Category Archives: Linux

Compiz and RandRRotation Working

Today, I decided to do a clean install of Ubuntu 8.04 on my desktop. Before wiping out my disk, I backed up all my personal files in my home directory to an external USB drive. The Ubuntu installation was a breeze. No glitches whatsover.

After the install, I added three programs: gPHPEdit, Audacity and Filezilla. In addition, I also installed Compiz Fusion to activate the “eye candy” graphics effects. As I expected, the screen rotation for displaying in Portrait mode wasn’t working with the nvidia driver.

My setup is a Nvidia FX-5200 graphics card and a HP w2207h widescreen monitor. So, I fiddled with the xorg.conf file a little bit. After a couple of tries, to my big ultimate surprise, I got both Compiz Fusion and RandRRotation working together! Woot!

Here’s my xorg.conf configuration.

Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Driver  "nvidia"
Option "NoLogo" "True"
Option "RandRRotation"
EndSection

I’m ecstatic to say the very least.

G1 Impressions

T-Mobile just announced the G1 phone, an Android-powered phone scheduled for release on October 22 for $179 with a two year committment. Android is an open and free mobile platform from Google.

From the hardware perspective, the G1 is slightly bulkier than the iPhone at 5.6 ounces. The G1′s screen is a bit smaller at 3.17 inches compared to the iPhone’s at 3.5 inch. The difference is offset by the G1′s full QWERTY keyboard.

The G1 is capable of synchronizing to online applications automatically. The phone can be configured with instant messaging and pop or imap email. The Google Browser and Google Search works with a Wifi signal.

The other cool application that runs on the G1 is Google Maps. The G1 comes with GPS and is capable of running Google’s Street View. The phone comes with a built-in compass. Pointing the phone in any direction changes the vantage point of Street View. A very cool feature indeed.

In terms of music, the G1 music player is capable of playing MP3, WMA, AAC and Ogg Vorbis files. The OGG format is welcome addition to open-source fans since OGG format is open and patent-free.

Unfortunately, there is no video player for the G1. The other drawback is T-Mobile 3G service is only available in 21 markets, otherwise the G1 has to use an older EDGE network.

Batch Resize Images with Gimp

Most digital cameras nowadays, have resolutions that are far bigger than the normal monitor screen size. On average most point-and-shoot digital cameras have resolution anywhere from 3 megapixels to 10 megapixels. Most monitors these days have resolution of either 1024×768 or the slightly larger 1280×1024 pixels.

If you ever need to upload pictures online to a gallery or to a webpage, you will need to resize your images to fit the screen as well as reduce the image size. If you use Gimp, an image manipulation program, you can use David’s Batch Processor, a Gimp plugin to manage the resizing of multiple images in a single command.

To download the Batch Processor, open your Synaptic Package Manager located under System > Administration. Search for “Gimp Batch” and the result will give you “gimp-plugin-registry.” Install the package. You may need to supply the admin password to continue.

Start Gimp. Access the batch file plugin via the Xtns > Filters > Batch > Batch Process menu.

You can select a single file or multiple images for our purposes here in this article. Just click over to the Resize tab and choose resize aspect ratio or set the absolute width and height. Click Start to begin the batch process.

So, the next time you have to resize multiple images. Use the Gimp’s Batch Processor, a batch plugin that is capable of resizing multiple images in just a few clicks.

Dropbox

Today, I finally got a chance to play around with Dropbox, an online file sharing service. Shared files are accessed online via a web browser or a mobile device or client software. The client software looks just like any folder.

The software automates the synchronizing of files and photos. The Dropbox works just like any other folder on your computer, but with a few differences. You can drag and drop move files around, just like you normally would in any folder.

Any files or folders inside Dropbox will get synchronized to Dropbox’s servers and any other computer linked to your account. Green checkmarks will appear on top of your files to let you know that they’re synced and up to date.

Your files are always safe. All data is transferred over SSL and encrypted with AES-256 before storage.

Dropbox keeps track of every change made to any of its contents. Any changes are instantly and automatically sent to any other computer linked to your Dropbox. The Dropbox clients for Windows, Mac and Linux all play nice with one another too!

Dropbox’s shared folders make it easy for you to share a bunch of stuff with other people. This makes Dropbox perfect for team projects, music/video editing, and much more. Easily share files just two clicks away. share photos. There is a 2gb limit.

Visit Dropbox to learn more about the service or watch this screencast.

Picasa For Linux

Picasa for Linux is a free software download from Google that helps you:

  • Locate and organize all the photos on your computer.
  • Edit and add effects to your photos with a few simple clicks.
  • Share your photos with others through email, prints, and on the web: it’s fast, easy and free.

Every time you open Picasa, it automatically locates all your pictures (even ones you forgot you had) and sorts them into visual albums organized by date with folder names you will recognize. You can drag and drop to arrange your albums and make labels to create new groups. Picasa makes sure your pictures are always organized.

System Requirements

  • Should work on any Linux system with Intel 386-compatible processor,
    glibc 2.3.2 or greater, and a working X11 display system.
  • Desktop Integration features require a current version of Gnome or KDE.
  • Camera detection and integration requires kernel 2.6.13, libgphoto2, and gnome-volume-manager or equivalent.
  • Downloading from Picasa Web Albums requires a Mozilla-based browser like Firefox.

Editing

Picasa has 3 modes for editing pictures. The Basic Fixes, Tuning and Effects. The Basic Fixes allows you to crop, straighten, remove Red Eye, Auto Contrast, Fill Light or automatically have Picasa adjust the photo for you using the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button. The Tuning mode allows you the Fill in the light, adjust Highlights, Shadows and Color Temperatures. The Effects mode allows you to add effects to your photos like Black & White, Sepia, Film Grain, Glow, Soft Focus, Sharpen, Warmify, Tint, Soft Focus to name a few effects.

Download

Download Picasa for Linux

Installation

For RPM based systems

$ sudo rpm -Uvh /tmp/picasa-2.7.3736-15.i386.rpm

For Debian based systems including Ubuntu

$ sudo dpkg -i picasa_2.7.3736-15_i386.deb

Starting Picasa

Once installation is completed. You will find the Picasa application under “Graphics” menu in Gnome.

Enjoy.

Avast For Ubuntu Linux

Windows is a popular and a bigger target for malware. Meanwhile, the Linux operating system remains practically virus free. So, why am I installing an anti-virus software on a Linux system? Is it necessary? Most likely, you will not find a virus on a Linux system. But, you may have downloaded an infected document specifically written for Windows that you can pass along to a Windows user. At the very least, you will earn extra points for being a good samaritan.

There are a number of factors involved as to why Linux is practically virus free. Linux is less popular and a harder target for malware, the Linux privilege system makes it more difficult to write, install or attached to files, certain Linux distributions like Ubuntu have no open ports except for services specified by the user.

Avast is software designed to remove and protect computers from viruses, spyware and rootkits. It’s free for non-commercial use with automatic updates. Avast boasts 50 million users worldwide. Why Avast? I’ve had good success with Avast in the PC front. I thought I would give it a try in Ubuntu Linux.

1. Download: Avast Linux Home Edition – Free

2. Double click on the deb file you’ve just downloaded. Ubuntu’s Package Installer will start. Click `Install Package` to begin installation. Please note: it says, `Reinstall` since it’s already loaded on my system. If a new install, it will say `Install Package.`

3. Once installed, press Alt-F2 and type `avastgui` to run the Avast.

4. This is the main Avast screen. Before you scan for the first time, I recommend you update the database first. It will take several minutes to download the latest Avast database, but it’s a minimal wait for those with broadband connections. Once finished, you have several options which directories to scan, either your home directory, selected folders or the entire file system. There are also 3 ways of scanning: quick, standard and thorough. Select one and click `Start Scan` to begin.

5. Avast ran into permissions problems with directory owned by root in my home directory. Since that directory owned by root was not important, I went ahead and deleted it. Avast ran fine after that. I had the same issues with when I ran Avast on the entire system. There were issues with certain files and directories owned by `root.` Instead I run Avast from root.

6. You can run Avast from root via the terminal by typing the following:

# sudo avastgui &

7. Like most results, 99% of the time, you will not find a virus unless you’ve downloaded one of those Word document files!

VMware Fusion

VMware Fusion brings another virtualization product running on a Mac. With VMware Fusion, Mac users can run Windows, Linux or any other operating system seamlessly on their systems. Maybe it’s a PC game or an application that you want badly running on your Mac. No sweat. There is no need to switch computers or create a dual boot system, just install VMware Fusion and create a new virtual machine. You can even run multiple virtual machines all running different operating systems as long as your Mac has the available memory and the disk space. On top of that, VMware Fusion has a snapshot feature that gives you the ability to rollback to your last saved state.

Features

  • Support for Mac OS X Leopard
  • Use even more Windows 3D applications and games with experimental support for DirectX 9.0 accelerated 3D graphics (without “shaders”).
  • English, French, German, and Japanese versions all in the same download
  • Unity in VMware Fusion 1.1 makes Windows on the Mac even more seamless with:
    • Support for Windows Vista 32-bit and 64-bit editions
    • Support for Windows XP 64-bit edition
    • My Computer, My Documents, My Network Places, Control Panel, Run, and Search now appear in the Applications menu, Dock applications menu and Launch Applications window
    • Option to show/hide the Windows taskbar and Start menu in the VMware Fusion View menu
    • VMware Fusion “Launch Applications” window now only appears when you choose
    • Improved performance when resizing and dragging Unity windows
  • Boot Camp integration even better with VMware Fusion 1.1:
    • Use Microsoft Vista Boot Camp partitions in VMware Fusion virtual machines
    • Automatically remount the Boot Camp partition after Boot Camp virtual machine is shut down
    • Improved support for detecting and preparing Boot Camp partitions for use as virtual machines
  • Other improvements:
    • Ability to sync iPhone with Outlook in Windows virtual machines
    • Eject key now ejects the optical drive when attached to a virtual machine
    • VMware Shared Folders created with Windows Easy Install now defaults to “Read Only” access of the Mac’s home directory for maximum security
    • Option to hide the VMware Fusion status bar to take advantage of more screen real estate
    • Installation status and “out of date” status for VMware Tools made more obvious on status bar
    • Necessity to power off virtual machine to modify virtual hardware settings made more obvious.

Minimum Requirements

  • An Intel-based Mac (to run 64-bit operating systems, an Intel Mac with a Core 2 Duo or Xeon processor is required)
  • 512MB of RAM (1 GB or more recommended)
  • 275MB free disk space for VMware Fusion
  • 1GB free disk space for each virtual machine (10 GB or more recommended)
  • Mac OS X version 10.4.9 or later

Guest Operating Systems

VMware supports 32-bit or 64-bit guest operating systems. Here’s a list.

Where To Buy

VMware Fusion is available for purchase online directly from VMware or from the Apple store, Apple’s retail stores, Amazon.com, Buy.com, CompUSA, MicroCenter, and from over 3000 VMware partners worldwide. VMware is priced at $79.99USD.

Test Drive

You can also test the latest VMWare 1.1 for 30 days trial period. In addition, VMware Fusion 2 Beta 2 is now available for testing as well. Just remember it’s beta and that it may contain a few bugs. Fusion 2 is scheduled for release in a few weeks. If you are looking for open-source equivalent, check out VirtualBox by Sun Microsystems.

Linux Kill Command

Occasionally, a Linux Kill command is what you need to terminate an application. This happened to me last night. I was trying to re-run Firefox 3.0 after it had crashed. I was getting an unusual error which I’ve never witnessed before. I wished I had taken a screenshot of the error since I can’t remember it vis-a-vis. It said something like this, “Firefox is still running, please close the application before running another one.”

It was very unusual error since I could not find a trace of Firefox running on my desktop. There were no minimized windows, no instances of Firefox running whatsoever in the current panel I was in or in any other panel (Ubuntu has multiple panels). Zilch. Absolutely nothing, but my system still thinks Firefox is running.

Force Quit

One way of killing an application is to use Force Quit. You can add a force quit icon to your Top Panel by right clicking your Top Panel and selecting `Add To Panel.` Look for the `Force Quit` icon (it’s the broken window icon) and click Add. You should see a `Force Quit` icon on your Top Panel similar to the snapshot I’ve taken below. It’s the last icon to the right, the one that looks like a broken window.

Kill Command

In my case, I could not use Force Quit. There were no traces of Firefox running on my desktop. Well, it is time for the Kill command. So, I thought about writing a tutorial for Linux newbies on how to terminate an application that will not start because another instance of it is running in the background.

The Fix

First things first, check if there is a process running in the background. Substitute the name of the offending application in place of Firefox. From the Terminal, type:

# ps -ef | grep firefox

The PS command gives you a snapshot of the current processes running on your system. I’m using the GREP command to display Firefox processes only. You should get a reply similar to the one below.

In this example, we are seeing one process with Firefox running. It has a process ID or PID of 4694. The second process is the GREP command we just issued. Just ignore this one. Based on the PS command, we’ve now determined the PID of the application that we need to KILL.

Going For The Kill

Now, for the fun part. Let’s kill this application. From the terminal, type:

# kill 4694

You can try it with -9 to ensure execution.

# kill -9 4694

That’s it. This application is now dead. You should be able to restart the application. To learn more about Linux commands, check out the following Man pages:

Sourceforge.net 2008 Community Choice Awards

The open-source community have spoken. The winners of the Sourceforge.net 2008 Community Awards were announced and OpenOffice.org and phpMyAdmin grabbed more than one category. This year’s nomination were left open to any project or repository. 17 of the finalists were hosted outside of Sourceforge.net. The winners are:

2008 Community Choice Awards Winners

  • Best Project – OpenOffice.org
  • Best Project for the Enterprise – OpenOffice.org
  • Best Project for Educators - OpenOffice.org
  • Most Likely to Be the Next $1B Acquisition – phpMyAdmin
  • Best Project for Multimedia - VLC
  • Best Project for Gamers – XBMC
  • Most Likely to Change the World – Linux
  • Best New Project – Magento
  • Most Likely to Be Ambiguously and Baselessly Accused of Patent Violation – Wine Is Not an Emulator
  • Most Likely to Get Users Sued by Anachronistic Industry Associations Defending Dead Business Models – eMule
  • Best Tool or Utility for SysAdmins – phpMyAdmin
  • Best Tool or Utility for Developers – Notepad++

CherryPal

Yesterday, CherryPal introduced a low cost cloud computer called CherryPal, powered by open-source Debian Linux. The unit sells for $249 available at the end of July. The unit is about the size of a paperback and only weighs 10.5 ounces. It’s perfect for people who just want to browse the web, check for email or perform some light document work. The coolest thing it is green to the environment. It only consumes 2 watts of power compared to 114 watts on average for an traditional PC.

Hardware

The main reason for the low power consumption is the unit contains no moving parts. It comes with 256MB of RAM, 4GB of solid state storage and runs on a 400-MHz Freescale MPC5121e processor. It’s the same processor Apple used before switching over to Intel. CherryPal expects the unit to survive in 10 years or more. The unit can power up in about 20 seconds or less.

In addition, the Cherrypal has two USB ports where you can attach a keyboard, a mouse or an external hard drive. A VGA port is also available where you can easily attach an LCD monitor for external viewing. The screen resolution is set to 1024 x 768. The unit also comes with an ethernet jack and has built-in wifi support, a cool feature giving you the ability to drag it anywhere around the house. Printing is also possible. See cloud computing below.

Specifications:

  • Freescale’s MPC5121e mobileGT processor, 800 MIPS (400 MHz) of processing
  • 256 MB of DDR2 DRAM
  • 4GB NAND Flash-based solid state drive
  • WiFi 802.11b/g Wi-Fi
  • Two USB 2.0 ports
  • One 10/100 Ethernet with RJ-45 jack
  • One VGA DB-15 display out jack
  • Headphone level stereo audio out 3.5mm jack
  • 9vDC 2.5mm 10 watt AC-DC adapter power supply
  • Weighs 10 ounces
  • 1.3” high, 5.8” x 4.2” wide

Software:

In terms of software, the unit comes with Firefox web browser, and OpenOffice productivity suite, so you should be able to create and save word processing, spreadsheet and presentation documents. The unit also comes with iTunes for music playback and music management. In addition, CherryPal comes with its own CherryPal-branded media player giving you the ability to play popular media formats. It also has a messaging client. However, there is no webcam support. CherryPal is still working on webcam support at the moment. Since the unit does not come with a DVD drive, you will not be able to watch movies, but you can still watch streaming videos from an external source such as a media center, USB hard drive or from the internet. You can even edit pictures using a photo editor called Picnik which fully integrates with your online photo galleries on Flickr, Picasa, Facebook, Photobucket, MySpace, and Webshots. For more questions, visit CherryPal’s FAQ.

The Cloud

Cherrypal has an added feature called the Cloud computing where an additional 50GB of online storage is available for free. Cloud Computing also means applications are kept on the Internet and managed by CherryPal. They take care of all the technical details, like upgrading or installing software, virus checking, operating system maintenance and upgrades. Turning on a CherryPal computer is an experience likened to turning on your TV, you can control all of the functions and applications of the CherryPal through the browser. There is no need to go into the operating system to fix settings, configure your system or locate files. CherryPal’s online administrators do all of the system maintenance. Data backups happen automatically, so you’ll never lose a file.

The Verdict

Overall, CherryPal is a promising unit. It has its own limitations, but powerful in its own right. You have to constantly remind yourself it’s not a full fledge PC since this pint size unit can do so many things. If you do some light work on the computer like browsing, email, etc, this unit might be the one for you. For a measly $249, it’s actually a bargain. Think of all the power savings. Not only that, it’s good for the environment.