Happy Holidays and Happy New Year
— TecMint.com (@tecmint) December 27, 2015
My Linux skills have been limited to a basic install, and getting around in the system. I've recently decided to take the O.S. more seriously and become a full time user and more of a Linux hobbyist. This is a place for me to post notes, and other helpful information. The information here is centered around Fedora and KDE but I do post about other GNU/Linux distributions. You can find useful notes, book reviews, tutorials, videos, and whatever else I think will be useful for learning this O.S.
Wednesday, December 30, 2015
Monday, December 7, 2015
Setting The System Clock and The Hardware Clock Linux
On a Linux box you have to change the system clock and the hardware clock. The hardware clock will not automatically sync with the system clock. You would think they would, but they don't. Here's what you have to do.
First open up the terminal of your choice.
Next type in the following command (This is an example, change with your date and time obviously):
date --set="Mon Dec 19 14:05:00 EST 2015"
This sets the day month date time timezone (EST, CST, PST)
Now we need to sync the hardware clock with the system clock. To do this type:
hwclock --systohc
And were done. That's it your system clock and hardware clock should now be synced and keeping proper time.
First open up the terminal of your choice.
Next type in the following command (This is an example, change with your date and time obviously):
date --set="Mon Dec 19 14:05:00 EST 2015"
This sets the day month date time timezone (EST, CST, PST)
Now we need to sync the hardware clock with the system clock. To do this type:
hwclock --systohc
And were done. That's it your system clock and hardware clock should now be synced and keeping proper time.
Tuesday, May 5, 2015
Google Play Music using openSUSE
Feliz Cinco de mayo ! I thought today would be a great day to just chill out, knock back a few rum and cokes or las cuba libres and figure out a decent way to share my music collection over multiple devices.
My first instinct was to set everything up on amazon music ! Boo hiss Amazon. Although you can listen to Amazon music just fine on any device for some reason they just don't like working with linux. Amazon music only allows uploads with Windows and Mac. Ironically, I called Amazon tech support one day about something else and the tech guy said it's funny because all the customer service people use linux systems. I think I remember him saying they use Ubuntu. Oh well, I find myself using Amazon less and less these days ! AMAZON Y U NO ACCEPT BITCOIN OR HAVE LINUX SUPPORT ?
O.k., I digress, after a little thought I figured I would try Google Play Music. Wow, what a pleasant surprise. Not only do they offer Linux support for some distributions, they honestly make it as easy as using a Windows computer. This was really refreshing and the first time I've experienced this. I hope this is a sign of things to come in the future. Kudos Google.
So the first thing you have to do is download the Google Play Music Manager. You can find it here.
https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/1229970
I clicked the "Download Music Manager" button and after a couple seconds it automatically detected I had a linux system and gave me a few different distro choices. I selected the Fedora/openSUSE 64 bit link and it downloaded the file and opened and installed automatically with apper. Holy crap on a cracker in my two years of using Fedora and now openSUSE, this has never happened. The install couldn't of been any easier ! I haven't had an install this easy since the days of using Windows.
After the install I had a hard time finding the program, but after going through application launcher I found it under "applications". I clicked the program, it asked for my Google user name and password, asked which folder contained my music, and then automatically uploaded over 600 songs in under an hour. I can't tell you how impressed I am with this whole thing. Much props to Google !
There were a few other configuration choices like whether you want it to automatically upload new music, or if you will upload manually. If you decide to use Play Music, I'll leave the configuration up to you. It's really easy to use.
Now, I need to get back to some rum and cokes, download the rest of my music from Amazon, and get it uploaded to Google Play. I can now stream music from my Android tablet, phone, and openSUSE laptop ! Rock on dood !
My first instinct was to set everything up on amazon music ! Boo hiss Amazon. Although you can listen to Amazon music just fine on any device for some reason they just don't like working with linux. Amazon music only allows uploads with Windows and Mac. Ironically, I called Amazon tech support one day about something else and the tech guy said it's funny because all the customer service people use linux systems. I think I remember him saying they use Ubuntu. Oh well, I find myself using Amazon less and less these days ! AMAZON Y U NO ACCEPT BITCOIN OR HAVE LINUX SUPPORT ?
O.k., I digress, after a little thought I figured I would try Google Play Music. Wow, what a pleasant surprise. Not only do they offer Linux support for some distributions, they honestly make it as easy as using a Windows computer. This was really refreshing and the first time I've experienced this. I hope this is a sign of things to come in the future. Kudos Google.
So the first thing you have to do is download the Google Play Music Manager. You can find it here.
https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/1229970
I clicked the "Download Music Manager" button and after a couple seconds it automatically detected I had a linux system and gave me a few different distro choices. I selected the Fedora/openSUSE 64 bit link and it downloaded the file and opened and installed automatically with apper. Holy crap on a cracker in my two years of using Fedora and now openSUSE, this has never happened. The install couldn't of been any easier ! I haven't had an install this easy since the days of using Windows.
After the install I had a hard time finding the program, but after going through application launcher I found it under "applications". I clicked the program, it asked for my Google user name and password, asked which folder contained my music, and then automatically uploaded over 600 songs in under an hour. I can't tell you how impressed I am with this whole thing. Much props to Google !
There were a few other configuration choices like whether you want it to automatically upload new music, or if you will upload manually. If you decide to use Play Music, I'll leave the configuration up to you. It's really easy to use.
Now, I need to get back to some rum and cokes, download the rest of my music from Amazon, and get it uploaded to Google Play. I can now stream music from my Android tablet, phone, and openSUSE laptop ! Rock on dood !
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
Link: zypper Cookbook Autoremove Packages and Remove Orphaned Packages
Doing some research on using zypper for package management and came across this well written informative piece. Thought I would share it here.
As I learned how to autoremove unnecessary packages as you remove a package and also how to identify orphaned packages, I marveled at the beauty of zypper and the excellent work of all its contributors. Not only does zypper have the functionality to do just about anything related to repos and packages, it has sensible online help right at your fingertips.
Before I show how to perform these two tasks this post is primarily about, let me show you two easy ways to figure out whether zypper can do what you want to do.
Read the full article here.
As I learned how to autoremove unnecessary packages as you remove a package and also how to identify orphaned packages, I marveled at the beauty of zypper and the excellent work of all its contributors. Not only does zypper have the functionality to do just about anything related to repos and packages, it has sensible online help right at your fingertips.
Before I show how to perform these two tasks this post is primarily about, let me show you two easy ways to figure out whether zypper can do what you want to do.
Read the full article here.
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
New Computer HP Pavilion DV7
I recently traded my Dell Inspiron 1750 for a HP Pavilion DV7. I think I had the Inspiron for close to 5 years, it will be missed ! My mother asked me to fix her HP Pavilion DV7 to give to my father. She didn't have any backup disks, and lost the Windows disks to install MS Windows. I told her there was nothing I could do unless she bought a new windows disk.
The HP Pavilion was in almost new condition. I think my mother used it for a couple months, didn't like it, through it in the closet and it sat there for the last 2 or 3 years. I told her I still had the windows disk to my Dell and if she wanted I would put Windows on it, and trade her for the DV7, and she said sure.
So I've been using the DV7 for about 2 weeks now and it's taking some getting used to. I installed openSUSE 13.2 on it and it's working great. The install went real smooth , and the wireless drivers, and networking worked right out of the box. That was refreshing.
I was surprised that the Linux install went so smoothly. I literally had to configure nothing. Everything worked ! I installed openSUSE, did a few of my usual security modifications, and I was up and running in under an hour.
As far as performance I think the Dell Inspiron 1750 performed a bit better than the DV7, the Dell had a Pentium, and the HP runs an AMD chip. This is the first AMD computer I've had, but after a couple weeks of use, I think the Pentium is far superior performance wise. I'm even running 2 gigs of additional memory compared to the Dell.
The difference in performance is really noticeable when multi-tasking and I'm almost always multi-tasking.The DV7 however seems to have superior video,and sound. I'm going to be playing around with some different configurations, and maybe do an additional memory upgrade. Anyway, if your thinking about installing openSUSE 13.2 on a HP Pavilion DV7, I strongly recommend it. The install went great, and everything seems to work right out of the box.
The HP Pavilion was in almost new condition. I think my mother used it for a couple months, didn't like it, through it in the closet and it sat there for the last 2 or 3 years. I told her I still had the windows disk to my Dell and if she wanted I would put Windows on it, and trade her for the DV7, and she said sure.
So I've been using the DV7 for about 2 weeks now and it's taking some getting used to. I installed openSUSE 13.2 on it and it's working great. The install went real smooth , and the wireless drivers, and networking worked right out of the box. That was refreshing.
I was surprised that the Linux install went so smoothly. I literally had to configure nothing. Everything worked ! I installed openSUSE, did a few of my usual security modifications, and I was up and running in under an hour.
As far as performance I think the Dell Inspiron 1750 performed a bit better than the DV7, the Dell had a Pentium, and the HP runs an AMD chip. This is the first AMD computer I've had, but after a couple weeks of use, I think the Pentium is far superior performance wise. I'm even running 2 gigs of additional memory compared to the Dell.
The difference in performance is really noticeable when multi-tasking and I'm almost always multi-tasking.The DV7 however seems to have superior video,and sound. I'm going to be playing around with some different configurations, and maybe do an additional memory upgrade. Anyway, if your thinking about installing openSUSE 13.2 on a HP Pavilion DV7, I strongly recommend it. The install went great, and everything seems to work right out of the box.
Saturday, February 21, 2015
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Extract Multiple Zip Files With Ark
 |
| Made with some of the graphics I downloaded and needed to extract. |
I tried highlighting all the files and opening them all at the same time in ARK but that didn't work. Then discovered that you can do a batch extract from the command line. It was really easy and what would of took all day was now accomplished in under 2 minutes. Here's what you do.
1) Create a directory for your compressed files, and move all the compressed files that you want to extract into that directory.
2) Open up a terminal program and go to the directory you created with all your compressed files. For me it was
cd graphics/vectors
3) Now we use ARK from the command line, and execute a batch extract like so.
ark -b -a *.zip
Here's what we did. ark runs the ark program -b tells ark to use the batch interface from the command line, -a creates a subfolder if ark detects it's not a single folder archive. Finally I used a wild card *.zip so ark extracts every file with the .zip extension in that directory. This command saved me a ton of time.
I should note two things. One, make sure you're in the right directory when you run this command or you risk extracting every zip file in your system. The other thing is this can take a little bit of time. In my case with close to 200 files it took about a minute and a half for the command to complete. Be patient, and let your computer do the work.
If you want to learn more about using ARK from the command line just type man ark in your terminal for all the different options that are available for this powerful program.
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Adjust Touchpad Delay with Synaptiks
Post removed. Upon reboot, synaptiks wreaked havoc on my system. If you're looking for a way to fix this, in your system tray, find synaptiks and disable it. You may have to right click on system tray to show hidden programs.
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Adjusting Touchpad Delay With Syndaemon
So I've been on openSUSE now for about 3 days and I'm really enjoying it. Whenever you set up a new system or even do a simple upgrade, you often end up with little annoyances. Maybe something different in the sound, or the screen resolution changes, or in my case, the laptop touchpad is bouncing the cursor all over the screen while you type.
This can be really annoying and cause some serious mistakes while typing. For instance, you're writing a blog post and the cursor ends up in the middle of another sentence. Worse yet, how about an accidental highlight and delete, losing everything you've typed. My personal favorite and the one that gets me cussing like Yosemite Sam going head to head with Bugs Bunny, is the cursor going over the publish button while social networking on say Tsu.com and your post being submitted before you were through writing it. That just about covers everything I've endured in the last three days with this mild inconvenience. So what do you do ?
syndaemon
Syndaemon is the way to add a delay to your touchpad so your cursor isn't bouncing all over the screen while you're typing. For full instructions, and a list of options, just open the terminal program of your choice and type :
man syndaemon
I kept it basic, and used a command to give a 2 second delay.
syndaemon -i 2 -d
So this is what we did. syndaemon starts the program -i is the interval 2 is the amount of seconds -d runs the program in the background as a daemon. So for the tweeted version , the above command gives you a two second delay on the touchpad while your typing. Two seconds believe it or not seems a bit long, you might want to switch it to 1, play around with it and see what your comfortable with.
If you're having this problem I hope this helps. This worked in openSUSE 13.2 and I hope it works for you.It was a minor annoyance but I'm glad it's gone. Thanks for reading !
This can be really annoying and cause some serious mistakes while typing. For instance, you're writing a blog post and the cursor ends up in the middle of another sentence. Worse yet, how about an accidental highlight and delete, losing everything you've typed. My personal favorite and the one that gets me cussing like Yosemite Sam going head to head with Bugs Bunny, is the cursor going over the publish button while social networking on say Tsu.com and your post being submitted before you were through writing it. That just about covers everything I've endured in the last three days with this mild inconvenience. So what do you do ?
syndaemon
Syndaemon is the way to add a delay to your touchpad so your cursor isn't bouncing all over the screen while you're typing. For full instructions, and a list of options, just open the terminal program of your choice and type :
man syndaemon
I kept it basic, and used a command to give a 2 second delay.
syndaemon -i 2 -d
So this is what we did. syndaemon starts the program -i is the interval 2 is the amount of seconds -d runs the program in the background as a daemon. So for the tweeted version , the above command gives you a two second delay on the touchpad while your typing. Two seconds believe it or not seems a bit long, you might want to switch it to 1, play around with it and see what your comfortable with.
If you're having this problem I hope this helps. This worked in openSUSE 13.2 and I hope it works for you.It was a minor annoyance but I'm glad it's gone. Thanks for reading !
Monday, January 26, 2015
It's cold out there, busting out the tux hoodie !
Sunday, January 25, 2015
A Monthly Update 5 Months Late
Wow, I can't believe I haven't posted here for a little over 5 months. That's just too long. Anyway, things are going great, still using Linux full time and loving it.
Last night I crashed my Fedora trying to install Pipelight so I could try to watch an Amazon movie. I wasn't overly crazy about installing it in the first place. It needs Wine to run, and I really didn't want that in my computer. From what I understand Wine can make you computer vulnerable to many of the same vulnerabilities Windows has. NO THANKSi!
So I screwed up while installing it, the system crashed and ... I decided to try a new distro ! I think a little over two years on the same distro is enough and I wanted to try something new. I am now a proud openSUSE user.
I installed the openSUSE 13.2 and the install went really smoothly. As usual the broadcom drivers were a bit of a pain the ass but after doing it a few times now, I got it configured fairly quickly. I found this tutorial here, and I had no problems at all. https://forums.opensuse.org/content.php/157-Broadcom-firmware-is-needed-for-b43-but-I-have-no-network-an-easierwork-around
After that, I spent the day doing a little system hardening and removing things I'm not using like, telnet, cups, and few other programs. I still want to read more about openSUSE and hardening the system. I got use to SElinux and openSUSE uses AParmor <-- might have that spelled wrong, but it's late and I'm tired.
I'm embarrassed to say I never finished the linux course I was taking. I've got a lot of stuff going on here and just haven't had time. There will be more on that in later posts. However, there are a few differences with openSUSE compared to Fedora so I think I'm going to try and finish the course, and I'll be posting here.
So for the monthly update that's five months over due, I plan on posting here more. I'll be posting about openSUSE, and linux related stuff. I'll be finishing that course now to help me get more comfortable with using openSUSE and posting regular updates here.
Last night I crashed my Fedora trying to install Pipelight so I could try to watch an Amazon movie. I wasn't overly crazy about installing it in the first place. It needs Wine to run, and I really didn't want that in my computer. From what I understand Wine can make you computer vulnerable to many of the same vulnerabilities Windows has. NO THANKSi!
So I screwed up while installing it, the system crashed and ... I decided to try a new distro ! I think a little over two years on the same distro is enough and I wanted to try something new. I am now a proud openSUSE user.
I installed the openSUSE 13.2 and the install went really smoothly. As usual the broadcom drivers were a bit of a pain the ass but after doing it a few times now, I got it configured fairly quickly. I found this tutorial here, and I had no problems at all. https://forums.opensuse.org/content.php/157-Broadcom-firmware-is-needed-for-b43-but-I-have-no-network-an-easierwork-around
After that, I spent the day doing a little system hardening and removing things I'm not using like, telnet, cups, and few other programs. I still want to read more about openSUSE and hardening the system. I got use to SElinux and openSUSE uses AParmor <-- might have that spelled wrong, but it's late and I'm tired.
I'm embarrassed to say I never finished the linux course I was taking. I've got a lot of stuff going on here and just haven't had time. There will be more on that in later posts. However, there are a few differences with openSUSE compared to Fedora so I think I'm going to try and finish the course, and I'll be posting here.
So for the monthly update that's five months over due, I plan on posting here more. I'll be posting about openSUSE, and linux related stuff. I'll be finishing that course now to help me get more comfortable with using openSUSE and posting regular updates here.
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