Multi-Monitor with One screen rotated with Nvidia Drivers - Ubuntu 12.10

I have this monitor and computer sitting on my right for a while now, and as you can see, the screen is rotated so it's in portrait mode. Not only is it great for Tweetdeck, it's also awesome for reading various API docs while I'm working.

I'd tried a few times to set this up with the Nvidia driver, but could never get it to work, and would just give up and use the Nouveau driver, as it was very simple to set up the way I would like.

I decided to come back at this, and did some reading around, and discovered the following solution (I've since lost the link on the Ubuntu forum that pointed this out, if anyone finds it, please add to the comments).

1. Open Nvidia Settings and set up your monitors using Twinview as you would like them positioned, and hit apply.
2. Open the Displays application (the one in the System Settings application), select the window you want to rotate, change it's rotation in the rotate dropdown, and hit apply.
3. Go back to Nvidia Settings and save your configuration to your xorg.conf

That should be about it! Now you have 1 screen rotated!

ColdFusion 10 with Ubuntu Upstart

Setting up ColdFusion 10 on an Ubuntu Server, and as per usual, the installation option to start up ColdFusion when the server starts does not work on Linux.

So I wondered how hard it would be to set this up using Upstart, and it was surprisingly easy with a few bit of trial and error.

This is what I would eventually came up with:

Unfortunately, I would like this to respawn if it somehow dies, and it doesn't look like this style of setting up will work for that.

Anyone else tried this? What did you come up with?

Some arguments against "Linux users don't pay for software"

As many people probably know, I'm a huge proponent of Linux operating systems, most specifically Ubuntu, not only because its open source, and free, but mostly because I honestly believe it's the best operating system I've ever come across.

For obvious reasons, I spend a bit of time trying to convince a variety of people that Adobe should take a serious look at bringing Adobe products to Linux, the most notable being ColdFusion Builder.

One argument (and there are a few) against this, I hear over and over is this idea that "Linux Users don't pay for software".


Recently, however, the "Humble Indie Bundle", was put up for sale, in which 5 cross platform games (Win, Mac, Linux) were sold together as a group. The real time data for sales and the operating system splits has been shared, providing us with a wonderful aggregate data about the difference between Win, Mac and Linux users, how much they are willing to pay for software, and if they are willing to pay at all.

The fun part of this experiment was that the customer could choose how much they paid for the bundle, which could be as little, or as much as people liked.  It also could be split any way between the developers, charity, or charity and the developers.

Some interesting stats to note (Taken from the real time stats as of this moment):

1) Current intake across Win, Mac, and Linux - $1,173,536 (which is just cool in and of itself)
2) Windows has the largest market share (no surprise there), with 86670 purchases.
3) Linux is the smallest number of purchases, with 21873 purchases, but that is only 8153 purchases, less than the Mac platform - 30026
4) The big news here is that Linux people paid more on average than either Mac, or Windows users.

I don't think you can ask for a better experiment than this.  If Linux users wouldn't pay for software, then they would be at the bottom of the list in terms of amount paid. Instead that's where Windows users sit.

Details of the Humble Indie Bundle can be seen here:
http://www.wolfire.com/humble

Their realtime JSON feed can be found here as well:
http://www.wolfire.com/humble/stats

(And they are some cool games as well)

On another note, Valve have announced that they are releasing their Steam Source Code client to Linux. This is a huge boon to the Linux community, and while there are no dates yet, obviously Valve thinks there are people in the Linux community who will pay for software, otherwise they wouldn't be putting in the time and effort.

Therefore, you can quite clearly see that Linux users will, and do pay for software, and in fact put a higher cost on software than any other OS's user base.

I claim this myth well and truly busted.

No more Linux scripts for ColdFusion Builder

A few people have asked me about the ColdFusion Builder scripts for Linux for the new 1.0.

I'm sorry to say that I won't be doing a script for ColdFusion Builder on Linux for the 1.0 release.

I tried this morning to run my usual scripts to get a plugin install out of ColdFusion builder, which ran fine, but after installing and attempting to run it, I was met with a dreaded:

!ENTRY com.adobe.ide.editor.cfml 4 0 2010-03-23 09:39:50.110
!MESSAGE

Whenever I opened a CFML file (which doesn't tell me much about what is going on where).

There is obviously something native built into ColdFusion Builder 1.0, that wasn't present in Beta 3 (I can see some .dll's etc), which is causing this error to occur.  Adobe have also done the right thing, and removed all the debugging so that would be hackers have a hard time working out what is going on where.

If you want to get involved in evangelising ColdFusion Builder on Linux, there are some things you can do:

1. Vote for the bug!
2. Vote for the Flash Builder bug too (if they do one, they will have to do the other!)
3. Bug your evangelists! (But do it in a nice way)  Conference season is coming up, so have a chat with them when you see them around, and let them know that you would buy a copy for Linux.
4. Run it in VMWare / VirtualBox
   
5. Change your OS of choice (ECH!)
   

At the end of the day, I'm only upset about there being no Linux version, because I think ColdFusion Builder is a great product, and I want it to have as much exposure as it can.  We need to convince Adobe that the Linux market is a viable one, and will have a good return on investment.

If I hear of any changes in the Linux landscape for ColdFusion Builder, I'll be sure to let you know.

ColdFusion Builder Beta 3 on Linux

ColdFusion Builder 3 is up on Labs , and available for download, so it's now time to update my scripts for getting it up and running on Linux.

The procedure is as following:

1. Download the intermediate build *for MAC* (very important! The Windows Adobe Licensing will prevent you from using the Windows version any more, as it uses .dll files, and those don’t work on Linux, but the Mac version works on Linux!)
2. Download coldfusion_builder_b3.zip .
3. Unzip coldfusion_builder_b3.zip into a directory
4. Unzip coldfusionbuilder_b3_install_mac_121709.zip
5. Unzip /cfbuilder_install.app/Contents/Resources/cfbuilder_install.app/Contents/Resources/Java/Disk1/InstData/Resource1.zip (may be easier to do that into another folder)
6. From the unzipping of Resource1.zip grab /Z_/dist/_macos_87b1877cbdff_zg_ia_sf.jar and put it in the same folder as where you unzipped coldfusion_builder_b3.zip
7. Run ’./Rip.py’ from the folder you unzipped it to.
8. You should now have a ’plugins’ and ’features’ folder with just the bits you need to install into Eclipse.
9. Enjoy CF Builder in Linux :D

Enjoy!

ColdFusion Builder Beta 2 on Linux

For those of you who have been running ColdFusion Builder on Linux, you may have noticed that the installer structure has changed since the last public beta, which means that my previous instructions will no longer work.

This means we have to jump through some different hoops to get things to work this time around.

The steps are now the following:

• Download the Windows version of ColdFusion Builder
• Download my cfbuilder_builder.zip file and unzip it somewhere
• Unzip the windows installer like so: 'unzip cfbuilder_windows_public_beta2.exe'
• Under InstallerData/Disk1/InstData/ you will find Resource.zip
• Unzip Resources.zip
• Under Resource1/Z_/dist/ you will find _windows_fe4d6d02bcbb_zg_ia_sf.jar
• Copy _windows_fe4d6d02bcbb_zg_ia_sf.jar to the same directory you unzipped cfbuilder_builder.zip to (and should now have Rip.py and plugins.txt in it)
• Run 'python Rip.py', and wait.
• You should now have 2 folders in that directory 'plugins' and 'features', which you can now copy into your eclipse directory to do a plugin install.

As new versions of ColdFusion Builder become public, I will attempt to keep this script up to date.

 

Installing ColdFusion Builder Beta on Linux

UPDATE (21 October 2009): This will no longer work with Beta 2 of ColdFusion builder. If you are looking for a more up to date technique for installing ColdFusion Builder on Linux, please see this post .

---

So I’ve managed to hack my way to getting Bolt installed on Linux, and it wasn’t quite as painful as I thought it was going to be.  It is essentially a pure plug-in install, but we have to jump though a few hoops to get the plug-in itself.

I would suggest starting with a clean installation of Eclipse 3.4.2, with a clean workspace, just to make sure there are no major issues.

Here are the steps you need to reproduce:

• Download ColdFusion Builder for Windows. I used 32 bit, but I don't think it matters.
• in the terminal run: unzip cfbuilder_{your version}.exe, to extract all the content.
  (Update 16/09/09, as Universal Extractor isn't actually needed, see comments)
• Install Universal Extractor - http://legroom.net/software/uniextract
  (I installed under CrossOver office, and it worked a treat, should work under Wine)
• Extract the data from bolt.exe (I extracted to /tmp/bolt), using Universal Extractor
• Extract /tmp/bolt/InstallerData/Disk1/InstData/Resource1.zip, (I extracted to /tmp/Resource1/)
  
• Under /tmp/Resource1/Z_/dist/installer you will find ’installerdist_zg_ia_sf.jar’
• Unzip this .jar file, you will find the /plugins and /features directories you need for a plugin install on Eclipse.
  
• Extract those 2 directories into your Eclipse installation.
  
• If you want the CF Builder Extension Samples, you can find them inside /tmp/Resource1/Z_/installer as ’samples_zg_ia_sf.jar’.  Open up that archive and there they are!
• Fire up Eclipse, and you should now find you have a ColdFusion perspective!
  

So far, there is only 1 annoying bug I’ve found. 

When using CTRL+J to insert a snippet, it inserts perfectly, however, I find I have to click outside of Eclipse, and then back into Eclipse with my mouse before I can edit again (very weird, I know).  It's annoying, but I can work around it.

Hopefully we can provide enough free testing for ColdFusion Beta on Linux, and prove we have a large enough user base, that we can get supported on Linux.

Make sure any bugs you run into are reported to the ColdFusion Builder Bug Tracker page, so that Adobe is aware of them.

Installing Railo with Resin and Apache on Ubuntu Server

This took me the better part of a Saturday to get figured out, so I figured I would share it with you all.

There seem to be a few guides out there for installing Railo on RedHat based Linux distro's, but nothing for Debian based ones, so it was a bit of hunting around and trying things out to get this working.

I'm doing this all from my notes, which may not be perfect, so if I miss anything out, or have a typo, please let me know, and I will amend them.

1. On your ubuntu server, run:
   sudo apt-get install build-essential apache2 sun-java6-jdk apache2-threaded-dev
   This will install all the pieces you need for Apache, Java, and compiling.
   
2. Download Railo Server, the All OS version, without the JRE. (I tend to grab the .tar.gz version)
3. I like to untar the Railo archive in /opt, but it doesn't make a huge amount of difference, so
   cd /opt
sudo tar -xf ~/railo-3.0.2.001-resin-3.1.2-without-jre.tar.gz
   
4. I also like to make a symbolic 'railo' link to the install, just for convenience, and make it so my user owns it.
   sudo ln -s railo-3.0.2.001-resin-3.1.2-without-jre railo
sudo chown -R {your username} railo
   
5. Now we have actually got Resin and Railo installed, lets make sure they work, run:
   /opt/railo/bin/httpd.sh
   
6. Go to: http://{yourLinuxBox}:8600/, and you should see the Railo test page, with a link to the administrator.
   
7. Assuming the admin ran as expected, we get to compile the Apache connector, which is actually far simpler than you would think. Run:
   cd /opt/railo
#we don't need to specify java-home, as apt takes care or it
./configure --with-apxs=/usr/bin/apxs2
make
#have to use sudo, as it installs the caucho apache module for us
sudo make install
   
8. Restart apache
   sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
9. If you browse to http://{yourLinuxBox}/ you should see the railo test index.cfm
10. If you browser to http://{yourLinuxBox}/caucho-status, you will see the status of the caucho module
11. Browsing to http://railo/railo-context/admin/index.cfm will take you to the Railo admin.
12. Now edit /opt/railo/conf/resin.conf, and set up <host> entries that match your Apache virtual hosts. This allows the Caucho module to know where to send the appropriate .cfm and .cfc requests.
    For example, I like to run each of my CF projects on a seperate port, so my resin.conf <host> entries look like:
    <host id="railo:71" root-directory="/mnt/hgfs/wwwroot/test">
    <web-app id="/" root-directory=""/>
</host>
13. Resin will restart itself whenever it detects the resin.conf file has been changed, so if that hasn't happened, just hit a .cfm page again, it usually wakes it up.
14. That's it... that should get you up and running with Resin and Railo on Ubuntu pretty quickly!

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.  I'm not a Railo guru, but if I can help, I will.

Installing Oracle XE on Ubuntu

This is more a note to myself, as I seem to forget this step whenever I am installing Oracle XE on an Ubuntu server.

As well as all the usual suspects (build-essential, linux-header-server, etc), also remember to install:

• libaio1
• libaio-dev
• bc

Either that, or if you feel like downloading a random 200MB, you can install it from the Oracle repositories.

Now excuse me, while I go beat myself over the head for spending hours trying to work out why Oracle wasn't working.

Should I run ColdFusion 8 on Ubuntu Server on my new VPS?

I've been given the opportunity to have my VPS where I am currently hosting, with the free choice of OS, and pretty much any set up I want.

My initial thought was to set it up on Ubuntu server, simply because, since switching to Ubuntu as my primary OS, I am far more familiar with it as a Linux platform than I ever could be on a RedHat based one.

Now, I know that Ubuntu is not a supported platform, however -

1) I've been running CF8 on Ubuntu for development, and had 0 issues, from installation to use.
2) It's my VPS, so I'm happy to have a bit of an experiment.
3) I really don't feel like learning CentOS (Yeah.. I know.. lazy).

What do you guys reckon?  Anyone been running CF8 on a Debian based distro, and faced any issues? Can anyone think of any issues that could trip me up?

Installing ColdFusion 7 on Ubuntu Feisty Fawn

I'm not going to say that I'm a hardcore Linux user, but I found that this was the simplest way to install ColdFusion 7 on Ubuntu, with the least amount of fuss.

I've skipped describing any step in which you have your own options which are up to you, or the default specification is fine.

Hope you find it useful.

1. Download coldfusion-702-lin.bin from www.adobe.com/coldfusion
2. Install apache2 using
   sudo apt-get install apache2
3. Make sure you can compile things by installing:
   sudo apt-get install build-essential
4. Rename the coldfusion-702-lin.bin to coldfusion-702-lin.bak
5. We run the usual replace command on the binary
   # cat coldfusion-702-lin.bak | sed "s/export LD_ASSUME_KERNEL/#xport LD_ASSUME_KERNEL/" > coldfusion-702-lin.bin
6. I like to put my help files in /var/www - so, give me permission to do what I want to it:
   sudo chown <your user name> /var/www

7. Run the newly made installer
   sudo ./coldfusion-702-lin.bin

   1. Choose Server Configuration
   2. Add web server Configuration
      
      1. Apache
         
         1. What directory contains your Apache configuration file:
            /etc/apache2
         2. Where is the Apache program binary file?:
            /usr/sbin/apache2
         3. Where is the control file that you use to start and stop the Apache web server?:
            /etc/init.d/apache2

   3. Choose ColdFusion MX Administrator Location:
      /var/www
   4. Enter the name of the runtime user:
      Enter the name of the user that you set to own /var/www
8. Download the hotfix wsconfig.jar for Apache 2.2 support and install it as per the instructions.
9. gedit /opt/coldfusionmx7/bin/connectors/apache_connector.sh and change the wsconfig to:
   ../../runtime/bin/wsconfig \
    -server coldfusion \
    -ws apache \
    -dir /etc/apache2 \
    -bin /usr/sbin/apache2 \
    -script /etc/init.d/apache2 \
     -coldfusion

exit $#
10. Start ColdFusion
    sudo /opt/coldfusion/bin/coldfusion start
11. There will be an error about the connector - do not worry about it
12. Run the apache connector
    cd /opt/coldfusionmx7/bin/connectors/
sudo ./apache_connector.sh
13. Browser to: http://localhost/cfide/administrator/index.cfm
14. Rename cfmx-connectors.sh, so we never see that error message again
    cd /opt/coldfusionmx7/bin
mv cfmx-connectors.sh cfmx-connectors-run.sh
15. You are complete!
    

Now that you've seen all that, it's nice to know that ColdFusion 8 installs seamlessly with Apache 2.2 right out of the box.