The Team Linux in Unawatuna

We had another one day GNU/linux training camp on 14th October 2007 at Amarasuriya teachers trainng school in unawatuna. It actually proved to be a success with excellent organization, the place being an ancient Wallawa by the Galle Matara road in Unawatuna. Bikku Mettawihari had arranged everything for the program.

GNU/Linux Teaching Camp in Rartnapura

We had planned a sudden GNU/Linux teaching camp in Ruwanpura National Teacher's Training College last 6th and 7th. Suchetha and I left Colombo about 2000 hrs. we got to the place around 2330 hrs. When we got there Bikku Mettavihari and a few guyz had already got down to the business. They'd put Ubuntu and Edubuntu into 45 computers. Thanx to organizers, what a cosy place to stay overnight, we found!

The event was a success. Nearly 150 trainee teachers took part in it. I was to do a presentation on Introduction to GNU/Linux. That crazy guy Suchetha snatched off half of my time. The whole day we taught GNU/Linux. The day ended nicely with a few discussions with cute ladies. In the eveining we enjoyed a few movies, beers and had a chat. The second day was a success too.

The Software Freedom Day 2007

Software Freedom Day is a global, grassroots effort to educate the public about the importance of software freedom and the virtues and availability of Free and Open Source Software. Local teams from all over the world organise events on the third Saturday in September. The most recent event involved over 200 teams from all over the world.

We had lots of plans in this SFD. There was many FOSS events around the country. Colombo,Kandy and downsouth events were big events among them. Dassa and I took over the organizing part of Matara event. We planned that event with collaboration of university of Ruhuna. The head, department of computer science Mr. Aruna gave a big help giving their resources to the event.

We have planned to go to Matara in the 13th evening. Collected our money from LSF in the morning. But we had one big prob. There was Tsunami warning all over the country. We had to change our plans due to the Tsunami warning. Then we decided to go to Matara early in the 14th morning. We took a cab 6 in the morning and left colombo. Reached Matara at about 11. the street promotion was going on at that time. They had prepared a nice place for us to crash that night down. The university circuit bungalow. Its located in a nice place facing the sea. What a beutiful view. Then we decided to go out for lunch. We went to chuti akka's place and had our lunch. After a litle talk we left there and had a little walk in matara town. I had to meet some one there and we wait few hours. Visited the temple in the town which is located few yards toward the sea. Suchetha came from colombo and had dinner and beers, came back to the lab.

The event was very successful. There were about 500 heads. After the event we left Matara at about 5.30. We had to be in Excel World coz there was closing ceremony taking place there. We were there just in time. was a nice karoke. Suchetha and Dassa shout for few tracks.

The Lord Works In Mysterious Wayz

This i'm gonna talking about a little old thing but for me its really interesting. I was a little free after ma exams and i was hunting some movies to watch. The best chap who can recommend a movie is Suchetha. I borrowed a few movies from him and The Blues Brothers and Blues brothers 2000 is two of the movies. Those two movies are among the most exiting and funful movies I've ever watched. The Blues Brothers was directed by John Landis and Blues Brothers 2000 was also directed by him.

"They'll never get caught. They're on a mission from God".It is a story about the Blues band Blues Brothers. Dan Akroid and John Belushi playing main roles in it. Jake Blues (John Belushi) out from the prison after three years, put together his old band to save the Catholic home where he and brother Elwood were raised. They did lots of things to put their band and save their home,full of action, comedy & Music. The most attracting feature is the songs they play. If you watch this movie I'm pretty sure you'll never take yo eyez off from the screen until it is over.

FOSSed on Wheels in Kandy

A few weeks ago I got a nice chance to take part in the FOSSed on Wheels in Kandy last 3rd and 4th which I was looking forward to for a longtime. That was the first FOSS event of the new year. I thought all our FOSS buddies would be able to join the event. Unfortunately most of our geeks were busy at that moment. It was a two days event. That event was organized by the foss community supported by the few geeks of the University of Peradeniya. The program was carried on in the Kandyan Art Gallery.

The day before the event I reached Colombo and in the morning I went to the university. And in the evening at abt 1400 I went to the TLC where I was gonna crash that night. But Suchetha was not there.. after a few hours he came back and we went to bring some beers. Its was time for dinner. Sushe and me got down to the Splash and had a BBQ. Got back to TLC. Gayal and Raj came to crash with us.

Early in the morning we got ready for the journey. It was abt 0500 when we depart. We reached the venu within a few hours. The program was about to begin. In the meantime I went out for a moment. you know guyz, google would pay everything. Came back after lunch. The event was cool and well organized. After the event our guyz had a few drinks and fun. The second day the event went on well and it was the one of the best and well organized events we participated in.

We packed our bags to return to Colombo. We just got down at Mifan's place on our way. His house is located in the middle of a jungle in the University park at Peradeniya. His mum and dad treated us well. we came back to Colombo at about 2200. It was time for our dinner. we again got down to the Splash for our dinner. we had a good time there.

Linux, Bluetooth & GPRS

Hey guyz..! after a long time .. howzi going? yep I was bussy with ma studies and work. Dudring the past dayz I tried to be connected with the internet using GPRS and Bluetooth. Has anyone tried to be connected with the internet using yer mobile phone as a dial up modem? Dassa and Anu have experiences in that and I got lots of advice from those guyz. Lots of googling and after a few dayz hacking I could do that successfully. I found a few scripts and I edited those scripts as neceasary.

I have Motorola L6 mobile phone with bluetooth. My system Is Debian GNU/linux, kernel 2.6.x. And I have a box with Intel Pentium IV 2.6 GHz and 256 MB RAM. I'll show how I could manipulate the script for better work.


Step 1: Make sure the Bluetooth connection between system and phone is working well.

* Switch on the bluetooth of the phone and run 'hcitool scan' on root terminal to ensure that the Bluetooth system is up and running. This should find the Bluetooth address of the phone. The address of my phone is 00:16:75:50:DE:1F

* Run 'sdptool browse ' to find which channels are being used for each of the services. The important entry for using the phone as modem is the one labelled 'Service Name: Dial-up Networking, For me, Channel 1.

debian:~# sdptool browse 00:16:75:50:DE:1F

"Service Name: Dial-up Networking Gateway
Service Description: Dial-up Networking Gateway
Service Provider: Motorola
Service RecHandle: 0x10001
Service Class ID List:
"Dialup Networking" (0x1103)
Protocol Descriptor List:
"L2CAP" (0x0100)
"RFCOMM" (0x0003)
Channel: 1"


* Set up RFCOMM device. /dev/rfcomm0 is the default bluetooth modem device. So I edited /etc/bluetooth/rfcomm.conf to ensure that /dev/rfcomm0 connects Channel 1. I edited the /etc/bluetooth/rfcomm.conf as follows.

vim /etc/bluetooth/rfcomm.confg


rfcomm0 {
bind yes ;
device 00:16:75:50:DE:1F ;
channel 1 ;
comment "mot Dial-up Networking Service -- for PPP" ;

}


Tip : Whenever u change the configuration file restart the bluetooth survice each time.

/etc/bluez-utils restart

Step 2 : Make the PPP (Point-tp-Point Protocol) sub-system. for that first I made the peer specification. and I named it mot. "vim /etc/ppp/peers/mot" ma peer specification as follws.

connect "/usr/sbin/chat -v -f /etc/chatscripts/mot"
/dev/rfcomm0 115200
defaultroute
crtscts
lcp-echo-failure 0
#=======
/dev/rfcomm0 115200
connect '/usr/sbin/chat -v -f /etc/ppp/chat-gprs'
crtscts
modem -detach
noccp
defaultroute
usepeerdns
noauth
ipcp-accept-remote
ipcp-accept-local
noipdefault

Then I created a chatscript mentioned in the peer specification and I named in the same way as peer specification (mot) "vim /etc/chatscript/mot. thats script like this.

# This chatfile was generated by pppconfig 2.3.10.
# Please do not delete any of the comments. pppconfig needs them.
#
# ispauth chat
# abortstring

ABORT BUSY ABORT 'NO CARRIER' ABORT VOICE ABORT 'NO DIALTONE' ABORT 'NO DIAL TONE' ABORT 'NO ANSWER' ABORT DELAYED
# modeminit
'' ATZ
# ispnumber
OK-AT-OK "ATDT*99***1#"

# ispconnect
CONNECT ''
# prelogin

# ispname
#login: xxxxxx
# isppassword
#password: yyyyyy
# postlogin

'' \d\c
# end of pppconfig stuff

" *99***1# " is the dial up number which is provided by the survice provider

Finally I wrote a script what I called chat-gprs which is also mentioned in the peer specification. "vim /etc/ppp/chat-gprs

'' ATZ OK

#AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","www.plusgsm.pl"
AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","wap"
OK "ATD*99***1#"
CONNECT ''


Now I finished ma Scripts. So lets check out those scripts are weather working or not.???

Okay... I gonna check ma connection. First I had to make a bluetooth connection with phone and system. here the commands.

debian:~# hcitool cc 00:16:75:50:DE:1F
debian:~# hcitool auth 00:16:75:50:DE:1F

When authenticate the connection it ask PIN. Most probably the default PIN is 1234.

Then run the comand "pon mot" to up the dialup connection. If you want to disconnect just run the command "poff mot". It is almost certainly a wise move to monitor /var/log/syslog run "tail -f /var/log/syslog" in a separate terminal to check that all the right things are happening.

Yeahhhhh......! Its working.....................!

AR got married...!

Today is rather a special day for our LUGers coz one of our old members AR got married. Early in the morning I reached Linux Center at about 0500. Dassa and his wife came to LC and we drove our selves to Suchetha's place. we reached there at about 0800. Took a shower and got ready to go to the wedding.

It was already started when we reached there. He was on the Poruwa and Poruwa ceremony was going on. Ahh what a nice couple. The wedding was rather traditional. You know guyzz, Anuradha is a person who appreciate the Sinhalese culture all the time. Couple was wearing National dress. We had a nice time there.

The most outstanding moment is their going away. they were wearing a traditional dresses and gone away in a bullock cart. I wish them all the success and bright future....!



(Pics by Suchetha and Anuradha D)

Busy.... Damn it

Last October one of ma best friends, Dassa got married. And took his wedding at the Earls Regency hotel on october 12. We set off from Ampara the previous morning. That evening we had a nice shopping. And one of ma good friends, Rishani who is living in Kandy joined with us. The following morning we went to dassa's wedding. what a nice time there. after that we directly drove our selves to colombo. at about 2230 hrs we reached there then we caught a bus to Dassa's home and we crashed there that night.On the 14th night we joined his homecoming at Fingara club. And the following day we came back home.

I was badly busy with ma work and studies last few months. in november i had ma final exams. i have few subjects to rush up. apart from that things I had to finish ma article for Soba Viyamana. Soba Viyamana is an Environmental Education magazine published by the Society for Environmental Protection. This is the one and only digest magazine on environmental protection. Im one of the editors of the magazine. The 4th volume of the magazine was issued last week. I wrote to it about Turtles & Tortoises in Sri Lanka. I really appreciate that work and I think it is a great service we are rendering to our next generation. I have to say a word about Dr. Rohana Dayaratne who is the founder of The Society for Environmental Protection and this magazine is one of his concepts. Now he is working at the general hospital Badulla as a consultant doctor.

we have a sudden Linux work shop on 4th last month in Ampara. Suchetha and a few of UCSC guyz suddenly came here within 24 hrs notification. it was sataurday and I was free. i joined with them and we did the wokshop well. after the workshop we went straight back home and then again went for an open bath. we went to channel near the Kondawatuwana tank and had a very nice and funful bath. Then we had to find some stuff for SUCH but unfortunately we couldnt find that for him. They left here after dinner.

FOSS School in A'Pura & Pollonnaruwa

Last month I was too busy. I had few CATs and Practical sessions. I had an overload of studies & office work. Thaz why I couldn't update my blog.
The first week of the month was very funful & I had a nice trip with Suchetha & Bikku Mettavihari. I had to work with those guyz for FOSS school program at Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa.



First Day
July 31st night I started ma journey. First I caught a bus to colombo, early in the morning at abt 0400 I reached colombo & drop a line to Suche and told him, "get yo ass up". I reached TLC at about 0445 and got a quick wash and got ready to journey. First Suchetha & I went to Narada Center to take Bikku Mettavihari and we woke him up. Then we started our journey to Polonnaruwa. Our destination was Girithalegama Maha Vidyalaya. During our journey we distributed some books on Buddhism to tourist hotels. BMV had brought lots of books to distribute. At about 1300 we reached our destination. There was a computer lab with about 20 computers & there was an unknown OS called ?????. we installed all machines with Red Hat Entreprise Linux 04. A guy, Mr. Amilaka who is a teacher helps us to finish our work & there were few school geeks who also help us. Having finished our business there we reserved a room in Wood side restuarent & got back to book distribution work on our way to Anuradhapura. At about 2000 we reached Anuradhapura. found a place to crash and dumped BMV into a temple and we went to dinner. It was a big dinner with a few bottles of beer.


Second Day
we got up early in the morning. got ready to go to Provincial IT center @ Anuradhapura. unfortunately we had a prob with battery of our van. however we started it an drove to A'pura city. Took something to eat and found a place to charge the battery. Took sometime and when we arrived at the place BMV had already started the work. The IT center guyz were absolutely Microsoft guyz. we wanted them to wsitch to Linux. BMV said it was verry dificult. but finally we did it. hope still they have been using linux. Installed about 40 computers with RHEL 04. Worked untill late afternoon & finished our work then again did our distribution work. late evening drop BMV to the nearest temple & we had our dinner at the usual place. spent the night at the ususal place.


Third Day
We had ample time for our program then we had a quick visit to the ruins. we took 15 min for the visit. then we reached the PITC. Start our program. There was about 40 teachers. it was a very successfull program. Suchetha was the teacher. My role was the demonstrator. hey guyz you know....? BMV had his lunch & had a good sleep on the chair. LOL.... we finish our programm about 1730. We went straight to Polonnaruwa. we'd already booked a room in Wood side restaurant. Dropped BMV to a temple and we went to the restaurant.There was no beer shop near the rest. we took pains to find one and got some beer & had a nice meal.

Fourth Day
It was a friday. we got up early again. went to Girithalegama MV. when we were going by van we saw BMV walking toward the school. had good crowd with few cute ladies from Teachers Training School. There was few little geeks there. They took over ma job. I was free. had a nice walk around the school. Finally we finished our School Linux program in A'pura & Pollonnaruwa. We start to go back to colombo. Suche & I had a plan to drop in a Night club. we reached colombo at about 2300. Dropped BMV into the Nadara Center and went to Zanziba. Two more Suche's friends joinned up. Mihi.. a cute girl and a guy I can't remember his name. We had tequilla. mmmm had a good time. I was the cherry.. what a good time. Music, drinks and everything.... was there at about 0230 we took our way to TLC on the way drop Mihi @ her place.


The day was Sunday.. in the morning I went to University & came back at 1400. Suche & I planned to go to the Majestic cinema to watch a nice movie. On our way to cinema we had a nasty experience. We were driving toward Kohuwala junction when a Pajaro without a number plate suddenly appeared from a by road. It belonged to BLOODY VIP security survice and it was full of DAMN thugs. They signaled us to slowdown as we were driving fast but anyway we couldn't do so and we went past the vehicle. Then the angry thugs followed us and overtook our van & blocked the way. So we had to stop. Then the thugs who were armed with guns came toward us and scolded us using the filthy language. Thats the way of the politics of our country. Somehow we went to Movie "Superman Return" ...what a nice movie. A few of Suchetha's friends joined us too. After the movei we went to Hotshot, had a strong coffee and played pool with few friends. After that Suche, I and one of his friend went to Hotel Intercontinental. there was a nice pizza place.. we had big jug of beer and huge two pizza.

Sis"s wedding

Last month was a very important month to me 'coz my sis got married. last 18th was her wedding day. I was busy with the activities & so I missed my Geology final exam.To me that was a highly emotional moment as she is my one and only sister. That day she looked very beutiful on her bridal dress.

On the 17th morning Lushan came here from Colombo. he is my very best friend living in Ratmalana. We had lots of work. Most of our relatives came down here. In the morning we had to finish some work and in the evening we went to the wedding hall for some arrangements.

On the 18th morning we got up early. had to prepare for the wedding. at about 0610 she stepped out of home & set off to the wedding hall. Around 0855 the Poruwa ceremony was performed. We had lots of fun. We enjoyed the festivities. Most of my friends and my relatives participated in the festival.Around 1330 she left the wedding hall & we said good bye to her & her groom.

On the 19th morning Lushan went back home. Dassa & I had Some work to do. We had to get reaady for the home comming on 20th.

On the 20th morning we got up early as well. we stepped out of home aroung 0700. there was a nice home coming ceremony we enjoyed alot.

A Trip with The Team Linux

Time was about 1700 at that rainy day suddenly Hoposaio called me and ask me to participate in the Linux promotion program last 23rd at Ambalantota Theraputta vidyalaya. I was confused. I got only few more hours. Oh what to do?...I thought to go there because Suche told me there is no one to participate in that program. Then I called him at about 2000 hrs and confirmed. there were another three more guyz ready to go with us.. the BSD guy was with a nipple ring (Janaka), Mifan Nana & Late Mahesh.(there is a nice little story behind him).

First Day

I started my journey at about 0500 hrs. I caught a bus to Matara. at about 1400 hrs I reached Matara.. then I visited Chuti Akka... I dropped a line to Suchetha's way & he asked me to come to Galle. Then I started ma Journey to Galle.. I caught a damn slow bus.. at about 2000 hrs. I reached the Galle town.... Im in ma possition Guyz... few minutes left. They came to pick me up & they got another amazing Job... Hoposai had to deliver something to Chooty or one he called Tina..(It could be white chocolate) 'n got a kiss.. what a bloody unfair thing, he got a kiss, we got nothing......!cmon Chooty gimme a kiss too!..... after few minutes we reached the Suche's father's official residence in Galle.. what a cool place.. that is the place where we stay two nights. We got a wash & nice dinner.. start show time... Suche fell to sleep.. we watched a movie which Suche recomended us to watch. He said it is amazing....what an amazement! you would feel that kinda amazing feeling if you happened to watch that movie..it is mmmm.... Serenity.. we went to sleep at about 0100 hrs & had to wake up at 0300 hrs. everyone said the journey to Ambalanthota would take four hours or more .

Second day

we started our journey to Ambalantota at about 0400 hrs. we had to pick up Mahesh at Unawatuna junction.. he was late (alwayz he is bloody late guy) we had spent about 10 minutes passing that place and had to turn back to pick him up. What happened next was we were little bit foul mouthed. We reached our destination at about 0600 hrs. and we found the place & hung our banners... did few more arrangements... opened our stall with a big noise. A big crowd came to see our stall. We did it very nicely..happy & thrilled.. in the evening we packed our everything & went to the Nanasala. two of our guyz were already working there. We put dual booting system for all machines with Kubuntu & Ubuntu GNU/Linux with Microsoft bloody OS. We proceeded at about 1900 hrs... we took our dinner on the way at Matara. Then we drove to Galle but on the way we changed our decision & went to Polhena beach.. had fun.... more fun... time was 2300 hrs.. we left the beach and drove to Galle. that night two of our dudez fell to sleep early.. I & Suche stay few more hours with nice chat & beer. We got a plan to go to Unawatuna beach next day.

Third day

We were to get up early but we got up late. at about 1000 hrs. we went to Unawatuna. LATE was there. we directly got down to the sea & had a bath.. it was one of the best moments I've ever had. we left the beach at about 1200 hrs. & went to LATE's place and had fresh water bath. after good tea we said good bye & left.. we had a drive inside the Galle fort. what a nice place....... then we returned to Colombo. We reached Colombo at about 1630 hrs. I caught my bus to Ampara at 1830hrs.

This trip was a most interesting & fantastic journey, indeed. the secret affairs of our guyz were disclosed on this journey..

The Real Struggle

During the Last couple of months I was struggling with ma exams and FOSSed works. I'd Plant Breeding Exam last 13th but missed Plant Physiology on 14th. FOSSed made me miss it. FOSSed................. FOSSed...................FOSSed ! The FOSSed was started on 13th Monday. Last Sunday Suchetha, Ven. Mettavihari & I visited the Exel world for a few arrangements. Few of our dudes were down there. Oh ! nothing to arrange. After a small talk & a walk we returned to the TLC. We were overloaded with a hell of work that night. no sleep, no sleep,

no sleep......................... @ about 0500 I went to sleep.............

The time was 0600 Ven. Mettavihari kicked & woke me up....... C'mon guys its high time..... hurriedly we reached the venue by Suche's cart (no clutch).......... no one there. still closed.......... damn! ............. At about 0900 The FOSSed was started.


Oh....... what a big crowd

Second day..... it was started about 0830. but I & Dassa was late. we had to go to his department. ...The Apache guy came......
( Brian Behlendorf) At the end of the day... we had ...fun ....fun ...fun... fun.... fun... fun..... We played bowling........................ Oh my finger....... had a funny time with ma buddies.

Finally we finished the FOSSed successfully. @ the end of the last day of FOSSed we had fun time & had a splendid dinner.

Last month I started with ma Geology practical. I had a nice time in Kandy after 99. Met a few new friends & had a fun in hostel. After the Practical we had the field visit to Randenigala. We had fun & got knowledge too. We were guided by Dr. Rohan Fernando who is an excellent character. After the field visit I had an overload of work. Had to prepare Practical reco rds.

I want a blog.

Country : Sri Lanka
Province : Eastern
City : Ampara
Unit Location : /root
Time : 0200
Physical status : Sleepy
Mental status : Crazy

Today I see most of my buddies have their own blogs. When I see those I thought it's a nice way to let know all of my friends and relatives around the world, about me. So here I am starting my own gossip site.



Even though I'm in the field of Natural Sciences (Level 5, Bachelor of Science, OUSL) my interest for IT is huge. And I am highly impressed with GNU/Linux, that gave me the extra strength to move in the IT field as well.

So, from where to start or what to include in this blog, is not in my mind yet, but this would be a good kick-start of my blogging.


Life with GNU/Linux.

After I heard and came to know about the philosophy of Open Source, and Linux I sat and thought about it for a while. Then realized that, it is the way how computer systems can be developed in a better way. in a case of all the brains put their effort to achieve a common goal, the open source concept is very useful in many ways. So I started to love it. Millions of minds can't be wrong!

So I became a member of the Lanka Linux User Group and took part in some events organized by them during the past year. The biggest event that I could attend was the FOSS event 2005.

I have a set of crazy friends. And we do lots of crazy things too (Apart from studies and job)

Catch ya later ....