Ubuntu 12.10 Error in resolving domain names

Recently I upgraded to Ubuntu 12.10 (Quantal Quetzal), which is not an LTS version. I started facing problems in accessing internet. Any domain that I would try to access or ping will say "unknown host". After Googling about it I found that in Ubuntu 12.10 the default nameserver has been changed from 127.0.0.1 to 127.0.1.1. I updated my "/etc/resolve.conf" for this change and everything started to work. But this change will not persist for the next  reboot. So I had to update the "/etc/resolvconf/resolv.conf.d/original".

LDAP setup on Evolution

Thunderbird has been my friend for few years, but I always wanted to use Evolution as it is shipped along with the default Ubuntu Installation. The only reason I was not able to do so was that, I never figured out how I can access my MS Exchange contacts(I am referring it as LDAP contacts).

Today I happen to be successful in accessing those and thought to write about it. I am currently on Evolution version 2.30.3. I am accessing my Exchange Sever through IMAP/SMTP.

To setup Evolution to use our LDAP contacts, we need to add a new address book into our contacts. We do it with the following steps.

1. Click on Contacts in left bottom of screen to go to the contacts window.
2. File-> New ->Address Book
3. Select type as On LDAP Server
4. Enter your LDAP server URL(like ldap.domain.com)
5. Enter port (Default is 389)
6. Select encryption type (Mine was No encryption)
7. Login method Use distinguished Name(DN)
8. Login as your bind DN (normally Domain\User)
9. Go to details tab
10. Add your Search base or let it find for you (something like DC=******)
11. Search scope "sub"
12. Click "Ok"
13. Go to mail preferences -> contacts
14. Opt for autocompletion and select your address book
15. Compose new mail and type initial letters of the desired contact, it will show you the auto completion drop down.

This is it, I have opted for "copy book content locally for offline operation" for fast responses otherwise the search takes a little time to fetch it from server. Once a contact is fetched, it comes as soon as you type. This may and may not ask you for your domain password depending on your LDAP server settings, but if it does you may avoid it on every auto-completion by Remember Password check box.

Thunderbird Password Problem

Sometimes when I have changed my Windows domain password, the Thunderbird faces problems. When it asks me for a new password it is well and good but at time it does not even ask for it and terminates the operation unfinished. 

I have spent quit a good time to solve this, looking in my Ubuntu keyring, and thought I can save other's time, if I can write about the solution.

The password manager of Thunderbird remembers your passwords if you wish to. We need to remove the previously stored passwords from it. We can find them at Edit -> Preferences -> Security -> Passwords -> Saved Passwords. After removing our previous password, and performing the operation again, the Thunderbird asks for the password and we can save our new password here.

Remmina the best RDP Client for Ubuntu

Recently I was struggling to access a remote desktop setup over VPN. The first thing I tried was Terminal Server Client and then Gnome-RDP. Both worked, but somehow I was not getting a good feeling as I do when I work on Windows Remote Desktop Client. They are really missing the toolbar that Microsoft provides in there. On top of that these packages were crashing due to some X-server issues.

After two days I discovered another RDP client software provided by Ubuntu community called Remmina.
It provides me the similar options as in Windows Remote Desktop eg. the fullscreen toggle and HostKey as in VirtualBox. It is just two hours so far and I am loving this utility. Thanks to Remmina contributors.

http://remmina.sourceforge.net/

Using VMWare images in VirtualBox

I started up a new project, and my client provided me a VMWare image. I was on Ubuntu 10.10 so I had to use it in my VirtualBox. I first tried by creating a new virtual machine and providing the VMDK image as a disk. It ran successfully, I was happy as I could see the LAMP stack setup over the Virtual Machine working perfectly. Then, I changed the display settings and installed some software upgrades, everything till that point worked well. 


But when I restarted the system all the changes in display and all upgrades were gone and I was like WTF!!!.


I googled for some time and found that people were discussing about importing VMDK to VDI which is default disk format in VirtualBox. Some of them were also talking about the three image write modes in VirtualBox.


Finally I was looking in the file menu of VirtualBox and found an "Import Appliance" option, I gave it a click and It worked like magic. 


The import appliance option requires you to provide the the OVF(Open Virtualization Format) file that I had received within the image dump from my client. This file actually contains the settings the exporting machine has had. Once the file is provided, Virtualbox will show you the settings in GUI. You may optionally change some of them, for example the path of my VMDK file was wrong, and I had to provide the correct path. I also changed the sound and network adapter settings according to my hardware. Once done with these settings, the import process will take the given VMDK image and create a copy of its own. After that it all works like you have created a new machine.


I hope this helps, this is the first time i am putting my experience on web so please accept my apologies if this is hard to read and understand.


I also request you to put your comments and suggestions on how can i improve my writing habits.


Thanks a lot!!