In openSUSE 10.3, there is no readily available solution (that I know of) that lets a user print to PDF. The closest thing there is to that is a PostScript (PS) file. Fortunately there is a easy way to convert PS files to PDF. There is a command called ps2pdf which does exactly that. Its usage is very straightforward as well:

ps2pdf document.ps document.pdf

How much simpler can that get?

Installing fonts has been somewhat of a neglect in Linux. Although I haven't checked, it seems that recent distributions of SUSE Linux has made it GUI-friendly.

Nevertheless, being a console guy, I believe it's better to know a more reliable way to make things work that is more 'portable' (i.e. work in other distributions as well).

So for fonts, the most straightforward way I know is to copy the font into your personal directory's hidden font folder e.g. /home/coder/.fonts

After having done that, the next step is to then make the font available to your applications. This can be done with the command:

fc-cache -fv

That's all there is to it!

I've always read that installing an operating system, regardless of Windows XP or Linux, on a SD card in the Eee PC is possible. But I haven't got the chance to prove that - until now.

Ever since I've started listening to the Security Now podcast, I've grown a lot more security- and privacy- conscious (which is a good thing). From the podcast, I've learnt that one of the easiest thing you can do to protect yourself on the Internet is to disable cookies by default, and allow only those from domains that you trust to be stored on your computer.

Being a Firefox user, I disabled cookies by default and set up an exception list to allow only hosts that I trust. Over time, this list has grown quite a bit. For whatever reason if I lose this list (either through an upgrade or a different computer), it can be quite inconvenient to redo the list again. Fortunately, I've found a way to back up the list.

In my previous post, I mentioned that I sometimes have trouble using the mksusebootdisk script make the thumb drive bootable. In a recent endeavour to install openSUSE 10.3 onto the Eee PC again, I encountered the same problem. This time though, I was in a rush for time and simply refused to do the whole process from formatting the file system (till this date I still have not figured out what is the cause of the problem).

To extract the contents of a RPM file, you need the rpm2cpio and the cpio tools. Use them this way:

rpm2cpio name_of_package.rpm | cpio -tv

This will extract the contents of the RPM file.

In the previous post, I described how to create the installation thumb drive. After creating the installation thumb drive, the next step, of course, is to use it to install.

Further to my previous post on changing the tab size in the VI editor, I've found out how to change the indentation size in VI.

The vi editor is a powerful editor. Problem with it is that it is only for the command line which means that many preferences are not accessible via a 'Preferences' page. You need to know how to set preferences using commands.

Recently I've found out how to change the tab size in the vi editor. I think by default the tab size is 8 characters, which is too long for coding with proper indentation. To change it to a four character stop, use the following command in command mode:

:set tabstop=4

I have KDE and Compiz-Fusion installed on openSUSE 10.3 running for some time now. Some time ago, I encountered a strange problem where the ALT-F1 key combination does not bring up the menu any more. Also the I don't know what I did to cause this but I managed to solve it thanks to the openSUSE wiki.