Ubuntu Switch

Ubuntu Switch Has Move

2009-08-29T00:27:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody.
Thank you for the big interest you showed by subscribing to this blog.

I'm happy to announce we are moving to a new location so please update your feed.A better site control, a new design and a bunch of new articles will be available for you at http://www.ublender.com/

New rss link : http://www.ublender.com/feed/

Ubuntu Switch Team

Mount ext4 in Ubuntu 8.10

2009-08-19T11:19:00.000-07:00

After a few painful months with Ubuntu 9.04 i decided to go back to the best stable version of Ubuntu : 8.10
There was a big problem : the ext4 partition I created was not mounted.

This is a small trick I found that worked for me

sudo mkdir /media/temp
sudo tune2fs -E test_fs /dev/sdbX [you need to change X with your partition number]
sudo mount -t ext4dev /dev/sdbX /media/temp [ again change sdbX ]

After this you copy the files to another location, reformat to ext3 and put your files back on.

Install Flash in Jaunty ( 9.04 )

2009-07-20T10:21:00.000-07:00

If you have problems with Flash 10 in Firefox for Ubuntu there is a quick fix for it.
Because of some conflicts you need to unistall the following packages and then install the only one you need : flashplugin-nonfree.

sudo apt-get remove swfdec-mozilla
sudo apt-get remove mozilla-plugin-gnash
sudo apt-get remove adobe-flashplugin
sudo apt-get remove flashplugin-nonfree
sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree

That's it.Easy to use and a must do.

OS : Ubuntu Jaunty ( 9.04 )

HTML 5 ,video tag and Browsers

2009-07-11T07:07:00.000-07:00

Currently on the browser market there are 5 big players. Each of them has started implementing HTML 5 support. A standard that promise a new online revolution.

Firefox - 3.5 - good HTML 5 support - Company : Mozilla
Opera -9.6 - good HTML 5 support - Company : Opera
Chrome - 2.0 - limited HTML 5 support - Company : Google
Safari - 4.0 - good HTML 5 support - Company : Apple
Internet Explorer - 8.0 - very limited HTML 5 support - Company Microsoft

All good and interesting but one special feature brought a lot of attention is the last months: the video tag. This tag wanted to define a standard video codec for all browsers. The most discussed codecs where :

H.264 - it's propertary , it’s not free( MPEG ) , and it's popular
Ogg Theora - free and open source , not popular , pattens issues

Browsers position regarding Ogg Theora

Pro
Firefox
Opera

Against
Chrome - they won't put this on Youtube because of performance issues
Safari - Apple's concern regarding patents
IE

Brower position regarding H.264

Pro
Chrome
Safari

Against
Opera
Firefox
IE

Adobe Macromedia Flash is the winner. The support for flash is cross-browsers and they really don't want to see a standard overthrown them.

In the end the conclusion is that:

HTML 5 will not specify a single codec for Web development.

Great HTML 5 - video tag exemple.

Common Ubuntu misspellings

2009-07-10T13:11:00.000-07:00

It's very sad to see that a lot of people are still misspelling the word Ubuntu. They end up in a corner of the Internet and never find this kick-ass operating system.

The most popular misspellings are : ubantu, unbuntu and ubunto. Keep in mind there is only a right way when it comes to a great OS and it's called UBUNTU.

A few interesting commands in Linux

2009-07-10T12:58:00.000-07:00

From time to time, I have the opportunity to encounter different problems while working with Ubuntu. I like the challenging so I collect and write down most of the interesting things I found.

Iptables

1.iptables -L --line-numbers
# will list all the rules
2.iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -j ACCEPT -s IP/MASK
# will open ports for the desired network
# A is from append ( it will add it at the end of the rules chain)
3. sudo iptables -D INPUT X
#will delete the line X
4. iptables-save > /root/dsl.fw
iptables-restore < /root/dsl.fw #save and restore your rules 5. complete informations ( link )

Netstat

1.netstat -n [very fast - no host resolution ]
2.netstat -tpanl | grep ESTA [use it to discovere active connection]
3.netstat -pl [use it to find on what port an application is listening ]

Service

1.service ssh ( just try it and see what happens)

What is Ubuntu 8.0.4

2009-06-23T13:26:00.000-07:00

Ubuntu is one of the best linux distributions. Each version of Ubuntu has a special creature name and an adjective near to it :

Ubuntu 8.0.4 is actually version 8.04. To make things clear the corect name for Ubuntu 9.0.4 is also 9.04. To remember this you only have to think when Ubuntu is released each year. From six to six months a new version is ready for production.

The first number 8 or 9 represents the year of the distribution ( 2008 or 2009 ). The next group of numbers (04 or 10 ) represents the month in the year when the OS is ready. The hardest part is to remember the creature name Ubuntu team comes up with each time.

Pidgin stopped working - Fix

2009-06-19T23:27:00.000-07:00

Distributions : Ubuntu 8.10/9.04

A few days a ago the Pidgin application stopped working. Actually the real problem is only the yahoo server ( you can test MSN accounts to see they still work ).

The fix is really simple : change the default pager server in your advance user account.

One server that seems to work is : cs101.msg.mud.yahoo.com

Restart and log in.

Update : 27.06.2009
To make pidgin work install Pidgin 2.5.7 , delete your accounts and create them again ( to use the default server settings).

9 EPIC Ubuntu Resources

2009-05-18T10:47:00.001-07:00

There are a lot of places where you can find help, resources and support but this list is the perfect round-up for an Ubuntu Noob.

1.Ubuntu Forum - Link

Driver problems, upgrade frustration, unanswered question ? This is the place where you will probably get your answer. Don't just post your question, use a quick search first because your problems already might have a solution.

2. Get Deb - Link

You want a quick and up to date deb file to install on your distribution? This is the best way to get your compiled files and install them from a trusty place.

3.IRC channel

If you remember the old Mirc here is a secret : it's still alive. Connect to Freenode network (irc.freenode.net) #Ubuntu and wait for somebody to give you the answer. Be polity and don't repeat to often. If you want a quick way to access it install an extention for Firefox called ChatZilla.

4.Deviant Art - Link

You are in search for the perfect wallpaper ? A great set of icons or any other kind of graphic design? This is the place to get it. Free,quick and close to perfection.

5.KDE APPS - Link

Are you a KDE fan ? No problem. This websites keeps you up to date with both graphic resources and 100% free applications fully compatible and created for KDE.

6.GNOME FILES - Link

Gnome fans are not forgotten. A really good list with different sofware and links to official websites. The rss feed will keep you up to date with all the new updates.

7. OS ALTernative - LINK

Now this is something you might enjoy. Do you like a windows applications and want the perfect replacement ? Use this site by writing your app name and get the best matches for open source software that does the same thing in a similar way.

8.Digg Linux - LINK

Everybody knows digg but with this category access to quick and useful linux tips is even better. This is a mashup of news and articles submited and voted by users.

9.Blogs - LINK

Let's not forget the source for all the articles and news : the blogs. This great article has round-up 25 websites related with Ubuntu.

Any other suggestions ? If so , please write a comment and let us know.

Stay safe in Ubuntu

2009-05-05T08:24:00.001-07:00

Ubuntu is not necessary more secure then Windows. If the popularity of this OS will grow like it did until now a lot of tricks will appear that will make your entire experience a nightmare.

One of the advice I have for you is : Never install something outside the repository. The applications you can find in the repository are safe and won't crush your system. The developers work a lot to keep this up to date so in general this is not a big problem. When you decide you must have the last update from a software and it's not yet available in the repos what you need to do is visit the site
http://www.getdeb.net. There you will find the deb files that are relative safe and easy to install.

If you are an expert user you will add new repositories or compile from the source files but I guess you know what you're doing and this is boring for you.

So all the noobs out there remember : don't add new repositories , don't try to compile something from scratch and never ever run commands in your terminal with sudo if you don't know what they do.

Laptop/PC and external LCD/VGA screen

2009-05-03T08:49:00.000-07:00

OS : Ubuntu Intrepid - Gnome.

In case you like to see a lot of movies you probably need to use from time to time the Screen Resolution utility from System->Preference in Ubuntu Intrepid to activate the second Tv screen. This utility seems to work in an unstable manner but from the reviews I read the next Ubuntu version (Jaunty Jackalope) took care off that. I like to wait a few months before upgrading to the new stable version so until then I found a great way to manage my LCD and VGA resolutions with ease.

What you need is the xrandr command.
To activate both your displays use

xrandr --auto

To turn off your LCD display use

xrandr --output VGA --off

That's it. It should work out off the box.

Privacy policy

2009-05-01T01:08:00.000-07:00

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Deluge - a new trick

2009-04-27T11:04:00.000-07:00

Deluge - the torrent download application that works both on Windows OS and Linux OS is still surprising me. Today I'm gonna present you a new trick that can help your download spree.

What you need is Deluge and DropBox. In case you don't know Dropbox gives you 2 Giga of space online and you can sync you files on all your computers for free.

You create a folder on you DropBox local storage space and you select that folder with Deluge. Now you save your torrent files from home/work/laptop to that folder, the files get sync by DropBox daemon and if you have your home PC opened with Deluge running, by the time you get to it the entire file is downloaded and ready to for play.

AAC+ flash web player

2009-04-25T00:45:00.000-07:00

This is a special post a bit off topic.

Because Ubuntu fails so bad to provide a cool and easy way to manage web radio streams ( Amarok, Rhytbox, Songbird ... ) I decided to implement a small easy to use web radio. The features are basic : a manager to add/delete radio streams and a small Flash player.

The problem escalated when everthing was ready. Some streams worked with no problems and other didn't. The problem was some of the streams were MP3 ( supported by Flash ) and some were AAC+ ( not supported by Flash ).

But my mind was set on a website that had an AAC+ stream and a flash player to achieve this. SO it was possible .. but how ?

Forums and all mighty google gave me a single response : there is no way to do it directly. But how about indirectly ? So a single post gave me the idea

Radio stream ( aac+ ) ---> Special Server ( convert to rtmp) --> Flash Player

Rtmp is a protocol supported by Flash so the only way to do this is to convert your radio aac+ stream intro rtmp using a server ( installed on a personal computer ).

Ok, a lot of problems with this also : online computer need it , multiple radio streams know how ( if possible ).

I found a great ubuntu server called Red5 but I didn't find a way to re-stream radio from aac+ to rtmp. The only solution I found is to use a payed server
Wowza Media Server Pro. This is how the website I was telling you about did it.

Another workaround was an ActiveX installed on XP/Vista that made acc+ playable in IE BROWSER. TESTED and OK.

My quest is over : I will use only mp3 streams and a simple flash player to do this. I will wait for full aac+ flash support.

But my hours spent online might help some of you interested on this topic so these is a list with resources that might help.

1. Free JV Flash Player
2. Free Minicaster Flash Player
3. Ampx_player ( works with aac+ in IE )
4. Orban plugin
3. Not Free - Media Server ( convert aac+ to rtmp )
4. Free - Media Server
5. Forum posts about aac+ and flash failure

Search and Replace a block of text using Perl

2009-04-10T05:24:00.000-07:00

Not once now, I was in the situation of having to search for a text in a file and replace it with another. Sed and Awk work but for multi lines there is a bit of coding to do in order to work. The big problems is the new line "\n".

So, the natural solution was to choose perl. Well, it wasn't as easy as expected to find the solution but the command is short and simple. It might help you in the future with those pesky new lines.

perl -p0777i -e 's/search(.*)search/replace/s' file.txt

Ok, now a bit of explaining.

-p0777 = seems to tell perl to read the entire file
/s = treat text as a single line
search(.*)search will match a regular expression

Exemple

Text file : file.txt
1
2
3
4

perl -p0777i -e 's/2(.*)3/cool/s' file.txt

Output

1
cool
4

Curios Case of Linux Apps - April 2009

2009-04-09T11:46:00.000-07:00

In the past, I presented a list with what I like to consider the best Linux Apps that work in the Ubuntu distribution. But in time I figure out that a single application might not be the swiss knife I once though of. So the list has to be constantly updated and like always I'm open to discussions and alternatives.

01.Internet Brower - Firefox [XUL]
02.File manager - Krusader [KDE]
03.Instant messager - Pidgin [XUL]
04.Music Player - GmusicBrowser [sort by date]
05.Quick Music Player - Audacious [listen quick]
06.Radio Player - SongBird [XUL]
07.Torrent Client - Deluge [Gnome]
08.SSH client - Putty
09.Terminal application - Yakuake
10.Rapidshare download - Tucan
11.Mysql GUI - Wine + HeidiSQL
12.Online file storage - DropBox
13.Archive Manager - File Roller [Gnome]
15.Image editor - Gimp
16.Image brower - GwenView [KDE]
17. DC Client - Linux DC++
18. Office Applications - Open Office 3 [Java]
19. Java IDE - Eclipse
20. PHP IDE - KrViewer [KDE]
21.Movie editor - Cinelerra
22.Cd/Dvd Burner - K3B [ KDE]
23. Movie Player - SmPlayer [Gnome]
24.Clipboard Enhancer - Klipper [KDE]
25. HTML Editor - Quanta Plus [KDE]
26. SVN Client - KDEsvn [KDE]
27. Application launcher - Gnome-DO [Gnome]
28. FTP client - Filezilla [wxWidgets]
29. 3D Modelling - Google Sketchup + Wine\
30. Mp3 Tagger - EasyTag
31. Mp3 Editor - Audacity
32. Phone as Remote - Ganyremote
33. Firewall - Firestarter
34. Network sniffer - Wireshark
35. Video Rss Reader - Miro

Extra

Bluetooth Manager - BlueMan
Network Manager - Wicd

Tip of the day : use repositories to be up to date with the latest releases.

Bluetooth on Intrepid

2009-03-30T23:35:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of discussion on the Ubuntu forums regarding this subject because it seems there is a big problem with Blutooth on Ubuntu Intrepid.

My problem : connecting a phone using bluetooth to use it as a remote.

After spending a couple of hours finding a good solution the big problem is this : because of a driver update using a Bluetooth dongle version 1.1 or 1.2 is not possible on the Intrepid OS. Bluetooth should work out of the box but only version 2.0 seems ok. You can discover devices with a 1.1/1.2 dongle but you can't pair them and transfer files.

The simple solution is to buy a new cheap dongle 2.0 that will do the job. To wait for a driver update seems a waste of time.

To finish my story : this all started because I found 2 interesting applications that promise to transform you ordinary phone into a remote for Ubuntu apps Any Remote and BluePad.

Some other tips you might want to learn the easy way are :

- if you have a laptop you might have Bluetooth hardware integrated but this is not a sure thing. You can have a shortcut button on your keyboard but that can be just that : a simple shortcut button. Search the laptop manufacturer site to be sure Bluetooth is available. If not buy a dongle.

- the default Bluetooth Manager is ok but BlueMan raises the standard a lot.

- the Bluetooth range is considerable so in a small room you should have a perfect remote

Enjoy the Bluetooth technology and maybe share some ideas regarding some great ways to use it.

Ubuntu Intrepid - non standard repositories

2009-02-07T08:32:00.000-08:00

After you've used Ubuntu for a while you gone understand that not all the default applications are updated to the last version. There is a good reason for this : Ubuntu launches a new OS version every six months and in that time, the team tests and looks for any integration errors.

However, if there are some new,cool updates you want for your applications then you need to risk a little and install it directly from the owner site. You can do this using a lot of GUI applications but the best and simple way is by using the command line.

The following list is added at the end of my repository file.

#MY REPOS
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/openoffice-pkgs/ubuntu intrepid main
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/do-core/ppa/ubuntu intrepid main
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/deluge-team/ubuntu intrepid main
deb http://dl.google.com/linux/deb/ stable non-free #Google
deb http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt intrepid main #WineHQ

#My keys
#OpenOffice - http://keyserver.ubuntu.com:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x60D11217247D1CFF
#Gnome-DO - http://keyserver.ubuntu.com:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x28A8205077558DD0
#Deluge - http://keyserver.ubuntu.com:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0xC5E6A5ED249AD24C
#Google - https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub
#WineHQ - http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt/Scott%20Ritchie.gpg

In order to edit this file you need to run this command : sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list. When the text editor opens you can copy paste the content I just showed you.

Now, Ubuntu has the path set, and will search it for new updates. To be safe an extra step is needed : to add the permissions for each of the link. To do so , the best way is to open in the browser the links at the end. You go to that site , copy paste the key in a text file one by one. After each new key you have to use a simple GUI interface to add it to your system. System->Administration->Software Source. Select the text file and you're done.

To update your software list : sudo apt-get update
To update the software on your computer : sudo apt-get upgrade

If you did this steps you should not have any error displayed.
The link to the keys might change in the future and you have to search it again or just visit this blog and see posted updates.

Best Linux Apps - February 2009

2009-02-07T06:20:00.000-08:00

This list wants to be : a noob best friend. Start using Ubuntu and enjoy these free and easy to use applications.

01.Internet Brower - Firefox [XUL]
02.File manager - Krusader [KDE]
03.Instant messager - Pidgin [XUL]
04.Music Player - Rhythmbox [Gnome]
05.Torrent Client - Deluge [Gnome]
06.SSH client - Putty
07.Terminal application - Yakuake
08.Rapidshare download - jDownloader [ Java ]
09.Mysql GUI - Wine + HeidiSQL
10.Online file storage - DropBox
11.Archive Manager - File Roller [Gnome]
12.Image editor - Gimp
13.Image brower - GwenView [KDE]
14. DC Client - Linux DC++
15. Office Applications - Open Office 3 [Java]
16. Java IDE - Eclipse
17. PHP IDE - KrViewer [KDE]
18.Movie editor - Cinelerra
19.Cd/Dvd Burner - K3B [ KDE]
20. Movie Player - SmPlayer [Gnome]
21.Clipboard Enhancer - Klipper [KDE]
22. HTML Editor - Quanta Plus [KDE]
23. SVN Client - KDEsvn [KDE]
24. Application launcher - Gnome-DO [Gnome]
25. FTP client - Filezilla [wxWidgets]
26. 3D Modelling - Google Sketchup + Wine

KDE : 7 points

Gnome : 5 points

XUL : 2 points

Java : 2 points

wxWidgets : 1point

Install Almost Everything in Ubuntu 8.10

sudo apt-get install firefox krusader pidgin rhythmbox deluge-torrent yakuake gimp gwenview cinelerra k3b smplayer klipper kdesvn gnome-do

Unpack any archive, quick and easy

2009-02-07T05:08:00.000-08:00

Every time I try to unpack a zip,gzip,tgz or rar I always have to remember and search the right syntax. But that's a problem no more because of a simple and easy to use script.

#!/bin/bash
extract()
{
SAVEIFS=$IFS
IFS=$(echo -en "\n\b")
if [ -f $1 ] ; then
case $1 in
*.tar.bz2) tar xjf $1 ;;
*.tar.gz) tar xzf $1 ;;
*.bz2) bunzip2 $1 ;;
*.rar) rar x $1 ;;
*.gz) gunzip $1 ;;
*.tar) tar xf $1 ;;
*.tbz2) tar xjf $1 ;;
*.tgz) tar xzf $1 ;;
*.zip) unzip $1 ;;
*.z) uncompress $1 ;;
*) echo "'$1? cannot be extracted via extract ()";;
esac
else
echo "'$1? is not a valid file"
fi
IFS=$SAVEIFS
}

How to use

copy/paste this script in your /home/user/.bashrc file. ( make sure that " and ' are copied right )
restart your terminal.
cd to the right directory
extract file.archive

Via : Linux Blog

Gnome-Do, some real tips

2009-02-05T12:17:00.000-08:00

A lot of news and feed activity around this topic. But everybody is just announcing with big letters this great new and powerful software, and forget to really look behind the hood.

No 1 : Gnome-Do Repository

In order to install the latest version you need to add these repositories for Intreprid

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/do-core/ppa/ubuntu intrepid main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/do-core/ppa/ubuntu intrepid main

No 2 : Firefox 3 Bookmarks Plugin is not working

Don't try to fix it. You just gone lose time. Use this "hack" instead : sudo apt-get install epiphany-browser ; yes, use another browser and save your bookmarks ; then install the epiphany bookmark plugin.

No 3 : Use the default theme

A new Docky theme is heavily advertised. This should be the task bar replacer ( dock-like bar ). DO NOT USE IT. It's not intuitive and it's buggy. Stick to the default theme and get the real power out of Gnome-Do

No 4 : Don't install a lot of unnecessary plugins.

Just stick to minimum : calculator, shutdown control and remember , don't install the music plugin. It will mess up your list.
No 5 : Clear your shortcuts.

The only way to interact with Gnome Do , is by making yourself. Delete the small icons on your toolbars and desktop and start using this powerful app.
No 6 : Use a good key shortcut

Use the Pause|Break button to open/close gnome-do.

No 7 : Auto Start

Remember to configure Gnome - Do so it's gone autostart with each session.

... and that's about it.

3 Google Apps Ubuntu can't live without

2009-01-29T10:40:00.001-08:00

Google has made some real progress when they started to support the Linux community. But you, the average Linux user feel they did enough? I hope a day will come when an application will be only for Linux ( and run on Ubuntu ) so that Windows users will humble and disappointed every time they see the great reviews and usability of a Linux application.

This step seems so logical in OS warfare. If you want Windows to kneel down and take a bow you need to hit it where it hurts.

That being said , I want to send an indirect message to Google , using your help ( by spreading the world ). The message is simple : We love your software and we simple can't live without it in Ubuntu Universe.

Three software makes my heart lust in pain :

1. Google Sketchup - so simple, so easy to use and so efficient. With onnly a few clicks you can design your own furniture and send it to a carpenter.

2. Google Chrome - an awesome browser that will make Firefox feel like there is some real competition on the market

3.Google Pack - OK , we have Synaptic , but , a custom Google Pack that saves your applications history and/or configuration online and installs everything back with just a few clicks will blow away the competition.

Thank GOD , there is WINE , a great idea and a great implementation, the only way not to feel forgotten in this big software world.

Ubuntu and my girlfriend - Destroy Hard To Install Myth (True Story)

2009-01-28T08:35:00.000-08:00

Articles with girls and Ubuntu experiences seem to be a hot topic now. Why not share my own ( True by the way ) story.

Working my ass of , on my daily job I got and Instant Message

Girlfriend : How can I burn a cd ?
Me : Remember K3B ? , open it and burn your data baby.
Girlfriend : But I can't find the big icon you showed me on the bar ..
Me : Your remember the START menu from Windows? It's called Applications.Search for it.
Girlfriend : Is it Brasero ?

After a couple of seconds , I realized I have a fresh Ubuntu 8.10 installed and not to many applications.

Me : No. Let me tell you how to install it.
Girlfriend : Ok , forget it ...
Me : Come on , it's easy. Don't be lazy..
Girlfriend : Ok , tell me
Me : look for an application called Terminal in the "Start" Menu
Girlfriend : Got it
Me : write sudo apt-get install k3b
Girlfriend : Ok , it's telling me something..
Me : yaa...wait 2 seconds
Girlfriend : Ok , it stopped.
Me : ok , go to Applications and open it
Girlfriend : What ?? THAT'S IT ??
Me : yes :)

As I pointed out this is a true story ( not a copy/paste dialog ).

The moral of this story is simple : Ubuntu it's very user friendly and installing applications is very easy. You just need a name , a name of a good application that can do the same job in Windows.

If you are truly serious to teach your girlfriend how to use Ubuntu you need just a few good applications : Firefox, Pidgin ( messenger ) and Rythbox ( cool drag and copy feature) and she's gone get hooked.

By the way, from my experience I can tell you : if you start using Ubuntu for over a month you gone hate Windows. SERIOUSLY.

Mount ext3 partitions from the command line

2009-01-26T09:12:00.000-08:00

If you have a fresh Ubuntu install you might notice that not all your ext3 partitions are mounted at start-up.

This guide will show you what are the steps for resolving this.

1. Use sudo fdisk -l to view your partitions and find the devices you want to mount
2. Use sudo blkid to list all the UUID for your partitions
3. Use gedit to edit the file /etc/fstab
sudo gedit /etc/fstab
4. Create the folders for your mount points ( for exemple sudo mkdir /media/storage )
5.Copy paste the line with the information for your main partition at the end of the file

IT should look something like this

# /dev/sdaX
UUID=some-string / ext3 relatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1

Copy paste this line for each partition you want to mount and set the right UUID and mount path

# /dev/sdaX
UUID=$New UUID$ /media/partition1 ext3 relatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1

Save.For a quick test use : sudo mount -a.
Reboot and that's it.

Gnome vs KDE in Ubuntu - 2009

2009-01-25T03:48:00.000-08:00

Two very popular Desktop Environments , that are used by two major Ubuntu distributions.

Ubuntu uses as default Gnome and Kubuntu uses KDE. If we are to keep the facts straight we need to also take into consideration the versions. Ubuntu OS taken into consideration is 8.10 called (Intrepid Ibex). Ubuntu 8.10 uses Gnome 2.24 and Kubuntu 8.10 uses KDE 4.1.

I believe the best way to summarize the difference is a few words is hard, but I'll give it a try :
- Gnome is very user friendly , easy to use , and very intuitive
- KDE is for advance user, it's different, it's eye candy

The entire post was inspired by a single idea : if most application for Ubuntu I used are part of KDE , isn't it probable that KDE is better then GNOME ? The answer : you decide for yourself !

There is a thin line when comparing Ubuntu with Kubuntu. I personally believe the comparison is not fair because other linux distros might do a better job with KDE integration.

The starting part was the best part with Kubuntu. The entire installation process is smother and better looking. The login window is also very very impressive and 3d effects right before, make it very appealing. After that you find yourself face to face with a VISTA like OS ( at least the first impression ). The taskbar is down and the Start Menu looks to similar with Vista. But when you start to play a bit you will noticed that the "Start Menu" is very intuitive and useful and using Favorite link you can stash all your application in the menu ( 2 clicks away ). You don't have the classic right click and you can't create a folder on the Desktop like before. In Kde 4 the plasmoids were introduced. Everything on your deskop is a plasmoid : the background , the taskbar and so on. In order to see all your desktop folders you have to create a new container for them. It's not that hard , it's easy to learn and it's very good looking. It's a gadget integration into the desktop. It feels natural. But again , you are doing two click instead of one. Basically this is the biggest problem everywhere : 2 clicks. The list can go on, but the frequent crashes and how some Gnome application behaved make it to annoying to use. Remember, this could be Kubuntu fault not KDE.

On the other site , we have Gnome. The default Ubuntu Destktop , easy to learn and easy to like. The fact that all KDE apps run without any problem in Ubuntu makes is very enjoyable but a bit unnatural. Crashes are something of the past , and that makes it very cool experience. Not a lot to say about Gnome , just the fact that it needs many many more applications integrated. Most of them are very easy to use and straight to the point but there is room for improvement. Simplcity is good but improvement is possible anytime. Firefox is installed by default and that gives is an A+. The menu editor is so simple a child can use it. But again , the lack of features lets the user wanting more.

Two different systems with two different goals. That's the beauty of Linux world : it gives you freedom , freedom to chose what you like with no extra payment.

A strong position on this topic, seems to have Linux founder Linus Torvalds on a recent interview - direct link - . In his opinion Kde is "a disaster". Strong words coming from such a open minded man. But in the end is just an opinion. He can't be always right.

If you are interested in the future of these 2 Desktop E. you might take a look at the roadmap.

For Kde 4.2 you can see it - here -
For Gnome 2.x/3 you can see it - here -

The rest is up to you. Create an extra partition and install them both. Use the live cd if you want to decide in a few minutes. Make a valid opinion and share it with the world.

What is D-BUS ?

2009-01-19T11:37:00.000-08:00

Desktop Bus ( D-BUS ) is a way for two software application to communicate.

KDE 2 and KDE 3 introduced DCOP and Gnome introduced Bonobo. Both had the same purpose , but now, KDE4 and Gnome adopted a standard and that standard is : D-BUS.

Why is this of interest to you ? Because now, you have a simple way to command you applications without the need to rewrite them. One example I have in mind is : creating a global shortcut that deletes a file on your computer ( a music file that is playing in your favorite music player and you want to delete).

The only problem you have is learning how to master this and to find a quick way to display what an application has to offer. For this you have a great little browser named : qdbusviewer.

sudo apt-get install qt4-dev-tools

Most popular Ubuntu Switch posts of 2008

2009-01-17T00:52:00.000-08:00

The year has passed , and the articles have pilled up. There was a serious amount of traffic in the past year and the success of the blog was much better then expected. I guess you can really master the serps if you write good, clean and useful content.

Last year, the traffic spiked basically because of these articles.

1.How to get Yahoo/Hotmail Emails in Thunderbird

Personally I don't use this anymore. I found it very easy to use a firefox extension like WebMail , to inform and log me automatically to all my email addresses.

2.Gadgets for gDesklets

I leave in the "cload". Using iGoogle I can cover most of the things I need. Nobody wants a full desktop and a slow computer.

3.How to Download MP3 from youtube

I really don't understand why people use this. The only time I need it was to have a copy of some cool song I heard in some videos.

4.Partitioning with Gparted

Now this is something useful. In the last year I realized you can download a copy of it and burn it on a cd. A light linux OS will be installed and you can use it any time even for Windows partitioning.

5.Ubuntu file association

This is something not very intuitive in Ubuntu. Using Nautilus and Krusader can be a pain to maintain the file association. I don't want get into things like file association for KDE apps and Gnome apps. We should have a single centralized place to edit things.

Best Ubuntu applications - January 2009

2009-01-16T07:55:00.000-08:00

This list wants to be : a noob best friend. Start using Ubuntu and enjoy these free and easy to use applications.

1.Internet Brower

Firefox [mozilla]

2.File manager

Krusader [KDE]

3. Instant messager

Pidgin [mozilla]

4.Music Player

Rhythmbox [Gnome]

5.Torrent Client

Deluge [Gnome and Kde]

6.SSH client

Putty

7.Terminal application

Yakuake

8.Rapidshare download manager

jDownloader

9.Mysql GUI

Wine - HeidiSQL

10.Online file storage

DropBox

11.Archive Manager

File Roller [Gnome]

12.Image editor

Gimp

13.Image brower

GwenView [KDE]

14. DC Client

Linux DC++

15. Office Applications

Open Office

16. Java IDE

Eclipse

17. PHP IDE

KrViewer [KDE]

18.Movie editor

Cinelerra

19.Cd/Dvd Burner

K3B [ KDE]

20. Movie Player

SmPlayer

21.Clipboard Enhance [copy/paste]

Klipper [KDE]

22. HTML Editor

Quanta Plus [KDE]

23. SVN GUI

KDEsvn [KDE]

KDE : 7 points
Gnome : 2 points

Install Everything in Ubuntu 8.10

sudo apt-get install firefox krusader pidgin rhythmbox deluge-torrent yakuake gimp gwenview cinelerra k3b smplayer klipper kdesvn

TIP : next time , install Kubuntu

You don't agree ? Good. Post your best suggestions and help improve the list.

How to view man pages in the browser

2009-01-09T17:35:00.000-08:00

There is a simple method to implement this. Using a command like

manf vi

could open up a firefox windows with the man file. But this is not a standard command.We need to create it.

1. create a file manf and put this code in it

man $1 > hello && firefox hello && rm hello

the script is simple : it takes the first parameter ( vi in our case ) and sends it to man. The text output is printed in the file hello. Firefox opens the simple text file and after the hello file is removed. The && are used in case something goes wrong to stop the execution.

2.move the file in /usr/bin

use sudo

3.use chmod to give access to the file for your user

chmod u+rwx /usr/bin/manf

4.test it

open a shell script and type : manf vi

Ubuntu 8.10(Intrepid) - change default nvidia resolution

2008-12-31T07:38:00.000-08:00

The last nvidia driver and Ubuntu version might give you a lot of headache when it comes to resolution settings.After hours and hours of tryial and errors I manage to enable all the resolutions I wanted into the nvidia-settings GUI.

First let me tell you some basic tools and commands you need in order to avoid a lot of pain when debugging this problem yourself.

1.The video configurations are saved in /etc/X11/xorg.conf

2.nvidia-settings needs sudo access if you want to write to the above file
2.1 sudo nvidia-settings
2.2 create a shortcut gksudo nvidia-settings

3.in case you can't restart , select the recovery boot option and fix the X11 server
3.1 I suppose the utility uses a default file and overwrites the current xorg.conf

4.To get out of graphic mode use
4.1 ALT+F1
4.2 go back in with logout or startx

5.before starting anything you backup your file xorg.conf

6.don't install new nvidia drivers , it's enogth to use what it's in the Ubuntu reps
6.1 System - > Administration -> Hardware Drivers
6.2 Make sure you install the recommanded one

NOW, the important part
1.Edit the file : /etc/X11/xorg.conf
2.Edit the section Monitor

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "___"
HorizSync 30.0 - 70.0
VertRefresh 60.0
EndSection

Observation : put the vert refresh that you know it's valid.
3.Ctrl+Alt+Backspace or Restart and enter the nvidia-settings window.
4.You should see all the resolutions.

TEST SYSTEM

Nvidia driver : 177.82
Graphic Card : GeForce 6100
Ubuntu : 8.10

Best Ubuntu Applications

2008-12-30T07:50:00.000-08:00

This post is a bit special. A frequent problem I have is the fact that I need to install so much software on my computers and sometimes I used it just once a month or less depending on the task I need to achieve.

What Linux lacks is something similar with Google Pack. A simple , easy to handle GUI with remote sync to keep all the application in a single place. Open , login and install the missing components on any computer. No repository , no backup , just a simple GUI.

Until then , this little post ,will help me , and maybe some of you , to have a full list up to date with a single application for every operation you need to make on a Ubuntu OS.

1.Internet Brower

Firefox

2.File manager + FTP

Krusader

3. Instant messager

Pidgin

4.Music Player

Songbird

5.Torrent Client

Deluge

6.SSH client

Putty

7.Terminal application

Yakuake

8.Rapidshare download manager

jDownloader

9.Mysql GUI

Wine - HeidiSQL

10.Online file storage

DropBox

11.Archive Manager

Gnome : File Roller

12.Image editor

Gimp

13.Image brower ( + easy to print bordeless pictures )

GwenView

14. DC Client

Linux DC++

15. Office Applications

Open Office

16. Java IDE

Eclipse

17. PHP IDE

Krusader Editor

18.Movie editor

Cinelerra

19.Cd/Dvd Burner

K3B

20. Movie Player

SmPlayer

Last update : Dec 2008

Bookmark it , save it , check it from time to time , put your comments and help me improve this list.

Protect yourself with Putty , Socks Proxy and OpenSSH

2008-12-29T10:23:00.000-08:00

Some of you out there might not be aware of the fact that a lot of your traffic is monitored and analyzed. If you are using a public wireless network , if you surf online at school or if you have the bad habit to waste a lot of time at your work place surfing around the web , the truth is ,people like -it administrators-/it teacher or hackers can have access to private data and use it against you.

In order to fight against this you will need

- A personal server ( home or rented online )
- Putty
- OpenSSH

I.The personal server i choose is an old laptop with a lot of personality that I don't use anymore. It can be any computer with an Ubuntu or linux distribution or you can buy one online for a period of time with a linux server with ssh access ( you need a lot of rights on it so be careful when you decide )

II. Putty - is a ssh client ( to keep it simple )

Download Link
You can copy the exe file in Windows or use for Ubuntu :

sudo apt-get install putty

III. OpenSSH - is a ssh server

You can install it in Ubuntu using

sudo apt-get install openssh

All you have to do now is combine all of them. Install the ssh server and configure it

sudo vi /etc/ssh/sshd_config

You should only allow the users you intend to give access by setting a new line like this AllowUsers jimbo The server will autostart on each boot.You can check the log file /var/log/auth.log to see who/when and if the users connected to your ssh server. If the server is up you can use Putty to create a connection to it. All your traffic from applications that have Socks support will be encrypted and send to this server. For the entire world it will look like your sitting home at your desk browsing around. The only thing people can detect is the fact that you are making some traffic to your home ip; but it's all encrypted. What you do is obvious for an expert but they can't really do to much about it. They can confront you and ban your ip but this is ugly business in the end. How to configure Putty

After you create a normal putty connection , press SSH -> Tunnels. You have to setup a tunnel that will be created each time you connect to your remote server. We will use a socks 5 proxy server and to do this we have to select - the local port ( 1100 for example ) - check dynamic - check IPv4 ( for Ubuntu compatibility ) Don't forget to save. Now , each time you connect using putty , a tunnel between you local computer and the remote computer will be created. In order to exploit this you have to configure your application ( Firefox for example ). Configure the socks5 proxy using your local address : 127.0.0.1 and the port you selected before ( 1100 in our case ). If you visit a site that detects your ip you should see the remote ip and not the local ip you have assigned. Power tips - OpenSSH is both a server and a client so you can exclude putty and just create connection like this: ssh -D 1080 user@example.com

- in order to protect yourself you should change the default ssh port from 22 to another random port(
configure both the client and the server after )

- applications like fail2ban should be use in order to protect from brute force attacks on your ssh server( don't ever forget the
strong password )

- if you know what DNS is you should change your Firefox settings like this
about:config ->  network.proxy.socks_remote_dns = true

- if you use openssh client in ubuntu a great way to see the open sessions is :
sudo netstat -natp | grep sshd

- PLINK is the putty equivalent for command line ssh client

Best Virtual Storage In Ubuntu

2008-12-22T10:23:00.000-08:00

One of the great innovation in the last months , from my point of view seems to be DropBox. This software has everything you ever wanted : free storage space, public sharing, great interface, ease of use and best of all : Desktop Integration.

There are so many good things about this application that I can't believe is still free. The long time I've waited before the launch has worth every second.

Enough words , more action :

1.Install DropBox

Visit the official website : http://www.getdropbox.com/ and find the download page : http://www.getdropbox.com/downloading. Select the right distribution and install the deb file. You can also have the source file to compile it on every supported linux distribution. On Ubuntu it works flawlessly.

2.Sync your files

The installer creates the main folder. After that you can start putting files into the /home/user/DropBox default folder. After a while the little icon on the desktop toolbar will start showing you the progress ( left click on it )

3.Share you files

Another great feature of this product is the fact that you can share your files with your friends. Put them into the Public folder , enter the web interface and right click on it. You can copy paste the link and send it to your friends.

4.Two Giga Free space

This is a lot of space for a free online storage space. You can put small files like : documents, archives, pictures and text files. The upload interface is a bit buggy but you can just copy everything into the local folder and the application will do the uploading for you.
5.Last but not least : the backup system

Every time you overwrite your file a copy will be saved online so later you can restore it. It's a true backup system that will help you a lot in the future.

Discover and embrace.

First Intrepid ( 8.10 ) hardware problems

2008-12-10T11:02:00.000-08:00

After I manage to destroy my last Ubuntu installation , by doing a recursive chmod on a lot of my system files, I finally decided to make the final step. It's a good advice to wait a while until the big boys test everything and came up with some great updates. Upgrading from one version to another is also a bad practice in my option. Every OS needs a clean start from time to time.

I was a bit reluctant in making the upgrade because last time there were a lot of unresolved issues. Boy , I was right to think twice.

First big problems was the sound. After a few hours off trial and error ( i manage to reinstall pulse after the system crash ) , I found the simple solution for my sound missing problem. This little trick that is working for Audicy sound cards so it might not work for you : Disable Digital Output Jack.

Happy with my success I noticed my resolution : it was not as it should be. After installing all the nvidia drivers available , the best solution seems to be the recommended one. The select box with options , however doesn't give me to much flexibility. My LCS wants the optimal resolution but I have to settle with a compromise. ( I tried changing X11 conf file but some nvidia cards are just to stubborned ).

As an experience the update was great but I didn't noticed a lot of improvements to justify the upgrade for the casual user.

Last tip : when downloading UBUNTU , use torrent for the speed.

Faster Firefox - Install Flash 10

2008-11-30T09:03:00.000-08:00

A lot of people , noticed that in Ubuntu , when watching youtube movies or any flash movie for that matter , the entire system slows down. The browser might crash, get long delays , annoying waiting time and so on.

There are several solutions for this , and one of them is to install the latest Flash version. To see what you have installed at the moment you can type in your Firefox Navigation bar :

about:plugins

If it's 9 or smaller then your browser qualified for a well deserved update. One way to do this will be to uninstall the last version and install then new one. Fire up a terminal and type the following commands :

sudo apt-get remove flashplugin-nonfree

Download the right .deb file for your Ubuntu OS from :

http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/alternates

and install it. After the installation is done don't forget to recheck this in your browser.

Tip : if this doesn't help you also can try to disable some of your extensions.

Quick Sound Tip - KDE Control Center (kcontrol)

2008-11-18T06:15:00.000-08:00

If you are using any KDE applications like Krusader you might get annoyed by the glass-breaking sounds you hear from time to time when deleting a file. There are a bunch of different sounds depending on the action the user does. The interesting thing is the fact that even if you disable all the gnome sounds you can still hear most of them.

The solution is simple : kcontrol (The KDE Control Center is the centralized settings manager for KDE) Type this in your terminal and disable the sounds from there.What we are looking for in particular are the System Notifications sounds.

Piece and quite at last.

Firefox Shell Console - Ubiquity

2008-10-23T12:18:00.000-07:00

Ubiquity is one the best innovations I found in the last several months. In fact this is a simple tool you can use to create with simple javascript calls, almost anything you set your mind on, to help you in the browser.

To better understand the power of this tool you can see this short movie presentation :

These are my tips for the moment

1.Use the shortcut Shift+1 do create a Quake like terminal
2.Use it for search ( any search )
3.Type help to open the local page
4.Look for new commands made by other people in the help page - Find new commands section
5.Create you own commands
6.Share them with the world

Case study : what I need is a quick way to search google for news not older then 1 day.

When you open Command Editor : chrome://ubiquity/content/editor.html and finish a command , it will already be functional - and you can call it for tests.

So this is my command to take care of the google search

makeSearchCommand({
name: "24google",
url: "http://www.google.com/search?q={QUERY}&as_qdr=d",
icon: "http://www.google.com/favicon.ico",
description: "Searches Google for your words.",
});

Is that simple. Now I can press Shift+1 and type 24 elections and get the news in an instant.
For inspiration regarding Google queries you can use this link .

If you are interested in this script , and also many others that will we developed you can subscribe here.

Changing World Sunlight Map For Ubuntu Desktop

2008-08-25T10:35:00.000-07:00

Recently a great website cross my path : www.die.net/earth/

Based on some cool php magic this site associates an earth static map with dynamic clouds extracted from official free sites. Now comes the interesting part : you have at your disposal an auto updatable picture link with the url : http://static.die.net/earth/mercator/1600.jpg.

The next obvious step would be to create a cool changing desktop with this interesting picture. Before I sink my teeth into it let me explain some of the shell commands to you.

We will use :
sudo apt-get install imagemagick
sudo apt-get install gnome-schedule

Imagemagick is to crop/resize the picture and Gnome-schedule is to automate the update process so install them is they are not allready on your system.

How to crop and image : 640x440 is the crop size; 500/100 is the left corner pixels position.

convert -crop 640x440+500+100 picture.jpg new_picture.jpg

How to resize an image

convert -resize 150% -quality 100 picture.jpg new_picture.jpg

Next you can setup gnome-schedule to execute a command every 1 hour using the command

wget -r -N http://static.die.net/earth/mercator/1600.jpg

The file will be downloaded to your home directory in the folder /earth/mercator

My advice would be to run multiple commands at the same time so for exemple if you want to have only a picture with europe you can use :

wget -r -N http://static.die.net/earth/mercator/1600.jpg ; convert -crop 640x440+500+100 picture.jpg new_picture.jpg;convert -resize 150% -quality 100 new_picture.jpg picture.jpg

Now , you can setup the picture for your desktop by selecting this file. You are all set , every hour the picture will be downloaded and the background will change at the same time.

How to remove/uninstall pulse audio

2008-07-25T09:10:00.000-07:00

Pulse audio is a layer between your sound card and your applications. The main benefit of this sound server is the control it gives to the user so that each application can have it's one volume level. Some people find it annoying because it's installed by default in Ubuntu 8.04. Enough said. This is how your remove it in 3 easy steps :

Step1 : delete the file /etc/asound.conf

Step2 : System -> Preferences -> Sound

All 4 drop downs

Sound Events
Music and Movies
Audio Conferences

must have Alsa option selected.

Step 3

sudo apt-get remove pulseaudio

Restart your system.That's it.

I don't know if you can remove everything because some settings like /etc/pulse still remain after the restart but the functionality is disabled.

Use the command : speaker-test -Dplug:surround51 -c6 -l1 -twav to test if all the channels are working for a surround sound card.

Adding a great DNS server in Ubuntu

2008-07-24T22:40:00.000-07:00

Almost everyone tried at one point to access a site on-line but got an error from the browser saying that the address is unreachable. The problem is complex but one of the solution could be to add some dns servers to resolve the domain properly.

Adding a Dns server might resolve the problem if your ISP provider doesn't update their dns cache accordingly.OpenDNS is the best free alternative. All you have to do is add 2 new Dns to your network settings and the problem might be resolved.

You need 2 ips:

208.67.222.222 208.67.220.220

Add them to this file : resolv.conf

sudo vi /etc/resolv.conf

The second step will be to save the settings permanently.You can accomplish this in the following way :

sudo gedit /etc/dhcp3/dhclient.conf

Now change the line that starts with prepand :

prepend domain-name-servers 208.67.222.222,208.67.220.220;

Your all set. If dns was the problem then your sites should work with no problem.

Update :

Forget OpenDNS , It is a free service with a twist : it will hijack firefox and queries made from it will redirect to opendns search engine. The principle is the same but use a good free DNS service close to you.

Xargs Command

2008-06-05T05:36:00.000-07:00

An interesting command to find a text in any file in a directory

ls /etc/init.d/* | xargs cat | grep

Let's say you are interested in finding out in what init file is located. What you can do it use xargs.

First you list all the files in the directory. Then you pass that info to the xargs command and use cat to list the content of the files.

Monitor your internal LAN

2008-06-04T02:29:00.001-07:00

If you have a Debian based server like Ubuntu you might be interested in finding out how much bandwidth each user uses.

Ipband - A cool tool to monitor your LAN regarding traffic

Install : apt-get install ipband

How to use :

 ipband eth1 -f "net 192.168.0.0/24" -a 60 -r 60 -o /home/user/log.txt

eth1 = the network card to monitor

-f "net 192.168.0.0/24 " = will monitor every host in your lan

-a = how often total traffic and bandwidth should be calculated ( in our case for a time period of 60 seconds )

-r = Reporting period - number of seconds bandwidth threshold may be exceeded before it should be reported.

-o = the file where you want to keep your log

My first Python Script

2008-06-03T06:08:00.000-07:00

A lot of people talk about how easy is to use Python. Learning new stuff should be a passion so let's see what this language can do.

Fire up a terminal and install python : apt-get install python

First let's find a cool IDE. Eclipse is the first thing it comes to my mind. Of course you could just use a simple text editor but having a syntax highlight and function auto complete is much easier.

My favorite IDE for almost any programing language is Eclipse. After installing the base from the main site : Eclipse we need to install the Python plug in. You can browse the download area and install it manually but here is a shortcut :

1.Start eclipse
2.Go to the help menu / Software Updates
3.Search for new features to install.
4.New remote site
5.Add http://pydev.sourceforge.net/updates/
6.Install PyDev
7.Restart Eclipse
8.Configure Eclipse : Windows -> Preference ->Pydev->Interpreter Python ->
Choose the interpreter you have installed in your computer (jython.jar)
9.Create a new Python project

If you selected everyhing like above you will add a file.py to your project. Make a test script like
this :

print "Hello World"

and run the project. You should see the output in the console window.

Battle For Wesnoth - A true review

2008-05-16T06:10:00.000-07:00

A lot of people are talking about linux gaming , and one of the frequent name I heard is : Battle For Wesnoth. This is really an interesting game : it's Heroes Of Might and Magic 3 with a twist. The graphic is 2D but the game play is captivating.

Installation for Ubuntu :

sudo apt-get install wesnoth
sudo apt-get install wesnoth-data : Data Files

To install official campaigns

sudo apt-get install wesnoth-ei : Eastern Invasion
sudo apt-get install wesnoth-httt : Heir to the Throne
sudo apt-get install wesnoth-trow : The Rise of Wesnoth
sudo apt-get install wesnoth-tsg : The South Guard
sudo apt-get install wesnoth-ttb : A Tale of Two Brothers
sudo apt-get install wesnoth-utbs : Under the Burning Suns

The learning curve for this game is fast. If you like turn based playing games this will be a piece of cake. However the difficulty of the game and the AI is reasonable strong. You will encounter strong opponents and interesting maps.

As a leader you will be able to recruit new units. You have a wiki with information about your factions or other factions you will encounter : their week points and straights. You will have to take advantage of every terrain you are standing on an you will have to be FAST to finish your mission.

The missions purpose is usually to defeat the enemy leaders but sometimes you have to escape in a fast manner and avoid direct confrontation.

The castle is your home . The leader must select units to fight for him. You have to take over villages and you can take cover in them so your units will heel.

Special skills are also available like : healing , skirmishing or leadership. Your units will accumulate experience points and will get stronger and stronger learning new skills and abilities.

The PROs

- Maybe the best turn-best game for Linux.
- Works on a bunch of distros even on Windows
- It's small ( space on disk )
- Very fun to play and addictive
- A strategic game : you have to think and position every unit with a lot of attention
- You can take advantage of the terrain ( depending on your faction )
water or swamp terrain can slow you down
mountains can give you a defense advantage
- Each turn is auto saved
- There are a good number of campaigns
- The game is in a continues evolving process
- Multi-player game

The CONs

- The only way to go throw the levels is to take care of your units. You can Recall your units level after level.
- If you forget to Recall a unit in a level you can't recall it again
- It's hard to advance your leader because he's the only one that can stay at the castle keep to recruit new units.
- The graphic is not even as evolved as HOMM III
- The dialog is to much
- Some levels have hidden secretes you might not notice and you have to keep a very close eye on every stone and rock
- You get used to reload the auto saves so that you can -resurrect- your dead units.
- The perfect number of runs only if you know the level

Overall the game play is very captivating and you will waste a lot of time is you decide to give it a try.

How to forward a port on a gateway

2008-05-15T04:22:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of situation when you want to forward a port to gain access from an external computer to an application inside your network.A good exemple is to use Real VNC to remotely control a local computer.

AppPORT = The port for VNC is 5900.
LanIP = The ip inside your network look similar to 192.168.x.x
GatewayPort = Is the port we gone use to connect

eth1 = is the network card connected to the outside world
eth0= is the network card that connects us to the inside

1. We gone route everthing addressed to GatewayPort to LanIP:AppPORT
2.We gone forward information from eth1 to eth0

iptables -A PREROUTING -t nat -i eth1 -p tcp --dport GatewayPORT
-j DNAT --to LanIP:AppPORT

iptables -A FORWARD -p tcp -i eth1 -o eth0 -d LanIP
--dport AppPORT -j ACCEPT
To stop the forwarding we gone use -D at the begging for the exactly the same ruliptables -D PREROUTING -t nat -i eth1 -p tcp --dport GatewayPORT
 -j DNAT --to LanIP:AppPORT

iptables -D FORWARD -p tcp -i eth1 -o eth0 -d LanIP
 --dport AppPORT -j ACCEPT

The cool way to list the rules is

iptables -L -v --line-numbers

Is that easy.Iptables Manual.

Installing A Web Server in Debian [Part 2]

2008-05-13T11:34:00.000-07:00

Installing Apache WebServer

Installing apache is very easy if you have the repository up to date. The apt-get command is the best way to install apache.

Logged as the root user execute :

apt-get install apache

I personally recommend Apache 1.3 for a small personal web server or for testing purposes. What you need to know is the configuration file. This file willbe later edited to setup how the server will handle php files.To view the file content use :

cat /etc/apache/config.d

To start the apache server use:

/etc/init.d/apache start

To stop the apache server use:

/etc/init.d/apache stop

To restart the apache server use:

/etc/init.d/apache restart

After any change in the config file you need to restart the apache server.

Installing A Web Server in Debian [Part 1]

2008-05-09T00:16:00.000-07:00

Ubuntu is a great distib but if you want a simple web server with php/mysql support you might wanna try the Ubuntu "father" Debian. The small installation cd ( 160 Mega ) can be downloaded from this link.

Spending a lot of time in Ubuntu made me acquainted with a lot of the basic commands. But I wasn't really prepared for what Debian can offer the new user. It's Ubuntu without the ease of use.

Let's start with the basic CD. The distribution we are interested is ETCH. This contains the minimalistic wrap up so you can install Debian with no extra packages. You have to go back in time and install it without a modern GUI.

But the process is simple , you can partition your drives and after a few questions you have to set a root password and a user password.

The second shock was the lack of repositories added by default. You don't have access to anything unless you start updating the repository file and make an update.

The sudo command is not installed in DEBIAN. You can use su to change the user to root and start messing with the config files.

Start edit the repository config file with vi :

vi /etc/apt/sources.list

And add this info

deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ etch main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ etch main contrib non-free

Next update your repository.

apt-get update

The best thing about installing Debian is the realization of how much Ubuntu distro evolved for the benefit of a first time user.

What DEBIAN lacks on the small installation cd :

1.A GUI install interface
2.Default added repositories
3.sudo command

You are ready for the next step : Installing Apache with PHP And Mysql Support.

How To Setup Your Network

2008-05-06T12:43:00.000-07:00

If you want to change some network settings on the run this list is a must :

To set the IP

ifconfig eth0 $MyIP

To set the netmask

ifconfig eth0 netmask $MyNetMask

To set the gateway

route add default gw $IP

To refresh the interface settings

ifconfig eth0 down
ifconfig eth0 up

To set up the broadcast address

ifconfig eth0 broadcast $IP

All this settings can be saved in file , so that they will remain active after the system restarts.
To save this info you should edit the file :

/etc/network/interfaces

A simple exemple for the file

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.0.2
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.0.1

To apply the settings saved in the file you can use the command :

/etc/init.d/networking restart

10 Platform Independent Applications That Work Special Well on Ubuntu

2008-04-29T22:33:00.000-07:00

In a Microsoft dominating world , we all need free reliable solutions. The great innovations on all applications fronts are presented in the following lines.

1.SmPlayer

Official Website : smplayer.sourceforge.net

More info : Having a free,easy to use and reliable media player is the holy grail of home entertainment. The rendering mode, the subtitles and the response time make SmPlayer the real replacement for windows based BsPlayer that became a payed software.

2.Deluge

Official Website : deluge-torrent.org

More info : The alternative for Windows is uTorrent ; The alternative for Linux is KTorrent. But the platform independent solution is Deluge. The great interface, the low resources consumption and the multiple available plugins are the + of this great torrent client.

3.Putty

Official Website : http://www.putty.org

More info : To control a Linux server you need a reliable software. This tiny application comes packed in an exe file for Windows systems and as a default application in Ubuntu Linux.

4.ThunderBird

Official Website : www.mozilla.com/thunderbird

More info : Plugins like : http-pop server , filters and minimized to tray makes this the default mail reader client for all kind of desktops.

5.OpenOffice

Official Website : www.openoffice.org

More info : Why use MsOffice. This great free solution will give you access to office, excel and databases for free. Plugins are emerging to connect Open Office to online environments ; the continue improvements make Open Office the real free alternative to creating documents.

6.Firefox

Official Website : www.mozilla.com/firefox

More info : A browser with a 30% market share. The IE dominations is approaching. You can chat, browse, manage your files, ftp and analyze web pages with the array of available plugins. The new firefox 3.0 reloaded will finish any competition.

7.Pidgin

Official Website : www.pidgin.im

More info : Talk on yahoo , aim , msn and google from one single cool interface. The ex Gaim software is becoming very mature. The new file transfer integration with Yahoo makes it almost perfect.

8.Pgadmin

Official Website : www.pgadmin.org

More info : Oracle costs money. SQL server is a microsoft abomination. Mysql will transform in a payed version. Postgresql is the true power hidden in the web depths. A great database systems needs a great administration interface. Pgamin has it all : simplicity, functionality and usability.

9.NetBeans

Official Website : www.netbeans.org

More info : To write programs you need and IDE. Java is the platform you need. Netbeans is the IDE we've been looking for. The new version features : integration between the interface and the database. All the controls are build to ease the development and help the user create fast and useful programs to share with the world.

10.GoogleEarth

Official Website : earth.google.com
More info : You want to see your neighbor , visit a country , go in a vacation. Google earth is the app that organize the way we search places on our planet. It's fast, the graphics is stoning and the popularity is rising to mythological proportions.

Quick Way To Save An Alias

2008-04-26T10:16:00.000-07:00

The classic way would be to edit the file in your home/user directory and write the alias.

The quick way would be to append the command at the end of the file and reload the shell configuration.

Exemple :

1.Build an alias ( in this case - history without starting numbers )
alias history2="history | sed 's/^[ 0-9]* //'"
2.Save the alias
echo alias history2="history | sed 's/^[ 0-9]* //'" >> ~/.bashrc
3.Reload shell configuration
source ~/.bashrc

Ndiswrapper problems in Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron

2008-04-25T08:34:00.000-07:00

This tutorial will teach you how to use ndiswrapper in case you want to make your wireless card work.

First of all you should open a terminal and try this commands :

rmmod b43
rmmod b44
rmmod ssb
rmmod ndiswrapper
modprobe ndiswrapper
modprobe b44

Rmmod will remove all the modules and modprobe will enable ndiswrapper.
The big problem was the fact that the module b43 dependent on ssb. If you try to end ssb directly no message error will be printed out but the module won't close.The solution is to do this step by step.

Reminders :

ndiswrapper # can be found on Hardy CD - path : /pool/main/n
wifi-radar # an utility that detects wireless networks
rmmod = removes a module from Linux Kernel
modprobe = adds a module to the Linux Kernel

To automate this task

1.Use sudo vim /etc/modules to add ndiswrapper to start the module at startup
2.Create a bash file with the above commands
3.Create a shortcut on your desktop to that command
- don't forget to put sudo in front of the commands
- use sudo visudo to grant access to sudo commands without passwords

Funny Gutsy Message Box

2008-04-25T04:36:00.000-07:00

Gparted can be a weapon of mass destruction...

20 Wicked Rss Feeds From The Linux Community

2008-04-23T07:43:00.000-07:00

1. Tuxmachines | Do you waddle the waddle? [RSS Link]

Website Url : http://www.tuxmachines.org
Description : An interesting Linux News Aggregator.

2. The Daily Ubuntu - Daily Ubuntu Applications [RSS Link]

Website Url : http://thedailyubuntu.blogspot.com
Description : The blog for a featured daily Ubuntu application every day.

3.[shell-fu:home]$ [RSS Link]

Website Url : http://www.shell-fu.org/
Description : Shell-fu is a place for all those little command line goodies that you
come across and then can never find again when you need them.

4. Productive Linux | Making the most of your linux desktop [RSS Link]

Website Url : http://productivelinux.com/
Description : This site helps you get the most out Linux and associated software, so you can be more productive than you ever were under any other system

5. GetDeb [RSS Link]

Website Url : http://www.getdeb.net/
Description : Up to date deb packages for all ubuntu distributions.

6. Linux Blog | Ramblings of a Rabid Penguin [RSS Link]

Website Url : http://hehe2.net/
Description : Royal HeHe2-ness is a world where free software is valued, nay sought for!! While proprietary software is banished, degraded and ridiculed till the end of times.

7. Easierbuntu [RSS Link]

Website Url : http://easierbuntu.blogspot.com/
Description : Making Ubuntu that bit easier

8. Ubuntu HQ [RSS Link]

Website Url : http://www.ubuntuhq.com/
Description : Here you can find recent news issues, application reviews, howto's and other stories.

9.Ubuntu Unleashed [RSS Link]

Website Url :http://www.ubuntu-unleashed.com
Description : Unleashing Ubuntu knowledge for the open source community

10. Ubuntu Tutorials : Dapper - Edgy - Feisty - Gutsy [RSS Link]

Website Url : http://ubuntu-tutorials.com
Description : How to do almost anything on your Ubuntu desktop, laptop or server. Regular tips on installing, configuring and making your Ubuntu system as effective as you need it to be.

11. TECH SOURCE FROM BOHOL [RSS Link]

Website Url : http://www.junauza.com/
Description : Source for technology hacks, insights, tutorials, news, reviews and more...|

12.Ubuntu Geek [RSS Link]

Website Url : http://www.ubuntugeek.com/
Description : Ubuntu Linux Tips,Howtos&Tutorials|Dapper,Edgy,Feisty,Gutsy,Hardy

13. Tombuntu [RSS Link]

Website Url : http://tombuntu.com/
Description : News, Tips, and How-Tos for Ubuntu Linux

14.The Fridge [RSS Link]

Website Url : http://fridge.ubuntu.com/
Description : News directly from Ubuntu site.

15.Full Circle Magazine [RSS Link]

Website Url : http://fullcirclemagazine.org/
Description : The FREE Independent Magazine (and podcast) for the Ubuntu Linux Community

16.Fsckin [RSS Link]

Website Url : http://www.fsckin.com/
Description : fsckin w/ linux | a swift kick in the *nix

17.FOSSwire [RSS Link]

Website Url : http://fosswire.com/
Description : a blog about free and open source software. FOSSwire offers news, tutorials, and articles for the open-sourced individual and/or enterprise.

18. Digg Linux [RSS Link]

Website Url : http://digg.com/linux_unix
Description : Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. This special section is dedicated to Linux News.

19. Debian Package of the Day [RSS Link]

Website Url : http://debaday.debian.net/

20. System Administration Tips and Resources [RSS Link]

Website Url : http://www.debian-administration.org/

21 . Don't forget yours truly : Ubuntu Switch Blog.

Import ALL Feeds To Google Reader using THIS OPML file!

Do you know other interesting feeds ? Why don't you post them to help the Linux community !

9 secrets for Shell enthusiasts

2008-04-21T23:01:00.000-07:00

1. CUT

"Print selected parts of lines from each FILE to standard output."

USAGE : cut -d: -f1 /file

Params explained :

* -d: will set de default delimiter to ":"
* -f1 will print the column number 1

2.FIND

"Search for files in a directory"

USAGE : find / -name '*.txt' -type f -print 2> /dev/null

Params explained :

* / = look in the root directory
* -name '*.txt' search for txt files
* -type f look for files
* -print 2> /dev/null = don't print errors

3.GREP

"Print lines matching a pattern"

SECRET USAGE : grep -o 'pattern/td' file.html;

* -o "Show only the part of a matching line that matches PATTERN"

4.AWK

"Pattern scanning and processing language"

USAGE : awk 'BEGIN { FS = "\"" } ; /data/ { print $2 }' file.txt > newfile

* BEGIN { FS = "\"" } ; set the delimiter to "
* /data/ search lines that have /data/ in them
* { print $2 } prints the second column resulted after the spliting based on the " delimiter
* > newfile put the result in this file

5.Lynx

Install lynx and download file for parsing and extracting the useful result.

lynx -dump http://site.com | awk ..

6."Replace Function"

If you want to replace the text A in a string with the text B use the syntax:

replace = echo ${VAR/A/B}

7."Read a file"

This is how you properly read the content of a file.

cat filename | while read line; do echo "${line}"; done

8."Mesage Box from Shell"

kdialog --title Pimp --textinputbox "My Ride"

9."Increment a variable"

If you need to add 1 to an existing variable just you can use the following syntax.

(( varname++ ))

AstroMenace 1.2 - Real Gaming in Linux

2008-04-12T08:05:00.001-07:00

OMG , A true playable and addictive game for LINUX !!!

Main DEB FILE
+
DEB DEPENDENCIES

While changing to a great OS like Ubuntu , I had to make some sacrifices , one of them being : less gaming. I'm not seeing I ended my gamer " career" , buy i start to look for smaller web games , or testing the big LINUX games that everybody was talking about. ( Tremoulos,Quake Wars,Nexuiz,Battle For Wesnoth).

But until recently my gaming experience was not fulfilled. The graphics was poor, the sounds were not even interesting and overall the games sucked big time.

Recently I came across this jewel , that nobody seems to talk about. AstroMenace = the first true Linux Game.

The concept is old , and it reminded my of the old console games , but the way you can customize your ship , like an RPG , the graphics, the atmosphere,the asteroids, the mother ships.. so much ,all of a sudden.

This post is a tribute to this game : and in a few words and pictures I will try to explain my self.

The second menu you will see in the game is the Mission Menu. It's simple , with a small description preparing you for the battle that's gone come. The tips are very useful and i suggest to read the help menu while playing. The learning curve is a few hours but it's totally worth it.

Next you can admire in full details the ships you have at your disposal. There are a bunch of them with all kind of information. Each one has special abilities and they are suited for special mission. The good thing about this game is that you don't have to loose money when you change ships or pieces.

You can change and buy weapons , upgrades and repair the ship. The money system is perfect because you can choose to change the upgrades as much as you like. You can have up to five weapons depending on your ship. There are 5 classes of weapons , and each of them has a special way of firing.

With all this being said i leave you with a small number of pictures from inside the game hopping I've around your interest. Also you should watch the youtube video to get an idea about the feeling you gone have while playing.

Main DEB FILE
+
DEB DEPENDENCIES

One Cool Way to Get Help in Ubuntu

2008-04-04T10:17:00.000-07:00

If you are new in the Ubuntu World I have a tip for you. The Ubuntu logo is designed to show you that Linux is a community and you only have to find out how you can get help with any Linux problem.

My best advice is : an irc channel ! That's right , the old IRC is back again when it comes to support ! To take this one step further you could use Firefox and a very good/up to date extension : ChatZilla !

The are a bunch of default networks but the one we are looking for is freenode!

connect to freenode
connect to Ubuntu Channel
ask you question
be polite
get your answer in seconds

Archiving and Compression in Linux Shell

2008-03-17T13:34:00.000-07:00

Unpack

tar zxvf file.tar.gz

Pack

tar zcvf file.tar.gz dir1 dir2

Params

z = filter the archive through gzip
x = eXtract files from an archive
c = Create a new archive
v = Verbosely list files processed
f = File

Unpack

tar jxvf file.tar.bz2

Pack

tar jcvf file.tar.bz2 dir1 dir2

Params

j = filter the archive through bzip2
x = eXtract files from an archive
c = Create a new archive
v = Verbosely list files processed
f = File

Unpack

unzip file.zip

Pack

zip file.zip dir1 dir1

Unpack

unrar x file.rar

Pack

rar a -m5 -v2M myarchive mybook.pdf

Params

x = eXtract files with full path
a = Add files to archive

Unpack

unace x file.ace

Pack

Params

x = eXtract files with full path

VNC in Ubuntu

2008-03-04T12:40:00.000-08:00

VNC might be a confusing name for some. The abbreviation stands for Virtual Network Computing. VNC uses the RFB protocol available in Linux,Windows and Macintosh environments. The confusion I talk about may come from the fact that a great Windows software RealVnc using this protocol contains in it's name the VNC word. Don't let the resemblance make you believe that VNC applications are close and only available in a software form.

What's I'm interested in this article is how to make a VNC connection between 2 Ubuntu computers.One as a server and one as a client.

The VNC server is the program on the machine that shares its screen.
The VNC client (or viewer) is the program that watches and interacts with the server.

The great surprise in Ubuntu is the fact that in Gutsy Guibon and probably in the next version to the graphical desktop sharing system is included by default. In fact you only have to run and configure the server once.

System - > Preference -> Remote Desktop

As you can see you have to check the option to allow people to connect to your computer. You can allow them just to view your action or you can let them make changes in real time on your OS.

You should always set a password even in local networks just to be protected. The confirmation feature is another great way to control when to allow access.

After you setup the server you need to know the ip of the computer is running on.You can use this in a network environment or even on internet. The difficult part comes when you want to connect from a Vnc viewer outside your network to server inside it. The solution is to configure your router or your server to redirect the connection from the gateway to a specific server inside the network.

The client is also found as a default install. Go to
Applications -> Internet -> Terminal server client

You use the computer ip , the user name you gone log with and the password prompt will come after you press the connect button.

You also have the options to save the connection and open the settings the next time you want to connect to a specific server.

The first big problem we encounter is the file transfer problem. By default VNC doesn't provide this feature.Here is a number of solution but the best it comes to mind is using SSH.

As an ex-Windows user WinScp and Putty are two names that are burned in my memory.

Krusader is the application you are looking for . The best file manger ( my option ) also provides a great deal of functionality when it comes to network protocols.

If you don't have it by default install using "sudo apt-get install kdebase-kio-plugins"

After that you can connect to a ssh server you open on the server computer.
You can browse copy/move files as if you were working from your computer.

Putty is installed by default in Ubuntu. Using the ssh protocol you can connect o a server to send commands from a terminal. IF you just want to manipulate files and configure on the server system this might be the solution you are looking fore.

How to install deb files in Ubuntu

2008-02-29T08:36:00.000-08:00

Definition :

deb is the extension of the Debian software package
deb is a binary package
deb files are standard unix archives

Install deb files from your Desktop : in the new versions of Ubuntu installing deb files is as easy as installing an exe file in Windows. Locate the file with your GUI window manager and double click it. The package will be installed on your system.

If you want to install a deb file from a terminal screen there is an easy command :

dpkg -i file.deb
dpkg --install file.deb

Tip : you can use Alien to convert deb files to other formats.

How to create a deb file

Linux in a Mac and Pc World

2008-02-19T13:22:00.000-08:00

I love those Pc, Mac videos. I don't get why the Pc is keep identifying with windows but..whatever ! It's funny !

Ubuntu shutdown shortcut

2008-02-18T10:57:00.000-08:00

If you are looking for a quick way to close your computer then you're in luck.

First let's fire up the command :

sudo visudo

The default ubuntu text editor will pop-up and you can start editing this text file located into /etc/sudoers.

Second lets add this command :

Cmnd_Alias SHUTDOWN_CMDS = /sbin/shutdown

just under # Cmnd alias specification. This defines a constant with the command of shutdown.

The last line in the file will be :

username ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: SHUTDOWN_CMDS

What we did know is granted the user : username the power to run sudo shutdown command from a terminal screen without the need to give the sudo password.

test your command :

sudo shutdown -h 100
sudo shutdown -c ( to cancel)

Did you noticed no sudo password is asked ?

Now we can use Metacity

Applications - > System Tools -> Configuration Editor -> Apps -> Metacity

to configure a keyshortcut : let's say Shift+F5.

Bash script to start/stop a service

2008-02-16T14:00:00.000-08:00

If you like the syntax /etc/init.d/network start/stop then you might want to write some scripts of your own to do a similar job.

Using sudo vi /etc/init.d/msgbox you can create a file in you /etc folder.

#!/bin/bash
if [[ $1 == start ]] ; then
kdialog --msgbox "command1"
else
kdialog --msgbox "command2"
fi

This script will create a dialog box when you type start as the first parameter with the text command1. You can use it this way to start/stop an application.

Kdialog is a visual component that pops up like a message.

How to install Ubuntu in WindowsXP using VirtualBox

2008-02-07T01:02:00.001-08:00

VirtualBox is a free tool you can use both in Windows and Linux ( Ubuntu ) as an alternative to VmWare or other virtualisation tools. The trend for using open source alternatives in Xp is increasing and the quality of the software is also better by day.

There are a few easy steps you need to make in order to install a full Ubuntu distribution , that will run from your XP system.

First you need to create a file that will contain the virtual OS. VirtualBox takes care of this steps and with a few clicks of a mouse you will select and generate a virtual drive.

A big important step you need to make is to select a Linux 2.6 OS. If you want to install Ubuntu this is the OS you need to select.After this you have to mount the iso file that you can find available on the official Ubuntu site.

Start the process like you have in front of you a brand new computer.The Live Cd will boot and show you an interface. You don't have to worry about internet connection because a virtual network is created between the real OS and the virtual one.

You should click INSTALL and let the partition manager to take care of / and swap creation. I would recommend at least 10G of memory for the virtual OS.

After a half and hour you Ubuntu system is ready to run and installed on you system.

A big problem you may encounter is the file transfer between you system and the virtual one.
What you can do is share a folder from the VirtualBox interface and use a trick so that Linux can see it.

What you have to do is install guest additions. This is an Iso image that the program will automatically download for you and it's gone be available in Ubuntu as a cdrom.

All you have to do is open the cdrom.

cd /media/cdrom
ls
bash VBoxLinuxAdditions.run

This will install a binary file called mount.vboxsf that will be able to mount the shared folder from your Xp.

After you run the bash mount the shared folder using

sudo mount.vboxsf tmp /media/shared

for exemple !

tmp = the name of the shared folder
media/shared = the path to the mounting direcotory

This is it : you have a full working Ubuntu OS , with internet connection and file sharing between your host and virtual OS.

How to search in Ubuntu

2008-02-06T05:49:00.001-08:00

I won't recommend any GUI interfaces for searching in Ubuntu. The best tool you'll ever find is the command line.
Using the find command you will be able to search for anything you can think of.

I will start with a basic example cause this is the most common way to use it.But if you are thinking of complex search filters like : file types,access rights,extensions,dates and so on you always have the MAN FIND command to look for what you need.

Learn by example :

find path criteria action

find / -name '*.txt'

The first param : " / " tells our command to search the main path in our system.
-name is used to specify you are looking for names
-"*.txt" specifies the pattern involved in this search ( all text files in this case )

How to change your partitions label

2008-02-04T08:54:00.000-08:00

In case you were wondering on how to change those annoying labels you might have places on yot partition in your rush to install the operating system , you may look no more.

There are two simple solution to label your existing partition using :

I. Ext3 Linux partitions

sudo e2label /dev/sdaX Label

II.NTFS Windows partitions

sudo ntfslabel /dev/sdaY Label

Your ext3 label will be visible imediatly but the ntfs labels will change after a reboot.

Install Ubuntu on a Laptop

2008-02-03T01:43:00.000-08:00

If you want to install your favourite flavour of Ubuntu on a Laptop/Notebook the biggest and single problem is the right drivers. Ubuntu evolved a lot in recent years but the lack of support from the hardware giants makes it harder for the community to implement generic or specific drivers for your hardware.

The best place to find information about the right drivers and the steps you need to take to install your : video card, network card, sound or other peripheral devices can be found on this site : Linux on Laptops.

After testing 3 laptop models I can confirm the information is very useful and can dramatically decrease your drivers installation time.

Note : for people interested in installing an XP driver for a network card in Ubuntu we have prepared a great HOW TO.

Hardware Information about your system

2008-02-02T02:30:00.001-08:00

I always find it dificult to find out information about my hardware configuration even on Windows XS. There are a lot of good GUI specifically designed for this purpose but when I'm looking for something I look for a particular item. Opening a big list with all the component is my system and searching for the one I'm interested on is really a waste of time.

Using the Terminal Window you can run a few commands from your shell and find out the information you are looking for in seconds.

lspci - Is a great command ! It actually outputs all your pci devices on your system. The true power of this cool comes from the combination with the grep command.

So here are a few useful uses :

lspci - list all PCI devices

Sound Card : lspci | grep -i Audio
Network Card : lspci | grep -i Ethernet
Video Card : lspci | grep VGA

Let's get some more information about :

Graphic card : xrandr ( is a great tool to change your resolution ) Related Article
Networking : ifconfig ( find out your ip/mac and much more ) Related Article

Processes running on your computer will be covered on a future article.

Processor and memory

free - Display amount of free and used memory in the system

Processor : cat /proc/cpuinfo
Memory : free -m

Harddisk

df - report file system disk space usage
fdisk - Partition table manipulator for Linux

df -H #partitions
sudo fdisk -l # all partitions with device names

Usb devices

lsusb - list USB devices

lsusb

Mounted devices

cat /etc/fstab

Other tools to search your hardware information

hwinfo --short
lshw -html | w3m -T text/html

Ubuntu Wireless Networking On A Laptop

2008-01-29T12:49:00.001-08:00

Problem : having a laptop and being to lazy to attach a network cable to it , having a wireless hot-spot near by and having the desire to start using the internet on your wireless adapter.

The solution after a little history.

TOOL NR1.
NDISwrapper : The solution to lack of drivers for wireless network cards. This projects uses a Windows original driver to run your network device in Linux. You can get the answer to more questions on the official site.

Installation : you can search the web for a deb file or you can use the original Gutsy Cd from where you've installed your distribution. You can find it on the path : /pool/main/n

TOOL NR2.
Wifi Radar : It's the wireless manager similar to the one you can find on XP. It searches for wireless networks and connects to it. It's a great GUI when it comes to wireless networking.
You can use a deb file that you previously download.

TOOL NR3.
An Xp driver for you wireless network card.

At this point you can start the steps to install your driver. If you are interested in BCM94311MCG wlan min-PCI card you should read this great tutorial.
NOTE : The red words are just examples ; you should replace them with your own driver files !

1. Install NDISwrapper
2. Install the windows driver

sudo ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf

3. Make it run like a module

sudo vim /etc/modules
add this line “ndiswrapper”
sudo modprobe ndiswrapper
sudo ndiswrapper -m

4.Deactivate drivers that came in conflict with yours

sudo vim /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
add this line “blacklist bcm43xx”

5.Reboot to activate the module

Some command lines in case you need to manually activate/deactivate the modules

sudo rmmod bcm43xx
#removes the module
sudo rmmod ndiswrapper
#remove the windows drivers [ also a module for linux ]
sudo modprobe ndiswrapper
#activate the module
ndiswrapper -l
#lists the active drivers

Use bash to create a changing desktop

2008-01-28T12:43:00.001-08:00

If you are interested in a changing wallpaper you can use some simple commands to do this task.

DATE=`date +'%Y-%m-%d'`
wget "http://www.x-rates.com/d/USD/EUR/graph120.png" -O "/home/user/euro.jpg"
gconftool -t string -s /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename "/home/user/euro.jpg"

The first variable DATE is just for your future uses.
Wget - is a well known command that is used to download the file we gone use as a wallpaper [O parameter is used to specify the path to the local file]

Gconftool - is the command that will change your desktop image.

If you work with a changing picture you can use a cron command to run the script at the specified time.

You can also create some cool tools like a wallpaper that changes every time you start you computer.

Using the command line to install applications

2008-01-26T11:43:00.001-08:00

The Ubuntu community tried really hard to make the user feel comfortable in this new environment. The biggest problems a few years ago was software installation. To ease this process the community started to create tools like Synaptic Package Manager , Automatix and an Add/Remove component just like Windows.

The reality is this tools help a lot but inside a Linux system you really need to learn the basics and the command line to fully understand the power you have in front of you.

Installing applications is really a breeze using the command : apt-get !

Inside a terminal windows you can type
sudo apt-get install AppName

The application will install in seconds.All you need is a good internet connections. If you're not sure about the right name of the application just use the TAB shortcut and let the terminal feel up the empty space.

ex : to install a simple calculator use the syntax :

sudo apt-get install cal [ press Tab ]

you gone see a list with applications starting with cal ! And there it is calc ! The application we were looking for.

Another useful command is
sudo apt-get remove AppName
This will uninstall the application and remove the not needed files.

Use sudo apt-cache search AppName to search for an application you need.

A few basic commands to help you in your apt-get learning :

sudo apt-get update
# updates the application DB from your set repositories

sudo apt-get install --reinstall AppName
# to reinstall an application

sudo apt-get -f install AppName
# to resolve dependencies

sudo apt-get autoclean
# to remove .deb files not needed by applications

sudo apt-cache pkgnames
# Lists all your installed packages

sudo apt-get moo
# Prints a cow

Tutorials Round-Up 1

2008-01-26T09:25:00.000-08:00

To speed up Amarok use Mysql Database
Lsof (list open files) command
Changing the /tmp Cleanup Frequency
Use fcrackzip to find out zip files passwords
Auto Mount your partitions

Basic Networking Commands

2008-01-18T23:19:00.001-08:00
TCP - /etc/network/interfaces
DNS - /etc/resolv.confFind your ip
ifconfig | grep 'inet a'

Find your dns and external IP
dig google.com
nslookup {address}

Find open ports and applications that is using it
lsof -i

Find your mac
ifconfig | grep HW

Ping
ping {hostname}

Traceroute
traceroute {hostname}

Terminal Window Secrets

2008-01-18T13:15:00.000-08:00
A few useful shortcuts anyone can use in a Linux Terminal Window.

CTRL+U = deletes the entire current row
CTRL+L = clears the entire screen

CTRL+D = exits the terminal or logs out
CTRL+R + command = search history for commands

CTRL+insert(shift-ctrl-C) = copy
SHIFt+insert(shift-ctrl-V) = paste
SHIFT+delete = cut

esc-. or alt-. = using the previos argument

How to properly play a DVD in Ubuntu

2008-01-17T08:06:00.000-08:00
Playing a non encrypted DVD in Ubuntu is an easy task only if you know the right steps to make.

First you need to install the right codecs and libraries so fire up a terminal and copy/paste this command :

sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse
Second install the Xine Movie Player. A simple yet useful tool to play your dvd. You can install it using
sudo apt-get install xine
The last thing is staying between you and your favorite movie is a SymLink. Start your window navigator and crate a symlink in the /dev directory. You must create a dvd symlink.

sudo lshw -short

-to list the hardware detected by your linux distro.

sudo lshw -short | grep DVD

- identify your DVD

/dev/hda /dev/hdb /dev/hdc

- if you have an IDE DVD-ROM this is the way it's seen by your system

Create a symlink [/dev/dvd] to /dev/hdb (or a,c)

When you start Xine you just have to click on the DVD link from the interface and the interactive dvd is started.

Create shortcuts to change desktop resolution in Ubuntu

2008-01-14T12:28:00.000-08:00
In case you have two displays you use often you might be wondering if there's a simple solution to create short cuts to do this task.

In fact there is a simple solution using the configuration of the default window manager in Ubuntu : Metacity. Go to your start up menu and click on Applications->System Tools->Configuration Editor ->apps->metacity and configure 2 short-cuts like F1 and F2 for different screen resolutions.

The command you need is simple :

xrandr -s 1280x1024
-s x
This sets the screen size, either matching by size or using the index into the list of available sizes.

The great thing about this is that you don't need sudo rights to execute the command so it all happens in an instance.

SiteMap

2008-01-12T06:35:00.000-08:00

Category

1.Applications
1.1 Text Editors
1.1.1 VI Text Editor
1.2 System Tools
1.2.1 GParted - partition manager
1.2.2 THE Terminal
1.3 Mail
1.3.1 ThunderBird - Webmail Addon
1.4 Desktop Enhancers
1.4.1 gDesklets
1.5.Virtualization
1.5.1 Wine App
1.5.2 Wine Tips
1.6 File Managers
1.6.1 Krusader
1.7 Messengers
1.7.1 Pidgin

2.How To
2.1 Wget - Download an entire site
2.2 Install Gnome,Kde,Xfce inUbuntu
2.3 Ubuntu file association
2.4 Download from Youtube
2.5 Download mp3 from Social Media sites : yahoo/imeem
2.6 Play a DVD in Ubuntu

3.Install/unpack
3.1 Deb Files
3.2 Install applications with apt-get

4.Scripts
4.1 Amarok Script - Delete/Move played song
4.2 Best time to Submit to Digg on Linux
4.3 Change Resolution

5.General
5.1 Best Ubuntu Software out there
5.2 Internet Television

6.Tutorial Links
6.1 Amarok mysql,Lsof,tmp,crackzip,mount

How to download mp3 from social media sites in Ubuntu

2008-01-11T07:48:00.000-08:00
There is a big number of on-line converters to help you download music with the help of your browser or even application that do this job. There are a few decent ones but they all have some limitations and problems from time to time ( like a syntax change or a full server).

In Ubuntu this task becomes a lot easier.All you have to do is install a firefox plug-in that scans for on-line media and use a simple bash command to transform the file to mp3.

The extension name is : DownloadHelper. You can see a demo movie on the main site of this application.The top 5 sites the application is used for are Youtube,DivX stage6,TheJesusTv,Google Video and QuickSilverScreen. The interesting thing is the fact that it works with any flash embedded site ( like imeem.com) because what it actually does is scanning the files that are used by your browser. After all, the movie/song is played on your computer so the actual file is locally downloaded at some point. The plug-in checks the cache and filters the interesting files it detects like flv.

The second step will be to use the following bash command :
ffmpeg -i file.flv -y -f mp3 -vn -acodec copy "file.mp3"

In case you don't have it you can install it with sudo apt-get install ffmpeg. This is a command line converter for linux. It will transform the file to an actual mp3.All is free and fast.

The Internet Television situation in a Linux environment

2008-01-07T12:49:00.000-08:00
The time for On-line Television is not there quite yet. If you do a search on Goggle for Free Live TV you gone find a bunch of sites , with a very poor design and embedded with annoying ads. They are all bragging about thousand and thousand of good free TV channels you can watch for free. This is of course to good to be true. The reality is this site creators look around the web for important televisions and compile a list of links to live transmission. This list is not really up to date so from the thousands of channels you can barley see 10-20 good watchable channels. The problems is deeper then this. In order for the TV channels to broadcast on-line they need licenses for Movies and other non-property transmission. This cost money and at the moment few of them see in web the next revolution in Televisions.

What can an Linux user do in such conditions ?
I will present to you 3 intermediate solutions to this so unexploited area.

1. Channel Chooser WebSite

Is a simple website with a decent web design and some channels that REALLY seem to work. Don't expect to much thow, because this website only deserve credit for the list to on-line transmissions that is not really totality dead. A few interesting broadcasts you might like are the fireplace transmission where you can see a warm looking fireplace or a cool aquarium you can use to replace your screen saver.

2.The second promising option is Zattoo Player.

This great inovation that runs even on Ubuntu disto really seems to be the first step to a true online Television solution. The problem is they have to close contracts for each country for the rights to broadcast ; so for the moment they are serios about security and don't even let you download the application if you are not in the right zone. You can trick them and google for an account and password but after you install the application your channels are again block from appearing on your screen. All of this filtering is done based on your ip so a good solution would be a decent proxy in an accepted area.

3.The true solution to Online Television in Linux is Miro aka democracy player.

This brilliant player does a simple but efficient job : keeps track of a great list of podcasts and with the use of a intuitive interface it downloads for you a lot of great shows for your entertainment and relaxation. There are a few good shows I recommend like : Geographic Channel,Forget the rules or Comedy Central and you can set the program to only play the new downloaded movies. The old movies are kept in a library and you can create a custom play list to play the podcasts in the right order. Don't expect the last HBO movies to appear on your screen but comedy shows, nature studies and great little time wasters are everywhere.

If you know any other interesting ways to find and view online television in Linux pls drop a line. A great link to a good application could really help the comunity to spend some time a little bit further from the screen.

How to download mp3 from YouTube , Ubuntu way

2007-12-31T06:44:00.000-08:00
This task becomes so trivial when you are using Ubuntu OS (Feisty or Gutsy) !

All you have to do is download a great application already developed to do this task.

Step1 - Let's start by downloading the dependencies. Fire up your terminal screen an write this commands.

sudo su
apt-get update
apt-get install xulrunner
apt-get install ffmpeg
apt-get install lame
apt-get install mpg123
apt-get ecasound

Step2 - download the application. YouTube 2 Mp3 convertor.

De-pack the tar archive and move it to a simple folder.

Install the application on an ext3 partition not on a NTFS you might have mounted on your system so that the bash script will run correctly.
Just enter the url from youtube and insert the song name manually.The default save path is /home/$user/mp3. You can change some of the files editing the bash scripts found in : yt2mp3/chrome/content/yt2mp3/. The google link to the video might change but the developer keeps a close eye on this : when the download doesn't work go back and download the new GUI version or change the script by hand.

Step 3 - Create a Shortcut

Use a shortcut on your desktop for easy access and add a cool icon for it! Use a line similar to this one :

xulrunner /$path2application/yt2mp3.xulrun

Relax and enjoy the sweet sound of music.

Best Time for your submission on Digg regarding Linux/Unix news

2007-12-31T04:16:00.000-08:00

Writing a good story is not enough to get your headline into attention. You have take into account the statistics regarding the best submission time. Using the graph we provide for you , it's easy yo understand whens the best time to submit to digg. The data is collected for over a year now and it's dynamically refreshed.

Digg.com Api is using the Eastern time zone. We can help you synchronize your submission by showing you the digg time ( EST time ).

Best Ubuntu software out there

2007-12-30T05:34:00.000-08:00
This short list will cover the needs for a common windows geek !

1.Best Torrent Client

KTorrent.The simple interface and the possibility to filter the unwanted ips from the interface make this application the best replacement for Utorrent.

2.Best Web Browser ( no surprise there )

The new beta version of Firefox 3 promise a lot of great innovations. The Linux support is greater then before and the memory issues seems to be fixed.

3. Best Mail Reader

The power of ThunderBird comes from reliability. The great plug-ins like Yahoo Web Mail make this mail application very addictive.

4. Best Internet Messenger

The Pidgin alternatives allows you to send file to yahoo servers and make a lot of simultaneous connections with different ids on different messenger networks.

5.Best Music Player

Amarok : The best music player on the market. The great features, the great design and the way it integrates into your desktop and your life make this music player the king of them all.

6. Best File Manager

Krusader : the Total Commander replacer for Linux. A great design and so much features you need a life time to discover them all. Ftp,Bookmarks,File handling ...you name it , it's there.

7. Best Burning Software

K3B : forget Nero. A few clicks .. that's all it takes to burn your Cd/Dvd. Fast , clean ,reliable.

8.Best video Player

SmPlayer - another great release. It's build on top of Mplayer but the features , the way it handles subtitles and playlists makes this a top video player.

9.Best WYSIWGY

Kompozer : the Dreamweaver alternative to web design . Forget Quanta Plus the only thing people on forums talk about. Forget hand writing the code and start bashing if you really need to. Start the design the right way.

10. Best Photo Editor

Gimp : Adobe Photoshop rival. The power is there , you just have to learn to use it. Great interface, great plugins and great stability. A true powerful photo editor.

Gaim (Pidgin) - Messenger Application

2007-12-30T05:19:00.002-08:00
Gaim is a small but very useful application. You can use it to access your Yahoo / Msn / Aol Accounts from any Linux distribution.

The big problem with this messenger is the fact that the file transfer can be a bit of a problem when trying to communicate with a Yahoo Buddy. The Yahoo protocol is not open source so the Gaim team can't find a way for the moment to overcome this problem.

The special feature that other systems have ( and Gaim doesn't support) is not a topic we want to cover for the moment. The idea behind this is to have an easy , not resource consuming method to connect to a lots of accounts at the same time. If you only want to chat : Gaim is the perfect solution.

The new version of Gaim is named Pidgin because another IT company proved they had the ownership of a similar named site.

Official Web Site

Krusader - File Manager

2007-12-30T05:19:00.001-08:00
This file manager is a really good replacement for the established Total Commander from Windows. The 2 tabs do a real good job but like so many Ubuntu applications it lacks the intuitive part.

The good points are
- the ease of use
- the look and feel
- the default fonts
- the tabs at the bottom

The bad points
- it lacks a good ftp manager
- a backup for delete files
- the fact that you can't replicate the left tab to the right one and vice versa
- the lack of innovation

Rating : 4 of 5 start.

Wine Application

2007-12-30T05:17:00.003-08:00
This open source solution is very useful when you want to run your favorite software on Ubuntu. The truth is you should always try to find a real replacement for your application not trying to run this kind of software on Linux. But for web developers or different kind of situation having a good and easy solution is a must have.

Wine will create a virtual Windows directory in it's own folder. You can try to run application from your NTFS partitions using the wine command in front of the regular exe but the best way would be to start from the beginning with the installer. Start the application from scratch and install it on the virtual path.

You can check on their site if the application you want is tested or you can request the help of professionals. The applications are not running in a simulator but all the windows calls are translated into Linux api-s.

Some Wine Tips

2007-12-30T05:17:00.001-08:00
First of all Wine is a great and very interesting solution to run Windows programs under Linux. The only thing is that you are better of sticking to the application other people tested and managed to make them compatible with the Linux platform.

The place to start will be the Wine Headquarters. Search for help , read the forum and google for information you need. Don't try to make other applications work only if you have a lot of experience with this.

After successfully installing Wine you can use the REGEDIT command just like in Windows ( run regedit in your Terminal and the well known windows will open). Some application require special registry keys that you can import from your windows registry.

There is also a hidden control panel that you can access by typing
winecfg
in your terminal. You can setup things like mapping the folders , configure your sound or making an application run in different windows modes ( Xp,Vista,NT and so on ).

There is an option : LANG=hr_EN.UTF-8 wine that can make your application use the English Language for example. ( this was not successfully tested )

The wine control will command will show you the applets some software generate in order to config them from a GUI.

This is just the cream on the top and with time and with patience all the secrets will reveal them self.The idea is not to give up and embrace the challenges.

[ Weather , Clock or External Ip ] all available in Ubuntu Gadgets gDesklets

2007-12-30T05:16:00.001-08:00
gDesklets is an Ubuntu application available via Synaptic Package Manager. This program allows you to add transparent gadgets on your desktop with ease.

After the installation you can choose what you want displayed and how.

The amount of desklets available is impressive but the cool fact is you can add external ones ( even not official ) from sources like : zencomputer

My favorite are : the clock , the external ip shower and the unofficial Weather plugin . But the list goes on and you can have things like external pictures, hard drive status ( temperature, space available ) , memory informations and even control you media players with a click of a mouse. You can move them around with your mouse and even edit their xml code in order to change their appearance.

Delete songs - Amarok Script

2007-12-29T05:43:00.000-08:00

The power of bash is really amazing. Using just a few commands you can create a simple script to delete/move the songs currently playing on your favorite music player : Amarok.

path=`dcop amarok player path`;
s1=`basename "$path"`;
mv "$path" '/media/disk/temp/'."$s1";

This 3 simple lines will move the current playing song from Amarok to your specified folder.Quoting from the manual : " dcop is a console DCOP (Desktop Communications Protocol) client." You can use it in combination with amarok to get the path of the song. The second command : basename extracts only the name of the file from the path variable. In the end we user the mv command to move the file from PathA to PathB. ( At this step you can use a command to delete the file completely). Just to be safe it's better to store the delete files in a temp directory and delete them by hand.

The second step will be to use a custom key combination to activate the script. You can use
Applications -> System Tools -> Configuration Editor -> Apps -> Metacity -> keybinding_commands to setup your favorite key shortcut.

Ubuntu File Association

2007-10-03T11:33:00.000-07:00
If you want to set up your default player for music or movies ( or any other kind of file associations ) there is a simple 1-2-3 way to do it.

1.First of all open your file with the NATIVE file manager of your desktop.

2.Right Click on the file and select Properties.

3.Select the Open-With Tab and set the right application to open your files.

The big problem for a lot of people is the fact that they are used to the way Windows manage this function. There is not shortcut for this in the System (Start) Menu.

Also some file managers you might use doesn't support this operation so the tab could not show up ( open the application with the DEFAULT file manager - Nautilus for Gnome as an example)

Ubuntu How To - Get yahoo/hotmail emails using only Thunderbird

2007-09-22T06:14:00.000-07:00
The truth is using Ubuntu is not really a Breaze. People got indoctrinated over the years and Windows is the only thing they can associate with a computer. But if you put your mind to work and decide to mimic some similar Windows functionality , I can assure you , it's possible. In the end the stable / free version you will get will worth the long hours you put into it.

I personally believe this is the final frontier in front of Ubuntu dominance : tutorials , good ones so people don't have to waist time looking for something all day long.

LET'S GET TO WORK !
This tutorial will show you how to install Thunderbird ( the last stable release for Linux ) and how to configure the application do download all your Yahoo / Hotmail mail to your local inbox.

STEP 1 - Install ThunderBird 2.x

The Ubuntu repository is not really up to date when it comes with thirt party applications. We need to add the Thunderbird repository to our local list.

>> Open a Terminal
>> Add the repository's key to your system's list
wget http://ubuntu.iuculano.it/AE3BE9AA.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -

>> Open Synaptic Manager
>> Settings -> Repositories
>> Third party softwares

Add the following sources :
deb http://ubuntu.iuculano.it feisty thunderbird
deb-src http://ubuntu.iuculano.it feisty thunderbird
>> Close
>> Synaptic Manager - > Reload
>> Search for thunderbird
>> Mark for update

At the end you should have a shinny new Mozzila ThunderBird Mail Client.

STEP 2 - Creating some accounts and setting them right

After you setup one account you will have to install 2 addons.

I have configured 2 accounts and used as pop server settings :

localhost and for port one higher then 1024.

To install an addon on Tunderbird you have to save it as a local file the use the addons menu ( Tools -> Addons ) to specify the file.

STEP 3 - Installing Addon -> Webmail

You can find the official realease at this page : Web Mail. You have to download the files and install them.

STEP 4 - How to Configure Webmail

In the POP port textbox you can use a port higher the 1024 to make it active. After you restart the Thunderbird Client the green light should be turn on.

This is the port you have to configure in your accounts.

We can see not that the addon can connect to all this yahoo servers and send/gets commands that it translated for our Mail program.

You can log every actions in a text file in case you want to consult it at a later time.

This is it . You should have a fully functional program at this point.

I hope this guide will make you understand you have to power now ( with no cost what so ever ) do download all your emails in a single centralized place with no dependencies of yahoo or msn. They are not enabling this feature ( pop3 ) for free because then their visitor number will drop.

If you have any question (regarding this tutorial) drop a comment and I will find some time to help you.

How to install Deb Files

2007-09-21T15:32:00.000-07:00
The dpkg command will help you install (debian) applications.

Make sure you are using the terminal window to have full control over your actions.

sudo dpkg -i package.deb

If you don't use apt-get or synaptic manager there is a good change you are looking for a specific application to install. In this case you may need to install some special dependencies and for that you can try apt-get -f install. After that use the above command to install your open source app.

Got UBUNTU ? Get Gnome,KDE and XFCE

2007-09-20T11:51:00.000-07:00
If you got Ubuntu you probably have installed the default desktop environment GNOME. But you probably keep hearing about desktops like KDE and Xfce and you were wondering what's this all about !

Well the idea is simple

GNOME = Usability ; KDE = Complexity ; XFCE = Simplicity

The Linux kernel stays the same but the interface , the way you interact with it can be different. The one right for you is not for me to say. You have to test it for yourself.

Now .. it's possible to have all 3 environments installed at the same time ( only one can be active).

What you need is : aptitude. Using this command you can install kde or xfce.

KDE : sudo aptitude install kubuntu-desktop

XFCE : sudo aptitude install xubuntu-desktop

After the installation is over you can LOG OUT and click the session button. Choose the environment you want to test. It's a great way to figure out for yourself which is the right desktop environment that will shine on your screen.

How To - Download An Entire Site

2007-09-12T14:20:00.000-07:00
There is a small and powerful command available that will download an entire site for you :

wget -r -np -U Mozilla my.site.com

-r = stands for
-U Mozilla - will set your identity as a Mozilla Browser

Partition/Formatting in Ubuntu

2007-09-11T23:35:00.000-07:00
After you install your Ubuntu distro , and learn to use it on a daily bases , you will want at some point to convert your ntfs partitions to ext3. Easy said , easy done : IF you have the right tools.

1. /etc/fstab
This is the file that contains all the mounted devices at start-up. The first step will be to find the partition you want to convert and comment that line.

2. Restart your system

3. If your partition is not mounted anymore then you can use the Ubuntu Partition Manager : GParted ( install it from the command line if you don't have it sudo apt-get install gparted ).

4. Backup all your files; Select the partition ; delete it and then format it as ext3.

5. The final step is to grant all the users read/write access with chmod 777 ( if it's the case )

Tip : in case you mess up your /etc/fstab file and your system doesn't start anymore you can edit your starting command line adding rw init=/bin/bash at the end.Then you will
get access to the bash command before accessing your distro and you could VI ( edit the file with this editor ) the file and remove the changes.

VI Text Editor

2007-09-04T11:54:00.000-07:00
Vi is a small but very useful text editor. The cool think about this application is the fact that you can use it in combination with putty. You can connect to a remote linux computer and start editing text files with ease.

The tricky part is to remember the shortcuts for using this editor. To start the application use it like this : vi filename

There are two modes in this text editor :

I.Command MODE

When you start you are in command mode.
You can use the arrow keys to move around but you can start using HJKL if you decide to go pro.

Copy/Paste
yy # to copy the current line
p # to paste the text in the buffer

Undo
u # to undo the last operation

Deleting a row
dd - is used to delete the current row

To save
:w

To exit and save
zz

To exit no save
:q!

II. Insert MODE

If you want to go in insert mode you can press

i # to start inserting before the current position
a # to start inserting after the current position

If you want to exit Insert Mode you can press key until you are shoure the command mode is selected.

!!! Don't press the arrow keys why in Insert mode. Use only DELETE to erase the current position.