Cisco VPN on Linux OpenSuse 10.3

I found this guide quite useful :

http://linux.wordpress.com/2008/01/17/cisco-vpn-client-opensuse-103/

Don’t worry about the fact that the link is for a x86-64 version. It works on 32bit systems too.

However, after the installation completed, I could not connect because of an error saying “The profile specified could not be read.” (if you get a “couldn’t connect” message it’s because the vpnclient connect command should be executed as root).

Here are the things to do:

January 26, 2008 | Filed Under Linux, Security | Comments Off 

Top 5 reasons to temporarily abandon Linux on the desktop

Running Linux on the desktop requires some more free-time than Windows, at least if you come from a Windows world.

Here’s my top 5 reasons I will pause usage of Linux for some time:

January 14, 2008 | Filed Under Linux | Comments Off 

OpenSUSE 10.3

Finally, yesterday I chose to remove Ubuntu and put OpenSUSE 10.3.

I procrastinated the decision of putting OpenSUSE on because many posts around the web saying about huge installation times (talking figures of 5-6 hours) and so I decided for the Ubuntu live CD for that specific reason in the holidays - I wanted to USE my PC not watching it installing!.

Anyway those times are probably times for an online install, since with the DVD ISO it took 33 minutes for me! Damn.

The impressions are good. UI responsiveness (which historically is, imho, a Linux BIG weakness) from OpenSUSE 10.2 seems improved (I don’t know if it’s because of real improvements or because I switched from KDE to Gnome [edit: I switched to KDE and performance is still good - so real improvement :)) - but they were much worse than what I got from Ubuntu. Then I installed Compiz.. and they improved very much. Really Linux gains from Compiz so much, both in terms of eyecandy and UI responsiveness, that it could really become a desktop OS (if only it had AAA applications.. but missing AAA apps is not its fault).

About missing apps, I will for sure install VMWare player or server to keep essential software (Visual Studio mainly) around. Astoundingly, I took for granted support of MS Office in Wine.. instead it seems, judging from WineHQ AppDB entries, that MS Office support is far from complete (at least for any version later than Office 2000).
On another topic, OSS is well known for its multiplatform compatibility. So I took for granted x86-64 (AMD64) to be a well supported architecture around. Sadly there are still programs requiring x86 32bit (e.i. mono-debugger) so I will use that for now (more than enough, I have no reason for 64bit anyway).

January 3, 2008 | Filed Under Linux | Comments Off 

The “I don’t know my system” dementia

Don’t try this at home.

Well, if you must try it, do it at home and not at work :D

I’ve just installed Ubuntu 7.10 to do some development. In mono of course. I’m happy mainly because my greatest obstacle on Linux programming was “learning yet another GUI library”. Ok since I decided to use GTK# instead of Windows.Forms I technically still have to learn it, but it’s much easier to learn “another library with standard patterns” than a new way to do something in C++ using custom preprocessors (Qt) or do it in plain C (GTK).

So I started a monodevelop solution and went into development of a widget library for a property grid and an exe project to test it. At some point I decided to use a Dictionary. At this point my widget-libray won’t compile anymore. Simply as said -> project options and then set the target framework version to 2.0 instead of 1.1.

Then my app does compile but won’t run. Crap.

Enters the “I don’t know my system but I’m sure it’s his fault” factor. Ubuntu 7.10 has quite old packages for being an October 2007 distro. DosBox is still 0.71! And mono 1.2.4. On Windows I used 1.2.6. I read somewhere that mono had big changes between 1.2.4 and 1.2.5. So I started to hack Ubuntu to install 1.2.6.

Don’t do the following. Please. Unless you absolutely have to. And don’t blame me for the consequences!
I used the mono universal installer on mono website. It fails at some point. Beside it installs it under home directory. Retry as root. It installs in opt, but must be manually activated and monodevelop does not match with it well. I test my project, well it fails, must be the C# compiler of 1.2.4, I thought.

I try some steps only to fail fail fail. Then I go in what I call “regsvr32 *.dll” mode, just under Linux. I open the /etc/apt/sources.list file and add Ubuntu 8.04 Alpha Hardy Heron repositories (they are the same of 7.10 with “hardy” in place of “gutsy”). I update mono to 1.2.5. Then monodevelop stops working. I reinstall it thousands of times. Then I download the deb file of monodevelop 0.16. I try to install it but fails. I go manually and unzip the files in the right places : fail. Then I remove hardy packages from apt sources, reinstall libgtksourceview2.0-cil to an older version, install the monodevelop 0.16 deb -> RUNS! but my project still fails with an error in Dictionary.

I sadly abandon, and replace the Dictionary with an Hashtable. Project works. I do same test and guess what ? To quote : “simply as said -> project options and then set the target framework version to 2.0 instead of 1.1.”. Just remember doing it in ALL projects :(

At least now I have a somewhat unique Ubuntu 7.10 with 8.04 mono packages.

Update : under the above mentioned configuration, mono-debugger doesn’t seem to work. I’m getting back to 1.2.4; probably there is a way to work around the issue like I did with monodevelop, but I’m quite tired of this.

December 31, 2007 | Filed Under Linux | Comments Off 

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