Why in the heck does Apple's High Sierra version of OS X lack a telnet client? It smells like they removed it for "security" reasons but without it, how am I supposed to poke at an SMTP server to manually test mail server things in my life as an email geek?
Showing posts with label linux. Show all posts
Showing posts with label linux. Show all posts
Linux: Redirecting or Silencing Script Output
I've been writing shell scripts on *nix systems for more than twenty years. You'd think that by now I'd have this memorized, but I don't. Since I'm tired of looking it up every time, I'll post this here so that it can help jog my memory next time around.
Linux: Scraping web output with wget
This is probably a tip that smarter folks than me know already, but I just ran into this today and decided I'd write it down for future reference.
Photoshop 7 Works on Linux!
Woot! It turns out that Photoshop 7 runs fine under Wine on Ubuntu. Annoyingly, my legal copy of Photoshop is version 6, and it does not run in Wine. It runs through the startup process, then dumps out right as it tries to draw the tools palette.
Ubuntu on the Eee: Way Cool!
I had actually tried loading Ubuntu 7.10 on my 12” Toshiba laptop, but there is some bug preventing audio from working, and I got fed up with fighting with it. I thought to myself, if this is the kind of trouble I’m going to have with Ubuntu, historically considered the “easy” Linux, then I’m in for a world of hurt.
But, I did a bit of reading, and found that a bunch of other folks are running Ubuntu on the Eee just fine, and there’s a website chock-full of info on how to get it installed and running.
The installation process was pretty easy. I have an external CD-ROM drive, so I downloaded the normal ISO disk image of Gutsy Gibbon (7.10) and installed it via their normal installer. Afterward, I copied the Ubuntu Eee script to an SDHC card, and ran it, to tweak everything that requires tweaking. (As the instructions suggested, I had to re-run it after loading a bunch of updates…and I did have do those mod probe commands before everything completely behaved.)
After all that, I’m up and running, and very happy.
I can tell that Ubuntu (or Gnome) is putting a bit more load on the Eee than Xandros/KDE was. I may try loading Xubuntu instead and seeing if that makes it slightly more responsive. But even accounting for that, I’m very happy with the results. I have a fully working system, don’t have to worry about filling up the drive space as quickly (by, say, upgrading OpenOffice without the old one taking up space on the default UnionFS partition), and lots more unixy-stuff “just works” without having to tweak it or work around Xandros/Eee customization issues.
I’ve been using the computer with Ubuntu on it since Thursday or Friday (today is Monday), and have even been using it for work today. I work for an internet company, so we’re all about web applications and Outlook. I’m using Thunderbird instead of Outlook, and that’s working just fine (though I have to login to the webmail interface to get at my calendar). Firefox is just Firefox, like on every other platform, and I’m having no issues there. Same with OpenOffice…all working excellently.
Slingplayer on Linux: Blah
So, I've gotten Slingplayer to run on Debian Linux, thanks to various how-to guides.
Previously, I got it to run on my Asus Eee laptop using the same guides. The audio and video quality were crap, though. At the time, I figured, oh well, the Eee just doesn't have enough horsepower to run Slingplayer under Wine.
But, my Debian desktop is much faster, and it still sucks:
As far as my tries at it, no matter what I run it on and how I configure it, it just blows.
Sling Media, I'm bummed. Where's the Linux client that Slingplayer should've had from day one?
Previously, I got it to run on my Asus Eee laptop using the same guides. The audio and video quality were crap, though. At the time, I figured, oh well, the Eee just doesn't have enough horsepower to run Slingplayer under Wine.
But, my Debian desktop is much faster, and it still sucks:
- Video: The video quality is awful, though potentially tolerable considering this is all a hack.
- Audio: Fail, fail, fail. The audio skips constantly, gets stuck if you resize a window, and randomly will spew static for many seconds at a time.
As far as my tries at it, no matter what I run it on and how I configure it, it just blows.
Sling Media, I'm bummed. Where's the Linux client that Slingplayer should've had from day one?
Asus Eee PC and Sprint EVDO? Easy!
Like every other UMPC-toting geek out there, I broke down and bought an Asus Eee PC. It has a form factor I love, plus an actually-usable keyboard on which I can touch type. And at $399, it's the absolute cheapest laptop you can with this small of a form factor.
I figured it's be pretty hard to get my Novatel U720 EVDO USB modem working with it; I've used Linux before, but I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to system internals and modem configuration. But, after giving it a shot today, it turned out to be super easy.
Here's how I did it.
If it didn't work, try rebooting with the USB modem connected. Also try disabling the Wifi or wired ethernet, if that's how you're connected currently.
When you're done using the modem, go back to this window and hit ^C (control + C). That should close the Sprint connection, and tell you that it has been closed.
Credit: I got much of this info from this Ubuntu Forums post. I copied and cleaned up the actual information to paste, as the forum post copy had curly quotes that kept it from working.
All told, this only took about 15 minutes to set up. If you're not afraid of creating a text file or opening a shell window, it probably won't take you any longer than that to get up and running.
I figured it's be pretty hard to get my Novatel U720 EVDO USB modem working with it; I've used Linux before, but I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to system internals and modem configuration. But, after giving it a shot today, it turned out to be super easy.
Here's how I did it.
- Go download the Linux PDF howto guide from Sprint's download page. You actually might not need this, but it might come in handy. (The guide focuses on KPPP, which doesn't help us as KPPP doesn't seem to be pre-loaded on the Eee.)
- Start up the Eee, and open up a console window. (Home -> Work -> File Manager -> Tools -> Open Console Window)
- Type the following commands:
sudo modprobe -r usbserial
sudo modprobe usbserial vendor=[VendorID] product=[ProductID]
For the VendorID and ProductID, get those from this chart, which came from the Sprint instructions. For example, I have a Novatel U720 USB modem, so I typed:
sudo modprobe usbserial vendor=0x1410 product=0x2110 - Now we need to create a handful of PPP scripts. Run this command:
cd /etc/ppp/peers
This will move you to the directory where these PPP scripts go. - Type sudo nano sprint and an empty text editing window will open up in the simple "Nano" editor.
- Paste in this info:
#the USB serial device of the EVDO PCMCIA card.
ttyUSB0
#your login information
user YOUR_NUMBER@sprintpcs.com
230400 # speed
#debug
defaultroute # use the cellular network for the default route
usepeerdns # use the DNS servers from the remote network
-detach # keep pppd in the foreground
crtscts # hardware flow control
#lock # lock the serial port
noauth # don't expect the modem to authenticate itself
connect "/usr/sbin/chat -v -f /etc/ppp/peers/sprint-connect"
disconnect "/usr/sbin/chat -v -f /etc/ppp/peers/sprint-disconnect" - Use the arrow keys to move to where it says YOUR_NUMBER. Delete that out and replace it with your Sprint modem's phone number.
- Hit ^X (control plus the X key).
- Answer yes when asked if you want to save.
- Hit return when it asks the filename; it will already be specified.
- Type sudo nano sprint-connect to open a new Nano editor window, then paste in this info.
#time out is 20 because sometimes the card takes a little while to initalize
TIMEOUT 20
ABORT 'BUSY'
ABORT 'NO ANSWER'
ABORT 'NO CARRIER'
SAY 'Starting Sprint\n'
'' 'AT'
'OK' 'ATQ0V1E0'
'OK' 'ATZ'
'OK' 'AT&F'
# Dial the number
SAY 'Connecting...\n'
'OK' 'ATDT#777'
CONNECT CLIENT - Save this file by hitting ^X, like you did above.
- Type sudo nano sprint-disconnect to open a new Nano editor window, then paste in this info.
"" "\K"
"" "+++ATH0?
SAY "Disconnected from Sprint." - Save it by hitting ^X, like you did before.
- Now, to connect to Sprint, type:
sudo pppd call sprint
If it didn't work, try rebooting with the USB modem connected. Also try disabling the Wifi or wired ethernet, if that's how you're connected currently.
When you're done using the modem, go back to this window and hit ^C (control + C). That should close the Sprint connection, and tell you that it has been closed.
Credit: I got much of this info from this Ubuntu Forums post. I copied and cleaned up the actual information to paste, as the forum post copy had curly quotes that kept it from working.
All told, this only took about 15 minutes to set up. If you're not afraid of creating a text file or opening a shell window, it probably won't take you any longer than that to get up and running.
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