Recently, my little world of FOSS has been like a peaceful valley, surrounded by thunderstorms. As I sit in my recliner, watching the lightning strike, and hearing the booms which always follow, I am wondering how we all will weather this.
All the kindly, smart people I encounter in IRC, on blogs, forums, lists, wikis; all are people who believe in the power of giving to the world; sharing knowledge and work, music and programming, art and packaging. And yet there is infighting again. I've read the major posts which have become the flash points, and many of the thunderous responses. Canonical vs. Gnome, or Gnome vs. KDE, and on and on.
Finally, a bit of sunlight in the west: Allison Randal's reasonable and thorough discussion of the entire matter. As a bonus, she titles it after one of my favorite songs from the 60's: With A Little Help From My Friends.
Listen: As a world-wide multi-project FLOSS community, we are a diverse collection of cultures, customs, and governance structures, and some things that seem strange to an outsider or a member of a different subgroup make perfect sense when you look more deeply.
Please read her post, and think deeply about the structures she describes, and about how WE (no matter which WE you are a part of) are seen by "outsiders." When we meet in un-logged IRC channels, how will new contributors find out about the decision-making process, or the background of standards, directions, and other important factors of our products? And what IS our product? Software, or a community which works together to make software?
Rather than pointing fingers, I hope each one of my readers will look inside, and think about how each of own conduct is building up or tearing down our community. Please, let us choose our words and actions wisely, and strive for transparency, clarity, and kindness. Daylight chases away suspicion and distrust.
So we can discuss painful events of the past, but with the goal of using those experiences to do better, BE better. I could say so much more, but please: go read Alison's post instead.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Rsync and Backup Success
A blog post started long ago, back in Oct. 2010:
If you are a reader of my blog, you might have suffered along with me through a non-existent backup. Tomorrow, I'm setting off for UDS in Orlando, Florida, and I wanted to be sure to have an up-to-date backup. So I started up my 1.5 T backup, newly formatted, and looked up a reliable article about using rsync. No more relying on GUI front-ends to it! I wanted to use it direct from the command-line, so I could see the errors right away. http://www.linux.com/news/enterprise/storage/8200-back-up-like-an-expert-with-rsync is simple and understandable, even for me. "The basic syntax for rsync is simple enough -- just run rsync [options] source destination to copy the file or files provided as the source argument to the destination."
Written in the now:
Unfortunately, I didn't finish this blog post after returning from Florida, but today a major disaster became a minor disaster by means of 1. a small screwdriver, 2. an inexpensive disk drive enclosure ($14.99 at Fry's), and 3. this simple command:
Once home, I put the drive into the enclosure, hooked it up to my netbook (thanks, ZaReason!) and began transferring my music from my old laptop to my new one, while continuing to work on the Amarok Handbook, which is *almost done*! I took the opportunity of a freshly installed Amarok to make some screenshots with which to finish the book! http://userbase.kde.org/Amarok/Manual
An update: One trouble I've had, besides some error messages that Sre-su helped me to figure out (thank you again, Sre-su!), is that the drive kept un-mounting. I don't know why -- bad USB connection, bad enclosure, bad HD -- but the solution is to just run the command again. Rsync checks the files it has already done, and then just charges ahead. I added -r (recursive) to be sure all music files were copied, and --progress so I can see at a glance what is going on. Also, --dry-run is cool -- it shows you what will happen, quick as a flash. Also, sre-su pointed out that I needed sudo before the command, which is now:
I didn't catch my error in the above command until today, when I wondered why my music was STILL not in my Amarok collection! What must have happened is that while my original command was correct, the USB drive is touchy, and I needed to run it a few times. Not knowing this, I changed it, and put my Music not in /home/valorie/Music where it belongs, but in /home/Music/. Bleah.
Proper command, after all, is:
If you are a reader of my blog, you might have suffered along with me through a non-existent backup. Tomorrow, I'm setting off for UDS in Orlando, Florida, and I wanted to be sure to have an up-to-date backup. So I started up my 1.5 T backup, newly formatted, and looked up a reliable article about using rsync. No more relying on GUI front-ends to it! I wanted to use it direct from the command-line, so I could see the errors right away. http://www.linux.com/news/enterprise/storage/8200-back-up-like-an-expert-with-rsync is simple and understandable, even for me. "The basic syntax for rsync is simple enough -- just run rsync [options] source destination to copy the file or files provided as the source argument to the destination."
Written in the now:
Unfortunately, I didn't finish this blog post after returning from Florida, but today a major disaster became a minor disaster by means of 1. a small screwdriver, 2. an inexpensive disk drive enclosure ($14.99 at Fry's), and 3. this simple command:
rsync -av /media/home/valorie/Music /home/valorie/MusicDisaster was my laptop power supply dying on me, without a recent backup. I know, shame on me! Instead, I used the screwdriver to take out the hard drive and attempted to put it into the HD enclosure I already have. However, it didn't fit. So I wrapped up the HD securely, and made a trip to Fry's. I showed the salesman the drive, to ensure I got the right kind of enclosure (SATA).
Once home, I put the drive into the enclosure, hooked it up to my netbook (thanks, ZaReason!) and began transferring my music from my old laptop to my new one, while continuing to work on the Amarok Handbook, which is *almost done*! I took the opportunity of a freshly installed Amarok to make some screenshots with which to finish the book! http://userbase.kde.org/Amarok/Manual
An update: One trouble I've had, besides some error messages that Sre-su helped me to figure out (thank you again, Sre-su!), is that the drive kept un-mounting. I don't know why -- bad USB connection, bad enclosure, bad HD -- but the solution is to just run the command again. Rsync checks the files it has already done, and then just charges ahead. I added -r (recursive) to be sure all music files were copied, and --progress so I can see at a glance what is going on. Also, --dry-run is cool -- it shows you what will happen, quick as a flash. Also, sre-su pointed out that I needed sudo before the command, which is now:
sudo rsync -avr --progress /media/home/valorie/Music /home/Music
I didn't catch my error in the above command until today, when I wondered why my music was STILL not in my Amarok collection! What must have happened is that while my original command was correct, the USB drive is touchy, and I needed to run it a few times. Not knowing this, I changed it, and put my Music not in /home/valorie/Music where it belongs, but in /home/Music/. Bleah.
Proper command, after all, is:
rsync -avr --progress /media/home/valorie/Music /home/valorie/Music
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
It's time -- apply NOW! UDS -O
Even if you don't think they will sponsor you (I did not), apply.
Even if you don't think you know enough (I felt that way), apply.
Even if you don't think you are important enough (I wasn't, and am not), apply.
Even if you are a minority, a woman, in the "out" group (I was, and am), apply.
Even if you don't know what "UDS" stand for (Ubuntu Developer Summit), apply.
Even if you don't consider yourself a "developer" (I didn't either), apply!
What's the worst that can happen, after all? Canonical can say no, and then you'll have to attend remotely. But what if the best happens, and they say YES? They told me yes, and flew me to Florida! The travel agents arranged to have me fly in early, so I could spend some time with my long-time friend who lives north of Orlando. (This time, the city is Budapest!)
If you are sponsored, they will work with you, too. Creating a diverse working environment is one of the most important values of Canonical, to make Ubuntu for Humans. So if you have an interest, apply. See Jono's blog post for more information: http://www.jonobacon.org/2011/02/23/ubuntu-developer-summit-sponsorship-now-open/.
This is new; we now have an explicit anti-harrassment policy: http://uds.ubuntu.com/harassment/
Ubuntu-Women has a UDS resource page: http://wiki.ubuntu-women.org/UDS
I've written a couple of UDS-related posts, during and after UDS-N in Orlando last year: Surviving, Thriving at Ubuntu Developer Summits and UDS and You, Wherever You Are
Even if you don't think you know enough (I felt that way), apply.
Even if you don't think you are important enough (I wasn't, and am not), apply.
Even if you are a minority, a woman, in the "out" group (I was, and am), apply.
Even if you don't know what "UDS" stand for (Ubuntu Developer Summit), apply.
Even if you don't consider yourself a "developer" (I didn't either), apply!
What's the worst that can happen, after all? Canonical can say no, and then you'll have to attend remotely. But what if the best happens, and they say YES? They told me yes, and flew me to Florida! The travel agents arranged to have me fly in early, so I could spend some time with my long-time friend who lives north of Orlando. (This time, the city is Budapest!)
If you are sponsored, they will work with you, too. Creating a diverse working environment is one of the most important values of Canonical, to make Ubuntu for Humans. So if you have an interest, apply. See Jono's blog post for more information: http://www.jonobacon.org/2011/02/23/ubuntu-developer-summit-sponsorship-now-open/.
This is new; we now have an explicit anti-harrassment policy: http://uds.ubuntu.com/harassment/
Ubuntu-Women has a UDS resource page: http://wiki.ubuntu-women.org/UDS
I've written a couple of UDS-related posts, during and after UDS-N in Orlando last year: Surviving, Thriving at Ubuntu Developer Summits and UDS and You, Wherever You Are
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Pastebin, and pastebinit
Another helpful snippet tonight in #kubuntu (all the cool stuff is in there!):
Have you ever run into a problem, where you have a long error message or something that you need to show someone in IRC? The answer is to use a pastebin which is a service where you can paste that text (or image, in an imagebin) and give the link. This keeps help channels readable; long pastes are called flooding, and will usually get you automatically disconnected. The best one, in my opinion, is http://paste.kde.org.
But what happens when you are working in a console on one computer, and using another for IRC? If the text terminal is connected to the Internet, my wise friend Daskreech says:
[22:46] Daskreech: apt-get install pastebinit
[22:46] Daskreech: lsmod | pastebinit
[22:46] Daskreech: it will upload it to pastebin for you
Lsmod, (list loaded modules) by the way, is a useful Unix command to use when you need to figure out which modules might be messing with your display or sound. The | is called a pipe, and is used to tell some commands where to output; in this case the pastebin.
Thanks for another useful tip, Daskreech! You rock.
PS to beginners, or those in stress: the apt-get command always needs to be proceeded by sudo, to give you root power. So the whole command will be: sudo apt-get install pastebinit. Now the apt has been updated in Debian distros, you can instead just do sudo apt install pastebinit.
Have you ever run into a problem, where you have a long error message or something that you need to show someone in IRC? The answer is to use a pastebin which is a service where you can paste that text (or image, in an imagebin) and give the link. This keeps help channels readable; long pastes are called flooding, and will usually get you automatically disconnected. The best one, in my opinion, is http://paste.kde.org.
But what happens when you are working in a console on one computer, and using another for IRC? If the text terminal is connected to the Internet, my wise friend Daskreech says:
[22:46] Daskreech: apt-get install pastebinit
[22:46] Daskreech: lsmod | pastebinit
[22:46] Daskreech: it will upload it to pastebin for you
Lsmod, (list loaded modules) by the way, is a useful Unix command to use when you need to figure out which modules might be messing with your display or sound. The | is called a pipe, and is used to tell some commands where to output; in this case the pastebin.
Thanks for another useful tip, Daskreech! You rock.
PS to beginners, or those in stress: the apt-get command always needs to be proceeded by sudo, to give you root power. So the whole command will be: sudo apt-get install pastebinit. Now the apt has been updated in Debian distros, you can instead just do sudo apt install pastebinit.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
GSoC 2011 - Start your engines!
It is time, right now, developers, and students -- craft your ideas for Google Summer of Code! Students, please drop into the IRC channels of the projects you are interested to work with, and talk about your ideas. Write to the project list, if you get no-one to talk to in IRC.
Developers, please add plenty of ideas as soon as you can: http://community.kde.org/GSoC/2011/Ideas. Students are already waiting, so the sooner your ideas are on the page the better. Make yourself available to the students, and help them get ready to do a successful project this summer. Consider mentoring or co-mentoring; it can be a great experience.
In case you are new to GSoC in KDE please check http://community.kde.org/GSoC.
Mentors: An excellent resource for both new mentors and those who've done it before: http://www.booki.cc/gsoc-mentoring/
For questions please contact the admins (lfranchi, valorie, neverendingo and nightrose) in #kde-soc. If you want to help with the organization please let us know.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Linux conferences 2011
Started filling out the calendar with all the events I'd like to attend this year, if I get sponsorship, and can arrange care for Rhys during the weekdays I'm gone. It looks REALLY busy and exciting!
First will be Camp KDE, which I've never attended. This year it's in San Francisco, at Hotel Kabuki, 4th and 5th of April. Right after is the Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit, which takes place April 6-8, 2011 at the same place. However, that is invitation-only, and I'm not invited. :-) . So the cost would be the hotel and travel to and from SF. I'll have to ask around and see if it would be worth the time and money!
LinuxFest Northwest is next, April 30th & May 1st. I'm registered, Thomas has already said he wants to go with me, and our room is booked at the Bellingham Hampton. :-)
A *week* later, UDS in Budapest! Starts: 12:59 UTC on Monday, 2011-05-09, Ends: 12:59 UTC on Friday, 2011-05-13. I would probably want to fly out on Friday, to give myself a bit of time to adjust to the time change, and recover from the really long flight. Ideal would be to fly to the east coast and then a few days later, fly to Budapest, but..... probably not gonna happen. I've applied for sponsorship, and registered. I can always participate remotely if sponsorship is denied.
To my surprise, I've been asked to attend the KDE WebWorld2011, at LinuxHotel in Essen, Germany from 1 to 5th June 2011. If I get sponsorship to UDS, perhaps I should just stay in Europe for those two weeks? Otherwise I would have to choose one or the other. I'm a Kubuntu, Washington LoCo and Ubuntu-Women member, not a KDE member. I would choose UDS first.
In July, again this year there is CLS 23rd-24th July, 2011 in Portland, Oregon, followed by OSCON that next week, the 25th through the 29th. Looking for a room mate for this one, hopefully at a hotel across the street from the convention center. That was slick!
Finally, I've also been told (not asked, LOL) I'm coming to Akademy this year, which will be held in conjunction with the Open Desktop Summit, http://dot.kde.org/2010/10/06/kde-and-gnome-desktop-summit-2011-6-12-august, from 6 to 12 August at Humboldt University in Berlin.
If I attend all these events, and stay in Europe between UDS and WebWorld, I'll be gone more than I'm home! So I'm not sure it's all possible.
First will be Camp KDE, which I've never attended. This year it's in San Francisco, at Hotel Kabuki, 4th and 5th of April. Right after is the Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit, which takes place April 6-8, 2011 at the same place. However, that is invitation-only, and I'm not invited. :-) . So the cost would be the hotel and travel to and from SF. I'll have to ask around and see if it would be worth the time and money!
LinuxFest Northwest is next, April 30th & May 1st. I'm registered, Thomas has already said he wants to go with me, and our room is booked at the Bellingham Hampton. :-)
A *week* later, UDS in Budapest! Starts: 12:59 UTC on Monday, 2011-05-09, Ends: 12:59 UTC on Friday, 2011-05-13. I would probably want to fly out on Friday, to give myself a bit of time to adjust to the time change, and recover from the really long flight. Ideal would be to fly to the east coast and then a few days later, fly to Budapest, but..... probably not gonna happen. I've applied for sponsorship, and registered. I can always participate remotely if sponsorship is denied.
To my surprise, I've been asked to attend the KDE WebWorld2011, at LinuxHotel in Essen, Germany from 1 to 5th June 2011. If I get sponsorship to UDS, perhaps I should just stay in Europe for those two weeks? Otherwise I would have to choose one or the other. I'm a Kubuntu, Washington LoCo and Ubuntu-Women member, not a KDE member. I would choose UDS first.
In July, again this year there is CLS 23rd-24th July, 2011 in Portland, Oregon, followed by OSCON that next week, the 25th through the 29th. Looking for a room mate for this one, hopefully at a hotel across the street from the convention center. That was slick!
Finally, I've also been told (not asked, LOL) I'm coming to Akademy this year, which will be held in conjunction with the Open Desktop Summit, http://dot.kde.org/2010/10/06/kde-and-gnome-desktop-summit-2011-6-12-august, from 6 to 12 August at Humboldt University in Berlin.
If I attend all these events, and stay in Europe between UDS and WebWorld, I'll be gone more than I'm home! So I'm not sure it's all possible.
Finding missing packages - three methods
Sometimes, when compiling applications, rather than installing them from packages, one comes up against a problem like this one recently posed in #kubuntu (IRC channel on Freenode):
Hi, I have an error then I'm compiling an app. It doesn't find /usr/lib/libGL.so. How can I install it?
Here is one answer:
[01:45] you want to install libgl1-mesa-dev
[01:46] you also want to install apt-file, 'apt-file find /usr/lib/libGL.so' will tell you that you need libgl1-mesa-dev for it
Here is the second way:
[01:54] you know, packages.ubuntu.com has the same function
[01:54] sadly doesn't work with PPAs though since the LP folks didn't implement the Contents.gz it needs yet
And the easiest way if you are in #ubuntu or #kubuntu (or any channel with ubottu). Notice there are two ways to ask:
[01:54] as does ubottu :)
[01:55] !find libGL.so
[01:55] File libGL.so found in fglrx, ia32-libs, libgl1-mesa-dev, libgl1-mesa-glx, libgl1-mesa-glx-dbg, libgl1-mesa-swx11, libgl1-mesa-swx11-dbg, libgl1-mesa-swx11-dev, lsb-build-base3, nvidia-173 (and 2 others) http://packages.ubuntu.com/search?searchon=contents&keywords=libGL.so&mode=&suite=maverick&arch=any
[01:56] !find usr/lib/libGL.so
[01:56] File usr/lib/libGL.so found in libgl1-mesa-dev
Slick! Thanks to yofel and tsimpson for their help.
Hi, I have an error then I'm compiling an app. It doesn't find /usr/lib/libGL.so. How can I install it?
Here is one answer:
[01:45]
[01:46]
Here is the second way:
[01:54]
[01:54]
And the easiest way if you are in #ubuntu or #kubuntu (or any channel with ubottu). Notice there are two ways to ask:
[01:54]
[01:55]
[01:55]
[01:56]
[01:56]
Slick! Thanks to yofel and tsimpson for their help.
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