Linux Mint

I'm a Debian user since a while and I like it, well of course sometimes it's a bit difficult for the not-geek user to work with it, you always have to install something that is not here, copy something that is not there and so on. Despite everything I like it a lot.

I've never tried Ubuntu but I know it's more end-user oriented and easier to install. A week ago a distro based on Ubuntu Gutsy (that is based on debian) was released, so I decided to give it a try on a usb stick live installation.

Its name is Linux Mint and I was honestly really surprised by the ease of use of it and by the richness of the basic system. It's very strong in multimedia support so when it comes to Java, flash and divx support you don't have to do anything just use it.

If you have time to invest give it a try --> Linux Mint

Very easy also to put it on your usb stick --> here

Debian sid, gnome-power-manager suspend/hibernate and a ThinkPad X31

In my process of getting the laptop ready to be used I ran in a little problem really annoying: gnome-power-manager wasn't able to suspend nor to hibernate the laptop.

Luckily (after half an hour of googling) I found this in gnome power manager mailing list.

Have a look at /etc/dbus-1/system.d/hal.conf and change the at_console="true" line to user="username_of_you". Then restart dbus.

And that made the trick :D

(I also added myself to powerdev group... you never know ;) )

adduser [myuser] powerdev

Debian etch on ThinkPad X31 via USB stick (for dummies like me)

I was trying to install Debian Etch from scratch on my ThinkPad X31 and since it doesn't have a cd-rom I had to use a usb stick.

I followed the steps on Debian Installation Guide.

Copying the files — the easy way didn't work for me... I was getting "Boot Error".

So I tried Copying the files — the flexible way and it didn't go any further.

Then I read this warning:

If your system refuses to boot from the memory stick, the stick may contain an invalid master boot record (MBR). To fix this, use the install-mbr command from the package mbr:

# install-mbr /dev/sda

Well ok that went a bit better... now I was getting this at boot:

MBR FA:

Actually it wasn't that self-explaining... So I had to take a step more: read install-mbr docs.

--enable , -e

This option sets the list of boot sectors which may be loaded (or advanced mode). A boot sector may be loaded from one of the first 4 partitions of the disk, or from the first floppy drive. Use --enable + to add a boot sector to the list or --enable - to remove a boot sector from the list. Use --enable = to set the list to . may contain:

1, 2, 3, 4 The specified partition number.
F The first floppy disk.
A Advanced mode (not a boot sector).

It didn't say much but it was a hint. Well in the end it worked like this:
at boot when it shows "MBR FA:" I pressed A and then was showing a more clear "MBR 1234FA:". So I pressed 1 (the partition of the USB stick was the first)... and hurrah it worked.

If this doesn't work yet for you... here's a full list of useful hints

webdav cadaver and SSL certificates

I ran today in a bit of a problem with cadaver (cmd line interface for WebDAV). I wanted to connect to a DAV share on a secure site that had a self-signed certificate and wanted to put the procedure in a script. Each time cadaver was asking to accept the certificate and this wasn't compatible with the fact of putting it in a script.
So after 1 hour of googling I found out that cadaver fetches the CA certs from an not well defined "ca-bundle.crt" file and that the version compiled in debian lenny (0.22.5-2) doesn't have it defined. And (what is worse) you can define the variable only at compilation time.

So if you run into the same problem. Just do this:

1) Get the cert:

echo "quit" | openssl s_client -connect host:port 2>&1 |\
sed -ne '/-BEGIN CERTIFICATE-/,/-END CERTIFICATE-/p' > cert

2) Added the cert to the certificates bundle file:

cat cert >> /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt

3) Get cadaver sources:

apt-get source cadaver

4) Recompile them with the right options:

./configure --with-ca-bundle="/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt" --with-ssl && make

5) Use the compiled version instead of the installed one in your script (or make install to install it)

midnight commander - key shortcuts quick reference

I have to admit: I'm not really an heavy user of midnight commander so I tend to forget the keyboard shortcuts and since you can't just try them (you can do something harmful to your files) I end up always looking for midnight commander key shortcuts in google.

Tired of doing it I copied the content of this page in a pdf and printed it... I thought maybe it could be useful to someone. So here it is

Code like a Pythonist

Wonderful pager with many hints on how to (properly) write consistent code in python.

Thanks to Tim Peters for sharing this precious document. really worth to take a look at it.

Meravigliosa pagina con molti suggerimenti su come scrivere codice in python.

Grazie a Tim Peters per aver scritto questo prezioso documento, vale davvero la pena di dargli un'occhiata.

Photogallery and django

Stockphoto it's a project that aims to offer "an easy way to add a photogallery section to a (django) website".

Still didn't test it and no screenshots available... so what to say... I'll try it :D

Time to backup your google data

Digging around I found this interesting post on how to backup your google data. I just stopped a moment and realized that practically all my life is being held in the hands of big G and if something happens to that little big server that is taking care of me... well... I don't want to think about it... :D

Girando per Digg.com ho trovato questo interessante articolo su come fare un backup di tutti i tuoi dati su google. Mi sono fermato un attimo e mi sono reso conto che particamente tutta la mia vita è nelle mani di big G e che se qualcosa dovesse succedere a quel piccolo grande server che si prende cura di me... beh... non voglio pensarci... :D