That is kind of annoying.
I am going to follow the instructions from http://neuro.me.uk/2009/09/20/revert-to-standard-ubuntu-kernel-on-ovh-or-kimsufi-servers/ later this weekend, and get back to a standard kernel. Or next week.
So if the server goes does down, that’s why!
Update: Not happening this weekend! Too much work to do.
Update 2: Did it. It works. No problems there.
For some strange reason, the Ubuntu people decided that the latest release should mimic Mac OS as much as possible. The default background is now purple, eerily similar to the Mac OS default. And they decided to move the buttons to the left hand side, just like on a Mac. Which is annoying. Not because I am used to Windows, but because if you were used to previous versions of Ubuntu, you’d be very annoyed.
Rant over, here’s how to fix it: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/13535/move-window-buttons-back-to-the-right-in-ubuntu-10.04/
I have decided to switch to Linux my equal-primary platform, as I am going to be developing my next project using open source tools. I may as well use an open source operating system as well. Also it was an excuse to buy a bigger, better, faster (but probably not stronger) hard drive.
That is all.
By default in Ubuntu (and probably other distributions), when you log into the SSH server, it will do a reverse DNS lookup of the client for security reasons.
That’s fine, but it’s kind of annoying when you don’t have a working reverse DNS for your IP address. Like for all my internal addresses.
To turn it off (thanks to http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=577616):
Edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config and add the following line:
UseDNS no
Easy!
This is nothing new, but I wanted to stop X from starting on bootup with Ubuntu Desktop 8.04. I would prefer to start it using startx.
The easy solution, from within the Ubuntu desktop (seeing X has started already, I may as well use graphical tools) click the System menu, then Services. Unlock (if you need to) and deselect Graphical login manager (gdm).
BE CAREFUL THOUGH: If you apply those changes, X will stop, presumably because it was started through the init scripts and by changing the init scripts it decided it didn’t need to be running any more. That can be a pain if, for example, you are writing a blog post on how to do it in Firefox at the time. (Thankfully the autosave feature of WordPress works!)
I have been looking for a SQL-based way to store all my old email messages. I think I may have found it. There is an email system called DBMail that stores messages in a database (MySQL, PostgreSQL or SQLite) and exposes them (for want of a better word) through POP3 and IMAP.
At the moment I use Gmail, forwarding to Exchange 2007, Outlook 2007 and a huge PST. Searching the PST takes a while. Gmail doesn’t have everything in it. Exchange is there to push new messages to my phone (though I haven’t been using that since I’m back in NZ because data charges on prepay are too high, even though they have come down significantly in recent months). But I am getting a new phone soon, which should support IMAP IDLE push mail, which means I can get rid of the Exchange hosting.
The good thing about DBMail is that seeing it will store everything in MySQL (I’m going to use MySQL), I’ll be able to do anything I want with the database. So I’ll be able to write a web-based interface to it.
One thing I am going to have to think about is search. MySQL has full text indexing, but I’m not sure how good it will be with over 2.5GB to index. The other option I know of and have used a bit is Apache Lucene. I read an article by Jayant Kumar comparing the two. It looks like seeing I have so much data, Lucene might be the better option. I’ll try out native full text first and see if it’s fast enough, and then try out Lucene. And maybe I will post the results.
So I am now installing Ubuntu Desktop 8.04 on Virtual PC (with help from this TechRepublic article) and will give it a whirl. I have a server running Ubuntu Server in the UK, which is where this will live long term, if it works.