This post helped me install Oracle XE on my developer machine successfully! It worked for my Debian Lenny system previously, and I’ve personally verified it to work with MEPIS 8.0, Ubuntu 9.04 and Linux Mint 7, Linux Mint 8 and Xubuntu 10.04. Oracle Express Edition (XE) This step is optional if you already have an Oracle server to use, but in my experience, it’s far better to have one setup locally.

I recently received a request to build a new CakePHP app. The interface consists of a container 800 by 250 pixels width, with practically no chrome (company name, copyright info) whatsoever. It’s shows calendar entries for a given period, and users can click to view entry details (in a Thickbox). I thought the design was rather simplistic, and gave it no further thought. The project was completed in about 2 days, and I spent an additional 1.

My slow laptop is now running on SimplyMEPIS 8.0. Surprisingly, it doesn’t feel that slow anymore. Maybe it was an OS issue, but I digress. The install process was a breeze. I used mepis-network to setup wireless access, gparted to partition the hard disk into two partitions of 8GB (root) and 2GB (swap) each, and then it installed by itself. Later, it setup grub for me so that if I wanted to boot into Windows, it would comply.

I’ve reverted to KDE 3.5.1 as the KDE 4.1 UI seemed laggier and laggier. Krunner, Kate, and Kdesvn felt slower than at first. There was also an unhelp problem with Kate, my primary text editor. Maybe it was my hardware, I’m not sure. So… old is gold I guess.

OK, this post is more about recovering the Katapult functionality that I love. In KDE 4, which I recently installed there is a program called KRunner. It works like Katapult, but the shortcut key is Alt+F2. It’s too much of a stretch to hit both keys at the same time. Katapult’s Alt+Space is way friendlier. To change this shortcut: K -> System Settings -> Keyboard & Mouse -> Keyboard Shortcuts -> KDE Component (Run Command Interface) -> Run Command.

Actually it’s 4.1, apparently more stable that the point release, and that’s why I waited as long as I did. For more instructions, see http://kde4.debian.net/. You probably need to upgrade to Lenny first. Well, late to upgrade (or update) as usual, but the wait (to upgrade) to KDE 4 was well worth it, as there was only one small dependency issue which didn’t affect the boot into KDE 4. Way to go!