tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62956959852447703782024-03-14T07:15:02.966+00:00Ubuntu & Debian CookbookI no longer use Ubuntu, Old articles will remain but from 2013/11 everything will be related to Debian.SubBASShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11856024057020569566noreply@blogger.comBlogger58125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6295695985244770378.post-47308816663416153802013-01-20T16:54:00.001+00:002013-01-20T16:54:12.917+00:00Howto: Fix XSane error; scanner failed to start.For a little while now I've been unable to use XSane due to an error when trying to perform a colour scan on my Epson Perfection610. Many things were tried including purging xsane, removing ~/.sane etc.
I finally found a solution given by Ronok in this post.
Following the full steps is not necessary, I had sane and most things associated with it already installed.
sudo gedit /etc/sane.d/SubBASShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11856024057020569566noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6295695985244770378.post-41051485904349260362013-01-03T16:09:00.000+00:002013-01-04T13:01:57.387+00:00Howto: Fix an Acer Aspire 1410 Netbook GraphicsRecently my brother decided to give Linux a try, I pointed him at Linux Mint 14 (Cinnamon flavoured). He found it simple and perfect for his needs but the graphics were hopelessly slow and major problem. The Intel 4500MHD graphics were awful using the Gallium driver it had defaulted to.
A quick Google wasn't entirely helpful until I found : https://launchpad.net/~oibaf/+archive/SubBASShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11856024057020569566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6295695985244770378.post-26666465171787650812011-02-02T14:51:00.003+00:002011-02-02T21:40:43.819+00:00Howto: Unpack/Extract Files from Multiple Folders in One GoJust recently I had a situation where I needed to extract multiple archives, roughly 100 in fact, with each being in a sub folder.
Not particularly wanting to sit clicking into each folder, right click the archive and extract each one, then move the file (avi in this case) up into the parent folder I got busy on the terminal. Luckily this is a perfect job for Bash and instead of the job taking SubBASShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11856024057020569566noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6295695985244770378.post-62272113386878572332010-09-10T10:39:00.000+01:002010-09-10T10:47:19.735+01:00Howto: Bind Keys In Nautilus To Scripts Or Other Menu Items.I picked up this excellent tip from Webupd8.First you should have installed Nautilus Open Terminal for an initial very useful shortcut. It adds a menu entry on the right click and in the File menu to do exactly what it says, open a terminal at the current folder you have open in the active Nautilus window. So enter the following into a terminal.sudo apt-get install nautilus-open-terminalIf it is SubBASShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11856024057020569566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6295695985244770378.post-61878201544431116122010-05-02T13:30:00.006+01:002012-01-17T18:44:08.401+00:00Howto: Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Post Install Acer Aspire One 110 (aka AAO & AA1) 8GB/16GB SSD Model
I need to clarify that this is on the Acer Aspire One 110, a couple of comments have indicated that the wifi fix did not work on their machines, one at least has a different model and its entirely my mistake I didn't state clearly which model it is I have, well the wife and I both have. Doing a lspci shows we have Atheros AR5001 wireless device.
Post install there are a number of things that SubBASShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11856024057020569566noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6295695985244770378.post-13836402866994543332010-04-14T10:52:00.003+01:002010-05-01T18:59:45.989+01:00Howto: Move the Window buttons back to the correct side.Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx has moved the window buttons to the left on the title bar. Its a peculiar thing to decide to do and myself and others I have spoken with can't see *why* they should chose to do it. The only answer I keep coming back to is that this is just something to stand out and give a unique(ish) appearance, as part of their re-branding.Well, I would much prefer them back over on theSubBASShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11856024057020569566noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6295695985244770378.post-72299078094699291782009-12-18T14:22:00.002+00:002010-04-30T09:08:10.549+01:00Howto: Split pane NautilusThis is now not necessary as Ubuntu 10.04 has dual pane built-in, just hit F3Found this on OMGBuntu and have been using it, its pretty useful so far and has been stable.sudo add-apt-repository ppa:berndth/ppaThen I opened up Synaptic and clicked "Reload" to reload all repository data, and "Mark all Upgrades" and apply it. Alternatively you can do:sudo apt-get update &&;sudo apt-get SubBASShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11856024057020569566noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6295695985244770378.post-44651628812278745712009-11-17T18:32:00.001+00:002009-11-17T18:35:30.272+00:00Howto: Stop Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Mounting USB Devices With UUID Instead of a NameUbuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala changed the way USB devices get mounted a little bit. Instead of being mounted as /media/disk and then each other device becoming /media/disk-1, disk-2 and so forth, now the device is mounted with its UUID, a seemingly random string.I never minded the disk-1, disk2 thing, though it was slightly annoying to not know which device was which sometimes it was seldom a problem SubBASShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11856024057020569566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6295695985244770378.post-61958835261872083792009-11-15T14:12:00.002+00:002010-03-19T19:57:29.379+00:00Howto: Disable the 60 second delay in Logout/Restart/ShutdownThis new setting became a pet hate of mine within minutes of installing Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala, there is a 60 second delay and confirmation dialog when logging out, restarting or shutting down. This default can be over-ridden to act instantly rather than waiting for 60 seconds or clicking a confirmation by setting the apps/indicator-session/suppress_logout_restart_shutdown boolean to true as SubBASShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11856024057020569566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6295695985244770378.post-1311504387419827912009-11-04T08:33:00.005+00:002009-11-23T08:26:14.789+00:00Howto: Adjust updatedb.mlocat to a sensible time.All credit for this goes to This Blog Entry where I found this helpful information.If you are an early riser like myself (well, occasionally at least) then you may notice your PC grinding away on its harddrives like a mad thing. I have around 3TB of storage so the problem is exacerbated somewhat. The process to blame is updatedb.mlocat which runs between 6am and 7am, I want a quiet morning with SubBASShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11856024057020569566noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6295695985244770378.post-2655852614789774532009-11-03T19:50:00.003+00:002009-11-06T14:30:41.561+00:00Howto: Revert Update-notifier behaviour to old styleThe new method of alerting users to updates seems ever so slightly hair brained to me, but what do I know. Well I do know I prefer the old method where I was alerted each day, not the new method of waiting 7 days to make the alert. And only being alerted then if 7days had passed since the last activity in apt!Ok, here is the fast fix:gconftool -s --type bool /apps/update-notifier/auto_launch SubBASShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11856024057020569566noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6295695985244770378.post-25723086188208359192009-10-18T11:19:00.002+01:002009-10-18T11:20:17.849+01:00Howto: Sync Bash History Between TerminalsDo you want to be able to use the history from another terminal quickly and simply in a new terminal, or to be able to use any one of the terminals on your desktops to continue working with a current history?Me too :]This is a very easy tweak and makes a lot of sense to most people. So we need to edit the file ~/.bashrcgedit ~/.bashrcAt the bottom paste in the following:shopt -s SubBASShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11856024057020569566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6295695985244770378.post-4928870997750080752009-10-02T18:45:00.003+01:002009-10-02T20:02:29.175+01:00Howto: Apwal, A Lightwieght Pop-Up LauncherI've been Apwal for a while now and have been surprised how few people have even heard of it let alone tried it. It gives you a bunch of launcher items that can pop up at you cursor location, its quick and simple and very useful.First open a terminal and enter the following line to install it, or use synaptic if you prefer a GUI.sudo apt-get install apwalNow its loaded we should add some SubBASShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11856024057020569566noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6295695985244770378.post-83210415781022324872009-09-24T18:29:00.007+01:002009-09-27T13:27:11.316+01:00Howto: A simple encrypted folder using Cryptkeeper.I required a simple solution to easily secure some data, a single folder that could be encrypted and require a password to decipher being the ideal solution. A quick google soon pointed me to a couple fo options, Truecrypt and Cryptkeeper. Truecrypt seemed far more than I required but Cryptkeeper was perfect for my use.To get it installed and any extra dependencies issue the following from a SubBASShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11856024057020569566noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6295695985244770378.post-51577599015384366412009-09-06T09:52:00.005+01:002009-09-08T16:55:40.881+01:00Howto: Automatically reboot on Kernel Panic.While on holiday I was unable to SSH into my home PC one morning, worrying slightly about what might have happened as the machine is normally rock solid stable I called home to my parents who live very close and asked my mother when she went around to reboot the machine (assuming the house was ok and hadn't burnt down or been burgled)She called me back up, the lights on the keyboard were flashingSubBASShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11856024057020569566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6295695985244770378.post-22712944506578735702009-09-06T09:44:00.003+01:002009-09-06T09:52:25.250+01:00Howto: Reclaim hard disk space from the system.Before I went on holiday last week I had an internal drive start to fail, so a quick look at Ebuyer and a new Samsung Ecodrive F2 1.5TB monster was delivered. I swapped out the drives and went on holiday. While I was away I realised that I had left the default setting on the drive for system reserved space. Almost 80GB was reserved by the system for logs and such which I feel is a tad excessive SubBASShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11856024057020569566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6295695985244770378.post-86655869296766234982009-08-25T15:04:00.002+01:002009-08-26T11:31:05.965+01:00Make Pasword file Immutable - A Security tipYou can add a extra layer of protection to your machine, or in my case help to prevent wannabe haxx0r brothers at the parents house from changing to extremely short passwords with a little trick that not many are aware of.What happened to me was my brother managed to shoulder surf the admin account on my parents PC, I normally update their PC by SSH from home, but I was around there visiting and SubBASShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11856024057020569566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6295695985244770378.post-19258280047223993282009-08-24T16:53:00.002+01:002009-08-24T21:03:25.486+01:00A script to copy clipboard to a file.While mucking about with some scripts I got a little bored of copying them into files and chmod +x and copying them into the path, so I just knocked up this little scriptlet. It will optionally set the execute flag on the file if it is a script you are pasting, or leave it as a normal txt file for just saving some text.First install the package xclip with either Synaptic or:sudo apt-get install SubBASShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11856024057020569566noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6295695985244770378.post-30996481986922100522009-08-23T16:49:00.002+01:002010-09-23T08:11:09.805+01:00Howto: SSH Public Key Authorisation Login (AKA Passwordless)To be clear, this is how to login using SSH to another machine without having to enter your password. It is not an all encompassing solution but a "good enough" set up. I have to administer a couple of machines and a shell which I have use of, my own machine is kept up to date and I feel is secure enough with only myself as sole user.
Firstly we should make a key pair if you haven't already doneSubBASShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11856024057020569566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6295695985244770378.post-7557003033258824952009-08-15T10:52:00.001+01:002009-08-15T10:52:41.100+01:00Howto: Make Rhythmbox Put Album Covers on the Desktop (Desktop Art)Ever wondered how people get the album covers on the desktop of the tracks they are listening too?From Ubuntu Linux Tips and TutorialsI'm happy to say its very simple, though it will depend on your albums having the cover art available in the mp3 folders.Open up a terminal and simply paste these commands in one at a time:If you do not have subversion installed then issue the following command, ifSubBASShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11856024057020569566noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6295695985244770378.post-84820051759443486942009-08-12T16:08:00.001+01:002009-08-12T16:08:11.765+01:00Enable Composite Manager in MetacityNot every computer has the resources to run Compiz, but if you pine after some nice effects like window shadows then there is a good chance your computer is capable of running simpler effects. i use this on my Acer Aspire One, sure it can manage Compiz, but it is a little overkill on the baby netbook.Well rejoice now as Metacity has a composite manager built in which can give you nice drop SubBASShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11856024057020569566noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6295695985244770378.post-9671868648478472862009-08-12T15:49:00.001+01:002009-08-12T15:49:14.583+01:00Adjust Titlebar Transparency in MetacityI might be in the minority with this sentiment but I really dislike the transparency Gnome has gained on its inactive window titles when using the GTK window decorator. So here is how to make inactive windows have a solid title-bar or if you are are fan of it, make it even more transparent.Press alt+F2 and in the run dialog enter:gconf-editorNavigate in the left hand tree to the branch /apps/gwd/SubBASShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11856024057020569566noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6295695985244770378.post-46328391497823623152009-08-07T09:43:00.003+01:002009-08-14T19:57:43.548+01:00How to use OTF fonts in UbuntuIt isn't possible to use OTF fonts directly in Ubuntu without converting them into TTF's.If we spend just a few minutes and install FontForge and make a very small script it becomes almost trivial to do.sudo apt-get install fontforgeNow we should make the scripts, well it is two actually but one is a small config script for FontForge and the other is just a script to convert many OTF files in oneSubBASShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11856024057020569566noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6295695985244770378.post-60543769635439304182009-08-05T19:14:00.001+01:002009-08-06T09:25:48.818+01:00Howto Create Split RAR FilesLets learn how to create split Rar filesIf you have a large amount of data to backup or especially to transfer it can be very prudent to use an archive that can be split into smaller parts, if one section becomes corrupted during transfer, it is far better to transfer a single 15mb file again, than an entire 10GB file, right?Lets grab the rar program: sudo apt-get install rarOk lets compress SubBASShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11856024057020569566noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6295695985244770378.post-63898618239416672022009-08-04T10:13:00.001+01:002009-08-04T10:13:16.495+01:00Howto make autohide panels smaller and hidden more in GnomeAutohide panels in Gnome default to a 6 pixel strip remaining showing. I suspect this is done to "reduce confusion" which is a popular phrase from the Gnome guys, regardless its a little annoying to autohide a panel and still have it show around 20% of itself, so lets fix that.The easiest way to do this is pop open a terminal and enter:gconf-editorThis is quite a daunting program if you are SubBASShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11856024057020569566noreply@blogger.com2