Archive for October, 2006

Ubuntu Dapper to Edgy upgrade issue

Published on October 29, 2006 in Linux OS related and Ubuntu. 0 Comments

There is an issue that appears to be more common than others when it comes to upgrading Ubuntu Dapper 6.06 up to Ubuntu Edgy 6.10. This error arises when the Upgrade Manager tries to calculate the packages and dependencies. The error displays this:

The error title is: “Could not calculate the upgrade”

The message is: “An unresolvable problem occured while calculating the upgrade. Please report this bug against the ‘update manager’ package and include the files in /var/log/dist-upgrade/ in the bugreport.”

In my case the last few lines of the /var/log/dist-upgrade/apt.log file showed the following issue:

Starting

Starting 2

Investigating libgl1-mesa-dri

Package libgl1-mesa-dri has broken dep on libgl1-mesa

  Considering libgl1-mesa 8 as a solution to libgl1-mesa-dri 0

  Removing libgl1-mesa-dri rather than change libgl1-mesa

Investigating xorg

Package xorg has broken dep on libgl1-mesa-dri

  Considering libgl1-mesa-dri 0 as a solution to xorg 0

  Holding Back xorg rather than change libgl1-mesa-dri

Investigating ubuntu-desktop

Package ubuntu-desktop has broken dep on xorg

  Considering xorg 0 as a solution to ubuntu-desktop 10000

    Reinst Failed because of libgl1-mesa-dri

Done

The problem is being cased by a dependency issue with libgl1-mesa-dri. I found that libgl1-mesa-dri indicates that the package ubuntu-deskop is dependant on it, yet ubuntu-desktop does not indicate it has this dependency. The other package that is dependant on this one is x-window-system-core.

The solution that I and many other people have found works for this is the following:

1) Run “sudo dpkg -r –force-depends libgl1-mesa libgl1-dev libgl1-dri libglu1-mesa libglu1-mesa-dev mesa-common-dev mesa-utils” from the command prompt

2) Then run “sudo apt-get install -f” from the command prompt.

Also, if you have an entry in your /etc/apt/sources.list file with “compiz” in it then comment out that entry (or entries) by putting # in front of them. One way to do this is by running “sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list” from the command prompt.

You may need to manually uninstall libgl1-dri in the Synaptic Package Manager. At least check that it is not installed before proceeding.

You should now be able to install the upgrade. The fastest way to do this is by downloading the Alternative Install ISO file, burning it to a CD-R and then running the command: gksu “sh /cdrom/cdromupgrade”

Of course if you have a really fast internet connection, and it is well past the release date of Edgy (October 26th) then you may wish to just upgrade online with the command: gksu “update-manager -c”

The upgrade procedure is outlined here: http://help.ubuntu.com/community/EdgyUpgrades 

Some information on the above fix is available at Launchpad.net Bug # 58424

Please let me know how you get on if the above information helps your upgrade issue.

Free Windows Calculator

Published on October 17, 2006 in Freeware Applications. 0 Comments

I quite often use a calculator on my computer. Until now I have put up with using the built in Microsoft Windows Calculator. It does everything I want, yet it has one important feature lacking. It does not allow me to set it to “stay on top” of the other windows. Pretty much the only time I use the PC calculator is when I need to calculate data for something else I am working on, on the computer. So not being able to set the calculator to stay on top is a real hassle.

I have taken a look around at the free alternative calculators. Here’s some info on what I found (this list will grow beyond what’s on there now):

Moffsoft Freecalc

Link: http://www.moffsoft.com/freecalc.htm
This calculator does the trick nicely. It has all the basic functions one might need from a calculator, and most importantly it has a “stay on top” mode.

Moffsoft FreeCalc is a great replacement for your existing Windows® calculator. We took the standard Windows calculator functionality and added the following features:

  • Adjustable calculator size - Make it any size you want and Moffsoft FreeCalc will remember the size and position next time you use it.
  • Tape - Save, print, or clear the simulated paper history tape.
  • Color schemes - Select a color combination or use your Windows color settings.
  • New keys - Clear Tape {CT}, double zero {00}, triple zero {000}, and memory subtract {M-} keys have been added.
  • Visible memory value - You’ll always know what’s in memory because it’s displayed on the calculator status bar.
  • Option settings - Flat buttons, always on top, tray icon, run on startup, and hiding the tape are some of the calculator options.
  • Digit groupings - Number groupings for easy to read numbers.
  • International support - Digit grouping and decimal point characters change based on your regional settings.
  • Tray icon - Turn on the tray icon for quick and easy access.
  • System requirements - Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP


Performancing Metrics Sidebar plugin fix

Published on October 11, 2006 in Blogging. 0 Comments

If you use the Performancing Metrics (www.performancing.com) sidebar plug-in for Wordpress (created by Dave Reid) you may find you get the following error (particularly when clicking UPDATE STATS):

Performancing Metrics

Warning: curl_setopt() [function.curl-setopt]: CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION cannot be activated when in safe_mode or an open_basedir is set in /home/feal/public_html/blog2/wp-content/plugins/pmetrics.php on line 375

Warning: curl_setopt() [function.curl-setopt]: CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION cannot be activated when in safe_mode or an open_basedir is set in /home/feal/public_html/blog2/wp-content/plugins/pmetrics.php on line 375

Warning: curl_setopt() [function.curl-setopt]: CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION cannot be activated when in safe_mode or an open_basedir is set in /home/feal/public_html/blog2/wp-content/plugins/pmetrics.php on line 375

Warning: curl_setopt() [function.curl-setopt]: CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION cannot be activated when in safe_mode or an open_basedir is set in /home/feal/public_html/blog2/wp-content/plugins/pmetrics.php on line 375

Warning: curl_setopt() [function.curl-setopt]: CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION cannot be activated when in safe_mode or an open_basedir is set in /home/feal/public_html/blog2/wp-content/plugins/pmetrics.php on line 375

Warning: curl_setopt() [function.curl-setopt]: CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION cannot be activated when in safe_mode or an open_basedir is set in /home/feal/public_html/blog2/wp-content/plugins/pmetrics.php on line 375

Visits: »
Today: 12
Yesterday: 18
This Week: 30
Last Week: 54
Total: 1442

Fetched at: Oct 9, 16:58

Options | Update Stats

I have found that the solution is to edit the following code, which is around line 375 (or whatever line mentioned in the error as shown above).

// Initiate cURL and set options
$ch = curl_init();
//curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, TRUE);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, $timeout);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, FALSE);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, $header);

Set this line to FALSE (it will be set to TRUE initially):
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, FALSE);

That fixes the issue. I am not sure what other effect this has, but the plug-in seems to continue working fine as far as I can tell.
This is some discussion on this issue which I raised on the Performancing.com website located here.


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Recovering deleted files

Published on October 5, 2006 in Recovery & Troubleshooting. 1 Comment

Today I deleted about 1GB of MP3 files. It was a mistake! The file explorer I use (Opus) did something odd when I used it’s UNDO command. The result was that 1GB of data I was preparing to burn to CDs was gone. Needless to say, it was not in the trash can / recycle folder.

There are many applications promoted on the Internet for unerasing / undeleting / recovering lost and deleted data and files. As I already have a few recovery tools on hand I decided to try them first. The line-up was: O&O DiskRecovery and Runtime Software GetDataBack (for NTFS). I have these tools on hand for drive recovery. I had never used them, until now, for undeleting files although both will perform this task quite happily.


O&O DiskRecovery

DiskRecovery found the data I wanted. I was able to set it to only look for deleted MP3 files (which is what I was searching for). All the files were found yet there was no filename information. Each file was going to be named something like FILE000001.MP3, FILE000002.MP3, etc. It also did not recover the folder structure (I had these files sorted into folders relative to the album they were each from). As I was dealing with a few hundred MP3 files, this level of recovery was not very appealing. If I went ahead with using this tool for my recovery operation I would have to spent many hours renaming every file and resorting them into folders. No thanks.

Had there been a whole lot of other MP3 files recently deleted from this disk many of the files O&O presented me with would have been stuff I didn’t want…yet I would have no easy way of knowing what was what. I would have had to recover the whole lot and then listen to each file in an MP3 player to try and figure out what I do and don’t want to keep. Double no thanks…

On to the next tool…

GetDataBack (for NTFS)

GDB performed a much more thorough data/disk analysis. I could see it was calling up all the existing and backup file allocation tables, and the like. The net result is that it presented me with a complete directory structure of the entire disk. I was able to browse to the exact folder I had deleted. I could then see all the deleted sub-folders sitting there with a line crossing them out (to indicate they are in a deleted state). I highlighted the folders and copied them to another drive. Voila. Problem solved.

Using GetDataBack I undeleted all my files, and it kept the file names and folder structure completely intact. Excellent.

GetDataBack is also great for recovering data from drives that have crashed. Click here to read my article on this.

LINKS:
 GetDataBack - www.runtime.org
O&O DiskRecovery - www.oo-software.com


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Crashed Hard disk data recovery

Published on October 3, 2006 in Recovery & Troubleshooting. 1 Comment

Data recovery from a crashed hard drive is something no general computer user ever really wants to have to learn about and perform. It’s something most of us only start exploring when something disastrous has happened to our computer—like it just won’t boot any more, or Windows crashes constantly and increasingly often. As an I.T. consultant most of the data recovery I’ve performed, and nearly all the crashed hard drives I’ve worked on has been for clients—both home users and companies—who have had a computer crash.

Over the years I have come across a number of software applications that are really handy to have on hand. Whether you want to revive a dying or seemingly dead hard disk just enough to get your data off before ditching it, or you wish to access a drive that still works yet has become corrupted, these tools are a great help. To save you hours of hunting around on the Internet for the best tools, I’ll list the ones I have used and liked right here.

When the drive is seemingly “dead”

Spinrite

There are a few categories of hard drive failure. Perhaps the worst is when the drive is no long recognised by your operating system. For all intents and purposes the drive is dead. Running many of the available data recovery applications over it is a waste of time because they either don’t even see the drive in your computer, or if they do there’s little that can be done. In this situation the tool I would recommend is call Spinrite. Spinrite has a long history of being a top tool for hard disk recovery and also for crash prevention. Spinrite is a tool professionals use, and yet the price is still relatively low. At present a new license sells for US$89.00—well worth it if it manages to revive your failing disk drive and recover your precious data. Click here to learn more about Spinrite.

When the drive sort of “works” but is going down fast

In this situation I would again recommend Spinrite as a great tool to use. I would first let Spinrite do its thing with the disk, and then use one of the following tools to get all your data off the disk and onto a nice new one. I see Spinrite as a drive recovery / revival tool, and the following applications as data recovery tools. Spinrite, in my opinion, is about the disk and the data on the disk at a very low-level (below the level of the operating system). Spinrite has nothing to do with your operating system—rather it access the disk directly and works its magic at that level. This is why I class it as a disk recovery / revival (and maintenance) application.

The following applications specialise in data recovery. In general (although not always) they assume that the low-level integrity of the disk is still in tack. They are great at rebuilding the MBR (Master boot record), the partition tables, a damaged file structure, and simply bringing back files you deleted by mistake (or even a whole drive you may have formated by mistake).

R-Studio Data Recovery Software

R-Studio is a tool I am still trying out. So far it looks good. I quote the following from their website.

R-Studio is a family of powerful and cost-effective undelete and data recovery software. Empowered by the new unique data recovery technologies, it is the most comprehensive data recovery solution for recovery files from FAT12/16/32, NTFS, NTFS5 (created or updated by Windows 2000/XP/2003), Ext2FS/Ext3FS (LINUX file systems) and UFS1/UFS2 (FreeBSD/OpenBSD/NetBSD file systems) partitions. It functions on local and network disks, even if such partitions are formatted, damaged or deleted. Flexible parameter settings give you absolute control over data recovery.

R-Studio comes in a few different flavours. The two most common ones are NTFS and FAT (or both together. The price is US$49.99 for each separately or $79.99 for the two together. You can also buy a Network and Technician license for US$179.99 and US$899.00 respectively.

Runtime Software GetDataBack

GetDataBack comes in two flavours—one for drives formated using FAT and the other for drives formated using NTFS. GetDataBack will work with a drive that the operating system does not recognise, which is a bonus—yet I still recommend using it in combination with Spinrite if the drive is suffering from serious physical failure (as opposed to just data corruption caused by other things). GDB for FAT costs US$69 and for NTFS costs US$79. You can buy them together for US$119.

The following is an intro from the GDB web site on what GDB can do. For full details go to http://www.runtime.org/gdb.htm:

Whatever happened to your drive-

GetDataBack will recover your data if the hard drives partition table, boot record, FAT/MFT or root directory are lost or damaged, data was lost due to a virus attack, the drive was formatted, fdisk has been run, a power failure has caused a system crash, files were lost due to a software failure, files were accidentally deleted…

Recover even when Windows doesn’t recognize the drive-

GetDataBack can even recover your data when the drive is no longer recognized by Windows. It can likewise be used even if all directory information - not just the root directory- is missing.

Get everything back-

Advanced algorithms will make sure that all directories and sub directories are put together as they were, and that long file names are reconstructed correctly.

GetDataBack is safe-

GetDataBack is read-only, meaning the program will never attempt to write to the drive you are about to recover. Please make sure to read the safety instructions…

GetDataBack is easy to use-

The software enables the regular user to conduct his own data recovery by guiding him through three easy to understand steps, thus gives the advanced user the possibility to interfere with the recovery and improve the results, by examining the scan log, the file system details, file and directory information, by selecting the sector range to be scanned, by choosing excessive search for file systems or search for lost files, by calling Runtime’s DiskExplorer.

R-Studio utilities recover files:

Crash Prevention / Disk Maintenance

There are various tools available that claim to let you know when your drive is starting to fail. I am not overly familiar with any of them so I shall leave it to you to do your own research into what’s on offer. Most of these tools are working with the SMART system built into most of the newer drives. Often SMART does not get activated by the BIOS for whatever reason, so these tools will activate it the first time you run them, and then start monitoring the data produced by SMART.

I mentioned that Spinrite can also be used for disk maintenance, and it can. This involves running Spinrite in its “maintenance” mode every now and then. Perhaps every few months or so. If you are keen to ensure your disks stay in top condition and to have an early warning of possible drive failure I suggest using Spinrite for maintenance, and possibly using a SMART monitoring tool. The SMART tool will run in the background whenever you are using your computer. I am sure there are many free tools that perform this task which are just as good as the ones you can pay for. Do some research to find out for yourself.


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