Running topcoder applet behind proxy

Somehow the default Iced Tea Webstart throws NullPointerException which I dont know how to debug. I downloaded SUN JDK and installed on my machine, you can use your package manager also. It usually gets installed in /usr/java/jdk-<version> and /usr/java/latest links to the latest version installed, so it is better to use the later. Then download the ContestApplet.jnlp and simply sun the following command to get it working.

$ /usr/java/latest/bin/javaws ContestApplet.jnlp

It uses default system proxy to download the content from Topcoder needed to execute the arena. When the arena is open set the proxy and use HTTP Tunnel A or B. For us Tunnel B works.

using java on linux

This was a problem faced by my friend. He happens to use only JAVA that too JAVAC. He does not like to use Netbeans I don’t know why. And he said that it was the only problem that stopped him from using Linux. So I decided to help him. These were some links which were really helpful.

http://en.opensuse.org/Java
http://en.opensuse.org/Installing_Sun%27s_Java_on_SUSE_Linux (to be more precise)

The problem was that the openJDK which provides JAVC which is the default installation on openSUSE is different from JAVAC provided by SUN because the same Hello World program which compiled on SUN’s JAVAC failed to compile on openJDK’s JAVAC.

The details can be found out here http://lug.nitdgp.ac.in/wiki/index.php/How_to_use_Java_on_Linux

The repositories described there are Local to our college you can use your package manager to locate the packages. For openSUSE users sun’s packages are in Non-OSS repo

mouting network directory as your own directory, NFS

I manage our local GLUG server. And the server was running out of space. So I was thinking of some alternative, so NFS clicked my mind. I am trying to mirror Ubuntu repo for our college students.

There is another server in the college which I happen to manage, so I decided to give NFS a try. Since both the machines are running openSUSE the distro of my choice, it was not difficult at all. http://en.opensuse.org/NFS This link gave sufficient information about using NFS.

Within 10 minutes I was done. But I need to see how fast it actually is once the download completes. Hope it works out. Then our repo will be complete with support for Fedora, openSUSE and ubuntu. Check out the repo here. http://lug.nitdgp.ac.in/repository/

should i try fedora

Rangeen, who happens to be the only Fedora ambassador in our college did a very good work by creating a local Fedora repository http://lug.nitdgp.ac.in/repository/fedora-local/ . I am an openSUSE user and I am satisfied with it, we also have a local packman mirror http://lug.nitdgp.ac.in/repository/packman/ which happens to be the biggest repo for openSUSE. But the only problem is that it is not a complete repo, I mean while installing packages I need to download some packages from the internet also. But the Fedora repo which also has the updates is nearly a complete repo.

So I am thinking about trying Fedora now.

making direcories and symbolic links in apache web directory

This made me worried for the past two days. Thanks to IRC I got the solution.
Add these lines at the end of your default-server.conf file for apache. On opensuse it is in /etc/apache2/defualt-server.conf

<Directory “path to directory like /srv/www/htdocs/download”>
options Indexes Includes FollowSymLinks SymLinksifOwnerMatch ExecCGI MultiViews
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny

Allow from all

</Directory>

Then restart apache.
This makes the directory visible from web browser and makes apache follow symbolic links !
This was really painful yet the answer was so simple.
I need to look in apache configurations properly.

setting up an SVN server is as easy as eating cake

I tried to set up an svn server on my laptop today as I have organized a hack session today to bring in more people for hacking FOSS.
I have chosen opendchub for three reasons:
1. They have seen it working. And they actually use it.
2. The source code is as less as 10 c files.
3. The project is dead. I have already applied for the maintainership. You dont apply please

This is a helpful link href=”http://en.opensuse.org/Setting_up_a_Subversion_server_using_Apache2 . I hope everything turns out positively.

using GIT behind proxy

GIT is another software used for version control as SVN or CVS. Today when I was at gym Shreyank requested me to find out a possible solution for using GIT as he saw what I had posted earlier to use SVN and Pidgin. He was really very happy to see Pidgin working.

I came back then I thought I should give it a try too. I visited the LDTP site. There I saw a link for using git behind proxy. I dont know how it worked for me. I simply noticed that there was a simple change of protocols while using proxy, git:// was changed to http://.This is what I used to download the source of LDTP

$git clone http://anongit.freedesktop.org/git/ldtp/ldtp.git

I tried and bang! it was working for me. I had done only the usual proxy setting form yast, it sets up the http_proxy Environment variable. Check if it is set for you.

$echo $http_proxy

If the output is not “http;//10.0.0.1:3128″ then the proxy setting is not done for you. Do this

$export http_proxy=”http://10.0.0.1:3128″

It should work for you also.

Cheers

Using SVN and Pidgin via(or behind) proxy

As our college has installed new proxy server, it has become difficult for people to use Linux. So I spent some time and then found out ways to resolve some problems.

SVN can be easily configured to work behind proxy. In your home directory search for the .subversion directory. If the directory does not exist, open a terminal type svn and hit enter the default configuration files will be created. As the name suggests it is a hidden directory. Inside it and there is a file name “servers”. All the proxy settings can be done here. Now notice the string “[global]“  which is at the last. Here you can do the necessary changes. Remove the hash “#” in front of http-proxy-host and http-proxy-port and align it to left, I mean delete any space because it looks for the settings from the first column. Now add the 10.0.0.1 and 3128 port no. After editing it should look like this

———————————————————–

## leave the lines above it untouched, it is always better to back up a configuration file before editing

[global]
# http-proxy-exceptions = *.exception.com, www.internal-site.org
http-proxy-host = 10.0.0.1
http-proxy-port = 3128
# http-proxy-username = defaultusername
# http-proxy-password = defaultpassword
# http-compression = no
# http-auth-types = basic;digest;negotiate
# No http-timeout, so just use the builtin default.
# No neon-debug-mask, so neon debugging is disabled.
# ssl-authority-files = /path/to/CAcert.pem;/path/to/CAcert2.pem
——————————————————–

Now it is done. Check if it works, it worked for me. If it still doesnot work set the http_proxy variable.

$export http_proxy=http://10.0.0.1:3128

Now check it.

$echo $http_proxy

It should show ‘http://10.0.0.1:3128′ .

Pidgin can be very easily configured for GTalk likewise,

Go to manage accounts, and select the account then go to the advanced tab. Check “Force old (port 5223) SSL. Then change the Connect port to 443. Now go to proxy options and then select HTTP and then set Host as 10.0.0.1 and port as 3128. You are now done. Enjoy.

Amazed by the writing style followed by GNU

As we all know that GNU is itself a recursive acronym which stands for “GNU Not UNIX”. While studying how translations are done and managed in opensource softwares i found out two amazing naming patterns “I18n & L10n “.

Can you understand anything ?

No, I also could not get anything. I18n stands for internationalization and L10n stands for localization .

AMAZED AREN’T YOU !!!

Many people, tired of writing these long words over and over again, took the habit of writing i18n and l10n instead, quoting the first and last letter of each word, and replacing the run of intermediate letters by a number merely telling how many such letters there are.

Extracted from http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/manual/gettext.html#Concepts

BUG # 1 I fixed a bug on EVOLUTION (yes!)

Yesterday after sitting continuously for 7 hours i was able to fix a bug on Evoltion. Was easy though, but I had no idea where to start. #evolution and #nosip (jony) ( IRC CHATROOMS ON Gimpnet) were very helpful. This was the bug .

I was searching everywhere for glade files everywhere as we (SDU ppl on NITDGP LUG ) did in DC++. Finally on #evolution somebody told that evo does not use glade for creating GUI rather it used libbonobo which used some xml ( which i had ignored till now) files to create GUI. I thank that man for this help.

Then I used grep and then I finally found the location and guess what i had to add only accel=”*Contol**Shift*a” to add a keyboard shortcut to a menu item like Control+C is used for Copy. AND THAT WAS ALL. YIPPY !!! I had just fixed a bug.

So now you can guess how easy it can be.

Now i plan to read Gtk+ and Libbonobo in detail.

So if you have not started till now start today and believe me you cant imagine the kind of thrill and pleasure it gives after doing something. After all you have something you can boast about .