Linux

Once in a while you need to identify a given LUN on your server (to delete it, move data, expand it or what ever). The easiest way is to use the UUID. If you use HP’s driver support pack you simply use the command lssd. lssd is a wrapper for scsi_info, both part of the fibreutils package. # lssd -w -l sda 4,0,2,19 HP HSV210 6100 5000-1fe1-5005-ee50 600508b400013133-0001100000740000 # scsi_info /dev/sda SCSI_ID="4,0,2,19":VENDOR="HP":MODEL="HSV210":FW_REV="6100":WWN="50001fe15005ee50":LUN="600508b400013133-0001100000740000" If you are on a non-HP machine use the command scsi_id (part of udev) ...

Apparently Microsoft have changed something that have caused Pidgin to be shut out. I’m not sure what the problem is but according to this ticket it’s a server side thing and limited to MSP15 clients. The quick fix is to switch to the Pecan Messenger protocol for Pidgin. It is available in Debian/Ubuntu as msn-pecan $ apt-get install msn-pecan if your distribution does not include this plugin or you are running Windows, get it from the download page ...

Even though my laptop has an internal DVD burner I needed another because the internal one could not reliably burn dual layer discs. I could have just bought any USB-based burner but I asked around and the general consensus was that the best you can get is the Pioneer DVR-112 (an IDE burner). I did some further investigation and it turned out that DVR-212 is the same drive with SATA interface ...

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: ...

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: ...

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. ...

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. ...

This really ticks me off. According to this thread in Joost forums, Joost does not plan to support Linux in the foreseeable future. In case is disappears from their forum here is the message This is what Joost really thinks of Linux…we’re not part of their “business objectives”…I’m done with them. Hi, We’re currently working on improving the performance of the PC and Mac versions available today. Although there has been demand for a Linux version of Joost, we have to prioritize our business objectives. As a result, we do not have plans to release a Linux version at this time. ...