wlindley.com

Refresher on NFS exporting

bill — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 16:30:43 +0000

on the server, in /etc/exports:

/home/somedirectory 192.168.1.0/24(no_root_squash,rw,nohide)

then after editing /etc/exports, refresh the NFS server with:

# /sbin/exportfs -a

Optimize Ubuntu 8.04 for Speed

bill — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 01:28:46 +0000

Explanation on Softpedia

Boot tweaks
Speed up GRUB
Stop unneeded startup programs
Hard drive writeback
Tune “swappiness”

Workaround: Admin privileges in Kubuntu 8.04

bill — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:52:53 +0000

Problem: No Administrator button for Login Manager and other settings in Kubuntu 8.04. Known bug, oddly assigned Low priority.

Workaround: From command line:

/usr/lib/kde4/lib/kde4/libexec/kdesu /usr/lib/kde4/bin/systemsettings

Thunderbird 2 on Centos 5.1

bill — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 16:54:59 +0000

Found on tboxmy blogspot:

Everyone is using Thunderbird on MS Windows, Ubuntu Linux and Fedora Core Linux. So, why shouldnt Centos 5.1 be able to install?

Download Thunderbird 2 from Mozilla (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/) or other mirros like (http://mirror.oscc.org.my/mozilla/thunderbird/). I downloaded thunderbird-2.0.0.14.tar.gz to the directory /tmp.
Extract the files
Open a terminal and login as root to the directory /opt
```
su -
cd /opt
```
Copy the extracted forlders to /opt
```
cp -rf /tmp/thunderbird /opt
```
Install the older library of libstdc++.so.5 (5.1 comes with version libstdc++.so.6)
```
yum install compat-libstdc++-33.i386
```
Test the Thunderbird as a normal user
```
/opt/thunderbird/thunderbird
```

Copy the icons to the user wide pixmap

cp thunderbird/icons/mozicon*.xpm /usr/share/pixmaps/

When Thunderbird starts, it complains about the mode for /var/spool/mail, as it cannot write to this folder. As root do the following
```
chmod 01777 /var/spool/mail
```

Add the application launcher in the panel/menu using the mozicon icon. Only things left is to install other plugins.

Fix for 16-bit apps under wine on Ubuntu 8.04

bill — Sat, 31 May 2008 14:45:12 +0000

In ubuntu hardy heron, wine runs into a new security setting that disables 16-bit applications. When you try to install them, you get an error:

preloader: Warning: failed to reserve range 00000000-60000000

winevdm: unable to exec '--app-name': 16-bit support missing

On ubuntuforums is a solution which actually works:

sudo sysctl -w vm.mmap_min_addr=0

How to Sandbox WordPress

bill — Mon, 12 May 2008 17:08:46 +0000

“How to (easily) Sandbox WordPress and Kick back with Plugins, Themes And Hacks”

Describes how to create a subdomain, install Wordpress, copy your content, and prevent search engines from finding your sandbox.

Cure for sluggishness on Hardy

bill — Wed, 07 May 2008 23:07:48 +0000

When starting a new program on, for example KUbuntu 8.04, there is a delay of several seconds. This can be caused by SCIM — which is a multi-language keyboard input protocol — not loading. Check your system logs. If this is the problem, try as root:

apt-get remove scim-qtimm scim-bridge-client-qt4 scim-bridge-client-qt scim-bridge-client-gtk scim-bridge-agent skim scim-modules-socket libskim0 libscim8c2a

References: Ubuntu bug #2033334, bug #206302

Installing NVidia drivers on Ubuntu 8.04

bill — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:02:37 +0000

sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx-new linux-restricted-modules-$(uname -r) --reinstall

Two commands enable DVD playback in Ubuntu

bill — Sat, 03 May 2008 17:00:35 +0000

sudo apt-get install totem-xine libxine1-ffmpeg libdvdread3 sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/install-css.sh

No sound with pidgin, etc. on kubuntu

bill — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 06:19:48 +0000

Problem: error message

play soxio: Failed reading `test.wav': unknown file type `auto'

Solution:

$ sudo apt-get install libsox-fmt-base libsox-fmt-ao

Installs everything you need just for the wave (.wav) format, or use

$ sudo apt-get install libsox-fmt-all

to install all available formats for sox and the play command.