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Behold, a blog to document the process of installing archlinux. Arch will be sharing the drive with Windows 7, so for the sake of completion, I'll make a note of how to set up a dual boot with the GRUB bootloader. I'll be installing both OS's from scratch, starting with Windows.

System Specs

• AMD X2 dual-core processor, running at 2.8 ghz, circa 2002
• ASUS ATX motherboard
• 2 gigs of ram
• 100gb drive
• nvidia gtx 550 ti graphics card
• linksys wmp54g wireless pci network card
• 550w power supply

Installing Windows

I installed Windows 7 from a USB stick using Microsoft's Windows 7 USB/DVD tool. You'll need a computer running Windows 7 already to do this. I booted with the USB drive, and installed Windows on the entire 100GB drive with a single partition. Once installed, via Start Menu > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Disk Manamagent, select 'Shrink Partition' on the main Windows parition to create another partition for Arch. The default value for the shrink is 50%, so for my setup the value for the new disk size was ~50GB, and that's fine.

Note about this install. I have an old Linksys (Cysco) WMP54G Wireless PCI Card. Strangely, all the drivers from Linksys/Cysco's website didn't work, but following this blog post, the generic RALink drivers worked great.

Installing Archlinux

I downloading the Core Image via torrent from http://www.archlinux.org/download/. This ISO includes all core packages so the system doesn't need to be online to install.

Once downloaded, I followed my notes on how to create a bootable ISO onto another USB drive with yet another machine. There are also numerous free tools available to make a bootable ISO on Windows. After booting into Arch with the USB stick, boot into Arch, and type:

/arch/setup

The installation article on the archwiki is an excellent resource.

Disk Partitions

It's pretty straight forward until the drive partitions. My 100GB drive can only support 4 logical partitions, so the rest have to be Logical. Note: The numbers are out of order, because I used Logical partitions for everything except for the Windows partitions and /home. Logical partitions end up being counted last in the partition table, but I made my /home folder LAST so I could use the up the remaining space on the drive. You'll also need to set the /boot partition's 'bootable' flag to true.

• sda1  
    Windows 7 System Reserved
• sda2  
    Windows 7  
• sda5  
    /boot - 100MB is enough
• sda6
    / - about 25GB is appropriate
• sda7
    swap - between 1024MB and 4096MB
• sda4
    /home - use rest of hard drive

Some of these, namely boot, swap, and home, are optional.

Select Packages

At minimum, you'll need the core packages that are already selected. I also included certain key packages such as OpenSSH. Basically, include any packages you need for internet connectivity, as everything else will be updated from the net.

Configure System

Configure system does multiple things, including setting the root password, network settings, and some other configuration tools. Here's a reference of where Arch installs all the base config files for the system.

/etc/rc.conf                    system config
/etc/fstab                      filesystem mountpoints
/etc/mkinitcpio.conf            initramfs config
/etc/modprobe.d/modprobe.conf   kernel modules
/etc/resolv.conf                dns servers
/etc/hosts                      network hosts
/etc/locale.get                 glibc locals
/etc/pacman.conf                pacman.confg
/etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist        pacman mirror list

You should edit any of these files that are specific to your system. At minimum I enabled my network card in rc.conf.

You'll also need to enable at least one mirror in pacman.d/mirrorlist if you plan to update the system or download new packages.

Bootloader

Install Bootloader will install and help you configure the bootloader you selected in the Select Packages stage (GRUB, in my case). After double-checking your bootloader configuration, you'll be prompted for a disk to install the loader to. You should install GRUB to the MBR of the installation disk, in this case sda1.

Finalizing Installation

Once installed, exit the installer, remove the USB, type reboot in the command line, and the system will reboot. If all went well, you should be dropped into a login screen where you can log in with root and the password you chose during install.

You can create new users interactively with adduser.

You can install/update packages with Arch's package manager, pacman.

Before installing any packages, sync the package list with:

pacman --sync --refresh

To add a new package (vim, in this case), type:

pacman -S vim

next: getting node and a webserver installed.

Working with various interfaces that output json or xml results in lots of situations where you have a single-line, unformatted output. Here's a quick way to format json, xml from the CLI.

via the command line:

format json

cat unformatted.json | python -m json.tool

format json from clipboard

pbpaste | python -m json.tool

format xml from clipboard

pbpaste | xmllint --format -

for all above examples, you can pipe back to the clipboard with | pbcopy at the end of the command, or output to a file with > output.json or > output.xml.

Since there is no equivilent to /dev/dsp or /dev/audio on OSX, you need to install an alternative like sox.

Install sox by either downloading the OSX binary from http://sox.sourceforge.net/
or
install homebrew, and then install sox with brew install sox

Examples

cat audio from /dev/urandom/ :

cat /dev/urandom | sox -traw -r44100 -b16 -u - -tcoreaudio

audio from an executable

cat > test.c
main(t) {
  for( t = 0;;t++)
    putchar( t * ((( t >> 12 ) | (t >> 8)) & (63& (t >> 4 ))));
}

gcc test.c -o test
./test | sox -traw -r8000 -b8 -u - -tcoreaudio

resources

• http://countercomplex.blogspot.com/2011/10/algorithmic-symphonies-from-one-line-of.html
• http://www.bemmu.com/music/index.html
• http://wurstcaptures.untergrund.net

history | awk {'print $2'} | sort | uniq -c | sort -k1 -rn | head

example

// brand new netbook
  24 ls
  14 cd
  12 defaults
   9 unzip
   8 ssh
   5 mv
   3 mkdir
   3 chmod
   3 cat
   2 unrar

// quilime.com
 173 git
 140 ls
  84 cd
  18 emacs
  15 cat
  13 mv
  12 rm
   5 ln
   4 mkdir
   4 ./scripts/content

The default Cygwin install emulates a terminal in a command window similar to the DOS prompt with a limited feature set.

For a full featured x-term, you can install Cygwin-X along with Cygwin:

1. Install Cygwin from setup.exe

2. Install the following packages:

   • xorg-server (required, the Cygwin X Server)
   • xinit (required, scripts for starting the X server: xinit, startx, startwin (and a shortcut on the Start Menu to run it), startxdmcp.bat )
   • xorg-docs (optional, man pages)
   • X-start-menu-icons (optional, adds shortcuts to X Clients and Server to the Start menu)
   • mintty (windows-feel terminal)
     
     

3. Optional Packages

   • openssh
   • git, svn
   • wget, curl
   • rsync
   • vim, emacs
   • any additional fonts

   
   

4. ~/.XDefaults
   dark theme:

   ! terminal colors ------------------------------------------------------------
   ! tangoesque scheme
   *background: #111111
   *foreground: #babdb6
   ! Black (not tango) + DarkGrey
   *color0:  #000000
   *color8:  #555753
   ! DarkRed + Red
   *color1:  #ff6565
   *color9:  #ff8d8d
   ! DarkGreen + Green
   *color2:  #93d44f
   *color10: #c8e7a8
   ! DarkYellow + Yellow
   *color3:  #eab93d
   *color11: #ffc123
   ! DarkBlue + Blue
   *color4:  #204a87
   *color12: #3465a4
   ! DarkMangenta + Mangenta
   *color5:  #ce5c00
   *color13: #f57900
   !DarkCyan + Cyan (both not tango)
   *color6:  #89b6e2
   *color14: #46a4ff
   ! LightGrey + White
   *color7:  #cccccc
   *color15: #ffffff
   

   Some more themes on the Arch forums.
   
   

5. ~/.bashrc
   To enable color ls and human readable size format, add:

   alias ls='ls -h --color=tty'
   

   By default, the .bashrc in CygwinX has many options you can uncomment.
   
   

6. ~/.emacs Disable emacs temp (~) file pooping

   (setq make-backup-files nil)
   

   
   

Result:

Other emulators for Windows: - Terminator/

1. diskutil list
   Determines the device node assigned to your flash media (e.g. /dev/disk2)

2. diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk#
   Replace # with the disk number from the last command; in the previous example, # is 2)

3. sudo dd if=/path/to/example.iso of=/dev/diskN bs=1m
   Replace /path/to/example.iso with the path to the iso; for example: ./windows7.iso. After typing in your sudo password, the process will start invisibly.

4. diskutil eject /dev/disk#
   Remove your flash media device when the command completes. Done!

Referenced from BurningIsoHowto

Bonus tip! You want to see how far the dd copy is coming along? Run in another terminal instance:
$ sudo killall -INFO dd
The process info will display in the original terminal.

Updated my File Browser PHP script on GitHub.

preview:

in use: media.quilime.com

via Terminal

show hidden files:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
killall Finder

hide hidden files:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE
killall Finder

copy /b file1+ file2 output

eg

copy /b picture.jpg + archive.rar file.jpg

Open file.jpg with the default application, it will show the picture "picture.jpg". Change the extension to "file.rar" or if you try to open "file.jpg" with an archiver you will get the contents of "archive.rar".

ssh-keygen -t rsa
// linux
ssh-copy-id [user@]host
// osx
cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | ssh user@machine "mkdir ~/.ssh; cat >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys"
eval `ssh-agent`
ssh-add

alias ls='ls --color'
export CLICOLOR=1
export LSCOLORS=gxFxCxDxBxgggdabagacad

export EDITOR='emacs'

# color ls
export CLICOLOR=1
export TERM=xterm-color
export LSCOLORS=GxFxCxDxBxegedabagacad


# minimal prompt
# export PS1="
# $PWD
# : "


# current git branch
export PS1="
\[\033[38m\]\u@\h\[\033[01;34m\] \w \[\033[31m\]\`ruby -e \"
print (%x{git branch 2> /dev/null}.grep(/^\*/).first || '').
gsub(/^\* (.+)$/, '(\1) ')\"\`\[\033[37m\]
$\[\033[00m\] "


# aliases
alias ff="find . -type f -name "

for k in $(ls *.JPG); do convert $k -resize 50% -quality 80 r_$k; done

*.bat file structure

REM // .bat comment syntax
C:\Progra~1\Autodesk\Maya2010\bin\render -s 1 -e 30 -im output_image myscene.ma
C:\Progra~1\Autodesk\Maya2010\bin\render -s 1 -e 30 -im output_image2 anotherscene.ma

The path to render.exe must be the 8.3 character DOS version.
To execute the file, save as a *.bat and double click it in Explorer.

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(.*)//(.*)$
RewriteRule . %1/%2 [R=301,L]

#!/bin/bash
# Shell script to create file named after the current date
# YYYY-MM-DD format

DATE=$(date +%Y"-"%m"-"%d)
echo -e "new file" > $DATE

ls | nl -nrz -w2 | while read a b; do mv "$b" filename.$a.png; done;

Function to return location of intersect with poly mesh and spherical object moving in the positive direction on the Y axis.

mel source

global proc intersectSphereY()
{
    print(". . . . . go go go\n");


int $iter = 50;
float $start[3] = {0, -0.5, 0};
float $limit[3] = {0, 5.0, 0};
    $mesh = "test_mesh";    
$tmpCN = "cpom";


$obj = "rod1";
    float $radius = 0.5;
    float $curPos[3] = {0, 0, 0};

for ($i = 0; $i <= $iter; $i++)
{    
    $mesh = "test_mesh";
    $shape = `listRelatives -shapes $mesh`;

    createNode -n $tmpCN closestPointOnMesh;
    connectAttr -f ($shape[0] + ".outMesh") ($tmpCN + ".inMesh");
    setAttr ($tmpCN + ".inPosition") $curPos[0] $curPos[1] $curPos[2];

    $cpom = `getAttr ($tmpCN + ".position")`;

    if ( pointDist($curPos, $cpom) <= $radius ) {
        return ". . bonk\n";
    }

    $curPos[1] = ($limit.y) / $iter * $i;
    setAttr ($obj + ".translateY") $curPos[1];

    delete $tmpCN;
}
return ". nope\n";


}

global proc float pointDist(float $p1[], float $p2[])
{
    return sqrt( 
    (($p1[0] - $p2[0]) * ($p1[0] - $p2[0])) + 
    (($p1[1] - $p2[1]) * ($p1[1] - $p2[1])) + 
    (($p1[2] - $p2[2]) * ($p1[2] - $p2[2])));
}

intersectSphereY;

Shell script that slices a single image into any number of vertical and horizontal sections.

#!/bin/bash
#@author  gabriel dunne <quilime.com>

IMAGE=$1
IMAGE_W=$2
IMAGE_H=$3
ROWS=$4
COLS=$5

if [ $# -eq 0 ]
then
    echo "usage: image width height rows cols"
    echo "example: ./slice.sh Sunset.jpg 800 600 16 16"
    exit
else

    for (( x = 1; x <= COLS; x++ ))
    do
        for (( y = 1 ; y <= ROWS; y++ ))
        do
            let CROP_X = `expr $IMAGE_W-IMAGE_W/$x`
            let CROP_Y = `expr $IMAGE_H-IMAGE_H/$y`
            let CROP_W = `expr $IMAGE_W/$ROWS`
            let CROP_H = `expr $IMAGE_H/$COLS`
            echo -n "crop ${CROP_W}x${CROP_H}+${CROP_X}+${CROP_Y} result: [${x},${y}]_$IMAGE"
            echo ""
            convert $IMAGE -crop ${CROP_W}x${CROP_H}+${CROP_X}+${CROP_Y} [${x},${y}]_$IMAGE
        done
    done
    
fi

To Use

navigate to slice.sh in your terminal and do

chmod +x slice.sh
./slice.sh Sunset.jpg 800 600 16 16

process selection list

string $select[] = ls -sl;
for ( $node in $select ) // process each
{
   /* ... */
}

if node exists

string $node = "object";
if ( objExists $node )
{
   // The node exists
}

regexp

Strip component

string $node = "pCube1.f[2]";
string $no_component = match "^[^\.]*" $node;
// Result: "pCube1" //

Extract component or attribute, with '.'

string $node = "pCube1.f[2]";
string $component = match "\\..*" $node;
// Result: ".f[2]" //


string $nodeAttr = "blinn1.color";
string $attrName = match "\\..*" $nodeAttr;
// Result: ".color" //

Extract attribute name, without '.'

string $node = "pCube1.f[2]";
string $component = `substitute "^[^.]*\\." $node ""`;
// Result: "f[2]" //

string $nodeAttr = "blinn1.color";
string $attrName = `substitute "^[^.]*\\." $nodeAttr ""`;
// Result: "color" //

Extract parent UI control from full path

string $uiControl = "OptionBoxWindow|formLayout52|formLayout55|button6";
string $uiParent = substitute "|[^|]*$" $uiControl "";
// Result: OptionBoxWindow|formLayout52|formLayout55 //

Strip trailing Line Break (\n), if any.

This is useful when processing text input read from a file using fgetline.

string $input = "line\n";
$string $line = match "^[^(\r\n)]*" $input;
// Result: "line" //

Extract directory from path.

Keep the trailing slash for ease of use.

string $path = "C:/AW/Maya5.0/bin/maya.exe";
string $dir = match "^.*/" $path;
// Result: "C:/AW/Maya5.0/bin/"

Extract file from path

string $path = "C:/AW/Maya5.0/bin/maya.exe";
string $filepart = match "[^/\\]*$" $path;
// Result: "maya.exe"

Strip numeric suffix

string $node = "pCube1|pCubeShape223";
string $noSuffix = match ".*[^0-9]" $node;
// Result: "pCube1|pCubeShape"

Extract numeric suffix

string $node = "pCube1|pCubeShape223";
string $suffix = match "[0-9]+$" $node;
// Result: "223" //

Extract short name of DAG or control path

string $dagPath = "pCube1|pCubeShape223";
string $shortName = match "[^|]*$" $dagPath;
// Result: pCubeShape223 //

other reference

• http://xyz2.net/mel/