Eeesh, just realized my picture gallery is down again. Not sure what the story is there. This is at least the second time that it’s happened to me. Think I’m just going to convert to the
WP Photo Album – WPPA that I’m using on Bob’s Bad Binder. I’m pretty happy with the way it works, although a slick ajax screen fade effect for viewing the full size images would be better. Some of the bigger images get chopped off currently.
Category: Tech
Techie items for the geek in me.
Slackware 12 upgrade – vim backup files
Since upgrading to Slackware 12 I’ve noticed vim creates backups of every file I edit by appending the file with a tilde (~).
looks like this is a compilation option for vim 7.1 that comes with Slackware 12. My previous install did not do this, so I’m guessing the compile options were changed for Slackware 12. I confirmed this by running
vim –version
One of the options that is set is
+writebackup
No problem with vim writing backups, in fact it can be good. Only problem I have with it is when I’m working on one of my web development projects I have to be careful not to ftp all of these extra files up to the server. There are two options.
I could disable the backup for vim by adding this to .vimrc
:set nobackup
The other, and better, option is to set a dedicated backup directory
:set backupdir=~/.backup,.,/tmp
Now all of the backup files get created in a single .backup directory. This isn’t a perfect solution. Files with identical names (index.html) will get overwritten, but I’ve never once used a vim backup file, so this is still better than nothing.
For more informations, you might read this article
Are *.swp and *~ files littering your working directory?
Slackware 12 – KDE Kicker crashes
One of the strange issues I’ve had with my Slackware 12 install is KDE Kicker (the toolbar across the bottom of the screen) crashing. It just seems to go away randomly, and typically when I’m not looking. Might be related to the screen saver. Initially I didn’t know how to fix it and was restarting X, which was a PITA. Eventually, I found a posting explaining that all I had to do was run the ‘kicker’ command and it would restart. Now it just crashes every couple days. Not sure if it’s worth trying to fix.
If anybody has an input on the problem, please leave a comment.
Slackware 12 upgrade – Samba
One of the challenges on any Linux upgrade is getting your Samba server to work again. I use Samba to network with my Windows computers. I have to keep a couple Windows machines around, just for quality control testing on website development, and for creating flash.
After the Slackware 12 upgrade, Samba didn’t work. I copied over my old smb.conf, but no dice.
Finally got around to doing some research today. Of course, it was simple. Just needed to re-add myself as an smb user:
smbpasswd -a username
CAT 5 Patch/Crossover Cable Creation Guide
For years I’ve had to look up a guide for creating a CAT 5 cable every time I build one. Just don’t do it frequently enough, especially if I need a crossover cable.
Here is a link to a very nice
CAT 5 Patch/Crossover Cable Creation Guide
Really one of these posts that is as much for my reference as anyone else’s.
Slackware better, but X still crashing
So I ran xorgsetup and now X runs with only occasional lockups. If anyone has any ideas about tracking down problems with X, let me know. My guess is an unstable ATI driver, but I’m not getting any log messages.
Slackware 12 upgrade
OK, I’ve done it. I’ve started the upgrade from Slackware 10.2.0 to Slackware 12.
I’ve been avoiding this for a while, but my backup hard drives don’t have room for all my work stuff anymore, so I decided I needed a new drive. Ordered up a Seagate ST3500320AS, 500GB and 32MB of cache from New Egg last week.
Slackware 12 installed easily enough on the new drive, but I’ve had a few difficulties. Here is a summary of my status and the problems I’ve had.
Done
- Installed Slackware 12 on new drive
- Configured network connections
- Configured firewall
- Configured Sound
To Do
- Configure CUPS for printer
- Move existing files from current drive (did this once, but I keep having to roll back to my current drive for work)
- Configure SSH server
- Install latest versions of software (Opera, Firefox, anything else I use)
- Configure camera software to download photos
- Configure X to run in 1680×1050
Problems
lilo – When I attempted to install lilo through the slackware setup it just didn’t take. Tried both the root superblock and the mbr, but no success. Finally just went back to a command line from the boot disk, chrooted and ran lilo manually. Works fine now.
X11 – Every time I start X it crashes. It will run for two or three minutes, and then the whole machine will just lockup. I have been running my current configuration with a 2.6.15 kernel for some time without any problems at all. Slackware 12 defaults to the 2.6.21.5 kernel build. It defaults to the generic-smp kernel and my system is running a single core Athlon 64 processor, not sure if it’s that, some incompatibility with the video hardware when running Xorg, or what. I can’t find any error messages in the system log or any kind of record of a kernel panic, so I’m at a loss.
That’s about as far as I’ve gotten for now. I think Slackware is a great distro, but some of these things could definitely be easier. I might go out and see what’s in Slackware current and pull down the latest stuff. Wish Slackware 12.0.1 was available.
ecommerce software
So, anyone out there know what the killer online store software is?
Currently I’m working with creloaded, and am NOT impressed. It’s buggy, requires a tremendous amount of code editing for proper installation, has a limited feature set like no support for local (city/county) tax zones, poorly documented and just hard to use overall – and I bought the ‘pro’ version.
If anyone has thoughts or reviews on store software, please let me know.
Comcast infringing on Net Neutrality
It’s been over a year since I wrote about my views on Net Neutralityand suddenly the issue is back at the forefront.
Just this week it’s been found that Comcast has disabled bittorrent seeding effectively making the protocol useless. Now strictly speaking, this is not really a Net Neutrality issue. Comcast, to my knowledge, has not accepted any fees from another entity in exchange for disabling the bittorrent traffic. In fact, Comcast’s actions are in accordance with their TOS, however vague the terms of service may be.
The real problem with this situation is that Comcast is a monopoly in many areas. If they disable a particular service, many of us have little alternative but to continue with their service. Of course, it will be interesting to see the fallout. Many Comcast subscribers use their Internet connection primarily for bittorrent, and may change service if this continues.
Upgrading Slackware
Slackware is my Linux distribution of choice. In fact, I am writing this post from my Slackware machine via Opera. I use it every day, all day.
This week Patrick released Slackware 12.0.
Now I am still running Slackware 10.2. Why didn’t I upgrade to 11? Never had time. Upgrading any operating system is a monumental task, especially when you use, tweak and customize it as much as I do.
Now my quandry. I don’t want to get too far behind, so an upgrade to 12.0 is a good idea, plus a newer version could help some issues I’ve had with my 22″ monitor. The big problem is how to do it. I’ve used the Slackware upgrade procedure before – with good results, but a full install may serve me better. A former co-worker of mine used to recommend moving the existing root partition into a new directory and doing a full install. This may be a good procedure, if I have adequate space, of course I will still need to recreate some of my confirguration for X, no-ip, iptables, samba, etc…
Bottom line, it’s a big job and I just can’t loose too much productivity right now.
Any suggestions on a seamless transfer will be greatly appreciated.