Awesome Techs

Editing the boot menu in Grub version 2 is a little bit different compared to Grub version 1. The problem is Ubuntu Karmic 9.10 comes with Grub 2. That means a fresh install of Ubuntu 9.10 changes your old grub to version 2. And version 2 of Grub dont have menu.lst. Menu.lst is the file we have to edit if we want to change something permanently in the bootmenu.

Instead of menu.lst Grub V2 uses grub.cfg. The path normally is

/boot/grub/grub.cfg

NOTE: you can use the grub-mkconfig utility to generate a grub.cfg file for you. Other operating systems can be detected and will be added to the configuration only if os-prober is also installed. os-prober is currently only avaible in Debian and Ubuntu.

GRUB 2 uses new bashish scripting language that is used to build menus. At startup file grub.cfg will be read and executed.

Please note that partition numbering has been changed to start from 1 (in grub legacy it started from 0).

Example menu entrys can be found in docs/grub.cfg in the source or in the Debian/Ubuntu package in /usr/share/doc/grub-pc/examples/grub.cfg.

Here is an simple example:

# Timeout for menu
set timeout=10

# Set default boot entry as Entry 0
set default=0

# Entry 0 - Load Linux kernel
menuentry "My Linux Kernel on (hd0,1)" {
    set root=(hd0,1)
    linux /vmlinuz root=/dev/hda1
    initrd /initrd
}

# Entry 1 - Chainload another bootloader
menuentry "Chainload my OS" {
    set root=(hd0,3)
    chainloader +1
}

PS: The improper editing of the file grub.cfg can leave you with an unbootable system.

The first reason for any normal computer user to use Windows 7 is its cooler look and faster performance. Extended support for themes, desktop gadgets, sidebar etc are helping windows 7 to look nice. The people who uses linux for every day use is increasing day by day, but still its not even close to the numbers of windows users. The main reason is being the ugly user interface, which is not the truth but what most people think.

Now in a KDE desktop, for example Kubuntu, all these effects which windows 7 boasts to have, are there. But what about the Gnome Lovers, so thats why I am writing this blog post today. Gnome can be made lot more cooler than even windows 7 with the use of some tools. Cairo-Dock/Glx-Dock is on of this kind application.

With Cairo Dock we can make the Gnome desktop look like anything we want. The best feature of this cairo-dock is, it is customizable to very high extend. Cairo-Dock is a bar to launch applications hosted (or dock, to the way Mac OS X) incorporating in its latest versions, management of plugins as desklets (or widgets) directly displayed on the desktop of user icons such “interactive”. Incorporated by Fabrice Rey (aka Fabounet) and developed on Ubuntu (also works on other distributions and desktop environments Linux in 32 or 64 bit) it allows quick launching favorite applications directly from the user’s desktop.  A manager of transparency as Compiz Fusion, Beryl, Compiz or Metacity associated with xcompmgr is necessary.  The dock also works under XFCE (with the composite manager xfwm4 or Compiz), and normally with KDE since Kwin manages the composition display.

You can find the installation instruction HERE. Information for Ubuntu Users are available HERE.

PS: If you are experiencing any issues after the install, just right click and quit the application and then launch it by using the -c switch. like cairo-dock -c.

Also if you are using Radeon cards, you may want to add the boot parameter radeon.modeset=1.

If you got any doubts ask me, through he comments. Here are some desktops which uses Cairo-Dock.

Since we all love to do things in a simple way, I introduce you LAMP Server. LAMP is Linux Apache MySql PHP server.

It’s useful if you want to set up a private web development environment. Perhaps you want to develop your own WordPress theme. If you are developing websites and experimenting, it’s nice to do it in the privacy of your own computer, rather than out on the public internet.

Install LAMP

The Ubuntu developers have created a very easy way to install a LAMP server on an existing system. It’s all kicked off with this one simple terminal command.

sudo apt-get install lamp-server^

Note: Please make note of the caret (^) in the above command, it’s not a typo, it’s required to make the command work.

Step 1. Install the VNC server.

Windows users: TightVNC is free Windows VNC server and client software. TightVNC is a nice choice because it also allows for file transfers and high compression levels for slow connections. Download TightVNC from here and run the installation on your home computer. Start the server, and set a password for incoming connections.

TightVNC can be set to run as a Windows service, which means your Windows usernames and passwords can be used to authenticate on the VNC server connection. Be sure all your Windows passwords are set and strong, and that any passwordless guest accounts are disabled.

Mac users: OSXvnc is a free Mac VNC server. Download, install, set up a password and start the server.

If your VNC server is connected directly to the Internet, it is now listening for Internet requests on port 5900, VNC’s default port (which is also configurable). Visit WhatIsMyIP from your home computer to determine its IP address and write it down.

Step 2. Install the VNC client.

On the remote Windows computer, also download and install TightVNC, but this time, start the viewer, NOT the server. If you’re on a Mac, download the free Chicken of the VNC Mac viewer to connect to your home PC. Enter your home computer’s IP address and password to connect.

Here’s a screengrab of a VNC connection to my Windows PC from my Mac. Click on the image to see a larger version.

And that’s that! You’re virtually sitting at your home desktop from anywhere in the world.

A few extra VNC tips to chew on:

• For slower network connections, set the compression to “best.” The window image quality will be lower, but the connection response will be snappier.
• Bring a VNC viewer with you on a USB memory stick so you don’t have to download and install on every computer you want to use to connect to your server.
• Avoid having to install a server on Mom’s computer; email her the 166K self-extracting SingleClick UltraVNC server for your next tech support phone session. More on SingleClick in an upcoming Lifehacker feature.

FOOTNOTES:
[1] LogMeIn is a web-based application that also provides this remote desktop control and may be a better option for some folks. I prefer VNC because it’s more of a challenge and doesn’t require third party intervention.

[2] If your home computer is behind a home network router with a firewall, remote computers will not be able to connect. You must open up a port on your router’s firewall and forward requests to it to your computer.

[3] Alternately, you can enter your home computer’s domain name. For setting Up a Hostname For your computer You can use the free service of DynDNS.

Credits:[LifeHacker]

Previously I had posted an article on how to install latest firefox, but it was not even a standard install procedure, and so do it have lots of issues. Now today i found one way to install Latest version of firefox using “apt-get” command, which is indeed a standard installation procedure in Ubuntu.

So here it Goes:

If you are using Ubuntu Jaunty (9.04) or later:

The repository to add, if you’re adding it manually to your sources.list, is

deb http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/ubuntuzilla/mozilla/apt all main

and you can use the following command to add it to your sources.list in one step:

echo -e “\ndeb http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/ubuntuzilla/mozilla/apt all main” | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list > /dev/null

If you are using Ubuntu Intrepid (8.10) or earlier (due to a bug in apt):

The repository to add, if you’re adding it manually to your sources.list, is

deb http://switch.dl.sourceforge.net/project/ubuntuzilla/mozilla/apt all main

and you can use the following command to add it to your sources.list in one step:

echo -e “\ndeb http://switch.dl.sourceforge.net/project/ubuntuzilla/mozilla/apt all main” | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list > /dev/null

Then add the package signing key to your keyring,

by running the following command:

sudo apt-key adv –recv-keys –keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com C1289A29

Update your package database:

sudo apt-get update

Install your desired package, with one of the following commands:

sudo apt-get install firefox-mozilla-build

Now goes another reason for using these steps, You can install both thunderbird and seamonkey aprt from firefox.

To install them issue the following commands.

sudo apt-get install thunderbird-mozilla-build

sudo apt-get install seamonkey-mozilla-build

The guys who uses Linux most likely to experiment with their systems. So if by any chance the sources.list file got corrupted we cannot update our linux anymore. For resolving this we will be needing a new and clean sources.list file. But if we chose to take the sources.list fie from any of the online community, there may be chance of slowing down the update process. This is because the sources.list file you may be getting is from another part of the earth and the updates are being downloaded from the location near to them, and very far from you.

Here I found one link which will generate the sources.list file according to your needs and it includes the selection of the country, which will help you getting faster upgrades.

See the Site Here.

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Now follow the instruction on the site I have Given.