Notes about my ChemBook Laptop

Other Related Websites

• http://www.resonance.org/~josh/laptop.html
• http://home.arcor.de/Leviathan81/z71v.html

• HardwareComplement

Installation of Gentoo Linux

Fortunately, simply booting from the 2005.0 version of the Gentoo Universal Installation CDROM brought up the installation environment along with a working ethernet connection. No tweaking was required and I did not have to apply any kernel options. I live in the U.S. and used the default keyboard.

I chose to go with a Stage3 installation, which means using the minimal binaries to get going quickly. Once the installation is complete, Gentoo can be configured and told to recompile itself to maximize conformance to your hardware and preferences.

Steps to a Text-Based System

1. DiskPreparation (Partitioning, Voluming, Formatting, Initial Loading)
2. BuildConfiguration
3. KernelConfiguration
4. BasicServiceConfiguration
5. BootSequence
6. NetworkConfiguration
7. RunProfiles

Steps to a Graphical System

1. XDisplayConfiguration
2. Choice of XDisplayManager (xdm, gdm, etc.)
3. DesktopConfiguration
4. XCursorConfiguration

Post-X Adjustments

1. RemoteAccessibility
2. WirelessConfiguration
3. PackageManagement
4. InstallationToDo (Things I still need to checkout on the ChemBook)

Laptop-Specific Configuration

1. SuspendConfiguration
2. PowerConfiguration

Multimedia Configuration

1. AudioConfiguration
2. SpeechSynthesisConfiguration? http://www.dacahard.com/y200508/314/gald.htm

Periodic Tasks

1. Synchronize the List of Available Packages
2. KernelRebuild
3. Install Package Updates

Performance Improvements

1. HardDiskTuning?
2. PrelinkingExecutables

Desktop:

  - non-iconic, I don't place them on the desktop
  - no graphical file manager
  - 
  - focused on the command-line

"equery" command

(emerge gentoolkit)

• InstallingSysServices?
• InstallingOfficeApps
• InstallingDevTools

Graphical Login

  root # emerge gdm
  root # rc-update add xdm default

Edit file /etc/rc.conf and add the line:

  DISPLAYMANAGER="gdm"

If you have not yet installed Gnome or KDE or somesuch, your default desktop is a minimalistic, non-resizable, non-moveable terminal window.

1. emerge fluxbox
2. xlockmore
3. x11-terms/eterm

Coolifying your Laptop

• splash for GRUB
• KernelFrameBufferSupport?
• BootDisplayConfiguration?

ConfigureSplashGRUB? http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_fbsplash

• splash for GDM root # emerge gdm-themes
• desktop background
• screensaver

1. emerge commonbox-styles
2. commonbox-styles-extra
3. fluxbox-styles-fluxmod
4. gentoo-artwork

Network

ifconfig versus iproute2 ????

Daemon Services

Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL)

  root # emerge dbus
  root # emerge hal
  root # rc-update add hald default

The "hal" package also adds "fstab-sync" where entries are added to "/etc/fstab" and "/media/" dynamically as hardware is detected.

CRON and ACron?

slocate

outbound mail queuing

• sshd
• samba as server
• nfs as server

SysAdmin? Tools

Secure Shell (ssh)

(emerge openssh)
pam_ssh -- Description: Uses ssh-agent to provide single sign-on

a nice Terminal Shell

edna -- Description: Greg Stein's python streaming audio server for desktop or LAN use pymol -- Description: A Python-extensible molecular graphics system.

Databases

  PostgreSQL?

PostgreSQL? Client

  BSDDB3? Python wrappers

Music Player IM Client CD Burner PDF Viewer DVD Player Flash Drive Automounter Wireless Tools, with Auto-Detect Web-Based/LDAP Address Book Web-Based/iCal Calendar System System Monitoring Display Volume Control/Mixer VoIP? Client Wine for Games; Lincity Camera Interface SVG Draw Program Web-Based Browser Bookmarks Blender3D? usbview (firewire view?) vnc client and server ability to print GnuPG? nfs client and server smb client and server festival speech synthesis Windows emulation (emerge vmware-workstation)

For Further Reading:

• http://resonance.org/~josh/laptop.html

Power Mods:

emerge sys-apps/apmd (but we use ACPI, not APM ???)

emerge app-laptop/laptop-mode-tools

x11-plugins/wmlaptop (what is it?)

Multimedia:

• Linux Journal: GNU/Linux DVD Player Review

About USE Flags

Where is my list of choices?

The list of available global USE-flags can be found in "/usr/portage/profiles/use.desc".

A list of available local USE-flags can be found locally in "/usr/portage/profiles/use.local.desc".

Where do I indicate my choices?

"/etc/make.conf" in the USE variable.

To view the final USE setting as seen by Portage, run emerge --info. This will list all relevant variables (including the USE variable) with the content used by Portage.

If you change the USE flags and want to adapt your entire system:

1. emerge --update --deep --newuse world

To obtain equery:

1. emerge gentoolkit

Now you can use equery to obtain more details on the USE flags:

1. equery uses gnumeric

(but what if I don't want certain packages at all, such as Ximian Evolution?)

Audio:

  arts vs alsa vs esd vs oss

What is xinerama and do I want it? Should I disable APM since I use ACPI? GStreamer? is disabled, should I turn it on? How can I turn on XXX-client but not XXX-server?

gnome-terminal vs eterm vs xterm etc.

• Can't seem to turn on the wireless led (/proc/acpi/asus/wled).
• Changes to /proc/acpi/asus/brn don't actually affect the display brightness.
• Changes to /proc/acpi/asus/lcd don't actually turn off the LCD display.
• emerge openbox
• emerge openbox-themes
• emerge obconf
• emerge media-libs/gstreamer
• emerge media-libs/gst-plugins
• emerge media-plugins/*

Pluggable System

1. There is a rich topology of devices, arranged in a tree, that is exported as the sysfs filesystem, underneath the mountpoint "/sys".
2. There is a kernel feature called "hotplug" that notifies use-space whenever a device is added or removed. This is implemented as the kernel invoking the program "/sbin/hotplug" which can then act on the change in environment.
3. There is a system daemon named "udevd" that dynamically adds/removes device nodes underneath the mountpoint "/dev" according to a set of configuration rules.
4. There is a system daemon named "/usr/sbin/hald" ... HAL brings together hotplug, sysfs and udev to answer questions such as "is there a camera connected to this computer?". HAL uses a project called D-BUS as its communications mechanism, with one side being a CORBA-like IPC system, and the other side being a system-wide message bus.
5. There is a system daemon named "/usr/bin/dbus-daemon-1" that ...
6. One of the applications that listens for events over D-BUS is the GNOME Volume Manager, which oversees insertions and removals of block devices.

Another is a HAL backend for CUPS, the Common UNIX Printing System to detect the addition of printers to the system and configure them.

And another is Red Hat's NetworkManager? Project, to do the same for network connections.

Installing Linux onto my Chembook 2371v (Asus Z71v)