google launches android - powered by linux

T-Mobile G1 will be the first handset to be powered by Google's Android software. The handset will be available in the UK at the time of Christmas. It sports a touch screen, 3MP camera, a Qwerty keyboard as well as "one-click" contextual search, and its tariff will be over £40 a month.

Google revolutionizes the market from time to time. Hope the Android will be the next big thing in the market. The good thing is that this device is powered by Linux.

For further information please visit http://code.google.com/android/what-is-android.html

PS: It's no way a PCLinuxOS story but anticipating the news value of the event I posted the story here.

Minimizing PCLinuxOS 2008 MiniME for Speed

Before plunging into the speed tweaks, let me give some background to this topic.... After buying Compaq Presario C702TU notebook (Celeron M 530 1.73GHz Processor, 512MB RAM, Intel GMA 965 Graphics, Intel HDA, Realtek Ethernet, Broadcom 4311 WLAN, Multi Card Reader) I searched for a suitable linux distribution that will work the best on it. Tried many including Fedora 8, Debian Etch, Mandriva and OpenSuse, and finally settled at PCLinuxOS 2008 MiniME. It automatically detected and configured all the devices of this notebook. What's more, MiniME also works best across all the compaq presario c700 series notebooks.

Here are the hardware details of my Compaq Presario C702TU details on top of PCLinuxOS 2008 MiniME.





We all know PCLinuxOS is well known for its fast system booting and blazing speed. This speed and responsiveness is faster in MiniME than the full release. However, both MiniME and the Full Version can be further optimized for still more speed, of course, for a tradeoff of cosmetics and usability. The optimizations mentioned here work best for me. It may also work for you.


By default grub waits 10 sec for you to choose an option. If you have installed only Linux change to timeout to 0. And further if only you are using the system, change to autologin mode. It will save some time. Even, you can change the bios setting of your laptop/desktop to directly boot from hard drive.


I have also removed many items from modprobe.preload including floppy, bttv, and many other. Research about the items in your /etc/modprobe.preload and remove the ones that's irrelevant to you.


Whether it is Windows or Linux, on-boot-services are the major stuff that reduce bootup speed. I have seen some linux home desktops running as many as 50 – 60 services, though their use is limited to web browsing, word processing, and a few multimedia things. Here I have reduced the services to just 13. Remember, I have removed resolvconf and avahi-daemon. So when you are going to use wlan, enble these services.


I always boot up to runlevel 5. So I have removed 1, 2, 3 and 4 (never comment out 0 and 6). Also, I rarely use those mingettys, hence commented them out.


Just 4 color schemes are enough for me...


I don't like to use more than 1 or 2 icon packs...


Disabled those screensaver thing. When I am there I work. And if take more than 30 min's break. I just switch off my notebook...


One theme is enough for me...


I don't need more than one desktop.


Javascript is necessary for me, but not java.


I have all those plugins. And I don't add plugins each time... So, disabled this option as well.


I always disable system-configuration check. Never fell into any problems...


Media Manager and Media Notification KDE services are all I need. The rest are crap for me...


Why system bell?


Noisy system notification. I always turn-off all those things. Silence is golden.


Mine is not a Thinkpad or Lenovo. If yours is one, I am sorry.

In addition to these tricks, I have slimmed down my MM 08 by removing unnecessary fonts.

I have installed only the required set of applications and removed a lot even from its default pool manually, and removed orphan packages using rpmorphan. The result, the fully loaded MiniME took only 1.9 GB of space. It's almost feather light and blazing fast. And finally here is the list of packages I have installed. Just 850 in all. It includes a full office suite, multimedia suite (smplayer, audacious, gtk-recrodmydesktop, acidrip... and more) and internet suite (firefox, thunderbird, ktorrent, skype, kopete and more...).

acidrip-0.14-6pclos2007
acpi-0.09-2pclos2007
acpid-1.0.4-15pclos2007
alsa-plugins-1.0.16-1pclos2007
alsa-utils-1.0.16-1pclos2007
alsaconf-1.0.16-1pclos2007
anacron-2.3-19pclos2007
antiword-0.37-2pclos2007
apmd-3.2.2-12pclos2007
apt-0.5.15lorg3.92-3pclos2007
apt-common-0.5.15lorg3.92-3pclos2007
arts-1.5.9-1pclos2007
ash-0.3.8-12pclos2007
aspell-0.60.4-4pclos2007
aspell-en-6.0.0-3pclos2007
asunder-1.6-1pclos2007
at-3.1.8-20pclos2007
atk1.0-common-1.20.0-1pclos2007
audacious-1.5.1-4pclos2007
audacious-codec-alac-1.5.1-4pclos2007
audacious-codec-cdaudio-1.5.1-4pclos2007
audacious-codec-flac-1.5.1-4pclos2007
audacious-codec-gameconsole-1.5.1-4pclos2007
audacious-codec-mp4-1.5.1-4pclos2007
audacious-codec-mpeg-1.5.1-4pclos2007
audacious-codec-oggvorbis-1.5.1-4pclos2007
audacious-codec-psf-1.5.1-4pclos2007
audacious-codec-trueaudio-1.5.1-4pclos2007
audacious-codec-vortex-1.5.1-4pclos2007
audacious-codec-wma-1.5.1-4pclos2007
audacious-codecs-1.5.1-4pclos2007
audacious-devel-1.5.1-4pclos2007
audacious-plugins-1.5.1-4pclos2007
audacious-themes-pack-1.0-1pclos2007
aumix-text-2.8-17pclos2007
avahi-0.6.16-4pclos2007
basesystem-2007.0-3pclos2007
bash-3.1-8pclos2007
bc-1.06-20pclos2007
bcm43xx-fwcutter-005-0.1172.3pclos2007
binutils-2.16.91.0.7-4pclos2007
bitmap-1.0.3-1pclos2007
bladeenc-0.94.1-1rv
bootloader-utils-1.15-1pclos2007
bootsplash-3.1.14-2pclos2007
busybox-1.9.0-2pclos2007
bzip2-1.0.4-1pclos2007
cdialog-0.9b-9pclos2007
cdparanoia-IIIa9.8-12pclos2007
cdrdao-1.2.1-4pclos2007
cdrkit-1.1.7.1-1pclos2007
cdrkit-genisoimage-1.1.7.1-1pclos2007
chkconfig-1.3.34-1pclos2007
chkfontpath-1.10.0-4pclos2007
common-licenses-1.0-13pclos2007
console-tools-0.2.3-63pclos2007
coreutils-5.97-5pclos2007
cpio-2.6-8pclos2007
cpufreq-1.0-26pclos2007
cracklib-dicts-2.8.9-4pclos2007
crontabs-1.10-7pclos2007
curl-7.15.5-2pclos2007
cyrus-sasl-2.1.22-22pclos2007
dbus-1.1.2-2pclos2007
dbus-x11-1.1.2-2pclos2007
dd_rescue-1.14-6.el4
desktop-common-data-2007-25.6pclos2007
desktop-file-utils-0.14-2pclos2007
dhcp-client-3.0.4-3pclos2007
dhcp-common-3.0.4-3pclos2007
diffutils-2.8.7-5pclos2007
djvulibre-3.5.17-6pclos2007
dkms-2.0.17-1pclos2007
dkms-cdfs-2.6.23-1pclos2007
dkms-minimal-2.0.17-1pclos2007
dkms-ndiswrapper-1.51-1pclos2007
dmidecode-2.8-3pclos2007
dmsetup-1.02.09-2pclos2007
do-vesa-0.1-1pclos2007
DoAsRoot-1.0.0-2pclos2007
drakconf-10.5-2pclos2007
drakconf-icons-10.5-2pclos2007
drakwizard-base-3.1-3pclos2007
drakxtools-10.4.81-39pclos2007
drakxtools-backend-10.4.81-39pclos2007
drakxtools-newt-10.4.81-39pclos2007
dvd+rw-tools-7.0-4pclos2007
dvdauthor-0.6.14-1pclos2007
dynamic-0.26.10-3pclos2007
e2fsprogs-1.40.2-1pclos2007
editres-1.0.3-1pclos2007
eject-2.1.5-3pclos2007
enchant-1.2.6-3pclos2007
enscript-1.6.4-5pclos2007
esound-0.2.38-3pclos2007
etcskel-1.63-19pclos2007
ethtool-3-4pclos2007
fbgrab-1.0-2pclos2007
file-4.20-1pclos2007
filesystem-2.1.8-6pclos2007
findutils-4.2.33-1pclos2007
firefox3-3.0-1pclos2007
flash-plugin-9.0.124.0-release
font-tools-0.1-14pclos2007
fontconfig-2.4.2-1pclos2007
fonts-ttf-bitstream-vera-1.10-5pclos2007
fonts-ttf-decoratives-1.3-16pclos2007
fonts-ttf-dejavu-2.19-1pclos2007
fonts-ttf-liberation-0.1-4pclos2007
fonts-ttf-west_european-1.3-16pclos2007
foomatic-db-engine-3.0.2-1.20060711.2pclos2007
foomatic-filters-3.0.2-1.20060827.2pclos2007
freetype-1.3.1-26pclos2007
freetype-tools-1.3.1-26pclos2007
fribidi-0.10.4-7pclos2007
fslsfonts-1.0.1-4pclos2007
fstobdf-1.0.2-3pclos2007
fuse-2.7.3-2pclos2007
gail-1.20.2-1pclos2007
gamin-0.1.8-1pclos2007
gAny2DVD-0.1.7-1pclos2007
gawk-3.1.5-3pclos2007
gcc-4.1.1-4pclos2007
gcc-cpp-4.1.1-4pclos2007
GConf2-2.20.1-1pclos2007
gettext-0.16.1-1pclos2007
gettext-base-0.16.1-1pclos2007
ghostscript-8.61-2pclos2007
ghostscript-common-8.61-2pclos2007
ghostscript-fonts-8.11-7pclos2007
gimp-2.4.5-2pclos2007
glib-gettextize-2.16.1-1pclos2007
glib2.0-common-2.16.1-1pclos2007
glibc-2.4-7pclos2007
glibc-devel-2.4-7pclos2007
gnome-icon-theme-2.21.0-2pclos2007
gnome-keyring-2.20.2-2pclos2007
gnome-mime-data-2.4.3-1pclos2007
gnome-themes-2.22.0-3pclos2007
gnome-vfs2-2.20.1-1pclos2007
gnupg-1.4.5-4pclos2007
grep-2.5.1a-3pclos2007
groff-1.19.1-8pclos2007
groff-for-man-1.19.1-8pclos2007
grub-0.97-22pclos2007
gstreamer0.10-tools-0.10.17-1pclos2007
gtk-engines2-2.13.0-1pclos2007
gtk-recordmydesktop-0.3.7.2-1pclos2007
gtk+2.0-2.12.2-4pclos2007
gtkdialog-0.7.20-5pclos2007
gtkdialogs-2.2-2pclos2007
gtkspell-2.0.11-2pclos2007
guile-1.8.1-1pclos2007
gutenprint-common-5.0.2-3pclos2007
gutenprint-gimp2-5.0.2-3pclos2007
gzip-1.3.5-4pclos2007
hal-0.5.9.1-1pclos2007
hal-information-0.0.1-0.20070618.1pclos2007
harddrake-10.4.81-39pclos2007
harddrake-ui-10.4.81-39pclos2007
hdparm-7.5-1pclos2007
hicolor-icon-theme-0.10-2pclos2007
hwdb-clients-0.18-2pclos2007
iceauth-1.0.2-1pclos2007
ico-1.0.2-1pclos2007
ifmetric-0.3-5pclos2007
ifplugd-0.28-7pclos2007
ImageMagick-6.2.9.2-7pclos2007
imlib-1.9.15-3pclos2007
info-install-4.8-6pclos2007
initscripts-8.51-6pclos2007
iproute2-2.6.16-4pclos2007
iputils-20020927-8pclos2007
isapnptools-1.26-9pclos2007
isomaster-1.3.3-1pclos2007
jpeg-progs-6b-40pclos2007
k3b-1.0.5-1pclos2007
k3bmonkeyaudioplugin-3.1-2pclos2007
kchmviewer-3.1-3pclos2007
kde-kdm-dark2-1.0-2pclos2007
kde-ksplash-darkscale-1.0-1pclos2007
kdeaddons-metabar-3.5.9-1pclos2007
kdeaddons-searchbar-3.5.9-1pclos2007
kdebase-3.5.9-2pclos2007
kdebase-servicemenu-2007-6pclos2007
kdegraphics-kpdf-3.5.9-1pclos2007
kdegraphics-ksnapshot-3.5.9-1pclos2007
kdegraphics-kuickshow-3.5.9-1pclos2007
kdelibs-3.5.9-2pclos2007
kdemoreartwork-klearlook-0.9.9.2-6pclos2007
kdemoreartwork-linstasquared-0.1-2pclos2007
kdemultimedia-3.5.9-1pclos2007
kdenetwork-kdict-3.5.9-1pclos2007
kdenetwork-kget-3.5.9-1pclos2007
kdenetwork-kopete-3.5.9-1pclos2007
kdeutils-ark-3.5.9-1pclos2007
kdeutils-kcalc-3.5.9-1pclos2007
kdeutils-klaptop-3.5.9-1pclos2007
kdeutils-ktimer-3.5.9-1pclos2007
kernel-2.6.22.15.tex2-1-1pclos2007
kernel-devel-2.6.22.15.tex2-1-1pclos2007
kmixautostart-0.1-3pclos2007
kpowersave-0.7.2-2pclos2007
ksplash-engine-moodin-0.4.2-4pclos2007
ktorrent-2.2.6-1pclos2007
lame-3.97-1pclos2007
ldconfig-2.4-7pclos2007
ldetect-0.7.23-1pclos2007
ldetect-lst-0.1.214-1pclos2007
less-418-1pclos2007
lha-1.14i-14pclos2007
liba52dec0-0.7.4-10pclos2007
libaa1-1.4.0-0.rc5.17pclos2007
libacl1-2.2.39-2pclos2007
libakode2-2.0.1-4pclos2007
libalsa-data-1.0.16-1pclos2007
libalsa2-1.0.16-1pclos2007
libamrnb2-6.1.0.3-1pclos2007
libamrwb2-7.0.0.0-1pclos2007
libao2-0.8.6-4pclos2007
libapm1-3.2.2-12pclos2007
libapt-pkg0-0.5.15lorg3.92-3pclos2007
libart_lgpl2-2.3.19-2pclos2007
libarts1-1.5.9-1pclos2007
libaspell15-0.60.4-4pclos2007
libatk1.0_0-1.20.0-1pclos2007
libatk1.0_0-devel-1.20.0-1pclos2007
libattr1-2.4.41-1pclos2007
libaudiofile0-0.2.6-8pclos2007
libavahi-client3-0.6.16-4pclos2007
libavahi-common3-0.6.16-4pclos2007
libavahi-core4-0.6.16-4pclos2007
libavahi-glib1-0.6.16-4pclos2007
libavahi-qt3_1-0.6.16-4pclos2007
libavformats52-0.4.9-4.pre1.12143.2pclos2007
libavutil49-0.4.9-4.pre1.12143.2pclos2007
libbeagle0-0.2.16.3-2pclos2007
libbeecrypt6-3.1.0-8pclos2007
libbinutils2-2.16.91.0.7-4pclos2007
libbonobo-2.22.0-1pclos2007
libbonobo2_0-2.22.0-1pclos2007
libbonoboui-2.20.0-1pclos2007
libbonoboui2_0-2.20.0-1pclos2007
libbzip2_1-1.0.4-1pclos2007
libcaca0-0.99-0.beta11.1pclos2007
libcairo2-1.4.14-1pclos2007
libcairo2-devel-1.4.14-1pclos2007
libcap1-1.10-6pclos2007
libcdda0-IIIa9.8-12pclos2007
libcddb2-1.2.1-5pclos2007
libcdio_cdda0-0.77-5pclos2007
libcdio7-0.77-5pclos2007
libcheck0.9.3-0.9.3-1pclos2007
libchm0-0.39-1pclos2007
libconsole0-0.2.3-63pclos2007
libcrack2-2.8.9-4pclos2007
libcroco0.6_3-0.6.1-2pclos2007
libcups2-1.3.7-2pclos2007
libcurl3-7.15.5-2pclos2007
libdaemon0-0.12-1pclos2007
libdatrie0-0.1.1-2pclos2007
libdb2-2.4.14-16pclos2007
libdb4.2-4.2.52-12pclos2007
libdbus-1_3-1.1.2-2pclos2007
libdbus-1-devel-1.1.2-2pclos2007
libdbus-glib-1_2-0.73-3pclos2007
libdbus-glib-1_2-devel-0.73-3pclos2007
libdbus-qt-1_1-0.70-4pclos2007
libdevmapper1.02-1.02.09-2pclos2007
libdirectfb0.9_25-0.9.25.1-3pclos2007
libdjvulibre15-3.5.17-6pclos2007
libdmx1-1.0.2-3pclos2007
libdrm2-2.3.0-1pclos2007
libdv4-0.104-6pclos2007
libdvdcss2-1.2.9-1pclos2007
libdvdread3-0.9.6-2pclos2007
libelfutils1-0.120-3pclos2007
libenca0-1.9-4pclos2007
libenchant1-1.2.6-3pclos2007
libesound0-0.2.38-3pclos2007
libexif12-0.6.16-1pclos2007
libexpat1-2.0.1-2pclos2007
libext2fs2-1.40.2-1pclos2007
libfaac0-1.25-1pclos2007
libfaad2_0-2.5-1pclos2007
libffmpeg51-0.4.9-4.pre1.12143.2pclos2007
libflac++6-1.2.1-1pclos2007
libflac8-1.2.1-1pclos2007
libfontconfig1-2.4.2-1pclos2007
libfontconfig1-devel-2.4.2-1pclos2007
libfontenc1-1.0.4-1pclos2007
libfreetype6-2.3.5-1pclos2007
libfreetype6-devel-2.3.5-1pclos2007
libfribidi0-0.10.4-7pclos2007
libfs6-1.0.0-4pclos2007
libgail18-1.20.2-1pclos2007
libgamin-1_0-0.1.8-1pclos2007
libgcc1-4.1.1-4pclos2007
libGConf2_4-2.20.1-1pclos2007
libgcrypt11-1.2.3-2pclos2007
libgd2-2.0.35-1pclos2007
libgdbm3-1.8.3-4pclos2007
libgdk_pixbuf2.0_0-2.12.2-4pclos2007
libgdk_pixbuf2.0_0-devel-2.12.2-4pclos2007
libgettextmisc-0.16.1-1pclos2007
libggi-2.1.1-4pclos2007
libggi2-2.1.1-4pclos2007
libgii-0.9.1-3pclos2007
libgii0-0.9.1-3pclos2007
libgimp2.0_0-2.4.5-2pclos2007
libglade2.0_0-2.6.2-1pclos2007
libglib1.2-1.2.10-17pclos2007
libglib2.0_0-2.16.1-1pclos2007
libglib2.0_0-devel-2.16.1-1pclos2007
libglitz1-0.5.6-2pclos2007
libgmp3-4.1.4-5pclos2007
libgnome-keyring0-2.20.2-2pclos2007
libgnome-vfs2_0-2.20.1-1pclos2007
libgnome2_0-2.20.1.1-1pclos2007
libgnome2-2.20.1.1-1pclos2007
libgnomecanvas2_0-2.20.1.1-1pclos2007
libgnomeui2_0-2.20.1.1-1pclos2007
libgnomeui2-2.20.1.1-1pclos2007
libgnutls26-2.2.5-1pclos2007
libgpg-error0-1.3-2pclos2007
libgphoto-common-2.3.0-1pclos2007
libgphoto2-2.3.0-1pclos2007
libgpm1-1.20.1-15pclos2007
libgraphviz3-2.12-3pclos2007
libgs8-8.61-2pclos2007
libgsf-1_114-1.14.8-1pclos2007
libgsm1-1.0.10-12pclos2007
libgsmlib1-1.11-0.4pclos2007
libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-0.10.17-1pclos2007
libgstreamer0.10_0.10-0.10.17-1pclos2007
libgtk+-x11-2.0_0-2.12.2-4pclos2007
libgtk+1.2-1.2.10-47pclos2007
libgtk+2.0_0-2.12.2-4pclos2007
libgtk+2.0_0-devel-2.12.2-4pclos2007
libgtkhtml2_0-2.11.0-3pclos2007
libguile17-1.8.1-1pclos2007
libgutenprint2-5.0.2-3pclos2007
libgutenprintui2_1-5.0.2-3pclos2007
libhal1-0.5.9.1-1pclos2007
libice6-1.0.4-1pclos2007
libid3tag0-0.15.1b-6pclos2007
libIDL2_0-0.8.8-1pclos2007
libidn11-0.6.5-2pclos2007
libieee1284_3-0.2.10-3pclos2007
libimlib1-1.9.15-3pclos2007
libimlib2_1-1.2.2-5pclos2007
libimlib2_1-filters-1.2.2-5pclos2007
libimlib2_1-loaders-1.2.2-5pclos2007
libintl8-0.16.1-1pclos2007
libiso9660_5-0.77-5pclos2007
libiw29-29-1pclos2007
libjack0-0.109.2-2pclos2007
libjasper1.701_1-1.701.0-6pclos2007
libjpeg62-6b-40pclos2007
libkrb53-1.4.3-9pclos2007
liblame0-3.97-1pclos2007
liblazy0-0.1.1-1pclos2007
liblcms1-1.16-1pclos2007
libldap2.3_0-2.3.27-3pclos2007
libldetect0.7-0.7.23-1pclos2007
liblirc0-0.8.1-2pclos2007
liblrmi0-0.10-3pclos2007
libltdl3-1.5.20-10pclos2007
liblua5.1-5.1.1-9pclos2007
liblzo2_2-2.01-2pclos2007
libmad0-0.15.1b-6pclos2007
libmagic1-4.20-1pclos2007
libMagick10.4.0-6.2.9.2-7pclos2007
libmalaga7-7.12-1pclos2007
libmcs1-0.7.1-1pclos2007
libmcs1-devel-0.7.1-1pclos2007
libmeanwhile1-1.0.2-2pclos2007
libmesagl1-7.0.1-4pclos2007
libmesaglu1-7.0.1-4pclos2007
libmesaglut3-7.0.1-4pclos2007
libmms0-0.3-2pclos2007
libmng1-1.0.9-2pclos2007
libmodprobe0-3.3-pre11.4pclos2007
libmowgli-devel-0.5.0-1pclos2007
libmowgli1-0.5.0-1pclos2007
libmpcdec3-1.2.2-2pclos2007
libmtp7-0.2.4-1pclos2007
libmusicbrainz4-2.1.5-1pclos2007
libnas2-1.8-4pclos2007
libncurses5-5.5-1.20051029.4pclos2007
libncurses5-devel-5.5-1.20051029.4pclos2007
libncursesw5-5.5-1.20051029.4pclos2007
libneon0.26-0.26.1-4pclos2007
libnewt0.51-0.51.6-13pclos2007
libnotify1-0.4.4-1pclos2007
libntfs-3g-1.2506-1pclos2007
libntfs9-1.13.1-2pclos2007
libogg0-1.1.3-3pclos2007
liboil-tools-0.3.15-1pclos2007
liboil0.3-0.3.15-1pclos2007
libOpenEXR2-1.2.2-4pclos2007
libopenssl0.9.8-0.9.8e-1pclos2007
libORBit2_0-2.14.10-1pclos2007
libpam0-0.99.6.0-4pclos2007
libpango1.0_0-1.19.0-1pclos2007
libpango1.0_0-devel-1.19.0-1pclos2007
libpango1.0_0-modules-1.19.0-1pclos2007
libpaper1-1.1.8-9pclos2007
libpcre0-7.7-1pclos2007
libpcsclite1-1.4.4-1pclos2007
libpixman-1_0-0.11.6-1pclos2007
libpixman-1-devel-0.11.6-1pclos2007
libpng3-1.2.22-1pclos2007
libpng3-devel-1.2.22-1pclos2007
libpoppler-qt1-0.5.4-1pclos2007
libpoppler1-0.5.4-1pclos2007
libpopt0-1.10.6-12pclos2007
libportaudio0-18.1-5pclos2007
libpulseaudio0-0.9.5-2pclos2007
libpulsecore2-0.9.5-2pclos2007
libpwdb0-0.62-5pclos2007
libpython2.4-2.4.3-9pclos2007
libqca1-1.0-12pclos2007
libqca1-tls-1.0-12pclos2007
libqt3-3.3.8-5pclos2007
libqt3support4-4.3.2-1pclos2007
libqtcore4-4.3.2-1pclos2007
libqtdesigner1-4.3.2-1pclos2007
libqtgui4-4.3.2-1pclos2007
libqtnetwork4-4.3.2-1pclos2007
libqtscript4-4.3.2-1pclos2007
libqtsql4-4.3.2-1pclos2007
libqtsvg4-4.3.2-1pclos2007
libqtxml4-4.3.2-1pclos2007
librarian0-0.8.0-1pclos2007
libraw1394_8-1.3.0-1pclos2007
libreadline5-5.2-1pclos2007
libresmgr1-1.0-7pclos2007
librpm4.4-4.4.6-12pclos2007
librsvg2_2-2.18.2-1pclos2007
libsamplerate0-0.1.4-1pclos2007
libsane1-1.0.18-8pclos2007
libsasl2-2.1.22-22pclos2007
libsasl2-plug-plain-2.1.22-22pclos2007
libSDL1.2-1.2.11-4pclos2007
libsexy2-0.1.11-1pclos2007
libslang1-1.4.9-9pclos2007
libsm6-1.0.3-1pclos2007
libsmbclient0-3.0.30-3pclos2007
libsndfile1-1.0.18-0.pre20.1pclos2007
libspeex1-1.1.12-5pclos2007
libsqlite3_0-3.5.6-1pclos2007
libst0-13.0.0-1pclos2007
libstartup-notification-1_0-0.9-1pclos2007
libstdc++5-3.3.6-1pclos2007
libstdc++6-4.1.1-4pclos2007
libsysfs2-2.0.0-5pclos2007
libtaglib0-1.4-3pclos2007
libtcl8.4-8.4.13-2pclos2007
libtermcap2-2.0.8-42pclos2007
libthai0-0.1.9-1pclos2007
libtheora-1.0beta2-2pclos2007
libtiff3-3.8.2-7pclos2007
libtk8.4-8.4.13-2pclos2007
libtpctl2-4.17-2pclos2007
libtwolame0-0.3.10-1pclos2007
libudftools1-1.0.0-0.b3.2pclos2007
libungif4-4.1.4-3pclos2007
libunixODBC1-2.2.11-15pclos2007
libusb0.1_4-0.1.12-6pclos2007
libuser-0.54.5-2pclos2007
libuser1-0.54.5-2pclos2007
libutempter0-0.5.5-3pclos2007
libvbe0-0-10.4pclos2007
libvcd0-0.7.23-4pclos2007
libvoikko1-1.7-1pclos2007
libvolume_id0-106-1pclos2007
libvorbis0-1.2.0-1pclos2007
libvorbisenc2-1.2.0-1pclos2007
libvorbisfile3-1.2.0-1pclos2007
libvte9-0.16.9-2pclos2007
libwmf-0.2.8.4-8pclos2007
libwmf0.2_7-0.2.8.4-8pclos2007
libwnck-1_22-2.21.2.1-3pclos2007
libwnck-2.21.2.1-3pclos2007
libwordnet2.1-2.1-6pclos2007
libwrap0-7.6-36pclos2007
libx11_6-1.1.3-3pclos2007
libx11_6-devel-1.1.3-3pclos2007
libx11-common-1.1.3-3pclos2007
libx264_56-0.56.667-1pclos2007
libxau6-1.0.3-1pclos2007
libxau6-devel-1.0.3-1pclos2007
libXaw3d7-1.5E-8pclos2007
libxaw7-1.0.4-2pclos2007
libxaw8-1.0.4-2pclos2007
libxcb-1.0-3pclos2007
libxcb-devel-1.0-3pclos2007
libxcomposite1-0.4.0-1pclos2007
libxcomposite1-devel-0.4.0-1pclos2007
libxcursor1-1.1.9-1pclos2007
libxcursor1-devel-1.1.9-1pclos2007
libxdamage1-1.1-1pclos2007
libxdamage1-devel-1.1-1pclos2007
libxdmcp6-1.0.2-1pclos2007
libxdmcp6-devel-1.0.2-1pclos2007
libxext6-1.0.3-1pclos2007
libxext6-devel-1.0.3-1pclos2007
libxfixes3-4.0.3-1pclos2007
libxfixes3-devel-4.0.3-1pclos2007
libxfont1-1.3.0-4pclos2007
libxfontcache1-1.0.4-1pclos2007
libxft2-2.1.12-2pclos2007
libxft2-devel-2.1.12-2pclos2007
libxi6-1.1.2-1pclos2007
libxi6-devel-1.1.2-1pclos2007
libxine1-1.1.10.1-1pclos2007
libxinerama1-1.0.2-1pclos2007
libxinerama1-devel-1.0.2-1pclos2007
libxkbfile1-1.0.4-1pclos2007
libxkbui1-1.0.2-3pclos2007
libxml2-2.6.27-4pclos2007
libxml2-devel-2.6.27-4pclos2007
libxml2-utils-2.6.27-4pclos2007
libxmms1-1.2.10-34pclos2007
libxmu6-1.0.3-1pclos2007
libxp6-1.0.0-4pclos2007
libxpm4-3.5.7-1pclos2007
libxrandr2-1.2.1-1pclos2007
libxrandr2-devel-1.2.1-1pclos2007
libxrender1-0.9.3-2pclos2007
libxrender1-devel-0.9.3-2pclos2007
libxres1-1.0.3-1pclos2007
libxscrnsaver1-1.1.2-1pclos2007
libxslt1-1.1.22-1pclos2007
libxt6-1.0.5-1pclos2007
libxtst6-1.0.3-2pclos2007
libxv1-1.0.3-1pclos2007
libxvid4-1.1.3-1pclos2007
libxvmc1-1.0.4-1pclos2007
libxxf86dga1-1.0.1-3pclos2007
libxxf86misc1-1.0.1-3pclos2007
libxxf86vm1-1.0.1-3pclos2007
locales-2.4-5pclos2007
locales-en-2.4-5pclos2007
logrotate-3.7.3-5pclos2007
losetup-2.12r-12pclos2007
lsdvd-0.16-4pclos2007
lsof-4.76-2pclos2007
luit-1.0.2-1pclos2007
lzf-2.0-1pclos2007
lzma-4.43-2pclos2007
m4-1.4.10-1pclos2007
make-3.81-2pclos2007
makedepend-1.0.1-1pclos2007
makedev-4.4-2pclos2007
man-1.5m2-6pclos2007
mcs-0.7.1-1pclos2007
mdklaunchhelp-2007-2pclos2007
mencoder-1.0-0.rc2.2pclos2007
mesa-7.0.1-4pclos2007
mesa-demos-7.0.1-4pclos2007
micmute-0.1-2pclos2007
mingetty-1.07-5pclos2007
mkfontdir-1.0.3-2pclos2007
mkfontscale-1.0.3-1pclos2007
mkinitrd-4.2.17-27pclos2007
mktemp-1.5-14pclos2007
mlocate-0.19-1pclos2007
module-init-tools-3.3-pre11.4pclos2007
monitor-edid-1.16-1pclos2007
mount-2.12r-12pclos2007
mount-cifs-3.0.30-3pclos2007
mozilla-thunderbird-2.0.0.14-1pclos2007
mpage-2.5.4-5pclos2007
mpgtx-1.3.1-2pclos2007
mplayer-1.0-0.rc2.2pclos2007
mplayerplugin-3.55-2pclos2007
mrxvt-0.5.3-2pclos2007
mtools-3.9.10-3pclos2007
multiarch-utils-1.0.9-4pclos2007
myspell-en_US-1.0.2-0.20040623.12pclos2007
myspell-hyph-en-1.0.2-0.20020727.12pclos2007
myspell-thes-en_US-1.0.2-0.20040423.12pclos2007
nano-2.0.7-1pclos2007
ncurses-5.5-1.20051029.4pclos2007
ndiswrapper-1.51-1pclos2007
ndiswrapper-bcmwl5-1.0-1pclos2007
net-tools-1.60-19pclos2007
netprofile-0.10-2pclos2007
notification-daemon-0.3.7-1pclos2007
ntfs-3g-1.2506-1pclos2007
ntfs-config-1.0.1-2pclos2007
ntfsprogs-1.13.1-2pclos2007
oclock-1.0.1-4pclos2007
odf-converter-1.1-1pclos2007
openldap-2.3.27-3pclos2007
openoffice.org-2.3.1-1pclos2007
openoffice.org-kde-2.3.1-1pclos2007
openoffice.org-l10n-en_GB-2.3.1-1pclos2007
openssh-4.5p1-3pclos2007
openssh-clients-4.5p1-3pclos2007
openssl-0.9.8e-1pclos2007
ORBit2-2.14.10-1pclos2007
p7zip-4.58-1pclos2007
pam-0.99.6.0-4pclos2007
pango-1.19.0-1pclos2007
passwd-0.74-1pclos2007
patch-2.5.9-4pclos2007
pciutils-2.2.10-3pclos2007
pclinuxos-menu-messages-2007-4pclos2007
pclinuxos-mime-0.4-14pclos2007
pclinuxos-release-2007-1pclos2007
pclinuxos-theme-1.1.7-3pclos2007
pcmciautils-014-5pclos2007
perl-5.10.0-1pclos2007
perl-Authen-SASL-2.10-5pclos2007
perl-base-5.10.0-1pclos2007
perl-Cairo-1.060-1pclos2007
perl-Compress-Raw-Zlib-2.008-1pclos2007
perl-Compress-Zlib-2.008-1pclos2007
perl-Config-IniFiles-2.39-3pclos2007
perl-Digest-HMAC-1.01-14pclos2007
perl-Digest-SHA1-2.11-4pclos2007
perl-File-FnMatch-0.02-3pclos2007
perl-Glib-1.180-2pclos2007
perl-Gnome2-Vte-0.06-3pclos2007
perl-Gtk2-1.173-2pclos2007
perl-Gtk2-Html2-0.04-9pclos2007
perl-Gtk2-NotificationBubble-0.01-6pclos2007
perl-Gtk2-TrayIcon-0.04-7pclos2007
perl-HTML-Parser-3.56-3pclos2007
perl-HTML-Tagset-3.10-3pclos2007
perl-IO-Compress-Base-2.008-1pclos2007
perl-IO-Compress-Zlib-2.008-1pclos2007
perl-Libconf-0.42.10-1pclos2007
perl-libwww-perl-5.805-4pclos2007
perl-Locale-gettext-1.05-6pclos2007
perl-MailTools-1.74-3pclos2007
perl-MDK-Common-1.2.12-1pclos2007
perl-MDV-Distribconf-3.06-3pclos2007
perl-MDV-Packdrakeng-1.13-1pclos2007
perl-MIME-Lite-3.01-10pclos2007
perl-Net-DBus-0.33.6-1pclos2007
perl-Net-Jabber-2.0-3pclos2007
perl-Net-XMPP-1.0-4pclos2007
perl-SOAP-Lite-0.69-3pclos2007
perl-String-ShellQuote-1.03-3pclos2007
perl-suid-5.10.0-1pclos2007
perl-Term-ReadKey-2.30-4pclos2007
perl-Text-DelimMatch-1.06-3pclos2007
perl-Tie-Watch-1.2-3pclos2007
perl-TimeDate-1.16-6pclos2007
perl-Tk-804.028-1pclos2007
perl-URI-1.35-5pclos2007
perl-URPM-3.12-1pclos2007
perl-XML-Parser-2.36-1pclos2007
perl-XML-Stream-1.22-4pclos2007
perl-XML-Twig-3.32-1pclos2007
pkgconfig-0.20-3pclos2007
playmidi-2.5-7pclos2007
popt-data-1.10.6-12pclos2007
powernowd-0.97-2pclos2007
prcsys-0.0.2-2pclos2007
procps-3.2.7-2pclos2007
psmisc-22.2-3pclos2007
pwdb-conf-0.62-5pclos2007
pygtk2.0-2.12.1-1pclos2007
pygtk2.0-libglade-2.12.1-1pclos2007
python-2.4.3-9pclos2007
python-base-2.4.3-9pclos2007
python-cairo-1.2.2-2pclos2007
python-gobject-2.14.1-1pclos2007
python-numeric-24.2-4pclos2007
python-rpm-4.4.6-12pclos2007
python-sqlite2-2.2.0-4pclos2007
qca-1.0-12pclos2007
qsynaptics-0.22.0-5pclos2007
qt3-3.3.8-5pclos2007
qt4-common-4.3.2-1pclos2007
rarian-0.8.0-1pclos2007
recordmydesktop-0.3.7.3-1pclos2007
reiserfsprogs-3.6.19-2pclos2007
resolvconf-1.37-4pclos2007
rgb-1.0.1-3pclos2007
rmt-0.4b41-3pclos2007
rootcerts-20060621-3pclos2007
rootfiles-11.0-2pclos2007
rpm-4.4.6-12pclos2007
rpm-helper-0.17-4pclos2007
rpm-pclinuxos-setup-1.29-6pclos2007
rpmorphan-1.2-1pclos2007
rpmtools-5.1.0-2pclos2007
s2u-0.7-4pclos2007
sane-backends-1.0.18-8pclos2007
sash-3.7-7pclos2007
sdparm-1.02-1pclos2007
sed-4.1.5-2pclos2007
sessreg-1.0.3-2pclos2007
setserial-2.17-10pclos2007
setup-2.7.3-2pclos2007
setxkbmap-1.0.4-1pclos2007
sgml-common-0.6.3-13pclos2007
shadow-utils-4.0.12-4pclos2007
shared-mime-info-0.22-1pclos2007
showfont-1.0.1-4pclos2007
skype_static-2.0.0.72-1pclos2007
smplayer-0.5.62-1pclos2007
sound-scripts-0.53-2pclos2007
soundwrapper-1.5-4pclos2007
sox-13.0.0-1pclos2007
squashfs-tools-3.2-1.r2.1pclos2007
sudo-1.6.8p12-5pclos2007
symlinks-1.2-18pclos2007
synaptic-0.57.2-11pclos2007
synaptics-0.14.6-1pclos2007
sysfsutils-2.0.0-5pclos2007
sysklogd-1.4.1-14pclos2007
SysVinit-2.86-5pclos2007
t1lib-config-5.1.1-1pclos2007
t1utils-1.32-4pclos2007
tar-1.20-1pclos2007
tcp_wrappers-7.6-36pclos2007
tcsh-6.14-3pclos2007
termcap-11.0.1-12pclos2007
testdisk-6.9-1pclos2007
thai-data-0.1.9-1pclos2007
time-1.7-29pclos2007
timezone-2.4-7pclos2007
tk-8.4.13-2pclos2007
tmpwatch-2.9.7-2pclos2007
toolame-02l-4pclos2007
tpctl-4.17-2pclos2007
twolame-0.3.10-1pclos2007
typist-2.6.2-2mdk
udev-106-1pclos2007
udftools-1.0.0-0.b3.2pclos2007
umb-scheme-3.2-25pclos2007
unace-2.5-2pclos2007
unarj-2.65-3pclos2007
unrar-3.70-0.beta4.1pclos2007
unzip-5.52-4pclos2007
update-alternatives-1.9.0-1pclos2007
urw-fonts-2.0-16.2pclos2007
usbutils-0.73-3pclos2007
userdrake-1.2.5-4pclos2007
usermode-1.94-1pclos2007
usermode-consoleonly-1.94-1pclos2007
utempter-0.5.5-3pclos2007
util-linux-2.12r-12pclos2007
vbetool-0.7-1pclos2007
vcdimager-0.7.23-4pclos2007
vim-minimal-7.2-1pclos2007
vixie-cron-4.1-9pclos2007
vobcopy-1.0.1-1pclos2007
vte-0.16.9-2pclos2007
waproamd-0.6-6pclos2007
webcore-fonts-1.3-2pclos2007
wget-1.11.2-1pclos2007
which-2.16-5pclos2007
win32-codecs-all-1.10-1pclos2007
wireless-tools-29-1pclos2007
wltool-1.4.2-1pclos2007
wordnet-2.1-6pclos2007
words-3.0-3pclos2007
wpa_gui-0.6.3-1pclos2007
wpa_supplicant-0.6.3-1pclos2007
x11-data-bitmaps-1.0.1-5pclos2007
x11-data-xkbdata-1.0.1-7pclos2007
x11-driver-input-evdev-1.1.5-1pclos2007
x11-driver-input-keyboard-1.1.1-1pclos2007
x11-driver-input-mouse-1.2.2-1pclos2007
x11-driver-input-void-1.1.0-3pclos2007
x11-driver-scripts-0.2.1-2pclos2007
x11-driver-video-dummy-0.2.0-3pclos2007
x11-driver-video-fbdev-0.3.1-1pclos2007
x11-driver-video-intel-2.1.1-6pclos2007
x11-driver-video-v4l-0.1.1-2pclos2007
x11-driver-video-vesa-1.3.0-1pclos2007
x11-driver-video-vga-4.1.0-2pclos2007
x11-font-adobe-75dpi-1.0.0-5pclos2007
x11-font-adobe-utopia-75dpi-1.0.1-5pclos2007
x11-font-adobe-utopia-type1-1.0.1-5pclos2007
x11-font-alias-1.0.1-10pclos2007
x11-font-bh-75dpi-1.0.0-5pclos2007
x11-font-bh-lucidatypewriter-75dpi-1.0.0-5pclos2007
x11-font-bh-ttf-1.0.0-5pclos2007
x11-font-bh-type1-1.0.0-5pclos2007
x11-font-bitstream-75dpi-1.0.0-5pclos2007
x11-font-bitstream-type1-1.0.0-5pclos2007
x11-font-cursor-misc-1.0.0-5pclos2007
x11-font-ibm-type1-1.0.0-5pclos2007
x11-font-misc-misc-1.0.0-6pclos2007
x11-font-type1-1.0.0-4pclos2007
x11-font-xfree86-type1-1.0.0-6pclos2007
x11-proto-devel-1.3.0-1pclos2007
x11-server-common-1.3.0.0-10pclos2007
x11-server-xgl-0.0.1-0.20070105.3pclos2007
x11-server-xorg-1.3.0.0-10pclos2007
x11perf-1.4.1-3pclos2007
xauth-1.0.2-1pclos2007
xclass-icons-0.9.1-1pclos2007
xcmsdb-1.0.1-4pclos2007
xcursorgen-1.0.2-2pclos2007
Xdialog-2.2.1-2pclos2007
xditview-1.0.1-6pclos2007
xdpyinfo-1.0.1-4pclos2007
xev-1.0.2-3pclos2007
xf86dga-1.0.2-1pclos2007
xfd-1.0.1-6pclos2007
xfindproxy-1.0.1-4pclos2007
xfontsel-1.0.2-1pclos2007
xfs-1.0.4-1pclos2007
xfsinfo-1.0.1-4pclos2007
xfsprogs-2.8.11-2pclos2007
xfwp-1.0.1-4pclos2007
xgamma-1.0.2-1pclos2007
xgc-1.0.1-6pclos2007
xhost-1.0.2-1pclos2007
xinetd-2.3.14-4pclos2007
xinit-1.0.4-1pclos2007
xinitrc-2.4.17-4pclos2007
xkbcomp-1.0.3-1pclos2007
xkbevd-1.0.2-3pclos2007
xkbprint-1.0.1-4pclos2007
xkbutils-1.0.1-6pclos2007
xkill-1.0.1-4pclos2007
xload-1.0.2-1pclos2007
xlsatoms-1.0.1-4pclos2007
xlsclients-1.0.1-4pclos2007
xmag-1.0.1-6pclos2007
xmessage-1.0.2-1pclos2007
xmodmap-1.0.3-1pclos2007
xorg-x11-75dpi-fonts-7.2.0-1pclos2007
xorg-x11-xfs-7.2.0-1pclos2007
xprop-1.0.3-2pclos2007
xrandr-1.2.2-1pclos2007
xrdb-1.0.3-1pclos2007
xrefresh-1.0.2-3pclos2007
xset-1.0.3-1pclos2007
xsetmode-1.0.0-4pclos2007
xsetpointer-1.0.0-4pclos2007
xsetroot-1.0.2-2pclos2007
xsettings-kde-0.4-2pclos2007
xterm-215-7pclos2007
xvidtune-1.0.1-6pclos2007
zenity-2.18.0-1pclos2007
zip-2.32-1pclos2007
zlib1-1.2.3-4pclos2007
zlib1-devel-1.2.3-4pclos2007

If you are a home desktop user. Try the above extreme optimizations for faster PCLinuxOS experience.

Results:

Bootup: ~35 sec
Shutdown: ~10 sec

LinguasOS – A PCFluxboxOS Remaster for Language Professionals

Good news for translators and language professionals. Here comes LinguasOS, a PCFluxboxOS (another PCLinuxOS remaster) based Linux live and installable CD. It is lean PCFluxboxOS sporting kernel 2.6.18 and Fluxbox. Among others it includes a CAT program, full office suite, tools for manipulating PDF files, software for desktop publishing, Internet tools, html editing and databases management tools, dictionaries and thesauri, financial software, communication tools, and image manipulation programs. LinguasOS has tools to handle and manipulate all of the industry standard file formats, including Microsoft and Adobe files.

For more, please visit LinguasOS website.

Desktop Linux and Subnotebooks/Netbooks

Gone are those days when people doubted of notebook compatibility of Linux. Now desktop Linux has made inroads even to subnotebooks/netbooks. And all the leading desktop distros such as Ubuntu, Suse, PCLinuxOS, Fedora, Xandros, Mandriva and many others have rolled out their distro versions to fit these low-cost devices. The good news is that PCLinuxOS has also forayed into this area with its EePCLinuxOS.

Low cost, light weight and portability have made these subnotebooks popular and created fresh competition among top computer manufacturers such as Lenovo, Acer, Asus, Intel, MSI, VIA and HCL.

Asus was the pilot in this subnotebook revolution by unveiling the Intel-based Eee PC range running Linux on a 7 inch color screen. These machines measure just 8.9 × 6.5 inch. It has been a top seller on Amazon.com as well as in many in retail stores across the globe. Then VIA joined the bandwagon with its CloudBook, running gOS. It is based on the VIA nanobook reference design. But nnlike its competitor, the Eee PC which uses SSD, the CloudBook uses a HDD.

Next MSI launched its subnotebook, MSI Wind PC in a big way powered by Suse Linux, with features such as Bluetooth and a 10" led backlight 1024x600 screen. Indian giant, HCL has also launched its version of subnotebooks, Myleap, in two flavor - one powered by customized Ubuntu and the other by Windows XP. These days Acer, Sony, HP and many others have joined the gold-rush of subnotebooks. Here is a list of some leading PC manufactuers and their versions of subnotebooks powered by different Desktop Linux distros.

PCLinuxOS 2008 MiniME - Beauty Meets Beast!

I have long been performance-hungry, and I don't mind spending hours in tinkering my desktop/laptop for maximum speed and performance. I was used to tweaking systems from the time when there was only 4 MB of RAM on my brother's 386 box. And I do the same on my core2duo notebook even now. During my long 15 years of tweaking and tinkering I found PCLinuxOS 2008 MiniME to be the best, because it has already been gone through strenuous testing and tweaking by Tex and the Ripper Gang.

MiniME seems the ultimate jump off point for anyone looking for the most stable and usable desktop. It is devoid of any sorts of bloat. And you are free to pull in required packages from the repository. I had a installed just the following packages. Now my system is beautiful with sophisticated pclinuxos beauty, plus it gives me beast-life performance.

List of packages I installed:

Audacious
AcetoneISO
dd_rescue (pulled from mandriva repo, but it works!)
Games - Fifteen, Jools and Ksudoku
Gimp
Gtk-Recordmydesktop
K3B
Karchiver
Kaudiocreator
Kchmviewer
Kdict
Kget
Klaptop
Klavaro
Kopete
Kpowersave
Krec
KsCD
Ktorrent
Kuickshow
libdvdcss
Mplayer
NTFS-3g
Nvu
OxygenOffice 2.4.1 (pulled from sourceforge, tweaked it, it also works!)
Skype
unrar
win32codecs-all
Wordnet

Here are some screenshots of PCLinuxOS 2008 MiniME

I am frugal while assigning disk spaces. The root partition of PCLinuxOS MiniME is just 2.6GB and the swap is meagure .5GB. Even this little swap and / is enough to get the MiniME going very smoothly.

PCLinuxOS 2008 MiniME Desktop with absolutely transparent panel.

PCLOS 2008 MiniME - I just have the above list of services running runlevel 5. This much is enough for an ideal home desktop.

PCLinuxOS MiniME - I have commented out runlevels 1, 2, 3 and 4, and disabled all the mingettys.

My PCLinuxOS 2008 MiniME grub menu just has two entries LINUX and WINDOWS. i am sure I will never need that memtest and failsafe. Because MiniME is so stable!


Above is the my fav-list of multimedia programs on top of PCLinuxOS 2008 MiniME.

I will be using OxygenOffice 2.4.1 on MiniME till the release of OpenOffice 3.


MiniME is great when it comes to memory and CPU utilization. The above screenshot shows the resource usage when all the multimedia, office and utility packages were running.

Free Desktop Linux CDs & DVDs for South Delhi Residents

Hi Linux Enthusiasts, if you are staying in South Delhi you can collect the Linux Disks from me absolutely free.

One more thing I can't just post you those Linux Disks, that's why I have mentioned the residents of South Delhi as the can drive to my home easily and collect those disks.

Here is the list of those Linux CDs and DVDs:

• PCLinuxOS 2007 - CD
• PCLinuxOS 2008 MiniMe - CD
• PCLinuxOS Gnome Remaster 2008.1 - CD
• Granular Funworks - DVD
• Mandriva 2008 Powerpack - DVD
• Linux Mint Daryana (Based on Ubuntu 7.10) - CD
• Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon (Ubuntu 7.10) - CD
• Mepis 7 (Based on Debian Etch) - CD
• NimbleX 2008 - CD
• Goblinx - CD
• Damn Small Linux (DSL) - CD
• Fedora 8 - DVD

How to reach my home and collect those disks:
Drop at Qutub Enclave (between Qutub Hotel and Katwaria Sarai) >> Ask anybody how to get the building F2 (owner Jaswant Singh) >> Knock the ground floor. I be will there to gift you any or all of those CDs and DVDs.

Timings:
Evening - 9pm to 11pm, Morning - 7am to 9am.

You can also write me at manmaths@gmail.com or call me on 9868636490 for any queries.

PCLinuxOS 2007.1 to Hit the Linux Desktop World Followed by PCLinuxOS 2008

Good news to Linux Desktop Users! Tex and Ripper Gang will offer PCLinuxOS 2007.1 soon followed by PCLinuxOS 2008. Now no more downloading of more than 400MB software after installing PCLinuxOS 2007.

PCLinuxOS 2007.1 will sport 2.6.24 kernel and latest stable packages from the repository. This release will have more drivers for the latest notebooks and desktops. The name "2007.1" does not seem fitting in the year "2008," but it is good as an update to 2007 release, and there will be a totally new 2008 version with much makeover and features.

It is due shortly, but don't ask when exactly. As they say it will be ready when it is ready. For more please read PCLinuxOS 2007.1 thread.

Back to PCLinuxOS - The Home Coming

Most of you must have read the story of "Prodigal Son." Actually I also had similar experience. Being a gadget freak I like bringing home latest notebooks and then complaining PCLinuxOS of not working well on that hardware, without realizing the colossal work going into making it rock solid and usable.

Lot of PCLinuxOS users do this only to come back to it after each distro-hopping. There are different kinds of people. Some complain and some find a way for them going to the extremes. Here is my example...

I had that base compaq presario c702 notebook which did not work well on pclinuxos 2007 for some hardware drivers. It started to work after I pulled in all the updates. In my office I had to access internet through wlan and unfortunately my broadcom wlan card did not work. Actually I never noticed it before because I was accessing internet by cable lan.

Time went by. I hopped to mandriva 2008 for a while. Every piece of hardware worked on it after a few tweaking. It is good distro, no doubt about it. But sometimes few problems showed up that never happened with PCLinuxOS. Then I though a while - what to do? I was so much nostalgic about PCLinuxOS that I sold off my latest notebook and brought home an HP notebook having only intel devices - wlan, ethernet, graphics, sound, and everything ensuring it works with PCLinuxOS. Now my notebook is an Audi - great looks, superb performance!

Moral of this True Story

Some people love pclinuxos so much that they can sell off their new hardware that does not work on pclos and get home a new machine confirming its compatibility with that great distro. Cases like this are rare as pclinuxos works fine on most of the hardware...

Plea to All those Distro Hoppers, Gripers and Grumblers

• Keep patience, look for workarounds instead of groaning.
• Thank Tex and the Ripper Gang. After all, if anything works in pclos it works the best, because it goes through much testing unforeseen on other distros.
• Or follow my path, brought home a machine that works just perfect on pclos.

OxygenOffice-2.4.1 Blues on Mandriva 2008 PowerPack

Enough Open XML and ODF battle for standards. The topic of "which is the better" apart, the bare truth is that many people have to deal with docx, xlsx and pptx files, willingly or unwillingly. Last night I got an xlsx file from my colleague at the last minute. By that time he had left for home. I was left with two options - surf the web for online Open XML converters or use that standalone OdfConverter (I extracted from one of the Novell's rpm). I choose the later with resulted in a shoddy conversion.

These incidents happen on a regular basis. Somebody told me to use OpenOffice 3 Beta. I dropped that idea after all it is in BETA. Then I hit on this OxygenOffice. Its enhancements over OpenOffice (though it is based on OOo) seemed alluring. Of all the features I liked its support for importing MS Office 2007 Open XML files to native ODF. Downloading was damn easy. The full suite was just 292 MB. The real struggle was installing. Because it did not have any setup shell script (like the one's presents in OpenOffice tar.gz files). All it had were a RPMS directory and some, may be release notes or other unusable information. It had no instruction for installation! Then I removed some unnecessary rpms and tried that old formula "rpm -Uvih *.rpm" inside that RPMS directory containing packages. It ran for sometime than asked for Java Runtime. Dear me! I had removed those Sun Java packages from my Mandy notebook (But OOo did run without those JRE). Why did it ask for JRE? Trust me I have no use of JRE, it just takes some moments to run OOo.

Anyways, I installed the Sun Java packages from Mandriva PowerPack DVD and issued that "rpm -Uvih" and it installed pretty well.

Now the real trouble. When I started OxygenOffice writer, it entered to document recover. What a hell! I never worked on any documents before, and it was just first-run. Well, I okeyed the document recovery, strangely after recovery the OxygenOffice freezed right after the splash.

Then after a little legging around I removed that .openoffice.org2 directory from my /home/user and rebooted the notebook. There was no such problem thereafter.

But this experience of OxygenOffice made me think the program is anorexic. However, it is good to use it till the big release of OpenOffice 3.

Mandriva 2008 - How to configure Broadcom Corporation BCM94311MCG wlan mini-PCI (rev 02)

Mandriva 2008 is a big release in controversial ways. For mandy 2008 some people say it as the best release while many others deny. But I had a bad experience and I was waiting for my long beloved PCLinuxOS 2008. Why? Due to its problems in configuring Broadcom Corporation BCM94311MCG wlan mini-PCI (rev 02) that came with my compaq notebook. But good heavens, it's all resolved and I am in no hurry for PCLinuxOS 2008. Well, it will be a candid release when it will release. For now Mandriva 2008 is the best release for me.

Problem

Let's go back to the problematic past. When I first installed Mandriva 2008 Powerpack at home I had no problem at all. It readily detected and configured my ethernet, graphics, sound and all that. The startup and shutdown also became blazing fast after shedding a little fat off installation. The real problem came at office when I had to connect either to Linkys WPA2 wlan or MTNL unsecure wlan. To my astonishment, though it shows it has bcm43xx module installed it did not move at all.

Then I tried to connect to web via: mcc>>network & internet>>setup a new network interface>>wireless, it asked for a firmware file and i pointed it to my windows driver (bcmwl5.inf) it did configured. But unfortunately it took too long to shutdown and/startup the system after installing this firmware. There the problem did not end. After each reboot I had to reconfigure the wlan.

Issue

Then I came to know from mandrivausers.org that actually support for some Broadcom wlan cards in Mandriva is not hassle-free, because the native bcm43xx driver does not work for this card but instead keeps interfering with the windows drivers (or any suitable driver that you pulled in).

Solution

Anybody who is using Mandriva 2008 and having this broadcom card should follow these steps to get their wlan card working perfectly.

1. uninstall bcm43xx-fwcutter
2. blacklist ssb and bcm43xx in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-compat
3. comment out bcm43xx in modprobe.conf
4. reboot the system
5. go to mcc>>network & internet>>setup a new network interface>>wireless
6. select bcmwl5.inf from your windows partition or from any other location
7. fill in your wireless internet access details

That's it. Now you can breath easy.