MySQL Database Lectures

A second set of lectures focusing on MySQL can be accessed at:

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B46eQU9qyhwrYTNmZTI1YWYtYzE2OS00NTAwLTgyOTgtODFmMTAwMjA3MDI2

My QRCode for use with any QRCode reader.

and a smaller version

Shell scripting notes

I have uploaded some lecture slides for bash shell scripting that give an introduction to shell scripting on Linux. These are shared at google docs and can be accessed at:

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B46eQU9qyhwrODJlMDdjNzUtMDNkNS00ODczLTk0MTUtYTIxZDhiOTlhNjYy&hl=en_US

setting up VMware 7.1 with kernel 2.6.36.x

If you are reading this post, you probably know what virtualization is and that VMWare is the most popular virtualization solution. You can use VMWare player (free) to run virtual machines already created by others for you or you can try VMWare server (free) or VMWare workstation (paid) to create your own virtual machines.

There is one problem though, VMWare 7.1.x releases (the latest at the time of this writing) are incompatible with 2.6.36[.x] kernel series. In order to run correctly VMWare products compile a few kernel modules that they use upon first startup. The process normally works without a problem if you are using a stock kernel from your distribution but may fail if you have a different kernel (my case). The error you get is:

"Unable to build kernel module.

See log file /tmp/vmware-root/setup-NNNNN.log for details"

Fear not as there is a patch out there for solving exactly this problem. Here is what you need to do.

1. Download the patch from

http://communities.vmware.com/servlet/JiveServlet/download/1617499-43584/vmware-7.1-2.6.36-generic.patch

2. Save the patch to your /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source directory.

3. Extract the sources:

tar xf vmblock.tar; tar xf vmci.tar; tar xf vmmon.tar; tar xf vmnet.tar; tar xf vsock.tar

4. Apply the patch:

patch -N -p1 < vmware-7.1-2.6.36-generic.patch

5. Compress the archives again:

tar cf vmblock.tar vmblock-only; tar cf vmci.tar vmci-only; tar cf vmmon.tar vmmon-only; tar cf vmnet.tar vmnet-only; tar cf vsock.tar vsock-only;

6. Now just start your VMWare product and it should compile the modules without any problems. You can also compile and install the modules from the command line using the command:

vmware-modconfig --console --install-all

Many thanks to Ad0@#vmware [freenode] & archangelamael, balding_parrot, pure_hate@#backtrack-linux[freenode] for their help, tips and guidance.

Miss Slax? Meet Salix

If you miss the old slackware linux based live cd distribution slax, you should give a try to Salix.

http://www.salixos.org/wiki/index.php/Home

Very nice distribution keeping the slackware philosophy in mind. There are various flavors and a few interesting installation options. Specially check out the live cd modifier and installer programs.

Moving public work to Github

Just started moving my OpenSource utility code modules and other projects to GitHub - yes I have converted from SVN to Git.

My repository can be found at: https://github.com/kashifpk

Quick Android SMS backup script in python

If you are a person like me who likes to keep a record of his/her conversations then you should find it useful.

On my previous Nokia Symbian phone I had a SIS file to backup my smses before deleting them from the phone memory. So I got an android phone a month back and the smses started piling up. With the new threaded view the sms interface performance becomes quite sluggish when you reach around 2000 smses.

Since I was already exploring SL4A, I quickly wrote a small script to save sent and received messages to memory card. Visit http://www.compulife.com.pk/oss/android_sms_exporter to get the script.