The Smorgasbord

Have you had problems playing .wmv Windows Media video files, or AVI’s after upgrading to Ubunty 9.04 Jaunty? I sure did, and you know I never had these problems before the upgrade at all. Totem would crash immediately on opening a video file, it would just close down unexpectedly. Come to think of it, it wouldn’t play mp3 audio either (but would stay open). I had the same problem playing Windows video and AVI files in VLC and mplayer as well – all video players on my system. Reintstalling the restricted repository W32 Windows Media codecs did absolutely nothing. My problem was with my Toshiba Satellite P105-S6167 laptop.

The good news is – I found a fix! Turns out the problem is with the Intel video driver that got updated in the Jaunty update. All you have to do is follow the instructions in the Reverting the Jaunty Intel Xorg video driver instructions (like I did) and everything will work again – NP at all! Thanks Ubuntu Wiki!

I got the Ubuntu error in update manager “Error failed to fork pty” when I upgraded my laptop from Ubuntu 8.04 to 9.04 yesterday.  That was quite annoying for 2 reasons, first because the bug, whatever it is, doesn’t allow you to open a terminal window either.  You get an additional error “cannot launch a child process”.  So I did a quick search of the Interwebs, and low and behold – the fix is pretty easy if you know what to do.  You have to edit the fstab (filesystem tab file) as root, and guess what – because of the bug, you can’t use terminal!

So here is your fix, this is all you have to do.  You can run a command in Ubuntu by hitting the keys “Alt+F2″ at the same time.

Once the window comes up – enter this command and click ok:

devpts /dev/pts devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=620)


This hit “Alt+F2″ one last time and run this command:

sudo mount -a


Then you should be good, no reboot required!

I’ve had a Toshiba laptop with Windows Vista Home on it for the last two years. It’s my main work machine, the one I do all my blogging and web site work on. In that time I’ve had to reformat it back to it’s original “storebought” state twice (the last time about 10 days ago). That’s always a pain because first you have to backup all of your photos, music, and files to an external drive. Then, once you format and reinstall you have to spend a few hours removing all the crap installed from the factory, and installing all the software you need to work.

It’s a dual-core machine with 2GB of RAM, and sometimes it just gets too damn slow for the resources it should have available. I had a virus once, and it was a PITA to remove. A few weeks back the computer got some kind of a glitch, where it would keep trying to load DLL’s that didn’t exist. This was hanging the machine, and it would literally take 5-8 minutes just to open a file folder. I knew the machine HAD to be reformatted and wiped again, because the restore disk only has the option to install from scratch – there is no “repair over the top of existing Windows” like there is from a real original Windows (non-OEM) disk.

I’ve used Ubuntu on my 1.2Ghz 512MB of RAM 7 year old Gateway machine in the basement for the last 5+ years. It stays on 24/7, it has 3 100GB hard drives in it, and I reboot it maybe 5 times a year. I use it almost every night when I play guitar to listen to mp3′s and play along, and I also do web work on it, lookup lyrics, and write content from time to time. It does have WINE of it for Windows emulation, and I did install (and use) TaxCut on it once a few years back with no problems.

I thought about installing Ubuntu on the laptop when I first got it, but didn’t because I have to have a Windows box to login to work remotely using VPN. It requires Internet Explorer, ActiveX, and all that jazz. Since I knew that the laptop had to be reformatted anyway – I decided to try Ubuntu on it and see how it would work before reinstalling Windows. If I had problems, then in with the Vista restore disk and back to MS-land again. I sent to the Ubuntu Web Site and downloaded the 32-bit ISO to burn and install.

If you haven’t used Ubuntu Linux before – you should try it. The install is painless and as easy as Windows, and to most people that don’t know any different – it’s just a “PC”, and they have no problems using it at all. Case and point, we have relatives that were calling me every 3 months because their computer kept locking up and getting viruses. I was sick of it, so I formatted the disk and installed Ubuntu. I installed Java, Flash, Firefox Windows Media plugin and never looked back. I never told them it wasn’t Windows (they aren’t computer people or techie at all) – and they don’t know any different. They think it’s actually some new version of Windows other people don’t have. They’ve had it one year now, and have never called me to ask “how do I do…” anything, and they have not accidentally screwed it up or gotten a virus at all. In fact, both adults in the house were taking online courses at the college using that PC (and printing out papers) with no problems – AND they never called me to setup the printer! I think that’s really saying something about how far Linux has come the last few years.

When you boot from the Ubuntu CD the first option you have is to “boot live and try”, so I decided to try that first and make sure all the hardware worked. Once the desktop came up, I tried a web browser, and everything (including sound) worked great! All drives and hardware components showed up, even my card reader. I plugged in an external drive, no problems there, and the wireless was fine. There was an icon on the desktop “install” – so I took the plunge. In less than 15 minutes I had wiped the disk, installed Ubuntu 8.10 and was on my new desktop.

I set about installing the things I would need to work, Firefox and my required addons, windows and other (quicktime) media codecs, the latest version of Flash, an Acrobat reader, FTP, telnet, some graphics and movie editors, etc. Then I remembered that there were two things I STILL needed Windows for. The first was to login to work via VPN, and the second was to install and edit my Line 6 PodXT tones for my guitar rig. These were both two very specific things I wouldn’t be able to do in Linux at all.

I remembered at work that they were starting to convert the data center over to “virtual machines”. Instead of buying hundreds of rack mounted servers, they were starting to install virtual machines on the mainframe and really big super-computer servers. This had become really big in the IT business world, but had it translated over to mainstream linux yet?

It turns out it has, and Sun is leading the way (or so it appears). Sun has software called Virtual Box, and the personal license is FREE! I was skeptical at first, but downloaded and installed it on my now Ubuntu laptop. I installed the downloaded .deb package, but you can do it from the command line or with Synaptic no problem. USB support is disabled by default, but that’s easily fixed with a tutorial like “how to enable USB in Virtualbox.

Once I installed the software I created a new “Virtual Machine” and called it “WindowsXP”. I gave it 10GB of disk space and 256MB of Ram, 8MB shared video. It said to put in a CD to install, so I popped in an old WindowsXP disk and let it rip! I took about 10 minutes to install and reboot, and about 20 more minutes on Windows famous “first time configuration” runs, and then the “virtual” PC rebooted and presented me with a login screen. I promptly changed the settings to 1024×768 display (my laptop is widescreen 1680px). When I logged in everything was perfect! I fired up an IE browser and downloaded Firefox. I installed quicktime, flash, and acrobat reader. I logged into my desktop PC remotely – no problem! All from within “virtual Windows XP” window on my Ubuntu Linux desktop. When I went to close the Window I was prompted, do you want to “save the state of the virtual machine”, “power off”, or “reboot”.

Wow, I had to think about the power of what all this meant. Let’s say you had an ubuntu box with a 500GB hard drive. You could install Virtual box with WindowsXP, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000, or even other versions of Linux if you wanted. Personally I would stick with Windows XP, but you could install all your software on it you normally use (like Office), and then “save the state” of the machine. Let’s say you have 3 kids in the house that are notorious for screwing up your PC (or relatives or friends). Give ‘em each their own virtual machine. If they screw it up – make another!

Kids like to play Windows based games, need a Windows PC for work – all “virtual machine”. Guess what? VirtualBox has versions you can download and install for both Windows AND Mac (free!) too! So, you can download on Windows and install Linux virtual machines, or even other Windows virtual machines. Install on a Mac to install Windows or Linux virtual machines! The possibilities are endless, and it’s all FREE!!

I’m glad I downgraded my Windows Vista laptop to Ubuntu and Windows XP – it’s the best thing I ever did!

I created this tutorial how to page because I had trouble accessing my Ubuntu PC from my Windows based Network (Windows Vista, Windows XP) in my home. I have 4 PC’s (wired and wireless) connected to a router – which is the how they get out the Internet. All the PC’s (including the Ubuntu one) have the same network “workgroup” name. In addition this tutorial assumes you alread have “Samba” installed, and if you don’t run this first in terminal:

sudo apt-get install samba

Next, stop samba while you make the required changes by running this in terminal:

sudo /etc/init.d/samba stop

Now you need to edit the samba config file, which is located here:

/etc/samba/smb.conf

You can open it in a text editor to make changes by running this in terminal:

sudo gedit /etc/samba/smb.conf

Copy and poast the following into smb.conf:

[global]
    ; General server settings
    netbios name = YOUR_HOSTNAME
    server string =
    workgroup = YOUR_WORKGROUP
    announce version = 5.0
    socket options = TCP_NODELAY IPTOS_LOWDELAY SO_KEEPALIVE SO_RCVBUF=8192 SO_SNDBUF=8192

    passdb backend = tdbsam
    security = user
    null passwords = true
    username map = /etc/samba/smbusers
    name resolve order = hosts wins bcast

    wins support = yes

    printing = CUPS
    printcap name = CUPS

    syslog = 1
    syslog only = yes

; NOTE: If you need access to the user home directories uncomment the
; lines below and adjust the settings to your hearts content.
;[homes]
    ;valid users = %S
    ;create mode = 0600
    ;directory mode = 0755
    ;browseable = no
    ;read only = no
    ;veto files = /*.{*}/.*/mail/bin/

; NOTE: Only needed if you run samba as a primary domain controller.
; Not needed as this config doesn't cover that matter.
;[netlogon]
    ;path = /var/lib/samba/netlogon
    ;admin users = Administrator
    ;valid users = %U
    ;read only = no

; NOTE: Again - only needed if you're running a primary domain controller.
;[Profiles]
    ;path = /var/lib/samba/profiles
    ;valid users = %U
    ;create mode = 0600
    ;directory mode = 0700
    ;writeable = yes
    ;browseable = no

; NOTE: Inside this place you may build a printer driver repository for
; Windows - I'll cover this topic in another HOWTO.
[print$]
    path = /var/lib/samba/printers
    browseable = yes
    guest ok = yes
    read only = yes
    write list = root
    create mask = 0664
    directory mask = 0775

[printers]
    path = /tmp
    printable = yes
    guest ok = yes
    browseable = no

; Uncomment if you need to share your CD-/DVD-ROM Drive
;[DVD-ROM Drive]
    ;path = /media/cdrom
    ;browseable = yes
    ;read only = yes
    ;guest ok = yes

[MyFiles]
    path = /media/samba/
    browseable = yes
    read only = no
    guest ok = no
    create mask = 0644
    directory mask = 0755
    force user = YOUR_USERNAME
    force group = YOUR_USERGROUP

Next, you're going to want to edit the appropriate values:

netbios name = name_of_your_computer_will_be_on_the_network
workgroup = same_name_all_computers_in_house_use_as_workgroup
wins suypport = yes
force user = YOUR_USERNAME
force group = YOUR_USERGROUP

you can edit anything else you want, but in most cases at least those 5 things are required. Now, start samba back up:

sudo /etc/init.d/samba start

Next, you need to actually ADD THE USERS MANUALLY INTO SAMBA (this is why mine was failing - I never did this part). Run these commands in terminal:

sudo smbpasswd -L -a your_username
sudo smbpasswd -L -e your_username

You will be asked for a password after running the first one, BE SURE to use your LOGIN password and username for Ubuntu! That's it! You should now be able to see and access the Ubuntu box on the Windows based network, and login from another PC using your main Ubuntu username and password. Any files or folders you right click and "share" on the Ubuntu box will appear on the PC's now when you go to "Network" and the name of your Ubuntu box.

If you get stuck or need more info, view this page for reference.

Here’s a list of top 25 Ubuntu Blogs that just came out the other day. A lot of times you get a “top list”, and it’s just somebody’s favorites. This list is hundreds of thousands of people’s favorites because the criteria to get on the list were to be in the google top 200 for the terms “ubuntu blog”, and then they were scored by google pagerank, alexa ranking, technorati score, and number of bloglines subscribers. All in all what you get a REALLY GOOD quality list of blogs about Ubuntu Linux. If you use Ubuntu you’ll want to bookmark that page and visit it again and again.

So you’ve been using linux for awhile now, and it’s time to install another hard drive for some more storage? Maybe it’s finally time to wipe out a Window’s or NTFS partition.

In any event, I wrote this post so you would have a little help through this step. I’m going to assume that you already know how to install a hard drive. I’m also going to assume that you knew how to make it a master or slave, you’ve checked to make sure that it shows up in bios, and that it was intalled properly. It also assumes you’ve already formatted your drive in linux ext3 format, using a tool like gParted, or something similar.

If you’ve done all of these things, then boot up your system – and let’s get going. I’m using Ubuntu linux – formerly Breezy 5.10, but I’ve recently upgraded to Dapper 6.06.

Open up a terminal window and run the following command:
$ sudo fdisk -l

You should get a listing of the hard drives installed on your computer. There will be a little paragraph for each one that will look like this:


Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 4678 37576003+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 4679 4865 1502077+ 5 Extended
/dev/hda5 4679 4865 1502046 82 Linux swap / Solaris


In windows disk drives are assigned an alphabet letter, and traditionally – floppy disk drives were a: and / or b:, and the main hard drive was c:/. Then the first cdrom or dvdrom was d:/, and any additional drives would be e:, f:, and so on. In linux it’s kind of the same, but in a different format. All hard drives installed are listed in the ‘device’ or /dev directory. All drives start with the appendage “hd” (I think for ‘hard drive’).

So, if you have 2 hard drives and one cdrom – then you have 3 devices. You have a hda, hdb, and hdc. The number of partitions comes next. If your main hard drive is linux – and you have 3 partitions, then you’ll have a hda1, hda2, and hda5. The partition numbers aren’t in a logical order – hda5 is always the swap partition.

So know, if you see your hard drive listed in the sudo fdisk -l, then you know you can mount it. Your computer has a startup file that tells it what to mount when it boots. We need to edit this file and add the new drive.

But first we have to create a directory. We have to create what’s called a “mount point”. A mount point is a virtual directory. It’s like saying – mount that hard drive from this directory.

The most logical place to create the mount point for the new hard drive is either the /mnt or /media folder. Many would say that /mnt is the only place it should be – the mount folder. However, Ubuntu always mounts all dvd, cd, and removable media in /media. I chose to make my mount point here for just that very reason.

Think of what you want to call the new mount point name. Just make sure you don’t use any special characters or spaces in the name. I called mine linuxstore. Now, in terminal run the following command substituting my mount point name for yours:
$ sudo mkdir /media/linuxstore

Next, here’s one of the most important things….and somethng that I didn’t find in any of the articles on the web when I was trying to figure out how to do this. You have to make the mount point directory ‘writable’. In other words, you have to give it writable permissions. They have to be world-writable permissions since you aren’t a member of the ‘root’ group in which all mount points are owned.

So, now you want to run the following command (again substituting my mount point name for yours):
$ chmod 777 /media/linuxstore

If you want to mount your drive right away, and you don’t care if it’s mounted automatically every time you boot – then in terminal run the following command:
$ mount /dev/hdd1 /media/linuxstore

There! Now you are temporarily mounted. But…if you want it to be permanent, you need to edit your filesystem tab file. Run the following command in terminal:
$ gedit /etc/fstab

The text editor window will appear with the fstab file loaded up. You will see something that looks kind of like this:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
#
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hda1 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
/dev/hda5 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/hdb1 /media/hdb1 ext3 defaults 0 0
/dev/hdc /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0


All you have to do is add a new line for the new drive…
I will add the following line to my fstab for my new drive:

/dev/hdd1 /media/linuxstore ext3 defaults 0 0


Just be sure to substitute both the name of my hard drive for yours (mine is hdd1, is yours hdc1 or another name?), and my mount point hame for yours. Then save the file.

Now you will have the new hard drive mounted and writable both every time you boot. In Ubuntu, you should find your new drive listed under your ‘Places’ menu. To make the hard drive show up right now, without rebooting – just reload your fstab file with the following command:
$ sudo mount -a

Now you’re done! Enjoy your new storage drive in Linux!

originally published: 2006-06-04 13:28:53 -0400