GPD G7a review

REVIEW:

It's a portable game from GPD company, you can visit their website on http://www.gpd.hk

It's a Chinese company (hong kong to be exactly) that came to compete with JXD (In my honest opinion, I think the quality is way better because I have bad experience in the past).

Macbook Air 11" 2013 - The definitive guide for migration to Arch Linux - Volume 3

Now we go further down to tune up, to make things works better than the default configuration.

1) powerdown-git (AUR), laptop-mode-tools (AUR) and upower (OFFICIAL).
This will increase a lot your batttery. Install, and then, edit your .xinitrc:

xset +dpms
xset dpms 0 0 300
upower -e

2) lightum-git (AUR)

This will helps with the light sensor

3) mba6x_bl-dkms (AUR)

Without this one, the brightness of your mba will not work correctly after waking up. I wasn't able to install him correctly using yaourt, so I did a manual install and then adding it on mkinitcpio.conf

4) acpid (OFFICIAL)

Double-check if you have acpid up and running, this can cause some trouble after suspending and waking up some times.

----

This post isn't complete yet, but I let the incomplete version for further reference and, of course, the credits of what I've used to make this manual.

Arch Wiki
Dedicated thread to Macbook Air 2013

Macbook Air 11" 2013 - The definitive guide for migration to Arch Linux - Volume 2

In this post I'll just show some apps that can help you and some recommendations, let's get started (you can use whatever you want, of course):

1) Libreoffice 
Instead of Openoffice, I feel libreoffice is way more "light" than openoffice, so yeah. You can also use playonlinux and install your favorite microsoft office, they works quite fine using playonlinux.
2) Chrome
Stable, Dev and Beta are available through AUR, so you can install via yaourt. Firefox is also available for people that doesn't feel comfortable using chrome
3) Thunderbird
If you don't like evolution or kmail, thunderbird is available.
4) Pidgin
Personal choice, I'm not a huge fan of empathy...
5) Skype
If you don't have any issues about security, skype is available too.
6) vlc
Forget about installing a shitload of binaries, and libraries, and drivers and whatever else. Just install this guy to see videos and stuff.
7) digikam/shotwell
If you need something fast to see images from cellphones or whatever else, use digikam (for kde) or shotwell (for gnome), both of them do a nice job. If you need something more, just install gimp.
8) clementine/amarok/banshee
It's a matter of preference. I like banshee for a music player, but I gave here three choices.
9) guake/yakuake
I don't know about you, but having a terminal in the "quake" way is quite sexy. Available for QT desktops (yakuake) and GTK desktops (guake).
10) dropbox
Why not? You can also make encrypted containers with whatever crypto you like and store on dropbox.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

EXPERIMENTAL FEATURES

This features isn't really necessary, but gives you some eyecandy and stuff..

1) Fonts
I have two sets of fonts I can't live without it: terminus-font (for terminal) and ttf-liberation (for desktop)
2) Fonts (again)
If you really want something way better to your eyes while working, give fontconfig-infinality a try. Is available at AUR.

Continue reading here

Macbook Air 11" 2013 - The definitive guide for migration to Arch Linux - Volume 1

Hi all

It's been a long time I didn't post here, so I'll post about my Arch Linux install on this macbook air.
REMEMBER: It's about to format everything on your macbook air and leave only linux.
Right now, I'm just doing the default install, so I'll post more details according I'm updating.

This is my setup:

Partition 1: EFI: 200Mb
Partition 2: JFS: 233Gb

I'm using JFS because I got a lot of performance than other FS, but you can use whatever you want.

Let's start:

- Default install as the wiki says, nothing different. Disregard my install uses pacstrap /mnt base base-devel instead of only base.
- Install xorg and gnome (you can install kde or whatever you like it, isn't too different).  Don' t boot yet.
- Install network-manager, because is quite usefull, even with most desktop managers (I also installing some vpn frontends because is useful for my work):

# pacman -S network-manager networkmanager-pptp networkmanager-vpnc networkmanager-openvpn

- Install grub and fix the boot with efibootmanager (TIP: You can skip installing grub and use rEFInd+EFISTUB kernel, the default kernel have EFISTUB support, and IMO rEFInd is way better and easier than grub in many ways):

# pacman -S grub efibootmgr

Edit /etc/defaults/grub and change this line:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="verbose elevator=deadline root=/dev/sda2 rootfstype=jfs"

And change your fstab to something like this:

/dev/sda2   /   jfs   rw,discard,noatime  0  1

Create your grub.cfg

# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Install your grub

# grub-install /dev/sda

Type efibootmgr and see your boot options, delete whatever boot extras there. After that, add your linux entry there:

# efibootmgr -c -d /dev/sda -p 1 -l /EFI/arch/grubx64.efi -L "Arch Linux"

Now see the number of your new entry:

# efibootmgr
BootCurrent: 0000
Timeout: 5 seconds
Boot0000* arch <- This is my pendrive
Boot0001* Arch Linux <- This is the entry I've just created
Boot0082*

Now lets fix it:

# efibootmgr -o 0001

Don't reboot yet.
In /etc/pacman.conf, uncoment multilib, you'll thanks me later
Add archlinux.fr at your servers (or install aur by hand, it's your choice). To use archlinux.fr, add this lines at the end of your /etc/pacman.conf

[archlinuxfr]
SigLevel = Optional TrustAll
Server = http://repo.archlinux.fr/$arch

Sync and install yaourt

# pacman -Syu yaourt

Create your user and su - (and put a password in your user, if you still didn't do it yet)
Install the infamous broadcom driver:

# yaourt -S broadcom-wl-dkms

And finally, put network manager and your favorite xdm on systemd:

# systemctl enable NetworkManager
# systemctl enable gdm

Don't forget to add your user to any related group that you need before boot.
Also is nice if you want to use an encrypted home to set up right now.

Continue reading here.