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Trying Out Ubuntu 10 04 On A Desktop PC Part One

As mentioned in several of my previous blogs, I use Ubuntu Netbook Remix exclusively on my netbooks (a Lenovo S10-2 and an HP Mini 2140). After playing around with the relatively new UNR 10.04 on the HP, I grew to like the OS - so much so that I decided to install it on a spare PC that I had around (which was mainly used for testing) and play around with it some more. The PC is built around an Asus M2N-E motherboard and the CPU I had installed is an AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+. The amount of RAM on the motherboard is 8 GB of DDR2-800. Clearly the 64-bit flavor of Ubuntu 10.04 was the choice of OS here. To top up the hardware, I also installed a ATI HD 4670 video card, a 550W power supply and a 320GB SATA hard disk. The display was an Acer 23 inch wide screen LCD. With all the hardware pieces in place, I ventured into the world of 64-bit Linux computing. This blog and more will describe my journey in that world.

After downloading the ISO image of the DVD, I burned it to a disc and used it for the installation. The actual installation was painless - the only unusual item of note is that I partitioned the hard disk manually and used ext3 filesystem instead of the default ext4. I also used my normal (normal for me, that is) partitioning scheme - i.e., a small boot partition, the root partition, a swap partition and a home partition. The reason for using the ext3 filesystem was mentioned also in my previous blog - it enables me to backup or clone my hard disk using the Arconis Home 2010 software, which at the moment can only handle ext3 type filesystem.

The first boot-up went without any problem and after logging in, was presented with the purple-colored desktop. The first thing I did was to change the screen desktop background to a more pleasing one - right-clicking on the desktop and selecting Change Desktop Background, I was presented with several choices. I selected Maraetai before sunrise as my background - at least it does not hurt my eyes as much as the default! :)

The second thing I did was un-mute my sound system, which, for some reason or other, the Ubuntu team decided to initially start off muted. I also adjusted the volume level sliders to a reasonable value. Note that the Sound Preference dialog box that appears upon clicking it, do not have the option to test the sound levels - a shortcoming which I urge the Ubuntu team to fix.

The next (and somewhat irritating) thing I fixed is the placement of the windows control (maximize, minimize and close) buttons from the top left side of the windows to the usual (and familiar) top right side.

As with my previous installation of UNR 10.04 on my HP netbook, I was prompted to update my system and it also indicated that propriety drivers were available for my system. Putting aside the drivers for the time being, I updated the system via the Update Manager - which took a while since there was a fair amount of updates that needed to be applied. Once completed a re-boot was required - this was done and the system restarted - this time it was accompanied with the Ubuntu startup sound.

The Firefox Browser

The first software I tried out on the Ubuntu 10.04 was the default web browser that come with it - the Firefox. I started it and changed my home page to news.google.com.my and then checked the installed plugins by executing about:plugins via the address bar. All the necessary multimedia and java plugins were installed except Shockwave flash-player and pdf-reader plugins.

The Shockwave flash-player plugin package (named flashplugin-nonfree) can be installed using the Synaptic Package Manager but note that this is a 32-bit plugin - the 64-bit one is still in beta and was not included in the standard installation of Ubuntu 10.04. As it is a 32-bit package, there was a lot of dependencies for it - the major ones being nspluginwrapper and ia32-libs. These are required to make the 32-bit plugin work on 64-bit Ubuntu. A lot of work to get one plugin to work - I just wish Adobe would get the 64-bit one working as soon as possible. However, the plugin worked - I verified it by playing a YouTube movie (my favorite HQ movie of Sarah Brighman singing Harem). The command about:plugins also verified that the shockwave flash is indeed installed.

The pdf-reader plugin, on the other hand, is not such a simple package to install. First the lucid partner repository need to enabled - this is done by editing the /etc/apt/sources.list file (as root) and un-commenting the two lines for the lucid partner repository. Then the Synaptic Package Manager need to be restarted and the package database refreshed by clicking on the Reload button. Alternatively, the command sudo aptitude update can be run from a console. Then a search for acroread need to be done and once found that package need to be installed. Note that this will also install the free Adobe Acrobat Reader and if you choose so, make it the default pdf type file reader. Once the plugin (and reader) has been installed, the Firefox browser has to re-started. The command about:plugins has also to be executed to verify that the pdf plugin is indeed installed - which in my case, was. In order to test the plugin I used a web page containing a pdf test document and it verified that the installed plugin worked. However, for some strange reason, the Acrobat Reader was not listed in the Applications menu list. Loggin out and then back in solved this - Acrobat Reader 9 was now listed in Applications -> Office.

Next I installed some extra essential (to me!) plugins - Adblock Plus, Download Statusbar, Webmail Notifier and Yoono (a social neworking app to mintor my twitter and facebook account). Once these were installed I now have the Firefox browser that I can use productively. In fact, I use the same setup for my netbooks and my Windows 7 workstations. Later I get my bookmarks synchronized across all my computers. I wonder if there is an application that will allow me to do so.

Next, I will check out the multimedia capabilities of Ubuntu 10.04 ... stay tuned.

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Ubuntu one indicator

To check the status of ubuntuone (connected, etc) do:

u1sdtool -s 

It will print something like:

State: QUEUE_MANAGER
 connection: With User With Network
 description: processing queues
 is_connected: True
 is_error: False
 is_online: True
 queues: IDLE

To check the current transfers (upload/download) do:

u1sdtool --current-transfers

It will print something like:

Current uploads:
 path: /home/marcos/Ubuntu One/Imagens/Flames/legendary-trap (c�pia).jpg
 deflated size: 49724
 bytes written: 0
Current downloads: 0

GUI

Install the ubuntuone-indicator indicator that will provide some info on the tray area.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:rye/ubuntuone-extras

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install ubuntuone-indicator

In a terminal, start the indicator with: 

ubuntuone-indicator 

To read more about this subject look here.

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Ubuntu 10 04 Netbook Remix On An HP Mini 2140 Netbook Part One

It was 5 months ago when Canonical announced the release of the Ubuntu 10.04 (codenamed Lucid Lynx) Linux OS - which also carried the LTS (Long Term Support) moniker. The Netbook Remix version was also released at the same time. At that time I was using the 9.10 Netbook Remix version (Karmic Kaola) on my Lenovo S10-2 Ideapad netbook and was very satisfied with it. Needless to say, I was tempted to upgrade to the 10.04 version - however, from experience, I decided to hold off for a few months until all the bugs have been ironed out from the OS.

Recently, I obtained a Hewlett-Packard Mini 2140 - a netbook similar to the Lenovo S10-2. My sister had purchased it because it was relatively cheap but was very disappointed with its small sized screen. After using it for a short while, she gave up and offered it to me. I now own 2 netbooks - one already running the Ubuntu 9.10 (the Lenovo) and the other running Windows XP (the HP). This situation presented me the opportunity to try out the Ubuntu 10.04 Netbook Remix OS on the HP Mini.

The HP Mini 2140 is an Intel Atom based netbook and it uses a 1.6 Ghz N270 CPU. It also use the Intel 945GSE chipset with the GMA950 mobile graphics. For wireless connectivity, it utilize the Broadcom chipset. As you can see, these specifications are the same as for the Lenovo S10-2 with one major exception. The exception is the number of USB ports - only 2 is present on the HP while the Lenovo has 3. The space that would be required for the extra USB port on the HP is occupied by an ExpressCard/54 slot (with an SD cardslot immediately below it). Note that the Lenovo does not have an ExpressCard slot. It looks as if a USB hub is a must for the HP - or if a 54mm wide ExpressCard card with 4 USB ports is available, it would meet the need for extra USB ports.

In order to try out Ubuntu 10.04 Netbook Remix on the HP Mini 2140, I purchased a brand new WD Scorpio Blue 500GB hard disk to replace the existing disk (which I carefully stored it just in case I need to use Windows XP again) in the HP netbook. I also replaced the 1GB memory stick in the HP with a 2GB stick. I also discovered that I simply could not locate a 54mm wide ExpressCard card with 4 USB ports anywhere here in Malaysia - only a 34mm wide version is available. Anyway I had a spare 4-port USB hub for use during the trial if needed. Thus armed with all the items mentioned, I then proceeded to download the ISO image of the Netbook Remix from the Ubuntu web site and a CDROM was created using Brasero (a CDROM burning software) on the Lenovo with an external CD burner attached. Instructions was also available on the download web site on how to create a USB drive for installing UNR from it. Just in case something happens to the external CDROM drive for the netbook, I also created the install USB drive.

I then proceeded to install the Ubuntu 10.04 Netbook Remix on the HP Mini 2140 netbook. Happily, it was a success. The installation will be described in the next part of this blog ... stay tuned.

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Ubuntu One for Windows Cloud App Client is Released!

"Ubuntu One" is the brand name for the cloud computing (storage specific) model of the Ubuntu Linux operating system. Although the Ubuntu Cloud model is an open one unlike with other models such as iClould or MS Windows Cloud version which are proprietary in nature.

I dont know much about the business oriented cloud... but Im against the idea of the personal cloud "module", because something doesnt feel right man :). Anyhow, whether its necessary or not, it doesnt matter because its at our doorsteps. And if you use Ubuntu as your primary OS then youre aware that it comes highly integrated with the Ubuntu One account which easily lets you manage your data in the Ubuntu Cloud.

Its here! ...

But since the idea of the cloud storage is to let you access your data wherever you are, no matter what platform that youre using, then as a cloud storage service provider you must have a cross-platform ready cloud model.

As a result of this, Ubuntu One has already released its desktop front-end to other platforms such as Android and iPhone recently but the MS Windows version was still in beta. But today, Ubuntu One team announced that the Ubuntu One for MS Windows is officially available to download!.


So if you dont like to pay for anything, then Ubuntu One will give you about 5GB of Cloud space for free! (a free sign-up is necessary first). And as long as youre using any device thats powered by a the MS Windows platform and have this app installed, youll be able sync/access your data with ease.


You can create new folders, manage music, delete files, upload/download files, etc using this utility. Its about 22.3MB in size and if interested, you can get it from this official Ubuntu One for Windows page.

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Twenty One Pilots announces three special Ohio concerts

twenty one pilots: Heathens (from Suicide Squad: The Album) [OFFICIAL VIDEO]

Josh Dun, Tyler Joseph

Josh Dun, left, and Tyler Joseph of the music group Twenty One Pilots performs at the 2016 iHeartRadio Music Festival - Day 1 held at T-Mobile Arena on Friday, Sept. 23, 2016, in Las Vegas. (John Salangsang)

CLEVELAND, Ohio - You"d be hard pressed to find a hotter Ohio act right now than Twenty One Pilots.

The Columbus-born band is coming off a chart-topping album with "Blurryface," platinum sales and a Grammy win. Yet, the duo hasn"t forgotten its roots.

on monday, twenty One Pilots announced "Tour de Columbus," a series of three shows in its hometown that take place June 20-22. The concerts will take place at intimate venues with tickets available only to verified fan club members through Ticketmaster (to combat scalping).

Registration for tickets begins Tuesday, March 28 at midnight. Click HERE for more info.

Source: http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2017/03/twenty_one_pilots_three_specia.html

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Ubuntu One Music App for iPhone is Released!

I certainly dont like it at all but Cloud computing maybe the inevitable (maybe, Gayan?, seriously! :D). Although In a way I think that just like GNU/Linux has done, somewhat "protected" her users in the "real world", the only way for us geeks to survive (with our believe systems of course) in this virtual but real inevitability, maybe, just maybe perhaps by letting GNU/Linux and Open-source software in general taking control of the cloud-world.

Although not everyone trusts Ubuntu these days, but from a certain time, Canonical has been very serious about their Ubuntu One (which is their version of the open-source cloud model) product module and its behavior. Although they had a dedicated app for the Android "crowd" for sometime now but...

... since Apple is seemingly becoming powerful day by day, they too introduced their version of Cloud computing model called iCloud recently, its about time that Ubuntu One has finally decided to make an app that lets Apple "i-geeks" :) to interact with the Ubuntu One Music account.

Few days ago they officially announced its availability and yes, its finally here!. So basically youll be getting 30 days of trial period in which youll be give 20GB of cloud storage which you can use to listen, store/sync your audio files (of certain types of course) between Ubuntu One Music account and iPhone.

Its free right?

Well, the application is free but after the initial 30 days of trial period, youll have to pay a monthly charge of $3.99. This is not a criticism since giving away 20GB storage for free doesnt make any sense, nor itll survive if it has no way to cover its expenses as anyone can see. And the Ubuntu One Music account lets you deal with MP3, Ogg Vorbis and non-DRM iTunes.


Although not everyone would like it but I think almost all of us GNU/Linux geeks just love the fact that Ubuntu respectively filter-out the DRM "license" which as said, its better to be in the cloud still retaining some of the original ideas that took us this far rather than live outside of it and be miserable (or maybe not :D).


Main features...

*. It only supports music streaming over Wi-Fi or 3G (of course).

*. MP3, Ogg Vorbis and non-DRM iTunes files are supported.

*. Supports iOS 3.1 or higher.

*. Automatic playback resume (if it was interrupted, say due to a call).

*. 30 days of "fun time", $3.99 afterwards (each month that is :D). 

*. Shuffle and repeat ... are just a few to mention.

You can get the app from both this Ubuntu One Music page or from this Apple iTunes app store page. Good luck.

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Two in one!

Now thats the first time that happened to me...

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Ubuntu One First Impressions

First off, what exactly is Ubuntu One? Well basically its a file sharing and synchronisation service from Canonical. The basic package is free and provides a reasonable 2GB of storage. Canonical claims its your personal cloud.

So my first impressions? It sucks. Canonical produces client software for both Ubuntu 9.04 and Ubuntu 9.10. However support for 9.04 seems pretty feeble. Theres no Tomboy notes synchronisation for 9.04 as there is in 9.10. Which makes that feature useless if your not the type to dive in and upgrade all your PCs all at once.

Even worse however is the file synchronisation feature. It just doesnt seem to work. This being the basic concept of the whole package anybody would have thought Canonical would have gone out of their way to make this work. But it seems not.

So far Ive been able to get files and indeed whole folders to upload my Ubuntu One storage space. But they dont ever seem to download to the other PC. It doesnt matter which PC does the uploading. The other PC just doesnt "synchronise" with my on-line Ubuntu One storage space.

Now the client software isnt the only way to interact with Ubuntu One. There is a web interface. But then again there are loads of places on-line for me to upload my stuff to that I can later download from using a web browser. The point and attraction of Ubuntu One is the desktop integration. Which just doesnt seem to be working properly.

Frankly I get a better service using the 50MB of free web space my ISP provides me with. Its simpler to set up as well. All I need to do is FTP into my web space from Places > Connect To Server. No software to install. No PPA to setup. Just a user name, password and FTP address. Its also 100% compatible with both versions of Ubuntu Im using at the moment.

Perhaps Ubuntu One will work better when Im running Ubuntu 9.10 on both PCs.

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Ubuntu One of Linux Distribution

Ubuntu is a Linux distribution operating system software, meaning that it runs using Linux applications, kernels and libraries. Ubuntu is developed and sponsored by Canonical, Ltd., a South African company that is founded and funded by Mark Shuttleworth.

The underlying focus of Ubuntu is mostly on the usability of the software and the freedom of software from existing restrictions. Ubuntu derives its name from an African term meaning �humanity to others.� Given this, Ubuntu is based on the principle that software should be made available to everyone, that they are tools that people can use regardless of the language they speak and whether or not they have disabilities, and that software should be customizable according to the needs of their users. Most of all, Ubuntu is developed based on the idea that software should be free, and should be used freely, without any cost.

The core applications of Ubuntu are available for free, and they can be downloaded from the Ubuntu website, which is http://www.ubuntu.com. The CD that contains these core applications can also be ordered and shipped anywhere in the world free of charge. Aside from these core applications, Ubuntu also has around 16,000 programs to suit the needs of its users. It is also available for both desktop and server use.

The desktop package of Ubuntu is complete and has features that make both working and playing viable through the use of this operating system. For word processing, spreadsheet and database creation, and other functions covered by Microsoft Office, Ubuntu has OpenOffice.org. Ubuntu also carries Mozilla Firefox in its package, which allows for tabbed browsing, has strong pop-up blocking and is well-known for its relative invulnerability to malware. Ubuntu�s counterpart for Microsoft Outlook is Evolution, which similarly acts as an email client, an address book and a schedule manager. Ubuntu�s answers to Microsoft�s Windows Media Player are Rhythmbox Media Player for audio files and Totem for videos.

Another feature of Ubuntu that makes it attractive is the high level of customization it makes possible for its users. Ubuntu also supports 40 languages; it also has the Rosetta translation tool, which allows a user to create a dictionary and translator for his or her own language.

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Trying Out Ubuntu 10 04 On A Desktop PC Part One Addendum

In my previous blog, I mentioned installing some extra add-ons. What I forgot to mention was that I had problem initially while trying to install ANY add-ons - an error #228 occurs eveytime. After researching the web, I found that this was a common problem with 64-bit Ubuntu and it had to do something with IPv6 support in Firefox. This has to be disabled before add-ons can be successfully installed.

Following the instruction, I executed about:config in Firefox and then clicked "Ill be careful" button on the warning that appeared. I then typed ipv6 in the filter box to get to the one and only line thats needed - that line will say network.dns.disableipv6. The default value is "false". I then double-clicked it to set the value to "true" (to disable IPv6). Once this was done and Firefox restarted, I could install the add-ons without any problems. Note that if you do require IPv6 support in Firefox you need to reverse the process.

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Ubuntu one on Karmic Koala

Ubuntu one is a free on line file sharing service offered by Canonical. The newly released ubuntu 9.10 has Ubuntu One tightly integrated with it. For using this service , you have to sign up with Ubuntu one. Click on this link and fill in the details to get a free account which can hold upto 2 GB. A mail will come to you mail account asking you to confirm the subscription.

Once you have completed the registration and confirmed , the ubuntu one account can be set up on your karmic koala desktop.

Click on Applications >> Internet and click Ubuntu One. The following window will pop up.

You can set the preferences for show icon ,connect on start and bandwidth.

The web browser will be launched and you will be taken the the launchpad website and asked to login. Once you login you will again be asked to confirm whether you want to add you computer to Ubuntu One. Once you agree, the Ubuntu one menu item will come under . See the picture below.

You can use this folder as any other normal folder on your computer.


This folder will be under your home directory. If you open a terminal and move to ~/ Ubuntu One/ folder, you can see the off-line contents on your hard disk. If you open the folder in nautilus, a special connect / disconnect button appears. You can use this to connect to the Internet and update your files on the Ubuntu one servers.

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Two MP3 Player Epic Fails in One Month

Today Apple announced the newest additions to the iPod family- most notably an iPod touch with GL ES support (and a 50% faster CPU) with up to 64GB of storage and a new iPod Nano that can shoot VGA resolution video; however they failed to add the camera into the iPod Touch! The 64GB of storage is a massive amount of flash memory- but it comes with the requirement to use the bloated Apple iTunes to organize applications/movies/etc. (Don�t get me wrong: I once was an iTunes zealot- back in the days of v6- but the current implementation of iTunes on Windows reminds me of Windows Vista). The OS is updated to v3.1 to add �Genius� and �gaming features�- but both of these are useless on an Media player (unless they are going to release an Apple Bluetooth gamepad?)

A few weeks ago, details for the Microsoft Zune HD were released: it features an awesome looking 3.3� OLED touch screen (480x252) and utilizes the nVidia Tegra chip to allows the player to output 720p video to an external monitor/TV (and enables the option for 3D rendering for the upcoming �app store�). The player also features WiFi (for web browsing, wireless sync, online purchases) and an FM Radio, but fails to include a Bluetooth radio- which kills all chances of A2DP wireless audio� (and no camera was expected)

Here is a basic cross-comparison of features that I was looking at:

	iPod Touch 64GB	Zune HD
Memory:	64GB	32GB
Screen Size:	3.5�	3.3�
Resolution:	480x320	480x272
OLED:	No	Yes
WiFi:	Yes	Yes
A2DP:	Yes	No
Camera:	No	No
Apps:	Yes	Yes*
HD Output:	No	Yes
Web Browser:	Yes	Yes
iPod Car Dock Connector:	Yes	No
Wireless Sync:	No	Yes
Price:	$399	$279

*Apps forthcoming- possible Windows Mobile 6.0 compatibility?

The iPod Touch seems to win by 8 to 7 on features, but this comes at a price of $120 more than the Zune HD.

I was considering upgrading my aging iPod Classic 60GB, but both of the new offerings have fallen short of what I think they need to contain for the price points they are asking. I need to decide if one is �good enough� to replace my current (working) 60GB iPod (and part with $300-$400) or if I should just wait until the next generation rolls around�

Update: I eventually went with the iPod Touch 64GB and I am now hooked on the App store. I wanted camera and GPS functionality, so I returned the iPod Touch and purchased an iPhone (no contract); now I am just waiting for a jailbreak for the iPhone 3GS with FW 3.1! :)

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Ubuntu One File Services Shutting Down!

However, as the blog post states

"The shutdown will not affect the Ubuntu One single sign on service, the Ubuntu One payment service, or the backend U1DB database service."

Important Dates to Keep in Mind

April 02 2014: It is no longer possible to buy additional storage or music files
June 01 2014: Services will be unavailable (User data still available for download)
July 31 2014: All files left in the cloud will be deleted

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