Posts tagged ubuntu
Ubuntu Flash
Apr 12th
To install flash in Ubuntu use:
sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree
This works on Ubuntu 32bit and 64bit. Flash is slightly unreliable on 64bit Ubuntu, but it works nonetheless.
You can also install two open source versions of flash that have limited to good support.
Gnash supports most older versions of swf animations, and newer versions should work better as updates are rolled out. Install gnash with:
sudo apt-get install gnash
You can also try swfdec:
sudo apt-get install swfdec
VirtualBox 3.1.4 – Debian Lenny SMP Instability
Mar 27th
I use an Ubuntu Karmic desktop environment for my host. I use VirtualBox with Debian Lenny for virtual machines. Most of the time virtual machines work fine with multiple processors enabled in VirtualBox, but Debian Lenny does have some instability forcing the VirtualBox configuration to use 1 processor to maintain stability. Maybe changing the kernel, particularly to an SMP kernel, is required; this would make sense. I can try that or just leave it as a single core virtual machine which is stable. I’m not really inclined to do anything because everything works fine as is.
2014 – Windows XP Deadline
Dec 30th
Its time for a shift. Windows XP, the longtime staple of industries around the world, has a deadline. It will no longer be supported by Microsoft in 2014. Because of this companies will either need to upgrade to Windows 7, or some sort of alternative. Windows 7 costs been 4-6 thousand dollars for a 30 license pack. If your company has thousands of computer this is a whole lot of money. Why not switch to Linux, it is free. Is free bad? Is free not good? There are many people that do not like free, which is just strange. Not liking Ubuntu is like someone coming up to you and saying “here take this for free”, and you saying “no thanks I don’t want it”. What a strange notion that Linux is not liked by millions.
Ubuntu can replace the standard workstation. There are some thinks holding back the switch. The main thing is applications that require .net framework. Its really messed up that there is no support for .net framework in Linux. Using Wine .net framework can easily be installed, especially with Wine tricks, but using programs that depend on its functionality is another story. Various frontends to database applications use .net to access the server. Is there an alternative application, made by the company, that does not depend on .net? If your company has thousands of computers, and you can save over a million dollars just in Windows 7 license fees, is it not worth investigating? You’d be surprised there are many companies out there that would rather spend the million dollars than investigate if implementing an alternative is possible.
Archivemount – Mount Zip, Rar, Tar, and Bz2 Archives
Dec 26th
Hate unzipping an archive to view, or add files? Why not just mount the entire package and edit it like a regular folder. Archivemount does exactly this. On Ubuntu install the dependencies to build the binary. You need fuse, and its development package, and you need libarchive and its dev package. I forget the exact names of the files but use:
sudo apt-cache search fuse
I think the dev package for fuse is libfuse-dev. Then do the same for libarchive, which I think the dev package is libfuse-dev. With the dependencies satisfied download archivemount:
There is a pending request for a package to be added to the Ubuntu repositories, but everything works fine, and is rather straight forward when installing from source. Unzip the package, configure it, make it, and install it. It will now be a binary with a global path. The installer even adds a convenient nautilus script integrated into the right click drop down menu. Just right click on a compressed package and select archivemount. It will show up on your Ubuntu desktop just like a mounted partition or drive. Unmount by right clicking the mounted directory and selecting, you guessed it, unmount. Now zip up anything that you want to save space. Depending on the files you can save a small amount of space or a lot. With small text files, and source code you will save a fair amount, but with images and videos you will save less. You can probably zip your entire home directory and mount it on login. I’ll take a look at that when I have some time.
This is an interesting way to deal with file compression without compressing the entire filesystem.
KDE Desktop Option – Various Environments
Dec 8th
Now that I can logout to GDM I have realized a couple of things. The first thing is that Ubuntu 9.10 does not support modification of GDM. This must be because of various changes / upgrades. But there is no option to install themes or modifications in any graphical way. I’m not working really hard to figure out how to modify things, but I’m not incredibly disappointed with the way things look or work.
I also installed KDE. It installs easy on Ubuntu:
sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop
Then on the GDM it gives you a desktop session option. Toggle the drop down menu, and log in as normal to an alternative desktop environment. KDE is a nice change, I have been using Gnome for the longest time. Things work entirely different on KDE, and it will give me an opportunity to investigate something new.