Testing IE9 in Ubuntu with VirtualBox setup script

Unfortunately for web developers some people still use internet explorer(IE) which means we need a way to test our pages in it.  There is no good way to install IE9 directly in Ubuntu so the best thing to do is set up a windows virtual machine and test your pages in that.  Fortunately Microsoft provides free VHD images of windows with various versions IE for free to developers(with a 90 licence).

To make this setup easier I have created a small bash script which does all the downloading, installation and configuration for you.

The script works as follows:
1. Downloads the RARed VHD file from microsoft.com
2. Installs unrar
3. extracts the VHD file
4. Installs VirtualBox
5. Configures a new Windows VM
6. Starts the new Windows VM

You can download the script here:
http://ubuntuone.com/458mPt4YJsB9rBiHEHhwGu

Place the script in your home folder.

Give the script execute permissions:
chmod +x install_win7_IE9_VM.sh

Run the script(and kick back because it takes a while to download and extract everything):
./install_win7_IE9_VM.sh

After running the script the first time you can just run your Windows VM from the VirtualBox GUI as normal.


NOTE: the Windows password is "Password1"

Fix Missing Menus in FileZilla in Gnome 3.6 with Ubuntu 12.10

After doing a fresh install of 12.10 Quantal on my laptop and installing Gnome 3.6(my DE of choice) I noticed the File etc. menus wee missing from FileZilla and SVN Workbench.  After a bit of googling I found a solution that works for me.

Open a terminal and enter the following:

sudo su

then:

echo "export UBUNTU_MENUPROXY=0" > /etc/X11/Xsession.d/81ubuntumenuproxy

then:

exit

Now reboot and the menus should appear as normal.

NOTE: this solution will also disable global menus in unity if you wish to undo the change run the following:

sudo rm /etc/X11/Xsession.d/81ubuntumenuproxy

Enjoy Gnome 3.6 on Ubuntu 12.10

Source: http://www.webupd8.org/2011/03/disable-appmenu-global-menu-in-ubuntu.html

Install LAMP in Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal(Apache, MySQL, PHP)

This is a short guide to installing a basic LAMP(Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) development environment on Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Pangolin.

First install lamp:
Open a terminal and run the following:

sudo apt-get install lamp-server^

After the lamp server installation you will need write permissions to the /var/www directory.  Follow these steps to configure permissions.

Add your user to the www-data group

sudo usermod -a -G www-data <your user name>

now add the /var/www folder to the www-data group

sudo chgrp -R www-data /var/www

now give write permissions to the www-data group

sudo chmod -R g+w /var/www

now log out and log back in to see the changes reflected in nautilus.

Some extra things to install
The following are not essential but they are things I almost always need as part of a LAMP install so I have included instructions on installing them.

Curl:

sudo apt-get install php5-curl

Mod rewrite:

sudo a2enmod rewrite

To enable mod rewrite you also need to do some apache configuration:

sudo gedit /etc/apache2/sites-available/default

and change AllowOverride from None to All:

<Directory var="var" www="www">
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
allow from all
</Directory>

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

GD2 Graphics Lib:

sudo apt-get install php5-gd

And that's it, how easy was that?  Ubuntu rocks!

Basic asp.NET dev environment in Ubuntu 12.04

I recently had to do a small example of integrating the system I am currently working on into an asp.NET application.  Not having a windows machine handy I though I would give Mono a try.  Fortunately setting up a basic dev environment was really simple.  NOTE: this is a very basic dev environment with no IDE or frameworks installed etc, it was perfect for what I needed but may not be appropriate for full blown development.

First install xsp2:

sudo apt-get install mono-xsp2

then:

mkdir -p ~/dotnet

cd dotnet

gedit Default.aspx

Then paste in the following:


<%
    HelloWorldLabel.Text = "Hello, world!";
%>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >
<head runat="server">
    <title>Untitled Page</title>
</head>
<body>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">
    <div>
        <asp:Label runat="server" id="HelloWorldLabel"></asp:Label>
    </div>
    </form>
</body>
</html>



now save the file and go back to the terminal and run:

xsp2

*Note: this must be run in the directory where you created the file.

Now open a browser and visit:
http://127.0.0.1:8080/Default.aspx

And that's it.  This is a very basic dev environment and is probably not suitable for a full blown application but it was perfect for my needs.

IMON Soundgraph VFD/LCD with XBMCbuntu

This is a short guide to setting up the an IMON Soundgraph VFD/LCD on XBMCbuntu Eden 11.0.  XBMCbuntu is based on Ubuntu 11.10 so this guide may also work for 11.10 although I have not tried it.

Open a terminal(either via SSH or Openbox) and run the following commands:


First install LCDproc:
sudo apt-get install lcdproc

Now edit the config file:
sudo nano /etc/LCDd.conf

change line 53 from
Driver=curses
to
Driver=imon

*NOTE: in nano to go to a line press CTRL+w then CTRL+t and enter 53 and press enter after editing the file press CTRL+x then y and then ENTER to close and save the file.

The IMON driver for some reason hangs on shutdown so run the following to fix the problem:

sudo mv /etc/rc6.d/K60LCDd /etc/rc6.d/K99LCDd


sudo mv /etc/rc0.d/K60LCDd /etc/rc0.d/K99LCDd

Upgrading to Skype 4 in Ubuntu 12.04 (from skype 2.2)

The latest version of Skype for Linux is here.  The new 4.0 version brings a number of improvements and brings the Linux Skype client up to speed with the OSX and Windows versions.  If you already have version 2.2 installed you will need to remove it before installing the latest 4.0 version.  I uninstalled my 2.2 version from the software centre but hit the following error when installing the new deb file:

trying to overwrite '/etc/dbus-1/system.d/skype.conf', which is also in package skype-bin:i386 2.2.0.35-0precise3

To get around this error just fire up a terminal and run the following commands:

sudo apt-get --purge remove skype

sudo apt-get autoremove

Then just install the latest deb file via the software centre like normal.

Note: I downloaded the Ubuntu 10.04 deb from the Skype download page(there doesn't seem to be a specific 12.04 one)

Source: Doog on http://community.skype.com/t5/Linux/Skype-won-t-upgrade-to-4-on-Ubuntu-12-04/m-p/795468

Install LAMP in Ubuntu 12.04 Precise(Apache, MySQL, PHP)

This is a short guide to installing a basic LAMP(Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) development environment on Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin.

First install lamp:
Open a terminal and run the following:

sudo apt-get install lamp-server^

After the lamp server installation you will need write permissions to the /var/www directory.  Follow these steps to configure permissions.

Add your user to the www-data group

sudo usermod -a -G www-data <your user name>

now add the /var/www folder to the www-data group

sudo chgrp -R www-data /var/www

now give write permissions to the www-data group

sudo chmod -R g+w /var/www

now log out and log back in to see the changes reflected in nautilus.

Some extra things to install
The following are not essential but they are things I almost always need as part of a LAMP install so I have included instructions on installing them.

Curl:

sudo apt-get install php5-curl

Mod rewrite:

sudo a2enmod rewrite

GD2 Graphics Lib:

sudo apt-get install php5-gd


And that's it, how easy was that?  Ubuntu rocks!