I recently attempted to install Windows XP Service Pack 3 on my vintage 2003 Dell Inspiron 8500 laptop.  And for the first time ever, I encountered a problem which I could not fix myself, or find a solution for out there on Google.

The problem I had was that the SP3 install would go belly up about 2/3 of the way in with a cryptic "Failed to install catalog files" error message.

I tried for the better part of a week to isolate and resolve the problem with no success.  I found some articles regarding this error and suggested fixes in the Microsoft Knowledge Base, but none solved my problem.  I also found a few suggested fixes via Google, but again they did not solve the problem.

I was on the verge of relegating Win XP to the big trash can in the sky and turning the laptop into a Linux machine (it was already configured to boot either Win XP or Ubuntu Linux).  But then I discovered that Microsoft offers free technical support for problems related to Windows Update.  So I filled out a problem report and off it went to support(at)Microsoft.com.  Since this was "free" support, my expectations were very low.  I figured my problem report would go to the very bottom of Microsoft's support food chain and it would languish there until some low-level microserf had nothing better to do...or maybe drew the short straw that day.

Imagine my surprise when I received a reply from a Microsoft support person within 48 hours!  And the response contained a trouble-shooting procedure and instructions on what files and screen shots were needed if the procedure did not resolve the problem.   I went through the procedure and, unfortunately, this did not resolve the problem.  So I gathered up the files, screen shots, attached them to my reply and off went the email to Microsoft support. > As I was doing this, my expectations were that the next email from Microsoft support would most likely say: "Sorry about that - Reinstall Windows XP and then apply all the Service Patches!"

I received a response from the Microsoft support person about 24 hours later and I was mildly surprised as it contained another set of trouble shooting procedures rather than the expected "Sorry about that" response.  I dutifully went through the procedure and unfortunately, the problem did not resolve.  Once again, off went a message to Microsoft Support with the attached files and screen shots.  And I really did think that the response this time would really be to do a clean install of Win XP.

In day or so, back came an email from a Microsoft Support person.  Here is an excerpt of the contents:

I received the information attached.  I understand that the same error message was received after our attempts. To ensure that the issue will be addressed in the most effective way, we need to involve a Windows XP System Support Professional to work with us. For your convenience,  I have created a new case for you...One of our Windows XP System Support Professionals will contact you as soon as possible. The new case will be free of charge for you....

This was completely unexpected...my problem was being escalated!

In a day or or, I received an email from the Microsoft System Support person:

Thank you for contacting Microsoft Online Support Service.  My name is...You can contact me directly by writing an email to... with the case ID in the subject line...Generally, this type of installation issue can occur if....

The problem was resolved after a few more email exchange containing my feedback and the Microsoft System Support guy's recommended procedures.  SP3 installed without error, as did a couple of other updates that were waiting in the queue.  I won't bore you with the details, but the root cause was some corrupted hidden system folders.  I haven't a clue how or when they got corrupted.

Considering the support was not paid for and was for an OS (Win XP) which, in Microsoft's eyes, is nearing the end of its life-cycle, I must say that I was impressed with the support I got from Microsoft.  They get a lot of bad press for many of the things they do, some deservedly, some not.  However, in this instance, they performed admirably....at least in my opinion.

I just finished updating my laptop from Ubuntu 7.10 to the new Ubuntu 8.04 release.  All went well except for one thing.  In addition to many other improvements, Ubuntu 8.04 installed a new version (2.6.24-16) of the Linux kernel.  Now this would seem to be a good thing.  But, once again a Linux distribution failed my "Ready for Prime Time" test...which is to provide me with a working 802.11b/g, or "Wi-Fi," interface with little or no pain my part.

This issue with wireless interfaces is not unique to Ubuntu...I had the same problem with SUSE Linux in the past.  I won't go into the many reasons for the lack of robust wireless support in Linux as Google can find you many learned (and some not so learned) dissertations on that subject and many places to point the finger and fix the blame.

Having been faced with this problem in the past, I applied all my "lessons learned" in an attempt to fix it.  But much to my chagrin, none of them worked.  I was finally reduced to searching through the Linux syslog to see if I could find a clue about what the problem was.  I found the following entries in the syslog:

Apr 30 07:53:55 roadie firmware_helper[17195]: main: error loading '/lib/firmware/b43legacy/ucode4.fw' for device '/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1e.0/0000:02:01.0/0000:03:00.0/ssb1:0/firmware/ssb1:0' with driver '(unknown)'

Apr 30 07:53:55 roadie kernel: [26485.121152] b43legacy-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43legacy/ucode4.fw" not found or load failed.

Apr 30 07:53:55 roadie kernel: [26485.121166] b43legacy-phy0 ERROR: You must go to http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware and download the correct firmware (version 3).

Apr 30 07:53:57 roadie NetworkManager: nm_device_802_11_wireless_scan(): (eth1): could not trigger wireless scan: Network is down

These error messages were generated by the Linux kernel during the system boot, but Ubuntu happily finished booting and asked for the userid and password without giving any hint of there being a serious error encountered during the system boot up.  Seems to me not much has changed over the years in *nix systems when errors such as this occur.  Can you imagine some poor user with minimal knowledge of Linux trying to determine what went wrong?   And determining what went wrong is only the first step...determining how to fix it is no walk in the park for those with minimal Linux knowledge.  Unfortunately. it is not as simple as "downloading the correct firmware...."

Fortunately for me, I knew that one could download and install packages from Ubuntu that would fix the problem.  You need to open a terminal window and enter the fllowing at the command line prompts (or, alternatively, use the GUI-oriented Synaptics Package Manger:

sudo apt-get install build-essential

sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter

build-essential contains a recommended list of basic packages used when "building" packages such as b43-fwcutter.

b43-fwcutter is a utility for extracting firmware from Broadcom BCM43xx "proprietary" (Windows) driver files and then storing the resulting files in a folder where the Linux kernel can use them to initialize the wireless device at boot time.  You can learn more about b43-fwcutter and what it does here.

So that solved my wireless problem...or so I thought!  The laptop's wireless card initialized and synced up with my Wireless Access Point (WAP), But I still had no connectivity to the Internet.  I could access all my local PCs and local Server, but could not make a connection over the Internet.  I checked the log in the gateway router and noticed that there were error message saying that the router was getting errors when trying to make TCP connections.

It then occurred to me that I had both the wired and tethered interfaces active on the laptop.  I disabled the tethered interface (ifdowm eth0) and that solved the problem.  I now connectivity on both my LAN and the Internet.  Why this solved the problem and why the LAN connectivity with both interfaces active remains a problem to be solved another day...if ever!  The only thing that comes to mind is that for connections over the LAN I use actual IP addresses (e.g., 192.168.1.x), while for Internet connections the ISP's DNS gets involved to do the domain name to address mapping.

And I almost forgot...for the record, my wireless card is a Linksys WPC54G, which was a popular device back in the olden days (aka 2003).  And I guess it still is as Linksys still sells and support them.  I wonder how many potential converts have given up on Linux for their desktop OS because they've experienced problems like this.

Finally here is a link to another person's blog where he describes goinhg through a similar exercise to get his wireless interface working with Ubuntu 8.04.

Drupal 6 RC2 was released yesterday.  And, I must also say that the more familiar I have become with Drupal 6, my previous opinion that building Drupal themes is not as straightforward as building Joomla! templates has mellowed quite a bit.

Why the change of heart, you ask?  Read on to find out...

I decided to take my tried and true (but somewhat dated) Joomla! template and create a theme for Drupal 6 that more or less has the same layout.  And I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it was not nearly as difficult and time-consuming as I had anticipated.  Much more straightforward than Drupal 5.

For a comparison of the two, take a look at my messy and disorganized Drupal 6 RC test site...and my equally messy and disorganized e Joomla! 1.5 RC test site.

Disclaimer: This is not saying that Drupal is better than Joomla! or vice versa.  I use both of them and think they are both outstanding examples of the goodness that open source brings...as is my old friend Wordpress and many other open source software packages I use or have used in the past

Drupal 6 RC1 was released on 21 December.  The last Beta (4) was fairly stable so maybe it won't be too long until a Drupal 6 stable release hits the streets.  I think there's a good chance that the Drupal 6 and Joomla! 1.5 stable releases might occur within weeks (or maybe days) of each other.

I've been fooling with both Joomla! 1.5 and Drupal 6 for quite a while now.  Both are significant improvements over their predecessors.  For example, Joomla! 1.5 has made significant improvements in their SEF implementation and intoduced template overrides; Drupal has made significant improvements in caching and has also simplified theming.  Buildng Drupal themes is still not as straight forward as templating in Joomla!, but this lastest release takes a big step in the right direction.

Congrats to both the Drupal and Joomla! core teams for making my two favorite CMS's even better!

Today, Packt Publishing announced that Drupal was the winner of its annual Overall Open Source Content Management System Award for 2007.  

Joomla!, which was last year's winner in this category, placed second in the voting and also won the Best PHP Open Source Content Management System category award.  Drupal garnered second place in that one.

I've been a Joomla! user since the project's inception and have been using Drupal now for the better part of a year.   It's nice to see both of them recognized for their contributions to the open source community and to the IT community at large.