linuxsysconfig

Thunderbird 3.1.2 has been released, adding fixes to improve stability and the user interface. I’m using Fedora 13 and the update isn’t available yet in the official repositories.

I could use an unofficial repo, such as Remi, to get the updates more quickly, but the easiest way for me is to use the precompiled binaries from Mozilla, available for download as a tar.bz2 archive. This way, I’ll always get notified when an update is available and –just two clicks away — I’ll be running the latest version.

Here’s how you can do it:

• download the archive to /opt
  $ cd /opt ; wget ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird/releases/3.1.2/linux-i686/en-US/thunderbird-3.1.2.tar.bz2
• unpack it
  tar jxvf thunderbird-3.1.2.tar.bz2
• remove the tarball
  rm thunderbird-3.1.2.tar.bz2
• run it using
  /opt/thunderbird/thunderbird
• add a launcher to the panel — Right click on the main panel –> Add to Panel –> Custom Application Launcher –> Add

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Fedora Project announced two “unexpected bugs” that affect Fedora 13. It looks like some users can no longer see the package update notification in the main panel or apply the updates using the update applet.

Updated packages to fix these bugs were released 2 weeks ago, but the users were not prompted to install them, since the update applet was broken. Users who perform manual updates using yum are not affected.

To fix your system, you need to run yum as root:

• to update all packages:
  yum –skip-broken update
• to install updated versions to fix the two issues:
  yum –skip-broken update gnome-packagekit selinux-policy

After the installation a reboot is required / recommended depending on the option you choose.

More details on Fedora Project mailing list.

Yesterday, August 3^rd, two Linux recovery operating systems received minor updates: my favorite, RIPLinuX (10.7) and another OS which I wrote about a while ago, Parted Magic (5.2).

The changelog files show these new releases include bug fixes, minor enhancements and updated versions for the main packages (e.g. partitioning tools).

Changelog for RIP LinuX:

http://www.tux.org/pub/people/kent-robotti/looplinux/rip/Changelog

Changelog for Parted Magic:

http://partedmagic.com/change-log/158-parted-magic-52.html

I’ve always been amazed by these lightweight Linux distributions (~100MB) which you can use for almost anything. Not only do they provide tools to help you troubleshoot your system, but they can also be used as regular OS’s for browsing the Internet, chatting with friends or even listening to music.

So although I generally agree with the saying, I can admit – in this case – that size doesn’t always matter.

Cannonical Design announced new fonts that will available in Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Merrkat. Then, they said the fonts will be made public on August 8th. Meanwhile, the Kubuntu-users mailing list gives notice that members of the ~kubuntu-users team on launchpad can now test the Ubuntu font which is currently in beta.

Ubuntu users go crazy. They create Launchpad accounts just to get access to this new font before August 8th.

Why?

Beats me. Yes, it is a nice font, I can admit that, but it’s just a font, isn’t it?

You can find more details here.