YJL

I have told myself not to try any more new release of any distro if I am not going to use it which I know I won't. But I still couldn't stop myself downloading one if I see a new release on DistroWatch.

I downloaded Kubuntu instead of Ubuntu because I wanted to try KDE 4.5 as I had tried before, didn't go well last time.

It's pretty same story this time, I had to disable modeset. The installer looked very pretty, but it tried to download files from Internet even it has detected no connection from that machine. So I had to go into the Live CD to enable PPPoE connection.

Once again, the same old story, those network manager never works. I added a new DSL account but there is nowhere I could click to bring that connection up. I ended up with pppoeconf, commandline tools are always more reliable.

The installation ran well for the rest. After rebooted, still with nomodeset, I got into the KDE4.5. And I have to do pppoeconf again, the installer didn't save the configuration. I wasn't surprised.

After I brought up DSL connection, I ran package manager do a system update. There really is nothing much to say about a new release, they are the same somewhat. Similar way to do this and that, nothing really new under the sun.

It's just another update of Ubuntu. Debian-based, Ubuntu-based, Fedora-based, etc.... same and same.

An advise to myself: Do not try any more.

I got this hours ago:


Do you know what is inside?


I have forgotten I had requested one CD. It's not really taking long to ship, I think it took less than a month to ship.

But you may ask a question if you have read this blog regularly: Why on earth you want a Ubuntu CD?

You might ask that for two reasons: first, I could download and I did; second, I am not a Ubuntu user.

Yeah, but I stumbled on the request page, though it's not my first time saw that page, but I requested at this time. So now I have this free CD. I might install Ubuntu 9.10 again.

PS. I found this is interesting:


It looks like a koala... matching the codename Karmic Koala, right?

I am using Ubuntu 9.10 right now, next to my laptop. The installation was easy, it only took up to 20 minutes to do first boot. But after that, I hit two problem.

First one, once again, NetworkManager, a bug. So I used pppoeconf to do the job. Commandline tool is more reliable. Second, my video driver, nVIdia 96 series. I guess this video card is really too old, GeForce4 MX. I had to manually setup a modeline, or my X would be stuck in 640480 (Correct one is 16801050), even worse than open source driver. These two are the problem I had had so far.

I actually had tried to resolve this resolution problem, but last time with 9.10 RC release. I enabled the restricted driver and ran nvidia-xconfig. I got Out-of-range message from my LCD monitor, I stuck. I think I was even trying to switch vc1, though I had no idea if there are virtual consoles available. I just quited. This time, I tried to get into runlevel 3. Well, I ended up with uninstalling gdm, no kidding! I tried to disable gdm from bringing up at booting with update-rc. However, it just didn't want to leave me, how sweet? (If you know how to correctly temporarily disable gdm or how to boot into so-called runlevel 3, please enlighten me!)

Anyway, un-installation did the trick. I fixed the resolution problem in console, then got into X and re-installed the gdm. The Visual Effect also works after I fixed the resolution.

I think I am going to use this new install for some of my daily routine until I get sick of it. I would be using it in a different way, I won't touch Terminal as much as I can, unfortunately, I already did. Work-out-of-box with GUI? In your dream only if you are lucky.

I have to give Ubuntu's graphical design a thumb up, the icons in notification area are simply elegant, same color scheme. And the notifying popup is already a well-known feature (I think it's been out for a least a year).


Its indicator-applet (the one with mail envelope icon) and indicator-session-applet (the one with your username on it) are quite interest, it can merge with some other program, e.g. Empathy. When I close Empathy, I tried to search for a new icon in notification area, but I couldn't find one. I thought I might accidentally end it because I wasn't familiar with it. But it actually is in the two applets. You can bring it back from indicator-applet and change your status to away from indicator-session-applet. That makes perfect sense, just need to get used to this new way.


The login screen of gdm is definitely beautiful. But the entire Ubuntu scheme seems to be slightly dark. Wine rosy color. I wish it could be more cheerful. The sound effects are great, too. The logging sound and the popup/warning sounds are cute in my opinion.

Currently, it runs well. The memory usage is quite low, less than 200MB when I just boot it up and the boot time is about 45 seconds to the desktop without counting password typing time. I am satisfied with the performance and the result of install. You would be more happier with Ubuntu 9.10 if you have the better hardwares than I have.

Firstly, I only took 9 days to get approved by Woopra, some posts on the forums say that may take weeks.



Installing Woopra on Linux is simple and it is a graphical process. Look at the screenshot below.

You can download the installer here and install it with sh woopra.sh. I installed it at my home pathes: /home/username/lib/Woopra for Woopra program, and /home/username/bin for symbolic link.



When I tried to run it, I got an error:

My JRE is from Sun and it's 64 Bit, you can check yours by running java -version, which outputs like:

java version "1.6.0_06"

Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_06-b02)

Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 10.0-b22, mixed mode)

The solutions are two, both are easy. First one is to remove sun-java6-bin package and install ia32-sun-java6-bin package.



Second one is easy, too, and better. Install ia32-sun-java6-bin package, first. Then test with this newly install 32 bit JRE with

INSTALL4J_JAVA_HOME_OVERRIDE=/usr/lib/jvm/ia32-java-6-sun/jre Woopra

This forces the startup script, /home/username/bin/Woopra in my case, to use specified Java JRE not the one that it can find on your system.



Once Woopra runs successfully and with no error, close it. Find the startup script, if you don't know where it is, you can run whereis Woopra or type Woopra (in Bash). If none of both get result, use find / -name Woopra.



Find it, and open it with editor, and put the following line at second line (an empty line):

INSTALL4J_JAVA_HOME_OVERRIDE=/usr/lib/jvm/ia32-java-6-sun/jre

Now, simply run Woopra in terminal or from main menu.



Here is a screenshot after logging in:

I have to compile the source of wdaemon for my wacom tablet. You may need to read my old blog post, Use wdaemon for hotplugging, for more detail, I only write essential stuff here, so please also read it. I like to put source under ~/var/src.

mkdir -p ~/var/src
cd ~/var/src
sudo apt-get install subversion libc6-dev
svn co https://jake.ruivo.org/wdaemon/trunk/ wdaemon
cd wdaemon
make
sudo make install

Adjust the main program

sudo ln -s /usr/local/bin/wdaemon /usr/bin/

In my old post, I did

cp /usr/local/etc/rc.d/init.d/wdaemon /etc/init.d/

However, that initiation boot script doesn't work on Ubuntu without modification. So I just add necessary command to /etc/rc.local

modprobe uinput
/usr/bin/wdaemon -c /etc/wdaemon.conf -f

Set up udev

sudo cp udev/*.rules /etc/udev/rules.d
sudo mkdir /etc/udev/scripts
sudo cp udev/is_uinput.sh /etc/udev/scripts

I still need to modify the `60-wacom.rules`

# udev rules for wacom devices
# will create:
#       /dev/input/wacomX
#       /dev/input/wacom-tablets/model-tabletX
#       /dev/input/wacom-tablets/model-unique PCI/USB path
#
KERNEL=="event*", SYSFS{idVendor}=="056a", SYMLINK+="input/wacom"
KERNEL=="event*", SYSFS{idVendor}=="056a", SYSFS{idProduct}=="00b5", SYMLINK+="input/wacom-tablets/intuos3-6x11 input/wacom-tablets/intuos3-6x11-%b"

Note that this is for my wacom tablet. You can try to re-plug and see if there is a new device come up in /dev/input/wacom-tablets. If there is, then you don't need to modify as I did; if not, try to modify. After re-plugging your tablet, run

sudo sh -c "wdaemon -a > /etc/wdaemon.conf"

This will automatically create the configuration for wdaemon. Now, you can run

modprobe uinput
/usr/bin/wdaemon -c /etc/wdaemon.conf -f

If /dev/input/ has new device, then it's time to modify your xorg.conf. If you already added those InputDevice for you wacom tablet, then you only need to change the device path. Here is mine

Section "ServerLayout"
 ...
 InputDevice     "stylus"    "SendCoreEvents"
 InputDevice     "cursor"    "SendCoreEvents"
 InputDevice     "eraser"    "SendCoreEvents"
 InputDevice      "pad"
 ...
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
 Driver      "wacom"
 Identifier  "stylus"
 Option      "Device" "/dev/input/uinput-devices/uinput-wacom-intuos3-6x11-tablet"
 Option      "Type"      "stylus"
#   Option      "ForceDevice"   "ISDV4"     # Tablet PC ONLY
 Option      "USB"       "on"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
 Driver      "wacom"
 Identifier  "eraser"
 Option      "Device" "/dev/input/uinput-devices/uinput-wacom-intuos3-6x11-tablet"
 Option      "Type"      "eraser"
#   Option      "ForceDevice"   "ISDV4"     # Tablet PC ONLY
 Option      "USB"       "on"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
 Driver      "wacom"
 Identifier  "cursor"
 Option      "Device" "/dev/input/uinput-devices/uinput-wacom-intuos3-6x11-tablet"
 Option      "Type"      "cursor"
#   Option      "ForceDevice"   "ISDV4"     # Tablet PC ONLY
 Option      "USB"       "on"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
 Driver      "wacom"
 Identifier  "pad"
 Option      "Device" "/dev/input/uinput-devices/uinput-wacom-intuos3-6x11-tablet"
 Option      "Type"      "pad"
 Option      "USB"       "on"
EndSection

Press ctrl+alt+backspace to restart your X, log in, try you tablet with re-plugging it.

Skype provides Ubuntu or Debian 32bit package, but I have a small problem with it. The avatar doesn't show up, there must be a library missing. Skype didn't output any errors, therefore I have no clue to know. By installing the static, the problem is solved naturally. I installed in this way

mkdir -p ~/{lib,bin}
cd ~/lib
wget http://skype.com/go/getskype-linux-static
tar xf skype*
cd skype*
ln -sv ~/lib/skype*/skype ~/bin

I created an application launcher in GNOME with command like

skype --resource=/home/username/lib/skype_static-2.0.0.72

I know Ubuntu uses multilib, but not sure how to install a 32bit package via apt-get. On Fedora with Yum, you only need to append .i686 to package name, or any other arch.