8thString

Error! Could not locate dkms.conf file install VirtualBox 4.1.8 on Ubuntu 11.10

2012-01-03T22:26:00.000-06:00

Tried to update my Ubuntu host today and it did pickup that new version of VirtualBox is available (4.1.8). All other packages installed properly except that VirtualBox installation was complaining about missing dkms.conf file, see error message below.

$: sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup
 * Stopping VirtualBox kernel modules                                    [ OK ] 
 * Uninstalling old VirtualBox DKMS kernel modules                              
Error! Could not locate dkms.conf file.
File:  does not exist.
                                                                         [ OK ]
 * Trying to register the VirtualBox kernel modules using DKMS           [ OK ] 
 * Starting VirtualBox kernel modules                                    [ OK ]

Though it looks like installation was fine but I am concerned about its effects to VirtualBox functionality. To fix this, do:

$: cd /var/lib/dkms/vboxhost
$: sudo rm -r 4.1.4
$: sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup

Of course you have to replace 4.1.4 with the old version of VirtualBox that you don't need.

~technos

Tags:
VirtualBox, Ubuntu, dkms.conf, file not found

How to bring the network interface down in Arch

2011-12-30T02:05:00.000-06:00

Coming from Debian/Ubuntu camp, I know that ifup eth0 or ifdown eth0 can be used to bring a network interface down/up. Unfortunately, ifup and ifdown is not available by default on an Arch netinstall. Also, it seems like ifup/ifdown are now in the list of deprecated tools. So, what's the alternative? Use ip command, like to bring down an interface do:

#: ip link set eth0 down

Conversely, if you want to bring up an interface, do:

#: ip link set eth0 up

Enjoy!

Tags: Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, interface, ifup, ifdown, replacement, alternative

Installing Linux Mint 12 on Virtualbox

2011-12-04T22:14:00.000-06:00

Linux Mint 12 was released last 2011-11-12. The release made it to the top of the list in Distrowatch.com. Looking at the outside, Linux Mint 11 and Mint 12 are almost identical except for minor verbiage change.

Linux Mint 12 comes with the following major software:
kernel: 3.0.0-12-generic
X Org: 1.10.4
GNOME: 3.2.1
Firefox: 7.0.1

Below is my configuration of the guest machine:

General
Name: mint12
OS Type: Ubuntu

System
Base Memory: 1024 MB
Processor(s): 1
Execution Cap: 100%
Boot Order: Floppy, CD/DVD-ROM, Hard Disk
VT-x/AMD-V: Enabled
Nested Paging: Enabled

Display
Video Memory: 12 MB
3D Acceleration: Disabled
2D Video Acceleration: Disabled
Remote Desktop Server: Disabled

Storage
IDE Controller
IDE Secondary Master (CD/DVD): Empty
SATA Controller
SATA Port 0: mint12.vdi (Normal, 20.00 GB)

Audio
Host Driver: Windows DirectSound
Controller: ICH AC97

Network
Adapter 1: Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop (NAT)

Serial Ports
Disabled

USB
Device Filters:
0 (0 active)

Shared Folders
None

Note: I am using the default configuration except for the memory. I should have enabled 3D acceleration support and increase video memory. But I would like to compare how it compares with the older versions of Linux Mint.

Without too much ado, below are screencapture of Linux Mint 12 install at strategic points

Figure 1. Boot up screen

Figure 2. Live CD - ready to install to HD

Figure 3. Select language of the installed system

Figure 4. Preparing to install Linux Mint

Figure 5. Installation Type

Figure 6. Drive to install Linux Mint

Figure 7. Time zone settings

Figure 8. Keyboard layout

Figure 9. Non-root user

Figure 10. Installation complete

Figure 11. Login screen, looks nice

Figure 12. Linux Mint 12 desktop

For those familiar with VirtualBox and who have been following along on latest distributions will probably notice that I should have enabled 3D acceleration during the installation. This specially so for GNOME 3.x series window managers.

Enjoy!!!

Arch Linux on Eee PC 900 Chronicle

2011-11-26T12:06:00.001-06:00

Work in progress!!!

I have been pretty intrigued with Arch Linux for sometime. I have read numerous times in Distrowatch forum that this distribution can easily replace Ubuntu and that Ubuntu actually makes the name of Linux bad. It is touted by most that it is one of those real Linux, in the same ranks as Debian or Gentoo.

My recent experience with Ubuntu 11.10 and Linux Mint 12 on VirtualBox were not good to put it mildly. Now I am in quest for the best Linux distro that can be installed on VirtualBox. By the way, Ubuntu 11.10 works like charm on VMware ESXi 5.0. Should I just dump VirtualBox? Maybe not just yet. With VirtualBox, I can run it on Windows and Linux and still be productive. With VMware ESXi, I need to dedicate a machine for that. I do have 5 boxes running VMware ESXi for software testing but I do need access to Windows on my work laptop.

I can also move to VMware Workstation but I have higher hopes for VirtualBox as it is developed at a much faster pace. Plus, I can also help with the project as it is opensource.

The Eee PC 900 Hardware

Processor: (to come)

Arch Linux installation on Eee PC 900

With that said, I will deep dive and use Arch Linux on my aging Eee PC 900.

Follow Arch Linux Beginner’s Guide to get the latest installation media. As of this writing, archlinux-2011.08.19-netinstall-i686.iso is available for download. You probably notice that I am going to do network install.

Anyway, with ISO downloaded, start to check all the stroage media in the system, like:

$: sudo fdisk -l | grep "Disk /dev"

Ah, I am using Ubuntu :(. The venerable sudo. Anyway, output should look like this:
Disk /dev/sda: 60.0 GB, 60011642880 bytes
Disk /dev/sdb: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
Disk /dev/sdc: 203.9 GB, 203928109056 bytes

Plugin USB thumb drive that will be used for the installation. Run sudo fdisk -l | grep "Disk /dev" again to determine the location of the USB thumb drive. Now, burn the ISO, like:

$: umount /dev/sdd1
$: sudo dd if=archlinux-2011.08.19-netinstall-i686.iso of=/dev/sdd bs=4M

Assuming that the USB was partitioned and auto-mounter is working its magic, need to umount before writing the ISO to the thumb drive. Should now be ready to plug this in to my Eee PC 900.

While Eee PC 900 is booting up, hit on ESC so that it displays the boot options. Select USB: USB Disk. Arch Linux should now show you options what to do next. Select Boot Arch Linux and hit on Enter. You should be dropped to tty session with a root user.

Begin installation by running:

#: /arch/setup

Follow the instructions as they are presented. In "Select source", ensure that core is selected and optionally select a mirror that is closest to you. For the editor, select either vi or nano. I am a bit comfortable with vi so I have it selected.

For clock, thus say for region and timezone, I selected North_Dakota/Center as this is my current location. If not very familiar with how time is handled in Linux, select UTC and opt to use an ntp.

Now for preparing the hardrives. Setup /dev/sda as boot drive, set fs type to Linux (83). For /dev/sdb, create one partition (/dev/sdb1) and set fs type to 83 as well. Then set /dev/sda1 as /boot (ext2) and /dev/sdb1 as / (root mount point) formatted as ext2. You should be curious by now why ext2 is used here. From Arch Linux Eee PC 701 it is generally not recommended use journaling file system on SSDs. Though ext4 can be configured to disable journaling, I will be using ext2 here for now and see how it performs.

For packages, select base and wireless_tools.

Now wait for the installation to complete, be patient here as it can take time depending on connection speed.

In configuration, change /etc/fstab, add noatime for both /dev/sda1 and /dev/sdb1. It should look like below:

/dev/sda1 /boot ext2 defaults,noatime 0 1
/dev/sdb1 / ext2 defaults,noatime 0 1

Set the root password for obvious security reasons.

Install boot loader as instructed. And reboot. Yeay... I now have a working Arch Linux running on Eee PC 900

Install graphical user interface (X Org)

Install X Org basic package, like:

#: pacman -S xorg-server xorg-xinit xorg-utils xorg-server-utils xterm

Eee PC 900 comes with Intel embedded video controller, so install that driver.

# pacman -S xf86-video-intel

Next, install driver for the mouse pad

#: pacman -S xf86-input-synaptics

Let us detour here and install non-root user, see this for more info.

#: adduser

It will show you something like this:

Login name for new user []: timus
User ID ('UID') [ defaults to next available ]:
Initial group [ users ]:
Additional groups (comma separated) []: audio,lp,storage,video,wheel,power
Home directory [ /home/timus ]:
Shell [ /bin/bash ]:
Expiry date (YYYY-MM-DD) []:

In Linux, there lots of options for desktop environments but I will be using LXDE as it is a bit lightweight. Now install this DE:

#: pacman -S lxde

LXDE needs D-Bus (message bus system for simple inter-application communication).

#: pacman -S dbus

And ensure that D-Bus runs after boot-up, so add it in DAEMONS array in /etc/rc.conf. It should look like:

DAEMONS=(syslog-ng network crond dbus sshd)

Next up, install display manager. Again, so many choises to make in Linux. I will be doing xdm this time.

#: pacman -S xorg-xdm xorg-xconsole

Note that I am installing both xorg-xdm and xorg-xconsole.

Make .xsession executable:

$: chmod 744 .xsession

If you don't have that file in /home/[username]/, copy one from /etc/skel/.xession. By the way, this is the reason why a detour was done above to create a user. If you don't have /home/[username], open a new virtual console (like Alt+F2) and login. This should initialize the files and folders for that user.

I like that xdm look a little more appealing, so I have to install xdm-archlinux, like:

#: pacman -S xdm-archlinux

Since xdm-archlinux uses terminus fonts, installing it is in order:

#: pacman -S terminus-font

Almost done with setting up the basic GUI system, to start the machine in graphical mode, edit /etc/inittab to change runlevel to 5, like:

## Only one of the following two lines can be uncommented!
# Boot to console
#id:3:initdefault:
# Boot to X11
id:5:initdefault:

Towards the end of /etc/inittab, uncomment or add xdm, like:

# Example lines for starting a login manager
x:5:respawn:/usr/bin/xdm -nodaemon -config /etc/X11/xdm/archlinux/xdm-config
#x:5:respawn:/usr/sbin/gdm -nodaemon
#x:5:respawn:/usr/bin/kdm -nodaemon
#x:5:respawn:/usr/bin/slim >/dev/null 2>&1
#x:5:respwan:/usr/sbin/lxdm >/dev/null 2>&1
# End of file

Reboot machine and viola!!! Nice looking xdm.
------------------------------- To be continued

References:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Asus_Eee_PC_901
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Asus_Eee_PC_701
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners_Guide
http://terribly-misanthropic.blogspot.com/2009/04/eee701-arch.html

Is it just me or GNOME 3 based distributions are getting buggy

2011-11-22T23:34:00.001-06:00

Is it just me or GNOME 3 based distributions are getting buggy?

I have tried Ubuntu 11.10, Linux Mint 12, Fedora 15 (I should update to Fedora 16 soon), but I can't help but complain about the performance of this latest distributions virtualized using VirtualBox. Or is VirtualBox that's getting really buggy??? :(

Ubuntu 11.10 feels really slow, clicking on an application using Unity takes forever to bring up the applications main GUI (even gedit is slow). Linux Mint 12 while looks nice but also is problematic. Clicking on Mint Menu shows blank items ... and it only shows up the entries once I wiggle the mouse around. Picture speaks a thousand words, so see below.

Figure 1. Mint Menu shows blank on the left side :(

Another issue I have observed with Linux Mint 12 is that the menu gets out of sync. So like if select Internet it does not move focus to it. But the items to the right gets updated. Again, see below for a screen capture.

Figure 2. Menus are out of sync

Fedora 15 while useful but feels really slow. My host machine is a Core 2 Quad CPU clocking at 2.50 GHz. Yes, the guest is only allocated one core and 1GB of memory, but Linux should not need more than that. Or at least it should be comfortable to use it using that configuration.

Did we succumb to release schedule? Or is GNOME 3 is still in a state of influx? Or VirtualBox is getting really buggy?

How to know if reboot is required after running apt upgrade

2011-11-22T23:07:00.001-06:00

So you have a Debian based installation (i.e., Ubuntu, Linux Mint and of course Debian itself), how would you know if you need to reboot after running apt-get upgrade?

Well, this should be as easy as checking for the presence of the file /var/run/reboot-required

Tags:
apt, apt-get, upgrade, reboot, required

Linux Mint 11 Installation Screen Capture tour

2011-11-22T22:44:00.001-06:00

Linux Mint 11 (Katya) was released 2011-05-26. As usual it comes with all the goodies but this time user can download an ISO without all the codecs. Below shows version numbers of the major packages.

Release: Linux Mint 11
Code name: Katya
Linux: 2.6.38-8-generic
GNOME: 2.32.1
X.Org X Server 1.10.1

So here goes how the installation looks like.

Figure 1. Boot screen, looks really nice and clean

Figure 2. Linux Mint 11 Live CD desktop

Figure 3. Install to hard drive, select English as language

Figure 4. Preparing for installation

Figure 5. Allocate drive space

Figure 6. Erase disk and install Mint

Figure 7. Select time zone

Figure 8. Select keyboard layout

Figure 9. Create user

Figure 10. Install complete, ready to reboot

Figure 11. Login screen

Figure 12. Linux Mint 11 desktop

How to get X server version from the command line

2011-11-22T22:26:00.001-06:00

To get X Org servers version from command line, do:

Xorg -version

Sample output from the command above looks like this:

X.Org X Server 1.7.7
Release Date: 2010-05-04
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Build Operating System: Linux 2.6.32.29-dsa-ia32 i686 Debian
Current Operating System: Linux deb6 2.6.32-5-686 #1 SMP Mon Jun 13 04:13:06 UTC 2011 i686
Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-5-686 root=UUID=6df69de5-fdf6-4729-a83b-c56fb0d8af3f ro quiet
Build Date: 19 February 2011 02:37:36PM
xorg-server 2:1.7.7-13 (Cyril Brulebois <kibi@debian.org>)
Current version of pixman: 0.16.4
Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
to make sure that you have the latest version.

Tags:
X Server, X Window, version, command line, console, cli

Ubuntu 11.10 alternate install blank screen

2011-11-20T12:35:00.001-06:00

With Ubuntu 11.10 Unity requiring lots of resources both in CPU and memory, I embarked on installing a trimmed down version of it using alternate install. This used to be straight forward, follow the text based wizard and you are ready to go.

The problem is that after installation, on reboot it shows a blank screen. Just nothing... (except for the blinking cursor). This might be specific to VirtualBox guest machines but I can't verify this.

Anyway, it took me a while to figure this one out (of course with the help of Google). The following, from Ubuntu's bug repository Launchpad, shows the problem:

Ubuntu 11.10 Command line only installation fails over and over again
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1873069

grub2 configuration has vt.handoff=7 even when X11 is not installed
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+bug/695658

Command-line Install on Minimal CD tries to boot graphically
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+bug/831752

The problem

Ubuntu minimal/alternate failed to cover the use case that user might not need GUI in Ubuntu. This is a big oversight as a big chunk of Linux users (servers) don't need GUI. What happens is that it boots up and creates virtual terminal session 7 so that it can transition to GUI login seamlessly.

The work around

In Ubuntu 11.10, /etc/grub.d/10_linux line 70, it checks if the word "splash" is present in GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT. This GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT can be modified in /etc/default/grub. So changing this line:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=""

I should have removed "splash" only but I also would like to see all the message while the machine is booting up.

Next up, is add the following towards the end of /etc/default/grub:

GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=text

Ok I am not so familiar with this one. But I believe what it does is to force it to run in text mode instead of doing KMS functionality built-in the kernel.

Now, to update grub.cfg run:

sudo update-grub

Then reboot the machine, like:

sudo reboot

Vi Editor common keys

2011-11-20T00:27:00.000-06:00

My commonly used vi shortcut keys:

Command	Action	Notes
File operations
:q	Quit VI	This will exit VI editor
:q!	Force quit	This will exit VI editor even if buffers are dirty
:w	Save current buffer	Save currently active buffer
:bd	Kill current buffer
General
:set number	Show line number
:set nu	Show line number
Text Operations
yy	Copy line
p	Paste _after_ the current line
P	Paste _before_ the current line
x	Delete char under the cursor
dw	Delete the word under the cursor	This will also delete the space after it
3dw	Delete 3 words	This will also delete the space after it
dd	Delete line	Deletes the entire line
Navigation
ge	Jump to previous word ending
gE	Jump to previous word ending, ignore punctuation
gg	Start of file
G	End of file
21G	Go to line 22
Search
/{string}{ENTER}	Search for string

Tutorials
VIM Introduction and Tutorial (link)
VIM Tips (link)

How to get GNOME version from the command line

2011-11-17T22:45:00.001-06:00

Getting GNOME version from the command line, type:

gnome-about --version

This will show something like:
GNOME gnome-about 2.32.0

Or if you want to see the window, leave out --version.

This can also be done using the command below.

gnome-session --version

Tags:
GNOME version command line cli

Ubuntu 11.04 Installation Screen Capture

2011-11-17T22:30:00.001-06:00

Linux is moving in such a fast pace that I can't keep up playing around with the latest and greatest. Ubuntu 11.04 was released long time ago (in internet time) but I am keeping installation screen capture here for posterity.

Release: Ubuntu 11.04
Code name: Natty Narwhal
Kernel: 2.6.38-10
GNOME: 2.32.1

So here goes the screen captures.

Figure 1. Select language

Figure 2. Preparing to install Ubuntu

Figure 3. Allocate drive space

Figure 4. Erase disk and install Ubuntu

Figure 5. Timezone

Figure 6. Keyboard layout

Figure 7. Set user

Figure 8. Installation complete, reboot

Figure 9. Login screen

Figure 10. DASH

Windows Antivirus log that failed me

2011-11-14T00:28:00.001-06:00

This is a log of free anti-virus that I have used that failed to protect Windows computers so far. Do note that non-free "expensive" ones can also fail. I have witnessed this firsthand in the office where a zero day exploit rendered our network almost useless.

Anyway, this does not necessarily mean that below are lackluster products, it is just that it did fail me one time or another.

List is listed based on chronological order, oldest listed first:
1) AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition - this was my all time favorite but failed me way back in 2010.
2) Microsoft Security Essentials - last week (second week of Nov 2011), one of our home computers was infected by a virus. Got to recover the entire system.

Experimenting with the following for now, see if it does protect a Windows XP PC:
- Avast Free Anti-virus (Program version: 6.0.1289)

Recovering Sony VAIO VGN-N110G

2011-11-13T22:32:00.001-06:00

We have a pretty much old, by today's standard, Sony VAIO VGN-N110G running on Windows XP. This machine was hit hard by a virus and MS Security Essentials was not doing its job. Not sure if Security Essentials is a good anti-virus but I am using it anyway (hey it is free).

The virus was pretty smart and distructive. Though the data files were not deleted but it did delete the menu entries in Windows leaving it almost unsable. Initial impression of the virus was that it hides all files making you believe that everything was gone. It even offers a solution, like buy an anti-virus. Anyway, as I mentioned above, I did try to do full scan using MS Security Essentials, it was able to identify several and it did mention that the virus was removed. But the system was still unusable after the anti-virus cleanup exercise.

So I tried to fire-up VAIO recovery to no avail. It says it cannot find the restore drive. It was really getting so bad.

Rebooting into safe mode does not help. So tried another reboot but this time I pressed F10 by mistake. What a surprise, F10 during boot actually allows the user to recover the system.

Good job here Sony, this feature is very handy.

So, to summarize, Sony VAIO VGN-N110G can be recovered by rebooting the machine and hit F10 just after the BIOS checks.

Tag:
Sony VAIO cannot find recovery drive.

~ts

Fedora 15 Screen Capture Tour

2011-11-07T22:07:00.000-06:00

I have been trying to keep a log of the *nix distribution I am using. Mostly I take screen captures and post them as blog post. I have been slacking lately due to personal commitments. Anyway, so here goes Fedora 15 (released May 24, 2011).

Boot screen

GNOME 3 failed to load on VirtualBox

Install to Hard Drive

Keyboard selection

Type of store device

Confirm to wipe disk

Set computer hostname

Set time zone info

Set root account password

Storage allocation, use all space

Install complete

Welcome to Fedora

License agreement

Create user

Set date and time

Hardware profile

Class GNOME menu

Fedora 15 major software versions
kernel: 2.6.40
GNOME: 3.0.1
Firefox: 6.0

Mounting VirtualBox shared folder that is writeable by non-root user

2011-11-05T13:22:00.000-05:00

I have been using VirtualBox for awhile now but I mostly use Windows as the host machine. I just had setup few Linux boxes as VirtualBox host and found a need to save files in the host as I normally do snapshots and clean 'em up.

Mounting a shared folder is easy, what caught me was that I can't change ownership of the folder created under the shared folders. So my regular user account can't create files.

I realized that mount actually accepts options as to who would have access to the mounted folder, so to mount with read/write access to a user, do:


sudo mount -t vboxsf -o rw,uid=1000 userdat /mnt/userdat

Where:
uid=1000 is the user ID of the user. For example, I have a user named timus, to get the ID, you can do:

timus@ubu1110:~$ cat /etc/passwd | grep timus
timus:x:1000:1000:timus,,,:/home/timus:/bin/bash

As can be seen, timus uid is 1000 and group ID is 1000 as well.

userdat is the VirtualBox shared folder name.
/mnt/userdat is the mount point

Keywords for easy search:
user userland VirtualBox shared folders read write

Ubuntu 11.10 Experience on Dell D610

2011-10-25T23:39:00.003-05:00

First off, I would like to congratulate Ubuntu team for releasing another milestone of a good Linux distribution. It is such a big project which requires great balance between schedule, functionality, level of polish and quality.

On the polish, I really like the new theme, it fits well to my taste.

Okay, the day it was released I got a little excited. I know/read a lot of horror stories about doing an upgrade. I haven't tried this in ages be it Windows or Linux. And so I tried...

The upgrade took longer than fresh install. I normally do vanilla install with minimal change to the configuration. So this is new to me. After the first reboot that's where the fun/pain begins.

My first impression with Unity/Dash on Ubuntu 11.10 was unpleasant. Tried to run gedit, nothing happens. Tried to run Firefox, nothing shows up :(. It is good that CTRL+ALT+T works. So I have terminal. Running gedit from terminal works!!! So it must be Unity/Dash that's not working well here.

I have been using Windows far too long to know that reboot does it magic. Tried that... tried to run Text Editor again... nothing. Tried it once more.... boom gedit shows up. What's going on here. It seems to me that this is basic functionality of Unity, to run applications :(.

So, I was thinking there must be issues here that probably have really hot, just baked patch, to make it all working. Viola... my wireless is not working :(. It was working prior to upgrading to Ubuntu 11.10.

Okay, back in 11.04, I have to manually install the driver too. Below is my wireless interface:

03:03.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce 54g] 802.11a/b/g PCI Express Transceiver (rev 02)
    Subsystem: Dell Wireless 1470 Dual Band WLAN Mini-PCI Card
    Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 64, IRQ 17
    Memory at dfcfe000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
    Kernel driver in use: b43-pci-bridge
    Kernel modules: ssb

It is a Broadcom BCM4318 wireless adapter. My impression is that they tried to improve the driver. The issue is that it is not compatible with how the driver that comes 11.04 was packaged/installed. Google to the rescue here, from the forums, I have to remove all the packages that I have installed to get BCM4318 working, then install again. That was not difficult. But low and behold, it is still not working as consistent prior to upgrade. I have far too many disconnects.

The painful truth? Upgrade is always messy. This is specially so if you are not using vanilla configuration. Thus say, if you have to change stuff manually, that's a red flag for upgrade.

So what am I to do here? Clean up my machine. Install from scratch. So I burned an ISO to a memory stick and fired up the install.

All went well, I supplied all the required data... yada yada. I am surprised that it did detect my wireless adapter. So I clicked on yes, use BCM4318 adapter to connect to the internet and do whatever it needs that connection for.

It was time for me to leave and have fun outside. I was back 4 hours or more later... installation was not complete!!!! :( Why!!! Maybe it was trying to connect to the internet and failed and just waited forever!!! I never bothered to investigate.

So, I restarted the installation without connection to the internet at all. It was a pleasant experience, installation completed in no time. That was a big plus!!! After reboot... no wireless connection... again :(.

I have to get the laptop using wired connection. Did sudo apt-get update && apt-get upgrade, things workout as expected. apt-cache search BCM4318 shows I need to install firmware-b43-installer. Did just that and yeah.... I am back. Works really great now.

It was a rough ride... but I still would like to thank Canonical for trying to push the boundary of Linux. Now this got me thinking, what should I do to be able to help, in my own small ways, the quality of the product? I should probably start testing alphas and betas and file issues away.

~ts

Failed to successfully run an emulated Android device on Ubuntu 11.04

2011-09-24T21:25:00.001-05:00

I was trying to play with Android platform on Ubuntu 11.04 but I hit a roadblock trying to run an emulated Android device using a non-root account. Did an strace but nothing stands out, not that I am an expert. Searching the web does not provide me with something really useful.

Here few things interesting. Running an android virtual device as root works as expected. But running an android virtual device as a regular user halt/stops at a blank window for the emulated device.

Running it verbose shows the following:

//---- some of the strings removed ----
.
QEMU options list:
emulator: argv[00] = "./emulator-arm"
emulator: argv[01] = "-android-hw"
emulator: argv[02] = "/home/timus/.android/avd/e.avd/hardware-qemu.ini"
Concatenated QEMU options:
./emulator-arm -android-hw /home/timus/.android/avd/e.avd/hardware-qemu.ini
emulator: registered 'boot-properties' qemud service
emulator: nand_add_dev: system,size=0x4e00000,initfile=/home/timus/android/platforms/android-8/images//system.img
emulator: mapping 'system' NAND image to /tmp/android-timus/emulator-kTuuh9
emulator: rounding devsize up to a full eraseunit, now 4e1e000

emulator: nand_add_dev: userdata,size=0x4200000,file=/home/timus/.android/avd/e.avd/userdata-qemu.img
emulator: registered 'boot-properties' qemud service
emulator: Adding boot property: 'dalvik.vm.heapsize' = '24m'
emulator: Adding boot property: 'qemu.sf.lcd_density' = '120'
emulator: nand_add_dev: cache,size=0x4200000,file=/home/timus/.android/avd/e.avd/cache.img
emulator: Kernel parameters: qemu=1 console=ttyS0 android.qemud=ttyS1 android.checkjni=1 ndns=1
emulator: Trace file name is not set

emulator: autoconfig: -scale 1
emulator: control console listening on port 5554, ADB on port 5555
emulator: sent '0012host:emulator:5555' to ADB server
emulator: ping program: /home/timus/android/tools/ddms
emulator: ping command: /home/timus/android/tools/ddms ping emulator 13.0

strace shows the following, with the top messages cut off:

//---- a lot of messages before this... left out as I am not sure if it helps ----

open("/home/timus/.android/modem-nv-ram-5554", O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC|O_LARGEFILE, 0755) = 21
write(21, "modem_technology gsm\noper_name_i"..., 171) = 171
close(21) = 0
socket(PF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, IPPROTO_IP) = 21
connect(21, {sa_family=AF_INET, sin_port=htons(5037), sin_addr=inet_addr("127.0.0.1")}, 16) = 0
send(21, "0012host:emulator:5555", 22, 0) = 22
write(1, "emulator: sent '0012host:emulato"..., 54emulator: sent '0012host:emulator:5555' to ADB server
) = 54
shutdown(21, 2 /* send and receive */) = 0
close(21) = 0
readlink("/proc/self/exe", "/home/timus/android/tools/emulator-arm"..., 1024) = 38
write(1, "emulator: ping program: /home/ti"..., 55emulator: ping program: /home/timus/android/tools/ddms
) = 55
access("/home/timus/android/tools/ddms", F_OK) = 0
rt_sigprocmask(SIG_BLOCK, [ALRM], [ALRM], 8) = 0
clone(child_stack=0, flags=CLONE_CHILD_CLEARTID|CLONE_CHILD_SETTID|SIGCHLD, child_tidptr=0xb7809948) = 6537
rt_sigprocmask(SIG_SETMASK, [ALRM], NULL, 8) = 0
write(1, "emulator: ping command: /home/ti"..., 74emulator: ping command: /home/timus/android/tools/ddms ping emulator 13.0
) = 74
brk(0xa643000) = 0xa643000
poll([{fd=3, events=POLLIN|POLLOUT}], 1, -1) = 1 ([{fd=3, revents=POLLOUT}])
writev(3, [{"\22\0\10\0\3\0\340\4'\0\0\0\37\0\0\0\10\0\0\0\6\0\0\0005554:e\7\0"..., 132}, {NULL, 0}, {"", 0}], 3) = 132
poll([{fd=3, events=POLLIN}], 1, -1) = 1 ([{fd=3, revents=POLLIN}])
read(3, "\34\0~\0\3\0\340\4'\0\0\0\302\20\357\2\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0"..., 4096) = 160
read(3, 0xa2a84a0, 4096) = -1 EAGAIN (Resource temporarily unavailable)
clock_gettime(CLOCK_MONOTONIC, {49221, 836305909}) = 0
select(21, [8 11 19 20], [], [], {0, 0}) = 1 (in [19], left {0, 0})
gettimeofday({1316917045, 343804}, NULL) = 0
accept(19, {sa_family=AF_INET, sin_port=htons(52886), sin_addr=inet_addr("127.0.0.1")}, [16]) = 21
fcntl64(21, F_GETFL) = 0x2 (flags O_RDWR)
fcntl64(21, F_SETFL, O_RDWR|O_NONBLOCK) = 0
setsockopt(21, SOL_SOCKET, SO_REUSEADDR, [1], 4) = 0
setsockopt(21, SOL_SOCKET, SO_OOBINLINE, [1], 4) = 0
setsockopt(21, SOL_TCP, TCP_NODELAY, [1], 4) = 0
clock_gettime(CLOCK_MONOTONIC, {49221, 837887026}) = 0
clock_gettime(CLOCK_MONOTONIC, {49221, 837911639}) = 0
read(3, "\34\0\202\0\3\0\340\4\16\1\0\0\307\20\357\2\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0", 4096) = 32
read(3, 0xa2a84a0, 4096) = -1 EAGAIN (Resource temporarily unavailable)
read(3, 0xa2a84a0, 4096) = -1 EAGAIN (Resource temporarily unavailable)
read(3, 0xa2a84a0, 4096) = -1 EAGAIN (Resource temporarily unavailable)
read(3, 0xa2a84a0, 4096) = -1 EAGAIN (Resource temporarily unavailable)
read(3, 0xa2a84a0, 4096) = -1 EAGAIN (Resource temporarily unavailable)
read(3, 0xa2a84a0, 4096) = -1 EAGAIN (Resource temporarily unavailable)
read(3, "\226\0\202\0\3\0\340\4\3\0\340\4&\0`\4\270\1k\0\307\2\263\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0"..., 4096) = 128
read(3, 0xa2a84a0, 4096) = -1 EAGAIN (Resource temporarily unavailable)
read(3, 0xa2a84a0, 4096) = -1 EAGAIN (Resource temporarily unavailable)
read(3, 0xa2a84a0, 4096) = -1 EAGAIN (Resource temporarily unavailable)
read(3, 0xa2a84a0, 4096) = -1 EAGAIN (Resource temporarily unavailable)
read(3, 0xa2a84a0, 4096) = -1 EAGAIN (Resource temporarily unavailable)
read(3, 0xa2a84a0, 4096) = -1 EAGAIN (Resource temporarily unavailable)
read(3, 0xa2a84a0, 4096) = -1 EAGAIN (Resource temporarily unavailable)
read(3, 0xa2a84a0, 4096) = -1 EAGAIN (Resource temporarily unavailable)
read(3, 0xa2a84a0, 4096) = -1 EAGAIN (Resource temporarily unavailable)
read(3, 0xa2a84a0, 4096) = -1 EAGAIN (Resource temporarily unavailable)
select(4, [3], NULL, NULL, {0, 0}) = 0 (Timeout)
read(3, 0xa2a84a0, 4096) = -1 EAGAIN (Resource temporarily unavailable)
select(4, [3], NULL, NULL, {0, 0}) = 0 (Timeout)
clock_gettime(CLOCK_MONOTONIC, {49221, 894015842}) = 0
gettimeofday({1316917045, 400822}, NULL) = 0
--- SIGCHLD (Child exited) @ 0 (0) ---
waitpid(-1, NULL, WNOHANG) = 6537
sigreturn() = ? (mask now [ALRM])
clock_gettime(CLOCK_MONOTONIC, {49223, 124717374}) = 0
clock_gettime(CLOCK_MONOTONIC, {49223, 124752199}) = 0

As a workaround, I have to run the application using sudo (essentially as a root user). Anyway, my command looks like:

./emulator @my_avd -verbose

I will keep on investigating what it takes to run emulated Android device in Ubuntu 11.04 as non-root.

~ts

Error deleting :Zone.Identifier access is denied running stream.exe from Technet

2011-09-24T21:06:00.001-05:00

Part of Windows NTFS is to support multiple stream for a single file. Most applications only access the main stream and this is what's normally readable information.

Multiple streams in a file is also being used by Internet Explorer to tag files download from the internet. The additional information, among other things, saves the zone information about the file. This is mainly used for security purposes like warn a user that certain files was coming from an untrusted sources. Unfortunately this also introduces complication to handling files from the internet specially if the source is trusted.

There is a tool from Technet which can remove the streams added by Internet Explorer. The first time I used the application I am seeing "Error deleting :Zone.Identifier access is denied" when operating on files that was extracted from a zip file. I was expecting that it should be able to handle those files as well. It seems like this might a bug of the streams.exe application.

Anyway, as a workaround, instead of extracting the files and removing the streams aside from the main I run the program on the zip file itself. Lesson learned, run the application against the file that was downloaded from the net instead of files as by product of the downloaded information.

~ts

View current Windows user privileges

2011-09-23T20:21:00.001-05:00

To display currently logged on Windows user account privileges, do:

c:\>whoami /priv

~y

Android emulator-arm.exe crashing in Windows XP

2011-09-19T21:47:00.003-05:00

I have tried to install Android SDK (r12) to start playing with developing applications for the platform. For no reason, I picked Windows XP Sp3 as my development OS.

Customary to getting started with new programming language or platform is to create the equivalent "Hello World". The sample program was small and easy to digest but running it for the first time was not a good experience.

The default Android Virtual Device configuation as per the tutorial keeps crashing on Windows XP. This is the message that I am seeing:


emulator-arm.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. 

We are sorry for the inconvenience

Searching the blogosphere shows the following sites that standout:

Emulator.exe not working properly (stackoverflow)
Emulator crash on QVGA-L resolution (Google Code)

The information from Stackoverflow did give a good hint as to what might be the issue. It seems like the Android SDK, specially the emulator, does not like spaces in the directories. With VirtualBox virtualization at my disposal, I started poking around with the installer.

To make the long trial and error short, below are the key changes to make Android development a little smoother.

Before installing the Android SDK (installer_r12-windows.exe), set the following system environment variable:


ANDROID_SDK_HOME = d:\home

Of course you have to change d:\home to your desired folder. Ensure that the folder exists, this is important before starting with the installation. By the way, this is the folder where the Android virtual device(s) will be created.

Now, install Android SDK. I would suggest to use c:\android\sdk for the destination folder. If not, ensure that the path location does not include any spaces and that the individual folder length is less than or equal to eight characters.

With all this set, continue with the installation of Android software development environment and enjoy!!!

~ts

Linux rdesktop looped to remote desktop another Windows how to send secure attention sequence

2011-09-10T21:37:00.003-05:00

Connecting from Windows Server 2008 R2 from Linux is made easy using rdesktop. But if you want to connect from your W2k8 box to another Windows box, as part of Windows security you are requested to send CTRL+ALT+END. Doing so does not work. So what's the key sequence to send secure attention sequence? It is Control+Alt+End

:(

Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhall in VirtualBox

2011-07-10T23:21:00.005-05:00

It is time for me again to upgrade my Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhall) as a guest machine. I know I know I should use Linux in my host machine but my main work is basically using Windows so no escaping for me to use this OS if I want to keep relevant in the workplace.

Nothing is really earth shattering with the new release except for the much debated Unity. Other than that same old same old in the Linux land.

Below is my VirtualBox guest configuration:


General
Name: ubu1104
OS Type: Ubuntu

System
Base Memory: 1024 MB
Processor(s): 1
Boot Order: CD/DVD-ROM, Hard Disk
VT-x/AMD-V: Enabled
Nested Paging: Enabled

Display
Video Memory: 64 MB
3D Acceleration: Enabled
2D Video Acceleration: Disabled
Remote Desktop Server: Disabled

Storage
IDE Controller 
  IDE Secondary Master (CD/DVD): Empty
SATA Controller
  SATA Port 0: ubu1104.vdi (Normal, 80.00 GB)

Audio
Host Driver: Windows DirectSound
Controller: ICH AC97
 
Network
Adapter 1: Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop (Bridged adapter, Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller)

Serial Ports
Disabled

USB
Device Filters: 0 (0 active)
 
Shared Folders
None

The configuration is slightly different from my Maveric Meerkat configuration. I have increased video memory to 64 MB from 12MB so that I will be able to play with Unity otherwise you will be stuck with the classic user interface.

Anyway, without too much ado I present Ubuntu 11.04 running in VirtualBox.

I don't have major concerns with Unity after all that's how FOSS/Linux works.... choice. But the icons from dash is too big for me. It would be nice if I can select a profile and say that I am using a laptop or PC and the icons should be sized appropriately.

I do have major concern with the stability of using Ubuntu as a Virtualbox guest. I observed that if I save state a Ubuntu guest and power it back up from saved state that it is barely usable. I always have to start Ubuntu guest from a warm start... I am looking forward to understanding why it is behaving this way. Is it because of Unity or because of the updated version of VirtualBox? Let the journey begin...

Have fun with Linux!

~ts

Google Chrome v12 not working in openSUSE 11.4

2011-07-10T18:23:00.001-05:00

Just installed Google Chrome v12 in openSUSE 11.4, everything seems great. But when I tried to run it nothing happens.

I fired up konsole and this shows up

timus@opensuse114:~/Downloads> google-chrome
/usr/bin/google-chrome: error while loading shared libraries: libpng12.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
timus@opensuse114:~/Downloads>

Looks like we have missing dependencies. Searching repo, like:


zypper search libpng

shows the following...

S | Name                  | Summary                                                      | Type
--+-----------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------+--------
| libpng12-0            | Library for the Portable Network Graphics Format (PNG)       | package
| libpng12-compat-devel | Development Tools for applications which will use the Libpng | package
| libpng12-devel        | Development Tools for applications which will use the Libpng | package
i | libpng14-14           | Library for the Portable Network Graphics Format (PNG)       | package
| libpng14-compat-devel | Development Tools for applications which will use the Libpng | package
| libpng14-devel        | Development Tools for applications which will use the Libpng | package

The following command fixes it.


sudo zypper install libpng12-0

Just out of curiosity, i did:

opensuse114:/home/timus/Downloads # rpm -qR google-chrome-stable
rpmlib(VersionedDependencies) <= 3.0.3-1
lsb >= 3.2
libasound.so.2
libcairo.so.2
libcurl.so.4
libgconf-2.so.4
libnss3.so(NSS_3.12.3)
libpangocairo-1.0.so.0
libsqlite3.so.0
libbz2.so.1
libXss.so.1
libjpeg.so.62
wget
xdg-utils
zlib
/bin/sh
/bin/sh
/bin/sh
/bin/sh
rpmlib(PayloadFilesHavePrefix) <= 4.0-1
rpmlib(CompressedFileNames) <= 3.0.4-1
rpmlib(PayloadIsBzip2) <= 3.0.5-1

So there you go, the rpm file that comes from Google is missing libpng12-0 dependency. I would really hope that this gets fixed in upcoming releases.

~ts

Linux Mint 10 screen capture tour

2011-07-10T17:21:00.000-05:00

Linux Mint 10 (Julia) was released Nov 12, 2010 which feels like eons ago in Linux land. But hey I wanna play around with it before I jump to Linux Mint 11.

Overall feel is good, installation was uneventful. The interface is pretty clean and well structured. This is what I like best with Mint. Anyway, this is old news but would like to keep a log of how the installation screen looks like. Below are the screen captures.

Of course Linux distribution comes with thousands of utilities but I think the following are worth to mention:

Linux kernel: 2.6.35

GNOME: 2.32.0

X org: 1.9.0

~ts

Tidy up xml file from the command line

2011-07-09T11:35:00.001-05:00

Tools to clean up xml files abound in the internet. But if you have a need to do batch processing of a bunch of files or just the plan joy of doing it from the command line then you can use xmllint. If you are using openSUSE, Ubuntu or Linux Mint 10 (and many other Linux distro) then this is come pre-installed. xmllint is flexible and have way more features than shown below but this should give you a taste of the tools usefulness. So to tidy up an xml file do:

xmllint –format ugly.xml –output pretty.xml

~ts

openSUSE 11.4 KDE installation screen capture tour

2011-07-08T03:58:00.003-05:00

I just got the time to play around openSUSE 11.4 which was released last March 10, 2011. From the outside, nothing much changed between 11.3 and 11.4 especially in the installation department (seems like they are exactly the same except for the new artwork/background). Why change if it is working?

Without too much ado... here comes the screen grabs.

Additional information:
kernel: 2.6.37
KDE: 4.6.00 (4.6.0) "release 6"
X org: 1.9.3

Have fun!!!

~ts

Update OpenSUSE 11.4 with good looking fonts

2011-07-07T18:24:00.004-05:00

Font smoothing and subpixel rendering is not configured/enabled by default in OpenSUSE 11.4. It seems like there are patents (see link) around subpixel rendering that prevents FOSS distros from enabling this be default.

For smallish installation (home use or experimentation) this might not be too much of a deal but of course who really knows that the patent owner will do to enforce it. So if you are not comfortable doing this, please stop.

First, need to download subpixel package by muzlocker. This can be done in a console.


sudo zypper addrepo http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/muzlocker/openSUSE_11.4/ subpixel
sudo zypper ref
sudo zypper dup

Next, create .Xdefaults, from a console do:


cd ~
touch .Xdefaults
kwrite .Xdefaults

Then copy the following:

Xft.autohint: 0
Xft.lcdfilter: lcddefault
Xft.hintstyle: hintslight
Xft.hinting: 1
Xft.antialias: 1
Xft.dpi: 96
Xft.rgba: rgb

Next up, create .fonts.conf file, can be created in console, like:


cd ~
touch .fonts.conf
kwrite .fonts.conf

Then copy/paste the following:


  
    
      rgb
    
  
  
    
      true
    
  
  
    
      hintslight
    
  
  
    
      true

To ensure that changes take effect, logout then log back in. If not working, reboot.

Enjoy!

References:
subpixel packages by MuZlockER

Keywords:
OpenSUSE, font smoothing, subpixel rendering

~ts

Debian Squeeze minimal text based install - screenshot tour

2011-07-06T19:58:00.000-05:00

Debian provides you with a lot of options in terms of how you setup/install your system. You can do it via GUI, through live CDs and of course the proven text based install.

With Debian Squeeze out, it is time for me to install the latest that the Debian community has to offer. I find that the installation is very straightforward so I will just post screen captures where the user would need to interact with the installation for bare bones configuration. So here we go....

Figure 1. Installer Boot Menu

Figure 2. Language selection

Figure 3. Set your location, this is for time zone

Figure 4. Keyboard map to use

Figure 5. Set machine hostname

Figure 6. Set domain name. For internal/home use, pick whatever you like

Figure 7. Set root (administrator) password

Figure 8. Verify root password

Figure 9. Create user, this would be what you will be using most of the time

Figure 10. Username for the new account

Figure 11. Password for the new account

Figure 12. Verify password for new account

Figure 13. Set your correct time zone

Figure 14. Select partition method

Figure 15. Confirm partition layout

Figure 16. Partition scheme

Figure 17. Partition overview

Figure 18. Commit partition to disk

Figure 19. Select Debian mirror, pick closest to your location (this should be good for most of the cases)

Figure 20. Select the mirror server

Figure 21. Setup HTTP proxy server (for internal/home use normally blank should work) otherwise ask your network administrator

Figure 22. Participate in survey, Yes please.

Figure 23. Since this is bare bones install, select nothing

Figure 24. For virtual guest machines, Yes should be safe. If this is on bare metal, please check if you have existing OS and configure as appropriate

Figure 25. Installation complete

That was easy.

Additional info:

Linux kernel: 2.6.32-5-686

~ts

Change Unity keyboard shortcut for the dash/launcher

2011-07-03T23:07:00.000-05:00

Ubuntu Natty Narwhal (11.04) dash (or launcher) by default is tied to super key (Windows key on most keyboards). This default configuration is good for most situation but can interfere with some applications notably VirtualBox.

As most things in Linux land, this can be modified. And of course this can be done in various ways. To make it easier for non-Linux/Ubuntu guru we will try to do this via CompizConfig Settings Manager (ccsm as this is the name of the python script).

Unfortunately this is not installed by default but this is so easy in Ubuntu. Again this can be done in various way but will try to do this in Ubuntu Software Center. In Software Center search box type ccsm. Select Advanced Desktop Effects Settings then follow instructions to install it.

Now run ccsm (using console/terminal or using dash). Select Desktop category then select Ubuntu Unity Plugin.

Figure 1. Ubuntu Unity Plugin

In Ubuntu Unity Plugin, change Key to show the launcher to desired key sequence. From Figure 2 below it is changed to <super>z (Windows Key + z).

Figure 2.

Enjoy playing with Unity!!!

~ts

Installing Google Chrome in Puppeee

2011-05-22T22:17:00.000-05:00

I own an Asus Eee PC 900 (Intel Celeron M processor 900MHz). Of course you can only do so much with this machine so having an optimized OS does help a lot. Just recently I have replaced my OS/Linux distro with Puppeee (Linux 2.6.35.7celeron). This distro does feel light and fast. It comes with what you would expect from a descent distribution. The default web browser is Midori 0.2.9 (based on WebKit) which works okay. Unfortunately it does not work well with Pandora. It maybe because Pandora requires Flash support which I am not sure if Midori is configured in Puppeee to work with the plugin.

I have used Pandora with Google Chrome so I was hoping that it might work with that browser. Installing Chrome is quite straightforward in Puppeee. First, download the latest from http://puppeee.com/files/distsfs/, I picked chrome-10.sfs using Mindori. Once done, click Puppy menu -> System -> Control Panel. Select Software tab, then SFS-Loader load squash files. Browse to where you saved chrome*.sfs then follow the prompts. You should be ready to use Google Chrome in no time.

Enjoy!
~ts

Write/wipe with zeros to USB drive in Linux

2011-05-22T14:32:00.000-05:00

Say, you have a USB thumb drive that you want to donate or give to a friend and you want to ensure that nothings left that might embarrass you, don't worry my friend. As always in the Linux/Unix land there is a tool for that. So to wipe clean a USB drive, do:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdc

"/dev/zero" is a special file that provides a stream of null characters. "/dev/sdc" is the USB thumb drive. dd is a low level system utility used to copy raw data from a source to a destination. Source being a stream of zeros and destination the thumb drive. So, we just wiped clean our storage media. Note that this is applicable to most storage devices, so be careful.

~ts

Flush/Clear Windows host name to IP

2011-03-13T01:06:00.000-06:00

Generally, Windows machine's host name to IP resolution is managed by NetBIOS. This is specially true for machines in a workgroup environment.

There are cases where the NetBIOS name resolution on the local machine can get out of sync against other machines IP address and host name. This can happen when the machine has been turned off for a few hours and the IP getting reused.

Since file sharing and any other network related activities in Windows commonly uses host name then this can get problematic if you need to access network shares. Now to fix this out of sync scenario, run the following command:

nbtstat -R

This should clear the local name to IP cache.

Changing hostname on OpenSUSE

2011-03-13T00:25:00.000-06:00

When I installed openSUSE, the installer assigned a seemingly random name to the machine. As is the case with Linux there are many ways to do it.

It can be changed graphically in openSUSE. To do so click on kicker (), then select Computer (), finally click on YAST (). Running YAST requires root (administrative) password, so for this screen supply your root password.

Figure 1. Enter root password.

Once root password is entered you should see this screen.

Figure 2. YaST Control Center

Now click on Network Devices then Network Settings.From Network Settings, select Hostname/DNS tab.

Figure 3. YaST2 Network Settings

Supply new value for the hostname field, click on OK and you are done.

KDE menus goes blank

2011-03-12T13:00:00.001-06:00

I am using OpenSUSE 11.3 with KDE 4.4. I changed hostname of the machine and noticed that the menus of KDE goes blank. The icons are still there and I can still see the description when I hover over the icons.

Removing /home/.kde4 (or better yet backup the folder) and a reboot fixed it. Is it the right way of doing it? I don't know but I am back to business. Of course my customization where all gone.

How to get KDE version from console

2011-03-12T12:52:00.000-06:00

There are many ways to do this. One way of would be open up konsole, then do:

kwrite --version

Kwrite is one of the default applications the comes with KDE. This should show something like:

Qt: 4.6.3
KDE Development Platform: 4.4.4 (KDE 4.4.4) "release 3"
KWrite: 4.4.4 (KDE 4.4.4) "release 2

Updating packages on OpenSUSE via console

2011-03-12T11:59:00.003-06:00

Zypper is the functionally equivalent to apt-get or aptitude for OpenSUSE. Man page should give you more information how to use it, you can also visit http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Zypper_usage_1 for additional information.

For example, to update your current system with the latest packages open konsole and do:


su
zypper up

To install plain old rpm do:


su
zypper install google-chrome-stable_current_i386.rpm

This should install the downloaded stable version of Google Chrome. Of course you can substitute suitable rpm as necessary.

To search for a package like libpng, do:


zypper search libpng

~ts

Installing Adobe flash player in Fedora

2011-03-02T23:05:00.001-06:00

Fedora 14 does not include Adobe flash player in their repository as it is non-free. To install the plugin for Firefox, Mozilla or SeaMonkey you have to do it manually. To do this go to http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/, select YUM for Linux. Download this to a convenient location, by default this goes to /home/[user]/Downloads if you are using Firefox. Open a console and do:

cd ~/Downloads
su -c 'rpm -ivh adobe-release-i386-1.0-1.noarch.rpm'

What we have just done is install the repositories file, if you check /etc/yum.repos.d, you should see adobe-linux-i386.repo. This allows Fedora update manager to automatically update our copy of flash player should new version is available. To complete this part we have to import GPG key, thus say:

su -c 'rpm --import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-adobe-linux'

Now to install the plugin do:

su -c 'yum install nspluginwrapper alsa-plugins-pulseaudio flash-plugin'

You can check if the plugin is working by hitting this link, http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/.

~technos

Fedora 14 screen capture

2011-02-18T00:53:00.000-06:00

Fedora 14 was released last Nov 2, 2010, awfully long time ago in the Linux world. Anyway, I am just documenting here how it looks like installing Fedora 14 in VirtualBox. I have done this for the top 5 distributions and I am gonna do this for Fedora again.

In terms of the installation screens, nothing much that meets the eye. I have no doubt that internally much has changed. Anyway, what follows are the screen capture while I was installing Fedora 14. As usual, you can use the images as you see fit, no need for permission.

Figure 1. Boot splash

Figure 2. Live installer login screen

Figure 3. Live installer desktop

Figure 4. Installer first screen

Figure 5. Keyboard Selection

Figure 6. Initialize disk

Figure 7. Set machine hostname

Figure 8. Storage Type

Figure 8a.

Figure 9. Root password

Figure 10. Storage allocation

Figure 11. Timezone selection

Figure 12. Installation complete

Figure 13. Welcome screen

Figure 14. License Information

Figure 15. Create regular user account

Figure 16. Set date and time

Figure 17. Send hardware profile

Figure 18. Login to the F14.

Figure 19. F14 Desktop

I then perform an update which is quite massive, below are the key versions:
Linux kernel: 2.6.35.11-83.fc14.i686
GNOME: 2.32.0

Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Alpha 2 with VirtualBox 4.0.2

2011-02-04T22:55:00.002-06:00

Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Alpha 2 was released last February 3, 2011. I have it installed on VirtualBox 4.0.2 with Windows 7 Professional as the host. Installation was smooth and uneventful.

But installing VirtualBox guest addition that comes with the default installer seems like incompatible with Ubuntu Natty Alpha 2.

Here is what I got when I tried to install:

Warning: unsupported pre-release of X.org Server Installed

It seems like some changes has to be done before it will work with this version of Ubuntu. But since VirtualBox does have an open source version of the guest additions, this can be used instead of the stock version. To do this, you have to:

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
apt-get install virtualbox-ose-guest-utils
apt-get install virtualbox-ose-guest-x11

Reboot and enjoy Ubuntu Alpha 2!!!!

Updates:
[23March2011]: Since 21March2011, Guest Additions that comes with VirtualBox 4.0.4 does not work anymore. Updated my copy today and installed the above packages and it saved my day.

[01April2011]: This applies to Ubuntu Natty Beta 1.

Check the version of numpy

2010-11-28T22:37:00.000-06:00

NumPy is the fundamental package needed for scientific computing with Python, see link for more information. To get the version of the installed numpy package, in a Python shell (e.g., IPython), do:

import numpy
numpy.version.version

~ts

Keep getting "Enter your password to perform administrative task" in Ubuntu Maverick Meerkat custom install

2010-11-27T22:12:00.001-06:00

I have a custom Ubuntu Maverick Meerkat install using alternate install. Part of the minimal install was a lean GNOME configuration with only the bare minimum applications installed.

I have added synaptic and update-manager to keep the system up to date using GUI application. The issue was that when I open up Synaptic, I keep getting:

Enter your password to perform administrative task

To fix this, add desktop-base, thus say:

sudo aptitude install desktop-base

Enjoy!

~ts

Load langs.xml failed! in Notepad++

2010-11-27T21:21:00.001-06:00

I got Notepad++ 5.7 installed in Windows 7 Professional, used to work nicely but lately I am getting the following error:

Load langs.xml failed!

One reason could be that lang.xml got corrupted. This is not unexpected as Windows 7 I am using tends to hang-up and I need to force a hard reboot.

One way to fix this is to:
1) Navigate to C:\Program Files\Notepad++.
2) Rename lang.xml to lang.xml.1.
3) Copy lang.model.xml to lang.xml

Enjoy!

References:
http://superuser.com/questions/67128/notepad-load-langs-xml-failed

~ts

How to provide MSAA Name for MFC edit controls

2010-11-21T21:19:00.002-06:00

Microsoft Active Accessibility (MSAA) can be used in GUI test automation or for accessibility. For test automation purposes, IAccessible::get_accName can be used to retrieve name of an edit box. To make this to work for MFC based applications, the tab order sequence should be modified such that the static label at the left of the edit box is one number lower. For example, if the edit box's tab order number is 5, the static label on the left should have tab order of 4. For MFC based application created using VS2010, menu Format | Tab Order (Ctrl + D) should show the order sequence graphically.

Note that this is applicable to the following test automation tools/frameworks:
- Test Partner
- Rational Robot
- UI Automation

Just to stress this out again, you need to have a static label to the left of the edit box for this work.

Enjoy!

References:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd373597(v=VS.85).aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd318483(VS.85).aspx

~ts

Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat in VirtualBox

2010-11-08T17:56:00.000-06:00

Ubuntu 10.10 was released 10/10/10 (October 10, 2010) what an amazing date. The new version was praised with the latest packages (kernel 2.6.35, gcc 4.4.5, Firefox 3.6.12, GNOME 2.32.0 and many more). The fanfare was heavily geared towards the new Ununtu font that was purported to be crisp and clear.

Since everyone is busy and I have time to mock around with the new distro, I made a series of screen captures that shows the installation sequence and a peek at how the desktop looks like.

I have done this using Virtualbox 3.2.10, see below for my configuration:

General
Name: ubu1010
OS Type: Ubuntu
 
System
Base Memory: 1024 MB
Processor(s): 1
Boot Order: CD/DVD-ROM, Hard Disk
VT-x/AMD-V: Enabled
Nested Paging: Enabled
 
Display
Video Memory: 12 MB
3D Acceleration: Disabled
2D Video Acceleration: Disabled
Remote Display Server: Disabled
 
Storage
IDE Controller 
  IDE Secondary Master (CD/DVD): Empty
SATA Controller 
  SATA Port 0: ubu1010.vdi (Normal, 120.00 GB)
 
Audio
Host Driver: Windows DirectSound
Controller: ICH AC97
 
Network
Adapter 1: Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop (Bridged adapter, Microsoft Loopback Adapter)

Serial Ports
Disabled

USB
Device Filters: 0 (0 active)

Shared Folders
None

With VirtualBox guest ready, it is time to load ISO image(ubuntu-10.10-desktop-i386.iso). Below are the series of screen captures as the OS is being installed.

Figure 1. Boot-up screen

Figure 2. Preparing to install

Figure 3. Allocate drive space

Figure 4. Confirm allocation of drive space

Figure 5. Your current location, this will be used for calculating your local time.

Figure 6. Select your keyboard layout, defaults are normally okay.

Figure 7. This would be the first user of this computer

Figure 8. Welcom to Ubuntu 10.10

Figure 9. Installation complete, now reboot!!!

Figure 10. Login screen

Figure 11. GNOME desktop, system now ready.

Comparing with OpenSUSE 11.3, the installation experience, personally, is more polished in Ubuntu 10.10 but it is just me...

I have been enjoying Maverick Meerkat so far, though I admit I am only using it to surf the web. For good reason, I feel safer using *nix based OS wondering around the net.

Enjoy!!!

QNX Momentics TFTP server is not running

2010-11-07T20:16:00.002-06:00

I have QNX Momentics 4.6.0 running in Cent OS 5.4 and I was trying to load QNX board support package using TFTP server but I couldn't make it to work.

Looking at the Momentics TFTP server view shows:

Cannot start server: error: Unable to bind to server port.

This go me thinking about xinetd super service deamon but it was not running. Then I came to realize that of course the IDE was not running as root. So, to upload data to the tftp client, Momentics should be run as root user.

~ts

Loading Freescale P1020 board support package via tftp in Momentics

2010-11-07T15:29:00.000-06:00

Relevant information:
  Development System: Windows XP Sp3 with QNX SDP 6.5.0 (this is only to demonstrate loading via tftp. BSP for P1020 in QNX foundry was documented as targeted for QNX 6.4.1)
  Target: P1020RDB

Host machine preparation:
Step 1. Download Freescale P1020 board support package, see this link. As of this writing, we only have support for QNX 6.4.1. I have it saved in D:\tmp\bsp-nto641-freescale-p1020-rdb-trunk-201009282107.zip. Take note that they continually update this package so the name may change.

Step 2. Extract the zip file, it should look like this: D:\tmp\bsp-nto641-freescale-p1020-rdb-trunk-201009282107.

Step 3. Open QNX Momentics (assuming you have this installed already).

Step 4. Open Resource Perspective (Window -> Open Perspective -> Other..., then select Resource).

Step 5. In Resource Perspective, create new project, i.e.:
  a) File -> New -> Project...
  b) Select General -> Project
  c) For project name type data, leave the rest as default values.
  d) From Project Explorer, select data then do New -> Folder.
  e) Click Advanced >>.
  f) Click Link to folder in the file system.
  g) Browse to D:\tmp\bsp-nto641-freescale-p1020-rdb-trunk-201009282107\images. (Change folder structure as appropriate).
  h) Click Finish.

Step 6. Open Preferences ( Window -> Preferences) and navigate to QNX -> Tftp Server -> User Search Paths.

Step 7. Do click on New...

Step 8. Click on Browse Workspace... select data -> images then click on OK.

Step 9. Close Preferences dialog box.

Step 10. Change to QNX System Builder Perspective.

Step 11. From TFTP Server view (located in lower left in default layout or do Window -> Show View -> TFTP Server). Select Tftp Server Input -> User Search Path. Now we are ready for the host development machine.

Step 12. Install Tera Term or something similar. Set serial port (baud rate = 115200, data = 8bit, parity = none, stop = 1bit, flow control = none).

Target machine preparation:
Step 1. Connect P1020 (UART0) to your development machine.

Step 2. Connect CAT-5 (ethernet) cable to the same switch as your development machine. You can use the port closest to the first USB connector.

Step 3. Power on P1020, wait for the uboot prompt (note that you may have to press ESC to prevent it from booting into the default boot media).

Step 4. Type setevn ipaddr 192.168.0.254 (where 192.168.0.254 is an available address in your network, this should also be reachable by your development machine).

Step 5. Save changes, type saveenv.

Step 6. Load QNX image, type tftpboot 0x100000 192.168.0.108:ifs-p1020rdb.raw. Where 192.168.0.108 is the IP address of the development machine.

Step 7: Jump to QNX OS, type go 0x100000.

You should now have QNX running in your P1020RDB board.

Enjoy

~ts

Enjoy Linux tools in Windows via Cygwin

2010-09-12T23:35:00.000-05:00

Many of us don't have a choice but a Windows environment, be it XP, 2k3, W2k8, W7. If you are working for a company that is a Windows shop, you have few options and probably not supported by IT.

One can install Linux/OpenSolaris/QNX/BSD on a virtual machine to enjoy the fun offered by this operating systems. Another option would be to use Cygwin. Cygwin is a Linux-like environment for Windows, for more information please visit their website.

I normally configure my Cygwin installation with the following packages installed:
- Base package (default selection)
- Emacs
- MinTTY
- Python

This selection makes me comfortable [happy :)] in any Windows enviroment (ease of use and power of Windows + power of Linux/Unix tools).

~ts

Installing a light-weight svn server in Windows

2010-09-09T22:28:00.000-05:00

For those who are not familiar with SVN, it is a revision/version control system. This is much the same as CVS or Microsoft SourceSafe. The good thing with SVN is that it is designed to be a better CVS, so most features of CVS can also be expected of SVN. Directories, renames and file meta-data are versioned as well. Commits are truly atomic, meaning no part of a commit takes effect until the entire commit has succeeded. SVN can also use HTTP-based WebDAV/DeltaV protocol for network communications and the Apache web server to provide repository-side network service. It also has a standalone server option which is what we are going to discuss here how to setup in Windows XP OS. And a lot more. Visit http://subversion.tigris.org/ for more information.

Outlined below is one of the means to install/setup a standalone svn server.

1) Goto http://subversion.tigris.org/servlets/ProjectDocumentList?folderID=91
2) Download http://subversion.tigris.org/files/documents/15/36797/svn-1.4.3-setup.exe or later version.
3) Run the installer, it should put the files in C:\Program Files\Subversion\.
4) Create a folder somewhere, say d:\svnserve.
5) Copy the following files from C:\Program Files\Subversion\bin
a) intl3_svn.dll
b) libapr.dll
c) libapriconv.dll
d) libaprutil.dll
e) libdb44.dll
f) libeay32.dll
g) ssleay32.dll
h) svnserve.exe

6) On the repository directory edit conf\svnserve.conf. Enable/uncomment "anon-access = read", "auth-access = write", and "password-db = passwd"
7) On the repository directory edit conf\passwd. Under [users] add a user and a password.
8) In d:\svnserve, run
svnserve.exe --daemon --root drive:\path\to\repository

For more information visit http://www.excastle.com/blog/archive/2005/05/31/1048.aspx

Update:
Version 1.6.4 can be downloaded from here (link).
Version 1.6.5 can be downloaded from here (link)
Version 1.6.6 can be downloaded from here (link)
~ts

Embed Javascript in blog post

2010-09-08T17:56:00.016-05:00

This shows a simple example of embedding Javascript in blogger. Not sure if this is supported as it messes up the anchor tag when post is edited using "Compose" instead of "Edit HTML".

Click on "Hello world" below to see Javascript in action.
Hello world

The key to embed the script is the CDATA tag.

Hello world

Reference(s):
Adding javascript to Blogger posts (link)

Screen capture tour of OpenSUSE 11.3 installation

2010-09-06T23:37:00.001-05:00

This is a screen capture tour of installing OpenSUSE 11.3 in VirtualBox guest machine. I have been trying to do a screen capture documentation of the top 5 linux distributions from www.distrowatch.com. So far, this is the first distribution that suggests to have 1GB of RAM during LiveCD installation.

Though the 1GB requirement is unusual, the installation is straightforward. As can be expected from the top linux distributions nowadays, all of the activities are being done through GUI.

Below is my guest configuration:

General
Name: opensuse113
OS Type: openSUSE
 
System
Base Memory: 1024 MB
Processor(s): 1
Boot Order: CD/DVD-ROM, Hard Disk
VT-x/AMD-V: Enabled
Nested Paging: Enabled
 
Display
Video Memory: 12 MB
3D Acceleration: Disabled
2D Video Acceleration: Disabled
Remote Display Server: Disabled
 
Storage
IDE Controller 
  IDE Secondary Master (CD/DVD): Empty
SATA Controller
  SATA Port 0: opensuse113.vdi (Normal, 120.00 GB)

Audio
Host Driver: Windows DirectSound
Controller: ICH AC97
 
Network
Adapter 1: Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop (Bridged adapter, Microsoft Loopback Adapter)
 
Serial Ports
Disabled

USB
Device Filters: 0 (0 active)

For this post, I have used Live KDE ISO for the installation.

Figure 1. Boot menu

Figure 2. Language, keyboard and EULA

Figure 3. Clock and time zone setting

Figure 4. Suggested partition layout

Figure 5. Create new (default) user as well as set the root password

Figure 6. Display the current installation settings

Figure 7. Confirm installation, note that if this is being done on a bare metal machine, this can be a destructive operation. For a virtual machine, we are safe to continue here.

Figure 8. Installation complete, reboot machine.

Figure 9. Full KDE desktop!!!

This is the most streamlined install I have ever done on a Linux distribution. Kudos to the OpenSUSE team for making the user experience wonderful.

Version info:
Linux kernel: 2.6.34-12-default
KDE: 4.4.4 Release 2
Firefox: 3.6.6

~ts

Installing VirtualBox guest additions in Mandriva 2010 Spring

2010-09-06T00:29:00.001-05:00

In this blog post, I have documented via screen capture how to install Mandriva 2010 Spring. I haven't explicitly mentioned that it was being done in VirtualBox guest machine as it does not really matter much, at least for the most part not unless you have a hardware that is not supported by the distribution out of the box.

Mandriva installed VirtualBox guest additions by default but using OSE.

[timus@localhost bin]$ /usr/bin/VBoxControl -v
3.1.8_OSEr61349

What's nice with VirtualBox is that it is progressing at a very quick pace, releasing an update almost on a monthly basis. Majority of the changes since 3.1.8 are small enhancements and bug fixes. You have two options in keeping current, using OSE version or PUEL version. In this post, I will document updating guest additions based on PUEL.

Online repositories are not setup by default in Mandriva, I believe this is a conscious decision to detect the best connection where the user is located. To setup the software online repositories, drill to "Application Launcher Menu() | Tools | System Tools | Configure Your Computer". This can also be accessed from the Plasma Panel . This functionality requires root privileges. Then, select and open Software Management | Configure media sources for install and update. Click on Add button, then Full set of sources, then hit on Yes. Wait and relax, this can take several seconds on fast internet connection. Once the update is done, you will be presented with a pre-selected items, the default selection should be fine, so click on Ok button.

While we are in this window, it is not a bad idea to try to update the system for any new version of the software, so do Software Management | Update your system. Follow the screen instructions to update your system. Once done, close Mandriva Linux Control Center.

Next, we have to install linux sources. To accomplish this quickly, we need to drop to CLI (command line interface). Do Application Launcher Menu | Tools | Konsole.

From the console, we need to elevate our privileges to a root user, so:

[timus@localhost ~]$ su
Password: 
[root@localhost timus]#

Here, we issued su command (super user). Supply the root password as required. You should now see root@localhost.

Next stop, install linux sources and devel packages.

[root@localhost timus]# urpmi kernel-`uname -r |cut -d- -f2`-devel-latest kernel-`uname -r | cut -d- -f2`-devel-`uname -r | cut -d- -f1`

This is a long command, if you like to do it quick do copy and paste.

This should not take long on fast internet connection (8Mbps). We should now be ready to install PUEL VirtualBox Guest Additions. From the main VirtualBox menu, do Devices | Install Guest Additions.... You should get a popup that a media has been plugged in, click on VBOXADDITIONS_x.y.z, then select Open with File Manager. This will mount the virtual cdrom for us.

Figure 1. Open with File Manager.

Now, back to the console, do:

[root@localhost /]# cd /media/VBOXADDITIONS_3.2.8_64453/
[root@localhost VBOXADDITIONS_3.2.8_64453]# ./VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run

Of course, VBOXADDITIONS_3.2.8_64453 maybe different in your system depending on your current version number. If all goes well, you should see something like this:

Verifying archive integrity... All good.
Uncompressing VirtualBox 3.2.8 Guest Additions for Linux........
VirtualBox Guest Additions installer
You appear to have a version of the VBoxGuestAdditions software
on your system which was installed from a different source or using a
different type of installer.  If you installed it from a package from your
Linux distribution or if it is a default part of the system then we strongly
recommend that you cancel this installation and remove it properly before
installing this version.  If this is simply an older or a damaged
installation you may safely proceed.

Do you wish to continue anyway? [yes or no]
y
Attempt to remove old DKMS modules...
Done.
Building the VirtualBox Guest Additions kernel modules
Building the main Guest Additions module                        [  OK  ]
Building the shared folder support module                       [  OK  ]
Building the OpenGL support module                              [  OK  ]
Doing non-kernel setup of the Guest Additions                   [  OK  ]
You should restart your guest to make sure the new modules are actually used

Installing the Window System drivers
Installing X.Org Server 1.7 modules                             [  OK  ]
Setting up the Window System to use the Guest Additions         [  OK  ]
You may need to restart the hal service and the Window System (or just restart
the guest system) to enable the Guest Additions.

Installing graphics libraries and desktop services components   [  OK  ]

If you have made this far, that means that you have updated your guest additions successfully. Reboot the system and enjoy!!!

Note that if you receive new versions of VirtualBox that you only have to do the steps from mounting the guest additions from VirtualBox main menu downwards.

References:
VPNClient - How to configure & install Kernel Headers (link)
~ts

Screen capture tour of Mandriva 2010 Spring installation

2010-09-05T16:19:00.000-05:00

Mandriva 2010 Spring was released July 8, 2010. It comes with kernel 2.6.33 (2.6.33.5-desktop586-2mnb), KDE 4.4.3 and Firefox 3.6.6. It actually comes with tons of applications.

Its a pretty good distribution, I particular like the functionality where it removes any unnecessary packages during the installation. I haven't seen this in Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, PCLinuxOS, Mint, OpenSUSE nor CentOS.

What follows is a series of screen captures installing this distribution.

Figure 1. Boot menu

Figure 2. Language, this will be the language that will be used by the system.

Figure 3. License agreement, of course click Accept to continue if you are happy with the agreement.

Figure 4. Timezone, this will be used to show correct local time.

Figure 5. Allows you to select the correct time, on some machines the BIOS can be set to localtime or UTC.

Figure 6. Select appropriate keyboard for your system.

Figure 7. Start of the Wizard for installing the rest of the system.

Figure 8. Partition layout, in my case I am installing this on VirtualBox guest machine so the default are just fine.

Figure 9. Remove unused packages, this is I believe a first in Mandriva, at least when I wrote this blog. I saw that it did try to remove unused drivers and packages that I will not be needing on this virtual machine.

Figure 10. Boot loader options, for multiboot machines like having Windows, Linux, Solaris in one machine, you may have to pay attention here otherwise the default will be fine.

Figure 11. Select the image that will be used to used to boot the machine, in a virtual machine environment default is fine.

Figure 12. Installation of Mandriva is now complete!!! Restart the system, next would be to configure the system.

Figure 13. See up root password and add a user. Root user is the superuser of the system.

Figure 14. Congratulations!!! you've now a working Mandriva system.

Figure 15. Register an account with Mandriva, this is optional but this is probably the least you can do to help the distribution.

Figure 16. Upload your hardware configuration to Mandriva, again would be nice to help this distribution by letting them know of the hardware profile that users have.

Figure 17. Installation is Done!!!

Figure 18. Logon screen

Figure 19. This is a capture of how it looks like, pretty looking desktop.

Enjoy!

~ts

Disabling the beep sound in Windows machine

2010-08-31T22:39:00.002-05:00

Some PCs have internal speaker that can be used by Windows to produce beep sound. This was inherited from old systems when sound cards were not common place.

Windows produces beep sound on many cases. One being when user presses enter key on a treeview control or an enter key on a textbox control. This is used to alert the user that the input is not acceptable for the control with the focus.

But when you are using "SendKeys{System.Windows.Forms.Sendkeys}" to simulate keystrokes, this can get annoying.

To disable this beep sound in Windows XP (should be applicable to Windows 7), open Device Manager (devmgmt.msc if you are cli buff). From the View menu, select Show hidden devices. See figure below.

Figure 1. Show hidden devivces.

Then drill down to Non-Plug and Play Driver/Beep, then open properties dialog.

Figure 2. Traverse to the Beep device.

From the dialog window, goto Drivers tab then click on "Stop" button. This should immediately disable the device. If you want this to be disabled permanently, select Startup type to "Disabled" and hit on OK.

Figure 3. Beep Properties

~ts

Google Chrome cannot be installed in PCLinuxOS 2010.07

2010-08-30T22:20:00.000-05:00

I have documented in another post that Google Chrome cannot be installed in CentOS 5.5 due to Linux Standard Base library is outdated.

I would expect differently with PCLinux OS as it is trying to get as updated as possible to the extent that the distro is releasing new version quarterly.

Here is the version of Chrome that I am trying to install:

[root@localhost Downloads]# rpm -i google-chrome-stable_current_i386.rpm 
warning: google-chrome-stable_current_i386.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 7fac5991
error: Failed dependencies:
 lsb >= 3.2 is needed by google-chrome-stable-5.0.375.127-55887.i386

As you can see, it complains that lsb needed by the package is 3.2 but what is installed is 2.0.x.

[root@localhost Downloads]# apt-cache show lsb-release
Package: lsb-release
Section: System/Base
Installed Size: 19233
Packager: Texstar 
Version: 2.0-5pclos2007
Depends: bash
Provides: lsb-release = 2.0-5pclos2007
Architecture: i586
Size: 1
MD5Sum: 
Filename: 
Summary: Linux Standard Base tools
Description: 
 LSB version query program
 
 This program forms part of the required functionality of
 the LSB (Linux Standard Base) specification.
 
 The program queries the installed state of the distribution
 to display certain properties such as the version of the
 LSB against which the distribution claims compliance as
 well. It can also attempt to display the name and release
 of the distribution along with an identifier of who produces
 the distribution.

It is interesting to note that LSB 2.0 was released around September of 2004. So this package was not updated for 6 years. This feels like eternity in internet time.

Well, fallback to Firefox :)

~ts

Installing minimal Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) in VirtualBox

2010-08-28T00:46:00.000-05:00

I have been using Ubuntu for a while and I pretty much like it most of the time. It has the latest and the greatest and it looks nice too, at least that's the way I perceived it. In fact, back in Ubuntu Intreprid I played around installing a minimal Ubuntu. This time around, I would like to install a pretty much stripped down version of Ubuntu Lucid Lynx, it is kind of a minimal install that still looks like Ubuntu.

Install method has not changed much since Intreprid actually. Without further ado, let us get our hands dirty. Okay, download the latest minimal iso from Ubuntu. You can always download it from the mirrors, I find USC mirror to be quite fast.

While download is busy, let us configure our guest Ubuntu machine in VirtualBox. Here is what I have:

General
Name: ubu1004mini
OS Type: Ubuntu
 
System
Base Memory: 512 MB
Processor(s): 1
Boot Order: CD/DVD-ROM, Hard Disk
VT-x/AMD-V: Enabled
Nested Paging: Enabled
 
Display
Video Memory: 12 MB
3D Acceleration: Disabled
2D Video Acceleration: Disabled
Remote Display Server: Disabled
 
Storage
IDE Controller 
  IDE Primary Master: ubu1004mini.vdi (Normal, 80.00 GB)
  IDE Secondary Master (CD/DVD): Empty
 
Audio
Host Driver: Windows DirectSound
Controller: ICH AC97
 
Network
Adapter 1: Intel PRO/1000 MT Server (Bridged adapter, Microsoft Loopback Adapter)
 
Serial Ports
Disabled

USB
Device Filters: 0 (0 active)
 
Shared Folders
None

Once download is done, then we are ready to rock'n roll. Power-up guest machine, my case it is ubu1004mini then mount mini.iso. Figure below shows that I have selected mini.iso.

You probably need to do a reset of the guest for the machine to boot using mini.iso. Once in the boot prompt, type:

cli <ENTER>

See below for a screen capture of how it looks like.

Since I am in an English speaking country, I selected English in the figure below. Of course you can select whatever language that best fit your needs.

Select your country here, not that this can be important when selecting the correct timezone.

Since I know my keyboard layout, I select No here.

Select USA for the origin of the keyboard here. Again, select the correct information that applies you.

Select keyboard layout, commonly used layout is USA. You may leave the default value if that is your case.

Supply hostname of this machine. Linux hostnames can be as long as 64 bytes. It would be safe to use [a-zA-Z0-9] and dash for name. If you are planning to make this machine a web server, then take note that IE8 (probably IE7/IE6) have a security issue with a work-around from MS to delete the cookies instead.

In this screen, we have to select a mirror. As stated in the console text, your country may not be the best choice. For now, use your gut feel which one we would like to use. There are tools out there but if your machine is not yet up and running, you have but limited option.

Now select the mirror for the selected country. Mirror "us.archive.ubuntu.com" is pretty decent.

In most residential internet connection, you don't need an HTTP proxy so you can leave this blank. But this might not be the case if you are working for a corporation. You may need to consult with your network administrator for the HTTP proxy, if you are lucky you can probably get this information in your Windows Internet Connection configuration.

This part can take a while, so stay back and relax. Did I mention that you need to have a fast internet connection to make the experience worthwhile :).
Now it is time to set the proper time, Debain/Ubuntu guessed my timezone correctly :).

Since this is a virtual machine, I selected to use the entire disk.

Again, this is a virtual machine, so no worries. Hit ENTER to continue here.

Finally, commit partition changes to disk.

This part can take awhile... so go surf the next :)... I didn't expect that a while in this case can be as long as ~ 6hrs. Maybe my connection speed is not enough (8mbps as per the provider). But maybe I selected a slow mirror. By the way, I tried mirrors from the US and Netherlands. And oh, I got faster updates from Netherlands mirror :(.

Once base installation is done, now it is time to provide your name.

Then username...

Then password...

Re-enter password here to confirm...

Since I am not very particular with the data I store on this virtual machine, I selected not to encrypt the data in home directory.

For total system control, I selected "No automatic updates"

Again, virtual machine... so no problem install GRUB in MBR.

Since I am using VirtualBox 3.2.0 with the new "Hardware clock in UTC time" option, say "Yes" here.

Installation is done!!!

Initially thought that base install to be quick and fast but things happen. Anyway, reboot the machine then do initial login. I would recommend to shutdown the machine after this and make a snaphot.

Then do an update of base install, thus say:

[timus@localhost ~]$ sudo su
[root@localhost /home]$ aptitude update
[root@localhost /home]$ aptitude safe-upgrade

Observe that if the packages that need update includes the linux kernel, thus say linux-image-*, then a reboot is required.

Now, the moment of truth, install GNOME base with pretty icons just like a stock version of Ubuntu:

[root@localhost /home]$ aptitude install xorg gnome-core gdm gdm-themes gtk2-engines gtk2-engines-pixbuf ubuntu-artwork ubuntustudio-icon-theme indicator-applet-session

This command will install 495 packages. Yap, you got it right, 495. Isn't it amazing? It checks for all the dependencies and install it for you? That's the beauty of Debian/Ubuntu. Anyway, again set back and relax, this can take a while.

By the way, the last package is required otherwise you will have an issue with OAFIID:GNOME_fastuserswitchapplet in GNOME session. Is it a bug? Mabye.

Once install is done, reboot guest machine. You should now see a GUI (gdm) for you to login. This is a good opportunity to take snapshot using VirtualBox.

To make our life a little easier, let us install synaptic.

[timus@localhost /home]$ sudo aptitude install synaptic

Actually, the above command is not necessary for this exercise but would be good to have it available in the future when installing new apps.

Since we will be compiling some stuff, let us install support packages

[timus@localhost /home]$ sudo aptitude install build-essential

From VirtualBox menu, do Devices | Install Guest Additions...
Then in GNOME menu, select Places | VBOXADDITIONS_*.

Go back to gnome-terminal and do:

[timus@localhost /home]$ cd /media/VBOXADDITIONS_3.2.0_61806
[timus@localhost /home]$ sudo ./VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run
[timus@localhost /home]$ sudo reboot

Enjoy!!!

~ts

Installing minimal Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) in VirtualBox the faster way

2010-08-28T00:32:00.000-05:00

In this blog post, I have documented how to install minimal Ubuntu 10.04 in VirtualBox using netinstall. The good thing with netinstall is that the initial download is pretty small, around 13MB, but the total time to install the whole package takes a little longer.

If you have fast pipe, you can instead download alternate ISO. This link will download a copy from University of California, Santa Barbara. Using this ISO should get you up and running quickly into a fully working Ubuntu desktop.

Just for the uninitiated, boot VirtualBox guest machine using the ISO as download above. You should see a screen same a below.

Figure 1. Boot screen of the Alternate installer. Select your language here, my case, I have selected English.

Figure 2. This is the main, menu driven, console interface. Press "F4 Modes" here.

Figure 3. Select "Install a command-line system". This should bring you back to a screen the same as Figure 2.

After selecting the mode, press [ENTER] on "Install Ubuntu" selection. From here on, you should be able to use the instructions from here.

Have fun!!!

~ts

Installing PCLinuxOS 2010.07 GNOME on VirtualBox

2010-08-20T22:19:00.002-05:00

PCLinux OS releases new distribution quarterly, at least that is how it looks right now. Last time, I did a screen capture of PCLinuxOS KDE. The latest release came around July 2010 (I believe it was released 08July2010). This time around I will document installing GNOME. This can be helpful for folks who are distro hoping but don't have the time yet to install it.

Figure 1. This is the boot screen. It looks geeky and pretty nice.

Figure 2. Splash screen.

Figure 3. Keyboard layout. Select the physical layout of your keyboard not your current location.

Figure 4. GDM login screen. Select "guest", password is "guest".

Figure 5. This is the PCLinux OS GNOME desktop. Dark theme with applications you have come to expect from a regular full Linux distribution.

Figure 6. Double-click(run) on "Install Licecd". Root password is "root".

Figure 7. PCLinuxOS Installation Wizard introduction screen.

Figure 8. Hard disk partitioning. Default should be fine if you are doing this on a VirtualBox guest machine.

Figure 9. Commit changes and format partition.

Figure 10. Boot loader options. For VirtualBox guest installation defaults should be fine. If you are performing a dual boot installation, you may need to tweak something in this screen.

Figure 11. Boot menu option, item with * will be used as the default during a bootup sequence.

Figure 12. Installation complete. Reboot as instructed.

Figure 13. Welcome to your PCLinuxOS 2010.07 GNOME Edition!!! But we are not done, yet.

Figure 14. This is where you define your "root" password. This is the superuser, similar to "Administrator" in Windows.

Figure 15. Create a user account. This should be the user that you will use often. It is not advisable to use root as your regular user account.

Figure 16. We are back to GDM login screen. But this time we are running from the installed copy of PCLinuxOS instead of Livecd.

Figure 17. Welcome to your PCLinuxOS 2010.07 GNOME Desktop!!!.

Figure 18. Screen capture of the GNOME menu structure as implemented by this distro.

Note that it comes with VirtualBox guest additions pre-installed. Isn't that neat? :)

Enjoy!!!

~ts

Cannot find root file system booting Meego in Eee PC 900

2010-08-01T16:02:00.000-05:00

First off, Meego 1.0 does not support Eee PC 900 as the processor does not support SSSE3. This is documented in the website. But that should not stop you from running it using LiveUSB.

And so that's what I did. Downloaded the IMG file and copied it over into the USB using Univeral-USB-Installer. With all high hopes of being able to play around Meego, I was greeted with this message instead:

--------------------------------------
WARNING: Cannot find root file system!
--------------------------------------

Create symlink /dev/root and then exit this shell to continue the boot sequence

bash: cannot set terminal process group (-1): Inappropriate ioctl for device
bash: no job control in this shell
bash-4.0#:

Of course, I am not RTFM :(...

This link shows the instructions on how to use .IMG file and write it to a USB. And it got more useful information as well.

Show boot options in Eee PC 900

2010-08-01T15:04:00.000-05:00

I have been tinkering around my Eee PC 900 lately from installing Ubuntu 10.04 Netbook Edition to booting Meego using the live media (USB).

A nice feature available in this netbook's BIOS is to display a list of media that user can boot after POST sequence, to show this list hit on "ESC" key.

QNX Momentics IDE 4.6 not working in Cent OS 5.5

2010-07-15T22:28:00.001-05:00

QNX Momentics is not officially supported not even on Cent OS 5.4 much less Cent OS 5.5. Although Cent OS 5.4 should be compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4 Desktop.

Also, QNX Momentics 4.6 is working happily in Cent OS 5.4, but users always like to use the latest and the greatest version.

Anyway, running QNX Momentics in Cent OS 5.5 shows the following screen:

This issue was traced back to be caused by interface change in XULRunner which comes with Firefox browser. See this link and this link for discussion about this issue.

But this is not without hope of using the IDE in Cent OS 5.5.

echo "org.eclipse.ui/showIntro=false" > /tmp/noWelcomeScreen.ini
cd /opt/qnx641/host/linux/x86/usr/bin
qde -pluginCustomization /tmp/noWelcomeScreen.ini

Enjoy!
~ts

Installing Fedora 13 in VirtualBox

2010-06-04T01:42:00.000-05:00

Screen capture tour and installation guide for Fedora 13 on VirtualBox.

This tour will focus on GNOME version of F13, Fedora-13-i686-Live.iso, this is available at Fedora website or mirror sites near you. Depending on your internet connection, this can take a while as this is a 700MB iso image.

Below my VirtualBox guest configuration for F13.

General
 Name: f13
 OS Type: Fedora
System
 Base Memory: 512 MB
 Processor(s): 1
 Boot Order: CD/DVD-ROM, Hard Disk
 VT-x/AMD-V: Enabled
 Nested Paging: Enabled
Display
 Video Memory: 12 MB
 3D Acceleration: Disabled
 2D Video Acceleration: Disabled
 Remote Display Server: Disabled
Storage
 Storage Controller
  IDE Secondary Master (CD/DVD): Empty
 Storage Controller 1
  SATA Port 0: f13.vdi (Normal, 80.00 GB)
Audio
 Host Driver: Windows DirectSound
 Controller: ICH AC97
Network
 Adapter 1: Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop (Bridged adapter, Microsoft Loopback Adapter)
Serial Ports
 Disabled
USB
 Device Filters: 0 (0 active)
Shared Folders
 None

Below are the Fedora 13 screenshot during installation.

Figure 1. This the boot screen.

Figure 2. Live CD running inside VirtualBox. Double click on "Install to Hard Drive" icon.

Figure 3. Installation start screen wizard.

Figure 4. Select keyboard layout application to your system.

Figure 5. Since this is a VirtualBox guest install, "Basic Storage Device" is the right option in this screen.

Figure 6. I only have one virtual hard disk defined for this guest machine, so I select that.

Figure 7. Re-initialize this disk as it is the first time it is being used.

Figure 8. Hostname goes here.

Figure 9. Select timezone appropriate for your location.

Figure 10. This will be your guest machine's root password.

Figure 11. Partition layout, default should be fine for guest machine.

Figure 12. Commit partition layout changes to disk. Don't worry here, this will only make changes to the guest machine. Installation should take place right after this screen.

Figure 13. Installation is done!!!

Figure 14. Initial setup screen.

Figure 15. Licensing information.

Figure 16. Create a user here. This should be your regular user when using Fedora.

Figure 17. Set your date and time here or you can use ntp server to get your machine's time sync automatically.

Figure 18. Hardware profile to be sent to Fedora. This is the least that you can do to help this enormous project.

Figure 19. Fedora's default login screen.

Figure 20. Welcome to Fedora 13!!!

By the default, Fedora 13 comes with VirtualBox guest additions pre-installed. This is quite nice actually. On the other hand, VirtualBox is progressing quite fast as well. Lately, VB 3.2.2 comes just barely a month after VB 3.2.0. So, preparing the system for a regular upgrade is not bad.

Installing Guest Additons. But before we do that, let us get the system up to date.

yum check-update
yum update

If you have new kernel coming, then do a reboot. Install necessary pre-requisite for VirtualBox Guest Additions.

yum -y install gcc kernel-devel

Mount Guest Additions (Devices | Install Guest Additions...) in VirtualBox GUI. Once mounted, head to the guest machine and in GNOME, do Places | VBOXADDITIONS_x.x.x_xxxxx. This should mount the iso image under /media/VBOXADDITIONS_x.x.x_xxxxx.

Now, open up gnome-terminal and do:

su
cd /media/VBOXADDITIONS_x.x.x_xxxxx
./VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run
cd /
eject
reboot

Enjoy!!!
TT

Install LinuxMint 9 on VirtualBox

2010-05-28T23:50:00.000-05:00

This is both a screen-shot tour and guest addition installation in Mint 9, GNOME edition. Installing Mint 9 (Isadora) is very easy. Easier than Windows 7 and please don't talk about installing Windows XP. Installing patches in Windows XP takes forever. Anyway, head to Mint 9 download site to grab Live CD (with GNOME DE).

Create a VirtualBox guest machine for Linux Mint 9, see below for my configuration:

General
 Name: mint9
 OS Type: Ubuntu
 
System
 Base Memory: 512 MB
 Processor(s): 1
 Boot Order: CD/DVD-ROM, Hard Disk
 VT-x/AMD-V: Enabled
 Nested Paging: Enabled

Display 
 Video Memory: 64 MB
 3D Acceleration: Disabled
 2D Video Acceleration: Disabled
 Remote Display Server: Disabled

Storage
 Storage Controller
  IDE Secondary Master (CD/DVD):
   Empty
  Storage Controller 1
   SATA Port 0: mint9.vdi (Normal, 80.00 GB)
Audio
 Host Driver: Windows DirectSound
 Controller: ICH AC97

Network
 Adapter 1: Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop (Bridged adapter, Microsoft Loopback Adapter)
 
Serial Ports
 Disabled

USB
 Device Filters: 0 (0 active)

Now power up VirtualBox guest machine and mount Linux Mint 9 ISO.

Figure 1. Mint 9 LiveCD, double click on "Install Linux Mint" icon located on the desktop to start installation.

Figure 2. Select appropriate language.

Figure 3. Select correct time zone.

Figure 4. Select keyboard layout. You can take the suggested layout or let the installer guess the keymap or you manually select it.

Figure 5. Since this is a virtual machine, I personally feel like partition layout is not a big deal so I would continue with the default values.

Figure 6. In this screen, supply user account information. Note that you can also configure this user to automatically login to the desktop environment.

Figure 7. Now we are ready to rock n roll. Click on install.

Figure 8. Install complete!!! That was easy.

Figure 9. Here is how the login looks like.

Figure 10. Welcome to Mint 9!!!

Figure 11. And here is the much talked about Mint Menu.

Next would be install VirtualBox guest additions to make it to run faster, dynamically resize guest window, shared folders, etc.

From VirtualBox GUI, select Devices | Install Guest Additions... This will virtually insert the ISO into the CD/DVD. To mount it the GUI way in Mint, do hit on Menu | Computer. Then double click on the CD/DVD. Then drop to GNOME Terminal (Menu | Terminal ) and follow the following instructions.

$ cd /media
$ cd VBOXADDITIONS_3.2.0_61806/
$ sudo ./VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run
$ sudo eject
$ sudo reboot

There you go!!! Enjoy...

~ts

Installing PCLinuxOS 2010 KDE on VirtualBox

2010-05-23T23:01:00.000-05:00

This is a screen capture sequence installing PC Linux OS 2010 KDE in VirtualBox 3.2.0.

Figure 1. Boot screen

Figure 2. Keyboard Layout selection. In most cases the detected layout is appropriate.

Figure 3. Click on the highlighted icon to install PCLinuxOS 2010 KDE Edition.

Figure 4. Install root password, this should be root.

Figure 5. GRUB options. Default should do just fine here, in my case, changed boot delay to 2 seconds.

Figure 6. Default Linux image to boot machine. You should still be able to select fail safe or no frame buffer (nonfb).

Figure 7. Installation is done!!! Reboot machine to configure root password and a user.

Figure 8. This will be your machines password.

Figure 9. Add a user here, this will be your workhorse username.

Figure 10. Login to your new PCLinuxOS machine.

Figure 11. Welcome to PCLinuxOS 2010 KDE Edition!!!

Enjoy.

~ts

Install GNOME 2 in FreeBSD 8

2010-05-21T23:49:00.002-05:00

This is a quick guide to install GNOME in FreeBSD 8.0.

Create a minimal install of FreeBSD, see this post.

As of 5/21/2010, this will install GNOME 2.26.3

As a root user add the following packages.

pkg_add -r xorg
pkg_add -r gnome2

Edit /etc/rc.conf and add the following if not there yet.

gdm_enable="YES"
gnome_enable="YES"
dbus_enable="YES"

That's it...reboot the machine and enjoy!!!

~ts

Install Opera 10.10 in CentOS 5.5

2010-05-16T21:34:00.001-05:00

How to install Opera in CentOS 5.5

Step 1: Head to Opera's website.
Step 2: In "Select distribution and vendor", choose "CentOS". Leave the rest using the default values.
Step 3: Hit on Download Opera, and save it to ~/soft. Or any other convenient location.
Step 4: After download is done, do:

[timus@localhost ~]$ cd ~/soft
[timus@localhost soft]$ su
[root@localhost soft]# rpm -i opera-10.10.gcc4.shared.qt3.i386.rpm

Enjoy using Opera!!!

~ts

Google Chrome cannot be installed in CentOS 5.5 due to lsb requirements

2010-05-16T21:07:00.001-05:00

Google Chrome Beta (5.0.375.29 beta) cannot be installed in CentOS 5.5 due to a dependency that cannot be meet. On a freshly installed CentOS, trying to install Chrome using rpm -i google-chrome-beta_current_i386.rpm spits out the following:

[root@localhost soft]# rpm -i google-chrome-beta_current_i386.rpm 
warning: google-chrome-beta_current_i386.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 7fac5991
error: Failed dependencies:
        lsb >= 3.2 is needed by google-chrome-beta-5.0.375.38-46659.i386
        xdg-utils is needed by google-chrome-beta-5.0.375.38-46659.i386

Unfortunately, the latest version of "lsb" that comes with CentOS 5.5 is redhat-lsb-3.1-12.3.EL.el5.centos.i386.

~ts :(

FreeBSD minimal install on Virtual Box

2010-05-16T18:58:00.002-05:00

This is a screen capture documentation of FreeBSD 8.0 minimal install on VirtualBox.

Before we can start the install, we need to have:
a) Guest machine configuration for FreeBSD 8.0.
b) ISO installer, we will be using bootonly in this case.

As usual, create a guest machine configuration, below is my configuration:

General
Name: fbsd80
OS Type: FreeBSD
 
System
Base Memory: 512 MB
Processor(s): 1
Boot Order: CD/DVD-ROM, Hard Disk
VT-x/AMD-V: Enabled
Nested Paging: Enabled
 
Display 
Video Memory: 9 MB
3D Acceleration: Disabled
2D Video Acceleration: Disabled
Remote Display Server: Disabled
 
Storage
IDE Controller   
 IDE Primary Master: fbsd80.vdi (Normal, 80.00 GB)
 IDE Secondary Master (CD/DVD): Empty
Floppy Controller
 Floppy Device 0: Empty
 
Audio
Host Driver: Windows DirectSound
Controller: ICH AC97
 
Network
Adapter 1: Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop (Bridged adapter, Microsoft Loopback Adapter)
 
Serial Ports
Disabled

USB
Device Filters: 0 (0 active)
 
Shared Folders
None

With ISO now downloaded and VirtualBox configuration ready, start the FreeBSD 8.0 virtual machine. Below is a slideshow with the settings that I picked for my minimal FreBSD install.

Enjoy! ~ts

Changing ICS Sharing IP in Windows XP

2010-05-15T15:55:00.003-05:00

ICS (Internet Connection Sharing) in Windows XP is quite useful in few occasions. Like if you have a laptop connected to a wired connection and you want to share your connection to other wireless devices, then it can be handy. Note that Windows XP works quite well as Wireless AP in adhoc mode.

There are cases where your wired connection IP range will be in 192.168.0.x, in this case ICS and adhoc sharing will not work, not at least without some tweaks.

To put this in perspective, here is my network.

[Cable Provider (network1)]--[Home Network (network2)]--[XP Machine with ICS (network3)]

My high speed internet connection from my cable company provides dynamic ip in the range 66.90.106/22, let me call this network1.

My second network (network2), is my home network. This is a wireless AP with wired capability. I was too lazy when I setup this network and used the default. So its network is 192.168.0/24. Well, this is the same network that ICS is using.

For my network3, of course using ICS, it is also 192.168.0/24 network. So this is where the issue starts.

There are various ways to fix this but I have two at hand. One option would be to change my wireless AP network address. Second option is to change ICS IP address.

Since I have some time today, I am exploring the ICS option.

To recap, ICS network are by default in the 192.168.0/24 form. Since this is used by my netowrk2, we will try to tweak this a little bit.

When we did the ICS, we shared it to an interface, let us call this "Local Area Connection". If you check "Local Area Connection", you will notice that it is assigned an IP address of 192.168.0.1. To get the devices connected to network3, we would change "Local Area Connection" to:

IP: 192.168.2.1 (or any private IP range)
Netmask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway : <blank>

Now, for devices connected to netowork3, we need to change IP manually to:

<device1>
IP: 192.168.2.10
Netmask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: 192.168.2.1 <IP of "Local Area Connection">
Preferred DNS: 8.8.8.8 <Google Public DNS server>
Alternate DNS: 8.8.4.4 <Google Public DNS server>

That's it... your third network should now be able to connect to the internet. This solution is not perfect. In fact, I am having "Windows IP Conflict" every now and then which I am trying to chase down.

Update: (2010/05/15)
It seems like the Windows IP Conflict was caused by "AGN Filter Interface" or "AT&T Wi-Fi Support Driver".

~ts

Resolve Netbios name in Ubuntu

2010-05-14T19:17:00.000-05:00

Edit /etc/nsswitch.conf and modify the line that shows something about hosts:

hosts:          files wins mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns mdns4

Install winbind:

sudo aptitude install winbind

For system with more than one network and with WINS server up and running, edit /etc/samba/smb.conf, like:

wins server = [ip_of_wins_server_here]
name resolve order = lmhosts host wins bcast
wins proxy = yes

~ts

Chrome SELinux compatibility in Fedora 12

2010-05-03T22:40:00.000-05:00

Chrome and SELinux does not play nice by default in Fedora 12, see below on how to fix this:

yum --enablerepo=updates-testing update selinux-policy-targeted

You should be running this command as root. See this link for more details.

~ts

Setting up rxvt in cygwin

2010-05-01T16:35:00.001-05:00

Install the following packages
- xorg-server
- xinit
- xorg-docs
- X-start-menu-icons
- inetutils
- rxvt

Linux telnet option negotiation - passive

2010-04-27T23:10:00.002-05:00

Telnet client that comes with Debian Lenny (Linux Netkit 0.17) or Cygwin 1.7 telnet 1.7 (GNU inetutils) actively initiates option negotiation with the server. This is fine for most cases but there are old servers that just stops sending data when it does not like the option that the client tried to negotiate.

To passively participate in option negotiation, telnet can run with the following argument to force it not to send any further negotiation:

telnet <hostname> <port>

Note here that we specified the port number. By doing so, we are basically telling telnet that negotiation is done and so wait for any packet from the server.

And for old telnet server, the following .telnetrc maybe needed:

DEFAULT
        set echo
        mode character
        set crlf

~ts

Emacs command line arguments

2010-04-27T20:28:00.000-05:00

Run Emacs in a terminal:

emacs -nw

MinTTY shortcuts

2010-04-24T17:28:00.001-05:00

I am using MinTTY in cygwin port, it looks and works nice. Below are some of the shortcuts I have come accustomed to:

Copy text into Windows clipboard

Ctrl-Ins

Paste from Windows clipboard

Shift-Ins

Open new instance of MinTTY

Alt-F2

Emacs common commands and configuration

2010-04-24T15:08:00.001-05:00

Some of my .emacs customization:

Hide Emacs toolbar:

;;hide emacs toolbar
(tool-bar-mode 0)

Highlight selection:

;;highlight selection
(transient-mark-mode t)

Set major mode to shell scripting

M-x shell-script-mode

Run an emacs lisp program in the *scratch* buffer

In *scratch*, type (+ 1 1 )
Then, do: C-x C-e

~ts

.bashrc not run in Cygwin

2010-04-24T14:45:00.003-05:00

This can be caused by having HOME defined in Windows system/user environment. Thus say, when you do:

set HOME

... and if you get a response of "Home=D:\Home" for example then this can be fixed by:

cp -p /etc/defaults/etc/skel/.bash_profile ~

in Cygwin bash shell.

See also this link for more information.
ts

Windows Explorer Shortcuts

2010-04-23T22:40:00.003-05:00

Alt-D : Goto to locator bar
Ctrl-N : Open new Windows Explorer
F6 : Switch between windows
Shift+F10: Show context menu

Programmers Fonts

2010-03-30T05:31:00.000-05:00

Here are some of the websites that hosts fonts designed specifically programmers.

Dina Programming Font (link)
Droid Sans Mono (link)
Envy Code R (link)
proggy_font
MonteCarlo font

Code Project Font Survey (link)

Getting rid of SYSFS xserver-xorg-input-wacom error log during Debian Squeeze boot up

2010-03-09T17:40:00.000-06:00

I have a system upgraded from Lenny to Squeeze and every time, during boot up sequence, I am seeing the log below:

SYSFS{}= will be removed in a future udev version, please use ATTR{}= to match the event device, or ATTRS{}= to match a parent device, in /etc/udev/rules.d/z60_xserver-xorg-input-wacom.rules:11

I don't have a wacom device really, so I just decided to get rid of this error message. To do so, do:

#: aptitude remove xserver-xorg-input-wacom

Then, delete file z60_xserver-xorg-input-wacom.rules from /etc/udev/rules.d

Is this the right way to do it? I don't know :)
@timus@

Rubberband selection and text selection not working in Debian Squeeze

2010-03-09T11:29:00.018-06:00

I was playing around with Debian Squeeze and observed that rubberband selection and text selection is not working. The Debian Squeeze machine is a VirtualBox guest upgraded from Debian Lenny.

I suspected that this maybe caused by Gnome/gtk configuration that was messed during upgrade to Squeeze. Tried to install LXDE and still no dice, same issue observed. I was guessing then that this might be an xorg driver issue (vboxvideo) or mouse (vboxmouse). I started making adjustments to my xorg.conf and waalaah.... issue fixed.

This is a snippet of the original configuration:

Section "InputDevice"
       Identifier      "Configured Mouse"
       Driver          "vboxmouse"
       Option          "CorePointer"
       Option          "Device"        "/dev/input/mice"
       Option          "Protocol"      "ImPS/2"
       Option          "Emulate3Buttons"       "true"
EndSection

Changed it to:

Section "InputDevice"
       Identifier      "Configured Mouse"
       Driver          "vboxmouse"
       Option          "CorePointer"
EndSection

@timus@

Minimal Debian Lenny wiht Fluxbox on VirtualBox

2010-02-27T01:46:00.001-06:00

Work in progress!!!!!

#: aptitude install x-window-system-core
#: aptitude install fluxbox fluxconf
#: exit (to user)
$: startx

From the fluxbox session, open a terminal. Do the following to install VirtualBox integration:

$: su
#: aptitude install build-essential
#: aptitude install linux-headers-`uname -r
#: mount /media/cdrom
#: cd /media/cdrom
#: sh VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run
#: reboot

We should have a nicely integrated. Note that this configuration will start in console mode (init 3). You should run startx to go to the X session.

Now try to change to one of the default styles, this case "flux".

menu | Styles | flux

Setting up fonts in Debian - link

Mounting a Windows share using smbfs with read-write access

2010-02-14T19:49:00.000-06:00

To mount a Windows share using smbfs do the following:

#: mount -t cifs -o username=your_user_name,uid=1000 //machine_name/share_name  /mnt/point

Or the old style:

#: mount -t smbfs -o username=your_user_name,uid=1000 //machine_name/share_name  /mnt/point

Note here that uid=1000 is not a magic number but rather your linux userid. You can get this value from passwd file normally located in /etc/passwd. The user with uid=1000 should be able to manipulate files pointed to by //machine_name/share.
And when connecting to a share that is mananged by Active Directory, need to escape the backslash for it to work, e.g.:

#: mount -t smbfs -o username=domain-name\\username,uid=1000 //machine_name/share_name  /mnt/point

Notes:
Need to install smbfs for this to work, like (Debian/Ubuntu):

#: sudo apt-get install smbfs/mnt/point

~ts~

CentOS 5.4 netinstall on Virtualbox

2010-02-14T10:55:00.036-06:00

Note*:
This is applicable to both CentOS 5.4 and 5.5, maybe applicable to older versions as well.

Introduction:
One of the installation methods possible in installing CentOS 5.4 is network installation or NetInstall. There are good reasons why one would like to do NetInstall and not install from the full CDs. Installing from CD means you have to download monster files. In CentOS 5.4, NetInstall iso file is only 8.9MB whereas the CDs (6 sets) are ~700MB each. So if you are planning to install just once or if you are going to use VirtualBox (note snapshot functionality, branching and cloning), then netinstall would really make sense.

Note that to have good installation experience you have to have a fast connection to internet or a mirror in your intranet.

To start with, you need to have VirtualBox installed. I am using W7 Home Premium with 8GB as the host machine. This should not matter much actually if you are familiar with VirtualBox.

Then download netinstall iso from http://www.centos.org and select the appropriate mirror. I have downloaded my copy from http://centos.cs.wisc.edu/pub/mirrors/linux/centos/5.4/isos/i386/CentOS-5.4-i386-netinstall.iso. You should try to select the mirror that is close to you and hopefully that mirror is running on a fast machine with huge pipes.

We should now be ready to install. Run Virtual GUI and create a new guest machine. Since CentOS is essentially a RedHat rebuild less the trademarks and associated graphics and icons (etc), you should be fine selecting Redhat as the Linux version. Note that for these exercise we will be using 32bit version of CentOS.

Below is my VirtualBox configuration:
Base Memory: 512 MB
Processor(s): 1
Boot Order: CD/DVD-ROM, Hard Disk
VT-x/AMD-V: Enabled
Nested Paging: Enabled
Video Memory: 12 MB
3D Acceleration: Disabled
2D Video Acceleration: Disabled
Remote Display Server: Disabled
IDE Primary Master: centos54.vdi@80GB
Audio Host Driver: Windows DirectSound
Audio Controller: ICH AC97
Network 1: Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop bridged to Microsoft Loopback Adapter

Installation

Step 1.
Power-up CentOS 5.4 guest machine. Then mount CentOS netinstall iso. Screen capture follows with values I used to setup CentOS.
Figure 1.

Figure 2.

Figure 3.

Figure 4.

Figure 5.

Figure 6. You can unselect IPv6 if you are only using IPv4 here.

Figure 7. Select appropriate mirror for your location. Note that when I tried to poke around CentOS 5.5 three days after it was announced, I was having all sorts of errors using mirrors.centos.org, to the point that I can't even get a clean install. I am guessing that it is still syncing with the source. I switched to the mirror shown below and it was fantastic.

Web site name: mirrors.usc.edu
CentOS directory: pub/linux/distributions/centos/5.5/os/i386

Figure 8.

Figure 9.

Figure 10.

Figure 11.

Figure 12.

Figure 13.

Figure 14.

Figure 16.

Step 2: Updating the base install

yum update

Step 3: Installing Guest Additions

yum install gcc -y 
yum install kernel-devel -y

Mount VirtualBox guest additions using the GUI, then in CentOS terminal running as root do:

[root@localhost timus]# sh /media/VBOXADDITIONS_3.1.4_57640/VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run

Of course, for the above command, it changes depending on the version of VirtualBox you are using.
~ts

Installing QNX on Virtual Box

2010-02-13T12:26:00.001-06:00

Configuration:
OS Type: QNX
Base Memory : 512 MB
Storage/IDE: 80 GB
Processor: 1
Boot Order: CD/DVD-ROM, Hard Disk
VT-x/AMD-V: Enabled
Nested Paging: Disabled
Audio/Host Driver: Windows DirectSound
Controller: ICH AC97
Network : Intel PRO/1000 T Server (Bridged adapter, Microsoft Loopback Adapter)

Installation:
Select boot option: F3 - Install QNX to a new disk partition
QNX partition: F1 to continue
License: Enter your license
EULA : F1 Accept
Choose disk: F1
Disk larger than 8.4 GB: F1 Allow the QNX partition to be anywhere on the disk
Partition Type: F1 or type 179
Partition size: F1 Use all available space
Install default location: y
GNU Public License Utility package: y
Configuration information...following file:
Remove media:

On reboot:
phgrafx:
- Display : 1
- Driver: svga
- Color Mode: 32K (+1 bit alpha)
- Resolution: 800x600
- Refresh: 60Hz
- Cursor: Hardware

Observed that Photon GUI is faster with vesabios driver

~ts

Text Editors - Windows

2010-02-04T22:11:00.000-06:00

EmEditor (link): text editor is a lightweight, yet extendable, easy-to-use text editor for Windows. EmEditor is very customizable, and it supports Unicode and powerful macros. EmEditor now supports very large files - up to 248 GB or 2.1 billion lines! EmEditor is certified for Windows Vista! The x64 Edition is also available! The portable version is also available for USB drive setup!

UltraEdit (link) is the ideal text, HTML and hex editor, and an advanced PHP, Perl, Java and JavaScript editor for programmers. UltraEdit is also an XML editor including a tree-style XML parser. An industry-award winner, UltraEdit supports disk-based 64-bit file handling (standard) on 32-bit Windows platforms (Windows 2000 and later). Download a free trial today and discover why UltraEdit is the defacto standard with over two million users worldwide.

Zeus Lite Editor (link) : Zeus is a powerful, full featured programmers IDE designed specifically for the task of software development. Zeus is packed full of features designed to make the task of writing code easier and more productive. The Zeus Lite editor is a free version of the Zeus for Windows IDE and it is in fact the original version 3.80 of Zeus for Windows.

EditPad Lite (link) : is a general-purpose text editor, designed to be small and compact, yet offer all the functionality you expect from a basic text editor. EditPad Lite works with Windows NT4, 98, 2000, ME, XP and Vista.
Note(s): Support text encoding conversion which is useful when doing localization work.

JujuEdit is a file editor, or alternatively a text editor with knobs-on. It is an application which is as non-destructive as possible: When you open a file, JujuEdit does NOT convert it into an internal file format. All conversion and interpretation is done on the fly, so that at any point during an edit you can choose to view your file in a different mode (ANSI/Unicode/UTF-8/Installed Code Pages/Binary), without the underlying data being converted. This was an important design decision which is to my knowledge unique to JujuEdit. It means that JujuEdit will tolerate unusual or unexpected characters (like NULLs or inconsistent CR/LF line endings) without clobbering them.
Filesize Max: 2GB

~ts

Installing Qt 4.6 in OpenSuse 11.2

2009-12-24T02:35:00.002-06:00

This is a quick how-to in installing the latest, as of 12/24/2009, Qt framework 4.6 in OpenSuse 11.2.

By the way, Qt is a cross-platform application and UI framework. It can be used to develop web-enabled applications and user interfaces once and deploy them across Windows, Mac, Linux/X11, embedded Linux, Windows CE and Symbian.

Download the binaries from http://qt.nokia.com/. As of this writing, the latest version is 4.6 which comes with a lot of new features especially the multi-touch aware which is pretty much what is expected from latest generation of smartphone applications.

Change to the directory where the file was downloaded, like:

$: cd /home/username/
$: chmod u+x qt-sdk-linux-x86-opensource-2009.05.bin

What we just did was to make the file executable. Finally, install the application by running the following command:

$: ./qt-sdk-linux-x86-opensource-2009.05.bin

See below for screen capture while installing Qt.

Note that Qt SDK needs additional software to work properly, like gcc and related libraries.

~ts

Emacs common commands

2009-11-19T09:19:00.009-06:00

Character Operations:
DELETE : Delete character to the left of point (Also marked ROBOUT)
C-d : Delete character to the right of (or under) point

Word Operations:
M-d : Delete one word to the right (C-y yanks it back at point)
Cursor movement:
C-p    : Move to the previous line
C-n    : Move to the next line
C-f    : Move forward one char
C-b    : Move backward one char
M-f    : Move forward one word
M-b    : Move backward one word
C-a    : Move cursor beggining of the line
C-e    : Move cursor end of the line
M->    : End of file
M-<    : Beginning of file

Line operations:
M-m : Move point to the first non-space in the line

Copying Text:
M-w     : Runs command kill-ring-save. This is like copy in Windows editors

Deleting Text:
C- select text C-w
        : Delete selected text
M-d     : Kill the next word after the cursor

Searching for text:
C-s : Incremental search forward
C-r : Incremental search backward

Convenience functions:
C-[number][char]
        : Repeat [char] [number] of times. Example C-8-0 1, repeat 1 80 times.

Dictionary:
M-$     : Check and correct spelling for the word at point

Others:
count-lines-region
        : Count number line and chars for the selected text
untabify
        : Change tabs to space for the currently selected region

Python mode specific shortcuts:
M-/ : Command abbreviation expand
C-M-i : Complete partial symbol or Intellisense in VS speak

Links:
Emacs Keyboard keys (link)

Prolog reference materials

2009-10-02T10:34:00.000-05:00

Tutorials:
Prolog tutorial by J. R. Fisher

Prolog compilers/interpreters:
SWI-Prolog is a Prolog implementation based on a subset of
the WAM (Warren Abstract Machine)

~ts

Installing VirtualBox guest additions in Fedora 11 guest

2009-10-02T07:47:00.002-05:00

This is a short guide on how to install VirtualBox 3.0.6 guest additions in Fedora 11.

It is always a good practice to update your system before installing VirtualBox guest additions, so let us do just that. Open a terminal in Fedora guest, thus say,

Login as root:

$: su

Check for updates and install as necessary

#: yum check-update
#: yum update

Note that when I installed Fedora 11, I selected Development machine, so most of the common development tools are already installed by default. But if you have selected Destkop machine, then you have to do the following:

#: yum -y install gcc kernel-devel

You probably need to reboot after all the updates. It is now time to install the Virtual Box guest additions. From the host machine, using Virtual Box main application do, "Devices > Install Guest Additions..." or

You should note that in the guest machine, Fedora 11, will mount the guest addition automatically. Now it is time to install the much needed software. Open a terminal and do the following commands.

$: su
#: cd /media/VBOXADDITIONS_3.0.6_52128
#: ./VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run
You should be seeing something like:

Verifying archive integrity... All good.
Uncompressing VirtualBox 3.0.6 Guest Additions for Linux installation................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
VirtualBox 3.0.6 Guest Additions installation
Building the VirtualBox Guest Additions kernel module...
Building the shared folder support kernel module...
Building the drm support kernel module...
Installing the VirtualBox Guest Additions...

Successfully installed the VirtualBox Guest Additions.
You must restart your guest system in order to complete the installation.

Reboot your machine as instructed... Congratulations!!! You now have integrated guest additions!!!

References:
http://www.kombitz.com/2009/06/12/fedora-11-and-virutalbox-2-2-guest-additions/

~ts.

Creating new user in Fedora Linux

2009-09-28T14:41:00.003-05:00

Creating a user in Fedora now is so much easier that it used to 5 years ago. To do this, do "System > Administration > Users and Group" or through console command "system-config-users" as regular user.

Once the program is run it should ask for root password.

Once the required password is entered, you should see a window as shown below.

Now to create the new user either do "File > Add User" or click on Add User button. Let us try to create a new user with the corresponding information:
User Name: timus
Full Name: Timus Tunes
Password : password
Confirm Password : password
Login Shell: /bin/bash
Leave the rest with the default values.

Enjoy!
~ts

Fedora 11 Fatal boot failure on vbox

2009-09-28T11:35:00.002-05:00

I tried installing Fedora 11 on Virtual Box 3.0.6 and really surprised of the result after the first reboot, I was presented with following fatal error message:

Booting from local disk...
FATAL: INT18: BOOT FAILURE

Or this image capture:

Though the issue is easy to work-around, thus say, unmount the DVDROM from VirtualBox but this got me thinking why is it that this issue is not present in Ubuntu 9.04 nor OpenSUSE 11.1? Was this a regression in Fedora or due to VirtualBox?

Note that this issue was reported in Virtual Box and claimed to be an issue with Fedora installer. But this issue was reported way back Fedora 10? :(...

I wish I am brave enough to mess around with probably GRUB or Linux kernel to help fix this minor hiccup.

~ts

Localization related articles

2009-08-08T09:35:00.003-05:00

CodeProject:
Introduction to Localization (link).

Microsoft articles regarding localizing MFC projects
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/832187
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/198536
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/198846/

~ts

Windows name to ip resolution order

2009-08-08T04:52:00.000-05:00

Oder of resolution for TCP/IP names to IP for Windows environment:

Local cached information. Can be cleared using ipconfig /flushdns.
Hosts file
DNS server
NetBIOS over TCP/IP

In older versions of Windows up to NT 4.0, the priority can be configured through system.ini section [DNS]. The said section cannot be found in XP SP3, it might be still working and defaults normal resolution order if the section is not defined.

Resources:
Link 1
Link 2

~ts

SHGetFolderLocation C++ sample code

2009-08-05T04:41:00.000-05:00

Original code is from MSDN. Sample code demonstrates how to use SHGetFolderLocation in C++.

#include 
#include 
#include 
#include 

int main()
{
    IShellFolder *psfParent = NULL;
    LPITEMIDLIST pidlSystem = NULL;
    LPCITEMIDLIST pidlRelative = NULL;
    STRRET strDispName;
    TCHAR szDisplayName[MAX_PATH];
    HRESULT hr;

    hr = SHGetFolderLocation(NULL, CSIDL_DESKTOP, NULL, NULL, &pidlSystem);
    if (!SUCCEEDED(hr))
    {
        std::cout << "hr bad" << std::endl;
        return -1;
    }

    hr = SHBindToParent(pidlSystem, IID_IShellFolder, (void **) &psfParent, &pidlRelative);

    if(SUCCEEDED(hr))
    {
        hr = psfParent->GetDisplayNameOf(pidlRelative, SHGDN_NORMAL, &strDispName);
        hr = StrRetToBuf(&strDispName, pidlSystem, szDisplayName, sizeof(szDisplayName));
        std::wcout << "SHGDN_NORMAL - " <<< '\n';
    }

    psfParent->Release();
    CoTaskMemFree(pidlSystem);

    return 0;
}

Need to link ShlwApi.lib to get this to work (Project Properties | Configuration Properties | Linker | Input | Additional Dependencies)

~ts

SHGetFolderLocation

2009-08-05T04:12:00.001-05:00

Sample code on how to use SHGetFolderLocation, shamelessly copied from this link. This code was verified to work in Windows 2000 and VB SP6.

Private Declare Function SHGetFolderLocation Lib "shell32.dll" (ByVal hwndOwner As Long, ByVal nFolder As Long, ByVal hToken As Long, ByVal dwReserved As Long, ppidl As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function SHBrowseForFolder Lib "shell32.dll" (lpbi As BROWSEINFO) As Long
Private Declare Function SHGetPathFromIDList Lib "shell32.dll" Alias "SHGetPathFromIDListA" (ByVal pidl As Long, ByVal pszPath As String) As Long
Private Declare Sub CoTaskMemFree Lib "ole32.dll" (ByVal pv As Long)

Private Type BROWSEINFO
  hwndOwner As Long
  pidlRoot As Long
  pszDisplayName As String
  lpszTitle As String
  ulFlags As Long
  lpfn As Long
  lParam As Long
  iImage As Long
End Type
Private Sub Command1_Click()
' This code is licensed according to the terms and conditions listed here.

' Open the Browse for Folder dialog box and display both the display name and
' the actual name of the folder (if it is not a virtual folder).  Any folder under My Computer
' may be selected.
Dim bi As BROWSEINFO  ' structure passed to the function
Dim pidl As Long  ' PIDL to the user's selection
Dim physpath As String  ' string used to temporarily hold the physical path
Dim retval As Long  ' return value

' Initialize the structure to be passed to the function.
bi.hwndOwner = Form1.hWnd  ' window Form1 is the owner of the dialog box
' Specify the My Computer virtual folder as the root
retval = SHGetFolderLocation(Form1.hWnd, CSIDL_DRIVES, 0, 0, bi.pidlRoot)
' Make room in the buffer to get the [virtual] folder's display name
bi.pszDisplayName = Space(260)
bi.lpszTitle = "Please choose a folder."  ' Message displayed to the user
bi.ulFlags = 0  ' no flags are needed here
bi.lpfn = 0  ' no callback function is being used
bi.lParam = 0  ' not needed
bi.iImage = 0  ' this will be set by the function

' Open the Browse for Folder dialog box.
pidl = SHBrowseForFolder(bi)
' If the user selected something, display its display name
' and its physical location on the system.
If pidl <> 0 Then
  ' Remove the empty space from the display name variable.
  bi.pszDisplayName = Left(bi.pszDisplayName, InStr(bi.pszDisplayName, vbNullChar) - 1)
  Debug.Print "The user selected: "; bi.pszDisplayName
  ' If the folder is not a virtual folder, display its physical location.
  physpath = Space(260)  ' make room in the buffer
  retval = SHGetPathFromIDList(pidl, physpath)
  If retval = 0 Then
    Debug.Print "Physical Location: (virtual folder)"
  Else
    ' Remove the empty space and display the result.
    physpath = Left(physpath, InStr(physpath, vbNullChar) - 1)
    Debug.Print "Physical Location: "; physpath
  End If
  ' Free the pidl returned by the function.
  CoTaskMemFree pidl
End If

' Whether successful or not, free the PIDL which was used to
' identify the My Computer virtual folder.
CoTaskMemFree bi.pidlRoot

End Sub

~ts

Converting CString to CComBSTR

2009-08-04T23:54:00.002-05:00

Code below shows how to convert CString to CComBSTR.

// CComBSTR.cpp : Defines the entry point for the console application.
//

#include "stdafx.h"
#include 
#include 
#include 
int _tmain(int argc, _TCHAR* argv[])
{
 CComBSTR szDbgMsg;
 CString sMsg;
 sMsg = _T("Hello world new");
 sMsg.Format(_T("%s : %d"), sMsg, 12);
 //szDbgMsg = L"Hello world ";
 szDbgMsg = sMsg.GetBuffer();
 CW2A printstr(szDbgMsg);
 std::wcout << ((CString)szDbgMsg).GetBuffer() << std::endl;
 std::wcout << sMsg.GetBuffer() << std::endl;
 return 0;
}

~ts

List all installed applications in a machine

2009-08-04T13:33:00.000-05:00

The script below will list and save all installed applications to a csv file. Save the script as say, save.vbs.

Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set objTextFile = objFSO.CreateTextFile("c:\software.csv", True)

strComputer = "."
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" _
    & "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")
Set colSoftware = objWMIService.ExecQuery _
    ("Select * from Win32_Product")

objTextFile.WriteLine "Caption" & vbtab & _
    "Description" & vbtab & "Identifying Number" & vbtab & _
    "Install Date" & vbtab & "Install Location" & vbtab & _
    "Install State" & vbtab & "Name" & vbtab & _ 
    "Package Cache" & vbtab & "SKU Number" & vbtab & "Vendor" & vbtab _
        & "Version" 

For Each objSoftware in colSoftware
    objTextFile.WriteLine objSoftware.Caption & vbtab & _
    objSoftware.Description & vbtab & _
    objSoftware.IdentifyingNumber & vbtab & _
    objSoftware.InstallDate2 & vbtab & _
    objSoftware.InstallLocation & vbtab & _
    objSoftware.InstallState & vbtab & _
    objSoftware.Name & vbtab & _
    objSoftware.PackageCache & vbtab & _
    objSoftware.SKUNumber & vbtab & _
    objSoftware.Vendor & vbtab & _
    objSoftware.Version
Next
objTextFile.Close

Note that this code was copied shamelessly from the internet, can't remember the exact link.

~ts.

The system cannot execute the specified program

2009-08-04T13:27:00.000-05:00

When running a console app written in VS 2005, and you are getting "The system cannot execute the specified program" on a target machine, then it can be one of the following:
a) Target machine does not have VC++ 2005 Redistribuable
b) Project settings may not be correct, see this link.

~ts.

Using SyntaxHighlighter javascript library

2009-07-27T11:17:00.001-05:00

See this link for instructions on how to use SyntaxHighlighter library within Blogger.

~ts.