kontrawize

A New Virtual Laptop, part 4

Thanks to rentz for pointing out how to find a Linux Webcam driver for the HP Pavilion dv2000 family (e.g. dv2000t, dv2058ea). The linux-uvc driver appears to be the right one for the built-in webcam; it is specifically listed in a webcam driver list (vendor ID = 0x0c45, product ID = 0x62c0).

While it seems like the right driver, I'm afraid webcam video isn't working for me. The Video for Linux (v4l) package seems unable to retrieve images from the webcam. I tried a few different packages to display images - GnomeMeeting (aka Ekiga), gqcam, and luvcview. None worked. luvcview reports:

Unable to set format: 22.
 Init v4L2 failed!! exit fatal

while gqcam just shows a black rectangle and keeps printing the message:

Error reading image...

So, I'm not there yet with the webcam, it will take at least a few questions on the Linux lists to get it right.

AquaCalendar for Nokia E61

I like using my mobile phone as a PIM, but I don't like the built-in calendar that comes with Nokia phones. It's simply too basic. For example, you can't change one of a recurring set of appointments without changing all of them.

While I don't think the calendar software available for Series 60 (S60) phones is as good yet as the DateBk 3/4/5/6 application for Palm PDAs, the best I've found so far for S60 is AquaCalendar. I used it on my Nokia 6680, and I also have it on my Nokia E61. The good news is that the latest version of AquaCalendar for S60v3 (which covers new Nokia phones like the E61), AquaCalendar 5.05, is now working well enough to recommend to you. The calendar API apparently changed for the new S60v3 phones, and it took a while for them to port the software and fix the bugs. However, 5.05 is looking pretty good.

If you are fed up with the calendar in your Nokia phone (or other Symbian phone/PDA), you could do much worse than give AquaCalendar a try.

A New Virtual Laptop, part 3

geaplanet asked whether my HP dv2000 (dv2058ea) laptop has a built-in webcam. Indeed it does. It's built into the lid, and says that it is also a 1.3MP camera.

Does it work? No, not out of the box with SUSE Linux 10.1. The quickest way for me to test it was to fire up "GnomeMeeting", and the camera didn't appear as an available video device (I had no available video devices). Presumably I need to track down a suitable driver, or someone who can produce one. What I've found in the past is that there are only a few basic hardware types for the different webcams that are available, so often an existing driver can be modified to support a new webcam. Sometimes it can be as simple as having the USB ID added to the list that the driver supports. The webcam in the dv2000 shows up as a Sonix USB 2.0 camera; the device identifier is 221888 and the vendor identifier is 199749 (if that helps anyone).

That said, video is low of my list of priorities. The lid of the laptop also contains a pair microphones (wow, stereo), but as noted previously, I don't have sound working yet.

There are a couple of other things I've found, too. If I hibernate the laptop and resume it, the touchpad doesn't work after resuming. The dv2000 has a lot of little blue lights on it, and one is for the touchpad. It glows blue when enabled, orange when disabled. After resuming, the light stays orange, and I haven't been able to re-enable it except by rebooting. Also, sometimes after the host OS's screensaver has kicked in, the screen colours go wild. It looks like the colours are inverted and reduced to 16 or 256 colours, something like that. The only way I've been able to fix it is to restart X-Windows.

Having to restart X-Windows is one situtation where running VMware pays off. Normally, if you have to restart X-Windows, it kills all of your GUI applications. Since I'm running VMware Server, my only host GUI application is usually the VMware Server Console. That can be stopped and restarted anytime without affecting your VMware sessions, so if I have to restart X-Windows, I don't lose the GUI applications in my VMware sessions.

In spite of all this, the dv2000 is running pretty well, and I'm mostly happy. I do need to get audio working, though, for VOIP. Without that, it will be a problem when I'm travelling.

Choosing a base operating system for VMware

John Cowan commented that a fully-fledged desktop OS was a strange choice as the base (host) OS for running VMware (Server). So why do I use a full SUSE Linux 10.1 installation with GNOME, rather than a minimal installation?

There are a couple of things to think about here. Only a small minority of people currently run Linux on their laptop. As such, you don't get Linux distributions that specifically target laptops (although SUSE Linux is a pretty good choice, because it traditionally has good support of a wide variety of hardware). Of the people who run Linux on their laptops, a tiny minority run VMware (Server, Workstation, etc.). So, the market for a stripped down OS that runs on laptops and supports VMware is so diminishingly small that I don't expect to see a suitable release for a while yet. It may happen as VMware and its rivals (Xen, etc.) get more market share, but I'm not aware of it having happened yet.

Now, I could run VMware on Windows XP, as many people do, but you can't get a stripped down version of Windows XP either (tell me if I'm wrong). What I find from my own empirical tests is that a SUSE Linux 10.1 GNOME installation is less resource-hungry than a Windows XP Pro installation. In addition, if I want, I can run SUSE Linux in plain X-Windows mode without loading the GNOME stuff into memory, which consumes even less host resources. So Linux gives me choices that Windows doesn't.

I could have installed SUSE Linux without GNOME, and just used plain X-Windows for the base (host) OS, but I didn't. I like the GNOME desktop, I find it much easier to use than plain X-Windows, and disks are so big now that I can live with all of the GNOME applications that get installed, even though I'm not using them. It's not even worth my time to go through and uninstall them. If someone does a version on SUSE Linux with a stripped down GNOME installation (i.e. a minimal application set), I'll seriously consider using it. Until then, it isn't a big enough issue to do otherwise. Not for me, anyway.

A New Virtual Laptop, part 2

I mentioned yesterday the issues I had in setting up my new HP Pavilion dv2000 (dv2058ea) laptop with SUSE Linux 10.1. I've since installed VMware Server 1.0.1, and that runs without problem.

The one issue I've noticed so far is that sound isn't working. This seems to be a known issue with the sound hardware used in this (and other) laptops:

http://www.suseforums.net/index.php?showtopic=20482

It will be a problem for VOIP (Skype, etc.) if I can't get it to work. If anyone has any advice, let me know. Otherwise, at any stage that I find a solution, I'll post it.

A New Virtual Laptop - SUSE Linux 10.1 on a HP Pavilion dv2000 (dv2058ea)

My Sony VAIO laptop is away being repaired (the hard disk died; a year ago it was the motherboard), and I needed another laptop in the meantime for client visits, so I looked around a laptop that would be a good choice for running multiple VMware sessions. In particular, it would be useful for me if I can run Linux and Windows at the same on my laptop as I can on my deskside PC.

For that, I needed a laptop with 2G RAM and at least 100G disk. After walking up and down Tottenham Court Rd in London a couple of times, I settled on the HP Pavilion dv2000 (specifically the dv2058ea), which seemed like a good balance of features, size, and price. It's a bit larger and heavier than my VAIO, but not so much so (it still *just* fits in my laptop bag). It has an Intel Core Duo processor, 2G RAM, and 120G disk, which is what I need for running VMware.

First thing I did was fire up the installed Windows XP (Home Edition) and create recovery DVDs (the recovery software fits on one dual-layer DVD, much better than the alternative of 12 CDs, but the nearest stores only had single-layer DVDs, so I settled on 2 single-layer DVDs). Interestingly, the software only lets you create a single set of recovery disks. I would have made a second, backup set of recovery disks otherwise.

By the way, this is a long story, but it does have a happy ending.

At this stage, I was ready to remove the Windows partition and create Linux partitions (since I run Windows under VMware, I don't leave a Windows partition for dual-booting as many people do). I've written before about my partitioning strategies for Linux systems [#1, #2, #3, #4], but I've decided to change again. A key issue is that, as much as practical, you want the system files separate from your own files (applications and/or data). That way, you can reformat the system partition and re-install the system without impacting the partition where your own files are.

John Cowan commented recently that he put the "/opt" and "/usr/local" directories in his "/home" partition using symbolic links, so that all of "his" stuff is in the "/home" partition. I decided to do something similar, by putting "/home" and "/usr/local" in the "/opt" partition. It's a variation on John's theme. Subdirectories of "/home" can look like user directories, so while I've done this in the past, I would prefer to have a "home" directory within "/opt" rather than an "opt" directory in "/home".

With that decision made, my partitioning plan for the 120G hard disk (which actually showed up at formatting time as having 111.7G) was

• /boot: ext3, 32M (I found 16M too small during online updates);
• swap: 2G (probably too much - if I had even 1G swapped, the performance would probably be abysmal);
• /: reiserfs, 15G (twice what I expect to need, just for safety, but note this includes the /tmp and /var/tmp directories);
• /opt: reiserfs, encrypted, remainder (~ 95G).

All of these were set up as primary partitions. I installed SUSE Linux 10.1, selected the GNOME desktop (not KDE) and set up the partitioning as I described.

However, during the install, when it came to the point in the middle of the installation where the system is rebooted, and I selected "Boot from local disk" (instead of "Installation"), I was suddenly confronted with a "MBR Error" message. I switched the power off and on to see if it would help, and selected "Boot from local disk" again, and while I didn't get the "MBR Error" this time, the system just hung. I tried toggling the power again, but the result was the same as the previous time.

Next step was to re-do the installation. I toggled the power and selected "Installation" again at the main screen. I re-installed SUSE Linux 10.1, but without re-partitioning the disk. I did, however, re-format the partitions. Still, this didn't help, it still hung mid-way through the installation after rebooting. I tried ejecting the DVD and toggling the power, to see what happened. The result was just a blank black screen, no messages at all.

For something different, I tried booting off my SpinRite CD, to see if SpinRite could see the partitions. It did see the partitions, so I started it off on a deep analysis of the hard disk, just to be sure. However, SpinRite could not do the verification, due to some issue with the BIOS. This suggested that it might be a BIOS-level issue that was stopping me from installing Linux (I was aware that this can happen with laptops, which are more likely than desktops to have a custom BIOS, although the HP's startup screen indicates a Phoenix BIOS). [By the way, it wasn't the BIOS - see later.]

I wasn't quite finished. As I had seen an MBR (Master Boot Record) error message, I thought I should try repairing the MBR using a FreeDOS boot CD. So I booted up with FreeDOS, and ran "fdisk /cmbr 1" to reset the master boot record to boot from the first partition (my "/boot" partition). Then I rebooted. And that fixed the problem! I was now able to continue my SUSE installation. I skipped the online registration, as this has severe problems in SUSE Linux 10.1 as shipped (here is Novell's apology). I tried to set up the display resolution (1200x800) during the installation, but it didn't work. The system wasn't able to switch display mode correctly. So, from the (text mode) command line I started "yast2", went to the settings for "Graphics Card and Monitor", and set it again to 1280x800. It still didn't work, so I tried setting it to a lower resolution temporarily - 640x480, 256 colours. Unfortunately, that didn't work either. So, I decided to give up on graphics temporarily, do an online update in text mode, and then try the graphics again.

However, before I could do the online update, I needed to register SUSE, which has the effect of setting up the appropriate online update URL as an installation source (e.g. http://suse.inode.at/pub/update/10.1). However, the whole SUSE registration thing is a nightmare for 10.1, as the distributed software just doesn't work, as already noted. I don't know how I managed to get a valid update URL previously (I tried many, many things, and it eventually appeared, but I don't know quite how). So I just added the URL I knew as an installation source.

I decided to try installing the latest NVIDIA driver. NVIDIA provide an update site for SUSE Linux. However, the pre-compiled version didn't work for me, so I installed the SUSE kernel sources and the gcc compiler, and then downloaded and compiled the latest NVIDIA driver.

So, I read the online README for the NVIDIA driver and discovered the command-line options for the driver installer. I unloaded the existing "nvidia" module using "rmmod nvidia", and I then called the driver installer using

sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-8774-pkg1.run -a -e --update

It then downloaded version 9625 of the driver (yes, there was a later version again). The "-e" option puts the installer in "expert" mode, but I accepted all of the default values (I just wanted to see them). At the end of the installation, I chose "Yes" to run the "nvidia-xconfig" utility.

However, this didn't work either. I started reading through the extensive NVIDIA readme documentation, which recommend starting X-Windows with extra debugging information using

startx -- -verbose 5 -logverbose 5

What I found then (in "/var/log/Xorg.0.log") was many errors related to some Gnome application called "pango". I wondered if I could uninstall "pango", but it turns out to be for internationalised text, and many packages are dependent on it.

On further checking about "pango", I found that I was missing the "/etc/opt/gnome/pango/pango.modules" file (in other Linuxes this can be "/etc/pango/pango.modules"). So I created the missing directory and then created the missing file using

pango-querymodules >/etc/opt/gnome/pango/pango.modules

AND THAT FIXED IT!

However, it also suggested that something had gone wrong during installation (possibly due to my MBR problem), so to be safe I did a full re-install of SUSE 10.1. After all, I didn't know if anything else had failed to be installed just as "pango" had.

This time the installation went smoothly. Online registration didn't work, but it doesn't, so that was as expected. This time I didn't try to change the screen resolution during installation. I did so afterwards as root using "YaST", and there were no problems (no need to install an updated NVIDIA driver).

Next I stopped the GNOME display manager (using "gdm-stop"), and then in text mode I moved the "/home" and "/usr/local" directories to the "/opt" partition (replacing them with symbolic links) so that I had all of "my" files in the "/opt" partition as planned.

I removed the big applications that I don't want (Evolution and OpenOffice), and then did the online updating (painful as it is the first time you do it, unfortunately, with the bug in SUSE Linux 10.1 as supplied in the box. From the second time onwards it's fine).

So, it all worked! Well, eventually. Next step is to install VMware, so I can start running my virtual machines on a new and more powerful laptop.

Podcast: John Davies on the Investment Banking Technology Stack

Via TheServerSide.com, I've been listening to a podcast (don't know why we can't call them digital audio recordings) of John Davies on the technology stack in investment banks. I know John, and I work with investment banks, and I think this is a pretty good presentation. He covers a lot of the what and why around technology policies in investment banks.

My only comment is that his view is quite Java-centric, and while many financial institutions have that view, there are are also institutions who use a .NET stack rather than a Java stack.

Recommended.

Urinal Sculptures

Via Gizmodo, I've just seen a page of the most preposterous porcelain ever to grace gentlemen's lavatories.

It would be a talking point for parties, though, wouldn't it?

Will Windows Vista drive adoption of Java 6?

I was reading Chet Haase's blog post about Java and Windows Vista. One of the most important things I took away from it is that Java 6 will be the primary Java platform for Vista support. I'm wondering then if Vista will help drive adoption of Java 6 (by current users of Java 1.x or Java 5). It's hard to just whether it will have a noticeable impact, because it's not immediately clear how quickly users will be migrating to Vista, especially enterprise users, many of whom haven't migrated to Windows XP yet.

That said, I'm wondering if some of the site that are still running on Windows 2000 will decide to skip XP completely and go to Vista. I'm sure I'm not the only one who expects support for 2000 to taper off once Vista is released. If companies do make that change, I suspect their Java developers will press the case for a move to Java 6 too, to make that part of the transition as smooth as possible.

Just a thought, anyway.

Lost my bookmarks

We had a power outage in our part of London yesterday, and my laptop is away for repair (it died while I was at a UN/CEFACT standards meeting last week in New Delhi). I was using my deskside PC, which doesn't have an UPS.

I've never had a problem before with occasional power loss (file systems are more robust than they used to be), but this time I managed to lose my bookmarks in my browser (Opera). I've spent years collecting these bookmarks, but I'm not really very worried about having lost them. I squirrel away a lot of bookmarks that I never go back to again, and as I found most of them in the past with Google, so I will find them again in the future if I need to.

Sometimes you can lose everything, and yet lose nothing.