TOPIC: LINUX DISTRIBUTIONS
Navigating plugin compatibility issues on 64-Bit Ubuntu 9.04
26th May 2009
My laptop has both Windows Vista and Ubuntu on there, with WUBI being the facilitator of the peaceful coexistence. However, what I either forgot or never realised was that it was the 64-bit variant of Ubuntu 9.04 that has found its way onto the thing. For the most part, it works well, but there is one catch that I recently encountered: not every Firefox plugin or add-on is 64-bit compatible.
Google Gears is one such example, yet other very useful and pervasive helpers have the same affliction: RealPlayer is one, and Adobe's Flash is another. Apparently, you can still download the 32-bit release versions and use nspluginwrapper to get them going. That worked for RealPlayer, but seemingly not for Flash; more investigation may be needed on that one.
Other remedies like using 32-bit Firefox (if it runs, of course) or alpha versions of what Adobe offers can be tried too. It almost goes without saying that I'd wish that there was more awareness of the 64-bit Linux world, but I remain glad to have met this rough edge before taking the plunge with my main system.
Update 2014-01-24: It looks as if this problem has gone away now with the growth in maturity of 64-bit computing. Certainly, it does not rear its head on any 64-bit Linux distro that I have used or even Windows, apart perhaps from ensuring that you are using the right JRE for a browser (32-bit or 64-bit).
Is a spot of bother with computer self-building a case of the reverse Midas touch?
18th May 2009
Last week, a power outage put my main home PC out of action. While it may have been recoverable if that silly accident of a few weeks back hadn't happened, a troubled rebuild is progressing. Despite the challenges, I somehow manage to remain hopeful that an avenue of exploration will yield some fruit. Even so, thoughts of throwing in the towel and calling in professionals rather than throwing good money after bad are gathering. The saga is causing me to question the sense of self building in place of buying something ready built. Saying that, they can have their off days too.
Meanwhile, I have been displaced onto the spare desktop PC and the laptop. In other words, my home computing needs are being fulfilled to a point, though the feeling of frustrated displacement and partial disconnection from my data remains; because I have been able to extricate most of my digital photos and my web building, things are far from being hopeless. With every disappointment, there remains an opportunity or two. Since the spare desktop runs Debian, I have been spending some time seeing if I can bend that to my will, which can be done, sometimes after a fashion.
A few posts should result from this period, not least regarding working with Debian. On the subject of hardware, I will not elaborate until the matter comes to a more permanent resolution. From past attempts (all were successful in the end), I know that the business of PC building can feel like a dark art: you are left there wondering why none of your efforts summon a working system to life work until it all comes together in the blink of an eye leaving you to wonder why all the effort was expended. The best analogy that I can offer is awaiting a bus or train; it often seems that the waiting takes longer than the journey. Restoring my home computing to what it was before is a mere triviality compared to what some people have to suffer, but resolution of a problem always puts a spring in my step.
Getting Fedora working in VirtualBox
12th May 2009
After a hiatus induced by disk errors seen on start up, I have gone having a go with Fedora again. In the world of real PC's, its place has been taken by Debian, so virtualisation was brought into play for my most recent explorations. I could have gone with 10, the current stable version, but curiosity got the better of me and I downloaded a pre-release version of 11 instead.
On my way to getting that instated, I encountered two issues. The first of these was boot failure with the message like this:
FATAL: INT18: BOOT FAILURE
As it turned out, that was easily sorted. I was performing the installation from a DVD image mounted as if it were a real DVD, and laziness or some other similar reason had me rebooting with it still mounted. Though there is an option to load the hard disk variant, it wasn't happening, resulting in the message that's above. A complete shutdown and replacement of the virtual DVD with a real one set matters to rights.
The next trick was to get Guest Additions added, but Fedora's 2.6.29 was not what VirtualBox was expecting, and it demanded the same ransom as Debian: gcc, make and kernel header files. Unfamiliarity had me firing up Fedora's software installation software, only to find that Synaptic seems to beat it hands down in the search department. Turning to Google dredged up the following command to be executed, which got me further:
yum install binutils gcc make patch libgomp glibc-headers glibc-devel kernel-headers kernel-devel
However, the installed kernel headers didn't match the kernel, but a reboot fixed that once the kernel was updated. Then, the Guest Additions installed themselves as intended, with necessary compilations to match the installed kernel.
The procedures that I have described here would, it seems, work for Fedora 10; well, they certainly have bequeathed me a working system. I have had a little poke and a beta of Firefox 3.5 is included, and I saw sign of OpenOffice 3.1 too. So, it looks very cutting edge, easily so in comparison with Ubuntu and Debian. Apart from one or niggles, it seems to run smoothly too. Firstly, don't use the command shutdown -h now to close the thing down, or you'll cause VirtualBox to choke. Using the usual means ensures that all goes well, though. The other irritation is that it doesn't connect to the network without a poke from me. Whether SELinux is to blame for this or not, I cannot tell, but it might be something for consideration by the powers than be. That these are the sorts of things that I have noticed should be telling you that I have no major cause for complaint. While I have mulled over a move to Fedora in the past and that option remains as strong as ever, Ubuntu is not forcing me to look at an alternative and the fact that I know how to achieve what I need is resulting in inertia anyway.
Taming raw images with ImageMagick: A virtual workaround for Ubuntu 9.04
5th May 2009
While using a command line tool like ImageMagick for image processing may sound a really counter-intuitive thing to do, there's no need to do everything on a case by case interactive basis. Image resizing and format conversion come to mind here. Helper programs are used behind the scenes too, with Ghostscript being used to create Postscript files, for example.
The subject of helper programs brings me to an issue that has hampered me recently. While I am aware that there are tools like F-Spot available, I am also wont to use a combination of shell scripting (BASH & KSH), Perl and ImageMagick for organising my digital photos. My preference for using Raw camera files (DNG & CRW) means that ImageMagick cannot access these without a little helper. In the case of Ubuntu, it's UFRaw. However, Jaunty Jackalope appears to have seen UFRaw updated to a version that is incompatible with the included version of ImageMagick (6.4.5 as opposed to 3.5.2 at the time of writing). The result is that the command issued by ImageMagick to UFRaw - issue the command man ufraw-batch to see the details - is not accepted by the included version of the latter, 0.15 if you're interested. It appears that an older release of UFRaw accepted the output device ppm16 (16-bit PPM files) but this should now be specified as ppm for the output device and 16 for the output depth. In a nutshell, where the parameter output-type did the lot, you now need both output-type and output-depth.
While I thought of decoupling things by using UFRaw to create 16-bit PPM files for processing by ImageMagick, it was to no avail. The identify command wouldn't return the date on which the image was taken. Though I even changed the type to 8-bit JPEG's with added EXIF information, no progress was made. In the end, a mad plan came to mind: creating a VirtualBox VM running Debian. The logic was that if Debian deserves its reputation for solidity, dependencies like ImageMagick and UFRaw shouldn't be broken, and I wasn't wrong. To make it work well, I needed to see if I could get Guest Additions installed on Debian. Out of the box, the supported kernel version must be at least 2.6.27 and Debian's is 2.6.26, so additional work was on the cards. First, GCC, Make and the correct kernel header files need to be installed. Once those are in place, the installation works smoothly and a restart sets the goodies in motion. To make the necessary shared folder to be available, a command like the following was executed:
mount -t vboxfs [Shared Folder name] [mount point]
Once that deed was done and ImageMagick instated, the processing that I have been doing for new DSLR images was reinstated. Ironically, Debian's version of ImageMagick, 6.3.7, is even older than Ubuntu's, but it works and that's the main thing. Since there is an Ubuntu bug report for this on Launchpad, I hope that it gets fixed at some point in the near future. However, that may mean awaiting 9.10 or Karmic Koala, so I'm glad to have this workaround for now.
Ubuntu 9.04 and Tracker
30th April 2009
Shortly after it was released, I did the upgrade shuffle very painlessly, and it didn't take up so much time either. There was only one issue: Tracker falling over, complaining about corrupted indices. That got it removed from my system using apt-get remove (apt-get purge is another option, especially if you need to rid yourself of nefarious configuration files). After having a bit of a dig around the web, I found that I wasn't the only one seeing the problem. To me, it looks as if the upgrade to 9.04 doesn't work so well when it comes to Tracker, and it needs to be removed and reinstalled to ensure that all required dependencies are correctly set in place. Since I restored it on my system, all is working without complaint. Other than the Tracker issue, it has been a case of another uneventful upgrade. Though the evolutionary path that Ubuntu is following may disappoint anyone looking for excitement, no one would upgrade every six months if they knew that disruptive damage or upheaval might be caused. While I may do a clean installation at some point, that is well down the priority list right now.
/sbin/mount.vboxsf: mounting failed with the error: Protocol error
19th April 2009
These days, my virtualisation needs are being well served by VirtualBox 2.2. Though it may be the closed source variant, I have no complaints about it. Along with a number of Windows VM's, I also have one running Ubuntu 9.04 and, for the first time, I seem to have VirtualBox's Guest Additions playing with a Linux guest as they should. Even the Shared Folders functionality is working.
However, I did get one problem when I tried out the last feature for the first time. The procedure is to issue a command like the following in a terminal session after creating the requisite directory in the file system and adding a host directory as a shared folder:
sudo mount -t vboxsf Music /mnt/host_music/
Above, Music is the name of the folder in the VirtualBox manager and /mnt/host_music in the directory in the guest file system. However, this returned the message at the head of this post at that first attempt:
/sbin/mount.vboxsf: mounting failed with the error: Protocol error
The solution thankfully turns out to be an easy one: reinstalling the Guest Additions, which certainly did the trick for me. The cause would appear to have been an update to Ubuntu, and 9.04 is understandably in a state of flux at the moment (I suspect kernel upgrades because of my previous experiences). Regardless of this, it is good to know that it's a problem with a simple fix, and I am seeing the niceties of a larger virtual screen system together with automatic grabbing and releasing of the mouse cursor too. While there may be a chance to explore the availability of these sorts of features to other Linux guests, I have other things that I should be doing and there's sunshine outside to be enjoyed.
Ubuntu upgrades: do a clean installation or use Update Manager?
9th April 2009
Part of some recent "fooling" brought on by the investigation of what turned out to be a duff DVD writer was a fresh installation of Ubuntu 8.10 on my main home PC. It might have brought on a certain amount of upheaval, but it was nowhere near as severe as that following the same sort of thing with a Windows system. While a few hours was all that was needed, whether it is better to perform just an upgrade every time a new Ubuntu release is unleashed on the world or to go for a complete virgin installation instead. With Ubuntu 9.04 in the offing, that question takes on a more immediate significance than it otherwise might do.
Various tricks make the whole reinstallation idea more palatable. For instance, many years of Windows usage have taught me the benefits of separating system and user files. The result is that my home directory lives on a different disk to my operating system files. Add to that the experience of being able to reuse that home drive across different Linux distros, and even swapping from one distro to another becomes feasible. From various changes to my secondary machine, I can vouch that this works for Ubuntu, Fedora and Debian; the latter is what currently powers the said PC. Though you might have to use superuser powers to attend to ownership and access issues, the portability is certainly there, and it applies to anything kept on other disks too.
Naturally, there's always the possibility of losing programs that you have had installed, but losing the clutter can be liberating too. However, assembling a script made up of one or more apt-get install commands can allow you to get many things back at a stroke. For example, I have a test web server (Apache/MySQL/PHP/Perl) set up, so this would be how I'd get everything back in place before beginning further configuration. It might be no bad idea to back up your collection of software sources, either; I have yet to add all the ones that I have been using back into Synaptic. Then there are closed source packages such as VirtualBox (yes, I know that there is an open-source edition) and Adobe Reader. After reinstating the former, all my virtual machines were available for me to use again, without further ado. Restoring the latter allowed me to grab version 9.1 (probably more secure anyway) and it inveigles itself into Firefox now too so the number of times that I need to go through the download shuffle before seeing the contents of a PDF are much reduced, though not eliminated by the Windows-like ability to see a PDF loaded in a browser tab. Moving from software to hardware for a moment, it looks like any bespoke actions such as my activating an Epson Perfection 4490 Photo scanner need to be repeated, but that was all that I had to do. Getting things back into order is not so bad, even if you have to allow a modicum of time for this.
What I have discussed so far are what might be categorised as the common or garden aspects of a clean installation, yet I have seen some behaviours that make me wonder if the usual Ubuntu upgrade path is sufficiently complete in its refresh of your system. The counterpoint to all of this is that I may not have been looking for some of these things before now. That may apply to my noticing that DSLR support seems to be better with my Canon and Pentax cameras both being picked up and mounted for me as soon as they are connected to a PC, the caveat being that they are themselves powered on for this to happen. Another surprise that may be new is that the BBC iPlayer's Listen Again works without further work from the user, a very useful development. It obviously wasn't that way before I carried out the invasive means. My previous tweaking might have prevented the in situ upgrade from doing its thing, but I do see the point of not upsetting people's systems with an overly aggressive update process, even if it means that some advances do not make themselves known.
So what's my answer regarding which way to go once Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope appears? For the sake of avoiding initial disruption, I'd be inclined to go down the Update Manager route first, while reserving the right to do a fresh installation later on. All in all, I am left with the gut feeling is that the jury is still out on this one.
Trying out Songbird
2nd March 2009
It's remarkable what can be done with a code base: the Gecko core of Firefox has been morphed into a music player called Songbird. On my Ubuntu machine, Rhythmbox has been my audio player of choice, yet the newcomer could be set to replace it. There might have been other things going on my system, but Rhythmbox playback was becoming jumpy and that allowed me a free hand to look at an alternative.
A trip to the Ubuntu repositories using Synaptic was all that was required to get Songbird installed. I suspect that I could have gone for an independent installation, but the one that was available through the official channel sufficed for me. It found every piece of music in the relevant folder, even those that it was unable to play because of iTunes DRM, and it was easy to set it such that it simply moved on when it met such a file rather than issuing a dialogue box to complain. That means that I weed out the incompatible entries in the course of time, rather than having to do it straight away. I cannot claim to be an audiophile, but the quality of the playback seems more than acceptable to me and there seem to be no jumps so long as a file hasn't been corrupted in any way. All in all, Rhythmbox could get usurped.
Whither Fedora?
10th January 2009
There is a reason why things have got a little quieter on this blog: my main inspiration for many posts that make their way on here, Ubuntu, is just working away without much complaint. Since BBC iPlayer isn't working so well for me at the moment, I need to have a look at my setup. Otherwise, everything is continuing quietly. In some respects, that's no bad thing and allows me to spend my time doing other things like engaging in hill walking, photography and other such things. While I suppose that the calm is also a reflection of the fact that Ubuntu has matured, there is a sense that some changes may be on the horizon. For one thing, there are the opinions of a certain Mark Shuttleworth, though the competition is progressing too.
That latter point brings me to Linux Format's recently published verdict that Fedora has overtaken Ubuntu. I do have a machine with Fedora that performs what I ask of it without any trouble. However, I have never been on it trying all the sorts of things that I ask of Ubuntu, so my impressions are not in-depth ones. Going deeper into the subject mightn't be such a bad use of a few hours. What I am not planning to do is convert my main Ubuntu machine to Fedora. I moved from Windows because of constant upheavals and I have no intention to bring those upon me without good reason, something that's just not there at the moment.
Speaking of upheavals, one thought that is entering my mind is that of upgrading that main machine. Since its last rebuild was over three years ago, computer technology has moved on a bit since then, with dual and quad-core CPU's from Intel and AMD coming into the fray. Of course, the cost of all of this needs to be considered too, which is never more true than in these troubled economic times. If you asked me about the prospect of a system upgrade a few weeks ago, I would have ruled it out of hand.
What has got me wondering is my continued used of virtualisation and the resources that it needs. Mad notions like running more than one VM at once will put any CPU or memory through their paces. Another attractive idea would be getting a new and bigger screen, particularly with what you can get for around £100 these days. However, my 17" Iiyama is doing well enough to consign this one to the wish list for now. None of the changes that I have described are imminent, even if I have noticed how fast I am filling disks up with digital images to make an expansion of hard disk capacity a higher priority.
If I ever get to do a full system rebuild with a new CPU, memory and motherboard (I am not so sure about graphics since I am no gamer), the idea of moving into the world of 64-bit computing comes about. Since the maximum amount of memory usable by 32-bit software is 4 GB, 64-bit software is a must if I decide to go beyond this limit. That all sounds very fine, aside from the possibility of problems arising with support for legacy hardware. It sounds like another bridge to be assessed before its crossing, even if two upheavals can be made into one.
Besides system breakages, the sort of hardware and software changes over which I have been musing here are optional and can be done in my own time. That's probably just as well in a downturn like we are experiencing now. Being careful with money becomes more important at times like these, which means that it's fortunate that free software not only offers freedom of choice and usage but also a way to leave the closed commercial software acquisition treadmill with all of its cost implications, leaving money for much more important things.
An early glimpse of Ubuntu 9.04
27th November 2008
Ubuntu development is so gradual these days that there's almost no point getting too excited about new versions. Its maturity means that updates aren't that much of an upheaval, and I must admit to liking it that way. Having a look at the first alpha release of Ubuntu 9.04, otherwise known as "Jaunty Jackalope", it appears that there isn't a change to that gradual, some may call it glacial, approach. The most significant change that I noted was the addition of an encrypted private area to your home user area. In the times in which we live, I can certainly see that coming in useful, though it may not set pulses racing in some quarters. OpenOffice is still at 2.4 and things don't appear very different on the surface at all. Of course, things like kernel changes and such like could be going on under the bonnet without many of us noticing it. Saying that, it played well with VirtualBox and I seem to remember virtual machine trouble with early builds of 8.10 so that can be taken as a plus point. I suppose that it is a case of wait and see before there is anything more obviously defining about 9.04. Anyway, they've got until April next year...