Fix for VT-x features locked or unavailable in MSR aka Vagrant hangs or Virtualbox does not start

If you encounter an issue such as the one above, you might want to check your BIOS settings and make sure virtualization features are enabled. It took me a few steps before checking my Lenovo X220′s BIOS, which in fact had virtualization disabled. Oops. After enabling virtualization Vagrant could boot the default lucid32box. Also The Virtualbox GUI would now start the VM without any issues. Moral of the story: Do not only check your software, but make sure your hardware supports or enables the software to use certain features.

Transip fixes console with HTML5

Late January I wrote about my experiences with Transip. In general I was quite happy with using their services, except for their horrible Java based console which you need to setup a new VPS (after setup you can just use SSH).

Today I received an email from someone at Transip writing me, they had read my previous post and wanted to let me know that they’ve added another console based on HTML5 called noVNC.

I have tested this HTML5 based console only for a few minutes, but I can already claim that this is a huge improvement over the previous console! There is almost no lag between typing. Even the screen refresh / redraws are quite quick. Best of all you don’t need Java or any plugins or software to install. Just a recent browser and you can setup a new VPS.

Thanks Transip for taking your clients suggestions to heart, I can now wholeheartedly recommend you. Also thanks to the people behind noVNC for providing this open source solution!

Creating a group editable webdirectory on Linux

I’m working on a project in which I need a directory to be editable by a group of users. This directory will contain files and directories to be served by a webserver (in my case Apache). I’m using Linux (Ubuntu 10.04.2 LTS) and my users should not be bothered with setting up rights or changing any.
I couldn’t find any detailed instructions on the best way to achieve this, so I’ve decided to write down my own process using bits of hints and tips from various sources to document my thought process. It may contain errors or there might be better ways. If you notice an error or know of better methods, please leave a comment.
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