Scientific Linux Desktop at Home

September 28, 2015 By

Why are we talking about using Scientific Linux at home and work? Well, see our previous posts about Windows 10 which lays out why some of us are taking these steps. One thing we have seen mentioned is run Windows 10 and use a Virtual Machine (VM) running Linux for all your “important” or private activities. This gets things exactly backward. If you cannot trust the OS, you cannot trust it to not access network traffic or memory of a VM it’s running. Instead, you are much better served running the VM Host OS as one you trust, in this case SL7, and as a Guest OS VM the OS you don’t trust, in this case Windows 8+. While VMs do not provide perfect security, it’s a lot harder to break out of a VM than for an OS task to peek inside a process or hypervisor or VM system running under it.

Previously I talked about using Scientific Linux 7 at work. Now I’m going to talk about home use. First, I’ll break down what you would expect to use this OS and configuration for, and what you wouldn’t. Then I’ll talk about what I use to accomplish various tasks, and a little helper we’ve created for new installs.

What It’s For:

  • Web Browsing
  • Letter Writing
  • School Report writing
  • E-mail
  • Watching Videos
  • Listening to Music
  • Editing Pictures
  • Internet Chat
  • Programming
  • Select Steam, emulated and Linux games.

What you could configure it to do:

  • Play lots of retro games (NES,SNES,Neo Geo, DOS, etc)
  • Play some older Windows games
  • Programming (C++, Python, Perl, etc)
  • Be a Server (Web, E-mail, chat, etc)
  • Be a Firewall for the rest of your network

What it’s not good for:

  • Playing the latest Windows game
  • Interfacing with specific hardware (Updating GPS, etc) — All Cannon Digital cameras I’ve tried do work however for offloading the pictures.

How SL7.1 is used at home:

I’ve managed to set up a home PC much like my work computer with a couple more pieces of software. I’ll list what they are and what I use them for. Of course, I also use most of the work software at home, like Firefox, Thunderbird and the like.

  • VLC – watching videos
  • Audacious – listening to MP3 files
  • Pinta – Paint.Net clone, used for simple image editing.
  • Thunderbird – I also use for some chat (IRC).
  • Vivaldi Snapshot – preview release of a web browser I like. It’s not done yet, but is mostly usable. It might eventually consolidate some of the programs I use.
  • Firefox – I also install uBlock Origin Extension to block lots of ads and tracking and generally speed up the web.
  • Backups (deja-dup)  – Backup of my Home Directory.

More Advanced Home tools:

I use a couple more advanced tools that you may or may not be familiar with.

  • Crossover Linux – commercial tool that costs $60 a year (look for discounts though) that lets you run select windows programs and games directly on SL7. You get e-mail support and updates for the year, and then can renew or not for more updates each year. You also support some open source development.
    • Alternative – PlayOnLinux – entirely open source and free, but they benefit a LOT from the work done by the Crossover folks. This is a bit tricky, so I really recommend paying for Crossover, but it can be done for $0 if you spend enough time.
    • Useful stuff I use Crossover for:
      • KVirc (easier by far than building the linux version on a modern OS. I much prefer the UI for IRC than others I tested, but YMMV).
      • PDF-X-Change Editor – can be a better PDF tool, though the PDF printer doesn’t work. Then again, you can just create PDFs from common sources like Firefox, Thunderbird and LibreOffice.
  • VirtualBox – Virtual Machines. This is good for keeping an old Windows install going but NATed off from your network and the Internet so as long as you don’t browse the web from the VM, you’re safe to not update. This can be a way to run Windows software on a copy of Linux without having it be your main environment – so it only has access to what you specifically do there, not all web browsing etc.
    • You could use other tools, but this is the easiest, most featureful for the price and is $0.
    • If you want to, google P2V to see what options you might have to move your existing Windows install into a VM for your transition, and for any software you can’t just run under Linux.
      • One free option is the instructions here: http://lifeofageekadmin.com/perform-windows-p2v-using-disk2vhd-virtualbox/ though we haven’t tested this.
      • If you have been using paid tools like Acronis or Maxicrum Reflect to back up Windows via images, they can likely help you convert to a VM also.
      • VMWare also offers a free P2V converter, which VirtualBox can use: http://lifeofageekadmin.com/windows-p2v-using-vmware-vcenter-converter-virtualbox/
    • It’s important to note that you should read and understand the license you have for Windows and any software you use. Most licenses you would have at home will not allow you to take the VM you created and run it on other hardware, you can only use it on the physical machine you virtualized it from on top of Linux.
      • If you want a portable Windows install, look into Retail licensing and the “Windows To Go” options.
    • We DO NOT advocate using any software in a manner inconsistent with the license you have for that software.
    • You cannot just plug in your old Windows hard drive and point Virtual Box at it, you will need to convert the install to use the virtual hardware in the virtualization software you choose to use. The tools above and P2V will assist you in a successful transition from physical to virtual Windows.
  • Konsole – terminal program. This is the “DOS window” or “cmd.exe” of the Linux world (well, one of many, the one I use). If you’re comfortable with using the command line, you can use a lot more software, write scripts, and more using this tool.
  • Krusader – powerful File Manager. I use it for working with archives and targetting scripts I’ve written. Otherwise, I like Thunar just fine, which comes with XFCE.

CLASSE Computer Group’s Little Install Helper

We’ve written a small package that can help configure SL7.1 once you’ve installed it from the install DVD. It will set up most of the software listed above, and then allow you to select XFCE as the desktop environment just before logging in for the first time. It will also configure XFCE to be more familiar for Windows users. We plan to occasionally update the package which is a zip file you can download from our website here: https://www.classe.cornell.edu/~software/private/software/ – look for SL7.1HomeInstallConfigX.X.zip where the Xs are version numbers. Get the latest one…

  1. Install SL7.1 from the DVD.
  2. Make sure to create a user account during install.
    1. Set a password for the user account.
  3. Log in to the root account you created during install.
  4. Get connected to the Internet.
  5. Unzip the folder somewhere, I use a flash drive
  6. Then, browse to the folder where you unziped the package.
  7. Right click, say Open Terminal here.
  8. Type in the following command
    1. sh configure.sh
  9. Answer the questions and it will configure and get the system ready for use.
  10. When you go to log in to the user account you created, click the little Gear icon and select XFCE for the windowing environment (if you want to use our GUI config).

We’ll occasionally provide updates to this package which you generally will be able to download and run under the root account if you want. Most updates will happen automatically like with Windows Updates, but for some configuration etc, you’d need to update manually. This is why we’ll occasionally provide an updated package.

What now?

While the CCG can’t provide support for home computers, we are available to spend 5 minutes or so talking about any computing trend or question you might have. If you read something online, on this blog, or hear about it some other way and have questions – we’re happy to have a short conversation about them. You can also always e-mail one of us as well.

Filed Under: Home Computing, Software
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