Just when I though I had finished reviving my parent’s computer with Ubuntu, I discovered that the normal user was unable to write to the shared FAT32 partition.

Much googling later, I found the solution.

fstab entry for offending partition:

/dev/hdb1   /media/MOUNT_POINT   vfat   user,rw,umask=000,uid=<username>,gid=<username>   0       0

From this thread.

Thanks Internet!

Tags: FAT32, Ubuntu

Installing Ubuntu on my parent’s computer today I ran into this problem: though the Windows and Storage partitions were being mounted correctly at login (how to mount ntfs drives at startup), they were displaying as “40.0 GB Media” and “80.0 GB Media” respectively.

After a bit of googling I discovered a solution: GParted + ntfs-3g + ntfsprogs.

sudo apt-get install gparted ntfs-3g ntfsprogs

Then open GParted (System > Administration > Partition Editor or sudo gparted), right click on the offending partition and choose “unmount”. If the drive is not mounted then unmount should be greyed out.

When this is done, right click on the partition and select “Label”. Enter the desired name of the drive here.

Repeat for each partition.

Tags: Ubuntu

Today it occurred to me that Thunderbird 2 is pretty old, so I looked into Thunderbird 3’s progress.

I stumbled across a thread on Nabble that contained a link to a mozilla PPA that included Thunderbird 3 Beta versions.

You can find it here:

PPA for Ubuntu Mozilla Daily Build Team

To install it, open a Terminal, then follow the steps below:

Backup your sources list:

sudo cp /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list_bak

Backup your Thunderbird 2 profile (if you’ve been using it):

mkdir /home/<username>/.mozilla-thunderbird_bak
cp -R /home/<username>/.mozilla-thunderbird/* /home/<username>/.mozilla-thunderbird_bak/

Open the list in gedit:

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

Scroll to the bottom of this file and paste the repository location (the selected lines in the below image). Make sure you select the version of Ubuntu that you’re using!

Save then close sources.list.

Add the GPG key:

sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com EF4186FE247510BE

Update package information:

sudo apt-get update

If you get an error here, repeat the GPG key add step, replacing the above key with the key reported in the error message.

Now install Thunderbird 3!

sudo apt-get install thunderbird-3.0

When that’s done, you’ll be able to access it at: Applications -> Internet -> Shredder 3 Mail/News.

If you want to change the icon:

sudo gedit /usr/share/applications/thunderbird-3.0.desktop

Replace the text following Icon= with a path to your image file. For example:

...
Icon=/home/faceleg/.icons/hydroxygen/128x128/apps/thunderbird02.png
...

Save and close the file.

Have fun!

Tags: Thunderbird, Tutorial - 教程, Ubuntu

JDownloader is an excellent download manager. When I had a Mac I used Speed Downloader, but when the free trial period ran out I switched back to DownThemAll, a download manager plugin for Firefox.

The only thing I missed about Speed Downloader was its ability to store my Rapidshare Password: a feature not supported by DownThemAll – no more returning to the computer to find my downloads folder filled with useless .html files as I’d forgot to make sure the Rapidshare Cookie was set… JDownloader can not only store one’s Rapidshare details, it can store details for just about every other download service imaginable.

JDownloader also has an option to capture the clipboard – copy a link and it will automatically open a “Add download” window – surprisingly useful. Downloads can be organised into packages. JDownloader will attempt to unpack compressed files automatically (there is an option to turn this off).

It’s pretty great – I’m sure it’ll give whatever download manager you’re currently using a run for your money.

Installing it (properly) in Ubuntu:

If you’re using a flavour of (Ubuntu) linux, you may want to set JDownloader up so you don’t have to start it by right-clicking on “JDownloader.jar” and selecting “Open with Sun Java JRE”. I know I did.

How to ‘install’ JDownloader:

This tutorial assumes you have Java installed and working. If you don’t have Java installed: How to Install Java in Ubuntu.

Download JDownloader, extract it to your Desktop. Download a JDownloader icon, rename it to “JDownloader.png” and put it in the JDownloader folder.

Open a Terminal (Accessories -> Terminal).

Create a JDownloader install directory:

sudo mkdir /opt/JDownloader

Move the extracted files to their new home (replace “X” with version number):

sudo mv ~/Desktop/JDownloader\ X.X.XXX/* /opt/JDownloader/

Change their ownership:

sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /opt/JDownloader
 
sudo chmod -R +r /opt/JDownloader

Make the JDownloader.jar file executable:

sudo chmod +x /opt/JDownloader/JDownloader.jar

Make JDownloader runnable from Terminal:

sudo touch /usr/local/bin/JDownloader
sudo nano /usr/local/bin/JDownloader

This opens the file for editing within the Terminal. Paste the following:

#! /bin/sh
java -jar /opt/JDownloader/JDownloader.jar

To save and close the file, press CTRL + X, then Y, then ENTER.

Make a menu item for JDownloader:

sudo nano /usr/share/applications/JDownloader.desktop

Paste the following:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=JDownloader
Comment=Download Manager
Exec=java -jar /opt/JDownloader/JDownloader.jar
Icon=/opt/JDownloader/JDownloader.png
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=GNOME;Network;
StartupNotify=True

Enjoy!

Credit to Kmassada for his post about installing Eclipse 3.4

Tags: JDownloader, Tutorial - 教程, Ubuntu

After becoming terminally annoyed with a my broken Intrepid installation, I decided to install Jaunty.

While I was enjoying the new growl-esque notification system, I noticed a flaw – no program would make any. Not a peep.

Headphones plugged in, check. Volume sliders in gnome-sound-properties all the way up, check. Hmm… Restart. Same. Uh… Reinstall. Nope.

So I tried everything Google could throw at the problem, to no avail.

After a day of mashing my fingers on the keyboard I gave up and resigned myself to code in silence.

It took me an hour to start searching for a solution – I found this thread: after Jaunty upgrade, no sound exept from OSS. There was no solution there, but happy to have found other to share my plight, I posted.

Post #9 was my solution.

For some reason “Independ” was turned “ON” in alsamixer. Switching this to “OFF” resulted in sound. WTF? I don’t know either. Nor do I care, as I now have sound.

Included is a screenshot of the section of alsamixer that needed punching:

To see the relevant option in a normal sized Terminal window I had to press right a few times.

Tags: Jaunty, Ubuntu

The following are the exact steps I took to get OpenCyc running in Ubuntu 8.10. Without this thread I wouldn’t have been able to do it.

1) Install Java. In a Terminal:

~$ sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre

2) Download OpenCyc

3) Unpack the downloaded file and move the folder to whatever directory

4) Within the OpenCyc folder, locate the “scripts” folder and open it. Open each script in Gedit and change the first line from*:

#!/bin/sh
to:
SHELL = /bin/bash

*Taken from DashAsBinSh.

5) In a Terminal, cd to the OpenCyc/scripts directory, then do:

(for 64 bit)

~$ echo SuSE-9.2-x86_64 > platform-override.txt

(for 32 bit)

~$ echo SuSE-9.2-x86_32 > platform-override.txt

Finally:

~$ ./run.sh

Note that the first time OpenCyc is run you may be in for a long wait – it took about 10~15 minutes on my laptop.

When it is finally finished loading, point a browser to:

Tags: AI - 人工智能, Cyc, OpenCyc, Tutorial - 教程, Ubuntu

I recently installed Leopard and Ubuntu 8.10 on my Macbook.

Although Leopard is excellent, after using it for the past year I have found that I miss Ubuntu, and have wanted an excuse to install it again for a good few months now.

Installing Ubuntu 8.10 took 15 minutes.

I cannot believe how easy it was.

Everything just worked, even wireless!

I couldn’t believe it. The last Ubuntu I used was 7.04, although it wasn’t on a Macbook, I did have to do some “configuring” to get everything running smoothly. In my experience, 8.10 is a massive improvement over the previous versions. I’ve had zero problems with it on my machine.

I’ve ditched Apple’s Mail.app in favour of Thunderbird, as I can use the same profile with Leopard and Ubuntu.

I’ll continue to use Leopard for web-related projects, but will now use Ubuntu for everything else.

RapidWeaver, Coda, Transmit, and Seashore are the four programs that I use for Internet work. I couldn’t imagine working without them.

For everything else: Ubuntu.

Tags: Macbook, Ubuntu