Mrazsters Linux Corner

My OS, desktop and Themes..!

2008-02-21T15:12:00.005+01:00

Hi folks...it has been a couple of days since I wrote something. Had some IRL stuff to do.

This time I thought I'd show you and talk a little about my system...os, desktop and themes I use. Here are som outputs from my terminal, about os and kernel.

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mrazster@ubuntu:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 7.04
Release: 7.04
Codename: feisty

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mrazster@ubuntu:~$ uname -a
Linux ubuntu 2.6.23.9 #1 SMP PREEMPT Sat Dec 1 11:10:59 GMT 2007 i686 GNU/Linux

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I have always been a fan of fairly small and streamlined OS:es, I absolutely hate distros bloated with all kinds of software you don't use/need, services running in the bakground that you never need and has no business being there. To me this equals to a slow, sluggy and unresponsive systems. Since I don't use the default installation procedure that comes with the K/X/Ubuntu cd/dvd I'll explain in short how I do my installation.

First of I use the "alternate cd" and do a "commandline/serve installation" , this leaves me with a commandline system with no GUI what so ever.
Next stepp is to update the system, I open up the sources list with sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list and remove all # in front of the repositories so that I enable both universe and multiverse, save and exit. Then do sudo apt-get update and then sudo apt-get upgrade and follow the instructions if needed.
When all above done it's time to compile the latest kernel. The last 7-8 times I have compiled my own kernel I have followed the howto in the The Master Kernel Thread. I have tried both the howto and his compilation script called Kernel Check and they both work well. Personally I like doing all the compiling steps manually, but thats just me. When all done it's time reboot and login with your new kernel.
Next step is to get some GUI and basic tools/applications to customizing the system. Initally I use aptitude to install the packages I need, later I use synaptic/apt-get. So my first package installation looks something like this: sudo aptitude install xorg xfce4 xfce4-terminal mousepad synaptic thunar gparted hardinfo xubuntu-system-tools gnome-system-monitor firefox. When all packages installed and configured I reboot the computer and log back in to my system. To start X and get a GUI I simply type startx and press enter. If everything is configured accordingly and working I have a desktop and menus entries.
So now we got a fresh kernel with awesome performance and hardware support and a GUI work with. Now it's time to get propper grafics card drivers installed. I have used the Envy script by Alberto Milone in the past and have no reason to use any other method, it works flawless. When all done I reboot and log back in and continue to next step.
So from here I can go on installing icon-themes, GTK-themes, WM-themes e.t.c, customizing my desktop to my likings. When I get everything right I continue with installing tools/applications. Some with synaptic but most of them I trie to compile from sources.
Last thing I do is to clean up my system from temporary files and orphaned packages. And also removal of old kernel images,headers e.t.c

So this is a rough estimate of the installtion procedure. This way I get only the packages essential to the OS and the applications I use, nothing else. It use less memory, takes up less hdd space and is much less bloated with crap. I'll show some of my desktops I have used in the past:

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So there you go...this my 25cents on the linux desktop. I'll throw a gallery some day soon and show some more pics of my desktop and on my rigg, so you can browse thru them freely.
I can honostly say that I haven't had as much fun with my comp. as I have since I started using "linux" exclusively. The freedom you get with an openscource operating system is absolutely wonderful, you are in controll of your system, no one tells you what to do and wich applications to use. An installtion/configuration can be as difficult or as easy as you choose it it be, it's totally up to you. Having this said, it does take a while to "get how it works", linux with all its distrubitions has a certain learning curve. But most of the time it has nothing to do with it being hard to use, it's more a matter of people being used to other operating systems and has a hard time adjusting to the new enviroment with all the new locations and names. I have been GNU/linux exlusive for almost a year now, and I haven't looked back once.

My rigg..!!

2008-02-06T13:10:00.006+01:00

Well...heeelluuuu, as sweet little Kayla would say.

Since I just started this blogg, I thought it would be approperiate to present my computer...wich makes my xubuntu absolutely fly. So here goes, first the rigg and then some words about the hardwares:

Rigg:
Monitor: Acer AL2416W
Chassi: NZXT Zero
PSU: OCZ Game Xstreme 850W
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3
CPU: Intel Xeon 3060 @ 3.6ghz
Ram: A-Data Vitesta 6400+ EE @ 500mhz
Graphics: Gainward Bliss 8800GTS 640MB
Sound: Soundbalster Live 5.1
Hdd: Raptor 74GB / 2x Samsung 500gb T166

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Monitor:
First off I'm going to present my monitor, I'm using an Acer AL2416W wich in my opinion does the jobb perfectly fine even thoug it lacks DVI connectors. I've heard many people dissmis it just because of the vga connector but ones I have showed them how it presents colors and that it infact have no problems with neither games nor 720p movies. They usually end up astonished by it's abilitties. When I went on a hunt for a new monitor back in early 2006, all 24" TFT monitors where expensive like crazy, this one was the only one at a resonable price and since I'm not exactly loaded with money there wasn't much to talk about, this was the one I went for. And haven't had any regrets what so ever.

Chassi/case:
The chassi I'm using to house all my hardware is a beatuiful NZXT Zero. I was looking for a chassi with alot of open space and good abilitys to mount a couple of low rpm 120mm fans..in order to get my rigg silent yet well coled. I'm not an exesive leecher, I don't need to fill my case with hdd so I decided to remove the drivebay in the front bottom of the case, just to get some more open space in the case and to get better airflow from the 120mm fan in the fron bottom.
One other criteria I had was aluminum, the chassi had to be made out of aluminum...I friggin hate those hefty, bulky steel cases. So when I stumbeld on this absolutely lovley chassi while roaming around the net, I simply just went for it, no matter the cost.

Power supply:
Well..there's not really much to say here. I wanted a PSU that could deliver, no matter what. A PSU with stable volt rails and that didn't sounded like a jetengine and enough power to juice upcoming hardware, I didn't want to have to exachange it in the near future. So when I got a good deal on this OCZ GameXstreme 850W PSU, there was no hesitation.

Motherboard:
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3 is an extremly competen motherboard even though it is considered a "value" board. It has everything an average user would need, it has the stability and tweaking options an moderate overclocker would need and the performance is up there with other P35 motherboards. When it comes to compatibility with GNU/Linux I havent ran into any problems what so ever, everything worked right out of the box..sound, nic and all other features.
When it comes to overclocking it has no problem running my Xeon 3060(2.4ghz C2D) @ 3.6ghz and my 2x2gb A-Data Vitesta 6400 EE @ 500mhz 5-4-4-6-12.
Can't say anything but "an absolutely outrageous motherboard...highly recommended"

CPU:
I went for a Intel Xeon 3060.
My chooise of cpu might be a little odd to some people...why would I choose a Xeon over an "ordinary" core 2 duo at 2.4ghz? Well...I have told you before in my inital post in my blogg that I have been into overclocking the last 10years or so and I guess some part of me will always keep doing it. It's fun and if done right it gives you alot of free performance with out hurting the stability of you computing. The xeon(core 2) series of intel cpus are basiclly "ordinary" cpus with better quality, lower power consumption, they run at lower vcore wich in turn makes them run cooler. With thoose characteristics the xeon cpus are perfectly suitable for overclocking.

Memory/ram:
I have been using A-Data memory in the past and I have had good experiense with them.
I was looking for rams with moderate/good overclocking ability at a resonable price.
I found A-Data Vitesta 6400+ EE, they had it all and I decided to go for it.
I'm currently running them at 500mhz 5-4-4-6-12 2T with 2.2vdimm...the performance at thoose settings are absolutly great, nothing to complain about here.

Graphics Card:
Well...I'm not an extreme gamer in any respect but I do play games at least a couple of times a week. And with a 24" display I'm using a resolution of 1920x1200 wich requires alot from the card especially memory wise. Games like UT3 and ETQW also puts alot of load on the gpu..so I knew I had to go for a mid/highend card to be able to play thoose games reasonable.
I have always liked Gainward and their products, at the time the 8800GTS was the most mid/highend card on the market and since I needed alot of memory to run at my resolution the chooise was clear to me. I went for a Bliss 8800 GTS 640MB GS...an absolute lovely card. Loads of performance and it runs very quiet, it has no problem runing my games at highest settings with resonable FPS.

Soundcard:
My old and trustworthy Soundblaster Live 5.1 is still going strong. It works right out of the box.
It works fine with my Philips 5.1 speakers...there isn't really much more to say here.
I'm looking for a replacement though...currently doing some research.

HDD:
I got my system(swap/root/home) installed on a WD Raptor 74GB 16mb cache. No complains here, it runs quiet and fast...system feels snappy.
I have 2 Samsung 500GB T166 acting as storage, both are SATA II, 16mb cache and have NCQ support. Samsung have always been considered to be the most quiet disk even when under load...and they keep doing so. They are queit, cool and fast...highly recommended.

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So there you go this is my rigg. It's not the fastest one out there but it does everything I want it to do with ease, it runs quiet and fast. And last but not least I`ll show my actuall corner...and that is not metaforicly speaking ;=)

Welcome to my corner..!

2008-02-05T22:47:00.001+01:00

Hello and very welcome to my linux corner.
I've been thinking about blogging for a little while but have never gotten around doing it.
So I recently decided it's time to get one started.
This blogg is mainly for sharing my thoughts, ideas and discoveries in the world of linux.
I've been into computing on and off since I got my Commonder64 back in the days.
Last 10years it has been very much ON..so to speak. Most of the time during the last 10 years I have spent overclocking and tweaking my systems, trying to squeeze every ounce of peformance out of my rigg. Just to get thoose extra 3DMark points to get one step higher on the Futuremark ranking site. I have spent exesive amount of money on cpu/gpu cooling, everything from aircooling to dryicecooling. As the years passed by I started getting weary of spending all thoose money and never really "getting there".

During the same time more and more of my attention was pointed against opensource and the linux community. I started trying out different kinds of distros...while having alot of fun I never really have gotten my linux dists working properly. It had always something to do with hardware incompatibility or lack of drivers for the hardware. Every time I ended up reverting back to "winblows XP" ;=)

So when i first heard about Ubuntu back in 2005 I was sceptical but also curious, it wasn't until late in 2005 I decided to give it a whirl, I had an old computer lying around wich I decided to use as my linux/play rigg. So I installed Ubuntu 5.10 Breezy Badger and to my surprise everything worked "right out of the box". I had sound, I had the right resolution on my screen, only thing I had to do was to install nvidia driver from the repositories and I was god to go.
I played around with it, upgraded to 6.06 and further more to 6.10..but I still had some trouble finding applications equivalent to my "windows-applications". So I keept using both riggs up and running, Linux for music, films and everyday usage and WinXP for games. As the time passed by I found my self spending more and more time on my linux rigg, I also got more and more games working as I wished. So by the time the last 7.04 "Release Candidate" was out in the open I decided to completly migrate to linux and leave Billy and his crap behind me. ;=)

During my time playing around and learning linux I have tried RedHat, SuSe, Mandrake and Ubuntu. I also played around with different DEs(Desktop Enviroment) mostly KDE and Gnome..I always fellt KDE a bit cluttered with al kinds of stuff I never used. So Gnome seemed to be my chooice of DE, until I tried Xubuntu 6.10. I absolutely fell in love with Xfce4, to me it feelt like it hade perfect balance between console usage and grafical tools. Menus feelt much snapier then Gnome and KDE, especially KDE wich to me was like running WinXP all over again.
So when I decided to make the switch Xfce4 was the DE I went with...and I have been running it ever since.

So here I am running Xubuntu(kind of) since about a year without any regrets or second thoughts what so ever. I have it all running perfectly fine and I have found equivalents to every applications I used to use. And it is all fine...I don't spend nowhere near as much money as I used to do on hardware, and not nearly as much time on overclocking and tweaking as I used to do. Instead I spend my time learning linux and enjoying my computer with music, films, games and internet..in other words as the computergod intended it to be used.

Thanks for taking the time reading my little story and I hope you all will enjoy my little blogg in the future.