TOPIC: UBUNTU
Running Internet Explorer on Linux
7th July 2008
On first sight, this probably sounds daft given how good Firefox is, yet you cannot ignore those surfing the web using the ever pervasive Internet Explorer when doing some web development. Though using virtualisation is a solution to the need, it can mean that you need to set up a web server with Perl, PHP, MySQL and the like in a virtual machine, all for a little offline testing and then there's the potential for a lot of file copying too. Otherwise, you are trying to sneak things online and catch the glitches before anyone else does, never a good plan.
Therefore, having the ability to run IE to test your offline LAMP set up is a boon, and IES4Linux allows you to do what's really needed. Naturally, WINE is involved, so some flakiness may be experienced, even after the ever useful API library's reaching version 1. Otherwise, all usually runs well once you work your way through the very helpful instructions on the IES4Linux website. I did get a misplaced message about the version of WINE that I was using, and Python errors made a worrying appearance, but neither compromised the end result: a working IE6 installation on my main Ubuntu box.
IE5 and IE5.5 are also on offer if you're interested but, after looking at my visitor statistics, I think that I can discount these. IE7 and the work-in-progress IE8 make no appearance on the availability list. The absence of IE7 is not a big problem as it might appear because coding for IE6 sufficiently suffices for IE7, even now; IE8 may not be the same in this regard, but we shall see. Even so, a later browser release does mean a more secure version, and I reckon that including IE7 should be next on the project's to-do list. Saying that, what we have now is far better than nothing at all.
Killing those runaway processes that refuse to die
5th July 2008
I must admit that there have been times when I logged off from my main Ubuntu box at home to dispatch a runaway process that I couldn't kill, and then log back in again. The standard signal being sent to the process by the very useful kill command just wasn't sending the nefarious CPU-eating nuisance the right kind of signal. Thankfully, there is a way to control the signal being sent and there is one that does what's needed:
kill -9 [ID of nuisance process]
For Linux users, there appears to be another option for terminating a process that doesn't need the ps and grep command combination: it's killall. Generally, killall terminates all processes and its own has no immunity to its quest. Hence, it's an administrator only tool with a very definite and perhaps rarely required use. The Linux variant is more useful because it also will terminate all instances of a named process at a stroke and has the same signal control as the kill command. It is used as follows:
killall -9 nuisanceprocess
I'll certainly be continuing to use both of the above; it appears that Wine needs termination like this at times and VMware Workstation lapsed into the same sort of antisocial behaviour while running a VM running a development version of Ubuntu's Intrepid Ibex (or 8.10 if you prefer). Anything that keeps you from constantly needing to restart Linux sessions on your PC has to be good.
Cleaning up Ubuntu
1st June 2008
Uninstalling software still leaves any dependencies that came with them in place, so a quick way to get rid of any detritus is always useful. Here's a command that achieves this in a painless manner:
apt-get autoremove
Just say yes to what it suggests, to allow it on its way.
VMware Workstation in full screen mode hobbles my keyboard
14th May 2008
Recently, I have encountered an odd situation following my recent upgrade to Ubuntu 8.04: when I use VMware Workstation to run Windows XP in full screen mode, the keyboard no longer acts as it should. For instance, the Caps Lock and Num Lock keys stop working, as does the Shift key. Logging out and back in again is the least that's needed to set things right, but there has to be a better way to resolve the problem. While I am not saying that it's limited to the scenario where I saw it happen, it's still very odd behaviour. If you have a solution, please let me know. Of course, I'll keep you posted if I find one. Meanwhile, I'll be avoiding full screen mode with VMware as much as I can.
Update 1:
I have done a spot of digging on this one since and gained the impression that there might be a conflict between VMware and the version of X.org Server that comes with Ubuntu. A restorative trick that I have seen suggested is to issue the following command in a terminal, replacing "gb" with your own locale, but I have yet to see if it works:
setxkbmap -rules xorg -layout "gb"
In any case, it looks as if it is not a permanent fix but just a way to keep working without resorting to system restarts, logging off and back on, etc.
Update 2:
I can now verify that the command quoted above works for me. Of course, it would better to find a permanent fix and even better for the behaviour never to occur at all. For now, though, any fix is better than none whatsoever.
Finding out what kernel version is running
5th May 2008
Here's the command that does the deed for me on Ubuntu:
uname -a
Usually, I only need it to find out what header files I need for any VMware repeat installations or reconfigurations.
Getting VMware Workstation working on Ubuntu 8.04
28th April 2008
With every change of kernel, a re-installation of VMware becomes necessary, and my move to Ubuntu "Hardy Heron" 8.04 was punctuated by the same activity. However, the advent of the 2.6.24.x kernel meant that my usual means were no longer successful, so a new approach was needed.
That involved the mysteriously named vmware-any-any patch, and version 116 of this seemed to set things to rights for me. Stopping the installation before vmware-config.pl runs is the best course of action, since it will only fail anyway. Downloading vmware-any-any-update-116.tgz, extracting from the archive and running runme.pl using sudo continues the process.
While it seemed to have worked for me, I must wonder at why VMware seems unbothered by the idea of keeping up with Linux kernels and C compilers. It would certainly have removed the need for the user community needing to do anything about the problems that others and I keep seeing; it's a very unusual arrangement.
Keyboard shortcuts for changing desktops in Ubuntu
4th April 2008
I am more than a little surprised that I didn't encounter these earlier: Ctrl + Alt + Left Arrow Key moves left, and Ctrl + Alt + Right Arrow Key moves right through your Ubuntu desktops or workspaces. It's always handy to be able to save on mouse work while doing this sort, so these could prove useful. I wouldn't be at all surprised if they applied to other Linux distros too.
Downloading Ubuntu
14th March 2008
When I was wandering around looking for a preview of Ubuntu Hardy Heron (8.04), it took a bit of blundering before I landed on cdimage.ubuntu.com. Since there are ample ISO images and torrents available for anyone's needs, I decided to keep the link somewhere handy for those who might need it.
Trying out Firefox 3 Beta 3 on Ubuntu
20th February 2008
Keeping an eye on future browser releases helps to avoid any shocks when maintaining publicly available websites. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that I have been giving Firefox 3 a whirl. As it happens, I have had it going on both Windows and Ubuntu. With the former, I have not encountered any obvious problems, but I am wondering if the new bookmarking system will mean anything to me. For installation on Ubuntu, I used the following command (I think that I culled it from Tombuntu but can't remember offhand...):
wget -P ~ ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/3.0b3/linux-i686/en-US/firefox-3.0b3.tar.bz2 && tar xjf ~/firefox-3.0b3.tar.bz2 -C ~
The nice thing about the above is that it places the test installation in your home directory and away from Firefox 2. It also works regardless of what Linux distribution you have. The profiles get shared between versions, so a backup would be a good idea before you start to tinker. As with the Windows version, page loading and rendering is faster in the new version, but I found a problem with printing that, I hope, will get sorted before the final release. Another area for attention is font rendering: it could be sharper for sans serif fonts on Ubuntu and serif fonts on Windows. Otherwise, it works well on both platforms and I like the way that open windows are saved on exit, an excellent idea carried over from Opera.
Fixing VMware CPU speed misreporting on Ubuntu
4th February 2008
Over the last week, I have had VMware misreport the speed of my CPU and have virtual machines like they're on speed. To cure it, I tried restarting the PC a few times but that yielded no joy, even if it did work the last time that VMware did this on me. Following some instructions from the Ubuntu forums set things back onto an even keel again. The commands required follow:
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r) build-essential gcc-3.4
tar xzf VMware-workstation-6.0.2-59824.x86_64.tar.gz
export CC=/usr/bin/gcc-3.4 && cd vmware-distrib && sudo ./vmware-install.pl
The first of these adds in a specific version of the GNU C compiler while also adding kernel headers; the latter weren't needed on my system since I already had them. The second extracts the files from the tarball, while the last performs the required installation rites.