Ubuntu Tutorials

Recently I published a short article outlining how to install the latest Firefox Web Browser manually, alongside your existing Firefox installation. In this article I will outline how to install the latest stable Firefox release by making use of the Mozilla Team PPA.

This Personal Package Archive (PPA) provides the latest stable releases for Firefox, unlike a previously available solution which was the Mozilla Daily PPA, which provided the latest daily builds. If you are looking for the latest stable release of Mozilla Firefox, this article will outline how to configure the PPA in order to install the required package(s).

Requirements

Installing the latest stable release of the Mozilla Firefox web browser requires the addition of a Personal Package Archive (PPA). Configuring and activating this PPA on your system can be done by simply pasting the following command into your Terminal (Applications > Accessories > Terminal):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/firefox-stable

Installation

Once you have the Personal Package Archive (PPA) configured, you can install the latest stable release of Mozilla Firefox by pasting the following two commands into your Terminal (Applications > Accessories > Terminal):

sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install firefox firefox-3.6 firefox-3.6-branding firefox-gnome-support

Troubleshooting

If you have issues with the latest stable version of Firefox, feel free to drop by the Ubuntu Tutorials forum thread and discuss solutions.

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

Fresh on the heels of my article outlining How to Install the Latest Firefox Web Browser, this article outlines how to install the Opera Web Browser on Ubuntu.  I will outline how to configure the repository to subscribe to Opera Web Browser updates, install the required packages, and more.

Requirements

Installing the Opera Web Browser using these steps requires that you subscribe to the official Opera Debian repository. This repository will ensure that you are kept up to date with the latest releases as well as security updates. To configure and activate the Opera repository, add the following line to your /etc/apt/sources.list file:

deb http://deb.opera.com/opera/ stable non-free

You’ll also want to import the GPG package signing key, to verify the downloaded packages. Importing the key can be done using the following command:

wget -O - http://deb.opera.com/archive.key | sudo apt-key add -

sudo aptitude update

Installation

Now that you have the Opera repository configured, you can install the latest Opera Web Browser package. Opera provides both 32bit and 64bit releases by way of their official repository. Install the correct architecture for your system using the following commands: (or click the linked package name)

sudo aptitude install opera

Once the package installation is finished you should have a new entry in your Applications menu. Opera Web Browser should be listed under Applications > Internet > Opera.

Troubleshooting

There have been reported issues in the past about Opera Web Browser on Ubuntu loading pages very slowly. If this is the case for you, it may help do Disable ipv6 on your Ubuntu system.

While this and other issues have not been reported by all users, you may be unlucky enough to run into issues. There are additional troubleshooting suggestions on the Ubuntu Opera Troubleshooting Wiki page

Today Mozilla has released the latest version of their flagship Web Browser, Firefox v3.6. This release brings a number of enhancements as well as bug fixes. In this article I will outline how to manually install the latest Mozilla Firefox release alongside your existing, packaged, version. The latest version will be the default, but it will still be possible to manually launch the previous version.

Requirements

To manually install the latest Mozilla Firefox we’ll need to download the release archive. You can do that from the Mozilla website using the link below:

• Download Mozilla Firefox 3.6

Download the archive and save it to your Downloads folder.

Installation

Manual installation takes a few steps, but nothing is too complicated. Simply copy / paste the commands below into your Terminal (Applications > Accessories > Terminal) and you’ll be up and running in no time!

sudo tar -C /opt/ -xf ~/Downloads/firefox-*.tar.bz2
sudo ln -s /opt/firefox/firefox /usr/local/bin/firefox

Running Mozilla Firefox 3.6

To start up the latest Firefox, first make sure you close any existing Firefox instances, then restart it from the Menu or panel. The re-launched Firefox should be the manually installed version. Your existing settings should be intact, but beware that some of your plugins may not function as expected. Until the plugin developers have verified them for the 3.6 release, they may be listed as incompatible.

Troubleshooting

I have opened a thread in the Ubuntu Tutorials Forum for troubleshooting the Firefox 3.6 release. If you have issues, or would like to help other users resolve their issues, please stop by.

I don’t think I’ve blogged much about it here, but I have become a huge fan of Google Chrome (or Chromium) on Linux. Anytime I’ve found the need to use Firefox of late it feels *dog* slow and clunky. Chrome is absolutely faster and I have really enjoyed using it.

You’ve probably heard by now that Google has released a Beta version for Linux as well as Mac, both of which are available on the download site. For the longest time I had been using the PPA or manual builds of Chromium, but now I’m using the Beta and life has become simpler.

Installing Chrome Beta

For those that haven’t tried Chrome yet, I’d invite you to give the Beta a shot. This version has support for user scripts (such as Adblock) as well as bookmark sync. To install the Beta version, visit http://google.com/chrome.

Click on the “Get Google Chrome (Beta)” in the upper-right.

Select the 32bit or 64bit .deb (For Debian/Ubuntu)

Click “Accept and Install”

This will download the .deb package, which you should be able to install without requiring any additional dependencies, using the GtkDebi installer (this should be the default “Open With…” application.

Keeping Updated

In doing some research the other day I found that installing the package above automagically installs the Google repository as well. This will ensure that your package stays updated as Google releases new version of the Beta, and eventually final browser. You don’t need to do anything else to remain updated, simply apply updates as you are prompted and this will also include the Google Chrome Beta browser!

The other day I decided I would try out the Chromium Browser again on Linux. It has been some time since I tried it–the last time it hardly rendered text properly–so I was very happy to see that it has improved significantly! When I say significantly I mean it is now my default browser, and has been for over a week. I don’t believe I have had any crashes (I can’t recall any as I write this), and everything that I expect to work has worked just fine. This includes flash, javascript, tabs, https, etc, etc. I trust it enough to write this post and not crash and lose my progress.

For those that haven’t tried it out yet, I would invite you to do so. I’ve outlined instructions below on how to use the chromium-daily PPA to update and use the latest nightly builds.

Configure PPA

Append the following line to your /etc/apt/sources.list:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/chromium-daily/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main

You can also import the package signing key using the command:

sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 4E5E17B5

You’ll have to refresh your package list, but then you’ll be able to install the Chromium Browser and you’ll receive updates daily.

sudo aptitude update && sudo aptitude install chromium-browser

Thoughts?

What are your thoughts on Chromium? Do you like it? Is it faster? I’m sure many of you will mention that its lack of plugins as compared to Firefox is holding you back, but that is on the horizon. Let me know what you like and what you don’t like, and if you’ve had as much success as I have.

The other day I was chatting with a co-worker and he pointed out a very simple command that could be used to quickly and easily share files with people within your LAN. This could also be used to share with people on the internets, but you’d have to configure NAT from your router. That much of the configuration is up to you, but I’ll share with you the quick ‘n easy webshare command.

The only requirement, as far as I can tell, is python. I’ve run it on my Linux machine as well as my OS X machine and it worked just fine with no other configuration or packages installed. It should likely work on anything else that has python installed as well.

To share the contents of any folder on your machine simply run:

python -c "import SimpleHTTPServer; SimpleHTTPServer.test();"

You can run that one-liner anywhere on your file system and then access the files via your browser. Simply point your browser to your LAN IP port 8000 and you should see an index listing of the files.

To make this a little simpler I made it an alias in my .bashrc file. Just add this line somewhere in your .bashrc or .bash_aliases:

alias webshare='python -c "import SimpleHTTPServer; SimpleHTTPServer.test();"'

At this point you can simply run the command webshare anywhere on your file system and share those files. This makes for a really simple tool for sharing files quickly and un-sharing them as soon as you’re done. Just hit ctrl-c to cancel and close the process.

As I’m sure is the case with the rest of you (particularly if you use Twitter), I’ve been hearing more and more about the Iranian Election and the difficulties the people there are having in getting connectivity outside of the country. Without getting too detailed, it sounds like the incumbent president has cut off internet access to most major social networking sites. Sites that the protestors were trying to use to organize peaceful rallies and request recounts on the polls.

If you are interested in helping them fight to have their voices heard you can setup a Squid Proxy which will allow them to anonymously access Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other such sites in order to organize and move forward. I have already personally setup and volunteered two proxies. The more that are available the better chance these people will have to continue to communicate with the outside world. If you would like to help out, please keep reading for instructions on how to setup a proxy and securely communicate the details to supporters inside Iran.

Note: please only configure and volunteer proxies for servers and internet connections that you own. Please do not run these on corporate or educational internet connections unless you have express permission.

Installing Squid

By following these instructions you should be able to have a Squid proxy available for use within just a few minutes. Even if you have setup Squid in the past, please make note of these customized instructions. The include access control restrictions to disallow Iranian government offices, and have logging disabled for anonymity.

To install squid use the command (or click on the link):

sudo aptitude install squid

Finding Your Public IP Address

You will need to document your public IP address for the configuration and for use by the protestors. You can find your public IP address by visiting the site: http://whatismyip.com. Make note of the address as you will need it for the configuration below.

Configuring Squid

We’ll now customize three things within the squid configuration.

1. Select a random port other than the default of 3128
2. Define access control list to allow Iranian subnets
3. Disable logging for anonymity of Iranian users

Open your squid configuration file, which is found in /etc/squid/squid.conf and search for the line “http_port 3128″. Change the port number to a different, random port. Do not use the following port numbers: 81/8080/8181/9090/3218. These are globally blocked within the country.

Next we’ll define the access control restrictions. What this will do is allow proxy access to the Iranian residential address ranges but not include the government offices. It will also block all other use of your proxy.

Search for the line beginning with “# INSERT YOUR OWN RULE(S)” and add the following on the next blank line:

acl TRUSTED src 62.60.128.0/17 62.193.0.0/19 62.220.96.0/19 77.36.128.0/17 77.77.64.0/18 77.104.64.0/18 77.237.64.0/19 77.237.160.0/19 77.245.224.0/20 78.38.0.0/15 78.109.192.0/20 78.110.112.0/20 78.111.0.0/20 78.154.32.0/19 78.157.32.0/19 78.158.160.0/19 79.127.0.0/17 79.132.192.0/19 79.170.144.0/21 79.175.128.0/18 80.66.176.0/20 80.69.240.0/20 80.71.112.0/20 80.75.0.0/20 80.191.0.0/16 80.242.0.0/20 80.253.128.0/20 80.253.144.0/20 81.12.0.0/17 81.28.32.0/20 81.28.48.0/20 81.31.160.0/20 81.31.176.0/20 81.90.144.0/20 81.91.128.0/20 81.91.144.0/20 82.99.192.0/18 82.115.0.0/19 83.147.192.0/18 84.47.192.0/18 84.241.0.0/18 85.9.64.0/18 85.15.0.0/18 85.133.128.0/17 85.185.0.0/16 85.198.0.0/18 86.109.32.0/19 87.107.0.0/16 87.247.160.0/19 87.248.128.0/19 89.144.128.0/18 89.165.0.0/17 89.221.80.0/20 89.235.64.0/18 91.98.0.0/15 91.184.64.0/19 91.186.192.0/19 91.206.122.0/23 91.208.165.0/24 91.209.242.0/24 91.212.16.0/24 91.212.19.0/24 91.212.252.0/24 92.42.48.0/21 92.50.0.0/18 92.61.176.0/20 92.62.176.0/20 92.242.192.0/19 93.110.0.0/16 93.190.24.0/21 94.74.128.0/18 94.101.128.0/20 94.101.176.0/20 94.101.240.0/20 94.139.160.0/19 94.182.0.0/15 94.184.0.0/17 94.232.168.0/21 94.241.128.0/18 95.38.0.0/16 95.80.128.0/18 95.81.64.0/18 95.82.0.0/18 95.82.64.0/18 95.130.56.0/21 95.130.240.0/21 188.34.0.0/16 188.93.64.0/21 188.121.96.0/19 188.121.128.0/19 188.136.128.0/17 188.158.0.0/15 193.189.122.0/23 194.225.0.0/16 195.146.32.0/19 212.16.64.0/19 212.33.192.0/19 212.50.224.0/19 212.80.0.0/19 212.95.128.0/19 212.120.192.0/19 213.176.0.0/19 213.176.32.0/19 213.176.64.0/18 213.195.0.0/18 213.207.192.0/18 213.217.32.0/19 213.233.160.0/19 217.11.16.0/20 217.24.144.0/20 217.25.48.0/20 217.64.144.0/20 217.66.192.0/20 217.66.208.0/20 217.146.208.0/20 217.172.96.0/19 217.174.16.0/20 217.218.0.0/15

http_access allow TRUSTED
http_access deny all

access_log none
cache_store_log none

visible_hostname <your public IP>

Once you have saved these changes run the following two commands to activate things:

sudo squid -z
sudo /etc/init.d/squid start

If you don’t see any errors you should be ready to go. You can now submit your public IP address and random port to the following email addresses for secure propagation within Iran.

me@austinheap.com and smallworldnews@gmail.com

I hope you are able to volunteer toward this cause. The stories that I have read and the videos and images I have seen show a real injustice is going on in that country. There are many young people who are trying to vote in a real Democratic election, yet their votes are being ignored and their voices are being silenced. If you believe that Freedom is something we all deserve, get involved.

You can find more information and inside updates here here and here.

Recently I asked for some user-contributed content for the site, and while I didn’t get the amount of feedback that I’d like, I did get one good suggestion that I knew I needed to pass on. How to share your internet connection. This tutorial outlines, in a very simple way, how to share your wired connection by creating an ad-hoc wireless broadcast. I imagine this would be great for LUG meetings and small gatherings where wireless is lacking but there is limited wired connectivity. Thanks to Aaron for the suggestion.

Requirements

In order to share your wired connection and create an ad-hoc wireless network you will need the following:

• An active wired network connection
• Functional wireless network device
• Network Manager 0.7 or later
• dnsmasq-base package installed

Installation and Configuration

The requirements above are pretty easy to come by. Network Manager 0.7 or later should be installed by default on any Ubuntu version past 8.10 (Intrepid, Jaunty and later). The dnsmasq-base package can be installed using the command (or clicking the link):

sudo aptitude install dnsmasq-base

At this point you should have all of your requirements met and we can move on to creating the ad-hoc wireless network.

Click on the Network Manager icon and select “Create New Wireless Network”.

You’ll be prompted to define a Network Name and optional Wireless Security Level. Once you define these values and activate you should be able to see a new SSID listed and begin sharing your connection. Enjoy!

I just got word that Google has released a Developer Preview for their browser, Google Chrome. I have not had time to test it on my Linux machine yet, but I have installed in on OS X and it is working great so far! There are bugs, of course. The limitations are mentioned at the download page, but overall it has been working like a champ.

I love that Google released a browser, and not just any browser, but a browser that redefines how browsers should work from the bottom up. I also love that Google doesn’t limit this offering to a single operating system, but shares it with everyone. Granted it has been a while since the Windows-only release, but this really shows that they *have* been working on it, and now have something to offer us.

If you’d like to see some basic screenshots (again, I have not tested this on my Linux machine, only OS X) you can visit my other blog. In the meantime, here is a link to the dirty details and downloads.

Early Access Release Channels: Chromium (Google Chrome Downloads)

Enjoy!

DISCLAIMER: This post is not at all Ubuntu-specific, but it is Ubuntu-applicable. This tip will actually work on any platform as it is Gmail specific, and I know many of you are big Gmail fans.

I have had my Gmail account since the time of the earliest invites, and my email address is splattered all over the web these days. From site registrations to mailing lists, from stupid forward chains I got pulled into to.. well, you get the idea. The result of this is that I get A LOT of Spam in my Gmail account. Now, to Gmail’s credit, the vast majority of it gets deleted or put into my Spam folder automagically. I’m talking ~1000 emails into my Spam/Trash folder within a 24hr period. It’s ridiculous!

Recently I have been getting more and more Spam directly into my Inbox, so much in fact that I have all but abandoned my Gmail account for a new, personally hosted IMAP server. I had decided that, pending a solution to this rampant Spam, I would have to use something else. Well today I think I found that solution.

I was mentioning on Identi.ca that I wish Gmail had a language-based filtering option. Well, it turns out that they do, and that makes filtering foreign-language Spam a breeze!

Here are the steps I took toward creating a Russian-language filter:

1. Click “Create Filter” located at the top of your Inbox
2. In the “Has the words:” field, enter: lang:Russian
3. Select “Delete it” within the Action List, and (if you have existing Russian Spam) select: “Apply Filter to Conversations below”
4. Click “Create Filter”

I have only tested this briefly, but so far it has worked to filter out and clean up existing Russian (lang:Russian) and Chinese (lang:Chinese) Spam. I’m sure other languages work just as well.

I would suggest, before you “Apply Filter to Conversations below”, that you take a look at the matches. If you are on mailing lists, or have correspondence with international developers or community members, it could match their emails as well. Just be careful you don’t accidentally filter out emails you want!

If you have any other tips regarding Gmail Spam filtering please share them in the comments.