pocket repo

After my bandwidth witch hunt I did a quick check and realised that all those Ubuntu updates from netbooks, laptops and more really is a waste since it is duplicate data. So with the help of a external usb disk and a obliging geek from SULUG  I now have a repo in my pocket. I changed all the ubuntu boxes in my immediate orbit to stop looking for updates on the internet so feverishly. I set the updates to manual and un-ticked all the other software sources. I added some lines to my software sources, see end of post.





Yes I know I won't get security updates so regularly, but my thinking is that if I get a refreshed mirror once a week or once every two weeks, I won't be all that much behind. More info on offline repos here.

Already a new install from CD and then some package updates from the disk was super quick/painless and non-bandwidth-intensive.

Nothing beats the feeling too, some-one asks me do you happen to have a nail file in your handbag to which I reply no but I have a complete Ubuntu repository. I am happy. Now how to stop my self from installing Ubuntu on those demo laptops in Hifi Corporation, aah the temptation ...

deb file:///media/SAMSUNG/mirror/ftp.sun.ac.za/ubuntu lucid main restricted universe multiverse

deb file:///media/SAMSUNG/mirror/ftp.sun.ac.za/ubuntu lucid-backports main restricted universe multiverse

deb file:///media/SAMSUNG/mirror/ftp.sun.ac.za/ubuntu lucid-security main restricted universe multiverse

deb file:///media/SAMSUNG/mirror/ftp.sun.ac.za/ubuntu lucid-updates main restricted universe multiverse

deb file:///media/SAMSUNG/mirror/ftp.sun.ac.za/ubuntu lucid-proposed main restricted universe multiverse

[edit added extra lines after reading website Hilton suggested in the comments]

Who's eating my bandwidth?

No pictures, this is a low bandwidth post.

Recently my irc conversations were being minced up by lag. I ended up connecting with the 3G card and not the ADSL and then the little netbook sucked the 3G card dry. In this country where it is cheaper to buy a legitimate DVD rather than torrent a ripped copy I started to investigate.
All though the laptop didn't seem to be the hungry one, I started on the laptop, here are the tools I settled on.

First - find out how much I am using:
For the netbook and the laptop, a  command line bandwith watcher - vnstat
You can monitor multiple interfaces and it will tally over days, weeks and months.
sudo apt-get install vnstat
and then in my case
vnstat -u -i eth0
vnstat -u -i wlan1
to check do the following.

Daily bandwidth report.
vnstat -i eth01 -d

Hourly bandwidth report.
vnstat -i eth0 -h

Monthly bandwidth report.
vnstat -i eth0 -m

Real time speed report.
vnstat -i eth0 -l

Next I started playing with Conky

From an overwhelming variety of links here's the two I found most useful, a blog entry with example, and the color chart.

In my .conkyrc file I have this command:

${execi 30 netstat -ept | grep ESTAB | awk '{print $9}' | cut -d: -f1 | sort | uniq -c | sort -nr}
which just does a netstat -ept and finds established connections and then does some formating and sorting showing a process ID and name something like this:

4 1728/beam.smp
4 1626/python
3 13962/chromium-brow
1 21097/python
1 2010/weechat-curses
1 1452/python

From this I see that chromium-browser and weechat-curses has the internet but also 3 python scripts and beam.smp. Possibly others but the were not on the top list. So who are these pythons who are also eating the bandwidth.

ps -ef |grep 1626
says ...
xxxx 1626 1384 0 18:32 ? 00:00:01 /usr/bin/python /usr/bin/gwibber-service
repeat for 21097 and 1452
xxxx 21097 1 0 18:50 ? 00:00:07 /usr/bin/python /usr/lib/ubuntuone-client/ubuntuone-syncdaemon
xxxx 1452 1384 0 18:31 ? 00:00:08 /usr/bin/python /usr/bin/gm-notify.py

AHA! so its gwibber and ubuntuone and my gmail notify scripts. Weird thing is I thought I disabled UbuntuOne and Gwibber startup tasks.

Now who is beam.smp? The Internet says ... something to do with couchdb ... my ps search confirms this and shows it was startup up by somthing related to erlang. Now who is interpreting Erlang on my pc and using couchdb and accessing the internet all the time? The mystery continues. From this bug it seems to be related to Gwibber and UbuntuOne. Hmmm...

Moral of this story
Backup on Flash not Cloud.

The Party

The promised little surprises ...

Thanks for all the good ideas, inspiration, repositories, switches, kettle cords and fly leads. A good time was had by all. Thanks to the braai-masters and the fire-makers and the cleaning-helpers, the fire-fighters, beer-sharers and conversation-makers, curry-makers the shoppers and the cash-donators.

Lucid Release Party Day

Today is the Lucid Release Party day for Stellenbosch and Cape Town. We will be installing and socialising from 10 till whenever. I have a few tiny surprises up my sleeve but you will have to wait and see.

This is what I want to do today:
* upgrade the Netbook to Lucid
* get the latest updates for the Laptop
* install Lucid on Kai's poxy windows box after I have backed up his Plants vs Zombie save states

but more important than this, hang out an have fun with other Ubuntu people.

Woohoo see you all soon!

nerdscore

 I'm shocked, is it possible?

25mm pin mockups

In anticipation for the Lucid release for the end of the month, I made some pins. The svg can be found at spreadubuntu. The layout is to print on a A3 which is what my pin badge maker wants.

hopefully there is enough plain, enough aubergine, enough naartjie and enough furry for everyone.

The next version will be bigger badges with maybe some text, stay tuned. Of course if someone wants to remix these, be my guest.

Friday Ubuntu Hour in Stellenbosch

I am planning on having an Ubuntu Hour at the Mill Street Coffee House in Stellenbosch again. This Friday 16 April at 9am. Join me!