Nick's Tech Blog

ZFS folders on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS not mounting after reboot

2014-12-17T22:17:00.002+11:00

Problem

On Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, I installed a ZFS ZPOOL following these instructions.

After a restarting my machine however, the zpools failed to mount. I couldn't see any apparent errors from checking the logs.

Solution

Attempt #1

Executing the following command actually mounts the zpool as desired. We could execute this script on startup (but we shouldn't have to).

zpool import -a

Attempt #2

Apparently setting/adding the following properties automatically mounts the zpool. This didn't work for me (my version of zfs).

File: /etc/default/zfs

ZFS_MOUNT='yes'
ZFS_UNMOUNT='yes'

Attempt #3

Other solutions suggest adding a sleep to the following file:

File: /etc/init/mountall.conf

I didn't even bother trying this though.

Attempt #4 (Success)

I came across the following zpool config file, and tried changing the value for zfs_autoimport_disable from 1 to 0.

File: /etc/init/zpool-import.conf

modprobe zfs zfs_autoimport_disable=0

After a restart, my zpools were imported (success!). Then, to automatically mount the zfs mounts, I had to add the following line:

File: /etc/rc.local

zfs mount -a

Not sure why this value is defaulted to 1, but changing it to 0 worked for me.

Installing Tomcat8 as a service on Window7

2013-12-24T15:32:00.000+11:00

Install it!

Download Tomcat8 zip for your operating system. -> http://tomcat.apache.org/download-80.cgi (I grabbed the Windows 64bit version)
Unzip it to the directory where you want it to live.

Check your Config

Check your config by running <tomcat_home>\bin\configtest.bat

Error1: JVM & JDK had a space in the name.

Fix1: Fixed by setting JAVA_HOME and JRE_HOME Environment Variables to use C:\Progra~1\Java\<java_version>

Error2: JVM was 32bit, needed to be 64bit

Fix2: Changed JAVA_HOME and JRE_HOME to use correct 64bit Java install.

Install Tomcat8 as a service

Run: <tomcat_home>\bin\service.bat install

When starting, it failed with "Error Code 4".

I had a look in the Windows System Logs, and found this: "The Tomcat8 service terminated with service-specific error The system cannot open the file."

Enable logging:

Run <tomcat_home>\bin\tomcat8w.exe (a window will open)
Under the "Logging" tab, set the logging directory

Set the STDOUT and STDERR files
Set the logging to DEBUG (turn this back to INFO when app starts up successfully).
Attempt to start the app again, and check the logs:

Error3: stderr.log

2013-12-24 13:18:43 Commons Daemon procrun stderr initialized
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/apache/catalina/startup/Bootstrap
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap

Fix3: Using tomcat8w.exe

Run <tomcat_home>\bin\tomcat8w.exe (a window will open)

Under the "Java" tab, set the classpath (which was empty) to the following:

C:\devtools\apache-tomcat-8.0.0-RC5\lib\*;C:\devtools\apache-tomcat-8.0.0-RC5\bin\*;

After that, I was able to start up Tomcat8 successfully -> http://localhost:8080/

After installing some apps, I got:

Error4: java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: PermGen space

Fix4:

Run <tomcat_home>\bin\tomcat8w.exe (a window will open)
Under the "Java" tab, I changed the "Java Options" to:

-Dcatalina.base=C:\devtools\apache-tomcat-8.0.0-RC5
-Dcatalina.home=C:\devtools\apache-tomcat-8.0.0-RC5
-Djava.endorsed.dirs=C:\devtools\apache-tomcat-8.0.0-RC5\endorsed
-Djava.io.tmpdir=C:\devtools\apache-tomcat-8.0.0-RC5\temp
-Djava.util.logging.manager=org.apache.juli.ClassLoaderLogManager
-Djava.util.logging.config.file=C:\devtools\apache-tomcat-8.0.0-RC5\conf\logging.properties
-Xms256M
-Xmx1024M
-XX:MaxPermSize=1024M
-XX:MaxHeapSize=256M
-XX:PermSize=256M
-XX:+CMSClassUnloadingEnabled
-XX:+CMSPermGenSweepingEnabled

Everthing's now working smoothly!

Additional Notes:

1) I had to add <tomcat_home>/bin/tomcat7.exe and <tomcat_home>/bin/tomcat7w.exe to Windows Firewall.

2) When uploading a new application, I got the following error:

java.lang.IllegalStateException: org.apache.tomcat.util.http.fileupload.FileUploadBase$SizeLimitExceededException: the request was rejected because its size (53706238) exceeds the configured maximum (52428800)

Simply modify the following section in <tomcat_home>/webapps/manager/WEB-INF/web.xml

    <multipart-config>
      <!-- 50MB max -->
      <max-file-size>52428800</max-file-size>
      <max-request-size>52428800</max-request-size>
      <file-size-threshold>0</file-size-threshold>
    </multipart-config>

I doubled the values from 52428800 to 104857600.

Groovy > Bidirectional binding using SwingBuilder

2013-05-10T23:46:00.000+10:00

Problem

I was trying to setup "two-way" binding (e.g. model can update the ui, and vice versa), in a single bind{} statement.

For example, the below code is exhibiting the "two-way" binding behaviour that I want (i.e. toggleButton <-> model.toggleButtonValue). I was wondering if there was a more succinct way to get the same behaviour, but without having two statements (i.e. without the need to have the actionPerformed)?

toggleButton('Test',
  selected: bind { model.toggleButtonValue }, // model->button
  actionPerformed: { model.toggleButtonValue = button.selected }) // button->model

So I posted on the Groovy forums, and got the following answer from Ed Clark (Thanks Ed!)

Solution

Just use the "mutual" flag, like in the following examples:

toggleButton('Test',
  selected: bind (source: model, 'toggleButtonValue', mutual: true))

// Fyi, the following also works, but the button will ignore the
// model's value on initialisation.

toggleButton('Test',
  selected: bind (target: model, 'toggleButtonValue', mutual: true))

As far as I know, it's an undocumented feature at the moment. I couldn't find it on the SwingBuilder.bind site/docs.

See Also:
My Original Problem on the Groovy Forums

Plex on Ubuntu > can't access home directory

2013-02-28T20:37:00.000+11:00

Problem

After installing plex media server, I went to add some media libraries. I couldn't see any directories under my home directory.

Solution - Difficulty: Very Easy

The "plex" user account doesn't have permission to view any directories under your home directory. In addition, if there are any subdirectories it can't view, rather than show the directories it can, it shows nothing.

First of all, lets give it access to your home directory:


nick@pc:~$ ll -d ~
drwx------ 89 nick nick 28672 Feb 28 19:21 /home/nick/
nick@pc:~$ sudo chmod 755 ~
nick@pc:~$ ll -d ~
drwxr-xr-x 89 nick nick 28672 Feb 28 19:21 /home/nick/

Because I still can't add my media library plex, I'm going to "pull out" just the folders I want plex to use, into it's own home directory (using symbolic links).


nick@pc:~$ sudo mkdir /home/plex
nick@pc:~$ sudo chown plex:plex /home/plex
nick@pc:~$ sudo ln -s /home/nick/Music /home/plex/Music
nick@pc:~$ ll /home/plex
total 8
drwxr-xr-x 2 plex plex 4096 Feb 28 20:23 ./
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 Feb 28 20:22 ../
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   16 Feb 28 20:23 Music --> /home/nick/Music/

And there you have it. You should now be able to add "/home/plex/Music".

Additional Troubleshooting:

If you want to test what directories the "plex" user account can access, you can become the "plex" user by typing:


nick@pc:~$ sudo su plex

Navigate around, do some troubleshooting. To exit back to your own account, just type "exit".

ANT > default 'help' target

2012-08-31T10:19:00.002+10:00

Problem

I want the default target for ant™, to display the project help.

Solution

Add the following default target:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project default="help" name="test" xmlns="antlib:org.apache.tools.ant">
         
  <target name="help" description="print the help">
    <exec executable="${ant.home}/bin/ant">
      <arg value="-projecthelp"/>
      <arg value="-buildfile"/>
      <arg value="${ant.file}"/>
    </exec>
  </target>
  
</project>

This allows us to display the help using the following commands.

ant
ant help
ant -buildfile somefile.xml

Improved from the following website:
http://amazing-development.com/archives/2005/01/28/ant-help-target/

Ubuntu lightdm login screen!

2012-08-21T10:50:00.000+10:00

Problem

You want to customise your login screen.

Solution

Checkout lightdm "greeters". Below is an example of "crowd-greeter".

Instructions to install it can be found here:
http://www.iloveubuntu.net/lightdm-receives-new-experimental-3d-character-based-greeter-ubuntu-1110

I haven't found a single site which lists available greeters. Thanks go to Robert Ancell for this list of greeters:

GTK+ – https://launchpad.net/lightdm-gtk-greeter

GtkBuilder – http://lxde.git.sourceforge.net/git/gitweb.cgi?p=lxde/ldm-gtk-builder-greeter;a=summary

Webkit – https://launchpad.net/lightdm-webkit-greeter

Qt – https://launchpad.net/lightdm-qt-greeter

KDE – https://projects.kde.org/projects/playground/base/lightdm

Unity – https://launchpad.net/unity-greeter

Crowd – https://launchpad.net/crowd-greeter

See also:

"SO YOU WANT TO WRITE A LIGHTDM GREETER…" - http://www.mattfischer.com/blog/?p=5

"How to change the LightDM theme/greeter?" - http://askubuntu.com/questions/75755/how-to-change-the-lightdm-theme-greeter

Use sed to remove '^M' characters from a file

2012-08-17T09:40:00.000+10:00

Simple stuff, this post is here more as a reference than anything.

Problem

Windows puts '^M' characters throughout text files. I want to remove them.

Solution

The following commands will strip out the '^M' characters, and put the contents into a new file, then overwrite the original file.

sed -e s/^M//g oldfile.txt > newfile.txt
mv newfile.txt oldfile.txt

To get the '^M' character, type Ctrl+V,Ctrl+M

Cappuccino > narwhal-rhino fails to load library from "noexec" /tmp directory

2012-06-15T01:40:00.001+10:00

Problem

When executing "jake deploy", I received the following stacktrace:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: /tmp/jna868211880998617115.tmp: /tmp/jna868211880998617115.tmp: failed to map segment from shared object: Operation not permitted
at java.lang.ClassLoader$NativeLibrary.load(Native Method)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadLibrary0(ClassLoader.java:1807)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadLibrary(ClassLoader.java:1703)
at java.lang.Runtime.load0(Runtime.java:770)
at java.lang.System.load(System.java:1003)
at com.sun.jna.Native.loadNativeLibraryFromJar(Native.java:744)
at com.sun.jna.Native.loadNativeLibrary(Native.java:678)
at com.sun.jna.Native.(Native.java:106)
at com.sun.jna.NativeLibrary.(NativeLibrary.java:60)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
at org.mozilla.javascript.MemberBox.invoke(MemberBox.java:161)
at org.mozilla.javascript.NativeJavaMethod.call(NativeJavaMethod.java:247)
at org.mozilla.javascript.Interpreter.interpretLoop(Interpreter.java:1702)
at org.mozilla.javascript.Interpreter.interpret(Interpreter.java:845)
at org.mozilla.javascript.InterpretedFunction.call(InterpretedFunction.java:164)
at org.mozilla.javascript.optimizer.OptRuntime.call1(OptRuntime.java:66)
at org.mozilla.javascript.gen._usr_local_cappuccino_packages_jake_lib_jake_js_7._c_anonymous_13(Unknown Source)
at org.mozilla.javascript.gen._usr_local_cappuccino_packages_jake_lib_jake_js_7.call(Unknown Source)

Solution

The cause of this issue, is because the /tmp directory is mounted noexec on our operating system. Current workarounds exist by specifying the java.io.tmpdir JVM arg (as another executable directory).

The version of narwhal-rhino shipped with cappuccino 0.9.5 currently ignores the JAVA_OPTS environment variable.

To fix:
1. Modify the line 25 in $CAPPUCCINO_HOME/engines/rhino/bin/narwhal-rhino
from
JAVA_OPTS="-Dnarwhal.http_proxy=$http_proxy"
to
JAVA_OPTS="-Dnarwhal.http_proxy=$http_proxy $JAVA_OPTS"

2. Then a new tmpdir can be specified by setting the JAVA_OPTS env var.
E.g.

export JAVA_OPTS=-Djava.io.tmpdir=/somedir-that-is-executable

This should do the trick.

See also
https://github.com/cappuccino/cappuccino/issues/1512

Ubuntu > dragging windows to desktop sides not working

2012-06-15T00:42:00.001+10:00

Problem

Basically, dragging windows to sides of the screen isn't readjusting the window size to half the screen.

(I later found out this feature was called "window grid".)

Solution

I'm reposting the solution, because it worked.

In the terminal...

compiz --replace & disown
(I then needed to logout and log back in, as none of my windows were responding)
unity --reset

That should be it, windows now snap to half the screen, when dragged to the sides of the desktop.

TIBCO > HTTP Connection automatically responds to HTTP OPTIONS method

2012-06-14T18:30:00.000+10:00

Problem

The default HTTP Connection is automatically responding to HTTP OPTIONS methods, without being processed by my HTTP receiver (I want to be able to process these requests!).

Here is the default response:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: Apache-Coyote/1.1
Allow: GET, HEAD, POST, PUT, DELETE, TRACE, OPTIONS
Content-Length: 0
Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2012 08:14:35 GMT

Solution

In the "HTTP Connection" Configuration tab, change the Server Type from "Tomcat" to "HttpComponent".

This should allow you to process all HTTP methods.

I'm yet to clarify whether this problem is related to Tomcat (or the HTTP Connection). Please feel free to respond if you find out!

TIBCO > MimeParts are incorrectly parsed by the HTTP Receiver

2012-05-31T00:22:00.000+10:00

Problem

The TIBCO ActiveMatrix BusinessWorks Administration document explains it best (last seen here)

In previous releases, when the content-type of an incoming message was "multipart/*", the first part of the message was presented as the POSTDATA. This is incorrect according to MIME specification.

Solution

The bw.plugin.http.handleAllMimePartsAsAttachment property fixes this problem.

If this property is set to true and the top-level content-type of the incoming HTTP message is "multipart/*", then an HTTP Receiver will present all the MIME parts as attachments and the POSTDATA field will be empty. If this property is set to false (the default value), backward compatibility is maintained and the first MIME part is presented as the POSTDATA.

N.B. Do not check the Parse Post Method Data field on the HTTP Receiver process starter when this property is set to true. This causes an error to be thrown.

Development

Simply add the following line to your <designer_home>/<version%gt;/properties.cfg file (create it, if it doesn't already exist).

bw.plugin.http.handleAllMimePartsAsAttachment=true

Restart Designer

Runtime (N.B. I haven't tested this yet, feedback warmly welcomed!)

At run time, append it to the deployed .tra file.

See also:
https://www.tibcocommunity.com/thread/13797?tstart=1425

Ubuntu > Display notifications over the screensaver

2011-09-29T00:07:00.000+10:00

I'm currently playing around with notifications, and I'm trying to "keep" notifications displayed above the screensaver, so that I can see if I've got new mail or an IM from afar, without having to unlock my pc.

Basically the opposite problem to these:
http://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/faq.html#popup-windows
http://www.google.com/search?q=notifications+over+screensaver+ubuntu

I'm using a command similar to the following, to display messages with an infinite timeout:
Code:

$ notify-send -t 0 -i info "You've got mail" "mailbox (123)"

Currently notifications get displayed temporarily "above" the xscreensaver, but eventually xscreensaver will "raise" itself above the notification (e.g. after a minute or two).

Here are my options, as I see it currently:

1) Download the xscreensaver's source code, modify it to prevent it raising itself above the notifications, build and install it (painful... I've managed to build it from the source, but I don't know what I should be modifying.)

2) Write my own custom screensaver (not really path I want to take, when I already have a notification and screensaver framework).

Are there any other (easier) options I've missed? Can anyone help?

(There's an argument that nothing should be displayed over the top of screensavers... )

Some context:
Ubuntu 11.04
Unity
notification-daemon/natty uptodate 0.5.0-2ubuntu1 (better functionality than notify-osd - i.e. click to close, vertical stacking, customisation...)
xscreensaver/natty uptodate 5.12-0ubuntu3 (more customisable than gnome-screensaver).

See also:

The same question, posted on the ubuntu forums:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=11292893#post11292893

Traceback to a thread, on customising notify-osd notifications:
http://www.webupd8.org/2011/05/configurable-notifyosd-bubbles-for.html#dsq-comment-199829486

Another alternative to notification-daemon and notify-osd is avant-window-navigator
http://maketecheasier.com/2-ways-to-make-ubuntu-notification-more-user-friendly/2011/05/21

Unfortunately, this is the closest solution I've found to notifications whilst the screensaver is running (checkGmail lights up the scroll lock key on the keyboard).
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1564412

Ubuntu > Compiling package/s from source

2011-09-28T23:44:00.001+10:00

Just putting together a quick "cheatsheet" for compiling and installing a package from it's source code.

Start here: (it's all here and it's very simple...)
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CompilingSoftware
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CompilingEasyHowTo

Pre-requisites:
sudo apt-get install build-essential checkinstall

Optional - to assist in retrieving the source code:
sudo apt-get install cvs subversion git-core mercurial

By convention, put source code under here (extract the source if it's in a zip, tar.gz, etc):
/usr/local/src

From the root of the source code:
./configure

Resolve any missing dependencies:

sudo apt-get build-dep <package>

apt-file search <your-missing-file.h>

Build the code:
sudo make

Package the code into a *.deb:
sudo checkinstall

Install the code directly:
sudo make install

Clean up:

sudo make clean

sudo make distclean

Thats it, nothing ground breaking. Please let me know if there's anything else I've missed.

See also:
http://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/make.html#Complex-Makefile

Fedora > libfontconfig.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

2011-09-26T20:05:00.000+10:00

Problem

Received the following exceptions (seperately) when attempting to run a java program on Fedora 15 amd64.


/lib/ld-linux.so.2: bad ELF interpreter: No such file or directory

... 

libstdc++.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

... 

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: /some/directory/libmawt.so: libXext.so.6: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

...

libfontconfig.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

and so on.

Solution

Obviously a couple of dependencies were missing. To find out which package/s you need to install to fix a missing dependency, use "yum provides <missing_file>".
e.g.


# yum provides libfontconfig.so.1

fedora/metalink | 21 kB     00:00
jenkins | 951 B     00:00
updates/metalink | 12 kB     00:00
fontconfig-2.8.0-3.fc15.i686 : Font configuration and customization library
Repo        : fedora
Matched from:
Other       : libfontconfig.so.1

Then install the packages...
e.g.
# yum install fontconfig

Repeat for all missing files.

CFEngine > Scalar item in package_list_command => { ls } in rvalue is out of bounds (value should match pattern "?(/.*))

2011-09-26T19:37:00.002+10:00

Problem

Whilst validating a cf-promises file, I received the following output.

$ cf-promises -f ./promises.cf 
cf3> ./packages.cf:23,28: Scalar item in package_list_command => { ls } in rvalue is out of bounds (value should match pattern "?(/.*)), near token 'ls"'

The associated line is:
package_list_command => "ls -1 /your/directory"

Solution

Basically, the error is trying to tell us that the "ls" command must be fully qualified.

The associated line should read:
package_list_command => "/bin/ls -1 /your/directory"

Fedora > java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class sun.awt.X11GraphicsEnvironment

2011-09-22T23:08:00.001+10:00

Problem

The following exception was encountered when running a java program on Fedora:
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class sun.awt.X11GraphicsEnvironment

Assumptions: you know what an xserver is.

Solution

Basically, the java program is trying to access the xserver, and can't.

If it should be accessing the xserver, make sure the xserver is started/running:

e.g. ps -ef | grep Xvfb

If it shouldn't be accessing an xserver, make sure the "DISPLAY" environment variable is unset:

unset DISPLAY

See also:
Fedora > install Xvfb as a service

Ubuntu > Filter directory /usr/lib/cups/filter for printer "<yourprinter>" is not owned by root.

2011-09-22T18:46:00.000+10:00

Problem

You receive the following error status message for a printer, once it is installed (e.g. in the "Print" window).

Filter directory /usr/lib/cups/filter for printer "" is not owned by root.

You may also see "cups-insecure-filter".

Solution

Execute the following commands, to change ownership back to root.

sudo chown -hR root:root /usr/lib/cups/filter/*
sudo chown -hR root:root /usr/lib/cups/backend/*
service cups restart

Your printer should now no longer display the message. (May require closing and reopening the "Print" window).

See also:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/cups/+bug/436544

Fedora > install Xvfb as a service

2011-09-22T17:41:00.000+10:00

Problem

I required Xvfb to be installed, and running as a service on a server.

Assumptions: you know how to use chkconfig, yum, vi and chmod.

Solution

yum install xorg-x11-server-Xvfb
vi /etc/init.d/xvfbd (copy contents below into the file, and save it)
chmod 755 /etc/init.d/xvfbd (now we have a service)
chkconfig --add xvfbd
chkconfig --level 2345 xvfbd on

You can now start your service with:
sudo service xvfbd start

Check it's running:
ps -ef | grep Xvfb

Check it's listed to startup automatically for runlevels 2,3,4,5:
chkconfig --list

/etc/init.d/xvfbd

#!/bin/bash
#
# description: Xvfb server
#

# Get function from functions library
. /etc/init.d/functions

# Start the service Xvfb
start() {
        echo -n "Starting Xvfb server: "
        /usr/bin/Xvfb &
        ### Create the lock file ###
        touch /var/lock/subsys/Xvfb
        success $"Xvfb server startup"
        echo
}

# Restart the service Xvfb
stop() {
        echo -n "Stopping Xvfb server: "
        killproc Xvfb
        ### Now, delete the lock file ###
        rm -f /var/lock/subsys/Xvfb
        echo
}

### main logic ###
case "$1" in
start)
        start
        ;;
stop)
        stop
        ;;
status)
        status Xvfb
        ;;
restart|reload|condrestart)
        stop
        start
        ;;
*)
        echo $"Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart|reload|status}"
        exit 1
esac

exit 0

Ubuntu > Install Canon Pixma MX870 i386 drivers on amd64

2011-09-16T19:28:00.000+10:00

Problem

Canon only provide i386 drivers for the PIXMA MX870 All-In-One Printer on their Australian website.

These work fine with amd64, but just need the scripts to be tweaked to allow it (very easy to do).

Solution

Ensure you have the latest versions for the following applications:


$ apt-show-versions | grep -E "libcups2|libcupsys2|libc6|libpopt0"

e.g.
libc6/natty uptodate 2.13-0ubuntu13
libc6-dev/natty uptodate 2.13-0ubuntu13
libc6-i386/natty uptodate 2.13-0ubuntu13
libcups2/natty-security uptodate 1.4.6-5ubuntu1.4
libpopt0/natty uptodate 1.16-1

Follow these steps:

Download the MX870 series IJ Printer Driver Ver. 3.30 for Linux (debian Packagearchive)
Extract the cnijfilter-mx870series-3.30-1-i386-deb.tar.gz into a directory

Nautilus > right-click > Extract Here
Command line > tar -xvzf cnijfilter-mx870series-3.30-1-i386-deb.tar.gz -C /your/target/dir

Comment out the "i686" lines in the <extracteddir>/install.sh, as per the instructions here.
Update all <extracteddir>/packages/*.deb packages by running repackage.sh (see below), and removing the line beginning with "Dependency: ..." during the "vi" step.

e.g. ./repackage.sh <package>.deb

Run <extracteddir>/install.sh

repackage.sh

#!/bin/bash
PACKAGE=${1}
dpkg -x $PACKAGE common
dpkg --control $PACKAGE
vi DEBIAN/control
cp -a DEBIAN/ common/
dpkg -b common $PACKAGE
rm -rf common DEBIAN

Ubuntu Unity > remove Rhythmbox from the sound menu

2011-09-14T19:10:00.002+10:00

Problem

Ubuntu 'Natty' 11.04
There's no (obvious) way to remove rhythmbox from the sound menu in unity.

Solution

According to the documents on the ubuntu wiki, rhythmbox must be removed by using gsettings. Execute the following in your console:

gsettings set com.canonical.indicator.sound blacklisted-media-players "['rhythmbox']"

See: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SoundMenu#Music_player_integration

Install Java Plugin on Ubuntu Firefox

2011-09-14T11:57:00.000+10:00

Current as of: 14 Sept, 2011

Versions
Ubuntu 'Natty' 11.04
Firefox 6.0.2
Sun Java6 Plugin

Add the 'universe' software source

Open the "Ubuntu Software Center"
In the menu, navigate to Edit > Software Sources...
(Enter administrator password)
Other Software > Add
Enter "deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu natty universe" in the apt line
Click "Add Source"
Check that "Canonical Partners universe" entry has been added.
Click "Close"

Install the java6 plugin
Back in the "Ubuntu Software Center" window...

Navigate to "Get Software" and search for "sun-java6-plugin"
It should now return an entry for "sun-java6-plugin"
Click "Install"

It's that simple. Once complete, you should now be able to start/restart firefox and the java plugin will be installed.

You can optionally check, that the following symbolic link has been created.
/usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libjavaplugin.so -> /etc/alternatives/mozilla-javaplugin.so

Fedora > WARNING: / partition has insufficient space to install the items selected

2011-09-11T23:47:00.000+10:00

Problem

I received the following error, when installing an application on Fedora 15 (Tibco TRA as it happens).

WARNING: / partition has insufficient space to install the items selected.

XXX MB additional space would be needed to install the selected items.

Solution

Create a temp directory that can hold the amount of space required to install the application (e.g. /root/tmp).

Then append the following parameter on to your installation command.
-is:tempdir /root/tmp

See also:
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/iisinfsv/v8r1/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.swg.im.iis.productization.iisinfsv.install.doc/topics/iisri_verify_disk_space.html

Fedora > /bin/sh: bad interpreter: Permission denied

2011-09-09T17:14:00.000+10:00

Problem

Received the following error message when attempting to install an application, in Fedora 15, where the current working directory is /tmp/somedir.
/bin/sh: bad interpreter: Permission denied

Solution

Security on Fedora/RHEL blocks executing scripts from /tmp. The solution/workaround is to move the directory to my homedrive, and run it from there instead.

http://www.velocityreviews.com/forums/t9645-bash-firefox-installer-bin-sh-bad-interpreter-permission-denied.html

Linux > tag files in a directory by directory name

2011-08-23T23:36:00.002+10:00

Work in progress...



#!/bin/bash

#

# "tagdirs.sh"

#

# Simple script which iterates over the first level folders in a given directory,

# and tags the files in those subdirectories with the parent folder's name.

#

# Usage: ./tagdirs.sh 

#

# N.B. Requires 'tracker-tag'.

#



# The folder to iterate over.

FOLDER=$1



# Check param is a directory...

if [ -d "${1}" ] ; then

echo "Processing directory '${1}'..."

else

echo "Error: bad argument. Expected a valid directory name for the first argument"

echo "Bad directory name = ${1}"

exit 1

fi



(

IFS=$'\n'

# For each directory...

for dir in $(find $FOLDER -maxdepth 1 -mindepth 1 -type d); do

# Strip directory to folder name only...

tag=${dir##*/}

# For each file in the directory...

for file in $(find $dir -maxdepth 1 -mindepth 1 -type f); do

echo "Adding tag '${tag}' to file '${file}'...";

tracker-tag --add="${tag}" "${file}"

done 

done

)



exit 0

Stream content from Ubuntu to an Xbox360

2011-08-22T21:26:00.001+10:00

Problem

I wanted to setup Ubuntu (11.04), so that I could access content from an Xbox360 using DLNA

Solution

Open "Ubuntu Software Center" and install "rygel"
Also install the additional "Tracker plugin" (only)
Follow the steps under Helper Scripts (requires sqlite3)

Rygel can now be started from the terminal by executing "rygel".

Movies/Pictures/Video's tagged in nautilius will be displayed (right click on the file and tag).

See also:
http://live.gnome.org/Rygel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Living_Network_Alliance