The workaround is to boot from a livecd/usb and comment out all NTFS and VFAT lines in /etc/fstab. If that still does not help – replace the large UUIDs with device names back.

Still have not reported the bug as there look to be several – regression in NTFS support, the upgrader corrupting the fstab file and mountall incorrectly handling a case of an unmountable file system.

P.S. Also my Firefox would not start – that was solved by removing the sessionstore* files in my profile.

27. martā LU Linux centrā notiks divi pasākumi vienā – Ubuntu Global Bug Jam Latvijas daļa un installfests. Global Bug Jam ir pasākums, kurā piedalīties ir aicināti interesenti, speciālisti, studenti, lai meklētu kļūdas Ubuntu Lucid Lynx testēšanas versijā. Cilvēki, kas grib uzzināt par Ubuntu Linux, vai kuri grib atrisināt kādu konkrētu problēmu ar Ubuntu Linux tiek aicināti nākt uz šī pasākuma otro daļu no pulksten 14:00 līdz 16:00. Pasākuma būs kafija un bulciņas ar Accenture atbalstu.

Ubuntu Global Bug Jam ir globāls pasākums, kura mērķis ir iepazīstināt programmētājus un tulkotājus ar rīkiem, kas tiek lietoti, lai labotu problēmas Ubuntu operētājsistēmā un arī izlabot pēc iespējas lielāku skaitu problēmu īsā laikā. Izstrādātāji, kas grib labot Ubuntu problēmas vai iemācīties kā labot Ubuntu problēmas, tiek aicināti ierasties 12:00 un palikt līdz 16:00.

Installfest pasākuma sadaļā tiek aicināti visi esošie Ubuntu lietotaji, kuriem ir kādas konkrētas problēmas un arī cilvēki, kas tikai vēl interesējas par Ubuntu Linux. Ja jums ir konkrēta problēma ar Ubuntu Linux ir ieteicams atnest uz pasākumu savu datoru, kurā šo problēmu var atkārtot, lai pasākumā esošie programmētāji varētu noteikt šīs problēmas iemeslu un palīdzētu no novērst. Installfests sāksies 14:00 un turpināsies līdz 16:00.

Ubuntu ir bezmaksas, uz Linux balstīta pilna apjoma operētājsistēma jebkuram personālajam datoram, serverim un portatīvajai iekārtai. Tās standarta komplektā iekļautas visas nepieciešamās programmas, lai strādātu ar tekstiem, attēliem, elektronisko pastu un Internetu, kā arī jūs varat instalēt papildus programmatūru dažādiem nolūkiem. Pasaulē to šobrīd jau lieto vairāk kā 8 miljoni cilvēku, un to legāli bez maksas var lietot gan mājās, gan komerciālās un nekomerciālās organizācijās.

LU Linux Centrs ir izveidots Latvijas Universitātes Datorikas fakultātē. Linux Centra darbības mērķi ir: popularizēt atvērtā pirmkoda (Open Source) programmatūras, tai skaitā, Linux operētājsistēmas un citu atvērto tehnoloģiju iespējas un priekšrocības; piedalīties LU studiju procesā un īstenot lietišķo IKT pētījumu projektus, tajos izmantojot un attīstot atvērtās tehnoloģijas; sekmēt APP pieejamību Latvijā un pasaulē.

I did. So I got me one of theseUSB sound cards. It arrived today in a tiny padded envelope.

And it works with Linux. Just plug and play. PulseAudio makes it all trivial. The device ID as reported by lsusb is 0c76:1607 JMTek, LLC. The text on the back of the device says ‘Model HY544 USB 3D Sound Pnp FC CE Made in China’.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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