Nautilus: Ubuntu's File browser!!

If you've ever used Windows 9x or Vista or Windows 7, try this, hit Windows key and R simultaneously, you will see the "Run" dialog pop up, now type "explorer.exe" (without quotes), you will see a whole new window in front of you on the screen. Windows manages its file browsing mechanism through explorer. Ubuntu uses Nautilus for file browsing. Nautilus is great, but we have to perform a make over to make the best use of Ubuntu. Nautilus-elementary is the name of the package which lets you browse files, every window has a zoom slider, window edges are smooth, cool breadcrumb feature and horizontal / vertical toolbar (to name a few functionalities).

Watch the video and get a glimpse of what Nautilus Elementary can do!! Enjoy!!
(Source:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JKDACNW620)

Now, let's go through the installation process:
Launch terminal, login as root. Type in these commands one after the other in order as it appears below:
1.sudo add-apt-repository ppa:am-monkeyd/nautilus-elementary-ppa
2.sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
3.nautilus -q
That's it, we're done!! Restart your machine, and enjoy the Nautilus experience!!

(The following process is for Karmic and Lucid users alone)
All my Lucid and Karmic users can install Nautilus Elementary by, launching Terminal, log in as root and type in the commands in the order of appearance:

1.sudo add-apt-repository ppa:am-monkeyd/nautilus-elementary-ppa
2.sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
3.nautilus -q

To install Breadcrumbs, launch terminal, log in as root and type in the following commands one after the other

1.cd
2.wget http://gnaag.k2city.eu/nautilus-breadcrumbs-hack.tar.gz
3.tar -xvf nautilus-breadcrumbs-hack.tar.gz

Next, open Nautilus file browser and goto Edit - Preferences - Tweaks, and Tick the show like breadcrumbs option.
Now restart Nautilus by typing
"nautilus -q" in the terminal window.

That's it we are done!! Enjoy, and don't forget to comment on this blog post. If you have any issues regarding Ubuntu 10.10 mail me at nitinclix@gmail.com

Cheers!!!

Unity 2D(Qt)... Linux's answer to Windows eye candy features!!!

Hi,

Today I will throw some light on Unity 2D(Qt), a superb graphical feature available in Ubuntu 10.10. All you need is an Internet access, and we are done by entering a few lines of commands in the terminal. 

P.S: Installing this will be at your own risk, I am not responsible if the kernel breaks, as it is a daily build.

But believe me, I have been using Unity for almost 5 months now, so far there's been no complain about it.

Launch terminal, login as root, and type in the following commands one after the other: 

1.sudo add-apt-repository ppa:unity-2d-team/unity-2d-daily

2.sudo apt-get update

3.sudo apt-get install unity-2d-default-settings

4.sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Let's have a quick look at the Unity 2D feature, well, I haven't told you much about it, Unity 2D is a desktop session(interface) just like Gnome desktop session. It's incredibly fast (faster than Unity 3D) and light. Works great on Ubuntu 10.10. The next distro of Ubuntu 11.04 will have Unity 2D as an option, this means you don't have to download the Unity package, you can use it straightaway in Ubuntu 11.04, I can't wait to get my hands on Ubuntu 11.04!!!

How do you USE Unity 2D??

When logging in, select "Unity Qt" instead of the regular Ubuntu Desktop session.
 

Here's a video on Unity 2D, enjoy!! (Source:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJzk4KR3zpg)

Trivia:

Know what PPA is, click here.

Missing battery applet and network applets!!!

Hi,

I am writing this new post of mine, because most of the users complain that the notification applets go missing in Ubuntu 10.10. This is one aspect that Ubuntu developers should have taken more care of. It so happens that sometimes you don't see the shutdown button, or worse the shutdown button becomes no more clickable. It irks me sometimes as well. Just in case your shutdown button becomes inoperable, run terminal and type "shutdown now" (without quotes), this is as good as "Shutdown" button. As I was speaking about the missing applets on your gnome desktop, there are a few methods to make them re-appear.

Make the "networkmanager" applet re-appear.

Method 1

Launch terminal type “sudo edit /etc/NetworkManager/nm-system-settings.conf” look for something like“managed=false”, change this to “managed=true”  and then save it.

In terminal type “killall nm-system-settings” and then reboot.

Method 2

Right click on Panel>Add to panel>Notification Area (Look at the picture below)

Method 3
Hit Alt+F2, this opens Run Application window. In the Run Application textbox type "nm-applet --sm-disable" (without quotes) and click Run. This ideally should bring the Network Manager in the notification area, if it does not, reboot your machine.

Secondly, to make the battery applet re-appear:

(Look at the image above.)

Right click on Panel>Add to panel>Indicator Applet

To make bluetooth applet re-appear:

Launch terminal and type "sudo bluetoothd -u" (without quotes).

If you have deleted the panel ignorantly, then launch terminal, login as root (sudo su root), and type in these commands one by one:

• gconftool --recursive-unset /apps/panel

• rm -rf ~/.gconf/apps/panel

• pkill gnome-panel 

You should have the panel back. Don't forget to send in your views to nitinclix@gmail.com.

Or leave a comment. Thanks and Cheers!!!

Install drivers of Wireless card of your laptop.

Hi,

I am here writing again to let you folks know that you can actually let Ubuntu 10.10 detect the firmware/driver of your laptop's wireless card. You need an Internet connection, you can choose to have a wired connection or mount your mobile phone (I could mount my Nokia 2690, and use Internet to update my Ubuntu distro!!) Once connected, navigate to System menu on your desktop, then choose "Administration" and then "Additional Drivers". This will take a while depending on the the speed of the internet. Once it's done, a dialog will pop up asking you to activate a driver, select the required driver (Usually, the driver name and it's description would appear in the bottom pane) and click on "Activate" and you are done. Restart your machine, and right click on the wireless applet, choose "Enable Wireless".

If you are still lost, then run terminal type in "lspci>res.txt" (without quotes) and hit enter. Now, navigate to your "Home Folder", you will find this "res.txt" file. Email it to me as an attachment.

You can mail me at nitinclix@gmail.com, I will reply to you at the earliest.

Cheers until then!!!

What is ALSA?

Well, ALSA is the acronym for Advanced Linux Sound Architecture. ALSA provides audio functionality for Linux operating system. It even has MIDI functionality. ALSA is a fully modularized sound driver. It supports all types of audio interfaces. 

To know if you sound card is compatible or not, click here.

To "test" your sound card, click here.

Click here to download.

For documentation, click here.

Typically, the ALSA is already installed in your Ubuntu 10.10 distro or Open SuSe 11.3 distro.Sometimes your desktop/laptop might not play sound files or video files as desired, or there can be no audio output, this is how you configure ALSA in case your sound card is not functioning as expected.

Run terminal and type "/sbin/alsa " where choice can be:

• unload, or
• reload, or
• force-unload, or
• force-reload, or
• suspend, or
• resume

I will update this post with the functionality of each of the options.
Cheers!!

 

"wget"

For all of those who are new to Ubuntu Linux, there is a free,non interactive downloader package. Unlike IDM's or Orbit, you don't get to see a GUI in wget. all you do is run terminal, and type in wget. The syntax of wget is:
wget http://www.someurl.com/somefile.txt

For eg: I need to download a file say abcd.pdf from website http://www.xyz.com, so the url would look something like this:
"http://www.xyz.com/abcd.pdf", copy this url, and type "wget http://www.xyz.com/abcd.pdf" (without quotes) in your terminal window and hit enter, this will download the pdf file in your "Home Folder"

Do it yourself, run terminal, type in
" wget http://www.asel.udel.edu/speech/tutorials/acoustics/wsq_ap7.wav", and see what happens.


Enjoy downloading!!!

Mount Mobile Phones on Ubuntu Maverick Meerkat (10.10) and get "Connected" to INTERNET :)

Hi folks, I would just like to share how easy it is to setup Internet connection via your mobile phone on your laptop. It's very easy, and more over you don't need Nokia PC Suite or Samsung PC studio as such. Just follow the steps below and you are done:

1. Connect your Phone via data cable.
2. Right Click on Network Applet(Usually,on your right hand top corner where you find the system time and sound icons.


3. Choose on "Enable Mobile Broadband Connection"

4. Now "left click" on the network applet and you will see a notification which reads as "New Mobile Broadband Connection", now click on it.

5. You will get a dialog pop up, which will ask you for the Country, choose whichever is applicable, click Forward.

6. Next, it will ask you for the Mobile Service Provider,choose your mobile service provider, click Forward.

7. Next, in "Choose your Billing Plan" dialog, select (You will see that it's "default" initially) "My Plan is not listed..", in the next section of APN text box type in the access point name (Contact your Mobile Customer Care and ask for the name of the Access Point Name), click forward and you're done!!!, the network applet will do its job and you are connected to the Internet.

Note: For Reliance GPRS India it's type in "rcomnet" (without quotes) in the APN Text box and for Airtel INDIA it's "airtelfun.com" (without quotes).

Enjoy, hope it works. Also note that it's the same procedure for OpenSuSe 11.3 users.

 If you don't find this method working try "To mount Nokia Phones on Ubuntu Maverick Meerkat" and start over from Step 1 of "Mount Mobile Phones on Ubuntu Maverick Meerkat (10.10) and get "Connected" to INTERNET :)",you must be able to browse the Internet.


Any suggestions and comments are welcome, thank you. Enjoy!!

Restricted offline installers without Internet for Ubuntu

Ubuntu restricted extras off line installer is a superb script that lets you install Ubuntu-restricted-extras without Internet!!

Warning: this installer also includes libdvdcss (required to play most commercial DVD's ) .This script only works on Ubuntu 8.10 alone!!

Script includes the following programs
• Adobe Flash player
• Java Runtime Environment

•Various additional multimedia codecs (including MP3) and support for playing DVD-movies (codecs + CSS decrypter)

• Microsoft TrueType core fonts
• unrar

Download Ubuntu restricted extras offline installer

Ubuntu 8.10 users Download this script from here

Ubuntu 9.04 Users Download this script from here

Ubuntu 9.10 Users Download this script from here

Installation Instructions
• Download the file and unpack (or) extract

Open terminal, and access the particular file where your offline installers are copied using the cd command.

• Log in as a root user (sudo su root)

•Double-click the file “install.sh” present in the folder “offline-installer”
•Select “run in terminal”
•Accept Java license when that appears
•When program finishes, close the window and remove the folder “offline-installer”

Enjoy and don't forget to comment!!!

Cheers!!!

To mount Nokia Phones on Ubuntu Maverick Meerkat

Mount nokia phones on Ubuntu Maverick Meerkat

Goto terminal type in
"lsusb" (without quotes)Click here to find out more about the command lsusb.
which should give you around 10 lines of output (depends on usb devices attached), I could spot my Nokia phone:

CODE
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 0421:043a Nokia Mobile Phones

This line shows the VendorID and ProductID of the phone, for my Nokia N70:

VendorID = 0421
ProductID = 043a

Now copy/paste the following line in the Terminal:

CODE
sudo gedit /etc/udev/rules.d/040-permissions.rules

and add the following line to the end of the text file:

CODE
BUS=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="VendorID", SYSFS{idProduct}=="ProductID",
GROUP="plugdev", USER="yourUserNname"

Replace VendorID and ProductID with the numbers from the lsusd result, and yourUserName with your username.

Example:

CODE
BUS=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="0421", SYSFS{idProduct}=="043a",
GROUP="plugdev", USER="neo"

Save the file and close it. This little trick will give you rights to access and use the USB port where the mobile device is connected.

Then goto Terminal type in:

obextool --obexcmd "obexftp -u 1

If you dont find obextool installed,login as root and then type in

apt-get install obextool

You are done!! Enjoy