1. Download the Oracle XE deb package (free registration is required).
2. Double click the downloaded file and select to install it.
3. In terminal run sudo /etc/init.d/oracle-xe configure.
4. You will be prompted to enter the following parameters: HTTP port number, database listener port number, SYSTEM and SYS database accounts password and whether the service should be started upon boot.
5. Thereafter the configuration might take a few minutes. That’s it. To start the service in the future run sudo /etc/init.d/oracle-xe start and to stop sudo /etc/init.d/oracle-xe stop.

The fix as suggested on shocm.com is to set the systray-whitelist property by running the following through command line (you will need to restart afterwards):

gsettings set com.canonical.Unity.Panel systray-whitelist "['all']"

However, your mileage may vary, and on my netbook this did not fix the issue. It seemed like the icon was placed in the tray, but it was rendered as a very thin strip about 1-2 pixels wide which could not be clicked.

The only way I found of getting out of missing window scenario was to resort to using TrueCrypt through the command line to dismount all mounted volumes.

truecrypt /d

This will also exist TrueCrypt and afterwards it can be launched as usual.

1. Just to be on the safe side, create a backup copy of the SSH daemon config file.
   
   sudo cp /etc/ssh/sshd_config /etc/ssh/sshd_config.vanilla

2. Edit the config file.
   
   sudo vi /etc/ssh/sshd_config

3. Change the port number on the following line, e.g. to 2201 or some other unused port. Make sure you note down the port number.
   
   Port 22

4. Restart the SSH daemon. You might get kicked out of your existing session.
   
   sudo /etc/init.d/ssh restart

5. When you login next remember to include the correct port.
   
   ssh youruser@yourserver -p 2201

]]> http://www.martinhammer.com/blog/index.php/2010/09/how-to-change-ssh-port-number-on-ubuntu-server/feed/ 0 http://www.martinhammer.com/blog/index.php/2010/08/disable-update-manager-pop-up-in-ubuntu/ http://www.martinhammer.com/blog/index.php/2010/08/disable-update-manager-pop-up-in-ubuntu/#comments Sat, 07 Aug 2010 05:56:20 +0000 martin http://www.martinhammer.com/blog/?p=560 Here’s how to disable the annoying Update Manager pop-up (technically a “pop-under”) and instead have the update icon displayed in the notification area.

1. Hit Alt-F2 to open the “Run Application” dialog.
2. Type in gconf-editor to run the GNOME Configuration Editor.
3. Navigate to Apps > Update Notifier.
4. Untick the auto_launch checkbox.

]]> http://www.martinhammer.com/blog/index.php/2010/08/disable-update-manager-pop-up-in-ubuntu/feed/ 0 http://www.martinhammer.com/blog/index.php/2010/08/thunderbird-notifications-and-indicator-applet-in-ubuntu-lucid/ http://www.martinhammer.com/blog/index.php/2010/08/thunderbird-notifications-and-indicator-applet-in-ubuntu-lucid/#comments Thu, 05 Aug 2010 14:59:53 +0000 martin http://www.martinhammer.com/blog/?p=536 This post is an update on integrating Thunderbird with Ubuntu’s notification system. For Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx it supersedes my earlier post on the topic which was applicable previous versions of Ubuntu (Jaunty and Karmic).

The big difference in Lucid Lynx is the Indicator Applet and the “Me Menu”, both of these incorporating features related to the “social from the start” marketing tagline. In particular, the Indicator Applet integrates with Evolution, Ubuntu’s default mail client, to show new email notifications and allow quick access to the mail client. Once again, no out-of-the-box integration with Thunderbird. So the challenge is twofold: integrate with the notification mechanism (black pop-ups) as well as the Indicator Applet. The Mail Notification extension unfortunately falls short in the latter part.

Luckily, Ruben Verweij has developed libnotify-mozilla, a Thunderbird extension which works just great for both of the above requirements. Be sure to check out the blog (here and here) and the project’s Launchpad page to get the details and latest news. Here are the steps to set up the extension:

1. Download the Mozilla Notifications Extensions .xpi file and save it in a temporary location on your system.
2. Open Thunderbird and install the extension (Tools > Add-ons > Install).
3. Disable the native Thunderbird notifications by unticking “When messages arrive: Show an alert” in Edit > Preferences.
4. Install libnotify-bin package (execute in Terminal):
   
   sudo apt-get install libnotify-bin

5. In order to have Thunderbird entry in the menu even when it is not running. First create a new file as follows (run from Terminal):
   
   mkdir -p ~/.config/indicators/messages/applications
   gksudo gedit ~/.config/indicators/messages/applications/thunderbird

6. Then paste the following text in the file and save it:
   
   /usr/share/applications/thunderbird.desktop

7. (optional) If you wish you can remove the Evolution entries from the indicator menu. Note: because of bug 533021, this is a workaround which will remove Evolution from the menu for all users on the system, not just yourself.
   
   mkdir -p ~/.config/indicators/messages/applications-blacklist
   sudo mv /usr/share/indicators/messages/applications/evolution ~/.config/indicators/messages/applications-blacklist

   
   (Once the above bug is resolved in the future, move the file back to its original location and create a softlink to it from the blacklist directory: ln -s /usr/share/indicators/messages/applications/evolution ~/.config/indicators/messages/applications-blacklist/evolution)

8. Log out from your user session and back in.

After struggling for some time, I thought I would check on the VMware website whether there is a new version of the software; and indeed VMware Player is now in version 3. After installing it (by downloading and running the .bundle file) everything works fine in Lucid. As a side note, the compilation dialogue does not come up and the look and feel of the Player is also quite different.

After a recent system update in Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic) I started getting an error message in Thunderbird starting with “Could not initialize the browser’s security component”. Among other things, this means that Hotmail integration with Thunderbird no longer works.

The error dialog itself has a few suggestions, however none of these fixes the issue.

Luckily the solution can be found on Ubuntu forums and is very straightforward. All that is required is to remove the package “libnss3-0d”. This can be achieved from Synaptic (System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager) or from the command line:

sudo apt-get remove libnss3-0d

Here is the link to the original post on Ubuntu forums and the corresponding bug on Launchpad.

]]> http://www.martinhammer.com/blog/index.php/2010/04/thunderbird-could-not-initialize-the-browsers-security-component/feed/ 0 http://www.martinhammer.com/blog/index.php/2010/01/vmware-player-mouse-issues-in-karmic/ http://www.martinhammer.com/blog/index.php/2010/01/vmware-player-mouse-issues-in-karmic/#comments Tue, 12 Jan 2010 13:43:12 +0000 martin http://www.martinhammer.com/blog/?p=411 VMware Player experiences mouse capture problems when run under Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic host. Inside the guest window, the mouse pointer works fine in a top-left rectangle of the window (640×480 pixels?) but outside of this area the mouse pointer switches its focus to the host. Add the following line to the file /etc/vmware/bootstrap to fix it:

export VMWARE_USE_SHIPPED_GTK=yes

Important note: VMware code needs to be recompiled each time the Linux kernel is updated and this entry may prevent it from compiling successfully. The additional line should be removed or commented out prior to building VMware Player and then put back in back again.

For a discussion see this thread on Ubuntu forums.

1. Open Preferences > Keyboard and select the Layouts tab.
2. Click the Layout Options… button.
3. In the dialog window expand the “Key sequence to kill X server” entry and select the checkbox.