I noticed in testing some of the xm subcommands that I was getting errors. I found that these errors disappeared upon installing the python-xml package which provided the missing python modules needed by xm. I've reported the bug and hope to see it fixed promptly. In the meantime, make sure you install python-xml on any system running Xen. Who knows what other problems might result from this package being absent.

Ubuntu used to a have a “commercial” repository for packages that were commercial software, such as the vmware-server package. Apparently the new plan is to have commercial vendors submit packages for their products to a new “partner” repository that when added to an Ubuntu system will enable easy downloading of those software packages. I wanted to see what was currently being offered in the repository.

I noticed that ever since upgrading to Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) the sound has been broken in Pidgin. Sound notifications are quite useful when away form the computer but within earshot or when focused on another task that prevents one from noticing visual notifications. While I’m not sure this is an ideal fix it suited my purposes since I didn’t really want to delve into the problem at this time.

I’ve long wanted a good open source groupware/erp (enterprise resource planning)/crm (customer relationship management) product. Unfortunately I have yet to succeed in finding anything that meets the needs of my business. I decided to round up candidates for evaluation, starting with software that is already packaged in Ubuntu and has active development. Here’s what I found.

The game monsterz is a fun distraction, much better then games that come with other operating systems in my opinion. Unfortunately I noticed that the amd64 version was broken in Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn). I decided to check to see if it had been fixed in Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) but found that it had not. However I was able to find a quick fix that allows the game to be played. Here’s what I did.

The great thing about a user community that is both large and involved is that these days almost all of the bugs I find in Ubuntu already have bug reports filed. I usually read them, contribute if necessary, and then monitor their progress. Many of the bugs I was watching in the Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) release have been resolved but I’ve decided to try and keep track of bugs of interest (to me anyway) for Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon). I plan to update this list with additions and removals as necessary.

When upgrading to a new Ubuntu or Debian release I always find myself cleaning out my list of third party repositories that have accumulated on the system since the last release. However, I’ve already found a few software packages that are not present or not up to date on my system for which I need third party repositories. I’ve decided to compile the list of what I’m using now and update that list as I make changes in the future.

When doing research looking for a new BitTorrent client I decided to keep track of the various packages I found. This list is only dedicated BitTorrent clients and does not include other software with BitTorrent support nor web based BitTorrent clients. I divided it into lists based on the graphics library (or lack thereof) used. I personally prefer a client be GTK-based so that it can be used as easily under Gnome as KDE. I have also noted the programming language used for each project.

Upon upgrading my laptop I decided to take advantage to the availability of the powertop application to try and reduce the power consumption of the laptop. I was able to reduce idle power consumption from about 20 watts down to about 14 watts which is a pretty significant improvement. I’ve documented the various changes I made to achieve those results.

Following the upgrade of my desktop computer from Kubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) to Kubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) I did some work to clean up the system and configure it properly. My efforts focused on configuration files which were overwritten during the upgrade. I also wanted to reduce the large amount of disk space consumed in the upgrade by removing old and unnecessary packages and package archives. I concluded with improving the multimedia capabilities (playing dvd’s and video files) of the system.