February 2010 – Zachary Lund

Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala

I finally upgraded my brother’s desktop computer and my desktop computer to Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala. Prior, both had been running Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron, which was stable but was starting to show its age. I’ve always found that bleeding edge works well for desktops and tried and true works better for servers.

Ubuntu 9.10 works well, but I have discovered a few unresolved bugs that have proven to be annoyances. I’ve resigned myself to not being able to burn optical discs under Karmic because of a bug. This extends beyond Brasero to include the Wodim command line burning tool. After I upgraded, I switched from Rhythmbox to Banshee because it has better iPod syncing capabilities. However, those capabilities are a bit flaky, and I had to use this hack to make things work.

Regardless, it was a helpful and necessary upgrade. I look forward to the Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx update in April.

My Very Own Google Profile

I finally jumped on the bandwagon and created a Google Profile for myself. I keep telling myself that it is information that I should not be posting, but let’s face it, that information is readily available to anyone who knows how to use a search engine. Google Profiles just allows me to better present the information.

Decommissioning of LFS2 Mac OS X Server after 4.5 years

After four and a half years, I am turning LFS2 off for good.

According to the “/var/log/OSInstall.custom” log, “Native install completed 2005-08-14 18:55:58 -0700,” which is just under four and a half years ago. I have finally migrated all of the data and functionality (print, file, and LDAP) from Lund File Server 2 (LFS2) to Athos. LFS2 held up surprisingly well considering it was only a 533 MHz G4 with 768 MB RAM. When I set it up, I installed three used 120 GB Western Digital hard drives. After four and a half years of running continuously, all three drives still appear operational.