wubi and booting error

I have been running 8.04 at work using wubi and it has been working like a charm since the last 6 months.

However, I just ran into an issue where after a reboot, instead of booting, it dropped me into a busybox prompt. The problem was that grub could not find the initrd, probably due to a few _corrupted_ disk sectors where wubi had my Ubuntu image installed.

Simple fix, boot into Windows (hopefully that still works) and run 'chkdsk' on the drive.

Oh well, the price you pay for not giving yourself a dedicated partition.

formating a drive for fat32

To quickly format a drive to fat32 (for Windows) use mkfs.msdos:

Example: sudo mkfs.msdos -I -F 32 /dev/sdc

Other formatting options:

mkfs.bfs
mkfs.ext2
mkfs.minix
mkfs.reiserfs
mkfs.cramfs
mkfs.ext3
mkfs.msdos
mkfs.vfat

Ubuntu Pocket Guide

One of the strongest reasons for Ubuntu's rise in popularity as the Linux desktop distribution of choice is that you can pretty much search for answers to any of your questions. In case the entire Internet is not enough to give you the information you are looking for, feel free to download this Ubuntu Pocket Book and Reference Guide.

Free (as in open source) download!

Windows 7 eerily similar to Fedora

versus


Seems like this will be the year for a Windows 7 release.

I haven't used Vista at all, and the last time I booted into XP was a while ago. But, the first thing that strikes me when I look at the screen shot is how similar it is to the Fedora look. Then again, it has been a while since I used Fedora either.

If at all Windows was trying to pick up design inspirations, they should have just google'd 'Ubuntu Screenshots'

static variables in a C++ class

Certainly mature methods of software coding recommend that you avoid global variables. So sometimes you end up using static data members within C++.

I recently learned this about using static variables in C++ classes. You need to define the static data member outside the class declaration. Failure to do this results in a linker error, the reason being because without the definition the compiler doesn't know which translation unit (hence object file) the member is supposed to go.

Sample code:

foo.h

class bar {
public:
    int getBar1();
private:
    static int bar1;
};

foo.cpp
#include "foo.h"

int bar::bar1;
.....
....

One more reason why I don't consider myself a C++ programmer.

Flying Linux

As I am getting ready for a flight this weekend on Virgin America, I remembered something I read a few months back.

The in-flight entertainment system on Virgin America, RED runs on Fedora/Red Hat Linux. Very cool.

Here is a good interview with Charles Ogilvie, the Director of In-flight Entertainment and designer of RED. I am certainly looking forward to checking it out. At least there are still one or two good reasons to fly.

once you go penguin, you don't go back

I was having a conversation with a colleague today who switched to Ubuntu a few months back and has not had to "boot into Windows since". Good deal, very much the kind of experience most people have once they start using Ubuntu. I have not yet switched to 8.10, but my experience with 8.04 has been exceptional. I still dual boot, but don't remember the last time I booted Windows.

And since I am Windows b*tching, I can't believe that Dell charges something close to $160 if you are purchasing and customizing your spanking new system and want XP instead of Vista. Because nothing says freedom of choice like having to pay extra for an older version of a software.

Not necessarily on topic, but had this link bookmarked about best free (not open source) software to try out.