A taste of Linux.

Create this file;- " /etc/udev/rules.d/10-visor.rules"
with this line for its content:-
BUS="usb", SYSFS{product}="Palm Handheld*", KERNEL="ttyUSB*", SYMLINK="pilot"

Also create "/etc/udev/permissions.d/10-udev.permissions"
with this line for its content:-
pilot*:root:usb:0666

Install palm into cradle and then open Kpilot, and sync away. Be warned however that once kpilot is closed, it will refuse to resync again without you logging off and logging back on, or in other words, restarting your session. Its a bind but its a small price to pay for it working.

For some time now I've been looking for a program on CentOS that I can use for my latex writings. All I could remember was that it was a gnome program from its GUI (Graphical User Interface = the part that you see on the screen and you work through). I tried asking on the #centos channel on IRC with no luck there, so I asked in the centos mailing list, with no real luck there although I did get suggestions as to programs that I could use, except I was already using them.

So I then decided that I needed to search on all the programs available for centos to see which were available for latex usage, but how. The end result was a small shell script which output to a text file which I could then search by hand. Here is the script;-
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#!/bin/sh

/usr/bin/yum info >/opt/logwatch/yum.info
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is saved to my home directory as an executable file called 'yuminfo.sh', and I've now set it up to run as a root cron job as follows;- "0 7 * * * /home/boztu/yuminfo.sh". This shows all the packages available and also installed and outputs what they do and which repository they're in.

This complements nicely my two other shell scripts that I use with yum. The first being my 'yummy.sh' script;-
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#!/bin/sh
/usr/bin/yum list >/opt/logwatch/yum.list
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This lists all the packages available and which repository they're in and which packages you've already got installed. This runs from another root cron job "30 5 * * * /home/boztu/yummy.sh"

Finally I have a script that checks for any updates;-
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#!/bin/sh

/usr/bin/yum check-update >/opt/logwatch/yum.update
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is called 'update.sh' and again runs as a root cron job "0 6,12,18,21 * * * /home/boztu/update.sh".

Using the three of these regularly keeps me up-to-date with any new packages or updates to existing ones, plus I can easily search for specific ones. Easy when you know how! :)

One problem using a distribution like Fedora Core or Ubuntu is they have a rapid development cycle, with Ubuntu seemingly taking 6 months between releases and Fedora Core normally taking 6 months, although they've said that the time gap between FC4 and FC5 will be nearer 9 months [expecting to release FC5 in February 2006]. This means that you could be upgrading or installing your system twice in a year, which I've come to dislike.

So I've taken the plunge and moved over to Centos 4.2 which is a RedHat Enterprise Linux clone. This seems to have all the packages that I want and need, with a solid and stable base which is well supported and will be so for several years to come, and gets me off the upgrading treadmill.

I found that Fedora Core was a very good learning distribution and I enjoyed using it but I became gradually disillusioned with it updating something seemingly every day. And I didn't like the fact that sometimes other programs broke because of the constant updating, so I feel calmer, happier and more stable now. :)

And the wheel of life seems to have come almost full circle again, because the first distribution that I used when I moved over to linux full-time was Red Hat 9 which was very closely followed by White Box Enterprise Linux, then I moved to Fedora Core 2 at the suggestion of a friend, and then went through the upgrades with FC3 to FC4. And here I am on CentOS, another clone like White Box is. :)

I tried today to update my firefox to the 1.5 release instead of its present 1.07. Eventually I got yum to see the rawhide repo so I asked it to show me the updates for an install of firefox. After much churning and showing of transaction reruns it came up with an install of 4 packages and an upgrade of 25, with a combined footprint of 68 megabytes! Or in other words, I was well on the way to upgrading my system to a development release for Fedora Core 5. No way! I'm not going down that route as it always seems to lead to heartache for me, and ultimately a reinstall, which is something that I'm trying hard to avoid.

But, when I do need to do a reinstall, I might try moving over to debian or ubuntu again, and see if there any better, and as rock solid as this Fedora Core 4. But then again, having looked at the distro contents on distrowatch for debian I might not be as well off as I currently am. And ubuntu has a similar development cycle as Fedora Core too, so perhaps I could move over to Centos 4.1 as I have it on a dvd from Linux Format. What I'm looking for is a good stable distro thats reasonably uptodate and has a development cycle of longer than a year. With Fedora Core at present I could be upgrading my installation twice a year, and ditto Ubuntu too. So maybe I shall be moving over to Centos when I next need to either upgrade or destroy this distro.