Category: Compgeeky

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“I ain’t talkin’ to you!”

That’s apparently what Ubuntu and VMWare Server 2.0 decided to say to each other after a recent Linux kernel update. Weird. Everything was just hunky-dory between Ubuntu and VMWare Server 2.0 before the kernel update. After? VMWare would NOT load any more. Period. Solution? Recompile VMWare Server 2.0. *sheesh!* That’s dumb.

Ah, well. At least it was a trivial task. All it involved was typing a command at the command line and hitting the “Enter” key… A LOT. When it asked for my regnum, I was even able to just keep hitting “Enter” and select “no” because my regnum was already entered in the config script. Stupid silly, an annoyance. But a trivial thing overall. Oh, and sure, I don’t like the new web management “feature”. It simply does not work as well as the console management did with version 1.X. Still, the ability VMWare Server has to load 64-bit clients on a 64-bit host brings it a notch above other options out there, so I guess I’ll stick with it as my primary virtualization tool in a Linux host.

So, for future reference, I’ll know: put another potta coffee on, invoke the config script and start wearing out the “Enter key” again. By the time the coffee finishes brewing, I should be halfway through having VMWare Server recompiled/reconfigured…

Petty annoyances. At least I have fewer of them than in a typical Windows setup.

Bonus gripe: Windows machines are sometimes simply too dumb for words. Take finding and using the printer attached to this Linux box. Never had troubles configuring a Linux box to use a printer attached to a Windows machine. Find it on the network, bang! I’m on. (Heck, I’ve never–well, in the last five years of using Linux boxes off and on–had to install printer drivers in Linux for the printers I have–admittedly, all pretty current models. Every Linux box I’ve built has just “automagically” configured printers. Nice.) Other way around? Hit or miss. Sooo… downloaded and installed Safari browser on the problematic Windows machines. *Huh?!?* Installed an Apple browser to fix network printing on a Windows machine? Yep. That’s because Safari comes with the neatest lil applet to solve Windows network printing that I’ve found: Bonjour.

Bonjour just finds and configures networked printers. Period. And does it well. Heck, I’ve even installed and used it with a Windows VM running inside a Linux host to see if it would work there. It did.

Easy-peasy network printer configs.

BTW, Safari browser isn’t bad. Limited deature set (not even as configurable as Firefox from what I’ve been able to tell) and minimalist controls. For folks who like that sort of straightjacket, very nice indeed. Rendering engine is fast and reasonably accurate. Better overall than Internet Exploder, a step down from both Firefox and Opera, IMO, but still a pretty decent little browser. About on a par with using Konqueror (which is fine as a file browser) as a web browser.

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I Really, REALLY Need to Get Off My Lazy Butt…

I just wasted a few minutes goofing off over at the Computer Hope website taking a quiz. Yes, I guessed on four or five questions (although since it was multiple choice, even there I eliminated all but two of four answers and only had to mentally flip coins between two options each time). I’m rather disappointed with my score:

I really prefer sauntering to the front of the class and saying to the prof, “Here’s your key,” but oh, well. Better luck next time.

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Google Chrome? Yes and No

Not quite Google Chrome. I tried out the still buggy and full of security holes Google Chrome when it came out and thought, “Well, this might be a browser option someday, but it’s not my cuppa right now.” Perri Nelson noted some issues and features, and although I didn’t give it quite as much attention as he did at the time, I agreed that it was pretty good. Lovely Daughter tried it out on her lil XP Home Sony notebook and liked it.

Noodling around, trying to get the taste of McWhatsisname whimping out in “debate” number 3 out of my mouth, I stumbled across Codeweaver’s offering of “a Mac and Linux port of the open source Chromium web browser.” Hmm, thought I, isn’t Chromium from the same code base as Google Chrome? Nope. It is the code base of Google Chrome.

Sooo, downloaded and installed Codeweaver’s free “port” of the Chromium browser. (Codeweaver is a company making money off WINE technology by extensively testing and tweaking a WINE core to ensure compatibility with specific Windows products. It’s a Good Thing.)

Nice. Slick. My memory of Google Chrome running in a Windows XP Pro VM isn’t as pleasant as this browser (apparently the same browser, just a few rough edges smoothed over). Still not ready for prime time for my use, but it looks very, very promising. Some buggy behavior (a graphic artifact–“connecting…” indicating a site loading–showing up over my use of a different browser to write this post is annoying), but I still kinda like it. I’ll be checking back to see what comes of Chromium/Chrome in the future.

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Uniquely Weird

OK, so maybe I bore easily.

Noodling around for a solution to dual boot Son&Heir’s XBox, I found and downloaded “Damn Small Linux” in several flavors for the heck of it. Unpacked the “DSL-embedded” version, ran dsl-base.bat using WINE and…

QEMU/Knoppix bootloader brought up a DSL live session.

Crazy.

Next: VMWare Server and an actual installation (VM install, of course) of the OS.

Why not? After all my years of parsimonious hard drive space allocation, I find it pleasuable to cut another 8-10GiB out of the herd to install yet another VM. 😉

OK, installed and running, now. Hmmm, it’s “as OK” as the QEMU “ermbedded” version. As always, the Dillo browser sucks dead bunnies through a straw, but since I installed this version in a VM, installing another browser is a trivial task. Oh, I see Firefox is available. It’s not bad, but since I set this up to run in an 800X600 window, Firefox just Will Not Do (Firefox sort of enlarges fonts, etc., but does a crappy job of it).

Not as slick as Puppy Linux, save for its auto-configuration of network resources, but I can see where it’d be very useful for folks with older computers, and in fact I may install this on some old Pentium or Pentium II computer laying around here at twc central. Pretty nice. Probably won’t keep this VM around any longer than it takes me to become familiar with the DSL GUI, but it’s a nice, lean OS from wht I’ve seen thus far.

OK, for more OS-ey fun, I decided to “upgrade” VMWare Server to version 2, since the thing’s been nagging me to do so. 503MiB download. No console any more, just a browser management window that requires me to do some funky stuff like download a plugin to make the thing work. *feh* Took a perfectly workable console and screwed it up. Oh, things still run mostly OK, but some features are missing (where’s my sound? USB? Heck, where’s shared input between host and client? Screw thi silly “CTRL+ALT to release the mouse/keyboard, and no cur n paste between host and client? It’s all gotta be there somewhere… ) and it’s a darned sight clunkier than the old console. Oh. Well. That’s progress, I suppose.

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Linux: Gottaloveit

It’s been a little over four months since I move nearly all my Windows use over to virtual machines running on an Ubuntu 8.04 box, and despite numerous big and little “gotchas” along the way, it’s been a Good Thing. In fact, now that more and more WINE issues seem to clear up with every recent WINE update, I rarely need to start any of the Windows VMs, apart from checking “CLICK paths” for other users I’m walking through Windows issues over the phone or via email (I still prefer to simply log onto a remote session on someone’s computer to walk through issues, instead of phone/email).

One of the nicest things about the all-Linux, all the time experience has been the security aspect. The built in firewall has performed as well at online security-probing sites as highly intrusive, third party Windows firewall powerhouses have performed, and although I installed ClamAV (not active protection like most Windows AVs), neither its on-demand scanner nor such places as Trendmicro’s Housecall have found any infections.

Get that: no active defense, as is recommended for Windows computers, but also no infestations of malware.

I attribute that to several things. First, Ubuntu is designed to NOT run in admin (or root privileges) mode, as most Windows computers are by default. Installing software, changing system parameters, etc., all require the user to specifically, manually input the root password, so if I were to have malware installed, it’d almost surely have been installed with my witting participation, and that’s not likely at all, at all.

Then there’s the fact that few malware authors want to invade such an admittedly small target population. (That’s one of the security advantages of the Mac platform, BTW: small target.)

Then there’s my choice of browser. (note: Opera recently had a security issue that affected all OS platforms, but was corrected in a 24-hour period. Compare that to security issues that’ve been outstanding for YEAS in Internet Exploder.) No kudos to Ubuntu for that, of course, but I do like the more secure (than IE or even Firefox, AFAIK) browsing experience. (For even more security enhancement, I’ll sometimes run OperaTOR from a flash drive. The Windows version runs Just Fine in Linux using WINE.)

And, of course, I can’t ascribe merit to Ubuntu for avoiding infections I’d not succomb to in any OS–I do not, for example, invoke email attachments from ANYONE unless I expect the attachment AND I manually scan it with an up-to-date anti-virus.

So, if you’d like to ditch your power-sucking vampire of a security suite, Ubuntu–or Linux in general–seems to be the ticket. (And yes, I know BSD offers even more security, as reported by many, but right now, its GUI options and software selection, even though it can run most ‘nix apps, is just slightly south of what I find in Ubuntu Linux–just slightly.)

For y’all who’re still wearing the Me$$y$oft ball and chain, why not give Wubi a try? It’s an easy-peasy way to install Ubuntu in a Windows folder. I’ve not had any problems installing/uninstalling Ubuntu using Wubi on any of a number of computers here at twc central, but do read the FAQ at the Wubi site. Heck, it even uses the Windows bootloader to boot into Ubuntu and is uninstallable using Windows’ Add/Remove Programs.

Or install VMWare Server and try running Ubuntu in a VM in Windows. You might just like it enough to ditch Windows entirely on your next computer build/purchase.

Update: savvy users are already aware of such things as “Clickjacking”–a type of browser hijacking allowing “an attacker to use one or more of several new attack scenarios to literally steal your mouse clicks.” It’s a set of malware techniques that all browsers in all OSes can be vulnerable to, although Linux still is more difficult to attack via clickjackig methods. Still, by disabling javascript and a few other lil content goodies, along with iFrames, Opera is safer than most, and still allows one to use javascript, et al, for any trusted site by simply setting Site Preferences to allow ’em for any one given “trusted site”. Granular controls: a Very Good Thing.

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Browser Fun

Between Windows, Linux and PCBSD, although I’ve pretty well standardized on Opera as my web browser of choice, I generally also have available:

Windows: Opera in various versions–currently 9.60 beta, build 10427 for the most part, although I have 9.26, 9.27 and 9.52, as well as OperaTor available on flashdrives as well. Then, of course, I have Internet Exploder (varies depending on the machine: versions 6 and 7, updated as far as possible for the machine, physical or virtual). I avoid using Internet Exploder as much as possible, but there are some Microsoft sites that choke on other browsers. FIrefox 3.X and Safari browser (don’t have the ver # at the tip of my finders) round out m y typical browser selection installed on just about every Windows machine I have. Neither sees much use, though I do like to check web pages in them from time to time. Tried out Google’s Chrome briefly. Didn’t like it enough to keep it around for a longer tryout.

Linux: All the browsers listed above (except for Chrome–it didn’t even want to play with WINE, though my Windows portable versions of Opera have no problems). Yes, I sometimes have as many as three different versions of Opera open at once just in Linux: Linux native version–currently at 9.60 Beta, build 10426–one of the portable Windows versions and Opera (Windows native) 9.60 Beta build 10427 running undere WINE. Perhaps even an instance running in a Windows VM client running on the Linux host. (Yeh, I keep ’em straight by placing toolbars in different places for the different build/versions open).

PCBSD–usually just the latest ‘nix version, although Safari runs fine under WINE and Firefox is also available.

Oh, in Linux and in PCBSD, there are also various Mozilla-based browsers built in, as it were, as default browsers, but they’re usually so crappy the first thing I do is install Opera, then whatever other browser(s) I feel I want to have available (IE usually runs as well as IE can using WINE, although I’ve not gotten IE7 installed and running on a ‘nix box).

I really try to keep an open mind toward using other browsers, but I’ve been a bit spoiled by Opera. *heh* Usually, on a fresh install of Firefox, the first time I forget and make a mouse gesture, I *arrrrgggghhh!* and then go hunt down the latest extension so I can have an almost-as-good-as-Opera implementation of mouse gestures. “Dumb,” think I (every time! *heh*). “Have to get an extension to have basic browser functionality?!?” That’s how having all the goodiest goodies built into a browser (Opera) has spoiled me. I think of the goodies built into Opera–like native mouse gestures–as “basic browser functionality”–*heh*

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Pet Ubuntu Peeve

There are an awful lot of things I like about Ubuntu 8.01 “Hardy Heron”. Overall ease of use; a HUGE repository of easily installable softwares to complement the extensive and useful collection of software installed by default; general stability (almost NEVER need to reboot, for example); an impressive level of security right out of the box, as it were: all these things and more are Very Good Things.

Oh, and although it’s free, support in the various free forums is at least as good as my experience with Microsoft has been over the years–actually much better.

But. System/software updates. A Good Thing, overall. But.

This weird thing where–magically! (bad magic, but magic nonetheless)–things that are imprtant to me just stop working or start working badly immediately after system updates, or conversely begin working properly again w/o any reasonable excuse… this can drive me nutso.

Get screen resolution like I want it. System update. Screen goes to 600X400 or lower, and REFUSES (w/o a very big hammer) to go back to preferred resolution. *feh*

Sound working nicely; new speakers sound wonderful. System update. Sound barely squeaks along and WILL NOT use my preferred sound chipset. Nothing helps. System update. Sound now loverly again. System update. Crfappy sound. System update, system update, system update: sound now loverly again. Heck, more than that. Now have to turn darned near everything DOWN (with software controls) to listen at appropriate levels

Flash vids (YouTube et al) work fine in browser. System update. Flash no longer works. Redownload and install appropriate plugins. Everything hunky-dory. System update. Flash down in browsers. Lather, rinse, repeat. Do note: while all this is happening in browsers, standalone flash players continue to work fine. Finally, another system update and… flash works in browsers again. For now.

Crazy. Insane. Me, that is. Can’t. Stand. It.

But. All’s well. For now.

Still, even with these warts (and the “Update WINE and Encore no longer works worth a darn” issue), Ub untu’s been a Good Thing. Now, if I could just get Windows Home Server working under Ubuntu using VMWare Server… *heh*

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OK, Here’s a weird thought…

Well, it’s a little bit weird and a little bit cool. Just another lil (seriously meaningless) VM game to take my mind off current events. You can move along now. Nothing going on here today but a lil bit of play time.

So, I have WinXPPro-64 running inside Ubuntu 8.04 using VMWare Server set up to use a bridged network connection so my network (as well as comps on the interweb) “sees” the VM as an entirely separate machine with its own IP address.

Well, that’s fun. I also have Win2K, Win98 and PCBSD virtual machines configured similarly inside the same host machine.

Soooo, how about accessing one of the VM clients from the host machine using VNC or Logmein or whatever? *lol* Kinda around the barn, eh? No real sense to it (and the lil Logmein utility doesn’t seem to like WINE all that much–maybe I ought to tweak my WINE config in the PCBSD machine), but it’s interesting. *heh*

Done.

OK, so Logmein is slow, what with all the refreshes and whatnot, but it does give me a little practice using it for folks who have trouble installing VNC for remote sessions. (Logmein doesn’t seem to think anyone but Windoze users would find their service useful…. and that’s probably pretty close to TRW) VNC’s a lil lot faster over the local network, of course (though remote computers don’t see any real speed/responsiveness benefit over Logmein), and for those times when I want to really access things here at twc central, that’s the key (really: using a keyfob USB drive with Portable VNC. Only ).

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Heigh-Ho…

Or perhaps, “Eighteen tons and what do you get… ”

Well, at least I have refuge from the word (and activity) that gave Maynard G Krebs heart palpitations every time it was uttered…

Yeh, that’s the ticket: home sweet home, refuge from a world gone mad. But then…

Lovely Daughter has planned on moving back into the twc central catacombs (finished basement), which means… the room that we’ve used for storage for the past five or six years must be cleaned out. Unfortunately, that happens to be the single largest room in the house, about 10 SF larger than the living room, in fact. And it is (was) packed to the gills.

*heh*

Sooo, in the past week, as time and energy has permitted, Son&Heir and I have been sorting and re-packing and throwing stuff out, no matter how appealing the junk may be. Including, but certainly not limited to, a storehouse of “ancient” computers and computer parts, 8088/8086/286/386/486 and old Pentiums/586/686 computers, stripped of usable (or even potentially usable) parts (which are now packed away and stored much, much more compactly) and hauled out for disposal. Eleven of ’em so far.

Oh, I’m keeping 6 of the older, rarely-booted 486 and Pentium boxes, primarily just for fun, although I do have some old files archived on a 486 I really ought to transfer elsewhere. Heck, it’s an old Win 3.11 for Workgroups comp I no longer even have a network card in… getting that thing on the network ought to be a buncha fun all by its lonesome. *heh*

And then there are all the peripherals. Most of them are sorted pretty well, but many of them just need to be tossed. Who needs a bunch of perfectly usable, but slow, CD read-only drives, anyway? (OK, I’ll hang on to the NEC CD changer drive, cos it’s cool, and I can use it building a media center. A six CD shuffler would be OK in a multi-drive system. Besides, the faceplate’s already painted black, which should match up well with the rest of my components.)

And, of course, the computer related junk is just the tip of the iceberg, as it were. Boxes of books that we want to hang onto are going in pastic tubs and then into the newly-emptied storage shed outside (and yes, that was a fun chore, too :-)).

More fun ‘n’ games? Yeh, what I want to do in that room, after a thorough cleaning, is reseal and “plaster” the walls, add a ceiling fan (have one) and ethernet cabling (2 of 4 of the other rooms downstairs already have ethernet, and I think the bathroom doesn’t really need it, do you? :-)). Oh, and a little work on the closet in that room might be in order. Already have a “new” door set aside for the place and Lovely Daughter will need to pick out her own paint color(s). Yep. Another two weeks from today should be about right.

So, who needs [that word that drove Maynard G Krebs around the bend] to stay busy?

😉

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“Sitemeter down”? NOT!

A recently linked post from Walls of the City clued me into a misconception making the rounds (yeh, I’ve had emails about it since). Sitemeter is not “down” nor does having the Sitemeter code on ones blog keep folks from viewing your page… unless those folks are using the least standards-compliant browser available, Internet Exploder.

Sitemeter and Sitemeter code on a blog page pose NO PROBLEM for folks using a browser that at least makes a good faith attempt at standards-compliance. I know, because I checked with three other browsers (in two different OSes) and had NO PROBLEMS either with Sitemeter itself or with blogs with active Sitemeter code.

Here’s my remedy for the Sitemeter/blogs-with-Sitemeter-code-not-viewable/loadable-in-Internet Exploder:

For blogs using the Sitemeter code, temporarily disable the code (see the link above), then

Thump the “Stop using a crappy browser (Internet Exploder)!” bone as often and hard as you can. Strongly, and in no uncertain terms encourage ALL readers to standardize their browsing experience on a more standards-compliant browser. I prefer Opera, but FIrefox is not bad, although considerably less elegant (and pretty consistently slower) than Opera. Both are worlds and away better than Internet Exploder.

Just say No! to Internet Exploder!

For those very few sites that refuse to load unless one is using Internet Exploder(even with Opera masking itself as Internet Exploder), because of very aggressive browser sniffing, Internet Exploder still has a limited–extreeeeemely limited–use on twc computers. But except for gag use, it’s completely unused on my main machine.

Kill Me$$y$oft’s Internet Exploder! It’s just tough love.

Use a real browser. Opera, Firefox and Safari* are all more standards-compliant than Me$$y$oft’s Internet Exploder, and NONE of them have any problems with the Sitemeter code.

AND: Note Peri’s remarks in comments. Microsoft’s been aware of this bug in Internet Exploder for years and just doesn’t care. After all, it’s only Microsoft’s customers who suffer, so why should they care?

*IMO, Safari is still not nearly as good a browser as either Opera or Firefox, but it’s still at least an order of magnitude better than Internet Exploder. Yes, I have it installed both using WINE in Linux and in a Windows VM. It’s relatively nimble, moderately powerful, a good browser. And the bundled Bonjour network/printer wizard is not a bad thing for non-techie folks who have trouble sharing network resources between various versions of Windows.

Trackposted to Nuke’s, Perri Nelson’s Website, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Woman Honor Thyself, McCain Blogs, Adam’s Blog, Right Truth, The World According to Carl, Shadowscope, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Cao’s Blog, Dumb Ox Daily News, and Democrat=Socialist, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.