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Pear OS - The complete Mac OS clone for Ubuntu lovers.


This Linux distribution based on Ubuntu give you Apple Mac experience.

Descritpion from the home page of Pear OS.


Pear OS Linux is a French distribution. It was created by David Tavares, Deux-Sèvres (79), France.
The purpose of Pear OS is to create an operating system (64 bit) based on linux (ubuntu mini remix) and propose a simple but powerful interface.

Pear OS is free (thanks to your donations) and we hope you enjoy it.

It is operating out of the box, with a complete multimedia experienceand is extremely easy to use.
Users are encouraged to send their comments to the project so that their ideas can be used to improve Pear OS.
Based on Ubuntu (debian), it provides an impressive repository.


http://pear-os-linux.fr

How to update Grub ?

In certain cases while Linux installation, other operating system (e.g. Windows) not detected and listed in star up.  In such cases you can update grub from Linux. Open a terminal and execute the following commands,

sudo su
update-grub

Restart your system

How to change Ubuntu 10.04 login screen image

Execute the following command in a terminal,

sudo cp /usr/share/applications/gnome-appearance-properties.desktop /usr/share/gdm/autostart/LoginWindow

Copy an image to /usr/share/backgrounds

cp yourimage.jpg /usr/share/backgrounds

Logout Ubuntu.
You can see a window will pop up, select "Wallpaper" and locate the desired image. You can change the image from there.

Login to system and open a terminal and execute following command,

sudo unlink /usr/share/gdm/autostart/LoginWindow/gnome-appearance-properties.desktop

Switch from Unity to Gnome in Ubuntu 11.10

Enter the following command in Terminal,


sudo /usr/lib/lightdm/lightdm-set-defaults -s gnome-shell
 
Reboot PC. 

Format and rename USB drive using commands

Plugin your USB Drive.

And execute the following commands via Terminal.

sudo umount /dev/sdb1
sudo mkdosfs -n 'YOURNAME' -I /dev/sdb1

How to change boot theme by using Plymouth Manager

Plymouth Manager Installation
Open a terminal and apply following commands,

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:mefrio-g/plymouthmanager
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install plymouth-manager

Plymouth Manager will appear in Applications > System Tools


Screen capture and annotation applications

I found two useful web browser extensions for screen shot capture and annotation.
Both browser extensions are work fine with Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome.



Following are the links,

Easy Screen Shot

Awesome Screenshot

Fireshot

Aviary

Rotate wallpapers using Webilder

Webilder is a wallpaper management tool. Using Webilder you can change wallpaper in specific intervals and it automatically download wallpapers from web.


Installation

Goto Webilder home page and download deb file.
Install using Gdebi Package Installer.

Right-click on the GNOME panel, choose "Add to panel", and select "Webilder Webshots Applet".

Email configuration for Drupal

Email configuration is necessary to recieve feeback from site visitors.
If email is not configure, you will get following message after submitting contact from,

Unable to send e-mail. Contact the site administrator if the problem persists.

Execute the following commands using a terminal to install email configuration in Drupal.



sudo apt-get install php-pear
sudo pear install mail
sudo pear install Net_SMTP
sudo pear install Auth_SASL
sudo pear install mail_mime
sudo apt-get install postfix

gufw: firewall application for Ubuntu

Type the following command in a terminal for gufw installation,
 
sudo apt-get install gufw
 
Using this tool you can restrict the in and out transport via Internet from your desktop. 

How to know Linux Operating system name and version?

Apply the following command in a Terminal

sudo su

lsb_release -a


I got the following message,

Distributor ID:    Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 10.10
Release:    10.10
Codename:    maverick

Installing Microsoft Fonts in Ubuntu

You can install your favorite fonts available in Microsoft Office in Ubuntu.
Popular fonts from MS Office are

  • Andale Mono
  • Arial Black
  • Arial (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
  • Comic Sans MS (Bold)
  • Courier New (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
  • Georgia (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
  • Impact
  • Times New Roman (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
  • Trebuchet (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
  • Verdana (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
  • Webdings

Installation

Open a Terminal from Applications > Accessories

Execute the following commands,

sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts

sudo fc-cache -fv




Startupmanager

Very useful tool controlling your Ubuntu startup behavior.

Installation

apt-get install startupmanager

You can launch Startupmanager from Administration Menu.



Ubuntu 11.04: how to switch from Unity to Gnome

You can easily switch to Gnome from new Unity Desktop.

Select Ubuntu Classic from

System > Administration > Login Screen


Install HP Deskjet 1050 All-in-one J410 printer in Ubuntu 10.04

Uninstall your existing drivers

sudo apt-get remove --purge hplip hplip-gui
sudo apt-get update


Download driver from here







Installation

Execute the following commands,

chmod 777 hplip-3.11.3a.run

./hplip-3.11.3a.run

The process will ask about installation type.
Select the install type automatic.

After installation run the following command,

sudo hp-setup







Note: Ubuntu 11.04 and higher versions can automatically detect the printer. No need to install any hp setup to configure the printer. Check Administration > printing to see your printer.

How to install Firefox 4 in Ubuntu 10.04 and 10.10

Open a Terminal from Applications > Accessories
And execute the following commands,

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install firefox-4.0

You can see Firefox 4 appeared in Applications > Internet > Minefield 4.0

How to install Gyachi in Ubuntu 10.04 / 10.10

Gyachi is a messenger tool equivalent to Yahoo Messenger.
Yahoo Messenger has no Linux version.
Gyachi can install in Ubuntu and can work like Yahoo Messenger.


Installation
Open Application > Accessories > Terminal and apply following commands,


sudo add-apt-repository ppa:adilson/experimental
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gyachi

You can open Gyachi from Applications > Internet 


How to install Webmin in Ubuntu

Webmin is a web based GUI for system administration.
It give you a comprehensive system configuration tool for Linux.
Following functions can be done with Webmin in Linux;

Network configuration
System backup
Database management
Web server
CPAN
Daemons
Bandwidth monitoring
Password changing
Mail server etc.

You can see standard modules in Webmin

Installation

Download Webmin package from here
Choose .deb package for Ubuntu and Debian Linux.

Double click on the package. It will download dependencies from Internet.

Open any of the  following address in your browser after completing the installation process.

https://localhost:10000

https://127.0.1.1:10000

Use your  Linux user name and password for login to webmin.

Login screen

Home Page of Webmin

You can execute many Linux related jobs without using commands with the help of Webmin.

Debian Squeeze released

After two years waiting Debian version 6.0 released last week.
The code name of the project is Squeeze.
The name of the version borrowed from the name of characters in the film "Toy Story". Debian web site is redesigned with the release of new version.




Home page is www.debian.org

Ardour: Digital audio workstation

Here is another audio editor equivalent to audacity.



Main features according to Aurdour developers are:
  • Unlimited audio tracks and buses
  • Non-destructive, non-linear editing with unlimited undo
  • Anything-to-anywhere signal routing
  • Unlimited pre- and post-fader plugins
  • 32 bit floating point audio path
  • Automatic track delay compensation
  • Sample accurate automation
  • Standard file formats (BWF, WAV, WAV64, AIFF, CAF & more ...)
  • Full AudioUnit plugin support on OS X
  • More than 200 LADSPA & LV2 plugins freely available
  • Support for Windows VST plugins available
  • MIDI CC control with 1 click
  • Level 2 MIDI Machine Control
  • MIDI Timecode (MTC) Master or Slave
  • Full integration with all JACK applications
  • Video-synced playback, pull up/pull down

Home page: www.ardour.org

How to split big files?

You can split big files into pieces for various purposes.
Install RAR compression utility,

apt-get install rar

Now you can start splitting files.
Right click on folder or files to be split in to pieces. and select Compress option.
Select .rar from compression format.


Select Other Options.


You can enter the size of each pieces.
Its possible to give password to protect the files.

How to Read Manoramaonline.com in Ubuntu

You have to install font  to read the content from www.manoramaonline.com.

Download the font from here 
Double click on the font Manorama.ttf
Font viewer will open and Click on Install button.


Open www.manoramaonline.com in Firefox browser.
Now you can view the content in Malayalam script.


Shutter: a feature rich screenshot tool

Shutter is an advanced screen shot taking tool. You can take screen shot of customised snaps of objects in your desktop. You can select particular area or windows of applications visible in Linux Desktop.



Shutter package is available in Ubuntu software repository.
You install shutter either using command Terminal or Synaptic Manager.

Home page of shutter is http://shutter-project.org/

How to add new icon themes for your desktop

If you are not satisfied with existing icon themes available in your default desktop, you can add more beautiful icon themes from Gnome-Look.org

Follow the steps,

Download icon sets from gnome-look.org

Unzip the content and put in .icons folder in your home.

.icons folder is a hidden folder. To see the folder, open file manager View > Show Hidden FIles  

Right Click Desktop and open 'Change Desktop Background' option.

Select Theme  > Customise > Icons
You can find the icon set you put in the .icon folder.
Select it and close the window.

Install VMware player in Ubuntu 10.04

VMware Player is another virtual machine application helpful to run other operating systems inside your host OS.

Download the package from following link, you need to acquire login ID and password to download the application, 

www.vmware.com/products/player/

Installation

Open a terminal from Application > Accessories

type the following commands,

sudo su
sh VM
[press tab buttom to auto complete the file name]

After installation VMware Player will appear in Applications > System Tools

Install LAMP server in Ubuntu using one command

Open Applications > Accessories > Terminal


Enter following commands,


sudo su

sudo apt-get install lamp-server^

How to install Virtualbox in Ubuntu properly?

Virtual Box is useful application for installing other operating systems inside your Linux installation without disturbing your hard disc. It is very easy to mange a guest OS using Virtual Box.

I prefer to use Virtual Box PUEL ( Personal Use and Evaluation License) edition. You can download from here,


Choose a suitable version of Virtual Box for your Ubuntu. Download it and install by give a double click on it.

Next step is Open a terminal and give the following command,

sudo su
sudo usermod -a -G vboxusers username
 
Download and Install VirtualBox Extension Pack from same page.
It help to manage USB 2.0 devices with Virtual Box.
 

You can start Virtual Box  from Applications > System > Virtual Box
 
Note: If you get following error message "Virtual box kernel driver not installed" when you try to run Virutal box,
try the following commands.
 
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r`
 
/etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup  

Conky for your Linux Desktop

Conky is an application which useful for system monitoring and beautify your Linux Desktop.


Please follow the steps to install Conky,

Open  System > Synaptic Package Manager

 Search for conky, select and install.

You can also install through Applications > Ubuntu Software Centre

It will appear in desktop after finish the installation process. 

Change the look and feel of Conky

Open conky configuration file using Applications > Accessories > Terminal

Type the following commands in Terminal,


sudo su
gedit /etc/conky/conky.conf


It will open the configuration file.
The display of Conky depend on script inside the conky.conf file.
Copy and paste the following script in the conky.conf file. Save it.



# Use Xft?
use_xft yes
xftfont DejaVu Sans:size=8
xftalpha 0.8
text_buffer_size 2048

# Update interval in seconds
update_interval 4

# This is the number of times Conky will update before quitting.
# Set to zero to run forever.
total_run_times 0

# Create own window instead of using desktop (required in nautilus)
own_window yes
own_window_transparent yes
own_window_type normal
own_window_hints undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager

# Use double buffering (reduces flicker, may not work for everyone)
double_buffer yes

# Minimum size of text area
minimum_size 180 0
#maximum_width 200

# Draw shades?
draw_shades no

# Draw outlines?
draw_outline no

# Draw borders around text
draw_borders no

# Stippled borders?
stippled_borders 0

# border margins
border_margin 5

# border width
border_width 1

# Default colors and also border colors
default_color white
#default_shade_color black
#default_outline_color grey
own_window_colour grey

# Text alignment, other possible values are commented
#alignment top_left
alignment top_right
#alignment bottom_left
#alignment bottom_right

# Gap between borders of screen and text
# same thing as passing -x at command line
gap_x 35
gap_y 35

# Subtract file system buffers from used memory?
no_buffers yes

# set to yes if you want all text to be in uppercase
uppercase no

# number of cpu samples to average
# set to 1 to disable averaging
cpu_avg_samples 2

# number of net samples to average
# set to 1 to disable averaging
net_avg_samples 2

# Force UTF8? note that UTF8 support required XFT
override_utf8_locale yes

# Add spaces to keep things from moving about?  This only affects certain objects.
use_spacer none

TEXT
SYSTEM ${hr 2}
#${alignc 17}${font Arial Black:size=16}omns${font}
#${alignc}smile, breathe and go slowly
${voffset 2}${font OpenLogos:size=16}u${font}   Kernel:  ${alignr}${kernel}
${font StyleBats:size=16}A${font}   CPU1: ${cpu cpu1}% ${alignr}${cpubar cpu1 8,60}
${font StyleBats:size=16}A${font}   CPU2: ${cpu cpu2}% ${alignr}${cpubar cpu2 8,60}
${font StyleBats:size=16}g${font}   RAM: $memperc% ${alignr}${membar 8,60}
${font StyleBats:size=16}j${font}   SWAP: $swapperc% ${alignr}${swapbar 8,60}
#${font Webdings:size=16}~${font}  Battery: ${battery_percent BAT0}% ${alignr}${battery_bar 8,60 BAT0}
${font StyleBats:size=16}q${font}   Uptime: ${alignr}${uptime}

DATE ${hr 2}
${alignc 17}${font Arial Black:size=16}${time %H:%M}${font}
${alignc}${time %A %d %B %Y}

HD ${hr 2}
${voffset 4}${font Pie charts for maps:size=14}7${font}   ${voffset -5}Root:
${voffset 4}${fs_used /}/${fs_size /} ${alignr}${fs_bar 8,60 /}
${font Pie charts for maps:size=14}7${font}   ${voffset -5}Home:
${voffset 4}${fs_used /home}/${fs_size /home} ${alignr}${fs_bar 8,60 /home}

NETWORK ${hr 2}
${if_existing /proc/net/route wlan0}
${voffset -6}${font PizzaDude Bullets:size=14}O${font}   Up: ${upspeed wlan0} kb/s ${alignr}${upspeedgraph wlan0 8,60 BEBEBE BEBEBE}
${voffset 4}${font PizzaDude Bullets:size=14}U${font}   Down: ${downspeed wlan0} kb/s ${alignr}${downspeedgraph wlan0 8,60 BEBEBE BEBEBE}
${voffset 4}${font PizzaDude Bullets:size=14}N${font}   Upload: ${alignr}${totalup wlan0}
${voffset 4}${font PizzaDude Bullets:size=14}T${font}   Download: ${alignr}${totaldown wlan0}
${voffset 4}${font PizzaDude Bullets:size=14}Z${font}   Signal: ${wireless_link_qual wlan0}% ${alignr}${wireless_link_bar 8,60 wlan0}
${voffset 4}${font PizzaDude Bullets:size=14}a${font}   Local Ip: ${alignr}${addr wlan0}
${else}${if_existing /proc/net/route eth0}
${voffset -6}${font PizzaDude Bullets:size=14}O${font}   Up: ${upspeed eth0} kb/s ${alignr}${upspeedgraph eth0 8,60 789E2D A7CC5C}
${voffset 4}${font PizzaDude Bullets:size=14}U${font}   Down: ${downspeed eth0} kb/s ${alignr}${downspeedgraph eth0 8,60 789E2D A7CC5C}
${voffset 4}${font PizzaDude Bullets:size=14}N${font}   Upload: ${alignr}${totalup eth0}
${voffset 4}${font PizzaDude Bullets:size=14}T${font}   Download: ${alignr}${totaldown eth0}
${voffset 4}${font PizzaDude Bullets:size=14}a${font}   Local Ip: ${alignr}${addr eth0}
${endif}${else}${if_existing /proc/net/route eth1}
${voffset -6}${font PizzaDude Bullets:size=14}O${font}   Up: ${upspeed eth1} kb/s ${alignr}${upspeedgraph eth1 8,60 789E2D A7CC5C}
${voffset 4}${font PizzaDude Bullets:size=14}U${font}   Down: ${downspeed eth1} kb/s ${alignr}${downspeedgraph eth1 8,60 789E2D A7CC5C}
${voffset 4}${font PizzaDude Bullets:size=14}N${font}   Upload: ${alignr}${totalup eth1}
${voffset 4}${font PizzaDude Bullets:size=14}T${font}   Download: ${alignr}${totaldown eth1}
${voffset 4}${font PizzaDude Bullets:size=14}a${font}   Local Ip: ${alignr}${addr eth1}
${endif}${else}
${font PizzaDude Bullets:size=14}4${font}   Network Unavailable
${endif}

PROCESSES ${hr 2}
NAME $alignr PID    CPU
${top name 1} $alignr ${top pid 1} ${top cpu 1}
${top name 2} $alignr ${top pid 2} ${top cpu 2}
${top name 3} $alignr ${top pid 3} ${top cpu 3}
${top name 4} $alignr ${top pid 4} ${top cpu 4}
${top name 5} $alignr ${top pid 5} ${top cpu 5}
${top name 6} $alignr ${top pid 6} ${top cpu 6}
${top name 7} $alignr ${top pid 7} ${top cpu 7}
${top name 8} $alignr ${top pid 8} ${top cpu 8}


Download and install following fonts,

openlogos 

stylebats

Make conky autostart at booting.

System > Preferences > Startup Applications

Add the entry for conky there.

Restart the system.

More Ubuntu based distros

Most of the people are familiar with Ubuntu Linux. But, many people want more customizations in Ubuntu for their requirements.
Customizations in look and feel, applications and more device drivers is needed.
Some people want a fast Ubuntu for the laptop and low resource PC. Lack of know how and good Internet speed prevent common users to customize their Ubuntu. I found many Ubuntu based customized distros suitable to cater your requirements. These Ubuntu based distributions are ready to use, no need to install additional multimedia codecs and applications.

Linux Mint

Mature Ubuntu based Linux. Available with Gnome, KDE, XFCE, LXDE, Open Box desktop. There is an application available with Linux Mint to install your Wireless driver. Multimedia codecs and Flash preloaded.

PinguyOS

The GUI is customised well using Conky and Docky. Many useful applications filled with PinguyOS. Torrent is available for fast downloading.

Ultimateedition

Many useful applications prepacked with this Ubuntu based OS.
Available with Gnome, XFCE and LXDE  desktop.

Element OS

Element OS is a 32 bit Xubuntu based distro for home theatre PCs.


Bodhi 

Bodhi is a super fast Linux using Enlightenment lightweight Desktop.
Enlightenment need only minimum resources to run, so it can alive your old PC.

Zorin OS
This Ubuntu based distro is suitable for new comers to Linux.

Dream Linux
Very user friendly and fast linux based on Debian.

Linux is a garden, various distros are flowers in the garden. Free Software culture encourage creativity and diversity.

Docky for your desktop

Docky is a short cut bar in Linux Desktop. You can quickly launch applications from Docky.  You can try to install it in your Ubuntu.

Open  System > Synaptic Package Manager

 Search for docky, select and install.

You can also install through Applications > Ubuntu Software Centre

It will appear in desktop after finish the installation process.



You can open control center for Dock customization. There, you can increase the size of the icons. You can also create another new dock in the same window.
After creating second dock, you have to add Docklets to be display in Dock 2. I selected Book Marks. Book Marks can act as shortcut to many folders in Home folder.