Posts Tagged ‘Karmic Koala’

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Download and install better Dropbox emblems for GNOME

Saturday, March 6th, 2010

I like , but I don’t like its emblems at all: they don’t fit any existing theme for — so you might want to change them, too. Fortunately there’s someone who prepared a script to do this with ease.

You could also download the same archive from my MediaFire’s account — BTW, that requires to be extracted: I used it since it has been inserted in the kernel.

$ sudo apt-get install lzop
$ lzop -dNp Dropbox\ Emblems.tar.lzo | tar x
$ cd Dropbox\ Emblems/
$ ./install.sh

Of course, can skip the 1st and the 2nd line if you downloaded the file from the official Dropbox’s board; just notice that my archive is a bit smaller, because I got rid of the preview image.

Warning: the original archive contains capitalized files, so you should use ./Install.sh instead. Uninstalling is self-explanatory. The script follows the FHS guidelines, which means that you may use it on any distribution.

Hey, this should be my latest post covering at all… unless I choose to virtualize it in the near future. Well, the penultimate — I can’t miss to say something on the new ’s branding, at least.

There are additional icons you can also download from that thread, but I didn’t install them because they break the emblems I talked above: choosing what’s the best is up to you.

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How to create a Gentoo USB installation medium (from Ubuntu, as well)

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

GentooIf you’re following my Twitter’s profile yet, you should have read that I’m getting rid of Ubuntu at all: right now isn’t really important “why” — I’ll explain it later on.

Just a quick note on before to get started: it’s possible that I’m not following you yet, because OpenSPF blocks some e-mail notification. Please, be patient and send me an if you’d like to be answered (I get notified on non-followings replies too).

So, I need to have a fully working machine: luckily I have both an old laptop and a netbook in front of me and I can install without data losses.

There are lots of tools to handle creation from CD images, but non of them worked for me: yes, it means that you must use the shell instead. But is it really a problem, moving to Gentoo?

Fortunately, the official Gentoo Wiki helps with the manual creation: of course, it fits Gentoo installations… but I successfully ported it to — it should work for all the other distributions, with little changes.

Removing Gentoo-related steps, it successfully worked on : you just need to install the syslinux package, at least (e2fsprogs should be installed yet).

$ sudo apt-get install syslinux
$ fdisk -l

First of all, identify the correct device: this is particularly important, because errors could definitively damage your existing systems. Make sure you’re going to edit the right partition table.

$ sudo fdisk /dev/sdx

Ubuntu needs to do so as sudoer, while other distributions should require root access: be careful modifying /dev/sdx with your own partition table. Then press the next sequence of buttons: [n] [enter], [p] [enter], [1] [enter], [enter] [enter], [t] [enter], [83] [enter], [a] [enter], [1] [enter], [p] [enter], [w] [enter], [q] [enter].

I know it appears a little bit confusing, so I’ll try to explain what you’re doing in details: if there’s an existing partition on the USB stick, you must delete it before (from fdisk, just press [d] before the above sequence).

With those buttons you prepared a new Ext2 bootable partition and wrote changes to the partition table: you might choose another type, but I don’t suggest you to do so.

$ sudo mkfs.ext2 /dev/sdxY
$ sudo tune2fs -i 0 /dev/sdxY

Warning: sdxY musts be replaced with the correct partition ID. Below, you’ll find some paths and mountpoints directly related to Ubuntu: they should be different in other distributions.

Before continuing, download the latest installation ISO of Gentoo, if you didn’t yet. After that:

$ sudo cat /usr/lib/syslinux/mbr.bin > /dev/sdx
$ sudo mount -t ext2 /dev/sdxY /media/usb
$ mount -t iso9660 -o loop,user /path/to/install-x86-minimal-*.iso /media/cdrom
$ cd /media/usb/
$ sudo cp -r /media/cdrom/* .
$ sudo mv isolinux extlinux
$ sudo mv extlinux/isolinux.cfg extlinux/extlinux.conf
$ sudo rm -rf extlinux/isolinux.bin
$ cd ..
$ sudo extlinux -i /media/usb/extlinux

Now you can easily unmount the USB stick, plug it on the desired device and start the installation process. I may assure that it works correctly on the — this weekly image supports the touchpad too.

For those who cares, I manage to install : you’ll find other useful details on this blog soon. I’m actually building the Gentoo system itself.

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DKMS and Catalyst 10.1: still no ways for Linux 2.6.33

Monday, February 15th, 2010

TuxSpeaking about Catalyst 10.1 compilation I’ve just considered you’re using the default kernel: unfortunately, there’s nothing to do with the latest .

This means that the driver won’t work yet on too, but it got a better open source alternative you might use.

The problem is caused by : the official driver’s module can’t be properly compiled – it ensures compatibility for 2.6.32 only – and you can’t finish its installation.

Anyway, I found a better method to compile the kernel: you could install kernel-package from Ubuntu/Lucid instead of editing files. I don’t think it will be ever backported to Ubuntu 9.10.

The package itself is platform-independent and you should download it from the Ubuntu’s archive, choosing the closest mirror: it doesn’t need additional dependencies.

If anyone knows how to force the fglrx module to be compiled on kernels up to 2.6.33, please let me know too on comments: I’ll implement an alternate contact method very soon.

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HootSuite: the best add-on, the worst bookmarklet

Sunday, February 14th, 2010

HootSuiteThere are lots of ways to use , but I use just few of them: for many reasons I prefer the default web interface — anyway, that’s far from being enough for most people.

One of my favorites clients is web-based too: it’s (that actually supports other social networks). Unfortunately, it could be very confusing if you don’t use some “tricks”.

Accessing it via its web site is maybe worse than using the Twitter’s: of course, there are several tools you’d find useful. BTW, you must pay attention to which applications you choose.

Speaking about browsers, the official bookmarklet – called – is IMHO a kind of crap: even loading it in the ’s sidebar, it doesn’t provide a better interface.

It exceeds the standard sidebar width just with a single column — that isn’t enough to control your profile: users with lots of custom columns shouldn’t use it at all.

On the other hand, HootSuite got the best Firefox add-on I’ve ever tried for this purpose: like Posterous does with post.ly (I use those with ), it features as default shrinker.

Although you could also access Ow.ly without registration, installing the add-on allows to share anything on Twitter by clicking the HootSuite’s icon next to the address bar: an alternate version for is available too.

HootSuite functionalities include multi-user accounts and much more, but this is what fits to me. Tweeting an URL can’t be easier — nor hosting and posting attachments.

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Getting the closest to perfect time on Linux

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

Time.isWith – a service I discovered recently – I noticed that servers aren’t all good to get the local time: my clock was ever ~15 sec. late using ntp.ubuntu.com.

So I decided to look for an alternative and I found the : after the change I get a ~0.4 sec. only time delay.

Doing the same is easy: first of all, you have to find the nearest server to sync. It works on all platforms, but I suggest you just how to configure NTP with .

Default installations still use NTP to get the local time, but I’ll show what to do step-by-step — even if you already got required dependencies.

$ sudo apt-get install ntpdate

You don’t need any other package: ntpdate is yet enough. Notice that has 2 different files to edit, while different distributions don’t.

$ sudo gedit /etc/default/ntpdate

NTPDATE_USE_NTP_CONF=yes
NTPSERVERS="ntp.hexago.com"
NTPOPTIONS=""

The 1st line set to yes overwrite the 2nd, so NTPSERVERS isn’t really necessary here: ntp.hexago.com is an -only server (it’s just an example, better than the Ubuntu’s default).

If you aren’t on , it’s possible that you don’t need to edit the file above: the 1st string forces ntpdate to use /etc/npd.conf — provided by ntp, a package you don’t need at all.

$ sudo gedit /etc/npd.conf

server 0.pool.ntp.org
server 1.pool.ntp.org
server 2.pool.ntp.org
server 3.pool.ntp.org

Create the file if it doesn’t exist yet and customize the servers’ lines to fit your area: the example shows global servers, but I suggest you to look for your country’s… then reboot the system.

If for some unknown reasons your Ubuntu 9.10 box doesn’t read the /etc/npd.conf file properly – and that’s my case, unluckily – you could always create a script to ensure time updates.

$ sudo gedit /etc/cron.daily/ntpdate

ntpdate server 0.pool.ntp.org 1.pool.ntp.org 2.pool.ntp.org 3.pool.ntp.org

This will sync your clock once a day: doing so definitively confirmed I have the exact time on the Time.is’ web site. BTW, it’s possible that you still need to often update the clock manually.

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Best track scrobbling with MPD + Sonata + Last.fm

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

Last.fmI’ve already described how to setup MPD on Linux: it wasn’t enough to play music. You may choose from lots of interesting clients, but I preferred .

It’s a clean, lightweight, full-featured PyGtk client for : you could find it in the official ’s repositories or wherever you need to.

Sonata got a built-in integration, while other clients require you to install lastfmsubmitd to scrobble tracks.

Installing it on is as easy as running:

$ sudo apt-get install sonata

It supports multiple profiles to connect to different servers, but one of its main lacks is that you can’t change the default profile’s name from the GUI.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to integrate it with Notify OSD — although it dials with D-Bus. Anyway, Sonata is the best solution I tried: feel free to install it on all of your -powered devices.

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YouTube is over IPv6: how to access it from Linux

Saturday, February 6th, 2010

YouTubeWhere it stands for , because is still accessible from : the changes made by Google don’t affect users accesses to the platform — but reduced the amount of IPv4 addresses needed (because YouTube is actually one of the largest sites on the web).

Anyway, you should prepare to switch soon: IPv6 will definitively replace IPv4 in 2012. If you didn’t disable it via kernel and/or system configuration – somebody suggests to do so to increase internet speed – you could easily take addresses via .

The Freenet6 community changed its web site recently and joined the Ning platform: I’ll speak about OpenSocial integration for blogs in a second time.

The best way I found to get IPv6 connectivity is : you can choose to login with username and password – registering for a free account – or anonymously.

The next example shows how to do it without any registered account: the main difference is about credentials — if you don’t need routing.

You could find packages for almost any distribution: here’s what to do with .

$ sudo apt-get install gw6c
$ sudo apt-get remove --purge radvd

In old releases the gw6c package was called tspc and its configuration files had another path: radvd isn’t really useful for our purposes, so I suggest you to completely remove it.

You may configure the client as you like, but the next settings are taken directly from the official example:

$ sudo gedit /etc/gw6c/gw6c.conf

userid=
passwd=
server=anonymous.freenet6.net
auth_method=anonymous
host_type=host
prefixlen=64
if_prefix=eth0
dns_server=
gw6_dir=
auto_retry_connect=yes
retry_delay=30
retry_delay_max=300
keepalive=yes
keepalive_interval=30
tunnel_mode=v6udpv4
if_tunnel_v6v4=sit
if_tunnel_v6udpv4=tun
if_tunnel_v4v6=sit1
client_v4=auto
client_v6=auto
template=linux
proxy_client=no
broker_list=/var/lib/gw6c/tsp-broker-list.txt
last_server=/var/lib/gw6c/tsp-last-server.txt
always_use_same_server=no
log_stderr=0
log_filename=/var/log/gw6c/gw6c.log
log_rotation=yes
log_rotation_size=32
log_rotation_delete=yes
syslog_facility=USER

Warning: prefixlen must equals to 64 if you don’t have an account, otherwise it won’t work — host_type could be router just if you login, with a prefixlen of 48.

The if_prefix option is about your physical interface: it supports bridges too (change it accordingly). The tunnel_mode must be v6udpv4 if you’re behind a NAT. In this case you can’t make use of a proxy client.

I don’t suggest you to change if_tunnel_* options: you need at least to enable the tun interface in your kernel settings — if it’s not yet. Restart your network to finally get an IPv6 address.

$ sudo /etc/init.d/gw6c restart
$ sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

If you want to configure previous Ubuntu releases, just edit the file /etc/tsp/tsp.conf instead. That’s it: you could test your effective address pinging web sites with ping6 from a shell or connecting to the Google’s IPv6 search engine.

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How to quickly setup MPD on a Linux system

Friday, February 5th, 2010

TuxHave you ever heard about cloud computing? I hope so. BTW, isn’t necessary to got an internet connection to create a “cloud”: I mean, you don’t need any web server.

Well, using the web should help you to remotely access your files… but this time I’m going to explain you how to install and configure an server on your system — sharing your playlists in a .

This is very quick and easy on , that requires a minimal configuration: even if the next steps apply to , you could install similar packages under any distribution.

I use it daily with : once a server is up and running, you may use any client to access and play your music tracks (from other machines too, if you need this).

$ sudo apt-get install mpd

After installing this package – the one and only you need, right now – you have to configure the server with very few options. I prefer to do this system-wide instead a per-user configuration.

$ sudo gedit /etc/mpd.conf

music_directory "/path/to/music"
playlist_directory "/path/to/playlist"
bind_to_address "192.168.1.2"
port "6600"

I followed the order (which may vary) of the default configuration file I found: you should leave the rest unchanged. Just notice that in the example I used 192.168.1.2 – my system’s local in the LAN – instead localhost: this is particularly useful if you plan to access your playlist from other devices.

Remember to change the address to fit your system’s configuration: assuming that you’re using and , you could go on with the setup — it supports too, I don’t use it. Try running mdp --version if you installed MPD in a different distribution.

audio_output {
type "pulse"
name "foo"
server "192.168.1.2"
sink "alsa_output"
}

While ALSA should have been configured properly during the installation, you must manually de-comment PulseAudio’s lines: check both and make sure the set address is correct. The name option doesn’t matter.

Now that you’re server is ready, you just need to restart its daemon to start playing your tracks:

$ sudo /etc/init.d/mpd restart

Of course, the configuration file is longer and you may choose other settings to optimize the stream. But this works and it’s enough to get started.

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Building ATI Catalyst 10.1 packages under Ubuntu/Karmic

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

ATI Catalyst 10.1As you may know, released ATI Catalyst 10.1 last week: it should ensure ’s support… but it fails the package building on 9.10 — I know, it’s ridiculous.

Luckily, a user submitter a workaround to solve this issue: I’ve already tested it and it works fine.

You can’t find these packages in the official repositories, yet — nor I think they’ll ever be available there: this is the only way I know to install them.

Let’s see what to do in details: I recommend you to install both gksu and nautilus-gsku before proceeding.

$ wget http://www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/ati-driver-installer-10-1-x86.x86_64.run
$ ./ati-driver-installer-10-1-x86.x86_64.run --extract
$ cd fglrx-install.AbCdEf/arch/x86_64/usr/lib64/

Well, this works on 64-bit systems: I imagine that 32-bit ones doesn’t need any workaround. Remember to replace AbCdEf with the proper 6-digits name of your path (I used [tab] to do so automatically).

$ ln -sf libatiuki.so.1.0 libatiuki.so.1
$ cd ../../../../
$ ./ati-installer.sh 10.1 --buildandinstallpkg Ubuntu/karmic

Don’t forget to append version and don’t use sudo here: alternatively, you may want to build the packages and install them in a second time.

In this case just replace --buildandinstallpkg with --buildpkg and install them later via dpkg with sudoer rights. In my example, you’ll be prompted for your admin password when needed.

It may fail to overwrite your /etc/X11/xorg.conf configuration file, but packages finish the installation process successfully. Restart the system and make any modification you need.

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Running uvesafb with Linux 2.6.33-rc6 and higher

Monday, February 1st, 2010

TuxI explained how to use the new compression algorithm as a built-in feature of the kernel yet, but I didn’t notice that apparently the unstable branch moved some framebuffer options to the modules.

Unfortunately, I’m forced to use because proprietary drivers don’t allow other kinds of framebuffer: this wasn’t a problem before.

My framebuffer needs to launch it as a “command” and with modularization it compromises its customization: I’m still working to fix this issue.

This means that uvesafb won’t start immediately and properly. It works quite like without default animations, if you can imagine.

To get it working again, first of all you need to remove any custom commands added to the kernel entry in as follows:

$ sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_TIMEOUT="10"
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="nodmraid video=uvesafb:1280x1024-32@60,mtrr:3,ywrap"
GRUB_GFXMODE=1280x1024x32

Remove the video string that’s now useless and update GRUB: under it’s necessary to create a new configuration file in /etc/modprobe.d — adding the relative module in /etc/modules.

$ sudo update-grub
$ sudo echo "uvesafb" > /etc/modules
$ sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/uvesafb.conf

options mode=1280x1024-32@60 mtrr=3 scroll=ywrap

Rebooting will enable modifications: I assume that you were using uvesafb yet, so I skipped the kernel configuration (which doesn’t change at all, except for uvesafb itself built as module instead of built-in).

This solution is far from being optimal, but works: I fixed a syntax issue, so it should work even “better”. Anyway I’m waiting for to avoid these problems at all.

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