I have been battling with my Ubuntu off ad on for some months now and I finallay had enough. Time to reinstall and costumize my Ubuntu.
To minimize risk of probles in the future, I have decided to focus this install on being a production machine so no testing/unstable will be installed.. All future testing will be done on virtual machines.
So now I have a fresh, vanilla install of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, currently being updated by the Update Manager.
I am planning to use this machine for mainly 3 different uses; Programming (both web, Java, Linux and Android), Video editing and Office Use (Libra Office).
I am planning to install the following extra software:
Chrome (for browsing)
Eclipse (for programming)
Audacity (for audio editing)
OpenShot (for video editing)
VirtualBox (for virtual machines; testing etc)
FileZilla (FTP client)
Ubuntu One Indicator Applet
... and maybe one or two more (will update this post when/if I do)
I am going to reduce the number of applications in the launcher down to Home folder, terminal, Chrome (Chromium), Eclipse and the Workspace Switcher (again will update when/if I decide on further changes
Showing posts with label Ubuntu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ubuntu. Show all posts
June 10, 2012
October 15, 2011
The most beautiful Ubuntu Manual.
Muktware.com has released <a href="http://www.muktware.com/ubuntu-manual/1110">The most beautiful Ubuntu Manual.</a>
It covers the new Ubuntu 11.10 oneiric ocelot and it is targeted towards beginners and looks quite promising. It covers the basic areas and more will be added if interest is shown.
June 14, 2011
Ubuntu Studio 11.04
Having played a bit with debian, I decided to try Ubuntu once more.
And thankfully Ubuntu Studio have decided to stay without unity as the default workbench. So I installed 11.04 i386.
Installation was pretty much event-less except, that the WLAN (Wireless Network card) was not recognized during the installation process. I decided to skip the network setup and installed all the 5 predefined application categories; 2D/3D creation and editing suite, Audio recording and editing suite, LADSPA/LV2/DSSI audio plugins, Tone generation and editing suite, and Video creation and editing suite.
When the installation was done, the WLAN card was recognized and I was prompted to log on to one of the present wireless networks. Thus my screen looks something like this:
Next I ran the update process, as it did not run during installation due to the lack of network coverage. I also added Chromium (Google's web brwoser), and OpenJDK (an Open Source implementation of Java), which I need for Android development.
I also installed LibreOffice and missing UbuntuOne files. And I have forgotten all about MediBuntu, need those as well :-)
Next is downloading and installing the latest Eclipse Helios (3.6), which I also need for Android development as well as the ADT (Android Development Tools) and git for version control.
And thankfully Ubuntu Studio have decided to stay without unity as the default workbench. So I installed 11.04 i386.
Installation was pretty much event-less except, that the WLAN (Wireless Network card) was not recognized during the installation process. I decided to skip the network setup and installed all the 5 predefined application categories; 2D/3D creation and editing suite, Audio recording and editing suite, LADSPA/LV2/DSSI audio plugins, Tone generation and editing suite, and Video creation and editing suite.
When the installation was done, the WLAN card was recognized and I was prompted to log on to one of the present wireless networks. Thus my screen looks something like this:
Next I ran the update process, as it did not run during installation due to the lack of network coverage. I also added Chromium (Google's web brwoser), and OpenJDK (an Open Source implementation of Java), which I need for Android development.
I also installed LibreOffice and missing UbuntuOne files. And I have forgotten all about MediBuntu, need those as well :-)
Next is downloading and installing the latest Eclipse Helios (3.6), which I also need for Android development as well as the ADT (Android Development Tools) and git for version control.
May 22, 2011
Switching from Ubuntu to debian
Having run Ubuntu for quite a while now I decided to upgrade to 11.04 with full knowledge of unity being the new desktop. I can see a lot of potential in unity especially for novice users and as such I do not denounce unity.
But for now I cannot get used to it myself. And so I decided to try debian yet again.
I started using Linux a long time ago installing Red Hat 4.2 on a Pentium Classic PC. Since then I have tried the newer Red Hat versions but I never went with the Fedora crew. I have also tried SuSE and arch for brief periods of time. And then I've been running Ubuntu since 8.04 up to and including 11.04. Oh and then I have a couple of firewalls runninf *bsd based pfSense.
But now it is back to debian 6.
The computer I am installing this on is an Intel Pentium T4500 based Acer Aspire 5738zg laptop.
As I had Ubuntu running on it and Acer uses 3 of the maximum 4 primary partition possible I had to erase the Ubuntu partitions before being able to create the necessary debian partitions. I would have liked to resize the Windows 7 partition to allow a little more than the about 100 GBs that Ubuntu had but because the NTFS partition was not 'clean' it was not possible. And as I had removed the Ubuntu partitions, grub complained that partition(s) were missing so it wouldn't even allow me to boot into Windows. So for now I will settle for this space.
Usually I have been shying away from the single partition scheme keeping /home on its on partition, but last time I partitioned I kept with just one giant partition plus the swap partition. This time I am going back to having seperate root and /home partitions.
I opted to let debian select the partition sizes, giving 3.6 GB to swap, 10 GB to root and about 86 GB to /home.
Unfortunately it seems that the debian installation is not able to initialize my Atheros based WLAN card properly, so it would not connect to my WPA secured wireless network.
November 17, 2010
Problem with Touchpad under Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat
Recently my Synaptics TouchPad stopped working in Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat. It works fine in Windows 7 and the TouchPad works even in Ubuntu on login screen prior to logging in.
If I use the "disable TouchPad" button Ubuntu shows that the Touchpad is now on, if I press it again, it shows the TouchPad is off. So when the hardware believes the TouchPad is live, Ubuntu/X "closes its ears" as the TouchPad is supposed to be off, and when the hardware believes the TouchPad is off, Ubuntu is listening, but the TouchPad is silent. Catch 22!
I have been googling a bit, but nothing interesting comes up. Checking Launchpad, nothing 10.10 specific comes up and by skimming the rest I have found nothing. I will dive deeper into Launchpad though.
Does anybody have any solutions?
If I use the "disable TouchPad" button Ubuntu shows that the Touchpad is now on, if I press it again, it shows the TouchPad is off. So when the hardware believes the TouchPad is live, Ubuntu/X "closes its ears" as the TouchPad is supposed to be off, and when the hardware believes the TouchPad is off, Ubuntu is listening, but the TouchPad is silent. Catch 22!
I have been googling a bit, but nothing interesting comes up. Checking Launchpad, nothing 10.10 specific comes up and by skimming the rest I have found nothing. I will dive deeper into Launchpad though.
Does anybody have any solutions?
November 04, 2010
New Computer - Installing Ubuntu
After a few days of playing with Windows 7 on my new Aspire 5738ZF (see ) I finally had some time to install Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat). As this laptop is equipped with a 64-bit processor (Pentium T4500) and 4 GB of memory, I decided to install the 64-bit Desktop Edition with the Dual Boot option.
Installation went fine and without hitches, everything seems to have been recognised automatically. I decided to install the proprietary Radeon Driver in order to get the most out of my graphics card. I do not have any programs needing it in the moment, but perhaps later running a few games ...
I like the Gnome Desktop provided with the vanilla Ubuntu but I usually rearrange the top panel, replacing the custom Ubuntu menu bar with the standard Gnome Main menu, adding the System Monitor and Desktop Switcher applets and removing the lower panel. Thus far I have only added the System Monitor.
As I let the installer decide on the partitioning while reserving just under 100 GB to Ubuntu, it decided upon a 4 GB swap partition and the rest in one huge root partition. I usually like to have my /home on a seperate partition, so that I may upgrade or re-install the root without loosing my data. At some point in the future, I need to resize the root partition and move /home to a new partition.
I like the Medibuntu repositories and thus added them to my sources. I installed Skype 2.1 from there as well as the restricted DVD-files to enable playback of encrypted DVDs (read; all commercial DVDs)
As I am going to use this computer for Software Development, including Android applications I have installed Eclipse Galileo from the standard repositories. No problems there either. Now I have to install git to store my projects. And as I am also going to do some Web Development, I need to install the LAMP stack.
I plan to do a post about installing git at some point. I have yet to try out git so it will be a "beginners experience with git" both setting up a git server (on this local machine) and using git.
Another post planned is about Ubuntu One and maybe a post specifically about UbuntuOne Mobile and Ubuntu One Music Store.
Installation went fine and without hitches, everything seems to have been recognised automatically. I decided to install the proprietary Radeon Driver in order to get the most out of my graphics card. I do not have any programs needing it in the moment, but perhaps later running a few games ...
I like the Gnome Desktop provided with the vanilla Ubuntu but I usually rearrange the top panel, replacing the custom Ubuntu menu bar with the standard Gnome Main menu, adding the System Monitor and Desktop Switcher applets and removing the lower panel. Thus far I have only added the System Monitor.
As I let the installer decide on the partitioning while reserving just under 100 GB to Ubuntu, it decided upon a 4 GB swap partition and the rest in one huge root partition. I usually like to have my /home on a seperate partition, so that I may upgrade or re-install the root without loosing my data. At some point in the future, I need to resize the root partition and move /home to a new partition.
I like the Medibuntu repositories and thus added them to my sources. I installed Skype 2.1 from there as well as the restricted DVD-files to enable playback of encrypted DVDs (read; all commercial DVDs)
As I am going to use this computer for Software Development, including Android applications I have installed Eclipse Galileo from the standard repositories. No problems there either. Now I have to install git to store my projects. And as I am also going to do some Web Development, I need to install the LAMP stack.
I plan to do a post about installing git at some point. I have yet to try out git so it will be a "beginners experience with git" both setting up a git server (on this local machine) and using git.
Another post planned is about Ubuntu One and maybe a post specifically about UbuntuOne Mobile and Ubuntu One Music Store.
October 30, 2010
New computer!
My trusty old Acer TravelMate 2490 is getting - well old. It is running Windows XP ok, but could do with a reinstall. Ubuntu has been performing well and I recently upgraded from 10.04 to 10.10. But memory is sparse (1.5 GB - well enough for Ubuntu - a little on the low side for Windows XP) and the battery is tired - very tired. Ubuntu reports that it is down to 6.6 % and it can barely hold power for the boot sequence.
So it was time for a new computer. The tm2490 has not been retired yet - I will run a recovery for Windows XP and readjust the split for Windows/Ubuntu filespace. It will then serve as a computer for our soon to be 4-year-old. I am keeping the Windows XP just in case some of the educational games we have won't run under Wine.
I have been on the hunt for a new computer for a couple of months now and had a few favourites. I wanted a smaller computer than the tm2490 (a 15.4") preferably a 13.3" with a long battery life. Small and light with plenty of battery life so that I can use it for programming and web development. I would also like a reasonable 3D Graphics card as I spend time playing 3D games (WoW, Planet Calypso, etc, and hopefully Civ V soon - mostly in Windows, sorry!). But as our budget did not allow any new purchases during that time span I kept looking.
As an opening in our budget opened it would not support a small, speedy 13" 3D racer. So I decided upon the Acer Aspire 5738ZG. Specifications: Intel Pentium T4500 (dual core, 2.3 GHz), ATI Radeon HD4650 (1GB), 4 GB DDR3, 320 GB HDD, 15.6" (1366 x 768) LCD.
This laptop came with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit preinstalled, which I intend to keep. Partly for gaming, partly as I need to know Windows 7 better for my everyday work needs (I sell computers).
Acer used to devide their hard drives into 3 partitions, of which 2 were visible to the user. One "Windows" partion (usually named "ACER"), one Recovery partition (hidden from Windows), and one data partition (usually named "ACERDATA"). The plan was that you use the "ACERDATA" to store your documents and other user files and leave the "ACER" partition for Windows and installed programs. If You needed to recover or re-install Windows you then would not loose your documents, music, pictures, etc. I am not awar if this has changed with Windows 7, but at least on this computer, there was only the recovery partition and one large Windows partition.
This lap top is a bit bigger and heavier than I wanted but so far it has been a good machine to work on. In my next post I will be covering my Ubuntu experiences on this computer.
So it was time for a new computer. The tm2490 has not been retired yet - I will run a recovery for Windows XP and readjust the split for Windows/Ubuntu filespace. It will then serve as a computer for our soon to be 4-year-old. I am keeping the Windows XP just in case some of the educational games we have won't run under Wine.
I have been on the hunt for a new computer for a couple of months now and had a few favourites. I wanted a smaller computer than the tm2490 (a 15.4") preferably a 13.3" with a long battery life. Small and light with plenty of battery life so that I can use it for programming and web development. I would also like a reasonable 3D Graphics card as I spend time playing 3D games (WoW, Planet Calypso, etc, and hopefully Civ V soon - mostly in Windows, sorry!). But as our budget did not allow any new purchases during that time span I kept looking.
As an opening in our budget opened it would not support a small, speedy 13" 3D racer. So I decided upon the Acer Aspire 5738ZG. Specifications: Intel Pentium T4500 (dual core, 2.3 GHz), ATI Radeon HD4650 (1GB), 4 GB DDR3, 320 GB HDD, 15.6" (1366 x 768) LCD.
This laptop came with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit preinstalled, which I intend to keep. Partly for gaming, partly as I need to know Windows 7 better for my everyday work needs (I sell computers).
Acer used to devide their hard drives into 3 partitions, of which 2 were visible to the user. One "Windows" partion (usually named "ACER"), one Recovery partition (hidden from Windows), and one data partition (usually named "ACERDATA"). The plan was that you use the "ACERDATA" to store your documents and other user files and leave the "ACER" partition for Windows and installed programs. If You needed to recover or re-install Windows you then would not loose your documents, music, pictures, etc. I am not awar if this has changed with Windows 7, but at least on this computer, there was only the recovery partition and one large Windows partition.
This lap top is a bit bigger and heavier than I wanted but so far it has been a good machine to work on. In my next post I will be covering my Ubuntu experiences on this computer.
March 25, 2010
My first bug filing - Nautilus hanging on opening Trash - bug # 544859 :-)
I filed my very first bug on Lanchpad on Tuesday (23rd of March 2010). My Nautilus hangs (bug #544859) (apparently in an infinite loop) when I open Trash. It uses a lot of CPU and greys the window after about 5 secs. Only way out is to force quit the window. I haven't reproduced this fault in any other "places" than Trash.
I have filed a backtrace and it appears to be a memory allocation problem so I need to provide a valgrind log as well. I have scheduled this for tonight (sorry for lagging, Pedro & community).
This is what testing Alpha & Beta software is all about. Using (and sometimes abusing) the system and report findings back. That is how we get a new stable production version of Ubuntu/Debian/OpenSUSE/insert-your-favourite-distribution-here. It is exciting to be a part of this :-)
The developer who grabbed the bug report, Pedro, has been swift in his replies (a lot swifter than my re-replies) and I Thank You, Pedro, for your time and patience :-)
I have filed a backtrace and it appears to be a memory allocation problem so I need to provide a valgrind log as well. I have scheduled this for tonight (sorry for lagging, Pedro & community).
This is what testing Alpha & Beta software is all about. Using (and sometimes abusing) the system and report findings back. That is how we get a new stable production version of Ubuntu/Debian/OpenSUSE/insert-your-favourite-distribution-here. It is exciting to be a part of this :-)
The developer who grabbed the bug report, Pedro, has been swift in his replies (a lot swifter than my re-replies) and I Thank You, Pedro, for your time and patience :-)
Solving my problem with Eclipse !!! [SOLVED]
Last Update 25/3 21:56 - problem solved
In my efforts to solve my problems with Eclipse and Android working on my Ubuntu Linux 10.04 lucid lynx Beta 1(and earlier Alphs 3) I decided to remove Eclipse completely using synaptic and marking eclipse and its components for "Complete Removal".
I deleted the workspaces I had lying around and I went on a hunt for any eclipse-related (config) files with # sudo find / -name *eclips*
Apart from files in ~/.mozilla/eclipse/ (permissions.sqlite, places.sqlite, places.sqlite-journal and prefs.js) that I dare not delete and some files in Trash (that I am not able to empty, as Nautilus hangs when opening Trash (bug #544859 for which I need to do a valgrind run - will do that tonight)) I seem to be free of eclipse-related files.
So I will once more try to install eclipse from the Ubuntu repositories with
# sudo apt-get install eclipse
and then pray for the best. See you at the other side ;-)
Update (13:48):
Excerpt from the above # sudo apt-get install eclipse :
0 upgraded, 59 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 230MB of archives.
After this operation, 361MB of additional disk space will be used.
Update (13:53)
Well. Still having the same problems. Sigh. Eclipse looks for https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/ which it does not find. Now what?
Update (21:56)
It seems that there was already bug filed in Launchpad: eclipse unable to 'install new software' (bug #541482). Somehow I just missed it :-s
It is a problem with the network stack, and if you force java to use the IPv4 stack by adding the following to your eclipse (when starting it):
things are back to normal. Great! Problem Solved!
PS.
thus having the line
eclipse -vmargs -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true
in the launcher does the trick!
In my efforts to solve my problems with Eclipse and Android working on my Ubuntu Linux 10.04 lucid lynx Beta 1(and earlier Alphs 3) I decided to remove Eclipse completely using synaptic and marking eclipse and its components for "Complete Removal".
I deleted the workspaces I had lying around and I went on a hunt for any eclipse-related (config) files with # sudo find / -name *eclips*
Apart from files in ~/.mozilla/eclipse/ (permissions.sqlite, places.sqlite, places.sqlite-journal and prefs.js) that I dare not delete and some files in Trash (that I am not able to empty, as Nautilus hangs when opening Trash (bug #544859 for which I need to do a valgrind run - will do that tonight)) I seem to be free of eclipse-related files.
So I will once more try to install eclipse from the Ubuntu repositories with
# sudo apt-get install eclipse
and then pray for the best. See you at the other side ;-)
Update (13:48):
Excerpt from the above # sudo apt-get install eclipse :
0 upgraded, 59 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 230MB of archives.
After this operation, 361MB of additional disk space will be used.
Good thing that the University 'net connection is behaving today - doing from ~180 KBytes/s and upwards :-)
Update (13:53)
Well. Still having the same problems. Sigh. Eclipse looks for https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/ which it does not find. Now what?
Update (21:56)
It seems that there was already bug filed in Launchpad: eclipse unable to 'install new software' (bug #541482). Somehow I just missed it :-s
It is a problem with the network stack, and if you force java to use the IPv4 stack by adding the following to your eclipse (when starting it):
-vmargs -Djava.
things are back to normal. Great! Problem Solved!
PS.
thus having the line
eclipse -vmargs -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true
in the launcher does the trick!
March 24, 2010
Backup for (Ubuntu) Linux
During all my toils of getting my development machine back up working (laptop using Eclipse to do a little Android development) I have been doing a lot of backups. And have had to struggle with it.
So where are the easy backup solutions for (Ubuntu) Linux lurking about? I need to do a backup to (and restore from) external media CDs or DVDs, preferably RWs. Which software handles that easily including blanking said RW medias, including DVD+RWs. And preferably is able to do multi-volume backups.
At this time I do not have a set backup routine for my pictures, mail, videos, etc. I do use Ubuntu One for some things but am limited to the free version and thus only 2 GB. So it is basically Ad Hoc backup for me.
Anybody have any good backup solutions? Please post in comments! (comments are no longer moderated in new (< 14 day old) posts)
So where are the easy backup solutions for (Ubuntu) Linux lurking about? I need to do a backup to (and restore from) external media CDs or DVDs, preferably RWs. Which software handles that easily including blanking said RW medias, including DVD+RWs. And preferably is able to do multi-volume backups.
At this time I do not have a set backup routine for my pictures, mail, videos, etc. I do use Ubuntu One for some things but am limited to the free version and thus only 2 GB. So it is basically Ad Hoc backup for me.
Anybody have any good backup solutions? Please post in comments! (comments are no longer moderated in new (< 14 day old) posts)
March 23, 2010
Problems getting ready for Ubuntu 10.04 lucid lynx beta 1
For several reasons I have decided to move to Ubuntu 10.04 lucid lynx beta 1 from the alpha 3 I am running at the moment.
I am keeping my /home partition while wiping my / partition. Most of this morning has gone with getting the beta 1, writing it to disk and backing up my /home. I found a spare DVD+RW disc to put the backup on.
But I have been fighting with Ubuntu to format/blank this disc and getting brasero to accept it. I have yet to find a way. I have tried the dvd+rw-format utility but to no avail. If this is due to me running alpha software i am not sure, but that's the state I am in at the moment.
I finally found a fresh, blank DVD-RW disc to hold the backup and I'm writing this at the moment.
So I wasted the morning, hopefully things will turn out for the better. I filed a bug on Nautilus hanging when opening Trash in alpha 3 this morning. Let's see if that is present in beta 1 as well.
Analytics 4 Android development has been on hold for the duration of this. Let's hope I get back on track.
I am keeping my /home partition while wiping my / partition. Most of this morning has gone with getting the beta 1, writing it to disk and backing up my /home. I found a spare DVD+RW disc to put the backup on.
But I have been fighting with Ubuntu to format/blank this disc and getting brasero to accept it. I have yet to find a way. I have tried the dvd+rw-format utility but to no avail. If this is due to me running alpha software i am not sure, but that's the state I am in at the moment.
I finally found a fresh, blank DVD-RW disc to hold the backup and I'm writing this at the moment.
So I wasted the morning, hopefully things will turn out for the better. I filed a bug on Nautilus hanging when opening Trash in alpha 3 this morning. Let's see if that is present in beta 1 as well.
Analytics 4 Android development has been on hold for the duration of this. Let's hope I get back on track.
March 22, 2010
Problems with Eclipse and ADT (Android Development Tools)
I am having a few problems since my upgrade to Ubuntu 10.04 (lucid lynx), working in Eclipse. I cannot install the Android Development Tools (ADT). I cannot even get in contact with the Eclipse repositories. I have tried both the Ubuntu package of Eclipse and the .tar ball from eclipse.org. It makes no difference.
I seem to have no other difficulties with my lucid lynx, other than that WINE does not have a lucid lynx ppa (as far as I can see). But I am still wondering if it is something related to lucid lynx that makes me unable to get to the Eclipse and ADT repositories. So I am downloading an ISO image of Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala and will run that in VirtualBox. Unfortunately the network at my university is quite slow today. I might actually get better transfer speeds through my cell phone, but I need to keep my data usage down - I only have 300 MB/month as I am trying to cut costs.
Googling bug reports on this I have found some on Eclipse crashing on (an earlier) lucid lynx alpha due to xulrunner being buggy. This was connected to the auto-completion feature in Eclipse. If this is a related bug, I am not sure.
I will update this post as I get more info. I am still downloading karmic koala.
UPDATE (12:05):
I have downloaded the ADT 0.9.6 .zip file but the install fails due to missing org.eclipse.wst.sse.core - so I still need to get the Eclipse part right.
UPDATE (23/3 22:15 CET)
I reinstalled Ubuntu with lucid lynx beta 1. Still no go. I cannot even get eclipse to access its own update repositories. Veeeery frustrating!
I seem to have no other difficulties with my lucid lynx, other than that WINE does not have a lucid lynx ppa (as far as I can see). But I am still wondering if it is something related to lucid lynx that makes me unable to get to the Eclipse and ADT repositories. So I am downloading an ISO image of Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala and will run that in VirtualBox. Unfortunately the network at my university is quite slow today. I might actually get better transfer speeds through my cell phone, but I need to keep my data usage down - I only have 300 MB/month as I am trying to cut costs.
Googling bug reports on this I have found some on Eclipse crashing on (an earlier) lucid lynx alpha due to xulrunner being buggy. This was connected to the auto-completion feature in Eclipse. If this is a related bug, I am not sure.
I will update this post as I get more info. I am still downloading karmic koala.
UPDATE (12:05):
I have downloaded the ADT 0.9.6 .zip file but the install fails due to missing org.eclipse.wst.sse.core - so I still need to get the Eclipse part right.
UPDATE (23/3 22:15 CET)
I reinstalled Ubuntu with lucid lynx beta 1. Still no go. I cannot even get eclipse to access its own update repositories. Veeeery frustrating!
March 19, 2010
Installing Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx Alpha 3 on the laptop
While the Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx Beta 1 release is yet to happen I decided to go with the Alpha 3. I could have waited for the Beta 1 which was originally scheduled for release yesterday but apparently is supposed to be released today, but I felt that I would loose yet another day not being able to work on Analytics 4 Android.
So I jumped in at the deep end and installed Alpha 3.
I installed the standard version without any manual selection of options, etc.
When you log in to your Lucid Lynx Alpha 3, this is how your desktop looks like. For the most part it looks like Karmic Koala, maybe with the exception of the "me" menu next to the power symbol (log on/off menu) in the top right corner:
This menu gives access to the social media, like twitter, FaceBook and other chat accounts as well as Ubuntu One.
I like to modify my desktop so that I get a little more desktop real estate, so I usually remove the bottom panel. To retain the same info on just one panel, I exchange the Main Menu Bar for a Main Menu and add the Window Selector, Trash Can and Workspace Switcher from the lower panel to the upper panel. I also add the System Monitor with all six meters showing (CPU, Memory, Network, Swap, Load Avg and Disk).
The theme and background pictures in this release seem to be the old Karmic ones, but it was only recently that the new themes and backgrounds was released:
As my laptop's built-in wifi is with a Broadcomm chip set that is not supported out-of-the-box (because of copyright policies) I had to install this driver through a "wired" net connection, in this case my HTC Hero Android based mobile phone, which was recognized out-of-the-box. Having done this and rebooted I could do a apt-get update/apt-get upgrade which in my case was 528 packages demanding about 240 MBytes downloaded.
I now need to add the extra packages I need. I will return in a few days with an update. If the Beta 1 is released later today I will re-install that (but keeping my /home) during the weekend and post that story.
So I jumped in at the deep end and installed Alpha 3.
(all photos taken with an HTC Hero mobile phone
apologies for the quality.)
I installed the standard version without any manual selection of options, etc.
The system started booting from the live CD
The graphic install tool (looks much like the 9.10 Karmic Koala version) guided me through installation (pictures missing). As this machine is a dual boot I had to modify the partition scheme manually but apart from that everything else was default setup.
Finally the process was done and the machine was rebooted:
GRUB loads and displays the above menu for 10 seconds. If Ubuntu was installed on a fresh drive without any other Operating Systems, this boot menu would have been hidden.
The "Windows NT/2000/XP (on /dev/sda1)" is the laptop manufacturers recovery partition and the "Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition (on /dev/sda2)" is the Windows OS that came with the machine. For various reasons we need this OS in our family and thus it stayed on the hard drive.
The "Windows NT/2000/XP (on /dev/sda1)" is the laptop manufacturers recovery partition and the "Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition (on /dev/sda2)" is the Windows OS that came with the machine. For various reasons we need this OS in our family and thus it stayed on the hard drive.
When you log in to your Lucid Lynx Alpha 3, this is how your desktop looks like. For the most part it looks like Karmic Koala, maybe with the exception of the "me" menu next to the power symbol (log on/off menu) in the top right corner:
This menu gives access to the social media, like twitter, FaceBook and other chat accounts as well as Ubuntu One.
I like to modify my desktop so that I get a little more desktop real estate, so I usually remove the bottom panel. To retain the same info on just one panel, I exchange the Main Menu Bar for a Main Menu and add the Window Selector, Trash Can and Workspace Switcher from the lower panel to the upper panel. I also add the System Monitor with all six meters showing (CPU, Memory, Network, Swap, Load Avg and Disk).
The theme and background pictures in this release seem to be the old Karmic ones, but it was only recently that the new themes and backgrounds was released:
As my laptop's built-in wifi is with a Broadcomm chip set that is not supported out-of-the-box (because of copyright policies) I had to install this driver through a "wired" net connection, in this case my HTC Hero Android based mobile phone, which was recognized out-of-the-box. Having done this and rebooted I could do a apt-get update/apt-get upgrade which in my case was 528 packages demanding about 240 MBytes downloaded.
I now need to add the extra packages I need. I will return in a few days with an update. If the Beta 1 is released later today I will re-install that (but keeping my /home) during the weekend and post that story.
March 18, 2010
Switching to Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx Alpha 3
As I wrote yesterday, my laptop is running an Ubuntu 9.10 that has basically been around since 7.10 or 8.04 and has been incrementally upgraded through 8.10, 9.04 and lately 9.10. And I have installed and removed a number of programs. Which all means that there must be residual files, that are no longer needed.
The laptop is not a new machine as you can imagine. The battery is getting closer to the end of it\s life cycle as it has maybe 20-25% of it's capacity left giving about 20 mins of standard work (no heavy I/O esp optical drive, not full CPU load).
The hard disc drive is a mere 60 GB and my Ubuntu co-habits with a Windows XP installation as well as the pre-load/recovery partition. All-in-all this leaves just under 20 GB for Ubuntu. As I have 1.5 GB of memory onboard I have allocated just over 1.5 GB for the swap partition so that it is possible to suspend to disc. So that leaves about 18 GB for both the / and /home partitions. This is currently split 6/12 GB which I think I will keep for the time being.
I need the following software packages for my everyday use:
I have been wondering whether I should install Eclipse as a .deb package or from the .tar.gz-ball from the Eclipse web site. I think I will end up installing the Ubuntu .deb package, leaving only the Android SDK to be installed from .tar.gz
I also plan to remove the games.
I am writing this blog on the Live CD of Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx Alpha 3 and while I have only used it briefly it seems to be working reasonably well.
Before I am going to re/install, I need to make a backup of my important files from my /home.
I will return with a review of Lucid Lynx in a couple of weeks.
The laptop is not a new machine as you can imagine. The battery is getting closer to the end of it\s life cycle as it has maybe 20-25% of it's capacity left giving about 20 mins of standard work (no heavy I/O esp optical drive, not full CPU load).
The hard disc drive is a mere 60 GB and my Ubuntu co-habits with a Windows XP installation as well as the pre-load/recovery partition. All-in-all this leaves just under 20 GB for Ubuntu. As I have 1.5 GB of memory onboard I have allocated just over 1.5 GB for the swap partition so that it is possible to suspend to disc. So that leaves about 18 GB for both the / and /home partitions. This is currently split 6/12 GB which I think I will keep for the time being.
I need the following software packages for my everyday use:
- Internet
- Firefox
- Chromium
- Office/productivity
- Evolution
- OpenOffice
- Programming
- Eclipse
- Android SDK
- Graphics
- GIMP
- Internet
- Skype
- Empathy
- Ubuntu One
- XChat
- Sound & Video
- Gnome Subtitles
- NtEd or GNU Denemo
- OpenShot Video Editor
- Pitivi Video Editor
- System Tools
- Virtual Box
- Wine
- Test Drive
- Internet
- Empathy
- Firefox
- Ubuntu One
- Office/Productivity
- OpenOffice
- Evolution
- Sound & Video
- Pitivi Video Editor
I have been wondering whether I should install Eclipse as a .deb package or from the .tar.gz-ball from the Eclipse web site. I think I will end up installing the Ubuntu .deb package, leaving only the Android SDK to be installed from .tar.gz
I also plan to remove the games.
I am writing this blog on the Live CD of Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx Alpha 3 and while I have only used it briefly it seems to be working reasonably well.
Before I am going to re/install, I need to make a backup of my important files from my /home.
I will return with a review of Lucid Lynx in a couple of weeks.
December 27, 2009
Developing on Android
I've had an Android phone - the HTC Hero - for almost 3 weeks now and now I feel it is time to get to the next level - developing applications and widgets for this platform. That is why I chose to get an Android so I better get started on it.
This blog-entry is a place and thought holder for research, research plans and ideas for apps and widgets. It is primaryly for my own use and is put online so that I have access to it from different places. You are very welcome use and comment on it.
At a later stage I will put articles on my web site.
Android development can be done on several platforms including Windows, Linux and Mac.
My development platform is my laptop which is running Ubuntu (Linux) 9.10 Karmic Koala. I have to find an Integrated Development Environment (IDE), a Version Control System, the Android Source Development Kit. I also need to research the Android APIs.
Following the quick start guide at the Android Development web site the supported IDE is Eclipse version 3.4 and above. This ties in well with my choice of using Ubuntu 9.10 as it contains Eclipse 3.5 whereas Jaunty (9.04) contains only Eclipse 3.2.
First you have to install Eclipse and the lastest JDK.
... to be continued ...
... to be researched:
Android Development with Eclipse - Tutorial by Jack Vogel (Android 2.0 Eclipse 3.5)
This blog-entry is a place and thought holder for research, research plans and ideas for apps and widgets. It is primaryly for my own use and is put online so that I have access to it from different places. You are very welcome use and comment on it.
At a later stage I will put articles on my web site.
Android development can be done on several platforms including Windows, Linux and Mac.
My development platform is my laptop which is running Ubuntu (Linux) 9.10 Karmic Koala. I have to find an Integrated Development Environment (IDE), a Version Control System, the Android Source Development Kit. I also need to research the Android APIs.
Following the quick start guide at the Android Development web site the supported IDE is Eclipse version 3.4 and above. This ties in well with my choice of using Ubuntu 9.10 as it contains Eclipse 3.5 whereas Jaunty (9.04) contains only Eclipse 3.2.
First you have to install Eclipse and the lastest JDK.
... to be continued ...
... to be researched:
Android Development with Eclipse - Tutorial by Jack Vogel (Android 2.0 Eclipse 3.5)
September 25, 2009
Upgrading from Ubuntu 9.04 to Karmic Koala Alpha 6 failed ... - Part III
Final post regarding my failed upgrade from Ubuntu Jaunty (9.04) to Karmic Koala (future 9.10):
I deleted the /dev/sda2 partition that hosted the interim Ubuntu Studio install I used in Part I and grew the root partition on /dev/sda1 to it's full size again, both using GParted running off an external drive that used to be the hard drive for this laptop. Then I used resize2fs to let the fs knw it had the extra space.
Then I did #7-9 mentioned in Part II - only #8 took a little longer than 10 minutes :-)
And when I rebooted I got the new Karmic Koala splash screen. Woohooooo! And it recognises my encrypted /home partition so that is lovely!
Now my plan is to backup all my data and remove the data I do not need on the laptop and do a clean install of Karmic Koala Alpha. I am leaving behind the Ubuntu Studio stuff - I will do that on the desktop box instead. I will however put in Eclipse (www.eclipse.org) in order to play with Android (www.android.com) development
Mission Accomplished!
I deleted the /dev/sda2 partition that hosted the interim Ubuntu Studio install I used in Part I and grew the root partition on /dev/sda1 to it's full size again, both using GParted running off an external drive that used to be the hard drive for this laptop. Then I used resize2fs to let the fs knw it had the extra space.
Then I did #7-9 mentioned in Part II - only #8 took a little longer than 10 minutes :-)
And when I rebooted I got the new Karmic Koala splash screen. Woohooooo! And it recognises my encrypted /home partition so that is lovely!
Now my plan is to backup all my data and remove the data I do not need on the laptop and do a clean install of Karmic Koala Alpha. I am leaving behind the Ubuntu Studio stuff - I will do that on the desktop box instead. I will however put in Eclipse (www.eclipse.org) in order to play with Android (www.android.com) development
Mission Accomplished!
September 24, 2009
Upgrading from Ubuntu 9.04 to Karmic Koala Alpha 6 failed ... - Part II
Update from previous post:
I googled for some kind of solution to my problem and found this post from the ubuntu mail archive: [Bug 398214] Re: Karmic Koala stopps dead after /scripts/init-bottom
The solution there is the following:
I did #1-7 but got this error message:
E: dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run 'sudo dpkg --configure -a' to correct the problem.
As I was already in the root recovery shell there was no need for sudo so I did:
#dpkg --configure -a
I got various dependency problems but they were not the main showstoppers. However I got:
* Mounting securityfs on /sys/kernel/security
[357.593965] type=1505 audit(12xxxxxx32.173:2): operation="profile_replace" info="failed to unpack profile" name="/usr/sbin/mysqld" pid=2180
/sbin/apparmor_parser: unable to replace "/usr/sbin/mysqld" profile doesn't conform to protocol
[357.xxxxxx] type=1505 audit(12xxxxxx32.604:3): operation="profile_load" name="/sbin/dhclient_script" name2="default" pid=2181
[357.xxxxxx] type=1505 audit(12xxxxxx32.605:4): operation="profile_replace" info="failed to unpack profile" name="/sbin/dhclient3" pid=2181
[... several other lines both kernel and dpkg lines ...]
Recursive error fixed. Need to reboot.
Here i had to do - I never got a shell prompt. But the system shuts down nicely and reboots.
I did #1-5 after the reboot and then
#dpkg --configure -a
Still dependency problems but dpkg finishes this time.
Did #6 and got this response:
You might want to run 'apt-get -f install' to correct these
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
libgnomekbdei4: Depends: libgomekbd4 but it is not installed
libice-dev: Depends: libice6 (=2:1.0.5-1) but 2:1.0.4-1 is installed
ubuntu-minimal: Depends: rsyslog but it is not installed
xserver-xorg: Depends: console-setup (>= 1.29) or
console-setup-mini (>= 1.29) but it is not installed
#apt-get -f install
which finishes apparently without problems
#apt-get dist-upgrade
[ ... several lines from apt-get listing packages ... ]
1241 upgraded, 320 newly installed, 18 to remove and 3 not upgraded
1 not fully installed or removed
Need to get 0B/1938 MB of archives
After this operation 859 MB of additional disk space will be used
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?
Well normally I would answer yes here BUT - from a recent df I remembered I had only about 350 MB available disk space. From part I you might remember that I resized the / partition (/dev/sda1) and did an install of Ubuntu-Studio 9.04 on the freed 3 GB from this rezise. Now it seems it is time to delete this install and re-resize the sda1 partition to its former size to continue with the fix.
I will return with part III when this is done ...
I googled for some kind of solution to my problem and found this post from the ubuntu mail archive: [Bug 398214] Re: Karmic Koala stopps dead after /scripts/init-bottom
The solution there is the following:
1. Ensure you are connected to your router by DHCP.I am running kernel 2.6.28-rt3 from UbuntuStudio 9.04 but I do not think that will be a problem. For the remainder of this post replace 2.6.31-39 with 2.6.28-rt3 (in my case) or what ever kernel you are running (within reason ;-)
2. Start your machine and select the "recovery kernel linux 2.6.31-10" with the
"down" button. Press "e" on your keyboard.
3. Select the "kernel uuid=..." entry with the "down" button and type "e" again.
4. Change "ro single" to "rw init=/bin/bash". Press "Enter" and "b" on the
keyboard.
5. Wait until booting stops and press "Enter".
6. "root@(none):" is displayed. Type in the konsole:
dhclient eth0
7. After this operation the connection to the internet is activated and you can
type in the konsole:
apt-get dist-upgrade
8. Wait 10 min until upgrade is done.
9. Reboot your machine and select "kernel linux 2.6.31-9" in grub.
I did #1-7 but got this error message:
E: dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run 'sudo dpkg --configure -a' to correct the problem.
As I was already in the root recovery shell there was no need for sudo so I did:
#dpkg --configure -a
I got various dependency problems but they were not the main showstoppers. However I got:
* Mounting securityfs on /sys/kernel/security
[357.593965] type=1505 audit(12xxxxxx32.173:2): operation="profile_replace" info="failed to unpack profile" name="/usr/sbin/mysqld" pid=2180
/sbin/apparmor_parser: unable to replace "/usr/sbin/mysqld" profile doesn't conform to protocol
[357.xxxxxx] type=1505 audit(12xxxxxx32.604:3): operation="profile_load" name="/sbin/dhclient_script" name2="default" pid=2181
[357.xxxxxx] type=1505 audit(12xxxxxx32.605:4): operation="profile_replace" info="failed to unpack profile" name="/sbin/dhclient3" pid=2181
[... several other lines both kernel and dpkg lines ...]
Recursive error fixed. Need to reboot.
Here i had to do
I did #1-5 after the reboot and then
#dpkg --configure -a
Still dependency problems but dpkg finishes this time.
Did #6 and got this response:
You might want to run 'apt-get -f install' to correct these
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
libgnomekbdei4: Depends: libgomekbd4 but it is not installed
libice-dev: Depends: libice6 (=2:1.0.5-1) but 2:1.0.4-1 is installed
ubuntu-minimal: Depends: rsyslog but it is not installed
xserver-xorg: Depends: console-setup (>= 1.29) or
console-setup-mini (>= 1.29) but it is not installed
#apt-get -f install
which finishes apparently without problems
#apt-get dist-upgrade
[ ... several lines from apt-get listing packages ... ]
1241 upgraded, 320 newly installed, 18 to remove and 3 not upgraded
1 not fully installed or removed
Need to get 0B/1938 MB of archives
After this operation 859 MB of additional disk space will be used
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?
Well normally I would answer yes here BUT - from a recent df I remembered I had only about 350 MB available disk space. From part I you might remember that I resized the / partition (/dev/sda1) and did an install of Ubuntu-Studio 9.04 on the freed 3 GB from this rezise. Now it seems it is time to delete this install and re-resize the sda1 partition to its former size to continue with the fix.
I will return with part III when this is done ...
September 22, 2009
Upgrading from Ubuntu 9.04 to Karmic Koala Alpha 6 failed ...
I wanted to try out the new Ubuntu Karmic Koala, destined to be Ubuntu 9.10 so I decided to upgrade my laptops Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) to Karmic Koala Alpha6.
Bad Idea.
The laptop has its /home directories encrypted and I think this is what is messing up the upgrade. So now I have an unusable laptop. Which is a bit sad, because it has our photos on it :-(
I am trying to figure out how to bring it back to life.
If I start is in a recovery session it boots the kernel(s) (2.6.28.-3-rt, 2.6.28-14 and 2.6.28-15) and (apparently) runs the /scripts/local-premount, /scripts/local-bottom and /scripts/init-bottom successfully (it replies "Done." "Done." to the two first scripts and just "Done." on the third). From there I can only press which briefly gives me the recovery console but after a few short seconds the system shuts down.
I tried installing Ubuntu Studio 9.04 on available space but included my old /home directory during the install (just putting it in /etc/fstab, not formatting the drive) so the files are still there, only they are encrypted.
When booting this partition I get to the login screen. I can login, but just get a black screen with the mouse pointer on it - the /home files are not accessible so Gnome does not know how to render the screen or setup panels, menus etc.
Next step is to install Ubuntu Studio 9.04 again without referring to the old /home. Then installing encryptfs to see if I can get access to the files. I will keep you posted.
Bad Idea.
The laptop has its /home directories encrypted and I think this is what is messing up the upgrade. So now I have an unusable laptop. Which is a bit sad, because it has our photos on it :-(
I am trying to figure out how to bring it back to life.
If I start is in a recovery session it boots the kernel(s) (2.6.28.-3-rt, 2.6.28-14 and 2.6.28-15) and (apparently) runs the /scripts/local-premount, /scripts/local-bottom and /scripts/init-bottom successfully (it replies "Done." "Done." to the two first scripts and just "Done." on the third). From there I can only press
I tried installing Ubuntu Studio 9.04 on available space but included my old /home directory during the install (just putting it in /etc/fstab, not formatting the drive) so the files are still there, only they are encrypted.
When booting this partition I get to the login screen. I can login, but just get a black screen with the mouse pointer on it - the /home files are not accessible so Gnome does not know how to render the screen or setup panels, menus etc.
Next step is to install Ubuntu Studio 9.04 again without referring to the old /home. Then installing encryptfs to see if I can get access to the files. I will keep you posted.
April 03, 2009
WLAN problems in Jaunty Alpha6
I decided to install the Jaunty Jackalope (the coming Ubuntu 9.04) on my laptop. So far I haven't experienced any glitches, except for my Wireless LAN.
The builtin WLAN card in the Acer TravelMate 2492 I am using is based on a Broadcom chipset. The chipset is recognised and I can download the proprietary hardware driver which seems to work - but doesn't.
I usually get a connection speed of 36-54 Mbit/s, both in Ubuntu 8.10 and Windows XP. Initially in 9.04 I get 48 and even 54 Mbit/s connection, but it quickly drops to 1 Mbit/s without any throughput. We are running WEP as the encryption (not very safe, I know - I am planning to replace it :-)
Luckily I have a D-Link N class PC-Card (DWA-645) which Ubuntu recognizes and that works perfectly and without proprietary drivers :-)
So far I have found no solutions (other than using the D-Link card). Does anyone have any pointers for me?
The builtin WLAN card in the Acer TravelMate 2492 I am using is based on a Broadcom chipset. The chipset is recognised and I can download the proprietary hardware driver which seems to work - but doesn't.
I usually get a connection speed of 36-54 Mbit/s, both in Ubuntu 8.10 and Windows XP. Initially in 9.04 I get 48 and even 54 Mbit/s connection, but it quickly drops to 1 Mbit/s without any throughput. We are running WEP as the encryption (not very safe, I know - I am planning to replace it :-)
Luckily I have a D-Link N class PC-Card (DWA-645) which Ubuntu recognizes and that works perfectly and without proprietary drivers :-)
So far I have found no solutions (other than using the D-Link card). Does anyone have any pointers for me?
October 27, 2007
HomeServer Part 4 - Installation
A few things has changed during the last 5-6 weeks. I have been able to aquire some used parts to upgrade my HomeServer project. Thus the Hardware setup for this project is as follows :
CPU Pentium 4 2.4 GHz
RAM 640 MB DDR Ram
Motherboard Intel 845 Desktop Motherboard
NICs 2 x D-Link DGE-628T Gigabit
Graphics board GeForce 2 MX
TV Tuner BrookTree 878 Based card
Hard disk drives 160 GB Seagate Harddisk ATA
Optical drives 20x Lite-On DVD-RW drive
Power Supply Unit Trust 520W Pro PSU Low Noise Big Fan
Computer case Full Size “server” tower with
Software:
CPU Pentium 4 2.4 GHz
RAM 640 MB DDR Ram
Motherboard Intel 845 Desktop Motherboard
NICs 2 x D-Link DGE-628T Gigabit
Graphics board GeForce 2 MX
TV Tuner BrookTree 878 Based card
Hard disk drives 160 GB Seagate Harddisk ATA
Optical drives 20x Lite-On DVD-RW drive
Power Supply Unit Trust 520W Pro PSU Low Noise Big Fan
Computer case Full Size “server” tower with
- 3 internal 3.5” hdd bays
- 1 external 3.5” floppy bay
- 5 external 5.25” bays
S-ATA RAID Controller
Hard disk drives 2 x 320 GB (at least) S-ATA in RAID 1 for /home user files
To safeguard personal data such as digital photos, documents, etc I plan to add a RAID 1 array based upon Serial ATA drives. This will, with the backup procedure safeguard important files. If a disk in the RAID 1 array fails, it will continue to run on the other drive. The faulty drive can be replaced and the RAID 1 array will recreate itself onto the new disk. Theoretically this should be possible online, on the fly so that both Data and Server is available as much as possible.
When the RAID 1 array is added it will host the user files in their /home directories. The main /home partition will then host the semi-volatile files such as MP3s created from our CD etc. collection.
Software:
Operating System Ubuntu 7.10 “Gutsy Gibbon” – server edition
Kernel Ubuntu vanilla kernel 2.6.22
Just shortly before I assembled the hardware, Ubuntu 7.10 code name “Gutsy Gibbon” was released (on oct. 18th 2007) so I decided to go with the server edition of this new Ubuntu. If you want long term support, or you are simply not comfortable with using the latest version and would rather go for the tried and tested version, I suggest You try the LTS version available to you (6.06 code name “Dapper Drake” at the time of writing this).
sda1 / ext3 15 GB
sda2 swap 2 GB
sda3 /home ext3 143 GB
- OpenSSH server - to allow remote system administration
- Samba file server - to provide remote file storage for windows boxes
- NFS file server - to provide remote file storage for *nix (mainly Linux) boxes
- DHCP server - to provide network management
- Shoreline Firewall - to provide protection from outside (and inside) attacks
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