You’d get an output similar to:

grep ^\ \ \$buildNr /usr/bin/vmware-config-tools.pl | awk -F\' '{ print $2 }'
4.0.0 build-236512


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I personally use Fluxbox as my Window Manager, and have had a great experience with it on Fedora. So, I decided with the recent release of openSUSE 11.3, I’d give it a shot on the new distribution release.

I first started by installing openSUSE 11.3 onto my personal laptop, and opted for the minimal X install so that my machine wouldn’t be cluttered. After the installation I booted into the default Window Manager, TWM.

Next I added the Window Manager repository so that I’d have access to Fluxbox, and also added the X11:Utilities repository so I’d have access to feh, which is a great image viewer, and is also a application that will allow you to set your background while in various Window Managers.

*** Bonus ***
The Display Manager I use is lxdm, previously it was SLIM but SLIM seems to be pretty much abandoned upstream, so I decided to support the LXDE movement.

You can add the said repositories by doing the following:
sudo zypper ar -f http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/X11:/windowmanagers/openSUSE_11.3/ openSUSE\ 11.3\ WindowManagers

sudo zypper ar -f http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/X11:/Utilities/openSUSE_11.3/ openSUSE\ 11.3\ X11\ Utilities

Now, you can install fluxbox, slim and feh using:
sudo zypper in fluxbox feh lxdm

Now you’ll have to configure fluxbox to be your new default Window Manager, and configure LXDM to be your default Display Manager. We can do this using the sysconfig yast2 module, or we can modify the following files in /etc/sysconfig:
windowmanager
displaymanager

You want the following settings in /etc/sysconfig/displaymanager:
DISPLAYMANAGER=”lxdm”

And the following setting in /etc/sysconfig/windowmanager:
DEFAULT_WM=”startfluxbox”

Once you’re done, you can reboot (or just log out) and be greeted to a nice new LXDM installation, and log in to your nice new fluxbox installation.

I’ll write later on customizing Fluxbox and LXDM.

Related posts:

1. Puppet 2.6.0 on SLES 11 SP1

$ sudo su - -c 'puppet agent --trace --debug --test'
/usr/lib/site_ruby/1.8/puppet/application.rb:267:in `option_parser': undefined method `default_argv=' for # (NoMethodError)
from /usr/lib/site_ruby/1.8/puppet/application.rb:333:in `parse_options'
from /usr/lib/site_ruby/1.8/puppet/application.rb:332:in `each'
from /usr/lib/site_ruby/1.8/puppet/application.rb:332:in `parse_options'
from /usr/lib/site_ruby/1.8/puppet/application.rb:298:in `run'
from /usr/lib/site_ruby/1.8/puppet/application.rb:298:in `exit_on_fail'
from /usr/lib/site_ruby/1.8/puppet/application.rb:298:in `run'
from /usr/lib/site_ruby/1.8/puppet/util/command_line.rb:55:in `execute'
from /usr/bin/puppet:4

However, I have decided to go ahead and build (using the openSUSE Build Service) ruby 1.8.5 packages for RHEL4, and deployed them to a local repository here at my place of business.

If you’d like them, you can get them here:

http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/eclipseagent:/ruby/RedHat_RHEL-4/

Related posts:

1. Puppet 2.6.0 on SLES 11 SP1

The host machine and OS is a Thinkpad T410 and Windows 7 64bit, respectively. The T410 (lovingly dubbed “Athena”) has an Intel Core i5-520M processor running at 2.40Ghz, integrated graphics and 4GB of RAM. However, these instructions should work on any machine capable of running Ubuntu and its host OS simultaneously. The version of Virtualbox used was the latest at the time–3.2.6.

When you open Virtualbox, you should see something like this:

From the default window, press the “New” button and the virtual machine wizard will load. The first window asks you to name your new virtual machine and which OS you will install on it.

N.B. You will see the “64 bit” option in OS type for Ubuntu. Use that ONLY if you are running a 32 bit host and you wish to emulate 64 bit:

If you want to use 64-bit guest support on a 32-bit host operating system, you must also select a 64-bit operating system for the particular VM. Since supporting 64 bits on 32-bit hosts incurs additional overhead, VirtualBox only enables this support upon explicit request.

On 64-bit hosts, 64-bit guest support is always enabled, so you can simply install a 64-bit operating system in the guest. (Source)

Clicking “Next” brings you to a slider that allows you to set how much RAM you wish to allot to your VM–how much RAM the emulated system will see. Don’t go past the green section or you risk freezing your host. I put 1.5GB, as Ubuntu runs fine with that much.

Next is configuring the virtual hard drive.

If you haven’t already created a hard disk, the wizard will walk you through that too. The virtual disk wizard has preset options that work fine. If you’re curious as what the differences between options are and don’t understand the brief description provide in the wizard, go read the manual.

Once you have configured your virtual disk, you should be led to this summary:

After hitting finish, you should see your new VM on the left. Select it and click “Start”.

When a VM in virtual box runs for the first time, the first run wizard pops up and asks you to load installation media. I’ve chosen an ISO image of Ubuntu 10.04 64bit. You can either use an ISO (easily downloadable from the ubuntu homepage), or a physical Ubuntu CD or DVD.

Ubuntu ISO booting:

Note: there are various alerts that will pop up that you should read at least once.

Now that the ISO is finished booting, you will be given the option to either try or install Ubuntu. You should know where to go from here.

Treat the virtual hard drive that Ubuntu detects normally. Partition however you are used to.

Installation takes a while. Go grab food or something.

Once the installation is complete, restart as prompted and you will boot into your new virtual Ubuntu installation!

Notice the low resolution. This is an indicator that Ubuntu doesn’t realize that it’s being run in a virtual environment. In order to fix this, Virtualbox has a patch called Guest Additions. But before that, update the system.

The first update generally takes the longest (unless you have an uber-fast connection). I got through a chapter of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and half a podcast of a college lecture before the system was fully updated. Ubuntu will probably ask for a restart so that it can load the updated kernel. Do so.

Once the desktop comes back up, go to Devices > Install Guest Additions. That will load an ISO into the VM’s CD drive. Ubuntu will detect it automagically and will want to auto-run it. I ignored that and opened a terminal and did the following:

This will install Guest Additions in Ubuntu.

After that’s done, it will ask to restart yet again. After boot you should notice a refreshingly better resolution:

Since it’s a virtual machine, I turned off the screensaver and power options, and enabled auto login.

Lastly, for whatever reason, Virtualbox crashes when desktop effects are enabled. This also occurs when I attempt to shutdown/restart/logout/etc with desktop effects enabled. So beware of that. YMMV. Cheers.

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However, the puppet package that shipped with SLES 11 and eventually SLES 11 SP1 were the 0.24 branch, 0.24.8 to be exact. However, the said version didn’t include the zypper definition which is now in puppet 2.6.0, and if you upgraded to the 0.25.4 version in the system:management repository, you will have realized that it’s quite broken due to a few issues which I found.

I’ve since then modified the .spec, and modified the upstream server.init and client.init to work and build correctly on SLES 11 and openSUSE 11.x. I’ve also put upstream fixes to the puppet 2.6.0 branch to fix their upstream server.init, client.init, puppet.spec and to update the conf/suse directory to include the required default conf files. I’ve also created a Novell bug for the system:management repository to be fixed, but don’t imagine that will be fixed anytime soon (I haven’t been able to get a response from the maintainers).

With that said, the repository I’ve created in the buildservice can be found here:

http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/eclipseagent:/puppet/

Related posts:

1. Ruby 1.8.5 on RHEL 4

The most basic usage of scrot is:

scrot also has a built in delay, and count function which is very commonly used while taking screenshots:

Another useful argument with scrot is -e, which will allow you to run a command. This is my most common usage:

Other useful arguments are:
-t NUM (to create a thumbnail of NUM size)
-m for the people with multiple monitors
-s which will let you interactively choose which window or region you want to screenshot with the mouse.

Here’s the outcome:

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KDE Software Compilation 4.4.5 Released: Codename “Ceilidh”

KDE Community Ships Fifth Translation and Service Release of the 4.4 Free
Desktop, Containing Numerous Bugfixes and Translation Updates

June 30th, 2010. Today, KDE has released a new version of the KDE Software
Compilation (KDE SC). This is expected to be the final bugfix and translation
update to KDE SC 4.4. KDE SC 4.4.5 is a recommended update for everyone
running KDE SC 4.4.4 or earlier versions. As the release only contains
bugfixes and translation updates, it will be a safe and pleasant update for
everyone. Users around the world will appreciate that KDE SC 4.4.5 multi-
language support is more complete. KDE SC 4 is already translated into more
than 55 languages, with more to come.

KDE SC 4.4.5 brings a number of improvements:

* Several bugs in encoding and refreshing in Konsole have been fixed
* A couple of crashes in Okular’s PDF viewer have been fixed
* Alarms have received some fixes in KDE PIM

The changelog lists more, if not all improvements since KDE SC 4.4.4. There
are no more scheduled releases in the 4.4 series. The next feature release
will be KDE SC 4.5.0, to be released in August this year.

Related posts:

1. KDE 4.5 Beta 2 Released

KDE Software Compilation 4.5 Beta2 Released: Codename Cake

KDE Community Ships First Beta Release of the
4.5 Free Desktop, Applications and Development Platform

June 9th, 2010. Today, KDE has released the second beta version of what is to
become KDE SC 4.5.0 in August 2010. KDE SC 4.5 Beta2 is targeted at testers
and those that would like to have an early look at what’s coming to their
desktops and netbooks this summer. KDE is now firmly in beta mode, meaning
that the primary focus is on fixing bugs and preparing the stable release of
the software compilation this summer. Over the last two weeks, roughly since
the first beta, 1459 new bugs have been reported, and 1643 bugs have been
closed, so we’re witnessing a lot of stabilization activity right now. More
testing is in place, however, while the restless developers continue to create
a rock-stable 4.5.0.

Read more at: http://kde.org/announcements/announce-4.5-beta2.php

Related posts:

1. KDE SC 4.4.5 Released

Sorry for the long unexpected downtime. However my shared service hosting company suspended my account for cpu usage. I think it was a duplicate post query that was running through a plugin, which I’ve since disabled.

I’m hoping that was it.

They’ll let me know if all was done.

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If you are upgrading from 1.8.0, please beware that the xorg.conf.d
configuration has changed slightly, the server now supports
$datadir/X11/xorg.conf.d and $sysconfdir/X11/xorg.conf.d for configuration
files. While this should not interfere with your local configuration on an
install from the tarball, distributors should take care of this new
behavior.

You can check out the full release announcement, and list of changes in the mailing list announcement.

Related posts:

1. KDE 4.5 Beta 2 Released
2. KDE SC 4.4.5 Released

This key sequence is handled in /etc/inittab by the following line (from a RHEL5.5 machine)

ca::ctrlaltdel:/sbin/shutdown -t3 -r now

You can simply disable this by running the following:

perl -npe 's/ca::ctrlaltdel:\/sbin\/shutdown/#ca::ctrlaltdel:\/sbin\/shutdown/' -i /etc/inittab

Which is in essence just adding a # in front to comment it out, which removes the said functionality.

You can do more with the said trap, and assign it a different command, one I personally use is:
ca::ctrlaltdel:/bin/echo “CTRL-ALT-DEL has been disabled by the administrator”

Of course you can add a much harsher message to the person that’s running the said key strokes, but I try to keep mine professional.

After updated the /etc/inittab you’ll have to reload init by running the following as root:

/sbin/init q

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Also available for PCLinuxOS is the 2.6.33 kernel family, but currently through Software Repositories.

Note: If you already have PCLinuxOS 2010, then you can easily update using the Synaptic Software Manager

Feel free to download the iso.

Release Date: 05-05-10
ISO Size: 692 MB
MD5Sum: d2f8c4068a0d07c3fc4a1dcc252310da

Related posts:

1. KDE SC 4.4.5 Released
2. KDE 4.5 Beta 2 Released

To upgrade your Kubuntu 10.04 Installation you must first add the following PPA source:
ppa:kubuntu-ppa/ppa

You can do this using kpackagekit, which can be found in your launcher menu:

In KPackageKit go to Settings –> Edit Software Sources

While in the Software Sources window click on the Other Software tab then click Add

You’ll see the following source added.

Now you use KPackageKit to upgrade your machine as you normally would (the 4.4.3 updates will be listed under Updates and not Bugs). This is done by going to Software Updates, clicking Select all updates and then Apply.

Related posts:

1. KDE SC 4.4.5 Released
2. Fluxbox on openSUSE 11.3

From the release notes:
May 5th, 2010. Today, KDE has released a new version of the KDE Software Compilation (KDE SC). This month’s edition of KDE SC is a bugfix and translation update to KDE SC 4.4. KDE SC 4.4.3 is a recommended upgrade for everyone running KDE SC 4.4.2 or earlier versions. As the release only contains bugfixes and translation updates, it will be a safe and pleasant update for everyone. Users around the world will appreciate that KDE SC 4.4.3 multi-language support is more complete. KDE SC 4 is already translated into more than 50 languages, with more to come.

The latest release is to said include the following improvements:

• Numerous fixes in Konsole, KDE’s terminal emulator, among them two possible crashers in session management
• Flash plugin support in KHTML has been enhanced to work with newest Youtube skins
• Case-sensitivity in renaming fixes in KIO, KDE’s network-transparent I/O library
• Hiding the mouse cursor in some special cases in presentation mode and two possible crashers have been fixed

You can read the full details on the announcement page

Or check out the comprehensive changelog

Related posts:

1. KDE SC 4.4.5 Released
2. KDE 4.5 Beta 2 Released

You can easily determine the type of disk using vmkfstools -t0, for example:

The following is an example of a zeroedthick disk

# vmkfstools -t0 /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/EagerBeaver/EagerBeaver.vmdk | more
Mapping for file /vmfs/volumes/4aef08e3-671b60d5-927b-00188be583a5/EagerBeaver/EagerBeaver.vmdk (8589934592 bytes in size):
[           0:   196083712] --> [VMFS Z- LVID:4aef08e2-0e1d23e2-2505-00188be583a5/4aef08e2-046dd3fa-28b3-00188be583a5/1:( 275392790016 -->  275588873728)]
[   196083712:    12582912] --> [VMFS Z- LVID:4aef08e2-0e1d23e2-2505-00188be583a5/4aef08e2-046dd3fa-28b3-00188be583a5/1:( 275379158528 -->  275391741440)]
[   208666624:  8381267968] --> [VMFS Z- LVID:4aef08e2-0e1d23e2-2505-00188be583a5/4aef08e2-046dd3fa-28b3-00188be583a5/1:( 275588873728 -->  283970141696)]

Note: Notice in the zerothicked VM’s you have a Z following VMFS. This indicates that the block has been zeroed, but not written.

Now is an example of an eagerzeroedthick disk

# vmkfstools -t0 /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/EagerBeaver/EagerBeaver_1.vmdk | more
Mapping for file /vmfs/volumes/4aef08e3-671b60d5-927b-00188be583a5/EagerBeaver/EagerBeaver_1.vmdk (8589934592 bytes in size):
[           0:  7516192768] --> [VMFS -- LVID:4aef08e2-0e1d23e2-2505-00188be583a5/4aef08e2-046dd3fa-28b3-00188be583a5/1:( 283970141696 -->  291486334464)]
[  7516192768:   460324864] --> [VMFS -- LVID:4aef08e2-0e1d23e2-2505-00188be583a5/4aef08e2-046dd3fa-28b3-00188be583a5/1:(  5015371264 -->   5475696128)]
[  7976517632:   613416960] --> [VMFS -- LVID:4aef08e2-0e1d23e2-2505-00188be583a5/4aef08e2-046dd3fa-28b3-00188be583a5/1:( 291486334464 -->  292099751424)]

You’ll notice that following the VMFS you have --, which indicates that it has the bit been completely zeroed.

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Well look no further. There is an awesome software called bootchart which is available via repositories for most major Linux Distributions. This software will visually chart out, what is taking the resources while booting, gives you a nice bench mark of how long it took to boot, and if you’re having slow boots, it’ll help you track down where your problem process is.

The installation on the newly released Ubuntu Lucid Lynx 10.04 is quite simple.

You can install using:

The above will also install the required package: pybootchartgui.

Now all you have to do is reboot your machine. This can be done via the terminal with:

Once your machine has booted back up, all you have to do is check out the .png file that was saved for you in /var/log/bootchart.

You can open the said picture, and be greeted with a great graph of your boot-up process.

Click for Full Size

Related posts:

1. Virtualbox Walkthrough: Ubuntu 10.04
2. screenshot with scrot – a command line tool for screenshots
3. Fluxbox on openSUSE 11.3

I say unfortunate because many of you may experience times when your system is slow due to high CPU utilization caused by Nepomuk’s indexing mechanism (I experienced this on Kubuntu 10.04 Lucid RC while doing some testing)

Fortunately you can disable this feature quite easily using systemsettings (System Settings in the KMenu).

To do this open system settings, click on the Advanced tab and click on Desktop Search:

Now you want to uncheck the box labeled “Enable Nepomuk Semantic Desktop”

Here it is unchecked, for the people who are really lost:

Click on Apply, and you’re good to go… Nepomuk is no longer going to index your filesystem and suck up your CPU cycles.

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So here I’ll assume that you’ve installed Ubuntu using whatever means necessary and you’re booting up for the first time. Here are some things that I typically do, when I build up a new Ubuntu box for personal use. I am also targeting this for people who are not comfortable or like to use the command line tools.

Wireless Configuration
The first thing I do is set up my wireless, so I have internet connectivity without being strapped down to a leash. My machine I’m installing on is a Dell Latitude D620. You can setup the wireless by going to the wireless icon in the top panel, and clicking on it to list available networks available.

My secured wireless, BK Wireless, shows up on the list with a lock (showing it’s secured). I click to connect to it, and am prompted for my password.

Once all is setup, and configured the wifi icon will look like the one to the left. Now you have internet connectivity and you can come back and checkout freetechie.com to read the rest of this article.

Updating Your Installation
Even thought you’ve just installed your new Ubuntu, that doesn’t quite mean that the Operating System is fully updated. I highly suggest you upgrade to the newest packages using the Ubuntu Update Manager which can be found in System –> Administration –> Update Manager

This will launch update manager, and you’ll see which packages you need to update. Click on Install Updates, and if you want to see more details of the packages being installed you can expand the Description of update.

You’ll be given a status window, so you won’t be completely in the blue

Once completed, you’ll be sent back to the Update Manager with a message that your system is up to date.

Restricted Drivers
If you’re lucky enough to have a desktop / laptop that’s newer then mine, or one that has a much better video card (ie ATI / NVIDIA) or have the requirement for another proprietary hardware driver, you can go to the Restricted Driver Manager in System –> Hardware Drivers

Appearance Customization
Obviously this section will be different from person to person, but I think everyone should change their font hinting to full hinting. There are other things I change, like the font size, and the theme (I like slim themes, honestly I’m used to KDE, so I can’t suggest a great GNOME theme yet). Go to System –> Preferences –> Appearance

Here you’ll have the opportunity to setup your Themes, Background, Fonts and Visual Effects

Back to fonts agan I highly recommend setting your hinting to full. I personally lower the fonts to 7 or 8.. I’m still in my 20′s so my eyes aren’t bad …yet.

Of course you want to set stuff up as you like it, but for me I found the following theme to be lighter and a bit nicer on the eyes.. You can customize this, keep the default theme or do what you will to make it “yours”.

Oh.. don’t forget to change the hideous background.

32-Bit Machines w/ 4GB+ of Memory
You guys are a bit special here, since you will require the pae kernel to be able to access the full range of your memory. To do this, you’ll need to install the following packages, which can be done in the Software Center (see below). The packages you will need are linux-headers-server, linux-image-server and linux-server. Once you install those 3 packages you’ll need to reboot and boot into the newly installed PAE kernel.. I’ll write more on this later (if I can scrounge up a machine with more memory then I have in mine).

Install Some Packages
Ok, here is where my gripe comes in with Ubuntu. As you know, during the installation you don’t have the option to choose what you do, or don’t want to install. So this is done after the installation process (which means you may have to purge / uninstall some applications, along with adding some more).

This is done by going to the main menu, and clicking on Ubuntu Software Center.

Here you’ll be brought to a beautiful (sorry, had to use that phrase, couldn’t find a better fit) Software Installation Center which will allow you to install and/or remove any packages you would like. The Software Installation Center by default also uses the Connical Partners Repositories, so you have access to a plethora of applications at your fingertips. Here are some of the packages I highly recommend doing:
Remove Empathy
Remove Rythmbox
Remove Transmission-gtk
Install Banshee
Install Chromium
Install Ubuntu Restricted Extras (this will also give you flash and sun java)
Install Pidgin (uses less screen real estate)
Install Gnome-do
Install Shutter
Install Gimp
Install Dropbox (this is a pretty sweet app)
Install Docky (gotta love functional eye candies)
Install Deluge

Here are a few shots of the process of adding / removing using the Ubuntu Software Center

Again obviously your fit may be different but those are the ones I use above.

There are other applications I use that aren’t within the Software Center, like Opera and googsystray.

Download and Install googsystray
I’ll talk about googsystray and the installation of it, but not Opera since I just want to cover the basic method of installing a .deb (Debian Installer) using the GUI.

First download the googsystray debian package from sourceforge onto your hard drive.

Now open your file manager (Nautilus by default) and browse to the location where you saved the downloaded file

Double click the debian installer package. This will bring up the installer and allow you to install the package.

If you’re bored you can watch the progress of the installation and once complete you’re welcome to close the screen (looks for the staple button that says “That Was Easy”

Install Microfox for Firefox
Ok.. this one is stupid.. just saying.. Mozilla by default takes way too much real estate with its theme. I always install Micro Fox, which can be found here

There you have it, your new self configured Ubuntu Lucid 10.04

Related posts:

1. Virtualbox Walkthrough: Ubuntu 10.04

A intial setup of sudo requires the user to type in the password everytime the command is used.  Although the autorization is maintained for a few minutes after the password is first used it can become quite tedious to constantly be prompted for a password on commonly used commands.

I have set up my own ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala system to allow the aptitude command to be run without having to type my password.  This lets me cron a very small script to keep my system up-to-date without being prompted for a password.

Here’s how I set it up:

$ sudo visudo

Below the line “%admin ALL=(ALL) ALL” insert the following:

USERNAME ALL=NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/aptitude

for example:

jason ALL=NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/aptitude

If you would like to allow a different command just make sure you include the full location (use whereis if you are unsure of where the command is stored).

No related posts.