workaround.for.mounted.samba.shares.io.error

Hi everyone, before blogging any further I'd like to congratulate DabaweGNU along with FOSS Nepal Community and SFD Nicaragua for bagging Software Freedom Day 2008's Best Event Award. I'm pretty sure this recognition will further encourage DabaweGNU and other organizers to do even better next time. Moreover, this will definitely boost support for FOSS and assure a bigger audience next SFD. Each of the winning organizations will also receive a pair of OLPC laptops...can't wait to take it for a spin :)

>>DabaweGNU team report

Now back to the topic at hand, I visited a client the other day and they reported a problem with saving documents in OpenOffice (Writer in particular). This client recently decided to migrate some of their windows PCs to Linux and as expected there are bumps along the way, I will be talking about specific software related issues and how it can be mitigated. This would also serve as reference for future projects where I might encounter the same issue.

When saving a document to a mounted samba share(mounted remote folders) Writer issues an I/O error, creates the file and prevents the user from further saving the document. This issue seems to be isolated in Intrepid Ibex (Ubuntu 8.10) because I don't recall encountering this in Hardy. You can however save the file locally and then drag (copy+paste) the file to the mounted folder, also if the folder is mounted via nautilus the bug does not occur. So naturally that was the work around, the problem was that my client wants to be able to save directly to the remote folder without having to manually mount the share via nautilus (I know what you're thinking...its only a 3 step thing but hey they want it done!). So here is how I temporarily solved the problem ( the permanent fix is to wait for the samba fix to be included in the repos).

1. Disable the samba mount definition in /etc/fstab by inserting a hashmark(#) at the start of the definition (this is specific to my client because I had setup the system to automount the samba shares)
2. Nautilus like most linux apps accepts commandline parameters so we are going to use that to our advantage simply create a script to automate that.
   
   

    sudo nano /home/<user_name>/mountshare.sh
   

   
   Type the following lines
   

   
   #/bin/sh
   nautilus smb://<ip/hostname>/<share_name>
   

   
   Save the script.
   
   
3. Make the script executable
   • chmod +x mount_share.sh


4. Add an entry to the current session so it is executed on startup. System --> Administration -->Sessions --> Add Entry. Browse and point to /home/mount_share.sh
   

Hope this snippet helps those with similar issues...at least until the bug is fixed.

linux.pimping

Hello folks, I'm once again encouraging everyone to shift or at least try Ubuntu. The recent release (Ubuntu 8.10), although not perfect, is very good and quite easy to use.

A few years back I had Mandrake installed, along with Windows, in a home PC. I forgot to set the default boot option to back to Windows so it boots with Mandrake every time its turned on. My father, a casual computer user, turned the PC on and was surprised that it didn't looked quite like Windows. He assumed that I simply changed the Windows theme to make it look different. He didn't mind that the boot screen say "Mandrake Linux", he didn't mind that the icons were totally different, he didn't care that the 'Start' button had a star on it. What he care about thought was looking for something that says "Word" because he needed to type a document. He saw KWord, launched it and typed away. When I got back he only asked if I had changed the "theme" because it looked way different. So there I was surprised that my father is a now a Linux user without him knowing it, plus he actually printed the document and shown it to me. I can never forget that incident and that's precisely why I smirk whenever I hear people say Linux is hard to use and why I believe that given the right mix (as in the case of Ubuntu) Linux can definitely be successful as a desktop OS as well (Linux has been enjoying its rule in the server OS space for years).

I've always been eager to promote the use of Linux as a desktop OS ever since Ubuntu's Dapper release (6.10). It was, in my opinion, the first distro release that made it easy (at least for me) to make an ordinary computer user actually sit down and use it. The next releases made my Linux pimping life even better. Just think of the benefits, it's advanced, it's virtually immune to viruses (yup, no need to buy an anti-virus), totally customizable, fat free (meaning none of the usual bloat-ware you get from bundled software packages), it's a good way to start a conversation unless you still prefer to talk about the weather in which case there is even a widget for that :) , and most of all it's free!

Download the latest Ubuntu release and try it for yourself. If you're around Davao City feel free to drop by (PM me first) bring a CD/DVD and I'll burn a copy for you. We can even talk about it while sipping a cup o' joe (and yes the coffee is free too).