Windows XP in VirtualBox

Installing Windows XP is no difficult at all. However, installation completes and I am there with one problem. It does not have driver for the network adapter provided by VirtualBox. VirtualBox has 6 different adapter types. It chooses PCnet-PCI II (Am79C970A) by default. I try to change to the second one and it is still no.

So, I have to refer to the Internet. There, one blog post says to download the driver from the vendor and install it. I click on the url provided by the blog.The first one is the most appropriate link for me. I download that one and install it on Windows XP and it works. :) Finally, I am using the adapter, PCnet-PCI III (Am79C973).

Installing Virtual Machine in Ubuntu 10.04

I am more familiar with VMWare than VirualBox on Windows. So, when I think about installing virtual machines on Ubuntu or Linux, I would choose VMWare over VirualBox. When I was about to download VMWare Workstation, it needs a paid license. Since I dont know if cracks or patches area available for Ubuntu like in Windows, I choose VirtualBox to save some time. Yeah, time to play games indeed.

Then I downloaded debian package file(virtualbox-3.1_3.1.8-61349~Ubuntu~karmic_i386.deb) from VirtualBox website. Actually, I have Ubuntu Lucid and I downloaded Karmic one before the upgrade to Ubuntu 10.04. Anyway, I installed that one and there was no problem. It also provides features like taking snapshots of machines, and adding specific hardwares such as audio, network, storage(hard drive, cd-rom, iso files),serial ports, USB, shared folders with the host machine, etc. So it is just enough for my needs. I just need access to Internet and USB.

Ubuntu 9.10 to 10.04

I installed Ubuntu 9.10. A few days ago, I wanted to upgrade to 10.04 for no particular reason though I worried that NS2 may not work properly with the new one. Later I found out the upgrade didnt make any problem to it. It is working fine like before. Anyway, my desktop effects ran away with the upgrade.

It is not a problem but I am used to seeing those animations on opening, minimizing, or closing windows. So, I tried to google the fix. Anyway, I found nothing related to my graphic card nVidia 8400GT. I followed some steps and tried to re-enable visual effects, it was useless. Though I met a suggestion that I should remove every package related to nvidia in Synaptic package manager. As I did not have any other choice, I followed that one.

After I removed every package that includes nvidia, it has some problem at the log on screen. I do not remember the particular error or warning message, but it is related to display. After logging in, the desktop seemed to be normal. Then, I went to Synaptic package manager again and install packages related to nvidia again. I restarted and then, the setting became available again.

I do not really know how it happened. It could be some initial configurations that have been done during the installation is not compatible with one version of Ubuntu to another. So, that is why re-installation fixes that. That is my assumption, though.

2010 FIFA World Cup

World Cup fever is coming again. Yet I still dont know which team to support. I was a big fan of England team since Euro '96. They have not win any title in every competition while I was supporting them. I am wondering whether they will succeed if I stop supporting them. Who knows, I may end up cheering them up during the group matches.

The following picture is from wiki.


Red - Country qualified for the World Cup
Green - Country failed to qualify
Violet - Country did not enter World Cup
Grey - Country not a FIFA member

Your Freedom

Your Freedom definitely brings some freedom to your browsing experience. It is a really good application if you have to go through a firewall or proxy to access the internet.

According to your-freedom.net, more than 30,000 people in over 160 countries use their service. The service is available for free. And it will provide a bit more bandwidth than a modem connection and up to 6 hours of usage per day (up to 15 hours per week). And upgrade packages are available for some fees per month.

It needs the user to have an account registered at their website. That username and password will be used to log in using the client application which is available for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and everything else than can run Java apps. So, it is a pretty wide range of OS. And in case you want to try it, here is the link. Your Freedom.

Ubuntu 9.10 and ns-allinone-2.34

While trying to install ns-allinone-2.34 on Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala, I ran into this error.

otcl.o: In function `OTclDispatch':
/home/ns/ns-allinone-2.34/otcl/otcl.c:495: undefined reference to `__stack_chk_fail_local'
otcl.o: In function `Otcl_Init':
/home/ns/ns-allinone-2.34/otcl/otcl.c:2284: undefined reference to `__stack_chk_fail_local'
ld: libotcl.so: hidden symbol `__stack_chk_fail_local' isn't defined
ld: final link failed: Nonrepresentable section on output
make: *** [libotcl.so] Error 1

I've heard that there are many problems when someone installs ns2 on Ubuntu instead of Fedora. I suppose there would be loads of them. However I was lucky enough just to see that only one. After searching for a while, some fixes say modifying configure file under otcl-1.13 directory. And it really works. The problem was caused by using "ld -shared" command instead of "gcc -shared".

Change from the following to

Linux*)
SHLIB_CFLAGS="-fpic"
SHLIB_LD="ld -shared"
SHLIB_SUFFIX=".so"
DL_LIBS="-ldl"
SHLD_FLAGS=""
;;

this

Linux*)
SHLIB_CFLAGS="-fpic"
SHLIB_LD="gcc -shared"
SHLIB_SUFFIX=".so"
DL_LIBS="-ldl"
SHLD_FLAGS=""
;;

After that fix, I tested some examples in ns2.33/tcl/ex folder and installation is successful. I suppose installing ns2 on ubuntu is not that difficult. Anyway, if I am going to work modifying C source files, it may have.