Aigarius Blog

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Error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "test.py", line 12, in module
    from xml.dom.ext.reader import HtmlLib
ImportError: No module named ext.reader

Fix/workaround:

+        sys.path.append('/usr/lib/python%s/site-packages/oldxml' % sys.version[:3])
        from xml.dom.ext.reader import HtmlLib

I had an old Python script doing some XML work and after upgrade to Ubuntu 8.04 I started getting the above error message and had to use the above fix because the Ubuntu packages of python-xml moved the xml.dom.ext.* to /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/oldxml for some reason. Have not looked at the latest Debian packages. Does anyone know why such back-compatibility breaking change was introduced? All I find on Google are the people getting bitten by this bug and no reasoning or even discussion behind the change.

Popularity: 29% [?]

Everyone knows that Webmin is nasty - it does things in wrong way on a pure and nice Debian (and Ubuntu) systems and for some reason is not included in Debian (post-sarge) or Ubuntu. That does not inspire confidence in a root-running web based software to say the least.
I have a need to have a Linux server and give an administrator the ability to add/remove users, configure some LAMP settings, some email settings (SMTP, POP, IMAP, Spam/Virus protection), Samba and those kinds of everyday system administration tasks on a SOHO Linux server without having to know much about Linux.

Unfortunately I am very hard pressed to find anything that I could just set up and forget. Does anyone have any good experiences on this?

Popularity: 38% [?]

If you are playing World of Warcraft on a Debian or Ubuntu system with newest Wine packages from WineHQ, then you might run into a problem - WoW-2.1.2.6803-to-2.1.3.6898-enUS-patch.exe files will crash on Wine 0.9.40 with some nastygrams sent in the direction of its mshtml implementation. Downgrade to 0.9.33 (like the version in feisty) and the patching will work just fine.

Popularity: 44% [?]

With great help from Ouattara Oumar Aziz an new version of SBackup is shaping up in the svn repo and a day ago I created a public beta version - 0.10.4~beta10 which can be downloaded here.
Please report any bugs or regressions to Sourceforge bug tracker. Also an update for translations and new translations can be added. You can either translate in Launchpad or download the template file from the SVN. But beware that there are more translations in Launchpad then in the SVN at the moment, so check there first.
If no blocker bugs are found, we could see a new stable release of SBackup in a weeks time. I am sure that a lot of people will be happy to hear that :).

Edit: For some reason, the DEB on the Sourceforge site was cut to third of its size, I uploaded a new version, it should be fine now. And by popular request here is a screenshot, note that by using simple timing the /etc/cron.{daily,weekly,monthly} folders are used and thus anacron runs the backups if the computer was off at the scheduled time.

Popularity: 41% [?]

More and more early adopters choose to use Ubuntu instead of Debian. Ubuntu has newer versions of the software that matters (XOrg, FF, OOO, Gnome,…) than the stable Debian or, sometimes than even the unstable Debian. Early adopters are the users that are most eager to try new shiny things, do not scream too much if those things break and seem to make good bug reporters. They are the key second level - just below the developers and above most users in the pyramid of software development and use. They are also the people that have a tendency to become developers. That is why I have this feeling that capturing early adopters is essential to development of a thriving free software community. How can that be done? I do not know, but I have an idea that might just work.

What I envision is a merger of development processes of Debian, Ubuntu, Knoppix, Skolelinux and all other Debian derrived distributions. The base for this merger would be an eternal unstable line where all developers would be encouraged to put the newest and greatest software - THE place to be if you want to be on the bleeding edge. I see this unstable line being much newer then Debian unstable, but retaining similar level of quality (how? it is a good question). Then there would be a set of tools available to splice packages from this unstable line into a stabilisation and stable branches for each distribution. The tools would be the same for all distributions and the packages would be the same for all distributions, the difference between distributions would be achieved by the way that the packages and their specific versions are chosen, patches applied for a particular distribution and in some ways by the assembly of the final release media. The proper Debian releases in this context would be no different then Ubuntu releases but will be created using different criteria and at different times. The tools must be powerful enough so that release preparations of any distribution (including Debian proper) would not need to slow down the progress of the flow of new features into the eternal unstable line.

The infrastructure needed to operate such complex system would be immense. It would need to have some similarities to the systems Debian uses for distribution, release and bug management, it would need to have some similarities to Ubuntu’s Launchpad (just free, understandable, usable and well documented), and I think that it would also need to have some similarities to Gentoo’s Portage system (distros do want to recompile packages with different options and with their own library versions). It would also help if this unstable line could still hold few parallel versions of one package - like the latest release and the cvs version. (However I am pressed to even imagine all the complexities this would bring into apt and bug reporting/debugging.)

I think that such structure will not only concentrate the scarce resource that are the early adopters in a place that will benefit all distributions, but will also provide extra dimensionality for social and technical growth for The Debian Project. The Debian Project will turn from a single great distribution to a swarm of wonderful distributions with a strong central spine - the eternal unstable line.

An additional benefit to this will be that it will be possible to fork Debian if social pressures require that (like it happened with gcc vs. eggc) for the benefit of all free software users. Like, for example, the David’s steering commitee whould not disturb the Debian main line until it has been proven to work - it could be formed, it could set goals for a branch and feel in total control of their release goals and methods. After the steering commitee makes a successful release, it would be only a matter of a political decision of whether to call that release Debian proper or not.

Note: As always this is just an uniformed rant of a relatively passive DD who is blissfully ignorant of pretty much everything, so please tell me if and why it can or can not be done.

P.S. While I am in such writelly mood, I should probably write that free software advocacy article for a new journal that I promised them a month ago.

P.P.S. If the system is written with it in mind, then each user’s computer could theoretically be a separate distribution which keeps a splice of Debian unstable line (or any subline) with local modifications and possible local compilation options. If done right, this could also provide a ground for merging up with Gentoo.

P.P.P.S. After reading trough logs of several bugs on the Launchpad, I have a feeling that Ubuntu is being flooded by much more bugreports then Cannonical is designed to handle (especially for free). I am not pointing fingers here, I am just suggesting that it is another facet of the same problem and that this idea of mine could reduce this load and let Ubuntu developers concentrate on what they really want to do.

Popularity: 40% [?]

“Oh, gnome-screensaver, I hate you!” - © Simon Law

Oh, and so do I for breaking working software, like mplayer, because known and working xscreensaver interfaces are simply not supported.

P.S. It feels so great to see people use the Debian Debconf6 pool photo in their Slashdotted presentations

Popularity: 17% [?]

Flashback to childhood

A contest at Animefest - we all are trying to remember how paper boats were made. Here I have a moment of “enlightenment”

In other news - today I was “performing” in an event at Latvian University - telling a bunch of people what is console, how and why can work and survive there. Was fun.

Also I got tired of instability of Ubuntu dapper and went for a radical move - downgrading a system back to breezy. It was no easy feat - after setting APT preferences (pinning breezy to 1500) I went trough a series of “apt-get dist-upgrade”s and “apt-get -f install”s. Some packages failed to downgrade because of file conflicts, then I had to manually fix file lists in /var/lib/dpkg/info/package.list so that there is no conflict. After the whole downgrade I could reinstall all my lost packages by means of “dpkg –set-selection” and “apt-get dselect-upgrade” and via aptitude remembering what software I installed manually trough it before the downgrade. All in all - a successful downgrade.
Note: This is sarcasm. Do not attempt to downgrade your Debian or Ubuntu boxes unless you have been a Debian developer for a few years and know internals of apt and dpkg from inside out. Because that is exactly what you will see if you try. My advice is to save package selection with “dpkg –get-selections”, do a backup of your home dir, /etc/ dir, all possibly vital data (/var/mail?), do a reinstall of the stable version that you want to get back to (Dapper or Sarge are very stable now), restore package selections with “dpkg –set-selections” followed by “apt-get dselect-update” (remember to restore your /etc/apt/sources.list and tune it back to the stable distro before that), restore all you care about from your backups and you are done! Also remember that sometimes software gets confused when tou give it thhe conifg file of some future version, so beware.

Popularity: 16% [?]