LAVA PLus 5.0 released

Finished the DVD multimedia edition of my lava.

Added thunderbird and extensions such as zindus, google imap, google calendar, signature, etc.

Added alot of custom context sensitivie menu keys for 'convert to mp3', 'convert to avi' , 'add subititles' , 'convert to wmv' , 'convert flv to avi' , 'fix avi index' , etc.

also added a huge list of apps for media encoding and authoring as well as audcaious, exaile, streamtuner, tvtime, etc.

added alot of games as well and emulators.

Let me know what you think.

[ Download Here ]

LAVA 5.0 CD Version

I finished version 5 of LAVA based on 9.10.

Here is the CD version

I will upload the PLUS and DEV edition in the next day or so.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks

New LAVA

New Version of LAVA CD Version will be uploaded today based on Ubuntu 9.10

Features:
* Custom sysctl.conf for increased bandwidth and security as well as filesystem and memory tweaks
* Enabled hdparm.conf for dms, hard disk cache, etc
* Installed , configured preload
* a suite load of addtional software to make it easier to use: gnochm, ntfs-config, eggscups, etc.
* removed usual gnome menu and replaced with gnome-main menu
* added custom templates like NEW Excel Spreadsheet, New Word Docuemnt, New Python Script into right click -> New
* added a bunch of nauitlus context menus - convert ot BMP, convert to PSD, convert to GIF, merge images into a PDF, extract images from PDF, burn Xbox game
* added firefox addons - text to link, dns cache, adblock, etc. and reconfigured firefox for safer browsing.
* added network utils like traceroute, aircrack
* added cd converting utils like nrg2iso, binchunck
* added mediubuntu repos to software lists so you can download media codecs or apps
* changed all media to play thru smplayer - avi, mpg, mpeg, mov, wmv, wma, mp4, flv, etc

etc, etc , etc.

Let me know what you think.

should have it uploaded by this afternoon.

Not Ubuntu related

But it is open source related.

I built a backup utility for our datacenter based on rsync. It used rsync in the background but gives our non unix technicians the ability to backup shares, folders with rsync on windows without needing us unix gurus to setup the backups.

It has all the rsync features, plus scheduler and can build the UI options into a script so you can have a nice icon to just double click on to do the backups whenever and/or throw them into your own schedules uses the scheduler for windows.

here's a video of it I posted on youtube.

Ubuntu 9.10

Yeah! Been pretty busy the last two months with work, web development, drupal, server management - I have not had time to jump on and blog about the cool things I have been doing. But since the new release of ubuntu is out in the wild, I decided to download it and begin working with it in a VM and start retooling it for a new LAVA and LAVALite release.

Lately I have been working on some projects for clients with RAILO, drupal and cakephp. All web based applications but it's been amazing to build some apps that look and run just like desktop apps all built on opensource software. I have been using LAVA based on Ubuntu 8.04 with apache, tomcat, cakephp, drupal and RAILO depending on the project. I have grown to really enjoy coding this way. I started about 8 years ago as a COLDFUSION programmer and started to write smaller apps with RAILO when it became opensource. Now with a UBUNTU stack and I throw in either RAILO, drupal or cakephp and volia instant backend for some really robust apps. Having ubuntu as a solid test environment really makes development so much faster cause I can make a custom cd for the client which has all the software and runtimes necessary to completely install a new instance of the application within their environment without the need for an apache guru or a mysql guru, etc.

Throw in some Yahoo UI, EXTJS or Jquery and your apps look awesome.

I am really excited about this new version of ubuntu - supposed to be alot faster. I played with the betas but now to see the true release.

Will post something once I have tested out a couple builds.

Microsoft datacenter woes

Looks like Microsoft datacenter had a huge loss this week. Actually all the mobile sidekick data for all the USA.

This just in time for Microsoft's unveiling of their new Azure online cloud service and Microsoft's bid to get people to use Microsoft Office online.

I know it's not ubuntu news but it's interesting to see with everything going to the cloud. The new version of Ubuntu allows cloud service integration with Amazon. And although I think everyone who has been using cloud services have come accustomed to some lose of service whether that is disconnects to their data or some downtime, this is the first time I have ever heard of complete data loss.

having lost data on local hds, I understand hardware fails but come on. When someone like a Microsoft loses data - it's unforgivable and a real testament to their growing lack of technical skill. Reading the article, they do point out that Microsoft inherited it's sidekick infrastructure a year ago, but that does not help their case - if anything it makes it worse. They had a whole year to put in place a backup strategy. For me being a person who likes the idea of cloud computing and even uses Google Apps cloud service it puts the fear in me that Microsoft could be so complacent. Let them be an example to all in the cloud business - make backups.

Read the article here:
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/10/11/microsofts_danger_sidekick_data_loss_casts_dark_on_cloud_computing.html

New Ubuntu and apt-build fun

Looking forward to the new build of ubuntu coming out at the end of the month. I've been holding off on uploading my new builds as I thought early last month that i would just end up replacing them when the new build comes out anyways.

I have been playing with apt-build. For those who do not know - apt-build allows you to install apps like normal but during the install, downloads the source if it is available from the repos and builds a version of the intended app on your machine to take advantage of your specific hardware.

I've been playing with it and it really does speed up your system. I ran apt-build and built my entire system from the ground up - kernel, openoffice, gnome, etc. And everything just pops.

Unfortunately it took like 8 hours to do. :) But now - openoffice and gnome in general just is lightning fast. If you have the time I would highly suggest trying it out.

New build on it's way

Been awhile since i built a new version of lavalite and lava. I've been playing with the new build of ubuntu and xubuntu. Each time there is a new version, I like to reformat my test pc and run my scripts and see if there is any way to improve upon the great work Canonical does with ubuntu and xubuntu. The process takes some time as I like to see if there are any new programs in synaptic I might want to include as well as all the tweaks I normally include that may or may not be necessary with the new builds.

I'm almost ready and will probably have a new version of the CD, Plus and dev out by early next week.

Please let me know if there is anything you have seen which you think might make for a better experience.

Along with the normal changes, I'm thinking of changing the default mediaplayer from vlc to mplayer. It seems to run wmv files better.

SSH Gateway Portal

Several people have asked about the portal application i wrote so I wanted to go into further details.

The application is a windows based single self contained exe designed so administrator can publish rdp, vnc, www, and x to Window users thru ssh without having to install ssh, explain to the users how to connect to the ssh internal servers, or setup ftp, vncview or manually configure rdp settings at the client level. The Portal has vncviewer embedded, filezilla embedded, knows the x86 and x64 paths for terminal service client and has an xclient embedded.

Basically the administrator logs into a web interface on the ssh server, adds published apps describing internal servers hidden behind the ssh server and assigns those published apps to Active Directory groups. The admin then adds users to those groups. The user can only see the published apps they have been assigned when they login to the portal.

They click on their published app and the app connects thru ssh to the internal resource. If it is an rdp server, the portal generates an rdp file based on what parameters the admin setup, and forwards the necessary ports and then launches the windows terminal client and connects it to the forwarded port - all without the user knowing ssh was used, what ports were used, etc.

The same is true with ftp, gets parameters from what admin setup, forwards port and then launches the embedded filezilla to the port. Again user did not need to setup or install filezilla, nor did they need to know ssh was involved or what internal ports or servers were used.

X same thing, and VNC same thing.

I basically made a ssh web version of metaframe web interface but instead of pushing out ica i am doing rdp, vnc, ftp, and x

The ssh gateway is built on ubuntu but can be any linux os, apache and php. But I am thinking of replacing the php portion with rails or django. The portal client piece is built with realbasic and i built a version with visual studio 2003.

Linux Remote Control Help

Added an icon that shows up in gnome under Applications->Internet menu.

Also added compression for image relaying and added wireframing techniques to make the redraws faster.

Deb can be found at same place as previous post.

Ubuntu Remote Control Help Desk Tool

Just built a small app which allows you to make a connection to a technician so they can remotely see your desktop and help out when you have problems with your ubuntu.

I built a version for windows about a year ago and we use it in the office instead of webex for all our clients. It was really popular so I built a mac version later that year and this year I built a gtk version for Ubuntu. I only tested it on Ubuntu 8.10 64bit and 32bit and my LAVA but it should work across all the ubuntu family that has gtk installed. In fact it technically should work on any debian based distro that can install a deb and has gtk installed.

I attached a screen shot.

http://office.ansotech.com/share/LAVA/remotecontrol.deb

iFolder on Ubuntu

IFolder on Linux

iFolder is a simple and secure storage solution that can increase your productivity by enabling you to back up, access and manage your personal files-from anywhere, at any time. Once you have installed iFolder, you simply save your files locally-as you have always done-and iFolder automatically updates the files on a network server and delivers them to the other machines you use. It was originally developed by Novell but they have since open-sourced the product.

You can find the source code as well as some binaries and installer online. I've taken the source code and compiled a server for Ubuntu as well as client for Windows and Ubuntu, Lava. I've been playing with using a Source Code version solution lately but I might stay with iFolder and a local version of git or subversion as iFolder makes my source code directories syncronized whereever I may be at - Windows at work, Linux at home, etc.

Also it is a great way to replace pcs at a workstation level. If a user is about to receive a new pc, just iFolder their data and swap out their pc and then install iFolder back on and it will sync their data back onto the pc. For sales or marketing people, iFolder helps their group colloborate on documents they are going to present to a prospect. Also it is a great way for a company to expose a workgroup to a folder of item which may not have a file server or a workgroup who may actually be in seperate offices or at different locations.

Since iFolder also works in an offline mode, it is better than Gdrive or SkyDrive where you basically place your files on their servers and need some form of internet access to edit or work on your files. Plus with other solutions, your access is limited by your current internet access so it can be slow if accessing database or other huge files. With iFolder you still have native full access to your files. Only bit changes within your files are syncronized so updates are fast and bandwidth friendly. Also other solutions can cause data corruption if you are working on a file and your internet connection goes down. With iFolder you are always working on your local files and it only syncs those changes to the datacenter and to any computer you setup your iFolder account onto or to anyone you have shared any of your iFolders with. With iFolder you can specify a user to have access to any of your iFolders so you can setup a shared folder for
accounting or marketing etc. You can have fine security like read only, etc.

iFolder on Windows

I really like the technology and since I have access to the source code, I am already writing in a pidgin addon so you can send iFolder links to people you chat with and invite them to work on one of your iFolders or tunnel a voip call with someone who has iFolder installed. It would also be cool to add a twitter function so if someone modifies a file inside your shared iFolder, you receive a twitter alert on your phone. Great for a salesman on the go.

simplevms.com

I recently purchased simplevms.com and plan to start building a website with virtual machine solutions built with ubuntu and lavalinux stacks. As many of you know virtual appliance are great when you want to test out a server solution without building a physical server. I have been building servers for the last 9 years and recently I have really taken vm technology to a whole new level within my company. I want to start making some of the technology available online so...

Some of the stacks I plan on building:
Developer stack : eclipse, php, python, ruby, apache, mysql, tomcat, oh may :)
Jabber Stack: apache, jabber server, admin site, jabber client site.
VOIP stack: asterisk, flash admin website, apache
Fileserver: samba, website admin, hylafax server, pdf printer server folder
SCV: Subversion, CVS, git, git web interface, apache, Bazzar
iFolder: Folder syncronization, Web admin, Web client installs,
SSH gateway: SSH server with webmin for admin.

If you have an idea for a virtual appliance send me an email and I might build it and post it.

Online complete Linux Books

So I can across a cool site I wanted to share. www.scribd.com

It is a site where users can upload complete books, articles and self made documentation. they have everything online. Some of the books I was interested in were : ubuntu, server administration, eclipse programming, Adobe AIR, django, rails, etc.

I also found some gems like Linux magazines and sports, etc.

I came across a cool Ubuntu magazine called Full Circle. They have a bunch on the site.

Here is a link to issue 20.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/10167944/Full-Circle-Magazine-Issue-20

They have great articles on how to build a webserver to designing your own livecd.

Well just passing it on.

Subversion Ubuntu and a Panda

I spent the last couple hours getting eclipse, python, panda3d onto my workstation communicating with a brand new server running ubuntu, apache, and subversion. Why?

It seemed like a great idea at the time. I have lots and lots of source code with various projects that I have and am continuing to write over the last 9 years and I am tired of hauling different external drives to and from work depending on the project I am working on.

I decided to start using subversion - I never really used any version control system but it is appealing to me to have a version control system in place to check code in and out to any machine I happen to work off of. But I really did not know what was involved in setting up Subversion. In all honesty however it would have been easier if the server was not a apache machine with virtual aliases etc. I also wanted to subversion repos to build themselves on an NAS sitting in the same area as the server which brought it's own level of issues with SAMBA and permissions. The process was so draining and long I really need to redo it and blog about it so others can benefit from it.

Well now I have a subversion box and I can check in code and put code into it from eclipse or any other subversion client.

Enough for tonight - I am off to sleep and dream about all the code I can make tomorrow. :)

General Opensource post

Not really about Ubuntu but more about opensource. I'm blogging from my other pc right now :) the Vista one. I know, I know. But I am a developer and some of my clients cling to their Microsoft ways which means I still need a development pc with windows installed.

Anyways !!!! Being in a vista world is painful. I really mean it. Here I am paying over a hundred dollars for an OS which is slow on a quad core with 4 gbs of memory and a SATAII HD with 16MB cache raided as 0. I mean I really have to spend time when I install it to remove the Aero effects, add a bunch of registery tweaks for file system speed ups, increasing L Cache and hacking the tcpip stack to get more connections for my browsing. Needless to say besides the OS I try to make all the other software, opensource.

I include in my opensource arsena many projects and project spin-offs. A list can be found on the side of my blog. And I am constantly on the lookout for more. Well I found a cool site last week which I wanted to share.

Mulder's Homepage - I don't think it's Mulder the former FBI detective turned opensource but nonetheless - the man has built a bunch of cool apps with Delphi for Windows based on alot of opensource projects including Mplayer with Smplayer and lots of codes. :)

From his website
"This package contains the latest builds of MPlayer for the Windows platform as well as SMPlayer and MPUI. Thanks to the award-winning MPlayer engine, more than 192 Video- and 85 Audiocodecs are supported natively! For maximum performance the package includes optimized MPlayer binaries for various CPU types. Furthermore the Full-Package includes the Binary Codec Package to enable even more audio/video formats."

What I really like about his install is it checks your cpu and loads an optimized version of mplayer and during the install the installer actually recompresses the dlls and exes with upx and makes them lighter and faster.

The player works really great - no more Windows Media Player for me!!! and VLC although good sometimes cannot play wmv files right. This Mplayer build plays it all.

On his site he also has : AVidemux, MakeInstallPlayer, LameXP, SFXTool, and a version of mencoder with a gui. I actually loaded them all and they run fast and light.

Try them out - you'll find yourself using less of the windows bloat and more opensource.

http://mulder.dummwiedeutsch.de/home/?page=home

and an embeded remote help desk tool

Also added a remote help desk tool which starts up vnc and send the users desktop streaming to a tech - the user can select a tech which has the vnc server portion loaded in their system tray. Basically the user logs into the portal - if they have an issue, they could go to Tools->Remote control and a separate window pops-up where they can select a tech. Once selected the tech recieves a popup and they can accept the connection. A new window comes up on the tech side and he can see the user's desktop. The user does not need to open any ports and it runs entirely in memory so no installing stuff like webex. :)

Embedded Ticket System

Added a Ticket System within the portal so the user can post errors or issues and information is stored in a mysql data and an email is sent to the tech assigned during that time.

The user can see via a list if their issue was posted by someone else within their organization.

SSH RDP Client Admin

Example of the admin piece within the portal. Admin is setting up a new published app.

Here he enters in the app information that will be generated into xml and sent to portal clients by client group.

Information such as term server ip or name, rdp settings such as compression or full screen, or drive mappings.

RDP encapsulated SSH client

Well I've been coding all night and have a new version of the portal application.

Key features:
SSH enabled RDP session to Term servers.
LAVA SSH gateway listening at port 80 for clients to connect to via SSH.
Once they connect, they pull in some port forwarding information which is tied to their user id.
The SSH embedded client reads the xml information and then port forwards to their internal terminal server and sets up the port onto their local machine at port 3390
The client then generates an RDP file that is run on the localmachine and connects the MS RDP client to port 3390 on the localmachine. Voila - the client is using SSH and RDP without knowing it.

Beautiful part is the EXE is under 8 mb and runs entirely in ram. No install. Just run it off a usb and connect to your published apps via SSH and no port opening on firewalls cause the SSH server is listening on 80.

I might expand the published apps to include X servers and imbed an X client in the portal app , I could also add a vnc client embedded in the portal so you could vnc into servers via ssh.

I have a screenshot above:

SSH gateway for RDP

SO I am building a SSH gateway to place in between some terminal servers we have at the office. The cool thing about the SSH server is that it will compress the RDP traffic and redirect the client to the internal RDP server.

What I am envisioning is a to build a small python app which will allow a user to login to a mysql database which will have some published app information, this information will be sent back to the client upon successfully logging in and tell the client which ssh server to connect to and which internal terminal server the client should call the rdp client to.

In essence the client connects to the ssh server and port forwards RDP to the local machine and then creates an RDP file that is autostarted by the localmachine which tells it to connect to itself at port 3389. That port will be forwarded automatically to the server running in the datacenter via ssh.

This way the only port that needs to be opened at the client end would be port 80 which is just web traffic port- I am going to have the SSH server listen on that port. Everything will be sent thru SSH so no RDP configuration on router.

I have tested it and file transfers work faster from RDP as well as screen refreshes. PDF rendering is alot smoother and I also like the fact that it is using SSH security and the data is encrypted.

Just another way opensource, ubuntu, python, ssh is helping me out.

Preload

Along with playing with the 64bit os this weekend, I decided to mess with sysctl.conf and preload again.

For those who do not know /etc/sysctl.conf controls your kernel parameters - it's a nice way to adjust your operating system's running kernel without rebuilding the kernel from source and preload is a program you can install via 'sudo apt-get install preload' which preloads dlls and binaries into memory. It watches which programs you use and trys to load parts of the program into memory so when you launch the program it runs faster.

Still trying to find the best ratios for performance. I really like preload but you have to tweak it out a bit and also tune your system to be a little more aggressive with virtual memory garbage collecting via sysctl.conf. Preload obviously would not be too beneficial in a server environment but on the desktop it does make things pop up faster.

The whole test was to see if I could really shave openoffice and firefox launch times. And preload worked very well after I tricked out my sysctl.conf file.

Here are some of the changes I made in /etc/sysctl.conf
vm.swappiness=15
vm.vfs_cache_pressure=50
net.core.rmem_default = 256288
kernel.shmmax = 268435456
net.core.optmem_max = 57344
kernel.threads-max = 16379
fs.file-max = 16384
vm.page-cluster = 3

Then I adjusted my /etc/preload.conf
minsize = 1500000
memtotal = 30

Openoffice and firefox both noticiably increased in launch times. I don't have too many firefox extenstions but it does take a couple seconds for it to pop up - with preload and my new sysctl it comes up almost instantly. Openoffice runs faster also, it loads in about 10 secs and then each load afterwards is like instant. For Openoffice I changed some settings in it's preferences also, I increased the memory Openoffice could use to 64MB so it can load more of itself in the background. Now both come up fast.

64bits of power

So I have been playing with Ubuntu 8.10 64bit this weekend.

I like it.

My home test machine an AMD 3400+ seems to run faster with it than the 32bit ubuntu I have been using. I was worried about alot of the third-party software i use as they come in debs already for ubuntu but building some from source was not too bad and I then make the newly built binaries debs for 64 so it worked out. I was really worried about my game library - panda3d - but the folks at panda3d started making 64 bit versions and they had a premade deb so it all worked out. I loaded it and ran the source code of my developing game and voila - it worked without any changes.

I'm going to start building a new pc for my home and since I am going to have more than 4gb it was important to me to see if the 64bit version was going to be any trouble but i have been running it for 2 days and burned some cds, played my music, hooked up my ipod, wrote some python, panda3d, and django code and even did some rails and everything worked well. YIPPPEEE!!! Who says computers are a pain?

8.10 build

Almost done with CD version of 8.10 build. I've been doing alot of python programming lately with my game as well as my websites and haven't been developing lava for the last 2 months. I decided to replace my extra home development computer in the next month, so I am going to finish up my 8.10 build of lava and lavalite so I can load it onto the new machine.

As I am going to build my pc, I have been looking around for my new machine parts and found an Intel i7 920 Core chip and motherboard which I am eyeing. The motherboard allows for up to 24GB :) oh my! Obviously I am not going to buy all the memory at once but over time. 4 GB here, 4 GB there. Anyways, it made me think about the native 4GB limit in the Ubuntu 32bit kernel and how I would need to either install the 32bit server kernel or rebuild the 32bit kernel to get that extra memory. I haven't used the 64bit version and was wondering if anyone has and what their experience has been with it? Maybe I will build a 64bit version of my LAVA and LavaLite so the native 64bit kernel can see past 64bit without having to recompile or load a server kernel. Are there any downsides to install the server kernel as opposed to the desktop? Maybe I should just try the 64bit version out? I do alot of programming in panda3d now and it ships as a deb for 32bit ubuntu on their site. Not sure if there will be any issues with running it in a 64bit os. Also I have a bunch of other software not in the repos which are all 32bit. I guess the only way to know for sure it to install it and see.