Windows under Linux

Ok, some things I may need to do in Windows (for now).
So I will install a virtual Windows machine using VirtualBox.

Install

• Applications > Add/Remove Applications
• Show: All available applications
• Search: virtualbox
• Check VirtualBox OSE and Apply Changes
• Run VirtualBox (Applications > System Tools > VirtualBox OSE)

Creating a new Virtual Machine

• Click New and follow the instructions (a virtual hard disk is needed, but you'll be easily guided through the installer)
• Go to Synaptic Package Manager
• Search for virtualbox
  
• Install virtualbox-ose module for your kernel (like linux-image-2.6.24-16-generic)
• Install virtualbox-ose-guest module for your kernel (like linux-image-2.6.24-16-generic)
• Go to System > Administration > Users and Groups
• In Manage Groups find vboxusers, click Properties and add your user to this Group
• Logout from Ubuntu
• Back to VirtualBox
• Go to Settings > CD/DVD-ROM and mount your Windows CD or iso Windows file
• Start the Virtual Machine and install Windows
• Tip: Click in the VirtualBox window to get the mouse pointer into Windows and click Alt+Ctrl to get the mouse pointer back to Ubuntu
• Note: I used Brasero to create a ISO image of Windows XP

Share folders with the Virtual Machine

• In the VirtualBox window go to Devices > Install Guest Additions
• This will download an iso image file, mounting it in Windows and install Guest Additions for Windows
  
• Shutdown Windows
• Go to Settings > Shared Folder and add the folders you want to share
• Start Windows and map a Network Drive to:
  

\\vboxsvr\yoursharedfolder

VirtualBox running modes

• Windowed: in this case Windows will be displayed in a window
• Fullscreen: in this case Windows will be displayed in full screen
• Seemless mode: in this case Windows will be integrated into Gnome
  

Further reading:

• Ubuntu Forums

last updated: 01-05-2008

Apache, PHP and MySQL (updated)

Ok, setting up Apache, PHP and MySQL is super easy. I used this tip from Ubuntu Forum.
I also want to import my site and database from Windows.

Install

• Go to System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager
  

• Now go to Edit > Mark Packages by Task

• Choose LAMP Server (Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP server)

In my case, the Ultimate Edition already had this installed :-)
I just updated Apache, MySQL and PHP using System > Administration > Update Manager.

Now I'm going to install PHPMyAdmin (very useful):

• Go to System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager
  

• Find by phpmyadmin
  

• Install

Get database and site from Windows

Ultimate Edition already had this installed as well :-)
I marked it to update though.

Now I need to install my Apache/MySQL/PHP solution I had under Windows.
How difficult (easy) will it be?

• Get from Windows the PHP folder mysite
  

• Get from Windows the MySQL database folder mydatabase
  

• In the Terminal (this will open the default Apache site location)

sudo nautilus /var/www

• Now copy the mysite folder here
  

• In the Terminal (this will open the default MySQL database location)

sudo nautilus /var/lib/mysql

• Now copy the mydatabase folder here

• In the Terminal (this will change your admin password)

sudo mysqladmin -u root password NEWPASSWORD
-- NEWPASSWORD must be the same from your Windows config

• In your favorite browser type

http://localhost/mysite

Still, there's a problem. The database is read-only. But is easy to fix:

• Go to http://localhost/myphpadmin and login as root
  
• Select your database in the left pane
  
• Go to Export
• Select the Add DROP TABLE / DROP VIEW option
• Click the Go button
• Copy the generated script (it includes the insert statements) to your favorite text editor
• Add the following to the script, before the first drop table statement, replacing mydatabase with your database name and save the script
  

USE mydatabase;

• Delete the mydatabase folder copied from Windows

sudo rm -R /var/lib/mysql/mydatabase/

• In myphpadmin go to the home page (first icon in the left pane)
• Create a New Database with the same name from the previous, mydatabase
• In myphpadmin go to the Query Window (third icon in the left pane)
• In the Query Window go to Import and browse to your script file
• Click the Go button and that's it, your database is ready to go
  

Post Update

After upgrading to Hardy Heron I had to reinstall the LAMP server. After the installation, when I accessed my index.php file, Firefox tried to download it.

I had to link the PHP module files to the mods-enabled Apache directory in order to get it going:

• Link the PHP modules do the mods-enabled Apache directory
  

cd /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/
sudo ln -s ../mods-available/php5.load .
sudo ln -s ../mods-available/php5.conf .

• Restart Apache

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart


• Clean browser cache (Ctrl+Shift+Del in Firefox)
  

And that was it.

original post: 20-03-2008
last updated: 28-04-2008

Firefox Tip: Opening Search results in a new tab

Here's a useful tip to always open your Firefox search results in a new tab:

• In the address bar type about:config
  

• Look for browser.search.openintab
  

• Double click the False value (in the Value column) to change it to True
  

• Now try to search something in your favorite search engine

PS: this works in every OS (at least Linux and Windows).

last updated: 22-04-2008

Conky

Conky is an application that posts system monitoring info onto your Desktop. It is very light-weighted and very cool to play with.

Steps to install

• In the Terminal
  

• install conky
  

sudo apt-get install conky


• get a configuration example file (check a nicer one bellow)
  

zcat /usr/share/doc/conky/examples/conkyrc.sample.gz > ~/.conkyrc

• Run conky in the Terminal
  

• To have conky automatically start when you boot Ubuntu, do the following:
  

• create a script to run conky (vi conky_start.sh), with the following
  

#!/bin/bash
sleep 20 && conky

• make sure the script is executable
  

chmod a+x conky_start.sh

• try it
  

conky_start.sh

• Go to System > Preferences > Sessions and add a new Startup Program with:
  

• Name: conky
  

• Command: /home/your_user/your_script_folder/conky_start.sh
  

• Comment: Start conky
  

• Restart
  

To change the way conky displays information for you, you need to change the .conkyrc file in your home folder (Ctrl+H in Nautilus if you don't see it).

Here's a good configuration file to start, shared in Ubuntu Forums:

# UBUNTU-CONKY
# A comprehensive conky script, configured for use on
# Ubuntu / Debian Gnome, without the need for any external scripts.
#
# Based on conky-jc and the default .conkyrc.
# INCLUDES:
# - tail of /var/log/messages
# - netstat connections to your computer
#
# -- Pengo (conky@pengo.us)
#

# Create own window instead of using desktop (required in nautilus)
own_window yes
own_window_type override
own_window_transparent yes
own_window_hints undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager

# Use double buffering (reduces flicker, may not work for everyone)
double_buffer yes

# fiddle with window
use_spacer yes
use_xft no

# Update interval in seconds
update_interval 3.0

# Minimum size of text area
# minimum_size 250 5

# Draw shades?
draw_shades no

# Text stuff
draw_outline no # amplifies text if yes
draw_borders no
font arial
uppercase no # set to yes if you want all text to be in uppercase

# Stippled borders?
stippled_borders 3

# border margins
border_margin 9

# border width
border_width 10

# Default colors and also border colors, grey90 == #e5e5e5
default_color grey

own_window_colour brown
own_window_transparent yes

# Text alignment, other possible values are commented
#alignment top_left
alignment top_right
#alignment bottom_left
#alignment bottom_right

# Gap between borders of screen and text
gap_x 10
gap_y 10

# stuff after 'TEXT' will be formatted on screen

TEXT
$color
${color orange}SYSTEM ${hr 2}$color
$nodename $sysname $kernel on $machine

${color orange}CPU ${hr 2}$color
${freq}MHz   Load: ${loadavg}   Temp: ${acpitemp}
$cpubar
${cpugraph 000000 ffffff}
NAME             PID       CPU%      MEM%
${top name 1} ${top pid 1}   ${top cpu 1}    ${top mem 1}
${top name 2} ${top pid 2}   ${top cpu 2}    ${top mem 2}
${top name 3} ${top pid 3}   ${top cpu 3}    ${top mem 3}
${top name 4} ${top pid 4}   ${top cpu 4}    ${top mem 4}

${color orange}MEMORY / DISK ${hr 2}$color
RAM:   $memperc%   ${membar 6}$color
Swap:  $swapperc%   ${swapbar 6}$color

Root:  ${fs_free_perc /}%   ${fs_bar 6 /}$color
hda1:  ${fs_free_perc /media/hda1}%   ${fs_bar 6 /media/hda1}$color
hdb3:  ${fs_free_perc /media/hdb3}%   ${fs_bar 6 /media/hdb3}

${color orange}NETWORK (${addr eth0}) ${hr 2}$color
Down: $color${downspeed eth0} k/s ${alignr}Up: ${upspeed eth0} k/s
${downspeedgraph eth0 25,140 000000 ff0000} ${alignr}${upspeedgraph eth0
25,140 000000 00ff00}$color
Total: ${totaldown eth0} ${alignr}Total: ${totalup eth0}
Inbound: ${tcp_portmon 1 32767 count} Outbound: ${tcp_portmon 32768
61000 count}${alignr}Total: ${tcp_portmon 1 65535 count}

${color orange}LOGGING ${hr 2}$color
${execi 30 tail -n3 /var/log/messages | fold -w50}

${color orange}FORTUNE ${hr 2}$color
${execi 120 fortune -s | fold -w50}

Tips

• Look for the free space file systems conf and change it to display your own filesystems

home: ${fs_free_perc /home}% ${fs_bar 6 /home}$color


• Check to see if your using eth0 as your network interface
  

${color orange}NETWORK (${addr eth0}) ${hr 2}$color

• The comments in the configuration file are very useful to get you started in your own conky setup
  

• Check the variables and config file settings available
• variables
• config file settings
  

Flickering problem

If your have a flickering problem with conky add Load "dbe", to your X11 configuration file. It should look like this:

sudo vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Section "Module"
Load "dbe"
EndSection

Further reading:

• Conky Documentation
  


• Ubuntu Forums
  

last updated: 02-05-2008

Firefox Widgets

Firefox widgets (buttons, radio buttons, drop down menus, text fields and checkboxes) in Ubuntu don't look so good. I don't like it. And I'm not the only one.
So, we can change the images and CSS code for the widgets so Firefox will look really nice :)

Here's a tip from Ubuntu Forums:

Steps to make Firefox widgets look good:

• Download the Firefox Widget Installer
  

• available at the end of the first post (direct link)
  

• Run the installer
  

• unpack the archive and run the graphic_installer
• install in the Firefox directory (default is /usr/lib/firefox)
  

• Make this the default look, even when Firefox is updated
  

• to make the default look

sudo dpkg-divert --add /usr/lib/firefox/res/forms.css

• to undo the previous

sudo dpkg-divert --remove /usr/lib/firefox/res/forms.css

Before


After


Further reading:

• Firefox Widgets, a Tip from Ubuntu Forums

last updated: 17-04-2008

Elisa Media Center

Today I was talking with a friend of mine about Media Centers. A little by change I found a great Open Source solution.

It's called Elisa.

Here's a little demo:

I had to try it. It is super simple to install.

It all happens in the Terminal:

• First import the GPG key

wget http://elisa.fluendo.com/packages/philn.asc -O - | sudo apt-key add -

• Then add the Elisa package source to your sources list
  


• open sources.list with your favorite text editor
  

sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list

• add the source (this one is to Gutsy Gibbon)
  

deb http://elisa.fluendo.com/packages gutsy main

• Now all it's left to do is update apt-get and install Elisa
  

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install elisa

Elisa is installed by default under Applications > Sound & Video > Elisa Media Center.

Without any configuration Elisa saw all the Music, Pictures and Videos I have in my Home Folder. It also loaded the subtitles file corresponding to an avi file. Just great.

In the Videos folder I add a link to a video folder in another file system and I could navigate in Elisa to that location.

This is Elisa 0.3.5. I can't wait for new updates.


Further reading:

• Elisa Home Page


• Elisa Debian packages
  

last updated: 15-04-2008

Automatix

Now a great piece of software to help you install a bunch of stuff: Automatix

I started with an update (Automatix already installed) using Update Manager.

I then installed:

• Codecs and Plugins
• MPlayer Plugin for Firefox
• Ubuntu Restricted Extras and Multimedia Codecs
• W32-DVD Codecs
• Email Clients
• CheckGmail
• Miscellaneous
• Extra Fonts
• Nautilus Scripts (open as root option)
  
• Office
• Acrobat Reader
• Google Earth

Check for other useful software yourself :-)