Notes 8.5.2 FP3 on Ubuntu (Linux)

As a follow up to my post about 8.5.2 FP3.  I have found out that this Fix Pack will not install on Ubuntu 10.10.  I get the following error message:

error in Version string '8.5.2-20110711.1400_FP3': invalid character in revision number       

I discussed this with a friend at IBM Singapore and they suggest that I raise a support item.  So I did that.  I have to say IBM support was amazingly quick and came back with the following repost:

Unfortunately, the release of Ubuntu that we do officially support is 10.4 for 8.5.2, and that detail is available here,          
                                                                     
http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/nflsblog.nsf/dx/ubuntu-10.04-lts-is-now-an-officially-supported-platform-for-notes-8.5.2                                                                                    
                                                                     
https://www-304.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27019218#NetworkProtocols_R-hwgroup                                                    
                                                                     
So, we would suggest dropping Operating System back to 10.4 and retry the FP3 upgrade.  .

So there you have it, straight from the horses mouth.

The moral of the story is check the application that you want to upgrade is supported by your operating system, Also check the other way round before upgrading your OS check that the app supports it.  I have heard of some issues on the new Apple Lion O/S with Notes.  But not see it my self.

8.5.2 FP3 released

Earlier this week IBM released Notes/Domino 8.5.2 FP3.  Its works well under Windows 7, hwever Under Linux (Ubuntu 10.10) it fails just after it starts with the following error message:

dpkg: error processing /home/nick/DownloadDirector/Notes 8.5.2 Gold/8.5.2 FP3/Ubuntu/ibm_lotus_notes_fixpack-8.5.2.i586.deb (--install):
 parse error, in file '/var/lib/dpkg/tmp.ci/control' near line 2 package 'ibm-lotus-notes-fixpack': error in Version string '8.5.2-20110711.1400_FP3': invalid character in revision number

IBM just cant get the installs and FP installs for Ubuntu right, every one since 8.5.1 has had issues.  Come on IBM get your Linux act together and start getting this right.

I am told that this error is a real error and need to be reported.  Anyone come across this before?

Running Lotus Notes 8.5.2 Under Ubuntu 10.10

As I mentioned in my New Year Blog, I have been experimenting with running Notes under Ubuntu.

Well I am happy to report that its works great, was pretty simple to install and just work, in fact i would say that I have fewer problems under Ubuntu that I do under Windows.  I am also running Symphony and Sametime, all work perfectly.  In fact if you get the right fonts it looks just as good as under Windows.  I thoroughly recommend Notes under Ubuntu.

If any one would like a set of instructions for installing Notes under Ubuntu, its a touch more complex than Windows but well with any competent user, I will happily send you then, please write to me at:

nichalliwell99 at gmail.com

Whilst on the subject of things running in Notes, I have been trying out SpamSentinel MBE, its an add on that allows you to sort incoming mails in to several in-boxs.  there is a Newsletters mail box as well as an others and Junk.  To get a mail in to the right in-box, you simply drag it to that in-box and it then it remebers that all mails from that person go into that box.

It  has to be setup under Windows and not Ubuntu, but in any organisation that uses SpamSentinel you are most likely to have a Domino Administrator who will use the Windows Notes Administrator.  I really hope that mayflower consider making the installation work under Linux.

I think that there product is still in Beta as I have several minor problems, even under Windows.  I have talked to Chris in Support and he has confirmed the issues and that they are working on them.

Will keep you informed, mean while this is what it looks like:

Notes 8.5.x Limitations

The below link details so of the core limitations in notes.  Notes is like any IT system and has its limitations.

The limitations in some cases are actually artificial, for example the Notes database size, this limit is what IBM will support up to, I have seen Notes databases with 80 Gb in.  Also please bear in mind that if you use DAOS then the database will be much smaller as all attachment get striped out and help out side the .nsf structure.  So a Notes mail file or other databases run within a DAOS environment will in fact be able to contain a massive amount of data.

My personal e-mail file is over 11 Gb, and so far has not casued the slightest problem, its even running of a not too piowerfull server.

www-304.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21308379

Review of 2010

Well what happened in 2010.

Sorry have not been on line over the last nine months, but started my Cancer treatment In June this year and was sick from that, when not being sick from the Chemo I was working pretty hard.  Prior to June was pretty ill with the cancer, and had very little energy, so was not doing much.  Had lots of Family Visits, My Son and Daughter from the UK Came out in July and September, Mum came out November, plus friends from BKK have been very good in visiting me, in particular I would like to Thank Howard and Maurice, who has been round several times to see how I am.

On the Notes front Installed 8.5.2 gold as well as Domino.  Got Traveler up and running ion 8.52, all appears to work well.

Moved on to 8.5.2 CD2, but have had many problems installing it, so still working on that, may be need to wait for the next code drop to come out.

8.5.2 works nicely especially like the in line auto spelling checker, thats great saves time and miss spellings.

Built a Ubuntu Notes client, using Ubuntu 10.10, works really well.  Have been able to use Ubuntu in place of Windows, every time I had an issue where I had software on Windows was always able to find an equivalent or better in Ubuntu, so am pretty impressed.  Also did a Ubuntu 64 Bit Domino install, much more difficult to setup  I was told by Stephan Wissel that I should have used the Ubuntu 32 version make with PAE as that will address up to 32 Gb of RAM.  So thats the next project for the new year.

Also built a FreeNAS server, went very easily and I now have a 1 TB NAS, which will shortly get extended to 1.5 Tb.  Its much cheaper to do that than bay a propriety NAS.  Used an old Pentium 4, 2.0 Ghz Dual core.  1 Gb RAM.  And 2 x 500 GB Western Digital SATA disks.  But even that spec is too much, the CPU has never gone above 1600 Mhz and usually sits below 1000 Mhz, RAM never above 350 Mb.  So could have used a much smaller system.  Can recommend building a FreeNAS to any one the costs are so cheep especially if you have old kit lying around.

Garn, my wife, is off to do some work for a customer in Cambodia.  She will be setting up his HR system and also some other Notes stuff, likely to be out there for several months.  Its going to be a challenge for her, but one to which she will surly rise to.

During early 2011 we will run down Evergreen Comware and change to Comsoftware, Evergreen Comware is an old company that we brought many years ago it has several Frang as directors and chairman, this make it much harder to actually do things and the report and paperwork is horrendous.  So Comsoftware has been formed under new company rules that allow only 3 shareholders and a single person as the manager, so its much easier and cheaper to operate.  Also the name does not reflect what we do, where as Comsoftware does, I feel.

Looks like we have a few interesting project coming up in the new year, so I am hoping that 2011 will be a good year, I can get over the Cancer and start to lead a normal life, however I still have 7 more treatment to go through which will take me through to almost the middle of the year.

I want to wish all who know me good luck for 2010 and hope that all your dreams come true.

สวัสดีปีใหม่, SAWATDEE PI MA, Happy New Year

Nick

Sending someone your calendar

I came across this set of features the other day, its really neat, you can as well as sharing you calender, you can actually send it to someone.

Open your calendar and then click on file and then print, then in the section labelled: What to Print, you will see a line that says: Print Calendar to a document.  As shown below.

 

I suggest that you select Calendar list as you can show a whole moth or more as a easy list.  Then click on preview and you will see your list .

If you now click on forward your list will be copied into an new e-mail that you can address and send out. 
I think this is a really neat feature that very few people now about.

You can actually tart it up and add a 3 month header on to it  which looks really neat, I have also added the Location and Chairperson.

Now that you have this in an e-mail you can actually edit it any how you want, ie add things that are actually not in your calendar or give more information, for example using the Link function you could link to a website that has a map of the event location.

Notes Spell Check

IBM have announced that they now have a single spell check engine that will cover, Notes, Sametime and Symphony.  This is of course sensible and make life easier for all.  However there are issues that you need ot be aware of, these are delt with in the IBM Wiki for Spelling.  Please have a look.

Ed Brill recently comment on this and said:

In Notes 8.5.1, we changed the client's spell check engine.  The new engine is also used by Symphony and Sametime.  It is based on IBM's own LanguageWare tools, and gives us a lot more flexibility.

A number of additional languages are available to plug into the new spell check engine.  Technote 1411732 explains how to find those and install them.  They are basically provisioned through the same approach as sidebar plug-ins and other updates to the Eclipse-based Notes 8 environment.

Almar Diehl saw the technote and suggested using the widget catalog as another way to distribute additional dictionaries. 

 

What would be reall good is of you only had a single dictionary for your corrections across all you products, but I guess that that will come in time.

Notes 8.5.2 Beta

I am currently beta testing Notes 8.5.2, whilst this is meant as a bug fix release, I have discovered a couple of new and quite interesting additions.

The 1st is in the Text dialogue box that appears when you are editing or creating a new mail.  There are 2 new buttons on the bottom of the text box, one is to set Permanent Pen the other is to set Mail Font.  Very easy to use just select what you want in terms of font and colour and size etc. then click either button, job done.

The other one is on the replication page, rather than have a single progress bar at the bottom you now have a progress bar for each database that is replicating, I also notice that replication now appears to be multi threaded, in that it looks like more than 1 database will be replicating at the same time.  You can see progress bars with different percentages and numbers.  It also feels quicker.

As I find more new things I will let you know.