dpkg-reconfigures locales on ubuntu

dpkg-reconfigures locales doesn’t seem ask what locales you want to enable anymore (ubuntu 8.10), whatever the priority of questions you set in debconf…

The locales to be generated are listed in this file : /var/lib/locales/supported.d/local

Just add your locales there, then do a dpkg-reconfigures locales, it should generate you new locales :

skanx@tipica:~$ cat /var/lib/locales/supported.d/local
en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8
fr_FR UTF-8

skanx@tipica:~$ dpkg-reconfigures locales
Generating locales…
en_US.UTF-8… up-to-date
fr_FR.UTF-8… done

atl2 bug on the eeepc: txs packet size do not coinsist with txd

On my eeePC 700 running ubuntu 8.10 (kernel 2.6.27-11-server), I experienced constant network disconnections with the LAN card, and found these messages in the logs :
[ 1355.131236] eth0: txs packet size do not coinsist with txd txd_:0x000005ea, txs_:0x20000754!
[ 1355.131244] txd read ptr: 0x166c
[ 1355.131249] txs-behind:0x000105ea
[ 1355.131254] txs-before:0x000105ea
[ 1365.041754] atl2: eth0 NIC Link is Up<100 Mbps Full Duplex>

I resolved the issue by installing a newer version of the atl2 module :

Get the lastest atl2 driver from: http://people.redhat.com/csnook/atl2/
Make sure you have the linux-header package corresponding to your kernel installed (package linux-headers-2.6.27-11-server in my case)

- Untar the driver source, compile with make
- Backup the atl2 module that shipped with your kernel (/lib/modules/2.6.27-11-server/kernel/ubuntu/atl2/atl2.ko in my case)
- Replace it with your new version
- sudo depmod
- reboot the computer or stop the network and reload the atl2 module

more info: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.24/+bug/147639

edit: http://people.redhat.com/csnook/atl2/ seems to be unavailable… I still have the driver source, but don’t know if I can post it here… If you need it, just ask and I’ll send it by e-mail

Compile a debian kernel with make-kpkg

The debian way (etch packages):
# apt-get install linux-source-2.6.18 kernel-package build-essential fakeroot libncurses5-dev
$ cd /usr/local/src
$ tar jxvf /usr/src/linux-source-2.6.18.tar.bz2
$ cp /boot/config-2.6.18-6-686 linux-source-2.6.18/.config
$ cd linux-source-2.6.18
$ make menuconfig
$ fakeroot make-kpkg --initrd clean
$ fakeroot make-kpkg --initrd kernel_image


Examples:
fakeroot make-kpkg --arch amd64 clean
fakeroot make-kpkg --arch amd64 --initrd --append-to-version=-skx.2008082001 kernel_image

Avez-vous pensé à adhérer à l’April ?

L’April a pour but la promotion et la défense des logiciels libres. Je connais l’existence de l’April depuis des années, mais pourtant je n’avais jamais pensé à y adhérer… voilà qui est fait, profitant de la piqûre de rappel administrée par la campagne d’adhésion qui a lieu actuellement : “Objectif 5000 adhérents”.

L’April défend nos idées, le montant de minimal de la cotisation est de 10 euros, et je pense qu’ils seront bien utilisés.

J’adhère toutes affaires cessantes !

Jumpcut: MacOSX clipboard manager

Jumpcut is another very useful menu bar application. This one keeps an history of the text you have copied or cut. You can access it later with a configurable hotkey, even if you’ve copied another text in between.

Jumpcut is open sourced under the MIT License.

http://jumpcut.sourceforge.net/

Caffeine: don’t let your Mac fall asleep

Caffeine is a cute little “menu bar” program that prevents your Mac from going to sleep when you don’t want it to, with just a click. No need to change all your screen saver and energy saver preferences any more!

Great when you’re using a media player or flash movie player that doen’t do it by itself.

http://lightheadsw.com/caffeine/

Disable a Linux module

The RHEL / Centos way:
edit /etc/modprobe.conf, and add :
alias <modulename> off

The Debian way:
Create a file ‘/etc/modprobe.d/<modulename>’ containing ‘blacklist <modulename>’.
Run ‘depmod -ae’ as root
Recreate your initrd with ‘update-initramfs -u’
/!\ Read http://wiki.debian.org/KernelModuleBlacklisting, then do not use ‘/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist’ and remove ‘/etc/modprobe.conf’ as it supersedes anything in /etc/modprobe.d/*.
source : Debian wiki

The Tobi way:
edit /etc/modprobe.conf, and add :
install <modulename> /bin/true

inspiration: DotMana

Dynamic MMap ran out of room

When running apt-get update with a lot of sources in your sources.list, you may encounter this error:
Reading package lists... Error!
E: Dynamic MMap ran out of room

Add this line APT::Cache-Limit "25165824"; to your /etc/apt/apt.conf, and run apt-get update again.

Arch Linux: Pacman cheat-sheet

I’m returning to this excellent distro: Arch Linux

Synchronize the local package database with the remote repositories:
pacman -Sy

Install a package:
pacman -Sy package_name

Remove a package:
pacman -R package_name

Update the system:
pacman -Syu

Lenny, Xen domU and amd64

There is not yet a xen-amd64 domU kernel for Lenny. There might not be one on release day. Discussion here: http://groups.google.com/group/linux.debian.devel/browse_thread/thread/8940430a093bbda5/546883797d0cbdf9

Fortunately, someone builds a 2.6.26-xen-amd64 kernel.
Add this to your sources.list:
deb http://kernel-archive.buildserver.net/debian-kernel/waldi/xen-extra/ all main

Install these packages:
linux-image-2.6.26-1-xen-amd64
linux-modules-2.6.26-1-xen-amd64

Fix the “new Xen console” problem (xen now uses hvc0 for its console):
If you use pygrub, in grub.conf on the domU add these kernel parameters : console=hvc0 xencons=tty
title Debian 2.6.26
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26-1-xen-amd64 ro root=/dev/sda1 console=hvc0 xencons=tty
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.26-1-xen-amd64

If you don’t use pygrub, specify extra = “console=hvc0 xencons=tty” in your virtual machine xen config file.

Use at your own risk

By the way, this fixed a nasty bug for me: php5-cli used to segfault a lot when using linux-image-2.6.18-6-xen-amd64 under Lenny. It’s stable now.

Edit: linux-image-2.6.26-1-xen-amd64 is now available in unstable