I posted recently about trying out Linux via VMWare. VMWare was incredibly easy to set-up but has had 2 frustrating problems…

1. It’s slow (this is apparently on purpose to get you to buy the commercial version. Allegedly)
2. The network bridging that it uses causes my network connection to not start for about 5 minutes after a reboot. Frustrating and nobody on the VMWare forums seems to want to suggest an answer to it.

The other free alternative is Virtual PC from Microsoft but, having tried it, it’s a typical Microsoft product that doesn’t seem to want to know anything about any possible rival. Hence you can set up various flavours of Windows OS’, but everything else is clumped into a big generic “other” pile.

PCPro has recommended VirtualBox so I gave that a go.

Again it was easy to use and, yes, quick. Again I installed Kubuntu, but every time I tried to change the resolution (from 1024×768 to my screens native 1280×1024) or specify the monitor or graphics card model, it refused to boot up.

I also had a frustrating time – my own fault for not reading instructions – with the Snapshot facility.

In the end I gave up with trying to change the graphics properties and just created a clean install of Kubuntu with Opera, Firefox and SeaMonkey browsers added to the existing Konqueror.

I uninstalled VMware and now can get an internet connection immediately my PC has booted. It’s also, as previously mentioned, quick. I’m limited to having it in a window on my Windows desktop in the aforementioned limited resolution, but I can live with that.

I should also take the chance to update my own instructions on updating the above browsers…

Firefox & SeaMonkey. These can be installed in one go using the automated script. For some reason I found I had files missing that caused this script to fail. I simply looked these files up in the Adept Manager.

Opera. Download from their site in .rpm file format, right click on the resultant file and select the option to install it.

And so I don’t have to keep going back to my original post to remember how to request root access – you put sudo at the beginning of the command line.

Right. It gets technical now.

It seems my problems at work where my laptop takes an age to sign-on is due to it making a copy of your profile onto our LAN. For “roaming” purposes. Therefore the more you have in your profile folder, the longer it takes.

So I set about reducing this down. And in the process, I came across a number of useful workarounds and general tips.

As part of this (because IE puts its temporary files in your profile folder) I’ve created a “Temporary Files” folder on C:\ (both at home and at work) where I’m trying to get as many apps as possible to put their cache, temporary folders and general bog.

So far I’ve found that I can move IE Temp Files, Firefox Cache, OpenOffice Temporary Files and Java Temporary files. All in a single neat folder, out of the way.

Oh, the reason I’m doing this at home as well, is because it reduces the amount I’m regularly backing up, if I can remove the bog to a single folder out of the way.

Anyway, here are a couple of workarounds to problems that I came across too…

Move Firefox Disk Cache

• Type about:config into Firefox’s Address Bar and press Enter.
• Right click on the resultant screen and select the option to create a new string value.
• Name this entry browser.cache.disk.parent_directory
• The content should be the location of where you wish the cache to be located

And that’s it done.

Move a Firefox Profile

• Shut down Firefox
• Move the profile folder to the desired location. For example, on Windows XP, move the profile from C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\xxxxxxxx.default to D:\Stuff\MyProfile
• Open up profiles.ini in a text editor. The file is located in the application data folder for Firefox on Windows Vista, XP, 2000: %AppData%\Mozilla\Firefox\
• In profiles.ini, locate the entry for the profile you’ve just moved. Change the Path= line to the new location. If you are using a non-relative pathname, the direction of the slashes may be relevant (this is true for Windows XP)
• Change IsRelative=1 to IsRelative=0
• Save profiles.ini and restart Firefox

I’ve often been criticised for using tables in my website. I only really use them where I’ve found it necessary, but never-the-less, one table is often one too many for some. “Bad design”, etc, etc.

Well, I’m working on a re-design of the Copy+ site and have been attempted to banish tables from the site entirely. All looked well as I tested it in IE. Then Firefox. Oh my. It was a real mess. I tried to sort it, I really did, but eventually became stuck.

A post to discussion board yielded the following answer.. “the top menu ‘catches’ on your logo_box DIV.” The answer is to add “clear: both;” to my DIV.

So I asked how I was supposed to know this. The answer…

Same way as me. You do something, it doesn’t work, so you google it!

I use it so often that I have it defined as a constant in my PHP.

The other thing that I have done is that I get so fed up of fudging inconsistencies between browsers that I now detect the user’s browser and give them an appropriate css file, not a jack of all trades with indecipherable hacks in.

The conclusion… I’m not supposed to realise this. Instead I have to hack about to get the DIV’s right, probably losing sleep and hair in the process.

But, if I use tables I can get it right first time, without any of the above. Hmmm. Guess what I’m now doing to the new site??