Sharing files between two ubuntu systems through local router

I have a old desktop running Lubuntu 11.04 and it is connected to internet through a wireless router. While I store lot of information on this computer, I also have a laptop running Ubuntu 11.04 that I most of the times work on and it is also connected to internet through the same router. Transferring files between these two machines is important to me. There are countless ways you could do it, but I preferred ssh to have a safe and reliable connection through the local router. If you are willing to do the same then here's how you do it.

Step 1: Install ssh on both the machines. Run this command in terminals of both the linux machines.

sudo apt-get install ssh

Step 2: Learn the IP address of your desktop. This can be done by right clicking the connection icon on the panel and then on "Connection Information".

Otherwise you can just run the following command and read for "inet addr:" field.

ifconfig

In my case, it is 192.168.1.3.

Step 3: Go to your laptop. Find "Connect to Server" option.

If you are using GNOME then you find this on "Places -> Connect to Server".

If you are using UNITY then you find this option by opening Nautilus. Go to File -> Connect to Server.

You get this window -

Step 4: Fill details into the fields and click Connect.

Service type must be selected to SSH.

Server field takes the address of the computer to which you want to connect to.

Port is 22, which is a TCP standard for SSH Connections.

Folder that you want to share.

Username to access the desktop.

You can add a bookmark and give it a name for you to access it next time.

Step 5: Once you are done, click on "Connect". It prompts for password. Enter it and you are done. You have successfully established file sharing from your desktop machine to your laptop machine. You can do the vice versa by following Step 3, 4 and 5 on your other machine.

PS: I have used terms 'laptop' and 'desktop' everywhere. But this need not be the case and procedure is same for any two machines connected through same router. 

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How to install Kernel v3.0 on Ubuntu 11.04

Kernel v3.0 is out there and will be released with Ubuntu 11.10 and yet, there are no kernel updates for Ubuntu 11.04 after Kernel v2.6.38. If you are very eager to install kernel 3.0, then you can build them directly from the source code. Or just use the packages that are used to install Kernel 3.0 on Ubuntu 11.10. Since the latter approach is simple and easy, I will mention step by step instruction to install Kernel v3.0 on your Ubuntu 11.10 Natty Narwhal.

Step 1: Download the debian packages from here.

For 32 bit users -

1. linux-headers-3.0.0-0300rc2_3.0.0-0300rc2.201106081532_all.deb 2. linux-headers-3.0.0-0300rc2-generic_3.0.0-0300rc2.201106081532_i386.deb 3. linux-image-3.0.0-0300rc2-generic_3.0.0-0300rc2.201106081532_i386.deb For 64 bit users - 1. linux-headers-3.0.0-0300rc2_3.0.0-0300rc2.201106081532_all.deb 2. linux-headers-3.0.0-0300rc2-generic3.0.0-300rc2.201106081532_amd64.deb 3. linux-image-3.0.0-0300rc2-generic_3.0.0-0300rc2.201106081532_amd64.deb

 

Step 2: Once you have downloaded all the files, place them into a single folder. Browse to that folder from your terminal and then copy paste the following code into the prompt.

sudo dpkg -i linux-*

The execution will continue to install kernel 3.0 on your Ubuntu 11.04. Just in case kernel 3.0 mess up, do not remove previous versions. You can always choose from the previous versions in the grub.

If you have or happen to install this, then please comment on the power consumption and other pros and cons of kernel 3.0.

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Metal X 1.2 - Beautiful Gnome Shell Theme

Gnome gives very little applications to customize the appearances. The default theme may look quite good, but any person would eventually get bored of it and would want a change. Lately, lot of third party developers have released themes for Gnome Shell. Here is one of those most beautiful ones.

Metal X Theme

Download Gnome Metal X Theme from here.

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Restore GRUB 2 after Windows installation wipes it out

One of the biggest problems of installing windows after installing ubuntu is that windows wipes out the Grub 2 and makes Ubuntu inaccessible. The solution to it is available everywhere on the internet and some are on mytechspace too. But since there are different methods, it is natural for anyone to get confused. So here I've summarized all the known methods to restore GRUB 2.

Before getting started, I assume you are in this situation. You have just installed some version of Windows, it could be Windows XP or 7 or Vista or anything. Your GRUB (Boot loader) is gone and you have no way to boot Ubuntu. You have a Ubuntu Live/Installation CD but you do not want to install it afresh again. You boot windows and open mytechspace and you follow one of these methods.

Method 1

Step 1: Boot Ubuntu using the Ubuntu Live CD and open Terminal through it.

Step 2: Execute the following command and find out which partition the Linux (Ubuntu is installed)

[stextbox id="grey"]sudo fdisk -lu[/stextbox]

The output of the instruction will be a few columns. Check the row that ends with "Linux". The First column of that respective row gives the partition where your Linux is installed.

In my case it is /dev/sda3

Step 3: Create a directory to mount this partition

[stextbox id="grey"]sudo mkdir  /media/mntlinux[/stextbox]

Step 4: Mount the Linux ( Ubuntu ) partition.

[stextbox id="grey"]sudo mount /dev/sda3 /media/mntlinux[/stextbox]

Step 5: Now Install Grub.

[stextbox id="grey"]sudo grub-install --root-directory=/media/mntlinux /dev/sda
[/stextbox]

Method 2

Install Grub-Customizer. This is one of the easiest way of installing GRUB. Just install grub customizer by executing the following in your terminal -

[stextbox id="grey"]sudo add-apt-repository ppa:danielrichter2007/grub-customizer
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install grub-customizer
[/stextbox]

If you find any problem with any part of this, please comment here. We will be glad to help.

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How to install KDE 4.7 on Kubuntu 11.04

One of the most popular desktop environments is KDE. KDE has moved from version 4.6 to  version 4.7. KDE 4.7 promises improved stability and performance. A brief snapshot of what's new is listed down here. For detailed information click here.

What is new in KDE 4.7?

• Plasma Workspaces become more Portable with the help of KWin. Oxygen theme improved.

• Updated applications -
  Kontact ported to Akonadi.
  KMail 2 introduced.
  Dolphin, the KDE's file manager gets a cleaner look and deeper integration with source code management systems.
  Marble,  the virtual globe application now with voice navigation support, a map creation wizard and more.
  Gwenview, the KDE image viewer now supports comparing images.
  More...

• Improved Multimedia and Semantic capabilities in KDE Platform.

• New instant messaging integrated directly into Desktop.

Installation Instructions

If you are running Kubuntu 11.04 with KDE 4.6 then execute the following instruction in Konsole to upgrade to KDE 4.7.

[stextbox id="grey"]

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get upgrade

[/stextbox]

Kubuntu 11.10 is scheduled to release in October 2011 and 11.10 will be shipped with KDE 4.7 by default.

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Ubuntu 3D Visual effects in Virtual Box

Ubuntu 11.04 need 3D acceleration to work. But some systems may not provide support for 3D acceleration and some systems will provide but the feature will not be enabled in Virtual box. Then how can we get 3D visual effects in Virtual box for Ubuntu? Below is the steps to go through.

• Click here to Install virtual box and Ubuntu in Virtual box.

• If you need USB 2.0 support, Virtualbox RDP and PXE boot for Intel cards you can also download the extension pack from here.

• First check whether you have enabled option of 3D acceleration in display tab of Virtual box.

• Now type the following commands in terminal.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install dkms
sudo apt-get install virtualbox-ose-guest-utils

Now you will be able to have 3D acceleration and visual effects in Ubuntu through virtual drive.

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Ubuntu 11.04 unity in Virtual Box

Virtual Box is one of the best virtual system environment provider. Using which, we can host and use many operating systems within a main system. Now lets see, how to install Ubuntu in virtual box.

Steps :-

• Download Virtual Box from here.

• Download and get image file of Ubuntu 11.04.

• Open Virtual Box and click on New button.

• Type Ubuntu in name and select Operating System as Linux and version as Ubuntu.

• Set 512 as base size.

• Select Create new harddisk option and then click next. Now select Fixed-size storage.

• Now set Harddisk size as 4 or 8GB.

• Now click on Display tab in left panel and check Enable 3D acceleration option and click OK.

That's it. Ubuntu is ready to be used in Virtual Box.

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Install Turpial in Ubuntu

You may have tried a lot of different twitter clients on Ubuntu. The default social network manager on GNOME, the Gwibber is little cluttered and behaves erratic at times. Here is an alternative to all of them - Turpial. Turpial is twitter client that works like a charm. It also supports identi.ca and is probably going to add facebook support soon. Here's the snapshot of it.



Installation Instructions -

You can install it from PPA by executing the following instructions -

[stextbox id="grey"]

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:effie-jayx/turpial

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install turpial

[/stextbox]

Otherwise you can download the .deb package from here and install it. Make sure you select the proper package for your version.

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Ubuntu Tip: View images easily from your command line

Here is a tip for the ubuntu users that can save some time and make you little more productive. This situation arises quite often. You browse through folders from your terminal and you find that you have a image file you need to open or you just wonder what's in there. All you can think of is browsing through to the folder through Nautilus File Browser and then open it. But instead you can just issue this simple command line and open it.

 [stextbox id="grey"]eog image.jpg[/stextbox]

eog is the default image viewer in Ubuntu. It stands for Eye of Gnome. It supports

• .ani


• .bmp


• .gif


• .ico


• .jpeg


• .pcx


• .png


• .pnm


• .ras


• .svg


• .tga


• .tiff


• .wbmp


• .xbm


• .xpm

This one will work only on desktops that run Gnome only.

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Install Gnome 3 on Ubuntu 11.04

Gnome 3, the new desktop environment that claimed before release that it would revolutionize the desktop environment, is released. Little late to post this but better late than never.

GNOME 3 is good. A very attractive desktop. Some awesome features but all at the same time, didn't click as much as it expected. Even Linux Trovalds moved from Gnome 3 to Xfce and made an official statement that he doesn't like Gnome 3. But to me, GNOME 3 is cool and very attractive to look at. Very sexy. But then, there are drawbacks too. The desktop doesn't hold anything,you can never have any icons on your desktop (which i hate because my desktop is almost always full of icons), no built-in support to tweak the theme (some work-around is possible though), and panel management is quite poor.

The developers team has maintained its ppa repository from the early development version. The same repository now contains the fully finished Gnome 3. If you had problems earlier installing Gnome 3 from this repository, then you can probably try this again because the earlier versions were unstable and possible that it may not have worked before.

To install GNOME 3 on Ubuntu 11.04, execute the following in Terminal.

[stextbox id="grey"]

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

sudo apt-get install gnome-shell

[/stextbox]

Here are some screenshots from my desktop -





GNOME 3 no matter how good it is, it is still kind of incomplete and I would like to stick with GNOME 2.

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Install GIMP 2.7.3 on Ubuntu using ppa

Earlier on Techspace we posted article on the release of 'The Gimp' 2.7.3. The 2.7.3 is a development version and not stable yet. The next stable version would be 2.8. But you can still try this development version, give feedback or report bugs to the developers of GIMP.

GIMP 2.7.3 is now available on PPA. You can install GIMP by executing the following instruction in your terminal -

[stextbox id="grey"]

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:matthaeus123/mrw-gimp-svn

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install gimp

[/stextbox]

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Windows media player 11 look for VLC player

VLC is the best media player available in the market and has lot of goof features built into it. Windows media player's GUI looks better and eyecandy. So one's who is interested in having look of windows media player for VLC in both ubuntu or in windows platform can go through the steps provided below.

Steps under ubuntu:-

• Download this skin.

• Open VLC player and right click to choose skins or use shortcut

or

• Hit Alt+F2 and type

vlc -I skins2

• Right click on the title bar area and choose Select Skin/Open Skin, and choose the skin file that you have downloaded.

Steps under Windows:-

• Download this skin.

• Open VLC and then go to Tools-->Preferences

• Click on Interface on the left bar and then select use custom skin option in the right and then click on choose button and select the downloaded skin and click on save.

Liked the post? Please do comment and like us on facebook and subscribe for our feeds.

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Dont like the new scrollbar in Ubuntu 11.04 ??

Of all the changes made in Ubuntu 11.04 , the most dumbest would be the overlay scroll bar.

At times it just fails to show up and its damn irritating.



Here is a solution to get back your old classic scrollbar

Steps :

1. Open synaptic package manager.


2. search for "liboverlay-scrollbar" and remove it.


3. restart to get your classic scrollbar.

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Sharing files between two ubuntu systems through local router

I have a old desktop running Lubuntu 11.04 and it is connected to internet through a wireless router. While I store lot of information on this computer, I also have a laptop running Ubuntu 11.04 that I most of the times work on and it is also connected to internet through the same router. Transferring files between these two machines is important to me. There are countless ways you could do it, but I preferred ssh to have a safe and reliable connection through the local router. If you are willing to do the same then here's how you do it.

Step 1: Install ssh on both the machines. Run this command in terminals of both the linux machines.

sudo apt-get install ssh

Step 2: Learn the IP address of your desktop. This can be done by right clicking the connection icon on the panel and then on "Connection Information".

Otherwise you can just run the following command and read for "inet addr:" field.

ifconfig

In my case, it is 192.168.1.3.

Step 3: Go to your laptop. Find "Connect to Server" option.

If you are using GNOME then you find this on "Places -> Connect to Server".

If you are using UNITY then you find this option by opening Nautilus. Go to File -> Connect to Server.

You get this window -



Step 4: Fill details into the fields and click Connect.

Service type must be selected to SSH.

Server field takes the address of the computer to which you want to connect to.

Port is 22, which is TCP standard for SSH Connections.

Folder that you want to share.

Username to access the desktop.

You can add a bookmark and give it a name for you to access it next time.

Step 5: Once you are done, click on "Connect". It prompts for password. Enter it and you are done. You have successfully established file sharing from your desktop machine to your laptop machine. You can do the vice versa by following Step 3, 4 and 5 on your other machine.

PS: I have used terms 'laptop' and 'desktop' everywhere. But this need not be the case and procedure is same for any two machines connected through same router.

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Manual Partitioning while Installing Linux

Linus Trovalds created Linux, but ever since its there in the open source world, there have been countless varieties and versions and the list is exponentially growing. Unlike Windows, Linux is a playground where people can tweak around, experiment (and mess it up). Whenever there's a new version or a distribution which makes lot of fuss on the Internet, users tend to move on to the new version. Quite obvious they want to.

Being into Ubuntu evangelism for quite a long time, I often come across people who complain that they lose their home folder contents on installing a different version or a distribution. So how do we not lose home folder contents then?

Rather explaining each individual I thought I write it down. The problem lies in specifying partitions during the installation. Here's my advise. While installing any Linux, it is of best practice to have these three partitions -

swap

Without specifying this partition, you will not be allowed to install any Linux distribution. When you start an application installed on your hard disk, the application's required resources are first brought to RAM before it runs. When your RAM is overloaded, a bit of unused data from RAM is transfered to swap space making room for the application to run. And when its done, the data moved to swap space is brought back to your RAM thus acting like a secondary RAM. If you have a huge capacity of RAM, then a small hard disk partition is enough for swap. It is ideal to keep your swap partition as big as your RAM capacity.

root (/)

root file system, represented by a forward slash (/) is the top most node of your directory tree. This contains the linux kernel, device drivers and every other files that you install. This is where your actual linux is running from. This is similar to the C drive of your windows where windows and other programs (C:\Program Files) are stored. The size of this partition depends on the size of the linux distribution you are about to install. Minimum requirement will be specified in its documentation but the partition size must have a few extra bytes for you to install extra applications. For starters, 5GB of space is more than enough, but if you have a really huge hard disk space, then you can always keep some room for more applications.

/home

This is the final partition which will hold /home directory. Every user will have his/her own directory under /home. If your username is 'john' then your home folder will be at the path '/home/john'. All the user specific files will be stored in their respective home directories. Every document you create, pictures you download or any files specific to you are stored in your home directory.

Strictly speaking, you can install Linux without specifying partition to /home but in which case, the /home will be mounted under root (/) and is erased next time you reinstall.

Now that you have the idea of these three partitions, you should remember that whatever you install (like GIMP, VLC media player, any application) is stored in your root directory while whatever you download or create (like documents, pictures, music, webpages) is stored in your home directory.

Once you install linux with these three partitions, you can save as much content as you want in your home directory and next time while installing Linux, it is enough to specify your root and swap partitions. This way, your /home partition remains untouched and you don't lose any data.

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How to enable Laptop mode on Ubuntu and extend your battery life?

Its a very common issue among people who use linux on their laptop. The linux kernels are supposedly resource intensive and take lot of hard disk spins which actually drains the laptop battery at a faster rate than it should take. After a little googling I found out that the linux kernel has a laptop mode that can be enabled. Laptop mode was discouraged since Edgy 6.10 due to heard reasons of hangups found in few laptops. This mode can still be enabled by installing a package called laptop-mode-tools.

How to install laptop-mode-tools?

Step 1: You should first make sure your current version of kernel is compatible with laptop-mode-tools. Any version starting from 2.6.6 will be compatible.

Step 2: Install the package laptop-mode-tools by executing the following instruction in Terminal

sudo apt-get install laptop-mode-tools

Step 3: The installation creates a configuration file at location /etc/laptop-mode/laptop-mode.conf

Step 4: Configure this file by executing

gksudo gedit /etc/laptop-mode/laptop-mode.conf

The Configuration file laptop-mode.conf is pretty much self described with lot of comments. You get to configure options such as ENABLE_LAPTOP_MODE_ON_AC, ENABLE_LAPTOP_MODE_WHEN_LID_CLOSED etc. For more details on configuring other parameters of this file, you can refer the man pages by executing the following instruction in your terminal -

man laptop-mode.conf

Or just check out the online man page here.

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XVideoServiceThief - Download videos from video websites

xVideoServiceThief (a.k.a xVST) is a tool for downloading your favourite video clips from a lot of video websites. xVideoServiceThief also provide you the ability to convert each video in most popular formats: AVI, MPEG1, MPEG2, WMV, MP4, 3GP, MP3 file formats.

More screenshots here on their webpage

xVideoServiceThief currently supports downloading videos from 76 websites with plugins installed. The software is free and available for Windows, Linux and Mac. XVideo service can be downloaded and installed from their website here.

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Install Ubuntu Tweak on Ubuntu 11.04

Ubuntu Tweak is a charming application that allows you to tweak your Ubuntu easier than any other way. It is an application used to config Ubuntu the easier way so that no one has to worry about running blah blah blah command in the terminal or editing the system files. It provides many useful desktop and system options that the default desktop doesn't provide.

Installation

1. From their website -

Download the .deb package straight away from their website and double click on the file to install it. Their website is ubuntu-tweak.com.

2. By adding the PPA to your repositor -

This is a more recommended way as it is easier to upgrade the version with the new releases.

Step 1: Open your terminal by going to Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal

Step 2: Execute the following instructions in the order

[stextbox id="grey"]

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:tualatrix/ppa && sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-tweak

[/stextbox]

Once it is installed, you can find Ubuntu Tweak at Applications -> System Tools -> Ubuntu Tweak.

Ubuntu Tweak is a must have if you are a beginner.

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How to recover your boot menu ???

Most common used OS is windows and by far no one can argue about it either , and not many wanna try different OS like Mac-OS , or one of those many Linux flavors which are available for free. But some do try and dual boot ie. have two or more OS on their single hard disks.

So those who dual boot usually have windows pre installed then try new OS on their HDD.

And my observation is that most Linux flavors are very friendly in cases of dual boot. Many would have observed at the end of installation , the grub loader is installed and it detects other OS on the HDD and adds them to its boot menu.

What is Boot Menu???

Boot menu is the one that displays all your available OS choices during startup.

And as usual the egoistic and competition oriented windows OS doesn't do this operation when compared to Linux flavors.

So there is no problem faced when one installs linux flavours after windows installation as the grubbootloader loads all OS choices.

But if at all your installing windows after installing Linux flavors , then your bound to boot directly into windows next time you startup.

The windows bootloader replaces the grubloader instead of adding it.So one doesnt recieve any boot menu having their choice of OS installed on their systems.

How to get back the boot menu ???

simple :

1. Somehow you got to boot into your Linux flavor .

Methods to do this :

*) Use your Linux Live CD and click on try OS without installing.

*) Dont have a Live CD , no problem .. one can use your alternate CD or install CD as well.

2. So once into the Linux OS. Do the following .

*) Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal .

*) Once into the terminal . need to open either "grub.cfg" file or "menu.lst" file.

*) "menu.lst" is the file if you have a grub loader and "grub.cfg" is the file if you have a grub2 loader.

*) files can be found in /etc/default folder

*) type in the terminal :

sourabh@ubuntu:~$ sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

*) once the file is opened . navigate to the 25th line

#GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480
change it to

GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480

*) basically you remove the # symbol ,it is used to comment a line.

*) next type in the terminal :

sourabh@ubuntu:~$ sudo update-grub

*) this detects all existing OS and adds it to the boot menu and updates the grub.cfg file.

So your done. Just reboot and find your boot menu choices .

Other methods :

Recover Ubuntu after Windows Installations

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Split your files using Gnome Split - for Gnome Users

Sometimes, you happen to have a huge file to be transferred to other desktop and the file doesn't just fit right into your pen drive. In such cases you will have to split the file. If you are a gnome user, then here's the best way to do it.

Gnome Split.

GNOME Split is an application built using Java and GTK+ toolkit that enables you to split and join files. To install Gnome Split you can download it from their website or just execute the following instructions in your terminal.

 [stextbox id="grey"]sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome-split-team/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gnome-split[/stextbox]

The interface is neat and easy to use. Here is the snapshot.

More snapshots can be found at their official website.

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