Linux Dump

Now if you’re going to migrate to Linux, you need to know about the file system as it is different to Windows. It has more similarities to the OS X file system (which Apple based on Linux by the way) so if you’re from a Mac background, you’ll notice.

Gorkee have a simple but very informative article that explains it all.

A good guide from the talented people over at downloadsquad on installing Adobe AIR on Linux using Wine.

Linux.com has a short (but great!) article on choosing a DVD ripper to back up your DVD’s natively in Linux.

I love configuring my Linux (Ubuntu) desktop, in fact one of the reasons I switched to Linux was for its ability to configure the desktop to my exact specifications.

If you’re like me and prefer a dark desktop wallpaper, you’ll know that it can be impossible to see the black text of the menus (if you set your panels to be transparent as I do). Hence, you need to change the text colour of items in the panel to the colour white (or whatever “lighter” colour takes your fancy).

In order to edit the panel colour to white (against a dark background/picture) and have desktop icons appear white, type this in a terminal (note I’ve only tried this in Ubuntu, I can’t guarantee it will work in other Linux distributions):

$ gedit .gtkrc-2.0

and paste in the document that opens:

include “/home/autocrosser/.gnome2/panel-fontrc”style “desktop-icon”

{
NautilusIconContainer::frame_text = 1
text[NORMAL] = “#000000″
NautilusIconContainer::normal_alpha = 200
}
class “GtkWidget” style “desktop-icon”

#NautilusIconContainer::dark_info_color=”#888888″
#NautilusIconContainer::light_info_color=”#bbbbbb”
#NautilusIconContainer::highlight_alpha=200

style “my_color”
{
fg[NORMAL] = “#000000″
}
style “panel_color”
{
fg[NORMAL] = “#FFFFFF”
}

widget “*PanelWidget*” style “panel_color”
widget “*PanelApplet*” style “panel_color”
widget_class “*MenuItem*” style “my_color”
widget_class “*ToolItem*” style “my_color”
widget_class “*SeparatorMenuitem*” style “my_color”
widget_class “*SeparatorToolitem*” style “my_color”
widget_class “*ImageMenuitem*” style “my_color”
widget_class “*RadioMenuitem*” style “my_color”
widget_class “*CheckMenuitem*” style “my_color”
widget_class “*TearoffMenuitem*” style “my_color”

Clieck Save and you’re done!

Log out and back in to see changes.

I run a Belkin KVM flip switch between my Linux box and what I like to call “my creative box” (which is in fact an old Mac G4). On a fresh install, this switch tends to mess my screen resolution in Ubuntu (changing it whenever I log out).

In order to set my desired screen resolution of 1280×1024 on my Linux box permanently, I use the following command. Note: its better if you connect your monitor directly to your machine (rather than through the flip switch) when running this command. Once you plug the monitor back into the flip switch, it should keep your desired resolution.

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

This will run a text based walk through allowing you to modify the contents of your xorg file (the system file used to control things like your screen resolution, mouse and keyboard etc. For the most part you can just hit “Enter” whenever prompted until you get to the monitor section.

The important thing is to set the Horizontal and Vertical frequencies as set out in your monitor’s manual (which you should be able to google and download if you’ve misplaced the hard copy).

This useful little command helped me get my Gigabtye-USB speakers cranking in Ubuntu.

In a terminal run: asoundconf list

This should return a list of cards.

Replace xxxxx below with the name you found in list (case sensitive).

In a terminal run: asoundconf set-default-card xxxxxx

Then again with sudo: sudo asoundconf set-default-card xxxxx

Thanks to NilsE at the Ubuntu forums for this one.

This fix works also works if you’re having problems getting sound out of Firefox32 in your AMD64 bit system (as I was).

http://www.howtoforge.com/mac4lin_make_linux_look_like_a_mac

After a lot of googling and playing with settings, here´s how you can use Thunderbird to check your web based email (specifically Hotmail).

(1) Download this extension to your desktop: http://downloads.mozdev.org/webmail/web-mail-1-2-5.xpi

(2) Download this extension to your desktop: http://download.mozdev.org/webmail/hotmail-1-2-10.xpi

(3) Open Thunderbird and from the ¨Tools¨ menu selected ¨Add ons¨, and then click ¨Install¨, installing the 2 files you´ve just downloaded.

(4) Restart Thunderbird.

Now for the settings (which is where most people have trouble). Never fear, the nerd burger is here:

(1) Under ¨Add ons¨ again, select the Webmail extension´s ¨Preferences¨ button. Change the POP port to 1025, the SMTP to 1026 and the IMAP to 1027.

(2) Again, under ¨Add ons¨, select the Webmail-Hotmail extensions ¨Preferences¨ button. Select Hotmail Live (New Website).

(3) Now we need to change some Thunderbird preferences. Go to Edit -> Account Preferences. Your name: yourname@hotmail.com and email address: yourname@hotmail.com.

(4) Server name should read: localhost and Port: 1025 and Username: yourname@hotmail.com. Change these if need be.

(5) Click on Outgoing Server (SMTP): Select Webmail-localhost (Default). Make sure the port number is 1026. If not, click on the Edit button and type 1026 in there.

There you have it, you should now be able to send and receive Hotmail through Thunderbird.

A useful link for having several internal hard drives mount on startup.

http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/mountlinux

This guy is a genius, gone are the days of having to install a 32bit version of Firefox on your 64bit Ubuntu system. This installs a 64bit version of Swiftweasel with Java and Flash.

Useful huh?

http://tghc.org/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=4#p4