December 9, 2009
Grub2 in Ubuntu 9.10
I feel the need to discuss grub because significant changes have been made to grub in 9.10 when we start comparing it with 9.04.
The location of configuration files are changed and menu.lst of grub 1 is no longer there. But most of the users are concerned to grub just to change their default boot sequence and then fiile is currently /etc/default/grub rather than /boot/grub/menu.lst.
For changing sequence by editing file :
1) Type in terminal : sudo gedit /etc/default/grub
2) Then in third line denotes the default booting os if in list the desired os is at number 5 then change the value in liine three to 4 i.e. replace zero by (position of desired os in list – 1 )
3) Save the file and close gedit
4) sudo update-grub and you are done
If you don’t want to bother much about configuration files , then there is much easier option “startupmanger“.
Install this software using synaptic and the whole thing becomes graphical i.e. use the software and enjoy 🙂
September 22, 2009
Ubuntu : Updating and Installing Softwares
Well ,After configuring network and local repos ,the next major thing is to know how to add/remove software
Installing Softwares :
The quickest and most user friendly to install/remove is using Add/Remove Software.
To use it :
1)Go to Application>Add Remove Software
2)In the upper drop-down menu select “All available applications” ( You can select others but previous one contains all and most of users don’t bother bother about much details of software maintenanace)
3)If you know to which category the particular software belong then select it from left side-bar but if you don’t know then simply select “all”
4)In the search box type the name of the software you want to install/remove
5)If you want to install then select the check box in front of it and to remove uncheck it
6) Click on Apply Changes .
7) Then , software install/remove will begin and at the last you will be given notification about changes whether they were successful or not.
8) Remember , you can do muliple install/remove at a single time by selecting many softwares at a single time.
Command-Line Way :-
Some users like command-line becuse it is generally FASTER than GUI .
If you the software name then for doing it more quickly use : –
1) Open terminal
2) For installing type :- sudo apt-get install software_name
3)For removing :- sudo apt-get remove software_name
4) For multiple install/remove you can always type :- sudo apt-get install software1 software2 software3 ….. ( Providing space between two software names )
But what if you don’t exactly know the software name 😦 and you want to install it. Then ,to find it use following procedure :-
GUI Way :-
1) Click System>Administration>Synaptic manager
2) In the search box type the software name and then click on the relevent package name which is similar to the name you know
I discourage the use of Synaptic manager as the first preference as the update manager because you may get broken dependencies problems ( i.e. some installed or half-installed packages depend on some packages which you haven’t installed.
But it comes handy if you want to install a particular library rather than full software.
CLI way :-
1) For searching : – sudo aptitude search software_name ( Aptitude is command-line utility having same purpose as that of Synaptic)
2)To install :- sudo aptitude install relevent_packages_name
Now, i want to discuss about the package system ( which is debian). The dpkg is at the top of hierarchy and it is the command which is actually used to install/remove software in the background and all other commands ( apt-get,aptitude) and softwares ( Add/Remove Softwares , Synaptic Manager) are graphical utilities to easily do the operations. 🙂
Updating :
Although the graphical update manager ( System > Administration > Update Manager ) in ubuntu is quite good for updating but it becomes very irritating sometimes because it pops up after every one or two hours whether updates are available or not.
For that i am suggesting command line method :-
Open your terminal and paste following commands :
1) sudo apt-get update ( For updating package lists )
2)sudo apt-get upgrade ( For downloading and installing updates)
And to get rid of irritating update manager type :- sudo apt-get remove update-manager
IGNORE THE GPG-KEY WARNING ( It is because bit server doesn’t have official key from ubuntu which is not necessary)
For the Beginners it is OK to use GUI but i strongly suggest to subsequently adapt to CLI for two reasons :-
1) It is not that GEEKISH as you think ( Because most users fear the darkness of terminal )
2)Your options are inceased you can use remote login by just enabling telnet which doesn’t demand any softwares to be installed from client side
3) Faster the gui ( You can feel the diffeence while updating ubuntu by two diffrent methods)
But the choice is still yours 🙂 ( Freedom of customizing free software )
If just want desktop use then CLI is not that damn necessary but if want to play with nuts and bolts of linux ( Which you should because you are tech guys ) then CLI is then best choice to go deeper in to the linux.
September 18, 2009
Ubuntu : Network and Local Repo Configuration
Configuring Network :
After noticing that it is not that straightforward for a new user to configure the lan by just double clicking the icons .
Here is a step-by-step guide to specify the simple basic steps :-
1) In the task-bar area ( Upper rightmost corner ) , you will see a LAN icon , just right click and select edit connections.
2) Click on wired tab and select eth0 (If clicking is disabled then click n unlock and enter your password)
3) Click on edit button
4) In new window select IPv4 Settings tab
5) In method select manual ( Default is DHCP so change that )
6) Click on add and in three columns enter your ip address,subnet mask and gateway respectively.
7) Now, do not FORGET to press ENTER otherwise the columns will not be saved.
8 ) Write the dns server in dns server box and check the connect automatically button
9) Click apply
10) Left click on the lan icon and then click on eth0 .
11) Finally, network on ubuntu is configured 🙂
Configuring Local Repository :
Now comes the problem of updating from the local repository which most of the users find difficult
But actually it is very simple and effortless . You just need to follow the following steps :-
1) Open Applications>Terminal from the leftmost menu
2) In terminal type :- sudo wget http://172.16.32.222/apt/sources.list.d/bitrepo-jaunty.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/bitrepo-jaunty.list
3) It asks for password , enter the password used during installation
But still there is one problem that when you install some software , it is downloaded from internet not from local repository
To remove that : –
1) Click System>Administration>Software Sources
2) Enter your password and UNCHECK all checkboxes in first tab
3) Click on close
Now,the software will be installed from lan and not from damn slow internet 🙂
August 2, 2009
LUG Events : August ’09
Hi friends,
Start of a new session!!! We welcome 2009 batch to our community as members and 2008 batch as volunteers. This month we are organising some events for beginners as well as for some advanced users
We are going to cover the following topics : –
- For Beginner course
- Introduction to FOSS
- Introduction to Linux and Fedora Distribution
- Demo of various applications
- Why Linux and Fedora and not Windows
- Fedora Philosophy
- Troubleshooting
- Install Fest
- Fedora11 Demo
- Installation and basic configurations
- Distribution of Live cd/ installation media
- For Advance Workshop
- Different Desktop environments
- Network configurations and various tools
- Demo of a fully configured Fedora 10 server
- Directory structure of Linux
- Troubleshooting
- Lots of swags and give aways
The tentative dates are :-
- Basic course 10/8/09
- Install Fest 11/8/09
- Advance Workshop 16/8/09
Depending on the feedback we will orgainze more workshops this year. Please feel free to contact me(adimaniaATgmailDOTcom) for any further clarifications. Looking forward for your participation. 🙂
August 30, 2008
The Time Line : BIT LUG………..
Initial start :
It all started started when my friend “applegrew” made me switch to Linux (Kubutnu) I had to ask him everything initially…. we are now like core Linux users.. so we started the support for Linux by setting up a local repository for Debian based Linux (mainly.. Ubuntu, Kubuntu, edubutnu, Linux mint… etc).. He used to praise Kubuntu so much that a few of our friends had kept his name only Kubuntu.. Well I learned alot from him and still I do although now he has left the college and gone for job….
The realization :
Initially only I and applegrew used to discuss about a LUG, but when he left i realised that now more and more students of BIT want to switch to Linux but as i had him to fall back upon not many people had a reliable source to fall back upon and many installed Linux and removed it as they had no clue what was going on and others did not know how to install it only… a defeat for Linux and open source??? a victory for windows???… NO!!! had to support Linux and help other free from Windows as i had…. I helped a few people initially but the load increased… I took this up with Prof. Abhijeet Mustafi he immediately agreed to help!!! But due to on going registrations, counselling and network restructuring the LUG was put on hold but not for long…
The Preparation:
We need a rough estimate for the number of students who were interested in Linux…. having a rough guess.. we thought it would be maximum 60… we launched a site for the same purpose… and well…. in just 3 days we got a overwhelming response with over 127 registrations!!!! Looking at the increasing the registrations had to be closed on the 3rd day…!!!!
To create the LUG like nothing else in BIT we had to think outside the box…. the 1st step was to create a very catchy logo for the LUG… I sat down with a junior DKD903 at 3 am on 28th and created the logo which you see at the top…. The logo was liked so much by all that it was decided to distribute stickers of the logo like that which we get with Ubuntu…
Initially on 25th it was decided to distribute Linux mint 5 to n00bs on the launch but then again thinking outside the we decided to change the distro to suite the needs of students in BIT like it would have the logo of BIT LUG into the coeee and would have Linuxdcpp (DC++), the life line of all BITian pre installed with a few other software like amarok etc and fully updated.. well this did not fully go as planned… We were successfull in creating the image but the size was 724 MB while the CDs are only 700 MB we tried overburn but it wont boot…. so back to the drawing board… and hope we can get a distro ready by tonight (29th August 2008)…
Future plans:
Well.. in BIT its not possible to look at the future but here is what we have thought of doing…. 1stly create a new distro either Ubuntu or Kubuntu based… 2ndly Get ID card made (valid for lifetime) just like the new ID cards BIT is giving… 3rdly Get a good guest lecture done out here…
As I have only time till coming May I should not be planning more into the future….
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Linux Users` Group @ BIT Mesra 