I use seven different distros of Linux, which means there are seven home directories, which means seven different backups, and files scattered everywhere. I once tried have one shared partition that I mounted on each distro. With different desktops, different configuration files, there was hidden file chaos, and upgrades where a nightmare. I finally worked out a solution that works without depending on a network connection to share individual directories.

» Continue reading “Sharing Directories across Multiple Distros of Linux”

I already have Fedora, Linux Mint, and openSUSE installed on my HP mini’s internal hard disk. The challenge was to install additional distros on an external drive, without have a CD/DVD drive. The external drive must be bootable, and only show the distros installed on that drive. It can be done. There were a few hurdles to overcome.

» Continue reading “Booting Linux from a USB External Drive”

Since I am using a netbook, I purchased software on a USB stick. Once I get a new version of the software, I am left with an old version on a USB stick formatted as iso9660. In particular, I wanted to create a multiboot USB stick using GRUB2 as a bootloader. It took over a day to find a solution that made grub-setup happy.

» Continue reading “Restoring a USB Stick formatted as ISO9660″

The Nook Color mounts the /system partition as read-only. Once I activated the Adobe Market, it was not long before it started to download updates to Adobe Air and the Adobe Flash Player.  When I rebooted the NC, there was a conflict between the version of these applications in the /system directory and the /data directory. It is this conflict that leads to the now infamous boot loop.

» Continue reading “Nook Color Boot Loop”

For those readers who do not know, the Nook Color actually runs a B&N version of Android. For the first six weeks that I used my Nook Color, I was too busy enjoying to start experimenting with modifying, or replacing, the distributed version. Then I moved to Costa Rica, and ran into a problem. The Nook Color does not support the Ad Hoc topology for WiFi, and my Nokia, and Android phones, only support this topology when running as a WiFi Hot Spot.

The choice was between Nooting, which provides root access, and installing the CM7 version of Android (seenookworks Definitions article for the list of methods). Since I want to keep my Nook Color as an eBook reader, I opted to Noot the distributed version. Using autonooter was not an option, as its development seems to have stopped with version 1.1 of the Nook Color. Consequently, I decide to go with the manual noot option. This post describes my experiences with this project.

» Continue reading “Nooting the Nook Color 1.3″

With the source installed and the tools installed, we are ready to start the process of building a custom Linux kernel.  This article covers those tasks that need to be performed prior to configuration. The steps are not difficult, but there are variations between distros of Linux.

» Continue reading “Preparing the Linux Kernel Source”

The tools and there version play a critical role in the building of a kernel. Most tools are required, but a few (such as the graphical packages required for gconfig or xconfig) are optional. Besides having the right tools installed on the system, the tool versions must match those required to build the installed kernel source. The purpose of this article is to minimize the chance of a kernel build failure due to a missing or improper version of a necessary tool.

» Continue reading “Tools for Building the Linux Kernel”

Downloading and installing kernel source is different than other package source files. Every distro of Linux is different, and the instructions are sometimes rather hard to find. This article covers the seven distros that I use. I would cover more, but I would need more machines, and a lot more time and patience.

» Continue reading “Installing Linux Kernel Source”

I lost count of the number of times someone told me I was nuts for wanting to compile a new kernel Why not get a new different distro of Linux that works on a specific machine? What is wrong with the kernel that comes with the distro? In many cases, the default kernel works just fine. Conversely, there are reasons for compiling a new kernel.

» Continue reading “Why Compile a New Kernel?”

The courseware for my Linux Kernel Fundamentals course is now available from ITcourseware at http://bit.ly/bf82sN.