Skin of Stars

Over the last few weeks Mike Robinson and I have discussed and decided an SVN restructuring for improving our build and deployment processes. I would encourage you to read a bit more about that (and various other geekness) at his blog.

So I’ve spent this week moving our company hosted SVN from Beanstalk to Springloops. I feel I’ve been swinging between hell and zen, but the learning has been awesome. As a summary of what I’ve found I thought I’d give a quick walk through how I did it.

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Now doesn’t that sound like a bad book title? Or even something from the Harry Potter series, which incidentally I’ve just finished listening to the audio books as read by Stephen Fry.

Anyway, i digress. Following on from my previous two EeePC posts, firstly on adjusting the default desktop, then on changing to a full KDE desktop, I’m going to spend today talking about removing the whole Xandros OS and installing Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex. Lets first recap as to why we’d want to do this. The Xandros OS that comes with EeePCs is woefully out of date. Open source, and especially desktop Linux, is a fast moving beast. Where one day setting up wifi or connecting to a VPN or playing a DVD may be difficult in Linux one day, the following will not be true the next day. So having a system which feels a few years old and struggles to keep up seems pointless, and in my opinion explains some of the return rates found with Netbook Linux editions. As a further struggle on EeePC, the simple mode is a nightmare to tweak, especially considering those things that we want to tweak should really be done for us anyway. So what I propose is that we update with arguably the easiest and most widely supported distro out there, Ubuntu. I’m going to keep the actual method very succinct as there are 101 tutorials out there (links at the bottom). I’ll stick with what to do and what to avoid:

Ingredients
* Copy of Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex Desktop. It’s fine to get the Long Term Stable Hardy if you like, but I do recommend the new one.
* Unetbootin for putting Ubuntu on your USB stick
* Ahh yes, the spare USB stick of 1gb or more

Method
Open Unetbootin with your USB stick stuck in your machine (you don’t have to do this on your Eee). Unetbootin gives you the option of downloading straight to your USB from the web, but we’ve already downloaded our distro so we just need to select the Diskimage ISO radio button and browse to our downloaded file and hit OK (This is another one of those things you used to have to do manually in the past, ahh the advances of technology *sigh*). It will tell you when it’s done.

Next we safely remove our hardware (unmount in Linux parlance) and plug it into our little Eeep. Press the power on button and start hitting F2. This takes us to the BIOS menu. I had loads of problems getting this to work right, you have to go to the Boot tab and make sure that your USB key is top of the list in the boot device order (this just means where the computer checks first for an operating system, all computers have this). This is what caught me out, you need to check in both the Boot Device Priority settings AND Hard Disk Drives. for some reason it changes with each consecutive boot which one you need to change, so check both. Save and exit (F10 I think, but it should say).

You should now be booted into an Ubuntu desktop. We’ve not done anything irreversible yet, so for now we can just play. You’ll notice that your WIFI and webcam isn’t working yet, that’s because you don’t have all the drivers you need. That can be fixed once you have installed.

So, let’s assume we are brave and we are going on with the install. Most things you just need to follow the instructions, but here is where I shall give you a little advice. At the partition stage do not use guided, use manual. There are two hard drives in the Eeep, for the smaller of the two (4GB) it should be just system files. You want to set aside 100mb for mountpoint /boot and the rest for mountpoint “/” (known as root). The other hardrive you want a swap the size of your RAM, 1GB in the 901 (some places say twice the size, but one should be ample) and the rest for /home, where all your personal files will be stored. I’ll assume you have finished the rest of the install without issues.

Now we have rebooted into our new Ubuntu system we need a little moding to make everything work just right. First and most importantly you need the Array.org Kernel. There are instructions on the site as to how to get it. This will fix such things as WiFi, webcams and hotkeys. After that I recommend adjusting the layout to better suit the screen size. This is very easy to do by right-licking the panels and modifing to suit your needs. Here is mine:

[img_assist|nid=149|title=eeep-dekstop|desc=|link=none|align=none|width=100|height=59]

A quick recommendation of some things to avoid.
* Don’t use a specialist distro like ubunu-eee. I know it makes things look easy but you’ll be in trouble if they stop supporting. Standard Ubuntu is stable and here to stay.
* Avoid using user made scripts that claim to ease all your woes. They may just cause you more problems than they fix and because you didn’t do each bit yourself step by step you won’t know how to fix it.

Now, here are some of those tutorial links:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EeePC

http://wiki.eeeuser.com/installing_ubuntu_8.04

http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=51041

Since it’s only a few days since the release of Ubuntu’s Intrepid Ibex, I though I might do a quick note on how to upgrade from the Long Term Stable (LTS), Hardy Heron (if you are a Windows user and you just want to try out the new version, you can use the Wubi Installer and treat it just like any other Windows application). It is worth noting that a new install will often be a far quicker process and provide you with a clean slate. You can also save almost all of your personal settings and files if you installed / (known as the root directory) and /home in separate partitions first time around, allowing you to just install the new OS in /

In this post though we shall assume that you just with to upgrade an existing install and as such save all your setting, files, etc, with the minimum of fuss.

Normally when a new release comes around your update manager will tell you that a new version is available. Yet from Hardy to Intrepid this will not happen because Hardy is an LTS. There is, as always, a way around this. It is as follows; System > Administration > Software Sources, then the Updates tab. At the bottom it will say Release Upgrade. You’ll then want to change that from “Long term support releases only” to “Normal”. After that head back to System > Administration > Update Manager and you will be offered the choice to upgrade to the latest release. Click that button and follow the prompts.

As you run through the upgrade you will be prompted with questions as to whether you want to keep/merge/replace certain configuration files, normally ones you have changed. There is one that you must replace (or merge if you know what you are doing) and it is called menu.list. This file selects things like what kernel to boot from and you should use the latest that comes with Intrepid. Good luck.

In my blog post the other week I discussed how to use the terminal to add software to your EeePC. Though this is the simplest approach we find that we come across certain disadvantages. Firstly, the only way to launch our newly installed software is to type it’s name into the terminal. It is possible to adjust the interface and add icons to desktop by editing the simpleui.rc file. Let us be honest though, this is not exactly what we want to be doing – editing config files is so 1970s. Infact, this whole simple desktop layout is a little on the weak side. What we want is a full desktop environment, with start buttons, automatic adding of new programs to menus and all sorts. This is our plan for today.

Once again we shall need our trusty terminal, so first things first hit Ctrl+Alt+T. Now enter the following:

wget http://download.tuxfamily.org/eeepcrepos/key.asc

sudo apt-key add key.asc

rm key.asc

With these three lines have downloaded a trusted key, added it to our software manager (apt) and finally removed the file. Next job is to add the software source which the key corresponds to. So enter sudo kwrite /etc/apt/sources.list into the terminal and add the following line to the bottom of the file:

deb http://download.tuxfamily.orgeeepcrepos p701 main

Save and exit. Then type sudo apt-get update into the terminal. Now we are all set to install the full desktop. Into the terminal we shall type:

sudo apt-get install advanced-dektop-eeepc

Now to try out our new desktop we just have to press our power button, you will then find a new icon added to our logout menu saying Full Desktop. Hey presto, we now have one of the most powerful desktop environments available in the open source world, KDE 3.5. This is a system that easily rivals the Windows interface in versatility and power, yet still has a similar feel to more common desktops.

Now we know how to add new programs, modify our interface and even get a decent desktop to our little Eee. Well, that is all just great, but for me (and perhaps you dear reader) this is just not enough. The Xandros distribution that comes with this machine is just not modern enough, for example it still comes with Firefox 2, which is sluggish compared to it’s latest iteration. I have also been having problems with connection to certain types of WPA2 at my university which apparently is tied to Xandros. What we need is a thoroughly modern operating system, installing that shall be the subject of my next EeePC post.

Firstly, my apologies for missing last weeks post. I was having a delightful holiday in Italy with various members of my family and the g/f. Lovely it was, we stayed in a Trullo and a fun time was had by all.

Before I left I got myself a new computer, a netbook of the EeePC 901 variety. After consideration of the various flavours of netbook available (Acer One, MSI, different types of eee)I carefully selected this for the following reasons: a) Atom Processor, I saw little point in getting another Celeron as I would want this for working and so to have at least a little bit of spunk. b) 20GB SSD, you get more hard drive space if you select.. c) Linux pre-installed. I guess it was obvious I was going to get a Linux version, I see no point in paying more money for lower quality equipment just to have XP, especially if I’m just going to remove it anyway.

As Tony has previously pointed out, these machines come with a restricted user interface (they are for newbies after all). So with the machine barely out of its box it was time to start nudging and adjusting. Here’s what we want to do: add more software, customise the interface in the normal mode and if we want to go further see how we can get a more traditional desktop.

First thing you need is access to a terminal so you can use the command line. This would often be the very thing that people new to Linux would want to avoid, but if you want to feel like the machine is working for you rather than the other way around then a bit of time at the command line is just what the doctor orders. Fear not, there is nothing too demanding here, just press Ctrl+Alt+T. There, now isn’t that hard to see?! One of the points of any Unix-like system is choice, there are many paths to follow that can get you to the same endpoint, in this instance the terminal offered (xterm) is very hard to see with the small screen. You can change it quite easily to the more user friendly konsole:

sudo update-alternatives –config x-terminal-emulator

Select konsole and the next time you Ctrl+Alt+T you’ll get a terminal where you can adjust font size as well as the colour scheme.

Now to have the choice of adding software. Xandros, who built the eee’s distro, is based on Debian, and as such means there is a lot of software out there for it. We now have to add the repositories (a central server where all the software is held) to our list of sources. Grab your trusty terminal and enter the following to pull up a text editor

sudo kwrite /etc/apt/sources.list

Then add the following to the bottom of the file

deb http://xnv4.xandros.com/xs2.0/u[kg-srv2 etch main contrib non-free

Save and quit, then in terminal run

sudo apt-get update

After that you can install new software using the Synaptic package manager by typing

sudo synaptic

from the terminal.

The problem now is that you can only access the programs you’ve installed by typing their name into the terminal. What you really want is to add icons to your usual interface. These will have to be added individually to a configuration file… but I think thats enough for one day. I’ll post the method for that and how to get a full desktop later in the week. In the meantime I’d suggest having a browse through the eeepc user wiki.

Just a quick and easy one this time! At least once a week I get called up to fix a computer and it’s almost always the same thing; spyware. So here is the usual rundown on how I approach a fix.

First thing I (almost) always say: No, there is no need to wipe your computer, we can just clean it up.

Question; So, do you have an up to date Anti-Virus program? Usual answer; I have McAfee/Norton, but the subscription has run out. Solution? If you have cash to burn get rid of McAfee/Norton and get either http://www.kaspersky.com/ or http://www.eset.com/ or check this list. If you are cheap then get Avast (or maybe AVG, though they have had some really bad press).

Thats the easy one out the way, adware/malware/spyware is a little trickier. I am yet to find a single program that can deal with all occurrences. I normally go with the classic Ad-Aware free edition by Lavasoft, but it certainly isn’t the be all and end all. The trick is often to run a search using the name that comes up. For example, a recent problem computer I came across had adware titled ‘AntiVirus 2008′ which pointed out every couple of minutes that the computer may be infected (really?!?!) and suggested downloading the program. This was effectively removed using http://www.superantispyware.com/ where Ad-Aware failed. I also strongly recommend that you use Microsoft’s Windows Defender regardless of whether you are already experiencing problems or not. There is a short list in this section of wikipedia to illustrate what is out there, but as I said, a search is normally the order of the day. Bonus tip here, free anti-adware programs need to be re-run manually, just do it every couple of weeks.

After you have dealt with all that it’s time to really get your machine back to it’s former glory. This is normally very simple. Control Panel>Add/Remove Programs. Clear out all that old junk that you never use. Now look to your system tray (bottom right corner), see all those icons which are taking up most the bottom of your screen? Do they all need to be there? You may not want to uninstall them (MSN Messenger being a great example here), but you probably don’t need all those programs right now. Go to each one in turn, open them up, find the preferences and disable any option which says something like ‘open on Windows Start-up’. Once you’ve done that click Start>Programs and look for Start-up Programs, then delete the shortcuts from there of the programs you may not need when you first boot.

I’m a little tense about saying this, but I’d hate to feel I was holding back… on XP: Start>Run>type msconfig and hit enter. You can then look across the tabs to Services. You can untick the background processes you don’t need, but please do so with extreme caution. If you’re not sure then either search it or leave it (latter probably being the case).

If this is the first time you’ve done a clean then this process will probably take you about twenty minutes (though first boot scans from anti-virus can take some time, maybe go do some weeding). By the end though you will have a slick machine that makes you grin all over.

Maybe this doesn’t solve your problem though. Maybe your computer has died a painful death and you can’t even boot it! This will more likely than not happen some day. Fear not, you can still recover your files by keeping a copy of Knoppix around on a CD. It has saved my skin and the hard work of many of my fellow students many a time (when they thought to come to me that is ). It’s a graphical desktop on a disk and is the saviour of many a sysadmin.

Note, there are almost certainly better ways, and I would always recommend doing your own research by reading some more reputable blogs and columns.

I saw this comment on slashdot by http://slashdot.org/~Sancho and it made me chuckle. Please bear in mind that this is a *very* geeky joke.

Linux is ok on the desktop, but for servers, I really prefer FreeBSD.

Sometimes I get tired of that, and use NetBSD for a while. A short stint with NetBSD, Apache, Postgresql, and PHP usually refreshes me long enough so that I can FreeBSD, Apache, Postgresql, and PHP again.

I’m very excited today after winning an auction last night on eBay. I’d decided that I needed a computer as doing graphic work and generally pouring through code is hard work on this little laptop. What I needed was a mighty box, which is what I’ve now just bought.

The specs on this beast are as follows; intel core2 quad with a combined speed of 9.6ghz, 2gb of ram (I will certainly upgrade that to 4gb), 500gb esata (quick access thingy) hard drive and an nvidia 8500gt graphics card which can do HiDef… which means I need a HiDef monitor, which I get that tomorrow, 22″ widescreen.

Yes, these are very geeky boys toys but I am now very excited. My next question is what operating system I’m going to put on it.

Those lovely guys at EA have open-sourced the SimCity code for use on OLPC, except the actual name SimCity, which we must now call Micropolis. I’m afraid to say that it’s only available for Linux at the moment but I’m sure its only a matter of time till someone ports it to Windows.

For the time being the .deb can be found here:
http://www.getdeb.net/app.php?name=Micropolis

Or you could build it from source for your own nix system from here:
http://www.donhopkins.com/home/micropolis/

These machines aren’t all fun fun fun, sometimes you have to use them for some more serious work. In this post I’m going to tell you how to make your own php/mysql web development environment on your own Ubuntu desktop. Once you’ve done this you won’t need to keep uploading files to your server just to check if something works.

Firstly I’d like to point to the post that originally helped me do this at webmasterview.com.

Now, time to open up our trusty terminal. It is possible to do this through synaptics, but its quicker to do it like this:

First thing is to install mysql for databases on our machine. Copy this bit of code into your terminal:

sudo apt-get install mysql-server

Next we need apache2 as our webserver. Here is the code:

sudo apt-get install apache2

Then we need to get php:

sudo apt-get install php5

There are our three basic components. Now we need to hook them together:

sudo apt-get install libapache2-mod-php5

and

sudo apt-get install php5-mysql

Now that’s just grand. We’ve now got all the elements that we need to serve files to the net. The thing is, we’re only doing this so we can work on stuff at home, in which case what we’re really looking for is an easier way to do so. What we need to do is have a public_html folder in our user directory. Perhaps now would be a good time to do that. The next step is making that work on the webserver we’ve just installed. Run this snip of code:

sudo a2enmod userdir

Then restart apache:

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 force-reload

You should now be able to reach your home folder via http://localhost/~yourusername/

Finally we want to be able to administer our mysql databases. Though there are many good tools for doing this I still go back to the web based phpMyAdmin. Apart from the fact that it’s highly automated (which suits me just fine) it’s also a very common program to find on your paid hosting, so would also be very familiar when you go live. For the quick and dirty way of getting it up and running, download phpMyAdmin and extract to your public_html folder. Personally I rename it to something a little easier. Then rename the file within from config.example.inc.php to config.inc.php and within that file put something in the blowfish_secret field. Then all you have to do is navigate your browser to something like http://localhost/~yourusername/phpMyAdmin

addendum

If your server is going to be visible from the big bad world and this is your everyday machine then you need to turn off that user public_html stuff (it’s insecure for general use!). To do that just enter this instruction

sudo a2dismod userdir

then reload apache as before