The Movable Type virtualization solution

Not that I’m an expert, because I’m far, far from it, but setting up a system to use the Movable Type blogging system ain’t easy.

You need a server on which you create a database, configure Web-server software, implement PHP and somehow get all the permissions to work right.

Putting together a Movable Type installation should be easier now than ever, as I read in Matt Asay’s Open Road blog, now that Movable Type parent company Six Apart has partnered with Jump Box, a virtual-machine company, to offer a fully virtualized MT bundle.

If I read this correctly, it means that through virtualization, you can have an instant Movable Type setup without having to do all that much configuration on your own.

Virtualization: It’s Greek(or geek) to me

The hot thing right now is virtualization, using VMWare, Xen, KVM or what have you.

The whole thing is touted as easier than pie.

All I want to do is set up a virtual machine under Ubuntu or Debian to run Windows 2000 … and maybe a few other Linuxes and BSDs.

But I have no idea whatsoever how to do it.

I installed Xen in Debian, but I couldn’t get it to boot with a Xen kernel, much less set the whole damn thing up.

And it looks like installing the OS of my choice, especially if it’s Windows and not XP, looks damn near impossible.

Is it just me, or is virtualization firmly in geek territory?

Debian Lenny — things are happening

Things are happening in Debian Lenny, and not just in my installation.

OK, mostly in my installation.

For one thing, something — I have no idea what — made the GNOME Network Admin package disappear. I couldn’t change my network settings from the System–Preferences menu or the icon I have in the panel for that very purpose.

I went into Synaptic and reinstalled it. Now it works.

I’m still having the “work offline” problem with Iceweasel (aka Firefox) 3. Whenever I start the browser, I’m automatically in “work offline” mode, regardless of whether I’m actually online or not.

I also still have the “ghosting” on the upper GNOME panel.

Right now I’m doing a software update. Among the new packages is a kernel update. Will this solve my problems? And will I have to reinstall the ALSA sound modules for my ESS Allegro/Maestro3 chip in the $0 Laptop?

After the update: The Debian Lenny updates included a 2.6.25 Linux kernel, but boot code for the new kernel didn’t get written into the menu.lst that controls the Ubuntu-installed GRUB, which controls the master boot record for this dual-boot system.

It turns out that Debian only updated its own /boot/grub/menu.lst, so I copied the new entries over to Ubuntu’s /boot/grub/menu.lst to try the new kernel.

This appears to be the SECOND 2.6.25 kernel in Lenny, but it’s the first I’ve seen of it, and without Ubuntu’s menu.lst being updated automatically, a new Lenny kernel is easy to miss.

I understand that dual-booting can pose a problem, but I thought that Debian pretty much knew to look for multiple GRUB configurations and update them all. I guess not this time.

In Lenny with the 2.6.25-2 kernel: Sound still works in the new kernel. (After manually jump-starting sound in 2.6.24, I didn’t expect it, but thankfully it does.) Either the Debian developers decided to re-support my sound chip, or my manual installation of ALSA drivers stuck.

Iceweasel 3 still defaults to “work offline” status whenever it’s launched. The same problem still (again, thankfully) doesn’t affect Epiphany.

The upper panel in GNOME still suffers from the same “ghosting” problem.

Looking at the bug reports, which I did in a very recent post, tells me that the Iceweasel problem is not so much with Iceweasel as with NetworkManager. I can pretty much confirm this, since mousing over the NetworkManager icon in the upper GNOME panel says that there is “No network connection,” where there indeed there is. I probably should be looking at bug reports for NetworkManager and not Iceweasel.

I couldn’t find anything in Debian’s bug reports, and nothing leaped right out of this large page of GNOME bug reports.