Installing SnapLogic Community Edition 2.1.0 on Ubuntu 8.10 in 5 minutes

If you read my last post, you would know that I hit a snag running the community edition of SnapLogic 2.2. There appears to be a hard dependency on a license check (see ticket 2449). Since I have no idea how long that will take to resolve, I decided to find a way around the problem.

I chose to roll back to version 2.1.0. But in doing so, I had some struggles. SnapLogic 2.1.0 is based on Python 2.5.x and related components. My Ubuntu 10.04 install uses Python 2.6.x, and the 2.5.x stuff has been removed from the Ubuntu repositories.

After trying some minor hackery to get P2.5.x on U10.04 (building stuff from source), I gave up at trying to get the dependencies resolved. Instead, I just plopped down a new Ubuntu 8.10 VM on my machine, and got things going pretty quickly.

These are my notes. By the way, the 5 minutes I reference in the title is just for the SnapLogic install. Installing and updating Ubuntu takes about an hour, depending on network speeds.

• Install 8.10
• Download a VDI and install into VirtualBox, or
• Do a bare metal install (e.g. dual boot)
• Update your OS
• 368 updates and counting as of today
• Make sure not to upgrade Python beyond 2.5.x
• Reboot
• Download SnapLogic 2.1.0
• http://sourceforge.net/projects/snaplogic/files/
• You want the linux .bin of course
• Launch the SnapLogic installer
• chmod u+x [blahblah.bin]
• It will inform you what is missing from prereqs
• Install the missing prereqs
• Launch Synaptic Package Manager, and install:
• python2.5-dev
• libmysqlclient15-dev
• libxml2-dev
• libxslt1-dev
• Rerun SnapLogic installer
• Accept all defaults
• Password is password
• Elect to start up the servers at the end
• Install Flash Plugin for Firefox
• Navigate to http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/
• Navigate to the Designer UI
• http://[hostname]:8081/
• Open the Leads_to_Prospects Pipeline
• Select the Run tab
• Run the pipeline (this is where SL 2.2 fails for me)
• Success!

 

Technorati Tags: snaplogic,ubuntu,virtualbox

Solution: Mouse disappears when using Skype Share Desktop in Windows VirtualBox VM on Ubuntu Linux Host

That’s a mouthful. But I have an easy solution to this annoying problem. It happens when I run Skype in a Windows VM, and then opt to share desktop. The mouse will disappear, which makes for a tough time navigating around.

This is my configuration:

• Host OS: Ubuntu Linux 9.10 (with all updates)
• Guest OS: Windows XP SP3 (with all updates)
• Guest additions have been installed
• Hypervisor: VirtualBox 3.1.4
• Skype: Windows version 4.2.0.155
• Hardware: Dell Latitude E6400

Solution

Is simple. When I installed

guest additions, it enabled a feature called “Mouse Integration”. It is enabled by default. However, with Skype it causes this mouse problem.

For the duration of your Skype call, simply disable Mouse Integration and this problem goes away. Do this from the VirtualBox menu bar for your VM:

• Machine –> Disable Mouse Integration

Technorati Tags: linux,ubuntu,virtualbox

Installing Android-x86 as a guest on Ubuntu on a Dell E6400 using VirtualBox

Its funny how rabbit trails start.

After getting the kids to bed, I browsed my Twitter feed. I saw someone tweet about 10+ free, fast-booting Linux distros that aren't Chrome OS. The list includes Puppy and Jolicloud, both distros I have been meaning to try.

I then started the walk down the rabbit trail. I proceeded to install Puppy as a VirtualBox guest to see just how fast it would boot. I actually am not that impressed with the results, but that’s another story.

As I was playing with Puppy, I remembered that I wanted to play with Android, not only because its a popular topic on the web but also because we have built an Android app at work. Moving further along that trail…

I looked around for an Android ISO that I could load into VirtualBox. I found what I was looking for in LiveAndroid. It is a port for Android on x86 platforms. I downloaded the ISO image, and built up a virtual machine in VirtualBox. I won’t provide any more details of this process because in the end it didn’t work. I couldn’t get the Android UI to recognize the keyboard or mouse, and without inputs you aren’t doing much. It was weird – I could drop into the Linux prompt in the VM and the keyboard worked fine. I poked around a bit, and then found mention in the forums that it is likely an abandoned project, and linked to a different Android port. Continuing down that trail…

I moved on to the active port, called Android-x86. It looked promising, so I downloaded the ISO. I followed the instructions and created an Andriod VM for VirtualBox. In short, I got it running and it works pretty well. I even got the Tendril Android app running.

I just wanted to post to document a few things I had to do:

• Use a good x86 Android distro – Android-x86 works for me
• The VM How-To page doesn’t explicitly mention that you can uncheck the Boot Hard Disk option when creating the VirtualBox VM. If you do this, you will select your ISO image when you boot the image for the first time.
• Instead of worrying about the advanced persistence steps, consider just using the Snapshot feature of VirtualBox to capture the state of your runnning VM. Restore it later to regain state.
• If your graphics are all screwy on boot of the VM, try the VESA menu option in GRUB
• You will need to register on AndAppStore before using the App Store in the image.
• To emulate an SD card (necessary for installing dev Apps), use the simple RAM based emulator. At the GRUB menu, hit TAB, and then on the command line make an entry for “SDCARD=premount”

The other part of it was figuring out the user experience/key bindings. Some hints:

• I couldn’t figure out how to go with just my laptop keyboard. I have a Windows friendly USB keyboard with additional keys that works better.
• Windows key (lower left) – is used to bring you back to the desktop
• Menu key (lower right) – is used to show options within an app
• Arrow keys, enter key – do what you think
• Esc – back button
• After you download an app in the app store, you have to install it. To do this, you drag the upper menu bar down with the mouse+mouse click. This seems really odd, but perhaps makes sense on a mobile device?

Enjoy your free Android!

Technorati Tags: android,virtualbox,ubuntu