Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) Desktop on Parallels

May 3, 2008 – 11:36 am

UbuntuLogo_120 After upgrading my Ubuntu 7.01 Server to Ubuntu 8.04 Server without incident I decided to upgrade my Ubuntu 7.10 Desktop install that I have set up in a Parallels virtual machine. I’d originally installed Ubuntu 7.04 then upgraded to Ubuntu 7.10. So now it would be an upgrade to Ubuntu 8.04.

The upgrade went as described in the Ubuntu instructions. The upgrade told me it would remove 65 packages, install 182 new ones and upgrade 867 packages. All this would total a 643MB download which would take an estimated 49 minutes. It took more than 49 minutes but I was using the default mirrors and they were being hit pretty hard at the time so the download took about twice as long as estimated.

I never got into using Ubuntu on my Mac so I can’t really say what changed, but the upgrade went off without a hitch. At least until it came time to install Parallels Tools. The tools failed to install with an error that the xorg installation couldn’t be found. Based on this thread on the Ubuntu forum there doesn’t seem to be a work around at this time.

I still haven’t seen anything in Ubuntu (or any other Linux desktop) that would have me using it over my Mac on any regular basis. It’s nice to have to satisfy my curiosity and since I don’t use it regularly the lack of Parallels Tools support doesn’t affect me.

Popularity: 11% [?]

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By ray | Posted in Linux | Tagged | Comments (0)

MacMozy 1.0 Released

May 3, 2008 – 10:45 am

Mozy’s Mac client has left beta and is now an official 1.0 release. I’ve used the paid Mozy service since September and have been relatively happy with it. There were a few rough spots, like the last beta release (version 0.9.4) which failed to successfully complete a backup, forcing me to roll back to the previous release. But I’ve installed MacMozy 1.0 and it’s been running fine and completing backups.

I currently backup over 120,000 files totaling over 3GB. My only real complaint is that selecting files for restore is a bit slow although the 120K files probably has something to do with this. It’s not unbearably slow, but if your the impatient type or need that file in a hurry it’ll be like boiling that watched pot.

Another minor issue is that occasionally MacMozy will tell me it needs to back up several GB, even though I’ve had few changes. It processes all these files for backup but when It comes time to send them to the server it sees there already on the server so doesn’t send them again.

Like any online backup a lot of the performance depends upon your ISP. I don’t even attempt to backup my 150GB music and video library. With my upload bandwidth there’s not enough time in the week. So it’s not an all-encompassing solution but it does provide the offsite piece of my backup strategy.

I’ve been relatively quiet about Mozy lately but that’s because it’s been working (right up until the final beta which I already mentioned). Hit the tag links down the bottom or hit the search box for my previous articles about Mozy.

Mozy is currently running several promotions. No matter which plan you think is best for you, you should start with the free version and move up to a paid plan when you know it works for you.

The free plan offers 2GB of storage (no time limit) for personal, non-commercial use. Enter referral code E62DWM during registration to receive an extra 256MB of storage. I use a free account to backup my MacBook.

If you want to sign up for a paid plan you can use the promo code MAY for 10% off a annual sign-up or promo code MAY2 for 10% off a two-year sign-up. The annual/biennial sign-ups are paid in advance in return for free month(s). You can also sign-up for monthly billing.

Popularity: 7% [?]

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By ray | Posted in Backup | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

WordPress 2.5.1 Upgrade

April 27, 2008 – 4:12 pm

I finally got around to upgrading this site to WordPress 2.5. Since it coincided with the release of WordPress 2.5.1 I went straight to this version even though all my testing was with the earlier 2.5.0 version. The upgrade itself was extremely straight-forward.

Earlier in the week I made sure all my plugins were at the latest version so I wouldn’t have to worry about them during the actual upgrade. Except for the Popularity Contest plugin they all worked under WordPress 2.3.x and WordPress 2.5.

The one plugin that I had to change for WordPress 2.5. (and 2.5.1) was Popularity Contest. I used the instructions found at Blogvaria for the minor modifications. Following the link for full details but the short version is to change line 59 from require('../../wp-blog-header.php'); to require('../wp-blog-header.php');.

I use the Sandbox theme and I’d also have to upgrade it during the upgrade to WordPress 2.5. I modify a couple of the theme’s files so I had also prepared those ahead of time. This was a simple cut and paste.

Once everything was ready I did another set of backups and enabled the Maintenance Mode plugin to block traffic to the site. I then deactivated all the other plugins and started the upgrade and followed the regular WordPress upgrade instructions. Once the WordPress files were copied I copied the new theme files and the updated Popularity Contest plugin before running the WordPress upgrade script to upgrade the database. Once that was done I enabled all the plugins one at a time to make sure they started OK.

The entire upgrade took less than 30 minutes and I didn’t get burned by testing on WordPress 2.5.0 and upgrading to WordPress 2.5.1.

Popularity: 12% [?]

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By ray | Posted in Wordpress | Tagged | Comments (0)

Ubuntu 7.10 Server to Ubuntu 8.04 Server (Hardy Heron) Under Parallels

April 25, 2008 – 9:31 pm

Even though I’m still in the middle of building my Ubuntu test server I decided to go ahead and upgrade it to Ubuntu Server 8.04 (Hardy Heron). Sure, I’m still learning all this stuff and this will make it harder to troubleshoot problems. Upgrade issue? My configuration error? Oh well, it’s all for fun anyway.

My environment is Ubuntu Server 7.10 under Parallels Desktop 3 Build 5584 running on OS X 10.5.2. For complete details you can see earlier articles in the Ubuntu Server series.

First off I make sure everything is up to date by running:

sudo aptitude update

sudo aptitude safe-upgrade

Then I made sure the update manager was installed:

sudo aptitude install update-manager-core

Then I use Parallels snapshot manager to create a snapshot of my now up-to-date Ubuntu 7.10 server so I can easily roll back. I start the upgrade with:

sudo do-release-upgrade

Since I’m doing this through SSH from terminal on my iMac I’m given the following warning:

ReleaseUpgrade-01

I go ahead and do the installation. Everything is on my local network so I shouldn’t have a problem. I could do the upgrade directly in the VM but I prefer to continue with the illusion that the server is remote. Once I acknowledge that I want the upgrade the installer does some calculations and tells me:

ReleaseUpgrade-02

I go ahead and start the upgrade. Things are a bit slower than the estimated two minutes, the downloads take about 30 minutes. I’m using the default repositories and with the new release they are probably being pounded. But since I could let the update run while I did other things so it was no big deal.

After the download the installer started unpacking the files and updating the software which took another 20 minutes. I was prompted for a few file replacements and in all cases I chose to keep my current file. The prompts were for the MySQL my.cnf, the apache2.conf, the php.ini for Apache and the configuration file for the default Apache site. Once the updating is finished I need to restart Ubuntu.

I do some quick testing by connecting via terminal using SSH and connecting to my website using both a regular http connection and an SSL connection. Everything seems to work fine. We’ll see what happens in the days ahead.

Popularity: 16% [?]

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By ray | Posted in Ubuntu Server Project | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) Released

April 24, 2008 – 9:48 am

Canonical has released Ubuntu 8.04 LTS in both desktop and server editions. LTS means “Long term Support” and the desktop version will be supported through 2011 and the server through 2013.

Canonical has instruction for upgrading from earlier versions via the GUI .

Popularity: 11% [?]

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By ray | Posted in Quick Bits | Tagged | Comments (0)

Safari 3.1.1 Released

April 16, 2008 – 8:54 pm

Safari LogoApple has released Safari 3.1.1 for both OS X and Windows. I installed it on my two Leopard Macs without a problem through Apple’s Software Update and a reboot was required. It’s also available as a standalone download.

The update includes four security fixes (two are Windows only). One of the patches plugs the vulnerability that won the PWN to OWN contest at CanSecWest.

There’s also the standard

…improvements to stability, compatibility…

The reboot displayed a blank blue screen for a nerve-racking length of time but was otherwise uneventful.

[Updated April 17th:] Well, I may have spoken too soon. My iMac was stable until the first reboot after the patch. At that point it wouldn’t finish loading and would lock up shortly after logon. Starting in Safe Boot mode would allow the logon but instability would ensue after running an app or two. The update itself doesn’t seem to be the problem as a new user profile runs Safari and other apps just fine. Also, my MacBook is running fine.

Popularity: 12% [?]

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By ray | Posted in Quick Bits | Tagged , | Comments (0)
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