Ubuntu Tutorials

I remember when network-manager first came out. It was the most welcome piece of software I could imagine! The idea that a graphical tool would manage my wireless networks for me, display available SSIDs and signal strength and basically just keep me online with minimal work on my part. It sure beat the dark magic of the command line just to get connected! I want to thank the network-manager developers for creating such a helpful application. I’d also like to introduce an alternative for those that may not have had the same luck I did with network manager.

Install Wicd

The Wicd network manager is available in the core Ubuntu repositories for Ubuntu 9.04. It can be installed by using the following command or clicking on the link below:

sudo aptitude install wicd

This will download and install the Wicd package, and remove the network-manager tools. You’ll likely want to relogin for the changes to fully take effect.

You’ll find that Wicd isn’t that much different than network manager. It has a slighly different interface, but I think it is a little lighter and, at times, more customizable. I have had great luck with Wicd. When network-manager will give me connection issues, Wicd is able to directly connect when I need it to. Of course wireless on Linux isn’t flawless, but its getting there, and between these two tools we have greater choice on what we want to use while getting online.

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!

So its a little after noon today and I just woke up.  No, I’m not a lazy late sleeper, I got home from work last nite about 4:45am.  We had a huge server room rebuild consolidating ~40 servers, rebuilding two racks, and going to the data center.  Loads of fun, let me tell you.  Anyway, that information is incidental.  I just woke up because my Dad called and woke me up asking for a favor.  The conversation goes a little like this…

Dad: I need a favor from you and you’re not going to like it

Me: I’m not going to like it?

Dad: Your Uncle is here with his computer running Vista–

Me: You’re right, I’m not going to like it.

Dad: I’ve been on this stupid thing for hours and I can get it to connect to the wireless!

Me: I don’t support Vista, you know that.

Dad: Will you just look on one of your technical sites and find some answer?

Me: <quickly google “remove wireless network vista“>

Dad: Why did they have to move everything around?  XP worked just fine and now they moved things and changed things I can’t even find what I’m trying to do!

Me: I’m upset that you woke me up, but I’m loving how much you’re hating Vista.

Dad: It’s a peice of crap!

Me: <giving instructions based on google search results>

Dad: Thank you.

I just thought I’d share that quick story with everyone.  And here I spent months trying to convince them to switch to Linux.  I guess all I needed to do was give him a copy of Vista for the morning.  Mr. Ballmer, sir, you’re doing a fantastic job.  Keep up the good work!

If you use a Linux laptop and have not heard of PowerTop you really need to keep reading!  This is a fantastic tool for extending your battery life written and published by Intel.  I use it constantly on long flights and my battery lasts long enough for a cross-country flight.

Installing Powertop

PowerTop is available in the Ubuntu repositories so its a really easy installation:

sudo aptitude install powertop

Once you’ve got it installed start things up using:

sudo powertop

This application will scan your machine for 5 seconds and then tell you which hardware or application is causing the most drain on your machine.  The best part about it is that it’ll offer you suggestions along with shortcut keys to disable the feature or hardware in order to conserve power!

Some of the common things that powertop suggests disabling on my machine are bluetooth, wireless and add-on storage (cdrom, usb-devices, etc).  Disabling these few things can extend my battery up to an hour (depending on the software I’m running, of course).

I really suggest checking out powertop for any laptop user.  It should be part of your base installation setup.  What luck have you had with powertop?  How long can you extend your battery life?