Knowledge Collection: IBM Lotus Notes client for Linux

IBM has introduced a "Knowledge Collection" of Technotes related to the Notes Client for Linux. There are links to other technotes and information on the Notes Client for Linux.

Technote # 1242686: Knowledge Collection: IBM Lotus Notes client for Linux

Now Playing: "Fire Dance" by Balance of Power

Technorati: Lotus Notes

Lotus Notes 7.0.1 for Linux - Technotes

I have also added this to my post about "More Information" on the Notes 7.0.1 Client for Linux.

Are there any IBM Technotes on this client yet?
Yes! Some were published this week:
Technote # 1242349 - Why is the IBM Workplace Managed Client installed during the Lotus Notes for Linux install?
Technote # 1242348 - Lotus Notes for Linux opens with a blank window immediately after install
Technote # 1242351 - What directories are created during the Lotus Notes for Linux install?

Now Playing: "Personal Savior" by Bride

Technorati: Lotus Notes

I Miss The Rain

I know there are those
Who are far sadder than I
They've lost thing they cannot replace
Like the beauty in their eyes
But through it all
One thing is constant and remains
The love of God
Erases all our pain!

These are some lyrics from the song I Miss The Rain by Bride (from the album Snakes in the Playground). Lately I've been finding myself listening to more of the music I listened to in high school and college. While not a major milestone, my 10 year high school reunion and 6 year wedding anniversary are coming up on August 5. I guess bands like Bride and Holy Soldier are somewhat nostalgic for me.

While it may not seem like 10 years is a long time, a lot has changed. I went to college and roomed with a hometown friend for 3 years (he now has a kid on the way), met my wife, landed my current job, got a house, got married, dealt with church problems, moved, had a kid, and have another on the way. But I'm still in my hometown and have great friends (many new ones!) and family (new family too - my younger brother is now married with a kid!).

But 10 years also takes its toll on the health of many family members. I have an aunt and uncle who are in fairly bad health. I have another aunt who has been dealing with some brutal cancer for most of those 10 years and my only living grandparent is about to be placed in a nursing home after declining health and a bad weekend. And this September will also mark the 10th anniversary of the loss of a cousin (his mom's only child) in a drunk driving accident. Couple that with some former church problems and one can imagine the potential toll taken.

But even with all of that, there are things that are constant and unchanging just as the song states! This world is fragile and broken, so I've learned not to rely upon people or things to give me hope. Instead we must continue looking toward Him who is unchanging, eternal, and purposeful!

Sorry to ramble, but that was just impressed on my heart after having dusted off that old album tonight after not choosing to listen to them for about 4 years. You can ping me offline or in comments for the reason why.

Lotus Notes 7.0.1 for Linux - More Information

It appears that my initial post was fairly popular! I wanted to post a follow-up with some Q&A, links and more information I have posted in comments.

Are there any IBM Technotes on this client yet?
Yes! Some were published this week:
Technote # 1242349 - Why is the IBM Workplace Managed Client installed during the Lotus Notes for Linux install?
Technote # 1242348 - Lotus Notes for Linux opens with a blank window immediately after install
Technote # 1242351 - What directories are created during the Lotus Notes for Linux install?

How do I get the software? - I simply downloaded the file from Passport Advantage Online as a customer. I am not a Partner. If you search by part number, the number is: CR41WNA. I cannot help you if you are unable to download.

I am receiving an error stating "Can not validate Mozilla version" - This is not referring to the version of Firefox. You will need to install at least the 1.7.12 build. The latest current build is 1.7.13 and it works. You can get it here. After updating Mozilla, you will also need to create the /etc/gre.conf file (as root) and make sure the user has access to the file before attempting the Lotus Notes install. More information was at my "teaser" post from earlier on Friday.

Tell us more about the client...
It's Lotus Notes for Linux! It's a fairly bold move for IBM - kudos for that! But...
I'm running a PIII 1.3GHz box with 768MB RAM. I believe it's the slowest Notes Client I've ever seen on a machine with these specs. On my home XP PC that's a PIII 1GHz with 384MB RAM my 7.0.1 client takes about 10 seconds to open (including login). The linux client takes over 20 seconds (think 25-30). This needs to be addressed!
I have always used KDE, but the Notes Client requires Gnome. I could not get the application to open at all in KDE but switching to Gnome worked great. Update: Peter posted in my other thread that Gnome libraries are required but you don't have to actually run Gnome. I didn't even have Gnome installed and had to load it from the discs, so that may be why it didn't work for me in KDE.
For those interested, there is a workspace, but I can't find a way to set it as the homepage. I can't find a way to set anything else as the homepage other than a "Welcome Page".
There is a LotusScript debugger, but when I run it the debug window just flashes continuously and you can't really do anything because it will not stay active. You can click the usual buttons but it continues to flash. Clicking "Continue" will allow the code to run and return focus to the client.
The menu is very flaky. Instead of always displaying the File, Edit, View... menus (like a standalone client would!!) sometimes it will just have File, Help. The File menu then only contains Close and Exit. The Help menu has "About IBM Workplace". The "About Notes" option is missing when it does this. You have to actually place focus in a Notes database for the menu to persist.
Note that I'm just on RedHat 9 (not Enterprise), so therefore it's somewhat "unsupported". I'm sure that will be to blame!

Is anyone else writing about it?

Warren Elsmore posted a link to a Wiki entry by Peter Hicks. If you need installation tips, please check this Wiki out!

Jack Dausman has posted a review as well as some thoughts on the client.

Volker Weber has asked whether or not this client is a joke! It's rather thought provoking with him posing the question as to whether or not this is beta code since the majority of the readme file contains "limitations" (or as we in the real world like to refer to them as: "bugs"). In my initial post I really tried to stay positive, but he hits the mark regarding the "stand-alone client" by stating:

If you unpack the zip file, you get a 170 megabyte binary with the Notes plugin, a 200 megabyte zip file — yes, another zip file — with the Workplace Managed Client and a 36 page readme.

He also notes that the user must copy the Notes setup binary to a specific directory. A tip to those wanting to make it a single command install - just put the proper binary in the correct directory inside the zip file. The extraction should place everything in the proper location. I will say, the Sametime 7.5 installer for Linux was very nice. Basically an unpack followed by a ./install...

Technorati: Lotus Notes

Lotus Notes 7.0.1 for Linux Installed

After having to wrangle my Linux guy here to get Mozilla configured properly (you have to have 1.7.12 loaded) and then seeing that Gnome was the required gui (I'm a KDE guy), I got the client running. I haven't been able to really test anything, but here are some screengrabs. The second one is the application I wrote about in yesterday's SnTT post. While I think this is great, don't be mislead - this is not really a standalone Notes client for Linux. It still runs in the Workplace Managed Client framework. The install file for WMC will also install the Lotus Notes plugin. I guess technically it's a "stand-alone Lotus Notes on Linux client" in the sense that you may not be able to add more plugins. But that would just be mincing of words.

Regardless, it's a Notes Client on Linux!!! The "plugin" framework is the smarter way to go because it will be how the Hannover client is available for Linux. This gives us the opportunity to thoroughly test our applications and help make this right!

I should also note that this wasn't supposed to be available on Passport Advantage Online until Monday. So it's possible (but unlikely) that I have a non-gold release. But it shouldn't be at PAO unless it's gold.




Now Playing: "Hallelujah Chorus" by Notes gurus everywhere!

Technorati: Lotus Notes, Linux

Guess Who's Expecting Another Kid?

We just found out that we have another kid on the way!!! The baby will probably be due in late March.

Help Installing Workplace Managed Client for Linux

Well, I'm having to install WMC as part of the install process for something I downloaded at Passport... Looks like it was pretty popular

The documentation states that you must be running Mozilla 1.7.12. No problem, even though I was at 1.2.1 I downloaded 1.7.12 and installed it in the /usr/lib/mozilla-1.2.1 directory over the 1.2.1 install. I launch Mozilla and it's 1.7.12. But the WMC install fails with "Can not validate Mozilla version".

Here is the Google search for that. As you can see, the IBM WCS 2.5 release notes state the following. Please note that I did not even have a /etc/gre.conf file on the system. I didn't even have a gre.conf! I created the file and modified the version and path as specified in the WSE release notes. See below:

When installing the Workplace Rich Client on a Linux workstation, the error "Cannot validate Mozilla version" indicates that version 1.4 of Mozilla with GTK2 binding is not installed on the workstation, or it is not installed in the expected location.

The file "/etc/gre.conf" contains information on the Mozilla version and the variable "GRE_PATH" whose value should point to the directory location where the appropriate Mozilla version has been installed. In a default RedHat installation this file contains the following information: (NOTE: The information I tried putting in is beside each line in italics)
[1.4] ([1.7] and also [1.7.12])
GRE_PATH=/usr/lib/mozilla-1.4 (GRE_PATH=/usr/lib/mozilla-1.2.1)
To fix this error do the following:
1. Download Mozilla 1.4 for RedHat from the followin ftp URL "
http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/mozilla/releases/mozilla1.4.1/contrib/mozilla-1.4.1-gtk2-xft-svg-calendar
-suse82.tar.bz2" .
2. Extract the contents of this file to /usr/lib/mozilla-1.4 directory.
3. Create or update "/etc/gre.conf" to have the first two lines as below
[1.4]
GRE_PATH=/usr/lib/mozilla-1.4
4. Reinstall Workplace Managed Client platform.

Putting SnTT Tips To Use In New App (SnTT)

I decided to take some cues from Nathan's post on using layers. Though my UI is far from where it should be, this is still a slight departure from our "usual" UIs here. I may or may not go with the right-side menu as Nathan did - I'm just so used to left-side menus... This application should go live on August 1, so there may be some other tweaks.



In the above graphic, you can see that I have a Show/Hide History option that will toggle a layer with an embedded view of the tickets entered for that username in the past. I grabbed the icons from a web development application I have. I probably will not get to go "all out" with switchable text/graphic buttons.

Now Playing: "Universal Mind" by Liquid Tension Experiment

Technorati: Show-n-tell thursday

The Vader Sessions

I know we have some Star Wars geeks out there! One of you even used a light saber at a Lotusphere session! If you're into Star Wars, then you'll want to go to http://www.akjak.com/vader-sessions/ and check out the Vader Sessions. This guy took every scene in Star Wars (a.k.a A New Hope) with Vader and dubbed James Earl Jones' voice from his other movies.

Now Playing: "Against The Grain" by Garth Brooks

Technorati: Star Wars

Meet My Twisted Sister, Bruce! (Re: Domino TNEF Extraction)

Listening to the latest Taking Notes Podcast (#25), towards the end Bruce and Julian are talking about the Domino 7.0.2 feature that will extract the files embedded in TNEF objects sent from MS Outlook. These are the wonderful winmail.dat files that we all love. In discussing this, though, you can faintly hear Bruce singing "We're not gonna take it..." That's hilarious!!

When I first heard that the TNEF extraction would be added to the Domino server, I was torn. First, as an MS FUD fighter, I felt just as Bruce was (jokingly) singing. Why should we kowtow to the proprietary email format used by Outlook. We shouldn't just take it! But IBM probably decided that they wouldn't take any more user complaints and just work around the issue. From an admin's standpoint, I heartily applaud IBM on this. It will be great for 7.0.2+ servers to have this natively. I, hopefully, won't have to field the complaints from the "higher-ups" in my company who just feel that all email should work together. Well, thanks to this feature from IBM, utopia is one step closer!

Speaking of the TNEF extraction, Julian posted a mail-in database that will currently work to extract the TNEF objects. It works well and is fast! I have already implemented that in my environment, so the next time this happens we can tell users just to forward the email to the "Winmail" address. Details on Julian's tool can be found here at his blog. If you're an admin who hasn't downloaded this, you should go snag it!

Technorati: Lotus Notes, Microsoft Outlook

Cool Designer Feature I Just Found

I'm not sure why I've never stumbled upon this, but if you place your mouse in the center of the panes for the programmer's pane, action pane, and design pane, you can move all panes at once. See image below...



This can certainly be a time-saver!

Now Playing: "Taking Notes Podcast #25"

Switch To FeedBurner

OK, I should have done this a long time ago, but I've created a FeedBurner feed for the main posts. It is:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/cwhisonant

If you have a few seconds, would you mind switching over to that instead of the Blogger atom.xml feed I'm currently using?

Well, I now have to go to a couples' baby shower. I'm driving the bus, though. Turns out that I get to drive my wife and 5 other ladies whose slack husbands aren't going!! Seems I pulled the short straw!

Great Vacation and Two New Bloggers

We just got back today from a 5 day trip down to my parents' place in Surfside Beach, SC. It was a great trip with some wonderful downtime with my wife and kid!! We only went to the beach one morning, but with all the "fun" that is sand and hauling chairs and umbrellas, one day is generally enough! We didn't really do much of anything except spend time together. We window shopped a little bit one evening at Broadway at the Beach (it's becoming a lot like Downtown Disney...strange!), but most days we hung out at the pool and just relaxed! Wonderful...

I was pretty much disconnected since I disabled my BES email. I kept up with some political blogs on my BB and checked a couple of the Lotus-related feeds. Needless to say, there was a lot of stuff going on with the Notes on Linux announcement and Volker started up two intriguing threads as well. Too bad I missed out... ;)

I left my gmail to BB forwarding enabled and got a cool email from Luis Guirigay stating that he reads my blog and has started his own blog. He's actually working on the "Implementing Domino 7 on the System i" Redbook and will be going to Rochester, MN this week for that project. That's "mecca" for the System i (AS/400, iSeries) people. I was able to tour the Rochester facility back in October 2001 as part of a COMMON conference. It is an amazing place!! From checking out his Flickr he was at Lotusphere this year (did you come to my session?) and I also saw Kim Greene in a picture with him and some others (I believe it was for working on Redbooks). While perusing Luis' blog, I saw that Alex Hernandez posted a comment. It appears that he has just started a new (English) blog. What's great to me is that these two guys are posting about Domino and the System i. So go check them out!

Oh yeah, and we got our TS3310 at the office this week. I plan to install it this weekend on the Domino iSeries.

Rock Star: Supernova

I really got into Rock Star: INXS last year (as did Greyhawk). I've been watching the premier of this season's Rock Star dedicated to finding someone to front the new rock band Supernova. I think we'll be seeing some good, straight-up rock-n-roll with this band. We're talking about Tommy Lee on drums (Motley Crüe), bassist Jason Newsted (Metallica), and guitarist Gilby Clarke (Guns N' Roses). They should be pretty wild...

I don't think Peter or Chris will make it too far. Chris did a modernized, rock version of Roxanne. It wasn't too bad, but it didn't really work for him and Supernova didn't like it. Some of the gals really did great jobs. The "House Band" is awesome! I'm really digging them because they are Gibson guys. Between the two guitarists I've seen 3 Les Pauls and a doubleneck SG! A couple of songs had some Fenders, but I'll forgive them! I had to pull out my Les Paul and jam along with some of them! Lukas just performed and did a great job.

After this show, here are my top 5 picks in performance order. We'll see how well I did come September!

Toby - Heaven's Door - I think he has some potential if he can rock out.
Zayra - Did an Evanescence song really well
Jenny - Maybe it was just because she played a Les Paul, but she performed really well too
Dilana - She's from Africa and performed Nirvana's Lithium. She really rocked it out and everyone loved it
Lukas - I was typing, but he did a Bowie song, I think. I think they saved the best for last.

Technorati: Rock Star Supernova

Happy Independence Day!

So, it's a couple of days early, but I thought I would provide you some random thoughts along with my 6 degrees of separation from Mel Gibson! Greg Simmons sparked my thinking about this because he has posted a couple of historical posts about June 28, 1776 and July 1, 1776. I think he may be posting a couple more, so check back later - it's good stuff!

I commented on one of his posts that I will have to watch The Patriot this week in honor of the Revolutionary War. About 10 minutes from where I grew up (20 from where I live now) is Brattonsville, SC. Some information is here and here. It is supposedly the first settlement in upperstate South Carolina.

Back in the 3rd Grade, I won a writing contest along with about a dozen other kids. The prize was a 2 day, 1 night stay in Brattonsville. It was really amazing!! We were given the opportunity to do a lot of things that the settlers did. We sewed some small bags, made lye soap, and even got to herd some sheep. We spent the night in one of the old houses. This was a little spooky to a 3rd grader, but it was awesome! I believe that we also picked some cotton and I remember playing in one of the creeks. We even got to go through all of the buildings and homes there like most people would not get to do. Looking back, it was a really special time and when my daughter is a little older, we will definitely have to take her.


The Bratton Home

So, how does Mel Gibson come into play? Parts of his movie, The Patriot, were actually filmed at Brattonsville. So I now know some people who know Mel Gibson.

Now Playing: "The Wizard of Oz" by Northwestern Troubadours - This was my high school chorus. I'm ripping old videos from VHS to my PC to convert to DVD...

Technorati: Revolutionary War, Brattonsville, South Carolina, Mel Gibson