Sometimes you have an Ubuntu server. But what you need a Debian server. And you could reinstall the system with Debian but you either can't or do not want to (i.e. you are lazy). In a future post I will expand on how and why I find myself in this situation, but suffice it to say that I have a few times. But what to do about it?

The thought may have crossed your mind: Can you [up/down/cross]-grade an Ubuntu system to a Debian system*? I prefer the term crossgrade. After all, Ubuntu is based on Debian and they both use the apt package manager and so they have quite a bit in common.

So, the answer? Yes, Virginia; you can!!... maybe... possibly... there is a chance it could work, anyway.

* You may also wonder whether you can go the other direction; Debian to Ubuntu. I would guess that it would work as well as the Ubuntu to Debian procedure (i.e. I hope you have an ample supply of four-leaf clovers on hand) but I haven't tried it, as I personally have no reason to.

DISCLAIMER: This is probably a crazy stupid thing to do. Especially on an important system and even more so if you are planning to try it on a remote system (WTF is wrong with you??). Stop being so lazy and just back up the system and config and reinstall it properly. There is no guarantee that this will work. It's totally NOT supported. If you ask most people they will probably just tell you that it doesn't or won't work. Just because it worked for me doesn't mean it will work for you.

Continue reading "ubuntian crossgrade"

Posted by ra at 00:21 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

So not only did I get a Motorola CLIQ this month, but I also got a new laptop! FINALLY! It does not exactly meet my stated criteria, but it's pretty damn close! (holy bang abuse, batman!!!)

I got a Dell Studio 14z. It has a 1600x900 LED backlit screen, a 2.53 GHz Core 2 Duo and 3 GB DDR3 ram. It also weighs about half what my old laptop did (OK, not really, but including the power adapter it might be close) while easily besting it in processing power, noise, etc. So far I'm very happy with it.

Posted by ra at 22:02 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

I share my scanner on the network using sane but after reloading my server I found it was not being seen from the network even though it appeared to be working locally.

I saw this kind of stuff in the logs:

Dec 19 15:56:19 localhost saned[32422]: saned (AF-indep+IPv6) from sane-backends 1.0.19 starting up
Dec 19 15:56:17 localhost saned[32422]: check_host: access by remote host: 10.0.0.55
Dec 19 15:56:17 localhost saned[32422]: init: access granted to saned-user@10.0.0.55
Dec 19 15:56:19 localhost saned[32422]: saned exiting

I increased the verbosity but it wasn't any more helpful:

[saned] check_host: access granted from IP address 10.0.0.55 (in subnet 10.0.0.0/24)
[saned] init: access granted
[saned] init: access granted to saned-user@::ffff:10.0.0.55
[saned] process_request: waiting for request
[saned] process_request: got request 1
[saned] process_request: waiting for request
[saned] process_request: got request 10
[saned] bailing out, waiting for children...
[saned] bail_out: all children exited

After much troubleshooting I realized that while local access worked file, saned was not working when running as user saned, but worked fine if run as root.

Obviously this looked like a permission problem, and it was. I checked the perms on the scanner device, /dev/sg2 and confirmed that saned had no access. But why? I checked the udev rules and found a rule that would give permissions to the scanner group, of which saned is a member. But this rule had set the permissions.

Then I realized that since I booted up with the scanner attached, and then installed sane, the new udev rule would not have had any effect until the device was replugged or the system was rebooted. I restarted udev and un/re-plugged the scanner and then saned worked fine again!

Posted by ra at 20:28 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

I've been experimenting with more and more IP cameras.

Some quick notes on image/video/audio URL's for the cameras I currently have:

ABS 311M
mjpeg:
http://camera_address/mjpg/video.mjpg?resolution=vga

Trendnet 312W
jpeg:
http://username:password@camera_address/cgi/jpg/image.cgi

mjpeg:
http://username:password@camera_address/cgi/mjpg/mjpg.cgi

pcm (amr?) audio:
http://username:password@camera_address/cgi/audio/audio.cgi

Posted by ra at 01:28 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Yes, Virginia; I DID finally get a MOTOCLIQ!

And yes, I love it! I will have to withhold further comment until later because right now I'm too busy playing with my phone!

Posted by ra at 17:21 | Comments (0) | Trackback (1)

I still have yet to own a smartphone. I carry a phone and a separate PDA, although the latter is kept in my wallet-case so I'm not really burdened by carrying an "extra" device or anything. But it does feel like a bit like I'm living in the past. When I pull out my PDA it seems like people are thinking "wow... that's quaint".

It wasn't until my first exposure to Android that I actually had any desire for a smartphone. I had finally found something that could truly replace both my phone and my Palm TX and give me more functionality rather than amounting to a frustrating compromise. It certainly doesn't hurt that's it's Android based and largely open-sourced either. So I am definitely decided on the Android platform, there's just one problem. I need to find some sexy Android powered hardware. And that's the problem.

Until now, that is. I will have to wait to see and touch it in person of course but I think the Motorola CLIQ could be my first smartphone. It runs Android, I love the look of it, I love the physical keyboard and I've had a lot of Motorola phones over the years and for the most part have been very pleased with them. The G1 was just too clunky looking for me, and the HTC Magic lacked the physical keyboard and I just didn't care for how it felt in my hand. But the Cliq... appears to be something entirely different. I can't wait!

Posted by ra at 12:30 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

If you're lucky enough to be able to call two different Asterisk servers from one phone, a really fun thing to do is to call the echo test on one Asterisk server, then conference in a new call to the echo test on a different Asterisk server, creating an echo loop.

The IP phone on my desk is connected to two Asterisk servers and it made my day when I realized I could do this.

Posted by ra at 13:45 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)