PHP failed when calling imagecreate

1. download libjpeg source code from here

2. manually change your Makefile before compiling PHP, make sure this is added:
-I/path/to/jpegsrc

GDLIB_CFLAGS = -I/usr/opt/distfiles/src/php-5.2.5/ext/gd/libgd -DHAVE_LIBPNG -DHAVE_LIBJPEG -I/opt/distfiles/src/jpeg-6b

3. make;make install or cp libphp5.so to replace your current one in apache
Reference: http://ca.php.net/gd

vmware server unable to see USB devices

vmware server under ubuntu is unable to see some USB devices
two ways to fix this:

1. execute this command:
mount -t usbfs none /proc/bus/usb

2. add the following to /etc/fstab
usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs auto 0 0

Reference:
http://www.blog.arun-prabha.com/2007/04/11/running-windows-under-ubuntu-edgy-using-vmware/