newOldUser's blog

fauxCron updated.... again, June 24

Update June 24,2006
OK, I think I found a place to put the scripts where they will not be altered... You can look at newolduser.googlepages.com

Update June 23, 2006. I've noticed that the code in the fauxCron script is being altered by the blog page. The script will not work as it appears (some important if-statements are missing). Until I can fix this please feel free to email me for a copy of the fauxCron script. newolduser at gmail dot com

I've been poking around the fauxCron script some more. It works fine but I wanted an easier way to schedule weekly repeating tasks. The date +%a command will return the three character day of the week (with the first character capitalized).

Konica Minolta PagePro 1350W Laser printer and Damn Small Linux

Attaching a Konica Minolta PagePro 1350W to Damn Small Linux

The PagePro 1350W is a low cost (wait for the sale/rebate and it's about US$50) black and white laser printer. I'm attaching it to a laptop computer running DSL version 1.5. It's a frugal install with a persistent home and opt directory.

Here's how I did it.

1) Search the DSL forum to see if someone has already solved your problem. DSL Forum Search Link

2) Go to LinuxPrinting.org and check their Database for your printer.

Recording Internet Radio Part 2 - or - How to Automate Tasks in DSL

-- June 26, 2006 update. go to newolduser.googlepages.com to copy the scripts. There is a small problem with how they display on this page

Now that we have a nice script to start recording a radio stations
streaming broadcast it would be nice if we could have that script
start up at a predefined date and time. It would be equally nice to
be able to stop that script from recording at a predefined date and
time.

Lets work on the stopping part first.

Basically we need a script that will search for our recording script
from all the other processes that are running. Then get the Process ID
(PID) and issue a KILL command.

Recording Internet Radio Broadcast Streams with Damn Small Linux - Part 1

Well my DSL server has been running pretty good for a while now so it must be time to try and break it.

Here's my new passion.... I've been listening to radio stations that broadcast over the internet. You know, the streaming audio type of stuff. I can listen to classical from KUSC.org or jazz/folk/bluegrass from WMUB.org A problem comes up sometimes when I want to listen to a particular radio show but because of the time-zone differences or my schedule I'm not able to be at the computer to listen to it.

Back in the days before I pushed electrons around I had a stereo tape deck that could do timed recordings from AM/FM radio broadcasts. Basically I want to do the same thing but with internet radio. There might be a bunch of programs out there on the market (or maybe in myDSL extensions...I really need to look in there.) to do this but I didn't find any in my not-so-intensive 30 second search, so I decided to build one myself.

Rsync backups and Damn Small Linux

OK... you've got a Frugal install of DSL on some old piece of hardware and it's sitting in the corner just chugging away.

Great.

Then you decided to make it a Samba server by downloading the Samba.dsl and now it can be accessed by the windows boxes.

Great.

Then you wanted it to be a beefed up web server and FTP server so you added Xampp ( Xampp website ).

Great.

Maybe you're lucky enough to have a webcam that linux can use and you've also made the box into a webcam server with the motion.dsl download.

Great.

Linksys wpc11 v4 card with DSL.....

This is my adventure... Go to The Forums and/or Search for answers to your questions.

For those of you, like me, who bought at the woot sale on Linksys WPC11 v.4 pcmcia wireless 802.11b network cards last week. You can rejoice in knowing that they do work with DSL. At least with version 1.5 of DSL. The deal was three cards for US$ 15. That included shipping. You had to buy in lots of 3 cards. I know, it's old technology, 802.11b, but at $5/card I thought it was a good deal. They came individually boxed in their sealed, blue Linksys boxes, with instructions and software CD... But I digress...

What to do after the install... part 5... "fix it till it breaks"

Well.... DSL 1.3 is out. Congratulations to everyone involved, it looks like it took a lot of work. Thanks to everyone for all the hours that must be spent to keep DSL going.

I've downloaded it and have run it from LiveCD several times. I probably will not upgrade my 1.2 frugal install right away. There isn't a lot in the new release that I "must have". I think I'll wait a couple weeks and see if there's a 1.3.1 update. I've got several DSL boxes running and they range from DSL 8.something up to DSL 1.2.0 I've started doing Frugal installs because I've heard it's so easy to upgrade. There are plenty of entries in the forums about how to upgrade. Here's a good start

What to do after the install... part 4... You can't have too many boat anchors

Return of the Rant...

This is just a list of things I've done to my DSL frugal install since I've loaded it. I'm far from being an expert so take all that I say with a grain of salt (that's an odd expression. I wonder where it comes from.... I see a Google search in my future....)

Go to The Forums and/or Search for answers to your questions.

Call me Ishmael.

15) One thing I enjoy using my DSL machine for is a music server. There's a great app (or maybe it's just a set of scripts) in the MyDSL...NET section called Edna. Go download it. While you're at it grab Python from the MyDSL...UCI section. You need Python to run Edna. I'm downloading them both into my /opt directory so they will load at boot up. After you download Edna, open emelFM. Check to see if you have a /ramdisk/usr/share/edna directory. If you don't then navigate to where you downloaded Edna and highlight the Edna file. Then click on emelFM's MyDSL button. That should create the /usr/share/edna directory. Go there now.

What to do after the install... part 3... maybe I can use it as a nightlight...

Well... you get what you pay for...
More of one fans personal log. Remember, go to The Forums and Search for answers to your questions.
Today we do the Samba and other foolish things.

11) I bring down some files using myDSL:
dsl-dpkg.dsl
gnu-util.dsl
samba.dsl
and some desktop themes

I put the three .dsl files in the /opt directory so they load at boot time. The themes are automatically put in /home/dsl/.fluxbox/styles so I don't have to worry about them since my /home file is on the hard drive. Right click the desktop and select DESKTOP... STYLES to see and select different desktop themes.

What to do after the install... part 2.. so, your computer still boots...

A continuation of my journal on changes I've made after doing a frugal install of DSL 1.2.0

Once again I'd suggest you read through or search The Fourms to find answers to your problems. What I'm writing here is just my log. I've been known to be wrong.... often.

Some additional things I've modified to my Frugal DSL install.

6) I'd like to save some of these changes so they're still around next time I boot or my hard drive hiccups. So far I've added the following entries to /home/dsl/filetool.lst

home/dsl/.emelfm
home/dsl/.beaver/General

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