Linux Diaries

Backup MySQL via Crontab

2010-05-12T23:48:00.001+08:00

After spending a half an hour figuring out how to make noupe's No. 2 solution work, I finally got my crontab entry that'll execute on my Ubuntu workstation. It took me a while since I stumbled upon a couple of errors, mostly syntax, and the messages wasn't helpful. But here it is:

00 * * * * /usr/bin/mysqldump -h HOSTNAME -u MYUSERNAME -pMYPASSWORD mydatabase | gzip > /home/dax/Backups/db_`/bin/date +\%Y\%m\%d\%H\%M`.sql.gz

What it does is execute the mysqldump command every hour, pipe it through gzip, and save the compressed file on my Backups directory as db_201005122300.sql.gz (since it executed on May 12, 2010 at 11:00PM)

Notes:

The HOSTNAME, MYUSERNAME, and MYPASSWORD should be filled up by you
! % \ etc. should be escaped as such: \! \% \\
/bin/date + is very important, it won't execute if you only place date there

Blog Clients on Ubuntu

2009-12-15T09:15:00.001+08:00

I'm not much of a blogger, but I blog enough to need a client (or clients) to handle my posts. This list ain't much, nor that comprehensive, but here's five clients I use on my Ubuntu box.

OpenOffice.org with Sun Weblog Extension

This is my favorite, and the one I use often. I always have an OpenOffice.org instance running (either at work or at home) and figured it'll be great if I can post to my blog directly from OO.o. I stumbled upon it last year when I got tired of copy-pasting my articles. This one's great for text-only posting (such as poem/haiku blogs) since I still haven't figured out how to include images even from existing URLs - I'm not even sure this extension even supports it.

Scribefire

This client is also another favorite. In fact, this article was posted from Scribefire. I love the option/feature to upload images directly from my computer, this client will take care of the rest. This one's great if you tend to upload/insert images to your posts.

Drivel

If you prefer a simple, small and fast client, then Drivel's for you. I use it once in a while if I wanted to post something before I lose my train of thoughts.

BloGTK

Although I don't use this client, a few friends swear by it. Configuration's a pain in the ass, and if I can't configure it in 2 mins, then it's not a client for me. I got it working alright, but only on one account.

Flock Browser

This browser is so good that it's literally unproductive. I never got real work done whenever I use it. I tend to check photos, videos, and friends statuses that I never really have time for anything else. The blog client of Flock is great since it integrates nicely into your browser. Image uploads to any one of your image hosting sites, and adding an image is a matter of dragging the thumbnail from the media bar.

PHPMyAdmin doesn't load

2009-08-07T11:44:00.001+08:00

Apparently, when changing Apache2 user and/or group, PHPMyAdmin would stop working. I believe this is a security feature. As a workaround, I have to issue the following command.

sudo chmod 644 /etc/phpmyadmin/config-db.php

And I have to again, re-issue the same command every single time I upgrade PHPMyAdmin.

No Templates Installed on Nautilus

2009-07-25T03:23:00.001+08:00

I've been working on tons of PHP, Java, and Python files for quite some time now, and I've recently tried getting the templates feature working on Nautilus. For some reason, the templates directory directs me to my home directory, instead of the usual Templates where I've saved a couple. After googling for answers, I stumbled upon Launchpad Answers which directs me to a forum thread.

Edit ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs and change the template directory from

XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR="$HOME"
to
XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR="$HOME/Templates"

SmartBro ZTE MF627 on Ubuntu Jaunty

2009-06-27T18:41:00.002+08:00

I recently got a SmartBro ZTE MF627. It's a mobile broadband device that utilizes existing 3G, HSDPA, EDGE and GPRS connection (whichever is available). With this device, I can easily connect anywhere there's a cellular signal. This is a better solution over 3G phones which drains your batteries (3hrs battery life with GPRS/3G turned on in my case).

I'm not on the road that often, but I'll be needing it when I'm either at school (where they require you to surf only using their Windows workstations which are full of malwares and keyloggers) or at work and away from my workstation (they've been scrimping on wifi, dedicated ethernet connection only to company workstation, and blocked internet connection via MAC filtering).

The device retails for PhP1,995 (but I got mine way cheaper than their SRP) and usage costs only PhP10 per 30 minutes. It's the cheapest mobile broadband service we have in the Philippines. Granted they still charge you PhP10 even if you've consumed 5mins, but it's still PhP10. I should also note that it's a prepaid service and you can reload from any reloading centers literally scattered all over our country.

Setup would require more work on your Jaunty installation though since it's not yet natively supported - but hopefully will be on Karmic Koala.

Adding the Repository
Go to Liam Green-Hughes' PPA and his PPA to your /etc/apt/sources.list. There's a detailed instructions on how to it on here.

Install the packages
After updating, you'll need to install 2 packages from the repository.

sudo aptitude install zte-mf627-switch usb-modeswitch

Plug your ZTE MF627

Check to see if it's mounted

The Wizard would launch and prompt you to set it up

After that, it should connect your laptop or netbook and you're all set.

Note: This device has a micro-SD port, so you'll have an expandable thumb drive as well as a mobile broadband connection. It's internal disk space though contains Windows executable file. It installs ok on Wine but doesn't work at all with your device.

Note: Mine didn't connect as expected. According to the website, I'll have to first register it on a Windows platform before it works (granted it's addressed to Mac users, it's the same thing for us free OS users).

Update 29 June 2009: It works ok now on Smart Bro now. But we need to configure a few things.

APN: SMARTBRO

Authentication Method: PAP (just PAP)

And also, plugging it in or rebooting doesn't work in my case. Oh it'll connect just fine - but it'll disconnect the moment it authenticates to the server.

My workaround is to completely shut down my netbook. Turn it back on with the wifi turned off from the hardware, and it'll connect just fine.

I took a screenshot after 20mins it's connected.

MSI Wind Wireless Networking with RTL8187SE

2009-06-13T12:16:00.001+08:00

I've been asked tons of times on how to get RTL8187SE working on Ubuntu Jaunty, as posted on http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=6794539, we only need to run 2 commands;

sudo aptitude install rtl8187se-source
sudo m-a auto-install rtl8187se

After reboot, your wireless would be up and running. I've also speculated before that we would need to re-issue the 2nd command every after kernel upgrade. This is untrue since I've been through dozens of upgrades and I didn't find any need to re-issue the said command.

Happy surfing!

Dancer IRCD Configuration Files

2008-12-08T03:31:00.001+08:00

I've been checking out wiki that I've created in Ubuntu and it's link back, and it seems that a lot of people are still having problems in setting up Dancer-Services, or at least make it work with Dancer IRCD. So to make things simpler, I've attached the two configuration files I've used for the IRCD tutorial. I've tested it on a Hardy server and on my Intrepid box, both worked without any problems. Just take note that if you're going to overwrite the two files, make sure to set ircd.conf as readable by all and services.conf as owned by services.

Dancer Files
ircd.conf
services.conf

DBDesigner4 and MySQL5 on Ubuntu

2008-11-07T23:16:00.002+08:00

This is a remake of my other article, but this focuses on efficiency rather than hand-holding. I've tested it on both Ubuntu (and also Xubuntu) Hardy Heron and Intrepid Ibex. I'm a little tired of waiting for MySQL Workbench, so I decided to give DBDesigner another shot.

What we'll use

I'll be using the RPM package since it'll make DBDesigner4 available to all users

What to Install

Install alien via aptitude (or apt-get, whichever you prefer)
sudo aptitude install alien

What to Download

DBDesigner4-0.5.4-0.i586.rpm
http://fabforce.net/downloadfile.php?iddownloadfile=9

kylixlibs3-borqt-3.0-2.tar.gz
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/kylixlibs/kylixlibs3-borqt-3.0-2.tar.gz?download

dbxmda.tar.gz
http://crlab.com/dbx/download.html

MySQL-shared-compat-4.1.9-0.i386.rpm
ftp://ftp.wesmo.com/pub/contributed/RPMS/MySQL-shared-compat-4.1.9-0.i386.rpm

How to Install

For convenience sake, save or move the four files to a temporary directory (e.g. ~/temp) then issue to following commands:

For DBDesigner4

sudo alien -i DBDesigner4-0.5.4-0.i586.rpm

For kylixlibs3-borqt-3.0-2.tar.gz

tar xzvf kylixlibs3-borqt-3.0-2.tar.gz
sudo cp kylixlibs3-borqt/libborqt-6.9.0-qt2.3.so /usr/lib/libborqt-6.9-qt2.3.so

For dbxmda.tar.gz

tar zxvf dbxmda.tar.gz
sudo cp DbxMda/libsqlmda.so.4.20 /usr/lib

For MySQL-shared-compat-4.1.9-0.i386.rpm

sudo alien -i MySQL-shared-compat-4.1.9-0.i386.rpm

*Note: no need to run sudo ldconfig after copying the libs since the last command will run it anyway.

What we Installed

DBDesigner4-0.5.4-0.i586.rpm: the DBDesigner4 application

kylixlibs3-borqt-3.0-2.tar.gz: the libborqt object file, this will prevent "libborqt-6.9-qt2.3.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory" errors

dbxmda.tar.gz: the libsqlmy object file, this will prevent "Unable to Load libsqlmy.so" errors

MySQL-shared-compat-4.1.9-0.i386.rpm: some may encounter the "unable to load libmysqlclient.so" error. There's an incompatibility issue with libmysqlclient.so.15, so you'll need to download and install libmysqlclient.so.10.

What we need to Configure

Fonts
Access the fonts settings from Options > DBDesigner Options > Visual Options and set it to Helvetica sized 10

Menu
Here's the menu settings
Name: DBDesigner4
Icon: /opt/DBDesigner4/Gfx/Icon48.xpm
Command: /opt/DBDesigner4/DBDesigner4

Configuration File
Open ~/.DBDesigner4/DBConn_DefaultSettings.ini in a text editor and change the folowing:

GetDriverFunc=getSQLDriverMYSQL
LibraryNameLinux=libsqlmy.so
VendorLibLinux=libmysqlclient.so

to

GetDriverFunc=getSQLDriverMySQL
LibraryNameLinux=libsqlmda.so.4.20
VendorLibLinux=libmysqlclient.so.10

MySQL5 Settings
In order for DBDesigner4 to access your MySQL5 tables, you need to create another user and set its password to an old format DBDesigner4 understands. Login as root (or as a user that can grant privileges) then execute the commands listed below. Change the username, password, and dbname where appropriate:

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON dbname.* TO username@'%'
SET PASSWORD FOR username@'%' = OLD_PASSWORD('password')
FLUSH PRIVILEGES

How to Reverse Engineer your Database

I believe this article is best suited for this section since it includes screenshots as well as walkthroughs.

Sources:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=125911
http://www.visualcplusdotnet.com/dbdesignerdatabasetool.html

Outdated mscomm32.ocx Error on Wine

2008-09-21T01:30:00.001+08:00

I've been using MyPhoneExplorer to manage SMS, Contacts, and Calendar on my phone. Recently, I did a fresh install of Xubuntu Intrepid and discovered that MPE doesn't work. It gave me an error:

Run-time error '372':
Failed to load control 'MSComm' from MSCOMM32.OCX. Your version of MSCOMM32.OCX may be outdated. Make sure you are using the version of the control that was provided with your application.

This problem will occur only in Windows 95, 98, NT and 2000. You won't see it in Windows 98SE (Second Edition), Me, XP or Vista. The problem occurs because of a poor design decision that Microsoft made several years ago when they changed from the 16-bit to then-new 32-bit operating system. They've corrected the problem in the newest versions of Windows, but if you are running one of these older operating systems, you may possibly see the error. - AICS Research, Inc.

To fix this, you have to download a newer version of MSComm32.ocx and replace the one that you have installed on ~/.wine/drive_c/windows/system32

Rename the old MSCOMM32.OCX to MSCOMM32.OCX.bak just in case you need it in the future.

Download the files at:
http://www.dataq.com/support/downloads/mscomm32dotocx.zip

or at:
http://www.orbitfiles.com/download/id3289503534.html

Make sure the filename's all Uppercase (MSCOMM32.OCX) - you are, afterall, using Wine on Linux.

So there it is, I got my MPE and I hope you get to run your apps as well.

flv to 3gp

2008-05-07T12:24:00.001+08:00

Here's how to convert your flv files to 3gp so you can play them on your symbian phones.

ffmpeg -i file.flv -s 176x144 -vcodec h263 -r 28 -b 96k -ab 64 -acodec aac -ac 1 -ar 44100 file.3gp

And here's a batch converter bash script based on mypapit's FLV to 3gp batch converter script, I only changed the ffmpeg part since the output on the script's a wee bit choppy on video and very much crappy on audio playback.

#!/bin/bash
echo "fakap mp3-to-flv converter http://blog.fakap.net/mp3toflv/"
echo "Copyright (c) mypapit 2007"
echo ""
if (($# ==0))
then
    echo "Usage: flvto3gp [flv files] ..."
    exit
fi

while (($# !=0 ))
do
        ffmpeg -i $1 -s 176x144 -vcodec h263 -r 28 -b 96k -ab 64 -acodec aac -ac 1 -ar 44100 $1.3gp
    shift
done
echo "Finished fakaping with flv-to-3gp converter"
echo "\"fakap all those nonsense!\""
echo ""

Make sure that you have ffmpeg and restricted codecs installed.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Installing DBDesigner4 on Kubuntu Gutsy

2008-01-20T01:11:00.006+08:00

DBDesigner4 is a visual database design system that integrates database design, modeling, creating, and maintenance into a single seamless environment.

DBDesigner4 is, in fact, comparable to products such as Oracle's Designer, IBM's Rational Rose, Computer Associate's ERwin, and theKompany's DataArchitect.
- http://www.fabforce.net/dbdesigner4/

DBDesigner4 an Open Source Software optimized for MySQL databases and is the next best thing to MySQL Workbench - which is based on DBDesigner4. Until MySQL release a Workbench for Linux, I guess we all have to settle for DBDesigner.

What to Download

The first thing you should decide on is what installer to download from http://fabforce.net/downloads.php. There's a Tarball, an RPM, and an EXE file for Windows.

The EXE installs and works great on WINE (if you have it installed). I haven't encountered any problem with this install - yet, not even performance issues. You should use this if you don't want to go through the hassle of troubleshooting DBDesigner. Just click on the installer to launch it on WINE. No need to launch it from the command-line.

But being a Linux aficionado, I preferred a tarball or rpm install though. The tarball's fine, just issue tar zxvf DBDesigner4.0.5.4.tar.gz to extract the files.

The RPM install is preferred if you want DBDesigner4 available to all users on your system. However, you'll need alien on Gutsy. This tutorial would go through installing DBDesigner4-0.5.4-0.i586.rpm.

Installing Alien

Issue the command: sudo aptitude install alien

Download DBDesigner4-0.5.4-0.i586.rpm

Download the RPM file here: http://fabforce.net/downloadfile.php?iddownloadfile=9

Install DBDesigner4-0.5.4-0.i586.rpm

Issue the command: sudo alien -i DBDesigner4-0.5.4-0.i586.rpm

libborqt-6.9-qt2.3.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

DBDesigner4 is installed on /opt/DBDesigner4, however, we wouldn't be able to launch it since it'll give you the libborqt error.

To fix this error, we need to download and copy libborqt-6.9-qt2.3.so to /usr/lib. Download the file at http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/kylixlibs/kylixlibs3-borqt-3.0-2.tar.gz?download

Extract it by issuing this command: tar xzvf kylixlibs3-borqt-3.0-2.tar.gz

Then copy the dependency to /usr/lib: sudo cp kylixlibs3-borqt/libborqt-6.9.0-qt2.3.so /usr/lib/libborqt-6.9-qt2.3.so

Now launch DBDesigner:

Fonts

The font is sucky, so you may need to change it to Helvetica-10 to make DBDesigner4 look more appealing.
Options > DBDesigner Options > Visual Options

Menu Entry

Create a Menu Entry using this values:
Name: DBDesigner4
Icon: /opt/DBDesigner4/Gfx/Icon48.xpm
Command: /opt/DBDesigner4/DBDesigner4

Unable to Load libsqlmy.so

When connecting to the database, you'll get this error:

To fix this, you need to go to http://crlab.com/dbx/download.html and download dbExpress driver for MySQL, Linux version 4.20

Then to extract the file, type: tar zxvf dbxmda.tar.gz

Then copy libsqlmda.so.4.20 to /usr/lib: sudo cp DbxMda/libsqlmda.so.4.20 /usr/lib
and run: sudo ldconfig

Then relaunch DBDesigner4.

Libmysqlclient.so Error

Some may encounter the unable to load libmysqlclient.so error. There's an incompatibility issue with libmysqlclient.so.15, so you'll need to download and install libmysqlclient.so.10.

Download the file at ftp://ftp.wesmo.com/pub/contributed/RPMS/MySQL-shared-compat-4.1.9-0.i386.rpm

Then install it: sudo alien -i MySQL-shared-compat-4.1.9-0.i386.rpm

Making changes globally

Open ~/.DBDesigner4/DBConn_DefaultSettings.ini in Kate and change the folowing:

GetDriverFunc=getSQLDriverMYSQL
LibraryNameLinux=libsqlmy.so
VendorLibLinux=libmysqlclient.so

to

GetDriverFunc=getSQLDriverMySQL
LibraryNameLinux=libsqlmda.so.4.20
VendorLibLinux=libmysqlclient.so.10

And there you go. Hope everything works for you. I know this is temporary, since we're only waiting for MySQL Workbench for Linux... right?

Blogged with Flock

Bluetooth Blues in Kubuntu Gutsy

2007-12-16T15:15:00.001+08:00

Got a replacement Bluetooth dongle from MSI only to find out that I can't send files from my Nokia phone to my Kubuntu Gutsy. Turns out that this bug has already been reported at https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/kdebluetooth/+bug/146145. So for those looking for a quick bluetooth fix, here's a little howto:

1) download kdebluetooth_1.0-beta8-0quickpackage_i386.deb from http://peppesbodega.nu/files/Packages

wget http://peppesbodega.nu/files/Packages/kdebluetooth_1.0-beta8-0quickpackage_i386.deb

2) cd to your download directory

3) Install it

dpkg -i kdebluetooth_1.0-beta8-0quickpackage_i386

Notes:
You have to uninstall kbluetooth and libkbluetooth prior to installing this package. Don't worry, this deb would installed it' patched packages.
If your system also uninstalls bluetooth, just reinstall it.

Blogged with Flock

Connecting to a MySQL Server remotely

2007-10-25T23:20:00.001+08:00

I've been working on a PHP code that uses MySQL DBs, and I've been doing it manually from Quanta and PHPMyAdmin. And everyone knows that coding in a browser is a very bad habit. I sure wish I have an IDE with MySQL Admin integrated in it. But before I go searching for that particular IDE, I wanted to make sure that I can access it from both my desktop and my laptop.

I'll be using MySQL Administrator for this tutorial and my MySQL server is hosted on Ubuntu Server Gutsy, subtle differences are expected (if any).

First, the error that'll show up would be this:

To determine if there's a firewall preventing access, try to ping it:

If you can't ping it, open port 3306


sudo iptables -A INPUT -i eth0 -p tcp -m tcp --dport 3306 -j ACCEPT

As I've said earlier, I have PHPMyAdmin installed, I used it to create 4 users for my laptop and my desktop. I made sure I have both the IP Address and Hostname in it. And since I wanted this to be an admin account, I granted it all privileges. Consult the help docs if you don't have PHPMyAdmin installed or if you want to do this manually.

Next up would be to edit /etc/mysql/my.cnf
Comment out bind = 127.0.0.1

Restart MySQL

And lastly, test it out:

I can now create, edit, and drop DBs/Tables from MySQL Administrator. I don't have any need for PHPMyAdmin now that I can access MySQL remotely so I removed it. I'll be searching for a PHP/MySQL IDE next.

Blogged with Flock

P3 733MHz Server and SSH

2007-10-16T17:26:00.001+08:00

I badly need a multi-purpose server to hone my skills and host my site and my files. So I converted my old P3 733MHz into a server. Good thing it only consumes 19.1 Watts, that'll help a lot with my Power bill. After I installed Ubuntu Gutsy RC1, I disabled everything else... CD-ROM Drive, USB, etc. etc. etc. The only thing running right now is the CPU, PSU, and my trusty old 20GB Hard Disk Drive.

After two days of configuring it, I finally got my server running. Had to wait for my DNS entry to propagate though, but it worked well once I got it up and running. So far, it's been running for 3 days straight, and it's as fast and cool as ever. I might need to take it offline next year though to clean the dust.

And lastly, I need to have it running headless. So I installed OpenSSH-server, imported my key to the authorized_keys file and configured it to only accept logins from me. However, before getting it to work flawlessly, I encountered one problem... it won't allow me to login. I keep on getting Permission denied error.

How did I know I have a permission problem? I checked /var/log/auth.log and saw this line:

Oct 16 16:38:25 t2798 sshd[29599]: Authentication refused: bad ownership or modes for directory /home/dax/.ssh

Since I imported my /home from an old HDD, I forgot to check it's permission. SSH is very particular about permissions. I fixed it by issuing this command:


server$ chmod go-w ~/
server$ chmod 700 ~/.ssh
server$ chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Blogged with Flock

Helping with Bugs

2007-10-01T21:36:00.001+08:00

It is common knowledge that Ubuntu gets hundreds of Bug Reports daily. And currently, we have around 32K Open Bugs.

http://people.ubuntu.com/~brian/graphs/
http://people.ubuntu.com/~brian/testing_graphs/

This is an invite to everyone fond of Ubuntu. Bug Reporting's one thing, but Triaging's another. Once a bug gets reported, it stays there. The Dev/Maintainer would be informed that he has an Open bug, and he may or may not choose to work on it. Sometimes, due to stress and workload, they don't even have the luxury of time to look at your report.

This is where Bug Triaging comes in. We mark duplicate bugs, ask for confirmation from users, and squeeze as much information from both users and reporters. Once we have everything we need, we mark it as Triaged and set the appropriate Priority. The dev/maintainer, no matter how busy he is, is now obligated to look into it. Fix it or replace the affected package with an updated one.

Of course, there will always be old bugs. Sometimes, we have Open Bugs as far back as 2005, and there's nothing we can do but close it and advise users to upgrade to the latest stable version.

This is how we control bugs. Join us, I know you'll have fun doing this.

Additional Resources:
Contribute to Ubuntu
BugSquad
Bug Responses
Bug Importance
How to Report Bugs
Effective Bug Reporting
Finding the Right Package
Getting Backtrace
Debugging Procedures

Blogged with Flock

Konversation: Error 65 and 3

2007-09-23T17:09:00.001+08:00

I haven't used Konversation for a few weeks, and when I did.. Konversation returned this error:
Server sent error 65: Access to restricted port in POST denied.
and
Server sent error 3: Could not start process Unable to create io-slave: klauncher said: Unknown protocol ". .

It's been like this for three weeks and I was forced to rely on IRSSI and IceApe's Chatzilla. My cravings for Konversation grew stronger that I finally ranted about this at #ubuntu-ph. I gave Jucato and Ahmuck this error:


0xffffe410 in ?? ()
#0  0xffffe410 in ?? ()
#1  0xbf909888 in ?? ()
#2  0xb79f1ff4 in ?? () from /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6
#3  0xbf909874 in ?? ()
#4  0xb793ee96 in nanosleep () from /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6
#5  0xb793eca7 in sleep () from /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6
#6  0xb744cad9 in KCrash::startDrKonqi () from /usr/lib/libkdecore.so.4
#7  0xb74634de in KCrash::defaultCrashHandler () from /usr/lib/libkdecore.so.4

and this


Failed to open device
konversation: WARNING: Cannot execute call to system.login: empty server URL
QGDict::hashKeyString: Invalid null key
QGDict::hashKeyString: Invalid null key
konversation: ERROR: : couldn't create slave : Unable to create io-slave:
klauncher said: Unknown protocol ''.
konversation:
konversation: ERROR: <qt>Server sent error 3: <b>Could not start process Unable to create io-slave:
klauncher said: Unknown protocol ''.
.</b></qt>
konversation: ERROR: <qt>Server sent error 3: <b>Could not start process Unable to create io-slave:
klauncher said: Unknown protocol ''.
.</b></qt>
konversation: WARNING: Cannot execute call to addressbook.boaddressbook.search: empty server URL
konversation: WARNING: Cannot execute call to addressbook.boaddressbook.categories: empty server URL
konversation: WARNING: Cannot execute call to addressbook.boaddressbook.customfields: empty server URL
dax@knightlust:~$ QGDict::hashKeyString: Invalid null key
konversation: ERROR: : couldn't create slave : Unable to create io-slave:
klauncher said: Unknown protocol ''.
konversation:
QGDict::hashKeyString: Invalid null key
konversation: ERROR: : couldn't create slave : Unable to create io-slave:
klauncher said: Unknown protocol ''.
konversation:
KCrash: Application 'konversation' crashing...

It was Jucato who asked the maintainer of Konversation (Sho) what's happening.


 Jucato: That has something to do with the KAddressBook integration, from the looks of it
 Jucato: My guess is that he's using eGroupWare or IMAP to store his address book on a server, and something goes wrong in KIMProxy
 Jucato: If it's a dialog box, you can be fairly sure it's not Konversation, we don't use them
 Jucato: "kresources/egroupware/kabc_resourcexmlrpc.cpp: QString msg = i18n( "Server sent error %1: %2" ).arg( error ).arg( errorMsg );" btw
 from kdepim
 Jucato: Perhaps he set up eGroupware, but removed eGroupWare again but forgot to remove the resources in Kontact/KAddressBook

So there it is.... the solution to my problem. Sho was right.. I used (past tense) eGroupware and forgot to delete any reference to it from KAddressbook.

I deleted it.. and it worked. Ha! I said my goodbye to Chatzilla (no.. I'm still fond of IRSSI) and went to bed. This all happened last night.

For those curious how to remove the XML-RPC entry in KAddressbook, just go to Settings > Show Extension > Address Books. That's where you delete it.

Blogged with Flock

Gutsy - Firefox is disappointing

2007-09-15T20:17:00.001+08:00

Since Gutsy Tribe 3, Firefox never really worked. Oh sure, the Addons installs and allows me to surf, but that's it. Everytime I open the Preference window, Bookmark a site, or even download a file... it just crashes. As long as I open a window in Firefox (except Organize Bookmarks and Download windows), I really can't stop Firefox from crashing.

It's been over two months now, and frankly, I'm disappointed. I have Flock installed, but I'm still craving for the red fox! Today, after working on a few (around 15) tabs, it crashed again... and lost 2 hours of work. I keep on forgetting that working in a browser is a bad idea. I'm fed up! I just uninstalled it and will probably wait for the Beta release before I try it out again. I'm now working with IceApe as my primary browser and glad that it's stable enough for me to do my thing.

Come to think of it, it's been a while (like more than a month) since I last saw any updates on Firefox.... I don't know what the hell the Mozilla Team's doing, but I just signed up on their list and will help on my free time. Need my addiction satisfied.

Blogged with Flock

Confused and Irritated

2007-09-09T01:20:00.001+08:00

Recent life-changing events forced me to contemplate on my life and my priorities. After being a bum for a few months - with funds fast depleting - I decided it's now time to get myself a day job. I'm well rested and very much eager to interact with the corporate world again. Let's get it on!

The confused and irritated part was caused by a surprise. This shit happens, and I'm just a victim of synchronicity. But I'll also face it head on!

When I need think, I usually get a piece of paper and a pencil and write down what I can and cannot do. And since I'm stuck in front of my laptop, I'll be doing that right here, right now. I've been using the SWOT method for a long time now, but this time I'll just focus on strengths and weaknesses and my computing and management skills.

Strengths:
System Administration

LAMP
eGroupware and PHPGroupware
Dovecot
Postfix
Sendmail
Dancer IRCD
Subversion
Installation and Configuration of Debian, Ubuntu, and Fedora
IRC Bots (Eggdrop and Supybot)
DNS Administration via EditDNS and DynDNS
SSH and FTP Configuration
Samba
Drupal, Joomla, Mambo, e107, PHP-Fusion
Wordpress
Moodle
Search Engine Optimization
Software Testing and Quality Improvement
Exposure to Open Source Processes
LAN Networking
Software/Computer Forensics
PGP and SSH

Programming

C++
PHP & HTML
KDevelop
NetBeans
Anjuta
Geany
MS Visual C++ 6

Management

Managing Accelerated Performance (MAP)
Knowledge Management
Project Management
Performance Management
Six Sigma Training
Risk Management

Weakness:
System Administration

Cyrus and Courier Email Servers
Kolab, Scalix, and Zimbra
Jabber
Asterisk
BIND
JBoss
Novell/SUSE and Red Hat
LDAP
Kerberos
SpamAssasin
ClamAV
Squid
IPTables
Sugar CRM (or any CRM Applications)
Tiny ERP (or any ERP Applications)
Chrooted/Jailed Accounts
Virtual Email Accounts using MySQL
Clustering
Solaris
WebSphere and Domino
MSSQL
LTSP
WAN Installation and Management

Programming

MS Visual C++ 6, I've relied heavily on this.
C++ skill not enough, at least for Linux.
PHP skill not enough
Java
Any Scripting Language

Management

Not enough experience

So there it is.... based on the list above, I guess I'll have more chances of getting a Sys Admin job. But also based on the list above, there's a lot more stuff I need to learn before I consider myself qualified to be a Sys Admin.

Now the hard part, it's Baguio. There's very, very few companies who use Unix/Linux for their servers, much less for their workstations. I'll see what I can do. But for now, and the next couple of days, I'll be very busy studying and working on my skills.

Blogged with Flock

Limits.conf

2007-09-05T22:35:00.001+08:00

Setting limits on what processes can be very helpful for those testing out various distributions - Gutsy in my case. There will always be rogue applications spawning tens, sometimes hundreds, of same processes due to bugs. And this almost always happens on Alpha versions. So beware. If you're not up to it, DO NOT INSTALL AN ALPHA VERSION!

Here's one of the tips I learned. You see, a bug in KMail caused it to create multiple KMail processes. If you don't set a limit, it'll slow down your system. Worse, your system would freeze rendering it unusable. Here's how you set limits on running processes.

Edit /etc/security/limits.conf as root and append the following lines.

* soft nproc 200
* hard nproc 300

When you hit the 200th process, it'll warn you.
And your system won't allow you to go beyond 300 processes.

This is very, very useful for shell providers. You can even limit a user to 5 or even 2 processes. But for a tester like me, 300 processes is enough. It'll make sure I can run all the programs I need without worrying about rogue apps going nuts all over my system.

Blogged with Flock

Setting up Subdomain in Apache2 and EditDNS

2007-09-02T00:10:00.001+08:00

So, you want to setup a sub-domain? There's 2 things you need to do.

Configure Apache2
Add a Sub-domain to your EditDNS account (or your domain providers' control panel)

Configuring EditDNS
You should setup a subdomain on EditDNS first. Why, because it'll take time to propogate. That'll give you enough time to edit Apache's configuration files.

Before doing anything, make sure you can access your domain. If you can, then let's go ahead and create a sub-domain.

In the Record Name, type in subdomain.yourdomain.com
In the Type, select CNAME
Leave AUX and TTL alone
In the IP/Host, type in yourdomain.com
Click Add
Repeat as needed

Here's my EditDNS Entry. I added blog, bugs, forum, learn, and wiki to my account.

Apache2 Configuration
Launch your favorite text editor and edit the default file as root. The file is in the /etc/apache2/sites-available.

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/default
kdesu kate /etc/apache2/sites-available/default

And append this to the file:
<VirtualHost *>
        DocumentRoot "/var/www/subdomain/kb/"
        ServerName kb.knightlust.com
        ServerAdmin dax@knightlust.com
        ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/kb.log

        <Directory /var/www/subdomain/kb/>
                Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews +Includes
                AllowOverride None
                Order allow,deny
                allow from all
        </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Explanation:

The DocumentRoot should be pointed to the directory where you installed your site or script. And it should be enclosed in quotation marks. Don't forget that.
ServerName should have your subdomain
ServerAdmin and ErrorLog is optional.
The <Directory> should also be pointed to where you installed your site or script.

Here's mine:

And here's for my other subdomains. So you see, just edit the entry above to fit your configuration.

Now before you reload Apache2, you need to make sure that the default file is linked in /etc/apache2/sites-enabled. Otherwise, it just won't work.

If there's no linked file there, issue this command:
sudo a2ensite default

Once everything's done, go ahead and reload Apache:
sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 reload

Blogged with Flock

Setting Up Dancer-IRCD in Kubuntu

2007-08-31T19:22:00.001+08:00

Definition of IRC:
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a form of real-time Internet chat or synchronous conferencing. It is mainly designed for group (many-to-many) communication in discussion forums called channels, but also allows one-to-one communication and data transfers via private message.

IRC was created by Jarkko "WiZ" Oikarinen in late August 1988 to replace a program called MUT (MultiUser talk) on a BBS called OuluBox in Finland. Oikarinen found inspiration in a chat system known as Bitnet Relay, which operated on the BITNET.

IRC gained prominence when it was used to report on the Soviet coup attempt of 1991 throughout a media blackout. It was previously used in a similar fashion by Kuwaitis during the Iraqi invasion. Relevant logs are available from ibiblio archive.

IRC client software is available for virtually every computer operating system.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Relay_Chat

What is Dancer-IRCD:
An IRC server designed for centrally maintained networks This is the ircd designed for use on OpenProjects Net (www.openprojects.net), based on the hybrid ircd used by efnet. It attempts to handle the network transparently as a unit, and to provide features to support the OPN philosophy. This package contains the main binary files.

Reference: http://linux.about.com/cs/linux101/g/dancerircd.htm

Requirements:

I'm using Kubuntu Gutsy, but it'll work fine with Debian Sarge & Etch, and Ubuntu Edgy, Feisty, and Dapper.. with or without a desktop environment.
You need to have an Internet connection so you can download dancer-ircd and dancer-services. If you don't have a connection, secure those packages via AptOnCD.
Text Editor, Gedit or Nano would do fine
Sudo or Root Access so you can modify the Dancer files residing in /etc

Installation:
via Command Line: sudo aptitude install dancer-ircd dancer-services
via Synaptic and/or Adept: see Synaptic and Adept Documentation

Configuration:
In this article, we need to configure 2 files /etc/dancer-ircd/ircd.conf and /etc/dancer-services/services.conf. They should be opened as root by your favorite text editor, may it be Gedit, Nano, or in my case, Kate.

We also need an IRC client to test it out. It can be GAIM or Pidgin, Konversation, Chatzilla, or Ksirc. I'll be using the Ksirc in this article.

/etc/dancer-ircd/dancer-ircd:
In line 48, change it to:
M:localhost.: :dancer-services localhost:

In line 314, change it to:
C:127.0.0.1:P@ssw0rD:services.
where P@ssw0rD is Your Password. Please change it accordingly.

In line 315, change it to
N:127.0.0.1:REMEMBER:services.
Trust me, you have to place REMEMBER on this line, this is temporary until we get our hashed password.

Hashed Password:
Open a text editor and place your password there. Please make sure you don't include a space after your password and do not hit the Enter key. Save it as password in your home directory.

Open a terminal window and type this command:
makepasswd --crypt-md5 --clearfrom password

Now you have there your Hashed password. Copy this string and replace the REMEMBER word on line 315 with this.
Line 315: N:127.0.0.1:$1$CdjQLLLa$/Mq69SSgCK/wtyNo/eIuw/:services.

Please take note that if you run the makepasswd command again, it'll spit out a completely different string. Don't worry, this works either way. It's a hashed result, so it will be a different string everytime you run the command.

/etc/dancer-services/services.conf:
In line 10, replace it with the following:
A:Dax Solomon Umaming <dax@knightlust.com>
Obviously, it's the Operator's username and password

In line 17, replace it with the following:
N:services.:dancer-services

In line 28, replace it with the following:
S:P@ssw0rD:127.0.0.1:6667
Again, please replace the password with your own.
If you want to use another port, do so here.

In line 57, replace it with the following:
O:~dax@127.0.0.1:REMEMBER:Knightlust:segjO
Replace the REMEMBER string with your hashed password
O:~dax@127.0.0.1:$1$CdjQLLLa$/Mq69SSgCK/wtyNo/eIuw/:Knightlust:segjO
Also replace Knightlust with the nick you plan on using with this server

In line 62 $ 63, replace it with the channel you want OperServ to monitor.
C:#baguio
C:#support-ph
Please take note that this is Optional.

In line 130, replace it with the following:
M:localhost:6667:127.0.0.1:6667:1m 4s

Testing:
Before firing up your favorite IRC client, make sure you double-check your settings. Once you're done, restart dancer-ircd and dancer-services.

sudo /etc/init.d/dancer-ircd restart
sudo /etc/init.d/dancer-services restart

In my system, there's a zlib warning, don't you worry about this. This may be bug, and I'll report this in Launchpad. After restarting dancer-ircd and dancer-services, launch your favorite IRC browser and try connecting to localhost:6667

If you have the following results, then you know that your IRCD's working. Now let's test dancer-services by issuing this command.

/msg nickserv register

If NickServ responded to the above command, then you know that dancer-services works. You're also sure that OperServ, ChanServ, and MemoServ's working.

So that's it.. congratulations. You now have an IRC server for your friends, family, and/or your business.

If you need other Dancer's advanced features, please consult the documentation.

Blogged with Flock

eGroupware Screenshots

2007-08-31T15:24:00.001+08:00

Been wanting to install a groupware suite for a few weeks now, and I was able to last Tuesday. I went from eGroupware to Kolab to PHPGroupware to Scalix to Zimbra to OpenGroupware, and then finally, back to eGroupware.

I've been eyeing Kolab but I just didn't know how to configure it. I installed it from the repository, and then spent a day looking for ways to configure it, but failed. The Kolab Documentation failed to help me as well. And there's no article anywhere regarding Kolab installation in the Ubuntu forums and wiki. As for the others, some allowed me to install it, some won't. Some allowed me login, some won't - even with correct usernames and passwords. I gave up and went back to eGroupware - the only application from the repository which allowed me to install, login, and configure. It's very sluggish, mind you, but I still need a groupware suite. I'm just afraid that the developers might've compromised speed over user-friendliness. But who cares, I'll rarely use it. What matters is the email via IMAP (which works like a charm in eGroupware) and its' XMLRPC'd calendar. Which me and Jucato would be using to keep track of each other's schedules.

I'll probably spend a few hours configuring eGroupware, but that's just aesthetics. I'll probably do it on a weekend. Here's a few screenshots.

Here's the Home:

Here's the Email Page

Here's the Calendar

Here's the Addressbook

Here's the Project Manager

Here's the TimeSheet

Here's the File Manager

And here's the Site Demo Page

We also have a Work Flow module

a Wiki

And here's the the Site Manager

News Administration

And lastly, the Knowledge Base

There's a lot more modules available, but I disabled them because I know we won't use it - at least not in the near future. And the screenshots, here, it ain't much. But that's because I haven't populated it with data. Oh, I'll use them alright, but not right now. Also, I love the Project Manager module. It still lacks features found in TaskJuggler and KPlato, but it's enough for collaborative uses.

Now if only I can tweak this to make it faster. It is, afterall, soooo slow.

Blogged with Flock

Postfix and Dovecot Configuration Files

2007-08-31T14:50:00.001+08:00

Here's my Postfix and Dovecot Configuration. I'll be using this once I install Hardy.

man.cf
home_mailbox = Maildir/

dovecot.conf
protocols = imaps pop3s
pop3_uidl_format = %08Xu%08Xv
mail_location = maildir:~/Maildir
imap_client_workarounds = tb-extra-mailbox-sep

Creating skel for future users
maildirmake.dovecot /etc/skel/Maildir
maildirmake.dovecot /etc/skel/Maildir/.Drafts
maildirmake.dovecot /etc/skel/Maildir/.Sent
maildirmake.dovecot /etc/skel/Maildir/.Trash
maildirmake.dovecot /etc/skel/Maildir/.Templates

Creating Maildir for existing users
cp -r /etc/skel/Maildir /home/myuser/
chown -R myuser:usergroup /home/myuser/Maildir
chmod -R 700 /home/myuser/Maildir

Reference:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Dovecot

Blogged with Flock

New in KMail - for Kubuntu Gutsy fans

2007-08-30T20:42:00.001+08:00

After this morning's update, the Basket bug was fixed. Bad news, the fix introduced a new bug - KMail crashing when pasting. Better news, KMail has a new feature. It's reminiscent of MS Office's Outlook.

Blogged with Flock

Subversion Howto - WebDav and SVNServe

2007-08-30T20:12:00.001+08:00

It's been a couple of days since I've setup Subversion in my box. I'm posting this for future reference... I'll be reinstalling Kubuntu when the Next Alpha version comes out, and No... I'm not talking about Gutsy, I'm already using it. Most of the instructions here came from the Subversion article of the Ubuntu Documentation.

Preparation

Add svn group
Add my username and www-data as users of the group

sudo mkdir /var/svn
cd /var
sudo chown -R www-data svn
sudo chgrp -R svn svn
sudo chmod -R g+rws svn
sudo svnadmin create /var/svn

WebDAV Configuration
I need this so I can access my Subversion using the http:// protocol

Install libapache2-svn
Append the following into /etc/apache2/mods-available/dav_svn.conf

<Location /svn> DAV svn SVNPath /var/svn AuthType Basic AuthName "Subversion Repository" AuthUserFile /etc/subversion/passwd <LimitExcept GET PROPFIND OPTIONS REPORT> Require valid-user </LimitExcept> </Location>

Restart Apache2: sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
Add user: sudo htpasswd -c /etc/subversion/passwd username

SVN Configuration
svnserve.conf
[general]
anon-access = read
auth-access = write
password-db = passwd
authz-db = authz
realm = Subversion Repository

passwd
[users]
user = password

authz
[/]
user =rw
* = r

/etc/init.d/svn
#!/bin/bash
svnserve -d -r /var/svn

Done!
So there it is, I've been accessing my Subversion by using both http and svn protocols. But I just might drop WebDAV access on my next reinstall. Frankly, it's redundant.

Blogged with Flock

Enabing mod_rewrite for Drupal 5.1 in Kubuntu

2007-08-30T19:12:00.001+08:00

By default, Drupal have those annoying ?q= in the URL but you can disable them by configuring apache2.conf and enabling mod_rewrite. Why do we need to disable them? Search Engine Optimization.... the ?q= is the bane of SEO marketers and Search Engine bots sometimes skip sites with ?q= in the URL.

Enabling mod_rewrite
Issue the following command:

sudo a2enmod rewrite

That command will add the rewrite.load file to /etc/apache2/mods-enabled directory. To check if it's loaded, issue the command:

apache2ctl -M

Copy the Rewrite Engine
Append the following into your /etc/apache2/apache2.conf file.

<Directory /var/www/>
   RewriteEngine on
   RewriteBase /
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
   RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?q=$1 [L,QSA]
</Directory>

Restart Apache
Issue the following command:

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Configure Drupal's Clean URL
Go to Administer > Site Configuration > Clean URLs
Click the Run the clean URL test link.

Success
If successful, the page below would show up, and would now allow you to Enable Clean URLs. Click the Save configuration button after you're done.

Don't forget the Path Module
Don't forget to enable the Path Module in Administer > Site Building > Modules
This will allow you to change the URL of a page.

Problems I encountered

The Clean URLs Handbook is too (and I mean too) generic. And I'll bet new Ubuntu users wouldn't understand what the hell that is.
The Option A in the handbook doesn't work. No matter what I do. I've tried re-reading the said handbook and re-configuring the apache2.conf but I still failed to make it work.

Blogged with Flock

EditDNS Howto in Kubuntu

2007-08-30T16:25:00.001+08:00

I've been using EditDNS' services for a couple of months now, and I'm happy it's reliable. However, few people has asked me how to go about setting it up on a system with Dynamic IP address, and walking them through setting it up has consumed much of my time. That's why I'm writing this little howto.

Requirements:

you have Web Server installed. This may be Apache or Lighttp. Of course, assuming you wanted a web server. If you intend to use it for to host IRC, SVN, POP3, IMAP, etc. then you should have a server application for that as well.
your system should be accessible from the outside network. Try surfing to your IP address. If you don't know your IP address, go to http://whatismyip.com/. Also, just to make sure, ask a friend to surf using your IP address too.
if you can't access your PC from the outside, try checking your firewall. Better yet, disable it for the mean time.
if you still can't access your PC even with firewall disabled, check your router. Configure to forward port 80 (again, assuming you're setting up a web server) to your system. Check your router documentation, and please don't ask me.
get an account with EditDNS. There's no sense following this article if you don't have one.
if you have a domain, contact your domain provider regarding changing your Nameserver.

Instructions for Adding a Domain:
1. Login to EditDNS and skip the Help Us Spread the Word page.

2. Login to your domain provider's Control Panel and point the nameservers to:

ns1.us.editdns.net
ns2.us.editdns.net
ns3.us.editdns.net

3. Add a domain.. that is, if you have one. We'll go through adding a Sub-Domain later.

4. Add a DynDNS Record

5. On the Dynamic DNS Record Page, type in a password then place a check mark on your two domains listed below. Leave the "New DynRecord record (Optional):" blank. Click the Add button.

6. Verify settings.

7. Now check if it'll update by going to this website:

http://dyndns.editdns.net/api/dynLinux.php?p=password&r=knightlust.com

Please make sure you change the password and the knightlust.com with your details.

It should have one entry: Record has been updated. Now do the same thing for the other domain.

http://dyndns.editdns.net/api/dynLinux.php?p=password&r=www.knightlust.com

8. Get back to the EditDNS page and refresh it. Make sure the IP/Host is also updated. If it's updated, then you know it's working.

9. Install lynx, you don't need it, but the next step does.

sudo aptitude install lynx

10. Create a text file with the following entries:

#!/bin/bash
lynx -source "http://dyndns.editdns.net/api/dynLinux.php?p=password&r=knightlust.com" lynx -source "http://dyndns.editdns.net/api/dynLinux.php?p=password&r=www.knightlust.com"

Save the text file as editdns. We need this so it'll update EditDNS records every time you reboot or start this computer.

11. Move the editdns file to /etc/init.d

sudo mv editdns /etc/init.d

12. Create a symbolic link to /etc/rcS.d

sudo ln -s /etc/init.d/editdns /etc/rcS.d/S90editdns

Notes:
- Wait for at least 4 hours for your domain to propogate. Don't expect it to work right after setting it up.
- You may also add No. 10 to your crontab, instead of placing it into /etc/init.d and /etc/rcS.d.
- If your ISP changes your IP address while online, you don't have to reboot your system. Just issue the command:

sudo /etc/init.d/editdns

Instructions for Adding a Sub-Domain:

1. Login to EditDNS and skip the Help Us Spread the Word page.

2. Type in a sub-domain that you want. Then click the Add button

3. Click the left [x] to modify it. And don't mind the "You currently don't have any domain names." message, I think it's a bug.

4. Add a new DynRecord.

5. Enter a password and place a check mark on your Record Name, just below the Add column. Then click the Add button.

6. Verify Settings.

7. Now check if it'll update by going to this website:

http://dyndns.editdns.net/api/dynLinux.php?p=password&r=dax.mydyn.net

Please make sure you change the password and the dax.mydyn.net with your details.

8. Get back to the EditDNS page and refresh it. Make sure the IP/Host is also updated. If it's updated, then you know it's working.

9. Install lynx, you don't need it, but the next step does.

sudo aptitude install lynx

10. Create a text file with the following entries:

#!/bin/bash
lynx -source "http://dyndns.editdns.net/api/dynLinux.php?p=password&r=dax.mydyn.net"
Save the text file as editdns. We need this so it'll update EditDNS records every time you reboot or start this computer.

11. Move the editdns file to /etc/init.d

sudo mv editdns /etc/init.d

12. Create a symbolic link to /etc/rcS.d

sudo ln -s /etc/init.d/editdns /etc/rcS.d/S90editdns

Notes:
- Wait for at least 4 hours for your domain to propogate. Don't expect it to work right after setting it up.
- You may also add No. 10 to your crontab, instead of placing it into /etc/init.d and /etc/rcS.d.
- If your ISP changes your IP address while online, you don't have to reboot your system. Just issue the command:

sudo /etc/init.d/editdns

Additional Notes:
It is not required to have a DynRecord for knightlust.com and www.knightlust.com. A single DynRecord for knightlust.com is enough. Just make sure to CNAME www.knightlust.com. If you choose this option, then you may remove the second entry from /etc/init.d/editdns.

Blogged with Flock

Personal SVN Repository

2007-08-27T13:25:00.001+08:00

After a few days of intensive testing (importing, deleting, and committing), I finally have a stable Subversion Repository. I'll be using this to manage my and Jucato's codes. Yeah, we're code-buddies - if there's such a term.
It's stored on my /var partition with around 7GB of free disk space and can be accessed using the Command-line or by using a client. The address is:

However, after three weeks, you should access it using http://knightlust.com/svn or svn://knightlust.com since I'll be linking my domain name to my box.

This has a few drawbacks though, since I don't have a dedicated server, the site will go offline whenever I go to sleep. Hey, I can't afford a 24/7 workstation *slash* server since my box eats a lot of power... Translation? Electricity bill! But after a few months time, I'll go get myself a mini-itx fanless box that'll act as my server. It only eats up less than 18 watts and will greatly help with my utility bills. Until that time though, I cannot provide a 24/7 uptime. Heh!

Blogged with Flock

TP-Link TL-R860 Screenshots

2007-08-27T12:56:00.001+08:00

Here's a few (actually a lot) of screenshots regarding my router, a TP-Link Model No. TL-R860. It's a wired 8-port router. I've posted screenshots so people would have an idea of its' features.

The manual for the router is in the mini/business-card CD that comes with the package - a long with a lot more manuals for their other products. If for some reason you misplaced it, you can download a copy by clicking on the link below.

TL-R860 User Guide.pdf 2.4 Mb

Default router address is http://192.168.1.1/

This is the router home page.

And this is actually my favorite part. The router supports only three configurations... Dynamic IP, Static IP, and PPPPoE. If you have PLDT, select Dynamic IP and click on Next. You'll be connected right after. But if your ISP supports PPPoE, then you have to select it, then enter your Username and Password. Don't worry, it just works(tm)... And lastly, if you have a business account and subscribed to two or more IP Address, select Static IP and input the necessary details. The details SHOULD be provided by your ISP... NOT ME! So please don't bug me regarding this!
I know this is common sense - but trust me, a lot of people don't know and expect those that have the same hardware to have the same configuration as theirs.

One of the main features of this router is Security. My Kubuntu's moonlighting as a multi-purpose server, and I need to open a few ports so my friends can access my box from the outside. Oh, this router is like Ubuntu, it has no open ports by default making your network un-crackable from the outside.
This feature right here would direct incoming traffic to my workstation. It won't affect my other two system.

You do have to be careful with this though. Since enabling DMZ would open a workstation to the world with all ports open. If you decide to use this feature, don't forget to install a firewall. I recommend GuardDog, FWBuilder, or Firestarter. I for one uses Firestarter because of one feature - real-time monitoring - that GuardDog and FWBuilder doesn't have.

If you want to administer this page from the outside, you have to configure it here. But if you have a Dynamic IP, then I'm afraid it won't work.

I'm using EditDNS, too bad it's not included in the list of Service Providers. I might sign up with DynDNS soon, but I still have to compare features. For now, EditDNS would suffice.

If you make any changes, Back it up from this page. You won't regret it. Especially if you "accidentally" reset the router. At least you wouldn't have to start from reconfiguring it from scratch.

And oh, don't forget to change Username and Password. People tend to overlook this, what they don't know is that a simple configuration would help a great deal securing their network.

Blogged with Flock

TP-Link TL-R860

2007-08-26T00:30:00.001+08:00

Two weeks ago, I got myself a shiny new router so I can maximize my 1Mbps connection. I've been looking for a cheap one, and I managed to find one at Enigma Technologies. When shopping here in Baguio, I only go to two shops, Sigmatex and Enigma Technologies. I got my router at Enigma because it's only walking distance from my house.

It costs PhP1,800 and it's a wired router with 8 ports - plenty of room for upgrades. I might even resurrect my old P166 and P200 PC's if I need it. Nah, I didn't get a wireless router for one reason - I don't need it. So even though friends kept on pushing me to buy a wireless, I still settled for an 8-port wired one. And I haven't regretted it.

And here it is with my PLDT router (Zyxel P-600 Series - Model No. P-660R-D1)

I'll be posting my route configuration next, for FYI purposes.

Blogged with Flock

New Setup

2007-08-26T00:03:00.001+08:00

I've had a new setup two weeks ago. I just wanted to experiment with the arrangement first before I decide to publish this. But, as usual, I didn't have the time to redecorate and just decided to stick with my new and current setup/arrangement.

I placed all of my computers in the living room. This way, I have access to all three of them. This is my main machine, two weeks ago, I installed Gutsy Tribe 3.

And this is my other workstation, it's right beside my main one. I reinstalled Xubuntu Feisty on this one. Needed it for testing and advocacy stuff.

This is how it looks like if I step back.

And yeah, that's my kid watching something in YouTube and browsing Disney.com.
And she's also using Xubuntu! Now tell me again, you don't want to use Linux because it's hard? Then how come my 3 year old daughter's using it. Don't tell me you're just too damn stupid!

Blogged with Flock

SVN, Dancer-IRCD, Dictd, Autoconf, and Flashplugin-Nonfree!

2007-08-21T22:23:00.001+08:00

I just got back from hunting fanless PSUs in our city. And I just can't find one. But I did manage to setup subversion. Too bad i can't make it work to connect via svn://. I guess I have to use webdav. This is the first time i'll extensively use a version control system to store my codes. But I'm sure it'll be worth the extra effort i put into it. Once I'm done setting it up. I'll start reading the book Practical Subversion and the ebook svnbook from red-bean.com.

Dancer-IRCD's also setup and working fine. I just can't make Dancer-Services' recognize me as an Operator. I probably need to open more man-pages to get it to recognize me. And no, it's not the password. Heh!

I also uninstalled Dictd. I don't find any need for it now or in the near future. It'll free up some much needed resources.

Oh, and autoconf & autoconf2.13 shouldn't be installed at the same time on Gutsy. KDevelop won't work with v2.13 and my system prioritizes v2.13 over v2.61. I'm curious though, shouldn't Ubuntu be smart enough to know that newer versions gets priority over older ones? And shouldn't it be smart enough to tell me that I don't need it.

And lastly, I found out Opera 9.23 doesn't work with flashplugin-nonfree (v9). It seems that the said plugin only works with GTK browsers like Firefox and SeaMonkey/IceApe. No matter what we do, it just won't load in Konqueror and Opera - both Qt browsers.

Blogged with Flock

Packaging and Testing in Ubuntu Gutsy

2007-08-13T18:12:00.001+08:00

I've been wanting to dabble in Packaging for Ubuntu. Especially after seeing that Flock - my favorite social browser - isn't available. So I took my printed copy of Ubuntu Packaging Guide and started following the instructions there. I managed to Debianize the Hello, world! program, but it's not enough! I need Flock.

I've searched for Flock's source code but found that it's already Debianized. Too bad, but I won't give up. Especially since it's not yet avaible for Ubuntu. I'll probably work with Firefox and compare my work with the production copy. That'll get me going. Then I'll start working with Flock. I'll be using Debian's copy for comparison. Well, I'll get right on with it once I'm done with Igobot, Irssi, and Vim. Probably after a day or two.

So for those who want to contribute by Packaging applications, I suggest you look into this two guides:

Look no further. Don't pollute your mind and waste your time with other references, manuals, and guides. These two guides are the only thing you need when starting out. Why? Because it's comprehensive and will point you to another manual When you're ready and When you need it. Focus! Just focus on these two guides.

And for those with slow Internet connection, download the packaged guides by issuing this command:

sudo aptitude install packaging-guide maint-guide

And then access them using Firefox here:

To prevent Dependency issues, setup a Chroot(ed) Environment. Go through the manual and package the Hello, world! program, but once you're done, set it up immediately. Trust me, you'll need it. You don't want to mess up your system now, do you? It can be accessed here:

Chroot Environment

Next up is Testing Gutsy. I've started testing out development versions of Ubuntu starting with Feisty Beta 2. With Gutsy, I installed Tribe 3. And I think I'll make it a habit from now on. I'll probably start with Tribe 2 everytime a new release is out.

Why do I want to do this? Let's face it, Ubuntu needs testers. We need you. In order to make sure that Ubuntu's final release is stable, we need Ubuntu tested on different hardware with different conditions and environments. I've used Windows, and I found that Alpha releases are reminiscent of Windows. I'm not kidding. There are even times when it's stable(r) than Windows. Point here is, I wanted to make sure that the Ubuntu you'll install on your system works. By installing development releases, I get to discover bugs which I'll be reporting, and which will get fixed before the next release.

This is how I contribute to the community. Besides, since I'm starting development work, the exposure is beneficial for me. If you're interested in helping out Gutsy, check out this forum post here. It's very informative.

Blogged with Flock

Shellshock shell, Vim, Igobot, and Irssi!

2007-08-13T17:14:00.001+08:00

Got myself a spankin' new shell from Daniel Arbogast at http://shellshock.homeunix.net/ and I've been pretty busy setting up Igobot. It actually took me an hour to setup Dancer-IRCD and a day to setup Dancer-Services on my system (so I can test and configure Igobot without disrupting Freenode). Then another 2 days to get Igobot and the plugins right. I know, a day setting up Dancer-Services is too much, and I'm glad I found The Golden Ear which helped me out. But I still took a few more hours to set it up correctly. I'm clueless about it's authentication. And you know me, I'm not a fan of manpages.

As for Igobot, after two days of testing it on my Dancer, I'm happy to say that my new eggdrop's ready for #support-ph and #ubuntu-ph. But then again, Murphy's Law in effect. My shell won't let me run it. Keeps on saying "No config file or Error" or something like that. That's it, no other errors except that! I asked #egghelp for help but only got unhelpful replies. I checked out the forum but I didn't get answers there either. So I asked Daniel if he's had users running eggdrop - he replied that it's working fine with his users - and then asked permission if I could compile my own Eggdrop - and he said yes! (a fine guy and very helpful). So there it is, I compiled and got Eggdrop running in a matter of minutes. Didn't take me long to get it to #support-ph and #ubuntu-ph. But I changed my mind, I have to recompile it so I could bypass the 9-character limit on usernames. I killed the first one, then recompiled, and then got the 32-character limit bot!

Then I saw two Igobots on the two channels. WTF? Damn, I should've deleted my crontab since it resurrected Igobot. PS aux doesn't show, so I let it run hoping it'll get killed somehow. I ghosted it in Nickserv, but it keeps on coming back! Damn freakin' ghost! After a few minutes, me and Glitch were surprised that Igobot logged off. Boo-Yah! I got my Igobot, configured it to recognize me as its owner and configured it the Google and Weather plugin to work. Then I added voiced users (#support-ph is moderated) and Ops (Dekoy, Mangz74, Pepesmith, and Jucato for #support-ph and Jsgotanco, Zakame, Irvin, Jucato, Dous, and Ulinskie for #ubuntu-ph - that is if they'll ever need Igobot for administrative purposes) I'm done! I'll be configuring and documenting the other plugins once I have time.

Now on with Vim. Vim is Shellshock's default editor. And I gotta learn Vim. It'll be a pain in the ass, but I'm sure it's worth it. Sure, I can always Fish the file in Konqueror and edit it using Kate on my system, but I know it'll be faster if I edit it directly on the shell. Beside's it'll conserve Shellshock's system resources if I do it there. And I get to learn Vim.

Shellshock has Screen, and I've been using it for IRC purposes too. Most notably IRSSI. This way, I'm on Freenode's nine channels 24/7 - the 10th channel is reserved for Igobot, you know, admin purposes. I'm starting to like IRSSI. The split window, the plugins, and those damn aliases. I do need to figure out though how to alias /msg chanserv to /cs and /msg nickserv to /ns. heh! It's very modular and intuitive. I like it more than BitchX - which ignores flooders like chanserv and nickserv's informative help replies.

So, a toast to Shellshock. You've been very helpful to me. I'll surely donate a few bucks to help the this excellent service.

Blogged with Flock

Port Scans

2007-08-12T20:48:00.001+08:00

I've honestly never used a firewall before in Kubuntu (or on my Xubuntu system), frankly because I don't need it. Well, at least I've never found any reason to use it. But now that my system's open to anyone (used SmartBro before that forces subscribers behind NAT), I don't want to risk a break-in, especially after being informed that Ubuntu is indeed crack-able for systems with open ports... and I've been hosting servers on my system (for learning purposes mostly- LAMP, IRCD, Jabber, Telnet, SMTP, POP3, etc. etc.).

I first installed Guardog but uninstalled it the next day since I found TSL'd SMTP connection via port 465 and/or 587 - Gmail!

I next installed FWBuilder. It's a really nice application and it did secure my system, but lacks graphical monitoring capability that'll allow me to see who's logged in to what port.

I next tried Firestarter - whoa! Really nice piece of software and it does fit my needs. I've been using it for a few days now and haven't regretted it. I'm just quite concerned that Firestarter replaces IPTables with its own script (or something), but it won't matter as long as it secures my system - and it really did. Look at the log below - it blocked port scans:

For added security, I've setup my router to only forward specific ports. I don't like DMZ so I used Virtual Server. This way, I know exactly what ports are open.

Blogged with Flock

Another Convert & Gem GL-821A Reconfiguration

2007-08-10T13:55:00.001+08:00

Kubuntu has another convert, and his name is Cyrus Nazareno. He's sick and tired of Windows' run32dll problems and installers that keeps on failing and resuming every 10mins consuming precious system resources.

He's my kid sister's boyfriend. So he asked me for help. I laughed at his problem and suggested he use Ubuntu. But since he liked my desktop, he requested that I install Kubuntu on his machine.

So there it is. He came by our house with his CPU. I used the Recovery Disks that came with his HP system to restore Windows, then resized HDD using Knoppix - Ubuntu Live CDs aren't really equip with the tools for recovery and forensics, that's why I always download Alternate CDs.

So there it is, after 2 hours, I got Windows and Kubuntu working side by side. I gave Kubuntu 120GB of disk space, that left windows with 60GB.

After that, I downloaded Media Codecs, Flash, Java, Media Players, Firefox & Thunderbird, DVD Rippers, VLC, GTK-Gnutella, KOffice, Abiword & Gnumeric, KMyMoney, etc. etc. etc. Oh, and I also downloaded the upgrades.

After a few hours, we tested it and everything's working well. He's particularly impressed with Package Management and how everything's stored in the repository. So he packed up his CPU and went home at around 6PM.

By 6:30, he called me up and asked why he's having some weird problems with his monitor. I asked for the Manufacturer and Model Number (which is Gem GL-821A) and assisted him in reconfiguring xserver-xorg through the phone. It seems that by default, the refresh rate's at 80-85Hz and his monitor can't handle it. Reconfiguring xserver-xorg didn't work so I asked him to come over tomorrow with his CPU and Monitor and see what I can do.

Today, I got to work on his (w00t w00t) 17" Monitor and again tried to reconfigure xserver-xorg. I tried again, but this time going advanced. I tried searching Google for a User Manual because I need the Horizontal and Vertical Sync Ranges. No Luck!

But I did come across this page, it says; HKR,"MODES\1024,768",Mode1,,"30-60,50-75,+,+".

What the... Oh well, I used 30-60 and 50-75. Then started KDM.

That fixed it!

Woohoo! Kubuntu's pretty slick on this monitor - and I'll be getting me one of those soon. He brought his CPU and Monitor home after thanking me. It's been over 3 hours and he hasn't called for any problems.

Kubuntu works! Nice job Devs!

Blogged with Flock

Guarddog and Gmail

2007-08-07T20:13:00.001+08:00

I just finished setting up Gutsy only to find out that I can't send emails via
Gmail - TLS/587. Found out it's because of Guarddog. Configured it for an
hour, got tired, and replaced it with Firestarter.

I'm now getting fond of Firestarter. Guarddog is too restrictive for me since
I've been launching and pulling out services every now and then. At least for
Firestarter, I can easily create and/or delete rules. It also features
real-time monitor on who's logged in to my PC - which has been moonlighting
as a multi-purpose server, who got blocked with what service, etc.

Maybe I'll work with Guarddog and incorporate some features I like once I'm
done with my little project. But for now, I gotta focus on my packaging
skills and Flock.

Got my 1Mbps DSL service

2007-08-03T02:03:00.001+08:00

Ayt! Been surfing the whole day when I realized that everything seems faster. I thought it's because of my Gutsy upgrade, but when I did a speedtest, I found out that my service has indeed been upgraded.... not because of Gutsy.

It's time I get a router. I'm getting a cheap one by the way. One from TP-Link. It costs only PhP 1,000 and it's just a regular router. Nope, I don't need a Linksys or a D-Link, which costs PhP 2,000, since I'll be upgrading this soon anyway to a wireless... That is, once I have money for a PCMCIA card for my laptop and 2 PCI 802.11g's for my other desktops.

I'm currently setting up my Postfix, LAMP, QPopper, Squirrelmail, and GForge. I'll also go purchase another domain, probably umaming.com for the family. Now, I only need a fanless machine I can leave on 24/7.

Woohoo! DSL.... Good!

Blogged with Flock

PLDT, SmartBro, and a Web Server

2007-08-01T01:27:00.001+08:00

I just got confirmation from PLDT regarding my DSL. I'll be getting my 1Mbps line in 3 weeks time.

I already have the Plan 888 which is around 88Kbps for testing purposes to see for myself if the rumors are true that PLDT DSL is unreliable. In my case, my PLDT has never suffered downtime for 3 straight months. This is the first reason why I'm switching providers and dumping SmartBro which has been kicking me off for a few hours every morning this past month.

I also need a web server, my second reason, because SmartBro just won't allow IP Passthrough or Port Forwarding. Well, actually, I already have a web server (my laptop and my PC - but my laptop's the only one accessible from the outside world) but I'm still looking for a _quiet_ server that I can leave on 24/7. It has to be efficient, not powerful, since I don't want a power hog eating up my wallet.

I have 2 more spare PC's at home, a Compaq 200Mhz with 64MB of RAM and 2 GB of HDD and a generic P3 733MHz with 384MB and 20GB HDD. But they're not quiet, and they're definitely not "power-saving". I've been using my P3 for testing purposes (mostly when testing out Ubuntu's Alpha/Beta releases) and I guess it'll remain that way. My Compaq, however, is too underpowered... Maybe if I could upgrade it's RAM but I can't locate a shop selling SIMMS. Oh well, back to the closet for you Compaq!

This piece of hardware caught my attention. It's from Mini-ITX.com and seems to fit my needs. It's silent (no fans), low-powered (can consume less than 20W of electricity), small (ITX = very small footprint), and it's powerful enough (800MHz/523MB/60GB SATA). And I get a little bit of extra, a WinTV PVR-150 TV Card. All of this for (more or less) PhP 11,000.00. Ok, I'm getting obsessed with this. It'll be my 24/7 server that'll host my Moodle, Drupal, Igobot, and a POP3-SMTP Mail server. And for my friends, an IRC server - if they want, that is. Hell, I could also use this as a Jabber server.

Damn, too many ideas... and I'm starting to get a headache!

But first things first... gotta go get a router in preparation for my DSL line! SmartBro... goodbye!

Blogged with Flock

Project List

2007-08-01T00:24:00.001+08:00

A friend asked me "what have I been doing with my time lately". Well, I've been pretty busy with OSS stuff. Mostly on re-learning C++ and Gutsy Gibbon's testing. But here's a list:
Development
- C++
- Java
Packaging (or at least learning how to package):
- Flock Browser v0.9.0.1
- Drupal (will try to maintain this once I know how since I've been told that it seems to be abandoned)
- Moodle (same as Drupal)
Ubuntu
- Kubuntu Gutsy Testing
- BugSquad-QA stuff
- Server Team stuff
Advocacy
- still working with Our Lady of Lourdes College Foundations' Open Source Initiative.
I'm mostly into designing their network, call center classroom, and justifying costs. Will probably integrate OCW into their course as well and deliver it via Moodle. Also implement ERP into their process.
- I'll be working with a utility company in Baguio soon, mostly ERP stuff to pull up their efficiency... will give updates once I get to have a talk with the director.
- The now "almost" abandoned knightlust.com - heh!

Blogged with Flock

Amazon: Still won't ship to the Philippines

2007-07-30T19:33:00.001+08:00

It's been over 6 months now since I last tried ordering books from Amazon.com, but I still can't. Damn, I thought they've fixed this or at least contracted a shipping company (Air 21 is preferred by most) to deliver their packages. I badly want my books. Besides, Powerbooks and National Bookstore - although sufficient for most (except National Bookstore) - lacks them books I want.

Blogged with Flock

SMTP, NNTP, and SSH

2007-07-28T00:45:00.001+08:00

I just noticed that I can't post to Gmane, Eclipse, and Trolltech. WTF!!!
I figured it must be because my outgoing server is Gmail, which uses a
non-standard port, 587, via TLS. Ok, I may be wrong on my this, but I got it
working after setting up my outgoing to SmartBro's smtp.smartbro.net

NNTP - Solved!

I setup LAMP previously and installed a few CMS (Drupal, Joomla, Mambo,
Wordpress, e107, Coppermine, PHPFusion, MediaWiki, Geeklog, GForge, and
Joomla RC1 - yes that's still considered few), LMS (Moodle and Claroline),
Knowledgebase Script (KBPublisher, APHPKB, and DanPHPSupport), CRM (SugarCRM,
Hipergate, VTiger, Compiere, and CentricCRM), and Groupware/ERP suites
(eGroupware, PHPGroupware, TinyERP, and OrangeHRM) for personal use and
learning. But I can't fully utilize its' capabilities since it won't allow me
to send emails via Postfix. Fixed it by reconfiguring postfix and set it up
to just relay emails to smtp.smartbro.net.

SMTP - Solved!

SSH, got it working. I can now connect, login, and do stuff from a remote (and
I mean remote) location using my laptop to my main computer at home. I
configured it weeks ago, but this is the only time I got to test it.

SSH - Solved!

Oh, and I'm coming back home in 2 days. woo hoo!

Igobot

2007-07-26T17:48:00.001+08:00

It's been a while since we've had a good (and fun) bot at #ubuntu-ph. Changes made at Spunge affected butiki, a bot by JM Ibanez based on Supybot, and thus rendered it, well, useless. I liked its Google search and RSS abilities the most, but it's been over 4(?) months since we last saw butiki.
Zakame inspired me to create a bot after he made Morphlogger from scratch using Perl. I wanted my bot to have the same functionalities as butiki so I downloaded Eggdrop and Supybot and tried to figure out how to make them work.
Well, Eggdrop proved difficult for me. I made sure that everything was configured but I just can't make it work. Needless to say, I gave up.
Then came Supybot, woo-hoo. The wizard was very friendly and the plugins abundant (that's when I figured out that butiki is a Supybot). It took me three retries (all three worked, just wanted to familiarize myself with the wizard and the three bots each with different plugins).

Igobot has all the plugins Supybot came with, the only plugin I can't configure is Google, which required a Web Services Certificate. Too bad they closed down WS Cert registration since they replaced it with Web APIS from Google Code.

Kankana-ey has every plugins except Google, Factoids, Games, and MoobotFactoids. Again, I'm not satisfied, that's why I created another.

Igorot-bot, my third creation, has the plugins I know I'll personally need. Admin, Channel, ChannelLogger, ChannelStats, Config, Dict, Factoids, Games, Herald, Internet, Karma, Math, Misc, Note, Owner, Praise, RSS, Seen, Todo, User, Utilities, and Web. It's lean and does it's job well.

After a few hours configuring and testing Igorot-bot on my locally-hosted Dancer IRC server, I decided - with a smile on my face - that , and hopefully, what #Ubuntu-PH needed. I ran it and tested it out. Nice!

After 2 hours, I started to have doubts as to whether Igorot-bot is a nice name for an IRC bot. I first changed it to Ibaloi, and then Kiangan, and finally chose Igobot... the first bot-name I came up with. It represents my heritage and my people's pride. It will suffice, at least for now. If not, I'll just add another plugin and optimize its code.

Another dilemma to tackle, I regularly boot from Xubuntu Gutsy to Kubuntu Feisty to Kubuntu Gutsy... I needed a server. My laptop, which I've been using as a basic web/file/smtp/pop3 server should fit my needs, _but_ it runs hot and I have to turn it off for 2 hours every day to cool it down. As for my P3 and P1 machines, they're too noisy and like to keep them in an 'off' state until I need them for testing. I should invest in a liquid-cooling solution or a bigger fan.

The only thing I can think of right now is a shell account from servers willing to host benign IRC bots. I'll be spending the next few hours looking for one.

And for you "#Ubuntu-PH-ers", here's a few commands you can use with igobot.

List Available Plugins: !list
List Plugin's Functionality: !list <plugin>

Registration: !register <name> <password>
Identify Yourself: /msg igobot identify <name> <password>
Channel Statistics: !channelstats
User Statistics: !stats <name>

Dictionary: !dict <word>

Learn Facts: !learn <key> as <value>
Fact: !<key>
Forget Fact: !forget <key>
What Is: !whatis <key>

Herald: !herald add <nick> <message>
Remove Herald: !herald remove <nick>

Calculate: !calc <math expression>
Convert: !convert <number> <unit> to <another unit>
Set Unit: !unit <type>

Tell: !tell <nick> <message>
Send Note: !send <recipient> <message>
View Unread Notes: !note list
View Note: !note <note id>

Add Praise: !praise add <text>
Give Praise: !praise <praise id> <nick> for <reason>

Add RSS: !rss add <name of service> <feed url>
View Announcement: !rss announce
Announce Service to current channel: !rss announce <name of service>
Get RSS Feed: !rss rss <name of service or Feed URL> <number of feeds>
Remove RSS: !rss remove <name of service>

Seen: !seen <nick>

Add Todo: !todo add <text>
Add Todo with Priority: !todo add --priority=<number> <text>
Remove Todo: !todo remove <task id>
Set Todo Priority: !setpriority <task id> <number>
View Todo List: !todo
View Specific Task: !todo <task id>

Eightball Game: !eightball <question>
Coin Toss Game: !coin
Russian Roulette: !roulette
Dice Game: !dice <number of dice>d<number of sides per dice>
Monologue: !monologue

And of course, if you want details, you can visit Supybot's plugins documentation page.

Blogged with Flock

Solution to my Spam - Gmane Newsgroups

2007-07-14T03:12:00.001+08:00

Every single day I receive around 1,000 emails... nah, I'm not that popular. It's mostly emails from the mailing lists I signed up with. The bulk of my emails comes from the Linux Kernel Mailing List (around 45%), 10% from Ubuntu, 10% from KDE, 10% from Anjuta/Gambas/KDevelop/Qt/Mono lists, and 13% from the other lists (including some websites). So, I really only need around 2% of them..... those are the personal emails.

The other day, I think I found my answer.... Gmane. Gmane archives all posts and replies and makes it available via NNTP... newsgroups. And guess what, you can reply from there too. Heh, now this is the answer to my spam problem.

This is my dillema, I need all those posts, but I don't want them to be 'that' intrusive. Ok, I can always create another Gmail account and register it, this way I don't get 'spammed' at by the list. That's the problem, my knightlust account is my primary email address, and I want every single one of 'em on that account! Now I've been using Kontact/Kmail, even on my Xubuntu... and every single one of my emails are filtered. Filters would solve my problem right? Nope, 'coz I still have to download every single one of my emails. Gmane actually solved my problems. Gmane archives every single posts, which I can access via Thunderbird, which means I don't miss anything. And the way newsgroups work, I can (and I just did) set it up to only download Headers... conserving 60% of my bandwidth. So now, I only download a message or post only when I click on the post itself. No need to download 1000 emails.

I just disabled Global Email Delivery from Ubuntu, and KDE, Xfce, etc. etc. etc. would follow suit. Everything else but Vger 'coz I don't think it'll allow me to disable email delivery, and unless I find an answer to that, I guess I'll continue receiving LKML.

So now, everything's setup on my Thunderbird, I'l be using KNode soon once I figure out how to disable email delivery on Vger, and everything works just the way I want it to work. I almost forgot, I said that Gmane archives the list.... so that means I have access to all the posts as far back as 10 years ago.

Ahhh, the power of open source.

Blogged with Flock

The Daet Excursion

2007-07-06T00:10:00.001+08:00

I went to Daet, Camarines Norte since I was invited, for the second time, to talk about Free/Open Source Software. This time, there are participants hailing as far as Sorsogon. Well, I'll blog about the seminar later, but for now, I would just like to share my Daet Excursion.

After a 6 hour trip from Baguio via Victory Liner, I arrived at Cubao. Thank goodness the Superlines Terminal is just a minute's walk from Victory. Ok, I arrived at 7PM and I have to wait for 2 hours before I could get an airconditioned bus going to Daet, Camarines Norte. The wait was fun, boring... but fun. I've been listening to FM and chanced upon this station (forgot what it is, but it's like 10-something and a half!). The idiotic remarks and the good tunes kept me sane... That was the longest 2 hours of my life. Oh yeah, I met a pretty girl too... smart and funny.. didn't get her name and number though. I didn't ask, heh, I'm not interested anyway, besides small talk to pass the time away.

This is the bus I took, Bus No. 347. I wonder if DC Comics is aware that a bus company is using their character's logo(?).

After 8 hours, I arrived at the Daet Terminal. Geez, too hot... way too hot, even at 5AM. Nothing to do (again) but wait for another 2 hours before I take a tricycle to Lourdes College.

By 7AM, I arrived at Our Lady of Lourdes College Foundation. I didn't have a chance to take a few pictures the first time I was there, good thing I have a camera phone this time.

The entrace to the foundation is still undergoing renovation, but this is just the entrance. Below is the main building.

And this is the road going to the Gymnasium, but before you arrive there, you'll pass by the Kindergarten classroom and the Cafeteria. Trust me, this is a very huge property.

This is the view from the 3rd Floor, an awesome view, a magnificent scene.

And I'm not really sure what this is, but I asked and was told that this is used by marine technogist, or those taking a marine course. It's very intriguing....

This is the 2nd Floor Balcony.

And a wide unused space to the right of the main building. I'm guessing they'll erect another building here once the students need it.

And this is the view from the back, in a few months time, we'll see a Computer Studies building here.

Oh, and let's not forget the High School Building.

This is the Computer Studies' Vision Mission Board. We'll fix that soon.

This is the day before the seminar. So in preparation for the D day, I removed Edubuntu (was installed a week previously by their technician) and installed Xubuntu.

This is Jhun, their technician... He was kind enough to help me install Xubuntu and we finished at around 9PM.

Satisfied, but not there yet. Good thing I brought an AptOnCD with MonoDevelop, Anjuta, Eclipse, Gambas, Inkscape, etc. etc. etc. By nightfall, we only completed half. Tired, but a very satisfying experience.

Ok, now I'm really tired. I badly need a bath 'coz I'm sweating like a pig... oink! oink! oink!

Ok, this is my hotel room. MegaStar Hotel, right beside Caltex.

And here's the view from my hotel's balcony.

So for the next two days, I've been talking, answering questions, and basically encouraging them to be part of the Ubuntu community. Also trained them on the use of OpenOffice.org, especially those little differences from MS Office.

And here's our group photo, unfortunately, not everyone decided to join us. For posterity's sake.... smile!

Blogged with Flock

$100 Thin-Client

2007-06-25T01:30:00.001+08:00

Inquirer.net's news article
Blog post
Woopwoop page
Devon IT

The above are links to the project I'm interested at. I'm actually thinking of adopting this Thin-Client for knightlust.com, unfortunately, Devon IT's terminal needed $39 more. Woopwoop would only cost $100, no more no less, but you get what you paid for.. a crappy looking case. Oh, wait.. it's not a freaking casing! I think assembling one myself is the most viable option. Since my plan is manufacture hundreds of this, I need to look for a supplier that won't make my wallet scream.

Here's what I need:

ITX Motherboard/CPU combo
800MHz to 1GHz
Fanless
SD and MMC ports
at least 2 USB ports
Can boot from USB, SD/MMC, and Network
very small footprint
to save space, there shouldn't be any Parallel or Serial ports

I think, with this setup, the system would run below 20W. I do need to test it though. I also hope the Mini-ITX.com offers a much cheaper systems, so I wouldn't have to rack my brains thinking about this.

Ok, this is nice. But the price! Damn!

Blogged with Flock

Job Offer

2007-06-24T16:15:00.000+08:00

Just got a job offer and will be leaving in a month or two.. Care Home in
Sacramento, CA. Hey, no problem, I already have experience in elderly care
but I'm still looking for an IT job.. heh! Can't beat 'em all. Gotta prepare.
Too bad I won't be able to help out with Ubuntu for the next six months,
unless the care home has internet access. I'll also go buy a laptop (most
probably Dell) within a month of my stay there so I can still help out the
Kubuntu community.

Windows Marketplace: Ubuntu - Download the Free Version

2007-06-23T21:59:00.001+08:00

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=2007062209235346

Blogged with Flock

Customized Homepage

2007-06-23T12:22:00.001+08:00

Google's Customized Homepage, for me, is too sluggish and the plain old Google Search Page is, well, too plain. I decided to create my own page instead.

As you can see, I have there 4 search fields which I regularly use (I'm using Google for this) in the middle of the page, a tasks list on the left column and the Fridge RSS on the right. I also have Google Notebook, that way i can keep my notes without fear of losing them. On the right column, I also have Launchpad, Ubuntu/Kubuntu, KDE, and Xfce links which I regularly go to. And on the right, I have my internally hosted sites, those which I use for training. Below them, are a few more links like Google Services, links to webmails, KDE, Qt, and News links.

A friend commented on this... why not use Firefox's bookmarks? Well, if it's hidden, I tend to forget they're there. Besides, I've got literally thousands of links saved on my bookmarks. Even though they're organized, I don't think I'll easily find what I'm looking for. Especially those that I usually go to. Besides, having those links on the homepage itself isn't bad. One middle click and there it is, not to mention that I don't have to click on Bookmarks, then search for the link every time I have to open individual pages. For me, this is much more convenient.

Blogged with Flock

Authorware and Photoshop

2007-06-21T12:53:00.001+08:00

Been playing with WINE and I tried installing a few more applications I used in Windows.

Here's my Adobe Photoshop 7.01

And here's my Macromedia Authorware 7

I know they're old versions but I won't spend money for a newer version that I'm not going to use anyway. Too bad I gave my Macromedia Flash MX to a friend, I wouldn't know if it'll installl on my system.

Also, I tried install Microsoft Visual C++ 6 and my dad's AutoCAD 2005 and AutoCAD Maps 2000 (?) but only Visual C++ 6 installed. Never got it to work though, but it installed.

Also tried installing Half-Life (the first one), Stronghold, Unreal Tournament, and Battle Realms. Sorry, can't get a screenshot, I either get an error if I used the game's internal screenshot tool and KSnapshot doesn't work.

Are you stil using Windows?

Blogged with Flock

Internet Explorer 6 on my Kubuntu

2007-06-20T23:38:00.001+08:00

Finally, after a few months of contemplating whether I need Internet Explorer or not, I installed IEs4Linux. Since I've been doing a couple of XHTML work, I'll be needing IE. Even though it's not W3C compliant, I need to make sure that the pages I'm working on, well, works on IE too. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to convince my friends to switch to Linux (most of my pages are FOSS advocacy stuff). Besides, I need that for my Metrobank account (which I've been spamming.. urging them also test their page out with Firefox or other W3C compliant browsers).

Blogged with Flock

Installing Drupal on your locahost

2007-06-20T11:51:00.001+08:00

Here's a guide on how to install Drupal. I used my (main) Kubuntu Desktop.

Make sure you have Apache2, MySQL5, and PHP5 installed before attempting to install Drupal. First, download the package here and extract them on your system.

Then copy the extracted files to your /var/www folder. Since my system is used for training purposes, I installed it on a different folder, /var/www/dax.

After that, create a schema and a user. Assign privileges and you're all set. In my case (again) I used MySQL Administrator, you can use also use PHPMyAdmin.

Now go ahead and try to surfing to the said directory. http://localhost/dax for my system.

Of course, we'll have some errors on the first try. Change permission and assign all groups (Owner, Group, and Others) to have Read/Write access to all the files. This might pose security risk but we need it.

Now try surfing to the Drupal installation page again.

Here's my setup. Database type is set to mysql, Database name is testing, and Database username is dax, and of course the password. This has been setup using MySQL Administrator (see above).

Click on the Advanced Options link to expand it. Database host is set to localhost, and Table prefix is set to dpl_. You may opt not to use a prefix, but if your database would use 2 or more CMS, then I suggest you use a prefix. We don't want other CMS overwriting tables used by Drupal.

Congratulations, it's all setup. Now we only need to remove Read/Write access to /sites/default/settings.php

This is the initial Home page. It's asking you to create an Administrator account. Do this right after setting up Drupal, if not, then anyone can just create an account and use your Drupal.

At first, Drupal would assign you a random password, go ahead and change it.

After this, go to your Administrator's page and check on the Status Report.

According to this page, I have 2 problems.

Fix the Cron Maintenance Tasks by clicking on run cron manually.

Fix the File System problem by changing the directory's permission to Read/Write. Do take note the at first, this directory is owned by www-data. You have to issue the Chown command to change it's ownership before you can change its permission.

Also make sure you create a tmp directory. This is where all uploaded files would initially stay.

Check the Status Report again to check for any errors or problems.

All set. Now create a page and promote it to front page. This is required to remove the setup instructions which poses, again, security risks.

Now you can configure your site.You can change the theme, add modules, build your site. etc. from the Administer page.

Goodluck!

Blogged with Flock

Email Address change and Mailing List Subscription

2007-06-17T00:15:00.001+08:00

I spent the whole day today unregistering and registering from and to my KDE and Ubuntu Mailing Lists (all 62 of them). I decided to use knightlust at ubuntu.com as my primary method of contact and I have to do this so I can post to the said lists.
I also registered to Xfce and the Linux Kernel Mailing Lists... Whoo Boy! I didn't heed the warning that LKML has a very high traffic and got around 50 posts in less than 1 hour. Well, I don't mind. It's a small price to pay. Besides, I'm really intent on spending my free time contributing to a good cause, not to mention that I'll learn something new... everyday.... especially processes.
But before I go all out, I still have a few more things to take care of. Firstly, the FOSS@School Seminar this June 29, 2007 which will be attended by teachers and educators from (if the information I got is accurate) the Bicol Region. I'll be focusing on my presentations and handouts this coming days. After that, I'll be working on the Ubuntu-PH.org's Drupal theme. And then build up a portfolio (for my CV). All of these while testing apps, reporting bugs, triaging bugs, and blogging for profit (hehe!).
I almost forgot, I might be blow off my C++ migration plans for the mean time while I focus on Web Applications... that's my calling.... for now. Web 2.0 (starting to get old) baby! Maybe I'll get back to KDevelop, Qt4, NetBeans, Anjuta, and Eclipse after a month or two. Why so many IDE's? I'm teaching myself skills, not IDEs. I should be able to code on any IDE, including Kate.
For my web training, I'll be using Bluefish, Quanta, and Kompozer.
Hohummm...
I'm sleepy... I'm gonna hit the sack now.

- via email

QEMU and KQEMU Installation

2007-06-15T01:46:00.001+08:00

Here's a step-by-step howto on how I virtualized my Xubuntu and Windows 2000

First, I downloaded the packages that I need to build KQEMU, a kernel module that will help speed up QEMU. Remember that you need to have at least 1GHz/512MB for performance reason. Anything less isn't recommended.

sudo aptitude install kqemu-common kqemu-source module-assistant

The Module-Assistant package would help you build KQEMU.

Prepare Module-Assistant by issuing sudo m-a prepare
m-a is short for module-assistant. You can issue sudo module-assistant prepare if you want. And don't worry, Module-Assistant would also download all the packages needed to "build" the kernel module. If you want, you can also install build-essential.

Next, issue the sudo m-a build kqemu to build the module.

This is the progress report window.

Now, go ahead and install the KQEMU module
sudo m-a install kqemu
You can now forget KQEMU since it's now part of your kernel. Future kernel upgrades won't affect it.

It's now time to install QEMU
sudo aptitude install qemu

Of course, don't forget QEMU-Launcher. This package is highly recommended so you wouldn't have to create and boot images manually.
sudo aptitude install qemu-launcher

Once that's done, go ahead and launch QEMU Launcher.

Here's the QEMU Launcher window. As I've said, with this utility, you can graphically create, manage, and boot images.

Creating Images

It's now time to create an image. In my case, I used Microsoft Windows 2000.

First, place the installer on the CD Tray and click on the first New button.
Select Create empty QCOW image (the default and supported QEMU image), give it a name, and adjust the image size in Megabytes (I assume this is the maximum size, gotta read the docs). Don't worry about the image size that much though because after installing Windows, it'll most probably be around 1.9GB and will just expand when needed. The initial size of the image would be around 5-10MB. Click on the OK button once you're done.

To install Windows 2000, you have to first configure QEMU Launcher to boot from the CD. Tick Use CD-ROM, set the Boot disk to CD-ROM, and click on the Launch button.

The Windows CD would now start installing Windows 2000 on the image. You can now Quit QEMU Launcher since we won't be needing it anymore, at least for this session.

And there it is, it's all done. Just take note though that the installer would ask you to reboot, you don't actually have to do anything but to confirm it.

You can also do this on any Operating System you could get your hands on, including Linux distributio. This is actually how developers test and debug their programs.

Last word? Goodluck!

Blogged with Flock

Quanta Documentation

2007-06-10T16:12:00.001+08:00

I took a 15-min break after 3 hours of editing Ubuntu-PH's Drupal template in BlueFish. While checking out KDE stuff, I came across Quanta. Curious, I decided to download and try it out. After a few minutes, I fired it up and checked on its' features. I must say, I'm very impressed. And there's a couple of features that would make me dump... Documentation and seamless integration with Konsole, KLinkStatus, KImageMapEditor, KXSLDbg, KFileReplace, and Cervisia (I wonder what else integrates with Quanta).

However, the Documentation pane links to non-existent pages.

After a few Google searches, I found out that I need to download the docs separately. Since I'm also studying DocBook, I decided to download and install that first.

sudo aptitude install docbook-defguide

or you can download the package here: http://linuxappfinder.com/package/docbook-defguide

Ok, that's the code, now I needed to copy the html directory to the quanta doc directory and rename it.

sudo cp -R /usr/share/doc/docbook-defguide/html /usr/share/apps/quanta/doc/docbook

To test it out, I went ahead and restarted Quanta and checked if the DocBook docs are present.

That did it, now I have to download the KDE DocBook Guide and Reference. It's located here: http://kde-files.org/content/show.php/KDE+DocBook+Guide+and+Reference+Documentation?content=26176

Once I have the 26176-kde-docbook.tar.gz file, I copied the file to the Quanta Doc directory and extracted it.
sudo mv /home/dax/Downloads/26176-kde-docbook.tar.gz /usr/share/apps/quanta/doc/
cd /usr/share/apps/quanta/doc
sudo tar xzf 26176-kde-docbook.tar.gz

So now I tested it so see if it works...

Great, now that I have the DocBook and the KDE Documentation Primer working, I only needed to configure the rest.... which is a bit easier.

I opened Quanta, opened the Documentation pane, right-clicked on Quanta Plus (you could choose any item) and clicked on Download Documentation...

This window would show up. I selected MySQL5 Documentation and clicked on the Install button.

After Quanta downloads the docs, it asked me if I could install it.... I clicked on OK.

After that, the doc showed with a check mark, confirming that it's already installed.

Quanta installed it on my /home/dax/.kde/share/apps/quanta/doc directory.

If you have a few more users, well, using your computer, you'll need to move it to /usr/share/apps/quanta/doc.

And there it is, I have the docs for Quanta,

MySQL,

PHP,

Javascript,

and HTML.

Too bad the docs aren't packaged in Kubuntu. But maybe, just maybe, I'll package all the docs and have a MOTU upload it for me. I'm also thinking of creating a few more docs for Quanta though, who knows, maybe when I have enough time. Goodbye, Bluefish!

Last, but not least, if you can't download the docs via Get New Hot Stuff, you can download the tarballs here: http://quanta.kdewebdev.org/releases.php

Blogged with Flock

Fucked up design

2007-06-09T16:34:00.001+08:00

Here's one of the reasons why I never liked Microsoft or their technology.

Non-conformity to standards set by the community, in this case, W3C.

Is this the technology you want or need? They have this nasty habit of shoving defective "innovation" down their consumers' throats... Truly Defective by Design!

Blogged with Flock

Ubuntu BugSquad and Ubuntu QA Membership

2007-06-09T12:53:00.000+08:00

I recently applied for an Ubuntu QA Membership, and today, I got an approval
from Brian Murray. So it's official.

No, this post isn't really about my membership, it's an invitation to everyone
interested in being part of a very active community. There is no data to
subtantiate my claim here but Ubuntu IS the most active and the largest
community. There's a lot of stuff you can do here, and any contribution is
very much welcome.

Quality and Useability is of utmost importance. So how do we contribute? Try
out Ubuntu. Use it for a day. Install it on a spare partition. And tell us
what you think about it. If you discover a few kinks, report it so we can fix
it.

BugSquad is the first step, your first contribution, at least for most.
Reporting bugs is easy. If you find something you think shouldn't be there,
go ahead and report it on Launchpad. Go to http://launchpad.net/ and create
an account. Then go to http://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu and search for a
bug.... your bug! Remember, your bug may be a duplicate of a previously
reported bug, so be careful. But if you don't find a known report, then go
ahead and file it. Here's a few HowTo's on Bug Reporting;
BugSquad: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BugSquad
Helping with Bugs: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HelpingWithBugs

Next on the list is Ubuntu QA. The job of a QA is to triage bugs (actually
it's also the job of BugSquad members) and to set its Importance. The QA is
the "Middle Man" between Bug Reporters and Maintainers/Developers. The only
difference between BugSquad and QAs is the ability to change the Importance
of bug. This way, the Developers/Maintainers would know what to prioritize.
This might seem confusing to most, but we just don't want anyone reporting a
grammatical error or a fluke as Critical.This will piss off the devs. So,
again, here's a few HowTo's on Triaging;
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuQA
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/HowToTriage
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Importance

Lastly, once you have a Launchpad account, go ahead and join the Ubuntu
BugSquad at https://launchpad.net/~bugsquad and after triaging a few bugs, go
ahead and join the Ubuntu QA at https://launchpad.net/~bugsquad

Goodluck! And we'll be there to welcome you.

Ubuntu and NetBeans CD

2007-06-08T13:52:00.001+08:00

I received a notice from the Post Office regarding a package I should claim from them. It turns out my Ubuntu, Kubuntu, and Edubuntu CDs arrived. Now I can re-format my CD-RWs. One thing that puzzles me though is that I have to pay PhP 35 before I could take it home. I only paid PhP 15 for the Dapper CDs and now it's PhP 35? Why? Red Tape? Corruption? These people... tsk! tsk! tsk!

Anyway, here's my package.

I ordered 3 CDs each so I can give them away to my friends and to those who want to learn Ubuntu (or Kubuntu) and use the Edubuntu CDs for my seminar in Daet, Camarines Norte which will be attended by teachers from the Bicol Region. 3 Edubuntu CDs aren't enough so I'll burn a few more. I sure hope I'm a teacher so I can order, at most, 50 CDs.

And, of course, my favorite.... Ubuntu Stickers.

And today, I received another CD from the Postman. This time it's the NetBeans CD that I ordered from Netbeans.info now Netbeans.org.

I checked on the contents of CD and found out that it also contains the NetBeans 5.5 installers for Linux, Solaris, and Windows. The nice people of Netbeans.info also included the Mobility Pack, Profiler, the Sun Java System Application Server Platform Edition 9.0, and the NetBeans Documentation.

Too bad they don't have the C/C++ Development Pack, Enterprise Pack, UML Modeling Plugin, and the Visual Web Pack. But more importantly, they should've included JDK 5 with the CD, since Netbeans 5.5 does depend on JDK 5 and is required by both Netbeans and the Add-On Packs. But that's fine since the Application Server makes up for it and that you can easily download and install the plugin and the IDE Add-Ons.

Blogged with Flock

Just wanted to post the pictures of my computers

2007-06-06T13:20:00.001+08:00

See the title...

This is my HP NX9040 Laptop and my eMachines T2798

And this is my upgraded generic system with 3.0GHz/512MB/80GB.
Here's the CPU with my SmartBro PoE and UPS sitting on top of my box

And of course my AOC LM525 15" LCD Monitor with my teeny-weeny Matrix keyboard and teeny-weeny A4-Tech mouse

And lastly, my HP DeskJet 5160 Printer and Genius Colorpage Vivid 4X

And, this is so like me, the this system is just a foot away from my bed. I've been spending way too much of my waking hours in front of it. I gotta get a life.

Blogged with Flock

SkyCable Baguio - Windows Error!

2007-06-06T12:47:00.001+08:00

I'm a subscriber of SkyCable here in Baguio. And they do use Windows 2000 to run their show. Yesterday, they encountered an error.

Well, the picture's a bit crappy but you can see the error here. Hehe!
SkyCable Baguio has hundreds, if not thousands, of subscribers. The least they can do is get their act together and fix this kind of shit! I've been seeing this kind of error almost regularly.

Ayan kasi! Nag-Windows Kasi!

Hehe!

Blogged with Flock

PHP5 Not Working

2007-06-02T23:20:00.001+08:00

I've setup my Desktop as a Server so I can study LAMP, Drupal, Joomla!, e107, Moodle, Claroline, Coppermine, DanPHPSupport, Wordpress, and PHP-Fusion. Setting up a server on your system is a very convenient way of learning this stuff. I just don't want the lag of setting up, troubleshooting, and studying CMS from a remote server.

There are times when you're forced to uninstall Apache 2 or you inadvertently removed it. And once you reinstall it, pages with .php extensions doesn't work. Firefox, Konqueror, Seamonkey, and Opera asks you to download it instead of load it. WTF!!! Reinstalling Apache2 doesn't work. Reinstall Apache2 and PHP5 doesn't work too.

This really sucked. I've Googled a fix for this but all the solutions I've encountered won't work on my system. Forums, IRC, and some cached mailing lists didn't help me out. So I did some research and the fix was actually so damn easy.

Under /etc/apache2/mods-enabled I didn't see any PHP5 modules. Aha! <sarcasm> I'm a Genius </sarcasm>. The reason PHP5 doesn't work is because it's not enabled (duh!). So I went to /etc/apache2/mods-available and linked php5.load to /etc/apache2/mods-enabled.

Hey, it worked! hehe.

Now if you're not comfortable doing it graphically, then issue this command:
sudo ln /etc/apache2/mods-available/php5.load /etc/apache2/mods-enabled

Blogged with Flock

Tribe 1 freeze ahead

2007-06-01T21:19:00.001+08:00

I just received this email from ubuntu-devel-announce list. If you are
interested in helping with Gutsy, please feel free to click on the links
below and try it out on your system, I would recommend you try it on a
separate partition or hard drive. So main focus would be Package
Inconsistencies.

Help out, you won't be sorry....

-- Forwarded Message --

Hello Ubuntu developers,

the community is craving for new "Linux for Primate Beings", so we
will give them the first testing milestone of Gutsy Gibbon, called
"Tribe 1" on next Thursday [1].

We are about to freeze main by Tuesday. Please get in touch with a
member of the release team if you have changes you need to get into
this milestone and which are not in the archive already. In
particular, if you have important outstanding merges to do, please do
them now.

Please also help reducing package inconsistencies, as listed on
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PackageInconsistencies.

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+milestone/tribe-1 is the list of bugs
which are targeted to be fixed for Tribe 1. Since this milestone was
just created in Launchpad, it is empty right now. Please feel
encouraged to milestone show-stopper bugs if you think that they are
essential to get fixed for the Tribe release; if in doubt, please err
on the safe side and set the milestone, so that the release team can
review it. Please also look from time to time to see if there are any
bugs there which could use your help.

Thanks,

Martin Pitt
on behalf of the Ubuntu release team

[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/GutsyReleaseSchedule

Kubuntu Meeting - New Members

2007-06-01T07:02:00.001+08:00

It's been a while since Kubuntu had a meeting, last meeting was February, and this is something Kubuntu members are looking forward to. Meeting is scheduled on the 31st of May at 21:00 UTC in #ubuntu-meeting on Freenode.

I won't post in detail what was discussed. I just want to congratulate the following people:

Richard Johnson
Kenneth Wimer
Luka Renko

They will be joining Jonathan Riddell, Sarah Hobbs, and Anthony Mercatante as Kubuntu Council members in charge of everything Kubuntu.

I would also like to congratulate two more members who got approval from the Council;

Stefan Skotte
Cyril Breuil

Again, congratulations and for us "common" people, I know we'll benefit a lot from your leadership.

Blogged with Flock

Install Netbeans 5.5 in Kubuntu

2007-05-26T23:59:00.001+08:00

Netbeans is a suitable IDE for Rapid Application Development in Java, and most Developers prefer Netbeans over Eclipse (especially developers who just migrated from Windows). I wouldn't recommend downloading Java in Adept since it'll just spit out errors or shut down on the EULA part of the installation.

First, download 2 packages: sudo aptitude install sun-java6-jdk netbeans5.5
You only need to download the 2 package and let aptitude download its' dependencies for you, this will save you the hassle of typing a long command.

Note: Netbeans still depends on Java 5, but if you're serious about software development in Java, you will need Java6. Just issue Y and hit the Enter key.

Once download finishes, the installer would present you with its' End User License Agreement, and as the name suggest, you have to agree before you can use it. Navigate to the <Ok> prompt by hitting the Tab key. If you download and install Java via Adept, this is where you'll encounter problems.

So hit the Tab key again to navigate to the <Yes> prompt and hit the Enter key.

Aptitude will continue installing other packages. This won't take long, so it'll be better if you just wait.

Now this is where Aptitude needs you. You have to download the NetBeans package from Netbeans.info. In case you're wondering, the package netbeans5.5 is just an installer.

Go to http://www.netbeans.info/downloads/start.php?f_id=13710&lang_id=1 and let Firefox download the package. While downloading, you can walk your dog or take a coffee break. This will take some time, unless you have a very very very very high speed ADSL connection. Also, the link above wouldn't work in KGet or other download managers. Don't waste your time configuring a download manager download it for you.

Once you're done downloading the netbeans-5_5.tar.gz save it to /tmp and change its' permission to root:root. I suggest you use kdesu konqueror for this since it'll be a lot easier for those still not comfortable with the command line. You can easily change the files' permission and copy to the /tmp directory without much hassle.

Hit the Enter key to continue with the installation.

After that, NetBeans would be available for you under the Development dir.

Another License Agreement here, so just Accept it to use Netbeans.

Here's the splash screen.

And here's NetBeans IDE 5.5 window. So go ahead and keep coding.

If you're really keen on using NetBeans, and you're also a C++ coder, you might as well use it to code in C/C++ by downloading an Add-On package. This is only for those comfortable in using Netbeans though. But if you're developing mobile applications based on Java, there's also an add-on pack available from netbeans.info.

You can download the C/C++ Pack here: http://www.netbeans.info/downloads/start.php?f_id=14405&lang_id=1

And you can download the Mobility Pack here: http://www.netbeans.info/downloads/start.php?f_id=13718&lang_id=1

One advantage of using Netbeans over Eclipse is speed. So far, Eclipse 3.2 is a bit sluggish as compared to Netbeans. It also has a habit of either freezing itself, or freezing your system. Yup, it's a resource hog. But I am looking forward to the next release which, rumour goes, is far more optimized than the current one.

Let's just install the addons tomorrow. I'm tired and I have a fever... need some sleep. See ya!

Blogged with Flock

My LAMP on Kubuntu Feisty

2007-05-21T22:13:00.001+08:00

I get my money from GetAFreelancer.com and I noticed that there's a lot of Joomla! projects available for the taking... Joomla! Projects can get as high as $150 per project, and you only need to install, setup a couple of modules, configure the interface, and optimize the site. If I'm only adept in PHP/MySQL, it'll only take me a few hours to do that... so now I'm focused on learning PHP/MySQL and Joomla! I also took it upon myself to redesign Ubuntu-PH and ask Zak Elep how to proceed with it. So before we implement a new design, we agreed to do it first on a "Beta Site". I'll be signing up for a free service later tonight and install Drupal. Then proceed with a new design tomorrow morning.

By installing my own LAMP server, I can practice and refine my skills without the hassle of uploading and testing it remotely. After everything's configured, I can just upload the modules and import the .sql file.... very convenient.

First, I downloaded the following files by issuing the command :

sudo aptitude install apache2 mysql-server php5 php5-mysql libapache2-mod-php5 phpmyadmin

Of course, it'll download a few more files.

Since it'll also download Postfix, you'll see this notice. I don't have any plans of setting up Postfix in the next 2 weeks, so I just set it to No Configuration

After installation, /var/www would be created and if you go to http://127.0.0.1/ or http://localhost/ you'll see this page.

If you see this page, you have to click on phpmyadmin/ and assign a password for root. If you don't, then anyone can just login and mess up your account.

Since I don't want Joomla! (or other CMS) taking over my /var/www, I saved an HTML file with a link pointing to /var/www/joomla

And here I have my Joomla and my Drupal

So there it is, LAMP on my Feisty... this way, I can easily configure and test without wasting time by donwloading and uploading files and then testing them remotely. I'd rather test my stuff online once it's fully tested locally.

Blogged with Flock

First Things First

2007-05-21T16:42:00.001+08:00

Due to my current project and venture into a SysAdmin realm, I decided to give /var it's own partition. Also, this is in preparation for my UCP and LPIC.

Since I do everything on my P4 Celeron 2.7GHz, I'd rather do it here than my laptop or my P3 (which I use very, very rarely). So after 10 deep breaths, I placed my Kubuntu Feisty on my CD Drive and booted it up after backing up my files. I have 60GB of disk and I gave swap 2GB, /home 35GB, / 15GB, and /var 7.5GB. I gave /home its own partition, so I wouldn't have to worry about losing anything even if I install another distro or I upgraded my Kubuntu in 6 months. I gave /var it's own partition for my www, and Sendmail or Postfix (whichever is easier).

After installation, the next thing I did is add repos and let adept-updater do its job. It is worth mentioning that I should've backed up my /var/cache/apt/archives via APTonCD before I cleared them so I wouldn't have wasted precious time waiting for Adept and Apt to download files.

While downloading updates, I setup my Konversation, Kopete, and KMail.

Now I downloaded plugins, players, and my oh-so-important KNewsTicker for my RSS.

After all that, I downloaded a few more applications (Firefox, KDevelop, QT, Anjuta, Glade, Eclipse, Netbeans, Gambas, MonoDevelop, GIMP, Inkscape, KOffice, etc... etc... etc...). And to top it off, I configured my desktop. All I need to do now is look for a nice theme to match my wallpaper.

Blogged with Flock

Convergence on Net25

2007-05-19T13:06:00.001+08:00

When computing, I always either turn the TV on or play some MP3s to help me concentrate. This time, I turned on the TV, checked on the channel, and came across this show on Net25 called Convergence. I'm not really fond of the show, never has, since the information they have are pretty much useless to me or that they convey very old information to their viewers. This time, it's inaccurate. This guy claiming to be a Linux Power User since 2001 "admitted" that Linux isn't much on Graphics! WTF??? Linux user since 2001 and claimed that Linux isn't that good in graphics? Guess what, he also said that Windows is better in graphics (not the exact words). OMG! Convergence... nobody's watching. And you have to look for an incompetent "Linux User"! Google and look for a true enthusiast. There's a lot of people willing to give you and your viewers real and accurate information. I'm guessing that the guy they interviewed install Linux every 6 months, try it for one day, and boot back to his malware-ridden Windows. That's not the definition of "A Linux Power-User". Just take a look at his computer. A Power-User spends at least 5 hours every day in front of his computer and really invest on hardware for the much needed comfort.... and what does he have... a beige box and a 15" clunky CRT monitor. My God! Graphical? Linux is much more graphical than Windows. I haven't opened my konsole for months now, and that guy tells everyone that Linux isn't graphical? Give me a break! To the staff of Convergence>>> If you're going to interview someone regarding Linux, please make sure you pick a guy who knows what he's talking about. Your reputation is at stake... oh right... what reputation?

Blogged with Flock

GPG Cleanup

2007-05-18T10:43:00.001+08:00

I've had some problems cleaning up my GPG a month ago, and I do need to delete a couple of signatures and user ids. I didn't know back then that you first need to select a subkey by typing 1 or 2 (in my case I have 4) before issuing the deluid or delsig command.

I use a GUI frontend called KGPG which served my purposes well. I highly recommend it for KDE users.

And lastly, after cleaning my Key, I exported it to my default keyserver, hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com/ hoping that it'll update my public keys. I don't know how it's suppose to go, but I'm too lazy to read man pages and howtos. Will check this out in a few hours.

Blogged with Flock

It's 1:56AM, Election Canvassing is still ongoing

2007-05-15T01:58:00.001+08:00

48 hours canvassing... Dead people voting... Missing people... Lost ballots... Ballot switching... Harrassments... Arguments... Altercations... Lost list of voters... Hay!!! Only in the Philippines.

I'm pretty sure that COMELEC is aware that FOSS can help them out. Why not purchase, or rent, computers to speed things up. Xubuntu is very much capable of preveting conflicts. And I'm sure that PLUG and Ubuntu-PH would help out in this matter.

Halalan 2007! Crap!

Walang pagbabago!

Blogged with Flock

UES Boston - October 2007

2007-05-13T16:37:00.001+08:00

Ubuntu Education Summit has really interested me. Now I'm saving money so I can go to the next UES at Boston, Massachusetts in October. I just hope I have enough money by then. hee hee! For those attending, I guess I'll see you there.

Blogged with Flock

Generating SSH keys for your SVN and Launchpad Account

2007-05-09T09:36:00.001+08:00

I recently reinstalled my system and for some reason, I forgot the passphrase of my SSH key (I thought it's the same as my GPG key). So now I have to generate another keypair.

First, I issued the ssh-keygen -t rsa command

I just hit Enter on this prompt, let ssh-keygen do all the work

And of course it asked for my passphrase

And there you go, the "success" message is my key fingerprint which is 71:8F:9D:8A:01:96:DE:C2:61:23:3A:A6:13:B0:96:0A

Now I went to launchpad.net to delete my old SSH key and upload a new one. I opened the ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub file using Kate and copy-pasted the contents on my launchpad account.

As for my SVN, all I have to do is update my key... Now I'm back in business!

Blogged with Flock

Spring Cleaning: My Oldest Magazine & Bookmark circa 1997 & 1999

2007-05-06T17:48:00.001+08:00

Spring Cleaning, and I found my old PC Magazine dated April 10, 1997 (total of 10 years and 26 days) and my 1999 Microsoft Bookmark.

And then I realized.... am I really getting old?

Blogged with Flock

NetBeans CDs for Free

2007-05-06T05:10:00.001+08:00

I'm a casual C++ coder and I've been meaning to try out Java. So today, after reformatting and partitioning my sda (gave /home and /var it's own partitions), I installed Eclipse.... which I find very sluggish. So I apt-get(ted) netbeans and jdk (and I did encounter a lot of problems installing it from the repo), downloaded and installed the zipped doc and NetBeans bin, spat out "JDK 1.5 is not installed" errors, downloaded and installed megs of installer, and finally got it working (at last!!!). Surprisingly, for a bloatware, NetBeans seems faster than Eclipse.

Next up on my list is to look for tutorials on Java and finally stumbled upon the "Get your free CD" link. I bookmarked a couple of Java tutorial sites and ordered my CD.

Those into Java would be happy to hear that NetBeans.org is still shipping out free CDs for free. It includes "NetBeans IDE 5.5, NetBeans Mobility Pack 5.5, NetBeans Profiler 5.5 and Sun Java System Application Server 9.0_1 Platform Edition. In addition to the standard English distribution, localizations of the NetBeans IDE, Mobility Pack and Profiler are available in Simplified Chinese, Japanese and Brazilian Portuguese."

The free CDs are part of their worldTour promotion which started in Seattle, WA back in September 6, 2006. Today's a great time to try out Java/NetBeans so better go order your CDs while it lasts.

http://www.netbeans.org/about/cd-form.html
http://www.netbeans.org/community/articles/worldtour/index.html

Blogged with Flock

Xubuntu on Kubuntu via QEMU

2007-05-04T05:36:00.001+08:00

This is actually the first time I've tried to virtualize anything. I've been wanting to virtualize any OS before but I just didn't find any use for it and it'll only waste my time. But now that I'm involved with my Xubuntu Initiative, I decided to try QEMU. QEMU isn't actually my first choice, Xen is but QEMU comes highly recommended. I'll also try VirtualBox and Xen soon.

Well, here it is... Xubuntu running on top of QEMU.

And just in case you're wondering, I've also installed qemu-launcher so I wouldn't have to type in long commands to create QCOW images or launch sessions.

References:
http://tech.tolero.org/blog/en/linux/qemu-9-and-kqemu-for-ubuntu-dapper-edgy-feisty
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsXPUnderQemuHowTo
http://geekpit.blogspot.com/2006/03/using-qemu-and-kqemu-under-debian-or.html
http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/kqemu-doc.html
http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/qemu-doc.html

Hope those references helps you out...

Blogged with Flock

Is the search for the perfect distro over?

2007-04-26T04:40:00.001+08:00

My peers (in person... yes, I do have a life outside my computer) has asked me whether I my quest for the perfect distro has come to an end. To answer that question, is Hell No! I have to explain over and over again that Linux is that flexible and has a lot to offer no matter what distro you choose. That boggled them since they thought that all distros uses the same base, the same source codes, the same applications... that is true! But the distro is not defined by what applications are installed and offered, but by how active and accomodating a community is. It's always the community... Softwares and Operating Systems evolve, including Microsoft Windows, but you don't see me using Windows... Community on the other hand are a bunch of humans driven by their passion and emotions. Let's face it, it's not always their brains that's working.

Fact: there is no end for my quest. Softwares will move forward, but a community may regress (almost 100% caused by emotions). And that is the reason why I won't stop downloading and installing new distros.

3rd Quarter last year, I migrated from Gentoo due to petty quarrells. Their package manager is the best in the world. I have to admit that it has superseded Apt when it comes to dependencies and functionality, but it's not all that. What's the use of a perfect application if the people you're working with keeps on pushing you around. Don't get me wrong, I still love Gentoo, and their new Code of Conduct has forced me to reconsider my thoughts. As for Fedora, well the most recent (at least for me, I've been out of touch lately) reason why I still haven't tried Zod (FC6) was because of this (complete). ESR may be at fault here, but a professional (and a representative of Red Hat) isn't supposed to act like that. It's all about respect, it always is and will always be. Community, always driven by emotions and almost always the cause of their success or downfall.

Now I'm into Ubuntu... who knows, maybe next year I'm back to Gentoo or Fedora. Well, let's just see...

Additional Note: No, I'm not starting a flame war here, this is my opinion and you have to accept it as that.

Blogged with Flock

Pinoy Geniune Kit... Bwahahaha!

2007-04-25T19:40:00.001+08:00

So have you read your morning paper lately and discover another gimmick?

Yup! A very enticing offer.... And I suggest you go validate your XP now before it lasts. At Php7,748.00 it sure is a nice deal, so again... better buy now! You'll also have a chance to win another PC, an O2 PDA-Phone, XBox, etc. Wow!!! I'll go get one myself... Zzzzzz!

Oh right, sorry for falling asleep. Hey, look go validate your windows now, shell out Php7K, and you'll have a chance to win gadgets... you'll also win malwares and spyware 100% guaranteed! It slices, it dices...

After making Microsoft Php7K richer, you'll also be prompted to buy a Php4K Norton Internet Suite and a PhP15K MS Office 2003 Premium so you'll never be left out with Wordpad. As an added bonus, XP will drive you paranoid from email attachments, IM Spam, and internet browsing. And lastly, you don't have to be technical with XP, its' user-friendliness won't give you enough time to differentiate viruses from worms from trojans from spywares... coz they're all the same to you!

So, for the 3rd time... go validate your XP now, or you'll be sorry!

Scam.... legal or not... it's still a scam!

Blogged with Flock

Hours Before Feisty

2007-04-19T12:25:00.001+08:00

In a few hours, the Ubuntu community would release Feisty Fawn (v7.04). There's an alarming stillness, like a calm after the storm, like silence before an impending disaster. Only a few devs and testers are at work, the rest are unaware of what's in store for them. But everyone is talking about it... anticipating...
Feisty is considered another milestone for the Linux community. The needs of both regular users (who loves or used to using proprietary codecs, plugins, and softwares) and Open Source Software-only advocates were met. This compromise will suit everyone... and I'm happy about it.

I implore you to download it, use it, and experience the freedom you've never tasted before in Windows.

Blogged with Flock

SmartBro is listed

2007-04-03T23:02:00.001+08:00

... by CBL and won't be long before we get listed by SpamHaus. Yup, no turning back now, there's hundreds of SmartBro subscribers and almost 90% of them are using Windows. The problem is viruses and trojan mailers which try to send out spam to their contacts. Why is this a problem for us? When that happens some of our friends might not recieve our emails, especially if they are using DNS blacklist (or something like that... no time to research) like SpamHaus. Today I tried to post a comment on a WordPress site and got the message below.

So of course I gotta check this out, so I clicked on the link so I could release my (and a hundred subscribers) IP address.

Yup, I understand this. Spam not only comes in the form of emails, but also comments on blogs and news articles. So I gotta check my IP out for myself and see what comes up.

Aha, CBL has blacklisted my IP address. I clicked on the link to see if I could fix it.

http://cbl.abuseat.org/remove.cgi?ip=203.87.200.214

Yeah, I was able to release it my IP from CBL, but it says here that if OUR IP address gets listed and delisted multiple times, they're gonna have to permanently blacklist us. And like I said, we'll have a hard time sending out emails to our friends, families, and even our employers or clients (we'll lose money). We'll have a hard time chatting with our friends via IRC and IMs. Some of the sites we go to would have an Error telling us that our IP is blocked. And we won't be able to comments on our friends' blog. What causes this again? Viruses, Trojans, you name it. And it only happens if you have a Windows machine.

And NO... if our IP address gets permanently blocked, even SmartBro won't be able to do anything. And because you are using a Windows machine, you'll affect innocent users like me (and there are hundreds of us subscribed with SmartBro). Please think about what you're doing... Do you really need Windows?

"Mandadamay pa kasi e!"

Blogged with Flock

Baguio Ko Mahal Ko April 1 Article

2007-04-02T02:49:00.000+08:00

Firstly, I need to ask forgiveness from Madam Virginia De Guia for infringing on her article without asking permission from her, though I'm sure she wouldn't mind me posting her article in full. Here's her Sunday article.

As we say goodbye to the month of March, we seem to remember it mainly as the month of ashes on our foreheads, of graduation marches and togas, of the last gasps of chilly Siberian winds, and the first warm embrace of summer drafts. And yes, in anticipation of the multitudes of holy week, the month city officials, businessmen and police get their acts together. Not to mention squads of volunteer groups like REACT and Boy Scouts to help lost visitors.
Few can remember the energies of March 1945. The infamous month of carpet bombing of Baguio by American B-24s. It was six months before the close of the war. I was 29 years old with a two-year-old son and one-year-old daughter. For almost 60 days, American B-24s were raiding our beloved city, razing it to the ground to flush out General Yamashita.
We were refugees within our own city, herding ourselves at the Baguio Cathedral. Make-shift shacks were built around the slopes of the church knowing (or at least hoping) the bombers would spare the refugee center.
It was a terrifying March - an atmosphere that we see only in documentary films from the viewpoint of the bomber's cameras. On the ground it was hell. James Halsema describes the horror: "Few participants have clear memories of the events of March 15. What they remember is endless running, exhaustion, terror, smoke, and dust. Some refugees including seriously wounded people remained in the Cathedral..."
He describes how the b-24s came in single file. Two squadrons discharged their loads from south to north and two others from southwest to northeast. Altogether 170 planes... came to Baguio that day to release their loads... so dense and devastating that they were termed "carpet bombing". I didn't realize that the expression was formed from the Baguio air raids. (Just like the American work "Boondocks" came from our word "bundok.") Pilots reported that "two days after, we were having difficulty seeing buildings through the black pall".
I remember that one stray bomb fell so close to the church, many refugees were wounded. we would return to our homes in the evenings and return to the Cathedral early next morning after cooking our daily baon. Many had dug air raid shelters near their homes -- little cuevas to run into. One day a bomb fell so close to our home and my mother, sitting near the mouth of the cave was buried live. It took almost an hour to dig her out - with neighbors and some Japanese helping. She was brought to St. Louis hospital and she survived.
we had moved several times - from our home on Session Road (present La Azotea) down to the Hotel Plaza (the DBP corner lot), which my husband Victor was managing and later to my sister-in-law Leonila Madrid Oteyza's house in Aurora Hill. When it seemed to be a never ending nightmare, we evacuated finally to Tubao La Union - walking five days and nights. I was carrying my one-year-old Genie on my back, while Eric was carried by my nephew Poping de Guia.
A report on the March 15, 16, and 17, 1945 bombings said: "The heap of rubble, which represented Baguio was no longer the beautiful, healthful, peaceful, or the gay rendezvous in the Philippines. It was with deep sorrow that pilots saw their bombs crashing into swimming pools [sic] (in reality Burnham Park Lagoon), golf courses, beautiful hotels, and other luxuries, which they had dreamed would be ours to enjoy on the capture of Luzon."
Halsema concludes: "Even over 40 years later it is not easy to understand why the US Air Force bombed so many civilian occupied buildings in Baguio on the Ides of March 1945."
Yes I can never fully understand the need for war at all, today. Six decades later, the memories of March 1945 still haunt me - as images of war continue to grace our TV screens. Kailan tayo matututo that World War II should have been "The war to end all wars?"

End of Article. My comments below.

So there it is, a chilling 1945 memory. I can't help but wonder how Baguio recuperated so easily after multiple monstrous attacks. But that made Cordillerans stronger. It's true that only a few remembers that day, but as long as someone remembers.... we'll be OK.

Why did I post this article here? 'Coz it wouldn't take long before Microsoft invades FOSS and their community. Everyone knows (and experienced) their aggressiveness and indifference. We have to prepare for the larger battle to come. War? Oh yes, we're already at war. It started way back in 1980's, and we initiated it. The day Stallman created GNU & GPL and Linus, the Linux kernel, was the day we declared war over injustices and monopoly. We won't see the end of this war for another 20 to 40 years. But we should strive to win one battle at a time. Every convert is a battle won. And every convert is another General waiting to lead an army against the Big Evil.

As for me, I'll be waiting for the D-Day... prepared!

Google, you gotta love 'em

2007-04-01T23:02:00.001+08:00

Now what does Google have that makes it the top dog?

GMail, Google Calendar, Notebook, Personalized Homepage, Search, Code Search, Blogger, Videos, YouTube, AdSense, etc. etc. etc.

Google actually manages my life, just a few snags though (Calendar and Notebook integration into KMail and we're all set) but it does its' job well.

But what really cracks me up is their developers, and managements, sense of humor. Yup, every year we get treated to a few laughs. And today, I managed to digg two of them.

http://www.google.com/tisp/

and

http://mail.google.com/mail/help/paper/more.html

Google, you HAVE to love 'em...

To the devs, Thank you!

Blogged with Flock

Are you still using Yahoo! ?

2007-03-29T14:26:00.001+08:00

Yahoo! Messenger: Virus, http://www.pspl.com/virus_info/worms/sohanadae.htm, that opens http://thecoolpics.com/xxx.xxx which will execute ActiveX commands remotely. Now, if your company or your home computer has Windows installed, then you're out of luck. Another layer of protection is Firefox with a NoScript extension installed.

Yahoo! Mail: The heavy weight contender. You read it, bloat! There's way too many features and eye-candy that it eats up your bandwidth and CPU/Memory resources. Because of those unneeded features, you cannot fully enjoy reading your friends email. Click on a message then fix yourself a coffee, click another message then you could wash your hands and take a leak... it's that slow. Not to mention very crappy SPAM filter. It managed to tag a legitimate email that was even signed by a GPG key. Take note of this, it also blocks emails with a @yahoo.com domain. Haha!

Did I forget to mention? Bloat... And because it eats up a lot of resources, even their servers can't display the page properly. I'm amazed that their servers can still handle the load.

Geocities: Oh my god, hosting provider that spits out ads while providing measly megs of space.

Homepage: Unneeded features(?) links on the left.

Maps: Too Slow

Launchcast: Advertisements

Briefcase: 25MB isn't enough

Groups: Advertisements and SPAM

Sports: too much Flash

Search: can't customize

Answers: what's with the Avatars?

Flickr: Now this is the only service worth using and signing up with. I just hope that Yahoo! doesn't add additional unneeded features that'll make this site slow. Hint: if it ain't broke, don't fix.

I almost forgot, I only use Yahoo! Mail when signing up to porn sites. It's useful after all...

Blogged with Flock

Beware of KMail's Mailing List Management

2007-03-29T13:32:00.001+08:00

Just last week, I unintentionally sent a very very personal email to Ubuntu-PH's Mailing List. Imagine my surprise when Ulinskie pointed this out... My first reaction was !@**$###%!! what the hell happened here. It was a very personal email and my friends was forwarded a copy and boy, I was way beyond embarassed with what happened. So anyway, I've been trying to determine what happened here, and it took me hours to find the culprit.. Oh yeah, it's KMail's Mailing List Management feature. Let's recreate that shall we.

So first open up Mailing List Management...

Then add an email address and OK out of that window.

Then select a message and click on Reply to All

And verify if it did add a mailing list email to the TO or CC field.

Yup, there it is.

KMail's Mailing List Management is very useful in specific situations, like you've filtered out incoming messages to go to a specific folder and wanted to make sure that all emails you reply to on that folder gets forwarded to your Mailing List.

One word... Beware!

Blogged with Flock

HP NX9040 Notebook

2007-03-17T19:55:00.001+08:00

My dad got himself an HP NX9040 Notebook. The first thing I always do is read the documentations while letting a new toy charge. I am pleased with my dad's decision to buy an OS-Free (actually Microsoft-Free) notebook and not let himself succumb to Draconian contracts and costly licenses. This is the first document that I read.

And according to this doc, there's no crappy microsoft software to deal with. It comes preinstalled with FreeDOS and if I want to install Linux, then I should first check out their "Certified Linux" (no Kubuntu though) page so I can choose a compatible distro... Ahhh, to hell with that, I'm really confident with my Kubuntu Feisty even though its' still in beta. Why? I already have it installed on my desktop, the one where I'm typing this post in, and I can surely say that it's stable enough for everyday use (even server use) and the bugs that pop in and out are pretty trivial and once reported (and corrected, of course) it'll fix itself using the dist-upgrade manager.

Now, lets move on to the problem I have with this notebook...... the laptop is pre-installed with Windows XP Pro! Nope, no Serial, no Recovery Disc.... just the Driver disc. Damn! Anyway, my dad will be reporting this to proper authorities, so I guess I have to wait. Although I'm compelled to say that my dad is happy with this since he has Windows OS but without paying for it. Heh! I still don't like it. Anyway, I'll probably install Feisty once it's released to the public.... with my dad's permission of course!

Blogged with Flock

The most critical bug in Ubuntu

2007-03-16T00:55:00.001+08:00

This is both humour and reality. This is the most critical Bug in Ubuntu, for the benefit of those who don't know: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1

Blogged with Flock

Linux Diaries' New Logo

2007-03-11T14:11:00.001+08:00

I wanted to have a site logo so I decided to create one.

First, since this is a diary, I wanted to look for a diary image. Then, type in Linux Diaries as Courier (ahhh, typewriters).

Of course, since I can't integrate Kubuntu or Ubuntu's logo, I just decided to use Jucato's adaptation for Ubuntu-PH (mind you, this is not an approved nor authorized logo). Besides looking cool, it signifies our desire to use K/Ubuntu here in our country, as represented by the colors of our flag. Yeah, I did ask permission from Jucato, so don't worry.

Blogged with Flock

Flock: My newest Friend

2007-03-10T23:36:00.001+08:00

My Firefox Add-ons now consists of:

Adblock Plus
Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer
Gmail Space
NoScript
VideoDownloader
and IE Tab if I'm in XP or 2000

Yup! As you can see, there's no more Performancing for Firefox and OakFlickr extensions installed because I got fed up of repeated parsing errors whenever I include the ampersand (&) anywhere (title or body).

Where do I turn to now? Flock of course (currently at v0.7.11 Beta). Yup, you read it. It's a beta software, but it's stable enough for me. Besides, it's still the same Mozilla Firefox that I love and also uses the same extension or add-ons.

Flock got a few "pogi" points for adding a blog editor, wherein posts could also be saved in your home directory, a newsreader (haven't tried that yet) and a Flickr & Photobucket upload featured on it. And once uploaded, you can just drag and drop the images to the blog editor. You could choose a large or small version and there's even BB Code integrated. But what I really love is the fact that I can resize the photos inside the blog editor. No more calculating ( Performancing for Firefox should take note of this). Plus the animation is cool!

So now I see Flock as a complete bloggers tool. My Firefox would have to serve its' intended purpose, as a research tool. Now that'll free up a few system resources and make my browsing faster. No more additional extensions to load when starting up. Nope, I'm not gonna ditch Firefox for Flock because I intend Flock to be just that, a bloggers tool.

Now, I hope Ubuntu would take note of this, since I wanted this nice piece of software in the repository... for convenience sake of course. The MOTU's might wait for a final version, so once I boot back to Kubuntu and Slackware, I'll be downloading and installing it there.

The praise: The developer's thought of everything. The wish: I wish they also include Picasa's Web Albums, that way, my blog is exclusively hosted by Google.

Blogged with Flock

Linux & Windows Drivers

2007-03-10T12:33:00.000+08:00

If you're following my post, you'll know that my wife left me. So, what's a guy to do? My friends suggested a few things:

Drink till I drop
Go to a nightclub and knock myself out
Get a hooker
Party out of town
Cry myself to sleep
Find a pretty and alluring distraction
Find a hobby
and Tsongki!

Well, a conventional guy would just do the drinking and hooking but I decided to find a pretty and alluring distraction. So I bought an Intel D845EPI/D845GVSR motherboard, Intel Celeron 2.70GHz Processor, and a regular 266MHz DDR RAM upgrade which costs less then PhP 5,000.00.

So here comes the upgrade. First my Partitions:
hda1 - 13GB - Windows XP Professional
hda2 - 3GB - Windows 2000 Advanced Server
hda4 - 20GB - FAT Partition for my files
hda5 - 2GB - Swap Partition
hda6 - 13GB - Kubuntu 6.10
hda7 - 6GB - Slackware 11.0

Hey, you might ask why I still need Windows. I'm a C++ Programmer, and I got used to using MS Visual C++ 6. Microsoft... damn... hard habit to break. Although I rarely now boot back to XP. The Win2000 AS would be used to teach myself various Win Servers and their configuration as I have yet to get use to *Nix servers.

Kubuntu is my distro of choice and would be my near-future development workstation. Since I am currently unemployed, I might as well make good use of my time by teaching myself Java, Phyton, PHP/MySQL, XML, Joomla!, Eclipse, KDevelop, and of course, C++ in Linux. Unfortunately, most companies here in Baguio still requires Visual Basic 6 skills. I don't know where to go to or how to develop VB6 apps in Linux, but that's the least of my priorities right now... so I'll Google it out once I reached that point. For now, it's C++ in KDevelop and Java in Eclipse.

So first, I partitioned my 60GB HDD using Ranish Partition Manager packaged with Ultimate Boot CD. And then I install Windows 2000 before Windows XP, then Kubuntu and finally, Slackware.

I hit a few snags on Windows while I'm at it. Here's my list:

Windows 2000 owned the C:\ drive. When I installed Windows XP, it was assigned E:\ and some programs I installed kept on installing to the 3GB partition (Windows 2000). I wanted XP to see itself as C:\ whenever it boots. So I have to run Ranish Partition Manager again and hide all the other partitions (highly recommended especially if you're going to install 2 or more Windows on 1 computer) and reinstalled XP. This workaround enabled XP to see it's home as C:\ and and assign 2000 to E:\. 2000 on the other hand, still sees itself as C:\
Windows 2000 replaced the ntldr file on Windows XP and installed a dual-boot manager. The problem now was I can't boot to XP and the error kept on advising me to run the installation CD and recover it using the Recovery Console. No amount of fixboot and fixmbr, well, fixed it. This was fixed by replacing XP's ntldr with my other XP's ntldr file.
Windows (both 2000 and XP) kept on deleting my ext3fs and swap partitions... that bitch!
I have 2 Primary and 4 Logical Partitions. Windows kept on deleting my 3 other non-FAT and non-NTFS logical partition and made it into primary. I have to resize my Extended Partition using Partition Resizer (still using the Ultimate Boot CD) again and again.
Both 2000 and XP kept on asking for drivers. Who would've thought that the installers only have the generic ones for video. I was surprised that I have to install the driver for ethernet since I assumed that both 2000 and XP has a generic 10/100 Ethernet drivers so all the other drivers can be downloaded via Windows Update (now Microsoft Update). In Kubuntu? I don't need drivers 'coz each and every one component already has a driver. So all I have to worry in Linux is install my free softwares.
There is no such thing as batch install in Windows.... ever!
Every single program, regardless of its' license (yes including the Open Source ones), would prompt a EULA page. I only encounter such EULA's in Linux when I install Flash, Java, and Opera.
2000 and XP almost always prompts you to "check on the FAT partition for consistency".
An Intel "HardDisk Driver" (forgot the exact name) shuts down 2000 and XP... no prompts... just like unplugging the power cord from the back of the casing. Fixed by uninstalling Intel Application (or Program) Accelerator.
Win32 Application installer don't know exactly where to install the programs. Is it the home (E:\) or the "standard" Partition (C:\). Hah!
Windows 2000 Server took me around 6hrs to install the OS, install the drivers, install Firefox and Irfanview, and configure the desktop settings.
Windows XP Professional took me a total of 24 hours (span of 2 days) to install everything (OS, Drivers, OSS Programs, MS Office 2003, VC++6, Corel Graphics Suite 11, etc.) and configure the desktop and Outlook 2003.
While Kubuntu took me a total of 1 hour to install the OS and configure the desktop. 5mins to sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg (because Kubuntu 6.10 can't detect the make and model of my monitor which is AOC LM525 and should run at 60Hz). And around 2hours to install Firefox, Flash, Java, Opera, SANE, KDevelop and download & install time of security, application, and KDE updates. Another 5mins to configure KDE settings including user accounts and login convenience. Kubuntu install and configuration time: 3hrs and 20mins (That includes the download and install time of Picasa). (Beat that Microsoft!).

So... to wrap things up, you'll notice that, in Kubuntu, I only configured my monitor settings and installed SANE for my scanner (see previous post). The drivers for my motherboard/chipset, video, AC'97 sound, Genius Video Cam Express V2 and HP Deskjet 5160 didn't need drivers.

After install, I still have to worry about spywares, worms, viruses, trojans, etc. and the dreaded Blue Screen of Death lingering in your head. Not so in Kubuntu... ahhh peace of mind at last!

Performance? Please! Anti-Virus (AVG), Anti-Spyware (Super Anti-Spyware), and Firewall (ZoneAlarm) eats a lot of resources that my OS and apps should be using. I don't need all of that in Kubuntu (unless I run LAMP in which case I just download and configure FireStarter).

This is my personal experience in Windows and Linux. What do you think?

On a side note... Linux should have the "It Just Works!" motto while Microsoft should retain the "Who do you want to screw today?" motto.

Genius Colorpage Vivid4X on Kubuntu 6.10

2007-03-07T11:44:00.001+08:00

This is a How-To on setting up Genius Colorpage Vivid4x scanner on my Kubuntu 6.10.

If you have a different brand of scanner, better check out the SANE (Scanner Access Now Easy) page located here:
http://www.sane-project.org/

Also make sure to read the ReadMe file located here:
http://www.sane-project.org/README.linux

If you have a different brand of scanner, check it out here:
http://www.sane-project.org/sane-backends-1.0.13.html

If you're a busy man, there's a few instructions that I myself used to get my scanner working here:
http://www.meier-geinitz.de/sane/gt68xx-backend/

Of course you need to download and install the following packages to make your Genius Colorpage Vivid4x work:
libsane (already installed in Kubuntu 6.10)
sane (the graphical frontend) and
sane-utils (SANE utilities)

You may install the above apps using Adept or Synaptic or Aptitude or you may download and compile them yourself.

As for the firmware, you will need to check on what firmware you need to use. Check the backends links above so you'll know exactly what you need.
As for my case, I need CCD548.fw located on the "C:\Program Files\ScannerU" (/media/hda1/Program Files/ScannerU). If you have the same exact brand of scanner and need the exact same file, please contact me so I can email it to you.

As you can see above, we have to copy the firmware file on the /usr/share/sane/gt68xx (You may do this via the command-line or by issuing the kdesu konqueror command since you have to be root to copy the firmware file on the /usr/share directory)

Next, run sane-find-scanner to check if your Genius Colorpage Vivid4x was detected by your system.

If it says No USB scanner found, then you have to make sure the scanner is connected properly and that it has a power light in front. Also try issuing the lsusb command and check if your system has detected it.

After all of this is done, you may now test your scanner. Since I'm using Kubuntu 6.10, I'll be using Kooka Scan and OCR Program. If you haven't launched Kooka before, then this window should appear prompting you to choose a device to use.

And I tested it out by scanning the front cover of Pugad Baboy 18.

So here's the output of Pugad Baboy 18 at a Resolution of 75

Tux

2007-02-26T05:43:00.000+08:00

These are two of the images that caught my eye while searching Google for Tux.

The Rose

2007-02-25T13:01:00.001+08:00

This is us...

Yesterday, she told me she doesn't love me any longer....
and that she started to lose that love last December 2006 when they went on vacation at Romblon....
and that she doesn't know how she lost that flame...
and that she felt she no longer needed me in her life...

Hay!!!!

My daughter? We haven't decided... yet!

I still love her... but I have to let her go...
It's no use asking her to stay with me if she doesn't want to...

Free... as in choice!

Like the statement I love telling people.

Rose... you are free! And I will miss you dearly!

It'll never stop...

Regrets... a lot!
Promises... too many broken!
Forgiveness... too many to ask!

Be free!

You'll always be my Kubuntu, my Debian, my Fedora, and my Gentoo.
Quarrels... and Bickering...
No matter... it stops today.

Like the song I love playing in Amarok!
I'll Remember You and LFO's Girl on TV (the songs playing on our first kiss in my DJ's booth)

Metallica, Slayer, and Megadeth will rest for a while.

I'll convert them back from OGG to MP3 so I can play them in my S1 Mp3 Player.
So I can always bring them with me...

LOVE...

I hope my Kubuntu won't do the same thing!
Same old errors, something I can understand.
Not your enigmatic answers when you snap back at me!

No matter how hard it is for me, your Windows XP SP2 partition and your MS Office files will remain intact, with my love.
Permit me to access them using OpenOffice.
Permit me to convert your favorite GIFs and JPEGs to PNGs.
And please allow me to convert your favorite Mp3's to OGG so I can always play them and remember you.

Cry?
It's for the weak!
Emotions?
It's for the weak!
Pain?
It's for the weak!
Anger?
It's for the weak!

Time for me to accept this and move on...
Time for me to get over this shit feelings...

So I can compile my kernel
So I can compile my KDE
So I can install my ntfs-3g

During those long compile times... I will remember you.
I will see your face while cryptic messages scrolls up.
I will remember your kiss while booting my custom kernel.

Yes, that's how much I love you.
As long as I have my Linux, you will always be right beside me.

Goodbye... my lovely Rose! @>-,-'--

Google Linux

2007-02-21T12:10:00.001+08:00

I just read an article from The Inquirer.net

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37713

If this pushes through, I'll be having a ball. No, it's not Google making their own Linux that's making me smile right now... it's the code that they'll be contributing to the community.. and adopted to make a better OS. Picasa.... as far as I can remember, they gave away their code used to port a win32 app to Linux.

Commercial? Doesn't matter... as long as it works.

Google: The Next Microsoft.... no, they still listen to what people wants... and they're not obnoxious.

Incompatibility... no, I'm pretty sure that they will make sure it works. On the plus side, the code that will benefit the whole Open Source community. Virtualization... WINE... just imagine.

Instability... no, Linux is already notorious for being very stable and hardened. A little bit of an aesthetically pleasing OS would really serve the community at large.

Reputation... Yes! It's reputation has already influenced millions (probably billions) or users worldwide. A Linux distro from Google may be the only thing we need to make converts out of skeptics. Who would you believe? A billion dollar company like Microsoft or the computer guy next door? I'll believe in Google.

As far as I can remember, all its' services has never failed me. And I'm pretty sure millions would say "My sentiments exactly!"

Google OS... Converts... Microsofts' Downfall... I like!

On a side note, once they decide to make one, they'll make sure win32 apps also works. Who knows, Half-Life 2 running on Linux without emulations...

rambling again!

New Books

2007-02-17T10:35:00.001+08:00

Got new books to read...

Now I need to find time to read them..

The Joy of Linux
Linux Device Drivers (This was actually given as a gift)
Hackers Challenge: Test your Incident Response Skills using 20 Scenarios
Linux Bible 2005 Edition
Network + Study Guide
How to do Everything in PHP MySQL
ADSL DSL Technologies
Broadband Fixed Wireless Networks
Sams Teach Yourself C++ Linux in 21 Days
C++ Primer
and The C++ Programming Language 3rd Edition by Bjarne Stroustrup
and yesterday I bought;
Sams Tech Yourself XML in 10 minutes (yeah, I'll study AJAX)

EDIT (3 March 2007): just today, I bought Computer Networks 4th Edition & Introduction to PC Hardware and Troubleshooting

and I printed out:
Kernel in a Nutshell
Joomla! User Manual
Kubuntu Desktop Guide
GNU/Linux Command Line Tools Summary
The KDE User Guide
KDE Architecture Overview
Introduction to Linux: A Hands On Guide
KDevelop User Manual
The KDevelop Programming Handbook
Beginning KDevelop Programming
A couple of KDevelop FAQs and Tutorials

and a few more C++ Tutorials (been trying to switch from Visual C++ to C++ Implementation in Linux for weeks)

EDIT (3 March 2007): I also printed out:
The Ubuntu Packaging Guide
Ubuntu Server Guide
Ubuntu FAQ Guide (can't find the link)
The Linux System Administrator's Guide
Slackware Linux Essentials
and Linux Essentials

As you can see, I'm not just about Linux, I'm about technology.

EDIT (3 March 2007): I'll be printing out more eBooks over the course of 4 weeks (starting next week), depending on the ink of my HP Deskjet 5160:
Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide
Bash Guide for Beginners
The Linux Kernel Module Programming Guide
Guide to Managing Media and Public Relations in the Linux Community
Linux Dictionary
Linux Filesystem Hierarchy
Linux from Scratch
Securing and Optimizing Linux: The Ultimate Solution
The Linux Network System Administrator's Guide

Some Guides
QT Designer and KDevelop 3.0 for Beginners
How to Use KDevelop with KDE CVS
How to Implement "User Defined Settings"
SDL & KDevelop Mini-Howto
KDE Programming Tutorial using KDevelop
The KDevelop C++ KDE Templates Explained
A Few Articles from KDE Women Homepage

Some Bookmarks:
Free Programming eBooks
Free Programming Resources
Programming Tutorials
Programmer Tutorials
Sites of Interest to C++ Users Page
No Name FTP Site
2020ok.com
195 Free Online Programming Books
Computer Books.US
Text Files .com
The Online Books Page
Free IT eBooks
C++ Computer Books
Tech Books for Free (C & C++)

Ayt! So there you have it.... Those are the books I have, printed out, or planning to print in the near future.

EDIT (3 March 2007) My hard copies aren't really that expensive. I rarely buy a PhP 500 and up books. Those are either bargain or on sale and all my hard copies are bought from National Bookstore. Their online site are updated with regards to their retail price so if you want to save money, better make sure you go to their store in person and spend time browsing through each title and checking out their price. If you don't believe me, the only book (listed above) that cost me more than PhP 450 is the Introduction to PC Hardware and Troubleshooting at PhP 499. Next expensive is the Linux Bible at PhP 399. Patience is a virtue my friend... just keep on browsing whatever title catches your attention and you'll sooner or later find a bargain.

powered by performancing firefox

1st things first on Kubuntu 6.10

2007-02-16T20:55:00.001+08:00

I still use Kubuntu 6.10 and the first thing/s I do with it is to make sure I have all my apps I need to open, edit, and run my stuff.. mostly p0rn (heh).

And no, I don't believe in OSS-only preference. The people who keeps on flaming you at the mere mention of "mp3" or "wmv" should be hanged for hypocrisy since I believe they themselves have those kinds of files. Well, I myself don't use wmv and wma, but you can't prevent people from using them and posting them on their sites. Yes, most content/s online are either mp3, mp4, ra, rm, wma, and wmv and that is out of anyone's control. I can send them an email, but I don't think they'll listen especially if they assume/think that everyone uses Windows (Trust me, a lot of them will never believe you when you say that there's other OS besides Windows). Ok, I got a response from a friend... "DON'T VIEW PORN!!!!" Nice! Screaming your head off won't change a thing! That is until we influence them to, at least, post an acceptable file format.

I can understand that K/Ubuntu intentionally left out proprietary codecs from their distro due to license restrictions. But what I can't understand is why other distros has them working on your first install. What I can't understand is why won't a representative from K/Ubuntu (or any other distros) talk to the proprietor of those codecs and compromise on something. I know that you need to pay money for use of their codecs, but I don't think everyone will demand for money. Maybe they could strike a deal... Advertising their company name or logo ain't bad.... right? Placing a tiny Fraunhofer IIS Logo on the top-right or bottom-left of Amarok every time you play and MP3 ain't bad... right?

What matters right now is user-convenience. And you keep on asking why Linux still hasn't dominated the world. Just imagine... 500 people a day migrating to your favorite distro... Now that redefines the meaning of the word Dominance.

EDIT: Jucato just enlightened me on what K/Ubuntu stands for including licensing and philosophy. Yeah, already knows about those, but I'm still wondering why not make it easier for a user.

ANOTHER EDIT: Now this is what I'm talking about. No need to bother K/Ubuntu main, someone already created a fork... an ideal distro for migrants.

Please check it out here:

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Ubuntu-Ultimate-Edition-45644.shtml

Hmm, I may eat what I just said. Certainly I wouldn't want seeing Microsoft's Logo anywhere near my precious desktop. MP3's, AVI's DivX', Real logos are fine, but not Microsoft....

So, anyway, there's a few ritual/s I love doing that it became a habit over time. Here's my list;

I have an AOC LM525 LCD Monitor. So configuring my monitor is my first priority because I will stare at it all day long.
Add an updated Kubuntu Mirror on my sources.list (if Kubuntu has been out for a while now)
Use Adept Updater
Make sure I have read write access to my storage (VFAT) partition on /media/hda5
Install the latest Firefox release
Install my favorite extensions and use the theme I like in Firefox
Install codecs (for Amarok Kaffeine) and plugins (Java, Flash, etc.)
Test if the codecs and plugins work
Download and install VLC Xine, and XMMS.
Create, Open, Edit, etc. my presentation, spreadsheets, word, bmp, jpg, gif, png, svg, etc. files in OpenOffice or other derivatives.
Download and install GIMP
Compile the latest kernel, 2.6.20 in this instance
Make sure that everything works with my new kernel including my PS/2 optical A4Tech MOP-18 Mini Optical Mouse. I don't like using USB for my mouse because I'll have other hardware using it.
Download KDevelop 3.4 and other C++ Tools
Test out KDevelop
Install and configure my HP Deskjet 5160 printer
Install and configure my Genius Colorpage-Vivid 4X Scanner
Configure my Desktop and Windows Behaviour. Make sure its' pleasing to the eyes.
Install OpenSync because I have an Audiovox PPC4100 (Pocket PC 2003)
Make sure it syncs with Evolution and/or Thunderbird
Configure the mail servers of Thunderbird and download my GMail emails.
(Optional) compile KDE
Be Productive

My last post concerns setting up your box and I said that it will normally take around 2 days initially to configure everything that needs to be configured. Well, the list above is my todo list every time I install Kubuntu.

AOC LM525

Sources.list Update

I wanted the latest of what KDE (most specifically KDevelop) has to offer. So I have to edit my sources list.

 wget http://people.ubuntu.com/~jriddell/kubuntu-packages-jriddell-key.gpg

 sudo apt-key add kubuntu-packages-jriddell-key.gpg

then add this line:

deb http://kubuntu.org/packages/kde-356 edgy main

Source: http://kubuntu.org/announcements/kde-356.php

And if you want to download commercial applications like Real Player or Opera, then add this line:

deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu dapper-commercial main

Firefox Extensions and Themes

Codecs and Plugins

Of course, I have to install everything there is to install... Efficiency!

etc. etc. etc.

Linux is Healthy for you

2007-02-15T08:35:00.000+08:00

Here's a couple of reasons why Linux is healthy for you....

Initial setup will take about a day or two (8-10 hrs a day). That will include compiling a custom kernel and configuring the behavior of your applications. On the third day, all you have to do is focus on your work, not your OS.
You may be productive with Windows the moment you buy them, but you'll be spending the day worrying about viruses and malwares and intruders. And they say they have Peace of Mind? Yeah, right!
Less Stressful... no need to worry about malwares. You don't even need an Internet Security Suite like Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware, and even a Firewall. Now that's Peace of Mind.
More time for you... no need to waste time searching for an application you need because we have everything you need in a repository.
More choices for you... you don't have to stick with an OO Writer, we also have Abiword and KWord. Choose what you want... what suits you... and when you need it.
No wasted time... 3-15 minutes of your time agreeing to a softwares' license agreement and pointing to what directory an application should install to can add up to hours a day. In Linux (Kubuntu 6.10 for that matter) can download and install it for you without asking unnecessary questions with a simple command sudo apt-get install
No worries... No Registry here! If you fuck an application, you don't fuck the whole system!
No worries... No Blue Screen of Death... And even if there is, there will always be a way to get back to where you at with a single command...
No worries... No reboots necessary, even if you do a system-wide upgrade. You only reboot if you want to use another kernel.
No stress... Learning curve isn't that significant... If you know how to navigate Windows, you'll know how to navigate Linux... Familiarization? Remember the time when you first used Windows XP? The Learning Curve in learning how to use and navigate Vista is just the same with Linux.
No worries... No DRM! No Trusted Computing! What else can you ask for?
No worries... No Codecs you say... Well same thing with Windows, you have to download them... XP Codecs Pack.. Real Players...
No Crap to deal with! No Microsoft Office in Linux... Yeah! True! 'coz we don't need them!
No worries... Business Apps only runs in Windows! Some, but not all. If you need those "some", then use Wine or Crossover. Sooner or later, someone will port them to Linux! It's just that there's too little demand for it, that's why it hasn't been ported yet.

Look at my pictures below:

Microsoft Windows XP days

As for Linux

Fedora Core 6 and Kubuntu 6.10

See!

In Linux, I have more time for myself and I used most of it by exercising. If I'm still using Windows, I'd have bloated by now since most of my free time would be wasted by scanning and removing malwares and trojans while munching on Piatos or Mr. Chips (hehe!).

I still look like shit though (even if I try putting on some decent clothes), but I did lose 60lbs just by using Linux.

This may sound impossible, but Linux really is healthy for you!

And as a side note, I did have more time for my family now! Woo Hoo! Just got laid mind you...

2.6.20 Kernel Compiled

2007-02-08T13:44:00.001+08:00

So finally I got my kernel compiled and is working without any problems, except the mouse which has to be hooked up via USB.

Well doesn't matter, I still have this:

Yeah, that's my kernel, finally got it right at the 3rd compile. And my system is fast.... very fast.

So the reason for this post is to recognize How to Forge for hosting the How to Compile a Kernel - The Ubuntu Way which was written by Falko Timme

Yeah, some of you might say that my previous post is a copyright infringement, yes, it's still up to Mr. Falko Timme to decide on this. I will delete that post once he requests that I take it down.

Oh, and you may ask why I chose his howto over Seer Of Souls, which also contains a great howto on kernel compilation. Let's just say that I've been trusting How to Forge for months and Seer of Souls was only brought up when I informed my IRC friends that I am compiling a the 2.6.20 kernel.

Also, the post yesterday is my 3rd attempt on compilation and am a bit used to issuing the commands.

Ayt!

Compiling 2.6.20 Kernel

2007-02-07T23:14:00.001+08:00

It's been 9 months since I last compiled a kernel... 2.6.10 (I think) and I want to do it again, especially since 2.6.20 was released.

I'm pretty sure you've seen my screenshot yesterday, yes, it seems that 2.6.20 has ntfs-write support. So, for the purpose of visually documenting 2.6.20, I'll do it again for the 3rd time. The first time, I forgot to select inotify which prevented my kernel from booting up. The 2nd time, I couldn't get a PS/2 mouse support, just USB. I just hope I do it right this time..

My guide is HowtoForge:

http://www.howtoforge.com/kernel_compilation_ubuntu

Thanks Falko Timme for the guide!

Moving forward.

Create a root account that way, you don't have to issue sudo every time you issue a command, that will save us time. We can easily delete them later anyway.

Login as root

I will qoute Mr. Falko Timme here: "On Ubuntu 6.10, /bin/sh is a symlink to /bin/dash by default. /bin/dash seems to make problems when you compile software from the sources, at least I had that impression. That's why I make /bin/sh a symlink to /bin/bash instead."

Let's now install some packages needed to compile the kernel

This is the command, just in case:

apt-get install kernel-package libncurses5-dev fakeroot wget bzip2

Download the Kernel Source

wget http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.20.tar.bz2

Unpack the, well, package using the following commands:

tar xjf linux-2.6.20.tar.bz2

ln -s linux-2.6.20 linux

cd /usr/src/linux

Next up is copying the configuration of the current kernel (2.6.17).

You may need to copy-paste the code below:

cp /boot/config-`uname -r` ./.config

It's now time to configure the kernel:

make menuconfig

Load the saved .config file

There are a few options we need to configure:

Code Maturity Level Options
General Setup
Loadable Module Support
Block Layer
Processor Type and Features
Power Management Options (ACPI, APM)
Bus Options (PCI, PCMCIA, EISA, MCA, ISA)
Executable File Formats
Networking
Device Drivers
File Systems
Instrumentation Support
Kernel Hacking
Security Options
Cryptographic Options
Library Routines

Then we have the:

Load an Alternate Configuration File (that we already did above) and the
Save an Alternate Configuration File

Code Maturity Level Options:

General Setup

Loadable Module Support

Block Layer

Processor Type and Features

Power Management Options

Bus Options (PCI, PCMCIA, EISA, MCA, ISA)

Executable File Formats

Networking

Device Drivers

File Systems

ATTENTION:

This is where I found out the NTFS-Write Support

Instrumentation Support

Kernel Hacking

Security Options

Cryptographic Options

Library Routines

BIG TIP: If you don't know what it's for, don't touch it. Leave it as is. Do not mess with it.

You've been warned.

And after configuring your kernel, go ahead and save it.

And then Exit out of it

Now it's time for us to build the kernel

Execute the following commands, copy-paste if you have to.

make-kpkg clean

fakeroot make-kpkg --initrd --append-to-version=-custom kernel_image kernel_headers

the --append-to-version=-xxx may be anything, but please don't forget the (-).

*****

Now's the time to go out and have lunch, or take your family for dinner.

This will take a while (around 2-4hrs depending on your system. I have a P3 733Mhz and it took me a little over 4hrs.)

*****

After compiling your kernel, it's time for use to install it, but you should be aware that you'll have 2 .deb files on /usr/src directory. One of them is an image, the other is the header. Mine on the other hand:

So now it's time to install my kernel by issuing the following commands

dpkg -i linux-image-2.6.20-dax_2.6.20-dax-10.00.Custom_i386.deb

and

dpkg -i linux-headers-2.6.20-dax_2.6.20-dax-10.00.Custom_i386.deb

And you're done, and if you check on your /boot/grub/menu.lst , you'll find another newer entry... yours!

so just reboot with that kernel and you'll be surprised at the speed and optimization.

NTFS Support in 2.6.20

2007-02-06T21:19:00.001+08:00

I stumbled upon this image while compiling my 2.6.20 kernel:

If this is true, then I'll be having a ball testing this out!

Ken Starks and the L33T!

2007-02-05T20:04:00.001+08:00

I've been Lobby4Linux' articles for a year now even before their new interface, and Ken Starks becoming ill and almost giving up on what he loves for his passion for OSS.

Glad to see he has recovered and the site is in good hands.. Oh yeah, people supported him at his time of need and has overcome all odds.

The sacrifice he made.... the time he wasted.... the useless effort.... screams that fell on deaf ears...

I idolize him!

You heard me!

And as a fanatic, I tried to Google his name and see what he has done for the Open Source Community.

That's when I saw his interview at Newsforge...

http://os.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=06/01/30/1949228&from=rss

No... this entry isn't about him.. He's done so much that listing down his accomplishment would just insult him. You, as an OS supporter should've known what he's done for the community, for the people.

Going back to the topic...

His view on what a Linux distro should be for first-timers. A distro that will entice Windows users and prevent them from upgrading to Vista.

I remember my first distro, I have to download binaries and posts questions on forums I could get my hands on... User-Friendly, yes, well at least for those willing to make an effort. Ah yes, the magic word. Effort! "Why would we help you out if you don't help youself?" "RTFM!!!!" "Google it out, Dickwad!"

Those statements are enough to make anyone go back to their Windows, to their BSOD, to their spywares and viruses... Those statements are enough to make anyone (including me) to go back to Microsoft's sadistic ways... Those statements are enough to make Vista succeed...

To each his own. Half wanted to be seen as an elite with a couple of *nix/BSD boxes. Half wanted the community to conquer the world. Half wanted OSS to be exclusive. Half wanted to their software to benefit as many people as it could.

Yes, there will always be differences, and No, I don't think OSS will dominate the industry.

See... I'm veering off-topic again... Got to correct this bad habit!

Let's get back to the topic, the ideal distro for people migrating to OSS... and I qoute:

NF: What about people who would like to help but prefer other distributions?

Starks: In the first 72 hours of this blog's publication, the email inbox for helios@lobby4linux.com received 749 emails concerning the announcement. 281 of them asked the same question: Why PCLinuxOS?

In the first 90 days of Lobby4Linux's existence (when we had an office and money), we tested more than 90 desktop distros. When the smoke cleared, we had simply verified what I already knew. PCLinuxOS is the most "noob-friendly" distro that exists at this point. Everything works out of the box for 90% of its users and it has a stunning presentation, not to mention it functions as a live CD so you can test it against your hardware first. While Ubuntu has captured the spotlight, it is not new-user-friendly in many ways. It does not come out of the box with Java, multimedia, and Flash fully working. Not only does it not come "fully assembled," you must edit your sources.list in order to get the stuff you need for multimedia. SUSE, ditto. Now before I get cooked here, let me say that I purchased and use SUSE, but I along with other seasoned Linux folks can make it work. In order to get SUSE to function as a multimedia distro, you need to follow the directions. Once a new Linux user looks at that, they will run, not walk, back to Uncle Bill. Let's get them started on something they can use immediately. My business and personal machines began with Kanotix, but I evolved. PCLinuxOS is where I ultimately landed.

Again, I remember my first distro... plugins to install, apps to configure. Wouldn't it be great if "it just works"?

You wanna keep telling Windows-users to install Gentoo or Slackware just so they percieve you as elite... Elite! Yeah, keep telling yourself that!

The RAM and the PS

2007-02-03T18:45:00.001+08:00

My last post contains my problem with my 128MB SDRAM failing. Well, it was actually my Generic 250watt Power Supply. I kept on installing a PCI card and 3.5in drives that I forgot to calculate my power consumption. Yeah, it was my PS and I will replace them once I have money to spare. Since I have a SmartBro connection, I think I can live without a PCI NetoDragon soft-modem, I won't need it anyway, at least for now. I should've known better not to buy a PhP 300 PS.

regrets... regrets... regrets...

As for my blog, I haven't have time posting some updates since I haven't been using Linux for weeks, well, all that's going to change. I'm now part of the Customer Ownership Team on our account and this will give me less stress and fewer people to think about (myself).

Anway, I think I can now juggle blogging, re-making my site (which is hosted by 110mb.com while my registrar it still Netfirms) using Joomla!, active participation/contribution to ubuntu-ph, igorot-linux, joomla!, 110mb, and Gentoo, my personal project, 98/ME/2000/XP Virtual Desktop, and installing and using Linux.

Aside from my Linux Diaries, I've also created a few more blogs that'll focus on my interests:

The Life of Arwen Venom: pics and comments of my daughter, Arwen Venom Umaming

Tech Support Freak: which is my call center life

Call Center Management: contains tips and stuff I've read in a book, I've applied to my agents before, and management stuff that my Coaches and Managers are doing

Starting C++: learning C++ as a beginner

and

The Magician: my expedition to the world of Hermetics

of course all my other projects like my personal Knowledgebase and Virtual Desktop would be posted on my Knightlust site.

Yeah, this might sound obnoxious, but you'll be seeing a lot of me online.

128MB SDRAM

2006-09-15T08:56:00.000+08:00

Arrrgggghhhh! My 128MB SDRAM failed and for some reason, affected my PC.

What bothers me though is it won't boot any hardrive on my system, but the moment I take it out, everything would be fine, slow PC though, but fine!