The current Linux Mint MATE desktop

A radical change...
Got rid of the top Panel, and I'm using Mint's defaults, at least for the moment.
Old habits die hard, still looking up to check the time...
ITOH, MATE still has my heart.

Saturday 17-11-2012

Kitchenwarez

Replacing kitchen stuff.
Even tho I'm running MATE, I hate yerba... I'm a tea drinker, and have been for the last three years or so.

Batteries on stereo, at least their status

This is affecting my beloved T60p, it didn't happen when the laptop was running GNOME 3.
It shows the status of two batteries.

It shows up when you mouse over or make a right click on the battery icon on the Panel.
Doesn't seem to be having any other issue... The laptop suspends (and back) A Ok, and the battery life looks just about what to be expected from the laptop.

Linux Mint MATE: installation tidbits

Some quick notes on getting my Linux Mint MATE up & running...

• Install distro
• Install updates
• Set Emacs key bindings:

/usr/bin/gconftool-2 --set /desktop/mate/interface/gtk_key_theme Emacs --type string

• Install "extra" programs:

sudo apt-get install emacs23-nox openssh-server wine virtualbox evolution rhythmbox gip openvpn chromium-browser skype

• Restore data from backups (A lot of time... If restoring Videos it can take about 12 hours.)
• Setup/ customize stuff

  Bookmarks
  Firefox stuff
  Chromium stuff

• Install FortiClient SSL

Flash out of date on Chromium

So, you finish installing Linux Mint (MATE and the 32 bits version on my case), you download, install all the updates and then reboot your box, start your Chromium and you get the annoying message:

"Adobe Flash Player was blocked because it is out of date"

And of course, Flash fails to execute.

So, in order to fix this I've downloaded the latest Flash release following the link on the page, and then select ".tar.gz for other Linux", and then untar it:

tar zxf install_flash_player_11_linux_i386.tar.gz

Then, make a backup of the original Flash object already installed on the system:

cd /opt/mint-flashplugin-11
sudo cp libflashplayer.so libflashplayer.so.ORIG

Then copy the new one from the untarred directory over the original one:

sudo cp libflashplayer.so /opt/mint-flashplugin-11/

Then restart Chromium and everything will be kosher with Flash.

There is this link: Fix: Linux Mint Adobe Flash Player was blocked because it is out date but I found the instructions a bit unclear, so I'm posting this as well.

Wednesday 21-11-2012

Tuesday 20-11-2012

Minty, Minty & more Minty

During the weekend I've installed Linux Mint, (Maya, the LTS release) onto my current lappies.

I was a bit tired of GNOME 3, and quite surprised by MATE, so I went ahead.

Started with the ghetto rubber railed HDD on my beloved T60, and then took out the 500 GB HDD with GNOME 3, Ubuntu GNOME Shell Remix specifically, which, BTW, had a couple of bad blocks...

Loaded a 320 GB HDD, the one that I used to test Scientific LInux, and off it goes the Linux Mint MATE glory.

Tuesday 13-11-2012

BlackBerryBook

First steps onto ebook reading... Or more like a test, really. I have a bunch of mobi ebooks from Philip K. Dick and I wanted to take a look at those "on the go", so  got me a copy of Kindle for Blackberry (used the direct link at the bottom of that page from the same BB), or the the official link.

I had to transfer the mobi files to the Blackberry specifically to the directory:

/Media Card/kindle/eBooks/

It feels like reading the Space Travelers Edition of the Orange Catholic Bible.

Sunday 11-11-2012

Thinkpad rubber rails: MacGyver time!

Can't seem to find any of the "legit" rubber rails around here... The cradle I got a few months ago didn't include the damn rails...
So I had to do a little MacGyver improv around here...
The thing seems to be holding A Ok, it is already inside of my beloved T60, and happily running Linux Mint MATE.

What's up, MATE!

Made a Linux Mint MATE install today, on the beloved, sturdy, heavy and really Sony Vaio, need to start looking for options for the upcoming end of shelf life of Lucid Lynx... So there is this or Scientific Linux.

Scientific Linux I know, and I have been using a lot, even as my main day to day distro. but I wanted to take a look at how the MATE thing looked like on Mint.
I have to say it looks awesome, it even performs quite well on the ultra crappy Sony Vaio I use for some testing.
Right now I'm struggling to get the MATE version of the Global Menu up & running... Things doesn't look good...

Beaucoup files

Yesterday had a new one at work.

For the first time I've found  and I had to deal witha lot, more than a lot actually... A million and a half to be precise, of files under one directory on one of the Linux servers.
On our servers those amounts of file nearly multiply by a factor of 4 what a temporary directory might hold, given a special event or something.

So, someone configured an Asterisk on it, and decided it was kinda funny to get TTS output onto a file, so, in the end, lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of  "*.ulaw" files... Up to our wazoo on "*.ulaw" files.
A little bit of find and some testing later, a quick Shell script to delete old crud from that directory was up & running.

Saturday 10-11-2012

A year at Last(fm)

16 thousand plays on a year... It's quite a number I guess...

BTW, the problems I was experiencing the other day scrobbling played songs seems to be over, at least for the moment.

The only thing, the only annoyance that remains, just like the first day since Precise Pangolin's update, is that scrobbling from Rhythmbox works awfully bad.

The Road Meets Abercrombie

Last night a local cable channel, as a token of who knows what, aired as a freebie (on the basic cable, this hot new series is only showed on premium channels...) the first two episodes of Revolution.

Knowing the TV series was about a post apocalypse -an energetic and hocus pocus ones) I decided to take a look at it.
By the love of Jeebus, what a piece of crap...

The whole thing looks like a rather light mix of  "The World Without Us", the exploding colors of Alexis Rockman paintings and the latest Abercrombie & Fitch catalogue.

Epic nosedive

Friday afternoon the mighty storm from the South finally got here, knocking about 20 degrees along its path.

Breaking still

Yesterday finished all there is to see for the moment.
I´ll have to wait until next year... One hell of a cliff hanger.

Heat, heat & more heat

Unbelievably hot...
3 days straight with 35 degrees Celsius.
It looks like tomorrow there'll be a giant cold front coming in from the South.

Thursday 08-11-2012

The current Ubuntu desktop

Even tho the calendar says it isn't, summer is upon us...

Freaking unseasonable hot

Damn fucking summer that haven't even started yet.

Breaking the fifth

Last night finished BB's fourth season.
By far the best episode (IMHO) was "Salud".

Sunday 04-11-2012