A quick note about using newer version of Ubuntu: From 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) on, Ubuntu doesn’t come with a g77 package. g77 is not used for GEANT4 specifically, but with CERN’s ROOT, which is an amazing statistical analysis package. You won’t NEED this for GEANT4, but it allows you to do some cool stuff.  Anyhow, instead of g77, Intrepid (8.10) comes with ‘gfortran’ which is not the same code, it seems.  Now, there are two ways on handling it.  I, personally, advise sticking to 8.04 and the g77 it comes with.  However, you can use a newer version of Ubuntu (or its variants) and either use Hardy packages or install from source.  Either way, it’s nice to have ROOT installed for statistical analysis.

As a side note, I’m hoping to (eventually) post a complete walkthrough of the process I go through when compiling CLHEP, GEANT4, and ROOT on a 8.04 machine.  It’ll probably be a while before I manage to get it written up, but it sure would be nice…

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError:
Can't load library: /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/i386/xawt/libmawt.so

The exact error being:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: Can't load library: /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/i386/xawt/libmawt.so
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadLibrary(ClassLoader.java:1666)
at java.lang.Runtime.load0(Runtime.java:787)
at java.lang.System.load(System.java:1022)
at java.lang.ClassLoader$NativeLibrary.load(Native Method)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadLibrary0(ClassLoader.java:1767)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadLibrary(ClassLoader.java:1684)
at java.lang.Runtime.loadLibrary0(Runtime.java:840)
at java.lang.System.loadLibrary(System.java:1047)
at sun.security.action.LoadLibraryAction.run(LoadLibraryAction.java:67)
at sun.security.action.LoadLibraryAction.run(LoadLibraryAction.java:47)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.awt.Toolkit.loadLibraries(Toolkit.java:1610)
at java.awt.Toolkit.<clinit>(Toolkit.java:1632)
at java.awt.Component.<clinit>(Component.java:568)
at CreditSystem.main(CreditSystem.java:17)

The solution I found was to issue the following command

sudo update-java-alternatives -s java-6-sun

That will update your files and fix it. Fun fun…

The first thing that I realized with this upgrade was that it was going to take a long time.  I had to download and upgrade 1800+ packages.  I started the process at about 9 in the morning.  By 12:30, all of my packages had downloaded and installed.  I was ready to reboot and give it a try!

Fixing a Kubuntu Login Screen and Gnome not being default

One major problem I always seem to run into was that, at some point in my past, I installed KDE4 to try it out and, in doing so, it took over my system.  Now anytime I get a system update I have to reinstall the official Ubuntu bootup screen and tell GDM to boot into Gnome, not KDE, for my system.  This is how to fix the bootup screen.

System -> Administration -> StartUp-Manager -> "Appearance" Tab

Change "Usplash Theme" to 'usplash-theme-ubuntu'

To fix the Gnome problem, simply select Gnome from the “Options -> Session” menu on your login page.

Make the Trackpoint work again!

Another problem I was having is that my Trackpoint would not right click or scroll with the middle button.  Seeing as that ‘clit mouse‘  that is the only thing I use, it was absolutely killing me.  After a small amount of googling, however, I found this post which gave me the solution:

Edit: /etc/hal/fdi/policy/mouse-wheel.fdi and add

<match key="info.product" string="TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint">
 <merge key="input.x11_options.EmulateWheel" type="string">true</merge>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.EmulateWheelButton" type="string">2</merge>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.XAxisMapping" type="string">6 7</merge>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.YAxisMapping" type="string">4 5</merge>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.ZAxsisMapping" type="string">4 5</merge>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.Emulate3Buttons" type="string">true</merge>
</match>

This should let you use your Trackpoint. That’s a great thing.

Make Compiz the default Window Manager!

For whatever reason, I’ve never had compiz as the default window manager.  I wanted this so I found this solution.  Edit the file  “~/.gnomerc”   and add:

export WINDOW_MANAGER=/usr/bin/compiz

From there you can reboot and compiz should be the default Window Manager!

Fix keyboard problems

For whatever reason, upgrading borked my keyboard. Volume controls no longer worked, arrow keys turned into the PrintScreen button, etc.  This is, obviously, a pain.  The program “thinkpad-keys” works for me to fix these keys.  To add it to run every time, do the following:

System -> Preferences -> Sessions -> Add

Name: "Thinkpad Keys"

Command: "thinkpad-keys"

Add it and close.

Now your keys are fixed!

Those are all of the fixes I have right now, but I’ll post if I find them.

Just for the record, my computer is running Ubuntu Gutsy on a T61 14.1″.  The graphics card is the Intel X3100, running the default Ubuntu drivers.  The wine version used was Wine 1.1.2.

First of all, Wine has always been a really big problem for me. I never seem to get anything working properly.  In fact, up until today I had been running a year old version of Wine because any newer version somehow wouldn’t let me run the few applications I still emulated with Wine (mainly MS Office 2003).  Well, today I decided that I would bite the bullet and attempt to install WoW under wine.  Installing it, at least for me, was not unique–Copy the Installer.mpq files from each of the four discs, run the installer under Wine, and go for it.  After the initial game was installed (at version 1.0) the game ran perfectly–well, at least it booted up and went to the login screen perfectly.  After a series of what seemed like endless patches, I finally ended up at version 2.4.3, which is the current version at the time of writing this.

Now, I did something stupid: I assumed.  I assumed that since WoW had started up initially (v1.0) that it would start up after patches (v2.4.3).  After all, I looked through patch notes and there was nothing about breaking wine compatibility (I completely stole that joke from Jeff.  Proper credit is due). But, when I started the program under default settings (DirectX), it didn’t want to work anymore.  It showed my screen slightly mangled and had a cursor, but nothing would work (not even killing the X server or attempting to SSH/VNC in) to stop it.  After a few hard reboots, I attempted to open it with the command

wine Wow.exe -opengl

I assumed that since I was running in Linux and OpenGL was native, that would be a much better solution.  What did I get for my assumption?

The OpenGL version of the WoW login screen

Yes, that’s correct.  A completely messed up version of WoW’s login screen.  Maybe, though, it’s just a problem with the login screen.  Sometimes various things in menus don’t work in games under Wine and it’s just a matter of getting into the game itself.  I assumed this was one of those cases, so I went for it.  My result?

A new graphical pack for WoW that Blizzard pushed just to me!

That’s right.  An AWESOME version of the WoW interface. Great. At this point, I was getting fairly frustrated.  I’m going to cut out the hour or two of me surfing the internet for any semblence of a solution and tell you the final setup I used to get it to work.

This is my solution.  Your results may vary.

• In the ‘winecfg’ program, uncheck the box that says “Allow Pixel Shader (if supported by hardware)“.
• Add the following lines to your Config.wtf (located in ~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/World of Warcraft/WTF/)

• SET UIFaster "2"

  SET ffxDeath "0"

  SET ffxGlow "0"

  SET gxWindow "1"

  SET SoundOutputSystem "1"

  SET SoundBufferSize "150"

• Keep the display on DirectX (wine Wow.exe -d3d) and remove any references to OpenGL in your Config.wtf file.  I could not get it to work with OpenGL, but DirectX worked.

I doubt this solution will work for everyone, but I thought I may as well put it up to keep others from the same headache I suffered through.  This is what I got in the end:

My final result after lots of hacking with Wine

"Can't open /usr/share/mime-info/air.keys" (error 2: no such file or directory)"
"Can't open /usr/share/mime-info/air.mime" (error 2: no such file or directory)"

Obviously, this wasn’t the worst thing that could possibly happen to me… but it was rather aggravating!  To solve this problem I went scrounging through the depths of the interblags and finally managed to fix it.  Lots of help comes from the Dusty Pixels blog, but I figured I would compile what worked for me here.

I will copy in these codes directly as I used them (and supress any output).  Please note that I do sudo into root for this fix just to make sure there are no permissions errors–if you wish to go the fully ‘approved’ method, just append sudo on every single command here.

nuke@nuke-laptop:~$ cd /opt/Adobe\ AIR/Versions/1.0/xdg-utils/

nuke@nuke-laptop:/opt/Adobe AIR/Versions/1.0/xdg-utils$ sudo su

root@nuke-laptop:/opt/Adobe AIR/Versions/1.0/xdg-utils# xdg-mime uninstall --novendor /opt/Adobe\ AIR/Versions/1.0/support/AdobeAIR.xml

root@nuke-laptop:/opt/Adobe AIR/Versions/1.0/xdg-utils# sudo nano ../support/AdobeAIR.xml

This step requires that you remove the three lines starting with <magic priority=”100″> and ending with </magic>.

root@nuke-laptop:/opt/Adobe AIR/Versions/1.0/xdg-utils# xdg-mime install --novendor /opt/Adobe\ AIR/Versions/1.0/support/AdobeAIR.xml

root@nuke-laptop:/opt/Adobe AIR/Versions/1.0/xdg-utils# sudo unlink /usr/share/mime-info/air.keys

root@nuke-laptop:/opt/Adobe AIR/Versions/1.0/xdg-utils# sudo unlink /usr/share/mime-info/air.mime

root@nuke-laptop:/opt/Adobe AIR/Versions/1.0/xdg-utils# sudo ln -s /opt/Adobe\ AIR/Versions/1.0/support/air.keys /usr/share/mime-info/air.keys

root@nuke-laptop:/opt/Adobe AIR/Versions/1.0/xdg-utils# sudo ln -s /opt/Adobe\ AIR/Versions/1.0/support/air.mime /usr/share/mime-info/air.mime

And there you go!  You shouldn’t have any more mime-type errors in Filezilla!

The biggest implication of Best Buy selling Ubuntu is just that–Best Buy is selling Ubuntu!  It is, as far as I know, either the second or third time a major retailer has marketed Linux (the others being Walmart’s $200 Linux PC and the Asus Eee PC).  Many people are hesitant to adopt anything that is free in the computing world due to the horrible experiences that most people have with free, spyware-infested software.  If the slightly computer-savvy average person is in the store and sees Ubuntu it should help them realize that it is a legitmate piece of software.  Once people start seeing Ubuntu in the store there will definitely be a large amount of random purchases of the software.  Also, on the bright side, a boxed copy of Ubuntu would make a much nicer present than CD-R with Sharpie on it!  Either way, the selling of Ubuntu, especially at the reasonable price of $20, is a good thing for adoption.

The biggest battle for Linux adoption is to get the software into the hands of new people.  But even after they have paid for it, many may not install their new, shrink-wrapped copy of Ubuntu once they actually try to install it.  Confusion over various things (Hey Jeb, what’s a partition?) that seem overly simple to experienced Linux users will be enough to offset users.  Luckily, the Geek Squad installation option is, ideally, great.  This is, of course, most likely the first and last time I will ever complement the Geek Squad as a whole, but I really think this is a good thing to have.  First of all, it makes it seem more ‘comparable’ with Windows’ high price tag.  $20 isn’t much, but when you add on a $130 installation charge it is more in the range of Windows (which is, after all, the main competition).  This also gives users a way to install Ubuntu without having to know anything about computers.  As long as the Geek Squad agent (and I use that word in the loosest term imaginable) is competent, this will definitely provide a decently painless way for people to obtain Ubuntu.

When someone is walking in the aisles of Best Buy and sees Ubuntu they will, most likely, be confused.  Even after reading the box they may still have questions and not buy it, and that’s perfectly fine.  At least the user will have been exposed to Ubuntu which is, in my opinion, a major victory.  If enough people start wondering about Ubuntu, they’ll start talking.  It’s not hard to imagine two co-workers chatting about this strange new Ubuntu thing they saw the last few times they were at Best Buy.  Retail Stores are, after all, about advertising products and making them look good enough that a person feels the need to purchase them.

In the end, we’ll all have to wait and see.  Maybe this will pay off like I (and so many others) hope it will.  Of course, it could also easily have the opposite effect.  If Best Buy doesn’t sell enough copies to justify keeping Ubuntu in stock, it will probably acquire an aversion to selling more Linux distros and Linux-based computers.  But for now, I’ll keep on hoping.

A modern beginner-oriented Linux distribution such as Ubuntu is considerably easier to use than a Mac.

Now, I am a huge Linux guy.  I love my T61 Thinkpad running Ubuntu (formerly Gutsy, now Hardy).  I’ve had the laptop for almost a year exactly and have had Ubuntu on it ever since the first Ubuntu 7.10 RC releases and couldn’t be happier.  It gives me, a very very cranky power user, exactly what I want.  That being said, I just don’t agree that it is easier to use for new users than OS X.  In fact, I think they both are horrible for new users.

Part of the problem is that we must first define what a ‘new’ user is.  Clearly it is very hard to imagine anyone in the US, let alone most of the developed world, that has never had any contact with a normal desktop computer.  So, for the purposes of this post, I’m going to assume that a ‘new user’ is a normal person who has used their (Windows) computer for browsing the internet, managing email, writing Word/Excel documents, and maybe downloading pictures from their camera.  Unfortunately, that is all many people use their computer for.  Many of us who are very computer-savvy forget that some things are just confusing because those who are less informed don’t fully understand the technology.  If a novice user sees a pop-up that says they have spyware and they can “GET RID OF IT BY CLICKING HERE!” then they’re going to do it because that sounds scary.  They’re not going to know that a random pop-up ad has no chance of finding spyware, they’re just going to know that someone is telling them that their computer is messed up and, as a result, they’re going to attempt to fix it.  All of this adds to the problem of usability.
1. The Desktop:The problem with the Ubuntu Desktop, compared to the OS X desktop, is that it is very sparse as shipped.  This is great for Linux diehards, but for someone who wants to use Linux like Windows they’re going to initially be confused.  Why would they look up to the top bar when they’re always used to going to the bottom-left and clicking the start button?  At least OS X keeps their bar on the bottom.  On top of that, at least the Mac starts with certain applications initially on the screen.  Ubuntu doesn’t give you anything like that.

2. Installing New Software: I’ll give Matthew this point.  Ubuntu is definitely better in this regard.  The .dmg format is slightly confusing for new users.  At least .deb seems to work fairly well–if you double click the file then Ubuntu handles it very well.

3. Compiling from Source:  I don’t think that this is really a consideration that should be taken with new users.  There’s no reason they would need to compile things and, if they did, they aren’t new users.  Hell, even trying to get people to understand what the hell ‘compiling’ source meant would be confusing–and we’re not even going to start working on what they would have to do to get all of the dependencies for various software.

4. Out of the box functionality:  I agree with Matthew that it’s a slightly unfair comparison because of the different situations.  For instance, Ubuntu on old/weird hardware is going to be a completely different experience than getting it pre-installed on a new Dell machine.  Of course, the same can be said of OS X as a ‘hackintosh’ instead of on native apple hardware.  For that reason, I’ll let this point go.

5. Greater range of pre-installed applications: This is true although I’d argue some of them don’t meet the quality/polish of Mac OS X.

6. Better support of third party media players:  Maybe this is just me being me, but people have iPods.  iPods outnumber everything else, last time I checked.  I know that when I tried Amarok a few months ago, probably around January, that it wouldn’t do many of the things that I wanted it to do (album art on my 5.5G iPod, it split up podcasts into multiple injuries, various other things).  iTunes works, plain and simple.

I love Ubuntu and wouldn’t want to use OS X, but I don’t think it’s (yet) fair to say that Linux is easier for a completely new user than OS X.