Knoppix

I have used Knoppix for many a system administration job — rescuing PC’s or enlarging a virtual hard drive.

I just found a great video about Knoppix that might come in handy at some point in the future.

Nvidia Drivers for Fedora 9

This will probably be fixed by the time Fedora 9 is released, but I had trouble getting the NVidia drivers to work.

I tried the rpm packages from AtRPMS, but I couldn’t get them to work.  First of all, they forced me to downgrade to the kernel version 2.6.25-1 (I was at 2.6.25-8).  Then, they didn’t install the nvidia-settings program and didn’t update xorg.conf.  Finally, when I tried to update xorg.conf, XWindows wouldn’t start.

So, I decided to manually install the drivers.

The latest version that I found on the website was:

NVIDIA-Linux-x86-169.12-pkg1.run

I had to update to the latest kernel release again because I couldn’t find drivers for the one that I was on.  And, when I tried to compile it, I got an error.  Looking in /var/log/nvidia-installer.log, I found:
/tmp/selfgz5981/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-169.12-pkg1/usr/src/nv/nv-vm.c: In function
‘nv_flush_caches’:
/tmp/selfgz5981/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-169.12-pkg1/usr/src/nv/nv-vm.c:364: error:
implicit declaration of function ‘global_flush_tlb’
make[4]: *** [/tmp/selfgz5981/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-169.12-pkg1/usr/src/nv/nv-vm.
o] Error 1
make[3]: *** [_module_/tmp/selfgz5981/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-169.12-pkg1/usr/src/n
v] Error 2
make[2]: *** [sub-make] Error 2
NVIDIA: left KBUILD.
nvidia.ko failed to build!
make[1]: *** [module] Error 1
make: *** [module] Error 2

Then, I found an FTP link where later drivers were listed.  I tried the 173.08 version.  After manually deleting a broken link created by the previous install (/usr/lib/xorg/modules/libwfb.so), it compiled without a problem.  But, I could not start the XWindows.

Here is what I got:
(EE) module ABI major version (0) doesn't match the server's version (1)
(EE) Failed to load module “glx” (module requirement mismatch, 0)
================ WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING ================
This server has a video driver ABI version of 4.0 that this
driver does not officially support. Please check
http://www.nvidia.com/ for driver updates or downgrade to an X
server with a supported driver ABI.
=================================================================
dlopen: /usr/lib/xorg/modules//libwfb.so: undefined symbol: miZeroLineScreenIndex
(EE) Failed to load /usr/lib/xorg/modules//libwfb.so
(EE) Failed to load module “wfb” (loader failed, 7)
(EE) NVIDIA(0): This video driver ABI is not supported.
(EE) NVIDIA(0): Use the -ignoreABI option to override this check.


The best information that I can find so far, is that NVidia does not support the latest version of XWindows yet.

Conclusion

So far, I have determined I have to wait for NVidia to update their drivers.  I am hoping they will have it done in the next couple of weeks only because Fedora 9’s release dates is in 14 days.

Resources

Thread pointing to the latest drivers

Thread on incompatibility

Advanced Driver Search

Creating a SourceForge Project with Eclipse

I have been wanting to try my hand at an open source project. The new project is ContactDB.

First, I had to create my SSH key. I followed the OpenSSH instructions here.

This is the command that I used to create the key:

ssh-keygen -t dsa -C "myusername@shell.sourceforge.net"

• Remember to replace the “myusername” with your actual user name.
• I used the default location to save the key (/home/myuser/.ssh/id_dsa)
• I entered a passphrase.

Once I had the key generated, I opened the file in a text editor: /home/myuser/.ssh/id_dsa.pub and copied the new line that I just created. On my account page at SourceForge, under the section “Host Access Information”, I clicked “Edit SSH keys for Shell/CVS”. I pasted the line that I copied into the large textbox and clicked update.

I couldn’t do the initial import in Eclipse for some reason.  So, from the command line:

 CVS_RSH=ssh; export CVS_RSH
 export CVSROOT=:ext:myusername@contactsdb.cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/contactsdb
 cvs import -m "initial project files" contactsdb initial start

In Eclipse, I created a new workspace. Then, I created a new project (File, New Project …). For the type, I chose CVS, Projects from CVS.

Next, it asked me for the repository location information (remember to substitute contactsdb with your project name):

• Host: contactsdb.cvs.sourceforge.net
• Repository path: /cvsroot/contactsdb
• User: you user name
• Password: the password you set in the SSH key generation
• Connection Type: extssh
• Port: Use default port

Next, Eclipse asked me to select a module. I chose the “Use specified module name”, and I chose my project name for the module (”ContactsDB”).

Links about Git

Reading Rich Manalang’s blog, I came across some links relating to git. I am mainly blogging these as a reminder to go back and spend some more time on them at some point.

• git Cheat Sheet
• Git on Rails
• Using git for JRuby

Source:

• $ cheat git
• Episode 96: Git on Rails
• Using git for JRuby

Information on Fedora 9

I just found the Summary page for Fedora 9 development:

 http://linuxsagas.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post-new.php

This is a good place to watch.

Gnome vs. KDE

Linux Format Magazine pointed out an excellent post regarding Gnome vs. KDE. I really liked the observations in the article.

From GNOME to KDE and back again: old computing habits are hard to break

New Beta Releases of Fedora and Ubuntu

Linux Format Magazine pointed out that Fedora has released a beta of Fedora 9 and Ubuntu has released Ubuntu 8.04.

These features caught my eye from the Fedora 9 Feature List:

• Firefox 3
• Update X Server
• Randr Support — hopefully, this should make plugging and unplugging my laptop into my monitor easier
• Fast X Start time — will my laptop boot faster?

They also pointed out that Open Office 2.4 has been released!   Will it be in Fedora 9?

Java: Nimbus Look and Feel

In the announcement for Java 6 SE Update N b12, they mentioned a new Look and Feel called Nimbus. Here is a link with code that shows how to use it:

https://jdk6.dev.java.net/testNimbus.html

Here are some screenshots:

• Jasper Pott’s screenshots
• Jasper Pott’s blog
• Ben Galbraith’s Newer Post
• Ben Galbraith’s blog

Installing Firefox 3 beta3

I mostly followed Ubuntu Geek’ instructions.

I made the backup of the profile directory:

sudo cp -R ~/.mozilla ~/.mozillabackup

I checked in Synpatic package manager and found that libstdc++5 was already installed.

I followed the link they provided for downloading the new version.

I extracted it as they suggested to the /opt directory:

sudo tar -C /opt -jxvf firefox-3.0b3.tar.bz2

For the plugins, I created the link that they suggested. Make sure you see that you have the right plugins directory — it looked like there could be various locations for the plugins.

cd /opt/firefox/plugins/
ls /usr/lib/firefox/plugins/
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/firefox/plugins/* .
I found some information about controlling profiles, and so, I created a different profile for Firefox3. First, I created a copy for Firefox:

cp -r .mozilla .firefox3
/opt/firefox/firefox -P “firefox3″

The first time, it brought up the “Choose User Profile” dialog. So, I clicked on the Create Profile button and created a new profile by the name of firefox3. For the path, I chose $HOME/.firefox3/firefox/tgvjuj9r.default (the copy of my default profile).

Open Office 3.0

I just found this article from LXF about Open Office 3.0. It sounds very exciting — I can’t wait for it to come out. Here are they links they pointed out:

• OpenOffice.org 3.0’s new features, an early look
• Performance Improvements List

The presenter screen feature is one feature that I am really interested in:

• Presenter Screen by Andre Fischer
• Presenter Screen wiki
• Presenter Screen implementation
• Developer Snapshot (has instructions for trying it)