Install CentOS 5.2 from network (Internet)

Just some step:

1. Download netinstall iso from centos.org, for example, CentOS-5.2-i386-netinstall.iso.
2. Burn it if needed (if you want to install to real machine).
   
3. Boot from CD.
4. When asked type:

• Server name: mirrors.kernel.org
• Directory: /centos/5.2/os/i386

Enjoy!

A nice and quiet comprehensive introduction about hard disk

Thanks to the guys from IBM DeveloperWorks, I've found this very useful articles about one of most important PC components - the hard driver.

Access denied error in flashnul or a try to install other Linux for new-purchased HP 2133

Today I've just purchased a HP 2133 - really nice netbook with VIA C7-M 1.6GHz, 1GB RAM and 120 GB Hard Disk, costs about 350$. Everything is good, except the OS pre-installed is Suse Linux. I'm not from those Ubuntu lovers, who can always take Ubuntu Netbook Remix. I'm looking for something from Fedora or Xandros, but at the moment I have no choice.


So I downloaded UNR img file from their server, followed the instruction - used flashnul to write the image to a USB stick, but got an access denied error message. If you have the same problem, you must indicate the drive name instead of its number, for example:

D:\flashnul\flashnul.exe G: -L D:\unr-1.0.1.img

Now I'm installing UNR from the USB stick...

P.S. you can get UNR and more information from ubuntu wiki.

Update 1: there is something wrong with flashnul and I didn't get a bootable USB device. I used dd command on the pre-installed SuSE Linux and it works fine. But the installation could not be continued because the installer "did not find an installation target device".

I'm going to install Ubuntu 8.10 and then UNR packages...

Update 2: now I have a Ubuntu system installed, of course with difficult in Xorg configuration. You can get more documentation from ubuntu wiki. Here is my xorg.conf, taken from Internet (pay attention on PanelID, because if it's wrong, all windows will be bigger than the screen):

# /etc/X11/xorg.conf for hp Mini-Note 2133 FU339EA ubuntu 8.10
# with ubuntu 8.04 change the PanelID option
# based on the xorg.conf published on http://hp2133.umsw.de/xorg.conf

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device 0"
Driver "via"
VendorName "VIA Technology"
Option "NoDDCValue"
Option "ActiveDevice" "LCD"
# Option "PanelID" "17" # si ubuntu 8.04
Option "PanelID" "9" # si ubuntu 8.10
Option "DisplayHardwareLayout" "LCD" #for chip (CX700, CX800) with LVDS/TMDS support. Not set for(CN896, CN700).
Option "ForceLCD" "TRUE"
Option "Refresh" "60"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor 0"
DisplaySize 196 116
HorizSync 28-50
VertRefresh 43-60
Option "DPMS"
# mode "1024x600": 49.0 MHz, 37.3 kHz, 60.0 Hz
Modeline "1024x600_60" 48.96 1024 1064 1168 1312 600 601 604 622 -hsync +vsync # http://hp2133.umsw.de/xorg.conf
# mode "800x600": 40.0 MHz, 37.9 kHz, 60.3 Hz
Modeline "800x600_60" 40.00 800 840 968 1056 600 601 605 628 +hsync +vsync
# mode "800x600": 36.0 MHz, 35.2 kHz, 56.2 Hz
Modeline "800x600_56" 36.00 800 824 896 1024 600 601 603 625 +hsync +vsync
# mode "800x480": 40.0 MHz, 37.9 kHz, 60.3 Hz
Modeline "800x480_60" 40.00 800 832 960 1056 480 541 545 628 -hsync +vsync
# mode "720x576": 32.7 MHz, 35.9 kHz, 60.1 Hz
Modeline "720x576_60" 32.70 720 744 816 912 576 577 580 597 -hsync +vsync
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen 0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024x600_60" "800x600_60" "800x600_56" "800x480_60" "720x576_60"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 32
Modes "1024x600_60" "800x600_60" "800x600_56" "800x480_60" "720x576_60"
EndSubSection
Device "Device 0"
Monitor "Monitor 0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device 1"
BoardName "Chrome9 HC IGP"
Driver "via"
Option "DeviceSwitchHotkey" # si écran externe
Option "MergedFB" "TRUE"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "External"
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen 1"
Device "Device 1"
Monitor "External"
Subsection "Display"
Depth 24 # Depth 16 broke
EndSubsection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Screen 0"
Screen "Screen 1"
Option "RandR" "False" # d' après viax.conf via
EndSection

I'm going to install UNR interface...

Update 3: The netbook-launcher has been removed because it's still buggy. For example, there is not Firefox in Internet section. What's a shame! The maximus tool works quiet fine. What about HP 2133 in general? It's perfect: beautiful design, small (of course), fast and compatible with Linux. The only minus is heating because of CPU type - Via C7. But HP 2140 and newer will resolve this problem with Intel Atom.

Slumdog Millionaire is worthy to watch

I like watching movies in free time. My favorite films are "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly", "The Shawnshank Redemption", etc. You may say that quite old movies. Yes, I agreed, they are not the moderns, but the best. Because something remains in you after watching. And I don't know why some new hollywood creations like "No country for old men" could get so many awards, including Oscars. American suck or maybe Oscar now means nothing?

Of course, not all our-time films are awful. Example can be "Slumdog Millionaire" (2008). Slumdog Millionaire tells the story of a young man from the slums of Bombay who won a prize of 20 million rupees in Indian "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire", just because he know the answers, or more exactly the answers are written in his life. It's a nice movie of real life, philosophy and love.

By the way, last night this film won 8 Oscars from 10 nominated.

HPLC 2009 in Dresden, Germany

The 34th International Symposium on High-Performance Liquid Phase Separations and Related Techniques, HPLC2009, will be held from June 28 to July 2 in Dresden, Germany. A limited number of travel grants will be available for students with an accepted oral or poster presentation.

See more information about the conference itself and the grants on hplc2009.com.

Stardict 3.0.1 does not pronounce in Debian

Some knows that Stardict can pronounce English words contained as wav files in the WyabdcRealPeopleTTS.tar.bz2 package, if untar the last to /usr/share. On my Debian system, the dictionary program stops pronounce when I upgraded stardict to 3.0.1 version. And when upgrading I noticed the appearance of some new packages such as festival, espeak, which suppose to do the same thing. Saying faithfully, I'm still not familir with these programs, so I was looking for other solution. In Stardict's sound configuration command for playing wav files by default is play. It could not be found by whereis. Insteed, aplay was found. So I changed play to aplay, and suprisedly it works!
Give it a try if you have the same problem.

Is it possible to extract data from rar archives without having (some) last volume(s)?

On Yahoo! Answers I found the answer is no. But I think it must be yes. With the unrar tool, for example:

$ unrar x -kb Top.Gun.1986.DUAL.HDRip.XviD.AC3.-HQ-ViDEO.part01.rar

Version for Windows can be found. But you need to type the full path, or add the path to environmental variables. You know how :).