Jay On Linux

So let’s say you are having problems with your computer. You are not sure if it is the hard drive or something else. What do you do?

I suggest doing a surface scan of your hard drive. The program that I used to scan my new hard drive was GSmartControl version 0.8.5. It will even check multiple drives, if you have more than one. GSmartControl is in the Ubuntu Software Center, so it is easy to install. Once it is installed you will find it under System Tools. Just click on it, choose the drive you want to scan, and click the Preform Tests tab, pick the test you want to do, and then click the Execute button. You can choose to do a Short Self-test, Extended Self-test, or Conveyance Self-test. I did the Extended Self-test and took a couple hours to do my 1 TB drive.

The other tabs give you a ton of information about your drive. Check it out and hopefully it will help you get to the root of your problem.

Link
GSmartControl

If you like the Cosmos background slideshow in Ubuntu 10.04, there is a way to create your own. It is called Create Background Slideshow (CreBS). It is not in the Ubuntu repositories, but I think they should add it. You have to install it from a PPA.

It is actually pretty simple, just type the following in the terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:crebs/ppa

Then you need to update your software list, just type the following in the terminal:

sudo apt-get update

And finally install crebs, just type the following in the terminal:

sudo apt-get install crebs

To run the program go to System > Preferences > Create Background Slideshow.

Use the plus sign to add wallpaper to the slideshow. I suggested putting the ones you want to use in a special folder. I also suggest you use pictures that are the correct dimensions for your desktop.

You can control how often they switch and how fast they transition. You can customize length and style as well. Don’t forget to give it a name.

Once this is done, you just right click on your desktop and select Change Desktop Background. Select the slideshow you created. And that’s it. Enjoy.

For more information about crebs go to:
http://www.obfuscatepenguin.net/crebs/

Now that the beta version of Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) is out, I took it for a test spin. Unity didn’t even load because I don’t have 3D graphics. I was hoping that it would so I could give it a spin. However I did discover that it is pretty easy to switch back to the Gnome desktop. You do this while logging in.

On the right you will see the login page. On the bottom there is a scroll bar that lets you select Ubuntu Classic. In the Alpha version it was called Ubuntu Classic Edition. This will take you to the usual two panel Gnome desktop that you are used to.

There are currently a ton of bugs in this beta version. I had a number of crashes, so I don’t recommend installing it on your system. Maybe its just me, but there seems to be more bugs that usual.

Now I should warn you that the top panel acted differently than it normally did, at lease in the beta version. If you open a file the title bar appears in the panel (that’s the File > Edit > View > Search, etc. Just right click and remove it from the desktop. You will also notice that the usual Applications > Places > System is missing (at least in the beta version). You can add that by right clicking, choose Add to Panel, and select Menu bar: a custom menu.

Oh ya, you will want to remove the menu bar that is provided.

 

I updated to Firefox 4 about a week ago using a PPA. Since that time is has frozen  at least a dozen times. Out of complete frustration I decided to install Google Chrome. It can be found in the Ubuntu Software Center under  google-chrome-stable. I have now switched to Chrome as my main browser. It just runs better and doesn’t freeze. It even has a sync feature built in. There is only one Firefox add-on I miss, the video downloader plug-in. But Google is now buying it so maybe it will appear in the app center.

If you don’t have Google Chrome in your repository, you can download it directly at:
http://www.google.com/chrome?platform=linux

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.