I know, I know…I’ve disappeared for a while. Summer is busy for me and I had to…..well I really have no excuse, but I’m back again for at least a while.

As you may or probably do not know, my work environment is composed of 29 glorious, non-windows servers. A fair amount of them are Solaris 9 with a dusting of Solaris 10, with the rest being various Linux distros. I wish I could change them all to the same distro but everything works, so I won’t complain too much. I occasionally wander away from the command line and need to run an X application of some sort; usually an installer. No problem right? From a CLI, just type xhost + , ssh to the Solaris box I need, export the display and that’s it…run any X app you like. Wait…what’s this? Error: Can’t open display: ????

This was making me mad….I had to install Oracle and didn’t feel like having to dig around to find out what the problem was. I brought up my Chatzilla window and logged into #ubuntu ( a great place for answers) The solution was simple and I believe it is a new security “feature” in 7.04 ( but I’m not 100% sure) All you have to do is go to the system menu, click on Administration and then click on Login Window. From there, click on the security tab and un-check the “Deny TCP connections to Xserver” check box….that’s it. Everything will work as expected from there.

There is a chance that this could possibly be a security hole but it’s easy enough to toggle on and off when needed if you’re paranoid. Hope this helps.

Dale

I’ll just post this picture…some will get it, some will not….spread the code.

In case you haven’t read, I received my new T40 the other day. I decided to install Ubuntu Feisty on it instead of Edgy, mainly because I read that it had built in support for XGL and Beryl/Compiz goodies. Once installed, I started poking around. Navigating to system->preferences, I noticed a new option called Desktop Effects

This worked! Well it sort of worked. I was getting odd behavior where menu items weren’t showing up in some windows. NOTHING was showing up in a terminal, I mean not even typed text. But hey, the windows wobbled and the cube was there. I figured that I was on the right track. So for fun, I fed The Google “Feisty T40″ to see what got regurgitated . The first hit I got was a link to a thread on the Ubuntu Forums telling the requester, who was having the same issue, to type the following 2 commands.

gconftool-2 –type int –set /apps/compiz/general/screen0/options/hsize 4

gconftool-2 --type int --set /apps/compiz/general/screen0/options/number_of_desktops 1

I figured it was worth a shot. BAM! It worked. I like these cool effects, I’m a eye candy weenie I suppose. For a couple of days I was happy…then I thought I’d give full blown Beryl a shot. I mean, I’m basically there right?

So this morning my Dad and I have a 9:00am tee time. As I sit here drinking my coffee, I opened up a terminal window and type.
sudo apt-get install beryl beryl-manager emerald-themes

After a few minutes I try to launch beryl-manager…….VIOLA!  It works. Now I don’t know what I was missing with my last T40, but I couldn’t get this to work for anything. The folks working on Feisty have done an outstanding job putting this together and I’m thankful.

On a side note, I hear that the shipit site was down with a message that they would be back shortly shipping shiny new Feisty CDs, but I can’t verify that as it appears to be back to normal now.

Here’s a screenshot.

Dale

Most of you know that I have been using a Dell Latitude D600 at my new job. It’s not a bad little system. I do like the 1400×1050 resolution. Anyhoo, I needed to get dual displays working so I could drive an external 19″ LCD as well as use the real estate of the laptops LCD while I’m at my desk. I wrote a previous post on detecting dual displays and switching the xorg.conf but never got around to posting my actual xorg.conf file. Withour further delay, here it is:


# /etc/X11/xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file)
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the /etc/X11/xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type “man /etc/X11/xorg.conf” at the shell prompt.)
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section “Files”
FontPath “/usr/share/X11/fonts/misc”
FontPath “/usr/share/X11/fonts/cyrillic”
FontPath “/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/X11/fonts/Type1″
FontPath “/usr/share/X11/fonts/CID”
FontPath “/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi”
FontPath “/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi”
# paths to defoma fonts
FontPath “/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType”
FontPath “/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/CID”
EndSection

Section “Module”
Load “GLcore”
Load “i2c”
Load “bitmap”
Load “ddc”
Load “dri”
Load “extmod”
Load “freetype”
Load “glx”
Load “int10″
Load “type1″
Load “vbe”
EndSection

Section “InputDevice”
Identifier “Generic Keyboard”
Driver “kbd”
Option “CoreKeyboard”
Option “XkbRules” “xorg”
Option “XkbModel” “pc104″
Option “XkbLayout” “us”
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier “Configured Mouse”
Driver “mouse”
Option “CorePointer”
Option “Device” “/dev/input/mice”
Option “Protocol” “ImPS/2″
Option “Emulate3Buttons” “true”
Option “ZAxisMapping” “4 5″
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier “Synaptics Touchpad”
Driver “synaptics”
Option “SendCoreEvents” “true”
Option “Device” “/dev/psaux”
Option “Protocol” “auto-dev”
Option “HorizScrollDelta” “0″
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier “ATI Technologies, Inc. Radeon Mobility 9000 M9 (R250 Lf)”
Driver “ati”
BusID “PCI:1:0:0″
Screen 0
Option “DRI” “true”
Option “ColorTilling” “on”
Option “EnablePageFlip” “true”
Option “AccelMethode” “EXA”
Option “XAANoOffscreenPixmaps” “true”
Option “RenderAccel” “true”
Option “AGPMode” “8″
Option “AGPFastWrite” “on”
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier “ATI Technologies, Inc. Radeon Mobility 9000 M9 (R250 Lf) 2″
Driver “ati”
BusID “PCI:1:0:0″
Screen 1
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier “Laptop Monitor”
Option “DPMS”
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier “Acer Monitor”
VendorName “Acer”
ModelName “SyncMaster 900NF”
HorizSync 30-86
VertRefresh 50-160
Option “DPMS”
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier “Laptop Screen”
Device “ATI Technologies, Inc. Radeon Mobility 9000 M9 (R250 Lf)”
Monitor “Laptop Monitor”
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection “Display”
Depth 1
Modes “1400×1050″
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 4
Modes “1400×1050″
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 8
Modes “1400×1050″
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 15
Modes “1400×1050″
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 16
Modes “1400×1050″
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 24
Modes “1400×1050″
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier “Acer Screen”
Device “ATI Technologies, Inc. Radeon Mobility 9000 M9 (R250 Lf) 2″
Monitor “Acer Monitor”
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection “Display”
Depth 1
Modes “1280×1024″
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 4
Modes “1280×1024″
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 8
Modes “1280×1024″
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 15
Modes “1280×1024″
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 16
Modes “1280×1024″
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 24
Modes “1280×1024″
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
Option “Xinerama” “ON”
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier “Dualhead Layout”
Screen 0 “Laptop Screen” 0 0
Screen 1 “Acer Screen” RightOf “Laptop Screen”
InputDevice “Generic Keyboard”
InputDevice “Configured Mouse”
InputDevice “Synaptics Touchpad”
Option “AIGLX” “true”
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection
Section “Extensions”
Option “Composite” “false”
EndSection

I’m not doing anything fancy here. I do like the fact that I can have the displays running different resolutions and drag windows back and forth. This was a bit troublesome on my old T40. I think it was because I wasn’t using Xinerama but I can’t recall. I’ll have to try this out on my new T40…..pictures of the new laptop soon.

Dale

I just received my new Thinkpad T40. I know, it’s a few yrs old and there are better laptops for running Linux, but I really like it. I purchased it from one of those off-lease liquidation shops on ebay. I must say, I’m pleasently surprised at the condition. It looks almost new…seriously. For $400 I get 1.5gHz Centrino, 512megs of RAM, CD-RW/DVD combo, 40gig HD, 802.11g integrated wifi…the works. What a great deal. I have another 512 megs of RAM to stick into it when I get it home. That will help.

This system came preloaded with PCLinux…not too familiar with that distro, but it’s KDE and I don’t think it will make it through the night. I was afraid that I’d have to change the name of the blog to “Life With Ubuntu on a D600″ until I found this little gem. I’m so excited I can hardly contain myself…..

Dale

Okay, I may be a bit late to the party but humor me. I recently ran across www.system76.com . For those like me that didn’t know about them, they sell laptops, desktops, and servers preloaded with Ubuntu. Looking at the specs and the pricing, they seem to be feature rich and reasonably priced.  A quick peak at the bottom of the page(s) notes that they are an official Ubuntu Linux OEM. I have never seen any of these systems in person, but as you all know, I’m very “into” running Ubuntu on laptops. I guess my question is this…..does anyone out there have any experience with these guys/gals? Please post a comment if you have..I’m curious.
On a side note, if anyone from System76 reads this and wants to send me a laptop for long term (read permanent) testing let me know…servers and desktops are also welcomed

Dale

Ok, so by now you all know that I favor Ubuntu as a distro. However, there may be times when another distro would work better for me…say, I’m installing it on a PII 300 or something. Maybe I have other constraints. Which distribution would I choose then?

I ran across an interesting “test” to determine which Linux distro I should install. It’s called ….drum roll……

Linux Distribution Chooser

It asks quite a few questions ranging from technical knowledge to age of hardware. After you answer them, you get a number of results to choose from. I only took the test once and I was recommended Debian and Ubuntu

http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/index.php

Dale

So I compiled a Thinkpad T23 from a few non working laptops and ended up with a pretty nice system 1.13ghz PIII, 512mb of RAM, DVD ROM…It will make a nice system for our 11 yr old daughter.

I installed XP on it and was having some problems with updates for whatever reason and you know I don’t need much of an excuse to install Linux on anything, so I wanted to find out how well it would run Ubuntu Edgy (6.10).

After about 30 minutes, I had it up and running. I’m writing this post on it as a matter of fact. I think this will be a fine Linux laptop. The installer picked up all the hardware including my DLink wireless network card. Obviously, it won’t do any Beryl fanciness, but it should be a great system.

On a side note, I miss my T40, from my last job, so much, that I found one on ebay and am anxiously awaiting its arrival.

Dale

I know, I know…it’s been a while. I switched jobs and don’t have my T40 anymore. I was given a Dell Latitude D600 at my new job. This job is great..not a single windows server in the building I was setting up the network manager applet and couldn’t get it to see my wireless interface. It would just say “no connection” After poking around the Google for a bit, I ran across the solution.

It appears that if you’ve already accessed an access point, the nm-applet won’t see your wireless interface. The solution? Edit /etc/network/interfaces. Find the section that has the line with your access point followed by your wep key, if applicable, and delete them…yep just whack em. Right click on the nm-applet icon and disable networking. Right click on it again, enable networking, and you should be set.

I used automatix2 to install the networ manager, but you can also use apt….I think it’s just apt-get install network-manager but someone correct me if I’m wrong

A lot of us (me included) that are windows expats, got used to seeing task manager by pressing the ol’ three finger salute <ctrl><alt><del>. So can we get the same functionality in Ubuntu/Gnome? (KDE has <ctrl><esc&gt Below are the very simple instructions for getting it setup.

Before you begin, make sure that you have the Gnome system monitor installed (sudo apt-get install gnome-system-monitor)

The following need not be run as root….just your normal login.

gconftool-2 -t str --set /apps/metacity/global_keybindings/run_command_9 "<control><alt>Delete"
gconftool-2 -t str --set /apps/metacity/keybinding_commands/command_9 "gnome-system-monitor"

That’s it, just press <ctrl><alt><del> and you should be done.

Dale