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To install bootchart under fedora simply run

yum install bootchart

Once installed you simply need to enable a grub entry to call it.  You just need to add the init=/sbin/bootchartd string to the end of the kernel settings.

I actually copied the existing kernel entry and added it (incase I mistyped something)

title Fedora (3.1.6-1.fc16.i686.PAE) with bootchart
    root (hd2,0)
    kernel /vmlinuz-3.1.6-1.fc16.i686.PAE ro root=/dev/md126 rd_NO_LUKS rd_NO_LVM rd_NO_DM    LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 \
          KEYTABLE=de-latin1-nodeadkeys rhgb \
          quiet nouveau.modeset=0 rdblacklist=nouveau \
          init=/sbin/bootchartd
    initrd /initramfs-3.1.6-1.fc16.i686.PAE.img

Now when I reboot and select this grub entry a bootchart file is written to /var/log/bootchart.tgz

Then run the bootchart command to generate an image of the results.

Well I started to have some strange crashes from some programs and this morning my PC just turned itself off.

I really expected it to be a memory problem so I needed to enable memtest86+ on my new fedora installation.

I quickly found http://fooninja.net/2011/05/05/loading-memtest-from-grub-fedora/

This is still valid.

Simply append

title Memtest86+ (4.10)
    root (hd0,4)
    kernel --type=netbsd /elf-memtest86+-4.10

to the end of the /boot/grub/grub.conf and reboot

Voilà errors now I just need to figure out which memory to take out

If you don’t like the big resize grip on emacs, firefox and many other applications you can disable them in Ubuntu 11.04.

See
http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2011/05/disable-the-resize-grip-in-ubuntu-11-04/

You simply need to add

style "default-style"
{
  GtkWindow::resize-grip-height = 0
  GtkWindow::resize-grip-width = 0
}

class "GtkWidget" style "default-style"

to your ~/.gtkrc-2.0 file.

I updated my Ubuntu to 11.04 yesterday and really didn’t like the new scroll bars.

After a little searching I found

• http://www.worthytips.com/14681/easily-disable-overlay-scrollbars.html
• http://www.matbra.com/en/2011/04/28/remover-ou-desabilitar-a-barra-de-rolagem-overlay-ubuntu-11-04/
• and many more.

Simply add the string “export LIBOVERLAY_SCROLLBAR=0″ into the /etc/X11/Xsession.d/80overlayscrollbars file.

E.g perform the following as root

echo "export LIBOVERLAY_SCROLLBAR=0" > /etc/X11/Xsession.d/80overlayscrollbars

I have used Blender for some years now and I recently began to think about buying a 3dconnexion Space Navigator.

I read that Blender and the Space Navigator worked under Linux and managed to borrow a Space Navigator from work over this long weekend.

I downloaded the 32bit drivers (3DxWare for Linux (i386)) from http://www.3dconnexion.com/service/drivers.html as well as the “Blender plug-in for Linux i386 (beta)“

Installing the Space Navigator driver

I extracted the 3dxware-linux-v1-4-3.i386.tar.gz file to /tmp/3d/

tar -xvzf 3dxware-linux-v1-4-3.i386.tar.gz -C /tmp/3d/
cd /tmp/3d/
sudo ./install-3dxunix.sh

I then recieved an error saying libXm.so.3 was missing.

/etc/3DxWare/daemon/3dxsrv: error while loading shared libraries: libXm.so.3: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

I pressed CTRL-C to abort the script.

After a little checking I found that I have libXm.so.4 but not 3, so I created a symbolic link from libXm 4 to 3.

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libXm.so /usr/lib/libXm.so.3

I then re-ran the install script again.

This time it all worked.  I did not configure it to auto start though.

Now I simply started the driver via

sudo /etc/3DxWare/daemon/3dxsrv -d usb

and was greeted by the blue lights on the Space Navigator and the messages

3DxWareUNIX = V1.4.3
Device      = SpaceNavigator
Firmware    = V3.17

there was also a minimised window called 3DxWare 1.4.3, which appears the be the settings dialog (like the Windows Control Panel control)

I then ran the xcube example from /tmp/3d/ and the space navigator worked great.  I changed a few settings as I prefer pressing and pulling to be zoom in and out.

Installing the Blender plugin

I was a little surprised by this, as the forums said I should have a ~/.blender/ directory and I didnt.

I decided that creating the directory couldn’t cause any problems so I created a directory

mkdir -p ~/.blender/plugins/

and copied the 3DxNdofBlender.plug file into it.  The new NDOF icons appeared at the bottom of the viewport.  See http://www.blender.org/development/release-logs/blender-246/ndof-support/