VirtJunkie

Virtualization, Automation, and anything else that might be on my mind

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Problems when running apt-get on Debian

Problems when running apt-get on Debian

Posted on by Jon

I’ve been having some problems using apt-get lately which led me to doing an apt-get dist-upgrade.

Smart me found this command on the internet and decided to use it. It worked just fine, except for the fact that when I restarted my computer the graphical display manager that I use didn’t start.

Here’s the steps that I took to diagnose the problem.

  1. I tried to start gdm instead of kdm by editing'/etc/X11/default-display-manager'. This file contains the path to your display manager, for me it was '/usr/bin/kdm'
  2. I tried changing that to '/usr/bin/gdm' and I received an X server error saying that my chosen X server (XFree86) was not found.I thought that this was a little funny because I didn’t think that I used XFree86, but Xorg instead.
  3. So, I looked at the file '/etc/X11/X', which is a symbolic link (which is like a shortcut in windows) and found out that in the upgrade it changed the link to point to a nonexistent file.
  4. After that I changed the link to point to '/usr/bin/X11/Xorg' and voila, kdm started up just fine.More Later,
    Jon Howe
How to Create a PDF Document from PHP

How to Create a PDF Document from PHP

Posted on by Jon

In this project that I’ve been messing with, I’ve come across the need to convert dynamic PHP output to a PDF.

Suprisingly, this is a pretty easy process thanks to DomPDF.

Boy is this ever hard.

Check it out below!
(Reminder – you’re going to need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader for this to work, seeing as how thi s is a PDf generator. You probably already have it, but in case you don’t, here it is.

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Let me know what you think.

Later,
Jon

Useful Web Tool from Microsoft

Useful Web Tool from Microsoft

Posted on by Jon

I’ve been working on a couple of new projects that are really javascript intensive, and have been banging my head because of problems with getting scripts working in all browsers.

The odds of me finding a tool to help by Microsoft of all companies is astounding to me, because of my feelings towards them.

I found a tool, which works only in internet explorer (Located Here) that is helping me out a lot.

Check it out, even if you are like me and primarily use firefox.

More later,
Jon Howe

I wished that this day would never come

I wished that this day would never come

Posted on by Jon

A friend of mine finally convinced me to make a (dum dum dum) myspace account. So far I hate it. There’s no point for me to use it except for the fact that it’s a good way to meet people. Random people that is.

Today some random chick asked me to add her to my friends list, or however you say that.. I was like, “uh, okay”. Whatever, I guess that’s what it’s for.

I also thought that it was funny how it says, “HTML / DHTML allowed.” It also says that Javascript is not allowed. Anyone that knows anything about DHTML knows that a huge part of it is Javascript.

If you want to know what the url for it is, leave me a message with your email address and I’ll tell it to you.

Later,
Jon Howe

Things I’ve learned

Things I’ve learned

Posted on by Jon

My last two days have been for lack of a better word, educational.

I know that I’ve been raving about how Hula is so awesome, and it truly is. A few days ago however, I found a new mail server called Zimbra. Zimbra is Seriously Awesome. It’s got a ton of AJAX built in. I can’t say how awesome it “looked”. Okay, enough on how great it is.

Zimbra looked good enough that I decided to install it on my personal server, which this blog runs on as well. When I actually installed it I went through the normal installation procedure, and started up the server. I saw how sweet the admin interface was, and then decided to post here how awesome it is.

I typed in my blogs address into firefox and to my dismay, it failed to load, with an apache tomcat error!! For those of you who know about Linux webservers, apache tomcat, is not a standard webserver for html files, it’s a server for Java Servlet Packages.

The installation of this package completely took control of my server, disabling mysql, and my webserver which runs apache2.

It took me a while to figure out what was wrong and fix it. That’s just one of those things that you just say to yourself, “I’ll never do that again”.

I also learned that it’s always a good idea to be prepared time wise when you’re 1. in an area that you’re not familiar with. 2. it’s dark 3. it’s raining. To put it into a short explanation, i had a fun time getting to class tonight.

Anyways, I need back to my classwork.

Later,
Jon Howe

Website Progress

Website Progress

Posted on by Jon

The website that I mentioned earlier is almost done, all that has to be done is make a minor addition to it, which should be done by Friday.

Next week I’ll be doing some pretty heavy quality testing to make sure that everything works as it should. After that I’ll have a link up for you to check it out, and a temporary account for you to use.

I’m really liking web design / programming. I actually have another project in mind already. I really can’t talk about it, but here’s a hint and a request for help: “Does anyone know an aircraft pilot?”.

Later,
Jon Howe

Hula is Shaping up to be Awesome

Hula is Shaping up to be Awesome

Posted on by Jon

I upate hula one time per week from the Subversion tree. You can find instructions on how to do this in linux at The Hula Blog.

Each time that I update my source code using subversion I get updated versions of the new web prototypes. I put them here so that you can see them.

They’re not going to work completely yet because of the fact that they’re just prototypes.

More Later,
Jon Howe

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