0-3 (152)
    A Mac and Linux port of the open source Chromium (basis for Googleu2019s Chrome browser) web browser.
18 aur/iron 3.0.197.0-5 (41)
    A web browser based on chromium without Google's tracking \"features\"
==>  Enter n° (separated by blanks, or a range) of packages to be installed

Read, and decide which you want to install, I have installed option 13 Chromium-lkgr, which is the stable build of chromium Web Browser.

After that, enjoy surfing the web with "Google Chrome for Linux"

small tip - How to play protected CD/DVD on Arch Linux

ggarron — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 02:48:43 +0000

If you want to play protected CDs or DVDs on Arch Linux or any other distro, you may need to install libdvdcss, in order to avoid the message "Media stream scrambled/encrypted".

In Arch just enter this at the prompt.

sudo pacman -S libdvdcss

You may also need to install libdvdread libdvdnav, so enter at the shell prompt

sudo pacman -S libdvdread libdvdnav

Now you should be able to play those protected CDs, be sure to have legal copy of any copyrighted material.

usb and/or bluetooth Internet with Linux and Nokia E71 GPRS, EDGE or 3G (Tethering)

ggarron — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 03:56:14 +0000

There are a lot of pages explaining different ways to achieve this over the Internet, I have read a lot of them, and this is my summary of the steps I needed to follow to finally have a working Internet connection through my nokia E71 phone integrated modem.

Yes, it is better to have an ADSL, Cable o any other connection over a 3G connection, but sometimes your cellular is your only way to access the Internet, for me that is specially true when traveling, sometimes the Hotel Internet fails and I need a backup connection to read my email, and yes E71 is capable to do that, but I prefer to use my Laptop keyboard rather than the phone's one.

Now lets start installing the needed software, I will explain this as I did on Arch Linux, but it should also work with other distros, like Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, or Gentoo, I will try it later on those distros, and if I find any differences I will put them here.

Other considerations, for this how-to are:

1. I use OpenBox on my Laptop
2. I use kdebluetooth to connect to my bluetooth devices
3. My actual Kernel is 2.6.30-ARCH

Installing software

sudo pacman -S bluez-utils bluez-libs dbus kdebluetooth wvdial

Now that we have installed the software, we have to configure it.

usb connection

To surf the Internet using a usb connection with your cellular, we only need to configure wvdial.

Edit /etc/wvdia.conf file and add something like this:

[Dialer usb]
;Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
init1 = AT+CGDCONT=1,”IP”,”internet.tigo.bo”
Modem Type = USB Modem
Phone = *99#
ISDN = 0
Username = ” “
Init1 = ATZ
Password = ” ”
Modem = /dev/ttyACM0
Baud = 460800

Be sure to change it according to your needs, what you may need to change is

internet.tigo.bo, change it for your provider APN, you may need to insert a username and password.

Connecting to the Internet

As soon as you connect your laptop to your cellular with the usb cable, select PC Suite on the phone, then run the next command on the laptop

su -c "wvdial usb"

Bluetooth connection

I prefer this over usb, so lets configure bluetooth first, and start the service.

sudo /etc/rc.d/bluetooth start

Run this command, to find your phone address

hcitool scan

You should get something like this (Do not forget to turn on your phone's bluetooth, and make it discoverable).

Scanning ...
         00:21:FE:F8:BF:4B      Nokia

Edit /etc/bluetooth/rfcomm.com, and make it look like this.

rfcomm0 {
bind yes;
device 00:21:FE:F8:BF:4B;
channel 4;
comment "Tigo";
}

Now edit the file /etc/rc.d/bluetooth

and look for this line:

RFCOMM_ENABLE="true"

make sure it says true and not false

Now restart bluetooth service.

sudo /etc/rc.d/bluetooth restart

Link (pair) your laptop with your phone

To do this, I use kdebluetooth, start the applet

bluetooth-applet

Your may have problems with dbus org.freedesktop configuration, if that happens to you, edit the file /etc/dbus-1/system.d/bluetooth.conf, and add these lines.

  < policy user="user" >
    < allow own="org.bluez"/ >
    < allow send_destination="org.bluez"/ >
    < allow send_interface="org.bluez.Agent"/ >
  < /policy >

Be sure to use, your own user, instead of "user" (with quotes) and remove spaces after < and before >

Once your applet is working use to pair your laptop with your phone, it is an easy graphic tool, we are now finishing, once you have it paired, you are ready to connect to the Internet.

One more step before surfing the web, add this lines to /etc/wvdial.conf

[Dialer bluetooth]
init1 = AT+CGDCONT=1,”IP”,”internet.tigo.bo”
Modem Type = bluetooth Modem
Phone = *99#
ISDN = 0
Username = ” “
Init1 = ATZ
Password = ” ”
Modem = /dev/rfcomm0
Baud = 460800

and finally run:

su -c "wvdial bluetooth"

you should now be connected.

Notes for Debian, Ubuntu and Gentoo

Services on these distros are under /etc/init.d/ instead of /etc/rc.d/.

Small Tip - make your tab completion case insensitive

ggarron — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 01:35:37 +0000

You may know that if you have a directory called

My-Documents

and you want to change to it, you have to do something like this

cd My-[TAB]

And you will end with the full command like this.

cd My-Documents

But, if you do this

cd my-[TAB]

You will probable hear the system's beep and nothing else, because Linux is case sensitive, if you want to be able to use TAB with capital letter or without it, add this line to /etc/inputrc, or to $HOME/.inputrc

set completion-ignore-case on

Now it will work with the capital My-Doc... or without it as in my-doc ...

One moth of vacations

ggarron — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 01:05:03 +0000

Well, actually it was more than a month not writting in my blog, and do not think this will be a permanent situation, but I am with too much work these days, but I have given some time to start reading Fedora, Ubuntu, Gentoo and Debian mailing list, and also to answer some of the emails.

I am also starting to explore new topics to write about on this Linux blog, if you want to suggest any topic please use the comments, I had to enable comments moderation as there is too much spam these days, and nobody wants to read a site about Linux talking about traveling guides, porn sites, and how to reduce your mortage, hope you may understand that, it is more job for me, but I do want this site to stay with some how good quality content, and great comments.

Thanks you all for staying online, and I will soon be back with more Linux related articles.