Len

Today I’ve decided to install an updated version of a complicated perl webapp (won’t name it). After compiling libraries, installing packages, installing cpan packages, recompiling, matching version, checking for compilation errors I realized almost 4h had passed and I was still at the dependencies. 1h later the application was installed but still a bug had to be found. So I began searching on the web again. Then it struck me. How much time did I loose in my life compiling, installing, searching for bugs and incompatibles versions? I think it was too much. So I decided to enjoy my weekend and closed the computer. 30 mins later I was opening it again …

In my stupidity innocence I just hoped that deploying the application on the new JBoss (from 4.2.2-GA to 5.1.0-GA) should be just a simple matter of changing paths in ant. Here are some problems I encountered and was able to fix. (more…)

Searching for a way to encrypt your files or filesystem on Linux can be an overwhelming choice. At a simple search you find different terms and solutions such as: encfs, dm-crypt, truecrypt, loopback crypt, aespipe, LUKS, etc. The answer is obviously historical. There are a lot of solutions some of them deprecated. I remember a few years ago I solved a similar problem using a tool (can’t remember which) which I was unable to find 2 years later thus remaining with a large file and lost data. Here is a method to encrypt a filesystem or file using LUKS. (more…)

Since my migration to thunderbird I did not had many things to complain but one of the remaining things was the date format. I am expecting to have something like DD/MM/YY or at least DD MMM YYYY. I did not imagined this could be something else than configuration somewhere. Or not…

After some digging I found out there is no way to configure the date string but the only way to change the date is to change the locale the application is using. The first step was to see the installed locales:

locale -a
C
en_AG
en_AU.utf8
en_BW.utf8
en_CA.utf8
en_DK.utf8
en_GB.utf8
en_HK.utf8
en_IE.utf8
en_IN
en_NG
en_NZ.utf8
en_PH.utf8
en_SG.utf8
en_US.utf8
en_ZA.utf8
en_ZW.utf8
POSIX

then to check each locale date format, for example:

len@black:~$ LC_ALL=en_DK.utf8 locale -k d_fmt t_fmt
d_fmt="%Y-%m-%d"
t_fmt="%T"
len@black:~$ LC_ALL=en_GB.utf8 locale -k d_fmt t_fmt
d_fmt="%d/%m/%y"
t_fmt="%T"

the remaining thing was to convince thunderbird to use this locale. I’ve done this by creating /usr/bin/mythunderbird script:

LC_ALL=en_GB.utf8 $(dirname $0)/thunderbird

now the dates are much better:

Thunderbird dates config

I’ve also migrated my Acer Aspire One to the new Karmic Koala easy as before using the recommended installation mechanism. One of the things I missed was the SSD specific configuration. This netbook I am using has a very slow SSD drive and I’ve experienced some slowdowns due to the time spent reading and writing the disk. I also wanted to reduce the SSD wear. Here are some steps I have took: (more…)

This ubuntu installation was the bit of fun expected after a few tiresome weeks so I grabbed the cd while still hot and started the installation. As usual the install went smoothly except the fact that I probably mistyped my usual password so I had to modify the /etc/shadow afterward to log in.

I was not expecting many changes but there are some graphical changes, the gdm seemed changed and after login I was greeted with a “DISK HAS MANY BAD BLOCKS” message since now there is a tool (palimpsest) which reads the S.M.A.R.T Hdd data. I had a bad sector re-allocated in the past and verified the SMART status without any error so this is probably a bug:

root@black:/home/len# smartctl -l selftest /dev/sda
smartctl version 5.38 [i686-pc-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-8 Bruce Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Extended offline    Completed without error       00%     10048         -
# 2  Extended offline    Completed without error       00%      8033         -
# 3  Extended offline    Completed without error       00%      6872         -

Another change is the lack of pidgin which has been replaced by empathy. I decided to give it a try but it was a bit of a disappointing. The interface is uglier and it crashed when trying to set a photo in yahoo. I can understand that empathy supports facebook chat and msn audio but this is not high on my priority list so I reverted back to pidgin in 10 mins.

I did not tested the ubuntu one net storage yet but migrating the data was as easy as usual. This time I did not have to migrate evolution since I’m quite happy with thunderbird in the month or so since I am using it. All in all I was having everything configured in under 30 mins.

My new Bamboo1 tablet from Wacom worked as it did in Ubuntu 9.04 and I installed the configuration applet from here but I’ve had the same problem with relative mode. This time the mode configuration was not even active. Pressure is working but only in absolute mode.

In conclusion I had the bit of fun expected combined with the short thrill of thinking I’ll loose all my data :)

I have been using Evolution since more than 7 years now as my default email client and it has been more than a while that I have been disapointed with it mostly because of how slow it handled new mail. I have assumed that most of the fault was due to spamassasin spam filtering plugin. I tried on numerous occasions to change the default Ubuntu spamassassin and evolution configuration but with little if any results. This weekend I decided to make the switch despite various equaly bad reviews I found on the net regarding Mozilla Thunderbird. (more…)

Conexant fax-modem configuration

In the process of sending a fax in ubuntu on my Dell D820 I did not expected at all that the bigest problem would be getting the modem driver to work. I guess I forgot the old days of linux driver configuration. So, after loosing almost an hour with the linuxant “free” drivers which do not allow fax and the dell free drivers which somehow managed to kill my sound I finally found the solution on ubuntu site which solved the problem and I got both modem and sound back.

efax-gtk and efax

First try was using the efax-gtk interface which actually did the trick immediately with almost no hassle at all and sent a pdf file as a fax. However my goal was to do the same from the command line. This was a bit more complicated and involved the following steps:

(more…)

The geek’s alphabet: a, b, c

• ls -a
• gpsd -b -N -D2 /dev/ttyUSB0
• ping -c 10

(more…)

2 short tricks on ubuntu linux (9.04 Jaunty):

Install a .ttf font

#create a fonts dir
sudo mkdir -p /usr/share/fonts/truetype/myfonts
#copy the font
sudo cp myFont.ttf /usr/share/fonts/truetype/myfonts
#update fonts cache
fc-cache -fv

Note: if you are using an application don’t expect the fonts to be refreshed dynamically, just restart it.

Create a cisco vpn connection

apt-get install vpnc

Create a /etc/vpnc/myvpn.conf. If you want to convert an existing .pcf file check this article.

IPSec ID xxx
IPSec gateway xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
IPSec secret xxxxxxxx

IKE Authmode psk

Xauth username xxxxx
Xauth password xxxxx

Start the vpn:

sudo vpnc myvpn

I encountered a strange issue. On the first try I got a:

vpnc: no response from target

but if I try again the connection gets established ok.