The first thing to do is a backup of the Rescue and Recovery partition on an external DVD burner.
I tried with a CD burner, but it was not worth the effort... It requires 8 CD, but after CD 4 it started to give me some errors.
With the DVD you need one blank CD (for the boot) and a blank DVD (for the recovery data). It doesn't support a DVD-RAM
To start the procedure you have to enter Vista and open ThinkVantage --> Create Recovery Media, the just follow the prompts.
After that the install of Ubuntu is as simple as popping the install CD in the external CD reader and making an usual install. To not lose the ThinkVantage button functionality (it starts the Rescue and Recovery utilities) it's better to install GRUB on the Linux boot partition and note on the MBR. To access it, you just have to set the Linux partition bootable.
I tried an install with a USB flash, but it's a little bit messy... The USB disk was recognised as sda and the internal disk as sdb. It was funny when GRUB was installed on the USB flash.
20071206
Long time and a lot of things...
A long time with no updates, so a quick summary.
In August we went to the EuroBillTracker Meeting in Berlin, it was truly great, a lot of nice people and we learned some new things about Euro tracking techniques.
For the travel I decided to buy a new notebook, a smaller one, as my 15" is to cumbersome to carry around. I selected a Fujitsu Siemens Computers Amilo Pro V3205. The machine is great for that price, except for the malfunctioning of the SD card reader. As all my gadgets are mainly SD card based it was an important feature of the product. I went back to the shop where I bought the notebook and they kindly accepted it back and sent it to Fujitsu Siemens Computers Italy. At FSC the DOA was accepted and another notebook was ordered. WHen it arrived (it was already mid September if i remember right) I decided to check the SD function still being at the shop. Yes, you guessed it. It didn't work.
So also the second one was sent back to FSC Italy. That time the DOA was turned down because the FSC technician said that the SD reader was supposed to work in that way... The malfunctioning being, that the SD card wasn't ejected mechanically. It was protruding by 2mm out of the slot, which in really not enough to take it out with normal fingers. So after a quick check with the German FSC support, they confirmed, that the SD slot should work as usual - a mechanical spring should eject the SD card, I decided that enough was enough. A really sad experience and another producer on th Nobuy list.
I did not accept the notebook that was coming back from FSC Italy and instead bought a Lenovo X61s. The X61s was manufactured on 22/11/2007 and a week later I already had it in my hands.
So after 4 month I have a small notebook that suits my mobility needs.
The X61s is great... If you dump Vista. I ordered the Business edition to have a legal way to downgrade it to XP. But for the moment I just installed Ubuntu on it. Yes Ubuntu, me, a real fan of KDE... ok It was just because Ubuntu Gutsy has the Desktop effects enabled and I wanted to impress friends, relatives etc ;) KDE4 is due in mid January.
I will publish another post with the Gutsy installation and optimization procedure later today.
On the house front I started to open the floors and to see what is under them... The floors have to be completely removed and have to be redone with the modern techniques. It was all wet under them. I'm still waiting for the neighbors to let us know if they permit us to raise the house, but have no real hope in that. I plan to go to the architect this week and start the procedure for the house renewal. In the mean time doing all the works that don't have to be officially permitted.
Yesterday I went to the agency to get a part of the amount the insurance decided to give me because of the injury I suffered a year ago. It went almost well, except for the fact that the person who followed my case doesn't work there anymore and I had to explain some things about what happened to the new lady...
I'm seriously thinking about changing my car. Toyota sent me a very good offer for retiring my 6 years old Yaris and buying a new one. I have time 'till the end of the year to decide what to do.
At work I successfully managed to migrate all the users authentication data into an LDAP database and to convert the mbox files to maildir. There were quite a few problems, but I managed to solve the critical ones in a short time.
I am now unofficially on the list of the people who will get a employment contract with no termination date... Let's see how and when.
In August we went to the EuroBillTracker Meeting in Berlin, it was truly great, a lot of nice people and we learned some new things about Euro tracking techniques.
For the travel I decided to buy a new notebook, a smaller one, as my 15" is to cumbersome to carry around. I selected a Fujitsu Siemens Computers Amilo Pro V3205. The machine is great for that price, except for the malfunctioning of the SD card reader. As all my gadgets are mainly SD card based it was an important feature of the product. I went back to the shop where I bought the notebook and they kindly accepted it back and sent it to Fujitsu Siemens Computers Italy. At FSC the DOA was accepted and another notebook was ordered. WHen it arrived (it was already mid September if i remember right) I decided to check the SD function still being at the shop. Yes, you guessed it. It didn't work.
So also the second one was sent back to FSC Italy. That time the DOA was turned down because the FSC technician said that the SD reader was supposed to work in that way... The malfunctioning being, that the SD card wasn't ejected mechanically. It was protruding by 2mm out of the slot, which in really not enough to take it out with normal fingers. So after a quick check with the German FSC support, they confirmed, that the SD slot should work as usual - a mechanical spring should eject the SD card, I decided that enough was enough. A really sad experience and another producer on th Nobuy list.
I did not accept the notebook that was coming back from FSC Italy and instead bought a Lenovo X61s. The X61s was manufactured on 22/11/2007 and a week later I already had it in my hands.
So after 4 month I have a small notebook that suits my mobility needs.
The X61s is great... If you dump Vista. I ordered the Business edition to have a legal way to downgrade it to XP. But for the moment I just installed Ubuntu on it. Yes Ubuntu, me, a real fan of KDE... ok It was just because Ubuntu Gutsy has the Desktop effects enabled and I wanted to impress friends, relatives etc ;) KDE4 is due in mid January.
I will publish another post with the Gutsy installation and optimization procedure later today.
On the house front I started to open the floors and to see what is under them... The floors have to be completely removed and have to be redone with the modern techniques. It was all wet under them. I'm still waiting for the neighbors to let us know if they permit us to raise the house, but have no real hope in that. I plan to go to the architect this week and start the procedure for the house renewal. In the mean time doing all the works that don't have to be officially permitted.
Yesterday I went to the agency to get a part of the amount the insurance decided to give me because of the injury I suffered a year ago. It went almost well, except for the fact that the person who followed my case doesn't work there anymore and I had to explain some things about what happened to the new lady...
I'm seriously thinking about changing my car. Toyota sent me a very good offer for retiring my 6 years old Yaris and buying a new one. I have time 'till the end of the year to decide what to do.
At work I successfully managed to migrate all the users authentication data into an LDAP database and to convert the mbox files to maildir. There were quite a few problems, but I managed to solve the critical ones in a short time.
I am now unofficially on the list of the people who will get a employment contract with no termination date... Let's see how and when.
20070726
2 months pause
Wow! It was almost 2 months after the last post... Have to write something more ;)
Today I'm going to see the neighbours and try to convince them to let us raise the house. Hope it goes well. In the meantime my girlfriend is writing her thesis. She plans to finish it before autumn. After she finishes university we will start living together - probably not in our house yet, but in an apartment. She will not go back to her mom and neither she wants to live at my place with my parents and sister. I completely understand her. I was already looking for an apartment in the neighbourhood, but it seems that now in summer it is not the right time... Only one with an reasonable price.
A few days ago I finally got some news about the car incident I suffered in December. On the 30th August I will have a examination from the "legal" doctor of the "Street Victim Found" that will reimburse me of the expenses instead of the guy with the false insurance. The only catch is that they won't pay the first 500€ of the material damage. I'll have to try and get those expenses from the guy. I also contacted the Police about the investigation they are conducting and they assured me that it's going on - that means they know nothing because now it's the court that conducts it.
The most enjoyable thing in those two months since the last post was that on the 17th June we released our first Travel Bug!!! A travel Bug is a Geocaching item that wanders from cache to cache with a precise mission. Our TB is named Žirafa Brina and she wants to visit all continents, while on the road she sends us back some postcard from the places she visits. The gallery of the images for here trip can be visited here. Right now she is somewhere in the Czech republic waiting to go overseas. She already traveled some 500km in roughly a month.
In the last days I played a little bit with some browsers under Linux changed Firefox with Swiftfox, tried Iceweasel and finally stopped with Swiftweasel. Of course I installed the i386 version on my AMD64 system to get rid of all the annoyances with the plugins. Under Kubuntu (and Debian) it just takes a --force-architecture and that's it :)
Later I'll try to post my favorite plugins for Firefox & relatives.
Today I'm going to see the neighbours and try to convince them to let us raise the house. Hope it goes well. In the meantime my girlfriend is writing her thesis. She plans to finish it before autumn. After she finishes university we will start living together - probably not in our house yet, but in an apartment. She will not go back to her mom and neither she wants to live at my place with my parents and sister. I completely understand her. I was already looking for an apartment in the neighbourhood, but it seems that now in summer it is not the right time... Only one with an reasonable price.
A few days ago I finally got some news about the car incident I suffered in December. On the 30th August I will have a examination from the "legal" doctor of the "Street Victim Found" that will reimburse me of the expenses instead of the guy with the false insurance. The only catch is that they won't pay the first 500€ of the material damage. I'll have to try and get those expenses from the guy. I also contacted the Police about the investigation they are conducting and they assured me that it's going on - that means they know nothing because now it's the court that conducts it.
The most enjoyable thing in those two months since the last post was that on the 17th June we released our first Travel Bug!!! A travel Bug is a Geocaching item that wanders from cache to cache with a precise mission. Our TB is named Žirafa Brina and she wants to visit all continents, while on the road she sends us back some postcard from the places she visits. The gallery of the images for here trip can be visited here. Right now she is somewhere in the Czech republic waiting to go overseas. She already traveled some 500km in roughly a month.
In the last days I played a little bit with some browsers under Linux changed Firefox with Swiftfox, tried Iceweasel and finally stopped with Swiftweasel. Of course I installed the i386 version on my AMD64 system to get rid of all the annoyances with the plugins. Under Kubuntu (and Debian) it just takes a --force-architecture and that's it :)
Later I'll try to post my favorite plugins for Firefox & relatives.
20070503
Geocaches
And we finally did it! We placed our first geocache.
We selected and easily accessible area near our home. So that the maintenance should not be a problem. The approval was also very fast, we placed it in the afternoon and on the same evening it was already listed (Thanks kazuma!!!). On the 27th April there were already 2 visits to the cache (or better to say one - as we found out later the 2 geocachers were part of the same family). After this great success we decided to place another cache, this time on a more steep elevation. So on the 1st May we climbed on the mountain Nanos (1260m) which is some 20 km away from us and placed our second cache. Let's hope it gets approved before the weekend.
We selected and easily accessible area near our home. So that the maintenance should not be a problem. The approval was also very fast, we placed it in the afternoon and on the same evening it was already listed (Thanks kazuma!!!). On the 27th April there were already 2 visits to the cache (or better to say one - as we found out later the 2 geocachers were part of the same family). After this great success we decided to place another cache, this time on a more steep elevation. So on the 1st May we climbed on the mountain Nanos (1260m) which is some 20 km away from us and placed our second cache. Let's hope it gets approved before the weekend.
20070424
VMware server virtualization
At work we had an old server with Suse 8.1 installed. While planning to convert it to Debian and install some new SATA controllers and disks I had the idea of converting it to a virtual server to minimize the down time.
I started the machine with a rescue CD and did a dd image of the physical hard disk on an external USB 2.0 drive.
and then converted the image to a VMware image
You can find the qemu-img utility in the Debian qemu package.
After that it was just a matter of copying the vmdk to the machine on which the VMware server was to be installed.
VMware server was downloaded from http://www.vmware.com/download/server/ (about 100 Mb).
I selected the tar.gz because the target OS was Debian.
To let it work correctly in Debian I also had to download the vmware-any-any update from http://ftp.cvut.cz/vmware/
I also downloaded the Management Interface from the VMware site to my workstation, and installed it. It provides a nice GUI for the virtual servers.
After extracting the downloaded files I launched the provided install scripts.
First the VMware server as root with
For the configuration and rebuilding of the VMware modules some tools are needed, which can be installed with
this is probably somewhere redundant
and because it didn't work the first time I installed also
So the underlying software was ready. It was time to configure the virtual server. I started with the advanced version and defined the VM as a Suse Linux and that I already have a disk file and then started the new VM.
It booted immediately.
When I was in the console of the virtualized system I checked the
which is the module for the virtual Ethernet card.
After that I rebooted the system to be sure that all the services come up right and the "new" server was ready.
I started the machine with a rescue CD and did a dd image of the physical hard disk on an external USB 2.0 drive.
dd if=/dev/hda of=/external/server_hda.img
and then converted the image to a VMware image
qemu-img convert -f raw server_hda.img -O vmdk server_hda.vmdk
You can find the qemu-img utility in the Debian qemu package.
After that it was just a matter of copying the vmdk to the machine on which the VMware server was to be installed.
VMware server was downloaded from http://www.vmware.com/download/server/ (about 100 Mb).
I selected the tar.gz because the target OS was Debian.
To let it work correctly in Debian I also had to download the vmware-any-any update from http://ftp.cvut.cz/vmware/
I also downloaded the Management Interface from the VMware site to my workstation, and installed it. It provides a nice GUI for the virtual servers.
After extracting the downloaded files I launched the provided install scripts.
First the VMware server as root with
./vmware-install.pl, but didn't start the configuration. The any-any update has to be applied with ./runme.plFor the configuration and rebuilding of the VMware modules some tools are needed, which can be installed with
apt-get install libx11-6 libx11-dev libxtst6 xinetd build-essentialthis is probably somewhere redundant
apt-get install gcc binutils-doc make manpages-dev autoconf automake1.9 libtool flex bison gdb libc6-dev gcc-2.95-docand because it didn't work the first time I installed also
apt-get install libxt6 libxrender1So the underlying software was ready. It was time to configure the virtual server. I started with the advanced version and defined the VM as a Suse Linux and that I already have a disk file and then started the new VM.
It booted immediately.
When I was in the console of the virtualized system I checked the
/etc/fstab and removed all the unused entries. The second thing was to let the system load the appropriate module for the network interface. I therefore looked at /etc/modules.conf and changed the line withalias eth0 somemodule to alias eth0 pcnet32which is the module for the virtual Ethernet card.
After that I rebooted the system to be sure that all the services come up right and the "new" server was ready.
20070418
News
After a long time, finally an update ;)
About the car incident I have no news, except that I had to drive to car to some insurance experts, to make a report for the street victims found, that will refund the repair, but only the sum over 500€.
With the house there are some problems... They told me, that if we want to make the house higher we have to obtain a signed agreement of the neighbours. :(
We have luck... we have just 2 of them :)
In the last days I was busy at work with the updates to Debian 4.0 Etch. They were pretty straightforward, except for the upgrade of amavisd-new. There was a change in the configuration layout. From a monolithic file it was split in various files. The change was needed, the next upgrades will be easier, but I lost some hours figuring out where to insert my customizations.
Next week there will be a major update on the main server - change OS from SuSE to Debian. I'm a little bit worried, but somehow I have to manage it.
At home I finally ordered and got an analogical telephony card that works with Asterisk. Let's hope the configuration will not be too difficult.
In my free time I finally decided to give something back and started helping with the Slovene translation of *ubuntu in Launchpad.
Yesterday a friend from Perugia wrote, they had their second baby! Little Maria Cristina was 3.020Kg at birth. I wish her the best!
About the car incident I have no news, except that I had to drive to car to some insurance experts, to make a report for the street victims found, that will refund the repair, but only the sum over 500€.
With the house there are some problems... They told me, that if we want to make the house higher we have to obtain a signed agreement of the neighbours. :(
We have luck... we have just 2 of them :)
In the last days I was busy at work with the updates to Debian 4.0 Etch. They were pretty straightforward, except for the upgrade of amavisd-new. There was a change in the configuration layout. From a monolithic file it was split in various files. The change was needed, the next upgrades will be easier, but I lost some hours figuring out where to insert my customizations.
Next week there will be a major update on the main server - change OS from SuSE to Debian. I'm a little bit worried, but somehow I have to manage it.
At home I finally ordered and got an analogical telephony card that works with Asterisk. Let's hope the configuration will not be too difficult.
In my free time I finally decided to give something back and started helping with the Slovene translation of *ubuntu in Launchpad.
Yesterday a friend from Perugia wrote, they had their second baby! Little Maria Cristina was 3.020Kg at birth. I wish her the best!
20070212
Legal & construction update
On Friday I managed to go to the police and filled a complaint about the person who hit my car from behind in December. They were very happy to have to talk to this person as it seems that he was driving a car with a fake insurance. I guess the situation has gotten worse for the guy. Not that I feel pity for him - he's just going to get what he was looking for. At least I hope he will get it. I'm still having physiotherapy and the situation with my back and neck is getting better, but I'm still not OK. Yesterday I tried to help my father mounting some lamps - I immediately felt pain in my neck when I wanted to look up.
On the house construction front things are finally moving. On Saturday we had a meeting with our architect and the construction workers. After they talked about half an hour we arranged a meeting with a local architect and as it seems in some three month we could have all the paperwork done and could start building. Of course the other architect's work will not be without a cost, but that's the way those things go.
So, today I have to make the final arrangements with the local architect and deliver him some papers so that he could start working on it.
On the house construction front things are finally moving. On Saturday we had a meeting with our architect and the construction workers. After they talked about half an hour we arranged a meeting with a local architect and as it seems in some three month we could have all the paperwork done and could start building. Of course the other architect's work will not be without a cost, but that's the way those things go.
So, today I have to make the final arrangements with the local architect and deliver him some papers so that he could start working on it.
20070112
Euro in Slovenia
For New Year we (my girlfriend an me) were in Ljubljana, she studies there so we stayed in her apartment.
We met some friends and had a very good time. We were also eagerly waiting the adoption of the Euro. On the 1st of January I changed the last Slovenian tolars by simply buying a hot dog. The money they gave me back was in Euro. It was a magic moment - those nice shiny coins all new. I was proud of Slovenia.
After that we started inserting in EuroBillTracker the money we got in Slovenia. It was nice, finally the "black hole", in which a lot of the money we were tracking was going, disappeared.
On the 4th January a new Slovenian user published an article in one of the major Slovenian new sites and started a true avalanche. In just seven days 2174 new users joined from Slovenia and inserted 17065 Euro notes into the database. That made Slovenia jump to rank 10 - just above Ireland and Greece, that are in the Euro-zone since 5 years.
Everyone at EBT was very happy and was looking with astonishment at those numbers. Let's hope that the users will continue to insert notes and be active.
On my side I'm trying to publish another article about the Slovenian users joining EBT. That could start another wave. I hope to have it for tomorrow.
Today I've got the quote from the construction company. I looks good, not as good as I was hoping, but still a reasonable price.
We met some friends and had a very good time. We were also eagerly waiting the adoption of the Euro. On the 1st of January I changed the last Slovenian tolars by simply buying a hot dog. The money they gave me back was in Euro. It was a magic moment - those nice shiny coins all new. I was proud of Slovenia.
After that we started inserting in EuroBillTracker the money we got in Slovenia. It was nice, finally the "black hole", in which a lot of the money we were tracking was going, disappeared.
On the 4th January a new Slovenian user published an article in one of the major Slovenian new sites and started a true avalanche. In just seven days 2174 new users joined from Slovenia and inserted 17065 Euro notes into the database. That made Slovenia jump to rank 10 - just above Ireland and Greece, that are in the Euro-zone since 5 years.
Everyone at EBT was very happy and was looking with astonishment at those numbers. Let's hope that the users will continue to insert notes and be active.
On my side I'm trying to publish another article about the Slovenian users joining EBT. That could start another wave. I hope to have it for tomorrow.
Today I've got the quote from the construction company. I looks good, not as good as I was hoping, but still a reasonable price.
20070108
Long silence...
I didn't post anything for almost a month. Bad things happened.
On the 21st December my best friends girlfriend died. She was 22. I was shocked. Because of my injury I couldn't be so much with him as I wanted to. It was a hard experience when he was asking me why that happened, why to them...
I had no answer. I usually have an answer for almost everything or at least try to logically analyse everything. Not for that...
There is no logic, there is no answer. I wanted to cry myself, but managed not to because of my friend. I felt I have to be strong and try to support him.
It was probably a worthless effort, he has to get over it by himself. It would not happen in a day. I want to help him. I have to be with him.
There are so much things you take for granted... a smile a hug from the person you love... being together and planning the future. In a snap it goes away and you remain there... lost.
Today was her funeral...
I hope, Ana, you are in a wonderfull place now!
On the 21st December my best friends girlfriend died. She was 22. I was shocked. Because of my injury I couldn't be so much with him as I wanted to. It was a hard experience when he was asking me why that happened, why to them...
I had no answer. I usually have an answer for almost everything or at least try to logically analyse everything. Not for that...
There is no logic, there is no answer. I wanted to cry myself, but managed not to because of my friend. I felt I have to be strong and try to support him.
It was probably a worthless effort, he has to get over it by himself. It would not happen in a day. I want to help him. I have to be with him.
There are so much things you take for granted... a smile a hug from the person you love... being together and planning the future. In a snap it goes away and you remain there... lost.
Today was her funeral...
I hope, Ana, you are in a wonderfull place now!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)