How To Ubuntu

NEW SITE!

eli — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:25:21 +0000

Well, the new site up, I hope you like it. If you’ve been accessing this site with the howto-ubuntu.wordpress.com url, then you might want to put howto-ubuntu.com in its place. This new arrangement will give me more freedom with the site and it’s content.

New Posts

I’ve been taking a break from posting any new material for a while now. However, new posts will be following this move to the new site, so stay tuned! Some of the subjects I’ll cover…

Ubuntu’s next LTS release, 10.04 Lucid Lynx
How tos and tips for Ubuntu 8.04 LTS
Software reviews
Hardware reviews & compatibility notes
And even more

Site redesign

eli — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 03:17:13 +0000

I’ll be redesigning the site soon. Stay tuned for more posts after the redesign takes place. After a decent sized hiatus, we’ll have some new posts coming along for you.

Shortcut to root command line access while logged in as un-privileged user

eli — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 20:27:03 +0000

Let’s say you’re logged into your Ubuntu machine as an unprivileged user, meaning that you don’t have permission to use the sudo command on the command line. As such, you cannot update the system, install a program, or perform other tasks in the terminal that require the sudo command without logging out and then back in as the administrative user, or using the User Switcher. This annoys me. So, how do I execute commands in the terminal that require the sudo command while still logged in as the unprivileged user??

First off, you’ll need ssh. To make sure you have this installed, login to your administrative account (a step that will soon become unnecessary), open a terminal, and enter…

sudo apt-get install openssh-server openssh-client

After this install is finished you can logout, and back in as the unprivileged user.Now you can open a terminal and enter…

ssh [administrative username]@127.0.0.1

You’ll be asked for your password, this is the administrative account’s password, enter it and press enter. Now, you’ll have a command line prompt for the administrative user, as if you had logged in as that user and opened a terminal. You can now update the system, or make whatever change you need to make that requires you to enter your sudo password.

A nice time saving trick.

How to find out which version / release of Ubuntu you have

eli — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 22:16:21 +0000

Have you ever asked yourself, “How do I find out exactly which version, or release, of Ubunut I have?” There are a few ways of doing this.

The easiest, and most basic, is to open the System Monitor.You do this by going to System > Administration > System Monitor. You then click on the System tab. There you’ll see which version of Ubuntu you’re using, along with your linux kernel, and which version of gnome you have. However, this information can be incomplete. For example, if I do this, I’m told that I have Ubuntu 8.04. Well, I do, but there’s more to it than that.

See, Ubuntu has what’s called point releases for the long term support versions of Ubuntu, which 8.04 is. Check their website here, for an explanation. So, knowing that I have Ubuntu 8.04 does not tell me which point release I have. What can I do if I want that information?? Well, that’s pretty easy too.

I have to open up a terminal. To do that I go into the Accessories menu, and choose Terminal. Then I enter this…

cat /etc/issue.net

And when I do that, I’m told that I have Ubuntu 8.04.3 LTS. This let’s me know that I am using the third point release. This is what I wanted to find out.

Any other ways of doing this that you prefer???

Shuttleworth’s thoughts on Windows 7

eli — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 16:51:40 +0000

You’ve heard of Microsoft’s new operating system, Windows 7. Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Ubuntu, shared his thoughts on the new version of Windows with the UK’s Register.

Here’s an excerpt…

“I’ve kicked the tires on the [Windows 7] beta for a few hours and it was good,” Shuttleworth said. “They’ve put concerted attention on the user experience with the shell.

Read the whole story here.

Should you upgrade to each new release of Ubuntu?? Why ?? Why not??

eli — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 23:03:46 +0000

A new version of Ubuntu is released every 6 months, and it’s very easy to upgrade. All you have to do is click a button or two in your update manager and there you have it. You’ve just gone from Ubuntu 8.04 to Ubuntu 8.10! Is this something that you should be doing?? You could upgrade every six months, or you could upgrade every 2 years. Which would you prefer?? I’ve chosen to upgrade every 2 years. Here’s why…

Stability and the length of support. I’ve chosen to stick with the Long Term Support releases. Every 2 years, an LTS version is released with 3 years of support. The current LTS version is 8.04, Hardy Heron. The standard releases, every 6 months, are supported for 18 months. I want the stability of sticking with my established version. Such reliable service from my machine is more important to me than using the latest release. The older, LTS version has had patches and/or fixes applied already, and it’ll give me few problems. However, if I were to upgrade to the newest version every 6 months, I’m bound to run into issues somewhere. I’d be sacrificing some stability. That’s the price you pay for living on the bleeding edge.

I will of course use 8.10, Intrepid Ibex. In fact, I’ve installed it on a VirtualBox virtual machine, so I can try it out while not affecting my 8.04.1 installation. I trust the fine folks who maintain Ubuntu to take care of me with patches & fixes, even when my 8.04 LTS gets to be long in the tooth, so I won’t be upgrading until version 10.04 LTS. Ubuntu’s site explains all of this here.

Another interesting bit of info that might affect your decision is found here. Is Ubuntu getting slower with each new release??

So, what are your plans for upgrading?? Why are you?? Why aren’t you??

How to lock your screen from the command line

eli — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 16:35:29 +0000

This could be very useful to you if you’re working in the terminal and need to step away for a moment. You can achieve a locked screen, just like when you do it the graphical way, with this command entered at the command line, or cli…

gnome-screensaver-command –lock

NOTE –In this command, where you see “–lock”, it is really 2 hyphens with no spaces in between, followed by “lock” … - – lock. WordPress renders two hyphens put together as… –

This will instantly launch your screensaver, and lock your computer’s screen. Your password will be required to gain access to your system once this is activated.

That command is pretty long, and typing it out would probably get on my nerves. You can use an alias to effectively shorten it. Here’s how we’ll do that, also at the command line…

Let’s say we want to be able to type in lock, to lock the screen. If I just type in lock, I get nothing. So I need to create an alias for this command. An alias is just like what it sounds like. It’s assigning another name to a certain command. At the command line enter…

gedit .bashrc

There’s a certain section of this file that talks about aliases. You can add this line of text to that section of the file…

alias lock=’gnome-screensaver-command –lock’

This tells Ubuntu that when you type in lock, it executes gnome-screensaver-command –lock. Click the Save button and close the text editor. The next time you login, the change will have taken effect. Try it out and see how you like it.

Here’s what it should look like…

How to make your Evolution appointments appear in your desktop calender

eli — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 05:50:28 +0000

In Ubuntu you can have the appointments in your calender appear in your desktop calender/clock. If you’ve just come over from years of Microsoft Windows use, Evolution is the linux equivalent of Outlook. Ubuntu works with the Evolution mail client to give you quick access to your appointments and tasks right on the desktop, without having to open your email program. Here’s how it works…

Open Evolution from the Applications > Office menu.

Click on Calenders in the bottom left corner.

Double-click on a date and/or time where you want to place an appointment. A dialog box will open up, fill in the details and click Save to make an appointment.

Click on the time & date on your upper toolbar, in the upper right hand corner of the screen. You’ll see a calender drop down. You’ll notice that whatever day you have put a calender event will be in bold text.

Click on that day, and you’ll get a little display of your appointments for that day.

That’s it, all very quick, and without having to open you calender application.

Here’s what it will look like when you click on a day that you have an appointment scheduled.

How to set up HP printing on Ubuntu — HP Laserjet P1005

eli — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 04:40:27 +0000

Some HP printers can use one of the drivers already installed by default in Ubuntu. In those cases, all you usually need to do is plug your printer into your computer, and Ubuntu will recognize it and prompt you to set it up. It’s super quick & easy. The HP Laserjet P1005 that I purchased needed something more. This is a good quality, small, quiet, and cheap ($75 shipped from Newegg) monochrome laser printer. It comes with drivers, Windows drivers of course, which do you no good with Ubuntu. I read that I needed hplip. Turns out that I already had hplip installed on my system by default (which will work for many HP printers), but it didn’t do me any good. I needed to download & install the newest version. Here’s how I did it…

Download the automatic installer file here, the sourceforge page for hplip. Once downloaded follow the instructions on the download page to complete the installation. It will download some more stuff, and then install everything. It will also configure your HP printer. Now you’ll have the HP Device Manager in the Accessories menu, and you’ll also have nice, smooth printing.

How to back up your installed applications with APTonCD

eli — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 23:14:14 +0000

APTonCD is a very cool application that will backup the packages (software) on your system to a CD or DVD. This will not backup any personal, user created files. This is very handy for example, if you’re re-installing Ubuntu for whatever reason, but you don’t want to have to re-install every single peice of software that you’ve accumulated over time. All you do is back them up with APTonCD, and then re-install them onto your new system. This could also be useful with setting up new machines, they can benefit from all the cool software that you’ve scoured the web to find. To install APTonCD you can…go to the Add/Remove menu, or you can go to System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager, or you can install from the command line by opening a terminal and entering…

sudo apt-get install aptoncd

Now that you have it installed you can find it in System > Administration > APTonCD.

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Upon opening it up you’re greeted with 2 options. To make a backup of your programs, click Create.

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Now you simply check everything you want to make a backup of (everything is checked by default). A right-click gives check all, and uncheck all options. Click Burn to begin the backup process.

APTonCD has created an *.iso image of your packages ready to be burnt onto a CD or DVD. You can then choose your burning application. I just use the default nautilus cd burner.

Now choose whether you want a CD, or DVD, and the name of your image. The box marked Create a meta-package is a useful tool. It will create a little package on the disc that you can then use upon installation to install every package at once without having to select each and every one of them.

Choose your drive, and write speed. A lower speed will allow a greater chance for disc integrity, I always use 4x. That’s it, your backup disc will be done shortly. Later, we’ll cover how to install or restore from this disc.