Philip's Blog

We have seen many Classmates having trouble to get JacORB running on Linux and Mac OSX, so here is a step-by-step installation tutorial:

Change to the directory where JacORB should be located:
cd ~/src/

Move the provided zip file to the location (or get jacorb via wget):
mv ~/Downloads/SW8-Komponentenarchitektur.zip .

Unzip the file:
unzip SW8-Komponentenarchitektur.zip

Rename the folder to something reasonable:
mv SW8-Komponentenarchitektur jacorb

Change to the directory:
cd jacorb
Unzip the jacorb source:
unzip jacorb-2.3.1-src.zip

Rename the new folder to something reasonable. I use the Version as folder name, so i can have multiple versions in this directory:
mv jacorb-2.3.1-src 2.3.1

Edit the Properties File and fill in the current Paths:
vi jacorb.properties

jacorb.home=/Users/gasserp/src/jacorb/2.3.1
java.endorsed.dirs=/Users/gasserp/src/jacorb/2.3.1/lib
jacorb.naming.ior_filename=/Users/gasserp/src/jacorb/2.3.1/lib/NS_Ref
ORBInitRef.InterfaceRepository=file:/Users/gasserp/src/jacorb/2.3.1/lib/IR_Ref

Move the Properties file to the correct location:
mv jacorb.properties 2.3.1/etc/

Build the Code:
cd 2.3.1
ant clean
ant

Move up one directory:
cd ..

Remove unused Files:
rm apache-ant-1.7.0-bin.zip
rm jacorb-2.3.1-src.zip
rm set_env.cmd
rm start_ns.cmd

Set you Path for the NS binary:
export PATH=$PATH:/Users/gasserp/src/jacorb/2.3.1/bin/

Start the NS Service:
ns -DOAPort=38693

Remember: The Path you set via export is only valid in the actual Shell. If you want to set your PATH permanently, add the following line in your ~/.bashrc or ~/bash_profile:
PATH=$PATH:/Users/gasserp/src/jacorb/2.3.1/bin/
export PATH

Your done!

It sort of PITA managing webDav share under Linux. If you want to save some time you should look at the script I wrote to manage webdav shares under Ubuntu Linux.

If you want to run the script on a other disto, just contact me, so we can look at the necessary steps to do. You can find the source code of my script @ https://wiki.enterpriselab.ch/el/public:linux:ilias_webdav

I like to have all original sized images, but to share they’re just too large. So here’s a quick tutorial how to batch resize and compress your images with a shell one-liner:

- Install ImageMagick with something like:
sudo apt-get install imagemagick
- Copy all the images you want to resize to a folder (keep the original one’s)
- Resize and compress all Images with:
mogrify -scale 50% -compress JPEG -quality 70  *.JPG

Mogrify is very powerfull. You can find a list of all supported options here.

Zattoo has released a new Ubuntu Client based on Flash.

• Get the .deb: Download
• If you run a 32 bit Ubuntu, the deb works out of the box. Else install it with sudo dpkg -i --force-all ~/Downloads/zattoo*.deb
• If you have installed the Adobe 64 bit Flash Plugin, delete it!.
• Install the flashplugin from the ubuntu repo: sudo apt-get install flashplugin-installer

Your done!

I found time to write about my Ubuntu setup. You can find some informations about fancy Linux apps here:

Philip’s Wiki

Ubuntu 9.10 (karmic koala) comes with Grub 2 (1.97~beta4). Some improvement:
- Universal support for UUIDs
- Scripting support including conditional statements and functions
- Boots from LVM, RAID and ext4 directly
- Non-X86 platform support (such as PowerPC)
So, lets see how we can make some default grub-legacy changes in grub 2.

Change screen resolution (for grub-menu):
gap@devBox:~$ sudo vi /etc/default/grub
Now you can edit the GRUB_GFXMODE (uncomment and change VBE Mode)
GRUB_GFXMODE=1280x1024
You can show your supported VBE modes when you hit c in the grub menue, and run vbeinfo in the appearing console.

Change the tty resolution:
Even if my laptop has a intel grafic chip, im using the uvesafb kernel module. These, because you have much more work with the intelfb module.
So, you have to load the uvesafb, and you should also be sure its not blacklisted.
# write the name of your module in this file:
sudo vi /etc/initramfs-tools/modules
# uncomment the line if the modul is blacklisted:
sudo vi /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-framebuffer.conf
# update initramfs
sudo update-initramfs -u
# install v86d (if you use uvesafb)
sudo apt-get install v86d
After that we can edit GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT in /etc/default/grub:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="video=uvesafb:mode_option=1600x1200-24"
After a
sudo update-grub
sudo reboot
Youre done.