Merge multiple pdf to one

A simple way to merge multiple pdf files to one single pdf could be using TeX! It is faster and not expensive:


texexec --pdfarrange --result all.pdf file1.pdf file2.pdf file3.pdf
texexec --pdfarrange --result all.pdf `ls *.pdf`

enjoy!

GDM errors about ICEauthority

After upgrading my opensolaris installation i had troubles with GDM on start with these messages:

Could not update ICEauthority file /.ICEauthority

There is a problem with the configuration server. (/usr/lib/gconf-sanity-check-2 exited with status 256)

To fix them i did this using an xterm session login:

pfexec usermod -d /var/lib/gdm gdm
pfexec rm /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/GL
pfexec ln -s ../../../../../var/run/opengl/server/ /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/GL
pfexec svcadm restart gdm

It should work! Anyway here is the link to the topic on the Opensolaris forum: http://opensolaris.org/jive/thread.jspa?threadID=120672&tstart=0

Firefox over SSH/X11

I always had troubles calling firefox over ssh if the session was started from another unix-like machine. For example if call firefox in the remote shell, it starts but it is a local instance, not remote. So i found this solution to fix this issue, calling the firefox command with "no-remote" option: firefox -no-remote. That's all :)

Kill a process with ease in Opensolaris

Opensolaris has a nice command to kill process by name: pkill. So if you know the process name like firefox-bin it's easy to kill it running pkill firefox-bin. If you don't know the name of the process follow these steps:

• ps -ef | grep -i proc_name_to_look_for
• kill -9 PID_Of_process_found

Nimbus theme with Gnome in GNU/Linux

I was looking for a good theme for Gnome on my gnu/linux distro and opensolaris theme called Nimbus is really cool as you can see.


To install this theme it i followed these steps:

1. Open a terminal and get the latest nimbus theme and extract it:
   wget http://dlc.sun.com/osol/jds/downloads/extras/nimbus/nimbus-0.1.4.tar.bz2. So this url contains all versions of this theme. To extract: tar -jxvf nimbus-0.1.4.tar.bz2
2. After package extraction enter in the extracted directory and it should be possible to run:
   ./configure --prefix=/usr. I've used the prefix /usr because my themes dir is in /usr/share and not in /usr/local/share. Check where is your themes directory before run configure and then set the right prefix!
3. Run make  and make install as privileged user.
4. Go to the appearance settings in Gnome and you should be able to find the Nimbus theme with its variants.

That's all! Good luck!

SMF - Service Management Facility administration

Sun Solaris 10, Opensolaris and successors have a new mechanism to manage services: SMF. So the first thing you could notice is that there are no more /etc/rc?.d but only a daemon that you have to use to start all the services you need. Infact /etc/rc?.d and /etc/inetd.conf are empty! The first issue I found running Opensolaris was to start gdm daemon and login in text mode: I kill it from a gui terminal emulator but gdm has restarted soon soon! So, how to stop it?!?! It is necessary to use SMF administration commands(svcs | svcadm | svccfg):

• svcs: print the state of all services and for each service it is possible to see its dependencies from other services, including reasons for failure.
  Examples:
  
marco@IbmSolaris:~$ svcs -l hal
fmri svc:/system/hal:default
nome Hardware Abstraction Layer daemon
abilitato vero
stato online
next_state none
state_time 05 gennaio 2010 1:11:51 CET
logfile /var/svc/log/system-hal:default.log
programma di riavviosvc:/system/svc/restarter:
default contract_id 62
dependency require_all/none svc:/system/filesystem/local (online)
dependency require_all/none svc:/system/device/local (online)
dependency require_all/none svc:/system/dbus (online)

marco@IbmSolaris:~$ svcs -x hal
svc:/system/hal:default (Hardware Abstraction Layer daemon)
Stato: online da 05 gennaio 2010 1:11:51 CET
Vedere: hal(1M
Vedere: /var/svc/log/system-hal:default.log
Impatto: nessuno.

marco@IbmSolaris:~$ svcs -d hal
STATE STIME FMRI
online gen_05 svc:/system/device/local:default
online gen_05 svc:/system/filesystem/local:default
online gen_05 svc:/system/dbus:default

marco@IbmSolaris:~$ svcs -D hal
STATE STIME FMRI
disabled gen_05 svc:/network/device-discovery/printers:snmp
online gen_05 svc:/system/filesystem/rmvolmgr:default
online gen_05 svc:/application/graphical-login/gdm:default

  For more use svcs -? or see man page.
  
• svcadm: to manipulate (enable/disable/restart/refresh/milestone/clear) services.
  marco@IbmSolaris:~$ svcadm restart apache2
Notice that for both commands it is possible to pass the name of the service in different name forms according to the service's FMRI (Fault Managed Resource Identifier).
• svccfg: to import, export, and modify service configurations repository(with XML). It is possible to call it in interactive mode(for exmaple run it wihtout parameters).

That's a new and good way to manage services. Funny! No?!?

My shell doesn't get inputs!

It could happen that, after system upgrade or "hacking", your terminal emulator like gnome-terminal maybe presents a message like this:

readline: warning turning off output flushing

The solution may be the following: it is necessary to check the rights on pseudo terminal pseudo-device:

marco@IbmSolaris:~$ ls -lL /dev/ptmx

If the output you get is not the same like this

crw-rw-rw- 1 root sys 11, 8 2010-01-26 15:31 /dev/ptmx

you should be able to use xterm to change them. See man pty for more.