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Linux Memory Usage Summary Script

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I was having trouble with a webserver this week, which I'd just set up for a client. When it went live, it seemed OK initially, but when we left it overnight it curled up its toes and died. It was so dead that I couldn't even ssh in to reboot it, so we had to do a remote reboot. Crunch.

Anyway, on getting it back up, I poked around in the logs and found that it was running out of memory, which it really shouldn't do given that it was a fairly low load on the webserver, and only apache, mysql and php were running on it. I looked around the Interwebs and found an excellent resource called Troubleshooting Memory Usage, which gave me some pointers about how to rein in apache and stop it from eating up memory so quickly. Thanks!

Anyway on the page was a script for summarising memory usage, which I thought was a good idea, so i grabbed that one and adapted it to my own purposes. I thought I'd make the results available here, so feel free to grab it and adapt it to your own needs.

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Ubuntu 8.04 to 8.10 upgrade.

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A lot of commentators in the blogosphere have shown disappointment at the fact that little seems to have changed with Ubuntu 8.10. My answer to them is that in fact a lot has changed, but not much of it is visible. To my mind a lot of these under-the-hood changes have addressed fundamental issues which needed to be fixed as a priority, so that normal users could just get on with the business of using Linux, rather than scrabbling around in config files.

Also, Ubuntu has an aggressive schedule, which means release are made every 6 months. I believe the purpose of the April (.04) releases is to introduce new features, and the October (.10) release is to refine them and fix any breaks. Compare this approach to Windows or Macintosh, where releases are made around every three years, and you can appreciate that releasing little and often means that changes are more diffuse and less apparent.

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Ubuntu 8.04 Dual Head setup on Dell Vostro.

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I keep hearing how Ubuntu has finally nailed the dual head hassles of the past, and now you can just plug in an external monitor and go. Alas I've never had that experience, either with this Dell Vostro 1400 or either of the two IBM Thinkpads I've run Ubuntu on.The IBMs were both 1024×768 resolution, as is my external monitor. The Dell is a less standard 1280×800 resolution. I also, on occasion plug it into my LCD TV, but that's another story.

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Ubuntu Touchpad toggle tweak

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I've been getting irritated with the touchpad on this new Dell Vostro 1400. I type for a while, and then my palm touches the touchpad, sending the pointer skimming into the line above, or clicking on buttons I don't want to click on. So, I looked around and figured out a solution. Over the past two years, I've had to update this post for every single new version of Ubuntu, which has been a pain, so look for the heading below which corresponds to your version of Ubuntu.

Ubuntu Hardy 8.04

First of all, you need to edit your /etc/xorg.conf file, for which you'll need root privileges – use sudo.You just need to add one line in the input device section, which is the one in bold below. (Intrepid 8.10, see below)

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Synaptics Touchpad"
        Driver          "synaptics"
        Option          "SendCoreEvents"        "true"
        Option          "Device"                "/dev/psaux"
        Option          "Protocol"              "auto-dev"
        Option          "HorizEdgeScroll"       "0"
        Option          "SHMConfig"
EndSection
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Physician Heal Thyself: When WordPress Themes go Bad

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Just had an irritating couple of hours when I discovered that my WordPress Theme was broken. The sidebar had slipped to underneath the main column, and the background of the main posting area had disappeared. I tried clearing my cache first of all. Then I tried looking at the site in different browsers. It was still broken in IE: although the symptoms were slightly different the sidebar was still misplaced.

OK, time to roll my sleeves up …

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