openSUSE – Factory installation

If you feel like trying out some of the latest openSUSE software, you need to add/edit the following repos in the Software Repositories:

- OSS: http://download.opensuse.org/factory/repo/oss/

- Non-OSS: http://download.opensuse.org/factory/repo/non-oss/

Please note that these are untested and might be broken!

For further information on the openSUSE Factory Model, please check out this URL:

http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Factory_development_model

Have a lot of fun!

Encuentro Linux 2010: Gracias a todos!

Y ya se nos fue. Este año, el evento Linux más importante de Chile tuvo lugar en Concepción, específicamente en la Universidad del Bio-Bio. Durante dos días se vivió un excelente tiempo donde compartimos diferentes vivencias con amigos, nuevos amigos, conocidos, colegas, etc., todos hablando un mismo idioma.

Muy notable fue que se realizara por primera vez el KDE Day, pudiendo contar con la presencia del desarrollador KDE Helio Chissini de Castro. Aunque mi intención inicial siempre fue participar de ese día, no pude y tuve que regresar a Santiago para el sábado

Muchas  gracias a los Organizadores, por el trato cordial y por haber hecho realidad mi sueño de exponer en tan importante instancia, a Carlos Rios (crosvera) siempre tan cordial y preocupado por hacernos las cosas más fáciles a todos, a las Empresas que auspiciaron y estuvieron participando, a la U. del Bio-Bio, a Novell por su apoyo al enviar discos de openSUSE 11.3 + poleras, lamentablemente no llegaron a tiempo, buena cosa es que pude recurrir a un antiguo stock de la 11.2 con alrededor de 50 stickers sobrantes de entonces, a la Comunidad KDE Chile, de la cual soy miembro, a todos los que creyeron en hacer realidad este encuentro y por supuesto a quienes asistieron a mi presentación acerca de PySide! Gracias por haber esperado el cambio de horario

También las gracias a Camilo Astete por la polera KDE-cl.

Sin importar si es en Santiago o Punta Arenas, espero verlos en el próximo Encuentro Linux, una experiencia inolvidable.

openSUSE at FLISoL Chile

Hi you all!

As you already know, the Festival Latinoamericano de Instalacion de Software Libre event will be held this Saturday here in Chile.

In La Serena we are starting around 9 am at Universidad de La Serena campus Isabel Bongard, with plenty of fun talks and room for installations, I am more than ready to install our awesome green! =). By the way, I will be creating an ISO with SUSE Studio so everyone can grab it on USB devices.

Some talk topics we are presenting: KVM, Free Knowledge, Linux beyond the Desktop, and Contributing to openSUSE without being a developer.

I would like to thank Andreas and everyone at Novell who has been supporting the Ambassadors Program, shipping DVDs, Geekos, T-shirts that the audience really appreciates and do make a difference.

System services administration with YaST2.

This is a short tip for every new user of openSUSE out there.

Most major distros install and enable default services, such as CUPS, joystick, Cron, Network, and so on. But in the end, if you just do not need it, why keep it enabled? So I will show you how to disable services in openSUSE via the powerful YaST2 interface.

YaST is the installation and configuration tool for openSUSE, SUSE Linux Enterprise and the former SuSE Linux distributions. It is popular for its easy use and attractive graphical interface and the capability to customize your system quickly during and after the installation.

Run YaST, the Control Center, and click System>System Services (Runlevel).

Then, the System Services dialog opens up. There you can choose to use the Simple or Expert mode. I will go with the Expert one, and for this tip, I would like to stop and disable the CUPS service as I do not have a printer and it is no use to have it running.

To the very left-bottom corner there is a Start/Stop/Refresh button. Click it to see the following drop down element appear.

OK, I want to stop it now, so click that option, and I am informed about the new status for the CUPS service.

After checking that CUPS is no longer running, I need to disable it so it does not start automatically on startup. Check and click the Set/Reset button on the dialog’s  button, choose Disable the service.

Click OK and Yes to save the changes. Again, fast and easy with powerful YaST2.

De regreso en verde!

Bueno, la semana pasada realmente tuve una de esas semanas con openSUSE. Decidí alejarme del proyecto en cierta forma, mas no completamente.

Luego de un par de correos con la gente en Novell, y una que otra conversación por IM, decidí volver a mi ritmo anterior, pero con nuevas energias y nuevos objetivos. No hay por diligencia que la que se deja sin hacer y peor, a la mitad.

Configuring Dolphin’s Toolbar is just easy

One very known fact about KDE is its highly customizable environment. This time, I will show you how to add, remove, and change positions for Dolphin’s Toolbar.

Dolphin is KDE’s default file browser focusing on usability.  It’s main features are:

• Navigation bar for URLs, which allows to navigate quickly through the file hierarchy
• View properties are remembered for each folder
• Split of views is supported
• Network transparency
• Undo functionality
• Renaming of a variable number of selected items in one step

The default Dolphin looks like this:

I might say it’s very simple and useful compared to Gnome’s Nautilus. The times I have used Nautilus I have never been able to find the short way to remove some of its buttons so that gives Dolphin a cool advantage over the old Gnome file browser.

In order to modify the Toolbar, click Settings / Configure Toolbars. You will be presented the following dialog which is very clear. To the left every available actions and to the right every current action. You just use the arrows in between to move the buttons as desired.

In this case, I wanted to add the Open Terminal action, so inserted one separator and then looked up for Open Terminal in the list. Since I am not used to use Details and Columns actions, I just removed them from the current actions list, and also got rid of icons because that would be the default view.

Finally my customized Dolphin becomes this:

Translator for openSUSE Guides and Manuals

Today I joined the official Spanish Translation Team for openSUSE’s Guides and Manuals. Feels real cool to be part of this team, giving back even more than before!

The trunk is made up of the following components:

• Applications Book.
• Common Files.
• GNOME User Book.
• KDE User Book.
• Quick Start Guides.
• Reference Manual.
• Security Manual.
• Startup Manual.

The process is somewhat identical to the translation of normal packages in openSUSE. You get to see the .po files, download them, work hard to make them much consistent into your language, and then upload them easily with our Vertaal tool.

No flash (Adobe) plugin sound in openSUSE 11.2 (KDE)

I don’t know why, but this has happened to me more than once after installing the KDE version of openSUSE 11.2.

In order to make it work, I just open YaST as root, of course, and look up for the Sound seccion under Hardware. Once there, select the audio card and click the “Other” button (bottom right corner) and choose “Volume…” Modify PCM and there you go.

Have a lot of fun.

Awesome openSUSE 11.2 DVDs for promotion

Days ago I requested material for openSUSE 11.2 so I can promote it around here in Chile.

To my surprise, this time they’ve got double sided DVDs, 32-bit on one side and 64-bit on the other, feature that is absolutely great for any purpose (promotion, testing, installation, etc.). At first glance, the only missing part is artwork (discs are all silver, not a green on them), but honestly, I prefer features over design this time =), and I am not sure you can print anything on a double-sided disc.

Talking about the DVDs case, I’d made a couple changes if I could. First, the desktop screenshot on its back is too small if you wanted to check out details, yet not small enough to tell it’s the KDE Desktop (our default one this time). Second, and on the back side as well, the text area seems to have exagerated marigins to its top and left sides, and I’d use larger font size for certain text’s lines.

Besides those two details, I like the overall design much. As stated previously, having a 32/64 bit disc which can be run live or just installed right away is nothing but awesome.

Again, I would like to thank Zonker and everyone who has helped make this material truly world-class.

Have a lot of fun.

SSH access with Eclipse’s Remote System Explorer plugin.

Now I need to set up a developing environment for web-based projects on my notebook, which runs openSUSE 11.2.

First I check if I have the right ssh package installed, which is positive. Then I run Eclipse with my favorite Remote System Explorer plugin, and add the connection I need. That is just as simple as entering the connection name, your server machine, and username. Alright, that is the easy part of it.

Then I find myself trying to connect into my default test directory, getting the following error messsage:

Failed to connect sshd on “LOCALHOST:xx”.

Detail: java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused.

Ok then, I check and start the SSH daemon, and keep getting the same output.

Looking for answers at openSUSE’s Forums, I found much guidance and one which helped me solve the small problem. You need to allow the Secure Shell Server Service for the External Zone!. Select it from the “Service to Allow” combo, then restart your ssh daemon and there you go .