Lpsolve Syntax Highlight for Geany IDE

Add Lp Solve extension

An example of Lp solve files Syntax highlight in Geany

First, we need to add the extension file, so geany knows what file it can associate to lp solve files.

Either go to:  Tools -> Configuration Files -> filetype_extensions.conf

or:  edit directly the file in

Linux: ~/.config/geany/filetype_extensions.conf

Windows 7 :  c:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\geany\filetype_extensions.conf

and add a new line with

Lpsolve=*.lp;

Download Lp Solve syntax highlight file

Next, download this syntax highlight file:  filetypes.Lpsolve.conf

and place it in ~/.config/geany/filedefs/ (Linux)

or c:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\geany\filedefs\ (Windows 7)

More information on syntax highlight

Note:  if not bothered to download this file, you can add the extension to any existing filetypes, for example:

C=*.c;*.h;*.lp;

Many thanks to geanycolourscheme.xtreemhost.com editor.

Patch portage to be more quiet

Gentoo linux is alive and well and just released a new Gentoo Linux Live.  It features Linux Kernel 2.6.37 (with Gentoo patches). It comes will all desktop environments. Especially if you are looking for KDE 4.6 SC here’s the best way to start.
It also includes OpenOffice.org (3.2.1), GIMP (2.6.11), Inkscape (0.48.1), Blender (2.49b), and many more. They are all packed in either the x86/x86_64 or the x86_64. If you like it, you’ll need to install Gentoo with the Instalation CD.

So a few days after the celebrated news of 11th release here’s a patch for portage to make it quiet and nice.

Those extra verbose warnings really annoys me,  because emerging something keeps showing me all the licensed packages that are masked, broken packages or masked.  So i fixed the “!!! existing preserved libs:
” ,  “!!! The following installed packages are masked:” and “!!! There are updates currently masked by LICENSE changes.” messages.

You can revert to the verbose warnings with the new flag “–extra-verbose”.

All it does is remove the list of packages shown after doing a emerge, and improves the speed because it doesn’t calculate any of it (particular when figuring out the preserved libs) and only shows a single line warning about them.

The patch is for portage-2.2.0_alpha26 (which is totally a must so you can play around with @sets)

Where to get the patch

patch-2.2.0_alpha26

How to apply the patch:

on the /usr/lib/portage/pym/ directory

patch -p1 -i patch-2.2.0_alpha26

The handbook is always a good idea to keep around ;)

(the image was taken from the Gentoo Live 10.0)

How to format a usb pen or mp3 player the right way

In a short line:

# mkfs.vfat -vc -F 32 -n “zen stone” -S 2048 /dev/yourdevice

The explanation:

free the gnu - lego mp3 player

-v Verbose execution.

-c Check the device for bad blocks before creating the file system.

-F FAT-size
Specifies the type of file allocation tables used (12, 16 or 32 bit).
If nothing is specified, mkdosfs will automatically select between 12 and 16 bit, whatever fits better for the filesystem size.  32 bit FAT (FAT32 format) must (still) be selected explicitly if you want it.

-n volume-name
Sets  the volume name (label) of the filesystem.  The volume name can be up to 11 characters long.  The default is no label.

-S logical-sector-size
Specify the number of bytes per logical sector.  Must be a power of 2 and  greater  than or equal to 512, i.e. 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16384, or 32768.

change “youdevice” for your own. Find out which is by checking your dmesg after plug-in the usb device for  something like:

• sde: sde1
• sdb
• etc…

You might want to try this flag too:

-I Normally you are not allowed to use any ‘full’  fixed  disk  devices.
mkdosfs  will complain and tell you that it refuses to work.  This is different when usind MO disks.  One doesn’t always need partitions on
MO  disks.   The  filesytem can go directly to the whole disk.  Under other OSes this is known as the ‘superfloppy’ format.

This switch will force mkdosfs to work properly.

How to change sound from two sound cards

I have two sound cards. One is the inboard and the other is a USB card.

I’m toggling often between them so i created this simple script: (see the end for link to files)


#!/bin/bash
dir=/home/username/
if [[ "$1" = "-l" ]] || [[ ! -n "$1" ]]; then
cat /proc/asound/cards
exit
fi
card=`grep "^ $1" /proc/asound/cards`
echo "Changing to sound card $card"
ln -fs $dir.asoundrc_"$1"0 $dir.asoundrc


The dir variable has to be changed to the user’s name.
This script moves around the .asoundrc files. there’s one for each card available or for each card used:

Example of different Alsa setups:

i have 4 entries in /proc/asound/cards:


0 [VirMIDI ]: VirMIDI - VirMIDI
Virtual MIDI Card 1
1 [NVidia ]: HDA-Intel - HDA NVidia
HDA NVidia at 0xfbf78000 irq 21
2 [hercdjrmx0 ]: hdj_mod - Hercules DJ Console RMX
Hercules Hercules DJ Console RMX at usb-0000:00:04.0-1, full speed
3 [RMX ]: USB-Audio - Hercules DJ Console RMX
Hercules Hercules DJ Console RMX at usb-0000:00:04.0-1, full speed


so i have .asoundrc_00 , .asoundrc_10 , .asoundrc_20 and .asoundrc_30

this is the basic model: (for sound card 1)


# File: ~/.asoundrc (nvidia nforce setup)
pcm.!default {
type plug
slave.pcm "dmixer"
}
pcm.dsp0 {
type plug
slave.pcm "dmixer"
}
pcm.dmixer {
type dmix
ipc_key 1024
slave {
pcm "hw:1,0"
period_time 0
period_size 1024
buffer_size 8192
rate 48000 #many new cards are 48000 only
}
bindings {
0 0
1 1
}
}
ctl.dmixer {
type hw
card NVidia
# card RMX
}
#end.
# for 5.1 speakers
pcm.ch51dup {
slave.pcm surround51
slave.channels 6
type route
ttable.0.0 1
ttable.1.1 1
ttable.0.2 1
ttable.1.3 1
ttable.0.4 0.5
ttable.1.4 0.5
ttable.0.5 0.5
ttable.1.5 0.5
}

Then i just have to create the other 3 files changing the line in red to pcm “hw:0,0“ (for sound card 0),  pcm “hw:2,0″ (for sound card 2) and pcm “hw:3,0″ (for sound card 3)

The lines in blue can be changed too, but i’ve found that they are ignored. After a reboot, the ordering of the cards might change so its useful to have a file for each slot.

Installing the script in your home

The .asoundrc* files are placed in the user’s home directory
The script goes to /usr/local/bin.

files needed

• .asoundrc_00
• .asoundrc_10
• .asoundrc_20
• .asoundrc_30
• chsnd

making gentoo portage more quiet without showing preverved libs and installed masked packages

Well, it was one of those days drifting from trying to do one thing, and ending fixing the core system.

emerge been having alot of output lately, and its extra verbosity was driving me mad.

First, showing the preserved-libs takes alot of time.
Second, now i have always have to scroll up to check if the emerge succeed , for emerge warnings bout the packages and whatnot.

The other annoying thing is it warning me that are installed packages that are currently masked for one reason or the other by the maintainers.

… and then proceed to list them all, completely unrelated to the package being emerged.

so that was my itch. i’ve scratched not sure if i tore up anything vital :D

it was built against portage-2.2_r61
(note: the following code might be broken due to wordpress weirdness)

--- portage-2.2_rc61_new/pym/_emerge/main.py 2010-02-02 07:18:02.000000000 +0000
+++ portage-2.2_rc61_mod/pym/_emerge/main.py 2010-02-02 05:15:09.000000000 +0000
@@ -73,6 +73,7 @@ options=[
"--unordered-display",
"--update",
"--verbose",
+"--show-preserved",
]


shortmapping={
@@ -214,13 +215,12 @@ def display_preserved_libs(vardbapi, myo
vardbapi.plib_registry.pruneNonExisting()


if vardbapi.plib_registry.hasEntries():
- if "--quiet" in myopts:
+ if "--show-preserved" in myopts:
print()
- print(colorize("WARN", "!!!") + " existing preserved libs found")
- return
+ print(colorize("WARN", "!!!") + " existing preserved libs:")
else:
print()
- print(colorize("WARN", "!!!") + " existing preserved libs:")
+ print(colorize("WARN", "!!!") + " existing preserved libs found")
return


plibdata = vardbapi.plib_registry.getPreservedLibs()
--- portage-2.2_rc61_new/pym/_emerge/depgraph.py 2010-02-02 07:18:02.000000000 +0000
+++ portage-2.2_rc61_mod/pym/_emerge/depgraph.py 2010-02-02 05:15:14.000000000 +0000
@@ -4908,12 +4908,12 @@ class depgraph(object):
pkg.cpv, pkg.metadata, mreasons))
if masked_packages:
writemsg("\n" + colorize("BAD", "!!!") + \
- " The following installed packages are masked:\n",
+ " There are some installed packages currently masked!\n",
noiselevel=-1)

- show_masked_packages(masked_packages)
- show_mask_docs()
- writemsg("\n", noiselevel=-1)
+# show_masked_packages(masked_packages)
+# show_mask_docs()
+# writemsg("\n", noiselevel=-1)


def saveNomergeFavorites(self):

i hope it helps.

note that there’s a new flag “–show-preserved” that.. well.. makes it show the preserved libs.
After that, lafilefixer will try to fix any semi-broken .la files, deleted or hanging around.

how to fix firefox hanging every few seconds

Every x seconds, my firefox (built from sources) hangs for a few seconds (but the other applications keep running smothly).

Seems that my firefox (i didn’t tried using the binary) isn’t very keen on multithreading.
By default it has:

$ taskset -c -p firefoxpid
pid 29964's current affinity list: 0,1

To find firefox’s pid do:

$ ps -eo pid,comm | grep firefox
29964 firefox

So, firefoxpid is 29964, only in this case (pid varies). I needed to do this:

taskset -c -p 0 29964

with -c 0 (<– that’s a zero) the affinity mask is set to 1, so firefox only is allowed to use one cpu.
Take note of the parameters ordering: first the flags ( -c -p ) them the values ( <affinity list> <pid> )

the cpu id:
$ taskset -c -p firefoxpid
pid 29964's current affinity list: 0

the number of cpu’s allowed:
$ taskset -p firefoxpid
pid 29964's current affinity mask: 1

If firefox is to start from the beginning restricted,  it can be launched like:

taskset -c 0 firefox

That should lessen the hangings. In my case, javascript still hanged a bit.

Use custom font on konqueror

There’s this really beautiful font i just love! Its Linux Libertine and has more than thousands of characters!

Since i’m studying japanese i’ve been visiting alot the wikipedia’s hiragana page ! and with their default font, for some particular characters, i was seeing alot of squares!

So after a while i figured out that it was the limitations on the font, and since konqueror really allows to overwrite the pages default font, i created a konqueror.css file with:

* {
font-family:"Linux Libertine"
}
and in konqi’s configuration’s Stylesheet i set it to use this.

restart konqi and all is bliss!

How to create and remove a soft link, symlink or symbolic link

A soft link, or more common, a symlink, is link a shortcut to the targeted file or directory. So when is removed the original target stays present. This is the opposite of a hard link which is a reference to the target and so, if the hard link is removed, so is the target.

A symlink can be created like: