Archives: Linux Tips and Tricks
Ease your WiFi connections with WiFi Radar
If you are always on the move, then grasp Wifi Radar - a simple GUI utility for managing WiFi profiles and make easier wireless connections from one wireless access point (AP) to another. Install on Ubuntu with sudo apt-get install wifi-radar
When you run it, it displays all available wireless networks your Wi-Fi can grasp, all you need to do is choose an access point from the list hit “Connect” to get connected.
Before getting in, you’ll be asked if you want to configure that profile (you can do that later with “Edit”).
Here, Wifi Radar gets better than the in built wireless network utility in Ubuntu;
- If you often visit a Hotspot(a venue that offers Wi-Fi access) down_town then by tweaking the DHCP settings, WiFi Radar can save the profile and make it available next time you need it.
- You can as well run it in the background as a daemon with sudo wifi-radar -d As daemon it connects automatically to the first profile on the AP priority list or hangs up if it cannot connect within the configured scan period; then passes to the second and so on… You can drag and drop your preferred networks to arrange the profile priority.
WiFi Radar needs the python and pygtk2 packages for a correct functioning, it is available for Gentoo, openSuSE, Debian and Ubuntu distributions. WiFi Radar is released under the GPL license.
Posted in Linux Tips and Tricks, Ubuntu | 3 Comments »
VirtualBox Exploit - How to Share your USB key between Ubuntu and Windows
A simple way to share your files between your Ubuntu Desktop and Windows is by using Samba file sharing. It creates a common “workgroup” with Windows that makes file transfer between these two systems easy to carry out. Now, if you use VirtualBox (the open source answer to visualization, and also direct competitor to the rather costly VMware Workstation and Parallel) to expand your PC by running multiple operating systems, with Ubuntu as host and Windows XP as guest, then you can also use Samba to resolve any file sharing issue (if you have one).
If in any of the above mentioned systems, you intend sharing your USB key with the rest of the system then you can use this alternative method. This method consists of mounting your USB key into your “Samba shared folder"this way it becomes simultaneously available for both Ubuntu and Windows. If you know how to get this done, then you can stop reading here, else this what you can do;
Installing Samba
To install Samba from a terminal type; sudo apt-get install samba smbfs
Configuring Samba
After installing Samba, you’ll have configure the smb.conf file;
sudo gedit /etc/samba/smb.conf
Most of the lines in this file can be left as they are. The following lines are the ones that are really important to our task, so change or add or uncomment (remove the ;) them as needed:
#====== Global Settings ======#
[global]
workgroup = {your Windows Workgroup}
server string = %h server (Samba, Ubuntu)
dns proxy = No
####### Authentication #######
security = user
username map = /etc/samba/smbusers
Creating a Samba User.
You’ll have to edit the /etc/samba/smbusers file if you want to give certain users special access to the computer. There are several ways of doing this; You can simply make your current user_name become your samba_user_name by editing the smbusers file. sudo gedit /etc/samba/smbusers.
Therein type username = “samba_user_name”.
(In my case my Ubuntu user_name is martin, that became my samba_user_name, so my smbusers file looks like this martin = “martin”
Then using the smbpasswd utility put a samba password on your new samba-user_name sudo smbpasswd -a samba_user_name
Run Samba
One last step, Samba must be restarted.
/etc/init.d/samba restart
Now, you have Samba configured and running. To create a shared folder, go to System -> Administration -> Shared Folders. Click Add
to open the Share Folder windows. In Share through choose Windows network (SMB). This newly created shared folder will be accessible from both Ubuntu and Windows systems - Restart Windows to see this changes.
What we wanted to do from the start was to share our USB key with both systems simultaneously, each time we load it. As said above, simply change the mount point of your USB key from /media/disk(Ubuntu) to the Shared Folder. (In my case I created a folder called usbkey under shared olders /home/martin/sharedfolder/usbkey).
Changing the mount point of your USB Key.
You’ll have to edit fstab by doing sudo gedit /etc/fstab. Modify or add this line /dev/sdb1 /put_the_path_to_shared_folders auto defaults,users,noauto 0 0
(change the path to your shared folders, leave the rest intact) where sdb1 is the name given to your USB key by your filesystem. If you do not know what name your system assigns to your USB key, load your pendrive then go to System -> Administration -> System Monitor. In the File system flap, you’ll see under “Device” your key’s name.
What next; Your USB key will load into your shared folders and this in turn will make it accessible for both systems.
Posted in Linux Packages, Linux Tips and Tricks, Ubuntu | 3 Comments »
Erase and Rewrite your CD-RW with k3b
If I have to try out new Linux distributions I’ll certainly have to spend on CDs to burn most of this ISO files . But i can simply get a few CD-RWs and use them a couple of times, and what application would do the erase and rewrite for me? K3b - - this a well known CD and DVD burner that has little or maybe nothing to envy Nero Burning for Linux. Amongst its many features, I find it necessary to underline that it can erase and rewrite with no issues unlike many other Linux burners.
To erase your rewritable go to Tools -> Erase CD-RW; it is right there.
In Ubuntu, you’ll find it in the repositories, sudo apt-get install k3b else go to the download page.
K3b is free and released under the General Public License. If you ever need to erase and rewrite then don’t waste you time searching on Google, just get K3b.
You can also make more bootable multimedia CDs with the tiny but great utility (8Mb) eMovix
Posted in Audio_Visual(MP3), Linux Packages, Linux Tips and Tricks | 1 Comment »
Format and reuse your Floppy Diskettes in Ubuntu with Kfloppy
Whilst the DOSBox helps you revamp your old and dusty DOS games, Kfloppy is an intuitive, graphical utility that helps you format your 3.5” and 5.25” floppy disks so that you can eventually load them, for example, with a small GNU/Linux OS, a small DOS game or better still, you can create installation diskettes for certain firewalls available only for the floppy and more.
There are so many reasons why you might have to format and render usable your “old memory”.
To format, choose the dimension of the floppy, its filesystem - - DOS, Ext2, Minix, give it a Label and decide if you prefer a fast or a complete Format.
Kfloppy was originally complied for the KDE Desktop, but it also has .deb packages for Ubuntu 7.10 and 8.04. It is can be quickly installed from the repositories with
sudo apt-get install kfloppy
Kfloppy is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
Posted in Linux Packages, Linux Tips and Tricks, Ubuntu | No Comments »
Automatically shutdown your PC at bedtime with GShutdown
If you are some sought of a workaholic and find it hard to turn-off your PC even after many hours of work, then try using this simple, open source utility that will not only tell you how many minutes you have left before it hangs -up but would also automatically shut down your PC, as scheduled, after haven closed up all opened applications.
It can also be used to schedule a restart of your PC or a logout from your current session.
GShutdown is a graphical user interface that uses GTK+2 for a better integration with the Gnome Desktop, it is free and released under the GPL license.
Posted in Linux Tips and Tricks, Ubuntu | 2 Comments »
How to change your default applications (Mail Client) in a Gnome Desktop
The Gnome desktop comes with a couple of default applications like Evolution Mail, Rhythmbox Music Player, GNOME Terminal and others, but many users give-them-up for other “better” applications. In most cases the non expert Gnome user continues to maintain as default those applications they don’t even use. Examples of users with Evolution Mail as default whilst using Thunderbird are many, just like those who have Rhythmbox Music Player as default but use VLC Media Player (that without any configuration plays DVD, VCD, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg) or Amarok, others have the Gnome Terminal as default but use aterm or Terminator.
So how do we get about changing our default applications?
In most cases you can do so from the Preferred Applications manager: System -> Preferences -> Preferred Applications
Therein; On the “Internet” tab, simply select “Thunderbird” from the drop down menu. If it is not present then Select “Custom” and type in the command box “thunderbird %s” (without quotes )
If you do not find these menus then you could still make use of the GNOME Configuration Editor.
-> From the command-line run “gconf-editor”
-> Move to /desktop/gnome/applications/url-handlers/mailto
-> Right-click on “command” field and Click on “Edit Key” and modify to thunderbird %s — for example
-> Check the “enable” field
-> Uncheck the “needs_terminal” field
-> Close it and you’re done.
On the “System” tab you can choose “Custom” as your terminal emulator. Enter “terminator” as the command, and “-e” as the execute flag. On GNOME 2.21 or later, “Terminator” will already be an available option, supposing you have “nautilus-open-terminal” package installed.
The nautilus-open-terminal offers a quick launch of the default terminal(in this case Terminator) with a right-click within nautilus or the gnome-desktop area. After installation [sudo aptitude install nautilus-open-terminal] it might be necessary to restart gnome for nautilus-open-terminal to be effective.
On the “Multimedia” tab you can replace Totem Movie Player by simply typing amarok or vlc, after choosing “Custom” in the drop down menu.
Same can be done by Right-clicking on an audio file -> Open With -> Open with Other Application…
In the “Open Window” choose the application you want to use with the audio file.
How to set your preferred Email Client for Firefox in Linux
It could also be very convenient to change default email client for Firefox from Evolution to say Thunderbird or what ever.
-> In Firefox’s Location Bar, type about:config and hit Enter
-> Right-click on the body.
-> From the pop-up menu, select “New” -> “String”
-> In the pop-up dialog box “Enter the preference name”, enter
network.protocol-handler.app.mailto
and click “OK”
-> In the pop-up dialog box “network.protocol-handler.app.mailto”, enter /usr/bin/thunderbird (or the filesystem location of your email client ) and click “OK”
To test your new default Firefox email client, go to File -> Send Link and your preferred email client should open.
Posted in Firefox, Linux Tips and Tricks, Ubuntu | 4 Comments »
How to Extend Amarok Music Player to an Audio File Converter
Extending your Amarok music player to an audio file converter is a easy as installing a Firefox plugin. To do this you simply need to download the Audio Format Converter script. This free Python script converts audio file formats between FLAC, Ogg, MP3, MPC, M4A, and WAV.
Run Amarok and move to Tools ->Script -> Script Manager and on the Script Manager window take Install Scripts and browse to where you downloaded the zipped .tar.bz and install. Audio Format Converter works in the background and depends on the already installed converting tools on your system.
To make use of it goto the Script Manager -> General-> select formatconverter and click Run, you’ll be asked to select the directory where the converted files will be placed, the naming convention of the files and finally the audio format to which the files would be converted. A pop-up window will let you know the end of the conversion, in the meantime you could play your music.
The transKode script could be better if you want to convert single files. After having downloaded and installed it, you can further configure it from the Script Manager. File converting this time around is carried out in the playlists. Right-click the audio file you want to concert, from the menu, move to transKode and choose the file format you want.
Both converters are free and are for Linux platforms only
via [Linux.com]
Posted in Audio_Visual(MP3), Linux Tips and Tricks | No Comments »