Create a cdrom for mounting a Madbox 9.10 Usb install

My old machine doesn't boot usb because of the BIOS.

So I made a custom boot-cdrom to boot an install on USB of Madbox 9.10.
More info on this distro: http://crunchbanglinux.org/forums/topic/3384/madbox-liveusb-toram/
Mostly followed this tutorial from Pendrive Linux but also
copied initrd.gz from the already on USB installed cdimage (folder: /capser)
and changed some parameters like custom.seed instead of ubuntu.seed

How to Create a CD to Boot Ubuntu from USB

The following process will enable you to create a Boot CD that can be used to Boot Ubuntu 8.10 from a USB Flash drive on systems that do not natively support booting from USB.

1. Insert the Ubuntu 8.10 Live CD and restart your computer, booting from the CD
2. Open a Terminal and type mkdir -p ubcd/boot/grub
3. Type cp /usr/lib/grub/i386-pc/stage2_eltorito ubcd/boot/grub
4. Type gedit ubcd/boot/grub/menu.lst
5. Add the following information to your menu.lst file and save it to ubcd/boot/grub
   

   title Run Madbox 9.10 from USB DISK
   root (cd)
   kernel /boot/vmlinuz file=/cdrom/preseed/custom.seed boot=casper noprompt cdrom-detect/try-usb=true persistent quiet splash
   initrd /boot/initrd.gz
   boot

6. Type cp /cdrom/casper/vmlinuz ~/ubcd/boot
7. Type sudo gedit /etc/initramfs-tools/modules
   Add the following lines to the modules file and click save:

   usbcore
   usb-storage
   uhci_hcd
   ohci_hcd
   ehci_hcd
   sd_mod
   scsi_mod

8. Type sudo gedit /etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf
   Add the following line to the bottom of the file and click save:

   WAIT=8

copied initrd.gz from the already on USB installed cdimage (folder: /capser) and then

1. Type sudo mkinitramfs -o ubcd/boot/initrd.gz
2. Type mkisofs -R -b boot/grub/stage2_eltorito -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -o usbcd.iso ubcd
3. Burn the usbcd.iso to a CD

For people who want to download the iso:
http://www.zshare.net/download/711497348edfb39e/

firefox history bar seemed corrupt

When opening the history bar, Firefox froze. With ctrl+shift+ h opened history manager and deleted all entries of previous months.

How to Reset Ubuntu/Gnome Settings to Defaults without Re-installing

As a new user, there comes a time (or there will come a time) when you are playing around with Ubuntu/Gnome, trying different themes, different engines, different window managers, etc, and all of a sudden you run into a problem that you can’t seem to find a way to fix it.

Maybe some of your customized settings are causing your gnome-panel to crash all the time or causing your windows and applications to look ugly, even having window buttons (close, minimize) disappear. You start Googling and spending a lot of time – sometimes days – trying to find how you can fix it.

You are frustrated (sometimes hitting your monitor/tower yelling some vulgarities at it as if it understands and you will kill it if it doesn’t fix it… there’s no Valentine’s love there, that’s for sure) and are ready to go back to Microsoft Windows.

But wait!

You keep thinking, “I wish I could just reset it back to its defaults, like a clean install, without losing all my applications and data.”

Well, you’re in luck. There is a way to reset your Desktop settings back to their defaults. If you keep in mind that everything in Linux is a file, all of its settings are files. All of Gnome’s customizations are located in their own specific folders. And these settings are user specific; they are in your Home folder. If you would create another user and log in with that user, you wouldn’t have any of the problems you are having in your own account. If you remove all these folders, you essentially remove all the settings. Therefore, we will remove the folders needed to reset Ubuntu/Gnome back to its defaults.

Keep in mind that this will only reset your Gnome-specific settings. If you are having problems with your video card, display, x-server, etc., this WILL NOT fix your problems.

If you don’t have access to your graphical (GUI) desktop to delete these folders in Nautilus or you’re stuck at the login screen, drop to a terminal by hitting CTRL + ALT + F1, login to your account, and run this command:

rm -rf .gnome .gnome2 .gconf .gconfd .metacity

Get back to your GUI desktop by hitting CTRL + ALT + F7.

I kept the metacity file and still it worked ok for me.

Also I didn't delete the files but renamed them, so you will have a reference to former settings and in this way you can experiment with restoring your old settings