PCLinuxOS 2009 Finaly Arrive!

After a long wait and long sleep of the team a new version is finally out!

The Ripper Gang is pleased to announce the final public ISO release of PCLinuxOS 2009.1.

This release features kernel 2.6.26.8.tex3, KDE 3.5.10, Open Office 3.0, Firefox 3.0.7, Thunderbird 2.0.0.14, Ktorrent, Frostwire, Amarok, Flash, Java JRE, Compiz-Fusion 3D and much more. We decided to use kde3-5-10 as our default desktop as we could not achieve a similar functionality from kde4. We will however offer kde4 as an alternative desktop environment available from the repository once we stabilize it. PCLinuxOS is an rpm based distribution utilizing apt-get with a Synaptic Software Manager frontend. In addition to the above PCLinuxOS comes with mklivecd GUI, a nice utility to build a custom live CD from your install. Install or remove what you want then remaster your own cd. Great for backups or to give to friends. PCLinuxOS is also known as as rolling release distribution. What that means is you install once and update it when new applications become available from our repository.

Special thanks goes out to gettinther, Sal, Linuxera, Neverstopdreaming, Davecs, gri6507, Stumpy842 and etjr. Also to Enki Consulting for hosting the website and ibilio.org for hosting the software packages.

Download Links


Also the pclos-gnome team are proud to the announce the 2009.1 release of pclos-gnome.

Featuring: kernel 2.6.26.8.tex3, Gnome 2.24.3, Mozilla Firefox 3.0.7, Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0.0.17, Gnome office apps, Brasero, Gnome Power Manager, Exaile Music Player and many more!

Almost 2.5 gigs of software compressed on a single self bootable livecd that can be installed to your hard drive provided it is compatible with your system and you like the distribution. Over 8000+ additional packages available after hard drive install through the Synaptic Software Manager.


More Information

PClinuxOS 2008 MiniMe Remastering

When You start on PCLOS latest distro which is PCLOS 2008 MiniMe and start updating the latest package. for some reason the Make LiveCD on System menu does somehow doesnot work perfectly there is a quick solution for it.

1. fireup you console/terminal
2. switch to SuperUser using "su" command
3. Enter SuperUser Password
4. then just type "mklivecd --nodir ^/media,^/backup,^/home --fstab rw,auto --splash verbose --ufs unionfs --bootloader grub livecd.iso"

thats it happy remastering ^_^

How to Make a PCLinuxOS 2008 MiniMe Flash drive in Windows

CD and then booting from the CD to perform the USB flash drive install from another iso. We really like the latest release of MiniMe from PCLinuxOS and think you will enjoy it as well.

PCLinuxOS MiniMe 2008 is simple, small, clean and works very well on a USB flash pendrive.

Update: the fixMiniMe script now moves the extracted files to the flash drive automatically. It has been tested to work in both XP and Vista.

PCLinuxOS 2008 MiniMe Screenshot:

Essentials for installing MiniMe 2008 from Windows:

• PCLinuxOS MiniMe 2008 ISO
• fixMiniMe3.exe (does the USB conversion)
• 512MB or larger USB flash drive (we used a 1GB stick)
• A Windows host PC to perform the build
• HP USB format tool (optional)
  

How to install MiniMe 2008 on a flashdrive using Windows:

1. Download the HP USB format tool and format your stick using a Fat16 or Fat32 file system
2. Download and run fixMiniMe3.exe, a MiniMe folder is created
3. Download the PCLinuxOS MiniMe 2008 ISO and copy it in the MiniMe folder. More Download Links for the ISO can be found HERE
4. From your MiniMe folder, click fixminime2.bat and follow the onscreen instructions
5. Reboot your PC and select your USB device from the Boot Menu or system BIOS and proceed to boot MiniMe from your USB device

If all goes well, you should now be running MiniMe from a USB flash drive!

Creating the file for saving your changes (persistence):

1. Boot your PC from USB MiniMe 2008 and login as root
2. Open Konsole and type fdisk -l and locate which device is your flash drive
3. type mkdir minime && mount /dev/sdx1 minime (replacing x with your flash drive letter)
   
4. type dd if=/dev/zero of=minime/changes bs=1M count=256
5. type echo 'y'|mkfs.ext3 minime/changes
6. Reboot your PC and enjoy having the ability to save and restore your changes on every boot

This info is brought to you by http://www.pendrivelinux.com/ there is also a lot of info there about installing other linux distros to your pen drive so check it out ^_^

Thanks Again to http://www.pendrivelinux.com/

Tweaking your wireless on PCLinuxOS

Sometimes wireless card is troublesome to install. but there are always solution for it. here's mine

1. first is to know that kind of wireless device installed on your system. Have a copy of the drivers and save them to your hard drive. (for example im using a BCM4318 or Broadcom, BCM4318 Airforce)
2. open your text editor available and open /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist (note: must be a SuperUser to access or edit it)
3. go to the last line and input the following

#broadcom native driver

blacklist bcm43xx (bcm43xx is the device code for bcm4318)
4. save & close
5. open up terminal on SuperUser mode
6. type "rmmod bcm43xx" (or the device code you put on the blacklist)
7. type "rmmod ndiswrapper"
8. type "modprobe ndiswrapper"
9. type "ndiswrapper -l" (this give the list of wirelesscard installed on you linux system)
10. remove all of them one by one using "ndiswrapper -e" Example: " ndiswrapper -e Wsd33x" (wsd33x is the device code sample)
11. after removing them try checking by type "ndiswrapper -l" again
12. go to the directory where your driver is saved. Example "cd /home/yourusernamehere/drivers"
13. type "ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf" (note: this command will install the driver to your ndiswrapper using the .inf file {bcmw5l.inf is the file which is located on that folder} )
14. type "ndiswrapper -l" to check if it is properly installed
15. type "ndiswrapper -m"
16. restart your system and reconfigure wireless card to the PCLinuxOS Control Center.

after that lets hope it works perfectly fine ^_^

Thanks for phil0083 of the PCLinuxOS and Rayman411 of http://www.linuxquestions.org

is my instructions are not understandable go here
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-wireless-networking-41/how-to-for-the-bcm4318-airforce-one-card-473194/

My most required Program in PCLinuxOS

here are the following Programs/Application that is on my list when ever install PCLinuxOS

1. Pidgin
2. Openoffice.Org (office program needs)
3. Web Browser (FireFox)
4. Mplayer
5. Frostwire
6. Adobe Flashplayer
7. Adobe Acrobat Reader
8. Ktorrent(BitTorrent downloader/uploader)
9. GIMP (GNU Image Manilpulator Program)
10. Kuickshow(fast photo/image viewer)
11. Amarok
12 TiMidity++
13 K3b (CD/DVD Burning tools)
14. Realplayer
15. rar & unrar
16. beryl
17. Audacity(Audio manipulating program)
18. devede (VCD/DVD movie maker/recompiler)

other dependencies
1. avifile-win32
2. avifile-xvid
3. samba
4. win32-codecs-all
5. LAME

for kids
1. tuxpaint
2. tuxtype

Pidgin NoSound Solution

For some reason, Pidgin, do give a sound output to your computer even though the sound card and drivers works perfectly.

the best solution for that is do the following.

1. In Pidgin, select Preferences from the Tools menu (or simply press Ctrl+P)
2. Click on the Sounds tab
3. In the Method drop down list, select Command
4. In the Sound command text box, enter the following: aplay %s
5. Select an event with an assigned sound from the Sound Events list
6. Click the Test button. You should now hear the notification sound
   
7. Click the Close button.

many thanks for Peter Ridge for the guide ^_^

Converting WMA to Ogg

somehow some WMA versions are hard to convert to ogg or mp3 or any audio file.
but linux has a very good solution to it by using wma2ogg.pl.

how to use it?
1. fire up your terminal
2. go to the directory where the wma can be found
3. type the following
wma2ogg.pl -f filename.wma -br 128

Here the options, so you can understand better

-f, -file	filename
-a	converts all wma files in the current directory
OPTIONS:
-t	output filetype (ogg, mp3) [default=ogg]
-lame	I wanna use L.A.M.E. sure enough!
-br	bitrate (kb/s) [default=from the wma]
-del	remove wma file(s) after the transcoding

therefor "wma2ogg.pl -f filename.wma -br 128" tells that -f filename.wma is obviously the wma file and -br 128 is to convert it to ogg with 128 bitrate.

after you have successfully converted the WMA to Ogg you can now convert the audio file easily in MP3, wav or any other audio format.