Howtos

These are links to some howtos, working cases and instructions for things I’ve put on this site. Since this blog was originally intended as a way of reminding myself of things I had done in the past, a lot of the howtos and tutorials are buried in the archives. This page should make it easier to find them, and to remember what’s available.

This isn’t really a best-of album — it’s more of an index for my own convenience, and for anyone else who wants it. If you think something is missing from here, tack on a comment and I’ll move it in. But if the list seems rather random … well, that’s because these are mostly things I always seem to be looking for.

Because a lot of these will apply to more than one distro, they’re listed in reverse chronological order. Unless it’s specific to Ubuntu, or Arch, or another version of Linux, feel free to try the things you see here on any *nix system.

Howto: Patch and set up screen-vs
Fixing alpine’s TCP timeouts
At long last, a console screensaver
Set up new hardware, quick and easy
Using ntp for date correction
Three reasons to buy an old computer
screen and dvtm and screen and dvtm and
A few scripts and aliases
dvtm rocks my fscks
One week at 100Mhz: I found a desk
The height of arrogance
The most annoying Firefox thing
Case in point: Charm at 100Mhz 16Mb
Case in point: A Crux ports server at 100Mhz 16Mb
Case in point: rtorrent slave at 100Mhz 16Mb 810Mb
Howto: Use Charm like a pro
rsync and emelfm2
Clock skew detected
There is no setup.py uninstall
fttps: A command-line download manager
Option “BackingStore”
Believe it or not, up-to-date Arch on an i586
Howto: Use Wordgrinder like a pro
Compiling Nvidia driver 96.43.09 on Intrepid 2.6.27-7
Ten reasons not to buy a new computer
Build software updates in Ubuntu
Making feh work for you
More fun X-based stuff
More fun GTK1.2-based stuff
MPlayer and Openbox
Shut up and build
Case in point: An rtorrent slave setup
Howto: Use xplanet for a desktop weather map
NFS file transfers from the Crux live CD
16-second boot on 550Mhz Celeron with Crux
Wireless networking from the Crux live CD
Build a better dual boot
Set up Hardy for speed
Vectorize images in Inkscape
Install cplay for the XO
Default the XO’s GMail Activity to Basic HTML
More Firefox subtleties
Beat Firefox’s UI fonts into submission
More fun with Kazehakase
Accelerate Ubuntu upgrades with an ISO
Still better font smoothing
File a bug report on Launchpad
Still compiling, and still learning
Ask for (and get) help on the forums
Once more, for old time’s sake
Toward a better C64 terminal
Convert a K6-2 to a C64
Build a functional Lowarch system
Joe does Tango
Shut down Linux from the Openbox right-click menu
Compile JWM 2.01 on Ubuntu 7.10
Set up Gutsy for speed
A clearlooks popsquares desktop
Derail the Linux juggernaut
Blacklist your PC speaker
Things to do with an old computer
Kazehakase on steroids
The coolness that is Arch Linux
Arch modules (and applications) for an Inspiron 8000
Leave Ubuntu
Mkinitcpio without ide-legacy setup
Tile windows in Openbox
Download packages and dependencies for offline installation
More terminal programs you should be using like a pro
Troubleshoot Nvidia drivers with the Ubuntu 7.04 desktop CD
Howto: Use Oleo like … a pro?
Howto: Use elinks like a pro
Howto: Use rtorrent like a pro
Howto: Use cplay like a pro
Browse and set your wallpaper in Openbox with feh
Stash your cache
Set up Feisty for speed
Taking out the trash with debfoster
Feisty Openbox on 1Ghz Pentium III, start to finish
Delete undeletable files in Windows XP
Compile the 8776 Nvidia driver on Feisty 2.6.20-xx
Cleaning up after Kazehakase
Compile MaCoPiX 1.4.1 under Edgy
Ten things you can do to keep an old computer useful
Mounting without sudo
Ubuntu Lite on Feisty
Mounting in parallel
Kernel ideX=noprobe flags
Clipping udevsettle
gPerfection, gPerfection2 and oPerfection
xscreensaver as wallpaper
Yes Virginia, you can run Beryl alone
xcompmgr, transset-df and 3ddesktop
Transparencies with xcompmgr in Openbox
Binding transparency to the mouse wheel in Openbox
A phony-baloney Gnome desktop
Note to self: Wireless configuration
Fewer modules, but no speed gain
Booting even faster with mkinitcpio
Since I mentioned it: Autologin in Arch
A guilty hack: ‘Wait’ to ‘once’ in inittab
Avoiding autoloading
Some cpufreq and speedstep lessons
Install GAG on a dual boot Windows-Ubuntu box
Install GAG on a default Ubuntu box
Font smoothing on minimal setups
Going blank: Life without xscreensaver
Install FVWM-Crystal 3.0.4 on Edgy
Note to self: Don’t forget CursorShadow
Float your conky
PyPanel fix for Edgy
Ralink RT61, Edgy and Nvidia … again
Edgy package search
Set up Edgy for speed
Edgy sans inittab
Install IceWeasel 1.5.0.4 in Ubuntu
Getting 6.06.1 on 120Mhz Pentium 1.5Gb 48Mb
Speed week, the finale