Install Sun Java 6 JRE and JDK from .deb packages
So, Canonical disabled my Java PPA at the end of last week. So I’ve developed another solution for installing Java 6u30 on Ubuntu which doesn’t infringe any copyrights, licenses, terms of use or CoC’s. However, by running this script to download Java you acknowledge that you have read and accepted the terms of the Oracle end user license agreement.
My script is an automated wrapper for Janusz Dziemidowicz Debian packaging scripts for Java 6. My new script simply downloads the Java binary installers from Oracle, builds the .deb packages locally on your computer and creates a local ‘apt’ repository for them. Once my script has been executed you can then ‘apt-get’ install/upgrade Java 6 from your local repository. Packages are compatible with “official” Ubuntu ones and pre-existing Java 6 packages will upgrade cleanly.
You can find the script and full usage instructions on github.
The quick and dirty guide for using this script is as follows:
cd ~/
wget https://raw.github.com/flexiondotorg/oab-java6/master/oab-java6.sh -O oab-java6.sh
chmod +x oab-java6.sh
sudo ./oab-java6.sh
Please read the README file for a more detailed explanation of how the script works and how to use it. If anyone has any problems, then please submit a ticket on my Issue Tracker.
In: Linux · Tagged with: .deb, Debian, java, JDK, JRE, packages, Sun, Ubuntu
Sun Java 1.6.0.30 packages for Ubuntu
Sun Java 6 packages are being removed from Ubuntu in the near future for the following reasons:
- As of August 24th 2011, Canonical no longer have permission to redistribute new Java packages as Oracle has retired the “Operating System Distributor License for Java”.
- Oracle has published an advisory about security issues in the version of Java currently in the partner archive. Some of these issues are currently being exploited in the wild.
- Due to the severity of the security risk, Canonical released a security update for the Sun JDK browser plugin which disables the plugin on all machines.
- In the near future, Canonical will remove all Sun JDK packages from the Partner archive. This will be accomplished by pushing empty packages to the archive, so that the Sun JDK will be removed from all users machines when they do a software update. Users of these packages who have not migrated to an alternative solution will experience failures after the package updates have removed Oracle Java from the system.
See the full Canonical notice below.
Update Monday 16th January 2012
I’ve developed another solution for installing Java 6u30 on Ubuntu which doesn’t infringe any copyrights, licenses, terms of use or CoC’s.
Update Friday 13th January 2012
My Java PPA has been disabled by Canonical, possibly because they violate the Ubuntu CoC and PPA terms of use, as Jef Spaleta noted in the comments below, although I’ve had no communication from Canonical at this time. I’m preparing an alternative solution, for those of you who need Sun Java 6, that doesn’t violate and copyrights, CoCs or terms of use. A new blog post will be made when that alternate solution is available.
My personal motivations for creating this PPA are as follows:
I require Sun Java 6 for two enterprise applications we use at work. OpenJDK is not fully compatible.I require Sun Java 6 for two desktop applications at home (so does my father-in-law). OpenJDK not compatible in one instance and not fully compatible in the other.I require Sun Java 6 browser plugin for a web applications I use at home. OpenJDK is not compatible.A friend of mine requires Sun Java 6 for building AOSP from source. OpenJDK is not compatible.Some friends of mine play Minecraft, apparently this will help
- Janusz Dziemidowicz made it easy for me – https://github.com/rraptorr/sun-java6
The PPA currently publishes Sun Java 6 1.6.0.30 for:
Lucid i386/amd64Maverick i386/amd64Natty i386/amd64Oneiric i386/amd64Precise i386. However, amd64 is failing to build on Precise. I will try and fix this in due course.
To Sun Java 6 , previously instaled via packages, do the following.
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:flexiondotorg/java
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
To install Sun Java 6 JRE do the following:
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:flexiondotorg/java
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre
To install Sun Java 6 browser plugin do the following:
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:flexiondotorg/java
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install sun-java6-plugin
To install Sun Java 6 JDK do the following:
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:flexiondotorg/java
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jdk
You can take a look a round my PPA from the URL below:
Enjoy!
In: Linux · Tagged with: java, packages, sun-java6, Ubuntu
Installing Gnome 3 on Ubuntu 11.10
I tried Unity in Ubuntu Natty 11.04 and Ubuntu Oneiric 11.10. We’ve agree to hate each other. A few weeks ago I started using Gnome 3 and it only took me a couple of hours to adapt to it’s workflow. Gnome 3 is now my desktop environment at home and and work. I love it!
If you’d like to give Gnome 3 a whirl then you could try installing Jan Hoffman’s Ubuntu Gnome Shell Remix from either the 32-bit or 64-bit ISOs he has prepared. This will give a “pure” Gnome 3 experience.
If you already have Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric installed then you can install Gnome 3 along side Unity. Here are the incantations you’ll need to utter in a shell.
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:jan-hoffmann/gnome-shell sudo apt-add-repository ppa:aegirxx-googlemail/gnome-shell-extensions sudo apt-add-repository ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3 sudo apt-add-repository ppa:webupd8team/gnome3 sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install libglib2.0-bin gnome-core gnome-documents gnome-shell gnome-sushi gnome-tweak-tool gnomeshell-default-settings gtk3-engines-unico
The repositories added above will give you access to Jan’s Gnome 3 meta packages, updated Gnome 3 packages and some extra Gnome 3 extensions. Gnome 3 extensions add all manner of additional tweaks and functionality. Some extensions can even provide a user experience more akin to that of Gnome 2.
In order to get acquainted with Gnome 3 I suggest you read the Discover Gnome 3 (watch the videos too) and Gnome 3 Cheat Sheet pages. Having read those you’ll soon master Gnome 3. After you’ve used Gnome 3 for a while you may conclude it is a more usable desktop environment than Unity, which isn’t a surprising conclusion to arrive at given Unity sucks the big one. If you want a “pure” Gnome 3 experience then the following commands will purge Unity and other bits and bobs that Gnome 3 simply doesn’t required.
Remove Unity
sudo apt-purge unity unity-2d unity-2d-launcher unity-asset-pool unity-common unity-greeter unity-lens-applications unity-lens-music libunity-misc4
Remove Overlay Scrollbars
These just don’t work on my netbook since they regularly obscure portions of the window I actually want to click on. The can safely be removed even if you intend to continue using Unity.
sudo apt-get purge overlay-scrollbar liboverlay-scrollbar-0.2-0 liboverlay-scrollbar3-0.2-0
Remove Indicators
Indicators are a Ubuntu “thing”. If you never going back to Unity these can be safely removed.
sudo apt-get purge xchat-gnome-indicator indicator-appmenu indicator-power indicator-session indicator-sound indicator-status-provider-mc5 libindicator-messages-status-provider1
Remove Global Menu
Again, Global Menu is not used by Gnome 3. So if you not going back to Unity these can be safely removed.
sudo apt-get purge appmenu-gtk3 appmenu-gtk appmenu-qt firefox-globalmenu thunderbird-globalmenu
Finally, a word or warning: Distribution upgrades are not possible!
You can’t upgrade to a newer version of Ubuntu when using Jan Hoffman’s Ubuntu Gnome Shell Remix or if you modify an existing Ubuntu 11.10 using my method above. You will have to do a full install once the next Ubuntu release is available. This can’t be fixed as long as this Jan’s meta packages are unofficial, because the distribution upgrade process requires having installed one of the desktop meta packages from the official Ubuntu repositories.
In: Linux · Tagged with: Gnome 3, Gnome Shell, Ubuntu, Unity
Shotwell 0.11 PPA available for Ubuntu Lucid and Maverick
Like many others I wanted Shotwell 0.11 for Lucid and Maverick so I’ve created a PPA for it 
My PPA contains Shotwell 0.11 built for Ubuntu Lucid 10.04 LTS and Ubuntu Maverick 10.10. I created this PPA because I run Lucid at home and wanted the new version of Shotwell. Sadly, Yorba aren’t going to provide new Shotwell packages for Lucid due to the reasons discussed in the following ticket:
- http://trac.yorba.org/ticket/3015
As mentioned in the ticket above, there are newer versions of Shotwell available for Lucid in other PPAs. However, those PPAs contain hundreds of packages. If you’re not that brave, like me, then hopefully this PPA provides what you need. I have built Shotwell with minimal changes from the original Yorba source packages and not polluted this PPA with any unnecessary packages
Since Shotwell 0.11 you must enable the GStreamer PPA, see the ticket below for the reasons for this requirement:
- http://redmine.yorba.org/issues/3716
To install Shotwell on Lucid and Maverick do the following:
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:flexiondotorg/shotwell sudo apt-add-repository ppa:gstreamer-developers/ppa sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get dist-upgrade sudo apt-get install shotwell
Enjoy!
In: Linux · Tagged with: lucid, maverick, ppa, shotwell, Ubuntu
Shotwell 0.8.1 PPA available for Ubuntu Lucid
Like many others I wanted Shotwell for Lucid so I’ve created a PPA for it
My PPA contains Shotwell 0.8.1 built for Ubuntu Lucid 10.04 LTS. I created the PPA because I run Lucid at home and wanted the new version of Shotwell. Sadly, Yorba aren’t going to provide a Lucid build of Shotwell 0.8.1 due to the reasons discussed in the following ticket:
As mentioned in the ticket above, there are versions of Shotwell 0.8.1 available for Lucid in other PPAs. However, those PPAs contain hundreds of packages. If you’re not that brave, like me, then hopefully my PPA provides what you need. I have built Shotwell 0.8.1 with minimal changes from the original Yorba source packages and not polluted my PPA with any unnecessary packages
NOTE! My PPA has dependencies that are satisfied by the Yorba PPA, so you must also enable the Yorba PPA too.
To install Shotwell 0.8.1 on Lucid do the following:
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:yorba/ppa sudo apt-add-repository ppa:flexiondotorg/shotwell sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install shotwell
In: Linux · Tagged with: lucid, ppa, shotwell, Ubuntu
Bash script to retrieve Ubuntu codenames and versions
I’m working a script to automatically backport some new Debian packages to Ubuntu. I needed a way to get a list of currently supported/active Ubuntu releases by codename or version. Here is how I do it.
Get a list of Ubuntu codenames
wget -q http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/ -O - | sed -e :a -e 's/<[^>]*>//g;/</N;//ba' | grep '^[[:space:]][a-z]' | sed 's/\///g'
Get a list of Ubuntu versions
wget -q http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/ -O - | sed -e :a -e 's/<[^>]*>//g;/</N;//ba' | grep '^[[:space:]][1-9]' | sed 's/\///g'
In: Linux · Tagged with: bash, codename, release, Script, Ubuntu, version, wget
Updating my blog via Ping.fm
OK, after testing my blog can update Ping.fm I am now testing that Ping.fm can update my blog, with actual blog posts.
In: Ping.fm · Tagged with: micro-blog, status update
Testing WordPress and Ping.fm Integration
This blog post is pretty useless. It’s just here to test WordPress integration with Ping.fm. I’ve been researching this so we can do the whole social media thing at work. If you’re remotely interested in what this means then take a look at the Ping.fm Custom URL plugin and CR Post to Ping.fm plugin.
Goodbye F-Spot. Hello Shotwell.
I’ve finally found a photo manager for Linux I can live with, Shotwell. Shotwell is an photo manager for GNOME that I’ve been testing for a few months now but the recent 0.5 release which added tagging and printing, it means Shotwell is finally ready replace F-Spot on my workstation.
Shotwell is intuitive, well documented, extremely easy to use and reliable. It’s easy to dismiss Shotwell as an oversimplified photo manager. But once you start using it, you’ll quickly appreciate its clean interface and easy-to-use tools. Don’t just take my word for it either, Shotwell is now the default photo manager in Fedora 13 alpha. Here is a quick run down of the features.
- Import photos from folders or from any digital camera supported by gPhoto.
- Shotwell automatically groups photos taken at the same time. You can also use tags to organize your photo collection.
- You can rotate, crop, reduce red-eye, and adjust the exposure, saturation, tint, and temperature of each photo.
- Publish photos to Facebook, Flickr and Picasa Web Albums.
Shotwell provides a non-destructive way to tweak your photos. Instead of modifying the original photos, Shotwell stores all edits in a database and applies them on-the-fly as necessary. This means that you can easily undo all edits. Shotwell comes equipped with all the usual photo enhancing tools and slideshow.
You can download a source tarball from the Shotwell home page at: http://www.yorba.org/shotwell/ or grab a binary for Ubuntu Karmic or Lucid via Yorba’s Launchpad PPA at: https://launchpad.net/~yorba/+archive/ppa
In: Linux · Tagged with: Linux, Manager, Photo
Give XFS a chance. Don't believe the FUD.
After tinkering with Ext4 I did some research and tested other file systems on my new disk arrays. I’ve concluded that XFS, once tuned, is the best file system for my needs and it could well be the best file system for your needs too. I’m now using XFS for all my computers, including laptop and workstation, and I’ll test XFS on my netbook in due course as well.
My wiki page below explains how I arrived at that decision and how I tune XFS to get optimal, yet safe, performance that can rival Ext4 and JFS.
