Just cause every one is getting kicks out of this I though I post it on my blog, I am not sure where the original came from as it was past on to me from a friend, well anyway enjoy and have a laugh like I did

Following the problems in the sub-prime lending market in
America and the run on HBOS in the UK , uncertainty has now
hit Japan .

In the last 7 hours Origami Bank has folded, Sumo Bank has
gone belly up and Bonsai Bank announced plans to cut some
of its branches.

Yesterday, it was announced that Karaoke Bank is up for
sale and will likely go for a song, while today shares in
Kamikaze Bank were suspended after they nose-dived.

Samurai Bank is soldiering on following sharp cutbacks,
Ninja Bank is reported to have taken a hit, but they remain
in the black.

Furthermore, 500 staff at Karate Bank got the chop and
analysts report that there is something fishy going on at
Sushi Bank where it is feared that staff may get a raw
deal.

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INX is a “Live CD” distribution of GNU/Linux, derived from Ubuntu 8.04.1 LTS, but using “ubuntu-minimal” and “ubuntu-standard” as a base. It is console only, without any graphical “X” programs.

INX is intended as a “tutorial” and introduction to the Bash command line, but is a fully capable, portable GNU/Linux system in its own right. It has a collection of easy-to-use menus, colour themes, easy configuration tools, music (and video on the frame buffer), some games, and several surprises for those who are not aware of what can be done in a console/tty.

INX is fun, and not intimidating for console beginners.

INX 1.0 also includes new features; you can now set up wireless with the “Ceni” tool from the INX “Net & Web” menu. You can use your mouse with programs like xlinks2, elinks, mc, and the jed text editor. In addition to the powerful GNU Screen program, INX now sports the “Dvtm” Dynamic Virtual Terminal Manager, a “tiled terminal manager”.

To get further info and download the ISO visit here

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Couple weeks ago I upgraded my mothers computer from Microsoft XP to Linux Debian Lenny (testing). Everything is working except sound with pogo.com java games. After couple weeks searching for a fix and reading ALSA documention and tinkering around.

the problematic soundcard is

$ lspci
...
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 70)
...

This is what I ended up with to get the sound to work with the pogo.com java games. First I created the ~/.asoundrc file, and this what I added to the ~/.asoundrc file.

!defaults.pcm.card 0
defaults.ctl.card 0
defaults.pcm.device 0
defaults.pcm.subdevice -1
defaults.pcm.dmix.device defaults.pcm.device
defaults.pcm.dsnoop.device defaults.pcm.device

After saving the file we have to restart ALSA

# /etc/init.d/alsa-utils restart
Shutting down ALSA…done.
Setting up ALSA…done.

Note: this fix may not work for everyone.

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Today Debian LiveCD was announced

The Debian Live team[0] is pleased to announce the first beta of Debian
Lenny’s Live images.

Although we missed releasing images for Etch along with the installer
images, we are now prepared to release live images within the regular
Lenny release process. This is the first official release of Debian Live
and the whole team has been working hard during the past 2.5 years[1] to
make Debian’s own[2] live systems become a reality.

Nevertheless, we do need your help to find more bugs and improve the
live systems, so please try them out. The images are available at:

http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/lenny_live_beta1/

Read the full announcement email here

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The U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) has issued a warning for what it calls “active attacks” against Linux-based computing infrastructures using compromised SSH keys.

The attack appears to initially use stolen SSH keys to gain access to a system, and then uses local kernel exploits to gain root access. Once root access has been obtained, a rootkit known as “phalanx2″ is installed, US-CERT said in a note on its current activity site.

Read the full article here

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I use a bluetooth headset with VLC when I am using my laptop to listen to music or video streams etc. The headset works when I add alsadev=bluetooth in ~/.vlc/vlcrc

Under the section ‘# ALSA Device Name (string)’ change it

From:

# ALSA Device Name (string)
# alsadev=default

To:

# ALSA Device Name (string)
# alsadev=default
alsadev=bluetooth

Refer to this blog post for setting up bluetooth headset here

Notes:
Problems I have come across is when you change the Audio device back to ‘default’ through Settings => Preferences => Audio => Output modules => ALSA, you have to do the above method again when you like to use bluetooth headset again.

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In this quick brief how to I am going to explain how to to setup Debian for default version of ‘testing’ and being able to install package from ‘unstable’ without having to run Debian ‘unstable’ by default.

First off we are going to edit or create the /etc/apt/apt.conf file:

# nano /etc/apt/apt.conf

and we are going to append this to the file:

APT::Default-Release "testing";

Now we have to edit our /etc/apt/sources.list file and add the ‘unstable’ repository to it.

# nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Here is an example of what my /etc/apt/sources.list file looks like:

deb http://security.debian.org/ testing/updates main contrib non-free
deb http://ftp.au.debian.org/debian/ testing main contrib non-free
deb http://ftp.au.debian.org/debian/ unstable main contrib non-free

Now we have to refresh / update our packages lists by:

# apt-get update

Now we can install packages from the Debian ‘unstable’ repository by doing for example:

# apt-get install -t unstable linux-image-2.6.26-1-686

Here is a brief explanation of what the ‘-t’ option does from the apt-get man page

       -t, --target-release, --default-release
           This option controls the default input to the policy engine, it creates a default pin at priority 990 using the specified release string. The preferences file may further override this
           setting. In short, this option lets you have simple control over which distribution packages will be retrieved from. Some common examples might be -t ´2.1*´ or -t unstable. Configuration Item:
           APT::Default-Release; see also the apt_preferences(5) manual page.

To learn more about apt-get

$ man apt-get

Note: to change linux-image-2.6.26-1-686 package to the package you are after out of the ‘unstable’ repository.

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This is a quick how to setting up bluetooth audio under Debian.

First off we need to install a couple packages:

# apt-get install bluez-utils bluez-gnome bluez-audio

Now we need to run ‘hcitool scan‘ to get the address of the bluetooth device. For example,

$ hcitool scan
Scanning ...
	00:00:00:00:00:00	Nokia BH-501

Now to get the audio part to work:

Modify or create your ~/.asoundrc to contain

pcm.bluetooth {
    type plug
    slave {
       	pcm "bluetooth_hw"
    }
}

pcm.bluetooth_hw {
         type bluetooth
         device 00:11:22:33:44:55
         profile "auto"
}

Where 00:11:22:33:44:55 is the bluetooth address of your headset that you got from ‘hcitool scan‘ output

Now to test the bluetooth headset audio is working with ‘arecord‘ and ‘aplay‘ for example,

$ arecord -Dplug:bluetooth -f S16_LE | aplay -Dplug:bluetooth -f S16_LE
Recording WAVE 'stdin' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 8000 Hz, Mono
Playing WAVE 'stdin' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 8000 Hz, Mono
Aborted by signal Interrupt...
Aborted by signal Interrupt...

Finally configure your audio applications to use the alsa device ‘bluetooth’.

Example fro setting up Skype to use the bluetooth headset:
Right click on the Skype icon on the gnome-panel and go Options => Sound Devices and change the ‘Sound In’ and ‘Sound Out’ to ‘bluetooth’ and click apply.

And for other applications have a read here

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Nvidia closed source driver has to be modified (for all (71.86.04, 96.43.05, 169.12 and 171.06) but the latest driver (173.08)) in order to run on 2.6.25 as detailed here.

When you apply the patch and generate the custom executable, the install works as advertised.

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With Gnome System Monitor 2.22 under Debian testing (Lenny) I had the problem when I clicked on the Resources tab the CPU usage would got to 100% on my laptop and desktop.

Well I have been able to fix the problem on my laptop which has and Intel video card by adding Option “AccelMethod” “EXA” to the Device section in my xorg.conf file.

Example:

Section "Device"
        Identifier      "Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller"
        Driver          "intel"
        BusID           "PCI:0:2:0"
        Option           "AccelMethod"  "EXA"
EndSection

When I have worked out how to fix the problem on my desktop using a Nvidia video card I will post the solution.

Thanks goes out to MistaED for pointing out to me that this a problem with the way Cairo rendering is done.

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