The Ubuntu Stories

Seeing that Flash takes up a prominent position on the web these days, Flash performance is crucial to a decent OS nowadays. And let that be one of the biggest problems I have with Ubuntu: Flash performance is good when I play only 1 movie and/or flash website at a time, but when I open up two, the problems start: videos are not playing smooth, audio sync is off, …

With Flash Player 10, performance is increased immensely. I can play multiple flash videos at a time, without any problems at all. Problem is: the new flash player is not yet included in the sources of apt-get, so you won’t get an automatic update. So, here’s a quick HOW-TO:

(1) Close all Firefox-windows.

(2) Open up a terminal, and type in the following command:

sudo apt-get remove flashplugin-nonfree

(3) Go to http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/flashplayer10.html, and download the .TAR.GZ version for Linux. Please note: this is a pre-release version (at the moment of typing, at least)! Save the file in your home-directory (or where you want it). Then navigate to that directory in you terminal (if you saved it in your homedirectory, if you open a new terminal, you’re in your home-directory).

(4) Execute following commands:

tar -xf flashplayer10_install_linux_070208.tar.gz
cd install_flash_player_10_linux
sudo su
./flashplayer-installer

What you are doing:
- untar the .tar.gz in the current directory
- go to the folder you just extracted
- identify yourself as root (don’t use this too often, rather use sudo when you can)
- execute the installer

(5) Just follow through the installer.

Voilà!

Ever since I’ve downloaded and compiled 2.6.24-17, I’ve been having trouble with it. Every time I start up, I constantly get a white screen, and nothing more. After a lot of Googling, I’ve figured out that it probably has something to do with the X-server – I was suspecting this, since I could boot up in the -16 kernel perfectly, while every attempt with a more recent kernel seems to fail (I had the same problem with the -18 kernel, as well as the most recent kernel, the -19), and everything compiled just fine with every install.

Now, I’ve figured out a way to get it working again – to be honest, I stumbled upon it by accident Anyway, this is how I got it working again:

Step 1: make sure you have Envy (Envy is a tool to automaticly install and configure the ATi and Nvidia-driver). I know I stated in a previous post that you best started from the ATi-installer, but Envy has been updated, and it seems to work fine now.

First, make sure you remove all previous versions by typing in a terminal:

sudo apt-get remove envy

sudo apt-get remove envyng

sudo rm -R /usr/share/envy

Then, update your apt-get resources:

sudo apt-get update

Install Envy using this command:

sudo apt-get install envyng-gtk

If you’re using Kubuntu (if you’re not sure, use the GTK-version!!), this would be:

sudo apt-get install envyng-qt

For more information on installing Envy: http://albertomilone.com/envyngfaq.html#A

Step 2: boot into the “non-working” kernel, by choosing it via Grub (or Lilo, or whatever bootmanager you’re using).

Step 3: when on the white screen, use the key-combination Ctrl+Alt+F2 to get a command-line interface. Log in using your login and password.

Step 4: use the following command to get out again:

sudo shutdown now

Now, Ubuntu will popup a menu with 4 options, among which are ‘resume’ and ‘xfix’. Choose the option ‘xfix’ here. This will set your X-server to a default configuration again (Note: this also applies to your keyboard! For me, Ubuntu set my keyboard to a QWERTY-configuration all of a sudden, so do think of that when logging in afterwards!).

When the xfix is done, you can just boot into your ‘white-screen-kernel’, and see that everything works again!

Step 5: everything works, however, we don’t have fglrx anymore. That’s why we downloaded Envy to start with. Boot it up, by finding it in your menu (Applications -> System Tools -> Envy).

Just choose the automatic installation of the driver (for me, this was the ATi-driver). Afterwards, just reboot, and voilà: the most recent kernel is working perfectly, with fglrx!

Notes afterwards:

- If you do not have a ATi or Nvidia card, you can probably reïnstall your driver, and skip Step 1 and Step 5. You can also reconfigure the X-server with the following command:

dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

With the latest version of Ubuntu comes also the latest beta version of Firefox (which is, at time of writing, version FF 3 beta 5). Now, this version is still a beta version, which means that it may contain bugs. In fact, it contains 1 serious bug, being the fact that the CPU gets a 100% usage load when you use Firefox.

The problem lies in the security-settings of Firefox. In a default configuration, Firefox checks if you are accessing a suspected attack site. If you have enabled it, it even checks if you’re accessing a phishing site (a forgery site, as it is called). When you access a site containing Javascript, Firefox will go nuts, and this will eventually result in a high processor load – which is never good.

Now, there is a very simple workaround, given the fact that you will have to turn off the security settings. Go about it as follows:

(1) in Firefox, go to your preferences (Edit -> Preferences). Go to the Security-tab, and uncheck following options:

- Tell me if the site I’m visiting is a suspected attack site
- Tell me if the site I’m visiting is a suspected forgery site

Then, close down Firefox completely.

(2) go to your Home Folder (Places -> Home Folder). Make sure you’re able to view hidden files and folders (by pressing either Ctrl+H, or go to View -> Show Hidden Files).

(3) navigate to /home/(username)/.mozilla/firefox/xxxxxxxx.default/

The folder may vary, but the name always ends in .default .

(4) delete the file urlclassifier3.sqlite and (if present) the file urlclassifier3.sqlite-journal.

(5) restart Firefox. The file urlclassifier3.sqlite will be recreated, but this time, it will stay about 9 kB, without getting any bigger.

Note: you have to repeat this for every user account!

Enjoy your Firefox v3!

As I’ve said, my own first resource for my Ubuntu installation is redDEAD’s site. He posted an evaluation on installing the latest Ubuntu on his site, which I’ll paste here, and fill in my comments.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hi all!

Been a long time. Looking at the posts, it’s been almost a year! So, happy 1 year of doing nothing on my blog for me – hooray!

So, what to do? First off, I’m going to kick this site back into action. From now on, this site will continue from Ubuntu 8.04, the newest release.

I think, without further ado, I’ll just start posting. But not before mentioning the site that inspired me of starting my own blog in the first place: redDEAD’s site. I’m not going to rewrite all his articles, you’ll find them at his site

One of the features I like the most in Ubuntu, is the ease to add software to your distribution. It’s like … child’s play. Even easier than in Windows. And I’ll show you how – a quick HOWTO on adding software in Ubuntu Linux. I’ll use as many pictures as possible – using the Ubuntu Screenshot Taker

The Add/Remove Wizard is located in your Applications menu. I have a Dutch version of Ubuntu, but the main features (such as this one), stay in English, so most likely, it will look the same in your version.

When it opens up, it will look something like the picture above. This tool you’ll be using a lot, since it is the

main access to new software in Ubuntu.

1 thing I do suggest you do, is choose the option of “All Available Applications”. By default, “Ubuntu Supported Applications” will be selected, which will only give you a selection on the total package which is available.

In this example, I will be looking for Ogle, which is a DVD-player that can handle menus. In my experience, it is also the BEST application on Linux for playing DVD’s (with menus), since the other ones I’ve tried (VLC, Totem, Kaffeine, Xine) all fail terribly at playing menu-driven DVD’s. When you click it, some notification will pop-up, after which it will be selected. However, it is not installed – yet.

To install, you simply have to hit the “Apply” button down below. It will commence to install, and you’ll see some windows pop up with notifications and progress bars. The fun part about this wizard, is the fact that it will download all dependencies too. So, you don’t have to worry about not having certain software you’ll need to run the package you selected. That immediately points out the philosophy behind Ubuntu: Linux for everyone. Where you had to be a brainiac in the old days, installing only through terminal and Google’ing the crap out of the internet, looking for the dependencies; you can just point and click now.

If all goes well (and it probably will), you’ll get a dialog stating where the software is located, and you can start using it. Hooray!

Ubuntu also has a more advanced way of managing packages and installing them, called the “Synaptics Package Manager”. The Add/Remove Wizard is actually more of a very basic GUI frontend for this Package Manager. You’ll find it in System -> Administration (or something like that) -> Synaptics Package Manager (again, I have a Dutch version of Ubuntu).

It will look somewhat less attractive, but they idea is basicly the same: you search for something, you click it (if found), and install it – it will also install all dependencies. The more advanced part is that you can manage seperate packages, where the Add/Remove Wizard only allows you to manage full software solutions. I tend to use it a lot when looking for dependencies for software I’m installing via the terminal.

Et voilà! You’re set to go Now go install all those games!