Chess on Manjaro for Raspberry Pi 4 - installing Stockfish Engine on KNights

Playing around on my Manjaro KDE for Raspberri Pi 4B (8GB RAM model) - so far so good - movie playback on mpv is good, Youtube vids are acceptable at default (I am not picky as I look for quality of content rather than mindless high-def vides of nonsensical sunsets, pictures of apes or pretty girls in bright dresses walking down a street etc. - so at around 480 it is good for me), I have all the tools that I need to start working and make this little device a daily driver.

 

Online chess via lichess and chess.com are good - surprisingly the bundled Firefox browser works better on chess.com than on my openSUSE Leap notebook. Lichess is always good on any Frefox/Chromium-based browsers on any platforms.

KNights - the "default" chess app for the KDE Plasma environments is available but there is no Stockfish engine that I can install from Pacman. So since I have pretty much outplayed default chess engine GNU Chess - I was itching to get Stockfish installed on this Manjaro ARM. 

Here was how I got Stockfish installed:

1. Go to the Stockfish Engine site and download the 64-bit version - at this time Stockfish is at version 12 https://stockfishchess.org/files/stockfish_12_linux_x64.zip
   
   
2. Unzip the downloaded archive - stockfish_12_linux_x64.zip -d /opt
   
   
3. Create a symlink to /usr/bin - ln -s /opt/stockfish_20090216_x64 /usr/bin/stockfish
   
   
4. Launch the KNights application -> Settings -> Configure KNights
   
   
5. Click on Computer Engines and then Auto-Detect
   
   
6. You should now see Stockfish listed
   
   

Make Font Rendering in Fedora 28 Great Again

While I am a mostly openSUSE user, due to some work requirements, I found myself in need of a Fedora installation. Bought a wonderfully refurbished Dell Latitude E5450 with an i5 CPU, 16GB RAM and 1TB HDD online and installed the latest Fedora Workstation  on it - since I use UK English and US English keyboard layout - I had to reconfigure the keyboard mapping post installation by localectl set-keymap us 

However the font rendering is still relatively inferior compared to openSUSE and Ubuntu (and its clones) - perhaps Fedora's insistence on sticking closely to vanilla upstream could be the issue.

Since I will be spending a lot of time working on this Fedora notebook, something needs to be done.

Grab the webcore-fonts and webcore-fonts-vista (with Microsoft TTF + Callibri, Consolas etc) packages from here and here - just download the RPMs meant for openSUSE Leap 15 and install them.

Install the adobe-source-code-pro-fonts RPM

Enable the rpmfusion-free repo and install the freetype-freeworld package.

Create /etc/fonts/local.conf and put in the following:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
  <match target="pattern">
    <test compare="eq" name="family" qual="any">
      <string>Arial</string>
    </test>
    <edit binding="same" mode="assign" name="family">
      <string>Noto Sans</string>
    </edit>
  </match>
  <match target="pattern">
    <edit name="dpi" mode="assign">96</edit>
  </match>
  <match target="font">
    <edit mode="assign" name="antialias" >
      <bool>true</bool>
    </edit>
  </match>
  <match target="font">
    <edit mode="assign" name="hinting" >
      <bool>true</bool>
    </edit>
  </match>
  <match target="font">
    <edit mode="assign" name="hintstyle" >
      <const>hintslight</const>
    </edit>
  </match>
  <match target="font">
    <edit mode="assign" name="rgba" >
      <const>rgb</const>
    </edit>
  </match>
  <match target="font">
    <edit mode="assign" name="lcdfilter">
      <const>lcddefault</const>
    </edit>
  </match>
  <alias binding="strong">
    <family>sans-serif</family>
    <prefer>
      <family>Open Sans</family>
    </prefer>
  </alias>
  <alias binding="strong">
    <family>serif</family>
    <prefer>
      <family>Bitstream Charter</family>
    </prefer>
  </alias>
  <alias binding="strong">
    <family>monospace</family>
    <prefer>
      <family>Source Code Pro</family>
    </prefer>
  </alias>
</fontconfig>

Reboot the computer and you are good to go.

Some of the details are from https://esc.sh/blog/fix-ugly-fonts-in-fedora/

GNOME Chess and Stockfish 8 Engine

I am a life-long chess and FOSS enthusiast and often play my favourite game on my Linux desktops either on the excellent multi-platform PyChess or GNOME Chess. I prefer the latter simply for its cleaner interface.

I wanted to add a really strong chess engine like Stockfish but the standard repository for my openSUSE 42.2 is hosting an earlier version (version 7 vs. the current 8).

So, off I went and downloaded the Linux binaries for Stockfish 8 from its home site. It is a simple zipped archive that contains the binaries for the engine.

I extracted the archive to /opt (/opt/stockfish-8-linux) and proceeded to edit the GNOME Chess engines config file (/etc/gnome-chess/engines.conf); the config file already has a list of chess engines that it supports, so I proceeded to the Stockfish portion and changed the binary= line to the exact location of the Stockfish binary i.e. /opt/stockfish-8-linux/Linux/stockfish_8_64.

And now off to bash heads with the latest and greatest from the Stockfish project.

Webcore and Infinality Ultimate on openSUSE Leap is awesome

Previously I wrote about using Infinality Ultimate to make the font rendering on my openSUSE Leap looking fabulous. Well, Yuzery Yusoff in the OpenSUSE Malaysia FB group added that he also added the webcore fonts to even make it more fabulous.

Here are his comments :

" My steps installing infinality ultimate:
1. Google "infinality ultimate opensuse"
2. Add repo frm http://download.opensuse.org/.../home:nick31:INFINALITY... ( coz im using tumbleweed)
3. Open yast>software management and view repo. Choose repo for infinality and switch to it and follow further installation
3. After finish with installation, i find "webcore" repo and install "webcore" and "webcore-vista" fonts
4. After finish install both of microsoft fonts, open terminal and type this: sudo fc-presets set
5. It will prompt for choices. I enter no 3 which is meant for ms ( micro$oft)
6. Restart your computer

There u go. The fonts absolutely better, even better than in Windows for me laa..

Because I'm dealing with my peers who still using Windows and Office suite, i need to install WPS Office for exact compatibility

Done. No more just looking tru windows. I ran out from the gates. Go to the open field and play around there...in the open world...hahaha"

And my - the effects are really astounding!!

Better font rendering with Infinality Ultimate for openSUSE Leap

Infinality-ultimate is a set of patches that improves the font-rendering in Linux systems.

I use openSUSE Leap 42.1 and fialed to look for a 1-Click Install  at OBS. Google search yielded a repo for 13.2 and retracing my way up to its parent dir, I found the repo directory for Leap at http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/nick31:/INFINALITY-ULTIMATE/openSUSE_Leap_42.1/

As usual I added it via CLI:
# zypper ar -f http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/nick31:/INFINALITY-ULTIMATE/openSUSE_Leap_42.1/ Infinality_Ultimate

and refreshed the new repo
# zypper ref Infinality_Ultimate

Since I already have the Infinality repo's fontoconfig installed, I need to force an update from the new repo

# zypper dup --from Infinality_Ultimate

After a reboot, my fonts are indeed much better, especially in my Chrome and Chromium browsers that has been giving me less than perfect fonts.

Anything that runs Qt and generally all now look amazing.

Fixing Totem error ("Missing plugings") when playing vids in openSUSE Leap

Totem, the default video player for the GNOME 3 desktop has always been a difficult beast to tame when I am using openSUSE. My primary work machine runs openSUSE Leap and as predicted, Totem isn't running - no matter what manner of gstreamer plugins added/removed or removing the ~/.cache/gstreamer-1.0 directory nothing works.

Posting in the openSUSE group in FB got me a reply from a gentleman (https://www.facebook.com/NMMoendjen?fref=ufi) who suggested that I should install xine. That jigged my memory and I recalled installing the w32codecs package to make Totem work. Did a zypper search but couldn't find w32codec package even in the Packman repo for Leap.

Going through OBS, a preliminary search yielded w32codec packages for Tumbleweed and 13.x. Not Good! I trawled through the repository manually it yielded me the YMP for it at http://software.opensuse.org/ymp/home:vadimuzzz/openSUSE_42.1/w32codecs.ymp.

If you have trouble installing the package from 1-Click Install, download the package and use zypper to manually install it. Just ignore the "Problem: nothing provides libstdc++.so.5 needed by w32codecs-1.0-20110133.1.x86_64" error message.

Totem is alive again.....

Fixing Totem error ("Missing plugings") when playing vids in openSUSE Leap

Totem, the default video player for the GNOME 3 desktop has always been a difficult beast to tame when I am using openSUSE. My primary work machine runs openSUSE Leap and as predicted, Totem isn't running - no matter what manner of gstreamer plugins added/removed or removing the ~/.cache/gstreamer-1.0 directory nothing works.

Posting in the openSUSE group in FB got me a reply from a gentleman (https://www.facebook.com/NMMoendjen?fref=ufi) who suggested that I should install xine. That jigged my memory and I recalled installing the w32codecs package to make Totem work. Did a zypper search but couldn't find w32codec package even in the Packman repo for Leap.

Going through OBS, a preliminary search yielded w32codec packages for Tumbleweed and 13.x. Not Good! I trawled through the repository manually it yielded me the YMP for it at http://software.opensuse.org/ymp/home:vadimuzzz/openSUSE_42.1/w32codecs.ymp.

If you have trouble installing the package from 1-Click Install, download the package and use zypper to manually install it. Just ignore the "Problem: nothing provides libstdc++.so.5 needed by w32codecs-1.0-20110133.1.x86_64" error message.

Totem is alive again.....

Running LibreOffice 5.2 beta on openSUSE Leap 42.1

LibreOffice to me is an indispensible tool. I have used it professionally, even in Windows, since the pre-OpenOffice 1.0 days; when I typed my final paper for my Bachelor's programme. My supervisor was a kindly Englishman that was intrigued that a free office suite of some quality was available at no cost running on the nascent Linux platform.

Since then, I have used LibreOffice for my all my documentation, creating presentation slides and even diagramming needs that I can honetly say that I am no longer be considered productive with the conventional MS Office.

SUSE has always played a crucial rule ("the rebel ringleader") in making LibreOffice into the awesome suite it is today, from the days of rebellion against the draconian Sun contributor licensing and forking OpenOffice into the go-oo (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go-oo) project as a result and later on to collaborating with Microsoft to create an "Enterprise version of OpenOffice" named Novell OpenOffice and later to bring about the birth of The Document Foundation and consequently LibreOffice.

The latest version of LibreOffice is at 5.1.4 downloadable from the LibreOffice site - but for some of us, the "stable" version is the same as the "stale" version - the inner geek in me demands to have the latest incarnation of LibreOffice running on my system (there is a practical reason for this; as I often need to work with MS Office documents, a newer version oftens bring better compatibility with MS Office documents) .

To get the latest unstable/beta version or in SUSE/openSUSE  parlance, Factory version; running on openSUSE Leap - you can add it via the CLI:

# zypper ar -f http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/LibreOffice:/Factory/openSUSE_42.1/ LO_Factory

# zypper ref LO_Factory

# zypper dup --from LO_Factory

And there you go - enjoy the freshest from LibreOffice.

Go/Weiqi/Baduk on openSUSE LEAP 42.1

Besides chess (or International Chess as the Chinese are prone to call it), I am also enamoured with the ancient mental game of Go (Weiqi in Chinese and Baduk in Korean).

I have both GNUGo and ElyGo Lite on my Android cell and on my openSUSE LEAP notebook I have qgo2 as my frontend powered by GNUGo.

GNUGo is packaged in the standard LEAP repo (# zypper in gnugo) and qgo2 can be easily installed using the 1-Click Install via OBS. 

I have never used a Go/Weiqi/Baduk application on Linux before and I seem to like what I am seeing. qgo2 also seems to have the ability to connect to Go servers on the Internet. Never tried playing online before - might just give it a shot one of these days. Back to my game now.

Installing ScidvsPC on Fedora 23

I am a huge fan of chess and have been so since I learned the rules at twelve. Growing up in a single parent family money was always tight and chess was way more affordable than football or tennis. I was a pretty good
player in my teenage years and chess was good to me - through it I met two of my exes (ahem!), got to travel to competitions and met some really interesting people and was always known as the chess dude in school - though the jocks would never fail to make fun of me and my team-mates achievements and the lack of our athleticism for "real" games.

Well, of late my passion for chess was once again ignited. As a Linux user, our choices of chess programs are actually quite poor compared to the likes of Fritz, ChessBase, Chess Assistant etc for the Microsoft Windows platform. Shredder Chess has a Linux version but it will not work on the latest distros due to a problem with the display managers and besides its creator seems keener on the mobile platform. Shredder Chess for Android is a good program for a modest fee and I highly recommend it. 

I discovered ScidVsPC after Googling around and found it to be an excellent suite for game manager and analysis. It doesn't come pre-build with any RPMs for Fedora Linux and CentOS/RHEL - installing it therefore will require the venerable 3-step to Nirvana - configure, make and make install. On my Fedora Linux 23 notebook, this is what I did to get it installed:

Install the dependencies and StockFish Engine
# dnf install tk-devel tcl-devel gcc-c++ tkimg zlib-devel stockfish

Download the tarball, extract it and compile:
$ tar -zxvf scid_vs_pc-4.16.tgz 
$ cd scid_vs_pc-4.16
$ ./configure
$ make
# make install
  
To launch it you will need to execute the following from CLI
$ scid 

Or create a launcher by creating a desktop file (save it into ~/.local/share/applications ):
$ vi ~/.local/share/applications/scid.desktop

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Scid vs. PC
Comment=Scid vs. PC Games Management
Exec=/usr/local/bin/scid
Icon=/home/eyeoh/Downloads/Scidlogo.png
Terminal=false

Adding the Stockfish Chess Engine - from within the ScidvsPC UI -> Tools -> Analysis Engines -> enter /usr/bin/stockfish20.bin in the Command field and the click on the ~/scidvspc button and finally click on OK.

And you are good to go! Enjoy!

Installing SCIDvsPC on openSUSE Leap 42.1

SCIDvsPC is a "fork" of the multi-platform SCID chess database and toolkit. As an unabashed openSUSE advocate and user, I was overjoyed when the long-term support openSUSE Leap was released but was disappointed with the relatively smaller selection of games and the exclusion of SCIDvsPC.

Ah well, to get it installed, you will still need to download the tarball from the SCIDvsPC site, extract it and compile it.

Firstly, install the necessary dependencies:

#zypper in kbproto-devel libX11-devel libXau-devel libxcb-damage0 libxcb-devel libxcb-dpms0 libxcb-record0 libxcb-res0 libxcb-screensaver0 libxcb-xevie0 libxcb-xinerama0 libxcb-xprint0 libxcb-xtest0 libxcb-xvmc0 pthread-stubs-devel tcl-devel tk-devel xproto-devel gcc gcc48 glibc-devel libasan0 libatomic1 libitm1 libtsan0 linux-glibc-devel gcc48-c++ gcc-c++ libstdc++48-devel snack tkimg tkimg-devel make    


Then extract the downloaded SCIDvsPC tarball:

$tar -zxvf  scid_vs_pc-4.15.tgz
$cd scid_vs_pc-4.15

After the extraction, then proceed compile it:


$./configure
$su 
#make
#make install

To execute the SCIDvsPC application, type scid on the CLI.

Stockfish is an excellent analysis engine that can be installed if you have the Packman repository enabled. You can get it from One-Click install from here

After installing Stockfish, you can add Stockfish to the list of analysis engines for SCIDvsPC. From the SCIDvsPC application, Tools -> Analysis Engines -> New;  enter /usr/bin/stockfish20.bin in the Command field and the click on the ~/scidvspc button and finally click on OK.

Enjoy!

Installing SCIDvsPC on openSUSE 13.2

I enjoy running openSUSE and play chess. However, I find it tough to get a chess program close to the quality of ChessBase and Fritz. Shredder Chess was the closest, but as of openSUSE 13x, Fedora 2x and Ubuntu 14x - a problem with the X makes it unusable.

Stockfish is a fine engine, but the chess UIs in Linux is sorely in need of overhaul.

Until I came across SCIDvsPC - seems to fulfill my needs - a DB with playing and analysis options. There are no binaries for openSUSE but you can download the tar ball and compile it. It sounds more horrible than it actually is. Firstly, install the depedencies:

#zypper in kbproto-devel libX11-devel libXau-devel libxcb-damage0 libxcb-devel libxcb-dpms0 libxcb-record0 libxcb-res0 libxcb-screensaver0 libxcb-xevie0 libxcb-xinerama0 libxcb-xprint0 libxcb-xtest0 libxcb-xvmc0 pthread-stubs-devel tcl-devel tk-devel xproto-devel gcc gcc48 glibc-devel libasan0 libatomic1-gcc49 libitm1-gcc49 libtsan0-gcc49 linux-glibc-devel gcc48-c++ gcc-c++ libstdc++48-devel snack tkimg tkimg-devel make 

Then extract the downloaded SCIDvsPC tarball:

$tar -zxvf  scid_vs_pc-4.14.tgz
$cd scid_vs_pc-4.14

After the extraction, the compile it:


$./configure
$su
#make
#make install

To execute the SCIDvsPC application, type scid on the CLI.

Stockfish is an excellent analysis engine that can be installed if you have the Packman repository enabled. You can get it from One-Click install from here 

After installing Stockfish, you can add Stockfish to the list of analysis engines for SCIDvsPC. From the SCIDvsPC application, Tools -> Analysis Engines -> New;  enter /usr/bin/stockfish20.bin in the Command field and the click on the ~/scidvspc button and finally click on OK.

Enjoy!

When zypper throws a "Error message: Failed to connect to xxx.xxxxxx.xxx port 80: Network is unreachable"

I enjoy running my openSUSE 13.2 off a thumbdrive because it affords me the luxury of bringing my entire Linux desktop everywhere with me. Live USB created with the current openSUSE 13.2 GNOME Live CD  (instructions are here), has ensured stuff like themes, software removed/installed and other preferences are persistent! Awesomeness!!!

All went well and I only use it when and if I decided to travel. Come the long Chinese New Year holidays and I decided to dust off the long unused Live USB and plugged it into my workhorse, DELL E6330 and ran zypper up.

Suddenly I was bombarded with a bunch of   "Error message: Failed to connect to xxx.xxxxxx.xxx port 80: Network is unreachable" .

Scouring the web has yielded the following solution:

1. Edit the /etc/sysctl.conf file and add the following:
   
   net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6 = 1
   net.ipv6.conf.default.disable_ipv6 = 1
   net.ipv6.conf.lo.disable_ipv6 = 1
2. Then execute the following:
   
   echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv6/conf/all/disable_ipv6

 And my zypper works once again.

Open Sans Pro and Source Sans Pro on CentOS/Fedora/RHEL

I generally find that the Open Sans family of fonts and the Adobe Source Sans Pro pleasing. And since I am the designated main typist in my office, creating eye-pleasing documents is part of the JD.

Download the Adobe Source Sans Pro here  and Open Sans here

Extract them and copy the extracted directories to /usr/share/fonts

E.g.

#cp -R Open_Sans/ /usr/share/fonts

Then run the refresh

#fc-cache

Or if you prefer reboot the computer to make use of the fonts.

Calibri and Cambria compatible fonts and Font Embedding in LibreOffice

LibreOffice being my primary productivity suite has never failed to amaze me with its usability and many features and updates from one version to the next.  I started using OpenOffice.org in 2000 and then move on to the go-oo fork and now the latest incarnation - LibreOffice suite.

For those of us who often exchange documents with people who uses MSO, a Calibri compatible but free to use font type would be Asap. Cambria would be the Droid Serif font.

Both fonts look gorgeous and if you are unsure that folks on the receiving end have your fonts - LibreOffice 4.1 (download here) now supports font embedding (Files -> Properties -> Fonts tab)  so that your document would not look weird when you use Font A to compose your docs but the receiver hasn't Font A but uses something else closest to replace the font - which in reality isn't really good enough.

Kudos to the devs and volunteers who contributed to LibreOffice and the equally impressive (and I would say, prettier) Apache OpenOffice.

The often overlooked Seamonkey

I am very happy with my work lappy running CentOS 6.4 - I never need to worry about the next update borking my system.

Unfortunately, the supplied Firefox browser doesn't work too well with my personal banking site. Previously this was unimportant as I always had Google Chrome to fall back on; sadly Google decided not to support Chrome on the CentOS/RHEL platforms.

Would hate to trade the rock solid reliability of CentOS with Fedora - so it hit me why not Seamonkey?

With the EPEL repo added and a yum install seamonkey later, the latest Seamonkey is installed on my lappy - it is actually the same version that is on the Seamonkey site. Nothing to shout about on the looks, in fact being the "old guy" I am - the theme kinda brings me back....ah well...personal banking site....and wallah it works perfectly!! Yay....

Now back to work....

Enabling Broadcom 4313 Wireless support and VLC installation on RHEL 6x/CentOS 6x

CentOS is an excellent desktop OS for the discerning user who wants rock solid performance without paying a premium.  However, since it is built from server source with some desktop apps and bits thrown in, stability comes at the cost of the latest and greatest version of the software bundled. For instance LibreOffice is still stuck at 3.4x, it's Pidgin instead of Empathy and there are no versions of Banshee available.

However, having lesser things to play actually makes it an attractive choice for focussing on getting work done since there are practically no games available but there is a plethora of "boring" server stuff that can only make a geek quiver with delight!   

Since I work in a RH shop, having a RHEL server installed on my notebook actually makes sense, but then I would have to "burn" through one subscription for no good reason. So CentOS it is then. 

Two problems come into mind - the Broadcom wireless (BCM4313) on my notebook wouldn't work with CentOS or RHEL and two, the lack of multimedia codecs would ensure that my notebook would be good for work and staging and precious little else. That wouldn't do since I live off my notebook. 

After trawling through the web, I managed to resolve my #1 problem and easily resolve issue #2. 

Preparing the repos

# rpm -ivh http://ftp.riken.jp/Linux/fedora/epel/6/i386/epel-release-6-8.noarch.rpm

# rpm -ivh http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/el/updates/6/i386/rpmfusion-free-release-6-1.noarch.rpm

# rpm -ivh http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/el/updates/6/i386/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-6-1.noarch.rpm

# rpm -ivh http://rpms.famillecollet.com/enterprise/remi-release-6.rpm

# rpm -ivh http://elrepo.org/elrepo-release-6-5.el6.elrepo.noarch.rpm

Enabling Broadcom Wireless Support

The Broadcom driver doesn't come in a binary form due to licensing restrictions. To enable Broadcom 4313 support, we need to compile the driver from a Source RPM.

Install the required dependencies

As root:

# yum -y groupinstall 'Development Tools' 

# yum -y install redhat-lsb 

# yum -y kernel-devel-$(uname -r)

Preparing for compilation

Choose the right architecture archive (32 or 64-bit) and download the source RPM from (http://elrepo.org/linux/elrepo/el6/SRPMS/wl-kmod-5_100_82_112-9.el6.elrepo.nosrc.rpm) to anywhere (e.g. Downloads) and the driver archive from Broadcom's site (http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php) to ~/rpmbuild/SOURCES/

As normal user:

$ mkdir -p ~/rpmbuild/{BUILD,RPMS,SPECS,SOURCES,SRPMS}

$ echo -e "%_topdir $(echo $HOME)/rpmbuild\n%dist .el$(lsb_release -s -r|cut -d"." -f1).local" >> ~/.rpmmacros

Building the Source RPM

As normal user:

$ rpmbuild --rebuild --define 'packager <user name>' /home/<user name>/Downloads/wl-kmod*nosrc.rpm

Installing the Compiled RPM

As root:

# rpm -ivh /home/ericyeoh/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/kmod-wl*.rpm

Remove unused services

As root:

# modprobe -r b43 b43legacy ssb wl lib80211

# modprobe -r bcma (for RHEL/Centos 6.4 and above)

# modprobe lib80211_crypt_tkip

# modprobe -r wl 

Reboot and it's good to go.

Remember to remove any instance of ndiswarpper if it's installed. 

Installing VLC

VLC is an all in one media player for the many MP3s and movies I have. VLC is one of those indispensable "if-you-are-stuck-on-a-desert-island" software. 

As root:

# yum --enablerepo=remi-test install vlc 

HP LaserJet P1005 on Fedora 17

A year ago I got myself a cheapo HP LaserJet P1005 printer. The price was right and it worked well with my openSUSE 11.4 (after some titanic struggles) desktop and Ubuntu 10x notebook then. Fast forward to the end of 2012, post apocalypse; and the printer was starting to gather dust at home and not wanting it to be the nesting grounds for ants, roaches and other nasties, I decided to bring it to work - as a temp printer (the office's primary printer has lapsed into deep coma) for the tech department.

My work desktop (also from home) is running Stella Linux, a respin of the venerable CentOS with all the nice multimedia bits with my primary lappy and on Fedora 17, as with the rest of the techies.

I was ready for some titanic struggles as I did with my desktop's previous openSUSE host; so with sleeves folded up and skipping lunch - me ready. Alas, after 5 minutes of Googling I found this page which directed me to the HP Linux Printing and Imaging page my anticipated struggle was resolved within 10 minutes.

Got my desktop's CUPS setup and firewalls opened for 631 TCP/UDP, enabled remote access to my CUPS server and shared printer.

All is working now.

Let the tree killing begin!!!


 

Roboto Fonts

The Roboto set of fonts used in the Android Ice Cream Sandwich platform can now be downloaded from http://developer.android.com/design/style/typography.html

For GNU/Linux, just download the file, unzip it, create a dir in /usr/share/fonts/, copy *.ttf to that dir and then just run fc-cache and you are good to go.

Enjoy.

New Font Repo for openSUSE

Adding fonts is pretty easy in openSUSE (and in GNU/Linux) generally - create a dir in /usr/share/fonts dump your ttfs in it run fc-cache or SuSEconfig (under openSUSE or SLE)and you are done.

However having a repo of about a hundred fonts that can be added from Yast is just heaven sent. Add the repo and refresh it:

zypper ar -f http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/M17N/openSUSE_12.1/ Fonts

zypper ref Fonts

And you are good to go.

It also has support for openSUSE 11.4, Tumbleweed, SLE 11 and Factory.