YOGA6DORG SPARKLES PRODUCTION SUITE ****************************************** * GOOD LUCK! * Please read ALL of * any such installation * text before doing * anything of it, * and do it with * spare machines, first, * not with your main * working PCs * And, first of all, * when doing anything * deep with your personal * computer, * CHECK WITH YOUR *GUMPTION* ;-) * ************************************ This is an extract of excellent tools derived from the GNU/Linux OS of the Debian branch, as set up by the SparkyLinux folks and further configured to fit with Yoga6dorg production concerns. The range of actions connected to tools that are ripe in 2015 have been crystallised into a single .OVA platform. This is to be used only in connection with a well-thought policy around how PCs should connect to networks and how they should use virtual platforms. Put simply, there must be a degree of caution as to use of net in platforms which aren't constantly modified to tighten potential security issues. This is oriented towards the creative interactor who uses this part of the PC either as a standalone machine or by well-thought patterns in net with other machines. For those who have the SPARKLES installation, which is what is underneath, essentially, these added notes apply: User name: patricia Password: helloyou [note that here is corrected spelling of password in contrast to the document which comes up inside the browsers within Sparkles itself] When YOGA6DORG SPARKLES PRODUCTION SUITE is started in such as Oracle Virtualbox, pls first check a couple of things:--that the volume is high enough;--that the mouse speed is suitable;--the net connection is correct; --that all unnecessary programs are actually quitted (eg by File->Quit or CTR-Q or such), unless the PC has overwhelming speed and ram compared to what is required. And more such things. Also reboot the production suite and do the similar quitting of programs regularly to enhance fluidity and stability. The G15 PMN programming language Y6ALL has certain features in RH8 platform when started beside it, including more true native functionality in wholescreen mode. Only Y6, the SDL-version of G15 PMN, performs in Sparkles in fullscreen mode in the Oracle Virtualbox context as presently set up, but the Y6ALL does work inside a frame and so both are included. Additional apps are available for G15 PMN of course. Note that Audacious is a good .mp3 player. Audacity can be used to edit and record mp3. Audacity must always be used with Pavucontrol so that microphone is adjusted (normally to nil) while certain switches are used there to connection eg output source to Audacity as recording device. The degree to which Audacity works in this context must be checked in each case, but Pavucontrol is included as advanced volume control program. There are various programming languages included as ordinary open source and freeware installation packages with all original acknowlegdements intact. Only legal freeware and open source is included, insofar as the normal standard Debian GNU/Linux procedure of Synaptic can be trusted on this point (and it usually can). The way to perform commands is by means of the bottommost menu, the icons on the desktop, and the methods which arises as you mouse the mouse pointer on top. If you plug in a mouse into a laptop and find that it goes too fast, then it is best to handle the mouse-speed BEFORE you start Sparkles when this is done virtually. And a way to do it is for a normal USB mouse plugged into a laptop is by means of the command /y6/o.sh and if this doesn't work, the y6 folder, which is our G15 PMN programming language as given by y6.zip, has more info about this command in the longer command slomouse.sh. These work when the xinput program has been installed and you're running a pretty typical X Windows Linux. There may be other adjustments methods also for just this. Note that in Sparkles, the topmost menu line sometimes is jumpy or hasn't full functionality as for its turn-off option, this is one of the known issues. A workaround is that we have placed an 'off' icon on the screen. Another known thing is that you must reboot the platform, exit the programs and reboot it, at least once pr day especially when you run such as the music player Audacious heavily, perhaps even two players at the same time {eg, one started by clicking on its icon, and another in Administrator mode by typing sudo -i and answering with password and then type the phrase audacious & in that terminal}. Some forms of heavy use also leads it to require reboot. You will see an indication to this by means of the Memory usage: when it gets too high, and stays high, even after program exit, then reboot is necessary. Other things: there are some minimalist browsers, they have various things about them. Konqueror and OtterBrowser both complain too often about certificate issues, and the latter has no Flash activated or such. Inside a Terminal, after you've typed sudo -i and answered with password, the command off can shut it off. Note that under some circumstances, Sparkles, when run inside Oracle Virtualbox, do not always power off all the way. If not, right-click CTRL-P and press ENTER. Inside SPARKLES there's another (level of) Virtualbox. This uses right-ALT instead of right-CTRL. Command reboot is also okay to use. The command e is equivalent to gedit. There is a new wallpaper for Sparkles, suitable for 1024*768 display eg when run in VirtualBox. It is full affectionate harmonious 'noise', to further creativity. Some may like a more dull background but we don't! The SPARKLES .ova comes along with a recommended parallel product, the LTFIRTH .ova. This is a slightly smaller Firth but with the arrangement that if you start it at the same PC where you start the SPARKLES, you can transfer files both ways. The condition is that you have a rather normal Linux, a rather normal Oracle Virtualbox, and that, in addition, the PC is wired to a router. The FTP transfer will then happens through this router. If it is not wired to a router, one can use the FTP transfer only given an arrangement of typed-in network settings of a type that this writer hasn't had need for. To use LTFIRTH to transfer files requires a somewhat self-confident attitude, as that of the 'expert user'. Here's the brief info {and more info in the FIRHTFTP notes which are somewhere in our sites, you might then begin with the FIRTHUP text which is linked to at yoga6d.org/economy.htm}. Start LTFIRTH, and start SPARKLES, after checking that you are online to a router. The following only works when LTFIRTH is started outside of a Virtual SPARKLES. {The FTP transfer won't automatically work in the same way if you try and put LTFIRTH inside SPARKLES as a two-level virtualisation.} When LTFIRTH is running, press ENTER several times until its autostarted FTP Server tells you that it is running and that there is a number like 10.0.0.8 or whatever, which refers to it. {All acknowledgements for this excellent FreeDOS-related work is inside LTFIRTH and even more inside the larger firth.iso which is described in FIRTH-UP.} When Sparkles has started, click on the Terminal >_ symbol. Type sudo -i in it, answer with your normal login password. Then go into the correct folder, and start the ftp program there. This can be done as follows cd /backup1 ftp Now on the assumption that there is a file you wish to get out of Sparkles and into LTFIRTH around it {something which can also be done e.g. by email upload at a browser, but not usually via FTP to the net, because FTP may cause hickups in internet servers when used through a Virtual platform unless they are very particulary configured to see through this process seamlessly}, we will next transfer it. Let us imagine it is called test.zip. It should be a simple name, no blanks in it, only a to z lowercase letters and a simple three-letter prefix. So let's begin, and you type in the right number, I assume 10.0.0.8 this time, but LTFIRTH told you the right number: open 10.0.0.8 It prompts for username then for password. Type in, as, username, 123456 and, as password, 123456. These are the normal ultra-simplistic usernames and passwords LTFIRTH is set up with. Next type put And as answer to 'local file', type test.zip. As answer to destination, type exactly /DRIVE_C/TEST.ZIP So, whatever filename you give, you now give it as uppercase, and prefixed by /DRIVE_C/ exactly. It will transfer it when all is set up right. Type quit when done. But you can also do more things. So let's say it at once: to retrieve a file, simply type get instead of put in the above sequence, and specify the source file as /DRIVE_C/TEST.ZIP or whatever you have as source file there. Next, you may want to continue the process, so that you get the file over to the surrounding platform, out of LTFIRTH and into the PC you are running the whole SPARKLES in, Virtually. That is done EXACTLY the same way. You open a terminal in Administrator mode (if you like), type ftp and use the same username and password after typing open 10.0.0.8 or whatever number there is. You type get and specify source file as /DRIVE_C/TEST.ZIP and destination as test.zip. To go out of the LTFIRTH server program, press CTR-C there, as it will tell you. You can then delete the temporary file there, e.g. by the command DEL TEST*.* and this is a good idea indeed, for no overwriting of files are allowed in this process inside LTFIRTH. Type OFF to exit LTFIRTH. ****************************************** * GOOD LUCK! * Please read ALL of * any such installation * text before doing * anything of it, * and do it with * spare machines, first, * not with your main * working PCs * And, first of all, * when doing anything * deep with your personal * computer, * CHECK WITH YOUR *GUMPTION* ;-) * ************************************ EARLY INSTALLATION INFO RELEVANT FOR 2015 SPARKYLINUX {but probably relevant for many other Gnu/Linuxes of the Debian branch as well, as long as they stick to the standards--in decades to come!} ================================================= http://www.yoga6d.org/installing_the_best_linux.txt Linked to from www.yoga6d.org/economy.htm We have additional links relevant for Linux installations around on that page, and some are more updated than this text. =================================================== BEST ADVICES, TOP ADVICES FOR TOP WORK! This is a series of advices oriented towards the patient, unafraid person, who may have absolutely no programming experience at all but who have an interest in setting up a really good pleasant practical and harmonious workstation using Linux on the net. It requires an unafraid, self-confident nature, a willingness to type in commands without having to have every feature of them explained logically all the time. To type in something and have the computer respond is, in a way, to put text -- The Word -- first. It means that you are screwing in your own screws, metaphorically at least. Note: if you are dependent, due to some particular circumstances, of getting a particular PC to work in a particular way -- for instance, using wireless not a cable, or getting the "dimming of screen during battery use" to work (which can greatly expand the quantity of minutes it can work on battery) -- then a big sponsored Linux in the main version may be better able to get it fully or near fully to work. A battery indicator is important when doing work with a laptop "out in the field", sometimes. There are several free battery indicator which can be installed, and it is told how in this text; however this is one of the things that you'll have to find out as to how well it works with just your laptop. Lithium-batteries, though expensive, doesn't last very long nor do they handle low-charge-situations very well without requiring a certain 'pump' of volt which isn't safe to give them unless one is an expert on lithium batteries -- and when they are in a brittle, over-used state, many or most battery indicators won't give reliable information about them anymore. Just mention it. Where are the lead-sulphuric-acid laptops, anyway? ;-) As a rule, slightly more expensive than the least expensive laptops are more easy to get going with Linux; and it is possible to search on within certain forum sites for linux for a particular and specific brand and model of a computer and see if people have commented on it. If you wish to use any of the virtual PCs-within-a-PC be sure the PC is really very fast. This writer has found Oracle Virtualbox to be the best approach here, for the time being -- at least. This is a way to run a number of things with much greater ease than in how things are getting 'developed' by the computer industry (ie, more and more cluttered and locked up, and reeking of what they think goes for 'artificial intelligence', which only shows that their natural intelligence is lacking, that they can entertain thoughts that humans can be fooled by machines in this manner). But then you should really have a PC which is several dozens times faster than the PCs you wish to run within it. Consult the virtual PC files high up in the yoga6d.org/economy.htm for versions prepared by this writer. FIND A LINUX-FRIENDLY PC VENDOR. And then, we have the Avenuege G15 PC, which is friendly towards the whole region of Linux PCs, but which offer something to the creative worker, the artist, the master which goes beyond the present computing industry and which is made in an idealistic spirit. ************************************************* * These texts are written in an idealistic * benefit-for-all spirit. It is not driven * by any sponsoring or catering to * advertisement purposes, whether overtly * or covertly. It is written as advice from * a friend to friends; and it serves also * as a way of storing information used by * this writer (A.Tacoma) when setting up * computers. The Linux type of computer is * a pretty good one -- and there are other * free platforms as well. We are working to * create a new type of hardware altogether * which will complement and supplement this * type of computer, the Avenuege G15 PC, * where there is not one bit of microchips * inside, but a new concept called Intraplates, * which is friendly towards hobby and * amateur electronics work. Consult * intraplates.com for the G15 Intraplates * Multiversity educational initiative, * which obviously has material such as * this and other texts linked to from such * pages as www.yoga6d.org/economy.htm as part of * background resource material for students * and teachers. ************************************************* After a lot of experimentation with a lot of linux platforms on a group of machines, weighing this against that, and having in mind that people want a bit of self-education not just a glamorous working environment, we've recommend this Linux, which we describe how to install and do initial configurations in this text: www.sparkylinux.org The main version, listed on top, the LXDE, for 32-bit PC's, where we prefer well-made laptops of a standard kind which have legacy boot (specify this in the store -- they MUST have legacy boot, always -- classical, open boot capacity -- a necessity if a PC is going to be considered a good PC) -- and that this laptop is extended with an inexpensive plugin-mouse and plugin-big-keyboard and are connected to the net by means of a wire (with WIFI turned off, at least where this is possible, as we are against wireless radiations and the lack of certainty about what goes on in the computer when one has wireless, bluetooth and so on enabled). This text provides expert setting-up instructions for new Personal Computers running this brand of Debian Linux on the internet with reasonably fast lines. PREAMBLE The world is, ultimately, what we make it into. And how we use technology reflects not just our cleverness or our practical needs, but also our worldview. It is a natural thing in such as Chinese architecture to prefer a golden aura on top of entrances (rather than a grey one). One cannot claim that these things -- the structures, the colors, the ways things are done -- can be reduced to a set of practical principles. They are expressions of our attitudes to life, our ideas, hopes, aspirations. Anything less is intolerance to religion. It is indecent not to provide a relationship to the higher values in how we set up our working desktops. We simply MUST do it. But not everyone has the time to set up absolutely everything from scratch to fit with the worldview. We want collaboration, we want to stand, sometimes, on the shoulders of others, and get on with doing things. Linux is a collaborative project, and so, in a way, are computers in general. The way this text suggests that the somewhat technically able person sets up his or her working environments as for the types of computers we call 'linux computers' is, I think, artistically and religiously in tune with the rest of our works as shown at yoga6d.org/look.htm and links from there to a number of websites. It is also able, naturally, to run the G15 PMN language and its different approach to design altogether, which, in this writer's opinion, is wholly superior to Linux and to free-color monitors, when we speak of the necessity of wanting REALLY good affirmations, a DEEP holistic energy in all we do, and a genuine platform also for meditation and contemplative work as well as logical thinking. GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR PC WORK! Aristo T. This is a .txt file and you may want to enlarge the text if you view it in a browser and it shows itself with a tiny text. FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS HERE ENTIRELY ON YOUR OWN RESPONSIBILITY. They are made in good faith in order to help you install a new linux but they involve steps which format a flashdisk (a pendisk) and which format a harddisk. These steps, if done without proper care and attention in each case, can of course wipe out data you didn't intend to wipe out. So beware! THE RESPONSIBILITY IS YOUR OWN. A general good tip with any such installation text: Read through this whole text before you do anything of it. Some later parts may clarify earlier parts. And be ready to apply own mind to it -- there may be something that has been typed here that isn't exactly as it is, or which refers to something which has been changed since it was written. Also, for those unused to this particular linux there's a few hints of differences to note at the completion of this little document This is a hints text linked to from our yoga6d.org/economy.htm column. It concerns how to best install what we regard as the best linux for the present purposes, with all the packages that we think a creative worker going with this linux on the internet and possibly also doing G15 PMN programming of various kinds, and/or using it for other, related artistic purposes, -- and our best bet is the Linux (of the Debian branch) found at www.sparkylinux.org This is a package that, unlike such as Ubuntu, comes with the lid if not off, then at least partially off and easy to remove, so that you can see the machinery. Just like we want it. It tells, after install, that it is a development version and not stable. But it is very stable compared to many other linuxes which are not declaring themselves thus! As for 'development', that's pretty much the state of every platform. Nothing is very much finished. It is a question of degrees, and of having to learn things, and of having to put up with things. Sparkylinux does such niceties as telling you at once how much the CPU is active. It is like hearing the sound of the car engine. You can take its temperature. {Such things matters to those who want a relationship to data, and not merely trod along on the surface of a superfically over-polished semi-closed package with a commercial agenda hanging heavily over it.} However it takes more skill and more time to install it. It will help greatly if you have, in addition, one PC that has Unetbootin, a very standard program, installed in it, and which is e.g. such as Ubuntu 15.04, and that you have a PC where it doesn't really matter so much what happens to the harddisk -- this is a PC where you can format the whole thing, perhaps several times over, and it is okay. It is to this PC, at first, we put SparkyLinux. Then, with experience and confidence, it can take over more PCs, if you like! ;-) Whatever Linux you are using, first find out how to open a Terminal. In Sparkylinux this is an icon with a sign like >_ at the bottom line menu. Generally, a Terminal is often found under System Tools menues, and Sparkylinux has such a menu accessible on the top of the monitor. ********************************************** * Are you using Sparkylinux within * VirtualBox? It is in several ways compatible * with this. But pls remember that when * it comes to net access while running * a PC inside a PC, virtually, only use * browsers, do not use anything like a * FTP program inside a virtual PC * unless it is (1) to such as another * virtual PC inside a PC running such * as the simple FTP Server inside Firth, * so that you can exchange files within * the various virtual PCs on your PC, * and between your PC and one virtual PC, * or (2) set up in a certain way which * you have knowledge from other sources * that do work. I say this because * given certain settings when you run * a Linux within a Linux using the * present form of Virtualbox, it may * use such as different ports in going * to ftp and these ports may cause * your access to a server out there * in the net to be temporarily blocked * and to avoid all such nuissances, * simply prefer browsers for whatever * it is of upload and download, eg. * using perl upload programs or an email ******************************************** ************************************ * Erasing a flashdisk, using * Unetbootin to put stuff into it, * and booting up your PC ************************************ First, let's erase a flashdisk which may have previously been used by Unetbootin. This isn't necessarily done by a normal flash formatter program, for Unetbootin sets it up in a very complex way. There are other ways of erasing a flashdisk and setting up a bootable flashdisk however Unetbootin is a favorite. If you have Sparkylinux and want Unetbootin in it, there's a hint of how to get it in at the completion of this text. If you are new to Linux, and have the means and the space to have at least two computers while you educate yourself in this very important and valuable way, so you take control over your own computer environment and rip it away from Microsoft, Apple, Google and other who might otherwise try and impose their superficialiaty and their animosity to the human spirit on you via their infernal boxes and plugins and programs and apps, then the suggestion is that you get the newest 32-bit Ubuntu on one computer, and, if it has several modes, prefer the X Windows (not Mir) mode. Choose linux- friendly computers which have legacy boot, the classical boot option, specify this to the store you buy the computer in. On the other computer, you install sparkylinux.org. Then, when you need a program and you don't know the name of it, first go to the Ubuntu Software Center and search it up there. Then, having secured its name and the website by the link it provides, you endavour to use the information in this text to find the same or similar program there. The sparkylinux.org is a Linux of the Debian type like ubuntu and so you can make use of all the ubuntu-information provided on the yoga6d.org/economy.htm and inside the readme.txt of the y6.zip at norskesites.org/fic3 as to such things as the use of command 'cp' to access pendisks and so on. In this regard, Sparkylinux is much more similar to ubuntu than it is to such as OpenSuse, which is an enormously valuable alternative but so far a much less polished one. This PC should have, for ease, the option that when you have pressed some button like Esc during startup, you can go into BIOS SETTINGS and there turn of whatever there may be of UEFI or EFI stuff and turn on normal real classical boot, also called 'legacy boot'. For older PCs there is no need to go in there, but newer PCs are of two types: those which are decently made and those which are indecently made. The indecently made are woven to the UEFI nonsense all the time. You can try to install it also then, but I have absolutely no hints for that, and I regard PCs which cannot boot classically and openly as almost less worth than zero. Throw the UEFI stuff away, demand something better from the stores. Get real PCs, laptops, whatever size you please. And get a real keyboard. Laptop keyboard buttons cease to operate with but a droplet of hot water on the right (or wrong) spot, and they can get into an autorepeat that can spoil the startup of the PC. A pluggable large keyboard may cost only the price of a second-hand pocket book, and thereby you safe the laptop. Of the most commercially easily available laptops I suppose it can be HP but Asus is generally faster, though Asus are generally more vulnerable to heat issues so be ultra-certain it is cold enough all the time: and there are lots and lots of other brands, some very able to run Linux eminently and perhaps better than these. INSTALLATION First, go to the Downloads section of sparkylinux.org and get hold of the 32-bit package called LXDE-something-something-i586 eg via SourceForge. {{{One of the good things about SourceForge (though they have the counter thingy, about how many downloads there have been last week, and we all know how difficult it is to manipulate those numbers..), is that they have a lot of classical 32-bit programs and they are easily accessible without any much javascript and with any classical browser and they haven't, like "launchpad", wedded themselves to this overhyped https-convention thingy. Another thing we learned to hate recently is the rediculous assumption, proposed by askubuntu.com and others when accessed by any high-intensity IP number, that in order to distinguish between a human and a robot one will simply decide between some images -- this must have come from google-loving people who cannot think of humans as anything but a particular smart algorithm. No? This wasn't invented by askubuntu.com, but is a thingy used by stackexchange.com which is in many sites all over the place and conveys a false vision of the human being along the line of driverless cars.}}} Then, by such as an Ubuntu 15.04, open a terminal and erase a flashdisk if it has been previously used by Unetbootin, in this way. Plug in the flashdisk, which has several gigabytes in size, preferably not larger than 32 gigabytes. Type the following and answer with your normal password after the first line. sudo -i fdisk -l That's -l for list, not the number one. In the standard setup -- which varies if you have other equipment plugged in -- you'll see some stuff indicating that the name of the flashdisk on that PC is /dev/sdb1. Unplug the flashdisk and try again, the fdisk -l command. Now, the /dev/sdb1 should have vanished from the list. If the list is too long you can always add | more after it, like fdisk -l | more that's a vertical bar. This allows you to page through it by pressing space bar. If at this point you are even slightly uncertain what /dev/sd stuff refers to the flashdisk, the pendisk, then go to the store and buy a new flashdisk, for otherwise you risk formatting the PC or some other stuff instead. Having found it out, you then write what you found out -- eg, that it is /dev/sdb1 -- after fdisk, like this: fdisk /dev/sdXX Here, you should get something like 'type m for menu' and then you can type the letter d for delete. If it has previously been used by Unetbootin it will typically say something about '4'. If, on the other hand, it has only one partition, it may say 'Selected 1'. So what you do is to type 4 if it asks, then type d again and type 3 if it asks, and keep on until there's only one partition left, and then it doesn't ask after you type d. Then you type w and write the empty table to the flashdisk. Then type, using the name for device of the flashdisk, whatever it was -- /dev/sdb1 maybe -- after the word 'umount': umount /dev/sdXX Finally, you format it, again giving the name you found out (and this will work smoothly if the flashdisk is reasonably new, not year 2000 style, and not overly big): mkfs -t vfat /dev/SDXX After any such operation, reboot. Then, plug it in, start up Unetbootin -- which it is easy to get, usually, for most platforms -- and select the .iso file you got from the net, for SparkyLinux. Be sure -- and this is really important -- be sure you don't answer the topmost question from Unetbootin as to which Linux this is. That must be left unanswered when you have got your own .iso freshly downloaded (a point which at least earlier hasn't been clearly spelt out by the Unetbootin program). Then get the pendisk out after the operation is done. You may certainly reboot the machine, always good to do, after such an operation -- just to check that all is well. Then put the pendisk into the machine in question, start it up, press ESC until you get to select Boot sequence, locate the pendisk on the menu that should arise -- perhaps indicated by the vendor of the pendisk -- and the Unetbootin menu should arise. Select here the Default. After a while, Sparkylinux should have started up and the graphics is good, and net connection exist. If it doesn't look like compatible with this PC in some way, drop it, and get a more standard PC; and meanwhile try some other linuxes or such and see if they work better. But Sparkylinux is pretty cool as to many videocards and such. A point I do not have certain information about, is this: is there a hidden driver of the cooling fan that only some platforms connect to? Be sure you check temperature stuff when you put in platforms like this. If a laptop begins to swoon, and keeps on doing it no matter platform, it may be rescued by a having a fan beside it, and a bit of something nonflammable underneath it to let air through. This helps the internal fan better than a socalled 'laptop fan'. Wireless may be another thing that require coded drivers on some PCs. I always recommend people to refuse every form of wireless PC connection for several reasons and go for cables, and then only in rooms which are dedicated for internet work, not in all rooms. Check also audio. By the way, there is a browser available, usually with a crazy name, at the bottom line which expands in size when you move the mouse pointer over it. Check that the net is available and keep it going during this install of Sparkylinux, is my suggestion at least. So, click on install when you have a PC which seems fit to run Sparkylinux. I always choose English of the US type as for keyboard style, -- it is wedded to the ASCII 7-bit standard which is and will remain universal. All else is a messing with this fundamental computer standard. You can always hack the ethnic characters out of any such machine if you have to, later on (e.g., copy and paste from net onto LibreOffice and make your own code with regular replace). *************************************** * THE TRICKY PART IN INSTALLING * THE PRESENT VERSION OF SPARKYLINUX * -- AND OVERCOMING IT *************************************** Before you read what follows, pls attend to this fact: there are several ways to partition a harddisk (virtual or real) so as to run a modern platform like this. BUT ONLY SOME WAYS ARE COMPATIBLE WITH OTHER ADVICES GIVEN IN THIS TEXT. So, even if you have a blank harddisk, and can 'get away' with getting an installation by letting it do its automatic partitioning, don't. Not if you want to follow other advices in this text, that is. Answer the next screens and then when it comes to handling the harddisk the present Sparkylinux offers you a program called Gnome PARTition EDitor, or GPartEd, which is documented at www.GPartEd.org, and which is a heavy one for any beginner, but it is an eminently well-made tool and can do all sorts of things for all sorts of platforms and it is not a waste of time to grind oneself against that program a little bit once in a while. The rawest, cheapest, and perhaps also best way of doing this is to clip away all nonsense about 'swap partitions' and what not, and just format the whole shebang. You can refine it, but this way is a working way after all -- and note that this 1-2-3 list is written some time after I did it myself, and it isn't exactly all the things you have to click on -- just most of them, and more or less in the right sequence. The next stumbleblock, once you get over it, is the only stumbleblock in the installation phase, and so pls be patient, experiment here, and get it right: 1. Click on Edit Partitions, which opens the Partition Editor. 2. Click on each partition of the harddisk (be sure it is the harddisk -- spare the pendisk) and select delete, I think right-click gives this option: but the sequence matters. Go up and down in the list of what there is on the harddisk already, and, if you want it gone, delete back and forth until it is gone. 3. Put in a moment's thought, feel your gumption, and, then clicking Apply will remove what's on the harddisk. 4. Create a new partition. This is an icon rather like a blank document I seem to remember, or use right-click with the mouse. 5. Be sure it is set to fill up the disk (or whatever you want), where SparkleLinux normal type is called 'ext4'. You can leave a number of other fields as they are, without touching them -- the standard suggestions the program comes up with are good enough for it. At some point we are going to affirm that the socalled "mountpoint" (don't bother about the meaning of these words if you don't know it already) is a simple forward slash, a "/" sign. I think this is chiefly specified a little later, but keep on the watch for the question. 6. Click on Apply and the partition is made. 7. The Partition Editor work is done. Leave it. 8. Click Refresh on the screen now showing. Right-click over the new partition you made, and assert that it is going to be the / (slash) as mountpoint; it will also suggest the 'ext4' type again. Then as you click Forward the formatting begins. 9. Take a breath. If you get to this point, there are no more big stumblingpoints given that the PC and the line is alright. Let it proceed with installation. After a while you have the stuff installed, and with luck, you can boot the PC without having any pendisk plugged into it. It will go into Sparkylinux. Congratulations. *************************** * CONGRATULATIONS, * IT IS INSTALLED! *************************** Next let us set it up. First, take a round, try things. There will be at least one music player in it, VLC is the name on the icon menu at bottom, which can do mp3, and it is perhaps as uncluttered as Audacious, which is a well-known alternative. There is a browser there that can go to a radio station which expects something like a Flash plugin and deliever that at once also. That's due to the good works by the Sparkylinux folks, that all this is in place at once. Do you want VirtualBox? That's a great idea, if you want to access such as the eminent old RH8 Linux which is linked to near the top of the yoga6d.org/economy.htm column, which also links to this very text you're reading now. Then open up, in a browser, www.virtualbox.org and save -- the standard setting is the /home/YOURUSERNAME/Downloads folder, and that's a good enough choice: save the 32-bit file that corresponds to the Debian platform of type "Jessie". During startup of the Sparkylinux, it will tell which Debian it is derived from, and presently, it says "Jessie". Okay? ;-) Once you've got it, fully, exit the browser, and click the Home icon at bottom of the Sparkylinux, and locate this Downloads folder. Then double-click on the VirtualBox installation file for Debian, and it will automatically select the right install program for it. Let it look at it, click install, let it does it work for a good long while without interruption (not days, but on a slow laptop, certainly time for more than one coffee or tea or whatever it is). Eventually, it will more or less clearly signal that it is done, and you can exit and reboot. To start VirtualBox, click on Terminal (or Terminator) and type virtualbox Later on, you can put it in as a graphical icon somehow if you like. The .ova files at yoga6d.org/economy.htm may be next in line, perhaps. Did I mention that some form of quite compatible and not overly Java Plugin Control Panel demanding Java applet viewer is built into the browser that comes up as standard in Sparkylinux? You can try it on www.industrialbabes.com/microg15.htm and it will start it. (If you have a very rapid net connection indeed, you can also load it fast enough, beyond the initial showing of flickering green warp-stars.) The y6.zip given at norskesites.org/fic3 will start at once, using the ./g15.sh command (modify this .sh file in an editor if you have other than the laptop-monitor proportions on the PC you are using for this). Note that sudo -i in order to go into Administrator mode and do several things works in SparkyLinux, with your normal login-password. The command ls as abbreviation for "list" and optionally ls -l as abbreviation for "list w/long info" do work in these Terminals, however the double "ll" which works in some other other linuxes as identical with ls -l isn't there at present. The command leafpad brings up a simple editor along the lines of gedit however at present it allows only the black-gray against white as color scheme and this is too bright for serious deep thinking ;-) The icon for Synaptic brings up a minimalistic software center, also called Package Manager, which relates to a moderate set of packages which are essential in this linux, but not an expansive set. The first thing you do after you start it up in the present Internet context is to go to the menu and select, Edit->Reload Package Information. Be tolerant about error messages it gives, normally one can just "ok" one's way through them. However the Synaptic may have be 'warmed up' a little bit. It may not show all that many files before you have done something like the following, e.g. to install gedit. So I suggest you do that next, if you are using a new Sparkylinux in 'bare' form. Be sure to note that the following information given has to fit with the present release -- this is important to check -- and there may also be various changes, of course, to how the internet handles these things as the seasons go by: Though there are many ways I am sure of adding software, and debian.org specifies that one should normally load software in via a software center, there is no question that this is a way that sometimes cuts through the dense grass and just works: just get the f***ing file. For instance, when you open this one in a browser www.debian.org/distrib/packages#search_packages you are led to a page which at its bottom parts links to any of a number of sources of .deb packages, which has any of the many programs on their list, including gedit. For instance, if you let your browser show you http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/ and you click at the letter 'g' there, it takes some time to fetch all the packages beginning at 'g' and then you can find the gedit package which (1) contains i386 in it, (2) is the shortest name when there are several, and (3) definitely the version with the highest version number if it is indeed the case that you have a fresh download of this Linux you're using -- otherwise it is better to know which version fits this Linux, and in this case, the Synaptic should have information about that. (Non-Ai folks wouldn't go anywhere near saying that "Synaptic knows that" -- human beings know, things don't know.) Be sure that the sorting may be a bit non-obvious about version number. Thus, gedit_3.4.2-1 looks maybe like a newer version than gedit_3.14.0-3 given the sorting, in a quick reading, but the latter is version 3.14 whereas the former is version 3.4 (ie, 3.04). If this is getting to complicated this time (or you get error messages each time you try), just do it through the Synaptic, it has info about gedit and how to install. But it is good to warm up to manually installing other well-written programs into your PC, even though a group haven't put their official stamp on it, right? ;-) To have YET more manual control over what's going on, then, instead of double-clicking at this via the File Manager, you can open a Terminal -- this time don't do the sudo -i -- and then type (after you've saved the file to the Downloads folder) cd *ads which gets you to the Downloads folder, without having to type in the stupid name "Down", as if the net is above. (However, if you have two folders, one which is called this with a capital D, and the other uses a small letter 'd', then you must write the whole name of it to be sure which one you get into. Some programs do create an extra folder here and there with such variations!) Then type, in this case, gdebi-gtk gedit*.deb and you'll get the option to install it, and it will install the extra packages required. (The textual gdebi without -gtk added for graphical presentation doesn't automatically give you the extra packages.) The same command can be used to remove a package. If you get an error messages about some incompatibilities it is probably just that the version number ain't right. Then type rm -i gedit*.deb And get in another one, or go to the Synaptic, as said. I did the above gdebi-gtk while I typed and this line is added in gedit while I begun the text in leafpad. In Gedit, Nimbus Mono L has crisp-clear typewriter style, if you select Preferences; and the Cobalt Blue gets rid of some of the over-doing of white-grayish which sometimes there's too much of. By the way, in such lists with .deb files: If the text bit 'i386' or such doesn't show up, but 'all' shows up, that should be fine; if there are more version numbers, usually the highest version number. Do you want to make the command lll which works rather like a simplistic version of command ll in some other linuxes? Here's how: Get into administrator mode by sudo -i and type leafpad lll or gedit lll if you have got it already. And as one line, the first line, type ls -l $1 $2 $3 And press ctr-s to save it, and quit. Then type chmod 755 lll and finally, mv -i lll /usr/bin Then you can use it to view files, like lll / or lll /home/ or lll "*.sh" or lll "*.zip" | more and such variations. Note that the lll wants you to put *.zip and such phrases in quotes, like "*.zip", whereas the ls itself doesn't require this. You can diminish the grayish/whitishness of the background platform by centering an image as desktop background, then right-click on the topline and select that it has 'Solid color (with opacity)' as well as auto-hides. You can then right click at the bottom series of icons and it will look a little more confined. Somehow the gray at those icons placed there is less irritating than enforced gray on top, as this writer sees it. {See bottom notes of this text for how to change several things about the theme.} **************************************** * WE LOVE KONQUEROR! THE BROWSER WHICH * ALLOWS HUMAN BEINGS TO MODIFY ITS * SETTINGS **************************************** ============================================ ADDED NOTE: Speed hint for use of Konqueror: you can go into Konqueror and select that it uses what it calls "KHTML" rather than "WebKit": this is much much faster and more equal to the earlier form of Konqueror. If you require somewhat more compatibility with the standards which exist at the time of this release of Konqueror, but accept slower speeds, set it to "WebKit". This setting you find under the GENERAL part of the SETTINGS, high up on the page there, connected to the name "Default Web Browser Engine". This shows the independence of Konqueror from the rest of the bunch of webbrowsers, which typically use such as WebKit rather than having their own alternative; and which typically has no such possibility for change during runtime. * Be ready to put up with various things -- endless certificate check questions, Flash that doesn't work or which one has to click 'OK' at every tenth minute or so -- if you want to use Konqueror wildly. As time goes by, of course, the Javascript will be messed up and any early version of any platform will have issues going to the net; and always pay attention to security issues. =========================================== We want http:// classic free internet and java 1.1 applets started with ease. We want a way to go into particular pages which have a lot of plugins, which are safe, and then -- separately -- go into pages without javascript enabled except just a little, and have an easy time turning off all Flash -- and its cookies -- and all other types of cookies to track us. For this, we need a new brand of independent browsers with a less commercially corrupt and quasi-idealistic leadership than some other browser companies. In addition to the browser which comes as standard with the platform, go into the Synaptic Package Manager, and, after you have earlier on selected Edit->Reload Package Information and exited it, and restarted it, then type in the search field, browser or write 'konqueror' and then there should be, at least if you scroll, a single line which says konqueror and right-click on this, select 'Mark for install' at Konqueror. This one has a long tradition -- it goes straight back to RH8, for instance -- and it is a great thing that it has been continued and that it relates to the present (rather messy) JavaScript engines (same as AppleSafari and GoogleChrome borrows from, and one other -- which can be changed by a setting inside it). Konqueror can be started by the command konqueror in a normal Terminal, it is at the topline menu, and if you read the completing notes you'll see how to get it into the bottom menu. It can load the Java applets of 1.1 but you may have to fix on the settings a little bit, restart it and have only one site open -- the site with the java applet -- and then press reload up to three times or so, to get the java applet fully loaded the right way -- it has a little trouble sometimes, with this and that, and it doesn't have many quickkeys enabled, so one must use the mouse a lot in its present version, and the controls to regulate privacy data mining tracking things are not the most obvious, but some pretty good controls are after all in place. But -- it works, more or less, all over the place, AND IT IS A GENUINELY GOOD BROWSER through and through, with plenty of controls. Turn of every sort of plugins, javascript, java, and cookies when you really want to 'freesurf'. Konqueror is the real thing! Let's hope it remains that way! Hint: If for some reason the Konqueror gets into a state where you long for a complete reset of it, to its 'out-of-the-box' fresh form, without any bookmarks, with frames and setup as when it was new and untouched, then there's a solution for that. This command will remove many bookmarks and configurations and so on for Konqueror (though not entirely all) as well as for any other programs in the KDE suite, if there are any more you are using in this series: Start up a Terminal (in normal user mode, not as Administrator), cd rm .kde -fr That's it! And for overview over other locally stored cache things and such, try a command like cd ls -l *. | more and this will also give you hints as to subfolders into which you can cd and do the same command. When there are still more configurations and caches and so on that should be cleared, beyond that which you find in this process, look around of similar names by the ls command, and, if need by, also employ the find / -name XXX command as explained elsewhere in this document to find the rest of them. ******************************************** * BATTERY MONITORING: * THE WAY OF GUMPTION ****************************************** Batteries: there are more than one way in which battery monitor hardware may exist on your laptop computers. Fortunately, you can try several of these battery monitors by using the Synaptic. A particularly nice one, however one which is a bit demanding in terms of how it positions itself on the upper left corner in a small square and demands to be there -- however it allows itself to vanish when you start such as the G15 PMN language in the y6.zip package with its fullscreen mode -- is wmacpi. (ACPI is one way to read batteries, API is another, and there are some more.) This is quickly installed using Synaptic, just search up the word 'battery' and it is one of several you can try out (though some are merely plugins for different Linux environments). So there are endlessly many ways of turning this on and off. The particularly do-it-yourself guy -- and I absolutely refuse to use the acronym 'DIY' for this, which sounds like something gruesome -- as I said, the do-it-yourself type of person wants to start this wmacpi either on a Terminal or by going through the Menu, The Debian -> Applications -> System -> Monitoring will have listed it after install, together with a lot of other rather funny acronyms for this or that. Now if you start it like this -- open a Terminal, type wmacpi then you can simply press CTR-C to switch it off, inside that Terminal, -- such as when you get the laptop plugged in somewhere, for charging up, and no longer want to see the display. Or, if you don't want the Terminal to be occupied with only running this process, you can type wmacpi and then you can afterwards stop it by the neatly named 'kill' command: kill 999999 and instead of 999999 you write its number. This number you can find e.g. by going into the Menu under System Tools and open up Task Manager (alright, you can also right-click it there to stop it, but it isn't nearly as fun way to do it.) Or you can simply let it be there until you reboot and then it won't be there after reboot. This is just one way of doing it, but it may be valuable to have a manual hand in something which can be on occasion SO important to really be aware of, rather than having the battery monitor tucked up in a corner where it is all the time and for that reason doesn't radiate that extra which makes us pay attention to it. But by all means, there are variations here. You can also have it to autostart if you hack it in. ********************************** * PRIVACY ******************************* Privacy: if you want digital privacy, there's a great opportunity -- it is called the real world, also called the analog world. The internet isn't a place of privacy. There are degrees of privacy there. The more closed a package is, the more removed from the visible and understandable and well-made program source, the more it can be manipulated. It has been said by some that there is no guarantee that the provided linuxes which one installs are the same as the provided source code: they can have been patched, changed, and even security patches can have the opposite effect. The lack of privacy isn't cured with using a Debian Linux, nor is it cured by using a worked-upon Debian Linux like this one. That's the reality of the matter. But you can, by thinking through what you do, get a better degree of privacy here than with such as Microsoft, Apple or Google platforms. (((I shouldn't only criticise these companies, of course. For if one or several of them becomes mild and sweet, and changes nature -- just like, pretty much, IBM changed nature after Microsoft beat them on their own product, the IBM PC, -- then others come in to fill their role. I have sometimes been positive to several of the products of the MAGgot. But their present dominance of the computer world is anti-human pro-AI if you really look at the deeper plans behind their roll-outs, and those with a deeper concern for humanity and for awareness and for the environment should try and get away from dependency on the practical finesses of companies whose larger agenda is, put simply, false.))) *************************************** * ADDED NOTES, ADDITIONAL HINTS, * GETTING OUR 'GOLDEN CONFIGURATION'! *************************************** * Hard to find a program on the menu after you have installed it? The Synaptic usually finds a place for it somewhere, one place or another, in the menu that comes up when you select the word Menu in Sparkylinux from the upper line. But there are ways in which we can look into the PC, of course. This is one of the advantages of having a Linux with the cover easily removed, rather than an overglossy package which may make very simple things, things which ought to be simple, frightfully complex (although of course initial installations are often simpler with such glossy approaches). First of all, search up the installed program by typing its name in the Synaptic. Then right-click over it, and select Properties. Select the tab that is called Installed files. This is an overview over all that has been written to the disk in this particular process, and a great help of course, in some cases. For instance, when you have installed Konqueror, the Binary files for the User of this platform, the folder /usr/bin will have the 'konqueror' added to it, so /usr/bin/konqueror is added there. This is case-sensitive -- 'K' and 'k' are two different letters when it comes to starting commands. Some programs don't come in that way, but rather they install in a place such as /usr/lib and they are called by other programs. In such a case, they are often called plugins, and plugins are started by starting a program that you presumably already have, or will get. Be aware also that there are issues -- due to complexities associated with many versions -- both in how Synaptic installs some programs, and in what these programs do even when installed as correctly as can be in a platform. For instance, at presently set up, the Gnome-Split program requires an environment for some of the background Java programs that's slightly different than the present Sparkylinux. That's fine: we have a solution for that (cfr the hints gathered at the completion of this document for how to split and merge files in the same way as it does via command line typing). When a program doesn't start, one can start it on the command line and scrutinize the output and see if it tells that it lacks something or other. In this case, that output doesn't tell it. {See one of the completing points in this document for how to install that program after all, in this environment.} Then, if you have installed a program or looks for it but cannot quite find it there is a golden path if you have an idea about what it is called. Let us look for all programs called something with 'java' inside them. Go into a Terminal, do sudo -i to become administrator, then type this command: cd / find / -name *java* | more The first asterix * indicates 'anything before', and the second asterix * indicates 'anything after'. The vertical bar | is a 'pipeline' so that the text output here goes into the command 'more', which gives you 'more and more' text, as you press spacebar, so you don't have to scroll up. A command like the one above you can copy and paste. But remember that when you paste into a Terminal, it isn't CTR-V but SHIFT-CTR-V. And when you copy text from a Terminal window it isn't CTR-C but SHIFT-CTR-C. I think the reason for this convention is that CTR-C traditionally, and still, is a way to stop some of the programs one may start from a Terminal window (and this is a very practical thing when the program doesn't work!) * Also good to know: if you wish to find what files begins with a letter (or finishes with a suffix or such), but you want to avoid seeing the content of folders which begins with that letter, you can type e.g. (to see files beginning with 'e'): ls -d e* or, for more complete info with the 'lll' (as spoken about above) in place, lll -d "e*" In contrast, if you skip the -d then a lot more files might get listed, if you have a folder beginning with the 'e'-letter. * Be sure that when the PC boots up, it should ask you for your password. For when you open a Terminal and do sudo -i then, at least if it is a fairly short while since you did it last, it will swap into Administrator mode without asking for password. * Printers such as the Linux-friendly "Brother" printers, esp. if they are slightly more expensive than the cheapest ones, are among the many readily recognised by this Linux (an example which has been around for a good while: HL5250N). It's just to plug it in after it has been turned on, and wait a little bit, and then start up suitable programs to write to it. * Cameras of the typical type that looks as a USB pendisk should offer no problem at all. You can use a File Manager to explore the folder or a command perhaps somewhat like cp /media/YOURUSERNAME/E*/DCIM/100*/*.JPG . to fetch all the images from it to the present folder. There are also inbuilt programs to access such as cameras and scanners when you look at the menues. * Is the mouse too fast or too slow? To expand the range of mouse controls, a good program to have installed is xinput and if you select this one in the software center Synaptic (right-click on it and select Mark for install, then press the Apply button), you can call on it using e.g. the ./slomouse.sh command which is found inside the y6.zip package (which is at norskesites.org/fic3/y6.zip). Sparkylinux.org is setup in a good way already as regard mouse speeds, better than what is usual, though. You may want to adjust the speed manually e.g. from 4 to 2, once you have found the right command, e.g. type sth like cd /y6 ./slomouse.sh -- and here you study the output text and study the effects on the mouse and so on. Then type e.g. cp o.sh o3.sh gedit o3.sh and inside this one-line call on xinput you adjust the number, and anything else that you found out when you were running ./slomouse.sh -- and then, to test it, type ./o3.sh * The image viewer used by many Linuxes is the EyeOfGnome, or EOG, Image viewer, which for the present release of Debian can be fetched here: packages.debian.org/jessie/i386/eog/download and can be installed as explained above or through a software center somehow. EOG is a light quick way to browse through many photos and can be started by command line by such as eog *.jpg & where the '&' is added when you want to do other things on the command line, the Terminal. It can also print images, such as the c1.gif, c2.gif and c3.gif week-overview calendar pages which are generated by the Secretary App program built into the G15 platform and available, for three weeks rolled forward at a time, at www.yoga6d.org/economy.htm. These c1, c2, and c3 pages can be folded and put into a money book, a wallet, a purse and supplement digital means when you use a pen with them :-) * The menu at the bottom of the screen, to adjust it: click on the Terminal, and (not in the Administrator mode, for that is a different menu), type wbar-config Here you can easily attach the commands you know work, for instance konqueror when that browser is installed, to a new icon or as replacement of the command associated with an existing icon. Want to have a golden desktop-like '3d bar' at bottom instead of the grey one? Easy! Go into Terminal, type sudo -i to become Administrator, type cd /opt/wbar gimp *.png and do Colorize and Color Balance stuff, then click Shift-Ctrl-E to export it and export it to same folder using a slightly different new name with the same suffix, .png. This done, go into a Terminal (not typing sudo -i first, or typing exit if you did type sudo -i), and do the wbar-config thingy. In Preferences you find the option for a Bar Image, and there you set it to the image you just found. Then click Reload at bottom of the wbar-config program. * When you explore installations by the 'Mark for install' then 'Apply' in the Synaptic software center in Sparkylinux, you can often find them on the menu which appears when you move the mouse pointer on top of the screen (it autohides when you set it to do so, as I do), for instance, the browsers may be found in Debian -> Applications -> Network -> Web browsing * In System Tools in the menu on top left, there's SPARKY CENTER. A very good thing, for this opens the door for a lot of theme-tweaking, however it has to be said that the included themes are all pretty much, well, -- . Anyway, in this, you can for instance select "ThinIce" in Customize Look and Feel and "Clearlooks-Olive" in the Customize OpenBox part. However there's a lot of programs which do things the way they want to, anyhow! ;-) At present, the QT4 config, which affects a certain selection of programs such as VLC, is perhaps only saving the settings if you start them in a different way than by means of Sparky Center. To be more sure the settings are saved, I have found that it is best to open a Terminal (in normal mode, not Administrator mode), and type qtconfig-qt4 and you can change settings, select File->Save, and quit it, and see them on eg the VLC music player. * As for some of these settings we just talked about: The "Motif" word goes back to the earliest forms of graphical thinking in Unix/Linux-like platforms, long before commercialisation of these, and the example screen image given in the yoga6d.org/economy.htm of this platform installed this way as indicated here has the "Motif" enabled. It takes a little bit getting used to but it has something about it, something clear-cut and meaningful once you know it. * If you want the particular gray-to-golden 3ddock.png modification that I made and which is visible at the yoga6d.org/economy.htm screen image showing Sparkylinux you can get it here: http://www.yoga6d.org/3ddock3.png Go into Administrator mode by typing sudo -i in a Terminal, then type, if you saved it to Downloads, cd /home/YOUR-USER-NAME/*ads cp -i 3ddock3.png /opt/wbar/ The -i will tell you if it exists already, I always put it in. Then type exit To go out of Administrator mode and wbar-config and select Preferences, find the Bar Image, and select Reload when you have picked this! * Unetbootin installation. This works at present: By opening up this location in a browser -- http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/unetbootin-linux-latest -- it will give you automatic download after some seconds to a certain file. Let us assume it is saved to /home/YOUR-USER-NAME/Downloads. Next, get into administrator mode in a Terminal, we trust this program and only do the following with programs you really trust, okay? This: sudo -i cd /usr/bin mv /home/YOUR-SURE-NAME/Downloads/unetbootin* unetbootin chmod 755 unetbootin exit exit That solves it. Next time you want to start up unetbootin, you open up a Terminal and type sudo unetbootin and it will ask for password and then proceed as expected. * To merge a set of files which have been divided into chunks in an as simple way as possible, you can use the command 'cat'. To split them this way, you can use the command 'split'. I will give a couple of examples of how to do these things, so that you don't have to use a program which may be hard to install in some environments, such as the Gnome Split program: To merge files called aaa.ova.001 aaa.ova.002 aaa.ova.003 aaa.ova.004 and create a new file called aaa.ova you can type cat aaa.ova.00? > aaa.ova You can do this in any Terminal window, perhaps inside the Downloads folder if you type cd cd *ads first to get into the folder, if you have just downloaded chunks of a large .ova file (the type that goes into Virtualbox). Now in some cases you will find that the command has to be tailormade a little bit. This is in order to be sure that the sequence gets right, and there are many files. So for instance, if you have twenty- five such chunks, the safest way to be sure the sequence gets right is this one: cat aaa.ova.00? aaa.ova.01? aaa.ova.02? > aaa.ova You follow? One number series at a time. If it is a zip file you have just created, e.g. test1.zip, and you wish to test its integrity, type unzip -t test1.zip and it will tell you whether it's fine. If the files have letters rather than digits at the completion, like aaa.ova.0aa aaa.ova.0ab aaa.ova.0ac aaa.ova.0ad then the question-mark will still get it right: cat aaa.ova.0a? > aaa.ova If you make so many files that it gets into the next series of letters, starting with aaa.ova.0ba, then use the same approach as above, eg cat aaa.ova.0a? aaa.ova.0b? > aaa.ova * Alright. Next we are going to show how to split a file called mmm.ova into mmm.ova.0aa, mmm.ova.0ab, mmm.ova.0ac, mmm.ova.0ad. This is how split --number=4 mmm.ova mmm.ova.0 So if you are creating files, say, of 1000MB size each, because you don't want to butt against a possible file limit for upload or download which is perhaps in the region of a couple of gigabytes, in some cases, and you want these to be maximally compatible also with such as Gnome File Split, you might as well rename them: mv mmm.ova.0aa mmm.ova.001 mv mmm.ova.0ab mmm.ova.002 mv mmm.ova.0ac mmm.ova.003 mv mmm.ova.0ad mmm.ova.004 To quickly do this you use up-arrow and modify each line. Always test-merge and look into a file before going on. But this split routine as well as the cat routine is part of GNU/Linux from the core. These things have a tendency to work. The Gnome File Split should be perfectly able, in its standard setting without any fuzz, to merge files that you have created this way -- and so for other split/merge programs. * Other useful things to get from the Synaptic software center or from other sources include: * Free Pascal, a genuine alternative derived from a furthering of language by the swiss N Wirth in pleasant and anarchistic ways, free from the packaging attitudes of C++ and Java and yet with lots of possibilities * Bless binary editor, which allows you to view and, if you like, modify the content of data and program files. It is like having a tool to open deeper layers of the engine. * Pavucontrol, which is a sound volume modifier which Audacity uses * Audacity, to record music .mp3's, and edit sound files; be sure to modify settings for sound activity to 'Pulse' to do such as record radio plays played in a browser and do respect copyrights * Audacious, to play music. To open two Audacious players, open the first in a normal Terminal, and the second one after you have typed sudo -i (obviously, only run programs in administrator mode if you trust these programs). Play arrythmic music, and blend in uplifting voices with subtleties, without too much low-frequency bass sounds, when you want a creative mind/brain stimuli eg as background for work love art whatever ;-) Other comments: * Flash plugin undergoes a kind of hyperactive set of meaningless updates which add nothing to it, but only reinforce a sense that one is at the mercy of such updates via the net, even though -- very occasionally -- there are some important security updates of such plugins of course. The Flash plugin doesn't allow itself to be used after a while. It is unrealistic to use a classical Linux to call on such plugins for sound and/or video. The classical linux approach is suitable for text, static images, such as great photos and great graphics, and programming. Konqueror can be used for some of this. It may be fruitful to have the notion of getting the sound from the surrounding environment when you run a classical platform inside eg VirtualBox, or from a separate machine altogether. But when you have a more controllable browser like Konqueror side by side of a less controllable but sound-updated flash-updated browser, you can use both browsers, for separate purposes, at the same time also -- when it comes to using Flash plugins for listening to eg radio stations. * To set date and time on the command line, to the beginning of the Firth/RH8/etc cycle, April 10, 2006, 10 o'clock in the morning: date --set=2006-04-10 date --set=10:00am hwclock -w So this is the type of command you can use to set clock in quite a wide-ranging set of Linux platforms. {{{Note that if for some reason that Linux you are running -- perhaps because it is run virtually -- don't have access to the hardware clock and so, after reboot, the setting won't have any effect despite the hwclock -w command above, then there is a package which quietly is supposed to do the work anyhow, by noting the time-difference between the hardware clock and the date/time you set. This is called fake-hwclock and is available at the Synaptic center. Once installed, the command fake-hwclock seems to be activated by itself without anything extra having to be done, however at present I haven't tested this.}}} A classical X windows clock, not as good as the good time/timer clock in the Y6ALL G15 PMN package of course, but nonetheless good to know about, is the one started by this command: xclock * If you position something on the desktop and run a program that resizes your screen, such as Y6ALL, you may find that icons put on the desktop may have partially or fully got covered by the activity showing CPU use and such on the right-hand side of Sparky. This can be solved in the following way: use right- click over the area showing CPU intensity and such until you get the option of Exit. Choose Exit, and the icons appear, and can be moved. Then go into a terminal and type openbox & and it should restart. Then reboot, just to be sure it is all looking good. REMEMBER: PAY ATTENTION ie, heart chakra And again, GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR PC WORK! *************************** * GOOD LUCK! * And, to repeat: * Please read ALL of * any such installation * text before doing * anything of it, * and do it with * spare machines, first, * not with your main * working PCs ***************************