Linux

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.

According to ABI Research, Linux will be the fastest growing smart phone operating system over the next five years, and will grab about one third of market share by then.

Will RIM change their proprietary operating system to Linux? Not now, but eventually they will have to.

The Nokia N810 is due to come out on October 23 (next Tuesday). It runs a variant of Linux Debian. It was even made to work in Arabic by M Sameer.

A Toronto company put out a job on Monster.com for Flash developers. The candidate should know Lynux though. What exactly is that?

If everyone pronounced Linux the way Linus does (Lee-nooks), rather than the Anglicized (Lie-nooks) this would not have happened.

Two wireless providers in Canada started offering laptop access via PC cards.

Bell Canada has introduced laptop cards that provide internet connectivity anywhere in coverage areas. The ads tout the fact that they can be used in a cab or on a train.

These cards use the mobile phone frequencies and data infrastructure (EVDO).

The monthly unlimited plan is $75 which is reasonable.

Since late November 2006, I had Ubuntu Edgy 6.10 running on my Toshiba Satellite A100-TA6. I wrote a full report on that here.

So, I decided to take the plunge and upgrade to Feisty 7.04, and so the adventure begins.

Intel High Definition Audio (HDA) Sound Problems

My laptop has an Intel HDA sound card.

ubuntu.com has switched to Drupal.Very nice and visually appealing design.This is also on digg, although Drupal is not mentioned, and I posted it on Drupal.org's forum. My favorite Linux distro is using my favorite CMS.

Earlier, I wrote about how to use a USB 2.0 hard disk drive enclosure for backup.

In this article, I explain how to use that hard disk using the dump utility.

The dump utility

The dump utility is one of the oldest commands for backup on UNIX system, but not one that is widely used in home and small business Linux systems.