ATOzTOA

Long Time No See

2011-09-09T13:13:00.004+05:30

Yep, it has been a long time since I have posted something... more than a year actually...

I have been pretty busy with my life... and work...

Maybe "I am too old for this stuff?"... nah... maybe a less geeky now...

Need to start being active again... will see...

Writing Better Comments in Code

2010-08-24T09:44:00.004+05:30

This is not copied from anywhere, this is from my experience. So, it may be wrong, take it with a pinch of salt (or sugar or whatever).

As everyone would say, commenting is an art, like anything else... here we go... I will be too open, please don't take everything as it is said... think before you comment...

Why do we write comments? We write comments to define what we are going to do, so that we don't lose focus. We write comments so that we don't forget to fix something (we normally use FIXME or TODO). We write comments so that we would be able to catch up with the flow when we get old and we come back to the code. If you ask me, I would say, "I am not gonna put comments so that someone I have never met will be able to manage my code when I am dead, I don't care". But I comment because I like my code to look good and understandable (I do a lot more than comments for that). I have seen lot of people starting their code with just lot of comments and then filling in the code based on what the comment says. That is an excellent way of coding, but tedious. We always want to see our code running first than to see our code looking good. That brings us back to coding, which is one of the greatest arts ever invented by man, be an artist. Enough of philosophy, let's get to work...

When we do coding, when we write a statement, there is lots of information already there, the name of the file, the name of the function the statement is in, the statement body itself, these all contains valid useful information. Then why do we need comments. "We need comments to augment the information already there." Yes, we want to add more information than what already exists. But, "comments should NOT repeat or conflict the information already there." So, that is the main philosophy of comments. But, there is a contradiction, as I mentioned earlier, sometimes we take pseudo code from design and add them as comments before coding, in that case, the comment will duplicate the code, that is one exception to the rule.

Let's look into detail... If the file name contains the name of the module, module name should NOT be there in the comment. Comment should NOT contain the name of the function. If the function name explains what is happening, no need of comment. Comment should never contain words like function, subroutine etc to show that the comment is for a function.

"Comment should NOT mention how we reached here." You heard me right, don't comment saying we are executing this function because two years back a black king ruled Africa. When we are reading a comment, we should know why we are here, that is for us to figure out. We sometimes have a section called "Called from" in function banners, that is the extend I would ever go.

Try to "verbalize your thought process through comments." Just put whatever you are thinking into the comment, just write down any questions you ask to yourself (that will normally be followed by a conditional statement), don't worry about comments being non-technical, don't worry about comments not having quality English, don't worry about grammar or punctuation, just write down what you feel... but there is a catch, if you become too personal, someone else won't be able to follow your thoughts... two words... "clear & simple"... that will do...

We always get confused whether to comment or not. Always think from the viewpoint of the youngest member in your team... if that member can understand the statement without a comment, then you don't need one...

"Comments are never enough." There is nothing called too much comments. I have seen comments with a couple of paragraphs for a function having 5 lines of code, that is a little too extreme, but I never thought he is crazy, because he just wants to convey every detail... So, never be a miser when commenting.

That will do for now...

Comments are welcome :)

Life in US continues...

2010-05-23T05:31:00.003+05:30

More about life in the US...

I am like 22 miles from The White House, will go there someday.

I am not taking the food pattern well, not healthy at all. Trying out lots of stuff which turns out to be bad. Trying out Subway, McDonalds... Once I move to my apartment, will cook (or try to, as I donno cooking).

I never thought I would be having Pakistani people as my close friends in US. Yep, and they are like so kool. I accidentally met them and turned out to be the best thing I had in US. Timur and his wife Pakeeza, and Jibran... they helped me through the toughest times I had in US. Thank you so much... and they are still helping me with everything... like they have taken me into the family... Also David, not Pakistani, but a really friendly guy... I love hanging around with him...

More later...

America...

2010-05-17T02:52:00.001+05:30

First bath... first breakfast (Turkey Sandwich at Subway)... first movie (Iron Man 2)... first shopping (at RadioShack)... I am liking America...

America, here I come...

2010-05-16T09:37:00.001+05:30

Reached US. Transit through London. First time out of India and touched two great countries / continents. Lot of time in flight, read almost two by third of "Red Dragon" and watched two movies, Taking of Pelham 123 and Night at the museum (second time).

Adding Automatically Updating Chapter Name to Header in Office Word

2010-02-26T08:00:00.005+05:30

In Microsoft Office Word, there is a nice feature for having the current chapter name in each header/footer, add it in header and entry in each header will show the corresponding chapter name. Got it? Suppose you have a document with lot of sections like 'Prologue' (pages 1 & 2), 'Chapter 1' (pages 3 - 10), 'Chapter 2' (pages 10 - 24) etc... Isn't it nice to have the header show 'Prologue' for the pages 1 & 2 having the prologue and pages 3 - 10 will show 'Chapter 1' in the header and so on... without manually editing the header at each chapter starting...

Let's get to know how to...

1. Better not to have any 'Section Breaks'. Otherwise we will have to edit header for each section separately.
2. The Chapter title text (like Prologue and Chapter 1) in the content must have same style applied to it. Let's say all chapter titles are having style 'Heading 1'.
3. (This method is for Office Word 2007, for 2003 and others go to 'Edit->Header and Footer') Double click on 'Header'. Put the cursor where you want the Chapter title to appear.
4. (This method is for Office Word 2007, for 2003 and others go to 'Insert->Field') In 'Header & Footer Tools', go to 'Quick Parts -> Field'.
5. Select 'StyleRef' from 'Field Names'.
6. On right side, from the 'Style name list', select the style you have used for the chapter title (in our case it is 'Heading 1' as we did in step 2).
7. Check more options if needed.
8. Click 'OK'.

Voila!!!

Check pages with different chapters and see whether the header is updated automatically...

We did for Header, the same applies for Footer also...

Was this helpful? Comments please...

POP Access for Yahoo! Mail

2010-02-21T17:40:00.004+05:30

Yahoo! does not allow POP access for free mail accounts. I used to have YPops! to download mails to my e-mail client. But, now I am in Ubuntu and I can't get YPops! to run. So, I will get Yahoo! to grant me POP access. :)

Let's enable POP access for Yahoo! Mail.

1. Sign In to Yahoo! Mail
2. On top-right corner of the page, click on 'Options'. In the drop-down, click on 'Mail Options'
3. In the left menu, click on 'Account Information'. Enter mail password again (if asked).
4. Under 'Account Settings', click on 'Set language, site, and time zone'
5. Under 'New Setting' drop-down, select 'Yahoo! Asia'
6. Click on 'Finished'. Accept the agreement.
7. Sign Out and Sign In again
8. Repeat Step 2
9. In the left menu, click on 'POP & Forwarding'
10. Click on 'Set up or edit POP & Forwarding'
11. Check 'Web & POP Access'
12. Click 'Save'

Voila!!!

Now, we can download Yahoo! Mail directly using any mail client.

Source: Yahoo Mail free POP access

Comments please...

Flash not working properly in Firefox 3.6

2010-02-14T16:13:00.002+05:30

I had the problem when I upgraded from FF 3.5.7 to FF 3.6. The flash animations won't play most of the time.

If you have the problem, it most probably is coz of add-ons. I am using Ubuntu and the culprit was "Ubuntu Firefox Modifications". I disabled it and voila, flash works...

Did you came across this issue? Please comment...

avatara

2010-02-09T22:47:00.003+05:30

Bored with your avatar? Or with all avatars being 2D with no movement? Then here comes something interesting for you... 3D avatars in full size... Control all the aspects...

Make 3D avatars for your social networking sites using Avatara.

Select face, skin, eyes, hair, body, clothing... everything you can change... or you can upload your own image and it will make an avatar for you...

There is already lots of avatars for free and for sale... you can make and sell them too :)

What you think?

See also... » Photo Funia

» Website Outlook

» Website Grader

» Nice Translator

» Clean CSS

Install ALSA Latest Version in Ubuntu

2010-01-29T07:43:00.005+05:30

Let's install the latest version of Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) in Ubuntu...

What is the latest version?

Go to ALSA Download Page and find out the Stable Release versions for alsa-driver, alsa-lib and alsa-utils. The current versions are 1.0.22.1, 1.0.22 and 1.0.22 respectively. Keep the version numbers, we will use it very shortly...

Check the current version of ALSA installed in the machine...

$ cat /proc/asound/version
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.22.1.
Compiled on Jan 28 2010 for kernel 2.6.31-14-generic (SMP).

If it is the latest version, then no need to proceed further, you are up-to-date :)

Setup Script

Copy the below code to your favorite editor and save the file as setup-alsa.sh. Change the variables DRIVER_VERSION, LIB_VERSION and UTILS_VERSION to the latest version numbers found out earlier (put just the version).

#!/bin/sh

# ----------
# ALSA Setup
# ----------

# ---- Modify Here ----
DRIVER_VERSION=1.0.22.1
LIB_VERSION=1.0.22
UTILS_VERSION=1.0.22
# ---- Modify Here ----

# On Error
error() {
    echo "ERROR!!!"
    exit
}

# Stop ALSA
sudo /etc/init.d/alsa-utils stop

if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
    error
fi

# Install Tools
sudo apt-get -y install build-essential ncurses-dev gettext xmlto libasound2-dev
sudo apt-get -y install linux-headers-`uname -r` libncursesw5-dev

if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
    error
fi

# Cleanup
rm -rf ~/alsa* ~/.pulse*

# Create Folder
sudo rm -rf /usr/src/alsa
sudo mkdir -p /usr/src/alsa
cd /usr/src/alsa

if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
    error
fi

# Download
sudo wget ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/driver/alsa-driver-$DRIVER_VERSION.tar.bz2
sudo wget ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/lib/alsa-lib-$LIB_VERSION.tar.bz2
sudo wget ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/utils/alsa-utils-$UTILS_VERSION.tar.bz2

if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
    error
fi

# Unpack
sudo tar xjf alsa-driver*
sudo tar xjf alsa-lib*
sudo tar xjf alsa-utils*

if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
    error
fi

# Setup Driver
cd alsa-driver*
sudo ./configure
sudo make
sudo make install

if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
    error
fi

# Setup Lib
cd ../alsa-lib*
sudo ./configure
sudo make
sudo make install

if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
    error
fi

# Setup Utils
cd ../alsa-utils*
sudo ./configure
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
    sudo ln -s libpanelw.so.5 /usr/lib/libpanelw.so
    sudo ln -s libformw.so.5 /usr/lib/libformw.so
    sudo ln -s libmenuw.so.5 /usr/lib/libmenuw.so
    sudo ln -s libncursesw.so.5 /lib/libncursesw.so
    sudo ./configure
fi
sudo make
sudo make install

if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
    error
fi

echo -e "\nRestart your computer, run \"sudo alsaconf\" and restart again..."

# COMPLETE

Change file permission and execute script.

$ chmod +x setup-alsa.sh
$ ./setup-alsa.sh

If it completes successfully... ALSA is installed... reboot the machine...

Check the version, it must show the latest version...

$ cat /proc/asound/version
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.22.1.
Compiled on Jan 28 2010 for kernel 2.6.31-14-generic (SMP).

Run alsaconf and reboot again...

$ sudo alsaconf

Voila!!! Done...

Reference: Upgrade Alsa (1.0.22.1) on Ubuntu Karmic Koala 9.10

A Definitive Guide to ALSA Sound System

2010-01-26T15:54:00.013+05:30

The following article is being reproduced, as is, with the prior permission of the author, and all the rights rest with the original author. The original version can be found at Using the ALSA Sound System. One more thing, it is a really cool article and Jochen Voss has put huge effort into it, kudos.

This page summarizes things I learned while trying to understand and use the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) on my Debian GNU/Linux system. I would be happy to receive suggestions to improve or extend this web page.

Configuration

This section gives some help with ALSA configuration issues. In order to avoid complications, we avoid use of external programs in figuring things out.

Is ALSA present in your kernel?

Check for the presence of a /proc/asound/ directory. If the directory exists, you have ALSA support in your kernel.

Why does program xyz not recognize my sound card?

On current Linux systems there are several, partially conflicting ways to access the sound card: using ALSA (this is what we aim for here), using OSS (this is an older sound system, but still used by many programs), or by connecting to a sound daemon like esd or artsd (which in turn might use ALSA or OSS to connect to the system). Probably your program is trying to use the wrong method to play sound.

Programs using OSS can be used with ALSA by enabling the OSS compatibility layer of ALSA. You might need to load additional kernel modules to enable this. Check the file /dev/sndstat. If the file exists and can be read, you have the OSS compatibility layer enabled. It should list audio devices which correspond to the ALSA devices on your system.

Programs using esd can be used with ALSA by compiling esd with ALSA support.

What sound cards are known to the system?

Check the contents of the /proc/asound/cards file. Each entry there corresponds to a (real or simulated) sound card. On my system I get the following:

 0 [VirMIDI        ]: VirMIDI - VirMIDI
                      Virtual MIDI Card 1
 1 [V8237          ]: VIA8237 - VIA 8237
                      VIA 8237 with ALC850 at 0x1000, irq 21
 2 [Revolution51   ]: ICE1724 - M Audio Revolution-5.1
                      M Audio Revolution-5.1 at 0xb800, irq 16
 3 [system         ]: USB-Audio - iMic USB audio system
                      Griffin Technology, Inc iMic USB audio ...

Card 0 is a virtual MIDI card. It does not correspond to any hardware and I do not yet know what it is good for. Entry 1 is for the built-in sound hardware on my ASUS A8V main-board (since it has an interrupt, irq 19, assigned this one must be hardware). Card 2 is a M-Audio Revolution 5.1 card. Card 3 is a simple USB sound card (an iMic USB adapter), good for connecting a microphone and an external speaker.

What features do these sound cards have?

There are several ways to find out. For example /proc/asound/devices contains an entry for every component of every device ALSA knows about. For the system described above I get

[ 0]   : control
       : sequencer
[ 0- 0]: raw midi
[ 0- 1]: raw midi
[ 0- 2]: raw midi
[ 0- 3]: raw midi
[ 1]   : control
       : timer
[ 1- 0]: digital audio playback
[ 1- 1]: digital audio playback
[ 1- 0]: digital audio capture
[ 1- 1]: digital audio capture
[ 2]   : control
[ 2- 0]: digital audio playback
[ 2- 1]: digital audio playback
[ 2- 2]: digital audio playback
[ 2- 0]: digital audio capture
[ 3]   : control
[ 3- 0]: digital audio playback
[ 3- 0]: digital audio capture

There are different groups of devices: "control" (used by the system to set the volume, mute channels, etc.), "playback", "capture" (reading audio data into the computer), "raw midi", "sequencer" and "timer" (I don't know yet what the latter two do).

How do I set the default device?

Create a configuration file (either for the whole system at /etc/asound.conf or .asoundrc in your home directory) containing statements like the following ones:

defaults.ctl.card 1
defaults.pcm.card 1
defaults.timer.card 1

This file would make card 1 the default. The card number (1 in this example) is taken from the /proc/asound/cards file. For a description of the ALSA configuration file format see the ALSA library API documentation.

Why does program xyz hang on start-up?

Sound devices can be only opened by one program at a time. For example if you have the esd daemon running (it is often started automatically when you log into a GNOME desktop), other programs won't be able to open the sound device simultaneously and might just silently wait until esd quits.

You can solve this problem by either stopping all other programs which access the sound device or by using one of the sound daemons and having all programs access the sound hardware through the daemon (the sound daemon can handle simultaneous connections from several programs).

Connecting a Microphone

In this section I give some hints on how a microphone can be connected to the computer to record sound using the ALSA interface.

How do I connect an analog microphone?

Most sound-cards use 3.5mm mini-jack connectors. Make sure that your card has a separate "microphone" connector. If you want to connect a microphone via the "line in" connector, you will need an external amplifier.

How do I connect a USB microphone?

Just plug it into a USB port and make sure that you have USB sound support enabled in you kernel.

Why do I record only silence?

Use alsamixer to make sure that you selected your microphone input for capturing data (use the "Capture" view) and that the volume is up for both the microphone line and the capture device.

Why is there a lot of noise and distorted sound in my recording?

The built-in sound hardware which comes with most computers is not of high quality. For example the on-board sound hardware on my system (see above) always adds a lot of noise to any recordings from the microphone. Another problem could be the operational noise from your computer (ventilation etc.). Some programs can remove noise from recordings, but this is no real replacement for using good hardware.

How do I record sound?

Once you have a microphone successfully connected to your machine there are many programs to record sound. I tried ardour and it worked quite well.

Programs

Volume Control / Mixers

Program	Version	Remarks
alsamixer	1.0.10	Text modus mixer. Works well. You can choose which sound card to use with the `-c` option.	+
aumix	2.8	Needs OSS emulation. Defaults to soundcard 0 (by using `/dev/mixer` by default. You can select a different mixer with the `-d` option.	-
GNOME mixer applet	gnome-applets 2.12.2	Supports ALSA but ignores default soundcard setting (it uses card 1 in the system described above when the default is card 2). There is no way to manually make it use the correct card.	-
GNOME settings daemon	gnome-control-center 2.12.2	This daemon is running while I am logged into GNOME and for some reason it keeps the device `/dev/snd/controlC0` (the mixer of the virtual midi device) open all the time, presumably to preserve volume settings between logins. Whatever it is trying to do, it will not work by using this device.	-
GNOME volume control	2.12.0	This allows selecting a sound device and remembers your settings. Ignores the ALSA default device setting.	o

Table 1: This table summarizes the ALSA support of different mixers on a Debian GNU/Linux system.

Daemons / Frameworks

Program	Version	Remarks
esd	Esound 0.2.36	The sound daemon currently used by the GNOME desktop environment. Can be compiled to work with ALSA.	+
gstreamer	2.12.0	Can be configured to use ALSA using gstreamer-properties. Works well.	+
jack	0.100.0	Uses ALSA by default. The daemon ignores the default device setting, but you can select a device manually.	o

Table 2: This table summarises the ALSA support of different sound daemons and frameworks on a Debian GNU/Linux system.

Applications

Program	Version	Remarks
alsaplayer	0.99.76	Works well with ALSA (no surprise).	+
audacity	1.2.4	Uses OSS. When using the ALSA's OSS emulation, the program insists on using card 0.	-
ardour	0.99	Uses JACK to connect to the sound hardware.	+
xmms	1.2.10	Can be configured to use ALSA (at the Audio I/O Plugins pane of the preferences window), works well.	+

Table 3: This table summarises the ALSA support of different applications on a Debian GNU/Linux system.

References

Official ALSA site,containing the ALSA library API documentation
ALSA opensrc.org web site
Planet CCRMA at home sound package collection for Red Hat/Fedora systems.
Linux Audio Developer's Simple Plugin API (LADSPA)

Editing Subtitles in Ubuntu

2010-01-26T15:35:00.002+05:30

It happened to me a lot of times... I download a movie... I can't understand the speech either because it is not English or because the English is too complex... so I will search and download a subtitle file. And what happens is the subtitles will be out of sync. What I do is, use the subtitle delay feature in SMPlayer. But I have to do some tweaking still it is correct. And the next time, I need to do that again.

I found this tool when I was searching for adding the delay directly into the subtitle file. Gnome Subtitles is a really cool application...

Installing...

$ sudo apt-get install -y gnome-subtitles

Or use adept (I think adept is better than synaptic).

Install Thunderbird Latest Official Release in Ubuntu

2010-01-23T07:38:00.004+05:30

Wanna be using the most up-to-date version of Thunderbird. This post tells how to install the latest official release of Thunderbird...

Replace thunderbird-x.y.z with the corresponding version number, like thunderbird-3.0.1. If it says thunderbird-x.y only, that means use thunderbird-3.0 alone in that command.

1. Download

Download Thunderbird latest version setup from mozillamessaging.com.
Let's say the filename is thunderbird-x.y.z.tar.bz2.
Save archive to /tmp.

2. Extract and Test

Extract the archive

cd /tmp; tar xvjf thunderbird-x.y.z.tar.bz2

The files will be extracted to directory named thunderbird.

Test Thunderbird

cd thunderbird
./thunderbird

Thunderbird will start...

3. Installing

Now install this version as the main Thunderbird installation.

cd /usr/lib
sudo mv /tmp/thunderbird thunderbird-x.y
cd ../bin
sudo ln -s -f ../lib/thunderbird-x.y/thunderbird thunderbird-x.y
sudo ln -s -f thunderbird-x.y thunderbird

That will install thunderbird...

4. Using Existing Thunderbird Profile

CAUTION!!! When you run thunderbird for the first time, if it loads all your accounts and mails, then DON'T run this step...

For Thunderbird to use the existing profile...

$ mv ~/.thunderbird ~/thunderbird-profile-backup
$ ln -s ~/.thunderbird-x.y ~/.thunderbird

Another method for installing Thunderbird is to use Ubuntuzilla. Check Install Latest Version of Firefox in Ubuntu...

Comments please...

Install Firefox Latest Official Release in Ubuntu

2010-01-23T07:18:00.005+05:30

Wanna be using the most up-to-date version of Firefox. This post tells how to install the latest official release of Firefox...

Replace firefox-x.y.z with the corresponding version number, like firefox-3.6.1. If it says firefox-x.y only, that means use firefox-3.6 alone in that command.

1. Download

Download Firefox latest version setup from mozilla.com.
Let's say the filename is firefox-x.y.z.tar.bz2.
Save archive to /tmp.

2. Extract and Test

Extract the archive

cd /tmp; tar xvjf firefox-x.y.z.tar.bz2

The files will be extracted to directory named firefox.

Test Firefox

cd firefox
./firefox

Firefox will start...

3. Installing

Now install this version as the main firefox installation.

cd /usr/lib
sudo mv /tmp/firefox firefox-x.y
cd ../bin
sudo ln -sf ../lib/firefox-x.y/firefox firefox-x.y
sudo ln -sf firefox-x.y firefox

That will do the trick...

Another method is to use Ubuntuzilla. Check this thread...

Shortcut to Happiness

2010-01-18T09:18:00.002+05:30

Watched "Shortcut to Happiness"...

It have been a long time since I have written a post on a movie... and this movie deserves it...

The theme is not new... but a very unique depiction... very unique...

"Death gives us the chance to sum up all the good we have done or left undone in life"

Rating: 8 of 10

ATOzTOA is 2 years old...

2010-01-11T08:33:00.002+05:30

ATOzTOA turned 2 years on 11^th January 2010. This post is an epilogue to the last 2 years of ATOzTOA...

Major changes in the last 1 year...

- Became active in social networks.
- Got a good reputation among tech blogs.
- Got new logo.
- Added ToC.
- Lot of redesigning for speed and functionality.
- Got into twitter.

ATOzTOA Statistics...

2 Years
490 Posts
155+ Readers thru Feedburner
2,30,500+ Hits

Hottest Posts...

- Linux Commands I Hardly Knew
- Mind Quiz 2006 & Mind Quiz 4
- Effective Use of VIM Series
- Internet Explorer in Ubuntu
- Google Go - A First Look

What you think?

As readers of ATOzTOA, what do you think about this blog?

- How is the font and navigation?
- How is the readability and understandability of the content?
- Is there too much widgets?
- Is there too much ads to distract you?
- What is your overall experience?

Please do share...

How to successfully migrate from Outlook in Windows to Thunderbird in Ubuntu...

2009-12-11T09:03:00.001+05:30

I had started writing this post in June 2009, but stopped in the middle... now I am going to complete it... maybe... it has been 6 months and I don't remember all the steps...

CAUTION!!! Don't use Thunderbird 3 for this migration! We need an add-on (Outlook PST import) which is not yet supported in TB 3 (TB = Thunderbird). Use some version of TB 2. After importing is finished, we can upgrade to TB 3...

Yep, I did that... I migrated from Outlook 2003 in Windows XP to Thunderbird in Ubuntu 9.04... it works... it took me almost a day to figure out how and to fully migrate... total of 13 email accounts and about 13 thousand emails!, also 300+ calendar events...

Actually, this was the main reason I was sticking with Windows even though I liked Ubuntu... I needed my mails always with me... now I can spend more time with Ubuntu...

The exciting part is, I can use Thunderbird in Windows and Linux, sharing the same Mail folder, only one copy of mails... saving a lot of space... you check mail in Windows, you boot to Ubuntu, the new mails are there for you... one problem with Gmail POP3 download is, even if you say 'keep in Server', once you download using an Email client, the mail will not be downloaded again by another Email client...

Funny thing, I am creating this post as a mail item in Thunderbird... I write a little in Linux and I save... when I go to Windows and open Thunderbird, the incomplete mail is in my Drafts folder, I can write more and come back to Linux and write more and so on, isn't it cool... :)

The main steps in the process are...

1. Setting up Thunderbird in Windows
2. Copying Mails from Outlook to Thunderbird
3. Migrating to Thunderbird in Ubuntu (this step is too simple...)
4. Optionally, migrating Calendar entries from Outlook (this step is a little complicated...)

I think it is gonna be a very lengthy and tedious process for me to illustrate it all... so I will split the steps across posts... 4 posts will do... after that maybe I will compile it into a PDF Guide, maybe :)

In this post, I will just give an introduction to the whole process...

Alert: I am not going to say anything about Calendar until the last step, everything until then is just for the mails :)

What you need... (excluding those needed for setting up Calendar)

1. Outlook 2003 (obviously)
2. Mozilla Thunderbird for Windows
3. Mozilla Thunderbird for Linux
4. Lot of disk space for the mails to jump around :)

How much time it will take?

That depends one various factors, number of email accounts you are maintaining, bulk of mails you have, your expertise with Windows (and Linux), etc... For a normal user with only one email id, and a 1000 mails, this will take around 1 hour... correct me when you do it... this doesn't include Calendar!

Is it safe?

Better backup your mails folder before continuing... not because it is risky, but for making you feel better :)

Will it work?

Good question... you will know...

We are in Windows XP... we will stay in Windows XP for steps 1 and 2...

###
Step 1: Setting up Thunderbird in Windows
###

1. The facts

- Outlook 2003 is installed.
- There are two email accounts - first@gmail.com & second@somemail.com
Emails -

Inbox
|-- First Mail
|   |-- Personal
|   `-- Professional
`-- Second Mail
Send
|-- First Mail
`-- Second Mail

2. What you will need...

- Mozilla Thunderbird (I used version 2.0.0.21)

3. Installing Thunderbird in Windows

- Download Thunderbird free from Mozilla website. http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/
- Install Thunderbird, let it be there, don't bother to start it yet, we will come back...

When you start Thunderbird, you will get your default profile created at %APPDATA%\Thunderbird\Profiles\xxxxxxxx.default (Eg. C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\n1xwufxq.default), xxxxxxxx will be replaced by 8 alphanumeric characters. We will refer to this as the 'default profile folder'.

4. Create directories

- We will create some directories for keeping Mail and other settings...
The directory structure looks like this...

Thunderbird
|-- Add-ons
`-- Mail
    |-- Local Folders
    |-- first@gmail.com
    `-- second@somemail.com

Create these directories.
Downloaded Thunderbird add-ons will go into the 'Add-ons' directory.
All mails will stay in 'Local Folders'.
The other two directories will contains settings and filters for the specific Email account.

5. Setting up Email Account

- Start Thunderbird...
- Automatic Import - No: It will ask whether to import data from Outlook Express or Outlook... say NO. I tried importing Settings from Outlook, but it gave me some error, so we will do it manually...

- Create the new email accounts for 'first@gmail.com' and 'second@somemail.com'...
- Got to "Server Settings" for 'first@gmail.com'
- Click "Browse" to the right of "Local directory:"
- Select the directory we created at 'Thundebird\Mail\first@gmail.com'
- Click on "Advanced"
- Select "Global Inbox (Local Folders Account)"
- Enable/Check "Include this server when getting new mail"
- Click "Ok" (we are still inside 'Account Settings'...)
- Set the same settings for second@somemail.com, use the directory 'Thundebird\Mail\second@somemail.com'
- Go to "Local Folders"
- Click "Browse" to the right of "Local directory:"
- Select the directory 'Thundebird\Mail\Local Folders'
- Click "Ok" (now we are exiting 'Account Settings'...)

Now Thunderbird will store account related settings in corresponding directory and all mails will be stored in 'Local Folders' directory.

###
Step 2: Copying Mails from Outlook to Thunderbird
###

1. Outlook PST import

We will be using a add-on for importing the email from Outlook to Thunderbird.

- Download "Outlook PST import" add-on from linux.softpedia.com...
- Install 'Outlook PST import'
- Restart Thunderbird (if you haven't already done)

2. Importing...

- Start Outlook 2003, keep it there, we won't use it...
- In Thunderbird, go to "Tools -> Import"
- Select "Mail" and click "Next"
- Select "Outlook" and click "Next"
It will list all the folders you have in Outlook
- Select the folders you want to import and click Import... this process will take some time depending on the number of emails...
If you have a lot of mails in the folders, then it is better to import each folder one by one... there is possibility of some mails being missed out...

3. Verification

After import is complete, manually verify the process by comparing the number of emails in each folder...

Now, you have all the mails from Outlook in your Thunderbird...

To be continued...

Comments please...

Lightning in Thunderbird 3.0

2009-12-10T21:59:00.004+05:30

Update: Lightning 1.0b1 supports Thunderbird 3.0.*. Just download and install the add-on from addons.mozilla.org

You would have updated to Thunderbird 3 successfully... but all your add-ons are gone, including Lightning (the Calendar)...

They have plans to integrate Calendar into Thunderbird in some future releases, but not yet...

So, lets live with the Nightly Build (development build) of Lightning... here is how...

1. Go to 'Tools -> Add-ons'
2. Click 'Get Add-ons' tab
3. Search for "Lightning"
4. The results will show "Lightning Nightly Updater (Unofficial)"
5. Install it
6. Restart Thunderbird
7. Go to 'Help -> Check for Latest Lightning Nightly Builds...'
8. Pop-up will show the latest Nightly Build of Lightning which is available
9. Click on Install
10. Restart Thunderbird

Voila :)

Comments... please...

Install Thunderbird 3.0 Official Release in Ubuntu

2009-12-10T08:09:00.007+05:30

This thread is outdated, check this thread: Install Thunderbird Latest Official Release in Ubuntu

For installing latest testing version using apt-get, check Thunderbird 3.0 in Ubuntu...

Here is how to install the Thunderbird 3.0 official release...

1. Download

Download Thunderbird 3.0 setup from mozillamessaging.com.
Archive filename: thunderbird-3.0.tar.bz2.
Archive size: 11 MB.
Save archive to /tmp.

2. Extract and Test

Extract the archive

cd /tmp; tar xvjf thunderbird-3.0.tar.bz2

The files will be extracted to directory named thunderbird.

Test Thunderbird

cd thunderbird
./thunderbird

Thunderbird will start...

3. Installing

Now install this version as the main Thunderbird installation.

cd /usr/lib
sudo mv /tmp/thunderbird thunderbird-3.5
cd ../bin
sudo ln -s -f ../lib/thunderbird-3.5/thunderbird thunderbird-3.5
sudo ln -s -f thunderbird-3.5 thunderbird

That will install thunderbird 3.0...

4. Using Existing Thunderbird Profile

CAUTION!!! When you run thunderbird for the first time, if it loads all your accounts and mails, then DON'T run this step...

For Thunderbird to use the existing profile...

$ mv ~/.thunderbird ~/thunderbird-profile-backup
$ ln -s ~/.thunderbird-3.0 ~/.thunderbird

Another method for installing Thunderbird is to use Ubuntuzilla. Check Install Latest Version of Firefox in Ubuntu...

Comments please...

Thunderbird 3 Testing Version in Ubuntu

2009-12-09T21:26:00.009+05:30

CAUTION!!! This is the testing version... for official release, check Install Thunderbird 3.0 Official Release in Ubuntu...

So, the all new Thunderbird 3.0 is out... the development version is codenamed Shredder now :)

There are a bunch of exciting features in this release... most of them are our favorites in Firefox...

+ Tabs
+ Improved Search
+ Message Archive
+ Lightweight Skins
+ Smart Folders
+ Integrated Add-ons Manager
+ Automated Mail Account Setup Wizard
+ One-click Address Book
+ Attachment Reminder
+ Activity Manager
+ Better Junk Protection
+ Better Privacy
+ Phishing Protection
+ Automated Update

So... lets install latest Thundebird 3 Testing Version...

Add the following code to a new file (eg: thunderbird.sh).

#!/bin/bash

version=karmic # Change this to the Ubuntu version (eg: jaunty)

sudo bash -c "echo '# Thunderbird 3' >> /etc/apt/sources.list"
sudo bash -c "echo 'deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa/ubuntu $version main' >> /etc/apt/sources.list"
sudo bash -c "echo 'deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa/ubuntu $version main' >> /etc/apt/sources.list"
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 247510BE
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install thunderbird-3.0 thunderbird-3.0-gnome-support

Just run the script,

sh thunderbird.sh

That's all... run using command

thunderbird-3.0

You can directly install this version even if Thunderbird 2.x is present, the profile will be automatically detected and integrated... some minor folder rearrangement may be needed... one issue, add-ons are incompatible...

Comments please...

Ubuntu Harmful Operation

2009-12-08T08:33:00.002+05:30

I liked the way Ubuntu behaved for something critical...

After this operation, 5,174MB disk space will be freed.
You are about to do something potentially harmful.
To continue type in the phrase 'Yes, do as I say!'
 ?]

I don't remember (care) what Windows would have done...

gccgo Debian Package

2009-11-27T09:56:00.001+05:30

Download gccgo debian binary from here... gccgo_4.5.0-1_i386.deb or from sourceforge... file size: 27MB...

As building gccgo was a success, I am going to try making a debian package for gccgo...

One method is using checkinstall after make... but I am gonna take the standard method... as described here...

Ok, lets start...

Installing necessary & recommended packages...

$ sudo apt-get -y install dpkg-dev file libc6-dev make patch perl autoconf automake dh-make debhelper gnupg fort77 gpc xutils lintian pbuilder gcc g++ devscripts fakeroot debian-policy developers-reference

...done

On second thought, I will go through MOTU... Masters Of The Universe... people who maintains the Universe section of Ubuntu... I am not sure what is in store, will tell you on the way :)

I am using this video on youtube...

Adding my name and email address into .bashrc...

$ echo -e '\nexport DEBFULLNAME="ATOzTOA"\nexport DEBEMAIL="webmaster@atoztoa.com"' >> ~/.bashrc
$ . ~/.bashrc

...done

Setting up gpg (GNU Privacy Guard)... for user identification...

$ gpg --gen-key

Staying with the defaults... when it asked for verification, I said "y"... entering real name... email... no comments... "Okay"... choosing passphrase... repeating passphrase... the randomizer needs system events for generating entropy... we will do something else in the meanwhile...

Setting up pbuilder... creating file .pbuilderrc ...

$ echo 'COMPONENTS="main restricted universe multiverse"' > ~/.pbuilderrc

Creating initial environment...

$ sudo pbuilder create

...will take some time...

By that time, gpg is complete...

Now... let's get to business...

After spending sometime with the video, I think the debian tutorial will be a better starting point... but, that doesn't talk about adding name/email and setting up GPG keys... so the MOTU video was in fact the starting point...

Cleaning up gccgo...

$ cd ../gccgo
$ make clean
$ make distclean

Renaming gccgo to gccg-4.5.0...

$ mv gccgo gccgo-4.5.0

Making a tar.gz file

$ tar cfvz gccgo-4.5.0.tar.gz --exclude=.svn gccgo-4.5.0

Running dh_make... it is an utility for debianizing... (run only once!!!)

$ dh_make -f ../gccgo-4.5.0.tar.gz -s -c gpl

...verified the settings ...done

A new directory named debian is created and a set of files are created there...

Let's check out the control file...

Need to find out the build dependencies...

strace -f -o /tmp/log ./configure
       # or make instead of ./configure, if the package doesn't use autoconf
       for x in `dpkg -S $(grep open /tmp/log|\
                           perl -pe 's!.* open\(\"([^\"]*).*!$1!' |\
                           grep "^/"| sort | uniq|\
                           grep -v "^\(/tmp\|/dev\|/proc\)" ) 2>/dev/null|\
                           cut -f1 -d":"| sort | uniq`; \
             do \
               echo -n "$x (>=" `dpkg -s $x|grep ^Version|cut -f2 -d":"` "), "; \
             done

...this will print out the packages needed for building...

the finished control file...

Source: gccgo
Section: devel
Priority: optional
Maintainer: ATOzTOA 
Build-Depends: debhelper (>= 7), autotools-dev, flex, texinfo, binutils (>= 2.20-0ubuntu2 ), coreutils (>= 7.4-2ubuntu1 ), libacl1 (>= 2.2.47-2 ), libattr1 (>= 1 ), libc6 (>= 2.10.1-0ubuntu15 ), libc6-dev (>= 2.10.1-0ubuntu15 ), libc6-i686 (>= 2.10.1-0ubuntu15 ), libgmp3c2 (>= 2 ), libgmp3-dev (>= 2 ), libmpfr1ldbl (>= 2.4.1-1ubuntu1 ), libmpfr-dev (>= 2.4.1-1ubuntu1 ), libncurses5 (>= 5.7+20090803-2ubuntu2 ), libselinux1 (>= 2.0.85-2ubuntu2 ), linux-libc-dev (>= 2.6.31-14.48 ), locales (>= 2.9+git20090617-3 ), mime-support (>= 3.46-1ubuntu1 ), zlib1g (>= 1 )
Standards-Version: 3.8.1
Homepage: http://golang.org

Package: gccgo
Architecture: any
Depends: ${shlibs:Depends}, ${misc:Depends}
Description: A Google Go frontend for gcc
 A compiler for the Go language. The gccgo compiler is a new frontend for gcc, the widely used GNU compiler. Although the frontend itself is under a BSD-style license, gccgo is normally used as part of gcc and is then covered by the GNU General Public License.
 .
 Note that gccgo is not the 6g compiler; see the Installing Go instructions for that compiler.

Updated copyright file...

Updated files:

$ vim changelog
$ vim rules

Added "--enable-languages=c,c++,go --with-arch=i686" to configure section in rules...

Removed files:

$ rm README.Debian
$ rm cron.d.ex
$ rm dirs
$ rm docs
$ rm gccgo.doc-base.EX
$ rm emacsen-*.ex
$ rm init.d.ex
$ rm init.d.lsb.ex
$ rm gccgo.default.ex
$ rm manpage.*
$ rm menu.ex
$ rm watch.ex
$ rm -v pre* post*

No scheduling... no special directories... no additional documentation... no daemon... no man pages... no menu items... not watching original source... no maintainer scripts...

Ready to rebuild everything...

$ dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot

...now time to wait... :)

Showed some error!!! I did a mistake while manually updating a source file... need to try again...

Tried next night... as it takes more than seven hours to complete... so I will be sleeping while it runs... it showed error... no disk space :)

Need to try again...

Tried again... asked for the passphrase for my GPG key, twice... success...

Got these files as output...

gccgo_4.5.0-1.diff.gz
gccgo_4.5.0-1.dsc
gccgo_4.5.0-1_i386.changes
gccgo_4.5.0-1_i386.deb
gccgo_4.5.0.orig.tar.gz

Now it is complete... the gccgo_4.5.0-1_i386.deb file is what I need... I tried double clicking on gccgo_4.5.0-1_i386.deb... Package Installer came up... I clicked "Install Package"...

(Reading database ... 171010 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking gccgo (from gccgo_4.5.0-1_i386.deb) ...
dpkg: error processing gccgo_4.5.0-1_i386.deb (--install):
 trying to overwrite '/usr/share/man/man1/cpp.1.gz', which is also in package cpp 4:4.4.1-1ubuntu2
dpkg-deb: subprocess paste killed by signal (Broken pipe)
Processing triggers for install-info ...
install-info: warning: no info dir entry in `/usr/share/info/menu.info.gz'
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 gccgo_4.5.0-1_i386.deb

Trying to force overwrite...

$ sudo dpkg --force-overwrite -i gccgo_4.5.0-1_i386.deb
(Reading database ... 171010 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking gccgo (from gccgo_4.5.0-1_i386.deb) ...
dpkg: warning: overriding problem because --force enabled:
 trying to overwrite '/usr/share/man/man1/cpp.1.gz', which is also in package cpp 4:4.4.1-1ubuntu2
dpkg: warning: overriding problem because --force enabled:
 trying to overwrite '/usr/share/man/man1/gcc.1.gz', which is also in package gcc 4:4.4.1-1ubuntu2
dpkg: warning: overriding problem because --force enabled:
 trying to overwrite '/usr/share/man/man1/g++.1.gz', which is also in package g++ 4:4.4.1-1ubuntu2
dpkg: warning: overriding problem because --force enabled:
 trying to overwrite '/usr/share/man/man1/gcov.1.gz', which is also in package gcc 4:4.4.1-1ubuntu2
dpkg: warning: overriding problem because --force enabled:
 trying to overwrite '/usr/bin/gcc', which is also in package gcc 4:4.4.1-1ubuntu2
dpkg: warning: overriding problem because --force enabled:
 trying to overwrite '/usr/bin/g++', which is also in package g++ 4:4.4.1-1ubuntu2
dpkg: warning: overriding problem because --force enabled:
 trying to overwrite '/usr/bin/i486-linux-gnu-g++', which is also in package g++ 4:4.4.1-1ubuntu2
dpkg: warning: overriding problem because --force enabled:
 trying to overwrite '/usr/bin/cpp', which is also in package cpp 4:4.4.1-1ubuntu2
dpkg: warning: overriding problem because --force enabled:
 trying to overwrite '/usr/bin/gcov', which is also in package gcc 4:4.4.1-1ubuntu2
dpkg: warning: overriding problem because --force enabled:
 trying to overwrite '/usr/bin/i486-linux-gnu-gcc', which is also in package gcc 4:4.4.1-1ubuntu2
dpkg: warning: overriding problem because --force enabled:
 trying to overwrite '/usr/lib/libgomp.so.1.0.0', which is also in package libgomp1 0:4.4.1-4ubuntu8
dpkg: warning: overriding problem because --force enabled:
 trying to overwrite '/usr/lib/libgomp.so.1', which is also in package libgomp1 0:4.4.1-4ubuntu8
dpkg: warning: overriding problem because --force enabled:
 trying to overwrite '/usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6', which is also in package libstdc++6 0:4.4.1-4ubuntu8
Setting up gccgo (4.5.0-1) ...
Processing triggers for install-info ...
install-info: warning: no info dir entry in `/usr/share/info/menu.info.gz'
Processing triggers for man-db ...

...success!!!

The issue: gccgo is getting installed to the same location as gcc, so it needs to overwrite the existing gcc files... I will have to modify the configuration... later...

$ gccgo hello.go 
$ ./a.out
Hello, world; or Καλημέρα κόσμε; or こんにちは 世界

Trying remove...

$ sudo dpkg -r gccgo
(Reading database ... 172072 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing gccgo ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Processing triggers for install-info ...
install-info: warning: no info dir entry in `/usr/share/info/menu.info.gz'

...sucess!!!

Trying install again... success!!!

Trying purge...

$ sudo dpkg -P gccgo
(Reading database ... 172072 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing gccgo ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Processing triggers for install-info ...
install-info: warning: no info dir entry in `/usr/share/info/menu.info.gz'

Trying install again... success!!!

Now, I need to try installing on a fresh installation... lets go to the Live CD...

Oops... Kubuntu 9.10 Live CD is not botting in my machine, maybe lack of resources...

Booted Ubuntu 9.10... installed the debian package...

No dependencies... it got installed like a breeze... working fine too... :)

So, the gccgo debian package, gccgo_4.5.0-1_i386.deb, is ready to be released...

I have uploaded the file... please try it out and comment...

Download from here... gccgo_4.5.0-1_i386.deb or from sourceforge... file size: 27MB...

Rearranging Widgets in Blogger

2009-11-26T21:44:00.002+05:30

I had come across this issue... when I try to rearrange the position of widgets using Layout, it will show some error...

Here is how to arrange widgets directly using HTML code...

Find the Widget

We need to find the widgetId... if you edit a widget, there will something like this in the address bar "___widgetId=HTML10___", that is the widgetId for that widget...

Edit HTML

- Go to Edit HTML under Layout...
- Backup the current layout
- Uncheck "Expand Widget Templates"
- Go towards the end of the HTML source
- You will find something like this...

<b:widget id='HTML2' locked='false' title='Categories' type='HTML'/>

There will a list of these, each line corresponding to each widget...
- Just rearrange the lines for rearranging the widgets... the widgetId will help you to find each widget...

Try it... comments please...

ATOzTOA - Optimization Phaze 1 Complete...

2009-11-26T21:27:00.003+05:30

The blog went through a cycle of optimizations...

Problems with IE

When blog is loading, the banner will show up and it says "done". After sometime, all the other content appears... readers will think it is some error... they will just leave...

Also, the sidebar was taking 75% of the screen width and main content having only the rest :)

I saved the page locally and tried removing each widget in turn... the problem was with TechnoSNACK widget... removed it...

Other improvements

Removed some of the widgets... optimized some widgets (Lijit)... reorganized widget placement...

The blog must be faster... try it out... and please comment...

See also... » ATOzTOA got new Logo

» ATOzTOA is 1 year old...

gccgo - another Google Go compiler - Part 3

2009-11-26T07:31:00.010+05:30

This post is about how I am fixing things... for a HOWTO on gccgo, check gccgo mini-HOWTO

Continued... Part 1... Part 2...

Ian Lance Taylor from Google has released yet another patch... let's check it out... [Link: [gccgo] Don't use <linux/user.h>]

Index: libgo/mksysinfo.sh
===================================================================
--- libgo/mksysinfo.sh (revision 154234)
+++ libgo/mksysinfo.sh (working copy)
@@ -41,14 +41,10 @@ cat > sysinfo.c <<EOF
 #include <sys/time.h>
 #include <sys/wait.h>
 #include <sys/un.h>
+#include <sys/user.h>
 #include <unistd.h>
 EOF
 
-# FIXME: GNU/Linux specific.
-cat >>sysinfo.c <<EOF
-#include <linux/user.h>
-EOF
-
 ${CC} -D_GNU_SOURCE -ggo -S -o sysinfo.s sysinfo.c
 
 echo 'package syscall' > ${OUT}
@@ -196,7 +192,8 @@ regs=`grep '^#GO type _user_regs_struct 
 if test "$regs" != ""; then
   regs=`echo $regs | sed -e 's/type _user_regs_struct struct //'`
   regs=`echo $regs | sed -e 's/\([^a-zA-Z0-9_]*\)\([a-zA-Z0-9_]\)\([a-zA-Z0-9_]* [^;]*;\)/\1\U\2\E\3/g'`
-  regs=`echo $regs | sed -e 's/ __/ X__/'g`
+  # FIXME: x86 specific.
+  regs=`echo $regs | sed -e 's/X\([a-z]\)\([a-z]\) int32/ \U\1\E\2 uint16; X\1\2 uint16/g'`
   echo "type PtraceRegs struct $regs" >> ${OUT}
 fi

This is what Ian says...

Newer kernel versions don't provide <linux/user.h>. This patch changes the libgo build to not try to use it, but to use <sys/user.h>. I was using <linux/user.h> because it gives more useful values for cs, ds, etc., so this patch also changes the sed script to get those back.

So, we may not need the patch for regs_linux_386.go anymore... let me say about it in the earlier section so that people won't do that...

Also, let me remove that symbolic link to sys/user.h...

$ sudo rm /usr/include/linux/user.h

Let's put back the original files mksysinfo.sh and regs_linux_386.go...

$ cd ../gccgo
$ rm libgo/mksysinfo.sh
$ svn update libgo/mksysinfo.sh
$ rm libgo/go/debug/proc/regs_linux_386.go
$ svn update libgo/go/debug/proc/regs_linux_386.go
$ cd ../objdir

Wow... mksysinfo.sh from SVN is the latest version with patch... :)

Will try make directly... making... expecting another error anytime... nothing... make complete...

At last... it is a complete success...

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Libraries have been installed in:
   /usr/local/lib

If you ever happen to want to link against installed libraries
in a given directory, LIBDIR, you must either use libtool, and
specify the full pathname of the library, or use the `-LLIBDIR'
flag during linking and do at least one of the following:
   - add LIBDIR to the `LD_LIBRARY_PATH' environment variable
     during execution
   - add LIBDIR to the `LD_RUN_PATH' environment variable
     during linking
   - use the `-Wl,-rpath -Wl,LIBDIR' linker flag
   - have your system administrator add LIBDIR to `/etc/ld.so.conf'

See any operating system documentation about shared libraries for
more information, such as the ld(1) and ld.so(8) manual pages.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Now, let's test it...

$ gccgo hello.go
/usr/local/lib/gcc/i686-pc-linux-gnu/4.5.0/../../../libgo.so: undefined reference to `__sync_fetch_and_add_4'
/usr/local/lib/gcc/i686-pc-linux-gnu/4.5.0/../../../libgo.so: undefined reference to `__sync_bool_compare_and_swap_4'
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status

Will check that later... I am tired... anyways, installation is successful... :)

Update... this is the reply for the issue from Ian...

To get around this, when you run configure on a 32-bit x86, use the --with-arch option. For example, if you have a Pentium 4, use --with-arch=pentium4 when you run configure.

I have an AMD box, need to find out what to use for that... be right back...

I am trying make with --with-arch=i686... will wait...

It worked... now no error during compilation... but when I try to execute...

$ ./a.out
Illegal instruction

No idea what it means...

Ian tried out my a.out and it worked for him... I think the issue is with the --with-arch...

As Majkel J. Smyfsky pointed out, the man page for gcc lists the values to be used for each machine... -march is same as --with-arch... so, now I am gonna install again using --with-arch=athon-xp... c ya soon...

...still the same issue... I am lost... :(

According to Ian, the issue is with my processor (AMD Athlon 2400+ XP)... it does not support SSE2 instruction set, only SSE... the go shared library contains SSE2 instructions... that is why the illegal instruction exception is occurring...

I am waiting for Ian to do something :)

And Ian strikes again... :) He told he had fixed it...

Ian's message:

I think this issue is now fixed. gccgo no longer forces the use of SSE2 on 32-bit x86. Doing an svn update of the sources and forcing a complete rebuild of libgo should fix the problem.

Tonight, I am gonna do it again... keeping --with-arch=athlon-xp...

Configure completed...
Make completed...
Install completed...

And here goes...

$ gccgo hello.go 
$ ./a.out 
Hello, world; or Καλημέρα κόσμε; or こんにちは 世界

Yep, it is working... thanks to Ian... :)

I need to verify using arch as i686... maybe later... bye...

Check out the mini-HOWTO on gccgo... gccgo mini-HOWTO

P.S.: I am going to try to make a Debian package (.deb) for gccgo...

Update: Debian Package generation success - gccgo Debian Package

Reference: Setting up and using gccgo