Enable access to your printer from any host

First, you need to enable CUPS so that it will accept connections from your VirtualBox Windows XP. To do this do:

1. Select the System menu -> Administration -> Printing. The Printer configuration window will appear.
2. Select the Settings menu item from the Server menu.
3. Make sure that there is a tick mark next to “Publish shared printers connected to this system”
   

   Enabling Printer connections from any host

4. Press OK

Identify the Printer URL

We now need to identify the URL of the printer so that we can use this in  VirualBox Windows XP.

1. In your web browser, navigate to http://localhost:631/ to access the Common UNIX Printing System (CUPS) administration pages
2. Press the “Manage Printers” button. This will display a list of your configured printers
3. Click on the name of your printer. This will display a page about your printer.
4. Copy the URL of the page from the address bar of your browser. For my printer it is http://localhost:631/printers/PhotosmartC5100 but will be different for your printer.

Test Accessing the printer from VirtualBox Windows XP

We now need to check we can access the CUPS web pages from the VirtualBox Windows XP.

1. Start your web browser and open the url http://<ubuntu_host>:631/ where <ubuntu_host> is the IP address of your Ubuntu machine
2. The web page that loads will be the Common UNIX Printing System (CUPS) administration pages
3. Press the “Manage Printers” button. This will display a list of your configured printers
4. Click on the name of your printer. This will display a page about your printer.
5. Copy the URL of the page from the address bar of your browser. For my printer it is http://<ubuntu_host>:631/printers/PhotosmartC5100 but will be different for your printer. We will need this later when configuring the printer on Windows

Setting up the Windows printer

We now need to configure the printer in Windows XP.

1. Open the Control panel and select Printers
2. Press Add Printer. The Add Printer wizard will appear. Press Next
3. Select “A network printer, or a printer attached to another computer” and press next
4. Select “Connect to a printer on the Internet or on a home or office network” and enter the printer URL from step 5 above in the URL box and [press Next
5. In the Add Printer Wizard window, either select your printer and press Next or press “Have Disk” and follow the instructions to install your printer.
6. Wait for the printer to be installed and configured. This may take a moment or two.
7. You will then be asked if you want to make this printer your default printer. Select Yes or No and press Next.
8. Press the Finish button.

Testing the Windows printer

You should now be pack in the Printers section of the Control panel and your newly added printer will be listed. Lets test that the printer worked.

1. Right click on the printer and select properties
2. Press the “Print Test Page” button.
3. Your printer should print a test page.

These are the steps that worked for me. I hope they work for you so that you can print from Windows running in VirtualBox.

After several failed attempts at creating the start up script from scratch, I decided to modify the Tomcat start up scripts that are provided with Tomcat6 so that they start my Jira server instead.

I have documented below what I ended up doing so that if I ever need to redo the steps, I have recorded it somewhere. These steps may be useful to other people too but there is no guarantee that they will work and no warranty (implied or otherwise) that they will not do something horrible to your server.

Install Jira standalone:

1. Installed Sun JDK 1.6 for running Jira using the command:

   sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jdk

2. Create a new user called jira for running the Jira server
3. Download the Jira standalone installer and install and configure it
4. Ensure that Jira is working using your web browser by going to http://localhost:8080/

Create a new Jira start up script:

Note: The following steps show how I created the Jira start up script. You can skip these steps as I have included the Jira startup script that I created.

1. Install Tomcat using the command:

   sudo apt-get install tomcat6

2. Copy the Tomcat start up script as a base for the Jira start up script

   sudo cp /etc/init.d/tomcat /etc/init.d/jira

3. Edit the /etc/init.d/jira start up script to change references to Tomcat to Jira and set the directories to refer to /home/jira
4. Uninstall Tomcat using the command:

   sudo apt-get remove tomcat6

Jira startup script:

The following shows the resulting /etc/init.d/jira start up script:

#!/bin/sh
#
# /etc/init.d/jira -- startup script for the Jira standalone server
# Based on the startup script for Tomcat 6 servlet engine
#
# Written by Miquel van Smoorenburg <miquels@cistron.nl>.
# Modified for Debian GNU/Linux    by Ian Murdock <imurdock@gnu.ai.mit.edu>.
# Modified for Tomcat by Stefan Gybas <sgybas@debian.org>.
# Modified for Tomcat6 by Thierry Carrez <thierry.carrez@ubuntu.com>.
# Modified for Jira standalone by MCC
#
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:          jira
# Required-Start:    $local_fs $remote_fs $network
# Required-Stop:     $local_fs $remote_fs $network
# Should-Start:      $named
# Should-Stop:       $named
# Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop:      0 1 6
# Short-Description: Start Jira.
# Description:       Start the Jira standalone server.
### END INIT INFO

set -e

PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin
NAME=jira
DESC="Jira Server"
DAEMON=/usr/bin/jsvc
CATALINA_HOME=/home/jira/$NAME
DEFAULT=/etc/default/$NAME
JVM_TMP=/tmp/jira-temp

if [ `id -u` -ne 0 ]; then
 echo "You need root privileges to run this script"
 exit 1
fi

# Make sure jira is started with system locale
if [ -r /etc/default/locale ]; then
 . /etc/default/locale
 export LANG
fi

. /lib/lsb/init-functions
. /etc/default/rcS

# The following variables can be overwritten in $DEFAULT

# Run Jira as this user ID
JIRA_USER=jira

# The first existing directory is used for JAVA_HOME (if JAVA_HOME is not
# defined in $DEFAULT)
JDK_DIRS="/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk /usr/lib/jvm/java-1.5.0-sun /usr/lib/j2sdk1.5-sun /usr/lib/j2sdk1.5-ibm"

# Look for the right JVM to use
for jdir in $JDK_DIRS; do
 if [ -r "$jdir/bin/java" -a -z "${JAVA_HOME}" ]; then
 JAVA_HOME="$jdir"
 fi
done
export JAVA_HOME

# Directory for per-instance configuration files and webapps
CATALINA_BASE=$CATALINA_HOME

# Use the Java security manager? (yes/no)
JIRA_SECURITY=no

# Default Java options
# Set java.awt.headless=true if JAVA_OPTS is not set so the
# Xalan XSL transformer can work without X11 display on JDK 1.4+
# It also looks like the default heap size of 64M is not enough for most cases
# so the maximum heap size is set to 128M
if [ -z "$JAVA_OPTS" ]; then
 JAVA_OPTS="-Djava.awt.headless=true -Xmx128M"
fi

# End of variables that can be overwritten in $DEFAULT

# overwrite settings from default file
if [ -f "$DEFAULT" ]; then
 . "$DEFAULT"
fi

if [ ! -f "$CATALINA_HOME/bin/bootstrap.jar" ]; then
 log_failure_msg "$NAME is not installed"
 exit 1
fi

if [ ! -f "$DAEMON" ]; then
 log_failure_msg "missing $DAEMON"
 exit 1
fi

POLICY_CACHE="$CATALINA_BASE/work/catalina.policy"

JAVA_OPTS="$JAVA_OPTS -Djava.endorsed.dirs=$CATALINA_HOME/endorsed -Dcatalina.base=$CATALINA_BASE -Dcatalina.home=$CATALINA_HOME -Djava.io.tmpdir=$JVM_TMP"

# Set the JSP compiler if set in the tomcat6.default file
if [ -n "$JSP_COMPILER" ]; then
 JAVA_OPTS="$JAVA_OPTS -Dbuild.compiler=$JSP_COMPILER"
fi

if [ "$JIRA_SECURITY" = "yes" ]; then
 JAVA_OPTS="$JAVA_OPTS -Djava.security.manager -Djava.security.policy=$POLICY_CACHE"
fi

# Set juli LogManager if logging.properties is provided
if [ -r "$CATALINA_BASE"/conf/logging.properties ]; then
 JAVA_OPTS="$JAVA_OPTS "-Djava.util.logging.manager=org.apache.juli.ClassLoaderLogManager" "-Djava.util.logging.config.file="$CATALINA_BASE/conf/logging.properties"
fi

# Define other required variables
CATALINA_PID="/var/run/$NAME.pid"
BOOTSTRAP_CLASS=org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap
JSVC_CLASSPATH="/usr/share/java/commons-daemon.jar:$CATALINA_HOME/bin/bootstrap.jar"

# Look for Java Secure Sockets Extension (JSSE) JARs
if [ -z "${JSSE_HOME}" -a -r "${JAVA_HOME}/jre/lib/jsse.jar" ]; then
 JSSE_HOME="${JAVA_HOME}/jre/"
fi
export JSSE_HOME

case "$1" in
 start)
 if [ -z "$JAVA_HOME" ]; then
 log_failure_msg "no JDK found - please set JAVA_HOME"
 exit 1
 fi

 if [ ! -d "$CATALINA_BASE/conf" ]; then
 log_failure_msg "invalid CATALINA_BASE: $CATALINA_BASE"
 exit 1
 fi

 log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESC" "$NAME"
 if start-stop-daemon --test --start --pidfile "$CATALINA_PID" \
 --user $JIRA_USER --startas "$JAVA_HOME/bin/java" \
 >/dev/null; then

 # Regenerate POLICY_CACHE file
 #umask 022
 #echo "// AUTO-GENERATED FILE from /etc/tomcat6/policy.d/" \
 #    > "$POLICY_CACHE"
 #echo ""  >> "$POLICY_CACHE"
 #cat $CATALINA_BASE/conf/policy.d/*.policy \
 #    >> "$POLICY_CACHE"

 # Remove / recreate JVM_TMP directory
 rm -rf "$JVM_TMP"
 mkdir "$JVM_TMP" || {
 log_failure_msg "could not create JVM temporary directory"
 exit 1
 }
 chown $JIRA_USER "$JVM_TMP"
 cd "$JVM_TMP"

 $DAEMON -user "$JIRA_USER" -cp "$JSVC_CLASSPATH" \
 -outfile SYSLOG -errfile SYSLOG \
 -pidfile "$CATALINA_PID" $JAVA_OPTS "$BOOTSTRAP_CLASS"

 sleep 5
 if start-stop-daemon --test --start --pidfile "$CATALINA_PID" \
 --user $JIRA_USER --startas "$JAVA_HOME/bin/java" \
 >/dev/null; then
 log_end_msg 1
 else
 log_end_msg 0
 fi
 else
 log_progress_msg "(already running)"
 log_end_msg 0
 fi
 ;;
 stop)
 log_daemon_msg "Stopping $DESC" "$NAME"
 if start-stop-daemon --test --start --pidfile "$CATALINA_PID" \
 --user "$JIRA_USER" --startas "$JAVA_HOME/bin/java" \
 >/dev/null; then
 log_progress_msg "(not running)"
 else
 $DAEMON -cp "$JSVC_CLASSPATH" -pidfile "$CATALINA_PID" \
 -stop "$BOOTSTRAP_CLASS"
 fi
 rm -rf "$JVM_TMP"
 log_end_msg 0
 ;;
 status)
 if start-stop-daemon --test --start --pidfile "$CATALINA_PID" \
 --user $JIRA_USER --startas "$JAVA_HOME/bin/java" \
 >/dev/null; then

 if [ -f "$CATALINA_PID" ]; then
 log_success_msg "$DESC is not running, but pid file exists."
 exit 1
 else
 log_success_msg "$DESC is not running."
 exit 3
 fi
 else
 log_success_msg "$DESC is running with pid `cat $CATALINA_PID`"
 fi
 ;;
 restart|force-reload)
 if start-stop-daemon --test --stop --pidfile "$CATALINA_PID" \
 --user $JIRA_USER --startas "$JAVA_HOME/bin/java" \
 >/dev/null; then
 $0 stop
 sleep 1
 fi
 $0 start
 ;;
 try-restart)
 if start-stop-daemon --test --start --pidfile "$CATALINA_PID" \
 --user $JIRA_USER --startas "$JAVA_HOME/bin/java" \
 >/dev/null; then
 $0 start
 fi
 ;;
 *)
 log_success_msg "Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart|try-restart|force-reload|status}"
 exit 1
 ;;
esac

exit 0

Ensuring Jira is started at boot time:

1. Make sure the jira script is executable by running the command:

   sudo chmod +x /etc/init.d/jira

2. Add the jira start up script to the required run levels by running the command:

   sudo update-rc.d jira defaults 80

3. Start Jira now using the command:

   sudo /etc/init.d/jira start

To be completely sure that it has worked, reboot your server and try accessing Jira using your web browser by going to http://localhost:8080/ Hopefully, Jira will have auto started.

“Problem with Audio Playback”

The problem is that Ubuntu uses pulse audio and Skype does not play nicely with it. To fix it, do the following:

1. Open Skype options and select Sound Devices
2. Change Sound In, Sound Out and Ringing to use “pulse”
3. Clear the check mark next to “Allow Skype to automatically adjust my mixer levels” (This step may not be required)
4. Press the Apply button and then the Close button.

You should now be able to place a test call.

Update: Microphone issue.

Several people have posted comments saying that they have had problems with their microphone not working in Skype. I did not run into this problem so I don’t know how to fix it. However, Chris did post the following comment on this blog entry:

To fix the microphone problem!

Change the sound in (in the Skype sound options) to your motherboard instead of Pulse. Now it should work for ya!

Thanks Chris for this suggestion. Hopefully it will work for you too.

The following post contains a nice set of extra repositories for Ubuntu.

http://blog.ibeentoubuntu.com/2009/03/extra-repositories-for-ubuntu-810-you.html

grep --color=auto <pattern> <file>

I found this tip at:

http://unstableme.blogspot.com/2009/03/highlight-match-with-color-in-grep.html