Archive for the ‘Tutorials/Tips’ category

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Disk partitioning guide for Linux Mint Debian

Linux Mint Debian is the latest version of Linux Mint. Unlike other versions of Mint, it is not based on Ubuntu, but rather on Debian Testing, and comes with a brand new installer. Also, unlike the Ubuntu-based versions, the installer does not have an automatic disk partitioning feature – it requires manual disk partitioning with [...]

Published by on September 18, 2010 4:27 pm
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How to install Ubuntu on a btrfs file system

Ubuntu 10.10 beta is the latest Linux distribution release to have support for the btrfs file system. Btrfs (B-tree File System) is a copy-on-write file system for Linux. As far as I am aware of, Fedora and Sabayon are the other (Linux) distributions with support for it during installation. While btrfs changes how we manage [...]

Published by on September 10, 2010 1:34 am
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Zentyal installation guide

Zentyal, the Linux distribution formerly known as eBox Platform, is a server distribution which can be used as a network gateway, unified threat manager, office server, infrastructure manager, and a unified communications server. The latest release, the first under the Zentyal name, is based on Ubuntu server 10.04. For installing the base system, it uses [...]

Published by on September 5, 2010 3:19 am
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How to install PC-BSD on an encrypted ZFS file system

As a desktop distribution built atop FreeBSD, PC-BSD makes available to the desktop user all the cool technologies inside FreeBSD. One of those cool technologies is ZFS, the Zettabyte File System, a file system developed by Sun Microsystems (acquired by Oracle Corporation) for the Solaris operating system. ZFS has no parallel in the Linux/BSD world. [...]

Published by on September 1, 2010 2:55 am
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Upgrading Mandriva Linux 2010 to Mandriva Linux 2010 Spring

Performing a distribution upgrade is one task I have never attempted on Mandriva Linux. And that is because Mandriva Linux 2010 is the first Mandriva version that I have used on any of my personal computer until the next update was released. So here was an opportunity to test how well the upgrade feature worked. [...]

Published by on August 8, 2010 12:25 am
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Fedora 13 btrfs installation guide

In the last article about btrfs on Fedora, we showed how to pass the btrfs option to Anaconda, the Fedora system installation program, on Fedora 13. This article presents a step by step guide on how to actually partition a disk and install Fedora 13 on a btrfs-formatted root filesystem. Basically, this is a continuation [...]

Published by on August 2, 2010 9:29 pm
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How to enable the btrfs Anaconda option on Fedora 13

Fedora 13 is one of a handful of Linux distributions with support for btrfs, the B-tree File System, one of the newest file systems in the Linux kernel. Btrfs is destined to be the default Linux file system. Expect to see it as the default on Fedora by the time Fedora 17 comes along. For [...]

Published by on July 31, 2010 8:10 pm
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How to install Sabayon 5.3 on a btrfs filesystem

Thanks to its use of Anaconda, the Fedora installer, Sabayon 5.3, the latest release of the Gentoo-based distribution, is one of the first Linux distributions with support for the btrfs file system. Btrfs is one of the newest filesystems in the Linux kernel. It is similar to Oracle’s ZFS, but lacks ZFS’ more advanced features. [...]

Published by on July 23, 2010 10:41 pm
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How to customize Mandriva’s updates notifier

One of the most useful features of any operating system is an application or package update notifier, a simple utility which notifies you when there are package updates available for the system. Most Linux distributions have such a tool installed and running out of the box, and Mandriva is one of them. On Mandriva 2010 [...]

Published by on July 21, 2010 10:50 pm
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How to configure encrypted LVM on Mandriva 2010 Spring

Mandriva Linux is one of the distributions with built-in support for the Linux Logical Volume Manager (LVM) in the installer. As a disk partitioning and management system, LVM brings a level of flexibility to disk management in a manner that is not possible with the traditional disk management scheme. There is no downside to using [...]

Published by on July 18, 2010 3:33 pm
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How to run Spotify on Linux

Spotify is a popular streaming music service developed by Spotify AB of Sweden. Like music streaming services, it enables you to enjoy and share the songs you love anytime,anywhere. Well, not exactly anywhere – Spotify is currently only available in a few western European countries – Finland, France, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United [...]

Published by on July 13, 2010 8:06 pm
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How to install Nanny on Mint 9 and Ubuntu 10.04

Nanny is a graphical parental control tool developed for Guadalinex, a Linux desktop distribution derived from Ubuntu and developed and maintained by the regional government of Andalucía, Spain. Linux Mint has a graphical parental control called mintNanny, but compared to Nanny, it is very primitive. The only distribution I am aware that has an advanced, [...]

Published by on July 13, 2010 3:18 pm
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Disk Encryption on Sabayon 5.3

One of the most important features introduced in Sabayon 5.3, the latest release of the Gentoo-based Linux distribution, is Anaconda, the best installation program you will find on any Linux or BSD distribution. It’s not perfect, but no other installation program offers the same enterprise-grade features that comes with it. It is the same installation [...]

Published by on June 23, 2010 5:18 am
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Guide to dual-booting

Dual-booting refers to the concept of installing two operating systems on the same computer, and having the option to choose which one to boot into when the computer is rebooting. Dual-booting is actually a special case of multi-booting, or installing more than one operating on a computer. This is a very common practice in the [...]

Published by on June 21, 2010 2:26 am
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How to customize Pardus 2009.2

Pardus is a desktop-oriented Linux distribution sponsored and developed by the Scientific & Technological Research Council of Turkey. Pardus 2009.2, the latest release, reviewed here, leaves plenty of room to customize the desktop’s features. If you are new to Linux and to Pardus, this simple tutorial will help you learn the different ways you can [...]

Published by on June 14, 2010 3:30 am
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Pardus 2009.2 review

Pardus is a desktop-oriented Linux distribution sponsored and developed by the Scientific & Technological Research Council of Turkey. It’s not a perfect Linux distribution, but it works – out of the box. A light-weight distribution, it is similar in many respects to Linux Mint. Unlike Linux Mint, however, it is not based on any other [...]

Published by on June 13, 2010 8:17 pm
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Sabayon 5.3 installation guide

One of the best features introduced in Sabayon 5.3, the latest upgrade to the Gentoo-based, multi-purpose Linux distribution is the installer. The old installer was dumped in favor of Anaconda, the Fedora 13 installation program. Aside from bringing enterprise-class storage features to Sabayon, Anaconda boots a lot faster than Sabayon’s old installer, which had the [...]

Published by on June 9, 2010 6:43 pm
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How to customize Linux Mint 9

Linux Mint 9 is a Ubuntu-based, desktop distribution that was just reviewed here. Out of the box, it is one of the most user-friendly desktop distributions available. However, like everything life, you can still customize it to suit your specific use policy. This tutorial offers a few steps you can take to customize the desktop [...]

Published by on June 8, 2010 5:54 pm
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Fedora 13 review

Fedora 13 is the latest update to the Redhat-sponsored, RPM-based Linux distribution. It has long held a reputation of being a testbed for features that will eventually make it into Redhat Enterprise Linux, and, therefore, less stable than other desktop-oriented distributions. And I think that’s one reason why Fedora has features that you’ll not find [...]

Published by on June 5, 2010 2:11 am
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Going Paranoid on Fedora 13

A Paranoid, or 5-star, security rating is the highest physical security rating that you can achieve on your computer. It entails enabling a set of OS-dependent and OS-independent features. But why would anyone want to achieve such a high physical security rating on Fedora or any other distribution? Strict control of who can access your [...]

Published by on June 3, 2010 10:45 pm
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Manual LVM configuration on Fedora 13

Fedora 13 is one of the Linux distributions that supports and uses Linux Logical Volume Manager (LVM) as the default disk partitioning scheme. While this is a good thing (it has its benefits), the space allocation to the partitions and logical volumes is not optimal. This tutorial provides a step by step guide on how [...]

Published by on May 30, 2010 12:07 am
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Disk encryption on Fedora 13

Disk encryption is one very important tool that you can use to enhance the physical security posture of our computer, and Fedora is the only distribution that makes it very easy for every computer user to enjoy its security benefits. Fedora 13′s implementation of disk encryption is still the same as on prior releases. The [...]

Published by on May 27, 2010 11:03 pm
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LVM configuration on Fedora 13

Fedora is one of a handful of Linux distributions that adopts the Linux Logical Volume Manager (LVM) as its default disk partitioning scheme. LVM provides more flexible disk management capabilities than the age-old UNIX/Linux method, and that’s why I prefer Linux distributions with support for it over those that do not. The problem with Fedora’s [...]

Published by on May 27, 2010 8:34 pm
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Manual disk partitioning guide for Linux Mint 9 and Ubuntu 10.04

The installation program on Ubuntu 10.04 and Linux Mint 9 are the same. And that’s because Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu. So if you install one, which involves a simple seven-step process, you can use the same instructions to install the other. But being simple does not mean that the default partitioning scheme, which [...]

Published by on May 26, 2010 10:01 pm
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How to dual boot Linux Mint 9 and Ubuntu 10.04

In some situations, you may want to install more than one operating system on a computer. One method of accomplishing that is to utilize virtualization applications to run one atop the other. Another method, one that does not require specialized hardware or software, is to create a multi-boot scheme – installing multiple operating systems on [...]

Published by on May 26, 2010 1:57 pm
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How to create a guest user account on Ubuntu 10.04

When installing Ubuntu, you are required to create one user account. That account is the “root” account, used to perform all administrative functions on the system. Any user with access to that account can modify or change any setting they want. Sometimes it necessary to create another account, say, for a guest, or for some [...]

Published by on May 24, 2010 10:28 am
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How to customize Ubuntu 10.04 desktop

It’s been almost a month since Ubuntu 10.04 was released. I’m not a fan of Ubuntu, but Lucid Lynx, the code name for the latest version of Ubuntu, is, in so many ways, a better operating system to use than prior releases. However, it still falls short in some areas. This aim of this article [...]

Published by on May 24, 2010 1:23 am
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New storage options for Anaconda on Fedora 13

Fedora 13 Beta has just been released for testing and bug reporting, with the stable version slated for release in May. Thanks to boot.fedoraproject.org, I didn’t have to download the full CD iso image. Used the same bfo iso image from last month and took the Fedora 13 beta out for spin. But rather than [...]

Published by on April 19, 2010 3:58 am
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How to configure disk encryption on Sabayon 5.2

Disk encryption is one of five methods you can use to enhance the physical security posture of your computer (laptop, netbook, desktop or server). It enables you to protect your data in the event that your computer is ever lost or stolen. Sabayon’s installer has had the disk encryption feature for some time, but it [...]

Published by on April 18, 2010 12:36 am
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Epidemic 3.1 installation guide

Epidemic is a desktop-oriented, KDE, Debian-based (GNU/Linux) distribution developed in Brazil. Epidemic 3.1, the latest edition, features a number of custom tools and improvements. One of those tools is EInstaller, the graphical installation program. It is supposed to be easy to use, but if you have are not familiar with disk partitioning under Linux, you’ll [...]

Published by on March 12, 2010 11:44 am
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Printer configuration and management on PC-BSD 8

PC-BSD is a desktop-centric distribution based on FreeBSD. The latest stable version, released just this week, is PC-BSD 8. On most Linux, desktop distributions, a connected printer is automatically configured. On PC-BSD 8, however, getting a printer to work requires manual configuration. To simplify that task, a number of printer management utilities are available. You [...]

Published by on February 27, 2010 10:59 am
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Qt + Box2D is easy!

Box2D is an Open Source rigid body 2D physics engine for C++. It’s currently (2.0.1) released under the MIT license, which is quite permissive. Box2D is used by, among other things, Gluon (http://gluon.tuxfamily.org/), which is a game library from KDE in-the-making. Integrating Box2D into your Qt application is quite easy, and this blog shows you [...]

Published by on February 26, 2010 4:12 pm
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PC-BSD 8 installation guide

PC-BSD 8 is the latest edition of PC-BSD, a desktop distribution based on FreeBSD, with KDE as its default desktop environment. It features a graphical installation program that should be easy enough for anybody to use. However, some sections of the installer could pose some difficulty to those new to the this distribution (and to [...]

Published by on February 24, 2010 4:42 pm
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Add cloud storage to OpenOffice.org with SMECloud

Cloud computing is all the rage these days. But while the idea of using your browser to access your applications and documents sounds like a great idea on paper, in practice there are all kinds of reasons to stick to your desktop software. Take OpenOffice.org, for example. None of the available Web-based word processors can [...]

Published by on February 19, 2010 11:48 pm
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OpenOffice.org: The Need for Style

Office applications like OpenOffice.org can bring out the worst in people. The same people who wouldn’t dream of driving a car without a few lessons will start pounding away in a word processor as though it were a typewriter, ignoring basic features like styles and templates. In the end, they may produce the documents they [...]

Published by on February 19, 2010 11:40 pm
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PC-BSD’s graphical firewall manager

PC-BSD is a desktop-oriented, FreeBSD-based distribution with KDE as the default desktop environment. The version due to be released shortly is PC-BSD 8. Because it the only BSD-based desktop distribution that’s in a position to compete with the best Linux desktop distributions, I’ll be publishing a number of articles over the next few weeks to [...]

Published by on February 18, 2010 12:18 am
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