Ubuntu Tutorials

I just came across a method to consolidate your three gnome menus (applications, places and system) into one. For those of you that have used SLED (SuSE Linux Enterprise Edition) or openSuse 10.2 you’ll recognize this layout. It turns out it is also an option for our Ubuntu machines.

To install the new menu layout simply install the following with your favorite package management interface.

sudo aptitude install gnome-main-menu

Once you’ve installed the package you’ll need to simply add it to your panel. You do that via a right-click on your current menu panel and add the new “gnome main menu” under the utilities section. (note: there are two listings for the main menu at this point in the “add to panel” dialog. You’ll want to add the one that looks like the computer icon and not the ubuntu logo.)

As you can see this menu layout combines all of your options into a central layout. You’ve got your favorite, or most commonly used, applications listed by default and the system options on the right. The drop-down menu will show you recent documents and places.

What I have done at this point is removed my previous menu (via right-click, remove from panel) and replaced it with this new layout. You may need to use the right-click and move option to put the new listing in the right place.

update: if you want to revert your changes and replace the original menu simply re-add the other gnome-main-menu.. the one that looks like the ubuntu logo.

If this article has been helpful, please consider linking to it.

I have never used Automatix and, honestly, I’ve never seen any reason to. I was recently at an install fest and some of the users were asking about it. I didn’t have anything to tell them so I’m putting it out to the rest of you. Is there really any valid reason to use Automatix over the officially supported repositories?

Anything that I’ve read basically outlines that Automatix is unsupported and I don’t think I know anyone that actually uses it.  I’ve seen it in action once and the packages I saw listed were the same that the ‘verse already includes.

From what I understand it makes some package installation a little more point and click. Is Synaptic / Adept really that hard? Personally I prefer actually knowing how to use my system.. but that’s just me.

I got on the topic the other day about media players in Ubuntu and which did I use. There are a few that I really like, but none of them are actually installed by default. Below are three media (audio, video or both) players that I like.

beep-media-player

This is a great little media player that is very similar to the old xmms or winamp. I probably use this more than any other because it does what all software should do. It does one job and does it well. It doesn’t have a lot of extras, or support for all kinds of external hardware (as far as I know) but when I want to listen to a playlist and not have a whole lot more it does that perfectly.

To install beep you can use the command below or install the same package via Synaptic.

sudo aptitude install beep-media-player

banshee

Import, organize, play, and share your music using Banshee’s simple, powerful interface. Rip CDs, play and sync your iPod, create playlists, and burn audio and MP3 CDs. Most portable music devices are supported. Banshee also has support for podcasting, smart playlists, music recommendations, and much more.

To install banshee you can use the command below or install the same package via Synaptic.

sudo aptitude install banshee

exaile

Exaile is a media player aiming to be similar to KDE’s AmaroK, but for GTK+. It incorporates many of the cool things from AmaroK (and other media players) like automatic fetching of album art, handling of large libraries, lyrics fetching, artist/album information via the wikipedia, last.fm support, optional iPod support (assuming you have python-gpod installed).

In addition, Exaile also includes a built in shoutcast directory browser, tabbed playlists (so you can have more than one playlist open at a time), blacklisting of tracks (so they don’t get scanned into your library), downloading of guitar tablature from fretplay.com, and submitting played tracks on your iPod to last.fm.

This app isn’t in the ubuntu repositories yet but they have put together a .deb package for Edgy and Feisty that can be found here.

Since my conversion to Dvorak last week I’ve found myself needing to practice as much as possible to retrain myself on a new keyboard layout. My day to day requires quite a bit, but there are also those times when I find I just need some good old fashioned training. For that I use gtypist.

Gtypist supports both QWERTY and awesome–err, I mean, Dvorak layouts so you can practice whichever you prefer. I had used the program from time to time before my switch to test my speed and accuracy. I’m now using it for practice.

To install gtypist you’ll want to install the gtypist package using your favorite method (command line via aptitude or GUI via Synaptic).

sudo aptitude install gtypist

You can run gtypist by using that same command or offer some arguments such as those listed below.

gtypist -e % : default acceptable error percentage (0 - 100, defaults at 3%)

gtypist -s : silent mode. If you find yourself making a lot of errors it can get annoying!

This will come in handy for any of you other brave souls that want to take on the challenge. I know it really is helping me. I’m up to 60wpm on some tests after only a week of use!

To make up for not blogging over the past few weeks I’ve got a few things up my sleeve here. I definitely want to get back into my old habit so I’ll just dive right in.

This tutorial will outline a few methods of finding your installed Ubuntu version or kernel version. These can be useful if you ever need to troubleshoot a problem or need more information for a bug submission.

The first method you can use is a GUI method to see what version you have installed. Personally I think it could be made a bit more prominent, but that isn’t my call. To find the version using the GUI method simply do the following:

System > About Ubuntu

The resulting window will show some main contents and then thank you for your interest in version.

“Thank you for your interest in Ubuntu 6.10 – the Edgy Eft – released in October 2006.”

The other method to find your version is a command line method. There are two commands you can use:

cat /etc/issue

or you can use

cat /etc/lsb-release

…and finally to find your kernel version and a few more details about your machine use the uname command which, per the man pages, shows system information. Examples:

uname -a : print all information

uname -r : print the kernel release

uname -v : print the kernel version

uname -o : print the operating system

see man uname for more details on using the uname… and now you should be able to find out more about your machine, report better bugs and continue to make Ubuntu even better!

So I am sure that many of you have noticed a huge lack in activity coming from this blog over the last week. I apologize for not getting anyone their daily fix, I’m working on it. Ready for the excuses? Here they come.

Last Friday I made the plunge and switched to the Dvorak keyboard layout. It has been an initial struggle but I’m making a lot of progress and my prediction is that I’ll be back to normal by two weeks. I’m actually up to 40-50 wpm average already. Not bad, considering it’s a new keyboard layout.

The quick and dirty way to switch your keyboard layout are outlined below. I suggest everyone check out the above link to see what the Dvorak is all about. My feeling is that it’s very much worth it!

In gnome you’ll want to find the following:

System > Preferences > Keyboard

afterwards you’ll want to select “Add”, find the US and add the Dvorak layout. Note: this will only change settings once you’re logged in. Using the instructions in the comic will allow you to set the global settings.

I’m sorry for the short post today but it’s still a bit slow going on typing and I don’t know the instructions for KDE.

If you switch I do have to say you’re a brave soul & it definitely bumps up your nerd-cred.

A little more than a year ago I started the Ubuntu Utah LoCo Team and we were officially approved a few months later. This LoCo Team has been a great project–something I have loved working on since the beginning and I hope to be able to continue to build long into the future. It has been a great way to help Ubuntu grow in my local area.

This past week a few of us in the Utah Team and a few members of the (unofficial) Ohio Team began discussing how to improve the LoCo project within the US. After some initial brainstorming I feel we have come up with the basics of what will prove to be a very good long-term project for Ubuntu members within the US.

Our Goal

An officially recognized, strong LoCo Team in every US state by the end of 2007.

Our Methods

Currently established teams will offer close mentoring to newly established and growing teams. Major focus will be placed on expanding and improving existing documentation and improved communication between existing and growing teams.

Our Meetings

The US-Teams Project will hold bi-monthly meetings in #ubuntu-us (freenode) every two weeks. The first meet to take place Jan 20, 1700 UTC.

If you have any questions about this project, would like to help mentor a new team or would like to consider helping create a team in your state please come see us in #ubuntu-us anytime or visit the US-Teams Project Wiki.

We’re really excited for this project and we’ll need a lot of help. Here is yet one more way that you can contribute back to Ubuntu, the distro we love so much!

I’ve been hearing about the Irssi IRC client for some time and I finally took some time over the weekend to seriously look into it. After the initial learning curve that often comes with a new application (and a terminal based application at that!) I’m hooked on Irssi. I’m using it as my main IRC client and I also use it to access my other IM networks (ie; Jabber) that you read about in my previous post.

Before I get into some steps that I used to cut down my learning curve I wanted to link into the Irssi writeup on the community documentation page. Props go to my good friend Aaron for putting that writeup together and for telling me about Irssi.

First of all you’ll want to install the irssi client.

sudo aptitude install irssi

Second you’ll simply start up the program using the command

irssi

Now you’ll be presented with a very basic, terminal-looking interface. You’ll want to connect to your favorite IRC network using a command similar to that below.

/connect irc.freenode.net

Irssi will then connect to that freenode network. Of course you can replace that command with any network of your choice and you can connect to multiple networks by repeating that command for each. note: there is also a /server command that acts in a similar fashion however it limits you to a single server connection.

A few quick tips on setting up Irssi for auto-login, auto-connect and auto-identify.

To set your IRC nick use

/nick MyIRCNick

To auto-connect to freenode or another network and identify yourself.

/SERVER ADD -auto -network freenode irc.freenode.net 6667 password

Another method of auto-identifying is seen below. The above is generally preferred.

/NETWORK ADD -autosendcmd "/^msg NickServ IDENTIFY password;wait 2000" freenode

Lastly, to auto-join a channel at connection use

/CHANNEL ADD -auto #ubuntu freenode

There are many other commands you can use and Irssi is *very* flexible. I’m a big fan now as it offers me a lot of control and flexibility. If you haven’t yet I do suggest you go back and read the community writeup at the docs irssi page.

If you enjoy irssi you can stop by to say thanks in the #irssi channel or give a quick hello to me and my team in #ubuntu-utah. Enjoy!

Ubuntu Tutorials Presents – Ubuntu Book of the Week

I’ve been tinkering more and more lately with irssi (tutorial coming up) as an IRC client and I recently also installed Bitlbee to allow gateway connections to outside IM protocols.  Now, I can use my single IRC client to also connect to jabber, msn, etc and don’t need two clients.

Yes, I know there are clients out there that do this, like gaim.  I’ve been using gaim for quite a long time but I think I am leaning now toward irssi as my full-time client.  I’ll outline why in a future post, but this morning I wanted to outline installing and using Bitlbee gateway on an ubuntu machine.

In the interest of time I’m just going to link today to the writeup I did on the Ubuntu Community Docs.  Check it out here.  Comments and suggestions, as usual, are welcome here.