planetyazid

Printing quality of CUPS 1.5 in openSUSE 12.1

2011-12-11T14:15:00.001+08:00

This is one of the reasons I am leaving openSUSE 12.1 and return back to 11.4, due to terrible printout quality in 12.1. The printer used is Brother DCP-J125. The print test pages are as below.

CUPS 1.5 in openSUSE 12.1

CUPS 1.4 in openSUSE 11.4

To summarized all the tests, to conclude based on my observation that:-

Bad quality printout either in Gnome 3.2 or KDE 4.7 (openSUSE 12.1, kernel 3.x) that run on CUPS 1.5.
Normal quality printing either in Gnome 3.2, KDE 4.6 and 4.7.3 (openSUSE 11.4, kernel 2.6.x) that run on CUPS 1.4.
Normal quality printing in Tumbleweed based on (openSUSE 11.4, kernel 3.x) that run on CUPS 1.4

The tests been done several times, from the fresh installed system of openSUSE 11.4 and 12.1, not to mention the wasteful of A4 papers. Is the newer CUPS driver the culprit?

BB Mini snek untuk dijual

2011-11-14T20:03:00.001+08:00

BB, Not a broadband nor the Blackberry. BB ini sebenarnya merujuk pada kuih batang buruk, tetapi dengan adunan yang telah ditambah suai dengan saiz yg lebih kecil, rasa yang enak dan rangup sangat sesuai untuk dimakan seisi keluarga, tak lagi hanya dimakan ketika hari-hari perayaan sahaja.

Penyediaan secara hygenik, bahan-bahan utama dibuat dari kulit popia yg digoreng rangup berserta dengan tepung bijirin lainnya. Dibungkus dalam pek plastik dalam berat bersih 500gm.

Harga bagi setiap pek 500gm RM13.00
Pembungkusan (kotak akan disediakan) dan penghantaran melalui pos laju sila tambah RM5.00, pembelian dalam kuantiti yang lebih banyak boleh diberikan potongan harga.

Sekiranya anda berminat untuk membuat tempahan, sila email atau gtalk saya di yazidrus at gmail atau call/SMS saya di 0 1 3 - 7 9 2 0 4 4 6 - Yazid.

Syarat-syarat pengeposan:-

Sila bank-in kan ke dalam Maybank akaun, dan sertakan salinan bank-in slip ke dalam gmail attachment sebagai bukti pembayaran telah dibuat. Nyatakan nama penuh pembeli, alamat yang jelas (PO Box tidak diterima) serta No telefon yg senang untuk dihubungi. Tracking No akan diberikan selepas pengiriman dilakukan.
Berikan tempoh beberapa hari bekerja untuk proses pembuatan dan pengiriman sebab bahan hanya akan dimasak mengikut tempahan untuk menjamin kesegaran produk. Saya tidak menyimpan stok untuk tempoh yang lama.
Saya tidak bertanggung-jawab atas apa-apa yang berlaku masalah semasa pengiriman.

Brother DCP-J125 for my openSUSE

2011-10-07T21:24:00.000+08:00

After few days of wandering how to get this printer and the scanning feature to run, we need to manually install the correct driver for this. As opposed to my previous HP Deskjet F4280, I am almost do nothing as the drivers are all there pre-installed by default, plugged in and play at ease. Too bad this F4280 is a blood sucker, for a black cartridge at least I need 2 of it every month. Fixing a CISS might be a solution, but it could cost me frequent maintenance and spills.

The best solution for CISS currently is for Brother printers as it need not to fix a moving hose. The CISS itself is an enlarged cartridges, so we save from those hose. Now I own one the DCP-J125 complete with the CISS unit, it works in Windows but in openSUSE x86_64?

Get your LPR driver here.

and Cupswrapper driver here.

Scanner driver brscan3 here, remember this model is under brscan3 category and not other brscan.

Scan key tool here.

Install it all via zypper in, some warning of dependencies might pop up for the printer driver installation, let them install anyway by accepting any broken dependencies.

Now the printer and scanner driver should be detected there in YaST, however for scanner we might encounter error and this could be the solution.

Make sure the the device is connected and in terminal run lsusb

yazid@dhcppc0:~> lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 1d57:0005
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 04f9:0253 Brother Industries, Ltd

As SU

# chmod a+w /dev/bus/usb/002/004

The scanner should be ok now, run the XSane to test it. However this is a temporary solution as we need to run chmod again each time we restart the pc and want to use the scanner again. To make permanent at boot without to chmod again as su, edit the entries in /etc/udev/rules.d/55-libsane.rules.

Before the:-
# The following rule will disable USB autosuspend for the device...

Insert this:-

# Brother scanners
ATTRS{idVendor}=="04f9", ENV{libsane_matched}="yes"

Do carefully look at the "04f9", it could be something else depending on models. However the value can be obtained from lsusb command as above. Save it and restart the box.

TP-Link TD-W8901G port forwarding

2011-09-17T01:39:00.001+08:00

Just got mine an extra TP-Link wireless router model TD-W8901G, substituting my TM's D-Link DSL 2640B This is a simple configuration on how to enable the port forwarding for this model. This tutorial is for openSUSE, however I am yet to try in Windows.

Here it goes, from your browser type and enter the famous 192.168.1.1 The default user ID password is admin / admin. Go to Advanced Setup and choose NAT. From the Virtual Circuit take the up and running PVC. The working PVC should based from VPI=0 and VCI=35, in my case the active PVC is no 2. Click the Virtual Server and we'll get a table of settings.

From there we need to create 2 rules as belows:-
Rules no 1

Application, choose HTTP_server
Protocol, TCP
Start Port, 50000 (or any other free designated port)
End Port, 50001 (or any other free designated port)
Local IP Address, 192.168.1.100 (default IP for this model)

or # ifconfig in terminal should tell us the exact IP to be used.

Now create Rules no 2, all the above values to be follow except the Protocol, UDP is to be used. Save it all.

Here is the snapshot of the settings in NAT.

Now, open YaST under the Security and Users click the Firewall. At the right list of menu, open the Allowed Services and Advanced. Do look at the snapshot above, the port no must be the same in NAT. Between the range of 50000 and 50001 either one could be used.

Now to check if the designated port is open successfully for our torrents, any torrent clients can do the checking. However due to messy interface of KTorrent I am using Transmission instead, which is much simpler and lighter.

Downloading Transmission via zypper
# zypper in transmission and transmission-qt or gtk2 depending on what DE we are using.

From the Transmssion's menu, click edit > Preferences > Network. Enter the Port No 50000 or 50001 and press the Test Port button. If port is open from the result, now we are good to torrent smoothly. Good luck.

My Google+

2011-08-22T00:17:00.002+08:00

Too much adore to Facebook? why not give Google+ a try? Those who already got one can add me into your circle. Or just ask me to be invited if do not have any.

https://plus.google.com/104324477833182126346/posts

Ditching Julia for LMDE

2010-12-26T11:45:00.002+08:00

Managed to install and run LMDE 64bit, so far so good as I can see. But I don't see any significant improvement between Julia and LMDE 201012, they both share the same issue with my Nvidia 9400GT unable to boot into X due to unknown reasons but the same workaround by adding the nomodest into the kernel parameter. Installing the Nvidia proprietary driver was much easier in Julia. I am trying this LMDE because of the rolling release by them, less hassle by downloading the new iso for each release. By default compiz does not enable automatically for LMDE, but the there is workaround how to enable it. Compiz not a must, but getting one is just a slight advance for a good looking. The most annoying is font rendering in firefox, the only workaround working well for overall font on the desktop but in firefox the ugliness remains. Need further readings to solve that.

Heart disease, a new cause.

2010-12-20T21:58:00.003+08:00

This is maybe a new finding, I just want to add the cause that can lead you to heart disease. We already know that smoking, high blood cholesterol, hypertension and other factors as we can read here to know more.

Any latest and modern health journal should add this, the new cause apart from he above, Windows 7 Starter edition could trigger abnormal heartbeat and disrupt normal emotional. I have experienced many netbooks that run on Starter edition, the slowness in loading caused rapid blood flows all over the nerves of mine.

Therapeutic actions in relieving the symptom are by removing the Starter edition for openSUSE or Linux Mint 10, the speed is just outstanding, able to run compiz with low resources even running it with an Atom processor.

Stay healthy, love your heart.

Jdownloder for my openSUSE 11.3

2010-12-17T22:32:00.004+08:00

I am looking for a good download manager for opensuse, I can see none is in par or almost perfect to any download manager found in Windows which support downloading multiple segments per file. The best and performance closest to the commercial download manager out there which can be find in linux is Jdownloader. Bad for some, no packaging been made for openSUSE, except a installer that need to run by script. No Jdownloader in .rpm can be find it either from Packman or OBS. However there is a repo that is really a savior to me, at least.

Add this URL to your repo http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/pabloon/openSUSE_11.3/ The installation directory would be in usr/share/java/jdownloader and we can change the permission to run it by user as the default need to be run as root. Here is mine the latest version 0.9.580.

However few things need to be consider, these application may not perfect enough on how it was packed, while it works running jdownloader also made my CPU spiked to the maximum. To my observation, the more we set for the maximum connection, more process will be created and resulting the higher CPU consumption.

Torrent trackers

2010-12-04T22:33:00.003+08:00

Oy! malam minggu yg sedikit membosankan, sedikit percubaan dalam effective torrenting sekarang ni sedang memuat-turun 1 cerita dari Piratebay. Ini pun lanjutan dari apa yg telah aku lakukan hasil dari port forwarding seperti yg aku telah tulis kat sini.

Few basics in torrenting dah pun aku fahami, yg sebelum ni aku ingat muat turun main hentam aja. Kalau perlahan muat turun maka itu lah yg aku faham, tanpa aku fahami apa konsep trackers, seeder dan peers. Bila aku dah baca beberapa saranan dalam internet ni, the more active seeders in trackers would help boost our downloading speed. wokies, this is what I gained after adding these lists of trackers into Transmission, the active trackers in 2010 available. There must be more, do tell me if there are any apart from the below.

http://tracker.thepiratebay.org/announce

http://tracker.openbittorrent.com/announce

http://tracker.publicbt.com/announce

http://inferno.demonoid.com:3408/announce

http://tracker.ex.ua/announce

http://10.rarbg.com/announce

http://pow7.com/announce

http://tracker.torrentbay.to:6969/announce

http://tracker.bitreactor.to:2710/announce

http://nemesis.1337x.org/announce

http://genesis.1337x.org:1337/announce

http://tracker.ilibr.org:6969/announce

http://11.rarbg.com/announce

http://exodus.1337x.org/announce

http://fr33dom.h33t.com:3310/announce

http://tracker.hdbbt.com:6969/announce

http://3dfreedom.ru:6969/announce

http://tracker.publicbt.com/announce

http://tracker.torrent.to:2710/announce

http://tpb.tracker.prq.to/announce

http://tracker.istole.it:80/announce

http://nyaatorrents.info:3277/announce

http://tv.tracker.prq.to:80/announce

http://tv.tracker.prq.to/announce

http://tracker.torrent.to:2710/announce.php

New trackers added into my Transmission

Untuk pakej 512kbps yg aku langgan, torrent punya kelajuan muat turun walaupun tidak menentu tapi penunjuk kelajuan antara 200-500kbps dah kira ok sangat. Happy downloading, pirates!!

Linux Shirts

2010-12-01T21:48:00.006+08:00

Just helping one of the forum's member here, he is going to offer shirts and the design are as below i.e ubuntu, Linux Mint and Linux Advocate.

Shirt material will be Lacoste, base shirt color will be COMPLETELY black, and it will only be available in collared-T design (don't you think it looks smart as casual wear? ) All designs (logo and text) will be STICHED/embroidered, not printed/sticked/iron-on...

Design 1 Ubuntu

Design 2 Linux Mint

Design 3 Linux Advocate

The initial pricing should be at least RM25 a piece not included the postage charges. The price however could be lower if minimum quantity of order met. Any linux fans out there interested to put any orders, please visit this thread at LYN and find more information from the seller himself, ptwee.

Streamyx berkata akhirnya

2010-11-30T21:04:00.004+08:00

Terlalu ramai pengguna streamyx menyatakan ketidakpuasan tentang kelajuan yg dialami sejak akhir2 ini, ini terutamanya dari pengguna2 yg melanggan pakej kelajuan tinggi dari pakej 2mbps hingga ke 4mbps. Dan sungguh mengejutkan FUP hanya pada pelanggan Streamyx dan tidak pada pelanggan UniFi setakat ini atas alasan pengguna2 UniFi adalah premium users yang masih baru.

Added salt to the wound that hurts, I am quoted a copy of email received from Ms Izlyn Ramli, VP of Corporate Comms. to one of the LYN's forum member, tentris. Here goes:-

Telekom Malaysia Bhd ™ wishes to clarify on our Fair Usage Policy (FUP) and address several comments in the blogosphere on allegations of a ‘hard cap’ for international bandwidth being enforced by TM.

Firstly, we apologise for the inconvenience that our customers are currently facing on our internet services.

We would like to assure all our customers that it is not, in any way TM’s intention to enforce any ‘hard caps’ on our customers.

As a matter of principle, however, TM needs to abide by a FUP to ensure that the network caters to all customers in a fair manner, and this has been in place for a few years for Streamyx which is a contended, best effort service. This means the Streamyx network is catered to be shared by everybody at any point in time to ensure everybody gets a “fair share” of the bandwidth. Currently UniFi is not affected, as it is a new premium service.

The Streamyx “Fair Usage Policy” is available on our website (http://www.streamyx.com/customer_care/customer_care.php?id=customer_care_fair_usage_policy) and it basically describes the list of specific heavy usage activities (like P2P and gaming) that will be managed during peak periods.

As you all know, this kind of bandwidth management or FUP is a global and common telco and celco industry practice. It is already in place in Malaysia amongst the mobile broadband players and aimed at making sure our broadband service is fast and reliable whenever in use. It is designed to benefit all users, especially normal or non-heavy users during peak periods, so that all can enjoy higher and fair browsing and surfing speed.

In general, TM’s FUP and implementation is aimed at providing an optimum internet experience to all Streamyx customers by rationalising the internet speed during peak periods (3pm – 1am).

Of late, our traffic profiles are changing quite rapidly, and we are noticing that network congestion can hit different parts of the country at different times of the day or week. When congestion hits, depending on the usage patterns, customers subscribing to the same package but generating different traffic patterns may experience different levels of service performance.

In an effort to ensure a fair distribution of resources amongst all customers at all times, whenever congestion occurs, TM’s network is able to calculate how many users are active at any given time and allocate dynamically the resources across all customers with active sessions.

In rare cases of heavy congestion, we ensure that no customers may get below a minimum threshold of international bandwidth, but there is no ‘ceiling’ to the bandwidth each customer can get.

The problems some customer are experiencing now may have stemmed post a successful pilot of a new traffic management model we ran a few months before, following which we went nationwide about 3 weeks ago. Clearly there is room for improvement and we are working hard to resolve this.

As dynamic allocation of bandwidth requires some specific settings that need to be fine tuned area by area, we elicit and welcome feedback on the experience in different parts of the country at different times of the day. We have set up a special email account where you can send your readings for our review: impact@tm.com.my effective 1 December 2010.

From our analysis, the current traffic patterns are, for most part, in line with our expectations on traffic management, and the speeds being delivered should suffice for a smooth internet experience.

Where the internet experience falls short, we will further investigate both individual cases and the service in its entirety to address specific concerns that they may be facing, and will respond to these customers directly.

Rest assured, TM takes note of all customer feedback to continuously ensure improved customer experience end-to-end.

From a market communications perspective, the FUP awareness campaign is already ongoing and we will further clarify as to the rules we are implementing – and why.

In fact, a bloggers briefing has already been scheduled for 17 December post our engagement with LYN and Kambingz earlier. About 40-50 selected bloggers will be invited to represent the wider blogger community to keep them abreast with our efforts to improve service delivery and customer experience overall, and to seek constructive feedback on these efforts. We hope to address, or at least start to address many concerns at this forum.

We thank you for your continuous feedback and ask for your kind understanding and patience as we work to deliver on our commitment to service quality and overall customer experience.

TELEKOM MALAYSIA BHD

Any users that want to download any of the stuffs now have to do it during the wee hours. Too bad the 4mbps subscribers now have to pay more for speed that is only 1/3 from it. Lucky me, I am on 512kbps and not a heavy downloader, but moving forward to 1mbps is big NO for a time being as I don't want to forked out more money in 1mbps but retaining the speed at 512kbps. The rest of the pros, curses and swears can be digest from this thread of LYN.

Sekatan penggunaan oleh Streamyx?

2010-11-28T07:13:00.006+08:00

Dalam masa 2 minggu kebelakangan ini, tiba-tiba rungutan pengguna streamyx memuncak. Ini terutamanya dari pelanggan yg melanggan pakej capaian tinggi contohnya 2mbps atau 4mbps. Ada juga rungutan dari pelanggan 1mbps, tapi yang pastinya seluruh pelanggan Streamyx mengalami susutan kelajuan muat turun dari semua pelayan antarabangsa.

Antara forum yg agak hangat memperbincangkan apa yag berlaku ialah Lowyat.net. Sila rujuk perbincangan berkaitan di http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1648653

Salah seorang pelanggan streamyx yang juga ahli forum lowyat.net yang bernama vivre menghubungi TM dan dari perbualan dgn pegawai tersebut secara umum segera difahami bahawa TM telah menguatkuasakan FUP, tetapi bukan berdasarkan akaun perseorangan sebalikknya berdasarkan IP tertentu dan malangnya faktor blanket capped telah berlaku. Berikut antara perbualan yg sempat dinotakan.

This fine evening, a TM technician called me, and the conversation took over 30 minutes. He was basically trying to help me with the slow connection (or should I say capped connection), and he was very kind too and have the technical background too.

In summary, these are the key understandings that I still remember (not in order ya, coz I just wrote whatever came across in my mind, just got back from watching movie too, so started to forget some of the details):

a. YES and YES, TM has enforced the capped under the Fair Usage Policy. And he said he could not anything as it was coming from higher level - and the reason that was believed to allow TM to do so is because we have signed the form and there was FUP policy.

b. It seems that the international bandwidth has been used up to the CRITICAL level, and prompted them to make this swift move.

c. This move is believed to be a 'strategic' move so that existing Streamyx users will migrate to Unifi (where the quota is real and stated upfront) unlike Streamyx which does not impose any quota.

d. Apparently, there is automated system where it monitors the bandwidth used on daily basis and enforce the speed cap across the user base, whenever the bandwidth is saturated. Unfortunately, this system does not monitor INDIVIDUAL usage, but rather as a whole. So, it does not mean that if you don't clog the bandwidth you are safe.

e. He believes that this cap is temporary while waiting for the Unifi subscriber's base to increase.

f. The cap is enforced based on the package (meaning to say 4mbps should be getting higher capped international speed thatn 1.5 mbps)

g. It seems that TM won't go public with this speed cap to take care of their reputation. (Remember when Unifi was launched with quota, the whole nation was condemning them, and later they retracted the quota 'temporarily')

h. The growing number of 'big-buffet-eater' (read: Unifi users) has something to do with 'running-out-of'bandwidth' effect that all of use are currently facing.

i. The word "Unlimited" in Streamyx ads refer to the access and not the bandwidth.

What I did:
a. I asked him to escalate to higher management to let the public knows about this cap.
b. I told him many were flaming and bashing TM, especially nowadays after the sudden speed cap.
c. The FUP should be more transparent rather than GENERIC FUP i.e. Unifi, Maxis BB, Digi BB clearly states their monthly quota.

That's all. I will add more if I managed to recall some of it.

Hope this helps.

Nampaknya bukan berakhir hanya di forum malah di Facebook juga dah ada grup menyelar Streamyx atas apa yg berlaku dan juga isu-isu lain. Ada kemungkinan capped sedang dijalankan. Aku sekarang tengah muat turun .iso sebesar 700mb secara direct download dari PClinuxOS. Tapi dah masuk 2 hari dah dan progress tak sampai setengah aja. Sebaliknya sebelum ni muat turun Linux Mint 10 sebesar 800mb pada hari yang sama dah selesai.

Port forwarding TM D-Link DSL 2640B

2010-11-25T01:49:00.009+08:00

I just got a new ADSL wireless modem from TM, the D-Link DSL 2640B. As we are aware, the firmware shipped with this model is using the customised firmware that limits any extra configuration. This default is good for normal users, but not to those torrent lovers. The best option is, upgrade the firmware back into D-Link default settings. The firmware version that tied with TM is GE_1.07, the web interface we'll see is TM logo at the login screen via the 192.168.1.1. TM no more, we need to download the latest firmware version 1.00 Stable from D-link website.

The D-Link download page where we can see the latest firmware.

Before we do the upgrade, if any, doing a backup into the PC is highly recommended. Check out the region, for Malaysia or any nations in South East Asia the firmware version is SEA_1.00. The file is a compressed .rar format and 3.5mb in size. Some people mistakenly do the upgrade with this file and will result into fatal error message. Extract the file first, there are 2 files. The first is a readme file and the 2nd file is the correct we needed to choose for the upgrade in my case the file is GAW5.6T02-4-DL-R1B080-SEA.EN_upgrade_0719.

The process took about 2 minutes, after the successful upgrade we can see the new login screen something like this.

The new login screen, no more TM logo

Provided that we already connected to the internet with the new setting (the previous setting to the ISP will be override by the new. TM login ID and password no longer working as the new will be 'admin' for ID and the password as well. Now we go to Port Forwarding option in Advance tab. We need to create 2 protocols, UDP and TCP. Server name can be put to any, the external port I am choosing is 50000 for start and 50001 for end. The same configuration to both TCP and UDP, server IP address is referring to our PC which is normally 192.168.1.2 Two lines need to be create. Please check my settings screenshot to understand better. The port ranges must be carefully selected as not all ports are suitable for torrent, some might been used for other services.

2 lines of protocol created, TCP and UDP

Now the router's side has been set, now we need to allow the protocol and port number to be allowed in firewall. In openSUSE, open firewall in YaST, go to Allowed Services and choose Advance button at the below. A new window will appear, just fill in the port number 50001 into the blank column in TCP and UDP setting. Save and exit YaST. See the screenshot below:

Firewall setting that we want to allow TCP and UDP services port 50001.

However in Linux Mint 10, firewall setting is pretty much straight forward. Go to firewall setting that located in Control Center, tick to enable outgoing and incoming and click add new rule button. Go to Preconfigured tab and set to allow in and out for the program from the list i.e Deluge, Transmission etc etc.

Firewall settings in Linux Mint 10 to allow TCP/UDP based on what client to run the torrent.

Now we see the result if the port we configured in router and firewall really works. Open up Transmission, at user preference menu go to Network tab and enter the same port number as in router before, the 50001 and hit the Test Port button. Now we see Port is open.

Transmission the bitorrent client been used in Linux Mint 10 and openSUSE 11.3. Port 50001 is now open.

Deluge users, the same procedure to check if the port 50001 is open or not. The screenshot below shows that the port is open.

Deluge used in Linux Mint 10 at port 50001 shows 'right' symbol which mean that the port is now open.

Now the port for Deluge and Transmission is opened to do the smooth downloading, but still, speed performance is subject to torrenting factors such as peers, seeding etc. The good is we already bypassed the limitation of torrent bandwidth by TMnet. Do read here the group of ISPs that are listed under Bad ISP by Vuze.

When both Deluge and Transmission is good to go, Vuze still unable to read port 50001 as open. Happy torrenting.

Disclaimer : Due to this article, some of the readers successfully done the upgrade and some had problem in connecting to the internet. Please be remember, flashing the TM's firmware into something else MAY void the warranty, instability in internet connection or unable to connect at all. Do at your own risk and I am held NO responsible to any failure.

Adding Linux Mint 10 into openSUSE's legacy GRUB

2010-11-21T12:49:00.000+08:00

Just to be safe side for those suse's lovers that don't want to use Mint's GRUB2, at least it worked for me. Please be informed that there are several workarounds and we can choose any of them, and this method is good against 1 OS to be installed on a single harddisk, however I've not try any single harddisk that split into several partitions.

I have 4 SATA hard disk in a row which are 160gb for Windows, 320gb for storage and 80gb for openSUSE 11.3, and the 4th of 80gb is going to install with Linux Mint 10. Before the installation, detach the other 3 harddisk first by cut off the power into the respective drive.

After the successfull installation of Mint, put back all the 3 harddisk and boot up the pc as usual. It is norm that the new partition of Mint won't be read in the openSUSE's GRUB boot loader. To add Mint partition we need further info of what actual drive is used by Mint. Hit the terminal as su.

fdisk -l

In my case, the arrangement is shown like this:-

linux-mor9:/home/yazid # fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19452 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x73c6f49e

Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id System
/dev/sda1   *           1       19452   156247040    7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00077db3

Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id System
/dev/sdb1               1         262     2103296   82 Linux swap / Solaris
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sdb2             262        2873    20972544   83 Linux
/dev/sdb3            2873        9730    55073792   83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdc: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x55ed2e5f

Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id System
/dev/sdc1   *           1       38914   312567808    7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdd: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000c46aa

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id System
/dev/sdd1   *           1        9328    74920960   83 Linux
/dev/sdd2            9328        9730     3227649    5 Extended
/dev/sdd5            9328        9730     3227648   82 Linux swap / Solaris

Now we can see the new partition used by Mint is /dev/sdd: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes. Now we are going to check the device mapper, in YaST check the available harddisk arrangement in boot loader setting in boot/grub/device.map Mine is showing like this:-

(hd0) /dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD1600AAJS-75B4A0_WD-WMAT21239131
(hd1) /dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST3808110AS_5LR6B3M5
(hd2) /dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD3200AAKS-75L9A0_WD-WCAV28024927

Please note there are only 3 running harddisk, hd0 is used by Windows 7, hd1 is used by openSUSE and the 3rd hd0 is used for storage. The 4th harddisk used by Linux Mint 10 is not there, however no need to worry as the 4th should be hd3. Now we already know that the Mint partition is /dev/sdd and hd3, next is we add that into boot loader. Either from YaST or terminal as su,

gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

and add the following into the list :-

#Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: none#
title      Linux Mint 10 << change it to any name as we want to.
root       (hd0,2)
kernel     /vmlinuz root=/dev/sda3 ro quiet splash
initrd     /initrd.img

Now the bold part need to change accordingly, (hd0,2) change to (hd3,0) and /dev/sda3 changed to the flag partition /dev/sdd1. Flag partition can be read as * under boot column in fdisk -l. Saved it, upon reboot we'll see Linux Mint 10 is in openSUSE's boot loader.

Sirih pinang atau betel nut

2010-11-20T17:14:00.004+08:00

Hari ni memang agak membosan bagi sesiapa yg bekerja, bila belek-belek internet terbaca pulak pasal sirih pinang ni. Pertamanya aku selalu ingat sirih pinang dikunyah oleh orang-orang tua samada dari bangsa Melayu atau India, tak sangka pulak bangsa Cina iaitu dari negara Taiwan kegilaan mengunyah sirih pinang ni sebahgian dari budaya yg telah temurun juga tempohnya. Teringat arwah atuk yang kelihatan meletakkan serpihan kecil pinang yg telah dikacip, sedikit gambir, secolek kapur dan sehelai daun sirih yang dilipat kemas sebelum dikunyah. Aku pernah cuba untuk kunyah benda tu, rasanya yg pedas dan tak sedap tu membuat kita fikir apakah keseronokkan yang diperolehi oleh golongan tersebut?

Sirih pinang atau betel nut, what the heck about Taiwan as I am mentioned before? here goes, the betel nuts's beauty sellers.

Betel nut, a mild stimulant, is enjoyed across Asia. But only in Taiwan is the nut sold by fetching young women in outrageous outfits, perched in neon-lit, see-through roadside stands.
Popularized in the 1990s, the so-called "betel nut beauty" phenomenon has long had a parade of critics, including feminists (the trade degrades women), health officials (betel nut causes oral cancer), embarrassed local officials (betel nut culture is low-class and vulgar) and environmentalists (the cash crop is over-planted and causes soil erosion).

Cara pemasaran yang unik untuk walaupun untuk jualan sirih, bagi setengah yang tidak tahu mungkin akan ingat mereka ni adalah sebahagian dari industri jalanan. Kalau menggunakan gadis muda yang seksi, siapakan pengguna sirih tersebut? rasanya rata-rata dari pengguna lelaki dari generasi muda.

What is that thing she is holding?, seems like a vibrator to me

Credit to Jonathan Adams and photographer Tobie Openshaw of GlobalPost.

MyPDACafe.com is shutting down

2010-11-17T21:03:00.006+08:00

One of the most active board, discussed mainly about gadgets and it's features. Once the most highly rated community that speaks the technology in professional manner, be it any brand of PDA and phones we'll get Q&A that helpful. This evening I received an email from MyPDACafe.com,

dear all, it has been good time.

due to lack of support from mods and founders I am going to temporary shutdown the site. Meanwhile, don't loose your passions.

Join the new active groups and keep beaming!

ps: Our facebook group will still live, to keep in-touch until we come back
;) If you are interested to be the new MPC you can message me.

sillycat
- yinsee@mypdacafe.com

As expected, I left MyPDACafe actively about more than 4 years back if my memory serves me right. My last visit was about few months ago, and the last post as 4 years ago still there. Questions by new members left unanswered. My experienced with MyPDACafe goes sour after the attitude of some senior members and the DiGi fanboy moderator that likes to bash others especially if they are not DiGi users, what a childish manner from a senior member.

MyPDACafe website is no longer there, however we'll be diverted into Facebook page as some members is still there to continue the fallen legacy, and a day the fallen will revive again.

So well MyPDACafe!

Testing Gwibber

2010-11-15T21:18:00.006+08:00

A very useful micro blogging apps in monitoring our favourite social network accounts without login into their respective webpage. Gwibber is installed in Linux Mint by default and can be used straight away without needed to look again for the installation. I have 3 accounts which is from Facebook, Twitter and Buzz.

The social networks currently supported by Gwibber are:-

Twitter
Identi.ca
StatusNet
Facebook
FriendFeed
Digg
Flickr
Qaiku

Other distros that have binary file that can be download and install via the command line are:-

	`apt-get install gwibber`
	`zypper install gwibber`
	`yum install gwibber`
	`emerge gwibber` (Gwibber 2.29.1 ebuild available here)

Installing Julia

2010-11-14T22:23:00.002+08:00

A very beautiful weekend and a good day to install the new Mint 10 Final into my 4th hardisk, couldn't wait for the upgrades from RC to Final. Fresh install should be another enjoyment.

As I don't want to get headache of GRUB2 overrides the legacy GRUB of openSUSE to do it's booting job, the best way is by cutting off the power of the hard disk attached to the board and leave alone the hard disk that is going to be install with Mint. The installation is supposed to faster but the known reason to us that updates from the repos are bad at the moment. The language packs took about more than 30 minutes to complete before the installation completed. I had problem in configuring the nVidia driver before as I am unable to boot into X. By adding the 'nomodeset' into somewhere in the kernel parameter as a workaround that saves most of the nVidia users around. The first screen resolution is similar to vesa (or nouveau?) which is not the native reso that I am supposed to get at 1440 x 900, there were also online update that offer me to download the proprietary nVidia driver 173. I am going to 260.19.12 instead of 173 with this command :-

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nvidia-current nvidia-settings

Did another more than 120 of updates from the Mint Updates and the overall time consumed of updating took more than 2 hours! I need to hold myself from downloading more applications as the connection to the server is so bad. Hopefully tomorrow I can continue of downloading more stuffs.

Of openSUSE and Mint 10

2010-11-13T21:08:00.005+08:00

I've been with openSUSE for a quite some times now, couldn't really remember of what year I am engaged with this distro but it was version 9.1 of SUSE Linux Pro box version bought from Novell Malaysia. Now the latest stable is 11.3 and I am currently using it.

Another distro that caught my mind is Linux Mint, I have to throw away my hatred towards Ubuntu at the moment and give it's derivative a try.

Awesome, simple as that.

I am suggesting Mint to change the name into Minu or in the full is "Minu Is Not Ubuntu", we already heard thousand times that "Wine is not emulator" for WINE and "GNU is not Unix" for GNU. What is Minu? guessing there should be a translation from any natives language around the world. Tell me if there are...

Back into Mint, this evening I am managed to download the iso of 64bit from the Taiwan mirror and the speed is quite ok despite some complaints of users that unable to download at faster speed. I am new to Mint.. the packaging, apt-get which I believe the same goes to someone who are so alien with YaST or zypper command in openSUSE. Try to get use to apt-get, should be no problem after few months I think. Mint has lots of software to be offer under it's Software Manager, but still I can find many outdated versions of softwares in there. For openSUSE communities, Packman's repository is offering to the almost up-to-date applications and thanks to the packagers as well. But for another 6 months before there are any new releases, Mint has still lot of room for the improvements. Mint is absolutely good for newbies who want to try GNU/linux for a first time.

The Clement Levebre and to the whole team of Mint, well done.

MyMil forum

2010-11-13T19:54:00.003+08:00

Kepada sesiapa yg berminat berdiskusi berkenaan hal2 ketenteraan, badan2 penguatkuasaan tempatan khususnya datanglah untuk berdaftar sebagai ahli forum di http://mymil.forums2u.com. Perbincangan adalah didalam bahasa Melayu, selain itu terdapat juga diskusi lain yg tidak berkaitan dengan ketenteraan. Perbincangan adalah bersifat santai, sesuai dengan motto utama iaitu Friendship, Intergrity dan Faithfulness.

Sejarah penubuhan forum ialah masih masih baru iaitu disekitar April 2010, dengan ahli yg hanya beberapa orang pada mulanya sehinggalah sekarang mempunyai ahli sekitar lebih dari 300 kesemuanya. Keaktifan sangat menggalakkan dan telah diadakan perjumpaan ringan bersama ahli dan anggota keluarga sebanyak 2 kali, yang pertamanya dibuat di TUDM Sg Besi dan keduanya ialah pada selepas Hari Raya Aidilfitri baru2 ini.

Linux Mint 10 "Julia" Final

2010-11-12T21:21:00.004+08:00

Sungguh menerujakan, baru aja cerita pasal Linux Mint 10 RC semalam dan pada petang ni Final version dah keluar untuk peminat-peminat Mint. Seperti biasa bila ada sesuatu versi yg baru, kesesakan talian tak dapat dielakkan dimana laman web Mint sukar untuk dilayari. Sesiapa yg ingin muat turun iso dari Mint bolehlah pintas melalui Distrowatch. At current 10 final releases, browsing into Mint's portal is almost impossible.

Linux Mint Gnome DVD 32bit iso direct download or torrent 832mb
Linux Mint Gnome DVD 64bit iso direct download or torrent 825mb

As I am already patched and updated everything during in RC, I am wondering if I am currently in Final or still in RC.

Linux Mint 10 RC

2010-11-11T22:38:00.004+08:00

Baru mencuba distro ni, kira-kira dah seminggu. Dalam erti kata lain baru berjaya boot ke dalam X, sebelum tu gagal beberapa kali. Sebabnya mudah, setelah beberapa tahun bersama openSUSE kadang2 kita ingat penyelesainya pada masalah Linux Mint adalah sama. To the Mint users that are using the nVidia 9400GT graphic card, mostly you are unable to boot into X after the GRUB and the screen will be on save mode. Which in that case, at the kernel parameter after the ro do insert the 'nomodeset' just before the word quiet splash. I went into this trouble by mistakenly adding the nomodeset at the end of it.

Mint 10 RC ni masih 'release candidate' lagi, menurut kata pengasas dia Clement Levebre versi final akan ada pada seawal November. Sekarang dah hampir pertengahan tapi masih belum ada khabar terbaru. Wokey, 2 versi dah pun dimuat turun iaitu 32bit dan 64bit. Mengambil dari kelebihan prosesor Intel Core 2 Duo E7300 dan RAM sejumlah 2 x 2gb maka Mint 10 64bit telah digunakan.

Pemasangan di cakera keras tidak mengambil masa yang lama, kira-kira dalam masa 15-20 minit. Saiz iso tidak besar iaitu dalam 600mb+ cukup hanya menggunakan CDR biasa. Mint 10 menggunakan Gnome, yeahh, one of the most stable DE around, I am tired of KDE 4.x that tend to crash due it's buggy plasma. I am used to be a KDE fan during the 3.x version, now I need to hang that at the door and wait for a really stable version of KDE to come true.

Mint adalah salinan semua versi Ubuntu, dan Mint 10 "Julia" adalah berasaskan Ubuntu 10.10 'Maverick'. To be honest, I am not going so well with Ubuntu. Julia adalah hasil pertukaran jantina yang asalnya bernama Maverick or make it smple in English, Julia was a man, her previous name was Maverick. Mint has gained it's popularity due to it's good looking and polished GUI, not to mention tons of software ready to be install for just a about few clicks or commands. I am giving this Ubuntu derivative a try, and the finding is 'great' and I am really love it. Maybe the best about Mint, it has restricted codecs and formats that are ready packed. Currently my Julia triple boot with the windoze 7 and openSUSE 11.3. As usual the default is openSUSE and I am using the legacy GRUB over the Mint's GRUB2.

FUP, Fair Usages Policy or something else?

2010-11-11T13:25:00.003+08:00

Selepas beberapa tahun menunggu akhirnya streamyx masuk jugak, walaupun hanya sekadar kelajuan 512 kbps melayari internet cukup memuaskan. Mungkin kedudukan rumah aku yang kira masih lagi di luar bandar, matter of internet congestion is out at the moment. Saying bye-bye to Celcom broadband is a must, bukan kerana Celcom perlahan ke apa tapi FUP bulanan yg menjengkelkan. I am someone who love linux and downloading iso is a must, imagine for opensuse 11.3 at 4.7gb on 5gb FUP! what is the main reason of implementing FUP anyway? kata nak prohibited p2p, torrenting dan jugak to be fair pada orang lain yg guna internet. Kalau nak fair pada orang lain kenapa pulak kena beli FUP tambahan? apa kalau beli FUP tambahan tu maksudnya orang lain tu akan dapat ganti rugi ke? or it just another trick how to generate extra revenues.

I am on broadband, at last.

2010-04-01T07:25:00.004+08:00

I am might be too late to enjoy this, but staying in rural area and hoping to get any wired broadband is sort of an impossible dream. Now I am with Celcom 3G, as at yesterday I am getting a full bar of UMTS as been shown by umtsmon. I am not sure if they also deployed the HSDPA broadcast, which if they are I am looking to upgrade my current package. For now my normal surfing needs the stable 384kbps under their D68 data only is more than enough, I guess. The cap limit at 5gb usages per month really concerned me, as now I am already exceeded more than half of it. As far as I can see most of the usages came from the new software I am download from packman repositories as well as the latest updates offered from opensuse.

As for now, welcome to celcom territory.

The 3rd day of 3G

2010-03-26T23:34:00.007+08:00

This is my 3rd day with Celcom 3G and almost a month of their broadband subscription. Looking back at my previous post here, the new coverage map now been updated and my place now covered under their 3G network. The M143 is the place of reference.

The current map;

The before in 2009;

They also put some update of cell broadcast, the network provider code 50219 is no longer there and replaced by My Celcom. The signal bar shows of weak reception, most probably due to heavy rain at that time. I locked the umtsmon to read '3G only' network, however I am getting full bar of GPRS if '3G preferred' selected.

Enough for today.

Celcom 3G, I am in.

2010-03-24T21:50:00.016+08:00

This will be my first day enjoying the internet from home, just forget about streamyx as their keep on giving me lame excuses of 'no DP and no nearby DP at close vicinity', for almost 3 years I am sick to hear that again and again.

Let's hear from Celcom then. Since from the last year I sent few emails to Celcom with regard to the 3G coverage. And the last few days, I sent to them again and this time together with simple statistics of population, places of attraction such as the location of beach resorts, location of 2 higher learning institutes; Akademi Laut Malaysia (ALAM) and Kolej Universiti Islam Melaka (KUIM) and lastly the rival EDGE by DiGi which is getting popular to the college students and offering more stable connection compare to Celcom's EDGE.

I am just subscribe into Celcom 3G package of D68 together with the free Huawei USB modem E1550, for the first week of EDGE not to mention the speed, my experienced with Celcom's EDGE is something really painful moment, getting a heart attack is something that must happen in near future. The best speed only can be gained somewhere early in the morning. The email sent to their inbox has been there for almost 2 weeks without any replies from them.

Their first reply to me,

Dear Mr Mohd Yazid

Thank you for your email.

To begin with, thank you for writing to us and we duly note on the comments made. Rest assured of our commitment to address the matter raised; while we continuously work to improve every aspect of our service. On that note, we would appreciate if you could kindly provide the following details for our next course of action:

1) Your Celcom data package number - 019-34242xx
2) Device/PDA/Notebook/PC / Phone Brand & Model (Type of Datacard)
3) Your Operating System (Leopard/Tiger/Windows/XP/Vista -etc)
4) Web browser used to surf internet (Mozilla/IE/Netscape/Opera -etc)
5) Time period (the start date of the problem)
6) Full address of the location during the problem
7) Signal bar on your device (laptop/note book screen or on your mobile phone)
8) Error appeared when disconnected
9) Alternative contact number - 019-655xxxx
We regret the inconvenience caused pending the settlement and we sincerely appeal for your kind understanding in this circumstance.

Best regards

Yuhana Othman
Customer Interaction Management
Customer Service

And followed by the 2nd reply after few days later;

Dear Mr Mohd Yazid

Reference is made to your e-mail.
For your information, your feedback on the Broadband service is noted with utmost concern and an investigation has been initiated based on your situation. On that note, your case ID reference is C100319-20120183. We regret the inconvenience caused pending the settlement and we sincerely appeal for your kind understanding in this circumstance. It is a pleasure serving you and we wish to extend our heart-felt thank you for your continued patronage and contribution to Celcom.

Best regards

Irma Aneeza Sani
Customer Interaction Management
Customer Service

With some relieves upon reading to their replies, I really hope something to be done by them, at least they will improve their crappy EDGE.

Yesterday.

I received a call from somebody name Encik Zaidi introducing himself from Celcom, told me that the 3G coverage soon to be extended to my place here somewhere at the end of this month. I am must be dreaming by hearing that.

Today.

As usual opening the internet to open some mailbox if any, not expecting something drastic about everything. Well, Kinternet shows me something unusual. Upon firing the umtsmon, there is a UMTS signal return from *50219* which is belongs to Celcom, no longer the pity GPRS indicator as before.

Surfing the internet really speedier than before, can open and play the online flv from youtube without any hiccups. Just to clear myself from these curiosity, I sent SMS to En Zaidi and he confirmed me that commissioning and broadcasting the 3G signal is going on and the first is at Paya Mengkuang, the next should be at my place in Kuala Sg Baru. Getting the half from the row of the bars are sufficient enough for my internet needs, luckily the umtsmon is able to lock the network into the '3G only' detection. Whatever, some might call this coincidence and I don't think that they spent millions of ringgit by upgrading the node just because of my email in a very short of time.

Thanks to those who concerned and willing to hear my grievances.

How the girls manage their PCs

2009-08-18T12:55:00.010+08:00

Years of involvement in computer sales and service, something that I would like to share how the girls (or women) manage their PC. Not to all, but most of my customers are, generally lacked of some basic knowledge how to maintain their PCs to be in good condition.

1- They loves to keep all the personal documents in My Document instead to copy/cut and paste them in additional partition such as D drive or any removable device. If there is any additional partition, hardly to see it is fully utilised. They tend to cry when the My Document folder inrecoverable due to Windows seriously corrupted.

2- They loves to create Windows account and password, and forget to remember the fancy characters password created before.

3- They loves to create a long mp3 or wav during Windows start up, yet complaining why the desktop so slow in loading everything.

4- Some just resist to install any antivirus, or doing regular update the virus definition.

5- Some would choose to close the windows by click the X when the antivirus detected the malwares rather than to clean or quarantine it.

6- Some prefer to keep the user ID and password to be remember always for their Yahoo Messenger, imagined how their naughty cyber partners online react to 'me'.

7- Some keep their sexy pose or half naked captured via the webcam and saved it in viewable folder in the computer rather than keep it somewhere else.

8- Not to mention the fancy fancy themes installed overlapping the original interface until a day the owner herself unable to find the start programs button!

9- Tonnes of Korean drama, few gigabytes of mp3s and thousand megabytes of jpeg, damn! it took almost a whole day to back up it all.

We the technical people seen this in order to make the full backup of any customers documents requested by them before the reformatting taking place. Not intently, but these are the process to be done because we don't want any nasty hidden autorun and viruses to be backed up together with the customer's document, un-hide the hidden folders mostly revealed everything. Some might face down in fully embarrassment, when we tell them where are the backup folder located. Usually some briefs information to be tell, "miss, this is your backup folder and your hidden files is in as well", she knows that we seen something.

There are thousands of story to be summarize here about the girls, but I am not doing so. This is about how careless they are, frequent at most of the time. So you girls with the personal laptop before sending it to any computer shop, first remember to back up your files first. Log out from any online chat application and messenger and if possible remove any private data and password remembering options from the browsers if you know how to do it. We do add some charge for the back up works if the files if the capacity is taking longer than usual transferring it.

Gnome to KDE and to Gnome.... again

2009-07-31T14:42:00.010+08:00

Spent most of my bed time from Gnome to KDE and back to Gnome again. Tried running the compiz over there in KDE, the same step taken in Gnome previously does not work in KDE. I wonder why, clueless. The stock compiz does not work, even I already put additional line in xorg.conf.

Back to Gnome. Installed everything needed either from factory and non oss repo. Check the glxinfo, frame at 140 fps. Added the new line in xorg.conf, restart and the frame boost to 1300+ fps and up to 4000+ fps if I am minimising the gear window. I assumed this is what we need in boosting the 3D rate, the magic character and number of Option "DRI" "1". The compiz-fusion that I thought could increase the overall 3D performance earlier are not true.

Oh man, imagine this!!

Sleepy...

Compiz Fusion boost my 3D performance?

2009-07-29T10:54:00.009+08:00

Ok, I haven't finish with this compiz thingy. Yesterday, I downloaded repositories of Compiz Fusion for openSUSE from here. I am not sure which folder to be download at first, just to make myself safe from missing dependencies issue during installation, I downloaded 3 files from the i586/ folder, noarch/ and src/ into my flash drive.

The installation went smooth without any error. I found that the compiz-fusion features offer more choice of effects compared to it's sibling compiz. And the thing that I am really impressed after read the glxgears, I am getting constantly rate whooping up to 1200+ fps compare to the previous at 140 fps!

From the details during the installation progress there were some modification made by yast2 to the kernel by adding the kernel header. The same process I believed used to install fglrx driver ATI Catalyst Center, might be not 100% same but 'ease of installation', the compiz-fusion developers won this even it is still in beta. Initiating fglrx is similar to set up the jigsaw puzzle, I had hard times in trying to resolve it just to make my 3D faster. The compiz-fusion is bundled with emerald themes manager, many attractive editable themes to choose, at least much better than the default, the dull GTK themes.

Running compiz without fglrx

2009-07-27T09:51:00.010+08:00

I am might be too outdated to discover this, all the while I thought compiz needed to run with fglrx enabled. Few days ago I read this forum at Cyberorg's Blog. To know if it works as they told, a simple line added by gedit to be follow as below. Gedit? yup, I am using Gnome right now as I found it a very very very stable X compare to KDE 4.1 However, thanks to those guys.

Changed the following in xorg.conf and viola Compiz is running here!!

Section “Device”
Option “DRI” “1″ # and this works even with radeonhd drivers

I don't know if it is also working with other drivers, but I am using ATI Radeon X1300 and it is detected as "radeonhd". I tried before to run compiz without any addition to xorg.conf but the screen turn to black after flickering for the few seconds. Now I can enable any effects offered in compiz advance setting.

It run smooth, perfect, or almost perfect even without fglrx.

fglrx not working

2009-07-25T12:19:00.009+08:00

oi.... pening betul macamana nak selesaikan masalah 3D atau fglrx untuk openSUSE aku ni. Kernel source dah install, kernel header pun dah masuk, dependencies cukup macamana yang diarahkan oleh ATI...log dia pun nampak cantik, tak ada cacat cela. fglrx tu nampak macam dah ok bila check kat dalam xorg.conf.fglrx, dri, direct rendering, screen resolution semua dah ready tertulis dengan cun punya. Bila cuba testing kat aticonfig, 3d test menunjukkan hasil no 2, iaitu gagal dalam menjalankan proses 3D. fglrxinfo return error. Dan yang paling tak gemar sekali bila reboot, openSUSE aku jadi black screen, terpaksalah logout dan masuk balik guna init 3 dan restore balik guna "aticonfig --initial -f" ni la payah kalau takde internet kat rumah, semuanya main congak2 ingat semula jalan penyelesaian masa baca dari dalam internet kat tempat kerja.

Sementara tu gunakanlah 2D dulu ni, 3D tu bukannya untuk apa cuma untuk membetulkan sikit video playback yg macam berkedip2 aja. Kalau main fullscreen lagi le buruk aja rupanya.

I am looking forward to resolve this ATI's 3D driver issue for my openSUSE, time to read more for one who is so lazy in reading like myself.

Making up the casing

2009-07-20T13:15:00.036+08:00

Just to fill a weekly boredom, I decided to fill of some my free time to remake up my old plain black casing into something new look alike. A good casing bought from a PC Fair many years ago, somewhere when the annually event held in PWTC before they change venue into KLCC.

Originally it has 2 layers of front panel, the first panel that cover all the optical devices and floppy bay and the inner layer. For many years that served me well, few days ago those 2 panels broke as the 4 clips that hold the panel worn out, due to the weight the panel always drop on the floor. A good time to give this unit a cheap 'plastic surgery', not much many to be fork out from the pocket if I buy a new unit of casing.

PART 1, PREPARATION

Common tools used in the surgery were a piece of transparent acrylic plate, took it from a broken price tag frame. 2 cans of color spray of black and orange at RM6 respectively, 2 ply abrasive papers at RM1.50, rounded head bolt 5 mm at RM1 per pack and a roll of 2" masking tape at RM3.

Stripped everything, some parts need to be polish by using the abrasive paper before spray. If not doing so the colour tend to peel easily even by minor scratch. Covered some areas by masking tape if needed.

The internal part I am using orange colour, pretty matched with black. Sprayed several times lightly about 10 minutes interval, as it will make the finishing layer much stronger not easy to peel off.

Orange just too good to resist, 2 units of air intake fans and a PSU cannot be spare, going orange! Well, so sorry to the cat.

PART 2, INSTALLATION

Installed the mainboard back into the casing follow by the HDDs. I got 3 of them, 1 for Windows and 1 is for openSUSE and the 3rd is currently another partition of Windows and I use to keep movies and musics. This partition also I use to share and play multimedia files from my openSUSE.
Installed the AGP card, the old ATI Radeon X1300, still served me well until today. The transparent acrylic plate now as a new front cover. Some area at the plate has been cut according to the size of the CDROM bay and 4 of 5mm holes to insert the round head bolt. The CDROM bay I am put it somewhere in the middle and not at the top or bottom, purposely to make the CDROM looks floating or hanging.

Now, the main problem I don't know where to put the on/off button. I decided to cut off the button's portion from the original front cover (pic below) . The best place for the new button is at the opal shape hole at the right middle of front casing, another new cut off need to be make at the acrylic plate. This is to make some space for the on/off button (2nd pic below).

PART 3, THE FINAL

The new feel from the old casing, light up from the blue colour Cooler Master vent fans located at the side and rear, glowing in the dark like an aquarium.

Don't know to put what title..

2009-07-18T12:25:00.006+08:00

My openSUSE not much to be update these few days. I keep myself from right clicking in attempt to preview any icons or application especially at the desktop or else KDE will crash. KDE 4 is at his teething period ,'cotton soft' comparing to it's 3.5 elder brother which is more 'rock solid' I would say.

These few days spent some times in watching animes and hear some musics. Between players that I have and tested for playing movies, VLC is the king, but too bad no sound when playing .3gp files. Mplayer is the option as default for .3gp though some error message 'damage header' will appear at the end of playback, still video and sound can be play. Noatun? from previous version of SUSE until now I still don't know what kind of this application offering me? I don't have much comments about Kaffeine or Totem as in general they can play some videos and sounds as long we have the right codecs installed.

Playing MP3s, I am using Amarok . But some other reasons we will find that VLC is much better as it provide the equalizer that can pump and boom out more suited to our pleasant hearing. Not much to do beside hear this or watch that, my openSUSE is working without the internet. Talking about the internet, this is the 2nd time my application been rejected due to insufficient streamyx port at my area, "lagi 1 bulan kita kita akan upgrade sistem kita......" the lame same excuse and satement that I already heard last 3 years ago. WTF!

When the green turn into white....

2009-07-15T09:48:00.004+08:00

Annoyed! openSUSE KDE 4 frequent crashed is really bugging me. I tried several times KDE 3.5 and KDE 4, just to see which one is more stable but the later crashed too often. Usually it will recover for a few seconds and will be OK but this time the whole screen turn into white with an error message in the middle, WSOD??

Under repairing mode, the are error in all ext3 linux partitions and repaired it all but still can't get KDE to run normally. WSOD?? I did the fresh installation to all linux partitions, which include the /home partition.

Now they are running again but the it can't be shutdown as it will hang somewhere. I believe the system unable to terminate any running services during the shutting down process. The weird thing is, failure in shutting down only happened in the main menu but not from the additional small on/off button created from the widget. I encountered this same problem not only in KDE 4 but KDE 3.5 as well.

I am too sleepy right now this morning, dealing with those bugging KDE overnight really cost my bed time. My eye lids is going to shut down much faster compare to shutting down openSUSE, switched off the main power supply was the best option left. OFF.

Time to read and read more after this. Gnome now hovering into my mind, yawn....

The sexy green 11.1

2009-07-13T17:32:00.010+08:00

Last weekend I accidentally wiped out my data from the harddisk. To make the story short possible, looking for missing GRUB after completed the openSUSE 11.1 and in attempt to fix the MBR, I lost most of my files. Odd enough, installing openSUSE v9.x and 10.x are more straight forward, the GRUB will be appear once I reboot the PC. But this time in openSUSE 11.1, the same hardware and HDD, GRUB is hiding somewhere between the partitions which either can't boot XP or openSUSE. Things unresolved until I read a good article from this guy Swerdna here not only about the GRUB but he wrote other informative tutorials related to openSUSE as well.

First impression upon seeing the KDE 4, wow! but had a difficult time in configuring the desktop arrangement, icons layout and shortcut in KDE 4.X is different compare to KDE 3.X. IMO, KDE 3.X has reached it's desktop maturity and I feel very easy to use and configure. I am going back into KDE 3.5 after few days using KDE 4.X.

KDE 3.5 is no better in term of many applications provided in distribution DVD is largely for KDE 4, since I do not have internet connection to choose more applications for KDE 3 online the best option left for offline user like me in running openSUSE is to stick with KDE 4. Well, now I am running KDE 4 at the end. Development progress is still going on, KDE 4 is doing well. We always read about war of opinions between Gnome fans and KDE fans, but a new battle emerged between KDE 3.5 and KDE 4 as we can read some here.

Well, in general what I discovered so far in openSUSE 11.1. YaST detected my AGP card ATI Radeon X1300 and automatically set my DELL LCD E1909W's resolution to 1440X900, but still the 3D effect is another workaround to resolve later. Installed several multimedia, luckily managed to get the all repositories in able to run the restricted codecs. Playing the .avi formats a bit crappy, not to mention the HD movies in .mkv format. VLC, Mplayer and Xine doing well in playing those files except .3gp only playable in Mplayer.

Looking forward to wait next version, more and more sexier openSUSE.

Morro antivirus by Microsoft?

2009-06-20T15:45:00.006+08:00

Tengah2 boring petang Sabtu ni, masa surfing internet terbaca pulak satu blog tulis tentang Microsoft ada release dia punya antivirus yang dikasik kod nama sebagai Morro dan sekarang telah ditukar kepada Microsoft Security Essentials. Tak pernah dengar dan rasa nak cuba macamana dia punya detection terhadap malware. Kalau ada sesiapa yang berminat boleh le lawat blog tu kat Techhack: Latest Tech News and Tips n Tricks.

Le Festin lyrics from Ratatouille soundtrack

2009-06-20T12:42:00.005+08:00

My kids asked me where to get the Le Festine lyrics, getting one is not a problem. The problem is how they are going to sing it well in french pronunciation?

Well, here are the lyrics in french and english translation as well.

Lyrics | Camille - Le Festin lyrics

French lyrics:

Les rêves des amoureux sont comm’(e) le bon vin
Ils donn(ent) de la joie ou bien du chagrin
Affaibli par la faim je suis malheureux
Volant en chemin tout ce que je peux
Car rien n’est gratuit dans la vie

L’espoir est un plat bien trop vite consommé
A sauter les repas je suis habitué
Un voleur solitaire est triste à nourrir
A un jeu si amer je n’peux réussir
Car rien n’est gratuit dans…

La vie… Jamais on ne me dira
Que la course aux étoiles; ça n’est pas pour moi
Laissez moi vous émerveiller et prendre mon en vol
Nous allons en fin nous régaler

La fêt(e) va enfin commencer
Sortez les bouteilles; finis les ennuis
Je dresse la table, de ma nouvell(e) vie
Je suis heureux à l’idée de ce nouveau destin
Une vie à me cacher et puis libre enfin
Le festin est sur mon chemin

Une vie à me cacher et puis libre enfin
Le festin est sur mon chemin

English lyrics:

Dreams are to lovers as wine is to friends
Carried through lifetimes, (and) spilled now and then
I am driven by hunger, so saddened to be
Thieving in darkness; I know you’re not pleased
But nothing worth eating is free

My hope is a banquet impatiently downed
Impossibly full, now I’ll probably drown
Many thieves’ lives are lonely with one mouth to feed
If giving means taking, I’ll never succeed
For nothing worth stealing is…

Free at last; won’t be undersold
Surviving isn’t living; won’t eat what I’m told
Let me free, I’ll astonish you; I’m planning to fly
I won’t let this party just pass me by

The banquet is now underway, so…
Bring out the bottles; a new tale has spun
In clearing this table, my new life’s begun
I am nervous, excited; (oh) just read the marquee!
A lifetime of hiding; I’m suddenly free!
My dinner is waiting for me

A lifetime of hiding; I’m suddenly free!
My dinner is waiting for me

Another short story of this week

2009-06-19T16:35:00.006+08:00

Forget about overclocking, everything goes fine after me reset the mobo. Actually this is about last week, I watched a movie, a cartoon movie.. Ratatouille. Oh man, I love this movie, watched more than 5 times, so do my kids. Yup, we have other animated movies such as Madagascar, Clone War, Ice Age etc, nothing just good as this Ratatouille. We love the singing soundtrack even we don't know french, we just love it. Ratatouille story line is about a friendship between a mouse and a human, a mouse that can cook willing to help his human friend in running the restaurant. Ratatouille itself beside the name given as the movie title, it is actually a food found in some of Mediterranean countries.

Here goes some clip shot of the movie taken from the youtube as below, it is also where the part I like most.

And not to forget the soundtrack as I mentioned earlier, Le Festin by Camille Dalmias..

Now I am thinking to adopt a mouse as a pet lah.

Short story of this week

2009-06-19T15:40:00.008+08:00

This is my second mobo after the first back into it's box due to 'strange' behavior after several overclocking made. It was a successful at the beginning, increasing the clock of my Intel Pentium 4 HT Northwood , from 2.8Ghz up to 3.0Ghz and more, and more. A couple of restart, the BIOS became to slowwww and sometime froze, unable to respond to any key pressed. Removing the CMOS cell or reset the jbat does not help at all. The bad, guess? I burnt my mobo. The good, the new mobo* out of the box taking place into the housing.

*It is new in term of never been used before, unwrap from it's antistatic plastic cocoon. I bought it from Lowyat before moved to Melaka from Shah Alam last 2 years. In term of technology, this model is already old . It is mobo socket 478 which is now supposed to be an antic to be display in the museum as an precious artifact*

Well the so called new mobo is a Jetway motherboard, specification almost the same as my previous which in fact share the same driver and hardware, support hyper threading, support of 800 FSB.. just to name a few.

Yesterday, with the passion of overclocking I checked into the BIOS configuration, if there are some numbers could be playing with.... aha! core clock is multiply by 14, I am getting the max of 10% increased of core speed! the third time after changing some values for DRAM, my mobo suddenly failed to start, with a long beep buzzing sound before the system shut down by itself.

Hopefully, I am no need to get the third after this.

Commercial junks

2009-06-11T12:04:00.006+08:00

We don't really know how to deal or what to do with these junks, old and used branded computers of Compaq, Fujitsu, Gateway, IBM and some locally installed named Konmas. All together is about more than 40 units but no longer can be use to sell as working and running hardware as people in Malaysia today prefer to buy new. A good sign, at least we know we are in 'wealthy' status... err minus myself. Currently we have to keep it as spare parts which in case someone may need parts replacement for their own, else sell them all to scrap metal dealer. Junks, but still got it's commercial value on how we are going to do with it.

My new gadget, a brand new LCD monitor Dell 19" E1909W for my old rig of Pentium 4 HTT. Connected by DVI cable which fully run on digital the colors and graphics..... COOL. Watching HDTV movies in matroska format, my kids sit quietly with face of full of impression. Likely this is the time to get more HD movies for this school holidays. At first I am going to get an Acer 20", but after comparing these 2, the Dell 19" got most to my attention for the price of RM400 with 3 years warranty and site support.

Bleach 222 and 07-Ghost 9

2009-06-03T16:24:00.007+08:00

Oii bleachers and 07-Ghost fans! come and get these 2 new weekly animes from dattebayo fansub here and here. Couldn't wait to watch if Arrancar can defeat the Soul Society in attempt to destroy the Karakura town. For 07-Ghost, I am wondering what is Teito Klein's true power hidden inside his body.

A spooky networking hoho

2009-06-01T13:47:00.012+08:00

My fat fingers

The job that gave me really headache, connecting cat6 networking cables from the clients to the server which I resumed the work from someone unknown to me without further details what he/she has done before me. Well I did this job as requested by a friend to help him to identified the cable from where to where; the worst are, none of the cable have the tag and nobody can give me exact information what straight cable code they are using either T568A or T568B. From what I understand from their in-house technician, putting 'straight cable' connection is enough and that gave me the hell by need to cut all the RJ45 that used T568A code as they are using mixed code.

Not to mention what place where I am working for, it is an government agency located in Masjid Tanah. I need to working till late evening where all the staffs already gone home except 1 security guard at the outside. Office is pretty spooky and creepy place for a lone, added to the creepy sense is a graveyard sighting just over the road which can clearly visible.

Time is running out, the sun almost submerge into the horizon. I quickly punched and tested all the RJ45 with the tester device, switch on the server controller and the LAN communicated to all clients and the internet as well. Works done almost at 8 pm, few days after the installation and no complaint receive, I assumed the job completed without any mistake done, hopefully.

Anime madness

2009-05-30T17:44:00.008+08:00

For the past few years of inactive in blogging, the same madness and until today I am downloading Japanese animes of Naruto Shipudden (since Naruto when he is still a kid), Bleach and now 07-Ghost. I not reading any manga as it will spoil my mood of watching the video. As usual those who are interested to download from dattebayo fansub, you may check those guys in action from here. However, the anime I follow most is Bleach and 07-Ghost.

07-Ghost ia a new anime launched by Deen Studio of Japan, for video the the latest episode is no 8 but if we read manga the latest episode is more than 35 series of released. For the first 8 episodes of 07-Ghost the storyline is kinda boring which no serious fighting taking place so far. The venue also still hovering at the same place so called District 7.
I wish for next release I can watch real battle as Bleach.

Celcom 3G, where are you?

2009-05-30T16:27:00.008+08:00

In reply to Mohd Irwan Jamaludin a.k.a SysAdmin why I am not going for Celcom 3G for internet connection, in fact I wrote 3 emails to them for the past 1 year. They replied that my area is not in the list to upgrade into 3G coverage from current 2g network, at least not in 5 years time. The Masjid Tanah town which is about 10 km from my house is covered by 3G dan HSDPA as well. Some remote kampungs nearby my house also covered by 3G, low reception but we can always locked the modem into 3G only mode instead of auto. Tried the connection there and the speed quite satisfactorily for the remote house in deep of rubber plantation.

This is the map released by Celcom, the colour code key is purple for HSDPA and 3G, orange for 3G and yellow for GPRS. My house located at the left corner of the map which is only covered by GPRS.

My OpenSUSE is going nowhere

2009-05-29T15:37:00.004+08:00

The same rhythm whisper into the air again.... the newly downloaded OpenSUSE 11 is going nowhere as lack of the internet to get the right software and updates. Another appeals to be submit though... known to me the same reason of no new port could be offer at this moment. Now it has been almost 3 years the same reason given to me.

Going back to Vista, mostly for watching movies and playing the FIFA 09. How boring the life is without the internet!

Return into blogging, hopefully

2009-01-12T15:12:00.009+08:00

Years of isolation from the internet, my sexy suse going nowhere without the internet and my pc almost a dummy. The games is the things that still make it alive and breathing. Yup, and I am still stuck with OpenSUSE 10.0.

Recently few things is going to make my days more brighten, hopefully. Some of my friends in TM told me that I can have the internet connection without the phone line, it isn't a wireless or CDMA but a fixed line without the phone number subscription, plus the speed connection that can be set up to 2mbps. How I am going to have the internet accounts if I don't have the phone line subscription?

err still thinking about any possibilities..

Now I am downloading OpenSUSE 11.1 at my workplace via the flashget at 80kBps connection. Maybe few hours or days to go to complete the DVD version.

Harddisk failure

2006-11-13T14:56:00.002+08:00

Oh man, I can't boot my SUSE due to hardisk failure. The good is I have another spare hardisk to replace with but I need to install the OpenSUSE 10.1 from the beginning. It will be time consumed when there are tons of updates to get the latest. Thinking again, the next version 10.2 just around the corner and I going to wait that for sure, at this moment I just let my new hardisk empty until the new version of OpenSUSE released. The roadmap for OpenSUSE 10.2 can be find here.

Living in Melaka

2006-11-07T13:59:00.000+08:00

It has been about 6 months I am in Melaka, the land of legendary Hang Tuah or Jebat the traitor! I can see stars twinkling (which hardly seen when I was staying in Shah Alam) and breathing some fresh air under the shady coconut trees. My house just a walking away from the sandy beach.

All these happened after taking the VSS from my previous employer. Actually it was not really a voluntarily scheme as what they practiced, but you are forced to go away. If you choose to stay, the job position and salary will be uncertain and subjected to new employment's term and condition. Upon accepted, likely everything will be downgrade, not much you can demand.

By the seaside looking at the golden sunset over the far horizon, under the coconut tress.... life goes on. (some Sumatrans over the strait sending the haze that will shorten my life, I need to move quickly, it's choking!)

Life unplugged

2006-07-10T10:50:00.001+08:00

Moved to the new place and how boring the life without internet connection. Currently no phone line, my line application to TM still pending due to unknown reason. Of course no dial-up, no Streamyx and other options such as Jaring Wireless Broadband or Jaring Wired Broadband are million miles far from reality. No 3G, and the only source I am connected to internet is by GPRS, at least better than dial-up I think, but really a killer in term of usages cost. I missed www.

Naruto 190

2006-06-25T12:50:00.001+08:00

WTF! I am accidently deleted the Naruto 190 from the folder after download it last night. Now I have to start download it once again **sigh**. For Naruto fans can download the episode 190 here .

My W900i automounted as digital camera

2006-06-23T09:37:00.001+08:00

Good, no need for me to buy digital camera at this moment, at least. I have been trying to sync my previous camera phone into digiKam but failed as it refused to read my handphone as a digital camera. But with my Sony Ericsson W900i connected to PC it will prompted for USB File Transfer menu. By selecting this the phone will restart itself from 'phone mode' to USB media device mode, at this stage the phone cannot be use as usual. During the restarting process, SUSE will detect this phone as a new hardware or device. My phone is having two memory modules, the phone itself identified as /dev/sda1 and the mountpoint is /media/PHONE or PHONE by name. The memory stick used by the phone is read as /dev/sdb1 and the mountpoint as /media/usbdisk and Removable Media by name. The details of mounted devices can be read by clicking the My Computer icon.

The /media/usbdisk mime is recognised as mounted camera, right click to open with any of digital camera images management and I am using digiKam as my preference. In digiKam, there is no exact device model driver for my W900i but it read as Mass Storage Camera and it works very well. Everytime I run digiKam and click the Mass Storage Camera, the phone will start connecting with digiKam and all the images inside the phone can be viewed automatically, download and do the image editing if desired. Please be remember, the device need to be unmount first before removing the data cable which failed to do so can corrupt the expensive memory inside the phone. In SUSE, umount can be done from My Computer, right click the device and choose Safely Remove menu and the phone will restart back to full phone mode. With all these enabled, my W900i also automounted as an 1.5GB 'iPod' to sync with amaroK ;)

Playaround with Bluetooth dongle in SUSE

2006-06-22T20:00:00.001+08:00

Nothing much to do this evening, went to Plaza Low Yatt and bought a cheap Bluetooth USB dongle at RM25 because the same model in Shah Alam was RM50. This tiny gadget I am going to use it to transfer some files between my desktop and my Sony Ericsson W900i, mostly for MP3 songs downloaded from internet. I can download MP3 direct to my handphone connected by 3G but at RM0.10 per 10KB and each size of MP3 song is about 4-5MB, the bill can kill me at the end of month. Installation in Windows just too easy, pop-in bluetooth cd driver and restart. How about installation in SUSE? at first I am failed to run it in SUSE, not because SUSE does not support bluetooth but I can't find the correct configuration. After several attempts, at last I managed to configure and run the bluetooth.

Back to where I started, during KDE start-up SUSE detected the new hardware and the configuration need to be done in YaST. The grey Bluetooth icon will appear in KDE syatem tray. In the Bluetooth Configuration window, enable the service and fill the necessary informations such as local pin and select if the pin need to be ask in the future.

Open the Advanced Daemon Configuration button and select the daemon to be activated during start-up and I am enabled them all except HID2HCI. Edit any if necessary for each daemon. Ok to proceed.

From the menu or at the bluetooth icon called KbluetoothD, configure the KDE Control Module to enable the service to run along with KDE. At the Local Services column, enable all the 3 services (not necessary all depending on user). But what really important to myself is I need the OBEX Object Push client to do files transfer to and from, between my phone and the desktop.

Jump to Device Discovery column, Add New Job and create name to the new job. At this stage turn on the bluetooth service from the handphone or any other devices to be use. At the Job Settings, marked the Listed Devices Only, and the dongle will scan our device. In my case I already given a name to my W900i as GiGiBiRu and this name detected together with Device address. Click Ok to proceed.

If we already knew our device name and address, just fill in the exact figure in Confirmation column and assign the Policy to allow, ask or deny. I am set 'allow' to kbtobexsrv (Obex service) as my PC already paired with the handphone with pin protection. Klik Ok to finalized all the KDE Control Module settings.

To test the service if both can recognised to each other, from the PC open any files with right click, scroll down the menu to Action and Send With Bluetooth. By permission, the phone will received the transfers and the progress can be viewed from Bluetooth OBEX Object Push client as screenshot below. Same goes from handphone to the PC, but the receiving files said to be in /tmp directory as default but I can't find it in there instead to var/lib/bluetooth Now we are done with the bluetooth configuration in SUSE.

Different from yesterday and days before, today I am able to download MP3 songs and transfer them via bluetooth to my W900i without need to boot Windows anymore. Now listening to Pump It from Black Eyed Peas.

Bleach 86

2006-06-21T17:01:00.001+08:00

This is my weekly strict anime session. To all Bleach fans, come and get your shinigami's reitsu from here!!

Opera 9 final is here

2006-06-21T16:18:00.000+08:00

Opera 9 has passed the beta version, now the final can be download from here. Many improvements as what can I see for this final version, my blogpages no longer looked weird as before, even viewed from beta version not really good as this. Viewing web pages in Opera 9 delivered as same as Firefox, quite impressive. Additional features such as built-in Torrent downloader really simple, no need to get other Torrent clients and also have its own RSS Feed reader. It has them all and made things simple.

Sony Ericsson W900i

2006-06-19T21:40:00.000+08:00

yoo hoo, just bought this Sony Ericsson W900i, at last. There are rumours that Sony Ericsson no longer sell this model in Malaysia, now it become limited in the local market and of course the price will take a longer time to go down eventhough for an AP set which is still around RM2000, but I am getting very much.. much.. cheaper than this. Whats good about this phone? it is 3G phone, 2 megapixel camera with CCD technology, 2" QVGA 262K colour screen, rich mobile multimedia support for audio and visual, it's a mixed parentage of Sony Walkman and Sony Cybershot that embed into a mobilephone where the visuals and sounds are really superb. Generous built-in 470MB memory and if the memory still not enough we can add-in memory stick PRO Duo to extend more the capacity up to 2GB. Find more about W900i specs here. Or want to feel the excitement, feel it virtually here. This phone also working fine as modem in my SUSE 10.1, perhaps if I own a lappy I can get mobile with 3G connection without any data card.

World Cup Live Score widget by Opera 9

2006-06-18T11:29:00.001+08:00

Still about widget mania, and this time by Opera 9. One of the cool widget by Opera 9 is Goal 06 Live Score and can be download from here (in Opera 9 browser only). There are also many widgets with many functions and can be choose from here. All Opera widget can be set to be run on top, below and normal mode. However these widgets can run only with Opera 9, it will be close whenever we exit the browser.

Mirrors use by Smart for SUSE 10.1

2006-06-18T00:42:00.001+08:00

This list of mirrors use by Smart Package Manager for SUSE 10.1. This list of mirrors are for my future reference, and if anybody find it useful they may use it and these mirrors are subject to avability and changes. The list started from published mirror followed by sub mirror underneath. The lists are correct as at today 18/06/2006.

SUSE Linux online update
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/update/10.1/
http://ftp.belnet.be/mirrors/ftp.suse.com/suse/update/10.1/
http://ftp.skynet.be/pub/ftp.suse.com/suse/update/10.1/
http://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/suse/ftp.suse.com/suse/update/10.1/
ftp://mirror.switch.ch/mirror/suse/suse/update/10.1/
ftp://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/update/10.1/

Packman 3rd party package repository
http://packman.inode.at/suse/10.1
http://packman.mirrors.skynet.be/pub/packman/suse/10.1
http://packman.rsync.zmi.at/suse/10.1
http://ftp.uni-erlangen.de/pub/mirrors/packman/suse/10.1

SUSE 10.1 opensource repository
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/SL-10.1/inst-source
http://ftp.belnet.be/mirrors/ftp.opensuse.org/opensuse/distribution/SL-10.1/inst-source
http://opensuse.mirrors.skynet.be/pub/ftp.opensuse.org/opensuse/distribution/SL-10.1/inst-source
ftp://ftp.tu-chemnitz.de/pub/linux/opensuse/distribution/SL-10.1/inst-source
ftp://mirror.switch.ch/mirror/opensuse/distribution/SL-10.1/inst-source
http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/ftp.opensuse.org/pub/opensuse/distribution/SL-10.1/inst-source
ftp://gd.tuwien.ac.at/opsys/linux/opensuse/distribution/SL-10.1/inst-source

Guru 3rd party package repository
http://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/misc/suser-guru/rpm/10.1
http://ftp.skynet.be/pub/suser-guru/rpm/10.1

Latest Mozilla.org packages
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/projects/mozilla/10.1
http://ftp.belnet.be/mirrors/ftp.suse.com/projects/mozilla/10.1
http://ftp.skynet.be/pub/ftp.suse.com/projects/mozilla/10.1
http://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/suse/ftp.suse.com/projects/mozilla/10.1
ftp://ftp.tu-chemnitz.de/pub/linux/suse/ftp.suse.com/projects/mozilla/10.1
http://ftp.uni-erlangen.de/pub/Linux/MIRROR.suse/pub/projects/mozilla/10.1

SUSE 10.1 Add-On repository with non OpenSource Packages
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/SL-10.1/non-oss-inst-source
http://ftp.belnet.be/mirrors/ftp.opensuse.org/opensuse/distribution/SL-10.1/non-oss-inst-source
http://opensuse.mirrors.skynet.be/pub/ftp.opensuse.org/opensuse/distribution/SL-10.1/non-oss-inst-source
ftp://ftp.tu-chemnitz.de/pub/linux/opensuse/distribution/SL-10.1/non-oss-inst-source
ftp://mirror.switch.ch/mirror/opensuse/distribution/SL-10.1/non-oss-inst-source
http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/ftp.opensuse.org/pub/opensuse/distribution/SL-10.1/non-oss-inst-source
ftp://gd.tuwien.ac.at/opsys/linux/opensuse/distribution/SL-10.1/non-oss-inst-source

Latest KDE applications
http://software.opensuse.org/download/KDE:/Backports/SUSE_Linux_10.1

Latest KDE 3.5.x packages
http://software.opensuse.org/download/KDE:/KDE3/SUSE_Linux_10.1

Flock revisit

2006-06-16T19:26:00.000+08:00

Remember the Flock web browser 0.5 once some people called it Flock the super Firefox?. Now they released the latest version Flock Beta1 0.7 with some improvements such as numbers of extension. Now they are standing tall and carrying the motto The Web Browser For You and Your Friends.

I just download it yesterday and my opinion about this latest Flock, it is not bad at all. Flock is avaliabe for Windows, Mac and Linux. For Linux it can be download from here. More information about Flock we can visit their website here.

This week of Naruto and Bleach

2006-06-15T13:00:00.001+08:00

As usual same a previous week, the most awaited anime series Bleach and Naruto can be get from torrent. Yesterday I watched Bleach Special 2 in 1 series after few hours of long waiting. Get the Bleach Special 84 and 85 from here. The fights between Soul Society and notorious Bounto still no ending yet. Hopefully this coming episode 86 next week I can see more fights and a good ending.

Naruto 189 just released this morning, I am getting only 2 seeders and the speed really damn slow! However bit by byte of waiting I am sure it will getting improved after few hours. Naruto 189 torrent can be get from here.

Widgets mania

2006-06-14T22:07:00.000+08:00

SuperKaramba for Windows? we know that SuperKaramba is for KDE, gDeskets is for Gnome or maybe both and Dashboard for Mac, is there any widget for Windows? yes there are, screenshots of widgets for windows as belows:-

More widgets for Windows can be get from Yahoo! Widgets, Samurize, Kapsules and AveDesk. This is a time to get some eye candy for their desktop, nice thing to do after tired of combating with viruses and malwares and... :P

Bleach Special

2006-06-14T20:22:00.001+08:00

For Bleach fans, the special release 2 in 1 episodes of 84 and 85 (size 275.1MB) can be get from here or any of your favourite torrent sites. Currently I am still downloading it now and hopefully can be complete by this evening, seeders still not many and the downloading speed is too slow. Just can't wait to watch the next fights.

How to install Google Earth for SUSE

2006-06-13T13:28:00.001+08:00

Good news, Google Earth Beta V4 now avaliable in Linux. Linux users can get more infos on recommended requirements and download it from here. The 3D rendering not so smooth but not bad as it is still in beta version. The installation file is GoogleEarthLinux.bin, for SUSE 10.1 users the installation need to be done in console, definitely simple.

1. cd to where GoogleEarthLinux.bin been download to.
2. ~~by su enter chmod a+x GoogleEarthLinux.bin to make it executable~~
3. sh GoogleEarthLinux.bin or ./GoogleEarthLinux.bin
4. Done, your rooftoop now can be viewed from Linux.

UbuntuOSX - Mac OSX theme for Ubuntu

2006-06-12T14:55:00.001+08:00

I haven't tried the latest Ubuntu yet, currently still working and playing around with SUSE 10.1. Good news about SUSE 10.1 is OpenSUSE already fixed their most annoying bugs, the package management chaos.

And some simple updates on Mozilla Firefox run smoothly by ZMD, at least. Still I can't rely on ZMD for me it is not good enough firstly they are still slow and some update seemed broken during downloading. However, I am sure they will keep on improving on the latest patches.

Meanwhile, I just found a blog on how to convert your Ubuntu to Mac OSX look-alike. An interesting thing to be done for eye candy lovers.

Tips how to customize Ubuntu into Mac, we can make-up them with Lauri Taimila's guide. Ubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake! here I come.

Update
Due to some reasons and other project he has to attend, Lauri Taimila is no longer provide us further guide to UbuntuOSX. Wish him all the best.

Aero AIO - SuperKaramba's superkaramba

2006-06-11T12:21:00.000+08:00

Another new theme added into my Karambas collection is the Aero AIO (all-in one). The best about this theme we can add the plugins and easy configurable direct from the main theme without editing the main script. The plugins are consists of system infos, process monitoring, clock, calendar, notes, amaroK player, email (Gmail, pop3 are supported and can add into 3 maximum accounts under single mail plugin), netstat, RSS news feed etc etc. Some plugins are already built-in when we download Aero AIO, additional plug-in just to suits our preference which are the best functional to us. The plugins that support Aero AIO come with filename.aiz extension and can be open with Aero itself.

First get the Aero AIO from here. The file named aero_aio.skz to be open with SuperKaramba interface and we'll get something like the first image above. To enriched the functions, we need several plugins and one of my favorite is amaroK plugin, get it from here and the file named amarok-audio-aiz.aiz to be open with Aero AIO configuration as the second image above. Once the new plugin installed, the new small amaroK icon will appear inside Aero AIO theme, click it will activate the player automatically. However using the built-in amaroK plugin is good enough. To look for more Aero AIO plugins, search more from KDE-Look.

Screenshots of my running Aero AIO:-

Personal desktop computing will not so merrier without eye-candy, SuperKaramba for my KDE desktop just doing great.

How to install and run SuperKaramba

2006-06-09T23:06:00.000+08:00

I received several inquiries about how to install and run SuperKaramba themes. First download SuperKaramba tar file from here or SUSE users can get Guru RPM file from here. Once installed you can get SuperKaramba GUI as belows :-

Then look and choose any Karamba themes from KDE-Look. Most of the files are in tarballs (tar.gz, tar.bz2 and zip) and other in filename.skz file. For filename.skz file, the installation is straight forward. Open the SuperKaramba GUI, at the Open Local Theme section just point where your filename.skz located and the Karamba will run on the desktop.

Another files such as filename.tar.gz or filename.tar.bz2 we need to untar first in konsole. Enter the directory where the download files are located say in /home, type the command tar -xzvf filename.tar.gz or tar -xjvf filename.tar.bz2, please note the filename is just an example, type the actual file name to replaced it. During the untar process we'll see several files been extracted as below :-

Now all the files has been extracted into the same directory in /home, by using the SuperKaramba open and browse into /home and find the filename.theme, open it and those shiny Karamba will run onto your desktop.

The good about tarballs they came together with filename.py, the python scipt that can be modified by users compared to filename.skz which is can't be modified. This script is mean to insert some data such as username and password for email, changing fonts, skins and layout or any other useful information needed. How easy.

My Klamav detected virus on Windows partition

2006-06-09T15:09:00.001+08:00

Just download KlamAV, an antivirus for Linux based on ClamAV. Since SUSE mount the Windows (FAT32) partition automatically, I can easily read and copy any files to my Linux directory. Editing, erase or mofified the Windows file definitely will caused fatalities. During the Klamav scanning session into the Windows drive, several files has been detected as infected by virus and some detected as error. However the status are Loose, and during my virus checking in Windows itself no virus was found but still some files error been detected. So which one is correct? Does KlamAV or ClamAV just too efficient in detecting threats? However, whatever KlamAV scanning results are, I just treat them as reporting but not quarantine any of the said threats. Another advance feature in KlamAV is real time scanning, just assign to any directories desired and they will start scanning in real time started from booting until the PC is switched off. SUSE users can get the KlamAV from Guru here. Happy hunting.

It's the SuperKaramba

2006-06-08T23:22:00.000+08:00

What that those shiny things? It's a widget for Mac?, NO! it's SuperKaramba for my SUSE Linux KDE desktop, I just love it so much. They are not just eye candies but as eye candy with the function. I can be alert and check incoming mail in Gmail, monitoring memory activities, the net speed, controlling and listening to amaroK, chats with friends in YM run by SKopete (look there mypapit is online) and many more, but running too many Karambas your desktop will look so cramped and they will eaten away your CPU usages as well, it is very baddd... Anyway get your favourite Karambas from here.

Naruto and Bleach with KTorrent

2006-06-08T20:59:00.000+08:00

This week latest serie for Naruto is 188 and 83 for Bleach. I am downloading them with KTorrent v2.0 beta1, a lightweight client for KDE, simple and not bad. I am having a problem with the latest Azureus, it always disappeared during downloading and much annoying I need to open it again and again just to resume the interrupted progress. For this KTorrent version, SUSE users can look and download KTorrent from Smart. Now the latest SUSE's Smart Package Manager release 28 from Guru can be get from here.

Naruto 188 torrent can be download from here and Bleach 83 from here. Bleach is always my priority compare to Naruto, I am so eager to now what will happen next, will they beat the notorious Bountou team?

Performancing - new tools for bloggers

2006-06-05T20:39:00.000+08:00

Performancing is a new tools for bloggers that we can type and post blogs without opening the blogsite, just type or edit them all from your Firefox all what we need is get the Performancing extension for Firefox from here. To get Performancing we need to register first and configure the blog account (i.e blogger, wordpress, typepad) to be open with.

Performancing also supported by Technorati and Del.Icio.Us but however images upload directly from home folder is not supported. Images only can be linked through URL from images hosting. To know more about Performancing please visit their website here. This article posted by Performancing.

It is really smart when it says Smart

2006-06-05T14:47:00.000+08:00

After went to bad experinced with YaSt2 and it's additonal source into it, the slowness of ZENnetworks Software Updater, confusion of multi commands in rug and lacked of online updating feature in Kpackage (kdeadmin), lastly the most praised package managment application called Smart Package Manager. They are smarter when we no need to manually configure any source into it, they know where to search repositories and dependencies over the net and matched according to our current version of cpu profiles and change their server and mirrors if one or more can't be accessible. Just type any software that avaliable to the current release, Smart Package Manager will do the rest. Installing, upgrades, removing and resolving dependency issues. Managing will be much easier better than before. Just be extra careful whenever new updates availiabe and ready to install, just read through if they are really needed, however for security updates released by Novell/SUSE I am still rely on ZENnetworks Software Updater as default.
Smart Package Manager reviews and comments here, here and wiki here or googling to know furthermore.

Software installation with YaST2

2006-06-05T00:38:00.000+08:00

What really happened to YaST2 in SUSE 10.1 lately? I am experiencing many conflicts when come to updating and software installation. YaST2 now responding much slower compare to previous version, as well when writing into suseconfig. I just download xine rpm packages into my home directory, when ever I am click to install it with YaST2, it search over the net for the same package by ignoring the package that supposed to be install in the folder and lastly it came with annoying result that searching failed. I am trying to disable refresh option in source into YaST2, but YaSTs still keep looking for same file which cannot be find from the source. Lastly, I have to disable all sources but it took long time to finalized. YaST2 just cannot differentiate between readily package to be install and searching the same package from the sources.

Well, I can't afford to get heart attack at this moment configuring once old great YaST2 and I am thinking to consider kdeadmin or smart package manager. Software Updater I think also not so reliable where sometimes ZENnetwork server always failed to be connected to. The packages that having trouble to be install by YaST2, now all been installed and run successfully; definitely not by YaST2, but by command line.

Getting updates with rug command

2006-06-04T19:08:00.001+08:00

Beside the Software Updater for SUSE 10.1, packaging update management also can be done from console line by using rug text command. Just type rug, and we'll receive list of options of new package installation, update or removing etc.

Updates in SUSE 10.1

2006-06-04T12:49:00.000+08:00

At first I am really confused with automatic updates in SUSE 10.1. The previous version of SUSE, automatic updates run by SUSEwatcher or YaST2 Online Update (YOU). But in this SUSE 10.1, Novell/SUSE has intoduced new updater called Software Updater or ZENworks Updater or Catalogs or zmd (why they have so many names by referring into same application?)

After the full SUSE 10.1 installation, I am expecting at least few patches can be retreived automatically from the Novell/SUSE, but no updates avaliable from the Software Updater and my heart was thinking that maybe this 10.1 version came with a perfect and latest updates, really feel so good. But after few days without any new updates, something must went wrong and I missed something important. I am adding new sources such as from OpenSUSE, Guru and Packman to YaST2 as been describe by the Jem Report, Hacking SUSE Linux 10.1 , finally there are new updates in Software Updater, meaning that Software Updater does not detect updates by it's own but it sync by configuration made in YaST2. But the updates are for normal packages, not extend to the security patches. Another question, where to get main patches update from Novell/SUSE? Further reading on SUSE 10.1 release note, the main answer is there but I skipped reading the release note at the beginning during the installation.

To get the automatic security or any patch updates from Novell/SUSE, I need to register first with them, in YaST by opening Online Update Configuration. We'll send some hardware profiles or registration code to their database, it will take sometime to complete the task. Once succeeded we'll given a new additional source into YaST, connected to Novell/SUSE's server at the nearest location avaliable and online automatic updates will be activated. Due to this, Software Updater also will include security patches beside normal package updates. This running around will be little tricky to SUSE 10.1 new comers, that include myself as well.

Running SUSE 10.1

2006-06-03T18:26:00.000+08:00

At last, I got another SUSE 10.1 installation DVD from Imran yesterday evening after the first DVD can't do the installation due to some corrupted files, I guess.

Installation was good, but slightly slow in overall progress. SUSE by default has removed the text progress in booting (are they? or I missed something), the previous version pressing the esc button will open what processes are loaded and running whether [done] or [failed] in the background. I need this because need to know the incompatibilities if any between my mobo and the kernel as what I experienced from SUSE 9.3, 10.0 and FC5. Still, I can check the /var/log/boot.msg in YaST2, look what I got everything are mounting perfectly and no more any device issues. A really big relieve for myself, no longer needed to think about changing mobo again.

I choosed KDE for my desktop, I am wandering if Novell/SUSE now is moving towards more Gnome as a default? looks like this version 10.1 is the beginning for Gnome occupation. Another new feature they changed is YaST Online Update (YOU) or SUSEwatcher to Software Updater. I am really confused about these two, are they read the same updates or run differently by their own where there are no updates in Software Updater but there are long queue of critical patches in YOU. However, updating by YOU is optional as stated by SUSE's release note, I am put my trust on Software Updater or Catalog whatever they called it.

SUSE 10.1 come with latest Firefox 1.5.x, I am facing very minor issue with this browser. My cursor sometimes freezed at the middle, can't type at the blank form and sometime download manager cannot be start when downloads begin.

More methods of removing WGA nag screen

2006-06-01T22:17:00.000+08:00

I just read an interesting post with regards on how to disable the WGA notification from Microsoft. I have read several posts from random mostly all of them only provide one or two methods of how to disable the WGA, but this one really caught my attention; they are giving more methods on how to remove WGA nag screen in a single website and this will be a time saving without need to google around. At least for some people who are not techies enough, they can choose any of the methods which is much easier to follow. To get those all pirate's secret weapons, you can dig them all out from here.

My sexy SUSE... yess... ohh... arggh!

2006-05-30T22:14:00.001+08:00

I received SUSE 10.1 installation DVD this evening from Imran. This is my most awaited stuff, can't afford to read any promising reviews from Distrowatch anymore, and I want to 'feel good' by myself what SUSE can give me. Upon reaching home, I boot up the DVD and received welcome greetings, how romantic if it can be decode into sexy moan voices. The new and blue background really something... which I can't imagine to express the enjoyment. Slowly with hand and fingers working with something, and the ~~penetration~~ installation just begun...yess woitttt there! ohh please not now.... installation failed due to broken media? arggh....really cutting off the steam la.

Again about Naruto and Bleach

2006-05-30T09:58:00.000+08:00

My weekend will not perfect if not watching Naruto and Bleach. The latest episode for Naruto is 186 and 81 for Bleach. Lately, Naruto story span ended in single episode compared to Bleach which comes more than 2 or 3, sometimes dragged into even more. The good about Naruto, no need to wait next release to know the ending (what happened to Sasuke lately?). The good thing about Bleach, it'll give you more beating into your heart in keeping on wandering the next fight and the ending.

To get those those or any other files via torrent, the convenient way to search torrent files (such as movies, audios or ISO files if any) is by adding to Firefox Search add-on, click here to auto add or get BitTorrent GUI search box and paste into our webpage from here.

However beside BitTorrent itself, my favourite torrent client is java based Azureus, it has almost perfect infos that I loves to monitor all the status from statistics, peers, swarm, download and upload, port, trackers etc. Strange, in my SUSE 9.3 Azureus can be loaded but can't proceed with download the client will dissappear, however in Fedora Core 5 it works very fine. I think the most credits should be given to Azureus. Return to my favourite anime, the Naruto 186 torrent can be get from here and Bleach 81 from here.

Creating device mapper failed in SUSE 9.3

2006-05-26T22:12:00.001+08:00

Nothing will be much annoyed me when booting into SUSE 9.3 failed due to creating device mapper got some detection problem. That's mean booting will freezed and I got stucked there until I am need to restart again. Getting to know what creating device mapper is, some people give opinion that is maybe related to storage management such as harddisk. Just feel to know further, I am checking through the BIOS setting and found that I am currently using normal hardisks which is connected by IDE cable. My mobo is SATA enabled and I am not using it, thinking that these 2 connector IDE and SATA enabled at the same time might give some conflicts. I am disabling the SATA, save and restart back to SUSE 9.3. Ahh.. now the creating device mapper running good and can boot normally without freezing. Just to counter check again, several restarting also gave the same good result, yehaa...!

Your blog sucks, man...

2006-05-26T15:42:00.002+08:00

I received complaints from my friends commenting that my blog looks so terrible. Something wrong with something? wandering what and why, was my writting very bad? maybe.. I am using very bad english and I am admitted to that. My blog layout very bad? wandering again.. it is okay from my view which is nothing wrong so far. Lastly, found what really happend, yup my blog really weird if view by Internet Explorer where all the side bar located down below the primary page, not at the right location as usual, really messed. I have to put some remarks on my blog that my it is best viewed with Firefox. I am using Linux which my editing and viewing browser is Firefox but since most of my blog visitors are using Internet Explorer, I can imagine what are their first impressions when look into my blog. It's not my blog sucks, man.. but IE is **sigh**

An apology open letter from MENJ

2006-05-24T18:48:00.000+08:00

One of my favourite Malaysian bloggers is MENJ, his critical thoughts and opinions in his blogs made a huge crowd puller to one of his controversial site Bismika Allahuma. To extend it to all of us here, his apology can be read here. To MENJ, apology and forgiving is only for brave men and it won't discredit yourself, keep up blogging bro..

LXF Award 2006, lets vote!

2006-05-24T17:24:00.000+08:00

This evening I received an email from Linux Format , as usual same as previous year, this is a time to vote for our favourite categories in GNU/Linux. Come together sings this song, "Marilah mari, pergi mengundi... jangan lupa kewajiban pada negara.." A copy of the email received to be share as below. Lets vote!

Just a quick reminder for those of you who've not seen our Awards...

http://www.linuxformat.co.uk/awards/

Ubuntu: underrated or overhyped? Amarok: bloated or beautiful? Beagle: Scrappy Doo or Scrappy Don't? You decide!

Yep, there are just over two weeks left for you to take part in the Linux Format Reader Awards 2006. This is the chance for the shy, retiring and unopinionated readers of Linux Format to see their favourite projects given some plaudits and to thank the developers behind them.

You will decide the winners in 14 categories, including Best Distro, Free Software Project Of The Year, Best Support Resource and the all-important Geek Gadget Of The Year. These awards are highly regarded in the community precisely because they're voted for only by you – real Linux enthusiasts and LXF readers.

For a recap on the nominees in each category, read page 13 of LXF79 or visit http://www.linuxformat.co.uk/awards/, where you will also find a description of each nominee to help you make up your mind and the voting form itself.

Voting closes on Friday, 9th June. We look forward to receiving your votes – and perhaps seeing a few surprising results!

Thanks,
Team LXF

Fedora - my first linux

2006-05-22T22:20:00.000+08:00

Fedora Core 1, the first linux installed into my PC, then changed to several distros such as SUSE, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Mepis and Mandriva. Most of the times I am sticked to SUSE. After few years, I am revisit Fedora again, now with Fedora Core 5. Really amazed me, so much different compared to first one. Still, my mobo really bugging me and I can't discover the full enjoyment of Fedora, not just that but other distros as well. Hopefully I can change to other and I am thinking to look for one same as my old mobo ECS with SiS chipset, the best mobo I had, but after years some function failed and need to replace a new set. It ran with several linux for several time without caused me any single problem.

Anime weekend - of Bleach and Naruto

2006-05-21T22:50:00.000+08:00

As usual this weekend nothing much to do except downloading Naruto and Bleach from torrent. I have missed several episodes for both anime series for about more than 2 months. Due to time consumed and I can't afford to downloading them all, I choosed to download 5 episodes from the latest for each series, that's mean I am downloaded 10 episodes within a day. My processor must be a bit tired due to long working hours, luckily the Jaring connection today steadily good speed at 70-100kBps, time of downloading very much reduced compared to my previous session. But very unlucky, my iso file via torrent of OpenSUSE 10.1 the fastest speed I can get not even reach 10kBps.

Each episodes watched, I just can't wait for the following new episode, countinue downloading the new one and it will keep on going till the latest, stop there and need to wait new release on next Thursday. Watching these series is something like a madness, you just can't wait for the next new release. Loves by the kids but also by the adults which include myself as well. The torrent files of Bleach and Naruto can be download from my favourite site here. Rasengannn....!

Postpaid war - DiGi new package

2006-05-20T22:00:00.000+08:00

Not too long after Celcom launched new package for their postpaid section, DiGi take counter hit again. The new package by DiGi called Unlimited Free Calls is only new extended service on top of current plans. DiGi currently have 2 main plans, Premier and Optimum. The current plans, DiGi introduced autosaving on access fee where usages above RM50 will be given 50% discount and usages above RM75 will be enjoying 100% discount, no fee on monthly access. Under this new plan, in extend of 50% and 100% discounted fee, if total usages exceeding RM123 in current month will be enjoying unlimited free calls within DiGi network 016/014 prefix however calls made to other network still chargable. Not limited to voice calls, this new plan also applies to SMS and MMS as well i.e SMS usages above RM123 will get unlimited free SMS, same goes to MMS. Lets see who's on the march after this? Maxis perhaps...

Postpaid war - Celcom new package

2006-05-18T22:47:00.000+08:00

Celcom just launched their new postpaid package, which I think the pospaid war between our local telcos is about to begin after recent prepaid and Business package fierce battle. The new postpaid packages from Celcom are Normal Postpaid, Family Postpaid and Minutes Postpaid.

I am interested to upgrade my current 250 Minutes plan to C500 plan, which have longer talktime of 500 minutes at RM80 monthly, but thinking again that I am not so heavy in phone conversations, 500 minutes will be wasteful if I can't finished it because the balance of unused minutes will be forfeited. So I am sticked to current C250 minutes plan at RM50 monthly. Nowadays postpaid is more economical compared to prepaid; eventhough not applies to everybody, it is highly recommended to do some simple calculation first on average monthy usages before jump into postpaid. So, who will launching the postpaid war after this? DiGi is marching...

Just wanna whack this mobo!

2006-05-15T23:53:00.000+08:00

Met Imran this evening, and I received from him a copy of Fedora Core 5 DVD. The installation seems very okay at the beginning, and as what I expected before I will facing some problem with devices detection. The first boot udev failed, followed by the second boot and still gave the same result, failed. However the last attempt udev is okay, but only one cdrw device were detected which is read as /dev/hdc however the second dvd device lost somewhere in space!. f@3k!grr^%f23k! this is really a nighmare.

I wish I can get rid of this VIA mobo and change to other more Linux friendly mobo soonest possible.
Brand : PC Chips
Model : P25G VIA P4M800
Specs : Support Intel Hyper Threading, 800mhz FSB and DDR400

My mobo, FC5 and SUSE 10.1 - will they happy everafter?

2006-05-14T21:53:00.000+08:00

I wish I can change this motherboard very soon. My SUSE Linux Professional 9.3 and OpenSUSE 10.0 are having the same trouble again, started from booting until shutting down. 3 out of 5, the text creating device mapper freezed, till I need to restart few times. If succeeded, the system failed to open any cdrom, eventhough the devices itself can be open or closed manually, the system just can't read the devices. Sometime, everything is okay without any problem and another boot the next day, same problem occurred again. The last motherboard was using SiS chipset and never, never had this fucking problem.

My blog friend Imran offering me the Fedora Core 5 DVD, I am thinking to replaced my current SUSE 9.3 to this (FC5) and OpenSUSE 10.0 to SUSE Linux 10.1. Believed it or not, I did read from a forum saying that FC5 does not work well with some VIA motherboard as well, oh please... About SUSE. depends on time maybe I am going to get retail version from Novell Malaysia or JOS. If the price is too expensive I have to wait the OpenSUSE version from the torrent. I am still downloading it, but the speed is too slow. Maybe their mirror servers too crowded with traffic or my Jaring broadband is too slow. To complete all at super snail speed, not more than 10kB/ps I need to wait another more than a month to go!

May SUSE Linux 10.1 in my sweet dream tonight.

My SUSE is not happy in here

2006-05-06T09:52:00.000+08:00

I just changed my motherboard to the new one. The old is using the SiS chipset and worked excellent but after several years using it, I need to change it after several brokedown happened. Sometime it can't boot or BIOS keep resetting itself even after change the CMOS cell.

Well, just got myself a new motherboard which is needed for my Intel 2.8 HyperThreading on 800mhz FSB. This kind of technolgy is quite old and I need to shop around just to find the exact specifications and I found one which is using VIA chipset. Installation into Windows XP on first hardisk was smooth and followed by SUSE Linux on the second which is good as well, looks like they are detecting all devices and ports during installation.

Upon booting into Linux partition, at splashing text line everything are 'done' except 'failed' to create device mapper, the line stop there. Reseting also don't give any good result as it still failed again to create device mapper. Thinking that some installation was not clean, I am doing the system repairing by boot everything again from the DVD, yup it gave a good result, now device mapper is created and running until the gecko boot perfectly. I installed any required softwares and downloading the patches from the server. Everything seems perfect, and boot again just to see some result. Upon restarting, some message error saying that they can't read some parameters and failed to mount something in /dev. Boot again, I can't open any of my optical devices as they are suppose to read as /dev/dvd or /media/dvd but upon checking the more /etc/fstab my optical devices are there. Just to do some testing I am doing some test on ls -F /dev/dvd, but nothing result in return, it does not list anything from the dvd. At worst mount or umount by su also does not give any return result, the command not responding anything. I am forwarding my problems to some moderators, I tried to do some checking instructed by them but still no good. It happend to be failed at some times but ok at the other times.

Maybe the best I need to do is by doing fresh installation again. Guess what? everthing still the same again and again. Too bad of my SUSE 10.0, I am resizing the partition and create a new one to install my previous SUSE Linux 9.3 Professional. The same problem occured again in 9.3! my /dev really screwed my up. All this failure never happend to me before I changed the motherboard. And yesterday, read some article from the forum moderator,"...try to avoid VIA chipset motherboard as it is not so friendly to Linux...". I am trying not to believe that as this motherboard already costs me RM 180.

This post written in Windows Without Tattoo cracked edition, as this morning my both SUSEs failed to boot up.

Firefox and amaroK the wolf

2006-05-04T00:06:00.000+08:00

I am still wondering why Firefox won't open amaroK whenever I am going to play the musics from Shoutcast. Mplayer plugin overides amaroK evertime I want to play them, changing the default application to play .m3u or x.scpls files from MPlayer plugin to amaroK does not help either. It will keep on opening MPlayer plugin again. Eventhough it still can play the songs but it will playing only from the browser. Deleting the MPlayer plugin can solve this and amaroK will be open but I can't play other multimedia plugin from the Firefox. This is really bugging me, loves Firefox so much to surf but it can't open amaroK to play my favourites online musics. The last solution is, by creating the new playlist in amaroK and copy my favourite url from Shoutcast, I am finally can enjoy musics by just cliking them from the amaroK playlist without need to open the web browser. Yeah, my amaroK is rocking!

Boring weekend and the rocking amaroK

2006-05-01T21:00:00.000+08:00

Nothing much to do for these long weekend. Most of my time sitting in front of PC, browsing the web, looking for some interesting applications and post some short articles to the forum. Try to solve some minor problem with auto mounting failed to unmount during shut-down or restarting the operating system. This happened after submount patch installed, maybe due to some mistake which I did not pay much attention before. However by root, I managed to solved it.

Depedencies conflict always happened when I am not google enough to look for missing or latest version files. Adding more sources into YaST definitely will reduced the searching time, as they will do smart search and installed required dependencies from servers. Just to remind myself in coming possibilities in case, the sources are as below. Yes, these links below was taken from Jem Matzan and Guru Suse's website.

For Mozilla: ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/projects/mozilla/10.0
OpenSUSE10.0: ftp://mirrors.kernel.org/opensuse/distribution/SL-10.0-OSS/inst-source-java
OpenSUSE10.0: ftp://mirrors.kernel.org/opensuse/distribution/SL-10.0-OSS/inst-source
OpenSUSE10.0: ftp://mirrors.kernel.org/suse/i386/10.0/SUSE-Linux10.0-GM-Extra
Packman: http://packman.rsync.zmi.at/suse/10.0
Guru: http://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/misc/suser-guru/rpm/10.0

With the source also I downloaded the newest amaroK code named "Fast Forward", I love to hear online musics by using amaroK player. The latest release 1.4-Beta3 really rocks! yes it is much improved with more features compare to the previous 1.3.x version which always crashed until I need to kill the application. At worst, it freezed everything from keyboard to mouse, only restarting the operating system will make everthing working again.

Oracle to buy Novell?

2006-04-18T23:15:00.000+08:00

Just read some opinions in SUSE Linux forum which concern to how SUSE will be change after the takeover if the story is true. Some SUSE's fan are worried, being taken under a heavy commercial organisation such as Oracle, SUSE will no longer be the same as before. Just look what happend to SUSE when Novell took over, the spirit of real SUSE has changed. Could the change will be better? News about the Oracle to buy Novell here.

SOMAport and Linux

2006-04-16T23:07:00.000+08:00

Went to PC Fair 2006 on 15/04/06, not really intended to buy anything from there. Firstly, my PC currently is powerful enough to run simple and average applications either from Linux or Windows. Secondly, don't have enough money otherwise the first reason above won't be there, I'll buy and upgrade till my wallet drying out of greens.

Upon looking around and collecting the flyers given by the booth representatives, I called to Jaring booth. This booth run by Jaring's agent that promoting Jaring Wireless. They got the good response from the bypassers and some agreed and signed up to the service. One of the visitors interested to know further about this service, and he asked the salesman if the SOMAport can run perfectly on Linux. Been unclear the salesman forward the enquiry to his superior and he replied, "cannot". Frustrated, the penguin show a bit disappointed with the answear given to him.

My point here, Jaring should educate their sales agents that SOMAport can run perfectly under Linux, not only to Windows and Mac OS. Even the manual given inside the box when I subscribe to this, the OS only mentioned to Windows and Mac OS. Almost all latest distro can detect eth0 automatically. SOMAport is using LAN and connected by RJ45 cable, my YaST can detect them without need to myself to configure it manually, same goes to other popular distros that I tried before. Been unclear with, Jaring has lost one potential and valuable customer on that day.

Bangau oh bangau

2006-03-01T23:54:00.000+08:00

People are debating on fuel price hike recently. For some people the increased of RM0.30 per litre is only a small amount but these are not to average and small incomed people. Ministers and other 'big shots' do realised the effect, but they never sit on the real hard life of the belows.

Ministers never go to pasar and buy 'ikan kembung' with their own pocket money, almost everything backed by special allowances, what the fuck do they care?
The promising reason, the benefit will goes to improve the public transportation, what is the meaning on that if the fees for public transport also will be increase as well? The 30 cents increased is for a year basis, the common thing that we can understand for another 10 or 12 months onward, some general necessities will going up automatically. Taken for granted, the reason will be clear enough, another few cents increased for the new term will be announce and it just a matter of when and how much.

For sure, NO 'increase mania' dare to be gazzetted during the election campaign...

Stab! or get stab at the back

2006-02-22T22:52:00.000+08:00

I read an interesting news today about a man been stabbed by his wife for ignoring her to make love with him. This case was reported by La Cuarta, Argentina. The 53 years old woman from Buenos Aires stabbed at the back of her husband however he does not sustained any serious injury. The woman told La Cuarta, "I am wearing a G-String underwear and high heel shoes inside the house but he does not pay any attention to me at all and that made me really mad. At last, I am unable to control myself and stabbed him!".

A police spokesperson in the statement, "This woman does not take her action as a wrongdoing. She repeatly told that the victim is her husband, and he must fulfill the obligation as a husband".

Ouch!

Sim card will replacing memory module?

2006-02-21T23:40:00.000+08:00

BARCELONA (Reuters) - Mobile phone group Orange plans to launch SIM cards this year that can store up to 8,000 times the data stored on present day SIMs, potentially helping to transform a traditional phone into a multimedia player.

Sounds interesting, if this will be true, we will have to say good bye to expensive memory stick and the handphone which have the memory expansion slot. According to the article the sim card is called MegaSIM. Currently larger capacity sim card only support bigger storage for keeping sms and phonebook. Most of the latest handphone in the market have the bulit in memory to store phonebook up to 1000 numbers and the present of larger sim storage mostly unutilised. Research and develop on sim card which can support multimedia is really much awaited. More about the news can be read here.

Every notebook will be SIM ready - according to Rob Conway, the chieftain of the GSM Association. He said that laptops with connectivity to 3GSM will make secure authentication and connection just that bit easier.

I believe sim card will play important role not just for handphone but with other mobile devices also. The GSM Association and Intel has agreed to push the standard to integrate 3G modems and sim cards into laptops. Article on this can be read here.

Testing

2006-02-21T20:11:00.000+08:00

My template is quite messy at this moment, editing under construction.

Bandwith inside the frying wok

2006-02-11T23:55:00.000+08:00

I wrote my disappointment about Jaring wireless broadband service I had recently. Surfing the net with slow connection mostly during at the peak time really got myself the hypertension! I am paying monthly bucks for the so-called broadband, but got the speed that equal to dial-up most of the time. Expressing my anger to blinking SomaPORT 300, is a daily routine. "W'da hell are you blinking at me?!"

One of my blogging friend gave me a link to a website of the 'utensils hacker' that can give a boost to my receiving signal which according to him it can give up to 20% signal gained. No need to buy high tech gadgets and for that purpose, the utensils such as metal cooking pot or a wok can do the job. Sounds weird but I believed it is possible. These techniques are tested to most of wireless devices such as WiFi, cellphones... over the air connection that using the radio frequency. Thinking it seriously to try it, my SomaPORT is quite big and I need to find the bigger booster. A new and modified wok will give more high tech looking, perhaps. For those who are interested to have a radar from the kitchen, please visit and read the useful informations here.

IEEE Spectrum: Jaring, a wireless winner

2006-02-08T22:19:00.000+08:00

An article from IEEE Spectrum, Jaring wireless is a winner, is it? What and how's the criteria taken to the winning are not fully describe by the magazine. If so, who is the second runner? Whatever, congratulation to Jaring if the winning is true, it will a great to hear that Malaysian can achieved this.

January 16th, 2006
A WIRELESS WINNER
A small network operator in Malaysia gets a nod of approval in our Winners and Losers section this month. Jaring, of Kuala Lumpur, has its sights set on providing broadband services to a growing number of Internet users by creating a wireless network from scratch. According to Senior Associate Editor Steven Cherry, it's off to a good start...

The full article about A Wireless Winner can be read here. This article is a follow-up published from previous the article about jaring wireless titled Winner: A Radio Bypass by Steven Cherry.

Malaysia has long been a telecommunications leader in Southeast Asia. It was the first country in the region to hook into the Internet. Its enlightened spectrum management policies encourage innovation. A so-called multimedia supercorridor—a miniature Silicon Valley constructed during the global dot-com bubble of the 1990s—still flourishes. So it's not surprising that a wireless broadband service like Jaring's is found here and only a few other places around the world. This type of broadband is not available in Taipei, home of the skyscraper that supplanted Petronas as the world's tallest, nor in Chicago, where the Sears Tower once held that record, nor in any other large city in the United States, which once led the world in Internet access but is now lagging.

More details about the article can be read here. A very interesting articles about achievement made by Jaring in international recognition, eventhough sometime Jaring failed to impressed Malaysian in providing satisfactory service.

Tired of KDE or Gnome? take Mezzo a look

2006-02-03T20:31:00.000+08:00

Linux is getting more attractive than ever, when KDE and Gnome desktop has been dominated the top list, another 'promising' eye-candy is Mezzo based desktop from Symphony OS. You've never seen Linux look like this!, their header that says it all about the look. However this distro is still under heavy development which currently on Beta 1 by it's maintainers team.

Please Note: Symphony OS is still Beta quality software and should not be considered stable at this time for everyday use. We are working hard to implement all the things we have planned and are always looking for new developers to join us. Visit the forums to find out how you can help whether you are anything from web developer to a kernel hacker, documentation writer or python coder, we even need Windows developers

Take a look to the screenshots for Symphony OS here and more screenshots on The Mezzo Desktop here.

7th Asia Open Source Symposium - Code Fest

2006-01-30T16:33:00.000+08:00

In conjunction of 7th Asia Open Source Symposium co-organised by Mimos Berhad, Center of the International Cooperation for Computerization (CICC) and Japan; a special event to all Malaysian Open Source coders who are interested to participate in Fest Code can get more info here. Code Fest registration form can be fill-up here. The 2 days event will be held on 4th-5th March 2006.

Code Fest Idealogy

* Theme: The theme defines the goal for this year's code fest. The theme is “Effective use of GNU/Linux with special focus on live-CD Distros for localization, education and security”
* Objective: To achieve the goal of this years' theme, we break it apart into several development components, which are localization, education and security. Each objective will concentrate in improving the effectiveness of a live-CD Distro.
* Team Collaborations: The teams involved will work on any part of the components in the objectives, but not limited to a single component. Any improvement on the creation of a CD distro that falls under any one of the objectives are also align with this years theme. Collaborations will be facilitated for the development of a better live-CD Distro and a much more customized Live-CD Distro.