To add this useful utility, just run the following command from the command line or your server:-

sudo apt-get install python-software-properties

Once installed you will be able to add the Launchpad PPA of your choice as follows:-

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:nameofppa

You can add a PPA manually, but I find this a lot easier to remember!

The computer I am using is a Dell 1525n which has an Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller. After my initial install of Jaunty Jackalope beta all was well, the graphics card was detected and Compiz enabled. This however was short lived as some days later I applied some updates and Compiz could no longer be enabled.

On investigation I discovered that Compiz had ‘blacklisted’ my video card. I have yet to find out why because Compiz has worked without complaint on every version of Ubuntu since Gutsy Gibbon.

I was initially gutted and planned to downgrade to Intrepid, but not to be defeated I did some searching and found out that you can force Compiz to skip the black list checks. To do this you need to create the following file:-

~/.config/compiz/compiz-manager

and add the following line:-

SKIP_CHECKS=yes

After this I was then able to enable Compiz and continue working as I have done for the last year or so. So far I have not seen any issues, so it is still a mystery as to why the GM965/GL960 was blacklisted.

I hope this helps somebody!

The question I had was how on earth do I go about doing this? Although Drobo provide an SDK with the information on how to do this, what I needed was a step by step guide to give me a push in the right direction. Fortunately I came across this blog post which takes you through the steps of compiling MediaTomb. This was exactly what I needed. I am familiar with compiling applications for my Ubuntu system, what I wasn’t familiar with was cross compiling – I didn’t know where to start!

I was a little nervous about doing all of this on my main system, so I created a virtual machine of Ubuntu Intrepid 8.10 using VirtualBox. I followed the instructions to the letter up until the compilation of the libraries, I then substituted the webfsd compilation, and the result is now available for download at the DroboSpace Developer Community

root@ycits01:/# quotacheck -u -g -f -m /
quotacheck: Cannot create new quotafile //aquota.user.new: File exists
quotacheck: Cannot initialise IO on new quotafile: File exists
quotacheck: Cannot create new quotafile //aquota.group.new: File exists
quotacheck: Cannot initialise IO on new quotafile: File exists

The solution was to run the following:-

mv /aquota.user.new /aquota.user.broken
mv /aquota.group.new /aquota.group.broken
quotacheck -u -g -f -m /

So I hope this is of use to somebody, now all I need to do is find out where I should report the bug!