Ubuntu Tutorials

This morning I had a little bit of free time so I thought I’d (finally) check out the Firefox extension Firesheep. The main website mentions that it isn’t supported for Linux, but the source code is available and as it turns out very easy to compile. Below are instructions for downloading, compiling and installing the Firesheep security plugin for Firefox.

Get the Source

You’ll need to download the source code from github, which can be done using the following two commands:

git clone https://github.com/codebutler/firesheep.git
cd firesheep
git submodule update --init

These two commands will download the code required to compile Firesheep, putting the source into a new directory called “firesheep”.

Build Tools

To compile Firesheep on Ubuntu 10.04 or 10.10 you’ll need the following development packages installed. Simply copy-paste the following list of packages into your terminal:

sudo apt-get install autoconf libtool libpcap-dev libboost-all-dev libhal-dev xulrunner-1.9.2-dev

On my machine this installed quite a few packages, and while the main Firesheep website lists 10.10 specifically, I had no problems on my 10.04 installation.

Build Firesheep

You’re now ready to compile Firesheep. Run the following command and hopefully you’ll be able to build it without error:

./autogen.sh && make


Install the Plugin

If all is well you should find a new file called ‘firesheep.xpi’ in a subdirectory called build (ie; firesheep/build/). Simply drag-and-drop that file into your Addons dialog box, restart Firefox and you should be set.

I’ve been having some issues in actually capturing data on my Dell D630 with an Intel Pro/Wireless 3945ABG card. It looks like this tool is often hardware specific, so your mileage may vary. I’d be interested in anyone offering suggestions on getting it to capture properly on OS X 10.6 (macbook) or Ubuntu 10.04+.

This article is part of a series entitled “Ubuntu Beginners”, which which walks new users through basic Desktop and Command Line usage. This article will detail how to change the default Firefox home page. As outlined in a previous post: Ubuntu 10.04 to Change Default Search Provider, the default search provider (and home page) in Ubuntu 10.04 will be changing from Google to Yahoo!. This article will outline how to revert that change, or define an alternate preferred search provider.

Change Firefox Home Page

In order to change the preferred home page in Firefox, you’ll need to navigate to the Preferences menu. This can be found, within Firefox, at Edit > Preferences. If you’re migrating from the Windows platform, you’ll notice a difference here. Instead of Tools > Preferences, it is found at Edit > Proferences. The screenshot below demonstrates this location:

Firefox > Edit > Preferences

This will open the Firefox Preferences utility, which allows you to customize a wide range of Firefox settings. The primary setting that we’re looking for is the Home Page. In the default installation in Ubuntu 9.10, the Home Page is set to: chrome://ubufox/content/startpage.html. In future versions the Home Page will be set to Yahoo!. To update your Home Page, simply change the URL defined. The second screenshot below demonstrates defining Google as the preferred Home Page.

Firefox Preferences

Firefox Preferences - Home Page : Google

The change is minor between the two screenshots, but it does make a big difference. A users Home Page is the launching point for all Internet activity. It can allow you to quickly access your favorites sites, or provide you with tools you need. The change from Google to Yahoo! has been a controversial one, but one of the main benefits of Open Source Software is the ability to choose and customize. Changing your default Home Page and Search Provider simple.

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.

Those of you that follow the Ubuntu development mailing lists may have already come across this news, but it has been announced that Ubuntu will change the default search provider in Firefox from Google to Yahoo!. This is based on a revenue sharing agreement between Canonical and Yahoo!, allowing Canonical to continue to support the infrastructure required to continue to develop the distribution.

With this change, whatever your search bar default is will also match your default start page. If your search default is Google, your start page will be Google. If it is set to Yahoo!, your start page will also be Yahoo!.

Personally, I like the idea of Canonical continuing in its goal of becoming a profitable, successful business. More money for Canonical means more developers, which means continued improvements and stability.

On the other hand, it has been years since I’ve used anything other than Google for web searches. It think it would feel very foreign to use something else.

Perhaps I’ll change my default search to Yahoo! for the rest of the week, just to see what the change will be like.

What do you think about this change? Will you change your default search back to Google? Stick with Yahoo! and help support Canonical? Use a different browser altogether?

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.

Ubuntu 9.04 comes pre-installed with Firefox 3.0.x. This was the current version of the browser at the time the Ubuntu version was released. Based on the development model of six-month releases, Firefox won’t be updated to the 3.5.x version until Ubuntu 9.10. Security updates for the 3.0.x branch are supplied, but major revision upgrades won’t happen until the next release.

I have recently discovered that there is a package available for Firefox 3.5.x in the universe repository, which will install the latest version of the browser alongside the default version. I know how important web browsing is for most of us, and having the latest browser with the latest features is a requirement. This article will outline how to install the Firefox 3.5 package from the default repositories, as well as update the user-agent string as needed.

Install the package

To install the package you’ll need to make sure you have the universe repository configured. This should be enabled by default, so unless you’ve manually removed it you should be fine. Once this is verified you can install the package using the command below (or click the link):

sudo aptitude install firefox-3.5

Once this package is installed you should have a new menu entry in Applications > Internet called “Shiretoko Web Browser”. This is named after the development codename (I believe) of the 3.5 branch.

Required tweak : User-Agent

I’m unsure the reasoning behind it (probably the Mozilla license issue regarding redistribution using the name & logo), this version of the browser identifies itself with its development codename and not the known “Firefox” name. This will break functionality on a number of sites that verify the user-agent string. There is a simple way to fix this, which I’ll outline below.

In your address bar, enter the url: about:config

Accept the notice that tinkering with the settings in this section might catastrophically break things, destroying the world and all mankind.

In the field at the top, enter the string: general.useragent.extra.firefox

Double-click on the result and change the string from “Shiretoko/3.5.2" to “Firefox".

Conclusion

At this point you should have a working copy of Firefox 3.5 installed alongside your default copy of Firefox 3.0. You may notice some oddities based on the Firefox vs Shiretoko issue, but at least the user-agent string is reporting what you’d like it to. Remember, the latest version will be the default in Ubuntu 9.10, so just wait a few more weeks and you can get it with the next release!

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.

I have been getting more and more tired of Firefox lately. Tired of the bloat. The unreliability. The gecko engine. I’ve been tinkering with alternate browsers such as Midori (which is *great*, assuming you can get >=0.1.6), Arora and Chromium. I think WebKit is the browser engine of the future, and with these browsers it is nearly a reality. They are still a little rough around the edges, but I can honestly see one of them absolutely taking off by the end of this year. Firefox, prepare to be dethroned!

The one missing link in most users transition to a new browser however is their reliability on extensions. I know I have a few extensions that I really don’t like to live without. I bet you do as well. Let me guess what your number one extension is? AdBlock Plus? So, if these new browsers don’t have an extension architecture (yet), how can I block ads? You can use your /etc/hosts file.

Let me tell you, quickly, about the /etc/hosts file for those that may not be familiar. The /etc/hosts file is the predecessor to the DNS system that we use now. It is a local mapping of IP address to hostname. At this point, as we now rely on DNS, the /etc/hosts file is generally pretty empty. You’ll likely just have entries that make sure your machine can find itself by localhost or hostname. Something along the lines of:

127.0.0.1    localhost  hostname

Now, you might be thinking “How am I going to block all the internets advertisements if my /etc/hosts file looks like that?” Well, you won’t, if it just looks like that. I have a solution for you though, and it requires very little work on your part.

In searching for a solution I have come across an /etc/hosts file that is (minus comments) 15,169 lines long. That’s right. Fifteen thousand one hundred sixty nine lines long. That is a lot of mapped IP addresses! What someone has done is collect every nasty thing he could find into the hosts file, and map it to 127.0.0.1.

What does that actually mean? It means that anytime your browser is told to display an ad it’ll need to look up the address. The /etc/hosts file is checked first before DNS, which then tells it to ask the local machine. The local machine, of course, does not have that information to display and therefore nothing is displayed. Bingo! No more ads.

But wait, there’s more! This not only applies to blocking ads, but also banners, 3rd party cookies, 3rd party page counters, web bugs, and even most hijackers. You’re not only blocking advertisements, you’re outright blocking thousands of known problematic and malicious websites. And all this without requiring a single Firefox extension. It works in ANY browser.

So, I hope you’re wondering where you can get a copy of this magical file that solves all of the worlds woes. Well you can get it here of course!

disclaimer: I am not the original author of this file, but it has been published under a CC-BY-SA license and under that license I am redistributing it. Attribution is contained within the file itself.

sudo mv /etc/hosts /etc/hosts.orig

sudo wget -c http://zelut.org/projects/misc/hosts -O /etc/hosts

These commands will move your original file as a backup and then pull the file from the web, putting it directly where it needs to go. You should be ready-set-protected after completion of the second command. Pull up a browser (hopefully you’ll try something other than Firefox), and give it a try.

If you have anything to add or subtract from the hosts file, you may edit it directly with a text editor. If you’d like to share your changes with the rest of us you may email me your update in the form of a patch. Please make sure your patch is created against the latest version.

I hope this solution works for many of you towards trying out and helping improve alternate browsers. Again, I highly suggest Midori or Arora as GTK or Qt (respectively) WebKit based browsers.

Recently I was tasked with doing a bunch of documentation work here at the office, and I decided to put together a wiki for the job.  After a few hours of editing directly into the browser I was about to blow my brains out.  I quickly decided that if I’m going to be working with a lot of text I need a real editor, like vim.

I set out to find some solutions and quickly ran into a Firefox addon that allows you to edit most forms, including wiki pages, with your editor of choice.

You can install the addon directly from Mozilla or you can get it from the Ubuntu repository.  Links for each below:

It’s All Text!

sudo aptitude install itsalltext

Once you have it installed you’ll need to, of course, restart the browser and then you can configure it.  You can configure it via Tools > It’s All Text > Preferences, or from within your Addons Management Window.

As you see here my prefered editor is gvim, which I can select using the “Browse” button.  Note: if you don’t have gvim installed you’ll want to add the vim-full package:

sudo aptitude install vim-full

Now that you have this configured you can simply edit most forms on the web by right-clicking within the form and selecting “It’s All Text”, or by clicking the “Edit” button that you’ll now see to the lower right (based on my configuration) of the input field.

For all of you that spend hours and hours editing wikis and other online forms I hope this helps out.  I know it saved me from wanting to throw myself out the window!

I got an email this morning from a thankful reader who had taken the time to generate a true FF/IE7 search plugin for Ubuntu Tutorials.  After chatting about it a bit we took it one step further and added code to automagically add the search plugin to the browser of those that are interested.

If you would like to add Ubuntu Tutorials to your quick-search menu simply visit the site and then click your quick-search dropdown.  You shoud be prompted with a new menu item allowing you to add “Ubuntu Tutorials Search” to your search menu.  Once you’ve done that you can immediately start directly searching this site for all your tutorial needs.