Thunderbird 3.xx on Ubuntu

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

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

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

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

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 >/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 >/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

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

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:

1. Find in Files
2. Split View
3. Advanced Bookmarks
4. Align
5. Class Browser
6. Completion
7. Find Open
8. Gemini
9. Goto File
10. Multi Edit
11. Pastie
12. Quick Hightlight Mode
13. Rails Extract
14. Rails Hot Commands
15. Rails Hot Keys
16. Ruby on Rails loader
17. Smart Indent
18. Snap Open
19. Tab Switch
20. Text Tools
21. To Do
22. Trail Save
23. Zen Coding

Skype in Ubuntu

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

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