How To Ubuntu

How to monitor basic system functions with a panel applet

Eli — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:15:42 +0000

Ubuntu has a built in application, Gnome System Monitor, to help you keep tabs on what’s going on with your machine. You can find it in System > Administration > System Monitor. Once you have it open it has a few tabs, displaying various system information. The Resources tab will show you the cpu usage in a percentage, the memory being used, and what’s going on with your internet/network connection. You can customize this to a certain degree. But, do you really want to have to open this thing up every time you want to find out how much memory you’re using. You can add the system monitor to a panel. This will give you information at a glance, without having to open a new program, or stop what you’re currently doing.

Here’s what it looks like, and how to do it.

Right click on a panel, & select Add to Panel…
Select System Monitor from the list, and click Add
Now you should see 3 graphs on your panel
Right click on them & select Preferences
Now you can configure the display to your liking, including how frequently it updates & the colors of its graphs

This is a nice way to get a feel for what’s going on with your machine at a glance. Also, if you want to open the Gnome System Monitor application, you can just left click on the graphs on your panel and the system monitor will open.

Hovering the mouse over these graphs displays more detailed info

How to open & close CD / DVD drawer with your keyboard or mouse

Eli — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 15:05:29 +0000

I go through a lot of CDs & DVDs, and constantly reaching over to push that little button on the front of the CD/DVD drive is rather annoying. I do not have one of those nifty keyboards that has those media buttons. So, I looked for a way to open and close my drawer from the keyboard, or with the mouse. And I found a few ways to do it.

Using a keyboard shortcut

Go to System > Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts
Find the entry for Eject. It’s under the Sound group.
Click with the left or right mouse button on Eject
You’ll see in the right hand column it now says New accelerator…
Now you just hit the keyboard shortcut you want to use. You’ll notice that I have F12, and for that you just hit the F12 key
- If you want to have a multiple key combination, that’s fine too. For example, you can hit [CTRL] + [ALT] + [INSERT], and now every time you hit those three keys, your CD drawer will open, or close.

Adding a custom launcher to the Desktop or Panel

Right click on a panel and select Add to Panel…
Select Custom Application Launcher and click the Add button
Now you’ll have a little box that looks like the one pictured below, only emptier
For the Command, type in:
eject -T
Give it a name, and a description if you like.
Click on the icon on the left and you’ll be able to select your icon from a list
Click OK, and enjoy opening and closing the CD/DVD drawer with a click of your mouse

How to catalogue & organize your comic book collection with GNOME Comics Organizer

Eli — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 01:00:26 +0000

So, do you have a lot of comic books that you want to keep track of? GNOME Comics Organizer can help. This is a little application designed for the purpose of cataloging your comic books.

To get it you must first enable the Universe repositories. Here’s how you can do that. Now that that’s done, you can install the app.

Open a Terminal. Applications > Accessories > Terminal
Then enter this code:
sudo apt-get install gco
You can now find GNOME Comics Organizer in Applications > Accessories > GNOME Comics Organizer

How to add the Universe & Multiverse repositories graphically

Eli — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 00:13:26 +0000

Here’s how to add the universe and multiverse repositories.

Open Software Sources. System > Administration > Software Sources
Check the boxes for Community-maintained Open Source software (universe) & Software restricted by copyright or legal issues (multiverse)
Click Close. Another box should pop up asking if you want to reload, click Reload.
If you clicked Close, and a window didn’t pop up, then you must go to System > Administration > Update Manager
Click the Check button.
Now you can begin to install software from the universe & multiverse repositories.

How to enable the Universe & Multiverse repositories from the command line

Eli — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 21:38:40 +0000

Enabling the Universe & Multiverse repositories will give you access to tons of software that your Ubuntu system doesn’t give you access to by default. Here is how to enable them.

Open a Terminal. Applications > Accessories > Terminal
Type in:
sudo cp /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.bak

This makes a copy of the file we’re going to modify, in case we need to restore it later.
Then:
sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

You can use nano, or your text editor of choice. For example, if you preferred gedit, you’d enter:

gksudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list
Now, find the lines that look like these below, and remove the ” # ” that appears in front of them.
- deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy universe
- deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy universe
- deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates universe
- deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates universe
- deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy multiverse
- deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy multiverse
- deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates multiverse
- deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates multiverse
Save the file and exit.
Update with the new repository(s):
sudo apt-get update

Now you can install software from the Universe & Multiverse repositories. This software should appear in Add/Remove when you tell it to show you All available applications. Click the picture to enlarge.

How to display the title bar in Google Chrome

Eli — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 03:54:35 +0000

When I first installed Google’s Chrome browser, I noticed something odd the first time I ran the application. It’s window had no title bar. I thought that was strange, but I didn’t really mind its absence too much, so I used it like it was. If however, you do miss that title bar at the top of its window, you can enable it.

Simply open Chrome, then click on the wrench to the right of the address bar. Then go to Options, and then the Personal Stuff tab. You’ll see the setting to change at the bottom of that window. Simply click the circle next to Use system title bar and borders.

Now hit the Close button, and enjoy having your title bars with Chrome.

How to install Google Chrome (beta) for linux

Eli — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 19:21:48 +0000

Google Chrome Beta is now available for linux. You can go here and download the .deb file for 32 or 64 bit systems. Select the version you’d like to download, and then you can simply click on Open from the box that comes up to download and install the package. It can then be found in the Applications > Internet menu. The install went smoothly for me on Hardy 8.04.3.

My initial observation is a good one. This browser let’s me switch between open tabs by using the scroll wheel, much like Epiphany and others. This is something that hugely increases productivity and makes my browsing experience smoother. Simply place the mouse over any of the tab names, and scroll, and you’ll be going through your open tabs. Simply an awesome feature.

It has other features that I’m anxious to try out. People have been raving about Chrome since it’s release, and it has taken a sizable chunk of the browser market relative to it’s age. We’ll see if it can compete with my current browser of choice, Opera.

Download Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Lucid Lynx Alpha 1

Eli — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:47:46 +0000

You can now download the Alpha 1 release of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. Keep in mind that it is very much still in the testing phase, and you should not install it onto a production machine. However, downloading and running it on a test machine, and reporting bugs and issues will help with the development of what will become the final version of the Lucid Lynx.

It can be downloaded here.

What is the sudo command?

Eli — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 16:27:54 +0000

So, you’re reading an Ubuntu how to for something, and you come across the sudo command. What in the world is it, and why do you need it? The sudo command is used to allow a regular user to execute a command that requires root privileges.

In addition to the user name you provided at installation, Ubuntu creates a user called root, except it does not give it a password. This user has the power to do anything to your system. It can delete all of your system files, modify them, anything it wants to. For you to login as this root user, you must first assign it a password with which to login. This is pretty much never necessary for most users to do, so I won’t be explaining how to do that here.

There are certain tasks you may need to perform that require the root user’s level of authority. These include installing software, making changes to system configuration files, updating the system, etc. This is where the sudo command comes into play. That command tells Ubuntu that you want to execute whatever follows it, with the authority of the root user, which as you’ll remember has complete authority over your system. This is a safety feature. What this accomplishes is only giving you the root authority for the execution of that command, and not giving you all the powers of root, thereby turning you loose on your system with way too much power. It’s much better this way.

For example…

Installing software from the command line…
sudo apt-get install conky

You’ll then have to enter your password, and Ubuntu will execute the command. Without the sudo command, Ubuntu will deny you permission to run that command.
This same basic thing is happening when you are required to enter your password on the desktop. As in when you update your system by clicking on the update notification icon in the taskbar, and selecting install updates from the window that opens.

This is just one more thing that makes Ubuntu so nice and secure.

Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx release schedule

Eli — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 21:48:49 +0000

Are you, like me, eagerly awaiting the release of Ubuntu’s next Long Term Support Release, Lucid Lynx? If so, then here are some dates to check out.

December 10^th — Alpha 1
January 14^th — Alpha 2
February 25^th — Alpha 3
March 18^th — Beta 1
April 8^th — Beta 2
April 22^nd — Release Candidate
April 29^th — Ubuntu 10.04 LTS

See the full release schedule here.