don’t feed the seagulls

I found a great post at MakeTechEasier I changed it a little and posted it.

You will be building kernel specific files so you need to have the proper header files installed for your kernel along with something to compile it.

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r` build-essential
sudo apt-get install xinetd gcc-3.4

If you are using 64 bits system, you have to install 32bit compatibility files

sudo apt-get install ia32-libs

Download VMware Server 1.0.6

Download the patch file vmware-any-any-update-116.tgz

Extract the downloaded files

tar zxf vmware-any-any-update-116.tgz
tar xzf VMware-server-1.0.6-91891.tar.gz

Run the VMware Server installer

cd vmware-server-distrib
sudo ./vmware-install.pl

You will be prompted to answer some questions. Press Enter to select the default answer. When it reaches the point that requires you to run vmware-config.pl, type No. The installer will exit. Next, apply the patch

cd vmware-any-any-update116
sudo ./runme.pl

This time, press Enter for all the questions and enter Yes to run the vmware-comfig.pl. Once it has finished compiling, you should now see the VMware console in your Applications->Other. The first time you run vmware use the console by typing vmware in the terminal. If there are any errors it will tell us. If it says it can’t find some files all we need to do is copy them from the /usr/lib directory.

sudo cp /usr/lib/libpng12.so.0 /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libpng12.so.0/
sudo cp /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libgcc_s.so.1/

For 64 bit users

sudo ln -s /usr/lib32 /usr/l32
sudo sed -i -e ’s/usr\/lib/usr\/l32/g’ /usr/lib32/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/loader-files.d/libgtk2.0-0.loaders
sudo sed -i -e ’s/usr\/lib/usr\/l32/g’ /usr/lib32/libgdk_pixbuf-2.0.so.0.1200.9

That’s it. Your VMware Server should be working now.

Last night I installed Ubuntu 8.04 and I’m so impressed. I did the WbUI version. And let me tell you, It was the easiest OS install I have ever done. Everything is great only one problem. My audio was really quiet. I have an Realtek ALC888 chipset. I had to crank my speakers to get a descent volume.

I found a solution.

Even through I have my speakers plugged into the ‘Green’ standard front channel jack Ubuntu thinks it’s plugged into the side channel.

1.  Open up the ALSA mixer[double click on the speaker at the top by the time]
2. Click on Edit->Preferences
3. Check all of the output channels
4. Turn the volume up on all the devices till you find the right channel(be careful if you have your speakers still cranked or you’ll soil yourself)

Thats it. Easy.

Edit the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file and look for the section for Synaptics Touchpad.

add Option “SHMConfig” “on” to the bottom

save and restart xorg (ctrl-alt-backspace)

install the gsynaptics package

sudo apt-get install gsynaptics

you can then run the program qsynaptics to bring up the gui to make the touchpad settings.

After problems on multiple machines I finally got nvidia binary drivers to work. I kept getting an error that the kernel module did not match the driver version and vice versa. Finally figured it out by searching on the net here’s my findings.

This procedure might work on other versions of Ubuntu but I don’t have those to test.

The instructions that nvidia gives with it’s binary are as generic as can be. This is a major problem for anyone who has installed the restricted drivers that are shipped with Ubuntu. If yer like me I always want the latest video drivers and you may run into some problems with that.

all the commands we will use will require root access we’ll have to use sudo. To make it easier we’ll issue sudo -s so we don’t have to use sudo in front of every command.

sudo -s

We first have to make sure we have the development packages with the linux headers and xorg dev installed.

apt-get install build-essential
apt-get install xserver-xorg-dev

Make sure we do not have any old drivers installed.

apt-get remove nvidia-glx --purge
apt-get remove linux-restricted-modules-common

There are some files that might be left behind that will need removing
rm /etc/init.d/nvidia-glx
rm /etc/init.d/nvidia-kernel

Additionally, delete the following file if it exists:

rm -f /lib/linux-restricted-modules/.nvidia_new_installed

now just install the new drivers

sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-100.14.11-pkg1.run

Follow the instructions and everything should be good.

Couldn’t be simpler

wget http://archive.ubuntustudio.org/ubuntustudio.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -
sudo echo "deb http://archive.ubuntustudio.org/ubuntustudio feisty main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ubuntustudio-look