Dolphin’s fast loading times and clean interface made me consider to have a second look at Dolphin. So here’s a way to make Dolphin the default file manager.

If you haven’t installed Dolphin yet, install it via apt-get or Adept. More info about that in my previous post.

Then, Click on K Menu -> Run Command and type ‘kcontrol’ (without the quotes, of course).

Then Click on KDE Components -> File Associations. Expand the inode section.

Make Dolphin the first choice, by moving it above Konqueror in the precedence order. This will ensure that Dolphin gets the first priority for opening directories.

To make dolphin the default file manager for the virtual directories kde creates e.g. system:/ then again in the File Associations section of the control centre expand the inode section of Known Types. Under the system_directory mime type, add dolphin to the list of applications(If Dolphin entry is already present, remove it), however instead of choosing dolphin from the kmenu, type the following in to the text box at the top dolphin %u The virtual directories created by kde will then be opened by dolphin as default

Voila! Dolphin is now your default file manager!

Man, I’m so pissed off with this darn 1 GB BW cap. Yup, I’m on the BSNL Home 250 Plan with a free Bandwidth of 1GB. How the hell is that reasonable?? God damn!! I can finish it off in matter of hours, somehow been managing it for a month!!  And today, it’s just 17th of the month, and already  I’m used up 0.843 GB of my 1GB  allocation. Arggh. How the hell am I gonna last with 150 MB for the next 13 days is beyond me. Guess ‘ll have to start with stop writing here, till the end of the Month(makin a post here and there, doing some reasearch, alone takes up about 10MB! Oh God help me get thru the end of the month.

While looking at the packages available in Adept, I saw that Dolphin was available. I was a bit surprised, considering that Dolphin is still in beta stage but nonetheless decided to have a look at it

For the uninitiated, Dolphin will be the default file manager in KDE4 breaking away from the tradition of Konqueror being the web browser/file manager combo. While Konqueror will still be available in KDE4, it will no longer be the default file manager. I really like Konqueror, especially with its integrated KParts-based document viewing, something which I initially detested, and now can’t live without.

Coming to Dolphin, it was a small (really small to be honest) download,with a download size of 1.2MB and an install size of 2.4 MB.

Dolphin loads really fast, unlike Konqueror which takes a good 3-5 seconds. Looks wise,it looks a bit like Nautilus, with the “bread crumbs” style of Navigation present in Nautilus and Vista. The individual path elements in Dolphin’s navigation bar act as menus that enable users to switch to sibling directories. This feature, which is also found in Windows Vista, is unfortunately absent in Nautilus. Clicking on the button at the side of bread crumbs, shows the full URL, Konqueror style. In addition Dolphin also has some nifty features like the split view, indispensable for copying/moving files. In addition, each of these splits can be independently set to “Icons”, “Details” or “Preview” mode. This is really useful, say when you want to transfer some pictures or documents to a removable drive. Just split into 2 views, with left side having the default Icons view and the right side, containing your pictures in “Preview” mode, thus you can transfer only the documents/pictures that you need, without having to open and examine each document individually. The status bar at below shows the percentage of hard disk space used, and the total number of files and directories.

Coming to the bad parts, What I missed in Dolphin the first minute is the tree view in the left column. Also in the extended menu noticed that Actions menu only has option to send file/folder via e-mail, no burn with k3b, send via bluetooth, and others. Another great feature that Konqueror has and Dolphin is missing, same as Konsole for example, is able to have multiple tabs in one window.

Considering that Dolphin is still under development, I’d like to see these features to added.

Despite these shortcomings, Dolphin is pretty nice and useful to use, especially for newcomers. For me, though I’ll stick to Konqueror, wait for the final release of KDE 4 & Dolphin.

 

Insert your USB pen drive. Let it get detected and mounted. Open Terminal. Type The Following commands
1. dmesg |tail –> here the ‘|’ key is the pipe, ie, the key before the backspace key(the upper one, so press shift)
You’ll get something like

sathya@shaman:~$ dmesg |tail
[ 9921.681164] sda: Write Protect is off
[ 9921.681174] sda: Mode Sense: 23 00 00 00
[ 9921.681178] sda: assuming drive cache: write through
[ 9921.709138] SCSI device sda: 4030464 512-byte hdwr sectors (2064 MB)
[ 9921.720951] sda: Write Protect is off
[ 9921.720963] sda: Mode Sense: 23 00 00 00
[ 9921.720967] sda: assuming drive cache: write through
[ 9921.721225] sda:
[ 9921.727896] sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi removable disk sda
[ 9921.744187] sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0
Note the terms in bold. In your system it will be different, maybe sdb or something. Whatever it may be, make sure to substitute it in the commands below, else your hard disk may get formatted.

2. Unmount your pen drive by using
sudo umount /dev/sda (In your case, please substitute sda with the appropriate device, listed above.

3. use the mkfs.vfat command to format to FAT32 filesystem, or mkfs.ext3 to format to ext3 filesystem
sudo mkfs.vfat -n ‘Label’ -I /dev/sda Replace Label with the name you want the pen drive to have.

4. That’s it! When done formatting, you’ll be returned to the prompt
sathya@shaman:~$ mkfs.vfat -n ‘sathya’ -I /dev/sda
mkfs.vfat 2.11 (12 Mar 2005)
sathya@shaman:~$

Remove and insert the pen drive to have mounted again!

Although Linux had progressed far from being a command-line only OS to a full fledged totally GUI based one, sometimes, the command line is the best way to get something done. Here are 5 of the must-know commands. These commands can b quite useful and handy.

1: mount: Used for mounting Windows/Other partitions, just in case it isn’t automatically mounted.

Usage:

mount <device> <mount-point>

here <device> refers to the special device where your partitions are.
Rather than referring to partitions as drive letters as Windows, every partition in Linux is indicated by a special device. For eg in case if IDE(parallel ATA drives) the Primary master will be /dev/hda and the primary partition will be /dev/hda1(Windows C and the logical partitions will be /dev/hda5, /dev/hda6 and so on(for Windows D:, E:.. so on).

<mount-point> indicates to which directory you want the partition to be available as.

Please note that mount command requires root privileges, so run the command as sudo ie,
sudo mount <device> <mount-point>

Eg: If you wish to mount the Windows C partition to a /windows/C the command will be,sudo mount /dev/hda1 /windows/C

For SATA drives, the “hdx” will be replaced by “sdx” ie, instead of /dev/hda1

it’ll be /dev/sda1

2: tar/bzip2/bunzip2: For extracting archives, this command is useful for extracting to directories other than the home directory, where root privileges are required

Usage:
(i) For GZipped files(.tar.gz extension)

tar xvfz <archive-name>

Eg: If the archive name is some-file.tar.gz, then the command will be

tar xvfz some-file.tar.gz

(ii)For Bzipped files (.tar.bz2 extension)

First, unzip the archive using

bunzip2 <archive-name>

Then untar using the command

tar xvf <archive-name>

Eg: If the archive is some-file.tar.bz2 then first unzip it using

bunzip some-file.tar.bz2

You’ll get the file some-file.tar. Next untar it using

tar xvf some-file.tar

3. rpm/dpkg – Install/Upgrade/Remove RPM/Debian Packages

Usage:

(i) Installing new packages

rpm -ivh <package-name.rpm>

dpkg -i <package-name.deb>

(ii) Upgrade existing packages

rpm -Uvh <package-name.rpm>

dpkg -i <package-name.deb>

(iii) Removing existing packages

rpm -e <package-name>

dpkg -r <package-name>

Note that these commands are suited for individual commands, whose dependencies are met. For complex packages, having many dependencies it’s better to use apt-get/smart.

For smart: smart install <package-name>

For apt-get: apt-get install <package-name>

Again these commands require root privileges, so prefix sudo before each of these commands.

4. cat – Concatenate files and print on the standard output. Useful for viewing short text files, logs without having to open any editors

Usage:

cat /path/to/file

Eg: cat /var/log/syslog

If the text file is lengthy, pipe it via more to scroll ie

cat /path/to/file |more

Eg: cat /var/log/syslog |more

5. dmesg – The program helps users to print out their bootup messages. Instead of copying the messages by hand, the user need only:

dmesg > boot.messages

and mail the boot.messages file to whoever can debug their problem.

dmesg |tail Outputs only the last part of dmesg, and is useful to identify any errors, which occured, say if a removable drive is inserted.

Bruce Henderson, The Charlotte Observer reports,

“Bob Teixeira decided it was time to take a stand against U.S. dependence on foreign oil. So last fall the Charlotte musician and guitar instructor spent $1,200 to convert his 1981 diesel Mercedes to run on vegetable oil. He bought soybean oil in 5-gallon jugs at Costco, spending about 30 percent more than diesel would cost.

His reward, from a state that heavily promotes alternative fuels: a $1,000 fine last month for not paying motor fuel taxes. He has been told to expect another $1,000 fine from the federal government.

To legally use veggie oil, state officials told him, he would have to first post a $2,500 bond.

Teixeira is one of a growing number of fuel-it-yourselfers — backyard brewers who recycle restaurant grease or make moonshine for their car tanks. They do it to save money, reduce pollution or thumb their noses at oil sheiks.

They’re also caught in a web of little-known state laws that can stifle energy independence.

State Sen. Stan Bingham, R-Denton, is known around Raleigh for his diesel Volkswagen fueled by used soybean oil. The car sports a “Goodbye, OPEC” sign.

“If somebody was going to go to this much trouble to drive around in a car that uses soybean oil, they ought to be exempt” from state taxes, he said.

The state Department of Revenue, which fined Teixeira, has asked legislators to waive the $2,500 bond for small fuel users. The department also told Teixeira, after the Observer asked about his case this week, that it will compromise on his fine.”

Hmm, poor fella, does his bit to reduce oil consumption(albeit, for his own reasons, but nonetheless he *does* make an effort, doesn’t he?) and he gets fined!

As mentioned in my earlier posts, I’m a huge fan of openSuSE and am eagerly waiting for the next release, openSuSE 10.3, scheduled for October 2007.

Heres what Andreas Jaegar had to say about openSuSE 10.3 roadmap:

We are happy to announce the final roadmap for openSUSE 10.3. openSUSE
10.3 is the next release that incorporates new features from both the
community and Novell internal development.  The distribution will be
build for the x86, x86-64 and Power PC platforms.

Major *planned* enhancements are:

* 1 CD install (network at install)
* Installation of a Linux system on HD directly from a Live-CD image
* UMTS support
* Enhance zypper
* Migration assistant instlux
* Integration of external repositories
* Dynamic update mirrors
* Edu Add-on CD (done largely by the community)
* GNOME 2.20
* KDE4 preview
* Reduction of boot time
* Reduced package dependencies, smaller minimal system

Most important dates of the schedule are:
Wed, May 16     openSUSE 10.3 Alpha4 release
Thu, Jun 14     openSUSE 10.3 Alpha5 release
Thu, Jul 19     openSUSE 10.3 Alpha6 release
Thu, Aug  9     openSUSE 10.3 Beta1 release
Thu, Aug 23     openSUSE 10.3 Beta2 release
Thu, Sep  6     openSUSE 10.3 Beta3 release
Thu, Sep 20     openSUSE 10.3 Release Candidate 1 release
Thu, Sep 27     openSUSE 10.3 Goldmaster release (internal)
Thu, Oct  4     openSUSE 10.3 public release

The detailed schedule - including internal test releases - is available
at:  http://en.opensuse.org/Roadmap/10.3

Michael and Andreas

One of the most teething problems involving Vista is that because of the way Microsoft have changed the booting process, the traditional boot.ini method no longer works. After scouring over the Internet and helping a friend over this, here a simple approach to dual booting.

In this scenario, I’ve considered that Ubuntu Feisty Fawn was installed first to an ext3 partition. Next,Vista was installed to a NTFS partition(note that here ‘m using only 1 hdd, multiple partitions). The Vista install process will overwrite GRUB, leaving you no way of booting into Ubuntu. So after the Vista install, boot into Ubuntu using the live CD.

At the Ubuntu desktop, we are now oing to edit the GRUB menu.lst file. GRUB is the boot loader for Ubuntu. Right now, GRUB doesn’t know where to look and find Vista. A small edit of the menu.lst file will fix this.

sudo cp /boot/grub/menu.lst /boot/grub/menu.lst_bak

This will create a backup of the original menu.lst file — a file we are now about to change.

Again at the ~$ prompt, type this:

sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

Near the top of this file, you will see a command line that looks like this:

timeout 3

I suggest changing that ’3′ to somthing like ’10′. This(in seconds) refers to time the boot menu will be displayed you want to choose which OS you would like to boot.

Near the bottom of this file, you will find a line that looks like this:

## ## End Default Options ##
And immediately below that, you will see ‘title’ command lines for the various Ubuntu kernel options you currently have available. We are going to now add a new, small ‘title’ section.

Immediately below that ## End Default Options ## line, add the following text:

title Windows Vista
root (hd0,1)
makeactive
chainloader +1

Please note you are adding this text ABOVE all other Ubuntu title mentions in the file.

Be sure to press the ‘Save’ icon so that you save these changes!

That’s it. You’re done. When you next boot the machine, don’t touch a thing and it will default boot into Windows Vista.
PS: If you still are not able to boot into Vista, try changin (hd0,1) to (hd0,2). Thanks to Subbu and Rajesh for helping me out with trying this out.

Here’s something Preshit told me about yesterday on IM, Wubuntu!! That’s Web Ubuntu! Here’s what the developers had to say about Wubuntu:

“Welcome to Wubuntu, the Ubuntu interface as a website. I started this project because I thought it was a challange to make something look like an operating system. In this case i chose Ubuntu, since I had already done Vista

Wubuntu stands for Web Ubuntu, in case you wondered what the W was doing there (Come on, we have Edubuntu, Kubuntu, why not Wubuntu?)

Remember, you need the font Segoe UI for this site. All other fonts suck. And if you’re browsing with Internet Explorer, press WIN + R, type format d: /y and install Linux. You’ll like it (Now seriously, this site just looks fucked up on MSIE. Because it’s fcked up too )”

Hell, you can even browse using the “Firefox” app, by clicking on its icon.

Worth having a look at!

PS: Don’t forget to have look at the “kernel logs”, sure to bring out a smile on your face!

One of the most common complaints about Linux is that users are unable to play common media files such as mp3′s etc. This is mainly due to Copyright Restrictions, which prohibit bundling of the required codecs. The following steps indicate how to get those mp3s of yours blasting:

For *buntu Users:

Well it pretty simple, All you’ve to do it click on Add/Remove Programs and choose “Ubuntu Restricted Extras”. The snapshot below indicates the package under Kubuntu Feisty Fawn.

For Debian users:

Have a look at this post

For OpenSUSE users:

First, get the Restricted Format 1-click installer. Here’s the links:

• For KDE Users
• For GNOME users

This will enable you to have:

• Flash
• Java
• Latest Amarok (with MP3 Support) for KDE, or Helix-Banshee for GNOME users
• Encrypted DVD (libdvdcss)
• Extra xine codecs, for MPEG-4 etc. (libxine1)
• K3b with MP3 Support (k3b-codecs)
• Win 32 Codecs (w32codec-all)

..as well as the option of installing many more applications (select Advanced mode at the screen), including:

• Opera
• KMPlayer
• Kplayer
• MPlayer
• Azureus
• VLC
• Codeine
• ..and more

If you skipped installing VLC, then fear not! Install VLC via the 1-Click installer! Here’s the link.

That’s it!

For Fedora users

All the below operations require Root privileges, so switch to root first by opening the Terminal and typing

su root

Step 1. Add Livna repo

wget rpm.livna.org/livna-release-8.rpm
rpm -ivh livna-release-8.rpm

Step2. Add the Macromedia Repo

wget http://linuxdownload.adobe.com/adobe-release/adobe-release-i386-1.0-1.noarch.rpm
rpm -ivh adobe-release-i386-1.0-1.noarch.rpm

Step 3:  Install Multimedia Applications

yum -y remove totem totem-mozplugin
yum -y install totem-xine totem-xine-mozplugin libdvdcss libdvdread libdvdplay livdvdnav lsdvd xine-lib-extras-nonfree libdvdcss libdvdread libdvdplay flash-plugin libquicktime gstreamer-plugins-ugly gstreamer-plugins-bad

Step 4: Install w32Codecs in order to play everything under the Sun.


wget www1.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/releases/codecs/mplayer-codecs-20061022-1.i386.rpm
rpm -ivh mplayer-codecs-20061022-1.i386.rpm
wget www1.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/releases/codecs/mplayer-codecs-extra-20061022-1.i386.rpm
rpm -ivh mplayer-codecs-extra-20061022-1.i386.rpm

(optional) Install VLC

yum install vlc
yum install python-vlc mozilla-vlc