WARNING: Very personal and Christian blog entry follows

So, I'm on the penultimate day of Intro Week at college, and I wanted to get some thoughts down about it, especially as the college encourages us to keep a journal of these things. This is my journal.

We had a talk this morning on Spiritual Growth at College, although it was commented that it sounded more like a talk on Spiritual Survival. Right now, I'll gladly accept survival. This has been a mostly horrible week, it seems that my life has been completely pulled apart with having to move up here on my own, and the house sale falling through. For most of the week I've been barely holding myself together, the rest of the time I've not really even managed that. I don't understand where God is in this (I suspect He's somewhere in it, and I'm trying really hard to trust Him), and I feel like emotionally I'm a raw open wound a lot of the time.

I thought I was feeling a bit better this morning, until that talk, which included a lot of talk about spouses, and the college community. Didn't cope very well, because for me the most important member of the college community isn't here. There's been so much this week and I don't know that I've really taken any of it in because my mind is always on that single issue.

I promised people at Church before coming up that I would blog prayer requests, so it's a simple one - that our house would sell soon, and it would go through speedily.

Didn't sleep great, and am up really early (don't need to head over to the academic block for another 20 mins or so, and have already dealt with all my mail. Am now doing an apt upgrade - new mplayerplug-in build amongst others.

Plan to start my intro week practise mini-essay today, as well as building Evo 2.0.1. Also hoping to get packages of gLabels built now that 2.0 is out (yes, I know it has been a while, I just forgot to build it with 2.8.0 )

The possibility of producing OOo packages came a step closer yesterday - I did my first successful ooo-build compile and install yesterday - took basically all day, but the end result is such an improvement. It didn't like the splash screen I designed for some reason, will try to figure that out, cos I can't really produce packages that are full of notes about being provided by SuSE can I? Screenshots of OOo using the new GtkFileChooser will appear soon.

Updated and uploaded yesterday and today:

• abiword
• gimp
• sound-juicer

These will appear in the APT repository soon.

Also submitted (and had committed) a new gnome-suse.png for gnome-desktop.

Okay, this seems the best way to address the various issues people have emailed me about with ULB GNOME. I'll deal with the ones I know the answer to, there are some (especially with Evolution) that I think are caused by AMD CPUs apparently. I suggest you consult Google if your question is not answered here, or in subsequent blog entries.

Right, the libgcrypt problem. This is caused by people having the suse-people APT component in their APT sources.list. Now, personally, I don't use suse-people, and if asked, I recommend that people don't unless they really don't mind the risk of hosing their system. The contents of /pub/people on ftp.suse.com can include very bleeding edge builds of stuff, some of which is core to a system (I'm sure I've seen glibc in there before. It's even more use at your own risk than anything else. If you're using suse-people, I suggest you rebuild the packages. That may sound harsh, but I won't add it to my sources.list. (This is also the reason I have a build of libxslt in usr-local-bin.

Threaded gtk2 packages. I've not looked into this yet, but I've not deliberately made them thread enabled, so it's the default. What I'll do is look into doing non-threaded builds parallel to the threaded ones.

Someone emailed about gdm being requiring libcroco.so.2, and so not installing. This isn't the case with the 2.4.4.7 package I have installed. For information look through this:

ogley@riggwelter:~> rpm -q --whatprovides libcroco.so.2
no package provides libcroco.so.2
ogley@riggwelter:~> rpm -q --provides libcroco
libcroco-0.6.so.3
libcroco = 0.6.0-100.SuSE.ulb.1
ogley@riggwelter:~> rpm -q --whatprovides libcroco.so.3
no package provides libcroco.so.3
ogley@riggwelter:~> rpm -q --whatprovides libcroco
libcroco-0.6.0-100.SuSE.ulb.1
ogley@riggwelter:~> rpm -q --requires gdm
/usr/sbin/useradd
/bin/sh
rpmlib(PayloadFilesHavePrefix) <= 4.0-1
rpmlib(CompressedFileNames) <= 3.0.4-1
/bin/sh
libICE.so.6
libORBit-2.so.0
libORBitCosNaming-2.so.0
libSM.so.6
libX11.so.6
libXext.so.6
libart_lgpl_2.so.2
libasound.so.2
libatk-1.0.so.0
libaudiofile.so.0
libbonobo-2.so.0
libbonobo-activation.so.4
libbonoboui-2.so.0
libbz2.so.1
libc.so.6
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.0)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.1)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.1.3)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.2)
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.3)
libcrypto.so.0.9.7
libdl.so.2
libesd.so.0
libgconf-2.so.4
libgdk-x11-2.0.so.0
libgdk_pixbuf-2.0.so.0
libglade-2.0.so.0
libglib-2.0.so.0
libgmodule-2.0.so.0
libgnome-2.so.0
libgnomecanvas-2.so.0
libgnomeui-2.so.0
libgnomevfs-2.so.0
libgobject-2.0.so.0
libgsf-1.so.1
libgthread-2.0.so.0
libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0
libjpeg.so.62
libm.so.6
libm.so.6(GLIBC_2.0)
libpam.so.0
libpam_misc.so.0
libpango-1.0.so.0
libpangoft2-1.0.so.0
libpangox-1.0.so.0
libpangoxft-1.0.so.0
libpopt.so.0
libpthread.so.0
libpthread.so.0(GLIBC_2.0)
librsvg-2.so.2
librt.so.1
libssl.so.0.9.7
libwrap.so.0
libxml2.so.2
libz.so.1
ogley@riggwelter:~> rpm -q gdm
gdm-2.4.4.7-100.SuSE.ulb.1

AbiWord requires libgucharmap.so.3, this is provided by the gucharmap package, which I think will be in the base component.

Problems with libgnutls.so.10 as a dep I think are also down to the suse-people component, or due to just not having gnutls installed - it's in the base component.

multisync-evolution - if you don't use it, uninstall it Alternatively, rebuild multisync-evolution, or I might doa build myself. I don't have it on my system, so I missed this problem. (I use gnome-pilot, which works great with evolution-pilot-2.0.0, and at some point I'll do updated builds of it, and the conduits package too.)

'/etc//opt/gnome/pango/pango.modules' 
You may be able to recreate this file by running pango-querymodules.

I think this is down to the mode of /opt/gnome/lib/pango being set incorrectly for some reason. I thought I'd fixed this in the latest packages, and only one person has mentioned it. Anyway... As root, chmod -R 755 /opt/gnome/lib/pango

And now, I should get back to preparing my intro week practise essay.

Update: Close pre tag.

Thanks to John Pettigrew who pointed out that both RSS links were broken, these are now fixed.

Have arrived at college, within the next few days the webcam will be back online from my college room. In fact, it's already in place, but, because it's attached to the Crappy Old Laptop^TM, and I forgot to bring a Cat 5 cable to uplink my hub to the college LAN, it's going to have to wait a bit.

Visited Trent Vineyard this evening, saw Sarah and Rachel and Andy, which was cool. Nice to see some familiar faces. Also, now that I've worshipped God on an industrial estate, Nottingham feels a bit more like home.

Induction Week starts in earnest tomorrow. MIght be an idea if I unpacked some clothes before then I guess...

Have had a few emails about small issues people have had with ULB GNOME 2.8.0, if you're one of the people who's emailed me, and you're reading this, don't be offended if it takes me a bit of time to get back to you - it's just that I'm knackered, and want to make sure I'm thinking straight when I answer them.

[Reproduced from the SLE list]

That's right, a mere week and a half since the GNOME Platform and Desktop 2.8.0 was released, I'm happy to announce the availability of ULB GNOME 2.8.0 "Precedent, baby!".

Features include:

• Evolution 2.0 - the new GNOME mail and groupware suite.
• GNOME Panel/Evolution integration - view your Evolution appointments from the GNOME Panel Clock.
• Gaim/Evolution integration - Gaim 1.0.0 is also available, and these packages are built with support for dragging contacts from Evolution, if they have IM IDs specified.
• Tweaked default interface, including new default wallpaper to match the GDM theme and splash.
• Galeon 1.3.17 - the latest version of the default ULB browser, based on Mozilla 1.7.2.
• New theme "Glider" available through GNOME theme selector.
• Improved method for adding items to the Panel.

Other packages will hopefully appear soon such as the remote desktop software and the GNOME System Tools. Also, expect an updated control- center2 package soon to fix the vanishing menu entries :)

These packages, as well as updated abiword, abiword-beta and gimp packages are available from the usr-local-bin APT component, or from http://usr-local-bin.org/rpms.

Uploading ULB GNOME 2.8.0 and associated packages. Have also got AbiWord 2.0.11 2.1.8 built, and they too are uploading. They should be available by APT later today.

Closed Evolution bug #61412.

Rodrigo mentioned my Evo 2.0 screenshot on the Evo list. Thanks man.

Okay, so I finally created a package of my GPG pubkey for signing packages (see the RPMs section to get it, and I've started building GNOME 2.8.0. Packages will start appearing in the usr-local-bin APT component over the next couple of days. Coming in the ULB builds, as well as everything that's new in GNOME 2.8, tweaks to the default ULB GNOME look.

Update: Preview screenshot of ULB GNOME 2.8.0.

Warning: I installed the kernel-smp package, version 2.6.8-20040921165941 from the Kernel of the Day repository today, and my laptop wouldn't boot. Had to rescue it using the rescue mode on the DVD and the --root option to rpm.

Gyah, our buyer's pulled out. This stinks. And for no good reason.

On a happier note, laptop is now fully installed, and I'm using it. Just need to get encrypted DVD playback working, and I'll be a very happy bunny.

New laptop is here, and it's gorgeous. Initial SuSE install is complete already thanks to the seriously fast P4 and 1G of RAM, online update is in progress. After that, I'll APT it, rsync my home directory, and weasel's /usr/src/packages on to it, and be good to go, oh, and ready to start building 2.8 - it's going to be so much faster than even building on weasel is.

Serious kudos to Justin for the quick turn-around on Planet SuSE. I probably ought to change the powered by comment in the sidebar.

Wasp nest has been erradicated (or rather within 24 - 48 hours they will all have died), which is a result. The guy who did it was pretty cool, he knocked on the door, we opened it, and he introduced himself "hi, Wasp Man". Schweet.

Core network at home is now 100Mbps - replaced my 10Mbps hub with a new Netgear FS605 switch. Once in Nottingham, the living branch of the LAN will be 10Mbps, cos the hub will be in there, but at least the main bit, where all the servers are will still be at the faster speed.

New laptop will be here tomorrow, and I might even get around to starting building those 2.8 packages

Have a wasp nest in the loft, complete with residents - going to have to get someone in to get rid of it, so we can get stuff out of the loft ahead of moving next Sunday.

Have been at Pete & Sue's flat warming this afternoon, really great time, nice flat, good people and great cake!

Will hopefully start building 2.8 tomorrow, and HAL allowing, might include g-v-m. Also, many thanks to the anonymous (not to me - just to avoid their blushes) benefactors who have made it possible for me to order the laptop tomorrow. I should have it, and have installed SuSE/ULB in time for college, which is a real result.

Pinnacle leaving do was great, really nice meal, good to see the guys again, and they bought me Season One of Will & Grace on DVD, and an Amazon UK voucher.

Last night was our unofficial Church leaving do, organised and hosted by Paul and Caroline, and it was a fantastic time, reall enjoyed it. Also, we'd said we didn't want them to get us anything, they disobeyed, and bought us a domain each, jamesthevicar.com and amandaloveshamsters.com. How sweet!

Full of cold (have been the last few days), but surviving.

Webcam is now running on it's own machine, complete with pwcxmodule. swamprat version of blog is now gone.

Had coffee with Caz, upgraded my mobile, downloaded GNOME 2.8.0 sources ready for building.

Pinnacle leaving do tonight at the Colney Fox - should be a good time.

RAM was delivered yesterday morning, home is now running on the new swamprat

Blog is now, finally, here - please adjust your references.

Stage Three (final leg) of our Great Lasagne Marathon tonight. Carole and Andrew for dinner, it's going to be fabulous!

The Business Post driver didn't take my parcel out with him. A fact I only learnt when I called them at about 16:00 to find out when exactly to expect them. They'll now be delivering on Wednesday since i have things to do during the day tomorrow.

Avoid Business Post like the plague after my initial optimism they've proved themselves to be as bad if not worse than other courier firms.

Have been waiting in the living room ALL DAY waiting for Business Post to deliver my RAM, and still nothing. I don't dare go anywhere in the house for fear of missing them. They couldn't even give me a window of time that they might appear during, so until they arrive, I'm imprisoned in the living room.

And I had such plans for today as well, they're all going to have to wait.

2.8.0 come sout on Wednesday, inclination to build 2.7.92 waning - will wait for the big final release.

Wow, what a day already, done a kitchen-filling load of washing up, and prepared a lasagne ahead of Caz coming round tonight.

TV situation is sorted. Carole's six month old widescreen is redundant now that she's getting married, so we're buying it off her.

We should never forget. But equally, we in the west must stop behaving in the manner that makes people feel that this is the only way to make their voices heard.

I am no longer a Pinnacle employee, I have finished, I am at home.

The webcam is now back online. It's nasty and grainy at the moment. Having to use the pwc module, without the pwcx plugin. The later version of the module (now zombified alas) requires kernel patching and rebuilding, and frankly, I can't be bothered to do that on weasel, when the cam will be moving to chipmunk next week. I'll do it there. So, at the moment, I'm resizing a 160x120 image up to 320x240.

Well, this is my last day at Pinnacle. I've cleared my desk, removed my video card from my workstation (and set up the i865 it has onboard), and I leave at 16:30 BST.

Tick tock...

Have created an OOo splash screen based on Happy GNOME (the ULB GNOME default GDM theme and splash) for if I decide to do OOo packages based upon ooo-build.

Yes that's right, it's my penultimate day at Pinnacle today. That means I have my exit interview this morning to tell them what a rotten company they are, and how I'm leaving just to get out!

Our TV died last night, just in time for my two weeks off when I was planning to watch a fair bit of telly. Going to have to get a new one. Might finally go for widescreen. Three SCART/AV inputs would be handy too for the Sky box, VCR and DVD player. (If I could get a deal of a TV and a nice amplifier, that would be even better, to stop me having to switch the audio input to our current stereo everytime we change from the Sky box to the DVD player).

My blog has moved to here, which when my site's hosting changes next week will be this location. The swamprat.homeunix.org version will remain for a while, but probably not for long, so please amend any references you have to it.

Also, www.usr-local-bin.org is now a ServerAlias to www.rubberturnip.org.uk.

All kudos withdrawn. Seems the person who told me the delivery address could be changed didn't know what she was talking about. Have no arranged for the RAM to be delivered to me at home next Monday. When I will of cource be at home, having finished work this coming Friday, at 16:30 BST.

Had I mentioned it's my last week at work?

I'll also finally be pulling my finger out and starting to build 2.7.92 next week, as well as finally starting to GPG sign my packages. Don't really know what's taken me so long to do it, but I just ever got around to it.

Emailed Nottingham LUG to say hi ahead of moving up. It's about time I got back involved with a LUG. It's been about six years since LILO (Linux In Lancaster Organisation), the predecessor to Lancaster LUG gave up the ghost. Haven't been to a LUG meeting since.

Well, this is my last week at Pinnacle now, time is ticking away. Also, found out yesterday that the job has been filled. Commiserations to those who applied and didn't get it. Everyone we interviewed was a strong candidate, but there could only be one "winner".

Business Post utterly failed to deliver my RAM yesterday, so any kudos I sent their way is revoked.

Tonight was the BBC's Test the Nation Pop Music Quiz. I got 50 correct out of 70 questions, which beat the average of each group in the studio except the celebrities (who I tied with). Amanda was keen to point out that I was helped significantly by my unnatural knowledge of boy bands, and to some degree, musicals. I can't help being that fabulous.

Watched Aliens (Special Edition) this afternoon. Before a couple of months ago, I hadn't seen any of the Alien movies (bizarre, I know), so I borrowed a boxed set fro mmy colleage Amy. Of course, I now have a week to watch the last two. Really enjoyed Aliens. I thought Alien was rather pedestrian, slow and frankly boring when I watched that.

Couldn't be bothered driving to Hemel this morning, so I rang the courier firm, who were very helpful. I'd like to congratulate Business Post for their customer service. Not only was the woman I spoke polite and curteous, but because my work address is in the same postal area as my home address, they were happy to change the delivery address to there. It'll arrive Monday.

And now, I'm going back to bed

Okay, so I'm feeling pretty good now about getting the RAM tomorrow. Once the new swamprat has that extra RAM in it, and I've switched operations over to it, things are going to be so much better.

• This blog is going to be a lot more responsive
• NFS on my home LAN is going to be faster (this would be improved more if I replace my old 10M hub with a 100M one
• My webcam will be back online, in my study at home - those night time LED shots are great, I miss them, and I want them back^*

^*The reason for this is that current swamprat will be renamed chipmunk, and have SuSE 9.1 installed, with the kernel of the day package so I have the pwc.ko kernel module to drive the cam. Obviously I don't want to use an experimental kernel build on a machine that does anything else.

So, as of tomorrow, once that's all done, an inventory of my computers at home will look like this (in no real order)

• swamprat PIII 550MHz, 192M web/mail/file/print/NIS server
• capybara Pentium MMX 166MHz, 128M DNS/squid/NTP server
• chipmunk Pentium 133MHz, 48M webcam attached
• weasel Athlon XP 1700+ 1474MHz, 768M desktop/build machine
• riggwelter PII 233MHz, 96M crappy old laptop^TM

And at some point, they'll be joined by this which I'll need to name at some point.

The RAM was delivered today. Or rather, a delivery was attempted, but noone was in and so the courier took it back to their depot, in Hemel Hemstead. So now I have to drive to Hemel on Saturday, when I was hoping to start building 2.7.92. Oh well...

Don't bother building mozilla packages no more, just use the SuSE ones, it'll speed up desktop builds, and make my life so much easier.

swamprat's RAM is ordered, should have it tomorrow, tripling it's available memory, I'll do the switchover to it when I install it to minimise downtime.

Update: 2.7.92 - what timing!