And like most popular Linux distributions, OpenSuSE offers a Live CD. Most everyone can stick in a CD, boot it, play around with it, and double click the “Install” icon. But what about the full-blown, standard installation DVD? Is that more difficult than the Live CD? I’m glad you asked, because in this tutorial I am going to walk you through the installation (complete with pictures) of OpenSuSE 11.2.

It should go without saying that the first step is to download the ISO image, burn it to disk, put it in the DVD drive, and boot your machine. Once you have taken care of that you are on your way to installation Nirvana. I say that, not necessarily because the installation is the simplest installation you will encounter, but more because it is the cleanest and well thought out installation you might see.

Figure 1

Step 1

The first step (see Figure 1) is to choose the language and the keyboard layout. On this page you will also have the opportunity to read the license agreement. Once you have made these selections, click the Next button to move on.

Figure 2

Step 2

This next step (see Figure 2) will not require any interaction from you. What this step does is analyze your system to gather information that will be pertinent to the installation. There is nothing required of the user here, so just wait until the analysis is complete and then click Next.

Step 3

Figure 3

The next windows (see Figure 3) wants to know the type of installation you are attempting. If you are new to OpenSuSE, most likely this will be a new installation. If you have downloaded either the Non-OSS CD or the Extra Languages CD make sure you click Include Add-on Products before you click Next.

Steps 4 and 5

Because these steps are so simple, there is no need for a screenshot. What you will take care of in Step 4 is to select your time zone. In Step 5 you will select which desktop you want to install. Your choices for desktop are: KDE, GNOME, or Other. If you select Other you will have to install a desktop later on.

Step 6 and 7

Figure 4

The next window (see Figure 4) requires you to select your partitioning. Unless you have a need to use LVM (Logical Volume Management), select Partition Based and click Next. Depending upon the type of partition mode you select, the next window will vary. Most likely you will use Partition Based, so you will only have to select the hard drive you want to use and then click Next.

Step 8

Figure 5

The next step will list what OpenSuSE will be installed upon (see Figure 5) and give you a couple of options. The first option is to have the /home directory placed on a separate partition. This is a good setup if you know there is a chance that you might relocate or share out your /home directory. The second option is if you want to reconsider using LVM and to encrypt your home directory.

Make your choices and click Next.

Step 9

Figure 6

Now it’s time to create a user for your OpenSuSE system (see Figure 6). The only option that might seem different is the ability to use your user password as the system administrator password. If you are of the paranoid mind you most likely will skip this option. Click Next to continue on.

Step 10, 11, 12, 13

Figure 7

The final steps of the installation are all either summary windows or progress windows (see Figure 7 as an example). These do not require user intervention.

The results

Figure 8

Finally the system will be installed and you will have a brand new OpenSuSE Linux desktop system (see Figure 8). You will find that OpenSuSE has tweaked the GNOME desktop to look and feel a bit differently than the standard GNOME desktop. This is more in-line with the Enterprise desktops you will see with SLED and RHEL.

Congratulations, you are the proud owner of an OpenSuSE Linux desktop. I have a feeling you will enjoy a long, happy life together.

Related posts

• Simple GNOME Note Taking with Tomboy (1)
• Quick Archiving in GNOME (1)
• Purchase music from Amazon on your Linux machine (14)
• Omnipresent Search Interface GNOME Deskbar (2)
• Manage Network Devices in Fedora (3)

Of course one might think such a technology would be difficult at best to use. Not so. The developers of Ksplice have created an incredibly easy to use system that allows the administrator to handle critical updates, normally requiring a reboot, as easily as those updates that do not require a reboot.

Getting such a system working does requiring the installation of third party software. This tutorial will walk you through installing Ksplice as well as how to go about updating a currently running kernel with the new system.

Installing Ksplice

Figure 1

To install Ksplice navigate your browser to the Ksplice Uptrack page and click on the link for your particular distribution. If you are using Ubuntu the Gdebi installer will be an option to select from (see Figure 1) . Select Open with and then make sure GDebi is selected. Click OK and the installation will commence.

During the installation a new window will open specific to Ksplice. In this window you will have to agree to a License and then click Forward. Once you have done this the installation will complete.

Using Ksplice

Figure 2

After install is finished Ksplice will automatically open up the update window (see Figure 2) and reveal to you if there are any updates for your currently running kernel. This might very well remind you of the average Linux package management front-end.

In order to install the update(s) click the Install All Updates button to take care of any updates pending.

You will also notice a new icon added to your Notification Area (see Figure 3). This Icon will not only allow you to launch the

Figure 3

Ksplice tool, it will also keep you informed if there are any updates available. Figure 3 shows the Ksplice icon with a pending update.  When your system is up to date the “!” will disappear and leave you with a clean “K” icon.

Command line

What Linux tool is complete without a command line component? Ksplice includes four command line tools for your terminal pleasure:

• uptrack-upgrade: This command will download and install the latest kernel updates available for your system.
• uptrack-install PACKAGE: Will install a specific update (Where PACKAGE is the package name to update.)
• uptrack-remove PACKAGE : Will remove a specific update (Where PACKAGE is the package name to remove).
• uptrack-show PACKAGE: Will show more detail about a specific update (Where PACKAGE is the package name).

Final thoughts

I have been using Linux (and computers) for quite some time. I never thought I would see the day when such a major update to the underlying sub-systems could be pulled off without a reboot. And not only that, it is done as simply as using a GUI interface.  But now we are looking at something special. Ksplice is only now beginning to make serious inroads into reaching that goal of 100% uptime. And now, without having to reboot after a major upgrade, that 100% number is looking closer and closer every day.

Related posts

• Yahoo Server Monitor Widget (0)
• Win Extensions for Windows (32)
• Upgrading to Wordpress 2.3 (3)
• Things to check before switching to Vista Part 1 (1)
• Monitor your website with Montastic (3)

Amazon.com not only has an outstanding collection of digital downloads in their music section (as covered by Martin in his insightful article “Amazon DRM Free MP3 Store“), they offer a completely cross-platform tool to make this process simple. The Amazon MP3 Downloader is a very simple (as well as required) tool that enables you to purchase music from Amazon.com and use it at your leisure. And since the files are DRM-free, you aren’t limited to putting them on one device and only one device. Instead you can download your music, burn it on to CD, copy it to your device, copy it to your friends device…what have you.

But in order to take advantage of this service, you MUST have the MP3 downloader installed. That’s where this tutorial comes into play. Here you will see how to install and use the Amazon MP3 Downloader on your Linux box.

Getting and installing

Point your browser to the download page and download the proper file for your distribution. As of this writing you have the choice of files for the following distributions:

• Ubuntu 8.10/9.04
• Debian 5
• Fedora 10
• OpenSuSE 11

Yes, Amazon is a bit behind the times, but you can get around this (at least on Ubuntu 9.10). Below you will find the steps to install the Amazon MP3 Downloader on Ubuntu 9.10.

Download the .deb file for Ubuntu.

Open up a terminal window and issue the command (from within the directory the file was saved) sudo dpkg -i amazonmp3.deb.

You will see a bunch of errors that will end with the warning: Errors were encountered while processing: amazonmp3.

• Issue the command sudo synaptic.
• You will get a warning that you have 1 broken package.
• Go to the Edit menu and select Fix Broken Packages.
• Click Apply in the new window.
• Close Synaptic when the packages have been fixed.

Using Amazon MP3 Downloader

There are two ways you can use the downloader. The first is to start up the application by clicking on Internet submenu of the Applications menu. From within this menu click on the Amazon MP3 Downloader entry.

When you first launch it your default web browser will start up with a “congratulations” page informing you that the Downloader will launch the next time you download a song from Amazon.com. You also will get the chance to download a free song. When you click on the button (on Amazon.com) to download a free song you will taken to the Amazon.com login page. Log in and then you will have the chance to download your free song.  Go ahead and download your free song.

What you will download is an .amz file that links to your download. Your browser, by default, will ask you what to do with the file. Go ahead and let the Amazon MP3 Downloader open that file and the download will being.

But where did that file go? The Downloader will, by default, download all files to ~/Music/Amazon MP3/. If you open up that directory (after you download your file) you will see the sub-directory containing your new download.

Figure 1

Another way to use the Downloader is to open up the tool and click the

Configuring the Downloader

There aren’t many options in the Downloader’s preference window.  From within that window you can click the button “Shop Amazon MP3 Store”. This will automatically open your default browser to the store.

In order to configure the tool click on the File menu and then select Preferences. From within this window you can configure the following:

• Download directory.
• Automatically check for updates.
• Proxy settings.

And that’s it. But what more would you need to configure for such a simple tool? The only option I always change, by default, is the Download Directory. I tend to change this to the directory used by my multimedia player so I don’t always have to add the new media to the player when I download something. Of course, in order to have this work you have to have your media player set up to automatically scan for new files.

Final thoughts

If you are a Linux user, and a purchaser of digital music, you should do yourself a favor and give the Amazon MP3 Downloader a try. If for another other reason, all Linux users should give it a go in order to show support for Amazon’s support for Linux.

Related posts

• Get To Know Linux: Live CD (6)
• Use SoundJuicer to rip mp3 directly in Linux (4)
• Thoughts on Linux migration (16)
• Should you upgrade your Linux distribution? (2)
• My first day with Ubuntu (22)

When someone puts a file up on a server for download, how does the host or the end-user know, for sure, the file they are about to download (or are serving up) is the valid file? What if someone hacked into the server and replaced the file with a bogus file that contained malicious code? It’s happened before and it will happen again. Fortunately there is a way to avoid downloading invalid files – checking the md5 hash. The only problem is that this method only works if the host and user knows how to use md5 tools. In this tutorial you will learn how to add an md5 checksum to a file and how to run a check on a file you have downloaded.

What is md5 and checksum?

Before we continue with the actual steps, you might benefit from knowing exactly how the process of checksumming works. MD5 stands for Message Digest algorithm 5, which is a cryptographic 128 bit hash function and serves as a “fingerprint” for a digital file. A checksum is a fixed-size datum that is computed from a block of data. When it is crucial for a piece of data (such as a download) to be valid, the datum is compared to the original block the datum was computed from to check for a match. When an md5 checksum matches, the user/host can be certain the file is valid. When the md5 checksum does not match, a red flag should immediately go up and the original block of data should be discarded. If a file changes by so much as a byte, the checksum will fail.

For most users these tasks are handled from the command line. There are GUI tools available (such as GtkHASH) that can tackle the same tasks. But for the purposes of this tutorial we will stick with the command line tool.

Creating an md5 sum

For those who plan on hosting files for download, you will want to know how to create an md5 sum. This is very simple. Open up a terminal and change to the directory holding the file you want to work with. Say, for example, you want to create an md5 on the file /var/www/files/download.tgz. To do this you would change to the /var/www/files directory and issue the following command:

md5 download.tgz

The above command will output something like:

Related posts

• Verify the integrity and authenticity of files (5)
• Verify File Integrity Of Backups (4)
• Theoretical Cryptography Part I – MD5 (8)
• How To Download Files From The Internet The Secure Way (9)
• ClickCrypt 2.6 (0)

One of those tools is PackageKit. PackageKit is a background service charged with updating and installing software on your computer. But because PackageKit itself is just a background service, it requires a front end so that end users can take advantage of the system. One very powerful front end is KPackageKit. KPackageKit is the KDE front end for PackageKit, whereas Gnome PackageKit is the GNOME front end (see my article “Installing applications in Linux with GNOME PackageKIT.”)

One of the things I like about KPackageKIT, over the Ubuntu Software Center, is that it can not only install applications, it can update your already installed applications. But unlike USC or Synaptic, you will have to know the name of the software package in order to find it. KPackageKIT does not show all software available. Instead you start up the tool with a blank slate and search for what you want to install. You can search by:

• Description.
• File name.

But you can also apply various filters to your search. Included search filters are:

• Collections.
• Installed.
• Development.
• Graphical.
• Free.

Let’s take a look and see how software is installed with KPackageKIT.

Starting KPackageKIT

Figure 1

You can start the application two ways: Command line or from the menu. To start from the command line hit <Alt>F2 to open the run dialog and enter the command kpackagekit. To start the tool from the KDE menu click on the menu, click on the Computer tab, and then click on the KPackageKIT entry (see Figure 1).

When KPackageKIT starts what you will see is a fairly simple interface (see Figure 2). From this window you are able to:

• Install software.
• Update your system.
• Configure KPakcageKIT.

Figure 2

Let’s install the Scribus DTP tool as an example. Follow these simple steps:

1. Select Software Management.
2. Open up KPackageKIT and enter “scribus” (no quotes) in the search area.
3. Click the downward-pointing arrows of the software(s) you want to install.
4. Click Apply.
5. When the new window appears, click Install Now.
6. If dependencies are necessary, OK them.
7. Enter your sudo (or root – depending upon your distribution) password.
8. Wait for the installation to complete.
9. Click OK to dismiss the window.

Updating your system with KPackageKIT is just as simple. Follow these steps:

1. Open up KPackageKIT.
2. Click on the Software Update section.
3. If there are updates available, either select the updates you want to run or click the Select All Updates button.
4. Click Apply.
5. Enter your password.
6. Wait for the update to finish.
7. Click OK to dismiss the window.

Configuration

From within the Configuration section there are a minimal number of options to configure. The primary configuration to take care of here is adding new software sources. To add a new repository follow these steps:

1. Click on the Settings section.
2. Click the Edit Software Sources button.
3. Click on the Other Software tab.
4. Click on the Add button.
5. Enter the complete apt line for the source (not just the address).
6. Click OK to dismiss the address window.
7. Click Close to dismiss the Software Sources window.

If you manually edit your /etc/apt/sources.list (or your Yum repository file – depending upon your distribution) these changes will appear in KPackageKIT.

Final thoughts

Although not perfect, KPackageKIT is certainly a viable solution for Linux software installation. If you need a simple KDE-based means of installing software, and do not want to use the command line, this tool might be just what you need.

Related posts

• Where do I find Linux software? (9)
• Leave No Trace in KDE with Sweeper (6)
• Konqueror tips and tricks (2)
• Installing Linux applications with Aptitude (12)
• Installing KDE 4.3.2 on Ubuntu (9)

The only problem you will find is that some of the many distributions do not ship with KDE installed. If you want KDE on these distributions you must install it. In this article I am going to walk you through the steps for installing the latest KDE on a Ubuntu system. Now you may be saying to yourself: “Why don’t I just install Kubuntu and be done with it? That’s a good question. The answer? Most new users have no idea that Kubuntu even exists and will have already installed the GNOME-based Ubuntu. For those people who already have their Linux running, they might want to give the KDE desktop a try as well. That is where tutorials like this come in handy. And of course, once we get KDE installed, we will also take it one step further and install support for Compiz so you can have your 3D effects just like you can on GNOME.

Installation

Unfortunately you can’t just open up the Ubuntu Software Center, do a search for KDE, and install. You will have to add repositories to you /etc/apt/sources.list file before you can run the installation command. Fortunately, this is as simple as issuing a few commands.

The first two commands you need to issue will add the proper repositories to your sources.list file. With the help of these commands you will not need to open that file up in an editor, as they will simply add the necessary lines for you. So open up a terminal window and issue these two commands (NOTE: Each command is one line long so just copy and paste each command, one at a time, into your terminal. After you copy one command hit enter and then copy paste the next command.):

sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/kubuntu-ppa/backports/ubuntu jaunty main' >> /etc/apt/sources.list"

and:

sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/kubuntu-ppa/staging/ubuntu jaunty main' >> /etc/apt/sources.list"

Now that you have the necessary lines you will need to add the correct GPG key with this command:

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 8AC93F7A

Finally, for the installation, issue the command:

sudo aptitude install kubuntu-desktop

This will require a fairly hefty download, so give this some time. During the installation you will have to do one bit of configuration which is to choose your graphical login manager. I would suggest sticking with the GNOME login manager GDM.

Compiz support

Now it’s time to build in some Compiz support. You will find, after you install KDE that, no matter how you configure it, KDE will not work with Compiz – even if Compiz is working perfectly with GNOME. That is because you have to add KDE Compiz support. To do this issue the command:

sudo apt-get install compiz-kde

Once that installation has completed you will then need to open the Compiz Configuration Settings Manager (use the command ccsm) and then, under the General category, check the KDE Compatibility check box. You should now be good to go with both KDE and Compiz.

Final thoughts

Do not judge KDE 4.x on previous releases. You owe it to yourself and to the developers of KDE to give the 4.3 release a try. Once you do I think you will see it has matured quite a bit over the last year. And now, with the help of this tutorial, you can do just that.

Related posts

• Choosing the right distribution will ease your migration (19)
• With Ubuntu 9.10 Arrives Wubi 9.10 (2)
• Why you should switch your parents pc to ubuntu (20)
• Which Ubuntu Derivative Is Right For You? (16)
• What makes Ubuntu so user friendly? (47)

One tool I have found to be the least invasive is Twidge. Twidge does not have an application or daemon running in the background. Twidge does not have a panel applet. Twidge doesn’t even remain open in the terminal window. Twidge just allows you to enter commands that take specific action on your Twitter account. It’s simple, it’s fast, and it’s…well…command line fu-tastic! With that said, let’s install, configure, and use Twidge.

Features

The first thing you need to know is if Twidge offers enough features to convince you to use it. Here is the short list:

• Simple to use.
• View activity of friends.
• Add followers.
• Follow users.
• Archiving of your tweets.
• Automatic URL shortening via tinyurl.com.

And much more.

Installation

As you would expect, twidge can be found in your distribution repositories. So all you need to do is open up a terminal and issue a command like:

sudo apt-get install twidge

or

yum install twidge

or

urpmi twidge

The installation will pick up the curl dependency automatically. After Twidge is installed, keep that terminal open because you’ll need it (at least to begin with).

Configuration

In order to use Twidge you have to configure it to authenticate to your account. To do this you have to run a built-in configuration script issued from the command line. Issue the command:

twidge setup

You will be asked two simple questions:

• Your use(r)name.
• Your password.

That’s it. Now you are ready to start using Twidge.

Usage

The basic usage of Twidge is:

twidge update ‘STATUS’

Where STATUS is what you want to post to twitter (between single quotes).

Of course updating is not always enough. Twidge has a number of built-in tools. Let’s take a look at what they are. NOTE: The basic usage of these tools is:

twidge TOOL OPTIONS

Where TOOL is the tool you want to use and OPTIONS are any options you want to pass to the tool (if any options are available).

Display updates.

• lsarchive: List your own posts.
• lsdm: List direct messages sent to you.
• lsdmarchive: List direct messages you have sent.
• lsrecent: Lists recent posts made by you or those you follow.
• lsreplies: Lists all recent replies made to you.
• lsfollowers: Lists those following you.
• lsfollowing: Lists those you are following.

Action commands.

All of these tools are used in the same way the tools above are used, except in certain instances you proceed the tool name with username like so:

twidge TOOL USERNAME

Where TOOL is the specific tool you want to use and USERNAME is the user you want to send the information to.

• dmsend: Send a direct to a user.
• follow: Follow a specific user.
• unfollow: Stop following a user.
• update: Update your status.

So let’s say you want to update your status to say “Hey everyone, I am reading a cool article on Ghacks right now!”. To do this you would enter the command:

twidge update ‘Hey everyone, I am reading a cool article on Ghacks right now!’

and hit enter when you’re done.

Let’s say, however, you wanted to use I’m instead of I am. The use of a single quote in the middle of that tweet would cause an error. To get around that just enter:

twidge update

and then hit enter. You should notice that you do not get your bash prompt back. What you do now is type in your tweet, without using quotes, and then hit enter. This way you can use contractions without having to worry about proper shell quotes.

Using twidge without command line

Although Twidge is a command line only tool, you can get around opening up a terminal by opening up your desktop’s run dialog and then entering your twidge command there. If you’re using GNOME you hit <Alt>F2 and then enter the Twidge command in the run dialog. This keeps you from having to have yet another window open, and it’s much faster.

Final thoughts

I will make no bones about the fact that Twidge is not nearly as simple as the standard GUI-based tool. But Twidge makes up for that with speed, reliability, and flexibility. Because of its command line nature, you could even create a nifty bash script to use something like fortune and then add that bash script to a cron job so you would get an automatically updated status. Script-fu-tastic!

Related posts

• YubNub a social internet command line (2)
• Search google (and update twitter) from the command line (12)
• Yahoo Meme Opens Registrations For Anyone (1)
• Yahoo Meme Invites (48)
• Webmasters: Search For Links Posted On Twitter (3)

For Linux there are plenty of possible RSS feed readers. One of my favorite readers is Liferea. Liferea is a feed aggregator for Gtk/GNOME that is fast, stable, works with most feeds, and takes up very few precious CPU cycles. And Liferea offers numerous features other, simpler, RSS feed readers do not have. In this article you will be introduced to this outstanding aggregator tool for the Linux desktop.

Features

Liferea offers the following features:

• Easy subscription addition/management.
• Bookmark using sites like Zurpy.
• Fast.
• Easy to use email-like thread pane.
• Import/Export of feeds.
• Script manager.
• Subscribe to your Google mail feed.
• and much more!

Installation

Liferea is very simple to install on any modern Linux distribution. In Ubuntu 9.10 you can open up the Software Center, do a search for “liferea” (no quotes), and install. The same steps can be followed with Synaptic. If you are using a Fedora-like distribution you can open up a terminal and issue the command (as the root user):

yum install liferea

Once installed you will find the Liferea menu entry in your Internet sub-menu of the Applications menu.

Using Liferea

Figure 1

When you first fire up Liferea (see Figure 1) you will notice a number of already configured feeds for your enjoyment. Reading an entry from one of the pre-configured feeds is simple:

1. Click on the feed from the right pane.
2. Click on a story in the upper right pane.
3. Read the story in the lower right pane.

If, within the story, there is a link or comments you want to read you only need click on the Comments link or the url link within the article. The nice thing about Liferea is that you can read the entire story from within the application, so no other application is necessary. You are not just given a snippet of the article to preview.

Adding a new feed source

Of course you will most likely want add your own feed sources. Liferea has made this simple as well. Follow these steps:

Figure 2

1. Click the “New Subscriptions” button.
2. Enter the address of the source in the resulting new window (see Figure 2).
3. Click OK

That’s it. Now you will have noticed the Advanced button in the New Subscription window. You will want to go to the advanced configuration options if you need to:

• Change the source type from URL to either Command or Local file.
• Use a proxy.
• Use a conversion filter.

Other than that, just entering the source address is all you need.

Google

As I mentioned earlier, you can also subscribe to your Google mail. To do this follow these steps:

1. Click the New Subscription button.
2. Enter https://mail.google.com/mail/feed/atom as the source.
3. Click OK.

When prompted enter your Google username/password. Once authenticated Liferea will download your Gmail as a feed.

If you want to add your Google Reader feeds you can do this as well. Follow these steps:

1. Right click an empty spot in the left pane and select New.
2. From the resulting menu select “New Source”.
3. From the Source Selection window choose Google Reader.
4. Click OK.
5. When prompted enter your Google account username and password.
6. Click OK.

The Google feed will automatically update for you, but might take a bit of time to update depending upon how many feeds you are subscribed to with Google Reader.

Final thoughts

Liferea is one of the best RSS solutions available for the Linux desktop. Not only is it easy to use, it’s flexible enough to satisfy even the more critical users.

Related posts

• FeedDemon RSS News Reader (12)
• Taskable RSS Feeds for your System Tray (0)
• RSS Reader FeedDemon 3 Beta 1 (4)
• RSS Feed Filter Feedrinse (3)
• Google Reader Essentials Userscript (4)

And then there’s OpenGoo. OpenGoo is an open source collaboration tool that is fully web-based, easy to use, simple to install, and free to use. But is OpenGoo for you and your company? This tutorial will show you how to get an OpenGoo installation up and running so you can kick the tires and find out if it is exactly what you need.

Features

OpenGoo offers all of the standard features of a business-level collaboration suite:

• Text documents
• Spreadsheets (coming soon)
• Presentations
• Task Lists
• E-mails
• Calendars
• Web Links
• Contacts

All you need to install an OpenGoo server is:

• Apache >= 2.0
• MySQL >= 5.0 (5.2 recommended)
• MySQL >= 4.1 with InnoDB support

Now, let’s get on with that installation.

Install

This installation will be done on a Ubuntu 9.10 setup. I have installed this on both desktop and server installation, but regardless of which you have installed, you will need a LAMP server running.

The first thing you need to do is to download the zip file from the OpenGoo download page. I downloaded and installed the 1.6 beta version which works nicely.

Once that file is downloaded, move that file to /var/www. Now, change to the /var/www/ directory and then unzip it with the command:

sudo unzip opengoo_1.6.beta-2.zip

NOTE: If you downloaded a different release, edit that command to reflect the release number.

Once that files is unzipped rename the directory with the command:

sudo mv opengoo_1.6.beta-2.zip opengoo

Now change into the /var/www/opengoo directory and issue the following commands:

sudo chmod -R ugo+w /var/www/opengoo/config

sudo chmod -R ugo+w /var/www/opengoo/cache

sudo chmod -R ugo+w /var/www/opengoo/upload

sudo chmod -R ugo+w /var/www/opengoo/tmp

With all the right permissions in play, it is time to create the database. I like to use PhpMyAdmin to make database creation simple. For more information about installing this tool check out my article “Install PhpMyAdmin for easy MySQL administration“. Use this tool to create a database called “opengoo” (No quotes).

Time to begin the web-based installation.

Fire up your browser and point it to:

http://IP_TO_SERVER/opengoo

Where IP_TO_SERVER is the actual IP Address of your OpenGoo server. You will be greeted with usual welcome screen that will tell you exactly what is going to happen during the installation. Click the Next button to continue on.

The second screen will run the environment checks. If everything gets and OK (and it should be if your LAMP server is up and running and you’ve taken care of all the permissions) click the Next button to continue on.

Figure 1

The third page of the installation (see Figure 1) is the first step that should require you to input any data.

The information should be fairly self explanatory. There is one point of note: If you plan on allowing access to your local LAN you will need to change the Absolute script URL to reflect the proper IP address (or domain).

Once you have all of this information in place, click the Next button which will take you to the congratulations screen where you only need click the Finish button to assume you’ve completed the installation.

Figure 2

Ah, but there is one more step. Figure 2 shows the final step for the installation. Here you need to create an administrator for your installation.

Setup your administrative user and click Submit. You can now log in to your OpenGoo server with your administrative user.

The basic interface

You will log into your OpenGoo server by entering the same address you did for the installation. When you log in you will be at the OpenGoo Getting Started Page (see Figure 3).

Figure 3

The OpenGoo installation will offer a very simple information page that will help you get started on your decision. But as you can see, the interface is laid out quite well. The tools are accessible and very user-friendly.

After using OpenGoo for a while I can assure you if you like Google’s suite of tools, you will like OpenGoo.

Final thoughts

If you are looking for a very cost effect collaboration solution look no further than the open source OpenGoo suite of tools. Not only is it easy to use, it’s simple to install, and free of charge.

Related posts

• Open Office 3.1 (17)
• Open Office 3 Final (21)
• Microsoft SharedView (0)
• Microsoft Office Migration Planning Manager (1)
• KonoLive Getting Things Done Software (4)

There are a hundred and one thousand things that can go wrong with any web server installation. From a fresh installation to an installation that has been running for a long time, you never know when something is going to cause your web server to go astray. When it does happen, it’s always nice to know that, usually, Occam’s Razor applies.

In this tutorial you will find some advice that will help you through some of the more common issues that can pop up with an Apache web server.

Is your server actually running?

Believe it or not, this has happened to plenty of administrators. You take the server down, do some maintenance, and when you go to check out the server you’re getting errors. The first thing you do, naturally, is check out that /etc/apache2/apache.conf file to make sure your syntax is correct. But it’s perfect! What’s up? The first thing you might want to check is to make sure the server is running. But you don’t want to just issue the command to start the server or reload the server. Instead, issue the command:

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 status

Which should return something like:

* apache is running (pid 9751).

If not, start the server with either:

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 start

or

sudo apache2ctl start

NOTE: If you are using a distribution like Fedora, SuSE, or Mandriva you will need to first su to the root user and issue the above commands WITHOUT using sudo.

It’s not running and it won’t start

Did you just make changes to your Apache configuration file? Are the changes correct? If you’re not sure, you can use the apache2ctl command to check the syntax of your configuration file. This is done with the command:

sudo apache2ctl configtext

The above command should report:

Syntax OK

If you don’t get an OK, you will get information that points to the errors in your configuration file.

Apache wants to download .php files!

This is another common issue. When you add a new tool on your web server (such as Drupal), if your configuration file is set up properly, any .php file might not be displayed. Instead any attempt to view a .php file will instead have your browser trying to download the file. Why is this? Apache must be informed that certain extensions are to be displayed, not downloaded. This is done from within the Apache configuration file. Open up that file (in the Ubuntu server it will be /etc/apache2/apache2.conf) and first look for the following line:

DirectoryIndex index.html

If that file doesn’t include index.php nearly all sites that use php will be rendered useless.

The second line to look for is:

AddHandler application/x-httpd-php .php

If you find this line, and it is commented out, make sure you uncomment it by removing the “#” character. If it is not there add it to the bottom of the configuration file.

And, as always, when you make a change to the configuration file, restart Apache.

Know where to look for problems

Finally, it is crucial that you know where to first turn when the above doesn’t help you out. Any time I have an issue with Apache where Occam’s Razor does not apply, the first place I turn is the log files.

If you look in /var/log/apache2 you will find, at least, the following files:

• access.log: This keeps track of any connection made to your server.
• error.log: This keeps track of any errors that occur with Apache.
• other_vhosts_access.log: This is where virtual hosts will log when the virtual host has not been prescribed its own log file.

Of course, as your site evolves so will your available log files. Regardless of what you find in /var/log/apache2, that is where you should always first turn when you have problems. Even before you google.

Final thoughts

Now you should be able to handle some of the more common issues with the Apache server. And if your problem isn’t common, you also know where to turn to find clues that will lead you down the right path to correction.

Related posts

• Portable Web Server (8)
• Local Apache Web Server Wampserver (3)
• How to: Install a LAMP server (7)
• Host your own webserver (18)
• Wordpress template tags you should know (4)

Because of these changes, the Mandriva of today is not the Mandrake of yesterday. The latest version of Mandriva (named 2010) is a modern take on the Linux distribution and in this article you are going to be treated to a walk through of the installation. NOTE: This installation will be done via VirtualBox, so some of the information you might see may or may not apply to your installation.

This installation will be accomplished with the help of the Live CD. You can download the Live CD from the Mandriva download page. You will notice, on that page, there are a number of different downloads. For this installation the download you want is the One 2010 download. Once you have downloaded that Live CD and burned it onto disk, put that disk in your target machine’s disk drive and reboot the machine.

Unlike most Live CDs, with the Mandriva Live CD you will have to answer some questions as well as agree to a EULA. This always takes me by surprise, but it’s a necessity if you want to boot up Mandriva. So agree to that EULA and boot up the Live distro.

Once you are up and running you will see the Install icon on the desktop. Double click that icon to begin the installation. And, of course, the first screen you will see is the inevitable “Welcome” screen. You can just click the Next button to actually begin the installation.

Figure 1

Partitioning

The first work you will have to take care of is the partitioning of your drive. Figure 1 shows the user-friendly configuration tool. With this tool you can either choose to use the free space (the easiest method), or you can create your own, custom partition configuration. As you can see (in Figure 1) this is being installed on a Virtual hard drive 16 Gigs in size. Since this space hasn’t been partitioned, it sees it as free space. So I will select the Free Space option and click the Next button.

Unused hardware support

Figure 2

This is a feature unique to the Mandriva installation. Once you have partitioned the hard drive the installation will compare the available hardware against the installable packages. Any packages that would not be used by the available hardware are not installed. This ensures your kernel will not be loading unused modules which will only slow down boot process, take up space, and use battery. Figure 2 shows the this screen. Just click Next and allow this process to happen. This will take some time (depending upon the speed of your hardware and the amount of packages that will not be installed).

Figure 3

Installation progress

After you hit the Next button you will immediately see the installation progress window (see Figure 3). Depending upon your hardware, this could take some time. Of course you will also be greeted by different information windows during this step. You will learn nothing new by watching…so grab yourself a soda or go play some WoW for a bit and come back when the installation progress reaches its goal.

Figure 4

Bootloader

After all of the packages have been installed you will have to deal with the bootloader installation. Your best bet is to stick with the defaults. If you load the bootloader on the wrong disk your installation will not boot.

As soon as you click the Next button you can then add, delete, or modify all of the entries in your boot menu. This is another section of the installation process that you should leave to the defaults. The only reason you would want to modify any of this information is if you are dual booting or you need to pass specific parameters to Grub for one of your entries. But more than likely, this step will be left to the defaults, so just click the Next button in this window as well.

The final installation window is the bookend for the Welcome screen – the Congratulation screen. This window will inform you to remove your Live CD and reboot your machine. Do this to complete the installation process.

Final steps

Figure 5

Of course you are not completely finished. Did you notice something missing from the installation process? No root password was created and no users were created. Both of these steps are taken care of post-installation. In fact, both configurations are taken care of in one screen (see Figure 5).

After you complete this step, click the Next button only to find yourself on one more screen. This final screen wants you to register with Mandriva, take a survey, and contribute to Mandriva. You can decline all of this if you like by scrolling down and clicking the Decline buton.

After you either decline or complete the various optional information you will finally get to log into your newly installed Mandriva 2010 Linux installation. congratulations, you are the proud user of an outstanding, user-friendly Linux box.

Related posts

• Why Every Windows User Needs a Linux Live CD (0)
• Ubuntu Privacy Remix (3)
• Testdisk – A Free Data Recovery CD (0)
• Run Linux Live CDs In Windows (4)
• Remastersys: Outstanding solution for backup and custom Live CDs (2)

And what’s best is you don’t have to jump through a bunch of hoops to get munin up and running. In this tutorial you will see how to get your Munin server up and running and monitoring your system and a sample client configuration that will monitor a client node. As you might expect, I will continue to build upon the Ubuntu Server series and install Munin on a Ubuntu 9.04 installation. NOTE: This same installation will work on Ubuntu 9.10 as well.Server installation/configuration

Installing Munin on the Ubunter server is simple. Open up a terminal window (or log into your server console) and issue the command:

sudo apt-get install munin

The above command will also install munin-node which is the client-side software. This is fine, so let it happen. Upon installation Munin will install the configuration files in /etc/munin, the executable in /etc/init.d/, and the web files in /var/www/munin.

The first thing that will need to be done is to configure your server correctly. Open up the /etc/munin/munin.conf file and look for this section:

dbdir     /var/lib/munin
htmldir    /var/www/munin/
logdir     /var/log/munin
rundir     /var/run/munin

Out of the box, this will work just fine.  But if you have any other needs that would dictate any of these directives change, change them here.

The next section to look for is this:

# a simple host tree
[localhost.localdomain]
address 127.0.0.1
use_node_name yes

What the above section does is monitor the server Munin is installed on. This configuration only needs to change if you have specific requirements. Also, if you need to add a client (node), this is where you add it.

In order to instruct Munin to monitor a remote machine you need to add a new host tree. Say, for instance, you want to monitor a machine on the IP addres 192.168.1.150. To do this you would add:

[MACHINE NAME]
address 192.168.1.150
use_node_name yes

Where MACHINE NAME is a name to indicate the job (or user, or department, etc) of the machine.

Once you have these configurations and save the file. Now to move on to the /etc/munin/munin-node.conf file. There is only one configuration you would need to add in order to monitor nodes. Look for this line:

allow ^127\.0\.0\.1$

Beneath this line you will want to add (in order to enable our new node):

allow ^192\.168\.1\.1$

Save this file and restart the Munin server with the command:

/etc/init.d/munin restart

Installing for client

All you need to do for your client is to install the munin-node package. To do this issue the command:

sudo apt-get install munin-node

On the client machine. Now start munin-node with the command:

sudo /etc/init.d/munin-node start

Munin will begin to monitor this client now.

The graphs

When all is up and running, point your browser to http://ADDRESS_TO_SERVER/munin/

Figure 1

Where ADDRESS_TO_SERVER is the actual address of the server. Very shortly after you install Munin you may only see a listing of the nodes being watched (see Figure 1). This is okay, it will take some time before data is actually collected.

After a while you will notice data collected and graphs developing. If you click on the localhost.localdomain link you will see data beginning to collect (see Figure 2).

Figure 2

Final thoughts

Munin is a very powerful tool that allows you to gather crucial data about your systems and networks. Now that you have Munin installed and running you can begin to extend the server by adding more and more clients as well as plugins. You will quickly find Munin to be a very valuable tool for data analysis on your various systems and networks.

Related posts

• How to install Nagios on Ubuntu server (10)
• With Ubuntu 9.10 Arrives Wubi 9.10 (2)
• Why you should switch your parents pc to ubuntu (20)
• Which Ubuntu Derivative Is Right For You? (16)
• What makes Ubuntu so user friendly? (47)

CentOS is a community-driven spin off of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. This is different from Fedora in that it is not: 1) Not bleeding edge and 2) Geared toward Enterprise and not average desktop usage. CentOS is built to be 100% compatible with its bigger brother Red Hat Enterprise Linux while remaining a completely free operating system. In a nutshell CentOS is Red Hat Enterprise Linux without the branding and graphics. So, if you’re looking for an enterprise-class desktop operating system, and you do not want to spend the cash necessary for RHEL, CentOS is the distribution you’ve been looking for.

But how easily does it install? If you have ever installed Linux using the traditional installation disk method you will be just fine. It will, however, require some patience – and a torrent client.

Download and burn

The first, and arguably the lengthiest, step is to download the installation DVD (or you can download the 6 installation CDs if you do not have a DVD burner. Navigate your browser to the CentOS download page and navigate to the architecture you want to download. Once there you will click on the DVD torrent link which should hopefully open up your torrent client to begin the download. Once the torrent download is done (and the DVD is pieced together) burn the image to disk and you are ready to install.

Begin the installation

Obviously the first thing you will need to do is insert the DVD into the machine you wish to install CentOS on and then reboot. When you do you will be greeted with a text-based screen offering a few choices, since we are just going to go straight to the installation, hit Enter when prompted for installation. Anaconda will start up and the first graphical window will appear – the ever-pointless “Welcome” screen. Hit Next to finally begin your installation.

The next two windows are all self-explanatory (and not worth wasting screenshots on). You have:

• Language selection
• Keyboard selection

Figure 1

Now we get to the meat of the installation: The partitioner. The first phase of the partitioner (see Figure 1) requires you to:

• Choose a partition layout.
• Decide if you want the system encrypted.
• Select the drive(s) to use.
• Choose advanced storage options (Add iSCSI or disable dmraid).
• Review the partitioning layout.

When you select Next, depending on your choice of partition layout, you may be warned about deleting data. If you are unsure, make sure you go over the choices and dismiss the warning.

The next window requires you to set up networking. You have two choices: DHCP or Manual. The configuration of either choice is very simple. If you do set up your networking manually take note of the hostname. You can leave the default (localhost.localdomain) or you can be creative and add a descriptive hostname. Just don’t use an FQDN here as that could cause networking issues.

The new few windows are also self explanatory:

• Timezone
• Root password

Remember, this is not a Ubuntu-based installation. The root password is very important. Do NOT base this on a dictionary word. Use your best judgement for administrator passwords here.

Figure 2

The next screen (see Figure 2) is the package selection screen. You can go with the default, which will create a standard GNOME-based desktop installation. Your choices in this window are:

• Desktop – GNOME
• Desktop – KDE
• Server
• Server – GUI
• Virtualization
• Clustering
• Clustering – Storage

I will opt to shy away from the standard install and go with a KDE desktop (later I will deal with other options). You can also add additional repositories at this point and choose to customize now or later.  If you choose to add new repositories you will have to have an active network connection.

When you click Next the installation will check all dependencies and then move on with the install. When the dependency check passes (and it should), click Next and the installation of packages will begin. Depending upon how many packages you have selected (as well as the power of your machine) the installation time will vary.

Finally, once all packages are installed, you will be asked to Reboot your system. Click the Reboot button and remove the install DVD (the installer will auto-eject when able). The system will then reboot and you will have a working CentOS 5.4 installation. Oddly enough, if you go with KDE you will be surprised to find out CentOS has not updated to KDE 4.

Of course, upon first boot, you will have to take care of some house keeping. Included in this house keeping is:

• Enabling/configuring a firewall
• Setting up SELinux
• Setting time/date
• Creating a user
• Sound card test
• Install additional software (if applicable)

Final thoughts

Although the CentOS installation isn’t nearly as easy as installing from a Live CD, the installation process doesn’t require a degree in engineering to get through. And when you’re done, you will have a fine (although outdated in some instances) working Linux distribution that is geared toward (but not only for) enterprise use.

We’ll deal with CentOS more in the future (as well as other distributions). But for now, enjoy your installation.

Related posts

• Leave No Trace in KDE with Sweeper (6)
• Konqueror tips and tricks (2)
• Keep your Linux system up to date with KPackageKit (4)
• Installing KDE 4.3.2 on Ubuntu (9)
• Get To Know Linux: The Pager (4)

The first thing you will want to do is check the Sane supported scanner listing on the Sane Project site. But don’t let your scanner not being on that list stop you. My Epson Perfection V30 was not on the list and I still managed to get it working with the help of iscan. The iscan package is a simple scanning tool for Epson scanners.  You can find the iscan tool within Synaptic. The iscan tool also integrates perfectly into The GIMP, so all your image needs can be met within one tool. But iscan is not the only option. There is also the Xsane tool, which is far more powerful than iscan. Let’s take a look at both of these scanning utilities to see how scanning is handled under the Linux operating system.

NOTE: This article is not going to cover getting your scanner to work under Linux. If your scanner is not listed in the Sane hardware listing, your best bet is to google your model numer and your distribution. For example, in my case I would google epson perfection v30 ubuntu 9.10. You should come up with results that will tell you what approximate drivers to use to get your scanner working.

iscan

Figure 1

We’ll first look at iscan. This tool is, by far, the easier of the two tools to use. And, like its bigger brother XSane, it integrates perfectly with The GIMP. That doesn’t mean you have to use iscan from within The GIMP. Once installed you will find iscan within the Graphics sub menu of the Applications menu. The entry will be called “Image Scan!” (No quotes). Or, if you’d rather, you can start iscan from within The Gimp by going to the File menu, then to the Create sub menu, and selecting the “Scanning (iscan)” entry. Both will start the iscan interface.

When you fire up iscan you will notice how simple the interface is (see Figure 1). This scanner utility is just as easy to use as any Windows or Mac utility. The only configuration option for iscan is your print command. That is how simple this tool is.

With your picture in your scanner hit the Preview button to first get a preview of your image. Once the image is up you can then select the portion of the image you want to scan, select the Destination (either file or printer), and click the Scan button. When you click the Scan button you will be asked to give the file a name. The scanner will then do it’s job and save the file for you. It’s that simple.

XSane

Figure 2

XSane can be found in your distributions repositories. So whether you use Ubuntu or Fedoar (or anything in between), you should be able to open up your distributions Add/Remove Software tool and find XSane easily. XSane, like iscan, is a graphical frontend for the Sane project. But XSane is a bit more serious of a tool. You can see (in Figure 2) there is much more to XSane than your average scanning tool. In Figure 2 you see the standard windows that open along with the Main window. Pictured are the  Main windows (far left), Preview window (center), Standard Options window (top right), and Histogram (lower right). You can also include an Advanced Options window, and a Batch Scan window.

But even with all of the extra options, acquiring a scan with XSane is just as simple as with iscan. Follow these directions:

1. Place your photo on the scanner.
2. Open XSane.
3. Click the Aquire preview button in the Preview window.
4. Adjust the size, rotation, and scale at the bottom of the Preview window.
5. Adjust the color in the Main window.
6. Select the file type in the Main window.
7. Adjust the scan resultion in the Main window.
8. Click the Scan button in the Main window.

When the scan is complete a new window will open that allows you to further adjust your image. In this window you can apply a despeckle or blur filter, adjust the geometry, rotate the image, clone image, do optical character  recognition, and save the image.

And what about the Histogram window? This window allows you to fine-tune the color of your image. You use this tool after you preview and before you scan. You will be suprised at how well you can perfect the color of your scans with this tool.

Final thoughts

For my preferences, I lean toward XSane to handle my scanning tasks. But iscan does the job quite well. Either tool will allow you to take advantage of that flatbed scanner you have in your office while using Linux. One less excuse to continue using Windows. ;-)

Related posts

• Document Scanning With Digital Cameras (5)

But can this tool take the place of the original tools? Can the Ubuntu Software Center usurp both Add/Remove Software and Synaptic? Let’s examine the tool and draw our conclusions.

The ultimate goal for the Ubuntu Software Center is to become a single point of focus for software management in Ubuntu. Effectively, the Software Center is going to become the Ubuntu version of the iPhone App Store. Here are the current and planned features:

• Install open source/free software (Version 1).
• Install commercial/non-free software (Version 3).
• Rate and review software (Version 2).
• Replace Synaptic and Gdebi (Version 2).

So by Version 3 the Ubuntu Software Center will be a total one-stop shop for Linux software installation in Ubuntu. Exciting times indeed. But right now we’re at Version 1 and the big question is, does it stand up to previous tools. Let’s take a look.

The interface

Figure 1

When you fire up the Ubuntu Software Center (done by clicking on the entry in the Applications menu) the main window is laid out very clearly (see Figure 1) will be the Banshee (since it has been referenced a number of times on Ghacks.)

To locate Banshee either click on the Sound & Video category (from the main page) or enter “banshee” (no quotes) in the search field and hit Enter.

Figure 2

When the listing appears, select the entry, and click on the right-pointing arrow that appears (see Figure 2). When you click that arrow you will be presented with an information window that allows you to either install the software or visit the software’s web page.

Figure 3

In order to install the selected software, click on the Install button (see Figure 3) which will require you to enter your sudo password. Upon entering your password a new pane will open up showing the progress of the installation. Depending upon the size of the application, this progress could take a while. The speed of the download will also be directly effected by the newness of the 9.10 release and how busy the repositories are.

Once the software is installed you will be returned to the information window that will look a bit different. Where the “Install” button was is now a “Remove” button and, if available, a screenshot will appear.

Adding repositories

Where adding new software sources in Synaptic could be somewhat confusing to new users, adding these same sources in the Software Center has become incredibly easy. All you have to do is follow these steps:

1. Click on the Edit menu.
2. Click the Software Sources entry.
3. Enter your password if you haven’t already authenticated.
4. Click on the Other Software tab in the Sources window.
5. Click the Add button.
6. Enter the entire line (the same line you would add to the /etc/apt/sources.list file in the text area).
7. Click the Add Source button.

You’re done. You no longer have to enter multiple pieces of information for a repository to be added.

Final thoughts

At first I was skeptical about the new Software Center. But after using the tool, and seeing where the tool is heading, I like what I am seeing (and using). I think Ubuntu is going to have a major hit on their hands with the Software Center.

Related posts

• Adding Repositories to Synaptic (1)
• With Ubuntu 9.10 Arrives Wubi 9.10 (2)
• Ubuntu Karmic Koala preview (23)
• Synaptic tips and tricks (3)
• Installing Flash in Ubuntu 9.04 with Firefox (25)

The Firefly Media Server (formerly mt-daap) is a fast DAAP server that is simple to install and even easier to configure. Firefly resides on a single Linux machine that doesn’t have to be a powerhouse. In fact, you can install this lightweight server on Ubuntu Server and you’re almost ready to go. In this article you will see how to do just that – install and configure Firefly Media Server on Ubuntu Server.

Features

The Firefly server has all of the features you will want in a DAAP server:

• Supports Unix/POSIX
• Beta for Windows in the works
• On the fly transcoding of OGG, FLAC, Apple Lossless, and WM
• User-created smart playlist support
• Integrates with iTunes and many other DAAP-supporting media players
• Serve streaming radio stations

Installation

Since we are installing on a Ubuntu Server, the installation is simple:

1. Open up a terminal (or just log into your servers’ console)
2. Issue the command sudo apt-get install mt-daap
3. Enter your user password

That’s it. Now it’s time to set it up.

Configuration file

There is only one configuration file for Firefly: /etc/mt-daapd.conf. This file is quite easy to set up. For a basic DAAP server, out of the box, there is really only one option you must configure. If you open up the configuration file look for the line:

mp3_dir = /home/media/music

This is the line you will need to change to reflect the directory you will serve your media from. For my setup I created a new sub-directory in /opt called music. Do this with the command:

sudo mkdir /opt/media

Now you have to make that directory readable by the DAAP server with the command:

sudo chmod ug+r -R /opt/media

Now all files and sub-directories created with the /opt/media directory will have the proper permissions such that the DAAP server can serve up the files.

Of course what you have just set up is a very basic DAAP server. There are a lot of other options within the configuration file you can set up, such as:

• servername: This is the name your DAAP server will broadcast. By default the server will be listed as Firefly RELEASE_NUMBER HOSTNAME (Where RELEASE_NUMBER is the release number of the Firefly installation and HOSTNAME is the hostname of the server.)
• password protection: This will cause any user attempting to access the DAAP server to have to enter a password in order to see the files.
• port: If you need to use a port other than the default (3689), configure it here.
• extensions: The file types you want to allow to be served by your DAAP server.
• Valid codectypes: These are the configurations for the format conversion. There are already lines for this in the configuration file – you just have to uncomment the ones you want to add for internal conversion.
• rescan_interval: If you want to enable background scanning you need to uncomment this entry and set an interval. This will enable you to add new files without having to restart the DAAP server to pick up the new files. Very handy if you frequently add new files.

There are other configuration options, but those are the ones you will want to focus on first.

Start the daemon

After your configuration file is complete, go ahead and move your media files into the directory and then start the server with the command:

sudo /etc/init.d/mt-daap start

With the server up and running you can fire up a DAAP enabled client, like iTunes or Songbird (Note: Songbird requires the addition of a DAAP add on), and you should automatically see the files on the DAAP server.

Final thoughts

Setting up a DAAP server is a great idea for a small internal network where you want to be able to share out a multi-media library. Anyone looking to set this up, and has a Linux server up and running, would do well to give Firefly a try. The simplicity, size, and speed of this server makes it the perfect candidate.

Related posts

• Songbird 0.7 RC1 Released (3)
• iTunes Music Server pulpTunes (7)
• Winamp iPod Plugin (5)
• View and Edit information of songs with More Tunes (1)
• The Complete Media Player Review (Part 1) (15)

In this article I am going to show you a few tips and tricks that you can apply to the Konqueror web browser to make your Konqueror (and KDE) experience even more flexible and powerful than it already is.

KIO Slaves

KDE Input/Output slaves allows Konqueror to take advantage of external applications making it far more usable. Depending on what kio_slave you want to use the input for Konqueror will be different. Let’s take a look at some of the more useful slaves.

fish://

If you start an address with fish:// you are telling Konqueror to make use of the ssh protocol. With this you can connect to a remote ssh server and even copy/paste to that server from within Konqueror. To do this you would enter an address like:

fish://USERNAME@ADDRESS

Where USERNAME is an actual username on the remote machine and ADDRESS is the actual address of the remote machine. You will be prompted for a password, unless you already have this connection set up for passwordless secure shell connections (see “Five handy secure shell tips and tricks“).

imaps://USER@PASSWORD@ADDRESS:PORT

Where:

• USER is the actual user name.
• PASSWORD is the users password.
• ADDRESS is the address of the imap server.
• PORT is the port used for the imap server.

Quick search

If you enter gg: linux in the Konqueror address bar you will get a page with the Google results of the string “linux”. Konqueror has a lot of pre-configured quick search shortcuts like this. For example:

• gg – Google
• fm – Freshmeat
• froogle – Froogle
• msdn – Microsoft Developer Network
• odp – Open Dictionary
• tr – Technorati
• wp – Wikipedia

You can also create your own by issuing the command kcmshell4 ebrowsing in either the run dialog or a terminal window. In the new window click the New button and then fill out the following information:

• Search Provider Name: Give your shortcut a name.
• Search URI: The URI the site you are adding uses.
• URI Shortcuts: Comma delineated list of shortcuts.

So let’s say I want to create a short cut for searching amazon.com. To do that I would enter the following information:

• Name: Amazon
• URI: http://www.amazon.com/s?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=\{@}
• URI Shorcuts: az,amazon

So now if I want to do a search for the string “Linux” on amazon.com I would just enter:

az: Linux

In the address bar.

Split views

Figure 1

Not only can Konqueror do tabs, it can do split windows. Say you want to do some comparing of windows, or just want to be able to see more than one window at a time. With Konqueror you can split the view either horizontally or vertically by going to the Windows menu and selecting either Horizontal or Vertical and you can have two windows open at once for simple viewing. NOTE: Whichever window has the focus is the window that the address bar will effect. In other words, if you want to change the page on the right pane, click on the right pane and then enter the url in the address bar. If you want to close a pane <Ctrl><Shift>R will close the active window.

Final thoughts

Konqueror is a very powerful, flexible tool that can be extended well beyond its intentions. Have you found a cool trick that applies to Konqueror as either a web browser or file manager? If so, share it with your fellow Ghacks readers.

Related posts

• Windows File Manager Free Commander (3)
• ScanDir Directory Lists Manager (1)
• Leave No Trace in KDE with Sweeper (6)
• Keep your Linux system up to date with KPackageKit (4)
• Installing KDE 4.3.2 on Ubuntu (9)

In this article you are going to learn how to install Postfix on your already running Ubuntu Server 9.04. I am going to assume you have it networked and have a domain registered that you want to use. At the end of this article you should have a working mail server, ready for use.

NOTE: For the purposes of this article, I will use the fake domain “www.ubuntumail.net”. You will want to use your domain in place of that.

The first step is to install the software necessary. Since you already have LAMP up and running all you will need to do is install Postfix and it’s dependencies. To do this open up a terminal and issue the following command:

sudo apt-get install postfix

The installation will not only install Postfix, but will start the Postfix daemon for you. You will most likely want to test this installation by running the old telnet test like so:

telnet localhost 25

You should see something like:
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to www.ubuntumail.net.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 localhost.localdomain ESMTP Postfix (Ubuntu)

If you do, success! Now you are ready to take care of the configuration steps.

Configuration

There is only one file you need to deal with in Postfix. That file is /etc/postfix/main.cf. There really isn’t much to configuring this file (for a basic installation – which is all we are dealing with right now).

To set your Postfix installation up for your domain you will want to open that file for editing like so:

sudo nano /etc/postfix/main.cf

The above command opens main.cf in the Nano editor. What you need to look for is this section:

myhostname = ubuntumail
alias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases
alias_database = hash:/etc/aliases
myorigin = /etc/mailname
mydestination = ubuntumail.net, ubuntumail, localhost.localdomain, localhost
relayhost =
#mynetworks = 127.0.0.0/8
mynetworks = 127.0.0.0/8 [::ffff:127.0.0.0]/104 [::1]/128
mailbox_command = procmail -a "$EXTENSION"
mailbox_size_limit = 0
recipient_delimiter = +
inet_interfaces = all

As you can see, I have already configured the above section to work with our sample domain. You will need to go through the above section and insert your domain where you see ubuntumail.net. You will want to pay close attention to the mydestination line. As you can see that line contains:

ubuntumail.net, ubuntumail, localhost.localdomain

This helps to avoid mailloops in Postfix.

Some people also like to use the mydomain parameter, but since mydomain is taken from $myhostname by removing the first part (unless that would cause the domain to be a top-level domain) it can be redundant. If, however, your mail server serves your entire domain, you will need to use the mydomain parameter. For that you would insert:

mydomain = ubuntumail.net

at the top of the section shown above.

Once you have that configuration saved, restart Postfix with the command:

sudo /etc/init.d/postfix reload

To reload the mail server.

Users

As this is a Linux box, you will want to make sure you have a user created for every email address you need to serve up. So create your users with your favorite user creation tool. Since you are most likely installing on a Ubuntu Server (sans GUI), you will be using the useradd command. You can accomplish this with the command:

sudo useradd -m USERNAME

Where USERNAME is the actual username you want to use. Next you will need to give the user a password with the command:

sudo passwd USERNAME

Where USERNAME is the actual username you want to use. You will be prompted to enter the password twice.

After you have entered the users, you can then test the mail server by sending an email from an external source to see if it arrives. If there is a problem make sure the first place you look is /var/log/mail.err.

Final thoughts

At this point you should have a basic, working mail server. Postfix does make this task much more simple than did Sendmail. In my next article I will cover adding Spamassassin to your Postfix mail server to keep SPAM from getting in.

Related posts

• Stop SPAM in Postfix with Spamassassin (1)
• Quickly check mails without downloading them (8)
• Mail relaying made simple with Postfix (2)
• Yahoo Mail, Search And Messenger Upgrades (2)
• Yahoo Mail Integrates Drop.io To Support 100 Megabyte Attachments (8)

Having a tool that can quickly, and regularly, take snapshots of your network landscape is critical to keeping tabs on your PCs. Of course you can shell out some budget dollars for a proprietary tool, but why bother when you can fire up a Linux machine and use the trusty Nmap tool for the job.

Nmap is a command line tool that rapidly scans a network gathering information about machines and ports. It is easy to use and flexible, making it perfect for the job of asset scanning. In this tutorial you will see how to set up a system that will regularly scan your network and create a report that can then be used to keep inventory of your networked machines.

Installing

Before we get to the actual scanning we need to install a couple of applications. Since I am using a Ubuntu system, we’ll run the installation using apt-get. With some simple modifications, you can do the same on a fedora system. The two applications to install are: nmap and ndiff. We use ndiff to compare the results of scans. To install these applications open up a terminal window and issue the following command:

sudo apt-get install nmap ndiff

You will have to accept dependencies, at which point the two applications will install. Upon completion of the installation, you are ready to scan.

Using nmap

Nmap is actually a fairly powerful tool. If you issue the command man nmap you will see just how powerful this tool is. You can also see how many arguments you can use with Nmap as well as what each argument does. Fortunately I will show you a simple command you can issue to make this a bit easier.

I am going to illustrate how these tools work together by running an nmap scan on a small internal network. I will then scan the network after making a change to one machine and see if ndiff catches the change.

The command for the scan is:

sudo nmap -n -PN 192.168.1.1/24 -O > network_scan

I will then run that same scan after making the change with one alteration:

sudo nmap -n -PN 192.168.1.1/24 -O > network2_scan


The above commands will output to the files network_scan, and network2_scan.

Once you have the two files you will compare them using the ndiff command like so:

ndiff -b network_scan -o network2_scan

The two options used are:

• b – Baseline.
• o – Observed.

You can think of Baseline as your control group.

Figure 1

The results of the command are shown in Figure 1.

The results show exactly what occurred in my network change. I shut down the machine associated with IP address 192.168.1.37.

Of course you could also get a much clearer picture of your network by combing through the results of the initial scan, but if you are looking for how your network topography has changed from scan to scan, using ndiff is the best way.

To see the full usage of both nmap and ndiff, take a look at the man pages. I will warn you, they are fairly complex. But this tutorial should give you a solid understanding of how the basics of the tools work.

Related posts

• Port Scanning Networking Tool SuperScan (1)
• Map your network with Zenmap (1)

Banshee is strongly tied to the GNOME desktop manager. These two together make managing your Android phone music as simple as it gets. Now, Banshee is not a complete replacement for iTunes. There is no way to purchase music through Banshee (which is fine because most Android phones can purchase music straight from the Amazon MP3 market). But Banshee does a bang up job of managing your music – and a simple job interacting with the Android phone. Now, let’s take a look at how this is done.

Installing Banshee

If you don’t already have Banshee installed you will need to do so. And you will need to make sure you have a version >= 1.4. To install go to your Add/Remove Software tool and follow these steps:

1. Search for “banshee” (no quotes).
2. Select Banshee for installation.
3. Click Apply to install.

That’s it.

Now that Banshee is installed, you are ready to have Banshee and your Android working together.

Connecting your Android

Figure 1

When you connect your Android phone to your Linux machine you will be asked (on the phone) if you want to mount your SD card. Go ahead and do that so your Linux machine can see the SD card on the phone. This SD card will show up in the Nautilus file manager (shown in Figure 1) as a 2.0 GB Media. You can actually drag and drop files to this directory – but we’re managing music, so we’re going to use Banshee and not a file manager.

Now open up Banshee and your Android phone will automatically show up (see Figure 2).

As you can see, the interface gives you a clear view of the space

Figure 2

available on your phone’s card. You can also see that there are two options:

Manually sync

Automatically sync

Most likely you will want to manually sync your phone. If your Banshee library is like mine there is WAY more music than will fit on a 2 Gig card. of course you can replace that 2 Gig card with a much larger card and then have Banshee automatically sync.

For manually syncing all you need to do is navigate through your music collection and then drag and drop the files you want to put on your phone.

Upon completion of the music management you can then click the Eject Android G1 Phone button in the upper right corner of Banshee. Now, before you actually unplug your phone from your computer you need to turn off USB storage on your phone. Once USB storage is off you can then unplug your phone and check to make sure your new music is present and accounted for.

Final thoughts

I certainly hope the Linux community and the Android community can work together further so that the Linux operating system can enjoy a complete sync. Once this happens wireless companies can be sure that Linux users/fans will flock to their Android offerings.

Related posts

• The Plot Thickens Around The Google Phone (2)
• The HTC Dragon Exists And Google Has It! (2)
• T-Mobile myTouch (5)
• Spring Design’s Alex And B&N’s Nook (6)
• Sony Ericsson’s XPERIA X10: Review (9)