Ubuntu is my default OS

In my last post, I described initial comments after upgrading to Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala. Since I wanted  ext 4 file system for my Ubuntu OS, I did a clean install. After the clean install, I ensured that all my peripheries worked properly. This time, I did not have to struggle to make my graphics card and webcam to work. It was breezy. I used hardware driver item in the menu of System>Administration menu list. It loaded driver automatically after detecting my graphics card. My webcam worked automatically, since gspca driver was loaded by default. Hardware configurations were done by few clicks.

Now, I had to install all my required apps. As usual for any new install in Ubuntu, I installed restricted extras. This ensured that all media files worked in Ubuntu. Later, I installed the following apps either through Ubuntu Software Center (earlier it was "ADd/Remove application") or Synaptic Package Manager.

                 Google Earth                                                             GnuCash

          

                     Blender                                                                 VirtualBox  

          

                  Google Chrome                                                         Ubuntu One

          

                         Skype

Since Google Chrome was not in Ubuntu Repository, I went to Chromium site and downloaded Google Chrome Web Browser (dev channel) and installed it. Just a click on the deb file was enough to take care of installation including dependencies check and updating repository. It was like clicking exe file in Windows. I see Ubuntu and Linux in general becoming more and more user friendly. Since Google has released beta version of Google Chrome, one can install Google Chrome through Synaptic Package Manager.

Later, I added my web developing tool package LAMP (Linux, Apache server, MySql, PHP). Earlier, I had to type commands for installation of Apache web server, MySql data server and php language pack. Now, it is made simple by entering a single command. If you need more details about this, please click here.

Now, my Ubuntu system is back to its productive self. As I said in my previous post, Ubuntu is now faster in start up, loading apps and closing. My time spend in Ubuntu has increased to more than 70% of my total PC time. I enjoy Ubuntu more than Windows due to its speed.

Upgraded to Karmic Koala (Ubuntu 9.10)

As you are aware that Ubuntu brings in a new version every six months. Ubuntu released its new version on 28 October 2009. The new version is Ubuntu 9.10 and is also named Karmic Koala. I downloaded the new version within twenty four hours of release. Download was not slow, which I feared due to rush of people to download at the same time. The download was smooth and I burnt the image on to a CD.

After burning the CD, I had to decide whether to upgrade the existing Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) or do a clean install. I considered the pros and cons of a clean install. They are given below:

• Pro:
• Clean install will have ext4 file system. This file system provides speed to the OS. Upgrade will not change existing ext3 file system. To change it to ext4, one needs to tweak a lot manually and there is no guarantee that it will upgrade all apps also to ext4 system
• Clean install have many updated apps in its default installation. There may not be a need to install some apps separately.
• Configurations of some manually installed apps may get corrupted during upgrades. They may not work properly after upgrade. They may as well require new install.
• Cons::
• Drivers of some of PC accessories have to be installed manually and configured again. It is a bit painful.
• All apps that I used, which are not part of default installation of OS, would require to be installed and configured. They are laborious considering the number of apps that I have been using.

Having considered pros and cons, I decided to go for a clean install. I wanted to have ex4 file system and I did not want to go through pains of tweaks in upgrade process.

Having decided the installation process, I started my clean install for a dual boot with existing XP. Here, I encountered a funny problem. When I came to partitioning section, I deleted old partitions of Jaunty Jackalope. I started creating new partitions. The first partition, I created was "/" (root), a primary partition. Then I created "swap". The dialog did not give me option to chose type of partition (primary or logical). After creation of second partition, the system made the balance space as "unusable". I tried many times (without formatting) to create four partitions similar to my early installations. I failed. After some digging in the net, I found that the hard drives are programmed to accept only four primary partitions. The problem was not related to Ubuntu or my lack of knowledge on Ubuntu installations. It is something to do with the setup of hard drives. I could not reconcile to this logic, since I had only two primary partitions other than to be installed one. After some thoughts, I came up with a cheat. I created partitions other than root with selection of "logical" option. The installation allowed me to do this. I created root partition last as primary one. then, the installation went smooth.

After the installation, the first thing I wanted was my network connection to work. As usual, my network adapter was not recognized by system. I added ndiswrapper through Ubuntu software center. I did not require CLI (command ling interface). After installation of ndiswrapper, a menu item named "Windows Wireless Drivers" got added to System>Administration menu. I clicked this menu item. A dialog box appeared and asked me include required inf file. I added this, but the driver did not get installed. I adopted old method of applying the driver through CLI. It worked.

I have a working system now with a capability to connect to the net through a wireless network. I will record my experiences with other activities after installation in my next blog. Now, Ubuntu is really fast. It boots up fast. It closes fast. Even the applications load quickly. I can feel it. It is definitely faster than my other system Windows XP.

Comfortable with Ubuntu like Windows XP

I had mentioned in my post in May titled "upgraded-to-jaunty-jackalope" that my webcam did not work. I was using third party driver ov51x.jpeg for my webcam. After up-gradation, this driver did not work properly. The dedicated site of this driver recommended using gspca driver. I did install this through Synaptic Package Manager. It solved my problem. My Ubuntu is carrying out 100% production jobs for me. In fact, Gnucash in Ubuntu works better for me than in Windows XP. I am using Windows XP and Ubuntu alternatively for my productive works. There are still a few applications like Shockwave player that do not work in Ubuntu. There is a work around for this by using Wine. I am not really bothered about this now. Google Chrome Browser, though a developer version, is working fine. My default browser is Google Chrome.

I mentioned in my last blog that I am trying Fedora 11 as a virtual machine in Ubuntu. GuestAdditions was not easy. I had to dig a lot of sites and tried many suggestions and finally installed GuestAdditions. I was able to get full screen views. I was able to add usb devices too. Share folder worked. However, the sound was scratchy. I tried many a trick to solve. I was unsuccessful. The OS worked work very slowly. Though virtual machines are slow in general, it was dead slow. Updates in Fedora 11 VM were dead slow that gave me a lot of irritation. I tried reinstalling many times, the results were same. I quit using Fedora 11 as a virtual machine. I will try Fedora again only when I get a spare machine for full installation.

All variants of Ubuntu work well as virtual machines in VirtualBox. It is due to good integration of gnome with VirtualBox. I tried other distros also like OpenSuSe. They did not work like Ubuntu in VirtualBox. Now, I am testing beta version of Ubuntu 9.10. This is slated to be released end of this month. Initial impressions are good. Starting is faster though it is working as a virtual machine. I feel this version will make me lean more towards Ubuntu than XP. I find Ubuntu is less and less buggy. I find it is more stable. System recovery, if at all needed, is simple. Its repositories have more free softwares that meet all needs of either personal or business use. As more and more applications are converting to web-based ones and cloud computing is on the rise, OS may be losing its importance. Will Chrome OS is the future? Will it replace Ubuntu? Time only will answer.

Fedora 11 KDE on top of Ubuntu

As I find Ubuntu is getting more and more stable and satisfied. I wanted to try another Linux distro. While trying to try another distro, I also wanted to compare KDE desktop environment as against gnome in Ubuntu. The choice fell on Fedora 11 KDE. As I do not have another machine, I decided to go the virtual route. My choice on virtual application fell on Sun's VirtualBox. The following link provided me the necessary instructions to install Fedora 11 KDE on VirtualBox.

Installing Fedora 11 KDE on VirtualBox 2.2

I installed as per the instructions. I had a hitch while installing. The installation was hanging every time I tried to install the virtual machine. After some digging in the web, I tried a setting change before installing the OS, but after creating the virtual machine. The setting change was "enabling PAE kernel".

Please note that the virtual machine has to be closed and started again for the setting change to take effect. The installation went smooth after this change. There are few issues that need to be addressed. The display driver is not installed properly. USB devices do not get mounted in virtual machine. I am trying to find solutions to all these issues. I have not delved deeply in the applications of Fedora 11 installed by default. One thing that caught my eye instantly was the number of games loaded in basic Fedore 11. A lot of them compared to other applications. My kins would like them. I will write about KDE applications later after trying them out. It may take some time to resolve the issues noted above. I am trying!

Upgraded to Jaunty Jackalope

Though I have upgraded my Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex to Jaunty Jackalope by April 2008, I could write on this experience only now. It is better to be late than never.

Let me list out my experiences on the upgrade:

1. This time around, I did upgrade instead of installing anew.
2. The up-gradation was smooth without any unintended incidence.
3. My third-party repository sources got erased.
4. Unsupported applications got removed.
5. My network manager worked without any hitch this time, which was a source of pain during my early up-gradations.
6. As usual, my video card drivers did not work. However, the hardware drivers function under system/administration worked fine. It provided a suitable NVidia driver and installed without any hitch.
7. Alas! My PC sound was not working. After some reasearch in the net, I was informed that the new sound application "Pulse Audio" needs to be installed. This is a new application in Jaunty Jackalope. This application did not install automatically during installation. After installation of this application, my PC started sounding.
8. I had to reinstall Google Earth, since it was removed during my up-gradation.
9. As usual, my creative webcam stopped working after up-gradation. I tried reinstalling ov51x-jpeg driver. It does not work. I may have committed some mistakes while reinstalling. I may have to correct this problem later.
10. Now, Jaunty Jackalope is working fine, excepting for web cam glitch.

Overall, Ubuntu is becoming less and less painful while upgrading. Ubuntu still operates well in my, more than five year old, PC. It is almost friendly like Windows and as stable as Windows, if not more. I started loving Ubuntu more as I upgrade.

Technorati Tags: Jaunty Jackalope, Ubuntu, Ubuntu, upgrade, windows

L. A. M. P.

The title is an acronym, copied from a blog. L stands for Linux, A stands for Apache, M stands for MySql and P stands for PHP. These four are open source software and they form a potent components of a package for developing and deploying web sites and web applications. I was dreaming and still am dreaming to become a full time web developer. Though I did some hands-on learning and am able to pore the codes of web pages, I am still to qualify as a full time web developer. I am slowly and steadily progressing on my goal. I have some basic knowledge on html, asp, java and javascript, but I have not fully mastered them yet. PHP language is the latest craze in open source web development. This is a server side script and I wanted to learn this language. Any web developement needs a scripting language pack, a user interface to use this language (can be a just text editor), a web server and a data server. So, L. A. M. P. was the answer for my latest web development rendezvous using open source software.

I had already an open source operating system, i.e., Ubuntu. I had to install PHP package, Apache web server and MySql data server. The site, Installing LAMP on Ubuntu 8.10, provided the required help in installing all these packages. The installation was smooth as the instructions were easy to follow.

After installing the required software, I did not know where to start and how to start. I searched for a good start-up tutorial and the site, PHP For the Absolute Beginner seemed to be a good one. As I started studying the tutorial and trying the codes, I realized it is a fantastic one. I not only used the codes given in the tutorials, but experimented with altering codes and observing the changes. I repeat, it is really a fantastic site for a beginner.

The following are the codes of a small program that could be used as header on all the web pages of a site:
<html>
<head>
<title><?php echo $page['title'];?></title>
</head>
<body>
<!-- top menu bar -->
<table width="90%" border="0" cellspacing="5" cellpadding="5">
<tr>
<td><a href="#">Home</a></td>
<td><a href="#">Site Map</a></td>
<td><a href="#">Search</a></td>
<td><a href="#">Help</a></td>
</tr>
</table>
<!-- header ends -->

The following picture shows the result, when the above program is run in a browser from web a server.



I started enjoying PHP language. It sure is much simpler than other scripting languages that I have known. One day, I will definitely become a fully developed web developer.

PS: I am writing this blog using ScribeFire extension in FireFox Web Browser using Ubuntu as my OS. Open Source is coming of age. It is becoming more and more user friendly. Hurrah!

Ubuntu 8.10 – Intrepid Ibex

It has been quite long, since I posted my blogs. It is not that I did not have any new experience with my Ubuntu.I had few interesting and some unpleasant experiences. I will recount them here. My last blog was posted when I was using a stable version of Hardy Heron (Ubuntu 8.04). I had three issues that required some digging to resolve them. However, the last issue could not be resolved. All these issues were related to drivers of my PC components.

• Wireless Network connection: I have a wireless router at home and my desktop has a wireless network adapter. There is still no Linux driver for this component due to manufacturer’s restrictions. There is a workaround. By installing ndiswrapper software, one can convert Windows driver file to work in Ubuntu Linux. This is the link that gives instructions on the work around. This work around worked in my PC properly.
• Accelerated graphics card: My PC has GeForce4 MX 440 graphics card. Here too, the generic driver was not enough for the card to work properly. Then, after some research, I found that EnVy software was the solution. I downloaded the software and installed it. After installation, the software took care of installation of suitable driver. The card worked after this action.
• Creative Live Webcam: This webcam also did not work at all. I did a lot of search and found few solutions, but they also did not work. I gave up on this at last. My Ubuntu did not have a working webcam. Please note that this webcam was working properly in Windows XP.

Everything was well with my Hardy Heron. As an inquisitive person, I decided one day to try the developer version of Intrepid Ibex. I set up my Ubuntu to auto-upgrade to latest alpha and beta releases of Intrepid Ibex. Few updates worked fine without any problem. Alas! After few updates (which were happening every other day), one update hanged. I had to power-off my PC. After shut off, my Ubuntu refused to boot at all. I had to either reload stable Hardy Heron or beta version of Intrepid. Since stable version of Intrepid Ibex release was only few weeks away, I decided to wait for the release of stable version.

I downloaded the stable version of Intrepid Ibex, when it became available. The fresh installation was very smooth, partly due to improvements in Intrepid Ibex and partly due to guidance from my earlier blog about Ubuntu installation. The three issues noted above were resolved after installation, but easily.

• Wireless Network connection: The instructions and the required debian packages were saved in a removable device. I was thoughtful to save them for the rainy days. I installed ndiswrapper and the proper driver. Wireless connection started working without much labor.
• Accelerated graphics card: This posed some difficulty. Envy was not available for Intrepid Ibex. I had to include restricted extras package in the repository. Then I had to install nvidia-glx-96 package through synaptic package manager. Now, graphics card is working. I can enjoy the games and advanced desktop effects. It took some effort and time to make this work, but the worth the effort.
• Creative Live Webcam: The happiest experience was with this. I did not do anything. It started working automatically. Developers of Intrepid Ibex have done something for it. Hurrah!

Now, I have a stable Intrepid ibex. I am slowly loading required additional applications. I have first added Google Mail offline as my first additional application. I am a fan of Google, but most of the Google applications do not work in Linux. Gmail offline and Google Earth are the exceptions. My experiences with Ubuntu is becoming more and more enjoyable.