Vmware won't compile on Hardy

Vmware server and workstation are both currently broken on the kernel version in Hardy. You need to install a patch to get them to compile. Vmware server also requires xinetd. I changed

/etc/xinetd.conf

to force all services to only listen on localhost with

 bind            = 127.0.0.1

Not only that, but vmware-server-console is busted too!

/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/libpng12.so.0/libpng12.so.0: no version information available (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)

Fix it with

sudo ln -sf /usr/lib/libpng12.so.0 /usr/lib/vmware-server-console/lib/libpng12.so.0/libpng12.so.0
sudo ln -sf /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 /usr/lib/vmware-server-console/lib/libgcc_s.so.1/libgcc_s.so.1

Awesome article on VMWare detection and mitigation

Great article on how to detect VMWare, and how to prevent detection using undocumented VMX settings. Written by Ed Skoudis and Tom Liston from SANS.

Hardy usability downgrade: CD media removed from "Removable Drives and Media"

Argh! The option to prevent Audio CDs from being played automatically has been removed from System | Preferences | Removable Drives and Media. Why? It is so annoying to have Rhythmbox fire up when I just want to copy a CD. The preference is now hidden in the super intuitive place of Edit | Preferences | Media Tab in the Nautilus file manager.

Intel soundcard on Hardy heron

My intel sound card didn't work out of the box with Hardy. I followed these instructions to compile and install the driver, and all was good.

Hardy initrd breaks luks with "/sbin/udevsettle" not found

The initrd in hardy broke luks cryptoroot, because the cryptroot script refers to udevsettle, which has been replaced with udevadm. It dies with "/sbin/udevsettle" not found. Here's how you fix it.

Unzip, and unpack the initrd:

gunzip -S "" initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic
cpio -id < initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic
vi scripts/local-top/cryptroot

Replace "/sbin/udevsettle --timeout=30" with "/sbin/udevadm settle --timeout=30". Repack the initrd:

find ./ | cpio -H newc -o > initrd.cpio
gzip initrd.cpio

NTP pool setup

I use the free ntp pool for access to accurate timing. Edit /etc/ntp.conf and add these lines:

server 0.us.pool.ntp.org
server 1.us.pool.ntp.org
server 2.us.pool.ntp.org
server 3.us.pool.ntp.org

Restart ntp and then check you have accurate time sync:

ntpq
ntpq> lpeers
     remote           refid      st t when poll reach   delay   offset  jitter
==============================================================================
+ip-72-167-54-20 192.12.19.20     2 u  844 1024  377   88.972   12.657 140.873
*nist.netservice .ACTS.           1 u  263 1024  377   47.284    0.231 164.968
-lashiir.sapros. 74.53.198.146    3 u  833 1024  377   64.212   34.142 111.228
+ntp.LogicX.net  18.103.0.198     2 u  904 1024  377   24.615   -1.935  49.235
ntpq> 

Debmirror of ubuntu archive, with valid gpg keys

Getting debmirror to use the Ubuntu gpg signatures was harder than I expected. First I tried:

gpg --import /usr/share/keyrings/ubuntu-master-keyring.gpg

Which worked fine, but put the keys in ~/.gnupg/pubring.gpg and debmirror wants them in ~/.gnupg/trustedkeys.gpg, so I got this error:

Mirroring to /repo/ from http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/
Arches: i386
Dists: hardy
Sections: main,restricted,universe,multiverse
Will NOT clean up.
Pdiff mode: use.
Attempting to get lock, this might take 2 minutes before it fails.
Get Release files.
[0%] Getting: dists/hardy/Release... ok
[0%] Getting: dists/hardy/Release.gpg... ok
gpgv: keyblock resource `/home/name/.gnupg/trustedkeys.gpg': general error
gpgv: Signature made Thu 24 Apr 2008 02:19:52 EDT using DSA key ID 437D05B5
[GNUPG:] ERRSIG 40976EAF437D05B5 17 2 00 1209017992 9
[GNUPG:] NO_PUBKEY 40976EAF437D05B5
gpgv: Can't check signature: public key not found
gpgv: keyblock resource `/home/name/.gnupg/trustedkeys.gpg': general error
gpgv: Signature made Thu 24 Apr 2008 02:19:52 EDT using DSA key ID 437D05B5
gpgv: Can't check signature: public key not found
Release signature does not verify.
Errors:
 Release signature does not verify.
Failed to download some Release or Release.gpg files!
WARNING: releasing 1 pending lock...

The debmirror man page recommends this command to get them into trustedkeys.gpg, which works fine:

gpg --keyring /usr/share/keyrings/ubuntu-archive-keyring.gpg --export \
| gpg --no-default-keyring --keyring trustedkeys.gpg --import

Then the debmirror command:

sudo debmirror --nosource --host=archive.ubuntu.com --method=http --root=ubuntu \
--dist=hardy --section=main,restricted,universe,multiverse --arch=i386 \
--progress --nocleanup --ignore-small-errors -v /repo/