Logs

Linux keeps a bunch of logs for various things. It may be good for some, but for a average user like myself, the standard setting for logs may store logs longer than necessary. The standard setting for logrotate is 4 weeks. Personally, it is a bit too much for my taste. Luckily, this can be changed easily by editing the /etc/logrotate.conf file. Below shows the contents of the logrotate.conf file

# see "man logrotate" for details
# rotate log files weekly
weekly

# keep 4 weeks worth of backlogs
rotate 4

# create new (empty) log files after rotating old ones
create

# uncomment this if you want your log files compressed
#compress

# packages drop log rotation information into this directory
include /etc/logrotate.d

# no packages own wtmp, or btmp — we'll rotate them here
/var/log/wtmp {
missingok
monthly
create 0664 root utmp
rotate 1
}

/var/log/btmp {
missingok
monthly
create 0664 root utmp
rotate 1
}

# system-specific logs may be configured here

Select my Java

There are many varients of Java available on Ubuntu. There are OpenJDK and Sun's own JDK. By default, Ubuntu would use the open source one which is OpenJDK. Although it works, it isn't working as well as Sun's own. After a bit of research I found this little command that would save the default Java withe ease

update-alternatives --config java

This command would show you available varients of the command configuring, and let you choose the one you desired.

GnomeBaker

Just want to say, GnomeBake is a better CD software than the Brasero software comes with Ubuntu. It starts burning right away while Brasero is still preparing its ISO image. For DVD, preparing an ISO takes forever!

Openoffice and JRE

Got problem to get OpenOffice to locate Java, and it turned out,

openoffice.org-java-common

was missing.

VC++ Runtime Error

I have been using AutoGK for a while now to convert my mpeg videos into AVIs. Everything works fine till yesterday. When I tried to convert my vidoes, I got VC++ runtime error. I was scratching my head for a reason since I had just used the program a week again, and nothing had changed. It turned out it was caused by corrupted VC++ runtime library ... don't know how it happened ... Anyway, after I have reinstall the VC++ runtime redist from Microsoft, everything back to normal.

Ubuntu 8.10

I have just upgrade one of my machine to from 8.04 LTS to 8.10 as I heard the new version brings in speed improvement. Although the upgrade went mostly okay, the problem is it broke my display setting. I am using a NVidia graphics card, and it didn't work in the new version.

Surely, if I am determine, I can edit the xorg.conf to get things to work. However, I am disappointed by the lack of graphical configuration tool for xorg. Since I am using a KVM switch, the auto detect function doesn't work. In the past, I can use displayconfig-gtk to force the setting. Unfortunately, Ubuntu decide to phase it out.

If you ask me an area which I really want Ubuntu to be improved upon, this is it, this is the one! A simple, working graphics setting utility similar to those found on a Mac or even on Windows

ATi Mobile Radeon LY6

I finally got my 3D acceleration back. The combination below seems fix my lockup problem when Xorg restart, especially this line

Option "BusType" "PCI"

Section "device" #
Identifier "device1"
Boardname "ATI Radeon"
Busid "PCI:1:0:0"
Driver "radeon"
Option "DynamicClocks" "True"
Option "AccelMethod" "EXA"
Option "DMAForXv" "OFF"
Option "BusType" "PCI"
Option "SubPixelOrder" "NONE"
# Option "DRI" "OFF"
Screen 0
EndSection