Flashing MotoRokr E8 on Vista

Just bought motorokr e8 as a backup fone for 7k. That's 4k less than the prevalent price in the market. Turned out motos are hacker's heaven. These are Linux based, community is as active as open source one, bug fixes are rapid, multiple flavors exist, and with very little head banging, you can make your phone do what you want it to do... Bloody they've even made a telnet possible from the phone! Add to it the shiny looks, a great music player and modeshift keypad... damn this is a beauty to own!
All the contnent here after has been largely derived from people at mmus.us and http://www.motorolafans.com. I relied quite a lot on the posts by people with nikhil007 and bestwebs as screen names. I am flashing nikhil007's firmware version as it had good reviews and combines popular features from 3 different firmware distributions. It was good to see a real indian active in open source scene and come out with a product that everybody appreciates. This is the second great product by an Indian in open field (going by the reviews at http://www.mmus.us/forum/showthread.php?s=0b874bdaeecf06cf07af2cf22d05865f&t=9203). The first one I've come across is called Anjuta, an IDE in linux. Though I dont use it much... its popular :D Hope someday I'll be able to join these guys. One thing has come for sure... you can't be good in open arena by using proprietary development platforms. If you wish to go open, stick to open platforms.

Quite a digression above... here's the process...
(I'll be posting link to threads from where I got download links. This, I believe, will also acknowledge the real people who work and post their finding in forums. Links may blank out with time, so i'll be including the logical progression too so that you can google the latest s/w)

1. Download RSD Lite - Motorola's flashing utility. I used the latest version posted here.
2. According to the user manual posted here, Motorola has stopped packaging USB drivers along with RSD Lite distributions. So, you can download the current latest (v3.8 AFAIK) here. The guy has posted it as v3.7 but its v3.8 :D
3. Before turning switching on the phone, press and hold * and # key and then turn on. It will show you your bootloader version. Now go to this page and download the corresponding 'no RSA' bootloader and its patch.
4. Time to decide on the firmware you want. Scan the web and choose one. I chose nikhil's and its downloadable from here.
5. Refer how-to for flashing here. It was quite easy and i dint need the tutorial. You'b be flashing in 3 steps - a. 'No RSA' bootloader', b. Patch for bootloader and c. new firmware.

There is tremendous amount of support on the forums mentioned here and for the errors you encounter, if any, a solution will already exist there. Better search in these forums if something goes wrong.

Well... a bit of looking around and i found the descriptive guide of above process here. A bit  too late for my benefit, but it may help someone else :)

Microsoft Charting component bug

chart.ChartAreas["2DChartArea"].Axes = chart.ChartAreas["3DChartArea"].Axes.Clone() as Axis[];

throws a stack overflow exception. Pre_Paint is called infinite times.

Removing humming sound from speakers connected to computer

Humming comes in audio systems because of 1) improper earthing 2) bad circuit. In case of (2), you have no choice but to go and get a better  system or plugin some higher capacity capacitors in your circuit. (1) was my problem and I got this really awesome solution to it. Its called the perfect JUGAAD (click here for wiki's definition :D).
The place I put up in has no earthing. Whenever I connect my laptop, I feel minor shocks at times and there's a lot of humming in the speakers when I connect the audio cable to it. I confirmed the earthing problem by running the laptop on batteries. When I did that, I got no humming sound when there was no audio playing.
Today, I thought of connecting the analog cable to my lappy and check out its TV tuner card. Amazingly, I got no humming disturbance when I connected the cable TV wire! That means all the extra current was flowing out from the cable down into the earth. :D Talk about getting cheap and perfect solutions ;)

The Google game

I am looking to buy a PSP now-a-days and before I took the plunge, I needed to know of its 'hacked' status. Of course I started with google. And there's when I noticed magic.
At office I access net thru servers kept in US. I was disappointed when results to my numerous queries pointed in only one direction - it cant be hacked or it was still under process. At home I access internet thru servers kept here in Hyderabad. This was the first hit - http://psp3000hacks.com/ for the query 'psp 3000 hacks'.

Need I say more?

Making Google Earth look better on Kubuntu

Guess google went the windows way and preferred giving standard library files bundled with the software. A fall out of this was that fonts in the application went to pre-antialiased era and looked pretty horrid. On my distribution - Kubuntu 8.10 - I had already done everything necessary to make the QT and GTK applications look decent. But google supplying its own libs just nullified those efforts.

djgera in a post on this page helped me reached this conclusion, and also provided a solution.

"It a better idea removing some libs that are already in the Arch Linux
For example if you remove the libQt*, and use the QT from ArchLinux, fonts are better rendering using antialiased
Also is need to remove the libcrypto.so.0.9.8 because it fails.

Symlinks are not necessary, it works without symlinks, libs are located in the ld-linux paths.

In the package i removed these files (removing this creates some aditional depends, but i prefer to use the libs provided by Arch Linux packages)
opt/google-earth/libcrypto.so.0.9.8 (core/openssl)
opt/google-earth/libQt* (extra/qt)
opt/google-earth/libGLU.so.1 (extra/mesa)
opt/google-earth/libcurl.so.4 (extra/curl)
opt/google-earth/libgcc_s.so.1 (core/gcc-libs)
opt/google-earth/libstdc++.so.6 (core/gcc-libs)
opt/google-earth/libz.so.1 (core/zlib) "

Because I already have these libs installed, the above solution worked for me too :)

Configuring TATA Indicom (WIMAX) broadband to work with Netgear router

Just like the rest of the world, my flatmate turned out to be a naysayer when I was configuring the newly brought Netgear WGR614v9. Both the WIMAX broadband and wireless router configuration were new to me... so I couldn't produce the results instantly, and hence started 'we just can't do it ourselves (as if he was even touching the things!!!). We need external support'. Here's how to do it.

A bit of background
As far as I could fathom, the TATA's gateway server works as a simple web server when the user has to login. When we try to open a site, the request first goes to the TATA server. Seeing that the IP from which the request is coming does not have a session, it redirects us to the login page. As I am based in Hyderabad at the moment, it redirects me to https://loginhyd.tataindicombroadband.in:8443. Once I login and the session is established, I can surf the internet normally.

This scheme is not what is generally used by other providers. They either use a dialup client (Sify et al.) or connect via PPPoE (Airtel, BSNL, MTNL). So the methods used for configuring other connections do not apply here.

Configuring the router
Installing Netgear router is quite simple. Just put in the CD and it will guide you step by step. You just need to be patient. Once the process laid out by the CD is complete,
1. Open your favorite web browser go to http://192.168.1.1.
2. Default username and password are 'admin' and 'password' (without quotes). Do remember to change this password on your first login.
3. It will ask you whether you wish to use the wizard for configuration or wish to go your own way. Select the latter (second radio button).
4. Select the 'Internet service provider' as 'Telstra Bigpond'.
5. You'll be entering your username and password later on. So you can put anything in these fields. Password field is optional and you can leave it blank if you wish to.
6.  For 'Authentication Server' also you can enter any value you want. You can't leave it empty as router wont allow you to save the changes.

7. Leave rest of the fields as they are and click on 'Apply'. There's a 'Test' button in same row as the 'Apply' button. Clicking on it will break your heart because the way TATA's system is laid out, router won't be able to login for you even if have put the correct username, password and authentication server :P Wait for some time after hitting 'Apply' till the update finishes.

That's it, you're done!!!

Try opening your favorite site and TATA Indicom broadband's login page will open up. Enter your username, domain and password and hit login and you can browse normally now :-)

Chart control by Microsoft.

This charting control came across as one of those cutting edge releases. At first glance, I was so damn impressed by the control that I just cannot put in to words. It has no documentation but a project with 200 examples! Everything is so well laid out that person with common sense can start building magnificent charts in a matter of seconds! Every aspect of the control seems to be so nicely deliberated upon that they left no chance of improvement. Even the default options are so wholesome that you won't need to add to them by your own. Impressed, impressed, impressed!!!
But then, I was struck with past. Microsoft, no matter how great tech they've come out with, the front-line things are always 'inspired' by the third party tools/research/products. When we were searching for charting solution, we came across screenshots of a charting control by Infragistics. It was not a surprise to me that same charts could be reproduced in Microsoft's control quite easily.
Microsoft is going to come out with its 'Surface' soon. I don't think many would know that it's work of a research student in one of the Human Interaction labs of a university in US. I am unable to recall the details - the name of the student or his university because I saw his demonstration on Youtube. So when saw announcement of 'Surface' coming out soon, I just... smiled.
Impressed I am with Microsoft, just that this impression is to do with their marketing department only.

Film making hints.

Sound design.
* Small sounds such as footsteps help increase involvement with what is there on the screen.
* Dubbing mistakes are caught quite easily. A person's voice should match his personality.
* Sounds CAN be restricted to what is happening on the screen. Other sounds can be added to set up the environment.
* Sounds of next scene playing towards the end of the previous one help generate anticipation. Sounds should not be faded in at such instances.
* Sounds should compliment what is on screen. Genre of background music need not be restricted. Example - Classical sounds used during battlefield shots in Khuda Ke Liye.

Filming/Direction
* Scenes should flow into each other.
* Zoom in slowly when the situation onscreen is 'heavy'.
* Show specific gestures, like eyebrows and hand movements dominating the frame, to communicate the feeling of the scene.

Script
* Contrasts can be done in consequetive scenes to make it more dramatic. contrasted by dialogs. Example from Khuda ke Liye - a female Briton says girls in Pakistan are better off once a Pakistani tells him about the courtesies that men have for women there. Cut to next scene where a girl is in deplorable state because of the social order in Pakistan... the same social order that asks men to do formailities for women when they meet them.
* Make a situation which calls for a pleasent song, and then contrast situations over that pleasent song.

Best article by Microsoft

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928218/en-us

Issues while installing (SP1) VS2008

VS2008 takes an age to install on an XP machine with SP2. I guess this is something to do with .NET Framework 3.0 installer. After around 30%, the installation totally freezes. Even there are no read/writes to/from hdd. Don't worry... just go and have a big snack and it will complete in some time. :D

Installing VS2008 SP1 on Vista gave a peculiar error. The installer crashed out after around 30% into the process with some peculiar error... I checked the error logs the installer had generated. The setup was failing coz i had disabled windows updater service. Enable and keep the service running the service till installer has finished its job.

Impressed with the amount of diagonstic error messages Vista generated compared to XP. :)

Pidgin Settings for Gtalk

Guess Pidgin developed real snags in SSL lib with the release of v2.4.0, or maybe it was because some changes at Google's end that started causing the error... Either way, a lot of people (including me) started getting 'Authorization error' which lead to disabling of account.
I bit of going around net helped me resolve the issue...
[Basic Tab]
Domain: googlemail.com

[Advanced Tab]
Require SSL/TLS: checked
Force old (port 5223) SSL: checked
Connect port: 5223
Connect Server: talk.google.com
Proxy type: Use Global Proxy Settings

In case you get a 'Read Error', then your connection maybe slow or network proxy maybe blocking the traffic. For the former one, just retry logging in.

Pidgin (2.5.3) does not exit cleanly on Vista. Now I dont know who is the culprit - OS or the software... still its one of the things that I feel is adding to list of evidences of 'De-evolution of MS with Vista'.

Messaging from a Pen Drive

The method I am going to describe involves a bit techie stuff for a complete layman. So if u have any queries, u can leave a comment. This method is useful in following cases:
* the network admin is complacent
* admin doesn't have time to update the security
* he's not been updated with yahoo's new system

Required: ability to copy, paste and delete a few files.

Right here it goes...

I) Creating a ripped version from installer (I dont have the bandwidth right now to upload 7 MB)

Required: Any PC which allows you to install software. It is a point to be noted here that Ayttm's installer doesn't check for Admin privileges, as I've tested. So you just need rights to read and write from/to drive [:)].
a) Download Ayttm for Windows.
b) Install it on any PC. For this tutorial, I am assuming that you have installed it to 'C:\Program Files\Ayttm'.
c) Copy all the files just installed to some other directory. Example: Copy 'Ayttm' directory from 'C:\Program Files' to 'C:\' such that now all the files lie of the messenger also lie in 'C:\Ayttm'

II) Editing prefs to run the rip

Note: Assuming that you are logged on as 'guest', Ayttm will store the its preferences in 'C:\Documents and Settings\guest\Application Data\Ayttm' in a file named 'prefs'. It this file that we have to edit to set the ball rolling.

a) Complete its initial setup and run the messenger for once (from the place you installed it, C:\Program Files\Ayttm in this case), i.e. chat with a few people using Ayttm.

b) Open the 'prefs' file, lying in 'C:\Documents and Settings\guest\Application Data\Ayttm', in notepad and replace 'C:\Program Files\Ayttm' (remember that I have assumed the messenger is installed in 'C:\Program Files\Ayttm') with a dot everywhere. You can use notepad's replace utility (Edit > Replace) to accomplish this.
Example:
Before editing-
BuddyArriveFilename=C:\Program Files\Ayttm\sounds\BuddyArrive.au
BuddyAwayFilename=C:\Program Files\Ayttm\sounds\BuddyLeave.au
BuddyLeaveFilename=C:\Program Files\Ayttm\sounds\BuddyLeave.au
SendFilename=C:\Program Files\Ayttm\sounds\Send.au
ReceiveFilename=C:\Program Files\Ayttm\sounds\Receive.au
FirstMsgFilename=C:\Program Files\Ayttm\sounds\Receive.au

After Editing-
BuddyArriveFilename=.\sounds\BuddyArrive.au
BuddyAwayFilename=.\sounds\BuddyLeave.au
BuddyLeaveFilename=.\sounds\BuddyLeave.au
SendFilename=.\sounds\Send.au
ReceiveFilename=.\sounds\Receive.au
FirstMsgFilename=.\sounds\Receive.au

Make such changes throughout the file.

c) Copy this file to some other location. Preferably to place where you copied the messenger's files (i.e. C:\Ayttm in this case). You'll be needing this file to run your messenger.

III) Running the rip

Now you can copy the Ayttm directory (the one lying in C drive) to your pendrive.
a) Whenever you wish to run the messenger, double-click on 'Ayttm.exe' in 'Ayttm' folder in your pendrive. This will create all the files needed in 'C:\Documents and Settings\guest\Application Data\Ayttm' (again assuming that u r logged on as 'guest' in your target system).

b) Ayttm will give an error that modules were not found... Close the messenger and proceed to next step.

c) Navigate to the 'C:\Documents and Settings\guest\Application Data\Ayttm' and replace 'prefs' lying there with the one you created.

d) Reopen 'Ayttm.exe' from your pendrive. Voila!! You are now ready to login and have a fulfilling chat session.

IV) Cleaning the footprints

Once you are done with chatting, its time to clear the footprints. No sweat! Just delete 'Ayttm' folder lying in 'C:\Documents and Settings\guest\Application Data', i.e. the folder that contained 'prefs' file.

Some more customization

1) It may happen that the target system that you have chosen access internet thru a proxy. You can configure that thru 'Advanced' option in 'Edit > Preferences' in Ayttm.

2) As was the case with me, admin had blocked scs.msg.yahoo.com, the default website chat apps use to access the chat server. if this is the case with you, then you can use any of the following servers:
scsa.msg.yahoo.com
scsb.msg.yahoo.com
scsc.msg.yahoo.com
scsd.msg.yahoo.com
...again editable from the 'Services > Yahoo' dialog in 'Edit > Preferences' in Ayttm.
Happy messaging!!

I WANT TO ACCESS...

The information presented here is for knowledge purposes ONLY. The use of the following information and its outcomes is sole responsibility of the reader.

For the impatient:
1) Kproxy.com or Cooltunnel.com. Enter the URL you want to browse and be prepared for a slower browsing experience.

2) This one's better according to me... (but would take around 10 full minutes for reading the help and doing the configuration)
a) Download Java Anonymizing Proxy (JAP) from here JAP.jar.
b) Open command prompt as Start > Run > Type java -jar \path\to\jap\file and hit enter.

Example: If you have downloaded the file to C:\downloads, then the command you would have to enter at 'run' would be
java -jar C:\downloads\JAP.jar

Once opened, Hit the 'Assistant' button to guide you thru the configuration process. Lot of help is available on hittng the '?' button.

FOR ABOVE COMMAND TO WORK...
java virtual machine (JVM) or java runtime environment 1.3 or later must be installed. You can safely ask your admin to install it if it isn't.

CHECKING FOR JVM
a) open DOS prompt as Start > Run > Type command and hit enter.
b) type java and hit enter. If the following line DOES NOT appear, then you are on!!
"'java' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file."

BUT HOW DOES IT ALL WORK??
Basics at Wikipedia: Proxy Server, CGI, SSL, Ports, Gateway, https.
1) These are CGI proxies. The complete page (that you had requested) is scanned and the links on that page are replaced by those generated by the site, that is, the way the page exists on the real server is replicated on the proxy site's server albeit with names generated using random numbers/alphas. Also, these sites use SSL. This implies that whatever you send to the site is encrypted as it passes the gateway and is decrypted at the destination site. The same process is used by banking sites to secure the transactions against eavsdropping.

2) This one's a better method... 'Why?' you may ask.

a) The above sites can be blocked the way the sites you want to access have been blocked!!
b) This requires no admin rights. Only Java Virtual Machine is required, which you can easily ask your admin to install.
c) The same file can be run using the same command on Linux/Windows.
d) If the admin sniffs it, working around would require only a few more clicks.

Now that the advantages have been laid out... here are the gory details.

When you start JAP, it starts a proxy server on your machine. Now you point your browser to send its request to this proxy server (JAP, running by default on port number 4001) and not directly to the gateway you had defined. Alternatively, if you were already using a proxy over the network, then you can configure JAP to access internet via that proxy. [At this point you may want to hit the 'Assistant' button if you haven't done so already.] That is...

YOU--->Browser (firefox/Internet Explorer)--->JAP--->proxy (if configured)--->Gateway--->Internet

When you start JAP, it asks for a public key from the server. The request that it receives from the browser is first encyrpted using this key. Now JAP sends
this encrypted information to the anonymity server that you have chosen. there the request is decrypted and its response gathered (remember that your request
to your gateway had been encrypted at your machine). Now this response is again encrypted using the other key in the pair and then sent to the JAP proxy server on your machine. JAP decrypts this response and then sends to your browser for you to see. Complicated??? Hence the complete request-response diagram would be as follows:
YOU--->Browser--->JAP (reuest encrypted here)--->proxy (if configured)--->Gateway (at office)--->(Internet entered)--->Anonomyzing server (request decrypted here)--->Internet accessed again to gather response--->back to anonomyzing server, request encrypted--->JAP server at your machine--->response decrypted--->Browser--->YOU

Wondering where's the justification to "If the admin sniffs it, working around would require only a few more clicks."?? Well JAP communicates by default via port 4001. Each service, be it yahoo messenger, ftp, http etc has a port assigned to it on your machine. Some of the popular ports are listed here. Network admin can block ports. For reference he may see a list of popular ports and leave them while blocking the rest of the ports. Now if he does so and blocks some ports leaving a list of popular ports open, you may stop the corresponding service and start this server on that port.
Besides that, he can also block the IP of the site from where you are using this anonomyzing service. This is actually the part coz of which I like it. There exists a service called Forwarding (have you noticed the Forward checkbox in JAP's interace?). JAP users can make their PC act as a server for other PC to use this anonomyzing service! Now you can either collaborate among your friends, dedicate a machine (probably a machine a your home) for jap only and do away with all this jazz of installing and then configuring again and again. Just go to the browser from where you wish to access the site from, configure it to access this jap service at home by giving ur home comp's IP and the port at which the forwarding service has been enabled. Once you are done, restore back to original settings... :) Uber cool, huh?? No need to install anything; configure, browse, reconfigure and leave the terminal alone!! This method can actually be used using any proxy server. JAP is an illustration. You can setup a Apache server at your home for the same purpose. Configuring JAP is just more convinient.

If this information has charmed you, the following will also be interesting.
Tor: Wikipedia, Official Site
Firefox: Why switch to Firefox

Kubuntu 6.06.1 and Java Studio Creator

Hmmm...
I played around with the 64 bit edition too much and had to reload moi linux box. Now I have loaded the i386 or 32 bit edition and must say, its sound is better ( though the version change should not have any implications...), gives lesser errors and is a bit faster. The last difference maybe due to the fact that I downloaded nearly a GB of packages and installed them on amd64 version, just to explore the world of linux. And this hasn't happened in the new... where I've installed only the packages that I require...

To Install JSC Update 1, download libstdc++2.10.glibc2.2 before beginning the installation. If you dont, the Creator would install, but the Application Server and Bundled Database wont be installed. Hit back if u have more queries...

Java Studio Creator 2 UPDATE 1 works on Kubuntu amd64

Hmmm... dunno exactly what changes I had made to make that thing work (server, IDE, and default DB - Derby)... First I had changed to runlevel 5 during startup (please refer older post), then I remember creating libglib shortcuts to libstdc++5. Yes I had made some shortcuts by hand, but I dont exactly know which ones. I installed 2-3 times after making those changes, even then it didnt install successfully... However once I removed JSC 2.0 and its user directory ($home/.Creator), evrything worked fine.

Windows XP

Folder Options in Windows Explorer's Tools menu disappears.

Shortcut to access Folder Options: Start > Run > Type control folders and hit enter.

Cause: Most probably a virus if you have not played with privileges...

Resolution:

ONLY ADMINISTRATOR CAN EXECUTE THE FOLLWING STEPS.

a) Start > Run > Type gpedit.msc and hit enter.

b) Navigate as follows: User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Explorer

c) The third option in the pane on right must be "Removes the Folder Options menu item from the Tools menu". Double click it.

d) A dialog box will appear. Select the third radio button to disable it [YES DISABLE IT].

e) Hit OK

f) Check out if the Tools menu in Explorer is reflecting the desired change.

g) Leave a comment if it does not and also the error messages that are displayed while denying the change.

Java Studio Creator on dyne:bolic (Intel EM64T processor)

Dyne:bolic is a Linux based completely free OS that has been optimzed for media editing and production. As media editing is one of my hobbies, I chanced upon it (I guess thru Stumble) and now its the third OS on my comp. Guess this should suffice for an introduction...

Coming to the point, I read on its site that a toned down version of GUI environment (was pretty amazed at first, considering it was meant for producing graphics!) was provided so that the application can get a huge chunk of processor instead of the normal GUI environment hogging the processor and RAM. Considering this architecture, isn't it the best thing to run various development environments?? I ran Java Studio Creator on it and had an excellent experience. It was notably faster than my previous experiences (ubuntu i586 comes second, kubuntu amd64, WinXP, all on 512 MB DDR2 RAM, Intel 630 3.00 Ghz, Intel 915GEV motherboard). I could not test it fully coz installing modules (what packages are refered to in it dyne:bolic) is not a child's play. Sun JSC installed but quit once the installation of server commenced, coz some libs were missing... So I tested whatever I had on my hands - i.e. SJSC update 1 with a very light load (a prj with just 3 pages), without any DB support or a server running...

The good part about this combo is- if u've already installed it on some other OS (Linux) on your machine, u dont need to install it for dyne. Just run the creator script in <SJSC's installation directory>/bin and it would run for u. Haven't gone any further in this direction coz I have already tried quite a lot of of combos and need to get back to my project...

This was in response to some posts on Sun's forum which said SJSC ran best on Ubuntu. Yeah its good on it, but its better on dyne:bolic. (testing on the two was done on same load/project)

- Dev | September 25, 2006

Client Side Encryption

My project deals with managing information of my college, so i do feel the need the of sending the data from client side in encrypted form. I had a small discussion on this topic here.

Now I am thinking of making up a small server that encrypts all the data it has to send to my server while it sends rest of the data as it is to its default destination. Guess it can be implemeted in Java, but I am devoid of any programming experience in that language.

Hows the idea? any comments??

BTW I am a student and dont have finances to go in for a SSL certificate, thats why all these efforts to come up with a new idea.

Kubuntu - KDE - Unable to log in and work around

PROBLEM DESCRIPTION:
While playing around with my Kubuntu installation, I stopped some services thinking that will make my system's startup faster... but what happened was - the boot process completed successfully and showed me GUI login screen. When I entered the username and password, the screen went blank for a few seconds and then the login screen appeared again.

DIAGNOSIS:
Just to see what was going on, I shifted to console based login. Upon entering the username and password there, the screen was flooded with the following message
-bash: /dev/null - Permission denied

WORKAROUND:
A simple
sudo chmod a+rw /dev/null
and then
startx
started everything normally.

IT AINT OVER YET:
Upon restarting the system, the same problem reappeared indicating that the permissions had been reset.

WORKAROUND:
chmod a+rw /dev/null was added to /etc/rc.local before
exit 0 (which was already written in the file)

DEEPER DIAGNOSIS:
I called one of my friends, a Red Hat certified professional. He explained me all the fundas of runlevels and how things are done in Red Hat. As a part of diagnosis, we shifted to runlevel 5 (current workaround i am using) and everything was working fine. A comparison of services didnt yield much as we found out that udev and MAKEDEV were present in both the levels, which according to us were responsible for dealing with permissions/creation of /etc/null.

I BELIEVE ITS JUST A QUICK FIX THING THAT WE HAVE DONE AND IT IS NOT A PROPER SOLUTION, THEREFORE I HAVE USED WORKAROUND AND NOT SOLUTION EVERYWHERE IN THIS POST. IF ANYONE COMES UP WITH A SOLUTION, THEN PLEASE POST IT IN COMMENTS. THANKS

FINAL WORKAROUND I AM USING:
Shifting to runlevel 5 by editing /etc/inittab -

Original /etc/inittab (first 4 lines only)

# /etc/inittab: init(8) configuration.
# $Id: inittab,v 1.91 2002/01/25 13:35:21 miquels Exp $

# The default runlevel.
id:2:initdefault:

Modified /etc/inittab

# /etc/inittab: init(8) configuration.
# $Id: inittab,v 1.91 2002/01/25 13:35:21 miquels Exp $

# The default runlevel.
id:5:initdefault:

This workaround didnt require editing rc.local.

Regards,
Dev

Sun Java Studio Creator on Kubuntu amd64

On my dist (Kubuntu (debian based linux) 6.06 LTS x86_64), JSC quit installation process saying i didnt have compat-libstdc++ and compat-libstdc++-devel rpms installed... It then only installed JSC and reached the end of the installation process. But then, just for the heck of it, I downloaded Sun Java App Server PE 8 update 2. Amazingly, it installed without posing any difficulties!! I was unable to resolve the error (no rpms) coz i have a debian based dist and was unable to find out what libstdc++ it was compiled against, or what exactly is the function of compat-libstdc++ besides providing the compatibility, or how can it be simulated.

I have ubuntu x86 (32 bit edition) installed in my college's lab and there everything worked as a breeze i.e. the compelete JSC alongwith the server was installed without any issues at all...
So what i thought was: I change my installtion's (amd64) config files to match those of x86 installation. Unfotunately, I was unable to locate which config file can make the difference. If any one has any ideas, then **please** share them. Until then, I am deploying the war archive again and again for testing.

BTW I was unable to install Oracle 9ir2 on amd64/x86, so i have switched to latest MySQL with their latest (5.0.3) connectorJ drivers. They work on x86/amd64 installation.