Convert .rpm files to .deb files in Ubuntu

Just switch from redhat/fedora to Ubuntu and your used to rpm's? Or did you find an rpm that isnt available as a .deb file? I sure have so I thought I would share the easy process of converting rpm to deb, check it out.

To do this, install Alien using:

  sudo apt-get install alien

And convert using:

  sudo alien -k name-of-rpm-file.rpm

To install .deb packages, double click the file and click Install Package or simply:

  sudo dpkg -i name-of-created-deb-file.deb

Alternatively you can simply install rpm files, This command converts rpm to deb then installs the deb file, after it will delete the temporary .deb created.


  sudo alien -i name-of-rpm-file.rpm


Enjoy.,

Bleeding Edge - Simple shell script to install media players, codecs, MS fonts, drivers and more

Bleeding Edge is a shell script designed for Ubuntu 32 bit. It installs repositories, keys, and software - such as media players, codecs, MS fonts, drivers, etc. It also cleans up the system.

Install Bleeding Edge in ubuntu

You need to download BleedingEdge0_9_9.sh file from here once you have .sh file you need to provide execute permissions to this you can do this by right click on the script select properties or run the following command from your terminal

sudo chmod +x BleedingEdge0_9_9.sh

You can run this script using the following command 

sudo sh BleedingEdge0_8_4.sh 


Screenshot 

 

How to change network card speed and duplex settings in ubuntu

If you want to change speed and duplex of your network card you have to use ethtool or mii-tool.


ethtool can be used to query and change settings such as speed, auto- negotiation and checksum offload on many network devices, especially Ethernet devices.

In ubuntu if you want to use mii-tool you have to install net-tools package.

Net-tools package includes the important tools for controlling the network subsystem of the Linux kernel. This includes arp, ifconfig, netstat, rarp, nameif and route. Additionally, this package contains utilities relating to particular network hardware types (plipconfig, slattach, mii-tool) and advanced aspects of IP configuration (iptunnel, ipmaddr).

In the upstream package ‘hostname’ and friends are included. Those are not installed by this package, since there is a special “hostname*.deb”.

Install required packages

sudo apt-get install ethtool net-tools

First you need to find the existing network card speed for this you can use the following command

ethtool eth0

Once you have the current speed and duplex details you can change using the following commands

If you want to setup eth0 10 or 100 or 1000 speed with ethtool try this

sudo ethtool -s eth0 autoneg off speed 10 duplex half

sudo ethtool -s eth0 autoneg off speed 100 duplex full

sudo ethtool -s eth0 autoneg off speed 1000 duplex full

If you want to make it permanent you have to add following lines to /etc/network/interfaces file

gksudo gedit /etc/network/interfaces

Add the following line

pre-up /usr/sbin/ethtool -s $IFACE autoneg off 100 duplex full

Save and exit the file

sudo networking restart


enjoy...

Pinguy OS

Pinguy OS - not many must have heard about it. Pinguy OS is basically a heavily modified Ubuntu with an emphasis on the out-of-the-box functionality of the OS and more importantly on the look-good factor. And I got to tell you folks, on every count, my experience with Pinguy OS was well above average.

What is Pinguy OS?

Pinguy OS is basically a remastered Ubuntu which just works out of the box without a hitch and also, it looks and feels so damn pretty. Here, I will try my best to point out things that I loved about Pinguy OS and also some other things that bothered me.

My Experience With Pinguy OS

As I said before, experience I had with Pinguy OS was delightful. And the interesting part is, I didn't even install Pinguy OS in my laptop. Instead, I tried out the live DVD version of Pinguy OS from my USB drive. Actually, I am writing this blog post right from live Pinguy OS.

One of the first things you notice while using Pinguy OS is the overall robustness and responsiveness of the OS. Normally, when you try to open say, Nautilus file browser for example, there will be a slight delay. But somehow, that delay is completely absent in Pinguy OS. I figured out that, Pinguy OS comes with Preload installed. But even with Preload, my Ubuntu machine didn't felt as robust. And I was not even using the properly installed version of Pinguy OS!

Default Pinguy OS looks beautiful too. It comes preinstalled with useful Conky menu, Docky,Nautilus Elementary, Gloobus Preview and also has Elementary as the default GTK theme. Many of the above features are among the first things every savvy Ubuntu user would do after installing Ubuntu. For reference, you should check out this collection of things I did after installing Ubuntu Maverick. 

After installing Pinguy OS, I had to do nothing, except for removing unnecessary applications, about which we will discuss in more detail below. Pinguy OS does the branding part also quite nicely. I liked the Pinguy OS logo and the way it is displayed in the boot screen.

Things that Bothered Me

Nothing really, except the sheer amount of applications that comes default with Pinguy OS. I consider myself as a pretty heavy user of applications and even I find this list of applications completely overblown. Some of the applications that comes installed with Pinguy OS and that I most probably won't use include DeVeDe, GNOME MPlayer(prefer SMPlayer), pms-linux, Torrent Episode Downloader, gpicview, Pinta, Ailurus, mvPod to name a few.

Download Pinguy OS

• Both 32 bit and 64 bit version of Pinguy OS is available for download. Visit Pinguy OS download page for more information.

Conclusion 

Pinguy OS is undoubtedly the best Ubuntu derivative I have used and I won't mind rating it even above Linux Mint. I would prefer a much lighter version of Pinguy OS though. So, next time when a wannabe Linux user comes to me asking for a good Linux desktop that just works, Pinguy OS will be my first choice.

Install Gerix Wifi Crackrer Ubuntu

Here we are to present the new version of Gerix Wifi Cracker NG (New Generation), a really complete GUI for Aircrack-NG which includes useful extras.

Completely re-written in Python + QT, automates all the different techniques to attack Access Points and Wireless Routers (but not only ..)

Currently Gerix Wifi Cracker NG is available and supported natively by BackTrack (pre-installed on the BT4 Final version) and available on all the different Debian Based distributions (Ubuntu, ecc..).

The software requires: aircrack-ng, xterm, machchanger, zenity and obviously python-qt3. The version 1.0 is publicly released for the last tests and to collect opinions from users.

To install, open terminal and type

wget http://www.clshack.it/nopaste/gerix-wifi-cracker-ng-2.0-bt7.deb

sudo dpkg -i gerix-wifi-cracker-ng-2.0-bt7.deb 

If cannot install then creates the directory

mkdir / pentest / wireless / wifi-gerix-cracker-ng

 Well, once installed, can open it from here:

sudo python /usr/share/gerix-wifi-cracker-ng/gerix.py

or

sudo python /pentest/wireless/gerix-wifi-cracker-ng/gerix.py

Install Gnome Music Player Client (GMPC) + MPD - Ubuntu 10.10

GMPC is a GTK2 client for Music Player Daemon. I'm not going to talk about Music Player Daemon again, because we covered it when we talked aboutSonata (including how to configure Music Player Daemon - MPD).

This time we will talk about GMPC, or Gnome Music Player Client, which is a lightweight client for MPD, extendable through plug-ins: alarm, album view, AWN applet, dynamic playlist, fullscreen info, jamendo, last.fm, libnotify, lirc, lyrdb, lyricsplugin, lyricwiki, magnatune, wikipedia info, taglib (for editing tags) and so on (in the latest version).

The latest version (0.19.1) of GMPC adds a lot of new features, such as:

• Dynamic playlists
• Lots of new plugins (se above)
• Now Playing window: This shows a page full with metadata information about the playing song.
• Fully rewritten and more flexible metadata system.
• Metadata selector: You can now look through all the results returned by the metadata plugin and pick the cover, lyric, etc you like best.
• Guitar Tabs.
• Similar genre support. (For now only used by dynamic playlist plugin).
• Support for mpd's 0.15.0 single and consume mode.
• Show the title of the next song. (requires mpd 0.15.x)
• Translatable plugins: (Partial) translated plugin preferences pane.
• Integrated favorites support.
• A firefox like status bar, indicating repeat state, random state and when used the state of the dynamic playlist plugin.

For a full list of new features in MPGC 0.19, see THIS page.

Even though through plugins, GMPC becomes a fully featured music player and manager, it's still one of the fastest applications of this kind: currently it handles a play queue with more than a 1.000.000 songs without a problem. I have a collection of almost 40.000 songs and GMPC uses about 30 mb of RAM with all the plugins installed (the author says that for it's database of 32.000 songs, it used 11 MB of RAM but I guess that was either an older version, or he didn't test it using all the plugins).

Let's install GMPC in Ubuntu

If you configured MPD for Sonata, all the settings will also be used for GMPC (obviously). If not, configure MPD first.

NOTE: the mpd --createdb command doesn't work with the latest MPD. Instead, after installing GMPC, simply select Server > Update Database. You will then see a blue icon in the bottom right corner saying the music database is updating.

For this post, I am going to cover install GMPC from the trunk PPA, meaning it will be the latest version (0.19.1 at the time I am writing this post) but there might be bugs. If you want to add the stable PPA, see HERE.

Now let's get started:

1. Before installing GMPC, we must update MPD. So add the following PPA:

-For Ubuntu Karmic Koala, Lucid Lynx and Maverick

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gmpc-trunk/mpd-trunk

-For Ubuntu Jaunty, Intrepid or Hardy:

sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/gmpc-trunk/mpd-trunk/ubuntu YOUR_UBUNTU_VERSION_HERE main' >> /etc/apt/sources.list"

sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com C116A57C

Replacing YOUR_UBUNTU_VERSION_HERE with jaunty, intrepid or hardy.

Now upgrade or install MPD if it's not already installed:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

or

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install mpd mpc

2. Adding the GMPC trunk PPA.
Open a terminal and paste these commands:

-for Ubuntu Karmic Koala and Lucid Lynx:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gmpc-trunk/ppa

-For Ubuntu Jaunty, Intrepid or Hardy:

sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/gmpc-trunk/ppa/ubuntu YOUR_UBUNTU_VERSION_HERE main' >> /etc/apt/sources.list"

sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com CA0EB130

Replacing YOUR_UBUNTU_VERSION_HERE with jaunty, intrepid or hardy.

3. Installing GMPC (Gnome Music Player Client).

Now, to install GMPC, simply run this command:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install gmpc

The following command will also install all the plugins available in the PPA:

sudo apt-get install gmpc-plugins

After installation, you will find GMPC under Applications > Sound & Video > Gnome Music Player Client

NOTE: Some of the internet fetching plugins might cause gmpc to crash if you have "wins" enabled for your host in /etc/nsswitch.conf.

GMPC and Last.fm

The last.fm plugin in the latest GMPC version only fetches artist images, generates playlists, etc. To be able to scrobble your music to last.fm, you must install mpdscribble:

sudo apt-get install mpdscribble

Then press Alt + F2 and enter:

gksu gedit /etc/mpdscribble.conf

MPDscribble has scrobbling support for last.fm, libre.fm and jamendo. Just edit the file above with your username / password.

Some last notes

Although the name suggests it, GMPC does not depend on Gnome anymore (for the last 4 years).

GMPC is very portable and will run on Linux,Solaris, Mac OSX and Windows and have been used on embedded/low end hardware like openmoke, one-laptop-per-child etc. You can grab source files and Windows binaries from HERE.

My verdict on this application: just WOW! I can't stop saying that ever since I started using it (just about when I started writing this post)

LiquidFM Mod

Increase Quality by Adding an Antenna. Kensington's LiquidFM is a device that transmit audio from my Ipod to my car radio.

The transmission quality suffers especially in crowded areas. By adding an antenna to it, one could enhance the signal strength and therefore get a better sound into your card radio. Checkout the video tutorial for the details.

Install SuperTuxKart Games in Ubuntu 10.10

It’s here, racing fans – a brand new version of iconic Linux game ‘SuperTuxKart’ is now available for download.

SuperTuxKart 0.7, which has been in development for over a year, sees some great new features and improvements added to the game, including: -

• New graphics engine
• New GUI
• New Kart and track animations
• New and improved tracks, karts, and items
• Shortcut/alternative way support for tracks
• Asian font support
• Bugfixes

Download

Dying to get your racing helmet on? You can nab the latest release by adding the following PPA (in bold) to your software sources.

To do this using a Terminal enter: -

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:stk/dev

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install supertuxkart

Launch Via Applications > Games > SuperTuxKart
Alternatively you grab the source @ sourceforge.net/projects/supertuxkart

RhythmCat - A music player with lyric show

RhythmCat is a music player which can be running under Linux. It can be used as a normal music player, and it can also show lyrics in a single window, or even on the desktop. It can help you mix your voice into the original music. And this player can help you convert the format of your music files, or cut/join your music…

Install RhythmCat in ubuntu
Download deb packages from here once you have deb packages you can install them by double clicking on it.

Force Quit Option Ubuntu 10.10

“Arrrrrrgh” said the bear with the sore head when trying to run ‘xkill’ in Unity. “Why doesn’t pawing ALT + F2 work in here?!”.

It’s something which I know has perplexed, bamboozled and annoyed the frell out of many readers who have upgraded to Ubuntu 10.10 Unity.

Thankfully it’ll be one of the many things fixed in Unity come 11.04 but, if you can’t wait until April 2011 to flex your fingers, here are some alternative ways to run commands, launch apps and stretch those digits using ALT+F2.

photo © 2009 Martin Teschner | more info(via: Wylio)

1. Do it with GNOME-Do

Gnome-Do can open, launch and execute a whole world of wonders when called – search google, send text to pastebin, upload photos or just launch an application. For those who desire some visual slickness in their launcher Do is the undisputed choice.

2. Take Alawalk for a walk

Launch your applications/command whilst using very little memory with Alawalk.

And by ‘very little memory’ I mean very little – Alawwhich uses barely above 65KiB of RAM when in use.

Alawalk comes with many-a plugin from Google search to Tweeter. It uses a custom set of commands for a few things but all is explained in the ‘Read Me’ file included in the download.

alawalk.tk

3. Run with Gmrun

Another work around to the lack of ALT+F2 freshness is by use of Gmrun – a small dialogue window that can be configured to show on shortcut.

Gmrun has terminal-style TAB completion amongst other standard fare. Unlike other entries in this list it doesn’t use window controls.

Gmrun can be installed via the Ubuntu Software Centre.

4. GRun

Want your launcher to have automatic auto-complete (as opposed to tab completion)? gRun steps up to the challenge. It’s small, can be configured to run on a keyboard shortcut and, whilst lacking some of the advanced features others in the list can claim, it does have a ‘memory’ for swift access to your most commonly used commands.

gRun can be installed via the Ubuntu Software Centre.

5. Be lazy, use the terminal

Finally if none of the candidates bring balm to your each keyboatd-shortcut-loving fingers there is always the terminal ready and waiting. Add it to your Unity launcher for quick access and et voila – problem almost solved.

There. No need to stress out too much Mr Bear. Maybe you should go find whoever broke in to your house, ate your porridge and slept in your bed before stealing your prize collection of Ubuntu release CD’s, hmm?