Monday, March 30, 2009

Free Ubuntu & Debian Packages

Free packages for Debian and Ubuntu are available and can be downloaded at http://getdeb.net, however the packages required the Debian or Ubuntu repositories which pours the package integrity to solve the package dependencies.


The small tools (not only in size but also in usage) can be downloaded and installed easily with out any repositories.

RHEL5 Python script bug can be resolved in a round about way

You might have experienced on this bug, if you have configured installation server and yum server in the same machine with the same path (i.e., /var/ftp/pub). 


Let us discuss the scenario in detail to solve this out.

1. Create / for 10GB, so you can create yum server by using ftp service with the default path specified /var/ftp/pub.
2. Copy all rpm content from DVD/CDs to some other path /rhel5/rpms (say).
3. Configure nfs server for the specified path /rhel5/rpms
4. Restart the specified services.
5. Use /var/ftp/pub path whenever yum server needs to be used.
6. Use /rhel5/rpms path whenever installation server is required.

Note: It is obvious that the pure replica of all rpms is indespensable in this case to solve this python bug in round about way. There is no alternate solution to fix this up.

Ubuntu 9.04 is available in Torrents

The following links are used to download the torrents for Ubuntu 9.04 beta Torrents for free. Try it out.



Features of Ubuntu 9.04


Linux kernel 2.6.28

Ubuntu 9.04 Beta includes the 2.6.28-11.37 kernel based on 2.6.28.8.

Ext4 filesystem support

Ubuntu 9.04 Beta supports the option of installing the new ext4 file system. ext3 will remain the default filesystem for Jaunty, and we will consider ext4 as the default for the next release based on user feedback. There has been extensive discussion about the reliability of applications running on ext4 in the face of sudden system outages. Applications that use the conventional approach of writing data to a temporary file and renaming it to its final location will have their reliability expectations met in Ubuntu 9.04 beta; further discussion is ongoing in the kernel community.
Ext4 support in GRUB was provided by Colin King. If you choose to upgrade your / or /boot filesystem in place from ext2 or ext3 to ext4 (as documented on the ext4 wiki), then you must also use the grub-install command after upgrading to Ubuntu 9.04 Beta to reinstall your boot loader. If you do not do this, then the version of GRUB installed in your boot sector will not be able to read the kernel from the ext4 filesystem and your system will fail to boot.
Ext4 support in gparted has been provided by Curtis Gedak.

Cloud computing

Ubuntu 9.04 Server Edition makes it easy to experiment with cloud computing. Eucalyptus, an open source technology which is included in Ubuntu as a technology preview, enables you to use your own servers to deploy, experiment and test your own private cloud that matches the Amazon EC2 API. You can dynamically create virtual machines, configure multiple clusters into a single Cloud and even provide an EBS (elastic block storage) equivalent and an S3 compatible storage manager.

Turn-key mail servers

The dovecot-postfix package in Ubuntu 9.04 Beta provides an easy-to-deploy mail server stack, with support for SMTP, POP3, and IMAP with TLS and SASL.
dovecot-postfix was packaged by Ante Karamatić.

Ubuntu 9.04 is going to be launched on April 23 of 2009


The Ubuntu developers are moving quickly to bring you the latest and greatest software the Open Source Community has to offer. This is the Ubuntu 9.04 beta release, which brings a host of excellent new features.
Note: This is a beta release. Do not install it on production machines. The final stable version will be released on April 23rd, 2009.
Beta versions are available now.
Get it while it's hot. ISOs and torrents are available at:

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Have you ever seen the calendar for September 1752 in Unix/Linux ???


Type the following command in Unix shell. Of course, you can use it in $prompt or #prompt.

cal 9 1752

Surprised ???? That's the beauty lies in UNIX.
Explanation:

Isn't the output queer? A month with whole of eleven days missing. This was the time England shifted from Roman Julian Calendar to the Gregorian Calendar, and the king of England ordered those 11 days to be wiped off the face of the month of September of 1752. (What couldn't a King do in those days?!) And yes, the workers worked for 11 days less, but got paid for the entire 30 days. And that's how "Paid Leave" was born. Hail the King!!!

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Tips & Tricks

1.Split the files

The following is an example of how to use the split command on a 600MB image.iso file:

# split -b 200m image.iso

It will generate three files, namely xaa,xab and xac of 200MB each. Afterwards you can use the cat command to combine the three to get back the original file, as follows

# cat xa* > newimage.iso

2. Prevent users from changing their passwords

You should have the root previliages to change this permission. Once you change this one users will not be able to change their passwords.

# chmod 511 /usr/bin/passwd

3. Crontab Example

first asterisk to enter the day of week 0-6, where 0 is Sunday. You can enter the month(1-12)in place of the second asterisk. Replace the third asterisk with the day of month (1-31). The fourth one is for the hour(0-23),while the fifth one is to enter the minutes(0-59).

For example, if you need to run a script daily at 5:30pm, then the entry will as shown below:

30 17 * * * sh /home/myuser/scripttorun.sh >/dev/null 2>&1

If the last part “>/dev/null 2>&1” is omitted, then by default, cron will send an e-mail to the user account after executing the cronjob.

4. How to use the swap as a file?

To make a swap file of 1GB, multiply 1024MB and 1024 to get a block size. Now at a shell prompt as the root user, type the following command with the count being equal to the desired block size:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/swapfile bs=1024 count=1048576

Now set up the swap file:

mkswap /swapfile

Enable the swap file after create it by using the following command:

swapon /swapfile

Add the following entry in the /etc/fstab file to make the system activate this file as swap while booting the system:

/swapfile swap swap defaults 0 0

Friday, March 13, 2009

Acer 5315 wireless works good - an alternate method

The method of how to make work the wireless in Acer 5315 is already written. 
But if you do online upgrade with the additional latest patches, It will not work again. 
It is really funny that with the ubuntu 8.10.
However, you have an alternate method to make work the wireless properly which follows below.
1. Download the latest patch of madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-current.tar.gz from the internet. 
This can be downloaded from this site http://snapshots.madwifi-project.org/
 It is obvious to use the following alternate command in the $ prompt
 $ sudo wget http://snapshots.madwifi-project.org/madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-current.tar.gz 
2. Untar (unzip) the newly downloaded file: 
 $ tar xvf madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-current.tar.gz 
3. Go into the newly created directory:
 $ cd madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-r3879-20081204 
4. Then compile the package:
 $ make 
5. The install the package:
 $ sudo make install 
6. Then load the newly created module:
 $ sudo modprobe ath_pci You can use the following alternate method also. 
In the terminal type “sudo gedit /etc/modules”(without quotes) and add “ath_pci”(again without quotes) 
to the bottom of the list if you don’t have anything in the list just add it to the bottom. Click ‘Save’ and that’s it.
7. Reboot the machine or alternatively use the following command
 $ sudo /sbin/init 6 
8. Your wifi should work in the specified model laptop. The light specified may not glow. If not please buzz me up.
References: 
 http://blog.hyperandy.com/2008/11/01/atheros-ar242x-ubuntu-810-ibex/
 http://snapshots.madwifi-project.org/madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-current.tar.gz

Monday, March 2, 2009

Ubuntu8.10 works good in my Acer Aspire 5315

Ubuntu8.10 works good in my Acer Aspire 5315

It will automatically detect the sound card and wired network which work good normally. But you have to configure the following things manually.

1. MP3, DVDsupport & Webcam driver support

The best suggestion I suggest is download and install the latest VLCplayer, which includes all general media files support and even it detects the Crystal Eye Webcam also. I have given you the procedure to install VLCplayer from the web repository of ubuntu8.10.

% sudo apt-get update

% sudo apt-get install vlc vlc-plugin-esd mozilla-plugin-vlc

It is obvious that incase of root user, that sudo is not required.

2. Wifi / Wireless LAN in Ubuntu8.10

The given version of the kernel has not provide support for wifi for the laptop that I have specified in the title.

To check the wifi driver is detected or not

% sudo lspci | grep “Atheros”

The device specified will be displayed in the case of the device is detected properly, the prompt will be shown otherwise.

% sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-intrepid-generic

which is used to install the new kernel1 i.e., 2.26.27-11-generic. Then reboot the system once. Boot the machine to the kernel, which is recently installed. Wifi will work good.

Remember that this is the procedure for configuring ubuntu8.10 in the specified laptop only. I hope the same steps will help you to configure for other company laptops also.

References Courtesy:

http://unsharptech.com/2008/10/31/atheros-wireless-in-ubuntu-810-intrepid-ibex/

http://www.videolan.org/

1the old kernel removal is not required