threeeighthsspacer.com

I have just now got my graphics going in hi res. on my Geforce FX 5200 AGP card. I used some program months ago to configure 8.04 but I can’t remember it . . . Anyway today I activated the nvidia driver #173 in the “restricted drivers” manager and then rebooted, but that didn’t do the trick. I was still stuck in ol’ 640×480. I replaced xorg.conf with my old xorg.conf that was created by that unremembered program. That did it. Now it’s pretty and I do have 3d but I’ll have to test how good it is . . .
Here is my xorg.conf . . . you can try using it, or part of it. I remember I had the hardest time getting my fx 5200 to work the first time. This time I’m documenting it here.

# xorg.conf (X.Org X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
#   sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg
#
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier    "Generic Keyboard"
Driver        "kbd"
Option        "XkbRules"    "xorg"
Option        "XkbModel"    "pc105"
Option        "XkbLayout"    "us"
EndSection
#
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier    "Configured Mouse"
Driver        "mouse"
Option        "CorePointer"
EndSection
#
Section "Device"
Identifier    "Configured Video Device"
Boardname    "nvidia"
Busid        "PCI:1:0:0"
Driver        "nvidia"
Screen    0
EndSection
#
Section "Monitor"
Identifier    "Configured Monitor"
Vendorname    "Dell"
Modelname    "Dell E196FP"
Horizsync    31.0-83.0
Vertrefresh    56.0-76.0
modeline  "640x480@60" 25.2 640 656 752 800 480 490 492 525 -vsync -hsync
modeline  "640x480@72" 31.5 640 664 704 832 480 489 491 520 -vsync -hsync
modeline  "640x480@75" 31.5 640 656 720 840 480 481 484 500 -vsync -hsync
modeline  "800x600@56" 36.0 800 824 896 1024 600 601 603 625 +hsync +vsync
modeline  "800x600@72" 50.0 800 856 976 1040 600 637 643 666 +hsync +vsync
modeline  "800x600@75" 49.5 800 816 896 1056 600 601 604 625 +hsync +vsync
modeline  "800x600@60" 40.0 800 840 968 1056 600 601 605 628 +hsync +vsync
modeline  "832x624@75" 57.284 832 864 928 1152 624 625 628 667 -vsync -hsync
modeline  "1024x768@75" 78.8 1024 1040 1136 1312 768 769 772 800 +hsync +vsync
modeline  "1024x768@70" 75.0 1024 1048 1184 1328 768 771 777 806 -vsync -hsync
modeline  "1024x768@60" 65.0 1024 1048 1184 1344 768 771 777 806 -vsync -hsync
modeline  "1152x864@75" 108.0 1152 1216 1344 1600 864 865 868 900 +hsync +vsync
modeline  "1280x1024@75" 135.0 1280 1296 1440 1688 1024 1025 1028 1066 +hsync +vsync
modeline  "1280x960@60" 102.1 1280 1360 1496 1712 960 961 964 994 -hsync +vsync
modeline  "1280x1024@60" 108.0 1280 1328 1440 1688 1024 1025 1028 1066 +hsync +vsync
modeline  "1280x960@75" 129.86 1280 1368 1504 1728 960 961 964 1002 -hsync +vsync
modeline  "1400x1050@60" 122.61 1400 1488 1640 1880 1050 1051 1054 1087 -hsync +vsync
modeline  "1400x1050@75" 155.85 1400 1496 1648 1896 1050 1051 1054 1096 -hsync +vsync
modeline  "1600x1200@65" 175.5 1600 1664 1856 2160 1200 1201 1204 1250 +hsync +vsync
modeline  "1600x1200@60" 162.0 1600 1664 1856 2160 1200 1201 1204 1250 +hsync +vsync
modeline  "1792x1344@60" 204.8 1792 1920 2120 2448 1344 1345 1348 1394 -hsync +vsync
Gamma    1.0
EndSection
#
Section "Screen"
Identifier    "Default Screen"
Monitor        "Configured Monitor"
Device        "Configured Video Device"
Defaultdepth    24
SubSection "Display"
Depth    24
Virtual    1792    1344
Modes        "1280x1024@60"    "1280x960@75"    "1280x960@60"    "1400x1050@60"    "1280x1024@75"    "1400x1050@75"    "1152x864@75"    "1600x1200@65"    "1024x768@60"    "1600x1200@60"    "1024x768@70"    "1792x1344@60"    "1024x768@75"    "832x624@75"    "800x600@60"    "800x600@75"    "800x600@72"    "800x600@56"    "640x480@75"    "640x480@72"    "640x480@60"
EndSubSection
EndSection
#
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier    "Default Layout"
screen 0 "Default Screen" 0 0
EndSection
Section "Module"
Load        "glx"
Load        "v4l"
EndSection
Section "device" #
Identifier    "device1"
Boardname    "nvidia"
Busid        "PCI:1:0:0"
Driver        "nvidia"
Screen    1
EndSection
Section "screen" #
Identifier    "screen1"
Device        "device1"
Defaultdepth    24
Monitor        "monitor1"
EndSection
Section "monitor" #
Identifier    "monitor1"
Gamma    1.0
EndSection
Section "ServerFlags"
EndSection


To install do:
sudo apt-get install igal
Then use the igal --help command
for parameters. Basically cd to the directory you have placed your gallery photos, and then
run the command. Here’s an example:
igal -r -f -y 200 -p 9 -w 3 --bigy 600 --www --title "Mallternative Advertisement Candidate Photos"
Here’s the result:
http://piercechristie.com/mallternative/ad_photos/

May 26, 2008 — Until I “fixed” this problem, on this Wordpress 2.5.1 blog hosted on textdrive, If I typed “FTP” and “server” in the main text field of the “New Post” page, and then published or saved my post, I got “Precondition Failed”

Try this on your wordpress blog.
Make a new post.
Type anything in the title field.
Type the words
“FTP” and “server” in the main text field you can type any other content too, but put those two words together and you will not be able to save your post. (edit: It appears that the only word that I really had trouble was “FTP ” - with the space after and without the quotes. I have heard of people having problems with words commonly found in porn spam and also some seemingly-innoccuous words such as “picture”)
Try to publish your test post.
Do you get the “Precondition Failed” error?

Precondition Failed

The precondition on the request for the URL /blog/wp-admin/post.php evaluated to false.

Update - I think it’s mod_security that causes that message. See
this Wordpress Support Page
Also see this Joyent help page
I tried creating a .htaccess file in my public_html directory using the rules suggested there. According to that, you can disable MOD_SECURITY with the following in your .htaccess file:
SecFilterEngine Off
This made it so that at one point I was able to post the word “FTP” alone in a post, which was impossible before. However, I didn’t want to completely disable MOD_SECURITY if I didn’t have to, so,
I tried this in my .htaccess instead, as Joyent suggested at the url above:

SecFilterEngine On
SecFilterSelective "REQUEST_URI" "/blog/wp-admin/post.php" "allow,nolog"
SecFilterSelective "POST_PAYLOAD" "FTP ,FTP,SSH ,SSH" "allow,nolog"

(Note that the above code consists of three lines, and the lines begin with SecFilt…. I will have to make a few adjustments to the theme CSS to make my blog wider . . .)
And that one worked! I don’t think I need the post.php entry so I may remove that line. Anyway it worked.
I am told that MOD_SECURITY is used for spam filtering, and there are many recommendations to disable mod_security as a workaround for this type of problem. However I don’t know. I am rather experimenting here. I’m glad I didn’t have to completely disable it.
I’m tempted to think that overall rules (on my server) are too strict or need tweaking. Or that I need to make a custom filter of my own. However, one would think that one could blog the word “FTP” server without having to rewrite apache rules. When the 3rd and 5th blog posts I made failed, I started thinking “What’s the use? I got me a blog that I can’t post on!”
So here are some suggestions for some rules to put in your .htaccess file so that MOD_SECURITY will be generally functional, and allow apache to allow posts about FTP SSH, etc…
Status: MOD_SECURITY enabled. Blog works. All good.
To implement this solution on your own blog, edit (or create, if it doesn’t exist) a file called .htaccess in the web root of your blog and add the above code to it. .htaccess files define per-directory rules for the apache web server. The .htaccess file which I added to fix my blog is in the folder which contains my Wordpress folder. I think that if you put the file in your actual blog folder it will work as well.

Ubuntu comes with a nice set of programs preinstalled. One of them is Gnome-Terminal. By default, gnome-terminal opens too narrow a window for me. Right away after installing Ubuntu I find myself typing (or pasting) lots of commands and I prefer to be able to fit a decent-sized command at the command-line without it wrapping to the next line. Read on to learn how to make an easy shortcut button for a custom-sized Gnome Terminal.

I learned that the window size can be specified when calling Terminal - Just go:
gnome-terminal --geometry 150x22
The “geometry” refers to the size of the program window. It is expressed in characters rather than pixels. I have a small-screen laptop and I like the above parameters. I use that command as a launcher button in my panel. To do that, right-click your panel at a place where you want the launcher-button. Click “Add to Panel”. Click “Custom Application Launcher”. For ‘Type’, Choose “Application”. Type Terminal or whatever you want to call it under “Name” and paste the above command into the “Command:” area. Modify the “150×22″ to suit your needs. “150″ is the width and “22″ the height. Then click “OK” and you’ve got yourself a custom gnome-terminal button! Of course, it’s easy to change the parameters of your new button by right-clicking it and choosing “Properties” to modify them. The properties, I mean.

Try this on your wordpress blog.
Make a new post.
Type anything in the title field.
Type the words
“ftp” and “server” in the main text field you can type any other content too, but put those two words together and you will not be able to save your post.
Try to publish your test post.
Do you get the “Precondition Failed” error?
Update - I think it’s mod_security that causes that message. See
here
UPDATE:
See my newest post on this problem.

Wow. Here’s how I installed my blog software on my web site here in about twenty minutes.

I followed the instructions here at the wordpress wiki to install Wordpress 2.5 on my shared textdrive.com server. Here’s the standard instructions. It’s easy either way. I’ve installed WP three times now this year, and it’s never taken more than a few minutes to get the bare bones operating. . . Of course, setting up your theme or template and customizing your blog can never be all finished, but it sure is fun to learn CSS with the help of the google and the wordpress wiki.

And here’s more good news! The themes repository will soon be running a subversion database so your theme can be installed and updated in a similar, easy way! See http://themes.wordpress.net
Update:
The second painless upgrade I just performed on this wordpress blog
using subversion and instructions for which are here
required about five minutes including a quick database and theme backup. Now I am proudly and safely running Wordpress 2.6.1.