/etc/samba/smb.conf

workgroup = XYZ

Change XYZ to your windows 7 workgroup name. Next step is to uninstall the “Windows Live Sign-In Assistant” under windows 7 which is the main cause why the windows shares like the printers are not available from ubuntu. After that go to menu item System => administration => Printer. Click on add button and select from the list under network printer the last entry “windows printer via SAMBA”. When you now click on browse will be your workgroup and below your windows 7 pc with the printer shares be available.

Caused by: java.security.AccessControlException: access denied (java.util.PropertyPermission org.aspectj.tracing.debug read)
        at java.security.AccessControlContext.checkPermission(AccessControlContext.java:323)
        at java.security.AccessController.checkPermission(AccessController.java:546)
        at java.lang.SecurityManager.checkPermission(SecurityManager.java:532)
        at java.lang.SecurityManager.checkPropertyAccess(SecurityManager.java:1285)
        at java.lang.System.getProperty(System.java:686)
        at org.aspectj.weaver.tools.TraceFactory.getBoolean(TraceFactory.java:34)
        at org.aspectj.weaver.tools.TraceFactory.(TraceFactory.java:21)
        ... 68 more

Updating aspectj in the maven pom to the latest version 1.6.8 doesn’t solve
the problem. The same war file works under windows with tomcat 6.0.24 without any problems. An Forum entry shows the right hint. Inside the init script
/etc/init.d/tomcat6 is default TOMCAT_SECURITY set to true, which forces the /etc/tomcat6/policy.d/* policies to be used in every web
application inside tomcat.

# Use the Java security manager? (yes/no)
TOMCAT6_SECURITY=yes

So the solution can be quick (set the TOMCAT_SECURITY property inside the init script to no) or a bit more complicated (set a new policy for your web application as new file inside the policy.d folder). The problem with the more complicated one is that you need to know every security relevant operation to write the policy file).

Steps to test VM image of chrome os beta

1. Download VMDK image
2. Extract tar.gz File to standard folder of vmware
3. Start vmware server
4. Choose from “Virtual machine” menu “add Virtual machine to inventory”
5. Choose VMX file inside extracted image of chrome os
6. Upgrade Virtual machine to newest “hardware” by choosing link on right side from the vm summary page
7. Remove Network Connection from VM and Add new one with “Add Hardware” and type “Network Adapter” with “Nat” mode
8. Boot VM and cornfirm warning about IDE geometry and scsi controller
9. Click on “Make Goggle chrome default browser” and confirm dialog
10. Click on computer button (down left side) and click under status on network connection
11. Enter root password: root
12. confirm warning about network manager with ok
13. Choose under “Global Options” network setup method “traditional method with ifup”
14. Go to “Overview” tab and click on “edit” button below
15. click on “next” button
16. go back to “global options” and change back to “user controlled with networkmanager”
17. Reboot machine by clicking on computer and shutdown with type reboot
18. After reboot you can surf with google chrome without any problem

The JNDI API inside the Java SDK is usable as implementation to access such LDAP directories. With Spring LDAP is more sophisticated API available.

My first code sample works in the company against their OpenLDAP server. For security reasons is the access not possible from outside. So my JUNIT Tests was code red after running in my homeoffice. Maven standard is to run all test prior to build a package like a J2EE war or ear file. So i decided to setup a OpenLDAP server inside my ubuntu 8.10 server vmware server vm.

First step is to retrieve and install the openldap package as root:

• sudo su -
• apt-get install slapd ldap-utils nmap php5-ldap db4.2-util

You have to set a password during installation for the OpenLDAP server. Keep that in mind!
Now run the configuration assistant:

• dpkg-reconfigure slapd

Wizard steps:

1. omit openldap server configuration? – no
2. dns domain name? vm.example.org
3. organization name? myCompany
4. database backend to use? hdb
5. do you want the database to be removed when slapd is purged? yes
6. may be the question: move old database? yes
7. administrator password? the same one as entered during installation
8. confirm password? see last step
9. allow LDAPv2 protocol? no

Now edit the /etc/ldap/ldap.conf file for the client side configuration:

ldap_version 3
URI ldap://localhost:389
SIZELIMIT 0
TIMELIMIT 0
DEREF never
BASE dc=vm,dc=example, dc=org

With the command “ldapsearch -x” you should see the following output:

# extended LDIF
#
# LDAPv3
# base  (default) with scope subtree
# filter: (objectclass=*)
# requesting: ALL
#

# vm.example.org
dn: dc=vm,dc=example,dc=org
objectClass: top
objectClass: dcObject
objectClass: organization
o: myCompany
dc: vm

# admin, vm.example.org
dn: cn=admin,dc=vm,dc=example,dc=org
objectClass: simpleSecurityObject
objectClass: organizationalRole
cn: admin
description: LDAP administrator

# search result
search: 2
result: 0 Success

# numResponses: 3
# numEntries: 2

For easier admininstration exist a php admin ui called phpldapadmin and can be installed with:

• apt-get install phpldapadmin
• ln -s /usr/share/phpldapadmin/ /var/www/phpldapadmin

Open now the config file /etc/phpldapadmin/config.php with joe (a editor) and change the line with the ldap node info to:

/* Array of base DNs of your LDAP server. Leave this blank to have phpLDAPadmin
   auto-detect it for you. */
$ldapservers->SetValue($i,'server','base',array('dc=vm,dc=example,dc=org'));
...
$ldapservers->SetValue($i,'login','dn','cn=admin,dc=vm,dc=example,dc=org');

Check your PHP5 memory settings in /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini:

memory_limit = 64M      ; Maximum amount of memory a script may consume (16MB)

Restart the apache to use this changed configuration

• /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

and go to:

http://your.vm.ip/phpldapadmin

Click on the login link on the left side and enter as “login dn”:

• cn=admin,dc=vm,dc=example,dc=org

and your password in mind. First step is now to enter a “organisational unit”:

• click on the left side on the link beside the world icon “dc=vm…”
• click on “create a child entry here”
• choose “organisational unit” as template
• enter “people” and click on “create object”
• click on this new orginsational unit people in the tree
• click on “create a child entry here”
• choose “Address Book Entry (mozillaOrgPerson)” as template
• enter “John” as “first name”
• enter “Doe” as “last name”
• go to common name (cn) and enter “John Doe”
• click on “create object”

Now check with “ldapsearch -x” if everything is ok:

# extended LDIF
#
# LDAPv3
# base  (default) with scope subtree
# filter: (objectclass=*)
# requesting: ALL
#

# vm.example.org
dn: dc=vm,dc=example,dc=org
objectClass: top
objectClass: dcObject
objectClass: organization
o: myCompany
dc: vm

# admin, vm.example.org
dn: cn=admin,dc=vm,dc=example,dc=org
objectClass: simpleSecurityObject
objectClass: organizationalRole
cn: admin
description: LDAP administrator

# people, vm.example.org
dn: ou=people,dc=vm,dc=example,dc=org
objectClass: organizationalUnit
objectClass: top
ou: people

# John Doe, people, vm.example.org
dn: cn=John Doe,ou=people,dc=vm,dc=example,dc=org
objectClass: inetOrgPerson
objectClass: top
givenName: John
sn: Doe
cn: John Doe

# search result
search: 2
result: 0 Success

# numResponses: 5
# numEntries: 4

Your LDAP server is now running and you can easily configure it inside your favorite browser

Firefox was a really a pain in the ass as browser for the web interface of beta 1 of vmware server 2. The download page now mention for Beta 2:

Firefox 3 as a supported browser for the management interface.

The icon open https://<hostname>:8333/ui/ as default url. Firefox 3 complains that the ssl certificate is self signed. You must click the link at the bottom to “add the exception” and the “add exception” button. The upcoming dialog request to get the certificate and let you after this download “confirm the security exception”.

Now the login screens ask for the credentials. Good question. The old native admin tool simply ask to login locally without any credentials. During installation where no user created or asked to define. Vmware use the local user database of windows as authentication provider. So define a new local user with admin rights or use a existing one to login.

My main vm image is a ubuntu server 8.04 with just a text console. Vmware use own linux modules for fast networking, folder sharing,… So i tried to upgrade my existing vmware-tools. Just start the vm and click the link to “install vmware tools”. It connects the virtual cdrom to readonly device with the install packages. Enter “mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom” inside the vm to copy install package to the tmp folder. You have to copy the *.tar.gz install package because ubuntu doesn’t work with RPMs like OpenSuse. The extracted folder contains the vmware-tools-install.pl script. Starting the install as root with ./vmware-tools-instal.pl or sudo ./vmware-tools-install.pl produce a error. VMware tools recognise the old kernel modules and stop the installation. The error message prints the name of the modules like vmxnet. So use “modprobe -v vmxnet” to get the path to the *.ko file. Delete it with rm and do this for all mentioned modules. Delete afterwards the old vmware settings by calling “rm -rf /etc/vmware*”. Now you can call the vmware-tools-install script to install successfully the kernel modules. Reboot the vm to use the new modules. Now you can see in the web interface e.g. the ip of the running vm.

Under Ubuntu you must first decide if you want the desktop or server edition. On my notebook was the primary requirement to have a back end for application server like Archiva or Nexus. Both very comfortable maven proxies with a web frontend. So i decided to install the server edition. The server edition have no window manager and starts a linux just with a console login. So far so good. A little bit hidden is the possibility to change the default screen solution from 800×600 to a larger one. Scrolling log or config files is not that pretty under such conditions.

The solution is in the /etc/grub/menu.1st file. In the end of the file is a list of linux versions. Each runnable linux configuration has a title, root, kernel and initrd line. For a 1024×768 you can append to the kernel line

vga=0×317

according to this howto. Ubuntu has in the last weeks published a new service pack called 8.04.1. Normal updated are installed with a “apt-get update” followed by “apt-get upgrade” to install updates for installed packages. I saw messages about retained packages after the availibity of this new service pack. A “apt-get dist-upgrade” forces to install the retained packages including a new kernel. Remember the line with the kernel paramater in the grub menu file. The update updates this file as well. Grateful it notice my changes and ask me what to do. My first intention was to say ok overwrite my changes and i add that vga parameter as well. That works but it can be handled much smarter. Linux kernel updates can be happen more often.

The solution is to add the vga parameter to defoptions line instead of the kernel line. This line is normally uncommented with a leading # character. So add this line

defoptions=vga=0×317

This 0×317 is the hex definition. Also possible is to write vga=719 with decimal notation.