Tuxi’s Blog

I’m in the middle of upgrading my machines from 8.10 to 9.04. So far, I’ve run into two problems.

The first problem was that on my first machine to upgrade, I’d launch KDE (or Gnome) and the terminal windows didn’t have a prompt. Also, update-manager or synaptic would complain about pty(s). A google / ubuntuforums search led me to the solution. In the past, VirtualBox required a change in /etc/init.d/mountdevsubfs.sh. This is no longer the case, and that change was the source of the problem. The correction is to
sudo cp /etc/init.d/mountdevsubfs.sh.dpkg-dist /etc/init.d/mountdevsubfs.sh.
I did this before upgrading the second machine, and it worked fine.

The second problem was sound. Pulseaudio and Alsa didn’t seem to be working (after working briefly). First, I followed the instructions in this Ubuntuforums post. This sorted out sound in Gnome, but Amarok2 still didn’t work. Looking for phonon and my soundcard led me to install phonon-backend-xine and select it as my default backend. Now Amarok2 works :-).

I found out today that Sun has an alpha version of Java 1.6.0 64-bit for linux. Look here for Java SE 6 Update 12. I had been using IcedTea java and I disabled it before proceeding.

I downloaded the .bin file into my Download area and ran sudo ./jre-6u12-linux-x64.bin. This could have been done as a normal user. I then moved the jre1.6.0_12 folder to /opt/jre1.6.0_12. I looked through the files and tried what appeared to be the java plugin, but it didn’t work when I installed it in my ~/.mozilla/plugins folder. Searching the web led me to this post. After reading it, I did the following ln -s /opt/jre1.6.0_12/lib/amd64/libnpjp2.so ~/.mozilla/plugins/libnpjp2.so. This worked like a charm! :-D.

I was having an issue with KDE 4.2 & firefox. If I put
firefox
in System Settings / Default Applications / Web Browser, I would get the page downloaded to /var/temp/kdecache-username/krun and then the file opened in firefox.

I tried several options. One suggestion which lined up with how x-chat opened URLs was to use
firefox -remote "openURL(%u, new-tab)"
or
firefox -remote "openURL(%u, new-tab)" || firefox -new-tab "%u".
The first option didn’t work at all and the second option opened two new tabs in firefox with the link. This was progress, but it still wasn’t what I wanted.

I finally stumbled on what appears to be the solution. I tried
/usr/bin/firefox,
and it worked as desired.

Preston Gralla tried using Linux for two weeks. As an old-time Windows user (he says from 2.0), he had some challenges. I give him an A+ for giving Linux a chance and a C for utilization of resources to overcome his challenges.

Preston gets the A+ for trying and reporting that all the hardware on his T41 worked without additional drivers and all the other positive messages he gave on his experience. I truly appreciate reading what a newcomer to Linux thinks.

Preston gets the C for utilization because he couldn’t figure out the differences between Windows and Linux. It appears that he didn’t use Google for anything. For example, he didn’t look to see what sort of package Ubuntu uses (it’s .deb after Debian). He couldn’t figure out that he could use Gimp to capture a single window. He didn’t find the link that gives instructions on how to install OpenOffice 3 in Ubuntu 8.10. (I’m using OpenOffice 3 on Ubuntu 8.10 and used instructions found through a Google search. He asked co-workers about getting Samba to work with Vista and XP at the same time, but it doesn’t appear that he widened his support network by using Google or Ubuntu Forums. (I too have had challenges with Samba, especially in Ubuntu. When I used Fedora Core, I had fewer Samba issues, but that was also a few point releases ago.)

I’ve been a Linux user for eight years now and had some Unix experience in the ’90s. Coming back to the command line where ls means list the contents of the directory, mv means copy (move), etc. wasn’t difficult. I’m somewhat comfortable at the command line and always keep a terminal open. The nice thing about most Linux programs is that if they don’t appear to run from the GUI, you can issue the command in the terminal and see the messages it generates. Sometimes, I get a clue to what’s happening and can correct the problem. I haven’t been able to do that in Windows (which I use at work and support at home).

I recently had to deal with virus infections (Virtumonde) on two Windows XP machines at home. What a pain in the backside! Countless reboots later and using several malware removal programs plus the guidance of Major Geeks it appears that I’ve gotten the machines cleaned up. I think the difficulty removing malware from Windows is related to having a SYSTEM user which has higher privileges than ADMINISTRATOR. A bit more on this issue can be found at Tom Yager’s article, “Is Windows inherently more vulnerable to malware attacks than OS X?“. There are those who think this issue is still coming to Linux, but the diversity of distributions and the power of root to remove everything will go a long way to combat it.

During President Obama’s inaugural address, President Obama stated

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our founding fathers … our found fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake. And so to all the other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.

This, in my opinion, squares nicely with the Ben Franklin quote at the top of the page, “Those who sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither liberty nor security.” I have a fervent hope that we indeed return to the rule of law. We’ve had too much in the way of arguably illegal detentions (e.g., Guantanamo) and allegedly illegal wiretaps. Both of these actions undermine the freedoms all American armed forces fight/fought for.

Here’s wishing President Obama and our nation the best as we collectively continuing moving forward.