Poll Results: Best Element of Ubuntu

By on September 9, 2007

According to my blog viewers the best element of Ubuntu is….

  1. Free Software – 27% – 24 Votes – Ubuntu and ever app you will ever need for it are all free software!
  2. Configurability – 26% – 23 Votes – Ubuntu can be easily configured to your favorite look and settings
  3. Stability – 20% – 18 Votes – Ubuntu is much more stable than windows, and runs very smoothly
  4. Other – 12% – 11 Votes – Ubuntu is better according to the voter (feel free to comment)
  5. Desktop Effects – 11% – 10 Votes – Ubuntu looks beautiful and behaves awesomely with compiz-fusion or another desktop effects app. Whats the first thing you show your friends when they ask about your ubuntu system? The 3d cube of course!
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Ubuntu Printer Support via Windows network

By on September 9, 2007

I had problems getting my printer to work, when plugged directly into Ubuntu. I have an HP PSC 500, still working fine after all these years. The printer is shared on my windows network, which I assumed would not work with Ubuntu. Boy was I wrong. It was as easy as picking the name of the computer the printer was plugged into, and then it worked! Here is what I did step by step:

  1. System > Administration > Printing
  2. New Printer
  3. Select Windows Server
  4. Browse to select the computer it is shared on
  5. Pick the type of printer
  6. Complete!

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Wine Doors

By on September 9, 2007


I recently found an app that automatically installs certain programs for wine automatically. It is called Wine-Doors.

Download debian package here.

Apps include:

  1. Firefox 2 and 1.5
  2. IE 6
  3. Opera 9
  4. Quicktime 7
  5. Winamp 5
  6. WMP 6
  7. 7zip 4
  8. DVD decrypter 3
  9. Dreamweaver 8
  10. Flash 8
  11. Total Commander 7
  12. Eudora 7
  13. CDex 1
  14. Games
  15. Fonts
  16. Behind the scenes stuff
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Opera and Epiphany Web Browsers

By on September 3, 2007

I love my firefox with all my add-ons and bookmarks, but sometimes i need to just open a fresh browser, without remembering my tabs or passwords. I have two browsers for this. One is Epiphany and the other is opera.

Epiphany web browser is light, fast, and simple. It does all your basic tasks fast and well. Official browser for the gnome desktop, so it also looks great. Only for linux. I design and edit my blog from epiphany.

sudo apt-get install epiphany-browser

Opera Web Browser is another light, simple browser I like to have on hand. It is available for linux, windows, and mac.

Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install opera

Windows/Mac/Other Linux Distribution:

Download from here


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Guitar Hero for Linux: Frets On Fire

By on September 2, 2007

Frets on fire is essentially an open source version of guitar hero. It runs on windows, mac, and linux. Here is a quick how to for this nice game. Make sure you disable compiz before running; I had performance problems running both at once. My only suggestion for a solution to this is making a new user with no startup scripts and running Frets On Fire from there. Enjoy :)

First Try:
In Gutsy: sudo apt-get install fretsonfire
In Feisty try downloading the gutsy package (untested)

or, try:

wget http://superb-west.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/fretsonfire/FretsOnFire-1.2.451-linux.tar.gz
tar xvfz FretsOnFire-1.2.451-linux.tar.gz
wget http://mikesubuntu.googlepages.com/fretsonfire.sh
cp fretsonfire.sh Desktop/
chmod +x Desktop/fretsonfire.sh
Desktop/fretsonfire.sh

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Free Ubuntu Stickers

By on September 1, 2007

System 76 is giving away ubuntu stickers! Follow This link to get some. All you do is send a self addressed stamped envelope to system 76, and they will send it back with your stickers. I tried this, and in a little over a week got my pack of 4 stickers.

Update: It appears as though the are no longer offering this. Oh well…

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How To Backup and Restore Ubuntu

By on September 1, 2007

This is a simple to way to back up your ubuntu installation. Copy and paste this code to backup all your files:

sudo su
cd /
tar cvpzf backup.tgz –exclude=/proc –exclude=/lost+found –exclude=/backup.tgz –exclude=/mnt –exclude=/sys –exclude=/media /

Copy and Paste this into the terminal to restore to that backup:

sudo tar xvpfz backup.tgz -C /

It is best to backup or restore when you are not using the computer. I run it when I got to sleep.

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Make Firefox Buttons Pretty in Gnome

By on September 1, 2007

I put together some simple commands to install improved firefox buttons in ubuntu. I take no credit for creating the icons or the script, just making it uber-easy to install by feeding you the exact commands. Originally from this thread.

There is a much improved version out, and I am updating the commands to match. Here are the new commands:

wget http://mikesubuntu.googlepages.com/firefox_widgets_2.7.tar.bz2
sudo tar -xf firefox_widgets_2.7.tar.bz2
cd firefox_widgets_2.7
./install

and change the install location to ‘/opt/swiftfox’ for swiftfox.

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How to: Avant Window Navigator Reflection Effect

By on August 31, 2007

By default, Avant Window Navigator has a simple look. A nice way to spice it up, is to enable icon reflection. To do so, open the awn preferences. Under General, go to the bar appearance tab. Set the look to 3d look, the bar angle to 45, and the icon offset to 18. Restart awn.

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Ipod Video in Ubuntu Using vlc and gtkpod

By on August 31, 2007

I had some difficulties with the other ipod video method, so I tried with VLC. Here goes:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install vlc

  1. Run VLC
  2. Click file > Open File…
  3. Where it says “Browse” on the upper right, pick the file you want to convert
  4. Under “Advanced Options” at the bottom check “Stream / Save”
  5. Click settings
  6. Under outputs, check “File” and choose the filename
  7. Change the encapsulation method to “MP4″
  8. Under transcoding options, check the video, and make sure its set at “MP4v” with 1024 bitrate and 1 scale (as pictured below)
  9. Check the audio, and make sure it is “mp4a” with 128 bit rate and 2 channels (as pictured below)
  10. Click okay at the bottom, and then click okay in the “Open…” window
  11. Your video should begin encoding!
  12. The resulting file can easily be transferred with latest gtkpod, or installed with automatix

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