This is geared more for end-users of Debian-based distros such as Ubuntu, MEPIS, and of course, Debian.

Some (most) of this is applicable to non-Debian based Linux distros like Fedora, Slackware, SUSE, or what-have-you; but in those latter cases, you will have to substitute the distro-specific line commands and packages (such as filename.rpm for Fedora instead of filename.deb).

For non-Debian/Ubuntu/MEPIS users, if you get hung up in here, I kindly direct you to the documentation pages (MAN pages if you can suffer to read the text in your terminal like a real geek), or over here at the CheckInstall home page.

Actually, I won’t presume to know more than the creators and maintainers of the program, so if you *are* an Ubuntu/Debian/MEPIS user and you get hung up here, by all means, check out the docs.

Packages vs. Source Code

Simply enough, a package is a container full of pre-compiled chunks of code - it need only be installed through the resident package manager. Packages usually have file extensions like *.deb (Ubuntu/Debian/etc) or *.rpm, (Red Hat/Fedora Core and related distros) or *.tgz (Slackware and its derivatives)

Source Code, by contrast, is pure, uncompiled code. By itself, it really doesn’t do much. To further blur things, source code is typically “zipped up” into an archive (usually in the *.tar.gz format). But despite the convenient bundling up of the code, it is not a package. Yet, the beauty of raw source code is that it can be compiled on any Linux box regardless of the distro, quite unlike some Windows applications which “require” Windows 2K or XP or *cough* are harshly broken on *cough* Vista *cough, cough, blecch*

Almost every distro of Linux these days - and definitely so for the 2.6+ kernels have a package manager/installation front-end utility built into it somewhere: Synaptic, apt-get, yum, urpmi, and so on. These package managers and their front-ends resolve dependencies and manage versions of the multitude of open-source software available to Linux.

Generally, there are two ways* of installing software on a Linux box. The first and easiest is to use your package manager (Synaptic in Debian-based distros) or using the command line:

apt-get install packagename

(or)

aptitude install packagename

The other way - commonly perceived and justified by some as the much harder of the two, is compiling the program from the Source Code.

This is somewhat true - while compiling the Source Code more or less guarantees that your code will be likely the latest and greatest version (although you can use Subversion - SVN - and get the REALLY bleeding edge stuff, typically the “working development” version which comes with all the headaches of being almost-beta software) built specifically to your machine’s architecture and your specifications, it does mean that you will have to do some more homework other than copy-pasting a line command or two into your terminal, or scrolling through piles of software in your distro’s repositories in Synaptic.

Compiling from Source means making sure that all its dependencies exist already on your machine (or else the compiling and making of the software fails with cryptic or ugly or worse, cryptically ugly messages).

It also may mean installing an updated version of qt3 or qt4 (a code framework) or gcc (a compiler) and a variety of make programs like cmake which actually put the Source Code into something your machine will want to work with.

And, assuming your distro hasn’t already installed them, you’ll want to make sure you’ve got gzip, bzip2, and zip, which will handle the most common zipped archives Source Code is usually compressed into: tar.gz, tar.bz2, and the eponymous *.zip files (and less commonly, *.Z files).

To make it easy on you, here is a hitlist of the most commonly used source-compiling tools you can install from the command line in Debian-based distros:

sudo aptitude install gzip bzip2 zip build-essential checkinstall gcc subversion

Once you’ve got all the particulars sorted out, a typical compilation sequence looks something like this:

- You download greatCode.0.1.0.5_i386.tar.gz or some other such thing with an impressive tail of version digits and characters that’ll make your knuckles and fingertips hurt - usually called a “tarball”, which must be first unzipped:

gunzip greatCode.0.1.0.5_i386.tar.gz

This will leave greatCode.0.1.0.5_i386.tar in your directory.

- Then, you “un-tar” the tarball into your Home directory (unless the docs say otherwise as to where to unpack the code) as such:

tar -xvf greatCode.0.1.0.5_i386.tar

Typically, this creates a directory greatCode.0.1.0.5_i386 with all the source code unpacked inside it.

- And supposing (just supposing now) you can’t be bothered with all that untarring and unzipping, you can always right click on the *.tar.gz (or similar) file and unpack it by selecting “Open with Archive Manager” in Gnome/Nautilus. I’ll go out on a limb and say that KDE or XFCE likely have a similar utility these days as well; I don’t use either of them, so that is my best guess.

Either way you unpack it, you now have this greatCode.0.1.0.5_i386 directory to deal with: I suggest renaming it to something easier to type when you need to find it quickly in your terminal (it won’t mess up your code, don’t worry) :

mv greatCode.0.1.0.5_i386 greatCode

Viola! Now change into your newly christened greatCode directory, and run this command:

./configure

This will send your terminal into a tizzy of flying text which can take anywhere from a few minutes to a coffee break to finish (depends upon your machine’s processing power and the complexity of the program).

What is happening is you have told the computer to run a batch file named “configure”, which checks and makes sure that all the dependencies are met, and builds the “makefiles” which will be used in the next step to actually compile the software. If you are missing something, you will likely get some cheesy message as mentioned above when the configure fails out.

Otherwise, it simply returns you to the command prompt, whereupon you simply type:

make

which compiles the program. Depending upon your machine’s power and program complexity, this might be time for catch up on your TiVO or a good book, or what-have you. Assuming that all goes well, and you aren’t missing anything that the configure script couldn’t account for, you’ll type:

make install

which naturally, installs the newly compiled software in another flurry of text flying by. Now this is all well and good, but if by some chance the coder(s) overlooked putting an uninstall piece in the makefile, removing the software without worrying about breaking stuff becomes a bit of an headache.

That is where checkinstall comes in.

At the last step, instead of running make install, run the following:

sudo checkinstall

Running this will prompt you to answer several questions, such as naming the software and its version info (typically, I use the same version number as the source code calls it, and append the current date and possibly some configuration info, such as this from a recent local build I made of Celestia (space/planetarium simulator):

celestia_1.5.0.18Apr2008

You could, of course, name it something more meaningful to you.

Answering the questions helps checkinstall to build up *deb file and install the software, synching it up to the package manager so that it is accounted for (a sort of a very distant analog to the Windows registry).

And when you get bored of the program, uninstalling it is just as easy as either running Synaptic and marking it for removal, or running this little nifty command:

dpkg -r greatCode (where greatCode was the example program).

And it gets removed just as if it were a repository software installed from Synaptic.

I’m not one to presuppose what God’s judgment is for anyone, but if I had a gun pressed to my head, I’d venture to say that there will be a particularly hot, sulfurous, and vile place in Hell waiting for George Soros, when the few more years he likely has left to him are done.

Truthfully, he is an enemy of the Republic, and indeed, to humanity: being aligned in no small measure with the “grand architect of the New World Order” (Satan) and sold himself for the price of Mammon to do all manner of wickedness and oppression against the widow, the orphan, and the poor - to say nothing of depleting the middle classes into poverty through ruthless speculation and destroying the economies of nations.

His speculations and lulling the more foolish investors who heeded his deceptive manipulations of markets have in no small part precipitated the Asian Monetary Crisis of 1997, and he is the one that tried to engineer the downfall of the Deutsche Mark before its absorption into the EU’s Euro, and he is the one who “broke the Bank of England” (although this article (dated from 1996) explains why that was something engineered in part by the Thatcherites and the Crown, much to Soros’s profit, and the loss of British tax payers).

At the very least, the best thing that George Bush could do for us as a parting gift would be to extradite this wretched reprobate back to France, where he is wanted for various financial crimes.

“The Secret Financial Network Behind ‘Wizard’ George Soros”. William Engdahl, EIR Investigation Executive Intelligence Review (EIR), November 1, 1996

I noticed a few bugs in the display of my list of the Congressional races, so I fixed them up, and added a newcomer to NY-25’s previously dead-end race:

Candidate David A. Gay, Sr. - Ron Paul Republican. I believe he has been listed over at the Paul Congress web site, and has also received the NY Constitution Party’s endorsement.

A good read at RedState about how the 3/5ths Representation Compromise in the Constitution may have actually been quite unfavorable to the emancipation of the slaves than if there had been no representation for them at all…

Link

The basic gist of is that the Slaver states wanted to pad up their Representative count in the House by counting all their slaves and seeking their representation (even if they couldn’t legally vote, being slaves) ; the Free states wanted not to count them at all, which would have drastically reduced the Slaver states’ representation in the House.

Not that this item was likely debated altruistically on the basis of the merits of ending slavery, but probably as a way of weighting the more thinly populated agrarian South (where one out of every three persons was a Negro slave) against the more densely populated proto-industrial North.

I’d almost hate to know to what degree the Red Chinese bankrolled the Clinton Administration, and what trade, technological, and military secrets were sold into the hands of that government in return for their continued propping up of our nation’s economy.

But between Hillary’s stated calls to see restraint in the Chinese suppression of (supposed terrorists in) Tibet, and for President Bush to boycott the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, don’t quite line up with Bill Clinton and his charity foundation receiving vast sums of donations from Alibaba.com, the Red Chinese e-commerce giant that took over Yahoo! China’s operations a few years ago, as noted by the LA Times. (h/t to Don Surber)

One might be lead to suspect that there is something fundamentally amiss with the Red Chinese culture - one that has shifted from the utilitarian, wasteful, and often brutal excesses of the Maoist Era to Hu Jintao’s plutocracy of both party and state-approved-but-not-owned business elites who are nurturing the giant dragon’s rise to superpower.

One watches with a growing sense of concern as she regained her former territory once held for many centuries by the Portuguese (Macao) and the British (Hong Kong) and wonders if it is only a matter of time before Taiwan and perhaps Singapore fall into the Dragon’s orbit.

And it is not altogether improbable that at some point in the near future, possibly around 2012, when the wartime command of South Korea’s military forces transition back completely to that Republic, that the US withdraw from Korea, and possibly Japan as well, should Japan decide that it is in her best interests to further build up its Self-Defense Forces or upgrade the organization outright to a full-powered military able to wage war as a matter of political policy, should the much-discussed Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution be repealed or replaced. Mind you, this may not be an absolutely bad thing for us, but considering that South Korea has volatile relations with Japan and lesser so with its kindred in the North and in China, it is not impossible that South Korea might fall into Chinese orbit as well.

Indeed, some thinkers might posit the rise of the New Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, but as “rightfully” lead by the Middle Kingdom, once again asserting its medieval hegemony in the region, if not to outright push and contain a weakened and crippled America back to its coastlines (perhaps with the help of Russia and perhaps India) - the rise of the Shanghai Co-Operation Organization, or more glibly, the “Shanghai Pact” may portend such many dark omens for the West.

What is the problem with China? Is it her desire to regain lost majesty of millennia past? Or is it more down to earth, in the acquisition of financial and commercial power? How is it then, that a government once known for its ruthless adherence to central planning has now gone on to make a curious blend of socialism and strong, centralized power, but almost contradicting its founding Marxist principles by building up a strong capitalist class - most of whom, of course, are dedicated members of the Party?

There must be a sort of a kindred spirit between the Clintons and the Red Chinese: both are willing to say any thing, do any deceptive thing, and pass off inferior or even dangerous products to those unwise or foolhardy enough to trust them.

Whether it is trafficking in industrial and military secrets, or lying out of one side of one’s mouth and making rosy speeches out of the other, or while shaking your hand with a slightly condescending sneer while beating down on dissidents with an iron rod — hopefully while you are not looking or are distracted by some other seemingly important event — it is becoming very difficult to trust either of them.

Ed. note: When I speak here of Chinese, I am referring to the current communist government of the People’s Republic of China, and not any individual or groups of Chinese people.

Big h/t to the Big Lizards Blog, and his sources as well, for these photos and the story.

I repeat it here if only because people need to know what the Red Chinese Dragon does with its minority populations when trying to get the world to look the other way.

The Chinese (principally the Kuomintang a.k.a. KMT) did it during the Japanese military occupation of Nanking, and now, their apt pupils in the Red government are doing it now in Tibet.

Although this time, they are the occupiers rather than the occupied: Red Chinese soldiers of the People’s “Liberation” Army dressed in monk’s robes of the adherents to the Buddhist faith of the Dalai Lama.

Isn’t it enough that the Red Chinese have interfered with the internal affairs of a religion by disappearing the young 11th Panchen Lama chosen by lot under the auspices of the Dalai Lama, and replacing him with a pretender, a son of two Red Chinese Communist Party operatives?

That of course, was nothing more than an attempt to undermine (if not destroy) the Gelug sect of Tibetan Buddhism, arguably the most influential faith in that region; it is the Panchen Lama who would have some large degree of say in determining the 14th Dalai Lama’s successor upon his death. In fact, by matter of tradition, the Dalai Lama confirms the succession of the next Panchen Lama, as the Panchen Lama would for succeeding Dalai Lamas.

No, for whatever reasons they have, principally the historic and doctrinal aggressive hatred that Reds (Communists) have for any expression of religion or faith. Indeed, Communism is very much a religion in its own right, and any man-made religion given political power invariably falls into a particular lust for power of those it would hold in obeisance - in this case, the Tibetan “Chinese”.

Not able to content itself with fiddling in the internals of an ecclesiastic order, they have now moved to repeat the infamy of their forefathers, who used fauxtography - faked photos - to convince the world of all manner of tyrannies and wickedness being perpetrated by the then-Japanese Empire. While Imperial Japan of the early Shōwa period (1925-1945) era was not completely innocent of atrocities, these were magnified by volumes of fake news and photos of supposed Japanese atrocities. I won’t labor long on those items, since they are only germane so as to establish a past pattern of Chinese behaviour; here is a link to a site that discusses this in much greater detail.

Other links here…

… and some YouTube videos here, here, here, and here.

Detailed academic review of the Nanking Incident by Professor Shudo Higashinakano, The Nanking Massacre: Fact versus Fiction: A Historian’s Quest for the Truth

In more recent history, we can see the almost Clinton-like deception and dissimulation of the so-called Palestinians, with the fauxtography approved by Reuters. I mean, they could not even be bothered to try waiting for nightfall, as they hold a “session” of their “parliament” under “candlelight”, under the pretext that the Israelis had cut off their power. If you look at the curtains over the windows, they were drawn closed, but daylight is still flooding through. And the candles? I might be wrong, but they appear suspiciously bright for candles. Perhaps battery powered or LED lights? But wouldn’t that be just a bit too unlikely in an area completely cutoff from power and otherwise under siege?

Or the 2006 incursion by Israel into Lebanon to stop Hamas from firing its Iran-sponsored arsenal at Israeli cities: EU Referendum Blog has more on the exploits of the 2006 phenomenon, including the infamous Green Helmet Guy.

Or multiple reports of random 65-year old Palestinian farmers riding donkeys getting capped by those not very nice IDF soldiers.

But to get back on topic… China’s latest outrage is against the Tibetans, and have picked a particularly bad time to go about bashing them, with the Beijing 2008 Olympics just around the corner. The Big Lizards Blog has the details behind this staged photo here:

Also refer to the Japanese-language blog, the Epoch Times, for more source photos, including the particular agent-provocateur with his Communist friends.

The “easy” way (copy these commands from here and paste them into your Terminal shell line, using [CTRL]+[Shift]+[c] to insert them):

sudo umount /dev/cdrom dd if=/dev/cdrom of=file.iso bs=1024

And when you are done, make a checksum (this generates a hash code used to verify the file’s integrity, probably not terribly important if you are just backing up audio CDs or media DVDs, but very important if you are backing up code that you want to be sure not to corrupt) :

md5sum file.iso > file.iso.md5

Remember of course, that file can be whatever name you decide on. Also, on a typical Ubuntu install, the CD/DVD burner should be located at /dev/cdrom, and when backing up DVDs, you may want to use /dev/dvd instead.

You can also do this with folders as well:

mkisofs -r -o file.iso /Some_Folder/

And now for the “easier way”:

Right-click the icon for the CD/DVD on your desktop, and choose “Copy Disc”.

Edit the Copy Disc to: field to File Image and choose where you want to save it.

Easy as cake, but a gruesome pain to find if you were trying to find it in GnomeBaker or some other such utility.

H/T to Kevin van Zonneveld for his much more thorough look at this.

An excellent video, h/t to Bob’s Gold Price Column:

(warning: a bit long, but well worth the sit-through)

… to mark the passing of a great American, an exceptional actor (from before Hollywood took a nose dive into the sewers of sensuality and depravity) and a great citizen of this Republic - a stolid defender of the Second Amendment:

Charlton Heston.
(4. October, 1923 – 5. April, 2008)

HotAir has commentary here.

Rest in Peace, until the Lord Jesus receives your soul to glory.

A brilliant piece originally published in “The Life of Colonel David Crockett,” by Edward Sylvester Ellis, and currently quoted on Dr. Ron Paul’s campaign site.

I’ll repost it below in the hopes that some folks may understand why and how people should demand accountability of our elected representatives.

Click here to read (more…)