Entries Tagged 'Linux' ↓

Many people have stated issues with upgrading to Edgy Eft, but I hardly had any, at least none that left my system in a critical condition.

For example, when I attempted the initial upgrade, I got many complaints over some of the kernel-images failing the install due to lack of space. What this really meant, is “You need to clear out the old kernel images first, then install this one”. Of course, Edgy Eft’s upgrade didn’t do this automatically, so it took a bit of doing to get it to happen just right and still ensure, if Edgy failed, I had a way to get my system up and running again.

So the first thing I did was copy the /boot/ and /lib/ directories to another hard drive (luckily, I had a spare 160 GB SATA drive sitting around). After that was settled, using “apt-get –purge remove <package_name>” I was able to remove the old kernels successfully and free up over half of my first partion. I am kinda curious on who’s idea it was to stick the /boot/ directory and the /lib/ directories in the same partion on a multi-user workstation setup! Hind-sight is telling me that wasn’t a great idea for a default setup.

Anyways, since the initial upgrade failed, I had to make sure I then ran “apt-get -f install” and “apt-get upgrade” up to 5 times! or until it stopped stating there were more packages to install.However, the fun did not stop there. The most entertaining part was on the reboot. Like everyone else, xserver-xorg never installed! Thus I was without a Windows System (which isn’t a “big” deal, but it is a little less shiny that way). After doing a “apt-get install xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-mouse xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-vmmouse xserver-xorg-driver-nv xserver-xorg-driver-vga” I finally had a Windows System back.

Now, this had me up and running under Edgy Eft. However, I still have the following problems which are considerably minor:

1. The nvidia driver sucks. I use the following for my desktop background:
   Now, I do not know if this only applies to TwinView setups using the nvidia driver 1.0-8774, but on the primary monitor only the picture is discolored on the bottom left till about half-way across the monitor. It is primarily the colors in the dark-green tree that is slightly blurry/out-of-focus in the background of the image.Now a way of fixing, which I discovered accidentally, is to start “nvidia-settings” from the console, terminal, Start > Run, whatever. Once it’s GUI starts, the problem is fixed — for that session only. If you logout, reboot, etc. the problem is back rearing its ugly head.
2. Konqueror/Nautilus do not show the “/” (root) folders. This may be to enhance security or stop novices from harming portions of their system by going into folders they know nothing about. Either way, it’s frustrating for us experienced linux users. Note: This can be corrected by running “sudo rm /.hidden”
3. This one has not affected me by any regard, but I have heard a few people using KDE have issues with the GTK+ themes. This might not be affecting me because of a nice setting in KDE that takes control of the GTK+ themes on my system automatically. If you open your System Settings, and click on Appearance, then choose “GTK Styles and Fonts”. I have the GTK Styles section set as “Use my KDE style in GTK applications”. I can’t say this is solving the problem, but I have no complaints on how Firefox or Gaim render in KDE.
4. Lately, the one thing that is still bothering me, is that all new windows are opening on my second display instead of the primary. This is flat out frustrating, and I can’t find where I am supposed to change this. I would have thought it would have been in “System and Settings > Window Behavior or Monitor & Display”. However, “Window Behavior” doe snot mention anything about this, and “Monitor & Display” will not open for me. (see image on right).

These minor problems are discouraging, as they cause several frustrations with users. Hiding directories and providing System Settings with modules that are unusable are going to cause major problems and should have never been released that way.

Lately, I have been trying to catch up on my DVDs backups (meaning, backing up all of my DVD movies onto my computer hard drives). During this process I found out two things. 1) My old DVD burner/reader was dying and couldn’t read a single DVD and 2) once I got it replaced, CDRDAO would crash every time I tried to make an ISO of my DVD.

I found a quick and easy way to get CDRDAO to work on my machine, build it from source. Most of the time, people will consider building from source to be complex or time consuming, but it really isn’t. If you use Debian, Ubuntu, or a distro that has a utility that resembles apt-get, then building from source is simple.

Just do the following:

apt-get build-dep cdrdao
apt-get –build source cdrdao
dpkg -i cdrdao*.deb

After you have completed that, you can now use K3B to write your DVD ISOs, or any other program that uses CDRDAO. I hope this helps anyone else with the same issue I was experiencing. Which at first had me thinking K3B was just constantly crashing, but I later discovered it was CDRDAO.

Work:
Today, I got to play around with some really cool stuff. I got to work with AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML). I have been wanting to get my hands on AJAX for quite a while now and work gave me an excellent opportunity to use it. Admittedly it was for a small task, but nonetheless, I find the use of it just astounding.

In our Homeowners Quoting application, we had the need to update a drop down with new values based on an entry the user made a few questions aboves. Instead of posting the page, I wanted to provide a seamless HTTP request to retrieve the new values of the select box so the user could only pick valid data. Using AJAX made this task easy as can be and it works wonderfully.

At first I had a few issues with defaulting the value or changing the selectedIndex, but it soon got worked out after I let my mind wander and relax from the problem at hand. I plan to do a lot more with AJAX over time to improve the seamless abilities of checking report statuses, ordering reports, retrieving agent names, etc all while the user continues to work on the page. This way they see no lag and they do not have to wait on the page to submit and to load the next form.

At Home:
At home, I have been working on developing a UI for “rdesktop” (Remote Desktop) for Linux users. Sure, we have the console application, but wouldn’t it be cool if we had a GUI like there is for VNC? I think it would be. I have made a really basic one in GTK, but I would like to write out a fully detailed version in C++ using KDevDesigner and KDevelop. Both of these require a slight learning curve for me, as I have never used them, but I am sure I can grasp it in a short amount of time.

Future projects for the Linux Desktop (for me at least), will be a Checkbook utility that suits my needs and my future wife’s needs. I also plan to setup a Picture Organizer with Tagging and a variety of other sorts so my wife can easily find the pictures she would like to print and print them at the push of a button. I realize some of these programs may already exist, but lets face it, it is much more fun to write them yourself as you gain the appreciation and satisfaction of knowing you accomplished a goal.

Concluding Thoughts:
Everyone should own the “AJAX in Action” book, even though it does have a TON of typos especially in the code segments where they left out closing braces and brackets. They also have a few grammar issues and spelling issues, but these can easily be looked over by the simplicity of the wording and explanations. With that said, I give the book roughly a 3.7 out of 5 stars, as it had an exact example of what I needed to do at work. Enjoy.