IT News & Technology update

openSUSE 11.1 Alpha 1 KDE 4 desktop

Written by IT News on 7:14 PM

For you that really fall in love in OpenSuse, it's a good news, the OpenSuse 11.1 is now out.







The first alpha version of openSUSE 11.1 was announced

last night by the hard working people behind the openSUSE project: "While testing this on a Thinkpad R51, the system didn't boot after first stage installation. We are still looking into this issue (#411937). In addition to that, the default GNOME installation will complain about a missing package (providing gnome-session-branding)," said Christoph Thiel in the release announcement. Therefore, the DVD version of this first alpha is not recommended to be used for installation. Among the new technologies and applications included in the final version of openSUSE 11.1, due for release on December 18th, you'll find:

• Linux kernel 2.6.27
• KDE 4.1.1
• KDE 3.5.10 (optional)
• GNOME 2.24
• OpenOffice.org 3.0
• Software update stack improvements and many more...

Download and test openSUSE 11.1 Alpha 1 right now from Softpedia.
The stable openSUSE 11 release can also be downloaded from Softpedia.

openSUSE 11.0 Beta is now availabel

Written by IT News on 9:19 AM

Download Open Suse Linux 11.0 Beta release!

As scheduled, Suse Linux 11 is now ready to install, but it still in Beta release, not recommended to install in the production machine.

The second beta version of SUSE Linux 11.0 was launched last night and it comes packed with some important bug fixes, new artwork for splash screens, login managers and more.
Also, the live install was repaired and it should work fine now!

If we take a look under the hood of this beta release, we can find:

• Linux kernel 2.6.25
• GCC 4.3.0
• PulseAudio 0.9.10
• AppArmor 2.3
• PackageKit 0.2.0
• Xen 3.2.1
• glibc 2.8 CVS
• libzypp 3.12.1
...and many more!

The developers openSUSE found some bugs that have not yet been determined. Here's a short list of boring and its avoidance:

• Automatic configuration after booting the system installed, behaves strangely. No solution yet;
• The installation leaves traces of Live. No solution yet;
• The main menu of GNOME is slow to react. Solution: Click on the Control of the volume in the panel, its local server and select the option "Enable access to the local network Sound Devices";
• GNOME is very slow (in forestry is> 1 minute, etc..) Solution: Sign your name to host / etc / hosts.

If you want to install Suse Linux 11.0 beta release, you can download it now!

Renewing DHCP on Linux is easy

Written by IT News on 9:33 PM

Today tips and tricks

This tips is applies (tested) on Linux SUSE 9.0, Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) 10.1 Service pack 1.

In this tips I will show you how easy is to turning off network interface (NIC card) so that you can get new IP address. But this tip is work for DHCP only.

1. Open a Linux terminal console and logon as root, or from user account you can type su –l and supply root password
2. to show your existing IP address type ifconfig
3. type dhcpcd –k to send appropriate signals to dhcpd, if you got an error message “**** dhcpcd: not running” you need turn of the IP address using the syntax ifup and ifdown following eth0, if the problem persist you need to change your Ethernet connection type to traditional
4. bring up the IP address up by typing ifup eth0
5. type ifconfig again to make sure your new IP address

Is this tips work for you? Any idea or improvement? Just leave a comments

German Police Wants Linux

Written by IT News on 7:34 PM

A year ago, the German Tax Authority switched 12.000 desktops to SuSE Linux, now a police precinct from Berlin issued a press release a few days ago where they complain about their report system,
named POLIKS (Police National System for the Information, Communication and Processing), that it is not stable and reliable enough for the officers to do their job efficiently. When a civilian comes to file a complaint, it usually takes between 30 and 90 minutes to fill it in, together with a police officer. Helmut Sarwas, Vice-president of DPoIG Berlin (German Police Trade Union) says: "If a citizen wants to fill in a complaint, he often spends more than 30 minutes, together with the police officer, to finish it. This is very embarrassing."

The total amount of down-times this year, for a single Berlin precinct, was estimated at 50 hours. In other federal states, these down-times take no more than two hours. "This is inconceivable. The authorities should consider switching to a different operating system." - says Helmut Sarwas.

As a result, the Berlin Police Union wants to quit Microsoft Windows and use an operating system which will allow a cheaper and more efficient resource management, for example Linux. The switch would save millions of euros. The Vice-president says: "There are countless open source operating systems on the market, also many which were certificated by the EU." The Berlin police must be able to work without complications and with maximum efficiency.

Instead of reducing the Christmas bonus, the senators should acquire open source operating systems for the German police. "The saved money could then be used to pay the officers their full Christmas gratification.", stated Helmut Sarwas in the press release.

The German police was known to be one of Microsoft’s "reference customers", until now.

SUSE update for php4 and php5

Written by IT News on 6:59 PM

SUSE has issued an update for php4 and php5. This fixes some vulnerabilities, where one has an unknown impact and others can be exploited by malicious, local users to bypass certain security restrictions and gain escalated privileges, and by malicious people to to cause a DoS (Denial of Service), bypass certain security restrictions, and potentially compromise a vulnerable system.For more information:

SA24089

SA25123

SA25378

SA25456

Solution:Apply updated packages.

Enable or Disable Auto Login in Suse Linux

Written by IT News on 8:50 PM

If you hate logging in every time you reboot your computer, you can easily configure Suse to automatically log you in when you start your computer. Or you can disable it if you are worried about security.

Suse Linux has an amazing set of graphical administration tools that let you perform virtually any system administration task without having to use a command line. The only problem is that there are just so many settings, it's easy for new users to get lost.

To get to this setting, click that green Suse "start" button, and type in user management into the search box, and select the highlighted option below.

(I'm an advocate of using the search functionality as opposed to trying to find something buried in a menu. I also prefer a command line, no surprise there.)

Note that if you are using KDE style menus, you can launch YaST, click Security and Users, and then click User Management.

Click the Expert Options drop-down button, and select Login Settings:

Now you can check or uncheck the Auto Login checkbox, and choose the user that you want to automatically login.

In my case, I was disabling Auto Login. I prefer security, and it's not like I have to reboot linux very often.

Update: I should note that I'm using Suse 10.2 with KDE desktop.

OpenSUSE 10.3 alpha 5 available

Written by IT News on 8:58 PM

The openSUSE development team this week released alpha 5 of the upcoming OpenSUSE 10.3, featuring a cutting-edge 2.6.22.rc4 kernel and a choice between GNOME or KDE desktops. The final stable edition of v10.3 is expected to be available for general release in October, the team said.

"Lots of package renames and splits [are included] to create smaller systems and allow a one-CD installation," team spokesperson Andreas Jaeger said.

Some highlights of Alpha5 compared to Alpha4:

• Linux kernel 2.6.22-rc4
  
• reduced size and cleaned-up dependencies of some packages
  
• glibc 2.6
  
• Emacs 22.1
  
• OpenOffice.org 2.2.1rc3

Standard features in OpenSUSE 10.3 include:

• Evolution 2.10 email client
  
• OpenOffice.org 2.1 office suite
  
• SeaMonkey 1.0.99 web application suite
  
• GIMP 2.2.13 graphics editor
  
• Abiword 2.4.5 text editor
  
• Pidgin (formerly GAIM) 1.5 instant messaging client
  

OpenSUSE is a community project sponsored by Novell. The openSUSE project's main goals are to make openSUSE the most widely used Linux distribution in the world; leverage open source collaboration to make openSUSE the world's most usable Linux distribution and desktop environment for new and experienced Linux users; and make its commercial big-brother SLED (SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop) the Linux desktop of choice for businesses.

You can download the 698MB live CD ISO image from the main project site, here. Alternatively, you can obtain the live CD ISO images for i386 machines via BitTorrent, here.

Additionally, direct links to the live CD ISOs are available here: GNOME version (698MB); KDE version (700MB).

Be reminded that this is a test version, and Jaeger encourages users to report bugs at the project's bugzilla here. The final 10.3 version is expected by the end of September, Jaeger said.

Screen shots are available for viewing here, thanks to LinuxQuestions.org

SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 SP1 is now available

Written by IT News on 7:42 PM

SUSE® Linux Enterprise 10 SP1 brings you the latest advances in virtualization, high-performance computing, desktop usability, security, interoperability and system management. It provides significant enhancements in the areas that you said matter most to your organization, from the desktop to the data center.

Improve your data center reliability, gain flexibility, and save money with the latest advances:

• Enhanced server virtualization and management
• Updated high availability storage infrastructure
• Support for quad-core processors
• Support for Open Enterprise Server 2 and paravirtualized NetWare®, and more

On the desktop, SP1 delivers more of the innovation you crave—updates to the desktop effects engine, a re-designed main menu and the ability to play embedded video in OpenOffice.org presentation files. It also provides improved integration with enterprise technologies such as Microsoft Active Directory and Microsoft Office.

See for yourself what SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 SP1 can do

Click here to download your copy today

Recovering a File in Linux

Written by IT News on 8:26 PM

While you've lost what you had on screen, you may have forgotten that the computer still has it stored in RAM. You just need to find a way to get at it.

First things first, every step you take after the realization of the loss of your file can cause pieces of it to get overwritten (since this memory is now marked as free by the OS). So the first step is to create a snapshot of your current RAM. If you have alot of ram like me, this can take upwards of 1GB of space on your hard drive.

cp /dev/mem ~/memory.bin

When finished, you can open your memory file using the command "less":

less ~/memory.bin

When the program starts, it'll report that its trying to compute line numbers. Skip this by hitting ctrl+c once.

Now search for a unique word that you remember typing in your document by hitting forward slash (/) and the word. ie (/trickle). After much churning, matches will be displayed by less. Hit the up and down arrow keys to scroll from the hit point. To continue searching for the same phrase, simply hit / and enter again. Once you stumble upon your document, it may be in bad shape, but there should be enough information left to copy and paste out of the terminal.

Dual-Booting Windows Vista and Linux

Written by IT News on 8:19 PM

Assuming that you are doing a fresh install:

• First install Windows Vista on your system.
• After the Windows Vista install, we start with the Linux installation.

Please make sure not to resize the Vista partition during the installation of the Linux distribution! Due to changes in NTFS versions, current Linux partitioning program, no standard Windows partitioning programs can properly alter the partition that Vista is installed on.

Select GRUB as the bootloader to be installed. After completing the install we will be able to boot into Linux only as the MBR will be overwritten.

Now we need to modify the bootmenu to add an entry for Windows Vista.

For this we will edit the file "/boot/grub/menu.lst". To add an entry for Windows Vista, we need to add the following lines at the end of the file.

If Vista is installed on 1st partition 1st IDE hard drive:

title         "Windows Vista"
root         (hd0,0)
chainloader      +1

If Vista is installed on 1st partition 1st SATA/SCSI hard drive:

title         "Windows Vista"
root         (sd0,0)
chainloader      +1

Depending on your Vista Setup, you can modify the above code. The only area that should need modification is the line that starts with "root". The item that will likely need modification is the drive and partition information.

Save the file and restart your system to see the new bootmenu.