#!/bin/bash
#### linux chkconfig settings
# chkconfig: 345 01 99
# description: runs Xvfb on screen :2 at 1024x768x24
case $1 in
'start')
     echo -n "Starting Xvfb..."
     /usr/bin/Xvfb :2 -screen 0 1024x768x24 > /dev/null 2>&1 &
     echo $! > /var/lock/subsys/Xvfb
     RETVAL=$?
     echo
     [ $RETVAL = 0 ]
    ;
'stop')
     echo -n "Stopping Xvfb..."
     kill `cat /var/lock/subsys/Xvfb`
     rm -f /var/lock/subsys/Xvfb
     RETVAL=$?
     echo
     [ $RETVAL = 0 ]
    ;;
*)
    echo "usage: $0 {start|stop}"
    ;;
esac

update: I just found this wordpress plugin to make the script have proper tabs, and get syntax highlighting as a plus. Pretty slick.

sudo apt-get install luciole

luciole is an interesting project written for a french animation festival (you’ll want to run those links through google translate, or be fluent in French. whatevs). If you’ve got a webcam that works with V4L2, and most should, you’re ready to go. Luckily I was using a hueHD with a flexible neck, so it was easy to point the camera at my animation surface.

After I had the basic story board of what I wanted to present figured out, and that was the hardest part, it was a matter of arts and craft. My media used were doodles from Eva and multicolored pipe cleaners.

I laid out the basic shots, then recorded a narration with audacity. then I went back to luciole and added frames until the animation lasted as long as the narration. Exported the luciole track as an mpeg2 and stuck them together with PiTiVi, and re-exported the final video.

in course of investigation, I check /var/log/messages and see something like:

Jan 6 01:23:27 localhost kernel: audit(1105003407.183:0): avc: denied { append } for pid=12380 exe=/usr/sbin/mysqld path=/var/lib/mysql/localhost.localdomain.err dev=sda1 ino=3450322 scontext=root:system_r:mysqld_t tcontext=root:object_r:var_lib_t tclass=file

this error message will lead you down a trail of dispair. If you’re having the same problem I did, ignore this error message.

The reason the startup scripts are failing is that something is hardcoded to look for the mysql files in /var/lib/mysql. A symlink to /apps/mysql:

ln -s /apps/mysql/ /var/lib/

and mysql starts up without problem.

Now, if someone could explain why mysql client or startup scripts fails to read /etc/my.cnf correctly, I’d love to hear it.

First, Meg’s system came with a widescreen monitor. X windows was only configured with one 16:9 resolution choice, so if Meg want’s to reduce the resolution, everything is stretched out. I know if this is a fairly simple xorg.conf fix, and Meg’s gotten used to the 1680×1050 resolution, so it hasn’t been a big deal.

Secondly, in an effort to conserve power, I enabled power management so the system would suspend after after an hour of activity. Most of the time, this works. Every few times, it doesn’t recover correctly and needs to be shutdown before coming back up. Other times, the network connection is unable to get a DHCP lease. I’ve turned this off to stop irritating Meg until I can get it to work more consistently.

Meg is busy taking grad classes and her only complaint about OpenOffice.org is the lack “WordArt” as seen in Microsoft Word. I’ll have to see if the Format > FontWork option does the trick for her.

Overall, I’m still very impressed. The screen resolution is a minor nit-pick, and I’m not even sure if that level of polish exists on the windows side of the world. Suspend or hibernate don’t work correctly on my own (older) system, so that fact that it works most of the time is still a good sign.

Extra work with the printer was to be expected and I was able to easily get it running with the lexmark driver and the directions from ubuntu forums. Dell did a good job on their blog explaining that they are only going to recommend certain printers. One odd thing was that the sales page for the linux systems didn’t let me select a printer at all. I guess they are still ramping up the system and determining which printers would be best to offer.

It was pretty neat to unpack a new Dell PC and only have this one CD in the box:

I’m going to let Meg play with Ubuntu a bit, but I think we may end up switching back to Kubuntu, as that’s what she’s more familiar with. I do have an XP CD sitting here as a backup in case she decides Open Office can’t handle her powerpoint needs or something else. I might try the Qemu > rdesktop trick if she decides this is needed.