Linux + GNU = Humans Enabled

Looking around on Google (or whatever one's favorite search engine); one can usually find everything they need in terms of tips for making GNU/Linux work optimally. But sometimes, you just want to do one specific thing, and although the required documentation is available, it may be questionable because you can't figure out if the fix exactly matches what you need for your system. Finding the fix online, along with too much information about how to implement it, is what happened in recent situation I encountered. A friend brought me his Gateway Laptop. The laptop was failing to boot (kernel panic) after some recent updates that were run. So I referred to my technical library, Google, and although I was able to find an answer, it wasn't immediately clear to how to implement the fix to my friend's specific situation. So for that reason, and for the reason of being able to quickly get of this jam in the future, I decided I would write up the specific steps that hel...

Here's my geeky tip for updating your /etc/apt/sources.list on Ubuntu GNU/Linux. This tip is especially useful around April/October when the new Ubuntu releases are freed into the wild and the main servers are very busy. I know what you're saying: This can easily be done from the  Ubuntu Software Center via the edit > sources menu. Yes, this is true, but now that's not a very geeky (or terminal-fast) thing to do, now is it? Besides, I like it better when I can initiate the sources update myself with sudo apt-get update, vs. having the software centre do it on exit. To change your sources.list package server setting from the command line. 1.) Open the Terminal. Simply hit CTRL+ALT+T. 2.) Run this command to update your sources.list file: sudo sed -i.backup 's/us.archive.ubuntu.com/mirror.anl.gov/g' /etc/apt/sources.list 3.) Run this command to see if your change took effect (you should see mirror.pnl.gov instead of us.archive.ubuntu.com on upda...

In this post I'm going to show you how simple it is to create music CDs From your MP3 music in Ubuntu 11.10. I decided to write this post in response to some information posted by Sarkis Dallakian, Ph.D pertaining to cd burning programs on the wintarded operating system. You can see the original post here: http://tinyurl.com/7p27gxn What I used in this demonstration: Ubuntu 11.10 GNU/Linux on my computer Some sample tracks of legally obtained MP3 music 1 Blank CD-R disc of the 700MB, 80 min (imation 1x-52x is what I have) MP3 support in Ubuntu - Terminal command: sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras First, insert a blank CDR into the drive. If you get the application launch prompt as shown below, simply click Cancel to close it. See below. Note: We could click through and add the Brasero application as a default to the drop-down shown here but that's another topic. Next, click the Ubuntu Launcher icon in the Unity menu... or hit the wintard button (that...

Evernote has the "Platinum" rating at http://appdb.winehq.org , which means this windows program runs awesome sauce on GNU/Linux. Wine is an awesome program that lets you run windows programs in GNU/Linux - there's also a commercially supported version called crossover by codeweavers, check it out here . In this tutorial we'll be installing Evernote 4.4.1.4892 in wine1.3 from winehq.org on Ubuntu 11.04 GNU/Linux. See the install steps below the video. Here are the steps (Easy Pleasy): 1.) Go to http://evernote.com and download the Evernote for windows version 2.) Install wine1.3 in Ubuntu 11.04 with these commands (thanks to Scott Ritchie for the ppa ): sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-wine/ppa 3.) Update your Ubuntu with the new ppa repository data and install wine1.3 sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install wine1.3 4.) Right click on the Evernote installer that you downloaded in step 1, then left click "Open with Wine Program Loader...

For Ubuntu Linux, Cisco provides the anyconnect VPN client. But why not connect with the simplistic, FOSS, and Network-Manager-integrated, "openconnect" and "network-manager-openconnect" packages from the "universe" repository instead? I've used this method with much success for quite some time now. Special Note - these instructions are for connecting to the VPN using the open source alternative to Cisco AnyConnect client (openconnect). If you are looking for instructions related to using the open source alternative to the Cisco Systems VPN client (vpnc), have a look at my post entitled: How To: Cisco Systems VPN with Ubuntu 11.10 / 10.10 GNU/Linux You can install these packages easily with using either of the two methods below. Also, you may need to enable the universe FOSS repository first (see the "****" note below for enabling the "universe" repository): Method A.) From the Ubuntu Software Center (see image below). ...

Here's my short writeup on how to be a more effective Ubuntu GNU/Linux user by using the Run Dialog to quickly start your most favorite programs. I do it all the time. Using the Run dialog to start xkill can get you out of a pickle. Need to take some notes in gedit real quick? Fire it up with the Run dialog. Need to connect to your Win-Neighbor? Fire up the Run dialog and enter smb://win-box/c$, and with a password - you'll walk right in. To start the Run Dialog, simply push the alt+f2 keys simutaneously. Doing so will bring up the Run dialog box that looks like this: To a get a program started from the Run dialog box you can either you can manually enter the command into the field provided and then click Run as shown here: Or you can click on a program in the "Show List of Known Applications" area and then click Run as shown here: You can run many graphical programs with the Run command, and you can even Run commands from a file or in the terminal in this fashion(th...