I have seen a few questions in IRC and the forums lately regarding upgrading Ubuntu machines. I thought I would toss out a reminder on the best, supported, methods of upgrading your machine and how to avoid (hopefully) some common pitfalls. Upgrade Preparation The first step towards an upgrade is to backup any mission-critical data… Read More »
I recently blogged about installing the Adobe Acrobat Reader on Ubuntu 8.04. For those that followed that tutorial you may also be interested in adding the Firefox plugins for Adobe Reader as well. These will also require the Medibuntu repository, which I’ll review quickly here. Configuring the Medibuntu Repository sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/hardy.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list sudo… Read More »
Recently I blogged about installing Adobe Acrobat reader by way of the Medibuntu repository. This got me thinking about some of the other great (albeit non-free) software that is available there. Here I’ll review how to add the Medibuntu repository and then how to install Google Earth! Configure the Medibuntu Repository Setting up this third-party… Read More »
UPDATE: Install Adobe PDF Reader on Ubuntu 9.10 “Karmic Koala” I figured it was time to update my previous posts on how to install Adobe Acrobat Reader for Ubuntu 8.04. It has become much simpler to install than it has been in the past, meaning it can be installed via a proper .deb package. It… Read More »
Not long ago the USB mouse that I’ve been using with my laptop finally died. Granted it may have been due to me stubbing my toe on my backpack and crushing it during the middle of the night. In any event, I’ve become pretty proficient in the use of keyboard shortcuts in Firefox at this… Read More »
Recently I blogged about the advanced permission management tool for nautilus, which could be switched on using the gconf-editor. I noticed that one of the comments mentioned that neither of them had adequate support for ACLs. This post will remedy that. If you have no idea what ACLs are you might skip this post as… Read More »
I just finished a phone conversation last night with the hosts of the Fresh Ubuntu podcast. Someone suggested that I might make a good addition to the show, so you’ll get to hear me talk about Ubuntu related stuff (primarily LoCo work) for a half-hour or so on the next episode. For those interested check… Read More »
I like to keep on top of my machines health. I like to do this without programs getting in my way, or dedicating desktop space to monitoring applications. The way I’ve found to do this simply and effectively is with the System Monitor panel Applet. Adding the System Monitor Applet To add the system monitor… Read More »
A few of us were discussing minimal desktop environments the other day and I was reminded of the olden days when I used XFCE. I really liked the clean interface which did not display any desktop icons by default. Looking back on that I was reminded that it is an option available in Gnome as… Read More »
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… Read More »