ursels-random talk

cannot execute binary file

2012-01-17T16:53:00.000-08:00

trying to execute a binary file located on a NFS mount and get:

bash: ./_binary_: cannot execute binary file

thought I might miss the "exec" mount option, but no, the answer is here: forums.fedoraforum.org

"This message appears if you e.g. try to execute a 64 bit program on a 32 bit system. Please check with the "file" command whether the program fits your architecture."

"zypper up" error

2011-10-20T11:14:00.000-07:00

Installation of _package_ failed:
(with --nodeps --force) Error: Subprocess failed. Error: RPM failed: error: db3 error(-30987) from dbcursor->c_get: DB_PAGE_NOTFOUND: Requested page not found
error: error(-30987) getting "" records from Requireversion index
error: db3 error(-30987) from dbcursor->c_get: DB_PAGE_NOTFOUND: Requested page not found
error: error(-30987) getting "" records from Requireversion index
error: db3 error(-30987) from dbcursor->c_get: DB_PAGE_NOTFOUND: Requested page not found
error: error(-30987) getting "" records from Requireversion index
error: db3 error(-30987) from dbcursor->c_get: DB_PAGE_NOTFOUND: Requested page not found
error: error(-30987) getting "" records from Requireversion index

When I tried to run a rebuild of the rpm database as root:

# rpm -rebuilddb
rpm: arguments to --root (-r) must begin with a /

Try:
user@host:~> su -c 'rpm --rebuilddb'

VMware-Workstation no 32-bit CPU support anymore

2011-09-27T14:30:00.000-07:00

grrr
just tried to install VMware-Workstation-Full-8.0.0-.i386.bundle on my 32bit workstation and got the error:

VMware Installer
"One or more of your processors does not have the necessary 64bit extensions to run VMware virtual machines."

A quick search is telling me why:

VMware communities forum:

Question:
"Is there any chance that support for 32bit CPUs (P4) will return in 8.x?"

Answer:
"No, 32-bit CPU support won't be coming back

We dropped 32-bit CPU support to make our code simpler and easier to maintain, to improve performance, and to remove constraints going forward. Continuing to support 32-bit CPUs also would have been a burden for development and for testing. Since it's no longer possible to buy 32-bit CPUs (aside from some old 32-bit Atoms), we don't believe that supporting them is worth the trouble.

Unfortunately, if you need to continue using a 32-bit CPU, you will need to use Workstation 7."

Here you have it, you need a 64-bit VT-capable CPU. Obviously this machine I'm trying to install it on doesn't have it :(

Dropbox uses port 17500

2011-08-01T13:42:00.000-07:00

I just read at speedguide.net:

"Dropbox LanSync Protocol (db-lsp) also uses port 17500 (TCP/UDP). It is used to synchronize file catalogs between Dropbox clients on a local network."

So when you see something like this on your LAN:

22:30:04.224001 IP (tos 0x0, ttl 64, id 0, offset 0, flags [DF], proto: UDP (17), length: 156) _IP_.17500 > _IP_.255.17500: [udp sum ok] UDP, length 128

Wow they use the the same port Trojans are known to use.
Don't freak out and check your Dropbox settings. Under Preferences -> General uncheck the "Enable LAN sync" box.

(bogus) error messages

2011-07-27T13:28:00.000-07:00

dedoimedo just posted some great advice I'd like to re-post, because it's very useful. Besides offering step by step instructions how to handle the
Natty & Nvidia driver not in use error he also advised: what to do, when greeted with an error message:

...
What's the lesson of this short howto? First, don't sheep-panic. Second, don't blindly follow online advice. Someone has a similar error message to yours, that does not mean they have the same problem, if at all. In this case, this is clearly a bogus error. But most importantly, you need to know how to approach and troubleshooting issues like this one.

This article teaches you how to follow the train of logic and fix your problems without going overboard with fear or despair or random copy & paste of online solutions. For example, we learned this was a bogus error message.
...

So true in so many ways.

time to replace Dropbox

2011-04-19T15:40:00.000-07:00

Now that Dropbox changed it's term of use allowing US agencies access to data saved on dropbox server, it's time to check out replacements. Not that I save sensitive data on their server but I don't comply with such methods.

More information (in German) can be read at: neues-feature-bei-dropbox-backdoor-fur-us-behorden

One of the replacements I'm looking into is spideroak, aerofs and tahoe-lafs.

spideroak also released an iOS app, so I decided to install the application too.
There's also a openSUSE project page for it: en.opensuse.org/SpiderOak.

Unfortunately the version downloadable at the spideroak website is not compatible with openSUSE 11.2 anymore and the Factory link at the openSUSE page is empty too. Oh well, openSUSE will be out of support soon anyways and unless I'm going to stay and use the Evergreen version, I need to update soon.

I have an openSUSE 11.4 VM and downloaded the current openSUSE rpm from:
the spideroak download page and installed it with "rpm -ihv". It installed fine and now I only need to setup the service.

I/O usage per process

2011-02-02T12:47:00.000-08:00

statistics of I/O usage per process can be found in /proc/pid/io.
There's also a great utility 'iotop' available on openSUSE collecting the data and displaying it in a nice table/graph like top does.

Linux Mint (8, codename Helena) in VMware Workstation 6.0.0 no network

2010-12-07T12:51:00.000-08:00

Despite installing vmware-tools; network manager just doesn't want to activate eth0.

The Virtual Machine Setting for Network Connection is set to "Bridged"

In Linux Mint open a Terminal:
# ifconfig eth0 _any-IP-in-the-network_ netmask 255.255.255.0
# route add default gw _IP-of-Router_ eth0

create /etc/resolv.conf and add nameserver:
# vi /etc/resolv.conf

search example.com
nameserver _IP_
nameserver _IP_

# ifup eth0

network and online connection is working

Hyperlinks in Spreadsheets

2010-07-22T10:17:00.000-07:00

This was driving me nuts. Whenever I entered a URL in the spreadsheet it became gray/blue and was recognized as a hyperlink. Sometimes Format - Default Formatting helped, but sometimes it didn't. And of course it was annoying too, to fiddle around with the Default Formatting.

I found a solution at:

How to remove gray background from links in cells?

In short:

Turning off Automatic URL Recognition

If you do not want OpenOffice.org to automatically recognize URLs as you are typing, there are several ways of turning off this feature.

Undo URL Recognition

1.When you are typing and notice that a text has just been automatically converted into a hyperlink, press Ctrl+Z to undo this formatting.
2.If you do not notice this conversion until later, select the hyperlink and choose the menu command Format - Default Formatting.

Turn off URL Recognition

1.Load a document of the type for which you want to modify the URL recognition.
If you want to modify the URL recognition for text documents, open a text document.
2.Choose Tools - AutoCorrect Options.
3.In the AutoCorrect dialog, select the Options tab.
4.If you unmark URL Recognition, words will no longer be automatically replaced with hyperlinks.
In OpenOffice.org Writer there are two check boxes in front of URL Recognition. The box in the first column is for later post-editing and the box in the second column is for AutoCorrect as you type.

opensuse11.2 - Amarok - mp3

2010-04-22T13:00:00.000-07:00

Just so that I remember:
YaST - Software repositories - Add - Community Repositories - add the Packman repository -
Software - switch the libxine1 from openSUSE to Packman (can be controlled under the "Versions" tab in the Software install dialog, add libxine1-codecs! I missed it the first time and Amarok still couldn't play mp3 files.

ssh connection refused

2010-03-26T15:01:00.000-07:00

tried to scp or ssh from one openSUSE 11.2 (host A) to another openSUSE 11.2 (host B).

On host A I get the following:

# scp -vvv file.pdf user_name@192.168.1.7:/tmp
Executing: program /usr/bin/ssh host 192.168.1.7, user user_name, command scp -v -t /tmp
OpenSSH_5.2p1, OpenSSL 0.9.8k 25 Mar 2009
debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh/ssh_config
debug1: Applying options for *
debug2: ssh_connect: needpriv 0
debug1: Connecting to 192.168.1.7 [192.168.1.7] port 22.
debug1: connect to address 192.168.1.7 port 22: Connection refused
ssh: connect to host 192.168.1.7 port 22: Connection refused
lost connection

On host B nothing in the logs, for testing I turned off the firewall to make sure it's not the culprit, although port 22 was already opened anyways. Didn't help.

Solution - on host B (192.168.1.7) :
---------

# rcsshd start

starting application after su _another_user_

2010-03-01T09:37:00.000-08:00

While I'm logged in as user_1, I'd like to start an application for user_2 but I get a D-Bus session error:

username_1@hostname:~> su username_2
Password:
username_2@hostname:/home/username_1> /usr/bin/kmail
(25123)/: Cannot find the D-Bus session server

KDE4 Troubleshooting documents a solution to it:

"If you get
KUniqueApplication: Cannot find the D-Bus session server
make sure you can access the display, e.g. type
xclock
then a clock must appear on the screen. If it does and the error persists, start your shell using
start your shell using

dbus-launch xterm

and start your program in there."

VmWare-Workstation 7 - Windows 7 installation

2010-02-14T00:41:00.000-08:00

After you enter the license key, Windows 7 Setup loads and then stalls and produces the following error:

Install Windows
The unattend answer file contains an invalid product key. Either remove the invalid key or provide a valid product key in the unattend answer file to proceed with Windows installation.

The suggestion at:
social.answers.microsoft.com resolved the problem.

Solution: "disable the floppy disk option"

HowTo disable the floppy disk option:

Create a New Virtual Machine, once it's created the new VM-name (Windows7 in my case) is displayed in the Sidebar under Favorites.
Right click on it and select "Settings" at the bottom.
Under Device select Floppy
The "Device Status" - "Connect at power on" needs to be _deselected_
For Connection change to "Use a physical drive:" not that this should matter, when it isn't allowed to connect, but I changed the default option to use the floppy image to use the physical drive, just in case.

Then save the settings and Power on the virtual machine.

VmWare-Workstation 7 - Could not open existing VM

2010-01-24T21:57:00.000-08:00

After the installation of VmWare Workstation 7 I had to adjust something:
I just tried the following:

- Open a virtual machine or team

- Pointed it to an existing WinXP.vmx

- The Tab for the VM was created but when I tried to start it I got the following error:

Could not open /dev/vmmon: No such file or directory.
Please make sure that the kernel module `vmmon' is loaded.

# lsmod | grep vmmon
returned nothing, so I had to load the module:
# modprobe vmmon

After the module was loaded:
#lsmod | grep vmmon
vmmon 87308 0

- I was able to start the WinXP Virtual Machine

VmWare-Workstation 7 on openSUSE 11.2

2010-01-22T22:34:00.000-08:00

I just installed VMware-Workstation-Full-7.0.0-203739 32-bit on openSUSE 11.2

I had already gcc, gcc++, make and kernel-source installed. But I was missing the kernel-devel and kernel-syms packages and got an error: "gcc and kernel headers must be installed"

The easiest is to install kernel-syms and YaST will resolve the dependencies and install all additional kernel-devel packages needed.
Afterwards run /usr/bin/vmware again and the installer will run through the compile stuff.

Virtualbox on openSUSE 11.2

2009-12-17T22:20:00.001-08:00

* make sure virtualbox-ose and virtualbox-ose-kmp-desktop are installed, they come with the OSS repository

* the first time Virtualbox OSE is started from the Startmenue -> System a pop-up window informs you:

"You are not a member of the "vboxusers" group. Please add yourself to this group before starting VirtualBox. You could do it using: Yast / Security and Users / User and Group management. Don't forget re-login your user account!"

* add yourself to the vboxusers group -> YaST -> Security and Users -> User and Group management -> choose the user you want to add the group to and enter "Edit", in the next following dialog, under "Details", vboxusers is one of the "Additional Groups" and can be selected.
or on the command line enter: groupmod --add-user vboxusers

Now you have to logout and login again so that the changes take effect.

* start Virtualbox OSE and in my case it converted previous configuration files over. The virtualmachines from my previous opensuse 11.1 installation were still available

I was able to start a SLES11 Virtualbox previously installed under Virtualbox openSUSE 11.1 right away.

Postfix sending mail & /etc/resolv.con on openSUSE 11.2

2009-12-11T22:30:00.000-08:00

Sometimes my openSUSE 11.2 client is connected to a SLES10 router and DHCP Server, connected to another Linksys router.

I just realized that my connection dropped every 15 minutes or so, and I saw that my mail was still in the mailqueue and wasn't send out.

Sending an email with postfix I get the following error:
(Host or domain name not found. Name service error for name=relay.host.com type=MX: Host not found, try again)

So something is wrong with the DNS setting.

# host relay.host.com returns only the
relay.host.com has address _IP_address

I checked the /etc/resolv.conf and find the IP of the router in it, although my DHCP server should deliver the nameserver. Apparently the IP of the router doesn't work well.

In /etc/resolv.conf I read:

# Before you change this file manually, consider to define the
# static DNS configuration using the following variables in the
# /etc/sysconfig/network/config file:
# NETCONFIG_DNS_STATIC_SEARCHLIST
# NETCONFIG_DNS_STATIC_SERVERS
# NETCONFIG_DNS_FORWARDER
# or disable DNS configuration updates via netconfig by setting:
# NETCONFIG_DNS_POLICY=''
#

My settings:
YaST2 - Network Settings - "Global options":
Traditional Method with ifup

Hostname/DNS
Modify DNS configuration -> Use Default Policy

with the following DNS variables in /etc/sysconfig/network/config

NETCONFIG_DNS_FORWARDER="resolver"
NETCONFIG_DNS_STATIC_SEARCHLIST=""
NETCONFIG_DNS_STATIC_SERVERS=""
NETCONFIG_DNS_POLICY="auto"

In /etc/resolv.conf the nameserver entry is pointing to the access point/Linksys router: nameserver 192.168.1.1

In YaST2 I changed Hostname/DNS settings to:
Modify DNS configuration -> Only Manually

The following changes were made automatically to /etc/sysconfig/network/config:

NETCONFIG_DNS_FORWARDER="resolver"
NETCONFIG_DNS_STATIC_SEARCHLIST=""
NETCONFIG_DNS_STATIC_SERVERS=""
NETCONFIG_DNS_POLICY=""

The last one: NETCONFIG_DNS_POLICY="" is exactly the change needed and also documented in /etc/resolv.conf as well.

After I made the change:

# host relay.host.com returns
relay.host.com has address _IP_address
relay.host.com mail is handled by 5 relay.host.com

And my mail gets delivered too.

# postqueue -f

Flushes the email stuck in the mailqueue as well.

Mozilla Firefox 3.5 (address bar and bookmarks)

2009-12-07T22:53:00.000-08:00

I had problems saving bookmarks, the only place I could save them was in "Unsorted Bookmarks" or one out of three folder randomly in the list of bookmarks. very odd. Basically I was never able to scroll through the list of my bookmark folder and pick one to save the bookmark under.

The second problem: the address bar has square edges and is a layer over another address bar with round edges.

These two problems don't seem to be related but yet they are.

When I installed the new openSUSE 11.2 with the new Firefox version 3.5, the installation preserved my whole Firefox configuration (since I use /home on a separate partition), including a Theme, that is not available for this version of Firefox.

Once I changed the Theme, the problems were gone.

Dropbox on openSUSE 11.2

2009-12-07T22:39:00.000-08:00

Although on the Dropbox download side I read: "Dropbox is supported on x86 and x86_64 versions of Ubuntu 9.04, Ubuntu 8.10, Ubuntu 8.04, Ubuntu 7.10, and Fedora Core 9. There have also been reports of users getting Dropbox to work on different versions of Gentoo, Arch Linux, OpenSUSE, and Debian."

I searched the openSUSE Build Service if a package is available. Yes, there is, I installed the nautilus-dropbox-0.6.1-1.1.i586.rpm for openSUSE 11.2. After the installation an Icon was available in the panel and I could use my login credentials to start using it.
Very easy!
Make sure, before you install nautilus-dropbox, you'll need to install those packages to resolve dependency issues upfront:

* GTK 2.12 or higher
* GLib 2.14 or higher
* Nautilus 2.16 or higher
* Libnotify 0.4.4 or higher

For user who don't want to use Nautilus, there is a CLI interface available as well. The above dropbox download link points to the instructions how to set up the script.

There is a Dropbox iPhone appliation available as well. Now I can easily sync my iPhone with my computer.

Virtualbox guest ping IP/host

2009-10-18T14:20:00.000-07:00

First thing I wanted to do after I installed SuSE Linux Enterprise 11 in VirtualBox I recently installed on openSUSE, was, testing the network connection from the guest to the outside world.

How do I test network connections: open a console and type ping www.some_address.com.
Nothing was returned and 100% packet loss. No network connection? Networking mode is NAT, Adapter the default and the guest eth0 has an IP assigned via DHCP. What to do?

Read the Manual, there it is:
In the VirtualBox UserManual.pdf it's documented:
"Please note that the ping utility does not work over NAT, and ..."

Now what to do with ssh from the host or other hosts to the guest?
It's also in the same manual, chapter "6.4.1 Configuring port forwarding with NAT"

Haven't tried it, but it should work.

Where to get the manual:
virtualbox-2.0.6 UserManual.pdf

K3b cache write error

2009-09-20T21:14:00.000-07:00

I tried to burn a DVD ISO image and got the following error:

flushing the cache
write error

So I set the Manual writing buffer size to 2MB. This can be changed in the Advanced configuration settings:

Settings -> Configure K3b -> Advanced

After I selected the image to burn, and the "Burn Iso9660 Image" window appeared, I also changed the Speed to 2.x

Then I successfully burned my DVD ISOs.

Also, k9copy is a great application if the DVD ISO size is over 4.7GB and doesn't fit on a DVD. With k9copy the content of the DVD opens as tree and you can select whatever you might need and want on the DVD up to the size of the DVD and then backup only these parts or "Titles".
For example you can skip all the previews and only backup the movie for example.
On linux.com is a good documentation aobut k9copy.

Skype: P2P connect failed

2009-08-11T15:33:00.000-07:00

I just installed skype-2.0.0.72-suse. I couldn't login and instead got a "P2P connect failed" error. Obviously there were some spare files from a previous installation prohibiting the login. A rm -r .Skype in my users home directory resolved the problem.

Virtualbox on opensuse 11.1

2009-08-09T23:15:00.000-07:00

A short and quick installation guide for virtualbox v2.0.6 on a Dell XPS M1330 with opensuse 11.1.

I installed Virtual OSE (opensource edition) available in the openSUSE OSS repository
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.1/repo/oss/

In addition I installed:

- virtualbox-kmp that has mandatory vboxdrv kernel driver
- Xalan-c package
- Xerces-c package

It's all described at the openSuSE Virtualbox_Installation guide.

After installing it, I loaded the vboxdrv module and added myself or actually my username to the "vboxusers" group:

# modprobe vboxdrv

# groupmod --add-user vboxusers

Logout and login in order that adding a user to a group is taking effect. The article mentioned above also explains how to auto load the driver after reboot.

I launched Virtualbox from the KDE Application Launcher Menu under "Recently Installed" applications.

Then I installed Windows Vista in Virtualbox. On this openSuSE page is a description how to create a new virtual machine.

After the installation:
The network was not working after the install. I read that I have to install the VBoxWindowsAdditions-x86.exe - "The 32-bit VirtualBox Guest Additions executable for Windows guest systems.".
I downloaded the VBoxGuestAdditions_2.0.6.iso from download.virtualbox.org.
In the VirtualBox setup screen under "Details", CD/DVD-ROM I checked the ISO Image File box and pointed it to the VirtualBox ISO.
Then I booted Windows, opened a file browser and pointed it to the virtual CD/DVD drive and with that to the ISO. The driver (network, video ....) got installed automatically.
Afterwards, network was available and automatic mouse/keyboard release. Network, both wireless and wired network work, although I read somewhere wireless is only working with IPv4.

I didn't have sound, so I had to change the Audio Host Driver to PulseAudio as this is the audio system I'm using. I know other people use Alsa, so whatever applies to your system.

So far these things are working and I was able to watch a movie on Netflix, my main and actually only reason, why I would want to use Windows.

connect iPhone to Laptop via Bluetooth

2009-06-12T15:01:00.000-07:00

After it didn't work, I read postings that iPhones Bluetooth is for Bluetooth headsets (voice calls) and car kits only, but not for data transfer.

Even though "hcitool scan" or kbluetooth4 (kbluetooth4-devicemanager) finds it as localhost, if I select the device and enter "Next" I get the message: "Sorry your Bluetooth Device does not support input Service."

stuck in the boot process

2009-05-21T15:50:00.000-07:00

One would think once the system boot stops at:
...
starting systems management data engine
starting dsm_sa_datamgr32d

the problem is with the systems management engine or IPMI, because it was right after that.
No, a second boot showed it just got stuck at:

...
Importing net file system (NFS)
...

and on another try:

"mount: RPC: Remote system error - No route to host"

So I had to boot into the Rescue System, mount the device where the /etc directory is on and take a look at /etc/fstab.

comment out my NFS exports in /etc/fstab

Booting worked well afterwards. Have to find out if I was just impatient (cause the NFS mounts were not available) or if it's a problem/bug.

set up a cvs server

2009-05-13T11:02:00.000-07:00

After following the good documentation on:

http://linux-addiction.blogspot.com/2009/04/how-to-set-up-cvs-server.html

at 14) I got the following error:

cvs@sles:~> cvs -d ":pserver:testuser@localhost:/var/cvs/test" login
Logging in to :pserver:testuser@localhost:2401/var/cvs/test
CVS password:
cvs login: warning: failed to open /var/cvs/.cvspass for reading: No such file or directory

Could be easily resolved with:

touch /var/cvs/.cvspass

Next time I was able to login as described, "no error messages".

VMware-Workstation 6.5

2009-04-24T23:11:00.000-07:00

after I installed VMware-Workstation 6.5 I was able to use my existing VMs.
After a reboot I started vmware again and when I tried to open a VM, I got the error:

"could not open /dev/vmmon"

# /etc/init.d/vmware status
Module vmmon not loaded
Module vmnet not loaded

So I did a
# /etc/init.d/vmware start

and everything worked as before. Guess I have to do an insserv vmware to get vmware started at boot up.

MozillaFirefox - openSUSE 11.1 - google homepage

2009-03-17T00:12:00.000-07:00

I just tried to start my google homepage in MozillaFirefox on openSUSE 11.1 and it crashed

First thought I did an update of Firefox earlier, so I downgraded Firefox, but still google/ig (google Homepage crashed)

Then I saw on the terminal:

~> /usr/bin/firefox
*** nss-shared-helper: Shared database disabled (set NSS_USE_SHARED_DB to enable).
Error occurred during initialization of VM
Could not reserve enough space for object heap
Could not create the Java virtual machine.

That brought me to Java as the culprit. I updated
java-1_6_0-openjdk - Java runtime environment based on OpenJDK 6 and java-1_6_0-openjkd-plugin on Saturday and didn't open the homepage since then. So I downgraded java-1_6_0-openjdk, didn't help either.

The terminal showed the backtrace and memory map of the crash and it was all in

*** glibc detected *** /usr/lib/jvm/java-1.6.0-openjdk-1.2_b11/jre/lib/i386/../../bin/pluginappletviewer: free(): invalid pointer: 0xb7577254 ***
======= Backtrace: =========
/lib/libc.so.6[0xb7dcc654]
/lib/libc.so.6(cfree+0x9c)[0xb7dcdf3c]
/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.6.0-openjdk-1.2_b11/jre/lib/i386/client/libjvm.so[0xb78d87e1]
/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.6.0-openjdk-1.2_b11/jre/lib/i386/client/libjvm.so[0xb789b852]
/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.6.0-openjdk-1.2_b11/jre/lib/i386/client/libjvm.so[0xb789d010]
/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.6.0-openjdk-1.2_b11/jre/lib/i386/client/libjvm.so[0xb78a1435]
/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.6.0-openjdk-1.2_b11/jre/lib/i386/client/libjvm.so(JNI_CreateJavaVM+0x5c)[0xb773e16c]
/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.6.0-openjdk-1.2_b11/jre/lib/i386/../../bin/pluginappletviewer(JavaMain+0x9e)[0x804a9ae]
/lib/libpthread.so.0[0xb7ecd1b5]
/lib/libc.so.6(clone+0x5e)[0xb7e313be]
[...]

I deleted java-1.6.0-openjdk and installed java-sun instead:

java-1_5_0-sun-plugin-1.5.0_update17-1.1
java-1_5_0-sun-1.5.0_update17-1.1

Now the google homepage is loading and the browser not crashing anymore.

Desktop Settings KDE4

2009-02-16T21:35:00.000-08:00

How do I get from this grey panel (at the bottom of the screen)

to this black panel:

On my other computer I realized the panel was black and stylish. By the time I installed opensuse 11.1 on my laptop, I forgot how I had done this. So I went through all the KDE Configure Desktop Settings and didn't find it.

Then I came across the solution:

Right click on the Desktop, "Desktop Settings" and for "Desktop Theme" choose either 'Oxygen' or 'Elegance'.

vnc Remote Desktop Sharing

2008-12-10T17:14:00.000-08:00

Just in short:

SLED10 SP2, Gnome-desktop - Control Center - System: Remote Desktop
Allow users to view the desktop

openSUSE 10.3, KDE - vncviewer IP:0 or System - Remote Access

Path Analyzer Pro

2008-12-08T14:33:00.000-08:00

looking for a visual traceroute program on Linux I found Path Analyzer Pro

Path Analyzer can be downloaded for free evaluation and is available on Windows (XP, Vista and 2003 Server) and recently as Beta version for Linux (Debian and RedHat).

I downloaded the papro-2.6-5.i386.rpm and installed it on SLED11 SP2 (SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop).
After installation I wanted to run the program and got the following error:

# /usr/bin/papro
/usr/bin/papro: error while loading shared libraries: libpcap.so.0.8: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

I linked the newer libpcap to the required libpcap and the program started.

# ln -s /usr/lib/libpcap.so.0.8.1 /usr/lib/libpcap.so.0.8

JDiskReport

2008-04-29T11:14:00.000-07:00

Recently someone brought the application to my attention. It can be downloaded at JGoodies.com
I downloaded the jdiskreport-1_3_0.zip for a SLED10 SP1 install with java version "1.4.2_17".
Unzipping the file extracts the following:

o LICENSE.txt - the license agreement
o README.txt - this readme file
o RELEASE-NOTES.txt - information about changes and bug fixes
o jdiskreport-1.3.0.jar - a signed executable JAR file

The README explains how to start the application:

To run JDiskReport from a command-line, change directory to where the JAR-file is located. Then execute:

java -jar jdiskreport-1.3.0.jar
or
java -jar /path_to_directory/jdiskreport-1.3.0.jar

Nice tool, it shows what's eating up all your space. You get a graphical output instead multiple lines of text, when using "du".

One of the view modes is a Pie Chart of "File sizes in /directory". "Top 50" breaks the output down to a list of 50 largest files in /directory, "Size Dist" shows the Distribution of sizes in /directory, "Modified" gives another Bar Chart with Distribution of modification dates in /directory and "Types" shows the Distribution of file types in a /directory.

JDiskReport takes up 1.7 MB in the /usr/local/bin/jdiskreport dir, I installed it in:

Kiwi - live USB image

2008-04-23T16:22:00.000-07:00

There's a description Live USB stick on opensuse.org which I pretty much followed.

First I installed:

kiwi-desc-livesystem-1.62-25.1
kiwi-desc-usbboot-2.38-34.1
kiwi-2.38-34.1
kiwi-tools-2.38-34.1

I choose the option "downloading the most recent packages from the internet".

/usr/share/kiwi/image/usbboot/suse-10.3/config.xml

and added the repository:

<repository type="yast2" status="replaceable">
<source path="ftp://mirrors.kernel.org/opensuse/distribution/10.3/repo/oss"/>
</repository>
<repository type="yast2" status="replaceable">
<source path="ftp://mirrors.kernel.org/opensuse/distribution/10.3/repo/non-oss/"/>
</repository>

I didn't set the update repository in
/usr/share/kiwi/image/kwliveCD-suse-10.3/config.xml

When I set the update repository to
<repository type="rpm-md" status="replaceable">
<source path="http://download.opensuse.org/update/10.3/"/>
</repository>
kiwi exited with the following error:

opensuse103:~ # kiwi --prepare /usr/share/kiwi/image/kwliveCD-suse-10.3 --root /media/vmware/kiwi-tmp --add-profile KDE --logfile terminalApr-22 04:59:15 <1> : Setting log file to: terminal
Apr-22 04:59:15 <1> : Reading image description... failed
Apr-22 04:59:16 <3> : Scheme validation failed failed
Apr-22 04:59:16 <3> : Element image has extra content: text

Apr-22 04:59:16 <3> : KIWI exited with error(s) done
opensuse103:~ #

Instead I replaced the entry with the same I had put in: /usr/share/kiwi/image/usbboot/suse-10.3/config.xml

There's only one .checksum.md5 file. It is in /usr/share/kiwi/image/usbboot/suse-10.3/
Copy it and create a new one with:

cp .checksum.md5 .checksum.md5.old
md5sum config.xml > .checksum.md5

Cleanup is only necessary if kiwi was run before, there wasn't anything to do here.
For anyone who already created the two directories: kiwi-tmp and kiwi-image a removal is recommended if you are going to use the same path. Remove these two directories with
rm -rf /tmp/kiwi*

(I actually created them in a different directory, so instead of /tmp, the image was on my USB drive /media/usb-dvd/

Finally, after all these preparations I run:

kiwi --prepare /usr/share/kiwi/image/kwliveCD-suse-10.3 --root /media/usb-dvd/kiwi-tmp --add-profile KDE --logfile terminal

Kiwi initiates downloading and installing all these RPMs. Good thing that progress is shown on the right hand of the screen:

-> ftp://mirrors.kernel.org/opensuse/distribution/10.3/repo/oss/suse/i586/tpctl-4.17-131.i586.rpm
tpctl-4.17-131.i586.rpm ########################################################################### [ 83%]
->

And finally at the end:

Apr-22 05:35:38 <1> : KIWI exited successfully

Then I continued to create the compressed image and initrd out of kiwi-tmp.

mkdir /media/usb-dvd/kiwi-image
kiwi --type usb --create /media/usb-dvd/kiwi-tmp -d /media/usb-dvd/kiwi-image --logfile terminal

Now it was time to plug in my usbstick and unmounted it with:

umount /dev/sdd

There was no other partition on the drive. If there is so, then "mount" will show them.

To create the bootstick enter:

kiwi --bootstick /media/usb-dvd/kiwi-image/initrd-usbboot-suse-10.3.i686-2.1.1.splash.gz --bootstick-system /media/usb-dvd/kiwi-image/openSUSE-10.3.i686-2.5

Following messages appeared on the screen:

opensuse103:/media/usb-dvd # kiwi --bootstick kiwi-image/initrd-usbboot-suse-10.3.i686-2.1.1.splash.gz --bootstick-system kiwi-image/openSUSE-10.3.i686-2.5
Apr-22 05:14:50 <1> : Creating boot USB stick from: kiwi-image/initrd-usbboot-suse-10.3.i686-2.1.1.splash.gz...
Apr-22 05:14:50 <2> : Can't open log port: 9000 skipped
Apr-22 05:14:52 <1> : Creating initial boot structure done
Apr-22 05:14:54 <1> : Importing grub stages for stick boot done
Apr-22 05:14:57 <1> : Found following removable USB devices:
Apr-22 05:14:57 <1> : ---> 5B8110A091D0 at /dev/sdd
Apr-22 05:14:57 <1> : Your choice (enter device name):

Enter the device name output in the last but one line. In my case: /dev/sdd.

Apr-22 05:14:57 <1> : Your choice (enter device name): /dev/sdd

Kiwi partitioned the stick and dumped the image to the stick:

Apr-22 05:17:12 <1> : Creating partition table on: /dev/sdd done
Apr-22 05:17:26 <1> : Rereading partition table on: /dev/sdd done
Apr-22 05:17:30 <1> : Dumping initrd image to stick done
Apr-22 05:17:35 <1> : Dumping system image to stick
Apr-22 05:19:29 <1> : Installing grub on USB stick done
Apr-22 05:19:30 <1> : Removing HAL lock done
Apr-22 05:19:30 <1> : KIWI exited successfully

Kiwi created the following partitions:

/dev/sdd1 on /media/disk-2 type ext2 (rw,nosuid,nodev)
/dev/sdd3 on /media/disk-3 type ext2 (rw,nosuid,nodev)
/dev/sdd2 on /media/disk-4 type squashfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)

/dev/sdd2 is the compressed image, initrd and kernel.
/dev/sdd3 contains packages and stuff that doesn't fit into the 700+ MB initrd. It's read/writable so that thing that get written to the USB stick are put here.
/dev/sdd1 is the boot partition, including grub.

Boot a machine with the usbstick plugged in, don't forget to set the BIOS to boot from USB and you'll get a LIVE opensuse 10.3 on a USB stick.

the pointy-haired boss finally gets into opensource

2007-08-03T10:56:00.000-07:00

I love the today's Dilbert:

article in informationweek

2007-08-01T16:01:00.000-07:00

comparison between Linux (Ubuntu) and Mac OS X
in the article's conclusion the reporter writes:

"[...]Apple is arguably the most proprietary hardware / software company in the industry, despite Mac OS X's origins in BSD Unix, and the products' compliance with many industry standards.

You think Microsoft locks users in? At least with Microsoft you can buy a PC from a huge number of big and small vendors, or build your own from components. With the Mac, you buy your PC from Apple, you buy your operating system from Apple, and you're also encouraged to buy your mouse, keyboard, display, audio device, and smartphone from Apple, all at an Apple Store where you can get Apple service.[...]"

He himself is sticking with his Mac and says it's a great computer.

I agree with the above and not that I knew before but it made me again think, if I have to buy another computer, should it really be an Apple?

choices

2007-07-07T15:36:00.000-07:00

I just read this article:The Apple way and the Linux way.
The guy tried to help a Mac user to burn some pictures to a DVD. At the very end he writes:
"OS X and Linux are essentially two extreme opposites. The Apple Way is to make all of your decisions for you so that you're not burdened by choice. Some people enjoy that -- they find simplicity in it that allows them to concentrate on other things. To me, it's computing hell."
That's exactly one of the reasons why I enjoy Linux so much. It's all about choice and it gives me so many of it.