Best Free Software for Linux

[wdhpr]

Originally Posted by Ratzo

Here is a link to some portable apps for Linux
http://portablelinuxapps.org/ I have not tried any myself as yet .

I'm getting 404 errors (not found) when I click on one of the app links?

[J_L]

http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/gi.kernel.org

Same for me.

[crank]

I hope this is the right place for this, after searching around I found no mention of this, so I thought I would throw it out here.

If you are no stranger to facing a machine with multiple systems on it none of which you can get to boot properly, 'Boot-Repair' might be your answer. From their Ubuntu page:

Boot-Repair is a small graphical tool to repair frequent boot problems.
Easy-to-use (repair in 1 click ! )
Can recover access to one or several operating systems
Options to reinstall GRUB2 boot-loader easily (OS by default, purge, unhide, kernel options..)
Create a Boot-Info-Script summary in 1 click

It is that last item that has proven the most help to me so far, especially if you have the same problem that plagues me often, trying to make sure you are addressing the right disk in linux. I have on 1 PC a number of identical disks, plus use a CD/DVD and/or USB drive often, on top of that there are at least 3 separate controllers for disks, the normal SATA, the RAID SATA [which for some reason not yet examined decided this old 80 Gb SATA drive I hooked up for testing purposes was by itself RAID], the USB3.

Maybe it's just that I am dense/obtuse, but most of the time figuring out who is sda or sdg etc is problematic to say the least. I can't see what else besides some random process somewhere decides the resulting order. This might cause a problem when you, say, wipe a partition or disk. "Oh, darn, that was my Windows"

So, if SuperGrub2Disk is the only way you can get boot, this guy might be able to help.

Some example output, posted to a web page so you can look at with your lappy while still elbows deep operating on the desktop:

sdd1: __________________________________________________________________________
    File system:       ntfs
    Boot sector <span class="nb">type</span>:  Windows XP
    Boot sector info:   No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:  
    Boot files:        
sde1: __________________________________________________________________________
    File system:       ntfs
    Boot sector <span class="nb">type</span>:  Windows Vista/7
    Boot sector info:   No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:  
    Boot files:        
sdf1: __________________________________________________________________________
    File system:       vfat
    Boot sector <span class="nb">type</span>:  FAT32
    Boot sector info:   According to the info in the boot sector, sdf1 starts 
                       at sector 0. But according to the info from fdisk, 
                       sdf1 starts at sector 63.
    Operating System:  
    Boot files:        
sdf2: __________________________________________________________________________
    File system:       ntfs
    Boot sector <span class="nb">type</span>:  Windows Vista/7
    Boot sector info:   No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:  Windows 7
    Boot files:        /boot.ini /bootmgr /Boot/BCD 
                       /Windows/System32/winload.exe /ntldr /NTDETECT.COM

 => Grub2 (v1.99) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks at sector 1 of 
    the same hard drive for core.img. core.img is at this location and uses an 
    embedded config file:
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    search.fs_uuid dc695ca0-fde3-4515-8e01-f443946661c2 root 
    set 
    prefix=($root)/boot/grub---------------------------------------------------
    -----------------------------.
 => Grub2 (v1.99) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb and looks at sector 1 of 
    the same hard drive for core.img. core.img is at this location and uses an 
    embedded config file:
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    search.fs_uuid dc695ca0-fde3-4515-8e01-f443946661c2 root 
    set 
    prefix=($root)/boot/grub---------------------------------------------------
    -----------------------------.
 => No boot loader is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdc.
 => Grub2 (v1.99) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdd and looks at sector 1 of 
    the same hard drive for core.img. core.img is at this location and uses an 
    embedded config file:
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    search.fs_uuid dc695ca0-fde3-4515-8e01-f443946661c2 root 
    set 
    prefix=($root)/boot/grub---------------------------------------------------
    -----------------------------.
 => Grub2 (v1.99) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sde and looks at sector 1 of 
    the same hard drive for core.img. core.img is at this location and uses an 
    embedded config file:

[

Device           UUID                                   TYPE       LABEL
/dev/sda1        0A6C-B8ED                              vfat       WONSHARE_RE
/dev/sdb2        AE423F31423EFDA1                       ntfs       New Volume
/dev/sdb5        01CBDC74DF90B1B0                       ntfs       HitachiCentralArchive
/dev/sdc1        F464107664103E34                       ntfs       Sto_annex
/dev/sdd1        01CBB1905DC500F0                       ntfs       rog_data
/dev/sde1        80C46776C4676CFA                       ntfs       caviar_3
/dev/sdf1        0426-15AA                              vfat       
/dev/sdf2        7A04495D04491E0F                       ntfs       rog
/dev/sdf5        dc695ca0-fde3-4515-8e01-f443946661c2   ext4       
/dev/sdh1        6CB4-26DB                              vfat       XP_PRO
/dev/sdh2        1810a79f-2a9b-4ec2-8e4a-f687a034cbbb   ext3       Kubuntu-11.04

That last is kinda embarrassing and explains the tic I've developed of late.

Very handy, and it can actually fix some boot problems, sometimes.

[wdhpr]

Originally Posted by crank

Maybe it's just that I am dense/obtuse, but most of the time figuring out who is sda or sdg etc is problematic to say the least. I can't see what else besides some random process somewhere decides the resulting order. This might cause a problem when you, say, wipe a partition or disk. "Oh, darn, that was my Windows"

Yup......... been there done that.
Had a backup image of my windoze so not a major disaster.

I still use xp and since grub2 came out I haven't had any problems.

[crank]

Originally Posted by wdhpr

Yup......... been there done that.
Had a backup image of my windoze so not a major disaster.

I still use xp and since grub2 came out I haven't had any problems.

I haven't [yet] wiped my main system partition, but I have trashed the MBR in numerous ways. GRUB2 is very nice, but how does it solve the wandering disk numbering? Maybe it's because I have yet to customize a GRUB2 menu, it's on the list!

If you sometimes play around with multibooting way too many systems, the info you have to go with on the generated menu is minimal, even typing 'e' to see which entry goes with which partition often leaves you with a choice that isn't at all obvious. In my situation, right at the moment, I have multiple disks, same size, same model, with similar partitions. I think, but am not sure, that they do not move in the order, but whether you have a CD or a USB changes things. Then there is what you set as the first disk decides something??

Windows diskmanagement is usually consistent, but not always. I'm sure these recent systems with separate controllers for 6GB/s and USB3.0 are part of what is causing me a lot of mental erosion, usually the 2 SATA3 drives are consecutive, but then sometimes they're not. And I'm really at a loss with this old 80GB drive I have hooked up on an eSATA setup, it got relegated to a RAID designation, and about half the time is is shown as the first disk and then sometimes it's last. Am I missing something? Have I been getting lost in the details and can't see what is obvious to even a technophobe?

Oh well, I guess I am whining, it's been a lousy last 3 days, one of those times when you spend inordinate amounts of time trying to do a few things, getting almost none of it to work right, and many of the problems appear to be random glitches. A time when that magic word for PC geeks comes to mind: defenestration. I would love to be on the roof of a high rise and get to hurl a few dozen PCs to ugly, loud, shattering deaths. Like old Lettermans with the fruit.[/vent]

[wdhpr]

Originally Posted by crank

I haven't [yet] wiped my main system partition, but I have trashed the MBR in numerous ways. GRUB2 is very nice, but how does it solve the wandering disk numbering? Maybe it's because I have yet to customize a GRUB2 menu, it's on the list!

I wiped my partition when I got in a hurry trying to install Ubuntu. I got the sdb1 mixed up with sda1. I watched in agony as my Windows got eaten alive
I use paragon pro disk imaging which I obtained from DotTech when it was offered as a freebee. It works better with ext3 & 4 than my old version of Acronis. I make it a habit to make a image of my MBR along with the partition. Another method for trying out different distros is to install them using Virtual Box. It helps keep things neat and tidy.

Originally Posted by crank

A time when that magic word for PC geeks comes to mind: defenestration. I would love to be on the roof of a high rise and get to hurl a few dozen PCs to ugly, loud, shattering deaths. Like old Lettermans with the fruit.[/vent]

A fun way to crash a PC

[Eodril]

Hi! I hope I'm in the right place here. I’m a new Linux user; I’ve been using Ubuntu for only a couple of months, but I’ve found two nice packages that I use quite a lot. If your’e looking for Linux packages to review, I thought both of these would be worth a look.

I installed Basket Note Pads primarily for storing and organizing information I’ve found online about Ubuntu, but it’s so useful that I’ve added other “baskets” for other topics. There’s a review of it at http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/ope...ft-onenote/290 which heralds it as the open source answer to Microsoft OneNote. I can’t verify that because the only version of OneNote I’ve used is the crippled version available on SkyDrive and Basket Note Pads is far more feature-rich than that. I like it a lot more than any of the freeware notes organizers available for windows. It has a two-panel interface with a tree-view of your baskets on the left and the editing area of the selected basket on the right. Baskets can be organized hierarchically and it appears that a basket can contain both text and sub-baskets. The interface is nice-looking and each basket has formatting options for both layout and appearance.

The other package I’m using a lot is called FocusWriter. It’s a kind of word processor for writers. It has a background and a writing window that you can customize. There’s a toolbar at the top but it disappears until you hover over it. At the bottom, there’s a bar that shows your word count, the % of your daily goal (if you’ve added that in the settings) and other statistics. This bar also disappears until you hover over it. The file format defaults to plain text for documents but you can also use RTF. You’re thinking “what do I need that for, I have LibreOffice Writer which does a lot more!” but this thing is kind of magic. It takes away all the document formatting mechanics so you can focus on just writing something. Somehow, just having such a clean, simple interface clears my head and puts me into writing mode. The developer’s web site (http://gottcode.org/focuswriter/) has downloads for Linux, windows and Mac, but I’ve only tried the Linux version.

[vladashram]

A great online Backup site, that works for Linux, Windows, and I think Mac OS X is
MediaFire.
It used to offer unlimited storage free, but has since dropped it down to 50 GB free. However anybody who was lucky(like me) to make an account before their change, gets their unlimited storage honoured. However no single file can be bigger than 200 MB. They also offer SSL encryption too.

[daviodan]

Double Commander is a cross platform open source file manager with two panels side by side. It is inspired by Total Commander and features some new ideas.

http://doublecmd.sourceforge.net/

[Cthulhux]

The problem is that "software" is not exactly categorized well enough.