less a jumble tonight

I’ve been thinking a lot about the discussion Pete and Gabe and I had leading up to and briefly after BarCampMilwaukee4.  I told them I was done talking and on to doing and this was in relation to making libre software better, but I actually think that’s not the case. I have evangelical fatigue.  The problem is I don’t seem to be getting anywhere.  MadLUG is probably going to be having a State of the Union round-table (we don’t have addresses in the libre world, of course, that’s much too hierarchical) in November.  The date is still TBD, but I will be sure to post when the details are decided.

Some reasons for my fatigue:

• My Linux cohort at work uses Windows at home.
• Another guy who tries Linux at work occasionally has had trouble with ALSA because of Pulse Audio (see rant below).
• Plenty of Linux users have iPhones.
• Other than my brother, who uses Windows and Ubuntu, I haven’t convinced anyone in my family to give Linux a shot (not that I’ve tried that hard, because I don’t really want to support them…I’ve nudged, by getting my dad to post to the Ubuntu forums and such in their old Other OS section).  The problems with my aunt and my dad were probably the OEM situation where they were going to be tied to specific models and prices with Linux.

The list goes on, but you get the picture.

The promised rant: I’m convinced Pulse is the worst thing to happen to desktop Linux in a long time.  I really don’t understand why the major distros are hell bent on including it.  If you want it to work, make it work.  I understand that Fedora is a developer playground. Fine. Use what you want.  Ubuntu, on the other hand, is supposed to be Linux for Human beings.  Human beings don’t like brown and orange (seriously, look at Tennessee fans, are any of those people human? ROLL TIDE!) and more importantly, human beings just want their stuff to work.  It’s odd that Windows gives the impression of just working since a blank XP disk as so few drivers, but for people getting enterprise builds and OEM builds, it does just work…except we all know Windows doesn’t really work.  The devil you know, I suppose.  I hate Apple and their Steve knows best attitude, but they just work.  Jobs’ “benevolent dictatorship” has worked well for them.  If we learned anything from the Bush administration, it’s that Americans don’t actually give a sh*t about freedom. Give me convenience or give me death! Apple is the American way…not that there’s something wrong with a little convenience and not that the TSA guidelines are exactly convenient, but the point is, freedom is not high on a lot of priority lists.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’ve had some successes.  I think before I left Chapel Hill, COSI was really getting somewhere.  I’m sad to say that doesn’t seem to be the case once I left.  I was able to convince my ex-girlfriend to use Firefox and Thunderbird and another ex-girlfriend whose brother worked at Microsoft to start using Firefox (you can see why that relationship didn’t last!).  I’m pretty sure on the home computer my parents (or at least my dad) use Firefox.  I haven’t seen my mom’s new laptop.  I hope my dad had the sense to put Firefox on it.  Maybe I was just living in a fantasy land in Chapel Hill, with Red Hat down the road.  I’m beginning to think that more every day, but I’d still like to do good 1000 miles away from the promised land.  With my current connections, I don’t see how I can really make any headway with the Wisconsin state government or the University of Wisconsin, the two organizations I think could really have an impact on the libre world.  With one of the largest employers in Madison being a proprietary software vendor and Microsoft putting their dirty paws on events like BarCampMilwaukee4 (I should just stop there at 666 words. METAL!), it’s not David vs. Goliath, it’s Doug vs. an phalanx of Goliaths.  In that statement, I think I see the biggest problem of all. In Chapel Hill, it was Red Hat, ibiblio, Doug and at least two battalions of fierce libre warriors.  In Madison, it’s just Doug, trying desperately to amass an army to storm the gates of software’s Mordor.

There are a lot of people sitting on the fence. I see them. I talk to them. They are staying on the fence, and here’s the upshot, talking isn’t going to get them off the fence. The grass may be greener but from their angle, it’s only slightly greener and the cows are all still on the other side.  We need to water the grass.

My First Novel, Upcoming Events and Procrastination

It’s easy to be motivated with a deadline looming.  I was able to finish up my Chapter 6 hw because it is due tomorrow, however, Chapter 7 and the take home test being due a week from tomorrow…well, it’s slow going.  It is going though.  In one of my many breaks, I figured I would tell you (I’m not sure who “you” is these days) about National Novel Writing Month and how I’m going to participate.  Actually, there’s not a lot to say other than that I’m doing it.  I have thought about the plot a bit, but I can’t tell you that!  I do know that I’ll be dedicating the book to The Linux Outlaws and the title will be The Linux Outlaw (though the singularity/plurality of this is subject to change).  I have not decided if I will release the Chapters on the blog, but I’m guessing not in case I want to go back and change things as the idea forms in my mind from start to finish.  As usual, if there is outcry, I will do it…but there’s never been an outcry about anything on the blog.

The ever present Upcoming Events section!

Tuesday, October 20th, 7pm: MadLUG presentation on Nagios and SNMP.  The one is probably not one you need to be a desktop Linux user to gain from.  Nagios and SNMP are networking/sysadmin tools.  If you’ve been to meetings in the past, please note that this event will be in Van Vleck, not Chamberlain.  Details are on the link.

Saturday, November 7th, 7pm: MilwaukeeDevHouse4. DevHouses are essentially parties where people hack.  I’m planning on writing a substantial portion of the aforementioned novel that night.  If you’d like to carpool from Madison, please see this thread on the Web608 Google Group.

Halloween is coming up and I’ve been invited to three different parties.  None of them are super-public, but if you’re looking for something to do, definitely hit me up.

I don’t talk about sports here too much.  It’s supposed to be a technology blog (though the novel thing doesn’t really count either…).  I do want to mention that “It was Kentucky’s first win over Auburn since 1966.” At Auburn.  As a dual UK-Bama fan, it doesn’t get any better than this.  UK really needs to exorcise the demons against UT too though.  I couldn’t find the streak length of the Volunteers of the Wildcats but I wouldn’t be surprised if The Bear wasn’t the last UK coach to beat UT.

Ok, I’m done procrastinating.

a jumble of thoughts and feelings about practicality and libre software

As I’ve written this, the thing I’ve struggled with is that everybody thinks they are being practical.  I’m sure the FSF thinks absolute freedom is the practical thing to do.  Sometimes I think the drawing a line in the sand is the practical thing and the Democrats could certainly take some queues from the FSF.  I wish I got paid by the words typed and not by the words submitted! (oh wait, I wish I got paid!)

Now, let’s talk about ethics. Let’s get one thing clear, aside from the fact that libre OSes (Linux, BSD, OpenSolaris, etc), I don’t care what you do.  The FSF is hung up on ethics; that proprietary software is somehow unethical.  Bollucks.  What is unethical is Apple locking people out of iTunes (Re: Palm) and tax payer money going to Microsoft or Apple.

It’s not just about ethics. I’m not super concerned about privacy, but mostly that’s because I don’t think people should be concerned about what they do…but clearly they have to be with the current legal climate in our country.  However, knowing that hackers would change grades or siphon funds, it’s pretty important that the IRS and any government agency handling large amounts of money have a secure system and libre does not guarantee security, but at least there are cases where you can guarantee security.  You can *never* *guarantee* security on a proprietary system.  Sure you *can* trust them. Diebold, Microsoft and Apple have given me no reason to trust them.

I’m happy to discuss the public money thing or the ethics thing, but what I want to talk about is practicality.  The main thing is Hulu. I was very intrigued by Boycott Novell on FLOSS Weekly, but the analogies between me and either Jono or Roy go back and forth.  I think it would be too difficult to follow for anyone that hasn’t listened to the interview.  If you want me to make a post about it, please let it be known.  Back to Hulu.  Recently there was a stir on identi.ca and the various omb offshoots about the Hulu desktop client coming to Linux.  The FSF crowd decries the proprietary software is bad; that it pollutes libre software.  Photoshop not being on Linux is one of the things Pete (and others) decry about Linux.  Others say the same thing about Final Cut Pro.  Perhaps if some of those people came to Linux they’d start helping the GIMP team, or maybe they’d start using OOo instead of Word.  The ecosystem is everything and the Linux ecosystem is one of libre software.  Yes, there is Flash and Opera and potentially Photoshop or Final Cut, but 95% of the software people use on Linux (or BSD or OpenSolaris) is libre.  How can this possibly be a bad thing?  Now, some smart people have argued that’s it’s a bad thing because people depend on it and then people won’t develop a libre alternative. I respect some of those people, but it’s simply ridiculous.  Linus did not start Linux because of some whack-off obsession with freedom.  My using a proprietary wireless driver does not make me want a libre one any less.

As I said at the beginning, this post was supposed to be about practicality and the upshot is I think having proprietary software available for Linux is simply practical.  The agnostics are never going to be sold on the religion of freedom. Stop trying to convert them.  Fighting the war of freedom is not a practical war. There are winnable wars.  We should fight the war against marginalization.  We should fight the war against unnecessary government spending. We should fight the war against monopoly power.  We should fight the war of availability.  We should fight the war of access.  If we fight the appropriate war, we will win.  Freedom is simply destiny.

Help me help you.

Several things are coming up and I need to know how best to help you and the Madison community.
October 20th is the next MadLUG meeting.  We don’t yet have a topic.  We could do something on Python or have a bit of a state of the union and really figure out what we want to do with the LUG.  LUG attendance has really been pathetic.  Should we move to Saturday meetings like they have in Milwaukee?

November 1st is the next Open Everything event.  We do not have very many people signed up.  We want to have this event in Pewaukee at a fabulous location, but if people don’t sign up, it’s not going to happen.

November 13th-ish we are going to have Open Music Madison.  We don’t have a firm date, because our 1st choice of venues fell through.  It looks like we may have to charge $5 a head.  I don’t like it, but doing something is better than waiting to have the perfect event I say.

If you have ever been to an OE Madison or to a MadLUG meeting, please leave your thoughts or e-mail me directly at douglasawhREMOVEFORREALZ@gmail.com

Linux-Live.org

Trying to get Linux Live from Linux-Live.org work

#!/bin/bash
#
# run this script to create a LiveCD in /tmp/live_data_1234
#
# Author: Tomas M. <http://www.linux-live.org>

export PATH=.:./tools:../tools:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/

CHANGEDIR=$(dirname $(readlink -f $0))
echo “Changing current directory to $CHANGEDIR”
cd $CHANGEDIR

. liblinuxlive || exit 1
. ./.config || exit 1

# only root can continue, because only root can read all files from your system
allow_only_root

# live CD name
echo -ne “Name of your live distro [hit enter for $LIVECDNAME]: “
read NEWLIVECDNAME
if [ "$NEWLIVECDNAME" != "" ]; then LIVECDNAME=$NEWLIVECDNAME; fi
LIVECDNAME=$(echo $LIVECDNAME | tr -d ‘ ‘)

. ./install
if [ "$ROOT" -a "$ROOT" != "/" ]; then
. ./install $ROOT
fi

# search for kernel
VMLINUZ=$ROOT/boot/vmlinuz
if [ -L "$VMLINUZ" ]; then VMLINUZ=$(readlink -f $VMLINUZ); fi
echo -ne “Enter path for the kernel you’d like to use [hit enter for $VMLINUZ]: “
read NEWKERNEL
if [ "$NEWKERNEL" != "" ]; then VMLINUZ=”$NEWKERNEL”; fi
if [ "$(ls $VMLINUZ 2>>$DEBUG)" = "" ]; then echo “cannot find $VMLINUZ”; exit 1; fi

header “Creating LiveCD from your Linux”
echo “some debug information can be found in $DEBUG”

mkdir -p $CDDATA/$LIVECDNAME/{base,modules,optional,rootcopy,tools}

echo “copying cd-root to $CDDATA, using kernel from $VMLINUZ”
cp -R cd-root/boot $CDDATA
for i in isolinux syslinux; do
cat cd-root/boot/$i/$i.cfg | sed -r “s/LABEL linux/LABEL $LIVECDNAME/” | sed -r “s/Run linux/Run $LIVECDNAME/” > $CDDATA/boot/$i/$i.cfg
done
mv $CDDATA/boot/dos/linux.bat $CDDATA/boot/dos/${LIVECDNAME:0:8}.bat
cat cd-root/boot/dos/readme.txt | sed -r “s/LINUX.BAT/”${LIVECDNAME:0:8}.bat”/” > $CDDATA/boot/dos/readme.txt

mkdir -p $CDDATA/$LIVECDNAME
cp -R cd-root/linux/* $CDDATA/$LIVECDNAME
cp tools/* $CDDATA/$LIVECDNAME/tools
cp -R DOC/LICENSE $CDDATA/$LIVECDNAME
cp $VMLINUZ $CDDATA/boot/vmlinuz

echo “creating initrd image…”
echo “Using kernel modules from $ROOT/$LMK”
cd initrd
./initrd_create $LIVECDNAME
if [ "$?" -ne 0 ]; then exit; fi
cd ..

cp initrd/initrd.gz $CDDATA/boot/initrd.gz
rm initrd/initrd.gz

echo “creating compressed images…”

for dir in $MKMOD; do
if [ -d $ROOT/$dir ]; then
echo “base/$dir.lzm …”
echo -ne > exclude.txt
for i in $EXCLUDE; do
part=$(echo “x/$i” | tr -s / | sed -r “s:x/[^/]+/::”)
if [ -e "$ROOT/$dir/$part" ]; then echo “$ROOT/$dir/$part” >> exclude.txt; fi
done
cat exclude.txt
create_module $ROOT/$dir $CDDATA/$LIVECDNAME/base/$dir.lzm -keep-as-directory -ef exclude.txt
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then exit; fi
rm exclude.txt
echo
fi
done

cd $CDDATA/$LIVECDNAME
echo “——–done———-”
echo
echo “* run $CDDATA/$LIVECDNAME/make_iso.bat to create ISO image”
echo “* or copy content of $CDDATA to your USB device”
echo “and run ./boot/bootinst.sh (from the device!) to setup boot sector”
echo
echo “Now press Enter…”
read junk

I’m confused from the very beginning.  Why do we need to

CHANGEDIR=$(dirname $(readlink -f $0))
echo “Changing current directory to $CHANGEDIR”
cd $CHANGEDIR

The script ends up erroring at

echo “Using kernel modules from $ROOT/$LMK”

I’ll have to look for a good wordpress module for code where there are line numbers…

bash script for getting user profiles ready to go

This script is to be run as root…but the 2nd line (1st functional line) doesn’t work because root has nothing in .gconf

#!/bin/bash

cp -R ~/.gconf /etc/skel/

echo “<?xml version=\”1.0\”?>
<gconf>
<entry name=\”frequency_get_upgrades\” mtime=\”1251122031\” type=\”int\” value=\”0\”/>
<entry name=\”auto_update\” mtime=\”1251122029\” type=\”string\”>
<stringvalue>security</stringvalue>
</entry>
<entry name=\”frequency_get_updates\” mtime=\”1251222859\” type=\”int\” value=\”86400\”/>
</gconf>” >> /etc/skel/.gconf/apps/gnome-packagekit/update-icon/%gconf.xml

echo “Enter Username (person getting computer)”
read userftw

useradd $userftw
echo password | passwd –stdin $userftw

useradd douglasawh

echo “$userftw ALL=(ALL) ALL” >> /etc/sudoers
echo ‘douglasawh ALL=(ALL) ALL’ >> /etc/sudoers

yum -y remove evolution transmission gnome-disk-utility

yum -y install tsclient gconf-editor

sh vpnsetup.sh

echo “\nIf you have the time, run yum -y upgrade. kthxbai”

This is slightly different than the one I’m using just because it’s probably not the safest thing in the world to have all the usernames out of there.

We may add more to the script later, but right now we don’t have a lot we want to do. All these users need to be able to do is remote desktop, but we also want to make sure they are getting security updates and some other minor things that should be apparent in the script.

All of this would be easier if we were still using UCK or reconstructor in ubuntu, but due to Spacewalk, we are moving to Fedora.

Spacewalk for SUSE?

Ok, what I really want is Landscape for SUSE because Spacewalk is on the complicated side (spacewalk doesn’t cost anything, so that’s what we’re doing).  I’m not enamored by Fedora’s 13 month support cycle (Ubuntu’s 18-month sounds better to me).  Also, on at least one of the models we currently have, suspend does not work.  The real problem though is that Fedora does not recommend in-place upgrades like Ubuntu does.  I’m not yet sure what that means as far as kickstart.  PXE booting it’s likely to be an option, so that would mean every user would need some sort of kickstart boot media or we’d have to bring them in for upgrades.  Neither of those sounds pleasant.  Obviously RHEL would be a decent option, but if we aren’t willing to spend money on Landscape we aren’t going to be willing to spend money on RHEL.  You might well then suggest CentOS.  You should read today’s news.  I suppose if they get that worked out, we might do CentOS.

So much I want to write about but no time.  Software Freedom Day coming up as well as Open Everything on October 31st.  I’m also reading a book on DiY Culture, which is interesting because I never really thought of DiY as a political sort of thing.  Maybe I’ll get a chance to write about that at some point.

is a short blog on a blog a blog or a microblog?

This was going to be longer, but I’m exhausted…

I’ve been using Fedora 11 for about a month…ever since we determined we’d like to scale with our Linux program and Ubuntu doesn’t seem to give us that opportunity.  I am looking at OCS Inventory NG and GLPI (initialism is French) to stick with Ubuntu, but the set-up for OCS has been a pain so far.  I need to give it MySQL permissions, which will be a job once I’m home and remoted in or left for tomorrow.
Basically, we are looking for a Landscape replacement, so if you’ve got ideas, let me know.  eBox was previously suggested and that’s not going to work because it doesn’t do package management.

As always, thanks for reading, and thanks for helping out!

Karmic Koala, Python, Ubuntu Spacewalk, etc.

Ok, it’s just get this out of the way early. There is no spacewalk for Ubuntu.  Well, there’s Landscape, but if you haven’t already discovered Landscape and know it’s proprietary, you probably weren’t looking very hard.  There is work for Debian support for spacewalk, but a student is undertaking that work and it looks like he probably has a year left.  So, it’s coming, probably, but not that soon.

I’m using Ubuntu Karmic Koala 9.10 pre-alpha.  So far no problems except one time trying to update I got a dependency error.

I kinda like Supertux.  I don’t feel like I have a lot of time for gaming, but since gaming is a known lag point for Linux, I feel like I should take some time to learn some games so when people say there isn’t stuff I’ll have something intelligent to say.  Any suggestions?  I *love* Worms, but Wormux is far inferior.

I got a Python: Create – Modify – Resuse by Jim Knowlton on Wrox.  I haven’t had a chance to do much with it, but I’m excited about it.

So, the main reason I’m writing isn’t in the subject (bad form, I know).  At work we are looking for a solution for our travel laptops.  We are looking for rugged/semi-rugged/professional grade netbooks.  The concern many have (I’m not one of these people) is that the netbooks will get beat up.  There doesn’t seem to be good literature online about these machines.  Do semi-rugged netbooks exist?  We’re looking to stay around $300 but certainly not more than $450.  Any help is appreciated!

OpenCamp, Debian, Fedora and OpenSUSE

So, I gave Debian a shot this weekend.  It didn’t go well.  It seems that my Debian installation may have had some problems because from what I understand, I should have gotten Synaptic out of the box.  The biggest problem was no wireless though.  This isn’t exactly Debian’s fault.  It’s Acer’s fault for not using a wireless card with Linux drivers.  In their defence, Linux was not as big in 2004 when this was new (or, at least that’s when the Windows driver is from).  I tried using ndiswrapper, but while it picked up the ssids, it did not pick up an IP address.  These TravelMate machines don’t have a great resolution on Linux, so I just decided to give up.

Now, over on identica, I was discussing some issues I was having with burning an OpenSUSE disk.  I’m going to chalk that up to random, but I’m using the alpha (not sure if it’s updated to beta…I’ve got some updates to do) of Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty, so there could be some problems.  Anyway, just to try to get something usable (not having wireless is not an option) I installed Fedora.  However, the DPI on the fonts was all messed up (or, at least that’s what I’m guessing it was), so I scratched that and got out my “real” laptop with Ubuntu so I could get some work done.  In the meantime, the openSUSE disk finished and I started the install.  I didn’t have it plugged in, so it failed on something, but then went on through to check the hardware, such as the video card.  As per usual when I try to triple boot, I screwed it up some how and while GRUB still has an option for Fedora, it won’t actually boot.  My Windows installation (which I only use to make sure issues aren’t Linux issues) survived the install.  I’m disappointed that openSUSE doesn’t have Moonlight installed by default.  I’m not a Moonlight fan, but since CBS/NCAA decided to go with it, I’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure it out.

So even though I’ve been happier with PCBSD than Fedora or Debian on this particular hardware (Acer TravelMate c310) I have no intensions of moving to BSD.  I had Linux Mint on the Acer before and didn’t like it either, though typically I’m a big fan of Mint.  I have no idea how long it will be before I get a new desktop or laptop, but that will likely have Mint on it.  I don’t like it enough to switch to it while I’m using Ubuntu.

Moving away from operating systems, today was the first OpenCamp meeting.  We did a phone meeting, which was probably better than the IRC chat I had lined up.  We did not pick a time to discuss again, but we should have.  We came up with lots of good ideas, but there’s lots to do.  There were only three of us on the call (me, allgood2 and poseurtech) but we already got confirmation on a blog post from kaitfoley.  I’ve also heard from geekazine and raster about the meeting, but neither was able to attend. I’ve been tasked with cleaning up our section of http://openeverything.wik.is.  If not for getting sidetracked by green computing discussions on identica, UNC making it to the Final Four and packing for my trip to Kentucky this weekend, I’d have done it today.

Another weekend is coming to a close with me tired rather than refreshed.  I am, however, feel a bit better than I was about two hours ago. food, ftw.