PCLinuxOS Magazine Latest Issue

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Mar 03, 2025

• GNU/Linux

  • Applications

    • PCLinuxOS Magazine ☛ Repo Review: A Detailed Look At Grsync

      March 31st is World Backup Day: the day to prevent data loss! It is celebrated annually on the day before April Fool's Day, as a reminder that we will be fooled if we do not regularly back up our data. Your data is the most valuable part of your computer. A computer, its operating system and programs can be replaced, but you cannot replace lost family photos, your writing projects or financial records without a backup. Data loss can be caused by hard drive crashes, system failure or by accidents (user error) — not to mention that 21% of people have never bothered to make a backup.

      This article was inspired by a simple Grsync tutorial which was originally written by Iain Jackson for the August 2007 issue of our community magazine, and updated by Paul Arnote in November 2009. To commemorate the holiday, I decided to “refresh” these articles by covering Grsync in more detail and discussing a few aspects of the program that confused me at first.

      Texstar has frequently recommended that users should follow a two-pronged backup strategy: Timeshift to take care of the operating system files (i.e., everything except for your /home directory) and another backup utility — such as Grsync, Back In Time or luckyBackup — for your personal data (i.e., documents, pictures, music, videos).

  • Instructionals/Technical

    • PCLinuxOS Magazine ☛ Wiki Pick: Changing GRUB Boot Menu Font Size

      The Acer Spin 3 SP313-51N series laptops have a very nice 13.3 inch WQXGA (2560 × 1600) 16:10 IPS Touchscreen. That high resolution on a 13 inch screen makes the default GRUB menu extremely difficult to read. I had to use a magnifying glass to read it. Changing the display to 1920 × 1200 does not help until display drivers are loaded during boot. The only option to fix the tiny GRUB display is to change the font size that GRUB uses.

    • PCLinuxOS Magazine ☛ GIMP Tutorial: Using The Cage Transformation Tool

      Browsing through the tutorials, I saw one about the Cage Transformation tool in GIMP. It’s a little different because it lets you bend things around any way you want. It doesn’t keep things in perspective, so I hadn’t used it much. Usually, if I want to transform something, I’m still concerned about perspective and straight lines. (This tutorial is one that comes to mind.)

      Using the Cage Transformation tool is relatively easy, but it’s also easy to make a mess. However, that may be what you’re aiming for. Let’s get started!

      Open GIMP and import a photo you want to transform. The tutorial I saw (one of many) used a vehicle, and changed the shape of it, so I loaded this photo into GIMP. This vehicle was in a parade in my town several years ago. I’m going to transform the car.

• Distributions and Operating Systems

  • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandriva/OpenMandriva Family

    • PCLinuxOS Magazine ☛ From The Chief Editor's Desk...

      You might have noticed a new column in last month’s issue of The PCLinuxOS Magazine. It’s called Wiki Pick. This new column will feature a helpful article lifted straight from the pages of the PCLinuxOS Knowlegebase Wiki. We plan to make it a monthly feature.

      There are multiple facets to the decision to introduce a new monthly column. One reason is to try to keep things fresh and interesting, and to provide things that we think that the PCLinuxOS community will like/use/enjoy. That these are helpful articles is a great benefit, as well.

    • PCLinuxOS Magazine ☛ PCLinuxOS Screenshot Showcase

• Free, Libre, and Open Source Software

  • Programming/Development

    • Shell/Bash/Zsh/Ksh

      • PCLinuxOS Magazine ☛ A Bash Script Program Launcher For The Notification Area Of Your Panel

        I have to be completely honest about something. I love messing around with bash scripts. They play right into my quest to solve problems and save time. It also harkens back to my days when I was a burgeoning shareware programmer that started way back when I was using Windows 3.1. Trust me … I didn’t get rich off of the shareware I wrote (not even close).

        With my bash scripts, I’m able to accomplish repetitive tasks with a minimum of effort. One example is the bash script that I wrote (and use monthly) to create the various sized images used for the magazine’s HTML layout. And I have not one, but two versions of that script. One creates the various sized JPG files from the PNG file produced by Scribus. The other creates a PNG file from the actual PDF, and then I run the other script on that PNG file to create the various sized JPG files.