“If you can ‘tail’ it, you can visualize it” — OpenGL log visualization written in Ruby at [http://www.fudgie.org/](http://www.fudgie.org/)
Freeware Linux filesystem reader for Windows
This Linux filesystem reader reportedly works with Windows Vista (as well as other versions of Windows):
[http://www.diskinternals.com/linux-reader/](http://www.diskinternals.com/linux-reader/)
There’s also a utility to recover deleted files from Linux partitions:
[http://www.diskinternals.com/linux-recovery/](http://www.diskinternals.com/linux-recovery/)
Gnome Slideshow Screensaver Sanity
The default setup for Gnome’s GLslideshow is highly annoying on Fedora 8, and there’s not an easy way for users to individually configure it. Here’s how. As ‘root’, do the following:
Edit `/usr/share/applications/screensavers/xscreensaver-glslideshow.desktop` and replace
Exec=glslideshow -root
with
Exec=glslideshow -root -duration 15 -zoom 100 -pan 1 -titles
Linux & Kodak EasyShare 5100 All-in-one printer
Up to this point, our family has used Epson inkjet printers. We valued the archival-quality ink and I valued the Linux support. Unfortunately, Epson ink is expensive — very expensive.
Kodak entered the inkjet market last year and offered vastly lower ink price, making their printers a compelling choice. When our Epson printer started having printing problems, even with new ink cartridges, we made the plunge and bought a Kodak 5100 all-in-one printer/scanner/copier. So far, we’ve been pleased with the result.
Linux support didn’t seem to be an issue, since we do nearly all of our printing from Windows. Now that we have a laptop, I thought it would be nice to hook the Kodak printer up to my samba print server.
Unfortunately, there are no Linux drivers for the printer, which means it won’t work to have Samba serve up the printer. I contacted Kodak, wondering if they plan on offering Linux drivers. I’ve included their response, which boils down to this: *Kodak designed the printer to use USB protocols that aren’t yet supported by Linux*. Whether it was a good technical decision or not, I don’t know. I can’t tell, from their response, whether Linux will have the appropriate USB drivers in the near future or not.
> Greetings Jared,
>
> Thank you for your recent visit to the Kodak Web site and question about your Kodak EasyShare 5100 All-in-One Printer.
>
> Thank you for visiting the Kodak web site and your inquiry regarding Kodak support for Linux operating system with Kodak products. Currently there is no support for Kodak products on the Linux OS by Kodak. Our Kodak software engineers are well aware of the Linux operating system. We appreciate your concern for this operating system and interest in enabling Kodak products to work with it.
>
> Kodak continues to follow the Linux Operating system. We noted, as far back as March 30, 1999, that Linux announced support of a Linux-USB driver that only worked with UHCI controllers. Since UHCI controllers represent only a portion of the PC market, Linux-USB was very limited and was very preliminary even six months ago.
>
> We had the same situation in the past with preliminary Microsoft-USB drivers and now version 2 USB as well. Sometimes, the availability of these drivers simply does not match our product release dates. Even after the support is there, as is the case with Microsoft version 1, we still have to update our Kodak web site with the latest driver patches to keep in step with Microsoft-USB patches. In addition, Kodak has worked very closely with the USB IF Working Group on the USB standard participating in numerous USB “Plug Fests” where we test out our hardware and software on a variety of computers with various “chip sets”.
>
> In the past, prior to the release of Microsoft Windows 98, Kodak worked intensely with the staff at the Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL) to achieve “Windows Logo”. This was no small feat with the USB technology forming the basis of the DVC323 and later products and the Windows 98 operating system. As a result, the DVC323 passed all USB compliance testing with Windows 98. I am not sure that there is such a rigorous test standard for Linux-USB. If not, this has serious implications on our technical support staff and the cost for providing a Linux-USB
> driver.
>
> We understand the issue with devices based on the CPiA chip set and once again are faced with a problem with Linux-USB support in that isochronous transfer is not yet fully implemented. There is a distinct difference when a company claims “USB support” it does not always mean “full USB support”. Kodak relies on full support for UHCI and OHCI host controllers as well as their corresponding USB transfer types. The support for this simply is not there yet.
>
> As Linux-USB becomes fully implemented and released with the Linux OS, Kodak may investigate the technical feasibility of developing Linux-USB drivers for future products. I am confident that our technical teams would be able to provide support once Kodak analyzed the business case for such support.
>
> Thank you for contacting Kodak. If you have future questions on Kodak products or services, visit our site, as we continually add information to enhance our service.
>
> We are glad to be of service and are here for you if you need us in the future. Please reply to us “with history” if you need to respond to this email.
>
> Best Regards,
>
> Cristian P
>
> Kodak Information and Technical Support
> www.kodak.com/go/support
>
‘fuser’ linux command
I recently learned about the [`fuser`](http://www.google.com/search?q=fuser+linux+man+page) command, which may be useful when I want to unmount a file system that is in use ([`lsof`](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lsof) is also handy):
fuser -mu /media/USBFLASH # list pids and usernames with files open
fuser -muki /media/USBFLASH # kill, with a prompt, pids with open files
However, a lazy unmount is often sufficient:
umount -l /media/USBFLASH
Microphone setup for Linux and Skype
To get my microphone working in Fedora 8 with [Skype Beta 2.0](http://www.skype.com/download/skype/linux/beta/), here’s what I did:
1. Run ‘alsaconfig’
1. Press TAB -> Select ‘Capture’, and increase it to 100%
Laptop hard drive lifetime (load cycles)
Run the following:
$ sudo smartctl -A /dev/sda | grep -P ‘Load_Cycle|ATTRIB’
And see something like this:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always – 6038
The last value is the number of load cycles. A laptop hard drive typically has a lifetime of 600,000 load cycles. If the count is increasing by several thousand per day (or even several hundred), it may be cause for concern.
For information and how to fix it, see [http://lwn.net/Articles/256769/](http://lwn.net/Articles/256769/)
The journey to Fedora 8
I’ve upgraded our family laptop to [Fedora 8](http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/8/ReleaseSummary) (yes, we still dual boot into Windows Vista). The upgrade would have been a rather bumpy ride, except that I knew that Fedora 8 upgrades are [problematic](http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Bugs/F8Common#head-7b9bf2dab0e2bdd97d98334c7198cd9cd3eaf9be) (installs are OK), and that there’s a [workaround](https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=372011).
While Fedora 7 supported our laptop fairly well, Fedora 8 is even better. The power savings features are better. The Fedora community has tracked down and fixed several programs that were power hogs. The screen dims automatically while on battery power after about 30 seconds. File systems are reportedly mounted with the new [‘relatime’ option](http://www.lesswatts.org/tips/disks.php), which saves on hard drive battery usage — unless you upgrade, in which case, you have to add it manually. Improved wireless drivers in combination with an improved Network Manager connect more reliably, and more quickly, to our WPA2 access point.
*FreeNX broken, and manually fixed*
I use FreeNX regularly to connect to a remote linux box. When I upgraded one machine to Fedora 8, I couldn’t connect using an NX client. I found [a suggestion](http://www.nabble.com/Fedora-8-working-for-anyone–t4806795.html) that helped me fix it: Edit `/usr/libexec/nx/nxnode` and replace `DISPLAY=”unix:$display”` with `DISPLAY=”:$display”` everywhere. Hopefully, someone will re-roll the FreeNX packages to fix this for Fedora 8.
*Ubuntu sidenote*
I’ve heard the claim that Ubuntu is more ready for the desktop than Fedora, and up to this point, I didn’t know how that could be. Last weekend, I plugged a Logitech quick cam into my brother’s Ubuntu system. I was trying to figure out how to load the webcam driver, when we discovered that Ubuntu had already recognized the webcam, and it was ready to use.
Linux performance tuning
When attempting to find and fix performance bottlenecks on a Linux system, it’s helpful to know where to start. Here are a few resources I’ve found:
IBM’s [Linux Performance and Tuning Guidelines](http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/redp4285.html), published July 2007
> This IBM Redpaper describes the methods you can use to tune Linux,
tools that you can use to monitor and analyze server performance, and
key tuning parameters for specific server applications. The purpose of
this redpaper is to understand, analyze, and tune the Linux operating
system to yield superior performance for any type of application you
plan to run on these systems. ( [Read more…](http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/redp4285.html) )
This website has useful tips:
[http://www.performancewiki.com/](http://www.performancewiki.com/)
Google has some tools that people recommend:
[http://code.google.com/p/google-perftools/wiki/GooglePerformanceTools](http://code.google.com/p/google-perftools/wiki/GooglePerformanceTools)
This book seems to be recommended:
[Optimizing Linux Performance](http://www.amazon.com/Optimizing-Linux-Performance-Hands-Professional/dp/0131486829)
In my experience, strace and ltrace along with the “-c” and “-T” options, are extremely useful — even for Perl scripts. The “-T” option shows the timings of calls, and can help isolate what calls are the slowest.
* `strace -o program.trace -T -p
* `ltrace -o program.trace -T -p
The “-c” option gives a summary of the calls that used the most time:
* `strace -c -p
* `ltrace -c -p
I haven’t found a good way to isolate memory leaks in Perl programs — not that I’m an expert. What has worked for me is to [divide and conquer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divide_and_conquer_algorithm) in order to isolate the problem.
Internet Explorer more secure than Firefox?
In the past, I’ve recommended to friends and family that they run Firefox instead of Internet Explorer to gain better security and usability on Windows systems. I’m re-evaluating that stance now that I’ve learned about a new feature of Windows Vista that restricts Internet Explorer and runs it inside of a jail. It’s called [Protected Mode](http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2006/02/09/528963.aspx), or [Mandatory Integrity Control](http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1887/2), and it means that that spyware and adware are less likely to infect a Vista computer.
As far as I know, Firefox doesn’t (yet) run inside the “jail”, so Internet Explorer is probably the more secure choice — yet another reason to admire the technical engineering [effort that went into Windows Vista](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Vista#New_or_improved_features).
Despite the improved security of IE 7 in Vista, I enjoy the usability of Firefox, including the ability to disable JavaScript from running by default, using the [NoScript extension](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/722) extension. Does anyone know whether there’s a [NoScript extension](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/722) available for Internet Explorer? If not, I’m sticking with Firefox.