Acadiana Open Source Group
While the Acadiana Macromedia Multimedia User Group has been around for a number of years and the recently formed Acadiana .NET User Group (requires Silverlight) has added to the number of user groups in the Acadiana area, there was still a void left by the long since defunct Linux user group of the area that needed to be filled. To that end, I decided to spearhead an effort to start a local user group for the open source software community.
The Acadiana Open Source Group now has a web site, a Facebook group, and a first meeting scheduled for the end of April. So, if you're in the Acadiana area or know someone who is, tell them about AOS! I've sent out press releases to various media sources, sent Facebook invites to friends, and will likely end up posting flyers in various places around nearby UL campus before the meeting date. I want to pack the conference room we have reserved and have a large number of return visitors for the next meeting, so bring it!
Do What I Mean and Not What I Say!
If you posted a comment recently and don't see it on the blog, I apologize. I managed to accidentally delete some when going through comments to approve them. If you wouldn't mind, please repost them, as most had very good content relevant to their respective posts. Thanks!
Dual-Booting XP and Kubuntu on a Sony Vaio
So it turns out the Holy Grail, Promised Land, or whatever you want to call it, does exist after all. After a number of different approaches and attempts, I finally got my Sony Vaio VGN-NR298E dual-booting Kubuntu and Windows XP. The solution turned out to be a well-known one: nLite.
With it, I was able to not only roll the drivers for my SATA drive into a custom XP CD, but also SP2 as well. It also offers options to include other drivers as well as post-SP2 Windows hotfixes and custom configuration options. I have to give major kudos to the nLite folks, as I imagine I would have given up at attempting to do this had it not worked as splendidly as it did.
So, without further ado, here's the final recipe for succes in this endeavor. Obligatory disclaimer: I take no responsibility should you not have the same success or suffer damages by following these instructions. Other obligatory disclaimer: The only reason I went to this much trouble to dual-boot to XP is because I can't find another solution that allows me to play my games.
- Download nLite. Use it to make a local copy your Windows XP CD.
- Download the standalone Service Pack 2 installer. Point nLite to it as a service pack to include.
- Download the Intel 82801HEM/HBM SATA AHCI Controller drivers. Extract them for unattended installation and point nLite to them.
- At this point, you can choose other drivers to include on the CD. Below is a list of those that are relevant to the Vaio. Be sure to have either Ethernet or Wifi drivers included in the CD or on a storage medium that Windows can recognize natively without external drivers.
- I ran into a small issue at this point that may or may not be pertinent to your case: the only machine on which I had a CD burner available was a Linux server machine. nLite was helpful in this regard, though, and offered an option to make the ISO file it created mkisofs-compatible. Using this, I was able to copy the ISO over the network to the Linux server, use mkisofs to test it and cdrecord (man page examples on this utility are helpful) to burn it.
- Boot the custom CD. Note that you no longer have to hit F6 at the point where you normally would to install custom drivers; the installer will simply detect that they're available on the CD and load them from there. Installation should be pretty normal after this point. Partition your drive however you like, being sure to leave enough room for Kubuntu to load. You'll probably notice the installer forces you to leave 8 MB free, presumably for the NT boot loader. Once you're in Windows, you can reset your screen resolution and manually install any drivers you didn't roll into the CD. Once you're connected, install any further Windows updates that might be necessary.
- Once XP is set up to your liking, pop the Kubuntu CD in, boot from it, and access the installer on the desktop once KDE has loaded. In order to not have Kubuntu overwrite your XP installation, you'll have to opt to partition manually. You'll notice that the installer sees the 8 MB that XP made you reserve earlier. I'm not sure why, but the installer sees this as free space. At any rate, I just consolidated that space into the Kubuntu partition and let it set aside its 3 MB to load GRUB. I'm not sure how to keep the NT boot loader and not load GRUB, so if you prefer that route, you'll have to dig around on your own to find out how. Set up your root and swap partitions and continue.
- Installation should again proceed fairly normally. Once you've loaded your installation for the first time, connect your machine to an ethernet cable and launch Adept, the package manager GUI for Kubuntu. Do a search for Windows and you should find a package called Windows Wireless Drivers. Install this for wireless if you need it. Beyond that, install updates and you should be good to go.
And that's all there is to it, folks. It was a wild ride to figuring out the process, so I hope my efforts help someone else looking to do the same thing. Cheers!
Kubuntu + Vaio = Nice
So the tax return ended up coming in around my birthday. Since it had been a long while since I'd gotten an upgrade, I decided to treat myself to a new Sony Vaio VGN-NR298E. The first order of business once I got it, of couse, was to wipe it clean of Windows Vista. Not having ever settled on a Linux distro of preference before, I decided to give Kubuntu 7.10 a try.
After installing and booting up for the first time, I found that the wireless didn't work right out of the box. I was able to find this forum thread, which included a link to the Intel PRO/Wireless 4965 AG/AGN network card drivers in the section marked "Wlan." I installed ndiswrapper-common and ndiswrapper-utils-1.9, the latter of which appeared to include a version of the netw4x32 driver. However, when I issued the command ndiswrapper -l, it indicated that the driver was invalid. I removed it with ndiswrapper -r netw4x32, then downloaded the latest version from the aforementioned link and installed it as per the forum thread's directions.
I also needed a solution to allow me to manage the music and files on my Creative Zen Vision: W. I'd had great experiences with their MuVo line, but I have to say that the experience with the Zen hasn't been nearly as good. Creative has extremely subpar Windows-only software for interacting with the hardware, the design of which was obviously intended to keep third parties from developing their own software.
Oddly enough, I'd never heard of this before, but Gnomad2 was quite the excellent solution for my situation. It's a simple program with an FTP client-like interface for transferring music and files to and from the Zen. If you enable the universe and multiverse repositories, you should be able to find it by searching Adept.
I also ran into the reputable difficulties with the keyboard function keys. The volume function keys will only let me toggle the volume up and down a single level relative to its current level. The brightness keys don't work at all, which is annoying as I end up missing the feature that worked fine on my old Dell Inspiron 1150. I've tried a few suggested solutions for getting these to work, but no luck so far. Any feedback on this is welcome.
I couldn't adjust myself to Konqueror as it felt like an unfamiliar, slow, and crippled version of Firefox. I ended up installing that along with the Flash Player add-on for it and my usual group of extensions. I also found the default installation lacking a program capable of playing some video formats, so I installed VLC (also available from Adept).
Overall, though, I think I'm liking Kubuntu. Hopefully Lorna Jane will be able to help me get further accustomed to it.
New Job
I've been working full-time for METHODS Technology Solutions, Inc. for roughly a year at this point. My coworkers are bright and insightful, the environment is relatively lax, and the job has had its share of challenges. Oracle, while I like it well enough as a database, has not proven to be my development platform of choice. The commute and unpredictability of traffic tends to make for long days and more time away from my family. In short, while it was certainly a good job and I'd highly recommend the company as a potential employer to anyone who asked, it wasn't the best possible fit for me.
So when I received a copy of an ad placed by surgiSYS LLC for a LAMP Developer, as hesitant as I was to change jobs, I went ahead and sent in an inquiry. Two interviews later, I received an official offer, accepted, and turned in my notice. I will officially start there as of February 18th. The company has a Lafayette office right next to the university my wife attends and where my children attend daycare. It will give me the ability to be closer to my family than I've been able to in some time.
Some of my goals involve continuing to attend conferences, get published, and stay active in the PHP community. Because these goals are very relevant to my performance at surgiSYS, I believe they'll make it a point to support me in my endeavors. The LAMP platform was always my first love and I'll be happy to return to it. I look forward to the changes and challenges this will bring and I thank my family and friends for their support in making this decision. Wish me luck!