Appendix B - Hints & Tips

Contents :-

Make CTRL+ALT+DEL work like Windows

copy/paste to Terminal >>>

gconftool-2 -t str --set /apps/gnome_settings_daemon/keybindings/power ""
gconftool-2 -t str --set /apps/metacity/global_keybindings/run_command_9 "<Control><Alt>Delete"
gconftool-2 -t str --set /apps/metacity/keybinding_commands/command_9 "gnome-system-monitor"

A launcher to edit config files

There are times when users may want to edit configuration files.  This is usually done by using "sudo" in a Terminal window (command line) to call an editor as "root" user.  Normal users don't have permission to edit config files.  

This provides an alternative that avoids use of the command line.

Right click on Desktop and choose Create Launcher
Set up the properties as follows :-
Type: Application
Name: Edit config files (or whatever you like)
Command: gksudo "gnome-open %u"
Comment:  (whatever you like)
Click OK to finish

Now all you have to do to edit config files is drag and drop onto the launcher icon on the Desktop.  After entering your password in the Password box, the config file will be opened in the editor for this file type, with root priviledges.  Edit and Save as usual and Close when finished.  

It is recommended that you make a copy of the file before editing so that, if something should go wrong preventing your system from starting, it can be recovered using a Live CD.

How to tame Ubuntu's fsck function on bootup

Ubuntu will check each mounted partition every 20 mounts or thereabouts so if you have several partitions on your hard drives you may suffer the wait while the system checks these for errors quite often.  There is a utility that enables the user to alter how often partitions are checked, called tune2fs.  For example, to check partition sda3 once a month rather than every 20 times it is mounted, use
sudo tune2fs -c 0 -i 1m /dev/sda3
Here we use -c 0 to disable mount count checking and -i 1m to set the time interval to 1 month.  The last part is the partition to set up. This needs doing for each partition.

These are the appropriate manual sections :-

NAME
       tune2fs - adjust tunable filesystem parameters on ext2/ext3 filesystems

SYNOPSIS
       tune2fs  [  -l  ] [ -c max-mount-counts ] [ -e errors-behavior ] [ -f ] [ -i interval-between-checks ] [ -j ] [ -J
       journal-options ] [ -m reserved-blocks-percentage ] [ -o [^]mount-options[,...]  ] [ -r reserved-blocks-count ]  [
       -s  sparse-super-flag ] [ -u user ] [ -g group ] [ -C mount-count ] [ -L volume-name ] [ -M last-mounted-directory
       ] [ -O [^]feature[,...]  ] [ -T time-last-checked ] [ -U UUID ] device

DESCRIPTION
       tune2fs allows the system administrator to  adjust  various  tunable  filesystem  parameters  on  Linux  ext2/ext3
       filesystems.

OPTIONS
       -c max-mount-counts
              Adjust  the  number of mounts after which the filesystem will be checked by e2fsck(8).  If max-mount-counts
              is 0 or -1, the number of times the filesystem is mounted will be disregarded by e2fsck(8) and the  kernel.

              Staggering  the  mount-counts  at  which  filesystems are forcibly checked will avoid all filesystems being
              checked at one time when using journaled filesystems.

              You should strongly consider the consequences of disabling mount-count-dependent  checking  entirely.   Bad
              disk  drives, cables, memory, and kernel bugs could all corrupt a filesystem without marking the filesystem
              dirty or in error.  If you are using journaling on your filesystem, your filesystem will  never  be  marked
              dirty,  so  it will not normally be checked.  A filesystem error detected by the kernel will still force an
              fsck on the next reboot, but it may already be too late to prevent data loss at that point.

              See also the -i option for time-dependent checking.


       -i  interval-between-checks[d|m|w]
              Adjust  the maximal time between two filesystem checks.  No postfix or d result in days, m in months, and w
              in weeks.  A value of zero will disable the time-dependent checking.

              It is strongly recommended that either  -c  (mount-count-dependent)  or  -i  (time-dependent)  checking  be
              enabled to force periodic full e2fsck(8) checking of the filesystem.  Failure to do so may lead to filesystem
              corruption (due to bad disks, cables, memory, or kernel bugs) going unnoticed, ultimately resulting  in
              data loss or corruption.

Trev's Hints and Tips

Trev is an active member of a general discussion message board I help to administer and has posted a number of useful hints and tips he has found for Ubuntu.  Many of these I have not had time to test personally so please use at your own discretion.  Here are Trev's postings :-
...I have been mosty using "Flyback". A snapshot type backup and restore utility similar to AppleMacs` TimeMachine.
Brilliant little app. Create manual and/or automatic snapshots of your Ubuntu system. You can specify which directories get backed up and can restore any or all files or folders from any previous snapshots.
http://www.ubuntugeek.com/flyback-sn...-on-rsync.html
Today in Ubuntu...I have mostly been playing with a program called Quickstart.
This primarily, is another backup utility, but it does some other cool things as well.
http://quickstart.phpbb.net/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=11
I think I prefer this to FlyBack. It installs (and uninstalls) easily has a very easy to use interface.
Amongst the backup options it has seperate settings for backing up just your Home directory, and/or a "/" backup and or a Configs backup (for Gina: xorg,conf, fstab, menu.lst, device.map and mtab)
Heres a screenie of the main window


Highly recommended!
Today in Ubuntu...... I have mostly been making some music with:
LMMS. (Linux Multi Media Studio) A music sequencer along the lines of Cubase etc. Very good.
http://lmms.sourceforge.net/screenshots.php
and:
Hydrogen. A brilliant drum machine/sequencer.
http://www.hydrogen-music.org/

Both apps are in the repositories and added easily via Synaptic
Today in Ubuntu...I have also been playing some old Amiga games using the UAE Amiga emulator
Today in Ubuntu, I have been mostly finding a way to download programmes from BBC iPlayer.

Currently the only way you can download from BBC iPlayer is via an iPhone or else via a Windows PC (that has both Windows Media Player10 and Internet Explorer 6).
Also the downloaded files (or the iPlayer) are infested with DRM that means you can only have the file for 7 days after you access it before it gets time bombed and wiped!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/info/channels/iplayer.shtml

After some trials, I eventually found a good way of not only downloading programmes from BBC iPlayer using Ubuntu, but also without the DRM crap so I can keep the files as long as I want
A big win for Ubuntu!

Only three programs are required.
iPlayer-dl
Ruby  (the scripting language that iplayer dl uses)
and VLC player to play the downloaded files (both installed via Synaptic).

Just to add this method should work on other flavours of Linux and also on Mac.

A quick HowTo:
Extract iplayer-dl-latest.tar.gz.
Open a terminal and navigate to your extracted iplayer-dl directory and do
ruby setup.rb config
sudo ruby setup.rb install
Thats the install done.
Now to use it, just go to the BBC iplayer web site and click on the programme you want to download.
Copy the Url of the programme or episode from your web browser.
In a terminal (in your iplayer directory) type "iplayer-dl >the url of the programme<"
eg.
iplayer-dl http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00d62qx/
The programme gets downloaded to your iplayer-dl directory.
Open the finished download in VLC for clear smooth playback. Other players try to play them but they seem to struggle. VLC is fine. The mp4s even at full screen are pretty good quality.
A nice Ubuntu tip which is handy for those who are unsure of navigating using a terminal (or just to make it easier for those who do), is to add nautilus open terminal, which adds an "Open in Terminal" option to the Nautilus file menu and also the mouse Right click menu. Saves a lot of time. Right click the directory and chose Open in Terminal and there you are.
To add this option, open a terminal and do
sudo apt-get install nautilus-open-terminal
You need to restart nautilus for it to take effect so
killall nautilus
Today in Ubuntu I have mostly been getting my webcam working with a little app called Cheese (via synaptic).
I did some reading and discovered Hardinfo
Don`t know if you know this one Gina, but its a handy little app. Gives lots of detailed info on your systems hardware etc.
I did sudo aptitude install hardinfo, but later found its in the repositories so you can add it via synaptic.
Found this handy tip that creates a html file of your hardware list, into your home directory
sudo lshw -html > hardware.html
Today in Ubuntu I have mostly been watching tv on my desktop with Zattoo Player.
Go here and register at Zattoo.:
https://zattoo.com/en/signup
Then download Zattoo for Linux (.Deb) from here: http://zattoo.com/en/download/linux
It adds Zattoo Player to Applications>Sound and Video.



Updated 17 Occtober 2008