Month On Linux

As I am working my way through my first month on Linux it has become increasingly apparent to me that Linux has a huge amount of potential but is unfortunately not as widespread as Windows. This is unfortunate but I believe something can be done about it. One of the main things that keep people away from Linux is much the same as one of the things that keep many away from Macs.

General computability with anything and everything.

Most things are designed for Windows computers. You go out and buy a web cam and it says "designed for Windows XP / Vista" and it often says things like "works with MSN and Yahoo". The same thing goes from printers and other devices such as mics. The simple fact of the matter most of the time these devices work just the same in Linux. Admittedly some distrobutions aren't designed to "just work" as much as other distributions but I have found Ubuntu has worked with everything that I have thrown at it and it's been relatively easy to get working.

The next major problem lies in the ease of use. Windows has to be one of the most idiot friendly operating systems on the planet. It allows any old fool to do basically anything, including wreck the system if they happen to be that way inclined. Linux on the other hand has been traditionally harder to work for newbies than Windows. Ubuntu has bridged this gap somewhat. Its easy and free to work with Ubuntu.
There are many equivalent programs out there that will allow you to just get one with your work with out having to worry about your xorg.conf file or some other subsystem configuration file. Most of these applications are bundled into Ubuntu on install and if its no you can just go to the "add remove software" section and add any software that you need and it will download and install it from the internet.

I want to set up a site, and I will be working on doing so for the next little while that can get people who are new to the field of Linux set up with the distribution that they need and can try Linux out for a month. I have a box to my left which I will be using to host this site. I will be using Fedora 7 to host it as that would probably be my best choice for a server. I will post my experience in getting it to work as I go and I hope that it can help people out.

Vision

I didn't post anything yesterday as I was bussy seting up a wireless network at my house and getting all the computers (Windows Vista, Ubuntu, Windows XP) all working happily on the network. There are two XP machines on the network but only one of them is wireless (its my mum's laptop). I secured the network with WEP (was going to use WPA but I decided to go with 128 bit WEP encryption as it was easier to make "just work" but I am thinking of possibly using WPA PSK.) I noticed however that I could restrict access to a few MAC addresses making very hard to just get into the network it you happened to be outside in a large van kitted out with all the equipment to break into my network. (Yes I know I am paranoid).

While working on it I happened to notice that I could set up port forwarding and and I had a working XP Professional box so I decided to try my hand at getting IIS working. I got it working and started editing the source from gedit in Ubuntu. (I had the source on a share so I could access it over the network).

I have a DNS service with no-ip.com for free. I got a site working (just as a bit of a test bed) at monthonlinux.no-ip.org. Don't expect it to work all the time, or at all for that matter as I am trying out ASP.NET which I know seems a bit of a contradiction that I running "Month On Linux" on a Windows box with a Microsoft technology but as I said its a bit of a test bed just to get my hand into site administration.


My Software design teacher made me aware of a distro of Linux which is called "LAMP". If I could get that working on one of my boxes I might consider running an evangelical site for Linux.

The aim of the site (and organisation) would be to get individuals and organisations to try out Linux for a month and provide support for the organisations and individuals making the switch. If I were to set this up I would make my primary recomended distribution Ubuntu just because of its ease of use for people who havn't otherise been working in the field of Linux.

USB Back Track2

I'm currently copying the files across to my USB from the ISO but the main problem that I have encountered is getting the MBR to work. Apparently there is a script that will make the USB boo-table called bootinst.sh (for Linux and bootinst.bat for Windows) that comes in the boot folder of the CD. I have yet to try that. I have been trying various other method up until now but none of them have worked. I also while looking for a way to boot Back Track off the USB I came across a site detailing how to get your USB to multiboot using Grub. http://darksun.com.pt/mirage/usb_minipe_backtrack_knoppix.html. I also came across another tutorial on how to boot Ubuntu from a USB. At the time I didn't have much of a look at the site but it might give me another way to install Ubuntu without getting the invalid compressed format errors.
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2132615,00.asp

Learning Python

I'm learning python slowly but surly using http://docs.python.org/tut/. My progress so far isn't that great but it has somethings that are are integrated right into the language that would actually be quite a pain to do in other languages (or frameworks). I have a friend who's brother I found out today was learning python as well and who's father uses Python.

Along with my progress with Linux I intend to post my progress with Python and maybe some simple code that I'm learning. In fact I might post some form of encryption algorithm written in Python.

USB Ubuntu Update

Well. I tested it at school even when the initrd.gz file was decompressed and all the references to it were changed to initrd.img but I still got the "invalid compressed formate (err=2)" error. I did notice how ever when I loaded it today on the ohter computer that I had access to it loaded much quicker than it does on my home computer. I think its about time for me pack the USB Ubuntu project in and look for another distribution of Linux to off my USB. It would be nice to get back track 2 working off my USB. In fact it shouldn't be that hard. I will try to do that when I restart my computer a little latter on.

Eric Python

I have download the Eric IDE for Python development and I hope to learn how to code in Python. It will be my first fully interpreted language that I have had a serious go at learning. While I know C# .NET is compiled to MSIL (Microsoft Intermediate Language) which allows it to be very much cross platform I still consider that a compiled language. I have worked with Java script and VB script before but only to the point of doing a bit of simple maths and random numbers in message boxes.

I thought that if I'm going to stick with Linux then I may as well learn a language with it too.

USB Ubuntu Still Being a Pain.

I have extracted all the initrd.gz images I can come across and fixed up the references to them in isolinux.cfg and syslinux.cfg but I still have the same problem. It would be nice if it told me which file in the archive was causing the problem. The problem seems to no longer exist when I have the computer up and running and I try and extract the files from the .img archives that I have created but during the boot up it insists that there is still an "invalid compressed format (err=2)".

I'm actually quite surprised that switching the names around in the config files and extracting the img archives from the gz ones worked to the point of actualy saying "loading initrd.img" not "initrd.gz". I actualy kind of suspected that it would cause the thing to go haywire when it tried to decompress the img as a gz but obviously it can tell the difference.

Another thing that happens when I boot Ubuntu up now off the usb is that it does it very slowly, much slower than of a CD. I have mentioned that before but now because the initrd.img is extraced it takes 3 times as long. I had a look at the file sizes and concluded the major bottleneck was reading the data off the USB. As a img the file is 3 times the size it is when it is a gz. I was wondering how I might be able to somehow put drivers in some archive is enable some option that would mean that it would take advantage of the 2.0 port instead of reading data of the USB in 1.1 mode.