Tag Archives: Ubuntu

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Tux, the Linux penguin

Official Ubuntu circle with wordmark. Replace ...

Deutsch: Logo von Fedora

I think I have figured out why my machine has been playing up.

In both cases, my machine was trying to run kernel 3.19, but after checking Kernel.org, I found that this kernel version has been marked EOL.

I installed Fedora 21, which came with kernel 3.17 and worked, but after updating, it stopped working, with kernel 3.19. Forcing it to run on 3.17 was okay, though.

Summary:

Good: Fedora, with Linux 3.17.4-301.fc21.x86_64

Bad: Fedora, with Linux 3.19.7-200.fc21.x86_64

Latest kernel release is 4.0.4, so I need to wait for Fedora to update.

Interestingly, it could also explain why I was also having trouble with Ubuntu, as it also ran 3.19. When trying to reinstall Ubuntu from the latest install image, it hung, presumably because it was trying to use the 3.19 Kernel. In theory, I could use an older installer (e.g. Utopic Unicorn) instead.

So now, I’m running Fedora with a 3.19 main kernel (which fails) and 3.17 secondary kernel. I was going to file a bug on Kernel.org, but found out about 3.19 being EOL, which means no bug fixes will be released, so there is no point in filing the bug.

On the plus side, my machine seems SO much more zippier running Fedora. Although trying to run Dota 2 seems a bit quirky. Dust: An Elysian Tail worked pretty well, as did Second Life (I was able to crank Singularity Viewer up to Ultra without major speed loss).

I still need to reinstall BOINC and any other missing apps I might have, and get used to using yum, yumex and dnf instead of apt-get, aptitude and synaptic all over again, but apart from that, it should be all good.

Building Docker.io on Ubuntu 32-bit

Interestingly, after upgrading to Ubuntu Utopic Unicorn, the build script I made for Docker.io fails during the Go build. Something inside the Utopic minimal install is not being liked by the Go build script, so for now, you will have to force the LXC container to use Trusty instead.

lxc-create -n Ubuntu -t ubuntu -- --release trusty --auth-key /home/user/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

 

 

Building Docker.io on 32-bit arch

NOTE: Automated 32-bit-enabled builds are now available. See this page for link details.

EDIT 29th September 2015: This article seems to be quite popular. Note that Docker has progressed a long way since I wrote this and it has pretty much broken the script due to things being moved around and versions being updated. You can still read this to learn the basics of LXC-based in-container compiling, and if you want to extend it, go right ahead. When I get a chance, I will try to figure out why this build keeps breaking.

Steps to compile and build a docker.io binary on a 32-bit architecture, to work around the fact the community does not support anything other than 64-bit at present, even though this restriction has been flagged up many times.

A caveat, though. As the binary you compile via these steps will work on a 32-bit architecture, the Docker images you download from the cloud may NOT work, as the majority are meant for 64-bit architectures. So if you compile a Docker binary, you will have to build your own images. Not too difficult — you can use LXC or debootstrap for that. Here is a quick tutorial on that.

I am using a LXC container to do my build as it helps control the packages plus it reduces the chances of a conflict occurring between two versions (e.g. one “dev” version and one “release” version of a package), plus, the LXC container is disposable – I can get rid of it each time I do a build.

I utilise several scripts — one to do a build/rebuild of my LXC container, one to start up my build-environment LXC container and take it down afterwards; and the other, the actual build script. To make it more automated, I setup my LXC container to be allow a passwordless SSH login (see this link). This means I can do a scp into my container and copy to and from the container without having to enter my password. Useful because the container can take a few seconds to startup. It does open security problems, but as long as the container is only up for the duration of the build, this isn’t a problem.

EDIT: One note. If you have upgraded to Ubuntu’s Utopic Unicorn version, you may end up having to enter your GPG keyring password a few times.

EDIT 2: A recent code change has caused this build script to break. More details, and how to fix it on this post.

As with most things linux and script-based. There’s many ways to do the same thing. This is just one way.

Continue reading →

Major South Korean Pharmaceutical Company Ditches Windows for Ubuntu

jamesgoode98's avatarLinux News

South Korea has been very friendly with Microsoft and its products, so it’s understandable why succeeding in that country with an open source product would be very difficult. Canonical is now trying to make a dent there with its Ubuntu operating system.

Canonical published some very interesting details about a South Korean company called Bukwang Pharmaceuticals, which ditched most of its Windows OSes for Ubuntu and saved a lot of money. On top of the obvious savings, it also got a lot of good press, and other businesses found out that it can be done.

“Bukwang Pharmaceuticals has been developing and manufacturing drugs and personal hygiene products in South Korea since 1960. Today, it has over 600 employees based at various sites across the country. Prior to its switch to Ubuntu, the company had 620 desktops, with 60% running Windows 7 and the remainder on Windows XP. When Microsoft’s support…

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Fedora

I installed Fedora 20 and gave it a test drive. Whilst I was happy it seemed to run well, the graphics driver appeared to be flaky. Under Ubuntu Studio, I was getting a fps fullscreen using glxgears of around 60-65fps. Under Fedora, I was getting ~45 fps. I then tried Linux Mint Debian Edition, and that also had the same problem. So now, I’m back on Ubuntu Studio. But I might be vanilla Debian a go as well and see if that helps…

Fedora & Ubuntu

Ubuntu Studio

Deutsch: Logo von Fedora

Español: Logo Linux Mint

OpenSuSE Icons

 

 

 

 

 

I dug out my Wacom Bamboo Graphics Tablet and plugged it into my Ubuntu Studio installation, but frustratingly, I cannot seem to emulate a wheel scroll, which I need for my work in Blender. Sure I can use the keypad +/-, but that isn’t the way I’m supposed to work.

I might switch over to Fedora later this week and see if that is any better. Or maybe even put Linux Mint back on. I know that both have gone through new versions since I last used them. Fedora was at Schroedinger’s Cat / Version 19 and Linux Mint was at Maya / Version 13 last  time I used it.

Now may be a good time to start looking at other distributions. openSUSE seems appealing, but it has caused me problems with restoring from CloneZilla images in the past, especially cross-operating system.

 

Snippet: NTP Syncing (Windows/Linux)

Tux, the Linux penguin

English: M in blue square (similar to seen on )

A quick snippet for syncing your date and time via NTP. I have noticed that Windows and Linux do not follow the same convention by standard, and are always an hour out from each other, even though both claim to follow the same time zone. So, what I am having to do is sync via NTP each time I dual boot.

In Linux, this can be done using cron jobs or using the NTP daemon, but that does not do it frequently enough for my liking. So here is a bash snippet for it:

sudo service ntp stop
sudo ntpdate 0.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org 1.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org 2.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org 3.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org 0.uk.pool.ntp.org 1.uk.pool.ntp.org 2.uk.pool.ntp.org 3.uk.pool.ntp.org ntp.ubuntu.com
sudo service ntp start

The first line stops the NTP daemon, since the ntpdate command does not like it when it is running (port in use). The second command uses a server in the selected list to sync with. The final line restarts the NTP daemon.

The Windows (Windows 7) equivalent is very similar. Like with linux, it has an in-built sync facility, but it again does not sync often enough for my liking. Like with the bash script, the commands must be run with elevated rights, so you must “Run as Administrator“, or run from an elevated rights command prompt, which you do as follows:

  1. Click Start, type “cmd” into the command window (do NOT use Windows+R)
  2. Hold down CTRL+SHIFT, then press ENTER
  3. You will be prompted (if you have UAC active), OK it and you will get a command prompt with “Administrator” in the title.

net stop "Windows Time"
net start "Windows Time"
w32tm /config /manualpeerlist:"0.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org 1.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org 2.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org 3.ubuntu.pool.ntp.org 0.uk.pool.ntp.org 1.uk.pool.ntp.org 2.uk.pool.ntp.org 3.uk.pool.ntp.org ntp.ubuntu.com" /syncfromflags:ALL /update
w32tm /resync

This code starts/restarts the Windows Time service then configures it with a pool of NTP servers, before asking the service to update itself and then resync. The resync action is what adjusts the time.

Recent Linux Kernel Update

English: The logo of the Linux distribution Ub...

Lubuntu

 

The recent linux kernel update has screwed up my admin accounts on both my Ubuntu-based boxes (Lubuntu & Ubuntu Studio). I’ve spent three hours creating a new user, making them sudo-enabled, then moving my files from my old profile to my new one and tinkering with a few scripts and desktop shortcuts that were still pointing at the old home directory.

Mind you, it’s given me an opportunity to test my LPIC-1 knowledge.

Ubuntu Saucy Salamander

I’ve been running with Ubuntu on my desktop for a long time, even after upgrading it to 4GB RAM (it’s a really old PC). Nonetheless, Lubuntu (which is Ubuntu with LXDE) prompted me to upgrade from Raring to Saucy. I did, and as with all Ubuntu upgrades, it took absolutely ages to complete. But after a reboot, I noticed the login screen is now identical to the LXDE login screen of my Fedora box (which is also using LXDE). This is good and bad — good in that it gives users a consistent login experience regardless of distribution, but bad in the sense that the identity of Ubuntu has been slightly lost.

Related articles

 

After switching 37,000 PCs to Ubuntu, French Armed Forces says open source cuts costs 40 percent | Apps and Software | Geek.com

After switching 37,000 PCs to Ubuntu, French Armed Forces says open source cuts costs 40 percent | Apps and Software | Geek.com.

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