Download Rippedwire DEB package here.
Download the monofix package here.
Install the dependencies:
Install Rippedwire
Go to Applications > Sound & Video> HandBrakeGTK to start HandBrake
I just wanted to run a VMware image from an external hard drive, with VMware workstation under Ubuntu. I already worked successfully with virtual machines stored on my laptop internal hard drive (formatted as Ext3) without any problem, but whem I tried to run the virtual machine from the external hard drive, I get the following error message:
Failed to allocate page for guest RAM!
It seems that the problem is coming from the external hard drive formatted as NTFS. I need to use this hard drive both at home – with Ubuntu – and at work with Windows XP. Since some of the files that are stored on this hard drive are more than 4 Gb, I am relly stuck with NTFS (FAT32 is not an option).
So there are basically two options here: either move the virtual machine to another partition, formatted as Ext3, or include the following line in the vmx file of the virtual machine:
mainmem.UseNamedFile = “FALSE”
As it is the case with almost all the computers today, mine comes with sensors to monitor its temperature. Ubuntu does not setup those sensors, but it is possible to enable them.
First, we need to install the libraries that allow Linux to read the sensors. Type the following command in a Terminal to install the libraries for the motherboard:
sudo apt-get install lm-sensors
To install the libraries for the hard-disk sensors, type the following command:
sudo apt-get install hddtemp
The installation program will ask you a few question. First, it wil ask you if it should run as a daemon.
Answer ‘yes’.
It will then ask which interfaces it should listen to. I put 0.0.0.0 to listen to all.
The next screen is related to the port: leave the default value.
The libraries are now installed and we are going to detect the sensors. Type the following command in a Terminal:
sudo sensors-detect
Answer “YES” to all the question. Be careful not to just hit enter, but to type YES (because the default answer for the last question is No, and we want to answer Yes to that one as well).
The sensor modules are going to be automatically loaded by default the next time we start up the comptuer. So let’s just do that.
We can now check if it works by trying to monitor the sensors. Type the following command:
sensors
It should display the temperatures for the hardware items for which sensors have been detected.
We are now going to add a graphical interface for the sensors. Type this command in a Terminal:
sudo apt-get install sensors-applet
Add the applet by doing a right click on the desktop panel, and select “Add to Panel”
Select the applet called “Hardware Sensors Monitor” in the System & Hardware section, and click on add.
You should now have the sensors displayed on the panel.
You can right click on any of the applets and select Preferences.
The first tab is for general settings, and the options are easy to understand.
For update intervall, choose a value between two and ten.
The second tab allows you to select the sensors you want to enable.
If you want to create .deb package from programs that must be compiled with
./configure and make:
Install *checkinstall* with apt-get
To use it:
Use ./configure and make, like you would normally do, but instead of doing make install, type checkinstall -D make install. This command will create a .deb package that can be installed (and uninstalled) with Synaptic package manager.
VLC is an “almost” universal video player.
To install it, as well as the VLC plugin for Firefox, type the following command in a Terminal
sudo apt-get install vlc mozilla-plugin-vlc
If, after installing VLC, you cannot play some videos (with an error message like the following one), try installing gstreamer.
Type the following command in a Terminal
sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg
If it’s still not working, then type the following command in a Terminal
sudo apt-get install totem-gstreamer
And if it’s still not working, then try installing mplayer
sudo apt-get install mplayer
The final “extreme” solution would be to install all gstreamer plugins
sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-\*
Here is some explanations on how to create a transparent terminal background in Gnome, with AllTray.
AllTray allows you to dock any application with no native tray icon into the system tray.
First, you need to install AllTray:
Open the Synaptic Package Manager
Click on the “Search” button, and type alltray in the search window.
Once AllTray is found, right click on it and select “Mark for installation”.
After the installation of AllTray, close Synaptic Package Manager
Open Gnome Terminal from Applications / Acccessories / Terminal.
After it is open, select Edit / Profiles
Press the “New” button.
Give the new profile a name (TransparentTerminal) and click on “Create”.
Uncheck “Show menubar by default in new terminals”.
Go to the Effects tab, select “Transparent background” and set the transparency to None.
Go to the Scrolling tab, and select Disabled from the drop-down list.
Close the editing profile window, and in the Profiles dialog, select the profile that you have just created from the “Profile used when launching a new terminal” drop-down list, and close it.
Create a new launcher on the desktop: right click on the background and select “Create Launcher…”
With Zattoo, you can watch TV when you do not have a TV, but a computer and an Internet connection. A package is available for Debian / Ubuntu, so here is how to install it.
Go to Zattoo web site (http://zattoo.com/), sign in and download the zattoo package for Debian / Ubuntu (.deb).
Right click on the downloaded package, and select “Open with GDebi Package Installer”.
Click on “Install Package”. Some additional packages may be downloaded.
Enjoy the TV on you PC from the Internet.
To install Acrobat Reader 8 and the plug-in for Firefox in Ubuntu Gutsy:
Add first the medibuntu repository (if not already done) to your list of repositories.
Start by adding the gpg key using the following command:
wget -q http://packages.medibuntu.org/medibuntu-key.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -
Then add the medibuntu repository to your sources list:
sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/gutsy.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list
Then, update the sources list:
sudo apt-get update
Then, install Acrobat Reader and the plug-in for Firefox with the following command in a terminal:
sudo apt-get install acroread mozilla-acroread acroread-plugins
Some softwares for playing videos and music are already included in Ubuntu but some pieces are missing to play encrypted DVDs, and some video formats from Windows and Apple.
First, we need to add the Medibuntu repository: Medibuntu (http://www.medibuntu.org/) is a packaging project dedicated to distributing software that cannot be included in Ubuntu for various reasons, related to geographical variations in legislation regarding intellectual property, security and other issues.
To add the Medibuntu repository to your system’s list of APT repositories, type the following command in a terminal:
sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/gutsy.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list
Then, add the GPG Key, with the following command in a terminal:
wget -q http://packages.medibuntu.org/medibuntu-key.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add – && sudo apt-get update
To play encrypted DVDs, the libdvdcss2 package is essential. libdvdcss is a simple library designed for accessing DVDs like a block device without having to bother about the DVD decryption. Type the following command in a terminal:
sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2
There are a few formats such as certain Windows formats, Real, and Apple Quicktime which do not have native codecs under Linux. The needed package is called w32codecs and can be installed with the following command:
sudo apt-get install w32codecs
That’s it: you should now be able to play DVDs and videos. If you want to install an “almost universal” video player, VLC is a good choice. I will report its installation in another post.
