desktop Archives - Page 11 of 16 - Yet Another Linux Blog

Dell E521, Linux, Freezing USB Mouse Problem Resolved

I hit a snag this past week while testing a few beta releases with the latest kernels. I bought an AMD X2 3800 Dell E521 with a Gig of RAM for US $409 and free shipping during a dealnews.com dealfest…I feel I got a good deal. So I’ve been waiting to put my favorite distro, PCLinuxOS on it…waiting for the release of .94 due out sometime this month. In the meantime, Windows XP has been on that computer and I’ve been dual booting distros I’d like to try.

The snag I hit came when booting into just about any 2.6.X environment in Linux…the mouse would be fine one minute, and then a few minutes into things the mouse would freeze. This is a USB Logitech mouse…and I found it odd that it would freeze up but the printer (HP PSC 1210v) would work just fine.

After a bit of research when pointed in the right direction of the kernel developer for PCLinuxOS, I came to realize that I wasn’t alone. Many on Ubuntu’s forums and also Linuxquestions, and Linuxforums had reported the same problems…most without any resolution. The good news is that I found a resolution to my problems 😀

Update the BIOS! I did a major forehead smack when it was the last thing I thought of when it should have been the first. After updating the BIOS to the latest and greatest version from dell.com, I was back in business with no freezes of my USB Mouse. Hopefully, if you also run a Dell E521, you won’t bash your head repeatedly against the wall like I did.

PCLinuxOS Reloaded and Rebranded 2007

As some of you know, I own and operate mypclinuxos.com, which is a community projects website for PCLinuxOS. What some of you may not know is that PCLinuxOS held an official contest earlier last summer to select a new logo. The community voted through three rounds of elimination on this new logo, created by the winning artist nicknamed ludi.

Winning Logo

Logo after request for modification from creator of PCLinuxOS

Coming Soon, 2007…is this the final version of the logo?

Just after the project, I pitched an idea in the mypclinuxos.com forums on creating how-to’s for beautifying the desktop which received immediate support and the PCLinuxOS Beautification Project was born. Not only did this team of graphics designers, many of which operate their own web design and graphics companies, make it easy to have fantastic theme sets for the PCLinuxOS Desktop, it also makes them as easy to install as using Synaptic. After install via snyaptic, a quick change in the KDE Control Center, and you’re set!

This team really has outdone what I expected of them…I honestly didn’t think they’d grow to encompass many themes, wallpapers, Beryl Splashes, window decorations, font, icons, etc. for PCLinuxOS and the next coming version .94. But there are so many talented artists in this project that they have made PCLinuxOS fantastic polished distro. Now the solidarity of the PCLinuxOS desktop is conveyed by the overall themes of the desktop making .94 a ‘must see release’

I’m excited to be a part of the development process of PCLinuxOS through the Beautification Project and proud to be a community leader with mypclinuxos.com. So when .94 comes out, make sure you give it a try! You won’t be sorry you did as PCLinuxOS will not only look great, but work out of the box for a majority of users!

Will Kanotix jump the Bandwagon?

Over the last week, one of the most respected and well thought Debian based distributions “imploded” (See Tuxmachines Article). What makes this even more sad is the fantastic impact Kanotix has on new Linux desktop users. Through use of its scripts for easy setup and installation/configuration on the desktop, Kanotix won the hearts and minds of many Linux users…and the fact that it is Debian based and can install from Debian repositories without worry made Kanotix a popular desktop distro.

I’m not extremely concerned with Kanotix dying…I think the community loves it too much to drop it on its head. That’s the beauty of Open Source…one person moves on and another slides in to take his/her place. What really concerns me is the fact that Kanotix is considering switching to Ubuntu for a base. Why would this concern me? Do I have it out for Ubuntu? Allow me to explain…

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Why I Choose PCLinuxOS

There’s been quite a few postings and articles on new users and Linux flourishing during the past year. The reason I believe this to be is that desktop Linux is approaching or has arrived at the tipping point where it can gain mainstream adoption. People are seeing Linux as a viable alternative to Microsoft. My wife recently had me nuke the dual boot computer and go with Linux due to Windows Media Player 11 restrictions set to come out when it is released. Her main concern is being told by companies how she should be able to listen to her music after she’s bought it…kinda like buying a car and the dealer tells you where you can drive it and how you can. She’s in the process of converting all her mp3’s to ogg’s to 1) save space and 2) because they sound better and are in a free format. Thus far, she’s not missing Windows.

Many blogs also have taken up this topic and, when determining the best Linux desktop, gushed about Xandros, Freespire, Ubuntu, and MEPIS. The thing I find odd is that they forget the little guy that’s outpacing all the others…and that little guy is PCLinuxOS. Let’s take a look at a few reasons why PCLinuxOS is, IMHO, the best Linux flavor for new users.

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PCLinuxOS .93 xorg.conf problem quick fix

If you’re like me, you change things constantly in your linux desktop. I’m always entering in and tweaking .conf files to see what I can do and where the limits of things might be. In my attempt yesterday to get my EXACT monitor supported in PCLinuxOS, I hosed my xorg.conf file which is where all the Xsession settings (or Xwindows session) are stored (like mouse, keyboard, monitor, and graphics driver settings). Since I hosed this up, my graphical user interface and window manager would not start. So I was dropped to login via the shell. This might be daunting for some new users in Linux so I figured I’d write up this little how-to that would get them back on their feet.

First, don’t be intimidated by the shell. It’s more powerful than a cmd line in windows and you’ll have complete control of your computer from the confines of this awesome tool. Plus, you’re about 15-20 seconds away from having your desktop back up and running by executing only a few commands.

In order to fix your xorg.conf file, it’s important that we become root…so login as root and let’s fix your xorg.conf file in 4 commands.

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ITWire in Australia on the Desktop

The point of all this is that from the standpoint of a new Linux user, having a snazzy looking interface is all well and good but it means nothing if users have to revert to the command line to perform what should be simple tasks. Installing new downloaded software is one of the most common tasks performed by desktop users at home and in small offices. Until the Linux suppliers can make this task trivial, they will continue to miss out on a whole world of users beyond the command line geeks.

NOTE: I normally don’t re-publish news like many of the “blogs” you see out there but in this case the article was pretty good and hits home with a theme I’ve been stating a bit lately.

The article above was taken from ITWire…IT News in Austrailia.

This article was a good read and I believe it to be true. Until Linux can come up with ways to make the user oblivious to what is going on underneath the GUI, it won’t make inrroads to the desktop.

UPDATE: 3/2007

Penguin Pete, the not famous blogger over at penguinpetes blog flagged this post as being the main reason that he no longer posts links to my blog. Interesting in that if anyone were to read this post out of context, they might not know what I was driving at for this post. The main intention of the post is to show that new users need to first feel comfortable in their OS before they drop down and get dirty with the shell. That’s a fact jack. Nothing is going to sway that…I’ve had many users I’ve switched over DESPISE dropping to the shell and cite that as the main reason they go back to Windows. This is what I was agreeing with in this instance…that New Linux users need to be semi oblivious to what is going on underneath and not have to worry about it in their beginnings…not to ‘dumb down’ Linux or remove functionality underneath it.