Month: March 2011

Set up a firewall in Ubuntu 10.04 LTS

Uncomplicated Firewall (UFW) is the standard firewall configuration program in Ubuntu. It is a command line program. Most users will prefer to use Gufw, which is a graphical program to configure UFW.

Advanced users may wish to use UFW directly in the terminal. See the UFW manual or the Community Documentation page on UFW for more information. Alternatively, you can use iptables – see the iptables manual.

Gufw

To install and enable Gufw:

  1. Install the gufw package.

  2. To start Gufw, choose System → Administration → Firewall configuration.

  3. To enable the firewall, simply check the box next to Enabled under “Actual Status.”

The default configuration is to deny connections. This means that a program attempting to connect to your computer will be denied. Certain programs or services which use the internet may require you to add an exception.

To add an exception:

  1. Click Add.

  2. You can choose from Preconfigured options for common programs and services, or you can manually add port exceptions in the Simple or Advanced tabs.

  3. To find out what type of exception a particular program requires, you should consult the help for that program.

Installing Amazon’s MP3 downloader on Ubuntu 10.04

The Amazon.com mp3 downloader requires libboost 1.34, which is older than the version now included in Ubuntu 10.04. So in order to install it you have to download the earlier versions of these libraries.

First, lets make a directory to put these in. Type the following in the terminal:

mkdir Amazon_Downloader

Then go to that directory in the terminal by typing:

cd Amazon_Downloader

Now get the libraries, just copy and paste the following in the terminal:

wget https://launchpadlibrarian.net/26959932/libboost-signals1.34.1_1.34.1-16ubuntu1_i386.deb https://launchpadlibrarian.net/26959936/libboost-thread1.34.1_1.34.1-16ubuntu1_i386.deb https://launchpadlibrarian.net/26959922/libboost-iostreams1.34.1_1.34.1-16ubuntu1_i386.deb https://launchpadlibrarian.net/26959918/libboost-filesystem1.34.1_1.34.1-16ubuntu1_i386.deb https://launchpadlibrarian.net/26959916/libboost-date-time1.34.1_1.34.1-16ubuntu1_i386.deb https://launchpadlibrarian.net/26959928/libboost-regex1.34.1_1.34.1-16ubuntu1_i386.deb https://launchpadlibrarian.net/34165098/libicu40_4.0.1-2ubuntu2_i386.deb

Next, Install the libraries by typing the following in the terminal:

sudo dpkg -i *.deb

Now simply run the Amazon MP3 downloader. Go to the following site:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/dmusic/help/amd.html/

Click on the yellow button that says “Download Now Ubuntu 9.04.”
Check the option that says “Open with: GDebi Package Installer.”

It will now install the Amazon mp3 downloader. Your done.

Installing an HP Printer in Ubuntu

If you a lucky you will turn on your printer and it will be automatically recognized. But, if like me, it is not, then there are some steps you have to take.

First of all, everything I will tell you only applies to HP printers (which is the type of printer you should buy for your Ubuntu computer).

The  program you are going to use is called hplip. Now the program is already installed, so you could use it in the terminal and type all kind of codes. I am a gui guy, gui stands for graphical user interface. It is what most people are comfortable using, Well hplip has a gui. If it is not installed, you will have to install it yourself.

Installing the gui for hplip is easy. Go to Applications and click on Ubuntu Software Center. You want to install hplips and hplip toolbox. In Ubuntu 10.04 hplip is install and the hplip toolbox is not. You will want both of them installed.

Once they are installed, you will want to start them. First of all make sure your printer is on. Then go to system > Preferences > and click on HPLIP Toolbox. If no printer is installed, it will pop up a menu to install one. You can also press Device > Setup Device. If your printer is connected via USB, you would choose the first option. Click next and it will search for the printer. Choose your printer and click next to finish the install.

That’s should be all there is to it. It will also work on Linux Mint.

The Linux Programs I Use and What they Are

Firefox 4 – My preferred web browser. I used a PPA to get version 4.

Evolution – My email client, as robust and featured as Microsoft Outlook.

Rhythmbox – My music player, much better than iTunes.

Totem Movie Player – My video and audio player, it will play just about anything.

Hulu Desktop – I use this to watch movies online.

gPodder – The best podcatcher available.

Miro – I occasionally use it to watch videos online.

LibreOffice Writer – Simply the best office suite out there and is compatible to Microsoft Word.

Transmission – My BitTorrent client.

Brasero – A great disk burning utility.

Fontmatrix – Use it to manage true type fonts.

Decibel – A small music player.

Cheese – The best webcam utility for Linux.

Empathy – The instant messaging client I currently use.

Skype – The best voice over Internet program.

XChat Gnome – An easy to use chat program.

gedit – A great program I use for my show notes for the Gnostic Podcast.

Audacity – The easiest and best program for recording and editing audio.

MP3 Diags – Corrects VBR errors in mp3 files.

EasyTag – A great program for editing your ID3 tags and for adding album art.

Filezilla – The ftp client of choice.

gPHP Edit – A great program for writing and editing php.

GIMP – The best graphics program in Linux, but hard to learn. Not the most user friendly program.

Xiphos Bible Guide – The best open source Bible program.

W.I.N.E – There are two or three Windows programs I install under wine because there isn’t a satisfactory Linux equivalent. The two musts are Paint Shop Pro for graphics, and the Word for my Bible program. The third is Dreamweaver, which I use for so web  development stuff.

Gweled – I am not a big gamer, in fact I don’t play games but once in a blue moon. But when I do, Gweled is the only one I currently play.

Well that concludes my list. Remember that I am using the Gnome desktop and don’t want to use KDE applications because of their dependencies. I say that because there are a number of KDE applications that rock. Amarok and K3b come to mind instantly.

Why I Switched Back to Ubuntu

Ok, so I have been using Linux Mint for about a month. Since that time my problems with the distribution have grown. First, Shotwell (which I use in place of F-Spot) would freeze when I began importing my photos. I have a lot of photos, but it shouldn’t freeze.

Second, Rhythmbox (the default Music player in Linux Mint) did the same thing and froze while importing my music. And yes, I have a lot of music. I install Banshee instead, and that didn’t freeze.But the music would cut out while playing if I opened too many programs. At first I thought the freexinf may have something to do with Rhythmbox, but then I remembered it worked fine in Ubuntu. And now that I have switched back to Ubuntu, it and Shotwell both work fine.

Third, Skype also gave me some problems. The video feed would not work. Again it works in Ubuntu but not in Linux Mint.

Finally, I installed a new hard drive and when I was in the process of transferring all my files from my external backup to the new drive I accidentally stopped the transfer. Every time I tried to resume the transfer, the system would freeze. I even rebooted (an old Windows habit) and it still froze. That’s when I downloaded the iso of Ubuntu 10.04.2 LTS edition. I installed it and have had none of the problems I mentioned above.

Now it doesn’t make sense to me why I had the difficulties. I have Linux Mint on my laptop and have not had any issues. I have thought that maybe I got a bad CD or something, because Linux Mint is simply Ubuntu under the hood. I honestly don’t know and am surely not going to blame Linux Mint without others expressing the same difficulty.

By the way, the reason I choose the LTS version of Ubuntu is so that I don’t have to deal with the whole Gnome 3 or Unity desktop till 2013. I hope by then things have been fixed. I don’t like the Gnome shell or the Unity shell. So I will stay with Gnome 2.x as long as I can. I will continue to use Linux Mint on my laptop.

How to Install Hulu in Linux Mint

The following instructions tell you how to install Hulu in inux Mint.

First, you need Abode Flash plug-in install. You can find this in the Software Manager

Second, you need to download the Hulu desktop. You can find this at: http://www.hulu.com/labs/hulu-desktop-linux

Third, once it is downloaded double click the download and it should begin installing.

Fourth, after it is installed it will be in your Menu under “Sound & Video.”

That is all there is to it. I hope you enjoy it.

Install LibreOffice 3.3 on Linux Mint 9 and 10

OpenOffice is developed by Sun Microsystems, which has been bought Oracle. Oracle is not known for its support of open source projects. Because of this many of the OpenOffice people have left Sun and have started the Document Foundation. They have forked OpenOffice and renamed it LibreOffice. Linux Mint currently uses OpenOffice as the default office suite.  And it is my understanding that it will remain the default in Linux Mint 11. Currently it is not avaiable in the repositories. But below is a link to install it using a PPA. 

http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/336

Linux Mint: My Distribution of Choice

As you may know, Ubuntu has been my distribution of choice for several years. However Ubuntu will be switching to the Unity desktop at the end of April. But the problem runs deeper. The Gnome desktop is also changing. Gnome 3.0 is being released soon and it is very different.

I should explain that Unity is a shell that runs on top of the Gnome 3.0 desktop. And Gnome also comes with its own shell, which has some similarities to Unity. The Gnome shell eliminates the maximize and minimize controls, and has redesigned the interface. Now you can choose to use the “classic” desktop at the login screen. But it is not the same old Gnome that many of us have grown to love. It will take several revisions before many of the old features are again available.  So in all fairness to the Ubuntu developers, it is not entirely their fault that they are changing the default desktop to Unity.

So what is a person to do? Gnome 2.0 will eventually be history. You can stay on the LTS version of Ubuntu till April of 2013. Which was a tempting option. You could also switch to the KDE desktop, which has gotten to be much better. But I am not a KDE guy and have never liked the feel of it. For me the best option out there is Linux Mint. Linux Mint will use the Gnome 3.0 desktop, but it will modify it to look and act pretty much how it does now.

I have been running Linux Mint 10 for a little over a month and love the design and feel of it. There were a few frustrations that I have run into, but all in al the positive outweigh the negatives. It is for this reason that Linux Mint is now my distribution of choice on all my machines.

Links
Linux Mint Home Page 
Linux Mint User Guide (PDF)
Download Linux Mint
Linux Mint Forums
Linux Mint Tutorials
Linux Mint Blog
Linux Mint Chat

 

Recommendations on Choosing the Best Linux Distro for You

There are over three hundred Linux distributions that you can choose from. The choices can be overwhelming at best. In this post I want to offer you some guidance to help you choose a distribution that will fit your needs. Use these suggestions are a starting point for your own search. And understand that there is no agreement as to what is the best distribution. We know that Ubuntu is the most popular on the desktop and Red Hat Enterprise Linux is the most popular in enterprise settings. But popularity does not equal best fit.

1. For newbies: Linux Mint or PCLinuxOS
If you are new to Linux, I suggest you use Linux Mint or PCLinux OS. These are the most user friendly distributions.

2. Everyday Linux: Fedora or Ubuntu
If you are looking for a distribution that is going to be around a while and is relatively easy to use, then I suggest Fedora or Ubuntu. Fedora is based by Red Hat and Ubuntu is backed by Canonical. Some would also suggest OpenSUSE, which is based by Novell. I don’t recommend OpenSUSE because I don’t like Novell and their close dealings with Microsoft.

3. Light and fast: Puppy Linux
If you have an older system Puppy Linux is the choice for you. It is an amazing distribution for older machines.

4. Server: CentOS or Debian
CentOS is simply an unbranded and free version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Debian is also an excellent choice, being well known for its stability.

5. Music Production: Ubuntu Studio
This is the most popular music and recording solution out there.

6. Multimedia: Mythbuntu
If you are interested in turning your computer into a multimedia station, this is the distro for you. The learning curve is a little high, but worth it.

7. Power User: Gentoo or Slackware
If you really want to learn Linux, then Gentoo or Slackware is the way to go. Slackware just happens to be the oldest Linux distribution still in active development.

8. Netbooks: EasyPeasy or Jolicloud
If you are think of using Linux on a netbook, EasyPeasy or Jolicloud are both good choices.

9. KDE Desktop: OpenSUSE or Kubuntu
For those who like the KDE desktop enviroment OpenSUSE or Kubuntu are probably the best.

So what is the best distribution? It depends on your needs and what you are looking for. Most distributions have a live CD, so you can download the iso and burn it on a CD. Then you can test drive that particular distribution and choose the one that fits your needs.

To Learn More
DistroWatch