Archive for Ubuntu
Ubuntu 9.04 released
I am planning to use the Ubuntu server version for a server that I would like to build and I have done a bit of research on installation and
it appears straight-forward just like the desktop version.
I think I will need a GUI user interface and for I now my choice seems to be webmin
If I get time I will experiment with cloud computing which is available as a technology preview according the Ubuntu 9.04 release notes.
Meanwhile I will update my current 8.10 install of Ubuntu. I think among the new features available this time the one I am looking forward to
is the new style for notifications and possibly the quicker start-up process.
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The issue of section .ztext
This happened to me with my VMware machines installed on Ubuntu. I got the error:
Unexpected error loading section .ztext
when I tried to start the virtual machines, one XP and the other Ubuntu.
As these virtual machines are just for testing, what I will have to do anywhere is re-install the virtual missions and for Ubuntu at long last I will be be able to install Feisty Fawn (Ubuntu 7.04) and test it out.
In the meantime I will keep on checking to see if somebody else managed to resolve the problem.
Failure to execute child process
My first reaction was to just uninstall it and then install it again and so I tried uninstalling Firefox using the Synaptic Manager and then re-installing it again and I still got the same error.
I also tried to uninstall using the command line using
apt-get remove firefox
and then installing using
sudo aptitude update && sudo aptitude install firefox
or reconfiguring it with
dpkg-reconfigure firefox
but all this failed and also after getting no answer from the Ubuntu forum in the end I decided to just use Konquerer and Opera instead.
However, after this morning's update which incidentally also included a Firefox update, my Firefox is working
once again but I still have to figure out exactly what the failure to execute child process error was all about.
Ubuntu's unexpected inconsistency
UNEXPECTED INCONSISTENCY; RUN fsck MANUALLY.
The first time this happened which is months ago I just rebooted the machine and that cleared the error.
This time around rebooting didn't work and so I had to type the command fsck and then
answered yes to a series of y/n fix questions that followed and thankfully the problem was
fixed.
Unusual Ubuntu panel error
I've detected a panel already running, and will now exit.
I just re-booted the machine and the error didn't appear again. I have since realised that its a minor error which can be fixed by firing the terminal and issuing the killall gnome-panel.
Taking care of orphaned libraries
I used Orphaner to select and then remove the orphaned packages. I think its a good idea to click Simulate first before clicking OK after selecting the libraries set for removal. Simulate will let Orphaner test the removal of the packages selected and will notify you if there are any issues. I didn't get an error myself so I don't know how the error message would look like.
If you have the gstreamer libraries listed in the list don't select them for removal. gstreamer libraries may be listed as orphaned but don't remove them because they are used by multimedia Gnome applications and that may cause problems in the future. A more detailed coverage of package removal can be found on the Ubuntu forum.
Still on installations, I started my Ubuntu PHP development using the Bluefish IDE but I have since moved on to the Quanta Plus IDE as my main development environment. I installed Quanta Plus to see how it works and I have since been impressed by its handling of projects which I think is better that Bluefish's and also another plus is that you can collapse or expand sections of code like you would do in Microsoft Visual Studio.
I like this because on fairly large classes you can just make sure that all that you can see are the methods you are dealing with and then expanding others as you need them and then collapsing them again.
I haven't unistalled Bluefish as such because I still use it for writing quick test scripts.
Plain sailing updating Ubuntu
My updates have gone smoothly so far although there seems to be just one issue. This issue
is about overwriting my GRUB menu. This happened during my first update but now what I do is
before the update I save a copy of my GRUB file and then after the update I just restore it
back and doing it this way saves me five minutes.
VMware server installation on Ubuntu
1- Howtoforge : How To Install VMware Server On Ubuntu
2- Ubuntu forums how to
One of the first steps I had to do was to increase the size of my Ubuntu partition because I wanted to allocate 8G to the virtual server. Having done that it was a question of downloading VMware server and getting the free licence code.
The installation was smooth sailing until I got the message:
None of the pre-built vmmon modules for VMware Server is suitable for your running kernel. Do you want this program to try to build the vmmon module for your system (you need to have a C compiler installed on your system)?
To get around this I had to get the headers of my install using the command:
uname -r
in the terminal and then installed the headers using:
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-2.6.15-26-386
2.6.15-26-386 is the header in my case.
After installing the headers I was then able to conclude my VMWare server installation without any more hitches.
The Ubuntu Forum article has got some useful pointers on how to install Windows XP in the virtual environment. The XP installation itself went surprisingly fast and over the next few days I will be installing some software in the virtual environment.
In search of an Ubuntu firewall
I have been trying to install a firewall and now I think I have what suits my needs. Ubuntu comes with an in-built firewall called iptables but I needed a GUI interface to be able to configure it. My first attempt was with the Firestarter firewall but for some reason when I tried to install it, it gave some errors and so I had to abandon that.
I then tried the Lokkit firewall and while this installed properly when I tried to run it came with with some text with a green foreground and I just couldn't read it and I had no choice but to close it and uninstall it.
I then decided to install guarddog and this installed properly and I think I will settle for it. I liked the idea that by default all protocols are disabled including HTTP and POP3 and therefore you can select the protocols you wish to allow. So after installing guarddog and configuring it I had to check to see that everything that I normally use still worked. I enabled logging so that once in a while I can check the log for any interesting traffic or issues.
I should mention the the setup of Apache, PHP and MySql. I used the Synaptic Manager and the default settings worked straight away and I had to change a few things like doc_root. For PHP I am using the Bluefish IDE. I wanted something similar to PHP Designer which I use in Windows and Bluefish meets my needs comfortably.
Next on the line to install is the VMware server.
Windows Ubuntu dual boot at last
I used a PC with two hard drives and before Ubuntu was installed Windows was installed on the second drive. So using the Windows setup disk I formatted the first hard drive and then using the Ubuntu Live CD I installed Ubuntu. Once Ubuntu installation was finished and up and running I tried to then boot Windows but I couldn't as I got an "NTLDR error".
I then decided to re-install Windows on the first drive but after the first stage of copying files windows installation could not continue because I got a "Disk error. Press Any Key to Restart" message and this looped after pressing any key.
This is when I decided to do further research using the Ubuntu Live CD whereupon I found that it was advisable to make Windows the first partition. I then repartioned the first drive again and this time I made sure the Windows partition was the first one followed by Ubuntu and swap partitions etc. I then went on to install Ubuntu on the second partition and when that was completed I used instructions from Herman's GAG page to create a GAG boot disk. I tested the GAG boot disk booting into Ubuntu and it worked fine and then I re-installed Windows again and this time it installed properly.
After successfully installing Windows, I couldn't boot into Ubuntu and this is where I was going to need my GAG boot disk. Before booting with the disk I added Windows to the GAG menu and saved that new profile on the floppy disk. Using the GAG boot disk I then booted into Ubuntu and then I used instructions from the Herman's GRUB page and the RecoveringUbuntuAfterInstallingWindows help page to add Windows to the GRUB menu and then overwrite the Windows bootloader and replace it with GRUB.
Now its all working fine and when I get to the GRUB menu I just choose which operating
system I would like to boot into. I should mention that for the step by step instructions on
installing Ubuntu 6.06 I used the article on Psychocats installing Ubuntu
page.
