Radio W4KAZ

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Linux Tinkering

The latest version of Ubuntu(v10.4) came up as an option in the updates.  Went ahead and let it install and the upgrade was very smooth.  One moment of head scratching due to a query window regarding options for the upgrade to the “Grub” boot loader, but everything seems to have worked.  The transition was mostly seamless.

The upgrade process did not seem to make any changes to the LAMPP install, which was a good thing.  Shoulda backed up the config files in there, but didn’t – so its good that the install went so smoothly.

Been tinkering with bash scripting, which for the most part is easy to pick up. I’m still a Linux mega-noob, but I can see why programmers like it.  I wish Linux had been at this level 12 years ago.  The folk working on the Ubuntu distro have done a lot of good things to improve the ease of use and ease of install issues – a commendable acheivement. Still having issues with networking to the windows boxes, which is certainly due to the dumb user.[Linux can access the WinXP shares, but not Win7, and no Win flavor can access Linux.]

I can see becoming accustomed to Linux for daily tasks, except for the few pesky windows apps which have no serious alternatives on the Linux platform.  Like a fully functioned contest logging program – at least that I have found.

N4AF has been tinkering with the port of TR to windows, TR4W.  Not sure that’s the first choice for me.  I know that SD is supposed to work in Linux under WINE, but SD may be a bit too bare bones for the things I like in a contest logger.  Time to start experimenting more seriously with Linux.

4 comments to Linux Tinkering

  • Hi Kaz –

    a few items you may be interested in-
    as long as you have windoze in your multi-boot scheme (I am up to 5 o/s under grub2), you might consider Macrium Reflect backup.
    Altho I bought it, the free edition works great. More germane:
    it will back ALL your partitions. Two of mine are EXT4, he handles them fine. I have restored from reflect many times.
    I have a couple other backup solutions, but MR is hard to beat for mix of windoze and linux distros (must run it from windows, the the restore is from standalone linux disk).
    I have compared MR to linux FSarchiver and compressed image size fairly comparable.

    RE: TR4W. Alas, you will no doubt end up with TR4W. I can give you a long list of negatives. But the best there is. Also, most of my complaints are RE: SO2R.
    OTH, you may wish to also look at the trial WinTest (wine). Might be a better fit for you.I think you can google ‘wintest linux’.
    RE: TR4W,
    Unless you get lucky, you need to review WineHQ bug #20265 on TR4W. I put a circumvention in, but presently waiting on development for
    a permanent fix. Also, you will need to Symlink your USB. Sumpin like
    ln -s /dev/ttyUSB0 ~/.wine/dosdevices/com6
    where you tell linux how to access your usb serial adapter. I seem to recall WT documents how to do a similar USB setup.

    Best of luck & hope you keep working w/ Linux.

    73, Howie N4AF
    p.s. I HIGHLY recommend CQRLOG, but think you already know about it.

    • Hi Howie,

      Thanks for the tips. The backup option is something I really need to add to the mix. I’ve been muddling by with data only backups – it sure would be nice to be able to just grab the entire partition. Its also more feasible now that storage is getting so inexpensive. And with so many boat-anchor computers floating around, its pretty easy to hack together a cheap NAS solution. Yet another fun experiment…..

      My current level of distractions is pretty high, so I don’t know how much effort I’ll put into it immediately. That’s what this stupid blog is really about – saving these “hints and kinks” in a search-able format. The gray matter has become too porous. [literary reference: Entering the declining stages of Charlie Gordon from “Flowers for Algernon”. I still remember when I was smart…..]

      Alan mentioned having config problems with TR4W when you tried it out for the Russian DX in a multi op. At least a multi op situation is unlikely if I decide to give it a shot. I think I will need to migrate to a winkeyer soon. The USB port makes sense, but it is currently hard to home brew that sort of solution.

      Tnx es 73 de w4kaz

  • FB Kaz.
    Certainly know what you mean about forgetting stuff !

    I tend to use Macrium reflect to a tb usb drive that can be moved between pc’s.
    Clonezilla b/u also works great BUT the ‘beginner mode’ sets you to multi-core mode (-zip) and, at least for my hyperthread pc, saturates the cores. Going to expert mode and setting for something like z3 compression seems to fix that.

    I have been experimenting with different files systems on Linux and concluded that the ext3 seems optimized for general desktop usage. Also there are some ancillary issues with ext4. Very easy to use the fsarchiver backup software to change f.s. tho.

    Working with Dmitriy on a few so2r type problems but tr4w is worth the shot. It, basically, should work out of the box after you tell it about your type of tcvr and ports (you may also need to initially give it a nudge via ctl-alt-f1 followed by ctl-alt-f7 (wine bug, which also keeps one at wine 1.0).

    BTW, the new Ubuntu 10.04 seems like a winner.

    73, Howie

  • Wanted to document a cool add-on to linux filesystems.
    This allows me to manipulate host filesystems like they were mounted locally–without paying for SSH.

    If you have ISP(s) but do not have ssh support, then http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSHFS
    is for you !

    Allows you to mount your host as a mounted filesystem. Waycool.

    73, Howie

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