Very recently, Lexmark (finally!) released Linux drivers for its all-in-one home printer models. The package "lexmark-08z-series-driver-1.0-1.i386.rpm.sh.tar.gz" can be downloaded here, and is said to be a "Linux Driver for Lexmark x7600 Series, x5600 Series, z2400 Series, x4900 Series, x3600 Series for Linux". Having tried to reverse engineer the Lexmark network printing protocol (HBN3), this release came as a surprise. Maybe Lexmark realized that Linux was not only good for making cheap printer servers on their wireless printers, but that it was now used by ordinary people at home. Ok, while this driver is a great gift, I was totally expecting that: a 32-bit rpm package. Something tells me that 1) a lot of people are now running 64-bit linux and 2) a lot of them are NOT using an rpm-based Linux distribution such as red hat or openSUSE. As I'm using either 64-bit Debian or Ubuntu on most of my computers, I had to find a way to make it work anyway. Oh, and for some odd reason, their installation instructions will tell you that Ubuntu 9.10 is supported, and to use the non-existing .deb package for Debian-based distributions. It looks like someone made a mistake about the existence of such a package, or there's someone at Lexmark that forgot to put the .deb package on their website for download. Quick googling gave me some results about people asking if anybody was able to make it work in 64-bit Debian-based distributions. This article will show you how I was able to make it work in Debian Sid, but steps should be very similar if not the same in Ubuntu. I'd expect similar steps for work for 32-bit Debian-based distributions as well.

EDIT: After writing this article, I figured out the real download location of "lexmark-08z-series-driver-1.0-1.i386.rpm.sh.tar.gz", and then just replaced "rpm" by "deb" in the name just to see if it would work. It turns out that the .deb version of the package is out there, as it worked. You can download "lexmark-08z-series-driver-1.0-1.i386.deb.sh.tar.gz" here. The installer generates a .deb package and then installs it with the "--force" option which ignores the current architecture, so the installation will be successful. You may still however lack 32-bit dependencies, so if it doesn't work out of the box please read the section of this article about solving those kind of problems. I'm mirroring the package here in case the original link goes down.

1. Extracting the Installation Files

First, extract the contents of the archive:

aghaster@awake:~$ tar zxvf lexmark-08z-series-driver-1.0-1.i386.rpm.sh.tar.gz
lexmark-08z-series-driver-1.0-1.i386.rpm.sh

You now have a script that will extract the contents of the installer in a temporary folder and run it from there. The problem here is that 1) the installation will fail and 2) the installer deletes the temporary files before closing. To get around this problem, we will run the installer and create a backup copy of the temporary files before closing it. In a terminal, start the installer:

aghaster@awake:~$ ./lexmark-08z-series-driver-1.0-1.i386.rpm.sh
Verifying archive integrity... All good.
Uncompressing nixstaller..............................................................
Collecting info for this system...
Operating system: linux
CPU Arch: x86_64
Warning: No installer for "x86_64" found, defaulting to x86...
TRACKING IDENT = 170209
cpu speed = 1200 MHz
ram size = 3865.8671875 MB
hd avail = 48665 MB
/usr/lib/gio/modules/libgioremote-volume-monitor.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64
Failed to load module: /usr/lib/gio/modules/libgioremote-volume-monitor.so
/usr/lib/gio/modules/libgiogconf.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64
Failed to load module: /usr/lib/gio/modules/libgiogconf.so
/usr/lib/gio/modules/libgvfsdbus.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64
Failed to load module: /usr/lib/gio/modules/libgvfsdbus.so

Now, in a second terminal (or just by browsing the files with your favorite file manager such as nautilus), go to /tmp and look for a folder with a name similar to "selfgz3382"

aghaster@awake:/tmp$ ls selfgz3382/
about              instarchive_all          rpm.lua
bin                instarchive_all.sizes    selectdirscreen.lua
config             langscreen.lua           slack.lua
deb.lua            lexribbon.png            startupinstaller.sh
files_extra        licensescreen.lua        summaryscreen.lua
finishscreen.lua   packagedirscreen.lua     utils.lua
generic.lua        package.lua              utils-public.lua
groups.lua         package-public.lua       welcomescreen.lua
info               packagetogglescreen.lua  xdg-utils
install.lua        pacman.lua
installscreen.lua  pkg
aghaster@awake:/tmp$ cp -R selfgz3382/ ~
aghaster@awake:/tmp$ cd ~
aghaster@awake:~$ cd selfgz3382/
aghaster@awake:~/selfgz3382$

As root, run the installer from the backup copy:

root@awake:~/selfgz3382# ./startupinstaller.sh
Collecting info for this system...
Operating system: linux
CPU Arch: x86_64
Warning: No installer for "x86_64" found, defaulting to x86...
TRACKING IDENT = 170209
cpu speed = 1200 MHz
ram size = 3865.8671875 MB
hd avail = 48526 MB
/usr/lib/gio/modules/libgioremote-volume-monitor.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64
Failed to load module: /usr/lib/gio/modules/libgioremote-volume-monitor.so
/usr/lib/gio/modules/libgiogconf.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64
Failed to load module: /usr/lib/gio/modules/libgiogconf.so
/usr/lib/gio/modules/libgvfsdbus.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64
Failed to load module: /usr/lib/gio/modules/libgvfsdbus.so

Follow the instructions, and let the installer fail to install the package. We don't care if the installer fails, as all we want is the temporary package file it will create. You should now have an "arch.tar" archive. Extract it:

root@awake:~/selfgz3382# tar xvf arch.tar
printdriver.te
lexmark-08z-series-driver-1.0-1.i386.rpm
launcher.c
launcher
lsbrowser
lsusbdevice

The file of interest here is lexmark-08z-series-driver-1.0-1.i386.rpm. We will not attempt to convert the rpm package to a deb package using alien, but we will simply extract its contents and do the installation manually:

root@awake:~/selfgz3382# rpm2cpio lexmark-08z-series-driver-1.0-1.i386.rpm | cpio -idmv
./usr/local/lexmark
./usr/local/lexmark/08z-series-driver.link
./usr/local/lexmark/08z-series-driver.unlink
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/bin
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/bin/.scripts
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/bin/.scripts/apparmor.pl
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/bin/.scripts/lsbrowser
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/bin/.scripts/lsusbdevice
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/bin/lxk08zusb
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/bin/printdriver
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/bin/prnutility
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/docs
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/docs/license.txt
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/docs/readme.txt
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/etc
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/etc/99-lexmark-08z.rules
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/etc/Lexmark-logo.xpm
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/etc/Lexmark08_1_0_0.conf
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/etc/lx36-46.ppd
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/etc/lx4900.ppd
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/etc/lx56-66.ppd
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/etc/lx7600.ppd
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/etc/lxZ2400.ppd
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/etc/lxdq.conf
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/etc/lxdqclr1.lut
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/etc/lxdqclr2.lut
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/etc/lxdqclr3.lut
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/etc/lxdr.conf
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/etc/lxdrSCc0.bin
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/etc/lxdrSCg0.bin
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/etc/lxdrclr1.lut
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/etc/lxdrclr2.lut
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/etc/lxdrclr3.lut
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/etc/lxdrscan.conf
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/etc/lxdu.conf
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/etc/lxduSCc0.bin
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/etc/lxduSCg0.bin
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/etc/lxduclr1.lut
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/etc/lxduclr2.lut
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/etc/lxduclr3.lut
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/etc/lxduscan.conf
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/etc/lxdw.conf
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/etc/lxdwSCc0.bin
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/etc/lxdwSCg0.bin
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/etc/lxdwclr1.lut
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/etc/lxdwclr2.lut
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/etc/lxdwclr3.lut
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/etc/lxdwscan.conf
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/etc/lxdx.conf
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/etc/lxdxSCc0.bin
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/etc/lxdxSCg0.bin
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/etc/lxdxclr1.lut
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/etc/lxdxclr2.lut
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/etc/lxdxclr3.lut
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/etc/lxdxscan.conf
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/etc/testpage.pdf
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/libScanCorrect.so.2.0
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/libhdctransport.so
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdqflib.so
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdqhpec.so
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdqhpeh.so
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdqhpep.so
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdrflib.so
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdrhpec.so
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdrhpeh.so
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdrhpep.so
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxduflib.so
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxduhpec.so
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxduhpeh.so
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxduhpep.so
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdwflib.so
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdwhpec.so
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdwhpeh.so
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdwhpep.so
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdxflib.so
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdxhpec.so
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdxhpeh.so
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdxhpep.so
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/libnpa407.so
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/libprintengine.so
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/libprinterdictionary.so
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/libsane-Lexmark08_1_0_0.so.1.0.18
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/libuiocli.so
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/libuiocmd.so
./usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/libusblp.so
49798 blocks

2. Installing the Files Manually

After extracting the contents of the rpm package, copy the files to their final destination:

root@awake:~/selfgz3382# cp -R ./usr /

Now move to /usr/local/lexmark and run the "08z-series-driver.link" script with "/usr/local/lexmark" as a parameter:

root@awake:~/selfgz3382# cd /usr/local/lexmark
root@awake:/usr/local/lexmark# ls
08zero  08z-series-driver.link  08z-series-driver.unlink
root@awake:/usr/local/lexmark# ./08z-series-driver.link /usr/local/lexmark
-- Updating symbolic links

The above script creates symbolic links to your Lexmark files. Verify that they were properly created:

root@awake:/usr/local/lexmark# ls -l /usr/lexinkjet/
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 25 2010-03-01 19:46 08zero -> /usr/local/lexmark/08zero
root@awake:/usr/local/lexmark# ls -l /usr/lib/liblx*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 44 2010-03-01 19:46 /usr/lib/liblxdqflib -> /usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdqflib.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 44 2010-03-01 19:46 /usr/lib/liblxdqflib.so -> /usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdqflib.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 44 2010-03-01 19:46 /usr/lib/liblxdqhpec -> /usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdqhpec.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 44 2010-03-01 19:46 /usr/lib/liblxdqhpec.so -> /usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdqhpec.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 44 2010-03-01 19:46 /usr/lib/liblxdqhpeh -> /usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdqhpeh.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 44 2010-03-01 19:46 /usr/lib/liblxdqhpeh.so -> /usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdqhpeh.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 44 2010-03-01 19:46 /usr/lib/liblxdqhpep -> /usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdqhpep.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 44 2010-03-01 19:46 /usr/lib/liblxdqhpep.so -> /usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdqhpep.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 44 2010-03-01 19:46 /usr/lib/liblxdrflib -> /usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdrflib.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 44 2010-03-01 19:46 /usr/lib/liblxdrflib.so -> /usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdrflib.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 44 2010-03-01 19:46 /usr/lib/liblxdrhpec -> /usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdrhpec.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 44 2010-03-01 19:46 /usr/lib/liblxdrhpec.so -> /usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdrhpec.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 44 2010-03-01 19:46 /usr/lib/liblxdrhpeh -> /usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdrhpeh.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 44 2010-03-01 19:46 /usr/lib/liblxdrhpeh.so -> /usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdrhpeh.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 44 2010-03-01 19:46 /usr/lib/liblxdrhpep -> /usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdrhpep.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 44 2010-03-01 19:46 /usr/lib/liblxdrhpep.so -> /usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdrhpep.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 44 2010-03-01 19:46 /usr/lib/liblxduflib -> /usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxduflib.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 44 2010-03-01 19:46 /usr/lib/liblxduflib.so -> /usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxduflib.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 44 2010-03-01 19:46 /usr/lib/liblxduhpec -> /usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxduhpec.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 44 2010-03-01 19:46 /usr/lib/liblxduhpec.so -> /usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxduhpec.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 44 2010-03-01 19:46 /usr/lib/liblxduhpeh -> /usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxduhpeh.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 44 2010-03-01 19:46 /usr/lib/liblxduhpeh.so -> /usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxduhpeh.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 44 2010-03-01 19:46 /usr/lib/liblxduhpep -> /usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxduhpep.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 44 2010-03-01 19:46 /usr/lib/liblxduhpep.so -> /usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxduhpep.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 44 2010-03-01 19:46 /usr/lib/liblxdwflib -> /usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdwflib.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 44 2010-03-01 19:46 /usr/lib/liblxdwflib.so -> /usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdwflib.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 44 2010-03-01 19:46 /usr/lib/liblxdwhpec -> /usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdwhpec.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 44 2010-03-01 19:46 /usr/lib/liblxdwhpec.so -> /usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdwhpec.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 44 2010-03-01 19:46 /usr/lib/liblxdwhpeh -> /usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdwhpeh.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 44 2010-03-01 19:46 /usr/lib/liblxdwhpeh.so -> /usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdwhpeh.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 44 2010-03-01 19:46 /usr/lib/liblxdwhpep -> /usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdwhpep.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 44 2010-03-01 19:46 /usr/lib/liblxdwhpep.so -> /usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdwhpep.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 44 2010-03-01 19:46 /usr/lib/liblxdxflib -> /usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdxflib.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 44 2010-03-01 19:46 /usr/lib/liblxdxflib.so -> /usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdxflib.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 44 2010-03-01 19:46 /usr/lib/liblxdxhpec -> /usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdxhpec.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 44 2010-03-01 19:46 /usr/lib/liblxdxhpec.so -> /usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdxhpec.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 44 2010-03-01 19:46 /usr/lib/liblxdxhpeh -> /usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdxhpeh.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 44 2010-03-01 19:46 /usr/lib/liblxdxhpeh.so -> /usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdxhpeh.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 44 2010-03-01 19:46 /usr/lib/liblxdxhpep -> /usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdxhpep.so
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 44 2010-03-01 19:46 /usr/lib/liblxdxhpep.so -> /usr/local/lexmark/08zero/lib/liblxdxhpep.so

Next, add a symlink in /usr/lib/cups/backend from lxbusb to lxk08usb. This is needed as CUPS will try to use "lxkusb" and not "lxk08usb":

root@awake:/usr/lexinkjet/08zero/bin# cd /usr/lib/cups/backend/
root@awake:/usr/lib/cups/backend# ln -s lxk08zusb lxkusb
root@awake:/usr/lib/cups/backend# ls -l | grep lxk
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root    39 2010-03-01 19:46 lxk08zusb -> /usr/local/lexmark/08zero/bin/lxk08zusb
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root     9 2010-03-01 20:16 lxkusb -> lxk08zusb

3. Resolving Missing 32-bit Dependencies

The 32-bit binaries that may cause problems are located in "/usr/lexinkjet/08zero/bin":

root@awake:/usr/local/lexmark# cd /usr/lexinkjet/08zero/bin
root@awake:/usr/lexinkjet/08zero/bin# ls -l
total 164
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 25028 2010-03-01 19:45 lxk08zusb
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 63851 2010-03-01 19:45 printdriver
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 72839 2010-03-01 19:45 prnutility

Run ldd to check for missing shared libraries. If the following command returns nothing:

root@awake:/usr/lexinkjet/08zero/bin# ldd lxk08zusb printdriver prnutility | grep "not found"

Then all dependencies are satisfied. On Ubuntu 9.10, I didn't have missing shared libraries, but in Debian I did:

root@sidux:/usr/lexinkjet/08zero/bin# ldd lxk08zusb printdriver prnutility | grep "not found"
libcupsimage.so.2 => not found

To solve this problem, I downloaded the 32-bit libcupsimage .deb package from the Debian website, extracted its contents and then manually copied libcupsimage.so.2 to /usr/lib32. After copying libcupsimage.so.2, I checked again, to see that libcupsimage.so.2 had a dependency on libavahi-client and libavahi-common:

root@sidux:/usr/lexinkjet/08zero/bin# ldd lxk08zusb printdriver prnutility | grep "not found"
libavahi-common.so.3 => not found
libavahi-client.so.3 => not found

Simply manually install 32-bit shared libraries until ldd stops complaining.

4. Configuring CUPS

Before continuing, connect your Lexmark printer by USB to your Linux computer. Open your favorite browser and go to localhost:631. This is your CUPS configuration page, where you can add a new printer. Click on "Administration->Add Printer". You may see different entries listed that seem to match your Lexmark printer, but the one you need is "Lexmark USB Backend #1". All others won't work. If "Lexmark USB Backend #1" is not listed, then you won't be able to configure your printer. For some reason, while I could get it listed in Debian, I was unable to make it work in Ubuntu 9.10. If someone figures out why it doesn't work in Ubuntu, please mail me and I'll update this article. Here is what you should see:

Click "Continue" and follow instructions. When asked for a printer driver, choose to specify your own PPD file. The PPD files are located in "/usr/local/lexmark/08zero/etc". Here is what the installer's readme says about the PPD files:

Printer                            PPD
------------------------------------------------------
Lexmark Z2400 Series         ..... lxZ2400.ppd
Lexmark 3600-4600 Series     ..... lx36-46.ppd
Lexmark 4900 Series          ..... lx4900.ppd
Lexmark 5600-6600 Series     ..... lx56-66.ppd
Lexmark 7600 Series          ..... lx7600.ppd

In my case, I have a Lexmark x4690, so the correct ppd is lx36-46.ppd.

5. Conclusion

If your installation is successful, then you should be able to print a test page. If it doesn't work, don't give up. If you find any tricks not listed in this article, please mail me so that I update this article and make it easier for other people to install their Lexmark printer driver in Linux.

About two months ago, I got fed up with Debian, and was looking for a new distribution. The biggest problem with Debian is that you're never really satisfied of the branch you're using. If you're using stable, you get really old software, but at least it's stable. If you're using testing, you get newer software, but if a package in testing is broken while a fixed version of it is present in the unstable branch, it still takes time for the fixed package to be promoted to the testing branch. The other option is to simply use the unstable branch, but then you are playing russian roulette with your system each time you dare to update it. As you may already know, Debian releases are named after characters from Toy Story. The unstable branch is given the perpetual name of "Sid", the kid that likes to break toys in the movie.

Having tried a couple of distributions, I didn't really know what I would like better than what I had. I'm already using Ubuntu on my laptop, and while it makes a nice laptop distribution I am quite unhappy with its stability. Even though I've been using Debian testing for somewhere about two years, I never had my kernel crash badly. My experience with stock kernels from Ubuntu really isn't as good: Ubuntu 9.04 would systematically crash on first boot on my laptop and on my friends laptop, and then a lot of the stock kernels would randomly crash. I eventually found a particular version of the stock kernel that would run *fine*, but it's still incredible that kernel stability is such an issue in Ubuntu. I recently changed my laptop, and installed Ubuntu 9.10. This time, it was way better than 9.04 in terms of stability, but I still managed to get a couple of random crashes. I thought it would probably be my hardware, but no, I've seen Ubuntu crash a couple of times on totally different hardware. I don't know what the Ubuntu team is doing to their stock kernels, but it really looks like other distributions are better at patching them.

Ok, to sum it up, I was fed up with Debian testing and I wasn't really interested in putting Ubuntu on my desktop computer knowing that it would likely have random kernel crashes just like on my laptop. In this moment of despair, I actually found my dream Linux distribution: sidux. From the name, you can probably guess that it stands for a contraction of "Debian Sid Linux". What sidux is in fact, is a distribution based on the unstable Debian branch, but with repositories of fixed packages that mask broken packages in Sid. In other words, the sidux developers are working at fixing broken packages in Sid so that you don't end up breaking your system. Of course, they can't fix everything or prevent any problems from happening, as you must not forget that sidux is still Debian Sid. However, after two months of regular usage, I have to say that I am amazed at how ridiculously easy maintaining my system was. I can barely say I had anything to fix, really.

Now, where's the catch? There is a little one that some of you may not like: only XFCE and KDE are officially maintained. This means that while you can decide to install Gnome, the Sidux developers won't spend all their time trying to maintain it. But, really, if you think you can't live without gnome, you actually can. I've been using Gnome for a while and never liked KDE, so I went for the XFCE installation and then just installed a couple of Gnome programs. In fact, it's even better than gnome, as I realized I didn't really need most of it. If you're a cairo-dock user just like me, and that you are using it with Gnome, you have probably noticed that it is really hard to remove the top panel. Well, it's a trivial thing to do in XFCE, and it's more lightweight. Ok, one could argue that my usage of XFCE barely makes it "XFCE", but I'm very happy with the way I've set it up. Here's how it looks like:

Notice that at the moment where I took this screenshot, the kernel version that can be seen on it was actually the latest one ;) This is one of the advantages of sidux: you really get the latest packages for everything, and you have a HUGE selection of packages, because it is still Debian Sid, while not suffering from major instability problems. When I first installed it, I really was expecting major problems. It never happened, and it has simply been working like a charm. All you really need to do is pay attention to the Sidux manual to learn how to properly maintain your system and you should be good. In the eventuality of a major problem, you can get help at the sidux IRC channel.

Obviously, because of the fact that sidux is based on the unstable Debian branch, I would not recommend it to a Linux beginner. However, if you have some level of comfort with Linux already and you know how to google for answers to problems, then you should have no problem at all using it. If you're interested in trying it, pay special attention to the way you need to burn your sidux DVD. It must be burned at slow speeds (8x and under) because it's using high compression technology. I ignored the warning the first time and ended up burning a corrupted DVD that stopped installation at 50%. I just paid more attention to this special need and burned a second disc that worked perfectly. Also, ext4 is supported as a root file system, as opposed to Debian :P.

When it comes to cloning your hard disk or creating a ghost image of it, you often hear about Norton Ghost. I never really had to use such a tool until now, where I wanted to move my Windows Server 2008 installation from a 40 GB to a 250 GB hard disk without the trouble of reinstalling everything. I wasn't really interested in trying to use a proprietary tool, so I just googled for a free software alternative. I immediately found Clonezilla. Looking at the description convinced me that it was the perfect tool for me. A broad range of filesystems are supported (ext2, ext3, ext4, reiserfs, xfs, jfs, FAT32, NTFS and HFS+) and if the filesystem is not supported it simply does a sector-to-sector copy. I was surprised to see that not only it supports hard disk cloning over the network, but it also supports multicast hard disk cloning using a server that can clone to a large number of target machines at the same time. In my case, all I had to do was boot on the live CD, select local disk to local disk cloning, specify a source and a target, and voila. Easy as pie. I'll probably use it to create a ghost after, as I like my Windows Server 2008 installation in its current state. Definitely a great tool to keep in your pile of handy live CDs.

While googling I also found an interesting article on how to use Clonezilla to transfer a native OS installation to a virtualized environment:

Migrate to a Virtual Linux environment with Clonezilla

I guess that doing things the other way around (from a virtualized environment to native) shouldn't be much harder, if the OS doesn't complain too much about the drastic environment change.

One of the cool things with Linux is that it is very easy to customize it. If you've never really spent time on customizing the appearance of your gnome desktop, here are some tips I've learned over time that greatly enhance the beauty of my desktop. Hopefully you will also like them. For my demonstration I will use my debian system, but the same steps can be used on any system that comes with gnome.

1) Set panel transparency

This is about the first thing I do on a fresh installation. An opaque panel? No way. You want it to be half-transparent so that your background can be seen a little bit through it. To change transparency, right click your top panel, and select properties. Click on the "background" tab, where you will be given an option to set the panel transparency:

For best results, I suggest that you try setting it half transparent half opaque. A panel that is too transparent doesn't look any better than an opaque panel.

2) Change panel size

I find that the default size of the top panel is too small. The reason why I suggest to increase its size is to get slightly bigger icons on your top panel. I prefer to set the top panel size to 32 pixels:

3) Replace bottom panel with cairo-dock

You may have never thought the bottom panel was just fine, but no, it's not. Just replacing it with a much better bottom panel will greatly enhance your Linux experience. First install cairo-dock, and then remove your bottom panel. The default configuration and theme for cairo-dock may not be what you like, so spend some time in its configuration menu and try different themes until you find one you like. One of the things I always disable in cairo-dock are the separators. To disable separators between dock sections, go in the "Appearance / Icons" section of the configuration menu and then expand the "Separator" subsection at the bottom. Uncheck "Automatically add separators" and you're done.

Cairo-dock comes can be ran in two different modes, "no OpenGL" and "with OpenGL". If you have trouble getting 3D acceleration to work on your system, use "no OpenGL", which will work fine but will not look as nice as the OpenGL mode. Otherwise, just make sure that 3D acceleration is working fine and that compiz is installed and enabled. Now, you don't want to have to manually start cairo-dock each time you log in, so you want to add it to your startup applications (System->Preferences->Startup Applications):

4) Change theme and cursor color

Maybe you haven't thought of changing the theme, but not the cursor color. I actually like the black cursor way better than the default white one. If you're using Ubuntu, chances are that you hate the default '"Human" theme. My favorite theme is "Glossy" or any theme approaching it. Select your favorite theme and then click "Customize", and select the "Pointer" tab. That's where you can change the cursor color:

If you would like a bigger cursor, this can also be set in the same place.

5) Get a new background

This one is quite obvious. I suggest that you take a look at www.gnome-look.org for great wallpapers. In my case, I use two screens, so I want a wallpaper than can nicely spread across the two of them. In this case, the best is to find a wallpaper in svg format, which can easily be scaled without loss of quality (on gnome-look.org, those wallpapers can be found in the wallpapers/svg section).

6) Final result

Finally, here is what my desktop looks like (only left screen is shown):

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