Musings

Inside IBM WCM : Part2 - How to stop a background WCM library delete

2011-09-30T08:36:00.001-07:00

There are occasions when you wish to stop a background Library Deletion process.

First thing to realise is that a WCM Library delete using the WCM Libraries portlet triggers an EJB which does the job. The EJB will lock the library (icon will be greyed out) prior to the start of the process.

In order to stop the deletion process you will need to find the EJB's, remove them, unlock the library and then restart the server.

Firstly, find the EJB id's using the findEJBTimers script. You need the java server name for this:

For UNIX/Linux:

findEJBTimers.sh WebSphere_Portal -all

(For windows use the "bat" equivalent)

This script will return a list of timer numbers. Make a note of these numbers

Next run the script passing the timer number in as a parameter:

cancelEJBTimers.sh WebSphere_Portal -timer xxxx

Repeat for all timers previously listed

Next, you MUST unlock the libraries otherwise the EJB timers will simply restart again when the server restarts. To unlock the libraries, you must use a WCM connect URL:

http://host:port/wps/wcm/connect?MOD=UnlockLibrary&library=libraryname

With the library unlocked you can not restart the Portal.

The delete library task will now be terminated and the delete icon will display correctly.

Inside IBM WCM : Part 1 - When does an item get saved on the subscriber?

2011-09-29T11:00:00.001-07:00

Imagine you have a single WCM authoring server and a single WCM delivery server. You set up a syndicator/subscriber pair between them.

As you know, when you examine a content item, the "Last modified date" of the item is shown in the "History" secion of the UI. This is the date the item is saved on the authoring server. But how can you determine when it arrived at the delivery server? If you knew this you could tell how long syndication took to move the item.

The issue here is that if you look at the copy of the same item on the delivery server, the "History" section is identical to that of the authoring server.

We know it must have taken some time for the item to syndicate from syndicator to subscriber - but how can you determine when it actually arrived?

The JCR

All WCM content is stored in the associated Java Content Repository (JCR) which is defined as part of the portal configuration.

The JCR is implemented as a set of tables in a relational database but it is not possible to simply query the relational database since it contains literally thousands of tables and indexes which are, for the most part, human unreadable.

In order to investigate what is going on in the jcr you will need a special portlet - the "WCM Support tools portlet". You can download this portlet from Lotus Greennhouse or request it directly from your IBM rep.

Install it like any other portlet.

With this tool, you can browse the JCR and view all properties of items stored within. Choose the "Browse nodes" option from the menu.

Content items are stored as a series of "nodes" in the jcr. Nodes have "property values" and can have child nodes.

All the WCM nodes are children of the "contentRoot" node in the "ROOTWORKSPACE" workspace. This will be listed under "Children" of the "ROOTWORKSPACE"

The children of node represent libraries shown with titles of icm:libraries

The children of a library node can be thought of as set of "folders" in which items are stored. For example the child "Content" will contain all content items. A full set would be:

Authoring Templates
Components
Content
Presentation Templates
System
Taxonomies
UI Controls
Taxonomies

Within the "Content" node you will find site nodes

Within Site nodes you will find site area nodes that match the Site Framework that is visible to the WCM UI.

You can traverse this hierarchy until you find your content item.

Once you find the item and open it, you will notice that it has many properties listed.

The "jcr:lastModifed" property represents the date that WCM last modifed the item. This one is put there by WCM.

However the "icm:lastModified" property is the one that contains the time that the item actually arrived in the JCR. Comparing these two dates on the subscriber gives you some indication of how long the syndication process took to complete for this item. On the syndicator it will show how quickly the save occurred after being processed by the UI (typically a few milliseconds)

Doctor Who Pewter chess from Danbury mint

2011-07-22T05:36:00.000-07:00

I really wanted a single source somewhere on the internet that lists the complete Danbury Mint Doctor Who chess pieces. Could not find it - so I compiled my own. As follows.

There are 66 pieces in the entire collection

38 pieces in the original set (with presentation box that doubles as a board)

24 pieces in the expansion set

4 pieces in the 1990 Movie Expansion set

Expansion set had their own storage option of a small display cabinet in the shape of the Tardis.

Pieces as follow:

01. Red King - William Hartnell as The Doctor

02. Red King - Patrick Troughton as The Doctor

03. Red King - Jon Pertwee as The Doctor

04. Red King - Tom Baker as The Doctor

05. Red King - Peter Davidson as The Doctor

06. Red King - Colin Baker as The Doctor

07. Red King - Sylvester McCoy as The Doctor

08. Red Queen - Louise Jameson as Leela

09. Red Bishop - Kamelion (Robotic partner)

10. Red Bishop - Nicholas Courtney as The Brigadier (Brigadier Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart)

11. Red Knight - Matthew Waterhouse as Audric

12. Red Knight - Frazer Hines as Jamie (Jamie McCrimmon)

13. - 14. Red Rook - The Tardis

15. - 22. Red Pawn - K9

23. Black King - Roger Delago as The Master

24. Black Queen - Kate O'Mara as Rani

25. Black Bishop - Cyberman

26. Black Bishop - Davros

27. Black Knight - Ice Warrior

28. Black Knight - Sea Devil

29. - 30. Black Rook - Sontaran

31. - 38. Black Pawn - Dalek

Next came the first expansion set comprising 24 pieces

39. Red Queen - Carole Anne Ford as Susan Foreman

40. Red Queen - Wendy Padbury as Zoe (Zoe Herriot)

41. Red Queen - Katy Manning as Jo Grant

42. Red Queen - Janet Fielding as Tegan (Tegan Jovanka)

43. Red Queen - Nicola Bryant as Peri (Perpugilliam Brown)

44. Red Queen - Sophie Aldred as Ace

45. Red Bishop - John Levene as Benton (Sergeant Benton)

46. Red Bishop - Castellan

47. Red Bishop - Alpha Centauri

48. Red Bishop - Richard Franklin as Captain Yates (Mike Yates)

49. Red Knight - Ian Marter as Harry Sullivan

50. Red Knight - Mark Strickson as Turlough (Vislor Turlough)

51. Black Bishop - Davros

52. Black Bishop - Omega

53. Black Bishop - Morbius

54. Black Bishop - Sharez Jek

55. Black Knight - Terileptil

56. Black Knight - Yeti

57. Black Knight - Silurian

58. Black Knight - Zygon

59. - 60. Black Rook - Robots of Death

61. - 62. Black Rook - The Masters Tardis (Grandfather clock)

Then came the 1990 Movie Expansion set with characters from the Doctor Who film. This set comprised four pieces as follows:

63. Red King - Paul McGann as The Doctor

64. Red Queen - Daphne Ashbrook as Grace (Dr Grace Holloway)

65. Red Knight - Yee Jee as Chang Lee

66. Black King - Eric Roberts as The Master

SQL30082N Security processing failed with reason "42" ("ROOT CAPABILITY REQUIRED"). SQLSTATE=08001

2011-07-12T01:26:00.000-07:00

Strange one this. I had a VM Portal 6.1.0.3 running on WAS 7.0.0.7 and I wanted to get this to the latest fix packs. Firstly had to install WAS 7.0.0.17 and the associated JVM.

Next I upgraded Portal to 6.1.0.5.

Next I installed current CF for portal (CF14)

All was working as expected.

Next I installed CF49 for WCM. It did not install correctly so I had to uninstall.

After uninstalling, I could not connect correctly to DB2.

The problem returned was that in the title of this post.

In order to diagnose this, I initially attempted to use Portal ConfigEngine validate-database-connection. This gave no joy. Next I tried the db2 command prompt.

Sure enough the issue was at DB2 level since I could no longer login to any database.

Searching around gave the the answer:

My DB2 installation is a "non-root" install. Apparently Server authentication is not enabled during a non-root install.

So to fix this I simply needed to enable server authentication with:

$ su root

# cd /instance

# ./db2iudt

This seemed to do the trick and now Portal can connect to DB2 without issue.

Note that this only seemed to be in an issue after upgrading to 6.1.0.5 , with a failed installation of a CF. Before that failure of the CF, all was well

Hope this saves someone some time.

/Marcus

Treat portal pages like content

2011-06-27T06:27:00.000-07:00

Our Domisphere Portal Manager product has been able to create "draft" portal pages on the IBM Portal/WCM platform for some time. However, we have now added versioning capability to the system.

It means that portal pages can be treated very much like content pages and authors can view previous versions of a particular portal page. Since Domisphere holds these pages in the live environment, it is now very easy tocrecreate or reuse previous page layouts in your IBM WCM/Portal installation.

For more information, contact Hayley O'Conner:

Direct Dial Tel: 01793 411182

email: hoconner@infosys.co.uk

IBM Portal with IBM WCM multivariate and A/B testing support

2011-01-13T11:25:00.001-08:00

Multivariate content management is becoming increasingly popular but the IBM Portal / IBM WCM platform does not support this natively.
To fill this gap InfoSys Ltd (www.infosys.co.uk) have developed an add-on WCM/Portal "accellerator" that delivers both multivariate and A/B testing capability to the platform.
The product is called Domisphere and significantly enhances usability, functionality and flexibility to Portal.
The multivariate capabilities allow multiple portal pages to be delivered on a single URL. The domisphere "Context Engine" is implemented as a portal servlet filter and can use plug-in rules to select different page variants. Meta data tags are added automatically so can be process by Web Analytics tools.
Bringing multivariate capability to IBM Portal / IBM WCM is just one of the many enhancements that Domisphere adds.
Some others are:

Draft portal pages that follow draft content.
Preview draft portal pages and multiple draft content items together
Facility to view draft items in WCM menus
A configurable custom workflow action toolkit that adds branching capabilites to WCM workflows
In context creation, editing and approval
UI tooling to enhance in context exprience
Site area grafting (allowing multiple site frameworks to appear as a single framework)
Automatic deployment of portal pages into production (no need for Portal admins to create pages for content items)
Full site navigation of portal controlled by WCM (no need for Portal admins to creat page hierarchies for navigation)
Better meta data handling for search engine optimisation

And more besides

Lenovo vs Apple (Why I chose a Lenovo)

2010-12-17T03:24:00.000-08:00

Don't get me wrong, I love the design of Apple products but when my trusty Lenovo T400 had a problem, I chose to replace it with a Lenovo T410 instead of an MacBook Pro.
I realise that a 15" Apple MacBook Pro hs a better screen resolution than the Lenovo 14" and the Apple also has better graphics capability. One could also argue that the MacBook Pro has a better construction. Even so, these are the reasons that I STILL chose the Lenovo:

Keyboard - The Lenovo has a great keyboard that feels a lot more positive than the MacBook keyboard. There are more keys on a Windows machine so I don't have to remember short cut keys (i.e. keys like PgUp and PgDown are missing on the Mac Keyboard). The Mac has backlit keyboard but I touchtype so the "ThinkLight" is fine for me.
Price - The MacBook Pro with very similar configuration (500GB hard drive, 8GB RAM) was about £500 more expensive and I would still not have built in 3G Connectivity
Analogue VGA out - The Lenovo has an Analogue VGA out compared to the micro digital display out plug of the Apple. The VGA analogue socket of the Lenovo has much better compatibility to most projector systems that I may find on customer premesis. The MacBook Pro may actually have a better signal but I would need to carry some sort of adaptor cable.
Second internal hard drive capability - The Lenovo, by virtue of it's multi-bay, allows me to swap the DVD drive for a hard drive. This allows me to run with a second hard drive. The MacBook Pro DVD drive cannot be replaced.
Swappable bay options. The Lenovo swappabl bay can also support an extra battery and even a BluRay drive (albeit very expenseive). These options of course do not exist with the MacBook.
Better warranty - Whist Apple and Lenovo both support three year warranty, only the Lenovo is next day on site and also has options for "Accidental damage"
Better connectivity - My Lenovo has the option of built in 3G support which means I do not have to use a dongle to connect to the internet via EDGE or GPRS networks. Much neater without the dongle and it has always seemed to me that dongles can be broken off so easily...
Security - By this I mean the fingerprint reader. It is a great security feature of the Lenovo and is yet to appear on a MacBook Pro. Not sure if MacBook Pro has build in Anti-Theft Technology but I know the Lenovo has it.
Portability - The MacBook beats the Lenovo on chic factor but is slightly bigger and certainly more stealable... I needed a laptop that would be easy to use on the Train.
Usability - This is of course subjective and I know Apple are world renown for usability but this is from the perspective of a Windows/Linux guy that expects a right click! I am also a fan of the tiny joystick in the center of the Lenovo keyboard which I would really miss on an Apple.
The Aluminium case - A masterful piece of engineering and beautiful to behold. However, scratch it and you will feel gutted (and it is SO EASILY scratched).
Compatibility - I am in no way a Windows fan but there are SO MANY applications that I want to try that mandate Windows...
Mini-DVD capability - Don't use this much but when necessary, I really want the DVD drive to handle small DVDs and CD's. Unfortunately the Apple built in drive can only support full sized DVD's
Lenovo Enhanced Experience - Windows is actually usable again with fast boot and shutdown.

Other things that I needed to consider
a) Since I run virtual machines, I wanted a laptop with 8GB memory. Added to that, I need a hard drive that will store those VM's This menat a 500GB hard drive at 7200 minimum!
b) Latest offering from Lenovo (T410) comes with multi-touch capability (for the apps that support it)
c) I already have a 256GB SDS drive that I wanted to use as my primary drive and the 500GB drive would then become my secondary drive - This meant that I had to have a laptop that would support a secondary drive

Lotus Notes 8.5.2 on ubuntu meerkat 10.10 x64

2010-10-16T15:04:00.000-07:00

This is how I got Lotus Notes 8.5.2 working on a brand new installation of ubuntu 10.10.
Open Synaptic Package Manager
Search for libstdc++5
Install libstdc++5 from Synaptic Package Manager
Shut Synaptic Package Manager

Then install some libraries:
$ sudo apt-get install ia32-libs libgnomeprint2.2-0 libgnomeprintui2.2-0 ttf-xfree86-nonfree

Go to http://frozenfox.freehostia.com/cappy

Download
getlibs-all.deb
Double click to install.
Now get some 32 bit libraries:

$ sudo getlibs -p libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgnomeprint2.2-0 libgnomevfs2-0 libgnomeui-0 libxkbfile1 libstartup-notification0 libsepol1 libselinux1 libgsf-1-114
libgsf-1-dev librsvg2-2 librsvg2-common libavahi-client3 libavahi-common3 libavahi-glib1 libbonoboui2-0 libcroco3 libdbus-1-3 libdbus-glib-1-2 libgnome2-0 libgnomecanvas2-0 libgnome-keyring0 libgnome-menu2 gtk2-engines-murrine

Now install Lotus Notes

$ sudo dpkg -i --force-architecture ibm-lotus-notes-8.5.2.i586.deb
$ sudo dpkg -i --force-architecture ibm-lotus-activities-8.5.2.i586.deb
$ sudo dpkg -i --force-architecture ibm-lotus-cae-8.5.2.i586.deb
$ sudo dpkg -i --force-architecture ibm-lotus-sametime-8.5.2.i586.deb
$ sudo dpkg -i --force-architecture ibm-lotus-symphony-8.5.2.i586.deb

You will also need this fix for opening screen

$ cd /opt/ibm/lotus/notes/jvm/lib/i386
$ sudo mkdir usr
$ sudo ln -s /usr/lib32 ./usr/lib

You should now be able to start Notes from the Applications/Office menu in gnome.

At the time of writing, there is a bug with the shipped ia32-libs version. Which gave me an error im-ibus.so issue but whilst this gives an error in the console, Lotus notes seems to run happily.

Enjoy

Creating virtual machines with ubuntu

2010-10-16T04:44:00.000-07:00

When you have ubuntu as the main operating system, you have several ways of creating virtual machines for testing:
KVM (free and built into ubuntu)

VMWare player (free player)
VirtualBox from Sun (now Oracle)

I have used all three and it appears to me that (amazingly) VMWare player is the best of the bunch. WHY?

Quicker boot
Snappier screen response
Better support for USB devices
Allows cut-and-paste operations between ubuntu desktop and the virtual machine
Nice user interface for managing the virtual machine parameters
Easier transfer of virtual machines to Windows Hosts (i.e. your colleagues)

My tests were with jaunty and karmic. Maybe meerkat has improved things...

The best blackberry trick

2010-10-12T03:00:00.001-07:00

I see so many people with blackberries scrolling with their thumb like crazy. They scroll down through hundreds of emails and then need to scroll back up to the top.

The best blackberry tip for all those guys is to use the shortcut keys:

T - jumps to the top of the list

B - jumps to the bottom of the list

U - jumps to the oldest unread mail in the list

Try it and save your thumb!

Some new features of IBM WCM 7

2010-09-09T14:13:00.000-07:00

Whats new in WCM 7?

Just playing around with WCM 7 running on portal 7 and I have noticed the following new features

Some major changes to note with V7.0 are:

1. Sites have gone!
We only have site areas
2. Presentation template construction changed
Instead of XML style tags for accessing WCM elements and components, we now use square brackets
So for example, to access the "Body" element:
with V6.0 and V6.1:

But now with V7.0:
[Element context="current" type="content" key="Body"]
3. When viewing a Presentation template the tag that referrs to a component itself becomes a clickable link to that component.
4. Hover pop-ups now appear all over the place to show you some information about that item without the need to open it.
5. Gone is the tabbed control to show open windows. This has been replaced by a new "Open Views" control on the left hand vertical menu.
6. Folders have been introduced to provide hierarchical storage of Authoring Templates, Presentation Templates and Components.
7. Portlet configuration is now been moved from its normal location top right of the portlet to a "Preferences" control on the left hand menu.
8. A Help link has been added to the left hand navigation menu and this opens a pop up of the WCM Infocenter.
9. Views have changed to allow an all library perspective rather than the old version which always filtered items by a currently selected library.
10. A new "projects" feature has been added to provide the grouping of multiple items to be treated as a single publishable entity.
11. The creation of a new item ("New" button) is now available even though an item is open. This is now located in the new control on the left hand menu.
12. Number of rows displayed can now be changed between 10, 25 and 50 without having to enter "configure" mode of the portlet.
13. Components can now be workflowed
A new "Add Workflow" button has been added so that any component can be workflowed
14. Authoring Templates can now set as "resource templates". These are templates that can be used for binary files.
15. Presentation templates can be set as defaults for the Authorting Template rather than forcing you create template mappings in site areas.
16. Field names can be localised allowing different editors to see different field captions on the same authoring template.

Notes about creating a new library in WCM 7
A new feature has been introduced to automatically create some items into a new library.

This is the first of what I feel will be many posts describing features of the new version of WCM 7 that can optionally be installed with IBM Portal 7.

New library creation feature

You create WCM libraries using the "Web Content Libraries" portlet.
The interface has been changed and now has background coloured buttons to indicate most used actions. For example the "Create new library" button has a blue background with white lettering but the other buttons "View locked items" etc. are black text on grey buttons.
When creating a WCM library you now have an additional option:
"create default items in new library"
Previously, new WCM libraries were entirely empty and you needed to create each of the various items in a particular order.
Typically:

* Create workflow action
* Create workflow stages and include actions
* Create workflows and include stages
* Create authoring template and add default workflow
* Create menu component
* Create presentation template
* Create site and add template mapping of authoring template and presenation template
* Create site areas
* Create content

With WCM 7, when you use this new option the library is created and popluated with the following items:

Workflow Action = "Expire"
Workflow Action = "Publish"
Workflow Stage = "Draft Stage".
Workflow Stage = "Publish Stage". This is pre-configued with the "Publish" workflow action
Workflow Stage = "Expire Stage". This is pre-configued with the "Expire" workflow action
Workflow = "Express Workflow". This is pre-configured with the "Publish State" workflow stage.
Workflow = "Three Stage Workflow". This is pre-configued with the following workflow stages: "Draft Stage", "Publish Stage" and "Expire Stage".
Presentation Template = "Article Presentation".
Component (Authoring Tool) = "Article toolbar"
Component (Menu) = "Articles List"
Authoring Template = "Article"
SiteArea = "Articles". This is pre-configured with the mapping of "Article" and "Article Presentation".
Content item "Sample Article"
Content item "Sample Article 2"

Thats it for now. There are so many other features that it is going to take many posts to cover them all.

Have fun!

Getting AOL working with ubuntu 10.04 Evolution

2010-05-22T15:11:00.000-07:00

For those of you that may be struggling with AOL and ubuntu lucid evolution...

Since AOL is IMAP compatible it works with Evolution email. Just enter the following parameters:

Receiving E-mail
Server: imap.aol.com
Username: {your on screen name}
Use Secure Connection (SSL encryption)
Authentication Type: Password
CHECKED "Remember password"

Sending E-mail
Server: smpt.aol.com:587
CHECKED "Server requires authentication"
Use Secure connection = No encryption
Authentication (PLAIN or Login)
CHECKED "Remember password"

Thats it!

Installing Notes 8.5.1 onto ubuntu lucid lynx x64

2010-05-03T09:04:00.000-07:00

I thought I should document a step by step guide on how to install Lotus Notes 8.5.1 onto ubuntu 10.04 lucid lynx x64.
I am not sure if EVERY step is actually needed, however, I do know that by following these steps you will get Notes working on ubuntu lucid 10.04 x64

Firstly, download the following files from IBM account:
CZ5S5EN - Notes (Debian) 8.5.1.
This saves as a file named lotus_notes851_linuxUb_CZ5S5EN.tar
Open this file with Archive Manager and Extract to a temporary folder

CZDP6EN - Notes (Debian) 8.5.1 FP2.
This saves as a file named lotus_notes851FP2_linuxUb.tar
Open this file with Archive Manager and Extract to a temporary folder

Next, download getlibs-all.deb from:
http://frozenfox.freehostia.com/cappy/
Install getlibs by double clicking on the deb file

Next you will need access to libgnome-desktop-2-11 libraries. These are only available from ubuntu karmic so go to:
http://packages.ubuntu.com/karmic/libs/libgnome-desktop-2-11
and download both 64 bit (amd64) and 32 bit (i386) versions.
Install the 64 bit version by double clicking on the deb file.
To install the 32 bit version manually you have to do the following:
Open the 32 bit deb file in Archive Manager
Double click on data.tar.gz
Double click on .
Double click on usr
Double click on lib
Drag the libgnome-desktop-2.so.11.4.2 file to a temp folder
Copy the file to /usr/lib32
Create a symbolic link named libeel-2.so.2 like this:
cd /usr/lib32
sudo ln -s ./libgnome-desktop-2.so.11.4.2 ./libgnome-desktop-2.so.11

You will also need libeel2-2 which is only available from the ubuntu jaunty packages. However, the libeel2-2 library itself is dependent on the libeel2-data library. You must first download that by going to:
http://packages.ubuntu.com/jaunty/libeel2-data
Then click on the all and choose a mirror to download the "deb" file. Once downloaded, double Click on the file to install libeel2-data deb file

Now you need libeel2-2 so go to
http://packages.ubuntu.com/jaunty/libs/libeel2-2
Go to the bottom of the page and use the links to download both the 64 bit (amd64) and 32 bit (i386) versions (you will need to choose a suitable mirror)
Install the 64 bit version by double clicking on the downloaded deb file.

To install the 32 bit version manually you have to do the following:
Open the deb file in Archive Manager
Double click on data.tar.gz
Double click on .
Double click on usr
Double click on lib
Drag the libeel-2.so.2.26.0 file to a temp folder
Copy the file to /usr/lib32
Create a symbolic link named libeel-2.so.2 like this:
cd /usr/lib32
sudo ln -s ./libeel-2.so.2.26.0 ./libeel2.so.2

Now get some required libraries with
sudo apt-get install libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgnomeprint2.2-0 ia32-libs ttf-xfree86-nonfree

Next, install the needed 32 libraries with:
sudo getlibs -p libavahi-client3 libavahi-common3 libavahi-glib1 libbonoboui2-0 libcroco3 libdbus-1-3 libdbus-glib-1-2 libgnome2-0 libgnomecanvas2-0 libgnome-keyring0 libgnome-menu2 libgnomeprint2.2-0 libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgnomeui-0 libgnomevfs2-0 libgsf-1-114 libgsf-1-dev librsvg2-2 librsvg2-common libselinux1 libsepol1 libstartup-notification0 libxkbfile1 gtk2-engines-murrine libesd0

From the temporary folder used above to extract the notes tar file, install Notes 8.5.1 with:
sudo dpkg -i --force-architecture ibm-lotus-notes-8.5.1.i586.deb
sudo dpkg -i --force-architecture ibm-lotus-sametime-8.5.1.i586.deb
And if you need composite application editor:
sudo dpkg -i --force-architecture ibm-lotus-cae-8.5.1.i586.deb
And if you want symphony:
sudo dpkg -i --force-architecture ibm-lotus-activities-8.5.1.i586.deb
And if you want support for activities:
sudo dpkg -i --force-architecture ibm-lotus-symphony-8.5.1.i586.deb

Next install Notes 8.5.1 fix pack 2 with:
sudo dpkg -i --force-architecture ibm-lotus-notes-fixpack-8.5.1.i586.deb

It appears that Lotus Notes will only work with 2.17 versions of gnome and you can download these from either:
http://www.benkevan.com/upload/lotus_notes
or
http://www.freetechie.com/upload/lotus_notes

Get the following gnome 2.17 libraries (note the size)
116732 libgdk_pixbuf-2.0.so.0
67240 libgdk_pixbuf_xlib-2.0.so.0
679940 libgdk-x11-2.0.so.0
4579940 libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0

Copy each to
/opt/ibm/lotus/notes

Lastly, create the following symbolic link
cd /opt/ibm/lotus/notes/jvm/lib/i386
sudo mkdir usr
sudo ln -s /usr/lib32 ./usr/lib

You should now be able to start notes installation with
cd /opt/ibm/lotus/notes/framework
../notes

Thats it!

Upgrading to ubuntu lucid x64 and Lotus Notes

2010-05-01T12:23:00.000-07:00

Today, I upgraded my trusty lenovo T400 from ubuntu karmic koala x64 to lucid lynx x64.

The upgrade went pretty smoothly but I had to re-install my ATI drivers.

Problem I had was that after the upgrade Lotus Notes 8.5.1 no longer worked!

In order to get a better understanding of what may be happening I opened a terminal and typed:

cd /opt/ibm/lotus/notes/framework

../notes

This indicated that there was a missing library - libesd0

To get Lotus Notes working again, all I did was

sudo getlibs -p libesd0

And it worked again.

Since I did an upgrade my assumption is therefore that my previous post about getting Lotus Notes working on karmic x64 will still work with this single addition.

I tried this on a brand new KVM/QEMU virtualised machine running ubuntu 10.04 x64 and found that those instructions together with the fix above will give you a running Notes 8.5.1 on lucid x64

Recovering from a lost password with IBM Portal 6.1.5

2010-04-13T06:58:00.000-07:00

I tried installing IBM Portal on openSUSE 11.2 recently. Just created a virtual machine with VMWare player on my ubuntu karmic 9.10 x64 laptop and installed openSUSE from a downloaded ISO.
I could not install using the GUI so I used:
./install.sh -console
instead and the installation went without any issues - or so I thought.

Strangely, I was not able to login with the portal adminstrator username and password - even though I was very careful with the admin password.

I thought that maybe I got it wrong, but I reinstalled again and had exactly the same issue.

I remembered that the default Portal installation uses the WIMFileBasedRealm as a user repository. This is basically a set of XML files that define users and groups.

So I hacked myself into the portal simply by following these steps:

1. Use the "sign up" option and create a new user.
2. Ensure that you can log into the system with that user.
3. Logout
4. Locate the fileRegistry.xml file in the folder /config/cells/{your_cell}
5. Edit the file and locate the
6. In this section you will find tag
7. In this tage will be the uniqueName specified for the group members
8. Add yourself to this tag by copying an existing entry:

9. Change the uid to your new uid
10. shut down the server by killing off the java process
11. Restart the server, log in again and then change the wpadmin password using Portal admin tools.

There are other ways to decode the password in the "" tag but I found the aforementioned method much simpler.

Generating a DTD from an XML file in ubuntu karmic x64

2010-04-09T06:29:00.000-07:00

If you do an internet search for anything that will generate a DTD from an XML file, you will get a whole raft of different editors and utilities.

The most interesting thing is that if you have ubuntu then you probably already have a command line utility that will do the same:

mkdtdskel inputfile > outputfile

I imagine this stands for "make a DTD skeleton".

Amazingly you DON'T get a reference anywhere in the internet search engine for this utility! Strange because it is extremely fast and already installed with the distro.

If you need to do this type of thing try out out.

WCM syndication SERV_FAILED_REFERENCE_UPDATE_4 Error

2010-03-31T07:29:00.000-07:00

I tried to no avail to get more information on this error so I thought I would post my findings here instead.

This error is generated when an item of content in a library referred to in the syndicator makes reference to a WCM item in another library that exists on the syndicator.

This in itself will not generate an error unless the library in which the reference is made does not exist on the the subscriber.

To illustrate.
On the syndicator, you have an HTML component (comp1) in Library1 which makes reference to an HTML component (comp2) in Library2.
The syndicator is set up only to syndicate Library1
The error message SERV_FAILED_REFERENCE_UPDATE_4 will now occur when the syndicator attempts to syndicate comp1. The failure occurs because the subscriber can not create the necessary internal reference to comp2.

To fix this, you must either:
Add the library to the syndicator (to allow that library to syndicate to the subscriber)
or
Remove the reference from the offending item(s)

Hope this helps someone

Lotus notes 8.5.1 on ubuntu 9.10 karmic x64

2010-03-22T15:18:00.000-07:00

I revisited the installation of Lotus Notes 8.5.1 onto a brand new installation of ubuntu 9.10 karmic x64 and thought that some of you may like to know how I did it.

First of all it can definitely be done! Here's how:

In order to do a successful installation, you will need both the 64 bit AND the 32 bit versions of libstdc++5 from ubuntu jaunty repositories;
Get them from

http://packages.ubuntu.com/jaunty/libs/libstdc++5

For the 64bit version just click on the deb to install
For the 32bit version, open the deb with Archive Manager, navigate to data.tar.gz
keep drilling down to /./usr/lib and copy out the file libstdc++5.so.5.0.7 to /usr/lib
next create a symbolic link:

cd /usr/lib
sudo ln -s libstdc++5.so.5.0.7 libstdc++.so.5

Next open a terminal and run

sudo apt-get update

Install some fonts using

sudo apt-get install ttf-xfree86-nonfree

Install the 32 bit helper with

sudo apt-get install ia32-libs

Install libgnomeprint2.2-0 and libgnomeprintui2.2-0 with:

sudo apt-get install libgnomeprint2.2-0 and libgnomeprintui2.2-0

Download notes client for linux (it is a 32 bit client)
Download and install getlibs-all.deb from http://frozenfox.freehostia.com/cappy/

Now you will also need libeel2.2 from jaunty
For libeel2.2 to be picked up correctly with getlibs, do the following:
Use System > Administration > Softw
Add the following:

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubunty jaunty main
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jaunty main

Now do this from a terminal
sudo getlibs -p libavahi-client3 libavahi-common3 libavahi-glib1 libbonoboui2-0 libcroco3 libdbus-1-3 libdbus-glib-1-2 libeel2-2 libgnome2-0 libgnomecanvas2-0 libgnome-keyring0 libgnome-menu2 libgnomeprint2.2-0 libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgnomeui-0 libgnomevfs2-0 libgsf-1-114 libgsf-1-dev librsvg2-2 librsvg2-common libselinux1 libsepol1 libstartup-notification0 libxkbfile1 gtk2-engines-ubuntulooks gtk2-engines-murrine

You also need libeel2-2. Go here first:
http://packages.ubuntu.com/jaunty/libeel2-data
click the "all" link and download the deb file
Run the deb file by double clicking on it. This is a dependency of the libeel2-2 that is to be loaded next

Now go to
http://packages.ubuntu.com/jaunty/libeel2-2
Download the 64 bit version and the 32 bit version
Install the 64 bit version by double clicking on the deb file

To install the 32 bit version manually you have to do the following:
Open the deb file in Archive Manager
Double click on data.tar.gz
Double click on .
Double click on usr
Double click on lib
Drag the libeel-2.so.2.26.0 file to a temp folder
Copy the file to /usr/lib32
Create a symbolic link named libeel-2.so.2

Next install the notes deb files and force the architecture:

sudo dpkg -i --force-architecture ibm-lotus-notes-8.5.1.i586.deb
sudo dpkg -i --force-architecture ibm-lotus-activities-8.5.1.i586.deb
sudo dpkg -i --force-architecture ibm-lotus-cae-8.5.1.i586.deb
sudo dpkg -i --force-architecture ibm-lotus-sametime-8.5.1.i586.deb
sudo dpkg -i --force-architecture ibm-lotus-symphony-8.5.1.i586.deb

After installation, you must now copy some files into /opt/ibm/lotus/notes as follows:

Next some other hacks
cd /opt/ibm/lotus/notes/jvm/lib/i386
sudo mkdir usr
sudo ln -s /usr/lib32 ./usr/lib

Lastly go to
http://www.benkevan.com/upload/lotus_notes
or
http://www.freetechie.com/upload/lotus_notes

You need to get the gnome 2.17 libraries. They are the following four files (note the size)

116732 libgdk_pixbuf-2.0.so.0
67240 libgdk_pixbuf_xlib-2.0.so.0
679940 libgdk-x11-2.0.so.0
4579940 libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0

Copy each to
/opt/ibm/lotus/notes
Thats it!
Now you can start Lotus Notes 8.5.1 from the Applications > Office menu item

If you wish to install the fix pack then download from IBM and then use:

sudo dpkg -i --force-architecture ibm_lotus_notes_fixpack-8.5.1.i586.deb

Performance of DB2 and Portal 6.1.5 with ubuntu karmic x64

2010-03-22T15:11:00.000-07:00

Installation of portal was done using instructions on my previous post.

Installation of DB2 9.7 was also done using instructions on my previous post.

Performance of my laptop is astounding:

DB2 9.7 (x64) and Portal 6.1.5 when started together on my SSD drive takes only 1 minute 47 seconds.
Shutdown of Portal and DB2 takes 41 seconds.

Installing skype of ubuntu 9.10 karmic x64

2010-03-13T03:54:00.000-08:00

Installation of Skype onto my new ubuntu 9.10 karmic x64 laptop was unbelievably easy:
Download the program

http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-linux-beta-ubuntu-64

Save the file:
skype-ubuntu-intrepid_2.1.0.81-1_amd64.deb

Then run by double clicking on the file.

After the installation you can find skype on
Applications > Internet > Skype

Voila!

Installing ubuntu 9.10 karmic x64 onto a SSD

2010-03-13T00:11:00.000-08:00

Now I know ubuntu karmic boots very fast (with promises of even faster boot times with 10.04), but on a laptop the major bottleneck is always the hard disk. If I could remove that then we will have a little flying machine that takes less battery and is more resistant to the occasionional knock.
The new crcuial solid state disks (SSD) now support SATA transfer rate of 6Bb/s in a 2.5 inch hard disk format. My laptop has a SATA 3Gb/s hardware interface and the new crcuial claims a read speed faster than that. It basically should mean that the bottleneck for my laptop is no longer the hard drive, but the hardware interfaces, processor and memory. The processor on my Lenovo T400 is an Intel Centrino 2 dual core 2.4GHz and I currently have 4GB of memory - although it can take 8GB (hmmm maybe a later upgrade that)
Installing ubuntu onto the SSD was unimaginably easy.
Pop in the drive,
Pop in the 9.10 desktop CD
Boot the laptop
Go through the wizard

The entire process to a working system took less than 15 minutes

Now the boot time.

After the bios stuff, ubuntu now starts up in 15 seconds. Am I happy or what?

Everything on my laptop works except the fingerprint reader - which I didn't like anyway.

Next was the update.
So I did the following
Adminstration > update manager
Click on "Check" and then enter your password to authorise the update manager to proceed.
There were 244 updates that needed download.

Download on my broardband took about 5 minutes

Installation took another 3 minutes

So in less than 30 minutes I had a brand new installed and updated laptop that will now boot in 15 seconds.

Sweet!

Uninstalling vmware from ubuntu karmic x64

2010-03-10T15:30:00.000-08:00

A little tip on how to uninstall VMWare player from ubuntu karmic 9.10 x64.

Follow these steps
Open a terminal and type:

$ sudo /usr/lib/vmware/installre/vmware-installer -u vmware-player

A pop up window will be displayed indicating the uninstallation process
Thats all there is to it.

Setting up WCM syndication in a cluster

2010-03-04T13:50:00.000-08:00

If you need to set up WCM syndication in a cluster, bear in mind the following:

For all cluster members ensure that WCMConfigServices.properties is changed so that the syndicator URL , the subscriber URL and the itemgatherer URL all point to the load balancer for the cluster.
From the WAS deployment manager, create a replication domain (Environment > Replication Domains) and ensure that Data Replication Services is set on for the cluster and set for push replication.
Ensure that cachespec.xml has the following embedded section to disable servlet cache for ?MOD operations:

<component id="MOD" type="parameter">
<required>false</required>
<not-value>Subs</not-value>
<not-value>Synd</not-value>
<not-value>ItemDispatcher</not-value>
<not-value>Syndication</not-value>
<not-value>M emberFixer</not-value>
<not-value>VersioningEnablement</not-value>
<not-value>WorkflowEnablement</not-value>
<not-value>PlutoUploadFile</not-value>
<not-value>PlutoDownloadFile</not-value>
<not-value>AJPECatSelect</not-value>
<not-value>RefreshAllItems</not-value>
<not-value>Template</not-value>
</component>

Ensure that for the following WCM cache objects (Resources > Cache Instances > Object Cache instances) are DISABLED : abspath, absreverse, draft sumary, global, libparent, missed, module, processing, session, site, strategy, summary
Ensure that for the following WCM cache objects, are ENABLED (as Push): menu, navigator

Where are the standard IBM Portal File Base User definitions?

2010-03-03T10:11:00.001-08:00

On a standard IBM WebSphere Portal installation (directly from CD), the resulting portal is not connected to an LDAP server. Instead, it uses an XML file to hold user information.
Just for reference, this file is located at the following location:

/config/cells/{your_cell_name}/fileRegistry.xml

So now you know!

IBM WCM 6.x - How to reset syndication

2010-02-11T06:08:00.000-08:00

If you are having issues with WCM syndication you may need to reset the connection. The best way to do this is as follows:

Stop authors updating content
Stop syndication
Ensure that no pre-rendering or other WCM maintenance tasks are being done.
Delete the WCM syndicator and WCM subscriber defintions on the respective machines
Reset the WCM event log on syndicator and subscriber by running the ConfigEngine with

ConfigEngine.sh wcm-reset-event-log (linux)
ConfigEngine wcm-reset-event-log (windows)

remove the subscriber cache by going to the subscriber and removing all directories under:

/PortalServer/wcm/ilwwcm/system/subscriber

(This folder is used by the syndicator to store content items retrieved from the subscriber prior to being saved to the JCR. If you look at this folder during a syndication, you will see it fill with files as they are being retrieved by the subscriber. You will also see this folder start to empty as items are moved from this temporay location and stored in the JCR

Lastly re-create syndicator and subscriber

Other things you may want to check

Make sure you have the latest fix pack

If your syndicator or subscriber is clustered then also:

Ensure that you have load balancer names/addresses + ports defined in WCMConfigService.properties, syndicators and subscribers.
Ensure that you have disabled syndicator and subscriber cache using cachespec.xml
Ensure that Data Replication Services is enabled for the cluster.

IBM WCM - "Error while calling a function updateItems of PLS data manager"

2010-02-11T05:45:00.000-08:00

ContentServic E Error while calling a function updateItems of PLS data manager.: Error while calling a function updateItems of PLS data manager.
javax.jcr.StaleValueException: Error while calling a function updateItems of PLS data manager.: Error while calling a function updateItems of PLS data manager

If you get this error in your SystemOut.log then it may relate to the use of the WCM API in the context of an EJB with transcation type set to "Container Managed"
When using the WCM API in this manner, the API does not work as expected and you must set the transaction type of the EJB to "Bean managed".
Source: http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21303035

If you get the following message on a SUBSCRIBER

PlutoSubscrib W IWKPD1043X: Could not save the updated subscriber for update id: Error: com.ibm.workplace.wcm.services.repository.StaleValueException: IWKMU1062X: Message: Could not save object in repository., Cause: javax.jcr.StaleValueException Error while calling a function updateItems of PLS data manager

It may be that there is more than one attempt to update the subscriber .
This is a bug and has been fixed with a fix pack (V6.0.1 fix pack 6, V6.0.1 fix pack 7 and V6.1.5 feature pack)

Source: http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg1PK80443

If you get the following meessage on a SYNDICATOR

RepositorySer E Exception caught while saving node
javax.jcr.StaleValueException: Error while calling a function updateItems of PLS data manager.: Error while calling a function updateItems of PLS data manager

It appears that more than one task is attempting to update the node at the same time. You should apply the fix pack indicated above.

Installing ATI drivers 10.1 for ubuntu karmic x64

2010-02-08T04:14:00.000-08:00

For some strange reason, a recent update to the latest ubuntu kernel disabled the ati driver on my thinkpad T400.

Just for the record. This is what I did to reinstall it:

First, go to:
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx
Use the page to select your driver:

For Karmic 9.10 x64 and i386 it will be:
download ati-driver-installer-10-1-x86.x86_64.run

Ensure you are fully up to date with

$ sudo apt-get update

Ensure that you hvae the QT4 libraries with:

$ sudo apt-get install libqtgui4

Copy the downloaded file into it's own folder. From a terminal change to that folder and then create deb files with:

$ sudo sh ./ait-driver-installer-10-1-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/karmic

That will create the necessary "deb" files.
Lastly install these with:

$ sudo dpkg -i *.deb

Now reboot.
After a reboot, I had to re-run the Compiz Manager to reset all my options.

You can check that it is all working using

$ fglrxinfo

My display showed the following:

display: :0.0 screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3400 Series
OpenGL version string: 1.4 (2.1.9026)

Blackberries rule

2009-12-23T09:37:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-09T07:56:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-04T04:48:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-04T04:39:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-04T00:09:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-03T15:13:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-30T08:38:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-16T07:19:00.001-07:00

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

2009-09-17T07:37:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-15T06:24:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-03T03:22:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-29T07:59:00.001-07:00

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"?

2009-07-28T14:11:00.001-07:00

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!

2009-07-28T14:07:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-23T01:49:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-22T01:41:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-15T03:59:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-14T09:04:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-14T08:19:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-11T16:20:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-11T16:08:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-08T05:23:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-08T04:39:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-08T04:10:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-08T03:33:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-07T06:16:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-02T05:03:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-01T03:17:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-29T06:42:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-26T06:40:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-23T02:02:00.001-07:00

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

2009-06-18T00:41:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-05-29T07:34:00.001-07:00

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

2009-05-28T06:50:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-28T06:15:00.000-07:00

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!