Tuxtrix

Nemo file manager now available in Ubuntu 13.04 backports repo

noreply@blogger.com (Sayantan Das) — Mon, 06 May 2013 11:22:00 +0000

Ubuntu 13.04 is a great release in almost all terms except one - the nautilus file manager. The version released with 13.04 is so bad that it hinders daily work. There are glaring omissions like the missing status bar, no compact list view, the split tab, the list goes on. Nautilus 3.6 can be termed as a proper regression in many ways.

This issue, though, can be overcome by adding patches to Nautilus or by upgrading to Gnome 3.8. If you dont want unofficial patches in your machines then the other options include installing and using Dolphin(KDE), Thunar (XFCE) or PCManFM(Lubuntu) and Nemo (Linux Mint). Almost all file managers required adding/installing additional libraries which many of the users do not like doing. Barring two- PCmanFM and Nemo.

Yes, some developers of Ubuntu seem to have taken a liking for Nemo and have ported Nemo for Ubuntu 13.04 minus the dependencies of Cinnamon and added it to Ubuntu raring backports. So now it becomes very easy for anyone who wants to have the functionalities of the old nautilus back without adding any extra patches.You can install nemo from Ubuntu Software Centre or via the commandline.

:~$ sudo apt-get install nemo
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
libnemo-extension1 nemo-data
Recommended packages:
nemo-fileroller
The following NEW packages will be installed
libnemo-extension1 nemo nemo-data
0 upgraded, 3 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 4,854 kB of archives.
After this operation, 16.4 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Get:1 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring-backports/universe libnemo-extension1 amd64 1.7.2-1~ubuntu13.04.1 [16.7 kB]
Get:2 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring-backports/universe nemo-data all 1.7.2-1~ubuntu13.04.1 [3,991 kB]
Get:3 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring-backports/universe nemo amd64 1.7.2-1~ubuntu13.04.1 [846 kB]
Fetched 4,854 kB in 2min 17s (35.4 kB/s)

As you can see the packaged files for nemo are being pulled from the raring-backports repository. I have not added any extra ppas for nemo. You can get back the much needed status bar, the split view and the compact view. Also, the list view is much better in Nemo compared to Nautilus.

I have not yet found a way to integrate dropbox and ubuntu one without adding dependencies to cinnamon. But for now, you can enjoy a simpler, cleaner and better file manager apt for carrying out your daily activities without losing your mind and also without adding unofficial patches or extra dependencies. Nemo looks best in Radiance theme.

Nemo in Ambiance Theme

Nemo in Radiance Theme

Getting Started with Ubuntu 13.04 available for download

noreply@blogger.com (Sayantan Das) — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 00:33:00 +0000

Getting Started with Ubuntu series now has its easy-to-use beginner's guide available for Ubuntu 13.04 release.

Getting Started with Ubuntu 13.04 is a comprehensive beginner's guide
designed for the Ubuntu operating system. It is written under an
open-source license and is free for you to download, read, modify, and
share.
This manual will help you become familiar with everyday tasks such as
surfing the web, listening to music, and scanning documents. With an
emphasis on easy-to-follow instructions, it is suitable for all levels
of experience

- The Ubuntu Manual Team

You can download the book in pdf from ubuntu-manual.org for free. Just like previous editions, this edition will be also added to the Ubuntu Software Centre in a few days to help easy access. If you want to buy a paperback edition, you can also order it online. It will cost you $4.37. Click on buy the book link on the homepage.

[How To] Install Citrix Client on Ubuntu 13.04

noreply@blogger.com (Sayantan Das) — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 09:58:00 +0000

If you have installed Citrix client on Ubuntu 12.10 , the same procedure will work for Ubuntu 13.04. I followed the Ubuntu help page written for Ubuntu 12.10. You can find the link here.

First, I downloaded the unofficial version, compiled by Ubuntu devs rather than from the Citrix website. There have been reports that the official client is broken and needs to be fixed manually. To avoid all that extra work, I downloaded the unofficial package from here.

Do remember that before installing the icaclient, you should install Openmotif and curl and ia32-libs.

sudo apt-get install libmotif4 flashplugin-installer curl nspluginwrapper ia32-libs libmotif4:i386

Then install the icaclient.

sudo dpkg -i $HOME/Downloads/icaclient_12.1.0_amd64.deb

I did get a seg fault, but that did not affect my login after installation. After installation, I added the certificates from the mozilla folder as described in the wiki.

sudo ln -s /usr/share/ca-certificates/mozilla/* /opt/Citrix/ICAClient/keystore/cacerts/

That's all. I opened up the browser, and typed in my address. I was able to login.

[How To] Upgrade from Ubuntu 12.04 to 13.04

noreply@blogger.com (Sayantan Das) — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 02:13:00 +0000

If you are running Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and have been raring to jump to 'Raring Ringtail' edition of Ubuntu, you can follow the commands below to switch to bleeding edge features. Ubuntu 13.04 (Raring Ringtail) is past the beta stage now and is very stable; can easily be used as a daily driver.

Upgrading is a cakewalk in Ubuntu when you upgrade to the next release. However, if you are jumping one release, you may have to sweat it out a bit. If you follow the standard procedure of using the update manager, you will have to first upgrade to Ubuntu 12.10 and then Ubuntu 13.04. Well nobody has that amount of spare time!

The process below, is for a direct jump from 12.04 to 13.04. I followed the same procedure. It worked for me. I would suggest to remove any third party graphics drivers such as ATI or Nvidia before upgrading.

Disclaimer: Please follow the instructions at your own risk. I assume you have some knowledge of Linux and can troubleshoot. I am not responsible if your laptop/desktop goes up in flames!

1. Open up gedit with root previledges . Press Alt+F2 and type in the following

gksu gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

2. Now press Ctrl + H and search for precise and replace with raring. Click 'Replace All' , save and close the editor.

Or a one liner in the commandline
cd /etc/apt/
sudo sed -i 's/precise/raring/g' sources.list

3. If you have added external ppas, you can change the distribution name from Precise to Raring. Using the GUI method above involves too many steps. The best way is to open a terminal and type in the following commands:

cd /etc/apt/sources.list.d

sudo find . -name "*.list" -print | xargs sed -i 's/precise/raring/g'

sudo find . -name "*.save" -print | xargs sed -i 's/precise/raring/g'

4. And then, move the folder to avoid being used during the upgrade process

sudo mv /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ /etc/apt/sources.list.d.bk/

5. Start the upgrade process with the dist-upgrade command

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

6. You may have to give some user input during the installation process. Press Y or I to install the package maintainer's version of the packages.

7. Once the upgrade is complete, to make sure you have all the dependencies of the latest ubuntu desktop, reinstall the ubuntu-desktop package
sudo apt-get install --reinstall ubuntu-desktop

8. Check the grub is updated properly and the boot image is created. Use the following commands:

sudo update-grub

sudo update-initramfs -u

9. Once that completes successfully, reboot the system. Your brand new Ubuntu 13.04 will be ready for use.

10. As for the third party ppas, you can move back the backed up sources.list file and update the repositories.

sudo rm -rf sources.list.d

sudo cp -r sources.list.d.bk/ sources.list.d/

sudo apt-get update

11. Remember some ppas will throw an exception because Raring ppas are still not available for some. You can disable those ppas from System Settings -> Software & Updates.

Change your default mail client and calendar in Ubuntu

noreply@blogger.com (Sayantan Das) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 11:26:00 +0000

Most of us nowadays do not use a mail client. If any of us do, then it is mainly for official work. For anyone using Gmail, I will show you how to set Gmail as the default mail client. That's secondary though! The most important part of this blog is to set a calendar application. As all of us know, certain crazy decisions during Ubuntu development had led to setting Text Editor as the default calendar application some time ago. That has not changed, even in the latest Ubuntu 13.04 beta. This is a big inconvenience for normal users who use Ubuntu for daily activities. Somehow these nerdy developers tend to conveniently forget (read ignore) it!

Anyway, enough of dev bashing. Getting back to the point. Yes, the default calendar application can be changed to an actual calendar app. Or rather a webapp! Ubuntu's latest offering, webapps, comes to the rescue here.

If you are using Ubuntu 12.04 LTS , you can install webapps using the famed ppa. If you are using or Ubuntu 12.10 or Ubuntu 13.04, its in the official repository and you can skip the ppa installation.

Easiest way to install is open gnome terminal from the dash (search for it) and paste the following commands.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webapps/preview

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install unity-webapps-preview

Now, install the following two webapps for GMail and Google Calendar by copying and pasting this code in the terminal.

sudo apt-get install unity-webapps-googlecalendar unity-webapps-gmail

Once installed, you will need to add the webapps to the defaults list. For that open the defaults file in the text editor. Press Alt+F2 and type

gedit ~/.local/share/applications/defaults.list

Add the following two entries at the end of the file

text/calendar=GoogleCalendargooglecom.desktop

x-scheme-handler/mailto=GMailmailgooglecom.desktop

Then save and close the editor. Log out and log back in. Open the default applications page from System Settings -> Details -> Default Applications. Change the default mail client from the dropdown menu and for the calendar, you will see Google Calendar is already selected. That's it! You have your new default mail client and calendar.

[How To] Fix Android devices not recognised by adb

noreply@blogger.com (Sayantan Das) — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 14:30:00 +0000

sd@sd-1:~$adb get-serialno
unknown
sd@sd-1:~$ adb shell
error: device offline

If you are one of those frustrated users who cannot get adb to work with your android device, you may be in for a breather.

The issue is probably similar for all operating systems. In Linux and to some extent Mac, this issue may be caused by change in ownership of the folder .android. This is a hidden folder. You will be able to see it in Nautilus file manager by pressing Ctrl+H or in the command line using the command ll or ls -al.

Diving a little deeper you can confirm whether the .android folder by the current user or some other user. This was the case with my system. Using the command below, you can confirm .

sd@sd-1:~$ll | grep .android

drwxr-x--- 2 root root 4096 Mar 9 00:48 .android/

As you can see from the above list, the folder .android is owned by root and not by the user sd and hence will not be accessed by adb unless you give sudo.

So, to solve the problem, we need to update the ownership the current user. Also, I backed up the old adbkey and adbkey.pub and renamed it as adbkey.bak and adbkey.pub.bak. You may wish to do the same.

sd@sd-1:~$ sudo chown -R sd:sd .android/

sd@sd-1:/home/sd/.android# mv adbkey adbkey.bak
sd@sd-1:/home/sd/.android# mv adbkey.pub adbkey.pub.bak
sd@sd-1:~$ ll .android/
total 24
drwxr-x---   2 sd sd 4096 Mar 9 00:48 ./
drwx------ 108 sd sd 12288 Mar 7 19:31 ../
-rw-------   1 sd sd 1704 Dec 27 13:04 adbkey.bak
-rw-r--r--   1 sd sd   730 Dec 27 13:04 adbkey.pub.bak

Now unplug the usb cable from the android device and restart the adb server

sd@sd-1:~$ adb kill-server;adb start-server
* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
* daemon started successfully *

Plug the cable back to the android device and check the adb status. You will see your device is recognized.

sd@sd-1:~$ adb get-state
device

Windows users can delete the .android folder altogether and try restarting the sever ( I have not tried it. Do not hold me responsible if anything goes wrong.)

[How To] Install VirtualBox Guest Additions in Ubuntu 13.04

noreply@blogger.com (Sayantan Das) — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 09:45:00 +0000

Oracle's VirtualBox comes with support for a default display driver to boot up any Linux OS. If, however, you want to use 3D effects or use Ubuntu's Unity under VirtualBox without any lag, you would need to install the guest additions package. Installing this package is very easy uptill Ubuntu 12.10, can be accomplished in just a few clicks. However, if you are looking to take the new, under heavy development, Raring Ringtail (Ubuntu 13.04) , out for a spin in VirtualBox, you would need to get your hands dirty!

After you install Ubuntu 13.04 , start the VM and try installing the guest additions package. You will see, the installation does not complete. It throws up errors saying that the Kernel 3.8 is not supported. This is because the VBoxGuest-linux.c file, which is used for compiling and installing the guest additions is missing some arguments which helps to recognize the new kernel. The aim here, is to patch it, manually, by following the steps which I have detailed below. I have tried to make this tutorial as simple to follow as possible, but you will require some patience.

The steps below worked for me(Ubuntu Raring x64, kernel 3.8.0-5), running on VirtualBox 4.2.6 and Ubuntu 12.04(host machine).

1) Remove older version of VirtualBox guest additions, version older than 4.22, in:

/usr/src and in /var/lib/dkms

Check the following folders, you should have something similar to what's given below

ls /usr/src/

linux-headers-3.8.0-5 linux-headers-3.8.0-5-generic vboxguest-4.2.6

ls /var/lib/dkms/

dkms_dbversion vboxguest

ls /var/lib/dkms/vboxguest/

4.2.6 kernel-3.8.0-5-generic-x86_64

2) Check for valid softlink

ls -al /usr/src/vboxguest-4.2.6

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 49 Jan 24 17:28 /usr/src/vboxguest-4.2.6 -> /opt/VBoxGuestAdditions-4.2.6/src/vboxguest-4.2.6

3) Now manually apply the patch to the file VBoxGuest-linux.c which is located at /opt/VBoxGuestAdditions-4.2.6/src/vboxguest-4.2.6/vboxguest/VBoxGuest-linux.c

Steps required :

i) Open the file using vi or any of your favourite text editors. I have used vi.

sudo vi /opt/VBoxGuestAdditions-4.2.6/src/vboxguest-4.2.6/vboxguest/VBoxGuest-linux.c

ii) now, head over to line no 199 by giving the command :199

iii) Press i to go into the insert mode and replace this line static const struct pci_device_id __devinitdata g_VBoxGuestPciId[] =

with

static const struct pci_device_id
#if LINUX_VERSION_CODE < KERNEL_VERSION(3, 8, 0)
__devinitdata
#endif
g_VBoxGuestPciId[] =

iv) Save and Exit out by pressing :wq!

4) Now, run this one-liner to rebuild all dkms modules

ls /var/lib/initramfs-tools | sudo xargs -n1 /usr/lib/dkms/dkms_autoinstaller start

5) After the build is complete, restart the VM to enjoy using Unity without any lag.

If you want to check that the driver is being used head over to : Software Updater -> Settings -> Additional Drivers .. You will see "InnoTek VM ..." in use. (Thanks to Marius Dalacu)

Troubleshooting

1. If your /opt/VBoxGuestAdditions-4.2.6/src/vboxguest-4.2.6/vboxguest/VBoxGuest-linux.c is empty, try installing first without making any changes. Once the compilation fails, you can try again. Also, please make sure to install guest addition drivers from the downloaded .iso file available from VirtualBox application (Devices ->Guest Additions) and not from Ubuntu's repository.

Source1, Source2

[Poll] Will you be installing Ubuntu Phone images?

noreply@blogger.com (Sayantan Das) — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 04:51:00 +0000

Only three days left for the release the developer edition images of Ubuntu Phones. Anyone of you who owns a Galaxy Nexus or Google Nexus 4 will be able to flash these images and play around with your favourite open source Linux based OS. Mind you this wont be for the faint hearted.

Let me know what you guys will be doing by answering the poll on your right.
Disclaimer: Since these phone images will be developer editions, users will encounter issues while operating the phone. It is highly recommended that you stay out if you don't know what you are doing. The author holds no responsibility if you brick your phone while flashing .

[How To] Find your forgotten username on Ubuntu

noreply@blogger.com (Sayantan Das) — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 03:53:00 +0000

Sometimes, it so happens that after creating a unique user for a new Ubuntu install, you completely forget the username. If you are a single user on a Ubuntu machine, physical or virtual, you can easily recover the username without firing up the Ubuntu Live CD. Here are the steps:

1. Restart your machine and go to the Grub menu. ( If you do not see the grub menu, hold the shift key down to get it)

2. Select the "Recovery mode" (2nd option from the top) on the list
3. From the recovery menu, select the option "Drop to root shell prompt"

4. Once on root, use the following command

cat /etc/passwd | grep /bin/bash

The above command will show the users in Ubuntu which has a folder in the /home directory and uses /bin/bash. Usually it will be the root user and the users you have created. From there you can easily find the username.

If that's too much to understand, just open the file /etc/passwd with nano text editor using the command nano /etc/passwd. Usually the last entry in the file is your username. Once finished, press Ctrl + X to exit from the nano text editor.

This method can also be used if you have multiple users and you cannot remember one of the usernames.

The procedure mentioned above has been tested on Ubuntu 12.04 .1 LTS

Happy New Year 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Sayantan Das) — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 14:14:00 +0000

Wishing all the readers of Tuxtrix a very happy and prosperous new year! May this year be the year of Linux!

[How To] Automount Nexus 4 and Nexus 7 in Ubuntu

noreply@blogger.com (Sayantan Das) — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 17:49:00 +0000

If you are an ardent Google and Android fan, you must have got either the Nexus 4, 7 or 10 or may be considering getting one for yourself. If you have already got one and if you are using Ubuntu or any other flavour of Linux you must have noticed that transferring music and other documents from Nexus devices to your Ubuntu laptop or desktop isn't so easy. There are numerous posts on the internet which gives you detailed steps to achieve the task.

I however, wanted just plug and play functionality which would save me the trouble of always firing commands when I need to transfer files. One easy way is to use Airdroid from the Google Play store. You need to be connected to the same wifi network though. If you prefer the old school usb transfer, I have found a way to automount the Nexus devices in Ubuntu. You can easily unmount using the eject button on nautilus as well.

The steps given below is for Ubuntu 12.04. I have not tested with any other version. I am sure the steps will work for other versions of Ubuntu and its derivatives.

1. Configure FUSE
sudo chmod a+r /etc/fuse.conf
gksudo gedit /etc/fuse.conf
Now, uncomment the user_allow_other key in /etc/fuse.conf so that it looks like this

# Allow non-root users to specify the 'allow_other' or 'allow_root' mount options.
user_allow_other

2. Download go-mtpfs

You can download this binary from the following link. Make sure to download the latest version which you can make out from the upload date given alongside. There are versions for both 32 and 64 bit. This binary has limitations, it does not support moving contents within the Nexus device.

3. After you download, copy the binary to /usr/local/sbin
sudo cp ~/Downloads/go-mtpfs.amd64.ca2e2c82 /usr/local/sbin/go-mtpfs

4. Now create mount directories for Nexus 4 and Nexus 7 and give it executable rights
For Neuxs 7
sudo mkdir /media/nexus7
sudo chmod -R 777 /media/nexus7

For Nexus 4
sudo mkdir /media/Nexus4
sudo chmod -R 777 /media/Nexus4

5. Add udev rules
gksudo gedit /etc/udev/rules.d/99-android.rules

Then add the following lines in the file. Remember to replace yourloginid with your own username.

-->

# Google Nexus 7 MTP mode : automatic mount when plugged (all android versions)

ENV{ID_MODEL}=="Nexus", ENV{ID_MODEL_ID}=="4e41", ACTION=="add", RUN+="/usr/bin/sudo -u yourloginid /usr/local/sbin/go-mtpfs -allow-other=true /media/nexus7"

ENV{ID_MODEL}=="Nexus", ENV{ID_MODEL_ID}=="4e42", ACTION=="add", RUN+="/usr/bin/sudo -u yourloginid /usr/local/sbin/go-mtpfs -allow-other=true /media/nexus7"

ENV{ID_MODEL}=="Nexus_7", ENV{ID_MODEL_ID}=="4e41", ACTION=="add", RUN+="/usr/bin/sudo -u yourloginid /usr/local/sbin/go-mtpfs -allow-other=true /media/nexus7"

ENV{ID_MODEL}=="Nexus_7", ENV{ID_MODEL_ID}=="4e42", ACTION=="add", RUN+="/usr/bin/sudo -u yourloginid /usr/local/sbin/go-mtpfs -allow-other=true /media/nexus7"

# Google Nexus 7 MTP mode : automatic unmount when unplugged (all android versions)

ENV{ID_MODEL}=="Nexus", ENV{ID_MODEL_ID}=="4e41", ACTION=="remove", RUN+="/bin/umount /media/nexus7"

ENV{ID_MODEL}=="Nexus", ENV{ID_MODEL_ID}=="4ee2", ACTION=="remove", RUN+="/bin/umount /media/nexus7"

ENV{ID_MODEL}=="Nexus_7", ENV{ID_MODEL_ID}=="4e41", ACTION=="remove", RUN+="/bin/umount /media/nexus7"

ENV{ID_MODEL}=="Nexus_7", ENV{ID_MODEL_ID}=="4e42", ACTION=="remove", RUN+="/bin/umount /media/nexus7"

# Google Nexus 4 MTP mode : automatic mount when plugged (all android versions)

ENV{ID_MODEL}=="Nexus", ENV{ID_MODEL_ID}=="4ee1", ACTION=="add", RUN+="/usr/bin/sudo -u yourloginid /usr/local/sbin/go-mtpfs -allow-other=true /media/Nexus4"

ENV{ID_MODEL}=="Nexus", ENV{ID_MODEL_ID}=="4ee2", ACTION=="add", RUN+="/usr/bin/sudo -u yourloginid /usr/local/sbin/go-mtpfs -allow-other=true /media/Nexus4"

ENV{ID_MODEL}=="Nexus_4", ENV{ID_MODEL_ID}=="4ee1", ACTION=="add", RUN+="/usr/bin/sudo -u yourloginid /usr/local/sbin/go-mtpfs -allow-other=true /media/Nexus4"

ENV{ID_MODEL}=="Nexus_4", ENV{ID_MODEL_ID}=="4ee2", ACTION=="add", RUN+="/usr/bin/sudo -u yourloginid /usr/local/sbin/go-mtpfs -allow-other=true /media/Nexus4"

# Google Nexus 4 MTP mode : automatic unmount when unplugged (all android versions)

ENV{ID_MODEL}=="Nexus", ENV{ID_MODEL_ID}=="4ee1", ACTION=="remove", RUN+="/bin/umount /media/Nexus4"

ENV{ID_MODEL}=="Nexus", ENV{ID_MODEL_ID}=="4ee2", ACTION=="remove", RUN+="/bin/umount /media/Nexus4"

ENV{ID_MODEL}=="Nexus_4", ENV{ID_MODEL_ID}=="4ee1", ACTION=="remove", RUN+="/bin/umount /media/Nexus4"

ENV{ID_MODEL}=="Nexus_4", ENV{ID_MODEL_ID}=="4ee2", ACTION=="remove", RUN+="/bin/umount /media/Nexus4"

6. Restart udev
sudo service udev restart
7. Add rules to /etc/fstab so that you can easily mount and unmount without using root
gksudo gedit /etc/fstab
Now add the following lines at the end of the file
DeviceFs(Nexus\0407) /media/nexus7 fuse.DeviceFs(Nexus\0407) allow_other,rw,user,noauto 0 0
DeviceFs(Nexus\0404) /media/Nexus4 fuse.DeviceFs(Nexus\0404) allow_other,rw,user,noauto 0 0

8. Remount all drives or you may restart your machine
sudo mount -a

Now try connecting a Nexus device. Make sure you have MTP selected in the connection mode on your Nexus device. You do not need usb debugging to be turned on.

Nexus 4 storage

Nexus 7 storage

Enjoy!

Source

[How To] Installing Skype 4.1 in Ubuntu 12.04

noreply@blogger.com (Sayantan Das) — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 00:33:00 +0000

Updates from Microsoft owned Skype is coming in thick and fast. And surprisingly, the world's most anti-Linux company has been steadily updating its Skype for Linux client. Skype and Microsoft last week released Skype 4.1 for Linux . One of the new features of this release is that, it now enables users to login to the Skype client using MSN, Live, Hotmail and Outlook accounts and chat with each other.

If you download the new Skype 4.1 package from the Skype website, you will see there is a new multi-arch package available for Ubuntu 12.04. This essentially means that this package can be used in both 32 and 64 bit versions of Ubuntu. Now, installing Skype should be straight forward, but in reality, it isn't, especially if you have an existing version of Skype installed. I tried isntalling via GUI and via command line. While installing Skype 4.1 via USC or gdebi, it did not show any errors and it did not install either. After a few tries, I took the command line route. This is where the error came to light.

sudo dpkg -i ~/Downloads/skype-ubuntu-precise_4.1.0.20-1_i386.deb

[sudo] password for ~:

dpkg: error processing ~/Downloads/skype-ubuntu-precise_4.1.0.20-1_i386.deb (--install):

skype:i386 4.1.0.20-1 (Multi-Arch: no) is not co-installable with skype:amd64 4.0.0.8-1 (Multi-Arch: no) which is currently installed

Errors were encountered while processing:

~/Downloads/skype-ubuntu-precise_4.1.0.20-1_i386.deb

So, to install the new Skype package you would need to remove the old Skype 4.0.8 package from the Ubuntu Software Centre or via the command line:

sudo apt-get purge skype

Once the old package is removed, double click on the .deb Skype package to continue with the installation or use the following command in a terminal:

sudo dpkg -i ~/Downloads/skype-ubuntu-precise_4.1.0.20-1_i386.deb

UPDATE
The Ubuntu Software center now has the latest verion of Skype. But that package also has a problem. It doesn't install in a 64bit Ubuntu installation. Below is an error from command line and the USC

sudo apt-get install skype

Reading package lists... Done

Building dependency tree       

Reading state information... Done

Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have

requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable

distribution that some required packages have not yet been created

or been moved out of Incoming.

The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies.

 skype : Depends: skype-bin

E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

The workaround is to install skype-bin:i386 from USC. It installs the Skype 4.1 as well.

[How To] Make gdebi your default package installer in Ubuntu

noreply@blogger.com (Sayantan Das) — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 23:44:00 +0000

Since the last few releases Ubuntu has been using Ubuntu Software Centre (USC) as the default package installer for all .deb files replacing the older gdebi package installer. This means that if you double click on a packaged file like Skype for Linux, USC opens up trying to install the file.

Although it is a noble idea to reduce redundant packages from the default installation of Ubuntu, USC is very slow and takes a lot of time to start up and install the packaged applications. Compared to that, gdebi is a very lightweight package installer. Installing packaged applications using gdebi reduces the overall installation time by almost half.

So, if you want to install the gdebi package installer

1. Head over to USC, search for gdebi and click install.

For command line, use sudo apt-get install gdebi in an open terminal

2. Find any .deb file and right click on it and select properties.

3. Head over to the third tab labelled "Open With".
4. Select Gdebi Package installer and click "Set as default".

That's it. Now, double clicking a .deb package will fire up the gdebi installer instead of USC.

Giveaway: Get Crossover for Linux and Mac for free!

noreply@blogger.com (Sayantan Das) — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 12:17:00 +0000

For today and today only Codeweavers, the company behind the Crossover software, which allows Windows apps like MS Office, Photoshop and various games to run in Linux and Mac OS X, is giving away the £25 package to download for free. The package available for download is the latest 11.3 version.

For those who do not know, Crossover, is a commercial version of wine with some added packages which enables easy guided installations of Windows applications in Linux and Mac. Codeweavers is also the sponsor for the opensource wine project

So, to cash in on this amazing opportunity, head over to their website by clicking the button below and download the required package for free.

32 GB Nexus 7 now shipping in the UK

noreply@blogger.com (Sayantan Das) — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 20:36:00 +0000

The much awaited 32 GB version of the popular Google Nexus 7 tablet is now available and shipping in the UK for the price of £199; the 16GB version costs only £159.

There is also a 32GB with HSPA+ which will probably be available from 13th November when Android 4.2 will be shipped on tablet Nexus 10 and and the new Nexus 4 phone from Google. This means the Nexus 7 tablet will now be able to use a sim card to allow data connection and skype calls on the move.

The new Google Nexus 4 phone from LG which has one of the most amazing specs (1.5GHz Quad Core, 2GB RAM, 8 megapixel camera with a 320 ppi display, wireless charging) in the market has been attractively priced at only £239 and £279 for 8GB and 16GB versions respectively. In my opinion it is an absolute steal. These phones and tablets from Google are an absolute value for money given the specs and amount of new features you would get in Android 4.2.

Ubuntu 12.10 released - what's new?

noreply@blogger.com (Sayantan Das) — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Ubuntu 12.10, the seventeenth release of Canonical sponsored Ubuntu operating system has been released today. This release includes a number of controversial changes, most notable of which is the dropping of the 2D version of Unity desktop environment. The controversial inclusion of Amazon search results in the dash and an Amazon webapp in the launcher has created much discontent among early testers leading to widespread complaints. Since then, a privacy setting to turn off Amazon search results have been included in the settings menu.

Starting from Ubuntu 12.10, the Ubuntu Live CD is officially dead. The present ISO size is 763 MB, which by no means will fit into a CD, leaving only a possible Live DVD/USB option open. Other features of what's new in the latest iteration of Ubuntu, this article will cover in a pictorial representation. Scroll down to view.

The default Ubuntu 12.10 desktop with default wallpaper

Excellent new community wallpapers included

New Social Lens shortcut on Ubuntu menu right click and a new social lens in the dash

Lenses with Amazon search result integration

Legal Notice information at the bottom right for Amazon search results

Right click previews for applications with launch and install features directly from dash with animations

Easier removal of drives from launcher by unlocking

Movable Workspace Switcher

The horrible green LibreOffice splash screen

LibreOffice 3.6 with global menu by defualt

Ubuntu Software Centre now includes turn on/off option for adding application icons in the launcher during installation

Updated Rhythmbox Music Player with Ubuntu One Integration

Firefox Web Browser 16 with Amazon and Ubuntu One Webstore webapps

Webapps for various sites such as Gmail, Twitter, Facebook, etc. can be created easily.

Docking to the launcher and searching for webapps from the dash is also supported.

Close open windows in overlay mode using the new Unity Spread feature

Thunderbird Mail 16 with cloud storage and chat integration

The system settings menu with online accounts, search privacy settings and new additional drivers menu

Online accounts include Twitter, Google, Hotmail, Windows Live, Yahoo and Facebook

Fully featured Nautilus 3.4 instead of a stripped down Nautilus 3.6

New option to view folders with disk analyser

Updated Ambiance and Radiance themes

Video/Audio Calls - Skype, Empathy, Google Talk

The new features for Empathy now enables video calling to and from Android phones (tested on ICS) with Gmail accounts flawlessly. Video and audio calls from Skype and Empathy activates the mic slider under the sound icon in the panel which is not visible otherwise. The mic is no longer muted by default.

New coloured chat status icons for Empathy

New installer options for Ubuntu 12.10 include full installation encryption and LVM partitioning options via GUI

You can download Ubuntu by clicking on the button below

Getting Started with Ubuntu 12.10 manual released

noreply@blogger.com (Sayantan Das) — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 22:28:00 +0000

Ubuntu's most user friendly manual for its latest iteration 12.10, Getting Started with Ubuntu 12.10, has been released just in time for tomorrow's official Ubuntu 12.10 release. The news of the release was made official today morning (GMT) in the Ubuntu Manual's mailing list.

At the moment, you can download the manual directly from the ubuntu manual website http://ubuntu-manual.org. The latest version of manual will be available to download from Ubuntu Software Centre in a few days. If you wish, you can also buy the manual in paperback (printed copy) from the following link http://ubuntu-manual.org/buy/gswu1210/en_US.

About Getting Started with Ubuntu Manual

Getting Started with Ubuntu 12.10 is a very easy to understand guide to the world's most popular open-source OS, Ubuntu. This manual aims to help beginners become familiar with various daily tasks such as web browsing, listening to music, printing, scanning, etc with easy to follow instructions and screenshots.

The manual also includes simple troubleshooting steps to help users fix problems. The 'Getting Started with Ubuntu' series is released under an open-source licence.

How to upgrade to Ubuntu 12.10 Beta from Ubuntu 12.04

noreply@blogger.com (Sayantan Das) — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 20:42:00 +0000

Upgrading to any Ubuntu release is just a cakewalk. However, sometimes, small settings need to be changed to get the latest release. Below, a series of pictures will show you how to upgrade to Ubuntu 12.10.

Step 1: To run update-manager for upgrading to a new release , press Alt+F2 and type update-manager -d and press the return key.

At first, no updates might show on Ubuntu 12.04.

Step 2: If so, then check in software sources and edit to change the option Notify me of a new Ubuntu version to For any new version

Step 3: Run Step 1 again, you will see new version popping up on the top.

Step 4 : Click Upgrade.

Step 5: Then you will see the Beta release notes, click Upgrade.

Step 6: Click close to continue

Step 7: Click start upgrade here

After completion of upgrade, you will get the Ubuntu 12.10 Beta desktop. Your icons will vary though, depending on what icons you previously had on the launcher.

Second beta of GNOME 3.6 arrives

noreply@blogger.com (Sayantan Das) — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 19:53:00 +0000

The GNOME project has released the second and last beta of GNOME 3.6, the final release of which is due to be published on 26 September. The beta release, which carries the version number 3.5.91, mostly includes bug fixes. The behaviour of the Epiphany browser has been changed so that it now shows an overview of the user's most visited pages on startup or when a new tab or window is opened.

Read More >>:

Questionnaire on the use of tablets

noreply@blogger.com (Sayantan Das) — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 15:24:00 +0000

To all my blog's readers.. if you could spare 5 mins of your time and complete the survey, i will be very thankful. The survey is for a research project on Use of tablets by employees in organisations which I am currently doing. Loading...

Synchronize Google Drive in Ubuntu with Insync

noreply@blogger.com (Sayantan Das) — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 21:04:00 +0000

Google Drive for Linux may be a long way from being released, but you can now the same facilities of syncing contents of your GDrive to your Ubuntu desktop using a new application named Insync. The application is in beta but it seems to be stable enough to handle all syncs properly.
You can download the beta software for Linux from Insync Downloads. It has been tested on Ubuntu 12.04 and Linux Mint 13. I have tested it on Ubuntu 12.10 Alpha 3. It works just fine.

Installation

UPDATE:
I have been pointed out that the instructions provided are old, so I am providing updated links which are easier to install. (Thanks Brett)

Latest Ubuntu packages

64bits:
http://s.insynchq.com/builds/insync-beta-ubuntu_0.9.25_amd64.deb
32bits:
http://s.insynchq.com/builds/insync-beta-ubuntu_0.9.25_i386.deb

PPA install instruction

echo "deb http://apt.insynchq.com/ubuntu $(lsb_release -cs) non-free" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/insync.list
wget -O - https://d2t3ff60b2tol4.cloudfront.net/services@insynchq.com.gpg.key | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt-get install insync-beta-ubuntu

~~1. Download the tar file from here~~
~~2. Extract the tar.bz2 file to get the tar file.~~
~~3. Now extract the tar file in a folder named Insync~~
~~4. Now run the installer file ./insync-installer from from a terminal~~

~~Full CLI instructions~~
~~wget http://s.insynchq.com/builds/insync-linux-beta1-py27.tar.bz2~~
~~tar -xvf insync-linux-beta1-py27.tar.bz2~~
~~mkdir Insync~~
~~cd Insync/~~
~~tar -xvf ../insync-linux-metapackage.tar~~
~~./insync-installer~~

You can run the program from the terminal by typing insync. After the program starts you can follow the onscreen instructions to add your google account. To run Insync at startup, you can add it to the startup programs.

Below is a video showing how Insync works with Google Drive.

Install Mendely - the free research manager in Ubuntu

noreply@blogger.com (Sayantan Das) — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 13:36:00 +0000

Sometimes working on a research project, assignment or degree dissertation becomes a pain when there are too many pdfs, documents and research papers lying around in different folders of your computer. Organizing so many documents becomes a priority and as well as citing the works in a correct format.

Mendeley aims to do just that and much more. Mendeley is a research manager which can organize all pdfs in a nice readable way with names of authors and title of the papers. It exports citation, allows collaboration and also allows synchronization between computers. The software is available for Windows, Mac and Linux and most importantly its free of cost!

Mendeley running on Ubuntu 12.10 Alpha 2

Mendeley is fully compatible with…

Windows Word 2003, 2007, 2010
Mac Word 2008, 2011
OpenOffice 3.2
BibTeX

Some salient features of Mendeley are:

Save time navigating PDFs
Open multiple PDFs in separate tabs. Read, take notes and switch back to your research library instantly.
Annotate and highlight
All your annotations can be saved within your PDFs, so when you print them out, your ideas travel with you.
Share annotations with others
Simply create a private group, add colleagues and start sharing. Every time you add notes or highlight a paper, it will be visible to members of the group.
Save and print annotations

For detailed explanations of features visit mendeley.com/features

Web App Integration in Ubuntu 12.10

noreply@blogger.com (Sayantan Das) — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 20:52:00 +0000

Mark Shuttleworth presented some interesting new technology at OSCON today, both using Juju to redeploy between different clouds with just a few commands, and integration of Web Apps into the Ubuntu desktop. Below is a video showing the feature in action

Read More:

New bugfix release for Skype available for download

noreply@blogger.com (Sayantan Das) — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 21:33:00 +0000

A new bugfix release is available to download for Linux users of Skype. According to the Skype developers, this release, contains some important bugfixes. The version number has been moved up one notch to v4.0.0.8 from v4.0.0.7.

The following important bugs were fixed (excerpts from release notes):

Skype client crashes during a Skype IM session, which may in some cases result in the last IM entered or sent prior to the crash being delivered to a different IM contact after the Skype client is rebooted or logged in as a new user.
It was not possible to save files sent on Hard Disk Drive formatted to FAT32 format
Marking all conversations viewed crashed Skype
Participants appeared and disappeared from call view when there was not enough screen estate to show them all.

To get the latest the download, head over to the Skype website's Linux section or click the button below.

Ubuntu and Thunderbird: What the Future Might Hold

noreply@blogger.com (Sayantan Das) — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 22:24:00 +0000

For years, Ubuntu’s default email client was Evolution. Then, last year, Canonical switched to Mozilla Thunderbird. But now recent doubts over the future of Thunderbird — most of them pretty speculative — have spawned worries that Thunderbird might, in its turn, disappear from Ubuntu. Will it? And more importantly, would it really matter to many people? Here are some thoughts.

Read More ::