Sep
01
2010

pf-kernel, linux kernel fork with new useful features not merged into mainline

Today I discovered another linux kernel patchset/fork that attempts to bring many features not in mainline together, called pf-kernel.

Quoting from its website:

pf-kernel is another Linux kernel fork, that provides you with new useful features, that are not merged into mainline. It’s not based on any existing Linux fork or patchset, but some parts of Zen kernel may be merged if there’s no official release of needed patch. The name of this fork is not connected with BSD Packet Filter. «pf» means «post-factum» in the short form.

At this point the latest patchset includes the following:
* mainline update: 2.6.35.4
* -ck patchset (BFS included)
* BFQ
* TuxOnIce
* LinuxIMQ

Its main advantage over other forks seems to be that it’s regularly updated :)

I’m using it on my main system without any issues, so I added it to Gentoo’s tree:

* sys-kernel/pf-sources
Available versions:
(2.6.31_p9) (~)2.6.31_p9!b!s
(2.6.32_p16) (~)2.6.32_p16!b!s
(2.6.33_p4) (~)2.6.33_p4!b!s
(2.6.34_p7) (~)2.6.34_p7!b!s
(2.6.35_p7) (~)2.6.35_p7!b!s
{build deblob symlink}
Homepage: http://pf-kernel.org.ua/
Description: Linux kernel fork with new useful features not merged into mainline

Many thanks to Oleksandr for taking the time to create and maintain it :D

tags: , , , , , , , , ,
posted in gentoo by wired | 5 Comments

Aug
15
2010

confused about UTC time? solution inside!

Are you confused about UTC and timezones?
Have you missed a meeting because you miscalculated the proper time in your timezone?

No worries! I’ve written exactly the thing you need :p

Just use the following box!

tags: , , , , ,
posted in general by wired | 1 Comment

Aug
15
2010

quicky: changing your shell prompt

The default bash shell prompt is anything but usable.

Information is compressed and the prompt turns into hell if you’re deep in a directory tree.

To improve the situation I decided to use a two line prompt. On the first line I have the current host, user and path with different colors, while on the second line I have nothing but the actual command prompt.

This way I can easily tell what system I’m on, what user I’m logged in as and what directory I’m in at a glance. I also have lots of space for my commands since the path doesn’t get in my way.

Here’s how it looks like:

To change your prompt when using bash, edit your ~/.bashrc file

(make sure you source ~/.bashrc in ~/.bash_profile, or just edit that file instead)

and add the following

export PS1="\[\033[01;31m\]\h\[\033[00m\]\[\033[01;32m\] \[\033[01;32m\]\u \[\033[00;33m\]\w\n\[\033[01;30m\]$ \[\033[00m\]"

You may also run the above line in your shell to test it without making it permanent.

legend:

\h = host
\u = user
\w = current path
\n = new line
$ = $
the rest is color codes, for example [\033[01;31m\] = red :)

tags: , , , , , ,
posted in configs by wired | 2 Comments

Aug
14
2010

urxvt – the unbeatable terminal

urxvt is my favorite termimal :)

It renders fonts nicely, supports unicode and has various other interesting features.

I’ve also configured it to open links on mouse click!

To configure urxvt to look like the above screenshots, add the following in your ~/.Xdefaults file:

URxvt*loginShell:true
URxvt*transparent:true
URxvt*shading:5
URxvt*background:Black
URxvt*foreground:White
URxvt*scrollBar:true
URxvt*scrollBar_right:true
URxvt*scrollBar_floating:false
URxvt*scrollstyle:plain
URxvt*secondaryScroll:true

# how many lines you want it to save per session
URxvt*saveLines:32767
URxvt*troughColor:#000000
URxvt*scrollColor:#222222
URxvt*font: xft:Dejavu Sans Mono:pixelsize=11

# with this set to true, when an app sends a bell to the terminal, awesome hilights the appropriate tag(s) ;)
URxvt*urgentOnBell: true

# these three lines enable clicking on links to open them ;)
## if you want to enable tab support, append ,tabbed to the next line
## then use shift+down arrow to create tabs and shift+{left,right} arrows to switch between them
URxvt*perl-ext-common: default,matcher,-option-popup,-selection-popup,-realine
URxvt*matcher.button: 1
# don't forget to change this to your favorite browser
URxvt*urlLauncher: chromium

enjoy!

tags: , , ,
posted in configs by wired | 6 Comments

Aug
14
2010

my various app configuration files

update: I’ll be adding links next to the apps each time I post a guide

I’ve decided to document the configuration of the apps I use most in blog posts :)

Maybe someone will find them useful!

Some of the apps (linked to their homepages):

awesome (+ conky)
tmux
mutt
irssi
urxvtview post
quicky: my shell prompt (view)

I’ve created a separate category called configs where you’ll find all the related posts!

:)

posted in configs by wired | No Comments

Aug
14
2010

luakit – fast, small, webkit based micro-browser extensible by lua

I’ve added ebuilds in Gentoo’s portage for a new webkit browser called luakit.

[I] www-client/luakit
Available versions: (~)2010.08.07 (~)2010.08.13 **9999
Homepage: http://www.luakit.org
Description: a webkit-gtk based, micro-browser framework in Lua

It is a webkit based, low footprint browser written in C and Lua, modeled after awesome wm, my favorite window manager ;)

Vim-like bindings, low memory usage, lua configuration file (if you use awesome you will feel at home) and rapid development are some of luakit‘s key points.

To try it out:

emerge -av luakit

(~testing only, so you have to keyword it if running stable)

For more information, visit the luakit website, or join #luakit (OFTC IRC network) :)

tags: , , ,
posted in gentoo, luakit by wired | 3 Comments

Jun
15
2010

nominated for the upcoming Gentoo Council Elections

I’m a nominee for the upcoming Gentoo Council (thanks Markos :) ).

To help developers decide if they want to vote for me, I wrote a short manifesto. It follows:

swift. decisive. vigilant. for an even better Gentoo!

---

this year I've decided not to write a long, tiresome manifesto.
there is no point in making promises for things that may never even reach the
council's umbrella.

besides, in reality almost everything landing on the council's agenda is
dynamically decided by the developers a few days or weeks before meetings
and council members need to be swift, decisive and always vigilant to be able
to resolve things quickly and efficiently, even from the shadows, if possible.

these three words pretty much describe my "running for council" manifesto:

swift, decisive, vigilant.

Gentoo deserves nothing less ;) 

---

who am I:

Alex Alexander, 26yo, currently working as a web developer.
Qt Project Lead, KDE Project Member, maintainer of various other packages.

--
wired
tags: , , ,
posted in gentoo by wired | 6 Comments

May
23
2010

Qt 4.7 beta 1 in qting-edge gentoo overlay

Qt 4.7 beta 1 is now available in the qting-edge overlay.

To install it, add the overlay (using layman or PORTDIR_OVERLAY) and unmask qt-4.7_beta1 by copying or linking the keywords file we provide in your /etc/portage/package.unmask/ folder.

ln -s /path/to/qting-edge/Documentation/package.keywords/qt-4.7 /etc/portage/package.unmask/

# IF YOU USE A package.unmask FILE, run the following INSTEAD
cat /path/to/qting-edge/Documentation/package.keywords/qt-4.7 >> /etc/portage/package.unmask

then update your world:

emerge -avDuN world

if you only want to update Qt, run

emerge -av1 $(eix -I --only-names x11-libs/qt-)

Please report any ebuild-related bugs you find in our bugzilla, prefixed with [qting-edge] in the summary!

Enjoy :)

tags: , , ,
posted in gentoo by wired | 2 Comments

May
05
2010

switching from gnu screen to tmux (updated)

update #1: upstream accepted my patch, so the next tmux release will provide window-status-alert-{attr,fg,bg} ;) Only difference is the use of alert instead of flagged. It sounds better anyway ;) I’ll adjust my patch on 1.2 as well :)

update #2 [2010/05/17]: uploaded my updated config file, now using ` as my prefix key

I gave tmux a try yesterday.

Clean config file, thorough documentation and a few nice touches here and there (i.e. better, persistent window splitting) make it a nice alternative to screen, but the biggest difference lies in memory usage. Screen can easily eat up to 40-50mb with just a few windows open, but tmux has yet to reach the 10mb mark!

You may argue that ram is cheap these days, but when you’re on a 360mb VPS ram matters ;)

I did find a few bugs/annoyances, for instance if you add set-option -g default-terminal “screen-256color” in your config file, tmux stops evaluating the #T variable.

I hacked my way out of this one by adding the following in my .bash_profile instead:

[[ $TERM == "screen" ]] && export -p TERM="screen-256color"

Turns out that’s not tmux’s fault but bash’s, I’ll have to create a patch for that as well :) If you have the same issue, you can use the above hack as a temporary fix.

Also version 1.2 does not provide a way for you to customize the colors used on window titles with alerts (either monitored or when the bell is active), but I patched that and sent it upstream ;)

You can find an ebuild with the patch in my overlay, wirelay (layman -a wirelay ;) ).

The patch was accepted upstream so it’ll be in the next release.

My tmux looks like this:

and with some split panes:

finally, below is my (updated on 2010/05/17) tmux.conf config file, used in the above screenshots.

I decided to use ` as my prefix key, its really better than hitting ctrl-a all the time :P

# ` is an interesting key for a prefix
set-option -g prefix `
# set-option -g prefix C-a

unbind-key C-b
bind-key C-a last-window
bind-key ` last-window
bind-key a send-prefix

# we might need ` at some point, allow switching
# we can also send the prefix char with `-a
bind-key F11 set-option -g prefix C-a
bind-key F12 set-option -g prefix `

# 0 is too far from ` ;)
set -g base-index 1

# set-option -g default-terminal "screen-256color"
set-option -g mouse-select-pane on
set-option -g status-keys vi
set-option -g bell-action any
set-option -g set-titles on
set-option -g set-titles-string '#H:#S.#I.#P #W #T' # window number,program name,active (or not)
set-option -g visual-bell on

setw -g mode-keys vi
setw -g mode-mouse on
setw -g monitor-activity on

bind e previous-window
bind f next-window
bind j up-pane
bind k down-pane

set-option -g status-utf8 on
# set-option -g status-justify centre
set-option -g status-justify left
set-option -g status-bg black
set-option -g status-fg white
set-option -g status-left-length 40

set-option -g pane-active-border-fg green
set-option -g pane-active-border-bg black
set-option -g pane-border-fg white
set-option -g pane-border-bg black

set-option -g message-fg black
set-option -g message-bg green

#setw -g mode-bg black

setw -g window-status-bg black
setw -g window-status-current-fg green
setw -g window-status-alert-attr default
setw -g window-status-alert-fg yellow

set -g status-left '#[fg=red]#H#[fg=green]:#[fg=white]#S #[fg=green]][#[default]'

# set -g status-right '#[fg=green]][#[fg=white] #T #[fg=green]][ #[fg=blue]%Y-%m-%d #[fg=white]%H:%M#[default]'
set -g status-right '#[fg=green]][ #[fg=blue]%Y-%m-%d #[fg=white]%H:%M#[default]'

set -g history-limit 4096

# `+r reloads the configuration, handy
bind r source-file ~/.tmux.conf

:)

tags: , , ,
posted in general, gentoo by wired | 32 Comments

May
04
2010

IMAP Spam Begone – remote email spam filtering using spamassassin

Do you need to filter spam email on your IMAP account, but can’t do it on the email server and your client software (mutt? ;) ) won’t provide that capability?

meet IMAP Spam Begone

a nifty python script that uses spamassassin to remotely mark (and optionally move/delete) spam mail over IMAP.
it can also use spam/ham folders to teach your spamassassin ;)

Available in gentoo:
[*] mail-filter/isbg
Available versions: (~)0.99-r1
Homepage: http://redmine.ookook.fr/projects/isbg
Description: IMAP Spam Begone: a script that makes it easy to scan an IMAP inbox for spam using SpamAssassin

usage instructions here: http://redmine.ookook.fr/projects/isbg/wiki#SpamAssassin

some example commands I’m using:

# to check for spam:
isbg.py --imaphost [HOST] --imapuser [EMAIL] --delete --noreport --spamc
# to teach spamassassin:
isbg.py --imaphost [HOST] --imapuser [EMAIL] --noreport --teachonly --learnspambox INBOX.spam --learnhambox INBOX.read-mail --spamc

tags: , , ,
posted in general, gentoo by wired | 1 Comment

 
Powered by Wordpress and MySQL. Original theme by openark.org - customization by me :)