Making the rm command interactive so that you dont delete files by mistake

The rm command by default does not prompt you before deleting files, most people prefer it this way, you can however have rm prompt you by using the i option. To avoid using the i option each time you delete a file make changes to the .bashrc file.

To have rm ask you:

rm: remove regular empty file `fine_name’?

each time, append the following line to you ~/.bashrc file:

alias rm=’rm -i’

Open up a terminal window(Applications>Accessories>terminal on Gnome) andtry deleting any file, from now on rm will check with you before deleting

Installing Eclipse and Netbeans IDEs on BOSS Linux

Eclipse

Eclipse can be installed from the BOSS Linux repositories (click to view post on setting up BOSS Linux repositories and using synaptic), or you may choose to download Eclipse directly from the project’s website (click here). I would suggest using the project’s download page if you don’t mind downloading and installing the IDE manually, with Synaptic the process is pretty much automated. If you do choose to download from the Eclipse project’s download site be sure to choose the correct platform.

Netbeans

You can either use the repositories or the NetBeans IDE project’s download page(click to view). If you don’t already have JDK installed you can download the NetBeans IDE bundled with the JDK from here(click to view).

Both the IDEs need the Java Development Kit(JDK) to work. Also, there exist various various versions of both these IDEs for different progamming languages, so you can choose the version specific to the language you intend to program in.

Re-installing GRUB after installing Windows

This post lists out the steps for reinstalling GRUB. You might have lost it by reinstalling Windows (Windows put its bootloader into MBR), or due to any other reason.
This is written for BOSS Linux and should work on most other distributions.

You’ll need to boot using the Live CD or DVD.

Once you are at the desktop open up the terminal (Applications>Accessories>Terminal)

In the terminal type: sudo grub

This will get you to a grub> prompt.

Now type find /boot/grub/stage1

This will return a location, on my system it returns (hd0,3), now based on this location type: root (hd0,3) remember to replace 0 and three with the information specific to your system.

Then type setup (hd0).

Note the space between root and (hd0,3), setup and (hd0). (thanks to tckb for pointing it out)

We’re done, now type exit and reboot. If all goes well you should be looking at the GRUB menu upon reboot.

BOSS Linux version 3 Tejas CD-ROM images now available for download

You can now download CD-ROM iso images for BOSS Linux version 3, Tejas from here.You’ll also find the Live CD iso image and the DVD image at the site. Theres also an iso for the Utility CD available.

Download BOSS Linux v 3.0

You can now download BOSS Linux 3.0 from bosslinux.in, click here to go to to the main downloads page. or here to go directly to the BOSS Linux 3.0 Tejas iso download page.

Its a DVD image (2.59GB), they don’t have a CD image, but just about everyone has a DVD drive these days, so that should  not be a problem. CD ISOs have been added, click here to view the related post. Besides, there are lots of packages that can now be a part of the standard install now that its a DVD image.

Tejas is an interesting name, DRDO’s LCA (Light Combat Aircraft) has also been named Tejas.

BOSS Linux v3 Screenshots

BOSS Linux v 3.0 was released on September 4th at NIC in Delhi. Here are a few screenshots of the latest release of the BOSS Linux Operating System.

BOSS Linux v3.0 KDE Desktop Screenshot

BOSS Linux v3.0 KDE Desktop Screenshot

BOSS Linux Konqueror Web Browser

BOSS Linux Konqueror Web Browser

BOSS Linux v3.0 KDE Control Center

BOSS Linux v3.0 KDE Control Center

BOSS Linux Gnome Desktop – About Gnome

BOSS Linux v3 Gnome Desktop Screenshot

BOSS Linux Version 3 to released soon!

The third version of BOSS Linux  will probably be released this month or the next. The BOSS Linux website has some screen shots and features mentioned here. BOSS is a relatively new distribution, when you compare it with other popular distributions such as Ubuntu which has already had 8 releases with the 9th one now now under active development. Heres my wishlist for the new version:
-Kernel 2.6.25 (Ubuntu 8.04 has 2.6.24, the latest stable version of the Linux kernel is 2.6.26)
-Gnome 2.22.x
-KDE 4.1.x
-Xfce 4.4.x    (for those with slower hardware)
These are just a few of the things i would like to see in BOSS Linux version 3.0, apart from this I would like to see lots of open source applications with Indian developers being made a part of the default installation. Anjuta IDE is one such project(http://anjuta.sourceforge.net). We can have BOSS Linux act as a platform for Open Source projects in India. This will encourage more and more Indian developers to take up open source developement. Naba Kumar from Manipur founded the project and is it’s lead developer with a host of other developers from around the world contributing to the project. Anjuta is already a part of the BOSS Linux version 2.0 ‘Anant’ repository.

The BOSS Linux website says the kernel will be 2.6.22, thats a bit of a dissapointment. To be honest I am not expecting the latest versions of KDE or GNOME either, but hey wishful thinkings tax free Most users will be happy as long as its a stable system with newer packages. I am keeping my fingers crossed, lets hope this version attracts lots and lots of new users and BOSS v3 becomes a common name in the Linux desktop (& server) space in India.

New BOSS Linux Forum – http://forums.bosslinux.in/

The BOSS Linux team has started a brand new forum for users and developers at http://forums.bosslinux.in/

It has a fresh new interface, powered by phpBB. The old forum is still available under archives. Unlike the earlier setup where separate forums existed for developers and users, here both are combined under the same forum page as separate sub-sections.

Apart from the forum user can also get in touch with any of the support centres for BOSS Linux found here for support, theres also an irc-channel, for more details on it click here. You can also chat online with the BOSS Linux team members here.

The forums aren’t as active as those of some other distributions, but thats mostly because BOSS Linux is relatively new. You usually get responses within a day.

Changing the GRUB menu’s background on BOSS v2.0 ( Anant ) Linux

Find yourself a nice grub backgroung image, these are .xpm.gz image files.

You can look them up using your favorite search engine, or have a look here:

http://gnome-look.org/index.php?xcontentmode=160&PHPSESSID=743ed729a6ef2d810dbb041c06224112

 

or here:

 

http://www.queervisions.com/arch/2007/04/9_grub_splash_i.html

or here:

http://www.schultz-net.dk/grub.html

 

Now that you have the splash image, lets put it up there!

 

Backup /boot/grub/menu.lst

 

In menu.lst look for the section that lists out the Operating Systems, it’ll be something like:

## ## End Default Options ##

 

title BOSS GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.21-1-486

root (hd1,7)

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.21-1-486 root=/dev/hdd8 splash=silent vga=791

initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.21-1-486

savedefault

(… continued)

You need to check the partition mentioned for root, in the above example it is (hd1,7), now paste the following text above ## ## End Default Options ##

splashimage=(hd1,7)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz

Remember to replace (hd1,7) with the right partition from your menu.lst file.Also remember to replace the filenme with the nme of your .xpm.gz file.

 

Now, reboot you should be able to see the new GRUB background image at work.

Creating a shortcut to a folder in BOSS Linux running Gnome

Creating a shortcut to a folder

1.     Right Click on the Desktop
2.     Select Create Launcher
3.     Let the Type field be Application
4.     Type the name of the shortcut in the Name field
5.     in the Command field type: nautilus “path to folder in double quotes”
6.     you can select any icon you want by clicking the icon button.
7.     Click ok and you will now be see a shortcut to the folder on the desktop.

An alternate way to do this is to drag the folder with a middle or both button mouse click and drop it at the point where you want the shortcut to appear.