Articles

The articles here are published in the articles section, but this doesn't mean they're done feel free to edit and enhance them.

Asiasource I - Bangalore, 28th of January to the 4th of February.

Here's the copy of the report I've sent to the arabeyes mailing list. Late as usual but I expect that you all are used to this when it comes to my side ;-)

From the 28th of January to the 4th of February, Was Asia source I Co organized by The Tactical Technology Collective and Mahiti in Bangalore, India.

I was short in time when Arabeyes asked me to present them there as no one from the core team was free. I was able to take a vacation from my job and fly there, I was preparing my papers till the last hour.

We stayed in a camp on the outskirts of Bangalore.

The 8 day event came with a flexible agenda. It included an outing to either the IT park or to a school. And this was the only time we had to be divided into 2 groups! and the organizers left a good room for us to modify it.

This event was not an event seminar, but a workshop seminar. Rather than having the attendees sit and listen to lectures, the event concentrated more on hands-on learning and activity. The overall aim of the event was to increase the uptake of FLOSS by NGOs (non-government organizations). They planned 3 main tracks for the camp:

1) Localization Track, which I was part of as a facilitator. In it we were trying to transfer our knowledge regarding l10n to the attenders.

2) Open Content Track, which was further divided into the 2 sub tracks of content and media. The overall aim was building skills on how to use FLOSS tools in the multimedia field and how to build community websites using open source CMSs.

3) Migration and Access Track, which included an introduction to GNU/Linux and FLOSS for to the win32 platform. i.e. How to plan migration of NGOs from the latter to the former and how to apply the plan etc...

In addition to the documentation side-track to document the whole event.

As I said, The whole thing was done via hands-on sessions that included interaction between the facilitators and the other attendees, As this is believed to be the better way to learn and teach by the event's organizers.

Every day began at 8 AM with breakfast of course, followed by a morning's circle at 9 driven by "Gunner" the awesome guy, and on of the events' organizers, which is then followed by the main tracks' outings from 10 AM to 1 PM.

The day resumes at 3 PM with another meal, followed by a 4 to 5 session at the same time covering various relevant topics and sure you can only attend one of them ;-) The broad spectrum of topics covered issues from 'FLOSSophy' to wireless sessions and wireless antenna building to GNU/Linux security to FreeBSD introduction and many many more.

Another meal was dispensed at 7:30 PM? (not exactly sure), followed by a single evening event, It could be a movie watching, A DJ. Or anything, And one has a choice not to attend it.

During the week we also had some various side activities. One of them was the wiki painting, where the idea is that each one is supposed to go and paint whatever he wants on a board prepared for that. The board stayed there for days, And each one got a piece of the large painting.

As I was representing Arabeyes more than EGLUG "But I was representing myself too ;-)" I think I came out with the following from the event (This does not include any lessons or things I learned personally). They may be of help:

1) We can get in contact with the pootle and translation toolkit development teams. Those are written in Python, and maybe we as Arabeyes can join the development (I'm thinking about doing it myself). Pootle as a web-based translation tool "plus some tools to convert mozilla and open office translation formats to PO files and vice versa." can be used when we have people with permanent connection and even by someone like me who hates GUIs ;-)

2) I came out with a basic understanding about how the translation teams work. How to plan for a l10n project.

3) How do teams translate hard words? Usually people try to see the English roots of the word and examine other languages they know and see how they came out with the translation.

4) I got in touch with the KhmerOS founder. They have an NGO with employed people to do the translation. Another project (perhaps the Hindi translation, not sure) is based on dictatorship were each volunteer is assigned a file to translate.

5) Most of the people I found are not asking the volunteers to use CVS to manage the translation. I see that this is a good point as we shouldn't require the volunteers to interact with the CVS or have good technical skills, but can rely on people with pure translation skills.

6) I think I somehow understand a basic idea on how to create fonts.

7) I'm somehow interested in helping the Pashto and Urdu people but this is my own interest which not tied to arabeyes.

8) I have a report on "A project for the computerization of East Timor in Tetum language" But I'm not yet sure about the license so I'm not going to publish it, And I have to read it 1st.

9) I think I found someone to help in certifying the Quran data files, I didn't take any actions yet, But I'm planning to contact the guy "It seems that the this won't happen!".

10) Each participant (myself included) went back home with a copy of NGO-in-a-box which is basically a box containing some distros and documentation among other software suitable for NGOs trying to switch to FLOSS (I didn't find time to look at it, but I'm sure it's worthwhile).

11) I'm sure I've forgot many things!

I have also been interviewed by Frederick ;-).

IMHO we didn't gain much regarding Arabic. Very few of the attendees had issues related to Arabic. The event was mainly organized via the wiki. You can find all the information you want there. Also the contact info for the localization track facilitators . Last but not least is the list of participants.

We as Arabeyes could have gained much more had we been given more time to prepare. I however gained quite a few contacts and friends :-)

Another source event'll take place in Africa this year, But they are thinking about organizing it in north Africa as almost no Arabs did attend the previous source event in Africa but they are having a problem finding a place to organize it.

I'm not sure whether Arabeyes can hold such an event alone, But IMHO if we can find a sponsor we can do it.

Case Study - Small Clothes Company in Alexandria Runs nothing but GNU/Linux

Egyptian companies have long relied on proprietary software to get their work done. There are many reasons for this, mainly lack of knowledge & awareness of the Free/Open Source alternatives. Most business owners/managers are simply wary of free (zero cost) software. "How would a free O/S have the quality of windows ??" is a popular question. Even grandma has some sort of windows experience, which makes them feel assured that it will be easy to obtain technical support, should problems arise.

Well, how about showing a real Egyptian business which relies solely on FOSS ??

Mr. Omar BayehElDin. is the owner of Abu Youssef company, which works in cloth. He's been running solely on GNU/Linux & Free software for years, and he's quite satisfied. He forgot all about crashes, viruses and has saved a lot of money ever since. here is the story:

6 years ago one of Mr.Omar's relatives (who was studing in U.S.A) showed to Mr.Omar And his Brother a strange Oprating System. that oprating system was GNU/Linux and they kept playing with it but it`s wasn`t a very friendly operating system like nowadays and it wasn`t known in Egypt at all.

In those old days windows was alrady installed in Mr.Omar company`s Lan ( 2 computers , 2 Laptops ) but he was using GNU/Linux on 386 box as a file server. After closing uneeded services it ran perfectly. He also used FoxPro for database stuff and sure the microsoft office on the computers of his Lan. but all that was about to change.

That change happend 3 years ago when el mosnfat (kinda like egyptian Intelectual Property police) sent Mr.Omar a letter asking him to rearrange his software and get rid of any pirated software he use if he using any or else face the consequences (very high fines and confisication of equipmen, not to mention lengthy trials and legal dances). so he chose to forget about that headache and save some money by switching to FOSS and GNU/Linux and use them full time in his company.

He started with the accounting system, after quickly reviewing Nola, Compier and SQL-Ledger he settled for SQL-Ledger which is a powerful accounting system that can do almost everything in accounting.

he also used OpenOffice.Org (and somtimes Koffice for compatibility with legacy proprietary formats like *.doc *.rtf), KDE as desktop env.

They're using Mandrake (after playing with Redhat, Slackware and Debian), currently running Mandrake 10, Mandrake was chosen for its ease of use and for adding arabic support very early on, but at the moment they're contemplating a move to debian due to the greater stability.

Mr Omar faced little hardware compatibility problems (some old soundcards that are now well supported), one big problem was internal winmodems, they avoided this eternal problem by buying external modems and switching to ADSL the moment it was available.

They get support online from free community sites, sometimes it difficult to find answers but a bit of searching is all they ever need.

Mr.Omar is quite happy and satistfied with FOSS and it`s work. since there is are viruses like windows and the system is less likely to be compromised, He says it was soo easy to switch to GNU/Linux becouse it did not required special skills from the employees all thay have to do is File->open stuff. Nothing fancy, just regular GUIs with menus, data entry fields and stuff which is user-friendly and quite similar to windows applications.

While Mr. Omar and his employees are no hackers, they're not simple users either, Mr Omar often finds himself using command line tools to find and grep things feeling that its much faster than the typical graphical ways.

when faced with a need that was not covered by existing FOSS apps, Mr Omar started thinking how he can help solve the problem by helping or contributing, the acountants needed a localized accounting package, Mr Omar quickly realised that if they don't do it themselves no one will, and after finding out that the process was rather simple he sat down and did the job himself, till this day he still maintains the Arabic translation of SQL-Ledger.

Really FOSS is great for all kind of work. and Mr.Omar Advise other small business owners to switch for FOSS if they are can dig enough into computers (or find employees who can).

We thank Mr. Omar for his contribution (FOSS is all about contributing and giving something back) - and for his precious time (as busy as he was, he gave us all the time we needed and was quite helpful). He showed us some of the very useful features of SQL-Ledger.

We hope this small interview would urge other businesses to migrate to Open Source software and benefit from the stability, security & cost savings. Having seen someone who's already done that may be just what we need.

if you know of other cases of FOSS usage or development in Egypt, tell us so we can cover them.

And now here are some pics of SQL-Ledger in Action.

NOTE:We coudn`t get (elmosanfat) letter since it was hard to find.


This is an invoice with some sold items, to be printed.


Creation of the invoice, you can change the currency and add new currency for the items that the company deals in (selling or buying).


Incoming statments for the company (trial).


Here is ShErbO and Linuxawy.


Mr. Omar ,DarKnesS_WolF and ShErbO - Mr. Omar was showing us some work with SQL-Ledger.


This is the 2nd computer on the network.

And here is it the Arabic Interview

CommandLine -1-

GNU/Linux Command Line session (1) :

In GNU/Linux everything is a file ... All configurations have files Using the text mode on GNU/Linux Operating System is pretty light .. The following figure shows how does the system work on your GNU/Linux Operating System ( User - Utility - !Shell - Kernel - Hardware )



We have two types of Terminals :

1. Virtual Terminal ---> cause there is no other machine ( as in figure 2 ) " A mainframe with terminals "



2 -Terminal Emulators ( Psuedo ) ---> from the GUI ( Graphical User Interface )

tty , pts :

try using the command tty from any GUI terminal ( psuedo ) , most propably you'll get something like : /dev/pts1 or /dev/pts now use the terminals through Alt+Ctrl+F1 .... F6

The general form of any command is like :

• command ] [
• command -option []
• command -option ] [

[] == argument

$ls -la 

$ls –list

$ls --almost -list

$ls -h

!( h : for human readable )

ls -k is your friend ..

$man -k

What manual page do you want?

usage of man -k is something like :

$man -k kernel

$man -k copy 

$man -k delete 

so you can get use of it when you don't know the specific command to get it's manual directly like

$man cp

( the copying command )

$man mv

( the moving "deleting command - or renaming )

man is the short name of manual and you can use the command info as well which is a documentation browsing system

• ___/
• |
• |___/bin
• |
• |___/boot
• |
• |___/dev
• |
• |___/etc
• |
• |___/home
• |
• |___/initrd
• |
• |___/lib
• |
• |___/lost+found
• |
• |___/media
• |
• |___/mnt
• |
• |___/opt
• |
• |___/proc
• |
• |___/root
• |
• |___/sbin
• |
• |___/srv
• |
• |___/sys
• |
• |___/tmp
• |
• |___/usr
• |
• |___/var

Old School ASCII Graphics ;)

the famous command cd

$cd .. 

" Up "

$cd -  

" Back"

Touch command ..

$touch oct-{first,second,third,fourth}-{1,2,3,4,5,6,7}

$ls oct*

$ls oct-fourth*

for more information about the “ touch “ command

$man touch

;)

cp ( the copying command ) cp OPTION... SOURCE DEST cp OPTION... SOURCE... DIRECTORY

$cp -F

( F: Force )

$cp -R

( R: Recursive )

$cp -rf

( recursive and force )

pwd : print working directory

$ pwd

/home/slacker

some other commands you may find it usefull ..

which :

shows the full path of (shell) commands.

$which mozilla

/usr/bin/mozilla

whereis :

whereis locates source/binary and manuals sections for specified files

$whereis mozilla

mozilla: /usr/bin/mozilla /usr/lib/mozilla /usr/local/mozilla /usr/share/man/man1/mozilla.1.bz2

who :

tells who is logged on

whatis :

whatis searches a set of database files containing short descriptions of system commands for keywords and displays the result on the standard output. Only complete word matches are displayed.

$whatis mozilla

mozilla              (1)  - a Web browser for X11 derived from Netscape Communicator

whoami

print efictive userid same as id -un

$whoami

slacker

$id -un

slacker

env print environment values try it on your machine cause the result is long to be copied in here ..

echo : display a line of text

$echo $SHELL

/bin/bash

$echo $PATH

/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin/:/usr/games:/home/slacker/bin

$echo GO  $USER

GO  slacker 

;)

$echo DJ KING IS A  $USER

DJ KING IS A  slacker

= )

$echo YOU NEVER KNOW == MohammedSameer

YOU NEVER KNOW == MohammedSameer

GNU/Linux is fun .. isn't it ? ;)

Permissions :

ls -l

you'll find the following for an example :

-rw-r--r--   1      1000 users       366481 Jul 24 19:59 tls1.4.1-linux-x86.tar.gz

drwx------   5 acidtears acidtears     8192 Aug 18 01:32 tmp/

-rw-r--r--   1 acidtears acidtears  4665344 Aug  2 23:41 Usher_vs_Bee_Gees_Stayin_Yeah.mp3

drwxr-xr-x   5 acidtears acidtears       56 Aug 17 08:23 Wireless-NIC/

the first part on the left is called “ Permissions “ 10 charachters can be divided into three sections

for an example : -rw-r—r-- in learning these permissions first of all we must divide them into the 3 parts i have just told you about -|rxw |r-- |r--

1 2 3

the first - means regualar type ( other types such as -d ( directory ) or c ( charachter device )

r : read

w : write

x : execute

1. user ( who has created that file/directory )
2. group
3. anyone else ( others )

in the same example we can notice easily that the user (1) can read (r) , write (w) and execute(x) where the group and others can only read (r)

to change these permissions we use the command line “ chmod “

we can do that using two methods

$chmod u -/+ rwx

$chmod g -/+ rwx

$chmod o -/+ rwx

where (u)ser (g)roup (o)thers

we can change the permissions in an easier way using numerical numbers as i said earlier the attributes are divided into three parts

r w x | r w x | r w x

4 2 1 | 4 2 1 | 4 2 1

say that we have a file that we want to make it readable , writable and executable for the user , !executable by the group , readable and writable for the others

user | group | others

r w x |r w x | r w x

4 2 1 0 0 1 4 2 0

add every section of the 3 and it should give a number of 3 patterns in the end

user = 4+2+1 = 7

group = 0+0+1 = 1

others = 4+2+0 = 6

then simply the command will be

$chmod 716 testfile 

Debugging session and effective bug reporting session notes.

Software debugging & effective bug reprting

Bug reporting,

• How to report an annoying feature and/or requesting a new feature in an application.
  • BE NICE!
  • Talking to the developer and/or explaining why this feature is annoying or why this missing feature is important is a big plus "When I explained why the libwxgtk should be compiled with unicode/gtk2 support is important for Arabic language, The package maintainer got interested".

Debugging

• What is debugging, What's a debugger ?
• The GNU debugger "gdb"
• Compiling applications with debugging symbols.

-ggdb

• Removing the debugging symbols

 "strip -S" 

• Obtaining a meaningful back trace.
  • What's a back trace ?

A list of steps by the application or a list of function calls lead to this situation.

• What is a core file ? What's a core dump ?

Simply the memory of the application is being dumped to a file!

• Getting a useful back trace:
  • we must compile with debugging symbols

-ggdb

• from a core file

gdb <application> <core file>
where

• Attaching to another process

gdb <application> <pid>
where

This is useful if the application is started via a script as openoffice and mozilla.

• Directly from gdb

gdb foo
[set args bar zot]
r
"When the crash happens: go back to the terminal, You might need to press C-C"
where
quit

• How to set break points.

break file.c:#

Diffs and patches

* How to generate a unified diff:

diff -Naur <orig> <modified>
-N - Treat absent files as empty.
-a - treat all files as text
-u - Unified diff:
-r - recursive

• How to exclude:

  -X <file>

• How to apply a patch:

patch [--dry-run] [-p#] < patch
--dry-run: Don't really modify files.
-p#: strip # leading slashes from the files.

• How to remove "unapply" a patch:

patch -R
-R: Reverse.

CVS:

• Using my CVS server as an example.
• How to login.

cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@uniball.dyndns.org:/var/lib/cvs login
export CVSROOT=":pserver:anonymous@uniball.dyndns.org:/var/lib/cvs"
cvs login

• How to checkout.

cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@uniball.dyndns.org:/var/lib/cvs co projects/illigal
or
export CVSROOT=":pserver:anonymous@uniball.dyndns.org:/var/lib/cvs"
cvs -z3 co projects/illigal

• How to update.

cvs -z3 update

• How to request a diff

cvs diff -u or cvs diff -u <file>

Demonstration of some crashes using my "illigal operation" application

• 1: Integer by zero (Random value) - Our code crashed.
• 6: strcpy crash! (Copy to a NULL pointer) - here our application caused an external function to crash.

Bugzilla:

• Bugzilla is one of the most widely spreaded bug tracking systems.
• Registration:
• Submitting a bug:
  • Gnome bugzilla: http://bugzilla.gnome.org
  • Mozilla bugzilla: http://bugzilla.mozilla.org
  • KDE bug tracking system: http://bugs.kde.org
  • OpenOffice IssueZilla.
• We might have a wizard.
• We might have the old complicated method.
• Severety "If found": The effect of the bug on the user.
  • Blocker: Non usable application.
  • Critical: Crashes, causes loss of data, or is a severe memory leak.
  • Major: Major loss of functionality
• Priority "If found": The importance of the bug
  • Immediate: Can't test or use the application or it's a security issue.
  • Urgent: I can't use an important features of the application because of it.
  • High: Something is broken but the application is still usable.
• We have more bug tracking systems like gnats and the debian bug tracking system.

strace & ltrace: trace system calls, signals & library calls

Notes about interacting with the developers:

• Generally be nice and remember that the guy is a volunteer.
• Generally don't hijack a thread to include your patch, The patch is a trivial thing, This means that you attach it to the same thread if related, Otherwise start a new thread.
• Most people prefere the unified diff format.
• Try to stick to the coding standard used by the developer, This is not that important unless you are emailing a kernel patch ;-)
• Don't feel angry if the developer tell you that the software is under the GPL and you can do whatever you can.
• When reporting a bug, Report either a reproducable bug or the exact steps you followed with a backtrace if you can't reproduce it.

Links:

• Capturing Stack Traces http://bugzilla.gnome.org/getting-traces.cgi
• Emacs!: http://www.emacswiki.org ;-)
• GDB, The GNU Debugger: http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/gdb.html
• Unified diff format and example: http://www.gnu.org/software/diffutils/manual/html_node/Detailed-Unified.html

FOSS Adoption in Egypt

Purpose of this Document

The intent behind the composition of this paper is to define a guiding framework for cooperative activity between the EOSBC and the Egyptian Linux Users' Group. Broadly speaking, four concepts will be tackled.

These are:

1. Examine the current status of FOSS in Egypt.
2. Describe and rationalize the desired state of FOSS in Egypt.
3. Identify obstacles to making this transition.
4. Propose action to realize this transition.

We will be focusing on Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and not simply open source software for the simple reason that the `free as in beer' aspect is the most immediately beneficial to a developing nation such as Egypt due to its effect of lowering capital investment requirements.

Segmenting by Requirements

Different segments of the market have different expectations of software and may require separate handling.

We will segment where relevant as follows:

1. The end user
2. The small to medium sized business
3. The enterprise
4. Government

FOSS in Egypt Now

FOSS in Egypt Now

There is no clear picture of the state of FOSS in Egypt at the moment. This lack of information is expended upon in section sub:Information. There are, however, subjective and highly unscientific yet nevertheless indicative observations upon which conclusions can be made.

Government

There is no visible government policy either regarding or involving open source software. Not even a negative one; FOSS is simply not on the map. Contrast with emerging South American government policies stipulating open source software in government contracts.

There is no visible government sponsorship of FOSS development.

There is FOSS being employed in government, but it is spare and very invisible. An example is the meteorological service's work developing weather system models on Linux clusters.

Business

It is probably more difficult to gauge FOSS status within the local enterprise and the business environment than in government. Let us try all the same.

It is a rarity to see job adverts in the Friday edition of Al Ahram1 requiring Linux experience.

Probably the most visible source of local linux knowledge is the LUG's website at http://linux-egypt.org. The frequency of discussion of enterprise-relevant topics there is very low. A possibly meaningless indicator, take it or leave it.

The End User

The LUG, the most prominent forum for Linux end users, claims under 1,500 members.Let us say that only 25% of the people who would register with this community are aware of its existence and did so. This makes for 6,000. It is unlikely that all 6,000 are even know what Linux is2. If 80% of people who registered knew what FOSS and Linux is, then this leaves 4,800 persons. Of these 4,800 persons, if 75% (a terribly optimistic figure) have actually tried Linux, this gives us 3,600 persons who know what FOSS is and have tried Linux. If 50% of people who try Linux stick with it, then we have gone down to 1,800 aware Linux users in Egypt. It makes no sense to assume this figure down any further; it is already low enough to reflect the state of adoption of Linux in Egypt.

In any case, it is indicative that the most visible Linux Users' Group in the country can only claim 20 to 40 active members at best.

Obstacles

Obstacles

Lack of Awareness

This is probably the most significant factor hindering FOSS adoption in Egypt.

FOSS is quite simply not visible. End users do not know that there is such a thing as Mozilla/Firegoat. It gets worse; the concept of Internet Explorer as an independent entity which has alternatives is rare. This kind of misconception is not endemic to Egypt, but it is exacerbated by the almost absolute platform monoculture.

Similarly, there is the inability to separate the operating system from the physical hardware conceptually. Windows is the computer. This leads to charming notions such as Linux being something you install over windows.

Part of what has been generating awareness of FOSS as a viable alternative in Europe and North America has been the support of large companies, most notably IBM with their interesting Linux marketing ploys. This is not conducted here in Egypt, partially because the awareness problem extends into these companies. It is perhaps also felt that it is not worth pushing Linux in Egypt because the market is not there. Chicken and egg.

People, additionally, are deluded into thinking that what they have works. If the computer crashes, this is because computers crash and not because the OS is buggy. If Outlook is busy redistributing viruses, this is the virus author's fault and not the e-mail client architecture. If Exchange is a beast to set up, this is because e-mail servers are beasts.

People are not aware they have a choice because the alternative is not visible.

There is also a severe lack of awareness regarding the importance of the code being open.

Misconceptions

Five primary misconceptions can be identified. Several of them are not specific to Egypt, but are mentioned nonetheless since they are factors.

They are, in no particular order:

1. Free Means Worthless: This misconception exists at pretty much all levels from end user to government and enterprise.It is closely related to `what's the catch' syndrome.
2. Linux is Difficult
3. The Liability Myth: This might not be too much of an issue outside of true enterprise-class entities due to piracy. One does not expect liability coverage with pirated software.
4. Linux Arabic Support is Poor: This is the most optimism-inspiring misconception, since it implies that the person/entity has either tried linux or knows someone who has. In either case, the misconception implies that the awareness deficiency here is not that severe.
5. The Alternative is Free: Piracy is rampant in Egypt and not only at the end user level. Effectively, this levels the playing field price-wise with FOSS. The price tag of FOSS is a key selling point; Joe Average is easier to motivate financially than ideologically.

Poor Availability

The relative ease or difficulty of obtaining FOSS is a factor not only in deployment and adoption, but in visibility also. Let us assume that Linux is the most frequently sought after FOSS product.

Linux can be gotten either in physical media or through an internet download.

Physical media requires distribution points and these exist but are sparse and ill-advertised. There are perhaps two or three shops carrying Linux, but these are exceptions. The LUG maintains a distributors' list; this is a list of volunteers in various locations with contact information whom you can get in touch with to obtain copies of linux. Needless to say, even if this list were operating smoothly (it isn't) it is hardly a solution to the availability issue.

Internet downloads are not a solution in a country where telephone lines are not yet ubiquitous and where DSL is still in its infancy. One does not download the latest three-CD Mandrake distribution over dial-up.

See section sub:Improving-Access for a proposed solution.

Lack of Requisite Infrastructure

Non-end user adoption of FOSS requires several things which don't exist.

The pool of available FOSS-skilled labor is too small3. If an enterprise is aware of, for example, the plentitude of excellent FOSS enterprise and business-class software and wishes to deploy one such item, it will most likely not be able to find someone to deploy and run such a thing. Proposed longer-term remedies are in section sub:Infrastructure-Building.

Additionally, there is no institution-backed liability coverage for FOSS, or it is not visible enough. The business will want a supplier to sue when the database eats all the historical data, and you do not get this when you download and install postgresql, for example. Of course, part of this is related to the business overestimating the extent to which existing software suppliers are willing to assume liability (covered in section sub:The-Liability-Myth).

Inability to Perceive Viable FOSS Business Models

This is primarily an issue at the government level and the development-oriented business. There is a strong impetus to export at the governmental level, and domestic software output is not exempt from this; there is the perception that FOSS means zero price, which is not true. One effect of the anticipated dominance of FOSS is the commodification of software which, when taken at face value, works against government efforts to boost revenue from software exports. In reality, this is far from certain; `exported software' could translate to programming tasks outsourced to Egypt which would make the development task an in-house affair and thus exempt from the GPL requirement for redistribution of code. In any case, this point is likely to be a complicated one to tackle.

The Desired State of FOSS

The Desired State of FOSS

The project must have measurable goals such that progress may be measured. This section is a list of proposed indicators to assess this.

Common Benchmarks

Awareness is Achieved

1. 85% of the segment can identify one reason why FOSS is superior to proprietary non-free alternatives
2. 70% of the segment can identify two reasons why FOSS is superior to proprietary non-free alternatives
3. 50% of the segment can identify three or more reasons why FOSS is superior to proprietary non-free alternatives

Misconceptions are Educated Down to Acceptable Levels

1. 85% of the segment4 can credibly argue against one of the main misconceptions.
2. 70% of the segment can credibly argue against two of the main misconceptions.
3. 50% of the segment can credibly argue against three or more of the main misconceptions.

The End User

The end user segment will be regarded as requiring no further action when: Availability is Ubiquitous

1. The price to the end user of FOSS does not exceed 125% of the cost of media and duplication5.
2. At least one of the three bookstores/stationery stores closest to the end user's residence/place of work carries linux and FOSS software.

The Small, Medium, and Large Sized Local Business

FOSS is either deployed to cover 85% of business needs for which a FOSS package exists which is at least equivalent to the most logical proprietary alternative, or plans to deploy to reach 85% are in place.

The Foreign Multinational

FOSS status within this segment of business is beyond the scope of this document.

Tools for Change

Tools for Change

Information

Information is needed in several areas to better appreciate the status quo and to quantify progress made in this initiative to promote FOSS. These areas are:

The End User

1. How many computers are there in Egyptian homes?
2. What operating system is installed?
3. What software is installed?
4. How many of these operating systems and how much of this software is properly licensed?
5. How many home computer owners are aware of FOSS alternatives?
6. How many home computer owners are aware of the ideological aspects of FOSS?

The Small to Medium Sized Business

1. How many small businesses are there?
2. What does their IT infrastructure look like?
3. What are their IT requirements?
4. How well does their existing infrastructure match their business requirements?
5. How many small businesses are aware of FOSS altenative solutions?
6. How many small businesses are aware of the ideological aspects of FOSS?

Government

1. What does the current government IT infrastructure look like?
2. What public plans exist for IT infrastructure modification and enhancement (such as e-government initiatives)?
3. How is FOSS represented in the infrastructure?
4. What level of awareness exists regarding open source, software commodification, and exchange/interaction based on open standards?

Supporting References

A number of documents will be needed to be able to quantify some of the above-mentioned points.

1. A FOSS Equivalency Document which describes as broad a range as possible of proprietary software actively employed and its FOSS substitute, where the substitute is at least equivalent to the proprietary package.

Action

Action

Awareness Generation

Visibility is the key. Misconceptions cannot be handled before there is awareness, so this should be the key area of action.

Stimulate Media Coverage

1. Lobby the editor responsible for the weekly computer column in Al Ahram to run more Linux coverage. Propose also a weekly review segment on a free open source application.
2. Facilitate television show interviews/discussions related to FOSS. Shows such as `Sabah ul Khair ya Misr' are assumed to be open to good suggestions so it is a matter of contact. Have proposed interviewees and topics ready; someone from the Arabeyes project to discuss the concepts of free and open? Someone from the EOSBC? Torvalds? It is all a matter of initiative. There are plenty of journalistic talk shows to target.
3. Supply the highest-circulated arabic computer magazines periodically with fresh copies of Linux, as well as FOSS for the windows platform. This has succeeded before with the magazine named `Online'. This tactic is best accompanied with an article on the ideology of FOSS and possibly some head to head reviews such as Internet Explorer vs. Mozilla.

Get the Government Involved

1. Get the MCITICT Fund/other institution to sponsor an important open source project. The objective here is partially the process; in order to push for such sponsorship, the MCIT is forced (one hopes) into awareness regarding the options for FOSS. Additionally, government sponsorship of FOSS gives legitimacy to FOSS which can be used as propaganda to the business sector. One possible project to sponsor would be Arabeyes, located at http://www.arabeyes.org. Such an initiative cannot adequately be described in one paragraph; countless unthought of opportunities for advocacy and promoting FOSS arise out of it.
2. Obtain permission from the persons responsible for the Suzanne Mubarak Reading for All initiative to use one location to deploy Linux on, train the staff there in using it, and conduct a usability study. Report back to them with the results and findings. Longer term the objective will be to give them the technical ability to conduct further Linux deployments themselves once the pilot shows its success. The report on the pilot will be valuable; it can be used in many ways. It can be circulated amongst MCIT personnel, to businesses, it can be disseminated to the press and the press will run it if it is sold properly to them (i.e. sensationalize the fact that the Reading for All libraries are at the cutting edge of technology, &c.). Favorable coverage of such a report in the foreign press would generate positive administrative karma within the MCIT, giving further momentum to pushing FOSS.
3. As a longer term initiative, investigate the possibility of lobbying to introduce tax breaks for savings gained by employment of FOSS (and possibly also local proprietary software) to replace the hard currency-drain of proprietary license aquisition. It is not entirely unreasonable to think this may be achieved; tax code amendments tend to be cryptic and might not generate enough attention to alert proprietary software vendors.
4. As another longer term goal, successful lobbying could perhaps result in pro-open source legislation similar to the Peruvian initiative.

Involve FOSS-friendly Suppliers

1. Stimulate major Linux suppliers to become active Linux-wise. Start with IBM.
2. Use the EOSBC initiative as a forum for soliciting opinion and coordinating activity; involve suppliers as well as companies which have implemented FOSS intrastructure. Institutionalize this utilization of the EOSBC to form an industry pro-FOSS lobby. This organ will be useful in stimulating government involvement. It might even be advantageous to involve major FOSS-friendly suppliers who do not have a presence in the Egyptian market; they are likely to be interested in involvement in a group which aims to create FOSS-friendly circumstances in one of the largest markets in the Middle East and Africa.

Leverage Ideological Compatibility of Islam and the GPL

Traditional Islamic views on intellectual property is said to mesh very well with the spirit of the General Public License. In a country which is overwhelmingly Muslim, this angle is begging to be explored.

Since this is a potentially sensitive area, any work here had best be conducted by a respected Islamic legal scholar.

It is a good topic for discussion, certainly; there are several prominent Islamic-themed websites where one can solicit the advice of a sheikh.

Establish Mindshare in the Small to Medium Sized Business

Why small to medium sized businesses? Enterprise-class business in Egypt will tend to be multi-national in which case the decision making will occur predominantly abroad. One of the benefits of reliance on FOSS is lower capital investment requirements, which will be felt more acutely at smaller scales.

One possible approach is to think backwards: use specific FOSS packages to introduce the concepts of FOSS rather than using the concepts of FOSS to stimulate adoption of specific packages. To take an example, promote postfix/exim/qmail as a mail solution and use its adoption to educate about FOSS as opposed to aducating about FOSS such that businesses may use postfix/exim/qmail.

The advantages are:

1. The business realizes the benefits of FOSS and gains first-hand knowledge of the ideological advantages6.
2. It is likely to require far fewer resources to promote a specific software solution than to promote a paradigm-shifting ideology to traditionally conservative business.

There is one readily apparent way of implementing this.

Run training programs covering specific packages serving specific needs, such as an `Installing and Administering Linux with Postfix' course. Market this program to businesses. Develop some form of rudimentary certification to cater to people's needs for scraps of paper describing what they can do. Conduct such a program under the aegis of a respected entity such as the EOSBC to establish legitimacy. The resources needed for this are minimal; some organization, an appropriate venue, a few capable instructors, and some effort. The FOSS message will be integrated in the curriculum. There will be a strong enabling focus to such a program; the instructee will be taught how the distributed support model works and will be tested on ability to tap this resource; he/she will additionally be taught that this specific package the program covers is but one of thousands7.

Misconception Correction

Linux Arabic Support is Splendid

The best method of tackling this misconception is probably letting the person try for themselves. This will happen if access to linux is easy and inexpensive (refer to section sub:Improving-Access); curiosity will kill this misconception.

Windows is not Free

The BSA branch in Egypt is not moving quickly enough to stamp out the idea that windows is free. Since piracy is commonly equated with theft, perhaps a religious edict8 would help.

Addressing Businesses

There exist several very professional and freely redistributable propaganda documents on the internet9; these could, at low cost, be reproduced in hard copy and distributed to businesses. This would optimally be carried out by a reputable entity (the EOSBC?) to establish legitimacy.

Concerns regarding liability are likely to be restricted to enterprises (as argued in section sub:The-Liability-Myth), though in the longer term reduced levels of piracy should spark such concerns at the sub-enterprise level.

Improving Availability

Improved availability is perhaps the sine qua non in this document; note three of the five listed misconceptions in section sub:Misconceptions can be educated down with improved access to FOSS. Availability primarily addresses the end-user, and much adoption of Linux in Egypt at the business and government levels depends on end-user adoption.

• Kickstart an independent business to produce and distribute Linux distributions. This business should include an online presence and should take orders online a la http://otlob.com. It should also be responsible for bookstores nationwide to be carrying Linux on the shelves. The margin to the retailer should probably be high initially to encourage prominent display of these products to counter possibly low initial demand.It is not inconceivable that the company issuing the best Arabic-supporting distribution could be convinced to give this local distributor a franchise.

Infrastructure Building

Education

Just as access to Linux and other FOSS is a key factor, so is access to relevant documentation. There are several high quality and freely redistributable Linux books available. These need to be translated into arabic and disseminated. The translation will require sponsorship; it is not a trivial task.

To take a cue from Microsoft, the time to capture mindshare with the generations of system administrators, IT decision makers, and programmers is when they are learning the tools of their trade: in university.

This prompts a series of proposed actions:

1. Sponsor periodical Linux CD give-aways10
2. Sponsor periodical Linux book give-aways, hence the need for a translated version
3. Lobbying for Linux administration and usage courses. This can happen in several guises, though two are more likely than the rest. The first is having the classes integrated into the official curriculum. This is the difficult approach, though it would be the most beneficial; it forces the IT-specific academic community to acknowledge the prime example of FOSS and institutionalizes its presence. The second option is to have extra-curricular classes (which might very well need to be sponsored) on the campus.
4. Periodical on-campus LUG-driven events, such as InstallFests.
5. Supporting the formation of university-specific LUGs such as the Cairo University LUG11. The more the merrier. People are more active and visible when they organize, and this strengthens the distributed support foundations which FOSS relies on. Such support could take the form of providing meeting venues, sponsoring the occasional InstallFest, &c.
6. To promote the employment of FOSS as academic development platforms, sponsor a prize for the best graduation projects released under GPL and developed on Linux. This idea can be expanded upon almost infitely; best contribution to an existing FOSS project (acclimatizing future programmers to involvement in distributed projects and imprinting the culture of open development in them by participation), &c.

The above-mentioned point regarding printed documentation such as books is also more generally applicable and can be worked in very nicely with the availability suggestion in section ite:Kickstart-an-independent.

Enterprise and Business Support

Where support is concerned, it is probably advisable to let nature take its course. One of the (admittedly quirky) key selling points of FOSS is the distributed support model; one has to already be fairly deep in FOSS culture to experience this, unfortunately.

Eventually, if FOSS takes hold, commercial support businesses should arise in response to demand12.

If the grassroots are properly nurtured and the awareness, access, and infrastructure building issues are handled well, this issue should resolve itself; companies will find themselves internally capable of supporting linux without any specific effort13.

From power up to bash prompt

هذة المقالة توصف بأختصار ماذا يحدث فى نظام اللينكس عندما تبدء الجهاز حتى تسجل دخولك . فهم هذا سوف يساعدك عندما تريد حل بعض المشاكل او تتحكم فى اعدادات جهازك.

1 المقدمة

1 المقدمة

أنني اجد انه من المحبط ان العديد من الاشياء تحدث داخل جهاز لينوكس الخاص بي لا افهمها. فإن كنت مثلي، تريد حقا ان تفهم نظامك و ليس فقط ان تعرف كيفية استجدامه، فهذا المستند يمكنه ان يكون مكانا جيدا للبدء. و سوف تحتاج هذا النوع من المعلومات الاساسية يلزمك ايضا إن كنت تتطلع الى ان تكون من نخبة مستخدمي اللينوكس.

أنني افترض ان عندك كمبيوتر يعمل بنظام لينوكس، وأن عندك بعض المعلومات الاساسية الخاصة باليونكس و عتاد الحهاز، فإن لم يكن فيمكنك البدء بقراءة Eric S. Raymond's The Unix and Internet Fundementals HOWTO وهو مستند قصير و سهل القراءة و يغطي الاساسيات.

الجزء الاساسي في هذا المستند هو كيف يقوم بتحميل نفسه، و لكنه ايضا يحاول ان يكون اكثر شمولا. فقد الحقت تمارين بكل فصل ، فإن اردت ان تقوم تقوم بحل هذه التمارين فإنك ستتعلم اكثر بكثير من مجرد القراءة.

وأنا ارجو ان بعض القراء سيقومون بممارسة افضل تمرين اعرفه لتعلم اللينوكس، وهو بناء نظام من المصدر البرمجي. جلامباتيستا فيكو، وهو فيلسوف ايطالي (1668-1744) قال "verum ipsum factum" وهو ما يعني "الفهم يأتي عن طريق الصنع". شكرا لألكس لهذا الاقتباس.

ان كنت تريد ان تبني نظامك، فأنا انصح ان تقرأ Gerard Beekmans' Linux From Scratch HOWTO LFS . إن LFS به تعليمات مفصلة لبناء نظام كامل قابل للإستخدام من المصدر البرمجي. و يمكنك على صفحة الويب الخاصة به ان تجد قائمة مراسلة للناس الذين يبنون انظمتهم بهذه الطريقة. هذه التعليمات كانت جزء من هذا المستند و لكنها انفصلت في مستند اخر "Building a Minimal Linux System from Source Code" و يمكن الحصول عليه من موقع From PowerUp to Bash Prompt. و منه ستتعلم منه كيف تبني نظاما كتمرين تعليمي.

الحزم هنا مقدمة بنفس الترتيب الذي تظهر به في تحميل النظام, هذا يعني انك اذا قمت بتثبيت الحزم بهذا الترتيب يمكنك اعادة التشغيل بعد كل مرة و رؤية النظام يقترب اكثر و اكثر من محث الباش، وهذا يعطي احساسا بالتقدم.

اخيرا فانا انصح بان تقرا اولا الجزء الاساسي من النص في كل فصل متجاهلا التمارين و المراجع، ثم تقرر مدى التفهم الذي تسعي اليه و مدى الجهد الذي يمكن ان تبذله في سبيل هذا التفهم، ثم تبدأ من البداية مرة اخرى، ممارسا التمارين و القراءات الإضافية هذه المرة.

2 العتاد

2 العتاد

عندما يتم تشغيل جهازك يقوم بعمل اختبار ليتأكد من أن الأمور تجري في مسارها الصحيح. يسمى هذا اختبار بدأ التغشيل. و بعد هذا يقوم برنامج يسمى محمل مقطع قيام نظام التشغيل، و هو موجود في بيوس الروم ROM BIOS,يقوم هذا البرنامج بالبحث عن مقطع قيام نظام التشغيل مقطع قيام نظام التشغيل هو اول مقطع من القرص الصلب و يحتوي على برنامج صغير يمكنه من قيام نظام التشغيل يتم تحديد مقاطع قيام التشغيل برقم 0xAA55 = 43603 على بايت 0x1FE = 510 هذه هي اخر بايتين في المقطع هكذا يتمكن العتاد من تحديد غذا كان هذا المقطع مقطع قيام لنظام التشغيل ام لا.

يحتوي برنامج محمل مقطع قيام نظام التشغيل على قائمة بالاماكن التي سيبحث عن مقاطع قيام نظام التشغيل في جهازي القديم يتم البحث اولا في محرك الاقراص المرنه و من بعد ذلك في القرص الصلب الاولي و في الاجهزة الاحدث يمكن البحث ايضا على اسطوانات الليزر و اذا وجد اي مقطع قيام لنظام التشغيل يقوم بتحميله في الذاكرة و و يقوم بتمرير التحكم للبرنامج الذي سيقوم بتحميل نظام التشغيل في نظام اللينكس العادي هذا البرنامج هو اول مرحلة في ليلو lilo = Linux Loader و يوجد العديد من الطرق المختلفه ليتم قيام نظام التشغيل راجع دليل مستخدمي ليلو للحصول على عنوان الصفحة راجع قسم ليلو

من الواضح ان هناك العديد الذي يمكن ان يقال عما يفعله عتاد الجهاز لكن هذا ليس المكان المناسب لذكر كل هذا يمكنك مراجعه العديد من الكتب عن عتاد اجهزة الكمبيوتر

2-1 التنسيقات

يقوم الجهاز بتخزين بعض المعلموات عنه في CMOS الخاص به. يتضمن ذلك ماهي الأقراص و الذاكرة في النظام. يحتوي الBIOS الخاص بالجهاز على برنامج يتيح لك التعديل في هذه الإعدادات. تحقق من الرسائل التي ستظهر عند تشغيل الجهاز لتعرف كيفية الدخول إليها. على الجهاز الخاص بي أقوم بضغط رز delete قبل أن يقوم بقيام نظام التشغيل.

2.2 التمرين

من أفضل الطرق للتعلم عن عتاد أجهزة الكمبيوتر هو تركيب جهاز من قطع مستعمله. استخدم قطع 386 على الأقل لكي تتمكن من تشغيل لينوكس عليه بسهولة. لن يكلف هذا الكثير حاول أن تقوم بالبحث فقد تجد قطع مستعمله بأسعار رخيصه. قم بتحميل و تجميع و عمل قرص قيام لـ Unios ( كان موقعهم الرئيسي http://www.unios.org لكن الموقع اختفى ) هذا البرنامج هو عباره عن برنامج قيام بسيط يحتوي على حوالي 100 سطر من اكواد الأسمبلي قم بفتح صورة القرص بواسطة محرر هكس hex. هذا الملف عبارة عن 512 بايت فقط لا غير بالتحديد مقطع واحد فقط. قم بإيجاد الرقم السحري 0xAA55. قم بعمل نفس الشئ بالنسبة لمقطع قيام نظام التشغيل من قرص قيام مرن أو على جهازك الخاص. يمكنك استخدام أمر dd لتقوم بنسخه لملف: dd if=/dev/fd0 of=boot.sector كن حذرا لتضع ملف الإدخال if (input file) و ملف الإخراج of (output file( في أماكنهم الصحيحه! تحقق من المصدر البرمجي لمحمل نظام التشغيل لليلو.

2-3 المزيد من المعلومات

* The Unix and Internet Fundamentals HOWTO by Eric S. Raymond, especially section 3, What happens when you switch on a computer? * The first chapter of The LILO User's Guide gives an excellent explanation of PC disk partitions and booting. See section LILO for a URL. * The NEW Peter Norton Programmer's Guide to the IBM PC & PS/2, by Peter Norton and Richard Wilton, Microsoft Press 1988 There is a newer Norton book, which looks good, but I can't afford it right now! * One of the many books available on upgrading PC's

• The Unix and Internet Fundamentals HOWTO

بواسطة Eric S. Raymond, خاصة القسم الثالث What happens when you switch on a computer? الفصل الأول من دليل مستخدمي ليلو لـ IBM PC & PS/2 بواسطة Peter Norton و Richard Wilton

3 ليلو

3. Lilo (Linux Loader محمل اللينوكس)

عندما يبدأ الكمبيوتر فى تحميل مقطع قيام نظام التشغيل على نظام لينوكس عادى, فأنه يبدأ فى تحميل جزء من lilo يسمى "المرحلة الأولى من محمل نظام التشغيل". هذا البرنامج الصغير مهمته الوحيدة فى الحياة هى تحميل و تنفيذ "المرحلة الثانية من محمل نظام التشغيل".

تعطيك المرحلة الثانية لتحميل نظام التشغيل محث للأوامر (إذا تم تثبيته بهذه الطريقة) و تحمل نظام التشغيل الذى تختاره.

عندما يقوم نظامك و يبدأ فى العمل, و تشغل lilo فانك فعليا تشغل "مثبت المتناظرات". فيقرأ ملف الإعدادات /etc/lilo.conf و يكتب محملات نظام التشغيل, و المعلومات الخاصة بأنظمة التشغيل الذى يستطيع تحميلها على القرص الصلب.

توجد طرق مختلفة لإعداد نظامك للقيام. ما قمت بشرحه الآن هو أوضح الطرق و أكثرها "طبيعية", على الأقل بالنسبة لنظام نظام تشغيله الأساسى هو اللينوكس. يقوم دليل مستخدمى Lilo بشرح أمثلة عديدة "لمبادئ قيام نظام التشغيل". هذه الأمثلة تستحق القراءة و التجربة.

3.1 الإعدادت

ملف إعدادات lilo هو /etc/lil.conf. يوجد صفحة فى دليل المستخدم )man page( خاصة به: اكتب man lilo.conf فى غلاف لترى الصفحة. اشئ الأساسى فى lilo.conf هو وجود مدخل لكل شىء معد للقيام فى lilo. لمدخل خاص باللينوكس, هذا يتضمن مكان النواة, و أى قسم فى القرص الصلب يلحقه كأنه نظام الملفات الأصلى. لأنظمة تشغيل أخرى, المعلومة الأساسية هى أى قسم نبدأ قيام نظام التشغيل منه.

3.2 تدريبات

خطر: انتبه فى هذه التدريبات. فمن السهولة الاخطاء فى شئ و تخريب سجل قيام نظام التشغيل الرئيسى فتجعل نظامك لا يصلح للاستخدام. تأكد من وجود قرص انقاذ صالح معك, و أنك تعرفة كيفية استخدامه لأصلاح كل شئ مرة أخرى. انظر بالأسفل رابط tomsrtbt, قرص الأنقاذ الذى استخدمه و انصح به. أحسن احتياط هو استخدام جهاز غير مهم.

اضبط lilo على قرص مرن. لا يهم إذا كان لا يوجد شئ عدا النواة - ستحصل على "ذعر فى النواة" عندما تكون النواة مستعدة لتحميل init و لكنك على الأقل ستعرف أن lilo يعمل.

إذا رغبت يمكنك الأستمرار و معرفة ما مقدار النظام الذى يمكنك و وضعه على القرص المرن. غالبا هذا هو ثانى أحسن نشاط لينوكس تعليمى موجود. انظر دليل قرص قيام جهاز التشغيل (Bootdisk HOWTO) الرابط بالأسفل, و tomsrbt (الرابط بالأسفل) للتلميحات. اجعل lilo يحمل unios (انظر جزء تدريبات العتاد للحصول على الرابط). و كتحدى أكبر, حاول عمل هذا على قرص مرن.

اعمل حلقة للتحميل. اجعل lilo فى سجل قيام نظام التشغيل الرئيسى يقوم بتحميل lilo فى احد مقاطع قيام نظام التشغيل الأولية, و اجعل هذا يقوم بتحميل lilo فى سجل قيام نظام التشغيل الرئيسى... أو يمكن استخدام سجل قيام نظام التشغيل الرئيسى و الأربع مقاطع الأولية الخاصة بقيام نظام التشغيل كلها لعمل حلقة من خمس نقاط. استمتع!

3.3 المزيد من المعلومات

• صفحة lilo فى دليل المستخدم (man page)
• تحتوى حزمة lilo على دليل مستخدمى lilo lilo-u-21.ps.gz (أو اصدارة أحدث). و قد تكون هذه الوثيقة عندك بالفعل. انظر فى /usr/doc/lilo أو ما شابه. اصدارة البوستسكريبت أحسن من النص العادى, بما أنها تحتوى على رسوم توضيحية و جداول.
• tomsrbt أظرف قرص مرن فردى للينوكس
• دليل قرص قيام جهاز التشغيل (Bootdisk HOWTO)

4 نواة اللينوكس

4- نواة اللينوكس

أن النواة تفعل الكثير من الاشياء. أظن الطريقه الوحيدة لتجميع كل ما تفعله هو جعل العتاد تفعل ما يريده البرامج. المعالج يمكنه تنفيذ أمر في المره, اكن أنظمه الينوكس تظهر كأنها تنفذ العديد من الاشيء انيا. النواه تستطيع ذلك عن طريق التبديل من مهمه الي مهمه فى سرعه فائقه. يستخدم المعالج أفضل استخدم بتتبع اي مهمه جاهزة للتشغيل, أي منهم منتظره شىء مثل الحصول علي ملف من القرص الصلب.

لو ملف لا يفعل شيء, أذن لا يهم أن يكون في ذاكرة الوصول العشوائيز حتي لو أن عمليه تفعل شيء, كد يكون بعض من أجزائها لا تفعل شىء. عناوين المهمات تنقصم الي صفحات. النواة تتبع أي صفحه من أي مهمه تستخدم أكثر. الصفحه التي لا تستخدم كثيرا يمكن أن تحذفؤ الذاكرة ألافتراضيه. عندما يتم الاحتياج أليها, تحذف صفحه غير مستخدمه من أجل الصفحه المحتاج أليها. هذا هو أدارة الذاكرة ألافتراضيه.

لو جمعت النواة الخاصه بك, فد تلاحظ أن هناك العديد من ألاختيارات لأجل أدوات (modem, sound card ...etc) معينه.

و أن النواة تدير ملفات النظام, ألاتصلات, و ألشبكات.

بمجرد أن النواة تحملت, أول شيء تفعله هو البحث عن البرنامج init لتنفيذه.

4.1 الإعداد

معظم الإعدادات للنواة تتم بمجرد بنائها, باستخدام menuconfig, أو xconfig في usr/src/linux/ (أو أي مكان تجده فيها). يمكنك أعادة النمط للفديو, ملفات النظام الجذري, ذاكرة الوصول العشوائيه بأستخدام rdev. براميترات يمكن تمريرها ألي النواة عن طريق الlilo. يمكنك تمريرها للنواة من lilo.conf أو محث الlilo. مثل لو تريد أستخدام hda3 كملفات النظام الجذري عوضا عن hda2 , يمكنك كتابة

LILO: linux root=/dev/hda3

لو أنك تبني نظامك من المصادر, يمكنك جعل حياتك أسهل بصنع نواة منليثيه. أذن لا يوجد داعي لنسخ وحدات النواة الي النظام المستهدف.

ملاحظه: أن ملف system.map يستخدم بامسجّل النواة للتحديد أسماء الوحدات التي تولد رسائل(fix me)

4.2 تدريبات

فكر في هذا: أن dev/hda3/ ملف من نوع خاص الذي يوصف قسم من القرص الصلب. لكنه يسكن في ملفات النظام مثل أي ملف أخر. النواة تريد معرفه أي قسم من القرص الصلب تريد ألحاقه كملفات النظام الجذري - لأنها لا تحتوي علي ملفات النظام الجذري بعد. فكيف يمكن قرائه dev/hda3/ لتعرف اي قسم تلحقه؟

لو لم تبني النواة الخاصه نكز أقرأ كل المساعدة المتوافره لكل أختيار.

أنظر الي أي مدي يمكنك أن تصنع نواة صغيرة و تظل تعمل. يمكنك تعمل المزيد عن طريق ترك ألاشياء الخاطئه!

أقراء ``The Linux Kernel'' (الموقع في ألاسفل) كلما تفعل ذلك, أبحث عن المصادر النرمجيه التي تشير اليه.الكتاب يشير الي اصدار النواة 2.0.33 الذي يعد قديم. قد تكون سهله أذا أنزلت ألاصدار القديم من النواة و أقرأ المصدر الخاص بها. أنه مذهل (fixme)

هاك! أنظر أن كان بأمكانك أظهار بعض الرسالات الجديدة.

4.3 المزيد من المعلومات

• /usr/src/linux/README و محتويات /usr/src/linux/Documentaion/ (قد يكون في مكان أخر)
• /usr/src/linux/README
• المساعدة الموجودة عندما تعد النواة بأستخدام menuconfig أو make xconfig
• The Linux Kernel (دلائل LDP ألاخره)
• المصادر البرمجيه, أنظر بناء الحد ألادني لنظام اللينوكس من المصادر البرمجيه أنظر الموقع.

ر

5 مكتبة الجنو للسي

-5مكتبة الجنو للسي

الشئ الثاني الذي يحدث عندما يبدا جهازك هو انه يتم تحميل و تشغيل الاينت init و مع ذلك اينت init تقريبا يشبه جميع البرامج..حيث يستخدم الدوال من المكاتب و ربما قد تكون رايت مثال لبرنامج سي مثل هذا :

 main() { 
                printf("Hello World!\n"); 
        } 

البرنامج لا يحتوي على تعريف للprintf .. اذا من اين اتت ؟ اتت من مكتبات السي المعياريه..على نظام جنو/لينوكس هي glibc اذا قمت بتجميعه compile تحت فيجوال ++C , اذا فهي تاتي من تطيبق مايكروسوفت لنفس الدوال المعياريه هناك مليارات من هذه الدوال المعياريه , للرياضيات , عباره برمجيه , ايام/اوقات تخصيص الذاكره و على هذا المنوال كل شئ على اليونكس ( بالاضافه للينوكس ) اما مكتوبه بلغة السي او عليك ان تبذل مجهودا كي يظهر و كانه كتبو بلغة السي على اساس ان كل شئ يستخدم هذه الدوال اذا نظرت في lib/ على نظام الينوكس على جهازك فانك سوف ترى العديد من الملفات تسمى libsomething.so او libsomething.so الخ. هم عباره عن المكتبات لهذه الدوال. ال Glibc هو فقط تطبيق الجنو لهذه الدوال هناك طريقتين البرامج من خلالها يمكن ان تستخدم هذه الدوال.اذا قمت بتوصيل برنامج بشكل دائم statically , مكتبة هذه الدوال تنسخ في ملفات التشغيل EXCUTABLE التي يتم انشائها CREATED , و هذا هو سبب وجود مكتبات libsomething.a لكن ان قمت بتوصيل برنامج بشكل متغير ( غير دائم ) statically " و هذا هو الطبيعي default " اذا فهذه الحاله و اثناء تغشيل البرنامج و يحتاج الى كود مكتبي , فانه يتم استدعائه من ملف ْْْlibsomething.so الامر 1dd هو صديقك عندما تريد تحديد اي المكتبات لتغشيل برناج محدد.على سبيل المثال , هنا توجد المكتبات التي يستخدمها ال bash :

[greg@Curry power2bash]$ ldd /bin/bash 
                libtermcap.so.2 => /lib/libtermcap.so.2 (0x40019000) 
                libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x4001d000) 
                /lib/ld-linux.so.2 => /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x40000000) 

: " التعديل " 5.1

بعض الدوال في المكتبات تعتمد على موقعك على سبيل المثال في استراليا نكتب التواريخ على شكل : dd/mm/yy , بينما الامريكان يكتبون mm/dd/yy . و هناك برنامج ياتي مع توزيع ال glibc و يسمى localedef و الذي يجعلك قادر على تظبيط هذه التعديلات

5.2 التدريبات :

استخدم ldd لتعثر على المكتبات التي تفضلها تطبيقاتك استخدم ldd لتعثر على المكتبات التي تستخدمها init

قم بعمل مكتبه تجريبيه "toy library " تحوي فقط واحده او اثنتان من الدوال.البرنامج ar يستخدم لانشائهم , صفحة ال man لبرنامج ال ar قد تكون بدايه جيده للتحقق كيف يتم

6 Init

6 Init (إختصار Initialize و تعنى االإبتداء)

سنتكلم فقط عن طريقة النظام V من الInit التى تستخدمها معظم نظم لينوكس و يوجد بدائل . فى الحقيقة يمكنك وضع أى برنامج تحب فى (sbin/init/) و ستقوم نواة النظام بتشغيله عندما تنتهى من التحميل.

إنها وظيفة ال init أن يشغل كل شىء بطريقة سليمة . إنه يتحقق من أن ملفات النظام مضبوطة و يقوم بتحميلها . إنها تبدأ (العفاريت) (Deamons) و هى برامج الخدمات الخلفية لتسجيل رسائل النظام , تقوم بعمل الشبكات تخدم صفحات الويب , تستمع للفأرة و هكذا . و هى أيضا تبدأ عمليات برنامج getty التى تضع محثات تسجيل الدخول على طرفياتك الإفتراضية.

توجد قصة كاملة و معقدة حول تبديل مراحل التشغيل و لكن سأتجاوز ذلك تقريبا و أتكلم فقط عن بدء تشغيل النظام.

ال init يقرأ ملف إسمه /etc/inittab , و الذى يخبره ماذا يفعل . عادة أول شىء يقوم به هو تشغيل سكريبت بدء. البرنامج الذى يقوم بتشغيل هذا السكريبت هو برنامج bash ,و نفس البرنامج الذى يعطيك محث الأوامر . على نظم ديبيان , سكريبت البدء هو /etc/init.d/rcS و على الريد هات هو /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit هذا هو المكان حيث يتم التحقق من و تحميل ملفات , و ضبط الساعة و إتاحة تشغيل الذاكرة الإفتراضية , و تعيين اسم الجهاز (hostname) و ما إلا ذلك .

بعد ذلك يبدأ تحميل سكريبت آخر لكى يبدأ مستوى التشغيل التلقائى. وهذا يعنى عملية تحميل مجموعة من الأنظمة الفرعية. وتوجد مجموعة من المجلدات وهى /etc/rc.d/rc0.d, /etc/rc.d/rc1.d, ..., /etc/rc.d/rc6.dفى نظام الريدهات أو /etc/rc0.d, /etc/rc1.d, ..., /etc/rc6.d فى نظام الديبيان والتى نناتظر مستويات التشغيل المختلفة. لو كنا سنستخدم مستوى التشغيل الثالث على نظام ديبيان سيقوم السكريبت بتشغيل السكريبتات الموجوده فى /etc/rc3.d التى بتدأ بحرف الـ S كأول حرف من كلمة Start. وهذه السكريبتات هى مجرد روابط للسكريبتات الموجودة فى مجلد آخر يسمى غالبا init.d.

وبذلك قام init بتحميل مستوى للتشغيل المطلوب، ويبحث فى مجلد عن السكريبتات التى تبدأ بحرف الـ S. قد تجد S10syslog أولاً. وهذه الأرقام تخبر سكريبت مستوى التشغيل بأى ترتيب يبدأ بتحميلهم. وفى حالة S10syslog يتم تشغيله أولاً نظرا لعدم وجود سكريبتات تبدأ بـ S00 ... S09. ولكن S10syslog هو فى الحقيقة رابط لـ /etc/init.d/syslog: وهو سكريبت لبداية وإيقاف مسجل النظام System logger. ونظراً لأن الرابط يبدأ بالحرف S فإن سكريبت مستوى التشغيل يقوم بتشغيل سكريبت syslog بإعطايه متغير "start" وتوجد روابط مناظرة تبدأ بالحرف K كأول حرف من كلمة Kill والذى يحدد ما يتم إغلاقه وبأى ترتيب عند ترك مستوى التشغيل.

ولتغيير ما تبدأه الأنظمة الفرعية تلقائيا، يجب عليك ضبط هذه الروابط مجلد rcN.d. حيث تعبر الـ N عن رقم مستوى التشغيل المعد تلقائيا فى الـ inittab الخاص بك.

وأخر ما يقوم به init هو بداية بعض برامج getty's. ويطلق عليهم "respawned"، وتعنى أنه إذا توقفت هذه البرامج يقوم الـ init بإعادة تشغيلها مرة أخرى. أغلب الإصدارات تكون لديها بست طرفيات افتراضية. ولكنك قد تحتاج لأقل من هذاالعدد لكى توفر من استخدامك للذاكرة، وقد تحتاج أكثر من هذا العدد لترك العديد من الأشياء تعمل في نفس الوقت وتنتقل بينها عندما تحتاج أى منها. قد تحتاج أيضاً إلى تشغيل تشغيل برنامج getty للحصول على شاشة نصوص طرفية، أو شاشة اتصال بجهازك عن طريق المودم. فى هذه الحالة ستحتاج إلى إعادة تحرير ملف inittab.

6.1 التنسيق

يعد /etc/initiab هو ملف التنسيق للمستوى الأعلى من init. ومجلدات rcN.d، حيث N=0,1,...,6 تحدد أى من ملفات النظام الفراعية يتم تحميلها. وفى مكان ما فى السكريبتات التى يتم تشغيلها بواسطة init، يوجد أمر mount -a. وهذا يعنى تحميل ملفات النظام التى من المفترض أن يتم تحميلها. لو أردت تغيير ما يتم تحميله وأين عند بدء التشغيل فهذا هو الملف الذي تحتاج إلى إعادة تحريره . و هناك صفحة لدليل المستخدم ل fstab .

6.2 تمارين

حاول إيجاد مجلد rcN.d لمستوى التشغيل التلقائى لجهازك و استخدم أمر ls -l لترى ما تشير إليه الملفات غير عدد ال getty التى يتم تشغيلها على جهازك قم بإزالة أى نظم فرعية لا تحتاجها من مستوى التشغيل التلقائى الخاص بك

قم بتجهيز قرص مرن بإستخدام lilo , و نواة و برنامج موصول بشكل ثابت من نوع hello program يسمى /sbin/init و راقبه يحمل ةو يقول hello

راقب جيدا بينما يقوم جهازك ببدء التشغيل و قم بتسجيل بعض الملاحظات عما يحدث أو قم بطباعة جزء من رسائل log/var/log/messages الخاصة بجهازك من وقت بداية التشغيل . ثم بداية من inittab يتحرك خلال كل السكريبتات و يلاحظ كل جزء من الكود يؤدى اى وظيفة . كما يمكنك وضع رسائل بدء تشغيل إضافية مثل

echo "Hello, I am rc.sysinit"

هذا تدريب جيد فى تعلم كتابة السكريبتات ل bash shell . بعض السكريبتات معقدة بعض الشىء . فيستحسن الإحتفاظ بمرجع جيد لل bash فى متناول يدك.

6.3 المزيد من المعلومات

يوجد دليل المستخدم (man page) ل init و fstab . اكتب inittab man إلى صدفة (shell) حتى تراها.

• The Linux System Administrators Guide لديها قطاع على ال init.

المصدر البرمجى , انظر بناء أصغر نظام لينوكس من المصدر البرمجى

7 نظام الملفات

نظام الملفات

في هذا الجزء سأستخدم كلمة نظام الملفات بطرقتين مختلفتين.هناك مظام ملفات في أقسام القرص و الاجهزة الاخرى و هناك نظام ملفات كما يعرض لك بتشغلك لنظام لينكسانك في نظام التشغيل لينكستقوم بإلحاق mount قرص نظام التشغيل على نظام ملفات نظام التشغيل.

في الجزء السابق,ذكرت ان سكربتات الـinit تقوم بفحص و إلحاق لنظام الملفات و الاوامر التي تقوم بذلك هي fsck و mount على الترتيب.

ان القرص الصلب هو عبارة عن مساحة كبيرة حيث تستطيع ان تكتب احاد و اصفار عليه .

نظام الملفات بفرض بعض الهيكلة على ذلك ويجعله يشبه الملفات داخل مجلدات و هذة المجلدات بداخل مجلدات اخرى و هكذا . كل ملف يمثل عن طريق inode (عقدة إالكترونية) ,التي تخبرك ملف من هذا , و متى انشئ, و اين تجد محتويات الملف, و المجلدات ايضا تمثل بـ inode لكن هذة الـ inode تخبر اين تجد الـ inode الخاصة بالملفات الموجوده في هذا المجلد و اذا كان النظام يريد مثلا قراءةhome/greg/bigboobs.jpeg/ فإنه يقوم اولا بإجاد الـ inode للـدليل الاصلي / في الـsuperblock , وبعد ذلك يبحث عن الت inode للدليل home/ في وجود محتويات الـ / ثم البحث عن الـ inode للدليل greg في وجود محتويات home/ثم البحث عن الـ inode لملف bigboobs.jepg التي ستخبرة اي بلوك من القرص يقوم بقراءته.

اذا اضفنا بعض المعلومات او البيانات لنهاية ملف قد يكون تم اضافة تلك البيانات الي الملف قبل ان تقوم بعمل تحديث للـinode حتى تعلم ان البلوك الجديد ينتمي الي هذا الاملف و بالعكس .

إذا حدث انقطاع في التيار الكهربائي فجأة فان نظام الملفات سيعطب. ان هذاة الامور يقوم امر fsck بعمل تحديد للعطب و اصلاحه,ان امر mount يأخذ نظام الملفات الموجود على الجهاز ويضيفه الي التسلسل الهرمي الذي تراة عندما تشغل نظامك.

عادة النواة تحمل نظام الملفات للقراءة فقط, لكن الامرmount يقوم بتحميل نظام الملفات للقراءة و الكتابة بعد ان يقوم امر fsck بعمل الفحص و التأكد انه سليم.

نظام التشغيل لينكس يدعم العديد من انوع الملفات الاخرى من نظام الملفات msdos , vfat, minix والي ذلك...

إن تفاصيل بعض نظم الملفات المعينة يتم تجردها الي نظام ملفات افتراضي لن اقوم بالدخول في كثير من التفاصيل في هذة النقطه ويوجد شرح لها في الجزء الخاص بـنواة اللينكس.

نوع مختلف تماما من نظم الملفات يتم الحاقة في الدليل proc/ , انه في الحقيقة عرض للاشياء الموجودة في النواة,هناك دليل لكل عملية تجري في نظام و اسم المجلد يكون على رقم العمليه التي تجري .

هناك ايضا ملفات مثل interrupt وmeminfo التي تخبرك كيف تعمل وتستخدم العتاد,تستطيع ان تتعلم الكثير بتفصح الـproc/ .

الاعدادات :

هناك براميترات للامر mke2fs التي تنشئ نظام الملفات ext2 هذا الامر يتحكم في حجم البلوك و عدد الـinode والي ذلك , انظر في صفحة دليل المستخدم لامر mke2fs للتفاصيل.

ما يتم الحاقفي نظام ملفاتك يتم التحكم به في etc/fstab/ ولها ايضا صفحة دليل مستخدم انظر بها للتفاصيل .

تمارين:

قم بأنشاء نظام ملفات صغير و قم بعرضة على نظام ترير النصوص hex على النظام الرقمي بقاعدة 16 وبـinode محددة والبلوكاتالعليا و محتويات الملفات .

اعتقد ان هناك ادوات التي تسهللك رؤية النظام بطريقة مصورة أعثر على واحد و جربة و ارسل الي و اخبرني عنه . افحص نظام الملفات ext2 في المصدر النواة .

معلومات اضافية:

الفصل التاسع من كتاب IDP نواة اللينكس عرض ممتاز لملفات النظام تستطيع ان تجدة في

www.Mirror.aarnet.edu.au/linux/LDP/LDP

ان امر mount جزء من حزمة util-لينكس هناك رابطة في بناء نظام لينكس صغير من كود المصدر وهي:

www.netspace.net.au/~gok/power2bash

صفحة دليل المستخدم للاوامرmount , fstab, fsck, mke2fs, proc . إن الملف doucumentation/proc.txt/ المصدر البرمجي لينكس يقوم بشرح /proc

ادوات نظام الملفات ext2 ,الصفحة الرئيسيه له هي:

www.mit.edu/tytse/www/linux/esfsprogs.html

وهناك ايضا مستند يعرض ext2fs رغم انه قديم وليس قابل للقراءة كما في الفصل التاسع نواة اللينكس.

هناك وصلة اخرى لنظام الملفات يونكس القياسي وهذة تقوم بشرح ماذا و اين يجب ان يذهب الي نظام الملفات يونكس و لماذا يجب ان يذهب الي هذا المكان كما انها تقول لك الحد الادنى للمتطلبات من محتويات /bin و /sbin وما الي ذلك و هذا مرجع جيد اذا كنت تريد ان تنشئ نظام صغير متكامل و هي:

www.Tsx-ll.mit.edu/pub/linux/docs/linux-standards/fsstnd

8 العفاريت

برامج الخدمات الخلفية - العفاريت (Deamons)

و هى برامج (العفريت) التى تدور فى الخلفية و تستجيب للأحداث الخارجية (مثل : الفارة و لوحة المفاتيح)

إذا حاولت تشغيل أمر ps aux سترى شيء كالأتى:

USER       PID %CPU %MEM  SIZE   RSS TTY STAT START   TIME COMMAND
root         1  0.1  8.0  1284   536   ? S    07:37   0:04 init [2] 
root         2  0.0  0.0     0     0   ? SW   07:37   0:00 (kflushd)
root         3  0.0  0.0     0     0   ? SW   07:37   0:00 (kupdate)
root         4  0.0  0.0     0     0   ? SW   07:37   0:00 (kpiod)
root         5  0.0  0.0     0     0   ? SW   07:37   0:00 (kswapd)
root        52  0.0 10.7  1552   716   ? S    07:38   0:01 syslogd -m 0 
root        54  0.0  7.1  1276   480   ? S    07:38   0:00 klogd 
root        56  0.3 17.3  2232  1156   1 S    07:38   0:13 -bash 
root        57  0.0  7.1  1272   480   2 S    07:38   0:01 /sbin/agetty 38400 tt
root        64  0.1  7.2  1272   484  S1 S    08:16   0:01 /sbin/agetty -L ttyS1
root        70  0.0 10.6  1472   708   1 R   Sep 11   0:01 ps aux 

و هذا عبارة عن قائمة بالعمليات الجارى تنفيذها على النظام . المعلومات تأتى من نظام الملفات /proc التى ذكرناها فى الفقرة السابقة . لاحظ إن ال init هو العملية رقم واحد . العمليات رقم 2 و 3 و 4 و 5 هم kflushd, kupdate, kpiod and kswapd على الترتيب . على الرغم من هذا يوجد شيء غريب هنا : لاحظ أن فى كل من أعمدة حجم التخزين الإفتراضى و و أعمدة حجم التخزين الحقيقى , تحتوى على أصفار . كيف لعملية ألا تستخدم ذاكرة ؟

معظم برامج الخدمات الخلفية (Deamons) لا تبدى قوائم العملبات بالمرة . و لا يمكنك حساب الذاكرة التي تستخدمها النواة إلا عن طريق طرح الذاكرة المتاحة من حجم الذاكرة الكلى على جهازك . برامج الخدمات الخلفية (Deamons) تبدإ بعد ال init . لذا تحصل على ارقام عمليات تماما مثلما تفعل العمليات العادية , و لكن يبقى الكود و المعلومات الخاصة بها فى الجزء الخاص بالنواة فى الذاكرة .

يوجد أقواس حول المداخل فى عمود الأوامر لأن نظام الملفات /proc لا يحتوى على معلومات سطر الأوامر لهذه العمليات .

إذن , لأى غرض تستخدم برامج الخدمات الخلفية (Deamons) ؟ - الإصدارات السابقة من هذا المستند إحتوت على طلب للمساعدة , حيث أنى لا أعلم الكثير عن برامج الخدمات الخلفية (Deamons) . القصة القصيرة القادمة تم تجميعها من مختلف الردود لهذا الطلب , التى أمتن لها كثيرا . أرحب الحلول و المراجع و التصحيحات الإضافية.

الإدخال و الإخراج تتم عن طريق مناطق تخزين مؤقت (Buffer) فى الذاكرة . هذا يتيح للأشياء أن تنفذ أسرع . ما تكتبه البرامج يمكن حفظها فى الذاكرة قى (Buffer) ثم كتابتها على القرص فى قطع أكثر فعالية . يتولى هذا العمل كل من daemons kflushd and kupdate : kupdate يتم تنفيذه دوريا كل 5 ثوان للتحقق من وجود Buffers تم الكتابة عليها . إذا وجد , يحضر kflushd لكتابتهم على القرص .

العمليات عادة لا تجد ما تفعله , و هؤلاء الذين يتم تنفيذهم غالبا لا يكون هناك داعى لوجود الكود و البيانات الخاصة بهم فى الذاكرة . هذا يعنى أنه يمكنك أن تستغل ذاكرة جهازك بشكل أفضل ., عن طريق تبديل الأجزاء الغير مستخدمة من البرامج التى يتم تنفيذها و نقلها إلى قسم الذاكرة الإفتراضية (Swap Partition) من القوس السابق . تحريك هذه البيانات من و إلى الذاكرة حسب الحاجة يتم عن طريق kpiod and kswapd . كل ثانية ( أو ما إلى ذلك) kswapd يصحو للتحقق من حالة الذاكرة و ما إذا كان هناك شىinit script (/etc/rc.sysinit or /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit)ء على القرص يجب إستدعاؤه للذاكرة و ما إذا كان هناك ذاكرة خالية كافية و يتم إستدعاء kpiod .

قد يكون أيضا هناك kapmd daemon تعمل على النظام إذا كنت قد نسقت إدارة الطاقة (Power Managemnet) أوتوماتيكيا فى النواة.

8.1 التنسيق :

تحديث البرنامج يسمح لك بتنسيق kflushd and kswapd . جرب update -h لمزيد من المعلومات.

يتم فتح مساحة الذاكرة الإفتراضية عن طريق swapon و غلقها عن طريق swapoff . سكريبت ال etc/rc.sysinit or /etc/rc.d/rc.sys) init) عادة ينادى swapon عند بداية النظام . علمت أن swapoff مفيد لحفظ الطاقة على الأجهزة المحمولة .

8.2 تمارين :

نفذ update -d لاحظ الحماقات فى السطر الأخير حول threshold for buffer fratricide . الأن يوجد مبدأ مخادع . إذهب إستثمر.

غير المجلد الحالى إلى /proc/sys/vm و إستخدم cat أمر لفتح الملفات هناك . أنظر ما يمكنك أن تفعل.

8.3 لمزيد من المعلومات :

Linux Documentation Project's ``The Linux Kernel''

المصدر البرمجى لنواة اللينوكس , إذا كانت لديك الشجاعة الكافية , كود ال kswapd موجود فى linux/mm/vmscan.c و kflushd and kupdate فى linux/fs/buffer.c .

9 مخزن سجلات النظام

9. مخزن سجلات النظام

يقوم Init بتشغيل برامج الخدمات الخلفية syslogd و klogd ، يتم التعامل مع رسائل النواة من قبل klogd بينما يقوم syslogd بالتعامل مع الرسائل من باقي العمليات. السجل الرئيسي موجود في /var/log/messages. هذا المكان هو الأنسب للبحث عن أدلة في حال حدوث أي خطأ في النظام

9.1 التنسيق

يقوم الملف /etc/syslog.conf بتحديد أي رسائل سيتم وضعها في أي مكان. يتم تعريف الرسائل عن طريق الخدمه التي تأتي منها و مستوى أهميتها. يحتوي ملف التنسيقات على سطور تشير هذه إلى أن الرساله من الخدمه أ ذات الأهمية ب ستذهب إلى الملف د لاحظ: يحتاج Syslog وجود ملف /etc/services. يقوم ملف الخدمات بتحديد المنافذ. لست متأكدا اذاكان syslog بحاجه لتحديد منفذ ليقوم بتخزين السجلات عن بعد أو ما اذا كان التخزين محليا يتم عن طريق منفذ أو إذا كان سيستخدم /etc/services لتحويل أسماء الخدمات التي ادخلتها /etc/syslog.conf إلى أرقام منافذ.

9.2 تمارين

ألقي نظره على نظام السجلات في نظامك. حاول إيجاد رساله لم تستطع فهمها، و حاول معرفه ماذا تعنيه. أرسل كل رسائل سجلاتك إلى tty (أعده إلى الوضع الطبيعي عندما تنتهي)

9.3 لمزيد من المعلومات

Australian sysklogd Mirror

10 Getty و Login

10- Getty و Login

ان Getty هو البرنامج الذي يتيح لك الدخول عن طريق جهاز تسلسلي، مثل المحطة الطرفية الإفتراضية او المحطة الطرفية النصية او مودم. انه يعرض محث الدخول, وعندما تدخل اسم المستخدم، فإن getty يسلمه الي login الذي يسأل عن كلمة السر، يتأكد منها ثم يعرض لك الغلاف (shell).

هناك العديد من الاصدارات المتاحة ل getty بعد التوزيعات مثل ريدهات تستخدم اصدار صغير جدا يدعى mingetty و الذي يعمل فقط مع المحطة الطرفية الإفتراضية

برنامج login هو جزء من حزمة util-linux, والتي تحتوي على اصدار getty يدعى agetty و هو اصدار جيد. هذه الحزمة تحتوي ايضا على mkswap, fdisk, passwd, kill, setterm, mount, swapon, rdev, renice, more و بعض البرامج الأخرى.

10.1 تنسيقات الرسالة التي تظهر في اعلى الشاشة والتي تحتوي على محث الدخول, تأتي من /etc/issue, اصدارات getty تبدأ عادة من /etc/inittab . و login يتأكد من تفاصيل المستخدم من /etc/passwd ، اما إذا كان لديك تظليل لكلمات السر فهو يتأكد من /etc/shadow.

10.2 تمارين انشئ ملف /etc/passwd باليد. كلمات السر يمكن ان تترك فارغة, و تغير باستخدام برنامج passwd عندما يتم الدخول الى النظام. راجع صفحة دليل المستخدم لتعاليم استخدام هذا البرنامج, و يمكنك استخدام man 5 passwd لمطالعة صفحة الدليل الخاصة بملف passwd بدلا من تلك الخاصة بالبرنامج.

11 باش

11. باش

إذا أعطيت عملية الدخول اسم مستخدم و كلمة سر صحيحين سيقوم بالتحقق في /etc/passwd ليرى أي حساب غلاف سيقوم بإعطاءه لك. في معظم الحالات في نظام لينوكس سيكون هذا باش bash. وظيفة باش هي قرائة أوامرك و التحقق من تنفيذها، ببساطه هو واجهة للمستخدم و مترجم للغة البرمجة.

كواجهة للمستخدم يقوم بقرائة أومرك و يقوم بتنفيذها إذا كانت داخليه مثل cd أو يقوم بالبحث عن البرنامج الذي سيقوم بتنفيذها إذا كانت أوامر خارجية مثل startx. و يقوم أيضا بعمل بعض الوظائف مثل حفظ تاريخ للأوامر و مثل إكمال أسماء الملفات.

د رأينا باش من قبل كمترجم للغة برمجة. السكربتات التي يشغلها init لبدأ النظام هي عادة سكربتات للغلاف و يتم تنفيذها بواسطه باش. وجود لغة برمجة مع ملحقات النظام العادية متوفرة في سطر الأوامر يوفر تشكيلة قوية، إذا كنت على دراية بما تقوم بفعله. مثلا (smug mode on) قد احتجت لتطبيق مجموعة من الترقيعات لمجلد من المصادر البرمجية من فتره. لقد قمت بهذا بواسطة الأمر التالي:

for f in /home/greg/sh-utils-1.16*.patch; do patch -p0 < $f; done;

يقوم هذا بالبحث في مجلدي الرئيسي عن الملفات التي تبدأ بـsh-utils-1.16 و تنتهي بـ.patch و من ثم يأخذ كل من هؤلاء بدورهم و يقوم بتعيين المتغير f لهم و يقوم بتنفيذ الأمر بين do و done. في هذه الحاله يوجد 11 ملف ترقيعه.

11.1 التنسيق

يتحكم ملف /etc/profile في طريقة عمل باش في النظام كله. ما سوف تضعه هنا سوف يؤثر على كل مستخدمي باش على النظام. سيقوم بعمل أشياء مثل إضافة مجلدات إلى PATH و تحديد متغير مجلد البريد.

التهيئة الافتراضية للوحة المفاتيح توفر العديد لتطلبه. في الحقيقه يقوم readline بالتعامل مع هذا. و هو حزمة مستقله تقوم بالتعامل مع واجهة سطر الأوامر ، بتوفير تاريخ للأوامر و توفير إكمال لأسماء الملفات، و بالإضافة لبعض المميزات المتقدمة. و هو مجمع افتراضيا بداخل باش.يتم تنسيق readline بواسطة الملف.inputrc في مجلدك الرئيسي، يمكن استخدام متغير INPUTRC لتخطي هذا في باش. مثلا في ريد هات 6 تم تحديد INPUTRC لـ /etc/inputrc في /etc/profile. معنى هذا أن زر التراجع و الخذف و زر home و end سوف تعمل بشكل جيد للجميع.

بمجرد قيام باش بقراءة ملف تنسيقات النظام بكامله سوف يبحث عن ملف تنسيقاتك الشخصي. سيقوم بالتحقق في مجلدك الرئيسي للبحث عن .bash_profile, .bash_login و .profile. و يقوم بتشغيل أولواحد منهم سيجده. إذا أردت تغيير طريقة تصرف باش بالنسبة لك فقط بدون التأثير على الآخرين على النظام قم بذلك من هنا. مثلا يوجد العديد من التطبيقات التي تستخدم متغيرات معينه ليتحكم في طريقة عمله. يوجد لدي قيمة المتغير EDITOR محدده إلى vi لكي أستطيع استخدام vi في Midnight Commander ( مدير ملفات ممتاز لسطر الأوامر) بدلا من محرره.

11.2 التمارين

أساسيات باش سهلة التعلم و لكن لا تتوقف عند هذا الحد يوجد عمق هائل له. حاول التعود على محاولة الحصول على طرق أفضل لأداء أي شئ.

إقرأ سكربتات الغلاف، ابحث عن أشياء لا يمكنك فهمها.

11.3 لمزيد من المعلومات

يوجد مع هذا ``Bash Reference Manual'' و لكنه كبير و عميق. يوجد كتاب O'Rielly عن الباش، لست متأكد من جودته ليس لدي علم عن أي دروس مجانيه حديثه عن الباش، إذا كان لديك برجاء إرسالها إلي. المصدر البرمجي، راجع Building a Minimal Linux System from Source Code للحصول على وصلات

12 الأوامر

12. الأوامر

يتم أداء معظم العمليات في الباش بواسطة الاوامر مثل cp. معظم هذه الاوامر هي برامج صغيره بالرغم من أن البعض مثل cd مبنية بداخل الغلاف

تأتي الأموار في حزم، معظمها من منظمة البرمجيات الحرة GNU. بدلا من أن أضع الاومر هنا سوف أرشدك لـ Linux From Scratch HOWTO. يوجد بها قائمة حديثه بالحزم التي تأتي مع نظام لينوكس و مع ارشادات لكيفية استخدامهم.

13 الخاتمة

13.الخاتمه

واحد من أفضل الأشياء في لينوكس في رأي الشخصي هو الإمكانية أن تتعمق بداخله وأن تعرف كيف تعمل الأشياء حقا. أتمنى أن تستمع بهذا بنفس القدر الذي استمتع أنا به. و أتمنى أن تكون هذه الملاحظة البسيطه ساعدتك لتفعل هذا.

GNU/Linux Training And Certification

تدرب و أحصل على شهادات فى لينكس

هذه الصفحه تجمع أغلب مراكز التدريب على لينكس فى مصر. و أيضا اماكن الحصول على شهادات دوليه معتمده. بعض اماكن التدريب هدفها هو تهيئت المشتركين الى هذه الشهدات، و البعض الاخر يهدف الى تعليم نظام لينكس للغرض تعليمى و ليس كتهيئة لهذه الشهدات.

هذه الصفحه لم تكتمل بعد ، و سيجرى تعديلها من وقت لاخر. أذا اردت أضافه أى معلومة برجاء مخاطبتى بالبريد الكترونى.

الشهادات:

LinuxPlus

الأمتحان لهذه الشهاده يؤخذ فى مراكز برومترك المعتمده. وهى منشرة فى القاهره و الأسكندريه و بعض المحافظات. سعر الأمتحان فقط لهذه الشهاده 142 جنيه استرلينى. لمزيد من المعلومات عن هذه الشهاده.

RHCE - RedHat Certified Engineer

امتحان و التدريب لهذه الشهاده يؤخذ فى شركة لينكس بلاس او فى شركة ماستر لينكسRHCE &RHCT.

LPI

تعد شركه MasterLinux لهذه الشهادة

التدريب:

هذه الشركات تعطى برامج تدربيه. منها من يعد للحصول على شهدات، و بعضهم بعطى دورات للمبتدئين فى نظام لينكس.

AZA-Group

28 شارع سوريا ، المهندسين الجيزه Phone: (202)-760 44 90 FAX: (202)-760 44 90 Web: aza-group.com Email: info@aza-group.com

Linux-Plus

برج سراى المعادى (A) كورنيش النيل 7 شارع المواصلات المعادى , القاهرة Tel: +202 – 524 0745 Fax: +202 – 524 0 745 Web: Linux-plus.com

MasterLinux

١٣٠ شارع جسر السويس, عمارة مركز البنيان الدور السادس القاهرة Phone: +202 2581683 Fax: +202 4545394 email: info@masterlinux.net masterlinux@post.com Web : masterlinux.net

ITI - Information Technology Institute | معهد نظم المعلومات بالجيزة.

الدورات المتوفرة 1.Fundamentals of Linux | مبادئ لينكس 2. Linux System Administration | ادارة انظمة لينكس 3. Linux Network Administration | ادارة شبكات لينكس 4. Linux Shell Scripting | برمجة البيئة التفاعلية للينكس 5. Perl Programming | برمجة بلغة بيرل

ويعطى فرع المعهد فى الأسكندرية نفس هذة الدورات عنوان فرع الأسكندرية 18 شارع على باشا ذو الفقار - مصطفى كامل متفرع من شارع خليل الخياط 035439742 alex@iti-idsc.net.eg

YAT

15 محمد يوسف القاضى كلية البنات القاهرة 11341 Tel: 20 2 4175036

MEHRDC - Middle East Human Resources Development Center

Linux Fundamentals course

1 Syria st, Deeb Mall. 10th floor, Admin. section. Alexandria 010 1708851 - 5411521 MEHRD@ayoooo.com

PrometricTestingCenters

PrometricTestingCenters

ARAB ACADEMY FOR SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & MARITIME TRANSPORT

GAMAL ABDEL NASER AVENUE MIAMI ALEXANDRIA 35502640

ALLIED CONSULTANTS

19 KAEM MAKAM AHMED ABD EL AZI ROSHDY ALEXANDRIA 20 35444177

ATG

24 MOHAMED GHONEIM STREET KOLIET EL BANAT HELIOPOLIS CAIRO 20 2 4146388

INTELLIGENT

11 El Negma Street Abed El Aziz Fahmy Cairo 11351 026359613

LEAGUE TECHNOLOGY

95 HAFEZ RAMADAN STR. NASR CITY CAIRO 11371 202 275 6721

VIRGITECH CORPORATION

125, Hegaz Street, Heliopolis Square Heliopolis CAIRO 11351 20 2 6359609

NOZHA IT

9 IBN AL WARDI STREET HEGAZ SQUARE HELIOPOLIS CAIRO 20 2 6249444

PRIME

101 HAROUN EL RASHID ST. HELIOPOLIS CAIRO 11351 2406294 6347903

ADVANCED BUSINESS NIT

11, MANDOUR STREET RABA'A NASR CITY CAIRO 11371 20 22624488

ITE CORP

59 IRAN ST DOKKI GIZA 202 360 5440

STRATEGY

80, SHEHAB ST. 8TH FLOOR EL MOHANDESSIN GIZA 20 2 345 1500 600

ALLIED SOFT

55 Elkholafaa El Rashedeen str. Mansoura 101766950

SCIENTIFIC CALCULATION CENTER

EL GOMHORYA ST. MANSOURA UNIVERSITY MANSOURA 502258847

ARABESQU

29 Seif Eldawla Str. Crossed with Botros Str. Tanta 31111 4033221388

Intro to GNU/Linux and Free Open Source Software Pamphlets

English Version

• Introductory Pamphlet - Beginner
• Introductory Pamphlet - Intermediate
• Introductory Pamphlet - Advanced

بالعامية المصرية

• Introductory Pamphlet - Begginer (3ameya)
• Introductory Pamphlet - Intermediate (3ameya)
• Introductory Pamphlet - Advanced (3ameya)

IPTABLES

LINUX FIREWALLS

IPATBLES

by ramez.hanna

This is not a reference to IPTABLES in any way it is just a start that i gathered from several other documents with my humble knowledge and experience and i hope it could get you started with the firewalls configuration. This document is far from complete and I'll be adding more as soon as i have the time

General

Before we mention anything about firewalls i need to point out a critical point “a firewall’s power lies within the configuration” meaning that no matter what the firewall application power is, a weak configuration will weaken it.And also remember that security is not just a firewall. Think of a firewall as just a first line of defense you need to secure your applications and keep your system updated and patched for any exploits to secure your applications Mainly a firewall is used to block or allow certain traffic based upon the network needs, it may block all incoming requests or it may allow requests to go through to the mail server within the local network The firewall in Linux sits in the kernel waiting for network traffic from the NICs and handles it as mentioned in the configuration file.
It works on layer 3 and 4 of the OSI network model this mean it operates on the IP and TCP/UDP level thus it cannot filter upon the content of the packet and hence cannot be used to check mails for viruses or block unwanted content in web pages

How IPTABLES is configured?

IPTABLES configuration file (/etc/sysconfig/iptables) consists of a set of rules, each line contains one rule
The IPTABLES daemon goes through the configuration file line by line, so it is important to pay attention for the order of the rules. When a packet is processed by the daemon for a certain match criteria it is directed to a certain destination (REJECT/DROP/ACCEPT) the next time the same criteria is met the rule is ignored because this specific packet has been already filtered, only when you use the LOG destination it is logged and then the same criteria can be used again
There are two ways of creating the config file either by editing the config file directly or by using the #iptables command so here is this document I'll edit the file directly (no reason just that i used to do it both ways are good but some people prefer using the command as it is more flexible)
IPTABLES has 3 tables :

• FILTER: where the filtering of the packets takes place
• NAT: packet modification such as NAT/PAT and IP msquerading
• MANGLE: for setting packet options such type of service


THE FILTER TABLE The filter table has 3 default chains


• INPUT: any traffic directed to the local machine
• FORWARD: any traffic directed from one network to another such as web pages requested by the clients on the local network
• OUTPUT: any traffic generated from the local machine
• user defined chains

How a rule is built?

A rule is a match criteria applied to the packets in a certain chain that reach the firewall machine. These match criteria are define packet properties and information such as source IP, destination IP, etc . . .
I'll start by giving you the quick steps and some quick notes first then I'll go through them one by one


• Add/Insert/Delete the rule
• Define the chain
• Create your match
• Determine the action

So lets go into more details
"Add/Insert/Delete the rule” as mentioned before the rules are placed in order so you just define -A to append a new rule, -I to insert a rule in a certain place, -D to delete a certain rule
-A
"Define the chain” define which chain you are dealing with
-A INPUT
"Create your match” will talk about this in details later
-A INPUT some match criteria
"Determine the action” tell the daemon what to do
-A INPUT some match criteria -j ACCEPT


So how a match is built?

Generally the matches that can be defined are:

• -p : to define a protocol which can be TCP, UDP or ICMP

• --sport : to define the source port of the packet

  --dport : to define the destination port of the packet

• -m : use state matches

• state

  --state : to define the connection state NEW, RELATED, ESTABLISHED, INVALID

  --syn : to define that the packet contains a syn request equivalent to --state NEW

  -i : to define the incoming interface

  -o : to define the outgoing interface

Examples

-A INPUT -p tcp --dport 110 -m state --state NEW -j ACCEPT

The above example rule will accept incoming pop requests to the local server


-A OUTPUT -p tcp --dport 80 -m --syn -j ACCEPT 

The above example rule will accept outgoing web requests
here is an example configuration file
The first line determines which table we are using
The following three lines set the default behavior
Then comes the rules
Then at the end to apply these rules you add COMMIT



*filter
:INPUT ACCEPT [0:0]
:FORWARD ACCEPT [0:0]
:OUTPUT ACCEPT [0:0]
-A INPUT -i lo -j ACCEPT
-A FORWARD -i lo -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -p icmp --icmp-type any -j ACCEPT
-A FORWARD -p icmp --icmp-type any -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -p 50 -j ACCEPT
-A FORWARD -p 50 -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -p 51 -j ACCEPT
-A FORWARD -p 51 -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
-A FORWARD -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -j REJECT --reject-with icmp-host-prohibited
-A FORWARD -j REJECT --reject-with icmp-host-prohibited
COMMIT

IRC/XChat Howto

What is IRC?

IRC is a text based chatting protocol. You as a user chat through what is called IRC client. The client is a program installed on your system and connects to an IRC network. A network is a group of servers connected to each other to manage the exchange of messages. Users connected to the same network can chat together even if each is connected to a different server as long as these servers belong to the same network. Each network has a group of what is called chat rooms or channels reaching to thousands of channels. If one join a room he'll be able to chat with all those who joined the same room in a conference fashion. As complicated as it might sound, it's actully very easy to use. Just bare with us to the end of this Howto.

How is it different than ICQ, MSN Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger?

When using any of the previously mentioned IM protocols you probably chat with individuals in private conversations. In order to start a conversation someone you must know his ICQ number/ Hotmail email addresss / Yahoo! email address. With IRC its different, inorder to start a conversation you must know the room/channel you want to chat in. In the same way that you can search for individuals to chat with on (for example) ICQ , you can search for channels with topics of your interest to join on IRC. To wrap things up, previously mentioned protocols are used mainly for private conversations yet they support group chat rooms chatting, IRC on the other hand is mainly used for group chatting yet it supports private conversations.

Why should I bother?

IRC is a very popular way of asking for help concering FOSS. Forums are popular too but with forums you don't get real time response from the others. In an IRC channel you can ask a question and several users could walk you through your problem as you feedback them with your progress. The only drawback of such a method is that it's not publicly documented. Meaning that when you use a forum for asking about a specific problem others could later face the same problem , search the web for an answer and benefit from the replies you got. This is not the case with IRC. That's why you should be patient and polite when asking a question on IRC because many questions are asked over and over again making some people get bored answering them. IRC is also a way for developers coordinate they work and its the the preferred way for FOSS fans to just hang out and socialize.

Ok, What do I need?

You need to have an IRC client installed on your system. One that we recommend is XChat

• Download and install the latest GTK+ Runtime for windows

http://www.silverex.info/download/gtk2-runtime-2.4.14-041220-ash.exe

• Download and install Xchat for windows

http://www.silverex.info/download/xchat-2.4.1.exe

• If the provided links don't work visit

http://www.silverex.info/download/

Now what?

Connecting to a Network

• Start Xchat
• You will be greeted with this window named Server list window. Choose a nickname for yourself, scroll down to Freenode and press the connect button



• You'll get the xchat main window. Wait for a while till you get connected to a server.



• Now you're connected to the Freenode network.



Joining a channel

• Its time to join a channel. Choose "Join Channel" from the "Server" menu in the menubar.



• type #eglug and press OK



You could just type /join #eglug in the main xchat window instead of the previous 2 steps

Chatting basics

• Now you'll chatting in #eglug. To grab the attention of the user you're talking to type the first letter of his nickname then press tab to autocomplete his nickname.



• In the previous screenshot alaa typed "s" and then pressed Tab, XChat auto-completed "some_nick" and as you can see some_nick got a highlighted message in the eglug channel tab.
• To privately send a message to a user in the channel, say to alaa whose dancing is annoying you type:

 /msg alaa stop dancing

Connecting to another network

• To connect to another network, press "X-Chat" in the menubar then choose "Server list" or just press Ctrl S.
• Type a nickname, you can use a totally different nick than the one you used to connect to Freenode. Choose a new network to connect to, say EFNet. Press on the "connect in new tab" button.



• You are now connected to two networks, namely Freenode and EFNet.



Searching for a Channel

• You joined #eglug on Freenode because you already know it, but you don't know any channels on EFNet. Press "Windows" then "Channel List".



• You'll get the following window, press "refresh the list" and after a minute you'll get a list of thousands of channels.



• Highlight any channel to join and press "Join Channel". I chose #newbies. Now you are chatting in two different channels on two different networks with two different nicknames. Ofcourse you can join several channels on the same network.



Registering and Auto connecting

• To make things easier on you the next time. Go to the Server List, highlight Freenode , check the checkbox named "Skip server list on startup" and press Edit.



• You'll get the following window. Check the checkbox beside "Auto connect to this network at startup" , type #eglug in the text box beside "Channels to join:" and choose UTF-8 from the "Character set" dropmenu in order to type and view Arabic messages.

Minutes of the First Meeting

This is the raw minutes I took of our first EGLUG meeting, it needs to be summerized in a proper report. From the agenda:

1.Working out the details of EGLUG courses at El Sakia: who teaches what when and to whom

• Sakia Membership (for who'll attend activities held there)
• Courses:
  • arius32 will start graphics courses in August
  • Try the courses on ourselves and friends in July, and do it on public in August
  • Sameh from CuLUG will organize a course with Khaled (instructors, times)
  • Khaled will advertize the courses on Sakia's mailing list (8000 members)
  • Participants in courses should pay Sakia's membership
• Weekly workshop:
  • kernel_canine has promised to giv a workshop on Firewalls next Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.
  • in case he can't do it he will hav to organize an alternative workshop by someone else
• Souk El Sakia on Fridays:
  • need 1 person to help with khaled
  • Distro CDs
  • need a free book to photocopy and sell
  • may b t-shirts, meddles
  • YoussefAssad and seek_the_reality promised to help with Khaled in Souk El Sakia next Friday (9 to 9)
• Weekly sessions (linux support + gathering):
  • make the gathering with a topic??
  • agreed to make it free topic
  • LI-6YLUCY has promised to be the facilitator of the day
  • Put a dedicated PC in Sakia for ppl who come and ask Khaled for support, so that they ask their questions on the forum
  • Advertizing for the weekly gathering/support on our mailing list, Sakia's mailing list
  • put the support questions on the forum to show the ppl how EGLUG operates
• Do or Die:
  • Translation, Bug hunting
  • Joker Prince has promised to be the facilitator for the next Do or Die, it will b translation of the document: From power-up to bash prompt, they will start at 10

2.Deciding on the Alexandria InstallFest; where and when?

• couldn't get Alex Library or Victoria college (needed tasree7 men wezaret al tarbeya wa al ta3leem)
• Mina will contact Motaz and talk with Abu Qeer Academy, will giv us feedback by the end of the week.
• Cvirus and kernel_canine will try to get tasree7 men wezaret al tarbeya wa al ta3leem, will giv us feedback by the end of the week.
• due to how busy we r, we'll leave this topic to the ppl looking for a suitable venue, when a venue is found all of us will focus on the fest

3.Improving cooperation with Linux-Egypt: how and why?

• Policy: we share goals, if they need help we should giv them, if we need help they should giv us
• we should document our experiences and share it with other LUGs and groups
• this should be the policy with any LUG or group in Egypt

4.Marketing EGLUG: how?

• we have 600 mailing lists/forums
• other groups we cooperate with (Sakia: activities, website, newsletter)
• Flyers in computer malls (list the shops on our website)
• Bumper stickers (can Alameya giv us an offer?)
• financing adverts by trivial fees taken for the courses (through el Sakia)
• put flyers in newspapers
• Sponsorship??

5.Improving access to Linux distros and linux books and other things.

• Goal: 1 new place per month for CDs (computer shops, internet cafes)
  • follow up on the latest releases (buy it from sakia or get it from our distributors list)
• put them on elwaseet
• Goal: 1 new place per month for books (3am sa3d, photocoping shops, bookshops)
  • print first copy (kernel_canine, Sakia)
• kernel_canine has promised to giv khaled a copy of the Open CD they had already arabized at work

6.The eglug.org website; challenges facing us, improvements needed, suggestions (and praise for Alaa, Manal, whirlpool, and ramez for their great work!)

• Editorial policy
• Simplification of the interface

7.Discussing and ratifying the EGLUG charter

• we will hav a poll on the approval of the charter on Tuesday

8.Discussing ideas for group work such as writing a book, translating tldp.org articles, etc. (brainstorming)

• Collaborative work on the website, anyone can start a project

Off Agenda:

• How to operate Linux Suppport Sessions (Q: How do I migrate my system to Linux)
  • Make a list of the ppl who want to work (as admins) or can give Linux support (payed)
• Discuss Linux curriculum on the forum
• we need to look on the possibility of translating Rute (chapter by chapter for example)
• Legal questions:
  • What the egyptian laws say about publishing material licensed under the GPL?
  • What the egyptian laws say about leasing our own material under the GPL?
  • Free legal support at HMLC (Hisham Mubarak Law Center)
• MENGOS
  • 3 workshops on free software targeting NGOs 12 to 14 July, 19 to 21 July and 2 to 4 August from 9 to 4
  • EGLUG will give a session on Linux
  • we need volunteers to giv these sessions
• points raised by kernel_canine
  • Why do we do face to face support?
  • Consultancy on EGLUG
  • why r we using drupal
• Promoting Linux and Free Software
  • In universities (in semisters)
  • In small businesses
  • see action plan and open discussion
  • Poll: which university u r in?, the we choose a coordinator for each university
• Cross announcements between EGLUG and CuLUG, cross RSS feed
• Developers oriented activities:
  • a subgroup??
  • Programming on one of the weekly workshops

Who attended the meeting:

1. Alaa
2. MohammedSameer
3. Whirlpool
4. YoussefAssad
5. Manal
6. Dr Marlyn Tadrus (MENGOS)
7. amg
8. SamehRagheb
9. soppy_boy
10. magdon
11. mina ramses (mina_r_Tux?)
12. Login
13. Copelt (new member who came by accident ;-)
14. mvlinux
15. khaled
16. ahmed
17. CVirus
18. ADminS
19. DarKnesS_Wolf
20. mildewy
21. BooDy
22. Pronco
23. Rocket_Lancher
24. seek_the_reality
25. ahmadtarek
26. samersarhan
27. Joker Prince
28. robertoramsis
29. ramez.hanna
30. LI-6YLUCY
31. phaeronix
32. DJ KING
33. kernel_canine
34. ShErbO
35. Khaled Mohsen (Sakia)
36. Ayman Noubi (Sakia)
37. samah johnson

Na6oosh

Na6oosh is Eglug channel bot done by Mohammedsameer and it`s has some good feature:

Google:

it`s can search on goole all you have to do is:

na6oosh: google <foo>

and it`s give you an answer.

---

Qamoos:

it`s can translate from english to arabic using arabeyes wordlist:

na6oosh: arabeyes <foo>

and u will got ur word.

---

jargon:

jargon is a nice computer dict. u can get a definition for anything u want to know:

na6oosh: Dict <foo>

and it`s will get all the definitions for that word if there is was more than one.

---

spell:

spell is a spelling checker in english. u use it like

na6oosh: spell <foo>

and it`s will give u the right words.

---

7anafy:

7anafy Just for fun. u can ask a bout 7anafy for more Detials:

na6oosh: <foo> 7anafy <foo>

Have a fun .

---

and u can get the source code and more info from #eglug Bot Page

Report on the training in Menya 18,19 february 2005

Eglug volunteers who participated in the event:

1. Manal
2. Alaa

1st day:

we took the 7:15 train from Cairo and arrived in el Menya @ 10:20. we were staying at a 3awama called Dahabeya, we went directly to it and had a lovely breakfast on the Nile.

we then went to meet the people from New Vision at their place, we spent around 2 hours there (details later).

we arrived @ Salah el Din school (for boys) in Abu Qorqas @ 14:00, we met with the teachers, 2 new teachers have joint the group as promised. we made a small introduction then started our work directly.

we started by remembering what we discussed in the previous time, in their words the points covered were:

• installation
• office
• desktop
• installing extra software

which was a bit of a simplification, this means many details slip through after two weeks (expected).

one point they raised is the need for an Arabic interface, this is always a tricky question, some people demand Arabic and some demand English, we had this debate but all agreed that the children should use Arabized interfaces since that is how they learn windows (ministry rules).

while discussing Arabic interface we explored the concept of software localization and played with the Mandrake GNU/Linux locale tools.

the new trainees engaged us in a comparison between windows and GNU/Linux desktop, the group concluded that:

• basic desktop functions are mostly the same
• differences are typically just in style, some are new features that don't interfere with normal operations.

we explained the differences by pointing out that desktop is a set of paradigms, each operating system has its own paradigms, the desktop paradigms are mostly shared. however something like the "My Computer" paradigm is very specific to windows (one teacher pointed out that Mac OS has no similar paradigm).

from that we explained how GNU/Linux completely separates user roles, tasks like inspecting hardware, partitions etc is for the administrator only.

while comparing the two platforms the Unix single tree file system paradigm was explained, unfortunately it is not easy to make sense out of this system except in advanced scenarios (or what the forced simplicity of windows made us think of as advanced and complex scenarios), we built three different scenarios trying to relate them to a school situation to explain.

finally we ended up with looking at the Mandrake Control Center in more details this time, time was short and we had to stop.

one positive thing is the trainees don't get tired, they take the full thing without their attention dropping or asking for breaks or any of the usual stuff, they're definitely hard workers.

they already formed student groups, right now their focus is on the Windows platform, mostly the stuff that is in the ministry school books, but they say they're trying to give the kids more space to play, and they make sure its a 2 children per pc course (normal classes apparently involve squeezing in 4 times the lab capacity).

if they're to train the children on anything beyond the ministry curriculum, they might need help on how to approach training (we discussed making the courses fun, putting extra stuff that might not directly teach marketable skills but expose the kids to new things, Sherif equated this with music and art activities for the sake of art itself or for the sake of having fun).

we finished @ 17:30 and went to have dinner on the Nile :-) @ Dahabeya.

Attendants of the 1st day:

• 8 teachers
• the local mowageh
• Sherif from ArabDev

2nd day:

the plan was to begin the day with a group of 10 students (all boys), just to observe how they react to the new system and how they cope with the differences between the GNU/Linux and the windows platform.

We switched the computers to Arabic locale, this lead to few configuration problems, when Manal and Ezabi installed the computers they did not anticipate the Arabic locale requirement.

obviously EGLUG volunteers need a bit of briefing on Arabization, we just assumed people use English interfaces (the teachers are more comfortable with the English interface, the students the opposite).

we also keep hitting silly hardware problems anything from dead mice to badly maintained harddisks, we think the schools need training on basic maintenance (stuff like how its important to minimize the amount of dust that goes in the computers).

the various problems forced us to put 2 students per pc (which is ok really, pairing is sometimes a good tool).

we began by explaining quickly that GNU/Linux is an alternative operating system, we did not cover FOSS at all this time.

the kids started playing immediately, we quickly realized that any attempt at putting them on a focused track would be in vain, so we used an ad-hoc approach, each student was asked to suggest a common operating system task and we left them to explore how it can be done on GNU/Linux, each couple in their own style and at their own pace.

we explained that each one should get a chance to choose a task, and so we must respect our colleagues and listen to them when they talk, thats about the only structure the day had, we were busy answering their various (and surprising) questions.

as we expected the differences between the two platforms did not confuse them at all, they discovered how to do most tasks on their own. what we worried about was differences in translation but it worked out fine, the kids discussed the words among themselves and it all made sense to them, we are not sure how they'll cope with more complex dialogs and messages though, they tend to be very badly translated on both platforms, fortunately the KDE desktop uses icons and colorful visual indicators all over the place.

the session was great fun to all, and we learned alot from the kids

we covered:

• screensaver configuration
• desktop background settings
• creating folders
• creating desktop links/shortcuts
• opening programs
• windows operations
• keyboard shortcuts
• file operations
• dealing with floppies
• media files from windows partition
• windows office and image files from floppy
• login/logout/shutdown

the kids accepted compatibility problems as a reality of life.

they obviously received no conceptual education at all, one used the opportunity of having what appeared like experts to ask questions about file extensions, how programs are written etc.

we think the FOSS platform is a good tool for education since its very design is open, one can show more details when asked questions like that, even the most simple things can make a difference, for instance when Annass asked about how and who made all these programs Manal showed him a credits screen from one of the programs, the credits screen is animated, looks alot like tv or movie credit screens and lists the hundreds of contributors, I think it drove home the fact that programmers are normal people and not masters of some secret magical lore more effectively than anything else and it also helps to show how large such a project is, "kol dol?!" was his comment.

we asked for a copy of all ministry books to be better prepared next time.

we had 3 teachers observing our work with the students, they did not participate at all in fact their input was highly negative always asking the kids to stop experimenting and just follow our orders, we had to ask the group of teachers to be quite many times when the level of noise got too high.

however after having a short discussion with the teachers we have a feeling that this is mostly classroom habits, a few of them where thrilled by our new approach and they agreed on the importance of letting the kids have more space and freedom, we explained how the high security of GNU/Linux allows us to give more freedom to the kids since they can't possibly make any permanent damage to the system.

one positive thing is how honest everyone is, even the mowageh, while inquiring about what the school curriculum covers and what they teach in the computer club, they mentioned HTML, we were obviously impressed but the mowageh was quick to explain how it only touched the surface and how the classroom situation is not conductive to learning. we think we have good partners in this community.

the kids (and their parents) are very enthusiastic about the project in general, we had to keep turning down more groups, a couple of girls where fighting with the teachers asking to either change the time of the computer club to late evening or to be allowed to leave math classes to attend the club sessions.

---

after the session with the students was over we had a short discussion on our goals and the next steps with the teachers and the local and regional mowagehin

each person was asked to identify a goal/outcome they care about

the goals where:

• form a group of experienced students to help with training
• focus on practical skills and experience (as opposed to highly

abstract information)

• the students should transfer new gained experience to the community, the schools should transfer experience with the project to other schools
• multiplatform approach teaches them flexibility and accepting differences and anticipating change (we were impressed to see the teachers seeing pedagogical benefits not related to computing)
• foster the ability to observe patterns and abstraction
• form a young programmers initiative
• open a path for even more learning (preferably self learning) since we can't possibly cover everything within the project

the teachers mentioned that they have their own personal goals in terms of what they want to learn and how they want to improve themselves, we promised to try and help with these as long as they're willing to share the knowledge with their students (realizing that maybe only a few students would be interested in the more advanced stuff).

they asked for someone to teach them graphics, we said we don't know any windows people but we might be able to find someone to show them graphics with FOSS tools, most of them are multiplatform tools that work on both windows and GNU/Linux anyway (''Arius, are u interested to participate in this project?'').

we concluded the discussion by arranging the next visit, we will visit Adeeb Wahba school this time and work with a group of students from there.

we will try to wrap up basic GNU/Linux training for the teachers next time.

finally we got back to training, we spent 3 hours exploring the various administration functions in the Mandrake Control Center, lack on Internet connection and even a local network greatly limits what can be covered, but we hope they'll explore on their own.

we covered:

• hardware configuration
• media, partitioning and mount points
• quick overview of networking settings

---

we concluded the day by doing a quick evaluation, we asked them to identify negative points at the start and then positive points so we make sure to part with the positive things fresh in our minds.

negatives:

• long periods between training sessions (this lead to a lengthy discussion, the teachers mostly agree but the mowagehin don't.)
• lack of documentation resources (we promised to find out about Arabic documentation, Manal was concerned about the quality but I think we'll have to accept whatever exists).
• problems in the setup and configuration
• hardware problems

positives:

• new approach to teaching
• learning about new things
• the separation of privileges in the GNU/Linux system and its obvious high security
• flow and amount covered in the 4 days was good

we finished @ 17:30 and went to have dinner a quick dinner with Sherif before we take our 19:00 train back to Cairo.

Attendants of the 1st day:

• 8 teachers
• the local mowageh
• the regional mowageh
• Sherif from ArabDev

Report on the training in Menya 4,5 march 2005

Eglug volunteers who participated in the event:

1. Manal
2. Alaa

1st day

we took the 7:15 train from Cairo and arrived in el Menya @ 10:20. we were staying at The Gam3eyet El Sa3eed hotel in Abu Qurqas, so we decided to have breakfast first in Menya then head to Abu Qurqas.

We met a fellow Linux user from Menya (Dr. Ahmed), who knew us from the photos, he invited us to breakfast and we had a small talk on how EGLUG can help in doing a seminar about FOSS in the Menya university, which Dr. Ahmed and his collegues will try to organize.

we then went to our hotel, to get some rest before the training with the teachers.

---

we arrived at 14:30pm, this time the training was in Adeeb Wahba prep school (for boys and girls).

all participants where present except one teacher due to a death in the family.

a teacher from outside the project joined us.

One teacher downloaded and printed some Arabic documentation she found through a webforum, this was a very positive step.

as usual we began by going through what we covered last time:

• configure your computer
• partitions
• hardware
• /home
• Desktop settings
• swap
• locale

then we asked if they had any questions, only 2 teachers had questions and appeared to have played with GNU/Linux in the past two weeks.

the labs are badly configured after all the messing around we did in the course so next time we hope to fix it a bit and maybe the teachers can learn from the experience.

Questions:

the questions where mostly about partitioning and filesystems, most of them due to lack of understanding of the basic concepts (not practical questions), Alaa did a quick explanation of what filesystems are and what kind of filesystems are supported under windows and GNU/Linux and why one should care about the choice of filesystem (most users shouldn't).

some practical questions about how to deal with a mixed windows and GNU/Linux environment, we used the opportunity to give practical examples of using skills they learned the past two visits to automate tedious tasks (using symlinks to simplify access to windows files).

the idea was to give insight into how one uses the various tools provided by the OS to build efficient and customized use policies.

---

after the questions we went back to covering basic administration tasks through the mandrake control center. this time the teachers showed more enthusiasm but we where moving too slowly and covered a few topics only.

we could not cover networking at all since it turned out they knew nothing about basic networking concepts (TCP/IP, IPs, netmasks, switches, routers, gateways etc.), We think they need a day or two about that and that alone, no idea if this can fit with the projects tight schedule, We are hoping to find local volunteers who can help.

Mandrake Control Center:

Security:

• Firewalls - just concepts due to lack of networking knowledge
• levels and checks - security policies, how to customize them and how the system can do periodic audits and inspections
• we delayed user access and permissions policy till after the GNU/Linux security model was explained

System:

• Menus
• Display manager (graphical login, local and remote)
• services: (we covered the concept of services, how to control services and a quick overview of basic services)
  • alsa - sound support
  • acon - Arabic Console
  • atd - AT daemon, executes command at a specific time
  • bluetooth
  • crond - executes commands on a periodic fashion
  • dm - display manger for graphical login screen
  • fam - monitor file changes and report to desktop
  • keytable - for loading different keyboard layouts
  • netfs - prepares the shares and network file systems
  • netplug - hot plug for network interfaces
  • network
  • numlock
  • partmon - monitor partitions and warn before they're full
  • rsync - server for syncing files between different machines
  • sound - sound mixer settings
  • syslog - a log of everything that happens in the system
  • udev - for peripherals (usb memories, cameras, usb printers, etc.)
  • xfs - font server
  • xinitd - listens and starts services when requested

after that we took a break, went through the resources we provided them so far and used the break to fix configs in some of the machines.

resources we provided:

• Mandrake 10.1 2cds eglug edition
• OpenCD (windows versions of FOSS desktop software, translated by EGLUG) + 3 mandrake manuals + 1 RUTE manual + 1 Arabic manual (at a pc in Adeeb Wahba school)

we only brought one copy of the Open CD for each school, the next day one teacher made copies to all participants on his own initiative.

we promised to bring them more Arabic resources (we know of a couple of books in the market).

back to basic administration tasks, we tackled fonts, the most important part is how to import windows fonts to be able to share documents with windows comfortably. importing windows fonts is an example of a task that is better done through the command line, we used this opportunity to introduce the command line (we are not about to teach it, but they need to know it exists).

we explained how advanced tasks may require the command line, or may be more easily done through it, and how sometimes it is easier to explain command line solutions when helping someone remotely (imagine writing an email full of prose describing details of mouse, menu, button, icon interaction, and oppose this with a simple line that can be copied and pasted).

the feeling of power derived from using the command line (we showed them the one command that can completely destroy the system :-) made a deep impression on them, one teacher's interest in the whole thing grew and she even asked us to teach them how to use the command line for everything (not possible probably, but we told them they can start teaching themselves using the manuals and we'll be glad to answer any questions).

command line:

• command prompt
• ls (example of a simple command)
• command line is case sensitive
• switch to root(administrator) user - su (notice how the command prompt changes)
• dangers of running unknown commands as root (rm -rf /)
• auto importing windows fonts using fontdrake

back to the Mandrake Control Center:

• system logs and events:
  • filtering logs by event type and time

we explained the importance of keeping logs, Alaa always tries to borrow language from them, partly because our technical arabic is not great and partly to ensure they participate in discussions, while grasping for an explanation of logs one of them said its like the black box in an airplane, that was the perfect way to describe it.

---

2nd day

we started early morning with a little trip to Bani Hassan, we wanted to see it so much and one of the teachers is from Bani Hassan, Sherif proposed we turn this into a social event for the whole group but at the last minute all the women canceled :-(

the trip was short but nice, we became friends (EGLUG volunteers, Sherif, a couple of teachers and the local mowageh).

went back at 12, had a little rest then went to the school at 12:45, we where supposed to work with 10 students for an hour, and we asked to be there 15 minutes early to prepare Arabic interfaces.

at 12:45 the kids where already there for half an hour (about an hour early), eagerly playing with the computers and waiting for us, we couldn't configure anything but we noticed they where using English windows so we asked them to choose whether they wanted to use GNU/Linux in Arabic or English, only 1 asked for arabic (he was the least comfortable with computers) but as we progressed all ended up switching to Arabic except 3 kids.

we started with 3 girls and 7 boys, then 3 more girls joined against our protests, but in the end we had to agree.

all where from 2nd and 3rd preparatory, no difference at all between the girls and boys not in enthusiasm, tendency to explore and experiment or previous knowledge and skills, the girls took more time to warm to us and to the system, but the difference was only in few minutes.

we used the same routine of quickly introducing ourselves and saying that GNU/Linux is an operating system among many operating systems and that we are showing them an alternative so they can learn more. then we told them our task is to find out if GNU/Linux is difficult, and to see if it is different from windows, each person will tell us of a task they know how to do in windows and together we'll try to do it in GNU/Linux.

things went smoothly, exactly like last time, no problems, no confusion, no complaints, we had to talk about language differences sometimes, it was a bit difficult explaining why changing the system clock required administrator password and to answer the where is "My Computer" question.

this time they guessed that Home is equivalent to My Documents, and they played a bit with programs and not just the desktop. we changed the approach a bit and introduced new features to them, for instance while looking for a way to change system date they stumbled upon an organizer application with integrated alarms, todo, events etc, so we explained what this is and how one can use it to organize her work specially among groups.

tasks:

• changing background
• drawing (we had no simple paint programs installed, but we encouraged them to try the advanced gimp and the girls found OpenOffice Draw program by themselves)
• word (OOwriter)
• create new folder
• MyComputer or MyDocuments (Home)
• Screensaver
• how to record sounds (we mentioned the possibility of using Audacity to do sound engineering, like adding noise to make recordings sound like old records, add echo etc, no mics or speakers in the lab so we can't actually do that but we thought they'll enjoy connecting TV and cinema sound effects with everyday computers)
• file operations (copy, move, etc.)
• changing date and time

a girl asked: we know that who made Linux is a Finnish university student, but what is his name?? one of the teachers (we don't know who) told them that, we explained that while Linus began work on the core of the operating system he did not work alone and that tens of thousands of programmers from all over the world including Egypt (and including the very people who are now talking to them) help by adding small parts or modifying them.

that was it, we had no time for more reflection and discussion, but we had great fun.

---

back to the teachers, same teacher was absent, we started @ 14:15

what we did last time:

• security
• linking to MyDocuments from the windows
• services
• fonts
• command line

they forgot the part about system logs, which was a bit disappointing since we played with it for a while and made a big fuss about it.

this time we started with the GNU/Linux security model, this was covered in a very broad sense on the 2nd visit, but this time we got the details and did practical experiments.

we explained users, groups of users, file and process ownership then we experimented with permissions on files and directories (read, write, execute, enter, delete). finally we explained how the security model applies for device access and network connections, in GNU/Linux everything is abstracted to a file, there is a special file for each device, for example the mouse file or the cdrom file etc.

we got back to the command line, learned how to inspect the contents of a file (we used this as an opportunity to demonstrate how all configuration is ultimately just modifying simple text files, and linked a certain file with the graphical configuration wizards we've been using). After learning how to inspect the contents of regular file, we asked them to inspect the contents of the mouse file. nothing happens until they start moving the mouse, then each movement prints a character on the screen.

the same permissions that control files can control devices because of this method of representing devices. we also explained that devices as files is useful for other tasks, for instance full harddisk images (complex tasks requiring extra software on windows) is a matter of copying the harddisk device file on GNU/Linux.

Mandrake Control Center:

System (continue):

• Users and Groups
  • add/edit user accounts and groups
  • system internal users (each service and software is owned by a user, system services and processes run under special unprivileged accounts, this makes a virus meaningless in GNU/Linux as opposed to windows where every thing is a privileged process).
  • change root password
  • Permissions
    • owner/group/others
    • read/write/execute for folders and files (practical)
    • sticky for folders (only owner can rename and delete folder content)
    • apply changes to all subfolders
• Everything is a FILE
  • command (cat /etc/fstab)
  • cat /dev/mouse
• backups

Software Mangement:

• Install
  • dependency (in GNU/Linux developers cooperate, the result is complex interdependency between their works, the user is not supposed to deal with this complexity at all, a special program called the package manager does this, the system has a database of packages available to install, one just picks a package and the rest is done automatically)
  • search (in names, description)
  • different ways of viewing packages
  • updating media
• Remove
• updates
• media manager
  • enabling/removing media
  • adding media (from harddisk, internet servers, removable media, update media)

finally we showed them a couple of educational programs we thought might be interesting, one is a 3d fully interactive galaxy simulator (Celestia) , the students can move anywhere in the galaxy inspect planets, space ships, stars etc as if in a 3d game. unfortunately it turned out the pcs do not support 3d hardware acceleration so they cannot use this software (Alaa demonstrated it on his laptop anyway as an example of high quality educational FOSS).

the other example was of a tool that can achieve great results if they can cooperate with teachers from other subjects, its a periodic table of elements ( Kalzium from the KDEedu package) but with slight twists, it has a time slider and limit the table to the elements discovers at any given year, then another slider represent temperature, each state of matter has a color as temperatures rises solids turn into liquid and liquid into gas. the software itself is not fun, but a good science teacher can use it to weave stories about the discovery of elements (did you know the last element to be discovered was on 1994)?

no one is optimistic about cross discipline cooperation or the possibilities of using computers as learning aids, but we thought they deserve to know the potential of the technology and of their jobs, we then moved on to demonstrating multimedia software that can actually be covered in 2nd stage training with the kids.

thats it, we reached the end of the training, we thanked them and asked to do a quick evaluation then move on to discuss the work with the students and future plans.

Evaluation

negatives:

• some of the teachers did not participate in the trip
• arabization problems (mostly in setup and configuration, we had a quick discussion on whether we should use Arabic or English interfaces with the students, but there were no definitive answers)
• hardware problems (graphics 3d acceleration prevents many of the games and graphics software from working properly)

positives:

• OpenCD and manuals
• Bani Hassan trip
• the participants did a search on the internet and found and shared resources
• group participation and easy informal attitude
• el mowagehin where very cooperative
• the fetir was great
• the fact that they learned new things

---

finally we got to the part where we agreed on plans for the students training. we agreed that we need to focus on basics and cover these basics with all the children, afterwards there is a possibility of forming groups with the most interested/promising students and study more advanced stuff.

most of the discussion was on defining the basics that everyone should learn, a little bit was imagining how the special groups work would look like.

plan of working with the student:

1. cover the GNU/Linux Desktop (anything they know how to do in windows, they should learn how to do in GNU/Linux), we all agreed this part is easy and requires little time.
2. Office software (start with same goal as above, they're not sure how long this will take, they need to explore OpenOffice more and learn more about its differences) we noticed that in the work they already started with the kids they're trying to teach them more than just the basic features in Microsoft Office, we encouraged them to try and do that using OpenOffice from time to time.
3. Exploring new programs - finally we agreed that it might be a good idea to have some free exploration time, where the teachers guide the kids to some interesting software and leave them to explore how it works without giving any instructions.

the first 2 parts are clearly planned, they'll sit together with the mowagehin and make a detailed plan with times and all (they probably need to experiment a bit with OpenOffice first). the 3rd part mostly relies on EGLUG volunteers suggesting software and maybe demonstrating how they can approach guiding the students.

starting from next week they should be teaching FOSS desktop for two days every week (the computer club is a 3 times a week), Sherif is supposed to follow up on that and track it.

the special groups is not a coherent idea yet, we just told them what EGLUG is willing to help with

Specialized groups:

• exploring advanced office functions
• advanced/administration operating system
• basic graphics
• web design
• programming basics

---

We left @ 18:00, this time we weren't able to have dinner before the train, so Sherif asked the hotel to pack it for us so that we can eat it on the train.

We arrived at the train station 5 minutes before our 19:00 train...back to Cairo

Using The AutoTools(Scripts)

Using The AutoTools

If you think one day to start programming on linux, sure you will use C language (not me, i will always use assembly), but when your program sources get biggers as its version increase or you want to publish its source code, how users gonna to use it, are they gonna to compile every source file separetely then link them all together, no it's a bad idea and very handy, you will have to use the autoscripts.

In this article i will describe how to use the autoscripts for your own program sources, so i will write a simple C sourcefile to show you how to use the autoscripts(autoheader,automake,autoconf).

Remark :

when you a compile a program from source you should have done this :

./configure make make install

That's what the autoscripts we gonna make.

I will use emacs in this article, but your free to use any text editor even pico.

Let's start by creating directories which will contain the source files, assume our program name is "ctest" , type the following in a bash prompt :

mkdir ctest cd ctest mkdir src cd src emacs main.c /* this is a sample C source to test autoscript */ #include #include #include "ctest.h" int main(void) { printf("Programming In Assembly Is The Best \n"); return 0; }

Save it like that : press f10 then f then s then f10 then f then e .

emacs ctest.h /* This is a sample header to test autoscripts */ #define _WHO_AM_I "Hacker" #define _WHO_IS_MASLAN "Assembler"

Save it like that : press f10 then f then s then f10 then f then e .

now we have finished writing our program source files, so we gonna to create the compiling and installing script as follows.

emacs Makefile.am bin_PROGRAMS = ctest ctest_SOURCES = main.c ctest.h

Save it like that : press f10 then f then s then f10 then f then e .

we have created a file containing our program name "ctest" and our sources names "main.c , ctest.h", this file is used by automake.

cd.. emacs Makefile.am SUBDIRS = src

Save it like that : press f10 then f then s then f10 then f then e .

we have just created another automake file which points to our src directory, in case if your program have more than source directory or have "po" subdirectory which contains other languages interface for your program.

emacs configure.in AC_INIT(src/main.c) AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(ctest,0.0.1) AM_CONFIG_HEADER(config.h) AC_OUTPUT([ Makefile src/Makefile ])

Save it like that : press f10 then f then s then f10 then f then e .

We have created a file used by autoconf, which will be used to generate ./configure script, which will create Makefile used by make.

now we have everything done, just type the following :

aclocal autoheader autoconf automake --add-missing

You can test if it works , like that :

./configure make cd src ./ctest Programming In Assembly Is The Best

I prefer to strip it in order to save space.

strip ctest ./ctest Programming In Assembly Is The Best

Using Vi Editor

The vi editor is certainly not the easiest and most user-friendly text editor, but because of its wide availability and existence on most linux systems

The vi editor operates in two basic modes:

1. Command mode
2. Insert mode

when vi is started, it is in command mode. This mode allows you to enter commands to edit files or navigate your text file. However, you can only add or insert text by using the insert mode. from command mode, you can enter insert mode by typing the letter i. To return to command mode, use the Escape key

Editing text files:

• To start the vi program, type the following at the command prompt

vi filename

The filename can be a new or existing file. Remember that when you first start vi, you are initially in command mode. if you are working on a new file, you can immediately type the letter i to enter into insert mode and start adding text

If you are working on an existing file, you can use the cursor keys, or the h,j,k,l keys to navigate to where you want to begin.

You can use the CTRL-f or CTRL-b to move ahead or back a page

To insert text at an exact point, you can type the letter i for insert and start adding your text, Other options include the letter a, Which adds text next to the cursor location, and the letter o, which starts your text on the next line below the current one.

if you make a mistake while typing, you can use the backspace key to delete characters. if you want to delete characters in command mode, hit the Escape key, and then use the letter x to delete characters one at a time. If you want to delete an entire line, use the dd command. The command dw deletes only the entire word that your cursor is currently on

To save your file, hit the Escape key to enter command mode, and then type :w . To save and exit out the vi editor, use the :wq command. Or you can use an equivalent to the :wq command and type the letters ZZ in command mode to save and exit the file

If you want to exit without saving your file, use the :q command. This command asks you if you want to save the file before quitting. If you want to bypass the prompt, use the :q! command

Using YUM

Using Yum

No doubt that every single Yellow-Dog and Fedora user knows this awesome tool named YUM. In this article we will know what is YUM and how to use it and what are the advantages and disadvantages that exist in YUM. We will also talk a little bit about the yum.conf file. And finally we will get to know some useful links related to YUM. Here we go !. :)

What is YUM ?

YUM is an interactive, automated update program which can be used for maintaining systems using rpm . Meaning; You can use YUM to install new rpm packages or update exisiting packages. The word YUM stands for "Yellowdog Updater Modified".

The yum.conf File :

YUM uses a configuration file named yum.conf this Configuration File is found in /etc/yum.conf. This yum.conf contains the configuration data needed by YUM . Such as the Debug Level, Cache Directory and finally and the most important are the URL's of the Fedora and YUM repositories which are needed inorder to get the requested packages from them. You can build up a yum.conf file by yourself but first you will need to check the "yum.conf" Manual Page in order to know more details concerning this configuration file

$ man yum.conf

Or you can get a Ready and Updated ''yum.conf''.

How Can I use YUM ???

In this part we will get to know the basic commands and uses for YUM ... But first we have to configure our "yum.conf" file as stated in the above section and second you have to be using the root account as we will be dealing with rpm's installation and updates or you can switch from your account to the root account by using this command

$ su root

Now , some of the basic and important commands that you should know inorder To be able To use YUM.

Installing a package

# yum install Package1 Package2 Package3 ...

This command is used to install the latest version of a package or a group of packages while making sure that all the dependencies (The extra packages that the installed package needs inorder to work properly) are satisfied.

Here is a screenshot of YUM while it is installing "Kplayer" using this command that we've discussed:



Note

Before you start getting packages from any repository using YUM ... You need To download the Header Files (YUM does this Automaticly). Every rpm has a header, that header contains a complete file list, package descriptions, lists of what features it provides, lists of what it requires, what it conflicts with ... In order for rpm to make a decision about what it will need to be installed, it needs the information in the header ... What Yum does is to copy the header from the repository, then the client part of yum uses those headers to determine what needs to be Installed/Upgraded/Erased.

Updating Packages

# yum update Package1 Package2 Package3

This command updates the listed packages which are given as arguments to YUM while ensuring that all dependencies are satisfied ... If this command is ran without an argument list (Packages List) ... It updates every single package installed on your system ... Aint this pretty good ? hehe ... :)

Searching For Packages

# yum search [...]

This command is used to find any packages matching the argument you gave in the Package Name, Description, Summary. This command is useful if you only know a peice of the package name or somethin' related to it.

Uninstalling Packages

# yum remove Package1 Package2 Package3

This command is used to remove the specified packages from your system as well as removing any packages which depend on the package being removed.

Note These are the most important commands of YUM ... For more commands read the Manual page

$ man yum

What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of YUM ???

Advantages

YUM is relatively pretty and relatively nice and has significantly less legacy baggage than "apt" {Software Similar To YUM} ... Size of codebase in apt (find -name \*.cc | xargs wc -l):40141 and the size of codebase in YUM (find -name \*.py | xargs wc -l):4681.

Disadvantages

hmmm ... Really didn't see any disadvantages ... Then the answer is NONE !

Some Links Related To YUM

• Check This out :)
• YUM Official Page

Nuthin's Left ... CYA Later

CVirus

using yum by arabic

أستخدام yum

مما لا شك فيه ان كل مستخدمى "fedora" و "yellow-dog" يعلمون هذه الادوات التى يطلق عليها yum و فى هذه القطعة سنعرف ما هو yum و كيفية أستخدامه و ما هى المميزات و العيوب الموجودة فيه. و سنتكلم عن ملف yum.conf"" و أخيرا سنتعرف على بعض الروابط المفيدة والمتعلقة بyum

ما هو yum؟

هو متفاعل و هو من البرامج التى بها التحديث الذاتى و التى يمكنك أستخدامه فى حماية نظام التشغيل لمستخدم rpm. التى تعنى أنك تستطيع أستخدام yum لتحميل حزمة برامج ال rpm الجديدة او تحديث الحزمة الموجودة . فالكلمة yum تعنى "yellow dog updater modified"

ملف "Yum.conf"

يستخدم yum ملف اعداد يسمى "yum.conf" و هذا ملف الاعداد موجود فى /etc/yum.conf . و ملف "yum.conf" يحتوى على بعض بيانات الاعداد التى يحتاجها yum ,مثل مستوى التعديل, debug directory, و اخيرا و أهمها الurl's لfedora و مخزن او مستودع yum الذى نحتاجة للحصول على الحزمة المطلوبة له. يمكنك بناء ملف "yum.conf" بنفسك و لكن أولا ستحتاج للنظر اليدوى فى صفحة "yum.conf" لكى تعرف الكثير من التفصيل بالنسبة الى ملف الاعداد

$ man yum.conf 

و يمكنك ان تحصل على yum.confجاهز ومتطور.

كيفية استخدام Yum

فى هذا الجزء سنتعرف على الاوامر الاساسية و أستخدمات yum ..... و لكن أولا يجب اعداد ملف "yum.conf" كما ذكرنا فى الفقرة السابقة . ثانيا يجب استخدام the root account كما انك ستتعامل مع تحميلات rpm و تحديثاتها او يمكنك تشغيل root account بهذا الامر

$ su root

الان, يجب ان تعرف بعض الاوامر الاساسية والمهمة التى تمكنك من استخدام yum

1. تحميل حزمة

	
# Yum install package1 package2 package3

هذا الامر يستخدم فى تحميل أحدث نسخة من الحزمة او مجموعة من الحزمة مع التأكد ان كل التبعيات (هى الحزمة الاضافية التى تحتاجها الحزمة الموجودة لتعمل بطريقة سليمة) مناسبة. هذه لقطة لyum أثناء تحميل "kplayer" بأستخدام الامر الذى كنا نناقشة



ملحوظة

قبل الحصول على أى حزمة من اى مكان باستخدام yum ..... يجب تحميل The headers file (yum يفعل ذلك اتوماتيكى). كل rpm لديهم header ,فالheader يحتوى على قائمة ملفات كاملة, خصائص حزمة, قائمة بالاشياء المطلوبة, ما يتعارض معه...... من أجل ان الrpm تاخذ قرار عن ما تحتاج لتحميله, و تحتاج الملفات فى الheader ..... يقوم yum بنسخ المقدمة من قعدت البيانات و بعد ذلك يقوم عميل yum على الجهاز بتحديد ما سوف يحتاج التحديث, التثبيت, الحذف.

1. تحديث الحزمة

# Yum update package1 package2 package3

هذا الامر يقوم بتحديث الحزمة وهو يستخدم كمحور لyum اثناء التأكد من ان كل التبعيات مناسبة......و اذا عمل هذا الامر من غير قائمة الحزمة....ستقوم بتحديث كل حزمة بمفردها موجودة (متحملة) على نظام التشغيل

2. حذف الحزمة

# yum remove package1 package2 package3

هذا الامر يستخدم لحذف حزمة محددة من نظام التشغيل و حذف اى حزمة يعتمد على الحزمة المحذوفة. ملحوظة هذه هى اهم الاوامر لyum .....لمعرفة اوامر اكثر يجب قراءة بعض الصفحات

$ man yum

ما هى مميزاتة و عيوبة ؟

مميزاتة: yum نسبيا جيد و متميز و لدية أقل legacy baggage من "apt" (برنامج مثل yum )....مساحة code base فى apt

((find -name \*.cc | xargs wc -l):40141

ومساحة the code base في yum

(find -name \*.py | xargs wc -l):4681

العيوب : حسب إستخدامي له لم أجد فيه أي عيوب

بعض الروابط المتعلقة Yum

• Check This out :)
• YUM Official Page

Nothin's Left ... CYA Later

Cvirus

Translated by mildewy

كيف تحصل على احدث الأصدارات لجنولينكس

This is a category page, please don't edit this page, instead create a new book page and attach it here, or edit one of the pages listed below.

محافظات أخرى

تحت كل اسم ستجد المناطق التى يتواجد فيها العضو و التوزيعات المتوفره لديه

ملاحظة:تأكد من قانونية اعادة توزيع التوزيعات التى لديك

الموزعين:

طه صلاح

بورسعيد و الاسماعلية

• Mandrake 10 (4 CDs)
• Fedora Core 2 (5 CDs)
• Fedora core 3 (4 CDs)
• Slackware 9.1 (2 CDs)
• Slackware 10.0 (2 CDs)
• FreeBSD 4.7 (1 CDs)
• Debian 3.0 woody (7 CDs)

عبدالرحمن عبدالخالق غريب

الزقازيق و أكاديمية العبور

• Mandrake 10.1 (3 CDs)
• MandrakeMove LiveCD
• slackware 10.0 (2 CDs)
• slackware 10.1 (2 CDs)
• Ubuntu LiveCD and Installation
• Arabbix 0.8
• YOPER 2.1.0-4 (1 CD)
• Phaeronix 0.8 LiveCD

محمد عادل:

المحله و طنطاوميت غمرواجا

• ManDrake10 official(4CD's)
• Trustix2.0 (1CD)
• Linux Plus core 1(1CD)
• Arabix(1CD)
• Suse9.1(1CD)
• Fedora core 2(4CD)
• immunix (1CD)
• redhat7.2(2CD)
• ManDrake Move(1CD)
• Knoppix 3.4

احمد ابوسيف:

سمنود و المنصورة و اجا وطنطا

• ManDrake10 official(4CD's)
• Trustix2.0 (1CD)
• Linux Plus core 1(1CD)
• Arabix(1CD)
• Suse9.1(1CD)
• Fedora core 2(4CD)
• immunix (1CD)
• redhat7.2(2CD)
• ManDrake Move(1CD)
• Knoppix 3.4
• أى إصدارة تريدها فقط إطلبها حتى إذا لم تكن فى القائمة

محمد عصر:

طنطا

• SuSE 9.2 Live cd - kde edition (1 cd) !new!
• SuSE personal 9.1 (1 cd)
• Novel Desktop 9 (3 cd) !new!
• knoppix 3.6 (1 cd)
• Fedora core 3 (4 cd) !new!
• Yoper linux 2.1 (1 cd)
• PClinuxOS p5 (1 cd)
• Lycoris Desktop/LX 1.4 (1 cd) !new!
• Mandrake move 2 (1 cd) !new!
• Mandrake 10.1 CE (3 cd)

محمد احمد

طنطا

• Fedora Core 3 (4CD)
• knoppix 3.6 (1CD)
• Arabbix 0.8 (1CD)
• FreeBSD 5.1
• RedHat 9 (3CD)
• SuSE personal 9.1 (1 cd)
• Fedora Core 2 (4CD)
• Yoper linux 2.1 (1 cd)
• PClinuxOS p5 (1 cd)

anass81@hotmail.com

دمياط و بورسعيد

• Mandrake 8 , 9 , 10 , 10.1
• Arabix
• Knoppix
• RedHat 9
• Fedora Core 1 , 2 , 3
• Resala linux
• Linux plus
• suse9.2 live
• Solaris 8 , 10
• Slackware 10

ملحوظة:سعر الاسطوانة 5 جنيهات فقط و من فضلك تأكد من أن ترميز الرسالة يكون Unicode UTF-8 حيث أن جي ميل لا يدعم ترميز العربي الخاص بويندوز CP-1256

القاهرة و الجيزة

تحت كل اسم ستجد المناطق التى يتواجد فيها العضو و التوزيعات المتوفره لديه

ملاحظة:تأكد من قانونية اعادة توزيع التوزيعات التى لديك

الموزعين:

سوق العصر :

أول فيصل - بالقرب من مرور فيصل - الجيزة - محمول 0101608639

• Fedora Core
• Red Hat
• SuSe (personal and live)
• Gentoo
• Xandros OCE
• Ubuntu (install and live)
• Mandrake 10.0 - 10.1 (official and community editions)
• MandrakeMove
• Debian (woody-3.0r4 and sarge)
• Slackware
• ADIOS
• Knoppix
• Phlak
• Morphix
• Arabbix
• SystemRescueCD
• ELX
• FreeBSD
• OpenBSD
• Openoffice.Org
• TheOpenCD

Ask for any distro and we might be able to get.

أحمد عقدة :

مدينة نصر , المعادى

• Mandrake 9.2- 10( official release)
• Mandrake Move
• Slackware9.1
• Redhat 9
• Fedora Core 2
• Knoppix 3.4
• Gentoo 2004.1 ( for pentium4,3 , i 686& x86)
• Arabbix 0.8
• Morphix-0.4. 1(All)
• LFS5
• Debian 3.0r2
• Ask for any distribution or version that is not listed already and i'll do my best to get it as soon as possible

حسن عادل

مدينة نصر

• Fedora Core 2
• Debian 3.02r2
• Knoppix 3.3
• Mandrake 10
• slakware 10
• knoppix 3.4
• gentoo 2004

حازم محمد:

وادى حوف ,معادى, مدينة نصر, المهندسين ,حلوان ,مترو

(News)

• Mandrake 10.1 (4CD)
• Mandrake10.1 (Ultima 13 CD)
• Redhat9.0 (3 CD)
• Fedora Core 2 & 3(4 CD)
• Gentoo 1.4(P4) (2 CD)
• Slackware 9.1 (2 CDs)
• Phr3onex mov (1 CD ..Work with Conexant HSF)

محمد حازم:

مدينة نصر

• Fedora Core 2
• Debian 3.02r2
• Knoppix 3.4
• YellowDog Linux 3.01
• Slackware 10
• Gentoo 2004
• SuSE 9.1
• Mandrake 10
• Mandrake Move
• Arabbix 0.8
• Phaeronix
• Arch 0.6
• ****BSD ... Just ask for any Distribution or any Legal thing that is Allowed to Be Copied and Distributed and I will get it ISA.

زياد مصرى:

الهرم- فيصل-جيزة-جامعة حلوان

• Mandrake 10 Official
• Libranet 2.7
• Slackware 10
• knoppix 3.7
• Fedora Core 3

ساقية عبد المنعم الصاوى (بالزمالك)



• Mandrake 10 Official (4 CDs)
• Fedora Core 2 (5 CDs)
• Arabbix 0.8 (1 CD)
• Knoppix 3.4-2004-05-17 (1 CD)
• Morphix Gaming 0.4-1 (1 CD)
• Morphix Light GUI 0.4-1 (1 CD)
• MandrakeMove (1 CD)
• Gentoo 2004.1 x86 (2 CDs)
• Debian stable aka woody 3.0r2 (7 CDs)
• Slackware 9.1 (2 CDs)

محمود خطاب :

-الجيزة -الحوامدية-حلوان الصف-العياط البدرشين

• mandrake move
• gentoo 2004 p3&p4
• fedora core 1,2
• debian 3.0r2(8cd's)
• knoppix 3.3
• arabix 1.0
• slakware 9.1
• suse livecd 9.1
• mandrake 10.0(10CD's Ultima)

مهند فريد


الهرم - مدينة نصر

• Slackware 10 (3CDs)
• Slackware Linux 8.1/9.0/9.1 (2CD's each)
• DropLineGnome Desktop 2.4 / 2.6 (1 CD)
• Crux Linux 1.2/1.3 (1 CD each)
• BeOS RC5 (1 CD)

خالد حسين :

مدينة نصروالقاهرة الجديدة والاكاديمية الحديثة بالمعادى

• ManDrake10 official(4CD's)
• ManDrake9.2(3Cd's)
• Fedora Core 2(3CD's)
• ManDrake Move(1CD)
• Arabix(1CD)
• Suse9.1(1CD)
• Knoppix 3.4(1CD)
• Linux Plus core 1(1CD)
• Gentoo 2004(1CD)

أحمد عبد اللطيف أبو العز:

الهرم و الدقي و المعهد العالي للدرسات المتطورة

• ManDrake10
• Fedora Core 2(4CD's)
• ManDrake Move(1CD)

روبرتو رمسيس:

المهندسين , العجوزة , جيزة , إمبابة

• ManDrake10 official(4CD's)
• Knoppix 3.4(1CD)
• Linux From scratch 4 (1CD)

هشام وهبى

المعادى، مصر الجديدة (phone: 010-1150977)

Always have latest releases of these:

• Fedora Core
• Mandrake
• Slackware, Slax
• Debian
• SuSE Personal
• Ubuntu x86, AMD64, PPC, Live (Original CDs)
• Gentoo
• Knoppix
• Phaeronix
• MEPIS, SimplyMEPIS
• TopologiLinux
• SystemRescueCD
• FreeBSD
• BeOS 5 Personal
• Solaris
• Other distros available upon request
• For a more complete list click here.

صلاح محمود :

المعادى &حلوان &وسط البلد & مدينة نصر

• Fedora Core 2
• Knoppix 3.4(Live)
• Slackware 10
• Gentoo 2004
• SuSE 9.1
• Mandrake 10.1
• Mandrake Move
• NetBSD
• Slackware 3.1, 9.1, 10.0
• FreeBSD 5.1 (3 CD)
• Elx (2 CD)
• RockLinux (3 CD)

الأسكندرية

تحت كل اسم ستجد المناطق التى يتواجد فيها العضو و التوزيعات المتوفره لديه

ملاحظة:تأكد من قانونية اعادة توزيع التوزيعات التى لديك

الموزعين:

شريف ناجى :

الأسكندرية

• FreeBSD 5.3 RELEASE (3 CDs {2 CDs Installation + 1 CD Boot Only })
• Ubuntu 4.10 (1 CD { Installation })
• Ubuntu 4.10 (1 CD { Live } )
• Ubuntu 4.10 (1 CD { PPC Installation })
• Ubuntu 4.10 (1 CD { AMD64/EM64T Installation })
• Debian Testing Sarge 3.1 (14 CDs)

أحمد الشربيني


الأسكندرية

• SimplyMEPIS 2004.06 (1 CD)
• Mandrake 10 Official (4 CDs)
• Knoppix 3.6 (1 CD)
• GeeXBoX (1 CD)

مينا يوسف


الاسكندريه

• Slackware 10.1
• Knoppix 3.8
• Mandrake 10 Official
• Arabbix
• Fedora Core 3
• FreeBSD 5.4
• Redhat 9
• Gentoo 2005.0
• Suse 8.2 (Live cd)
• Mandrake Move
• SlaX 5.0.0
• Navyn OS
• Yoper 0.9.3
• dsl 0.8
• Ubuntu 5.04

Any other legal Distributions

احمد المكاوى:

اﻹسكندرية

• Mandrake 10.1 Official (3 CDs)
• Mandrake 10.1 Community (3 CDs)
• Mandrake Move 2.0 (Live CD)
• MEPIS 3.3 "testing" (Live CD)
• MEPIS 2004.04 (Live CD)
• Ubuntu 4.1 (Install CD)
• Ubuntu 4.1 (Live CD)
• Knoppix 3.6 (Live CD)
• Phaeronix 0.77.1 (Live CD)
• Geexox 0.98.5 (Live CD)
• Arrabix (Live CD)
• Linux Plus

من فضلك تأكد من أن ترميز الرسالة يكون Unicode UTF-8 حيث أن جي ميل لا يدعم ترميز العربي الخاص بويندوز CP-1256

Wiki Syntax

I wish this page can help, i`ll try to say what i know about wiki syntax and html tags that can be used in our cute wiki. i know that my english and my explanation are not good at all but feel free to edit, fix mistakes and add new stuff it`s a Wiki ;-)

---

Structured Text

structured text is an easy method to input content to dynamic websites, it eleminates the need for using HTML for most content.

however structured text assumes only a few simple elements are required to format most content, anything that does not fit neatly with these few simple elements requires HTML, in drupal HTML and structured text can be mixed freely.

structured text is a Markup system, you write your content in plain text and put special symbols to mark elements like titles, links, images etc.

in structured text we try to focu on the structure of the content (sections, subsectios, paragraphs) and not on how it looks, a designer makes a general template that will change the way all content or some content looks like, but the content author should focus on the structure and meaning only.

it is every easy to learn, and very easy to edit and read and with the aid of a good designer the result can look very good.

---

Follows is the strucutred text or WikiSyntax that is supported in our drupal based website.

Paragraphs

paragpraphs are easy, any lines of text without special marks are paragraphs, paragrpahs are seperated by empty lines, any consuctive lines not seperated by empty lines will be merged in one paragaph

for instance to get this:

this is a paragraph

this is a paragraph that was written on multiple lines

this is a rather longish paragraph we are trying to demonstrate how words will wrap when the text is rendered, do you think I can find enough stuff to say to make this a big paragraph, no a very big paragraph, or how about an extremly big paragraph, blah blah blah blah blah, etc.

use this:

this is a paragraph

this is a paragraph
that was written on
multiple lines

this is a rather longish paragraph we are trying to demonstrate how words will wrap when the text is rendered, do you think I can find enough stuff to say to make this a big paragraph, no a very big paragraph, or how about an extremly big paragraph, blah blah blah blah blah, etc.

Text emphasise

For typing in italic:

lets have italics in the middle like this it will look darned pretty

Use this:

lets have italics in the middle ''like this''  it will look darned pretty

note it`s 2 of (') and it`s not (")

To get BOLD text:

lets have bold in the middle like this it will look even prettier

Use this:

lets have bold in the middle __like this__ it will look even prettier

and off course they can be mixed:

this is sooo important it is both bold and italics

like this:

''__this is sooo important__'' it is both __bold__ and ''italics''

---

Links

To place links:

this is the EGLUG website

Use this:

this is the [EGLUG | http://www.eglug.org] website

To add an Email to a name like this:

Person's Name

You can use this:

[Person's Name | mailto:email@eglug.org]

---

Images

To add an image in the middle of text like this:



You can use this:

[http://www.gnu.org/graphics/gnu-head-sm.jpg]

You can also place a thumbnail which links to an image from the image galleries like this:

that is my console look ;-)

This is how to do it:

[image:nodenumber]

Where nodenumber is the no# of the pic at the image galleries like mine has the url http://www.eglug.org/node/80 so i put the nodenumber as 80.

---

Headings

To place a large heading like this:

for titles

Use this:

!!! for titles

To place a 2nd level/medium heading like this:

for sections

Use this:

!! for sections

To place a small heading Like this:

for subsections

Use this:

! for subsections

---

Lists

To make a bullet list of items:

• item 1
• item 2
• item 3

Use this

* item 1
* item 2
* item 3

bullet lists can have sublists

• item 1
• item 2
  • subitem 1
  • subitem 2
• item 3
  • subitem 1
    • subsubitem 1
    • subsubitem 2
  • subitem 2

use this

* item 1
* item 2
** subitem 1
** subitem 2
* item 3
** subitem 1
*** subsubitem 1
*** subsubitem 2
** subitem 2

To place numbered lists:

1. test
2. test2
3. test3
4. testN and etcccccccc...

Use this:

#test
#test2
#test3
#testN etcccccccccc

Nesting is possible, like this:

1. foo
   1. fubar
   2. fu
      1. zot
      2. bot

you can use this:

#foo
##fubar
##fu
### zot
### bot

you can mix the nesting of bullet and numbered lists:

1. foo
   • bullet me
     1. EGLUG SITE
     2. EGLUG
   • bullet me harder
2. fu

Using this:

#foo
** bullet me
###[EGLUG SITE | http://www.eglug.org]
###[EGLUG | http://www.eglug.org]
** bullet me harder
# fu

---

to make definition lists like this:

foo

a word used for any arbitirary example

fubar

a word used for any arbitrary example of something that doesn't work

recursive

adj. see recursive

use this

;foo: a word used for any arbitirary example
;fubar: a word used for any arbitrary example of something that doesn't work
;recursive: adj. see recursive

where you put the word or expression you are defining between a semicolon and a colon followed by the definition statement.

definition lists are useful for glossaries, and for any key,value pairs (name, address, job, etc style information).

---

Misc

anywhere you want to add line breaks like in this paragraph use:

anywhere you want to add line breaks %%% like in this paragraph use:

• line breaks
• work on

lists too

* line %%% breaks
* work on %%% lists too

to add a horizental ruler like this:

---

use

----

---

To type code and commands:

$ls -la

Use this:

{{{ $ls -la }}}

---

you can also create WikiLinks, WikiLinks are links to pages based on their titles without knowing their address

for instance I might want to link to the Start of ArabDev Menya Training

like this:

for instance I might want to link to the [Start of ArabDev Menya Training]

if you make a WikiLink using a title that does not exist, it gives you the oppertunity to create it by clicking on it

me not exist

like this:

[me not exist]

---

tables

you can have simple tables using WikiSyntax

table head 1	table head 2	table head 3
table item 1,1	table item 1,2	table item 1,3
table item 2,1	table item 2,2	table item 2,3




like this:

||table head 1   ||table head 2   ||table head 3
| table item 1,1 | table item 1,2 | table item 1,3
| table item 2,1 | table item 2,2 | table item 2,3

أنا لا أحترم المتطوعين I DO NOT RESPECT VOLUNTEERS

أنا لا أحترم المتطوعين

هذه المجموعة سجلت أساميها فى الدروس المجانية التى نقدمها فى ساقية عبد المنعم الصاوى و أكد كل منهم حضوره قبل بدء الكورس.

ثم اختفوا

الاقبال على الكورسات شديد لدرجة اننا لا نجد الوقت الكافى لتغطية احتياجات الكل، أصدقائنا و أقاربنا عليهم الانتظار لمدة شهر و ربما لن يتمكنوا من حضور الكورس بعد ذلك.

و مع هذا فهده المجموعة لا تحترم المتطوعين و لا وقتهم، ولا احتياجات الاخرين.

ننشر هنا أساميهم بالكامل حتى لا نعرض نفسنا للاهانة ثانية، من لا يحترمنا لا يمكن أن ينفع مجموعتنا و من لا يحترم المتطوعين و رسالتهم لا يمكن أن ينفى مجتمع البرمجيات الحرة.

دفعة اخرى من المحترمين

• معاز محمد
• محمد عبد الجليل
• هانى محمد محمد
• جون مقار
• بيتر ناجى
• الحسين محمد على
• مصطفى محمد شحاتة العجان
• دعاء أمير
• مصطفى محمد شحاتة

فيما يبدو أن دفعات المحترمين لن تنتهى السؤال هو طالما المحترم سجل الكورس بمحض إراداته لماذا لم يائت ليستفيد ؟؟؟؟ أم أنه لم يكن بمحض إراداتك و سجلوا لك الكورس فى مكتب التنسيق

• زياد مصرى زكى
• أسماء عبد العزيز محمد

I DO NOT RESPECT VOLUNTEERS

This group of people registered for our free courses in al sakia, and confirmed their intention to attend the course.

THEN DISAPPEARED

The demand for the courses is so high, we don't have the time or resources to cover it all, we have to ask our friends and relatives who are interested to wait for a whole month, and even then we're not sure they can attend the courses.

and yet this bunch does not respect our volunteers and does not respect their precious time, they do not respect the needs of others.

we publish their names here to avoid embaressing ourselves again, he who doesn't respect us cannot benefit our LUG and he who doesn't respect volunteerism cannot benefit the FOSS community. yet another bunch of respecatbles

• Moaz Mohammed
• Mohamed Abd Al Galil
• Hani Mohamed Mohamed
• John Maqar
• Peter Nagy
• Douaa Amir
• Mostafa Mohammed Shehata El Agan
• Al Housein Mohammed Ali
• Zyad Masry Zaky
• Asmaa Abdel-Aziz Mohamed
• Mostafa Mohammed Shehata

دراسة - شركة ملابس جاهزة صغيرة تعتمد كلية على جنو/لينكس

تعتمد الشركات المصرية بصورة كبيرة على البرمجيات مغلقة المصدر لأداء اعمالها. وهناك الكثير من الأسباب لهذه الظاهرة وعلى رأسها نقص المعرفة و عدم الوعى ببدائل تلك البرامج فى عالم البرمجيات الحرة/مفتوحة المصدر. و نجد دائما أن مديرى و مالكى الشركات لا يثقون بالبرمجيات الحرة (ذات التكلفة المعدومة ) ويكونوا حذرين منها. و هناك دائما سؤال شائع وهو "كيف يمكن لنظام تشغيل حر و مجانى أن يكون بكفاءة الويندوز؟؟". تقريبا كل شخص يمتلك نوعا ما من الخبرة مع الويندوز و ذلك يشعره أن الحصول على الدعم التقنى سيكون سهل.

والآن, ما رأيك فى عرض شركة مصرية حقيقية تعتمد على البرمجيات الحرة مفتوحة المصدر وحدها؟؟

الأستاذ/عمر بهى الدين هو صاحب شركة أبو يوسف التى تعمل فى تجارة الملابس الجاهزة وهو يعتمد اعتماد تام فى عمله منذ سنوات عديدة على الجنو/ليونكس و البرمجيات الحرة/مفتوحة المصدر, وهو راض جدا عن مستوى الأداء لهذه البرمجيات. وقد نسى تماما المعانة مع الفيروسات وعدم استقرار و تلف النظام, و وفر العديد من الأموال. إليكم القصة بالتفصيل:

منذ ست سنوات قام أحد أقارب الأستاذ/عمر ( والذى كان يدرس بالولايات المتحدة الأمريكية ) بعرض نظام تشغيل غريب على الأستاذ/عمر و أخوه, وكان هذا النظام هو جنو/ليونكس الذى لم يكون سهل أو معروف فى مصر كما هو الحال الآن.

و فى ذلك الوقت كان نظام تشغيل ويندوز موجود بالفعل فى شركة الأستاذ/عمر على أجهزة الشبكة الداخلية (2 كمبيوتر سطح مكتب و 2 كمبيوتر محمول) و لكن كان هناك جهاز كمبيوتر 386 يعمل بنظام تشغيل جنو/ليونكس كخادم ملفات فى الشبكة الداخلية. و بفضل مرونة جنو/ليونكس كان النظام يعمل بسلاسة تامة على 386 بعد غلق الخدمات الغير ضرورية و الغير مستخدمة. وكان أيضا يستخدم برنامج FoxPro لقواعد البيانات و الحزمة المكتبية من ميكروسوفت على جميع الأجهزة التى تعمل بنظام ويندوز الموجودة فى الشركة. ولكن كل ذلك على وشك التغير.

و حدث هذا التغير منذ ثلاث سنوات عندما قامت مباحث المصنفات الفنية بإرسال خطاب الى الأستاذ/عمر تطلب منه ضبط أوضاعه و التخلص من أى برمجيات غير مرخصة إن وجدت و إلا سيواجه غرامات مالية كبيرة و مصادرة للمعدات و الأجهزة, و ربما أيضا محاكمة قانونية. فاختار الأستاذ/عمر أن ينسى كل هذه الأمور و يوفر المال بالأنتقال الى البرمجيات الحرة/مفتوحة المصدر و نظم جنو/ليونكس والاعتماد التام عليها فى شركته.

وبدأ بالنظام المحاسبى , و بعد النظر السريع فى كلا من Nola و Compier و SQL-Ledger وقع اختيار الأستاذ/عمر SQL-Ledger لأنه نظام محاسبى قوى يمكنه أداء كافة أنواع المعاملات المالية.

و ايضا يستخدم الأستاذ/عمر الحزمة المكتبية من OpenOffice.Org (وفى بعض الأوقات Koffice ليتمكن من قراءة الملفات ذات امتدادات الحزمة المكتبية من ميكروسوفت مثل *.doc و *.rtf), و يستخدم سطح المكتب KDE.

و يستخدم فى الشركة نظام ليونكس ماندريك 10 ( بعد تجربة رد هات و سلاكوير و دبيان ) و تم أختيار ماندريك لسهولة استخدامه و دعمه للعربية منذ وقت طويل. وفى الوقت الحاضر يفكر الأستاذ/عمر بالانتقال إلى دبيان بسبب الثابت الكبير المعروفة به هذه التوزيعة.

و لقد واجهت الأستاذ/عمر بعض المشاكل بالنسبة لعتاد الكمبوتر ودعمه فى نظام جنو/ليونكس ( بعض مشاكل كروت الصوت القديمة والتى تم دعمها فيما بعد ), و أحد تلك المشكلات هى مشكلة كارت المودم الداخلى , وتم تخطى هذه المشكلة باستخدام مودم خارجى و الأنتقال إلى ADSL فور إتاحته.

و يتم الحصول على الدعم التقنى من المواقع المجانية لمجتمع البرمجيات الحرة/مفتوحة المصدر على شبكة الانترنت, فى بعض الأحيان يكون من الصعب الحصول على الأجوبة و لكن كل ما يحتاجوا إليه هو القليل من البحث.

و الأستاذ/عمر راض كل الرضا عن أداء البرمجيات الحرة/مفتوحة المصدر. فبسبب انعدام الفيروسات و صغر احتمال اختراق النظام على عكس الويندوز يقول الأستاذ/عمر أنه سعيد بالأنتقال إلى جنو/ليونكس لأنه لم يتطلب مهارات خاصة من الموظفين فكل مايقومون به هى أشياء بسيطة مثل التى أعتادوا عليها فى نظام ويندوز مثل ملف---->أفتح. وأيضا الوجهات الرسومية و القوائم و مجالات إدخال البيانات و ما إلى ذلك, كلها أشياء تتميز بسهولة الأستخدام وشبيهة بتلك الموجودة على نظام الويندوز.

و على الرغم من أن الأستاذ/عمر و موظفيه غير مبرمجين فهم أيضا ليسوا مجرد مستخدمين عادين , ففى أحيان كثيرة يجد الأستاذ/عمر نفسه يستخدم سطر الأوامر و أدواته للبحث عن بعض الأشياء وهو يشعر أن ذلك أسرع من استخدام الواجهة الرسومية.

عندما واجه الأستاذ/عمر الأحتياج إلى برنامج/خاصية و لم يجده فى تطبيقات البرمجيات الحرة/مفتوحة المصدر, بدأ فى التفكير فى طريقة يستطيع من خلالها المساعدة فى حل تلك المشاكل. كانت أحدى هذه المشاكل هى تحويل النظام المحاسبى الى اللغة المحلية, و أدرك الأستاذ/عمر فى الحال أنهم إذا لم يقوموا بالتعديل بأنفسهم فلن يتم حل هذه المشكلة أبدا, وبعد معرفة أن العملية بسيطة جدا قام هو بالتعريب بنفسه, و حتى الآن لا يزال الأستاذ/عمر قائما على الترجمة العربية لبرنامج SQL-Ledger.

و فى الواقع إن البرمجيات الحرة/مفتوحة المصدر تصلح لكافة الأعمال. و ينصح الأستاذ/عمر مالكى الأعمال الصغيرة الآخرى بالانتقال إلى عالم البرمجيات الحرة/مفتوحة المصدر إن كانوا يستطيعون التعمق قليلا فى عالم الكمبيوتر (أو ايجاد الموظفون القادرون على ذلك).

و نشكر الأستاذ/عمر على تعاونه (البرمجيات الحرة/مفتوحة المصدر قائمة على التعاون و المشاركة) و نشكره لوقته الثمين وعرضه لبعض الخصائص المفيدة جدا لبرنامج SQL-Ledger.

ونأمل أن هذة المقابلة الصغيرة تشجع مالكى الأعمال الصغيرة الآخرين على الأنتقال إلى البرمجيات الحرة/مفتوحة المصدر و التمتع بفوائدها الكثيرة مثل الثبات و الأمان و توفير الأموال. فربما تكون رؤية شخص قام بذلك بالفعل هى كل ما نحتاجه لأخذ تلك الخطوة.

رجاء اخطارنا أذا كنت تعلم بأى حالات آخرى لاستخدام أو تطوير البرمجيات الحرة/مفتوحة المصدر حتى نتمكن من تغطيتها.

وهذة بعض صور SQL-Ledger أثناء أداء بعض الوظائف.

ملاحظة: لم نتمكن من الحصول على صورة من خطاب المصنفات.

فاتورة مبيعات جاهزة للطباعة



أنشاء الفواتير ويمكن تغيير العملة و ايضا يمكن اضافة عملات ليتم التعامل بها فى الفواتير و يمكن تعديل الدخلات من خامات أو خدمات و كذلك المنتجات و المخرجات لتناسب نشاط الشركة



هذا بيان دخل للشركة (تجريبى)



أحمد الشربينى و أحمد المكاوى



الأستاذ/عمر يشرح بعض الوظائف فى برنامج SQL-Ledger (شريف ناجى و أحمد الشربينى )



هذا جهاز الكمبيوتر الثانى فى الشبكة الداخلية