Computers

Doxygen Graphviz DOT problem in Ubuntu 10.4 Lucid

The graphviz version graphviz 2.20.2-8 from Ubuntu’s repository seems to have some bug in DOT that causes it to hang.

The latest from http://www.graphviz.org/Download_linux_ubuntu.php is 2.26.3. However there’s maybe a funny in the dependencies as I needed the base and the lib packages graphviz_2.26.3-1_i386.deb & libgraphviz4_2.26.3-1_i386.deb as otherwise tryign to run DOT without the lib package you get:

dot: error while loading shared libraries: libgvc.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010 Engineering, Linux No Comments

Makefile debugging article

Makefiles are pure evil.  The concept was nice but working with them is awful. I have wasted more hours/days/weeks chasing down makefile problems because the #@$#*$ idjiots that came up with the idea must have assumed nobody would use more than one makefile and build nothing more complicated than ‘hello world’. I put this right up their with Microsoft’s  Windows Registry as one of the top 10 dumbest implementations of a good idea ever.

Now I feel better…

http://www.drdobbs.com/tools/197003338
Debugging Makefiles By John Graham Cumming, February 05, 2007

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010 Engineering, Linux No Comments

Linux upstart instead of init.d

intro article

http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/tutorials/7033/1/

but it makes it painful to figure out why something doesn’t start as there’s no way I’ve found to debug – i.e. it run the start/stop, etc in their own process and messages seem to get sent to /dev/null…an echo “hello” 1>&2 doesn’t end up in the logs.   Someday I’ll understand why…

another link: http://upstart.ubuntu.com/

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010 Linux No Comments

Linux GPL terminal program with logging and other features

So far this seems like the best terminal program for Linux:

http://software.jessies.org/terminator/

(there’s a couple of things that show up in google for Terminator)

Though for Windows I still like Secure  CRT:

http://www.vandyke.com/

Monday, August 2nd, 2010 Linux, Windows software No Comments

Linux Ubuntu open link or files as root and more right click stuff

Sometimes it’s easier to stay in the desktop than to futz with command lines.

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/how-to-open-files-as-root-via-a-right-click/

For doing a right click “search here”:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1376682

Monday, August 2nd, 2010 Linux No Comments

Windows 7 file delete “trusted installer” error

Well in another move of sheer brilliance Windows 7 creates files that require voodoo to delete…in this case my backup program copied my C drive, but I am redoing the backup and was faced with dozens (hundreds? thousands?) of files that required “trusted installer” to delete them.

Answer here:

http://helpdeskgeek.com/windows-7/windows-7-how-to-delete-files-protected-by-trustedinstaller/

Except there are still a few files (ok, 7926 files) where even though I’m now the owner, it still says I can’t delete them!  However I could at least rename the top level dir to fubar so I know to get rid of it someday.

Sunday, July 11th, 2010 Windows 7 system No Comments

Windows 7 problem detail list

This post is a list of all the problems I have not found a solution too – see the summary and articles tagged “Windows 7 system”

  1. Fast and reliable backup software that can restore the system volume (C:) and all data (D: and E: on my system). ioMega drive came with various software: the “Never Down” being what sounded like the right thing but it’s not for Win7-64. Retrospect Express HD seems OK though it doesn’t say it can restore a boot volume (C:)/windows.  It doesn’t show any progress indication and seems to hang.  It can’t handle long paths. It must keep a log somewhere, but I can’t find it. Maybe the paid version? I looked at Win 7’s built in backup, but there’s so many issues with that that I didn’t even waste my time trying it.
  2. clip path – requires hitting shift right click, lacks \ and / option, adds ” ” which breaks anything that wants to use it
  3. explore from here doesn’t work, left pane isn’t rooted at “here”
  4. program files menu too small, need ‘old style’ version? Seriously, what moron thought a tiny window that you have to scroll/click every time you want to run a program was a good idea?
  5. nfs client – well micro$oft “removed” this in Win 7, I can upgrade for $199 to get it back. Screw that, what type of OS doesn’t support basic networking (rhetorical question). Found some $50 or so add ons, but they give server capability and a bunch of stuff I don’t need.
  6. command prompt here on right click, not shift right click – I’m guessing I just need to edit the registry. But really I want “shift right click” to go away and have all things always in one right click menu in explorer
  7. setup wake-on-LAN for remote VNC access (vs. leaving the machine powered up, since this machine supports it would like to be ‘green’ and make this work. plus less wear and tear on the system). Something I know nothing about, doesn’t seem like it would be too hard, main question is how does one prevent randoms from waking up the computer?
  8. In many cases, for programs with “stock” help, the  windows help font too small, instructions to change don’t work
  9. Older programs don’t retain their settings between runs.  Set them to XP mode hoping that would help, but it doesn’t, and now double clicking on a file doesn’t always work, and security warnings pop up. Excel and Codewright are the two I use most and find this a huge problem
  10. Some programs, when launched, but up the “Danger Danger Wil Robinson” prompt. There is no way that I have found to tell Windoze to not ask me every freaking time I run a program if I want to run a program.
  11. Latest UVNC (1.0.8.2)  doesn’t work in Win 7 with dual monitors – and this is running a special version which does let at least one monitor show up/be controlled.  Looks like maybe one of the older versions might work?
  12. leading spaces aren’t preserved when you copy files. Apparently this is a “feature”, not a bug. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa365247%28VS.85%29.aspx Except of course programs that use dirs to store stuff and stick a space up front to make it sort first get trashed. Thank you micro$oft for wasting more of my time…
Saturday, July 10th, 2010 Windows 7 system No Comments

Windows 7 file search

Basically wanted a file search like in XP – specify a file name pattern and optional text pattern. Search all files in all sub dirs.

Not in Win 7. After trying things and googling a bit its clear file search just doesn’t work in Win 7.

Found/had suggested two good alternatives, each has its stronger points so will probably use both.

http://www.locate32.net/

http://www.mythicsoft.com/page.aspx?type=agentransack&page=home

I also have google desktop installed, but I can’t find anyway to force it to index nor get a status of what it thinks it has indexed – I even added some dirs explicitly but after a week I question if it’s indexed much of anything. All the drive’s status just say “Crawl not yet started”

Too bad, as it was pretty good at finding “relevant” things when I only had a rough idea what I was searching for.

Saturday, July 10th, 2010 Windows 7 system No Comments

Windows 7 won’t find XP, Samba, or other windows servers

IMHO Win 7 is very confusing about file sharing/networking. It needs some sort of “Expert” mode where you can see what it’s trying to do.

From what I understand, Win 7 implements “new stuff” for file sharing that makes it not work out of the box with other non -win 7 systems.

See this article for enabling Win 7 file sharing:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itpronetworking/thread/ecda546e-5fa0-4c09-9f3c-3bd132c1be68

The other thing needed was to put entries in the hosts file (see problem about no way to edit the file!) for all servers on the other side of the VPN. Looking at my older XP systems some had some in them, others not. But as those were setup 5+ years ago I really can’t remember if it was required.

Saturday, July 10th, 2010 Windows 7 system No Comments

Windows 7 WM player stutter during streaming playback

Again, not solved, just convinced enough that it’s a bug in WMplayer (12.0.7600.16415 – WTF type of version number is that?)

I can live without wmplayer but was wondering if there’s a more fundamental problem that could affect use of other tools for media playback, Wmplayer statistics (yeah, good luck figuring out how to get WMplayer out of brain dead mode to the point where you can get to the statistics menu) would show no dropped/lost frames, but the sounds was skips/jumps maybe averaging 1/minute.

Everything else (VLC, Quintessential, Nero) plays fine.

Saturday, July 10th, 2010 Windows 7 system No Comments