Posts in “Ubuntu”

SaltStack currently doesn’t set the hostname correctly on Debian/Ubuntu. For example, this won’t work:

I recently came across a useful tool while reading The Debian Administrator’s Handbook - debfoster.

There are many pages out there discussing how to recover an Ubuntu encrypted home directory (see also below).

I got a Huawei HSPA E1762 USB stick a few months ago for 3G network access, together with Exetel’s $5/month Zero Gig plan (uses the Optus network). Great for when I’m out and about and can’t find a wireless signal to jump onto, or I’m at some client who doesn’t allow laptops onto their network.

Here’s the setup I use for compiling Go binaries, as well as for writing .deb’s to package them and markdown for README’s - notes for me.

A question I get regularly from other sysadmins - how to tell if you’re running a 32 or 64 bit install (vs CPU) of Linux?

A little ssh error I came across while trying to work remotely on an Ubuntu machine. [ssh X Display Forwarding][1] wasn’t working, and I was getting an error:

Opinions around the latest Ubuntu (11.04) range from “interesting” (as in the curse “may you live in interesting times”) to “it sucks”.

I blogged [previously][1] about how the Australian locale in Ubuntu incorrectly uses Sunday rather than Monday as the first day of the week, and how to manually fix it. Unfortunately, whenever the locale gets updated (eg via one of Ubuntu’s regular package updates), the locale reverts and you have to manually fix it again.

Here’s how to install Virtualbox 2.1.4 on Ubuntu Jaunty (people are [saying][1] 2.2.0 is buggy). And now that Oracle owns Sun, Virtualbox may go the way of the dodo.

I’ve always used vim as my main editor, but I thought I’d try RadRails since so many Rails people rave about it.

I recently bought a new laptop – a bottom of the range Toshiba Satellite Pro L300 costing $780 (extra RAM pushed the price up).

Some good documentation on [Troubleshooting Sound on Ubuntu][1].

(Updated May/09 for Ubuntu 8.10/Ibex): for a long time I couldn’t get JPilot syncing with my Palm Pilot on Ubuntu 8.04 and 8.10.

Discontinued versions of Ubuntu are mirrored under http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/, which can be used to setup apt’s sources.list.

I recently reinstalled Ubuntu Gutsy on one of my laptops, and the fonts in Firefox came up ugly.

It’s years since I’ve dealt with apt-pinning, so all my knowledge on it has paged-out.

I got a pleasant surprise last night – well pleasant for the Spanish spea[][1]king part of my brain, anyway.

Notes from a recent post on SLUG:

[wicd][1] – “an open source wired and wireless network manager” – a possible replacement for Ubuntu’s annoying Network Manager (Mangler?).

I’ve noticed that issuing a sudo halt on my [EeePC 701][1] shuts down the operating system ([eeeXubuntu][2]), but doesn’t power down the system.

I’ve just started using Evolution to access the hExchange server at work, and it keeps on popping up new email notifications (even though I’ve disabled it in Evolution and restarted X) – too much like Winblows for my likings.

[Gutsy Intel HD Audio Controller][1], “Method G”

I enjoy listening to podcasts during my commute, and most podcasts can be easily downloaded using my favourite podcasting tool (currently customised bashpodder, but I’m writing my own).

Copied verbatim from [Jeff Waugh’s post][1] on [SLUG][2]:

A good thread recently on SLUG about how to remaster an Ubuntu Live CD:

Under the Australian locale, the first day of the week appears as Sunday rather than Monday, which is incorrect. To change it:

A quick cheatsheet for setting up a forwarding, caching-only DNS Server on Ubuntu.

To convert an Ubuntu installed with English to Spanish, install the following packages:

The instructions given by NoMachine for setting up on Linux are a bit thin; here’s my own version:

NetworkManager: “When I’m good, I’m really really good. But when I’m bad.“. Some tricks I’ve found for troubleshooting NetworkManager:

Whilst traveling through Mexico and Guatemala, I’ve had various problems with slow and/or faulty dns resolution.

My first task in Guatemala was to get Jesus’s wireless going.

A couple of notes on working with the ipw2200 wireless card on a Compaq nc4200 running Ubuntu (7.04 and 7.10), including how to get the blue LED to work:

As far as /etc/iftab goes, this is not used in Ubuntu 7.10
anymore..this functionality is moved to hotplug,. and maybe causing
your prob.

• run gconf-editor
  • change /apps/nautilus/desktop/home_icon_visible to true

After doing a fresh install of Ubuntu 7.04 and installing all pending updates via Update Manager, I get an error that starts like this:

Reconfigure X.org on Ubuntu

libdvdcss2 and w32codecs for Ubuntu

A useful tool for splitting mp3 music files on Linux is mp3splt. To install it on Ubuntu or Debian based distributions, type:

HowTo Setup 3 Broadband Wireless on Ubuntu Linux

The title says it all. [ESR][1] has [given up on Fedora and moved to Ubuntu][2]. Thanks to [BarraPunto][3].

On Ubuntu Edgy I notice that when I do an ‘apt-get update’ I get
messages like this:

To rebuild a package, I usually:

checkinstall – build .deb’s from .tar.gz’s

session management Ubuntu Dapper

When I upgraded to Ubuntu Dapper, Flash sound stopped working in Firefox – oh no, no more YouTube!

Two useful tools for modifying Debian/Ubuntu runlevels (apart from just editing the links directly in /etc/rc?.d):

Quick and dirty on installing OpenLDAP as an addressbook server.

A while ago I bought a [account][1] from Telstra for roaming wireless on my laptop – it uses a Maxon MiniMax [MM-5500U][2] to connect on the CDMA phone network. I got this rather than other wireless products as I was going to be doing some work in Perth, and this was the only network that had coverage.

[This guide][1] was started by Chua Wen Kiat (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia). It is now being maintained by the Linux Center of University of Latvia, and everyone else who is willing to contribute.

ubuntulite.org

installing VMWare on Ubuntu

atheros wireless

Site to generate an ubuntu sources.list for your preferred set of repositories. Just tick all repositories you want; the default set is selected automatically.

using kpkg to build kernels

automatix – nice Ubuntu tool