mount sshfs with access for all users

sudo sshfs user@host:/path mount_path -o allow_other

Add user in "vboxsf" group to access VirtualBox shared folder in Ubuntu guest

On Debian (Ubuntu and a like):
sudo adduser <username> vboxsf

On RedHat (CentOS):
sudo usermod -a -G vboxsf <username>

Slow boot of Ubuntu into Unity 3D with proprietary nVidia drivers

I have Ubuntu Oneiric Oncelot 11.10 with proprietary nVidia (nvidia-current: 290.10-0ubuntu1~oneiric~xup1) drivers.

And there're 2 things I'm tired of:

1. Slow boot. Mostly a black screen after nVidia drivers are already loaded.
   It turned out it lasts more then a minute (73 seconds for example, compared to booting into Unity 2D - 38 seconds).
2. Slow wake-up from suspend. Don't have precise numbers but Unity 2D wakes just immediately while Unity 3D shows me a black screen more then a minute.

So I decided to try "bootchart".
Installed it with: sudo apt-get install bootchart
And booted into:
Unity 3D - got 1:12.98 min

Unity 2D - got 0:38.66 min

Then looked if some processes related to nVidia differ in both boot logs.
And indeed I found out that "nvidia-settings" process was mentioned proc_ps.log in such proportion:
- 66 times for Unity 3D and
- 21 times for Unity 2D.

That lead me to conclusion that disabling "nvidia-settings" may improve boot performance.
So I did "sudo chmod a-x /usr/bin/nvidia-settings" and the next boot in Unity 3D took the same 37 seconds (0:37.76) as with Unity 2D.

For sure it is not the solution, but at least a direction to look.

Moreover this unfortunately has nothing to do with wake-up delay, so keep looking into it.

Anyway, hope this helps.

P.S. Make sure you know what are you doing while dealing with system files.

Fix FlexNET License Server Manager

For some reason in FlexNET tools version 11.4 license server manager application stopped working. Actually it won't start at all:
=========
 ./lmgrd 
bash: ./lmgrd: No such file or directory
=========

the most probable reason for such sort of problem is unavailability of some dependence (i.e. shared library).

So let's look at dependencies:
=========
$ ldd lmgrd 

linux-gate.so.1 =>  (0xb784b000)
libpthread.so.0 => /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0 (0xb781a000)
libm.so.6 => /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libm.so.6 (0xb77f0000)
libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1 (0xb77d1000)
libc.so.6 => /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (0xb7655000)
libdl.so.2 => /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libdl.so.2 (0xb7650000)
/lib/ld-lsb.so.3 => /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0xb784c000)

=========

The first suspect is definitely (for me at least it was so) "linux-gate.so.1"

But it turned out that it's ok: http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-linux-gate-so-1-library-dynamic-shared-object-vdso/ refers to http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-lpic1-v3-102-3/

=========

This virtual library provides the necessary logic to allow user programs to access system functions through the fastest means available on the particular processor, either interrupt, or with most newer processors, fast system call.

=========

Others look pretty solid except the last one:  /lib/ld-lsb.so.3

=========

$ file /lib/ld-lsb.so.3

/lib/ld-lsb.so.3: ERROR: cannot open `/lib/ld-lsb.so.3' (No such file or directory)

=========

For some reason in some modern Linux distributions this symlink is not set by default and one needs to fix it whether manually or simply installing "LSB core" (Linux Standard Base core support package)  package.

In RedHat:
=========
yum install redhat-lsb.i686
=========


or for Debian/Ubuntu
=========
apt-get install lsb-core package

=========

Now it resolves correctly:

=========

$ file /lib/ld-lsb.so.3

/lib/ld-lsb.so.3: symbolic link to `ld-linux.so.2'

=========

And as a consequence lmmgr starts and acts properly now!

Windows 7 states not genuine Win7 boot after moving partition

For some reasons after playing with disk partitions Windows 7 thinks System partition label was changed (for example from C: to V:).
As a consequence Windows now thinks that your installation is not licensed... 


And here's a very simple solution that saved my day.
Found here: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itproinstall/thread/48c99917-9ee3-4fe5-9ea8-2ac44b365e93

1. Hit control-shift-esc to get the task manager and ran regedit
2. Navigated to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices, backed up and removed the data inside
3. Reboot

 upon reboot, the system will checked the key again and validate the license.

LCD bring-up tips

During Embedded Linux Conference Europe 2011 I attended one very interesting presentation regarding new LCD bring-up procedures.


Among other nice things we were presented with extremely useful utility that may save a bunch of time while guessing what is wrong with this brand new LCD.
And this is fb-test utility.


Feel free to check it out from here http://www.elinux.org/images/0/09/Fb-test.c and then simply build it with your cross-toolchain of choise.
Then on target run it.


More on this you may find here http://www.elinux.org/Board_Bringup_Utilities

These are slides from ELCE http://elinux.org/images/d/d5/Elce-2011-anders.pdf

Video of this presentation (39 minutes)
FullHD (242M): http://free-electrons.com/pub/video/2011/elce/elce-2011-anders-board-bringup-lcd-display.webm
450x800 (98M): http://free-electrons.com/pub/video/2011/elce/elce-2011-anders-board-bringup-lcd-display-450p.webm

Add trusted certificates from Firefox to Citrix ICA client in Ubuntu

For some connections Citrix ICA client may display message saying:
You have hot chosen to trust "XXX server", the issuer of the server's security certificate.

Basically if you have Mozilla Firefox installed on your PC you may easily use its certificates for Citrix client as well.

Do do it just copy them over to ICA Client certificate folder:
sudo cp /usr/share/ca-certificates/mozilla/* /opt/Citrix/ICAClient/keystore/cacerts