Linux Mint 10 Julia

Linux Mint 10 is here!  I installed the DVD version onto my 16GB Flash drive using the updates Universal USB installer 1.8.1.2.  I had to increase the primary partition to 1024MB (1GB) to accommodate the full DVD install.  I also created a new casper-rw partition on the remain space, plus modified the Shutdown Policy from USB.  I installed Adobe Acrobat Reader 9.4 and chntpw (both of which can be installed from Software Manager), and I still need to install a few other apps like Google Chrome and Filezilla.

I forgot to copy the DVD ISO to my drive last night so I am downloading while writing this post.  I plan on updating my production PC this week so I can run Windows 7 in a VM to provide support to my customers.  I don’t expect any problems with installing the new OS.  Just remember, always backup your data before installing a new OS.

 

Resize Virtual HDD in VirtualBox

Several weeks ago I created a VM of Windows Vista with SP2. It ran great on my Sager NP8690. Unfortunately when I created the virtual hard drive I made it a 20GB drive. After all the patches were installed, I was down to about 3GB free. So I read a few posts from VirtualBox Forums about how to resize the drive. Here are the steps I used from the post:

• Close you virtual machine, leave VirtualBox running.
• Create a new virtual hard drive with the new size (I went with a dynamic size with a maximum size of 80GB).
• Download Gparted-Live CD ISO file.
• Add the Gparted-Live CD ISO file as a new virtual CD in VirtualBox.
• Adjust your virtual machine settings to add the second larger hard drive and the Gparted-Live CD.
• Start the VM and boot from the Gparted-Live CD file.
• Choose all the defaults and wait for Gparted to start.
• Select the second hard drive and set the partition to msdos.
• Select the first hard drive, right click on the graph and select Copy.
• Select the second hard drive, right click on the graph and select Paste.
• This will take some time.
• Once completed, shutdown the VM.
• Adjust the settings for the VM by removing the old hard drive and the Gparted-LiveCD.  Add your Vista CD or ISO file.
• Boot the VM and press any key to start from the Vista CD.
• Select the option to Repair the OS.
• Once it repairs, reboot the VM and do not press any keys.  Vista should boot and run a check disk of the VM.

Now when I boot into Vista, I have a 80GB hard drive with plenty of free space.

Thanks to gushy and bwh1969 for the original posts.

Modified Linux Shutdown Policy running from USB

Several weeks ago I installed Linux Mint 9 on my 16GB USB Corsair jump drive.  I use it at work when I need to rescue a Windows PC (save a PC running Vista twice this month).  What I didn’t like was having to authenticate my account to shutdown the PC.  The system always displayed the message System policy prevents stopping the system when other users are logged in. I always had to log off first to shutdown the computer.

I found a fix at Len’s site which solved my problem.  I am posting the modified org.freedesktop.consolekit.policy at my box.net as a reference for myself.  Here are the step I used to fix the issue:

1. Open terminal and type gksu nautilis
2. Navigate to /usr/share/polkit-1/actions
3. Right click org.freedesktop.consolekit.policy and open with gedit
4. Scroll down to section org.freedesktop.consolekit.system.stop-multiple-users
5. At allow_active, replace auth_admin_keeps with yes
6. Scroll down to section org.freedesktop.consolekit.system.restart-multiple-users
7. At allow_active, replace auth_admin_keeps with yes

Now I am able to shutdown Linux Mint running from my USB jump drive.

Thanks to Marilen Aretius Corciovei for originally posting this fix.

BT Ubuntu 9.10 Desktop – Server

Today I tried to download the iso files for Ubuntu 9.10.  Needless to say it was taking hours.  At one point my computer said it would take 2 days to complete!  OK, time to switch to a Bit Torrent. (I am running Vuze on my home PC.)  I found the BT files for Ubtunu 9.10 Desktop and Server.  I had both iso files under 10 minutes. 

Some people might quit their session once the files are downloaded.  Not me, I’m keeping the feed going until I get home from work.  Tonight I will stop at the store, pickup a stack of CDRs and burn the iso files.  Since I have a lot on my plate this week, I might not get to try them out until Sunday November 1st.