How to enable/disable Ctrl+Alt+Backspace in Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic)

Ctrl+Alt+Backspace (i.e. the shortcut which was used to restart the X server) has to be enabled in a different way with respect to previous releases of Ubuntu.

This is due to the fact that “DontZap” is no longer an option in the X server and has become an option in XKB instead.

Using GNOME

* Get to the System->Preferences->Keyboard menu.

* Select the “Layouts” tab and click on the “Layout Options” button.

* Then select “Key sequence to kill the X server” and enable “Control + Alt + Backspace”.

Using KDE

* Launch “systemsettings”

* Select “Regional & Language”.

* Select “Keyboard Layout”.

* Click on “Enable keyboard layouts” (in the Layout tab).

* Select the “Advanced” tab. Then select “Key sequence to kill the X server” and enable “Control + Alt + Backspace”.

Using the command line

You can type the following command to enable Zapping immediately.

setxkbmap -option terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp

If you’re happy with the new behaviour you can add that command to your ~/.xinitrc in order to make the change permanent.

Using HAL

You can add the following line in /usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/10osvendor/10-x11-input.fdi (inside the <match key=”info.capabilities” contains=”input.keys”> section):

<merge key="input.xkb.options" type="string">terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp</merge>

How to Compress and Split Files in Ubuntu 9.10

In Ubuntu, the Archive Manager (or file-roller) has make it easy for anyone to compress and zip up a file or folder, but if you have a large file, say 20Gb, and you want to back it up to the CD/DVD, you will find that no amount of compression can you reduce the file size to fit into 1 CD/DVD. In such case, it is a better solution to compress and split the large file into several smaller files and store them separately. This also applies if you want to share a large file on a file-sharing site. Splitting the compressed file into several smaller files will make it easier for others to download.

Let’s say that the large file is a movie file found in /home/username/films/large-file.avi and you want to compress, split and store the smaller files at the folder /home/username/films/split-flies/, this is what you type in the terminal:

cd films/split-files (change the filepath to where you want to keep the split files)

 tar -cvj /home/username/films/large-files.avi | split -b 640m -d – “large-files.tar.bz.”

You will now see several files appearing at the split-files folder, each with file size of 640MB and with filenames large-files.tar.bz.00, large-files.tar.bz.01, large-files.tar.bz.02, etc.

To recover and extract the split files, type

cat large-files.tar.bz.* > large-files.tar.bz
 tar -xvj large-file.tar.bz

and you can get the original file back.

How To Extract DAA Files In Ubuntu 9.10 Using PowerISO

Most often when you download a huge file from a P2P network, it is compressed in the .daa format. When you click on it, you will find that there is no application in Ubuntu that can handle it.

If you are wondering, DAA (Direct-Access-Archive) is actually a proprietary file format created by PowerISO to compress, password protect and to split a huge file to multiple volumes. To decompress a .daa file, you have to use the PowerISO application.

Download PowerISO for Linux

Extract the tar file

cd /usr/bin
sudo tar -xf [path-to-poweriso-tar-file]

To extract .daa file

poweriso extract /input-file.daa / -od /extracted-file-path

Done + Have Fan

Create your own distro with Product Creator

Once again, we are going to talk about Kiwi.

Kiwi is an Imaging System, a part of the greater openSUSE Build Service, a complex, omnipotent imaging/virtualization solution that allows you to create any which kind of operating system images, fully customizable and deployable in a vast range of formats, based on your own installation, the vanilla openSUSE or any other Linux distribution.

Kiwi can achieve these tasks using XML templates, as it is geared toward power users who like automation and scripting. However, Kiwi also supports work by the means of much simpler, much friendlier GUI frontends called Image Creator and Product Creator.

Donwload PDF version of this document
The YaST Product Creator is suitable for creating the following types of images:

• Custom installation media
• Add-on products
• Live ISO images
• USB stick images
• Xen images
• Virtual disk boot images

The YaST Product Creator has some limitations:

• Creates only images for the installed architecture
• Creates images only from sources added with the YaST Installation Sources module or from newly created add-on products
• Does not support creation of bootable add-on product images

The YaST Product Creator provides configurations for all types of images. These configurations can be used as a good base for most situations. If you need a special configuration and are not familiar with the add-on configuration or editing and creating a KIWI configuration, see Creating Add-ons and en.opensuse.org/KIWI

Installing new templates in OpenOffice 3

I do a lot of writing. I also create presentations on occasion. Naturally, being an open source/Linux advocate, I use OpenOffice for all of my needs. One area where OpenOffice might consider a little less than user-friendly is the adding new templates for your use. Once you understand how this is done you will think differently about this. But until you know the secret it might take a while to figure this one out.

With the upgrade to OpenOffice 3 a new feature was added – Extensions. Extension enable you to extend the functionality of OpenOffice. Fortunately it is possible to find plenty of templates that are rolled into an extension. Let’s take a look at how this is done.

Before you do anything with the Extension Manager you need to locate some templates. The official OpenOffice Template site doesn’t really have a large selection of templates. Your best bet is to do a search for the type of template you are looking for (Writer, Impress, Calc, etc). Once you find them if the extension is .oxt it is an extension file. If that’s the case, you’re in luck, you can install this with the Extension Manager. I found probably the best collection of Impress Templates, called Modern Impress Templates.

If you open up the main OpenOffice window (this is done by issuing the command openoffice.org or opening the OpenOffice.org menu entry from your desktop. When this window opens you will notice a Tools menu. Within the Tools menu there is an entry called Extension Manager. Click on that to open up this tool.

Figure 1

From within the Extension Manager (see Figure 1) click on the Add button to open the Add Window. Navigate to where you saved the extension file, select the file, and click Open.

In some cases you might have to agree to a license. If that’s the case, read the EULA and then click Accept. Once you have done this the extension is installed. You will see the new extension listed in the Extension Manager.

You can also add templates by clicking the Templates button in the main OpenOffice window. When you click that a template chooser opens where you can click a “Get more templates online” link. Click that to open a new Firefox window on the official OpenOffice templates page. Here you can search and download specific templates. These templates will open up in their respective tool. Once that template is open click on the File menu where you will see a Templates submenu. From within the Templates submenu click on Save to open up the Tempates organizer. Give this template a name and click Save. Now when you want to use this template again go back to that Templates submenu, and click on the Organize entry. When the organizer opens double click on the My Templates folder to reveal the template you saved.

Using your templates

Figure 2

After your templates are installed go back to the main OpenOffice window and click on the Impress button and the New wizard will start (see Figure 2). Now you should see far more templates to choose from than the default.

Final thoughts

Although OpenOffice 3 ships with a poor selection of templates to choose from, extending this selection is as simple as adding an extension.  And don’t forget, you can also create your own templates in Openoffice.

gshutdown : Graphical Shutdown Utility in Ubuntu

gshutdown is a Graphical Shutdown Utility, you can set the shutdown /restart time graphically. Beginners can easily schedule shutdown time using this utility.

$ sudo apt-get install gshutdown

( or use synaptic package manager)

Firefox Billion Downloads campaign !

Link

Moovida – the free open source media player for and Linux

Moovida is much More than a media player…

Moovida is much more than a simple media player… it is a cutting edge media center bringing the best of the internet to your TV screen. Automatically creating your own digital library you can browse from your sofa with a remote control. The elegant and easy to use interface automatically displays artwork and fan art throughtout and gives you access to movie synopsis and artist info.

Check the Features section for full details on what’s on offer…

	Watch movies & TV shows Catalog your movies, tv shows and other videos with integrated online content. Moovida supports HD and almost all file formats like divX, mkv, flv, h264, mov, ogg and much more without need for additional codecs.
	Enjoy your pictures Visualize the photos of your latest trip either from your hard drive or your flickr account in a nicely animated slideshow.
	Manage your music Access all of your songs easily, enhance your library with online services and find new music to listen to.
	Get connected Flickr, Youtube, Yes.fm, SHOUTcast and much more – extend the functionality of Moovida with new content from top internet sites. Listen online to your favorite songs, share your media with your friends on your network or scan other devices like your iPod with Moovida.

Full features list…

Install Moovida in Ubuntu Jaunty

First you need to edit /etc/apt/sources.list file

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

Add the following lines

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/moovida-packagers/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/moovida-packagers/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main

Save and exit

Add the GPG key using the following command

sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com e478bb3b6bcd9f67c5137df13135cd5c26c2e075

Update the source list

sudo apt-get update

Install moovida using the the following command

sudo apt-get install moovida

This will complete the installation

Using Moovida

Open Moovida from Applications—>Sound & Video—>Moovida Media Center

Moovida Media Center is loading in progress

Moovida Media Center main Menu

Music screen

Movie Screen

Picture Screen

TV Shows screen

Plugins Screen

Devices & Screen

You can download plugins from here

Format External Memory Media in Linux with Gnome Format

Gnome Format is a tool to easily format (erase and initialize) external memory media like USB sticks or SD/MMC flash cards for your PC. It is designed for Linux based operating systems using the GNOME desktop.

gparted is really good to format hard disks and make partitions and so on, but if I have a *non-formatted* usb stick and plug it into my system, the system usually does nothing at all! And thats the field for gnome-format! It’s easy to use, simple and small. For bigger tasks such as making partitions there is gparted!

You can download the source from here, or if you have Ubuntu, the gnome-format package is already in the universe repository (Jaunty), so all you have to do is:

sudo apt-get install gnome-format

Review of the Last.fm Open-Source Client for Linux !!

Last.fm is an open-source application licensed under the GPL, allowing you to listen to Last.fm radio stations and submit the songs in the same time. For those of you unfamiliar with Last.fm, it’s a great social music community, allowing you to submit songs you currently listen to, statistics, forums for bands or music styles (or even more: Amarok has a group, most major distributions also, and you can start your own group about anything, match people and discuss), together with information for each artist, open for anyone to edit, just like the Wikipedia style.

The application is also included in Debian’s repositories (and probably most other distributions), and it can be downloaded alternately from the Tools page on Last.fm. What I liked is that they also offer an online Debian repository for it here, although I recommend using the official package in Debian’s repositories. But if you want the latest version, the repositories they provide are fine.

Main interface after logging in

The client is built using the Qt 4.3.4 libraries since April 2, 2008, so the integration with KDE 4.x should be just fine. You will also need a Last.fm account in order to use it.

Features
The left tab contains most of the important links for the Last.fm radio, like recently played, loved or banned songs, tags, friends, neighbours or history. You can love, ban or skip songs (but unfortunately I couldn’t find any ‘pause’ button). You can also start your own radio station and add favourite songs there.

Listening to radio

It integrates with the system tray, and it’s available in several languages, like English, French or Italian.

It also offers several configuration options, like the audio engine or the icon in the system tray.

Configuration

As a conclusion, the Last.fm client can prove very useful for persons who like to listen to internet radio a lot, unless you prefer to do it in your own audio player of choice. Overall, another nice free application for our delight, and these projects should really be encouraged and supported.