Ubuntu – How to Restart Freezed/Hang Gnome Panel

After upgrading to Jaunty, in Compiz sometimes I get a lot of Gnome-Panel Freezes, hovering the mouse cursor over it won’t trigger any response.

This freezes usually triggered by pressing Alt-F2.

So, the gnome-panel has to be restarted with this command:

killall gnome-panel

nohup gnome-panel –replace &

References:

http://mylinuxnotebook.blogspot.com/2008/09/restart-gnome-panel.html

Cairo Dock bug? – /usr/share/menu/cairo-dock: 1: Syntax error: word unexpected (expecting “)”)

it’s been some times that everytime I did apt-get to install some stuff, I always found this line somewhere in the console output:

Processing triggers for menu …
/usr/share/menu/cairo-dock: 1: Syntax error: word unexpected (expecting “)”)
Execution of /usr/share/menu/cairo-dock generated no output or returned an error.

But, strangely, the cairo dock itself is running just fine, in my desktop
Kinda annoying though….

Wvdial Setting for Ubuntu Intrepid + Sierra Wireless GSM USB Modem + Indosat IM3 Prepaid

Finally, after some googling and trial-error, this is the latest setting:

[Dialer im3]
Init1 = ATZ
Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
Init3 = AT+CGDCONT=1,”IP”,”indosatgprs”
Modem Type = USB Modem
ISDN = 0
New PPPD = yes
Phone = *99***1#
Modem = /dev/ttyUSB0
Username = gprs
Password = im3
Baud = 460800
Auto Reconnect = On
Stupid Mode = 1

Technorati Tags: ubuntu, usbmodem, wvdial

EMail Server Down….

My Email Server is down….

Add support for IPCOP – Advanced Proxy – Update Accelerator to cache Antivirus ESET Nod32 update files

I’ve been digging and foraging for infos about this one. The author of this ipcop great plugin, stated in the FAQ that it is possible to add custom rules for Update Accelerator, but can’t seem to find the guide anywhere.

Here are my findings so far :

Simply edit this file in your IPCOP box:

/usr/sbin/updxlrator

and you will find these lines :

while (<>) {

    $request=$_;

    @tmp=split(/ /,$request);
    chomp(@tmp);

    $source_url = $tmp[0];
    $hostaddr   = $tmp[1]; while ($hostaddr =~ /.*\/$/) { chop $hostaddr; }
    $username   = $tmp[2]; if ($username eq ”) { $username=’-'; };
    $method     = $tmp[3];

    $xlrator_url = $source_url;

    if (($method eq ‘GET’) || ($method eq ‘HEAD’))
    {

    # ———————————————————–
    #  Section: Windows Update / Windows Downloads
    # ———————————————————–

    if (
        (($source_url =~ m@^http://[^/]*\.microsoft\.com/.*\.(exe|psf|msi|msp|cab)$@i) ||
         ($source_url =~ m@^http://[^/]*\.windowsupdate\.com/.*\.(exe|psf|msi|msp|cab)$@i))
    &&   ($source_url !~ m@^http://[^/]*\.microsoft\.com/.*(/autoupd|selfupdate/).*\.cab@i)
    &&   ($source_url !~ m@\&@)
       )
    {
        $xlrator_url = &check_cache($source_url,$hostaddr,$username,”Microsoft”,$unique);
    }

    # ———————————————————–
    #  Section: Adobe Downloads
    # ———————————————————–

    if (
        ($source_url =~ m@^http://(ar)?download\.adobe\.com/.*\.(exe|msi|bin|dmg|idx|gz)$@i) ||
        ($source_url =~ m@^http://swupdl\.adobe\.com/updates/.*\.(exe|msi|bin|dmg|idx|gz|[a-z][a-z]_[A-Z][A-Z])$@i) ||
        ($source_url =~ m@^http://swupmf\.adobe\.com/manifest/.*\.upd$@i)
       )
    {
        $xlrator_url = &check_cache($source_url,$hostaddr,$username,”Adobe”,$unique);
    }

    # ———————————————————–
    #  Section: Linux Downloads
    # ———————————————————–

    if ($source_url =~ m@^[h|f]t?tp://[^?]+\.(deb|rpm)$@i)
    {
        $xlrator_url = &check_cache($source_url,$hostaddr,$username,”Linux”,$mirror);
    }

    # ———————————————————–
    #  Section: Trend Micro Downloads
    # ———————————————————–

    if (
        ($source_url =~ m@^http://[^/]*\.trendmicro\.com/activeupdate/.*@i) &&
        ($source_url !~ m@.*/tmnotify\.dat$@i) &&
        ($source_url !~ m@.*/ini_xml\.zip$@i) &&
        ($source_url !~ m@.*/server\.ini$@i)
       )
    {
        $xlrator_url = &check_cache($source_url,$hostaddr,$username,”TrendMicro”,$mirror);
    }

    # ———————————————————–
    #  Section: Symantec Downloads
    # ———————————————————–

    if ($source_url =~ m@^[h|f]tt?p://[^/]*\.symantec(liveupdate)?\.com/.*\.(exe|zip|vdb|xdb)$@i)
    {
        $xlrator_url = &check_cache($source_url,$hostaddr,$username,”Symantec”,$unique);
    }

    # ———————————————————–
    #  Section: Apple Downloads
    # ———————————————————–

    if (
        (($source_url =~ m@^http://swcdn\.apple\.com/content/downloads/.*\.(tar)$@i) ||
         ($source_url =~ m@^http://appldnld\.apple\.com\.edgesuite\.net/.*\.(exe|dmg)$@i) ||
         ($source_url =~ m@^http://.*\.g.akamai.net/.*/3093/1/.*\.(tar|pkg|dmg|exe)$@i))
       )
    {
        $xlrator_url = &check_cache($source_url,$hostaddr,$username,”Apple”,$unique);
    }

    # ———————————————————–
    #  Section: Avast Downloads
    # ———————————————————–

    if ($source_url =~ m@^http://download[\d]+\.avast\.com/.*\.(exe|vpu)$@i)
    {
        $xlrator_url = &check_cache($source_url,$hostaddr,$username,”Avast”,$mirror);
    }
   

    # ———————————————————–

    }

Simply add these lines, just below the Avast section:

    # ———————————————————–

    #  Section: NOD Downloads

    # ———————————————————–

    if ($source_url =~ m@^[h|f]t?tp://[^?]+\.(nup|ver|)$@i)

    {

        $xlrator_url = &check_cache($source_url,$hostaddr,$username,”Other”,$mirror);

    }

I’m using the Linux section as the template, which is the easiest template compare to others. What do those line mean?

$source_url =~ m@^[h|f]t?tp://[^?]+\.(nup|ver|)$@i)

translate: UA should cache  nup and ver files…

$source_url =~ m@^[h|f]t?tp://[^?]+\.(nup|ver|)$@i)

translate: and the URLS could be anywhere…

$source_url =~ m@^[h|f]t?tp://[^?]+\.(nup|ver|)$@i)

translate: and it doesn’t matter whether it is http or ftp…

Pay attention to this:

$xlrator_url = &check_cache($source_url,$hostaddr,$username,”Other“,$mirror);

It’s vendorid flag, which indicated that these NUP and VER files should use Other flag in the UA web interface. If you want to mess around and add your own image/category, edit this file

/home/httpd/cgi-bin/updatexlrator.cgi

find these line :

print “\t\t ”;
            if ($vendorid =~ /^Adobe$/i)
            {
                print “ \n”;
            } elsif ($vendorid =~ /^Microsoft$/i)
            {
                print “ \n”;
            } elsif ($vendorid =~ /^Symantec$/i)
            {
                print “ \n”;
            } elsif ($vendorid =~ /^Linux$/i)
            {
                print “ \n”;
            } elsif ($vendorid =~ /^TrendMicro$/i)
            {
                print “ \n”;
            } elsif ($vendorid =~ /^Apple$/i)
            {
                print “ \n”;
            } elsif ($vendorid =~ /^Avast$/i)
            {
                print “ \n”;
            } else
            {
                if (-e “/home/httpd/html/images/updxl-src-” . $vendorid . “.gif”)
                {
                    print “ \n”;
                } else {
                    print “ \n”;
                }
            }

Maybe there are other files or lines that should be edited as well, I don’t know yet.
Technorati Tags: ipcop, update accelerator mod

Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex : How to repair GRUB Error 17

Recently, I had to upgrade my hard disk from 120GB to 250GB, with the help of Gparted Live CD. As it turns out, that my new hard drive can’t boot from my laptop and give me this horror message:

GRUB Error 17

So, with the help of “grub-install” tool, this is what I did:

1. Boot you system with any Ubuntu CD. In my case, I’m using Ubuntu 8.10 LiveCD.

2. Determine your hard disk device name. In my system, it’s /dev/sda

3. Determine your current boot type. In my system, my boot block is in MBR

4. Execute “grub-install” with the following syntax:

grub-install [OPTION] device name

in my system it would be like this:

sudo grub-install –recheck /dev/sda

Then reboot

Network quality and it’s correlation with bandwidth usage and numbers of packets in SETURAN12

Before continue reading this, I would like to remind you that the resulted images are solely for diagnosing purpose only, and is very subjective, since network quality is affected by many of factors.

The purpose of this post is to remind myself (just in case I got amnesia), the correlation of ping replies with bandwidth usage & packets count in pfSense 1.2 gateway.

One of the features in pfSense is RRD Graph, which graphs important information, such as bandwidth usage, CPU load, memory consumption, network (ping) quality, number of packets, and queues(if you’re utilizing Traffic shaper).

I would like to focus on network quality. These graphs basically just time based graph of ping replies to ISP gateway(s). The slower the ping responses, the higher the number on Y coordinate. 1 cell in X coordinate, correspond to 1 day.

As I stare this graph below, I notice some repetitive occurence/pattern:

Oh, forgot to mention, Week 39 and Week 40 are excluded, since we have
different modem and connection mode. Starting at week 41, I used Bridge
Mode in my ADSL modem, and a change from DHCP mode to PPPoE mode in pfSense’s WAN.

Pay attention on week 42 and 43. The quality starts to crumble down on weekend, starting at wednesday, usually at midnight. It’s getting worse when it gets to sunday, and they usually happen during midnight until the next day.

This week (week 43) it starts even ealier, in Tuesday , starting at around 10 pm and all the way to 5 am this morning.

Hmmmm, what is this? Let’s bring the bandwidth usage, see if anything similar occur here:

It seem that the correlation is (almost) linear, the higher the bandwidth usage, the data rush definetely hammered the network ping replies

Let see the packet graph:

Yes, we did see the same correlation. The higher the packet count per second, the higher the ping result

CONCLUSION: There is a linear correlation between pfSense Network Quality , Bandwidth Usage and Packet Count.

I hope this result will bring some lights to my customers of how their ISP is doing.

Cheers.

Telkomspeedy speed check

This is just a routine check of speed.

Hot Pixel and Pixel Mapping in Digital Camera

Today, I received an email from My-Olympus mailing list, regarding a member with hot pixel problem in her Olympus E-500. Suddenly this topic began to interest me, since I also owned E-500 second hand.

Basicly, what is Hot Pixel really?

Wikipedia give me this :

Hot pixels are sensors on the CCD with higher than normal charge leakage. On long exposure, they can appear as bright pixels.

Sensors on the CCD that always appears as brighter pixels are called stuck pixels while sensors that only brighten up after long exposure are called hot pixels.

A very good source about hot pixel & how to see/reproduce them can be located here :
http://webpages.charter.net/bbiggers/DCExperiments/html/hot_pixel_facts.html
http://webpages.charter.net/bbiggers/DCExperiments/html/hot_pixels.html

1. The longer the exposure and the higher the ISO and the hotter the temperature of the camera the more hot pixels you will see.
2. Every camera will have hot pixels showing if you test it with long enough exposures.
3. All cameras will develop more hot pixels over time.As your camera ages you will have more and brighter hot pixels.
4. Some manufacturers have dealt with the problem in their newer cameras by allowing user mapout of the hot pixels.Since every camera will likely develop hot pixels if you keep it long enough, you might want to consider this when buying your next camera.

Points taken.

Example of Hot Pixel :

From Olympus website:

In short, even a brand new digital camera will definitely suffers hot pixels, and they will develop hot pixel along the lifetime of the camera.

What Olympus has to say about this issue? (well, I owned Olympus, that’s the first thing I want to hear):

http://www.olympusamerica.com/crm/oneoffpages/crm_pixelmapping.asp

The more pixels your camera’s imaging sensor (CCD) is made of, the more likely some of them may fail. Think of the lights on a Christmas tree.When the string is smaller, the lights usually fire without incident. But the longer the set of lights, the higher the probability one or more individual lights will need repair. These “stuck,” “dead,” or “hot” pixels, as they are often called, can cause the quality of your images to be compromised. Nearly every digital camera, regardless of the manufacturer, includes a sensor that experiences this to some degree. The issue may not be severe enough to be noticed, but if you do notice this phenomenon to occur, look into Pixel Mapping.

Wait, what’s that? Pixel Mapping, sounds familiar, Aha, I’ve seen it on my E-500 menu, but I never used it, ’cause I don’t know what it is for (silly me).
Let’s carry on:

Some digital cameras come with an Automatic Pixel Mapping function right inside the camera that helps prevent faulty pixels from affecting image quality. The feature can be manually selected from the camera’s menu and takes approx. 10-30 seconds to complete, depending on the camera model. By doing so, the location of the faulty pixels will be determined and stored to memory so the camera will automatically compensate for the missing information or incorrect data in subsequent exposures. It is recommended that this function be used at least once a year and if so, your camera should enjoy a much longer period of
high-performance.

Check your digital camera’s instruction manual to see if the Pixel Mapping feature is included.

Oke, I’m on it. Luckily, My E-500 has this feature. But my old Kodax DX-6340 and Sony HCR-90 don’t seem to own this. Sigh, It’s okay, I’m cool

pfSense 1.2.x MOD : Displaying time in Web Admin page

This mod is unsupported, and I’m not responsible for any loss

Source :http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,12063.msg66046.html#msg66046

edit /usr/local/www/index.php
make a new line before

System Overview

and add 

Code:

exec(“/bin/date”, $dateOutput, $dateStatus);
$currentDate = $dateOutput[0];
?>

and change

Quote

         Platform
         

to

Quote

         Platform / Current Date
          /

Save

Technorati Tags: pfSense