Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Display the Moon current phase as wallpaper

I have this working on my second display in xfce4

Place this in your ~/.xinitrc file

########################################################################
##  Start xfce Desktop Environment                                    ##
########################################################################
while true; do xplanet -body moon -geometry 1024x768 -background /home/username/.xplanet/stars/stars_custom.png -glare 0.001 -output /home/username/Wallpaper/moon.xplanet.jpg -num_times 1 && /usr/bin/xfdesktop --reload; sleep 45m; done &

After you paste that, go into your xfce settings manager and tell xfce to use the jpg as a wallpaper (if it does not exist yet, run that command once in a terminal session so it can generate the file.

Note... Set the geometry to your monitor's value.  The background file will not exist on your computer, if you want a background I suggest googling around a bit to find a background image you like (you do not need a background if you prefer no background image then you can remove that section of the code).  Then edit that image so it is exactly the geometry of your display.  The -glare 0.001 option kills the glare render during new moon and full moon.  Trust me, you will want this unless you like seeing a very bright yellow glare for a few hours during full and new moon cycles.

For the moon body to work in xplanet, you will first need to download a moon map.  Xplanet does not ship with moon maps... I have no idea why, it comes with almost every other planet and Sattlite in our solar system.  Google around for the xplanet moon map.  (if anyone finds a Deathstar map please let me know.  I actually want one of the second incomplete deathstar).

(The above command is a single line command, copy paste on this blog may have added some hard returns).
**MAKE SURE YOU REPLACE 'username' WITH YOUR ACTUAL USERNAME**

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Add all KDE crap to slackpkg blacklist

First, we will backup our blacklist file:
cp /etc/slackpkg/blacklist /etc/slackpkg/blacklist.old

Mount your slackware install dvd/cd/usb

Navigate to the slackware directory on the install media (you need to be inside the directory that has all the package sets a, ap, d, e, n... etc...)

Then, as root issue this command:

\ls kde | grep '\.t.z$' | rev | cut -d- -f4- | rev >> /etc/slackpkg/blacklist

note the '\' it is *NOT* a type-o!  this will add all the packages inside the kde directory to the bottom of your blacklist file.

Monday, March 25, 2013

Making your user use dmesg again


[06:49:52]  eh, the dmesg thing is a change that happened between 13.1 and 13.37. I personally put it back the way it was, by putting "kernel.dmesg_restrict = 0" in /etc/sysctl.conf

Thank you Urchlay from ##slackware on irc.freenode.com

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Jpilot on Slackware

The Slackbuild readme is missing some key information that is very simple to add (not sure why the maintainer failed to post this as Jpilot is useless without it).

For your user to sync a palm device it must first be added to the dialout group

Second, you may need to edit the preferences in Jpilot:

File --> Preferences --> Settings
   Click the drop-down menu 'Serial Port' and select usb: (if you are using a usb device like I am)
   Click the drop-down menu 'Serial Rate' and select anything 19200 or lower (the higher serial rates may not work, if you are getting problems keep lowering the serial rate, some have reported that 9600 is the highest they can use.  I am able to use 19200, experiment with your system)
   Click Ok

Now for the sync part.  DO NOT click the sync button on Jpilot first!!!!  It will not sync.  You must first click the sync button on your Palm cradle or from the palm hotsync app on your device FIRST, then click the sync button on Jpilot.

Same for when trying to do a backup.

Now that jpilot works for your user, you will probably just buy an overpriced iPhone POS or an ultra buggy crash happy android device.  I warn you, you are just wasting your time with that crap.  Keep your palm, or give it to me!