File “/usr/lib/python2.6/pickle.py”, line 1370, in load
return Unpickler(file).load()
File “/usr/lib/python2.6/pickle.py”, line 858, in load
dispatch[key](self)
File “/usr/lib/python2.6/pickle.py”, line 966, in load_string
raise ValueError, “insecure string pickle”
ValueError: insecure string pickle

Think back !! Did you pickle the object on a windows machine long back ? or did you receive the code that once pickled the object on a windows machine ? Great. One of the reasons for this error is because of the difference in newline termination by windows and linux machines.

Soluion: Use dos2unix  or fromdos commands to convert the pickled file into a unix format and then try unpickling it. !!

In many occasions you might want to create a new console window to dump the results from your eclipse plugin. To create a new console window or use the one that already exists, you can use the following code below.

class EclipseConsoleWindow{
	   private MessageConsole findConsole(String name) {
		      ConsolePlugin plugin = ConsolePlugin.getDefault();
		      IConsoleManager conMan = plugin.getConsoleManager();
		      IConsole[] existing = conMan.getConsoles();
		      for (int i = 0; i < existing.length; i++)
		         if (name.equals(existing[i].getName()))
		            return (MessageConsole) existing[i];
		      //no console found, so create a new one
		      MessageConsole myConsole = new MessageConsole(name, null);
		      conMan.addConsoles(new IConsole[]{myConsole});
		      return myConsole;
	   }

           public static void main(Strings[] args){
			  MessageConsole myConsole = findConsole("YourAppNamee");
			  MessageConsoleStream YourAppName = myConsole.newMessageStream();
			  YourAppName.println("Print some text into the console");
          }
}

Problem 1: XAMPP: Couldn’t start MySQL!

As suggested in the tutorial, you can start XAMPP server using /opt/lampp start and you are supposed to get the output as below:

Starting XAMPP 1.7.3a…
LAMPP: Starting Apache…
LAMPP: Starting MySQL…
LAMPP started.

But instead you might see something like below:

Starting XAMPP 1.7.3a…
LAMPP: Starting Apache…
LAMPP: Starting MySQL…
XAMPP: Couldn’t start MySQL!
LAMPP started.

Solution 1:
This is caused due to permission issues and you can solve it using the following steps.
a) In the terminal su to root : su
b) Provide the root password when prompted
c) chown -hR root /opt/lampp (Change the path as required)
d) chmod -R 777 /opt/lampp
e) /opt/lampp/lampp restart

This should give you an output something like :
Starting XAMPP for Linux 1.7.3a…
XAMPP: Starting Apache with SSL (and PHP5)…
XAMPP: Starting MySQL…
Warning: World-writable config file ‘/opt/lampp/etc/my.cnf’ is ignored
Warning: World-writable config file ‘/opt/lampp/etc/my.cnf’ is ignored
XAMPP: Starting ProFTPD…
XAMPP for Linux started.

Additional steps to be followed:
a) vi /opt/lampp/etc/php.ini
b) uncomment ; session.save_path = /tmp
to session.save_path = /tmp

Problem 2:
When you try to access mysql you would get an error as : “cannot start session without errors, please check errors given in your PHP and/or webserver log file and configure your PHP installation properly”

If the above said problem was already solved then you might encounter the new problem which says,

“Wrong permissions on configuration file, should not be world writable!”.

Solution 2:
a) Open terminal
b) get root access
c) Change permission of config.inc.php file : chown a-w /opt/lampp/phpmyadmin/config.inc.php

This solution worked on Mandriva 2007 spring running Gnome on Linux kernel 2.6.17-13mdv.

it stands for X (linux), A (apache), M (mysql), Php (php).

This is a nice way to develop php websites locally on your computer before wanting to deploy it online. You can even make your server visible to the internet by putting XAMPP online and open to the Internet. Doing that will allow you to run your own server. Some help from DynDNS will help you map a domain name to the ip address of your XAMPP on your computer. These will not be discussed here but lets continue towards linux installation of XAMPP.

Steps :
1) Download the XAMPP package from sourceforge.

1.1) Become the administrator using :
su
2) (Important) Extract ONLY using the following command
tar xvfz xampp-linux-1.7.3a.tar.gz -C /opt

Warning: Please use only this command to install XAMPP. DON’T use any Microsoft Windows tools to extract the archive, it won’t work.

Good News: XAMPP is now installed below the /opt/lampp directory.

3) Start the server using :
/opt/lampp/lampp start

Good News if you see :
Starting XAMPP x.x.x…
LAMPP: Starting Apache…
LAMPP: Starting MySQL…
LAMPP started.

4) Test the server by opening firefox and typing

http://localhost

Go ahead and start building your application !!

Solution : 1
Rename the ABC.exe to ABC.txt . Attach the ABC.txt file in your Gmail and do the reverse at the receiving end.

Solution : 2
Use Winrar/Winzip/etc and make ABC.exe to ABC.rar/ABC.zip/etc.zip before sending.

Once you receive the file from the mail just reverse the step. Either change the extension of unzip the file.

[4] Select the url to download the software from and the package you want to install. You can notice that in the picture below, the site to “work with” is selected as “PDT” from the drop down menu. Also the packages to be installed is selected by selecting “PDT 2.0 xx xx”. Once you have finished this, select to proceed “Next”.

[5] Review the list of packages being installed . This step is followed by “Finish” that will launch your instalation into an autopilot mode until restarting the the Eclipse IDE.

6 – Eclipse installs the packages you requested

[7] Select the perspective to work with once eclipse restarts after installation. To select a particular perspective in eclipse, say php or c,c++ you will have to get to Windows > Open perspective > other.

[8] Select the perspective you want to open form the list.

When it comes to PHP development the development becomes much easier if we are able to work on the files directly on the server. Unless you are more comfortable with a vi or emacs setup working so is difficult. Eclipse can offer you a facility to work with remote systems so that eclipse takes care of the FTP/SSH to the server while you can work on the file on eclipse as if it were a local copy. We would explore this option in future tutorials.

It is important to understand that eclipse is not a compiler that can compile these languages for you and offer the corresponding executable or alike. But eclipse is just a development environment that will use the compilers/linkers/servers that you have already installed on your computer. In other words, you can develop the C code in eclipse, but eclipse will in turn call the C compiler that has been installed in your computer. The same hold for other languages too, e.g Python development on eclipse will need you to install the python engine on your computer. Eclipse will interpret your python code using the python interpreter that you might have already installed.

The idea of using development environment for different languages needs eclipse to be configured to handle these different languages. Each configuration is called “perspective” in the eclipse terminology. Hence you need to configure the “php perspective” to work with eclipse for php development and when you want to write your “C/C++” code you need to switch the perspective to a “C/C++” perspective.

Tutorial: Install PDT in eclipse:

Follow the steps below and continue along to part : 2 of this tutorial and get your Eclipse installation all setup for PHP files.

[1] To configure the installation URL you must first get into windows > Preferences where you can select the urls where the repositories are located. This tutorial hold good for installation of any new development toolkit to eclipse. What would vary with each installation is the package that you might select to install.

[2] Add the following two urls by clicking add and filling in the details for name and location. (This is specific to installing PHP Development Toolkit for eclipse)

Tom Jewett form Department of Computer Engineering and Computer California State University, Long Beach has a gem of a website to offer regarding database design.

It it one of the best references available if you are looking to learn agian the fundamentals of database design or just refresh your sql skills.

Issue:
Brightness control not working in X60 tablet on Linux (mandriva)
Solution:
1) Obtain root privileges using “su root” from your terminal. Provide the password when prompted.
2) cd /etc
3) vi modprobe.conf
4) Add the line “alias video off”
5) use “!wq” to save and exit.

Reboot the computer and your brightness control should start working. Also install the thinkpad button support package from your package manager on Linux to increase compatibility of Linux with thinkpad laptops.

The below solution worked on Mandriva Linux 2007, Linux 2.6.17-13mdv on Gnome on a Western Digital (WD) 350 GB HDD . To start with, Identify the mount name of your HDD (say sdb1) .

From the command line interface :

1. su
2. Type password
2. umount /dev/sdb1
3. sdparm –command=sync /dev/sdb1
4. sdparm –command=stop / dev/sdb1

You would then hear the HDD go down to a stop. Go ahead and disconnect your hard drive.