BOSS GNU/Linux Implementation in Tamilnadu government

Its Great time to BOSS GNU/Linux... after making its way to get installed in Free Laptops of TN Govt's Free laptop for students scheme.  Now TamilNadu Government is issued a GO(Government Order) regarding the implementation of BOSS GNU/Linux in the IT department.  

For more information Read here TN Govt's GO of BOSS GNU/Linux Implementation

So, Now one more feather is added to BOSS GNU/Linux's crown.  Sure this will help BOSS Linux to make its visibility all over tamil nadu.

Its Happiest & Great news for the OpenSource Lovers... :)

Tamil fonts not displayed properly in browsers.. in linux..

Once i came to know about tamil lyricist Arivumathi's blog.  So, i open it in my browser but tamil fonts are not shown properly.  The fonts are either like a rectangle or torn.  I try to see the blogpost in tamil properly, and atlast i got the following solution..

The solution is removing the Freesans, Freeserif fonts from your linux system(BOSS, ubuntu, all debian derived linux).  These fonts are in /usr/share/fonts/truetype/freefont directory.  Either remove the fonts by deleting it or copy it to some other place but not in the fonts directory.  Thats all now the blog is shown well in tamil.  the following images are

Tamil blog with tamil font rendering problem

Tamil blog after font problem fixed

Do you hear about Vanilla kernel?

Simply all the kernel that downloaded from the http://kernel.org/ are "Vanilla Kernel".


 We know that the home site of the linux kernel is at http://kernel.org/.  All the linux distributions will use the stable linux kernel from here(of different kernle versions[for ex: 2.6.32.46, 2.6.35.14 etc]). 

  Here comes the difference, so some distributions will patch the kernel before use it in its distribution.  For example SUSE's kernel patch for boot screen animation, Debian's kernel patch for LOGO , bad-ram.  [ Page to debian's kernel patches ]. 

 Now consider the security patches like SElinux, grsecurity.  The team that works on these projects are not able to know, monitor & follow back the kernel patch by different linux distributions.  So, they do write patches only to the kernel in http://kernel.org/.

 So, its true that the kernel you are using may not be completely same as the Vanilla kernel, even if they are same kernel versions.  Some features/securites that patched in one distribution and may not be patched in another.  So if one want a Plain kernel he should go with vanilla kernel download only from http://kernel.org/ not from their distribution's repository.

Lost your grub after windows installation.. How to update, reinstall the grub in (BOSS) Linux?

Scenario:
  Once windows(vista, 7, xp) installed after the linux installation then one will lost his grub and there is no way to select the OS during the system startup(Dual Boot).  By default windows installs its boot loader into the MBR and not care about the other OS in the same machine.
So how to get the old grub with the new Windows OS entry in it..? here follows the steps..

1. Insert your BOSS Linux DVD(live, install, utility all are in the same DVD) in the drive and reboot your
system.
2. Select the live option and boot your system in live mode.
3. Click and mount the Linux partition whose grub is going to be used.
4. Now copy the mount location in the addressbar(location: it is somewhat like /media/some_chars_numbers)
5. Open your "root terminal" Applications --@ Accessories --@ Root terminal and issue the following commands
6. #mount --bind /dev /media/some_chars_numbers/dev
7. #chroot /media/some_chars_numbers
8. #update-grub
This updates the grub with the newly installed Windows OS entry in it
9. #grub-install /dev/sda
This installs the grub in the MBR(Master Boot Record).

Thats all.. now reboot the system and remove the DVD.  Now system will loads with the new updated grub where you can see all the OS available in your system and you can select(dual/multi boot) the OS which you want to login.  That's all :)

How to configure TVS Dot matrix printer in BOSS

1. Click on System -> Administration -> Printing.  Give root password if prompted, a GUI application will open.
2. Click on Server -> Add -> printer.  If your dot matrix printer is connected with your system then it will be automatically get detected, then click on the printer name and click the forward button.
3.  Now you can see the driver for your printer model
if so select and forward else select the Epson-150 driver(it is very generic driver supports most of the dot-matrix printer.)

Note:
Once your printer configured successfully you can share your printers with others(who are connected with your computer with LAN cord) easily.  For that you need to enable the shared option by System -> Administration -> Printing -> right click on the printer icon -> properties -> Policies -> tick mark on the option "Shared"