Linux Lover

Two Search Engine about Ubuntu

2007-11-13T23:01:00.000+08:00

Today I saw two search engine at Reviewlinux.com. They are really good.

http://www.uboontu.com/
http://search.ubuntuwire.com/

UbuntuWire is a specialized Ubuntu search engine which can help you find information related to Ubuntu operating system quickly without having to wade through countless unrelated websites on the internet...

See more Search Ubuntu related information and How to with UbuntuWire.com.

Install Windows XP via VirtualBox in Ubuntu

2007-11-13T02:20:00.000+08:00

Now, VirtualBox comes gradually to maturity.

Some of the features of VirtualBox are:
1.Modularity.
2.Virtual machine descriptions in XML.
3.Guest Additions for Windows and Linux.
4.Shared folders.
5.Virtual USB Controllers.
6.Remote Desktop Protocol.
7.USB over RDP.
See more Here.

I want to talk about the installation of windows XP in Ubuntu via VirtualBox.
Installation of VirtualBox:
sudo apt-get install virtualbox
Or you can get the newest version at the Homepage.

Install Windows XP in Virtualbox:

1. Run Virtualbox in "Applications/System Tools/innotek VirtualBox".

2. Click "New" to creat a new "Machine".

3. Press Next.

4. Type in the name of your new machine and choose the Operating System Type. Here I choose Windows XP.

5. Set base memory size, I think the recommended one is good enough.

6. Creat a new Virtual machine. Choose it by pressing "Existing" if you have created one .

7. Creat a new Virtual disk. You can choose the Virtual Disk Image Type. "Dynamically" or "Fixed", I think the former is better.

8. Set the maximum size of the disks you need.

9. Confirm the Summary of your settings. After that, press "Finish".

10. Set the Location of iso image, you can read it from CDROM or you can creat an ".iso" file on your compute first (I recomend this way since it is much more fast ):
cp /dev/cdrom ~/winxp.iso

11. After about 15 minites to 30, a new Windows XP comes out!

12. Install Guest Additons .
By click "Devices/Install Guest Additons" in the above menu.

13. Moreover, you can choose seamless mode by choose "Machine/Seamless Mode" in the menu so that you can use Windows and Linux more conveniently.

14. Some shortcuts.
The default Host Key is the right "Ctrl".
Fullscreen Mode: Host + F
Seamless Mode: Host + L

15. Share Folders with the host machine.
1) Set the share folders by click "Device/Shared Folders..." in the menu.
2) Click "Tools" in the menu of "My computer",and set the "Mapping Network Drive".
3) Now open your "My Computer", Here comes the Shared Folders.

Lyriczilla - Show Lyrics For Audacious

2007-11-08T11:50:00.000+08:00

LyricZilla is a plugin for music players ( BMP and Audacious temporarily). It can search Lyrics automatically, and roll with the playing.

Installation:
1. sudo wget http://lyriczilla.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/package/lyriczilla.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/lyriczilla.list
2. sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install lyriczilla lyriczilla-plugin-audacious lyriczilla-plugin-bmp
3. Enable it at "Preferences->Plugins->General->Lyriczilla"
4. Restart the player.

Please see Here for the latest news.

Simple Skins of Audacious

2007-11-07T11:50:00.000+08:00

Audacious is compatible with Winamp 2.x or "Classic" skins, as well as XMMS skins. (They're basically the same thing.)

You can find Winamp-specific skins at:
winamp.com or customize.org or skinz.org

You can find XMMS-specific skins at:
xmms.org or themes.org or gnome-look.org

More skins can be found at:
breedart.org or deviantART

You can change the skins following this. Actually NOT all of them can be used perfectly.

The following are some simple ones.
Crystal

Download

BeAmp

Download

SilverXP

Download

Luna Element for Winamp

Download

X-Pirate

Download

RVista_II

Download

Changing Resolutions of Screen and Login Window

2007-11-06T11:30:00.000+08:00

Every time I install Ubuntu, the biggest problem will be changing the Resolution of the desktop and login window.

If I want "Visual Effects", I will have to enable "Nvidia accelerated graphics drivers"; However, whenever I enable it, the Screen Resolution will change to "50", although it looks the same as "85". Changing the number of rate at "desktop/gnome/screen/default/0" in "Configuration Editor"( gconf-editor ) won't work. I doubt that this is a BUG.

After I turn on "Visual Effects", the "close", "maximize", "minimize" buttons etc. of windows besides Firefox will disappear unless I install "compizconfig-settings-manager".

Next we will change the resolution of login window.
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg
Delete the resolution you don't need.

An alternative way will be configuring "/etc/X11/xorg.conf", see Here.

Squid - WWW Proxy Cache

2007-11-05T22:59:00.000+08:00

Squid is a caching proxy for the Web supporting HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, and more. It reduces bandwidth and improves response times by caching and reusing frequently-requested web pages. Squid has extensive access controls and makes a great server accelerator. It runs on Unix and Windows and is licensed under the GNU GPL.

You can download it Here
Or
sudo apt-get install squid

However, Cohomo has to edit "squid.conf" every time he starts Squid and then restart it since his IP is random. It is very complicated. So He wrote a script to replace the IP address in the row "/acl bb0 src" by the real IP.

#!/bin/bash
echo Please Type in your IP：
read myip
sudo sed -ie “/acl bb0 src */c\acl bb0 src $myip” /etc/squid/squid.conf
sudo /etc/init.d/squid restart

where "-i" means change "squid.conf" directly and "/c" means change the corresponding row.

Copy the above codes as a text, and set the permission as "Allow executing file as program". Once you want to run it, just double click this file and choose "run in terminal".

Hide the Icon of Winows Disks on the Desktop

2007-11-03T00:17:00.000+08:00

These icons are not so good for the beatiful background picture of the desktop. So I want to hide it.Now we go!

Type in "gconf-editor" in the Terminal, then you will see something like the “Registry” in Windows.
Select “/apps/nautilus/desktop/”. Now disable "volumes_visible", you will find the icons disappear.

However, you can still find them in the menu.

GParted - Gnome Partition Editor

2007-11-01T21:44:00.000+08:00

GParted is the Gnome Partition Editor application which looks like PQmagic in Windows. The purpose of GParted is to allow the individual to take a hard disk and change the partition organization therein, while preserving the partition contents.

GParted is written in C++ and uses gtkmm for its Graphical User Interface (GUI). The general approach is to keep the Graphical User Interface as simple as possible. Every attempt was made to conform to the GNOME Human Interface Guidelines.

The following are some screenshots of GParted.

A closer look at the resize/move widget..

Features...

More screenshot, please see Here.

The Newest version is gparted-0.3.3, we can download it Here.

For Ubuntu users:
sudo apt-get install gparted.

Thanks to Cohomo.

My Configuration of Ubuntu 710

2007-10-21T23:30:00.000+08:00

1. Add software resources.

Here are some software resources in China, and I am using ustc's.
deb http://debian.ustc.edu.cn/ubuntu/ gutsy main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://debian.ustc.edu.cn/ubuntu/ gutsy-backports restricted universe multiverse
deb http://debian.ustc.edu.cn/ubuntu/ gutsy-proposed main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://debian.ustc.edu.cn/ubuntu/ gutsy-security main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://debian.ustc.edu.cn/ubuntu/ gutsy-updates main restricted universe multiverse

deb http://archive.ubuntu.org.cn/ubuntu-cn/ feisty main restricted universe multiverse ( This one includes "w32codecs")

2. Configuration of SCIM Input Method.
Add the following packages.
sudo apt-get install scim scim-modules-socket scim-pinyin scim-gtk2-immodule im-switch libapt-pkg-perl

Edit:
sudo gedit /etc/X11/xinit/xinput.d/default

by adding the corresponding items.
XIM=SCIM
XIM_PROGRAM=/usr/bin/scim
XIM_ARGS="-d"
GTK_IM_MODULE=scim
QT_IM_MODULE=scim
DEPENDS="scim,scim-gtk2-immodule | scim-qtimm"

Ubuntu has installed many input methods, you can delete the ones you don't really need.

3. Configuration of Fonts in Chinese.
1) Install wqy fonts：
sudo apt-get install xfonts-wqy

2) Using simsun in Windows if you like it。
download here “local-conf-02.tgz”, and extracted "local.conf" to "/etc/fonts/local.conf".

and then copy
C:\windows\fonts\simsun.ttc
to
/usr/share/fonts/
and the most important: set it to be read by everyone.

restart.
4. Install and configure music player:
I like Audacious：
sudo apt-get install audacious
1)Change skins，see here。
2)display the names of the songs in the lists in Chinese: Choose the Chinese encoding in preferrence.

5. Install and configure movie player：
I think smplayer is cool:
sudo apt-get install smplayer w32codecs

It need "w32codecs" to play ".rm", you have to add the following resource:
deb http://archive.ubuntu.org.cn/ubuntu-cn/ feisty main restricted universe multiverse

1) If you want to display the subtitles in Chinese, right click and choose "options-preferrence-subtitle"：
a) Set fonts of subtitles。
b) Set the encoding to ”Simplified Chinese charset (CP936)“。
c) Set the size of subtitles to "6" or "7"。
2) Set shortcuts。

6. Configuration of Firefox:
1) Add "Baidu" search: see here, choose "Baidu".
2) Open links in a new tab: If it is not so, see here.

7. Install "Tex"。
sudo apt-get install texlive texmaker

Set ".pdf" files opened with AdobeReader：“acroread %.pdf”.

8. Change the display of windows login.
sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

Delete the ones you don't want need.

9. Login with a figure window, delete "floppy0", and change the display name of disks created in Windows.
sudo gedit /etc/fstab
1) Change "1" at the end of the rows corresponding Windows to "0", see here.
2) Delete the rows corresponding floppy0 and delete the folder in "/media".
3) Creat folders correponding the disks in Windows, and change in "/etc/fstab" the name of disks in Windows to the one just created.

e.g
replace:
# /dev/hda1
UUID=E88B-280A /media/hda1 vfat defaults,utf8,umask=007,gid=46 0 1
# /dev/hda7
UUID=AC76-46CD /media/hda7 vfat defaults,utf8,umask=007,gid=46 0 1
# /dev/hda8
UUID=4074-4D0F /media/hda8 vfat defaults,utf8,umask=007,gid=46 0 1

by:
# /dev/hda1
UUID=E88B-280A /media/System vfat defaults,utf8,umask=007,gid=46 0 0
# /dev/hda7
UUID=AC76-46CD /media/ForFun vfat defaults,utf8,umask=007,gid=46 0 0
# /dev/hda8
UUID=4074-4D0F /media/Data vfat defaults,utf8,umask=007,gid=46 0 0

10. Add other softwares: unrar Gnome-commander Filezilla Inkscape Qterm
sudo apt-get install unrar-free gnome-commander filezilla inkscape qterm

The following ones are not in the official source, you have to download them from their homepages.
GizmoProject
Skype
AdobeReader
Opera

11. Install "IEs4linux"。
See here。
1) First install "wine" and "cabextract"
Add "deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu gutsy universe" at the end of "sources.list" if you can't find them。
(
sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt-get update
)

sudo apt-get install wine cabextract

2) Install "ies4linux"
Type in the terminal:
a) wget http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/downloads/ies4linux-latest.tar.gz
b) tar zxvf ies4linux-latest.tar.gz
c) cd ies4linux-*
d) ./ies4linux

Then you are installing it. After the installation, you can see IE5.0, IE5.5 and IE6.0 on your desktop.

12. Change screen resolution.
Seehere。

13. Open folders as administrator:
sudo apt-get install nautilus-gksu

Open in Terminal:
sudo apt-get install nautilus-open-terminal

Note: The steps 8 and 12 can be replaced by installing "startupmanager" and then set up in the menu "System->Administrtion->Startup-manager".

In a word：
I can install softwares I need as the follwing, and make the configuration as above.
1. The ones not in the software sources, see the 10th in the above。
2. Others:
sudo apt-get install scim scim-modules-socket scim-pinyin scim-gtk2-immodule im-switch libapt-pkg-perl xfonts-wqy audacious smplayer w32codecs texlive texmaker unrar-free gnome-commander filezilla wine cabextract nautilus-gksu nautilus-open-terminal inkscape qterm

Install Ubuntu 7.10 From Hard Disk

2007-10-19T00:47:00.000+08:00

I try to learn some thing new every time I reinstall the system. This time I want to install it from Hard Disk. I am using ubuntu-7.10-alternate-i386.iso.

1. Download Ubuntu 7.10 to D:\

2. Download initrd.gz and vmlinuz ( Note：this file has been destroyed, see the update at the end of this post ) to C:\ ; Download here for amd64.

3. Download Grub4dos, and extract "menu.lst", “grldr”, "grub.exe" to C:\ ;

4. Open “menu.lst” in a text editor and add the following text

title Install Ubuntu 7.10
kernel (hd0,0)/vmlinuz
initrd (hd0,0)/initrd.gz

behind :

color black/cyan yellow/cyan
timeout 10
default /default

5. Append c:\grldr="Install Ubuntu 7.10" to c:\boot.ini.

6. Restart System.

Update(2007-12-4): I found that the file "vmlinuz" in the website needed in step 2 had been destroyed (Actually, it is a .bin file while what I downloaded was a .html file), so I upload it. Now you can get it at the following:
vmlinux

Thanks to Pitak :)

ubuntu 7.10 Released

2007-10-18T20:01:00.000+08:00

Now ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon has been released formally. You can download it at the following location.

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download
http://releases.ubuntu.com/releases/.pool/

A mirror in China is supplied by Lupa:
http://mirror.lupaworld.com/ubuntu/releases/7.10/

There are so many people downloading it right now, thus the speed is very slow:(

CDs of Ubuntu 7.10 is Available in Several Days

2007-10-04T00:02:00.001+08:00

Ubuntu is available free of charge in several days. And they can send you CDs of the latest version (7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon)) with no extra cost, but the delivery may take up to ten weeks.

ShipIt is currently closed while they prepare for the Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) release. We can request or download 7.10 here in a few days.

When I updated to Ubuntu 7.10, I met several problems. For example, the smplayer can't play if the file name or the path contains Chinese. Maybe it is my fault for the bad configuration.

And I decide to reinstall it after the Ubuntu7.10 released.

Changing Skins for Audacious

2007-09-30T00:01:00.000+08:00

There are a lot of mp3 players under Linux, for instance, Bmp, Amarok, Audacious and so on. Amarok is a player under KDE, and the development of Bmp stopped in last year. It is said that Audacious is a good sustitute, so I choose it(I also try the Rhythmbox Music Player, but the quality of a sound sounds terrible).

The installation is very easy. However, I don't like the skins of it. So I download some skins of Winamp, extract it and copy it to "/usr/share/audacious/skins/" (not "~/.audacious/Skins" which is popular on the internet). Remember that you should use "sudo".

sudo nautilus /usr/share/audacious/skins/

Then I change it to the active skin in the "preference" of Audacious. Great, it works!

Open Links in a New Tab

2007-09-28T00:01:00.000+08:00

Although I have set up to open a link in a new TAB in Firefox in Ubuntu, sometimes it still opens it in a new window. Certainly, I may press the middle key on the mouse, but I hate this. If you are annoyed by this too, please follow me:

1) Input "about:config" in the brower;
2) Find the item "browser.link.open_newwindow", and set it up to 3;
Find the item "browser.link.open_newwindow.restriction", and set it up to 0;
3) Restart Firefox.

As a matter of fact:
1) The item "browser.link.open_newwindow" has 3 option:
1: open it in the active tab;
2: open it in a new window;
3: open it in a new tab.

2) The item "browser.link.open_newwindow" has also 3 option:
0: according to "browser.link.open_newwindow";
1: open it in a new window;
2: according to "browser.link.open_newwindow" other than that the way of opening the links has been defined.

Reference:
Open only Tabs in Firefox in Ubuntu without Extension

Audio Chat Tools for Linux

2007-09-27T00:00:00.000+08:00

Although there are a lot of chat tools under linux, there are very few which support audio. As far as I know, the following is good: Skype, Gizmo, Jabbin, Tapioca and Ekiga.

1. Skype is well known as a perfect voice software. It is also very cheap when you call a landphone or a cellphone.

Deb download:http://www.skype.com/download/skype/linux/
or add source: deb http://download.skype.com/linux/repos/debian/ stable non-free

Suitable for: calls between Skype users.

2. Gizmo has also a Linux version. If you are accustomed to its toll-free phone, you may Try this.

Deb download： http://www.gizmoproject.com/download-linux.html

Suitable for: This is the most powerful one. It supports msn messenger, gtalk, jabber, yahoo, and any sip numbers (such as Gizmo).

3. Jabbin. I don't think it has a beautiful interface, and you can't even get through when the network doesn't work well.

Deb download: http://www.jabbin.com/int/index.php/linux-packages-install/

Suitable for: only support ims ofjabber types, such as gtalk.

4. Tapioca. I installed it successfully, but I can't activate it. I don't know the reason.

Deb download: http://extindt01.indt.org/VoIP/apt/pool/main/t/tapiocaui0.3/
or add source: deb http://extindt01.indt.org/VoIP/apt unstable main

5. Ekiga: It has been installed in Ubuntu. As long as the sip number inputed, calls can be realized. I called a Gizmo account of my gf, and I can only hear her at the very beginning, then I heard nothing.

In a word, Skype has the best voice effect; Gizmo is the most powerful, and it can get through with a lot of ims, but you can only hear your friend clearly when the network works well; Jabbin is not very good as Gizmo; Tapioca is also said to be not very good; Ekiga works well when you get through it.

Recommendation: If you are looking for one with a perfect voice effect, skype is definitely the best(you both require to install it). If your network is excellent, you can try the powerful one: Gizmo.

The First Post

2007-09-22T23:55:00.000+08:00

Linux is a magic operating system. It was in 2002 when I first got to it. I took a class at that time to learn RedHat Linux. Next in 2005, several of my friends began to try it. However I didn't install it until Aug 2007. It is said that it used to be much more complicated to install or to deploy it.

But now, Linux is no longer just a toy. It can do almost all tasks for you other than using fetion, operating mechanics of banking on the internet and so on. As for me, it is not a problem to do bank business as I am trying ies4linux, and I hasn't been interested in stock exchange. The only puzzle is that I have to go to win to talk to my gf. Fortuately, I think this will be improved in the future, as Google has paid much more attention to Linux.

Anyway, Linux is a GREAT world. And I try to write here something I have learned, some news about Linux and some softwares I am interested in. Please stand by me.

That's all, Thank you.