Arch Linux installation using ipxe and a Fedora server

Arch Linux is great way to learn, e.g. installing Arch Linux booting over the network. As is usual with Arch Linux, the documentation for the process is excellent. Surprisingly, a mirror in India gave an excellent speed and low latency so even the first stage went well.

Since I was experimenting with ipxe, I decided to install Arch Linux using the iso and ipxe. Using dnsmasq was no problem. However, since I use Fedora and the default is dhcpd, I wanted to make it work with dhcpd. The problem  was finding the equivalent options of dhcp-option-force.

The issue was that the client would try to search for cfg file as per its rules and ignore the specification in the dhcpd configuration file. The solution was available on the syslinux wiki in response to

Can I send information to PXELINUX via special options in the DHCP response?

It is much harder syntax than the dnsmasq's dhcp-option-force but worked.

VBA Macros of Indian Income Tax forms failed on current LibreOffice

I had experimented with filing Indian tax returns using OpenOffice earlier. Last year, I had used LibreOffice and filed my return. The effort was minimal as I had not felt the need to document it.

This year, the result was painful. The simplest of forms failed with LibreOffice 3.5 and I could not even make any sense of the problems. I tried older versions (3.4) that I found on some of my partitions and those failed as well.

In desperation, as the deadline was approaching, I downloaded OpenOffice and, surprisingly, that worked on ITR1 (simplest return). However, editing the macros needed for the other forms was a pain. Running the macro from within the editor started the execution from the first line of the file and not from the selected macro. I found the behavior confusing in comparison to LibreOffice and preferred to give up :)

I realized that I had used version 3.3 last year and I had an old partition with an old version of ArchLinux - which had the 'right' version of LibreOffice. The process of filling the tax return forms was very tedious. I had to find the password for the sheets, unlock them and make some manual changes to the cell formulas. However, at the end of it, I did manage to submit the returns using the open source tools.

I had planned to experiment and see if I can find out what changed from LibreOffice 3.3 to 3.4 to cause this 'regression' but now I will wait till the 3.6 version is available through ArchLinux or Fedora.

Meanwhile, I plan to preserve the old ArchLinux partition for next year and, hopefully, thanks to this entry, I won't struggle too much.

Impact of OpenSUSE 12.1 on Tumbleweed

My major motivation for trying Tumbleweed was to have an Arch Linux like distribution but with delta packages. Although delta rpms were only available for the packages in the 11.4 repository and not in the Tumbleweed repository, I continued to be interested in seeing how the 'rolling' model will evolve along with the other distributions of OpenSUSE.

The release of 12.1 distribution had a larger impact on Tumbleweed than I had expected. It was literally a distribution upgrade, no different from 11.4 to 12.1. Tumbleweed repository was emptied and based on 12.1 repository. All packages were upgraded. I had hoped that the Tumbleweed distribution to be very close to the 12.1 and the upgrade should have been minimal even though I had wondered how they will manage versions across repositories.

In the current upgrade, I had to change the repository to point to the current repository instead of 11.4. The current repository is now a symbolic repository so in future no change in the repository information will be needed. However, at least at present, Tumbleweed does not really appear to be a rolling distribution. It is more like the base with some updates, so, not particularly interesting. It is better to use Ubuntu with ppa's.

I will keep watching and may be Tumbleweed will evolve into an interesting alternative. At present, I continue to stick to Fedora and Arch Linux at home and Ubuntu at work.

Arch Linux - experience with kernel 3.0

Upgrading to kernel 3.0 on Lenovo S10-3 did have a couple of issues. The first issue was that the wifi was not functioning. This was easily solved by following the instruction on Arch Wiki and blacklisting the conflicting bcma driver.

The other issue was that waking from sleep is not working any more. This is in spite of  adding 'intel_idle.max_cstate=0' to the kernel boot options. Hence, I reverted to kernel 2.6.39 until I have time to examine the problem in more detail and see if  there is a workaround.

Incidentally, I have been facing erratic behaviour with waking from sleep on Lenovo S10-3 with Ubuntu 11.4 with 2.6.38 kernel and Fedora 15 with 2.6.40(!) kernel. I thought that the reason may be that I am using x64 versions of Ubuntu and Fedora whereas on Arch Linux I have installed the i386 version.

Update: A silly mistake in Fedora 15 grub.conf file. I had typed 'state' instead of 'cstate'. Initial tests of sleep work on Fedora 15 with kernel 2.6.38 but not with 2.6.40 (presumably the same as mainline 3.0). I will have to check if the behaviour of waking from sleep on Fedora is consistent as on Arch Linux or erratic as on Ubuntu.

Update 2 -  I found that there is a bug report of the waking from sleep issue on Debian bugs list when upgrading from 2.6 to 3.0.

Another case for Rolling distribution

While it is nice to read a news item like  "Asus will preload Ubuntu Linux on three Eee PCs", statements like the following cause a discordant note:

"The only question left is Asus' decision to ship Ubuntu 10.10 although Ubuntu 11.04 came out back in April."

In the case of open source, the users get to try the software before the vendors get around to it. Hence, rolling distributions are ideal. The vendor-supported OS will not be obsolete from the perspective advanced users and, worse, trade press, which will influence the non-tech consumers.

I wish some vendor would latch on to Arch Linux :)

Will my 82 year old mom be able to handle Gnome 3?

As I had been expecting, Arch Linux update now includes Gnome 3. I updated my Lenovo netbook first and tried Gnome 3 though I am normally using KDE Plasma Netbook profile.

My initial reaction was, "Oh, no! I will no longer be able to keep my mom's computer current." There was no way that I could get my 82 year old mom to use the empty screen. My experiment with a rolling distribution was about to end.

On Arch Linux, the classic Gnome display was shown - nearly blank panels and no desktop. It was easy to fix the classic Gnome issue as I needed to install gnome-shell.

Now, I had a blank desktop with the Activities action only. There was no way I could inflict the mouse movements needed to get an app to run on my mother. Had the favourites been always visible as in Ubuntu's Unity display, I may have considered that option.

I would have to use the Gnome classic display for her. I should be able to get her accustomed to two panels. For many years, her desktop is configured to use only one panel at the bottom. An alternate option would be configure KDE plasma to look like her current environment. My mother's needs are very simple and few. She uses Thunderbird for email, Rhythmbox for playing music and AisleRiot to play Freecell. Occasionally, she may use Firefox, OpenOffice or Image Viewer if somene has sent a link or an attachment. (In the case of attachments, she now often needs our help.)

It is unfortunate that I needed to use gnome-tweak-tool to get the file manager to manage the desktop. Given the controversy KDE4 developers had faced, I would have expected that this option would have been enabled by default.

Suddenly, Gnome 3 looked much closer to the familiar environment.

The classic Gnome did not seem to have a 'favorites' dock. A little playing around led to the discovery that I could drag a menu item to either panel. Now, the desktop is far closer to the familiar. I can add a script to shutdown the system so that she is not confused by the status menu or, even the alternate status menu.

So, in principle, I can continue with the experiment. But I will save the current setup in a partition so that I can fall back to it in case my expectations are belied.

I still have to consider whether to stick to Gnome or switch. LXDE may be the best option if I can customise the theme for large fonts, high contrast which are needed for my mother to be able to read emails with greater ease. But in all my efforts, I have to make sure that I do not frustrate her.

It is going to be a tough call!  Drop the experiment and stick to what works or take a chance with one of the three options. Which one? Decision taking is hard :(

OpenSUSE Tumbleweed

I installed the live KDE version of OpenSUSE 11.4 and then added the Tumbleweed repository as documented here on a Lenovo S10-3 netbook. The installation and updates were pretty straightforward. It updated to 2.6.38 kernel. However, the wi-fi was not connecting. I tried to install the broadcom-wl driver and there wasn't one for 2.6.38. I built the non-free driver for 2.6.38 and installed it. It still did not work. Since I could not understand the cause or diagnose it, I removed the hidden network option on the router. The wireless connection worked!

The next step was to realise that there was an open source broadcom driver brcm80211 included in 2.6.38 kernel and the wl driver wasn't needed. The wifi network worked well with the open source driver. I made the network hidden on the router and the network still worked! I am not sure if this workaround is needed every time a new wifi connection is needed - something to be verified.

My preference is for a rolling distribution which distributes delta packages. I still like Arch Linux and the ease with which I could hold back X11 server to an older version for Intel 845/945 graphics cards. It has been successful in demonstrating the power and feasibility of a rolling distribution model. It is great to see OpenSUSE adapt it and OpenSUSE were, probably, the first to offer delta packages. So, I plan to stick to Tumbleweed on the Lenovo Netbook with the KDE Plasma Netbook interface.

I will continue to keep Arch Linux on my mother's computer which has Intel 945 graphics.

My concern is that since OpenSUSE is continuing to work on discrete distributions as well, they may be complicating their environment. I hope they do not drop Tumbleweed in the process.

Demise of ArchDelta?

I have been regularly using the archdelta repository to keep my system current. A couple of months ago, the repository stopped providing updates. The arch linux discussion forum provided the answer. Sabooky was no longer using delta packages and had stopped maintaining the site.

It is disappointing as I had hoped that the experiment would become a part of the core repositories as in the case of Fedora and Suse.

This, though, provides the incentive and motivation for trying out openSUSE's Tumbleweed rolling distribution. I tried updating the Smeegol installation using the Portal:Tumbleweed advice. However, the Smeegol desktop does not appear to be a part of the Tumbleweed environment. So, only the kernel and a few packages were replaced by the higher versions.

I will start with a 11.4 livecd and then add the Tumbleweed repositories and see how it works out.

More on Vesa driver and Intel 845/945 graphics

Switching to Vesa driver did have one problem.

Skype can show the remote video but if I try to enable local video, skype client crashes. With the legacy intel driver, if I disabled remote video and then enabled local video, it would work. Subsequently, the remote video could be enabled and the client would continue to work.

However, we decided to use the netbook for the occasional skype usage on which the video calls work flawlessly.

Arch Linux 2.6.37, Xorg 1.9.4, Vesa driver and Intel 845/945 graphics

After a long time, I decided to retry upgrading Xserver to the current 1.9.4 version on the P4 with Intel 845 graphics controller. My experience had been that the systems with intel 845/945 graphics  would hang often with the new version of intel driver.  So, I have continued to use Xserver 1.6.3! The wonderful aspect of Arch Linux is that it allowed me to upgrade everything else but hold back 6 packages needed to keep using the xf86-video-intel-legacy driver.

After the upgrade, I got an unexpected error:
 /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/intel_drv.so: undefined symbol: resVgaShared
I have probably made a mistake in the upgrade and some old library might not have been uninstalled. I have not had a chance to check it out as yet.

However, meanwhile, the vesa driver worked very well. Earlier, it also used to give errors on this hardware and would not work at 1280x1024 at all.  The system is stable and working well with the Vesa driver; so there is no need for me to revert to the old intel driver anymore even if the current intel driver still gives problems on this hardware.

Update: The error was pretty obvious and silly. Since the package names of the old and new inter video drivers were different - xf86-video-intel-legacy and xf86-video-intel. A pacman update did not replace the legacy driver with the new one! I am now using the updated intel driver. A short usage did not create any problem but will have to wait and see.

Update: Even with Intel driver, the system no longer seems to hang. However, several times, the display was distorted, especially when the screensaver was active. Hence, I have switched to the Vesa display driver, which is good enough for the needs of the old system.

Arch Linux 2.6.37 and resuming after sleep

I have been using 2.6.37 on Arch Linux for several days now. I did not expect to notice any difference on a hardware like Lenovo netbook.

Still, there was the question whether 'intel_idle.max_cstate=0' as a kernel boot option is still needed. The system booted fine without it as it did with the 2.6.36 kernel. Sadly, the system still did not resume after sleep. So, the boot option is still useful.

KDE 4.6 on Arch Linux

The first reaction to KDE 4.6 on Arch Linux was that it looked nicer. Minor display issues in Netbook workspace were gone.

Earlier, it would often display only one favourite application. If one dragged the icon to the left edge, all would show up. Some times the application categories would not show at the start. Searching for an application would make them appear.

The graphics effects would cause the desktop to hang. Now, that is working very well. One nice new feature is that one can close a window on the screen displaying all the windows.

The power button of Lenovo S10-3 would not trigger the power off/suspend menu on KDE Plasma Netbook workspace. This problem is sort of resolved. On first attempt, it takes about half a minute to show the dialog. But if one cancels it and retries, the menu is displayed immediately.

But there is a new 'bug'. Wifi does not connect automatically. It waits for me to click ok on the password. I will try with a fresh KDE session just to confirm if the problem is related to some change in the configuration files.


Update:
The 'bug', where the network manager fails to start the wifi without any user interaction, seems to be that I was not using the KDE Wallet. Once I used the KDE Wallet, network manager starts the wifi without any prompt.

Arch Linux update and KDE graphics problem with Lenovo S10-3

My last update of Arch Linux affected quite a few packages including updating the kernel to 2.6.36. There was one more issue in addition to the resumption from sleep problem. The additional issue related to graphics effects of KDE.

The edge effect of showing all the windows worked. However, I could not select any of the windows and there was no way to return to a usable window. The display seemed to hang.

I could switch to a tty (ctrl+alt+Fn) and 'pkill ksmserver' to get a new login and start a new desktop session. My workaround was to disable desktop effects until I found the cause.

I rolled back a number of packages which seemed likely, e.g. kernel, mesa, xf86-video-intel. Finally, I located that the culprits were intel-dri and libgl. I had to downgrade both from 7.9-1 to 7.8.2-3.

I also needed to downgrade xf86-video-intel from 2.13.0-4 to 2.12.0-3. The display did not freeze but was very erratic and unstable.

Lenovo S10-3 with 2.6.36 - Resuming after Sleep

After installing the 2.6.36 kernel from Arch Linux, I found that the system would not resume after sleep. I spent the last couple of days trying to understand the problem. I installed 2.6.36 kernels from Fedora's Rawhide and from Ubuntu's kernel-ppa.

Fedora kernel had the same problem resuming. However, it worked on Ubuntu. On Ubuntu, I had been using 'intel_idle.max_cstate=0' as a kernel boot option. This was a work around for Ubuntu 10.10's boot problem on S10-3.

Removing the intel_idle option from Ubuntu's 2.6.36 kernel resulted in the S10-3 booting perfectly well. However, it showed the same inability to resume from the suspended state.

Adding that option to Arch Linux kernel resolved the resuming from sleep problem on this platform as well. Needless to say, the same option worked on Fedora kernel as well.

Rolling Distributions

It appears that Suse will have an option of a rolling distribution even if Ubuntu is not yet introducing a rolling distributions. For several years I have felt that this is inevitable (I still agree with the ideas in that article but wish I could have expressed them better).

A feature I miss in Arch Linux is the option to easily and quickly rollback the last set of updates in case some application or system malfunctions.

Lenovo S10-3 with 2.6.36

Yesterday, I updated the Arch Linux on the Lenovo S10-3 to the 2.5.36 kernel. As expected, ideapad-laptop driver is included with it and more of the hot keys worked.

The broadcom-wl package from AUR needed to be reinstalled and wifi worked fine.

There is one unfortunate surprise. The system malfunctions after sleep. On resumption, the display remains off. I can't seem to turn it on. Just to confirm that it was a kernel issue, I downgraded the kernel to 2.6.35 and sleep and resumption from sleep worked fine.

I may stick to 2.6.35 till I find a solution or a workaround.

Netbook Suspend and Resume

While searching for something I did not find, I came across Canonical voices page and an explanation of how suspend and resume work in Linux.

The sleep key  "is bounced back out to userspace via /proc/acpi/events (currently, though it's going to be moved to the input layer in future) and userspace gets to choose what happens next.

Let's concentrate on the common scenario, which is that someone hitting the sleep button wants to suspend to RAM. Via some abstraction (either acpid, gnome-power-manager or kpowersave or something), userspace makes that decision and initiates the suspend to RAM process by either calling a suspend script directly or bouncing via HAL." (http://www.advogato.org/article/913.html)

Hence, it is possible that a different window manager on the same hardware may behave differently. And, of course, the behaviour on different distributions can be different.

I also came across a presentation on how notebook's lid and special buttons work which gives an insight into how the hardware generates the general purpose events.

On Lenovo S10-3, the sleep key (Fn+F1) worked on each on the os's. However, the lid works perfectly well with Ubuntu, MeeGo and Smeegol but doesn't with Arch Linux even though laptop-mode tools, acpid are installed. On Ubuntu 10.10 using gdm, if I start kde, even (Fn+F1) does not work!

Thanks to the above information, I can start my hunt for why and, perhaps, a consistent solution for S10-3 no matter what the distribution or the window manager.

Mint introduces a rolling option!

I haven't tried Mint. But it was a pleasant surprise to read that Mint will have a rolling distribution based on Debian testing repository. I have been convinced for some time that we should not have to change our OS - ever(at least for a long-long time). I was reminded of it by a blog entry about Windows vs Ubuntu release cycle.

I have been very happy with Arch Linux since Jan 2010. I haven't switched all my home systems because the range of applications available in Fedora repositories is considerably greater. I suppose I could use the rawhide repositories and that would be like a rolling distribution. However, the risk of the system breaking with that option is likely to be very high.

I am planning to use Arch Linux as the primary version on Lenovo S10-3 netbook using KDE's netbook style as the needs are well defined. The initial setup effort is worth the smoother subsequent operation.

I am not opting for Arch Linux because it is 'faster'. I do not know if that is even correct.

Nor am I doing so to have a fine control over the packages installed.

I am opting for it to so that I do not have to decide when to upgrade!

KDE 4.5 on Lenovo S10-3

Kubuntu 10.10 beta does not have a separate netbook edition. Instead the plasma workspace type can be changed to Netbook.

I could not boot with the Kubuntu 10.10beta livecd on Lenovo S10-3. Fortunately, this bug was reproducible and will hopefully be resolved soon.

One of my desires was to learn the setup of netbooks in more detail. A great way of doing that is to use Arch Linux. It is currently using 2.6.35 kernel and KDE4.5.

Since I wanted to have a reasonable but not too fine a control over what I installed, I decided to follow the route of kde-meta packages. The available meta-packages were obtained using
# pacman -Sg kde-meta

I decided to install kde-meta-kdebase, kde-meta-kdeutilities, kde-meta-kdenetworking and kde-meta-kdemultimedia.

The first problem I encountered was pretty simple. X wouldn't start. It turned out that xorg package had to be installed separately.

Next, I installed intel driver for X.

Working with the mousepad was a problem - it was very jerky and sensitive. It took a while to realise that touchpad has a separate driver. I needed to install xf86-input-synaptics package. It was a great relief being able to work with the mousepad without going crazy.

I changed the workspace type to Netbook in the settings and I had the new look.

While it will take time to get used to it. The main page starts with the search and launch options. Most likely it is the usual kde4 menu but with a very different look and feel. One can search for an application or select it from application groups.

Once the application is started, the top bar is hidden. The entire screen is taken up by the application. I prefer this approach. It reminds me of the reason why one commentator had praised dedicated eBook readers - There are no distractions. On the desktop, while watching a youtube or similar video, I frequently find myself making use of the extra space to start a game of solitaire!

It is going to be enjoyable exploring it and getting used to it. At my age, learning something new is a necessity :)

Experiments with Lenovo S10-3

I finally gave up waiting for a tablet and decided to get a new netbook even though at over 2 kg, it is considerably heavier than the 1KG eepc701 I used. The eepc 701 now though was too limiting.

The first thing I tried was the Ubuntu 10.04 netbook edition. The interface was same as the 9.10 I had used on eepc.

Since it has 150 gb of disk space, I installed MeeGo 1.0 as well. I like the ui of MeeGo but it did not support the Reliance USB modem. Huawei modem is still detected as a mass storage device on MeeGo though the next release may have a fix.

The broadcom wireless driver had to be built and installed. The instructions were straightforward and worked well.

Various options are available as tabs in a horizontal bar on the top of the screen. This is different from the way the bar is typically used. If an application is started, the bar disappears until the mouse is pushed to the top.

Applications available in the repository are fairly limited. However, Fedora will soon have a MeeGo spin. I will probably use it more only then.

KDE 4 plasma workspace has a Netbook option. So, I installed Kubuntu netbook edition. It uses the entire screen for an application. Pushing the mouse to the top displays the activity bar. Pushing the mouse to the left corner displayed the active applications.

NetworkManager works very well in switching between USB modem, wireless and wired connections in both Kubuntu and Ubuntu.

So far there were no surprises or complications.