The three minor hurdles to configuring Jetty 7 and Maven are making sure port 80 is not already taken, getting the right connector implementation configured, and running Maven as sudo so that Jetty has permission to run on Port 80. In OS X, you can see if anything is already running on port 80 by running the following command from Terminal:

If you're on OS X and see something running on Port 80 yet you didn't install a webserver, chances are it's Sharing. Go to System Preferences > Sharing and disable it. Otherwise, figure out what process is running on port 80 and make it go away.

Now to configure the Jetty Maven plug-in, here is what my configuration looks like which you should replicate in your pom.xml under the plugins section (and adjust to your particular directory structure and desired context):

One of the difficulties I encountered was getting the connector working correctly. Since Maven has moved to be an Eclipse project, the package structure for the connector has changed and thus the reason most of the existing documentation on getting custom connectors to work did not work for me.

The last remaining hurdle to overcome is that running a standard “mvn jetty:run” doesn't work on OS X (and likely Linux as well). You'll see the error message “Embedded error: Permission denied”. If you run Maven with error stacktraces enabled, you'll see an exception that looks like this:

This is because you need elevated permissions to run applications on lower ports on *nix based systems. Simply run it as sudo, “sudo mvn jetty:run” and you'll be good to go.

Not a terribly tough problem to overcome on your own, but I thought I'd try and try to save someone some time if they run across the same issues.

Luckily this is easy to install, just not terribly intuitive or easy to find as it's not a package known as dig:

That's pretty much it-- you should now be able to use dig!

Basically in any Unix type derivative such as Linux such (Ubuntu, RedHat, SuSe, etc.), as well as Mac OS X, all that you need to type this at the command line:

I remember there being a couple of commands in Windows which you could do this with, but it's been so long since I've used Windows on a regular basis I honestly don't remember how to do it. I do know you can use TCPView to accomplish the same thing, however.

The Aesthetics

One thing I noticed as soon as I took the machine out of the box-- it's actually built quite well for an inexpensive workstation. The sides are made from fairly sturdy metal panels, and the general fit and feel was much better than I expected. This is not a machine I would be afraid to put in a car and move across the country with, or use as a doorstop when it gets old.

At the same time I think the majority of Dell's system designs for the past year or so have been terribly corny and gaudy ripoffs of Apple. I think the only brand identity that Dell has with their hardware is to use a bunch of different colors and grades of material, and then top it off by making sure it says DELL. YES, ITS A MOTHERFUCKING DELL. HEY, LOOK, I'M STILL A DELL everywhere. For the price I can't complain, but I think Dell could certainly stand to continue to try and make their machines look less like IM IN UR HOUSE LOOKING LIKE UR COMPUTRON, and more like something you don't mind having on display. I think recent designs of LCD TV's are a good example of this.

I'd take some photos of the new machine, but with 3 other machines on my desk (a server, my old workstation, and my work laptop) there's just too much chaos on my desk for such things.

Ubuntu Installation & Configuration

There's really not much to report here, though it was certainly pretty painless compared to the recent experience I had installing Ubuntu Feisty on a Lenovo T60. When I booted-up the machine some sort of Dell looking screen appeared that I had to agree to, and then the Ubuntu installation started. Admittedly it's been awhile so I can't remember every exact detail, but essentially there were only 4 install screens which let me set things such as time zone, keyboard layout, currency, and language preference, and it was pretty much done.

Once it rebooted I was somewhat disappointed-- the display did not account for the Dell 2007WFP 20" widescreen monitor I ordered and would only display in 1024x768. This would be a complete show-stopper for the average computer user, and I couldn't believe that this wasn't something which was accounted for in the installation process.

Also missing was the restricted driver for the Nvidia video card. This oversight is certainly debatable, but it also goes to show that there wasn't much time put into tweaking the shipped version of Ubuntu to be Dell friendly (at least on the Dimension E520). I ended-up having to do the dreadful task of poking around in xorg.conf to get the monitor and video card to play nicely with each other, and now I'm using it in 1680x1050 glory.

After finally getting the resolution tweaked, I got all of the multimedia foo in working order by installing various codecs and applications using Automatix. I also installed VMWare Server and created a Windows XP virtual machine just because I could and also attempt to push the new hardware a bit, but I have yet to really do anything in the Virtual Machine other than get updates installed.

I'm still waiting for the whole Compiz / Beryl merger to happen with an actual release, so I haven't played with the window effects at all. I did install Synergy which was quite painless and can now use the same mouse and keyboard as well as copy and paste across two other machines. Very nice!

Life With Ubuntu

Being that I switched to using Ubuntu as my primary operating system at home last year, and use it on my work laptop for writing software, I pretty much already knew what to expect. For the most part Ubuntu provides you with ways do do almost everything you can already do with Windows, including:

• Surfing the internet and using various instant messaging protocols
• An office suite for Word Processing, Spreadsheets, etc
• Support for removable media such as USB drives or Flash Memory cards from digital cameras
• Image editing and photo management
• Managing your iPod and music library
• Support for video, music, flash, and more via Automatix
• The ability to burn CD's and DVD's
• Built-in support for printers and other devices

About the only thing I can't do with it at the moment is manage my Samsung Blackjack smartphone. I'll probably keep my old Windows XP box around specifically for this purpose. Otherwise, Ubuntu has been a really great choice for me. In fact, one thing that surprised me is that it automatically installed a driver for and supported an old 3Com HomeConnect webcam I have which is about 7 years old now and almost impossible to find Windows drivers for.

Conclusion

I'm at a point in life where I just don't have time to build machines from scratch and troubleshoot their idiosyncrasies, so I prefer to buy pre-assembeled machines. I seem to be a repeat Dell customer because their machines are reasonably priced, run quietly, and are generally built fairly well for the money. Also, because they are such a popular platform, it's fairly easy to find people who have had similar issues as you (especially in regards to Linux issues) by a well crafted Google search.

For a price just a bit North of $1,000 including a nice monitor and free shipping, I'm very happy with my Dell Dimension E520 system and would recommend it to others interested in getting a new Ubuntu system. Just make sure you customize the machine with more than the base options so you'll be happier with it in the long run, and search online for Dell coupons and try several different ones for the best deal before placing your order. Granted you might want to order a minimum amount of RAM and install your own as it's quite a bit cheaper to do so.

At the same time, I don't think Dell did a very good job of integrating Dell specific needs into the install process. I think that Ubuntu Linux is good enough once configured correctly by someone who knows what they are doing for 80% of computer users, and Dell missed a chance to show the general populace that there are choices beyond Windows DRM Dogfood and Mac OS. However, give Ubuntu a couple more years at the pace they've been innovating and maybe they'll take care of it themselves.

Et Cetera

If it's of any comfort, I have no association with Dell and just wanted to present my honest experience. If you liked the article or also have a Dell E520 and are a new visitor, please come back as I'll be posting tips and how-to's for a few configuration issues I came across along the way with this machine and will do my best to keep this post updated. You can also subscribe to my RSS Feed.

However hosting in a VPS can present some challenges when trying to determine load and memory usage for your VPS. For instance, when using top, the memory statistics displayed represent the whole server and not your VPS. That said, I've only found one way to get an idea of what my memory usage is, how much I have reserved, and how much my VPS is allowed to burst to via command line is this script:

As far as I know this should work under any Virtuozzo Linux based virtual private server, but let everyone know in the comments whether or not it works for you on your given platform.

In Linux (I use Ubuntu but this should work for any other distribution), when adding the Dell 1100 printer, select the Samsung ML-1020 printer driver. That's all you need to do, and it should now work for you.

I must admit, I was actually somewhat surprised that this printer would work in Linux given it's price point.

I ordered it over the weekend and it's already shipped! Delivery date looks to be this Saturday, but unfortunately I probably won't be home due to prior commitments. I pretty much maxed most everything I could hardware wise and got it out the door for a bit over $1K (using a coupon I found online) including the higher end 20" UltraSharp widescreen display. I wasn't really looking to get the most hardcore machine ever, just something that was at a good performance to price ratio. I really thought hard about upgrading to the 24" display but decided it seemed silly to spend that much on a monitor for an inexpensive machine.

As far as the ordering process goes, I couldn't tell a bit of difference between the low end Dimension E520N and the XPS once I configured them similarly other than the XPS was more expensive, and there were only coupons available for the Dimension (as usual). I would guess that the XPS has a better case and maybe has more room for expansion, but lately I stick to external USB drives for data and don't really add hardware to base machines.

I'm curious to see what about the Ubuntu install is different coming from Dell, as well as if it includes any installation media. I will need to transfer my Windows XP license over to a fresh install on the new machine in order to manage my chic nerd phone, the Samsung Blackjack and a few other odds and ends that I need from time to time. That said, it would be nice to be able to have the OEM install media in case something doesn't go well with the additional XP install.

Anyhow, I'll write more about it once it comes in.

Long story short, when trying to install Ubuntu 7.04 or upgrade to 7.04, XWindows is totally broken and won't start with many ATI video cards, including the ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 which is in the T60. Dealing with XWindows was a deal breaker many years ago when I first tried switching to Linux on the desktop, and I can't imagine their target audience trying to fix a problem like this.

I'm not so much annoyed that it's a bug, but rather, it was a bug which did not exist in previous versions of Ubuntu, and was known about before Feisty Fawn was released. While ATI is known to barely even provide Linux drivers, I think the blame primarily goes to Ubuntu as this bug was filed and reproduced before the release date. I was able to install previous versions just fine, but 7.04 would simply not install. Someone didn't do good regression testing or should have called this bug as a blocker for the release. Shame on you, Ubuntu QA, or whoever allowed this product into the wild without fixing the bug. I even read the release notes before installing this and there was nothing mentioned about this bug. I don't know enough about the ATI driver fiasco in general, but they definitely share some of the blame in general for being the cause of the bug to begin with.

Ubuntu "Feisty Fawn" 7.04 should not have shipped with such a major bug for a large segment of users.

UPDATE: Looks like this is not the only major bug they shipped with.

Now if only Apple would get their act together and ship a version of Java 6 which was final instead of the current Alpha which was last updated in September. Or even better, maybe Sun could actually produce a Java SDK for Mac OS-- wouldn't that be novel?