Some days ago I noticed Woodcarver, the workstation where I spend most of my time, running too slow. A quick look at top found the problem: trackerd, the daemon used by Meta Tracker.

And even when I like the idea of having a desktop search engine I haven't really needed it yet, it seems I'm kinda organized.

I read in Ubuntu Forums that we still have some bugs in the software, at least in versions 0.6.2 and 0.6.3, thus trackerd eats too much memory and CPU during indexing.

I know it's possible to configure Meta Tracker from System > Preferences >Indexing Preferences but I didn't have much time to run tests and opted for a quick sudo apt-get remove tracker. Everything is running normally now.

So, if you notice Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon too slow, take a look at top, trackerd could be devouring your resources.

If anybody has suggestions to keep trackerd running without a big impact on performance we'd like to know them.

Once I fixed my wireless connection problem with Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon I had to figure out why one website was not loading: Campaign Monitor.

I found a few articles mentioning the IPv6 problems with Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon, tried the suggested fixes but still had the problem. The IPv6 issue causes slow connections, but there's a connection at the end, I couldn't even connect, my browser was timing out.

It wasn't a problem related to DNS resolution either, I was already using OpenDNS.

After a huge headache and lots of sweating I found bug 59331: a change in kernel 2.6.17 (Gutsy runs 2.6.22-14) caused many websites to stop loading.

One user reported one website not loading and giving the same error I had with Campaign Monitor, the site was Ohio State University.

If you've read till here and you can't load either site, Campaign Monitor and Ohio State University, I'm almost sure you have the same problem I had, keep reading for the solution.

You need to disable tcp_window_scaling following these steps:

• sudo vi /etc/sysctl.conf
• Add the line: net.ipv4.tcp_window_scaling = 0
• sudo sysctl -p

Update: It seems that disabling window_scaling is too drastic, instead you can add these lines to sysctl.conf:

net.ipv4.tcp_wmem = 4096 16384 131072
net.ipv4.tcp_rmem = 4096 87380 174760

And then run sudo sysctl -p to activate the change.

After the change I could access Ohio State University and thought my problem with Campaign Monitor should be fixed too, I was wrong. In my laptop I was able to access Campaign Monitor site but not their members and API site, which runs at a subdomain, and my desktop couldn't even see their home page.

I needed to read a comment by Michael Doube, in the discussion of bug 59331, to get the definitive fix:

An alternative solution is to install Firestarter, which I think works by using this iptables line: sudo iptables -t mangle -A FORWARD -p tcp --tcp-flags SYN,RST SYN -j TCPMSS -clamp-mss-to-pmtu

So I did that, installed Firestarter:

sudo apt-get install firestarter

Then I opened Firestarter from Applications > Internet, followed the instructions to enable the firewall and got the change in TCP.

Neat! Campaign Monitor's site is loading now and I can continue with my job. Not bad for almost 8 hours lost in this damn thing.

I hope Canonical releases a bugfix soon, there are many users, and I guess many websites too, having this problem.

Some additional data: It seems the problem is not an Ubuntu problem after all, but something related to some routers not conrrectly working when used with some Linux kernels, anyway, Ubuntu and other distributions should find a workaround while routers manufacturer fix their hardware or release updated firmware.

After upgrading to Ubuntu 7.10 and use it for a few days I've started finding some issues related to my Internet connection.

The most annoying one is that my wireless connection is disabled on boot, this happened just in one of my desktops, I had to manually run /etc/init.d/networking restart every time I started a session.

Today I've found the solution, it's called wicd and replaces Gnome's Network Manager.

To install wicd follow these steps:

1. sudo apt-get remove network-manager-gnome network-manager
2. Download and install the .deb file from the wicd download page.
3. Run /opt/wicd/tray.py & to start wicd applet.
4. Open wicd settings by clicking on the applet. The button to save your changes is not that obvious, you must click on connect (which doesn't look like a button) on the Network section. Take a look at /opt/wicd/data/wireless-settings.conf to confirm your changes are saved.
5. To get the applet on every boot go to System > Preferences > Sessions and click on Remember currently running applications in Session Options.
6. Reboot to confirm the applet and your connection are working. If your Internet connection is not ready for certains applications you may need to reduce order, I use 40, for /opt/wicd/tray.py in the Current Session section at System > Preferences > Sessions.

I still have some issues with DNS resolution, they seem to be related to IPv6 as reported in many sites, and for some reason I can't load Campaign Monitor, so, if you run Gutsy and find the solution please let me know.

Good luck!

Just a few days ago I wrote about the launch of Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon, friendly name for version 7.10 of one of the most popular Linux distributions, and my current favorite. Then, just a few days later, my preferred open source graphics project released its new version: Gimp 2.4, which required some new libraries included with Ubuntu 7.10.

What else did I needed to make the jump and upgrade my boxes from Feisty Fawn to the new Gutsy Gibbon? Well, just a little time and peace of mind to make sure I wouldn't lose any of my settings, too much work here these days to waste my time reconfiguring everything.

So, I followed the upgrade instructions for Ubuntu. A click here, a click there, waiting for some files to download while I watched a movie, some more clicks and, what?, is that all? Yup.

This is one of the easiest operating system upgrades I've ever experienced. The Ubuntu guys have done a great job to offer an ultra friendly upgrade process with easy to understand dialogs all the way. I was able to move from Feisty Fawn to Gutsy Gibbon in two desktops, Flenser and Woodcarver, and one laptop, Amber, maintaining all settings intact. All of these machines had several virtual hosts running on Apache, with a few MySQL and PostgreSQL databases and some users managing email with Evolution. Nothing too complicated, I know, but anyway, it's nice to upgrade and have everything in place.

The final version of Gimp 2.4 is not there yet, Gutsy comes with a release candidate version, which works perfect for me, but it's just a matter of days until we get it on the repositories.

So, if you've been waiting for that upgrade to the latest Ubuntu wait no more, you can do it, literally, while you sleep. Oh, and then tell us about it, ok?

Featuring a new design on their web site, the Gimp team has launched the long awaited 2.4 version.

I haven't had the chance to upgrade yet and I think I'll need to get my Gutsy Gibbon update to do it.

Anybody has comments on the new Gimp 2.4?

The Release Candidate of Ubuntu 7.10 has been available for some time already but just yesterday, October 18th, the final version was officially launched.

A few of the new features:

• Gnome 2.20.
• Compiz Fusion, the reunion of Compiz and Beryl, enabled by default.
• Quicker user switching.
• Firefox plugins can be installed right from the operating system.
• X, screen and video drivers can be easily configured from a new GUI.
• Automatic printer detection and installation.
• Now it's possible writing, as well as reading, to NTFS partitions.

So, wait no more, download Ubuntu 7.10 now and tell us about it.

I still need to find the time to upgrade Flenser, Woodcarver and Amber (by the way, it seems a System 76 Pangolin made it to the home page of Ubuntu), hopefully I'll do it quite soon.

Long before the Peruvian Government officially announced it, many in the local free software communities were in touch with colaborators of the OLPC project (One Laptop Per Child).

A few days ago Antonio Ognio told me the founder of LinuxChile, Eduardo Silva, was visiting Lima to talk us about the project. Eduardo will offer his keynote this Monday, July 2, at 7pm in Jr. Junín 355, Miraflores.

I'd like to invite all my readers to go and publish their pictures and comments about the event and the project.

The OLPC's use Linux, actually a flavour of Fedora, and I'm sure it will be great to see and, if possible, touch, one.

Even if I don't trust much in the government to get the best of the OLPC's for Peruvian children, it's quite important knowing more about these laptops and their potential. Even more now that there are rumours of a commercial version for 2008, also manufactured by Taiwan's Quanta. I'm sure many of us would like one of these toys, if we can call them toys, for our kids.

To know more visit the the note at PLUG's site.

"We are a free and open source shop. We have no one from OLPC working with Microsoft on developing a Windows platform for the XO. MS doesn't get any special treatment from OLPC."

That's what Walter Bender, president of Software and Content at OLPC, told to Ken Fisher at Ars Technica.

They really scared us, uh?