How to rebuild Ubuntu package from the sources

There are two ways (at least) to rebuild Ubuntu package from the source.
Using Ubuntu diff file and dpkg-buildpackage

  • Download source from Ubuntu repository.
  • Download Ubuntu diff file and apply it:
    patch -p1 < ubuntu.diff
  • Build package:
    dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot

Using .dsc file and debuild

  • Download .dsc file
  • Run following command:
    dpkg-source -x file.dsc
    Note, sometimes the archive with sources should be presented in the same directory!
  • Go to source directory and start building:
    debuild

In both cases the development packages should be installed first:
sudo apt-get install build-essential devscripts

Fixing GRUB bootloader on dual-boot PC

I have two versions of LinuxMCE on my HTPC – stable 0710 and developer 0810. The 0810 was installed after 0710. So, the GRUB bootloader was placed on 0810 partition. A few days ago I decided re-install 0810 from the scratch and I deleted its partition including GRUB booloader. As result I couldn’t boot 0710 anymore. Thanks to GRUB power and flexibility I was able to fix that problem and watch Champions League 🙂 The solution is simple and clear: boot from any LiveCD, drop terminal and type following command there:
sudo grub
>root (hd0,0)
>setup (hd0)

That’s it. After booting from HDD the GRUB menu was found again.

Upgrade Kubuntu from 7.04 to 7.10

Since a coming version of LinuxMCE will be based on Kubuntu 7.10 I started thinking about upgrade my home PC. I found this manual explained how to do an upgrade using a package manager. I played a bit with Kubuntu installed under VMware and couldn’t upgrade successful. Adopt manager crashed every time when the text of agreements should be displayed. GNOM update manager didn’t detect a new version. So, finally I have to try the manual upgrade from the command line (highly unrecommended by Ubuntu/Kubuntu developers).

Proxy definition for APT

Recently when I started to upgrade Kubuntu from 7.04 to 7.10 using Adopt manager I faced with problem. It doesn’t get proxy setting from the system. To solve that a following line should be added into file /etc/apt/apt.conf (you have to create it if it doesn’t exist):
Acquire::http::Proxy "http://user:password@proxy_URL:proxy_Port";
User name and password can be omitted if you don’t use them.

Printing from RedHat 9 to Xerox Workcenter M123

Today I spent some time to setup Xerox Workcenter M123 in the RedHat 9. The difficulty was in the cups version. There is an old one which doesn’t allow to pick up PPD file during configuration. So, everything I did manually. But printer didn’t print test page. It just waited a few seconds and skipped it. I specified a log level as debug and found following row:
D [06/Nov/2007:17:39:31 +0200] [Job 136] /usr/lib/cups/filter/foomatic-rip: No such file or directory
After a short googling I found that page which explains how to add foomatic-rip in the RedHat 9 (package foomatic for Fedora 7 already includes that filter). So, the procedure is pretty simple:

  • download foomatic-rip and move it to /usr/bin
  • make it executable and create a symbolic link like so:
    # chmod 755 /usr/bin/foomatic-rip
    # ln -s /usr/bin/foomatic-rip /usr/lib/cups/filter
  • add printer using cups web interface with dummy driver
  • download new PPD and replace existing one for created printer in the /etc/cups/ppd
  • restart the cups

Now you can print to Xerox Workcenter M123 from RedHat 9. Note that this driver doesn’t support duplex printing!

Moving to WordPress 2.3.1

Today I moved my blog to the latest version of WordPress 2.3.1. I was afraid a bit to do that immediately right after release. Because the 2.3.1 includes a native support of tags. But I, as many other bloggers, used plug-in “Ultimate Tag Warrior”. So, I’d like to have some tool to import them. I red that post written by Leonid Mamchenkov and decided to upgrade at least my personal blog and see how it’ll be.

Except a few small problems related with out of date plug-ins everything was fine. WP script imported my old tags and linked them with posts. At the first view it was done correctly. If you’ll see something strange or get some error, please, contact me. I’ll be very appreciated for any bug-reports.

Upgraded to WordPress 2.2

I upgraded Smart Home Blog to the latest version of WordPress 2.2. As usual the upgrade procedure is extremely easy. But there were a few troubles with that version.

1. Dashboard didn’t work properly. It gave a error
You don't have permission to access /wp-admin/index-extra.php on this server.
The solution is to create a file .htaccess in the directory wp-admin and add there following lines:
<IfModule mod_security.c>
SecFilterInheritance Off
</IfModule>

2. I use excellent plugin Flickr Photo Album which allows to insert photos from Flickr into your posts. So, after upgrade the image upload form disappeared.

Solution: change the line 208 from wp-content/plugins/silaspartners/flickr/class-admin.php
if (!ereg(’^2.1′, get_bloginfo(’version’))) {

to

if (!ereg(’^2.2′, get_bloginfo(’version’))) {

3. Post preview area was removed. Instead of that the new link ‘Preview’ was added right after form controls. It opens the post in the new window. IMHO, this is not the best improvement in that version. Personally, I prefer the old preview functionality.