BD Tech Concepts LLC

Linux notes

Font rendering

If your Linux fonts look ugly, check the following:

Ref:: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Font_Configuration
File (Debian):: ~/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf

Compose keys, keyboard repeat, mouse acceleration

To directly enter characters such as the em-dash or ä:

Place in .cshrc, .bashrc, .icewm/startup, and any other desktop/windowing startup locations on your system:

setxkbmap -option compose:lwin

lwin selects the left “windows” key as the compose key. When this key is pressed, followed by other special keys, a final character is sent to the operating system. Examples include <compose>--- for the em-dash and <compose>"a for ä.

This is also a good place to set the keyboard repeat and mouse acceleration, for those window managers which may not provide their own tools to do so:

xset r rate 300 20
xset m 3/2

KDE debug messages

Bothered by extraneous KDE debug messages?

kdebugdialog

While this may be used to stop KDE messages, other warning messages may still appear in the console, and would have to be dealt with separately.

Apache2 configuration

Changes have been made to the Apache2 configuration files.

Later versions of the Apache2 web server have changed the management of its configuration files. This can affect web applications served from your own machine, even when only used by yourself on your own local machine.

httpd.conf is no longer used.

To add a configuration file:

1. Add filename.conf to /etc/apache2/conf-available/
2. a2enconf <filename> to activate the additional configuration file.
3. service apache2 reload to restart the server.

Kmail migration to Claws Mail

While there are a few scripts which try to help change from Kmail’s email format to Claws Mail’s MH format, Kmail has a few features which can cause problems. In particular, Kmail allows mail folders in either of two formats: maildir or mbox. The claws-mail conversion scripts tend to work only with the maildir format.

1. Ensure each Kmail folder is in maildir format instead of mbox:

In the file system, look in the Mail file directory for a subdirectory for each Kmail mail folder, in which case that folder is in maildir format. If the Kmail mail folder does not exist as a filesystem subdirectory, then that Kmail folder is in mbox format, and it must be converted to maildir instead. Do so by using Kmail to rename the current mbox format Kmail folder, such as by appending “_old” to its name. Create a new Kmail mail folder, being sure that the new folder is in maildir format. Copy the messages from the old to the new folder, then delete the old.
2. Remove any spaces from each Kmail folder name, possibly replacing each by an underscore.
3. Possibly flatten the folder tree.
4. Try the conversion script from http://users.claws-mail.narkive.com/vHT20O8Y/migration-from-kmail by Hanno Böck.