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On 17-12-2008 Sun released a new version of VirtualBox, version 2.1.0. Looking at the changelog there are some real significant improvements – these are the ones that make me able to ditch VMware Workstation completely: Support for 64-bit guests on 32-bit host operating systems Experimental 3D acceleration via OpenGL Full VMDK/VHD support including snapshots New Host Interface Networking implementations for Windows and Linux hosts with easier setup (replaces TUN/TAP on Linux and manual bridging on Windows) Especially the ability to run 64 bit guests on 32 bit host operating systems is something I have been missing. ...

With the release of Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) yesterday (31/10/08) I am once again running a stable relase – Which meant I had to find something else to screw up :) I decided to testdrive the latest Firefox 3.1 milestone; it does make it a lot easier that Fabien Tassin has been kind enough to set up a repository as well as keeping Firefox 3.1 and other packages up to date. Start by adding these lines to /etc/apt/sources.list: ...

Symptom: Various keys not working in VMware Workstation, Player and probably other produtcs. In my case the cursor keys (left, right, up, down) didn’t work. In fact pressing up or down in a Linux/GNOME session brought up the screenshot application. Solution: Add the following line to VMware’s configuration (~/.vmware/config): xkeymap.nokeycodeMap = true or as a one-liner: echo 'xkeymap.nokeycodeMap = true' > ~/.vmware/config that fixed it for me. More information.

First of all I didn’t fall of the face of the planet. I’ve just been really busy with work, travelling a lot. After upgrading my kernel to 2.6.27 as part of the Ubuntu Intrepid test cycle I’ve sort of given up on VMware Workstation, considering switching to VirtualBox or kvm. Luckily it caught my attention that VMware had released Workstation version 6.5. I installed it and lo and behold! It’s working out of the box with kernel 2.6.27. The installer also warns and exits if kvm is active.

Update 27-02-09: After upgrading to Jaunty Jackalope (kernel 2.6.28) the multimedia keys are now mapped correctly and can be assigned to shortcuts in Xfwm. I have recently switched my primary desktop environment from Openbox to XFCE and suddenly found that the volume keys on my T61 didn’t work like they used to (in both GNOME and in Openbox (running gnome-settings-daemon)) they just worked. In XFCE, not so much – even though I had at some point configured xmodmap to map the keys. ...

One problem I run into every time I upgrade Python or install a new Ubuntu computer is this (caused by me running locale en_DK) raise ValueError, 'unknown locale: %s' % localename ValueError: unknown locale: en_DK I am not an Python expert (not even remotely) so I used some time looking for some sort of fix for this problem. Open the file /usr/lib/python2.5/locale.py and find the line containing en_gb (around line 760) and then add this above: ...

Om restaurationsregninger – og topskat Et forsøg på en forklaring er historien om de ti personer, der hver dag går ud på restaurant og spiser middag sammen. Den fælles regning på restauranten ender hver dag på 1.000 kroner, og de ti deler den op på nogenlunde samme måde, som vi betaler skatter her i landet. De første fire – de fattigste – skal derfor ikke betale noget. Den femte skal betale 10 kroner, den sjette 30 kroner, den syvende 70 kroner, den ottende 120 kroner og den niende 180 kroner. Den tiende, den rigeste af dem, skal betale 590 kroner. ...

Update 01-11-08: VMware Workstation 6.5 is out and seems to have done away with the need for patching the installation After upgradering my workstation to Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex (8.10) I have run into the same problem as always with VMware Workstation. It will not compile against the installed kernel (in this case 2.6.26). This problem is not isolated to Ubuntu but affects all distributions using a 2.6.25 or 2.6.26 kernel (from what I gather). The fix for 6.0.3 and kernel 2.6.24 does not work. ...

I don’t if the large hadron collider will turn into a black hole but I’m enjoying the cartoons on the subject :) [

VMware released VMware Workstation 6.0.4 almost a month ago and reading the release notes I had high hopes On Ubuntu 8.04 hosts (which use kernel 2.6.24), when you install VMware Workstation, the vmnet module does not build. (bug 236605) and it certainly does compile. But… After installing it, when one tries to fire up the first virtual machine Workstation croaks with this message I’ve tried some of the vmware-any-any patches from vmkernelnewbies but they all broke the vmblock module. ...