Fixing My File System With fsck

Tonight, I corrupted my file system by inadvertently jerking the plug that supplies electricity.

I run Slackware 9.0 (very old) and it automatically runs fsck on boot up. At the time, I was told my file system was corrupt and I was invited to log in as root to fix it.

Fortunately, it suggested that I run the following command:

e2fsck -v -y

It suggested that the above command might fix my file system if I was running the ext2 file system.

I was not sure which filesystem I was running on this old laptop, which is about 10 years old. It works so flawlessly that I pay little attention to its internals.

I remembered the root password and logged in as root, just as it suggested. I then executed the following commands:

cd /etc
more fstab

I saw the following line in the file called fstab, the place where the file system table is kept:

/dev/hda2      /        ext2    defaults     1    1

If I copied the above in my notes correctly, this one line entry is what you see above. Looks like I do have an ext2 file system and the file system starts at /dev/hda2.

Now that I knew what kind of file system I had and where it started, I ran the following command:

e2fsck -v -y /dev/hda2

I'm not sure what the -v option is. However, it appears that the -y option means yes. The e2fsck program ran and each time it prompted me for a yes or a no, it answered yes all by itself and kept scrolling.

The fsck program took a few minutes to run and it seems to have fixed the file system flawlessly. Love those Unix utilities!

I'll know what to do next time..

Ed Abbott

Intalling Fonts Under Gimp

OK. I solved my problem.

Turns out I don't really need
to install the font system-wide
if all I want to do is make it
available to Gimp.

Under Gimp, I installed my font
file in this directory:

~/.gimp-2.4/fonts/

Works perfectly now!

Seems that the TTF file needs to
be in the proper directory. In this
case, I placed my font file under my
home directory in the Gimp directory
where fonts go.

TTF is a type of font file.

I may learn how to install the font
system-wide at a later date. By
system-wide, I mean install it under
Linux.

For now, though, I'm happy with the
way things are.

That is to say, I'm happy installing
the font under Gimp instead of under
Linux.

Should I decide to install the font
under Linux instead, the font should
be available not just to Gimp, but to
other applications as well.

At least, that's how I would expect it
to work.

Ed Abbott

Installing a New Font Under Linux Debian

OK.

This is a brand new blog.

This morning, I'm learning
how to install fonts under
Linux.

My goal is to get the font
working under the Gimp.

Here's where I got the font:

FontSpace.com

I've download a font called
Rudelsberg. It's a font I've
used in the past.

It comes in a TTF file. If I
remember correctly, TTF stands
for True Type Font.

Here's a Wikipedia article on
True Type Fonts:

Wikipedia True Type Article

As I recall, True Type is mostly
associated with Microsoft these
days. However, according to the
article it was developed by Apple.

Hmmmmm.

The file I downloaded has a .ttf
extension. I need to get this file
working under Debian.

OK. Looks like fonts are handled by
something called Fontconfig. Here's
where I learned this:

Gimp.org Fonts Page

So now I need to learn about Fontconfig
and how it works.

Seems that it is installed on my system
as this command reveals:

aptitude show fontconfig

Now I need to find out whether adding a
font is a matter of copying the .ttf file
to a directory or whether I run a command
on the .ttf file.

I'm guessing that I copy the .ttf file to
a directory but I'm not sure.

More later.

Ed Abbott