[PLUG] PLUG W follow-up

[JP Vossen <jp@jpsdomain.org>]

Thanks to Bruce for his interesting talk on PostgreSQL Replication. 
(Boy, MySQL is a heck of a lot easier to spell and type! :)


Before the preso we talked about what Linux Distro to use.  That's 
obviously too open-ended to answer, but some of the suggestions were:

RPM (Used to mean Red Hat Package Manager, now recursing for RPM) based:
Fedora http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fedora_%28operating_system%29
CentOS http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centos
ScientificLinux http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_Linux

APT (Advanced Package Tool) based:
Debian http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debian
Ubuntu http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_%28operating_system%29

Source-based:
Gentoo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentoo_Linux
Arch http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arch_linux

Some noted that Fedora and Ubuntu are not suitable for a production 
server because they change too fast and are end-of-lifed too fast.  In 
my opinion that is true for Fedora, but Ubuntu does have a server 
product and the periodic LTS (Long Term Support) releases targets at 
slower moving Enterprise customers.  Having said that...

*Personally* I prefer Debian on the server and Ubuntu LTS on the 
desktop, though in my recent (last 2 years or so) experience both have 
declined in stability.  I prefer Debian's old "ship when it's ready" to 
the newer "ship every X period".  I agree the latter makes it easier to 
plan, but I think the former was more solid and stable.  When I have to 
use RPM-based, I use CentOS, and we do use a lot of CentOS, RHEL and 
even (shudder) OEL at $WORK.

A lot of it comes down to what you are used to, and how closely the 
distro's philosophy meshes with how your mind works.  I find Debian just 
works the way I think.  Ubuntu used to, being based on Debian, but I 
don't like Gnome3 (upstream, not Canonical's fault) and I have mixed 
feelings on Unity.  Since I'd also argue that servers should not have 
GUI's, that all may be moot, at least for now.

Any of the above, plus many other Linux distros, will work fine in the 
majority of cases.  Given specific details or constraints, some will 
work better than others at this or that.  It all depends on the details...



After the preso Amul & I were talking about enabling VNC on Ubuntu 
10.10.  Using the GUI this would be System > Preferences > Remote 
Desktop, but he doesn't have the GUI, that's the point behind needing 
VNC in the first place.

So from the command line via SSH:

# As the user who owns the GUI desktop
# This will show you the current settings
$ gconftool-2 -a /desktop/gnome/remote_access

# This will show only the ones we care about:
$ gconftool-2 --get /desktop/gnome/remote_access/enabled
$ gconftool-2 --get /desktop/gnome/remote_access/view_only
$ gconftool-2 --get /desktop/gnome/remote_access/prompt_enabled

# This will set them so that:
# [x] Allow other users to view your desktop
# [x] Allow other users to control your desktop
# [ ] You must confirm each access to this machine
$ gconftool-2 --set --type=bool /desktop/gnome/remote_access/enabled true
$ gconftool-2 --set --type=bool /desktop/gnome/remote_access/view_only false
$ gconftool-2 --set --type=bool 
/desktop/gnome/remote_access/prompt_enabled false


HOWEVER...  I just tried the stuff above and it didn't seem to work. 
I'd get a useless "Connection Closed" message immediately on trying to 
connect.  So I went upstairs to check the machine and it seemed correct. 
 A 'netstat -lnp' only showed this, which looked odd since it seems 
IPv6 only while I'm using IPv4:
	tcp6  0  0 :::5900    :::*  LISTEN      30673/vino-server

I didn't change anything, but when I went back to my office and tried 
again it sort-of worked, in that I could connect, but once it painted 
once the screen wouldn't refresh.  Then I remembered that VNC and Compiz 
don't play nice, at least in the Ubuntu 10.04 LTS that I'm using. 
System > Preferences > Appearance > Visual Effects = None "fixes" that. 
 (Remote desktop using Ubuntu 10.04+ with Compiz & Unity ought to 
be...interesting...)

So maybe:
$ gconftool-2 -s --type bool /apps/metacity/general/compositing_manager 
false
# Or probably better:
$ gconftool-2 --set /desktop/gnome/remote_access/disable_xdamage --type 
bool true

See http://www.kiskeyix.org/articles/539



At dinner we discussed a great number of interesting things, much of 
which had nothing to do with Linux or F/OSS.  Here are a couple of 
references that came up.

http://science.slashdot.org/story/12/03/17/0011231/south-korean-scientists-prepare-to-clone-wooly-mammoth

SciFi author Harry Harrison has done a few time travel pieces, but his 
short story "The Secret of Stonehenge" is the one I was talking about. 
It's in either of these two anthologies: _Stainless Steel Visions_ or 
_Prime Number_.

Author http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Kurzweil also came up, and I 
would add http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Drexler and maybe 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Norman for related reading (I'm a 
big fan of Norman, though for software you also want David S Platt 
(http://www.whysoftwaresucks.com/)).  And of course Asimov's excellent 
and classic short story "The Last Question" 
(http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html).

I think the Nova "frog thing" I was trying to remember was the 
epigenetics "Ghost in Your Genes" documentatary, more info here:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/genes/about.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/horizon/ghostgenes.shtml
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-ghost-in-our-genes/
https://www.google.com/search?q=%22The+Ghost+in+Your+Genes%22


Wow, as usual this got way too long...  Hope it's useful,
JP
----------------------------|:::======|-------------------------------
JP Vossen, CISSP            |:::======|      http://bashcookbook.com/
My Account, My Opinions     |=========|      http://www.jpsdomain.org/
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