Ubucrates Classroom

60 second shutdown count taken to zero

2009-11-05T18:45:00.000-08:00

Here's the fix that will remove the 60 second countdown prompt when shutting down Ubuntu 9.10.
Open up a terminal and enter this command:
gconftool-2 -s '/apps/indicator-session/suppress_logout_restart_shutdown' --type bool true
This tip comes courtesy of the excellent blog OMG!Ubuntu website

Another way to accomplish this is by using the GUI interface gconf-editor , and checking the box as shown in the photo posted here.
Either way you go, you'll have eliminated the prompt at shutdown.

Xubuntu to the rescue

2009-11-01T11:25:00.000-08:00

This past month has been busy, but during that time I've been able to install a few distros on my laptop to test drive. Here are some of the distros that I've installed and tried out on my laptop: I've tried Fedora 11, PCLinux 2009, OpenSuse 11.1 and Mandriva 2009.1.
Each distro had its own pros and cons to them, but I found that my preference would lean toward either Fedora or OpenSuse. They both installed well and got me up and running quickly. Their forums answered my questions and were helpful in getting my wifi problems resolved quickly.
The reason that I toured other distros was that I was not entirely encouraged by the Alpha and Beta versions of Ubuntu 9.10.
Now that the final release is out, I'm once again trodding into Ubuntu territory. However, this time I'm trying out Xubuntu (pronounced Zoo-buntu).
Xubuntu uses the lightweight Xfce desktop environment and is designed for older machines with fewer system resources. This description seems to describe my aging Compaq laptop.
Once I downloaded and burned my CD, the install process was as familiar as installing Ubuntu.
I found that after install, the boot process was much quicker than I ever had loading Ubuntu in the past.
I've posted a video on youtube of the boot process.

I've found that a fix for the suspend bug that plagued the earlier beta versions of 9.10 has been found. I haven't looked into applying it yet, but it's on my to-do list.
For now, I'll keep Xubuntu on my laptop as I'm enjoying the little added speed difference that I'm seeing. I can never say when I may install something else to try out. I did also burn an Ubuntu 9.10 CD as well that I meant to install but thought I'd give Xubuntu a try first.

My Karmic Dilemma part 2

2009-09-13T19:26:00.000-07:00

I've found a temporary fix to the frozen suspend/hibernate bug I'm experiencing. It's only a workaround solution, but at least I don't have to keep rebooting my system after I open my laptop to resume work.
This fix requires the latest version of Ubuntu Tweak (vr 0.4.9).
In Ubuntu Tweak under System>Power Management there are boxes checked for both Suspend and Hibernate. Simply uncheck them both and reboot.
Now when I restart and close my laptop lid, the screen simply blanks and resumes immediately as soon as I lift the lid. Problem solved.

My Karmic Dilemma

2009-09-08T22:15:00.000-07:00

I've tried using Karmic Koala Alpha 5 for the last couple of days on my laptop, but the suspend/hibernate bug was really hindering my appreciation of it.
Having to reboot my laptop every time I closed the laptop lid when I stepped away for a while is not the way I want to run my system.
I've since removed it from my system in frustration, and I'll just wait until Karmic goes into beta testing on October 1st.
I'm not willing to test Alpha 5 on my desktop computer as I can't risk losing any files on the hard drive. I wish that I had a spare hard drive to trial it there as I'm sure that it would run properly on the desktop pc as the graphics card is brand new and up to date.
Now that I've decided to remove Karmic from my laptop, I've decided to use it as a testing machine for other flavours of linux. I've just installed opensuse 11.1 on it and except for the minor glitch with my wifi setup, which I expected, opensuse is running extremely well on my laptop.
I have compiz running smoothly with all graphic effects enabled. Similar to earlier versions of Ubuntu. I suspect opensuse is not using the most up to date kernel or graphics drivers or I'd be experiencing problems with it as well.
I'll try it out for a few days and then move on to other distros. I've already burned a couple of live CDs of other distros to test drive. This will only be temporary while I await the beta release.

ATI support has left the building

2009-09-06T19:19:00.000-07:00

Since installing Ubuntu Karmic Koala Alpha 5, I've discovered that being on the bleeding edge of testing software comes at a cost.
My main concern revolves around a suspend/hibernate bug that I have submitted. Whenever I close the lid of my laptop and place the system in suspend mode, it blanks the screen and freezes the system when I resume work, forcing a reboot.
In doing research about this bug I discovered something that may be related to this issue, and
it seems that older model ATI card owners will be out of luck. AMD will no longer be providing support. This means that the fglrx driver will not support kernel 2.6.30 or newer. Karmic is currently running 2.6.31.9-generic.
Catalyst 9,8 is said to have support for the 2.6.30 kernel and I have read that there are patches available.
Using older Catalyst versions won't work either as they won't work with the Karmic Xorg.
Using the open source ATI drivers allows the system graphics to work with multiple monitor support, however this also means not being able to take advantage of OpenGL or direct 3D.
It is rumoured that Ubuntu will release up to date ATI drivers come final release date.
But for now, if you have a newer ATI card or better yet, no ATI card, then you may have better luck using the latest release of Ubuntu Karmic.

"Whoa. Déjà vu"

2009-09-05T15:37:00.000-07:00

"A déjà vu is usually a glitch in Ubuntu. It happens when they change something."

The above quote was actually from the Matrix with a minor change, but I've just installed the latest Alpha (5) of Ubuntu and there were a few things I've discovered.
They've made some changes to some things in this next version, but as it's still in alpha testing, some more changes may yet occur.
Here is my video of the boot up process for starters. youtube link
I've encountered a few bugs that are somewhat annoying and may prevent me from continuing to test this until it is released as a beta.
The most annoying bug causes my laptop to freeze at a blank screen every time I close the laptop lid and place it in suspend mode. When I reopen the laptop, the screen is simply blank and no key presses will wake it up again, forcing a reboot.
I'll be writing more about my experiences with Ubuntu 9.10 soon.

Tiltshift your photos

2009-06-26T14:14:00.000-07:00

I have worked with Tiltshift photography in the past and created some interesting photos using this technique. Now it is possible to recreate this effect using Tiltshift Generator. It will allow you to achieve amazing results out of average photos. It not only creates tiltshift type photos, but can also be used to enhance dull photos and produce lively ones.
Tiltshift Generator is a great addition for any photographer and is worth checking out.
Here are the steps to use to get it on your Ubuntu machine.
Step 1
Click this hyperlink to download the Adobe Air bin file
Move to directory where file was downloaded with Terminal program and
Use chmod +x to make the bin file executable, ie chmod +x AdobeAirInstaller.bin
then run the file using ./AdobeAIRInstaller.bin
Follow the Adobe prompts to complete installing the program.
Step 2
click this link to install Tiltshift Generator It will navigate you to the Tiltshift app installation. If you use Firefox, choose option "Open with Adobe Air Application Installer"

.................BEFORE..................................................................................................... AFTER

My sources.list file

2009-05-30T14:25:00.000-07:00

I've just done a complete fresh install of Ubuntu Jaunty from the CD I requested from Shipit, as opposed to the upgrade I did on my system when Jaunty was released. I added Medibuntu to my repository to allow me to install the restricted drivers. Here is how my sources.list file looks at present. I will definately be adding more repositories in future and I'll have to edit this post.
This post if mostly for my personal future reference should I do another reinstall. I had originally started out with the Canadian repositories, but I had some trouble with adding keys, so I switched to a US based site for now.
You may use this sources.list if you wish, but don't blame me if your system complains. You can find your sources.list file by opening terminal and entering:
gksudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list
From here you can edit the file as I have below.

# deb cdrom:[Ubuntu 9.04 _Jaunty Jackalope_ - Release i386 (20090420.1)]/ jaunty main restricted
# See http://help.ubuntu.com/community/UpgradeNotes for how to upgrade to
# newer versions of the distribution.

deb http://ubuntu.secs.oakland.edu/ jaunty main restricted
deb-src http://ubuntu.secs.oakland.edu/ jaunty main restricted

## Major bug fix updates produced after the final release of the
## distribution.
deb http://ubuntu.secs.oakland.edu/ jaunty-updates main restricted
deb-src http://ubuntu.secs.oakland.edu/ jaunty-updates main restricted

## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team. Also, please note that software in universe WILL NOT receive any
## review or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
deb http://ubuntu.secs.oakland.edu/ jaunty universe
deb-src http://ubuntu.secs.oakland.edu/ jaunty universe
deb http://ubuntu.secs.oakland.edu/ jaunty-updates universe
deb-src http://ubuntu.secs.oakland.edu/ jaunty-updates universe

## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as to
## your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in
## multiverse WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu
## security team.
deb http://ubuntu.secs.oakland.edu/ jaunty multiverse
deb-src http://ubuntu.secs.oakland.edu/ jaunty multiverse
deb http://ubuntu.secs.oakland.edu/ jaunty-updates multiverse
deb-src http://ubuntu.secs.oakland.edu/ jaunty-updates multiverse
Shipit
## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from the 'backports'
## repository.
## N.B. software from this repository may not have been tested as
## extensively as that contained in the main release, although it includes
## newer versions of some applications which may provide useful features.
## Also, please note that software in backports WILL NOT receive any review
## or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
deb http://ubuntu.secs.oakland.edu/ jaunty-backports main restricted universe multiverse
# deb-src http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jaunty-backports main restricted universe multiverse

## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from Canonical's
## 'partner' repository.
## This software is not part of Ubuntu, but is offered by Canonical and the
## respective vendors as a service to Ubuntu users.
# deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu jaunty partner
# deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu jaunty partner

deb http://ubuntu.secs.oakland.edu/ jaunty-security main restricted
deb-src http://ubuntu.secs.oakland.edu/ jaunty-security main restricted
deb http://ubuntu.secs.oakland.edu/ jaunty-security universe
deb-src http://ubuntu.secs.oakland.edu/ jaunty-security universe
deb http://ubuntu.secs.oakland.edu/ jaunty-security multiverse
deb http://ubuntu.secs.oakland.edu/ jaunty-proposed restricted main multiverse universe
deb-src http://ubuntu.secs.oakland.edu/ jaunty-security multiverse

Why must I wait when I want to go?

2009-04-23T23:54:00.000-07:00

One strange feature in Jaunty is the shutdown prompt window. Why oh why was this included?? When I want to reboot or shutdown, why must I wait 60 seconds each time for this to happen?
I've found a quick fix for this problem. It's so simple, but I see a lot of users on the forums talking about this and asking how to fix that 'bug'.
First thing you need to do is to right-click on the shutdown icon at the top right of the desktop. Choose preferences and then disable box shown in my screen capture.

When the preferences window opens, simply uncheck the option that reads "Show confirm dialogs for logout, restart and shutdown"

Very easy to do and you'll find no more prompts appearing in future. This can also be re-enabled if you ever feel like doing a 60 second countdown for whatever reason.

Ubuntu Jaunty and the Broadcom driver fail

2009-04-23T23:38:00.000-07:00

Here I was installing the new Jaunty release with high hopes that it would work on my laptop 'out of the box'.
Installation went extremely smooth. I used the custom installation option to delete my old Ubuntu 8.10 install and formatted it in favour of an all new fresh system.
I've kept Windows XP installed, so I'll still be using a dual-boot configuration.
Once it was installed, I rebooted and tried to get online right away. In past installations, this was the step that caused me much grief and I was hoping that Jaunty had addressed this issue with those users who have Broadcom wireless cards. (mine is the Broadcom b4318)
No such luck getting a wireless signal without further tweaking. Luckily the driver is available on the Ubuntu CD so installation wasn't the problem. I had my wireless working in no time at all as I had been down this road before and new what to do, and more importantly, what not to do.
Things have improved greatly with the wifi issues compared to previous versions of Ubuntu but I wish it would be possible to have wifi cards automatically detected on installation so that new users won't wonder why Ubuntu isn't working for them and then uninstall and go back to whatever OS they were using before.

ubuntu gets revved up and ready

2009-04-21T23:51:00.000-07:00

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;img src="http://www.ubuntu.com/files/countdown/904/countdown-9.04-1/00.png" alt="Ubuntu 9.04 - on desktops, netbooks, servers and in the cloud" width="180" height="150" border="0" /&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

Not many posts this past year as I've been very pleased with how everything has been running on all my systems. Now that Jaunty is due for release, I'll be upgrading and posting anything that strikes me of interest. I've upgraded my Ubuntu desktop and have installed a new ATI video card into it as well. I'll post more on that in future posts when I install Ubuntu Jaunty.
Off topic: lately I've been busy with my new toy, the Nokia N800. It's a tablet that runs Maemo which is a Debian linux based OS. I've been having so much fun tweaking this gadget, that I've been satisfied to simply do the regular upgrades on my Ubuntu machines.
I didn't participate with the Jaunty Alpha and Beta tests this time around although I did recieve email updates on the progress that was made. Although it's not a major upgrade, I still look forward to its final release.

Delete, erase, shred, goodbye

2009-01-15T19:51:00.000-08:00

I'm planning to sell off my old computer, and I wanted to find a way to make sure the hard drive is completely wiped clean.
Here in this short post is the quick way to accomplish this.
Warning to any reader. The following commands will completely wipe a drive clean. Use with extreme caution.
Boot up the system with the Ubuntu live DVD.
Find the name of the drive using fdisk by typing in fdisk -l (that's the letter L not the number 1)
My drive is called sda. If you have more than one drive connected, it may be a good idea to turn the pc off and unplug the other drives. Double and triple check that you have chosen the correct drive to format.
Enter the following to format the drive.
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda
To make completely sure that the drive is erased run the shred command next.
sudo shred /dev/sda
The drive will be wiped clean and ready to be partitioned. Simple and quick.

POST EDIT:
Thanks to the comments of an anonymous reader, I have been further educated on the use of the shred command. I did a bit more research and found that although shred is effective under normal conditions to clean a hard drive, I did not take into consideration the fact that this would not include the empty areas of the hard drive that may have had information previously stored there. There could also still be copies of data in RAM and the swap area as well to would not get erased.
Secure-delete, which can be found in the Ubuntu repository, will truly guarantee that your data will be wiped totally clean.
There are four commands that can be used with this tool.
srm -secure remove Removes files and directories from the hard drive
smem -secure memory wiper Goes after the data in the memory/RAM
sfill -secure free space wiper All data from free areas on drive will be erased
sswap -secure swap wiper The SWAP partition will be purged of all data with this command

Thank you to one of my readers who helped to educate me a bit more on this topic. Feel free to add a comment if you have anything else that you can add to help out.

Web Stats and desktop update

2009-01-07T20:50:00.000-08:00

PC desktop update: I recently purchased a replacement desktop that I expect to receive next week. In the meantime, my laptop has been keeping me online and up to date with family and friends over the holidays.

I took a look at this site during the Christmas break and I was surprised by the large number of visitors that have found my site. I also see that the Statcounter stats shows several people drop by the site each day. Sorry that I don't update that often. I had originally started this site as a personal page for me to post my experiences that I wanted to document with installing and using Ubuntu. I myself have refered back to several of my own posts to remind myself of things that I have done in the past. (I must be getting older, as my memory seems to be going.)
I'd love to read some comment from any readers and visitors to this site. Has this site helped you with using Ubuntu? I'm not much of a blogger and write more for myself than anyone else, so I'd love to hear from you. I'm not sure what direction this blog will take in the future, but I would love to continue posting more often if people enjoy reading the posts that put on on this humble blog of mine.
Cheers and a Happy New Year to you all!

Death of the P4 Ubuntu desktop

2008-12-17T20:34:00.001-08:00

My main computer, an old P4 desktop has finally died for the last time. It's been slowly failing me over the past year, with various parts being replaced, but yesterday it finally quit for good. The motherboard is fried and I won't bother repairing it. I'll be looking for a new system in the new year, so I'll have to get by with my trusty laptop. It's currently running Ubuntu Intrepid, and the only glitch is that the lcd backlight is slowly fading away. I've already replaced the lcd inverter, and now the backlight goes dim ever so often. I just have to partially close and open the laptop cover for the screen to come back on.
My desktop has 2 hard drives on it that I'll need to salvage before I get rid of it. I'll need to do full backups of both and reformat them to make sure there's no longer any personal data on them.
I was running Ubuntu on the one hard drive for quite some time now, and had it configured just right with everything running smoothly on it. I used the laptop to experiment with and to tweak settings. I'm using the laptop to log in to my blog via scribefire to post this update.
I'm glad that I discovered a great Firefox addon called Foxmarks that has allowed me to import my saved bookmarks to my laptop. I wish that I had done something similar with my passwords. I did use keepass on my computer, but unfortunately, I didn't save the backup file to a disk, so I can't access that yet. I may pick up a cheap hard drive enclosure kit so I'll be able to get at those files on my hard drive.
I'd suggest that anyone with personal files on their computer to not wait till 'tomorrow' to perform a backup. Those photos and documents can be gone in a flash, lost forever. Luckily for me, I can still access my files, but it may be a while till I can plug those drives in and backup my precious data.
Technorati Tags: ubuntu, ubucrates, p4 desktop, backup, foxmarks,

Recipe for Success

2008-11-27T18:55:00.000-08:00

This month saw me in hospital for an unscheduled surgery. If you've never experienced a gall bladder attack before, I can only describe it as an incredibly painful experience I would never want to repeat.
Now that I'm out of hospital, I've decided to start eating a bit more healthier to avoid another hospital stay.
I've found an excellent program called Gourmet Recipe Manager that will help me achieve that.
This program has everything I'd want in a recipe storage program with more added features as well.
Gourmet allows me to import recipes from various other programs like MasterCook and Mealmaster. I used to use MasterCook with windows and have lots of recipes stored in that format, so it's great to see the import feature implemented and working well.
There is even an added bonus feature that allows you to import webpage recipes. This is an excellent feature that gives you the option to import the recipes directly from the website that you find it on. I didn't have much luck with this way of importing and found it hit and miss most of the time. Too bad, but this software is still evolving, so I'll be keeping an eye on this addon.
There are additional options that allow me to monitor nutritional data on each item and menu so that I can keep track of calories and individual stats of each item. I can customize the data by choosing from several menu options to help me fine tune the accuracy of the nutritional data being listed for each recipe.
There is also a handy shopping helper that lists items already on hand in your pantry and those items that I need to pick up on my next trip to the store. I just open up the shopping helper and drag and drop the items I already have to remove them from the list then hit print and I have a handy shopping list ready to take with me on my next shopping trip.
Adding new recipes is a breeze. Just enter each item one by one as well as the ingredient measurement and the recipe will soon be entered into the database. A photo can also be included to help make choosing recipes later.
Once your recipe database has started to grow ,there is a search feature that helps you track down to elusive recipes with options to search by title, category, cuisine, ingredient or even instructions. You can rate each recipe as well on a 5 star basis, so that you can even search for your favorites this way.
If you don't feel like typing in all your recipes by hand, and want to get started right away, do a google search for Mealmaster recipes. There are tons of recipes already online, so start those that download, import and start cooking.

Getting things done...one day soon

2008-10-29T16:07:00.000-07:00

I've been so extremely busy this past month, that I've let this blog sit idle.
Here's a brief update of what I'm up to and what I'm thinking about for the future. I'm still using Ubuntu 8.10 on my laptop, which is running extremely well and I haven't encountered any glitches at all. Tomorrow is the day of the final release.
Download and enjoy!
I'm debating making the switch from 8.04 to 8.10 on my desktop computer. I don't want to risk breaking anything and losing the data I've got stored there. I'll eventually attempt it when I've got time to do a thorough backup.
There are a few ideas and projects that I want to accomplish with Ubuntu in the near future.
I have some high definition video archived on my hard drive that I want to convert and burn to DVD one of these days. I'm not sure how easy this will be since the hi def video format is still relatively new and not so easily recognized by main stream players/editors.
I also would like to scan the transparency slides that I have stored all around my house that I took before I made the switch to digital. I'll have to reconnect my old slide scanner and capture them at the best resolution that I can for backup and for future use.
I'm working on a website for my daughters soccer team and am testing out the various html editors available in the repositories such as screem, quanta and bluefish.
Also, I'm debating taking FreeBSD out for a test drive as a friend doesn't stop taking about it. Sounds interesting and I've downloaded the iso files, but I'm still having fun with Ubuntu for now.

Happy Birthday Tux!

2008-10-09T10:45:00.000-07:00

On October 20th Ubuntu will celebrate the 4rth anniversary of its initial release.
This month also marks the 17th anniversary of Linux. These are two small milestones, but I thought it was worth acknowledging them regardless.
This post gives me a chance to have some fun with using Gimp. I've created a simple graphic of Tux celebrating both events by hosting his own party where he spins his favorite Linux tunes. Not the best graphic that you'd be able to create using Gimp, but I'm far from being the artistic type.

Countdown to Eight-ten

2008-10-07T05:18:00.000-07:00


 

The month is flying by quickly and it won't be long before the next version of Ubuntu will be released.
It's currently available as a beta, and I did test out Ubuntu when it was still in alpha release.
Currently, I have the Kubuntu 8.10 amd64 beta running on my laptop.
I've never been too fond of Kubuntu or KDE in the past, but I've got some new respect for this new and updated version of KDE. It really makes me seriously consider switching over to Kubuntu for the next release.
I never felt completely comfortable with previous versions of Kubuntu. Maybe at the time, I expected it to look and run more like Windows. I was told that it was more "Windows-like" than Gnome.
The new version using KDE 4.1 really impresses on first bootup. Although still in beta, the interface is very pleasing and is easily navigated. I would have prefered to see Firefox as the default browser rather than Konqueror and Thunderbird rather than Kmail, but those are personal options and easily installable.
I suspect that there will be many Ubuntu users making a permanent switch to Kubuntu once the word starts spreading about this release.

Firefox 303

2008-09-26T15:44:00.000-07:00

When I installed the Alpha version of Intrepid on my laptop, I noticed that Firefox 3.02 came installed with it. It was nice to see that it was included as my Ubuntu desktop still had vr 3.01 on it and no official updates were available.
Today I find that Ubuntu has several updates available, and Firefox is one of them. However, I find that they have upgraded Firefox again, which brings it up to version 3.03. That's two updates in a short time.
It turns out that this update fixes a bug that was present in version 3.02, where "users were unable to retrieve saved passwords or save new passwords".

There has been a bit of controversy within the Ubuntu community lately about the Firefox user agreement and upcoming Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex due for release next month.
Mozilla has added a Firefox 3.0.2 end user license agreement (EULA) to its upcoming release, which has caused an uproar among many open source supporters.
Mark Shuttleworth explained the reasoning for this where users had started a bug entry for this EULA license "bug"

He writes:

Mozilla Corp asked that this be added in order for us to continue to call the browser Firefox. Since Firefox is their trademark, which we intend to respect, we have the choice of working with Mozilla to meet their requirements, or switching to an unbranded browser.

It's strongly our preference, and that of most of our users, to have Firefox as the browser in Ubuntu.

I think it's perfectly reasonable for Mozilla to have requirements and guidelines for the use of their trademark - we have the same for Ubuntu, and many other free software projects do the same. I would in fact consider it a best practice to have a good brand on a free software project, which means having trademark guidelines.

That said, I would not consider an EULA as a best practice. It's unfortunate that Mozilla feels this is absolutely necessary, but they do, and none of us are in a position to be experts about the legal constraints which Mozilla feels apply to them. We had extensive conversations with Mozilla in order to find the best possible way of meeting their requirements while preserving the flow of use of the system for our users.

I am somewhat frightened that Mozilla would require a EULA which is so
waffly and contains so little substance. I also fail to see how not
carrying Firefox branding breaks "the flow of use of the system". Recall
that much of the world uses Internet Explorer, and doesn't know of the
Firefox brand in the first place.

This EULA also says strange things - that other packages might have
other licenses, for example. Why is it saying that? No other package
states that. Does it perhaps refer to the Firefox installer that we've
never used and never will? The agreement also states that portions of
the source code are available - if it is in main it must all be
available. Many parts of this EULA seem irrelevant and unnecessarily
frightening.

I'm not sure how this will end, but I don't think that this will change the way that people use Ubuntu. Firefox with or without a EULA agreement will still be the browser of choice for many users. It may be rebranded with a new name, but people will still choose it over the other alternatives that are currently available.

Alpha testing: Ubuntu Intrepid

2008-09-24T11:40:00.000-07:00

This past Monday was Ubuntu Testing Day, and Ubuntu users were asked to download and test any one of the flavours of Intrepid that is currently in Alpha 6 testing.
I finally decided to try the amd64 version of Ubuntu on my laptop, which I have been meaning to try since I purchased it (Compaq Presario V2310).
I downloaded and burned the iso and proceeded to install the Ubuntu Intrepid alpha 6 image to my laptop. I have participated in many, many beta testing versions of various softwares over the years, but this is the first time that I have installed an alpha test version for testing purposes.
I decided that since this was an alpha test, I would completely erase my laptop hard drive and devote the entire machine to the testing process in case any serious problems wiped out my data.
I registered with the testing site and installed the Ubuntu DVD amd64 version of Intrepid.
I noted that there were many bugs listed for the various versions of Ubuntu, but I found that my install went flawlessly and I was up in running in no time after my hard drive was formated and partitioned.
The only glitch I encountered was entirely expected on my Compaq Presario V2310.
This laptop has wifi issues that I've found can only be rectified by applying the Fiesty No Fluff broadcom fix. Not a serious problem and not what I'd call a bug, but it would have been nice to have the software work right 'out of the box'.
I've been trying this version out the last few days and have not encountered any significant issues to report. I'm now planning on trying out one of the other alpha versions of Intrepid. I notice that the both desktop versions of the alpha have multiple bugs reported, so I think I'd like to try help iron out some bugs with those installations.
The beta version will be released on October 2nd, the RC on October 23 and the final release will be on October 30th.
Those that want to try out the next final version of Intrepid don't have long to wait, otherwise jump in now and try out the alpha. Just don't forget to backup your important data first.

Do the Samba

2008-09-12T09:10:00.000-07:00

I often edit and open files from Gnome Nautilus file manager for simplicity sake. I usually open it via the terminal window. However, just typing in 'nautilus' has always given me this message just before it would open:

** (nautilus:18315): WARNING **: Unable to add monitor: Operation not supported
Nautilus-Share-Message: Called "net usershare info" but it failed: 'net usershare' returned error 255: net usershare: cannot open usershare directory /var/lib/samba/usershares. Error No such file or directory
Please ask your system administrator to enable user sharing.

There is a simple fix to removing this prompt and allowing nautilus to open even faster. At least it does for me.

sudo apt-get install samba smbfs

Head over to the Samba documentation page for more info on what Samba can do for you.

Samba can be used to:

Act as a server for Windows (or Samba) clients: share folders and printers, including PDF pseudo-printers so all the computers in your network may write PDF files
Act as a domain controller in a Windows network (authenticating users, etc.)
Do some more complex things, such as using a Windows domain controller to authenticate the users of a Linux/UNIX machine

Reformatting my brain

2008-08-20T17:39:00.000-07:00

Today I tried to do a very simple task using Ubuntu. I had purchased a new compact flash media card and I wanted to format it as well as my old ones to bring them back to original condition. I popped them into the media bay of my computer and attempted to run a simple reformat command on them from nautilus. I then realized that the reformat command was a reflex of my using Windows/msdos for so many years and that I'd have to try a new approach.

A simple task required a short search, which brought me to a simple solution.

First: Install gparted, either from synaptic or the Ubuntu package download page
Second: Run gparted and find the media card. Mine was listed as /dev/sdc. Unmount the drive.
Third: Choose Partition>Format to: There will be a list of choices for how you prefer to format the card from FAT16/ FAT32 to ext2 and linux-swap.

I formatted my compact flash to FAT 32 and it works well in my PDA.

I then decided to change the name of the card as I didn't like the default name it had. Another "simple solution" that I discovered. I couldn't just right click on the media card and rename it. I did find a way to accomplish it though.

1: Install mtools from synaptic.
2: Open a terminal window and sudo su to become root.
3: Unmount the card with the 'umount' command
4: Run the command that will rename the drive using

mlabel -i /dev/sdc1 ::AximCF

(The drive on my PC is /dev/sdc1)

5: Remove the media from PC and reconnect it to see the new name, and take joy in the fact that the simple tasks make life worth living.

NBC hates linux

2008-08-09T06:18:00.000-07:00

This post has more to do with the Olympics that started yesterday, than it does Linux.
I watched the Olympic opening ceremonies yesterday in glorious hi def on my TV, and then logged on to see what was available online. Two networks, NBC in the US and CBC here in Canada both have live Olympic coverage online.
(edit: read note at the bottom of post before trying to watch these videos)
I was able to watch the live proceedings without any problem via the CBC link

NBC online coverage was another matter altogether. It seems that their feed does not support Linux at all.

Shame on you NBC.
Although I shouldn't be too surprised.
While CBC was covering the event live, NBC only showed a rebroadcast of the opening ceremonies late in the evening. Also, I may sound biased, but I feel that CBC did a much better job with the video broadcast coverage than NBC. So with that in mind, I don't feel so bad for not being able to view NBC online.

All aboard!

2008-08-08T14:49:00.000-07:00

I came across an interesting game today that reminds me of similar games that I enjoyed playing years ago, such as Transport Tycoon and Simcity. The game is called SimuTrans. They have just come out with version 1.0 this week and it looks like it's ready for prime time. It's a game that allows you to build a transportation network and move industrial goods which will allow raw materials to be used to produce other raw materials. All these goods need to be kept moving otherwise your town will not have cars to drive, for example, or gas to power them.

Downloads are available from the sourceforge site, but if you're not sure which files to grab or in what order to download them, just head over to the Ubuntu Packages site and do a search for simutrans using Intrepid as the distribution. You will find 4 deb files that you can download and install. Install the pak64 and data files before the main program and start building your empire. It couldn't get any easier.

Working with Photos Part II

2008-08-07T09:28:00.000-07:00

The Sourceforge summary for Album Shaper states that:
Album Shaper strives to be the most friendly, easy to use, cross platform application for organizing, annotating, framing, enhancing, stylizing, and sharing your digital photos.

As this was the first linux photo software that I took for a test drive, I can attest that the above statement is true.
Installation was incredibly simple via the deb file that is available for download from the album shaper sourceforge site. This is for the version 2.1.
Once up and running, creating a simple photo slideshow simply involves creating a collection folder to store your photos, then choosing the photos that you wish to add.
Once complete, you can choose to save your project and select from several templates for your webpage as well as the directory the collection will be saved to. Next step is to export the collection into a finished webpage ready for viewing or for uploading to a website to share with the world.
I've created a sample page with some photos from my recent Alaskan Cruise. Try not to fall asleep as you watch my boring home photo slideshow.
There is no autoplay feature unfortunately, so you'll need to advance through each photo/collection manually.
There is quite a bit more that this program can do that I did not explore or work into my slideshow demo. You also have the ability to preview and edit photos, adjust brightness, contrast and tilt as well as annotate individual photos.
The Album Shaper site also includes to other programs Presenter and Reveal that both sound interesting, but that I haven't had a chance to try out yet.
All in all, Album Shaper is a great program that allows for a quick way to create a photo webpage without having to enroll at Harvard to figure out how it should work.