Ed Hewitt

This week’s Linux Wednesday is a very important. Last Sunday, 22^nd June marked for me 6 months with Linux! 6 months with an entirely new operating system. This article will be about my experiences with Linux over the back 6 months!

Switching from Windows to Ubuntu was a huge step. New operating system, knew very little about it when I made the switch. I was concerned that it wouldn’t work, I wouldn’t be able to use it, I wouldn’t be able to do the things I could do in Windows. However, my worries were mostly gone as soon as I spent the first few hours with Ubuntu. Most of my hardware worked. The user interface was very easy to understand. There were great applications which I started to enjoy using as well as familiar applications which I have used in the past. I was happy with my move from Windows 98 to a modern operating system. However, my switch to Ubuntu was not as easy I wanted it to be.

My first issue was hardware. Like most new users, hardware can be huge hurdle. My first major issue was my printer. It was not working with Ubuntu, after searching through the Internet I did find the drivers I was looking for. I have already explained in a pervious post how to do it. My next hardware issue was my graphics card. I have an ATi card, which worked fine on boot up, but later I discovered it had no 3D support enabled. So again, after searching the internet I found the tutorial I needed to get 3D support to work. Again, I have posted about this in pervious post. These issues I had was thanks to a great thing in Linux, the Community!!! The Linux community, but especially the Ubuntu community is fantastic. The forums are great place to get help and talk about Ubuntu, in my case. At the start I relied heavily on the support of the Ubuntu forums for any help I need. I could easily post a thread and get a reply in a matter of minutes. Even the IRC is a great place to talk to people from your country if you have a problem. Now, 6 months later, I am helping the community by posting replies to users thread helping them out. Even on my blog, I am offering tips to help you out.

I am very happy with the Ubuntu user interface and the whole experience of Ubuntu. During my 6 months, I have changed to a Xubuntu, so my PC is even faster. The features on Ubuntu which make me so happy that I switched are as small as built-in compression and changing the tags on music files. The software support has been great. Before on Windows 98, I had no update support, but now with Ubuntu there is a new release every 6 months and many updates each week. The software for Linux is brilliant. I was already a user of OpenOffice.org and Firefox. Now I am enjoying using Rhythmbox, VLC, Thunderbird, FileZilla. Synaptic Manager is a brilliant piece of software, making really easy for me to install and uninstall software. Not having to waste RAM by having security software in the background has been great. Not needing to defrag has been great. Basically the whole Linux experience I am really enjoying. It has turned out that I am doing more than I could with Windows!

Finally. The learning curve. It is hard to use a new operating system, especially Linux. However, the UI is so simple and enjoyable to use it has not been much of a challenge. The terminal has been very hard though. Over the past 6 months I have learnt many commands, which I have saved in a text document. I have just recently learnt how to install from source code. Now I am happy to use the terminal, sometimes prefer to over UI. I have even now start tweaking Ubuntu using the terminal to make even faster!

My first 6 months have been brilliant with Ubuntu. It has been very enjoyable using Ubuntu as well as being part of the community. Talking, asking for help and giving help out. I have reported bugs and I also have my own open source project! I want to thank friends, such as luxus, for helping me when I having problems, the Ubuntu community and Ubuntu-Uk community for making my first 6 months easier than it would have been. Hopefully I will be using Ubuntu for another 6 months!

Tags: Linux by Ed
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Just a quick post showing my three desktops, which I have created.

My Standard Desktop

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Windows 98 on Ubuntu

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Windows XP on Ubuntu

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Please comment, and tell me what you think.

Tags: Linux, Other Stuff, Windows by Ed
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Happy Linux Wednesday, I have managed to drag myself away from the lovely British sunshine to write this week’s post about Linux. Today I am going to be telling you about a piece of software called TimeVault. It is not a review, I have not been able to use it, this post is this going to explain what it is.

TimeVault is a backing up software which is very similar to Apple’s Time Machine. Basically, if you have not seen Time Machine, it is one of the best feature I have seen on any Operating System. It backs up your data every hour, but when you lose the file, you can go back in time and find the file at the last save point. Time Machine does it in very fancy way, but TimeVault works the same way. It takes snapshots of your computer, and creates an achieve so you are able to go back to where a certain was.

TimeVault is designed to primarily run on Gnome systems using the nautilus file manager, so if you want to install it on a KDE or Xfce system you will have to install Nautilus, this is something I did not want to do. However, Once installed. You basically setup TimeVault to what you want to backup (it will make suggestions), where you want to backup and how often. Once done, it will back up those files when you want to, no need to worry about backing up. Although, there are a few issues is that you can not encrypt the backups and there is no way to restore these files without TimeVault.

TimeVault is an excellent tool which I believe is something which should integrated into linux distributions to make it easier for users to backup. Although it is still in beta, so it could be abit risky, and could definitely do with support for KDE and Xfce, it is definitely  a tool for the future.

Tags: Linux by Ed
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Its Linux Wednesday! This post is slightly later than usual, but I was upgrading to Xubuntu 8.04, review next week . Anyway, today I will be telling about a small application I run once month, called SCRUB. This application is the closest thing I have found to a defragment software for Linux. Basically, its a Disk scrubbing program. This utility writes patterns on files or disk devices to make retrieving the data more difficult. It operates in one of three modes:
1) the special file corresponding to an entire disk is scrubbed
and all data on it is destroyed.
2) a regular file is scrubbed and only the data in the file
(and optionally its name in the directory entry) is destroyed.
3) a regular file is created, expanded until
the file system is full, then scrubbed as in 2).

SCRUB on my PC takes about 20minutes to complete, but will change depending on the speed of your PC and your HDD size. I have noticed speed increases on my PC and it has in the past cleared some room on my HDD. I would recommend you download this application, and run once a month to make sure your PC is running at its best.

Link

Tags: How-To, Linux, Tips by Ed
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Its Wednesday, its that time of week for my post about Linux. I think its about time I gave it a name, it will now be known as “Linux Wednesdays!”

One of the hardest hardware manufactures to get to work on Linux is Lexmark. Lexmark make very good quality printers at a very good price, but there are not many Linux drivers for them. For anyone thinking about getting a printer for Linux, get a HP printer, there are great drivers for all their printers.

When I was using Windows, I purchased the Lexmark Z640 printer. The Z600series is very popular home printer, cheap and does the job. However, there are only drivers for Windows. So when I switched to Linux, my printer did not work. I spent my weeks of research, it turns out that Lexmark do provide drivers for the Z605 printer for RedHat users. I download these drivers, than converted the rpm file to deb and installed. I had finally got my colour inkjet printer to work on Linux.

To help Lexmark users out, below are the two drivers. Install “z600cups_1.0-2_i386″ first and then install “z600llpddk_2.0-2_i386″. I also understand these drivers may work with other Lexmark inkjet printers.

Right click and click “save as”

z600cups_1.0-2_i386.deb

z600llpddk_2.0-2_i386.deb

Hope these drivers help, “Linux Wednesdays” back next week.

Tags: How-To, Linux, Tips by Ed
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A few weeks ago I took over an open source project with another guy called Laurent. Hes Belgium and we got on well from the start (always a good when working on a project together). The project is called Gfire. It is a plugin for the Pidgin IM client which allows you to connect to the Xfire network.The great thing about this project is that it allows Mac and Linux users to connect to the Xfire network, the Xfire client is only for Windows users.

The Gfire project had stopped since September 2006, but now the project was handed over to the new dev team. Myself and Laurent are now going to further the development of Gfire. We are planning to improve on the current Gfire version, offer support and keep the xfire games list up-to-date. Each time there is a new games list, I will format it for Gfire and post on the Gfire website for everyone to download, this was something which the previous Gfire team didn’t do.

We are currently beta testing the first Gfire version since September 2006, version 0.7.0. This new version will have many bugs fixed and have better support for working on the newer version of Pidgin. You can check out this project at edhewitt.co.uk/gfire

EDIT, I have changed the Gfire link, it now works!

Tags: Apple, General, Linux, Windows by Ed
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Its Wednesday, Here is this week’s main artcle on Linux. I’m going to show you to today how to clean up your hard drive. I found these on the Ubuntu forums, by WackToMack.

Getting rid of Residual Config packages
In Synaptic Package Manger, there is a built-in feature that gets rid of old Residual Config packages. Residual Config packages are usually dependency packages that are left behind after you uninstall a package from your machine. To use this feature, go to System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager. On the bottom left hand corner of the window, click the Status button. In the list above the Sections, Status, Search, and Custom buttons, you should see the following text: Installed, Installed (local or obsolete), Not installed, Residual config.

Click on the “Residual config” text. (If the “Residual config dialogue does not appear, that means you do not have any Residual Config packages on your machine). Do you see the packages that popped up in the window on the right? Those are the Residual Config packages. To get rid of these pests, click on the box to the left of the package name and select “Mark for Complete Removal”. After you have done that for all of the Residual Config packages, look at the top of the Synaptic Package Manger window. Do you see the green check mark with the text “Apply” right under it? Click that button, and it will get rid of the Residual Config packages

Getting rid of partial packages
This is yet another built-in feature, but this time it is not used in Synaptic Package Manager. It is used in the Terminal. Now, in the Terminal, key in the following command (or you can just copy and paste from here):

sudo apt-get autoclean

Enter your password when prompted and press Enter. See the package names that appeared in the Terminal? Those were partial packages that have just been deleted. Say goodbye! That’s it! This command deletes the not-so-fully-downloaded packages that you acquire when a package that is being downloaded is suddenly cancelled.

Getting rid of unnecessary locale data
For this tip, you need to download the “localepurge” package found in Synaptic Package Manager. “localepurge” is just a simple script to recover diskspace wasted for unneeded locale files and localized man pages. It will automagically be invoked upon completion of any apt installation run.

After opening up Synaptic Package Manager, click the Sections button on the bottom left hand corner of the window, if it is not already clicked. Next, at the top of the Synaptic Package Manager window, click the Search button. In the search window, key in the following text :

localepurge

Did the “localepurge” package popup in the package window? It probably did, unless you do not have the correct Repositories. Now, click on the box next to the “localepurge” package name. Click on Mark for Installation. Now click the Apply button at the top of the window and wait for the downloading and installing of the “localepurge” package to finish. Once it is done, a new window should popup that has a bunch of abbreviations on it. for example:

en
fr
po
sp
ka
etc…

You want to select the abbreviation of the language that you speak, or use with Ubuntu, ignoring the capitalized ones. For example, I speak english, so I would select the “en” abbreviation. A french speaker would select the “fr” abbreviation. So on and so forth… Then click next. All done!

Getting rid of “orphaned” packages
For this tip, you need to download the “deborphan” package found in Synaptic Package Manager. “deborphan” finds “orphaned” packages on your system. It determines which packages have no other packages depending on their installation, and shows you a list of these packages. It is most useful when finding libraries, but it can be used on packages in all sections…

To open Synaptic Package Manager, follow the instructions in Tip #1. After opening up Synaptic Package Manager, click the Sections button on the bottom left hand corner of the window, if it is not already clicked. Next, at the top of the Synaptic Package Manager window, click the Search button. In the search window, key in the following text :

deborphan

Did the “deborphan” package popup in the package window? It probably did, unless you do not have the correct Repositories. Now, click on the box next to the “deborphan” package name. Click on Mark for Installation. Now click the Apply button at the top of the window and wait for the downloading and installing of the “deborphan” package to finish. Once that is done, open up the Terminal.After you have gotten the Terminal open, key in the following command (or copy and paste from here):

sudo deborphan | xargs sudo apt-get -y remove –purge

Enter your password when prompted and press Enter. See the package names that appeared in the Terminal? Those were orphaned packages that have just been deleted.

Adding a “Find orphaned packages” to Synaptic Package Manager
This is not really much of a tip on how to get rid of junk files. It’s more like adding a “deborphan” shortcut to Synaptic Package Manager so that you don’t have to use the Terminal to find “orphaned” packages.

Please note: You must have the “deborphan” package installed or else this will not work.

To start this out, open up Synaptic Package Manager with the instructions from Tip #1. Now, at the top of the Synaptic Package Manager window, click the Settings button, followed by the Filters button. In the Filters window, on the bottom left hand corner, push the New button. You can name the new Filter if you like, but it is not necessary. I named mine “Orphaned”. With your new Filter selected, in the “Status” tab on the right, click the Deselect All button. Next, check the “Orphaned” option under the “Other” category. Then click the OK button.

To use this new filter, click the Custom button on the bottom left hand corner of the Synaptic Package Manager window. You should see the following text, or something similiar :

Broken
Marked Changes
(Whatever you named your “deborphan” Filter)
Package with Debconf
Search Filter

Click on the “(Whatever you named your “deborphan Filter)” text. Do you see the packages that popped up in the window on the right? Those are the “orphaned” packages. To get rid of these buggers, click on the box to the left of the package name and select “Mark for Complete Removal”. After you have done that for all of the “orphaned” packages, look at the top of the Synaptic Package Manger window. Do you see the green check mark with the text “Apply” right under it? Click that button, and you’ll get rid of all the “orphaned” packages

Thanks, WackToMack for these great tips. Hopes these tips helped you clear some space on your hard drive, it worked very well for me

Tags: How-To, Linux, Tips by Ed
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Have not posted in about week, so I thought its about time I posted about an interesting application I found. Two weeks ago, I posted about getting 3D acceleration on the ATi Radeon Cards in Linux.

Today I was trying to find ways to get better performance out of my card. I eventually found a great application called DRIconf. This is the GUI configuration setting for the Direct Rendering which I had shown you two weeks ago.

click here for full-size image

You can install DRIconf from the Ubuntu repositories (sudo apt-get install driconf). Once you have install, loaded the application up. There is only one option you want to change. Its the last one in the screenshot, HyperZ. This needs to be set to ‘Yes’. HyperZ is graphics processing technique which was developed by ATi, it was first implemented with the R100 cards (Radeon 7000series). It has been proven to give around a 20% performance increase, I have also seen about a 20% performance increase as well.

So if you want to get a faster Radeon card on Linux, try out DRIconf.

DRIconf wiki link

Tags: How-To, Linux, Tips by Ed
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Its Wednesday, it is another post about Linux. Last week, I posted about my top 5 reasons to switch to Linux. This week, I’m making sure I have a balanced argument why Linux is great, by giving you my reasons why not to use Linux. However, I have only come up with 4 reasons, if you have any, please post them in the comments.

• Gaming - Linux has 100s of great games, many with online play. Many Windows games, such as Quake series and Doom series have been ported to Linux. However, most Windows games don’t work on Linux. If you are a huge PC gamer, stay away from Linux. However, advancements in WINE, has allowed Windows applications and games to be able to run on Linux, sometimes with better performance. In some cases, games have run as much as 100 frames per seconds more when playing on Linux than Windows! However, it can be hard to get all your games to work.
• Propriety Software - Linux has 1000s of applications to meet everyone’s need. However, you may much prefer using Microsoft Office than Open Office or prefer using Photoshop than GIMP. If so, you may want to stick with Windows or Mac. Thankfully, WINE has enabled many Windows applications able to run on Linux, a good example is Microsoft Office. It has been very successful in running with Wine with very little issues. Like games, not all applications will work.
• Hardware - Hardware issues is a huge problem on Linux. I see many posts each day on the Ubuntu Forums of users unable to get their hardware to work, even my last post was me explaining how to get the ATi cards working. Usually, sound cards, graphics cards and wifi cards cause the most problems. However, the Linux community are working together to create drivers for each piece of Hardware. Even companies like HP and nVidia do a great job producing Linux drivers for their products.
• Terminal - Linux is all the time improving and becoming far easier to use. Sadly, many applications and fixes require the use of the terminal. From the start, I had to learn commands to input into the terminal to get errors fixed or install applications. Luckily, as Linux improves there is less need for the terminal, but it is still very likely you will have to use it.

That is my reasons for people to stick with Windows and Mac, but if you can think of any more reasons, please leave your comments.

Tags: General, Linux by Ed
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The main problem with Linux is hardware compatibility. Manufactures produce drivers for Windows and Mac, but hardly ever for Linux. Luckily, the linux community create drivers for 1000s of different pieces of hardware. However, sometimes they don’t work great. One of the worst hardware manufactures for Linux is ATi. If you are using Linux or want to start using it, it is far better to use nVidia, all their cards have great support.

For years, the Linux community has had to make ATi drivers. However recently, ATi have create their own drivers for ATi Radeon 8500 & above. People, such as myself, who have older cards have to use the binary driver. They are generally good, but they have their issues. One of the big issues is 3D acceleration. For some reason, they only come with 2D support. Finally, I have got full 3D acceleration.

It is very simple to do. All you need to do is go to the terminal and type ’sudo aptitude install libgl1-mesa-dri’, and let your computer do the rest. Once done, type ‘glxinfo’ into the terminal, you will see that you have 3D acceleration enabled.

This will work with both ‘ati’ and ‘radeon’ binary drivers. Personally I recommend you use the radeon driver, it has better performance for the radeon cards. For people who have an 8500 or above, you may want to consider using the binary ‘radeon’ driver than the official ATi drivers, it has been proven that you can get a far greater performance using the ‘radeon’ driver than the official ATi drivers, as much as 20 to 30fps more.

Tags: How-To, Linux, Tips by Ed
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