I’ve been meaning to play around with couchDB lately, and finally took the time to get it installed on my Linux VM at home running Ubuntu Server 7.10. I ran into a few problems while getting the thing to compile, so I figured I’d outline them here.

First, look at the instructions in the INSTALL file, or at the wiki. They’ll give you a good starting point — especially for all the development tools you’ll need to begin compiling things (automake, libtool, etc. — Ubuntu doesn’t install these by default). If you’re running a headless machine (like my VM) without X, however, you won’t want to install the erlang meta-package, as this will install a bunch of X related crap. And you can’t just install erlang-base, since this won’t give you everything you need, as evidenced by a failing make (trust me).

Now, before you go and search the Internet and decide that you should compile erlang from source — hardly an attractive option — keep reading. The silver bullet is that you need the erlang-nox package (that’s “no X”, not some form of nitrous oxide). The description is very vague, but it’s apparently a bunch of erlang stuff that doesn’t require X11. I also installed erlang-dev, since the description made it sound important (i.e., I’m not sure if it’s required).

Hopefully this helps somebody else.

Use your Wii-mote to create a multi-touch system.

In this eBay listing for a Canon 10D digital SLR, the seller mentions that he’s “upgrading” to a Nikon system. Would it be rude to send him a message asking him to correct his description to “downgrading”? 😉