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Booting My Lucid on ACER M3710

Booting My Lucid on ACER M3710

by Jan Peter Alexander Rajagukguk 0 Comments

My old workstation is being used as a server. As a replacement, I was offered with a new desktop PC (ACER Aspire M3710).

Because this is not an advertorial, I would like to emphasis on the flaw first, which:

  • My SCSI card and the on-board SATA controller is incompatible. When I plugged the SCSI controller, the on-board SATA controller not detected.
  • No IDE controller! There goes my 250 GB data…. [sarcasm] No big deal, I only miss couple big data gathered in years. [/sarcasm]
  • BIOS aren’t made with many custom options. (Which I think normal for branded PC)
  • It by default bundled with Vista. (The most flaw, hehehe… :D)

When I booted into USB, I found out that GNU/Linux can detect both controller just fine. Yay! My SCSI and my SATA can be used together. So, I need to install Ubuntu into my SCSI drive.

After installing, I realized that not all of my 4 GB memory available. This is because 32-bit Lucid needs to install PAE (linux-image-generic-pae). So, I went and use that version.

There is a problem, as in time of writing, when installing the proprietary driver. It doesn’t work with current NVIDIA driver provided by Ubuntu. To tackle it, I’m downloading from NVIDIA site and the installation went well. Btw, installing it requiring the X server to stop and run the installer from virtual terminal (CTRL + ALT +F[1..6]).

Apart from the storage controller, everything works. I like this new desktop PC. Fast and quite. I’m thinking of reinstalling it with Kubuntu64, thought. That’s another story. Bye.

DVD Just Fine

DVD Just Fine

by Jan Peter Alexander Rajagukguk 3 Comments

I can watch my original DVD “U2” “go Home” using libdvdread4. The package have a script that would instal libdvdcss2 into the system. To have it:

$ sudo apt-get install libdvdread4
$ sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh

And it would download all of the non-free debs. I hate it when I am using non-free blobs, but what I hate the most is I can’t play my own ORIGINAL DVD. Gah! Hail to the greed of liberalism!

Anyway, it seems that the DVD aged, so I guess now I need to create a backup copy. K3B rocks! It reads scramble DVD just fine. 😀

Another story with my Lucid, I just find out that Twitter revamped their site. I know this is outdated info, but since I am busy I haven’t realized it. I’m using Choqok to see all the post.

It seems that Choqok doesn’t have any capability for seeing friend request. I must go to the site to do the job. Anyway, google-chrome failed at accepting friends. It always failed when I pressed the “Accept” button. Fortunately, my Konqueror can do the job. Yay! All hail to the almighty ancient browser. 😀

Oh, btw, I’m using Kubuntu.

Updating Status

Updating Status

by Jan Peter Alexander Rajagukguk 2 Comments

Just trying to update with a post. I have so many things wrapped up, but I don’t have enough time to blog.

What’s new?

Ubuntu Rock! Seriously, this is the first LTS that don’t sucks on beta and I think it would later on update. Btw, Maverick Meerkat is the next Ubuntu.

SongBird dropping support on GNU/Linux! What a sad story. This iTunes replacement only support Win and Mac, just like iTunes. So, what’s it special anymore?

Lexmark silently support GNU/Linux systems! They even put GNU/Linux logo on their printer!

AMD releasing support for OpenGL 3.3 and OpenGL 4.0 on GNU/Linux with their latest 10.3 driver. Waiting for a professional game here on GNU/Linux.

NVIDIA dropping support for nv driver for their next gen GPU. FYI, nv is that ancient NVIDIA driver that can only doing 2D stuffs. They suggest us to use VESA and download their proprietary driver instead. Well, since Noveau is out there, I think this is a nothing to lose situation.

Yeah, all of them are on Phoronix, except the Ubuntu. It’s on my PC. 😀

Sony Ericsson W508 + OpenOffice Presenter + KDE 4.4.x

Sony Ericsson W508 + OpenOffice Presenter + KDE 4.4.x

by Jan Peter Alexander Rajagukguk 1 Comment

Sony Ericsson W508 + OpenOffice Presenter + KDE 4.4.x = GG!

For non (Warcraft) gamer, it means:

Sony Ericsson W508 + OpenOffice Presenter + KDE 4.4.x = World Domination!

I’ve just found out that SE W508 Presenter is supported by KBluetooth. It means, I can make it as my controller for screen projection. All of controller were detected.

How to do it?

Just set your phone to be discoverable and set your laptop as discoverable as well. Connect them, and let them trust each other (you know the drill, put PIN). I’m sorry for the no screenshots. I have no camera, but the phone itself.

Hardware involved:

  • Lenovo Y41
  • Sony Ericsson W508

Software used:

  • Kubuntu Lucid
  • OpenOffice 3.2 (from Kubuntu)
  • KBluetooth
  • KDE 4.4.x (from Kubuntu)

Feel free to comment. If you have an urge in needing of screenshot, I shall reconsider to put them later. But, in the meantime I am really busy.

Playing With Your GRUB (Debian Way)

Playing With Your GRUB (Debian Way)

by Jan Peter Alexander Rajagukguk 0 Comments

There are times when you want to do funky things to your computer. Sometimes, it messed up your zen. Well, when that happens, just do the Debian way. Oh, btw, it also means you could do it in Ubuntu.

1 Regenerate your settings

$ sudo update-grub

2 Reinstall GRUB on MBR

$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure grub-pc

ADVANCE:

2a Adding kernel options to GRUB

$ sudo $EDITOR /etc/default/grub

Change $EDITOR with your favourite editor. Modify the file to suit you then do the #1. Some configuration already asked when you do #2.

Feel free to comment and ask.

Beralih ke Standar Terbuka

Beralih ke Standar Terbuka

by Jan Peter Alexander Rajagukguk 10 Comments

Sudah lama Uni Eropa menyertakan standar terbuka (open standards) sebagai kebutuhan (requirement) dalam proyek-proyek mereka. Itu sebabnya, Microsoft memaksakan untuk OOXML menjadi standar ISO. Perkembangan perangkat lunak bebas terbuka (Free/Open Source Software, FOSS) membuat banyak gebrakan dan berlanjut kepada dominasinya kepada dunia.

Salah satu yang mencengangkan adalah bagaimana rekan saya mengatakan bahwa GNU R, bukan SPSS, yang dipakai oleh dia dan rekan-rekannya di kelas. Pada awalnya mereka protes pada sang dosen. Tetapi begitu memasuki fungsi-fungsi yang rumit, mereka lalu langsung kagum pada kesederhanaan dan kemampuan GNU R. Oh, yah, dia adalah seorang mahasiswa S2 Ilmu Ekonomi.

Peran FOSS yang paling dominan saat ini adalah dia menjadi dasar dari Internet. Sebagai standar defacto, Apache HTTPd telah merajai penyedia layanan Web. Selain itu, GNU/Linux router telah secara transparan menyediakan gateway berkecepatan tinggi. Proxy yang melayani Anda, Hotspot, federated SSO. Semuanya beralih kepada FOSS.

Hal yang teranyar saat ini adalah dengan penggunaan HTML5. Karena i* (iPhone dan iPad) tidak menyertakan Flash, maka situs Virgin Airlines di Amerika mengganti situsnya dengan HTML5 murni. Seperti dikutip oleh [REG], mereka tidak mau kehilangan 30% pangsa pasar perangkat bergerak (iPhone menguasai 30% pangsa pasar telepon pintar di Amerika Serikat).

Hal ini logis. Jajaran produk Apple adalah sebagai lambang bergengsi seperti merek Ferrari pada mobil. Di antara 30% itu pasti banyak yang menggunakan jasa penerbangan. Sebagai entitas bisnis, mereka tentunya melihat peluang terbuka tersebut. Maka, Anda dapat lihat bagaimana dominasi Flash akan mulai tergantikan.

Hal ini sama seperti Symbian yang akhirnya membuka kode sumber mereka. Mereka mulai mempertimbangkan tekanan Android, Maemo, dan berbagai konsorsium yang mulai muncul. Tidak ada, bahkan Microsoft sekalipun, dapat mengalahkan kekuatan kerja sama.

Lalu bagaimana di Indonesia?

Saya masih melihat bahwa kita masih terikat dengan produk bajakan. Bahkan, kita masih bisa diancam-ancam kalau menggunakan FOSS. Padahal, ada banyak hal yang bisa digunakan dan dikembangkan. Sebagai contoh, kita hanya tahu bahwa OpenOffice.org sebagai perangkat pengganti M$ Office. Kalau seandainya Anda agak iseng, coba lakukan ini:

$ apt-cache search openoffice

Anda akan melihat ada begitu banyak ekstensi OpenOffice.org. Bukan hanya ekstensi, ada juga UNO Bridge dan berbagai language-binding dan sebuah eclipse-plugin. Arti dari masing-masing teknologi silahkan Anda pahami sendiri (tinggal baca deskripsinya).

Akan tetapi, arti implisit dari semua itu adalah OpenOffice.org dikembangkan untuk sebuah Enterprise Knowledge Management yang komprehensif.

Bagaimana itu dapat dilakukan? Seorang penceloteh seperti saya saja sudah mengerti bahan-bahan yang dibutuhkan. Hal tersebut dapat saja dilakukan:

  • Gunakan Apache HTTPd + PHP untuk server side. Atau gunakan Tomcat sebagai servlet.
  • Komunikasi antar aplikasi dan server digunakan menggunakan Web Service.
  • Teknologi pencarian dapat diserahkan kepada Apache Lucene.
  • Nilai semantik dapat direpresentasikan secara ontologi oleh OWL.
  • Postfix dapat menyediakan layanan email.
  • Jabber server dapat dibuat untuk sarana komunikasi antar bagian.
  • Red5, FFMPEG, dan sebagainya dapat diramu menjadi server konferensi dengan protokol SIP.
  • Asterix juga dipakai untuk VOIP.
  • Empathy dapat dipakai sebagai klien yang terintegrasi dengan komputer kantor.
  • Tentunya, Kerberos, CAS, dan SSO dapat dipakai untuk menentukan kontrol akses (ACL)
  • Yang paling utama, semuanya itu bisa diintegrasikan.

Zimbra adalah sebuah contoh produk solusi yang meramu sebagian dari hal-hal tersebut.

Tapi, seandainya ada sebuah sistem enterprise terbuka yang dikerjakan secara gotong royong untuk keperluan Indonesia. Yah, sebut saja sebuah proyek e-Gov yang terbuka kepada publik sehingga kita dapat berkontribusi. Produk tersebut dapat dipakai oleh Pemda dan perusahaan di Indonesia. Sehingga, bukan tidak mungkin, semua bisa terkoneksi ke pemerintah dengan mudah. Penghitungan SPT tidak perlu dilakukan dan blunder-blunder proyek tidak perlu ada. Dana-dana yang berhasil diselamatkan dapat digunakan untuk kesejahteraan pegawai negeri sehingga tidak ada alasan krusial untuk korupsi.

Bagaimana cara ke sana?

Bahan yang tidak ada saat ini adalah kreativisme dan pengertian. FOSS yang seperti pisau swiss (Swiss Army knife) memerlukan kedua hal tersebut untuk membuat sesuatu. Membangun sebuah integrasi berbicara tentang pemahaman tentang domain masalah. Artinya, ditemukan masalah, dipahami, baru kemudian dicari solusinya. Itu cara kerja di dunia FOSS. Sedangkan dunia perbajakan mengatakan sebaliknya, Anda didikte cara membuat gambar atau menulis. Kreativitas Anda sebatas solusi produk yang Anda gunakan.

Satu langkah yang perlu dilakukan, sebuah jembatan keledai, adalah dengan mengubah sistem pendidikan Indonesia. Seandainya Anda yang adalah pengajar (guru, dosen, guru les, pelatih, ahli agama, dan lain sebagainya) bersedia berkontribusi untuk mengenalkan FOSS kepada anak didik Anda, maka makin banyak orang yang menggunakan FOSS. Atau, Anda sebagai seorang pengguna biasa, maukah Anda mengenalkan teknologi tersebut?

Saya pikir, seandainya dari 100 orang Indonesia yang dikenalkan, ada 5 orang yang intensif ingin mempelajarinya sungguh-sungguh. Maka, akan ada cukup banyak tenaga ahli yang bisa meramu impian mereka.

Maukah Anda memulainya?

Referensi:

[REG] The Register. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/02/virgin_america_html_flash/

Bukan Sekedar

Bukan Sekedar

by Jan Peter Alexander Rajagukguk 4 Comments

Sering kali terjadi salah sangka tentang manfaat FOSS (Free/Open Source Software). Kebanyakan melulu berpikir tentang memerangi pembajakan perangkat lunak dengan menyediakan alternatif bagi perangkat lunak berbayar.Tetapi, mari kita evaluasi sejenak. Ya, Anda yang telah memakai FOSS selama ini secara aktif. Tidakkah Anda merasa mendapatkan sesuatu yang Anda tidak pernah duga bisa Anda kuasai? Tidakkah Anda merasakan kreativitas yang lebih dari pada orang sekeliling Anda yang memakai perangkat lunak bajakan? Berapa banyak dari Anda yang dapurnya telah menyala dari FOSS? Berapa banyak sekolah yang telah tersentuh teknologi informasi akibat FOSS?Semoga ini bisa menjadi pemacu bagi Anda yang berjuang di jalan kebenaran. Hidup FOSS! 😀

Configuring Basic Network (2 of 2)

Configuring Basic Network (2 of 2)

by Jan Peter Alexander Rajagukguk 0 Comments

Now, you could pinged the network router, yet, you couldn’t access 

google.com
. It’s because the way internet runs is by using IP, not names. So, when you type google.com, actually your system is trying to translate it into IP.

There are two ways of setting it.

#1 Using 

/etc/hosts

This is an ARPANET legacy and still holds true. Although nowadays we are using DNS, but this file still can be used to point in some site. This is what it looks like:

127.0.0.1 localhost rajagukguk-laptop

It binds IP 127.0.0.1 to localhost and rajagukguk-laptop. So, when you type localhost, you would be directed into 127.0.0.1

#2 Using DNS

There are ways to set DNS, but the default standard is using 

/etc/resolv.conf
. Here’s my 
/etc/resolv.conf
:

nameserver 152.118.24.2

search ui.ac.id

The first line is the DNS server that we would be using to query IP. The second line is about our home network name. So, when we type http://www/ the address will be rewritten as http://www.ui.ac.id/, or if we enter “webmail”, then it would be rewritten as webmail.ui.ac.id. Neat, eh?

Now, here’s some bonuses tips.

1 If you are a web developer

When we entered an address, the system will looked into /etc/hosts first then your DNS. So, you could set your own version of something.com before you published it with real IP. For example, smartcard.ui.ac.id is situated on 152.118.24.116. But, we are going to pimp that one out. Instead of pimp it online and pissed people, I could set another box in 192.168.1.68 and then set my development PC to point into that address. So, in order to do that, I add my web development PC’s /etc/hosts as following line:

192.168.1.68 smartcard.ui.ac.id smartcard

So, everytime I access http://smartcard.ui.ac.id/ from my browser in that computer, it would go into 192.168.1.68 instead of the real one.

2 You are an anti-ad

WARNING: I don’t recommend this, because ad is something that some people lived from. But, sometimes a site is awfully slow because of these ad sites keeps pushing bad javascript.

[Gah! This is left as an excercise for the reader. HINT: Point them to localhost]

Configuring Basic Network (1 of 2)

Configuring Basic Network (1 of 2)

by Jan Peter Alexander Rajagukguk 1 Comment

There are several reasons why this basic skill is important:

  • Your network is failing because of your experimentation.
  • You want to be an l33t and impress your GF.
  • You are stranded on an Debian/Ubuntu server.

To configure a basic networking, usually we use “

/etc/network/interfaces

“. Every network interface (e.g. ethernet card) can be brought up and down by using command

   $ sudo ifup eth0
   $ sudo ifdown eth0

Change eth0 with any network device you like. To see available network interface, type this:

$ sudo ifconfig -a

Currently, these way of action is being deprecated in favor of

network-manager

. But, these commands still can be run and overriding

network-manager

.

One more powerful command is to use

ifconfig

directly. The principal is easy, set the network card’s IP and then set the default gateway

1 Set the network card default IP

$ sudo ifconfig eth0 192.168.0.3 netmask 255.255.255.0

2 Set the default gateway

$ sudo route add default gw 192.168.0.1

That’s it.

Lucid From Debootstrap

Lucid From Debootstrap

by Jan Peter Alexander Rajagukguk 0 Comments

What scenarios does this would likely involved you in? Well, for instance:

  • Creating an Ubuntu system on your USB stick because your lack of faith to trust all of your system to GNU/Linux.
  • Creating new system from your Ubuntu stick because you have become the enlightened.
  • Creating a customized *buntu flavour because you have become one.
  • Killing time because you have insomnia. 😀

Most likely I’m in reason #4. This scenario is tested on GNU/Linux Debian and Ubuntu. I played with Unstable/Experimental and Lucid.

#0 Backup your data on USB stick.

Don’t tell me that I didn’t warn you! 😀

#1 Set the partition

Stick your USB and seek what is the node file it representated.

$ dmesg | tail

Now, it would come up something like

 /dev/sdb1

or

/dev/sdc1

depending how funky your system is.

#2 Format the USB stick

$ sudo mkfs.reiserfs /dev/sdb1 -l "KEREN DEH"

I’m used to label the filesystem. This label is important that you may prevent from accidentally formatting that particular partition. (Been there, done that) Oh, before the holy war begin, let me warn you that my flavour on ReiserFS is subjective, stick with whatever your fave filesystem. Here the change: EXT3: mkfs.ext3, XFS: mkfs.xfs, JFS: mkfs.jfs

#3 Mount the filesystem

$ sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt

#4 Debootstraping begins

$ sudo debootstrap lucid /mnt http://kambing.ui.ac.id/ubuntu/

The “

--arch amd64

” before “lucid” parameter is optional. It would come in handy if you are trying to make 64bit Ubuntu from 32bit system, vice versa. See the manpage for more information.

#5 Setup before chrooted to there

Mount all the important directory.

$ sudo mount /proc /mnt/proc -t proc

$ sudo mount /dev /mnt/dev -o bind

Optionally copy these files:

$ sudo cp /etc/hosts /mnt/etc

$ sudo cp /etc/resolv.conf

resolv.conf

is deprecated on desktop because of the

modem-manager

being. But, it won’t hurt you if you still use it.

$ sudo cp /etc/fstab /mnt/etc

Don’t forget to edit the /mnt/etc/fstab and delete the root directory entry (find “/” and delete it) because we are using USB stick.

#6 Chrooted there

$ sudo chroot /mnt

#7 Add a user

This is important! Don’t let your system userless…

# adduser user

Make him/her an admin.

# addgroup user sudo

By default Lucid is making everybody in the sudo group to be an admin. If you are using another, you could add yourself a group:

# addgroup penguasa

echo “%penguasa ALL=(ALL):ALL” >> /etc/sudoers

(Or just type

visudo

to edit the file properly)

#8 Install kernel

There are few flavours of the kernel. Desktop user usually stick with generic.

# apt-get install linux-image-generic

This virtual package will install

linux-image-generic-2.6.32-13

in time this writing. If you want, you could search for another linux kernel with

# apt-cache search linux image

#9 Install grub

# apt-get install grub2

Usually, it would let you choose where it would like to install. Install it into USB stick’s Master Boot Record/MBR (/dev/sdb). If later you would like to install it, the sane way to install is:

# dpkg-reconfigure grub-pc

Or, if you’re the rock star:

# grub-install /dev/sdb

To have GRUB reconfigured, i.e. generates the GRUB menu, do:

# update-grub

#10 Install your flavour

# apt-get install kubuntu-desktop

#11 Get some sleep!

It’s already morning and you have a life? No? Well, you could go on and try your new system by restart to the system.

~hiddenCurcolCrouchingDeadline

Java Could Not Connect To Host

Java Could Not Connect To Host

by Jan Peter Alexander Rajagukguk 0 Comments

If you are experiencing:

Caused by: java.net.SocketException: Network is unreachable

This is most likely because of the Debian bug to force all system using IPv6. According to the reference, you should do:

$ sudo sed -i ‘s/net.ipv6.bindv6only\ =\ 1/net.ipv6.bindv6only\ =\ 0/’ \ /etc/sysctl.d/bindv6only.conf && sudo invoke-rc.d procps restart

REFERENCE: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=560044

Journey Log 3: A Glitched Upgrade

Journey Log 3: A Glitched Upgrade

by Jan Peter Alexander Rajagukguk 0 Comments

This morning I upgraded my workstation which runs Lucid. I have found that there are 2 failed upgrades. The solution to those packages are trivial.

INITRAMFS fails

The first problem  encountered is

initramfs-tools

that failed to found “

./lib/udev/firmware.sh

“.  After a quick check on “

/lib/udev

” directory, I found out that the given file was named “

firmware

“. Thus, solution should be an alias:

$ sudo ln -s /lib/udev/firmware /lib/udev/firmware.sh

After  that, I ran the Debian’s configuration:

$ sudo dpkg --configure -a

It then hits the second configuration

Virtuoso Server fails

If you are using Kubuntu, which using Virtuoso for her semantic things, most likely you would encounter this error. The Virtuoso was 5.x version, but the one that would be installed is 6.x version. So, there are some new packages that need to be installed. Fortunately, it is easy enough to do so:

$ sudo apt-get install virtuoso-opensource-6.0-common
$ sudo apt-get install virtuoso-opensource-6.0

In Debian, *

-common

is a virtual package to install the given software. But, here I must install the

virtuoso-opensource-6.0

virtual package manually. Well, after that two installs, the upgrade went smooth.

UPDATE

fix from :

Ubuntu/Lucid: recovering from yesterday’s messy update

Yesterday a silly oversight in the packaging of udev in Ubuntu/Lucid produced a breakage that consistently makes dpkg barf. Here’s a simple command line recipe to recover from it. In your terminal application, type: sudo sed -i ‘s#copy_exec /lib/udev/firmware.sh#copy_exec /lib/udev/firmware#’ /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/udev && sudo dpkg -a –configure && sudo aptitude update && sudo aptitude safe-upgrade …then press enter.

$ wget http://launchpadlibrarian.net/39011493/udev-firmware.patch && sudo patch -p0 < udev-firmware.patch && sudo dpkg -a --configure && sudo aptitude update && sudo aptitude safe-upgrade
Phonon Blocking Building KDE4

Phonon Blocking Building KDE4

by Jan Peter Alexander Rajagukguk 0 Comments

I’m trying to use Bespin from SVN but the build failed at configuring. According to [BUG], there are two ways of solving it:

  1. Reinstalling libqt4-phonon-dev
    • $ sudo aptitute reinstall libqt4-phonon-dev
  2. Create a symlink (symbolic link/shortcut) from /usr/include/qt4/phonon to /usr/include/phonon
    • $ sudo ln -s /usr/include/qt4/phonon /usr/include/phonon

With my current Lucid, I get the second one successful.The complete error message when installing:

$ cmake .

— Found Qt-Version 4.6.1 (using /usr/bin/qmake)   — Found X11: /usr/lib/libX11.so                   CMake Error at /usr/share/kde4/apps/cmake/modules/FindPhonon.cmake:19 (file):  file Internal CMake error when trying to open file:                          /usr/include/phonon/phononnamespace.h for reading.                         Call Stack (most recent call first):                                           /usr/share/kde4/apps/cmake/modules/FindPhonon.cmake:45 (_phonon_find_version)  /usr/share/kde4/apps/cmake/modules/FindKDE4Internal.cmake:613 (find_package)   /usr/share/cmake-2.8/Modules/FindKDE4.cmake:95 (FIND_PACKAGE)                  CMakeLists.txt:15 (find_package)                                             — Found KDE 4.4 include dir: /usr/include— Found KDE 4.4 library dir: /usr/lib    — Found the KDE4 kconfig_compiler preprocessor: /usr/bin/kconfig_compiler— Found automoc4: /usr/bin/automoc4                                      — WARNING: *** Amarok Hack enabled, notice that this will potentially cause trouble on Amarok                       also this is legacy code and supposed to be redundant due to (future) changes to Amarok                       Hacks can be disbaled at runtime and should in case of issues with Amarok                                     By activating this you confirm that you know what you’re doing ***                     — Found X11: /usr/lib/libX11.so                                                                              — INFO: XRender was found – kwin deco & FX via GPU available!                                                — Configuring incomplete, errors occurred!I was trying to build Bespin according tothis.Reference:[BUG]  https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/cmake/+bug/386742

Journey Log 2: What’s New On Lucid

Journey Log 2: What’s New On Lucid

by Jan Peter Alexander Rajagukguk 0 Comments

Today’s update on Lucid, Firefox is on the 3.6 version and still using firefox-3.5-branding. However, Ars reported that Canonical made a deal with Yahoo! to include their search engine as the default, not Google. So, I will expect the next update would change the default search engine into Yahoo! search engine (Bing).

The neat feature of KDE 4.4 that it is integrated with OpenDesktop.org. OpenDesktop is an emerging open standard that promote social site compability degree. The simple explanation is a Facebook-like open API that can be implemented by many websites so that they compatible each other.

Anyway,

With the desktop tight up with OpenDesktop, I can download any KDE content and vote for it. What a neat feature! I’m using pwgen to generate password so it’s kinda hard to remember all of my passwords (one password per site!). That’s why I don’t log that much into many sites, including KDE-Look. Thanks to the implementation, Kubuntu Lucid (KDE) now become more and more integrated with web.

I’m using Netbook-plasma from KDE 4.4. It has a neat feature, making the maximized applications without border. But, sometimes I wish that the dialog box not into windows mode and not maximized also. I wish it could be docked into the plasma’s dock. Hmm… just like Mac? Dunno.

I’m sorry with no screenshot, I have a great deal of work right now. If you want, I can provide one, though. Just feel free to comment.

Plymouth on Lucid

Plymouth on Lucid

by Jan Peter Alexander Rajagukguk 1 Comment

WARNING: Lucid is still on alpha version, don’t whine on me if it burns your house and destroy your future.

I’m installing from debootstrap, if you want to tell me that it’s already installed on Lucid installer. Furthermore, this may be a helpful hint for you on other version or other distro that may want to enable plymouth, may be.  This tutorial has been  excercised on my laptop (Lenovo Y41, Intel GM965) and my workstation (ATi x550). I don’t own any nVidia card, so I don’t know if it works on that too.

#1 Install plymouth

$ sudo apt-get install plymouth

#2 Insert kernel modules on your initramfs-tools

$ sudo $EDITOR /etc/initramfs-tools/modules

Change the

$EDITOR

to your favourite editor (vi, emacs, pico, gedit, kwrite, etc.). Put the following three lines to your modules file:

intel_agp
drm
i915 modeset=1

If you use Radeon card, change the intel part into radeon (intel_agp –> ati_agp, i915 –> radeon). To be sure about the agp line, just grep and see what the active module is:

$ lsmod | grep agp

Until this line, you could regenerate your initrd image. But, we can do that later.

#3 Setup Your Theme

Default Ubuntu Lucid’s plymouth is “ubuntu-logo”. I urge you to reselect the theme for the first time or you could select other theme. To view other theme:

$ /usr/sbin/plymouth-set-default-theme --list

The theme are details, fade-in, glow, script, solar, spinfinity, text, and ubuntu-logo. Let’s try glow:

$ /usr/sbin/plymouth-set-default-theme glow --rebuild-initrd

This will change the theme and also enabling it on the initrd.

#4 Update your GRUB 2 configuration

I mentioned GRUB 2, but if you still have GRUB 1 or maybe LILO, you could do the same. To change the GRUB2:

$ sudo $EDITOR /etc/default/grub

Append the line containing

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX

with a string

"gfxpayload=true splash quiet rhgb"

. E.g.:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="gfxpayload=true splash quiet rhgb"

Last step, update GRUB2:

$ sudo update-grub

#5 Restart and enjoy.

There are few technical things that I want to discuss, including the parameters involve. But, let me know if you need one.

Just Updating

Just Updating

by Jan Peter Alexander Rajagukguk 3 Comments

My Ubuntu Lucid now running well. I use KDE plasma-netbook and looking great and stable. KRunner occasionally crashed, but it’s acceptable because of Alpha version. But, all-in-all, my computer is rocking solid:

$ uptime
12:15:10 up 2 days, 22:48,  2 users,  load average: 0.38, 0.51, 0.36

FYI, last quarter of 2009 is  a bad year for ATi cards because of the migration from DRM to DRM2 (MESA) which introduce the new architecture: Gallium3D. My poor Debian is not in the right state right now because of the legal issue that made Debian stripped away all the (working) firmware. Fortunately, kernel 2.6.33 would be the comeback of ATi cards and hopefully will be able to get my Debian workstation well. In the meantime, hello Ubuntu! 😀

An interesting note about Debian is that GRUB 2 had given some love and now using graphical menu selector. It was something from GSOC 2008, but it wasn’t implemented because of the font legal issue. Now it’s on Debian Experimental, given that Lucid still synchronizing from Debian, it is a matter of time before Ubuntu got that one too. If you want more, you could give BURG, a GRUB pretified version, a try.

== Next is a human side of me, just stop here if you don’t like it 😀 ==

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Moving Out on Evolution

Moving Out on Evolution

by Jan Peter Alexander Rajagukguk 1 Comment

There are many technological changes that would likely change our ways in GNU/Linux, especially Debian/Ubuntu. I want to share some so that we would expect errors and able to fix those. Comments are welcome, especially changes that I haven’t notice.

1 Job Scheduling

Vixie’s Cron has been running years on Debian/Ubuntu system. Gradually, the job scheduler is being taken by Upstart. Another change, Sys V initscript system has being being gradually deprecated. Upstart will be in Debian Squeeze and already in Ubuntu. The old initscript was invoked with this:

invoke-rc.d apache2 start

or

/etc/init.d/apache2 start

Now, since Karmic, the way of doing it is gradually changed into:

service apache2 start

or

start apache2

Well there are also stop.

2 Ubuntu are using their own build script on kernel

Yes, that’s true, especially in building kernel. Because they have many flavors, they have a configuration for each flavor. Meaning, if we build a variation on top of Ubuntu kernel, we may provide configuration. This would get us a variation of kernel and more robust configuration. Well, personally, I have try the Ubuntu way and it is pain. I still wish to use the standard Debian way of building kernel.

3 Xorg moving into DRM2: hello 3D!

As Linus was asking about Nouveau going upstream, the sign of new 3D infrastructure in X11 is rapidly shaping up. Gallium, the new tech is getting ready for prime time. Ubuntu already decided to ships Nouveau on Lucid. Unfortunately, Debian only have the Gallium for Intel hardware. ATi and Nouveau aren’t shipped yet on their kernel and marked as missing package. So, it’s a good news for the Intel hardware, but not for neither.