Linux

A few days ago, I got a Toshiba Satellite A300-0F7 15.4" laptop, and proceeded to install Kubuntu Jaunty Jackelope (9.04) on it. I chose the 64-bit (amd64) version to install.

The following article highlights several areas that I struggled with, and solutions, where possible, in the hope that this would help someone.

To minimize the risks of returning the laptop to the store, I usually take a live CD of the operating system I intend to install, and test the demo unit there. This at least gives me an idea of what areas need work, vs. those that work out of the box.

Here is yet another example of Drupal being used as the basis of a custom "distro".

Ubuntu now has UbuntuDrupal which is used for the LoCo's (Local Communities).

Its original aim is to make Drupal easier to setup (which they describe as "painful") and run for these communities. They say that it has grown to be a "general development suite".

A hilarious video on The Matrix running Windows. Really funny, and a mention of Ubuntu too.

Via Matt Assay.

Ontario Linux Fest 2008 is this coming Saturday, October 25th.

A lot more tracks than last year, which I have yet to blog! Here is the detailed schedule.

Drupal has three spots:

Most of the computers in our house run Kubuntu Gutsy Gibbon 7.10. This is of course the KDE desktop version of the popular and capable Ubuntu distro.

Today, Kopete, the multiprotocol instant messaging client stopped working. It would not even launch. When I rebooted, KDE's login did not complete either.

It was stuck at "Initializing system services ..." for several seconds, then the login would display again.

Video driver

Initially, I thought that this problem had to do with the video card, after seeing this in the /var/log/kdm.log:

I use the Linux dump program to do backups. I use a set of scripts making the process as unattended as can be. The scripts send me an email with the result so I am informed of the outcome.

Viewing today's email status message in Gmail had a hilarious surpise in it. Look at the ad on the right hand side.

Google thought that the email subject and text here has "Dump" in it, an display an ad about "She dumped me" ... "Get your girl back".

On servers, and to some extent desktops, it used to be a common geek sport to brag about uptime.

Now, on a Linux laptop, I am getting 5 weeks of uptime, as per the commands here: 

# who -b
system boot 2007-12-21 15:22
# date
Sun Jan 27 01:26:17 EST 2008

While this is true, it is due to the fact that I put the laptop to hibernate every day, and do not reboot it that often.

Still looks cool though ... 

For the last two years, I have been running a Xen based VPS which has Ubuntu server on it. Up to last week, it was running Feisty Fawn (7.04), and it was time to upgrade it to Gutsy Gibbon (7.10), the latest Ubuntu version.

The upgrade had some complications, so I am documenting them here in case someone has the same problem.

Procedure for upgrade

On Debian and earlier versions of Ubuntu, the procedure for upgrading consisted of entering the commands:

The OLPC has started deployment to schools in some countries.

The way the students interact with it, learn how to use it, and interact to each other is already amazing. There are stories of school drop outs coming back to school for the sake of the laptop, aggressive kids who become experts in the OLPC, and help others out using it, and more.

Two recent reviews of the XO One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) are very interesting. The first is by a 12 year old, and the other is by a 9 year old.