Kubuntu Ibex: How to make it VMWare Aware

It happens, you upgrade to a new version number and suddenly the painstakingly learned knowledge gets dumped out with the trash. Before upgrading to 8.10, my 8.04 was happily chugging along with an old port of VMWare Server. Note that there are issues with VMWare on Ubuntu and its relied on a patched script to fix compile errors and such.

After upgrading I thought it would make sense that somehow old programs would get rebuilt, recompiled, or be backward compatible. Take anyone action, like most my expectation is that it runs and works. After all, this is supposed to be smarter operating system with thousands of eyeballs on the code. Right?

Wrong.

Thanks to Google search, I stumbled upon these instructions. Hey, here's one other reason not to be hasty to upgrade. After all, Intrepid has been out there for a little while and some brave soul more code compile savvy than I am would surely have already risked and ventured. :-)

Kubuntu: the Alternative CD

I had Unbuntu Hard Heron version installed on my test machine previously and just barely got it to doing RAID 5. Several books later and a run-in with LinuxMCE and MythTV had me reconsidering to move to the KDE gui though.

So I've just burned Kubuntu 8.-4 Hardy Heron using the alternative CD as it seems to be the only way to get any Linux distribution going right out on install and not as a post-install chore. In preparation I've got the the instructions all laid out for me. Wish me luck.

I figured a perfect way to recycle the PATA (IDE) drives from the older FreeNAS by putting it in a better looking case.... Enter the AMS T4U (DS-2340UBK) that I bought off half-price at eBay. This is a 4-bay unit with built-in JBOD capability which I've re-purposed into a RAID-5 via the independent drive setting. Combined with the Dell XPS its going to be extra storage hopefully for a bring-anywhere system. My original plans were to finally install Mythbuntu on it, but that project's taken a short break for now.

LinuxMCE: WPA2

Its been some tiring hours, but I finally have Kubuntu recognizing my D-Link DWA-142 using ndiswrapper. Before that though, finding out what the default login passwords if you're one of those who just dive first into a project was a chore.

However WPA2 is still a bit tricky to configure and I still need to find a configuration that will make it stick. Some inspiration to get things going, I found here. Well, one problem at a time.

The reason of course for all this is to introduce a nested network. And it would really help your various orbiters and media directors if you had the LinuxMCE network on its own separate wireless network.

LinuxMCE vs WindowsMCE

While MS Windows Home Server running in my HP EX475 is a cool thing (albeit my grumpiness for that AMD Sempron chip), long before this I'd already been playing around with LinuxMCE.

PS> And before that I'd also been playing around with Windows XP Media Center 2005 and got the Media Center Extender for the original Xbox -- no cigar there though. The OS license is now done for and Microsoft refuses to honor my soft-modded Xbox even if I was paying for Xbox Live for 2-years. I said goodbye to that righteous setup, its now just a standalone game station with the rest of its console brethren in the living room.

The base machine I was using for my initial test was from spare parts from the office, basically an Intel P4 clone and an 80GB IDE HDD with built-in sound card. Its video card was built-in and not really fit to run as the core/hybrid system -- yet given that LinuxMCE is taking advantage of Kubuntu 7.04 (or if you like then install Ubuntu and just convert it from the default to KDE) it ran well enough. Installation was pretty straightforward similar to the video (sans the Fiire producs which I only sort of drool about).

Some quick things about LinuxMCE:
1. its the spin-off from the Pluto Home project; the project actually links back to the LinuxMCE for those DIY people like me
2. Pluto Home and thus LinuxMCE is being OEM'ed (or licensed or whatever), the point is that apparently Monster Cable based their Monster Home product on it
3. it has more built-in functionality than whatever WindowsMCE has yet to offer, up to home security and automation
4. it supports orbiters of almost all walks and sizes right down to your Symbian 60 phone
5. it is FREE, FREE, FREE, get it, FREE

Some digression. All my media is pending to be streamed from the MSS (and I mean pending given that the most promising thing I've gotten to do on it is probably have a server to host websites at home and some pictures which isn't much given the bandwidth limitations that Comcast has for serving files, gee the puny UM150 from Verizon gives me almost the same speed -- thus I may have to resort to using PhotoSync+Flickr or linking my Picassa/PhotoBucket/Kodak instead). I've installed the SageTV add-in and made a quick test which was pretty slow rendering on my MacBook Pro -- attributing this to the EX475's lowend AMD Sempron and 512MB memory. TVersity actually does a better job at streaming my media, but its not a full MCE that I've yet to see stream stuff like TV Guide.

Last night I thought about an alternative form factor similar to the MSS and started my eBay search. That net me a Shuttle XPC Legend with 2-GB memory, Intel GMA950 display, and a P4 3-GHz chip for starters (in fairness it would cost just a wee bit less at $500 with a 1-TB HDD purchase, add the approximate cost of the WHS OS license and its a cost match). I'm planning to combine this with the Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 950 and see what happens.

I've also started to be a bit more active in the wiki and put up my first contribution to it this morning, pending updates when the rig gets put together some time next week.

Stay tuned...