djst's nest

Thunderbird with EnigMail

Today I tried EnigMail with Thunderbird for the first time. Basically it's an extension that makes it possible to sign and encrypt/decrypt email messages. I didn't know I had it installed, but appearantly the crypt USE-variable was enabled by default in the Portage tree.

Theoretically, GnuPG, which EnigMail utilizes, is a nice way of verifying that the sender really is the sender of an email. It's also an effective way to make the email unreadable to others by encrypting it and only making it readable to a specific recipient. However, since few people use GnuPG, it's not a very usable extension in practice. Of course, I could sign my mail anyway to verify to the (few) users of GnuPG that I'm really the author of the message, but to everyone else not using GnuPG, they will just see some confusing and sometimes annoying garbage characters like this:

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG version X.xx 

iQA/AwUBO9U1l61jC06tVuW0EQJ76gCfdChJVLprIOAjJUyP1fd3qzxp/AwAnjCM
7gYeqrYPH/y6VktGVqRnz15i
=C5/O
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Anyway, when using this special build of Thunderbird with EnigMail enabled, Thunderbird randomly closes itself without any error message or anything. Maybe my GnuPG settings are misconfigured, but I can't have it this way so I'm recompiling Thunderbird without the crypt variable (USE="-crypt" emerge mozilla-thunderbird).

Update: The problem with Thunderbird shutting down was related to one of the mail folders used being write protected. For some reason, the Read Only bit was set on the FAT32 drive which is shared by Windows and Linux.

Hands on VidaLinux Desktop OS

In my Gentoo Linux review last week, I said I won't uninstall Gentoo because I already depended on it. While that's still true in a way, I did find a way to keep my promise and still switch to a new distribution. :) Before I start raving about VidaLinux, I must point out that I really was happy with Gentoo and didn't have any real reason to try another distro except for plain curiosity.

Installing

As I said in the Gentoo review, the major weakness (and to some extent the strength) of Gentoo is the complicated installation process which, if you're unlucky, can include weeks of trying to get your hardware working properly. While this is an educating and interesting process, what I want in the end is a working replacement for Windows XP to be used full-time. This means an operating system that takes care of all the hardware details so I can focus on the actual use of it. This is where VidaLinux comes in.

If you've ever installed Red Hat 8 or 9, or Fedora Core 1, 2 or 3, you've seen the anaconda installer before. This is the installer software used in VidaLinux. With anaconda, installing Linux is actually easier than installing Windows. For those familiar with Gentoo Linux, this is basically a stage3 install, meaning that all the programs are prebuilt binaries optimized for Pentium 4, Ahtlon XP or i686. The actual Linux kernel is similar to what you would get with Genkernel in Gentoo, meaning not 100% optimized to your hardware, but fully working and generally without missing hardware support.

On the surface, the VidaLinux installer seems to work seamlessly without any problems at all. However, I happen to know of a few Linux shortcuts and one of them is switching virtual terminals by pressing Ctrl+Alt+[F1 - F7]. The graphical installer is on virtual terminal 7 and I found out that you could see the actual portage output on terminal 5 (Ctrl+Alt+F5). That terminal revealed some problems with the installer, such as the Gnome gksu command not being installed properly. So the installer isn't flawless yet, but the problems with it are minor. They should hire someone to correct their spelling though, as it was easy to tell that VidaLinux isn't made by people speaking English as their native language:

Powerfull, stable and easy to use Linux distribution

We like to thanks all for your support to this project.

Using VidaLinux

About half an hour after inserting the installation CD you're presented with a nice default Gnome setup. Personally, I want things my way, so I immediately set Gnome up to use the theme I've grown used to from Gentoo (the Milk 2.0/Glossy P combo). After tweaking things for a short while, I realized that VidaLinux had already solved most of the hardware problems I was experiencing in Gentoo. For example, my monitor now properly shuts down after a specified period of time. In Gentoo, it never really did. It just blanked the screen, regardless of my screen saver settings. The mouse wheel also just works, although the back/forward thumb buttons still don't do anything special.

Maintenance

VidaLinux is as easy to install as Fedora, and at the same time as easy to administrate as Gentoo. It's really the perfect combination of two worlds. As with Gentoo, Portage is the system that handles program installation, upgrade and uninstall. With VidaLinux, you also get a graphical alternative to Portage, called Porthole. While GUI generally is easier to use than a text based interface, Porthole seems unnecessarily complicated. For me, using emerge is a lot simpler than clicking a lot of buttons. Porthole needs more work to be a usable GUI alternative to Portage, and it wouldn't hurt getting a better name either. I don't know if it's just me but I'm getting non-computer related associations from the name...

Impressions

After using VidaLinux for a couple of days, I can say for the first time that Linux is my primary operating system! I rarely feel the need to reboot to Windows anymore. In fact, this whole review was written in Linux, using The Gimp as the image tool to create the small screenshots and gedit to write the text and markup. I also burned my first CD-RW disc in Linux today using Gnome's built-in CD/DVD writer tool nautilus-cd-burner, which worked flawlessly.

The thing that remains to be solved has been solved is a problem with the sound card. For some reason, my integrated AC97 sound card can't play two sounds simultaneously. If for example I play an MP3 using XMMS, other sound events such as incoming messages in Gaim will be queued and played once the MP3 has stopped. I've had this problem with all modern Linux distros so it's nothing with VidaLinux in particular. On the software side, I really miss a decent DC++ client that is accepted by the popular hubs. That's one of the few things that makes me keep my dual boot setup with Windows XP.

Update: Thanks to the tip from Seth Kinast, the problem with the sound card is partially solved! I just had to add a few lines of code in a config file to get it working. This should really be in by default. The problem is still there on multiple logins though. If for example I log in and then Sofie wants to log in too using the gdmflexiserver command, no sounds are being produced from her session and she can't adjust the volume either.

Conclusions

The million dollar question. Would I recommend VidaLinux to people? Yes! Absolutely! This is unquestionably the best Linux distribution I've ever installed. It's the kind of distribution even my mom could install, if she had a computer with some unallocated hard drive space. At the same time, it's the kind of distribution my Computer Science classmates in the university would feel comfortable administrating. The things that made me love Gentoo is still there in VidaLinux, it's just preconfigured to get you started within 30 minutes instead of three days. The thing that will ultimately make VidaLinux a better alternative than other "mainstream" Linux distros such as Mandrake or Fedora, is Portage.

For the first time, the majority of my hard drive space is dedicated to Linux. I just converted my 120 GB NTFS partition to ext3 (I chose ext3 because I've heard rumors of ReiserFS not being as stable and reliable as ext3 and I don't want to gamble with my data). With "converted" I meant moving the data to other partitions, wiping the NTFS partition, create a new ext3 partition and finally move the data back again. I'm still keeping a 25 GB partition in the FAT32 format, which is shared by both Windows and Linux.

Enough said. Just go ahead and install it! I'm pretty sure you'll like it.

A few words about my desktop wallpaper used in the screenshot. Normally, I'm not much for using desktop wallpapers at all. Just a plain blue-gray color is fine. But this wallpaper shows off the nice transparent features of the gDesklets I'm using. Also, it adds that much wanted geek touch to the system. Sofie actually likes Paris Hilton, so she has no problem with it either. :)

VidaLinux even better than Gentoo

I just switched Linux distribution again! I will write a review of VidaLinux once I get more time, but I can say right now that it's close to the perfect Linux distribution.

I also need to move How To Share Mail Between Windows and Linux. I forgot that document when moving Thunderbird Help to Mozilla.org.

Thunderbird Help now hosted at Mozilla.org

It's done! At least most of it is. I'm sure there are things that needs to be updated, and I also need to set up permanent redirects from texturizer.net. If you find any problems or things that needs to be updated, please either...

• ...fix the bug, if you have CVS access to Mozilla.org
• ...submit patches, and I'll commit them once I learn how to
• ...post a comment in this blog entry about the problem
• ...send me an e-mail.

Thanks! Back to Gentoo Linux again (I had to reboot to Windows because I didn't have time to set CVS up on Linux tonight).

Hands On Gentoo Linux

It's that time of the year again, when I get the urge to try another Linux distro. Regular readers of my blog know that I've been testing Fedora, SuSE, and Mandrake before (although I never published the Mandrake review for documented reasons). This time I was influenced by a friend of mine, who has been using Gentoo Linux for exactly a year now. This distribution really is different compared to my previous Linux attempts since it's not really installed. Instead, you build Gentoo Linux from scratch using the Linux source code.

Installing Gentoo

This is the part that really makes Gentoo fundamentally different, and is undoubtly the reason why many users are afraid of taking the Gentoo path. Installing Gentoo is hard. And I do mean hard. Without the Gentoo Handbook you're completely lost if you're not a Linux guru. On the other hand, for being an operating system that is built and bootstrapped from scratch using nothing but plain source code and a C/C++ compiler, installing Gentoo is remarkably easy. Just imagine how hard installing Windows XP would be if you "only" had the source code!

In the Gentoo installation, you have to perform most steps manually, including preparing your disks and configuring the bootloader. What's interesting, though, is that you are actually learning lots of things about Linux during the process. I had no idea just how flexible Linux was until I installed Gentoo. You can even interrupt the install anytime and continue later on when you have more time. However, that assumes you have a slightly better understanding about Linux than is actually required to install Gentoo.

I will not talk that much about the installer, since the Gentoo Handbook does this so well anyway. I will just mention that getting to the point where you can reboot your computer and verify that the bootloader actually boots your new (and, optionally, your old) operating system could take several hours. If you have fairly new hardware though, the base installation (excluding a graphical environment such as Gnome) shouldn't take more than five hours.

Installing Software

It's in this area that Gentoo excels. It is undoubtly the most modular and scalable Linux distribution I've ever tested. Installing software on a Gentoo system is done with Portage. Portage is the package building and installation system that is used to install, update and remove software on your computer. It takes care of every detail needed in order to successfully install a program, from downloading sources and resolving dependencies to actually compile and install it. Without Portage, a source-based Linux distro like Gentoo would be impossible to maintain.

How do you actually install software then? You need to be logged on as root and then use the emerge command to install the software. For example, to install Gnome, along with X.org and any other dependencies, just type emerge gnome. Be prepared, though, that this will probably leave your computer busy for quite a while. To install Firefox on my computer, I wrote emerge mozilla-firefox in a console. This was actually the first time I was building Firefox instead of installing a binary. And the fact that this procedure was even easier than downloading the installer for Windows and run it makes you realize just how thought out the Portage system is! Just one simple command, and your software is downloaded, compiled and installed. Similarily, to install Thunderbird, type emerge mozilla-thunderbird. Almost every program you will ever need is included in the Portage source tree on the web, which is mirrored in virtually every country.

Using and Maintaining

So the installation takes a lot of time and is not for the faint of heart. How about actually using it then? The truth is, it's easier than I ever thought Linux could be. Yes, getting every piece of hardware in and around your computer to work properly is not easy, and I'm still having problems getting my mouse wheel to work on my Logitech MX700. But maintaining a Gentoo system is extremely straightforward, consistent and reliable. Everything from using a Gnome application to configure a system service like an FTP server is straightforward, much thanks to the wonderful Gentoo Forums. If you can't find the solution to your problem there, you probably won't find it anywhere else either.

Conclusions

So it seems that I really love Gentoo, after just using it a week. This brings us to the question on everyone's mind: Would I recommend Gentoo Linux as the distribution of choice? :) The answer is, perhaps surprisingly, probably not. Especially not if you're new to Linux and just want to test how it compares to Windows. The big barrier here is the installation. Not even after a week, I've managed to get all my hardware to work properly. To me, this is a great learning experience which will benefit me regardless of which distribution I choose in the end (if I ever make up my mind). For example, I've managed to set up my own HTTP server (you can try it at djst.org if my computer is on, but there's no real content there yet), FTP server and how to manage multiple users and remote logins using SSH. To name just a few things I didn't know about Linux before.

Gentoo's big strength is the ease of maintaining and upgrading, and it's big weakness the complicated installation process. The general advice I can give: If you decide to try it out, be prepared and have patience. Don't just give up after a couple of days just because everything's not working properly yet. It most probably will eventually, if you really try to solve the problems. If you're installing Gentoo on a secondary computer in your LAN, a great tip is to login to the system using SSH from your primary computer. You can do this just minutes after you insert the Gentoo Live CD.

My next Linux attempt will be Ubuntu Linux, which seems to be the exact opposite of Gentoo. But I will not remove my Gentoo installation. I already depend on it.

Update: My scroll wheel now works properly. Moving on to the graphics card. :)

Time to move again

Thunderbird Help will be moved to Mozilla.org this week.

Back on cables again

Thanks everyone for your comments and suggestions. I tried everything and nothing changed the transfer speed so I decided to drop WLAN altogether. As I said in my previous blog post, the half duplex behavior of WLAN alone is enough for it to suck, at least when compared to full duplex 100/1000 LAN.

The reason why I bought WLAN in the first place was because I just moved into a bigger appartment with my girlfriend, where I have the computer in the kitchen and my Xbox (and cable modem + router) in the living room. The original plan was to also buy a laptop, which would make the wireless network even more useful. But in the long run, it's well worth having a cable between the rooms when you get almost twice the speed compared to a wireless network. I will probably reconsider my decision if/when I buy a laptop, but I'll be sure to avoid D-Link. Also, buying a laptop will probably have to wait since we want to buy a new sofa, a new bed, perhaps a kitchen table with chairs, and a lot of other stuff that just costs too much if you're a poor student.

WLAN Sucks

Wireles LAN sucks. I've been trying the D-Link DI-624+ for about a month now and I've decided to return it. It just doesn't work as advertised. Maybe it's D-Link that sucks, or it's because wireless LAN sucks in general.

The device is supposed to handle 54 Mbps theoretically, which, according to most people, translates to roughly 27 Mbps of actual data transfer, which is what I get when transferring data over the local network. That alone is enough for WLAN to suck, since you can never achieve the advertised bitrate of 54 Mbps. But there's more...

My Internet connection has a maximum download speed of 8 Mbps. When using a standard network cable, I get exactly that as my maximum download rate (e.g. 1 MB/sec). However, when using the wireless network, I only get around 2-4 Mbps! In other words, the WLAN becomes the bottleneck and not the ISP, despite the fact that the WLAN handles bitrates much higher than 8 Mbps within the local network!

The bottom line: WLAN sucks. Or I suck. Either way, I'm going back to cables.

Supporting Mozilla is nice - most of the time

Just want to share a support e-mail I received from an ex-user of Thunderbird:

Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 00:39:35 +0200
User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0 (Windows/20041206)
Subject: thunderbird
Why don't you allow signatures at the bottom of your composed e-mails 
like outlook express?

And I think the following is a bit fucking arrogant, mate.
Who the fuck do you think you are, Bill Gates?
You don't answer me and I delete your products and tell everyone on the 
forums I visit how crap it is.
I only need to spread the rumour that your products allow malware.

Here is how fucking arrogant you are:


  Contact

Due to the popularity of Mozilla Thunderbird, I receive a huge amount of 
e-mails every day. Therefore, I need to make a few things clear:

I am /not/ a Mozilla Thunderbird developer, and I am /not/ a Mozilla 
Thunderbird expert either. If you have end-user questions about Mozilla 
Thunderbird itself (not this site), please visit the tech support forum.
E-mails with questions about how to use Mozilla Thunderbird are likely to
be ignored.

That said, if you have a great tip about Mozilla Thunderbird that you 
want to share with others, please let me know about it. Also, any 
suggestions, comments, or questions /about this site/ are warmly 
welcomed, especially the positive feedback!

*If you have read everything above* and still think that you should send 
me an e-mail, then go ahead. The email address is /my last name followed 
by the at-sign, and then home dot se/. But as I said, don't bother 
sending me an e-mail if you're going to ask me questions about Thunderbird.

Some people are idiots. It's as simple as that.

Have you donated?

I assume everyone is aware of the tsunami and earthquake disaster that has struck South-Asia, but has everyone donated to the Red Cross or a similar organization?

If you are Swedish, visit this site and make a donation. I already have, despite the fact that I'm a student and don't have a real money income. I hope everyone else will do the same.

New E-mail Addresses

Since Gmail now supports POP3 access, I've decided to give it a more serious try. I've also set up Thunderbird so it automatically forwards any replies sent from Thunderbird to Gmail, which in turn assigns the messages with a "Sent from other clients" label. So basically, I can send messages from my cell phone, from Thunderbird and from the university, and I will always keep both my sent and received mail on the gmail servers. This way, I will never have to be afraid of loosing my e-mail again.

The new e-mail addresses are:

• Mozilla related: djst dot mozilla
• Personal: tenser

(@gmail.com, of course.)

Happy New Year!

This should be the best year in my life. I have just moved to a new super-nice appartment with Sofie! It's in the middle of the city, about two minutes walking to the train station, which I use almost every day since I study in Mälardalen University in Västerås. I will put up some pictures of our new home once I get my digital camera back...

Happy New Year!