Archives: Ubuntu
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 | 2 Comments »
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 »
Use DOSBox to run your old DOS Games in Ubuntu
DOSBox is a x86 DOS emulator that can be used to run old DOS-games under OS that don’t support it like Win2k, XP, FreeBSD and Linux. Graphics and sound emulation are optimal. This free, open source, cross platform application that supports over 3,000 games also provides a quick installation from the repositories in Ubuntu with
sudo apt-get install dosbox
Originally compiled for Red Hat Linux and variants like Fedora you can also download the .rpm package and convert it to a .deb package with alien
For how to get started, refer to this document at the Ubuntu Community.
Posted in Linux Packages, Ubuntu | 5 Comments »
How to convert RPM files to DEB files with Alien
Very often we find a package is available only Red Hat Linux and variants like Fedora, and not for our Ubuntu and variants. There is simple but very efficient way to take your .rpm files (Red Hat) and transform them into installable .deb files for Ubuntu and family.
The converting is done by an application called Alien – “it is a program that converts between the rpm, dpkg, stampede slp, and slackware tgz file formats. If you want to use a package from another distribution than the one you have installed on your system, you can use alien to convert it to your preferred package format and install it. “
To begin install Alien from the repositories with
sudo apt-get install alien
To convert a file from .rpm to .deb do;
sudo alien -k your_file.rpm
Your newly obtained .deb files can be installed manually or from the command-line with:
sudo dpkg -i your_newly_obtained_file.deb
With Alien you can also directly install .rpm files on Ubuntu without necessarily converting them. This command does exactly that;
sudo alien -i your_file.rpm
To convert from .deb to .rpm for whatever reason :-) do;
$ sudo alien -r your_deb_file.deb
Posted in Linux Packages, Ubuntu | 2 Comments »
Terminator - Multiple Terminals in One Terminal Window
Fear not the Terminal; The terminal is often seen by many as — for geeks only, but often it the fastest and easiest way to get things done and to get to the core of a problem. This said, the Terminator terminal is a simple application that helps to boost up the use of the command-line. Often one ends up opening over four terminals that crowed up your gnome-desktop; With Terminator it would no longer happen as Terminator splits up its terminal window into multiple terminals in the same window.
The fastest way to install terminator for now in the Ubuntu family is to download the .deb package and manually launch the installation. It is an unsigned package, so you’ll get a “warning” that comes with all unsigned packages.
Then carry out sudo update-manager on Terminator, you’ll find it at Applications-> Accessories-> Terminator. This would launch the front-end Update Manager and you’ll be asked to eventually update Terminator to the most recent version i.e. version 0.8.1-0ubuntu1
The right-click menu gives you “split vertically”, “split horizontally” or “close”- that closes the desired terminal window.
via [Terminator]
Posted in Linux Packages, Linux Tips and Tricks, Ubuntu | No Comments »