For example, when you are dual booting any Linux operating system such as Ubuntu, the very first thing that you need to be aware of is that the Linux Grub will overwrite your Master Boot Record (MBR). This will mean that you will be able to boot your new Linux operating system in a hard drive partition, but you will probably not be able to boot back into Windows thereafter.

Rather than spend a day pulling your hair out trying to look for a solution, find a good guide on dual booting Ubuntu with Windows before you get started. This is an Ubuntu guide on the topic that happens to be immensely helpful and there are plenty of other links on the site to assist, should you run into any problems.

To get to the point, the very first thing you must do before dual booting Linux alongside Windows is backup your operating system. Don’t just backup the files and folders; backup the entire system on an external hard drive. If you put it on a partition and you are unable to access the partition after the dual boot, you are out of luck. It seems obvious, but always backup your system to removable devices or an FTP server. The advantage of having the external hard drive is that you have something tangible in your hands that you can restore your system with.

Secondly, create a system repair disk or buy one. If you have your Windows installation disk, that would be best, but the repair disk will be sufficient to get you into the recovery environment so that you can have a DOS prompt to work from in order to restore your MBR. As long as you have the full system backup and the repair disk, you have a parachute if you mess up the operation. Understand that Linux has a completely different language than DOS and the GNU Grub is not something to be messing with unless you know exactly what you are doing.

Make sure that you partition your hard drive properly before dual booting. DO NOT boot Linux onto the same partition on which you have installed Windows. That just about covers it.

Once you have an effective dual boot of Windows and Linux, you will be rather pleased with yourself and you get to enjoy the benefits of both operating systems. Also, a dual boot is much faster and more efficient than a virtual machine. Enjoy a safe dual boot.

This opens the Keyboard Preferences dialog in which you can select different language layouts. Click the “Layouts” tab and then click “Add”.

Now the Layout dialog box opens. Scroll through the various different countries and variants to select the desired language layout that you want to set. Keep in mind that you can set multiple languages and the default will not be lost. In this demonstration, we are selecting basic German for the keyboard layout. Select by country to choose any language and then select any applicable variant. Certain countries, such as the United States, can display several different languages. When your selections have been made, click Add and you are able to preview the keyboard layout for that language setting.

You are also able to set the layout by language and set a variant. When you have completed your selections, click Add.

In this case, the keyboard language was set both by country and by language. You can do either one, but the layout may vary somewhat if you do not set by country and by language. This is something you will have to experiment with, as the settings will be different for each country and language. Always view the preview to be sure that it is what you are looking for or at least close to what you are looking for.

Notice that we now have two languages displayed in the Keyboard Preferences. Both are immediately usable and you can add additional languages or simply close the dialog.

Now that multiple languages have been installed, a new icon will be displayed in the System tray. This will be located in the upper-right portion of the screen. An abbreviation of the country for which the keyboard is set is shown here. Click on the icon to reveal the list of languages and to change languages. You may also access Keyboard Preferences here to add more languages.

Click on “Show Current Layout” to preview the keyboard layout for a selected language. Here, the language was switched to German and we get a layout preview.

You can print this layout easily from this screen. At the bottom-right you will see the Print button. Click Print and you have an easy reference to keep beside your keyboard for reference.

To change keyboard shortcuts for switching languages, open the keyboard preferences dialog and click the “Layouts” tab. Now chose the keyboard shortcuts to switch between input languages. For example, check the box next to “Alt+Shift” and this will be the shortcut to change keyboard languages. Choose the shortcut that is most convenient for you.

There are other options in Keyboard Preferences to customize keyboard settings, should you desire to experiment with these. This covers the basics for adding keyboard languages to Ubuntu.

With a three button mouse, typically people keep the default settings. With a five button mouse, the extra two buttons often go unused. The default is that they typically are used to go back and forward in web browsers and file managers. This is not as handy in other programs. Other functions might be more useful; the user should decided what they need. For example, I would rather use the extra buttons to copy and paste text. Enter btnx.

Using Btnx

To install btnx, search for it in Ubuntu’s Software Center (found in the Application menu). Alternatively, you can install it from the command line.

sudo apt-get install btnx

Now you can access btnx from:

Applications > System Tools > btnx

This will bring up a GUI dialog box for you to configure you mouse. From here, click “Detect mouse & buttons” and follow the steps. It will have you test your mouse and label the buttons. Don’t forget to add your scroll wheel. It is an extra step compared to manufacturers’ software, but it only takes a minute or two. Next, click on the “Buttons” tab to configure what each button does. Usually, it is the extra mouse buttons that are the best to customize, but any can be changed.

In this case, I set the keycode on “Button-1″ (named by me) to “C” and the modifier to “Ctrl.” Since this is just a case of simulating “ctrl+c” to copy something, left or right control keys are irrelevant. Naturally, I set the “Button-2″ as “ctrl-v” for paste. Page Up & Page Down would also make sense. Options are not limited to key combinations. Programs and other buttons can be set as well. A wide array of functions are available for someone to choose from.

Make sure to click the “Enabled” check box. To apply the changes, restart btnx from the “Configurations” tab. If a change does not seem to be taking place, try restarting btnx or your computer.

Note: The homepage and the help files were not available. For clarification and program details, use the man pages from the Wayback Machine.

Problems and Issues

In tests, while the remapping worked, a curious side effect evolved: the buttons now work as both copy & paste and forward & back. This made them useless in websites. Further research lead to a fix: xinput. The program will let you swap or disable mouse buttons, among other things. It should come with Ubuntu and other types of Linux, but it can be installed from the terminal:

sudo apt-get install xinput

Once installed, you need to use it to list and show devices:

xinput list

You should see your pointing device listed. Look for your manufacturer’s name. If the name appears twice, then you need to use the “id” number in place of the name. Once you have found this information, you can disable the extra button functionality with the following line:

xinput set-button-map “Your mouse name” 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 0

Now, your mouse should work as intended. Btnx will still know you are pressing the buttons, so the remap will still work. If you have problems, try running through “Detect mouse & buttons” again to make sure they were set correctly. Note: You may have to do this each time you customize the buttons.

Closing

It took some time to find the answers, but I now have perfectly functional copy & paste buttons on my trackball. These solutions where found in the forums at ubuntuforums and pinoygeek. With luck, you will not have the problems that I ran into. If you do, I hope this article saves you the trouble of having to research the solution. Please feel free to share how you remap your mouse in the comments.

Naturally, you jump on your computer, open up a terminal window, and start throwing out sudo apt-get install commands left and right to play with new applications. But wait: Error messages start flying back saying that you profile is not included as a sudoer.

Well, not exactly. If the first time you attempt to operate as root on a recently installed system and the system spouts back something about your profile not having sufficient privileges to carry out the task, it means that you properly installed the distro.

The fact is that you (probably) do not want to be operating as supervisor all the time. It can be dangerous, and far too often it leads to system meltdowns at the worst possible times. While not having to insert a password before any administrative task can be helpful a lot of the time, using root as a primary account leaves your computer exposed to user stupidity – and plain dumb mistakes happen to the best of us.

Ok, so you don’t want to be root all the time, but you obviously need to be able to carry out administrative tasks from time to time – like when you want to do something as simple as installing a new program. So how do you add your profile to the sudoer file?

It’s actually very easy. First, open up a terminal window (probably the one that yelled at you for having insufficient privileges in the first place). For this tutorial let’s pretend your username is alpha, so every time you see alpha substitute in your general user profile. Go ahead and type is “su” on the first line and hit enter. You will be prompted for your password – go ahead and supply it.

Next, you need to give yourself permission to edit the sudoers file. Type

Then click enter again. Now you can go in and add yourself to the list. Type

And then go ahead and click enter again. Congratulations, you’re now on the list. Before we leave, we want to reset the permissions of the sudoer file by typing

chmod -w /etc/sudoers

Click enter again, type “exit”, press enter again, and then type “exit” one more time to leave the terminal window. And that’s it! Your profile has now been added to the list of those with administrative privileges.

While it is not a difficult procedure, it is one that is easily forgotten. Once you have given yourself sudo privileges you can give them to other Linux users as well, whether you have multiple profiles set up for other users on your computer or even different profiles for different tasks.

Update:

Edit: A number of people have responded to this post raising very justified concerns about configuring sudo in this manner. While it is perfectly safe if you are careful about every change you make, a mistake in configuring sudo can lead to bad problems down the line. As a safeguard, many people prefer editing the sudo file through the visudo command, which, if sudo has not yet been configured, must be accessed when logged in as root. To do so, login as root, open a terminal and type:

visudo

At the bottom of the new series of characters is a line that reads:

#includedir /etc/sudoers.d

To enable a user full access to sudo, simply type:

Press Ctrl+X to exit the program and click Y to save a backup buffer file on your way out just in case things go wrong.

Two ways to address the same problem – This method simply provides a failsafe.

So let’s assume that you read up on dual booting, chose a second operating system that extended your computing capabilities, and pulled the trigger. Congratulations! Your system now has the potential to carry you much further, and your software options are incredible. You spend some time enjoying the new operating system, customizing it, choosing new programs, and after some time, decide you want to hop back onto your old system. You close everything up, tell your system to reboot and… it jumps right back into the new operating system without asking where you wanted it to go.

This frustrating scenario is not at all unfamiliar to those who decide to dual boot. Fortunately, there is a solution for nearly every possible configuration and installation order between Windows and Linux versions and distributions. This how-to will help you get the bootmenu for each possible option back, giving you access to the original operating system if it is accidentally blocked out by the second OS.

The process does require you to have a physical copy of an installation disk for whichever operating system you are trying to get access to. If you installed Ubuntu as your second operating system and it blocked you from Vista, you need a Vista disk. If, for some reason, you installed XP and lost Ubuntu, you will need an Ubuntu installation disk for the specific release you are trying to get to.

Also, this how-to looks specifically at how to restore access to Ubuntu and may not be universally applicable to Linux distributions. It should, however, serve as a solid starting point, and many other distros follow the same process.

The most common scenario, restoring Windows Vista or 7, is one of the easiest. Run the installation CD at startup, and after the location options select Repair Your Computer. Unselect your installation if the system locates it, and then open Command Prompt. Type in:

bootrec.exe /fixboot

Press enter, then type:

bootrec.exe /fixmbr

Close all windows, do a restart, and your Vista/7 bootloader should appear.

Those restoring XP have it even easier. Insert the install CD, allow it to proceed, then type r when it asks if you are repairing rather than installing. This brings up a command line, in which you should type, pressing enter between lines:

fixboot
fixmbr
exit

Finally, those restoring Ubuntu or a similar Linux system need to start by identifying the drive their system is installed on. From the terminal on an install disk, type:

From the information that this calls, identify the drive that holds the Linux system, such as /dev/sda2. Next, substituting in your own drive in place of sda2:

sudo mkdir /media/sda2
sudo mount /dev/sda2 /media/sda2
sudo grub-install –root-director=/media/sda2 /dev/sda

While not comprehensive enough to cover absolutely every possible configuration you may have, these simple steps can help most people get back their original bootloader. If you follow these steps and find you lose the loader from the second operating system, just follow the same steps for the second. Good luck!

There are various workarounds for this problem, but most are hit and miss. There is no one size fits all solution to this problem, but there is one series of changes that works for many Linux users. It builds up to the installation of a program called “ideviceinstaller,” and it works for about 90% of users. If you are frustrated with your iPod/iPad/iPhone and really just want to back things up, it’s probably worth a try.

First, download all the little helpers that you might need along the way. Open up a terminal window and type in the following list:

sudo apt-get install libtool automake autoconf libplist-dev libplist++-dev libplist++1 libzip-dev libclutter-1.0-dev libclutter-gtk-0.10-dev libusbmuxd-dev libglib2.0-dev libgnutls-dev git-core swig intltool build-essential python-dev

That should update your system with almost everything you might need to start installing the programs necessary to get your devices identifying and syncing up with your computer. Next you need to download and install the latest version of a program called “libimobiledevice” which will enable ideviceinstaller to work properly when you install it later. Unlike the last piece of text you inserted into the terminal, take these one line at a time, and make sure your system has finished the process before stepping forward to the next. Again in the terminal:

cd ~/Downloads
wget http://www.libimobiledevice.org/downloads/libimobiledevice-1.0.1.tar.bz2
tar xvjf libimobiledevice-1.0.1.tar.bz2
cd ~/Downloads/libimobiledevice-1.0.1
./configure
make
sudo make install

You now have almost everything that you need to get ideviceinstaller working properly. But before we install the final auxiliary program, install ideviceinstaller onto your system. To do so, type the following into your terminal:

git clone git://git.sukimashita.com/ideviceinstaller.git
cd ideviceinstaller/
./autogen.sh
./configure
make
sudo make install

Now it’s time for one last installation. The program “sbmanager” is the final component necessary for everything to run smoothly. In the terminal, type:

git clone git://git.sukimashita.com/sbmanager.git
cd sbmanager
./autogen.sh
./configure
make
sudo make install

With any luck, your system should now be ready to take whatever your Apple hand helds can throw at it. Close out of your terminal, plug in your devices, and see if it works.

Here are a few of the most important tasks you can do with the program. To run any of them, simply open your terminal window while your devices are plugged it.

idevicebackup backup ~/backup Creates a backup file of your device
idevicebackup restore ~/backup Restores your device to its previous backup state
ideviceinstaller -a [name of application, without brackets]
Creates an archival copy of an app
ideviceinstaller -r [name of application, without brackets]
Restores an app to its previous archived state
ideviceinstaller -l Displays a list of all apps on your Apple device

While most users will be set to go after following these steps, be prepared to spend some time fixing any errors along the way. The most common is that libimobiledevice.so.1 does not exist. To fix this, type the following in your terminal:

sudo ln -s /usr/local/lib/libimobiledevice.so.1.0.1 /usr/lib/libimobiledevice.so.1

That should fix 90% of the problems you may encounter in running this how-to. Have fun and good luck!

One fun change you can make is customizing your desktop in a pretty unique way – by changing the background image every so often automatically. While some programs exist to help you with this task, there is absolutely no reason why you cannot do it yourself with a few simple commands. Before long you can have your entire vacation album scrolling behind your open windows, changing photos every five, ten, or thirty minutes – it’s entirely up to you.

To begin, open a terminal window and open a new text file:

gksu gedit

You are going to insert a line of commands into this file, which you will later turn into a shell script. The function of each line is outlined below; you only need to copy and paste the big block of text further down. The individual explanations are so you can customize the code to fit your needs.

picsfolder=”/media/documents/photosfordesktop”

This line points to whatever folder holds the photos you want scrolling in the background. Be sure to change it to whatever folder holds yours.

cd $picsfolder

This changes the current directory to the new folder full of pictures.

files=(././.jpg)

This creates an array out of all your photos, allowing them to be mixed up for display later.

N=${#files[@]}

This simply identifies the number of pictures in the new array.

((N=RANDOM%N))

This chooses a random photo from those you made available.

randomfile=`echo ${files[$N]} | cut –characters=”1 2” –complement`

This identifies the name of the specific photo chosen.

Gconfigtool-2 -t str –set /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename “$picsfolder$randomfile”

This sets the desktop with your new (temporary) photo as the background.

Now, take all those commands, put together below, and copy and paste them into the text editor you opened earlier:

picsfolder=”/media/documents/photosfordesktop”
cd $picsfolder
files=(././.jpg)
N=${#files[@]}
((N=RANDOM%N))
randomfile=`echo ${files[$N]} | cut –characters=”1 2” –compliment`
Gconfigtool-2 -t str –set /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename “$picsfolder$randomfile”

Save your text document as /bin/timedwallpaper.sh and exit the text editor. Everything is ready – now you just need to tell your computer to do it. For this next part your distribution needs to have “cron” installed, a program which typically comes pre-packaged. To make sure you have it, type

sudo apt-get install cron

Once you have ensured it is installed, type

crontab -e

At the bottom start a new line and type

*/5 * * * * timedwallpaper.sh

This sets the time between pictures at five minutes. Change the number to whatever you see fit. Arrow down to the next blank line, and then type

@reboot timedwallpaper.sh

After that, press Control+x, then y, and finally enter. Exit the terminal and you are good to go. Not only will your script run however often you program it to, it will now reset each time you start your computer as well. Enjoy the scenery!

Many people are fond of that last one, but it isn’t really all that easy to do. Most people employ the help of little programs for things like that, but the software used to embed the terminal is rarely updated to new versions of various distros.

One, however, has stayed intact, and this tutorial will help you through the process of putting the terminal right where we all need it – on the desktop.

First of all, you need to create a new Terminal profile that will run under the parameters you will set later. Open up your Terminal, then go to File, New Profile, type “Transparency” (without the quotes) as the title, and then click Create.

This creates the profile necessary to continue. You now need to fix a few settings. Under Title and Command, change the initial title to Transparency and select Keep Initial Title in the drop down menu. Select transparent under the Background tab, and set it to be as (you guessed it) transparent as you like. Some people prefer completely clear, but make sure the font color will stand out against your existing desktop background.

Next you want to download the program that will make all this possible. In your terminal, type:

sudo apt-get install devilspie

Next, you need to create a configuration file for your profile:

mkdir ~/.devilspie
gedit ~/.devilspie/Transparency.ds

Then take the following piece of code and pasted it in Transparency.ds:

( if
( matches ( window_name ) "Transparency" )
( begin
( set_workspace 4 )
( undecorate )
( skip_pager )
( skip_tasklist )
( geometry "890x694+178+58" )
( below )
( pin )
( println "match" )
)
)


Almost there! Now all you need to do is make sure that your computer opens a Terminal window in this manner each time it boots. Under System Settings open Startup Applications. First, click add, and under command, type:

devilspie -a

Then click enter. Click add again, and under command type:

gnome-terminal –window-with-profile=Transparency

That’s all there is to it. Reboot your system, and when it comes back up you should find a handy terminal window built right into your desktop, ready to work at whatever you desire.

If the configuration listed here does not quite work for you, experiment with the code you pasted in Transparency.ds under “geometry”. Those are the parameters the system uses to place the box. Of course, you can always fiddle with the color and transparency settings assigned to the profile by going to the Terminal and clicking on Edit, then Profile Preferences.

This neat, quick little quick little fix will be of interest to your Linux inclined friends and make Windows users wonder why they can’t do the same thing.

In this article I am going to show you some fixes for the more annoying Ubuntu 10.04 issues. They aren’t many, but in some cases, for some people, they have been real show stoppers. I hope that’s not you, but if it is let’s see if we can remedy what ails you. If a fix for a problem you are having isn’t listed, contact Ghacks and let us know what issues you are having so we can know what to cover.

USB devices not mounting

This has been a problem for anyone that might be using a machine that still contains a floppy disc drive. The problem is the code for the floppy gets in the way of USB devices being about to mount. To get around this (assuming you no longer use your floppy drive) you can disable that floppy drive with the command:

sudo modprobe -r floppy

This command removes the module for the floppy drive from the kernel and keeps it from being loaded. You will need to reboot your machine after you issue this command. You should now see that USB devices will mount. If you decide you need that floppy back you can always issue:

sudo modprobe floppy

to reload the module.

Move windows controls to right side

This isn’t so much a bug as it is a pet peeve of most people. You see, the vast majority of computer users have grown used to having their controls on the upper right side of the window. For some reason, the Ubuntu developers decided to place these controls on the upper left side of the window. If you are like the vast majority you want it back on the right side. To do this all you have to do is follow these steps:

1. Open up the gconf-editor tool (issue the command gconf-editor).
2. Navigate to apps > Metacity > general.
3. Double click the button_layout key.
4. Change the value of this key to menu:maximize,minimize,close.
5. Click OK and the change will occur immediately.

You can now close the gconf-editor tool.

The NVidia graphics black screen install issue

There have been some cases where using particular NVidia graphics cards have lead to black screens (or out of sync) problems when trying to run the live CD or installing Ubuntu. There is a way around this. Here are the steps:

At the startup of the installation screen hit F6 and select nomodeset and install as usual.

Upon first boot (after installation) press the “e” key when you see the GRUB bootloader.

Delete quiet and splash from the boot command and add nomodeset.

Hit <Ctrl>x to save and boot.

Now, once booted,  you need to add the NVidia proprietary driver by doing the following:

1. Click System > Administration > Hardware Drivers.
2. Select the proprietary driver that is recommended to you.
3. Upon completion, reboot your machine and your graphics should look great.

Final thoughts

Ubuntu 10.04 is one of the finest OSes to hit the “shelves” in a long time, but that doesn’t mean it is not without flaws. Hopefully these tips have helped you to enjoy this Linux distribution a bit better.

So, without further adieu, let’s get to the tippage!

Global keyboard shortcuts

We all know that keeping your fingers on the keyboard makes for much more efficient computing. But did you know you can create global keyboard shortcuts for GNOME? This is done with the help of the gconf-editor tool. Here’s how it’s done:

1. Hit <Ctrl>F2
2. Enter gconf-editor to start up the tool.
3. Navigate to Apps > Metacity > keybinding_commands.
   
4. Right-click in the pane that lists all of the entries.
5. Scroll until you see a list of command_N Where N is a number from 1-10
6. Double click on one of these entries (remember which number you double clicked on).
7. In the Value section enter the command you want to use.
8. Click OK.
9. Navigate to Apps > Metacity > global_keybindings.
10. In the Value field enter the key combination you want to use for that app (for example <Alt>f for firefox).
11. Click OK.
12. Test out your short cut.

Remember your state

Did you know you can have GNOME remember everything you have open when you next log in? This way you can resume working in the same state you were when you left. To do this navigate to System > Preferences > Startup Applications. In this new window click on the Options tab and check the box for “Automatically remember running applications when logging out”.

Now the next time you log out and log in, your apps will be there for you.

Speed up boot time with profiling

Ubuntu 10.4 has reached the 10 second mark for boot time. But what if yours isn’t quite reaching that goal? You can speed this up using the profile option. To do this follow these steps:

1. At your boot screen press “e” (for edit).
2. Use your arrow key and move down to the entry beginning with “kernel”.
3. Press “e” again.
4. Add “profile” (no quotes) at the end of this line.
5. Hit Enter.
6. Click “b” (for boot).

The firs time you boot with profile it will take a little longer. What this is doing is profiling your boot process so it knows what files are accessed and then sorts them according to how they are stored on your drive. Your next boot should be considerably faster.

Remove menu delay

If you are like me, you want menus to pop up instantly. By default there is a slight delay for menus. To change this follow these steps:

1. Open up a terminal window.
2. Enter nano ~/.gtkrc-2.0
3. Add a single line gtk-menu-popup-delay = 0
4. Save that file
5. Log out and log in.

You should now notice no delay in your menu popup speed.

Speed it up with no effects

If you find your GNOME desktop to be a bit sluggish, you might gain some speed by disabling special effects. To do this navigate to System > Preferences > Appearance. In this new window click on the Visual Effects tab and select None. This will boost your dekstop performance.

Final thoughts

And there you have it. Starting out your April with some “power user” tips. I have tons of tips just like this so expect them to be scattered about. Next time we’ll take a look at some KDE power tips.

Of course you could open up Nautilus, Dolphin, Thunar or any other file manager tool, double click on that .doc file, and start working on it in your word processor of choice. But what if you wanted (or needed) to move that file via command line? What would you do?

If you attempted to issue the command:

mv ~/Documents/This Is My File And This File Is Called Meh.doc ~/

you would see:

mv: cannot stat `This’: No such file or directory
mv: cannot stat `Is’: No such file or directory
mv: cannot stat `My’: No such file or directory
mv: cannot stat `File’: No such file or directory
mv: cannot stat `And’: No such file or directory
mv: cannot stat `This’: No such file or directory
mv: cannot stat `File’: No such file or directory
mv: cannot stat `Is’: No such file or directory
mv: cannot stat `Called’: No such file or directory
mv: cannot stat `Meh.doc’: No such file or directory

Now if you started typing the command:

mv ~/Documents/This

and you hit the Tab key bash would complete the file name, only it would look like:

This\ Is\ My\ File\ And\ This\ File\ Is\ Called\ Meh.doc

at which point you could finish typing out the command with sucessful results.

To avoid this all together, don’t use spaces in file names when using Linux. If you need to separate words use either a “-” or an “_” to separate words like so:

This_Is_My_File_And_This_File_Is_Called_Meh.doc

Of course the above file name is rather cumbersome. But you get the point.

No spaces in file names under the Linux operating system.

The first thing to do is to get mpg123 installed. This can be done very quickly via command line. One of the following commands will do the trick (depending upon which distribution you use):

apt-get install mpg123

urpmi mpg123

If you are using Fedora Core you will most likely have to stop by rpm.pbone.net, download the correct rpm package and install with the command:

rpm -ivh mpg123-RELEASE_NUMBER.rpm

Where RELEASE_NUMBER is the actual release number you download.

Once installed you are ready to go.

With the wav files located in a directory change to that directory to run the command. The format of the command will be:

mpg123 -w file.wav file.mp3

The “-w” argument tells mpg123 that the output will be in the .wav format. The first file name is the output file name which is user configurable. A word of warning, spaces in file names aren’t always the best choice in the Linux operating system. If you want to separate words in a file name you can use “_” character. So creating a .wav of Rush’s Tom Sawyer you would do something like:

mpg123 -w Rush_Tom_Sawyer.wav “01 – Tom Sawyer.mp3″

Batch Conversion

What about batch conversion? This requires a bit of shell scripting. Create a Music directory (in modern Linux distributions there should be one in ~/) and dump all of your mp3 files into that directory. Next, create a shell script in your favorite text editor. We’ll call that script “batch_conversion”. The contents of the script might look like:

#!/usr/bin/perl
my $dir = “~/Music”;
opendir DH, $dir or die “Can’t open $dir: $!”;
$count2=1;
while ($name = readdir DH) {
next unless $name =~ /\.mp3$/;
$wav=”$count2.wav”;
print “$wav\n”;
system “mpg123 -w $wav \”$name\”";
$count2++;
}

Once you save the file you have to give it executable permissions with the command chmod u+x batch_conversion. To run the command you will issue (from the directory the new file is located) ./batch_conversion. Once you run the file you will have both the mp3 and the wav files located in the ~/Music directory.

Final Thoughts

Converting mp3 files to wav files for burning audio CDs is a simple process with mpg123. There are gui tools for this job but the command line tools make for much more flexible jobs.

So, what can you expect from the ultimate ubuntu tweaking guide ? It starts of by optimizing and compiling the latest kernel, adding support for dual core, hyperthreading and multithreading processors and enabling or disabling services in Ubuntu. Everything is easy to follow and should increase the overall performance of the Linux system.

It should not be called the ultimate guide but it is nevertheless a nice guide that boosts the system performance of Ubuntu.