Ubuntu Tutorials

It’s things like this that remind me the people trying to represent us in government really don’t understand us. Particularly in the way of Technology. Recently I sent an email to my Senator expressing my concern over the recent rape of our privacy in the HomeLand Security “we can spy on you if we *think* you might be a terrorist-international communication act BS”. This is the reply I get.

Thank you for your e-mail. If you would like a response please use the
web based e-mail form on my official Senate website at
http://bennett.senate.gov/contact/email_form.html

The number of Utahns that communicate with me via e-mail has increased
dramatically over the last few years. The use of a website contact form
provides two primary benefits. First, discourages third-party
organizations from using individual's names without their permission. Some
third-party e-mail contractors collect information from their web form,
use it to contact members of Congress without the knowledge of the
individual or sell the information to other organizations. I have had a
number of constituents express concern about receiving a response from me,
when they have not written. Second, an e-mail web form helps me to manage
incoming e-mails, its reduces the amount of spam I receive, and it allows
me to respond more quickly to e-mails.

I regret any inconvenience using my web form may cause you. However, I
hope you will consider using it. Or if you prefer, please send a letter,
a fax, or call one of my offices to express your views. You can find my
contact information on my web site at
http://bennett.senate.gov/contact/contact.html. Again, thank you for
writing.

Sincerely,
Robert F. Bennett
United States Senator

What I get out of this is “Sorry you took the time to write me using the standard communication form of email.  Please re-write your entire message in a BS web-based form because our email servers can’t handle normal email.”  They probably use Exchange.

Vim is the greatest editor of all time. Let me tell you! Every week when I go to put together a new tip there is just so much to offer. I can keep this going for years! If you haven’t started using vim yet start!

Now vim has a really comprehensive search function using the ‘/[word]‘, but maybe you just want to find the next word matching the one your cursor is on, in the fewest keystrokes possible. Well you can do that (of course). Use the ‘*’ key to jump from whatever word your cursor is on to the next match of that word. Give it a try.

Of course using the normal search option ‘/[word]‘ followed by ‘n|N’ will jump to the next match as well. Keep these both in mind when you’re searching for words.

For those of you that want to help make Ubuntu the best it can be I would encourage you to help us test the latest alpha release, codename “Tribe 4″. I have been running since Tribe 2 on one of my machines and it has been surprisingly stable. There have been some bugs, as is to be expected, and they’re getting reported (from me anyway), but the more of us we can get testing the more bugs can get squashed before the final release.

One thing to think about is the longer you wait to help test the less time they have to fix bugs before the final release. Details below:

Welcome to Gutsy Gibbon Tribe 4, which will in time become Ubuntu 7.10.

Pre-releases of Gutsy are *not* encouraged for anyone needing a stable system or anyone who is not comfortable running into occasional, even frequent breakage. They are, however, recommended for Ubuntu developers and those who want to help in testing, reporting, and fixing bugs.

Tribe 4 is the fourth in a series of milestone CD images that will be released throughout the Gutsy development cycle. The Tribe images are known to be reasonably free of show-stopper CD build or installer bugs, while representing a very recent snapshot of Gutsy. You can download it here:

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/gutsy/tribe-4/ (Ubuntu desktop and Server)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/releases/gutsy/tribe-4/ (Kubuntu)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/edubuntu/releases/gutsy/tribe-4/ (Edubuntu)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/releases/gutsy/tribe-4/ (Xubuntu)

See http://wiki.ubuntu.com/Mirrors for a list of mirrors.

Some new exciting features have landed which cannot wait to be tried and tested. Please refer to the following web pages for details:

http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/tribe4 (Ubuntu)
https://wiki.kubuntu.org/GutsyGibbon/Tribe4/Kubuntu (Kubuntu)

This is quite an early set of images, so you should expect some bugs. Among these are the following (so you don’t need to bother reporting these if you encounter them):

* When starting the Ubuntu live CD, or on a freshly installed Ubuntu system, you will sometimes get a crash report for the Deskbar applet. Please ignore this crash.
(https://launchpad.net/bugs/131247)

* The desktop CD does not install translation support from network repositories. Please use System -> Administration -> Language Support to add translations after the installation.
(https://launchpad.net/bugs/131294)

* On Kubuntu, OpenOffice.org does not start. Please install the package “openoffice.org-gnome” for now to make it work.
(https://launchpad.net/bugs/127944)

* The “Check CD” CD menu option does not work on the Kubuntu desktop CD. Unfortunately there is no workaround.
(https://launchpad.net/bugs/131209)

* On Edubuntu server installs, the “Building LTSP root” step takes a very long time (in the order of 15 minutes) without visible progress. It will eventually finish, though.
(https://launchpad.net/bugs/121547)

If you’re interested in following the changes as we further develop Gutsy, have a look at the gutsy-changes mailing list:

http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/gutsy-changes

Please be aware that this list usually has several dozen mails every day.

We also suggest that you subscribe to the ubuntu-devel-announce list if you’re interested in following Ubuntu development. This is a low-traffic list (a few posts a month) carrying announcements of
approved specifications, policy changes, alpha releases, and other interesting events.

http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-announce

Bug reports should go to the Ubuntu bug tracker:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu

Enjoy!

Here is day two of Automatix Alternatives. Today I’ll cover the second section outlined in the Automatix package list, Chat Clients. There are numerous chat clients and, as was the case yesterday, most of the same exact applications are available in the official supported Ubuntu repositories. Here is a breakdown:

• aMSN (An MSN messenger written in Tcl): requires universe

sudo aptitude install amsn (or System > Applications > Add / Remove > "Search" amsn)

• Gaim / Pidgin (multi-protocol instant messaging client): automatically installed

Latest version 2.0.0beta6 in Feisty / Pidgin 2.1.0 in Gutsy

• Skype (Make free calls to anyone else on Skype) : requires manual installation

Visit skype.com - download / installation link (open with "gdebi-gtk (default)" > "Install Package")

• Xchat – (Popular IRC client) : requires universe

sudo aptitude install xchat (or System > Applications > Add / Remove "Search" xchat)

• Gyachi – (Yahoo Messenger client with voice and video support) : requires manual installation

Visit gyachi.sf.net - download page (look for "Ubuntu Edgy" package > open with "gdebi-gtk (default)" > "Install Package")

Also available: (System > Add / Remove > “Search” package)

The packages listed below are from the Ubuntu repositories and are completely safe and supported on your system.

Xchat-gnome (sudo aptitude install xchat-gnome) : requires main

konversation (sudo aptitude install konversation) : automatically installed (KDE)

psi (sudo aptitude install psi) : requires universe

irssi (sudo aptitude install irssi) : requires main

gajim (sudo aptitude install gajim) : requires universe

kopete (sudo aptitude install kopete) : requires main

gossip (sudo aptitude install gossip) : requires universe

Again, I know this isn’t a comprehensive list. I’m taking these applications per section from the Automatix list. Tomorrow I’ll do “Commercial Software”. It should be worth mentioning that while a few of the above have instructions on manual installation that does potentially limit the amount of support for that application. The best solution is to always search for the package in the Add / Remove section of your machine and, as a last resort, install it manually with outside packages.

I’ve also included other (better, if you ask me) solutions for chat clients already available in Ubuntu. This is based on the comments in yesterdays post about leaving things out. I am definitely not meaning to leave anything out, I’m simply focusing on documenting the alternatives to what Automatix does on its own. There are more applications outside of the above list, but this should be plenty to get going with.

See you back here tomorrow with more suggestions on supported alternatives to the applications Automatix installs. If you find these useful please let me know. Other suggestions, leave comments as usual.

I’m going to take this series on supported Automatix replacements one “section” at a time. If I spread it our per single application we’d be here forever. So, starting with the Automatix – Feisty list I’ve started with the first section, “Burning and Ripping” and here are supported alternatives to the same.

These lists apply to Feisty and above.

Burning and Ripping

• Brasero (Advanced and user-friendly CD burning tool for Gnome) : requires universe

sudo aptitude install brasero (or Applications > Add / Remove > "Search" Brasero)

• Gnomebaker (The best GTK2 CD/DVD burning software) : requires universe

sudo aptitude install gnomebaker (or Applications > Add / Remove > "Search" Gnomebaker)

• k9copy (KDE based DVD backup software) : requires multiverse

sudo aptitude install k9copy (or Applications > Add / Remove > "Search" k9copy)

• StreamTuner and StreamRipper (Internet Radio Client & Ripper) : requires universe

sudo aptitude install streamtuner streamripper (or Applications > Add / Remove > "Search" streamtuner, streamripper)

• DVD Ripper (a GTK based DVD ripping software) : requires multiverse

sudo aptitude install dvdrip (or Applications > Add / Remove > "Search" dvdrip)

• xDVDShrink (create fair-use archival copies of DVD) : requires manual-installation

This application is no longer in development. It is suggested to use k9copy (above).

Feisty was a definite improvement and lessened much of the appeal on Automatix. The above list, again coming directly from the Automatix page, are all directly available via the Ubuntu repositories. Some are packaged by and limited to support by the community, but still supported nonetheless. Tomorrow I will try and tackle “Chat Clients”.

Some of you may have seen the post floating around a few of the planets the last couple of days concerning the review of Automatix. I want to say that I have long agreed with the conclusion, but this puts more detail in writing. If you have used, do use, or are thinking about using Automatix please read the post here. Also, please do not use it. Yes, I know it makes installing things so easy. It also currently makes breaking your machine easy.

My intent in asking you not to use Automatix is not to make your life more difficult–quite the contrary. My intent is to help you have a officially or community supported machine so we can help you in the future. If you have Automatix installed and something breaks most of the community resources have tied hands at that point and there is nothing we can do. If you file bug reports they are to a large extent considered ‘tainted’ with Automatix and don’t receive the attention they should.

It is for this reason that starting today I will take the complete list of applications installable by Automatix and write a tutorial for each one. There are alternatives to Automatix. In many cases supported alternatives. It may take one or two more steps, but when you need help down the road it’ll still be available. Beginning with my next post (should be coming today) I will begin.

This begins the Ubuntu Tutorials series on – Supported Installation Alternatives to Automatix.

So this morning I started looking into greasemonkey based on recommendations of a few friends. I found a few useful scripts and I think I may actually keep it around. I did actually take one script that seemed pretty limited and improved upon it.

If you use greasemonkey you might want to check this out. (I don’t know if this already exists–it certainly may–but here it is anyhow).

Ever notice how Google supports https but doesn’t require it on more than the login page? This script will require any available Google App that supports https to actually use https. Currently this supports:

Gmail

Google Docs

Google Reader

Google Calendar

if you know of any other Google Apps that support https for the session let me know and I’ll improve this. Enjoy. I also have an idea of maintaining a growing list of other sites that support but do not require https.

Download : GoogleSecure – GreaseMonkey

A linux machine has a logging system which keeps track of what everything is doing.  Anytime you authorize with sudo it gets logged.  Anytime you (or someone else) connects via ssh it gets logged.  Apache logs connections, mail servers log emails sent and refused.  Pretty much everything keeps a log of what it is doing so you can later troubleshoot it or simply have a record of it.For those that are security minded it may not be a bad idea to keep duplicate of your logs by sending them not only to the local machine but to a remote machine as well.  This way, even if an attacker is able to get into the first machine his steps are logged remotely before he is able to clear them on the local machine.  This, of course, has a number of other valuable uses.  In any event, here are a few quick steps to set it up.

/etc/syslog.conf

This file is the main “what gets logged and where” file for your system.  If you take a look at it you’ll see that it takes different types of logs and writes them to the appropriate files.  Mail here.  Cron there.  etc. We can easily tell the system to send the logs elsewhere with the following:

*.*    @192.168.0.5 (replace with your log-server IP)

This will send *everything* to the remote machine to be filed in the appropriate place.

or

*.level | level.*    @192.168.0.5  (replace, again, with your log-server IP)

This will send just the appropriate log type (just mail, cron, etc) to the remote server. Follow the same syntax seen in the existing file to go this route.

/etc/default/syslogd

This file is the system logging daemon configuration.  This is where we’ll tell the remote machine to listen for and accept logs.  As you see from one of the comments you simply need to add the “-r” to the SYSLOGD=”" field.  Example:

SYSLOGD="-r"

Once you have made these changes both on the local (/etc/syslog.conf) and on the remote (/etc/default/syslogd) you’ll need to restart those services with the following command:

sudo /etc/init.d/sysklogd restart

At this point you should be able to view the logs on the remote machine (perhaps using “tail -f /var/log/[logfile]“) and see logs identified from another hostname.  Ohh, and you can send *.* from A to B and *.* from B to A and it wont cause an endless loop.  This way both machines have backups.

Based on the recent huge success and boost in interest the US Teams Project has absolutely exploded.  I want to thank everyone that is participating and particularly the mentors that are working so hard to get these teams up and running.  Ubuntu has the greatest community in the world–gotta love it!

Based on this recent surge in interest we wanted to take a little time tomorrow and let everyone meet all the new faces.  If you want to chat with fellow Ubuntu community members drop by IRC tomorrow afternoon / evening.

Ubuntu US  (#ubuntu-us on irc.freenode.net)

Anytime I ask a Mono or Beagle developer about the Beagle app they tell me all kinds of great things.  Anytime I ask a regular user (which there tend to be more of) there complain about how much it sucks resources, power, etc.

Well both parties might be interested in this.  I just installed powertop (nice work intel) and the first thing it suggests (verbatim):

Suggestion: Disable or remove 'beagle' from your system.  Beagle is the program that indexes for easy desktop search, however it's not very efficient and costs a significant amount of battery life.

Any suggestions from either side?