Wednesday, August 31, 2011

4MLinux-2.3-Small Is beautiful with UnetBootIn and Making Mandriva Flashdrive

As mentioned already Mandriva is good idea badly implemented and slow to boot.
One can remember Mandriva had Globe Trotter and Live Pendrives.
Now the new Mandriva is bulky and difficult to work with just for for fun I decided to make Mandriva Flashdrive (I do not know how long I will keep  it before erasing the image). 

Steps are as follows.

1. Download 4MLinux all in one.
2. Download Mandriva image.
3. Boot 4MLinux
4. Go to maintenance and click UnetBootIn
5. Plug in a Flash drive (I tried 8 GiB Flashdrive) since the image is heavy. One has to format it with FAT beforehand.
I had 6.5 for Mandriva and another 1.5 as a reserve partition.
6. Give the path to your image (need not be Mandriva any you have downloaded).
Root---> Media----> Disk-----> Image
7. Click OK and in about 5 minutes you have Mandriva in a Flash.

8. Now to reveal how bad the new Mandriva boots (if you have 1 GiB RAM like me), go and make a cup of Tea/Coffee.
I finish my tea (boiling the water to brewing and drinking it before Mandriva booted and fired up the FireFox).
It did not go to Mandriva site as it used to do.

This is why I am happy that I left Mandriva long time before their split and use 4MLinux for my work on Live sessions and say "Small is beautiful" and promote Unity Linux and (Core Linux on top of one can built ones own packages) its derivative HUMANity Musician edition (currently downloading, the last 100 or so MiB).
Unity is one of the earliest Core Live CDs before PCLinux stormed the community with Big Daddy (only in archives now).

It broke away from Mandrake and formed Unity and there are at least 8 derivatives and one of which is TinyMe.

One does not need to be FAT to be productive when the cloud is promoting thin clients.
4MLinux even though tiny and only 60 odd MiB, it can be destructive if you use it's partition utility without due care.
It only detect the first hard disk and if you select sda1 instead of sdc or /d or /e by accident your will boot Mandriva Live instead of your prized distribution (gone as you press OK in the dialogue box) in the first hard disk.
Please take care and the UnetBootIn graphic mode fonts are very tiny for  an old folk like me.

But I did not do any mistakes, simply because I check  my actions especially typos now before clicking OK in any command line operation.

Mandriva Update

Mandriva is a good idea very badly implemented.

The good idea is resurrecting once one of my favorite (I could not wait for the next release) distributions from bankruptcy.
Thank for the injection of some 3 millions.
Next is is the 3 million well spent.
I do not think so.
It is going to become regimented Russian enterprise (unfortunately we Sri-Lankans including new entrants to the university are getting regimented) without creative inputs.

The idea of using KDE only is horrible to say the least.
Why?
It is Incorporated with Unity Type additions and take up all the GiB of my RAM and cannot even get LibreOffice (another good idea) on in a live session. I have only 1 GiB on my workhorse machine.
Even PCLinuxFullMonty which is a Gorilla of a distribution consumes that amount of RAM on a Live Session. 

In defense of PCLinuxFullMonty even though it is slow to boot up once booted up and running it runs smoothly and fast with many applications running at the same time. It is my workhorse and I have no reservation of recommending it to anybody.

For the last year I had only few momentary crashes (that also due to fault of our Telecoms).

With that scenario putting installation separate was a very good idea otherwise few of the RAM cards of poor uses will be consumed or fully burned.
It might become another Linux distribution Like ALT almost Russian based and no use for the third world countries like ours.
I could not even fire up FireFox and I gave up and cannot make any further comments.

My Live session with Flashdrive created with 4MLinux was not as bad as Live DVD and I could fire up both FireFox and LibreOffice but took a hell of a long time.If you do not have at least 2 GiB of RAM please do not think of using it.

This is not going to be one my favorites for sometimes and a considerable time in future.
Thanks guys and girts making it little over 1.5 GiB otherwise i would have had a heart attack waiting its full download in this Banana Republic.

I will be promoting UNity Linux (not Ubuntu's Desktop) from now onwards, since it's refined concept of bare bone Linux (OpenBox) from which ore useful and custom distributions can be built on.
I am currently downloading Unity's derivative of musicians edition of HUMANity.
Humanity is good with AbiWord and runs smoothly with many useful applications.
I will be with you soon with comment on that and not anymore of Mandriva for sometime.

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

JoliCloud installing in Linux.

JoliCloud 1.2 is another cloud based Linux distribution.
I downloaded it and booted up and I am confused what they are going to achieve with it. 
Could not even exit from the live Cd and had to do not honourable Ctrl+Alt+Del procedure which I hate to do with my laptop (thank god I tested it with my old IBM, annoyed as I was switched off the power button).
Then I went to there web site which has elaborate tutorial thinking most users are still at kindergarten level and downloaded the Linux utility and tried it on my PCLinux and I could not mount the script to boot the USB stick.
The I forgot about it and today early in the morning (on leave) after long nap wanted to do something exciting copied an image of JoliCloud to a CD and then mounted Ping Eee and tried UnetBootIn with the image CD on the CD Rom.
No more hassle I got a Live JoliCloud in a USB stick which booted up and telling me what to do and not what I wanted to do.
Annoyed again I am posting this.
I am not sure what JoliCloud (it was not Jolly for ME) is going to achive.
If prefer CloudUSB instead.
But knowing myself even I am critical of any Linux distribution (always constructive) I will carry both sticks with me when i am out an enjoying myself.
Which I am now.
Guys and girls please do not spoon feed your user base especially Linux guys and please check whether your sh-script work on all Linux distributions before giving elaborate instruction to newbies.
Please tell them what i did with UnetBootIn or better incorporate it in your next version.
I am watching your progress from the 'Cloudy Sky" like an eagle.

Monday, August 29, 2011

Penetration Testing of Linux and Statistics

Nobody is sure how many are exactly using Linux worldwide but guesstimate is 1% of the computer users.
This is excluding Linux servers which is in the majority in all the spheres including Science.
This statement is related to desktop users.
I am urging all the people using Linux desktop to register at the distrowatch affiliated organization.
Global census is mandatory to see what the exact penetration is.

The fact of the matter is millions of users are out there but getting them registered in one site is humanly impossible but if a cross section of them register reasonable guess work estimate can be arrived at.
I use several machines and a laptop with Linux on board with number of distributions (some for testing and some for my work) but I registered once with my regular machine.

My wife uses another Linux machine which is not registered and my daughter uses both Microsoft and Linux.
My household is not a typical one but I would rather reflect (not that it matters a lot statistically) an average family where husband or wife uses Linux and the other half uses Microsoft.

Current statistics is very interesting.
In a 20 million population of Sri-Lankans only 133 machines are  registered currently(178 out of 224 countries).
In a 1.2 billion population 2340 Indian are registered from India (208 out of 224 countries).

Monaco with 1113 comes 5th out of 224 one of the richest private cities in the world.

Vatican city comes 6th with 26 Linux machines.

I won't talk about any any Buddhist international Institutions in Sri-Lanka.
I know of one Buddhist monk (who comes from Sweden) who is involved in getting the Pali  (Buddha's Language of use) Unicode into Linux.
That's all.

What about Singapore? 

119th with 150 machines.


No   Country                                           Pers      Current    Mach      P/Mpop     Mpop


103 US United States Of America       15555    133           21367     51.2            303 millions

Tanzania, North Korea, Myanmar, Ethiopia and Nigeria come last 5 (five) and Japan, Bangladesh and Pakistan behind them.
 This is revealing.

That is a big puzzle for me where Indian institutes boast that they produce lot of technocrats including Linux for  India and for the West.
That argument evaporate into thin air statistically.
Somebody from India should do a study on this.
I will talk about Sri-Lanka why we are way behind in this race.
I will start with a real story.
Way back in 1984 when I came back from England with Two computers one Atari and the other Compact 128, I happened to visit the college where I studied celebrating its 100th year in existence.
The principal was futuristic and asked me what we should do and I promptly  said we will establish a computer unit and I told him I will get a few computers from England.
With the help of some of our old college guys in UK I manged to get the first 3 computers myself. Then the ambassador of UK was from our college and coordinating the thing was just a matter of few phone calls.
This was done without any government help.
Some years later I visited the college and the principal was different and I met him and told him I would like to see the computer unit.
I did not tell him that the early conceptual idea of starting the computer unit was mine and I physically brought the first three computers.
I just wanted see how those old computers were used and what new ones they  have added (this was before windows 95).
I was sent from  pillar to post.
First to Vice Principal, then to another teacher and another and nobody was of any help and I could not get the room opened where the computers were locked in.

In my mind I had decided I will not visit it again.
This is the type of teachers we have here and we did not have a computer course till 2 years ago.
That speaks volumes of the Education Ministers too.
Anyway I joined a private hospital in Colombo where I worked with 6 programmers and we got Unix from Singapore and used it there in dumb or black and white terminals and got the network running for the first time in Sri-Lanka.
Then within six months I joined the university and was very much involved with computers (a new hospital was built with Japanese aid) till I stepped down to  devote full time to Linux.
Why we are behind in Linux?
1. We use pirated copies even in Universities.

2. We teach them in Sinhala or Tamil and they cannot read a book on computers in English.

3. We have not trained teachers in English and IT (computer science) for over 30 years.

4. If somebody has a good idea all the other teachers come and destroy  that somebody (person) first and then the idea.

5. Our administrators including principals takes bribes to admit students with the help of some powerful politicians.

6. Politicians use teachers for political work and sometimes even malpractices at polling stations.

7. Only corrupt teachers get promoted and stay in one station till life.

8. Most evident corrupt practice is to not to teach during school hours but  to do private tuition after hours.

9. Even our professors are paid half what is paid in India.

10. Next round is to destroy the higher education and install private universities.

That is why we have only 133 guys using Linux Boxes in the entire country.

I am not at all surprised.
Very simple explanation.
We have got our priorities wrong.

Now few words about E-commerce in Sri-Lanka.

We have Electricity Board, Water Board and telecoms fully digitalized and none of them can give an accurate bill or balance sheet on the last day of the month.
I have personal experience that computer programmers fiddle with the data and produce inaccurate reports.
There is some sort of racket going on with money matters and the higher authorities neither have vigilance, know how and the necessary apparatus to make investigations.
The programmers themselves do what the teachers do kill the person first and the idea of check and balances that needs to be installed next.

When I was in the private sector there were over 100 computer mistakes  I manually detected daily including wrong blood groups and wrong blood transfusions out of over 1000 (over 10% error which is not acceptable when working with computers) reports  and my target was to make zero defect (Quality Control).

This malady has now infiltrated the private sector too
That is why when I do shopping check every computer entry which I ask every intelligent customer should do.

My final analysis is that we a mathematically stupid nation run by mathematically stupid Central Bank who runs the affairs in a very ordinary manner without check and balances and let the country taken to ransom by speculators, hedgers and IMF  and is equally very good at  printing various coloured notes with politicians face on them and cost of printing is far in excess of the face value of the currency note.

If we wean off these malpractices we would be able pay economic professors 3 to 4 times the current pay so that they are also not involved in corrupt practices.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

LiveCD Script, Its beginning, Unity and PCLinux


Progress of LiveCDs had a bumpy ride.

The story as it is told to me is as follows;
But I do not know how true the facts are.

However, I discovered LiveCD in 2007 with PCLinux 2007 long time after its hatching.

LiveCD project was stagnant at the beginning which was understandable and had a SINGLE developer working on it.
 
That developer joined Unity Linux and all 25+ developers there decided to help him make some progress on it.  

The impact LiveCDs made on me is substantial and never waned.


In the meantime, they took the initiative to make improvements.  
For example, they gave it 64bit compatibility.  
They gave it better detection capacity.  
They took the code and gave it better international language support.  

All those things are made available for FREE to any distribution wanting to download a snapshot from SVN.

Now, if anyone has a claim to LiveCD as ‘theirs’ it would be Jaco Greefe who was the principal on the project LONG before any distributions other than Mandrake aka Mandriva even worked with it.  

The script creator Jaco Greefecame from Mandrake Project.

Texstar used Jaco’s project mklivecd and created the original PCLinuxOS 2003 release. 

This release was based on Mandrake 9.2 at the time and a few other Mandrake developers began to debug the script through the creation of PCLinuxOS.  

Mandrake was a trademarked name, so Texstar named it PCLinuxOS.

As you can see, if any one distribution has claim to mklivecd, it would be Mandrake aka Mandriva which was where the script creator/s came from. 

It’s also where the script was first made usable. 

Texstar made it into a nice package with PCLinuxOS which  is totally true.
Texstar only had 32 bit version and only supported English language.


Unity which branched off from Mandrake/PCLinux continues to improve the Live Script with 64bit and addded even udev.

Unity approach is for the Live script to work for other distributions not just for Mandriva derived distributions.
It is targeting developers and savvy guys and not newbies and users.

There have been many attempts by Unity Linux developers to get other distributions that use mklivecd involved with the development of it.  

That invitation is always open to any and all distributions that use it.

As it is Unity is struggling with manpower shortages and its development has again gone into crisis situation and stagnation. 
This is where even a good product may be lost at the end due to lack of improvements and enthusiasm.
The Goal of Unity as stated below are
Unity Linux targets DEVELOPERS.  
We don’t target end users.  
If end users like Unity, GREAT!  
If not, we don’t worry about it.  
Unity Linux has derivative distributions called “branches” that work to target the end user.  
Unity Linux itself is targeted squarely at distribution developers and advanced users who want to be able to use the mklivecd scripts.

Unity attempt at refining the core utilities and it is just over 300 MiB.

1. Humanity.
2. Synergy
3. BBI are only three of its derivatives.


Hope everybody get together and help Unity Linux (not the Ubuntu desktop) to keep the spirit of Unity in Diversity and have a refined product at the end of the day.
Update is long overdue.

I have used the Unity 2010.2 and made a Live USB.
I tried to fiddle with the script (mind you it is in graphic form and not command line and terminal) and mounted an iso file of a distribution which was not a Unity derivative (which I was able to do with UnetBootIn) and it failed to mount the sfs file of that distribution.

It is not of the class of UnetBootin yet but given time and effort mklivecd scripts should become the gold standard of LiveCDs.


Ubuntu's Unity-Dream Studio- Is it a dream Come true for newbies?

Ubuntu's Unity-Dream Studio- Is it a dream Come true for newbies?
I think so and thumbs up for this distribution which I could download overnight with 2.1 GiB.
there were only four Seeders but it was pretty fast.
Go and download it and increase the number of seeder proportion in relation to Leechers and enjoy Unity experience.
It is new experience for old hand of Linux like me who never used Ubuntu on regular basis except for demonstrations.
Regular Ubuntu users will grumble but I have told you what to do go ahead and have both old version and new version in the same box and enjoy the difference.
Sinhala capability was there which I did not test but probably need some smooth ironing which is another plus point.
It has Libre and Blender new version (Maya).
Please do not call it Apple like but call it this Linux Unity desktop.
It sure is a winner at the time of debt and cash crisis.
For good effects find a good compatible graphic card.
that may be the only thing you may have to change in your computer.
My old computer graphic was enough to take advantage of Unity.
few glitches I had with the unity CD with Terminals has been reasonably taken care of and I could load all the workplaces with a a running program and with a click it goes into full screen image.
Play with it and I do not know how far one can configure it to one's needs but it is good as   it is why configure and make a mess?
Thank you guys and girls for doing hard work.
You guys and girls also need a rest and do not worry about complaints and by Christmas we all be saying well done to you.

How we Lose our Simple Mathematical Skills (SMS for short)

The other day I was asking a group of second year university when one buys a Mobile Phone what are the points one should consider, none of them came out with a comprehensive answer.
This is a mathematical skill with practical use.
A bit of knowledge of physics is needed to get one's calculations right.
Now they do not study physics in detail when entering Biological streams and I believe one who has no competence in maths except counting the money they earn enter the biological streams.

They probably do not have understanding how to invest hard earned money too.

I listed my priorities even though, I am the only one who does not carry a mobile in my academic community.
Elsewhere I have penned down my reason but in that entry  I forgot to mention how many major and minor accidents are related to use of mobile on the drive or on crossing a driveway.

This I call S.M.S (simple mathematical skills)

My reasons.
I carry a mobile when I travel and go abroad.

1. A light weight mobile.

2. Carry case and a collar and string to put round my neck so that I won't lose  it when I am switched O.F.Fed. (On FITS of Fantasy-in other words Shopping Spree).

3. Battery which lasts at least 8 hours and overnight.

4. Processor not dual core but light and not heavy on the battery.

5. Possibly two (2) sims (one for the country of domicile one for the country on visit).

6. Possibly a radio to get local news and weather

7. Camera

8. Utilities with minimal graphic (low on battery) inputs

9. Email and connection to twitter (if I miss a flight to contact the airline)

10. All Cs- Calendar, Calculator and Currency Converter.

The shopping list can go on but I will stop at 10.

Coming back to Simple Mathematical Skills (SMS not short message system which I hate) which many of us lack when one visits a supermarket.
When I enter a supermarket whether here or abroad, I say to myself the stupid computer in this supermarket is slow and always record wrong data entry, I better check every entry, every point or number printed on it.
This I practiced for a time immemorial when I realized that the Indian shop keepers - I better put Asian without specification of the country of origin-in Southall who were open after hours,  put extra items which I did not buy, when keying in, (knowing very well English guys cannot count well) and caught a few of them and said I will report in threatening gesture and nobody had cheated me ever since even on long sojourns.

Then little later I realized English guys and girls cannot write  (not speak) in English too, which was very funny to me and I used to take Mickey out of them.

This malady of the English and Americans have invaded our country with lot of cash machines and calculators in all our shops.
If you do not calculate mentally what you purchased and what you paid for it is invariably you are paying a hefty amount in hidden cash to the supermarkets which you cannot recover. 

I am not telling that these sales girls or boys cheat you but they are overworked and key in wrong and/or key in twice when the machine or the Internet connection is slow.
Unlike in some set up abroad they (sales person) cannot take home the wrongly keyed in items and the management or the computer never check with the stock balance in shells and refund the money if mistakes are made.
Somebody who manages the computer and stocks would be (my guess) are taking home the big items wrongly keyed in or when the next delivery comes some items are not loaded as per delivery note where the stock balance states something different.
There is noway one can check this unless one scans items against the number of items in the printed bill at the outlet.
It is the onus of the buyer and not the seller.
There are no laws to enact to effect (not even in over vote counting to balance the sheets) 100% accuracy and computers cannot do this but computer programmer can balance it by surreptitiously deleting or substituting few ones ant twos.
This must be happenings in big scale in government institution who have gone completely e-commerce.

If you do not check before you leave you are the loser.
The other point is the print is very faint (to save the toner) and fade away in one day and one cannot read it.

Why we make so many mistakes in this country.
It is our training in mathematical skills is poorer than the English skills for so may years and it is getting worse.
Mental exercise is never taught but getting the answer is the only outcome tested.
All our good teachers with mathematical skill and with working knowledge in English have left this country and the Education department did not train any for so many years. 
So you better improve your mathematical skills if you need to save and avoid unnecessary losses.

I have seen this happening daily and that is why I thought of writing this.
If I start doing SMS mistakes I should retire and say Good Bye to this world since I have not trained anybody in my household to do my mathematics.
By the way our politicians including the election commissioner were the worse in mathematics and that is why some candidates get more votes than the registered number of votes.
Unfortunately due to fiddling and multiplying (three votes for an individual on the Manapa Pora or the Preferential Vote the errors are of multitudes and not on simple arithmetical proportions.

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Virtual C.E.O.s

The brand of C.E.Os are going to be a bane in future with the first of the kind of Virtual C.E.O.s and I am a prototype to be named as AsokapluS who will emerge in the meantime.
Why I call successful C.E.O. is a bane and wasteful is they either get old and run short of ideas and die with the institution or they get sick and spend rest of the money on medical bill.
I am in that profession I knew of a cardiologist (? by name) who did miss his own cardiac well being and had to go abroad to get his treatment (I do not know what happened to him afterward).
But we are very good at making merry with other people's misery and making money spinning and most of us have lost human touch and to be a manly or womanly for what is worth.
Having said that I wish Steve Job his well being in Mind and Spirit for producing wonderful gadgets and making them sell (even though I cannot afford or buy any one of them) at runaway prices and making others even Linux to emulate.
I never found fault with Apple since they produce good quality gadgets and making people to buy unlike Microsoft which lure (both legal and pirated) and produce a very bad product and making money by gunny loads.
I believe in Quality in the first instance (Total Quality Management-both internal and external customers) and get it right at the first instance rather than doing patch work (Microsoft).
Apple is trying the get it right first time round and one does not have to do it again and customers have to pay for the quality.I am not saying it is the best product (far from it) on this planet for the money one pays but its approach to quality is commendable.
Whereas Microsoft is trying to get it right for umpteenth time and still get it wrong.
In this context quality is costly but cost effective.
But at a time of debt and financial crisis we cannot do that for ever.
Customers need to buy at a affordable prices.
This is where Virtual C.E.Os all over the Globe work together with Linux Community to achieve something substantial and lasting.
Linux has teething problems but it can do small things and big things right by working together.

The concept of Virtual C.E.O.s means we work together at tandem not under close doors.
I test a distribution and report and guy on the other side of the globe read it with some meaning and work hard to get it right.

I only give little over 50% (it is currently the best and only Debian has achieved it) of the marks I allocate and make that as the bench mark for others to follow.

Why I use 50% is that to state and inspire who are on the shop floor that we have a long way to go in Total Quality Solutions.

We cannot satisfy every customer.

That is the bare bones of Linux.

Linus wanted to do that and he is still trying it.

If we think we have achieved all the best there can't be any inspiration or incentive to be better.

It got be simple too.

It should not achieved with the cost we are going spend to reach Mars and settle there.

For the 3 years I have been crying high as well as foul at times at Linux and guys on the shop floor (Developers) do the needful and I have all the small utilities now which I did not have there years ago in my pocket as a Mini CD or in a Pendrive.

I think as a customer first, then as a developer and third as a C.E.O. unlike in a business industry like Google.
Google takes such a long time get something right because everything happens in closed C.E.O. system and there is no ecosystem there.

Failure of the HP is and the new C.E.O. coming and dishing out WebOS which was open source and the tablet with it (Baby with the bath water)  and all the other paraphernalia is due to not being able to think in Virtual C.E.O.s  Hat (Like me do not get high commissions for success as well as failures-America is a good example where failure is paid by the Federal coffers both business men (bankers, hedgers and speculators) and politicians (war efforts and war machine).
End result-Debt and IMF also want us to emulate America.

WebOS is the scenario where Open Source should step in and either acquire the HPs contribution as open source or re-engineer the whole thing and come out with flying colours.

What an average business C.E.O cannot do, a Virtual C.E.O can achieve with community help in no time.

That is my Concept.

We should give it a try and should not abandon WebOS.

In this context the Virtual C.E.Os contribute a lot but expects very little in return and the who community grows.
When I am gone, I am gone, but there are many more to emulate me.
For the time being, there is Linus, there is Stallman who stands tall and there is semi (business, adventure and human spirit-Mark Shttlewort0 demi god.

This has to work.
It will work.
Community will achieve.
Man progressed in this world because of his community efforts.


It was never by domination, by force or war efforts.

So we have to define this Virtual C.E.O and make many of them in all parts of the world, especially to protect the mother Earth which is vandalized from India, to China to America to this Small Sri-Lanka (to cultivate banana to rich Americans in the rain forest and protected land).

Stupid ideas in this country is plenty!

We are a Banana Republic will soon be like Dubai.
Except perhaps our neighbouring Maldives who cries foul at rich nations.

Friday, August 26, 2011

Toilets in High Places and Higher

It is strange that my writing on spacesuit has more visitors than Linux.
It is even more strange that the Scientific American is also writing high flying toilets.

Read this.
If ever people build cities in space, they will have to deal with the human waste problem. 
The biggest challenge is weightlessness; without gravity a conventional toilet would allow human waste to escape into the air. 
This toilet, designed for use on the now retired U.S. space shuttle, relied on fans to pull urine and feces into secure containers.

The problem is whether it is the Kings/Queens Toilets or My Toilet if there is a water cut along with the power cut it is always going to be messy and smelly.

Even more revealing is that with WHO is as big as today, nearly 3 billion people have no place to go
"WHEN YA GOTTA GO'.
That reminds me of the Jurassic Park  "WHEN YA GOTTA GO, YA GOTTA GO'' and even in my city I got to pay to "gotta go'.
Please do not come to the city but go to the jungle as our primitive did.
By that way the diseases spread by that method will control the population by default which the WHO seems to have no idea or have come to grip with.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Pendrive Linux My Love

The name Pendrive Linux has disappeared from the web scene but the www.PendriveLinux.com is there i you need some help for mounting any Linux distribution.
Long before I went in web search for 100 Linux distributions my only aspiration (inspiration too) and last thing I wanted in my possession was to have a Linux booted from a 1 GiB Flash Drive. Flash Drives were expensive then and our download speed was hopeless  and only thing I wanted to bring home was a globe trotter and a Mandriva Pendrive Linux when I went  abroad on a different assignment.
By that time I had (with some trial and error) got a Puppy Linux on a Flash Drive but all the efforts of preparing a Pendrive Linux were not successful.
Then of course in one of my friends room abroad I got my Pendrive Linux loaded well pass midnight and I still have it and it is still working.
All these were done on a Windows computer with gemu (Gnome emulation) executive EXE file on board.
It was a huge achievement for me then.
But I ended up buying a Laptop without Linux for one third of the price then with hard bargaining and almost fighting with the dealer.
Doing this on a Linux was painfully long process for a busy person like me and I never tried it on Linux having got few of my favorite Linux distribution in few of the Flash Drive. The again everything on FAT partitions and  not on Linux partitions with boot, root, home and root permissions.
My bad experience with vendors abroad got me into firm resolve to promote Linux not in this country where use of pirated copies is the rule (which I detest as a simple Buddhist) and is Banana Republic 's futuristic motto (Bana is daily sermon and Na is not following or listening but not slippery plantain we eat to avoid constipation  by listening to the Bana of the politician who do not practice virtues but the voter has to do that on daily basis.

I am glad to see most of the visitors are from abroad and many from USA and they get Linux and healthy dose of anti-capitalistic views which even Obama is pursuing for betterment of the down trodden masses.

My venture into Linux 100 was bumpy but and I am in a better position to talk about Linux and cloud computing.

All what you need is a CD/DVD and a Pendrive to be be cloud ready  a savvy or newbie guy/girl and not Andoid Craze or HP WebOS.

However the distribution i talk about need to shed some fat (client) and become thin clients.
Follow Me.

STEPS.
What one's needs are  CD/DVD and two (2) Flash Drive and little free time and one need not do that in one go.

1. Download CloudUSB DVD (1.2 GiB).

2. Download your favorite CD/DVD of Linux distribution and copy as an iso file not as bootable Live CD/DVD.

3. Find a  computer (ideally with USB booting to test your work) DVD writer.

4. Boot Up CloudUSB.

5. Use Boot DVD / USB creator; click and follow instructions.

6. Now you have a USB stick to clone many Pendrives.


7. Boot the Flash Drive with CoudUSB.

8. Go to UnetBooiIn click and follow instructions.


9. Load your favorite Linux CD/DVD containing iso file into the DVD/CD ROM.

10. Plug in your Second USB Drive


11. Give the path of the CD/DVD Rom as where the iso file is.
Wait a while and in the second USB drive you have a new Live distribution of your choice.

12. Then register your company and start selling your products (Live Linux Distributions on a stick). But do not jack the price up like our Buddhist monks who sell Bana on a pirated copy of Microsoft CD.

I have not given the finer details which vary from distribution to distribution and why I used CloudUSB is that it promote Cloud computing in style including Ubuntu One and Dropbox  and it has all the utilities (FAT Client though).
In my case I use Ping Eee which has more laptop friendly utilities.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Installing Arch on a Flash Drive

I was not doing anything specific and decided to do some crazy experiment.
I begin to hate Linux CD/DVD distributions without live scripts and install only options.
Reason for is, that I have to install them to my hard disk, often having to redo the work.
This was bit of a nuisance and I thought of doing the install on a Flash Drive instead on my hard disk.
Downloaded 686 Arch Linux and booted it up.
After it booted up as root on terminal, I plugged in a Flash Drive.

Nothing happening since previously I mounted CloudUSB on this Pendrive and it filled up with Linux files and stooped due to lack of space. CloudUSB needed 4 GiB and this had only 2 GiB.

Then I mounted the Flash drive and using fsdisk prepared a boot file, swap file and a root file and fallowed instructions to the letter and installed the the ARCH Core on and installed grub and password for Arch and click OK.
The it forced me to look at the Grub file which I did and I could not exit from the command terminal.
Fortunately, I had selected Vi editor and not nano that ARCH offered (I have not used nano and it had only two editers).

I had to type I and fiddled with the  command line (not used for ages and forgotten keyboard short cuts) and typed exit and quit and they did not work.
Somehow some trial and error and Esc and q (not wq) and I exited the console and booted up with Flash Drive attached. My old computer does not boot from USB but it detected the USB but went back to my hard disk MBR.

This is one of the maddest thing I have done in Linux, thank god  I did not erase my MBR.
(Even then no worries Just install Mepis again or PClinux).
Anyway I mounted the flash drive and it's boot partition and looked at the GRUB file.

What I could to find  was interesting.

It was mounting hd0 and non-existing Windows, probably a reflex action and not a true detection or detective work.

It could not detect my Mepis, PCLinux in that hard disk of 80 GiBs.
These Linux guys worship windows and I was really disappointed.
In their defense the first partition was FAT with Image files stored there. 


I want to mount this Flash Drive in my laptop and see what happens (My gut feeling is it won't boot up) but it was nice thing for me to go to old ways and use Vi Editor and fsdisk for just fun.

Beauty of fsdisk is unlike graphic partition tools it reads all the cylinders and mark them and leave no un-partitioned gaps.

I am convinced even before mounting this on my laptop since this flash disk now has no fat partition but a boot partition, root and swap  (500 MiB) only  that one eighths of my RAM.

Sure enough it did not but only read the boot file and menu.


Still direct Linux booting is not allowed by convention and by force.

This has to change why worship FAT/MBR /BIOS?

But for newbies this is good dress rehearsal for bigger things to practice and learn without damaging the hard disk.
One has to remember the nomenclature used in numbering SATA or IDE  or USB disks.
I in fact had made a mistake used a for b and I ROLLED backed and redid the procedure above three times once due to monitor going idle and I could not proceed for configuring and second I named it wrongly and used sda1 and had to ROLL BACK.

I still have an old UNIX book and if I am in trouble (many Linux) I can roll BACK to books unlike newbies with slightest problem who go to the web with a help me post and start WHIMPERING AND SAYS LINUX SUCKS.

I may write few simple books and already introductory lessons in Linux is on ebay.
But I won't stop blog post though.
It is like writing an editorial.

SwiftLinux-Regular-An Update

While everybody was focusing on new trends and tablets, I was keeping an eye on SwiftLinux.
My last report of it was unsatisfactory since it did not boot up in my old IBM and fonts were missing.
It is a Debian (Mepis antiX clone) derivative and it has come out with SwiftLinux 0-1-2 and the latest one is sleek fast to boot and work on both my old and new IBM (Relatively).
It is light on your computer and like Puppy very light on the RAM and and amazingly uses less than 100 MIB for the live CD.
That is very good feature of this distribution.

It has AbiWord and OpenOffice (prefer LibreOffice-next time round please) and Python but no Vi.
Its graphic memory usage (Debian terminal memusage is not there- but why should it have both graphic and terminal mem utilities) is revolutionary idea going back to Linux development of Memory part of the kernel. Below is a rough breakdown of the memory usage.
Python less than  4 MiB
Abi Less than       5 MiB.
Open Office from 18 to 25 depending of what part of the suite is used.
Terminal also takes about 12 MiB surprisingly.

Thanks guys and girls of SwiftLinux living up to the reputation for old computers and low memory guys.
Mind you it can be used with new too.
Now i have no hesitation of recommending it and it is going to take lot of points from my point scheme and it will now start rivalling Puppy in a constructive way for newbies.
Puppy of course is my number one.
Knoppix 2 and Debian 3 and when it becomes stable SwiftLinux will certainly occupy the 4th or fifth place if they introduce utilities for visually handicapped who do not need lot of graphic utilities for obvious reasons.
Please think of the days when Linus had the 386 and developing multitasking utilities for his resource poor computer bought on student loan.
There are lot of poor guys in the African and Asian subcontinent.
Ubuntu moving away from the low end and poor end of the market (which is essential for different reasons I have stated elsewhere) we must not lose track of the majority who are poor including senior citizens (pensioners) who will be visually handicapped and struggling to survive with low budget.
Mind you these facts are true for poor Americans too.

Dream-13 and its interpretation from Heaven

Below is a phrase cut out from real life story of Linus and his erstwhile (current too)  friend.

I won't tell you where it is posted but it is an inspirational piece of writing and how a young undergraduates feels about his/her life in the campus and his/her career accomplishment thereafter and how collaboration works and isolation ruins. 

Go and find it yourself.

1. It is relevant here to state how the politicians (whatever the party affiliation that would be) should not ruin the minds of young entrants by propaganda.
2. It is also relevant that a university computer student in early 1990 could not save money enough to buy a home computer.

Then of course if you have time read my latest dream and its interpretation and if you are a cricket fan (Indian or Sri-Lankan) the story is a good sleeping pill for you to drop to sleep standing or seated.

The way Australians and Englishman disposing our titles in style, the other alternative to watch cricket. 
I of course switch on Sri-Lankan match when I won't to sleep on my arm chair (not for dreaming of course).

I call it instant Sleep neither instant Cricket(IPL type) or Instant Coffee.
 
You may fall to sleep halfway through my story too but that is an added advantage of visiting this post.

Caption

Our studies for the first year ended in May, and in June we both started the semi-mandatory military service, but in different places. 

I did not see Linus for the next year. 

The Finnish army taught me to shut up, stop thinking, hurry up to wait, shoot people at a distance, and collect dirty dishes in a restaurant. 

My IQ dropped markedly during those nine months. 

I did not enjoy the experience.

Caption ENDS and the story begins. 

Now I always dream about going abroad or being abroad in an airport or in one of my friends home abroad alone while my friend is toiling in his or her office. This disease of going abroad in dreamy state I acquired while on industrial action over 3 months periods and there is no cure for except dreaming of a cure.

The Dream

I had gone to Denmark to visit a friend there who is a professor of Sociology. He is a fan of football and once Danish were the world champions in football  and he still dreams one day in the future they will become champions again.
I tell him it is nice to dream when one is old and retired and does not have enough means to support oneself.
It is all what old people have except of course politicians in power.
I always tell my friend one should not become a politician young.
Look at Obama and see how quickly he has become "old looking" in spite of American make up.
One must become a politician at old age and have your bypass and all other medical conditions attended by the state and one does not need a Health Plan or Insurance then. 
He tells me he does not like politics and rush off to work leaving behind an old computer for me to work with.
Then he turns round and find me a push trolley to take the computer on my way out if I decide to go out for a walk. He is scared I get a heart attack carrying a big computer on my outdoor activities knowing very well that computer is now an appendage of my body.

One thing he does not know is that I carry Pendrive and a Puppy Linux.

I was bored inside and loaded the computer into the trolley and was on my way to the railway station as a necessary precaution. In those countries where elderly should not come out at rush hour and you will be trampled to death. So with the trolley I get a headway and leeway at rush hour and rush points. Of course I get funny looks from bystanders, onlookers and  fellow beings of fairer skin as I progress along and towards my desired destination..
As I was going down the path to the station to park the trolley (one needs to pay), I met a lady I have known with her blind son and the daughter coming up.
We got into conversation and the blind son was figuring to place me in his memory and I was telling him.
Can't you remember that I was talking to your mum over the  phone when your sister got lost in the supermarket and I baby sat with you till she alerted the security and the police to locate her and eventually find her.
This was 12 year ago I told him.
Then he came to me grabbed me with emotion and with that emotion I was woken up.
This was a nice dream and I was taken up by the big old computer and the lost child and helping to find her.
But also annoyed why should one of my friends gives me a big old computer instead of a tablet on my short sojourns abroad?
I can understand a wheel chair but not a rackety old computer and immediately posted an email to Maha Brahma.
He responded quickly and with a saying "old time no see arhh".
I told him we are back to work and doing some catch up work.
I told him this cannot be me at the railway station with an old computer and I am now thinking of a telepathic computer chip in my forehead and not a  rackety old computer as my companion and i am very futuristic computer-wise.
I may be old in age but my computer is going to be the latest even to my grave I told him.
Son don't be impatient.
It is futuristic too.
Then I asked him why did you wake me up in the middle and  I would have liked to know all about the future politicians.
Do you want to die in prison?
Perhaps not?
Then he dished out the interpretation.

Interpretation.

There are three involved

1. A politician
2. His putative wife
3. A child under 5

Country origin of the three withheld by the advice of the Interpol(Not coconut pol)

Site A Middle East International Airport.
Modus Operandum 
Human smuggling for transplant organs.
Screen action.
1. This politician goes on a official visit.
2. His putative wife (real wife in his mother country) joins him with a child under five two days later.
3. Wife come back to airport with the child.
4. Embark for homeward journey.
5. Report the missing child to the politician by phone before take off.
6. Politician alert the local police
7. Politician attend his bogus function (underworld)
8. In the meantime missing child disappears without a trace from the airport.
9. Whisked away to a Private hospital for donor parts.
10 Money deposited on a Swiss bank in the name of the politician.

This is how the NGOs will operate in future.
See you soon and he disappeared from computer email radar.

About the politician carrying a computer on a trolley is the symptom of them living in the glory of the past who cannot change with modernity and still prefer ballot paper (which can be manipulated at the time of the election) instead of an electronic ballot. His and his retinue carry all the paraphernalia with them when travelling often in a private jet.
They prefer going abroad when things can be achieved with an electronic mail or phone call quite oblivious to the electorate who selected them.
The disappearance of the child is of course is human smuggling.
Blind person is the symbol of lack and antipathy towards differently able people who have to struggle for survival and often there is no access to disabled people in public places in spite of huge development plans.
They are taken away and incarcerated with minimal right in day to day living.

Monday, August 22, 2011

My Selection of Live CD/DVD-Point Scheme

1. Debian gets               3005 points
2. Ultimate                    2620 (Games)
3. AVLinux                     2480
4. Knoppix                     2410 (Live DVD / CD)
5. Poseidon                    2390
6. Pinguy                        2385
7. PCLinux                     2230
8. Mabuntu                    1930(Ubuntu Derivative)
9. Mepis                         1755
10. Sabayon                   1430
11.Ununtu Unity            1405

Linux Gamers Live I have not scored yet but would come within the first 20 and this has nothing to do with my subjective preferences but on the strength of the packages available for one's use.

Saturday, August 20, 2011

My Selection of 20 Live CD/DVD-Subjective

My Selections of 20 Live CD/DVDs with a short subjective comment appear below.

1. Puppy Linux form lupu, to quirky to wary or you can build your own Puppy from Woof: the "Puppy builder".

It can boot from any media from CD, USB, Smart Card. When I go abroad I carry only a Mini CD and USB  version to test any of the hardware i may consider buying from a bargain counter.
It has not build a Cloud Version. Hope they will do that.

I believe in "Small is Beautiful" and Powerful and this is the only distribution that fits that definition and carry all the useful utilities

2. Knoppix CD/DVD, Kids and Games.
This is the one which started it all until Puppy came into the scene. This was my favorite and Damn Small Linux was the utility I carried in my front shirt pocket.
Knoppix has its own virtues.
It never fails you and can be installed into the hard disk now.
It's ADRAIN version support visually handicapped.

3. Debian is the the gold standard for Light Weight and Heavy Weight championship. It is bit quirky for newbies to come first in the list. It has over 30,000 packages to cover all your basic and advanced needs.
It now has Sinhala Capability too.

4.Ping Eee surprisingly comes 4th, simply because it supports laptops and netbooks and it is almost ready for tablet invasion and getting used to what is on the horizon.

5. Vinux comes 5th since it supports visually handicapped and the latest version (3.2.1) can be carried in a USB.

6. PCLinux comes 6th with its FullMonty as my usual workhorse but it has dropped down on my list. It has many versions and 64 bit version  promised has not yet hit the market. To begin with it was only in English and now it is penetrating the Globe.

7. Simply Mepis is the 7th in my honour's list stable KDE with a cleaning utility called sweeper and AntiX for older computers. Taylor Swift which has taken roots from AntiX is still not yet mature enough to be recommended as a general purpose distribution.

8. Ubuntu's unity comes 8th for its innovative approach and getting ready for tablet invasion in spite of many criticism form its user base. 
Its Ubuntu One cloud service of free 5 GiB and music service for under 4 dollars will rock the market in no time.  

CloudUSB its 10.10 derivative is also in my list for getting ready for cloud but it is not a thin client but a very FAT client.

9.  Arch Linux LinuxGamrs Live takes the 9th spot for promoting games. It is something one should always have in your armory.

10. Poseidon Linux not Scientific Linux takes the 10th spot by a wide margin for packaging productive utilities and scientific (including statistics) for business and schools.

The next 10 should not be very unhappy.
11. Sabayon tops the list here for working on the dream we believe in and making Gentoo base working for you. The DVDs I downloaded from Gentoo does not work on my IBM laptop or desktops for me to volunteer any endorsement.

12. Linux Mint

13. Suse

14. Mandriva / Mageia

15. Arch

16. Fedora

17. Bodhi

18. Ultimate / Lubuntu Linux

19. Peppermint

20. PureOS

This list is, guys and girls who are developers working on other distributions is a grave injustice. 
Mind you this is subjective and I will assess all of them in an objective way by giving them points.
Then this subjective element will be eliminated but it takes time.
I have to download and test them alone.
That is why I promote Linux 100 here and elsewhere. 
I will be writing about you too, with points awarded in my own scheme and try to be fair (when I find time) as much as possible.