Monthly Archives: June 2006

Ubuntu Dapper

I just installed Ubuntu Dapper Drake today. I’ve been a fan of the Ubuntu linux distro ever since Hoary Hedgehog.

I was very impressed with the installation process of Ubuntu. It took literally 6 steps to install Ubuntu Dapper. The Live CD install is quite an innovation.

The only problem I had was enabling my Nvidia Geforce4 Go 420 graphics card. After installing the Nvidia driver, and restarting you’ll find you just see a blank screen with an underscore in the top left corner. To rectify this, do the following:

Use apt-get to install the Nvidia driver, and restricted modules that match your linux kernel:

sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx linux-restricted-modules-`uname -r`

Make a backup of your xorg.conf file:

sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf_backup

Enable the driver:

sudo nvidia-xconfig

Now if you have an Nvidia Geforce4 420 Go vidio card, then proceed with the following:
[/shell]
sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/options
[/shell]

Add the following option to the end of the file. Use CTRL+O and CTRL+X to save and exit.

options nvidia NVreg_SoftEDIDs=0 NVreg_Mobile=1

Edit your xorg.conf file:

sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Add the following options to the “Section Screen”:

Option "ExactModeTimingsDVI" "TRUE"<br />
Option "ModeValidation" "DFP-0: NoEdidDFPMaxSizeCheck, NoVesaModes"

Then logout, and restart your xserver by holding down CTRL+ALT+Backspace. You should now have a crisper looking Dapper courtesy of your Nvidia graphics card. For further help, check out this site.

Now if you want to test out your Nvidia graphics card, then I suggest you check out XGL for some cool eye candy. I haven’t done this yet, but will certainly have a look at it sometime soon.

The other thing worth installing is Automatix. Automatix is “a graphical interface for automating the installation of the most commonly requested applications in Ubuntu linux”. It allows you to install all plugins for firefox, a dvd ripper, skype, dvd codecs… you get the picture. Removing Automatix and all the packages it installs has to be done manually. Check out this posting for removing most of the packages manually.

You should now have one kickass linux setup.

TurboGears or Ruby on Rails?

I’ve been reading a lot lately about how good Ruby on Rails (RoR) is. In fact I know of a few developers that left OpenACS for RoR, and they haven’t looked back. Well it appears that there is a new kid on the block, and its name is TurboGears.

TurboGears is a framework that links a bunch of python packages together for rapid web development. They have a few demos, such as the 20 minute wiki screencast, which shows you how to develop a wiki application in – you guessed it – 20 minutes. Very similar to RoR’s 15 minute weblog screencast.

What I like about these new web application frameworks is that they are employing the use of object relational mapping (ORM) tools. TurboGears uses SQLAlchemy, which is a python based SQL toolkit and object relational mapper. RoRs has something similar, and if Java is your trade, then you probably use Hibernate with your Spring based apps. Unfortunately, this is something that OpenACS lacks, but I wouldn’t say that it is reason for dismissing OpenACS.

A lot of the templating, validation, and DB APIs were features of OpenACS long before RoRs and TurboGears came along. Where these other frameworks are gaining popularity, is in the perception of how quick it is to develop applications. Much of this perceived quickness comes from using scripts to auto-generate code, and an ORM for generating the DB schema and mappings to objects.

So for the last few months I’ve been wondering if I should jump into RoR, and see what all the fuss is about. Now all of a sudden TurboGears has popped up on my radar, and I’m now wondering if it too is worth the leap of faith. Both frameworks look appealing, but I’ve been wanting to learn Python for a while, so I may end up leaning towards TurboGears… unless of course some other flashy looking framework pops up on the radar that promises developing a trendy web application in 10 minutes! Since my PhD is nearing its end, I will certainly want to check out these other frameworks, as I should have a lot of time left for tinkering. Though for the time being, I am satisfied with OpenACS, as it comes complete with a blog and a wiki already developed. :P