Ubuntu

SyntaxHighlighter2 WordPress plugin released

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SyntaxHighlighter2 WordPress plugin was released yesterday on WordPress Extend plugin repository. SyntaxHighlighter2 allows you to easily post syntax highlighted code all without loosing it’s formatting or making an manual changes. Main addition is upgrade to SyntaxHighlighter JavaScript 2.0 by Alex Gorbatchev. Also in this release the web master/blogger is given the ability to choose from 6 themes for the SyntaxHighlighter.

If you already using SyntaxHighlighter WordPress plugin and using XHTML, you should upgrade to SyntaxHighlighter2 because SyntaxHighlighter uses invalid XHTML. Bellow you will find the sample WordPress configuration file with SyntaxHighlighter2 🙂 .

[sourcecode language=’php’ ]
[/sourcecode]

Use KernelCheck to build the latest kernel for debian/ubuntu

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I recently found this awesome project called KernelCheck that allows you to build the latest Linux Kernel for your distribution. It requires very little interaction from the user and automatically optimizes the kernel to user’s needs. Currently it only supports Debian based distributions but support for RPM and Slackware based distributions is planned. KernelCheck is build around the AutoKernel idea by PinguinZ.

Building the Linux Kernel was never easier on Debian (and derivatives) before. I just compiled the 2.6.28.1, it wasn’t a pain at all.

Ubuntu 8.10 on Lenovo 3000 N200

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Few hours ago I upgraded my Ubuntu 8.04 to 8.10. Upgrade it self was a smooth one. Download took around 1.5 hours and the installation was around 45 minutes. Ubuntu 8.10 Human theme looks sexy. New wireless driver for Intel 3945ABG has support for the LED indicator as well.

Only issues were:

  1. ALSA was locked while it’s being used by any application.
  2. OpenVPN Client was not routing all traffic through the tunnel (There was no obvious option to do add the routes in the NetworkManager)

ALSA issue was fixed with almost no effort but the solution for the OpenVPN client issue was not so obvious (at least for me).

Adding the following line to /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base fixed the ALSA locking issue.

options snd-hda-intel model=lenovo

In NetworkManager 0.7 all traffic will not be routed through the tunnel if the OpenVPN serve pushes any routes or all of the rules that are pushed through are ignored. You can make NetworkManager to route all traffic through the tunnel by pushing a route similar to 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 gw 172.16.1.5 by adding a line similar to bellow to /etc/openvpn/openvpn.conf in the OpenVPN server

push "route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 gw 172.16.1.5"

or by making NetworkManager to ignore all routes pushed from the server. Check the “Ignore automatically obtained routes” checkbox in the Routes dialog in the VPN editing dialog (IPv4 Setting).

That’s it and my notebook is working better than it was before the upgrade. 🙂

References: http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=552594 | https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-source-2.6.22/+bug/136810

One more day for Ubuntu 8.10 release

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Ubuntu 8.10 named Intrepid Ibex will be released on 30th October 2008. I’m looking forward for the release tomorrow. I’ll be upgrading my machines to Ibex. New features in 8.10 are:


Ubuntu 8.10 is here

  • GNOME 2.24
  • X.Org 7.4
  • Linux kernel 2.6.27
  • Encrypted private directory
  • Guest session
  • Network Manager 0.7
  • Samba 3.2
  • PAM authentication framework
  • Totem BBC plugin
  • Server Virtualization

There is more, you can check out http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/810rc.

Installing Lexmark X1100 series on fc6

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I unfortunately bought a Lexmark X1170 all in one two years back, it was cheap and got both printer and scanner. It worked fine on Windows. It was just paper weight ever since I moved to Linux.

I struck luck yesterday, when I stumbled upon a forum posting on Ubuntu forum.

So I started out straightaway, but had trouble getting the correct drivers from Lexmark site, as instructed in the forum (Got 404). So I went and searched in opendrivers.com and fortunately found it. To help all the poor soles to get the drivers easily I have hosted the rpms. If you download these rpms you can skip the part upto converting the rpms with alien if you are using a debian based system, or install the rpms and continue from restarting CUPS.

Here are the links:
http://www.mohanjith.net/downloads/d…1.0-1.i386.rpm
http://www.mohanjith.net/downloads/drivers/printers/lexmark/z600llpddk-2.0-1.i386.rpm

The instructions worked like a charm, and now I’m making use of my printer finally. From my point of view X1100 series is a repackage of Z600 series with a scanner.

Even though the scanner was correctly detected by SANE, I was unable to scan. But the version of sane that comes with Fedora Core 6 (Zod) is old.