Archive for the ‘ubuntu’ Category

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Solved: Xserver lock-ups in Ubuntu 10.04 with intel GFX

Posted in: , , System engineering, open source, ubuntu.

After installing 10.04 I experienced a GDM lockup a couple of times a day – the symptoms varied from the window management not reacting to left mouse clicks to a complete freeze of the Xserver. This bug has caused a lot of noise across distributions, for instance in 590109 and 538563. The symptoms are log messages such as


[mi] EQ overflowing. The server is probably stuck in an infinite loop.
...
Backtrace:
...
... /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/intel_drv.so
...

in the :0… logfiles in /var/log/gdm when the problem occurs.

This is, however, not a kernel, XServer or GDM issue, but caused by a problem with the intel-linux driver. The problem is apparently fixed as of version 2:2.11.0-1ubuntu1 of the xserver-xorg-video-intel driver. Since this is not (yet) an update in the official distribution repo, I did the following to solve the issue:

1: Optional: Update to the latest stable kernel

Reason: IMO, upstream Intel drivers are usually build against the latest stable kernel

Goto http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v2.6.34-lucid/ and download the headers… _all.deb, headers-generic …..deb and linux-image… .deb for your platform (in most cases, i368). install the generic headers package, then the all headers package, then the image.

A word of warning: If you install this custom kernel you will not receive security updates for it from the automatic distribution updates.

2: Add the X Updates PPA to your sources.list

In a terminal, type:


sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

And add at the bottom of the file (if not already present):


deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates/ubuntu lucid main #X-Updates PPA
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates/ubuntu lucid main #X-Updates PPA

2.1: Trust the software packages from the x-updates PPA

sudo apt-key adv –recv-keys –keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com AF1CDFA9

3: Update the driver


sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Reboot – the problem should be solved.

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Creating HDR images in Ubuntu with Luminance (QTPFSGUI)

Posted in: , , open source, ubuntu.

For those who are not (yet) in possession one of the latest digital cameras with build-in HDR capabilities or the more experimental folks, there is a fantastic free tool to create HDR images by combining multiple shots of the same scene: Its called qtpfsgui.

That is, it used to be called that and is still available in Ubuntu under this name (sudo apt-get install qtpfsgui). However, qtpfsgui is discontinued since mid 2009 and has been replaced by the Luminance HDR project.

Since qtpfsgui crashes under ubuntu 9.10 when attempting to save any HDR image, I downloaded the latest luminance version, compiled and installed it like so:

  1. Download the luminance source and unpack the folder.
  2. Install the dependencies required to compile luminance:
    sudo apt-get install qt4-qmake libexiv2-dev libopenexr-dev fftw3-dev libtiff4-dev libqt4-dev g++ libgsl0-dev
  3. Compile luminance (takes a few minues) and install it. Change to the unpacked luminance folder and do:
    qmake
    make
    sudo make install

That´s it! you now have luminance installed and it should be in your main menu under applications>graphics.

It works perfectly with Karmic.
One of the best things about luminance is that you can play a lot with the algorithms and parameters used to tonemap the HDR into a LDR image. In contrast to many other (commercial) tools, you actually get to know which algorithms are used, who created them and can read a little more on how they work (if you are not to opposed to mathematics) by googling up the corresponding papers.

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Intel linux drivers and new kernel gfx support reach mature state

Posted in: , , ubuntu.

The Linux Kernel and the XORG video rendering have been undergoing some significant improvements in the last year, with Intel’s linux open source team bringing in a lot of refactorings an architectural improvements.

I myself suffered from the lack of support for recent integrated intel gfx cards in notebooks and thus followed the excellent Intel Linux graphics performance guide using the bleeding-edge configuration, i.e. with the latest (non-stable) builds of the xorg / intel gfx drivers and the most recent kernels. However, this configuration was (not quite unexpected) somewhat unstable and had a lot of issues.

This phase is now over. I am happy to say that after upgrading to Kernel version 2.6.32 and the xserver-xorg-video-intel driver 2:2.9.0-1ubuntu2~xup~3 the graphics support is now fast, reliable and stable. Desktop effects are back working like a charm, also in a multi-monitor setup and with sending the computer to hibernation and so forth.

I am quite optimistic that this state might make it into the upcoming Ubuntu release (Karmic), thus eliminating a lot of frustration laptop users have been experiencing with their intel gfx cards.

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Creating a PPTP VPN connection in Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid)

Posted in: System engineering, intrepid, ubuntu.

Update June 22, 2010

The configuration described below is still valid up to the most recent Ubuntu release (10.04) !

Update December 8, 2008

The following solution does not work for everybody as there are multiple issues with VPN connections, the network manager etc. Bug fixing is in progress and it appears a number of patches where already included in recent ubuntu updates.

I recommend checking the ubuntu bug database for the latest state of the VPN issues:

Search for “VPN” in the ubuntu bug database (launchpad.net)

This monday was sweet. I finally had the time to make a fresh install of ubuntu 8.10 on my thinkpad r52, and what can i say, just as all the other releases before, things got better.

I am especially happy about the re-programmed network manager, which works a whole lot better than in hardy.
Except that i didn’t get the PPTP VPN connection to my office to work instantly.
Read the rest of “Creating a PPTP VPN connection in Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid)”

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Configuring Eclipse Ganymede with subversion in Ubuntu 8.04

Posted in: J2EE, SCM, System engineering, eclipse, java, subclipse, subversion, subversive, ubuntu.

After installing the all-new Eclipse ganymede (by downloading it from the eclipse site) under ubuntu 8.04 i ran into some trouble after installing version 1.4.1 of the subclipse subversion plugin.

Long story short, subclipse requires subversion 1.5, but ubuntu 8.04 provides 1.4.x.
If you still want to use subclipse with ganymede in ubuntu, there are only two ways two achieve this – both of which i cannot recommend because they are hacks or bad compromises.
Read the rest of “Configuring Eclipse Ganymede with subversion in Ubuntu 8.04″

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Blocking flash ads in firefox

Posted in: Uncategorized, ubuntu.

Annoyed by the CPU-consuming flash ads that seem to fill each and every online magazine i have installed the flash block extension for firefox.
Works like a charm.

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Critical security vulnerability in debian openssl package

Posted in: System engineering, debian 4, ubuntu.

Debians security advisory has reported a critical security issue with debian-based openssl packages.
As a result,generated keys might be weak and breakable, since the random number generator appears to have created predictable results.
The exact nature of this predictability was not made public by now, but it is strongly recommendet to regenerate keys created with kryptographic tools affected by the issue and to re-enroll all corresponding certificates.

Note that his issue affects all debian-based systems, including ubuntu 8.04.

Source: http://lists.debian.org/debian-security-announce/2008/msg00152.html

Seems i’ll have a somewhat busy weekend.

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Ubuntu 8.0.4 LTS is out, and it rocks!

Posted in: nerd 2.0, ubuntu.

I just upgraded to the latest 8.0.4 ubuntu release and i am more than satisfied.

In fact, i believe that the improvements (performance, network support, display and gfx card support, encryption and many more) are just about the same huge step forward that 7.10 was compared to the release 6.
After the automatic update, i had firefox 3 (lovely from the start), improved SSH authentication support (better protection of private key etc.) and finally, my wxga display AND laptop monitor configured perfectly even with my not-so standards conform internal GFX card (Intel 950m, in fact).

What else is there at the first glimpse? Improved language support and a nice little search engine (Conceptual rip of from apple i must admit, but well done!) for all kinds of items on your hard disk, and a really sweet new background image. For the artist in the nerd.

Yes, i’m charmed. I recommend it! Especially since it’s a long term support release…

Read more on ubuntu 8.0.4 in this feature tour.

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Latex, PDF-Erzeugung und schöne Formeln mit Kile & Ubuntu

Posted in: Uncategorized, latex, ubuntu.

Wer seine Arbeiten mit Latex verfassen möchte wird oft von der schier endlosen Masse von Paketen, Versionen, Tools und Konfigurationen erschlagen, die mit dieser an sich recht einfachen Sprache einhergehen. Ich kam neulich wieder in dem Umstand einen Artikel mit Latex zu verfassen, und habe mir zu diesem Zweck Tools und Pakete unter Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) herausgesucht, mit denen ich insgesamt mehr als zufrieden war. Eine kurze Beschreibung und Installationsanleitung.

Update: Alle hier beschriebenen Pakete sind auch in Ubuntu 8.04 unterstützt und funktionieren dort auf die gleiche Weise.

Read the rest of “Latex, PDF-Erzeugung und schöne Formeln mit Kile & Ubuntu”

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maven autocompletion für die shell (und windows)

Posted in: System engineering, java, maven 2, ubuntu.

Beim Arbeiten mit maven stört die fehlende automatische Vervollständigung auf der Kommadozeile, insbesondere wenn man den Komfort einer ordentlichen unix-shell gewähnt ist. Doch dem kann abgeholfen werden. Aktuelle Linux-Distributionen (und unter Windows CYGWIN) besitzen mit bash-completion eine einfache Schnittstelle zum Erweitern der Autocompletion.
Read the rest of “maven autocompletion für die shell (und windows)”

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