30 Jun 2008
Until I stumbled across this page I was using Kitty to download Podcasts and Amarok to manage them thereafter. Unfortunately I could not get on with Kitty and it is no longer being developed. In any case, you really only want one application.
So I went hunting for an alternative to Amarok that would handle Podcasts, only to discover that Amarok itself supports Podcasts. Basically all you need to do is under Playlists → Podcasts right-click and Add Podcast, but this link explains in more detail.
24 Jun 2008
Since upgrading to LTSP5, our scanning has ceased to work. I have created a Work in Progress page called LTSP5 Scanning. Having worked through the instructions contained on that page, scanning is still not working. The logs show that the request scanimage -L is being detected by the client and the client is confirming that the LTSP server has permission, but it is then failing with:
24 Jun 2008
What is the Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP)
If you come from a Windows background, you may be familiar with Windows Terminal Services and/or Citrix. Windows Terminal Services basically enables users from different clients to connect to servers and work concurrently on them using the RDP (Remote Desktop) protocol. Perhaps you’ve connected to your work PC using Remote Desktop - it’s the same thing, just Terminal Services just allows multiple users to connect concurrently. Citrix is just the same, but uses the ICA protocol.
23 Jun 2008
The Linux world hates Microsoft. This is not where I argue that Microsoft is
wonderful, but I would like to point out the self-interest that the Linux
community has in accepting the world as it is - with Microsoft as the dominant
player. In particular, I am concerned about the bile that is reserved for any
Linux project that dares to implement Microsoft technology on Linux.
I include in this the Wine Project, Reactos and more recently Mono, even
OpenOffice’s attempts to mimic MS Office have come in for criticism. Speaking
as someone who has put the Linux desktop into a company, I can tell you that
the biggest problem for me was in dealing with mission-critical applications
that are Windows-only. The solution for us was virtualising a Windows 2003 server
23 Jun 2008
Linux includes “md5sum” utility for checking MD5 values of downloaded applications. I find it a nuisance having to drop into a command shell and execute…
And then manually compare with the author’s. I have therefore written a simple KDE ServiceMenu to add MD5 checking.
23 Jun 2008
I have had my first user’s password expire since our LTSP5 Upgrade.
- User enters username and hits enter
- User enters password and hits enter
- LDM tells user password has expired enter new password
- User enters new password and hits enter
- LDM tells user to verify password
- User enters new password again and hits enter
21 Jun 2008
Our MD has once again brought up the thorny subject of which mobile phone to buy, in order to be certain of being able to synchronise with KDE Kontact. Oh, if only life under Linux was that simple. I believe the best solution is to replace our mail server with an Cyrus IMAP server and implement Funambol, and aim to synchronise the mobile phones with that. To that end I referred him to this page.
21 Jun 2008
We have a number of Compaq Deskpro ENSFF P450s for which sound stopped working since our LTSP5 Upgrade. I spent some time this morning solving this problem and have detailed my solution below.
The bulk of the fix was simply changing SMODULE_01 to MODULE_01 in LTS.conf, although this particular PC was a little more involved.
19 Jun 2008
Finally managed to find the time to watch Big Buck Bunny. Big Buck Bunny tells the story of a giant rabbit with a big heart. When one sunny day three rodents rudely harass him, something snaps, and…
18 Jun 2008
Further to my recent post, it transpired that rdesktop uses /dev/dsp which is incompatible with alsa. Specifying “oss” as the sound driver, instead of the default, worked fine.
$ padsp rdesktop -r sound:local:oss 192.168.0.1
