install-info: No dir file specified; try --help for more information.

First, the problem.

I was trying to do sudo apt-get upgrade when it stopped on me giving this error

Setting up findutils (4.4.0-3) ...
install-info: No dir file specified; try --help for more information.
dpkg: error processing findutils (--configure):
subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
findutils
W: No priority (or zero) specified for pin
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Well, I tried googling it up, without considerable success. Finally, I found this on Debian Bug report logs.

Apparently, there are packages named install-info. One, a GNU version, another, a Debian provided package.

The-Matrix% whereis install-info
install-info: /usr/sbin/install-info /usr/local/bin/install-info /usr/share/man/man8/install-info.8.gz
The-Matrix% /usr/sbin/install-info --version
Debian install-info version 1.14.25.

Copyright (C) 1994,1995 Ian Jackson.
This is free software; see the GNU General Public Licence version 2 or
later for copying conditions. There is NO warranty.
The-Matrix% /usr/local/bin/install-info --version
install-info (GNU texinfo) 4.13

Copyright (C) 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

And they have problems. The idea of replacing the Debian's version with the GNU's has been forwarded, but I'm not sure of the progress. For all I care, the problem hasn't been solved.

As the link provided says, "It is not Debian's fault if someone has GNU's install-info in
$PATH before /usr/sbin/install-info - don't mess with the packaging system,
you'll just get in trouble."

Now, the solution.

Get the /usr/sbin into the $PATH variable before /usr/local/bin, or essentially, do something that would get dpkg to find the Debian's version of install-info. I did the latter, leaving $PATH as it was. Just renamed the GNU's version of install-info

The-Matrix% sudo mv /usr/local/bin/install-info /usr/local/bin/install-info-gnu

And it works. ;)

The 2.6.28 kernel and the missing NVIDIA module

Haha, a few days back, I tried installing the 2.6.28 kernel. It went well, except that the XServer wouldn't start up.

It crashed with the following report:


(EE) NVIDIA(0): Failed to load the NVIDIA kernel module!
(EE) NVIDIA(0): *** Aborting ***
(EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration


But then, I noticed that the nvidia-kernel I installed was 2.6.26-1 and so, needed to update that. Well, a kernel installed _not_ from the repository would obviously need a nvidia-kernel install _not_ from the repo. ;)

A google search a couple of clicks later and some information from here, I landed at the-> NVIDIA's UNIX Drivers Portal

Grabbed the 180.22 version, the latest version for Linux AMD64/EM64. Follow instructions (essentially, chmod +x and run as root). It said my kernel was not new enough and tries to download the latest by ftp. In my case, I refused and it continued fine. Btw, you can't install the driver while you're running X.

Note: You should have the nvidia-xconfig program for the installation to go on smoothly, otherwise you'll end up with another problem

Installation and a reboot later, this is how it looks. :)

NVIDIA on Linux, an update

Another in the sequence of "update" posts.

I must say I was wrong when I said "bloody Nvidia drivers for Linux" here

Well, after three more Debian installations, I found out that the problem was not with the Nvidia drivers but with what they do when they are installed.

Err, let me clarify. On your first boot, Debian has a particular xorg.conf that it follows till you install, let's say nvidia-kernel-173.14.09. When you install this, the xorg.conf is replaced by an effectively blank xorg.conf

A way out, you ask? Well, install nvidia-xconfig and run it as superuser (as root, or use su) it will rewrite your xorg.conf. Reboot.

To further fine tune your control over your Nvidia graphics card/chipset, install nvidia-settings. Incase of Ubuntu, it will show up in Applications>System Tools, but somehow doesn't do so on Debian. Well, sudo nvidia-settings in the terminal does the job. So, no more complaints.

Sorry, Nvidia.

Pidgin for dummies, an update

I once wrote how to setup your Google Talk account on Pidgin, but that was on Windows.There are a few differences how to go about the same in Linux, and this post covers it.

If you have any doubts, please refer to the previous discussion here or leave a query in the comments section.

The only change is in the Advanced tab. You do not need to check the "Require SSL/TLS" but you need to check the "Allow plaintext auth over unencrypted streams"

Leave the connect port and connect server as they are.

Set the "Proxy Options" if you connect to the net through a proxy and want to specify a particular proxy, or leave it to "Use Gnome Proxy Settings" or "Use Environmental Settings".

Here is a screenshot.



Don't forget to click on Save!

[24/01/2009] Edit: You still have to check the "Require SSL/TLS" in case you are running Windows

Open Solaris

Today, Sun came down to our campus for hiring. As a Placement Committee volunteer, I got to talk to the officials who visited the campus.

Mr. Jo [;)] and I had some interesting talk about Sun, Open Solaris, ZFS, etc. I tried out OpenSolaris a long time back, from a live DVD (I was corrected on this, but that is not the point), it didn't boot. Sad.

Today, after this chat, I decided to give it a try again, with a new live CD in hand. This is OpenSolaris 2008.05.



Firstly, I loved the fact it detected all my hardware perfectly. My previous post contained a description of the horrors of having an Nvidia graphics subsystem, and getting a proper driver for it. Well, no problems here. It was detected and the application which corresponds to nvidia-settings package on Linux was shown. Check the screen shot, I love the "Solaris Nvidia" text. And a beautiful green background.


It has Firefox 2.0.0.14 (hmm, remember this is OpenSolaris 2008.05, the website says OpenSolaris 2008.11 has FF 3), sweet.

There is something called the Device Driver Utility (with a shortcut on the Desktop if you noticed).


The page at OpenSolaris.org says "Device Driver Utility provides information about the devices of your native system having OpenSolarisTM Operating System (OS) installed." The first thing you would notice is the "Driver Problems: 0" text on top. You also have a "Submit" button to report configurations to the OpenSolaris community.

A surprise was the inclusion of NmapFE in the applications that show up by default.


As I found out, detection of hardware doesn't imply you get audio/video without the necessary plugins. You still need to install those GStreamer plugins (or other alternatives).

Next up, the Package Manager.


Not very different from Ubuntu/Debian's Synaptic Package Manager, as far as looks go, except for the fact that the packages are more categorized as the left pane suggests. There is no manual page for apt, so probably OpenSolaris has a different way of handling applications.

It also has full-fledged compiz support. CompizConfigSettingsManager is present by default.



Visual Effects aren't turned on by default (Or OpenSolaris must think my computer wasn't good enough :( ). And Appearance Preferences has an extra option "Custom". I set my preference to "Extra" and I did not notice any slowdown.



It didn't auto mount my hard disk, and neither do I plan to right now.

There was no gcc(nor any C compiler) on the live CD. How stupid, I could not compile and run a "Hello World" in C. So I did it in python :P

jack@opensolaris:~$python HelloWorld.py
Hello, World!
jack@opensolaris:~$


So long!