My experiences with ATI graphic card drivers on Ubuntu

From the very beginning of Linux, users had problems with its device drivers. Why is this problem so common? Because Linux is Open Source and hardware manufacturers usually have to invest their own funds in developing drivers that are compatible with it. On the other hand: Microsoft (Windows) and Apple (MacOS) usually pay big bucks to produce drivers and to keep them updated. That practically means that OS vendors finance hardware vendors themselves to develop drivers. Logical assumption is: Why to finance driver development for OS (Linux) that is not widely used (yet), when other OSs with more market share gives you money for driver development.

In graphic card driver world for Linux, this problem is so evident that most computer experts advice beginners to stay away from 3D and other cool stuff until they master basics of Linux. In this post I will try to summarize some of my experiences and thoughts about it. 

Reparing corrupted root system partition in Ubuntu 10.10

Usually, they say that Linux is unbreakable. This statement might be correct to certain degree, but only if you understand how Linux works.

Recently, I had a problem of booting Ubuntu installation. Took me a whole week to find a solution, which came in the nick of time, since I was preparing to wipe out Ubuntu installation. Apparently, it was a root filesystem problem.

Adding syntax highlighter to blogger platform using google sites

Most, if not all, programming blogs contains syntax highlighter (sometimes called syntax colorizer) to distinguish normal text from computer code and thus making blog more readable. Using just HTML you can use pre tag or differently styled paragraph to insert same-width font, like lucida console. There is also a nice online free tool that does syntax highlighting using only styled HTML tags.

How about using pre-made CSS/JavaScript combination that automatically highlight code in your blog? All what you have to do is to surround programming code with certain tag and choose language for highlighting. This tutorial will show you how to use Google's syntax highlighter on Blogger platform, while hosting syntax highlighter project on Google Sites service.

Tutorial: Setting up ZK project using Maven

ZK RIA framework is becoming more and more popular framework these days. Most of the folks are beginning to use it, without prior knowledge of JSP, servlets and JavaScripts. Honestly, with ZK you might not even need to know anything about these.

What about Maven with ZK? ZK authors did a good job, making it available through their's Maven repository. Usually, beginners use ZK Studio plugin for Eclpise to automatically setup fresh ZK project. Unfortunately, when using Maven, you must manually set your project to use ZK. This procedure might be confusing for users who are not very experienced with Maven and servlets.

Missing menu icons in Eclipse (GNOME)

Recently, I noticed that Eclipse (and other programs as well) is missing icons from menu items. Following screenshot best describes the problem:

Firstly, I though that this was Eclipse related problem, but since other windows are missing icons too, GNOME was to blame. With a little help of Google, I found an easy working solution.

Background and Foreground process manipulation in Linux

Most crucial aspect of modern multitasking operating systems is to understand difference between  background and foreground processes. Process is just a technical way to call a running program. When you are interacting in some way with a process (using interface) or watching its output in a terminal, you call that process the foreground process. All other processes on your computer are either suspended processes (paused at the moment) or background processes (still running, but you can't interact with them).

Tutorial: Compiling and Running Java package from any folder

The internet is bloated with tutorials that explain how to compile and run only a single damn Java source code. There were almost none tutorials that show how to do something "more sophisticated". Sure, you can use Eclipse IDE to do all the work for you, but what if you want to compile and run from command line? Here is a quick tutorial that will hopefully help you and end your search for something advanced. :)

Migrating to Linux (Part II): Installation

Installing Linux nowadays is a simple task. However I suggest you first try it before actually installing it.

One of the most safest method is to use a Live CD. This will load linux into your RAM memory, without doing anything to your hard disk. Nothing will be copied to hard drive. Ubuntu offers Live possibility. Simply, burn downloaded Ubuntu ISO (or create bootable USB), restart computer and insert CD (or USB) during boot-up sequence. Remember that BIOS settings must be configured to allow booting from CD (or USB).

Another option, which I generally used to test Ubuntu in the first place, is to install a virtual machine emulation software, like VMWare. This will allow you to emulate whole new machine inside your Windows environment for testing. I recommend using this method because you can see how OS installation procedure will work. If something fails, it will be only inside virtual machine, without any consequences yo your own computer. Keep in mind that VMWare is commercial product. Another good virtual emulation program  is virtualbox. Personally, I never tried it, but many youtube how-to-do-something-in-linux uses it.

There is another option using WUBI which comes with ubuntu ISO and it is available when you insert Ubuntu disc on Windows operating systems. I never tried this, but one my friends did. It is something like virtual machine emulation with ubuntu already installed. Again, I never tried this solution so google somewhere else to see what this actually does.

Migrating to Linux (Part I)

As a programmer, I found that I needed to make myself familiar with Linux OS at some point. A year passed since I got exposed to Linux (mainly using it to publish web sites on Apache tomcat) and decided that the time has come to try it on my desktop.

Last time I encountered Linux was during my faculty days. Curiosity and general interest in something new, made me to install it as a second operating system besides Windows XP. However, intensive studies allowed very little to none time to experiment. Back in those days, Linux distributions were not very user friendly to the absolute beginner. Not to mention cruel and depressing... 

Few months ago, serious 'infection' of bad sectors on my hard drive made me to replace it  with newer, better and much much larger (talking in TBs :D). It was a perfect time to reserve some space for Linux.