Ubuntu

Previously we ran Linux on HP servers with HP OEM’ed QLogic HBA’s. One nice thing about that was that the HP driver pack containted a couple of nice support scripts (namely hp_rescan) – We used the HP drivers because the driver in the kernel (earlier on at least) did not support multi-pathing. When we started using IBM xSeries servers we had the following configurations: SLES9 with QLogic drivers SLES10 with multipath RHEL4 with multipath RHEL5 with multipath The problem with all configurations is that none of them sported anything like hp_rescan. So I wipped up a small script ...

Note: These instructions only applies to version 6.0.2 and 6.0.3. Version 6.0.4 now supports Ubuntu 7.10 and 8.04 out of the box (Updated instructions for 6.0.4 and Ubuntu Intrepid) Seems VMware has released a new version of Workstation; 6.0.3 I had hoped that this release had fixed the problems encountered with 6.0.2. This isn’t the case (By the way; this problem is not only with Ubuntu Hardy Herron but for for all distributions using Linux 2.6.24+) ...

A new vmware-any-any patch is floating around the VMKernelNewbies group. It is unknown who has made the patch but I am very grateful. Not only has this person taken care of the tidious work if getting vmmon to compile but also fixed the problem with bridging on a wireless interface. I have a local copy of the file – just in case it disappears.

After trying my luck with VMware Server 2.0 Beta (which I’ve been running while I upgraded my laptop to Hardy). Finally getting tired of the bloated MUI I switched back to Server 1.0.4 and discovered that the server console not longer works: $ vmware-server-console /usr/lib/vmware-server-console/bin/vmware-server-console: /usr/lib/vmware-server-console/lib/libpng12.so.0/libpng12.so.0: no version information available (required by /usr/lib/libcairo.so.2) /usr/lib/vmware-server-console/bin/vmware-server-console: /usr/lib/vmware-server-console/lib/libgcc_s.so.1/libgcc_s.so.1: version `GCC_4.2.0' not found (required by /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6) /usr/lib/vmware-server-console/bin/vmware-server-console: /usr/lib/vmware-server-console/lib/libpng12.so.0/libpng12.so.0: no version information available (required by /usr/lib/libcairo.so.2) /usr/lib/vmware-server-console/bin/vmware-server-console: /usr/lib/vmware-server-console/lib/libgcc_s.so.1/libgcc_s.so.1: version `GCC_4.2.0' not found (required by /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6) /usr/lib/vmware-server-console/bin/vmware-server-console: /usr/lib/vmware-server-console/lib/libpng12.so.0/libpng12.so.0: no version information available (required by /usr/lib/libcairo.so.2) /usr/lib/vmware-server-console/bin/vmware-server-console: /usr/lib/vmware-server-console/lib/libgcc_s.so.1/libgcc_s.so.1: version `GCC_4.2.0' not found (required by /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6) Luckily the first solution I tried work: ...

Sometimes when I use VMware Workstation I suddenly might find that my CTRL, shift and capslock keys do not work when I am back in Xorg. I have yet to find out exactly what happens but running setxkbmap from a terminal (without any arguments) fixes the problem. (This workaround was found in the VMware Community forums) Weird.

Update 21-03-2008 Please see my updated instructions for VMware Workstation 6.0.3 – It will also work for 6.0.2 When running vmware-config.pl for VMware Workstation 6.0.2 (build 59824) one is presented with this error: Unknown VMware Workstation 6.0.2 build 59824 detected. Building for Workstation 6.0.0. Using 2.6.x kernel build system. make: Entering directory `/tmp/vmware-config2/vmmon-only' make -C /lib/modules/2.6.24-4-generic/build/include/.. SUBDIRS=$PWD SRCROOT=$PWD/. modules make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.24-4-generic' CC [M] /tmp/vmware-config2/vmmon-only/linux/driver.o CC [M] /tmp/vmware-config2/vmmon-only/linux/driverLog.o CC [M] /tmp/vmware-config2/vmmon-only/linux/hostif.o CC [M] /tmp/vmware-config2/vmmon-only/common/comport.o CC [M] /tmp/vmware-config2/vmmon-only/common/cpuid.o In file included from include/asm/bitops.h:2, from /tmp/vmware-config2/vmmon-only/./include/vcpuset.h:74, from /tmp/vmware-config2/vmmon-only/./include/modulecall.h:23, from /tmp/vmware-config2/vmmon-only/common/vmx86.h:19, from /tmp/vmware-config2/vmmon-only/common/hostif.h:18, from /tmp/vmware-config2/vmmon-only/common/cpuid.c:15: include/asm/bitops_32.h:9:2: error: #error only <linux/bitops.h> can be included directly make[2]: *** [/tmp/vmware-config2/vmmon-only/common/cpuid.o] Error 1 make[1]: *** [_module_/tmp/vmware-config2/vmmon-only] Error 2 make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.24-4-generic' make: *** [vmmon.ko] Error 2 make: Leaving directory `/tmp/vmware-config2/vmmon-only' Unable to build the vmmon module. For more information on how to troubleshoot module-related problems, please visit our Web site at "http://www.vmware.com/download/modules/modules.html" and "http://www.vmware.com/support/reference/linux/prebuilt_modules_linux.html". Execution aborted. No worries the solution is right at hand – Simply follow the instuctions for 6.0.3. ...

After upgrading to Hardy Herron some pretty critical Java applications stopped working – they all crashed with this error: java: xcb_xlib.c:82: xcb_xlib_unlock: Assertion `c->xlib.lock' failed. This particular application uses IBM JRE but the error is the same in Sun Java 6. Apparently it’s a known problem in Java and the initial response is that it should be fixed in Java 7. A workaround is to add the following line to ~/.profile: export LIBXCB_ALLOW_SLOPPY_LOCK=true Remember to log out and in to activate the change.

In it’s default configuration Desktop Effects are disabled for various graphics chips including Intel X3100 (GM965/GL960) which is what’s in my Lenovo T61. There is an easy way of disabling the blacklist – locate this line in /usr/bin/compiz: T="$T 8086:2982 8086:2992 8086:29a2 8086:2a02 8086:2a12" # intel 965 Note: Intel 965 has been removed from the blacklist in Hardy. On the other hand compiz started crashing on me after upgrading to Hardy so YMMV. ...

Also have a look at the updated article AT&T now have a version of their Global Network Client for Linux (if you don’t what it is then you don’t need it). Unfortunately they only released it for RPM based distributions. There are some limitations in the Linux version; most noticeably it only supports SSL. Various persons have reported that converting the packages using alien does not work. Not to worry, a kind soul has taken the time create a script that converts the RPMs to a working Debian package. ...

This one has caused my some head aches; I wanted to use ISO-8859-1(5) but no matter what I did, GNOME Terminal would select ANSI_X3.4-1968 as character encoding (screwing up everything related to danish characters). The solution: Create or edit the file /var/lib/locales/supported.d/local with the content en_DK ISO-8859-15 Regenerate locales: $ sudo locale-gen --purge Generating locales... en_AU.UTF-8... done en_BW.UTF-8... done en_CA.UTF-8... done en_DK.ISO-8859-15... done en_DK.UTF-8... done en_GB.UTF-8... done en_HK.UTF-8... done en_IE.UTF-8... done en_IN.UTF-8... done en_NZ.UTF-8... done en_PH.UTF-8... done en_SG.UTF-8... done en_US.UTF-8... done en_ZA.UTF-8... done en_ZW.UTF-8... done Generation complete. Log out and from GDM select language “English (Denmark)” and answer yes