Installing Lotus Notes 8 on Kubuntu Hardy 8.04

Since I gave in and switched from Sidux to the new Kubuntu 8.04 - simply because Sidux just was too bleeding edge for my work rig, too many kernel switches and the new 2.6.25 totally borking my Cisco VPN Client - I had to install Lotus Notes 8.01 … Again. And it was horror again. So just for future reference I should write down what made it work.

Stuff you need to install/do on a stock Kubuntu:

# sudo apt-get install libstdc++5 libgnomecanvas2-0 \
  libgnomeprint2.2-0 libgnomeprintui2.2-0 \
  libgnomevfs2-0 libgnome2-0 libgnomeui-0
# cp <notesinstalldatadirectory>/deploy/install.xml /root
# sudo mkdir -p /etc/lotus/notes
# sudo touch /etc/lotus/notes/notesrc

Launch Installer, install away. Should work. At least did the job for me.

Firefox 3 / (K)ubuntu 8.04 Large Fonts Fix

about:config
layout.css.dpi
set to either 72 or 96

Beyond me how that could slip through Q&A.

And why o why is there still no decent Antialiasing enabled by default?
System Settings/Appearance/Fonts, enable Antialiasing, Subpixel-Hinting RGB, Hinting Style slight.

Introducing Leshock on Crossover Games

Yes, I wanted to quit World of Warcraft. Yes, I tried. But somehow I keep coming back. What got my interest back (or so I say to myself) is the release of Codeweaver’s Crossover Games. Granted, i played WoW on Linux with vanilla Wine in the past. It worked, but it had it’s hiccups. Sound was suboptimal at best, it stuttered and forgot to play sounds. Graphics were ok, but still a bit behind the Windows version. Enter Crossover Games…

Someone could have told me earlier…

… my Sidux has bash-completion enabled for all apt-commands.

apt-get install amarok<tab> simply rocks instead of using apt-cache search everytime.

Alsa woes

Note to self: Intel’s HDA chip on my P35 motherboard sucks and doesn’t support hardware mixing. Debian’s libasound2 sucks too since the plug:dmix is broken for w/e reason.

Solution: Reactived my trusty old Creative Audigy2. Sweet piece of hardware and does hardware mixing.

Boy, my NSLU2 is slow…

Decided to compile a new version libtorrent and rtorrent since well… I was bored and the new version got DHT support, which is awesome.
7 hours later I realized I forgot to put the proper CXXFLAGS in place … AGAIN! It’s a known bug when compiling with GCC 4.xx, all goes well until you first fire up the client. Once it starts communicating with outside nodes it will bail out with Unread data won't fit PCBs read buffer
So after two distcleans off the Slug goes again. As much as I love my little NSLU2 - that box really is a Slug. So if you ever want to compile the bittorrent client of awesomeness on your box, remember to
CXXFLAGS="-O2 -mcpu=xscale -mtune=xscale"
before the initial ./configure’s. Will save you lots of time.

A simple tweak to make your GTK Fonts look nice in KDE

… at least when using Sidux.
I was quite annoyed yesterday because my KDE fonts looked simply crispy and marvellous, yet the ones in Pidgin and Iceweasel/Firefox (pretty much the only GTK apps I use) looked like shit. gtk-qt-engine does a good job keeping my fonts the same, but there was simply no anti-aliasing going on in GTK apps which I seriously hate. I am used to AA. I want it everywhere!
Diving into /etc/fonts it was pretty obvious that I was missing one thing there….

ln -s /etc/fonts/conf.avail/10-autohint.conf /etc/fonts/conf.d/

This turns on the Auto-Hinter systemwide - something which you do for your KDE fonts in Control Center, but usually can’t do without installing a crap ton of GNOME dependencies for GTK apps. This does it. And boy does it make a difference.

Windows Vista is partition nazi

Tried to install Vista today since XP’s install routine simply refuses to work on my new P35-Chipset Mobo. And since I bought a copy back in the day I said… Well, let’s try it. Got to the installer and selected an empty partition to install to. Nada, nope, Mr. Vista doesn’t like to install. Tried everything… Deleting the partition, enlarging it, nothing worked.

Only when I deleted ALL prior partitions on that disc the diva proceeded to install. Way to go Microsoft. Newsflash: Not all of my HD space is belonging to you. Left me with a sour taste in my mouth, will have to restore my Gentoo install later on. :/ And what happens if I have to reinstall Vista in like two weeks? We’ll see,I’m expecting the worst - time to develop a serious backup strategy to an external drive.

EDIT: Fuck off Vista. First try: System goes to Stage 3. Hangs for about 3 hours on Stage3 ‘Completing install…’ looking like it does something - then crashes to black screen. Next try, will change some stuff in BIOS. Thanks for leaving me without an OS at all btw.

EDIT2 : Switching SATA2 drives from AHCI to IDE mode seems to have fixed the install. Still… Why the hell doesn’t Vista support AHCI on an Intel ICH9 board when the Linux Kernel does so perfectly? Yikes Microsoft… I’ll try the install another time injecting the latest Intel driver while installing.

EDIT3: Well, injecting the drivers from Intel doesn’t work either. The install is totally borked when AHCI is turned on on ANY controller, even if there is no HDD attached.

Font tweaks

Thanks to some helpful comment at osnews.com I tried changing my KDE fonts to the excellent Bitstream Vera Sans Fonts with medium Subpixel Hinting enabled and boy… Did that make a difference. Crispy, excellent looking fonts that you can actually read a mile away now. Makes me wonder why no distribution I ever tried has those settings as default.