Installing GroupWise 8 on Ubunutu Maverick

The steps outlined in this post are taken from Steven Harms' blog, Novell Groupwise 7 SP3 on Ubuntu Gutsy/Hardy, and Adam Ward's post, Novell GroupWise Client for Ubuntu at RedShirtLinux.com. If you have real technical questions about these instructions please refer to their blogs. Their technical expertise with Linux is way beyond my current skill-set.

1. Download the GrooupWise Client (gw801_client_linux_en.tar.gz) and extract it (I created a Novell folder in my Home Folder):
   tar -xzvf gw801_client_linux_en.tar.gz
   
   
2. Convert the RPM package to Debian using Alien (If you're like me you will need to install Alien):
   sudo apt-get install alien libstdc++5
   
   
3. Navigate to the directory where you extracted the GroupWise Client:
   cd cd gw8.0.1-88138_client_linux_en
   
   
4. Change to root and convert the packages with Alien (two separate commands):
   sudo su
   alien -c novell-groupwise-client-8.0.1-88138.i586.rpm && alien -c novell-groupwise-gwcheck-8.0.1-88138.i586.rpm
   
   
5. Install the packages (that's a space between -i and *):
   dpkg -i *.deb
   
   
6. Now make the desktop shortcut executable:
   Right click the shortcut, click the Permissions tab and check "Allow executing file as program".
   

Launch the program and enter your credentials and you are all set.

KevDate 12102009

I have been busy with work and school. I thought I would take a moment to wish all a
Merry Christmas
and a
Happy New Year!

KevDate 10232008

You may be wondering where I have been. In August I started working on my MBA. If all goes well by August 2010 I will have one more item checked off my bucket list. :-)

We have encountered a minor glitch with the public Firefox browser. It has to do with the Gecko Runtime environment or XULRunner that Firefox is built on. I am looking into a fix for this and will publish it as soon as it is tested. In the meantime the quickest work around for our public Firefox problem is to use Internet Explorer; worse case kick off a rebuild.

That about covers things for now.

Thanks fo stopping by.

Public Firefox Add-ons 07112008 part II

Maria researched some search tools for us to add to Firefox. They are really easy to add. We just add them to the searchplugins folder. We narrowed them down to the following:

ACPL Catalog
Google
Yahoo
Amazon.com
Answers.com
Wikipedia
Webster

All we need to do is copy the the xml files for the plugins to:
C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\searchplugins
Just like we added the ACPL Catalog for the staff application object.

The only add-on that will be available for the public is Print Preview 0.7.1.4. This allows us to add Print Preview along with Print to the toolbar.

Progress so far:
As of today the snapshot was made of the Firefox install. The snAppShot folder was named Public _Firefox. The folder was copied to the working directory on the server. The initial application object was completed and our documentation file for Public_Firefox was update. An install of Firefox along with the search plugins and print preview was set up on another computer. This will be used for a template as the applicatoin object is modifieid.

Public Firefox 07112008

I am thinking aloud so to speak., but if you have anything to add let me know. Also if you think I am going about this the wrong way let me know too.

OK. So I have been thinking about this and I tried tinkering with the User.js configuration file for Firefox and I can't get everything to go. I am going to try this. Make a snapshot for the public of Firefox. Add firfox.exe to RPM so it will launch on a public machine. Then use another computer to set up Firefox, using the menu editor add-on, to lock it down. Add the search tools and other plugins/settings as desired.

Now I have the application object and a template to work from. Next is just a matter of copying files from the template to the application object. Then editing the appropriate configuration file. This should point firefox to the add-ons and extensions that I copied over from the template (other computer).

I had a more user friendly theme I wanted to use but that may be trickier to set up than getting the other add-ons to work. So the theme will be the last obstacle. If it doesn't work that is no big deal. Oh the name of the theme is Office if you wanted to check it out: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4561

I use it and thought it would a good choice for the public.

The goal is to lock down Firefox in much the same way Internet Explorer already is. And to make sure all the plugins are functioning.

The list of add-ons, search tools, and plugins to be posted soon.

Firefox 070108

Sent email informing staff of Firefox upgrade. Included instructions on how to export and import bookmarks, if needed. Next step is to begin tweaking Firefox for public deployment.

One note:
Proxy setting for the browser is set to No Proxy by default. This needs to be changed to auto detect. To do this I had to edit the All.js file. It is located at:
C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\greprefs\all.js
I reviewed the filedef.txt and All.js is 105.fil. I edited the following statement in the 105.fil (All.js) file:
Changed pref("network.proxy.type", 0);
To
pref("network.proxy.type"' 4);
and saved changes to the working directory. Note 0 = No Proxy and 4 = Auto detect

Firefox 062508

I.
Firefox 3 deploys OK to a computer that has Firefox 1.0.6
installed. Firefox 3 deploys OK to a computer with no
previous version of Firefox installed. Firefox 3 fails when
deploying to a staff computer that was upgraded to Firefox 2.X.

It looks like the cleanup utility for Firefox 2.X left a few
files behind that conflict with Firefox 3. Removing these
files allowed the Firefox 3 to distribute and launch without
failure.

• xpicleanup.exe
• xpistub.dll
• xpcom_compat.dll
• xpcom_core.dll

II.
Upgrading Firefox from 1.0.6 to a newer version places a
shortcut on the desktop. Clicking on this shortcut causes
firefox 3. tofail. The application object places a shortcut on
the desktop. Removing the shortcut generated when the user
upgrades from 1.0.6 will eliminate this problem. The
shortcut is found in C:\Documents And Setting\ All Users\Desktop

III.
Firefox 3 was deployed to ITS staff. Deployment seems to have
gone well. I think instructions to staff on how to back up and restore book marks may be necessary. They should also know that some extensions may not work in 3.0 due to the developers not having an update for 3.0 yet.

Next step is to discuss staff deployment in our meeting. I am
looking at a July 2nd staff deployment. Then we will start working
on a package for the public.