Google supports tamil now :)

Its great to know google now supports tamil language.
More details here: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/google-in-tamil.html

Steps to deploy redmine application in ubuntu 8.04 using mod_rails(passenger).

Redmine is my favourite project management tool written in ruby on rails. Recently I deployed this i a Ubuntu 8.04 machine using Apache2 + mod_rails. Mod_rails is a apache module which has made rails deployment as easy as php deployment. You can find more details about mod_rails here: http://www.modrails.com
I was able to install mod_rails and deploy redmine after doing some googling and trial & Errors

Here are the steps for deploying redmine using modrails in ubuntu 8.04:

1. Intalled Ruby language, build essential(to build gems later) and related dependent components using apt-get.

$ sudo apt-get install ruby irb ri rdoc ruby1.8-dev libzlib-ruby libyaml-ruby libreadline-ruby libncurses-ruby libcurses-ruby libruby libruby-extras libfcgi-ruby1.8 build-essential libopenssl-ruby libdbm-ruby libdbi-ruby libdbd-sqlite3-ruby sqlite3 libsqlite3-dev libsqlite3-ruby libxml-ruby libxml2-dev


2. Downloaded ruby gems:
$ wget http://rubyforge.org/frs/download.php/38646/rubygems-1.2.0.tgz

3. untared the rubygems-1.2.0.tgz package and installed rubygems.
$ tar -xvf rubygems-1.2.0.tgz
$ cd rubygems-1.2.0/
$ ruby setup.rb
$ sudo ln -s /usr/bin/gem1.8 /usr/bin/gem (use this if /usr/bin/gem link is not created)

4. Installed rails version 2.0.2 using gems. As of now Redmine works only on rails version 2.0.2 (it wont work in rails 2.1.x)
$ gem install rails --version 2.0.2

5. Install mod_rails(passenger). mod_rails is called as Phusion Passenger and the gem package name is passenger. Lets refer to it as passenger hereafter.
Mod_rails requires apache2-threaded-dev apache module to be installed.
$ apt-get install apache2-threaded-dev

$ gem install passenger

6. Install passenger as apache module
$ passenger-install-apache2-module


7.Deploy redmine application
Download redmine and copy redmine folder inside web folders /var/www/
else there will be problem in showing css files and images.
redmine should be in this folder /var/www/redmine
create the database and modify the config files as mentioned in the redmine install document.

8.Apache2 configuration changes:
$ cd /etc/apache2/sites-available/
$ sudo mv default default.bkp

Create a new default file with the following contents.
------------------------------------------------
NameVirtualHost *



ServerName
ServerAlias

DocumentRoot /var/www/redmine/public


Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
AllowOverride None
Order allow,deny
allow from all


ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/error.log

LogLevel warn

CustomLog /var/log/apache2/access.log combined
ServerSignature On


-----------------------------------------------------------------


9. Restart apache
$ sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart


10. Browse http://localhost , redmine should show up in the browser.

Reference:
http://www.rubyhead.com/2008/04/25/installing-ruby-rails-on-ubuntu-804-hardy-heron/

TamilNadu govt school textbooks available online

Got to know this news from Tamilulagam discussion list.

Tamil Nadu Government has published its school texts books online(its has been mentioned as for viewing purpose only).
Its available at this URL: http://www.textbooksonline.tn.nic.in/

It might be helpful in many ways to students and parents(who are computer savvy). And more importantly it provides open access to the content thats being taught in Tamil Nadu schools.

I dont think any other state in India has done this yet.

Good move by Tamil Nadu Govt.

Verdict within 110 hrs of commiting crime in India!

Gone are the days in India where courts deliver judgement after ages...

A court in Namakkal (my native place), India has delivered verdict in a murder case within 110 hours of the crime.

Tamil bloggers meet at Pondicherry

Last week I had a chance to attend tamil bloggers workshop in pondicherry. The workshop was organised by pondicherry tamil bloggers

This workshop is a continuation of a series of workshops organized by tamil bloggers in various parts of tamilnadu recently.

About 200 members participated in this workshop. Participants were introduced to technical details of creating and maintaining their blogs in tamil language. Its well organized and there were lot of publicity done. Pondicherry Legislative Assembly speaker and Bharathidasan University vice chancellor are some of the noted figures who participated in this workshop.

I took a session on using ekalappai - tamil typing software for windows.

You can the pictures taken in the workshop:
http://tamilveli-news.blogspot.com/

This shows that tamil bloggers are growing in numbers and getting organized.
In this bloggers meet, some of us decided to take tamil computing workshops to next step. Thus "Project Tamil Ready" was born. More details about project tamil ready is in chella's blog.

My assumption is, there are roughly 3000 tamil blogs which is the highest in any Indian language. Even in hindi there are roughly only about 1000 blogs (if anybody else have a disputing figure please feel free to comment).

Tamils Protest in Malaysia

I have lived in Malaysia for about 4 years and have known the problems faced by the tamil community.

I watched with heavy heart some of the videos in the net. The way the peaceful protest were handled by Malaysian authorities is very bad. The world leaders should condemn this.


Ethnic Indians protest in Malaysia



Sucking tear gas and laced-water

How to increase the VMWare (preallocated) disk space.

I have started using ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) recently. But for some of our office work, I needed older version of ubuntu(6.06). And for that I used VMWare.

Initially I allocated 6GB space to ubuntu 6.06 virtual machine, which I found that is not sufficient for my work. So decided to increase it to 10GB. And after some search in google found a way to increase VMWare disks spaces. Following blog entry is to record the steps which I followed and it might be useful for others also.

I initially tried to increase ubuntu6.06 virtual machine disk size using the following commands:
$cd /var/lib/vmware/Virtual Machines/Ubuntu6.04
$vmware-vdiskmanager -x 10Gb Ubuntu6.04.vmdk

It gave the following errors:
Using log file /tmp/vmware-msubramanian/vdiskmanager.log
This disk is part of a snapshot chain in '/var/lib/vmware/Virtual Machines/Ubuntu6.04/Ubuntu6.04.vmx'.
The selected operation can only be executed on a disk with no snapshots.

I found I have snapshots of ubuntu6.06 vmware disk.

Used the following method to remove the snapshots:
In the VMWare menu, used the Remove Snapshot option,
VM --> Remove Snapshot .. ( This is done while the Virtual machine is switched off)

Again tried using vmware-vdiskmanager it worked.

$vmware-vdiskmanager -x 10Gb Ubuntu6.04.vmdk
Using log file /tmp/vmware-msubramanian/vdiskmanager.log
Grow: 100% done.
The old geometry C/H/S of the disk is: 783/255/63
The new geometry C/H/S of the disk is: 1305/255/63
Disk expansion completed successfully.

WARNING: If the virtual disk is partitioned, you must use a third-party
utility in the virtual machine to expand the size of the
partitions. For more information, see:
http://www.vmware.com/support/kb/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1647
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