BOB SHARE: ubuntu

Showing posts with label ubuntu. Show all posts

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Install Firefox 3 6 In Ubuntu

Mozilla released Firefox 3.6 few days ago. It is fast to start and fast to do js things. More in release notes here.

Installing Firefox 3.6 is same as installing Thunderbird 3 which I have already covered here.

Ill just copy pate those things here. So to update your Firefox follow the steps below:

Open Terminal
Add Mozillas sources by:

For Karmic:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa

For version older than Karmic:

echo deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa/ubuntu ubuntu_version main | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 247510BE

sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install firefox-3.6 firefox-3.6-gnome-support firefox-3.6-branding
sudo aptitude safe-upgrade (just in case youve missed anything)
sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ubuntu-mozilla-daily-ppa-karmic.list (Otherwise your update manager will show new updates each day)
sudo aptitude update

Multi Touch with Ubuntu

Linux supported multi touch gesture on touchpad from last few years. It was quite difficult to enable them or enable the particular multi touch function you wanted. Here Ubuntu has come to rescue with its new release Karmic Koala.
Karmic supports multi touch scrolling. To enable it,

Go to Main Menu -> Preferences -> Mouse
Go to touchpad
Select Two finger scrolling under scrolling.

Thats it. Use your two fingers to scroll on any page you want. Preety handy while surfing.

MAC like dock for Ubuntu

Kiba dock and AWN are two of my favorite dock that resembles MAC dock.
You can try them from
http://www.kiba-dock.org/
https://launchpad.net/awn

Here is a tutorial to setup kiba-dock in Ubuntu
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=268645

Here is a tutorial to setup awn
http://wiki.awn-project.org/Installation

While Kiba dock focuses on launchers, AWN supports both launchers and task list.I just wanted the launcher and tried to remove the task list from it but I could only seperate, not remove. While checking the blueprint I was happy to know that in future version one of them can be removed.

While both of the provide you with fancy desktop, they requires composite( like copiz fusion) to be enabled. So be aware if you have some old system.

Here is mine desktop with AWN.

BTW AWN stands for Avant Window Navigator.

Ubuntu 9 10 Karmic Koala Released

Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) is released and is live at http://noncdn.releases.ubuntu.com//releases/9.10/

Get it while its hot.

Click here for more info.

If you already have alpha, beta or rc iso image you can use zsync to update the iso you have and thus save bandwidth.
More info: use zsync to update existing iso images

Dont forget you can also use torrent to download the iso.

But whatever you do dont forget to check md5sum.

If you have slow internet and downloading takes ages, I hope you didnt miss my earlier post shipit karmic koala

How To Install Ubuntu in Can Coke

Seriously you cant.

How To Make Launcher Always Visible In Ubuntu Unity

If you dont like the launcher auto hiding itself, you can use Compiz to make the launcher visible always. Follow the steps below:

Open Compiz Config Setting manager

You can open this by pressing Alt+F2 and typing ccsm

Search for the plugin Ubuntu Unity Plugin
Under Behavior youll see Hide Launcher, choose never on the drop down menu.

Firefox Startup Slow In Ubuntu

Add-ons can slow down your browser. There are many add-ons available for Firefox making your whole browsing experience better and better but some of them can also make your browser crawl.

Today Mozilla has released the names of add-ons that makes your Firefox browser slow to start. You can find it here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/performance/#addon-11

If you dont use some particular add-ons just disable them. It will not eat your valuable resources then.

Desktop publishing with Ubuntu linux

I am talking about two of the popular applications to use for desktop publishing.

1) scribus

"Scribus is powerful software that helps you create great looking documents of all kinds."

http://www.scribus.net/

2) inkspace

"Inkscape is an open-source vector graphics editor similar to Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw, Freehand, or Xara X. What sets Inkscape apart is its use of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), an open XML-based W3C standard, as the native format."

http://inkscape.org

what next ubuntu

Do you want some new thing or new features added in your Ubuntu?
Do you ever wish that the things were in little different way than the way it is?
Do you think that there are people wishing the same?

If you are answering yes then be glad that there are sites like

http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/
http://www.ideastorm.com/

The concept of these sites is you get some idea, you post there and if it has high vote then it will get attention. Similarly you are the one who vote for others idea too.

So what are you doing here. Go submit and vote.

How To Find Which Version Of Ubuntu I Have

Q. How to find out which version of Ubuntu I am running ?

A. Open terminal and type:

lsb_release -cs

Youll see output like karmic, lucid. I got lucid that means Im running Lucid Lynx.

You can also use the following command which works on most of the Linux distros.

user@user-desktop:~$ cat /etc/issue
Ubuntu lucid (development branch)
l

device manager for Ubuntu

There are tools like lsusb, lspci, lspcmcia, lshw that provides wonderful information of your current hardware.

These tools are all command based and you wont find any wonderful GUI tools on the system menu.

If you want to see the details of your computer hardware in GUI mode then hardinfo is the program for you.

You can install it by:
sudo apt-get install hardinfo

Then launch application launcher by pressting ALT+F2 and typing hardinfo.

Thought the topic says this is not a device manager. It only displays information about the devices. So you can call it hardware information on Ubuntu.

Install Thunderbird 3 In Ubuntu

I am never the fan of mail client. They are difficult to use, slow and ugly.

Mozilla recently released 3rd version of their popular email software, Thunderbird. As said earlier, I wasnt much excited. Nevertheless I gave it a try. Thunderbird has made major changes in its UI. They have added new features like tabs, archive, smart folder and so on. More here http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/3.0/releasenotes/#

After using this for few days I must say they have made definitive improvement on this software. I highly recommend everyone to update to this version. There was some problem with lightning extension but this is already fixed.

To install follow the steps below:

Open Terminal
Add Mozillas sources by:

For Karmic:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa

For version older than Karmic:

echo deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa/ubuntu ubuntu_version main | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 247510BE

sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install thunderbird-3.0 thunderbird-3.0-gnome-support
sudo aptitude remove thunderbird-2.0 thunderbird-2.0-gnome-support
sudo ln -s /usr/bin/thunderbird-3.0 /usr/bin/thunderbird

Boot Ubuntu Linux faster by reducing TTY virtual consoles

Most of us never use all the virtual consoles(TTY) that is provided with most Linux distribution. Why leave it there and let it eat memory. You can decrease startup time by removing unwanted virtual console or TTY.

Removing some virtual consoles or reducing TTY is very easy.

Just follow the procedure below:

sudo -s
vi /etc/default/console-setup
change ACTIVE_CONSOLES=”/dev/tty[1-6]” to your choice. Lets say if you want only two TTY or virtual console then change to ACTIVE_CONSOLES=”/dev/tty[1-2]”
cd /etc/event.d
Comment on all the lines in ttyx file that you dont need. In this example tty3-tty6

Reboot to see the change.

My Ubuntu 12 04 Rants

Ive been using Ubuntu from past five years or so. I was young, loved fixing problems, remembering scary commands and making my system work. Now Ive finished my college, have got mouths to feed and want a decent stable OS to make my job easier. I installed Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin from scratch last month. I love the OS, love unity but here are some of my rants.

1) Background service eats too much CPU

I usually keep my laptop on idle while I lie on my bed. While doing so the first thing I noticed was my laptops fan constantly running. As you can see from the picture above, compiz, hud-service, xorg and unity-panel-service are eating half of my CPU all night long.

2) Installing indicator-network removes network-manager

This is by no means Ubuntus fault. You need to be careful while using commands like apt-get and specially when you use any sudo command. In my case, I wanted to install weather indicator. While doing so I discovered indicator-network. Just out of curiosity I installed it. apt-get gave me very clear warning that it will remove network-manager. But I didnt notice it. Had I been playing with some scary package like ubuntu-desktop, linux-kernel, nvidia-* I swear I d have read every line of the apt-get message. But I was just installing an indicator, what harm could it bring, right? Unfortunately the indicator-network turns out to be software in alpha stage. I dont have LAN internet, it couldnt connect to my WiFi and it didnt detect my mobile Internet.

So to sum it up, installing indicator-network removed critical component of my system(Network Manager). After that it failed to perform any network operation leaving me without Internet. I couldnt install network-manager back without Internet.

3) Cant view high resolution photographs

No, I didnt blacked out the above image. Thats exactly what happens when I try to see high resolution photos. The image viewer just displays black rectangle while it eats very high CPU(eog is eye of gnome the default image viewer).

4) Cant add exception in global proxy setting

I like to have ugly looking tool rather than fancy one that comes with half the functionality. This is exactly what happened with network proxy tool. I can configure proxy setting but for love of god cant add exception. No matter how shiny the new tool is there is no way to add ignored host in proxy.

5) Empathy eats 100% CPU

I gave empathy one more chance before installing pidgin. Turns out to be bad decision. Got some network problem and the program hung eating 100% CPU. And by that I dont mean it used 100% CPU for few seconds and crashed. Nope, it just kept eating 100% CPU making my laptop hot as hell. apt-get remove telepathy* empathy* libtelepathy* and apt-get install pidgin was the only solution. So no screenshot :D.

6) Constant crashes

Crashes like these are fair and common.

7) App switching confusion

Im using a program called shutter to edit screenshot for this blog post. After taking screenshot I click the edit button which opens a new window with the screenshot on edit mode. Mind that the edit window is opened on top of existing window not two separate windows. That means I cant use the original window without closing the edit window. Just like a dialog box. But the apps icon on launcher shows indicator for two windows. If I click it, it shows both the window in preview mode. But clicking the original window opens the edit mode window not the original window.

8) Cant close window with middle click

Earlier it was very easy to close Windows when I had one too many opened windows. Clicking the icon on launcher would show all the windows in nice big preview mode. I could then click on the one I want to work on or middle click on the one I would no more need, one by one. Now I have to select the unneeded window to bring it in front, close it, again click on the launcher for other windows, click to select and close it and repeat.

9) Cant remove music, pictures, videos etc from nautilus bookmark

I dont need them, what I need Ill bookmark them myself. This only creates confusion. And I cant remove them. Further more look at the inconsistency. If I use open dialog box from any program, look at the items here. Now here is only home folder, desktop, filesystem and other partitions. What happened to music and videos and stuff?

10) Drag and Drop

I like to drag files and drop it in my bookmarks folder for them to copy or move. I like to drag files and move them on top of applications for them to open. But Im not finding it natural with current Ubuntu. It sometimes work sometimes I cant find the expected behavior. Or maybe Im too confused.

11) Printing confusion

This one just ended up here. I had to print one file for a friend of mine while writing this and discovered this minor annoyance.

I had to print on both sides of the paper. IIRC on Windows OS the option is on main page. I mean I can choose to print all pages, current page, pages, odd pages or even pages. But while printing today I discovered that to print odd/even pages the option is in second tab. Now before submitting the print job my option selection stands as print all pages and print even sheets. What will it do, will it print all pages or print all even sheets? Confusing. Also other problems I have with printer is

If I cancel any printing job, the printer will stop printing at the very moment. Not after the current page is finishes printing. So Ill end up with half printed page and paper jam.
If I forget to plug printers USB cable to computer, it doesnt give any message just silently fails to print.
No message if printer is turned off. Again fails silently to print.

12) Wireless Key havoc

Ive to rely on couple of my neighbors for Internet. Yes its bad but to my defense I only use their connection for tunneling and setting up Internet requires at least $100. Most of the connection are pretty poor and the condition becomes worst at day time. Its quite difficult to get connected and there is high chance of getting disconnected. The problem is every two minutes or so Network Manager pops up asking for wireless key. I might be doing some work, watching movie in full screen or writing this blog post, the dialog box comes stealing focus and disturbing. There is no way to tell the key is correct, just the connection is poor, just keep trying with this key and dont bother me.

13) Eclipse and Ubuntu theme

I use Eclipse to do Android development. But Eclipse color mapping and Ubuntu themes doesnt agree always. For eg: in the picture above the selected handy tips that eclipse generated is on white background and whit text font with light highlight making it difficult to read.

14) Ubuntu names

Yes it was fun when I was young. It was even fun to play mind game when I was alone by trying to recall all the Ubuntu names and version. But now its gotten too much for me. "Oneiric Ocelot", "Precise Pangolin", "Quantal Quetzal", English being second language to me, how am I suppose to remember this. If I dont need to remember this whats the use of the "name"?

15) Brasero stuck at "creating image checksum"

So I had to burn CD at office and was in kind of in hurry to give the CD. But unfortunately burning CD will fail in Ubuntu Linux. There is this thread at Ubuntu forums where people has suggested to disable image checksum plugin and install missing package. But the question is how can a LTS stable release can come with such kind of a bug? Can a normal computer user figure out the problem, Google it and stumble on the Ubuntu thread and apply the solution?

Ubuntu Blogs

Here are the list of Ubuntu Blogs that I follow:

Web UPD8

http://www.webupd8.org/

http://feeds2.feedburner.com/webupd8

Omg! Ubuntu!

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/

http://feeds.feedburner.com/d0od

Ubuntu Geek

http://www.ubuntugeek.com/

http://feeds.feedburner.com/UbuntuGeek

Ubuntu HQ

http://www.ubuntuhq.com/

http://feeds.feedburner.com/UbuntuHQ

I dont like this. :@

Tombuntu

http://tombuntu.com/

http://feeds.feedburner.com/Tombuntu

Hes lost these days.

Easierbuntu

http://easierbuntu.blogspot.com/

http://feeds.feedburner.com/Easierbuntu

I am Ubuntu

http://ubuntu.igameilive.com/

http://ubuntu.igameilive.com/feeds/posts/default

And of course Techs Palace

http://.blogspot.com/

http://feeds.feedburner.com/

Gmote in 64 bit Ubuntu

Gmote is an Android Remote.

I was having problem running the Ubuntu client on my 64 bit Lucid Lynx. Though the application was very easy to start, just run a script, it was not working. It was giving error like "Cant obtain static method fromNative from class com.sun.jna.Native" and "There was an error running the gmote server, Please visit http://www.gmote.com/faq for more information".

The solution was to fix the script by changing the java path. From,

java -classpath bin:lib/jna.jar:lib/slf4j-api-1.5.3.jar:lib/swing-worker-1.2.jar org.gmote.server.GmoteServerUiLinux &

to:

/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/bin/java -classpath bin:lib/jna.jar:lib/slf4j-api-1.5.3.jar:lib/swing-worker-1.2.jar org.gmote.server.GmoteServerUiLinux &

where, /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/bin/java happens to be my 64 bit java.

Webcam viewer in Ubuntu Review

Yesterday I got a webcam whose driver doesnt come with Windows. Fearing to search for the driver I plugged it in my USB and lsusb showed the camera.

Quickly I installed three Web camera viewing softwares, camorama, cheese and xawtv.

sudo apt-get install camorama cheese xawtv

Camorama

Camorama had a small preview windows. I tried to preview in small and large mode but it failed. The adjustments were easy to handle.

It came with quite good effects. The color correction effects produced better picture out of my dual camera. You can compare yourself the above two pictures.

One of the feature of camaroma is auto capturing image.
Other feature includes timestamp while capturing photo. You can even put custom message in place of timestamp.
When its opened, a tray icon also comes but it has no function.

XawTv

Should I say I like this application or not? It worked properly but I think its UI is very poor.

Instead of saying poor UI you can say its a simple program with simple UI.
You can put your configuration in a file or configure via simple window.

It supports full screen mode and produces good picture too.

Cheese

I dont know for what reason but cheese takes rougly 3 seconds to produce preview. It also supports both photo capturing and video capturing.

It comes with few effects which you might find useful. Like starting, applying effects also took time.

The captured photo and video are displayed in the main program as a thumbnail. This is very nice and handy feature.

BOB SHARE

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Install Firefox 3 6 In Ubuntu

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Multi Touch with Ubuntu

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

MAC like dock for Ubuntu

Ubuntu 9 10 Karmic Koala Released

How To Install Ubuntu in Can Coke

Monday, February 24, 2014

How To Make Launcher Always Visible In Ubuntu Unity

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Firefox Startup Slow In Ubuntu

Desktop publishing with Ubuntu linux

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

what next ubuntu

Saturday, February 8, 2014

How To Find Which Version Of Ubuntu I Have

Friday, February 7, 2014

device manager for Ubuntu

Thursday, February 6, 2014

Install Thunderbird 3 In Ubuntu

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Boot Ubuntu Linux faster by reducing TTY virtual consoles

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

My Ubuntu 12 04 Rants

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Ubuntu Blogs

Monday, January 20, 2014

Gmote in 64 bit Ubuntu

Saturday, January 18, 2014

Webcam viewer in Ubuntu Review