My previous posts on doing Fedora upgrades cover most of the topic but I realized there were a few things I left out.
Installing additional applications
The first thing has to do with some useful applications that Mauriat miranda doesn't cover on his excellent Fedora installation guidelines.
- xpdf – a simpler pdf viewer than acroread
- gnumeric – My preferred spreadsheet over OpenOffice Calc
- gqview – My preferred image viewer
- dia – A reasonable (though its rough around the edges) diagram editor
- ksnapshot (via kdegraphics) – My preferred method of taking screen shots when writing my articles.
- xcdroast – My preferred tool for burning CDs
- xterm – the original terminal emulator for Unix/Linux
There are various reasons I use these particular tools. Xpdf is easier to type than acroread. Just that simple. gnumeric was around before OpenOffice calc (at least on my desktop) and I ported my Applix spreadsheet for keeping track of my writing commissions to it. Now I have no reason to switch to OpenOffice. If I ever run into one, I may do it. For now, I'm happy with gnumeric.
Gqview is a simple gtk+ based image viewer. I don't use Nautilus for browsing files. I'm a command line kind of guy. But when I want to browse image files, such as lots of stock photos I've collected for art projects, I need something fast, easy to use and doesn't require launching all of kde to get it running (since I'm running gnome).
Dia is a simple diagramming tool. I use it heavily at work during software design and architecture portions of projects. There are lots of other diagramming tools. Most are overkill for what I want. Dia is far from perfect. But it fits my needs and is easy to use.
Ksnapshot goes against my previous rule of not launching KDE just to get one app running, but its the best tool for taking a snapshot of windows for all the articles I write. Yes, GNOME has gnome-screenshot, but it lacks the flexibility I need in such a tool. gimp's snapshot tool also works and since many of my articles are about GIMP then I can just use that. But when the article is about other tools, like audio or video players, I use ksnapshot.
xcdroast is just the tool I've used for years for burning CDs. It works. It's still maintained. It's still available for Fedora. Why learn a new tool just for burning CDs?
And xterm. Well, its handy to have around when you need to launch a new window really quickly just to test gdm, ssh and X server configurations. It's easier to type than “gnome-terminal” and yes, I know I can alias this to something else (like “xterm”). But what they heck. Gotta love the old stuff.
Configuring my wacom
I actually covered this in linux format issue 120 as part of a longer article. Getting my Wacom Bamboo working requires a little extra work, specifically recompiling a source package just to get a TCL based configuration tool. The Bamboo comes with a small black tablet with a usb connector and a stylus pen with holder. The tablet has four buttons and a circular pad between them at the top and a 5.8″ x 3.7″ drawing area below it.
The tablet is recognized by Fedora out of the box as soon as it is plugged in however it is not fully functional. Only the stylus side of the pen and the pen buttons function. To get the other side of the pen (the eraser side) working, along with the buttons and circular pad, the xorg.conf file must be updated and the X server restarted.
The following lines should be added to the ServerLayout section of the xorg.conf file:
InputDevice “stylus” “SendCoreEvents”
InputDevice “cursor” “SendCoreEvents”
InputDevice “eraser” “SendCoreEvents”
InputDevice “pad” “SendCoreEvents”
The following lines should be added to the end of xorg.conf file:
Section “InputDevice”
Driver “wacom”
Identifier “stylus”
Option “Device” “/dev/input/wacom”
Option “Type” “stylus”
Option “USB” “on”
EndSection
Section “InputDevice”
Driver “wacom”
Identifier “eraser”
Option “Device” “/dev/input/wacom”
Option “Type” “eraser”
Option “USB” “on”
EndSection
Section “InputDevice”
Driver “wacom”
Identifier “cursor”
Option “Device” “/dev/input/wacom”
Option “Type” “cursor”
Option “USB” “on”
EndSection
Section “InputDevice”
Driver “wacom”
Identifier “pad”
Option “Device” “/dev/input/wacom”
Option “Type” “pad”
Option “USB” “on”
Option “Button1” “6”
Option “Button2” “7”
Option “Button3” “4”
Option “Button4” “5”
EndSection
The xorg.conf settings must be mapped to keystrokes to be of any use in GIMP. This is done using the wacomcpl tool. The linuxwacom package must be downloaded and compiled. To make sure the wacomcpl package is properly built be sure to install the tcl-devel and tk-devel packages. The following commands will install the package without conflicting with any existing packages:
./configure –prefix=/usr/local/wacom
make
sudo make install
The wacomcpl program will be installed to /usr/local/wacom/bin. Note that even with this program the circular pad on the Bamboo only works with finger touches. Using the stylus pen on it has no effect.
Configuring my keyboard
I have logitech internet navigator keyboard. Not all the buttons are mapped to applications or tools so I use xmodmap and xbindkeys to get them working. I do this by running a shell script, which I call LogitechIntenetNavigator.sh, as one of the start up programs (see the System->Startup Programs menu from the GNOME desktop). There isn't much to this script. xmodmap is used to enable a keycode (re: key) and then xbindkeys maps them to a desktop utility using the $HOME/.xbindkeysrc configuration. After this occurs I can use the E-Mail button to launch evolution and the MyHome key to open a GNOME terminal, among other things.
I'm not including the source to the script or xbindkeys configuration in this blog entry but you can just download them from the links above. Note that this only works for my particular keyboard. You will likely need to do some research to find out what keycodes your keys are producing in order to map them to desktop utilities.