zero0w

Two important note:

 

1) Try running Firefox as root at least once before you launch it in a user account

 

2) Update for Firefox theme & extensions here:

 

http://update.mozilla.org/

Click the Cell (eg. A1) in Sheet 2.

 

Enter '=Sheet1.A1' (without the quotation mark).

 

You can do the same for Sheet 3.

Any suggestion on preparing for LPI 101 and 102?

Maybe people are using apps instead of the OS.

 

But, and a big but, is that Windows OS still shares 60-65 % revenue source of the company; it beats Office and other server products combined.

 

If Windows is really beaten, say dropping its marketshare to 70% or less, then it's an open season for other server and bundle apps as well.

Good. A lot of bugs in XFree86 4.3.x are fixed in 4.4 and the new X.org R6.7

Ok, so much time is wasted :P on changing UI font for gtk1 apps, now we are moving to gtk2 apps for good.

 

Example: Gimp 2.0, XSane, Azureus GTK-2+ client, and many more

 

Since GTK-2.x+ applications has switched to Fontconfig and Pango in processing font encoding and locale information, we no longer need to look up the old style X11 font name string, which probably caused brain damage to a lot of people trying to figure it out in the old days.

 

Changing UI font for GTK-2.x+ application is very easy, just create or modify this file in the home directory of your user account:

 

$ vi ~/.gtkrc-2.0

 

Then add this line:

 

gtk-font-name="Sans 12"

 

where

 

Sans is the name of the font you want to use,

12 is the font size

 

For example, I have chosen Luxi Sans as my UI font for GTK2+XFT Firefox:

 

gtk-font-name="LuxiSans 12"

 

Notice the space is omitted between "Luxi Sans", sometimes it is the case, sometimes it is not. Try to experiment and find out.

 

Ok, I think there's enough for now, any questions? :D

If you are still with me, here is more detail on UI font modification in gtk1 apps:

 

3.2) UI font setting in gtk1 apps - ignoring locale

 

But wait, you don't want to bother about your locale environment, just keep all the gtk1 apps look right no matter what locale (language, encoding) setting I am using!

 

Sure, you can do this, just make this as a per-user account setting by:

 

$ cp /etc/gtk/gtkrc.utf-8 ~/.gtkrc

 

Or you can choose to copy another file in /etc/gtk/ if you knew about your locale environment (such as gtkrc.zh_TW.utf8 which corresponds to the locale zh_TW.utf-8.)

 

Then modify the file ~/.gtkrc will achieve the same result.

 

Pay attention to the encoding scheme -iso10646-1, which is for Unicode (utf-8).

 

However, if you really don't want to bother, you can just put -*-* in place of -iso10461-1, which means use whatever encoding is available from that font. However, you may see square box or garbage in the UI if you use a wrong encoding; or the font does not contain glyphs/characters required in that language.

 

Of course you can set ~/.gtkrc to use several fonts in a particular locale language. As an example, in a Traditional Chinese environment, you can use Microsoft Arial for English letters and numbers, and then Taipei_Ming for Traditional Chinese, by using the separator ,\ to add more font as you wish.

 

3.3) Using Adobe Helvetica 12pt

 

If you don't have or don't want to use Microsoft font, then the Adobe bitmap font Helvetica 12pt (bitmap font has fixed size) is also a good replacement. On Mandrake 10, information on Helvetica 12pt can be retrieved from this file: /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/fonts.dir

 

helvR12-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz -adobe-helvetica-medium-r-normal--12-120-75-75-p-67-iso8859-1

 

Hence the old style X11 font name string for Helvetica 12pt is:

 

-adobe-helvetica-medium-r-normal--12-120-75-75-p-67-iso8859-1

 

Or simplify it as

 

-adobe-helvetica-medium-r-normal--12-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

(which ignores encoding and all other information, only the font size -12- matters here)

 

Hence you can modify the file ~/.gtkrc as:

 

style "gtk-default" {

      fontset = "-adobe-helvetica-medium-r-normal--12-*-*-*-*-*-*-*,\

                -*-Nimbus Sans L-medium-r-normal--14-*-*-*-p-*-iso10646-1,\

                -*-clearlyu-medium-r-normal--17-*-*-*-p-*-iso10646-1,\

                                          -*-r-*-iso10646-1,*"

}

class "GtkWidget" style "gtk-default"

 

Finish!

Note: This How-To is separated into several posts for clarity and easier reading.

 

Upgrading to Mandrake Linux 10, I have found that the UI (User interface) font of gtk1.x look rather ugly. Upon searching the web and a little experimenting by myself, I have discovered the trick to modify the UI font for gtk1 and gtk2 applications as well:

 

Here are my suggestions, as performed under Mandrake 10:

 

1) Install Microsoft web font thru corefonts package (Optional):

http://corefonts.sourceforge.net/

 

Mandrake Source RPM build:

http://ben.reser.org/corefonts/

 

Cabextract 1.0

http://www.kyz.uklinux.net/cabextract.php

 

2) You have to know what locale environment you are in:

To find out, in terminal you can enter:

 

$ locale

 

In English Unicode environment, it is likely en_US.UTF-8,

or in my case en_HK.UTF-8 (English for Hong Kong).

 

3) The trick to look up the UI font setting is in the directory /etc/gtk and /etc/gtk-2.0, for gtk1 and gtk2 applications respectively:

 

3.1) For gtk1 application

Eg: Mozilla X11, XMMS, Gimp-1.2.x

 

Now, the locale environment information you have found in step 2 became useful:

 

For example, if your locale is zh_TW.big5 (Taiwan Chinese, Big5 Encoding),

then you should look up the file /etc/gtk/gtkrc.zh_TW.big5

 

In the directory /etc/gtk

 

There's no such file as gtkrc.en_US.utf-8, so I would guess this means the locale setting will fall back to gtkrc.utf-8, and it does!

 

Examining /etc/gtk/gtkrc.utf-8 under Mandrake 10 shows this:

 

style "gtk-default" {

      fontset = "-*-Nimbus Sans L-medium-r-normal--14-*-*-*-p-*-iso10646-1,\

                -*-clearlyu-medium-r-normal--17-*-*-*-p-*-iso10646-1,\

                                          -*-r-*-iso10646-1,*"

}

class "GtkWidget" style "gtk-default"

 

The string -*-Nimbus Sans L-medium-r-normal--14-*-*-*-p-*-iso10646-1 is the old style for X11 server to display font information, before XFT/fontconfig was born last year. Whereas ,\ is the separator for adding another font.

 

Hence, if you want to use another UI font in gtk1 apps, you have to look up the name of that font in the old X11 style, which is recorded in the font metafile such as fonts.alias, fonts.dir or fonts.scale. They should be placed in the same directory where the fonts reside, inside the following path:

 

/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/

/usr/share/fonts/

/usr/share/fonts/ttf

 

For example, if I want to use Microsoft Arial font as the UI font for gtk1 apps, with the corefont package (see step 1) installed in this path:

 

/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/msttcorefonts/

 

Then I can look up the old style X11 font information from:

 

/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/msttcorefonts/fonts.dir

/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/msttcorefonts/fonts.scale

 

Upon examining the file fonts.dir, I have located the font information for Microsoft Arial in X11 style as:

 

arial.ttf -monotype-Arial-medium-r-normal--0-0-0-0-p-0-iso10646-1

arial.ttf -monotype-Arial-medium-r-normal--0-0-0-0-p-0-dosencoding-cp850

.

.

.

 

Where -is10646-1 and -dosencoding-cp850 are encoding schemes, the font name is basically the same.

 

Hence the font name for Microsoft Arial (with Unicode encoding) in old X11 style is as this:

 

-monotype-Arial-medium-r-normal--0-0-0-0-p-0-iso10646-1

 

Hence you can modify the file /etc/gtk/gtkrc.utf-8 by adding this font name, followed by the separator ,\

 

style "gtk-default" {

      fontset = "-monotype-Arial-medium-r-normal--0-0-0-0-p-0-iso10646-1,\

                -*-Nimbus Sans L-medium-r-normal--14-*-*-*-p-*-iso10646-1,\

                -*-clearlyu-medium-r-normal--17-*-*-*-p-*-iso10646-1,\

                                          -*-r-*-iso10646-1,*"

}

class "GtkWidget" style "gtk-default"

 

Save the file.

Finished!

 

Now launch a gtk1 application in en_US.UTF-8 locale and your UI font will look great again.

 

Edit: Here's the screenshot of how Mozilla gtk1 + XMMS looks with Microsoft Arial as the UI font.

Has the problem with "Unsupported Personality" fixed with HP LaserJet 1012?

Well, it is ATi's business and staff decision, don't ask me why they have to hire a German developer to do that, or why ATi has to merge two development teams (German and Canada) into one.

 

Truth is OpenGL driver development is rare talent, look at the driver of Matrox or other display card company in the graphic business.

 

However, people should have known that both nVidia and ATi (after acquisition of ArtX, the GameCube Graphic Unit designer) are sons of the good old SGI; both are now managed and served by talented SGI old-timers, the cutting edge 3D technologist a decade ago (and OpenGL creator in particular).

ATi isn't that good in OpenGL (not bad either), it betters at DirectX performance, so here you go because under Linux you use OpenGL.

Ok, I have found a DOS firmware flasher for my LiteOn DVD writer, I can use FreeDOS to upgrade just in case:

 

http://www.firmware-flash.com/~dhc014/

OK, it looks like LiteOn DVD Writer owners would have a lot of resources and readings to dig up and play with:

 

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?s=...&threadid=83441

 

The latest firmware for my writer (401S) has added bitsetting function.

Now there're a lot of things to explore from here and on.

 

I also found a DOS firmware flasher for LiteOn DVD-Writer, I can use FreeDOS to upgrade just in case:

 

http://www.firmware-flash.com/~dhc014/

 

Wish the Bitsetting firmware patch would resolve my DVD+R compatibility problem in older DVD-Rom drive.

Oops, I didn't see this post.

 

Anyway, an ALSA driver patch is developed to support Audigy LS:

http://www.mandrakeusers.org/index.php?showtopic=14997

According to Creative Open Source site:

 

http://opensource.creative.com/soundcard.html

 

The Audigy LS -- The retail Audigy LS card is not based on the same chip as other Audigy boards, so the EMU10K1 driver available at SourceForge won't work with it.

 

However, a new patch is developed to incorporate Audigy LS support in ALSA, by James Courtier-Dutton:

 

http://www.mail-archive.com/alsa-devel@lis...t/msg12892.html

http://www.superbug.demon.co.uk/alsa/

 

http://www.alsa-project.org/~james/alsa-driver/

 

Read the install.txt for procedure to compile and install.

This trick also solves my shutdown problem with my new motherboard.

Thanks.

Gowator, I feel the pain too.

 

Right now I have to use Windows to update the firmware of my DVD+RW writer.

We got to promote cross-platform toolkit to develop software.

 

I am glad to see more software like Vuescan which is ported across Linux and OS X platforms now:

 

Vuescan

http://www.hamrick.com./vsm.html

> The biggest bugbear, at least in the UK is that the only way

> you can buy a computer from a main retailer is with windows

> installed. its chicken and egg, oem's won't install linux bexause

> there is no demand there is no demand because you have

> no choice in the matter.

 

Well, at least you have a viable alternative platform that has no hidden self-interest to be exploited. Things are changing lately though. I think by 2005 we will have a rather robust desktop Linux platform.

 

Moreover, if there is no Linux, the low cost sector of software business will be completely dominated by Microsoft OS and her other product lines (SQL Server, Exchange server, etc.). The one-stop integration is appealing to IT managers and CIO alike.

I tried Kaffeine, but it doesn't help.

 

I installed mplayer and it works now, but the OSS audio compatibility mode in Mdk 10 is kind of screwed so I have to specify ALSA as the audio backend in mplayer (and XMMS also).

Well I got a second hand Ti4600, works good here. Of course it does not have DirectX 9 feature, but I doubt you will have games / application taking advantage of that under Linux in any time soon.

 

OpenGL 2.0 spec is going to released in Siggraph this year, nVidia may be able to pull a software emulation mode to support OpenGL 2 on older hardware, under Linux.

> can I put a IMVHO .. in front of that.

> agreed on modules but they still interface directly with the kernel so can cause a crash

 

Well, I wouldn't be so sure that won't happen to micro-kernels.

Perhaps when I try QNX and other micro-kernel OSes...

 

The open source way of development however will demand bug fixed quickly for serious problem such as crash.

 

> because word is word....everything else is not. When there's enough interest

> and desire for such a thing to justify the devel$, they will, but they will not

> port....it'll be their own, which will be better

 

I think Jobs is not interested to take on Microsoft, yet. But if OS X and G5 continue their "adventure" in the enterprise XServe product line.... never say never I suppose.

> its a microkernel so technically superior to linux as an OS....

 

I think there are enough flame wars on this subject.

 

Truth be told, I think the (open style) development process will also decide how the actual implementation will become. Plus, kernel modules have taken some advantage of Micro-Kernel to Monolithic Kernel.

 

I am also very curious why Apple does not commit resources to make a OS X native port of OpenOffice.org happening. That way Mac will become truly independent platform and compete better against Windows.

Linux hurts Windows exactly because OS is the first entry before any other software product can move into the market. Control the OS and then you can extend it to ANY other software product / businesses. Just Open Source alone isn't that threatening to Microsoft if she can still control the OS market.

 

Of course, I rarely heard how reliable (or the lack of) a Windows Cluster has been, the licensing cost just doesn't cut it most of the time.

Ok, I have come across the bitsetting feature (Book Type) of DVD+R burning.

 

http://www.dvdplusrw.org/Article.asp?mid=0...=0&sid=2&aid=42

 

http://fy.chalmers.se/~appro/linux/DVD+RW/

(Thru the command dvd+rw-booktype)

 

So, anyone has experience on changing Book Type of a DVD+R / DVD+RW to DVD-ROM under Linux? If I want to change the Book Type of a DVD+R, is it done before burning?

 

If so, what are the commands to enter to proceed with bitsetting (to DVD-Rom) and burning a DVD+R altogether?

 

Your experience and guidance is really appreciated.

 

Update:

 

More about Bitsetting can be found here:

 

http://www.dvdplusrw.org/Article.asp?mid=0...=0&sid=2&aid=44

http://www.dvdplusrw.org/Article.asp?mid=-...1&sid=-1&aid=45

Now I can burn DVD+R, however couple things still stand out:

 

1) My LiteOn LDW-401S is capable of 4X DVD+R writing speed, but K3b auto-detected it to burn at 2.5x for my 4X capable DVD+R, is there anything I can do to specify K3b to burn at 4X (there's a choice of 1X, 2X and Auto, but not 4X :( )?

I tried DVD+R of a different brand.

 

It seems that the burning speed is determined by the compatibility between the drive and the disc, and possibly affected by firmware upgrade. A different DVD+R which specified at 2.4X speed can be burned at 4X as K3b / grokisof determined.