In this tutorial, I am going to talk about samba and ufw services. If you limit your file share within a dedicated range of ip addresses in your local network, your files are generally secure (from outside access), and still able to share files.

Installation

sudo apt-get install samba smbclient nautilus-share gufw

Add password for samba share

sudo smbpasswd -a yourusername

Note: Replace yourusername with your actual username

Rules

Add rules for samba in your firewall rules list. For this tutorial, I assume your computer’s ip starts with 192.168.0. E.g 192.168.0.100. Type following commands in a terminal.

sudo ufw allow from 192.168.0.0/24 to any app Samba

Sometimes, you might also want to execute some commands on your computer, using ssh. If you want to add ssh as well, execute following commands. For this you have to install ssh package first.

sudo apt-get install ssh
sudo ufw allow proto tcp from 192.168.0.0/24 to any port 22
rm -rf .ssh # Only, if there is a problem with your previous key

Enable and start ufw

sudo ufw enable
sudo service ufw start

Transmission

If you want to control Transmission via a web interface, you have to enable Transmission -> Edit -> Preferences -> Web -> Enable web client. Next, setup the authentication and add the respective port to ufw list, just as second rule (ssh) above.

sudo ufw allow proto tcp from 192.168.0.0/24 to any port 9091

You can also limit the ip addresses using Only allow these IP addresses to connect checkbox and adding respective ip addresses.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we saw how we can add firewall and setup samba to share files. You can use some software like ES File Explorer in Android and copy files to or from your computer to your device. One thing you should note is, if you cannot access some services in your computer, first thing to do is disable ufw, access the service from external device and start exploring the rules needed to access that service through firewall. You can also use gufw to add or remove rules graphically.

Hope, this tutorial introduced you to file sharing on Linux via samba.

Cheers!!

Often, when you browse a torrent site for your favorite Linux distribution, you might ask the question, have I already downloaded this torrent or not? One way to find out is to actually go into your torrent directory and search (by the way, new nautilus is pretty good at searching), but it is always good to have a script (that uses find command) to do that.

Script

Create a file inside bin directory in your home folder (lets say torrent.sh) with following texts.

#!/bin/bash
# Example ./torrent.sh Ubuntu Linux Or put it in PATH and type torrent.sh
STR="("
for i in "$@"; # for loop of all command line parameters
 do 
 STR+="$i|" # add pipe character for egrep 
done
STR="${STR%?})" # remove last pipe character
find ~/Torrent/ | egrep -i "$STR" # search (file1|file2|file3)

This script is nothing special, other than it searches file names with spaces, lower or upper case etc. If Torrent directory is not in your home folder you can use following command to link it there

ln -s /path/to/torrent ~/Torrent

or you could simply change ~/Torrent in above script to where ever you save your torrent files.

Setup

First make this file executable with following command

chmod +x ~/bin/torrent.sh

and if you have not done already, add ~/bin to PATH environment variable in .bashrc file.

export PATH=$PATH:~/bin

Search

You can search files in your torrent directory using texts like following

torrent.sh ubuntu
torrent.sh ubuntu linux

Conclusion

You can modify above script to search other directories and files too. I hope this script was useful to you.

Cheers !!

The alias command is considered both good and bad. It can sometimes simplify long and complex commands, but on the other hand it can also be misused to hide commands everyone could learn otherwise.

Long time Linux users have been using alias for many commands and scripts. Even the operating system itself uses alias for certain commands e.g ll for ls -alF, la for ls -A and so on. However, this tutorial is not going to be about simplifying existing commands, rather it is going to be about aliasing your reddit subscriptions.

1. Link in .bashrc

Go to .bashrc (hidden file) in your home directory and add following line

source ~/.alias

We do this, because it does not clutter .bashrc file.

2. Create the script

Create a file called .alias in your home directory with following texts (add or delete links, change names based on your own reddit subscription list)

# reddit
alias rlin='chromium-browser http://www.reddit.com/r/linux &'
alias rlinn='chromium-browser http://www.reddit.com/r/linux/new &'
alias rgaming='chromium-browser http://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming &'
alias rgentoo='chromium-browser http://www.reddit.com/r/gentoo &'
alias rubuntu='chromium-browser http://www.reddit.com/r/ubuntu &'
alias rlinq='chromium-browser http://www.reddit.com/r/linuxquestions &'
alias rlinqn='chromium-browser http://www.reddit.com/r/linuxquestions/new &'
alias rlashow='chromium-browser http://www.reddit.com/r/LinuxActionShow &'
alias reddit='rlin rlinn rgaming rgentoo rubuntu rlinq rlinqn rlashow'

As you can see, we have given separate names for different reddit links and finally consolidated under a single name (reddit).

All you have to do now is open up a new terminal (so that the .bashrc file gets refreshed) and type reddit. This command should open all your links on chromium-browser (change it to whatever you prefer, or make a variable instead, so that you can change browsers easily).

Conclusion

As we saw, how easy it is to create aliases for links. You can also create aliases for youtube searches, gmail, and pretty much whatever you want to be executed with few and easy commands. I hope this tutorial has given you a starting point to create aliases for different links.

Cheers !!

In this tutorial, I will try to list things you can do during Ubuntu LTS installation to make the experience little better. This tutorial will have specific settings for dell laptop, however I will mention when it comes in this tutorial, so that you can differentiate your setup. If you want to play with more cutting edge distro try my Arch Linux Tutorial.

1. Partition

If you have used Linux for quite some time now, it is time to experience with keeping a separate /home partition.

During installation, at disk management screen, go to advanced partition window and create separate / (root) and /home partitions. It is also a good idea to create a swap partition as big as the RAM size (if it is greater than 2GB).

If you re-install or upgrade Ubuntu, go to the same window, select your /home partition, and press Change, select partition type as it is (e.g ext4) and mount it under /home. Don’t tick the Format option.

You can use same method to mount other drives as well e.g ntfs partitions (under /media e.g. /media/C, /media/D etc).

Warning: Don’t tick the Format option for anything other than the root (/).

During each subsequent installations, edit swap space too, because sometimes it does not get picked up the operating system automatically.

2. Username

If this is your first Ubuntu installation (I mean before separate /home partiton), use whatever username you prefer. From second installation onward, use the same username as you used in your previous installations. This will help you restore all your files as it was in your last installation.

If for some reasons you want to get a fresh look, you can remove some of the files using following command.

cd ~/.config
rm -rf compiz-1 dconf evolution gnome-session gtk-3.0 ibus libaccounts-glib nautilus Trolltech.conf ubuntuone update-notifier user-dirs.dirs user-dirs.locale

3. Locked Settings

If you find that you can’t change the wallpaper or wallpaper gets reset if you logout and log back in, you have to reassign all hidden files to your new username and usergroup.

sudo chown username:usergroup -R .*

Note: Here username is your own login username, and often usergroup is same as your username.

If you use groups and whoami commands, you will know your group and username.

4. Enable canonical partners

Go to Ubuntu Software Center -> Edit -> Software Sources -> Other Software and enable Canonical Partners (both). This will enable third party software like skype.

5. Additional packages

In Software Sources -> Other Software tab (from step 4) add following ppas.

a. For dell laptop add ppa:canonical-hwe-team/sputnik-kernel in the APT line textbox.

b. For Android MTP add ppa:langdalepl/gvfs-mtp ppa.

c. For Sandy bridge and newer architecture add ppa:glasen/intel-driver.

d. For newer graphics drivers add ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates

6. Update

Run following command to update the meta-data of software sources

sudo apt-get update

Next, install synaptic

sudo apt-get install synaptic

Note: If you don’t want to be bothered all the time for update (update is good thing) you can set Automatically check for updates to Never in software sources.

7. Sputnik for dell (optional)

To install sputnik kernel, go to synaptic and press Origin button located on bottom left. Go to LP-PPA-canonical-hwe-team-sputnik-kernel/precise link and install latest versions of following packages.

linux-headers-version-no
linux-headers-version-no-generic
linux-image-version-no-generic

E.g At the time of this writing, those packages were

 linux-headers-3.2.0-48
 linux-headers-3.2.0-48-generic
 linux-image-3.2.0-48-generic

8. Updating Ubuntu

Run following command to update packages to its latest versions

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Note: This command will upgrade gvfs packages too, that we added previously.

9. Install some software

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras ia32-libs-multiarch:i386 vlc artha chromium-browser vim audacity chmsee clementine youtube-dl cryptkeeper dosbox smplayer feh xchat compizconfig-settings-manager bum easytag gimp meld openshot ghex pavucontrol mupen64plus soundconverter ffmpeg aria2 uget laptop-mode-tools samba smbclient nautilus-share fbreader skype gufw keepass2 nautilus-open-terminal

Note: Remove the ones you won’t use from above line.

10. Brightness and Battery

Change GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX in /etc/default/grub to look this following

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="acpi_backlight=vendor dell_laptop.backlight=0"

And run following command to add it to boot options.

sudo update-grub

This should set the brightness level to an acceptable level, but if you want to play more with the brightness, try changing values inside sub-folders of /sys/class/backlight like

echo 2294 > /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness

You can add this text inside /etc/rc.local or edit /etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/lcd-brightness.conf, if that works better.

If you want to increase battery life of your laptop, you can change GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX to following setting as well (If your laptop hangs too much, change rc6 value to 1).

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="acpi_osi=Linux drm.vblankoffdelay=1 i915.i915_enable_rc6=7 i915.lvds_downclock=1 i915.i915_enable_fbc=1 acpi_backlight=vendor dell_laptop.backlight=0"

11. Bluetooth vs wireless problem (optional)

If your wireless turns off while you disable bluetooth add following line at the end of /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf.

blacklist dell-laptop

12. Hide mounted drives

For some people, having the mounted drives in the launcher is a good thing, but not for all. In some cases you can remove those icons just by choosing “Unlock from Launcher”, but it might not work in all cases. If you remember, we have installed a software called compizconfig-settings-manager above.

Open that software and go to Ubuntu Unity Plugin -> Experimental and Change Show Devices to “Never“.

13. Enable SNA

We have already installed the sna packages (sandy bridge and newer processor), when we did the upgrade (Section 8, above). Now, all you have to do is add some text to /etc/X11/xorg.conf

$ sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
 Section "Device"
  Identifier "intel"
  Driver "intel"
  Option "AccelMethod" "sna"
 EndSection

After reboot, run following command to find out, if sna is enabled.

$ cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep -i sna
SNA initialized with Sandybridge backend

14. Tips

For a stable experience, make note of following tips.

• Depending upon your target audience, you can remove synaptic and compizconfig-settings-manager, so that they don’t accidentally break the system. Use following command to remove these packages

    sudo apt-get remove synaptic compizconfig-settings-manager

• Use Ubuntu Software Center to install and remove applications, so that you won’t break packages.

• Don’t play with ppas.

Conclusion

This was like a note to me, while installing different packages in Ubuntu. I hope it helps you too.

Cheers !!

1. Before you start, make sure you have created a partition, formatted it and ready to install Arch.
2. In this tutorial, I will use internet via wireless. Make sure you have downloaded the latest version of Arch, because I had terrible luck previously.
3. Use root as username in multiple terminals
4. Copy text from blocks from this tutorial (depending upon context) and use sudo whenever you run commands as normal user. You can use sudo su to switch to root user.
5. If you have dual graphics cards (e.g Intel and AMD) and your laptop’s dicrete graphics card is awake and burning the laptop like fire (in this case AMD with radeon drivers) shut the discrete card.

echo OFF > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch

1. Mount media

If you have downloaded text from this tutorial or others from https://wiki.archlinux.org/ and kept it in a separate partiton (e.g a ntfs partiton, which we will call D drive in this tutorial), you can mount it using following command.

mkdir -p /media/D
mount /dev/sda3 /media/D

Here /dev/sda3 is my NTFS partition.

2. Create and enable swap.

/dev/sda7 is my existing swap partition from another distribution.

mkswap /dev/sda7
swapon /dev/sda7

3. Mount installation drive

mount /dev/sda1 /mnt

If you have separate partition for /home, this is the time to mount it too (unmount it later when unmounting /dev/sda1)

E.g

mkdir /mnt/home
mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/home

4. Wireless

a. Find

iw dev

Interface wlp2s0

You might get another name for the wireless interface, replace that name in all the places where we use wlp2s0 below. If nothing shows up, you are in a little bit of trouble. Use “lspci” command or “dmesg | grep -i wireless” and determine your wireless drive, reboot and search how people have solved this problem while installing Arch. This is such a broad topic, I could not do it justice discussing here. Most of the things are discussed in https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wireless_Setup. Start from there. If your driver is not loaded, you might have to download and setup before following the tutorial.

b. Bring it up

ip link set wlp2s0 up

c. Search wireless SSID

iw dev wlp2s0 scan | grep SSID

SSID: MyRoutersSSID

d. Edit /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

network={
ssid="MyRoutersSSID"
proto=WPA RSN
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK WPA-EAP
pairwise=CCMP
group=CCMP
psk="mywirelesspassword"
}

You will have to again create this file later in chrooted environment too (before we restart, I will mention later)

e. Enable dhcp

dhcpd wlp2s0

Simultaneously (above will break, if you take much longer time)

f. Connect

wpa_supplicant -i wlp2s0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

5. Install base system

a. Pacstrap

pacstrap  -i /mnt base-devel

Select all and press Enter

b. Generate Fstab

genfstab -U -p /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

c. Chroot

arch-chroot /mnt

d. Set up the local language

nano /etc/locale.gen

Uncomment

en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8

Run following commands to set this

locale-gen
echo LANG=en_US.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf
export LANG=en_US.UTF-8

e. Replace zone and clock

ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Country/Location /etc/localtime
hwclock --systohc --utc

Note: Here Country is your country, and Location is your timezone location. E.g /usr/share/zoneinfo/Africa/Abidjan

f. Multilib for 64-bit users

nano /etc/pacman.conf

Uncomment following lines

[multilib]
Include=/etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

g. Update Software Repository

pacman -Sy

6. Setup

a. Root password

passwd

b. Add user

useradd -m -g users -G wheel,storage,power -s /bin/bash yourusername
passwd yourusername

c. Add sudo

pacman -S sudo

d. Add user to sudo

EDITOR=nano visudo

Scroll and find “%wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL” and uncomment it

e. Install bash-completion

pacman -S bash-completion

f. Hostname

echo yourusername-comp > /etc/hostname

g. Setup grub

pacman -S grub-bios
grub-install --target=i386-pc --recheck /dev/sda
cp /usr/share/locale/en\@quot/LC_MESSAGES/grub.mo /boot/grub/locale/en.mo

If second command does not execute due to missing file, don’t worry.

h. Grub dual boot (os-prober)

pacman -S os-prober
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

j. Install wpa_supplicant, iw and configure wpa_supplicant.conf as above (i.e configuration file)

pacman -S wpa_supplicant iw

i. Exit

exit
umount /mnt
reboot

7. Post Install Setup

a. Network

You could follow following steps without rebooting, but this is the good time to reboot and see if things works as we planned. After reboot configure and connect to internet using wpa_supplicant as we did during initial section above.

b. Install X11 packages and video drivers

pacman -S xorg-server xorg-xinit xorg-server-utils
pacman -S mesa
pacman -S xf86-video-intel

c. Input devices

pacman -S xf86-input-synaptics

d. Desktop Environments

Gnome

pacman -S gnome

systemctl enable gdm.service
systemctl start gdm.service

or

KDE

pacman -S kde

systemctl enable kdm.service
systemctl start kdm.service

In this tutorial I went gnome route.

e. Mount ntfs

pacman -S ntfs-3g
blkid

Add to /etc/fstab

UUID=18BDC844149627BC          /media/D        ntfs-3g  uid=yourusername,gid=users,umask=0022

f. Install some apps

pacman -S gedit skype lib32-libpulse firefox vlc pavucontrol smplayer transmission-gtk
pacman -S file-roller p7zip unrar zip arj unace nautilus-open-terminal nautilus-actions
pacman -S uget aria2
pacman -S flashplugin

g. Media plugins

pacman -S gstreamer0.10-plugins a52dec faac faad2 flac jasper lame libdca libdv libmad libmpeg2 libtheora libvorbis libxv opus wavpack x264 xvidcore ffmpeg totem-plugin gst-libav

h. Fix font

pacman -S gnome-tweak-tool

Go to gnome-tweak-tool Fonts -> Antialiasing and set it to Rgba

If you still did not like these fonts, look at https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Font_Configuration. I found Infinality quite good. See Infinality: the easy way section. If the installer asks about conflicting lib32-freetype2 and similar packages you can choose to replace them in the interactive installer.

i. Install vgaswitcheroo using aur

Download aur archive (e.g systemd-vgaswitcheroo-units.tar.gz, search for vgaswitcheroo aur)

makepkg
pacman -U systemd-vgaswitcheroo-units-1.2-2-any.pkg.tar.xz

Enable vgaswitcheroo

echo radeon > /etc/modules-load.d/radeon.conf
systemctl enable vgaswitcheroo.service

j. Enable NetworkManager at startup

systemctl enable NetworkManager
systemctl start NetworkManager

k. 32-bit libraries for some games

pacman -S lib32-sdl lib32-openal lib32-alsa-lib lib32-libstdc++5 lib32-intel-dri lib32-libgl

l. PowerSaving
Download and install tlp and tlp-rdw aur

pacman -S git # (Dependency for aur)
pacman -S hdparm wireless_tools rfkill ethtool

While installing aur first try to install dependencies using pacman, if those files are not found there, find them in another aur file and try to install them first.

systemctl start tlp
systemctl enable tlp

To run TLP on suspend/hibernate

# Copy following text into /etc/systemd/system/tlp_start.service

[Unit]
Description=Start the TLP power management script after suspend/hibernation
After=basic.target
After=suspend.target
After=hibernate.target
StopWhenUnneeded=yes

[Service]
Type=oneshot
RemainAfterExit=yes
ExecStart=-/usr/sbin/tlp start

[Install]
WantedBy=basic.target
WantedBy=suspend.target
WantedBy=hibernate.target

m. Disable auto suspend (optional)

Add following line to /etc/systemd/logind.conf

HandleLidSwitch=ignore

n. Other package management

Remove

pacman -R package_nameg packages  # Single package
pacman -Rs package_name # Dependencies, not required by others
pacman -Rsc package_name # All dependencies (Be careful)

Upgrade

pacman -Syu

Search

pacman -Ss package1 package2
pacman -Qs package1 package2 # Already installed

Info

pacman -Si package_name
pacman -Qi package_name # Locally installed

Aur

pacman -U package.tar.xz
pacman -U http://www.example.com/repo/example.pkg.tar.xz # Remote

o. Install cinnamon
If you found gnome 3 tiresome and uncomfortable to configure, you can install cinnamon

pacman -S cinnamon cinnamon-control-center cinnamon-screensaver muffin nemo

Reset your Desktop and reboot before login to cinnamon

cd ~/.config
rm -rf compiz-1 dconf evolution gnome-session gtk-3.0 ibus libaccounts-glib nautilus Trolltech.conf update-notifier user-dirs.dirs  user-dirs.locale
reboot

I hope, you found this tutorial useful.

Cheers!!

References

• http://news.softpedia.com/news/A-Beginners-Guide-to-Installing-Arch-Linux-352365.shtml
• https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pacman
• https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wireless_Setup
• https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Font_Configuration

If you have downloaded java development kit (JDK) Linux binary tar.gz file from oracle.com (e.g jdk-7u21-linux-x64.tar.gz), you might probably be thinking how do I install it. On most Linux distributions, you might be able to install java or jdk using official or third party repository, but some people prefer doing it offline. In this tutorial, I will try to explain that.

Installation

Unzip the downloaded tar.gz binary file to some location in your computer. It would be wise to use a partition that you don’t delete during Linux upgrades. For this tutorial, I assume you have downloaded and unzipped the file in your home directory (/home/username). Lets say the unzipped directory is /home/username/jdk1.7.0. To install javac (compiler), java, and jar files run following commands

sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/java java /home/username/jdk1.7.0/bin/java 1
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/javac javac /home/username/jdk1.7.0/bin/javac 1
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/jar jar /home/username/jdk1.7.0/bin/jar 1

Note: Change username to your own login username.

To know, if proper version of java is installed type java -version in a terminal.

Two instances

Suppose you had already installed openjdk before installing oracle jdk. If you want to choose one as default, use following command.

sudo update-alternatives --config java

Environment Variables (Optional)

Unless some program require, you don’t have to do this.  However, if some applications shows a message indicating a need for environment variables like JAVA_HOME or JDK_HOME you can add it to .bashrc (hidden) file in your home directory as following.

JAVA_HOME=/home/username/jdk1.7.0

Cheers !!

I found lots of people struggling to get catalyst driver work in Ubuntu 13.04. This issue has been persistent for some laptops, ever since Ubuntu 13.04 came out, specially for Intel, AMD dual graphics setup. For people, who have been looking at catalyst drivers ever since http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1930450 post was published, should not be that hard to find the solution, but for those who are new to Linux, or don’t have time for these kinds of issues, this issue might be a show stopper bug. In this post I will try to reiterate the solution discussed at askubuntu.com.

2. Installation

a. Install the packages you need to compile the driver

sudo apt-get install build-essential cdbs fakeroot dh-make debhelper debconf libstdc++6
sudo apt-get install dkms libqtgui4 wget execstack libelfg0 dh-modaliases
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic xserver-xorg-core libgcc1

b. Fix the 64-bit issue

sudo apt-get install ia32-libs lib32gcc1 libc6-i386
cd /usr ; sudo ln -svT lib /usr/lib64

c. Download two files needed to fix this issue

• http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu//pool/main/u/udev/libudev0_175-0ubuntu13_amd64.deb
• https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0tTaH4qTIIXdDF3NThFWUtrYlU/edit?usp=sharing

Warning: Install second file at your own risk. File with same name from ubuntu repository did not work.

d. Remove old fglrx driver ( if installed already), and reboot

sudo apt-get remove --purge fglrx fglrx_* fglrx-amdcccle* fglrx-dev*
sudo rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf
sudo apt-get install --reinstall xserver-xorg-core libgl1-mesa-glx libgl1-mesa-dri libgl1-mesa-glx:i386 libgl1-mesa-dri:i386
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg
sudo reboot

e. Build and install the drivers downloaded from http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/linux/Pages/radeon_linux.aspx

sudo sh ./amd-catalyst-XX.X-linux-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/raring
sudo dpkg -i fglrx*.deb
sudo reboot

f. After reboot, go to a virtual terminal (Ctrl + Alt + F1), before login, and initialize the driver (in other words, create xorg.conf file).

sudo aticonfig --initial -f

g. Install two files we downloaded above (libudev0 and xserver-xorg-video-intel)

sudo dpkg -i *.deb
sudo reboot

h. Install synaptic and lock these two files (libudev0 and xserver-xorg-video-intel) from updating.

3. Other Errors

a. Fix low-graphics mode error

If you encounter following error, before loging, you either have not installed the drivers properly, or you have let libudev0 and xserver-xorg-video-intel update (even catalyst 13.6 beta drivers did not fix this) . To fix this issue, go to the directories, where you had downloaded these two files earlier, and reinstall them again using dpkg as above (2.g).

b. Fix unity, if it broke during installation (this will reset your Desktop)

cd ~/.config
rm -rf compiz-1 dconf gnome-session

c. TF2 steam GL error

If you are using catalyst 13.6 beta, as of 15 June 2013, there is still no fix for this issue, as noted in AMD Catalyst 13.6 Linux Beta Driver. For everything else, it seems to work.

If you run steam using LIBGL_DEBUG=verbose steam, in some cases you may even encounter architecture incompatibility error. If the application loads, there is nothing to worry about, because the application searches the library on multiple locations, and finds the correct one ultimately. I hope these issues (steam, 64-bit vs 32-bit library) get fixed, when the final version is released.

4. Test

a. Run fgl_glxgears and see if it runs, and check the speed

$ fgl_glxgears

b. If you have dual graphics cards (Intel and AMD), switch between both and see if they work

sudo aticonfig --px-igpu # for integrated intel card
sudo aticonfig --px-dgpu # for discrete amd card
aticonfig --pxl  # list currently active card

5. Reset Everything

If this fix did not work for you, it is time to reset everything and go back to where you were before the installation.

Before doing any of these, first go to synaptic and remove lock from those two files ( libudev0 and xserver-xorg-video-intel) we locked previously.

You don’t have to do anything other than repeat commands at 2.d above. I will list them once again anyway.

sudo apt-get remove --purge fglrx fglrx_* fglrx-amdcccle* fglrx-dev*
sudo rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf
sudo apt-get install --reinstall xserver-xorg-core libgl1-mesa-glx libgl1-mesa-dri libgl1-mesa-glx:i386 libgl1-mesa-dri:i386
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg
sudo reboot

Hope it helps. Cheers !!

Those files would play fine on a computer, but failed to copy to a phone. Therefor,e I had to create following script to rename all those files, just by removing the pipe character(|). Here is the script (rename.sh).

for file in *.mp3
do
 rename 's/\|//' "$file"
done

I hope it helps someone.

I expect you have already completed the first one at http://developer.ubuntu.com/get-started/. I hope you are also familiar with little javascript as well.

1. Introduction

In this post, I will try to provide enough resources for you to get started on mobile application development using QT Meta Language (QML). Although QML is not Ubuntu specific package, there will be some libraries and convention used in this tutorial that is specific for Ubuntu. However, you could easily use resources mentioned in this post to port your application to the platform of your choice.

2. Resources

Install two packages namely ubuntu-ui-toolkit-doc and qt4-doc-html  and bookmark following files using a browser.

•  file:///usr/share/ubuntu-ui-toolkit/doc/html/overview-ubuntu-sdk.html.
• file:///usr/share/qt4/doc/html/qdeclarativeelements.html.

These are links to API documentation for Ubuntu touch and QML respectively, which you might need while writing the actual code.

However you might ask, how about actually learning from something like a book. Well, the resources at http://qt-project.org/wiki/Developer-Guides does exactly the same. Some of the files I found there useful for writing QML applications are as follows.

• Introduction to Application Development with Qt Quick ePub PDF
• Particles and Graphics Effects in Qt Quick 2 ePub PDF
• Developing an arcade game with Qt3D ePub PDF
• Qt OpenGL Tutorial ePub PDF

To get started, Introduction to Application Development with Qt Quick should be sufficient.

3. Design

For mobile, design is the key to make your application appeal to more people. Browse http://design.ubuntu.com/apps to learn more about how you should design for Ubuntu.

Ubuntu uses a concept called grid unit (GU). Value of 1 GU might depend upon the resolution of the particular device, in which the application runs. This solves scaling problem to some extent. However, you should still be careful about things like orientation and how each component fits on the screen. Speaking of components, I suggest you install a software called Pencil and prototype your application using Mobile – Android ICS as the template, before you even start to write anything. It solves lots of problems you might have later on.

Note: Use 40GU for width and 75GU for height as the minimum size.

4. Development

As you learn, you will know QML apps are basically stacks of rectangles over one another. A simple QML application (e.g helloworld.qml) might look like this.

import QtQuick 2.0

Rectangle {
 width: 200
 height: 400
}

To run this file, you can use following command.

$ qmlscene helloworld.qml

If you stack rectangles over rectangles you might soon end up trying to figure out, which one is the culprit to break the application layout, rather than trying to progress in  your development. Therefore, I suggest you create a global variable like the following and use it while setting color properties for your components.

// Set it to true and debug
var showDebugginColor = false

Inside the component set color as

color: showDebugginColor? "red" : yourcolor1  // component 1
color: showDebugginColor? "blue" : yourcolor2 // component 2

This sets different colors for each element, while debugging.

After you are done, set showDebuggingColor back to false.

5. Ubuntu feel

There are certain components (checkbox, button, textbox etc) that is specific to Ubuntu touch (in terms of design). Install  a package called ubuntu-ui-toolkit-examples and go to /usr/lib/ubuntu-ui-toolkit/examples/ubuntu-ui-toolkit-gallery directory and run the script gallery ( type ./gallery in a terminal). Browse the components and choose that fits your application (copy the source code from qml files in same directory where the gallery script resides).

6. Deployment

It looks like Ubuntu is going to have its own self-contained package installer, but for the time being, we have to rely on traditional method of packaging. Good news is, Qt Creator does most of the work for us. It even creates templates for debian packaging.

Once you have Ubuntu touch image  installed on your phone, go to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Touch/ReleaseNotes and setup ssh server on your device. Once you get ssh running, setup your device on Qt Creator (Devices tab) and deploy your application using Build -> Ubuntu Touch -> Run Application on Device or other options in that menu.

7. Conclusion

I hope this tutorial has given enough information for you to start writing QML or Ubuntu touch applications, if you choose to do so. Once you become familiar with basic QML development, you are ready to explore other documents like Qt OpenGL and Developing an arcade game with Qt3D from the list I mentioned above.

Apart from Ubuntu, QML is currently supported in Blackberry and Jolla. Qt 5 is also expected to be released for Android and IOS as well.

Cheers!!

8. References

• http://developer.ubuntu.com/get-started/
• http://qt-project.org/wiki/Developer-Guides
• http://design.ubuntu.com/apps
• http://pencil.evolus.vn/
• https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Touch/ReleaseNotes

Search your distribution’s software repository to install them. On a typical Ubuntu like OS the terminal command would be

$ sudo apt-get install pavucontrol ffmpeg

Step 2: Record

Use following command to record your desktop.

ffmpeg -f alsa -i default -f x11grab -s 1366x768 -r 30 -i :0.0 -sameq filename.avi

Parameters

x11grab: Record the desktop
s: Size of the recording area (For true HD it would be 1920×1080 i.e 1080p). However, it depends upon your monitor resolution. Anything greater will fail, Use Displays to find the resolution.
r: Frame rate. If you intend to record game play videos, adjust the frame rate until you don’t get choppy output.
-f and -i: These two variable are for audio. If default does not work, use “pulse” instead.

Step 3: Switching between internal audio and microphone

While recording, open PulseAudio Volume Control (pavucontrol) and in the Recording section, switch between microphone and Internal audio (see figure below). Use “Built-in Audio Analog Stereo” for recording from microphone and “Monitor of Built-in Audio Analog Stereo” to record sound playing in your computer. Make sure you are actually recording the desktop to change these options, ffmpeg option does not show up in pavucontrol until you start the recording.

Step 4: Create a script

Create a script, say recorddesktop.sh, so that you don’t have to remember it all the time. Create the bash file in a directory you use to add scripts e.g ~/bin (/home/username/bin) and add it to PATH variable in .bashrc as (export PATH=$PATH:~/bin). Content of that file would be something like this (Adjust resolution and other parameters as you prefer).

#!/bin/bash
# Example recorddesktop.sh output.avi

STR="@"
FILENAME="out.avi"

if [ $STR ]; then
FILENAME="$@"
else
echo "No file name specified, using out.avi"
FILENAME="out.avi"
fi

#FILENAME="$(echo $FILENAME | sed 's/\ /\\ /g')";

echo "Recording into $FILENAME ...";

ffmpeg -f alsa -i default -f x11grab -s 1366x768 -r 30 -i :0.0 -sameq "$FILENAME"

Cheers !!