Using a USB device as a Fedora install media or live USB

It's hard to imagine, that creating an install media on a USB devie or use it as a live USB is as easy as burning an Iso image, for this reason i decided to spread the word and share the excellent information in this post on fedora project's wiki. How to create and use live USB



This tutor describe the creation of a USB Fedora 16 install media.

Warning:
You may loose your data!!!
All operation mentioned in this tutor are destructive.

• Backup your data
• Double check and verify twice the destination partition's name

All what you need is a USB stick and an iso image downloaded from fedoraproject web site. With the following method, you can create an install media or a live USB.

1. Begin by installing a program called livecd-tools.

$ su -c “yum install livecd-tools”




2-Umount your USB device

3-Create a partition on the USB stick, of type fat 16 and make this partition bootable (if this is not already done)

4-Using livecd-tools, copy the .iso image to the USB device, using format option


$ su -c “livecd-iso-to-disk --format --reset-mbr path_to_iso_image /dev/partition_name_on_USB"


Note:
   I used first livecd-tools without format option (I formatted before) and my
   PC refused to boot from the USB

 5-This needs some processing time. At the end a message is displayed to say that your USB device is ready.

Enjoy installing or trying Fedora

Read more...

Fedora 16, Tomorrow is the day

Fedora 15 was a great success story and a revolutionary one too. Fedora 16 has even better to offer.

Since the Alpha almost all was stable and improved, but with the release you have the right to ask for more.

If you are like me waiting impatiently to update your Fedora, or even to replace your old OS, visit Fedora's main site and choose among the packages what ever you want to install or  try.

 Get Fedora 16

Read more...

Festival of Cergy's associations 2011, France

 English

This is a quick report about the Festival of Cergy's associations, in Cergy, France.
I am really tired after this event, but wanted to deliver some hot news.

Every year there are a lot of organizations that participate in this event, about 300. All sort of organizations (non-profit), education, sport, universities, associations for young people, retired, or for children. All booths are in a big parc, each in a separate tent.This Saturday the sun was shinning and it was a little bit hot, an ideal situation to have the maximum of visitors. I have announced my association's booth, Fedora User Group Cergy, and Fedora 15 DVS, in many local medias, some weeks ago.

I arrived there  at about 9.30 am, we were two persons. A big surprise  were there, there were 3 visitors  waiting near the booth for their Fedora Live DVD.

We began at once to prepare the booth for the event. We had a Fedora poster, some banners, Fedora's live DVDs, some decorations  and gift (T-Shirts, Caps, mugs, stylos, goodies, ...).

There were a lot of people interested by Fedora. Many of them had read about Fedora 15, and wanted to test it. Most of them are students, some discovered Fedora for the first time. Some Linux users were there just to have a little talk, about Fedora and Linux

There were a lot of Windows users, they think that Linux installation is difficult for them. After a little discussion about how easy is to install Fedora, and the possibility to discover Fedora  without any prior installation using the live DVD, these people were interested in trying Fedora.

There were also some of other Linux distributions users, they read about Fedora 15 on the Web, or in magazines, and are also very interested in trying Fedora 15.

I also visited some other booths to promote Fedora

I think that globally this event was really positive, with many interesting contacts. I distributed about 100 Fedora's DVD. A local radio will invite me to talk about Fedora and Fedora User Group of Cergy. I met at least 150 persons, most of the time in groups, in other booths. I have contact with two universities, here in Cergy for an install party, next year.

The Mayor of Cergy (60.000 habitation) visited the booth and was happy to have a Linux User Group in his town.

At last, but not the least, i have now 10 users for Fedora User Group of Cergy.

One last note, there were a question like "why do you promote Fedora? Do work for Red Hat?". The answer off course was that I'm a Fedora Ambassador, and that i'm proud to promote it :)

Français

Ceci est un rapport rapide sur la Fête des Associations à Cergy, France.

Comme chaque année à cette fête participent toutes les associations de Cergy (environ 300). I l y a des associations de toutes nature, de toutes sortes d'activités. Pour les jeunes, moins jeunes et associations pour les enfants et adolescents. Associations d'éducation, sportives, de danse, ou peinture, insertion et orientation professionnelle. Beaucoup d'antennes administratives sont présentes. Cergy étant une ville universitaires, beaucoup de grande écoles et d'universités  participent aussi à cet événement.

La fête se déroule dans un grand parc, les stands sont chacun sous forme de tente. J'ai profité de cette occasion pour rencontrer le maximum de visiteurs, en annonçant la participation d'Informatique et Internet Pour Tous (IIPT), et Fedora User Group, dans quelques médias locaux, quelques semaines auparavant .

I a fait beau samedi, le soleil a été au rendez-vous, toute la journée. Un petit orage d'été a éclaté après la fête à 18h30, tout le monde est parti à cette heure, heureusement.

Je suis arrivé  au stand à 09h30, nous étions deux personnes, et là surprise, 3 visiteurs attendent déjà à côté du stand, leurs Fedora Live DVD.

Nous avons commencé à de suite à préparer le stand pour l'événement. Une affiche Fedora, des bannières, DVDs Fedora, quelques décorations et des cadeaux (T-shirts, casquettes, mugs, stylos, goodies, ...).

En résumé, beaucoup de monde ont envie de tester Fedora, voir l'adopter comme système d'exploitation.

Les utilisateurs de Windows, sont le plus craintifs. Ils pensent à tort que l'utilisation d'un Linux est en général facile, mais son installation pose problème. La perte de données est parmi les raisons, l'autre étant le retour à Windows, occasionnellement, ou en cas de problème. Une petite discussion sur l'installation super simplifiée de Fedora et la possibilité de le tester sans installation, en utilisant un Live DVD, suffit en général pour dissiper cette craint. 90% des ces gens sont partis avec un DVD, enthousiastes de le tester dés leur retour.

La plupart d'utilisateurs Feodra, ont déjà la version 15, téléchargé sur Internet, les utilisateurs disposant d'une version plus ancienne, sont tous partis avec un ou plusieurs DVDs, pour les amis.

La majorité des utilisateurs d'une autre distribution de Linux, sont partis avec, un DVD Fedora, car disposant d'une version plus ancienne de Linux, ou en raison d'articles très positifs sur Fedora 15, sur le Web, ou dans les revues spécialisés. Quelques utilisateurs (d'autres distributions),  découvrent Fedora, pour la première fois. Surprise !!!.

Une partie de visiteurs ignorent malheureusement tout sur Linux, malgré ses vingts ans et toutes les avantages que Linux présente. Dans cette situation, j'espère que les explications sur Fedora, avec le DVD gratuit ont été suffisant pour donner l'envie à ces gens de faire le premier pas.

J'ai aussi visité beaucoup d'autres stands pour promouvoir Fedora

Je pense que globalement, cet événement a été très positif, avec de nombreux contacts intéressants. J'ai distribué environ 100 DVD de Fedora. Une radio régionale m'invite pour parler de Fedora et Fedora User Group de Cergy. J'ai rencontré au moins 150 personnes, la plupart en groupes sur les autres stands. Je suis en contact avec deux universités, ici à Cergy pour une install party, l'année prochaine.

Le Maire de Cergy (60 000 habitants) a visité le stand et a été ravi  d'avoir un groupe d'utilisateurs Linux dans sa ville.

Bonne nouvelle j'ai maintenant 10 utilisateurs pour Fedora User Group de Cergy.

Note :

Une question revenait souvent, pourquoi, faisais-je la promotion de Fedorada ?

La réponse est facile, pour un ambassadeur Fedora, je me fait un plaisir de promouvoir ma distribution préférée :)

Read more...

Pause déjeuner

Beaucoup de monde ce matin

Read more...

La fête des association c'est aujourd'hui

Cette année c'est le samedi 3 septembre 2011, 10h00-18h00, Parc de la Préfecture – Cergy
Informatique et Internet Pour Tous participe comme chaque année à la fête des associations à Cergy.
Fedora User Group et Java User Group Cergy
DVD Fedora 15 gratuit
Cadeaux et autres surprises vous attendent
Visitez notre stand N° 119 Ballon Bleu clair

Read more...

Fedora User Group - Cergy

L'association IIPT (Informatique et Internet Pour Tous), dont je suis le président, profite de la Fête des Associations à Cergy pour lancer un groupe d'utilisateurs Fedora pour Cergy et ses environs, Fedora User Group - Cergy. 

Notre stand vous attend si vous voulez rejoindre le groupe , ou même si vous voulez juste passer me dire bonjour et discuter avec un Ambassadeur Fedora.

Samedi 3 septembre 2011, de 10h00 à 18h00, Parc de la Préfecture – Cergy

Stand N° 119 Ballon  Bleu clair

DVD Fedora 15 gratuit

A l'occasion de 20 ans de Linux, Fedora et Linux seront à l'honneur dans notre stand cette année.

Venez retirer votre DVD gratuit et discutez si vous le souhaitez avec un Ambassadeur Fedora




   DVD Fedora 15 Multi Desktop Live

            " Dans la limite des stocks disponibles "

Beaucoup d'autres surprises vous attendent

Read more...

Using custom images in Eclipse plug-ins

Note:

This post is a short and fast answer about registering images in ImageRegistry. This is an excerpt of my little ebook Steps 2 Eclipse Plug-in. This book describes, how my  plug-in for Eclipse: XML Parsing in Java Kit, was written.

It's useful to use your own images in an Eclipse plug-in, you can use them later for custom control, to add your logo in a cheat sheet, etc.

Eclipse plug-in must be packaged as a .jar file, for this reason some steps are needed to locate  and use images inside the plug-in.

We will use the Activator class (created automatically, as an option, when defining a plug-in project). This class controls the plug-in life cycle. Its method getDefault(), returns the plug-in instance, when called at run-time

 Steps to register images: (Activator class)
1. Begin by adding an ID to the image you want to use.
This ID (public,static) can be obtained  later from another class. This ID will be the name of the desired image in ImageRegistry

2. Override initializeImageRegistry(ImageRegistry) method to register Images in ImageRegistry

ImageRegistry is a list of images, clients can add or retrieve images from this registry using their names.

ImageDescriptor contains everything needed for creating an image

FileLocator  contains a collection of helper methods for finding files in bundles

3. Get the bundle associated with the plug-in

4. Create an ImageDescriptor from a URL. The custom image is under images folder in the root of the plug-in

5. Save the created ImageDescriptor in ImageRegistry using the image ID declared above.


       
Get image(s) from any user class:
Get the plug-in instance
AbstractUIPlugin plugin=Activator.getDefault();

Get the ImageRegistry associated with the plug-in
ImageRegistry reg=plugin.getImageRegistry();

Get the Image to be used from ImageRegistry
Image logo=reg.get(Activator.LOGO_ID); 







The Activator class
/* ************************************************************************************
 * @Author Kaesar ALNIJRES
 * http://www.java-javafx.com
 * Copyright(c) 2010-2011
 *
 * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
 * under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free
 * Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option)
 * any later version.
 *
 * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
 * GNU General Public License for more details.
 *
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
 * License along with this program; If not, see
 * **************************************************************************************/

package com.java_javafx.ka.templates.java.xml.templates_and_cheatsheets;

import org.eclipse.core.runtime.FileLocator;
import org.eclipse.core.runtime.Path;
import org.eclipse.core.runtime.Platform;
import org.eclipse.jface.resource.ImageDescriptor;
import org.eclipse.jface.resource.ImageRegistry;
import org.eclipse.ui.plugin.AbstractUIPlugin;
import org.osgi.framework.Bundle;
import org.osgi.framework.BundleContext;

/**
 * The activator class controls the plug-in life cycle
 */
public class Activator extends AbstractUIPlugin {

    // The plug-in ID
    public static final String PLUGIN_ID = "com.java_javafx.ka.templates.java.xml.templates_and_cheatsheets"; //$NON-NLS-1$

        //Give an ID to the image you want to use, this ID can be obtained  later (public,static)
    public static final String LOGO_ID="logo";
 
   
    // The shared instance
    private static Activator plugin;
   
    //Override initializeImageRegistry to register Images
    @Override
    protected void initializeImageRegistry(ImageRegistry reg)
    {
        super.initializeImageRegistry(reg);
        Bundle bundle=Platform.getBundle(PLUGIN_ID);
       
        ImageDescriptor logo=ImageDescriptor.createFromURL(FileLocator.find(bundle,   new
                                                                                                                 Path("images/logo.gif"), null));
       
        reg.put(LOGO_ID, logo);
       
    }
    /**
     * The constructor
     */
    public Activator() {
    }

    /*
     * (non-Javadoc)
     * @see org.eclipse.ui.plugin.AbstractUIPlugin#start(org.osgi.framework.BundleContext)
     */
    public void start(BundleContext context) throws Exception {
        super.start(context);
        plugin = this;
    }

    /*
     * (non-Javadoc)
     * @see org.eclipse.ui.plugin.AbstractUIPlugin#stop(org.osgi.framework.BundleContext)
     */
    public void stop(BundleContext context) throws Exception {
        plugin = null;
        super.stop(context);
    }

    /**
     * Returns the shared instance
     *
     * @return the shared instance
     */
    public static Activator getDefault() {
        return plugin;
    }

}

Read more...

Ask your Gnome 3 more

So you have installed Fedora 15, with Gnome 3, with its "delightful and easy to use interface". The interface is really awesome, very soft for your eyes. You can navigate very quickly with your mouse. Yes it's great.

But wait, you have missed the minimize button, adding a custom launcher, add icons to Desktop, etc. You think for a moment, no. It's not for me !

I'm really glad to tell you that you are wrong. You'll have all the improvements added in Gnome 3, plus the old little things, you think, you have missed. And above all, all is easy to add and straight forward.

Let's go. In this tutor I'll show you how to add things missed in Gnome 3, I'll let you choose yourself how to tweak themes. I will not describe installing shell extensions.

There is a program that you must have, called gnome-tweak-tool. Available at Fedora's repository.

Install gnome-tweak-tool

Open a terminal and type:
su -c "yum install gnome-tweak-tool"


Start gnome-tweak-tool

A click on Applications, to display all available applications, go the searching field



Typing gnome in the searching field, let you see it with some other applications
Click on Tweak Advanced Settings

The Tweak Tool is opened
An application with a very simple and straightforward interface.




Enable adding icons to the Desktop

Click on File Manager, will show you some options
Buttons can be toggled ON and Off
Enable (put it on ON) Have file manager handle the desktop

This will allow you to add icons, custom launcher, document on the desktop



Right click on the desktop >  Create Launcher > add your custom launcher

I have added a launcher to my Eclipse
You can also Create a new folder, and a new document on the Desktop

Some other options in File Manager



In Interface

You can set Menus and/or Buttons to have icons
And change the used theme



In Shell

You can among other things:
Show the whole date
Add button to windows title bar

And here are all three buttons



Note:
You have to log out and log in, for buttons to appear in the title bar

You can go further in customization and select mouse button's actions

Hope that you find this tutor useful.

And enjoy your Gnome 3

Read more...