GeekTimeLinux

The cpio command is one of the most commonly used Linux back up tools.

The cpio command has two unusual features

Unlike tar , in which the files to back up are typed in as part of the command, cpio reads the files to work with from the standard input (in other words, the screen).

This feature means that cpio must be used as part of a multiple command or with a redirection pipe. Examples of this usage are shown in the tables below.

cpio must always be used with one of three flags. Flags are options that set the mode in which the command runs. Only one flag can be used at a time, and it must come before any other options. In addition, the choice of flags limits the options that can be used. Each flag also has a gnu option that can used in its place. The gnu option gives a convenient name for each flag: extract, create, and pass- through.

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The tar backup program is an archiving program designed to store and extract files from an archive file known as a tarfile. A tarfile may be made on a tape drive; however, it is also common to write a tarfile to a normal file.

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During the past month, we have reviewed several distributions and I thought it would be interesting to look back and see how our initial impression had changed after using the operating systems for a sustained period. Here goes:

SIMPLY MEPIS 3.3.1

I continue to love working with this distro. It is full featured and robust and has the software we need in the Lab to do many of our tasks. In fact, this post is being written using Open Office on my Simply Mepis machine.

My one comment in the initial review was regarding the lack of a good E-mail client. Once I corrected that problem(see: HERE’S AFIX), like cream, the distro rose to the top.

Some of the changes in this release include; an update of packages to synchronize with the Debian pool. Alsa mixer pre-configuration is fully automated. The ra0 wireless port is supported via the OS Center and Serial_cs and rt2500 drivers are available.

In addition, Acrobat Reader has been updated to 7.0 and the mimetype configuration has been modified to use Acrobat automatically.

In addition, there are many programs that caused us to jump on the MEPIS bandwagon several months ago. But we weren’t the only ones to adopt this distro. It is number 3 at Distrowatch and other reviewers are saying much the same as we are. It’s a GREAT distro. One of those is Linuxquestions.org. SIMPLY MEPIS 3.3.1 might be your distro.

LIBRANET 3.0:

A wonderfully complete Debian distro, LIBRANET 3.0 is another of those distros that JUST WORK.

Libra Computer Systems or Canada have moved from a 2 CD distro offered in 2.8.1, to a full 5 CD’s in version 3.0 or you can get the distro on a single DVD.

In addition to being another Debian based distro, LIBRANET has included a new installer and includes features to give Linux users the convenience of using USB sticks and an abundance of windows managers including; KDE 3.3, GNOME 2.8.3 and a half dozen stand alone windows managers including, IceWM, Afterstep and Blackbox.

Libranet also offers “ADMINMENU”. Use it to set up your printer, update security patches, install new programs from CDs or on-line.

We installed LIBRANET on May 6th and have been using it ever since, including the use of ADMINMENU for updating. It has worked flawlessly.

Newsforge recently reviewed the distro and basically reinforced our conclusion…a Debian distro that works. If you aren’t opposed to paying for a Linux distro, give them a look. LIBRANET 3.0

MANDRIVA LIMITED EDITION 2005:

One of those distros that has always been user friendly and provided an abundance of software and has always stayed in tune with the latest hardware is MANDRAKE now MANDRIVA.

Since its acquisition of Connective, MANDRAKE has changed its name, but not it’s attitude of providing the latest in programs and supporting new hardware. Only the name has changed.

We installed MANDRIVA in April and I must say I was impressed. With its 2.6.11 linux kernel and updated features, it is hard not to love this distro.

In addition to software upgrades, (OpenOffice, CDRECORD,FIREFOX 1.0.2 and more) MANDRIVA has made external hardware easy to configure. How simple is it? How about automatic? This distro recognizes external hardware and automatically configures it. Flash drives and removable media are auto-mounted and given an icon on the desktop. MANDRIVA also installs, by default, hardware accelerated 3D video drivers for Nvidia, ATI and Intel based graphic processors.

After nearly a month of using MANDRIVA Limited Edition 2005, I find it hard to imagine where version 2006 is going to go. No problems, just success and what else would you expect from a distro.

MAD PENGUIN has echoed our feelings…MANDRIVA is a GREAT distribution.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST…SUSE 9.3:

Yes, this distro has been on a machine in the Lab since early April. Do I like it? You can bet your mouse!

Suse has a special place in my heart, so if I find something that doesn’t work as represented, I feel pain. I must say, that to date, this distro has been painless. I did have one reader that felt that since Novell bought SUSE, it was not the “hackers” distro it once was, but I guess I feel there are “different strokes for different folks.”

I have tried to break almost everything in this distro and thus far have not been successful. Almost does not include XEN. I have not had time to experiment with this program, however do have it on the schedule.

For those not familiar, XEN is a virtual monitor (VMM) for the x86 processor architecture. Simply, it means that multiple virtual machines can execute on a single physical system.

SUSE has increased their hardware support making WLAN easier. They have also given the user a choice of KDE or GNOME desktops. Installation is a piece of cake.

I just read a review by Linux Planet that indicates that our assessment of the distro is shared by others.

Twas my first Linux distro several years ago and continues to have a warm place in my heart. I use it daily and would recommend it to anyone, newbie or experienced user.

All are up…All are working…All are performing at max capacity and without flaws!

When I first reviewed LIBRANET 2.8.1 in 2004, I was very impressed with the distro. Later in the year, one of our visitors to the site reviewed the distro and termed it “HIS FAVORITE DISTRO.” Version 2.8.1 was contained on two CDs and with the apt-get program and the Adminmenu, it appeared the possibilities for programs was limitless.

Now, Libra Computer Systems of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada are giving us much more to talk about by increasing the distro to 5 CDs or 1 DVD in LIBRANET 3.0.

Starting with the new installer, LIBRANET 3.0 has the feel of a heavy duty distribution. While the new installer might give the feel of Red Hat’s Anaconda, it isn’t. It was ported in-house. The new installer offers a graphical install with a clear set of instructions and accurate hardware detection. If making a new user comfortable with the install process, LIBRANET has hit the bullseye.

As you start the install from the 5CDs or 1 DVD, you are ask if you would like to check the integrity of your install media. While it may take a couple of minutes, most installs fail as a result of bad media. Once the discs have been checked and have been proven good, you are prompted to setup X. Here you go to the graphical mode and are given the opportunity to set up your display. (Having a copy of your monitor manual is always a good idea to determine both horizontal and vertical frequencies). On computer 6, where I did the install in the lab, I have an old off-brand video card with a no-name monitor. All configured automatically within seconds.

If you chose to use the automatic install option, LIBRANET creates a swap partition and a root partition with a Reiser file system. While I used the entire hard drive (120M) the base system and Libranet core files use about 2.9G.

After the above are installed, you are offered the opportunity to make a boot disk from either a floppy or CD. If you are a laptop user…TAKE HEED. If you install from your burner, make sure you remove the install CD or DVD and replace it with a blank disc before proceeding to burn a boot CD. There is no warning to do so, however the system will hang up and is unrecoverable after trying unsuccessfully to burn a boot CD with the installation media in CD #1 or DVD in the drive.

What can you expect from LIBRANET 3.0. Libranet offers Mozilla-Firefox, Mozilla, Epiphany, and Opera as the prime browsers. Games offer an exhaustive list of 60+. There are 50 multimedia programs and some 28 graphics programs, and the list goes on.

The default install includes KDE 3.3, GNOME 2.8.3 and a half dozen stand alone windows managers such as; IceWM, Afterstep and Blackbox.

Another feature Linux users are beginning to enjoy is the utilization of USB sticks. Here, you plug in the stick and an icon appears on the screen with no fuss, no muss.

The core of LIBRANET 3.0 is a 2.6.11 kernel and a Debian base. Yes, this is the same kernel used by several other current Linux distributions, however it appears LIBRANET has gone a step beyond with their software selection and what appears to be a somewhat accelerated speed.

LIBRANET’s “ADMINMENU” offers many things. Setting up a printer…do it here. Updating security patches, installing new programs from CDs or on-line, setting cron times, or configuring devices do it here.

If you haven’t seen enough on programs, LIBRANET offers recent versions of what Debian repositories define as non-free software. Simply, these are proprietary applications that can be freely distributed. They include Sun Java, Opera, and Adobe Reader.

I have been working with the distro for a few days and frankly…I haven’t been able to break it! It works in areas many distros won’t and with the abundance of software available in the base distribution and through Synaptic, it is hard to imagine more programs being available.

I have moved machine 6 to the head of the line for work. Simply, I want to use this distribution for everything I do. Will it fail? Will the new wear off the distro? I don’t know! What I do know is, for the price LIBRANET should be the first choice of newbies and experienced users. In my opinion “LIBRANET just hit a GRAND SLAM.”

When was the last time you began looking for a book on Linux and went through a dozen searches? It happens, especially when you are new to the system.

When I started using Linux, I wanted to read everything I could about the Distro I would be using and there were occasions when I really felt I should give up. In addition to info on various Distros, there are many programs within Linux that users search for information on how to configure and use.

While it may not be the be all..end all, we have set up a Linux site for books. BOOKS ABOUT LINUX is readily available from this link or from the home page of Geektimelinux.com.

It is our sincere hope that you will be able to find the information you are seeking and that your searches will be simplified.

The folks at Libranet were kind enough to provide me with a copy of their 2.8.1 release for a review. After downloading the latest and greatest from their ftp site a few nights ago, burning the cd’s this morning, making an emergency trip to the vet during the second cd burn and eating a late breakfast, I was finally ready for the install.

My test system is a Toshiba Tecra 8200 laptop, containing a PIII 750mhz cpu, 512 MB of ram, a 10 GB hard drive, Yamaha YM5754 soundcard, and the infamous Trident Cyberblade XP video chipset.

Before installing Libranet, you may want to read through the included install guide (or browse it online at http://www.libranet.com/guide/). While installation is not difficult, a read through the guide before you get started is always a good idea. You can also browse the system requirements page, but the requirements are so small that it’s hard to imagine any recent system not meeting the minimum requirements.

You can install Libranet by either booting off the CD, or by booting from a floppy. I chose to boot off the cd, since I’m a lazy bum and didn’t want to create a bootable floppy. If you need to create a bootable floppy you can do so by following the instructions in the install guide. You’ll need a working system - either Linux or Windows will work fine.

The Libranet install is mostly a text-based install. While this seems like it might intimidate a new user, it’s surprisingly easy. In fact, it’s just as easy to work through the text install as it is to go through the graphical installs provided by RedHat and Makdrake. Choosing the packages to install is run through a graphical interface, as we’ll see later.

When you start up the install you’ll see the initial screen informing you that Libranet strives to be the best GNU/Linux system available. It’s distributed under the GPL, and you can order the source code CD’s for $25 each (including airmail) if you so desire. You can email support@libranet.com to request the cd’s. The screen also informs you that Libranet has made extensive use of the Debian archive, and is 100% Debian compatible. This is important to note, because if you desire to convert your system to any of the official Debian releases it’s just a matter of updating your /etc/apt/sources.list file, and running the apt commands to convert your system. You can also use the official Libranet archives and the Debian archives to keep your system up to date if you wish.

Next, you’ll be taken through the keyboard selection, and move on to the drive partitioning. You can choose one of three methods to partition your drive:

1. Automatically partition and layout drives. This options allows you to choose to either use the entire drive, or just the free space on the drive.
2. Automatically layout drives. This option will use an existing Linux partition and swap partition to create your installation. This option is handy if you are replacing an existing Linux installation that was installed on a single partition.
3. Partition and layout drives. This is the ‘advanced’ option which allows you to choose sized for your partitions, or choose multiple existing partitions for your installation. This is handy if you are in the habit of creating your /home partition separate from your / partition (like I am).

I chose the third option, set up my partitions to all use the RiserFS (except the swap partition, of course), and to format all the partitions. After what seemed like an almost too quick minute or two, my 10GB drive was formatted and ready to go. This text based partitioning tool was extremely easy to use, and this section of an install for any distribution is usually very intimidating to new users.

Next, the base system is installed. This will give you a base working system that allows you to continue your installation booted into your working kernel. After the base system is installed, Libranet will ask you if you want it to handle the booting of the system. It would have been nice if they were a little more specific at this point, and mentioned that you were actually choosing to let grub handle your boot process. I chose ‘yes’ to this option, and assumed that I was actually setting up grub or lilo to handle my booting needs (grub was, in fact, installed). At this point you can create a boot floppy if you so desire. Because I live dangerously, ride motorcycles and don’t keep my hands at 10 and 2 while driving, I decided to skip this step. I also have the bootable CD in case of emergency. :) All that’s left in the first stage of the install is to choose your timezone, take out your cd and floppy disk (if used), and reboot for the second stage of the install. This is the only reboot required in the entire process.

The first part of stage 2 is setting the root password and creating your normal user. You also have the option of adding additional users. You continue on to setting your host name, then it’s off to the x-windows configuration. It’s a really nice touch to be able to set up and test your x-windows configuration during the install process. You can change and experiment with your settings and keep testing until you’ve got just the right setup. For example, my video chipset is notoriously problematic to set up, and my laptop’s display resolution didn’t report correctly. Libranet’s setup tool allowed me to go in, change the settings I needed, and get my laptop running at it’s full 1024X768 resolution easily. This is something I still have problems doing with other distributions, including Knoppix which is another Debian-based distribution that’s known for recognizing a wide variety of hardware.

Now you’re shot off into the wonderful world of GUIs, and into the package selection tool. I really like the choice of putting this section of the install into a GUI. The tree based package selection tool was really easy to navigate. While choosing individual packages is always a chore, I always take that route since I don’t want to miss packages I will end up having to install later. While almost all of the packages were in the groups you’d expect them to be, I noticed that jpilot wasn’t in the PIM section, but in the system tools section. I didn’t see any other packages misplaced, although it’s a possibility that there are some I missed. Even so, that’s a really small issue, and you can always go through the Libranet Admin Menu and install any missing packages directly from the cd, as well as using the ‘apt-get install’ command to install the latest and greatest from the online archives. There’s also an option for a minimal install and a non-gui option. Some interesting packages are the sysadmin guide, frozen bubble, the Linux Cookbook, and a newbie guide. There’s packages for laptops and wireless tools as well. As the packages install, you can watch the progress in an embedded console window, but there’s no overall progress meter. That’s just a small inconvenience, but it would be a nice addition for a future release.

When all the packages are completely installed, you have the option to configrue apache, sound, networking and your printer. Remove cd #2, hit enter twice, and you’re ready to log on to your new, shiny Libranet system!

You have the option of several different desktop environments: Last, KDE (v3.1.3), GNOME (v2.2), Xfce, IceMW, Xsession, fluxbox, Libranet and failsafe term. I chose ‘Libranet’ for my first login, since I was curious to see what that was. Libranet chooses IceWM, a quick and lightweight window manager, for your use. You can see a screenshot of my system running IceWM here and here (new windows opened). I was impressed by IceWM, it was both fast and stable.

Being a Gnome user, I wanted to see the difference between Libranet’s Gnome installation and, say, RedHat’s. I’ll let you see for yourself with these two screenshots. You’ve also got the Debian and KDE menus present on your main menu, if you need quick access to the programs installed there.

And, of course, we can’t forget the KDE screenshots 1, 2, can we?

And since I’ve never run Xfce, I decided to try it out as well. It was stable and fast, but hard for me to find all the applications I needed. This is just because I’m not familiar with it, of course, and not a fault in Xfce at all. There’s some people who swear by Xfce, and I see the appeal of it. It’s just not one of my personal favorites. Here’s the screen shot of my Xfce desktop. The screen shot has a picture of mozilla showing another screen shot of Xfce (from the Xfce manual) because I’m weird like that. The XFTree (shown in the screen shot) is a great little gui file manager if you like working with a gui.

Here’s some highlights of the packages included with Libranet 2.8.1:

• Kernel 2.4.21
• XFree86 4.3.0
• KDE 3.1.3
• GNOME 2.2.2
• Mozilla 1.4
• Opera 7.0
• Galeon 1.3.7
• Open Office 1.0.3OpenOffice 1.0.3
• KOffice 1:1.2.91-1
• Gnumeric 1.1.19-1

You’ll notice that Open Office is not the latest 1.1 version, and Gnome isn’t the 2.4 version. This is because Libranet 2.8.1 came out before these were released. You can easily upgrade to these versions using apt, so that’s not a problem if you want the latest and greatest of these two great packages.

The killer features of Libranet is the Libranet Xadminmenu. The Xadminmenu has sections for About, Register, X-windows, Sound, Network, Printer, Time, Disk/CD/Floppy, Users, Desktop and Browser Plugins. You can administer just about every aspect of your computer from here, even including recompiling your kernel! Recompiling your kernel is insanely easy, just click, choose your options, and compile. I’m actually recompiling my kernel right now for my specific CPU, and the time from opening the menu to actually compiling was about 2 minutes including finding my cpu type in the options menu. The browser plugins allow you to install (or download and install if the program is not distributed with Libranet) Real Player, Flash, the Java runtime and Mozplugger for easy installation. The Xadminmenu also allowed me to put in my removable USB 128 MB flash storage device, choose to search for new removable drives, and then mount it via the ‘/flash/ mount which was automatically added to my /etc/fstab file from the admin menu. Now that’s sweet!

If you need help getting up and running or making changes to your system, there are two great resources freely available for you, the Libranet forms and the Solutions Database. If you are a registered customer, you can also get email support from Libranet. I’ve emailed them several times, and they have always been responsive, professional, and extremely helpful. You can also sign up to the libranet-users mailing list.

Libranet was extremely easy to set up, ran smoothly, quickly, and was stable. Libranet doesn’t offer it’s latest version for free download, but you can download the 2.7 version for free before deciding to upgrade to the 2.8.1 version or not. While it’s possible to upgrade your system to the latest version using apt, I would highly suggest that you purchase a copy from the kind folks at Libranet and support their distribution. There are also several key upgrades to the 2.8.1 version, including better recognition of network devices and several upgraded software packages. The home user price is $64.95 for a downloadable version, or you can add $5 to get the cd’s shipped to you. The corporation version is $104.95 for the downloadable version. The full price list is located at http://www.libranet.com/download.html, as well as a link to download the older 2.7 version. There’s also a discount for students and seniors.

Usually when people review Libranet, they say that it’s hard to imagine an easier or smoother install for a Debain-based Linux distribution. I’d go two large steps further and say that it’s harder to imagine an installation of any operating system to be easier or smoother than installing Libranet - Linux or otherwise. Every software package that you can possibly ever need is probably included in the Libranet distribution, and you’ve for plenty of choices for your window manager, the theme you want to use, and anything else you can imagine. I have no complaints about Libranet whatsoever (besides the extremely minor things mentioned in the install section, which don’t matter after you’ve installed the system and hardly matter during the install process itself), and lots of great things to say about this fine distribution. I highly recommend Libranet’s latest version for everyone, from the casual home user to the hardcore developer. We have one of both in our household, and I have no doubt that Libranet will fill all our needs nicely. I also really like the fact that there are more programs available through the menu than I’ve ever seen before. If you’re looking for your first distribution, or you’re an experienced Linux user looking for a killer Debian-based distribution, I highly recommend Libranet.

Overall score: 10/10!

Take care,

-Frank Merenda

Additional Links:

Main Libranet page
2.8.1 features: http://www.libranet.com/features.html

Libranet Official ScreenShots: http://www.libranet.com/screenshots.html

System Requirements: http://www.libranet.com/system_requirements.html

Install Guide: http://www.libranet.com/guide/

Download the 2.7 version or buy a copy: http://www.libranet.com/download.html

Libranet forms: http://forum.libranet.com/

Solutions Database: http://www.libranet.com/support/

Support page: http://www.libranet.com/support.html