Linux Mint 17 was just released. It is a Long Term Support (LTS) release and will be supported until 2019. I would love to upgrade to it. I’ve tried, but on my system its simply too buggy. My network board, a TP-Link TL-WN951N, which was supported by Linux Mint 16 simply does not work in LM 17. So, if I use a different network interface I can get LM 17 installed, but if I apply any updates then my system will refuse to boot. I’ve tried LM 17 x64 with Xfce, MATE, and Connamon destops. All to no avail.

On July 1 Linux Mint 16 (and Ubuntu 13.10) support ends. What does this mean, and what can I do about it? What I did was install Linux Mint 13 over Linux Mint 16 since LM 13 is supported until 2017.

What end of support means is:

• the repositories such as archive.ubuntu.com and security.ubuntu.com will stop getting any updates for the old release
• repository tools (apt-get, update manager, etc..) will start showing errors
• after a time (weeks, months?) the repositories will get moved to http://old-releases.ubuntu.com.

If you wish to keep LM 16 (or any other unsupported version) what you can do is edit the repository list. The one to edit depends on your Linux Mint version:

• /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list (Linux Mint 15+)
• /etc/apt/sources.list (Linux Mint < 15)

Its the Ubuntu repositories that change. The Linux Mint ones do not.

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#  comment these lines after the release is abandoned
deb http://packages.linuxmint.com petra main upstream import  #id:linuxmint_main
deb http://extra.linuxmint.com petra main #id:linuxmint_extra

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu saucy main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu saucy-updates main restricted universe multiverse

deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ saucy-security main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ saucy partner

#  uncomment these lines after the release is abandoned
# deb http://packages.linuxmint.com petra main upstream import  #id:linuxmint_main
# deb http://extra.linuxmint.com petra main #id:linuxmint_extra

# deb http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu saucy main restricted universe multiverse
# deb http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu saucy-updates main restricted universe multiverse

# deb http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ saucy-security main restricted universe multiverse
# deb http://old-releases.canonical.com/ubuntu/ saucy partner

# Optional
#deb http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ saucy-backports main restricted universe multiverse

Due to all the stability problems I’ve been having with Wordpress running on my Raspberry Pi, I have decided to ditch Wordpress and move this web site’s platform over to Octopress. All I can say is: I should have done this a long time ago.

If you get this error when running rake (e.g. rake preview):
Could not find a JavaScript runtime. See https://github.com/sstephenson/execjs for a list of available runtimes. (ExecJS::RuntimeUnavailable)

This will fix it:
sudo apt-get install nodejs

There are a few important links I should list:

• 3rd party plugins
• 3rd Party Octopress Themes
• Migrating Content from WordPress to Octopress/Jekyll
• Markdown: Syntax
• Changing Octopress’s Header
• How to Install a Custom Theme on Octopress

Anyway, I am not done configuring this. It took some time to hand tweak all of my Wordpress posts to markdown format, which is what Octopress is based on. When I’m relatively finished with the migration I’ll make another post.

This is my current list of ToDo items, not necessarily in any order:

• install a categories plugin
• get a banner installed
• change the theme and colors

After updating the version of MySQL running on my Raspberry Pi, there have been problems with MySQL going down. Of course when that happens WordPress cannot connect to its database and you’ll see an error message instead of my web site. I’ll get this fixed when I have time. I’ve been so busy lately, and tonight I’m too tired again. When this web site works consistently again, then you’ll know the problem has been corrected. Well, its not as if I have a high volume site in the first place..

Of liberty I would say that, in the whole plenitude of its extent, it is unobstructed action according to our will. But rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add “within the limits of the law,” because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual.  

(excerpt from Thomas Jefferson’s Letter to Isaac H. Tiffany, April 4, 1819)

As of today, this site is being run on a Raspberry Pi. Pretty cool, huh?  

This is what it looks like:

Floor Jansen’s era in Nightwish has arrived.

Very simple.

First you will need to log into as the db admin user account.  On Linux the default database admin user is “postgres”.

To back up:

To back up the database (structure+data):

pg_dump -U postgres DBNAME -f dbname.sql

To back up the database (structure only):

pg_dump -s -U postgres DBNAME -f dbname.sql

To back up the only the structure for a specific schema:

pg_dump -s -U postgres -n schema_name DBNAME -f dbname.sql

To restore:

psql -U postgres -d DBNAME -f ./dbname.sql

Thats all folks!

Easy to do. Boot from an Ubuntu CD and type:

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sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install lilo
sudo lilo -M /dev/sda mbr

From Windows.  Boot from a Windows repair CD and type:

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bootrec /mbr

Its been a little over three weeks since the Obamacare exchange website, healthcare.gov, was opened to the public. In case you didn’t know, those who are required to, have until December 15 to sign up for Obamacare or pay a penalty (aka TAX). So how, exactly, do you sign up for something on a web site when the web site doesn’t work?  Want to take any bets that the website will still be broken by the December 15 deadline? This reminds me of a good book that no one in the business of writing code should be without: Death March by Edward Yourdon

This is Amazon’s description of the book:

Historically, all software projects have involved a certain degree of risk and pressure – but many of the projects in today’s chaotic business environment involve such intense pressure that they are referred to colloquially as “death-march” projects – i.e., projects whose schedules are so compressed, and/or whose budgets, or resource (people) assignments are so constrained, that the only “obvious” way to succeed is for the entire team to work 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, with no vacations until the project is finished. While the corporate goal of such projects is to overcome impossible odds and achieve miracles, the personal goal of the project manager and team members often shrinks down to mere survival: keeping one’s job, maintaining some semblance of a relationship with one’s spouse and children, and avoiding a heart attack or ulcer.

It’s not that the web site developers were short staffed, or that they were short of money.  How much was spent on this FUBAR-ed web site?  $94+ million?  No, what the problems point to is poor management, engineering and development.  There is no amount of money or engineers that can be thrown at this project that will correct it as the problems run far deeper than that.  As Yourdon’s Death March points out, this approach will only add to the confusion and make matters worse.

Sit back and watch the power of a clueless bureaucracy at work folks.  This is going to get ugly.