Sunday, August 31, 2008

Friday, August 29, 2008

Calibrate Monitor in Linux



Are your fonts and windows not as sharp and clear as you would like and too bright and still no direct hardware monitor changes effective?
Gammapage is a nice python tool to calibrate your monitor:
http://www.pcbypaul.com/software/GAMMApage.html

Calibration Tool for your monitor on Linux


Nice Python tool to calibrate your monitor: Gammapage


http://www.pcbypaul.com/software/GAMMApage.html

You also can use xgamma for doing this at startup:
Go to System. Preferences, Sessions.
Choose Add
name: xgamma;
command:
xgamma -gamma 0.86


This is of course a choice you have made earlier for example with the tool Gammapage.
Now every time on startup your gamma will be reset by xgamma.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Connecting Ubuntu Pc two way with Windows Workgroup pc's

Step 1 - Install Ubuntu 8.04

source: http://www.europe.eclipse.co.uk/Ubuntu/804%20on%20Win%20Network.htm

After a basic install while connected to your pre-existing Windows network, internet access from the Ubuntu PC should work straight away.

Internet access by the Ubuntu PC is essential to this process. Do not proceed unless it is working.

By default, a lot of networking capability on the Ubuntu machine is already working:

In Places > Network, you will see the 'Windows Network' icon.

D/clicking on it will take you to [the name of your windows network], in my case mshome

D/clicking on mshome will display all the pc's currently on your network within the mshome workgroup.

D/clicking on the icon of a pc will display it’s shared folders.

D/clicking on a Windows shared folder will cause an ‘Enter Password’ dialog to appear.

Just click on ‘Cancel’, and the dialog will close, and the contents of the folder will be displayed anyway.

Also, a shortcut to the Windows shared folder will appear on the Ubuntu desktop.

This shortcut will be removed automatically at the next reboot, or it can removed by right-clicking on it & selecting ‘Unmount Volume’

So, by default, from your Ubuntu PC you can transfer files between the Ubuntu Desktop (and other folders) & Windows Shared folders

However, the Ubuntu pc cannot be seen from the Windows pc's.

The rest of this guide shows how to make the Ubuntu pc visible to & accessible by the Windows pc’s on your home network.

===========================================================================

Step 2 - Create a folder in Ubuntu to become visible (later) on the network

You could think of this new folder becoming your Ubuntu equivalent of the 'Shared Documents' folder in Windows.

Right-click on the Ubuntu desktop & create the new folder called, say, 804Shared

===========================================================================

Step 3 - Prepare the folder for sharing on the network

Right-click on the 804Shared folder, and select Sharing Options

A dialog saying Folder Sharing will appear. Select the Share this Folder’ box

After a short delay, a dialog saying' Sharing Service is not installed' will appear.

Click on Install Service Ubuntu will ask for your login password

This will cause a program called Samba to be downloaded from the internet & installed

Wait for the installation to complete with the message Changes Applied, then close the dialog.

NOW REBOOT THE UBUNTU PC – I know you shouldn’t have to, but I have found this to be essential on some installations, so why not….

Right-click on the 804Shared folder, and select Sharing Options

The dialog saying Folder Sharing will re-appear, with more options now available:

Select the ‘Allow other people to write in this folder’ box

Click on Create Share.

A dialog ‘Nautilus needs to add some permissions…..’ appears.

Click on ‘Add the permissions automatically’

The icon for the shared folder will now change to indicate sharing by displaying a double arrow:

At this point, the Ubuntu PC will become visible to Windows PCs on the network:

===========================================================================

Step 4 - Access the Ubuntu pc from a Windows pc.

On a Windows XP PC, go to 'My Network Places' > 'View Workgroup Computers'

The Ubuntu PC icon will be shown, and when clicking on it a password is requested.

Enter the login name & password of the Ubuntu PC you are connecting to:

You can then see & access the Ubuntu shared folder you created in step 2. Job done!

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Manage partitons in an installed Linux system

Gnome Partition Editor

GParted is the Gnome Partition Editor application. Before attempting to use it, here is some basic background information.

A hard disk is usually subdivided into one or more partitions. These partitions are normally not re-sizable (making one smaller and the adjacent one larger). The purpose of GParted is to allow the individual to take a hard disk and change the partition organization therein, while preserving the partition contents.

GParted is an industrial-strength package for creating, destroying, resizing, moving, checking and copying partitions, and the file systems on them. This is useful for creating space for new operating systems, reorganizing disk usage, copying data residing on hard disks and mirroring one partition with another (disk imaging). See Features, before using it.

Dutch section:

Gnome Partition Editor, oftewel Gparted, is een uitstekende partitiebeheerder. Maar u kunt Gparted beter niet gebruiken in een Linux die u van de harde schijf van uw computer hebt opgestart. Reden: sommige Linuxdistro's, waaronder Ubuntu, willen een nieuw aangemaakte partitie meteen automatisch aankoppelen. Dat botst soms met de werking van Gparted.

In uw computergereedschapskist hoort daarom beslist een gespecialiseerde LiveCD met Gparted erop: Hier de Gparted LiveCD.

GParted is een partioneringsprogramma voor het indelen van vaste schijven in partities. Bij deze minidistributie gaat het om een Linux-omgeving, waar in het middelpunt het vrije partioneringsprogramma GParted staat.



GParted

GParted heeft slechts één doel: harde schijven zullen snel, eenvoudig en veilig partioneert kunnen worden. Ondanks de kleine grote biedt GParted een functieomvang aan, die commerciële producten gedeeltelijk overtreft. Daarbij is het programma zeer gebruikersvriendelijk.

Linux / Windows

Door de eigen Linux omgeving functioneert de Live-CD onafhankelijk van het geïnstalleerde besturingssysteem. Alle gebruikelijke Unix filesystemen, evenals FAT16/32 en NTFS worden ondersteund. Daarmee profiteren ook Windows gebruikers van GParted.

Gebruik

In tegenstelling tot veel andere partioneringsprogramma’s moet u zich niet door een tekstgebaseerd program vechten:
  • Gparted gebruikt de Fluxbox als venster manager en kan daarom worden bediend in een grafische omgeving.
  • De Live-CD kan nochtans niet alleen partities aanlegen, wissen, verschuiven of veranderen, maar ook filesystemen repareren, evalueren of anders noemen.
  • De bediening is zeer gemakkelijk, aangezien alle instellingen door muis-klik worden gemaakt.
  • Bij de Live-CD behoren behalve GParted ook de Fluxbox-Window-Manager en een reeks van harde schijf hulpmiddelen,
  • die elke administrator of poweruser in de gereedschapskist zou moeten hebben.
  • Zelfs als deze Live-CD misschien slechts alle paar maanden wordt gebruikt, is het geruststellend om haar in de schuiflade te hebben.

Installatie

Na het downloaden van het ISO-Imagefile brand u eerst de Live-CD en start daarna de doelcomputer van deze CD. GParted plaatst daarna enkele vragen over taal en beeldscherm instellingen. Daarna start de Fluxbox en u kunt de bewerkingen uitvoeren. Nadat de veranderingen verwerkt zijn en de partitionstabel opnieuw geschreven werd, moet in ieder geval een herstart (reboot) worden uitgevoerd. Hierdoor wordt de herschreven partitionstabel opnieuw ingelezen.

Het werken met GParted is vrij eenvoudig en maakt zelfs pret. Daarna zou men de CD goed moeten opbergen – men weet ja nooit, wanneer men ze opnieuw terug nodig heeft. De freeware GParted werkt met: Windows 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, DOS, Linux.

Let op: gebruik niet het Windowsprogramma Partition Magic voor uw Linuxpartities, want die geeft soms valse "foutmeldingen", die hij voorstelt om te "repareren". Gaat u daarmee akkoord, dan beschadigt Partition Magic uw Linuxpartities.

Tip 1: U dient in Gparted één van de primaire partities te voorzien van een opstartvlag (boot flag). Anders wil de computer niet opstarten vanaf de harde schijf. Als u Windows op een van de partities hebt staan, dan moet de Windowspartitie de opstartvlag krijgen.

Tip 2: Formatteer Linuxpartities altijd als EXT3 en niet als EXT2. EXT3 houdt namelijk een dagboekje bij (journal), waarin beschreven staat waar de bestanden op de harde schijf staan. Zo hebt u veel minder kans op gegevensverlies bij een stroomstoring. EXT3 is eigenlijk geen zelfstandig formatteringstype, want het is gewoon EXT2 met een plusje, zijnde het dagboekje. Bij de opstartboodschappen van uw PC kunt u dan ook soms zien, dat een EXT3-partitie wordt aangeduid als EXT2.

Tip 3: partities verschuiven of samenvoegen duurt soms vele uren, want het gaat sector per sector. Veel sneller en handiger is het daarom, om een overbodige partitie te vernietigen en de lege ruimte gewoon toe te voegen aan een bestaande partitie. Dat is slechts minutenwerk.

Tip 4: in het menu van Gparted staat de mogelijkheid om uw schijf een DOS-label te geven. Dat is geen onschuldig labeltje voor een partitie, zoals u misschien zou denken (zucht.... ik dacht het ooit), maar een handeling die alle bestaande partities op de harde schijf vernietigt. Het is maar dat u het weet..

Linux Font Equivalents to Popular Web Typefaces

source: http://mondaybynoon.com/2007/04/02/linux-font-equivalents-to-popular-web-typefaces/

April 2nd, 2007

Linux Font Equivalents to Popular Web Typefaces

I have written before about my admiration for Web typography, and in that article I touched on the fact that many “Web safe” fonts can’t be applied to Linux. Linux distributions each ship with their own font libraries, but I’d like to focus on similar typefaces you can use within a font-family to help make your design bulletproof.

read more in the original article

Gnome Keyboard Shortcuts extended version

Ubuntu (GNOME) Cheat Sheet / Keyboard Shortcut

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at PhotobucketI have been trying to find a Cheat Sheet or Keyboard Shortcut list out on the web but have not been able to find anything remotely complete......So I went out to all the various sources and found all the shortcuts, hints, keystokes, etc that I could find and I compiled a list of them.

source: http://thesiblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/ubuntu-cheat-sheet-keyboard-shortcut.html

General keyboard shortcuts


Ctrl+A = Select all (In Documents, Firefox, Nautilus, etc, not Terminal)
Ctrl+C = Copy (In Documents, Firefox, Nautilus, etc, not Terminal)
Ctrl+V = Paste (In Documents, Firefox, Nautilus, etc, not Terminal)

F9 = Toggle Sidebar
F2 = Rename
Ctrl+Shift+N = Create new folder

Ctrl+N = New (Create a new document, not in terminal)
Ctrl+O = Open (Open a document, not in terminal)
Ctrl+S = Save (Save the current document, not in terminal)
Ctrl+P = Print (Print the current document, not in terminal)

Ctrl+E = Send To... (Send the current document to an email recipient or remote location, not in terminal)
Ctrl+W = Close (Close the current document, not in terminal)
Ctrl+Q = Quit (Quit the application, not in terminal)
Ctrl+H = Show hidden files
Ctrl+F = File browser
Ctrl+T = Move to trash (dangerous)
Ctrl+L = Open location (folders, files, URLs, etc)

Ctrl+Alt+F1 = Switch to the first virtual terminal
Ctrl+Alt+F2(F3)(F4)(F5)(F6) = Select the different virtual terminals
Ctrl+Alt+F7 = Switch to current terminal session with X
Ctrl+Alt+L = Lock screen
Crtl+Alt+Delete = Log out
Ctrl+Alt+D = Hide all windows and focus desktop

Alt+F1 = Launch applications menu
Alt+F2 = Launch "run application" dialogue
Alt+F7 = moves the current window (can be moved with mouse OR KEYBOARD)
Alt+F8 = resizes current window (again, with mouse OR KEYBOARD)
Alt+F9 = minimizes current window
Alt+F10 = maximizes current window
Alt+Space = brings up that funny window menu with with 'Always on Top' and 'Minimize' and 'Maximize' and all that jazz
Alt+F5 = returns window to 'normal' or previous size
Alt+F4 = closes window (usually)
Alt+Home = jump to home folder
Alt+Enter = file / folder properties

Ctrl+Alt+Backspace = Kill X server

Alt+Tab = Switch between open programs
Printscrn = Print screen

<+Space = scrolls current tab/window down <+Backspace = scrolls current tab/window up Ctrl+Alt+Right/Left Arrow = Move to the next virtual desktop Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Right/Left Arrow = Take current window to the next virtual desktop Command line / Terminal shortcuts

Ctrl+C = Kill process (Kill the current process in terminal, also used to copy elsewhere)
Ctrl+Z = Send process to background
Ctrl+D = Log out from the current terminal. In X, this may log you out after a shuting down the emulator.

Ctrl+A = Home (Move cursor to beginning of line)
Ctrl+E = End (Move cursor to end of line)
Tab = List available commands from typed letters (Ex: type iw and click tab, output = iwconfig iwevent iwgetid iwlist iwpriv iwspy)

Ctrl+U = Delete current line
Ctrl+K = Delete current line from cursor
Ctrl+W = Delete word before cursor in terminal (Terminal only, also used to close the current document elsewhere)

Arrows up and down = Browse command history
Ctrl+R = History search (Finds the last command matching the letters you type)

Shift+PageUp / PageDown = Scroll terminal output
Ctrl+L = Clears terminal output
Shift+insert = Paste

Ctrl+Shift+C = Copy
Ctrl+Shift+V = Paste

Misc

Mousewheel click or 3rd mouse button = Paste selected text (Select any text in any window and paste where you want. Terminal / Firefox / Gnome apps)

Create your own Shortcut

To make a shortcut in Gnome, run gnome-keybinding-properties or goto System->Preferences->Keyboard Shortcuts

Other Helpful Cheat Sheets

Cheat Sheets Huge Collection:
http://www.scottklarr.com/topic/115/linux-unix-cheat-sheets---the-ultimate-collection/

Firefox Cheat Sheet
Unix/Linux Cheat Sheet

Activating Tracker in Hardy

Find your files easily

Tracker, a lightweight and fast indexing agent, is a great tool to help you locate your files and emails easily. While it comes pre-installed with Hardy, I am curious why it is not enabled by default.

Go to System->Preferences->Search and Indexing. On the General tab, check on the box “Enable indexing” and “Enable watching“. Click OK. A dialog box will appear to prompt you to restart the tracker daemon. Click Restart and you should see the tracker icon on the top right panel.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Tracker

Essential skills: Dragging and dropping files in Gnome

Drag-and-dropping files with the left mouse button will move files, just like other desktops. There are some modifiers to the normal drag and drop make this action more powerful:

  • drag and drop with the middle mouse button or with the Alt key pressed gives you the menu of options, such as copying rather than moving the files

  • keeping the Ctrl key pressed while drag and dropping will copy the files instead of moving them

  • holding the Shift key pressed while drag and dropping will move the files

  • pressing both Shift and Ctrl will create a symbolic link to the file

  • it is also possible to change the action to be performed while dragging pressing and releasing the modifiers presented above
  • dragging from a window not currently active while pressing the AltGr key or the Super key (usually the Windows key) or one of the modifier key told above will not raise the window, leaving the focus on the current window (this workaround to not-raising-windows-when-they-shouldn't-be possibly only exists due to separate bugs)

  • dragging something over a minimized or obscured window button in the window list (in the gnome-panel) will bring up the window
  • pressing Esc while dragging something will cancel the drag

Sunday, August 10, 2008

No sound in Flash Firefox

Solution:
I believe the problem is that Flash, which plays the sound in youtube and loads of other net stuff, does not use the Alsa sound system. What you need to do is
1 install pulseaudio
2 install git and git-core if not yet installed
own addition:
3 install libflash and libflash moz- plugin and libflashsupport.

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