Sekoyen’s

Monitor Screen Blank when Install Ubuntu

This was the first problem I faced when I want to install Ubuntu Server Edition in another computer.

Ok, this was the exact situation. When the system booted up, it asked for the lanaguage I willing to use. So I select English. Then the system show a list like below image:

Every time I selected install to hard disk, the screen spalshed for a few seconds and then it became blank. No activity on the screen’s monitor but the hard disk LED still showed some activity. Then after few minutes, the hard disk LED stopped blinking. The monitor still blank. I didn’t know what more to do. I tried a few times with some tips from the ubuntu forum but the result was remain the same.

The popular method I had come across from the forum was to add acpi=off in the option line (press F6), but no luck.

After a few failed tries, I had thought, may be it was because of the monitor. So I swapped the monitor with my another one which is a LCD. WallA! I was right. It was the monitor problem. The LCD have no problem.. so I successfully install the system using the other monitor.

Ok, for you who do not have other monitor or your another monitor do not working, here is a tip:

In a few minutes after the monitor become blank, power off the monitor. DO NOT switch off using the power button, but switch off the switch ON THE WALL instead. Or if your monitor power cable is direct connected to the CPU, UNPLUG the power cable.

In a few seconds, power the monitor on again. Your monitor will working again and you will get a normal display.

It least, that was what I did and it’s working.

Squid Proxy Server

To finish setup Squid, the cache need to be initialized first. If you have not done it yet a button named “Initialized Cache” will appear on Squid Proxy Server page.

When I first pressed that button I had a probem.

So I set the visible hostname first.
Webmin > Server > Squid Proxy Server > Administrative Options > Set ‘visible_hostname’ here and save.
I set it as ‘ubuntu’

Then pressed that button again

Then I press “Start Squid” button to start Squid Proxy Server

I found this a very good article about Squid in Webmin

Studying more about Network-Attached Storage, I came across into Ubuntu.

FreeNAS is very good, easy, stable and hasslefree, but I think I want more than just a NAS.

What I want are:
1. Network Storage - FreeNAS got it
2. Webserver - FreeNAS have it
3. Squid cache server - FreeNAS don’t have it
4. A dedicated game server - how do I install game on FreeNAS?
5. A dedicated torrent download platform - hard to play it using FreeNAS

So, I decided to try Ubuntu. Why? On ealry stage, I had also considered Centos and Fedora but from certain website, currently Ubuntu is the most popular distribution.

Download

I want to build a server, but I think their desktop is also interesting, so I downloaded both of their iso images using torrent. I used torrent because I found out it was faster than download it from their server. Yeah! I got maximum download rate!

1. Ubuntu-8_04-desktop-i386
2. Ubuntu-8_04-desktop-i386

Than I burned them into CDs using Nero.

Installation

I installed Ubuntu Desktop into my main computer(which I usually use) and Ubuntu Server into my FreeNAS computer (Unplugged FreeNAS hard disk and I use another hard disk), because I thought I might want to use FreeNAS again, who knows!?)

The Installation process of Ubuntu Desktop into my main computer is very easy.
1. I resized my hard disk partition and created an unused partition using Partition Magic. So, Ubuntu could use the unused partition for it’s file system. The hard disk also got a Windows XP in it’s first partition. So, it would be a dual boot computer.
2. Than I inserted the Ubuntu Desktop CD and booted up the PC (Using the BIOS, I set it up to boot from CD)
3. Firsly, it asked the language to use. I chose English, then there was a list of avaiable options to use the CD.
4. I chose, the second one which is to install Ubuntu into the hard disk.
5. I just followed the instruction step by step, until it asked about partition to use, than I selected manual and pointed it to use the second partition. than so on..
6. It only took about 20 minutes to finish.

Dual Boot

The default, the system automatically chose Ubuntu to boot up. I wanted it to choose my Windows XP as default boot because my wife could still use the computer without asking too mush stuff.. hehe

What I did was:
1. open the terminal - Application > Accessories > Terminal
2. gksudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.list
3. Below is the sample of default configuration you might found (which I copied it here from somewhere)

4. Default is 0, is what the default operation system it will boot. I changed it to 5 so it pointed to Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition.
5. Save it and reboot.

Well, that’s it.

Ubuntu Server

What is the different between Ubuntu Server and Ubuntu Desktop Edition?

From my little knowledge about Ubuntu, the desktop version will install the GUI (Graphical User Interface) and other extra applications like OpenOffice, Mozilla Firefox, Sypnatic, games etc. Meanwhile, the server version only install the needed application without the GUI. The applications installed such as apache2, samba etc.

The main thing you should know whether you installed a server or a desktop(yup, there are some confused users out there) is when it boot up, the desktop version will ask the login name in a beautiful orange screen but the server only ask the login name in black DOS-like screen.

If you don’t know which to choose, I personally think that you might want to choose the Desktop Edition. If you change your mind later (but still in learning process), you could install the needed application using the Synaptic application.

Installation

The installation would be as easy as the desktop but…
I installed it in another computer system with different hardware, faced some problems which I will write in another article.

Singapore gets Pulau Batu Puteh - Pedra Branca : The International Court of Justice (ICJ) result.

This is a very sad result for Malaysian esspecially for Johorean and those fishermans living in Pengerang’s kampungs.. ..

This Pulau is so close to Pengerang, Malaysia. Closer to Malaysia than Singapore. What do you think about the security issue here?

It is very very small island. Half of the size of football field. Nothing there accept a lighthouse maintain by Singapore. The issue is not about the island, but territory lines it created. It is mean, Singapore just got a new land… mean larger territory.

No wonder, after this thier Jet Fighters will fly in and out of Johor more often.

I feel so sad. I don’t see justice in this result.

I just find out about this tech a few days ago. I found it very interesting and useful. NAS makes it possible for us who have many computers at home or office to centralize all data in one server.

For more detail on NAS - Wiki

Using a free NAS system which is called FreeNAS, I transformed my old PC, a Pentium 3 with 256MB RAM to a NAS server.

The process was very simple.

1. Download a FreeNAS image, and “iso” file.
2. Burn it into a CD using Nero
3. Start the computer using the CD to boot up
4. Install it into the hard disk
5. remove CD and restart computer
6. Setup LAN interface

and it is ready! It only took about a few minutes of my time. You could read a very details explanation on how to install FreeNAS at DailyCupofTech Blog. Although quite an old article, but the current how-to is not much differs.

The next thing is to setup it’s function or network protocol such as NFS, FTP, iSCSI etc. You can see the quick guide from here.

What I am going to do with this NAS.

Actually, at this stage, I just want to test it. May be in the next few months when I got enough budget, I will buy a good PC to make it as a dedicated NAS server. Not a high end PC but a Pentium 4 with 512MB RAM and 2 x 240GB SATA HDD is in my imagination. Set those HDD to RAID1 so I don’t worry about the reliability.

I will put all my photos, mp3 and avi files on that server so that every user in my house could access those files anytime.

What are the advantages?

1. I will not worry about hard disk failure. Learn more about RAID1 here. Wiki - RAID
2. I will not have any storage capacity problem any more. My laptop hdd will not full same as other user’s hard disks.
3. Can access same files from any computer.
4. Sharing files is fast, easy and efficient. ( You would be amaze of how fast the file transfer’s rate )

Disadvantages:
1. Have to buy new hardware/PC.
2. Electricity bill would be slightly higher.

Why it is better than a normal window folder sharing?
1. The performance, local and network
2. Centralize
3. More than just folder sharing. iSCSI, webserver, uPnP etc.

Well that’s it. I’ve much more to learn!

Today I bought a Toyota Rav4, from my FOREX profits.

Here it is…

From Rav4

What???!!!

In my dream…

Ok..it’s not funny.
I just found out about MindMovie.
Watch a movie about your success in the future. It’s some kind of motivation to achieve it. So, I collect and watch photos of Toyota RAV4 as my motivation. Toyota Rav4 is one of my dream car beside Toyota Wish.

I have made a MindMovie for myself. Put it into my Nokia N70. Watch it before sleep and when I woke up in the morning.

You might want to make a mindmovie for yourself. Browse to youtube and search “MindMove”, and watch some of it to get the idea.

Here is an example:

How to make a MondMovie? I make the movie using Microsoft PhotoStory.. it’s easy!!

Step 1: Collect photos from my collection and from the internet
Step 2: Import all of them into PhotoStory 3
Step 3: Create some words and zooming here and there
Step 4: Put an mp3 song

Done!