Life with Linux

One way of testing the speed of your network connection is to use netcat and pv (adapted from a post by Shawn Willden)

On Ubuntu/Debian you can install netcat and pv by doing:


sudo apt-get install pv
sudo apt-get install netcat (could be already installed)


After the installation, on machine A run:

netcat -ulp 5000 > /dev/null

This sets up a UDP listener on port 5000 and directs the output to /dev/null. Use UDP for this to avoid the overhead of TCP.

On machine B, run:

pv < /dev/zero | nc -u <ip_or_hostname_of_machine_A> 5000

where "ip_or_hostname_of_machine_A" is the hostname or IP address of the listening machine A.

This will start a stream of zero-filled packets across the network to machine A, and pv will print out an ongoing report on the speed at which the zeros are flowing.

Let it run for a while and watch the performance.

For a Gigabit network the numbers you're getting should be over 100 MB/s. The theoretical limit on a Gig-E network is around 119 MBps.

Do the same thing without the "-u" options to test TCP performance. It'll be lower, but should still be knocking on 100 MBps. To get it closer to the UDP performance, you may want to look into turning on jumbo frames.

I installed VMware Server Console 1.0.6 on Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy and received the
following error:


/usr/lib/vmware-server-console/bin/vmware-server-console: /usr/lib/vmware-server-console/lib/libgcc_s.so.1/libgcc_s.so.1: version `GCC_3.4' not found (required by /usr/lib/libcairo.so.2)
/usr/lib/vmware-server-console/bin/vmware-server-console: /usr/lib/vmware-server-console/lib/libgcc_s.so.1/libgcc_s.so.1: version `GCC_4.2.0' not found (required by /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6)
/usr/lib/vmware-server-console/bin/vmware-server-console: /usr/lib/vmware-server-console/lib/libgcc_s.so.1/libgcc_s.so.1: version `GCC_3.4' not found (required by /usr/lib/libcairo.so.2)
/usr/lib/vmware-server-console/bin/vmware-server-console: /usr/lib/vmware-server-console/lib/libgcc_s.so.1/libgcc_s.so.1: version `GCC_4.2.0' not found (required by /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6)
/usr/lib/vmware-server-console/bin/vmware-server-console: /usr/lib/vmware-server-console/lib/libgcc_s.so.1/libgcc_s.so.1: version `GCC_3.4' not found (required by /usr/lib/libcairo.so.2)
/usr/lib/vmware-server-console/bin/vmware-server-console: /usr/lib/vmware-server-console/lib/libgcc_s.so.1/libgcc_s.so.1: version `GCC_4.2.0' not found (required by /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6)


Removing /usr/lib/vmware-server-console/lib/libgcc_s.so.1/libgcc_s.so.1 solved the problem.

sudo rm /usr/lib/vmware-server-console/lib/libgcc_s.so.1/libgcc_s.so.1

Thanks Rich Renomeron for the tip!

Recentemente colocaram-me esta pergunta. A resposta esta aqui.
Para os que apenas necessitam de uma versão abreviada, partindo do principio que a fonte a instalar esta em "~", aqui vão os comandos:

cd /usr/share/fonts/truetype
sudo mkdir myfonts
cd myfonts
sudo cp ~/*.ttf .
sudo chown root.root *.ttf
sudo mkfontdir
cd ..
fc-cache

Just got a brand new, totally clean, Dell D630 to try Linux on! :)
Follow the adventure on the new blog!

Well folks, here goes nothing! :)
I'm starting my Car PC project. Nowadays everybody seems to have one!
The plan is to build a multimedia system for my car, with full internet capabilities.
The control is done by a touchscreen and all development will be done on a virtual machine and then all updates will be downloaded (like most OSses nowadays anyway).
At the end I hope to have:

- Full internet access in the car (via a GPRS connection)
- Music
- Pictures
- Videos and Movies (to display for other passengers, not the driver!)
- GPS location. Been able to display were I am (via google maps) and then upload my position to the web in real time (for other to know where I am)
- Skype Phone, with dial-in number
- Weather forecast (via Weather Underground) and real time Rain Map (via Met Met Éireann) as it rains a lot around here!
- Internet Radio so I can listen to Irish and Portuguese radio stations with good quality. I also wish to be able to pause live radio if a call comes in
- Done in Ubuntu (because that's what I know best!)
- Full touchscreen interface

Feel free to comment people!