Manjaro Series: Couldn't Update

Finally... after a few months (maybe) I didn't boot into manjaro... I booted up and tried to update...

However, I was welcomed with "signature from "Name " is unknown trust" error....!!! wtfish!!!


Luckily the solution is easy and only took a few steps... thank to the manjaro forum.

Meanwhile.... still installing updates.... 1GB worth update ;p

Manjaro Series: Clean Up Disk Spaces

Over times, hard disk will be filled up with unused rubbish... Don't forget to run

sudo pacman -Sc

Claim your space!!

In case you're wondering which program eat up your precious disk, you could use pacgraph to visualize it in a simple way

pacman -S pacgraph

pacgraph -s -f /tmp/pacgraph && $BROWSER /tmp/pacgraph.svg

Manjaro Series: Installing MS Office 2007 fonts

This tutorial requires access to MSOffice 2007 installer to extract required fonts.

Firstly, you need to extract fonts from .cab file using cabextract. This program is available in AUR.

yaourt -S cabextract

Then extract the .TTF files into yaourt-tmpt-user/ttf-office-2007-fonts directory

cabextract --filter *.TTF /path/to/MSOffice2007/Enterprise.WW/EnterWW.cab

Next, run

yaourt -S ttf-office-2007-fonts

and..... you're done!!!

Good luck!!

Compare PDFs

Sometimes, we have different versions of pdf files which at some point lead to confusion.

Which one is the latest version?
What are the differences with version A and version B?

The lists go on and you feel like you want to bite your finger nail now......

Luckily, there is a free software, Diffpdf (Windows version) that can be easily used to compare your document side by side.

No instruction is needed to use this software. It pretty straight forward.

Arch Linux/Manjaro Version

diffpdf is available in the AUR. Installation is straight forward using command:

yaourt -S diffpdf

Other Method

Other than methods described above, linux user can also try method explained here.

pdftotext file1.pdf
pdftotext file2.pdf
kdiff3 file1.txt file2.txt

Happy "comparing"!!

Manjaro Series: Dropbox

You can install dropbox from AUR as detailed in ArchWiki

yaourt -S dropbox

As for my installation, dropbox popup for syncing didn't appear at all. So, I need to do some simple tweaking [via dropbox]. Run the following codes one by one:

cd ~ && wget -O - "https://www.dropbox.com/download?plat=lnx.x86_64" | tar xzf -

~/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd 

You should be prompted with dropbox welcoming screen and from here, you need to log in and select the desired Dropbox destination folder.

Upon completion, your Dropbox should be syncing and you can safely quit.

Now, you can restart your dropboxd from Internet->Dropbox

Finally we can remove unused our manual installation dropbox folder and tarball downloaded:

rm -rf ~/.dropbox-dist dropbox-lnx.86_64-2.6.7.tar.gz

You can enjoy your Dropbox happily ever after ~hopefully.

Manjaro Series: Font Rendering

After a while using Manjaro with infinality font rendering, I wanted to further improve font rendering on my Manjaro.

What I had done was simply:

1. Install ttf-ms-fonts, ttf-microsoft-tahoma, ttf-ubuntu-font-family [via here]
2. Add fonts.conf at HOME/USER_NAME directory [via here]
3. Change Appearance->Font to Ubuntu, Regular, 10

Wallaaaaa~!!! 

Happy "FontRendering"!!

LaTex Series: Tex @Manjaro

It is a remarkable experience to use Tex with my xfce-Manjaro. It took me sometime to work out the configuration before I could generate my first IEEE paper with Tex in unix environment.

What you need are:

• Tex Live
• Texstudio

To install Tex Live, I use:

yaourt -S gedit-latex

Then, you can run your first Tex doc with either

latex sample.tex

or

pdflatex sample.tex

It is difficult, however, to write a Tex document without auto-completion function which require deep understanding on each syntax. Texstudio (my favourite so far) did help me a lot. Easy to understand and simple to use. Installation is simple:

yaourt -S texstudio

You need to modify the command for latex, pdflatex and any other stuff for compilation. To configure latex and pdflatex, the steps are detailed below:

• Option -> Configure TeXstudio -> Commands
• Click open folder icon on latex and pdflatex -> Select latex and pdflatex in "bin/" folder

Now you can run your TeXstudio, write your first TeX conference/journal paper.


Happy "TeXing"

Manjaro-xfce 0.8.6 Installation Notes

Basic Installation

1) Installation was pretty straight forward. Either run it from CD/DVD or boot from USB.

2) To create Live USB, a few choices of software are available for free.
     -- USB Live Creator from pendrivelinux.com
     -- Unetbootin
     -- Linux Live USB Creator

3) All products did not provide Manjaro 0.8.6 as one of the choices in the selection list. Even some (Unetbootin if I'm not mistaken), did not even list Manjaro. For my case, I use Linux Live USB creator. Manjaro 0.8.5 was selected from the list and has been warned regarding the compatibility of the distro version. Just ignore the warning and the software will create your USB live based on Manjaro 0.8.5 settings. The creation of USB live only takes a few minutes. In case you want to use USB Live Creator, just select Arch Linux in the list. I think, there will be no problem [has not been tested].

4) In my case, I did dual booting along Windows 7. One thing for sure, I hate the fact that GRUB2 will overwrite windows MBR. Luckily, there is alternative and I have successfully install my 2nd OS without the need of replacing MBR with GRUB2 [1][2].

5) In [1], the author formatted one of the partition as FAT32. In my case, I skip this step. The partition of my laptop are as follows;

     -- /dev/sda1   [Primary Partition] [ASUS reserved partition. Windows 7 boot loader]  [NTFS]
     -- /dev/sda2   [Primary Partition] [Windows 7]  [NTFS]
     -- /dev/sda3   [Primary Partition] [Manjaro; root, GRUB2, swap file] [ext4]
     -- /dev/sda4   [Extended Partition]
     -- /dev/sda5   [Logical Partition] [My Data 1] [NTFS]
     -- /dev/sda6   [Logical Partition] [My Data 2] [NTFS]

6) Restart the PC and boot the USB live. Install from the launcher on the desktop.

7) In case you hate the CLI installer and want to run the installation process using terminal, type command below in terminal.

 sudo setup

8) For my case, I installed the Manjaro in /dev/sda3 together with GRUB2. I skip the creation of swap partition for later configuration using swap file.

Windows 7 Dual-boot Configuration

1) Reboot into the USB live once again.

2) Open the terminal and type the following command to copy the first 512 bytes of data from the Linux root partition into windows NTFS partition.

 dd if=/dev/sda3 of=/run/media/<user>/<partition-name>/linux.bin bs=512 count=1

3) Reboot your pc into Windows. Open command window as admin [type cmd in the search box, right click  on the cmd and select to "Run as administrator"].

4) Copy linux.bin file into the windows boot partition (e.g. C:)

5) Type the following command inside cmd window. You can change the "Linux" name to any other name that suit you.

 bcdedit /create /d “Linux” /application bootsector

6) The command will give an alphanumeric identifier (e.g. d7294d4e-9837-11de-99ac-f3f3a79e3e93) that will be referred to as ID in the remaining steps.

7) Type the following command in the cmd window. The command first specify the partition where linux.bin resides. Then, specifying the path to linux.bin file followed by creating an entry for booting list after "Windows 7" option. The timeout can be set to any number in seconds.

 bcdedit /set {ID} device partition=c:
 bcdedit /set {ID}  path \linux.bin
 bcdedit /displayorder {ID} /addlast
 bcdedit /timeout 15

8) If you want to delete the Linux option, you could do it by following commands. The first command will give you a list of IDs in the boot manager. Identify the ID and execute second command. [1][3][4].

 bcdedit 
 bcdedit /delete {ID}

9) Enjoy your newly installed Manjaro OS.

Post-installation Tweak

1) Make swap file [5].

2) Mount windows partition automatically using ntfs-2g and fstab [6][7]. The uid and gid can be found using the following command;

 sudo nano /etc/passwd

3) Font rendering tweak to make font look better. Use the general way as the easy way will give error result.

4) Setting NTP in Windows 7 to ensure time sync between OS. Ensure your Manjaro time is set to UTC

 hwclock --systohc --utc

5) Optimize battery performance [8][9]. TLP tweak works like a charm..... improved my battery life about double of times as to compared without it.

6) Script to test the battery usage during sleep/suspend mode.

7) Further Arch Linux fine tuning post-installation guide. See also part III and part IV

8) Japanese input

9) Install dmenu

 sudo pacman -S dmenu

10) Edit grub bootloader to allow "hibernate". For my case, using swap file requires some modification as follows [10][11][12][13]:

 sudo filefrag -v /swapfile

Note the physical_offset of the first line (e.g. 190464). Then, open the grub bootloader with command:

 sudo nano /etc/default/grub

Change the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="" to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="resume=/dev/sda6 resume_offset=190464". Then automatically regenerate grub gile with:

 sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub/cfg

Next is to add "resume" hook to mkinitcpio.conf:

 sudo nano /etc/mkinitcpio.conf

put "resume" before "filesystems" at the HOOKS: line:

 HOOKS="....... resume filesystems"

Finally rebuild the initrd image:

 sudo mkinitcpio -p linux39

"linux39" must be chosen accordingly by typing:

 ls -a /etc/mkinitcpio.d/

11) Install Slim

 sudo pacman -S slim
 sudo systemctl enable slim.service -f

Hardware :- Complete!

I'm very happy today.....

My effort for the past 1 month has not been wasted....

The circuit & hardware system just worked!!!

Well.... Give my self a BIGGGG HUGGG~!


~in the middle of running Manjaro xfce4 using live USB~
~in fact, writing this entry using built in firefox~
~decided to install on my laptop to use for entertainment purposes; no need to burden my CPU with unnecessary work~

~arrrh.... upgrading manjaro completed!! ~

~details on next entry~

Linux Series - Arch Linux

Since my last post <distro hopper?>, I rarely boot OS other than Win 7.

Yesterday, out of no where I felt like wanted to try Arch Linux. I'm sure I was reading somewhere on Arch Linux but couldn't found the memory which probably embedded deep enough in my brain.

Anyway, I spent my whole Friday doing the installation stuff.

I was wondering what is Arch Linux all about. Without much thinking, I started to download the ISO image and walllaaahh!!.... Virtual box installation.... USB live... and so on....

Basically, what I've learnt within about 36 hours is that..... Arch Linux is really cool....

If you want to control everything (~you could say everything) you want to put into your customized OS... then, Arch Linux might be the one suit you best...

I like ubuntu very much.... ever since version 7.04 if I'm not mistaken.... up until now.... So, I could say that I quite comfortable with debian base linux.. It just that... I want something new.... something that could give me the WoW!! thing like the first time I use ubuntu.... You know.... command line... terminal.... sudo stuff....

Well, I have successfully installed basic Arch Linux with Xfce4 Desktop Environment.... not really complete though.... Then I thought.... I don't have time for this... I mean.... stuff is really cool but you have to spend considerable time to learn something new..... pacman... yaourt.... packer.... systemd...

[pacman is very nice and I think I like it better than any other distro package manager that I have used so far.... ]

Then.... I googled the linux distribution ... finding the Arch Linux based distro... I still love and willing to learn more on Arch Linux.... I stumble upon Chakra and Manjaro..... Watched Chakra review on youtube... Manjaro as well....

It seems that Chakra does not suit me well... because the path they have taken that deviate away from the original Arch Linux motto....

Well.... now I have Arch Linux 64 and Manjaro 64 on my Virtual Box.... Frankly speaking... I like Manjaro... love it at first use.... Manjaro with Xfce4.... simple... fast.. clean... and geeky!! yeah...

XP, OS X, Mint, Arch Linux, Manjaro in action

[Manjaro] Updating with simple command:- sudo pacman -Su

How do I describe Arch Linux (~and its derivatives distro) in simple word....

Awesome

Booting from Grub

1. PC lama.... 
2. Installed with Fedora but forgot the password...
3. Cannot log in into windows due to blue screen crash
4. Cannot get into the BIOS
5. Always stumble upon the Grub menu
6. Try to boot from USB installed with Ubuntu 13.04
7. Follow the command below and successfully backup important data
8. At the GRUB menu, hit the C key to enter command mode

grub> root (hd0,0)   # first harddrive, first partition
grub> find /[tab]    # type the slash then press [tab], and it will try to list files on this partition
Error 17: Cannot mount selected partition   # Oops no file system here
grub> root (hd0,1)   # first harddrive, second partition
grub> find /[tab]
 Possible files are: lost+found var etc media ...   # That was my hard drive with my linux install
grub> root (hd1,0)   # second hard drive usually is the USB drive if you have only one internal drive
grub> find /[tab]
 Possible files are: ldlinux.sys mydoc myfile mystick syslinux.cfg  # Bingo, that's the USB stick

• Boot the drive by entering

chainloader +1
boot

[source]

Ubuntu 11.10

Semalam.... upgrade ubuntu 11.04 ke 11.10 .... semuanya berjalan seperti biasa... tetiba....

keluar window yang mengatakan aku hanya buat partial upgrade... eeeehhh!!??

so, aku bukak update manager and buat partial upgrade.... so far... everything so good.. until restart then aku dapat message yang ubuntu tak dapat nk set resolution ke pixel yang sepatutnya... so, aku tau laaa yang driver nvidia tu belum activate lagi...

pendekkan cerita... driver tu tak dapat nk di install dan aku search... punya search... search punya... dapat tau yang ini mmg masalah yang orang ramai jugak selain dari aku....

punya search lagi search.... aku install satu .sh file yang ada command utk install nvidia driver... unfortunately..  I think i have disrupt the grub menu and something else in the system.. before I went to sleep, the screen won`t boot into the system instead showing error in mounting the HD... arghh.. wtfish!!..

dengan bangganya.... aku tutup laptop and masuk tido... lagi best!!.. bila pulak lagi aku nk bukak external HD aku yang ada ubuntu tuh.. pasalnya kat laptop aku dia x mau boot.. kat laptop bini aku nk pulak... pilih kasih tol!!!..

padan muke aku ko ... install tak tengok tarikh articles dalam tenet tu publish biler...

Ubuntu Servers

At first..... i would say.... WoW!!!.. that's a lot....

 

Then I zoomed in our beloved Malaysia........and... ok... not so bad...

I am hoping the numbers would grow up and everyone will have conscious of how good it is to use open source software....