PC Tips Box » Linux

Fix Ubuntu Bootloader

Jason — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 13:53:17 +0000

Have you installed Windows and Ubuntu in dual boot? If yes, you might have installed Windows First and the Ubuntu, which is a good way of doing it.

In case you have already Installed Windows on your computer, then you have another good options to install Ubuntu inside windows without formatting hard disk using Wubi Installer.

But the problem is when you have Ubuntu installed already and then you install Windows on it. On installing Windows on top of Ubuntu, Windows removes the ubuntu boot-loader called grub and replaces it with windows boot loader. In this case, you will not be able to boot into Ubuntu.

To fix this issue, we will tell you how to install the ubuntu boot-loader called grub on top of windows boot-loader so that you can boot into windows or ubuntu whenever you like.

Fix:

For this you will need a Ubuntu live CD. Download the ubuntu live CD image from here and burn the CD. You can also order the ubuntu CDs by mail for free, but it will take a few weeks.

Follow the below steps :

1. Once you have the ununtu live CD ready, boot your computer with this CD.

2. On first menu, select the language > English.

3. Select the option called “Try Ubuntu without any change to your computer”. This will launch ubuntu in live mode.

4. Once it loads the Ubuntu desktop, go to Menu > Accessories > Terrminal. This will open a prompt window.

5. On this prompt window, type command “sudo grub” without the quotes and press enter key. This will show a grub prompt.

6. On grub prompt type “find /boot/grub/stage1” without quotes and press enter key. This will show a output like this one “(hd1,4)” or something like that, note down the output you see on a piece of paper, its very important that u note it correctly else it will mess up the next steps. Lets assume you get something like “(hdx,y)”, where x is hard disk number and y is partition number which varied from computer to computer.

7. Now type “root (hdx,y)” without quotes and press enter.

8. Now type “setup (hdx)” without quotes and press enter.

9. After some processing you will see a message which says “Done”. After this, simply type “quit” and press enter.

10. Turn off the Ubuntu live session, remove the CD from CD tray, and your grub will be back. Now you can Run Windows Or Linux from the boot options.

Tags: boot, Bootloader, Disk, dual boot, fix, hard disk, install, Linux, ubuntu, windows boot

Internet Explorer in Ubuntu Linux

Jason — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 11:50:55 +0000

IEs4Linux is the simpler way to have Microsoft Internet Explorer running on Linux (or any OS running Wine).

No clicks needed. No boring setup processes. No Wine complications. Just one easy script and you’ll get three IE versions to test your Sites. And it’s free and open source.This may be very helpful for software developers and web developers to test their applications.

IEs4Linux Installation in Ubuntu

You have to enable universe packages first. It is also recommended that you use the official winehq ubuntu package:

Open /etc/apt/sources.list file

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

Uncomment following lines in your /etc/apt/sources.list and it may be different if you are in different country instead of UK

For Ubuntu Dapper Users

deb http://uk.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper universe
deb-src http://uk.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper universe

For Ubuntu Edgy Eft Users

deb http://uk.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu edgy universe
deb-src http://uk.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu edgy universe

Add WineHQ APT Repository

If you want to add source packages from the repository

Currently, wine only have i386 binary packages available. If you do not use an i386 architecture, or wish to compile the package in a special or optimized way, you can build the wine package using the source repository instead. To do this, add a source repository with one of the following:

For Ubuntu Dapper Users

deb http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt dapper main
deb-src http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt dapper main

For Ubuntu Edgy Eft Users

deb http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt edgy main
deb-src http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt edgy main

Close gedit and run an update to take your new Repository

sudo apt-get update

Install wine and cabextract

sudo apt-get install wine cabextract

Now you need to download IEs4Linux script from here

wget http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/downloads/ies4linux-2.0.5.tar.gz

tar xzvf ies4linux-2.0.5.tar.gz

cd ies4linux-2.0.5

Once you are inside ies4linux-2.0.5 directory you need to run the following script to install internet explorer

./ies4linux

This will install the internet explore in your machine.

To run IE you need to run the following command and it may be different for others this path at the end of installation it will give from where you want to run

/root/bin/ie6

You should see the Internet explorer opening

If try to run /root/bin/ie6 as root user you will get the following error messages so you need to run as user#/root/bin/ie6
fixme:actctx:CreateActCtxW stub!
err:imagelist:ImageList_ReplaceIcon no color!
err:imagelist:ImageList_ReplaceIcon no color!
err:imagelist:ImageList_ReplaceIcon no color!
err:imagelist:ImageList_ReplaceIcon no color!
Application tries to create a window, but no driver could be loaded.
Make sure that your X server is running and that $DISPLAY is set correctly.

If you want to check more information about this script check here

Tags: download, Explorer, installation, Internet, internet explorer, Linux, optimize, script, ubuntu, Web, web developers, Wine

How To Disable Ubuntu User Login Window

Jason — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 17:20:30 +0000

If you are are the sole user of your computer and are annoyed by the Ubuntu login window during every startup, it is better to remove it. Removing the login window will not actually remove the login password, but it will just skip the step during system startup.

Note: Make sure that you do not remove the login window on a public computer.

To remove it, first go to Login Window utility from System > Administration > Login Window.

You can also load it by pressing Alt + F2 and typing gksu /usr/sbin/gdmsetup in Run Application box.

This will open the Login Window Preferences window. Now, to enable auto login, go to Security tab and check Enable Automatic Login and enter user name for your system. You can also set delay in auto login by checking Enable Timed Login and selecting time in seconds. If you enable it, your system will wait for specified number of second before logging you.

Click Close and reboot your system. Now you won’t see the login windows anymore and won’t need to type the password during every startup. Enabling automatic login is not recommended because it will lead to higher security risk. Enjoy!

Tags: Administration, application, Computer, gdmsetup, Linux, login window, Security, security risk, ubuntu, utility

Install Ubuntu Linux On USB Drive

Jason — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 19:27:57 +0000

Ubuntu is one of most active group behind modifying linux and making it easy for windows users to accept and try ubuntu linux with more user acceptability.

Out of the all those Ubuntu community has taken the initiative of proving desktop edition of ubuntu linux which can be easily installed and uninstalled from windows itself. The only thing that was quite difficult till now was to install ubuntu linux on a USB portable drive.

But now with uSbuntu Live Creator which is the safest and easiest way to install ubuntu linux on your USB portable drive which enables you to install and run ubuntu directly from your USB drive.

You can install ubuntu on USB drive either from a ubuntu iso image you have, or from a ubuntu installation cd and you don’t have them then you need download the iso image of ubuntu from here.

I would recommend a USB drive of at least 2 GB capacity to install ubuntu linux, uSbuntu live creator will take some amount of time to install ubuntu, but the booting time will depend on the size and speed of your USB drive.

uSbuntu live creator will work on operating system including Win XP, 2003 and Vista and it lets you test ubuntu without any risk.

Download uSbuntu live creator

Tags: download, installation, installation cd, iso image, Linux, Operating system, Run, speed, ubuntu, ubuntu linux, usb, usb drive

Ten ways to Tweak your Linux Boot Process

Jason — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 16:59:58 +0000

Linux rarely needs to be rebooted. But when it does, it’s often slow to boot. Fortunately, there are ways to speed things up. Some of these methods are not terribly difficult. (although some, unfortunately, are). Let’s take a look.

1. Disable unnecessary services

Depending upon the use of the machine, plenty of services won’t be needed. Using Linux just for a desktop? Then you won’t need sendmail, httpd, and many other services. If your server is only a Web server, you can shut off many services as well. To do this, you can go to the Administration menu and take a look at the Services entry. Just deselect all of the services you don’t want to start.

2. Disable unnecessary kernel modules

If your desktop is wired to the Ethernet, you don’t need to have a wireless kernel module loaded. This task is a bit more difficult and will require a kernel recompilation, which is not the easiest task to undertake. To do this, you will need the kernel sources. Then, follow the standard steps for compiling a kernel. The difference is that you’re going to go through your system and disable all of the modules you don’t need.

The best way to find out what kernel modules currently install and run on your system is to install Bootchart. Not only will this give you a good list of modules, it will illustrate for you what is happening during your system boot. You can also issue the command chkconfig –list | grep 3:on to find out what services are running. Once you know what loading modules you don’t need, you can remove them during a kernel recompilation. While you’re at it, compile the kernel to exactly match your architecture.

3. Use a lightweight window manager instead of GNOME or KDE

I plug smaller footprint window managers for a reason they drastically reduce graphical boot time. Instead of having to wait that extra 30 to 60 seconds for GNOME or KDE to boot up, why not wait two to 10 seconds for Enlightenment or XFCE to boot up? Not only will they save you boot time, they will save your memory and the headache of dealing with bloatware.

4. Use a text-based login instead of a graphical login

Most of my Linux machines boot to run level 3 instead of run level 5. This will halt at the text-based login, where I only have to log in and issue startx to start my desktop of choice. The graphical logins do two things: increase load times and create headaches trying to recover from an X windows fubar.

5. Use a lighter-weight distribution

Instead of loading the heavyweight Fedora, why not try a Gentoo, Arch, or Puppy Linux? The boot times for these smaller distributions are far faster than the more bloated Fedora (and even Ubuntu). Of the larger distributions, OpenSuSE claims to boot the fastest, but I have not personally tested this. Between the latest Fedora and Ubuntu, Ubuntu blows Fedora’s boot times away (and that is out of the box).
6. Use an OpenBIOS

If you’re savvy enough to upgrade your PC’s firmware, you might consider migrating to an open source BIOS. One caveat to using open firmware is that it allows Linux to actually initialize the hardware as it boots (instead of relying on the BIOS). On top of that, many open BIOSes can be configured to meet your machine’s specific needs. If you don’t go the open BIOS route, you can at least configure your BIOS to not search for a floppy drive that’s not there or to boot directly to the first hard drive (instead of the CD drive first).

7. Avoid dhcp

If you are working on a home network (or a small business network) where address lease isn’t a problem, go with static IP addresses. This will keep your machine from having to call out to a dhcp server to get an IP address. If you take this approach, make sure you configure your /etc/resolve.conf to reflect your DNS server addresses as well.

8. If you can spare it, get rid of hotplug

Hotplug is the system that allows you to plug in new devices and use them immediately. If you know your server won’t need this system, delete it. This will cut down on boot time. On many systems, hotplugging consumes much of the boot time. Removing hotplug will vary depending upon the distribution you use.

NOTE: udev has, for the most part, replaced hotplug. But if you’re running an older distribution, this does apply.

9. If you are REALLY daring, you could give initng a try

The initng system serves as a replacement for the sysvinit system and promises to drastically decrease boot times in UNIX-like operating systems. If you would like to see the initng system in action, you can give the Pingwinek livecd a try.

10. Use a hack with Debian

If you’re using Debian, there is a simple hack you can use to switch your startup scripts to run in parallel. If you look at the /etc/init.d/rc script, you will see: CONCURRENCY=none around line 24. Change this line to CONCURRENCY=shell and you should see a reduction in boot times.

Tags: boot time, command, GNOME, hack, Hard drive, Hardware, kernel modules, Linux, memory, Operating system, reboot, shell, system boot, tweak, ubuntu, unix, web server

Ten must-have Linux cheat-sheets

Jason — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 05:26:24 +0000

Need a quick reference card? Here you have a list you can choose from:

1.Linux Command Line Tips

This is a linux command line reference for common operations (HTML format).

2.Unix/Linux Reference Card

Linux Reference Card published on FOSSwire website by Jacob. (PDF format)

3.One Page LInux Manual

A summary of useful Linux command by Squadron. (PDF format)

4.Linux Security Quick Reference

The intent of this Quick Reference Guide is to provide a starting point for improving the security of your system, to serve as a pointer to more in-depth security information, and to increase security awareness and methods that can be used to improve security. (PDF format)

5.Screen VT100/ANSI Terminal Emulator Cheat Sheet

This cheat sheet summarizes all they default keyboard mappings, with screen’s commands to execute the mapping and a description of each mapping. (PDF format)

6.Vi/VIM Graphical Cheat-Sheet

This is a single page describing the full vi/vim input model, the function of all keys, and all major features. You can see it as a compressed vi/vim manual. (GIF format)

7.Firefox Keyboard and Mouse Shortcuts

Here is a list of Firefox keyboard and mouse shortcuts for each of the three major operating systems organized by topic.(HTML format)

8.Gimp Reference Card

Designed for Gimp version 1.2.2. (PDF format)

9.Debian Reference Card

The 101 most important things when using Debian GNU/Linux (last revision 2005-09-03). (PDF format)

10.Google Cheat Sheet

This two page Google Cheat Sheet lists all Google services and tools as well as background information. The Cheat Sheet offers a great reference to grasp of basic to advance Google query building concepts and ideas. (PDF format)

Tags: command, Debian, Firefox, Format, google, guide, Linux, linux command line, linux security, pdf, Security, tips, unix, Web

Speed Your File System Up By 40%

Jason — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 08:33:54 +0000

Every time a file is read from your Linux ext3 partition it writes back a attribute to the file detailing the last access time. There are very few programs that actually use this to operate and it slows everything down.

Disabling atime and diratime on your Linux ext3 file systems can improve disk performance up to 40%!

WARNING: If you are using programs such as tmpwatch, mutt, or mail-notify this configuration change could cause those programs that make specific use of atime not to work.

1. Start a terminal.

2. Switch to root using the “su -” command.

3. Backup your fstab – “cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.old”.

4. Open your /etc/fstab in the editor of your choice (nano, kate or gedit recommended). This can be done by issuing the command “nano /etc/fstab”, “kate /etc/fstab”, or “gedit /etc/fstab”.

5. Locate the partitions that contain your / and /home file systems, as well as any other file system you want to optimize. Examples include /dev/hda2 and /dev/hda3, or /dev/sda2 and /dev/sda3.

6. In the fourth section (just before the two numbers at the end of the line) you will see the options section of the fstab.

7. Enter “,noatime,nodiratime” after the existing options for each partition you wish to optimize.

8. Save the fstab file.

9. Reboot.

Enjoy your newly optimized Linux ext3 file system. And if you don’t believe it is 40% see this

Tags: command, config, configuration, Linux, linux ext3, optimize, Performance, reboot, speed

Microsoft Quest for Speed?

Jason — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 22:42:34 +0000

Microsoft has been sending out surveys to selected Windows users. There’s nothing unusual in that. It does it all the time, but this one is seeking opinions on a feature dubbed the ‘Instant On Experience’. You may recall that this is something several mini laptop makers have been dabbling with. Asus are one of the first with a system called Splashtop. The idea is that if all you want to do is collect you emails, or surf the net, why should you have to wait ages for Windows (or Linux) to load? Instead, at startup you can opt to run a super-small Linux based operating system, which only takes a second or two to load and gives you more or less immediate access to the web. Microsoft is clearly taking an interest in the feature, possibly for the upcoming Windows 7 (rumoured now to be called ‘Stratus), which is due to make its public appearance next year. The survey also asks respondents what other applications they would like to see fire up in a just a few seconds, now they’re asking, how about Windows…?

Tags: access, Asus, experience, laptop, Linux, Microsoft, Operating system, speed, startup, Web, Windows, Windows 7, windows users

How to Run Linux from an USB Flash Drive

Jason — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 20:42:07 +0000

Ever wanted to have a portable operating system? One that can reside inside a small USB flash drive? In the past, it was possible to run a Linux distribution from an USB stick just like you would have run it from a Compact Disc, but this task was quite hard to achieve. Why? Simply because you had to type a lot of geeky commands in a terminal and if, somehow, you forgot one or typed something wrong, the whole process had to be started all over again. Not to mention that it could take about 1-2 hours to make a bootable USB stick. Therefore, this guide is here to teach you some new Linux magic tricks on how to achieve a portable Linux operating system, in no more than 5 minutes! How? With the help of a great and marvelous tool called UNetbootin.

For this tutorial, we’ve used Ubuntu 8.04.1 LTS and BackTrack 3 Linux distributions, both tested with an 1GB Kingstone DataTraveler 2.0 USB flash drive.

Things you need:

- One of the supported Linux distributions of your choice:


· Arch Linux

· BackTrack

· CentOS

· CloneZilla

· Damn Small Linux

· Debian

· Dreamlinux

· Elive

· FaunOS

· Fedora

· FreeBSD

· FreeDOS

· Frugalware

· Gentoo

· Gujin

· Kubuntu

· Linux Mint

· Mandriva

· NetBSD

· NTPasswd

· openSUSE

· Ophcrack

· Parted Magic

· PCLinuxOS

· Puppy Linux

· Slax

· SliTaZ

· Smart Boot Manager

· Super Grub Disk

· Ubuntu

· Xubunu

· Zenwalk
- Minimum 1GB USB flash drive
Step 1 - Download UNetbootin
Ok, so all you have to do is grab the UNetbootin executable from here, and save it on your desktop.
Right click on it and go to Properties... Now, click the third tab (Permissions) and check the box in front of the "Allow executing file as program" option...Close the Preferences window!
Step 2 - Execute UNetbootin and create your portable Linux distribution
First of all, insert the USB stick in an empty port (this is very important, because you will not be able to use the USB stick if you insert it after you've opened the UNetbootin application).

Double click the UNetbootin executable, type your password, and it will open. All you have to do now is to select your favorite Linux distribution and the preferred version/edition, and begin the process. Alternatively, you can download the ISO image of the Linux distribution that you want to make portable, and use it in UNetbootin for an ultra fast process!

Tags: CentOS, download, Fedora, gentoo, ISO, Linux from USB, Linux Mint, Live USB, NetBSD, portable Linux, SUSE, Tutorial, ubuntu, Ubuntu from USB, UNetbootin, usb flash drive, usb stick

How to Install the Colorblind Applet on GNOME

Jason — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 09:31:08 +0000

Color blindness, sometimes called daltonism, is mostly a color vision deficiency. Colorblind people can’t tell the difference between some chromatic colors and as far as I know there are no tools on Linux OSes that can help them distinguish the hues. I use Ubuntu, and the colorblind applet is part of the gnome-mag package, but for some reason (and I have no idea why) the developers didn’t include it in the distro. So, basically, we’re gonna recompile the gnome-mag package, with the colorblind panel applet.

The following tutorial was tested on Ubuntu 8.04.1 with GNOME 2.22.3. Anyway, we are interested in the gnome-mag package version, so you should check yours right now! How? Open Synaptic (System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager) and search for gnome-mag. You will see the version number on the ‘Installed Version’ column.

I have version 0.15.0, as you can see from the above screenshot. If you have the same or another one, grab the respective version from the following link.

OK, so let’s get down to business and recompile the gnome-mag package with colorblind support. First of all, it is essential to install some development tools, if you don’t have them (most people don’t). Open a terminal (Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal) and paste the following command:

sudo apt-get -y install build-essential libxv-dev libxfixes-dev libxdamage-dev libxcomposite-dev libxrender-dev liborbit2-dev python-object-dev libatspi-dev libcolorblind-dev libgnome-mag-dev python-gtk2-dev python-gnome2-dev libgnome-desktop-dev gettext autoconf automake libtool gnome-common

Don’t close the terminal window yet!

Suppose the gnome-mag archive was saved on your desktop. Extract it, enter the folder and type on the terminal the following commands, one by one:

cd Desktop/gnome-mag-0.15.0
./configure –prefix=/usr
make
sudo make install

Note: Don’t forget to change the version number from the first command according to your installed package!

When the installation is over, log out! When you’re back, right click on the panel and left click on ‘Add to Panel’…

The Add to Panel window will open and you should see the Colorblind applet…

Double click on it to add it to the GNOME panel!

That’s it folks! Right click on the Colorblind applet to access the preferences, from where you can choose a default filter and change the access keys (defaults are Shift + Ctrl + c to activate the filters and Shift + Ctrl + n to change them).

Now, test the colorblind filters here and here or search Google Images for colorblind!

Note: It appears that the filters don’t work with Compiz Fusion, so you should disable it first (right click on the desktop -> Change Desktop Background -> Visual Effects -> None).

Tags: application, color blindness, color vision deficiency, Colorblind, command, Filters, GNOME, gonna, how to, Linux, Support, Tutorial, ubuntu

PC Tips Box » Linux

Fix Ubuntu Bootloader

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Speed Your File System Up By 40%

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