Dear Diary

I was struggling a bit with making Bugzilla 2.2 work on my Windows XAMPP. I kept getting error about child processes not being able to start. The logs said this:

[Mon Jul 05 09:04:38 2010] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] (OS 3)The system cannot find the path specified. : couldn’t create child process: 720003: index.cgi
[Mon Jul 05 09:04:38 2010] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] (OS 3)The system cannot find the path specified. : couldn’t spawn child process: C:/xampp/htdocs/bugzilla/index.cgi

Ths solution is actually pretty straigt-forward, once you know it. First, add a registry key

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.cgi\Shell\ExecCGI\Command

and change it’s default value to:

C:\xampp\perl\bin\perl.exe -T

Adjust to your system’s paths, of course. You can use this .reg file if you have installed into c:\xampp or you can copy and paste from here:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
 
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.cgi\Shell\ExecCGI\Command]
@="C:\\xampp\\perl\\bin\\perl.exe -T"

Then, edit your httpd.conf (e.g. c:\xampp\apache\conf\httpd.conf) and add these lines:

<directory "C:/xampp/htdocs/bugzilla">
  AddHandler cgi-script .cgi
  Options +Indexes +ExecCGI
  DirectoryIndex index.cgi
  AllowOverride Limit
 
  # To enable the this Windows specific behavior (and therefore -disable- the
  # equivilant Unix behavior), uncomment the following directive:
  #
  ScriptInterpreterSource registry
</directory>

The important part here is ScriptInterpreterSource registry. It will make Apache pick up the interpreter from the registry rather then from the Shebang in the bugzilla cgi scripts. (see also http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/mod/core.html#scriptinterpretersource).

This is necessary since there is no

#!/usr/bin/perl -wT

on your windows system.

After struggling with installing Ubuntu Server 10.04 from a bootable usb stick, here are some hints in case anyone else ever wants to do this. My problem was that the Server Installer kept trying to load files from the CD and could not find them, which made the installation fail. I actually wonder why it could not find anything because it was apparently looking in the right places (i.e. the USB stick mounted under /cdrom). Feel free to enlighten me.

Anyway, first, you’ll of course need the Ubuntu Server Iso Image and the Universal USB Install in case you’re on Windows or the ‘Startup Disc Creator’ in case you’re already running Ubuntu.

Then, you’ll need to follow the guide to creating a usb stick as posted on the download page when you click ‘Show me how’. That is, run the Disc Create / USB Installer and follow the instructions. It’s actually pretty straight forward so I’m not going to post it again.

Next, and this is important, copy the iso you downloaded onto the USB stick, as we will need it later when we booted into the installation.

Now, boot the system from the USB stick you just created. This will start the installation where you can first choose a language and the like. After a while, as I already wrote, the installer failed for me with “missing data from cdrom”, bringing me to the installation menu. From there, you can choose to open a shell. Do so.

Once the shell is there, execute:

mount

and note the device that is mounted as /cdrom. This is your usb stick.

Next, execute the following commands:

umount /cdrom
mkdir /usb
#device_name is the one from mount
mount /dev/device_name /usb
mount -t iso9660 -o loop /usb/ubuntu-10.04-server-amd64.iso /cdrom

The iso name of course depends on the version of the server you downloaded. for me, it was the 64 bit version.

Next, you can exit the shell:

exit

This will take you back to the installation menu.

Select “Load preseed” (or similiarly named – can’t quite remember right now). The installation should now continue normally.

To install flasher, do

sudo dpkg -i --force-architecture maemo_flasher-3.5_2.5.2.2_i386.deb

afterwards, install ia32-libs from multiverse:

sudo apt-get install ia32-libs


Before installing ia32-libs flasher kept telling me this:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~/Desktop$ flasher-3.5
bash: /usr/bin/flasher-3.5: No such file or directory


Now, to flash PR1.2 and the vanilla eMMC content, issue the following two commands:

sudo flasher-3.5 -F RX-51_2009SE_10.2010.19-1_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin -f
sudo flasher-3.5 -F RX-51_2009SE_10.2010.13-2.VANILLA_PR_EMMC_MR0_ARM.bin -f -R


This will flash and reboot after flashing the eMMC contents.

For what it’s worth, this is what the Brainbench exam said about me in the results:

Score 4.01
Scored higher than 78% of all previous exam takers.

Demonstrates a clear understanding of many advanced concepts within this topic. Appears capable of mentoring others on most projects in this area.

Strengths
Classes
Standard Library
Language
Built-in Features

Weak Areas
None Noted

Isn’t that nice?

Das hier wird’s, ein Golf 1.4 TSI Highline mit ein bisschen Schnick-Schnack:


*schmacht*

On the Kite, the situation was being ‘workshopped’. This is the means by which people who don’t know anything get together to pool their ignorance.

from: Terry Pratchett – The Last Hero – A Discworld Fable.

… and so true

Soul Music: A Discworld Novel by Terry Pratchett

Small Gods: A Discworld Novel by Terry Pratchett

Monstrous Regiment: A Discworld Novel (Discworld Novels) by Terry Pratchett

My current technical book:

Speech and Language Processing by Dan Jurafsky and James H. Martin.