OnlyUbuntu Tutorials

Howto install manually nVidia drivers in Ubuntu

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 10:02:21 -0700

Firstly, go to the official nVidia website and download the official linux drivers. Of course nv's nice and all.. but I wouldn't use it over the real thing. Once you download the driver file (into your home folder), right click on it in nautilus (file browser), click properties, then permissions, checking the box that says "allow executing the file", then type into a TTY session ctrl+alt+f1-f3 (ctrl+alt+f7 to get back to GUI) and type in

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop

Which will stop your x-server.. (DON'T DO ANY OF THIS UNTIL YOU KNOW THE WHOLE PROCESS, BECAUSE TURNING BACK ON YOUR GRAPHICS COMES AT THE END!)
(Also note that this will be a text-only display! Remember or write down all the commands.) then hit

ls

to list the files in your home folder. Find the one with "nvidia" in it, and hit "sudo ./*nvidia filename*" it should install the "nvidia" driver on your computer. when it asks you whether or not you want to replace the existing "xorg.conf" file, let it do so. once that's done, type in "sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start" which will turn back on the graphical interface, allowing you to login again. (sorry. it logs you out of everything but the commandline part of ubuntu. save everything before you turn off gdm.) If your controls work perfectly in regards to the mouse and keyboard, rejoice, you're done! if your mouse isn't scrolling, or it's behaving funny.. you may have to hit alt+f2 (You'll still be in graphical mode after hitting this one. it's a nice little tool.), and type in

gksu gedit

then open your xorg.conf file (Usually in the "/etc/X11/" folder), looking somewhere other than me about how to fix that, if copying your "pointer" section doesn't fix it.
(Copying the pointer section worked for me, since I had it set up right in a previous xorg.conf file..)

Now, in case of kernel update, remember that the nvidia driver will NOT work without reinstallation. This is expected, so expect it. In this case, you'll be in CLI mode. Your previous driver installer will work just fine, I like to check for updates occasionally, just to be with the newest version.

Always make sure, with a new executable comes making it executable before trying to.. well.. execute it. With GDM (the graphical display) working, simply right click the file in the file browser and click properties, set it executable. In CLI: have the file in your home directory or know the directory it's in.. Then do "cd "/path/to/driver/" before finally setting it executable. Do this with "sudo chmod a+x "{driver file name}"" (You can use the ls command to once again list it exactly).

Now, execute the file by simply typing the filename into the command line. It will say there's a previous version installed, and ask to write over it. Do so. It shouldn't need to overwrite the xorg.conf file, as the NVIDIA driver's still being used. Don't let it and save some hassle.

So basically, set the file executable in the file browser, or use sudo chmod a+x "nvidiadrivernamehere", stop gdm if it's started (sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop), then execute it, overwriting the driver, but not the xorg.conf. Then, start GDM back up (sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start)

If you overwrite the xorg configuration file (conf) just restore the backup. Look in the file browser (using alt+f2, typing in gksu nautilus and executing to get a root file browser. Needed for editing /boot/ files.) in "/boot/grub/" in list mode for the latest thing resembling .backup or .bak1 or something, listing files by date changed. delete the new xorg.conf, changing the name of xorg.conf.bak to xorg.conf.

So, in essence,
1: Download driver. Set as executable.
2: turn off graphics, going into only command line.
3: list files, execute driver installer.
4: follow installer's instructions, allowing it to replace your xorg.conf.
5: restart gdm. Hope everything goes smoothly.
6: *contingent upon condition in last step being met* DANCE! YOU WIN!

To reinstall,

1a: change file to executable if gdm's booted up through the properties prompt.
1b: do a sudo chmod a+x {filename} if it's not.
2a: kill gdm server (sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop in CLI (ctrl+alt+f1)) proceed to 2b.
2b: execute file. (sudo ./NVIDIA-x86-173.x.x-pkg1.run (or -x86_64-))
3: Follow prompts, letting it overwrite the old driver. Don't let it overwrite xorg.conf unless it's been changed to use another driver.
4: Start gdm. (sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start)
5: Rejoice! If it worked before, it should work now! If it doesn't, despair. Boot from a livecd if you have one, or use a computer at a library to come here and flame me. It happens frequently.

Howto Share Internet Connections in Ubuntu

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 10:02:21 -0700

Network Bridge comes in handy. Its essentially the same as ICS, only more flexible, albeit less secure. You might want to have a firewall remain on your system with it.

Normally, using a series of commands will work when bridge-utils is installed, but they're only for the current session. We want to make it permanent.

Procedure to follow

1. Get bridge-utils through Synaptic. This is the software we'll use to create the Network Bridge.

sudo aptitude install bridge-utils

Now, keep in mind to either print this out or not exit your browser, because in this next step we'll stop the Networking Services to change them.

2. Open a terminal, and type

sudo /etc/init.d/networking stop

Keep the terminal open.

3. Now we're going to edit our interfaces file:

gksu gedit /etc/network/interfaces

Replace whatever is there with:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet manual

auto eth1
iface eth1 inet manual

auto br0
iface br0 inet dhcp
bridge_ports eth0 eth1

Save the changes.

4. Now we'll restart the Network Services

sudo /etc/init.d/networking start

And there we go. Your computer is now set up to automatically share its internet connection without dizzying settings for more advanced set-ups!

Have fun, and note longer boot-ups will occur due to creating the network upon boot.

Howto Setup Canon C3380/C3380i printer setup in Ubuntu 8.04(Hardy Heron)

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 11:13:40 -0700

Here are instructions for getting a Canon C3380/C3380i printer set up under Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron).

The printer is connected to via IPP, and in my case the printer requires authentication (username/password and mailbox authentication).

Drivers:
http://canon.codehost.com/

The normal system drivers (Generic->PCL 5c, etc.) will not work, because they do not have support for mailboxes (mailbox ID, password). If your printer is open to all and does not require mailbox authentication, then you may be able to use the normal system drivers.

The Codehost drivers are fully integrated with CUPS. Once installed you can print from any application without any special Codehost-specific process. Both color and black and white work.

NOTE: The most non-intutive part is that the username/password authentication for IPP and other protocols is not the same as mailbox authentication. Both must be specified, and this requires using the Codehost drivers.

Instructions:
1. Install the Codehost drivers
2. Using codehost-config:
- Add a Printer
- A remote printer using a network protocol
- Discover network printers
- Enter IP address of printer, select Any protocol, Start Discovery
- Expand the found printer
- Select IPP line
- Select Printer

- Enter Login/Password provided by the printer administrator (same as mailbox/password), Next
- Make sure the next window is maximized to edit the settings on the right hand side
- Under the Mode header
-- Job Mode: Print
-- Job Password: Empty
-- Mailbox number: Mailbox number provided by printer administrator
-- User ID: Mailbox number provided by printer administrator
-- Password: Mailbox password provided by printer administrator
- Next, Next
- Print Test Page, should work

- If you get an error when printing saying "can't prompt for authorization", or if Firefox seems to work but actually does not, then do this:
-- In codehost-config, right click on the printer and select Duplicate.
-- Now print to the duplicated printer and it should work.

Troubleshooting:
- Check the CUPS error log file, it is very useful.

- If you see "client-error-not-authorized", that means the mailbox authentication was not sent (most likely) or not accepted (less likely). This is the error you'll get when using the system drivers.

- You can log into the web interface for the printer and check the status of print jobs and see the log of previous print jobs.

- If you can't get the drivers working, you can also use the web interface on the printer to print PDFs and image files using Direct Print.

How to setup ndiswrapper with BT Voyager 1055 in Ubuntu

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 01:05:41 -0700

The guide should be the same whichever wireless adapter you have (I cannot see why it would not work if you had the correct drivers but someone more experienced in Linux is probably going to correct me on this) – you will just need the .inf and .sys driver files which should be installed under windows (mine were located here - “C:\Program Files\BT\BT Voyager”).

Step 1

Using the file manager in Ubuntu I mounted my windows xp drive and navigated to the above folder. Select the relevant driver files (for the BT Voyager 1055 they are usb8023.sys, RNDISMP.sys and bcmrndis.inf) and copy them to the Ubuntu desktop.

Step 2

Install the latest version of ndiswrapper. I used the Synaptics package manager, searched the cd for packages and selected ndisgtk which also installed the other two ndiswrapper files however you can use the command line – sudo apt-get install ndisgtk

Step 3

In Terminal type “cd Desktop” which will move you to the desktop directory and type

sudo ndiswrapper –i bcmrndis.inf (you will be asked for your user password and you should get an error message which states it will create the file anyway – just ignore and carry on with next steps).

This will copy the bcmrndis.inf to the ndiswrapper folder.

Step 4

Type:

sudo cp –v usb8023.sys RNDISMP.sys /etc/ndiswrapper/bcmrndis/

This will copy the sys files to the ndiswrapper folder.

Extra step if you are using this guide to install a different wireless adaptor otherwise skip to next step:

Type:

lsusb //Note: Is lowercase L

This will bring up a list of all the attached devices for your usb ports. Locate you wireless device in the list and you will see a set of numbers next to it – for BT it was 1690:0715. Make a note of these two numbers.

Step 5

You must now create the hardware configuration file by typing:

sudo gedit /etc/udev/rules.d/99-custom.rules

This will open the text editor for GNOME (KDE users replace gedit with kate) with a blank page. Copy the attached text and save and exit the text editor.

#START**
BUS=="usb",
SYSFS{idProduct}=="0715",
SYSFS{idVendor}=="1690",
RUN+="/bin/sh -c 'echo 1 > /sys/$devpath/device/bConfigurationValue'"
#END**

Please note the single and double quotes on the RUN line which need to be included or your configuration file will not work. If you are installing a different adapter you will need to substitute the two SYSFS numbers above with the ones for your card (see extra step above). After running lsusb BT Voyager shows as 1690:0715 with the first 4 numbers being the idVendor and the second set being the id Product

Step 6

Check the installation by typing:

sudo ndiswrapper –l //Note: Is lowercase L

You should see a message stating Driver: installed and Device: present. This means you have successfully setup the wireless adaptor (if you don't see Device: present unplug your adapter, plug back in and run the above command).

Type:

sudo depmod –a
sudo modprobe ndiswrapper

On the top toolbar, at the right hand side (near the date and time), there will be a icon of a terminal. Left click here and you should see the wireless networks in your area. Click on the network you wish to associate to. If you have security setup up on your router you should be presented with a window to enter your security key.

I had some difficulty with this as I could not connect to my router when security was enabled (even though the router and wireless dongle both support all the current encryption methods) so I had to disable my security through the router and change the mac address table so that only my adapter's mac address can connect to the router. I know this is not the safest of options as mac address spoofing is quite simple to do but it will do for now until I get chance to conduct further tests on the security.

In order to connect to your network each time you boot type:

sudo gedit /etc/modules

And add ndiswrapper to the list that appears in the editor, save and close.

How to connect to HSDPA/3G trough USB with Ubuntu Linux and Windows Mobile 6

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 01:05:40 -0700

To connect your WM6 device via usb to your linux pc do the following

On your phone enable internet sharing via usb but do not connect the usb cable yet.

Run the following commands..you may need to install "svn" for this to work: (install by terminal: sudo apt-get install subversion)

svn co https://synce.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/synce/trunk/usb-rndis-lite/

cd usb-rndis-lite/

make

sudo ./clean.sh

sudo make install

Create the path "/etc/sysconfig/network/", in Hardy Heron the path "sysconfig/network/" doesnt exists, easy with nautilus trough terminal:

sudo nautilus

Nautilus opens, and browse to "/etc/" and create the path "sysconfig/network/" and futher. - Close nautilus.

The create the file "ifcfg-rndis0" in "/etc/sysconfig/network/", easy with gedit (gnome's text-editor) trough terminal:

sudo gedit /etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-rndis0

Fill the file with the text below:

BOOTPROTO='dhcp'
BROADCAST=''
ETHTOOL_OPTIONS=''
IPADDR=''
MTU='1460'
MRU='1500'
NAME=''
PEERDNS=no
NETMASK=''
NETWORK=''
REMOTE_IPADDR=''
STARTMODE='hotplug'
USERCONTROL='no'
_nm_name='static-0'

So, if you haven't start "Internet Sharing" on your WM-phone yet. Do it now..

- Now plug the phone into the usb cable going to the pc and if you do a "dmesg" you should see the following (or something similar):

[ 6539.589930] usb 5-1: USB disconnect, address 2
[ 6539.590829] rndis0: unregister 'rndis_host' usb-0000:00:1d.2-1, RNDIS device (SynCE patched)
[ 6540.972801] usb 5-1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 3
[ 6541.019337] usb 5-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[ 6541.628430] rndis0: register 'rndis_host' at usb-0000:00:1d.2-1, RNDIS device (SynCE patched), 80:00:60:0f:e8:00

and if you do an ifconfig you should have a new rndis0 device:

rndis0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 80:00:60:0f:e8:00
inet addr:192.168.0.102 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::8200:60ff:fe0f:e800/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:8050 Metric:1
RX packets:3008 errors:2425 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:225
TX packets:2993 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:1915412 (1.8 MB) TX bytes:763519 (745.6 KB)
----

The rndis0 device will exist both when internet sharing is enabled via usb and when it is NOT....here is how it works:

If internet sharing IS enabled via usb you have access to the internet and will get an IP...default route will be set.

If internet sharing is NOT enabled via usb then the rndis0 device will exist and can be used by programs such as syncE to manage your contact list or transfer files but you will not have internet access (from the phone) and more than likely you will not get an ip address auto assigned (it may keep the ip it used last).

How to Install aMSN 0.98b with anti-aliasing in Ubuntu

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:06:45 -0700

Install aMSN 0.98b with anti-aliasing in Ubuntu

Step 1

Open a terminal session by pressing "Alt+F2" then typing "gnome-terminal". Make sure your computer is connected to the Internet.

Step 2

Install the g++ compiler (can be skipped if already installed)
First, you need to make sure the g++ compiler is installed on you computer. At the prompt, simply enter the following code

sudo aptitude install g++

Step 3

Install subversion (can be skipped if already installed)
We are going to download the aMSN source code via subversion, so you need to have it installed. At the prompt, simply enter the following code

sudo aptitude install subversion

Step 4

Install the latest tcl/tk libraries
Since aMSN is written in tcl/tk, we need to download the latest libraries in order to compile properly. The good news is that v8.5 supports anti-aliasing. At the prompt, simply enter the following code

sudo aptitude install tk8.5-dev

It should install everything you need to compile aMSN, including the tcl8.5 libraries.

Step 5

Get the aMSN source code

Simply enter the following code at the prompt

svn co https://amsn.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/amsn/trunk/amsn amsn

This will download all the source code in your home directory. For more info, visit this page http://www.amsn-project.net/wiki/Enabling_antialiasing

Step 6

Build aMSN

Change your working directory by entering

cd amsn

Then you use the usual commands to build the app.

./configure

make

sudo make install

Now, some people have experienced problems while running the configure script, something about the tcl/tk libraries not found. If you experience such a problem, or if your compiler builds using an old version of tcl/tk, use the following commands instead

./configure --with-tcl=$HOME$INST_PATH/lib --with-tk=$HOME$INST_PATH/lib

make

sudo make install

And that's it! You should find your shiny new aMSN under Applications->Internet->aMSN.

Howto use Truecrypt and Evolution

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:13:54 -0700

For anyone who likes to store their email in encrypted containers (for security and portability reasons), here is way to link evolution to files stored on an encrypted drive.

first you need to make sure you have installed Truecrypt and follow this procedure

Then, create the link to the encrypted container as follows:

1. For a new Ubuntu installation, start Evolution normally and go through the configuration questions. Then close Evolution
2. Mount the encrypted drive (in my case it is mounted at /media/truecrypt1) and create a directory in which to store the evolution-data (in my case it is at /media/truecrypt1/Datafile/evolution):
3. Navigate to the /home/user directory and type the following:
sudo rm -f -r .evolution (you will want to copy the .evolution directory before removing it if you already have valuable files there)
ln -s /media/truecrypt1/Datafile/evolution .evolution
4. Verify that the link brings you to the mounted drive location.
5. Start Evolution and, voila, it should be storing data into the encrypted drive.

Not only is your evolution data encrypted, but it is in a container you can easily backup, etc.

How to Optimize your Internet Connection using MTU and RWIN

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:13:54 -0700

The TCP Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) is the maximum size of a single TCP packet that can pass through a TCP/IP network.

An easy way to figure out what your MTU should be is to use ping where you specify the payload size:

ping -s 1464 -c1 google.com

Note though that the total IP packet size will be 1464+28=1492 bytes since there is 28 bytes of header info. Thus if the packet gets fragmented for payload above 1464, then you should set your MTU=1492. Ping will let you know when it becomes fragmented with something like the following:

ping -s 1464 -c1 google.com

PING google.com (72.14.207.99) 1464(1492) bytes of data.
64 bytes from eh-in-f99.google.com (72.14.207.99): icmp_seq=1 ttl=237 (truncated)

--- google.com ping statistics ---
1 packets transmitted, 1 received, 0% packet loss, time 0ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 118.672/118.672/118.672/0.000 ms
john@TECH5321:~$ ping -s 1465 -c1 google.com
PING google.com (64.233.167.99) 1465(1493) bytes of data.
From adsl-75-18-118-221.dsl.sndg02.sbcglobal.net (75.18.118.221) icmp_seq=1 Frag needed and DF set (mtu = 1492)

--- google.com ping statistics ---
1 packets transmitted, 0 received, +1 errors, 100% packet loss, time 0ms

In other words, to find your correct MTU, you would first start with a small packet size, and then gradually increase it until you see fragmentation; the cutoff point will be what to use for your MTU (using the formula payload + 28 = MTU). Note in the first case shown above where the payload size is 1464, the packet was transmitted fine, but in the second case where the payload size is 1465, ping complains "Frag needed"; to clarify, that means any packet with a payload of 1464 or less will be sent just fine, but a payload size of 1465 or above will end up being fragmented. Therefore, 1464 is the maximum payload, and that means the MTU is 1464+28=1492.

To set the MTU temporarily (will be lost after a reboot), you can do:

sudo ifconfig mtu 1492

Note that unfortunately some NICs do not allow you to change their MTU. You can use "ifconfig" by itself to see what the MTU is for your NIC and whether the MTU changes when you use the above command.
Or to make the change permanent, you can add it to /etc/network/interfaces:

gksudo gedit /etc/network/interfaces

And then add "mtu " in it for the particular interface. Here's an example of mine that uses my wireless interface wlan0:

iface wlan0 inet static
address 192.168.1.23
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.1.1
wireless-essid John's Home WLAN
mtu 1492

TCP Receive Window (RWIN)

In computer networking, RWIN (TCP Receive Window) is the maximum amount of data that a computer will accept before acknowledging the sender. In practical terms, that means when you download say a 20 MB file, the remote server does not just send you the 20 MB continuously after you request it. When your computer sends the request for the file, your computer tells the remote server what your RWIN value is; the remote server then starts streaming data at you until it reaches your RWIN value, and then the server waits until your computer acknowledges that you received that data OK. Once your computer sends the acknowledgement, then the server continues to send more data in chunks of your RWIN value, each time waiting for your acknowledgment before proceeding to send more.

Now the crux of the problem here is with what is called latency, or the amount of time that it takes to send and receive packets from the remote server. Note that latency will depend not only on how fast the connection is between you and the remote server, but it also includes all additional delays, such as the time that it takes for the server to process your request and respond. You can easily find out the latency between you and the remote server with the ping command. When you use ping, the time that ping reports is the round-trip time (RTT), or latency, between you and the remote server.

When I ping google.com, I typically get a latency of 100 msec. Now if there were no concept of RWIN, and thus my computer had to acknowledge every single packet sent between me and google, then transfer speed between me and them would be simply the (packet size)/RTT. Thus for a maximum sized packet (my MTU as we learned above), my transfer speed would be:

1492 bytes/.1 sec = 14,920 B/sec or 14.57 KiB/sec

That is pathetically slow considering that my connection is 3 Mb/sec, which is the same as 366 KiB/sec; so I would be using only about 4% of my available bandwidth. Therefore, we use the concept of RWIN so that a remote server can stream data to me without having to acknowledge every single packet and slow everything down to a crawl.

Note that the TCP receive window (RWIN) is independent of the MTU setting. RWIN is determined by the BDP (Bandwidth Delay Product) for your internet connection, and BDP can be calculated as:

BDP = max bandwidth of your internet connection (Bytes/second) * RTT (seconds)

Therefore RWIN does not depend on the TCP packet size, and TCP packet size is of course limited by the MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit).

Before we change RWIN, use the following command to get the kernel variables related to RWIN:

sysctl -a 2> /dev/null | grep -iE "_mem |_rmem|_wmem"

Note the space after the _mem is deliberate, don't remove it or add other spaces elsewhere between the quotes.

You should get the following three variables:

net.ipv4.tcp_rmem = 4096 87380 2584576
net.ipv4.tcp_wmem = 4096 16384 2584576
net.ipv4.tcp_mem = 258576 258576 258576

The variable numbers are in bytes, and they represent the minimum, default, and maximum values for each of those variables.

net.ipv4.tcp_rmem = Receive window memory vector
net.ipv4.tcp_wmem = Send window memory vector
net.ipv4.tcp_mem = TCP stack memory vector

Note that there is no exact equivalent variable in Linux that corresponds to RWIN, the closest is the net.ipv4.tcp_rmem variable. The variables above control the actual memory usage (not just the TCP window size) and include memory used by the socket data structures as well as memory wasted by short packets in large buffers. The maximum values have to be larger than the BDP (Bandwidth Delay Product) of the path by some suitable overhead.

To try and optimize RWIN, first use ping to send the maximum size packet your connection allows (MTU) to some distant server. Since my MTU is 1492, the ping command payload would be 1492-28=1464. Thus:

ping -s 1464 -c5 google.com

PING google.com (64.233.167.99) 1464(1492) bytes of data.
64 bytes from py-in-f99.google.com (64.233.167.99): icmp_seq=1 ttl=237 (truncated)
64 bytes from py-in-f99.google.com (64.233.167.99): icmp_seq=2 ttl=237 (truncated)
64 bytes from py-in-f99.google.com (64.233.167.99): icmp_seq=3 ttl=237 (truncated)
64 bytes from py-in-f99.google.com (64.233.167.99): icmp_seq=4 ttl=237 (truncated)
64 bytes from py-in-f99.google.com (64.233.167.99): icmp_seq=5 ttl=237 (truncated)

--- google.com ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 5 received, 0% packet loss, time 3999ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 101.411/102.699/105.723/1.637 ms

Note though that you should run the above test several times at different times during the day, and also try pinging other destinations. You'll see RTT might vary quite a bit.

But for the above example, the RTT average is about 103 msec. Now since the maximum speed of my internet connection is 3 Mbits/sec, then the BDP is:
Code:

(3,000,000 bits/sec) * (.103 sec) * (1 byte/8 bits) = 38,625 bytes

Thus I should set the default value in net.ipv4.tcp_rmem to about 39,000. For my internet connection, I've seen RTT as bad as 500 msec, which would lead to a BDP of 187,000 bytes. Therefore, I could set the max value in net.ipv4.tcp_rmem to about 187,000. The values in net.ipv4.tcp_wmem should be the same as net.ipv4.tcp_rmem since both sending and receiving use the same internet connection. And since net.ipv4.tcp_mem is the maximum total memory buffer for TCP transactions, it is usually set to the the max value used in net.ipv4.tcp_rmem and net.ipv4.tcp_wmem.

And lastly, there are two more kernel TCP variables related to RWIN that you should set:

sysctl -a 2> /dev/null | grep -iE "rcvbuf|save"

which returns:

net.ipv4.tcp_no_metrics_save = 1
net.ipv4.tcp_moderate_rcvbuf = 1

Note enabling net.ipv4.tcp_no_metrics_save (setting it to 1) means have Linux optimize the TCP receive window dynamically between the values in net.ipv4.tcp_rmem and net.ipv4.tcp_wmem. And enabling net.ipv4.tcp_moderate_rcvbuf removes an odd behavior in the 2.6 kernels, whereby the kernel stores the slow start threshold for a client between TCP sessions. This can cause undesired results, as a single period of congestion can affect many subsequent connections.

Before you change any of the above variables, try going to http://www.speedtest.net or a similar website and check the speed of your connection. Then temporarily change the variables by using the following command with your own computed values:

sudo sysctl -w net.ipv4.tcp_rmem="4096 39000 187000" net.ipv4.tcp_wmem="4096 39000 187000" net.ipv4.tcp_mem="187000 187000 187000" net.ipv4.tcp_no_metrics_save=1 net.ipv4.tcp_moderate_rcvbuf=1

Then retest your connection and see if your speed improved at all.

Once you tweak the values to your liking, you can make them permanent by adding them to /etc/sysctl.conf as follows:

net.ipv4.tcp_rmem=4096 39000 187000
net.ipv4.tcp_wmem=4096 39000 187000
net.ipv4.tcp_mem=187000 187000 187000
net.ipv4.tcp_no_metrics_save=1
net.ipv4.tcp_moderate_rcvbuf=1

And then do the following command to make the changes permanent:

sudo sysctl -p

Howto Use Bootchart to Time and Track your Boot Sequence

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 15:57:33 -0700

This simple tutorial will describe how to use bootchart in order to get a graphical representation of the processes which run during your boot process. You will also be able to view the CPU and disk usage during your boot sequence, and will get an exact time (in seconds) of how long it takes for you to boot up.

Installing Bootchart

In order to track the boot sequence, we will use a program called bootchart. Installing it from the repositories is dead simple:

sudo aptitude install bootchart

... And it's installed! No further configuration is necessary.

Using Bootchart

Using bootchart may be even easier than installing it... Just reboot! After your machine starts up next time, bootchart will create a graphical representation of the boot sequence (as a .png file), and place it in /var/log/bootchart.

An example bootchart is attached. It was taken from an unoptimized boot sequence on my Thinkpad x61 running Hardy. You can see at the top that it took 30 seconds to boot completely, and there seem to be some places where optimizing the boot sequence (through parallelism) could possibly lead to a speedier bootup. But, such a thing is best left for another tutorial...

Disable Bootchart

Bootchart will, unless disabled, chart every boot process after you've installed it. This may be overkill for most users, who only want to track their boot sequence occasionally. In order to stop bootchart from charting your boot sequence, simply remove its SysV script from executing after startup:

cd /etc/init.d

sudo update-rc.d -f stop-bootchart remove

Removing any system startup links for /etc/init.d/stop-bootchart ...
/etc/rc2.d/S99stop-bootchart
/etc/rc3.d/S99stop-bootchart
/etc/rc4.d/S99stop-bootchart
/etc/rc5.d/S99stop-bootchart

Enable Bootchart

Re-enabling bootchart is as simple as disabling it. You may either reinstall it (through the repositories), or add it back to runlevels 2345:

cd /etc/init.d

sudo update-rc.d stop-bootchart start 99 2 3 4 5 .

Adding system startup for /etc/init.d/stop-bootchart ...
/etc/rc2.d/S99stop-bootchart -> ../init.d/stop-bootchart
/etc/rc3.d/S99stop-bootchart -> ../init.d/stop-bootchart
/etc/rc4.d/S99stop-bootchart -> ../init.d/stop-bootchart
/etc/rc5.d/S99stop-bootchart -> ../init.d/stop-bootchart

That's it! It's so easy!

Howto Add The Trash to Your Ubuntu Desktop

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 15:57:33 -0700

If you are a new person to linux, just coming from Windows or if you want the trash applet on your desktop, then you will like this tutorial. This is on how to add the trash icon to your Ubuntu desktop:

* Run in terminal: gconf-editor
* enter your password into the "Password For...." area
* Navigate apps \ nautilus \ desktop
* On the right side, you will see an option named "trash_icon_visible"
* Check the box next to the above said option
* exit out of gconf-editor, remember to save your work before you leave

Thats it, you should now see a big bin on your desktop, similar to the gnome-panel applet icon. I am sure this will help anyone transition from Windows to Ubuntu.

Howto Install Netgear WG111v3 USB wireless

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:47:23 -0700

This is a GUI solution on how to install Netgear USB WG111v3 USB.

STEP 1

Go to "add and remove programs" type on the searchfield " ndiswrapper "

One program should come up! it calls samething like "graphical frontend for ndiswrapper"

Install it!

STEP 2

start whit wine a file called setup.exe

the installations fails! but if you go to:

/home/moises/.wine/drive_c/windows/inf/WG111v3

( Moises is my home directory ) or go to wine and push " Explore c:/ "
There you will find the .inf file you need!

STEP 3

Go to SYSTEM - ADMINISTRATION - and there you will find the program called

" graphical frontend for ndiswrapper "

Push the buttom " Install new driver "! Go to the .inf file located on /home/moises/.wine/drive_c/windows/inf/WG111v3

And install it!

Download drivers from here

Howto setup Handbrake including GUI from svn in Ubuntu

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 12:56:42 -0700

First get the medibuntu version of ffmpeg (makes more codecs available),but first remove any old ffmpeg,open a terminal and enter.

sudo apt-get remove ffmpeg

then enter.

sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/hardy.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list

then enter.

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get update

then enter.

sudo apt-get install ffmpeg

Next Install the dependencies for Handbrake and the gtk gui.

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install automake build-essential jam libdvdcss2-dev libtool subversion yasm zlib1g-dev libbz2-dev dvdbackup xmlto texinfo g77 gfortran libgtk2.0-dev nasm doxygen libsdl1.2-dev gfortran-multilib gcc-multilib g++-multilib libesd0-dev libgtk1.2-dev libfftw3-dev electric-fence

Next install and build Handbrake.svn and gtk gui (enter each line seperately,it will take some time to build)...

svn co svn://svn.handbrake.fr/HandBrake/trunk HandBrake

cd HandBrake

./configure

make

sudo make install

cd Handbrake/gtk

./autogen.sh

make

sudo make install

HandBrake should be available from the Applications menu under Sound & Video

Howto setup custom gproftpd ( GUI for Proftpd Server) in Ubuntu

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 07:53:54 -0700

If you have installed lampp, then you probably know that the proftpd configuration is very confusing for people that haven't dealt with proftpd.

Gproftpd is a user interface to the config file, making it easy to set it up. However, installing it from synaptic makes u get a new proftpd install.

step 1: have this installed: (you can remove it after, its just so that the compiler thinks that you have gtk2.0 installed. if anyone finds a work around, plz post)

sudo apt-get install libgtk2.0-dev

step 2: get the gproftpd package and unpack it:

wget http://mange.dynalias.org/linux/gadmin-proftpd/gadmin-proftpd-0.2.8.tar.gz && tar -zxvf gadmin-proftpd-0.2.8.tar.gz

you can remove the tar.gz if you like

rm gadmin-proftpd-0.2.8.tar.gz

step 3: cd there and open autoinstall:

cd gadmin-proftpd-0.2.8 && gedit ./Autoinstall

step 4: we have to change the directories for it use the lampp proftp.conf:

original:

### Default paths and settings ###
# export PROFTPD_CONF="/etc/proftpd.conf"
# export SECURE_LOG="/var/log/secure"
# export XFER_LOG="/var/log/xferlog"
# export PROC_PATH="/proc"
# export PROFTPD_BINARY="proftpd"
# export FTPWHO_BINARY="ftpwho"
# export SERVER_USER="nobody"
# export SERVER_GROUP="nobody"
# export WELCOME_MESSAGE="welcome.msg"
# export HTML_STATISTICS="/var/www/html/ftp.htm"
# export MIN_PASS_LEN=6

### Debian commands for starting the server at boot ###
# export SYSINIT_START_CMD="update-rc.d -f proftpd defaults"
# export SYSINIT_STOP_CMD="update-rc.d -f proftpd remove"

### RH/Fedora commands for starting the server at boot ###
### This is the defaults for the rpm specfile ###
export SYSINIT_START_CMD="chkconfig proftpd on"
export SYSINIT_STOP_CMD="chkconfig proftpd off"

./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc \
--localstatedir=/var --sbindir=/usr/sbin &&
make &&
make install

(assuming you did a normal lampp install) new:

### Default paths and settings ###
export PROFTPD_CONF="/opt/lampp/etc/proftpd.conf"
# export SECURE_LOG="/var/log/secure"
# export XFER_LOG="/var/log/xferlog"
# export PROC_PATH="/proc"
export PROFTPD_BINARY="/opt/lampp/sbin/proftpd"
export FTPWHO_BINARY="/opt/lampp/bin/ftpwho"
# export SERVER_USER="nobody"
# export SERVER_GROUP="nobody"
# export WELCOME_MESSAGE="welcome.msg"
# export HTML_STATISTICS="/var/www/html/ftp.htm"
# export MIN_PASS_LEN=6

#############################################
############# feel free to change any of the
############# above to your liking as long as
############# you know what you're doing
#############################################

### Debian commands for starting the server at boot ###
# export SYSINIT_START_CMD="update-rc.d -f proftpd defaults"
# export SYSINIT_STOP_CMD="update-rc.d -f proftpd remove"

### RH/Fedora commands for starting the server at boot ###
### This is the defaults for the rpm specfile ###
export SYSINIT_START_CMD="chkconfig proftpd on"
export SYSINIT_STOP_CMD="chkconfig proftpd off"

./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc \
--localstatedir=/var --sbindir=/usr/sbin &&
make &&
make install

Save it!

step 5: last step

sudo ./Autoinstall

NOTE:
the binary isn't

gproftpd

its

gadmin-proftpd

and it has to be run as root

recommended steps:

This installs a binary into Applications-Internet-GADMIN-PROFTPD.
but it needs to run as root. So, right click on applications, click edit menus, click internet, right click on gadmin-proftpd, click properties, and in the command box it'll say:

gadmin-proftpd

but we want it to be:

gksudo gadmin-proftpd

Save all that.

and that should be it!

LXDE- lightweight and fast UBUNTU environment

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 07:53:53 -0700

One brilliant thing about Linux is that it can be tweaked anyway to suit any kind of a system. If your system is pretty old and if ubuntu is too slow in it, then here you go. LXDE(Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment) is a light weight environment that's fast even on antique systems. It is surely not designed to be powerful or bloated but it is light enough to keep the system usage low.

Not all components are integrated but most of them are independent and each of them can be used with a few dependencies.

Here are some of the important LXDE features :

It's lightweight and runs with reasonably low memory usage.
Fast and runs on old machines producced in the '90s.
Gook looking gtk+2 internationalized user interface.
Desktop independent(every component can be used without LXDE)
Standard compliant, follows the specs on freedesktop.org

Installing LXDE in UBUNTU:
This first step is to edit the "/etc/apt/sources.list" file. Add the following lines to the file.(Please make a back up before you do so)

For hardy heron users:
"deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/lxde/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/lxde/ubuntu hardy main"

For gutsy gibbon users:
"deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/lxde/ubuntu gutsy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/lxde/ubuntu gutsy main"
Save and exit the file.

Now the source list has to be updated. Open a terminal and type the following command:
sudo apt-get update
Use the following command to install the LXDE environment:
sudo apt-get install lxde

This will install all the required components for LXDE. Now you need to logout from you system. Then go to Options->Select session.

Select the LXDE option and click on Change Session.

Howto Schedule Bittorrents to Automatically Download in Ubuntu

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:55:00 -0700

Ever wondered if you could schedule your torrent downloads to occur in those times when you are not using you computer, when you know that there will be more people online sharing the file your downloading, or perhaps during the off-peak times of your Internet plan Well this tutorial is for you.

1. We need to make sure that the relevant software is installed on our system. To do this we start up Synaptic Package Manager

System → Administration → Synaptic Package Manager

and search for 'bittorrent'. Select 'bittorrent' from the options and click 'Apply' to install it with all of its dependencies. If you've already got bittorrent installed then it will already be selected in the list and you won't need to perform this step.

2. Next we need to create the directory that we will download our torrents into. You can use any directory that you have permission to use for this this but a sub-directory in your home directory will often make things easier. For this tutorial I will be using a sub-directory in the user's home directory called 'torrents'. To create this directory simply navigate to your home directory

Places → Home Folder

right click on some empty space and select 'Create Folder'. Name this folder 'torrents'.

3. To automate the task of downloading torrents, and stopping the downloads at an appropriate time, we are going to create some very simple bash scripts (For more on bash scripts see here). We will use the familiar graphical text editor gedit for this task.

In your home folder right click some empty space and select

'Create Document' → 'Empty File'

Name this file 'bittorrentstart'. Perform this task again to create another file and call this one 'bittorrentstop'. You can place these files anywhere you like, perhaps in a directory called 'scripts', but this tutorial will assume they are in your Home directory.
Double click the file 'bittorrentstart' to open it and paste in the following information

#!/bin/sh
# Start Downloading Torrent Files!
cd
nohup btlaunchmany /home/Your_User_Name/torrents/ > torrent.log &
tail -f torrent.log

Make sure you change the 'Your_User_Name' to your user-name. Save this file, open 'bittorrentstop' and paste in the following information

#!/bin/bash
# Stop Downloading ALL Torrent Files!
killall btlaunchmany

4. The second part of automating the downloading of torrents is to tell our computer when to execute the start script and execute the stop script. To do this we use a tool called cron . To make the editing of cron entries simple we are going to create a text file that we will edit in gedit (like the bash scripts above) and then append it to our cron entries.

While in your Home directory right click on some empty space and select

'Create Document' → 'Empty File'

Name this file 'cron.txt'. Double click this file to open it and enter in the following information

# Start BitTorrent Download Script
05 02 * * * sh /home/Your_User_Name/bash_scripts/bittorrentstart.sh
# Stop ALL BitTorrent Downloads Script
55 11 * * * sh /home/Your_User_Name/bash_scripts/bittorrentstop.sh

Be sure to enter your user-name in the required fields. This setup will start the download start script at 2:05am and start the download stop script at 11:55am. These values will likely not suit you so you need to alter them. To understand the format of cron entries picture five asterisks at the start followed by your command. Something like the following

* * * * * sh /home/Your_User_Name/bash_scripts/bittorrentstart.sh

The first asterisk represents minutes, the second hours, the third days of the month, the fourth is the month, and the fifth the day of the week. The allowed syntax is

minute 0-59
hour 0-23
day of month 1-31
month 1-12 (or the month names)
day of week 0-7 (0 or 7 is Sun, or use the weekday names)

Save this file and start up your terminal emulator

Applications → Accessories → Terminal

Enter in the following command

crontab cron.txt

To verify that this was entered into your cron entries properly enter in the following command

crontab -l

5. Now that we've installed the relevant applications and told the computer to execute the appropriate tasks at the appropriate times all we need to do is save our *.torrent files into the bittorrent directory we created earlier and wait. At the appropriate times they will be downloaded into their own sub-directory without you even being aware.

6. In the bittorrentstart script we created earlier there is a command to create a log file. This file records the activity of the torrent downloads. This file, called 'torrent.log', will be found in your Home directory. You can simply open this file to check on the status of your downloads. A sample line from this log file is

/home/Your_User_Name/torrents/torrent_name: Spd: 34.0 K/s:18.2 K/s Tot: 171.2 M:61.1 M [18:10:07 76%]
All: Spd: 34.0 K/s:18.2 K/s Tot: 171.2 M:61.1 M

What all of these entries mean is beyond the scope of this tutorial but you can easily recognise your connection speed and the percentage finished of your torrent downloads.

Printing CD Labels with GIMP and Canon Pixma iP3000

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 22:53:43 -0700

This tutorial will explain how to Print CD Labels with GIMP and Canon Pixma iP3000

Preparing your system

If you don't have it, install GIMP trough apt, aptitude, synaptic... whatever you like.

CREATE A PRINTER CLASS

On this part we will create a printer class that will save us time on configuring the printer each time we need to print a CD.

#1 . Open System Configuration and click on "Printers" then "Add Printer".
On the wizard select:

1) Printer Class -> NEXT

2) If you're using TurboPrint (recommended), select tp0 (or the number of your Pixma printer), otherwise select iPxxxx (where xxxx is the model of your printer) and press the arrow (->) on the middle to add the printer to the class. -> NEXT

3) Name now your printer CD_Label_Printer leave location and description blanked. -> NEXT -> FINISH

4) Now you must have another printer on the list named "CD_Label_Printer", click on it to select the printer than the tab "Instances" and with (default) select on the list below, press Configure.

5) Select on the first tab:

Page Size: CD Printable
Paper kind: CD Printable
Paper Origin: CD Tray

leave the rest as is and, if you're using TurboPrint, select the last tab "Controller Configuration", otherwise is done.

If you are using TurboPrint set the Print Quality to 1200 dpi or over (default CUPS driver just has 300 or 600 dpi).

USING GIMP WITH OUR PRINTER

1) Start GIMP and create an image of 800 x 800 pixels with some color background. If need use the bucket and fill the background with some weird color.

2) Create a new layer with transparent background, name it "mask" for an instance.

3) With the new layer selected, choose the circle selection tool and draw and adjust a circle to fill the canvas, then select Selection -> Invert Selection

4) Select the forecolor white and the bucket fill tool and fill the selection with it.

You must now have a "your background" color circle on the middle.
*I added mine as attachment to this post

5) Open your CD label image on GIMP and copy it to clipboard.

6) With background layer selected paste the CD label image.

7) The image must now be a new floating selection, with it selected click on "New layer". Now the image must be rasterized between the background and the mask.

Adjust your image, add text, etc. When you're done press "Print" (CTRL+P)

9) Select your "CD_Label_Printer" and go then the tab "Image Settings"

10) Set the following values:

Check the box "Ignore page margins"

Width: 120.00 mm
Height: 120.00 mm

Position: Center -> none

Top: 85.00
Left: 5.00

Put your CD on the tray and Print it.

Howto install latest ayttm for yahoo messanger in Ubuntu

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 22:53:43 -0700

Ayttm is an instant messenger program, supporting various protocols such as MSN, Yahoo, AIM, Jabber, and more. It is the heir of the Everybuddy project, and aims to continue improving the program and addressing its shortcomings.

Install alien using the following command

sudo apt-get install alien

Now you need to download latest ayttm rpm from here and convert it to a deb:

sudo alien ayttm-0.5.0-45.i386.rpm

and install using the following command

sudo dpkg -i ayttm_0.5.0-46_i386.deb

starting ayttm will probably generate a message about not finding a library libjasper-1.701.so.1 which is used for yahoo webcam.

To get rid of the jasper lib warning, install it:

sudo apt-get install libjasper1

and make a link to simulate the correct version:

sudo ln -s libjasper.so.1 /usr/lib/libjasper-1.701.so.1

That's it, ayttm works again.

How To Install torrentflux-b4rt on Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron)

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 12:51:22 -0700

Torrentflux-b4rt is a web based transfer control client.Torrentflux-b4rt allows you to control your internet downloads / transfers from anywhere using a highly configurable web based front end.

Torrentflux-b4rt is very easy to install on a web server and includes a simple setup script which can be accessed from a web browser. Just upload the files to your web server, run the setup script and your torrentflux-b4rt installation is ready to go.

First you need to make sure you have install Ubuntu 8.04 LAMP server setup from here and now follow this procedure.

Now you need to go /var/www folder using the following command

cd /var/www

If your behind a proxy and havn't already set up your export...

export http_proxy = [enter your proxy here]:[port]/

wget http://gunblade.fakap.net/doc/torrentflux-b4rt_1.0-beta2.tar.bz2

So far we've gone and got the tar containing torrentflux-b4rt and stuck it in our default web root /var/www.

tar xjvf torrentflux-b4rt_1.0-beta2.tar.bz2

This unzips our archive.

personally I now rename the new folder from torrentflux-b4rt_1.0-beta2 to something a little nicer like torrentflux

mv torrentflux-b4rt_1.0-beta2 torrentflux

but thats optional.

now we need to install quite a few libraries for everything to work nicely.

Now you need to install the following packages

sudo apt-get install php5-cli php5-gd libxml-dom-perl libxml-simple-perl libthreads-shared-perl libdigest-sha1-perl libhtml-parser-perl zip unzip unrar transmission-cli phpmyadmin

let that churn away for a bit then run setup.php from a web browser of your choice from the torrentflux/html folder.

When it gets the part where it asks what user name and password to use for the database, copy the username provided (or enter a new one) open a new tab and go to the phpmyadmin page (http://[your box ip]/phpmyadmin), log in using your root username and pwd and click on privileges. add a new user, give it sufficient privileges and click save.

I just gave it full access to everything. This isn't required and you can just keep flicking between the two tabs trying to connect until you've found the required permissions and it works.

when the setup is finished it'll give you a log in screen. the user and password you enter here is going to be your superadmin account! so don't forget it!

How to install Ms OFFICE 2003 in Ubuntu

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 10:53:56 -0700

Install WINE 1.0 or greater for this you need to download latest wine from here or if you are using Hardy you can install it from ubuntu repos using the following comamnd.

sudo aptitude install wine

After wine has been installed -

Put your MS office 2003 cd in your drive and in terminal type following:

cd /media/cdrom0

wine autorun.exe

And follow instructions as if you were installing it on windows.

Now on your desktop right click -->Create launcher for each below

Create launchers for each application:

in Command field type this

For excel

env WINEPREFIX="/home/your_username/.wine" wine "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\EXCEL.EXE"

For Word

env WINEPREFIX="/home/your_username/.wine" wine "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\WINWORD.EXE"

For powerpoint

env WINEPREFIX="/home/your_username/.wine" wine "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\POWERPNT.EXE"

For Access

env WINEPREFIX="/home/your_username/.wine" wine "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\MSACCESS.EXE"

You are almost done.

Now if you are having problem running your macro then you need to install Dcom98.

Dcom98 contains three dlls from Windows 98: ole32, oleaut32, and rpcrt4. Use winetricks to install it:

In terminal type:

wget http://www.kegel.com/wine/winetricks

sh winetricks dcom98

The winetricks script will set to override globally, and if you have any other programs installed in that wineprefix it may affect them. If that happens, you can fix it through winecfg.

That's it Now you have running MS OFFICE 2003 on your ubuntu.

Howto Setup a DLINK WUA-2340 USB Wireless Adapter in Ubuntu Hardy

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 14:05:03 -0700

So you want to have a working wireless setup in Hardy and you happen to have a D-Link WUA-2340 Wireless USB adapter.

We will be using ndiswrapper to install the driver for the adapter, so we should ensure all components of it are installed:

sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper-common ndiswrapper-utils-1.9

Now would be a good time to start to download the driver, grab it from here

Now unzip the file:

cd directory where you downloaded the zip

unzip WUA2340_driver_140.zip

Now we need to setup ndiswrapper to use the driver we just downloaded.

Firstly, we need to get ndiswrapper itself setup properly.

sudo depmod -a

sudo modprobe ndiswrapper

sudo ndiswrapper -m

The preceding incantation will load the ndiswrapper module and ensure that it loads automatically at startup. To ensure the module loaded correctly now is a good time to check it:

sudo lsmod | grep ndiswrapper

You should see a couple of lines with 'ndiswrapper' in them, if you don't then the module did not load correctly. It's beyond the scope of this howto to troubleshoot that issue unfortunately.

Now that ndiswrapper is installed and loaded up we need to install the driver.

cd 20071112-WUA-2340-S0026

cd Drivers

cd WinXP_2K

sudo ndiswrapper -i netA5AGU.inf

You may get some output stating that it is changing the registers from 256 to 64, this is not an issue and you can safely ignore it.

Now make sure it installed properly:

sudo ndiswrapper -l

You should see that the driver is installed and the device is present.

Now in a perfect world, you would be done now. However network-manager in hardy will not display any wireless networks for you to connect to. Rest assured your wireless adapter is installed and working, the problem is with network-manager.

There are two ways you can go from here. The first involves setting the wireless network you want to connect to manually (this might be good if you only use your wireless connection at home). The other choice is to replace network-manager with WICD which does work properly with this setup.

The Network Administration Method

* Open System->Administration->Network
* You should see your wireless connection in the list, click the Unlock button to make changes.
* Select your wireless connection and hit the properties button.
* Deselect 'Roaming'
* Select your wireless network from the list and enter in your WPA/WEP information for the card.
* Click ok, and now you have a working wireless connection. Congrats!

Using WICD

For this method we will install WICD which is an alternative to network-manager that has the benefit of, you know, working with this adapter.

Before you start you should know:

Installing WICD will remove network-manager and ubuntu-desktop from your system. This is not an issue for day to day use but ubuntu-desktop MUST be installed for distribution upgrades to work properly (Ie, Hardy->Ibex). Before you dist-upgrade to Ibex, reinstall the ubuntu-desktop package (this will uninstall WICD).

Now that the disclaimer is out of the way, lets get going.

We need to add the WICD repository to our sources.list.

gksu gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

Append the following to the file then Save and close it:

deb http://apt.wicd.net hardy extras

Now update your packages and install WICD:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install wicd

You will be prompted if you want to install this package from an unverified repository. If you wish the installation to proceed, type Yes.

Now that WICD is installed type Alt-F2 and then /opt/wicd/tray.py to launch the tray applet. Double-clicking the applet will display a list of all wireless networks in range. Use the dropdown arrow next to your network and enter your encryption key for your network, click connect automatically at start, then click connect. Now you should be connected to your wireless network!

To make the applet load automatically at startup do the following:

* System->Preferences->Sessions
* Click Add
* Enter WICD for the name
* Enter /opt/wicd/tray.py for the command
* Enter WICD Tray Applet for the description.
* Click OK
* Click Close

Howto Setup Lexmark Z611 printer in Ubuntu Hardy Heron

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 09:06:15 -0700

If you want to install Lexmark Z611 printer in Ubuntu Hardy Heron follow these steps

Step 1: Install Supporting Packages

sudo apt-get install alien libstdc++5

Yes, you want to install that specific version of libstdc, even if you have a newer version.

Step 2: Activate the USB Filesystem

It was necessary to add the following line to /etc/fstab in order to get this working.

usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs devgid=14 0 0

Then you'll want to mount the USB Filesystem

sudo mount usbfs

Step 3: Download Driver from Lexmark

You will want to grab the Red Hat Linux driver for the Z611, which should be named CJLZ600LE-CUPS-1.0-1.TAR.gz. I would recommend creating a folder somewhere and download this file into that folder.

Step 4: Extract and Install the Driver

Execute the following commands exactly as listed, no modifications or tweaks should be necessary for the average user. (You don't need to execute the comment lines however)

## Extracting the driver
tar -xvzf CJLZ600LE-CUPS-1.0-1.TAR.gz

## The shell script doesn't work out of the box
tail -n +143 z600cups-1.0-1.gz.sh > install.tar.gz

## Extracting the contents from the above command
tar -xvzf install.tar.gz

## Convert RPM to TGZ (alien may complain about --scripts not being used, you can ignore that warning)
sudo alien -t z600cups-1.0-1.i386.rpm

## Convert RPM to TGZ (alien may complain about --scripts not being used, you can ignore that warning)
sudo alien -t z600llpddk-2.0-1.i386.rpm

## Extracting the contents of the TGZ into the appropriate locations
sudo tar xvzf z600llpddk-2.0.tgz -C /

## Extracting the contents of the TGZ into the appropriate locations
sudo tar xvzf z600cups-1.0.tgz -C /

## Tell Ubuntu to refresh to see the new libraries
sudo ldconfig

## Move to location of PPDs
cd /usr/share/cups/model

## gunzip the PPD
sudo gunzip Lexmark-Z600-lxz600cj-cups.ppd.gz

## The driver installation is now complete, restart cupsys
sudo /etc/init.d/cupsys restart

Step 5: Activate Printer and Driver

Execute the following command

/usr/lib/cups/backend/z600

If all is well you should see something similar to the following:

user@hostname:/usr/share/cups/model$ /usr/lib/cups/backend/z600
direct z600:/dev/usb/lp0 "Lexmark Lexmark Z600 Series" "Lexmark Printer"

If that doesn't work, check to see if usbfs is listed in 'cat /proc/mounts'.

Step 6: Setup Printer

If you are using GNOME:

1. Click on System -> Administration -> Printing
2. Click 'New Printer'
3. Select 'Lexmark Printer' from the list, which should have something like 'z600:/dev/usb/lp0' for Device URI. Click Forward.
4. Select 'Lexmark' from the manufacturer list and click Forward.
5. Click on 'Z600' in the model list. Driver should show as 'Lexmark Z600 v1.0-1'
6. Setup your preferred Printer Name, Description and Location and click Apply

At this point you should have a working printer