Friday, 26 December 2008
Post-Christmas Blues - Not too much fun with ATI and Intrepid on the 2007-AE7 Thinkpad T60p
I've played around over the past two days ( well, what else is Christmas Day and Boxing Day for ) and have taken a slightly different path to the same destination.
Instead of using Synaptic, Envy or apt get install, I chose to download the proprietary ATI driver from here.
This downloads a 80 MB file ati-driver-installer-8-12-x86.x86_64.run. It's necessary to make this file executable ( chmod +x ati-driver-installer-8-12-x86.x86_64.run ) and then execute it with root privileges ( sudo ./ati-driver-installer-8-12-x86.x86_64.run ).
The installer walks you through a series of simple screens, and, following a reboot, you're good to go.
Will continue to play ...
Sunday, 21 December 2008
Solved - ATI Catalyst Control Centre not saving configuration
When I used the ATI Catalyst Control Centre ( amdcccle ) to set my display resolution, I noticed that the changes were not being saved through a reboot. As an example, I could set the resolution to 1600x1200 to get the best out of my Thinkpad's HUUUUUGE screen, when I rebooted, the resolution would be back at 1024x768, which is a bit annoying.
As usual, Google had the answer, Google is my friend. I searched for "amdcccle saving" and found this article - the answer is to run gnome-display-properties and click Apply to save the current configuration ( this applet can be as a command ( ALT + F2 ) or via System -> Preferences -> Screen Resolution.
Strange but true
Friday, 19 December 2008
Parking in Beijing is manic over Christmas
Ubuntu 8.10 ( Intrepid Ibex ) and Suspend/Resume on the Thinkpad T60p ( 2007-AE7 )
However, I think I've cracked it - I went back in time in my blog and found this post from September, where I'd fickered with /etc/default/acpi-support and changed: -
POST_VIDEO=true
# RADEON_LIGHT=true
# DOUBLE_CONSOLE_SWITCH=true
ENABLE_LAPTOP_MODE=false
to: -
POST_VIDEO=false
RADEON_LIGHT=true
DOUBLE_CONSOLE_SWITCH=true
ENABLE_LAPTOP_MODE=true
If it helps, I'm using the fglrx 8.54.3 driver which I got via apt-get install fglrx* - as far as I know, this is not a proprietary driver BUT I MAY BE WRONG.
If it helps, this is how I can see what driver I'm using: -
lsmod | grep -i fglrx
returns: -
fglrx 1813960 32
agpgart 42184 2 fglrx,intel_agp
dmesg | grep -i fglrx
[ 42.639040] [fglrx] module loaded - fglrx 8.54.3 [Oct 10 2008] with 1 minors
lspci -vv
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc M56GL [Mobility FireGL V5200]
Subsystem: Lenovo Device 2007
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 16
Region 0: Memory at d0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
Region 1: I/O ports at 2000 [size=256]
Region 2: Memory at ee100000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
[virtual] Expansion ROM at ee120000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: fglrx_pci
Kernel modules: fglrx
sudo dpkg --list | grep -i fglrx
ii fglrx-amdcccle 2:8.543-0ubuntu4 Catalyst Control Center for the ATI graphics a
ii fglrx-kernel-source 2:8.543-0ubuntu4 Kernel module source for the ATI graphics acce
ii fglrx-modaliases 2:8.543-0ubuntu4 Identifiers supported by the ATI graphics driv
ii xorg-driver-fglrx 2:8.543-0ubuntu4 Video driver for the ATI graphics accelerators
ii xorg-driver-fglrx-dev 2:8.543-0ubuntu4 Video driver for the ATI graphics accelerators
fglrxinfo -display :0
display: :0.0 screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: ATI MOBILITY FireGL V5200
OpenGL version string: 2.1.8087 FireGL Release
Having got fglrx installed and having hacked acpi-support, I can now suspend and resume.
I can also switch to a single or dual display ( using my Sharp Aquos 26" LCD display ) using the ATI Catalyst Control Centre ( command is amdccle ) to switch between screens.
I'll test a real projector later today ....
Thursday, 18 December 2008
Woot, scrolling in Firefox on Ubuntu using middle mouse button
Simply put, open Firefox, navigate to the address bar and enter the URL about:config. Assuming you're happy to proceed past those dragons, change the setting general.autoScroll to true. Once you restart Firefox, you're good to go.
Wednesday, 17 December 2008
More about Site Analytics in WebSphere Portal
Sun xVM VirtualBox - My First Few Hours ...
Only one little niggle - USB support didn't work; I was getting
Failed to access the USB subsystem.
Could not load the Host USB Proxy Service (VERR_FILE_NOT_FOUND). The service might be not installed on the host computer.
Result Code:
NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x00004005)
when I attempted to edit the virtual machine's configuration.
However, as usual, Google had the answer ( and is my friend ).
As per this post, there are some post-installation incantations that you need to run.
Once done, we're good to go.
Next, I'm going to install WebSphere Portal or, perhaps, Lotus Connections onto the VM and see how it performs ....
WebSphere Portal 6.1 and Site Analytics
I'd previously set this up in an earlier release ( I even found a developerWorks forum post from myself back in 2006 ), but had forgotten precisely how to do it.
I confused myself by reading the formal documentation so ended up hacking around and stop/starting the portal several times.
In the end, the trick was to: -
a) Amend C:\IBM\WebSphere\wp_profile\PortalServer\config\SiteAnalyzerLogService.properties and add/change: -
SiteAnalyzerFileHandler.fileName=logs/$APPSERVER_NAME/sa.log
SiteAnalyzerPageLogger.isLogging=true
SiteAnalyzerPortletLogger.isLogging=true
SiteAnalyzerSessionLogger.isLogging=true
( there are a number of other isLogging parameters to choose from )
b) Push the updated properties into the portal configuration, using the command: -
ConfigEngine.bat update-properties
from the directory C:\IBM\WebSphere\wp_profile\ConfigEngine.
c) Restart the portal
Once this has been done, you can see/change the properties by logging into the WebSphere Application Server administration console ( https://localhost:10041/ibm/console ) and then navigating to Resource > Resource environment providers > WP SiteAnalyzerLogService > Custom properties as per the screenshot.
Having restarted the portal, and logged in, I now see data such as: -
192.168.44.1 - - [17/Dec/2008:11:33:14 +0000] "GET /Page/6_CGAH47L0082M302B566VO730M6/null HTTP/1.1" 200 -1 "" "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-GB; rv:1.9.0.4) Gecko/2008111318 Ubuntu/8.10 (intrepid) Firefox/3.0.4" "pSite=http%3A//www-304.ibm.com/jct03001c/services/learning/ites.wss/us/en%3FpageType%3Dcourse_description%26courseCode%3DPW510;sasidp=S420311311229505852077;90130510_clogin=l=1229505853&v=1&e=1229514686475;CoreID6=62742661401312295058533;ibmSurvey=1229505848905;sauidp=U420311311229505852077;satst=test"
192.168.44.1 - - [17/Dec/2008:11:33:14 +0000] "GET /Portlet/5_CGAH47L0082M302B566VO730E4/Login_Portlet?PortletPID=5_CGAH47L0082M302B566VO730E4&PortletMode=View&PortletState=Normal HTTP/1.1" 200 -1 "http://stargate.uk.ibm.com/Page/6_CGAH47L0082M302B566VO730M6/null" "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-GB; rv:1.9.0.4) Gecko/2008111318 Ubuntu/8.10 (intrepid) Firefox/3.0.4" "pSite=http%3A//www-304.ibm.com/jct03001c/services/learning/ites.wss/us/en%3FpageType%3Dcourse_description%26courseCode%3DPW510;sasidp=S420311311229505852077;90130510_clogin=l=1229505853&v=1&e=1229514686475;CoreID6=62742661401312295058533;ibmSurvey=1229505848905;sauidp=U420311311229505852077;satst=test"
being logged to C:\IBM\WebSphere\wp_profile\logs\WebSphere_Portal\sa.log.
I can now use my log analyser tool to see what's going on within my portal.
I'm actually using AWStats on my Ubuntu host whilst the portal is running within a VMware image.
I'll use the AWStats documentation as well as this excellent article from Stefan Liesche on developerWorks.
Tuesday, 16 December 2008
Introspecting Lotus Quickr Services for Lotus Domino
http://hostname.domain.com/dm/atom/introspection?login=true
to force authentication to Quickr, and allow one to see the list of
Quickr places, whether public/anonymous or not.
This is useful when using the REST model/portlet within WebSphere
Portlet Factory.
Monday, 15 December 2008
Oh my gosh, Lotus has gone a bit wiki
This useful page on developerWorks listing all the available wikis, together with their URLs.
Nice, wiki'd but nice.
More on WAS ports
WebSphere Portal 6.0
Portal http://hostname:10038/wps/portal
WAS Admin https://hostname:10039/ibm/console
WebSphere Portal 6.1
Portal http://hostname:10040/wps/portal
WAS Admin https://hostname:10041/ibm/console
Hope this helps me next time oldtimer's kicks in.
Friday, 12 December 2008
Woo, Genii Software do it again
![](http://www.geniisoft.com/showcase.nsf/GeniiLogo_Rev.jpg)
Have just downloaded the most excellent Lotusphere 2009 sessions
database from Genii Software's website here: -
http://www.geniisoft.com/showcase.nsf/LS2009_SessionsDB
I used this last year ( well, this year 'cos we're still in 2008 ) and
found it be of great use in planning my way around.
This year, I notice that they also have iPhone and Blackberry versions;
will try the iPhone version as well.
Even more fun with the Web Application Integrator portlet on WebSphere Portal 6.1
Despite my best efforts, I never saw the portal/page navigation appear on the imported web page, even though I made a conscious effort to place the JavaScript code immediately after the body tag.
Instead, I saw: -
[12/12/08 17:05:40:640 GMT] 00000041 SystemOut O Inside-Out, Default.jsp: Exception raised: java.lang.NullPointerException
When I looked at the fix list for WebSphere Portal 6.10.1 at: -
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=688&uid=swg27014411#6101
I can see: -
PK74444 WebAppIntegrator throws a NullPointerException when urlFindInTheme tag is used in a Portal 6.1 theme
so I immediately went looking for the fix - sadly, it's not available as a standalone fix, but only as part of the fixpack.
Given that I wanted to get 6.10.1 installed, I started the download - thanks to the power of broadband, this 400 MB file didn't take too long.
However, whilst I was waiting, I was fickering around with my portal, trying to reproduce another issue with SSL/HTTPS. As part of my fickering, I toggled the theme for the top-level Content Root -> Home page from Portal Default Theme to PortalWeb2 and back again.
This seemed to "kick" WAI into life, and it's now working perfectly.
I can only assume that the theme toggle forced one of the theme JSPs to be recompiled or, perhaps, magic occurred.
In either case, WAI is now working WITHOUT needing to apply any fixes or fixpacks.
Friday, 5 December 2008
A Desktop that's Virtually "Free" ( as in beer not air )
IBM and Business Partners Introduce a Linux-Based, Virtual Desktop
IBM (
This solution runs open standards-based email, word processing, spreadsheets, unified communication, social networking and other software to any laptop, browser, or mobile device from a virtual desktop login on a Linux-based server configuration.
A virtual desktop looks like a traditional desktop but is not limited to a single physical computer. Instead, many virtual Linux desktops are hosted on a server. The combined solution includes:
- Virtual desktop provided by Virtual Bridges called Virtual Enterprise Remote Desktop Environment (VERDE);
- Ubuntu, the worldwide leading Linux desktop operating system, from Canonical; and
- IBM Open Collaboration Client Solution software (OCCS) based on IBM Lotus Symphony, IBM Lotus Notes and Lotus applications. IBM Lotus Symphony is built on the Open Document Format (ODF).
Wednesday, 3 December 2008
WebSphere Portal 6.1.01 Ships - December 2nd 2008
This fix pack includes a cumulative collection of fixes and updated support for several underlying components. This fix pack updates the IBM WebSphere Portal 6.1 (6.1.0.0) level to the 6.1.0.1 service release level. This fix pack can be used to upgrade the IBM Workplace Web Content Management 6.1 (6.1.0.0) level to the 6.1.0.1 service release level. This fix pack can also be used to upgrade IBM WebSphere Portal Express 6.1 (6.1.0.0) level to the 6.1.0.1 service release level.
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg24020387
The complete list of fixes integrated into this refresh pack may be found in the technote Fix list for WebSphere Portal Version 6.1 and an updated set of system requirements.
Tuesday, 2 December 2008
Send it now, darn it
It was a most excellent question to which I didn't have an immediate answer. However, thanks to my social network ( actually knowing the man who knew and finding him on Sametime ), I was able to help solve it.
It turned out to be a location preference/setting, which can be set as follows: -
a) Choose File -> Preferences -> Locations
b) Edit the location that you usually use
c) Navigate to the Mail tab
d) Set "Transfer Outgoing Mail If X messages pending" to 1
e) Click OK to save the location change
f) Click OK to save the preference change
Hope this helps someone as it helped Mike and I
( with thanks to Chris for his most timely and excellent help )
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