This weekend I stumbled across a video posted on http://rt.com/ that made me question everything I believed about modern day computing. Richard Stallman expresses some eye opening views on computing, free software, and the dangers of social networking websites.

Source: Stallman: Facebook IS Mass Surveillance

Free Software

After reading further, I found myself becoming very excited about the ideas of free software (free as in freedom, not as in free beer). I spent quite a bit of time reading up on The GNU Operating System and I am very impressed. I tried out several GNU/Linux distros including Dragora, gNewSense, and the eventual winner Parabola, which is a variant of Arch Linux striving to be purely GNU/Linux-libre. “Linux-libre is a project that aims to publish and maintain modified versions of the Linux kernel that include only free software.” Parabola GNU/Linux-libre is a very clean and pure distro to aide you in your quest to promote and use free software.

The Free Software Foundation
The Free Software Foundation, or FSF, is the not for profit organization that is pushing towards the GNU ideals of free software. According to their website, “The FSF advocates for free software ideals as outlined in the Free Software Definition, works for adoption of free software and free media formats, and organizes activist campaigns against threats to user freedom like Windows 7, Apple’s iPhone and OS X, DRM on ebooks and movies, and software patents.” This is simply amazing!

Recommended Free Software Alternatives

• Chrome, Chromium, Firefox -> Icecat, Luakit
• MS Office, OpenOffice -> Libreoffice
• Outlook, Thunderbird -> Evolution, Thunderbird-libre
• Sun JDK, Sun JRE -> OpenJDK

Necessary Sacrifice

Please understand that in order to take the dive into the world of free software and computing freedom that there are sacrifices involved. There are several software packages that you may rely on every day that you don’t realize are non-free. Making the leap to one of the GNU/Linux pure free distros could come as quite a shock to some. Some of the major software I will miss includes flashplayer, Chromium, and I am sure more to come as I use Parabola this week at work. You have been warned! But keep in mind, the sacrifice is for the greater good. Using and promoting purely free software is the only way to go. The user deserves the freedom. You deserve the freedom. If you want to modify a program to do something random that you want it to do, then you should be able to.

Further Resources

• GNU Software Licenses
• List of GNU/Linux Distros
• Hardware Supported by Free Software/Drivers
• FSF List of Wireless Cards
• Upgrade Instructions from Arch to Parabola
• My Recommended Cheap USB Wifi Card (Uses ath9k_htc driver)

Operating Systems of Choice
Server: Debian Squeeze
Desktop: Arch Linux
Phone: Android

I am starting to nerd out a lot more lately and will expand TechnoGeeks to be able to magically host several projects of mine. This includes web applications written in PHP, Ruby, and Lua! I started playing around with some of the Kepler Project frameworks (WSAPI, Xavante, and Orbit) and have a fully functioning Code Snippet library called Snippy. Orbit is ULTRA FAST but the documentation and code maintenance is VERY POOR. I really hope these guys clean things up as they have something really nice going here. More updates soon!

Update 12/5/2011:
I have several new projects and services that are now up!

• Snippy: Lua MVC App (Orbit) for Code Snippets
• Bittie: A personal link shortener
• Apache Vysper: XMPP Service

Also, please keep in mind that these are solely the views of me and me alone. You may or may not agree with me and that is fine. I am simply giving you my opinions and feelings that I have after undertaking this epic journey.

February 2010 – Ubuntu

At this point I just got a new job and my main desktop and server experience was with Ubuntu. The shop mainly uses Ubuntu for their work machines so it was the obvious choice. It was a typical Ubuntu install with the Gnome window manager.

Pros:

• Things just work!
• Company Supported
• Comfortable Waters

Cons:

• Bloated and Slow
• Pulseaudio HATE!

April 2010 – Arch Linux

A buddy of mine at work was highly influential, and still is. He was constantly raving about Arch Linux and eventually got me overly curious. He helped me struggle through the installation and I read through their absolutely amazing wiki docs and picked everything up quick. It is quite impressive. He also convinced me to try awesome window manager which is amazing once you get the key bindings down. However, I originally got fed up with Arch because it was so different and jumped ship.

Pros:

• Minimalistic
• Rolling release system
• Choice of source (ABS) or binaries (Pacman)
• Active and passionate community
• Ability to easily recompile kernels

Cons:

• Very different than the norm
• Demanding initial installation
• Prone to random breakage

June 2010 – Xubuntu / Lubuntu

After using awesome with Arch I wanted to try something more lightweight than gnome so I went for Xubuntu. XFCE and LXDE basically provide most of the functionality of Gnome without the bloat. After a while I missed awesome and installed it and switched back to it but still was using apt packages. I coasted with the Xubuntu + awesome install for a long time as I had no real urge to switch until I started having the random urges to play with source code again.

Pros:

• Lightweight
• Ubuntu core with apt packages

Cons:

• Missing ability to compile stuff from source easily

January 2011 – Gentoo

I have had some bad experiences with Gentoo in the past due to lack of understand but I wanted to try a source based distro again. I finally got a sound understand of proper configurations and how to effectively use portage this time, but a little late. I was absolutely terrified to upgrade packages because I originally accepted ~amd64 for the first half of use and was scared what would happen after I started white listing on a package basis. I originally could not get some core needs to work, such as PPP with my USB EVDO card and the Ruby-GTK bindings with some applications I needed for work.

Pros:

• Source based
• Extremely easy to recompile kernel

Cons:

• Could never get certain needs to function
• Huge installation time
• No option for binaries, packages take ages to compile

March 2011 – FreeBSD 8.2

A buddy at work (yes, the same one) convinced me to try FreeBSD. I had issues with the installer and it took a while to figure out that I needed to load a kernel module so it would recognize my drive labels. After that, the install was a breeze and I really liked everything. The deal breakers this time is lack of compatibility with lots of 64 bit apps (virtualbox being a biggie). I also could not use Chromium, AFS, or my USB EVDO card. It was a fun two weeks though!

Pros:

• Choice of source (Ports) or binaries (pkg_add)
• Minimalistic

Cons:

• Could never get critical needs to function
• Poor 64 bit support

April 2011 – Ubuntu 10.10
Went back to Ubuntu on a whim. Everything just works even better than I last tried but Gnome is just as bloated as ever. I also saw that btrfs is now native in Ubuntu and gave it a try. I would recommend holding off as I dont think it is quite ready yet. Extracting a tarball pretty much tanked the box and I noticed that btrfs requires about 20-25 processes to always be running for it to function. WTF? I then started playing with source packages. I wrote a script called snag that made the downloading, building, and extracting trivial. This, however, was not enough. I then pondered for a several days on which operating system is closest to my idea of the most ideal. My requirements were simple.

• Minimal, lacking bloat
• Capability to easily recompile kernel
• Choice of binary or source packages
• All of my core needs for work are possible (AFS, EVDO, virtualbox, wine, etc.)

If you peaked ahead you already know my choice. If you haven’t read ahead, can you guess before moving your eyes below which one I chose?

.
?
.
?
.
?
.
?
.
?
.
?
.
?
.
?
.
?
.

April 2011 to Current – Back to Arch!
You guessed it (I think)! I am heading back to Arch tonight and I can’t wait. It is the only distribution where everything I need has worked in the past. It is also the only one that meets all of the criteria that I have for what I consider an ideal operating system. I hope to make it last. Wish me luck!

While learning Lua for WoW addons, I was lucky enough to discover a neat pure lua app called Sputnik. It is a wiki engine that can be extended to do just about anything you want it to do. For example, I have all of the data storing in git with a git plugin and changed the default auth to hit MySQL instead of a flat file. The possibilities are endless and they have several example plugins for ideas (issue tracker, discussion posts. etc).

I hope one day to get good enough with Sputnik and lua to provide a Postgres auth plugin and a blog plugin as well. Yuri, the project maintainer is really good at answering people that need assistance on their mailing list. It was there that I discovered they have a git repo and a new version: Galaxy.

The bottom line: this project is worth checking out and contributing to people so get to it!

Some essentials:

• WowLua – An addon that allows you to write and run Lua in game.
• Warcraft Addon Studio – A Visual Studio (VB) like application to let you quickly build frames and export them to XML.

Celistine
The first mod I wrote was called Celistine, and was written to monitor my wife in game It allowed her to whisper me for auto-invites to a group, monitors her range and informs me if she is far, and spams her with whispers if my health gets lower than 25%.

Deeps
After that, I decided to modify an example I found in the book I am reading (World of Warcraft Programming) and create a simple frame that displays DPS and other facts as I am in combat. I decided to call it Deeps See below for the screenshots, code, and feel free to try it out yourself.

-- Set up some local variables to track time and damage
local start_time = 0
local end_time = 0
local total_time = 0
local total_damage = 0
local average_dps = 0
local in_combat = false

function CombatTracker_OnLoad(frame)
	frame:RegisterEvent("COMBAT_LOG_EVENT_UNFILTERED")
	frame:RegisterEvent("PLAYER_REGEN_ENABLED")
	frame:RegisterEvent("PLAYER_REGEN_DISABLED")
	frame:RegisterForClicks("RightButtonUp")
	frame:RegisterForDrag("LeftButton")
end

function CombatTracker_OnEvent(frame, event, ...)

	if event == "PLAYER_REGEN_ENABLED" then
		-- This event is called when the player exits combat
		end_time = GetTime()
		total_time = end_time - start_time
		average_dps = total_damage / total_time
		CombatTracker_UpdateText()
		CombatTracker_ReportDPS()
		in_combat = false
	elseif event == "PLAYER_REGEN_DISABLED" then
		-- This event is called when we enter combat
		-- Reset the damage total and start the timer
		CombatTrackerFrameText:SetText("In Combat!")
		total_damage = 0
		start_time = GetTime()
		in_combat = true
	elseif event == "COMBAT_LOG_EVENT_UNFILTERED" and in_combat then
		local timestamp,log_event,source_guid,source_name,source_flags, dest_guid, dest_name, dest_flags, spell_id, spell_name, spell_school, amount = ...

		if string.match(log_event, "_DAMAGE") then
			if source_name == UnitName("player") or source_name == UnitName("pet") then
				--ChatFrame1:AddMessage(source_name .. " is doing teh hurt!")
				if amount ~= nil then
					total_damage = total_damage + amount
					end_time = GetTime()
					total_time = end_time - start_time
					average_dps = total_damage / total_time
					CombatTracker_UpdateText()
				end
			end
		end
	end
end

function CombatTracker_UpdateText()
	local status = string.format("%ds | %d dmg | %.2f dps", total_time, total_damage, average_dps)
	CombatTrackerFrameText:SetText(status)
end

function CombatTracker_ReportDPS()
	local msgformat = "Dished out %d damage in %d seconds (%.2f dps)."
	local msg = string.format(msgformat, total_damage, total_time, average_dps)
	if GetNumPartyMembers() > 0 then
		SendChatMessage(msg, "PARTY")
	else
		ChatFrame1:AddMessage(msg)
	end
end

echo "1" > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward
iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp --dport 80 -j DNAT --to-destination 1.2.3.4:80
iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp --dport 3306 -j DNAT --to-destination 1.2.3.4:3306
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -j MASQUERADE

1. Install TFTP server

sudo apt-get install tftpd-hpa
sudo start tftpd-hpa

Ensure /var/lib/tftpboot exists. If it does not:

mkdir -p /var/lib/tftpboot

Ensure that the values in /etc/defaults/tftpd-hpa match.

2. Install DHCP server

sudo apt-get install dhcp3-server
sudo vim /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf

Add something similar to the following…

default-lease-time 86400;
max-lease-time 604800;
authoritative;

subnet 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
        range 192.168.1.10 192.168.1.15;
        filename "pxelinux.0";
        next-server 192.168.1.121;
        option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
        option broadcast-address 192.168.1.255;
        option routers 192.168.1.1;
}

sudo service dhcp3-server start

The next-server option needs to be the IP of the TFTP server. Everything else should be self explanatory.

Before proceeding verify both services are listening.

sudo netstat -upan | awk  '{print $6}'
2008/dhcpd3
582/dhclient
3627/in.tftpd

3. Install syslinux if it is not already (it should be). Copy over pxelinux.0 into the appropriate location.

sudo apt-get install syslinux
sudo cp /usr/lib/syslinux/pxelinux.0 /var/lib/tftpboot

4. Download latest clonezilla zip from SourceForge.

sudo unzip clonezilla-live-*.zip
sudo cp live/vmlinuz /var/lib/tftpboot/
sudo cp live/initrd.img /var/lib/tftpboot/
sudo cp live/filesystem.squashfs /var/lib/tftpboot/
cd /var/lib/tftpboot
sudo touch boot.txt
sudo mkdir pxelinux.cfg
sudo touch pxelinux.cfg/default

Your tree should end up looking something like this in the end:

├── boot.txt
├── filesystem.squashfs
├── initrd.img
├── pxelinux.0
├── pxelinux.cfg
│   └── default
└── vmlinuz

5. Create configs

sudo vim boot.txt

I made my menu look something like the following…

========================================================================

 .d8888b.  888                                    d8b 888 888
d88P  Y88b 888                                    Y8P 888 888
888    888 888                                        888 888
888        888  .d88b.  88888b.   .d88b. 88888888 888 888 888  8888b.
888        888 d88""88b 888 "88b d8P  Y8b   d88P  888 888 888     "88b
888    888 888 888  888 888  888 88888888  d88P   888 888 888 .d888888
Y88b  d88P 888 Y88..88P 888  888 Y8b.     d88P    888 888 888 888  888
 "Y8888P"  888  "Y88P"  888  888  "Y8888 88888888 888 888 888 "Y888888 

======== Boot Options: ================================================

>> clonezilla ......... Regular Boot
>> clonezilla_safe .... Failsafe Mode

=======================================================================

And finally the pxe config…

sudo vim pxelinux.cfg/default

Looked something like this:

DISPLAY boot.txt

LABEL clonezilla
	kernel vmlinuz
	append initrd=initrd.img boot=live union=aufs noswap noprompt vga=788 fetch=tftp://192.168.1.121/filesystem.squashfs

LABEL clonezilla_safe
	kernel vmlinuz
	append initrd=initrd.img boot=live union=aufs noswap noprompt vga=normal nomodeset nosplash fetch=tftp://192.168.1.121/filesystem.squashfs

PROMPT 1
TIMEOUT 0

Please note that the IP address should be the IP of the TFTP server!

Now testing with a Dell Latitude E6410 I hit F12 on the BIOS screen, Select Network Adapter, and SUCCESS! You should see your boot.txt with a “boot:” prompt. Please share your experiences and alternative implementations on how you solved this issue. I would love to hear them!

My Test results:
250 GB (239.9 GB after formatting)
67.7 GB in use
175.2 GB free
Transfer Rate: Started at 900 MB/min at first, peaked at 1.91 GB/min, ended at 1.72GB/min, average 1.7 GB/min
Time elapsed: 37 minutes, 41 seconds

Ubuntu 9.10 Pros:
Just works
Apt package management is speedy
Well supported
Attractive
I know it

Ubuntu 9.10 Cons:
Does too much
Gnome is bloated
Deb package dependencies are crazy sometimes
Can be slow at times

Gentoo Pros:
Very trim and lightweight
Forces you to learn and maintain general linux knowledge
Very flexible

Gentoo Cons:
Takes FOREVER to compile packages and dependencies
Emerge can have issues
Not for lazy people (and im pretty lazy)

As I write this post I am on step 9/10 of the install. I will provide updates as time goes on.

Update 1:
I encountered three problems and got them all resolved. I am currently installing Xfce and xdm right now. The problems I faced:
1. Changed password for root user for install, not chrooted gentoo environment.
2. The install CD loads out of date drivers so hard drives show up as hda during install but sda during initial boot. This screwed up both GRUB and /etc/fstab.
3. I forgot to compile my network card drivers into the kernel so my eth0 device didn’t exist.

I also found this quite interesting and hilarious (click on it to read):

Update 2:
Gentoo compiles are taking WAY too long and the installation takes 4+ hours to complete. This is just not an option these days, especially for my work laptop. I decided to give Arch + Xfce a shot and it was a breeze. I still feel like I get way more control than I did in Ubuntu without all of the bloat. I am going to try this out for a while and see how I like it. If for whatever reason I dislike it, I will be switching to Xubuntu and call it a day.

Selling points on Arch:
The Arch Build System – Amazing!
The Arch User Repositories, for must haves like my beloved google-chrome!
Minimalistic approach

Kris I hope you are happy…

#!/bin/bash
cd /home/jesse/rails/billing

if [ ! -f tmp/pids/server.pid ]; then
	script/server -d
fi

while [ `netstat -tan | grep 0.0.0.0:3000 | wc -l` != 1 ]; do
	echo "Server not started yet..."
	sleep 1
done

google-chrome http://localhost:3000/customers &
tail -f log/development.log

# Server can be killed with:
# kill -INT `cat tmp/pids/server.pid`

I then created a launcher simliar to this:

When I double click on the icon the first time it pauses for about 5-6 seconds while WEBrick initializes and binds to port 3000. As soon as it detects the webserver listening, I launch google-chrome to the default view. Each time I click the icon there after, the webserver is already running so the google-chrome tab kicks off instantly.

Wine and Ubuntu have really come a long way. These days it is very easy to get World of Warcraft to smoothly run in Linux. I felt the need to write this guide for two reasons: one as a mark of my triumphant achievement, and two as a helpful guide for those looking to do the same. This walk through assumes the following.

• You do not have wine currently installed. If you do and it is not the wine1.2 package then World of Warcraft probably won’t run very well, if at all.
• You currently have the restricted drivers installed for your video card
• Your system is up to date.
• You are running Ubuntu 9.10
• The WoW current patch is not too far past 3.3.3
• You have basic knowledge of Linux and understand how to use a terminal

Warning: This configuration worked great for my hardware. Other hardware configurations may need additional tweaking.

1. Before you start you must verify that your graphics card had DRI enabled.

glxinfo | grep rendering

If it returns “Yes” then you are all set. If it returns no I am not sure if you should continue with this guide.

2. Install Wine via apt

sudo apt-get install wine1.2

3. Download the Visual C++ Patch From Microsoft at www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/confirmation.aspx?familyId=200b2fd9-ae1a-4a14-984d-389c36f85647&displayLang=en.

wine /home/username/Downloads/vcredist_x86.exe

Follow the prompts to install it and it will close when it has finished. This patch is needed to successfully download patches at a certain point for WoW to run.

4. Install World of Warcraft. There are several means available to do this. You can install from the CDs/DVDs you bought or if you are like me you will need to download the entire installation from Blizzard. I had to download the downloader at https://www.worldofwarcraft.com/account/download_wow.html. For other methods of installation see the sources at the end of this article.

wine /home/username/Downloads/InstallWoW.exe

Choose Wrath of The Lich King when it prompts and keep going through the wizards. The downloader will eventually begin and you will have several hours (depending on your connection) to wait while it finishes.

5. Once the installation is complete, you will most likely want to edit the configuration to start WoW in OpenGL mode.

vim /home/username/.wine/Program\ Files/World\ of\ Warcraft/WTF/Config.wtf

Press the i key on your keyboard to go into insert mode. Add the following line to the bottom of the file.

SET gxAPI “OpenGL”

Press escape, type :wq, and press enter to save and exit the file.

6. Wine currently has permission issues with the World of Warcraft folder. If you ever notice WoW not starting after the launcher loads it is probably because the permissions somehow got screwed up on the folder. I have chosen to completely bypass the loader and I have also written a launcher script to make sure that WoW loads every time. Execute the following commands to start WoW for the first time.

chmod 755 /home/username/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/World\ of\ Warcraft/
wine "C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\WoW.exe"

After some patience World of Warcraft will successfully load up. Get your initial video / audio configuration out of the way before the next step.

7. The endless loop: Login and it will force you to download a patch. You will have to complete this step approximately 5 or 6 times until all the patches have downloaded.

8. After all the of the patches have downloaded you should be good to go! Install all mods to /home/username/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/World\ of\ Warcraft/Interface/AddOns/. Keep in mind that by default in Gnome that your keyboard is configured to automatically repeat keys when held down by default. This will make your mounts and characters running seem strange. You can disable this temporarily by going to System -> Preferences -> Keyboard and unchecking “Key presses repeat…”

I hope this quick guide has helped you get World of Warcraft installed and running beautifully in Ubuntu. If you have additional issues with your installation and need help please see the following sources for additional assistance.

Sources

• WoW Wiki: World of Warcraft functionality on Wine
• WineHQ: World of Warcraft 3.3.X
• Ubuntu Wiki: WorldofWarcraft