Somehow - I don’t know how - I managed to lock myself out of Ubuntu while screwing with folder permissions. Now I can only log on using a “failsafe session,” which basically means the barebones linux kernal. I’ve tried to get help, but all the commands they tell me to type in don’t do anything. Even though they should. So now I have to reinstall Ubuntu. That sucks. At least all of my valuable data is in an entire different partition. Phew.
Compiz-fusion is, basically, eye-candy for Ubuntu. It has quite a lot of special effects: annotating (allows you to draw red lines all over your screen), desktop cube (allows you to view your multiple desktops on a cube), and many more. It’s fun to mess around with, and actually has some very helpful features.
So at least give it a try. Here’s how to install it:
First, you need to install something called fusion-icon. It’s optional little icon that works as a control panel for compiz-fusion. To install it, just go to the terminal and type in the following:
sudo apt-get install fusion-icon
Next, another optional thing is emerald. It allows you to have different Ubuntu themes. At the moment I have a vista-ish one. To install it, just type the following into the terminal:
sudo apt-get install emerald
Now, this next step is required. You have to install the compiz-fusion settings manager. This allows you to dictate what effects you want and how they act. To install it, just type in this in the terminal:
sudo apt-get install compiz-fusion-settings-manager
Now go to System -> Preferences -> Appearance then click on the tab “visual effects.” Select “Extra.”
Restart your system. In the top bar to the right you should see an icon that looks like a box. Right click on that and click settings manager. In here, you can mess around with compiz-fusion to your hearts desire. Cheers!
Sun Microsystems developed Java back in the 90’s, and now is a huge part of technology. From cell phones to computers, Java is there.
Unfortunately, Java isn’t installed on Ubuntu by default. (As of Hardy) So if your trying to install something such as Aptana, it won’t work with the Java Runtime Environment. (JRE) So here’s how to install it:
First, open up the terminal. We’re going to install 3 packages:
sun-java6-jre- The actual JRE
sun-java6-plugin - The java plugin for Mozilla-based browsers
sun-java6-fonts - All fonts used by Java
So type the following into the terminal
sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin sun-java6-fonts
It’ll prompt you for your password, enter it in and let it run. After its finished downloading, JRE should be installed!
Now if you’ve gone ahead and installed Ubuntu like I’ve been pressuring you to do, you’ll notice that when the menu to select your operating system comes up (it’s called GRUB), it waits for 10 seconds and the auto selects. This can be very annoying, because sometimes you aren’t paying attention and the wrong operating system comes up. Nearly drove me insane. So I did some sleuthing, and found a way to fix it.
First, you’ve got to open up the terminal by going to Applications in the upper right and then accessories. Once in, type in the following:
sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst
Wondering what this means? I’ll go through it step by step with you. “sudo” will allow the command to access files protected by the system. If this is the first time you’ve used sudo in the session it’ll prompt you for your password. “gedit” is a text editor, so it’s telling Ubuntu is open it up. “/boot/grub/menu.lst” is the file for gedit to open up. This particular file is the settings for GRUB.
Now once gedit is open, look about halfway down the screen. There should be a line that says the following:
timeout [number, most likely 10]
Comment out this line by adding a pound sign (#) in front of it. That will prevent it from knowing from how long to wait before autoselecting. Now, GRUB doesn’t know that you don’t want the autoselect, so it’ll through an error if it can’t find out the value of “timeout”. So you have to tell it that by placing the following line below “#timeout [number]”
prompt
Then just hit save and you ready to go! So now you can sleep soundly, knowing that GRUB won’t autoselect.
So you want to try out Linux, do you? (See my previous post, Why Linux?) Don’t worry, you can still keep whatever operating system you have in addition to Linux. (It’s called dual booting)
So, I’ll tell you how to get started with Linux. First, you need to pick a distribution. I recommend Ubuntu, and I’ll make this post specifically for that, although it should apply to most distros.
First, review what you’ll need:
- A computer (I hope you have you handy)
- An internet connection (Be warned: Ubuntu takes a few hours to download)
- A blank CD
- A CD burning program that supports ISO images.
- A few extra gigabytes of hard drive space.
Once you have all of those without arm reach, you can start.
First, download Ubuntu. You can get it here.
After the ISO image is finished downloading, open it up with you CD burner and write it to the blank CD.
Leave it in the CD drive, and restart your computer. Instead of starting up your OS, it’ll start up the Ubuntu installer. After a few very easy to follow steps you’ll reach the part where you select the partition to install Ubuntu on. Listen carefully! If you do this wrong you could deleted your old operating system!
Resize your main partition to shave a few gigabytes off it. Then create a new partition filling up those gigs. Be sure the type is ext3, not FAT32 or NTFS. The mount point should be “/”.
Now selected the new partition as the one you want to install Ubuntu on, and your off! If you want to, you can also create an additional partition to share files between Windows/Mac and Linux. (Linux is able to read NTFS, but Windows isn’t able to read ext3)
Then go through the installer and you’ve got Ubuntu on your computer. Tada! When you start up you should be faced with a menu, in which you can select any operating system you have installed on your computer.
Linux. An often misunderstood OS. People usually don’t want Linux because…..
- “Linux is too complicated for me.”
- “I won’t be able to get any support for it.”
- “Isn’t Linux still just a command prompt?”
- “It doesn’t have any software for it.”
- “I paid hundreds of dollars for a few Adobe products. I don’t want lose all of that by switching to Linux!”
Actually, all of those are untrue:
- Linux has become significantly more user-friendly over the years. You’ll need some computer now how, but just a moderate knowledge will be sufficient.
- Linux has highly active support forums, in particular the Ubuntu Forums, so you should have no problem getting help.
- Linux has gone past the days of a command prompt. It’s now a fully-fledged desktop environment.
- Linux has quite a lot of software for it, and all of it free. (I have yet to find a program for Linux that you have to pay for.) And if there isn’t, WINE provides window support on Linux.
- And if you have a large collection of Windows software, WINE should be able to handle it.
Want to get Linux? I’ll be posting on how to do that over the next few days as I transition to Linux myself.
Edit: And to address Jack Franklins concerns, most Linux distros (I personally recommend Ubuntu) will allow you to dual-boot operating systems. Linux will stay in its own partition of the HD, and you can revert to Windows or Mac whenever you want.