A Day with Mad Ideas on Linux

Well, I think it’s mad ideas comes inside my mind while walking in the street on my way home. I decided to install ubuntu on my home PC. I have the ubuntu DVD, and I already installed it on my laptop. But I want to install it on my home PC.

However, I don’t have DVD device in my home PC, but I have a network connection between the laptop and home PC. My laptop has a kubuntu 6.10 edgy, and my home PC is Windows XP. the first step I did is to view the shares on Windows XP from the ubuntu machine, and Thanks to Allah, i saw them, and I was enable to write files to it. I freed some space from 11 GB drive, and I prepared it for installation.

A mad idea came again to my mind, Is it possible to install ubuntu from Windows XP? I google to find the answer, and I found a project in the development phase for creating an installer for ubuntu which connects to ubuntu servers to get the latest release and install it to a drive and updates the bootloader. I tried to use it, but I stopped when I knew that I had to download the whole distribution from internet.

I decided to install the ubuntu from my own DVD, but I have to create an ISO image for that DVD and transfer it to Windows.

I created the ISO image from shell by using the command:
mkisofs -o imagefile.iso /folder

I wish now to create the image file directly to a folder which mounts the Windows share, I tried to mount the share folder to a mount point so that I access it from shell, but I failed. I discovered that I have to install smbfs package, and I did it by the command:
sudo apt-get install smbfs

the wonderful ubuntu did it, and smbfs was installed. I mounted the directory successfully by the command:
sudo mount -t smbfs //HOMEPC/F smbf/

WOW, it succeeded, and I’m now creating the ISO image on the network share…

Upgrade Ubunutu 6.06 LTS (Dapper) to 6.10 (Edgy)

Ubuntu 6.10 is the current development version of the Ubuntu operating system. It is to be released in October 26th.The common name given to this release from the time of its early development was “Edgy Eft”.

Today I have upgraded my Ubuntu Dapper Machine to Ubuntu Edgy this is still is beta version.
We can Use Two methods to upgrade Ubuntu Dapper to Edgy
1) Using GUI
2) Using apt-get

Upgrading Ubuntu Dapper to Ubuntu Edgy
Method 1 – Using GUI
If you want to upgrade using GUI use the following command

gksu “update-manager -c -d”

The “-d” switch instructs Update Manager to consider pre-release versions and “-c” switch tells it to look for upgrades at all.You should see the following screen here Now you can see 6.10 is available for upgrade click on upgrade

Method 2 Using apt-get

Edit your /etc/apt/sources.list as root. Change every occurrence of dapper to edgy.
Use any prefered editor. If you have a CD-ROM line in your file, then remove it.
sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list
or

use the following Simple command:

sudo sed -e ’s/\sdapper/ edgy/g’ -i /etc/apt/sources.list

Now you need to update the source list using the following command:

sudo apt-get update

Upgrade using the following command:

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Double check your process was finished properly using the following command:

sudo apt-get -f install
sudo dpkg –configure -a

Now you need to Reboot your machine to take your new ubuntu 6.10 installation to effect all changes.

I have some applications installed in my ubuntu dapper machine after upgrading to edgy some of my applications also upgraded to latest versions

Upgrading from 6.06 LTS

Users of Kubuntu 6.06 LTS can upgrade to 6.10 over the internet by following these instructions:
NOTE: This procedure upgrades your system over the Internet, which requires a large download of several hundred megabytes.
In Konqueror go to /etc/apt, right click on sources.list and choose Actions -> Edit as Root
Change all instances of dapper to edgy
Launch a console with KMenu -> System -> Konsole
In the console run: sudo apt-get update
In the console run: sudo apt-get dist-upgrade and follow the prompts to upgrade
In the console run: sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop python-qt3 python-kde3 ubuntu-minimal and follow the prompts to install
Reboot your computer
If you have a Kubuntu 6.10 CD, put it in the drive, and run apt-cdrom from the command line. Then follow the instructions above.

extract RAR files in Linux

If u have a RAR file, and u want to extract it on linux, use a tool called “unrar”.

to extract the file in the current directory, use:
unrar e filename.rar

Configure openSUSE not to restore previous session

By default, openSUSE is configured to restore the previous session at next login. to disable this, open the K menu -> Configure Desktop -> KDE Components -> Session Manager and select “Start with an empty session” from the “On Login” group.

Calgoo Online Calendar

Calgoo officially launched their beta calendar sharing program today. Download Squad reviewed their second draft last October and while positive on the whole, we thought there were some key missing features like synchronization with Google calendar, Microsoft Outlook and iCal. Well, it looks like the folks at Calgoo have fixed that, enhanced speed, and added these features as well:
Updated the user interface by reducing clutter and adding functionality
Single click “Map it” to generate a Google map of your event or appointment location
Add reminders to your appointment
To do lists (does not currently synchronize tasks with Google Calendar and recurring tasks are not supported, although this will be added in the near future).Calgoo is a Java-based desktop calendar application that works on Windows, Mac and Linux.