2 Cent Tip – Dynamic rdesktop resolution.

By

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June 29, 2010

So occasionally I have to touch a Windows system, or use a Windows-only management tool (I’m looking at you VMware). I use the Open Source rdesktop utility to access the Windows machine using version 5.0 of the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP).

It’s a handy utility, but I really wish it would give me an appropriate resolution based on the current resolution of my laptop’s X Windows session. There is, in fact, a command line flag to alter the geometry of the remote desktop window. However, typing in ‘rdesktop -g 1280×1024 ‘ is much more tedious than typing in ‘rdesktop ‘ on the command line interface.

So the simple solution is to put an alias in the .bashrc file, like so…

rdesktop=’rdesktop -g 1280×1024′

However, on my laptop, the max resolution without an external monitor is 1440×900. So I still have to override the setting with ‘rdesktop -g 1280×1024‘ on the command line, any time I am running without an external monitor.

Another solution would be to use awk to find a smaller resolution from xrandr, then set that resolution in my rdesktop alias.

RDESKTOP_SIZE=`xrandr | awk ‘{getline; getline; getline; print $1; exit;}’`

alias rdesktop=’rdesktop -g $RDESKTOP_SIZE’

This awk command will skip the first three lines, from the xrandr output. That is two header lines, and the maximum resolution on the following line, which we’ll skip. I’ll take the next highest resolution and set that in the variable RDESKTOP_SIZE. Finally, I’ll use the variable $RDESKTOP_SIZE with the -g switch in rdesktop to properly set my alias.

Let’s say you have two big monitors plugged into a port replicator. Perhaps you only want the rdesktop window to cover part of one screen. The following code will keep my rdesktop window smaller than one of the 1920×1200 screens on a spanned 3840×1200 resolution.

RDESKTOP_SIZE=`xrandr | awk ‘{getline; getline; getline; print $1; exit;}’`

if [ $RDESKTOP_SIZE == “3840×1200” ]; then
RDESKTOP_SIZE=”1820×1100″
fi

alias rdesktop=’rdesktop -g $RDESKTOP_SIZE’

In other words, if I have two monitors at 1920×1200 each, their combined resolution is reported by xrandr as 3840×1200. I want to override the detected resolution to 100 pixels less than the resolution on one screen. Therefore I set the RDESKTOP_SIZE variable to 1820×1100, before setting my rdesktop alias in .bashrc.

Tutorial: 3 Excellent Command-linefus for Linux

By

LinuxPlanet

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June 28, 2010

Commandlinefu.com is a fun repository for storing and sharing shell commands with the rest of the world. Juliet Kemp shares three standout one-liners.

HTC Wildfire review

By

Engadget

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June 28, 2010

If phones could make babies, then this HTC Wildfire would indubitably be the love child of the Desire and Nexus One. But of course, the humdrum reality is that ’tis just an Android 2.1 replacement for the entry-level Tattoo — same 528MHz Qualcomm MSM7225 processor, 3.2-inch 320 x 240 capacitive LCD touchscreen instead of 2.8-inch resistive, 384MB RAM instead of 256MB, and a 5-megapixel camera instead of 3.2 (although quality matters more, obviously). So can this affordable handset provide enough bang for the buck to satisfy Europeans and Asians? Can the aging processor keep Sense UI well oiled?

Why the Eclipse Way Works So Well

By

DevX

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June 28, 2010

After seven consecutive years of release trains running on time, what is Eclipse doing right to coordinate and release so many projects at the same time? It all comes down to agility.

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Let’s Get Small: Linux Enables Low-Power, Space-Saving Systems

By

zonker

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June 28, 2010

A new crop of systems are coming to the data center, and they owe a lot of their heritage to Linux. Space and power are at a premium in today’s datacenter, and Linux will be the top choice for smaller and less power-hungry machines powering cloud computing.

A couple of systems have made the news recently that are targeting “scale out” cloud workloads, and Linux is likely to be the OS of choice on these systems. The SeaMicro SM10000 and the Quanta S2Q take different approaches, but the theory is the same: Cram a lot of low-powered cores into a system to handle workloads with massive amounts of small transactions. Sounds like a job for Linux!

The Quanta S2Q

According to Andy Patrizio on ServerWatch.com, the S2Q is a low-power and high-density machine that utilizes massively multicore CPUs. The S2Q is based on the TILEPro64, a RISC-based CPU with 64 cores on a chip running at 700MHz or 866MHz. According to ServerWatch, those cores are about as powerful as an Atom CPU.

The S2Q is rated for eight TILEPro64 chips, providing a whopping 512 cores per 2U server, addressing up to 64 DIMM slots. Targeted at cloud computing workloads, the S2Q won’t run off-the-shelf software. It doesn’t support the x86 instruction set, so software will need to be recompiled to run on the TILEPro64 chips. Bad news for Windows, good news for Linux. Not only is Linux tailor-made to work with cloud loads, it won’t be hard to get a LAMP stack up and running on these systems.

The SeaMicro SM10000

What do you get when you combine 512 Intel Atom processors in one system? It’s not the lead-in for a joke, it’s a new approach to saving space and power in the data center. SeaMicro, a company focusing on reducing power consumption for data centers, has rolled out a new system that takes up less space, less power, and is tailor-made for “scale out” workloads.

The first system from SeaMicro is the SM10000. The SM10000 is a server with 512 Atom Z530 CPUs, 1 Terabyte of RAM, up to 64 SATA drives, up to 64 Gigabit Ethernet ports. All that fits in 10U of space, which means that you can fit four units in a standard rack. According to the company, the system reduces power consumption by 75 percent when compared to forty dual socket quad core 1U systems and support hardware.

Even taking the vendor numbers with the requisite grain of salt, the SM10000 does look like it offers some interesting advantages over traditional systems.

Use Enough Dynamite There, Butch?

The current crop of server-specific CPUs are way more horsepower than necessary for many use cases. If you’re doing serious enterprise data transactions, you might need the latest 8-core CPUs. Companies that are handling heavy Web traffic, and thus a lot of small files, don’t need the same kind of processing power just to churn out Web pages.

Even underutilized, those beefy systems suck up a lot of power. The Atom CPUs, while less performant, also consume far less power. Expect to see companies exploring similar solutions with ARM and MIPS CPUs soon. The Atom is likely to remain the leading choice, though, since its x86 architecture means that most organizations will be able to run their existing software unchanged.

Aside from the swarm of Atom CPUs, the actual design of the system is what makes it really interesting. The SM10000 combines the servers with the networking infrastructure. The system includes the rack switch, terminal server, and load balancer in one tiny case.

Why It’s Important

The SM10000 is nice and all, but it clocks in at more than $130K. Pricing isn’t announced for the S2Q yet, but it’s not unreasonable to assume it won’t be cheap. Is it really worth the sticker shock to save money on some space and power?

In a word, yes. Companies that run their own data center soon find that as their computing needs expand, so do the space requirements. Eventually, you’re running out of room and looking at either expanding the data center (not cheap) or investing in smaller systems. If you’re renting space in a data center, investing in a smaller system that fits in 10U of space could result in significant savings as well.

And the power requirements are a major factor. Google did a study in 2007 that indicates that the cost of powering systems could cost more than the actual equipment over the life of the systems.

Cost isn’t everything. Some facilities are simply reaching capacity in terms of space and power availability. At that point, it doesn’t matter if the power costs are excessive or not — you have to deal with the space and power available.

Not for Everything

These machines aren’t going to be replacing commodity x86-64 servers for every use case. The servers are specifically designed for “scale out” workloads, and might not be appropriate for many types of computing. While the SM10000 may be ideal for cloud computing workloads, it may not be the ideal replacement for financial institutions or other workloads that require larger transactions. The TILEPro64 will require software to be recompiled, so it’ll be ideal for LAMP applications — but not for proprietary software without source code available.

The SM10000, S2Q, and similar systems also have a few disadvantages. Commodity x86 and x86-64 systems may slurp down more power, but they have the benefit of being commodity systems. Even if your vendor goes out of business tomorrow (highly unlikely if you’re getting systems from Dell, HP, etc.) you should be able to get replacement parts for those systems.

Since these systems are composed of non-standard parts, CIOs have to decide whether to take the risk on non-standard systems. If SeaMicro or Quanta don’t make the long haul, what to do with those systems if a vital component goes belly up? You’re not just losing a server, you might lose the entire system.

Approaching an Atom Age?

Are low-powered chips going to take over the data center? It seems unlikely, but I do expect to see variations on these systems carving out a niche for Web hosts and companies with the “scale out” workloads.

These systems will need to prove themselves in the datacenter before they’ll become common-place. But the SM10000 and S2Q could be the fore-runners for a new breed of Linux-powered systems that will scale-out loads in data centers in the near future.

Intel ups tablet ammo with MeeGo, Android 2.2 for x86

By

The Linux Foundation

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June 28, 2010

Software development for portable devices and tablet PCs is ramping up in a big way at Intel with the processor giant now backing Google’s Android for x86 computers alongside its own MeeGo operating system.

Back in April it had ported Android to Atom-based smartphones as part of a strategy to enable all operating systems for Atom phones.

Since then the collaboration between Intel and Nokia on MeeGo bore fruit with the for netbooks.

Growing pains afflict HTML5 standardization

By

CNET

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June 28, 2010

Listening to marketing messages from companies such as Apple and Google, one might think HTML5, the next-generation Web page standard, is ready to take the Net by storm.

But the words of those producing the specification show an HTML governance process that can be stormy, fractious, and far from settled down. The World Wide Web Consortium‘s return to HTML standardization after years of absence has produced tensions with the more informal Web Hypertext Application Working Group (WHATWG) that shouldered the HTML burden during that absence.

Droid 2 rumored to be launching August 23rd with Android 2.2

By

Engadget

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June 28, 2010

We’ve certainly gotten a peak at quite a few Droid 2 details so far, but word of a release date has unfortunately never been among them. That now looks to have changed, however, with the folks at Android and Me reporting that a “trustworthy source” has informed them that the phone will be launching on August 23rd. According to the site, that date was apparently chosen so the Droid 2 would be the first phone to ship with Android 2.2 out of the box, although that of course remains to be confirmed (current test versions of the Droid 2 are said to be running Android 2.1). If recent rumors pan out, however, the Droid 2 wouldn’t be the first Droid to make the jump to Froyo — the original Droid is said to be getting the update in “late July,” while the Droid X will have to wait until late August.

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Palm shareholders approve HP takeover plans

By

ZDNet

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June 28, 2010

Palm stockholders at a special meeting on Friday approved plans for the company’s acquisition by HP, according to an SEC filing.

Easy backup in a Windows/Linux network with RSync

By

Andrea Benini

-

June 28, 2010

This time I’d like to show you a really easy backup method using open source solutions as usual.

I mainly work as a network administrator in a company, keeping services running and having an efficient network is my primary task. One of my big troubles in the network is not related to servers or network physical backbone, troubles comes frequently from users and client desktop PCs, mainly Windows machines.

Problems are divided in two different categories: hardware and software failures; crappy PCs nowadays are frequent and cheap hardware is always a problem, software failures are mainly related to the operating system (mainly XP and Vista, no 7 in my net yet).

You cannot mess with hardware, you can try to buy better PCs or from well known hw manufacturers but if you’re trying to recycle old PCs sometimes you run into troubles. Hard Disks are one of my biggest point of failuires. Operating system and mostly user misconfigurations also drives you to every kind of mess, in a regular network like mine corporate users don’t have custom or strange apps, they’re using Office Automation tools and few more; real problems comes from user custom data, not always backed up as it should be (“what are backups ?”) and always locally stored on workstation hard disk even if they’re not allowed to do it.
This solution covers data backup only, I don’t care about applications setup, operating system setup or something more, just only data backup. In my case, in my network, operating system setup takes me just an hour and applications needed are only Office Automation tools as I told you before. One tool comes in mind to me to achieve this kind of backup: “rsync“.

Here are main benefits:

You don’t need to install additional software or tools in each client, rsync app compiled with cygwin comes with few dll dependencies, no install required
It comes for free, just deploy GPLv2 file with the license along with rsync files
no strange windows config on it, just need to schedule a task to run rsync periodically, windows scheduler is enough for running this kind of task
you don’t need to rely on windows auth, permissions, samba, Active Directory or whatever
you only need a network and rsync server. RSYNC servers are really easy to setup, you can run them on linux (my choice) or windows or whatever you want
you’ve plenty of options for easy setup from client side as well as from server side

Next:
RSync server side config on linux platform

Steps:
Easy backup with RSync, introduction
RSync server side config on linux platform
Linux RSync client side configuration
Windows RSync client side configuration

Hope it helps

Andrea (Ben) Benini