VIrtualBox fullscreen: my favorite guide

http://digitizor.com/2009/05/26/how-to-install-virtualbox-guest-additions-for-a-linux-guest/

Why the IIT bookstore should sell Ubuntu CDs

Here's a place to buy them https://shipit.ubuntu.com/

• They're cheap for the campus bookstore to buy (like $0.05 each if you buy in bulk), and their maximum-profit (i.e. number sold * price is the maximum possible) sale price is like $3 (my guess) so that's a nice markup profit
• Many IIT students use Ubuntu therefore there is a possible market (personal experience speaking, here)
• Downloading the .iso and making your own boot disc takes like two hours and is boring
• IIT students might buy them, use them, and gain actual skills (important, no?)
• It looks good when the parents tour
• Expand into different versions of Linux, like BSD, OpenSuse, RedHat, etc for optimum possible value to IIT students
• Would make IIT-ACM's job easier (local supply and proof of demand- also increases demand via exposure, i.e. if they're $3 and ACM gives them away for $0, students gain value from ACM)

There are probably other reasons. And some of my reasons might be crap. But I do think that it would be a good idea.

Virtual Machine

Dammit, I forgot my 10.04 cd. Guess I'll have to finish this later.

Using VirtualBox to put a 10.04 in my W7 because right now Firefox in Windows is what is needed to make my stuffs work.

Next project: facebook plugin for picasa for ubuntu

The Facebook plugin for Picasa in Ubuntu is not satisfactory to me. Someday I'll take some time to poke around in it and try to improve it. Or write my own.

Although right now I'm buried in TWU reading.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1093761

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=2483740875&topic=3457

I nuked my GRUB again

I was in the middle of updates, but then had to pass through a security setup with a "power off everything..." rule in a hurry, so I ended up pulling my battery and having all kinds of strange crap on startup. Eh, at least I know what I'm doing this time.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2

/boot/grub/menu.lst

Backed up the auto-generated grub to menu-old.lst (oops, guess I rewrote the backup from last time)

Current grub is here:

default 0

timeout 60

title Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS, kernel 2.6.32-26-generic-pae (64-bit)

uuid 97da0f78-1a67-4dfa-9239-70cf44363b26

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-26-generic-pae root=UUID=97da0f78-1a67-4dfa-9239-70cf44363b26 ro quiet

initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-26-generic-pae

title Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS, kernel 2.6.32-26-generic-pae (64-bit recovery mode)

uuid 97da0f78-1a67-4dfa-9239-70cf44363b26

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-26-generic-pae root=UUID=97da0f78-1a67-4dfa-9239-70cf44363b26 ro single

initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-26-generic-pae

title Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS, kernel 2.6.32-24-generic (32-bit)

uuid 97da0f78-1a67-4dfa-9239-70cf44363b26

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-25-generic root=UUID=97da0f78-1a67-4dfa-9239-70cf44363b26 ro

initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-25-generic

title Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS, kernel 2.6.32-24-generic (32-bit recovery mode)

uuid 97da0f78-1a67-4dfa-9239-70cf44363b26

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-24-generic root=UUID=97da0f78-1a67-4dfa-9239-70cf44363b26 ro single

initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-24-generic

title Windows 7

root (hd0,0)

savedefault

makeactive

chainloader +1

nothing is installing properly

I will deal with this in just a minute.

Processing triggers for initramfs-tools ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-25-generic-pae
Bus error
Bus error
rm: cannot remove `/tmp/mkinitramfs_2xhLIe/lib/modules/2.6.32-25-generic-pae/modules.*map': No such file or directory
Segmentation fault
update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-25-generic-pae
dpkg: error processing initramfs-tools (--configure):
subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Processing triggers for libc-bin ...
ldconfig deferred processing now taking place
Errors were encountered while processing:
initramfs-tools
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Edit: It turns out that I'd tried to switch from kernel 2.6.32-24-generic to 2.6.32-26-generic-pae but didn't do it completely. Fixing that (yay aptitude!) fixed the problem. Also, remember to update GRUB.

Knowing that would've made cs450 a lot more pleasant. Damn.

GRUB is all better

By the way, I finally got my grub file working, with some initial help from rancorbeast. I used a Ubuntu 10.04 Server disc that I picked up at GHC. My current grub (with most of the comments edited out for ease of reading):

default 0

timeout 20

# hiddenmenu

title Ubuntu 10.04

uuid 97da0f78-1a67-4dfa-9239-70cf44363b26

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-25-generic root=UUID=97da0f78-1a67-4dfa-9239-70cf44363b26 ro

initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-25-generic

quiet

title Recovery mode (Ubuntu 10.04)

uuid 97da0f78-1a67-4dfa-9239-70cf44363b26

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-25-generic root=UUID=97da0f78-1a67-4dfa-9239-70cf44363b26 ro single

initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-25-generic

title Windows 7

root (hd0,0)

savedefault

makeactive

chainloader +1

----

As you can see, I'm not using a splash page, and I have Ubuntu and Windows 7 dual-booting. My grub menu is not hidden but if it were I would have a nice long 20-second delay so it wouldn't catch me by surprise on its way by.

I have a somewhat haphazardly partitioned hard drive; originally the machine (Thinkpad T400 and I love it) came with Vista. I installed Ubuntu 10.04, then did a clean install of Windows 7 over Vista. Naturally this trashed my grub menu and I had to go get it back, etc., see above. Of course what update-grub created had duplicates of everything, a link to a nonfunctional grub2 loader and a memtest, and no Windows. So I fiddled, and now it's all better. -shrug- Not complicated, but a good thing to play with.

New W7 -> go reinstall grub

I'd forgotten how long it takes to install Windows, even W7. I read a freaking book in less than the time that it took to install, goddammit. (I Shall Wear Midnight by Pratchett) But it's done now. When I have time I'll re-dl all the programs that I like to have...

For now, though, my first task is to re-enable GRUB. Dammit, Windows. I forgot that it did that. At least it's easy to undo.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/ubuntu/reinstall-ubuntu-grub-bootloader-after-windows-wipes-it-out/

Also, playing with run>compmgmt.msc is fun.

New OS time

My intelligent but not a CS geek roommate updated her Ubuntu partition, and then happened to reboot. And... after login, she gets a completely blank screen. After a while, the default wallpaper loads. Wait as long as you like; nothing else happens.

I booted into a root shell and poked around a bit, but didn't make any definitive change to the problem. I gave her an openSUSE cd that I picked up at GHC, and last I saw her she was backing up a couple files preparatory to a full wipe and install.

Because a couple days ago, a virus hosed her Windows partition (I guess McAfee isn't perfect, lol) and (despite rancorbeast, Ben, and I fiddling with it- and replacing corrupted kernel32 and setup32 etc with uncorrupted local versions and hopefully-functional downloaded versions) she gave up on it.

Well, hell.

I, on the other hand, this morning acquired a (MSDN legal! ftw!) version and key of Windows 7 and I plan to burn it to disc and keep it handy for my inevitable needs. Maybe I'll make a VM on Ubuntu and load it there.

My Ubuntu partition (10.04) is behaving well, and I don't plan to update to 10.10 for a while yet, since this is the machine that I use all the time and I hear that there are some fun bugs that I don't really want to play with at the moment.

PowerTop and PeerGuardian

PeerGuardian + Windows64 == fail
Workarounds here:
http://forums.phoenixlabs.org/showthread.php?t=15268
None of them suit me, so I guess it's back to Ubuntu. I should really get around to that VM.

Also, I managed to use PowerTop to tell my iwconfig to disconnect every 500ms even when not idle, and it took me a bit to realize that that was the problem with my connection. Fixing it was easy once I knew what was up, tho. So... remember to not do that.

I'm planning to pick up some parts on Newegg and build myself a desktop because it sounds like fun and I haven't built anything computery for a couple years. Chips, yes; computers, no. Bah. I'm still debating whether I want to do some kind of crazy steampunk enclosure.

PowerTop for Ubuntu

http://www.linuxpowertop.org/powertop.php

I noticed recently that my laptop gets about 30% more battery life under Vista than under Ubuntu 10.04. Which is not how these things should be! So... Powertop. It's pretty cool. Still fiddling with it. Link above for screenshots and faq.

Clear vs *NIX round 2

All of the below is done with the invaluable help of rancorbeast.

http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/shemminger/beceem.git;a=blob;f=drivers/staging/bcm/TODO;h=366634be5fe1d4cf2065f57d480230dbc1a754d9;hb=HEAD

The above is a to-do list for what claims to be a driver for the chipset in the Clear dongle. But I don't know what it would show up as, and I don't know how you would build it.

This is more information: http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/shemminger/beceem.git;a=log

Here's a mailing list thread on the topic. http://www.amailbox.org/mailarchive/linux-driver-devel/2010/9/8/6886374

So basically, Sprint released some driver code, and this is a cleaned-up pull of that? It was part of the Broadcom driver source...

Right now trying to get a clone of it and compile.

grub

I installed an Ubuntu partition onto my Vista machine. Now I don't see Windows as an OS option when I boot. Big loss, right? But there's some stuff that I want to do using Windows, so I'm off to do some creative grub editing.

Installed grub (previously had grub-pc, yay?) so now I can get into the grub shell.

Step one is figuring out where Windows is, i.e. which partition. Answer format: (hd0,0) Actual answer:

I wonder whether I'll have any interesting errors when I next restart.

I was looking around for a way for my friend to get into her Ubuntu partition after forgetting her password (solved it, no worries) and found this thread, which I personally find amusing and pathetic in equal measure. http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-3609.html

I'm considering installing Wine for when I can safely hose my Windows partition, but it would almost certainly make more sense to just get a virtual box going. Anyway, a problem for the future.

Clear internet vs. Ubuntu: round 1

Basic research turns up that many other people have had this problem (duh) and there are even some working solutions.

Solutions:
1. Run Ubuntu. Make a virtual machine to run Windows.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?s=4c54d9928910267a2e0566113d05a89b&t=1243159&page=2
Downsides: resource-intensive to run, time-intensive to set up.

2. use the Clear "hotspot" (i.e. it makes wifi from 4G for you) ...turn it on and it works. elegant.
downside: heavy to carry, so only an at-home solution. Gotta buy (or rent) the hotspot from Clear.

3. fiddle with ndiswrapper forever (no one has gotten this working yet, I think)

4. Something something Moblin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moblin (I don't understand this one and I don't think that the person discussing it actually got it to work)

5. Something something VMware (see 4 for commentary)

[interjection: OMG SO MANY EGOTISTICAL and ignorant post=newbs]
[sorry about that, it's just driving me a little mad]

It seems clear that Clear modems work fine with *NIX boxen, both through wifi and ethernet. (Clear's website FAQ states that their modems work with the Linux OS, and the forums sometimes list a modem as an easy alternate-route solution to the problem)

6. wvdial http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=843973
Yes, this is a long thread.
Yes, this addresses a specific provider in the UK (and my problem addresses a problem with a provider primarily in Chicago)

I would like to take a moment to laugh at this statement. "I general I try to avoid software which might break my system."
Yes, me too. I always try to not break my system. But everything we use in this life is subject to rm, so try to not be too paranoid. If we didn't ignore the warning labels, we wouldn't be geeks. geeks/scientists/intelligent/human?)

As a side note, I think it's kinda cool that the IIT network added my MAC address to their approved list in such a way that I don't have to re-register my comp (running ubuntu on the school wireless for the first time, but ran Vista while logged on previously)

7. According to various people posting at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=843973&page=3
it seems that NM 0.7 (anmd possibly more current versions, although those were probably not yet developed when this thread was established) may be able to fix this problem as a more or less plug and play kind of solution, and (if things go wrong) will restore previous settings when it's uninstalled.
http://projects.gnome.org/NetworkManager/

(As everyone has discovered before me) "plug and play" is bullshit. Rather, it's what happens after a whole bunch of geeks work out ways to make things work, probably by typing green text into little black boxes. If you are a geek, plug and play is a convenience on your way to trying to solve your own black box problems, not an expectation.

It's also kinda amusing that the terminal box is a black box, i.e. contains non-understood inside bots. Hopefully that's generally not true... also, more recent versions of Ubuntu have the terminal box transparent purple by default. :p Pretty, but less humorous.

Mostly unrealted: vnstat is a cool little thingie with which you can monitor your internet usage. (useful if you have a company-imposed cap on your usage)

Pages 7-15 seem to be newbs either giving thanks for the fix, or asking for clarification on something that tripped them up.

8. Gnome-PPP
Just don't ask.

Apparently "Three" is a pretty big internet provider across the pond. Always good to know these things, I guess.

9. umtsmon
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=843973&page=12
I don't care I don't care I don't care

People keep mentioning setserial.

Right. research done. Conclusion: I don't know why people use emoticons of someone playing a guitar.

Other (possibly useful, but not to me) links
http://www.dhanapalan.com/blog/2008/10/09/huawei-e169-3g-modem-on-ubuntu-804/
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1046813
http://www.linuxwimax.org/ (awesome!!)
http://crazyaboutubuntu.wordpress.com/huawei-e169g-hsdpa-usb-stick-on-ubuntu/

Cool glossary chart of sysadmin terminology http://bhami.com/rosetta.html

There may be a part 2 when/if I make a solution for myself.

"post-newb"

Today I was explaining the network situation (really good, actually, with some interesting old hardware) at Aquinas (where I work sometimes) to my flatmate (a biomed major) and, during the discussion, said "but I need to do a lot of research; I'm just a (newb/noob/n00b/etc)"

Her response to this was along the lines of "you do things that I don't understand, use words I haven't learned, and install things that I had to get a friend to install for me- you're not a newb."

"Okay," I replied. "I'm a post-newb."

I think that a post-newb (and I use "newb" instead of "noob" or other spellings because I like the way that "new" is part of it not only in the pronunciation but in spelling) is a person who has begun to delve into the sea of CS and intends to delve further, but still has wide gaps in basic realms of knowledge.

And as I read forums and FAQ (trying to find a way to get Ubuntu to play nice with my Clear wifi 4G yadda yadda dongle) I realize that yes, I really am a post-newb. Unfortunately, a lot of the people posting on these forums (mostly ubuntuforums.org btw) are also post-newbs. In fact, they're egotistical post-newbs with aspirations of guruhood.

It occurs to me that, just by being able to distinguish them (oh, and myself) from the gurus, I'm doing better than they are.

I wish that an actual guru had turned their attention to figuring out this problem. Most of these posts don't show a clear understanding of the issue, much less the solution.

But it's also exciting to be prowling in half-trodden ground- a new(ish) problem without an (established, standardized) solution.

To the Google, may it bring me knowledge.

Wubi the Ubuntu "installer"

Story:
I used Wubi http://wubi-installer.org/ to install Ubuntu as a Windows application. And it was lovely and it worked and I played with it a little and then forgot about it.

But then last night I was trying to get Ruby (and Cucumber and a few other things) running, and it turned out that when I'd used Wubi I'd made a very small workspace available to myself- approx 2.7Gb. And I was about to run out of space from installing all of this crap.

So, a bit of googling later, I was here:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/WubiGuide#How do I resize the virtual disks?

But, rancorbeast said, that seems inelegant.

After some more googling, this was found:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=979658

But that too seemed inelegant and insufficient.

Rancorbeast thought of this solution:

Boot from a livedisk. Then,
quemu-img resize test.disk +1G
Then resize the file systems.
resize2fs -f test.disk
In order to enlarge itself without overriding what's currently in it, add "skip" parameter = entire size of it. seek = current size + addition.

And, using dd, things were done and win was had.

Never actually finished the solution, since it turned out that the liveboot disk was borken from the start and tossed irrelevant errors.

But it totally would have worked, and at some point I may even replicate it just to prove that it would totally work.

As of right now, the Wubi install is gone and the install from (a new, unfuckedup) disk is about to begin. Lucid Lynx incoming.

Rancorbeast swears that there will someday be blog posts futilepleasures.com/blog with the cool bug fixes that have been spewing from his fingers, but I'm not holding my breath.