When you receive the flash drive or portable hard disk from your friend, don’t plug it directly into Windows. If you have any Linux distro installed boot into it. If you don’t have one, then boot from a Live CD. Any distro will do as long as it boots into a live environment or at a shell. Once you boot into the distro, mount & open the pendrive or portable hard disk. Now list all files of the pendrive in a shell or in a graphical file manager like Nautilus.

You should now notice some files & folders with weird names. These are the viruses. Now simply delete them all. Also delete the ‘autorun.inf’ which when infected instructs the viruses to load as soon as the pendrive is plugged in. With such approach, I’m sure you won’t even need to scan the pendrive into your Windows environment with an antivirus(though I do not recommend doing so). Offcourse viruses embedded into compressed files(zip,rar etc) won’t go away & still can infect your windows environment. Same holds true for macro viruses hidden inside a word document. The logic behind this is very simple that Windows viruses can’t execute themselves under Linux. The above procedure will come to rescue when you don’t have an antivirus installed & should be used only as a precautionary measure. You should still install & keep an updated antivirus software if you use Microsoft Windows.

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I assume that you don’t have XMMS media player installed on your system. Before you install it, you’ll need to enable the RPMFusion repositories. Simply follow the instructions on this page to enable them as per your operating system.

To install XMMS media player on a Fedora or its derivative system, issue the following command with root privileges into the terminal.

yum install xmms xmms-scrobbler

The above command will install XMMS media player and the XMMS Scrobbler Plugin.

Once you’re done with the above, launch XMMS & then right click & go to Option > Preferences. Here click on the ‘General Plugins’ tab. You should see ‘XMMS-Scrobbler’ plugin. Highlight the plugin by clicking on it and then click on configure. It will prompt you for your Last.fm username & password. Enter them & click ok. Now in the General Plugin tab with XMMS-Scrobble plugin highlighted check the Enable plugin chechbox.

That’s it. The XMMS-Scrobbler plugin is enabled. Now play a track in XMMS media player & check whether it gets scrobbed on your Last.fm profile. If it does then all is good. If it doesn’t then you will have to recheck whether you entered the correct credentials in the plugin configuration page.

Happy Scrobbing!

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Generally, most of the users would hit various sites to download & install the essentials. Some users tend to do the same but via graphical package managers. Though there is nothing wrong in the above methods but these methods tend to consume a lot of time. Even I used to follow the same until I got to know about Easy Life.

Easy Life is a small script written for Fedora systems which makes installing the essentials as easy as 1-2-3. Head over to the site & download Easy Life which corresponds to the version of Fedora installed on your computer. There are no different versions for 32 & 64 bit or KDE & GNOME which should make your life a lot easier. Once installed the application can be launched via Applications>System Tools>easyLife under a GNOME desktop or alternatively via double clicking the icon on the desktop.

Upon launching, the application first enables the rpmfusion repositories which contain most of the essential & restricted third party softwares. You should see a window just like above which contains a list of software’s. The list is quite exhaustive & in most probability you will check most of the boxes. Once you’re done with selection, hit ok & let the software run under the terminal window. You can minimise the window & carry on with your work as easyLife downloads & installs the essentials as per your command. The terminal can be checked occasionally so that you can know the progress. As easyLife completes with its job, it would prompt you with a message. Click ok & the app will self terminate. Now your system is ready to serve you better.

easyLife is intended towards beginners who find it arduous to install the essentials but still I would recommend it to all the users. The reason behind this being the nifty app is a real time saver & should come handy everytime a fresh Fedora install is done. One thing I would like to see in the upcoming versions of easyLife is a modular more comprehensive list which will let users check individual software under the groups.

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First insert the drive in the USB port & then issue the following command as root;

fdisk –l (That’s an ‘L’ not an ‘i’)

This will list all the storage devices attached to your computer including your internal hard-disk. Now look for an entry below your hard-disk & make a note of the device address. It would most probably be /dev/sdb1if you just have a single hard-disk installed in your computer.

In Linux, each device has is represented by a file. So before we can mount anything we need to create a location also known as mount point. So to mount the pendrive create a new folder “pendrive” under /media. You can give any name to the folder it doesn’t matter. This can be done by issuing,

mkdir /media/pendrive

Now that our mount point is created, we need to mount the pendrive at this point to make it accessible. So issue the following command;

mount “media address” “mount point”

In our example the media address is “/dev/sdb1″ & mount point is “/media/pendrive”. So the command to mount the pendrive in our case will be;

mount /dev/sdb1 /media/pendrive

After that your pendrive should be mounted at /media/pendrive & you can view its content by navigating through file manager or via issuing;

ls /media/pendrive

After your are done working with the external drive, it needs to be unmounted before you can unplug it from the USB. To unmount the pendrive issue;

umount /media/pendrive

Do remember to close all the active applications running from the external drive or the unmount will fail.

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Installing Software Packages

First you will need to get an RPM file which contains the software. Now navigate via console to the location where you have downloaded the file. Once you get to the location of the RPM file, simply issue;

# rpm – i foobar-3.4.rpm

In the above command, the ‘i’ instructs to install the specific rpm package. Do note that you will have to enter the exact file name or the command won’t work.

Upgrading Software Packages

If you need to update any software installed on your system, then you will need to issue the following command.

# rpm – U foobar-3.4.rpm

The ‘u’ above instructs the package manager to update the specific software package installed on your system.

Uninstalling/Removing Software Packages

Software packages installed on your system can be removed by executing the following command at the console.

# rpm –e foobar

The ‘e’ stands for erase. You might have noted that during uninstallation you do not need to specify the exact file name & neither need to suffix with .rpm.  Its just the package name here similar to uninstalling software via APT on Debian systems.

Other options which can be used with the above commands

Normally you would use,

#rpm –i foobar3.4.rpm

to install any application. You can add the following options to know more about the installation progress.

-v (This option will output debugging information while the package gets installed. This is helpful to debug any problems if the package doesn’t installs or installs improperly)

-percent (This will print the total installation progress in percentage during the installation process)

-h (This will print hashtags i.e. # when the package is being unpacked. This will help you to know whether the process is running or stalled.)

Advanced RPM Commands

RPM is a very flexible software management system. It offers a lot of advanced option. Lets have a look at some of them. These will come handy.

Generally each software you install require other software to be installed for it to work. Such other software’s are known as dependencies. When you install any software package, the package manager cleverly probes the package & install its required dependencies. At times, the package manager fails to install the software even if you have the required dependent software already installed on your system. In such rare cases, you can resort to the following command;

# rpm –i foobar-3.4.rpm –nodeps

The above command instructs the package manager to install the software package without taking into account the dependent software i.e. dependencies.

As the number of installed software packages grow on your system, managing them can get quite an arduous task but don’t worry RPM will make this a piece of cake for you.

For e.g. you need to find out about all the software packages installed on your system then you can find so by issuing;

# rpm –qa | less

The above command will output a list of all software packages installed on your system. The pipe is used so that the output can be kept short. If used without the pipe the command will output a huge long list of installed software packages.

In some cases you are left wondering whether you installed a particular software or not. In such cases, you can check the same via issuing;

# rpm –q foobar

In the above command ‘q’ stands for query. The above command will search the RPM database to know whether the software package named foobar is installed or not. If installed, it will return you with the version number of package which is installed. If not, then it will notify you the package is not installed.

Sometimes you need to find out about a software package but fail to recollect its name. Don’t worry, RPM will still come to your rescue in such cases. For e.g. If you need to find out whether Mozilla Firefox is installed but forget Firefox. Then you can use;

# rpm –qa | grep Mozilla

The above command will check through the RPM database & point out each instances where it finds Mozilla in the package name. So you can expect the results to be that of Mozilla Thunderbird or Mozilla Firefox. Once you get that, you can perform any action on that specific software packages as per your wish.

If you want to install an RPM package which is older than the one installed on your system, the following command will come handy.

#rpm –i foobar3.4.rpm –force

You can instruct RPM to ignore the architecture of your system so that you can install package intended for other architecture. This is not recommended. Still it can help at times. Simply enter,

#rpm –i foobar3.4.rpm –ignorearch

Same can be done if you need to install an RPM package intended specifically for a linux distro onto another linux distro. e.g. You need to install package intended for OpenSUSE onto a Fedora system. Again, I recommend getting distro specific packages but if not available you can try installing the application by,

#rpm –i foobar3.4.rpm –ignoreos

Finally, sometimes you can end up with a corrupt RPM database if you interrupt installation process or uninstall any application by deleting its directories instead via RPM command. To correct the RPM database, you can use the following command,

#rpm –rebuild

The above command may take a while so have patience.

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_____________________________________________________

Package Operation Failed
The installation or removal of a software package failed.

Details:
E:I wasn’t able to locate file for the adobe-flashplugin package. This might mean you need to manually fix this package.

_____________________________________________________

To rectify this error, simply enter the following commands under a console & now you should be able to install any software packages normally under Ubuntu 9.10.

sudo rm /var/lib/dpkg/info/adobe-flashplugin.prerm

sudo dpkg-reconfigure adobe-flashplugin –force

sudo dpkg –purge –force-all adobe-flashplugin

sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree

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Installing software under Linux doesn’t require one to hit the console anymore. Thanks to the graphical package managers available which have made the job of installing, uninstalling & updating software packages a child’s play. Still knowing how to manage software via console is necessary to make yourself a competent Linux user. In this first post I will cover installing software under Debian Linux. I will follow this post with installing softwares on Redhat, installing from source etc.

Installing software packages

Debian uses APT(A Package Tool) to manage software’s. Software packages can be installed simply by issuing;

apt-get install foobar

Just replace foobar with the application name (e.g. firefox) and APT will download & install the requisite application from the internet.

If you have downloaded an application package for you debian system in .deb format then you can install the application manually by issuing,

dpkg -i foobar.deb

In the above command the –i instructs the command to install the application named foobar.deb. Do note that you will need to navigate to the directory or provide the complete path to the package here. You can’t simply use dpkg –i foobar.deb if the real package is by the name foobar0.8.1.deb.

Additional Commands which can be used with Apt-get

Apt-get can be used with the following commands,

apt-get install foobar

The above command will download the application named foobar alongwith its dependencies & will install it on your system.

apt-get remove foobar

The above command will remove the application named foobar from your system.

apt-get upgrade

The above command will update all the packages with a newer version if available of the same.

apt-get update

The above command will refresh the packages from the sources mentioned in the etc/apt/sources.list file. You must use this command before you use the upgrade or dist-upgrade command.

apt-get check

The above command will update the package cache & also will check for broken packages.

apt-get clean

The above command will clean local repository of downloaded packages.

Removing/Uninstalling software packages

In order to remove a software from your system then you can use,

dpkg -r foobar

In the above command the application foobar will be removed from your system. Do note again that here you won’t need to enter the complete package name as foobar0.8.1.deb. The above command will remove the application foobar from your system but will leave behind configuration files if any. Configuration files contain the settings which you might have done to customise the program according to your needs. If you wish to get rid of these files to then you will need to issue,

dpkg –purge foobar

The above will remove each & every file related to the application foobar from your system.

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Ubuntu 9.10 brings in massive improvements which include a faster bootup, better software management, cloud computing etc. For complete list of new features incorporated under Ubuntu 9.10 refer this. I have already begun downloading this new release. Have you?

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Boot Time:

While Ubuntu 9.04 set the benchmark to 25 seconds, Ubuntu 9.10 further takes it down to 10 secs. The earlier version lived up to its promise so I strongly feel this one will also. Lesser boot time means you can start working faster on your computer.

New Artwork:

Ubuntu 9.10 will bring along new artwork. The wallpapers released by Canonical for Ubuntu 9.10 are a fresh one which will appeal to a wide audience. Some are light will some are dark which will pretty much favour all. The login screen has also been polished & looks really brilliant. Check out this Softpedia post on Ubuntu 9.10 artwork.

Software Center:

Ubuntu 9.10 will replace ‘Add/Remove’ under application menu with the new & more versatile Software Center. Software Center will make managing softwares on your Ubuntu system a piece of cake. In later version, Software Center is expected to grow radically to replace Synaptic, Update Manager, gdebi & even some parts of computer janitor.

Cloud Computing:

Cloud Computing makes a debut in Ubuntu 9.10. With cloud computing you can work more efficiently as the resources are efficiently managed over different servers over a network. Cloud computing will enable stability at peak times when there is work overload. You can read more about Ubuntu Cloud Computing here.

Kernel Mode Setting:

Taking a cue from Fedora 11, Ubuntu 9.10 RC implemented Kernel Mode Setting. Kernel Mode Setting enables a smooth graphical bootup which doesn’t flicker & boots faster. It will be enabled by default in Ubuntu 9.10.

Ext 4 File System:

Ubuntu 9.10 will now by default install on Ext 4 file system which again improves on disk performance thus making the overall system faster & responsive. Though Ext 4 was available in Ubuntu 9.04 but it will be installed by default under Ubuntu 9.10.

Ubuntu One:

Keeping pace with Cloud Computing, Ubuntu 9.10 introduces Ubuntu One which is basically a vault where you can keep all your documents, softwares, backup etc. Further you can share files with your friends & even synchronise data on your Ubuntu desktop seamlessly with Ubuntu One. It works on cloud computing technology. You can signup for Ubuntu One here.

GRUB 2:

GRUB 2 is now the default bootloader in Ubuntu 9.10 replacing the older Legacy bootloader.

New Intel Video Driver:

Ubuntu 9.10 will ship with a newer Intel driver which will solve the performance issues which plagued Ubuntu 9.04. Kernel Mode Setting will be enabled by default on Intel hardware which will reduce boot-time flickering & also improve suspend/resume speeds.

Empathy Instant Messenger:

Ubuntu 9.10 will ditch Pidgin & include a new instant messenger – Empathy to satisfy all your instant messaging needs.

Kubuntu Netbook Release:

Kubuntu 9.10 will mark the first netbook release. It will feature the latest KDE 4.3.2 desktop, Amarok 2.2, K3B & Openoffice 3.1.1(Integrated with KDE) to name a few. It is optimised to run on netbooks having smaller screens.

It’s now time to wait & watch for the Ubuntu 9.10 which will land on 29^th October 2009. I think I’ll be having fun testing this new Ubuntu release. I’m looking forward to it.

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Generally speaking a lot of folks tend to think Compiz & Compiz Fusion to be one & the same thing but in reality they are not. Compiz is a windows manager which can be used straightaway on your Linux distro. Compiz doesn’t needs any particular desktop environment (Gnome or KDE) to run. It can run independently. Compiz windows manager by default includes a few nifty effects which include the infamous Desktop Cube & the Wobbly Windows. These two effects are enough to blow away the Windows user in the pond who are proudly show off the AERO effects on their Windows Vista/Windows 7 machine. Effects can be further implemented in the compiz windows manager by means of plugins. Yes, that’s right compiz supports plugins which allow you to install virtually tons of plugins which indirectly mean infinite possibilities for customization.

Compiz Fusion on the other hand is a project that aims to add more features & functionality to the Compiz by means of tools, libraries & plugins. Compiz Fusion is a result of merger of Beryl Project & Compiz Extras. In simpler terms one can imagine Compiz as the core of Compiz Fusion. CompizConfig Settings Manager is a well know tool to set the various effects in the Compiz windows manager. Now that you have become familiar with Compiz Fusion, it’s time to install/enable it on your Linux distro.

Installation:

Most of the modern Linux Distros have Compiz Fusion installed by default however it is not enabled. Compiz can be installed from source by following the instructions outlined here. Check out distro specific guides here.

Enabling Compiz Fusion:

Compiz can be enabled by under a GNOME desktop environment by going to System > Preferences > Appearance. Now under the appearance settings select Desktop Effects Tab. Now click on Extra to enable Compiz in all its glory. On slower hardware you can set this value to Normal to run Compiz with only limited effects enabled. Now that Compiz is enabled you will be able to experience the visual effects it has in store.

Compiz Fusion offers a higher degree of customization & depends ultimately on the user’s imagination & creativity. It is not feasible for me to write down about every plugin or effect in this article as there are countless number of plugins written for Compiz. I would like you to watch the video below which showcases Compiz Fusion at its best.

Click here to view the embedded video.

That’s not all, log on to Youtube & search for Compiz Fusion to watch the beautiful effects which Compiz Fusion has to offer. Now would tell me what do you think of AERO effects on windows? Pretty ordinary, right?

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