Archive for ubuntu

Automate disk checking using AutoFsck

September 2, 2008 at 4:23 pm · Filed under Applications, ubuntu ·Tagged , ,

Everyone must be little annoyed seeing this disk check happening every 30 systems boots. There is a tool called AutoFsck which automates periodic disk checking, so that it no longer bothers the user after certain number of times. This has a graphical user interface, wherein you can set the no of boots, schedule disk check.

AutoFsck ensures that the automatic disk check will no longer inconvenience you by making your boot times very long.

How does AutoFsck work?

It’s really quite simple, every time you shut down, AutoFsck finds information on your disks. Every linux partition has two important number associated with it, one is the number of times it has been mounted, the other is the number of times it is allowed to before being checked. AutoFsck looks at these, and if your drives are due for checking it asks if you want to check them. If you say yes, your drives are checked before your computer shuts down. If you say no, AutoFsck will ensure that the check will not run next time your computer boots. You will then be prompted again the next time you shut down.

NOTE – AutoFsck is not dangerous, it does not stop fsck from running if the filesystem in question is flagged as unclean during boot.

Installing AutoFsck

Installing AutoFsck v3.2 is easy – you can install over the top of AutoFsck 2.0 or later:

  • Download the archive from the link above.
  • Either select ‘open’ from the download dialogue, or save the file and then double click it.
  • When gdebi (the graphical .deb install manager) opens, click the ‘install’ button to install the package.
  • Note that during the install, the terminal window in gdebi may ask whether you want to keep your version, or use the new version of the configuration file autofsckrc, it is recommended that you keep your version.
  • If you want to remove Autofsck at any time, use synaptic (System –> Administration –> Synaptic Package Manager) to remove the package ‘autofsck’.

AutoFsck is located in system > administration > periodic disk checking

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wicd – wireless network manager for ubuntu

September 1, 2008 at 3:15 am · Filed under Applications, ubuntu ·Tagged , ,

Wicd is an open source wired and wireless network manager for Linux which aims to provide a simple interface to connect to networks with a wide variety of settings.

Some of Wicd’s features include:

1. No Gnome dependencies (although it does require GTK), so it is easy to use in XFCE, Fluxbox, Openbox, Enlightenment, etc.
2. Ability to connect to wired and wireless networks
3. Profiles for each wireless network and wired network
4. Many encryption schemes, some of which include WEP/WPA/WPA2 (and you can add your own)
5. Remains compatible with wireless-tools
6. Tray icon showing network activity and signal strength

There are instructions for installing Wicd on Ubuntu, Debian, Arch, Fedora, Slackware, and Gentoo on the downloads page, although it should work on any Linux distro.

Note: This application works perfectly fine on macbook.

How to install

Add the Wicd repository to the Ubuntu package manager. To open the package manager in Gnome, go to Administration > Synaptic Package Manager. When it appears, go to Settings > Repositories > Third Party Software > Add…, and enter the following line:

deb http://apt.wicd.net gutsy extras

Now change gusty to (dapper, edgy, feisty, gutsy, hardy) accordingly to the version of ubuntu that you are using. Now go to the terminal

sudo apt-get install wicd

Now go to applications > internet > wicd and configure your wireless settings.

Wicd

Wicd

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Install Nginx webserver on Ubuntu Hardy

August 7, 2008 at 3:07 am · Filed under ubuntu, webserver ·Tagged , ,

Nginx (pronounced “engine x”) is a free, open-source, high-performance HTTP server and reverse proxy, as well as an IMAP/POP3 proxy server. Written by Igor Sysoev in 2005, Nginx now hosts between 1% and 4% of all domains worldwide. Although still in beta, Nginx is known for its stability, rich feature set, simple configuration, and low resource consumption.

Basic HTTP features:

  1. Handling of static files, index files, and autoindexing; open file descriptor cache;
  2. Accelerated reverse proxying without caching; simple load balancing and fault tolerance;
  3. Accelerated support without caching of remote FastCGI servers; simple load balancing and fault tolerance;
  4. Modular architecture. Filters include gzipping, byte ranges, chunked responses, XSLT, and SSI. Multiple SSI inclusions within a single page can be processed in parallel if they are handled by FastCGI or proxied servers.
  5. SSL and TLS SNI support.

How to install Nginx

sudo aptitude install nginx

How to start Nginx

sudo /etc/init.d/nginx start

Testing Nginx

http://localhost/

Testing nginx web server

Testing nginx web server

Start and Stop nginx webserver

Following are the commands to start, stop and restart nginx

Start
sudo /etc/init.d/nginx start

Stop
sudo /etc/init.d/nginx stop

Restart
sudo /etc/init.d/nginx restart

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How to install Internet Explorer on Ubuntu

July 20, 2008 at 2:53 am · Filed under Applications, ubuntu ·Tagged ,

This article describes how to install internet explorer on ubuntu. Internet Explorer is necessary for certain class of users, especially web developers and designer. For these users, they need to test their web pages on internet explorer, since majority of the users still use IE. So people who use linux still log in to windows machine for IE. Here is an oppurtunity to move those kind of user completely to Linux.

Disclaimer:

For security reasons, it is not advisable to use Internet Explorer for secured browsing. Use it only for testing web pages developed by you.

Installing dependencies

sudo apt-get install wine cabextract binfmt-support

Installing IE4Linux

wget http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/downloads/ies4linux-latest.tar.gz
tar xvfz ies4linux-latest.tar.gz
cd cd ies4linux-*
./ies4linux

Now the below screen will guide you what versions need to be installed, where the launchers should go. If can enable installation of IE7, which is experimental in the advanced options. Now click OK to continue installing.

The installation starts downloading necessary files from microsoft website.

After installing, the short cut appears on the desktop or whatever options you have choosed earlier. Now its ready to use IE and test your web pages.

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How to install telnet service

July 18, 2008 at 5:55 pm · Filed under ubuntu ·Tagged

TELNET is a client-server protocol, based on a reliable connection-oriented transport. Typically this protocol used to establish a connection to TCP port 23, where a getty-equivalent program (telnetd) is listening, although TELNET predates TCP/IP and was originally run on NCP.

Install telnetd server
$ sudo apt-get install telnetd

Restart inetd service:
$ sudo /etc/init.d/openbsd-inetd restart

You should now be able to telnet to the server from Windows or Linux desktop system to Ubuntu Linux telnet server. Type the following command to connect to
Telnet server:

$ telnet ubuntu-linux-server-ip
$ telnet 192.168.1.200
$ telnet ubuntu.domain.com

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