If you want to use KDE but don’t fancy installing Arch Linux I’d highly recommend Kubuntu 12.04.
Details of this release and download links can be found on the Kubuntu website.
Kubuntu 12.04 LTS Released
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Category Archives: Linux
Fix the delay after logging into KDE
Since installing Arch Linux and KDE I’ve noticed a delay after logging in to my PC (after log in but before the default welcome sound plays), after much searching on Google and the Arch Linux forums I came across a tip that certainly speeds things up.
All you have to do is delete pulseaudio.desktop from /etc/xdg/autostart
sudo rm /etc/xdg/autostart/pulseaudio.desktop
To be on the safe side, I would advise keeping a copy somewhere, for example
sudo mv /etc/xdg/autostart/pulseaudio.desktop $HOME/Downloads
You should then notice an improvement in startup time.
Change KDM mouse theme
One minor issue I had after installing Arch Linux and KDE was that the KDE display manager (KDM/login screen) did not use the default KDE mouse theme (Oxygen White), luckly this is very easy to fix.
Create a new file called index.theme in /usr/share/icons/default (typically the default folder does not exists, so you will need to create that too) and enter the following
[Icon Theme] Name = Oxygen White Comment = Oxygen mouse theme. Oxygenize your desktop! Inherits = Oxygen_White
If you do not what to the use the Oxygen White theme replace Oxygen_White with the name of your prefered theme (listed in /usr/share/icons).
Cannot edit user information in KDE
If you have used my guide on how to install Arch Linux and KDE then you may have noticed that you get the following error if you try to edit your user information using Account Details in the KDE System Setting:
An error occurred and your name had probably not been changed. The error message was: chfn: Permission denied.
To fix this, edit /etc/login.def and replace
CHFN_RESTRICT rwh
with the following
CHFN_RESTRICT frwh
Save and close the file, then you should be able to edit your user information.
Arch Linux ARM released for Raspberry Pi
While I wait for my Raspberry Pi to ship I have seen that my favourite (and first choice for my Raspberry Pi) Linux distribution is now available to download (torrent also available).
More information can be found on the Arch Linux ARM website.
The simplicity of Arch Linux make it the perfect OS (I feel) for the Raspberry Pi. Now, I just need my Pi to turn up.
Installing Arch Linux with GNOME
Following on from my Installing Arch Linux with KDE post, installing GNOME instead of KDE is very simple.
When editing the /etc/inittab file from the KDE guide, uncomment the gdm line and not the kdm one
# Example lines for starting a login manager #x:5:respawn:/usr/bin/xdm -nodaemon x:5:respawn:/usr/sbin/gdm -nodaemon #x:5:respawn:/usr/bin/kdm -nodaemon #x:5:respawn:/usr/bin/slim >/dev/null 2>&1
Installing Arch Linux with KDE
I’ve always kept an interest in Linux and I normally check out the latest version of Ubuntu, however after hearing so many good things about Arch Linux I decided to download a copy and give it a try.
The default desktop environment for Ubuntu has always been GNOME, so I decided to install KDE, this guide will step through what I did to install Arch Linux and then install KDE on my system.
I have used KDE before via Kubuntu, however I thought I would try Arch Linux becasue as they say, it’s a lightweight distrobution that keeps things simple
You’ve reached the website for Arch Linux, a lightweight and flexible Linux® distribution that tries to Keep It Simple.
This means I can install a clean copy of KDE and install only the applications I want.
Waiting (patiently) for a Raspberry Pi
I’ve been following the development of the Raspberry Pi pretty much since it was announced, and since then I have thought of numerous uses for a tiny, low powered, yet powerful and cheap (£16* without ethernet, £22* with) device.
My main reason is to run one as a media box plugged into my TV via the Raspberry Pi’s HDMI port, and last week the XBMC team released a video of their software running on a Raspberry Pi.
The Raspberry Pi is capable of decoding 1080p video and with it’s HDMI port make it a perfect media streamer.
The SoC is a Broadcom BCM2835. This contains an ARM1176JZFS, with floating point, running at 700Mhz, and a Videocore 4 GPU. The GPU is capable of BluRay quality playback, using H.264 at 40MBits/s. It has a fast 3D core accessed using the supplied OpenGL ES2.0 and OpenVG libraries.
Raspberry Pi’s should hopefully start shipping late Janusry, early Februrary 2012, and I cannot wait!
* Prices are an estimate based on current conversion rates.
Installing MiniDLNA on Arch Linux
I’ve been moving round Linux distributions recently and currently find myself using (and rather enjoying) Arch Linux.
As my article on installing MiniDLNA on Ubuntu is so far my post popular, I though I’d document how I installed and configured it on Arch.
There is a MiniDLNA package for Arch in the community reposotory, meaning it can be installed very easily via Pacman (the following commands have been run as root, add sudo to the beginning of them if you have installed and configured it)
pacman -S minidlna
Installing MiniDLNA on Ubuntu Server
When setting up my Ubuntu server I wanted it to be able to stream my media via UPnP/DLNA, I looked at a few solutions including MediaTomb and uShare, however I decided to go with MiniDLNA based on the fact that it was lightweight (my server isn’t the most powerful) and that I have a Western Digital TV Live which plays pretty much any file format meaning I didn’t need the server to transcode my media, MiniDLNA will quite happily however stream media to my other devices, like MP3′s and AVI’s (XviD/AC3) to my Xbox 360.
Installing MiniDLNA is available in the default repositories if you are running Ubuntu 11.10 and it can be installed by running the command
sudo apt-get install minidlna