FC6 : New Fedora with AIGLX 3d graphic rendering!!!!

It's been quite a time since FC6 was launched. But I wasn't eager to switch from FC5 to FC6 assuming there weren't any great advancements over the previous versions. I was wrong! FC6 is way better. Even if we leave other improvements apart, it's Compiz Window manager that renders 3d video graphic effects is worth the pain of upgrading. 3D desktop is a revolutionary concept brought about by GLX, and other effects like wobbly windows etc add to it's charm. Fedora Core 6 "Zod" as it has been called by developers at RedHat features a new theme (DNA), a new default font (DejaVu)and an improved interface. YUM has been upgraded with a new notification applet. GNOME has been upgraded to 2.16, and KDE to version 3.5.4. One of the majore advancements for GNOME is that Compiz window manager has replaced the Metacity, and works in conjunction with the AIGLX desktop effects framework. Kernel has been updated to 2.6.18, and it automatically detects multi-core and multi-CPU systems and adjusts accordingly. X.org 7.1 now dynamically configures monitor resolution and refresh rates, and support for Intel Macintosh machines has been added. A new cluster manager tool has also been added.(lvm2-cluster). Anaconda can now access additional package repositories such as Updates and Fedora Extras, and users can install applications from these repositories directly during installation and Anaconda now supports IPv6 which is a major improvement.

So all in all this is must have upgrade and so far there haven't been any issues with it, so switch to FC6 asap!

Speech Recognition in Linux

One of the most interesting and powerful things about Linux is it's versatile set of libraries which are available for use. I was trying to find some good material on Speech recognition which is effective as well as open source. (It's known to all how bad Windows Sam is!).

I was literally overwhelmed with the kind of work being done by the open source community in this field. Many speech recognition libraries are available which work way better than ones I'd seen before.
FreeSpeech (also known as Open Mind Speech), Festival etc are very powerful libraries for speech recognition and are being developed furiously by open source group. Many of such speech recognition libraries have Fast Fourier Synthesis at thier heart. It is this mathematical wonder that packs the punch in them and makes them effective. Those who wish to get a feel of how FFT is used in Speech recognition might want to have a look at VoiceApp "a program to visualize sound waves via FFT". Nice thing to toy around with.

Though i must add that making all these libraries work requires quite an amount of proficiency to resolve tricky inter-library dependencies. Is this doesn't deter you, what are you waiting for! Get Started.

You can find more libraries here.

Do let me know if you proceed on this topic and come across some good libraries.

Making Freedom work in FC5.

In DA-IICT the firewall configuration forces us to use python in addition to freedom to bypass proxy, so some extra work needs to be done!
Python comes already installed in Linux distributions. All you need to do is this:
1. Copy as such your aps098 folder(or simply main.py and .cfg files) from windows in desktop.
Your proxy settings are assumed to be correct.
2. cd aps098/
3. Type: python main.py
4. Done. Python should be running now.(Don't close the terminal)


For freedom you just need a jar file of freedom which is easily obtained from your Program files/Your Freedom folder in windows.
1. Copy freedom.jar to desktop(linux).
2. Browse to desktop. (Make it your current directory)
3. Type: java -jar freedom.jar
4. Freedom should work if your java installation is proper.
5. Configure it as you do in windows.


Once you have got freedom working you can make "yum" updater of FC5 work by editing yum.conf.
1.gedit /etc/yum.conf
2.
Add these line at the end:
# The proxy server - proxy server:port number
proxy=http://localhost:8080
# The account details for yum connections
proxy_username=
proxy_password=

If everything goes fine you can successfully update your system via yum.

Few Basic Steps!

Here is the collection of basic softwares and libraries one needs to make FC5 installation capable of all activities(in fact much more!) we do in windows. The pdf mentioned in previous blog is a good guide for those who are not familiar working with commands.

-->Make sure you selected customised selection of softwares and packages to be installed while installing Fedora. Otherwise KDE will be missing!(Very IMP Evironment) and several other imp tools you might want to use.

Broadly you need to do the following:
1. Install java.(jre-1_5_0_08-linux-i586.bin)
(To make it usable by applications you need to do some more things)
Read fedora core installation notes pdf "Java" section to know how to do that.
Whole installation procedure is listed in pdf.
2. Install Microsoft Trutype fonts in Microsoft_Core_Fonts Folder.
(For those who have doubts regarding how to do that, refer the pdf.)
3. Install compatibility library namely, "compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-55.fc5.i386.rpm".
4. For Enabling NTFS mount install "kernel-module-ntfs-2.6.15-1.2054_FC5-2.1.26-0.rr.10.0.i686.rpm"
5. Multimedia codec Install: inside Multimedia Codecs folder.(It's a source file so you need to follow the standard source installation procedure.) Those who can't do it see detailed instructions in pdf.
6.Install Acrobat Reader:"acroread-7.0.5-2.2.fc5.rf.i386.rpm" from command line. Do get into habit of command line installation in FC5. You would frequently need it!
7. Install Mplayer First. It's Non-GUI media player(but very powerful) over which Kplayer would work.
8. Install KPlayer. You can play any file now.
9. Install Real Player.(BIN File)(Refer pdf)
10. Install VLC if you need. Though it needs a lot of libraries to be installed first.)
11. Once you have installed freedom, you can use gaim client already present in FC5 to log into your favorite messenger.

Get Going!
Hail Open Source!

An Excellent Guide on FC5!

First time Fedora users are sure to have some frustrating moments. But if handled systematically it all becomes easy infact. This installation gude helped me in braking most of the ice. It's a nice compiled help on fedora right from installing it to adding crucial components which make fedora work for you. Adding media capabilities, updating java and everything that you need to know to start with is contained in this.


http://stanton-finley.net/fedora_core_5_installation_notes.html

This will surely help a lot!


It's worth looking at this forum to sort ypur queries:

http://stanton-finley.net/forums/viewforum.php?f=2

Basic Commands in FC5

Here are some basic commands that one needs often but remembering them is quite tedious for a beginner. So here I post these for help:

to run a jar file:
java -jar

installing tar packages:
tar -zxvf

compiling source:
extract by tar then go inside the uncompressed dir, type

./configure

then:

make
make install

(after installation executable file goes to /usr/bin or usr/sbin

rpm installation from command line:
rpm -ivh

command for overriding dependencies:
rpm -ivh --force kplayer-0.5.3-0.lvn.1.3.i386.rpm

mounting ntfs partition:
mount /dev/hda5 /media/winxp -t ntfs -r -o umask=0222

For automount:
Edit your /etc/fstab permanently:

/dev/hdb1 /mnt/windows vfat umask=0000,dmask=0000,uid=0002,gid=users,users 0 0


or

/dev/hdc1 /mnt ntfs ro,defaults,umask=0222 0 0

/* don't forget to add a new line char at the end of line*/

starting smb:
chkconfig --list smb
/etc/init.d/smb start
or restart

ref: http://www.reallylinux.com/docs/sambaserver.shtml



list hard disks and partitions:
fdisk -l

make the file executable with the command
Code:

chmod +x /usr/bin/hello.py
chmod +x


Code:for compiling python files

python hello.py

the above method will work if you are in the same directory as the program. else do it like this
Code:

python /full/path/to/hello.py


adding new users:
run 'useradd jsmith' to create a login for him.

yo- set the password for this account (they can change it themselves later) - you can do this by running 'passwd jsmith'


The next thing you need to do is make a home directory for them. This will normally just involve running:

mkdir /home/jsmith
chown jsmith:users /home/jsmith

This creates a directory with the same name as the login account beneath the /home directory - then changes it to be owned by the user.

If you omit the 'chown' command the user will not have permission to save files inside their own home directory!

Have a nice day tinkering with Fedora!