Thread: Dabbling with Linux. The good, the bad and the tuxy

Originally Posted by slackula

I didn't know netbooks had a PCMCIA slot.

I don't suppose they do. As I said before; I want to try it on an old laptop.

Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog

As I said before; I want to try it on an old laptop

Sorry, I didn't see that before.

EasyPeasy is designed specifically for Asus (?) netbooks so you'd probably be better off with a more general purpose distro for your laptop.

EasyPeasy is partilcarly good for the ASUS, as it supports ASUS hotkeys and the like, but it should be fine on any Netbook.

Out of interest, if anyone wants to try playing around with Linux but doesn't want to risk buggering up their PC, then download VirtualBox (free) from:

VirtualBox

And then you can pick from this list of ready to run "appliances" and try it out in a virtual PC:
VirtualBox Virtual Appliances | VirtualBoxImages.com

^ I didn't know that one, awesome

Never actually occurred to me to try it, but as I'm travelling today and stuck in the airport, I fired up PCLinuxOS and tried Skype to the UK.

Works very well.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Never actually occurred to me to try it, but as I'm travelling today and stuck in the airport, I fired up PCLinuxOS and tried Skype to the UK.

Works very well.

PCLinuxOS is a great distro, I run 2010 Gnome version in a virtual machine on my Macs with Parallels. I've tried the KDE version but don't like KDE 4.



[Phoronix] Benchmarks: Mandriva 2010.1, PCLinuxOS 2010, Ubuntu 10.04, openSUSE 11.3

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Perhaps you should try it Gerbil? It might make you look less of a troll.

I saw it as humor rather than trolling

Originally Posted by Butterfly

try that with MacOS

It install fine on Macs, and is not intended to be installed on anything else than a Mac. Troll !

Countdown to switch back to Windows ticks...In June i abandon Ubuntu, even they just released a new version, same problems with sound on skype...

What i will miss most is the double desktop screen, is that as well existing on windows xp ? or a newer windows?

Originally Posted by forreachingme

What i will miss most is the double desktop screen, is that as well existing on windows xp ? or a newer windows?

try virtuawin
VirtuaWin - Virtual Desktops for Windows

or Deskman from windows powertoys download page
Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP


virtuawin is my preferred app for this

Countdown to switch back to Windows ticks...In June i abandon Ubuntu, even they just released a new version, same problems with sound on skype...

Generally speaking, if you had sounds problems on Skype, then you probably had sound problems.

Try the latest Ubuntu and describe the problem (did you go through the Skype sound setup/test procedure?). Then maybe we can help you.

Like I said, I used Skype on PCLinuxOS with no problem, so it may be the hardware as described earlier.

Whenever I can I try and use keyboard shortcuts like ctrl+c for copy and ctrl-v for paste, you can still use this in Linux but theres another way. All you have to do is highlight the text you want to copy with the mouse then click the mouse middle button/scrollwheel and it pastes! Nice. The neat trick with this is that they dont interfere with each other so the text you ctrl-c can be used with ctrl-v and the highlighted text with the middle mouse button, double power paste!

I'm dabbling with linux now, Ubuntu, I need to set up a web, file and print server for a customers small LAN and also try and incorporate cctv application called zonemonitor.

It ain't as easy as xp, that[s for sure

Originally Posted by baldrick

I hope you are not using one of those horrible generic BT878 4 channel cards for some analog cams - they are a pain in the arse

Noted, and I think not, fairly decent budget for this project, so we can afford decent kit.

Originally Posted by baldrick

etting zoneminder set up is not such an easy task , especially the sql database.

It's got me proper baffled up until now, maybe tomorrow things will become more apparent!

Originally Posted by Spin

fairly decent budget for this project, so we can afford decent kit.

if they are not trying to be supercheap - use IP cams instead of analog to a card or DVR

I'm dabbling with linux now, Ubuntu, I need to set up a web, file and print server for a customers small LAN and also try and incorporate cctv application called zonemonitor.

It ain't as easy as xp, that[s for sure

You can download distros that are already set up to be Web, File & Print, even Mail and PBX servers.

Just a quick scan found these:

DistroWatch.com: eBox Platform

DistroWatch.com: SLAMPP Live

SoL - Server optimized Linux 25.00 - The sun is rising!

DistroWatch.com: StartCom Linux

I am usinng freeNAS on a CF card now - but when openmediavault is released , I will switch

Linux Mint 9 ("Isadora") was released recently. This is a very user friendly, good looking release, and again you can download the .iso image from this link and burn it to a DVD using IMGBURN or the like:

DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD.

And to lighten up the thread a bit, do you like free games? (i.e. the ones you don't need to crack?).

This is an excellent build containing a load of free games:

Ultimate Edition Gamers | Ultimate Edition

It's big because some of the games are big, shoot 'em ups, and so on.

It wouldn't fit on an 8Gb partition on my netbook, so be warned

Originally Posted by baldrick

if they are not trying to be supercheap - use IP cams instead of analog to a card or DVR

This is my plan, as the cards are crap like you say. Wireless IP cameras probably cost just a little bit more than analogue cameras, cabling and capture cards. It makes sense to upgrade.

For now, I configured my laptop to dual boot xp/ubuntu. I managed to get zoneminder working with my usb webcam. It took a long while to configure, just like you said.

Have to say I like Linux, everything configured itself on install, wireless connection, display driver, LAN connection. XP never did that.

The more I use Ubuntu, the more I consider formatting the xp partition

Originally Posted by Spin

Wireless IP cameras

they don't have to be wireless - can be just LAN , can also be Power over ethernet with a PoE injector or PoE switch.

I would not go with wireless unless you have to because of cabling reasons.

radio is a black art , and so many things can affect a radio signal that unless you have some serious skill and knowledge with antennas it is not worth the bother if you can easily run a LAN cable.

I am talking from experience as I have 100 wifi IP cameras under my control now and some of them are absolute cnuts even at 10 meters range. Your AP needs to be able to be seriously tweaked for wifi , else everyman and his dog with a 2.4GHz device will cause you no end of problems.

I am talking from experience as I have 100 wifi IP cameras under my control now and some of them are absolute cnuts even at 10 meters range.

I grew up in a neighbourhood like that. We had Jehovah's Bystanders.

if you are just recording from wifi cameras it is normally ok , as any short hicccups with the 802.11 connection are not noticed because the camera has a small amount of buffer and when you view the recording later it is normally ok.

if you are watching them live , you will see them stutter regularly , and if you watch a trend of the data it will be all over the place like a mad woman shitting.

with so much using the 2.4 GHz section , it is just better to run a LAN if you can - imagine living next door to butterfly and having his bluetooth remote buttplug continually interfereing with your wifi

Originally Posted by baldrick

with so much using the 2.4 GHz section , it is just better to run a LAN if you can - imagine living next door to butterfly and having his bluetooth remote buttplug continually interfereing with your wifi

or worse a fat baldrick jerking off to online porn chat on his webcam