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Running Linux Tech Daily causes me to switch between distributions often. One of the pains caused by this is keeping my Firefox bookmarks synchronized. There are Firefox Add-ons out there to take care of this, but none have worked the way I want them to. My folders get jumbled, or I have to move everything back to my bookmarks toolbar where I generally navigate from. When I read about Google Browser Sync from Google Labs I was intrigued. It seemed a great fit for my needs.

Google Browser Sync not only synchronizes your bookmarks, also syncs your Cookies, Saved Passwords, History, Tabs and Windows. This is a godsend for me. It is an annoyance to punch in my username and passwords each time I am running a fresh install. I visit a lot of sites. This looked to be a very helpful add-on. It works only with Firefox, version 1.5 or later.

Installation was very easy. I went to the page, clicked install, and it installed just like any other add-on. I restarted my browser, associated it with my Google Account and punched in the Security PIN. I refreshed, which sends the information to the Google servers and was done. Your cookies and saved passwords are automatically encrypted. You are given the option of encrypting your bookmarks, history, tabs and windows. I booted out of my Arch Linux system and rebooted into my fresh PCLinuxOS install. I ran through the installation routine again, synced and I was running essentially the same browser. I keep my bookmarks organized into folders on my Bookmarks Toolbar, and this is where I typically run into trouble. Google Bookmark Sync set it up identically. Very nice. Images of the install procedure are below.

My bookmarks are identical in each Firefox on each computer. My username and passwords transfer correctly, so I am able to log right in. It is nice to log off of one system, log onto another and have the option to restore my tabs from my last session. History works very well. It was a hindrance to be on one system and try to remember where I was earlier. Now my history follows me, no matter what system I am on. I can’t escape my past.
Google Browser Sync has worked exactly as promised. I read in the Google-Firefox-Extentions group that a few people have had problems with it. Luckily for me, it has been flawless. The convenience that it offers outweighs any privacy concerns I may have. You may feel differently, so be sure to review the Privacy Policy and Terms Of Service before using. Your information will be stored on Google’s servers. They claim that they cannot unlock your data without your PIN. I don’t know if that means Google can access it or not. I emailed them for clarification, but haven’t received a response yet. I will update when I get it. If I wasn’t comfortable with there being a record of my 4chan usage out there, I can simply use Konqueror or Opera to view it.

Google does not recommend that you use this on a shared computer. To quote the FAQ:

“Why shouldn’t I install Google Browser Sync on computers that other people can access?

Browser Sync keeps all your browsers in sync with each other, so it needs to send potentially sensitive information like your stored passwords, bookmarks, and browser history to the other computers where you’ve installed it. Also, once you install Browser Sync, you don’t need to log in every time you start the browser to access this info. Therefore, someone who uses a computer where you’ve installed browser sync will have access to all the info you’ve chosen to sync across your computers. Any new browser settings they create, such as browsing history, will also show up on your other computers.”

That is clear and makes sense. If you share a computer and don’t want others to access your info, this isn’t for you. If you use multiple computers and don’t mind having this information stored by Google, I recommend Google Browser Sync. It has made my life easier. Google Labs have done a very nice job here.

Screenshots:

If for some reason you are using Internet Explorer, get Firefox. It is worth trying. You can get it here:

I have added a forum to the site. I hope that some of you may find it useful. I will leave it up to the readers how it should shape up. If you are interested in moderating, drop me an email.

Forum.linuxtechdaily.com

Thank you for visiting,

Rich

OpenSUSE 10.2 was released today. Torrents are here. The download page is here, It will be interesting to see the community reaction to this release. I feel bad for the OpenSUSE team. Novell put them in a bad position. The release features ext3 as the new default file system, Firefox 2.0, updated Gnome and KDE and an install add-on disc featuring proprietary software. It is a five cd set, they mention you only need the first 3 discs to install a default Gnome or KDE system in English or German. The announcement is here.
I tried running the 64bit release candidate. I had planned to review it.I wanted to give OpenSUSE an chance. I couldn’t give it a fair review. I hate Yast. I find it gets in my way. I couldn’t use it to edit grub properly. Software management was a nightmare. Updates were unbearable, loading software management took forever. I read that uninstalling zmd (the ZENworks Management Daemon) speeds things up, but I wasn’t able to accomplish this. I don’t know why, but I was caught in rpm hell, a phrase I hadn’t used in years. It was impossible for me to install GCC. Overall, it was a horrible experience and I was glad to wipe it from my hard drive. I understand that I was running a release candidate, but I have never had as many problems running an RC before. I am sure there will be plenty of glowing reviews of openSUSE in the semi-mainstream tech press, though. It looks pretty.

Due to lack of time, I have been sticking with the “easier” distros lately. I love Slackware, and at one time Arch Linux was my absolute favorite. I recently upgraded to an Athlon64 3200. I tried a variety of distros, only to run into problems I didn’t have time to fix. Fedora gave me a messed up Grub. Mandriva Free gave me problems with my video driver. Ubuntu Edgy has been fine. I saw that Arch Linux had a 64bit version and decided it was time to revisit it. If the easy distros were making me get into config files, why not just jump in fully with Arch64.

The installation documentation is thorough, but will drop you off at a command prompt with no Gui to log into. Make sure you know what you are doing, or do your homework first. If you feel like kickin’ it real old school, they even give you the option of a floppy install. You boot up, then type “/arch/setup”, which brings up the installer program. The steps are:

1. Prepare Hard Drive. You have an option to Auto-Prepare, which gives you a /boot, swap and root partition. It creates the file systems and mounts the partitions. Partition Hard Drives lets you do the partitioning via cfdisk and set the mount points yourself.
2. Select Packages. Packages are set up in different categories. I chose to only install BASE. It keeps things lean and mean.
3. Install Packages. This does exactly what it says. It installs the packages.
4. Configure System. This allows you to edit your configuration files. Usually the defaults will work, but the point of using Arch is to set things up your way. The rc.conf file is the main configuration file, where you set modules and daemons load, you define your network interface settings and other stuff. A nice addition here is MOD_AUTOLOAD which scans your hardware and automatically loads your modules with hwdetect. In the past I had forgotten to put the proper USB modules. Using a usb mouse and keyboard, that was a problem. Make absolutely sure you check lilo.conf if you use lilo, /boot/grub/menu.1st if using grub.
5. Install Kernel. Your choices are a stock 2.6.x kernel, 2.4 IDE or 2.4 SCSI. The documentation notes that Arch uses 2.6 by default, and to quote a line that made me laugh, “We are phasing out support for the 2.4 kernel, so you should only use it if 2.6 just isn’t working out for you”
6. Install Bootloader. You have the option of Lilo or Grub. The documentation has a great tip here. It says that if you multiboot, it might be better to install the bootloader into your root or /boot partition, and refer to that from the bootloader on your Master Boot Record. I did that and it worked like a charm. This is after I had Grub nightmares from a Fedora install. Post install, I updated Grub on my MBR easily
7. Exit Install. This makes you remove the disk and type reboot.

You reboot into a command prompt, logged in a root. I set up my root password and added a user. The docs say to set up your internet connection, but mine was ready to go. From here, you can use the package manager pacman to install xorg, KDE and/or Gnome and anything else you wish. I was a little to cocky, based on my previous experience, and hadn’t taken into consideration that xorg had changed. I installed xorg through pacman, but could not get a video driver module to load. My stupid mistake, it was as easy as installing the XF86-video-nv package since I have an Nvidia card. You can pull down all the drivers by installing the xorg-video-drivers package. I installed Kde, started x and was in my system. It was very clean and very fast. If you are unsure about how to do any of this, be sure to check out the ArchWiki before installing. It tells you how to set up just about anything you need. Be careful though, some advice is outdated. YMMV.Unless you are a super-genius, you will be using the wiki regularly. You have to set everything up yourself. Sound, cups, whatever. There are no graphical utilities to help you out, it is all command line. It is not as scary as that may sound.

The beauty of Arch is that you only install what you want. You only load the modules you want to, run the daemons you choose. Free as in freedom, baby. The result of this is a system that flies. I can’t give you hard numbers, but Arch boots a hell of a lot faster than other distros I have used. Arch64 is hardcore in that the philosophy is to be a true 64 bit operating system. To quote:
“BUT: Our goal is to be the most bleeding edge distribution around! 32-bit is old fashioned. We want Arch64 to be modern and pure 64-bit. So we don’t have a Multilib system. We won’t take any package into the repos improving 32-bit compatibility. Maybe we will place them into the AUR or community repo. Don’t expect any support from the devs getting 32-bit apps running on Arch64!”
I respect that. If you cannot live without flash, some W32 codecs,Opera or Skype you can run 32 bit apps inside Arch64 with a bit of work. It hasn’t been an issue for me. Mplayer has played everything I have thrown at it so far, including WMV files. I can do without flash to save some weird hack-y stuff or chrooting. (Arch64 does have the nspluginwrapper ready to go in the community repositories, so you can run flash on a 64bit browser.) It is hard for me to say if my system is faster due to the 64bits or if it is due to Arch itself. Maybe the combo. From what I read at the Arch64 FAQ you don’t gain much of an advantage using X64 except in multimedia or databases. Some reports have 32bit apps running faster than 64bit on a 64bit machine. I think it is worth any extra bit of hassle to run in 64. If anyone has an opinion on 32bit vs. 64bit, please leave a comment.

Once inside my system, I set up printing and audio. It was a breeze. Using Arch gives you an appreciation for the disdain people have for Gui tools. It is very simple to work from the command line, and the power you have over things is nice. If something goes wrong, you learn what the problem is and how to fix it. Arch, like Slackware and Gentoo, is a great learning tool.

Arch64 tries to stay very close to the Arch current and extra repositories. There aren’t as many developers, which means there is no unstable repo available. There is an list, updated hourly, comparing package versions for Arch32 and Arch64. Arch current port is finished and extra looks to be almost done. Community seems to be coming along. As X64 picks up steam, hopefully more developers will be moving here.

One of the biggest strengths of Arch Linux is its software manager, pacman. It is a command line utility, but there are graphical front ends available. Updating your system is as simple as typing “pacman -Syu”. Installing packages is as simple as “pacman -Sy packagename”. S = sync, y = refresh, u= sysupgrade. All dependencies are pulled down automatically. By editing the file pacman.conf, you can tell the system to not upgrade certain packages and what repositories to use. Another strength is that you can build and use your own repositories with pacman.

The Arch Build System (ABS) gives you the ability to build your own packages from source and rebuild Arch packages with your own customizations. The documentation covers everything. You run the command “abs” as root, which synchronizes the ABS tree with the current and extra repositories. You make a new directory for the package you are going to create. I decided to build Katapult, an alternative KDE launcher, so i made a /var/abs/local/katapult directory. I built my PKGBUILD file, ran makepkg and bingo, I had a package ready to go. I typed “pacman -A katapult-0.3.1.4-2.pkg.tar.gz” and it installed flawlessly. The AUR (Arch User Repository) is filled with PKGBUILD files for almost any program you might need. Nspluginwrapper resides here. ABS really sets Arch Linux apart.

I highly recommend Arch64. If you are looking for a great 64bit system and don’t mind getting your hands dirty, this is the system for you. You only need a fast connection and some time. Pacman is the best package manager out there. ABS gives you freedom to create your own packages or customize packages for your machine. The community is great and very helpful. If you aren’t running a 64bit system, this review would work for Arch32 with the added bonus of having the unstable tree available to you. There is a new project called Lowarch for older computers, so you can breathe life into an old machine.(If it is so old it only has a floppy drive, you are in luck.) Arch is an excellent way to learn. It forces you to. The outstanding documentation and wiki teaches you how to do whatever you may need. Arch is fast and gives you the freedom to run Linux the way you want. It remains my favorite distro. This review may seem fanboyish, but I honestly can’t find a bad thing to say about it.

Final Note: I didn’t include screenshots, because I think my readers know what KDE looks like. If you want them, let me know, and I can provide them.

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