First of all, I have to tell everyone how great of a distribution Slackware is. I have personally sampled (meaning that I downloaded, installed, and ran for a trial period) at least 50 different distributions. It seems that, no matter how fancy a new distribution is, I always find myself returning to Slackware. I have to admit, it doesn't have a lot of the eyecandy and user-friendly features of other mainstream distributions right off the bat, but you could add them if you wanted to. Among my reasons for liking Slackware so much are:

• It's the fastest (by default) I've used
• Stability
• Security
• Educational value

Now that we have a little background as to why I like Slackware so much, let's move on to the installation, shall we? To make it a little more simple, I'm just including the notes that I took while installing.

• Insert disc 1

• Boot Menu: Hit enter to boot with default options

• Select keyboard map: Enter for default US

• Login as root

• Check partition scheme: # fdisk /dev/hda

  Here are some useful commands to get around in fdisk:

  • p to print partition table
  • d to delete, followed by parition number
  • c to create; primary/extended; start sector; end sector
  • a to toggle bootable flag
  • w to write parition table
  • q to quit

• # setup

• ADDSWAP to activate swap partition

  • select your swap partition and hit ok
  • choose whether you wish to check for bad blocks while preparing the swap partition [no]
  • hit ok when your swap partition has been configured

• Choose your root (/) parition

  • Select the proper partition from the list and hit select
  • Choose your formatting type
    • Format: Quick format with no bad block checking
    • Check: Slow format that checks for bad blocks
    • No: No, do not format this partition
    • [ FORMAT ]
  • Choose filesystem
    • ext2: Standard Linux Ext2 Filesystem
    • ext3: Ext3 Journaling Filesystem
    • reiserfs: ReiserFS Journaling Filesystem
    • [ REISERFS ]
  • Add other paritions and follow the same process as above, specifying the mount point
  • Hit ok when the partitions have been setup successfully

• Specify whether you'd like any existing FAT or NTFS partitions to be mounted in Linux

  • [ YES ]
  • Select the partition
  • Specify the mount point

• Hit ok when the FAT and NTFS partitions have been setup

• Choose your installation source

  • Install from a Slackware CD or DVD
  • Install from a hard drive partition
  • Install from NFS (Network File System)
  • Install from a pre-mounted directory
  • [ CD or DVD ]

• Choose the CD/DVD device

  • auto: Scan for the CD or DVD drive (recommended)
  • manual: Manually specify CD or DVD by device name
  • [ AUTO ]

• Select the package sets you'd like to install and hit ok

• Select prompting mode

  • full Install everything (3+ GB of software, recommended)
  • expert Choose individual packages from interactive menus
  • menu Choose groups of packages from interactive menus
  • newbie Use verbose prompting (and follow tagfiles)
  • custom Use custom tagfiles in the package directories
  • tagpath Use tagfiles in the subdirectories of a custom path
  • [ FULL ]

• Specify your kernel

  • bootdisk Use the kernel from the installation bootdisk
  • cdrom Use a kernel from the Slackware CD or NFS mount
  • floppy Install a zimage or bzimage from a DOS floppy
  • skip Skip this menu (use the default /boot/vmlinuz)
  • [ CDROM ]

• Re-insert disc 1

  • Select your kernel
  • [ /cdrom/kernels/sata.i/bzImage ]

• Make a bootdisk

  • Create Make a Linux bootdisk in /dev/fd0
  • Skip Skip making a bootdisk
  • [ SKIP ]

• Modem configuration [ NO MODEM ]

• Specify whether you'd like to start hotplug/udev at boot [ YES ]

• Install the bootloader, LILO

  • simple Try to install LILO automatically
  • expert Use expert lilo.conf setup menu
  • skip Do not install LILO
  • [ SIMPLE ]

• Choose your frame buffer mode for LILO [ standard ]

• Pass the kernel a parameter if you have an IDE CD/DVD-RW drive

  • [ hdc=ide-scsi ]

• Select LILO destination

  • Root Install to superblock (not for use with XFS)
  • Floppy Install to a formatted floppy in /dev/fd0 (A:)
  • MBR Install to Master Boot Record (possibly unsafe)
  • [ MBR ]

• Select your mouse type [ IMPS2 ]

• Specify whether you'd like to start GPM at boot [ NO ]

• Specify whether you'd like to configure your network

  • [ YES ]
  • Enter your hostname
  • Enter your domain name
  • Specify IP setup
    • static IP Use a static IP address to configure ethernet
    • DHCP Use a DHCP server to configure ethernet
    • loopback Set up a loopback connection (modem or no net)
    • [ DHCP ]
  • Specify DHCP parameters
  • Verify and accept network configuration

• Specify services to start at boot time

  • rc.cups
  • rc.httpd
  • rc.mysqld
  • rc.pcmcia
  • rc.samba
  • rc.scanluns
  • rc.sendmail
  • rc.syslog
  • rc.sshd

• Specify whether you'd like to try out some screen fonts [ NO ]

• Specify whether your machine's clock is set to local time or UTC/GMT [ NO ]

• Select timezone

• Select your default desktop [ KDE ]

• Set a root password

• Reboot

• Login as root

• Add a new (normal) user: # adduser

• Configure XWindows

  • # xorgcfg
  • save the configuration to /etc/X11/xorg.conf

• Logout and back in as the new user

• Bring up the GUI

  • $ startx

Begin using your system!!

Note: This tutorial is a continuation of yesterday's tutorial about installing SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 on my HP Pavilion dv8000. I may or may not refer to steps that I took during installation, so if you are confused, you might want to check out the previous article.

The process of installing and enabling a wireless adapter will vary greatly from machine to machine. Some lucky folks have wireless adapters that come with official Linux drivers. For the rest of us, we usually have a Broadcom-compatible adapter. In order to use a Broadcom device, I use a program called ndiswrapper, which basically takes the drivers for the devices to function with Windows and wraps them in such a manner that Linux can use. Since I have the 64-bit version of SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) 10, I need to get a 64-bit driver in order for my wireless to function properly. These 64-bit drivers took me a while to get ahold of the first time I got my wireless working (on SuSE Linux 10.1), but I still have them in my archives, so I should be fully prepared to get my wireless working. In this article I assume that you are going to use ndiswrapper to install drivers for a Broadcom device. So let's get started.

$ su -

# lspci

lspci | grep Broadcom
lspci | grep Wireless

# lspci | grep Broadcom
06:02.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation Dell Wireless 1470 DualBand WLAN (rev 02)

# lspci -n | grep 06:02.0
06:02.0 Class 0280: 14e4:4319 (rev 02)

# cd ~/wireless
# ls

# ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf
Installing bcmwl5
Forcing parameter IBSSGMode|0 to IBSSGMode|2

# ndiswrapper -l
Installed drivers:
nbcmwl5          driver installed

# cd /etc/ndiswrapper/bcmwl5
# ls
14E4:4318.5.conf  bcmwl5.inf  bcmwl564.sys

# ln -s 14E4:4318.5.conf 14E4:4319.5.conf

# ndiswrapper -l
Installed drivers:
bcmwl5          driver installed, hardware present

# modprobe ndiswrapper

This will be the second time for me putting SLED 10 on my laptop, but I've also put SLES 10, SuSE Linux 10.1, and various others on this laptop several times before. It _has_ been a few months since I last installed Linux on this laptop, so we'll see how well I remember how to do it. I will be installing the 64-bit DVD version, so as to take better advantage of the 64-bit capabilities of my processor. This shouldn't have a drastic effect on the overall procedure, compared to that of installing the 32-bit CD/DVD version.

Here are some specs of my laptop:

• Make/Model: HP Pavilion dv8000
• CPU: AMD Turion 64 ML-40 (2.2Ghz)
• RAM: 1.25GB PC2700 DDR333 SODIMM
• HDD: 5400RPM 80GB
• Video: ATI Radeon Xpress 200M (128MB dedicated RAM, up to an additional 128MB shared RAM)

Note: I make a few assumptions in the writing of this article. One is that you are on a machine running Windows XP. If your computer can't handle Windows XP, you probably don't want to be running SLED 10. Another assumption is that you don't yet have your hard drive partitioned into more than one partition. I also assume that you already have the installation media in good working condition. For those of you in the BYU-I Linux Users Group (LUG), I am willing to make copies of the discs if you provide the media or discuss some sort of compensation if you want me to provide the media.

In this tutorial, I assume that you have access to a Linux machine on which you plan to create the repository. I have never tried to create a repository on Windows or Mac, but perhaps in the future I will. I am doing this on a Slackware 10.2 machine with subversion 1.3.2. Version differences shouldn't have a great effect on the validity of the steps outlined here.

Ok, just so everyone knows, I will not go into much depth about how to get your scroll button working, but I will cover the basics:

• Open your xorg.conf file (it's likely to be hanging around /etc/X11/xorg.conf)
• Find the section related to your mouse (search for the text "mouse" or "pointer")
• Set your protocol to IMPS/2
• Add the line below the protocol: Option "Buttons" "5"
• Add the line below the buttons option: Option "zAxisMapping" "4 5"
• Save the xorg.conf
• Restart the X windowing system. If you did you editing from within X (using KDE, GNOME, or other environment) you should be able to hit CTRL-ALT-Backspace to restart X.

These instructions will likely vary depending on your distribution. Some distributions (like Fedora, SuSE, Ubuntu, etc) don't seem to play well with manually-edited files and prefer that you use their graphical interfaces to change settings like this. But you should also not have issues using the scroll button on your mouse with the distributions listed above.

Good luck!

Yeah... this is what usually happens when I start a new blog. I just get into a certain routine after having the blog for a while. Things don't seem interesting enough to write about them after a while.

Anyway, this past weekend I took Mindy with me down to Provo, UT to see my sister and her little guy friend. We left Rexburg around 11AM and headed down the roads in my non-air-conditioned Civic. Mindy wanted to stop by one of her friends' pad in Ogden for a bit, so we did. After we left there, the traffic down to Provo was horrible. I think we rolled up to my sister's apartment around 5:30 or 6. As we were waiting for Paul, my sister's guy friend, to get home from work, we watched Nanny McPhee or something like that. Interesting movie, I must say.

Once Paul returned home, we had a nice little barbeque and then went inside to watch a movie. I only slept 4 hours the night before, so I was pretty tired (especially after driving for that long in that heat and in that traffic). I was trying to stay awake, but Mindy gave me permission to go to sleep. About 10 seconds later I was out for the count. I woke up when the movie finished. Brandi and Paul left to go on a walk (it was about midnight at this time) whilst Mindy and I just cuddled.

Eventually, Paul and Brandi came back and we all walked over to my sister's pad to drop off Mindy and my sister. I went back to Paul's place and crashed on his couch...this was about 2AM. Around 8 o'clock, I woke up, took a shower, and headed on over to my car. I cleaned it out a bit, listened to a little music, and played some guitar. I think it was about 9:30 or so when my sister came outside. I called her over and she said that Mindy was awake. My sister told Mindy that I was in the car, so she came out. We drove around for a while, trying to find some place that sounded appetizing to get some grub. In the end, we settled on Denny's. We had a fabulous breakfast of pancakes, eggs, and hashbrowns. mmmmmm....

When we hopped back into the car, Mindy called her mom to chat for a bit. Apparently the folks we visited in Ogden called Mindy's mom right after we left. It appears that they like me. hehe.. Then Mindy's mom asked if Mindy had met my sister yet. That's when things got interesting. Mindy said something like, "Actually, no (I didn't meet her). You love me, right mom? You're not going to get mad at me, are you?" "Mindy... What did you do?" "We went down to Vegas instead." "Mindy! Did you elope?!" hehe.. Mindy played around a bit more, but eventually gave in. It was absolutely hilarious. Keep in mind that all of this happened AFTER Mindy's mom had just talked about how much the folks in Ogden raved about me. hah... fantastic. Later on, Mindy told me that her mom played the same trick on her grandpa. I think he was prepared to come out after me and kick my trash. At least before Mindy's mom told him that it was just a joke, that is.

After breakfast we all went to a little river thingy and dinked around a bit. I thought it was fun. We also went to the mall before coming back. I was looking into getting some sandals because I am sick and tired of wearing shoes all the time. I left my most favorite sandals in Romania. I had been using them for like 7 or 8 years, it seems. Maybe even longer. Anyway, we headed back up to Rexburg after hitting up the mall. The drive back up was much more pleasant--it only took 4 hours to get back.

And life as usual resumed.

Welp, I was getting somewhat bored with my computer, so I decided that I would reinstall SuSE today. I finally got my dual-layer 32-bit/64-bit SuSE 10.1 DVD, so now I don't need to switch CDs every few minutes. That will be nice. Anyway, this time I plan to document the quirks that I run into as I attempt to get my laptop back to the state it was in before all of this mumbo jumbo.

First off, I was able to install SuSE earlier today.. Everything seemed to be going well up until I should have logged in the first time. The login screen never came--it just showed the 'busy' cursor for a few minutes. Then I restarted the computer and it did the same thing. Then I decided to reinstall again... just because I could. The same thing happened, even though I chose the GNOME setup that time (whereas I chose to use KDE the first time). Eventually it dawned on me that the 3D acceleration drivers I used before required that I share some of my real RAM with my video card. I thought it might be a good idea to try disabling that business and seeing how things went on only the dedicated video RAM. It worked. I logged into a great-looking GNOME setup and played around for a bit. I noticed that my synaptics touch pad thinger (mouse) wasn't responding too well, and I'm not really a big fan of GNOME to begin with. So I'm in the process of reinstalling SuSE for the third time today--this time with KDE. We'll see how things go this time.

The installation has finished, and now I'm working on getting my wireless to function. I had previously acquired the appropriate 64-bit drivers, so those weren't hard to get back. I installed the ndiswrapper package that came with SuSE 10.1, extracted the drivers, and installed them. My laptop locked up the first time I tried to modprobe the ndiswrapper system, but it works ok now. I can see the wireless network here on campus but I can't do anything with it yet.

I suppose my time is up for now, but I will continue this post later.

Yesterday Mindy and I went to check out the Teton dam since it began to rain. We had previously planned on playing a game called trackball, but I don't think it would have been any fun at all if it were raining the whole time. Mindy had never been to the Teton dam before, so I figured it might be a good activity.

I was surprised to find out that my little Honda Civic could make it all the way down to the bottom and then back up the steep road that goes down to the bottom of the valley. Mindy and I just played around near the water for a while, skipping stones and talking... Eventually we decided that it was time to go back to Rexburg.

We stopped by Jamba Juice to get some tasty beverages, after which we went up to Mindy's place to get the trackball game. The rain had cleared out pretty well, and the sun started to shine again. We finally got to play trackball. heh... so yeah, we walked on down to the park where we wanted to play.

Right as we entered the park, we saw a couple laying on a blanket having what seemed to be a very enjoyable time together. Both Mindy and I just thought, "GET A ROOM!!!" Anyhow, we sat under a tree not too far away from them to enjoy the company and the beverages. At a certain point in time, we both looked over at the couple on the blanket. Come to find out that we're both quite familiar with the two individuals. We just laughed at them for a while and then took off to the other side of the park to play. I found it to be a rather humorous situation, personally.

Trackball is actually pretty fun, if you have the wind going the direction you have to throw anyway. Each player has a little whatchamacallit that looks like a lacrosse, only it has a much shorter handle. One player will lob a plastic ball towards another player, and they are to catch the ball in the whatchamacallit. The process continues indefinitely. It's great fun. I found that I'm not very good at the lobbing part, no matter which direction the wind is blowing. Mindy is pretty dang good at trackball, and I kinda feel bad that my nerdiness overpowers my physical activity now. hah

After playing trackball for a while, we found another pleasant tree to chill under. We talked about a lot of things. Life is absolutely beautiful with Mindy in my arms. Ahh..

One of my good friends recently purchased a super nice computer system which should last him quite some time. He and I go back a couple years, and we devised a plan as to how I would set up his supercomputer when he got it a year and a half or so ago. This past weekend we carried out our plans. Saturday morning I woke up early and took my road trip up to Montana to take care of business.

I arrived at my friend's house around 10AM and work immediately commenced. Before I get too far into the details of the weekend, let me share a few of the vital specs of his computer:

• Processor: AMD Athlon64 x2 4200+ (2.2Ghz) with liquid cooling
• System Memory: 2GB DDR
• Video: nVidia GeForce 7600 GS (512MB RAM)
• Hard Drive: 2x 160GB SATA-II (320GB total)
• Optical Media: 2x DVD+/-RW drives
• Network: Wireless RaLink 2500 series
• Monitor: 2x 19" Viewsonic LCD
• Speakers: 5.1 Creative Surround Sound

Yeah, it's pretty sweet. I thoroughly enjoyed being able to work on it. I'll have to post some pictures of my friend's computer sometime. Ok, now on to the details of setting up his system.

My friend wanted to have both Windows and Linux on his system. We spent quite a bit of time around each other. Being the Linux nut that I am, he heard so much about Linux and wanted to get his fix. But he also wanted Windows for games and whatnot. Understandable. So we began the day trying to install Windows XP SP2 on his box. That was thoroughly painful, as usual. Installing a single driver, rebooting, installing another driver, rebooting, installing yet another driver, and once again rebooting. You'd think that the actual installation of Windows XP on a system such as his would be quite speedy. No, no... Microsoft never ceases to amaze me with the speed of Windows--or the lack thereof. It took at least an hour to get through all of the initial booting, setting up the partitions in a fashion that Windows could handle, installing drivers, and finally minimal essential software. Very rediculous. One of the best parts was that Windows somehow installed itself on the second hard drive...because of this (or some other unknown cause) Windows could not boot itself up. We had to use another bootCD in order to boot Windows. I assumed that GRUB (a Linux bootloader) would be able to circumvent this problem.

Once the first installation of Windows was complete and we had a backup of the installation, we proceeded to install SuSE 10.1 x86_64. This installation was painless. Everything worked extremely well. The hardest part about getting Linux to function properly was figuring out why his wireless adapter wouldn't connect to his router. It took a bit of time, but eventually we found the solution online (this solution also applied to my laptop, so I have great wireless in Linux now). As I was getting certain multimedia applications installed on Linux (since they're not included with SuSE for copyright reasons), we watched Hitch on the second monitor. It was great. Eventually Linux appeared to be set up and running perfectly. That was about the time we reboot Linux for the second time (once during installation, if I remember correctly).

Come to find out that not even GRUB could boot Windows. We were greatly frustrated, and my friend began to understand slightly more why I like Linux more than Windows. We decided to swap the hard drives around so that the drive with Windows already on it would be the primary master. I warned him that it would mean reinstalling Windows because it wouldn't know where to find itself after swapping the drives around. He was down with that, so that's what we did. We ran through the whole bloody process again. At least this time we knew what to expect when Windows complained about drivers--we'd already experienced it only hours before.

This installation of Windows went a bit more smoothly, but it also meant that we'd have to do something to get Linux back to an operational stage (firstly, get the GRUB boot menu back). I believe it was the first time I rebooted the computer after the second Windows installation that we got a "NTLDR is missing" error. Blasted Windows. I solved that problem, but then it started complaining about an invalid boot.ini file. Rubbish.

All we needed to do for Linux was pop the first install CD back in and run a rescue utility. It examined the existing installation and modified configuration files according to the drive swap. Linux was back up and running within 5 or 10 minutes. Windows, on the other hand, continues to complain at boot about the invalid boot.ini file.

And once again, my contempt for Windows has been reaffirmed. The only reasons I keep Windows around is for Adobe Creative Suite 2 and a game here or there. Even Google Earth runs natively on Linux (as of yesterday).