Blackberries rule

Well I finally came into the 21st century when I exchanged my trusy Nokia 6310i for a Blackberry Bold2.

So I didn't lose any of my contacts, I simply used the Nokia software on Windows to sync with my local Lotus Notes.

This placed all the contact information from my phone into Notes. A short replication later and it synced my locally held names.nsf into my mail file. So now all these contacts are available on iNotes too.

Next, went through the install wizard of the Blackberry and within about 15 minutes, all my contacts from my old Nokia were now on my Bold2.

I must say that impressed is an understatement. With a BES server back at base my Lotus Notes calendar and email are pushed without issues. We did find that HTML mails needed BES rather than the "professional" server that we previously had.

Best of all though, I downloaded the IBM "Enterprise Messaging" client to my Windows machine and then installed that into my Bold2 from the PC. With Sametime enabled on the BES server and my client running, Sametime works flawlessly.

Other people on the network see my sametime status as a phone icon and they can message me directly to my inbox.

Also my other email accounts (AOL and gmail) all join together into a single email box.

For the google cloud I can use google apps with no bother. I can even edit off line using eOffice.

Microsoft powerpoints, docs and spreadsheets can be viewed and edited using the Premium version of Documents-to-go which (as I write) is available at a knock down price.

Now I just have to get printing sorted and I have a fantastic digital companion.

RAD 7.5 on ubuntu karmic

I have now spent many many days trying to get this working and my discoveries are that it ONLY works with ubuntu 9.10 (karmic) 64 bit edition.

What I tried
I tried a fresh installation of 9.04 jaunty (32 bit). Installed RAD 7.5 (worked happily). Upgraded to 9.10 - Rad now FAILED
Fresh install of 9.10 32 bit (karmic). Installed RAD. Rad installs without issue but cannot create a workspace - FAILED
Fresh install of 9.10 64 bit (karmic). Installed RAD - FAILED
Fresh install of 9.04 jaunty (64 bit). Installed RAD 7.5 (worked happily). Upgraded to 9.10
WORKS with a mouse click error (can be fixed!)

My conclusion is that RAD uses 32 bit libraries which are overwritten by the "standard" 9.10 upgrade process when using ubuntu 32 bit . However, when using the 64 bit version of ubuntu, the 32 bit libraries needed for RAD are not overwritten and so it continues to work.

I hope this helps someone - it took me days to find this out. I guess eventually some clever guy will find out how to get RAD 7.5 working on 32 bit karmic, but for now. I can only get it working on 64 bit.

Setting up DB2 for Portal on ubuntu 9.10 karmic

Thought it may be a good idea to jot down the steps you need to set up DB2 for Portal.

Install Portal and check it works corretly (I installed 6.1.0.0)
Next install DB2 as a standalone

now edit the following files for database access
/ConfigEngine/properties/wkplc.properties
/ConfigEngine/properties/wkplc_comp.properties
/ConfigEngine/properties/wkplc_dbtype.properties

Next, run the following ConfigEngine commands
sudo /ConfigEngine.sh create-database
sudo /ConfigEngine.sh setup-database
sudo /ConfigEngine.sh validate-database-driver
sudo /ConfigEngine.sh validate-database-connection
and the big one (it took 1 hour on my 320GB laptop hard drive and 11.5 mins with my 256GB SSD drive):
sudo /ConfigEngine.sh database-transfer

After you have finished, you must do a reorg on the newly created databases

My database names were:

• CUSTDB
• FEEDDB
• LIKEDB
• JCRDB
• COMMDB
• RELDB

For each database, connect first as the instance owner:

db2 connect to {database} user {db admin user} using {db admin password}
db2 reorgchk update statistics on table all > {database}.out

Now check {database}.out for each line with an asterisk, note the table name and then run:
db2 reorg table {tablename}

To finish off:
db2 terminate
db2rbind {database name} -l db2rbind.out -u {db admin user} -p {db admin password}

Ensure you do this for all the Portal databases. Then start portal.

Portal will now use DB2 and you should see some major performance gains

Lotus Notes 8.5.1 with ubuntu 9.10 karmic 32 bit

With the 32 bit version of karmic giving me access to 3.9GB of RAM on my laptop, I ventured to install Lotus Notes 8.5.1.
Previously, there were issues attempting to run this 32 bit software on a the 64 bit version of ubuntu 9.04 but I was expecting a smooth install since I now had a 32 bit platform.
The installation went fine by following this:

Download Notes 8.5.1 debian version
Run each one - which automatically launched the installer
Next add some fonts to make it pretty

$ sudo apt-get install ttf-xfree86-nonfree

If you run Notes at this point you will get no joy whatsoever. You will also need to copy some gnome 2.7 files.
You can pick up the files from one of these places:

http://www.benkevan.com/upload/lotus_notes
http://www.freetechie.com/upload/lotus_notes

Copy them to the following folder:
/opt/ibm/lotus/notes/

Starting notes after copying these four files now works correctly - with the exception of sametime.
For some reason sametime only runs for about 47 seconds then detaches from the sametime server for about 47 seconds. This repeats annoyingly!

Shame but sametime works for Empathy - as long as it is the first IM service you set up, so you still have IM of sorts.

Installing DB2 on Ubuntu 9.10

It seems that ubuntu 9.10 has quite a different set of supporting libraries. As a result, it is not possible to transfer the installation processes from 9.04 to 9.10.
For example, installing DB2 9.7 cannot be done without getting certain libraries before the start.

In my installation, I had to

$ sudo apt-get install libaio-dev

For example, if you try the instalation without this library you will get the following error message:

The required library file libaio.so.1 is not found on the system.
Check the following web site for the up-to-date system requirements
of IBM DB2 9.7
http://www.ibm.com/software/data/db2/udb/sysreqs.html
http://www.software.ibm.com/data/db2/linux/validate
Aborting the current installation ...
Run installation with the option "-f sysreq" parameter to force the installation.

With the aforementioned library in place you can install the product with:

$ sudo ./db2install

Installing ubuntu 9.10

Well, I took the plunge. The "upgrade" from 9.04 64 bit to 9.10 64 bit had left my machine in a bit of a mess. Lotus Notes 8.5.1 had issues, RAD 7.5 would not start correctly and IBM Portal 6.1.0.2 gave horrible errors starting.
So, I decided to try a "fresh" installation of ubuntu 9.10.
Initially I tried a 64 bit install which went OK but installing Google Gears was problematic and I know that Notes would be difficult again (and RAD and Portal) so I thought it would be best to install the 32 bit version.
Now, the only reason I wanted to install the 64 bit version of the software was to take advantage of my 4GB memory in my laptop but more on that later.
So I reinstalled the entire system on another hard disk I had. Imagine my surprise when, after the installation, I checked the System Monitor and saw this:


Hope you can see this: It says 3.9 GiB!

Well, I am not sure how this works but the bottom line is that I am quite happy with my 32 bit installation from here on in..

upgrading to 9.10 64 bit

At the time of writing, ubuntu 9.10 64 bit is not available for download from the ubuntu site but you can upgrade from 9.04 (64 bit) to 9.10 (64 bit) via the UpdateManager.

So, I tried.

Mostly it was OK but there were a few glitches.

The installation failed for me because it attempted to remove an old version of linux that was not there. For me this was linux-restricted-modules-2.6.28-11-generic

In order to delete it you would normally

$ sudo apt-get remove linux-restricted-modules*

then

$ sudo apt-get autoremove

But that did not work. The remove task complained that certain files did not exist. So I simply created the following folders:

# /lib/modules/2.6.28-11-generic

# /lib/modules/2.6.28-11-generic/volatile

created a file in volatile

# touch /lib/modules/2.6.28-11-generic/volatile/dummy.txt

copied an existing System.map file in /boot to :

# /boot/System.map-2.6.28-11-generic

copied an existing initrd.* file from /boot to:

# /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-11-generic

Then I ran the apt-get commands again and it stopped complaining

Then I removed the files I created and some others that were put there during the apt-get

# rm /boot/System.map-2.6.28-11-generic

# rm /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-11-generic

# rm /lib/modules/2.6.28-11-generic/volatile/dummy.txt

# rmdir /lib/modules/2.6.28-11-generic/volatile

# rm /lib/modules/2.6.28-11-generic/*

# rmdir /lib/modules/2.6.28-11-generic

Seemed to work for me since when I next ran Update Manager and this time it finished working without an error.

Ubuntu 9.04 64 bit - slow graphics performance with ATI

After researching this topic for a while it seems that a the ATI graphics driver is crippled by the removal of a feature from Ubuntu 8.10.

Apparently, in 8.10 the ubuntu team found that a particular function in the driver caused instability with Intel graphics chips. So, they removed the function. Trouble is that the same function is used to keep the ATI nice and zippy.

As a result, when using Compiz Fusion with 9.04, machines with ATI graphics chips suffer considerably with several seconds delay in minimising, maximising and restoring windows.

Now you CAN have a go at putting a patch to the Xserver in 9.04 but talk on the forum says that it will be back in 9.10.

Personally, I can wait for 14 days.... Cause I don't want to ruin a perfectly running machine...

Getting rid of anonymous sessions when acccesing WCM content

Strange thing happened recently. A WCM system (6.1x) was being used (connect servlet access) by an application. We noticed that every time the application made a call for an item of content, a new Portal session was created. This had seriously bad consequences for the portal.

The solution was very easy since WAS can be tuned to run off (or on) anonymous sessions.

1. Open WAS admin console
2. Goto "Resources > Resource Environment Providers > WP_NavigatorService > Custom properties"
3. Add a new property named public.session with a value of false.

For related information take a look at:

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/wpdoc/v6r1/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.wp.ent.doc_v6101/wcm/wcm_config_delivery_portlet_sessionhandling.html

and

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=688&context=SSHRKX&dc=DB550&uid=swg1PK94618&loc=en_US&cs=UTF-8〈=en&rss=ct688websphere

Seems to be an issue with the previous version (5.1) too since I found this:

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=688&uid=swg1PK13886

Upgrading Portal 6.1.0.1 on ubuntu 9.04 64 bit

I have been running my laptop with ubuntu 9.04 for some months now and am quite a fan. I do occassionaly get a hang when coming out of suspend but I can live with that. Another thing I decided to do was switch off Compiz Fusion (i.e. set visual effects to none) - principally because I didn't like the delay when maximising and restoring apps.
Since I run the 64 bit version of ubuntu I often get issues - especially when the app was written for a 32 bit linux host.
I have to use IBM WCM for demonstration purposes so decided to run a native version. This was quite a challenge but eventually got it all working.
Now has come the time to update the system to the latest version.
Firstly I updated WAS from 6.1.0.19 to 6.1.0.23
This was done by first downloading and installing the special 64 bit update installer for linux:

download.updii.61019.linux.amd64.zip

This was unzipped into the "/update" folder. Running the ./UpdateInstaller/install.sh from the /update folder simply installs the update installer. Which I installed to /UpdateInstaller

Next to download the fixpack itself. Again this was a special 64 bit version:

6.1.0-WS-WAS-Linux64-FP0000023.pak

This, I placed into "/fixes folder

I ran the wizard as root from the /UpdateInstaller folder with
./update.sh

This process works fine!

So now onto the Portal Update...

Firstly I downloaded the Universal Portal updater for Portal 6.1:

6.1-WP-UpdateInstaller-Universal.zip

Which was then unzipped to

/update

Next I downloaded the fix pack itself:

6.1.0-WP-Multi-FP002.zip

This was unzipped to /update/fixes

I then ran the Portal update installer from /update
with the command:

./updatePortalWizard.sh

The system seemed to complain initially but then proceded to do the update correctly.

BEWARE - this process takes a considerable time!

Also, you must remember to run the ConfigEngine task update-wcm afterwards.
Lastly ensure you read the update instructions since there are additional lines needed in the the wcm service properties file.

Changing import file size with WCM

You have to change the defaults in the WCM configuration file

For 5.1 this is in the wpconfig.properties file
See here for more information:
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/wpdoc/v510/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.wp.ent.doc/wcm/webcontentmanagementparametersinwpconfigproperties.html

For 6.1 it is in WCMConfigService.properties file.
See here for more information
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/wpdoc/v6r1/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.wp.ent.doc_v6101/wcm/wcm_config_importbuffer.html

The T400 mute button issue when upgrading Ubuntu 9.04 64 bit

I just upgraded ubuntu to accept all the new libraries. It upgrades the kernel to 2.6.28-14 but on doing so, it rewrites "/boot/grub/menu.1st" so effectively overwrites the mute button fix. No worries. Just edit menu.1st again and put the acpi_osi="Linux" option back on the kernel lines!

How about this for "business computing"?

I was working at a customer site earlier today whose Windows desktops were recently infected with a virus. They are using Microsoft Windows on the desktop and had a corporate strength virus protection program installed. Apparently the virus was out before there was a patch and the patch had to be downloaded separately from the normal "update" process. This they did but when the normal "update" process was initiated, the patch was not in the update. This then overwrote the protection from the patch and the infection started again!

It occurred to me that companies should really be thinking strategically about replacing the desktop OS with something that is not so easily infected by viruses. How is it that in the 21st Century we are still having to handicap our PC's with virus protection software. Something is VERY WRONG.

Really, think about all the desktop PC's that have to run virus protection software. How much of the CPU and disk activity is taken up with "protection"? I don't know the answer for sure but all I do know is that my Lenovo T400 running ubuntu 9.04 64 bit laptop seems far zippier than when I boot it into Windows Vista Business Edition.

Yes I know that you could write a virus for UNiX/Linux too but my guess is that it may be far more difficult - since I am no hacker I can't really comment further on this...

So, why not leave the virus prone operating systems to "home use" and get a more robust desktop operating system for the corporate workplace?

But - what about all the applications?? Good point. But if the developers were to create applications in Java then they could run perfectly happily on a linux desktop and we could get the real power of the applications out for those business users.

Discuss....

CAD for ubuntu 9.04 64 bit!

Well, I wanted a CAD package for my ubuntu installation - but which one. I looked around on google to see if there was anything out there and it seemed that QCad was popular for ubuntu but many posts were indicating that there was only a 32 bit version available and it had issues running on 64 bit ubuntu. But of course I then remembered seeing QCad in the list of applications listed in "Add/Remove Programs". Strange since I was running the 64 bit version! So I tried it and - well - works "out of the box"!
Now I just have to work out how it works! :D

Getting the mute key to work with Ubuntu 9.04 64 bit and a T400

Found a great site here that has some great information about ubuntu and the Thinkpad T400. A great little tip found there is how to get the mute button working on the T400 so that it shows up correctly in gnome. I tried this on my Ubuntu 9.04 64 bit install and it worked perfectly.

The process is to simply add acpi_osi="Linux" to the end of the grub boot string!

You can do this with:
$ sudo vi /boot/grub/menu.lst
Then find the line towards the bottom that launches the correct option. It will start with:
kernel /boot/
Just put the string
acpi_osi="Linux"
onto the end of this line.
Save and restart
Nice!

Ubuntu 9.04 64 - getting compiz fusion manager

During my reinstallation of Ubuntu 9.04 64 bit jaunty, I installed the drivers for my on board ATI Radeon HD 3270 first. For some reason, my compiz fusion manager was not installed. Question then is how to get the manager installed without installing anything else.
Of course, the answer is pretty simple because that is what the synaptic Package Manager is there for! Simply start the Synaptic Package manager and search for "compiz". It lists up the "compizfusion-setttingsmanager" package. Just click on this and it installs. Other options I installed at the same time were: libemeraldengine0 and emerald. These are other decoration engines for compiz-fusion.

Ubuntu 9.04 64 bit - disable annoying beep at shutdown

A really annoying beep issues forth from my PC when I shut down ubuntu. I thought I may be able to change the sound used for shutdown but to no avail. Then I discovered this site:
http://ubuntuguide.net/disable-the-annoying-beep-when-you-shutdown
It gives a great little tutorial on how to disable the annoying beep:
Basically:
$ sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
And add the line:
blacklist pcspkr
Not sure how or why this works but it does! My guess is that modprobe.d is somehow used during shutdown.

Ubuntu 9.04 64 bit with Skype

I thought this might be a problem since the Skype web site only supports 32 bit versions and also only up to 8.04. However, doing a search around the ubuntu forums shows that skype can actually be installed directly via Medibuntu!

Steps are:
1) Install medibuntu
2) Get "getlibs"
3) Now simply enter the following two commands:
sudo getlibs -p bluez-alsa
sudo apt-get install skype

It will then magically appear under "Applications>Internet"

I had to change my skype settings in order for the microphone to work
I needed to change it to "HDA Intel (hw:Intel,0)" for the mic to work and I had to change "Sound Out" and "Ringing" to "pulse".

Ubuntu 9.04 64 bit with screensaver

My trusty T400 works very nicely with the ATI Radeon fglrx drivers for the built in HD 3470 chips but seems not to work too well with multiple screens.

Various issues take place but it is probably safe to say that stability only really comes back if you switch the System>Preferences>Appearance (Visual Effects tab) settings to "None" BEFORE you start messing around with the screens.

Watchtower Library 2009 on Ubuntu 9.04 64 bit

Fantastic research program but not fully compatible with the shipped ubuntu version of wine (1.0.1). After some looking around, I found this excellent guide to installing Watchtower Library 2009 correctly. This uses 1.1.25 (a beta version) but with this comes working scripture popups. The guide can be found at:

http://mattrudge.wordpress.com/2009/07/03/watchtower-library-2008-on-linux

Basically the instructions are:
1) Get Scott Richies GPG key from http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt/ScottRitchie.gpg
2) System>Administration>Software Sources - Third Party Software, Add
deb http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt jaunty main #WineHQ-Ubuntu 9.04 "Jaunty Jackalope"
3) Click Add Source, Authentication tab
4) Import the key you saved ealier
5) Close and reload package information when prompted
6) Open terminal and
$ sudo apt-get install wine
7) check version with:
wine -version
should be 1.1.25
8) Now install Watchtower Library with "setup.exe", copy to hard disk
Voila!

Ubuntu 9.04 64 bit and ATI Radeon drivers on T400

The ATI Radeon HD 3470 (Discreet) graphics card embedded with the Lenovo T400 seems to have generated all sorts of issues with ubuntu 9.04 64 bit. I have seen many posts that seem to conclude that your best bet with ubuntu is to choose "Integrated" from the BIOS of the machine and stick with that.
I decided to turn on convention and attempt to install the currnent 9.6 verson of ATI's Catalyst control center for the HD 3470.
After much time on google, I found the definitive "unofficial" guide to this process at:

http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Ubuntu_Jaunty_Installation_Guide

In summary:
1) Get some libraries
$ sudo apt-get install ia32-libs
2)Get the drivers from:
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/linux/Pages/radeon_linux.aspx?type=2.4.1&product=2.4.1.3.5〈=English
Downlaoded file is :
ati.driver-installer-9-6-x86_64.run
3) create .deb packages
sh ati.driver-installer-9-6-x86_64.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/jaunty
This takes some time so be patient!
It generates several deb files:
fglrx-amdcccle_8.620-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb
fglrx-installer_8.620-0ubuntu1_amd64.changes
fglrx-kernel-source_8.620-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb
fglrx-modaliases_8.620-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb
libamdxvba1_8.620-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb
xorg-driver-fglrx_8.620-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb
xorg-driver-fglrx-dev_8.620-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb
4) Install dkms package required to install these debs
$ sudo apt-get install dkms
5) Now, install all the debs we need necessary
$ sudo dpkg -i --force-overwrite xorg-driver-fglrx_*.deb fglrx-kernel-source_*.deb fglrx-amdcccld_*.deb
6) Now edit X server conf file:
$ sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
7) Add the foolowing line to the Device section
Section "Device
[...]
Identifier "SOME IDENTIFIER"
[...]
Driver "fglrx"
[...]
EndSection
Save file and exit
8) Now run command:
$ sudo aticonfig --initial -f
9) Reboot
10) Login again and, in a terminal enter:
$ fglrxinfo
You should get back:
display: :0.0 screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3400 Series
OpenGL version string: 2.1.8673
A lot of work but it means that you can use the power of your T400 graphics card to the full...

If you install fusion-icon with:
$ sudo apt-get install fusion-icon
and add it to System>Preferences>Startup applications as:
fusion-icon -n
The you can switch compiz off and on from an icon on the top panel

Ubuntu 9.04 64 bit - sound turns to static

A very peculiar thing here. My perfectly working ubuntu 9.04 64 bit T400 laptop lost its sound - well not exactly "lost" but certainly it was not working. It used to work perfectly but now just generates what appears to be static!!!

I had not used sound for a while and done quite a few things to my laptop so it was not clear what could be the culprit. I had thought maybe the sound card had blown or some other disaster but it turns out that the fix was incredibly simple.

I just opened the speaker volume control from the icon at the top of the gnome screen and chose "Volume Control". For some reason my "PCM" sliders were at the bottom. I just moved the slider to the top and sound is back to normal again.

Phew!

Getting portal started with DB2 Express and ubuntu 9.04 64 bit

See my previous postings as to how I got Portal 6.1.0.1 and DB2 Express 9.7 installed on my ubuntu 9.04 64 bit laptop.
At this point, DB2 can start by "su db2inst1" and I can start Portal on the default "derby" database as "root" only.
I want to ensure that portal starts as the user "db2ins1". To achive that I had to :

$ su root
# cd /opt/IBM
# chown -R db2inst1 WebSphere
# exit

This set of commands ensures that all of the WebSphere stuff is owned by the db2inst1 user. Now, this user can start DB2 Express AND then start Portal. A couple of short shell scripts can do this for me:

startPortal.sh script
db2start
/opt/IBM/WebSphere/wp_profile/bin/startServer.sh WebSphere_Portal

stopPortal.sh script
/opt/IBM/WebSphere/wp_profile/bin/stopServer.sh WebSphere_Portal -user db2inst1 -password {password of db2inst1}
db2stop

Much better but before we use these scripts we have to do a database "transfer" so that Portal knows to use DB2. This is well documented in the Portal infocenter so just follow intructions there. However, make sure that you use the "instance owner" id for the "database administrator" fields in the Portal property files. My mistake was using the DB2 "admin" user created during the db2 install. However this is NOT the user expected by Portal. The instance owner is the one you should use.

Installing DB2 onto ubuntu 9.04 64 bit

I am not a DB2 expert but needed a "real" database for my test IBM Portal 6.1.0.1 installation on my laptop. This is how I got it working.

I chose to install DB2 Express 9.7 onto my laptop. It is just for testing and demo purposes but using DB2 Express over the standard "derby" database makes the Portal respond very much faster.

Firstly, the install wizard had a few issues displaying screens correctly. So to ensure you get the correct screens, set you ubuntu screen "System > Preferences > Appearances", "Visual Effects" Tab to "None". If you don't do this you will not see the installation messages correctly.

1) Ensure you have the linux 64 bit version of DB2 Express 9.7 from IBM and the necessary license file. The 64 bit linux version will be a tar file:

DB2_Exp_Ed_97_Linux_x86-64.tar.gz

yoiu may need libaio so get this with:
$ sudo apt-get install libaio1
2) Extract the tar file to a temp folder for db2. It will create a folder "exp"

$ cd ~/tmp/db2
$ su root
# cd exp
# ./db2setup (graphical)
or
# ./db2_install (console)

If you choose the graphical option then the graphical installation startup screens are shown (it pauses for a while whilst the wizard screens are being prepared). Navigate on the left hand side to "Install a Product" then choose the "Install New" button.

A new graphical wizard will start
1) Accept license agreement (you still need a license key later anyhow) and click "Next>"
2) Choose installation type - I choose "Typical 900-1090 MB". click "Next>"
3) At "Select installation, repsonse file creation, or both" screen, I chose "Install DB2 Express on this computer and save my settings in a response file". I left the response file name standard of: "/root/db2exp.rsp". Click "Next>"
4) At the "Select the installatin directory" screen, leave the default of "/opt/ibm/db2/V9.7" and click "Next>"
5) At the "Set up a DB2 instance" choose "Create a DB2 instance" and click "Next >"
6) At the next screen accept defaults to create the administration user. Enter password and "Confirm password" and click "Next>"
7) At the "Set user information for the DB2 instance owner" leave default to create the owner "db2inst1". Enter "Password" and "Confirm password" screens and click "Next>"
8) At the "Set user information for the fenced user" accept defaults to create a new fenced user (db2fenc1). Enter "Password" and "Confirm password" screens and click "Next >"
9) The next screen is a summary of your responses. Click "Finish" to start the installation.

When you have finished you can start the DB2 instance by logging on as the db2inst1 user as a new login session and then use the db2start command:
$ su - db2inst1
$ db2start
$ exit
To stop the instance
$ su - db2inst1
$ db2stop
$ exit
By the way, ff you forget any of your responses you can simply open the /root/db2exp.rsp file and take a look at what you typed (passwords are not held in clear text in this file!)

Ripping DVD's using ubuntu 9.04 64 bit

I have to spend quite a lot of time travelling on the train so I use my laptop (ubuntu 9.04 64 bit) to watch my purchased DVD's.
So instead of lugging DVD's around, I wondered if I could rip my DVD's to hard drive and watch them without having to have the DVD player spinning.
A quick google shows that "handbrake" is a popular DVD ripper for this type of process. Question is whether it would ever work on ubuntu 9.04 64.
The answer is "Yes -very easily". This is what I did to get it working
Simply download the 64 bit version of handbrake from:

http://handbrake.fr/?article=download

It downloads as a "deb" file so just double click it to install. It will appear under "Applications > Sound and Vision"

If you start the app, then choose a ripping format on the right pane, open the DVD using the button at the top and then start.

I used "Basic>Normal" encoding and checked the box "Support iPod 5G". For this type of file it is a two pass encoding and the file created is an mp4 placed in my "home/Videos" folder. It takes a while (about three times as fast as watching it). Double clicking on the created file launches the standard ubuntu "Movie Player" - but on my system, it does not have the necessary decoders. Amazingly, it knows where to find these (assuming it is connected to the internet). It complained about not having
MPEG-4 AAC decoder
H.264 decoder
Then proceeded to go find them in the following packages:
gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg
gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad
I let them install and hey presto, I can watch the ripped movie on my laptop.

Of course this should only be done with DVD's you actually own but it is great for those boxed sets where you get seven seasons as a set of 50 or so DVDS. A 40 min episode rips to a file about 300GB

Installing Portal 6.1.0.1 onto ubuntu 9.04 64 bit

The installation of IBM Portal 6.1.0.1 onto ubuntu 9.04 (64 bit) was unbelievely easy. However, there are some pre-requisites to a smooth installation:
1) you MUST change the symbolic link of the shell by logging on as root
$ su root
# cd /bin
# rm ./sh
# ln -s bash sh
2) You must have a Sun Java environment - you can install this from Applications>Add/Remove and search for "sun" or:
3) I would recommend also installing the Sun Java plug in for the browser
$ sudo apt-get install sun-java6-plugin
4) Make sure you can ping and .. For example if your host name is "portal" and your domain is "infosys.co.uk" then you must be able to:
$ ping portal
and
$ ping portal.infosys.co.uk
5) Next ensure you have the needed libraries with:
$ sudo apt-get install libstdc++5 ia32-libs
6) Now do a "standard" installation and you will have portal up and running on the bundled debry database.
As a final step, I would recommend ensuring that the entire "WebSphere" folder structure has its ownership changed to a user that will eventually run the portal. You can defer this step until after the database is installed and transferred.
Now portal starts with
$ su root
# cd /opt/IBM/WebSphere/wp_profile/bin
# ./startServer.sh WebSphere_Portal
Get to the front screen by directing your browser to:
http://localhost:10040/wps/portal
Starts like a dream!

Ubuntu and a .bundle file

Installing a ubuntu packages is pretty simple:

$ sudo apt-get install .deb

However, if you get a *.bundle then a slightly different process is needed.
Firstly, download the file with the bundle extension.
Next:

$ chmod +x

Now you can simply run it with:

$ ./

Simple when you know how :D

BUT
Even simpler is to run the bundle from a new shell with:
sh
That's all you need.

Getting ubuntu to print to a PDF

A great way of saving web pages is to print them to a PDF file. With windows I used the CutePDF utility for ubuntu you need cups-pdf. The installation is practically an automatic process but without a second step it WILL FAIL.
I got this working with:
sudo apt-get install cups-pdf
mkdir ~/PDF
The first step downloads the correct application and installs it automatically into the printers. However without the second step printing will fail.
Cute PDF asked for the pdf file name everytime it was used. cups-pdf simply creates the file for you in the PDF folder and the name is automatically assigned. This means that if you print the same web page then the second print will overwrite the first one - without warning. So - you have been warned :)

Ubuntu 9.04 64 bit

Well, it didn't last long. I need to virtualise 64 bit machines so I have to go back to ubuntu 64. Story is though that this was easier than I imagined.
First up was a fresh installation of ubuntu 9.04. To speed things up I used ext4 file system and now my laptop boots into usable workspace in about 30 seconds.

From there, I installed Lotus Notes 8.5 client using instructions here:
http://www.rayd.co.uk/blogs/rayblog.nsf/d6plinks/Ubuntu64
I had all my "nsf" files on my Windows Vista partition and I wanted to keep this so I created symbolic links back to those files. Glad to report that Notes 8.5 works happily on Ubuntu 64. Symphony and Sametime work without issues.

Next was Sun Java from the Add/Remove applications - OK
Next I decided to update Office to 3.1 by following the instructions here:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/How-to-Install-OpenOffice-org-3-1-on-Ubuntu-9-04-111105.shtml

Next I wanted WINK screen tutorial software. This does not work on 32 bit but I found instructions on how to get it working here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=938838

Next up was getting Evolution mail to work with my aol account - no problems use IMAP communcation inbound (host=imap.aol.com) and smpt outbound (smtp.aol.com). Aol requires authentication for outbound of course but this can be set up with the wizard.

Must have a JVM in my browser so that is easily done with:
sudo apt install sun-java6-plugin

I like SciTe as an editor so installed that directly with Add/Remove applications from the gnome interface.

Since I have a windows program l use a lot I also installed wine.

Lastly I wanted to get DVD's working on this machine so installed medibuntu with:
sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/jaunty.list --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get update
Next added the GPG key
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get update
Next, installed VLC media player using Add/Remove programs
And lastly, the restricted content viewer libraries
sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2
So, now I can watch DVD's too.

Dave Matthews at O2 Academy Brixton

Jan and I went to see Dave Matthews at the O2 Academy in Brixton last night. He mainly played from his new album. He and his band were excellent but the sound at the O2 was ridiculously appalling and the heat in the venue was unbearably stifling - we had to leave early to stop expiring.
Also Dave Matthews band fans were, in my opinion, disrespectfully talking (more like shouting above the music) during the ENTIRE performance.
The journey was also a nightmare. There was an accident on the M4 at Junction 11 on the roundabout and the tailbacks meant a delay to the journey of at least 90 minutes. On the return journey the M4 elevated section was closed which meant a horrible detour via Slough.
All in all, not a good day. I am now fully resolved NEVER to go back to the O2 in Brixton unless air con is installed (sorry O2).

Mobile web and the 1.2.3.4

My thanks go to Ciaran and the article about "Mobile Web Acceleration". I thought I'd never get a "fast" internet connection via my O2 connection. It seems that every page was trying to poll 1.2.3.4 and my ubuntu 9.04 laptop running firefox didn't like the result.
The answer Ciaran found is elegantly simple. Just do the following:
Select System>Preferences>Network Connections
Choose the "Mobile Broadband" tab
Select your o2 connection and click the Edit button
Now change the "Username" field to "bypass" and click "Apply"
Then you are done.
At last! - Mobile web renders web pages as though it were a WiFi!

I tired ubuntu 64 - but have gone back to 32

The idea was to install an open source 64 bit OS on my laptop so I could get access to all my installed 4GB RAM.
Tried OpenSUSE 64 and Ubuntu 64.
I found that OpenSUSE did not directly support my laptop graphics card (ATI 3470) so reverted to Ubuntu 64.
Well after several days attempting to get ubuntu 64 working, I decided to revert back to 32 bit version. Ubuntu installed without issues but it was all the other apps that gave me issues (particularly Lotus Notes 8.5).
My conclusion was to revert back to 32 bit and go from there because Ubuntu DOES support the ATI graphics card.
As a side issue, I also noticed that if you upgrade ubuntu 8.10 to 9.04 then suspend and hibernate do not work on my T400 but if you do a fresh install of 9.04 then suspend and hibernate DO work! - cool.
(OpenSUSE ALSO supported suspend and hibernate on my laptop)
To add spice to the mix I decided to use Ext4 file system instead of Ext3.
I must say that I can definately see a difference. OpenOffice loads incredibly fast now.

Ever wanted to retrieve space on your shelves from all those old CD's? Try using Exact Audio Copy (EAC) to convert all your CD's to "flac" files (Lossless) then stream them to anywhere in the house with Logitech's Squeezebox family of products.
You can then store all those older CD's into your loft as hard backup for your copied files. I would highly suggest ensuring that your hard drive is mirrored though because ripping the CD's to hard drive takes ages and you really won't want to do that more than once....
If you also want MP3 versions of your music, I would highly recommend the "front end" for FLAC. It can convert FLAC to mp3 very easily.

Ubuntu 9.04 - Upgrading to OpenOffice 3.1

If you want to take advantage of OpenOffice 3.1 upgrades on your ubuntu 9.04 installation, then the instructions are here:

http://ubuntumanual.org/posts/175/upgrade-to-open-office-3-1-in-ubuntu-jaunty-intrepid-hardy

Strangely the "About OpenOffice" dialog still shows an OpenOffice.org 3.0 graphic but as you can see the actual version is correct

Origami rose

At last I have managed to create the amazingly complex version of the origami rose by Kawasaki Toshikazu. It took about five attempts.
Each rose takes 20 minutes to make and requires highly complex pre-folding. Now I just have to make 20 of them for my daughters wedding table decorations!