Eclipse bzr integration

There is a plugin for Eclipse called bzr-eclipse, you can install it within Eclipse simply enough, but it also requires that you install a bzr plugin called bzr-xmloutput, which isn't packaged for Ubuntu Intrepid.

I'm not a believer in dropping files across my file system and will try many things before untarring something into my system. Packages are there for a reason, and I'm not about to try and break things by fixing them if you know what I mean.

Fortunately, bzr-xmloutput is packaged for Jaunty, but it requires python-central that is of a later pedigry than the current one in Intrepid.

So, this worked for me:

1. Download bzr-xmloutput (Jaunty package) and python-central (Jaunty package) from Jaunty.
2. sudo dpkg -i python-central_0.6.11ubuntu6_all.deb bzr-xmloutput_0.8.3-0ubuntu1_all.deb

If you're doing this, it's likely that the versions here are not the latest, so make sure you check that.

CIFS VFS: cifs_mount failed w/return code = -22

Last week I upgraded a Gutsy 7.10 server to Hardy 8.04.

Today I got a report that a mounted drive was missing.

Turns out that the ip=hostname part of an /etc/fstab line works in smbfs, that is, if you've defined the hostname in /etc/hosts, but under cifs, it doesn't work.

In addition, it seems that smbfs uses a fallback when a user authentication fails and falls back to the guest user, but cifs doesn't.

mount: could not find any free loop device

Just tried to mount a bunch of .iso images I'd made from backup cds so I could hunt for a missing photograph without needing to continually swap cds. I ran out of loop devices, that is I got this error:

mount: could not find any free loop device

Here's how I fixed it thanks to this article.

Creating extra loop device entries

Also make sure you have enough devices available. You can
check how many you have by doing:

ls -d /dev/loop*

An easy way to create more, is by doing:

for i in $(seq 0 255); do
mknod -m0660 /dev/loop$i b 7 $i
chown root.disk /dev/loop$i
done

You can have up to 256 loop devices mounted.

xserver-xorg-video-intel independent destops

I'm running Ubuntu 8.10 - Intrepid Ibex. I moved from Gutsy where I was running the i810 driver which allowed me to have independent desktops so I could have a number of independent workspaces on each of my two monitors.

The i810 driver has been removed and is now considered depreciated.

The intel driver does not support two independent desktops. The XStrikeForce page on RandR states that: "[there are] [n]o more multiple independent desktop[s]". There is a whole discussion about the intel driver and RandR.

Meanwhile, I hit on the idea of opening up a virtual screen on the second monitor.

Using tsclient, I can connect to the localhost using XDMP, and as long as I've allowed local connections and multiple logins, I can connect. However this only works with Xnest, not Xephyr.

I wrote a tiny wrapper script that substitutes the geometry call with screen and it magically works.

Shared MYOB installation

According to MYOB support you cannot run a shared installation of MYOB, that is you cannot run it from a server.

I beg to differ.

This is what I did to make MYOB Premier v12 work on a shared drive:

1. Install MYOB on each workstation - this is so that the various bits and pieces that MYOB installs into the Windows directory are there. This step may well prove to be optional, but I didn't want to tempt fate.
2. Copy the C:\MYOB folder to a server drive.
3. Map the folder on the server to a drive for each workstation.
4. Update the short-cuts in the Start Menu to use that drive and to start in that drive and to point at the application on that drive. (I updated one, then copied the whole shortcuts folder to the server and replaced all the workstation copies with that folder.)
   

This will allow you to share your forms and letters across multiple users. I suspect there are issues with multiple users updating the same form at the same time, but in my case this was not going to be a problem.

All users need full read/write permission to the drive.

Thunderbird, Google Calendar under Ubuntu Intrepid 8.10

To make Google Calendars visible and editable under Ubuntu Intrepid, you need to install three things:

1. sudo apt-get install libstdc++5
2. Download Lightning (v0.9)
3. Download Provider for Google Calendar (v0.5.1)

Satellite Internet Suspended

Hard to believe but today I've officially suspended my Satellite Internet connection, packed up the dish and am now connected to the 'net with a Telstra (Netcomm) Bigpond Home Gateway (3G9WB).

My costs stayed roughly the same ($130p/m), but instead of a 1024/256 kbit link and  10Gb of data, I now have a 7/2 mbit link with 10Gb of data.

I've got a high-gain antenna attached to my gateway and set-up is now a case of plugging in the modem to 240 volt power and waiting 30 seconds for the modem to boot - beats the hell out of unpacking and building a mount, pointing a dish and setting up the electronics.

It's the end of an era. The Gilat gear has stood me in good stead for many years, been stable and reliable and despite Optus' best efforts at poor customer support, their technicians in the BOC still have my full respect.