Guide: Getting started with Linux

I. What is Linux?
II. Trying it out
III. Installing
IV. What to do now
V. The Console

Intro:
This tutorial is written with the total Linux n00b in mind.
I've seen too many n00bs get totally left in the dark by asking what the best distro is. They seem to only get flooded with too many answers in so short a time. I'm a little bit of a n00b too, so I know how it feels. I will cover a grand total of two basic distros. You may learn to strongly prefer other ones (I do!) but this is just to get you started. I touch on a number of topics that would be impossible to go into in depth in one tutorial, so I encourage you to actively seek out more about the concepts I make reference to.


I. What is Linux?

Linux is basically an operating system (OS for short). The Windows machine you're (probably) using now uses the Microsoft Windows operating system.

Ok, so what's so different about Linux?

Linux is part of a revolutionary movement called the open-source movement. The history and intricacies of that movement are well beyond the scope of this tutorial, but I'll try and explain it simply. Open source means that the developers release the source code for all their customers to view and alter to fit what they need the software to do, what they want the software to do, and what they feel software should do. Linux is a programmer's dream come true, it has the best compilers, libraries, and tools in addition to its being open-source. A programmer's only limit then, is his knowledge, skill, time, and resolve.

What is a distro?

A distro is short for a distribution. It's someone's personal modification or recreation of Linux.

What do you mean by distros? I just want Linux!

Since Linux is open source, every developer can write his own version. Most of those developers release their modifications, or entire creations as free and open source. A few don't and try to profit from their product, which is a topic of moral debate in the Linux world. The actual Linux is just a kernel that serves as a node of communication between various points of the system (such as the CPU, the mouse, the hard drive etc.). In order to use this kernel, we must find a way to communicate with it. The way we communicate is with a shell. Shells will let us enter commands in ways that make sense to us, and send those commands to the kernel in ways that makes sense to it. The shell most Linux's use it the BASH shell (Bourne Again SHell). The kernel by itself will not do, and just a shell on top of the kernel won't either for most users; we are then forced to use a distribution.

What distro is best?

This is not the question you want to ask a large number of people at one time. This is very much like asking what kind of shoe is best, you'll get answers anywhere from running shoes, hiking boots, cleats, to wingtips. You need to be specific about what you plan on using Linux for, what system you want to use it on, and many other things. I will cover two that are quick and easy to get running. They may not be the best, or the quickest, or the easiest, or the most powerful, but this is a guide for getting started, and everyone has to start somewhere.

How much does it cost?

computer + electricity + internet + CD burner and CDs = Linux
I'll let you do your own math.
Note however that a few do charge for their distros, but they aren't all that common, and can be worked around. Also, if you lack internet access or a CD burner or CDs or you just want to, you can normally order CDs of the distro for a few dollars apiece.



II. Trying it out.

Wouldn't it stink if you decide to wipe out your hard drive and install Linux as the sole operating system only to learn that you don't know how to do anything and hate it? Wouldn't it be better to take a test drive? 95 out of a 100 of you know where I'm heading with this section and can therefore skip it. For those of you who don't know, read on.

There are many distros, and most distros try to have something that makes them stand out. Knoppix was the first live-CD distro. Although most of the other main distros have formed their own live-CDs, Knoppix is still the most famous and I will be covering how to acquire it.

A live-CD distro is a distribution of Linux in which the entire OS can be run off of the CD-ROM and your RAM. This means that no installation is required and the distro will not touch your hard disk or current OS (unless you tell it to). On bootup, the CD will automatically detect your hardware and launch you into Linux. To get back to Windows, just reboot and take the CD out.

Go to the Knoppix website (www.knoppix.com). Look around some o get more of an idea on what Knoppix is. When you're ready, click Download.
You'll be presented with a large amount of mirrors, some of which have ftp and some of which have http also.

note: the speed of the mirrors vary greatly, and you may want to change mirrors should your download be significantly slow.

Choose a mirror. Read the agreement and choose accept. You'll probably want to download the newest version and in your native language (I'll assume English in this tutorial). So choose the newest file ending in -EN.iso

note: you might want to also verify the md5 checksums after the download, if you don't understand this, don't worry too much. You just might have to download it again should the file get corrupted (you'll have to anyway with the md5). Also, a lot of times a burn can be botched for who-knows what reason. If the disk doesn't work at all, try a reburn.

Once the .iso file is done downloading, fire up your favorite CD-burning software. Find the option to burn a CD image (for Nero, this is under copy and backup) and burn it to a disk. Make sure you don't just copy the .iso, you have to burn the image, which will unpack all the files onto the CD.

Once the disk is done, put it in the CD-ROM drive and reboot the computer. While your computer is booting, enter CMOS (how to get to CMOS varies for each computer, some get to it by F1 or F2 or F3, etc.) Go to the bootup configuration and place CD-ROM above hard disk. Save changes and exit. Now, Knoppix will automatically start. You will be presented with a boot prompt. Here you can input specific boot parameters (called cheatcodes), or just wait and let it boot up using the default.

note: Sometimes USB keyboards do not work until the OS has somewhat booted up. Once you're actually in Knoppix, your USB keyboard should work, but you may not be able to use cheatcodes. If you need to, attach a PS/2 keyboard temporarily. Also, if a particular aspect of hardware detection does not work, look for a cheatcode to disable it. Cheatcodes can be found on the Knoppix website in text format (or in HTML at Index.php/CheatCodes - Knoppix Documentation Wiki).

Upon entering the KDE desktop environment, spend some time exploring around. Surf the web, get on IM, play some games, explore the filesystem, and whatever else seems interesting. When your done, open up the console (also called terminal, xterm, konsole, or even shell) and get ready for the real Linux. See section V for what to do from here.

note: to function as root (or the superuser) type su.


It's not entirely necessary that you are a console wizard at this point (although you will need to be sooner or later), but a little messing around wont hurt.

Just as there are many Linux distros, so there are also many types of Knoppix. I won?t go into using any of them, but they should all be somewhat similar.

III. Installing

I will guide you through the installation of Fedora Core 2. The reason I chose Fedora is because it contains the Anaconda installer, which is a very easy installer.

Download the discs from here:
http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pu...re/2/i386/iso/
If the link doesn't work, then go to redhat.com | The World's Open Source Leader and navigate your
way to downloading Fedora (odds are your architecture is i386).
You will want to download the FC2-i386-disc1.iso and burn it using the method for Knoppix. Do the same for all the discs.

Note: do NOT download the FC2-i386-SRPMS-disc1.iso files.

Now, once you?re ready, insert disc 1 into the drive and reboot.

The installer should come up automatically (if not, then see the Knoppix section on CMOS).

Note: installer may vary depending on version. Follow directions best you can using your best judgement.

1. Language: choose English and hit enter
2. Keyboard: choose us (probably) and hit enter
3. Installation media: choose local CDROM (probably) and hit enter
4. CD test: you can choose to test or skip
5. Intro: click next
6. Monitor: choose your monitor to the best of your ability, if you're unsure, choose on of the generic ones
7. Installation type: choose which ever you want (default should be fine)
8. Partition: choose to automatically partition (unless you know what you're doing)
9. Partition: the default partitions should suffice
10. Boot loader: choose your boot loader (grub for default)
11. Network settings: choose the correct settings for your network (generally, don't mess with anything unless you know what you're doing)
12. Firewall: you can choose a firewall if you want to
13. Language support: choose any additional language support you want
14. Time zone: pick your time zone
15. Root password: set your root password (root is the admin, or superuser; you want it to be very secure)
16. Packages: choose which packages you want to install. For hard drives over 10 gigs, you can go ahead and choose all packages (depending on how much disk space you plan on taking up later, note that most everything you'll need is a package: the exception being large media files). You will generally want to install all the packages you think you?ll ever need. Two desktop environments aren't necessary. Make sure you have at least one and the X window system! (if you want a GUI that is). I suggest you get all the servers too.

Note: Knoppix uses the KDE Desktop environment

17. Make sure everything is all right, and install
18. You can create a boot disk if you want

Note: Desktop environments might have a set-up once you enter them

IV What to do now

Now that you have a Linux set-up and running, there are many paths you can head down. First, you should explore your GUI and menus. Browse the web with Mozilla, get on IM with GAIM, play games, add/delete users, check out OpenOffice, and anything else that might be part of your daily use. Also, set up a few servers on your computer to play around with, specifically SMTP, FTP (vsftp is a good one), and either telnet or SSH (OpenSSH is a good one). The setup and use of these are beyond the scope of this tutorial, but researching them could prove to be very educational.

The filesystem
The Linux (and Unix) filesystem is different from the normal Windows that you?re used to. In Windows, your hard drive is denoted C:\ (or whatever). In Linux, it is called the root directory and is denoted /. In the / directory, there are several default folders, including dev (device drivers) mnt (mount) bin (binaries) usr (Unix System Resources) home, etc, and others. I encourage you to explore around the whole file system (see section V) and research more.

Once you are well situated, it's time to get into the heart and power of Linux: the console. The next session will guide you through it and set you on the path to finding out how to do stuff for yourself. You will (probably) want to start learning to rely less and less on the GUI and figure out how to do everything through the console (try launching all your programs from the console, for example).

V. The Console

The Console might look familiar to DOS if you've ever used it. The prompt should look something like the following:

Aaditya@localhost aaditya$

With the blinking _ following it. This can vary greatly as it is fully customizable. Let's get started with the commands.

First, let's explore the file system. The command ls will "list" the files in the current directory. Here's an example:

Aaditya@localhost aaditya$ ls

It should then display the contents of the current directory if there are any. Almost all commands have options attached to them. For example, using the -l option, which is short for "long" will display more information about the files listed.

Aaditya@localhost aaditya$ ls -l

We will get into how to find out the options for commands and what they do later.

The second command to learn will be the cd command, or "change directory". To use it, you type cd followed by a space and the directory name you wish to go into. In Linux, the top directory is / (as opposed to C:\ in Windows). Let's get there by using this command:

Aaditya@localhost aaditya$ cd /
Aaditya@localhost /$

Now, we are in the top directory. Use the ls command you learned earlier to see everything that?s here. You should see several items, which are directories. Now, let's go into the home directory:

Aaditya@localhost /$ cd home
Aaditya@localhost home$

And you can now ls and see what's around. In Linux there are some special symbol shortcuts for specific folders. You can use these symbols with cd, ls, or several other commands. The symbol ~ stands for your home folder. One period . represents the directory your currently in. Two periods .. represent the directory immediately above your own. Here's an example of the commands:

Aaditya@localhost home$ cd ~
Aaditya@localhost aaditya$

This moved us to our user's personal directory.

Aaditya@localhost aaditya$ cd .
Aaditya@localhost aaditya$ cd ..
Aaditya@localhost home$

The cd .. moved us up to the home directory.
As you've probably noticed by now, the section behind the prompt changes as you change folders, although it might not always be the case as it's up to the personal configuration.

You can use these symbols with the ls command also to view what is in different folders:

Aaditya@localhost home$ ls ~
Aaditya@localhost home$ ls ..

And you can view what is in a folder by specifying its path:

Aaditya@localhost home$ ls /
Aaditya@localhost home$ ls /home

The last command we will cover as far as finding your way around the filesystem is the cat command. The cat command will show the contents of a file. Find a file by using the cd and ls commands and then view its contents with the cat command.

Aaditya@localhost home$ cd [directory]
Aaditya@localhost [directory]$ ls
Aaditya@localhost [directory]$ cat [filename]

Where [directory] is the directory you want to view and [filename] is the name of the file you want to view. Omit the brackets. Now, if the file you viewed was a text file, you should see text, but if it wasn't, you might just see jumbled garbage, but this is ok. If the file goes by too fast and goes off the screen, don't worry, we will get to how to scroll through it later.

One of the most useful commands is the man command, which displays the "manual" for the command you want to know more about. To learn more about the ls command:

Aaditya@localhost home$ man ls

And you will see the manual page for ls. It displays the syntax, a description, options, and other useful tidbits of information. Use the up and down arrows to scroll and press q to exit. You can view the manual pages for any command that has one (most commands do). Try this out with all the commands that you know so far:

Aaditya@localhost home$ man cd
Aaditya@localhost home$ man cat
Aaditya@localhost home$ man man

One very crucial option to the man command is the -k option. This will search the descriptions of manual pages for the word you specify. You can use this to find out what command to do what you need to do. For example, lets say we want to use a text editor:

Aaditya@localhost home$ man -k editor

And you should see a list of apps with a short description and the word "editor" in the description.

With a blank prompt, you can hit tab twice for Linux to display all the possible commands. For Linux to display all the commands beginning with a certain letter or series of letters, type those letters and hit tab twice.

Note: This is actually a function of BASH and not Linux, but BASH is the default Linux shell.

Now that you know a little about moving around the filesystem and viewing manual pages, there is one more trick that we will cover to help you out. Remember how the man pages were scrollable as in you could use the arrow keys to scroll up and down? That is because the man pages use something called the less pager. We are not going to go into what this does exactly and how it works, but thats definitely something that you will want to look up. Here's how to use the less pager with a file:

Aaditya@localhost home$ cat [filename] | less

That uses something called a pipe. The line is the vertical line above enter on your keyboard. Briefly, what this does is take the output from the cat command, and stick it in the less pager. By doing this, you can view files that would normally run off the screen and scroll up and down.

Some final commands to check out:

mkdir - make directories
cp - copy file
mv - move file
rm - remove file
rmdir - remove directory
grep - search a file for a keyword
pwd - display current working directory
top - display system resources usage (kill the program with control + c) __________________
ϯ Peace...

11. Make VLC media player function properly

Make VLC media player function properly

VLC media player sometimes doesn't function properly on the new sound system Pulse Audio. Let it function on the old audio system ALSA:

a. Start VLC media player


b. panel:


Settings - Preferences... - Audio - Output modules

c. Tick: Advanced options (in the lower right corner)

d. Audio output module: change it into "ALSA audio output".

e. Click "Save" and close VLC.

10. Improve backward compatibility

Improve backward compatibility

Install an extra library file to improve backward compatibility for some applications.


System - Administration - Synaptic Package Manager

search word: libstdc++5

(the first letter is an L)

Tick it and press Apply.

9. Install Brightness Applet

Install the Brightness Applet on your laptop

a. Right click with the mouse on the upper panel

b. Choose Add to panel....

c. select Brightness Applet.

8. give yourself full USB rights

Give yourself full user rights on USB devices

Particularly using scanners can be tricky, because as a user you don't have full rights over all USB devices. A security feature, but an annoying exaggeration. Remedy this as follows:

System - Administration - Users and Groups

Click on your user name

Click on the button "Unlock"

Properties button - tab User Privileges

and make sure that every category is ticked.

Are there other user accounts but yours? Then repeat these steps for the other accounts. But, of course, for those others don't tick "Administer the system". That's a privilege that belongs only to the administrative user account (you).

7. Make NumLock turn on automatically

Activate the numeric section of your keyboard (not for laptops).

Note: This instruction does not apply to laptops.

It's useful for NumLock to be switched on automatically when you start Ubuntu. As follows:
System - Administration - Synaptic Package Manager

Search word: numlockx

Tick it and press the Apply button.

6. install full multimedia support

Install full multimedia support (mp3, Adobe Flash Player, Sun Java, Microsoft fonts, etc.) following this guide

5. increase font size in Firefox

Fonts too small on the web pages you view in Firefox?

Increase the fonts as follows:

Keep the Ctrl key pressed and press as many times the plus key (+) in the numeric keypad, until the desired size is reached. Reduce size: keep the Ctrl key pressed and press the minus key (-).

This will increase, however, both text and images on web pages. Thus, the images often become ugly. Limit the increase therefore to "text only".

As follows: Firefox toolbar - View - Zoom - tick: Zoom Text Only.

Handy add-ons (such as Adblock and NoScript) are installable in Firefox as follows:

Firefox toolbar - Tools - Add-ons - Get Add-ons - Browse All Add-ons.

Note: keep the number of add-ons limited, because otherwise Firefox will become noticeably slower.

4. read about the bugs

Stay updated about all the new bugs and report bugs if you find any.
This improves your knowledge and keeps you involved in ubuntu activities :)

3. turn on subpixels

If you have a TFT display (LCD), turn on the subpixel rendering:

System - Preferences - Appearance - Fonts

Put the dot at: Subpixel smoothing (LCDs).

2. install restricted drivers

Make sure all hardware is working properly and install missing drivers.

Drivers installation is usually not necessary, because they are already present in the Linux kernel. One exception is the proprietary restricted drivers for Nvidia and ATI graphics cards. For optimal performance of your Nvidia or ATI graphics card, you'll want to install the closed source restricted driver (the proprietary driver).

The Restricted drivers manager alerts you automatically about the availability of restricted drivers for your graphics card, by a notification in the system tray in the upper panel of your screen (on the right). Click on the notification icon and follow the steps. If there is no automatic alert, perform a manual check: System - Administration - Hardware Drivers.

The required driver is then automatically downloaded from the internet, from the software repositories of Ubuntu, and (also automatically) installed. Afterwards you will have to do a full reboot of your computer. Ubuntu will issue an alert for that.

Do you have a graphics card of the brand ATI or Nvidia, which is so new that the proprietary restricted driver version in the software repositories of Ubuntu is too old? Then you can use the latest restricted driver of ATI or Nvidia. An easy tool named Envy (envyng-gtk) will take care of downloading and installing the latest ATI or Nvidia driver for you.

This package is in the Universe software repository of Ubuntu: in order to access that respository, you must first enable all repositories, both official and semi-official.

You can install envyng-gtk as follows:

System - Administration - Synaptic Package Manager

Search word: envyng-gtk

Tick it and press the Apply button.

After the installation: start envyng-gtk through Applications - System Tools.

Note: The use of envyng-gtk is an "emergency measure". If everything works fine with the somewhat older restricted driver for ATI or Nvidia from the repositories of Ubuntu, then you should stick with that one. Only the restricted driver in the repositories is tested for stability in Ubuntu.

1. Apply all available updates

Apply all available updates. Afterwards reboot your computer (not always necessary, but do it just to make sure).

you can install available updates whenever a notification message comes on screen

11 things to make sure and to do on new installation of ubuntu desktop

11 things to make sure and to do on new installation of ubuntu desktop

1. apply all updates

2. install restricted drivers

3. turn on subpixels

4. read about the bugs

5. increase font size in Firefox

6. install full multimedia support

7. make NumLock turn on automatically

8. give yourself full USB rights

9. install Brightness Applet

10. improve backward compatibility

11. make media player VLC function properly

all these are explained in different posts.

change default sound card on ubuntu

Hi all

Sorry for late post but i was really busy with some assignments and stuff.

I have tried this on ubuntu 8.04 and 8.10, i have external yamaha sound card installed on my system, to change your default card simply go to Terminal

and type

Quote:

sudo asoundconf list

it will display list of available sound card like for me it displayed
SI7012
YMF724

after thins you just need to use another command that is

Quote:

asoundconf set-default-card YMF724

i have used my sound card name so please replace your sound card name here

after this you need to manually restart your system to apply settings

hope it will solve some sound problems

Ubuntu Versions with Names

Today on forum i found something very intresting so including it here, thanks for such a wonderful info vishnu :)

Versions of Ubuntu with Names

1. Ubuntu 4.10 (Warty Warthog)
2. Ubuntu 5.04 (Hoary Hedgehog)
3. Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger)
4. Ubuntu 6.06 (Dapper Drake)
5. Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy Eft)
6. Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn)
7. Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon)
8. Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron)
9. Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex)
10. Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope)

I found this useful information on www.indiabroadband.net if you have any tech or non tech issues or if you have any topic in mind to discuss then do remember to see me on Indiabroadband with name ~smoothvibes~

Install Miro Internet TV on ubuntu

Miro is a free application that turns your computer into an internet TV video player. You can download it for your Linux ubuntu. This will turn your system into live Internet TV and its not like youtube or any other online streaming software which buffers while playing.

Minimum System Requirement
Linux: 500Mhz CPU with a good video card, 1GHz without, 128MB RAM.

There are 2 ways to install Miro on your ubuntu

First way to install Miro
To install it on your ubuntu, just go to terminal and type

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

this will open up sources list where you need to add this line at the end

for hardy users
deb http://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/pculture.org/miro/linux/repositories/ubuntu hardy/

for Gusty users
deb http://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/pculture.org/miro/linux/repositories/ubuntu gutsy/

now just save and exit this file

after this we need to update sources list using following command

sudo apt-get update

till here our half work is done :)

now to install Miro use following command in terminal

sudo aptitude install miro

To Access Miro goto
Applications—>Sound & video—>Miro Internet TV


Second way to install Miro
To install Miro by this way on Ubuntu, you need to add Miro repository. This is pretty easy and you only need to do it once.

Open synaptic package manager (System>>Administration>>Synaptic Package Manager)

Open the repositories window (In synaptic package manager>>Settings>>repositories)

Click on Third Party Tab then press add button

Now add APT Line (repositories)

For Hardy
deb http://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/pculture.org/miro/linux/repositories/ubuntu hardy/

For Gusty
deb http://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/pculture.org/miro/linux/repositories/ubuntu gutsy/

For Fiesty
deb http://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/pculture.org/miro/linux/repositories/ubuntu feisty/

For Dapper
deb http://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/pculture.org/miro/linux/repositories/ubuntu dapper/


Now click Add Source button

Once its added just press the reload button on the left hand top corner of synaptic package manager window

Search for Miro in synaptic package manager and mark for install

Press Apply button now and its installed :)

To Access Miro goto
Applications—>Sound & video—>Miro Internet TV

Download Managers for ubuntu

cURL
cURL is a command line tool for transferring files with URL syntax. The strong point of cURL is the number of data transfer protocols it supports. Distributed under the MIT License, cURL is free software.

The main purpose and use for cURL is to automate unattended file transfers or sequences of operations. For example, it is a good tool for simulating a user's actions at a web browser.

To Install cURL on ubuntu go to terminal and use this command

sudo aptitude install curl

Gwet
Gwget is a free graphical download manager for GNOME, which uses GNU Wget as a back-end. It tightly integrates into GNOME and Firefox.
To install Gwget on ubuntu use this command in terminal

sudo aptitude install gwget

Alex
Axel is a command-line downloader for unix-like operating systems. Unlike wget, axel includes download acceleration, which attempts to increase download speed by splitting single file in segments.
To install Alex on ubuntu use this command in terminal

sudo aptitude install axel

jKiwi

jKiwi is a easy to use virtual makeover and hair styler application mainly for the Linux desktop. The aim of the project is to instantly find out how you would look in hundreds of haircuts, try different lip colors or eye contact lenses and shadows.

download it for your ubuntu from here jKiwi

System Requirements for ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron

Minimum system Requirements for Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Hardy Heron

• 300 MHz x86 processor
• 64 MB of system memory (RAM)
• At least 4 GB of disk space (for full installation and swap space)
• VGA graphics card capable of 640x480 resolution
• CD-ROM drive or network card

Recomended Minimum System Requirements for ubuntu 8.04 LTS Hardy Heron

• 700 MHz x86 processor
• 384 MB of system memory (RAM)
• 8 GB of disk space
• Graphics card capable of 1024x768 resolution
• Sound card
  A network or Internet connection
  

Note: All 64-bit (x86-64) PCs should be able to run Ubuntu. Use the 64-bit installation CD for a 64-bit-optimised installation.

Recommended for visual effects

• 1.2 GHz x86 processor
• 384 MB of system memory (RAM)
• Supported graphics card
  

Auto Login ubuntu

Its a good idea as after doing this system will not ask your login password at the time when you login to your system which can save your time, but from security point it is really not a very good idea as the users who have physical access to your computer can get into your computer without any password.
You can set this in ubuntu go to

System>>Administration>>Login Window (after clicking on Login Window option it will ask you for password)

now it will display Login Window Prefrences where we need to choose security tab and click on Enable Automatic Login.
thats it, from now on your ubuntu will not ask for any username or password at the time of booting.

Installing Opera on ubuntu

Ubuntu comes up with a pre installed web browser i.e. Firefox but still sometimes we need more than one browser to meet our online needs.Opera is the other browser which works really good on linux and got a good number of users There are 2 methods to install Opera in ubuntu First MethodYou can install Opera from Synaptic Package Manager, this is not very complex.Go to System>>Administration>>Synaptic Package Manager and search for Opera, press install and it will install it for you Second MethodSimply go to Terminal (Applications>>Accessories>>Terminal) sudo aptitude install operathis should do the trick and after getting it installed, can access it Applications>>Internet>>Opera

Get install update on ubuntu

Keep your ubuntu always updates, there are lot many third party and supported application & security updates which keeps on coming day by day for ubuntu so please keep your system updated always.
Try i run update command once in a day to stay updated

To update the repositories:

  sudo apt-get update

To update the packages of the currently installed version

  sudo apt-get upgrade

To upgrade the newest version

  
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Otherwise there is another very easy way to update your ubuntu
simply go to
System>Administration>Update Manager
and check for updates, press install button if any update is available :-)

sources.list for ubuntu 8.04 Heron

Hardy Heron is April 2008 release of ubuntu.
updating the sources list

##--------------------
## UBUNTU REPOSITORIES
## -------------------
deb http://my.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy main restricted
deb-src http://my.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy main restricted
deb http://my.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates main restricted
deb-src http://my.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates main restricted
deb http://my.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy universe
deb-src http://my.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy universe
deb http://my.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates universe
deb-src http://my.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates universe
deb http://my.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy multiverse
deb-src http://my.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy multiverse
deb http://my.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates multiverse
deb-src http://my.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates multiverse
deb http://my.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://my.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu hardy partner
deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu hardy partner
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hardy-security main restricted
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hardy-security main restricted
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hardy-security universe
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hardy-security universe
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hardy-security multiverse
deb http://my.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-proposed restricted main multiverse universe
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hardy-security multiverse
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntume.team/ubuntu hardy main # Ubuntu Muslim Edition
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntume.team/ubuntu hardy main # Ubuntu Muslim Edition
deb http://www.linuxmint.com/repository romeo/
deb http://tskariah.000webhost.com/ubuntu ubuntu main
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/kubuntu-members-kde4/ubu...gutsy main
## +++ Backports & Proposed (Ubuntu Unstable) +++
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-proposed main restricted universe multiverse
## +++ Source Repositories +++
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-security main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/kubuntu-members-kde4/ubu...hardy main
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy main restricted
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy main restricted
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates main restricted
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates main restricted
##Universe
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
## Multiverse
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
## Backports
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
## Canonical Partner Repository
deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu hardy partner
deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu hardy partner
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hardy-security main restricted
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hardy-security main restricted
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hardy-security universe
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hardy-security universe
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hardy-security multiverse
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hardy-security multiverse
## PLF REPOSITORY
deb http://packages.medibuntu.org/ gutsy free non-free
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/reacocard-awn/ubuntu gutsy main
## +++ Medibuntu +++
deb http://packages.medibuntu.org/ hardy free non-free
deb http://packages.medibuntu.org/ feisty free non-free
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/kubuntu-members-kde4/ubu...hardy main
deb http://playonlinux.botux.net/ hardy main

you can update or copy and paste this to your /etc/apt/sources.list

but before experiment do remember you are doing it on your own risk :-)

Install Azureus on ubuntu

Azureus is a BitTorrent client written in Java. The BitTorrent protocol is a new way of exchanging or distributing data over the internet. Downloading also means uploading, and the amounts of each are linked, to ensure fairness and rapidity in the spread of the file at hand.

Azureus comes with Vuze, a new GUI for the traditional Azureus application. From Vuze, you have five views; Dashboard, OnVuze, Library, Publish and Advanced.

* Dashboard - This splits your view into 3 panels: Currently Downloading, Recently Downloaded and available Downloads.
* OnVuze - This gives you a list of channels available, then each channel gives you available downloads.
* Library - Displays a list of Downloads on the right hand side and information on the selected download on the left.
* Publish - Takes you to publishing wizard to add your own content to the Vuze community. Note: You must register with Vuze for this.
* Advanced - This takes you to the Azureus you know and love.

Although closely linked and developed by many of the same people, Vuze and Azureus are separate projects.

To Install Azureus on your ubuntu you can simply go to terminal and type this command

sudo apt-get install azureus

this will install azureus on your ubuntu without any problems

for more details shout on me :)
otherwise check Azureus Home

To Launch Azureus on ubuntu Applications>>Internet>>Azureus

ubuntu Tweak

This tool is for ubuntu which makes it easy to change hidden system and desktop settings.

Ubuntu Tweak is only for GNOME desktop environment.

Some of the basic features of tweak

• GNOME Session Control

• Show/Hide and Change Splash screen

• Show/Hide desktop icons or Mounted Volumes.

• Show/Hide/Rename Computer, Home, Trash icon or Network icon

• Use Home Directory as Desktop

• Compiz Fusion settings, Screen Edge Settings, Window Effects Settings.

• GNOME Panel Settings.

• Nautilus Settings.

• Advanced Power Management Settings.

• System Security Settings.

Download ubuntu tweak using the following command

wget http://ubuntu-tweak.googlecode.com/files/ubuntu-tweak_0.2.6-1~ppa1_all.deb

Now you have .deb package install this package using the following command

sudo dpkg -i ubuntu-tweak_0.2.6-1~ppa1_all.deb

your terminal should look like this

after installing it you can go to Applications>>System Tools>>Ubuntu Tweek

Now start your experiment :)

How to

While going through some forums online and on ubuntu forum today i found something very handy and informative

check this in terminal :)

How to find which version of ubuntu you are using

lsb_release -a

How to find which version of kernel you are using

uname -r

How to find ip address

ip -d addr

How to find ip route

ip -d route

How to check MTU or Link

ip -d link

How to check MAC address

ifconfig

Setting up Netgear DG834G Router

---

Netgear DG834G v3, Netgear DG834G v4, Netgear DG834GT, Netgear DG834, Netgear DG834PN all these routers have exactly same basic settings and user interface so you can use this guide for any of these router

Setting Up Router/ Configuration

There are 2 ways to setup Netgear
1. Setup Wizard (which guides you through a setup wizard)
2. Manual Configuration (you need to put all values in router manually)

Here we are not discussing Setup Wizard as Manual configuration is far much easier then auto configuration

To configure (config) Netgear we need to get into router page

To open router config page
1. Open Internet Explorer (Start>>all prog>>Internet Explorer)
2. Type in address bar 192.168.0.1
3. In username box type admin (where it says gateway 192.168.0.1 requires username & password)
4. In password box type password (word password itself)

After this you will find Netgear ADSL Wireless Router Setup page



after this you will find next page as



Here in this page (Basic Settings Page)

Does your internet connection requires login, Select Yes
Select Encapculation as PPPoE
Login is Username as provided by your ISP
Password is your password for broadband connection as provided by your ISP
Keep Idle timeout as 0

after this simply press apply without changing anything else


Now We Need to click on ADSL Settings Page



Now on ADSL Setting Page We got only 3 options



Multiplexing Method Should be LLC-Based
VPI 0
VCI 35

now just press apply again

By this time your router should be only (you can check it by opening any website on Internet Explorer or by router status option on netgear page)


To Config Wireless

Click on Wireless Option (on left hand side blue panel)



It should display next page as


Here in this page

Wireless Network Name (SSID) Alpha-Numeric name which would be displayed as your wireless network name

Region Here Select Your Region

Channel: Select whichever channel give you best sighal (9, 11, 13 are recommended)

Keep the TIck on Enable Wireless Access Point

Keep the Tick on Allow Broadcast of Name (SSID)

Can Untick Wireless Isolation

Then Jump to Security Options

Select WPA-PSK (Wi-Fi Protected Access Pre Shared Key)

then in WPA-PSK Security Encryption type in anything of your own choice but alphabets and numbers both should be there and make it between 8 to 63 characters long.
WPA-PSK Security Encryption Key is your password for wireless network

Now Press Apply and your router is ready for wireless too

After doing this you can change MTU (Maximum Transmit Unit) size to 1400 from WAN Setup Option

You can find WAN Setup Option in same blue panel on left hand side of screen


Here you just need to change MTU to 1400 and need not to change any other setting

Now its all done and router is ready to send wireless signal to your system/laptop


I have tried to cover all important steps of netgear configuration here but Sill if you face anymore issues then please post here

AWN Dock on ubuntu hardy

This is for Hardy users only
Avant Windows Navigator (AWN) depends upon compiz and please activate desktop effects before installing AWN on ubuntu.
First you need to edit the /etc/apt/sources.list file using the following command

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

add the following two lines at the end

deb Index of /reacocard-awn/ubuntu hardy main

deb-src Index of /reacocard-awn/ubuntu hardy main

Save and exit the file.
Update the source list using the following command

sudo aptitude update

Install Avant Window Navigator (AWN) in Ubuntu

sudo aptitude install avant-window-navigator-bzr awn-core-applets-bzr

This will complete the installation
Now you can start AWN from

Applications->Accessories->Avant Window Navigator

Enjoy and as you know you can config/ modify it according to your choice and taste

Easy way to install

you can do it this way, simply go to synaptic package manager and search for awn manager
the very first thing which comes in list is awn-manager install it and enjoy
thats the easy way

Install VLC Media Player on ubuntu

As i alwayas say that we can install mainly all applications, games and programs on ubuntu so here posting something useful which we mainly use in windows to play DVD's and CD's which do not work on any other media player

Install vlc on ubuntu

Simply go to terminal and type in this command

sudo apt-get install vlc

thats installed now and you can launch vlc from

Applications>>Sound & Video>>VLC Media Player

enjoy again and Love Linux :)

Gateway IP in ubuntu

Most of us face issues while we try to config gateway ip on unubtu and, some geeks try to use ipconfig command on terminal :D which really do not work on ubuntu.
In windows microsoft call it ipconfig command where you can not config anything from this command but in ubuntu you can even config.. one more benifit of open source :) to get gateway address on ubuntu you can simply go to terminal and use

netstat -r grep default
or
ip neigh

second command is easy and faster too :)
Love Linux

initramfs error while installing ubuntu with windows

yesterday you guy's were worried about this error, so got resolution of that :)
First let me explain when we get this error.
when you boot you system and after selecting ubuntu screen goes black with this error
initramfs (type help for list of commands)
this error comes up when the other OS on system is not closed (shut down) correctly, as we all know the basic HDD format for linux is ext3 but in case when we install ubuntu from wubi it is installed on ntfs only (default c:) so this error comes up whenever previos OS (windows) on NTFS is not closed properly.
To get rid of this error reboot your system and press F8 for OS Choice Menu from there select windows and go for Boot Windows Normally after windows is loded, please unplug all USB devices connected (if any) like External Hard Drive, USB Card Reader, Webcam etc. by safely remove hardware option. Now shut down windows properly.
Now you just need to boot ubuntu normally and it should load properly.
Feedback is welcome :)

terminal to update linux ubuntu

As you all know that we need terminal to update and to install any application but if you are not comfortable with this terminal idea and commands then there is another way to install appliactions on ubuntu and to update too...
To Update ubuntu you can go to System>>Administration>>Update Manager
and to install any application we have 2 ways apart from terminal
1. Click on Main Menu and under that go to add/ remove application
2. Click on System>>Administration>>Synaptic Package Manager
but i like Terminal only and trust me if you are using linux then try using Terminal only

additional tip :) try these commands
Date
cal

Installing utorrent on linux ubuntu

utorrent can be installed on ubuntu very easily, you just name the application and i am here to provide you resolution or way to install it on linux :)
To install utorrent, first we need to install wine on our system & to install wine don't go to command prompt :-D just go to terminal and type

sudo apt-get install wine

after this installation of wine just copy and paste this command in terminal (not in command prompt LOL)

wget http://download.utorrent.com/1.7.5/utorrent.exe

and now just run it for the first time with command in terminal

wine utorrent.exe

and it will ask you to create shortcuts, click yes for that


and now you can check it under Main Menu>>Applications>>wine>>utorrent

is'nt this very easy..now start playing with sudo commands in terminal

Installing Google Chrome On Ubuntu

This is the Most simple way to install Google Chromium (chrome) on ubunutu, i installed it on Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy HeronChromium is an open-source browser project that aims to build a safer, faster, and more stable way for all Internet users to experience the web. The Chromium codebase is the basis for Google’s Chrome browser.First you need to download .deb package from here using the following command

wget http://media.codeweavers.com/pub/crossover/chromium/cxchromium_0.9.0-1_i386.deb

Now you have cxchromium_0.9.0-1_i386.deb package install this package using the following command

sudo dpkg -i cxchromium_0.9.0-1_i386.deb

This will complete the installationafter installation you may get an error sayingcxbottle:warning: The current character encoding (UTF-8) may not be compatible with the encoding of the bottle (ISO-8859-1). This may cause applications to not find their files and thus lead to malfunctions. Just ignore it and enjoy Google Chrome

(To Launch Chrome goto: Main Menu>>CrossOver Chromium>>Chromium)

wubi

Yesterday I tried installing ubuntu using Wubi and trust me its a great deal, you infact need not to worry about anything at all, only thing you need to do is to select the drive where you want to install ubuntu/ Kubuntu/ Edubuntu.
If you don't have partition then also there is nothing to worry about just select that partition where windows is installed and leave the rest on disc partitioner it knows the job better than anyone. I started my download yesterday and went to office, after that came back in morning & my system was already restarted and ubuntu was installed, then i restarted system once again, got 2 options to boot

Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Ubuntu

Selected ubuntu to boot and then it started disc partitioner to create swap and to install hardware and to configure all devices. It took about 5-6 minutes to complete this job, then system asked one more reboot Now ubuntu is fully installed and ready to use If any problem comes up then can go back to windows and run Wubi again to uninstall ubuntu from your system and will get the complete space on hard drive back on without loosing anything.It is as good as installing a prog on windows