How to install PPTP Client on Fedora Core 3 system

How to install pptp Client on Fedora Core 3 link will guide one through the entire process of achieving this goal.

cheers, make word open.

What is portage ?

Portage is the heart of Gentoo Linux, and performs many key functions. For one, Portage is the software distribution system for Gentoo Linux. To get the latest software for Gentoo Linux,
you type one command: emerge --sync. This command tells Portage to update your local "Portage tree" over the Internet. Local Portage tree contains a complete collection of scripts(ebuild scripts) that can be used by Portage to create and install the latest Gentoo packages. Currently, gentoo have more than 10000 packages in Portage tree, with updates and new ones being added all the time.

Portage is also a package building and installation system. When one wants to install a package, just type emerge packagename, at which point Portage automatically builds a custom version of the package with exact specifications, optimizing it for the hardware and ensuring that the optional features in the package that one wants are enabled -- and those one don't want aren't.

Portage also keeps one's system up-to-date. Typing emerge -u world -- one command -- will ensure that all the packages that one wants on his system are updated automatically.

cheers, make world open.

"Thank you sir, you have made a wonderful difference to our life"

Yes... i got it. This is what i was searching when i left NCST and now i am able to get answers to my uneasiness which i had experienced.

Today after reading this blog post my memories goes back to the day when i first stepped in NCST with hopes and stars in my eyes. That was the day, i could have never thought of being to this present position but i am here and it is just because of the culture what this post is advocating about.

I am not the only one... i am one among many... who discounted their past and started afresh to get in to an entirely different carrier and the most surprising part of it is that we excelled with flying colors. I agree we owe our achievements to this wonderful place.

People like us is having more NCST in their blood, as along with being a student had the privilege of being staff also. And that gives us more salt and more layers of NCST culture.

I confess... what i am today is just because i was a part of this great and wonderful place.

Hat's off...

Xen hypervisor 3.0

Needs 2.6.16 host kernel to make dom0 up. Still xen is hanging at starting harware of udev.
Xen

Php5 configure error on suse91

While building php5 on suse91, i was getting configure error as...

checking if your cpp allows macro usage in include lines... yes
checking for IMAP support... yes
checking for IMAP Kerberos support... no
checking for IMAP SSL support... yes
checking for pam_start in -lpam... no
checking for crypt in -lcrypt... yes
checking whether build with IMAP works... no
configure: error: build test failed. Please check the config.log for details.

config.log looks like this...

configure:46778: gcc -o conftest -I/usr/include -g -O2 -L/usr/lib -lpthread -Wl,-rpath,/opt/dev/lib -L/opt/dev/lib -Wl,-rpath,/usr/ssl/lib -L/usr/ssl/lib conftest.c -lpam -lgmp -lgdbm -lcurl -lz -lresolv -lm -ldl -lnsl -lxml2 -lz -liconv -lm -lssl -lcrypto -ldl -lcurl -lz -lssl -lcrypto -ldl -lxml2 -lz -liconv -lm -lssl -lcrypto -ldl 1>&5
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i586-suse-linux/3.3.3/../../../../i586-suse-linux/bin/ld: cannot find -lpam
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
configure: failed program was:
#line 46767 "configure"
#include "confdefs.h"

configure:48289: gcc -o conftest -I/usr/include -g -O2 -L/usr/lib -lpthread -Wl,-rpath,/opt/dev/lib -L/opt/dev/lib -Wl,-rpath,/usr/ssl/lib -L/usr/ssl/lib -Wl,-rpath,/opt/cm-cvsroot/257/oss/comp/web/php5/src/imap-tmp/imap-2002e/c-client -L/opt/cm-cvsroot/257/oss/comp/web/php5/src/imap-tmp/imap-2002e/c-client
-lcrypt -lgmp -lgdbm -lcurl -lz -lresolv -lm -ldl -lnsl -lxml2 -lz -liconv -lm -lssl -lcrypto -ldl -lcurl -lz -lssl -lcrypto -ldl -lxml2 -lz -liconv -lm -lssl -lcrypto -ldl -lssl -lcrypto -ldl 1>&5
/tmp/cco9oumL.o(.text+0xf9): In function `main':
/opt/cm-cvsroot/257/oss/comp/web/php5/src/configure:48283: undefined reference to `auth_gssapi_valid'
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
configure: failed program was:
#line 48262 "configure"

configure:48316: checking whether build with IMAP works
configure:48354: gcc -o conftest -I/usr/include -g -O2 -L/usr/lib -lpthread -Wl,-rpath,/opt/dev/lib -L/opt/dev/lib -Wl,-rpath,/usr/ssl/lib -L/usr/ssl/lib -L/opt/cm-cvsroot/257/oss/comp/web/php5/src/imap-tmp/imap-2002e/c-client conftest.c -lc-client -lcrypt -lgmp -lgdbm -lcurl -lz -lresolv -lm -ldl -lnsl -lxml2 -lz -liconv -lm -lssl -lcrypto -ldl -lcurl -lz -lssl -lcrypto -ldl -lxml2 -lz -liconv -lm -lssl -lcrypto -ldl -lssl -lcrypto -ldl 1>&5
undefined reference to `pam_end'
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
configure: failed program was:
#line 48327 "configure"
#include "confdefs.h"

solution:
The error is because of some missing pam modules and pam library. So, I installed pam-devel-0.77-221.i586.rpm and again fired configure script.Configure and make worked sucessfully.

cheers, make world open.

Emotion matters...

Emotion matters in the world of technology and innovations. I am in close vicinity of many open source enthusiasts and evangelist. The emotion factor is really driving them and making way for their success.
I was really relentless to put emotions in my work but i got to know now... it is helping and making life more productive.
I had numerous opportunity to hear and talk to my CTO Murugan Pal founder of SpikeSource and serious opensource evangelist. I was really-really surprised to find great deal of emotion factor in his talks and works. I was forced to think million times that how can a person of his stature can be so emotional and at the same time great story of success. But it is there and things are really in shape for the man. One can easily identify the amount of emotion he puts in his talks and efforts.
Another great guy i came across is R.K.V.S Raman the underestimated scientist at C-DAC, Bangalore and again the emotion matters in his work and efforts. He really puts his heart out in every endeavors he indulges in and make himself available to the world in that crude fashion itself without any hiccups.
Conclusively i am shouting from the rooftop that emotion matters in innovation and efforts...

cheers, make world open.

OpenOffice in 7 indian language.

Uhhhhh... mind blowing work for the indic community and people out there who wants to work in their own regional languages. Great kudos to all of them who is behind this herculean task and who made this possible. This is really a great day for indic computing.
Read More...
All the seven language package can be downloadable from this link.
Download OpenOffice-2 indic language packs

cheers, make world open.

Compile a Kernel

How to compile the Linux kernel

When I joined C-DAC(Formerly NCST) Bangalore, as a
technical associate(TA) , beside learning about the project,
which I'm part of, the task assigned to me was to write a
loadable kernel module(LKM). As a part of that task, I
wanted to upgrade the kernel on my machine to the latest
one. I started to look around for the material and books for
help. In all these efforts Google(http://www.google.com)
played an important role; also our library always proves to
be one of the best for that matter. After some early work I
could find out following steps to compile the linux kernel

1 Download the Linux kernel from http://www.kernel.org

2 Untar the tarball using either "tar -xzf" for ".tgz"
file or "tar -xjf" command for ".tar.bz2" file.

3 Go the kernel directory

4 make [config/menuconfig/defconfig/xconfig] This will
invoke either an editor to let you configure kernel
parameters or may ask questions in an interactive mode
in case of "make config". At the end of configuration
you'll have ".config" file written in the same direc-
tory. It's not reccomended you to edit this file.

5 make bzImage: This will start the actual compilation
process and at the end of this step you'll have
"vmlinuz" file ready, which is your kernel image.

6 make modules: This will compile the loadable kernel
modules source files to generate the kernel object(.ko)
files in case of Linux kernel-2.6.x and object(.o)
files for the kernels prior to kernel-2.6.x

7 make modules_install: This command needs the root priv-
ileges, so you gotta do the root login before executing
this command. As this command will create the directory
"linux-" under "/lib/modules" and copy
all the object files and dirvers generated so far in
this directory.

8 make install: This command will make the necessary
changes in the boot loader configuration file so that,
when you reboot the system you'll see the option to
boot into this freshly compiled Linux kernel.

Note:

. Always keep a running kernel image untouched, so in
case if new kernel image is unable to boot, you can
always boot with the old kernel and do the nessary
changes.

. Also do not forget to read the kernel documentation.

Courtsey: Prasad J Pandit

SuSe 9.1 blues

Uhhhh... it is now becoming really frustating for me to work on SuSe. I am trying since a couple of days to figure out the problem in automount and still not able to get in to it.
I don't understand why this is a problem as it is working for fc3,rhel3,rhel4 and when it comes to SuSe it just stops responding.

Scenario is:

* NIS server is running on rhel4 and giving yp mappings.

* SuSe machine works for NIS authentication but doesn't switch to home directory as home directory is not automounted.

* I can see all the mapping from the SuSe machine with $ypcat -kt auto.home

* NIS and NFS server is working fine for all the other system except SuSe.

* I think the problem might be with the difference in flavors of Linux being used Server on rhel4 and client is on SuSe.

Well i am still struggling with it and will find the solution OR workaround.

How to make an ISO

To make an ISO from CD/DVD.
Place the media in the drive and do not mount it. If it automounts, unmount it.

commands are as follows:

$ dd if=/dev/dvd of=dvd.iso # for dvd
$ dd if=/dev/cdrom of=cd.iso # for cdrom
$ dd if=/dev/scd0 of=cd.iso # if cdrom is scsi

To make an ISO from files on hard drive.
Create a directory which holds the files.
Then use the mkisofs command.

$ mkisofs -o /tmp/cd.iso /tmp/directory/

This results in a file called cd.iso in folder /tmp which contains all the files and directories in /tmp/directory/.

For more info, see the man pages for mkisofs, losetup, and dd, or see the CD-Writing-HOWTO at http://www.tldp.org.

If one wants to create an ISO images of a CD using Windows, Cygwin has a dd command that will work. Since dd is not specific to CDs, it will also create disk images of floppies, hard drives, zip drives, etc.

Courtsey: http://www.granneman.com/techinfo/linux/burningcds/makeanisoimage.htm

enjoy...

How to configure/enable wireless LAN(wifi) working on Fedora Core-3 for compaq nx6110 laptop.

Fedora core 3 kernel[2.6.9] which is shipped with the distro doesn't support the wireless driver and framework which i am going to talk about. The steps are here...

1. Update the default fc-3 kernel or update the complete system. Depends upon your choice, i did a complete update of the system.

$ yum update

It will take entire night to update the system(depends upon network speed.)

Kernel got upgraded to 2.6.12-1.1381_FC3.

2. Add livna yum repo. If having this repo skip this step. Otherwise
as a super user

$ vi /etc/yum.repos.d/livna.repo

Add these lines to the file created:

###############
## Livna.org ##
###############

[livna-stable]
name=Livna.org - Fedora Compatible Packages (stable)
baseurl=http://rpm.livna.org/fedora/$releasever/$basearch/RPMS.stable
http://livna.cat.pdx.edu/fedora/$releasever/$basearch/RPMS.stable
#gpgcheck=1

[livna-unstable]
name=Livna.org - Fedora Compatible Packages (unstable)
baseurl=http://rpm.livna.org/fedora/$releasever/$basearch/RPMS.unstable
http://livna.cat.pdx.edu/fedora/$releasever/$basearch/RPMS.unstable
#gpgcheck=1

[livna-testing]
name=Livna.org - Fedora Compatible Packages (testing)
baseurl=http://rpm.livna.org/fedora/$releasever/$basearch/RPMS.testing
http://livna.cat.pdx.edu/fedora/$releasever/$basearch/RPMS.testing
#gpgcheck=1

3. $ yum install ipw2200-firmware

4. $ yum install kernel-module-ndiswrapper-2.6.12-1.1381_FC3

It will bring the dependency of ndiswrapper and installs with this kernel module.

5. $ yum install cabextract

6. download the HP driver SP30290.exe

7. Unpack the SP30290.exe to some directory. To do so run
$ cabextract SP30290.exe

8. From the directory where the SP30290.exe file is extracted run
$ /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5a.inf

9. $ /usr/sbin/ndiswrapper -m
It will add an alias to /etc/modprobe.conf

Now you can reboot to have it activated,
or you can run
$ depmod -a
$ modprobe ndiswrapper

Use the Desktop -> System Settings -> Network application to create a new device for the wlan0 ndiswrapper device and configure as per the options there.

cheers... make world open.

OpenOffice and Java connectivity on Ubuntu breezy badger(5.10)

OpenOffice that come pre-installed with Ubuntu cannot detect any Java except gcj from FSF . If you want it to detect any other java, one will have to follow instructions given at

http://www.ncode.ch/?item=papers&id=oojvm

Before that one should have to remove .openoffice.org2 directory from $HOME

---
cheers... make world open.

How to build an RPM

The basic procedure to build an RPM is as follows:

* Get the source code you are building the RPM for to build on your system.

* Make a patch of any changes you had to make to the sources to get them to build properly.

* Make a spec file for the package.

* Make sure everything is in its proper place.

* Build the package using RPM.

Under normal operation, RPM builds both binary and source packages.

One of the most typical and important task is to make the spec file.
Still i am collecting information about the spec file and in next post i will be writing about it and make a sample spec file.

enjoy... make world open.

Steve Job Words...

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

Useful tips from Ain Vagula for updating UI strings to newer version of OpenOffice.

Following steps are needed when migrating to UI strings with no duplicates:

- install updated toolkit

- generate sdf file from your existing translated or half-translated po-s with new toolkit
(to avoid english strings in untranslated entries)

- backup old po-s somewhere

- generate new set of po-files from just generated sdf-file for your language

- update generated po-files with latest pot-files. Now every duplicated string in
one file has unique identifier, but string itself is translated as it was in
your old po-file.

Note that:

- When you do not regenerate po files, all duplicate entries will be untranslated.

- When you use sdf file, generated with old toolkit, for regenerating,untranslated
entries will be filled with english strings

thanks Ain as these steps are working really fine for me :-)).

How to extract files from rpm and deb packages

* rpm package can be extracted by issuing this command at the command line.

$rpm2cpio {rpm-package name} | cpio -idv

* deb packages can be extracted by issuing this command at the command line.

$dpkg-deb -x {deb-package name} {target directory}

Enjoy..

Marathi OpenOffice2.0

Huhh... Got into the grooves again. Now i am working for marathi openoffice 2.0 and hoping of completing it by this weekends.
Again i am facing the same old problem with the PO files while converting it to OpenOffice GSI file. I don't know why they are repeating time and again the same problem of changing the format and directory structure of the PO files. I repeatedly posted that PO file is not a simple text file with any sort of directory structure, they are there with some pre-defined cause and one should follow the standards while translating it.
Simple and easy trick is... Don't do anything other than translating the msg strings.
I am still cleaning the dirty laundry for which i am not responsible.

Installing ALSA in debian sarge 2.6.8-2-386

Install alsa-base (apt-get install alsa-base) and alsa-utils (apt-get install alsa-utils).
Make sure you're part of the "audio" group for this edit /etc/group file as
audio:*:29:username
if the above line is not there.

Run $/sbin/modprobe snd-emu10k1 ; if it doesn't work try with snd-emu10k2 OR snd-ca0106
Now run $alsaconf ; this is an alsa configurator and detects the sound card and configure it.


srd24:~# alsaconf
Unloading ALSA sound driver modules: snd-emu10k1-synth snd-emux-synth snd-seq-v irmidi snd-seq-midi-emul snd-seq-oss snd-seq-midi snd-seq-midi-event snd-seq sn d-emu10k1 snd-util-mem snd-hwdep snd-intel8x0 snd-ac97-codec snd-pcm-oss snd-mi xer-oss snd-pcm snd-timer snd-page-alloc snd-mpu401-uart snd-rawmidi snd-seq-de vice.
Building card database...


Running update-modules...
Loading driver...
Setting up ALSA....
Setting default volumes...
Saving the mixer setup used for this in /var/lib/alsa/asound.state.


===============

Now ALSA is ready to use.
For adjustment of volumes, use your favorite mixer.

Have a lot of fun!


Here are the choices:
intel8x0 Intel Corp. 82801AA AC'97 Audio (rev 02)
legacy probe legacy ISA (non-PnP) chips

I select the intel card and pressed enter. Now I get this:
Configuring snd-intel8x0
Do you want to modify /etc/modprob.d/sound
(And /etc/modprobe.conf if present)?


I select 'yes' and press enter.
"OK, sound driver is configured.
ALSA CONFIGURATOR
will prepare the card for playing now.
Now I will load the ALSA sound driver and use amixer to raise the default sound volumes.
You can change the volume later via a mixer.


I select and press ok.

Running update-modules...
Loading Driver...
Setting up ALSA...
Setting default volumes...

===

Now ALSA is ready to use
For adjustment of volumes, use your favorite mixer.

Have a lot of fun!
---------------------------------------
---------------------------------------

Finally, alsamixer and volume control is working otherwise it was giving error as
$alsamixer
alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for default: No such device
and when volume control is selected it is giving error as
no volume control elements and/or devices found.

How to install more than one version of OpenOffice.org?

*How to install more than one version of OpenOffice.org?*

Windows:

1. open WINDOWS START MENU -> RUN ...
2. insert the path and file to the setup OR browse to the location
3. add at the end (behind the setup.exe) " /a" and click OK
4. the setup program start
5. select the location where you want to install OpenOffice.org
6. start the OpenOffice.org the directory where you have install it.
When you install the OpenOffice.org with the option /a then you have NO
systemintegration. (no start menu entries and no file association)

Linux:

1. open new shell
2. change to the directory where all the rpm packages are. (f.e.
/temp/openoffice/rpm)
3. f.e. you want to install the office into the directory
/home/user1/office then insert

rpm -vh --install --dbpath /home/user1/office/.rpm
--nodeps --prefix /home/user1/office/ openoffice*.rpm

after the rpm installation you can start the office from the path
/home/user1/office/program/soffice
When you install the office in this way you have no systemintegration
(no start menu entries and no file association)

Solaris and X86:

It's not possible to install more then one office at once.

*If the instructions above do not work, the you need to change your
UserConfigDirectory.*

1. Open the file bootstraprc(Linux)/bootstrap.ini(windows) in a editor.
2. Change the line UserInstallation=$SYSUSERCONFIG/.openoffice_english
into UserInstallation=$SYSUSERCONFIG/.openoffice_dutch or any other
directory you want.

===========
Rafaella Braconi.

Finally got debian sarge running on my box.

huh!!!.. it was really frustating to install debian without CD-ROM but during the course of installing it i gained a lot of insight in to the debian installation tricks. It's really true that the debian installer is sucking very hard and is not for the masses. The one who installs it need some kind of great patience of doing same stuff time and time again without fail.
Anyway thanks to Kartik Mistry for his instant support and gave a insight of installing through netinstall-iso. I did it through USB-ZIP since my CD-ROM is not detecting the CD written with netinstall-iso. And finally installed all the required packages through apt-get.
Now, i got a complete running debian sarge box with gnome-2.10 ready to explore more.
Now i can concentrate more on glade and Gtk.