27th Aug2012

Keyboard Language Switcher Ubuntu Systray

by Gyro

I just installed another language to Ubuntu 12.04, and was a bit surprised not to find any icon in the systray (taskbar, top bar, notification area), also there was no shortcut I could find to make it change language.

In case you are trying to change the keyboard layout/language with a keyboard shortcut or setup the systray icon that looks like a keyboard to switch the language in the notificationa rea, then you've come to the right place :)

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7751

14th Aug2012

SoundBlaster 5.1vx activate all speaker channels Ubuntu 12.04

by Gyro
Today my sound card decided to stop playing sound on all 6 channels, and instead just played regular stereo (front left and right).

After some searching I found this simple fix to activate all speaker channels of a SoundBlaster 5.1vx on Ubuntu 12.04 Precise:

Open daemon.conf
# sudo nano /etc/pulse/daemon.conf

390160_Fluance SXHTB 125x125

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30th Jul2012

Setup Virtual Hosts using Apache2 on Ubuntu 12.04

by Gyro

When I started programming website on a localhost, I often ran into issues setting up SEF URLs. So, I started using virtual hosts by creating fake domain names and then make them connect to the local apache server via the hosts file.

For example, if I work on webdesignblog.asia on my localhost, I am accessing webdesignblog.dev, which is a fake domain linked to my localhost via the virtual hosts (enabled sites) and hosts modifications.

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3212

27th Jul2012

EXT4-fs: group descriptors corrupted! Cannot mount disk using Ubuntu

by Gyro

Whaaa, Datageddon! My 2TB external just decided to stop working. "dmesg | tail" gave me the worst of the worst messages: "EXT4-fs (sda1): group descriptors corrupted!", which translates to me as "kiss your data bye bye"…

After some searching I came across the magic terminal commands to solve the problem:

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26th Jul2012

Resize VirtualBox Disk Image – grow, expand, increase a .VDI disk image in 1 minute

by Gyro
Resize VirtualBox Disk Image -- the easy and the hard way.Today I actually used up the 20GB of virtual disk space I set for the Windows XP I use for specific Windows Software. Who would have thought that an old Windows XP license would be useful again, eh? :)

After performing a quick search on how to manipulate an existing VDI file, I found a bunch of lengthy guides, all pretty much saying the exact same thing… create a new VDI, load the old and new VDI disk images into a Virtual Machine as a master and slave drive, boot with a gParted or equivalent BootCD image, and then clone the old disk to the new one… or in short: do a lot of steps that take forever, but not what I want: Resize VirtualBox Disk Image.

virtualbox

After flipping through the 10th or so guide, I realized that pretty much all of them were written in 2008… very unusual as bloggers usually write about the same subject on a yearly basis. That in mind, I search a bit more and… BINGO! Since VirtualBox 4 is out, there is a simple command line tool to resize VDI images. Man, those extra 5 minutes of searching just saved me from a lot of hassle and a huge waste of time.
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25th Jul2012

Android Installation on a HTC Touch Diamond 2 Topaz Windows Mobile

by Gyro
Today I put XDAndroid on a colleague's phone for the second time, after the memory card broke a couple of days ago.

This task is surprisingly easy, once you know what to do ;)

XDAndroid is a special version of Android, modified to work on older smart phones, like the HTC Touch Diamond 2 aka Topaz.

Up to 10% OFF Android Tablet PCs

Huge Savings Click Here!

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19681

25th Jul2012

Samsung SCX-3405W Network Printer & Scanner Installation/Configuration on Ubuntu 12.04

by Gyro
Today we got a new printer from Samsung, one reason being that the Installation CD boasted to support Linux. It's actually the first Samsung printer I ever used, so… the "Linux Installation" turned out to be a non-functional Java Applet, which looks like it is supposed to help setup the Printer to connect to the WiFi… needless to say -- it didn't work, at least not until after I had setup and configured the printer, at which point I didn't need to use it anymore.

I configured the wifi settings of the printer using the USB connection, a Windows PC, and the Windows portion of the Installation CD provided with the printer. After it was configured, I disconnected it from the USB, so there is only the power cable now.

Here is the quick and dirty guide on how to install the Samsung SCX-3405W Network Printer (and Scanner) on Ubuntu 12.04, which should also work for older Ubuntu releases, as well as other Debian based distributions.


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23rd Jul2012

Install JDownloader for Ubuntu – DLC Download Container App

by Gyro

Install JDownloader, the DLC Download Container App for Ubuntu.

JDownloader is an open source software, written completely in Java and platform independent. Download files from One-Click-Hosters like Rapidshare.com, Share-Online, BitShare, FreakShare, or CloudNator.com — it works for users who don't pay, and users with a premium account can enter their account details to download with Full Speed. JDownloader can open DLC files and download multiple files at the same time, it has captcha recognition, and even extracts archives automatical once all files have been downloaded. JDownloader is absolutely free to use, as you would expect from Open Source software.

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19th Jul2012

Fix problem with broken package that cannot be uninstalled in Ubuntu

by Gyro

During an update some package broke and caused apt-get to throw a fit. I could't remove the package, nor could I update it. It was really annoying, as no update would work, as long as this broken package was there.

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887

17th Jul2012

Resize/Shrink Software RAID1 FileSystem/Volume/Partition and setup a LVM on the free disk space created

by Gyro
This is a guide on how to shrink a Software RAID1 filesysten, volume, and partition on a dedicated/remote server. I added the sources that helped me complete this task at the bottom of this post. It took about 2 days to get this sorted out, mainly because I am a Jack of all traits, and a master of none. :crazy:

This guide on how to resize a software raid1 should work on most Linux Distributions. I used a dedicated server located in Strassburg running Ubuntu Server 12.04, and I connected to it via ssh from Asia. :wooty:

Here my setup prior to doing this:

Two 2 TB hard disks (sda/sdb) with 3 partitions each
sda1/sdb1 -- md0 -- /boot
sda2/sdb2 -- md1 -- swap
sda3/sdb3 -- md2 -- /
md2 uses pretty much all the space.

Here the setup after completing the steps below:
Two 2 TB hard disks (sda/sdb) with 4 partitions each
sda1/sdb1 -- md0 -- /boot
sda2/sdb2 -- md1 -- swap
sda3/sdb3 -- md2 -- / (~320GB)
sda4/sdb4 -- md3 -- LVM "nova-volumes" (~1650GB)

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05th Jul2012

Customize your OS with Ubuntu Tweak

by Gyro

Ubuntu Tweak is an application to make configuring Ubuntu easier for everyone. It provides many useful desktop and system options that the default config-tool for the desktop environment doesn't provide.

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797

19th May2012

Keep your passwords together and safe with KeePassX

by Gyro

As a web craftsman I have to keep a nearly endless list of usernames, email addresses, and the respective passwords.

KeePassX is the perfect solution to keep all your passwords, as well as all other important information in one place. It is an Open Source software for Linux, MacOS, and even Windows, that uses one single file to store all your information. This file is protected by your own password, the encryption technology used complies with the standards of the NSA, and best of all -- you can share and open this file on the before mentioned operating systems.

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19th May2012

Download YouTube Videos, Channels and Playlists with Youtube-DL

by Gyro

Today, I found a fantastic YouTube channel with loads of videos that interest me. Since I especially enjoy watching videos when I do not have an Internet connection, I tend to download videos from youtube to watch them later. However, this has always been a pain in the behind to do, especially if you are following a certain channel and would like to have the latest videos…

Well, if you are a Ubuntu user, it takes about 1 minutes to setup and start downloading.

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18th May2012

Using touch and imagemagick To create PDF files

by Gyro

Dean Howell from ThePowerBase.com has written an excellent guide for Linux (Ubuntu/Debian) users on how to use imagemagick to create multi-page PDF files with ease.

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18th May2012

Install handbrake video converter on Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin

by Gyro

If you are using Ubuntu 12.04 and would like to install the video converter tool "handbrake", simply follow these instructions:

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13th May2012

Best Free Screenshot and Screen Capture Software 2012

by Gyro

If you are using Ubuntu (or another Linux Distro with the same GUI), I have a real treat for you!

Check out Nanoshot, it's probably the most handy screen capturing tool there is.

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