Dear Readers,

This is to inform you that the “Ubuntu Linux” category has been renamed as “Linux (all distros)“.

Thank you.

Jitendra

To have full access to NTFS, we need to install ntfs-3g driver, which can be downloaded from http://www.ntfs-3g.org/

1. Check to see if you have the required pacakge, FUSE 2.6.0 or later. WI assume your system already has one. If not, read the”Installing FUSE” section below and then come back here.

# yum list installed | grep fuse

2. Download the source code, ntfs-3g-1.913.tgz.

3. Extract the source codes

# tar xvzf ntfs-3g-1.913.tgz

4. Install ntfs-3g driver by typing

# cd ntfs-3g-1.913
# ./configure
# make
# make install

5. Try to mount NTFS hard disk. In the command below, /dev/sdb1 and /mnt/windows can be changed appropriately, if needed

# mkdir /mnt/windows
# mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sdb1 /mnt/windows

If it had already been mounted somehow, unmount it first

# umount /meia/My\ Book/
# mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sdb1 /mnt/windows

Sometimes, you may need to enforce mounting like

# mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sdb1 /mnt/windows -o force

6. To unmount the volume, type

# umount /mnt/windows

7. To mount and unmount the volume with non-root account, type

$ ntfs-3g /dev/sdb1 /mnt/windows/
$ fusermount -u /mnt/windows/

To see the mounting information, type

# mount

or

# more /etc/fstab

Installing FUSE (Filesystem in Userspace)

1. Download the latest stable release from http://fuse.sourceforge.net and extract it.

# tar xvzf fuse-2.7.0.tar.gz

2. Install FUSE by typing

# cd fuse-2.7.0
# ./configure
# make
# make install

3. You may encounter several error messages while running ./configure. If you see the following message,

configure: error: no acceptable C compiler found in $PATH

You may need to install whole packages related with Development to have a C compiler.

If you see another message like

checking kernel source directory… Not found
configure: error:
*** Please specify the location of the kernel source with
*** the ’–with-kernel=SRCDIR’ option
configure: error: ./configure failed for kernel

You must install kernel-devel with appropriate version

# yum install kernel-devel-2.6.18-8.1.8.el5

Then running ./configure should do work. You may see the following warning message, but you can ignore it.

***********************************************************
* WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING *
* The FUSE user space binaries were NOT installed with
* root directory executable prefix. This means that
* automounting NTFS volumes during boot could fail. This *
* can be fixed the below way by reinstalling FUSE using
* the right ’configure’ option during FUSE compilation:
*./configure –exec-prefix=/
*make && sudo make install
* WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING *
***********************************************************

4. Note that you need to reinstall FUSE if you upgrade the kernel.

The Ubuntu archive tool cannot open .RAR archives. To open .RAR files, you will need to install UNRAR. The command is…

sudo apt-get install unrar

You should be able to open the archive with the archiver included in Ubuntu afterwards.

I have a dual boot system – Windows 7 and Ubuntu. The other day I wanted to remove my Ubuntu installation for some reason, but this also called for restoring the Windox 7 Master Boot Record, after removing grub. So here are the steps if you also face such a situation.

1. Boot your computer to the Windows 7 DVD. At this screen choose to install now.

2. Select your language and click next.

3. Click the button for “Use recovery tools”.

4. Then select “Command Prompt”.

5. When open, the command prompt will look like this:

6. The command we will use, bootsect.exe, is in a folder (named boot) on the DVD. We need to know what drive letter has been assigned the DVD drive to access the folder.

Code:
—–
Type: diskpart and press Enter

Type: select disk 0 (zero) and press Enter

type: list volume and press Enter
—–

In this screen shot, the 7 DVD is letter: G

7. Use your DVD drive letter and

Code:
—– 
Type: exit and press Enter to close Diskpart

Type: G: (use the letter of your DVD drive) and press Enter

Type: cd boot and press Enter

Type: dir and press Enter 
—–

to verify that bootcect.exe is there (if you really need to)

8. To restore the “bootsector code”:

Code:
—–
TYPE: bootsect /nt60 SYS /mbr and press Enter 
—–

NOTE: If this method fails to restore the MBR, you can try the bootrec command as it is also a tool for repairing the MBR.

9. When completed successfully,

Code:
——
Type: exit and press Enter
—–

This will close the command prompt window.

10. Now select Shut Down or Restart

11. Then you can reboot your computer into Windows.

Installed Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) yesterday on my desktop and laptop.

First impression….Wow! Bootup and shutdown but are extremely fast. The default desktop theme/color is better.

The thing one has to get used to..and fast…is the windows buttons…they have shifted to the top left!

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS

What you will need: startup sound in ogg format.

Step 1:

Go to System -> Preferences -> Starup Applications.

Look for “GNOME Login Sound” in the list. If you don’t want to hear anything at startup, uncheck this box. If you want to change the sound, press Edit button.Then in the command field you’ll see…

/usr/bin/canberra-gtk-play –id=”desktop-login” –description=”GNOME Login”

Change “desktop-login” to the name of the sound file you want, without file extension.

Click Save and close the startup dialog.

Step 2:

Now you have to copy this new sound (.ogg file) to…

/usr/share/sounds/ubuntu/stereo/

You need  root permission to copy the file into this directory which can be done by running nautilus as root.

$sudo nautilus

Then browse to that folder and paste the file there.

Step 3:

Log out and login to listen to the new startup sound

Can’t forget the Windows XP interface….but still want to use Ubuntu Linux???

Well, you can have both on Linux, with the YlmF Operating System.

Having the same interface like Windows’XP but underneath you are actually using Linux.

This specific distro is a fork of Ubuntu 9.10. You can find more details or can download from : http://ylmf.org/en/index.html.

The Social Browser

Flock – The Social browser – has become quite popular. Unfortunately, it has not yet be packages for Ubuntu installation. But this does not stop one from using it under Ubuntu. Just follow these simple steps…

1. Download the linux version from the Flock website at http://flock.com/. You should get a file named flock-2.5.5.en-US.linux-i686.tar.bz2.

2. Once downloaded, double-click the file flock-2.5.5.en-US.linux-i686.tar.bz2 to open it in Archive Manager.

3. Extract the ‘flock‘ folder to your home directory i.e. under /home/yourname folder.

4. Navigate to the folder i.e. /home/yourname/flock and locate the file named flock-browser.

5. Double-click on flock-browser to launch Flock!

Note: You can create a launch shortcut on your desktop or create a menu entry as per your preference, for easy access to the (best) social browser

Here is another linux distro powered by the popular Ubuntu.

It called moonOS and is based on the LXDE, Enlightenment DR17 and is perfect for any Desktop, Laptop PC or even for a Virtual Machine.

Click here to visit their site!