January 3, 2008
Monosource
I realised that the versions of mono and monodevelop from the Ubuntu repositories were quite old.
I've forgotten how difficult it is to install from source - dependency hell...
Posted by dottie at 10:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 7, 2007
WINE just got tastier!
I run Adromedia Macrodobe Adobe Fireworks on Linux using the compatibility layer application WINE (Wine Is Not an Emulator - apparently).
Well, life just got a little bit better. You can now apply a filter and REMOVE it if you don't like it!
What do you mean?
This is a big thing!
....for me (hey! I don't get out much!)
Posted by dottie at 1:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 27, 2007
Solve your samba problems in Feisty Fawn
sudo vim /etc/samba/smb.conf
search for a line that has 'msdfs proxy' and comment it out
sudo /etc/init.d/samba restart
you're welcome
Posted by dottie at 7:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 14, 2007
TortoiseSVN for Linux
Please!
Someone write a decent SVN client for Linux!
Posted by dottie at 10:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 23, 2007
eMusic downloads in Linux
Best little downloader in town
It's java based so you may have some dependency issues - probably enough to install the latest Java runtime.
Thanks Robin!
Posted by dottie at 11:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 3, 2007
(k)Ubuntu - enabling MP3 playback in Amarok
Crack open a terminal window and type (or copy and paste - but remember that Paste in a terminal window is Shift+Insert)
sudo /usr/lib/amarok/install-mp3
You will be prompted for a password - this is because 'sudo' means 'run this with root privelege' which means you must provide your root password (usually the same as your login password). Let apt do its thing - you may well see lots of errors, but eventually you will see a pop-up window doing a batch download.
Once that is finished you should be prompted that MP3 support is installed.
Restart Amarok and enjoy your choons!
Posted by dottie at 12:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 1, 2007
Thunderbird 2 on a fresh install of kubuntu feisty
If you get an error talking about "libstdc++.so.5" then fire up apt with:
sudo apt-get install libstdc++5
Posted by dottie at 11:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 30, 2007
VMWare bits and pieces
Assuming you have it running on linux of course...
You can start a virtual machine using the following:
vmrun start /{path to virtual machine}.vmx/
When you have an issue starting the virtual machine check the directory where the VMX file resies. If the machine is not running and there are .WRITELOCK files present, then delete them.
If you want best performance (or better, at least...) install lots of memory in your host machine - prefereably 3+Gigs and give the virtual machine enough memory that it doesnt have to start swapping to the drive.
Posted by dottie at 6:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 19, 2007
The Feisty Fawn has escaped!
The game if afoot!
Posted by dottie at 3:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 18, 2007
Linux - hmpf!
Whatever I have managed to do (more tinkering - will I ever learn!) Kubuntu now locks up every frickin' time I insert an audio CD.
I have a feeling it has something to do with trying to recompile the kernel to use the latest ALSA drivers. Or maybe when I compiled Amarok with bleeding edge MTP libraries to try and et it to recognise MP3 music players, or maybe...
You get the picture - I broke Ubuntu - well, cracked more like...
You know what they say about dogs and their owners, well now my operating system and its owner are the same - both cracked!
Posted by dottie at 11:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Fessin' up about Linux
I have realised lately that I have become a raving fan-boy for Linux (particularly Kubuntu) snorting with smug contempt every time someone reported problems with Windows or Mac OS X.
So sorry!
The fact is that Linux is hard - sort of.
When everything works (as most things do now 'out of the box') its great - the experience we have all come to know and love from Windows XP (the first Microsoft Distro that has had decent driver support in my experience) or even Mac OS X (ask me about Logic Express for the G5 - here's a hint this release notification is lying)
If you don't mind scratching your head and learning new things (and unfortunately learning that some things aren't possible) then Linux might be for you.
A lot of people balk at the fact that there coul be a lot of command line typing involved. Some people don't like that, but, it is in fact one of the strongest elements of Linux.
I find myself getting peeved having to use KDE control panels - why can't I just edit the file with vim? Command line editing is often quicker than GUI.
Other things are light years ahead of the windows way when you work through the command line. For instance, installing packages - ok, the packages have to be in the Ubuntu repositories in the first place - is FAST and EASY and you are automatically informed of updates. Frickin Sweet!
Compared to scratching around a site looking for the latest version of some third-party software, then downloading it, saving it somewhere safe, installing it, blah,blah on Windows. In Linux (again assuming that the package is, well ... packaged) it is as easy as:
apt-cache search packagename
sudo apt-get install packagename
That's it - apart from having to type in your root password and press return to assure the system that you DO want to install the package its done. The package manager will also pop-up a reminder that the package has been updated, or some library that the package depends on (think DLL's in windows) has been udpated. Frickin sweet!
Having said that, there can be hardward issues. My new laptop rocks with Kubuntu 6.10 - but the sound chip is not fully supported so I can't get a VOIP softphone running. I can use Skype, play music through the incomparable Amarok and watch and listen to videos on YouTube, play DVD's - whatever.
I can run all the important applications I used on Windows (Macromedia Fireworks and Flash, Firefox, Thunderbird, Inkscape, Scribus, OpenOffice, Skype, OpenSSH, MySQL, Ruby on Rails). I never used much Microsoft software anyway so that part of the swap for me was pretty painless - I still remote desktop (using rdesktop) into my WIndows Development Server (running as a virtual machine in VMWare on my home Ubuntu Server) to do ASP.NET development which fortunately / unfortunately will be paying the bills around here for the next while.
Its been a long road to get here and I have tried more than a few times to swap to Linux successfully, but as I have mentioned before Microsoft finally forced the swap on me. With the impending takeover of the strict-father Vista, I am very happy to be sitting back watching the view form Linux land.
Jump in - the water is hot at first but damn it's better than the boiling oil that the inquisition has reserved for certain other operating systems.
Posted by dottie at 11:41 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 15, 2007
Kubuntu - How to get Thunderbird to open links in Firefox
Open Thunderbird
Go to the Edit > Preferences and click on the 'Config Editor..' button
In the pop-up window, type in the 'filter' box:
network.protocol-handler.app
That should show two entries:
network.protocol-handler.app.http
network.protocol-handler.app.https
These will probably both be set to x-www-browser or similar. Right click on eahc of them, select 'Modify' and change the value to /usr/bin/firefox instead.
No need to restart
p.s. if that doesn't work, then maybe Firefox is in an odd place - just use the command whereis firefox. This will produce a few locations - usually the first is the one to use.
Posted by dottie at 2:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 14, 2007
Ubuntu on me new laptop
Smashing.
While it is a road lined with thorny roses, nonetheless, it is lined with roses.
I had wanted to make the swap to Linux for years. I have gradually been swapping to open source programs over the years.
The first casualty was Microsoft Office. OpenOffice is great - there are some compatibility issues (mainly from OpenOffice back to MS Office) and the support for functions, macros etc. in the spreadsheet does need some work (the advanced versions of which *I* don't use - your mileage may vary). However, I have been happily using it on Windows (and now Linux) for the last four years or so - I have also contributed money toward it's further development - not a lot, but still..
Firefox and Thunderbird have made the largest difference to me.
I am shocked, every time I have to check that a page renders properly in Internet Explorer (at this stage I have the quirks down and seldom do I find large issues - that has been a journey of its own...). The irony of the fact that the browser most in need of extensions - such as 'web developer', 'Professor X', 'Firebug', 'ShowIP', 'MeasureIt' etc. etc. etc. - is the browser that doesn't support extensions.
Firefox really was the beginning of the end for me with regard to proprietary software. The realisation that I could customise the entire application for free, by using third party extensions - that (at the time) were going through a turbo-darwinian period of survival of the fittest, one-upmanship the like of which could only exist in the meritocracy that is open source - was a reveation that shouldn't have been so world-shaking to me as it was; I was already familiar with the 'bleeding edge' in all it's glory...
The next big step for me was VMWare. I started in a manner that I now view as arse about tip - I originally ran a linux server as a virtual machine on a Windows Server.
The final step for me, the push that was to turn me away from Microsoft forever, come - not-so-strangely enough - from Microsoft themselves.
I had a stable development environment based around Windows (and Cygwin for OpenSSH) on my desktop machine and a Windows Server that ran Linux as a virtual machine. That was normal enough - I had 'grown up' using Microsoft frameworks (if you ignore the wilderness years programming Perl...) so the vagaries of Active Directory, MS SQL and Windows were not unknown to me.
All was sunshine and happiness until Windows pushed one of it's security updates.
Suddenly, I was in hell.
Cygwin was broken - no SSH to my virtual linux server.
My firewall was broken - Windows didn't like it and so locked horns and initiated a fight to the death over superemacy. Luckily fixable by booting into safe mode and tweaking the Firewall (Agnitum Oupost).
Eventually after days of sleeplessness, stress and frantic googling, I had reworked my development environment.
I now had a much more convenient system - my development server now ran Linux (Ubuntu - thank you, thank you, thank you!) with Windows Server running as a virtual machine.
I could now use puTTY to connect to my LInux server and from there access the Linux server or RDP into virtual windows. Couple that with a secure router that only allowed an SSH port (custom port too...) and tunnel everything. Fucking. Sweet. (ok - that was a long road to get it all working remotely, but it was my first time...)
All was bluebirds and fluffy clouds until Microsoft decided to push another update.
Bang.
The server was OK this time - Linux, how I love thee!
This time my laptop was fux0red. Once again the firewall and windows update locked horns. Unfortunately, this time I couldn't pry them apart. I needed the windows updates to be up to date and a I needed a decent firewall and security suite and despite reinstalling windows, once I updated to the latest updates, windows and the firewall would go at it again killing internet access, CPU, the works - luckily, I had an option.
I had been screwing around with Linux as a dual boot on the laptop for a while. Due to the aformentioned I HAD to swap to linux - I had a load on at the time and I couldn't afford the downtime - plus I had finally had enough of Microsoft. Fucking bastards.
Unfortunately, the linux installation had been used to experiment - there was a lot of crap installed that had somewhere, somehow compromised performance, but despite that I soldiered on - eventually ending up with a system that did everything I could do on windows without the woes of wondering if the next windows patch would fuck everything.
Its been a bitter sweet run with Ubuntu Edgy so far - most things work fine but the laptop (Dell D800) has made some things a bit slow or difficult (At some point in the past I recompiled the kernel to try and get better video card and ACPI support and the performance suffered as a result - I could never retrace my steps to uninstall the offender or recompile the kernel for better performance..)
However, now I have a new laptop (Toshiba Tecra A8-193) running Ubuntu Edgy. Stable, fast, does what I need - yay!
Anyway - I'm pissed now and need some sleep - at least I know that I can wake up to a working laptop tomorrow - maybe?
The take-home : use linux, but be prepared for a steep learning curve which is tempered by the fact that it is well worth it.
Posted by dottie at 2:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 24, 2007
Filezilla in Linux-land
No, not the latest Disney feel-good horror film, but still something to make my day a little brighter,
Filezilla - the incomparable FTP client that I sorely missed when forced (rubber arm...) to make the swap to Kubuntu - has been ported to Linux!
Its a beta (life's not beta, more's the pity...) but seems to be rock solid so far....
Happy happy joy joy!
Posted by dottie at 9:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 16, 2007
Windows does it yet again - Linux and VMWare comes to the rescue
Yet again in a matter of moments my machine went from being a perfectly functionable machine to a wheezing, cantankerous slug-a-bed. Why?
Well, Windows decided that it needed to update itself to patch some crap that a previous update had broken. After a restart the new patch would send my firewall spiraling off into 100% CPU usage for no good reason (...) leaving my computer unable to access the internet and useless for any work-related activities.
Damn.
And I had a deadline for the next day.
Double damn.
Actually, fuck. Fuck Microsoft. Hard.
Question : How can I claim to be a Linux fan and still be running Windows virtually on every machine I own? read on...
Luckily I have had Ubuntu languishing on my hard drive ready to be used when Thunderbird runs successfully on it - that's all that is stopping me...
With no choice (and rapidly approaching 3am) I decide to ht the hay and make the final(ish) change to Linux on the morrow.
Well, I did (biting the bullet a little in spots...), and It's been great so far - I even had Thunderbird running stable for a brief period (the answer is to run it as 'root' - which causes its own issues - attachments and the ilk will need some CHOWN love). But unfortunately it mangled the email and stopped working - soon my pretty...
I do ASP.NET development so I need to be able to access my Windows Server from my laptop.
For remote desktop I installed and configured the fantastic rdesktop to run over SSH tunnels (as I had done with remote desktop in Windows using puTTY). To tunel over SSH in Linux:
ssh remote_ssh_server -L 3389:remote_windows_machine_on_ssh_server_domain:3389
That sets up a nice secure tunnel for the remote desktop to wander through, safe from the slings and arrows of the wibbly-wobbly-internets.
rdesktop is called thus:
rdesktop localhost -f -a 16 -z -P -u Windows_machine_login_username
Where:
-f : fulscreen (swap back to Linux by hitting Ctrl + Alt + Enter)
-a 16 : 16 bit colour
-z : use compression
-P : cache bitmaps
Shock, horror - the performance of rdesktop (an open-source project) is far superior to the native Windows offering. Very impressed. I mean FAR superior! Did I mention that its free?
So now I can access my Windows development server from anywhere in the world - rock and roll!
I still have to do a lot of graphics and Flash based work so I stil lneed to keep Windows around in some form.
This is where the fantastic VMWare server comes into play. I have this running on my laptop with a Windows XP virtual machine in residence. I connect to that using rdesktop too - the performance is much better than using the VMWare console.
My development Server is also a virtual machine running under Linux - the same box that runs the SSH server.
So, the answer to the question above - its a trick I do have windows running on every machine - but virtually :D
Posted by dottie at 11:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 14, 2007
KDE4
Call me a geekboy, but I am a little bit excited waiting for the upcoming KDE4
Its a complete rewrite along the lines of Apple's OSX with new desktop, hardware and multimedia API/Kernel/Thingys (I dont know what they are called!!)
It also uses Qt4 which is said to bring a performance increase of 20% - wow!
Personally, the fact that it promises an end to the current clunkiness of KDE, better looking with better performance sells me. As an alternative to the ever-looking Vista, it's a hands down winner.
Coupled with a new laptop when I get my SSIA - I'm set for the next few years! ( </technolust> )
Posted by dottie at 11:33 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 6, 2007
Thunderbird in Ubuntu Edgy Eft has issues - for me
Something had to go wrong. I was rocking away with Ubuntu (with VMWare server installe dto run XP for the odd bit of Photoshoppery and the like) when Thunderbird decides it doesnt want to work anymore.
The symptoms - I launch Thunderbird. It thinks for a second and then closes.
I can't find a way to make it create a log of what is going on so I'm totally fux0red now - unless I can find a Thunderbird like alternative toi Thunderbird.
Back to windows for the time-being as I dont have the time to feck around getting Thunderbird back up and running.
Very pissed off!
UPDATE: I have since discovered that this is a known bug and that Thunderbird does not run in Ubuntu Edgy - shite!
UPDATE 2 : Apparently running Thunderbird as root solves the issue, and did, for a short while at least. It fecked up again for me and I havent the time to sort it out until I get my new laptop, so...
Posted by dottie at 5:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 27, 2006
Subversion 1.4.2 on Linux (Ubuntu) not easy - not possible?
I'm disgusted that I cannot get a working version of Subversion on Ubuntu Linux (or any other version..).
The latest version of Subversion in the Ubuntu repositories is 1.3.2.
This means that it is easy peasy to install the latest version of the Subversion server on Windows an start using it - a 30 minute project, if that.
On Linux (Ubuntu 6.10) I have spent the last two f---g hours trying to build Subversion. I've inched past all the dependency problems and have finally fallen foul of some problem with apache portable libraries. Possibly.
I'm done for the moment, I really dont have the time to devote to nursing this into maturity.
Its a crying shame. The main source of info for attempting to build and install the latest version of Subversion (1.4.2) is here:
Install Subversion 1.4 in Dapper
I've given up on building from scratch and tried the kindly supplied package which of course doesn't do a damn thing as I am trying to install a Dapper package on Edgy. Feck.
Feck.
Back to Subversion 1.3 it is then until I have more time....sucks
Posted by dottie at 12:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 21, 2006
Getting Edgy - Moving away from Windows
I have had it with windows.
I know I have been threatening for a long time to do something about it I have still been chugging along on my development server and my main work laptop with Windows.
Well, the last windows update broke my setup and wasted three days trying to find workarounds that never panned out. Sometime during those three days I had an epiphany - I'm mad to base my business on the whims of Microsoft. Its that simple.
So I have ordered a brand new hard drive (the 80 gig I have for the system drive is getting old..) and I downloaded Ubuntu Edgy Eft.
I will be reinstalling the server OS using Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy Eft). This will allow me to use SSH, Subversion, Trac, Apache and all the rest of the non-Microsoft applications I use the most.
I am still an ASP porgrammer by trade and my live web server is Windows so to service that I will be installing Windows 2003 as a virtual machine using VMServer. That way I have the best of one world (Linux rocks! Fuck you Ballmer!, I'm not a crook) and no headaches from the dark side. Best of all, once I install Windows into the VMServer all I have to do is snapshot it and I will never have to install the bastard again.
I should have the new hard-drive this week so I'll post up a little tutorial of any bits I found difficult.
Posted by dottie at 9:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 13, 2006
Create a Virtual Machine for Windows XP on Ubuntu in five minutes
Five minutes? Whatever, I didnt actually time it, but apparently headlines like 'Do x, y an z in five minutes' are very popular. Since I always craved being one of the cool kids, there you have it.
First, make sure you have plugged in your computer :) and are running Linux (the commands provided here apply to Ubuntu) and have an internet connection etc.Second, you will actually need to have a valid Windows XP Pro installation disk. You don't have one (good for you!) now pop off to the shops and get one. I'll wait here until you get back.
OK, now we have all the pre-requisites we can start.We need to install QEMU, and the free VMWare Player. We should make ourselves
root before we go any further:sudo su
Then type your password when prompted. You now have root! (j00 r s() 1337!)
To install Qemu:
apt-get install qemu
Let it do its thing, you may be required to type 'y' to accept the installation. Think long and hard about it, consider the alternatives and the socio-political impact of actually allowing the installation to continue. Hit 'y' anyway.
When that is done install the free VMWare player:
apt-get install vmware-player
You CAN do all this through adept or whatever package manager you use but the vmware player has a couple of ASCII dialog screens that require you to agree to terms and contracts and the like (don't bother reading it, something about your immortal soul and hellfire, nothing to worry about...), but if you DO use Adept you can't (at least I couldn't) access the dialog screens to proceed. When using the command line use the cursor keys and to select the relevant boxes and press Enter to accept them.
VMWare player has a load of stuff to install so it can take a while. Also the first time I did it I got some weird error - but Ubuntu suggested running a command (didn't take note of that...) that cleaned it right up and allowed me to continue/correct the installation by re-entering
apt-get install vmware-player.If you have any other major errors at this point you are on your own I'm afraid as I didnt have to overcome them and don't know what the issue(s) might be. Sorry.Cool. Now you have Qemu and vmplayer installed.
Great. What now?
Now we need to create a Virtual Machine disk (don't know the proper terminology). First of all, create a directory for the virtual machine. I made this in my home folder which I am sure is blasphemy to Linux gurus everywhere, whatever, it works for me.
After some attempts at figuring out Qemu myself I resorted to Google and came up with the following:
qemu-img create -f vmdk WindowsXPPro.vmdk 10G Formating 'WindowsXPPro.vmdk', fmt=vmdk
Which will create a 10 Gig virtual disk for your new virtual machine, I am only going to be usin Windows for browser testing and some basic editing with Fireworks and Photoshop so 10 Gigs should be plenty. Change the '10G' bit in the command to suit your needs.
Next we need to create a configuration/launcher file for the virtual machine. This basically tells the vmware player what it is loading, what ports to use, memory size etc. A good few examples are on line. This worked well for me:
#!/usr/bin/vmware
config.version = "8"
virtualHW.version = "3"
ide0:0.present = "TRUE"
ide0:0.filename = "WindowsXPPro.vmdk"
memsize = "512"
MemAllowAutoScaleDown = "FALSE"
ide1:0.present = "TRUE"
ide1:0.fileName = "auto detect"
ide1:0.deviceType = "cdrom-raw"
ide1:0.autodetect = "TRUE"
floppy0.present = "FALSE"
ethernet0.present = "TRUE"
usb.present = "TRUE"
sound.present = "TRUE"
sound.virtualDev = "es1371"
displayName = "Windows XP Pro"
guestOS = "winxppro"
nvram = "WindowsXPPro.nvram"
MemTrimRate = "-1"
ide0:0.redo = ""
ethernet0.addressType = "generated"
uuid.location = "56 4d 42 8c 5a f6 ad 17-65 74 0c 49 58 38 c4 39"
uuid.bios = "56 4d 42 8c 5a f6 ad 17-65 74 0c 49 58 38 c4 39"
ethernet0.generatedAddress = "00:0c:29:38:c4:39"
ethernet0.generatedAddressOffset = "0"
tools.syncTime = "TRUE"
ide1:0.startConnected = "TRUE"
uuid.action = "create"
checkpoint.vmState = "WindowsXPPro.vmss"
tools.remindInstall = "TRUE"
Save the above into a file called WindowsXPPro.vmx which is the same file name as the virtual machine drive with a different extension (which should be mapped to the vmware player).
memsize. I have a Gig of memory on my laptop so I set it to 512 (Megs) which seems to work fine. You can play around with this a bit as the memory of the virtual machine is determined by this value and is not set in stone when you first install Windows - play with it until you crash something if you like!Ok, now it's time to insert your WinXP Pro installation disk (are you guys back from the shops yet?) and launch the Virtual Machine. You can use konqueror (or whatever) to navigate to the directory and click on the
WindowsXPPro.vmx file or just type:vmplayer /path/to/winXPvvm/directory/WindowsXPPro.vmx
This should kick off the vmplayer and start the installation process for WindowsXP Pro. You might get an error about the Soundcard not being accessible - I did, no biggie, we'll be using Amarok in Linux to play tunes anyway...
Go through the normal windows installation process - you might choose FAT32 as the format of the drive as it will make it easier to share files with Linux.
Once the installation completes and Windows reboots (inside the Virtual Machine - Linux just keeps on chugging away happily) you will be done!
Install your applications and whatever baseline stuff you want on the Virtual Machine.
Now, make a backup of your Virtual Machine directory and you will be able to restore windows back to its pristine condition whenever you want. So throw away that Windows installation disk now... ;)
Posted by dottie at 2:54 PM | Comments (0)
August 11, 2006
Installing and updating applications in Linux (Ubuntu)
'The Linux Newbie' has a good post about how to pick a Linux distro.
It recommends visiting Zegenie Studios Linux Distribution Center list of questions, which is well put together and easy to use. It gave me a number of suggestions, top of which was Mandriva (formerly Mandrake) and the last of five was Kubuntu, the distro I actually went with in the end.
Linux Newbie went with Kubuntu also. I would have tried Ubuntu but I just don't like Gnome as a desktop, I find KDE to be more configurable and a better fit for me.
One thing that Linux Newbie had an issue with was installing packages. He went to great lengths describing downloading tarred packages, finding dependencies etc. Yes, that sometimes happens and it was one of the issues I used to have with Linux.
Apart from very few applications so far I have found Kubuntu's built-in package (application) management software excellent. It obviates the need to manually satisfy dependencies and the like.
You can run it through a graphical interface called Adept, or through the command line using apt-get.
The one thing you have to look out for is making sure that the sources for repositories of applications are up to date, which can be a little confusing and trying but once you have that set up all should be golden.
If you have been having issues installing applications you can try the following.
Open a command/terminal window. Type sudo su which will switch you to run as root. You will be prompted for the password that you supplied at installation. Once you are root type vi /etc/apt/sources.list. This will allow you to start editing the file that lists the sources of repositories from where you can install your applications.
Scroll down through the file using your cursor keys. You should see some lines resembling:deb http://ie.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ dapper main restricted
if any lines that resemble this have a hash sign '#' in front of them, that means they are commented out. This can happen when you are installing if you have no network connection or if the installation couldnt setup the network card/tcp-ip setting correctly. The installation will check to see if it can connect to all the repositories listed and if it can't then it comments out all the entries that are unavailable, which makes sense when installilng but causes issues when you have installed and are looking to get the latest version of OpenOffice or whatever.
So, if you find a line that is commented out you will have to edit it. This is a little tricky, but stick with me. First of all move the cursor to the start of the line that is commented out. Hit 'i' to start editing the file (inserting in vi speak). Stuff like end/home pg up/pg dn may or may not work, so better just to stick to using the standard left/right/up/down cursor keys. Delete the # from the start of the line. When you have done that you will want to check the rest of the file for more commented out lines. HIt the escape (Esc) key to stop editing - this won't exit the file, just stop allowing you to type characters into the file. Find and repeat the process until you have removed all the hashes from the start of any of the lines starting with 'deb'. There are other commented lines in there but they are mainly notes regarding the meat and potatoes and they should have two hashes ## before them any way - ignore them.
When you are happy with your changes and you have hit Esc to stop editing (inserting) it is time to save the file.
Hit Esc again, this will put vi into a state where it wil accept commands. Next type the characters between the single quotes - ' :wq! '. This basically tells vi to save and exit.
By the way if you get yourself into trouble while editing (easy enough to do with vi), don't panic. Just bring yourself to command enter mode by hitting Esc a couple of times and enter ' :q! ' which will tell vi just to quit. Then start editing the file again by typeing vi /etc/apt/sources.list. If you keep getting yourself into trouble then you might try editing one line at a time, then saving and quit before re-opening the file and editing the next line.
Assuming you have completed editing all the commented lines you will next have to tell apt-get to update its locally held list of applications and their versions.
Type apt-get update.
Stuff will happen for a while - let it finish, it will only take a short while. If you are asked anything it is fine to just type Y to say yes, continue, whatever it takes.
Once that is done, you are best running Adept. This is found under the KDE equivalent of the 'Start' button, found in the lower left of the window on the taskbar. Find the system menu, click on 'Adept'. It will ask you for your password and then display lists of applications that you can install. Play with a while and you will soon see it is quite easy to use.
I prefer to use the command line for most things. In the example that Linux Newbie gave installing or updating OpenOffice is simple:apt-get install openoffice.org
Stuff will happen and when it is done you can be sure that you have the latest, stable version of Open Office on your machine. Compare that with windows - open your browser, navigate to OpenOffice.org, find the download page, go through the screens to get to your download, download it, find it on your drive, double-click, yadda yadda....
I think you can see that apt-get is a much easier solution all round :)
As an extra bonus you can do the followingapt-get upgrade
Which will check ALL your installed applications and OS components etc. and update the whole lot automatically while you go off and get a cup of tea.
Posted by dottie at 12:56 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 13, 2006
Linux - searching inside files
If you need to find a list of files that contain a certain string on a Linux box the following is useful:
find . -name '' -exec grep 'String To Search For' {} \;
you can also do this:
find . -name '*.filext' -exec grep 'string here' {} \;
which would limit the results to showing only those files that contain the search string and also end in '.filext'
Update:
Also the following works on other versions of Linux shells (bash?):
find . -exec grep "woteva" '{}' \; -print
and case insensitive just chuck in the regexp 'i' - I guess the other regexp directives would do their thing also:
find . -exec grep -i "woteva" '{}' \; -print
Posted by dottie at 4:01 PM | Comments (2)