Local repos

So, what happened in the last week? I went to my first Ubuntu release party, which was awesome to say the least, the people there were great. I got to mix with developers from Linux to Java which was very good company. But the awesome thing about the party was that it was held at a venue where some of the mirrors of the Ubuntu repos were maintained. So being Ubuntu people as they were, they gave us the opportunity to grab a copy of the repos, yes, the entire Ubuntu main, universe, multiverse, repos as at the 10^th of October. Let me tell you, that made my skin crawl from just thinking about it. This was an opportunity to experience Ubuntu with less need for downloading apps, codecs, libs and such. Repositories (repos) are a location which stores collections of packages (apps) by the way.

Just to get all of you updated as to my experience, my PC is setup as follows:

There are four hard drives;

sda. 500Gb with XP, Windows 7 and blank ext4 partitions

sdb. 500Gb with /home and data partitions

sdc. 500Gb data partitions

sdd. 20Gb with Lucid (10.04), clean install using the /home on sdb

My Maverick (10.10) installation was to be done on one of the ext4 partition on sda. Right. I have both the 64 bit and 32 bit .iso images and both I intend on installing both of them on sda.

32bit Maverick with separate /home partition

Here we go. I popped in the disc where I had burnt the .iso image. The time was 20:05, it booted from disc and from there I saw my first couple of changes in the installer. Firstly, the Ubuntu boot menu has gone, the moment the PC boots from the disc it starts loading the Live CD without asking you what option you want, which was a pain for me at some stage because after installing I left the disc in the drive, so after rebooting I was forced to go back to the Live CD or force it to quit and reboot again (which I did). Anyway, after the Live CD booted the next screen I saw was a popup window where I was asked whether I want to "Try Ubuntu" or "Install now". I tried it out at first, for a minute or so, then since I was itching to use it I went straight to the installation. The installer has changed in a good way in my opinion. The following changes I saw immediately:

1.      There's less menu screens that appear before actual installation,

2.      It lets you know the recommended settings to get your Ubuntu install setup right

3.      It provides the option to install the codecs for multimedia support right from the start (you need to be connected to the internet for this)

4.      It also provides the option to install updates as well (you need to be connected to the internet for this as well)

I wasn’t connected to the internet so I didn’t opt for the updates and the codecs (I had local repos anyway so I could get the codecs later). After these screens the installer asks where you want your installation to be, the options being;

a. Next to other operating systems

b. On the entire hard drive; and,

c. On specific partitions (advanced)

Since I have a separate /home partition, I went for option c. This part of the installer has also slightly changed, I got vexed for a couple of seconds but I figured it out. I chose my root partition, my /home partition and my /swap and I was good to go.

Just to explain this to anyone who has never done this before: To install manually to specific partitions, you need to have the partitions already set where you are going to install to. The partitions that you need are 1) the "/" (root) partition, 2) the /home partition and the 3) swap partition. So a minimum of three partitions have to be available for you to use this option. Use Gparted (Menu: System\Administration\GParted) to create the partitions if you haven’t already done so. ALWAYS remember, when using Gparted, the possibility of COMPLETE data loss is possible. Backup any information you are not prepared to lose.

You need to know the names (system names not Labels) of the partitions, e.g. Sda4, sdb3 etc. This you can tell easily through the Disk Utility (Menu: System\Administration\Disk utility) or GParted. Once you have the partitions and you know the names, you're set. On the manually select partitions screen, select the partition that will have the "/" (root) partition, select "change" and on the popup window select "/", you can tick "format partition" if you wish it and you can also specify the file system. Do the same for /home and /swap. After this you are all done.

You will note that there were only three menus that I encountered and its already installing, an improvement to the previous installer.

At this stage it was 20:09 when I hit the "Install now" button. The copying of the files started and while that was happening, the installer then asked for my personal info, name, username, password, time zone and keyboard settings. This blew me away, the installation starts right away and the personal information which you input is then used at the end of the install, awesome. I completed the personal info by 20: 13 and read the slideshow that appears as its installing. And honest to God, at 20:18 the installer was done. It asked me to reboot, ejected the disc and that was it. 9 minutes to install! I was impressed.

The many advantages of having a separate /home partition is the settings you had in your previous installations will be carried over into the new install, so, my Rhythmbox playlists, my background picture, tvtime stationlists shortcuts etc were all there waiting for me. So as soon as I logged in I was ready to go "under the hood".

Local repositories

Unfortunately as things stand, Ubuntu install discs do not come with certain codecs (the majority of them), drivers and other proprietary stuff. Thus to fully use some of the capabilities, the repositories need to be visited as a matter of urgency (unless you installed these during installation).

I copied the repos to my /home folder so that they will always be available to me. You can opt to store them on another partition, external hard drive etc, whatever suits you. The address to where I stored them is "/home/nameofuser/Documents/repos" in a folder called "debmirror". Please take note of where your repos are located as you shall need it later. To access them I had to change the repositories in either "Synaptic Package Manager" (Menu: System\Administration\Synaptic Package manager) or through the terminal. And this where things get interesting.

Option 1: Synaptic package manager

1.      Open Synaptic, input password if asked for it.

2.      Go to Settings (it's on the menu, after "Package")

3.      Select "Repositories", a window will popup with Software sources options

4.      Untick all the options that are ticked on the "Ubuntu Software" tab. If you have an internet connection working currently you may skip this step if you want to get any packages from the internet.

5.      Go to the next tab, "Other Software", at the bottom of this tab are the options, "Add..." and "Add volume...", select "Add..". Another popup window will open.

6.      On this popup window type the following in the APT line: 'deb file:///'

7.      Now paste or type the location of the repos, for me this would be: /home/nameofuser/Documents/repos/debmirror

8.      My APT line looks like this: deb file:///home/nameofuser/Documents/repos/debmirror

9.      Now complete the line by typing at the end of the line: "maverick main" (if you have repos for restricted, universe and multiverse, add restricted universe multiverse after main). Now your APT line will look like this: "deb file:////home/nameofuser/Documents/repos/debmirror maverick main" or "deb file:////home/nameofuser/Documents/repos/debmirror maverick main restricted universe multiverse"

10.  You will know you have entered the right format when the "Add Source" at the bottom of the window becomes enabled. Click "Add source", you will return to the "Other Software" window. Click on "Close". You should get a notification that "Repositories changed" and you need to reload. Close that popup, reload the repositories (Click on the Reload icon in Synaptic) and if all went well the new repos will be recognised.

Option 2: Using the terminal (shorter)

1.      Open the terminal (duh), (Menu: Applications\Accessories\Terminal)

2.      Type the following: "sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list". Enter your password and this will open up the text file where the repositories are maintained.

3.      Now at first, comment out every line that's in the text file. (In layman's terms put a # in front of every line in the text file).

4.      Add this line anywhere in the text file (do not comment it out afterwards): deb file:///home/nameofuser/Documents/repos/debmirror maverick main (refer above for modifications)

5.      Save the file and close it.

6.      Open Synaptic and reload the repositories. You're done.

After this it was play time.

After clean-install Apps and downloads

Here is my top ten list of apps and things I do/get:

1.      NVIDIA drivers (I use a GeForce 9400GT 1Gb)

2.      Compiz, compiz settings manager, simple compiz configuration manager

3.      Multimedia codecs

4.      tvtime (to watch tv from my tv tuner card)

5.      Check to see if my usb 3G card is picked up

6.      Avant Window Navigator and Docky (yes, both)

7.      Ubuntu Tweak (ubuntu-tweak.com/downloads/)

8.      Conky

9.      Drapes

10.  APTonCD

Ubuntu 10.10 experience

So far, I don't really have much to say about 10.10, there's one or two new things, some things taken away etc. It is nice, the boot time is noticeably faster, the sound applet on the menu now accommodates Rhythmbox, the new Ubuntu font is nice as well, etc.

My main problems though were that 'tvtime', my most used app (I stay with tv lovers) doesn't work, apparently there's a bug or something, I am still on it, will get back when I get some sort of response on this. And I don't know what app I installed that killed my 'Alt+F1' shortcut key to open the Applications menu, that just sucks, now I have to use the mouse for everything.

Other than that it’s a good release, I haven’t played too much with it which I will be doing a lot of soon and you will hear from me.

Next time I will write on the apps/drivers I use, how to get them, and my play time with 64bit Ubuntu 10.10.

I shall write again soon.

10.10

Ubuntu 10.10 release

Wow, in two days time, Maverick will be released, the much awaited Ubuntu 10.10 to be released on the 10th of October at 10:10. The background behind it all is genius. Maverick is the release that will cater to the mass consumer market, (the not so daring of us who are currently using Mac OS or Windows), the perfect 10 release which will be released on the 10th of October at 10:10:10. Well, personally, I can’t wait, the reviews I've read so far seem to point towards a great candidate to lure the masses, for example, http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20101007/tc_pcworld/ubuntu1010maverickmeerkatisnowofficial and http://g33q.co.za/2010/09/19/impressions-ubuntu-10-10-maverick-meerkat-beta-with-screenshots/. In this regard it must be pure coincidence that there is an initiative to prove to the world that Linux has a bigger market share than the 1% they always talk about in the media. If you go to www.dudalibre.com/gnulinuxcounter?lang=en they are urging users of Linux (GNU/Linux, whatever) to register on their site and the email address you use is linked to a single Linux user. (Of course, this isn’t the best way to do this but unfortunately coming with these figures is not an easy task). This method has its pros and cons but it’s worth the try either way, I’m going to register with them this afternoon. Linux and Ubuntu are here to stay ladies and gentlemen, I can only wish them all the best in their efforts and endeavours.

Anyway, the reason why I am so bubbly at the moment is that I will be attending my first Ubuntu release party ever this Sunday. I know that's odd, considering I've been using Ubuntu for the last two years (almost), but I never really got around to doing it. Finally I get to meet other humans who use Ubuntu, instead of the unsocial web pages, blogs and podcasts I update myself with almost daily. I hope it will be a good time to get to know my fellow Ubuntu users and maybe get some good links and contacts to further myself. If you want to see whether you can attend one of these events, look up (Google) "Ubuntu events", and I'm sure you'll be led in the right direction.

With the coming of a new release there comes the partitioning planning, the configuring of the installed release, new problems and bugs etc, the fun begins, and I am sure you will hear more from me in this regard, have a great weekend and see you on the other side of the Meerkat.

I shall write again soon,

Internet Chat Relay for Blackberry

Okay, so I was reading the Ubuntu weekly newsletter the other day and an issue that I had always been keeping at the back of my mind popped up. There was a meeting to be held by Internet Relay Chat (IRC) at some date by ubuntu and there were people being invited to it. I have tried to use IRC before but all my efforts were met with stumbling blocks ranging from how to get started with IRC and when I actually logged on, what to do from there. At the time, now that I look retrospectively at it, I wasn't really interested in it. Which is different from how I feel about it now.

Anyway, to get to the actual story, after reading that article I grew a new interest in IRC and what I could do with it. The benefits of IRC are too numerous to be detailed here, I will let you know of my reasons for my interest in it. Firstly, to become an Ubuntu member (blogs.ubuntu-nl.org/dennis/2009/05/13/how-to-become-an-ubuntu-member-the-easy-way) you need to be in contact with some ubuntu users and contributors and the easiest way to do this is through IRC as you can do it anytime and registration isn't really necessary. Secondly, my need to contribute to Ubuntu in whatever way I can. To me the second reason is actually more significant. So I started my search for use on IRC.

Fortunately, a single Google search pointed me in the right direction, the ubuntu irc documentation (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/InternetRelayChat) I read up and got some pretty important info, basically:

what irc is
the way I can get to be on the irc channels
possible irc clients
links to what channels are best for me
and most important of all, a Loco channel closest to me

Of course this got me all bubbly inside and I was ready to go. But I had a problem, I don't have immediate constant internet connectivity, not at the moment anyway. But, I have a Blackberry phone. And thus began another search for my new found interest. Fortunately for me (again) there is an Irc client for Java enabled mobile phones called 'Jmirc' and for us Blackberry users there is a Jmirc made specifically for the Blackberry (this is actually very necessary because the other types do not take the Blackberry Internet Service into account). So off I went to get 'Jmirc' (jmirc.sourceforge.net/index.html) and on that page there is the Blackberry .jad link as well.

Now, after downloading and installing it, the important parts of configuration begin. I am sure this differs for different carrier networks, but I hope you can tweak it to your own carrier's specifics. When you open Jmirc for the first time it you will notice that it already has a default setup for Dal.net, the providers of Jmirc (I think). The default settings are configured to allow the average user to connect immediately, but seeing as we are using the Blackberry, don't start connecting as yet. You need to tweak a little bit.

If the need to connect immediately overcomes you, my experience: My Blackberry Internet Service (BIS) does not use an APN (for my carrier) so when I tried connecting before any tweaking, it gave me an error '… invalid url'. In addition to this the default connection settings were not correct.
So after some Googling I realised I had to change my APN. To do this go to Options → Advanced Options → TCP/IP. When there, enable APN settings and insert your carriers' APN. The APN details for my carrier are as follows:

APN: internet
Username:blank
Password: blank

I inserted the APN in and saved. After this I went back to Jmirc, went to the menu and got into Advanced, I enabled 'Use socket pull' (this stops it from disconnecting immediately after connecting), I left the 'Character encoding as it was (on ISO-8859-1) and changed the 'Connection mode' to 'Blackberry'. I saved and went back to the main Jmirc interface.
After this the tweaking was done and I hit 'Connect' and I was in business. When you connect it gives a notification about Jmirc attemting to access a low level network, say 'yes' to that and it will connect to the dal.net's servers. And that's it

If you want to connect to the ubuntu channels, namely, ubuntu itself, the following details apply:

server: irc.freenode.net
server port: 8001
channel: #ubuntu

You can learn how to register your nick (nickmane) at freenode.net/faq.shtml#nicksetup.

NB: There were times that I got a lot of error messages and I almost gave up but I kept on trying to connect and it finally worked out. The key issues I noticed were the APN, the Connection mode and for me the Socket pull. As soon as these were set up the app worked.

Now I am online on the ubuntu irc channels almost everyday via my Blackberry. The above is my experience, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

I shall write again soon

Name it and use it

Good day everybody, Blog post #2. In my earlier blog post I briefly touched on Ubuntu the Operating System (O.S. for short) and its beginnings. I now endeavour to branch out and touch on other elements of the O.S. such as, trying out Ubuntu, the community around the O.S. and its naming convention.

Let's get on with it. In the previous post I mentioned that Ubuntu is free, that is true, and the ‘freeness’ does not end there. Almost all the applications that are available for Ubuntu are also free, they are just a click away on the Internet. In addition to the free O.S. and the free applications and software I think what strikes me most about the Ubuntu O.S. is its community and the people out there that are on standby (it would seem) to assist with anything that you need help on. The Ubuntu forums (http://ubuntuforums.org/) proved to me beyond a doubt the Ubuntu philosophy inherent in the O.S. The Ubuntu forums is a place where Ubuntu users (and Ubuntu derivative users) meet to mostly share their experiences in Ubuntu, seek and get help in any problem they cannot solve by themselves. Those who know how to overcome certain problems also add posts for people to look up when they come across the same problem. And all this assistance is done by people out of the love of assisting. All for free. This is one of the things that has brought out the greatest virtues about open source systems and believe me, no matter what Ubuntu problem you come across, there is almost always a person who has had a similar problem in the past.

In addition to the Ubuntu forums there are numerous other sites that can provide instant help on certain topics such as getting your 3g USB modem to work or configuring how to stop Ubuntu asking you for your password when you wish to mount an unmounted partition. The following are some that I have come across that have assisted me in some problems:

Ubuntu official help – https://help.ubuntu.com this is the official Ubuntu documentation for each Ubuntu distro released. If you have any questions about a certain topic, this would be the best place to start your research.

Ubuntu Geek – http://ubuntugeek.com These guys are good. They specialise in those big little things that make your Ubuntu experience that much better. They have several 'How-To's on various topics from backing up your system to having delightful wallpapers that change every minute. Visit them when you have had a little experience with Ubuntu and want to delve further into the abyss of Ubuntu.

Full Circle magazine - (http://fullcirclemagazine.org) an unofficial Ubuntu magazine that seeks to educate and inform people on a variety of Ubuntu issues such as recent news, and steps in accomplishing certain tasks. It is very informative and a must for any Ubuntu user.

These are just a few of the many resources that are available to you as an Ubuntu user. But all of these sites have one minimum requirement, an ability to unlearn that which you have learnt from previous Operating Systems and the ability to want to learn and understand the Ubuntu way of doing things. A good starting point for learning the basics of Ubuntu are through the Ubuntu pocket guide, http://ubuntupocketguide.com written by Keir Thomas and the Getting started with Ubuntu 10.04 book/manual, http://ubuntu-manual.org written by the Ubuntu Manual Team. These are excellent books which detail almost all the answers for the questions most new users have. In the event that they don't, the books also explain ways to get more help. And do not underestimate the power of Google, if you are completely stuck, just Google it, the answers are out there!

Now, on to the less technical stuff, as I promised, I shall explain the version numbers and code names of Ubuntu distributions (distros for short). But before I get to that, you should know that Canonical Ltd set to release a new Ubuntu distro every six months, and they have being doing so quite well, with one exception, 'Dapper Drake', which was given additional development time by Mark Shuttleworth. The following is the list of distros released till today,18 August 2010, (also includes the future release of Maverick):

Release date	Version	Name
2004-Oct-20	4.10	Warty Warthog
2005-Apr-08	5.04	Hoary Hedgehog
2005-Oct-13	5.10	Breezy Badger
2006-Jun-01	6.06 (LTS)	Dapper Drake
2006-Oct-26	6.10	Edgy Eft
2007-Apr-19	7.04	Feisty Fawn
2007-Oct-18	7.10	Gusty Gibbon
2008-Apr-24	8.04 (LTS)	Hardy Heron
2008-Oct-30	8.10	Intrepid Ibex
2009-Apr-23	9.04	Jaunty Jackalope
2009-Oct-29	9.10	Karmic Koala
2010-Apr-29	10.04 (LTS)	Lucid Lynx
2010-Oct-10	10.10	Maverick Meerkat

Firstly, as you may have already noticed, the names of all distros are animal based and, as from 'Dapper Drake' (6.06), the names of the animals have been alphabetical. The full name is composed of the alliterative adjective and the name of the animal. (Alliterative - Having the same consonant at the beginning of each stressed syllable). Secondly, the version is based on the date of release, more particularly the month of release. So, 'Warty', released in 2004 October is 4.10, 'Feisty' released in 2007 April is 7.04 and so on. Quite interesting it seems hey?! The names, usually announced by Mark Shuttleworth, are determined within a year of the provisional date of the future release and in the event that the date of release is delayed, the month of actual release becomes the version number. For example, as mentioned above, 'Dapper Drake' was delayed and released in June hence the version became 6.06.

Great, now you know how they name Ubuntu distros.

I have dedicated this blog post to at least getting you on your way to using Ubuntu right away. Now, a problem that you will most likely come across is how to try Ubuntu on your computer. Most people who have heard of Ubuntu may have computers but do not have the privilege of breaking their PC to try Ubuntu, or might not know where to even start.

Here in comes one of the 'cool' aspects of Ubuntu. Ubuntu has what they call a 'Live CD' or 'Live USB' which allows a person to use Ubuntu without installing it onto a computer. The Ubuntu 'Live CD' is run purely on RAM and does not change any system settings on your computer (unless you intend on doing so, I shall delve into that in later blogs), so if you try it and you don't like it, you just exit it and that's it, when you restart the PC, it will boot as normal. To use the 'Live CD' all you need to do is restart the PC with the Ubuntu CD/DVD or an Ubuntu startup USB inserted and when it boots the Ubuntu main menu, select 'Try Ubuntu'. (Booting from a CD/DVD or USB requires configuring your PC to boot from CD/DVD or USB. The ways to do this differ from PC to PC and thus unfortunately cannot be detailed here. If it's not inherently obvious how to do this on your PC then either read the system manuals that came with the PC or Google for your PC's instructions on how to do this). The 'Live CD' gives you a feel of how Ubuntu is, it won't run as fast as installing it would but it does give a very good picture of how Ubuntu is. Using the 'Live CD' is recommended to ensure that your PC can run Ubuntu comfortably, that it's compatible and to check for driver support.

Another way of trying Ubuntu without breaking your system is to use virtual machines, this is described well in The Ubuntu pocket guide above, and Keir Thomas goes as far as to provide templates of empty virtual computers for use in VMWare players. This is an ideal way of trying and testing Ubuntu, getting to know all about it without actually installing it onto your PC.

For those who have the privilege of installing Ubuntu, there are also some options for how you can install Ubuntu.

1. For a user who already has a running OS, such as Mac OS or Windows, there is an option to install Ubuntu side by side with your current OS and when you start your machine you choose which OS you want to boot into. This is termed 'Dual-booting' as you have two OSs side by side.

2. For a user who already has a running OS, such as Mac or Windows, there is an option to totally erase everything you had and install Ubuntu as the only OS on your PC, this is an easier installation option and there isn't much configuration involved.

3. For a user who has an OS running already you may also install Ubuntu as an application inside your O.S. using Wubi. This allows you to test Ubuntu thoroughly with minimal configuration.

4. For a user with a PC that does not have an OS you can also install Ubuntu as the only OS on your PC, same as above.

Right, I think that info will get you up and running in no time. For what it's worth, just give Ubuntu a spin. The open source world has a lot of benefits that can be pretty advantageous. I am sure the experience will be enlightening.

I will write again soon.

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.

Ubuntu

Gosh, first blog post. What do people write in their first blog post? I'm not sure but I'll start by introducing what i believe to be one of the best FREE operating systems available today. 


Ubuntu is the name of an operating system based on the Debian GNU/Linux distribution, which is named from an African concept, (also termed Ubuntu), which is an ethnic philosophy which focuses on people's allegiances and relations with each other. Archbishop Desmond Tutu has been very much quoted for his definition which is, "A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed." Basically unity as a people and moving forward as such.


In furtherance of the "Ubuntu" philosophy, the operating system is provided free of charge, all you need to do is either download it or get it from an acquaintance. There is no piracy with Ubuntu as the developers wish it to be spread to as many people as possible. Quoting from the the main license used (which is the GNU General Public Licence) which, along with the GNU Lesser General Public License, explicitly declares that users are free to run, copy, distribute, study, change, develop and improve the software. 


The founder of this great operating system is a South African named, Mark Shuttleworth and his company, Canonical Ltd. The first release of Ubuntu was with the distro code named "Warty Warthog", also known as Ubuntu 4.10 which was released in October of 2004. (I shall explain about the code names and version numbers in the following blogs for your understanding). From then the distro has grown in leaps and bounds and is now an operating system you cannot ignore in the operating system end-user market share.


Just to get you in the right direction, if you want to try Ubuntu, visit this page http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download, where you will be presented with the latest Ubuntu release for your download. Instructions are given for how you can try it and if satisfied or more curious about it, installing it. Unfortunately it is not everyone who has access to friends who have Ubuntu CDs or internet bandwidth to download an Ubuntu image, which is exactly the reason why Ship It was introduced. The following link will get you to the Ship It! site https://shipit.ubuntu.com/ where you can put in your details and they will send you an Ubuntu disc. It may take four to six weeks to get to you but it will get to you, trust me on that. I got my first Ubuntu disc through them.


My blog is here for any help you may require.


On this page are numerous links you can use should you want help or want to read more about Ubuntu.


I hope this suffices as a first blog post and has helped any new readers gain a little bit of an insight into the world of Ubuntu.


I shall write again soon.


Rodemire
(15/08/10)