SCIM in OpenSolaris

Add the following two lines to your $HOME/.profile file:

GTK_IM_MODULE=scim

export GTK_IM_MODULE

Flash Player 10 on OpenSolaris

1. Download the .tar.bz2 file from Adobe.


2. bunzip2 [name of file]


3. tar -xvf [name of file]


4. cd [name of directory]


5. cp libflashplayer.so /usr/lib/firefox/plugins


6. Restart Firefox

Helpful commands for R

1. library(foreign) - Allows you to load Stata and Excel files, among others.


2. foo <- read.dta("location") - Loads a Stata *.dta file.


3. names(foo) - Lists the names of the variables in dataset foo.


4. fit <- lm(y~x,data="foo") - Linear regression of Y on X using data in foo.


5. fit <- glm(y~x,family=binomial(link="probit"),data="foo") - Probit regression of Y on X using data in foo.


6. summary(fit) - The stuff you want in model fit.

Importance of reading manual pages (wireless)

I had some difficulty configuring wireless at Georgia Tech for OpenBSD, but it was only because of my failure to read the manual pages carefully.

Under the nwkey entry of ifconfig(8), "The key can either be a string, a series of hexadecimal digits (preceded by '0x')..." (emphasis mine). Obviously, if there is no '0x', then ifconfig assumes your WEP key is a string. In our school's case, the WEP key is hexadecimal.

VIm and Arrow Keys

For some reason, using arrow keys in VIm is equivalent to typing ABCD. A temporary fix is to type :set term=cons25.

Daemons in OpenBSD

OpenBSD does not by default use a /etc/rc.d system to start and restart daemons. Instead, daemons are started as follows:

/usr/sbin/[name] &

or /usr/local/sbin/[name] &

Daemons are restarted by kill -HUP `cat /var/run/[name].pid`.

PCManFM on OpenBSD

PCManFM is easily installed through the package collection. Once it finishes installing, it will display a few post-installation notes. (They will show up in your xterm.) You will have to edit a few rc files and restart some daemons. Be sure to remember which rc files; if you forget which daemons are to be restarted, simply reboot.

If you aren't using GNOME, then it is very likely that the first time you start PCManFM, you will have an error message that talks about icons. To solve this, do the following:

1. Make a .gtkrc.mine file in your home directory. Write gtk-icon-theme-name="Name of icon folder in icon directory".


2. Make a .gtkrc-2.0 file, also in your home directory. Write include "/usr/local/share/themes/[name of theme]/gtk-2.0/gtkrc", enter, and include "/home/[your handle]/.gtkrc.mine".

The icon directory is /usr/local/share/icons/. The default theme is Raleigh.