Install VirtualBox 4.0 Ubuntu

 

Virtualbox 4.0 Installer and updater
by:Nikolai Rachmaninoff, Envied Ubuntu Group.

Description:After the discrete success of the beta version of the script, I decided to prepare a stable and definitive version.The script will add the official Oracle Virtualbox repository and install Virtualbox 4.0.

Tested on:Ubuntu 10.10 (i386 and amd64);Should work on 10.04 and Linux Mint 9/10 as well.

Instructions:
1)Download the .tar.gz and unpack it.
2)Run the script by double clicking it.
3)After the Virtualbox has started you can remove the extension pack from your desktop.

More information:

VirtualBox 4.0.0 (released 2010-12-22)

This version is a major update. The following major new features were added:

* Reorganization of VirtualBox into a base package and Extension Packs; see chapter 1.5, Installing VirtualBox and extension packs, see the manual for more information
* New settings/disk file layout for VM portability; see chapter 10.1, Where VirtualBox stores its files, see the manual for more information
* Major rework of the GUI (now called “VirtualBox Manager”):
o Redesigned user interface with guest window preview (also for screenshots)
o New “scale” display mode with scaled guest display; see chapter 1.8.5, Resizing the machine’s window, see the manual for more information
o Support for creating and starting .vbox desktop shortcuts (bug #1889)
o The VM list is now sortable
o Machines can now be deleted easily without a trace including snapshots and saved states, and optionally including attached disk images (bug #5511; also, VBoxManage unregistervm --delete can do the same now)
o Built-in creation of desktop file shortcuts to start VMs on double click (bug #2322)
* VMM: support more than 1.5/2 GB guest RAM on 32-bit hosts
* New virtual hardware:
o Intel ICH9 chipset with three PCI buses, PCI Express and Message Signaled Interrupts (MSI); see chapter 3.4.1, “Motherboard” tab, see the manual for more information
o Intel HD Audio, for better support of modern guest operating systems (e.g. 64-bit Windows; bug #2785)
* Improvements to OVF support (see chapter 1.12, Importing and exporting virtual machines, see the manual for more information):
o Open Virtualization Format Archive (OVA) support
o Significant performance improvements during export and import
o Creation of the manifest file on export is optional now
o Imported disks can have formats other than VMDK
* Resource control: added support for limiting a VM’s CPU time and IO bandwidth; see chapter 5.8, Limiting bandwidth for disk images, see the manual for more information
* Storage: support asynchronous I/O for iSCSI, VMDK, VHD and Parallels images
* Storage: support for resizing VDI and VHD images; see chapter 8.21, VBoxManage modifyhd, see the manual for more information.
* Guest Additions: support for multiple virtual screens in Linux and Solaris guests using X.Org server 1.3 and later
* Language bindings: uniform Java bindings for both local (COM/XPCOM) and remote (SOAP) invocation APIs

In addition, the following items were fixed and/or added:

* VMM: Enable large page support by default on 64-bit hosts (applies to nested paging only)
* VMM: fixed guru meditation when running Minix (VT-x only; bug #6557)
* VMM: fixed crash under certain circumstances (Linux hosts only, non VT-x/AMD-V mode only; bugs #4529 and #7819)
* GUI: add configuration dialog for port forwarding in NAT mode (bug #1657)
* GUI: show the guest window content on save and restore
* GUI: certain GUI warnings don’t stop the VM output anymore
* GUI: fixed black fullscreen minitoolbar on KDE4 hosts (Linux hosts only; bug #5449)
* BIOS: implemented multi-sector reading to speed up booting of certain guests (e.g. Solaris)
* Bridged networking: improved throughput by filtering out outgoing packets intended for the host before they reach the physical network (Linux hosts only; bug #7792)
* 3D support: allow use of CR_SYSTEM_GL_PATH again (bug #6864)
* 3D support: fixed various clipping/visibility issues (bugs #5659, #5794, #5848, #6018, #6187, #6570)
* 3D support: guest application stack corruption when using glGetVertexAttrib[ifd]v (bug #7395)
* 3D support: fixed OpenGL support for libMesa 7.9
* 3D support: fixed Unity/Compiz crashes on natty
* 2D Video acceleration: multimonitor support
* VRDP: fixed rare crash in multimonitor configuration
* VRDP: support for upstream audio
* Display: fixed occasional guest resize crash
* NAT: port forwarding rules can be applied at runtime
* SATA: allow to attach CD/DVD-ROM drives including passthrough (bug #7058)
* Floppy: support readonly image files, taking this as the criteria for making the medium readonly (bug #5651)
* Audio: fixed memory corruption during playback under rare circumstances
* Audio: the DirectSound backend now allows VMs to be audible when another DirectSound application is active, including another VM (bug #5578)
* EFI: support for SATA disks and CDROMs
* BIOS: reduce the stack usage of the VESA BIOS function #4F01 (Quake fix)
* OVF/OVA: fixed export of VMs with iSCSI disks
* Storage: Apple DMG image support for the virtual CD/DVD (bug #6760)
* Linux host USB support: introduced a less invasive way of accessing raw USB devices (bugs #1093, #5345, #7759)
* Linux hosts: support recent Linux kernels with CONFIG_DEBUG_SET_MODULE_RONX set
* Guest Additions: Shared Folders now can be marked as being auto-mounted on Windows, Linux and Solaris guests
* Linux Additions: Shared Folders now support symbolic links (bug #818)
* Linux Additions: combined 32-bit and 64-bit additions into one file
* Windows Additions: automatic logon on Windows Vista/Windows 7 is now able to handle renamed user accounts; added various bugfixes

Changelog:

03/01/2011
-The script has been updated to version 1.1.Now the script downloads the extensionpack and installs it by opening it with Virtualbox.
04/01/201
-Code corrected to v.1.2.

(Virtualbox 4.0 Installer)

Source GnomeLook

Install RaveH20 4 GTK Theme Ubuntu

The RaveH20 Team is very proud to announce the immediate release of:
The RaveH20 4 GTK GUI Theme Codename:"Danger Days" This Version has been in development for over 9 mouths! And sees a major overhaul and cleanup in practically all areas of this GTK theme.

The RaveH20 4 Theme Aims to be an Original (As in Originality and Uniqueness) and beautiful Shiny Theme. Meaning it doesn't try to mimic,copy or by any means ripoff other Themes or Operating System GUIs. It only tries to be a unique beautiful first class version of it's self. Its also aims to a 100% Free and Legal Theme For Linux,BSD and any other OpenSource desktops, useing GTK, Gnome , XFCE , LXDE or other desktops, It does not use artwork or graphics Stolen or taken from unauthorized sources, RaveH20 4 Only includes content Licensed Under the GPL/LGPL (v.2) Created by Us or others! You "should" be safe in distributing or modifying RaveH20 4 for your own commercial or personal needs. So feel free to use RaveH20 4 in your own distribution, Community,Commercial or Personal Etc. *We cannot make any legal warranty to this however as we are a group of volunteers.*

This GTK GUI Theme Provides Windows Borders and a Unique Widget Theme (GTK2 + Metacity Theme) it works on the Gnome,XFCE,LXDE and other GTK Based desktops!

RaveH20 4 GTK GUI Theme comes in two versions:
1.) Night Edition - A Dark Theme with a Beautiful Shiny Black Panel
2.) Lights Edition - A Light Theme with a Beautiful Shiny White Panel
(!) We recommend you use both the Icon theme and the GTK theme in parallel (together)
Night Edition Icons go with Night Edition GTK GUI Theme(This)

Grab the RaveH20 4 Icon Theme! (seen in the image and ment to go with this theme) now out!
Here: http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php?content=119776

Created By The RaveH20 Team! The Open Source Theme Team!
(see are Website)
http://www.iravefuzion.blogspot.com

If you would like to submit fixes or other changes please email us
at: iravefuzion@gmail.com

Please gives us feedback! we are a community project that trys its best to listen to you! :) you may report bugs bellow or by emailing us (preferd)
HEY! If you like the theme please spread the word (by linking to are blog or this page) we a community project that you can be a part of! see are website for details

Changelog:

Major overhaul and cleanup in practically all areas of the theme both the Icon and the GTK Themes. This Theme is 100% GPL!
This theme is fully compatible with the icons theme! This means Dark or Light Themes available!

(INSTALL)
You can Install this theme on any open source desktop with the Gnome or XFCE Desktop. (or any GTK for that Matter)

EZ (Howto Install)
1.) Right Click on Desktop
2.) Click Change Background
3.) Click on the themes tab
4.) Drag The Theme Package you just downloaded to the theme window, to auto install!
(!) Download Includes pre-packed Theme, Change log and howto install (Advanced) Methods.

Hey! What Version Do I Want?:
1.) Night Edition - A Dark Theme with a Beautiful Shiny Black Panel
2.) Lights Edition - A Light Theme with a Beautiful Shiny White Panel

(!) Pre-Packed in this theme's Tar file is comprehensive and easy to fallow install instructions and alot more documentation about it! check it out!
Easy PDF Instructions Coming soon!

(RaveH20 4 GUI Theme Night Edtion (any distro)

(RaveH20 4 GUI Theme Lights Edtion(any distro)

(RaveH20 4 GUI Theme Night (Mirror 1)

(RaveH20 4 GUI Theme Lights (Mirror 1)

Source UbuntuArt

BlackWhite Icon Collection Ubuntu

Source GnomeLook

Install Sabily 9.10 (Gaza) - Video

Assalamo alaykom, Kindly find in the following video how to install Sabily 9.10 (Gaza)..step by step...

How to install Sabily 9.10 (Gaza) from Sabily Channel on Vimeo.

Source Sabily.com

Sabily Magazine - Coming Soon

 In order to spread Sabily, Sabily Promotion Team from Malaysia already decide to publish a Magazine of Sabily call "Edaran Sabily" mean Sabily distribution.  It is iniative from Sabily Malaysian Team to spread Sabily to their nation. In this case the magazine will be in Malaysian language. Hopefully soon they will translate it to English then publish it. The magazine soon can be downloaded from Sabily Malaysia homepage. Print version is under consideration depend on reader request.

    In this case they now calling for volunteer especially from Malaysia or Indonesia to participate in their magazine project to be a writer and graphic designer for specific article that they would like to publish in the second issue of the magazine soon. The magazine will cover  more topic about Sabily, a little about Ubuntu and other distro, Open source, latest news, Community activity, games, programming, Tips, Q & A, etc.

    So if you have talent and interest to participate, you should sent your application to edaransabily@gmail.com tell which areas of interest.What are you waiting for?

Here is sample screenshot of the "Edaran Sabily" magazine cover.

Don't forget to get it soon..

source Sabily Blogsphere

Marqeaux' Ubuntu Wallpaper Quartet 2

 

Download Here

Source UbuntuArt

Update: How To Install 13 Stunning Themes From Bisigi in Ubuntu

If you want to install Bisigi themes in Lucid or Karmic, there is an even easier method. Check this link 

Add GPG Key First

• Open Terminal and copy-paste the following line.

sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 0x1781bd45c4c3275a34bb6aec6e871c4a881574de

• Done.

Now Add The Repo

• Open sources.list file first. Do the following command in Terminal

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

• Now, depending on the version of Ubuntu you use, copy-paste the following repo to the sources.list file, preferably to the last line.

For Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic

sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 0x1781bd45c4c3275a34bb6aec6e871c4a881574

For Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty

sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 0x1781bd45c4c3275a34bb6aec6e871c4a881574

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/bisigi/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main 

For Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid

sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 0x1781bd45c4c3275a34bb6aec6e871c4a881574

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/bisigi/ppa/ubuntu intrepid main 

For Ubuntu 8.10 Hardy

sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 0x1781bd45c4c3275a34bb6aec6e871c4a881574

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/bisigi/ppa/ubuntu hardy main 

• Done.

Update Repositories to Include the Changes

• Do the following in Terminal.

• sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 0x1781bd45c4c3275a34bb6aec6e871c4a881574

sudo apt-get update

• Done.

And Finally, Installing of Bisigi Themes

• To install all the 12 Bisigi themes for Ubuntu Gnome in one go, just open Terminal and copy-paste the command.

sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 0x1781bd45c4c3275a34bb6aec6e871c4a881574

sudo apt-get install zgegblog-themes

• Now in order to download themes of your choice, here are the name of the themes with corresponding commands on the right side.

sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 0x1781bd45c4c3275a34bb6aec6e871c4a881574

AquaDreams:                      sudo aptitude install aquadreams-theme
Ubuntu Sunrise:                   sudo aptitude install  ubuntu-sunrise-theme
Bamboo-Zen:                      sudo aptitude install bamboo-zen-theme
Step into Freedom:               sudo aptitude install step-into-freedom-theme
Tropical:                             sudo aptitude install tropical-theme
Exotic:                                 sudo aptitude install exotic-theme
Balanzan:                            sudo aptitude install balanzan-theme
Wild Shine:                          sudo aptitude install wild-shine-theme
Infinity:                                sudo aptitude install infinity-theme
Showtime:                           sudo aptitude install showtime-theme
Orange:                              sudo aptitude install orange-theme
Ellanna:                              sudo aptitude install ellanna-theme

Links
http://www.bisigi-project.org/

Install World of Padman Ubuntu

Popular first person shooter World of Padman has received a much-awaited new release which brings the 6 year old game up to version 1.5.
The game, originally started in 2004 as a modification of Quake III: Arena, is an open source cross-platform shooter loosely based on the Padman comic strip for the magazine Playstation Games which originated in the 1990s.

The current iteration of the game now runs on an enhanced version of the ever-so-prominent ioquake3 engine to deliver some updated slick visuals which compliment the fun gameplay.
Version 1.5 brings a heap of new changes as the announcement boasts:

“Countless things have been revised and partly modified. There is a new game type, new maps, new player models, a new weapon, new powerups and much more. You might be in for some surprises.”

Download it now

You can grab the latest version of World of Padman for Ubuntu by heading over to the official announcement and choosing a mirror.
Be warned, the download is 900mb!

Source UbuntuGamers

Install Xonotic Nexuiz Ubuntu 10.10

Xonotic, a fork of popular and graphically beautiful first person shooter Nexuiz, has had its first preview release, 0.1.
Nexuiz has been around a while and is well known as being one of the nicest looking games available to run natively under Linux. The open source project hasn’t had a release since late 2009, and many speculate that the project is officially dead.
Not wanting to leave such a great game untouched and let it sink into the ground of the vaporware graveyard, the Xonotic project was born. Promising new features, graphics, physics and maps (not prescription medicine as the name suggests), they are determined to inject new life into the stranded FPS.

“The last release of Nexuiz (2.5.2) was on the first of October 2009, and when we decided to fork early March 2010 we continued where we had left off with Nexuiz. Large parts of the code, graphics and music have been redone and have improved immensely. In over a year we have managed to make huge progress on pretty much every part of the game.

However this release is still a preview, which means that bugs are likely to exist and that some of our decisions turn out to have unwanted side effects.”

What’s new?

Today, the project released a preview, Xonotic 0.1, which sees a whole host of new stuff added, as well as a heap of bugs as one should expect from such an early release. This is of course great news for Linux FPS fans who have been following the project eagerly awaiting some news.
The new release sees features such as:

• Performance and graphics improvements
• A new dynamic and configurable HUD
• New informative cross hairs
• New game menu
• Tweaks to physics and weapon balance
• New player models and animations
• New maps
• Client authentication and encryption

Phew! Quite the changelog.
For the complete list of changes and a detailed description of each, you should direct your browsers to the press release and have a read.

Download it now

You can grab the game from these handy dandy links.
Download via torrent
Download via HTTP
md5sum: aafb43893aa66e01488c817e3a60d96d

Source UbuntuGamers

Gwibber’s new look interface

It feels an age since we last mentioned anything related to Gwibber but, thankfully, there’s a reason for that.
Back in July last year Ubuntu’s Neil Patel created some superb designs for a ‘new look’ Gwibber. Designs so ace that they are being turned into reality, as Gwibber creator Ryan Paul told us when we interviewed him back in August: -

“I’m sure some OMG! readers have already seen the excellent mock-ups by Neil Patel (here) of his proposal for a next-generation Gwibber interface.
When we implement those mock-ups, we are going to be using native widgets, which will hopefully help improve our performance considerably.”

Whilst the entirely redesigned shebang isn’t ready to try out just yet a few tantalizing demos, prototypes and tests are available to see – including this one of a new look ‘posting box’
So,  for now, grab yourself a bib and drool over this short video demo of what might end being your new favourite text entry field…

• Gwibber Posting Box Protoype

source OMG! Ubuntu

Install Atolm (Borderless Elementary, GTK Theme Updates) Ubuntu 10.10

Atolm, the new but already popular dark theme created by the Orta author has been updated yesterday. Here's the changelog for Atolms 0.6.5:

• Speed optimizations, the theme is now faster than Orta
• Notebook spacing changed.
• Notebook tabs changed.
• Nautilus breadcrumbs and mode button improved.
• Check, radio buttons and tabs now share the same coloring with buttons.
• White arrows on spinbuttons fixed.
• Ubuntu Software Center text colors fixed.
• Emesene status button text color fixed.
• Pidgin status toggle button text color fixed.
• Various Evolution Fixes.
• OpenOffice text visibility fixes.

Download Atolm

Borderless Elementary

Borderless Elementary is just a modified Elementary theme which looks very slick thanks to the removal of the borders and smaller widgets. This theme is ideal for a netbook, but looks great on any screen resolution.


Download Borderless Elementary

Source Webup8 

Install HandBrake 0.9.5 Ubuntu 10.10

Handbrake is a multithreaded video transcoder that supports any DVD-like source and most multimedia file it can get libavformat to read and libavcodec to decode.

Even though it's not its first aim, Handbrake is used by many as a DVD ripper and it was voted as "best Linux DVD ripper" by the WebUpd8 readers.

Handbrake 0.9.5 was released today, bringing some very interesting new features and improvements:

• BluRay disc structure support. (No decryption support)
• Updated Libraries (x264, ffmpeg)
• SSA Subtitle support (including burn-in)
• MP3 audio now supported in MP4 files
• VOBSUB subtitle now supported in MP4 files
• Updated Presets for newer devices and better quality
• AC3 encoding support.
• Improved DVD Main Feature detection (when using dvdnav)
• Universal audio downmix support (all audio types can be downmixed)
• Point*to*Point encoding (second or frame start and end times)
• Batch Scan (Scan Multiple files at once)
• Many Bug fixes and UI improvements.

A complete changelog is available @ Handbrake forum.

Install Handbrake 0.9.5 in Ubuntu

Add the Handbrake PPA and install Handbrake 0.9.5 in Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic, 10.04 Lucid and 10.10 Maverick using the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:stebbins/handbrake-releases

 sudo apt-get update

  sudo apt-get install handbrake-gtk

For other Linux distributions, Windows and Mac OSX downloads, visit the Handbrake downloads page.

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.