There are several postings on the Internet suggesting that it should be possible. Even though Ubuntu isn’t on the supported platforms list for Adobe Coldfusion MX.

The following assumes that you have already installed Apache2 (and have basic knowledge on configuring Apache2). Even though MySQL (or another database) is recommended, it’s not mandatory for installing Coldfusion.

Before you start you need to find some files (or locations) regarding Apache2. Coldfusion needs those during the installation process.

Apache config directory: /etc/apache2
Apache binary directory: /usr/sbin/apache
Apache control file for starting Apache2: /etc/init.d/apache2

Before installing Coldfusion, you need to install libstdc++5 (libstdc++.so.5). This is needed for the image manipulation capabilities of Coldfusion.

Installing libstdc++5
> sudo apt-get install libstdc++5

Start the Coldfusion installation

> sudo ./coldfusion-801-lin.bin

The following is a screen capture of the installation process.

=======================================
Install Type
————

If you do not have a serial number, select either 30-day trial or Developer Edition.
->1- Install new version of Adobe ColdFusion 8 with a serial number
2- 30-day trial
3- Developer Edition

Installation Choice: 1

Serial Number: xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx

=======================================
Installer Configuration
———————–

What kind of installation do you want?
->1- Server configuration
2- Multiserver configuration
3- J2EE configuration (EAR file)
4- J2EE configuration (WAR file)

Choose one of the following options:: 1

=======================================
Is Adobe ColdFusion 8 (Server Configuration) Installed?
——————————————————-

You cannot install the server configuration of Adobe ColdFusion 8 if it is already installed on this computer.

Is there already a server configuration of Adobe ColdFusion 8 installed?
1- Yes
->2- No

ENTER THE NUMBER FOR YOUR CHOICE, OR PRESS <ENTER> TO ACCEPT THE DEFAULT:
: 2

=======================================
Subcomponent installation
————————-

The following options are available for installation.
An option marked with “[X]” in front will be installed and an option with “[ ]” will not. Choosing an option will toggle it on or off

[X] 1) ColdFusion 8 Documentation
[X] 2) Adobe LiveCycle Data Services ES
[X] 3) ColdFusion 8 Search Services
[X] 4) Start ColdFusion on system init
5) Continue with installation

Select an option: 2

=======================================
Subcomponent installation

[X] 1) ColdFusion 8 Documentation
[ ] 2) Adobe LiveCycle Data Services ES
[X] 3) ColdFusion 8 Search Services
[X] 4) Start ColdFusion on system init
5) Continue with installation

Select an option: 5

=======================================
Choose Install Folder
———————

Select the directory where you want to install Adobe ColdFusion 8.

Directory:
Default Install Folder: /opt/coldfusion8

ENTER AN ABSOLUTE PATH, OR PRESS <ENTER> TO ACCEPT THE DEFAULT:

=======================================
Earlier Versions of Adobe ColdFusion installed?
———————————————–

If you installed an earlier version of ColdFusion on this computer, you can migrate your settings to Adobe ColdFusion 8.
Is there an earlier version of ColdFusion installed on this computer (for example, ColdFusion 6 or ColdFusion MX 7)?

1- Yes
->2- No

ENTER THE NUMBER FOR YOUR CHOICE, OR PRESS <ENTER> TO ACCEPT THE DEFAULT:
: 2

=======================================
Configure Web Servers
———————

Please configure your web server(s). If you do not configure a web server the built-in web server will be used on port 8500 or the next available port.

1- Add Web Server Configuration
->2- Continue with installation

Choice: 1

****************************************************
->1- Apache
2- Sun ONE Web Server (iPlanet)
3- Cancel

What kind of web server are you configuring: 1

What directory contains your Apache configuration file (httpd.conf)? (For example, on Red Hat Linux it could be located in the /etc/httpd/conf directory if you installed from an rpm, or for SuSe Linux, it could be in /etc/apache2)

Directory: /etc/apache2

****************************************************
Where is the Apache program binary file? (For example, on Red Hat Linux it could be /usr/sbin/httpd if you installed from an rpm, or for SuSE Linux it could be located at /usr/sbin/httpd2) If you have more than one instance of Apache on your computer, enter the binary file location for the Apache web server that will use ColdFusion. (Note: this is not the Apache start and stop script.)

File: /usr/sbin/apache2

****************************************************

Where is the control file that you use to start and stop the Apache web server? (For example, this could be /etc/init.d/httpd on Red Hat Linux if you installed from an rpm, /usr/sbin/apache2ctl on SuSe Linux, or it could be /usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl on hand-compiled versions.)

File: /etc/init.d/apache2

****************************************************

Please configure your web server(s). If you do not configure a web server the built-in web server will be used on port 8500 or the next available port.

1- Add Web Server Configuration
2- Remove Web Server Configuration
3- Edit:Apache : /etc/apache2
->4- Continue with installation

Choice: 4

=======================================
Choose Adobe ColdFusion 8 Administrator Location
————————————————

Select the location of the web root for Adobe ColdFusion 8. This is where the installer places the Adobe ColdFusion 8 Administrator.
This directory must be the web root for one of the websites to be configured for use with Adobe ColdFusion 8.

Directory: (DEFAULT: /etc/htdocs): /var/www

=======================================
Runtime User
————

Enter the name of the runtime user. This user must already exist on the system.

User Name: (DEFAULT: nobody):

=======================================
Administrator Password
———————-

Enter the password that you will use to restrict access to the ColdFusion Administrator.

This field is required.

Password: ********
Confirm Password: ********

=======================================
Enable RDS
———-

The ColdFusion Remote Development Service (RDS) lets developers using Adobe tools remotely connect to this server for development purposes. RDS is required for Line Debugging, Report Builder, and DreamWeaver Extensions.

If this is a production server, Adobe recommends that you disable RDS.
Note, however, that disabling RDS also disables debugging, the directory browsing applets in the ColdFusion Administrator and some of the functionality in the Report Builder.

Enable RDS (Y/N): Y
Password: ********
Confirm Password: ********

=======================================
Installation Confirmation
————————-

Installation Type:
Server configuration

Licensing:
Enterprise edition
Serial Number: xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx

Installation Directories:
Product: /opt/coldfusion8
Web root: /var/www

Server Information:
Web Server: Apache (/etc/apache2)
Port:
Search Services: installed
Adobe LiveCycle Data Services ES: not installed
Documentation: installed
RDS: enabled

Disk Space Information (for Installation Target):
Required: 904,121,208 bytes
Available: 30,725,763,072 bytes

After this the installation start. After the installation Coldfusion didn’t start on my server (you can test this by going to the following URL: http://<IP_ADRESS>/cfife/administrator/index.cfm). It seems that the startup config files aren’t created, so I created them myself.

> sudo vi /etc/init.d/cfusion_startup.sh

#!/bin/bash
case “$1″ in
start)
/opt/coldfusion8/bin/coldfusion start
;;
stop)
/opt/coldfusion8/bin/coldfusion stop
;;
esac

(safe the file with <ESC>:wq)

Set execute permissions on the startup file:
> sudo chmod a+x cfusion_startup.sh
> cd /etc/rc2.d
> sudo ln -s “../init.d/cfusion_startup.sh” S92cfusion
> sudo ln -s “../init.d/cfusion_startup.sh” K92cfusion

(startup script info taken from http://www.mattwoodward.com/)

Now you can reboot the server, and everything should work. Note that the Coldfusion services may take a while to start. So have patience.

Here are some things you might want to do after installing Coldfusion;

• Add index.cfm as an index file to the apache configuration.
• Add databases to the Coldfusion administrator (if needed)
• Play around with your new application server

The first thing I noticed when I moved some websites to the Coldfusion / Linux combination was that it’s faster. The ‘old’ server is Windows 2003 Web Edition / C2D CPU / 2GB RAM server, while the ‘new’ server is a Linux Ubuntu Server 7.10 / 2 * 733MHz Intel CPU / 512MB RAM server. Both servers also have MySQL v5 installed (with the same databases).

This should also work on the latest Ubunty release (Hardy Heron).

Currently I’ve got a 35mm f/2D and a 50mm f/1.8D prime for my D300. The lack of zoom capabilities will force me to be a little more creative while strolling the streets of NYC.

It would be nice to have a 24mm f/2.8 (or 20mm f/2.8) as well for a little more wide angle. Downside is that those are relatively pricey, or not available. the biggest photo/video store in NYC sell those at low prices, but they’re out of stock…..

UPDATE: first images of the Nikon 35mm f/2D looks promising. The lens is a bit larger than the 50mm f/1.8, but image quality looks better (contrast, colors).

Even though the OS itself is getting better and better. It still lacks the support of decent major software like Adobe Creative Suite, etc. It’s missing the software people use in every day (business)life.
Sure, there a million different ways of running Microsoft Office or Adobe Photoshop on a Linux OS, but these require a commercial piece of software (CrossOver) , or in depth knowledge of the OS to make it work (Wine in some cases). Two things that shouldn’t be required. Not if you’re used to Windows (or Apple’s OSX). And even if you find a ’substitute’ it’s most likely to have an awful user experience.

The average housewife won’t use Linux, because her friends all use Windows. All those nice little Windows programs, which makes life easier (or a living hell with all the mal/spyware out there). So if the Linux community wants to make a difference they need to create some sort of critical mass (by their selves, or by Microsoft screwing up) to get the attention of the ‘normal’ user. But in a community where there’s no real (commercial) business model, it’s gonna be damn hard.

Microsoft created this critical mass by playing (probably) the best marketing trick in the world; Release Windows 95, and turn a blind eye to those who use a pirated copy at home. The home users create demand on the workfloor, so businesses start to use it on their workstations. Soon everyone was addicted. And now it’s damn hard to beat the addiction.

B.t.w., Apple is doing it a lot better. They created a nice and stable OS (just like the average Linux desktop distribution), BUT the OS has ALL the relevant drivers for the hardware used. ALSO they have a complete (and cheap) software suite (iLife and iWork), which is more than enough for the average family. No need to search the caverns of the Internet for software, and they look and feel the same as the OS.

So, I guess that my conclusion is that the OS is nearing perfection, but it (Linux in general) lacks good and decent third party software (and a good marketing machine )

In the mean time; I’m gonna upgrade my Linux (mail, web, and ssh) servers at work to ‘Hardy Heron’.

It had been a while since my last visit to any zoo. It sure is nice to stroll around the zoo with a camera, but in many cases it almost seems cruel to see those animals in those cramped spaces for the rest of their lives.

I think it might have to do something with seeing all those animals in the wild in Africa. Once you’ve seen that, the rest is kinda sorry, but on the other hand, not everyone has the possibility of going to Africa, and this might be the only way of seeing those animals in real life……

B.t.w. those cute polar bears are known to chase humans. Especially photographers

Some research showed that it might have to do something with ‘older’ plugins. After a trail and error period I found out that the WP Hashcash plugin was to blame. Ever since I de-activated it, the problem seems to be gone.

A couple off weeks ago I started experimenting with FreeRADIUS on Ubuntu server (v6.06.2 TLS). Mainly because I needed to test some things for work. So I used VMWare to experiment. The networking part was set-up as Bridged.

Today, I wanted to test with iperf (a tool for network performance testing). So I launched the virtual machine, but there was no network connectivity. ifconfig showed that eth1 didn’t received an IP adres.
So I ran every possible test there was;

• restarted the interfaces (/etc/init.d/networking restart)

This resulted in the following;

Listening on LPF/eth1/00:0c:29:68:e3:eb
Sending on LPF/eth1/00:0c:29:68:e3:eb
Sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8
DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 12

The “DHCPDISCOVER” messages continue about 4 times, then the message:

No DHCPOFFERS received.
No working leases in persistent database - sleeping.

• restarted the DHCP server
• rebooted the virtual machine
• changes the networking to NAT instead of Bridged (this way, connectivity was restored, but not the way I wanted. I needed Bridge-mode)
• Tried to run the virtual machine on OSX (VMWare Fusion), which worked surprisingly.

After this I ran Wireshark on my server to see if DHCP request were coming in…. And you might have guessed; No DHCP request were reaching the DHCP server. So the problem was work PC related…. As a matter of fact, I had the Cisco VPN client running….. Which didn’t allow the DHCP request broadcast.

Shutting the VPN client down solved the DHCP problem. After the virtual machine worked I could reinitiate the VPN.

Mental note to myself: do NOT boot/restart the virtual machines when the VPN is up.

It has been a while since my holiday to China and Tibet, but it’s better late than never :-).

More panorama’s on my flickr page

There’s no way that I could submit the printjob to the server from my Mac.

It seems that there is a bug in the authentication mechanism on OSX 10.5.2. If you add a (network) printer by using the System Preferences, you get to browse to find the actual printer. this results in a printer in the following location:

smb://<servernetbiosname>/printershare

For some weird reason this won’t work. You need to specify the IP adres of the server or include the windows workgroup name in the url. This can be done by using the System Preferences. But you can also use CUPS. This is the webinterface on OSX to access printing services. You can access CUPS by entering the following URL in your browser;

http://localhost:631

This give you a webinterface for managing printers. Just add (or edit) the printer. During the ‘Wizard’ you can specify the actual path/URL where CUPS can find the printer. Just one of the following:

smb://<username>:<password>@<IP Address>/<Printershare>

smb://<username>:<password>@<workgroup>/<servername>/<Printershare>

Don’t worry about the username and password being displayed in the URL. These will be ‘moved’ upon insertion to the Keychain.

Alternative is to add the Advanced button on the Add Printer Wizard on the Print & Fax panel in the System Preferences. This can be done by doing the following:

• Open System Preferences
• Open Print & Fax
• Click on the ‘+’ to add a printer.
• Right-click (or ctrl + left-click) on the menubar
• Customize Toolbar
• Add the ‘Advanced’ button

With the Advanced button you can specify the exact smb path mentioned earlier to add the printer by its IP address or with the workgroup information in its path.

More info on the Apple Support Discussion pages [1, 2].

Only downside is that the Wordpress Stats on the dashboard won’t work in FireFox. It works fine in Safari. Instead of showing the graph in FireFox it shows the actual dasboard page from wordpress.com.

The biggest advantage is that the mail client is very stable. I use (secure) IMAP and I have 3 mailboxes configured on the device. The mail client hasn’t crashed yet.

The biggest downside (in my opinion) is that the 3G connection drops automatically, so you need to re-establish the connection every time. Sure, it saves bandwidth (and costs), but it’s annoying that you actively have to monitor your e-mail.

Thankfully, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, so I’m still happy with the Nokia E61i.

More panorama’s on my flickr page

Thankfully no problems on my side with the updates.

Looking for other updates from Apple? Just go here.

Updating goes through a separate application, but it should also be possible through download over the mobile network (I haven’t tried this). All you need to know is explained on the Nokia website, but there are some thing you don’t want to forget;

• Use the Nokia Datasuite to create a FULL backup of the phone, because during the upgrade the phone goes back to factory defaults.
• Have lot’s of patience (and some deodorant handy)
• Make sure the PC isn’t doing anything else that might interfere with the update.

The first attempt failed for me. Even with all the warnings (DO NOT INTERRUPT THE UPDATING PROCESS OR DISCONNECT THE PHONE!!!) I rebooted the PC and disconnected the phone. Result, the phone didn’t respond (this is where my deodorant came in). After this I restarted the upgrade process, and the phone got recognized (thankfully). After 10 minutes, the phone rebooted with the new firmware version.

First action was to restore all data and settings on the phone. Since I had some issues with my network connectivity I decided to remove the Access Points and reconfigure them…. Well, don’t. First of all, I wasn’t able to receive the configuration parameters from the mobile operator (SMS ‘ja’ to 1300), so I had to reconfigure them manually.
Their website has a step-by-step manual on configuring the E61i, but this didn’t help either.

MMS functionality remained absent, and none of the applications was able to connect to the Internet by itself. I had to initiate the connection manually before browsing the web.
E-mail was even worse. Every time I had ‘Packet Authentication’ errors. So after a day I decided to restore the Access Points from my backup, and guess what… Everything worked again.

And now for the thing that have changed (at least the ones that I’ve noticed);

• the e-mail application seems more stable
• camera and video are still crappy (the time between the snapshot sound and the actual capture is still multiple seconds)
• Idle connections are terminated. This is a bad thing (for me at least), because I had my UMTS connection open all the time, and this way I received mail throughout the day. Now I have to connect each time I want to check my e-mail.

I haven’t tried VoIP yet, but will try to do so soon (that’s what happens when you don’t pay for your own bills )

Conclusion is that the phone didn’t get better. There are some improvements, and there are some new annoyances. But my e-mail is stable at this moment.

B.t.w. it’s much more than just a screensaver, but I liked the screensaver-part best.