PC-BSD 9.1 Linux Jails, VirtualBox, Citadel Groupware

v 0.2

6 Feb 13

The last few days, I've been playing with PC-BSD Jails via Warden.  I've found that the BSD Jails work just great, as I've mentioned previously, however I've been having problems installing servers on a Debian Linux Jail.  Some servers install without a hitch, and others just won't let the outside world see them. 

A case in point is installing Citadel Groupware.  In the Linux Jail, the two components can't talk to each other - Webcit, which provides the outward facing web interface, can't see the Citserver to talk on TCP 504.  Installing on Virtualbox, no problems - it installs without a hitch.

Another example is the installation of Web Servers.  Apache - nope.  Nginx - worked out of the box.  In all cases, the installation was using the standard Debian packages from the Main repository.

Debian Jail - Install Script

The way Debian is installed in a Linux Jail, is using the debootstrap command.  The way this is set in the install script is simply:

debootstrap squeeze

However, there are several architectures for Debian, in particular, the ones we want use the FreeBSD kernel .. should we include the architecture we want?  So, it would look like:

debootstrap --arch kfreebsd-i386 squeeze
or
debootstrap --arch kfreebsd-amd64 squeeze

I haven't really seen any difference, however I wonder ...

Citadel Again

Maybe I take a little longer for the concepts to sink in, but I've finally satisfied myself that the Debian packages do the same installation (albeit with files in different places - because it is Debian).

• The servers are installed
• The "citadel" user is created to run the server
• The init scripts are sorted.

The outcome of all this is that when the machine (virtual or real) is started, Citadel starts as well.

How to re-configure the Citadel Server?  There is a setup script in
"/usr/lib/citadel-server"
Run that script if you need to and you can adjust ports, and add an admin user.

Be aware, that Webcit ignores your setup instructions.  Get a text editor and edit
"/etc/default/webcit"
to your liking.




Later .........

PC-BSD 9.1 Jails and a bit of PBI

v 0.2

29 Jan 13

PBI

I should mention a couple of niceties in dealing with PBI installs: 

• The package does not appear on your menu until the next time you log in.
• There is a preference selection to prevent the package making an icon on the desktop if you wish.

Jails

I started my exploration of Jails with a Linux Jail.  First thing you have to decide is what local network address you are going to assign the Jail.  At the very least, assign an address high up in the local address space - say 192.168.1.160 ..  Next you get to name the jail and finally to choose which of the two scripts to use to install it.  At the moment, there is the choice between Debian Squeeze and Gentoo.  I chose Debian, since I'm more familiar with it and just like it and intend using Debian Jails.

Once you start the script, it just works.  No deciding how big or anything like that.  The Jail uses what it needs to.  Nice.  Note the checkbox that starts the jail on system startup.  Oh, and when you shut down, the Jail is gracefully shut down before PC-BSD exits.

Upon completion, the Warden presents you with a list of your Jails and their status.  Select your Jail, and under the "Tools" tab, you can start a root terminal to use the Jail.  At the moment, the intent is text only via the terminal, however with more development, an X server environment will be easily achievable.

Would you like Wheezy or Sid with your Jail?

Whilst I am really happy that Debian is one of the two Linux distros selected for scripts to start Jails, probably because Debian has the BSD kernel available, Debian 6.0 Squeeze is old.  It is on the verge of being "Old-Stable".  Debian 7.0 Wheezy is on the verge of being the new Debian Stable for Servers.  What to do?

The answer is really, really, simple.

The shell script used to start the Debian Squeeze Jail is located in
/usr/local/share/warden/linux-installs

You can look at the script or view the source here:
http://trac.pcbsd.org/browser/pcbsd/current/src-sh/warden/linux-installs/debian-6-squeeze

Look at Line 18 of the script:
debootstrap squeeze ${jDIR}

Here you can see that the way that Debian is installed is that "debootstrap" is called to load "squeeze" over the internet.  Replace "squeeze" with "wheezy" and you will load Debian 7.0 Wheezy into the jail.  I see no reason why this should not work with Sid as well.


Now that is cool.




Later .........

Comparing Debian Netinstall with MSDOS

v 0.2

15Feb12

Why would I bother comparing Debian Netinstall with MSDOS?  Sounds silly - HOWEVER - when you look at it in a historical perspective, it is quite interesting.  This has no secret how-to at the end, I was simply thinking this morning when I was doing my 3k walk ... "isn't that cool" ....

In the '80s, MSDOS was king.  You got to pay good money to get a box and some diskettes that had a single user operating system that you could add to to get anything useful done.  Of course, if you were keen, you had the batch language and GWBASIC, but that was pretty much it.

• If you wanted, you could pay more good money and get Turbo-Pascal, or MS-Basic or some other compiled language.
• Perhaps you'd like to spend some more money and buy QNX - a multi-user system (that I think still exists).
• How about a DOS Markup Text processing language?

Now, Debian Netinstall (doesn't matter whether it is Squeeze or Wheezy, the principle is the same) - you get to download it for free.  Looking at what you get in what is considered today to be "a bootstrap loader" for the real system - well we are smothered in riches and don't even know it.

• You get the same sort of screen those MS-DOS users got, except you have Bash - a powerful programming language in its own right - but that is the SHELL!   
• zip/unzip .. bzip .. grep ... awk ... wow!
• Multi-User / Multi-tasking out of the box.
•  Not happy with Bash?  How about Perl?  Pretty hard to beat that!
• Typesetting?  Groff.  At least as powerful as those systems you paid good money for, but .. yes .. it's free.
• No edline here - Vim.  You may laugh, however Vim is a pretty damn powerful editor.  But if you don't like that, how about Nano - still better than anything MS included at that time.

 There's more, but you get my drift ..



Later ...

Debian - Netinstall + Window Manager

v 0.4.7

Subsequent to my last post about the Netinstall as a console system, I experimented with installing Xorg and a Window Manger.

" aptitude install xserver-xorg wdm wmaker xterm "

as I found when I did the initial install, xterm was not installed and this made it all very difficult.

18 meg unpacked ... reboot and works like a charm.  Now, having given the example, you could insert gdm3 or slim instead of wdm and fluxbox or whatever instead of wmaker.  I simply did this as an experiment.

Since we are talking about Window Maker as a manager, here is a description as to how to configure it ...

http://maketecheasier.com/create-a-great-window-maker-desktop/2009/02/14


Later .....

Update Monday 6 Feb (just after shaking my head in wonder at how you get to the Superbowl, then get caught out putting 12 men on the field .....)

I also installed Fluxbox and Fvwm.  Both seems to have improved default values these days - but I also installed Conky from the repositories.

Netinstall + X + Window manager (Fvwm) + conky .... under 35 meg memory useage!  And this from a standard Debian install - just choosing what you run.

Others (approx):

• Fvwm   34 meg
• Fluxbox  32 meg
• Window Maker  28 meg
• Openbox-Session 24 meg
• Add 5 meg for each terminal

By way of comparison, the Wheezy Xfce install I did previously uses just on 92mb.

Later....

Debian - What is Netinstall Made Of?

v 0.2

Let us say that you are a curious person and you decided to do a Debian Netinstall (Squeeze or Wheezy, it matters not), but when you reached the "tasksel" screen you unchecked everything, so that nothing further would be installed.  What sort of system would you end up with?

Well, it's actually not a bad console system.  Obviously there is no X, however you can start it up, and log in to a console.  Apt is set up with appropriate sources.list and you have Internet capability.

If you want to list the packages, then:
      " dpkg --get-selections > selections.txt "

as root will place a list of installed packages into the file " selections.txt " in the root account.

Of course, if you want use this principle to duplicate what you have on one Debian install onto another, then you update the package database of installed packages with:
        " dpkg --set-selections < selections.txt "
Once again as root, before doing an Aptitude update and upgrade.

Now, looking through the packages in  " selections.txt " the included ones that caught my eye were:

• The complete Dpkg / Apt / Aptitude toolset
• bash
• gcc
• gnupg
• groff
• gzip
• mawk
• nano
• perl
• sed
• tar
• vim
• wget

In its own right, this represents quite a capable system, three programming languages, a typesetting system, excellent text editor, encryption, backup and an awk text reporting language.  Not bad and certainly fun.


Expanding the System

As part of the netinstall setup, the apt sources.list was configured for your preferred country, and even though this is only for the "main" sections, that is perfectly adequate if we wish to build our own custom Linux system.  We don't have a graphical client like synaptic, but we have the Debian tools we can use.  Aptitude provides a consistent front end to the Apt and Dpkg tools.

"  aptitude search xorg | more "

will return a list of those packages that are to do with xorg.  You can repeat the process with any search criteria you like to have a look at available packages you might like to install.

To show details of a particular package you are interested in:

" aptitude show xserver-xorg "

You are now well on your way to installing Xorg to your machine.  To find a graphical login manager, try:

"  aptitude search x-display-manager "

and you'll be shown a number of packages on the last line that you might like to look at.  Likewise, you can look at window managers, desktops or whatever you like.


Conclusion

I haven't set out to provide a definitive set of instructions here, but to show what you can do when given a minimal system and the sorts of things you might like to poke around with.  With some care you can have just the packages you want, and a slim, fast setup.


Later ............

CrunchBang

v 0.2.7

A couple of nights ago, I was sitting in the bar at my hotel in Melbourne whilst consuming my accumulated drink vouchers, when an elderly lady who had clearly been enjoying the hospitality of the establishment started randomly haranguing groups of patrons as to the greatness of John Oppenheimer.  This enjoyable "impromptu theatre" was terminated when she was quietly led away.

What has this to do with the subject?  Everything.  Mr Oppenheimer was one of the major contributors to the ultimate "CrunchBang" at the aptly named "Trinity Site".  So CrunchBang stuck in my mind and the more I read about it, the more I liked it (the Linux Distro that is).

This minimalist distro is built directly upon a Debian Squeeze Netinstall and uses the Openbox window manager.  The Debian Backports and a Crunchbang repository are also used.  It is installed using a modified Debian Installer script, and like Ubuntu and a few other distros, the sudo command is used for administrator privileges.  A "cb-welcome" bash script enables additional functionality to be installed, however I found it failed when the technique to detect an internet connection simply wouldn't work.  Iceweasel release (the latest) is included along with Flash.

I installed it in Virtualbox just as described in a previous post, though with a smaller "disk" and less memory.

This is definitely not a beginner-friendly distro.  Straight up, editing of the sources.list is needed to tailor it for closer Debian repositories, and commenting out the "check-internet-connection" line in the "/usr/bin/cb-welcome" script is needed.  Simple, but a show-stopper for many.

HOWEVER

I REALLY like Crunchbang.  Why?  Crunchbang is built the way I think many more distros should be built that expand or modify a parent distro (in this case Debian Stable).  It uses the parent distro as a base and modifies it with additional repositories and scripts.  At all times you can go back and use the documentation of the parent distro.  This is truly using the "standing on the shoulders of giants" technique and benefits both the user and the Distro maintainer by (in this case) using what Debian has provided and improving just what needs to be tidied up for what that person wants.  No re-invented wheels needed.



Later .....

Update:
The initial install uses 70 meg memory at idle and just under 1.9 gig disk space.

Update 11 Feb.
I encourage you to visit the Crunchbang support forums.  There are some really good posts with some great advice for modifying systems (how to for Xfce for example) or setup Conky (which I've become somewhat enamoured with).
In addition, Openbox has started to grow on me.  Combined with the Debian Menu system it is really quite slick.

Debian Wheezy in VirtualBox - Part 3

v0.2

I finished the previous part having just booted into a nice shiny Gnome 3 desktop in Virtualbox.  It certainly was a change to what I was used to.

Before I get started though, what the Guest Additions do for you are that they allow seamless mouse movement between Guest and Host, and the ability to re-size the Guest desktop.  Just drag and it all works.  Three other features I'll mention in passing here are the ability to mount a DVD drive or ISO image, the ability to use a USB memory stick (after you have introduced it to Virtualbox in the USB section) and the ability to set up a shared folder between the two operating systems.

Gnome 3

I have to say that my initial experience was somewhat jarring.  I sort-of worked out some of the functionality, however it still largely felt like a bad visit to cartoonland.  I think I shall have to let it sit for a while, see if I can find a straightforward set of documentation and then re-visit.

Despite my reservations, I can perhaps see the point of the developers in that new users MAY find it a good experience, though I still wonder.

Xfce

Whilst I had used Xfce a little in the past, I was keen to see how it had developed in the latest incarnation. Those who are used to Debian being associated with "old" software have obviously never visited the "Testing" branch.

I re-did the Netinstall and put Xfce as the desktop of choice so as to see what came with it.  I found the log-in screen a little different to what I was used to (I use gdm and I assume this was different) however it went fine.  I don't care for the Debian starry wallpaper and need to do some reading to see how to replace it for the bootup and login.  The Xfce desktop came up very nicely and I had a great feeling about it right away - I can understand Linus's comments now about abandoning Gnome for Xfce.  I checked the "About" menu option and found it was Xfce 4.8, the latest version.

About now would be a good time for a screenshot, but I won't.  Instead I shall use the wonder of text to describe it (you'll thank me for not exposing you to the starry paper background).

Debian has Xfce set up with three bands by default.

• Of course there is the desktop in the centre which has three icons at the top left for "Home", "Filesystem" and "Trash".  Right click the mouse and a menu allowing you to create desktop icons or select properties or applications, appears.  
• Along the top is a panel reminiscent of the Gnome 2 setup.  On the left is a main dropdown menu of applications, then a shutdown button next to it.  On the right at the top are the icons for the default 4 workspaces, the time and the network status.
• At the bottom is a panel in the centre that works a little like the OSX "Dock".  There are six icons by default.  Minimise Windows, Terminal, File Manager, Web Browser, Find Applications, and an icon that allows you to open any folder in your home folder in either the file manager or terminal.

It is rather pointless talking about standard applications that come with Debian because it is easy to simply use the package manager and install those you like and eliminate those you don't.  I will say though that those that stood out to me were Iceweasel v9.0 (ie the running latest release of firefox) and LibreOffice.  I also like the lack of some of the major applications that come with Gnome by default that I just don't use.

So in contrast with my initial impression of the latest Gnome, I rather like Xfce.  I'll leave this post here (and get back to what I should be doing) and next time I'll talk about some initial customisations I have done to make things just that bit better.


Later ..............

Debian Wheezy in VirtualBox - Part 1

v 0.2

 This post has grown significantly since I started, so I've had to split it up ...... here goes ..

I'm a fan of Debian Linux.  Whilst Ubuntu is fine, Debian just sits right with me.  Same with Virtualbox.  I have had a Debian Squeeze virtual machine on my laptop and desktop for some time and thought I'd explore a bit further. 

One thing I did recently was to explore the concept of using a Debian VM as an encrypted volume.  Whilst there are some other means of encrypting files and partitions, I've found it is quite effective to install a Debian encrypted VM and use that.  It is quite straight-forward, as I described in an earlier post installing to an old laptop. Free and neat.

What I have been thinking of recently, though, is exploring Wheezy (Debian Testing) and the new Gnome.  I'd been hearing a few things about it that disturbed me, and I have been eager to explore a bit, since I have shown a few people Debian recently, and they love it.  Gnome in Squeeze is quite easy for them and I've been wondering how they would fare.


Wheezy Netinstall

First, how do you find an ISO to install?  Easy - search on "debian installer" and it will take you to the page from which to download a "netinstall" image.

http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/daily-builds/daily/arch-latest/i386/iso-cd/

You can see from this that this is the link to the "i386" image.

http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/daily-builds/daily/arch-latest/i386/iso-cd/debian-testing-i386-netinst.iso

Now, what is a "Netinstall" iso image?  It is a Debian Installer cd image that will install a base Linux system onto your computer from which it then connects to a Debian Repository to download the remaining files to produce a complete system.  Note, you need to be connected to the Internet when you use the Netinstall image - I guess that is .. er .. why it is called "Netinstall".

Virtualbox

Given that Virtualbox is free and available for all common platforms, I've found it most useful.  I can run a copy of the same Linux VM on both my Windows desktop and my Mac Laptop. 

For those who don't know, Virtualbox started as a private, open-source project many years ago before being bought by Sun, who continued developing it, before in turn being bought by Oracle who have thankfully kept the project going.  The latest can be downloaded from http://virtualbox.org  .  You will need both the version for your platform, and the guest additions (which install into virtualbox easily).

Preparing Virtualbox for Gnome 3

I have two Wheezy VMs - one for Gnome and one for Xfce desktops, to see what is available and how best to tailor Wheezy for what I want, however I used the same recipie for both VMs.  It is pretty straight forward to prepare a VM in Virtualbox, and you can always read the documentation or Google for some pointers, so I'll only cover the particulars of my install.

• I started the new Gnome VM by calling it WheezyGnome - Virtualbox immediately figured it was going to be a Linux VM.  
• I created an expanding volume, max 15 gig
• In the Display section, I gave it 128 meg of video memory and ticked the 3d acceleration

Gnome 3 needs 3d acceleration to give you the best "experience" otherwise it starts in a fall-back mode.  When you first install any Linux distro with Gnome 3, you will need to start the fall-back mode until you have installed the "Guest Additions" to the VM.

Next ...

Next I'll talk about how I got Gnome 3 up and running in Wheezy ...



Later .....

Debian Squeeze - X31 and Ati Radeon

v 0.2

27 Oct 11

I was curious how to get the Radeon video card in my IBM X31 laptop working in other than generic mode.  I read the Debian Wiki page on it .. http://wiki.debian.org/AtiHowTo and found it quite interesting.  It seems that in many cases, there is no longer an xorg.conf file but the system probes the hardware on each startup.  I found that the open-source radeon server was already installed and the only thing I needed to do to make the best of it (without using module assistant to install a further module) was to install the non-free firmware.

aptitude install firmware-linux-nonfree

I rebooted and a big improvement ...


Later ....

Debian Squeeze - Backports

v 0.2

27 Oct 11

I've known about the "backports" for Debian Stable for some time, but never quite got into using them.  It always seemed too hard to implement and the instructions were just that little too vague.  When the backports were incoropated into a Debian service, a package search engine was implemented, which I found irritating because I couldn't browse the available packages, and the search engine didn't work in any case.

All this has changed for me - I've finally worked out a system that works for me.  The technique needed for Squeeze to incorporate backports is now simpler than Lenny - and it just works.

My first use of backports was when I started to incorporate the current Iceweasel release in my Debian installs.  If you look at the instructions contained in the http://mozilla.debian.net web-page, you will see that there are two repositories that are activated - backports to provide the XULrunner package and the Debian Mozilla repository.  In that installation, only the "main" section is activated, however you can also activate "contrib" and "non-free".

Debian Backports:   http://backports-master.debian.org/

To include all the backports for Squeeze, add this line to your sources.list file:

deb http://backports.debian.org/debian-backports squeeze-backports main 

(add  

contrib non-free

as well if you like ) 

If you want to browse the available packages, then here they are - have a look through and see what takes your fancy:

http://backports.debian.org/debian-backports/pool/

Once you have decided what you want, then go to the search engine and enter the base part of the package name to verify what package you should include in the update .. for example if you search on "linux-image" you will get several kernel packages that may suit you - choose the appropriate one (in this case I chose  " linux-image-2.6-686 "  which is a generic package that at the moment uses the 2.6.39 kernel.  Apt-get (as below) from a root terminal and ....

apt-get -t squeeze-backports install linux-image-2.6-686

Done ..

Far simpler than I'd thought.

Later. 

Debian Squeeze - Wine Binaries

v 0.2

18 Oct 11

For some time, I've been trying to find an easy way to load an up-to-date version of Wine onto my Debian Squeeze installation.  The Wine project has only outdated binaries, and there is no explicit binary for Squeeze available.  I've done some reading on compiling the appropriate debs and whilst I agree this is the ideal solution, there remains debate on the best technique - or at least as far as I can see.  I'll get there with the compiling way, however I want to do it properly the Debian way - there is no point doing otherwise.  I need to do some more reading to understand exactly what I am doing.

In the meantime during my searching, I came upon what seems to be a simple solution that .. just .. works.

Mepis is a Debian-derived distribution that is close to pure Debian.  Whilst v8.5 is based on Lenny with extras, v11 uses Squeeze with additional libraries.  I wasn't keen on upgrading libraries just for this.  Now v 8.5 has the same kernel as Squeeze, and based on the report of a satisfied user, I gave it a go.

I downloaded the "mcr85" versions of Wine-Gecko and Wine from:
http://main.mepis-deb.org/mepiscr/testrepo/pool/test/w/wine-gecko/
and
http://main.mepis-deb.org/mepiscr/testrepo/pool/test/w/wine/

Wine-Gecko needs to be installed first, and that went without a hitch using "GDebi".  Before installing Wine, the " libmpg123-0 " package needs to be installed to satisfy the Wine dependencies.  Then install Wine, again with GDebi.

" winecfg " and you are good to go.

So far, all is well and the packages show up nicely in the package database, so they will be straightforward to remove and upgrade.



Later ......

Debian Squeeze for my Parents - Skype, Alsa, OSS

v 0.2

18 Oct 11

I was showing my Father how to use Skype on Debian - he was using a headphone / mic setup plugged into the front of the computer - when I discovered that despite the headphones working, the microphone was not.

I played with settings in Skype, then decided to see what the System could provide.  I found settings for "Front Microphone" and "Front Microphone Boost" in the Gnome Alsa Mixer and activated them.  I then found that I could use the microphone, but still Skype refused to use it.

Then I started to wonder.  Does Skype use ALSA?  Or is it wedded to OSS?  I searched the package database and found a package "alsa-oss".  On a whim I loaded it and then all was well.  I cannot say for sure that this fixed things, but it certainly seemed to do the trick.



Later ........

Debain Squeeze - IBM / Levono X31 Thinkpad

 v 0.3

I've had an IBM X31 Thinkpad for quite some time and in recent years it has fallen into disuse.  It has Windows XP installed on a 40 gig disk together with 768k of memory - I've found it useful for those odd occasions I need IE6 to do home courses for work over the Internet.  I know ... I know ....

To continue.

A couple of days ago, I spotted a spare 40 gig 2.5 inch HDD I had purchased some time ago, but not adequately used and the thought occurred to me I should replace the drive in the X31 with this and install Debian Linux.  I've installed Debian on a previous IBM laptop, and was most impressed to see that everything on it "just worked". 

The X31 maintenance manual was easily found on the Internet, and with a little bit of fiddling, I had the drive replaced.  I downloaded the latest iso image for "Squeeze" and the firmware.tar.gz file.

Another diversion to talk about Debian's installation logic with their current Stable distribution.  Debian has made their installation iso image only with "free" drivers.  This is not the chore that you might think.  Simply download the firmware archive and unpack it onto a USB stick.  There will be a collection of "deb" files.  During the installation process, if the need for a "non-free" driver is found, the installation routine will ask you to insert the removable media containing the driver and continue.  Really easy.  Not an issue.

Going through the standard Debian installation routine, I chose a guided option, separate "home" partition and encrypted LVM (just to see what would happen).  Well, everything did seem to go OK, though it took some time but I should expect that given the processor is a good six years old.  Erasing the data on the disk took quite some time.  On a 40 gig disk, it set aside 28 gig for "home".  The whole installation process took probably 3 or more hours - all I know is that I started before dinner and it wasn't till after 10.30 in the evening that it all finished.  A significant period of time was spent by the install routine setting up the encrypted volume.  A couple of times, I almost gave up when there was nothing but a blue screen there for many, many minutes.

In the end though, an excellent installation.  When the machine boots, enter the passphrase when it asks just after the Grub screen and after a short interlude, the standard GDM3 login screen appears.  So far, everything "just works" so I'm really pleased.  The standard wireless b works fine using the "non-free" intel 2100 driver, and so does my Netgear "G" wireless card - it uses the free Atheros driver.


Later ..................

Debain Squeeze - Iceweasel Release - Firefox Deb packages

v 0.3
Sep 2011

Whilst I love the Debian Stable concept, it does become limiting when you wish to use rapidly evolving software.  Certainly this is where the Debian Backports service came about, though I seriously need to get into it and see how I can use it for useful updates.

I the meantime, over the last few days I have stumbled on two up-to-date incarnations of Firefox that are packaged as debs for, or compatible with Squeeze.

• The first, up-to-date Iceweasel is available from http://mozilla.debian.net/ .  At time of writing it is Iceweasel 5.0.  Icedove is also available.
• The Second is GNU Icecat available from http://www.gnu.org/software/gnuzilla/ .  Deb packages for Ubuntu are available from https://launchpad.net/~gnuzilla-team/+archive/ppa .  Squeeze is compatible with the Lucid Lynx (or whatever it was) version of Ubuntu for this application.  Clicking the "View Package Details" link lets you view what is available.  Debs are there for both 32 bit and 64 bit.

Of course, as I have written about earlier, you can always download the Linux binary from the Firefox download yourself and simply install it manually.  I have come to regard "Opt" as the most convenient place to put it, as several other packages do also.


Later ...........

Update 9 Aug 11

I was disappointed to see the Debian access to the latest iceweasel is far less than before.  Tried installing the latest release and it failed due to library problems.  (see below ... my mistake )

On the positive side, I

1. downloaded the Firefox tarball from the Firefox site, and as root unpacked it in "/opt" .  
2. added firefox to the menu system with "alacarte" from a root terminal.

When I executed firefox, it worked fine - no other action needed, so I un-installed iceweasel using synaptic.  Very pleased with the result.

Also .... NOTE the version of Iceweasel that is included with Debian Squeeze is no longer supported by Google in their products.


Update 16 Sep 11

Had my faith in the Debian Mozilla team enlightened.

http://mozilla.debian.net/

Follow the directions.

If you use the command line like they say, it will work .. when I followed the directions rather than using synaptic it worked fine.  The trick is  the " -t" option in the command line.  Once you use it, updates will work fine.  You just have to get it working in the terminal.


Later ....

Debian Squeeze - VirtualBox Guest Additions

v 0.3

This post has a number of connections - it ties together a number of the posts I've made today and also my post on Bitcoin mining.  As I posted there, you can let the mining happen in a Windows environment and run a normal desktop, say Slackware or Debian under Virtualbox.  I noted that playing video clashes with Bitcoin mining, but not if you run it in a Virtual Machine.

Slackware already comes with all the required build tools to install Guest Additions and all it requires for that is to mount the Guest Additions ISO and run the script.  Debian needs a bit more.  You need to ensure the kernel headers and the build tools are installed - either by installing Module assistant and then using the command " m-a prepare " or downloading the headers and build tools as described in the previous NVidia driver post.  If you find you need an alternative compiler version, the refer to the post on that.

Finally, just mount the Guest Editions ISO (in its most basic form you can find it in the Virtualbox directory) and then run the appropriate install script on that ISO.  Very simple.


Later.....

Jan 2012

Upon re-reading this, it seems a little spartan - I've detailed the process a little better in my post today on installing Debian Wheezy in Virtualbox...

Rgds

Debian Squeeze - NVidia Video Drivers

v 0.3

I've always found installing video drivers in Debian the easiest if I just use the proprietary drivers.  Sorry to the Debian Purists (hangs his head in shame).  Most of my experience is with NVidia drivers, so I'll stick with that.  First, two page links that pretty well cover what I'm talking about.

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/how-to-install-nvidia-video-card-drivers-in-debian-lenny/
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/upgrading-nvidia-drivers-in-debian-lenny/

The technique described to install the drivers is the pukka one, however you can also just use Module Assistant as "  m-a prepare " to ensure the appropriate kernel headers and the build environment are available.  If you get a message telling you that the available compiler is the wrong one, then you can download the correct one and use one of the two techniques in my previous post to fix the situation.

What you DO need to understand is that you need to have X .. NOT running.  For Squeeze, you will have to check which version of  "gdm" is running in the directory pointed to in the first post and adjust as necessary.  Why don't I give the exact instructions?  Well, first I'm being lazy right now, and second if you can't figure it out from the links and hints above, then maybe you shouldn't be playing with this.

Updating drivers in Debian Stable is not normally a problem, since it is just a repeat of the original installation instructions, however if you are playing with Debian Testing, then when a new kernel is installed, you will lose X as the wrong driver is pointed to in xorg.conf.  To fix this, just replace the proprietary driver name with " nv " or even " vesa " to get back to the Xorg driver and it will be ok for the moment.  Of course you COULD use the opportunity of being dumped into the command line to re-install the drivers and " startx " again, however ...

That's it for the moment.


Later ......

Update.
Squeeze uses " gdm3 " so in the instructions given in the link use that instead of " gdm "

ie to stop X ...  #  /etc/init.d/gdm3 stop

Debian Squeeze - Changing the Default Compiler

v 0.2

Once, when installing the proprietary NVidia drivers in Debian Lenny, I was stumped by the message that the available compiler was different than the one required.  I've seen several techniques to change the default compiler, but the two I've seen that are the most understandable involve changing the symlink or exporting a variable pointing to the required compiler.

Changing the Variable pointing to the Compiler:
 
# export CC=/usr/bin/gcc-4.1
# ./NVIDIA-installer-xxx-whatever


Changing the Symlink:

# ln -s -f /usr/bin/gcc-4.1 /usr/bin/gcc


http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/need-an-older-gcc-version-690246/


Later ...........

Debian Squeeze - Module Assistant

v 0.2

Often, in Debian, when you install a module from source, install proprietary Video Drivers (I'm looking at you Nvidia), or the Guest Additions in VirtualBox, you need some or all of the current Kernel Headers, the appropriate Compiler and the appropriate source code.  Module assistant can make it easy for you to do some or all of those things.  For example you can use it to download and prepare the kernel headers and make sure the build tools are available before you manually run another script, or you can use Module Assistant to prepare all available modules for you to choose which one to compile and install.  The Debian Wiki has an excellent run-down on using Module Assistant both in command line and interactive mode.  It also has a complete listing of available modules for the Debian kernel.

http://wiki.debian.org/ModuleAssistant

Each of the tasks I mentioned above is deserving of its own post, even if it is short so as to make it all easier to find, however they are all interwoven.  An additional post I'll make is how to change the default gcc compiler version, since sometimes this is needed - as it was with the installation of the Lenny NVidia drivers.


Later ...........

Debian Squeeze for My Parents - Useability - Pt4

v 0.2

Over the previous three posts on this subject, I've been describing how and why I set up my Parent's home computer with Debian as an alternative for their use.  I have to emphasise that at the moment, it is an alternative, since there is a lot they like to do on Windows that time just did not allow me to show them.  My main aim was to introduce the alternative and to show them how to use it for electronic banking.  I pointed out how their current setup had major weaknesses, particularly that the anti-virus had not been updated in months, and that even though the Gnome desktop may look a little different to Windows, it wasn't that different and did basically the same things.

It is always interesting when you introduce someone who has relatively limited experience with desktop computers, to a new system that, to myself, is just a variation, but to them is completely new.  Having said that, as the new system is used then familiarity helps.

• The first thing is to explain basic concepts - the internet "cloud" of machines where websites and banks exist, the computer, and the web browser.  I found these being confused and if someone doesn't have a vision of how the pieces fit together, it can be a very difficult experience.
• Operating systems is another problem people have.  I have been surprised how many people just cannot understand that Windows is not needed to run a computer.  I generally compare this to a large house needing a Butler to manage.  The Butler runs the house and employees, greets guests and generally makes sure everything is running well.  I explain different operating systems as different Butlers who each speak a different native language when running the house.  Some are bi-lingual, others not so.
• Web browsers caused some confusion earlier on, since not having Internet Explorer and "Favourites" made it initially seem that this would not work, however explaining that IE and Firefox/Iceweasel were just two products that did the same job helped.  And relating that "Favourites" and "Bookmarks" really did the same thing helped also.

Fortunately as far as linux useability goes, the desktop metaphor is easily adapted to no matter which one. 

This post, I wanted to write about a few of the things I observed with useability, something we don't normally get to see with people trying to work at new concepts and understand things that are simple to the younger of us, but not to the elderly.



Later ..............

Debian Squeeze - HDMI Audio

v 0.2.1

I was having an email discussion with a colleague who was getting into Debian.  He had installed Squeeze on his machine and then became stumped because there was no Audio being transmitted from the NVidia GTX460 Video card.  Ultimately, his solution involved a visit to Debian Backports and the installation of the proprietary NVidia driver.

Here is his email to me:

"I have everything up and working.:-)) yay!

It turns out that the gtx460 graphics card's GPU only recognized certain codecs that became valid after the 2.6.35 kernel or something like that. This page
 http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=159346 
has a good article on alas hdmi troubleshooting for nvidia.

I back ported the 2.6.38 kernel and the sound outputs magically appeared, however the nvidia graphics driver done the "debian way" didn't want to play, so I installed the proprietary drivers straight from nvidia. In hindsight, I think it may have had something to do with the nouveau graphics drivers the new version of debian comes with as I needed to blacklist them in the mod probe.d directory.

Anyway, it's working as advertised with all the bells and whistles, so thanks for pointing me in the right direction..."

Posted in the hope someone will benefit.

Later ......