firefox and java on linux

There have been issue with the java when running the
firefox in linux. Firstly it is difficult to get java started
in ubuntu and if you need to have specific versions of
firefox and java you are in for some serious work.

What I do is just install firefox required version from
http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all-older.html
(if my version is older than the current version)

Next I download the java from java.com and use
http://www.java.com/en/download/help/linux_install.xml
to properly install the java.

Now that both are installed i need to link them
so create a link in my firefox plugin directory
this is problem with quit a few people as can be seen
from this link.

Citrix client on linux

The latest citrix client xenapp is available for download at

http://www.citrix.com/English/ss/downloads/results.asp?productID=186&c1=sot2755

to start the citrix using the SSL certificate the ssl certificate needs to be copied to the /ICAClient/keystore/cacerts/ and your citrix client will start . ;)

php applications on windows.

I was struggling to install gr8 php CMS tools under
our Windows servers. My special interest were
dokuwiki and joomla. First I thought to use VMWARE
and have Linux server hosted as virtual server.

Now as I am not in the server maintenance team (I
am in the CAD team) they felt jittery to have a Linux
maintenance to be done by them.

Then I searched for WAMP (Windows Apache MySQL PHP)
there were quite a few such tools available for Free.

WAMP, easyPHP XAMPP

are some I have tried.

All are equally good I deployed XAMPP. (Since we have cisco
physical firewall not much is needed to host XAMPP for intrAnet purpose.)

After XAMPP installing both dokuwiki and joomla was a cakewalk as
they are self installing once you dump the folder in the htdocs.

Now came the authentication using windows active directory.
Both dokuwiki and joomla have LDAP support out of box. But
I still had to struggle since I had no idea about the LDAP syntax.
A script sent by Rohan did help me know few things.

First issue:
php do not suport LDAP as default. In XAMPP you need to edit the php.conf
to activate the LDAP suport. Once this was done Dokuwiki setup was
up and running by doing small setting as per http://www.dokuwiki.org/auth:ldap_ad

Second issue:
There is some amount of joomal documentation available on the AD support
but this one did help me a bit
http://community.joomla.org/gsoc2009/lalitanand-dandge/908-joomla-ldap-authentications-plugin-window-2003-server-active-directory-configuration.html and
http://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?f=473&t=264644&p=2233032#p2233032

Third issue:
Joomla need to have email address as mandatory and mapped correctly with the
active directory. Also it took me some time to figure out how to use
"search" and "User's DN" field in the LDAP plugin of joomla. So here is the
solution to it.
"Search" provides field to find your username in active directory
so I needed
empID = [search]
since employee ID is used as the username
"User's DN" is field where you can add suffix in your username so I use
[username]@mysubdomain.mydomain.com

VMware experience

Windows and Linux on "Alt+Tab"

I wanted to install the php and mysql for intranet website in my
office. Complete office infrastructure is on Windows.

Since I had tried once earlier where I failed to get good
php setup done on the window's IIS server I was worried.

I knew something about VMware (Virtual Machine Ware) which
would help me install the Linux Server on the existing Windows server.

After browsing the site http://www.vmware.com/ I found that
"VMWARE server" is available for free. Downloaded the same and
started and installed in my XP workstation for the trial.

On starting the VMware server it asked for the CD drive location
where you can also give path of the iso image to be used as a CD drive.

So without burning the CD you can install the operating system from the
iso image.

I installed ubuntu (my second preference after MEPIS) and installed.

Finally I found that when I start VMware and run the ubuntu installation
the new m/c with distinct IP address and network identity appears and the
open source sites installed in this VMware server is available at the new
IP address. The performance it mind blowing.

I would be now migrating this to the windows 2003 server.

With successful implementation on the workstation I hope it works fine
on the serve as well.

Here are the screen shots for your.

WINE better for Win 98 applications

I found that icicidirect technical chart site which uses JVM "Java Virtual M/c" for displaying charts was working fine on win 98 while in XP it faild to work. This time it was not working fine even in my linux's firefox.

Then I tried to use iexplore over wine and you know what it works gr8.

See the chart for yourself.

wi-fi out of box

I have been using Linux on my thinkpad laptop. While to my surprise the wifi is working out of box from ubuntu and mepis. While with MS windows i needed to install quit a few software. On mepis I have even used wifi with liveCD.

Since the laptop has internal modem which is called WINmodem which can only run on windows as the design is only disclosed to MicroSoft. It is truly surprising.

Installing Software packages on Linux

I know many IT proffessionals who believes that it is next to impossible
to add a new package to Linux installation hence better not to use LINUX.

This post is specifically ment for providing a how to install your favorite
software package on linux box as I do it. I have considered the ubuntu and MEPIS
for writing this blog. Here I have described many ways of doin so.

Way 1 Compile the package
The first and most uncomfortable way for newbie to install the software package
is to download the source (ie the C/C++/java . . . codes) and compile the package
on your system.

Way 2 Just ask Synaptic if you have internet on Linux Box
The Second and easiest way is to download the precompiled binary files
and install them. This can be fully automatic if you have your Linux Box
connected to internet.

As I have writen if you have the internet connections working in the linux installation
then it is easy to install packages from the synaptic package manager. The ubuntu, Debian
& MEIPS maintains the packages on their archive server. By default the path to few of
these server is pre-configured in your Synaptic package manager. It is called repository.

Synaptic package manager first loads the index of packages available on the said server.
When user ie you request for installation of your favorite package then the synaptic
gets that package from the server and Automatically installs it into your LinuxBox.

Since most of these packages are not maintained regularly and have different lisencing
policies they are grouped into various catagories of repositories. Sometimes you may
find that your favorite package is missing when you search in Synaptic. In such cases
you can also enable the repositories and many more packages would be available for
installation.

Way 3 Download .deb files and install on LinuxBOX without internet.

Third way is to install binary files on a Linux while you do not have internet
connection on Linux Box.
So then it comes out that there are few ways of installing
binary files.
Ubuntu and MEPIS are basically debian based linux distribution
and Debian uses .deb binary files for installing the software.

Here the process is as follows
1. Get the list of required binary (.deb) files for your package
2. Get the location on server from where you can download it
3. Download these .deb files
4. Bring it in one folder to Linux box
5. Start the Synaptic package manager and select
File> Add Downloaded Packages and add the folder containing .deb files.
This will install the availble packages in your folder.

While official site for step 1. 2. and 3. is http://packages.ubuntu.com but
it does does not give the location on the serve where it is located (with
some efforts you can also find that out).

Then there is http://www.ljl.byethost14.com/apt which help search your favorite package.
It gives the list and links to all the required deb files on the ubuntu server.
(Presently not available hope it starts soon)

Way 4 Use Ubuntu Live CD to do 2 Step download and
install on LinuxBOX without internet.
This other easier way is applicable if you have a you have a PC with the internet connection
then which can boot with the ubuntu live CD.

Here there are 2 PCs one is with internet connection which might be on other OS.
While other PC is your linux BOX which do not have internet connection.

Here you first boot the internet PC with LIVE CD follow all the steps mentioned in Way
2 while during clicking install in Synaptic just select download package. This will download
the required .deb files in the /var/cache/apt/archives/ folder. Now you can take this
directory to your Linux box and install your favorite packages.