Unrar file on ubuntu

We know generally compressing file method is using .zip or .rar. Now I try to explain how to unrar file which compress uses .rar.

For the first time we have install it in our system.
- sudo apt-get install unrar

After install, go to the folder which contain the .rar file

Type unrar command :
unrar e filename.rar

Done

Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex

Its the new release from ubuntu, Ubuntu 8.10 with code name Intrepid Ibex. Its more better than the 8.04 and more easy to use like Microsoft Family. Come with many tools (entertainment, office, desktop, etc).

With compiz fusion make it performance more pretty at desktop.

Want to try this distro, downloaded at http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download

Messenger for MSN Networks

aMSN is a free open source MSN Messenger clone, with features such as:

• Offline Messaging
• Voice Clips
• Display pictures
• Custom emoticons
• Multi-language support (around 40 languages currently supported)
• Webcam support
• Sign in to more than one account at once
• Full-speed File transfers
• Group support
• Normal, and animated emoticons with sounds
• Chat logs
• Timestamping
• Event alarms
• Conferencing support
• Tabbed chat window

To install this software could download at http://www.amsn-project.net/
For ubuntu could install by "- sudo apt-get install msn"

Red Hat Linux 7.2 Bible, Unlimited Edition

Linux was a phenomenon waiting to happen. The computer industry suffered from a rift. In the 1980s and 1990s, people had to choose between inexpensive, market−driven PC operating systems from Microsoft and expensive, technology−driven operating systems such as UNIX. Free software was being created all over the world, but lacked a common platform to rally around. Linux has become that common platform.

Red Hat Linux is the most popular commercial distribution of Linux. Red Hat and other commercial distributions, such as Caldera's OpenLinux, have taken the Linux concept a step further. With Red Hat Linux, users no longer have to download, compile, and check Linux source code to make sure that all the right pieces are put together for Linux to work. Basically, Red Hat has made it possible for Linux to be used by people other than computer geeks.

Red Hat Linux has also made Linux a more viable alternative for corporate users. Many companies have felt insecure about relying on a free operating system to handle their critical data. With Red Hat Linux, they can rely on Red Hat Software, Inc. (http://www.redhat.com/) to provide tested versions of that software and technical support if there are problems.

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Ubuntu Mobile & Embedded

Topics

1. What is a MID
2. What is Ubuntu Mobile & Embedded
3. Intel
4. Community
5. Resources

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Virtualization: Know your options on Ubuntu

Multiple technologies exists to provide a virtual environment:
• Emulation
• Binary translation
• Paravirtualization
• Full Virtualization
• Containment

Multiple points of view need to be examined:
• Host (server)
• Desktop
• Guest

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LTS Tutorials: Using Ubuntu in the Enterprise

Using Ubuntu in the Enterprise presentations contain:
‣ Support
‣ Prerequisite Considerations
‣ Network Installation Options
‣ Installing Network Services
‣ Network and Local Security
‣ Automated Installation

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Ubuntu Reference Commands

Ebooks which contains commands for setting privileges, display, system references, and many

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Transform Ubuntu In Media Center Using XBMC

Adopted from http://tombuntu.com

This guest article was written by Vivek Kumar from TNerd.com, a blog focused on technology news, tricks and tips and Linux tutorials.

Linux has come a long way in support for multimedia and graphics. Today we will see how to transform Ubuntu 8.10 into a media center platform. You can achieve this using various software like MythTV and Boxee, but we’re going to use XBMC Media Center (formerly XBox Media Center).

Before going into the process of installing and configuring XBMC let’s take a look at what it offers.

Home Page: http://xbmc.org/

Description: XBMC is an award winning media center application for Linux, Mac OS X, Windows and XBox. The ultimate hub for all your media, XBMC is easy to use, looks slick, and has a large helpful community.

Features of XBMC

1. a one stop shop for all your multimedia needs: including videos, images and audio
2. multi-platform, Internationalized, and localized media center
3. enjoys a large community with over 50 developers and over 100 translators
4. apart from being a media player, XBMC includes features such as playlist playback, audio visualizations, picture viewing, slideshows, and weather forecast functions, a RSS feed scroller on your home screen, along with community driven third party plugins and addons
5. easy to install on Ubuntu
6. a fluid animated interface which makes a perfect compliment to your Compiz Fusion powered desktop
7. supports album and cover art
8. a very customizable interface which supports skinning

A complete list of features can be found here.

Installation
Open System->Administration->Software Sources and select the Third Party Software tab. Add the following software source:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/team-xbmc-intrepid/ubuntu intrepid main

Close Software Sources and when prompted, choose to reload the repositories.

Install XBMC from the package xbmc (click the link to install), or by running the command below in your terminal:
sudo apt-get install xbmc

Optionally you can also install:

• additional skins
  sudo apt-get install xbmc-skin-*
• support for remote controls
  sudo apt-get install xbmc-eventclients-*
• a scripting example
  sudo apt-get install xbmc-scripts-example

Starting and Running XBMC
All that is left now is to start XBMC. You can start XMBC by going to Applications->Sounds & Video->XBMC Media Center.

Here are two tips to get you started:

• You can navigate XBMC with your mouse or keyboard. To go back to the previous menu, click your right mouse button or press backspace. [update] Commenter Fujiko Fujio posted a link which explains all the mouse and key commands.
• You can resize the XBMC window, but you’d probably like to switch to fullscreen. Open Settings->Appearance->Screen in XBMC and change the resolution option to the default resolution of your display. Restart XBMC and it will load fullscreen instead of in a window. You can also run XBMC with the -fs option to force it to run fullscreen at any other resolution.

The interface is pretty user friendly, so feel free to explore.

LXDREAM - Sega Dreamcast Emulator

Lxdream is an emulator for the Sega Dreamcast system, running on Linux and OS X. While it is still in heavy development (and many features are buggy or unimplemented), it is capable of running most demos and some games.

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Virtual CD-ROM

There is an iso file and we want to open it. Its easy in ubuntu, here is the way :

mkdir fakecd
sudo mount cd.iso fakecd -o loop
where cd.iso is your cd image and fakecd the directory where you want your 'virtual cd' be

or

sudo modprobe loop
sudo mount / / -t iso9660 -o loop

http://ubuntuforums.org

Linux Administrator

Buku ini merupakan buku panduan bagi linux administrator dimana buku ini merisi materi tentang :

1. Network
2. Menambah/mengurangi aplikasi
3. Menggunakan Synaptic Manager
4. Menggunakan Mirror Local repo.ugm.ac.id
5. Menambah Aplikasi Melalui Synaptic
6. Mengurangi Aplikasi Melalui Synaptic
7. Instalasi aplikasi tambahan dengan apt-get (modus teks dari synaptic)
8. Berbagi file (file sharing)
9. Berbagi file dengan samba
10. Berbagi file dengan NFS

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gThumb

gThumb is an image viewer written for the GNOME environment. It lets you browse your hard disk, showing you thumbnails of image files. It also lets you view single files (including GIF animations), organize images in catalogs, print images, view slideshows, set your desktop background, and more. gThumb also supports Nautilus thumbnails.

Homepage:
http://gthumb.sourceforge.net/
Tar/GZ:
http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/sources/gthumb/2.10/
Tar/BZ2:
http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/sources/gthumb/2.10/

For ubuntu :
apt-get install gthumb

Wine 1.0.10

Wine for Ubuntu, Debian Etch, and Debian-based distributions

Ubuntu and other Debian-based distributions utilize a special tool for managing packages known as APT. APT is able to automagically install all of the needed dependencies for a software package, as well as keep the package up to date, by scanning what are known as APT repositories. Debian-based distributions have their own repositories of software that include Wine, however we keep our own repository of the latest available beta packages here for download.

Warning: These are beta packages

The packages here are beta packages. This means they will periodically suffer from regressions, and as a result an update may break functionality in Wine. If the latest stable release of Wine (currently Wine 1.0.1) works for you, then you may not want to use these beta packages.

Adding the WineHQ APT Repository:

Open the Software Sources menu by going to System->Administration->Software Sources. Then select the Third Party Software tab and click Add.

Administration->Software Sources->Third Party Software" border="0" height="509" width="531">

Then, copy and paste one of the lines below depending on which version you are running.

For Ubuntu Intrepid (8.10):
deb http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt intrepid main #WineHQ - Ubuntu 8.10 "Intrepid Ibex"

For Ubuntu Hardy (8.04):
deb http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt hardy main #WineHQ - Ubuntu 8.04 "Hardy Heron"

For Debian Etch (4.0):
deb http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt etch main #WineHQ - Debian 4.0 "Etch"

Trusting the WineHQ APT Repository and installing Wine:

After adding the repository, you also need to add the key for the repository to your system's list of trusted keys.

Download and save Scott Ritchie's key to your desktop. Then open the Authentication tab, click import key file, and select the key file you just saved (Scott Ritchie.gpg). It is safe to delete this file after doing this step.

Administration->Software Sources->Authentication" border="0" height="509" width="531">

Click close to finish, and then reload the package information. If you have Wine installed, the system's update manager will now inform you of the latest Wine beta release and prompt you to upgrade. If you haven't installed Wine yet, go to Applications->Add/Remove and search for Wine.

Command Line Instructions for Installing Wine:

An alternate method for adding the Wine repositories and installing Wine is through the command line, as follows:

First, open a terminal window (Applications->Accessories->Terminal). On Debian, you will need to open a root terminal. Then add the repository's key to your system's list of trusted APT keys by copy and pasting the following into your terminal:

wget -q http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt/387EE263.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -

Next, add the repository to your system's list of APT sources:

For Ubuntu Intrepid (8.10):
sudo wget http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt/sources.list.d/intrepid.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/winehq.list

For Ubuntu Hardy (8.04):
sudo wget http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt/sources.list.d/hardy.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/winehq.list

For Debian Etch (4.0):
sudo wget http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt/sources.list.d/etch.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/winehq.list

Then update APT's package information by running 'sudo apt-get update'.

If you are using Ubuntu, you can now install Wine by clicking this link. Alternatively, you can install by going to Applications->Add/Remove and searching for Wine.

Upgrading to a new version of Ubuntu

If you are upgrading the entire system, such as going from Ubuntu 8.04 to 8.10, you will need to come back to this page and add the repository for the new version above. The built in update manager will not switch the Wine repository automatically.

Older .deb packages

Since the APT repository can only hold the latest packages, older versions of the packages are available at the WineHQ .deb packages archive.

You can install downloaded packages by double-clicking on them.

PlayOnLinux

It's a tool to help Linux users run Windows games on linux, via the use of wine and supports more than 30 games; anyone can help development (by posting new script which allows games to run).

Install :
Open terminal and type the command
- sudo wget http://deb.mulx.net/playonlinux_hardy.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/playonlinux.list
- wget -q http://deb.mulx.net/pol.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -
- sudo apt-get update
- sudo apt-get install playonlinux

For detail see the website on http://www.playonlinux.com/en/download-ubuntu.html

• , Games
  

Ubuntu Guide

Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron)

Ubuntu Hardy Heron, the successor to Gutsy Gibbon was released on the 24th of
April 2008. Please help test and perfect this guide.

This guide was started by Chua Wen Kiat (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia). It is now being maintained by the Linux Center (http://linux.edu.lv/index.php?newlang=english) of University of Latvia (http://www.lu.lv/eng/) , and everyone else who is willing to contribute.

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100 Linux Tips and Tricks

This book is copyright by Patrick Lambert. It is provided free of charge in the hope that it will be useful. You may copy, distribute and print this book. You may not modify it without prior written consent from the author.

The tips in this book are given AS-IS. This means that I shall not be responsible for any damage that may occur from their use. You use them at your own risks.

Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds
RedHat is a trademark of RedHat Software Inc.
Windows and DOS are trademarks of Microsoft Corp.
Sound Blaster is a trademark of Creative Labs
PostScript is a trademark of Adobe
Other trademarks and copyrights may apply.

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Slackware Linux Essentials

The Slackware Linux operating system is a powerful platform for Intel-based computers. It is designed to be stable, secure, and functional as both a high-end server and powerful workstation.

This book is designed to get you started with the Slackware Linux operating system. It’s not meant to cover every single aspect of the distribution, but rather to show what it is capable of and give you a basic working knowledge of the system.

As you gain experience with Slackware Linux, we hope you find this book to be a handy reference. We also hope you’ll lend it to all of your friends when they come asking about that cool Slackware Linux operating system you’re running.

While this book may not an edge-of-your-seat novel, we certainly tried to make it as entertaining as possible. With any luck, we’ll get a movie deal. Of course, we also hope you are able to learn from it and find it useful.

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Sony Ericsson P1i Mobile Phone GPRS/UMTS Linux How-To

This how-to helps you use your Sony Ericsson P1i mobile phone with Linux. I have tested it with P1i, an USB cable, and the Finnish operator Indosat Mentari.

Do the following to use the phone for your network access in Linux:

1. Make sure your phone works first on its with Internet. Launch a browser, it should work with any web site and not just with WAP. This will require configuration of an Internet access profile on your phone. Typically, you get it pre-installed or you can ask for an SMS that sets it up from your operator.

2. Take the cable that came with the phone, and plug it into the phone and the USB port in your computer. This will your computer to detect the phone using USB. It comes up as a modem.

3. Configure PPP to know about a peer on the other side of that modem. Put this into your /etc/ppp/peers/gprs file:

debug debug debug
#nodetach
updetach
connect "/usr/sbin/chat -v -f /etc/chatscripts/gprs-connect"
disconnect "/usr/sbin/chat -v -f /etc/chatscripts/gprs-disconnect"
#/dev/rfcomm0
/dev/ttyACM1
460800
usepeerdns
defaultroute
persist
noipdefault
noauth

4. Create the necessary chatscripts so that PPP can start. These go into two files shown below. The hard part in the first one is selecting the right number instead of "1" in the line "OK ATD*99***1#". I put 1 there because my working Internet access profile in the phone is the first one. You may experiment with different numbers if you have a problem.

::::::::::::::
/etc/chatscripts/gprs-connect
::::::::::::::
TIMEOUT 5
ECHO ON
ABORT '\nBUSY\r'
ABORT '\nERROR\r'
ABORT '\nNO ANSWER\r'
ABORT '\nNO CARRIER\r'
ABORT '\nNO DIALTONE\r'
ABORT '\nRINGING\r\n\r\nRINGING\r'
'' \rAT
TIMEOUT 12
SAY "Press CTRL-C to close the connection at any stage!"
SAY "\ndefining PDP context...\n"
OK ATH
OK ATE1
OK ATD*99***1#
TIMEOUT 22
SAY "\nwaiting for connect...\n"
CONNECT ""
SAY "\nConnected."
SAY "\nIf the following ppp negotiations fail,\n"
SAY "try restarting the phone.\n"
::::::::::::::
/etc/chatscripts/gprs-disconnect
::::::::::::::
ABORT "BUSY"
ABORT "ERROR"
ABORT "NO DIALTONE"
SAY "\nSending break to the modem\n"
"" "\K"
"" "+++ATH"
SAY "\nPDP context detached\n"

5. Turn on PPP by typing "pppd call gprs" in your root shell window. You should see debugs showing what happened.

6. Test that it works. Note that at least for my operator, ping does not work in testing, because the operator filters ICMP. Start with a simple web page. Please make sure that you turned off other interface with ifconfig eth0 down etc before you started in Step 5 -- otherwise you'll have a problem.

I would like to thank Jari Arrkho for helping me get my GPRS connection up and running.

Add Applications to the Startup Programs

Thanks to http://www.tech-recipes.com

By adding an application to the Startup Programs, that application will automatically run once Ubuntu has finished booting. This is quite useful for applications such as Gmail Notifier that have a small footprint but provide a useful function to the user.


1. Click System, mouseover Preferences and select Sessions.

2. Under the Startup Programs, click the Add button.



3. Input the Name and the Command that executes the desired application in the appropriate text boxes. If you aren’t sure of the command, click the Browse button and go to the executable. For example, the command you would input for the Gmail Notifier is gmail-notify.



4. Click OK.

5. Click the Close button to exit the Sessions window.

PERIODIC CALENDAR

Periodic Calendar is a GUI utility which can be used to:

* track women menstrual cycles
* calculate the fertile days when the probability to get pregnant is high
* calculate the "safe" days when the probability to get pregnant is minimal
* predict the day of the next menstruations
* record the pregnancy
* calculate the pregnancy weeks
* predict the baby's birth date
* record the personal notes for any day

At this point the fertility prediction is based on the calendar method only which is not very precise. It is not recommended to use this method alone for the natural family planing.

In the future versions it is planned to add the support for the BBT (Basal Body Temperature) method which in addition to the calendar method provides more precise predictions. However, this method requires more efforts (daily temperature measurements) while the calendar method requires only to remember the cycle start dates and enter them somehow into the program. The effectiveness of the BBT method itself is about 80-90%. Combining more than one method makes the predictions more effective.

Other self-observations methods I know are really hard to support on a computer.

THIS PROGRAM PREDICTIONS IN NO CASES SHOULD BE USED AS THE FINAL. THE METHODS USED ARE NOT 100% PRECISE FOR ALL WOMEN.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.

How To Upgrade Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) To 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex)

Thanks to http://www.howtoforge.com

This guide shows how you can upgrade your Ubuntu 8.04 desktop and server installations to Ubuntu 8.10.

This document comes without warranty of any kind! I do not issue any guarantee that this will work for you!

1. Go to System > Administration > Software Sources:



2. Type in your password:



3. In the Software Sources window, go to the Updates tab and select Normal releases in the Show new distribution releases drop-down menu; then close the Software Sources window:



4. Now start the Update Manager (System > Administration > Update Manager):



5. The Update Manager should show that a new distribution release (8.10) is available. Click on the Upgrade button to start the distribution upgrade:



6. A window with the release notes for 8.10 comes up. Click on Upgrade again:



7. The upgrade is being prepared:



8. Click on Start Upgrade to finally begin with the upgrade process:





9. Replace /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades:



10. At the end of the upgrade process, you should remove obsolete packages:



11. The system needs to be rebooted to complete the upgrade, therefore click on Restart Now:



12. After the reboot, you can use your new Ubuntu 8.10 desktop

Shreading Data

Data which has been deleted maybe could be recovered with recovery software, It could be dangerous if there is an important file that somebody couldn't know the contents.

To reduce the risk, that someone could recovered our files, we can do deleting process permanently with using software utility which have permanent delete ability. In Linux platform, we have utility like SHRED and WIPE.

Here is the usage the two utility.

1.Deleting data using SHRED
I take a sample to delete USB Flashdisk (UFD) permanently.

- Use command fdisk -l to know the UFD location
root@hardy:/# fdisk -l
...
Disk /dev/sdb: 1026 MB, 1026555392 bytes
129 heads, 16 sectors/track, 971 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2064 * 512 = 1056768 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x28eff17f
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 972 1002487+ b W95 FAT32
Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(977, 128, 16) logical=(971, 52, 15)

- From the information in the above, we knows that UFD is located at /dev/sdb1.
Before we doing manual delete, do umount the UFD from system.
First, see the mount UFD partition location use command df -h
root@hardy:/# df -h
...
/dev/sdb1 978M 347M 631M 36% /media/BENNY

- Now, we can permanently delete our file using shred command
root@hardy:/# shred --verbose -u /dev/sdb1
...
shred: /dev/sdb1: pass 1/25 (random) ... 126MiB/3.8GiB 3%
...

- For default, command above will do overwrite iteration 25 times. If, this is too long we
could use option -n
root@hardy:/# shred --verbose -u -n 5 /dev/sdb1

- Now, all data in UFD is permanently deleted. To using UFD again, we have to format it


2.Deleting data using WIPE
Except shred, we have wipe command which the have ability like shred.
root@hardy:/# wipe -kq /dev/sdb1
Okay to WIPE 1 special file ? (Yes/No) yes
Wiping /dev/sdb1, pass 0 in quick mode [ 3884 / 1026555392]

To know the detail of wipe command, we could see from the manual
root@hardy:/#man wipe

SPLIT AND JOIN FILES

We have a file which size is too big to save in USB Flash drive.
To split it to be a small size so its fit to store in USB is easy in linux platform, use "split" command which has been bundled in GNU Coreutils.

1. As example, we have an iso file (ubuntu-8.04-desktop-i386.iso) which size is 699 Mb
root@hardy:/home/bearisusanto/test# ls -alh
total 700M
-rwx------ 1 bearisusanto root 700M 2008-06-02 03:22 ubuntu-8.04-desktop-i386.iso

2. Before doing split process, first make MD5 file from ubuntu-8.04-desktop-i386.iso for ensuring that there is not a change for the file when its join again
root@hardy:/home/bearisusanto/test# md5sum ubuntu-8.04-desktop-i386.iso > MD5SUM.txt
root@hardy:/home/bearisusanto/test# cat MD5SUM.txt
8895167a794c5d8dedcc312fc62f1f1f ubuntu-8.04-desktop-i386.iso

3. For splitting ubuntu-8.04-desktop-i386.iso to be a file which the size maximal 400Mb for each file, we type the command
root@hardy:/home/bearisusanto/test# split -d -b 400m ubuntu-8.04-desktop-i386.iso ubuntu-8.04-desktop-i386.iso.part

4. If we check in the directory, there is two 2 which is the result from splitting process
-rwx------ 1 bearisusanto root 700M 2008-06-02 03:22 ubuntu-8.04-desktop-i386.iso
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 400M 2008-10-31 23:13 ubuntu-8.04-desktop-i386.iso.part00
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 300M 2008-10-31 23:13 ubuntu-8.04-desktop-i386.iso.part01

5. To join the two file to be one file as the same with the original file, we use "cat" command but the original have to be deleted first.
root@hardy:/home/bearisusanto/test# rm ubuntu-8.04-desktop-i386.iso
root@hardy:/home/bearisusanto/test# cat ubuntu-8.04-desktop-i386.iso.part00 ubuntu-8.04-desktop-i386.iso.part01 > ubuntu-8.04-desktop-i386.iso

6. For ensuring that there is no difference with the original file, we have to validate with using MD5SUM.txt which have made for the first time.
root@hardy:/home/bearisusanto/test# md5sum -c MD5SUM.txt
ubuntu-8.04-desktop-i386.iso: OK

Speed up ubuntu boot process

Source : http://ubuntuforums.org/

This HowTo is for those who complaint ubuntu boot-up speed is pretty slow but not willing to install any alternative tools to speed up. The way I use here is not the altimate solution by any means but it does make differences and it does work. Everything done below is by tuning the boot process itself and because everyone's computer might be different, there is a little risk that something below might break your system. Take your own judgment before you perform a change and always good to do a backup for the /etc dir.

**This HowTo is mainly for laptops and desktops, not for servers.**

Due to Ubuntu Edgy Eft (6.10) is using upstart to manage the init process and it already has reducing boot time built in mind, many things have been changed. This thread is mainly for any ubuntu version older than 6.10. For how to customize upstart, please refer to upstart threads in this forum. The following is a very interesting and useful WiKi on how to further speed up the boot process by taking out some useless bootup/shutdown processes...

wiki.ubuntu.com/Teardown

Suggestions for this HowTo:
1. I hope you learn something from here but not just a simple copy. So please, **DO NOT** follow exactly what I did and copy to your box. Read the descriptions of services and use your own judgment to determine if you need to keep them on or not. For instance, I turned GDM off on mine to boot to console, but if you do not feel confortable to see console at all, you should keep GDM or KDM on to boot directly to GUI.
2. If you have a question about a boot up service and not really sure what it does, post a question here and see if anybody can help you. Ask before you do if you don't know. The bottom line to be safe is to leave a service on rather than turn it off if you do not understand.
3. If you see a boot up service that you have but not in here, let us know what it does just like what I did here - give some descriptions and suggestions on whether it should be on or off on a normal laptop or desktop environment.

I. Install a tool - sysv-rc-conf. It is a perl based boot process adjustment tool.

Code:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install sysv-rc-conf

It gives you a way to esaily config the boot process and runlevel configuration, but its not necessary if you want to do it manually by linking/unlinking the files... Its up to you.

II. Ok, that's all we need. Now let's fire it up by

Code:

sudo sysv-rc-conf

and analyze each service one by one. **Note:** Some services I have here you might not have, perfectly ok. If some you have but I don't, then you will need to investigate on your own or ask here... But this HowTo should cover most of them...

Throw a littel bit of runlevel knowledge here before we start messing them up.... All the boot processes are executed in sequence as following:
runlevel S: the first runlevel in boot process. /etc/init.d/rcS script will be invoked to start and all the processes underneath /etc/rcS.d will be executed.
runlevel 1: the single user mode. All processes underneath /etc/rc1.d will be executed.
runlevel 2,3,4,5: in debain system, the multi-user env, may not may not include GUI. The same, processes under each of the corresponding dirs will be run. **Note** this is different than RedHat, SuSE, and other RPM based systems.
runlevel 0: computer shutdown.
runlevel 6: computer reboot.

ok, back to sysv-rc-conf:

1. acpi-support - You'd better leave it on the default runlevel. The default is 2,3,4,5.
2. acpid - The acpi daemon. These two are for power management, quite important for laptop and desktop computers, so leave them on. The default is 2,3,4,5
3. alsa - If you use alsa sound subsystem, yes leave it on. But if you have the service below, its safe to be off. The default is off when alsa-utils is on.
4. alsa-utils - On my system, this service supercedes the alsa, so I turn off the alsa and turn this on at S level. **Note**, I mean "turn off" is to remove all "X" at all runlevels. If you don't have it on your system, no problem. Just keep going. The default is S runlevel.
5. anacron - A cron subsystem that executes any cron jobs not being executed when the time is on. Most likely you've probably turned your computer off when a certain cron job time is ready. For example, updatedb is scheduled at 2am everyday, but at that moment, you computer is off, then if anacron service is on, it will try to catch up that updatedb cron... I turn it off cause it didn't turn my laptop off very offen, but its totally up to you for this one. The default is 2,3,4,5
6. apmd - This is the one that confused me a quite bit. I have acpid on already and what's the benefits of having apmd on too? If you computer is not that old which can't even support acpi, then you may try to turn this off. I did anyway. The default is 2,3,4,5
7. atd - like cron, a job scheduler. I turned it off. The default is 2,3,4,5
8. binfmt-support - Kernel supports other format of binary files. I left it on. The default is 2,3,4,5
9. bluez-utiles - I turned it off. I don't have any bluetooth devices. The default is 2,3,4,5
10. bootlogd - Leave it on. The default is S.
11. cron - Leave it on. The default is 2,3,4,5
12. cupsys - subsystem to manager your printer. I don't have so I turned it off, but if you do, just leave it on. The default is 2,3,4,5
13. dbus - Message bus system. Very important, leave it on. The default is 2,3,4,5
14. dns-clean - Mainly for cleaning up the dns info when using dial-up connection. I don't use dial up, so I turn it off. The default is S.
15. evms - Enterprise Volumn Management system. I turned it off. The default is S.
16. fetchmail - A mail receving daemon. I turned it off. The default is 2,3,4,5
17. gdm - The gnome desktop manager. I turned it off anyway since I get use to boot to console first. This is up to you if you want to boot directly to GUI. The default is 2,3,4,5
18. gdomap - Actually I have no idea why this one should on. I didn't see any other systems have this daemon, so I turned it off and I don't feel I lose anything. Any benefits to have it on a loptop or desktop? The default is 2,3,4,5
19. gpm - Mouse support for console. If you feel you'd better have a mouse on console, go turn it on at runlevel 1 and 2. That's all you need. The default is 2,3,4,5
20. halt - Don't change it. The default is 0.
21. hdparm - tuning harddisk script. I removed the 2,3,4,5 runlevel but add it to S runlevel. I feel that opening DMA, 32bit I/O, etc eariler will benefit the rest of the processes. Also I changed the original script to a very simple one that I made myself. I feel useless to put all those redundant checks if I know what I am doing. The configuration file is /etc/hdparm.conf. The default is 2,3,4,5
22. hibernate - If your system support hibernate, leave it on. Otherwise, its useless for you. The default is S.
23. hotkey-setup - This daemon setup some hotkey mappings for Laptop. Manufacturers supported are: HP, Acer, ASUS, Sony, Dell, and IBM. If you have a laptop in those brands, you can leave it on, otherwise, this might not have any benefits for you. The default is 2,3,4,5
24. hotplug and hotplug-net #activating hotplug subsystems takes time. I'd consider to turn them off. I did some changes in my /etc/network/interfaces file. Instead of mapping my wireless card during hotplug process, I set it up to auto. So I can turn them off. I've tested even I turned them off, ubuntu can still detect my usb driver, my digital camera, etc. So I think its pretty safe to turn them off. **Note** If you find your sound card doesn't work after turning hotplug service off, you can turn it back. Or edit /etc/modules file to add your sound card's driver module. Tested out the later one is faster. The default is S.
25. hplip - HP printing and Image subsystem. I turned it off. The default is S.
26. ifrename - network interface rename script. Sounds pretty neat but I turned it off. Mainly for managing multiple network interfaces names. Since I have a wireless card and an ethernet card, they all assigned eth0 and ath0 from kernel, so its not really useful for me. The default is S.
27. ifupdown and ifupdown-clean - Leave it on. They are network interfaces activation scripts for the boot time. ifupdown default is 0,6,S and ifupdown-clean is S.
28. inetd or inetd.real - take a look your /etc/inetd.conf file and comment out any services that you don't need. If there aren't any services there, then its very safe to turn them off. The default is 2,3,4,5
29. klogd - Leave it on. The default is 2,3,4,5
30. laptop-mode - A service to tweak the battery utilization when using laptops. You can leave it on. The default is 2,3,4,5
31. linux-restricted-modules-common - You need to see if you really have any restricted modules loaded on your system. Since I need madwifi ath_pci module, so I left it on. The restricted modules can be found from /lib/linux-restricted-modules. If you find that you are not using any of the restricted modules, then its ok to turn it off. The default is 0,6, and S.
32. lvm - I don't use it so I turned it off. Leave it on if you *DO* have lvm. The default is S.
33. makedev - Leave it on. The default is 2,3,4,5
34. mdamd - Raid management tool. I don't use it so I turned it off. The default is 2,3,4,5
35. mdamd-raid - Raid tool. If you don't have Raid devices, turn it off. The default is S.
36. module-init-tools - Load extra modules from /etc/modules file. You can investigate your /etc/modules file and see if there is any modules that you don't need. Normally, this is turned on. The default is S.
37. mountvirtfs - mount virtual filesystems. Leave it on. The default is S.
38. networking - bring up network interfaces and config dns info during boot time by scaning /etc/network/interfaces file. Leave it on. The default is 0,6,S
39. ntpdate - Sync time with the ubuntu time server. The default is S. QUOTED: "If you are dual-booting with Windows, it is probably a good idea to leave ntpdate on. Windows can only deal with the hardware clock set to local (not UTC) and Linux needs ntpdate to correct this, otherwise your clock will increase an hour everytime you boot into Linux from Windows." Thanks dejitarob for the update!! I don't have dual boot, so I turned it off, but if you have multiple systems, suggestion is to turn it on.
40. nvidia-kernel - I compiled the nvidia driver by myself, so its useless for me now. If you use the ubuntu nvidia driver from the restrict modules, just leave it on. The default is 1,2,3,4,5
41. pcmcia - Active pcmcia device. I changed it to start on 0,6,S runlevel instead of on each 2,3,4,5 cause I feel its better to have hardware device ready at first. Also, useless if you are using desktop which doesn't have pcmcia card. So in that case, turn it off please. The default is 2,3,4,5
42. portmap - daemon for managing services like nis, nfs, etc. If your laptop or desktop is a pure client, then turn it off. The default is 2,3,4,5,0,6,S
43. powernowd - client to manage cpufreq. Mainly for laptops that support CPU speed stepping technology. Normally, you should leave it on if you are configuring a laptop, but for desktop, it might be useless. The default is 2,3,4,5
44. ppp and ppp-dns - Useless to me. I don't have dial-up. The default for ppp is 2,3,4,5 and pppd-dns is S.
45. readahead - **Thanks mr_pouit!** It seems readahead is a kind of "preloader". It loads at startup some libs on memory, so that some programs will start faster. But it increases startup time for about 3-4 seconds. So, you can keep it... or not . **update**, I tested and I just didn't feel difference loading programs. So I decided to turn it off. If you have a reason to keep it on, please do so. The default is S
46. reboot - Don't change it. The default is 6
47. resolvconf - Automatically configuring DNS info according to your network status. I left it on. The default is S.
48. rmnologin - Remove nologin if it finds it. It wouldn't happen on my laptop, so I got rid of it. The default is 2,3,4,5
49. rsync - rsync daemon. I don't use it on my laptop, so turned it off. The default is 2,3,4,5
50. sendsigs - send signals during reboot or shutdown. Leave it as it is. The default is 0,6
51. single - Active single user mode. Leave it as it is. The default is 1
52. ssh - ssh daemon. I need this so I turned it on. The default is 2,3,4,5
53. stop-bootlogd - stop bootlogd from 2,3,4,5 runlevel. Leave it as it is. The default is 2,3,4,5
54. sudo - check sudo stauts. I don't see any good to run it everytime on a laptop or desktop client, so I turned it off. The default is S
55. sysklogd - Leave it as it is. The default is 2,3,4,5
56. udev and udev-mab - Userspace dev filesystem. Good stuff, I left them on. The defaults are all S runlevels.
57. umountfs - Leave it as it is. The default is 0,6
58. urandom - Random number generator. Might not useful but I left it on. The default is 0,6,S
59. usplash - Well, if you really want to see the nice boot up screen, leave it as it is. I just turned it off anyway. If you want to turn it off, you also need to edit /boot/grub/menu. lst file to comment out the splashimage line and get rid of the splash kernel boot option. The default is 2,3,4,5
60. vbesave - video card BIOS configuration tool. Its able to save your video card status. I left it on. The default is 2,3,4,5
61. xorg-common - setup X server ICE socket. I moved it from starting at runlevel S to runlevel 2,3,4,5. Since I don't need this if I boot to single user mode. This way it wouldn't occupy time during the initial booting. The default is 2,3,4,5
============ My bootup services end up here============

============ Some services from others================
62. adjtimex - This is a kernel hw clock time adjusting too. Normally, you shouldn't see this on your boot up list. In very rare case if you do see its on your boot up process, then there might be a reason why it is on, so better leave it that way. In my case, it is off.
63. dirmngr - A certification lists management tool. Work with gnupg. You will have to see if you need it or not. In my case, I turned it off. Default runlevel 2,3,4,5
64. hwtools - A tool to optimize irqs. Not sure what's the benefits of turning it on. In my case, I turned it off.
65. libpam-devperm - A daemon to fix device files permissions after a system crash. Sounds pretty good, so I left it on.
66. lm-sensors - If you matherboard has builtin some sensor chips, it might be helpful to see hw status via userspace. I ran it and it said "No sensors found", so I turned it off.
67. screen-cleanup - A script to cleanup the boot up screen. Well, turn on or off is up to you. In my case, I left it on. The default is S
68. xinetd - A inetd super daemon to manage other damons. In my system, the xinetd is managing chargen, daytime, echo and time (find them from /etc/xinetd.d dir), I care none of them, so I turned it off. If you do have some important services configured under xinetd, then leave it on.

III. Alter the /etc/inittab file

Code:

vi /etc/inittab

then comment out tty4,tty5, and tty6. Just leave tty1, tty2, and tty3. Three vts should be enough for a laptop or desktop user. Save the file.

IV. Ok, now, we can reboot our box and see how it goes. From what I've tested, before I got tons of services stopped, the whole process is about 85 secs to 90 secs to boot to console. (At that time, I also has samba and nfs services turned on which I shouldn't. Apparently, I turned them off too). After this change, the whole boot up process took about 50 secs. I have a P4M 1.8G CPU laptop. Some of the high-end desktops or laptops should take even less time.

**UPDATE**: speed up/clean system reboot or shutdown process.
1. start sysv-rc-conf by issuing:

Code:

sudo sysv-rc-conf

2. ok, open your eyes and look very carefully for those SERVICES THAT DO NOT HAVE A "X" ON ANY RUNLEVELS (Any runlevel means 1,2,3,4,5,6, and S), write them down one by one. Don't make mistakes here. Double check after you've done. Thanks ice60 for wording recommendation!
3. quit sysv-rc-conf.
4.

Code:

cd /etc/rc0.d

- This is for the system shutdown process.
5. ok, now,

Code:

 ls K*

will list all links starting from UPPERCASE letter "K". Compare with your list, change each of the filename containing the service name in your list to start from a lowercase "k". For example, in your list, you have ppp service (which means ppp is turned off at all runlevels), then you can do like:

Code:

sudo mv K00ppp k00ppp

. You just change the UPPERCASE K to lowercase k, keep the rest the same. Do this on all of the services in your list.
6.

Code:

cd ../rc6.d

- This is for the system reboot process.
7. ok, you should see similar things here too. So do the same thing here as you did on rc0.d.
8. Now, you reboot and shutdown process should be cleaned up and faster.

The explanation for what you did is pretty simple. The /etc/rc and /etc/rcS scripts run start on each link on each runlevel by scaning if it is starting with a UPPERCASE "S" and run stop on each by scaning if it is starting with a UPPERCASE "K". So for reboot and shutdown runlevels, the most thing we care is the "K" links cause for those services not running on all runlevels, its just not needed to stop them. They are not runing at all. If some day you want to turn some of the services back on, just change the lowercase "k" to UPPERCASE "K". That's all.

Anyway, it is not intend to work on servers, but I did try on one of my servers has 2.7G P4 and 1.5G mem. It brought the boot process down to 31 secs. I calc'ed it with my watch. Besides, this is with my ftp server and nfs server started on boot time.

**Note**
For all of those that having HAL failure problem, try this:
1. change acpi-support from S to 2,3,4,5
2. change acpid from S to 2,3,4,5
3. change dbus from S to 2,3,4,5
4. Reboot. Go to the console and do

Code:

ps -aef|grep hald

. If hald service is up, then your dbus subsystem is running fine now. Try it.

Update Linux Kernel Image

The kernel is the core of the operating system. It's primary functions are controlling execution of processes, handling memory management, providing a filesystem, and providing a portable interface through which programs may communicate with hardware.

A kernel image is a compiled and usually compressed & self-extracting kernel (generally with the name of bzImage). In the linux distributions, it is copied from /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/ to /boot .

The uncompiled kernel source can be obtained from [1] in .tar.gz or tar.bze format . To compile the system one uses "make xconfig" in XWindows environment and later make dep; make clean; make bzImage; to compile the modules make modules make modules_install.

The kernel image is booted changing [Lilo] /etc/lilo.conf :

• image=/boot/X.X.XX
• label=KernelX.X.XX8
• read-only
• alias=2

We have to update this image kernel in order to improve performance and the compatibility with new device. To update this image kernel, we can use Synaptic Package Manager (System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager) or from terminal using "sudo apt-get update".

After update, we could not use this new image kernel automatically. We have to edit menu.lst in /boot/grub so when booting we could use new kernel image

Before :

title Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.24-16-generic
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-generic root=UUID=cadd2657-226c-45cc-9083-7d332e282f6c ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.24-16-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-generic root=UUID=cadd2657-226c-45cc-9083-7d332e282f6c ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic

After:

title Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.24-21-generic
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-21-generic root=UUID=cadd2657-226c-45cc-9083-7d332e282f6c ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-21-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.24-16-generic
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-generic root=UUID=cadd2657-226c-45cc-9083-7d332e282f6c ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic

title Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.24-16-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-generic root=UUID=cadd2657-226c-45cc-9083-7d332e282f6c ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic

Add "Now Playing" Status Message to Pidgin with MusicTracker

Windows/Linux only: The MusicTracker plug-in for Pidgin displays music you're currently listening to on your computer as your status message with the free, open source chat application, Pidgin. MusicTracker supports any of your Pidgin accounts (e.g., AIM, Gtalk, Yahoo, etc.) and a wide range of music players, from Amarok or XMMS on Linux to iTunes and foobar2000 on Windows. If you're not the best at setting status messages, a simple plug-in like MusicTracker is a fun and simple way to keep that status set and changing so you're not "out to lunch" for weeks on end.

MusicTracker [Google Code]

Optimized hardisk with hdparam

From : http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-16360.html

let’s say that you open up a Root Terminal and issue the hdparm command:

hdparm -h

You should see a list of commands that you can issue.

The first two commands that you want to look at are

hdparm -i /dev/hda
hdparm -I /dev/hda
hdparm -i /dev/hda1
hdparm -I /dev/hda1

Now let’s day that your dma is set to off and you wish to set it to on. Then you’d hdparm -d1 /dev/hda
But if you wish to make it so that that setting is set during bootup, you know that we will have to gedit /etc/hdparm.conf.

So, open up a Root Terminal, cd over to /etc and sudo gedit hdparm.conf
Go to the end of the file and highlight & copy

#/dev/hda {
# mult_sect_io = 16
# write_cache = off
# dma = on
#}

Now right click / paste it at the very end of the file (after starting a new line after hitting carriage return).

Now remove the # from the front of all those new lines you’ve copied from the end of YOUR file.

This is where you’ll be making all your changes.

You would first make sure that your setting a command in the Root Terminal will work.

So let’s say that when I did a hdparm /dev/hda command I got back

/dev/hda:
multcount = 0 (off)
IO_support = 0 (default 16-bit)
unmaskirq = 0 (off)
using_dma = 0 (off)
keepsettings = 0 (off)
readonly = 0 (off)
readahead = 256 (on)
geometry = 58168/16/63, sectors = 58633344, start = 0

So I give this command hdparm -d1 -m1 /dev/hda
Now when I hdparm /dev/hda I get

/dev/hda:
setting multcount to 1
multcount = 1 (on)
setting dma to 1
dma = 1 (on)

So I would now modify my hdparm.conf to read

/dev/hda {
mult_sect_io = 32
dma = on
}

save it and reboot.

Please note that these are commands in a mock up. In no way do I endorse your putting in mult_sect_io = 32 if your HD cannot support it. The same would go for all the other commands.

Since all you want to do is set DMA, you’d

/dev/hda {
dma = on
}

But before rebooting I would hdparm /dev/hda. This is what it looks like now (after issuing an hdparm -c1 -d1 -m1 /dev/hda command:

/dev/hda:
multcount = 1 (on)
IO_support = 1 (32-bit)
unmaskirq = 0 (off)
using_dma = 1 (on)
keepsettings = 0 (off)
readonly = 0 (off)
readahead = 256 (on)
geometry = 58168/16/63, sectors = 58633344, start = 0

You should see some new messages regarding hdparm when it is booting up.

Just be careful when playing around with the ATA settings. The numbers don’t quite go the way you’d expect.

Now, you’ll want to test all your settings before ever touching /etc/hdparm.conf.
The commands to do that are:

hdparm -t /dev/hda
hdparm -T /dev/hda

But just testing /dev/hda is really testing just the channel and not the drive itself.

So you should really be saying

hdparm -t /dev/hda1
hdparm -T /dev/hda1

for example.

(I think this may work. I’ve never had to use it to set individual drive settings. And I doubt that you could turn on DMA for just one drive on a chain as the DMA setting affects the controller which will in turn affect each individual drive. But it may give you different test results when testing a drive; at least it did me.)

/dev/hda1 {
dma = on
}

So my advice is:

Issue a ’set’ command in a Root Terminal.
Run a -i, -I, -t and -T test.
Only then commit the changes to /etc/hdparm.conf and reboot.

As always, it is best if you make a backup of all your precious data onto a CDR before making radical changes. And always have your Ubuntu Live CD at the ready.

From /etc/hdparm.conf:
Note that if the init script causes boot problems, you can pass ‘nohdparm’ on the kernel command line, and the script will not be run.

Install Ubuntu 8.04 On MSI Wind Notebook

I have MSI Wind notebook, I try to install ubuntu on it, but alway hang at installation. After googling, i find the answer from http://wiki.msiwind.net/index.php/Ubuntu_8.04_Hardy_Heron

Thanks a lot for your tutorial

Installation Procedure:
Option 1: Install with Wubi Ubuntu Installer

The easiest installation option for Windows versions of the Wind/Advent 4211 is to use the Wubi Ubuntu installer directly from Windows. This will allow you to try out Ubuntu without partitioning your hard drive. HowtoForge.com has written a detailed tutorial for using Wubi.

To then upgrade your Wubi install to a standard Ubuntu system, use the Loopmounted Virtual Partition Manager (LVPM). LVPM allows you to transfer all the data, settings, and applications from your original Wubi install to a dedicated partition. LVPM can be found in Ubuntu under: Applications => System Tools

If, after using LVPM, you get a can’t mount partition error, then you will need to edit grub. The LPVM installation has worked, grub just needs to be set to use the correct partiion.

Firstly, to fix grub temporarily so you can get into Ubuntu: Reboot the machine, wait till the menu comes up giving you the list of boot options, make sure the top item is selected, (Ubuntu 8.04.1, kernel 2.6.24-19-generic) then hit e to edit the item.

This will give you an edit screen and stop the boot countdown.

There should be three lines on the screen. Scroll down to the line that says:

root ()/ubuntu/disks

and change it to:

root (hd0,X)

X should be the partition number you transferred Ubuntu to using LVPM minus 1.

e.g. In my case I transferred Ubuntu to sda5, so my line read root (hd0,4)

Once this line is edited, hit Enter to accept the editing, then b to boot.

Ubuntu should now boot up. You can make the changes permanent to fix your boot forever, by making the same changes in /boot/grub/menu.lst

Option 2: Install With Ubuntu 8.04.1 Desktop CD (GUI)

A second installation option is to use an Ubuntu installation CD (or USB Pen Drive).

Note: With the release of Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04.1, it appears that earlier problems installing with the Ubuntu GUI installer have been resolved. If, however, you would prefer to install Ubuntu using a text interface installer, use the “Install with Alternate Desktop CD” instructions in the next section below.

1. Download Hardy Heron 8.04.1 (PC (Intelx86) desktop CD) from here: http://releases.ubuntu.com/8.04.1/ (Tested and confirmed to work by Malarcy in this forum thread).
2. Burn the “ubuntu-8.04.1-desktop-i386.iso” image to a CD.
3. Optional: You can install Ubuntu on the Wind/Advent 4211 using a USB Pen Drive. To create a bootable live USB Pen Drive, use UNetbootin - The Universal Netbbot Installer OR follow the instructions for creating a Persistent Ubuntu 8.04 USB Pen Drive at PenDriveLinux.com.
4. Boot system with F11 pressed and the install media (External USB CD-ROM or USB Pen Drive) connected. When prompted, select the drive containing your Ubuntu 8.04.1 .iso image.
5. Click on the “Install” icon on the Live Desktop.
6. Optional - Manually Partition Hard Drive: While allowing the Ubuntu Installer to automatically partition your hard drive during installation is acceptable, it can be beneficial to manually edit your partition table. Before getting started, it is recommended that you first review each of the 9 steps below. For additional information about partitioning your hard drive, you may also want to reference this guide.
1. During installation, choose “Manually edit partition table.”
2. Select the partition you want to resize and press Enter.
3. Select “Size” and press Enter.
4. Select “Yes” and press Enter.
5. Type a new size in Gigabytes for your partition. On the Wind/Advent 4211, it’s recommended you free up AT LEAST 15 GB of free space for your Ubuntu install (see number 8 below for more info/suggestions on partition sizing). Press Enter when happy with your changes. It may take some time to apply the changes.
6. Create a “swap” partition. It should be 1-2 times the amount of RAM you have (1000-2000MB). Swap helps with memory management and multi-tasking–you can read more about swap partitions (also called “Paging”) here.
7. Create a root “/” partition (Ext3) for your Ubuntu installation (5-10GB). This will be where the Ubuntu OS and applications live.
8. Create a “/home” partition (Ext3) for your user files (this should be at least 5-10GB though you could opt to make it bigger–keep reading for more info). Creating a “/home” partition will allow you to reinstall Ubuntu and/or do a clean install (instead of an upgrade) when a new version of Ubuntu comes along. One option when sizing this partition is to make “/home” serve as a shared partition between Ubuntu and Windows. To later read and write to this Ext3 partition from Windows, simply install Ext2 Installable File System for Windows.
9. Select “Finish partitioning and write changes to disk”.

Note: If you opted to install Ubuntu with a USB Pen Drive, afterwards you will need to edit /etc/fstab and make sure that /media/cdrom0 points to the CD drive and not to the USB stick.

Open /etc/fstab for editing:

sudo gedit /etc/fstab

Find a line like this (usually the last line): /dev/sdXX /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0

and comment it out by placing a # at the beginning (or simply delete it).

wxDownload Fast

rDownload is important things when we surve the web. Download small file is easy, but if we want download big file which need oe, two hours or more than one day. Its difficult to do if we use slow internet connection whic always have broken connection.

But its more easy now with wxDownload Fast, wxDownload Fast (also known as wxDFast) is an open source download manager. It is multi-platform and builds on Windows(2k,XP), Linux and Mac OS X(binary still not available). Besides that, it is a multi-threaded download manager. This means that it can split a file into several pieces and download the pieces simultaneously.

Created in C++ using the wxWidgets(wxWindows) library.

Features

• Faster downloads (with Segmented/Multi-threaded/Accelerated transfers)
• Download resuming (Pause and restart where you stopped)
• Download scheduling
• Organizes files you have already downloaded
• View server messages (HTTP, FTP, file://). No HTTPS support.
• Available in multiple languages and easily translated. Now available in Portuguese [Brazil], Spanish, English, German, Russian, Hungarian, Armenian, Indonesian and Dutch
• Connection to HTTP/FTP servers which require a password
• Calculates the MD5/SHA1 checksum of downloaded files so they can be easily verified
• Metalink support
• Firefox integration through FlashGot
• Can be used as a portable download manager (Windows only)
• Can be used over proxy servers(HTTP proxy support)

All this Ubuntu packages are available in http://www.getdeb.net/

System Information Use Sysinfo

Sysinfo is a GTK2 based program which can display the following computer/system information:

- General information: Kernel version, Distribution release,Hostname/domainname, some important software versions.
- CPU information: Name/vendor, Frequency, L2 Cache, model/family/stepping.
- Memory information: Total, Free, Cached, Active/inactive, Swap.
- IDE information: Disks CD/DVD-roms, Model, Capacity, Cache.
- Filesystem information: Filesystem disk space usage(mounted partitions).
- Hardware information: Motherboard chipset, IDE interface, VGA contoller,
Multimedia controllers(sound cards), Ethernet cards.
- USB information: USB controllers.
- NVIDIA information: Graphic card model, AGP rate, Fast writes/SBA, Driver
version. (accelerated linux driver needed)
- Other information: Sound card details, Input devices, Screen resolution.

Install sysinfo in Ubuntu

Install sysinfo using the following command

sudo aptitude install sysinfo

This will complete the installation.

Using Sysinfo

If yo want to open go to Applications—>System Tools—>Sysinfo

Thanks for ubuntu geek

XFE - Windows Explorer Like

Using nautilus for managing or exploring files in hardisk, its commonly use when we use gnome.

Usual use windows explorer when using windows? Linux could too like windows, use xfe for bringing windows explorer in linux environment.For using this software, you could downloaded it from http://roland65.free.fr. but this file depend on library FOX, so you have to download libfox.

After download installed it from terminal :
sudo dpkg -i xfe
sudo dpkg -i libfox

Gotcha, now you could manage and browsing file like you browse in windows using windows explorer

Google Gadgets

Google gadgets is a platform for showing many desktop gadget type in linux. This aplication compatible with many gadget which write for google desktop for windows.

This application could be downloaded at http://code.google.com/p/google-gadgets-for-linux

File dependencies could be install from ubuntu main server:
sudo apt-get install libdbus-1-dev libmozjs-dev libxul0d libnspr4-dev libmozjs0d

TIGER - Report System Security Vulnerability

TIGER, or the ‘tiger’ scripts, is a set of Bourne shell scripts, C programs and data files which are used to perform a security audit of UNIX systems. TIGER has one primary goal: report ways ‘root’ can be compromised.
Debian’s TIGER incorporates new checks primarily oriented towards Debian distribution including: md5sums checks of installed files, location of files not belonging to packages, check of security advisories and analysis of local listening processes.
Install application :
sudo apt-get install tiger

Running tiger from commands :
tiger

Result :

root@hardy:/home/bearisusanto# tiger
Tiger UN*X security checking system
Developed by Texas A&M University, 1994
Updated by the Advanced Research Corporation, 1999-2002
Further updated by Javier Fernandez-Sanguino, 2001-2007
Covered by the GNU General Public License (GPL)

Configuring…

Will try to check using config for ‘i686′ running Linux 2.6.24-16-generic…
–CONFIG– [con005c] Using configuration files for Linux 2.6.24-16-generic. Using
configuration files for generic Linux 2.
Tiger security scripts *** 3.2.2, 2007.08.28.00.00 ***
16:13> Beginning security report for hardy.
16:13> Starting file systems scans in background…
16:13> Checking password files…
16:13> Checking group files…
16:13> Checking user accounts…
16:13> Checking .rhosts files…
16:13> Checking .netrc files…
16:13> Checking ttytab, securetty, and login configuration files…
16:13> Checking PATH settings…
16:13> Checking anonymous ftp setup…
16:13> Checking mail aliases…
16:13> Checking cron entries…
16:13> Checking ’services’ configuration…
16:13> Checking NFS export entries…
16:13> Checking permissions and ownership of system files…
–CONFIG– [con010c] Filesystem ’securityfs’ used by ’securityfs’ is not recognised as a local filesystem
–CONFIG– [con010c] Filesystem ‘fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon’ used by ‘gvfs-fuse-daemon’ is not recognised as a local filesystem
–CONFIG– [con010c] Filesystem ‘fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon’ used by ‘gvfs-fuse-daemon’ is not recognised as a local filesystem
16:13> Checking for indications of break-in…
–CONFIG– [con010c] Filesystem ’securityfs’ used by ’securityfs’ is not recognised as a local filesystem
–CONFIG– [con010c] Filesystem ‘fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon’ used by ‘gvfs-fuse-daemon’ is not recognised as a local filesystem
–CONFIG– [con010c] Filesystem ‘fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon’ used by ‘gvfs-fuse-daemon’ is not recognised as a local filesystem
16:13> Performing rootkit checks…
16:13> Performing system specific checks…
16:22> Performing root directory checks…
16:22> Checking for secure backup devices…
16:22> Checking for the presence of log files…
16:22> Checking for the setting of user’s umask…
16:22> Checking for listening processes…
16:22> Checking SSHD’s configuration…
16:22> Checking the printers control file…
16:22> Checking ftpusers configuration…
16:22> Checking NTP configuration…
16:22> Waiting for filesystems scans to complete…
16:22> Filesystems scans completed…
16:22> Performing check of embedded pathnames…
16:22> Security report completed for hardy.
Security report is in `/var/log/tiger/security.report.hardy.080730-16:13′.

The log contents :
Security scripts *** 3.2.2, 2007.08.28.00.00 ***
Wed Jul 30 16:13:16 WIT 2008
16:13> Beginning security report for hardy (i686 Linux 2.6.24-16-generic).

# Performing check of passwd files…
# Checking entries from /etc/passwd.
–WARN– [pass014w] Login (backup) is disabled, but has a valid shell.
–WARN– [pass014w] Login (bin) is disabled, but has a valid shell.
–WARN– [pass014w] Login (daemon) is disabled, but has a valid shell.
–WARN– [pass014w] Login (games) is disabled, but has a valid shell.
–WARN– [pass014w] Login (gnats) is disabled, but has a valid shell.
–WARN– [pass014w] Login (irc) is disabled, but has a valid shell.
–WARN– [pass014w] Login (libuuid) is disabled, but has a valid shell.
–WARN– [pass014w] Login (list) is disabled, but has a valid shell.
–WARN– [pass014w] Login (lp) is disabled, but has a valid shell.
–WARN– [pass014w] Login (mail) is disabled, but has a valid shell.
–WARN– [pass014w] Login (man) is disabled, but has a valid shell.
–WARN– [pass014w] Login (news) is disabled, but has a valid shell.
–WARN– [pass014w] Login (nobody) is disabled, but has a valid shell.
–WARN– [pass014w] Login (proxy) is disabled, but has a valid shell.
–WARN– [pass015w] Login ID sync does not have a valid shell (/bin/sync).
–WARN– [pass014w] Login (sys) is disabled, but has a valid shell.
–WARN– [pass014w] Login (uucp) is disabled, but has a valid shell.
–WARN– [pass014w] Login (www-data) is disabled, but has a valid shell.
–WARN– [pass012w] Home directory /nonexistent exists multiple times (2) in
/etc/passwd.
–WARN– [pass006w] Integrity of password files questionable (/usr/sbin/pwck
-r).

# Performing check of group files…

# Performing check of user accounts…
# Checking accounts from /etc/passwd.
–WARN– [acc021w] Login ID avahi-autoipd appears to be a dormant account.
–WARN– [acc006w] Login ID gdm’s home directory (/var/lib/gdm) has group
`gdm’ write access.
–WARN– [acc021w] Login ID libuuid appears to be a dormant account.
–WARN– [acc022w] Login ID nobody home directory (/nonexistent) is not
accessible.

# Performing check of /etc/hosts.equiv and .rhosts files…
….
….
etc

Add New OS in GRUB

We assume, we have a machine which alreday installed windows or macintosh. If we have windows and install linux, in OS menu list when we booting, windows already there. But for macintosh, mac not shows in menu list. So to shows mac in menu list we have add it to the menu.lst.

As we know, for primary partition we can make only 4 partition, from hd0 - hd3, and for secondary we can make more than 4.

Assume, our mac is in partition 1 (primary) and linux in partition 2 (primary).

Edit menu list from terminal:
root@hardy:/home/bearisusanto# nano /boot/grub/menu.lst

…………configuration already exist
title Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.24-16-generic
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-generic root=UUID=cadd2657-226c-45cc-90$
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic
quiet

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
…………add in this section for mac OS

title MAC Leopard
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

Gotcha, when we reboot, the menu will be appear, when we press “esc” button.

Creating, Moving, Renaming and Deleting Files and Directories

1. Creating new directories using “mkdir”
Pronounce the mkdir command as “make dir”

root@hardy:/home/bearisusanto/Documents# mkdir NEWDIR
root@hardy:/home/bearisusanto/Documents# ls
NEWDIR

If you try to create a directory with name has already been used, it will shows
root@hardy:/home/bearisusanto/Documents# mkdir NEWDIR
mkdir: cannot create directory `NEWDIR’: File exists

2. Copying files to new locations using “cp” and “mv”
Pronounce cp as “sea pea”, similarly, pronounce mv as “em vee”, but when you speak of moving a file, say “move”

Copy files “
root@hardy:/home/bearisusanto/Documents/NEWDIR# cp login login.copy
root@hardy:/home/bearisusanto/Documents/NEWDIR# ls -ld login login.copy
-rw-r–r– 1 root root 20 2008-07-29 11:43 login
-rw-r–r– 1 root root 20 2008-07-29 11:43 login.copy

Copy Folder
root@hardy:/home/bearisusanto/Documents# cp NEWDIR NEWDIR01
cp: omitting directory `NEWDIR’

Note : Generally, UNIX won’t permit to use the cp command to copy directories

Not as “cp” where leaves the original file intact, making sort of electronic equivalent of a photocopy of a paper, “mv” physically relocates them from the old directory to the new

root@hardy:/home/bearisusanto/Documents# mv login /home/bearisusanto/Documents/TEST
root@hardy:/home/bearisusanto/Documents# mv TEST01 /home/bearisusanto/Documents/TEST
root@hardy:/home/bearisusanto/Documents# cd TEST/
root@hardy:/home/bearisusanto/Documents/TEST# ls
login TEST01

3. Renaming files with mv
“mv” command, whic, in essence, moves the old name to the new name. It’s a bit confusing, but it works

root@hardy:/home/bearisusanto/Documents/TEST# ls
login TEST01
root@hardy:/home/bearisusanto/Documents/TEST# mv login test
root@hardy:/home/bearisusanto/Documents/TEST# ls
test TEST01
root@hardy:/home/bearisusanto/Documents/TEST#

4. Removing directories with rmdir

root@hardy:/home/bearisusanto/Documents/TEST# rmdir TEST01
root@hardy:/home/bearisusanto/Documents/TEST# ls
test

5. Removing Files Using rm

root@hardy:/home/bearisusanto/Documents/TEST# rm test
root@hardy:/home/bearisusanto/Documents/TEST# ls
root@hardy:/home/bearisusanto/Documents/TEST#

FileZilla

FileZilla Client is a fast and reliable cross-platform FTP, FTPS and SFTP client with lots of useful features and an intuitive interface.

Install FileZilla :

sudo apt-get install filezilla

Connecting filezilla to ftp server:

1. Applications -> Internet -> FileZilla FTP Client

2. Fill

Host : ftp…..com

Username = xxxx

Password = xxxx

Port = 21

Quickconnect

ALIEN

Alien is a program that converts between Red Hat rpm, Debian deb, Stampede slp, Slackware tgz, and Solaris pkg file formats.

1. Get alien package
sudo apt-get install alien
2. Convert the package.rpm into package.deb
alien –to-deb package.rpm
3. Convert the package.deb into package.deb
alien –to-rpm package.deb