Linux Terminal Support for Indian languages

Listening to Prof.Amba P. Kulkarni talk about the Anusaaraka was a pure delight. It was here I first heard about the old GIST (Graphics and Indian Script Terminal) technology, as a gnu/Linux OS user I asked her if its possible to display Indian Language characters on a Linux virtual terminal, however Prof. Kulkarni didn't have a ready answer.

Its common knowledge that Indian script characters are well supported under X window system, but I didn't find any information on compiling Linux kernel to support a Indian scripts much like the older GIST machines. Please do share information about this issue.

Mibbit Chat Widget with FreeNode IRC Server

Last night koolhead17 (aka Atul K. Jha) pinged me with an idea of providing a live chat feature for the mukt.in event site. I think its a good idea, we used [Mibbit] chat widget to direct our web vistors directly to #mukt.in IRC channel at FreeNode. Try it out right now.

If you are interested take a peek at the source of this webpage for simple one line XHTML code to add [Mibbit] chat widget to your website. More information is available at [Mibbit] Widget page.

FOSSMeet @ NIT Calicut: A Report

Pramode shares his experiences at the 2 day workshop for school kids called FOSS@School as part of the recently concluded FOSSMeet at NIT Calicut in Kerala. Aanjhan (aka Tuxmanic), Kishore and Hiran also blogged about the event.

Darn! I missed out this time, would be there for 2009 event.

Removing / Stopping Unwanted Services from Linux boot

The first thing you should do when you install a shiny new gnu/Linux system is remove unwanted services from default runlevel (default is runlevel 2 incase of debian and related distros ).

Most advanced users would manually remove the syslinks from the runlevel /etc/rc{0-6}.d directories. This is not only messy and also prone to errors. I advise you to look the update-rc.d tool from the sysv-rc package. The sysv-rc package is installed as part of standard gnu Debian Linux base system, so it pays to learn this one over other GUI or Ncurses based tools.

Alright enough of talk let me go ahead remove some unwanted services, let's get rid the The Internet Superserver(inetd) here.

$ sudo update-rc.d -f inetd remove update-rc.d: /etc/init.d/inetd exists during rc.d purge (continuing) Removing any system startup links for /etc/init.d/inetd ... /etc/rc0.d/K20inetd /etc/rc1.d/K20inetd /etc/rc2.d/S20inetd /etc/rc3.d/S20inetd /etc/rc4.d/S20inetd /etc/rc5.d/S20inetd /etc/rc6.d/K20inetd

The name of the service 'inetd' (referred to as basename in manual pages) are the init scripts that reside in the /etc/init.d directory. Have a look the scripts in this directory or look closely the boot time messages to find likely targets to remove.

Mediawiki Translation Project

Here is a heads-up from the Mediawiki localisation effort. Veeven informs that Telugu (te) localisation group is almost done(see group stats). At the time writing this post most of the mediawiki messages were translated into telugu, I guess the team is working hard on the extensions part by now. Good work fellows, you might be up for the bounty. Goodluck!

On the hand, the Mediawiki Hindi(hi) translation effort is in a sad state. It would really great if one of you could take time and help out. Do I see any hands going up ?

XP on XO soon

Last year I blogged in OLPC XO Production Delays, Microsoft Monster Catches Up about on the plans to run a Microsoft Windows OS on OLPC XO laptop something like this.
Yeah right, I guess a thousand slaves are working in dark dungeons trying to squeeze the Windows XP white elephant into the XO. :0)

It now seems that they are on the final stages of completing this Herculean technical feat according to this OLPC News story.
I guess its the end of the OLPC project. So long folks!.

Grep : The Torment question

Here is a favorite question often posed to novice sysadmins. Ho, how they would sweat on this one!!. I was pleasantly surprised to see it find its way into Linux Journal's Tech tips. Darn good one Alessandro!.