working in mars

Apps checklist for Ubuntu 11.10

2011-12-27T08:32:00.001+08:00

Other apps I installed after upgrades and gnome-shell tasks, all available and searchable from the Ubuntu Software Center app:
1. 7z - better than Zip
2. Gimp - alternate opensource to Adobe Photoshop; handles layers and effects equally well

And some installed via CLI:
1. Image Resizer - reduces file size of images, integrated in the right-click context menu of the file manager (from a previous post)

sudo apt-get install nautilus-image-converter

sudo killall nautilus

back to ubuntu. version 11.10

2011-12-17T05:58:00.003+08:00

1. install from CD
2. command-line mode

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

3. restart
4. install codecs, flash support

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

5. install gnome 3 shell, as a replacement to Unity

sudo apt-get install gnome-shell

6. logout, and pick gnome as your session, login again
7. install the gnome tweak took and the shell extension, download some gnome themes you like, change the theme, etc. - mostly taken from this Tech Drive-in link
The Tech Drive-in link is also where I got to install some cool Gnome-shell themes, and the Faenza icon theme.8. put the window controls (maximize, close) to the right instead of the default left position (link) -

gconftool-2 --set "/apps/metacity/general/button_layout" --type string "menu:minimize,maximize,close"

9. Install Chromium Web Browser from the Ubuntu Software Center app. Same look and feel as the Google Chrome browser.
10. Install Ubuntu Tweak - yes, a release version is now available. But I notice the version for 11.10 doesn't have as much features as previous versions for older Ubuntu releases like 10.04 LTS.

Fedora 16 now!

2011-11-29T05:29:00.001+08:00

Release 16 aka Verne of FedoraGnome 3.2.1

First lesson - how do I install Google Chrome via command line?
Answer: Followed instructions here
But before I finished the first lesson, I had to grapple with some questions, such as:
1. How do I go as root in the terminal?Answer:

su -

2. What editor can I use, as there is no nano installed?Answer: gedit
Got these answers from this source
Still as root, add the virtualbox repo to yum
[root@lave ~]# gedit /etc/yum.repos.d/virtualbox.repo
And now attempting to install Virtualbox -
su -

yum install dkms

Successfully installs the pre-requisite dkms package

Unlike in Ubuntu, installing dkms does not include the gcc package, so need to install that as well

yum install gcc

Then add the virtualbox repo to yum -
[root@lave ~]# gedit /etc/yum.repos.d/virtualbox.repo
The contents of the file from the virtualbox site here
Then download the rpm file for Fedora, and perform this as root as well:

yum install VirtualBox-4.1-4.1.6_74713_fedora16-1.i686.rpm

The complete virtualbox installation for Fedora I used can be found here.

Installing Gimp goes like this:

yum install gimp

And installing Flash is a bit more involved, but level of difficulty (or ease) is the same as Ubuntu's, in my opinion. The steps for installing Adobe Flash is here.

Gnome 3 on Ubuntu 11.04 (natty narwhal)

2011-10-16T08:26:00.000+08:00

Tried the new Gnome desktop in Ubuntu 11.04 (because I am not really fond of Unity, Ubuntu's own interface):

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Final output in the terminal window showing the other packages that were held back:


Setting up sound-theme-freedesktop (0.7-0ubuntu1) ...
Setting up libcanberra0 (0.28-0ubuntu7~natty1) ...
Setting up libcanberra-pulse (0.28-0ubuntu7~natty1) ...
Setting up liblaunchpad-integration-3.0-1 (0.1.51) ...
Setting up libgnome-keyring0 (3.0.3-1~natty1) ...
Setting up gvfs (1.8.2-1~natty1) ...
Setting up gvfs-fuse (1.8.2-1~natty1) ...
Setting up gvfs-backends (1.8.2-1~natty1) ...
Setting up libgck0 (3.0.3-2ubuntu1~natty3) ...
Setting up libgcr-3-0 (3.0.3-2ubuntu1~natty3) ...
Setting up libcap2-bin (1:2.20-1) ...
Setting up gnome-keyring (3.0.3-2ubuntu1~natty3) ...
Installing new version of config file /etc/xdg/autostart/gnome-keyring-secrets.desktop ...
Installing new version of config file /etc/xdg/autostart/gnome-keyring-ssh.desktop ...
Installing new version of config file /etc/xdg/autostart/gnome-keyring-pkcs11.desktop ...
Setting up brasero-common (3.0.0-1ubuntu4~natty1) ...
Setting up libbrasero-media3-1 (3.0.0-1ubuntu4~natty1) ...
Setting up brasero-cdrkit (3.0.0-1ubuntu4~natty1) ...
Setting up brasero (3.0.0-1ubuntu4~natty1) ...
Setting up libgtksourceview-3.0-common (3.0.5-0ubuntu1~natty1) ...
Setting up libgtksourceview-3.0-0 (3.0.5-0ubuntu1~natty1) ...
Setting up libpeas-common (1.1.1.really.1.1.0-0ubuntu1~natty1) ...
Setting up libpeas-1.0-0 (1.1.1.really.1.1.0-0ubuntu1~natty1) ...
Setting up gedit-common (3.0.6-0ubuntu1~natty1) ...
Setting up gir1.2-peas-1.0 (1.1.1.really.1.1.0-0ubuntu1~natty1) ...
Setting up gedit (3.0.6-0ubuntu1~natty1) ...
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/gedit to provide /usr/bin/gnome-text-editor (gnome-text-editor) in auto mode.
Setting up libcryptui0a (3.0.2-0ubuntu2~natty1) ...
Setting up seahorse (3.0.2-0ubuntu2~natty1) ...
Setting up libgtkhtml-4.0-common (4.0.2-0ubuntu1~natty1) ...
Setting up libgtkhtml-4.0-0 (4.0.2-0ubuntu1~natty1) ...
Setting up libgtkhtml-editor-4.0-0 (4.0.2-0ubuntu1~natty1) ...
Setting up libunique-3.0-0 (3.0.0-1ubuntu1~natty1) ...
Setting up libevolution (3.0.3-0ubuntu1~natty1) ...
Setting up evolution (3.0.3-0ubuntu1~natty1) ...
Installing new version of config file /etc/xdg/autostart/evolution-alarm-notify.desktop ...
Setting up libavahi-ui-gtk3-0 (0.6.30-3ubuntu1~natty1) ...
Setting up gnome-utils-common (3.0.1-0ubuntu3~natty1) ...
Setting up gnome-system-log (3.0.1-0ubuntu3~natty1) ...
Setting up gnome-search-tool (3.0.1-0ubuntu3~natty1) ...
Setting up gnome-screenshot (3.0.1-0ubuntu3~natty1) ...
Setting up baobab (3.0.1-0ubuntu3~natty1) ...
Setting up libclutter-gst-1.0-0 (1.3.14-1~natty1) ...
Setting up libclutter-imcontext-0.1-0 (0.1.4-1ubuntu1) ...
Setting up libcluttergesture-0.0.2-0 (0.0.2.1-2ubuntu1) ...
Setting up libmx-1.0-2 (1.1.3-0ubuntu4) ...
Setting up cheese-common (3.0.2-0ubuntu1~natty1) ...
Setting up libcheese1 (3.0.2-0ubuntu1~natty1) ...
Setting up libclutter-gtk-1.0-0 (1.0.2-0ubuntu2~natty1) ...
Setting up libcheese-gtk20 (3.0.2-0ubuntu1~natty1) ...
Setting up gnome-video-effects (0.3.0-4~natty2) ...
Setting up cheese (3.0.2-0ubuntu1~natty1) ...
Setting up empathy-common (3.0.2-0ubuntu1~natty~build1) ...
Setting up nautilus-sendto-empathy (3.0.2-0ubuntu1~natty~build1) ...
Setting up eog (3.0.2-1ubuntu2~natty1) ...
Setting up evince-common (3.0.2-0ubuntu4~natty1) ...
Setting up evolution-plugins (3.0.3-0ubuntu1~natty1) ...
Setting up nautilus-data (1:3.0.2-0ubuntu2~natty1) ...
Setting up nautilus (1:3.0.2-0ubuntu2~natty1) ...
Setting up file-roller (3.0.2-0ubuntu1~natty1) ...
Setting up gcalctool (6.0.2-0ubuntu1~natty1) ...
Setting up gconf-editor (3.0.0-1ubuntu1~natty1) ...
Setting up gir1.2-gtksource-3.0 (3.0.5-0ubuntu1~natty1) ...
Setting up gir1.2-totem-plparser-1.0 (2.32.6-1~natty1) ...
Setting up libtotem0 (3.0.1-0ubuntu5~natty1) ...
Setting up gir1.2-totem-1.0 (3.0.1-0ubuntu5~natty1) ...
Setting up libgdu-gtk0 (3.0.2-1ubuntu1~natty1) ...
Setting up gnome-disk-utility (3.0.2-1ubuntu1~natty1) ...
Installing new version of config file /etc/xdg/autostart/gdu-notification-daemon.desktop ...
Setting up libgnome-media-profiles-3.0-0 (3.0.0-0ubuntu1~natty1) ...
Setting up gnome-media (2.91.2-2ubuntu1~natty1) ...
Setting up gnome-nettool (3.0.0-0ubuntu2~natty1) ...
Setting up libgtkmm-3.0-1 (3.0.1-1~natty1) ...
Setting up libwnck-3-common (3.0.2-1ubuntu1~natty2) ...
Setting up libwnck-3-0 (3.0.2-1ubuntu1~natty2) ...
Setting up gnome-system-monitor (3.0.1-1ubuntu1~natty2) ...
Setting up libvte-2.90-9 (1:0.28.2-0ubuntu2~natty1) ...
Setting up gnome-terminal-data (3.0.1-0ubuntu2~natty1) ...
Setting up gnome-terminal (3.0.1-0ubuntu2~natty1) ...
Setting up gtk3-engines (2.91.1-0ubuntu1~build2) ...
Setting up gnome-themes-selected (3.0.0-0ubuntu1~build2) ...
Setting up gnome-user-share (3.0.0-2ubuntu3~natty1) ...
Installing new version of config file /etc/xdg/autostart/gnome-user-share.desktop ...
Setting up gtk3-engines-unico (0.1.0+r69-0ubuntu1~natty1) ...
Setting up libgucharmap-2-90-7 (1:3.0.1-0ubuntu1~natty1) ...
Setting up gucharmap (1:3.0.1-0ubuntu1~natty1) ...
Setting up libgcr0 (3.0.3-2ubuntu1~natty3) ...
Setting up libgvnc-1.0-0 (0.4.3-2ubuntu2~natty1) ...
Setting up libgtk-vnc-1.0-0 (0.4.3-2ubuntu2~natty1) ...
Setting up libgtk-vnc-2.0-0 (0.4.3-2ubuntu2~natty1) ...
Setting up libgucharmap7 (1:3.0.1-0ubuntu1~natty1) ...
Setting up light-themes (0.1.8.15~natty1) ...
Setting up nautilus-sendto (3.0.1-0ubuntu1~natty1) ...
Setting up totem-common (3.0.1-0ubuntu5~natty1) ...
Setting up totem (3.0.1-0ubuntu5~natty1) ...
Setting up totem-plugins (3.0.1-0ubuntu5~natty1) ...
Setting up totem-mozilla (3.0.1-0ubuntu5~natty1) ...
Setting up vinagre (3.0.1-0ubuntu1~natty1) ...
Setting up yelp (3.0.3-0ubuntu2~natty1) ...
Setting up zenity-common (3.0.0-1~natty1) ...
Setting up zenity (3.0.0-1~natty1) ...

Some screenshots:A new panel on top -

A new dashboard called Activities -

Installing LAMP on Ubuntu 11.04

2011-09-10T17:00:00.000+08:00

Followed the instructions in this link to install LAMP.
If you get this message while restarting apache - “apache2: Could not determine the server’s fully qualified domain name, using 127.0.0.1 for localhost”
Type this in the terminal to fix the problem:

echo "ServerName localhost" | sudo tee /etc/apache2/conf.d/fqdn

and reload apache

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 reload

Back in Ubuntu 11.04 and loving it

2011-09-09T07:37:00.002+08:00

After about a month and a half of Lubuntu (11.04) in my test notebook, the new shiny Intel core i3 HP ProBook 4230s, I decided to test Ubuntu 11.04 64-bit Desktop edition.

Having made sure there was a way to disable Unity, and revert back to the classic Ubuntu, I took the plunge yesterday.

It's really quite refreshing and liberating to be back in the Gnome interface. LXDE has lost its allure for me - for now.

Everything just works: Huawei broadband modem (model E153) for the Internet, Bluetooth starts up, Weather indicator, having windows that actually remember my view settings, and yes - guilty as charged - my hunger for eye-candy is back with wobbly windows, transparent menus (care of Ubuntu Tweak), and some fancy wallpaper.

Question: Why did I choose 11.04 over the 10.04 LTS (long term support) version?
Answer: video resolution.

Testing the live CD of 10.04 ran Ubuntu with a resolution of 1024 x 768.
Testing the live CD of 11.04 produced a higher resolution - 1280 x 800.

I notice this pattern consistent with Linux distros (Centos, Fedora, OpenSuse, Debian...) based on kernel version 2.6.32 and 2.6.38, with the latter capable of producing the higher resolution when running the live CDs.

Some video to audio to mobile music player stuff

2011-09-03T09:04:00.004+08:00

Having a video file downloaded from the Internet as mp4

Objective: to make it simply as an audio file, to be able to play in my phone.

Packages needed: handbrake-gtk, audacity

1. Open the mp4 file with handbrake (screenshot example)

2. Go over the Audio tab and change the following values:
Codec -> MP3 (lame)
Bitrate -> 320
3. Click the Start button to begin conversion to m4v (MPEG-4 video) format.
4. When the conversion completes, close handbrake app, open audacity.
5. Click File - Import - Audio
6. Select the m4v file created. Importing completes (screenshot example)

7. Click File - Export
8. Select the M4A (AAC) Files (FFmpeg) format, then click Save.
9. Exit audacity, no need to save the project.

Here are the sample files, notice difference in file types and sizes (screenshot example).

Proceed to upload the m4a file to your phone.

Bluetooth in Lubuntu 11.04

2011-08-28T01:12:00.001+08:00

Man, all the while I thought there was a problem with this notebook's wifi Atheros driver, it turns out Lubuntu 11.04 doesn't install the Bluetooth apps, much less show it in the taskbar, by default.

Here it is:
1. First install the bluetooth package

sudo apt-get install bluetooth

2. Then install the personal file sharing thingy (this is needed for the bluetooth device - i.e. my phone - to be able to send files, and for the laptop to receive those files)

sudo apt-get install gnome-user-share

3. Then in the Preferences - Desktop Session Settings, put a tick mark on Bluetooth Manager. To make sure bluetooth service starts on every boot-up.

Atheros wifi + bluetooth on Lubuntu 11.04

2011-08-27T10:40:00.000+08:00

Link describing atheros wireless drivers in ubuntu 11.04, which is in the notebook I'm working on right now, this troublesome sandy-bridge HP Probook 4230s

Source: Ubuntu forum thread

sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-ath_pci.conf

and comment out the line

blacklist ath_pci

with

# blacklist ath_pci

hopefully this will make the bluetooth work.

Brain food - PHP, mySQL, Apache stuff

2011-08-20T12:46:00.001+08:00

Here are some common tasks that a newbie in PHP needs to memorize:

Restarting Apache, after doing some tweaks

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 reload

Editing the php.ini file

sudo nano /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini

php.ini to display errors, for the development web server:
After opening the php.ini file for editing, scroll down to the Error handling and logging section.

Comment out the error_reporting = ... line, copy-paste it to a new line, and change it to:

error_reporting = E_ALL

Scroll down further to the line display_errors = ... and change it to:

display_errors = On

Accessing mySQL at the command-line:

mysql --user=root --password={root's password]

Installing dotProject in Lubuntu

2011-08-13T13:15:00.002+08:00

Documentation of my experience with dotProject starts here.

Installation steps

And a review of some basic Linux commands here.

And also a review of getting / setting permissions here.
Prerequisites:
1. A working Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP machine

Move the downloaded file to the web server's root directory.

cd ~/Downloads

sudo mv dotproject-2.1.5.tar.gz /var/www

Unpack the file:

sudo tar -xzf dotproject-2.1.5.tar.gz

Delete the tar.gz file:

sudo rm dotproject-2.1.5.tar.gz

Now run the installer in the browser with this URL:
http://localhost/dotproject/install/

Then review the checklist and settle these to be resolved first:
./includes/config.php writable? - this should be writable
./files writable - this shouldn't be World Writable; come up with a more restrictive setting
./files/temp writable - this should be writable for PDF report generation
./locales/en writable - Translation files cannot be saved. Check /locales and subdirectories for permissions.

Check if we have the temp folder, and create if none:

cd /var/www/dotproject/files

mkdir temp

Then set the proper permissions:

cd /var/www/dotproject

sudo find . -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

sudo find . -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/dotproject

(source link here)

Taking care of the PHP setting use_trans_sid:
sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available

And change that section AllowOverride None to AllowOverride All:

        

                Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews

                AllowOverride All 

                Order allow,deny

                allow from all

But I still can't get this. Better study .htaccess tweaks here.

Create a new dp_user with password using phpmyadmin. Grant full access rights.
Then continue dotProject by clicking on the install button.

RDP flavor of the month

2011-07-20T21:43:00.007+08:00

packages in: remmina, lubuntu-restricted-extras

So I had to go on my knees and accept the fact that I still need RDP. And some Flash.
As a consequence, a little fatter Lubuntu becomes.

sudo apt-get install remmina

sudo apt-get install lubuntu-restricted-extras

Virtualbox 4.0.12 in Lubuntu

2011-07-19T12:06:00.003+08:00

Summary:
1. Modified a system file
2. Download, register a public key
3. Download virtualbox package for Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty)

Installing Virtualbox 4.0.12 on Lubuntu 11.04 (Natty)

1. Modified the sources.list file

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

insert the following line

deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian natty contrib

and save the modifications.
2. Download and register the Oracle public key

wget -q http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian/oracle_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -

3. Run these:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install virtualbox-4.0

4. Download and install the Virtualbox extension pack
5. Add user login to the vboxusers group (under System Tools > Users and Groups)

Configuring PLDT MyDSL modem to work with D-Link DAP-1360 Access Point

2011-07-19T06:52:00.001+08:00

This is still in a work-in-progress.

Possible leads:
1. wordpress blog

Lubuntu getting steadier

2011-07-17T15:27:00.002+08:00

Finally, a working Lubuntu 11.04

Some information:
1. 20 seconds from cold boot to user login prompt
2. 160mb memory used (with Chromium browser open)
3. Linux kernel 2.6.38-10-generic (i686)

Testing Lubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal), part 4.

2011-07-17T14:34:00.007+08:00

package in: pysdm

1. Booted my USB pmagic, and reduced the partition to 20gb. For future clonezilla backups.

2. Having a pesky prompt in Lubuntu, asking for my keyring password everytime I connect to the wifi.
Should I do this?

rm -rf ~/.gnome2/keyrings/

I wonder if this is a bug as posted in the forums.

[fix] go to Edit Connections, and edited the wireless connection to be available to all users. When I rebooted, wifi immediately connecting, and the system no longer asked for the keyring password.

3. Using Disk Utility, created the freed space of my drive as a 2nd EXT4 partition. Then as with my previous post, installed the pysdm package to automount the partition during boot-up.

Testing Lubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal), part 3.

2011-07-17T12:20:00.015+08:00

Packages out: ace-of-penguins, mtpaint, simple-scan, sylpheed, osmo
Packages in: xfce4-screenshooter, phatch

Removing some packages to trim down the Lubuntu installation further.

1. ace-of-penguins, which scares you to think that once you remove that the lubuntu-desktop package will also be removed. But not to worry, as this is only a metapackage and the lubuntu desktop will remain ok. All games will be uninstalled.

2. other packages:
mtpaint
simple-scan
sylpheed (email client), which also removes slypheed-i18n and sylpheed-plugins
osmo

Installing a screenshot capture utility, as Lubuntu doesn't have this out-of-the-box.
1. xfce4-screenshooter - has far less dependencies than ksnapshot or shutter packages

And phatch, a photo batch processor which can resize multiple images in one go, among other things.
2. phatch

Testing Lubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal), part 2.

2011-07-17T10:44:00.008+08:00

Packages in: g2ipmsg, libxp6, openmotif_2.3.3-2_i386, icaclient_11.100_i386.patched.deb

1. Install IPMSG, package name: g2ipmsg. Good thing it's in the Synaptic already.

2. Citrix Receiver now.
Resource link in Citrix: http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX125285

sudo dpkg -i openmotif_2.3.3-2_i386.deb

yields:

Selecting previously deselected package openmotif.
(Reading database ... 84668 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking openmotif (from openmotif_2.3.3-2_i386.deb) ...
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of openmotif:
openmotif depends on libxp6; however:
Package libxp6 is not installed.
dpkg: error processing openmotif (--install):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
openmotif

so...

sudo apt-get install libxp6

then repeat the openmotif package installation, which succeeds this time.

Next, install the Citrix ICA client.

sudo dpkg -i icaclient_11.100_i386.patched.deb

Accept the EULA question (YES), and the installation proceeds.

Citrix Receiver is found under the Internet sub-menu.

Testing Lubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal)

2011-07-17T09:28:00.013+08:00

Package in: b43-fwcutter

Another possible Citrix thin client candidate.

Having a bad CD day, made a boot USB instead for the Lubuntu 11.04 ISO, using my other laptop's Ubuntu startup disk creator.

Fast boot-up: under 22 seconds - time between turning on the laptop and the user id prompt.
Faster screen display: under 3 seconds - time between hitting the enter key after entering the password, and the LXDE desktop is displayed.

Looks promising.

Just can't get my wifi to work.

Issuing the terminal command:

sudo lshw -C network

yielded the following output:

  *-network UNCLAIMED     
description: Network controller
product: BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN
vendor: Broadcom Corporation
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
version: 01
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list
configuration: latency=0
resources: memory:d4100000-d4103fff

So how to get the proprietary Broadcom BCM4311 to work?

Many ways to get the driver, I suppose. Another way to do it is:

sudo lspci -vvnn | grep 14e4

which shows this output:

03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN [14e4:4311] (rev 01)
Subsystem: Broadcom Corporation Device [14e4:0465]
04:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Broadcom Corporation NetLink BCM5906M Fast Ethernet PCI Express [14e4:1713] (rev 02)

Ubuntu wifi links to resolve the issue:
1. Ubuntu forum thread
2. Ubuntu Wifi doc

An hour later...

Finally got my WIFI to work, using the 2nd link above as reference, and discovering that my firmware runs on the b43 steps, and NOT the STA at all.

I did NOT activate this: System Tools > Additional Drivers > Broadcom STA wireless driver

This did it for me instead:

sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter firmware-b43-installer

Ubuntu out, Debian in

2011-07-10T13:46:00.006+08:00

Today marks the day I switched to Debian (Squeeze). After 2 years of Ubuntu (last version I used: Lucid).

Restored a Clonezilla image of Debian6, making it much faster than a bare-metal installation.

Some early steps and observations:
1. Fonts are finer in Ubuntu on my laptop's lcd.
2. Memory utilization much lower in Debian (124mb with IceWeasel open)
3. I had to install proprietary wifi drivers. Basically followed the steps from the wiki debian, but instead of the aptitude commands, I used the Synaptic Package Manager.
4. Reinstalled Virtualbox. Downloaded the i386 debian squeeze deb package from their website, and followed instructions.
5. Along the way, had to make myself belong to the sudoers. Unlike Ubuntu, the user doesn't have this privilege by default.

6. PokerTH 8.3 in Debian 6! Just simply place:
deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian wheezy main
in my /etc/apt/sources.list, sudo apt-get update, then Synaptic, and I'm good to go.

Addendum: No pysdm package in Debian to automount a partition I just created. So I have to go a bit low level - fstab it.

1. Create the partition, format it to an ext2 80gb partition, and mount it using the Disk Utility app. Take note of the mount point. Mine was: /media/Data

2. Go into a terminal shell and get some information needed for fstab editing.
sudo sh
and execute:
fdisk -l
to get the new partition's specific dev assignment. Mine was: /dev/sda3
Make sure I have the correct mount point:
ls -lsa /media/Data
and it gave me the output I expected:

total 28
 4 drwx------ 4 roy  roy   4096 Jul 10 16:06 .
 4 drwxr-xr-x 5 root root  4096 Jul 10 16:04 ..
16 drwx------ 2 root root 16384 Jul 10 16:03 lost+found
 4 drwx------ 4 roy  roy   4096 Jul 10 16:06 .Trash-1001

3. Now go proceed to edit fstab. I added this line:
/dev/sda3 /media/Data ext2 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1

Installing a third-party package in Ubuntu 10.04, or how to install the latest version of PokerTH

2011-07-03T19:13:00.003+08:00

Getting the latest package from other people are sometimes better than the versions in the Ubuntu repositories.

Simple 3-step procedure, this one is:

Tell Ubuntu where to find the PPA (personal package archive):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pkg-games/ppa

Refresh the repositories:

sudo apt-get update

Install the package:

sudo apt-get install pokerth

Updated: These steps also work for Lubuntu 11.04.

Resizing partitions, auto-mount, and granting access to the new partition

2011-07-02T09:34:00.002+08:00

INSTALLING THE STORAGE DEVICE MANAGER
1. In Ubuntu, install the Storage Device Manager
sudo apt-get install pysdm

I'll use this to make life easier configuring to automount the new partition during boot time, instead of the fstab thingy.

CREATING THE NEW PARTITION
1. Download Parted Magic and burn it to CD or USB.
For my purposes, I installed parted magic in a USB using the Universal USB Installer in www.pendrivelinux.com.
2. Boot the computer from the USB.
3. Proceed to resize the partition.
4. Create the new partition from the reclaimed unused space. I made an ext2 partition.
5. Log off parted magic, shutdown computer, and start up Ubuntu.

FINAL TOUCHES
1. Start up System - Administration - Storage Device Manager
2. Select the new partition, and click on the Assistant button.
3. Put a check on The file system is mounted at boot time.
Note also the mount point name of your new partition. You will need it for the last step below.
4. Restart Ubuntu.
5. In a terminal window,
sudo chown lavezarez:lavezarez /media/mydata
where you replace lavezarez with your own user name, and mydata with the mount point name of your new partition.

Ubuntu 11.04 blues

2011-05-22T12:16:00.002+08:00

I don't like the Unity interface. That's all about what I have to say right now.

Changing DNS of my Ubuntu server

2011-03-13T14:39:00.000+08:00

This is related to my September 2010 post on how to configure a static IP address for a computer.
I had to revisit that post and change the IP address again today, after having bought a new router with a new LAN configuration.

Here is the how-to for specifying an explicit DNS server, to guarantee that the Ubuntu SSH server will have Internet as well.

Edit this file in the terminal:

sudo nano etc/dhcp3/dhclient.conf

Changes:
1. Remove the "domain-name-servers" from the request directive.
2. Modify the line:

prepend domain-name-servers 127.0.0.1;

by changing 127.0.0.1 to the DNS server of your Internet connection.
For my case, using Sun Broadband (Huawei usb modem), it was:

prepend domain-name-servers 202.138.128.50,202.138.128.54;

Taken from this Ubuntu Forum thread.

PLDT WeRoam on Linux Mint 10 (or Ubuntu 10.10)

2011-03-04T18:46:00.000+08:00

These PLDT support guys don't have a clue how to support their product for Linux.
Major turn-off.

I didn't have to install those drivers in their website for my version of Linux Mint.
All I had to do was plug in the ZTE MF627 modem in my USB slot and Linux Mint automatically detected the modem.

These are the settings in my network connection:

Number: *99#
User name: pldt@weroam
Password: pldt

APN: weroam
Network ID:
Type: 3g (UMTS/HSDPA)

PPP Settings:
Allow PAP as the only method.
Uncheck Use point-to-point encryption (MPPE)
Check Allow BSD, Deflate, and TCP header compression

How to resize pictures in Ubuntu

2011-02-11T19:41:00.001+08:00

Quick way to have the ability to resize big pictures. Very useful when you upload pictures to the web a lot (e.g. Facebook)

sudo apt-get install nautilus-image-converter

Then restart Nautilus:

sudo killall nautilus

When in want of resizing, right-click on the picture (or pictures) to resize, and select resize pictures from the context menu.

A dark theme for Geany

2011-02-06T21:05:00.000+08:00

Been always partial to dark themes for my editors. Studying PHP, and using Geany, I got this excellent theme.

Downloaded the zip file from code.google.com
extracted to a subfolder in my Downloads folder, e.g. darktheme

From a terminal window,

ls ~/Downloads/darktheme

then still in the terminal,

sudo cp -r ~/Downloads/darktheme/*.* ~/.config/geany/filedefs

And this is how it looks.

Update:
This theme (from Mozilla bespin) looks promising. Gotten from github.

virtualbox stuff

2011-01-30T06:12:00.002+08:00

Version 4.x changes the game somewhat from version 3.x.

To enable USBs, you'd need to download a separate file called extensions pack. USB is NOT included in the vbox additions, as in earlier versions.
Download the extensions pack using your host browser, not the guest VM.

Then shut down your VM (if it's running), and install it under File-Preferences-Extensions.

Then, THEN, make sure your Linux user id belongs to the group vboxusers. System-Administration-Users and Groups, under Ubuntu's main menu.

Only then did my USB drive work inside the guest machine.

---

Import/Export appliance - it works. I exported from v3.1 (still under the Sun logo), to v4.0.2 (Oracle logo). Different machines. Installed ssh-server on the destination laptop, installed filezilla on the source laptop, did the export locally, then did a sftp to copy the 3 virtualbox files, then on the destination laptop, did the import.

The 3 files generated during export were:
1. *.mf
2. *.ovf
3. *.vmdk (the virtual hard disk)

how to view local php files

2011-01-29T09:06:00.001+08:00

Here's just so I won't forget.

Currently my home laptop have these packages installed:
1. mysql-server, and dependencies
2. phpmyadmin, and dependencies
3. php5, and dependencies

Now wanting to play around with PHP scripting, without installing LAMP, I found out here that the default location where I should start putting my PHP files would be in /var/www.

Putting any PHP file in this directory, then viewing in my browser via http://localhost/ works.

However, I want to have my own webdev directory, under my own home folder. Trying out the tips of this link.

Great tutorial - it works!

mysql stuff - setting up a (super) user

2011-01-26T00:30:00.001+08:00

1. Install mysql-server package
2. Create a super user

mysql> CREATE USER 'monty'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'some_pass';
mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'monty'@'localhost'
    ->     WITH GRANT OPTION;
mysql> CREATE USER 'monty'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'some_pass';
mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'monty'@'%'
    ->     WITH GRANT OPTION;

3. Install phpmyadmin package

4. Go ahead and import Excel tables!

Raid 1 not starting and mounting on boot - Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick

2011-01-21T15:30:00.002+08:00

Still a work in progress.

Here are my link resources to figure this out -
Ubuntu forums #1

Ubuntu forums #2

and a new lead here.

and here's a draft:

hard disk1: /dev/sda
hard disk2: /dev/sdb, raid device: /dev/sdb1
hard disk3: /dev/sdc, raid device: /dev/sdc1
raid1 device name: /dev/md0

ARRAY /dev/md0 devices=/dev/sdb1,/dev/sdc1


mount raid1
sudo rm /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf
sudo dpkg-reconfigure mdadm

click Yes (redundancy checks), Yes (monitor daemon), enter email address, No (boot system if RAID gets degraded)

gksu gedit /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf
replace the ARRAY /dev/md0, and remove the UUID references, replace with devices=/dev/sdb1,/dev/sdc1

then rerun:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure mdadm

get UUID of the raid device:
sudo blkid

and modify fstab
gksu gedit /etc/fstab, inserting this line:

UUID=ae5f4540-59af-4e7a-84b0-ea97cc12e425  /Raid500    ext3          nodev,nosuid       0       2

The puzzle revealed
Inspecting my Ubuntu-10.04-with-RAID1 at home - which works starting up the raid and automounting it - I observed the following:

sudo blkid

reveals the following information:

dan@athena:~$ sudo blkid
/dev/sda1: UUID="7272061b-81d4-7395-e009-c51128a3b5c6" TYPE="linux_raid_member" 
/dev/sda2: UUID="c9ce349c-636a-667d-51a5-cb52c66e37ae" TYPE="linux_raid_member" 
/dev/sdb1: UUID="7272061b-81d4-7395-e009-c51128a3b5c6" TYPE="linux_raid_member" 
/dev/sdb2: UUID="c9ce349c-636a-667d-51a5-cb52c66e37ae" TYPE="linux_raid_member" 
/dev/md0: UUID="97019d30-06b0-42ef-8bfd-1699316f3012" TYPE="swap" 
/dev/md1: LABEL="raid1now" UUID="f1d9e97a-b766-4af1-bafd-ce0192aa04e1" TYPE="ext4"

I am guessing here that the /dev/sda1 and /dev/sdb1 are the swap partitions of the 2 actual physical drives. And the /dev/sda2 and /dev/sdb2 are, in turn, the ext4 partitions also of the 2 actual physical drives. And notice how both sda1 and sdb1 are the same, as well as sda2 and sdb2.

The raid device then takes new UUID values for swap (/dev/md0) and ext4 (/dev/md1).

BUT, the mdadm.conf tells a different story.

# definitions of existing MD arrays
ARRAY /dev/md0 level=raid1 num-devices=2 UUID=7272061b:81d47395:e009c511:28a3b5$
ARRAY /dev/md1 level=raid1 num-devices=2 UUID=c9ce349c:636a667d:51a5cb52:c66e37$

The mdadm.conf's md0 = blkid's sda1 (and sdb1), while its md1 = blkid's sda2 (and sdb2) - with slight variations:
Comparing blkid's sda1 (and sdb1) with mdadm's md0:

7272061b-81d4-7395-e009-c51128a3b5c6
7272061b:81d47395:e009c511:28a3b5$

and blkid's sda2/sdb2 with mdadm's md1:

c9ce349c-636a-667d-51a5-cb52c66e37ae
c9ce349c:636a667d:51a5cb52:c66e37$

So mdadm.conf references the blkid's sda/sdb UUIDs, and NOT the blkid's md0/md1 UUIDs.

Finally, fstab reveals the following:

# / was on /dev/md1 during installation
UUID=f1d9e97a-b766-4af1-bafd-ce0192aa04e1 /               ext4    errors=remoun$
# swap was on /dev/md0 during installation
UUID=97019d30-06b0-42ef-8bfd-1699316f3012 none            swap    sw           $

Fstab references blkid's md1 with it's own md1 for the ext4 partition:

blkid: f1d9e97a-b766-4af1-bafd-ce0192aa04e1
fstab: f1d9e97a-b766-4af1-bafd-ce0192aa04e1

and same with the swap partition.

Creating a bootable USB for Meego 1.1 in Ubuntu

2010-11-20T09:41:00.001+08:00

What is Meego? Yet another netbook OS.

Site reference of Meego.

1. Download the image file from Meego's website.
2. After download is complete, insert a USB in your computer. At least 1gb in size. It doesn't matter if it is formatted or not. ALL DATA WILL BE ERASED.
3. Determine the device ID assigned by Ubuntu to the USB. In a terminal window, type:

sudo fdisk -l

You will see an output similar to this:

Disk /dev/sdc: 2003 MB, 2003828736 bytes
16 heads, 32 sectors/track, 7644 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 512 * 512 = 262144 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc3072e18

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1   *          16        7644     1952832    b  W95 FAT32

Your hard disk will usually be /dev/sda. Don't pick that!

4. Unmount your USB drive.

umount /dev/sdc1

5. Run the dd command in the terminal.

sudo dd bs=4096 if=<image file> of=<usb drive>

example:

sudo dd bs=4096 if=Downloads/linux/meego-netbook-ia32-1.1.img of=/dev/sdc1

At the end of the process, you will see an output in the terminal window similar to this:

210688+0 records in
210688+0 records out
862978048 bytes (863 MB) copied, 169.138 s, 5.1 MB/s

That's it. You may now boot your netbook with the USB Meego.

Audacity in Ubuntu 10.04

2010-11-15T15:52:00.000+08:00

Make sure you have installed the ubuntu restricted package first.

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

Then to install audacity:

sudo apt-get install audacity libmp3lame0

How to resize pictures in Knoppix command-line

2010-11-13T04:35:00.003+08:00

Here's a short how-to to reduce the size of picture files downloaded from a digicam, to prepare the picture files for upload to Facebook or other social network sites.

One word: Mogrify.

sudo apt-get install imagemagick

after the package installs, go to the folder containing the images you want resized, and go ahead to resize all the pictures to your preferred size, mine being 800x600. You also have to watch the lower - upper case of the file extension for the jpeg files, it could be ALL CAPS or small caps.

mogrify -resize 800x600 *.JPG

Here is a more detailed reference.

Knoppix 6.2.1 versus Knoppix 6.2, installing flash

2010-11-06T20:42:00.001+08:00

Well, I just had to take a note on the differences here.

Knoppix 6.2.1 uses kernel 2.6.32.6, and was released January 2010.
Knoppix 6.2 uses kernel 2.6.31.6, and released two months earlier, November 2009.

And here's the simple way to install Flash in Knoppix's Iceweasel browser, via terminal window:

sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree

Knoppix 6.2.1 - setting system date and time

2010-11-06T20:38:00.002+08:00

Installing the correct system date and time
In a terminal window, run as root:

dpkg-reconfigure tzdata

and search for your region and city. Mine is Asia/Manila.

Open the autoconfig file as follows:

sudo nano /etc/init.d/knoppix-autoconfig

Go to line 355 - ctrl+w, then ctrl-t - to the entry KTZ="$(getbootparam tz)" and change that to:
KTZ='Asia/Manila'

substituting your own region and city. Save the file - ctrl+x.

In the terminal window, again:

sudo apt-get install ntpdate

If apt generates an error, try updating the repositories first, like:

sudo apt-get update

then try to get the ntpdate package again.

After ntpdate package is installed, edit the ntpdate config file:

sudo nano /etc/default/ntpdate

The changes I did on my configuration:

NTPDATE_USE_NTP_CONF=no
NTPSERVER="0.asia.pool.ntp.org 1.asia.pool.ntp.org 2.asia.pool.ntp.org 3.asia.pool.ntp.org"

substituting your own ntp.org servers in that line. You may google your ntp server by googling something like sydney ntp server, for example.

Then save the file. Done!

My reference is this Knoppix forum thread.

Globe Tattoo Huawei modem e1552 on Ubuntu 10.04

2010-10-30T09:12:00.001+08:00

I posted the how-to in the Ubuntu forums to make it work in my 512mb grand, old IBM Thinkpad R40e laptop.

Linux basic commands

2010-10-15T17:43:00.002+08:00

Show hard disk space:

df -h

Show memory details:

cat /proc/meminfo

Create a folder:

mkdir somefolder

rSync-ing files from your local to a remote (Ubuntu) host

2010-09-18T05:15:00.003+08:00

Prerequisites:
1. On the local computer, Ubuntu 10.04 desktop installed.
2. On the remote, Ubuntu 10.04.1 Server edition installed. Configured simply as an OPENSSH server.

Objective:
Backup my Thunderbird files located at /home/user/.thunderbird to the remote host.
Use the fantastically fast rsync command to quickly sync folders between my local machine and remote host. Connect securely by ssh.

Steps:
1. Create ssh keys for my desktop & server, so my ssh connection won't need to ask for passwords everytime I connect to the server.
On my desktop Ubuntu terminal window, generate the public/private key pair. Accept default values, hitting Enter for all the prompts asked. This would mean accepting the default file name for the key, and having an empty passphrase:

ssh-keygen -t dsa

Move the public key over to the remote host:

ssh-copy-id username@remotehost

replacing username for your actual user name, and remotehost with the IP address of the server, like

ssh-copy-id lavezarez@10.42.43.10

A possible pitfall to avoid - ensure you have the same user name on BOTH your local and server machines.
Login to the server via ssh, and ensure correct permissions to the public key.

ssh lavezarez@10.42.43.10
chmod 600 .ssh/authorized_keys

2. Create the backup destination folder in the server.
You may use Nautilus to connect via SFTP to the server. Press Ctrl-L to open up the location bar, and type sftp://username@remotehost (e.g. sftp://lavezarez@10.42.43.10)
Open up the extra pane (on the View menu of Nautilus) or hotkey F3. That way you can see folders on your local and server machines at the same time, much like winscp for Windows.

You may want to change permissions for the new folder using chmod. Octal 750 is a usual permission value.

3. Finally the rsync. Here's a sample executable script -

#!/bin/sh
rsync --progress -avhe ssh --delete /home/lavezarez/.thunderbird/ lavezarez@10.42.43.10:emailbackup/
echo -n Press return to continue...
read ans

---
An initial rsync for a 3gb-sized folder took about 4 minutes to transfer to the server, running on a typical 100mbps LAN connection.

Running the rsync after that completes the transfer process much faster, under 5 seconds, 10 seconds, etc. depending on what files changed in the source.

---
Changing ssh servers:
Should you change one server with another, while maintaining the same IP address, you must clear your /home/<user>/.ssh/known_hosts file before attempting to ssh to that server.

How to configure a static IP address in an Ubuntu machine

2010-09-16T08:08:00.000+08:00

Edit the /etc/network/interfaces file

sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces

and change the following lines

# The primary network interface
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

into a similar pattern as:

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 10.0.0.100
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 10.0.0.1

backup up a windows desktop to an ubuntu server

2010-09-15T07:58:00.011+08:00

Prepare the server. Install Ubuntu Server 10.04.1, and choose the OPENSSH option for server type.

On Windows client:
- install cwRsync
- create your working folder for rSync, e.g. c:\sshstuff
- copy the cwrsync.cmd batch template from cwrsync's install folder to the working folder
- set the windows system environment PATH variable to include the cwRsync folders
- get the user name, e.g. lavezarez

On the Ubuntu server:
Create a user id to user for ssh rsync operations.
- modify the /etc/adduser.conf file and change -> DIR_MODE=0750
- create the user ID

sudo adduser backuper

and follow the prompts.

Below are repetitive steps for each Windows machine to backup:

Back on the windows client:
- Generate ssh public & private keys

ssh-keygen -q -b 1024 -t rsa -f cwrsync -N ''

Assign a unique file name for the key. It shouldn't be cwrsync all the time.
- via winscp
Create the destination folder for the Windows machine's files.
Copy the pub key to the ubuntu server (via winscp or other means), at /home/user location. Multiple desktops to backup can have a SINGLE Ubuntu user login, having multiple pub keys.

back on the ubuntu server:
- logged on with the windows user's name,

these steps untested, from cwRsync FAQ --

mkdir -p .ssh
cat cwrsync.pub > .ssh/authorized_keys
ln -s .ssh/authorized_keys .ssh/authorized_keys2
chmod 755 home/backuper home/backuper/.ssh
chmod 644 home/backuper/.ssh/authorized_keys
chown backuper.ssh .ssh/authorized_keys

You only have to do all these steps the first time. The only step you repeat for each Windows machine is the cat command.

For 2nd and other Windows machine, the pub key must be copied to Ubuntu and appended to its authorized_keys2, much like:
->copy the foo.pub file via winscp to Ubuntu server.
->ssh ubuntu server, login as the backuper user
then type:

cat foo.pub >>~/.ssh/authorized_keys2

This tip taken from this site.

It may also be easier for you to set the permission octals and ownership using winscp.

back on the windows:
Create backup folder in ubuntu via winscp
then try the rsync NOW!

Typical rSync options: --progress --delete -avhe "ssh -i /cygdrive/c/sshbackup/mykey"
where sshbackup is the folder where the private ssh key is stored in Windows
and mykey being the actual private ssh key file.

References:
cwRync reference
Ubuntu server openssh reference
Ubuntu server adding users reference

Installing Tomcat 6 in Ubuntu 10.04

2010-09-05T11:35:00.000+08:00

New adventure - Java web application development.

Packages installed so far:

sudo apt-get install tomcat6 tomcat6-common tomcat6-examples tomcat6-docs tomcat6-admin

How to send a video privately in Facebook

2010-08-27T07:25:00.001+08:00

You can send a video in Facebook to a specific person only via Home → News Feed

Enter your news feed message for the person – example: “This is my video”

Attach your video file. After entering your text message inside the box, click on the video Icon below the box.
Choose between Record a Video, or Upload a Video, depending if you will record a video now on your webcam (connected to your PC, or built-in your laptop) or you already have a file in your computer.

Follow the prompts.

Record a small video, small meaning a record time maximum of 30 seconds.

Choose the specific person to send the video to. Click on the Padlock icon beside the Share button.

Choose the last option – Customize.

Choose Specific People in the Make this visible to section. Type the name of the person in the space provided.

Click on the Save Setting button.

Lastly, Click on Share button to send your news feed video to the person .

Dismal AntiX M8.5 install

2010-07-10T10:06:00.000+08:00

Got the itch again, and attempted to replace my existing Knoppix 6.2 with this distro but testing its capabilities for painless auto-detection of my Huawei e160 broadband modem and making it share the Internet connection with my other computers proved frustrating.

Checking the free memory during its idle state via:

free -m -t

reported around 80mb used. Touted as a lightweight distro, it didn't come close to matching Knoppix 56mb record, though.

So it was a no-go, with me ending up a bit more faith and happier to keep Knoppix (for now).

Linux minimal install - Knoppix 6.2

2010-07-07T04:14:00.003+08:00

After just 2 days, I had to dump the Ubuntu 9.10 minimal and go back to Knoppix because the computer kept freezing. Here are my notes for this 3rd re-install of Knoppix.

Here are the magic numbers for this install:
Memory on idle mode:
Used: 55mb, Free: 184mb
on swap space -
Used: 0mb, 1027mb

Kernel: 2.6.31.6 - based on the Knoppix live CD
---
enabling flash:

sudo su
apt-get update
apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree

reboot

in iceweasel, make sure to allow youtube full access - if you have noScript add-on

---
setting correct time:
source: Knoppix forum thread

get your time server nearest your location: Clock servers (www.pool.ntp.org)

sudo su
-- get your timezone

dpkg-reconfigure tzdata

-- edit the autoconfig file and put in your timezone
line 357 from to or whatever location

leafpad /etc/init.d/knoppix-autoconfig

-- install ntpdate

apt-get install ntpdate
leafpad /etc/default/ntpdate

changes:
NTPDATE_USE_NTP_CONF=no
NTPSERVERS="0.asia.pool.ntp.org 1.asia.pool.ntp.org 2.asia.pool.ntp.org 3.asia.pool.ntp.org"

Minimal Install - Ubuntu 9.10 LXDE on a 256mb RAM Intel Celeron desktop

2010-07-03T15:12:00.000+08:00

These are my notes on this install. A working Internet connection is a must, the faster, the better - especially for step 2 with about 100mb+ worth of downloads to do.
I tried several distros based on Ubuntu 10.04 but for some reason, the video always gets borked. And wanting a kernel more recent than Knoppix 6.2, I settled for Ubuntu 9.10 - having a kernel 2.6.31-14 after installation, and a 2.6.31-22 after the post-install update.

1. Followed instructions here BUT only up to the point where you do a reboot (currently step 21).
2. On a terminal window, type the following in sequence:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -y install xorg xinit gdm lxde network-manager-gnome abiword gnumeric update-manager

Compared to the author's original script, this list of packages is more bare-bone for my specific need, that is, to have a desktop whose primary purpose is to be a router for my Internet access, can do wordprocessing and spreadsheets, can do surfing for non-flash websites like Facebook, no need for multimedia - take away alsa, no need for games...
For a future experiment, if ever, instead of the gdm package - which required a whopping 89mb download - try the slim login manager instead.

3. Reboot the computer.
4. During login, right before entering the password, select LXDE in the session dropdown.
LXDE shaves off about 20mb RAM compared to GNOME

5. Fix the network manager applet so it shows in the LXDE bottom panel.
Type in a terminal window:

gksu leafpad  /etc/xdg/autostart/nm-applet.desktop

Then edit the OnlyShowIn option to be like:

OnlyShowIn=GNOME;XFCE;LXDE

6. Save the file and again reboot. The network manager applet should now appear in the panel.
7. Fix the "device not managed" for the wired network connection.
Again, in a terminal window:

gksu leafpad /etc/network/interfaces

then comment out the two lines under the primary network interface, like so:

#auto eth0
#iface eth0 inet dhcp

8. Install a lightweight browser. This is a toss-up right now, so I installed two browsers.

sudo apt-get install epiphany-browser midori

end of install

9. Configure the shared Internet connection. and yes (!) it works.

If this lasts 1 month of operations, it may seem I finally got the silver bullet.

How to hide photos and videos you are tagged in from the rest of the (Facebook) world

2010-06-19T08:49:00.000+08:00

As of today, these settings in Facebook still applies:

Go to Account - Privacy Settings.
Under the section Sharing on Facebook, click on the Customize Settings link.
Scroll down to the section Things other share.
On the setting Photos and videos I'm tagged in, click on the options and choose Custom.
The Custom Privacy pop-up appears. Change the Make this visible to setting to Only Me.

Ubuntu Network Printing

2010-06-17T15:20:00.018+08:00

Setup made for:

( x ) Printer Server - Ubuntu 9.10

( x ) Client desktop - Ubuntu 10.04

On the printer server:

1. Install HPLIP package. Easy way is to install it via Ubuntu Software Center (from the Applications menu option).

2. Open System -> Administration -> Printing, then click on Server -> Settings. Make sure to put a check on the setting Publish shared printers connected to this system.

3. Save settings, and on a terminal window, type:

sudo /etc/init.d/cups restart

On the Ubuntu client desktop:
1. Open System -> Administration -> Printing.
2. Click the Add button, then expand the list of Network Printers.
3. Click on Find Network Printer then on the host field, type in the IP address of the printer server. Click the Find button.
4. Click the Verify button (to see if there will be any errors), and then the Forward button.

On the Windows client desktop:
1. Add a new network printer, and choose connect to a printer on the Internet
Enter in the format:

http://{hostname}:631/printers/{printername}

with hostname = IP address, and printername as the same name of the printer in the printer server.

Ubuntu 10.04 Netbook Edition (UNE)

2010-05-08T13:52:00.003+08:00

First, download the Ubuntu UNE file, and prepare the bootable USB that you will be using to install UNE to your netbook PC. The steps and download link can be found here: http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download-netbook

You must also know how to setup your netbook's BIOS so that it will boot from the USB, not your hard disk. If you don't know how, there are a lot of references in the Internet, such as this one. Try googling "how to boot from a usb"

Second, you must be sure to be connected to the Internet.

Here's a picture of the netbook, with the USB and Internet (blue cable).

1. Start up your netbook, with the UNE usb drive. A few seconds later, if all is well, you should see the Ubuntu splashscreen and its purple wallpaper.

2. On the Welcome screen, click on Install Ubuntu button. It will then setup your clock.

3. Tell Ubuntu where you are by clicking on the map. Then click on the Forward button.

4. On the keyboard layout, I never had to do anything but click the Forward button.

5. On the prepare disk space, I chose the erase and use the entire disk, since I was prepared to completely format the netbook. This is also the option to pick if you are installing Ubuntu on a new computer.

I worked blind at this point, as the buttons didn't fit on the netbook's tiny 8-inch screen. I pressed the TAB key about 4 times to get to the invisible Forward button.

6. On the Who are you screen, fill-up the blanks and don't forget your password. Then click the Forward button.

7. Finally, ready to install! Go ahead and click on the Install button.

8. A progress bar will now appear. This will take a short or long time to complete, depending on your Internet connection's speed. After it completes, click the OK button to restart the computer.

Here's the netbook, after the restart.

Eight steps to install - not bad!

Here's a good place to go next.

Netbook specs:

Brand - Blue (made in China)
CPU - VIA C7-M 1000MHZ
1 gigabyte memory
40 gigabyte hard disk, 31 gig free space after installation
8" LCD screen

Eye-candy on Ubuntu Lucid Lynx

2010-05-03T13:41:00.000+08:00

My desktop:

Cool transparent menus:

Lucid apps replaced

2010-05-02T20:10:00.004+08:00

Not too happy with some apps that come pre-installed in Lucid.

1. Empathy out, Pidgin in.
2. Evolution out, Thunderbird + Lightning in.
3. gnome-screenshot out, Shutter in.

To remove apps in 1 & 2, I used Ubuntu-tweak. Nice app, this one.
Helped make it easier to install the following:

1. Pidgin - for Yahoo, MSN messenger
2. Shutter - for getting screenshots
3. VLC - for my music, movies
4. Gimp - for my photo-editing
5. Audacity - for my audio-editing
6. Dia - for my flowcharts, diagrams, Visio-like
7. Chromium web browser - just for variety, in case I get bored with FireFox

For these, I used Ubuntu's Synaptic Package Manager:
8. Thunderbird 3 - my office email
9. Ubuntu-restricted-extras - for a whole lot of YouTube viewing, Java for Firefox
10. checkgmail - for my multiple GMail accounts
11. g2ipmsg

And some manual installations:
12. GoogleEarth from the Medibuntu package, pretty simple double-click on the debian package
13. Truecrypt - another simple install double-click on the deb package

cool lucid!

2010-05-02T18:53:00.001+08:00

Pleasant surprises in Ubuntu 10.04:

These packages are now in the repositories by default, making installation a breeze, via Synaptic Package Manager.

1. Thunderbird 3
2. IPMsg (package name: g2ipmsg)

The latter renders my previous IPMsg posts obsolete with Lucid.

Thunderbird 3.xx on Ubuntu

2010-04-28T06:21:00.002+08:00

Note: These steps only apply to Ubuntu versions prior to 10.04. Lucid Lynx already has Thunderbird 3 in its repositories.

Thunderbird 3 repository you add to your sources list to make Ubuntu automatically detect Thunderbird updates.

Testing this in Ubuntu 10.04 - from a fresh install.
1. From a terminal window, type:

echo -e "\ndeb http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/ubuntuzilla/mozilla/apt all main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list > /dev/null

2. Open Synaptic Package Manager and search for Thunderbird

3. Go and install.

This is a departure from my first approach from previous posts - that of downloading directly from the Thunderbird website and installing manually.

Taken from this Linux Mint post from user remoulder.

Back in Blogger

2010-04-25T23:21:00.000+08:00

Left Blogger for Wordpress, and now back again.
Since having my own domain name, discovery: Wordpress won't allow you to map your custom domain to your WP (free) blog without paying first. Hurrah for Blogger for giving this service for free.

Now, I'm mentally spent after struggling, and finally coming up with a decent way to show code blocks in my blogs.

Good thing Blogger allows you to change and tweak the CSS innards - another thing that you'd have to pay for in WP, that you get for free in Blogger.

Here's my custom pre tag inserted:

.post pre {
  background: #D8D8D8; 
  padding: 1em 5px; 
  overflow: auto;
  margin: 7px 0; 
  width: 563px; 
  font: 1.1em Consolas, Courier New, sans-serif;
  color: #000000;
  font-size: 1.1em;
  font-weight: bold;
  border: 1px dashed #424242; 
}

Changing the overflow setting from hidden to auto gave the desired horizontal scroll bar for long text, much the same way I had in WP.
Fonts, padding, and some other pieces were borrowed from the original Titan theme in WP.

Email notifier for multiple GMail accounts

2010-04-24T16:40:00.000+08:00

In Synaptic Manager, install the package checkgmail
Installing it in Ubuntu 9.10 fetches its latest version 1.13+svn43-0ubuntu1.

These steps demonstrate setting up 2 gmail accounts for checkgmail to notify you with:
1. Set up your first, and default profile
Applications > Internet > CheckGMail

2. After that works, quit checkgmail to setup your 2nd profile.

3. Open a terminal window, and type the following, replacing the my2nd word with your preferred profile name:

checkgmail -profile=my2nd

4. After that works, quit checkgmail again.

5. To make the two checkgmail profiles to automatically start at boot-up,
System > Preferences > Startup Applications
Click Add to add your default profile.

sources of the bits and pieces I put together for this post:
1. how to check emails for multiple gmail accounts - ubuntu thread
2. how to make checkgmail automatically startup in ubuntu (not the exact steps, but heck I got the pattern)

Beta 2 of Ubuntu Lucid Lynx

2010-04-17T12:31:00.001+08:00

Installed packages after the CD install:

1. Ubuntu restricted extras - to enable Flash in sites that need it (e.g. YouTube) and java-enabled sites (e.g. hearts.vex.net)

2. NTP package to update the time via Internet time servers

Kernel crash reported. I think I would need to disable ACPI in Grub during boot. From terminal window:

cd /etc/default
gksu gedit grub

then edit the line:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

with this:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi=off"

Reference: Ubuntu documentation on grub2

Avast engine Invalid Argument fix

2010-04-12T17:28:00.002+08:00

Thanks, Zilog, your how-to with one line of code worked and I no longer receive the message:

An error occurred in avast! engine: Invalid argument

I'm using Ubutu 9.10, Kernel Linux 2.6.31-20-generic, GNOME 2.28.1
To reiterate the how-to, I opened a Terminal window and typed:

gksu nautilus

1. Navigate to the etc/init.d folder
2. Locate the rcS file
3. Right-click the file, and chose [i]Open with Other Application[/i].
4. Select gEdit for the editing job.
5. Insert the line

echo 128000000 &gt;/proc/sys/kernel/shmmax

before the exec line.

Final output of the file was:

#! /bin/sh
#
# rcS
#
# Call all S??* scripts in /etc/rcS.d/ in numerical/alphabetical order
#
echo 128000000 &gt;/proc/sys/kernel/shmmax
exec /etc/init.d/rc S[/code]

Then I rebooted, started Avast by:

gksu avastgui

and no more error message ;D

Removing trash items as Root

2010-04-11T18:32:00.001+08:00

Items placed in the trash as a root user, using:

gksu nautilus

are NOT in the usual trash bin that you can easily empty.

How-to:
1. Go back to gksu nautilus, press CTRL-H to show hidden files and navigate to -

root/.local/share/Trash/files

2. Select the files you want deleted (CTRL-A, or SHIFT+right-click each file)
3. Press SHIFT-DEL on the keyboard.
4. Confirm the deletion by clicking on the OK button.
5. Then repeat steps 2-4 for this location:

root/.local/share/Trash/info

6. Close the Nautilus application, then exit the terminal window.

Code below doesn't work for me; when I tested deleting trash via the terminal window, the items remain in the Trash folders.

sudo rm -rf ~/.local/share/Trash/files
sudo rm -rf ~/.local/share/Trash/info

gedit plugins for Ruby on Rails

2010-04-02T18:07:00.002+08:00

Note: Appears incompatible with Ubuntu 10.04; plug-ins cannot be enabled after install.

Source of tarball with useful gedit plugins here.

Thanks to Alexandre's blog (spanish).

Installing:
After downloading the tar ball file, in the terminal window

$ cd lexrupy-gmate-b5cc3f9
$ sudo ./install.sh

Answer "y" to the question that follows. Output is:

Do you want to activate default plugin and configuration set? [y,N]:y
Configuration set.

Launch gedit. I now have class browser and nice Textmate color themes.
I would still need to explore on its features, though.
List of plugins:

Find in Files
Split View
Advanced Bookmarks
Align
Class Browser
Completion
Find Open
Gemini
Goto File
Multi Edit
Pastie
Quick Hightlight Mode
Rails Extract
Rails Hot Commands
Rails Hot Keys
Ruby on Rails loader
Smart Indent
Snap Open
Tab Switch
Text Tools
To Do
Trail Save
Zen Coding

Skype in Ubuntu

2010-04-01T16:50:00.001+08:00

Reference: Ubuntu how-to

1. Update the package manager's sources

echo "deb http://download.skype.com/linux/repos/debian/ stable non-free #Skype" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list > /dev/null

2. Get the Apt key, to allow future updates to happen

gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys 0xd66b746e && gpg --export --armor 0xd66b746e  | sudo apt-key add -

3. Install the Skype package

sudo aptitude update && sudo aptitude install skype

Installing Java for my Xubuntu Firefox

2010-04-01T06:14:00.001+08:00

Xubuntu 9.04, Firefox 3.5.8
But Java won't run in my browser for my favorite hearts game on the Web.
In the terminal window:

java -version

shows -

java version "1.6.0_0"
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (IcedTea6 1.6.1) (6b16-1.6.1-3ubuntu1)
OpenJDK Client VM (build 14.0-b16, mixed mode, sharing)

sudo update-java-alternatives -l

shows -

java-6-openjdk 1061 /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk

To run Java applets in OpenJDK, I had to install this plugin:

sudo apt-get install icedtea6-plugin

Restarted the browser, and I'm done. Java applet now working.
Reference: Ubuntu Forums thread

Sample post for theme selection

2010-03-31T14:23:00.001+08:00

A theme at last! credits at the bottom.
<code> - shaded, mono-spaced

this is a code block test and
this is the second line for the code block test with a longer ending that would word wrap or what?

<blockquote> - indented, italics

this is a blockquote test and
this is the second line for the blockquote test with a longer ending that would word wrap or what?

<pre> - scrollbars and shaded! only a few themes have this feature.

this is a pre tag test and
this is the second line for the pre tag test with a longer ending and the last of the lot. Word wrapped or scrollbar?

[code] - nice and neat.
[code]what does this do? first line
this is the second line with a long text to emphasize behavior whether word wrap will occur or a scrollbar. [/code]

Executable scripts

2010-03-30T04:39:00.001+08:00

Short notes on how to make a script executable:
In the terminal window, startup your editor (e.g. gedit) and open the bash file.
Put this on the first line of the script
#!/bin/bash

for Python scripts, this would be -
#!/usr/bin/python
Save the script.
Still in the terminal window, run this -
chmod +x {name of script}

From Blogger to Wordpress

2010-03-28T07:53:00.001+08:00

Didn't think I would need to look for another blog website to put down my travel journal through the Ubuntu forest, but here I am. Why? I noticed lately when I edit my blog posts or do new blogs, the browser freezes and just keeps on saying that it is refreshing the page.

Opening two tabs in my Firefox, one for Wordpress, another for Blogger, the former is noticeably faster to load. This quirkiness happens in both Firefox and Chrome.

Lastly, Wordpress allowed me to import all my posts from Blogger! Very thoughtful feature: Easy migration always sells :-)

Installing RoR in Ubuntu 9.10

2010-03-27T20:17:00.001+08:00

In a terminal window, install the necessary packages:

sudo apt-get install ruby build-essential libopenssl-ruby ruby1.8-dev
sudo apt-get install rubygems libsqlite3-dev

then Rails -

sudo gem install rails
sudo gem install sqlite3-ruby

and put the path in bash...

pico .bashrc

at the end of my .bashrc file

export PATH=/var/lib/gems/1.8/bin:$PATH

then update Gems and check the versions -

sudo gem update --system
gem list --local

The output:

*** LOCAL GEMS ***

actionmailer (2.3.5)
actionpack (2.3.5)
activerecord (2.3.5)
activeresource (2.3.5)
activesupport (2.3.5)
rack (1.0.1)
rails (2.3.5)
rake (0.8.7)
sqlite3-ruby (1.2.5)

desktop

2010-03-22T04:27:00.001+08:00

here's my desktop after playing around cairo-dock, iconfinder.net, and the wild shine custom theme.

Projector on Ubuntu [solved]

2010-03-17T14:39:00.001+08:00

9.10 doesn't come out-of-the-box with an xorg.conf!
Created my own first, taken from the posts of the Ubuntu forums (search tag: no xorg.conf)
Then used this Ubuntu post to set it up somewhat; I used the custom scripts below.
1. Script to turn on VGA:

#!/bin/bash
# ~/Scripts/1024scale.sh
# change display settings to clone mode, 1024x768 pix for VGA (projector) and scales it to the resolution of 1024x600  of the internal display
xrandr --newmode "1024x768" 63.50  1024 1072 1176 1328  768 771 775 798 -hsync +vsync
xrandr --addmode VGA1 1024x768
xrandr --fb 1024x768
xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768
xrandr --fb 1024x768 --output LVDS1 --mode 1024x768 --scale 1x1 --panning 0x0

2. Script to turn off VGA, and revert my laptop's 1280 x 800 resolution:

#!/bin/bash
# ~/Scripts/1024off.sh
# Sets VGA output to 1024x768 (native resolution for most projectors) and sets internal display to off
xrandr --output VGA1 --off
xrandr --fb 1280x800 --output LVDS1 --mode 1280x800 --auto

Solving my projector VGA output in Ubuntu

2010-03-17T14:27:00.002+08:00

9.10 doesn't come out-of-the-box with an xorg.conf!
Created my own first, taken from the posts of the Ubuntu forums (search tag: no xorg.conf)
Then used this how-to to set it up somewhat; I used the custom scripts below.

1. Script to turn on VGA:

#!/bin/bash
# ~/Scripts/1024scale.sh
# change display settings to clone mode, 1024x768 pix for VGA (projector) and scales it to the resolution of 1024x600  of the internal display
xrandr --newmode "1024x768" 63.50  1024 1072 1176 1328  768 771 775 798 -hsync +vsync
xrandr --addmode VGA1 1024x768
xrandr --fb 1024x768
xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768
xrandr --fb 1024x768 --output LVDS1 --mode 1024x768 --scale 1x1 --panning 0x0

2. Script to turn off VGA, and revert my laptop's 1280 x 800 resolution:

#!/bin/bash
# ~/Scripts/1024off.sh
# Sets VGA output to 1024x768 (native resolution for most projectors) and sets internal display to off
xrandr --output VGA1 --off
xrandr --fb 1280x800 --output LVDS1 --mode 1280x800 --auto

Virtualbox 3.1 in Karmic

2010-03-16T14:02:00.002+08:00

Ubuntu Karmic uses the OSE (open source edition) of Virtualbox, which I didn't particularly like because of the limitations - no USB support, for one.

Resource site: http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads

I downloaded the full package from the Virtualbox site here.

Then added to the end of my sources.list file the deb reference:

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

at the end of the file -

deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian karmic non-free

and ran this in the terminal:

wget -q http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian/sun_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -

checked if I needed dkms package (to ensure that the VBox kernel gets updated when the Linux kernel is)

sudo apt-get install dkms

and finally the VirtualBox package itself:

sudo apt-get install virtualbox-3.1

Ruby on Rails installation

2010-03-14T05:20:00.001+08:00

Used this Ubuntu resource but simplified:
Open a terminal window and type in these:
sudo aptitude install ruby build-essential libopenssl-ruby ruby1.8-dev
then skipped apache, and other of the web servers - as I was going to use Webrick, the default web server that comes bundled with Ruby.
Install Gems and SQLLite...
sudo apt-get install rubygems libsqlite3-dev
and now Rails ...
sudo gem install rails
sudo gem install sqlite3-ruby
and put the path in bash...
pico .bashrc
at the end of my .bashrc file
export PATH=/var/lib/gems/1.8/bin:$PATH
then update Gems...
sudo gem update --system
Post-install validation:
Check my gems installed...
gem list --local
The output:

*** LOCAL GEMS ***

actionmailer (2.3.5)
actionpack (2.3.5)
activerecord (2.3.5)
activeresource (2.3.5)
activesupport (2.3.5)
rack (1.0.1)
rails (2.3.5)
rake (0.8.7)
sqlite3-ruby (1.2.5)

Back in Ubuntu (still Karmic)

2010-03-13T11:05:00.001+08:00

I'm back in Ubuntu after nearly a month in Linux Mint, loving it, then saddened by the loss of sound and inability to use the LCD out, then finally deciding to what-the-heck it all and reformatted my hard disk.

Steps:
1. Do fresh install from the Live CD
2. Perform ALL detected package updates
3. Removed Evolution (from Ubuntu Software Center)
4. Removed Empathy (from USC)
5. Installed Pidgin (from USC)
6. Installed Thunderbird 3.0.3 (downloaded from Mozilla)
- it's a tar.bz2 file, untar in a user-created folder
- create a launcher pointing to the thunderbird file
7. Install the Lightning add-on
8. Create my office profile in Thunderbird, complete with the POP & SMTP settings
9. Copy my backup profile folder to the new profile folder
10. Install Flash in my Firefox from here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats/Flash
11. Install VLC, making sure multiverse repositories (in Synaptic) are checked. Also used this URL for reference: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-ubuntu.html
I didn't go the path of the PPA (as my older post advised); instead just picked the VLC package in Synaptic.

YES! I GOT SOUND! - 13 March 2010 1313h

12. Reinstall IPMsg using my old posts as reference.

Now on to Ruby on Rails...

Plustek OpticSlim Plus M12 in Ubuntu Karmic Netbook remix

2010-03-05T14:50:00.001+08:00

1. Install SANE package (or is it XSANE)?
2. Downloaded the scanner's firmware file from the link in this URL: http://gkall.hobby.nl/gt6816-07b3-0412.html

that was it!

Installing Smartbro USB modem in Ubuntu 9.10 Netbook Remix

2010-03-05T14:43:00.001+08:00

Here are the steps I did to successfully install Smartbro in Ubuntu Karmic Netbook edition:
1. Found a PPA from a Linux user, updated my software sources and got his key, beginning with this link: http://www.greenhughes.com/content/zte-mf627-easy-way
2. Smartbro worked but not all the time.
3. Found another link, this time in the Ubuntu Forums. post #8 here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1065934

this was the turning point: change usb.product_id from 0015 to 0031

and learning the significance of using lsusb in the Terminal Window.

Linux Mint 8 - Fluxbox edition

2010-02-26T13:57:00.001+08:00

This edition of Linux Mint works great on my old IBM Thinkpad R40e.
BUT... some applications (e.g. Decibel Audio Player) shows weird, garbage display. Must be the video driver.

So looking around, found out that this laptop uses ATI Radeon drivers, and found this link in the AMD website.

Linux Mint 8 (Helena)

2010-02-23T20:09:00.001+08:00

Packages for the workplace:

1. Google Chrome - downloaded .deb package from Google website, with update to etc-sources list

2. Thunderbird 3 - tar.gz download; uninstall the Thunderbird 2 first, then run the thunderbird file. Not as painless an installation as Chrome was.

3. 7z - p7Zip-full package in Mint's Synaptic is more than enough. Installing this automatically makes 7z available as a format to extract or add archives to with the built-in right-click Compress option of Linux Mint.

4. VLC - again... already in Synaptic.

5. IPMsg - using instructions and dependencies from my earlier posts.

My favorite Linux on a USB

2010-01-13T05:26:00.001+08:00

One word: Knoppix.

Click here for instructions. Thanks to www.pendrivelinux.com for this gold find.

Detected my hardware, including my wifi.
Configuration of broadband wireless a snap - since its Debian roots, very much the same as Ubuntu.
Using XFCE desktop - blazingly fast!
Installed AVAST Linux edition for my antivirus utility
Detected my Windows partitions without hitches (unlike the Debian Live USB)

How to make your own antivirus rescue bootable USB

2010-01-09T16:14:00.001+08:00

Project: custom antivirus rescue solution

** using a USB instead of a CD
** signatures can be updated constantly, unlike most available rescue CDs out there
; some (like Kaspersky, Bitdefender or Avira) will offer updating the signatures but will require 1) cable LAN connection to Internet, and 2) a lot of your time - more than an hour to just update the obsolete definitions in the Live CDs

What I wanted: a rewritable antivirus "Live CD" that I can update database definitions in, that I can boot up on infected Windows computers, and remove viruses.

Strategy:
1. figure out how to create a GUI-based Linux that will run in a USB drive.
2. install clamtk on that system, with ability to connect to Internet to get updates for virus signatures.

Implementation (this actually work):
1. Using the Ubuntu 9.10 Live CD, create a bootable Ubuntu USB drive (aka Live USB, instead of Live CD) -

I used a 2gb USB, formatted with a volume label and FAT32.

reference: the pendrivelinux.com site

2. Plug in the USB, change BIOS to boot from USB.

3. Connected my Sun Cellular Huawei USB modem.

4. Set up a new broadband mobile connection using the Ubuntu network manager.

5. Change APN setting of the broadband to fbband.

6. Once the Internet was alive,

- sudo apt-get update
- changed repositories to pick the best server
- sudo apt get install clamav
- set a new location in the clock (Manila)
- downloaded the deb for clamtk at the sourceforge site

7. sudo dpkg -i {deb package}

8. if error message appears (w/c happened to me),
sudo apt-get -f install

to fix the broken dependencies, and just repeat 7.

After all these, I know have a bootable USB of Ubuntu plus CLAMTK - for my own antivirus rescue solution.

audacity in karmic, ffmpeg source to package

2009-11-15T15:30:00.001+08:00

OPEN ISSUE: below steps didn't work. removed everything afterwards.

had another steep learning curve to get a simple thing done here.
making audacity work and import audio from a video (mp4) file. it complained about not having ffmpeg.

wish the ubuntu guys would get their act together - if you already have a package in the repository, why do you have to download SOURCE, then COMPILE, then do all these geeky stuff? all the more intimidating for the millions of computer users out there.

my references:

1. http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=786095

2. http://daily-hacking.blogspot.com/2009/08/ffmpeg-with-amr-support-on-ubuntu.html

Bluetooth on Karmic

2009-11-01T20:58:00.001+08:00

went to this site: http://blueman-project.org/downloads.html

then :
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:blueman/ppa

then:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install blueman

Karmic Upgrade

2009-11-01T20:31:00.001+08:00

It's been a while.

Yesterday and today I upgraded 9.04 with 9.10. Yesterday for downloading the packages, and today for the actual upgrade. After rebooting, it couldn't boot up at first.

Turns out the culprit was the AVIRA Guard, that kept some DazukoFS entries in my /etc/fstab.

Commenting those out solved the problem.

Still in ext3, though.

Ubuntu on Low Memory Systems

2009-09-11T15:22:00.001+08:00

Tested this exercise on a Xubuntu Alternate CD. According to the Ubuntu documentation, any variant of Ubuntu's alternate CDs will work.

1. Change the mode of installation to "command-line install"
2. Do the routine install.
3. Edit the sources; uncomment the debian packages (partner, restricted)
sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
4. Perform update and upgrade (requires Internet connection to download packages); apptocd is another approach, but I haven't tested that.

sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude upgrade

At this point, decide if you need a GUI.

Testing AVG on Ubuntu, and learning some scripts

2009-09-08T09:36:00.002+08:00

tested the AVG scanner to detect EICAR test virus, passed with flying colors

sample command-line in terminal:
avscan Downloads/*

recursive scan, from the current point down to the Downloads folder.

Also made some 3-liner scripts (and launchers) in my desktop:
scanner:

#!/bin/sh
sudo avscan /media/NANO/*
read -p "Press Enter to continue" nothing

updater:

#!/bin/sh
sudo /usr/lib/AntiVir/avupdate --product=Guard
read -p "Press Enter to continue" nothing

Avira AntiVir on Ubuntu

2009-09-08T07:24:00.001+08:00

Avira seems to be better at detecting Windows viruses than ClamAV, as I experienced today scanning the same USB device on 2 machines. Avira (in Windows) spotting 6 worms vs. ClamAv's 1 detection.

So I decided to give Avira in Ubuntu a shot.
System snapshot info:
Ubuntu 9.04
Kernel Linux 2.6.28-15-generic
GNOME 2.26.1

Here's how I got it to work:
1. Download the Linux Avira Antivir installer here: http://www.free-av.de/en/download/download_servers.php
My downloaded copy was antivir_workstation-pers.tar.gz

2. In a terminal window, execute:
tar -xvf antivir_workstation-pers.tar.gz
This created a folder named antivir-workstation-pers-3.0.5-11 in my download folder.

3. Still in the terminal window, cd to the created folder and type:
sudo ./install

4. Follow the prompts (I just based on common sense). Link references:

Detailed, but a bit old (2006)
Avira forum thread 1 (2009 - telling that Dazuko is included in the installer already)
Avira forum thread 2 (2009 - just shows the command how to update signatures)
Avira forum thread 3 (2008 - older, just to see how well the Avira team simplified installation since)

There's no GUI! A minor hassle, though. It will install in the /usr/lib/AntiVir folder.

Terminal commands learned:
To update the engine & signatures:
sudo avupdate --product=Guard
To scan a USB drive:
sudo avscan /media/disk

ClamAV and front-end GUI ClamTK

2009-09-04T14:40:00.001+08:00

useful antivirus scanner for making the Ubuntu box a USB virus cleaner device

tested in Ubuntu 9.04
1. download clamav package (& all detected dependencies) using Synaptic
2. download libnet-dns-perl package (& all detected dependencies) using Synaptic
3. download the latest Ubuntu package of clamtk in http://clamtk.sourceforge.net/
4. using a terminal window, navigate to the folder of the downloaded deb package.
5. type sudo dpkg -i {name of downloaded clamtk deb}

Dune + Wine in Ubuntu Jaunty

2009-08-23T00:16:00.001+08:00

Trying to play my fave old school circa 1980's game Dune in my Ubuntu box...
wish me luck!

Installing a .tar.gz file

2009-08-16T02:25:00.002+08:00

Needed to install IPMSG in my home laptop Ubuntu, and realized that my previous blog wasn't really that descriptive of the steps.

Here are the details after installing the dependencies and the ipmsg tar.gz file.
1. Open a terminal window (Applications - Accessories - Terminal)
2. Go to the folder where the tar.gz is saved (using the cd, dir commands)
3. Then type in the command line: tar zxf {name of tar.gz file} and hit Enter
4. This will create a subfolder named after the tar file. cd to this subfolder.
5. Inside the subfolder, type these series of commands:

./configure
make
sudo make install

If all goes well, you should be able to see your installed application after a restart of the system.

Skype, Firestarter, and port 445

2009-08-06T07:13:00.001+08:00

First off, I'm not happy with Skype in my Ubuntu. How our perceptions change with a new OS. I better figure out a way to remove it.

Second, about port 445. Using a firewall in Ubuntu reveals a lot of things that were before hidden but is now cause for earnest concern. By the inherent weakness of Microsoft's security design, hackers use this port to gain access to tens of thousands of computers connected in the Internet.

In my own Firestarter, using Sun's USB Broadband connection, I see a lot of local IP addresses - DHCP-assigned by the Sun ISP - attempting to exploit the 445 port of my computer via the protocol of Windows-DS (directory services).

Hitting a wall...

2009-07-30T05:29:00.001+08:00

Went home somewhat dejected tonight after failing to install samba in my minimal install.
Perhaps the clue lies somewhere with a missing package - nautilus-share ?

from an ubuntu forum post.

OR probably this package: system-config-samba
from this post.

need to check my packages tomorrow or Friday -
1) to create a package list file
"dpkg --get-selections > installed-software"

How to rebuild your packages from a previous install? Got this from the forum, too.

better to check this out, too. ubuntu forum post on low memory systems.

the Actual minimal install

2009-07-29T21:22:00.002+08:00

1. Install the minimal CD, using default settings - post #1
2. Install the prescribed packages:

sudo apt-get -y install gnome-core gdm network-manager-gnome fast-user-switch-applet \
human-theme x11-xserver-utils tangerine-icon-theme gnome-themes-ubuntu ubuntu-artwork \
jockey-gtk gnome-screensaver gnome-utils

then restart.

3. Enable the Network manager - post #65
"... remove (or comment) the options below "primary network interface" in /etc/network/interfaces"; you must get the ethernet card's MAC address via ifconfig -a in a terminal window.

then restart again.

4. Packages installed:
- epiphany-browser (via Synaptic)
- hplip (HP printer drivers) : got this from the HP HPLIP link, downloaded and used the installer

The hplip installer also detected and auto-installed missing packages, notably build-essential.

Minimal Install of Ubuntu 9.04

2009-07-29T12:53:00.001+08:00

going into a deeper relationship with Ubuntu... since last week, I had tried different distros (e.g. Arch Linux, Mepis) in the office, looking for a leaner linux. To the credit of Ubuntu, it was the only one, in my opinion, that didn't require too much struggle from my newbie perspective.

the minimal CD of Ubuntu vs. Arch Linux - the former wins... for now.

these are my notes for a minimal installation - a good application can be for old desktops with low (e.g. 256mb) memory that you can use as a print server.

links:

ubuntu forum how-to by TheShiv
minimal cd for Ubuntu - Jaunty, Intrepid, etc.

TheShiv also posted a very comprehensive write-up how to create your own local repositories at post # 43 and installing Skype at post #53.

Another contributor for the same thread provided a link how to install the lightweight windows manager FluxBox for the minimal install at post # 23.

Installing VLC and learning about PPA along the way

2009-07-19T22:14:00.001+08:00

Missing my favorite media player, I google'd and found out that there is a VLC for Ubuntu.

The catch is this: it isn't a default package available out-of-the-box in Jaunty.

So here are the steps, basically:

Add the VLC packages in Ubuntu's software sources

Tell Ubuntu to authenticate the VLC's PPA

Update Synaptic and install VLC

These are the packages to install:

```
vlc
```

```
vlc-plugin-esd
```

```
mozilla-plugin-vlc
```

My references:

VLC packages and PPA

How-to reference

Ubuntu 9.04 in my dual-boot - 1, and IPMsg :-)

2009-07-18T15:16:00.001+08:00

Yesterday I took a bigger step. I installed Ubuntu in another partition in my office laptop, not merely as a virtual guest.

So far, so good.

After doing the initial, fresh-install updates (via Update Manager):

1. Installed gnome IPMSG, our inter-office internal messaging client. This was a pleasant experience :) - thanks to blogger necramirez for this excellent reference.

Links for the how-to, I found here (http://blog.necramirez.info/2008/07/installing-gnome2-ipmessenger.html). This worked for me without problems.
You have to install the dependencies first, as follows:

libxml-parser-perl
libgnomeui-dev
libpanel-applet2-dev
gettext
intltool

After that, get the gnome IPMSG here (http://www.ipmsg.org/index.html.en).
The link I followed is the one under Unix, titled GNOME2 IP Messenger by T.Kato (2008/10/27).
It might have a newer version by the time you visit the site.

I followed the instructions how to unpack/make/run and soon after I got IPmsg working smoothly.

2. Now, my adventure continues. I'm planning to install NetBeans. First off, install the Java packages.

My reference is in the Ubuntu forums, on the thread titled "Ubuntu Desktop Computing Made Easy (Ubuntu 9.04)" - thanks to contributor TrakerJon
Here's the piece on java:
Install the latest Sun Java JRE
sudo apt-get install gsfonts-x11 java-common odbcinst1debian1 sun-java6-bin sun-java6-fonts sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin unixodbc

Installed firewall in my jaunty

2009-07-14T00:14:00.001+08:00

This is the link I used to make firestarter run everytime I log in my Ubuntu 9.04 (jaunty jackalope)

The configuration:
1. Laptop with the ff. connections:

ppp0 - huawei e160 usb modem of Sun Cellular,
eth1 - laptop's built-in wifi
shared internet connection, dhcp server (c/o Firestarter)

2. Windows laptop, also on wifi, able to access the Internet via laptop1

The problem: kept running into Firestarter error message - cannot start firewall - when I turn on DHCP for eth1

The solution:

Manual IP address/subnet assigned to laptop1's eth1
Reinstalled the dhcp3-server package (in synaptic package manager)

Using Sun Cellular USB modem Huawei e160 with Ubuntu 9.04

2009-07-11T19:47:00.001+08:00

Previous blog post below NOT NEEDED for Ubuntu 9.04 - as most of what I needed to work already did work without additional packages needing to be installed :-)

Here are some notes to this experiment.

Running Ubuntu 9.04 (32-bit) as a virtual guest (using virtualbox 2.2.4).

References:
1. Review-Ninja's blog
2. Saliya's blog

Download sites for packages needed:
1. usb_modeswitch
2. wvdialer (thanks to GeorgeVita)

Notes:
1. No need to download or install the libusb, as it is available in the CD installer of Ubuntu 9.04

Chronicles

2009-06-07T16:04:00.001+08:00

Windows 7 Release Candidate works in my VirtualBox, 512mb allocated memory.

It also works in the Blue subnotebook (8.9" LCD).