Alter Ego

In order for the OS to share folders, you need the Samba package; which is not installed by default. Using this step-by-step guide, you will be sharing folders to other PC on your network in no time (no matter what their OSes are).

1. Install SAMBA

You guessed it:

sudo apt-get install samba

2. Fire up Nautilus, right click on the folder you want to share and choose Share Folder.
3. Choose 'Windows Network (SMB)'. Fill up the other details if you need to.
4. Click OK.

And you are done!

Oh, if you need to check what folders you are sharing:

1. Fire up Nautilus. Click on this icon.
2. Type in smb://localhost and press Enter (you can use the same method to view shared folders on your network; just replace localhost with the server's IP)

Marjan recently blog about installing this on a Linux Gentoo installation. This is the Ubuntu version of it. It's fairly quite simple; so no worries. First of all, I would like to mention a limitation: NO SMARTFORMS! Yes, you cannot use Smartforms on PlatinGUI. You will have to emulate Windows about that. Even Wine-ing Windows SAPGUI won't work because it needs the notorious ActiveX. Sucks, I know; but let's live with it until SAP release a full fledge PlatinGUI (hoping).

1. Download the PlatinGUI here. Please be informed that newer versions might be available.
2. Install Sun Java. It MUST BE Sun Java! No other Java works! This might take some time to install.

sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre

3. Now browse to where you downloaded the PlatinGUI.

cd ~

4. Install it!

java -jar PlatinGUI-Linux-710r2.jar

5. Follow the instructions: just click Next Next Next; Finish.

6. Execute PlatinGUI by using this command.

guilogon

7. Configure your SAP server connections! If not how are you going to connect to your servers, right? Hope this screenshot will be of some use.



More examples:
For system IP 192.168.1.105 and system ID 10:
conn=/H/192.168.1.105/S/3210
For system domain my.domain.com and system ID 00:
conn=/H/my.domain.com/S/3200

I hope that's clear enough. You are done!

NOTE: If guilogon doesn't work, it means the bin is not available in /usr/bin/ (expected to happen when you install something not using package manager). To create one (softlink), do this (again, assumption is based on PlatinGUI installed in Home):

sudo ln -s ~/SAPGUI7.10rev1/bin/guilogon /usr/bin/guilogon

Ensure that the softlink is properly created:

ls -l /usr/bin | grep guilogon

Drop me a comment for any queries! :D

A few weeks ago, I mentioned about getting some new hardware for my desktop PC.

Unfortunately, that will have to be postponed due to some recent happenings in my life (but I already got myself the 4GB worth of RAMS; it's in my closet). One of them is, I got myself a brand spanking new pair of spectacles.

There are other things of course; not just that. Anyway, delaying the purchase of a new hardware is a blessing in disguise. Maybe by the time I got everything in place, Ubuntu Hardy Heron (8.04) will be out. It will be my primary OS on the new rig, with a secondary OS; Windows XP Pro as a dual boot for gaming only. Sorry no Vista; maybe not until I get one those ultra expensive DX10 graphic cards ;) Radeon HD 3870 X2 anyone?

I have a feeling that I am going to be in a lot of trouble setting the system up in the next few months.

But then that's good for this blog as I will have more things to talk about! :D

I spent quite some time researching on this matter, so I'm going to show my findings. Please be informed that I am no Linux/Ubuntu/CD Imaging expert; I am just recording what I have learned.

Basically there are many ways to get this done. One way will not work, but the other will. In truth, there are 4 ways you can do this in Ubuntu. So, just do whichever that works for you, okay? :)

First method: Use the GUI
This is by far the easiest. Every time you insert a CD into the drive in Ubuntu, Ubuntu will auto mount the drive and a CD Icon will show up on your desktop. Right-click it, and choose Copy CD. Save it as a file. Done.

But there are times when the CD Icon just... won't show up on your desktop. Read on.

Second method: cat
This one uses the command line (just like the rest of the methods I am going to mention soon).

sudo umount [your_cd_drive]
cat [your_cd_drive] > iso_name.iso

If you don't know your CD drive, look it up here:

df -h

BUT, sometimes you will end up with "Input/Output Error". If so, move on.

Third method: dd
This one is a little tricky; so bear with me.

First, you need to know the ISO Info of your CD. Do this:

isoinfo -d -i [your_cd_drive]

Look for these 2 lines (might be different than yours):

Logical block size is: 2048
Volume size is: 313202

Okay note them down. Then, unmount the CD Drive:

sudo umount [your_cd_drive]

Now, do this to rip the CD:

dd if=/dev/[your_cd_drive] of=whatevernameuwant.iso bs=2048 count=313202 conv=notrunc,noerror,sync

Sometimes you will be okay, sometimes you will still be plagued by "Input/Output Error" (the CD will still be ripped though but you will have issues later when you mount it). Whatever the result may be, there's still hope by using the 4th and final method.

Fourth method: cdrdao

Make sure you already have this package by typing cdrdao. If the system says that you don't have it, install it.

sudo apt-get install cdrdao

Unmount.

sudo umount [your_cd_drive]

Now, this is the command that you need:

cdrdao read-cd --read-raw --datafile whateveruwant.iso --device [your_cd_drive] --driver generic-mmc-raw whateveruwant.toc

This is an example:

cdrdao read-cd --read-raw --datafile cc01.iso --device /dev/scd0 --driver generic-mmc-raw cc01.toc

This method worked for me flawlessly. I hope it works for you too.

Well, that's it then. If there's something that you don't understand, don't be shy to ask.

References:
1. Ubuntu Forums
2. LinuxQuestions.org

Update: There is actually a way to store your configurations as mentioned in the manual :P I should have read that one earlier.

CONFIGURATION
The daemon reads configuration data from the following places:
- command line options
- config file(s) specified on the command line
- /etc/vpnc/default.conf
- /etc/vpnc.conf
- prompting the user if not found above

vpnc can parse options and configuration files in any order. However
the first place to set an option wins. configuration filenames which
do not contain a / will be searched at /etc/vpnc/ and
/etc/vpnc/.conf. Otherwise and .conf
will be used. If no configuration file is specified on the command-
line at all, both /etc/vpnc/default.conf and /etc/vpnc.conf will be
loaded.

*****

This is something that I need to make it work, so that I can VPN to my company's network and be able to do work from home (when needed - sadly I still have to come to the office on weekdays :P ). To make this happen, I use VPNC.

1. As simple as always, do:

sudo apt-get install vpnc

2. Once its installed, run VPNC by typing vpnc in CLI.

3. It will start asking for some essential information about the VPN you are connecting to. Make sure you already have all those info. They are:

• IPSec Gateway
• IPSec ID
• IPSec Secret
• Username
• Password

You should be able to get them from your network admin.

After that you are set. After you have successfully connected to your VPN, it will give you its process ID. Remember it as you will need it to kill the VPN connection. You can do so by:

kill process_id

I tried it last night, and it just works!

Update 4 (29/01/2008): Somehow, it automagically works now. Too bad I don't know what happened :(

Update 3: Crap, apparently my company's portal still won't work on this IE. I guess its time for me to venture into QEMU.

Update 2: Apparently IE6 showed up on my menu: Applications > Internet > Internet Explorer 6.0. I am loving Ubuntu even more now :)

Update: I forgot, go say thank you to this guy.

Amazingly, this post coincide with Marjan's post where he managed to have multiple versions of Internet Explorer running on his Windows XP. After seeing that, I thought I should get Internet Explorer 6 running on my Ubuntu laptop so that I can do my work (sadly like Marjan, I can only use Internet Explorer 6 for my company's portal - follow the W3C standard lar!).

Anyways, here's how you get IE6 on Ubuntu Gutsy. Oh, btw, here's my setup. The steps follow later.

Operating System: Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon)
Wine: 0.9.46 (default repository, no need to modify your sources.list)

1. Get the .deb package from here (let me know if you are confused).
2. Let's just say you downloaded it to Desktop. Open up a terminal, type in:

cd ~/Desktop

3. Make the file executable.

chmod +x ies4linux_2.99.0-1_i386.deb

4. Execute it using dpkg.

sudo dpkg -i ies4linux_2.99.0-1_i386.deb

If you run into any errors when downloading the needed files (if it says something like corrupted files) execute the same command again until you get all the files.

5. Once that is done, simply type in ie6 and press Enter (binaries are installed in /usr/bin/).

Tada! IE6 on Ubuntu 7.10!



Note:
1. This installer doesn't work with proxy. So do it at home yea.
2. It requires cabextract package, so install it first (sudo apt-get install cabextract) .

Warning:
1. You shouldn't use IE for every day surfing. It's dangerous - seriously. Only use it when you are forced to. Like my company's non-W3C compliant portal. Or maybe you are a web developer testing your website's rendering. Other than that, stick to Firefox - or maybe Opera- or Safari :P

Compiz Fusion is installed by default, but with limited configurations. You can see it from System > Preferences > Appearance. Go to the Visual Effects tab.



To enable other Compiz effects, you need to install Compiz Manager. As usual:

sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager

When that is done, go to System > Preferences > Advanced Desktop Effects Settings. You'll notice that there's a whole load of options for you to choose from.

Oh, if you don't know what's Compiz, check out this video:




:D

There's already a 'top' command for this, but 'htop' looks better and there's a list of commands at the bottom of the window. Open up a terminal and write this in:

sudo apt-get install htop

When that one is done, just type 'htop'. I find it very useful; furthermore its lightweight.

Ever wanted to have something on your Ubuntu desktop that displays your current system status? Things like, CPU and memory usage, network monitoring and HDD space?

Fortunately there's a way to do this in Ubuntu. It's a small program called Conky. Do the usual thing to get installed.

sudo apt-get install conky

Now here comes the hard part. You are going to need a configuration file. It must be placed in your home directory (/home/your_username). The name of the file MUST BE .conkyrc.

Now, to get one, the easiest way is to go to here and get any of the configurations file that suits your taste.

Once you are done with that, open up a terminal and type this in.

conky

.. and watch your desktop :)

Tips: In order to make it easier for you to launch this application, you can create a shortcut for it and place it on your desktop.

Thanks a bunch to the awesome community of UbuntuForums.

I was asked by a person from one of our functional team on how to attach a transaction code to an SAP query. After a little bit of research and asking around, there is a way to do it (though this might not be the best practice, really). You are going to have to trick the system a little bit.


1. Instead of creating your queries in SQ01, use SQVI. Create a query in your production system.
2. Now execute the query. When you have reached the selection screen, go to System > Status.
3. Copy the program name.
4. Now create a Z executable program in your development client. Put this one line of code in it:

submit program_name_copied_fr_production via selection-screen and return.

5. Create a TCode and assign the Z program to the TCode.
6. Transport the Z program and TCode over to Production system.

That's it. If you have any other solution, do drop me a comment :)

p/s: I'm still considered a n00b in SAP, really.

One of my gripes a few years ago when using Linux is how difficult it is to install a package. And now here I am thinking that 'sudo apt-get install packagename' couldn't get any easier. I mean, it's just so easy, that there's no way it could get any easier. And there's already a GUI to manage your packages. But NOW, in Gutsy Gibbon there's a new interesting way to install packages.

Fire up your Firefox in Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon.
Type in the URL:

apt:wine

And Ubuntu will automagically install the Wine package.

How easy is that???

After installing Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon, one thing that annoyed me was the system beeps. You can hear it when u are double tapping the Tab key on your keyboard every time you are looking for a hint in the command line.

Fortunately, there's a way to switch it off.



Go to System > Preferences > Sound from the Gnome top menu.
Go to System Beep tab.
Uncheck Enable System Beep to switch it off and click Close.

Bye bye annoying beeper.

I know there's already a GUI for this in Ubuntu, but still its good to know the command line.

dpkg --get-selections

Using this command will cause you to end up with hundreds of results. To make it easier on your eyes, you can 'grep' it to display only what you are looking for.

dpkg --get-selection | grep unrar

Yet another post to keep a note for myself on what I have learned today :)

Update (May 6, 2008): The best way to install Flash Player for both 32-bit and 64-bit Ubuntu is to use this command:

sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree

At time of writing, I am running on the latest Ubuntu, the Gutsy Gibbon (7.10).

When I first the launched Firefox from Ubuntu and went off to a flash-based website, I got stuck as I don't have the Flash Player installed yet. I decided to use the easy way and clicked on the 'Install Missing Plugin' button. It will automagically install Gnash SWF Viewer. Sadly, that plugin didn't work very well for me, so I decided to get one from Adobe.

Here's how you install Adobe Flash Player 9 on Ubuntu 7.10.

1. Download Flash Player 9 from here. Get the .tar.gz version.
2. Close all instances of Firefox.
3. Untar the downloaded file. Just use right-click and 'Extract here'.
4. Then open up a terminal (Applications > Accessories > Terminal).
5. Browse to where you untar-ed the file.
6. Type this in and press Enter:

sudo ./flashplayer-installer

And you're done! If at any time you were asked to input the location of Firefox installation, by default, it should be at /usr/lib/firefox.

By default, this is already installed together with Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon; but somehow it doesn't work AT ALL. A quick browse to the reliable Ubuntu Forums solved the problem :)

sudo apt-get install gnome-vfs-obexftp

Hurrah! Now I can transfer files between my phone and laptop with Ubuntu!

Credit: Ubuntu Forums

This is how you check for listening ports in Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon.

netstat -l

You should get something that looks like this:

I was on the UBuntu Forums this morning, when I stumbed upon this particular thread/topic. The guy mentioned about how difficult it is for him to use ALT + TAB on his keyboard. I couldn't figure out what was the problem as it is really straightforward; left thumb on the left ALT button, and the middle finger on the TAB button.

But until I saw this image, then I understand what the guy is going through.

More info on the Kinesis keyboard here. Apparently this keyboard is used by many developers/programmers as this keyboard can help them reduce RSI (repetitive strain injury) effects.

That keyboard is just... weird, don't you think?

Once in while, an ABAP programmer will be faced with this issue. I was faced with this quite a few times and I thought that I should keep this as a reference. There are several tools built in SAP that can help you with this, and a programmer should utilize this as much as possible. These are my favorites:

SE30 - ABAP Runtime Analysis
This utility will give you the basic overview of what is going on with a particular program. It's really very simple. It simply displays a bar chart telling you how much time the program takes to execute its codes. Usually the database is the culprit as shown in the image above.

ST05 - SQL Trace
I like this one. It details out every single SQL statement in the program and tells you how much time it takes for each statement. You should be able to drilldown the problem right here.

SAP Notes
As always, when you are stuck, go to SAP Developer Network, and search for SAP Notes. Using the right keywords (like the name of the table causing the performance problem like BSEG) you can find what you want. If you don't trust me, check out SAP Note 185530 and SAP Note 191492.

I will go more into MY best practices soon :P

Currently, I am planning which new PC hardware to go for. As I have thought it out, I just wanted a good-enough system upgrade to an Intel platform with a good future upgrade path. I only need a new motherboard, RAMS, processor and a good heatsink. So, I came up with these criterias:

1. A motherboard with an Intel P35 is a must.
2. Crossfire/SLi multi GPU support is out the window (doesn't provide double the performance for double the price, so it really is not worth it for me).
3. IDE support is a must. I still have a few PATA parts I still want to use; like the 120GB HDD and the DVD writer.
4. Performance RAMS is a must. The whole 4GB of DDR2.
5. Processor must at least be dual core. Heck even the cheapest processors nowadays are dual cores.
6. Motherboard must support quad core processors for future upgrade.

Based on these criteria, here is the new computer specifications; complete with justifications:

GIGABYTE P35-DS3
This is a good motherboard. It's cheap and provides good overclocking potential. There's no multi GPU support and I never cared for that anyway. This motherboard is considered low end, but in good hands and overclocking experience, you should be able to overclock anything you want with this baby.

GSKILL PC8000 F2-8000CL5D-4GBPQ 4GB KIT (2x 2GB)
This is the mother lode. Most of my budget went here. This basically the thing that will last for the next few years. Furthermore, it WILL be really sellable in future. With rated max FSB of 1000MHz, there shouldn't be any problem overclocking any processor in near future.

INTEL DUAL CORE E2140 (M0 Stepping)
Cheapest dual core processor in the market! The default clock speed is 1.6GHz, which is pretty low. Anyhow, with M0 stepping, a good heatsink and the GSkill RAMS I have chosen, I am bringing this infant to a 100% overclock. Yes, once I am done, this baby will be a furious adult with 3.2GHz gaming prowess.

THERMALRIGHT ULTRA 120
The best of the best air cooler right now. I wouldn't want a cooler that will bottleneck my overclocks, so I chose this one. A little pricey, but hey it doesn't get outdated easily, and selling this off in future is easy.

Check out the links for more info. You can copy my specs if you want :P

It's happening!

I am finally selling off my computer parts. Yes, I am selling them off - one by one.

I sold off the High Performance UTT-BH5 512x2 rams a few days ago. Still have a list of things I want to let go.

- DFi NF4 SLi Infinity
- DFi Lanparty Ultra D (faulty)
- AMD Opteron 144 + Arctic Freezer 64 PRO

Contact me if you want any of these.