linux

…except FRA’s supercomputer clusters and other crap:

“To be able to live of your creations - an informational folder on copyright” - to be distributed in Sweden’s schools.

Feels strange that my tax money is going to sommy lobbying organizations project, but it’s not all bad. It actually contains correct facts, and correctly identifies some laws that you break every day without trying.

However, some of the usual lies and misconceptions about filesharing and it’s effect on the artists are still there. Swedish politicians and government employees should once again do their homework.

Oh, did I mention the folder is now available on The Pirate Bay ?

PS. For those concerned, I’m not against copyright. I’m just against the current form of it (which just doesn’t provide anything positive at all). .DS

UPDATE: Information of this kind (lobbying/propaganda) is actually illegal to distribute in Swedish schools. All information delivered by the schools themselves need to be balanced, informational and unbiased. So once again the Government breaks the laws it has created. Apparently a member of parliament has asked, in writing, our “Minister of Education” Jan Björklund to explain why they’re doing this and how they will make it right. In other words, they might have to finance a pro-piracy folder in the coming months… Cheerios!

Photo: Mountainbread on Flickr.

… including their internal IP-numbers, usernames and passwords.

I sent an e-mail three days ago to marketing@linpus.com (only contact adress on their website), info@acercomputer.se (listed as Swedish contact on Acers site), support@acercomputer.se and security@acer.com about this advicing them to change their passwords and take other necessary steps that might be needed to secure their environment.

All bounced except marketing@linpus.com from which I have yet to receive an answer.

Not so nice for them but it’s funny reading.

From the beginning of the file:

ls -a
rm .AME/ .bash_history .cache/ .dbus/ .gsynaptics/ .lftp/ .PIMDS/ .update-notifier/ -rf
ls

Yeah… doing that do not remove the current sessions history. Sorry guys

Out of 982 lines in the file, 423 are “ls” variants and 51 “lftp”:

¤¤¤¤¤¤¤@¤¤¤:~/$ wc -l linpus_roots_bash_history.txt
982 linpus_roots_bash_history.txt
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤@¤¤¤:~/$ grep ls linpus_roots_bash_history.txt | wc -l
423
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤@¤¤¤:~/$ grep ftp linpus_roots_bash_history.txt | wc -l
51

I found this after doing a restore of the unit so it might be that this file is only on the restore image. I have no way of checking this, so if anyone that has not restored their unit feels like checking this please do so and then give me your results in the comments section.

Also, if someone has the official security contact for Acer I would appreciate that.

Cheers,

My wallpaper…

Got tired of the standard wallpaper and made my own. Feel free to download it in 1024×600 and use it on your A1.

Also, found out how to remove the ugly search bar from the desktop:

* Press Alt+F2 and type “xterm”.

* Write “su -” and type your root password.

* Edit the file “/usr/share/search-bar/start-search_bar.sh” with your tool of choice.

* Comment out all lines that start with “acer-search-desktop”. That is, place a # in front of them, save the file and exit the editor you’re using.

This is how your file should look when you are done:

#!/bin/sh
#resolution=`xrandr |grep \*|awk ‘{print $1}’`
resolution=`xrandr |grep current|awk -F”current” ‘{print $2}’|awk -F”,” ‘{print $1}’|sed ’s/\ //g’`

if [ $resolution = "1280x800" ];then
# acer-search-desktop –x=650 –y=90 –width=490 –height=31
elif [ $resolution = "1024x600" ];then
# acer-search-desktop –x=510 –y=65 –width=490 –height=31
elif [ $resolution = "1024x768" ];then
# acer-search-desktop –x=510 –y=80 –width=490 –height=35
else
# acer-search-desktop
fi

Cheers to Heretic Studios for the original instruction!

Photo: Jaako on Flickr.

Got to try out the restore features of the Aspire today as I f*cked up editing the /etc/fstab file

I added several tmpfs entries (to disable logging to SSD and so on) and after that it would not boot. My immediate suspicion is that the kernel had not been compiled with tmpfs support, but this assumption failed after the restore when I reviewed the supported FS’s. Anyhow, I’m gonna dig into just why it failed later on.

You live, you learn hehe

Anyways, the restore CD that shipped with the unit can be used in two ways:

1. Boot using an external CD-reader and restore

2. Boot and create a bootable USB-stick (minimum 2GB), from which you can then boot and restore

I chose the latter and the stick creation was smooth. I used an HP-laptop to boot on the CD and it detected my stick immediately after chosing mode of operation (1 or 2 above). The process of copying data and making the stick bootable was finished in under 10 minutes, but this might vary between host computers and USB-hubs.

Then I shut down the Aspire, which was hanging in a semi-booted mode, and inserted the stick. During boot (BIOS) I pressed F12 and chose to boot from USB.

The actual restore vent fine and took about 15-16 minutes.

So now I got a spanking clean Linpus installation again

Loveliness Got the Aspire One in my hands today.

What I did first was to just browse the web, and believe it or not, everything worked. Webradio and everything. Haven’t looked into it that much but it seems like flashplayer and all the usual plugins are already installed upon shipment… It’ll be interesting to investigate the versions of installed software later.

The system creates a non-root user for you with the self-explanatory name “user”. This is a normal user account with no special priv’s and it boots directly into this ID. During first-start install you are also allowed to set the root user password. This can later be used when su’ing to install applications and supporting libraries.

As you might have read erlier this unit ships with Linpus Linux which is a Fedora 8 clone optimized for UMPC’s. This means that it is also optimized for SSD harddrives (minimize wear, maximize performance) and it should perform OK at least. Hard to pinpoint if something feels like a bottleneck in the system right now, as I’m still quite new to it.

The Linpus menu interface is bright, shiny and intuitive but it is very clear that it is not for users that have above average linux skills. I have yet to change the window manager on this one as “Alt+F2″ goes a long way. As mentioned in previous posts I might also turn to the Ubuntu UMPC package once that is out and kicking.

Another thing I mentioned in an earlier post is that I bought an additional memory module (1GB) and that it looked like a pretty advanced manoeuvre… And it really really was.

Oh my god who builds hardware that you have to upgrade like this:

And finally:

I mean… I’m not worthless at hardware but give me a break… The only thing I did not have to do was to solder the god damned module to the motherboard… Ah well… It was an experience at least. Hardest part was to know what to pull and what flip if that makes sense for anyone Maybe I’ll write a more verbose guide than the ones that exist now at a later time.

Moving on, now when the memory module was installed was the A1 any faster? Very much so, actually. Boot time had drastic improvements and I had a less tormenting time browsing Aftonbladet.se (which is filled with all kinds of crappy flash adverts). I also had an easier time handling my gimp as it can be quite hungry sometimes.

And when it comes to gimp and other applications remember that the OS really is Fedora 8 and as such it is very easy to get all base applications installed. Just press “Alt+F2″ and type in “xterm” and press enter and install what you need through yum (remember to “su” first though). The first app to go was of course Fyodor’s NMAP:

# yum install nmap

Yummie… and that’s how hard it is. Another example can then be FileZilla:

# yum install filezilla

Of course you wont see filezilla in the menu so you’ll have to launch it through “Alt+F2″ -> “filezilla” -> [Enter].

Both wired and wireless networking worked fine out of the box (verified wireless on my neighbours WLAN) and the only thing I have to note here is that the user controls for the networking is a bit hard to work with. Not that the functions doesn’t exist or that it is hard to find, but it feels sluggish and the shortcut applet behaves weird sometimes (but I have quite large fingers so it might be that).

The biggest plus though goes to the keyboard that manages to, even though it’s really small, work for my large and ogrish hands. Second gold-star goes to the screen that performs excellent both on AC and off. Played some Tetris on the bus home and it worked fine even though it was quite bright outside.

Ok, that’s all for now More on this wonderful toy later…

And yeah, this is my first blogpost written on the A1!

A1 References:
- Memory upgrade
- User forum
- Hardware forum
- How to ruin a perfectly good Aspire One

Photo: Sidereal on Flickr.

From Slashdot:

“An anonymous reader sends along a PCWorld recap of a new study by the 451 Group, which claims that business use of ‘community’ Linux distributions is on the rise — distros like Ubuntu, CentOS, and Debian, as opposed to “corporate” packages like RHEL and Suse. [...]“

Among the examples are the Swedish internet buy & sell service Blocket.se that was aquired by Swedens largest newspaper company in late 2003. Nice to see a Swedish example and that they still get to run things “their way” after the change of owner.

Read the full story at PC World!

Photo from Expansys.se

Yep, finally decided to get the Aspire One

Got some more hands on with both the alternatives and it was actually the keyboard that settled the issue. I can actually write without any problems on the Aspire while the EEE 900 kept making me slip the “A” in “DANIEL” and that’s just not working for me

I also got an encouraging comment from the guy running security4all that was in favor of the Aspire.

The model I got was the white 8GB SSD with Linpus Linux on it, but i’m probably going to change the distribution as soon as I get my hand on it. Seems to be some problems with certain core functions though but it should not take too long before that’s solved as well. Might just change the Linpus mode to “Desktop mode” also.

I also got an additional 1GB SODIMM memory module, so now I have this too look forward to:

Hahaha Talk about “user-friendly”

More Acer Aspire One references:

www.aspireoneuser.com/ - Aspire One User forum.
www.acer.com/aspireone/ - Official site

Photo: LarimdaME on Flickr.

From Richi Jennings (via Security Bloggers Network):

“Suddenly, things are getting interesting again in the Exchange-alternatives market.

The quintessential growth-by-acquisition specialist, Cisco (CSCO), has just announced that it’s acquiring PostPath.
[...]
Of all the other Exchange alternatives, PostPath has the most interesting architecture. And I say that as one who has years emotionally invested in the HP OpenMail technology

All the others rely on additional software on the desktop. In the case of OpenMail/SamsungContact/Scalix/Domino/etc., a MAPI service provider “plugin”. Or, like Bynari/OpenXchange/etc., a separate app that synchronized an IMAP store with an Outlook.PST (personal store file).”

Time for a switch?

My co-worker just got his Acer Aspire One and it’s just delicious

Unfortunately he choose the WinXP one, as I would really have liked to have a lookie-feelie at the Linpus Linux interface.

Thirsting for one of these but at the same time wondering if I should just wait for the EEE 901 that’s going to start shipping in Sweden soon… But the Aspire is more beautiful.. power or appearance ? arghhh….

Decisions, decisions.. going insane trying to decide Anyone got any ideas or recommendations?

Photo: Jurvetson on Flickr.

An IBM press-release announces that they have joined forces with Canonical (Ubuntu), RedHat and SuSe/Novell in order to bring an alternate desktop solution to the market.

From the press-release:

“Citing shifting market forces and the growing demand for economical alternatives to costly Windows and Office-based computers, the four leaders sense an ideal set of circumstances allowing Linux-based desktops to proliferate in the coming year. Linux is far more profitable for a PC vendor and the operating system is better equipped to work with lower cost hardware than new Microsoft technology.”
[...]
“The four leaders are working with their local business partners in markets around the world to build and distribute a pre-loaded PC offering that features IBM’s Open Collaboration Client Solution (OCCS) (http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/lotus/library/occs-overview/) including Lotus Notes, Lotus Symphony and Lotus Sametime; the Linux operating system of each distributor; and software applications and installation services from the local partners in each market. The final product will be branded by the local IT firms that bring it to market. In addition, customers, independent software vendors (ISVs) and systems integrators have the choice of developing applications using Lotus Expeditor based on the open source Eclipse programming model.”

This fits in great right now as the economy is turning down and if CTO’s can cut license costs a bit, they will.

In my opinion, this is not one second too late and hopefully this initiative will open companies eyes to the world of Linux and “free” software.

Meanwhile, Microsoft dyes hair orange to cheer SQL Server 2008 release. Good luck with that.