CD to disk file transfer on HP-UX

After a long pause, and several projects later, I'm back getting ready our uxheaven.com (our back-room of variety of UNIX boxes, that will be used for training multi-vendor courses).

Today, it's configuring HP-UX boxes: one is the B.11.11 U9000, the other B.11.23 on Itanium.

Had to look up some of my old posts to fix various network settings, and I reckon the /etc/rc.config.d/netconf file will now stay in my memory (sad - it takes few weeks and the detail is gone!).

Once the network was fine, needed to add software from CDs, to a central repository of documents and future depot files. For the time being, all I need is to have it all on hard disk. Quick refresher on the process:

1. Identify the special file for CD-ROM:

# ioscan -funC disk

showed it to be /dev/c1t0d0

2. Create mount point directory
I like the way Linux treats removable media, so my new mount directory became:

# mkdir -p /media/cdrom

3. Mount the disk:

# mount -F cdfs /dev/c1t0d0 /media/cdrom

4. Finally, create directory for the documents, and copy the CD content

# mkdir /usr/doc
# cp -rf /media/cdrom /usr/doc

Ready for use...

Citrix client on EeePC with Xandros Linux

First of all, contrary to other postings, you do not have to become "root" to install Citrix client. Especially on EeePC/Xandros, where (although possible) you would not expect a multitude of different user accounts.

The steps for installing Citrix on EeePC are not that different from any other distribution:

1. Point the browser at: http://www.citrix.com/English/SS/downloads/details.asp?downloadID=3323&productID=-1#top
and download Linux ICA Client:
Version 10.6 English 6/28/07 1.8 mb .tar.gz (x86 client - requires OpenMotif 2.2.x).

In the Firefox download dialog, choose to Save to Disk. On the EeePC/Xandros, the default location for Firefox downloads is /home/user .

2. Press CTRL-ALT-T to gain access to the command line.

3. Setup the folder for the ICA client

/home/user> mkdir citrix

/home/user> mv en.linuxx86.tar.gz citrix

/home/user> cd citrix


4. Unpack the tarball file:

/home/user/citrix> tar zxvf en.linuxx86.tar.gz

./

./PkgId

...


5. Run the install script:

/home/user/citrix> ./setupwfc

Follow the instructions: choose Install client and the default directory (ICAClient).
Let the installation script create the ICAClient directory

6. Install the certificate
If you look at my earlier posting: "Ubuntu on XPS M1330 - Installing Citrix" (Monday, April 14, 2008), you will see the content of the certificate file.
Cut and paste it into a plain text file.
The file name for the certificate should be:
/home/user/ICAClient/linuxx86/keystore/cacerts/UTN-USERFirst-Hardware.crt

EeePC with Xandros - long live Asus

I hate its keyboard. Horrible. And I don't mean the size, but quality. Most keys refuse to work unless you hit them with just the right amount of pressure, and jut the right angle. What a shame, because otherwise my new toy is an absolute treasure. There, there; got the bad out of the way.

Now I can concentrate on the good. To my mind the little EeePC is a perfect cross between a light, small, beautifully equipped sub-notebook with a perfectly selected set of simply presented open source operating system and applications.

Just been on two-week holidays, traveling across Europe. My "eepsy" did the trick - as a fast communicator (complete with video conferencing, thanks to the camera), storage device for photographs, work tool for quick write-ups, internet radio provider, and a source of endless penguin racing activity for a bored two-years-old, who had never seen the game before, yet was racing within seconds.

Xandros based EeePC might do more for popularising Linux that all remaining distributions put together - although admittedly for all the wrong reasons: many people will not even realise they have Linux! I have seen EeePC/Xandros being used by people who used to shiver at the mere sound of the word Linux.

What is best about it? Apart from the almost a pocket size and weight? Well, this is the first machine, Linux or otherwise, that had all facilities work out of the box. Totally intuitive, typical PDA-style front end, the easiest device to use by a mile.

Mind you, it took me two days to find access to CLI, but then again this was out of curiosity rather than necessity (press CTR-ALT-T, in case you wonder).

I'm probably being unfair to other distributions (like Ubuntu, which is my current favourite, for reasons I might explain separately).

After all EeePC/Xandros was fine-tuned for the specific hardware - a luxury that few distributions can afford...