Ubuntu update problem

Got no clue. File permission is set wrong on the server?

$ sudo apt-get upgrade
...
Failed to fetch ... 403 Forbidden
E: Unable to fetch some archives,
        maybe run apt-get update or try with --fix-missing?

Setting up ubuntu 7.10 Release Candidate

Setting up network. One annoyance with my computer setup is that it has a dual ports Gigabit Ethernet card instead of a Gigabit switch/router. It was cheaper solution to connect two computers however I'm paying for it every time I setup the computer.

Here are the steps to setup static IP address in Ubuntu

1. Edit /etc/network/interfaces.
2. Add the following lines

   auto eth0
   iface eth0 inet static
   address 192.168.1.100
   netmask 255.255.255.0
   gateway 192.168.1.1
   
   auto eth1
   iface eth1 inet static
   address 192.168.20.1
   netmask 255.255.255.0
   mtu 9600
   
   auto eth2
   iface eth2 inet static
   address 192.168.30.1
   netmask 255.255.255.0
   mtu 9600

3. Restart network sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

Setting up 5-buttons mouse.

1. Backup /etc/X11/xorg.conf
2. Change to

   Section "InputDevice"
       Identifier "Configured Mouse"
       Driver     "mouse"
       Option     "CorePointer"
       Option     "Device"          "/dev/input/mice"
   #   Option     "Protocol"        "ImPS/2"
   #   Option     "ZAxisMapping"    "4 5"
   #   Option     "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
       Option     "Protocol"        "auto"
       Option     "Buttons"         "7"
       Option     "ZAxisMapping"    "4 5"
       Option     "ButtonMapping"   "1 2 3 6 7 4 5"
   EndSection

Setting up display. I have old IBM T545 LCD. The old version of Fedora (or was it RedHat) Linux actually asked for the floppy disk that came with the monitor to setup. Later version including Ubuntu actually correctly detect and setup without the floppy disk. But recent Linux distribution messing up the maximum resolution supported and refreshing rate.

Correct configuration for monitor section in /etc/X11/xorg.conf is

    Section "Monitor"
            Identifier      "IBM T545"
            Option          "DPMS"
            HorizSync       28-51
            VertRefresh     43-60
    EndSection

Checklist for WordPress “Pretty Permalinks” on Ubuntu

1. Enable mod_rewrite
cd /etc/apache2/mods-enabled
sudo ln -s ../mods-available/rewrite.load rewrite.load
2. Change to AllowOverride All in userdir
sudo vim userdir.conf
   Example of my userdir.conf:
   <Directory /dir/to/wordpress>
AllowOverride All
Options MultiViews Indexes SymLinksIfOwnerMatch IncludesNoExec
</directory>
3. Customize Permalink Structure in WordPress admin page
4. Copy .htaccess in WordPress directory if not created.
   cd /dir/to/wordpress
sudo vim .htaccess
   Should be something linke this:
   <IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /wordpress/
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /wordpress/index.php [L]
</IfModule>


Trying out Ubuntu 7.04 Beta

I saw Ubuntu 7.04 Beta release note via slashdot.org. I've been testing almost all alpha version so I've downloaded and testing the new beta version right now. I was hoping for better driver support for my NVIDIA graphics card but it still sucks. Here are some new features and bugs I found:

As of version 2.6.18, the Linux kernel supports Gigabyte i-RAM. Except for the very first alpha version I tried, Ubuntu didn't have any problem using i-RAM. But it finally recognized i-RAM name during installation. No more guessing the hard drive by its size.

Another feature during installation is Migrate Documents and Settings. I was hoping to get saved passwords, Firefox bookmarks, and customized bookmarks bar(check this post). It failed to get any settings from Firefox, imported a lot of junks from My Documents folder but not from the desktop folder. However it imported the wallpaper and setup on the Linux desktop when I login first time. Later I founded out that it also imported more than 1GB of podcasts from My Music folder.

I was never able to run successfully Beryl on my machine:

• Athlon 64 3500+
• 1GB RAM
• GeForce FX 5900XT 128MB

Actually I wasn't even able to use Windows Vista Aero. It runs but it's too choppy and sluggish to do anything with Aero turn on. I've tried their Restricted Drivers, the binary driver from NVIDIA, to test Beryl again. The driver didn't crashed the system like alpha version and able to turn on some features but still unable run the 3-D cube desktop. It still had too many bugs so I had to turn it off. I don't expect to run Beryl on my computer when Feisty Fawn comes out of beta.

The coolest features in the beta version is that when a software is not installed on the system, it tells you how to get it. When I tried to use smbmount, it tells you

trogdor@trogdor-desktop:~$ smbmount
The program 'smbmount' is currently not installed.  You can
install it by typing: sudo apt-get install smbfs 
bash: smbmount: command not found 
trogdor@trogdor-desktop:~$ sudo apt-get install smbfs

It took less than two minutes to mount the Windows shared folder on the Linux system. I don't know how many people know the command smbmount but I didn't know it was in the package name smbfs. I probably had to go to Google to find out.

I don't know whether it's from Ubuntu or xsane, but xsane now hangs whenever I use USB mouse. It never happened in previous version, even the gimp hangs during startup because xsane plugin.

I have no idea how was other users' experience on Ubuntu beta but I think it's still long way to go.

Ubuntu 7.04 alpha 3 on i-RAM

I've tried both 32 and 64 bits Ubuntu on i-RAM this weekend. No more crash and no more udev error. I guess I had bad updates on Thursday night. Only problem is that there is no 64 bit Flash player (even on Windows side too.) But I did like one click codec install. 32 bit Ubuntu could be ideal replacement for my Windows XP.

Ubuntu 7.04 alpha 3 AMD64 on Gigabyte i-RAM

Tried development release of Ubuntu 7.04 alpha 3 on the Gigabyte i-RAM. The livecd detected i-RAM and installed Ubuntu without any problem. But during the booting system, I noticed the udev errors. I didn't even try to find out which one was causing it. I knew there still were i-RAM bugs on the latest Linux kernel. After the software updates and system reboot, I noticed more udev errors and system hanged/crashed after I tried to login to the account. I don't know whether GNOME was causing it or the i-RAM.

Made system and MBR backuped. So I'm planning to try as many Linux distributions I can this weekend.

Replacing My Windows Server 2003 with Ubuntu

Since I had no luck with the dual booting Windows XP and Linux on my main machine (due to faulty i-RAM SATA emulation issue), I'm in process of replacing Windows Server 2003 with Ubuntu. I used the Windows Server 2003 machine mostly for the file server and IIS. And I TRIED to run SQL Server Express (it's free from Microsoft), but it was too slow on 512MB RAM.

I was worry about replacing familiarity of Windows environment with Ubuntu but installing and configuring Ubuntu was surprisingly easy. I've installed ssh to replace Remote Desktop.

    sudo apt-get install openssh-server

Installed Lamp:

    sudo apt-get install apache2 php5 libapache2-mod-php5
    sudo apt-getinstall mysql-server mysql-client php5-mysql

Set root password for mysql

    sudo mysql
    USE mysql;
    UPDATE user SET Password=PASSWORD('new-password')
        WHERE user='root';
    FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Only problem was setting up Samba. I've only install Samba once about four or five years ago. Actually it came preinstalled; I only configured it using GUI and SWAT. Never done it in command line. I've followed a step-by-step instructions that I found on Google.

    sudo apt-get install samba smbfs
    sudo smbpasswd -a linuxuser

And add lines to /etc/samba/smb.conf

    [global]
    workgroup = WORKGROUP
    security = user
    invalid users = root
    [homes]
    comment = Home Directories
    browseable = no
    valid users = %S
    writable = yes
    create mask = 0600
    directory mask = 0700

Tips for debugging configuration: don't try to connect Samba server by typing \\linuxserver\username on the Windows Explorer. It won't tell you what the error message is. It will keep ask you for username and password. Go to command line and type

    net use z: \\linuxserver\username