I do stuff with people.
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On Linux, Flash Media Server only supports Redhat. In February, Markus Bertheau posted a patch for FMS 3, so that it would run on Ubuntu. Based on that patch, here is a patch for FMS 3.5 . It’s patched in a similar way. From the installer directory, run:
patch -p1 < fms-3.5-ubuntu.patch
That gets it to install. I’ve not tried running it though. If you run into problems running it, please let me know.
ICQ just broke support for pidgin in Ubuntu. There’s a thread about it here, the patch is here. If you don’t want to apt-get source, apply the patch, and build it, you have the following option: if you are on Hardy, x86, and trust me a lot, I have the packages built here. I’ll leave them up until the update gets released, or my server goes down.
This is about the second day of TCF. You may recall the first day of TCF, which I posted about five days ago.
Overall, Sunday was much slower than Saturday — we gave out around 75 CDs, as opposed to 300 on Saturday. However, this is to be expected; despite their best efforts, TCF is very much a one day event. However, on Sunday we still talked to a lot of interested potential users, so it was definitely worth being there both days.
I also bought a rack server. It’s 2U, dual Xeon 2.8Ghz, 2 GB of ram, and a 80GB SATA hard drive. Cost? 90 bucks. This was a steal, except for one problem: I don’t own a rack! I was later amused by the juxtaposition of me building a microatx server to use 40 watts of power and make no noise, and then sitting a 2U rack server next to it, which consumes 300+ Watts of power and sounds like an airplane. Lucky for me, my boss was interested in it, so it’ll be our new Asterisk server in the coming months.
Overall, I was pleased by our outcome this year, and will consider going back next year. Next year, I’d like to try to have multiple presentations on Linux and Linux-related topics. Perhaps I can get someone else to do the general Linux/Ubuntu stump speech, and focus on a more specific topic — such as Bash, PHP, or Asterisk.
In other news, I’m almost done with University forever. I have about 2 weeks more of wrapping up work, and then I graduate on the 17th. After that, I’ll only be working full time, so I’ll have some time to pursue actually developing open source software, instead of just shilling it to crowds 
Today was the first day of the Trenton Computer festival. Bryan and I left for Trenton around 8:30 AM (after a few false starts) and got there to set up around 10 after 9 — Mike and his brother arrived soon after. This year we had two tables — one for demo machines (one Kubuntu, one Xubuntu, an OLPC, an n810, and an Ubuntu Desktop running Compiz Fusion on dual LCDs), and one for handouts (and room to talk).
(Author’s Note: Wondering why these pictures have so few people? I was the cameraman, so these are from times when I could actually stop shilling Ubuntu CDs and take a picture).
I brought 200 Printed Gutsy CDs, and I planned on bringing 200 burned Hardy CDs — unfortunately, mtx had other plans, so I couldn’t get my media changer to burn more than one CD before losing permissions on the cd burner. There were 5 machines there, burning Hardy CDs continuously — they were still going as fast as we could burn them.
At 1:20, I left to give my presentation on Ubuntu. As Matt mentions here, early in the presentation, the projector went to sleep on me. He doesn’t mention that a) the projector was limited to 640×480 resolution, b) the internet was borked in that building. I didn’t get to show off everything I wanted to, but overall it went well. As I left, I led a train of around 20 people back to our LoCo Table.
Overall, today went very well; we gave out around 300 CDs total, and, more importantly to me, talked to a lot of people about Linux groups in their area (I expect a rather good turnout for the next LUG/IP meeting). Tomorrow will be just as fun, albeit a bit slower than today turned out to be.
I’m upgrading my laptop to hardy today, as I’m giving a presentation on Ubuntu and Hardy tomorrow at the Trenton Computer Festival — I’ve been running Hardy for months, but I like reinstalling after release, as I get rid of all the junk in the corners, and make sure all the important stuff gets enabled. I set up my desktop with Hardy already, as I usually have that at our table showing the latest and greatest desktop effects on dual lcd monitors.
When I installed Gutsy on my laptop, I used the new-fangled encrypted partitions system. I didn’t encrypt the whole drive — I like to keep my home directory separate from everything else, and that includes encryption — instead, I did the following:
Then in lvm 1:
and in lvm 2:
and then, all done. When I started up the machine, I was prompted for 2 passwords — one for each encrypted partition — , but other than that, I had what I wanted. Encrypted home, encrypted var, tmp, and swap, and everything else unencrypted (because it doesn’t need to be, and there’s no reason to slow it down).
So, today, using the alternative install CD, I set up my partitions exactly as they are. It prompted me for my passwords when I configured my encypted partitions, did its stuff, etc. Then I selected to use them as lvm groups, and figured i was ready to go.
It wasn’t until I stared at blank LVM groups that I realized when I entered my password, it was asking for the password for my new encrypted partitions. That it was making. While it was erasing all my data.
My first reaction: a loud shriek. Ever see those cheesy slasher films, where some woman runs screaming through the forest? That was me.
My second reaction was to go through a mental inventory of what I erased. Upon recall, I remembered that I backed up my home partition to an external about a month ago. Besides that, I keep my password lists on a remote server as an encrypted file, my senior project is kept in a subversion repository remotely, and I haven’t done much else important in the past month. I also moved tomorrow’s presentation to a flash stick, so I could work on it on my desktop (which I’m writing this on right now). In total, I lost:
Overall, not very much, but I dodged a bullet. Nonetheless, as usual, back up your data before a reinstall — especially if you did something similar to what I did. The alternative installation CD is a fickle diety, and her wrath will be upon thee if you did not do full disk encryption. Next release, I think I’ll play it safe and configure my encrypted stuff manually.
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