#namib linux

[linuxlife]

Linux Life Episode 51

Hello folks as I have managed to get myself a quiet moment it’s time to check in with the blog.  As I said I will be a bit more sporadic with the posting here this is due to family situations.

So what have I being doing with Linux since the last episode.  Well my Kingston 120GB SSD I was running Linux on decided to have issues and for all of the attempts to save it I had to swap it out and replace it with my Integral 120GB SSD.

Luckily because I don’t keep my home directory on the SSD but on a separate 1TB Seagate hard drive no data was really lost.  So I had to re-install Namib Linux onto the new drive.  This was a bit odd but I got it working.

The installation went smooth but upon restart GRUB would start and then pixelate the screen as the video didn’t initialise correctly.  So I went in using mode 3 to just a text prompt but upon signing in this way MATE actually started which was odd but handy.

At first I could not update as Pamac would not download any of the required 538 updates from the base Namib.  So I opened a terminal and tried to use pacman.  First attempt using ‘pacman -Syu’ it just sat there after updating the main repositories as it failed to download just as Pamac had.

In the end the way I managed to get it working was to use the ‘pacman -Syyuu’ which forces the update.  So finally I managed to get the system updated and working.  I also managed to install the Nvidia drivers while I was there and all of the previous programs I was using which luckily was not many as I have been pretty quiet on Linux at the moment.

After installing Grub Customizer from the AUR I was able to put Grub into a mode that I knew would work with my ageing monitor.  I really must get a new one although this works it’s an old Dell 19 inch monitor with a max resolution of 1280x800 so it really is showing its age.  It works fine however and there is no pixel damage so I really can’t complain.

So within an hour I was back up and running and even managed to get my desktop back including my Cairo Dock at the bottom of the screen with all its icons restored and reworking including the Vulkan drivers and DXVK to get games working through Lutris.

However I have not really been playing games lately but it is nice to have that capability should I start using it.  

I have however been messing around with stuff.  I was playing with the Previous emulator.  If you remember I discussed this NeXT emulator before.  Well I managed to get a few programs installed using ISOs of the Peanuts Archive including a few games and a few applications.

I have also been messing around with DosBOX and I decided to have a bit of fun playing with some old programming stuff to see if I can remember any of it.  I honestly can’t but I installed Borland Turbo Pascal 6.0 for DOS and Borland Turbo C 3.0 for DOS and I was playing with them.

I vaguely managed to get a basic “Hello World” type program that cleared the screen and then waited for a key press to exit but it took me far longer than it should have as I have totally forgotten how to program Pascal and C++ and to begin with could not even remember the keywords.

This could be because the last time I actually did any programming in DOS has to be more than 25 years ago.  However I did have fun playing with them and although it won’t lead to anything serious.  Trust me I don’t desire to become a programmer as I just don’t have the patience, it is fun to mess around and do small things with.

I did create their own dosbox.conf files so they auto-start in DosBOX from a launcher and now they sit on my Cairo Dock bar along with everything else.  I’m sure in time I will kill them off but for now it keeps me vaguely amused in this tricky time.

So that’s what has been happening in my little Linux world so until next episode.  Take care.

[linuxlife]

Linux Life Episode 53

Hello folks and welcome back to Linux Life.  I have finally found a bit of time to get another episode of my journey up. I admit I have been pretty busy sorting out certain family things so I have not had much time to sit for any computer.

However I was looking for a PIM similar to Lotus Organiser now I did try and run  Lotus Smart Suite Millennium Edition using Wine but it would not install to the right place and it was being a complete pain in the neck.

After a bit of a search around I found In my Diary now there was a Linux version which was written but it was quite old and in Debian package format. I did attempt to convert it using Debtap.  However it was i686 so it would not convert as I’m using 64-bit Namib Linux.

However the Windows version has been kept more up-to date so I ended up running it through Wine and I must admit I am actually enjoying it.  Yes I am running more Windows programs but it works in Wine with no issue.

Now before anyone complains I would use a Linux version if it was updated but the developer admitted he stopped working on the Linux version a long time ago.

Now many moons ago I used to have a G5 Macintosh and one of my favourite programs to use was MacJournal (A personal diary type program) by Mariner Software.  There was a Windows version but it died out rather quickly.  So I had been looking for a replacement for years.  After a long search I found Rednotebook.  I may have mentioned this before but I think it needs a reminder it exists.

Being a guy who writes stuff regularly I like to keep notes or ideas of new stuff and yes I could use a word processor but this is good for just a few quick notes before I forget them. I have also used it as a diary to keep track of medical stuff when necessary as as it lists them by date you can keep track when the entries were made.

OK well that kind of lists what I have done with my Linux Life in the intervening time.  However there is news in the Linux world that has peaked my interest so I thought it will cover them here.

If you know that if you have read any previous Linux Life entries I used Antergos Linux for quite a long time.  About two months ago however Antergos closed their doors and decided they were not going to continue.  I was not very happy and after a lot of testing moved to Namib Linux which I am still running.

Not long after the announcement a group of ex-Antergos enthusiasts started talking about picking up the Antergos project and run a similar idea but also add a few things.  They decided the project would be called EndeavourOS.  Now many thought as nice as this idea was it would take a long time for this to happen.

Well it seems EndeavourOS has just put out its first stable release just over two months later. Now the caveat.  The first release is an offline installer and   only installs XFCE as its DE.  However once installed you can connect online and change the Desktop Environment to most as it has access to the repositories and the AUR.  The only ones it admits it hasn’t converted across is i3 and Openbox but they may be in later releases.

Now EndeavourOS is quite interesting and they admit they hope to get the online installer using an updated Cnchi or some other installer by the middle of August.  Also at the moment it doesn’t have all the files that were in the full Antergos repo but it does have over 50% of the files up so it runs most stuff and the rest is being updated and uploaded soon.

This is an interesting Arch distro as it will carry on the Antergos idea that support can be done their own forums and Telegram channel rather than having to refer to the Arch wiki which can sometimes be unhelpful when it comes to minor bugs.  This means they can support both Beginners to arch and more experienced veterans of the system.  Which is incredibly handy.

I will definitely keep an eye on this one.  Not that I need a replacement Arch distro as Namib Linux is working just fine.

Next thing of interest for me is apparently Mac users who have been locked out of using Linux due to the new T2 security chip may be able to get it back on their system due to the Linux hackers working out how the T2 chip changes things.

According to the schedule they will start putting in support in kernel 5.3 for Mac keyboards and Mice but hard drive support will probably be in 5.4.  Now this might be of interest to the people who own the new Macs which since 2018 have had these chips as they may be able to get Linux working again.  However there is a catch.  The kernel 5.3 and 5.4 updates that work with Macs could take up to two/three years to become available.

So yes it’s good that it is coming but time scale is pretty undetermined at this stage which is not so good.  Altogether meaning a potential 5 year wait since 2018.  Also assuming the Mac doesn’t issue the T3 security chip next year or move to ARM which many have speculated for years.

Apparently Deepin Linux 15.11 has been released.  I have never really played with Deepin after hearing about its alleged spying upon the user.  However I don’t know if that was ever really substantiated so it is pure speculation unless proven different.  

One day I may look at it probably in a VM  and if I do I will include a small write-up of things that interest me.  Apparently some of its apps are quite good such as Deepin Video you can now drag subtitle files onto a playing video and they will automatically display.

Anyway I have rambled enough for now.  So until next time...take care.