The site hosts local and multi tracker torrents (meaning that we can track our own as well as other torrents) and we append our tracker to the torrent file in order to add another layer of tracking to the torrent (in case it goes dead on the original tracker). The current version of the site design wise was implemented in the summer of 08, the Blog is working on receiving an overhaul as well so that it looks like the main site. The back end of the site is running on XBTit and the XBT tracker on a Debian Linux box.

We’re open to any Linux or Opensource Torrent (no movies, music, warez, etc.) and have a pretty good moderator group that keeps the site clean. We’re one of the few “legal” torrent sites around. It is a beautiful thing.

To celebrate the fourth anniversary of Linuxtracker, we’re going all out this month with several large giveaways:

• an impressive pack of swag supplied by Pandora as well as a linuxtracker.org shirt
• a complimentary subscription to LinuxJournal (print subscription for Canadian, US, or Mexico, online subscription for international members), a Google Sticker (sticker in photo may not be the one you receive) and an LNX Oval from ThinkGeek (one for each day!)
• a Plush Tux and Linux Fish (provided by ThinkGeek) – 5 of these bad boys to hand out!
• two packs consisting of T-Shirts, bumper stickers and a button from Sabayon Linux
• Schwag from Startupschwag.com
• 4 LinuxPro Licenses from CodeWeavers (the team that brought us CrossOver!)

So if you aren’t Registered yet you need to do so quickly!

Related External Links

• WETA FM 90.9 Blog » Blog Archive » Gra?yna Bacewicz – 100th …
• Top 10 Most Pirated Movies on BitTorrent | TorrentFreak
• Code Aims to Quell New Zealand “3 Strikes” Fears | TorrentFreak
• Voting and Linux Australia | etbe – Russell Coker
• VectorLinux 6.0 RC3 Now Available at LinuxTracker.org

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Apparently that was a big mistake. Whatever kind of gremlins had attacked the server, they devoured the ext3 Journal so that when FSCK ran, it couldn’t find it. It ended up dumping everything in to lost+found on /dev/hda3. Well, the server, at that point was toast. I had the host put up a new box and mount the old drive as a slave. Fortunately, it looks like everything was in lost+found and i was able to restore the databases (for the most part) and the files for the sites on this server, so not too much was lost.

I did spend most of the weekend in what appeared to be a coma fueled by some of the best diet pills you could find, though really it was pizza and caffeine that helped me get through the mess.

One thing that I am thankful for is the fact that within the lost+found directory, the directory structure was mostly in tact. If you haven’t looked in your lost and found folder on a unix file system, I suggest you check it out some time. The files are moved in there and renamed with their inode (so a file that used to be called joe.txt could now be #1132432). You can do some other reading on this @ TLDP and I suggest you do.

I was able to find the mysql files I needed to restore the databases (and all except the ones for *THIS* site were in usable condition) and the folders with the sites in them for the sites. I do have one site that is going to take a little longer to restore back to normal as it seems to have split the folders out in to more than one directory for some reason (which leads me to believe that it was this directory that caused the issues!) but as everything is there, its going to be a matter of figuring out which galleries are which….

This leads me to my next point. BACK UP ALWAYS! Us crons, use programs, whatever. Just back up and do it often. Never assume your host has a back up (because they don’t). Personally, I’m looking at backup ninja (thanks jacquelyn!) to handle it for me!

Anyways, the site is slowly being put back together and it looks like everything except the old image links are working….

I was pleasantly surprised once again. I downloaded the Sabayon 3.4 Dvd, burned it and fired it up. The first time through I went through a normal boot, and once I was in to Sabayon (it took a minute or two as it worked out what it needed to configure), I was in a stock Sabayon install with out compiz fusion. I attempted to install from the live cd and I had no keyboard. Determined not to let that ruin my day, I rebooted the system (power button) and booted in to the Graphical Installer (you can see screenshots HERE).

The GI is headed by fluxbox, which for what it needs to do is good, it configures your internet access so you can browse the web while you install and it took maybe an hour to get every thing (including the kitchen sink) installed and configured. Upon first boot, it took a bit of time to configure everything as well, however if you’ve ever installed Vista, then this time is normal . The system worked out of the box. Sound, wireless, network, dvds, everything was working except Compiz Fusion. This is a must for me these days as I like eye candy and linux is actually ahead of Vista in this area.

It was a simple matter of enabling acceleration for my card and rebooting (I could have restarted X, but I feel a good reboot is better) and I was off and running with compiz. I have to say, they’ve done a nice job with the look and feel of sabayon. The kde menus are nice and they way they operate flawless. The selection of programs provided is abundant and they supply everything you could need on a linux box, including a plethora of games (most of which I have never heard of!). The system works. After a week of using Sabayon, I haven’t found very many things I dislike about it and I’m glad to say that I think I’m going to be using it a little more often.

I’d love to hear what you think about sabayon if you’ve tried it, please remember I am not tech support for the distro, if you have a specific question, I’ll try, but you should really check out their forums.

This time was no different. I couldn’t fathom why it wouldn’t just install one and then install the other. I had to find a way around it and luckily I was able to. Here’s what I did…


#dpkg-reconfigure base-files
#dpkg -i --force-overwrite /var/cache/apt/archives/debianutils_2.23.1_i386.deb
NOTE: You really shouldn't FORCE dpkg or apt to do anything as it could really mess the system up yo!
# dpkg --configure -a
#apt-get dist-upgrade
#reboot


Of course, something else went wrong and removed all of my users (because I had them all set to the same UID so the system saw a problem in that there was really only one user and decided to fix it…) except root, which couldn’t login via ssh as I had disabled root login in sshd…. but that was easily fixed by my host (who have been superb lately…)

Any who, if you decide to try and mess up your system, do so at your own risk!

1. Ubuntu – Love it or hate it, Ubuntu is the current golden boy of the Linux world (past ones have been red hat, debian, slackware, mandrake…). Ubuntu works. Its solid and it has good support. Dell is even preinstalling it on several of the home offerings these days. Ubuntu has come to represent the distribution that everyone else is striving to be (and the one many think could take over the world….). Not to mention, there’s a version out there for everything (don’t believe me, try UbuntuCE (Christian Edition)).
2. Debian – I can’t mention Ubuntu with out mentioning Debian. If Ubuntu is the golden boy of Linux, think of Debian as the lesser known, but equally attractive brother of Ubuntu. Its not as edgy, they don’t release as often, but if you need a rock solid linux distribution for a server application, you should stop looking once you arrive at Debian. Extremely stable, Debian is the OS of choice for sys admins every where who need a distribution that works out of the box and is easy to maintain. Yes, you can have the latest and greatest on Debian, but for those who just need a system to work, this is the one to go for.
3. Sabayon – Sabayon is a relative newcomer to the distro scene, and despite the fact that its based on Gentoo, it provides a seemingly well polished product. The developers have packaged the best that Gentoo has to offer (emerge) along with a plethora of games and other bells and whistles in to this growing distribution. The first couple of releases were a little lacking, but with the 3.4a release, Sabayon is quickly approaching the apex of Linux distributions (plus it comes with the nvidia and ati drivers and the necessary stuff for compiz fusion!). This is one of the two I have installed on my laptop.
4. Slackware – For the hard core Linux user there’s the oldest living Linux distribution (the suprising thing is that the original developer is still active on the project!). Slackware is not for those who are afraid of wading in neck deep and editing config files by hand. While a lot has improved, Slackware is still a distribution for the adventurous (and the second distribution I tried, though i gave it up when they dumped gnome for KDE).
5. openSUSE – The openSUSE project is a community program sponsored by Novell. openSUSE is based on the popular SUSE distribution that was bought by Novell several years ago and strives to provide a free open source alternative. Extremely popular, the SUSE distribution refuses to die out.
6. DSL – DSL (Damn Small Linux) is small enough to fit on a business card cd or a small (128mb) usb drive and yet still pack the same punch as the bigger distributions. DSL has been around the block several times and still provides an excellent Linux experience for those who want a small footprint. If you have an application you need Linux for, but you’re limited on space, DSL should definitely be on your list.
7. DesktopBSD – DesktopBSD is not technically a Linux Distribution, however, it is a rock solid alternative to Windows based on the popular FreeBSD system. Its main goal is to provide a desktop operating system that is easy to use, but still has all the functionality and power of BSD and they do that. While the development cycle is a little slower than some Linux distributions (three months between RC releases…) they provide a stable desktop that isn’t entirely ugly. A plus is that most Linux applications can be compiled and run on the system as well.

I want to let you know that this list is in no way scientific and is almost entirely based on my experiences in the Linux realm. If you have some opinions you’d like to share, please do, I’d love to hear if you think I’m right or wrong. Also, the numbering is not how I think they rank, just the order I happened to write about them…

Two of the computers available (the only two by the way…) were running linspire. I was quite impressed that a hotel would put these in the loby as the primary computers for its guests. I think thats very cool. If you’re going to Coco Beach, or you need a hotel newar Port Canaveral, make sure to stay at the Coco Beach Marriott Courtyard. THEY KICK ASS!!

I was a little skeptical at first myself, it sounded too good to be true, and I had used VMplayer to load Linux Distributions before and while they worked, there were things lacking (graphic support, sound and so on…). However, once I fired up the installer and I noticed that it downloaded what appeared to be the actual ISO for Feisty, I became a little more impressed. I let it run over night and when I came in in the morning, it was finished and ready for a reboot.

The installer actually creates a vitrual image of the OS that resides on your drive. Obviously, its size is a full size distribution and the more crap you download and add to the install, the more space it takes up, but in a world where you can buy 1tb harddrives these days, who cares? Anyway, it edits the NTboot loader and creates an option for ubuntu. I need to go in and change the timeout on it, but thats a minor thing (I believe that when there is an option on a non-mission critical machine, it should wait for you to select an OS no matter how long it waits….). I selected ubuntu and on first boot it took a bit of time and one reboot as it configured itself, after that though it was smooth sailing.

I did have to enable the closed source ATI drivers and add XGL support and beryl following some instructions I had found, but I would have had to do that on a regular install anyway (Thanks ATI!) and over all, I’d have to say, I’m pretty impressed. I have not tried the wireless connection yet, but the wired connection came right up and connected right away….

I’ll post some screenshots later today….

Unfortunately, they don’t quite raise the hair on the back of my neck like the ibm linux one did…

I think most linux users (the male ones anyway) would equate their linux boxes with a female personality….