June 2002

Linuxconf (Red Hat 7.3) Posted Sunday, June 30, 2002 @ 10:07 AM by mayhem
Well its just come to our attention that linuxconf has not been included in the latest distribution release of Red Hat (7.3). For some people this may be a rather painful experience, so here is a link where you can download linuxconf as it is still being updated regularly. (Thanks to Davehill for the link)
 
Linuxathome.net New Forums Posted Saturday, June 29, 2002 @ 6:08 PM by mayhem
Well as some of our readers would know AusForum.com is now being sold, this means that we have had to setup our own "in house" forums.

The forums are now up and running and can be accessed via the forums link or alternatively directly via the following URL: http://www.linuxathome.net/forum/.

Any feedback on the new forums would be great, please email forum@linuxathome.net, please also note that in a few days the AusForum Linuxathome Forum will be locked from posting.
 
GNOME 2.0 Released Posted Thursday, June 27, 2002 @ 11:42 AM by mayhem
The GNOME team has announced the release of GNOME 2.0. You can get more information about the GNOME 2.0 system here. Congratulations to everyone involved. Use the mirrors... (Source: Slashdot)
 
Linux Kernel 2.0.40-rc6 Now Available Posted Wednesday, June 26, 2002 @ 11:59 PM by mayhem
The 2.4.19-rc1 Linux Kernel pre-patch has been released, you can download it from the main download side here at www.kernel.org or you can download it from any number of the mirror sites. Latest changes are:
2.0.40-rc6

Another SuS compliance fix, this time by Stephen Rothwell.

o	Make sys_utime and sys_utimes		(Stephen Rothwell, me)
	perform the same permission checking
	| Again, I did some whitespace changes
	| while at it; Stephen's innocent.
o	Remy Card no longer maintains ext2	(me)
The full changelog is available here.
 
Linux Kernel 2.4.19-rc1 Now Available Posted Tuesday, June 25, 2002 @ 8:22 PM by mayhem
The 2.4.19-rc1 Linux Kernel pre-patch has been released, you can download it from the main download side here at www.kernel.org or you can download it from any number of the mirror sites. The full changelog is available here.
 
Tribes2 Patch for Linux Out Posted Sunday, June 23, 2002 @ 1:10 PM by mayhem
After Dynamix went under, Tribes2 was unsupported for a while, then Sierra signed a contract with GarageGames (the company formed by several Ex-Dynamic guys), but only for the Windows version. Those of us who bought the Linux version ported by Loki were left out in the cold -- until today. Linuxgames has the story. Sam Lantinga of SDL fame did the port/patch. (Source: Slashdot)
 
Linux Kernel 2.5.24 Now Available For Download Posted Friday, June 21, 2002 @ 4:10 PM by mayhem
You can now download the 2.5.24 Linux Kernel from here, or any of the www.kernel.org mirrors here, full changelog information is available here.
 
Windependence Day Posted Thursday, June 20, 2002 @ 11:42 PM by mayhem
DesktopLinux.com, the leading destination on the web for Desktop Linux news and information, today proclaimed July 4th, 2002 to be the first annual wIndependence Day.

To turbocharge this year's wIndependence Day celebration, DesktopLinux.com is inviting readers to send in their 500-1000 word accounts of how they have 'kicked the Windows habit' or implemented Linux as a Windows-alternative in their company or organization. Twenty-five of the best essays submitted by midnight July 3rd will be selected for publication at DesktopLinux.com beginning on July 4th, and their authors will be awarded prizes.

For full information please read this article at DesktopLinux.com.
 
DConnect Daemon for Linux 0.0.5 Released Posted Thursday, June 20, 2002 @ 4:45 PM by mayhem
DConnect Daemon for Linux is a Direct Connect's hub working as daemon for Linux. It works as a daemon in background and does not require any Xwindow system. Everything should work without any maintenance, but with possible runtime manipulations.

Main advantages:
* Written in pure C
* Utilizes threads - allow to work on SMP machines
* Good and strict protocol implementation - as far as we know it...
* Access limitation through libwrap

You can download the source tarball from here, or the binary rpm from here.
 
Linuxathome.net RDF Is Finally Here Posted Thursday, June 20, 2002 @ 12:46 PM by mayhem
Most news sites now have RDF site summaries these days so it was about time we set one up. If your interested in displaying the latest news/links of Linuxathome.net then you simply need to get the RDF from http://www.linuxathome.net/linuxathome.rdf. The file is updated everytime news is generated so it will always be upto date. (Please try and cache it locally and only update once or twice a day as bandwidth is money, and at the moment we dont update news often enough to warrant constant updates)

Currently I am still testing the RDF generation, so if you have any errors with the file (syntax, can't load etc) then please lt me know ASAP, mayhem@linuxathome.net. I would also like to add any sites, that use our RDF, to the links section of the site, so if you do use our RDF site summary then please let me know via email.
 
Slackware 8.1 is Released Posted Thursday, June 20, 2002 @ 12:17 PM by mayhem
Slackware 8.1 has been released. Highlights of this release include KDE 3.0.1, GNOME 1.4.1 (with new additions like Evolution), the long-awaited Mozilla 1.0 browser, support for many new filesystems like ext3, ReiserFS, JFS, and XFS, and support for several new SCSI and ATA RAID controllers. Remember to buy your copies at http://store.slackware.com. List of download mirrors here. (Source: Slashdot)
 
Linux Kernel 2.5.23 Now Available For Download Posted Wednesday, June 19, 2002 @ 10:37 PM by mayhem
You can now download the 2.5.23 Linux Kernel from here, or any of the www.kernel.org mirrors here, full changelog information is available here.
 
Linux Kernel 2.5.22 Now Available For Download Posted Monday, June 17, 2002 @ 11:47 PM by mayhem
You can now download the 2.5.22 Linux Kernel from here, or any of the www.kernel.org mirrors here, full changelog information is available here.
 
RedHat Linux 7.3 Review! Posted Monday, June 17, 2002 @ 11:43 AM by mayhem
"As a loyal follwer over the years I must say that RedHat 7.3 is the best Redhat has offered so far. I'm not saying this because it is the latest incarnation. A lot of this distributions enhancements make it so. For example being able to use the keyboard numberpad during the GUI installation was great. I know, it is a little thing, but the last few distributions didn't have that feature (to my knowledge) and my fingers really...." Read the full review here. (Source: LinuxLookup)
 
A Web Browser in Your BIOS? Posted Sunday, June 16, 2002 @ 1:11 AM by mayhem
FirstBIOS based on Linux. Among the major advantages of this product, they mentioned such things as PC wake from different standby modes and integrated means of rapid PC recovery in case of failure." That's not all, though -- the article goes on to say that "the most remarkable thing is that you will be able to get access to Internet directly from this interface either via the traditional modem or local network. In this case the data will be stored in NTFS, FAT32 and ext2 file systems. According to Phoenix, all these features fit into 16Mbit Flash memory. (Source: Slashdot)
 
Libwww 5.4.0 Released Posted Saturday, June 15, 2002 @ 2:11 PM by mayhem
Libwww version 5.4.0 has been released for download on the Web and by FTP. Libwww is a free, highly modular client side Web API written in C for Unix and Windows. The new version features support for WebDAV protocols, RDF parser bug fixes, and updated auto-tool files scripts. Thanks to Manuele Kirsch Pinheiro, Richard Atterer, and many others for their contributions. To carry on this work, a project coordinator, a documentation maintainer, and other volunteers are needed. Please write to the www-lib@w3.org mailing list. (Source: W3C)
 
Behind Linux's Struggle in Gov't Posted Friday, June 14, 2002 @ 7:19 PM by mayhem
It's free, it's becoming more secure, and it's even the dirty little secret among some computer geeks who work in the U.S. government. Then why isn't Linux more prevalent? One word: Microsoft. Another: Oracle. By Declan McCullagh and Robert Zarate. Article continues here. (Source: Wired)
 
Get Ready For Divx On Xbox Posted Thursday, June 13, 2002 @ 12:23 AM by mayhem
As previously discussed ( Divx - The Real Xbox Killer App ), the ability to play reasonably high-quality films, speedily burned onto inexpensive CDR media, is going to make (modded) Xbox ownership a far more attractive proposition. This will take Divx beyond the desktops of those with broadband connections and into the living rooms of those who don't own computers. Expect to see a resurgence of Xbox sales and much confusion in MS as to whether or not this is a good thing. (Source: Slashdot)
 
Mozilla 1.1 Alpha Released Posted Wednesday, June 12, 2002 @ 10:16 PM by mayhem
Mozilla.org has released Mozilla 1.1 alpha, the first post 1.0 milestone. This release has been in the works for almost 2 months now incorporating over 1700 bug fixes and more than a dozen new features. Including: Quartz rendering for OS X 10.1.5 users, new layout performance enhancements targeted at DHTML, faster startup times and more. Here are the release notes and the link to the releases page or FTP for downloads. (Source: Slashdot)
 
Linux at Industrial Light and Magic Posted Wednesday, June 12, 2002 @ 4:14 PM by mayhem
Linux Journal has a big story about how LINUX is being used in hollywood, specificly at Industrial Light and Magic with some GREAT screenshots and a very descriptive article with configuration details. (Source: Slashdot)
 
Linux Kernel 2.5.21 Now Available For Download Posted Tuesday, June 11, 2002 @ 1:13 AM by mayhem
You can now download the 2.5.21 Linux Kernel from here, or any of the www.kernel.org mirrors here, full changelog information is available here. The large number of the updates seem to be code cleanups to improve readability, the rest are the usual improvements, patchs and bug fixes.
 
Major Site Update Posted Sunday, June 9, 2002 @ 1:52 AM by mayhem
Well the time has come to finally convert the site from SHTML to PHP, this should speed things up a bit more and also make it alot easier for me to maintain :) Since I will be doing this along side the old version there should be no problems or interruptions at all.

Durring the conversion you will be able to notice a few more features being added or even old features being added to, for an example the first new feature is a www.linuxathome.net Printable News page that lists all the latest news items on a page that can easily be printed.

During this converions news might be a little bit slower to post, so please feel free to submit anything interesting you think I missed, this will help out alot :)

Also, Uni exams start in two weeks, but after that is Graduation, so expect updates to be a bit far between in the next couple of weeks, but after that the site should be full steam ahead once more with a number of new articles and especially some new reviews.
 
AusPCWorld: Optus talks to Whirlpool about new plans Posted Thursday, June 6, 2002 @ 2:39 AM by mayhem
OptusNet Broadband has talked to Whirlpool about its new plans, and why the company backflipped from strongly advocating uncapped plans in June 2001 (when Telstra introduced its capped plans.)

[WP] Will Optus provider any 'free' unmetered sites for popular downloads and gameplay like Telstra does with GameArena? If so, which ones?

[Optus] OptusNet Cable will not be providing any download sites, including the OptusNet Games servers that are excluded from the Data Usage calculations. However in those calculations only downloads are counted. Upstream traffic is not counted as part of the monthly Data Usage.

The rest of the interview can be read here.
 
use Perl;: perl 5.8.0 RC 1 Released Posted Tuesday, June 4, 2002 @ 5:52 PM by mayhem
This is a source code release, not a binary release. You will need a C development environment.

Please note that Perl 5.8.0 is a major new release of Perl containing many new features, enhancements to existing features and bug fixes. This version is 'Release Candidate 1'; the purpose of this version is to permit and encourage the Perl community to conduct extensive testing and to report problems so that we, and the owners of affected Perl packages, have an opportunity to correct them.

"Because the process of testing the vast quantity of Perl software will take time, and because issues uncovered by this testing may result in further changes or corrections to Perl 5.8.0 and the various Perl packages, WE DO NOT RECOMMEND USING RELEASE CANDIDATE 1 IN A PRODUCTION ENVIRONMENT..."

Complete story is available here.
 
Linux Kernel 2.4.19-pre10 Now Available Posted Tuesday, June 4, 2002 @ 5:50 PM by mayhem
The 2.4.19-pre10 Linux Kernel pre-patch has been released, you can download it from the main download side here at www.kernel.org or you can download it from any number of the mirror sites. The full changelog is available here.
 
Linux Kernel 2.5.20 Now Available For Download Posted Tuesday, June 4, 2002 @ 5:49 PM by mayhem
You can now download the 2.5.20 Linux Kernel from here, or any of the www.kernel.org mirrors here, full changelog information is available here.
 
AusPCWorld: Xbox to run Linux OS (?) Posted Monday, June 3, 2002 @ 12:46 AM by mayhem
THE ENIGMAH Xbox mod chip is likely to lead to clever folk producing Linux shell for the Microsoft console.

That would surely be a bitter pill for Microsoft to swallow. It doesn't even like people running non-Windows operating systems on PCs, never mind its cut-down console.

The Xbox uses a Pentium III chip and Nvidia graphics, but Enigmah's invention, which we reported here last week, allows unsigned code to run on the console. Microsoft appears unable to take steps to stop such chip mods being made available for the Xbox, much as Sony has failed to prevent similar modifications being made available for its PlayStation family.

It's estimated that each Xbox Microsoft makes costs it around $200, and for one of them to run Linux would be an indignity likely to drive Redmond into a state of near incandescence.

Visit the XBOX Linux hompage here, or you can read more about the XBOX Enigmah Chip here. More information is also available here.
 
PHP 4.2.1 released Posted Sunday, June 2, 2002 @ 8:39 PM by mayhem
The latest version of PHP has been released here. With improved DomXML and Apache 2 support in with the usual bug fixes and improvements.

Major fixes and updates include:
  • Fix for the MySQL extension not be able to connect to a MySQL server.
  • Fix for a crash in the COM extension when using an outproc server.
  • Fix for SID logic in the session extension.
  • Fixes for the mbstring extension, including SJIS directory name handling and mb_output_buffer().
  • Fix for a bug in socket_select() that could cause unexpected behavior when using a statement like $w = $e = array($sock);
  • Almost full DOM compliance for the domxml extension, and fixes for several functions.
  • Safe_mode checks for show_source(), parse_ini_file() and rmdir().
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    LinuxWorld: GNOME vs. KDE Revisited Posted Sunday, June 2, 2002 @ 3:28 AM by mayhem
    There are several different philosophies of application development. Some people prefer GTK not because it is the better tool kit, but because the approach makes more sense to them, because GTK is more granular than Qt, prefer C to C++, or another reason.

    Full story is available here.
     
    DistroWatch: Slackware 8.1 RC1 Is Finally Here Posted Sunday, June 2, 2002 @ 3:26 AM by mayhem
    Slackware 8.1 is firmly on its way as the first release candidate has been announced: "Well folks, we are now at Slackware 8.1-rc1. :-) Please test and report any problems you might find." The above was found in the current changelog. The latest round of updates includes KDE, Mozilla, Galeon, fetchmail and a few Gnome packages; visit our Slackware page for more on the current status. Surely, not too long before before the final version ships!
     
    DistroWatch: UnitedLinux Posted Sunday, June 2, 2002 @ 3:19 AM by mayhem
    The secret is out and it's called UnitedLinux: "UnitedLinux is a standards-based, worldwide Linux solution targeted at the business user and developed by Caldera, Conectiva, SuSE, and Turbolinux." The rest of the announcement is full of meaningless marketing talk so instead of quoting it here, I'd rather redirect you to the LinuxPlanet's commentary When Four Become One: UnitedLinux, which has a lot more substance. There is more information and >FAQs on the UnitedLinux's home site so head over there to find out about the plans. No downloads at this point in time, but we might get something before this year is over. Of course, DistroWatch will keep you up-to-date with all developments.
     
    NewsForge: Experiencing VMware Workstation 3.1.1 Posted Sunday, June 2, 2002 @ 3:15 AM by mayhem
    Recently, the news has been full of products meant to allow Windows applications to run under Linux. From the maturing of the Wine project, to the x86 emulator Bochs, to commercial products like CodeWeaver's CrossOver Office and the much ballyhooed Lindows, new options appear on the horizon monthly. Then there are the recent new versions of applications like StarOffice, OpenOffice, AbiWord, and Evolution, which seek to replace their Windows equivalents entirely.

    Full article can be read right here.
     
    Slashdot: FreeBSD 4.6 Release Delayed Posted Sunday, June 2, 2002 @ 3:14 AM by mayhem
    Bruce A. Mah from the FreeBSD Release Engineering team announced that due to some late-breaking issues, 4.6 will be released about a week later than originally planned.

    "Just a note to say that due to some late-breaking issues, 4.6 will be released about a week later than originally planned. The magic date is now 8 June 2002...I've just updated the release schedule on the Web site.

    We'll be doing another release candidate (4.6-RC4...for various reasons there won't be a 4.6-RC3) on Monday, in which we hope to see the major remaining issues addressed. We encourage you to see the testing page for this release at: http://www.freebsd.org/releases/4.6R/qa.html"    .
     
    Slashdot: Review of Linux Gaming Using WineX 2.0 Posted Saturday, June 1, 2002 @ 6:11 PM by mayhem
    Toms Hardware is running an Interesting review of DirectX Gaming under Linux using WineX. An interesting point is that the native Quake3 Arena runs faster with Linux then with windows.

    "Last time, we looked at a way to run Windows applications inside Linux with Win4Lin. Using an emulator like Win4Lin, applications such as those in Microsoft's popular office suite work the same way they do in Windows and with acceptable performance. However, when using Win4Lin or VMWare, keep in mind that no emulator is 100% Windows compatible. Neither supports DirectX. If we want Windows gaming in Linux, we will have to look elsewhere."
     
    OptusNet Netstats Update Posted Saturday, June 1, 2002 @ 6:05 PM by mayhem
    With a recent email sent out by OptusNet to all its cable subscribers there is finally detailed information on the new plans. The main let down is that for all those who thought they were safe (still being on contract) now realised they too will have a reduced limit.

    The netstats calculated average for all those on contract who DO NOT switch to a new plan will be limited to a FIXED value, that is Optus is setting the Average value to a static figure of approximately 1.12GB for the 14 day netstats period which works out to 80mb per day. This is still a decent figure of approx 800mb per day before you reech your netstat or 10, this also works out to be approx 11.2GB per 14 day period which is about 22GB for the month, this is still 2 times the proposed new 10GB plan which is around $250.