Automation Adventures

I’m using VPN and the Terminal Services client pretty frequently to access my computer at work. As discussed in this article, the Ubuntu VPN setup is much simpler in 8.10. However, when using the Terminal Services client, I had some problems with some of the function keys, in particular the cursor keys.

Now, being an old Unix hack, I managed to use the hjkl keys to navigate around the vi screen, but in some of the applications, this became an issue. With some Googling, the solution turned out to be fairly simple.

When you start up the Terminal Services client, go to the Local Resources tab. Under the keyboard heading, select as your keyboard language en-us instead of us. Now connect to the remote computer, and all the keys should function as they were intended.

Hope this helps somebody!

Tags: cursor, en-us, keyboard, keys, remote desktop, terminal services, ubuntu, us

Yay. Thank god for standard user interfaces.

We spent a serious amount of time this morning trying to figure out how to change the default attachment from TIFF to PDF on our new Canon imageRunners. We finally figured out how to change it on a case by case basis, but wouldn’t it be nice to change the default?

At first we looked through the Remote UI for the printers. Although there are some options under Additional Functions that refer to transmitting documents, none of the options mention TIFF or PDF.

So, we caved and unwrapped the CD with the manual. Looking for “PDF” resulted in about 200 hits. Paging through each and every one of them lead me to the control panel on the printer. Apparently, you can set it by following this path:

1. Press “Additional Functions” (a button on the control panel)
2. Select “Communication Settings”
3. Select “TX Settings”
4. Page down until you can select “Edit Standard Settings”
5. Select the default image format

This option is not available through the Remote UI. In fact, the Remote UI does not resemble the Additional Functions from the control panel.

Which made me think. Was there at one point a falling out between the designers of the control panel and the designers of the Remote UI? Maybe each group thought their design was the best, and went their separate ways. Unfortunately (for the Remote UI group), the control panel group had much better relations with the features group, and the Remote UI group had to get the specifications via-via (but not directly from the features group). And so it came to be that not all the features are accessible through the Remote UI… Thanks, Canon, for making the user’s life just this much more interesting.

Tags: canon, pdf, printers, TIFF, user interface

One of the things I need to do with my home machine is occasionally connect to our VPN at work. In 6.06LTS this required downloading the Cisco VPN client, compile it, install it, and hope it will work in the next kernel update. On top of that, you had to run a script to create the VPN connection.

In 8.10 Intrepid Ibex this is much simpler, and much more elgant. First, you need to install the VPN Connection Manager (VPNC) package. When you do this through the Add/Remove Applications, it should install three packages:

• vpnc
• resolvconf
• network-manager-vpnc

The first two are essential, but the third one is the kicker in 8.10: it allows you to manage your VPN certificates, and choose which connections to make and break.

After you’ve installed these three packages, do the following:

• right-click on the Network Manager applet.
• Choose Edit connections
• Click the VPN tab
• You should have the options to Add a connection manually, or to Import a VPN certificate.
  

  VPN connections in network manager applet

• Since our network admin provided me with a certificate, I chose Import, and selected the certificate file.
• The import will try to get as much information as possible out of the selected file. In most cases, you need to provide the group and user password.
• If the group password is encrypted, it can be determined by taking the encrypted string and running it through the Cisco decoder at http://www.unix-ag.uni-kl.de/~massar/bin/cisco-decode
• Save your changes
  

  Details of the VPN connection

• Close the Edit Connections screen

You should now be able to left-click on the Network Manager applet, select VPN connections, and click on the newly added connection. The Network icon will show a circling star for a couple of seconds, and then indicate that the VPN connection is established by showing a yellow padlock in the bottom right of the icon.

Disconnecting is just as easy: left-click on the applet, select VPN connections, and select Disconnect VPN.

Tags: 8.10, cisco, ibex, intrepid, ubuntu, vpn, vpnc

I’ve just upgraded Automation Adventures to Wordpress 2.7. Everything seems to work fine, but let me know if you run into any problems.

Tags: upgrade, wordpress

Over the Christmas break I’ve installed Ubuntu 8.10 on my main machine. The installation was not upgradeable without some serious wizardry (the /boot partition was too small, and increasing that on a full disk is not easy), so I decided to do a fresh install.

After going through all the installation steps, and booting up Ubuntu 8.10 for the first time, I was greeted with a GRUB error 18. Some Googling revealed that this was caused by the hard disk being too large for the BIOS to handle. And there was even a helpful post that described a three step process:

• Set your hard disk for LBA mode
• Install Ubuntu
• Set your hard disk back to normal

Unfortunately, this didn’t work for me. The installation resulted in the same GRUB error. However, there is an easier fix.

GRUB error 18 means actually that the kernel cannot be found in the first 1023 cylinders. You can change that by creating a /boot partition that is completely within those first 1023 cylinders. So, after the first try at installing, and failing with the GRUB error, try this:

• Restart your machine, with the Ubuntu CD as startup.
• Install Ubuntu as normal, until you get to the partition information.
• Select Manual from the partition options.
• The only thing you need to change is the main partition (/). Delete the one that is on the disk now. The partitioner may tell you it needs to write changes to the disk – by all means, let it write them.
• Next, create a partition at the very beginning of the hard disk, of sufficient size, but not too big (I decided on 1GB, but it may be better to go with 512KB or even smaller – not too small, since I couldn’t do an upgrade on my 128KB boot partition). Choose ext2 as file system – you won’t need journaling or anything fancy on that partition. Your mount point is /boot.
• Finally, create the main partition, covering the remainder of the hard disk. Make the file system ext3 – you want the journaling etc. on this one.
• You should now have a /boot partition at the beginning of your disk, a / partition for most of the rest, and a small swap partition (about twice the size of your memory). If not, you need to manually adjust the partitions until you have all three.
• Continue with the rest of the installation.

Your mileage may vary, but this worked for me (it’s also the trick I used when installing 6.06LTS). Hope this helps someone!

Tags: 8.10, error 18, grub, ibex, installation, intrepid, Linux, partition, ubuntu