Firefox 3.5.1 (Shiretoko) fails to launch in Arch Linux

Abstract: Firefox 3.5.1 needs libjpeg.

After updating my Firefox (Shiretoki) to version 3.5.1 in Arch Linux, I cannot launch it. When I tried to start it from command line, it says:

$ firefox
Coundn't load XPCOM
$ 

Then I tried to run xulrunner directly, I got a Error message saying that libjpeg cannot be found. So I installed libjpeg-7-1, and Firefox is back again. Hopefully the Arch people can add libjpeg to Firefox's dependency.

Pm-hibernate with MX440

Abstract: Some tweaks to avoid black screen after resume from hibernation with old nVidia MX440 graphic card and Intel motherboard.

First edit the setting for pm-utils in /etc/pm/config.d/config(you can name this file whatever you like).

HIBERNATE_MODE="shutdown"
S2RAM_OPTS="-f"
DISPLAY_QUIRK_VBE_POST=false

Then I edit /etc/modprobe.d/modprobe.conf(the modprobe.conf is here for Arch Linux, but may lies in different place in other distros):

blacklist intel_agp

Then reboot the computer, and try hibernate again, everything goes well :)

How to Compact Virtualbox vdi

Abstract: a memo on how to compact virtualbox vdi files.

VirtualBox comes with a utility to compact vdi files which drops zero block. So the problem is how to write zero to unused blocks. If you have a windows guest, run the following command in cmd:

sdelete -c

If you have a linux guest, run this:

cat /dev/zero > zero.fill;sync;sleep 1;sync;rm -f zero.fill

And in the host run:

VBoxManage modifyvdi harddisk.vdi compact

These may reduce the size of vdi files considerably if it has been used for a long time.

"The greeter application appears to be crashing"

Abstract: Resolved "The greeter application appears to be crashing" problem after updating Linux system.

I don't know whether this could be called a solution... actually just a tip if you happened to come across a same problem. I updated my Arch Linux, and after reboot this dialog box jumps up and gdm could not start normally. I checked the system and found the problem was caused by a full filesystem. I cleaned up some old files and then everything goes right.

So I guess I should give more disk space to / in the future.

Google Service Blocked by Chinese Gov

It seems the Chinese government is now crazy about blocking foreign websites, now www.google.com, and all services of Google except www.google.cn are now blocked by the Great FireWall.

Web censorship ans secrete police are now bringing the country back to the bad old days :(

Sigh...blocked again :(

As everybody knows, there is a Great Firewall(usually called GFW for short) between we Chinese internet users and the 'out side world'. Unluckily for some unknown reason, blogger and blogspot is blocked by GFW recently which does cause me a lot of trouble to keep blogging here... Anyway, I will try hard to keep this site updated.

Get Chrome Work in Arch Linux

Abstract: several steps to get chrome working on Arch linux

• Google only provides deb pkg officially, damn...


• download the deb pkg from:
  http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en/eula_dev.html?dl=unstable_i386_deb


• unpack, copy everything in opt to /opt


• mkdir lib32 in /opt/google/chrome, and make symbol links as:
  http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=13425


• enjoy chrome...though I can't input Chinese in its linux version...wtf...

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Update Jun 13, 2010: Now chromium is in the official repo, and if you'd like to use Google Chrome(beta), it's in the AUR.