Chinese Linux Forums

Here are some forums related to Linux in China. It is useful to search for tips related to Chinese font, input method and other things related to use Chinese under Linux.

LinuxSir
http://www.linuxsir.org/bbs/forum39.html

ChinaUnix
http://linux.chinaunix.net/bbs/

Ubuntu China
http://forum.ubuntu.org.cn/

Fedora Chinese User Group
http://bbs.fedora-zh.org/index.php

LinuxEDEN
http://bbs.linuxeden.com/

KDE 4.2.2 Update for Fedora

Today I got the latest updates for Fedora for KDE 4.2.2 (was 4.2.1) and it solved my problem with console-helper. Originally, running "yumex" or other programs which need root privileges will hang during start up. I was using "kdesu" to run "yumex" but it would not exit properly. This makes me feel better. But KDE 4.2.2 under Fedora 10 is still relatively slow compared to Arch.

KDE 4.2 under Arch Linux

After some good impressions with the new Arch Linux installation (with LXDE and XFCE and also Gnome), I decided to give KDE 4.2 a try on Arch Linux. The installation with pacman is easy. The result seems to be better than both Fedora 10 and Ubuntu 8.10.

Now I have a problem with KDE 4.2 under Fedora 10 that console-helper will hang during startup with a dialogbox titled "Query" when I tried to run programs like yumex or other programs which require root access. Logout under Fedora 10 is also very slow compared to others. KDE 4.2 under Ubuntu seems to be a bit more smooth but the login/logout are both a bit slow compared to Gnome.

KDE under Arch seems to better. The logout process is faster than both Fedora 10 and Ubuntu 8.10. Still various program will still come out many warning messages. This is across thee distributions I tried KDE 4.2. So it seems to me KDE 4.2 is not ready for prime time yet. But it is promissing. I did not like KDE 4.1 under Ubuntu 8.10 at all. Nor did I like previous KDE 3.x under Ubuntu. Now KDE 4.2 at least gives me some incentives to try out KDE again after using Gnome since I re-discovered Linux back in 2005 with Ubuntu 5.04. Before that I tried various Linux distros (Slackware, Redhat, Mandrake, Caldera, Corel, etc) on-and-off from 1998 to 2002.

Notify-OSD in Ubuntu and Fedora

Notify-OSD (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/NotifyOSD) is a nice new feature of the up-coming Ubuntu 9.04.

Launchpad site: https://launchpad.net/notify-osd

Installation instruction for Ubuntu 8.10. Both are okay for me under Ubuntu 8.10.
1. From Alex Rybicki:
http://blog.alexrybicki.com/2009/02/how-to-install-notify-osd-in-intrepid.html
2. From Softpedia:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Installing-Ubuntu-9-04-039-s-New-Notifications-in-Ubuntu-8-10-105221.shtml

I also tried it under Fedora 10 (Gnome and KDE) and it seems to work there as well. There is a bug report for Fedora and hopefully it will get solved soon.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/notify-osd/+bug/351528

I think ease of use is an important feature if Linux wants to get the heart of more users. Features like this are really good to see in Linux distros.

Compiz-fusion under Fedora 10 with Nvidia driver

I was having problems with compiz-fusion under Fedora 10 using the Nvidia 180.19 driver. However compiz-fusion works right out of the box under Ubuntu 8.10 with the restricted driver (177.82) provided by Ubuntu. Even though I do not really care about compiz-fusion effects (usually I tested it and then turned it off), I'd like to troubleshoot the problem.

compiz-check reveals the problem.
http://forlong.blogage.de/entries/pages/Compiz-Check

$ ./compiz-check
Gathering information about your system...

Distribution: Fedora release 10 (Cambridge)
Desktop environment: KDE4
Graphics chip: nVidia Corporation GeForce 7100 / nForce 620i (rev a2)
Driver in use: nvidia
Rendering method: Nvidia

Checking if it's possible to run Compiz on your system...

Checking for texture_from_pixmap... [FAIL]
Checking for non power of two support... [FAIL]
Checking for composite extension... [ OK ]
Checking for FBConfig... [ OK ]
Checking for hardware/setup problems... [SKIP]

At least one check had to be skipped:
Error: Unable to detect maximum 3D texture size

This should not happen. Maybe the driver installation was messed up during kernel updates and rebuilding the kernel modules or installation of other files, so I re-installed the Nvidia driver and viola it works now.

$ ./compiz-check

Gathering information about your system...

Distribution: Fedora release 10 (Cambridge)
Desktop environment: KDE4
Graphics chip: nVidia Corporation GeForce 7100 / nForce 620i (rev a2)
Driver in use: nvidia
Rendering method: Nvidia

Checking if it's possible to run Compiz on your system...

Checking for texture_from_pixmap... [ OK ]
Checking for non power of two support... [ OK ]
Checking for composite extension... [ OK ]
Checking for FBConfig... [ OK ]
Checking for hardware/setup problems... [ OK ]

Samsung SCX-4200 with open source Splix Driver

Today I tried to use the open source driver with the SCX-4200
under Fedora 10 and it works! Nice. I do not need to use the
closed driver from Samsung.

Website:
http://splix.ap2c.org/

Fedora 10 First Impression with KDE 4.2

I briefly ran Fedora 9 on my last desktop for three month and it was okay. Then it died and I got the new Acer M1641 desktop and was only running Ubuntu (8.04 and 8.10) along with Windows Vista.

I do not quite like the KDE 4.1 under Ubuntu 8.10 and I saw that Fedora 10 comes with KDE 4.2 now. So I decided to give it a try last week. I happened to find a book in the library with Fedora 10 KDE live CD and DVD inside so this saved me sometime to download the CD or DVD.

The first issue was that the Live CD could not go to X. So I had to use the DVD. It does not boot X either but at least the txt mode worked. This is worse than the Ubuntu 8.10. I had to install the Nvidia driver to get into X. Under Ubuntu 8.10, I can go into X with VESA. Then I just enabled the restricted driver to get me the optimum resolution under Ubuntu.

Once I had the X working I did a full system upgrade using yum.

After that using rpmfusion I installed various program for multimedia. The following guide helps.
http://www.mjmwired.net/resources/mjm-fedora-f10.html

Still I find one annoying thing is the new PackageKit. I was hit by the following bug.
http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=208271

After solving the problem following the solution in the thread, I decided to remove PackageKit related things altogether and use yumex instead. Now I need to manage the updates by myself but at least it is better to be constantly annoyed by the background packagekit process (often you are told that the database is locked by another process when you want to use yum or yumex).

Another bug I met is that switching to Chinese and KDE would hang during log-in process. Later it was solved after some updates.

With the initial bumpy process, now I can enjoying learning to use KDE 4.2 under Fedora 10. I admit I have not used KDE for quite some time. And KDE experiences for me under Ubuntu was not that positive.

Under KDE 4.2, I was not even able to move the button on the panel initially. After switching to "Folder View" and traditional menu, now I feel better with KDE 4.2. There are smb network share related problems with media playing using Mplayer or other players (they tend to copy the whole file before playing under KDE, no problem under Gnome). The suggested solution seems to mount the smb share locally but I do not quite like the solution. Finally it seems VLC works fine with KDE.

All in all, Fedora 10 is not as smooth as Ubuntu 8.10 during the initial stage. But passing that stage, now it runs rather well (both Gnome or KDE). I also tried LXDE and XFCE and both run well. KDE 4.2 now looks fine to me. I still need to learn some new tricks though.

One thing I like Fedora than Ubuntu is the updating policy. Fedora gives you major updates (like KDE 4.2 or the kernel) during the support period but Ubuntu will keep the same old version in the life cycle.

Fedora 9 Installed

I always want to try out both ubuntu and Fedora since both are among
the most popular Linux distros. I've used Ubuntu since 5.04 (5.10,
6.06, 6.10, 7.04,7.10 and 8.04) and now I am mainly using 8.04
even though I kept 6.06 and 7.10 as well. I've used Fedora since
Core 3 (Core 4, Core 5, Core 6, Fedora 7) but Fedora 8 failed to boot
in my system due to the conflict with FreeBSD last time
(http://mcuee.blogspot.com/2007/11/new-fc8-install-hangs-at-message.html).
So I have not used Fedora for a while except an old Fedora Core 6
installation used for occasional testing purpose.

Today I installed Fedora 9 (after removing the dormant PCLinux 2007
partition). Initially I did not install grub since I always used my trusted
Ubuntu 6.06 to handle grub stuff and it works for all other Linux distros
I am using and it works for FreeBSD 7.0 and NetBSD 4.0 as well.

But this proved to be not a good idea for Fedora 9, which is always
on the cutting edge side. The grub from Ubuntu can not handle
Fedora 9 due to some changes. Google shows that there are many
users having similar problems.

Problems:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/fedora-35/fedora-9-and-grub-error-2-problems-642487/

I tried to use the chainloading method in the thread but it did not work.
I was thinking of giving up but I decided to try it again. I chose to "Upgrade"
the new installation and surprisingly it gave me the chance to install the
bootloader and did not mess up the existing installation. The grub
bootloader did not recognize the other operating systems (not even
Windows XP) but I knew this from past experiences.

After this, Fedora 9 can boot properly. I modified the menu.lst file from
the Ubuntu 6.06 menu.lst file so that I could boot the other operating
systems.

So this time it is better than last time.

The normal operation of Fedora is quite ok just like my past
experiences with Fedora Core 6 and Fedora 7. There are
some new things like PolicyKit/ConsoleKit to set up permissions
for usb device which I am now learning. Other than that,
it is quite easy to get my usual programs (gputils, sdcc,
libusb, openusb, pk2cmd, etc) to work.

pk2cmd Linux Port under Fedora Core 6

Here is a mini-howto to get pk2cmd Linux port to work under Fedora Core 6. It should work for Fedora Core 5 and Fedora 7 as well. Hopefully it also works for Fedora 8. I have never used Fedora 8 since it failed to boot on my machine because of the conflict with FreeBSD.
http://mcuee.blogspot.com/2007/11/new-fc8-install-hangs-at-message.html

1) Download pk2cmdLinux from Jeff Post's website.
Download link: http://home.pacbell.net/theposts/picmicro/

Edit in 09/2009: new download link
http://www.microchip.com/pickit2

As of this writing, the version is 0.8.

2) Preparation to get pk2cmd working is easy under FC6.

You need to have g++ and make. You also need to install libusb-devel package. You can use yum (yum install libusb-devel) as root to install this package.

3) Edit the Makefile and then build it using make.

You need to edit the Makefile to to define the proper CFLAGs.
FC6 is usingLinux kernel 2.6.x and support udev rules. So we will use the following option.

# ----- Use the following for Linux kernel 2.6.x: -----
CFLAGS=$(OPTS) -I$(LIBUSB)/include -DLINUX -DUSE_DETACH -DCLAIM_USB

Now we can build pk2cmdLinux. Just type "make".

4) Test it as root and it should just work.

5) In order to run pk2cmdLinux as a normal user, we need to set up udev rules.

FC6 uses udev with PAM. You can read the file 'usbhotplug.txt'bundled with the pk2cmdLinux source package for more details. A more up-to-date document is presented in the Gphto project website:
http://www.gphoto.org/doc/manual/permissions-usb.html

Firstly you need to create the file/etc/udev/rules.d/26-microchip.rules with thefollowing content.

#PICKit2SUBSYSTEM=="usb_device", ACTION=="add", SYSFS{idVendor}=="04d8",SYSFS{idProduct}=="0033", SYMLINK+="pickit2-%k"

Secondly, you need to create the file/etc/security/console.perms.d/pickit2.perms
with thefollowing content:

=/dev/pickit2* 0600 0600 root

6) After this unplug and then plug PICkit 2 back in the USB port andit should work.
If not, reboot the machine.

Now we can test pk2cmdLinux under FC6. Here are some examples.

[mcuee@localhost pk2cmdLinux-0.8]$ ./pk2cmd -?V
Executable Version: 1.01.00 (Linux/Mac port 0.8)
Device File Version: 1.42.00OS
Firmware Version: 2.30.01
Operation Succeeded

[mcuee@localhost pk2cmdLinux-0.8]$ ./pk2cmd -PPIC16F690 -I
Device ID = 1403
Operation Succeeded

[mcuee@localhost pk2cmdLinux-0.8]$ ./pk2cmd -PPIC16F690 -GFlowpindemo.hex
Read successfully.
Operation Succeeded

[mcuee@localhost pk2cmdLinux-0.8]$ ./pk2cmd -PPIC16F690 -Y -Flowpindemo.hex
PICkit 2 Verify Report
27-4-2008, 11:49:37
Device Type: PIC16F690
Verify Succeeded.
Operation Succeeded

[mcuee@localhost pk2cmdLinux-0.8]$ ./pk2cmd -PPIC16F690 -T
Operation Succeeded

Impressions of Some Linux/BSD Distributions

Before Fall 2002, I was mainly playing with Linux (Slackware, Redhat, Mandrake, Corel, Caldera, etc) but still use Windows mostly at home. I was not using Linux between Fall 2002 and Spring 2005.

I started to try out Linux again with Ubuntu 5.04 and I liked it quite a lot. Then I was trying to 5.10 and it was not as good so I started to look at Fedora as well (Core 4). Soon I fixed the problem with 5.10 and then I found 6.06 LTS a great distribution that I am still running it as the main distribution now. I also tried Ubuntu 6.10/7.04 and they were good as well. Now I have Ubuntu 7.10 installed. Initially it is not good (problem with USplash screen) but I solved it. Firefox 1.5 under Ubuntu 6.06 is not that good but switching to swiftfox seems to solve the problem. Firefox 2.0 under Ubuntu 7.10 initially is very bad but once I remove xgl/compiz stuff it becomes better now.

On the other hand, FC5/FC6 and Fedora 7 were also not bad so I was using Fedora as the 2nd option to Ubuntu. Fedora 8 is a disaster (despite the flawless installation process) that it did not boot after installation due to the bug associated with FreeBSD partitions. So now I do not have a Fedora installation.

I tried to use OpenSuse as well, it is rather sophiscated but I feel it is relative slow. OpenSuse 10.2 installation is not good that it writes the Grub bootloader without asking and messed up my Grub. I have to boot to Ubuntu 6.06 and recover the bootloader. BTW, for Grub recover, it seems that Knoppix is good. OpenSuse 10.3 installation is flawless but trying compiz caused the system not to boot so I gave up.

I tried to use Arch Linux and it is quite good in terms of upgrading (versionless) but I do not find it offer anything more than Ubuntu.

I tried to use Gentoo for two days and it was a pain due to dead mirrors and long compiling process. And since I have FreeBSD installed, I do not need another source based distribution. FreeBSD does offer something Linux does not offer -- a BSD licensed kernel and userland. FreeBSD is not as easy to use as Linux but it is quite usable as well. I am also trying out NetBSD but I feel it is not good for desktop usage.

PClinuxOS looks nice and in the end it does not offer anything better than Ubuntu (maybe KDE is better under PClinuxOS).

So now I have Ubuntu 6.06/7.10 and FreeBSD 7.0 Beta. I will try out other things from time to time.

I still use Windows XP SP2 at home occassionaly but mostly I am using Ubuntu.

New FC8 install hangs at the message "Creating root device"

http://www.fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=171223&page=2&pp=15

I had the exact same problem as post #15. I have two HDDs in the system. Windows/Ubuntu (6.06 and 7.10) are in the SATA HDD. I installed Fedore 8 on the IDE HDD which has also Windows DATA partitions and Linux DATA partitions along with FreeBSD 7-Beta.

I ended up going back to Fedora 7 which is working fine. It is really a pity. The installation process from the live CD was quite smooth. It just did not boot after the "flawless" installation.