Have Fedora and Ubuntu Left You Stranded? Here's Some Guidance

I use a removable "drawer" system on my home lab computer - one drawer contains Fedora 14 and the other contains Ubuntu 11. Both are behaving badly, though in different ways. Ubuntu 11 will not allow me to install ANY software - whether it be through the graphical software manager or via the command line "apt-get" utility. This happened after another partially failed automatic update. Fedora WAS working OK, except my Kdenlive video editor got irrevocably corrupted with the recent Firefox update debacle I wrote about a while back. See my posts during July-September 2011 for more details on recent LINUX and GNOME 3 issues. Yesterday, when attempting to burn a data DVD, the Brasero DVD burning utility crashed. No amount of re-booting or cajoling will make it work. I believe this also happened due to a software update, as it DID work shortly before Fedora issued a bunch of updates a couple days ago.

Thoroughly fed up, I am shopping for a new LINUX distro. I had planned to buy a Red Hat Enterprise LINUX (RHEL) or a Novel SuSE subscription to get away from the instability of what I have been using. I figure that what is geared for the corporate user would meet higher quality standards; at least I would have a phone number to call rather than spending hours online trying to find answers. As a grad student on a very tight budget, I find the $180+ price tag for a one year subscription a bit steep right now. And so I started looking anew for a suitable free replacement.

The following two sites were very helpful for doing a quick comparison of different distributions:

tuxradar.com
http://tuxradar.com/content/best-distro-2011

distrowatch.com
http://distrowatch.com/

After reading these sites and visiting a number of online forums, I have picked out the following three for closer evaluation and testing:
CentOS 6.0, Debian 6.0.1, LINUX Mint 11

My criteria were stability, security, availability of the applications I regularly use, AND last but not least a conservative approach to development and updates. Here's a quick rundown of the choices I narrowed the field to:

CentOS 6.0: CentOS is a clone of Red Hat Enterprise LINUX (RHEL). It is supposedly intended for "business users who don't want to pay a business price." From what the guy at Red Hat told me on the telephone a couple weeks ago, if I bought RHEL and needed software that wasn't in the RHEL repository I still could get it from the Fedora repositories. The Fedora repositories are a riskier bet, but at least they are available if needed. RHEL 6.0 still uses GNOME 2.0.x desktop - I would ASSUME CentOS does also, but I don't really know one way or the other. I'll deal with that in a future post about CentOS.

Debian 6.0.1: Debian is well known for being "tested 'till destruction", to quote a couple sources I've read. It IS more difficult for the average person to install, but from everything I read it is robust, secure, and reliable. Many different distributions are derived from it and there is a huge software library for it. Debian still uses GNOME 2.0.x desktop, according to what I've read.

LINUX Mint 11 LINUX Mint is in many ways like Ubuntu, but it is also a competitor. Like Ubuntu, it is a Debian-derived distro. Mint 11 uses GNOME 2.x, though this might change next year when Mint 12 or 13 arrives. There is discussion on their site about either using GNOME 3 or maybe forking GNOME 2.x to something called "Mate" desktop that would (hopefully) retain compatibility with GNOME 2. We shall have to wait and see. Mint 11 comes "out of the box" with Java and Flash plugins installed so you can watch you-tube videos and access Java applications online. VERY COOL. I have already started initial tests on this one - more to come in my upcoming MINT post.

All I can say about the eventual use of GNOME 3 is I hope the above-mentioned distros clean it up before foisting it upon us as did Fedora and others.

Even the US Air Force has developed its very own LINUX distribution! Called "LPS" for "Lightweight Portable Security", it is intended to be kept on a bootable USB thumb drive and uses an encrypted file system. It can also be installed to a hard drive as with any other distro. It is also designed to prevent corruption of the essential operating system and software files, even if an online session does get hacked. It comes with Open Office and some other goodies pre-installed. I'll likely check this one out, too - I rather like the rationale on which it was based. Below is the link for more info and downloads:

Air Force's Secure LINUX Distro:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/the-air-forces-secure-linux-distribution/9618

Stay tuned for results of my testing of the above-mentioned distributions.

Meanwhile, here are some links to articles I thought were useful for securing your LINUX system:

Some inside scoop on security
http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/73061.html

How to secure your LINUX system:
http://www.techradar.com/news/software/operating-systems/how-to-secure-your-linux-system-915651

SPIM In a LINUX Environment

In my last post I discussed MIPS 32 and the SPIM emulator for running MIPS 32 assembly code on your PC. Today I will briefly talk about how I got SPIM running in a LINUX environment. My earlier post is located at http://inkarlslab.blogspot.com/2011/09/spim-mips-32-bit-simulator.html

The problem I was having yesterday was in compiling SPIM on a Fedora system. I was getting this error message when running the makefile:

make: *** No rule to make target `../CPU/spim.h', needed by `spim.o'. Stop.

All the files were there and apparently in their proper folders, ...

I am still in communication with someone in attempt to get that figured out. The person helping me suggested I try installing the pre-compiled Debian binary. So I downloaded the 32-bit Debian file for QtSPIM from the following link:

SPIM MIPS Simulator Homepage - You can find more information and LINUX versions by going here.
http://spimsimulator.sourceforge.net/

I next unpacked it with the GNOME "File Roller" tool and extracted everything to the "SPIM" directory I had created earlier. Basically that's it. There are two ways to run QtSPIM from this installation.
Suppose you installed your "SPIM" directory in your home directory:

1) On the command line, simply navigate to the "SPIM" directory, then to "/usr", then to "/bin". NOTE that these /usr and /bin directories are NOT the same ones as are in your UNIX file system! Once you are in /bin, type qtspim to start the application, or

2) locate the SPIM/usr/bin folder via the GNOME desktop and click on the QtSPIM executable.



As you can see, QtSPIM is now running on a Fedora system. Having never tried to install a Debian executable on Fedora, I thought this was pretty cool.

SPIM: MIPS 32-Bit Simulator

SPIM is a simulator that allows one to run programs in MIPS assembly language on one's own PC. Many college courses in computer architecture and engineering teach MIPS assembly language as part of the curriculum. MIPS stands for Microprocessor without Interlocked Pipeline Stages, and is an example of a RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) architecture. MIPS is used in lots of embedded microprocessors, video game systems, some desktop workstations such as DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) and SGI (Silicon Graphics, Inc.), and many other applications. MIPS based chips can be found in hand held computers and cell phones. There are both 32 bit and 64 bit versions of MIPS.

This semester, I am taking a computer hardware and architecture course and am getting prepared for our first MIPS 32 programming assignment. We will be using SPIM. SPIM is written by James Larus. You can find more information and downloads at the links below:

SPIM Sourceforge Project Page - You can download the Windows version conveniently here.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/spimsimulator/

SPIM MIPS Simulator Homepage - You can find more information and LINUX versions by going here.
http://spimsimulator.sourceforge.net/

From my understanding of the documentation, the more recent versions of SPIM are apparently called "QtSPIM".

The LINUX downloads there appear to cater to Debian and Ubuntu users. I am currently in the process of finding out what is available for those of us who use Fedora and other distros. Last night I attempted to compile SPIM directly from the source code onto my Fedora system, but to no avail. There is a problem with the makefile that I am currently trying to resolve. I have contacted some people about it, so as soon as I find out what is going on with that I'll post it here. Meanwhile, in the interest of quickly getting something going for the class, I loaded QtSPIM to my Windows VISTA partition from the first of the two links shown above. Here is a screenshot:



Note there are two windows open. One is the "console" window that shows any results or dialogs when the program runs. The "Qt" window shows you your source code, registers, and other relevant information.

This promises to be quite an interesting semester. Will write more as things progress.

Form Should Follow Function: Designers of Anything, Please Read and Heed

Once in a great while, someone comes up with something not merely innovative, but truly revolutionary. A good example is the extended cab, a.k.a. "supercab", or "quad cab" pickup truck. Prior to this innovation, pickup trucks had zero room in the cab for storage of personal items and were decidedly uncomfortable to ride in. Yes, there were "crew cabs", but those are huge and ungainly beasts to park or maneuver - especially if it has the 8' bed. For those of us who don't need to haul 6 roughnecks out to work in an oil field, the "extended" cab is a great alternative: It offers the extra lockable and dry storage space, seating options, and breathing room that make for a much more comfortable and functional vehicle than a standard cab pickup. In short, the person who came up with this was a true thinker, a true innovator, who made a genuine improvement to a product that had not appreciably changed in decades.

Regarding computers, true innovation came with the GUI interface, the mouse, desktop and laptop form factors, ... All of these have made computing available and usable to most people - including non-techies. Laptops and wi-fi have brought a degree of mobility and functionality to computing not envisioned prior to 20 years ago.

Form should follow function - things don't work as well when we place form ABOVE function.

More recently, computer users have been barraged with many not-so-useful changes - ones I argue are mere changes to form that really don't amount to any improved functionality. Two glaring examples that come to mind are the new Firefox 4 and now 5 web browser and LINUX's GNOME 3 desktop.

Firefox 4+: Change for Change's Sake?
Over the past several years I have greatly enjoyed using Firefox for my web browsing in both Windows and LINUX environments. I loved have the same great web browser with the same settings and the same bookmarks both on my Windows PC at work and my LINUX machine here at home. As new software revisions of Firefox came and went, the basic layout and drop-down menus stayed pretty much the same. Starting with Firefox 4, however, they took away the toolbars and drop-down menus we have all known and used for years. Rather than being able to perform the upgrade to the next version and resume work, we now have to relearn where everything is. Furthermore I am reading online of many people complaining that their browser plugins no longer work in Firefox 4, and that Firefox 4 has memory leaks that weren't there in the 3.6.X releases.

Mozilla, I have just three simple questions for you:

1) How has the functionality of your product been improved in the latest 4.0 and 5.0 releases?

2) What do you intend to do as far as restoring the functionality of broken plugins that folks have used and come to depend on prior to this?

3) What (if anything) has been improved in FF5, and what is to be gained through the short revision/release cycles you mentioned in a recent press release? I'd love to hear the rationale behind this.

It's too bad that even Opera has fallen for this foolishness and changed their interface to match that of Firefox. Sticking with the tried-and-true "classic" format might have given them a boost in market share. Just because one entity does something does NOT mean the whole herd must follow!
When I was a kid and said "why can't I do _________? So-and-so gets to do it.", my mom would reply "Karl, if your friend jumped off a bridge or ran out in front of a car, would you do it too, just because he did?" There's a lesson in there; it's a shame more companies, institutions, and even individuals, haven't learned it.

GNOME 3 or iPhone?
Last week, I tested Fedora Core 15 LINUX 'live' CD release. Given the large number of bug fixes I have seen on FC 14, I'm sure there have been plenty of issues fixed in FC 15. GNOME 3 is the desktop environment that ships with FC 15. Again, as with Firefox 4.0+, they have removed the familiar drop down menus and replaced them with an interface that reminds me of an iPad/iPhone or an "Android" device. While this is cool on a hand held device, I really don't care for it on my desktop or laptop PC. It is also interesting to note that some folks have taken to "hacking" GNOME 3 in attempt to recreate the setup they had on GNOME 2. I'd have screenshots of GNOME 3's menus on this page, but they cleverly fixed the screenshot applet so that it won't work within the various menu screens when running from the 'live' CD.
Thank you - GNOME developers - That was truly "innovative".

GNOME Developers - I beg you to answer the following:

1) HOW will this change made my computing experience more productive v.s. GNOME 2?

2) Will these changes affect any of the applications I now run and depend upon to do my work?

Akin to Fake Plastic Pop Rivets
The changes to Firefox and GNOME I have described herein remind me of the fake plastic pop-rivets I'm seeing lately on new models of certain brands of pickup trucks. No doubt some misguided automotive designer thought these would give the truck a "tough" appearance that would appeal to a certain demographic. What I see is a bunch of phony trim that will collect all manner of dirt and crud, and be more difficult to wax - since one will need a Q-tip swab to dig these deposits out of all these unneeded crevices. I suspect that in northern climates where road salts are used the trim may even exacerbate body rust-through. Thus, it can be argued that even the function of the vehicle has been slightly impaired by the junk trim. At trade-in time these vehicles may even have a lower resale value due to their dated appearance that likely will NOT be in style by then.

As a graphic artist I know says "Form should follow function - therein lies good design."

The world would run much better if more people heeded that.

Test Of Fedora 14 'Live' CD Release

Last night, I decided to stay up late and try out the Fedora 14 live "Laughlin" CD release. I burned a CD from the iso file and booted my dual core machine to it. This machine is 1.8 MHz with 1 GB of RAM. Boot time was 1 minute 45 seconds. About typical in my experience for a CD ROM "live" run - booting from a CDROM and running the system entirely in RAM causes a bunch of latency you don't get in a "normal" installation. I figure a hard drive install will cut the boot time by about 2/3.




At two minutes, the desktop appeared as in the picture above. Fedora auto-detected my broadband connection, and Internet connectivity was easy and fast to set up. On checking the drop-down menu boxes, several things became apparent:


1) NO office productivity suite. Not surprising, as even as far back as Fedora Core 10, there was no office suite. I wonder if this has anything to do with the recent acquisition of Sun Microsystems and Open Office by Oracle. What WAS surprising to me was AbiWord wasn't even included. F.C.-10 at least included AbiWord.
2) NO GIMP - the GNU Image Manipulation Program. Not a huge problem, but past releases of Fedora had it and Ubuntu had it as of 10.04.
3) Firefox 3.6.10 - the most recent release - was included.
4) NO gcc, nmap, wireshark, or much else. What you are getting in the 'live' CD distro is a bare-bones system that will allow you to get online to download all the stuff you need for a decent system. As I found with Ubuntu 10, Ubuntu doesn't give you what they used to on the 'live' CD either. Would be interesting to try out a current Knoppix distro.

Subjective Impressions:
Once fully booted up, performance seemed average compared to my current Fedora hard drive installation. Online browsing with Firefox worked well with no apparent glitches. A browser window can be seen in the picture here.



Older, slower PIII system test:
Next, I tried the CD in my 800 MHz PIII 'coppermine' machine with 1 GB of RAM. This system normally runs acceptably well with an old Ubuntu 8.10 installation, but would NOT win any speed awards.

The first attempt at booting hung at two minutes into the game. I rebooted the machine and after four minutes got the desktop. While the mouse cursor moved about the desktop OK, the response when selecting menu items was extremely sluggish - to the point of being unusable.

This may NOT have been a fair test. I suspect it is developing some hardware issues; it does occasionally hang when booting Ubuntu 8.10. This was NOT a problem back in early 2009 when I first configured that system with Ubuntu 8.10, but it is increasingly so now. Another item I noticed is there were several error messages seen early during both boot attempts.

I don't have another working PIII system to test with, but I suspect FC-14 would work OK on this platform given more RAM (2 GB or more) and reliably functioning hardware.

Fedora Core 14 LINUX

I recently downloaded the latest Fedora LINUX "live" CD release - Fedora Core 14. Hopefully within the next week or so I'll be able to actually test it. When that happens, I'll post the results and a couple screenshots here. Meanwhile I've been tied up with doing pre-winter maintenance on my truck, along with handling some other urgent personal matters.

Here is the link to the release notes for Fedora 14:
http://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/Fedora/14/html/Release_Notes/index.html

Get your very own copy of Fedora 14 here:
http://fedoraproject.org/en/get-fedora

If you want to try the desktop upgrade feature, you will need the "PreUpgrade" application. Go to http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Upgradingfor more info.

In other news ...
I also plan to download and test out the new release of Ubuntu. Ubuntu has apparently switched from the traditional GNOME desktop to a new one. It will be interesting to see how that works.

HP Printer Support in LINUX

Last week I got around to fixing my printer issues on my Fedora box. As mentioned in a recent post, I had problems getting the HP printing software installed and working. As I also mentioned in a recent post, before trying to install applications or plugins, one should first apply ALL available and relevant system updates. Waiting until later to do this cost me much time and aggravation. There were updates to the CUPS printing software and other parts that were needed for the Laserjet printer or Open Office to install successfully. Once those updates were in place, I was able to quickly install the HP printing software and Open Office and get on with life.

Herein I will detail how I got printing enabled on my LINUX system, including hard-to-find but critical information on getting it to work on Fedora SE LINUX.

For those of us who own HP printers, there is a third party application called "HPLIP". This stands for "HP LINUX Imaging and Printing" and allows support for both printing and scanning. The following link will take you to the page where you may download HPLIP and also verify that your printer is supported:

http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/index.html

The download link will take you to another page where you will select your LINUX distribution and version, the printer type and model. Once you do this you will be given the correct version for your setup.

The following link tells you in excellent detail through words and screenshots how to run the HPLIP installer and what you will see on your screen at each step.

http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/install/install/index.html

BEFORE Installation:
BEFORE installing HPLIP, make sure your printer is DISCONNECTED from the computer!! The installer will prompt you when to connect the printer.
You need to be connected to the Internet during the entire installation, as your system will likely need to download other stuff to resolve dependencies. You will run the installer from the command line as detailed in the installation instructions.

Ubuntu:
Since the install instructions page shows a Ubuntu installation, things should proceed as in the pictures.

Installing on SE LINUX:
Fedora is quite similar to a Ubuntu installation EXCEPT you FIRST must disable the "SE" or "security enhanced" functionality in order to carry out the installation. [Your system will give you a message on the command line to this effect - this is NOT detailed in the step-by-step procedure shown in the above link]

Do the following:
1) Select the "SYSTEM" menu at the upper left-hand corner of your screen.
2) Select "Administration" ,
3) Choose "SE LINUX Management" from the drop-down menu that appears. You will be prompted for the root, or superuser password.
4) A window entitled "SE LINUX Administration" will appear within a few seconds.
Under "Status", you will see "system Default Enforcing mode", "Current Enforcing mode", and "system Default Policy type". Under "Current Enforcing Mode", select "Permissive".
5) Under "File" menu, select "quit" to log out of "SE LINUX Administration".

Once this is done, follow the instructions at the link above. The installer should do its thing.

Completing the Installation:
You should notice a blue "HP" logo in the upper right-hand portion of your screen.

You MAY be prompted to reboot or log out, then log back in.
If that is the case, you will need to run a "hp-setup" command from the command line to finish the installation. If you are running Fedora, you may need to disable SE functionality again as you did above. At this point, a dialog window will appear. This is the configuration window for setting up your printer. You will see a form to enter the printer name, description, and location [office, lab, ...]. Your system will search for a driver and should automatically download what it needs.

Select the "Print Test Page" button - if all has gone right you should be rewarded with a printout of the HPLIP test page.

IMPORTANT Fedora SE LINUX settings for Printing
After installing HPLIP, you should go back into the "SE LINUX Administration" menu and reset the "Current Enforcing Mode" to "Enforcing". Failure to do this will leave your system vulnerable to attacks!

In order to keep SE LINUX's "Current Enforcing Mode" set to "Enforcing" and STILL BE ABLE TO PRINT, do the following:
1) In the "SE LINUX Administration" menu, select "Process Domain"
2) Find "cupsd", cupsd_lpd", and "cups_pdf" - mark those "permissive" by clicking on each one and selecting the yellow "permissive" triangle symbol right above the list.
3) Click on the "file" menu, slect "close" so that the settings are saved and you are logged out of the "SE LINUX Management" menu.
4) Open a text file on your system and try printing it - it should print now even with "Current Enforcing Mode" set to "Enforcing".

You've just Installed Fedora Core LINUX 10,11,12, or 13: What to do now.

Before trying to install any new software or fix any problems, assuming you have internet connectivity, you need to apply any available system updates FIRST. Doing this can save you much time and headaches!

Some of the instructions you'll find posted online for doing this are out of date and actually apply for Fedora Core 9 or earlier. I think in some cases whoever 'wrote' the instructions simply copy and pasted text from the instructions for earlier releases.

Here's how to do it:
1) Run the software update viewer tool - look under the "System" menu, then under "Administration". Select "Update System" from the list. Running this will generate a list of software and files that can be updated.
2) At the very least, apply the security updates immediately.
3) Update any applications that you are having problems with. For example, if you are having problems getting your printer to work, and your printer IS supported, check the list for an update to CUPS or any of its libraries.
4) Beware of anything on the list you did NOT install. Mine listed some updates that don't even apply to me - for example, I do NOT have Apache HTTP server installed on my workstation machine, nonetheless there were a couple updates listed for Apache web server. I ignored those, as installing them will cause yum or RPM [the package manager] to "resolve" dependency issues by installing Apache - which I DID NOT WANT on this machine!

NOTE: Some versions, such as Fedora 10, had problems with the software updater which caused the graphical updater to "error out" - reporting "No network connection available". This happens even though you can surf the 'Net using your browser. This is a known problem covered on www.linuxquestions.org, and many folks apparently have NOT been able to fix it. If you are experiencing this, one workaround is to go down the list and install each update via the command line. Do the following:

su -
yum update [package name as listed]
NOTE - do NOT use the [ ] symbols when you type the command.

For example, say you want to install the library to access the contents of an ipod. Do the following:

su -
yum update libgpod-0.7.0-1.fc10

In this case, the "fc10" at the end indicates the package is for Fedora Core 10.

Note the package "gedit-1:2.24.3-3.fc10" has a number followed by a colon. When yum'ing for the package, you want to delete the colon and the number before it, as those will result in an error. I figured this out through experimentation - NOBODY I visited on the 'Net mentioned this.

So, say you want to update gedit to the following package - gedit-1:2.24.3-3.fc10.

Do the following:

su -
yum update gedit-2.24.3-3.fc10
As above, the "fc10" at the end indicates the package is for Fedora Core 10.
See how I dropped the 1 and the : after it?

As of this writing, Fedora is up to #13. If you are using 11, 12, or 13, your filenames will all end with .fc<11,12,or 13 - whatever your version is>

Fedora Complaints and Pet Peeves:
As I mentioned in a previous post, some of the repositories that are mentioned on other's web sites don't appear to work. I'm still in the process of hunting down repositories for some of my needed add-ons and plugins. As I find these I'll try to list those in future postings to this blog.

After a whole evening of not being able to find the gtstreamer plugins needed to update Totem player to handle MP3 files, I simply downloaded and installed Audacious - an application eerily similar to the old XMMS player. Works quite well and only took me a few minutes to get it.

The same issue with Totem gtstreamer plugins has so far prevented me from watching my DVD movies using Fedora.

I and quite a few other folks are having problems getting Open Office to work on Fedora. As soon as I find out anything definitive on this I'll post it.

My final complaint is with printing: My printer works fine with Ubuntu using the HPLIP printing software and drivers available online from sourceforge. Fedora, on the other hand, sees the printer but will not print to it. Am still working this issue as of this writing.

Downloading Fedora and Ubuntu LINUX: Verifying Checksums

For the last couple weeks I have had severe problems with my internet provider, and have not been able to post here. As you may have read in one of my earlier posts, this is not the first time. This week, I finally switched to a new ISP with broadband. Hopefully these folks will provide better and more reliable service. Thus far, it certainly promises to be faster than the other one.

Now that I have reasonably fast access, I decided to update my LINUX boxen to the latest releases. Since I run both Ubuntu and Fedora, I downloaded the current releases of both.

Checking File Integrity
When you download a LINUX distribution, or other software for that matter, it is good practice to use the checksum data, if supplied, to verify that your file is intact. This helps make sure the file wasn't corrupted during the download and that hopefully it hasn't been tampered with.

As a service to my fellow Ubuntu and Fedora users, I decided to post some instructions for doing this. Hopefully it will help someone.

For Ubuntu:

The following link offers helpful information:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToMD5SUM

In summary, here's what I did to check mine:

1) For the MD5SUM file, go to http://releases.ubuntu.com/, select the release you are interested in, then scroll down to the bottom of that page to find the MD5SUMS file. You can also find cd .iso files there to download.

2) Download the appropriate checksum file to the directory where you downloaded the cd .iso file to.

3) After downloading the md5 file [for Ubuntu 10.04 in this case], run the following from the command prompt:
md5sum ubuntu-10.04-desktop-i386.iso

You will (should) get an output such as this:
d044a2a0c8103fc3e5b7e18b0f7de1c8 ubuntu-10.04-desktop-i386.iso
Check this against the checksum file and make sure all the digits match.

Note that this also matches this line from the checksum file I downloaded:
d044a2a0c8103fc3e5b7e18b0f7de1c8 *ubuntu-10.04-desktop-i386.iso

This shows the .iso file matches the md5 checksum and so is probably not corrupted or been tampered with.

What I like to do is copy and paste these sets of numbers into a text file like this:
d044a2a0c8103fc3e5b7e18b0f7de1c8 *ubuntu-10.04-desktop-i386.iso
d044a2a0c8103fc3e5b7e18b0f7de1c8 ubuntu-10.04-desktop-i386.iso

This makes it easy to visually compare the two strings WITHOUT making yourself cross-eyed :)

If the strings match, you're good to go!! If not, then either your downloaded .iso is corrupted, or else you may be using the wrong checksum file.


For Fedora:

Fedora now does something different from the traditional md5sums command. They use something called sha256sum.
Here's how to do it:

First, you will need the appropriate checksum file for your .iso file.

For Fedora 13 checksums, go to
For 32 Bit, go to https://fedoraproject.org/static/checksums/Fedora-13-i386-CHECKSUM

For 64 bit, go to https://fedoraproject.org/static/checksums/Fedora-13-x86_64-CHECKSUM

For "Live" 32-bit desktop cd, go to https://fedoraproject.org/static/checksums/Fedora-13-i686-Live-CHECKSUM

For "Live" 64-bit desktop cd, go to https://fedoraproject.org/static/checksums/Fedora-13-x86_64-Live-CHECKSUM

Download and save the appropriate file to the same directory you downloaded your cd or DVD iso file to.


To check your downloaded iso, go to the command prompt and do the following:

1) Import the gpg keys by doing:

$ curl https://fedoraproject.org/static/fedora.gpg | gpg --import

2) Go to the directory you downloaded your iso file to.

3) Type the following command:
sha256sum -c Fedora-13-i686-Live-CHECKSUM if you are doing a "live" desktop cd, or
sha256sum -c Fedora-13-i386-CHECKSUM if you are doing the DVD or the several CD set.

You SHOULD get something like the following output if everything is OK:
Fedora-13-i686-Live.iso: OK

If you don't, then either your downloaded .iso is corrupted, or else you may be using the wrong checksum file.

Hope this helps someone.

Have fun!

Getting JAVA to work in Firefox 3.66: The REAL Scoop

Recently, my Ubuntu LINUX box - a 2.4GHz P4 - suffered a catastrophic hardware failure. I will have to replace the motherboard, CPU, and memory. I have a dual-boot system with Windows VISTA and Fedora LINUX which I set up for experiments and for work on my graduate school classes. The Fedora box lacked some of the software I needed for email reading, listening to MP3s, ... that I did on the Ubuntu box. So under duress I scrambled to set it up to handle the slack.

After an evening-long battle, I have finally gotten most of the software installed that I need for important everyday business. Other than updating Firefox to the latest version (3.6.6 as of this writing), one of the most basic requirements is JAVA, since so many web sites use it extensively.

In order to get JAVA running in the Firefox browser in a LINUX environment, you need to add a symbolic link (symlink in IT speak) in your /usr/mozilla/plugins directory. In the past, the file one wanted to link to was libjavaplugin_oji.so. That all has changed, but most sites on the Internet have NOT caught up with the times! The file you NOW want to make your symlink to is libnpjp2.so.

Use the format of the instructions you read everywhere else, but you can generally use this default path to link the proper file:
/usr/java/jre1.6.0_20/lib/i386/libnpjp2.so
If your JAVA runtime engine is installed in another directory, or is a different version, modify the path accordingly.

Here's what to do:
Using the command line, navigate to your /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins directory (usual default path), su to root, and type the command seen below.
ln -s /usr/java/jre1.6.0_20/lib/i386/libnpjp2.so

As stated earlier, if your JAVA is installed in a location different than /usr/java, or if you are using a different release of JAVA, modify this command accordingly.

Then do a "ls" command and make sure the libnpjp2.so symlink appears.

Once this is done, you need to test your installation to make sure it works. Go to Sun's Java Test Page. Click on the link to verify your JAVA version. If all is working correctly you should get a message confirming what version of the JAVA runtime engine you are running.

MANY, many thanks to Albert Hayr for this information! You can reach his site here.

In a future post I'll cover which repositories actually DO have the plugins for MP3 playing. I'm finding that there's considerable wrong information on this as well.

See my update to this article here: ORACLE Java Issues.