Frugalware Linux - Let's make things Frugal!

Frugalware Linux Newsletter - Issue 35

...to inform...to educate...to entertain

"There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still." Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Welcome

The newsletter's aim is to keep you up to date with what's happened recently in the world of the Linux distribution 'Frugalware'.

Features of this issue include:

Frugalware is featured on the Linux Void podcast
Boobaa The Wise :P
Frugalware's contributors are people too! - Carl Anderson
Tips and tricks - Setting the default editor
Focus On Package(s) - Tidy and Devede

Events

Here's a selection of events which have occurred since the previous newsletter:

Frugalware is featured on the Linux Void podcast

I recently wrote to the Linux Void podcast, asking that they review Frugalware Linux. They read my email on episode 12 and the very next episode featured the review. Overall the review was very positive, with the reviewer impressed with the fact that it's fast and easy to use.

Highlights of the review included:
- "When you boot...you're really surprised...it's not the sort of distro you see every day...it's not Ubuntu"
- "It's really fast and the package manager is really fast"
- "The installer was very easy to use"
Boobaa The Wise :P

Many Frugalware users will know that Boobaa is a package maintainer (including many Java-related packages), also resident expert on Drupal (a FLOSS content management system). What you may not know is that he's also an expert on how hardware works - particularly CPUs. As proof, let me quote from IRC dated 23 September 2008 -

< boobaa > DeX77: staring at "javac: Assembling..." for ages states that a HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE pile of java crap is being fed into your CPU. but beware: CPUs work with smoke. if the smoke comes out, they will not work any more

If you have any hardware problem, please send an email to boobaa [AT] i_can_fix_your_hardware_with_a_hammer.com.hu. He'll be happy to help. :)
Publicity for Frugalware

Planète LINUX, a French PC magazine, recently published an article about Frugalware. The magazine is not available online but if you live in France, buy issue 54. It's great when Frugalware gets publicity because people may then try it and, of course, begin using it. Frugalware can get better with more users because it means more people using (and testing) packages, and it's likely to bring new developers.

Links to other articles and reviews of Frugalware are linked in the web site's menu at About > Frugalware in the Press. If you discover news about Frugalware that's not already in the list, please tell us and we'll add a link. The easiest method of contact is adding an item to the Frugalware forum.
HEY! Look at me!

Devil505 recently established a new web site devoted to eye candy for Frugalware - www.frugalware-art.org. One section which needs more entries is the screenshots section. Please submit a screenshot of your desktop. Someone else might appreciate your desktop and want to know how to create a similar desktop. Let the world see what you see every time you're at your PC. There are just two things to note: (1) you might like to include a screenshot with and without applications running, (2) please make sure the screenshot is safe for work/home.

Frugalware's contributors are people too! - Carl Anderson

Here is the latest interview, with Frugalware contributor Carl Anderson, proving that you're only as old as the Linux distribution you use. He wins the prize for the longest ever interview/profile. I don't know how to tell him that he's not being paid by the word. :P

What's your name?

Carl Andersen. I was born in 1954, so I am not that young any more. :)

What's your IRC nickname?

bee-carl. I must admit, I am not often in the IRC channel. You have to write rather quickly in IRC, and I must have time to write proper English, otherwise it ends up as one big mess that nobody understands. English is after all not my native language. :)

In what country do you live?

Denmark

In what country were you born?

Denmark

What do you like most about where you live (the town/city and country)?

The village I live in, is called Vemmelev. It's a village with 3500 inhabitants. We have settled there because it is near the sea. Both my wife and I love the sea, and when I was young I used to do lot of yacht racing in different yachting clubs. What I like about this country, is all the water it's surrounded by, you need not drive far to reach the sea.

When did you start to use Linux?

I started using Linux in February 1999. In a computer magazine there was a CD with RedHat 5.2 and I installed it beside Windows 95 on my old Pentium 90Mhz computer. From January 2000 I have only used Linux. Well, what else have I tried? SuSe, Mandrake, Debian, Libranet, Slackware, Archlinux, VectorLinux but I wasn't quite satisfied with any of them.

How did you find Frugalware - e.g. a friend/Google search?

It was by pure coincidence that I read a review of Frugalware 0.5 (Siwenna). In October 2006, I installed it on one of my old machines, and BINGO! here was the distribution I so long had been looking for.

What do you like most about Frugalware?

The short answer: simplicity, stability. The community is also very positive and friendly, you can always get help by using the forums or mailing lists.

What would you like to see changed in Frugalware?

It would be nice if there was the possibility of having more of Frugalware translated in the future. It means a lot to some people that as much has been translated into their own language for example, sysvinit, etc.

For what purpose(s) do you use Frugalware?

The short answer: I use it for everything. Just recently I have started taking an interest in programming, and for this purpose Frugalware is ideal as it tends to have a big selection of packages. It may seem late for someone of my age to start programming, but you are never too old to learn something new. :) It is a program meant to be useful in selecting queens in beekeeping. Who knows, one day it may become a Frugalware package. :)

Do you do something active in order to spread the knowledge of Frugalware?

Of course, :) I have the Danish homepage http://frugalware.dk/ where I have the Danish translations of the newsletters, news, Howto's, etc. I am also a Danish translator of Frugalware programs, Pacman-G2, setups, frugalwareutil's, etc. I am also soon to finish the translation of the Documentation for Frugalware. It's a large mouthful. :) I also advertise all news concerning Frugalware on the largest Danish community for Linux users in Denmark.

What do you do when you're not using Frugalware?

Whatever I want to do. :) Joke aside, I retired early in 1991. I had managed to destroy my back by working as a Thermit Welder in the Danish Railways. Other than that I help my wife with our beekeeping. We work with the Italian bee Apis mellifera ligustica. We have had 120 bee families for a couple of years and have produced between 1000-1200 queens for sale, but the last 2 years the price of honey has fallen drastically, so now we only get about the same price as 20 years ago. So we have been forced to cut down to only having 30 bee families and we only produce 150 queens for sales. Now that you know I am a bee-keeper you have to see a picture of some of our beehives, so here it is.

I am the chairman of The Danish Association Of Ligustica Breeders. It's a society which is involved in working with Apis mellifera ligustica. I am also cashier in The Danish Queen Association of 1921. I also maintain their homepage.

I have been a member of SSLUG for 5 years, the largest Danish LUG. In 2003 we were 15 people who created a local department of SSLUG, which we named the sandbox. We hold meetings at Roskilde University. There is a meeting every Monday, but I only have time to go to the meetings from September to April, I am there 2 times a month during the winter season. At these meetings experienced users of Linux exchange experiences, but the beginner will also be able to get the help they need at these meetings.

I also maintain the Danish translation of Simple:Press Forum . It's a forum made as a plugin for WordPress.

Even though I retired early (at the age of 37), I have no problem finding things to do :)

What's the view from your front door?

The picture is taken from the garden behind the house. Anyway, why not open the door and take a look.

Getting To Know You

In this section of the newsletter, we get to know Frugalware Linux a little at a time. This is not meant to replace the official documentation but instead make it easier to read. This should suit those those people who, like me, have short attention spans. :)

Searching for packages with pacman-g2

A Frugalware user with the nick 'nicalvaro' was recently searching for a package matching the description "image viewer". He/she was confused by the fact that some packages appeared in the output more than once. Voroskoi and VMiklos came to the rescue, explaining that pacman-g2 was actually searching for the words "image" and "viewer" separately. Any package which had both words in its name or description would appear twice in the search results. Voroskoi's suggestion was that in this case the command "pacman-g2 -Ss image.*viewer" would have found all packages with the phrase "image viewer" in their description.

Unwanted packages

Often when you install a package, other packages are also installed because the original package is dependent upon them. If you then remove the package, the dependent packages are left installed, because pacman-g2 can't know if you're using them or not. pacman-g2 has the "-Qe" option to search for and list those packages which were installed as dependencies but are no longer required. Once you have their names you can then decide if you want to remove them or leave them installed. pacman-g2 is able to perform such "magic" because it records for each package whether it was explicitly installed or installed as a dependency.

Tips and tricks

Disclaimer - Be aware that the hints & tips provided here have NOT been tested and so come with no warranty.

Setting the default editor - submitted by Carl Anderson

There are many editors to Frugalware e.g Vi, Nano, Joe, Emacs. It is possible to select a default editor for the system, which will always be used when you open a configuration file, added a cronjob, etc. This will be the editor that all users will be using as the default editor.

Here is an example where Nano will be used. Open the file /etc/profiles as root and, under these three lines:
```
        # Default umask. A umask of 022 prevents new files from being created group
        # and world writable.
        umask 022
        
```
Add the following:
```
EDITOR=/usr/bin/nano
        export EDITOR
        
```
If you want to use Nano as the editor in MC (Midnight Commander) then Choose F9> Options> Configuration> in MC, remove mark for use internal editor> then save. Do this to MC when logged in to your normal account, also as root, then the editor in MC will also be Nano when you're editing files as root.
Redecorate your home with cheat sheets - submitted by phayz

Cheat sheets are one-page documents, usually in tabular format, used for quick reference. They're particularly useful for computer topics where you are often using a fairly small set of commands. You may find the following sites' cheat sheets useful:
- www.addedbytes.com/cheat-sheets/ - regular expressions, MySQL, PHP
- Git cheat sheet
- (Another) Git cheat sheet
Even if you don't refer to them, another great use for cheat sheets is in covering ugly spots on your walls. Your room will look better and it will add to your geek credentials. What a bonus! :)
Firefox Add-on - LinkChecker - submitted by phayz

In newsletter issue 30 I suggested the package Linkchecker for checking hyperlinks in documents you were publishing on the Internet. This package has many options and can be too complex if you only want to check hyperlinks. Following on from the previous newsletter issue, another Firefox add-on can be used instead. LinkChecker checks the status of hyperlinks in the web page you're currently viewing. As it checks each link it changes the background colour of the link's text according the result. If the link is accessible, the background colour is changed to light green, if it's not accessible it's changed to light red, and if access was denied it's changed to light gray. There are some limitations to LinkChecker, including the fact that you can check only one document (the current one) at a time, but it's definitely worth using.

This section relies on your contributions! If you have some tips and tricks that you would like to be shown in the newsletter, please post them on the forums.

Focus On Package(s)

Tidy

Any professional web developer who looks at the source of the Frugalware newsletters will probably fall off their chair laughing. I'm definitely not expert in (X)HTML and the formatting of the newsletters shows that. Tidy is a utility which can check (X)HTML for formatting errors and/or reformat it so that it's consistent. It's often used as an external utility in text editors, to tidy up source code. There's even a native version for gedit, the default Gnome text editor.

For anyone who's interested, I have not yet taken my own advice and used Tidy on the HTML source of the Frugalware newsletter.

Devede

Creating a video DVD from a collection of video files can be difficult if you do it at the command line. Devede is a GUI utility whose aim is to be make this task easier. To create a video DVD, you choose the video files you want on the DVD and Devede will create an ISO, ready to be burned to media. Some cool options include selecting a custom background for the DVD menu and music to be played while the menu is showing. The results are very good so why not try Devede?

With Christmas coming soon you could record your Christmas party, make a video DVD and give everyone a copy as a Christmas gift. Next Christmas you'll be alone so you'll have lots of time for Frugalware. :P

Bug fixes

The following table gives you a overview of activity on bugs and feature requests as at 4 December 2008. In each cell of the table is a link to a detailed list of the relevant bugs or feature requests.

Activity	Bugs	Feature Requests
Open	211	200
Opened since the last newsletter	16	2
Closed since the previous newsletter	25	4

Security announcements

Remember - According to the normal support arrangements for Frugalware, the release of 0.9 ("Solaria") means that no further security or bug fixes will be released for Frugalware 0.8 ("Kalgan"), nor earlier releases.

Here is a list of security issues which have been discovered and fixed in the 0.9 release since the previous newsletter.

FSA	Package	FSA Description	Upgrade To
FSA557	emacs	Emacs 22.1 and 22.2 imports Python script from the current working directory during editing of a Python file, which allows local users to execute arbitrary code via a Trojan horse Python file.	emacs-22.3-1solaria1
FSA556	cups	Some vulnerabilities have been reported in CUPS, which potentially can be exploited by malicious people to compromise a vulnerable system	cups-1.3.9-1solaria1
FSA555	opensc	A security issue has been reported in OpenSC, which can be exploited by malicious people to bypass certain security restrictions	opensc-0.11.6-1solaria1
FSA554	net-snmp	A vulnerability has been reported in Net-snmp, which can be exploited by malicious people to cause a DoS (Denial of Service)	net-snmp-5.4.2.1solaria1-1
FSA553	acroread	Multiple vulnerabilities have been reported in Adobe Reader/Acrobat, which can be exploited by malicious, local users to gain escalated privileges or by malicious people to compromise a user's system	acroread-8.1.3-1solaria1
FSA552	drupal-cck	Some vulnerabilities have been reported in the Drupal Content Construction Kit (CCK), which can be exploited by malicious users to conduct script insertion attacks	drupal-cck-5.x_1.9-1
FSA551	phpmyadmin	Hadi Kiamarsi has discovered a vulnerability in phpMyAdmin, which can be exploited by malicious people to conduct cross-site scripting attacks	phpmyadmin-2.11.9.3-1solaria1
FSA550	wordpress	A vulnerability in the Snoopy library was announced	wordpress-2.6.3-1solaria1
FSA549	drupal6	Two vulnerabilities have been reported in Drupal, which can be exploited by malicious users to conduct script insertion attacks	drupal6-6.6-1solaria1
FSA548	drupal	A vulnerability has been reported in Drupal, which can potentially be exploited by malicious, local users to gain escalated privileges	drupal-5.12-1solaria1

About the newsletter

Author

The Frugalware newsletter is written and edited by Russell Dickenson (AKA phayz). Credit for the Frugalware distribution goes to the development team.

Translations

The newsletter is currently translated into French and Danish. The French translation is provided by the French Frugalware community. The Danish translation is provided by the Danish Frugalware community. Thanks to all those involved in providing and hosting these translations.

Release

To allow time for review and corrections, each newsletter is written ahead of its release date. Therefore it may not mention events which occurred in the few days before its release - e.g. security fixes. To be sure that you've got the very latest information on these topics, go to the appropriate page of the Frugalware web site.

Feedback

If you have feedback about the Frugalware newsletter - whether good or bad - please provide it via the forums. Your feedback is valuable because we want the newsletter to meet the needs of Frugalware's users.