Friday, January 19, 2007

Configuration of Ad-hoc Wireless Network with Linux boxes

I've connected two Linux boxes (laptops) with wireless network without an AP. This is called "Ad-hoc Mode". It's as simple as connecting a wired network with a switch or hub. For a full explanation, please read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_ad-hoc_network

Set up your wirelss NIC first. This varies upon different machine models. Usually a web search would solve your problem. For my scenario (Intel IPW2200 card on Fedora with rpm.livna.org), a "yum install ipw2200-firmware" is enough.

Then the only thing you need to config is your NIC's config file, usually named "ifcfg-eth?". For Fedora it's in "/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/". Here's mine:

# Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection
DEVICE=eth1
ONBOOT=no
BOOTPROTO=none
TYPE=Wireless
USERCTL=no
IPV6INIT=no
PEERDNS=yes
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
DHCP_HOSTNAME=
IPADDR=192.168.0.2
DOMAIN=
HWADDR=
CHANNEL=1
MODE=Ad-Hoc
RATE=Auto
BROADCAST=192.168.0.255
NETWORK=192.168.0.0
ESSID=


To bring it up, use "ifup eth?".

Font Config of Gtk2 and Gnome2 Applications Outside Gnome2

I have switched from GNOME to KDE, and have been happy with it, since it's A LOT faster. A small problem is those GNOME applications will appear in default theme/font style regardless your settings done in GNOME. Perhaps they rely on some global environment settings that exists only when GNOME is loaded.

Here's a workaround from Ed Hurst: Gtk2 and Gnome2 Applications Outside Gnome2.

Quote:
Fonts: Create a config file in your home directory -- ~/.gtkrc-2.0. In this file, place one simple line:

gtk-font-name = "Arial 12"


Theme: To get the color scheme you like, choose one that is available on your system -- /usr/share/themes in SuSE/Fedora -- and make sure it is indeed Gtk2, as not everything there is. Edit ~/.gtkrc-2.0 and add a line like this one:

include "~/.themes/Dirty-Ice/gtk-2.0/gtkrc"

Quote end.

This is my ".gtkrc-2.0":

gtk-font-name = "Sans 12"
include "/usr/share/themes/Simple/gtk-2.0/gtkrc"


Have fun with KDE! :)

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Switched from MSN Space

I switched from MSN Space to here. Since MSN Space is extremely slow in Firefox on Linux, greatly reduced my ardor to write things with it.