languor.us

While trying to check the vhost configuration on my Kubuntu dev box, I had to run httpd -S. Of course, since ubuntu renamed httpd to apache (a bit like calling a Veyron a Bugatti), I had to run apache2 -S. This however led to the following error message:
apache2: bad user name ${APACHE_RUN_USER}

If you are using Skype on Linux and run into the error message "P2P connect failed" while trying to sign in, then your configuration file is very likely corrupt. The fix is to just delete the .Skype directory from your home directory and restart Skype.

The version of Skype on my system is 2.0.0.72 and it was installed (and upgraded) from the Medibuntu repository. I'm pretty certain that the previous version was working fine.

N.B. Files and directories beginning with a period are, by default, hidden.

If you follow the posts on this site, you'd have noticed my issues with the recent Hardy upgrade. While I thought they'd been fixed in my fstab, this was apparently not the case. When I rebooted the machine next, I couldn't even get to the shell as I encountered the message - Unable to execute /bin/sh - Permission Denied.

I have a Gigabyte board with an nForce 430 chipset that supports RAID. I was hoping to use it to create a simple RAID1 mirror using two hard drives to protect my previous MP3 collection. The system in question is an updated Kubuntu Gutsy box.

Before we start, this is the first time I am playing with RAID and the information below might very well be wrong. Please feel free to correct me :)

If you ever find yourself running into a monotonous

"The following packages have been kept back"

error message when you run sudo apt-get upgrade, then the "fix" is to either run apt-get dist-upgrade which is quicker, but sounds more ... dangerous or to run apt-get install [package list] where package list is a list of all packages that have been kept back.

Tor is an open source project that allows users to utilise the Internet anonymously through the use of something along the lines of distributed proxies - the Onion router network. Privoxy is more of a local web proxy that, when configured correctly, can protect your privacy by filtering such information at the source. Together they are an effective and user-friendly (but not necessarily perfect) solution to preserving your anonymity on the Internet.

The Linksys WMP54G, a wireless adapter that I bought after much (but apparently insufficient) research, is essentially not very Linux friendly after all. The card is detected by Linux as the following:
00:0c.0 Network controller: RaLink RT2561/RT61 802.11g PCI

I upgraded to Feisty over the weekend. Everything appeared to have gone through smoothly. However, I found that I could not access my Feisty shares from my other Linux / Windoze boxen. The connection just failed. I could however access other samba and windoze shares _from_ the Feisty box (which was living up to its name :S). So, I tried going into System Settings, Sharing to sort things out by fiddling with the options, making everything readable and writable by everybody, enabling guest account access and so on and so forth.

All to no avail.

Many moons ago, I had to run an update to the nVidia driver for my Kubuntu box. After installing it, I found that the next time I ran X, my display was offset by about 50px to the right. Normally, it would have been possible to fix this via the monitor, most of which have a convenient "auto" button to solve such issues. However, my set-up involves the use of a KVM switch, which allows me to use a single keyboard, mouse and monitor for more than one PC (four in my case).

Problem: I've set up Samba on my Linux box and can access my Windows shares fine. However, every time I want to access a file from my Windows share, Linux, difficult motherfucker that it is, downloads the file, stores it in a temp directory and then plays it.. So, if I want to play .. say a 1.4 GB movie, I have to download the entire damn thing across my network to see it.. Not Good Enough.