Archive for category Linux
Google Gears, Prism, and Linux 64-bit
Posted by Jorge Fernandez in Gears, Gmail, Google, Google Apps, Linux, Ubuntu on August 6th, 2009
I recently started using Prism and I really like having my Google Apps as Desktop apps and not in the browser. The only thing that was missing was offline support for Gmail and Google calendar. Google doesn’t officially support Gears on 64 Bit Linux but Niels Peen compiled a working version for Firefox. I downloaded that version and then I un-zipped the “.xpi” (.xpi files are just renamed 
zip files) and edited the “install.rdf” as per Douglas Meyer’s Blog post and it worked perfectly. Here is a link to my compiled version. google-gears-x86_64. I tested it on Ubuntu 9.04 64 Bit with Prisim 0.8
Updated: I have recently stopped using this since it became unstable with Prisim 1.0 . Google has also dropped development for Gears. They have opted to go with Standards Compliant HTML5 Storage in the future. You can see what google has to say here. I wouldn’t recommend using this anymore.
Ubuntu and ATI: Not a good combination
Posted by Jorge Fernandez in Linux, Ubuntu on May 12th, 2009
Last weekend, an update to the Linux kernel was sent through the hardy repositories… As I usually do I am eager to update when the little red arrow comes
up in the notification bar. I ran the update and it asked for a restart so I did. After GRUB loaded, I found a nice little error message saying “Undefined video mode number: 2f6″. I currently have a Quad-Core Dell Vostro with 4GB RAM and an ATI Radeon 2600HD running Hardy. Hardy doesn’t support multiple monitors which I have so I had to install the ATI fglrx drivers to get them to work, these drivers were the main source of my problems.
This isn’t the first time I have had this problem after a kernel update but they have never been hard to fix. So I turned to Google to find the answer…
After almost 2 days of scouring through forums and blog post and trying endlessly to find a permanent fix to the problem (or at least until the next kernel update). I was about ready to go and buy a nVidia card . Then it hit me that I heard Jaunty(9.04) improved support for multiple monitors dramatically so I booted up my live cd in a last ditch effort to save my ATI card. The live cd automatically detected both monitors and I was able to get them working perfectly without installing anything. I then proceeded to backup my system and do a fresh install with Jaunty and EXT4. I have been running the open-source drivers that currently run only in 2D mode which is a bummer to some people but I don’t need the 3D effects.
(Updated: If you need 3D effects check out the new ATI drivers.)
In the end I got to upgrade my system which was something I was planning to do when i had some time.
BTW, The ATI propitiary drivers for jaunty are still in early development and leak a lot of memory making the system almost usable.
I would love to here any other experiences with ATI cards I know they are just trouble for most people running Linux.
Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty) Released Today!
Posted by Jorge Fernandez in Linux, Ubuntu on April 23rd, 2009
Congratulations to Canonical and the entire Linux Community for another successful and on-time release of Ubuntu. Jaunty has some great advances and things are looking great for future releases (9.10 Karmic)…
Review: Ubuntu 9.04(Jaunty) Beta
Posted by Jorge Fernandez in Linux, OpenOffice.org, Ubuntu on April 16th, 2009
I installed Jaunty today and I have to say I am pretty impressed. The beta is rock solid. I have not tried everything out yet but I have not experienced any application crashes and ext4 seems super stable. Jaunty come with Openoffice.org 3.0 by default a big upgrade from OOo 2.4. So far Jaunty seems ready for it’s release. I am running on a brand new Dell Latitude E5500 Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 2.40GHz, 4GB RAM, 250GB HDD, Bluetooth, b/g Wifi, DVD-RW. It recognized all of the hardware automatically making it easier to install then any other OS that i’ve used including Hardy (I haven’t tested Interpid). I love the new notification system it’s very simple and intuitive. The boot time is incredibly fast even though i have timed it.
Conclusion: Super stable and i will be upgrading my hardy desktop to it.
Countdown to Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope)
Posted by Jorge Fernandez in Linux, Ubuntu, Web Services on April 2nd, 2009
Countdown to Jaunty
Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) is set to be released on April 23rd. This release will include the option of using the much anitcipated filesystem ext4. Ext4 includes many speed upgrades and 64-bit storage limits. More information can be found here.
Apart from the Ext4, Jaunty includes many other features like:
- GNOME 2.26
- Support for Amazon Web Services (EC2 & S3)
- New notifications system
- and much much more….
For more information about the release go to http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/jaunty/beta
I will be posting my reviews about it next week once I install the beta on my new laptop. 
