Ubuntu Tutorials

Every now and then I blog about a program that is a must-have. You might remember my previous posts about Tomboy (reminder plugin) or (tomboy 5.0 release) that I still use daily. When you find a program that makes your life easier you’ve just got to share it! Isn’t that what all of this is about?!

Today I wanted to write about Beagle and the deskbar-applet. For those of you not already using or familiar with Beagle it is the best way to search for files on your system. It works in the same way that OSX or XP do in that it creates an index of all the files on your system to make them more accessible during a search. (Prior to beagle searching was limited to find which is not nearly as efficient.)
To get started with todays tutorial we’ll need to install two packages.

sudo aptitude install beagle deskbar-applet

Once you have Beagle installed you’ll need to begin the indexing process. Note: this could take a little time. If you’re on a laptop you might want to plug the thing in. The intense I/O that the hard drive indexing will do can drain your battery pretty well.

Begin the indexing by running the following command (on the command line or via ALT-F2):

beagled

Now that Beagle is chugging along to index all of your files you can safely move to the next step.

You’ll want to add the interface to Beagle to your GNOME panel by adding the deskbar-applet that we just installed. Doing this is as simple as adding another applet to your panel.

right-click on your launcher panel

select "Add to Panel"

select "Deskbar"

Once this is added to your panel you can try to search for a few things or right-click on the applet and change some of the preferences.

While beagled is still indexing away here is a quick rundown of some of the options within the deskbar-applet.

del.icio.us Bookmarks (search your del.icio.us bookmarks by tag name)
History (previous Beagle searches)

Dictionary (look up definitions in the dictionary)
Programs (launch a program by its name or description)

Mail (send mail to your contacts by entering their name or email address)

Web (open web pages and send emails by typing the complete address)

Files, Folders and Places (view your files, folders, bookmarks, drives and network places)

Web Bookmarks (open your web bookmarks by name)

Web History (open your web history by name)

Web Searches (search the web via your browsers search settings)

Beagle (search all of your documents)

Computer Actions (logoff, shutdown, restart, suspend and related actions)

Developer Documentation (search Devhelp for a function name)

Files and Folders Search (find files and folders by searching for a name pattern)

Window Switcher (switch to an existing window by name)

Yahoo! Search (search Yahoo! as you type)

Any and all of these can be toggled to an active/in-active status. Only use the ones you want. The deskbar-applet really makes accessing your data, commands, windows and programs as easy as you want it to be.

Well it looks like beagled indexing has finished (with the initial indexing anyway). You will want beagled to run regularly to keep up to date with your changes. Set beagled to start automagically with the following:

System > Preferences > Sessions : Startup Programs : Add : beagled

Update: per Brandon’s comment below beagled does not need to be added to the startup programs. A file should have been created (on Edgy machines) at $HOME/.config/autostart/beagled.desktop that automagically launches the beagled indexer at login. Thanks for the update Brandon!

Update: I’ve added a later post including two steps to integrate Google search to your Deskbar Applet.

You’re all ready to go at this point. Select a few of the options from the list above and start searching. You’ll be quickly surprised at how quickly and efficiently it is able to find just what you’re looking for.
Enjoy! One more must-have program brought to you by Ubuntu Tutorials

technorati tags:gnome, beagle, deskbar, search, ubuntu

This will be a quick post to outline a fix for something that we ran into this afternoon. My buddy herlo recently upgraded to Edgy and the sound had issues working after completion. After doing some digging we found a solution to the problem so I thought I would share this with the rest of you. This solution was found at the Kubuntu Forums.

This solution is to verify your user account is authorized to use sound (odd, I know, but its wise to check):

adduser [user] audio

Another solution that you can try is found at the Ubuntu Guide.

I hope either of these help anyone with audio trouble. They are rare–I haven’t had trouble with audio–but they happen. Enjoy!

Update: A comment has pointed out that I made an error in my original syntax for adding the user. I apologize if it caused trouble for anyone. The appropriate command is now listed above and offending command removed. Also, if you’ve made changes using the previous command you may want to use this command to see what changes were made and recover accordingly as it removed the user from groups instead of adding. My apologies.:

sudo diff /etc/group /etc/group-

(this will work as long as no additional changes have been made.)

Technorati Tags: gnome, hardware, sound, kubuntu, audio

Let me tell you, I’m a busy man. I’m always on the go and my trusty laptop is the only thing to keep me company much of the time. Despite being here, there and everywhere I still need access to my files and folders at home. But how can I access my files, securely, from anywhere on the planet? It is simple with SSH.

If you’re not familiar with SSH you’ll definitely want to check it out. SSH stands for Secure SHell and is probably one of the most used programs on the internet with its long list of uses. It is always encrypted, always secure and easy to use. I have long used it on a daily basis and here is how you can do the same.

You should have outgoing SSH access from a default Ubuntu machine. To check that you do try the following to a machine you have ssh access to: (do you have two machines on your network? On the remote machine make sure you’ve install ssh-server and then try):

ssh [user]@[machine]

Now that you know you can ssh you can also try to remotely mount a folder to your local machine. Before you’re able to do this you need to install a package to offer that support.

sudo aptitude install sshfs

sshfs stands for SSH file system. It’s a beauty. As mentioned it allows you to securely mount and access folders over the network or internet all day long. One of the packages that comes along with sshfs is something called fuse. You’ll need to load fuse as a kernel module before you can use it. You would do so using the following:

sudo modprobe fuse

You also might want to have fuse auto-load at boot time with the rest of your modules. You can use the following command to do so:

sudo sh -c "echo 'fuse' >> /etc/modules"

(Note: make sure you are careful to use the >> instead of a single >. >> appends the entry to the file, meaning it is added to the end. A single > simply writes the information to the file and could seriously screw up your system.)
At this point you have all of the tools necessary to mount a remote filesystem or folder on your machine. You just need a few pieces of information.

1. username (do you have access to the remote machine? if so, what username)
2. IP or hostname (what machine are you connecting to? works via name, domain or IP)
3. remote folder (what remote folder address do you want?)
4. local folder to use (where to you want to store the remote contents?)

An example of a command to mount a remote system, including the above peices, would be something like:

sshfs user@hostname:/path/to/folder /local/folder

If this doesn’t return any errors you should be able to then navigate to /local/folder and find your precious files there. When you are done, or you no longer need access to those files (for this session) you can safely “unconnect” using the umount command.

sudo umount /local/folder

Ooh, and one other option that you might find useful is to have this remote folder mounted automagically each time you boot your machine. Wouldn’t that be a nice feature. Well, …ok I’ll tell you.

The /etc/fstab file is a list of the boot-time auto-mounted filesystems or partitions. If you take a look at the file you’ll see your current setup. Normally your /, /swap, etc. You can add a new listing to the same file and have your remote folders automagically mounted via sshfs at each boot. Use something like:

[hostname/IP]:/path/to/folder /local/folder fuse defaults 0 0

Now that you’re more acquainted with SSH and sshfs why don’t you take ‘er for a spin. Enjoy. You might also enjoy my previous post about Network File Systems.

You also might be interested in a post at the Ubuntu Blog on the same topic.

technorati tags:ssh, sshfs, linux, network, mount

I spent some time over the holiday break with my parents and had some time to really talk with my dad about what it is that I do. I don’t think most of my family realizes how completely involved I try to be in the open source revolution. Why is it that those closest to us sometimes don’t regard the work we do?

Anyway, we had a long talk about Microsofts upcoming release, Vista (see this for a very interesting read) and other concerns for the open source community. At many points during our discussion my dad got noticeably upset about the struggles we have to face and would offer things like “that just isn’t fair” or “that should be illegal!” While I completely agree with him and I’m glad I was able to open his eyes to some of our struggles there is one critical key to the whole issue that he just doens’t see. Action. He understands something needs to be done but he isn’t willing to do it. He isn’t willing to try and switch or learn a new application. To that effect he may as well be a proud supporter of proprietary software and wear a badge!

I come to you today with a challenge. A call to action if you will. If you consider yourself a supporter of open source take a look at the applications you use. How many of them are still proprietary? How often do you still revert to using Windows for “just that one application”. Do you still use proprietary IM communication (ie; MSN, Yahoo!, AIM, etc?) Things will not change unless we show decided action! We can talk all day long but until we DO something nothing will change.

Open people’s eyes by making it a point to switch to open source applications and protocols. Get people curious about why by telling them you’ll be switching to Jabber only soon and tell them how they can still communicate with you. Make it a point to show your support by action vs just words.

My challenge to you is to select at least one program or protocol that you still use and transition that to an open source free program or protocol in 2007. There is always room for improvement, all it takes is action!

And, since a goal is only a wish unless you write it down please leave a comment with your goal. What will you be doing in 2007 to actively show your support?

Technorati Tags: foss, oss, open source, 2007, goal, resolution

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Ubuntu Tutorials Presents – Ubuntu Book of the Week

Those that have followed this site for a while know that I occasionally post a book review. There really are a lot of Ubuntu based books hitting the market anymore and many of them really are very good!

This book, “Moving to Ubuntu Linux”, has just about everything you need to know to make the switch to Ubuntu Linux.

From taking it for a test-drive with a Live-CD to walking through some of the productivity programs that Ubuntu comes pre-installed with. “Moving to Ubuntu Linux” makes it easier than you thought to make the switch. This is a good book to have if you’re just starting out or a great companion for all the activists and “Ubuntu Missionaries” out there.

If you want to build a collection of good Ubuntu reference material both for yourself and for family / friends this is definitely a book at add to your list!