Monthly Archive for July, 2009

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Linux on an Apple Xserve EFI only machine

Published on 23 July, 2009 in Fedora and FOSS. 132 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

We have a few of these Apple Xserve machines at work which weren’t doing much, so I thought I’d make better use of them. Naturally, this meant installing Linux on them.

These machines do not have a BIOS (or even any emulation), they use EFI and as such won’t boot the standard Linux install media. I knew that Fedora could boot EFI, so that’s where I started, with Leonidas (version 11). Unfortunately, the install media just wouldn’t work on this device, presumably as it has no BIOS emulation.

To cut a long story short, I had to learn how EFI works in order to get it booting and it wasn’t an easy thing to discover!

Continue reading ‘Linux on an Apple Xserve EFI only machine’

Printing with a Canon is a blast

Published on 22 July, 2009 in FOSS. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Recently a friend bought a Canon multifunction Pixma MP630 printer and wanted to get it working on Ubuntu Jaunty (Debian should work the same). To my surprise, Canon are making Linux drivers available on their website.

It’s not well spelled out on the site but there are 4 packages that you need and they need to be installed in a specific order. The first two relate to the printer itself, the second two are for the scanning component. Both are i386 packages (but probably work in 64bit as they aren’t actually architecture specific).

First, download the “common” packages called, “IJ Printer Driver Ver. 3.00 for Linux (debian Common package)” and “ScanGear MP Ver. 1.20 for Linux(debian Common package)“. These contains the backend components.

Secondly download the actual driver for that model MP630, “IJ Printer Driver Ver. 3.00 for Linux (debian Package for MP630series)” and “ScanGear MP Ver. 1.20 for Linux(debian Package for MP630series)“.

Now, install the first “common” packages and it will fail because it needs some dependencies. These dependencies are in the tree so running sudo apt-get -f install will fix it. Installing the specific printer drivers will fail because they require the common packages first, which is why they are installed second.

Next, install the two specific drivers. All dependencies should be met and it should proceed smoothly.

Restart CUPS and plug in the printer. When you do, Ubuntu should just automatically detect it and configure it.

When I did this previously apparmor was blocking the backend. It doesn’t appear to in Jaunty, but if you have problems, this is how I removed cups from apparmor.

apt-get install apparmor-profiles
ln -s /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.cupsd /etc/apparmor.d/disable/
apparmor_parser -R /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.cupsd
/etc/init.d/cups restart

Once you’ve done all that, everything should be sweet. Print a test page!

Context

Published on 22 July, 2009 in FOSS. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Being in the spotlight means people often take things you say our of context. I’m speaking of Richard Stallman, who recently got hammered over his “church of emacs” speech and perspective on Mono.

So if you see a discussion of the topic of Mono/ .NET/C#, etc, in which people do not understand the issue properly, please post a correction and cite this article as a link.

If you read that anyone says that RMS “attacked Mono”, please post that he did not attack Mono at all, and ask them to read what he actually said.

There’s enough FUD flying around as it is.

Microsoft submits code for Linux kernel

Published on 21 July, 2009 in FOSS. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , .

Yes, the unthinkable has just happened. Microsoft has submitted code for the Linux kernel, licensed under the GPLv2.

The code in question includes three drivers for their Hyper-V virtualisation technology which makes Linux guests work better.

Why is this a big deal? Well it signals that Linux and free software is powerful and gaining influence, else Microsoft wouldn’t bother at all.

Also, Microsoft previously called the GPL a virus and even anti-American and even Communist.

As Greg Kroah-Hartman mentions in his blog

But, on the other hand, this is Microsoft, so it is a big deal. There are two major aspects of what they did here:

* They released the code under the GPLv2 and publicly stated that this is a valid license for companies to release code under. They will be continuing to contribute under this license, as they work to clean up the code, and add new features and fix bugs as time goes on. This is a huge step forward for Microsoft from what they have previously stated in the past.
* They publicly stated that the proper license to release a Linux kernel driver is under the GPLv2

Of course Microsoft is doing this for their own gain. It is not to benefit the community, but themselves by ensuring Linux runs properly under their own virtualisation technology so that they can compete with other products out there such as Xen, KVM, and VMware.

Still, it’s interesting to see Microsoft do a complete 180 degree flip about Linux and the GPL, as it shows just how influential free software has become.

Update: Groklaw has a good article on this too.

Microsoft wants Linux to run on Windows, in short. So remember what comes after the ‘Embrace’ part… So this is about not losing customers to Linux. And ultimately to replace it, if they can. That’s the ‘Extinguish’ part.

FSF response to Microsoft’s “Promise”

Published on 20 July, 2009 in FOSS. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

The Free Software Foundation has published a reply to Microsoft’s Community Promise surrounding C# and CLI. Here’s a snippet:

Incomplete Standards

The ECMA 334 and 335 specifications describe the core C# language, including information about standard libraries that must be available in any compliant implementation. However, there are several libraries that are included with Mono, and commonly used by applications like Tomboy, that are not required by the standard. And just to be clear, we’re not talking about Windows-specific libraries like ASP.NET and Windows Forms. Instead, we’re talking about libraries under the System namespace that provide common functionality programmers expect in modern programming languages: binary object serialization, regular expressions, XPath and XSLT, and more.

Microsoft needs to do more to assure the free software community that they will not sue over the use of .NET. Release an irrevocable license for all patents in .NET (or at least Mono’s implementation) that remains in effect even after a sale of said patents. Or make a deal with Novell and get them to release Mono under GPLv3..

Bugging bugs with Firefox #1

Published on 16 July, 2009 in FOSS. 2 Comments Tags: , , .

I love Firefox, it’s a great web browser. But there are two things which have annoyed me forever and it’s about time I did something about it.

Numero Uno:
The first is the in relation to the ability to save tabs for the next time Firefox starts. I love this feature. When you have multiple tabs open and you close your last main window it prompts you to “Save and Quit”. When you open Firefox next time, it will automatically open the same pages in the same tabs.

But this doesn’t happen if you have another main browsing window open. Fair enough, I guess. The thing that bugs me is that it doesn’t prompt you if you only have the “Downloads” window open, for example. I get why this is the case – Firefox is still running. In fact, if you close the main browsing window and leave the downloads window up, Firefox is still running, just without any windows present.

What I’d like to see is for Firefox to prompt you to save your tabs if all you have open is the downloads window. It’s annoying to have to cancel the close quit request, go and close the download window, then come back and close Firefox again. Hell, close the download tab too if you like, I don’t mind!

I’m assuming the way it’s coded to work is to check if it’s the last “Firefox” window open, and is so, prompt if there are multiple tabs open. If not, then just quit. Changing the way it works might require a considerable re-write of the code and also open some new case bugs like what to do when the user is still downloading, but hey.

Try it yourself. Open a few tabs, quit Firefox and note the option to “Save and Quit”. Then open the download window (CTRL+Shift+Y on Linux) and try again. No option to “Save and Quit”.

Does this bug anyone else?

-c

Flash Fedora

Published on 16 July, 2009 in Fedora and FOSS. 4 Comments Tags: , , .

I really really wish YouTube would switch to Theora so that I don’t have to install flash.. maybe one day when Google realises how much they’ll be paying in H.264 royalties.

Anyway, dream on.

So to get Flash working in Fedora it doesn’t work out of the box. Also, if you visit a flash site it tells you to download it manually and that ends up in a whole lot of pain.

I ended up downloading the 64bit version 10 alpha and installing it manually. Flash now works, but the install method is disappointing.

Edit: There’s a better way described in the Fedora Wiki

-c

Moblin to run Xserver as user, not root

Published on 16 July, 2009 in FOSS. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

This is an awesome development. The Moblin team has modified the Xserver which allows it to run as a non-root user. Previously X had to run as root to communicate directly with video hardware, but now thanks to GEM and kernel mode-setting that’s no longer required. Yay.

A fine example of everyone benefiting from free software.

-c

Will Linux Shine as Google Chrome OS?

Published on 16 July, 2009 in FOSS. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , .

There’s been a lot of talk about Google’s new Linux based operating system for netbooks and desktops, Chrome OS. I thought that I’d talk about it a bit too.

-c

For addresses see back cover

Published on 15 July, 2009 in Life. 2 Comments

I need to go to a Government Shopfront, so looked up where on they were WhitePages, as I normally would. To my surprise they did not list the addresses, but instead told me to “see back cover.” Hmm.. how does one look at the back cover of a web site exactly??

13 2281
CANBERRA CONNECT SHOPFRONTS
Belconnen, Dickson, Tuggeranong, Woden.
For addresses see back cover