Note to developers: when releasing new versions of your library, try to avoid breaking its core functionality.

If you try decompressing a corrupted file, you’ll see a message like this:

tyler@laptop:~$ unzip restore.zip
Archive:  restore.zip
  End-of-central-directory signature not found.  Either this file is not
  a zipfile, or it constitutes one disk of a multi-part archive.  In the
  latter case the central directory and zipfile comment will be found on
  the last disk(s) of this archive.
unzip:  cannot find zipfile directory in one of restore.zip or
        restore.zip.zip, and cannot find restore.zip.ZIP, period.

I posted a solution on the mailing list. I’ve since uploaded an older version (1.18-1) of this package to my repository, so the process is even more streamlined.

If you are using my repo:
apt-get install libarchive-zip-perl=1.18-1
echo "libarchive-zip-perl hold" | dpkg --set-selections

If you aren’t using my repo but want a quick fix:
wget http://www.tolaris.com/apt/pool/main/liba/libarchive-zip-perl/libarchive-zip-perl_1.18-1_all.deb
dpkg -i libarchive-zip-perl_1.18-1_all.deb
echo "libarchive-zip-perl hold" | dpkg --set-selections

The bug appears as:

1. Start virt-manager.
2. Connect to a KVM host server using connection “Remote tunnel over SSH” with hypervisor “QEMU/KVM”.
3. Double-click on a VM to open a VNC connection to console.
4. The error message “Error bringing up domain details: invalid argument in virDomainGetXMLDesc” appears, and no VNC session opens.

The problem is with the latest version of virt-manager, 0.7.0. To work around it I’ve repackaged virt-manager 0.6.1 from jaunty with the fake version “0.7.1~really0.6.1-1ubuntu4″. Packages for i386 and amd64 are now in my APT repository.

Also, KPackageKit ignores my “dpkg --set-selections“, forcing me to do this. Thanks, KPackageKit, for ignoring the standard! Otherwise I could install the jaunty package and mark it on hold.

The hardy version of kregexpeditor still works on karmic, and I’ve used pbuilder to port the jaunty package of grip to karmic. Both are now in the repo.

kdelibs5-dev: Conflicts: kdelibs4-dev but 4:3.5.10.dfsg.1-1ubuntu8 is to be installed

I’m sure I could have resolved this, but I decided to test the hardy package before spending any more effort. The package installed without complaint, and the binary runs. I’ve added the amd64 and i386 packages from hardy-backports to the repo for jaunty.

I’m sad to see kregexpeditor go, as it is the only decent means of visualising complex regular expressions. It is apparently orphaned upstream, with no plans to port it to KDE 4.

Just download and install the Jaunty versions of sun-java6-bin, sun-java6-jre, sun-java6-fonts, and sun-java6-plugin. Install them, and remove the old icedtea plugin if you have it:

sudo dpkg -i sun-java6-bin_6-13-1_amd64.deb sun-java6-fonts_6-13-1_all.deb sun-java6-jre_6-13-1_all.deb sun-java6-plugin_6-13-1_amd64.deb
sudo apt-get remove --purge icedtea-gcjwebplugin

Then restart Firefox and Sun java will load natively 64-bit. Check it:

tyler@baal:~$ java -version

java version "1.6.0_13"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_13-b03)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 11.3-b02, mixed mode)

I’ve included them in the repository.

Update 2009-07-16: A more recent version is now available in the hardy-updates repository. I have removed the above copy from my repo. Intrepid users should upgrade to jaunty anyway, but can still download packages directly.

Aside: tolaris.com’s neat new automagically expanding header images look terrible in IE 5/6. I have no intention of fixing this. If you’re reading my site, you probably know better than to use IE for everyday browsing.

In October I recompiled wine from the Hardy source packages with the proposed bug fix. But I never announced it. If you missed that, you can find it in the repository.

I’ve packaged the latest release, 0.10.0, for Ubuntu Hardy amd64 and i386. It is available in my repository now. Source packages are provided, so any other Debian-based distro or architecture should be able to build it.