Full Circle Magazine - Issue #64

full circle magazine #64 1 contents ^

Full CircleTHE INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE FOR THE UBUNTU LINUX COMMUNITY

ISSUE #64 - August 2012

Full Circle Magazine is neither affi l iated with, nor endorsed by, Canonical Ltd.

VVIIDDEEOO EEDDIITTIINNGG WWIITTHH KKDDEENNLLIIVVEERAZOR BLADES AND STICKY TAPE NOT REQUIRED

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The articles contained in this magazine are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Al ike 3.0 Unported l icense.This means you can adapt, copy, distribute and transmit the articles but only under the fol lowing conditions: you must attributethe work to the original author in some way (at least a name, emai l or URL) and to this magazine by name ('Ful l Circle Magazine')

and the URL www.ful lcirclemagazine.org (but not attribute the article(s) in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). I fyou alter, transform, or bui ld upon this work, you must distribute the resulting work under the same, simi lar or a compatible l icense.Full Circle magazine is entirely independent of Canonical, the sponsor of the Ubuntu projects, and the views and opinions in themagazine should in no way be assumed to have Canonical endorsement.

Full CircleTHE INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE FOR THE UBUNTU LINUX COMMUNITY

DavMail p.12

LibreOffice - Part 17 p.10

Python - Part 36 p.07

Kdenlive - Pt1 p.14

HowTo Opinions

Q&A p.46

Ubuntu Games p.49

Ubuntu Women p.XX

Command & Conquer p.05

Inkscape - Part 4 p.17

Columns

Linux Labs p.28

Review p.41

Web Dev - Pt2 p.21

My Opinion p.38

My Story p.36

Letters p.43

Audio Flux p.XX

Ask The New Guy p.25

Closing Windows p.32

BACK NEXT MONTH

Graphics Web Dev

BACK NEXT MONTH

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/


EEDDIITTOORRIIAALL

Welcome to another issue of Full Circle!

This month's FCM brings you more of the usual goodness. Python (three years oldthis month) and LibreOffice continue, and are joined by an article on setting upDavMail for use with Microsoft Exchange. Tweet Screen fans can rest easy with thethrilling conclusion to Charles' current Linux Labs experiment. In the land of

graphics, Mark's Inkscape series continues, and I've started a video editing series usingKdenlive. And, by the end of this month's WebDev article, you'll have installed LAMP.

Next month, I'm hoping to have a review of the new book Ubuntu Made Easy from NoStarch Press (many thanks to them for the review copy), and a review of my new GoogleNexus 7 tablet. I've put up posts on our Google+ and Facebook pages encouraging peopleto post Nexus 7 questions they'd like answered in the review.

Les and Co. have returned to the helm and released Full Circle Podcast #30, which youshould download. Running at almost two hours, it has a whole host of interviews, RaspberryPi info, and much much more.

Meanwhile, the eagle eyed proofreaders who fix all our mistakes (yours and mine) havebeen working on the Official Full Circle Style Guide for all you writer types. We'll bekeeping this up to date and linking to it from future issues. This will be the reference guidewhen writing an article. Many people are making simple mistakes (GB, not Gb or gb – yes,there is a difference) which really should be corrected before submitting. The less we needto change the better.

All the best, and keep in touch!Ronnie

[email protected]

This magazine was created using :

Full Circle PodcastReleased monthly, each episodecovers all the latest Ubuntu news,opinions, reviews, interviews andlistener feedback. The Side-Pod isa new addition, it's an extra(irregular) short-form podcastwhich is intended to be a branchof the main podcast. It'ssomewhere to put all the generaltechnology and non-Ubuntu stuffthat doesn’t fit in the mainpodcast.

Hosts:• Les Pounder• Tony Hughes• Jon Chamberlain• Oliver Clark

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http://facebook.com/fullcirclemagazine

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LLIINNUUXX NNEEWWSS -- SSEECCUURRIITTYY AALLEERRTT

EPUB FORMAT

Finally, we have mobile editionsof Full Circle on the downloadspage. We're hoping to haveback issues online shortly. Ifyou've any problems with theepub file/formatting, you candrop an email to Jens at:[email protected]

Google Currents

Install Google Currents on yourAndroid/Apple devices, searchfor 'full circle' (in the app) andadd issues 55+ to your app. Or,you can click the links on theFCM download pages.

Software Centre

You can also get FCM via theUbuntu Software Centre:https://apps.ubuntu.com/cat/,Search for 'full circle', choosean issue, and click thedownload button.

Linux & OS X-onlyTrojan Spotted

Security researchers havediscovered a potential dangerousLinux and Mac OS X cross-platform trojan.

Once installed on acompromised machine, Wirenet-1opens a backdoor to a remotecommand server, and logs keypresses to capture passwords andsensitive information typed byvictims. The program also grabspasswords submitted to Opera,Firefox, Chrome and Chromiumweb browsers, and credentialsstored by applications includingemail client Thunderbird, websuite SeaMonkey, and chat appPidgin. The malware thenattempts to upload the gathereddata to a server hosted in theNetherlands.

The software nastie wasintercepted by Russian antivirusfirm Dr Web [which] describesWirenet-1 as the first Linux/OSX

cross-platform password-stealingtrojan.

Multi-platform virus strainsthat infect Windows, Mac OS Xand Linux machines are extremelyrare but not unprecedented. Oneexample include the recent Crisissuper-worm. Creating a strain ofmalware that infects Mac OS Xand Linux machines but notWindows boxes seems, frankly,weird given the sizes of eachoperating system's userbase -unless the virus has beendesigned for some kind of closelytargeted attack on anorganisation that uses a mix ofthe two Unix flavours.

Analysis work on the Wirenet-1is ongoing and for now it'sunclear how the trojan isdesigned to spread. Onceexecuted, it copies itself to theuser's home directory, and usesAES to encrypt itscommunications with a serverover the internet.

Source: theregister.co.uk

Java Flaw PutsMillions At Risk

Computer users - whether theyfavour Windows, Mac or Linuxoperating systems - are at riskfrom a newly discovered Javavulnerability for which there iscurrently [as of 31st August2012] no fix. It appears the flawallows the Blackhole exploit kitto target the Java system usinga Pre.jar file that lets it installmalware, in this case a bankingTrojan, onto users machines,through a variety of methods.

FireEye went on to criticiseOracle - which owns Java - for itslack of action regarding theflaw. "It's very disappointingthat Oracle hasn't come forwardand announced a date for anemergency update patch,"wrote FireEye's Atif Mushtaq.

The flaw was uncoveredearlier in August.

Source: v3.co.uk


https://apps.ubuntu.com/cat/


This month, I thought Iwould move away fromthe tutorials for once, andinstead introduce my

readers to the concept of anIntegrated DevelopmentEnvironment (IDE), and explain afew of the reasons why anIntegrated DevelopmentEnvironment could be useful forprogrammers. Following this, I willname the IDEs I use, and also namethe languages for which I don'tfeel I need an actual developmentenvironment.

What is an IDE?

An IDE is basically an editor thatalso contains acompiler/interpreter and easyaccess to documentation, andusually offers plug-ins for

debugging and testing. Some ofthe more advanced ones also offervarious forms of auto-completion.

Why use an IDE?• Learn languages• Makes managing larger projectseasier• Easy access tocompiler/interpreter, debugger,and testing environments

Using an IDE can make it mucheasier to start using a language, asit can offer corrections for typos(or point out when you usefunction calls from a differentlanguage). If your IDE doesn'thighlight mistakes, it will at leastmake it easy to quicklycompile/execute the code to checkfor exceptions and run-time errors.

When you're working on largerprojects, it's usually helpful to usean IDE that offers an integratedfile tree to keep track of what filesare where, and because they offertools to make debugging easier.Once you have more than 100-200lines of code, I would generally notrecommend trying to do yourdebugging manually, and insteaduse an actual testing anddebugging framework.

The sole exception to this, forme, is Java. I always try to useEclipse with Java where possible,simply because a number offunctions have long names, andauto-completion can make lifeeasier. An alternative to this issimply redefining functions intoshorter names, but that can getextremely complicated. Since I'm

already in Eclipse when workingwith Java, I tend to use theintegrated debugger regardless offile size. Using something like jUnitis overkill for most basic projects –I use it only when I have multiplefiles of a few hundred lines of code– or if I'm required to do so forclass, or work.

What IDE should I use?

Ultimately, it comes down towhat you want to use. There aresome very advanced environmentslike Eclipse (for Java or C++), whichwill take up more space than abasic IDE. The current version ofEclipse requires just over 200MB ofspace in Linux. Keep in mind thatthe more features you haverunning at a time, the more RAM isused. Due to this, I find Eclipse too

CCOOMMMMAANNDD && CCOONNQQUUEERRWritten by Lucas Westermann

IIDDEEss


Lucas has learned all he knows fromrepeatedly breaking his system, thenhaving no other option but todiscover how to fix it. You can emailLucas at: [email protected].

unwieldy. I use it with Java, andJava alone, simply because that'swhat my university required, andas such it's what I'm used to.Netbeans is another option forJava/C/C++/PHP development.However, I tend to not write manylarge programs, and I find a texteditor and a terminal to besufficient for C, C++, and PHP.Similarly with Python, although Itend to use the interactiveinterpreter for testing ideasbefore I start coding.

The bottom line is simple. Thinkabout what you want to have easyaccess to, how large your programsusually are, and weigh thepros/cons of learning a newinterface. Also, if you have time-

constraints, you may want to usean IDE, as they can cut downdevelopment and testing time (solong as you are comfortable withthe interface). Once you've pickedout your reasons, find a few IDEsthat fulfil them, and try them out.Repeat this until you find oneyou're comfortable with (or thatmeets your needs perfectly).

Light Table: A new IDEconcept

I recently saw a post by ChrisGranger on his take on an IDEcalled Light Table. For a link, seethe Further Reading section below.Since that post, he has successfullyfunded the project on Kickstarter,

promised Python support afterClojure, and released a prototype(the “Light Table Playground”). I'mextremely interested in the finalproduct. He's introduced somenew ideas (such as his “light”workspace), and offered extremelyappealing implementations for allother ideas. I've been using theLight Table playground since itcame out, and I find the interfaceto be cleaner than any otherinterface I've ever seen. At themoment, most of the functionalityin the concept video is unavailable,offering mainly Instant Feedbackat this time. However, for anyonewho's fond of Clojure, or just wantsto take a look at something new, Iwould recommend having a look.

I hope some of you have foundthis article interesting, and that Ihave answered at least a few ofyour questions concerning IDEs. Ifyou have any more questions,comments, or requests, you canemail me at [email protected] you decide to email me, pleaseinclude “FCM” or “C&C” in thesubject line, so that it doesn't getlost in my inbox.

Further Reading:

http://www.chris-granger.com/2012/04/12/light-table---a-new-ide-concept/

http://app.kodowa.com/playground – Light Table playground

http://www.eclipse.org/downloads

http://netbeans.org/

COMMAND & CONQUER



http://www.chris-granger.com/2012/04/12/light-table---a-new-ide-concept/

http://app.kodowa.com/playground ? Light Table playground

http://www.eclipse.org/downloads

http://netbeans.org/


HHOOWW--TTOOWritten by Greg D. Walters BBeeggiinnnniinngg PPyytthhoonn -- PPaarrtt 3366

Before I begin, I want tonote that this articlemarks three years of theBeginning Programming

using Python series. I want tothank Ronnie and the entire staffof Full Circle Magazine for all theirsupport and especially, you, thereaders. I NEVER thought that thiswould continue this long.

I also want to take a second tonote that there has been somecomments floating around theether that, after three years, theword “Beginning” might bemisplaced in the title of this series.After all, after three years, wouldyou still be a beginner? Well, onsome levels, I agree. However, Istill get comments from readerssaying that they just found theseries and Full Circle Magazine,and that they are now runningback to the beginning of the series.So, those people ARE beginners.So, as of part 37, we’ll drop“Beginning” from the series title.

Now to the actual meat of thisarticle... more on Kivy.

Imagine you play guitar. Not airguitar, but an actual guitar.However, you aren’t the best guitarplayer, and some chords areproblematical for you. Forexample, you know the standard C,E, G, F type chords, but somechords – like F# minor or C# minor– while doable, are hard to get yourfingers set in a fast song. What doyou do, especially if the gig is onlya couple of weeks away and youHAVE to be up to speed TODAY?The workaround for this is to usethe Capo (that funny clippy thingthat you see sometimes on theneck of the guitar). This raises thekey of the guitar and you usedifferent chords to match the restof the band. This is calledtransposing. Sometimes, you cantranspose on the fly in your head.Sometimes, it’s easier to sit downon paper and work out that if, for

example, the chord is F# minor andyou put the capo on fret 2, you cansimply play an E minor. But thattakes time. Let’s make an app thatallows you to simply scroll throughthe fret positions to find theeasiest chords to play.

Our app will be fairly simple. Atitle label, a button with our basicscale as the text, a scrollview (awonderful parent widget thatholds other controls and allowsyou to “fling” the inside of thecontrol to scroll) holding a numberof buttons that have repositionedscales as the text, and an exitbutton. It will look SOMETHINGlike the text below.

Start with a new python filenamed main.py. This will beimportant if/when you decide tocreate an Android app from Kivy.

Now we’ll addour importstatementswhich are shownon the next page, top right.

Notice the second line,“kivy.require(‘1.0.8’)”. This allowsyou to make sure that you can usethe latest and greatest goodiesthat Kivy provides. Also notice thatwe are including a system exit (line3). We’ll eventually include an exitbutton.

Here is the beginning of ourclass called “Transpose”.

class Transpose(App):

def exit(instance):

sys.exit()

Now we work on our build

Transposer Ver 0.1

C C#/Db D D#/Eb E F F#/Gb G G#/Ab A A#/Bb B C

____________________________________________________________________

1| C#/Db D D#/Eb E F F#/Gb G G#/Ab A A#/Bb B C C#/Db

2| D D#/Eb E F F#/Gb G G#/Ab A A#/Bb B C C#/Db D


HOWTO - BEGINNING PYTHON 36routine (middle right). This isneeded for every Kivy app.

This looks rather confusing.Unfortunately, the editor doesn’talways keep spaces correct even ina mono-spaced font. The idea isthat the text1 string is a simplescale starting with the note “C”.Each should be centered within 5spaces. Like the text shownbottom right.

The text2 string should be thesame thing but repeated. We willuse an offset into the text2 stringto fill in the button text within thescrollview widget.

Now we create the root object(which is our main window)containing a GridLayout widget. Ifyou remember WAY back when wewere doing other GUIdevelopment for Glade, there wasa grid view widget. Well, theGridLayout here is pretty much thesame. In this case, we have a gridthat has one column and threerows. In each of the cells created inthe grid, we can put other widgets.Remember, we can’t define whichwidget goes where other than inthe order in which we place thewidgets.

root =

GridLayout(orientation='verti

cal', spacing=10,

cols=1,rows=3)

In this case, the representationis as follows....

(0) title label

(1) main button

(2) scrollview

The scrollview contains multipleitems – in our case buttons. Next,we create the label which will be atthe top of our application.

lbl = Label(text='Transposer

Ver 0.1',

font_size=20,

size_hint=(None,None),

size=(480,20),

padding=(10,10))

The properties that are setshould be fairly self-explanatory.The only ones that might give yousome trouble would be the

padding and size_hint properties.The padding is the number ofpixels around the item in an x,yreference. Taken directly from theKivy documentation size_hint (forX which is same as Y) is defined as:

Xsize hint. Represents howmuch

space thewidget shoulduse in the

direction ofthe Xaxis, relative to its

parent’swidth. OnlyLayoutand

Windowmake use ofthe hint. The

value is in percentas a floatfrom 0.

to 1., where 1. means the full size of

his parent. 0.5 represents50%.

In this case, size_hint is set tonone, which defaults to 100% or 1.This will be more important (andconvoluted) later on.

Now we define our “main”button (next page, top right). Thisis a static reference for the scale.

Again, most of this should be

import kivy

kivy.require('1.0.8')

from sys import exit

from kivy.app import App

from kivy.core.window import Window

from kivy.uix.button import Button

from kivy.uix.label import Label

from kivy.uix.anchorlayout import AnchorLayout

from kivy.uix.scrollview import ScrollView

from kivy.uix.gridlayout import GridLayout

def build(self):

#

text1 = " C C#/Db D D#/Eb E F F#/Gb G G#/Ab A A#/Bb B C"

text2 = " C C#/Db D D#/Eb E F F#/Gb G G#/Ab A A#/Bb B C C#/Db D

D#/Eb E F F#/Gb G G#/Ab A A#/Bb B C C#/Db"

#

| | | | | | | | | | | |

12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456

C C#/Db E F F#/Gb G G#/Ab A A#/Bb B C


Greg is the owner of RainyDaySolutions, LLC, a consulting companyin Aurora, Colorado, and has beenprogramming since 1972. He enjoyscooking, hiking, music, and spendingtime with his family. His website iswww.thedesignatedgeek.net.

HOWTO - BEGINNING PYTHON 36fairly clear.

Now we add the widgets to theroot object, which is theGridLayout widget. The label (lbl)goes in the first cell, the button(btn1) goes in the second.

#

root.add_widget(lbl)

root.add_widget(btn1)

#

Now comes some harder-to-understand code. We createanother GridLayout object and callit “s”. We then bind it to the heightof the next widget which, in thiscase, will be the ScrollView, NOTthe buttons.

s = GridLayout(cols=1,

spacing = 10, size_hint_y =

None)

s.bind(minimum_height=s.sette

r('height'))

Now (middle right) we create20 buttons, fill in the textproperty, and then add it to theGridLayout.

Now we create the ScrollView,set its size, and add it to the rootGridLayout.

sv =

ScrollView(size_hint=(None,

None), size=(600,400))

sv.center = Window.center

root.add_widget(sv)

Lastly, we add the GridLayoutthat holds all our buttonsinto the ScrollView, andreturn the root object tothe application.

sv.add_widget(s)

return root

Finally, we have our “if__name__” routine. Noticethat we are settingourselves up for thepossibility of using theapplication as an androidapp.

if __name__ in

('__main__','__android__'):

Transpose().run()

Now you might wonder why Iused buttons instead of labels forall our textual objects. That’sbecause labels in Kivy don’t haveany kind of visible border bydefault. We will play with this inthe next installment. We will alsoadd an exit button and a little bitmore.

The source code can be foundon PasteBin athttp://pastebin.com/hsicnyt1

Until next time, enjoy and thankyou for putting up with me forthree years!

btn1 = Button(text = " " + text1,size=(680,40),

size_hint=(None, None),

halign='left',

font_name='data/fonts/DroidSansMono.ttf',

padding=(20,20))

for i in range(0,19):

if i <= 12:

if i < 10:

t1 = " " + str(i) + "| "

else:

t1 = str(i) + "| "

else:

t1 = ''

text2 = ''

btn = Button(text = t1 + text2[(i*5):(i*5)+65],

size=(680, 40),

size_hint=(None,None),

halign='left',

font_name='data/fonts/DroidSansMono.ttf')

s.add_widget(btn)

#

http://www.thedesignatedgeek.net

http://pastebin.com/hsicnyt1


HHOOWW--TTOOWritten by Elmer Perry LLiibbrreeOOffffiiccee PPtt1177:: MMaaccrrooss

I recently got a request for atutorial on LibreOfficemacros, so we will take a shortbreak from our work in

Impress to briefly cover macros.Macros allow you to automaterepetitious actions like typing aletterhead. This frees you fromhaving to type or do the same taskover and over again. In this how-to,we will cover how to record macrosand use them. LibreOffice has aBasic scripting language which isbeyond the scope of this particularhow-to. Perhaps we will revisitmacros at a later time to discussthe Basic scripting language.

NOTE: You can find information onLibreOffice Basic in the help, ordownload the documentation athttp://wiki.documentfoundation.org/images/d/dd/BasicGuide_OOo3.2.0.odt.

Enabling MacroRecording

By default, macro recording isdisabled. Apparently, macros areconsidered an “experimental

(unstable) feature”. To enablemacro recording, Tools > Options.Select the General options underLibreOffice, and check “Enableexperimental (unstable) features”.This enables the “Record Macro”option under Tools > Macros.

Recording a Macro

When in macro record mode,the macro recorder tracks everyaction you make and all the textyou type, and records it in themacro. Remember how we had toenable experimental features toget the Record Macro option? Well,that's because sometimes themacro recorder does fail. I haven't

experienced this myself, but Ithought I should point that out.

As a demonstration ofrecording a macro, we will create amacro called Closing. Every timeyou write a letter, you have to endwith a closing, so why not make itinto a macro.

Start with a new text document.Tools > Macros > Record Macro tostart the macro recorder. Themacro recorder toolbar will show.There is only one choice on thistoolbar, Stop Recording. Press theTab key on your keyboard three orfour times (this should place thecursor close to the center of the

page). Type Best wishes, love, oryour favorite closing. Press Entertwice to leave room for asignature. Press Tab the samenumber of times you did before.Change the text to bold by clickingthe Bold button on the formattingtoolbar, and type in your name.Lastly, let's add a title under thename. Press Enter, Tab the samenumber of times as before, clickthe Bold button to turn off bold,and click the Italic button tochange to italics. Type in your title.Press Enter. Click on StopRecording.

The Basic Macros dialog box willshow. Select the library where youwant to save your macro, usuallyMy Macros. Enter a name in theMacro name textbox, and click theSave button.

Testing Your Macro

You will want to test yourmacro to insure everythingrecorded correctly, Tools > Macros> Run Macro. The macro dialog boxwill show. Select the library whereyou saved your macro, select your

http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/images/d/dd/BasicGuide_OOo3.2.0.odt


HOWTO - LIBREOFFICE Pt17macro, and click on the Runbutton. The macro will run,repeating all the text you typedand the formatting you did.

If something didn't turn out justright, you can delete the macroand create a new one. To delete amacro, Tool > Macros > OrganizeMacros > LibreOffice Basic. Findyour macro in the library, select it,and click the Delete button.

Create a Shortcut toyour Macro

If you use a macro a lot, youdon't want to go to Tools > Macros

> Run Macro every time you needto use the macro. LibreOfficeallows you to add your macros tomenus, toolbars, keyboardshortcuts, and application events.You can add your macros throughTools > Customize.

As an example, let's add a menunamed Macros in Writer and addour Closing macro to it. Tools >Customize. Select the Menus tab.Click the New button. Name thenew menu Macros. Use the arrowbuttons to move it from thebottom to the position beforeHelp. Click OK. Your new menu is

empty right now. Click on the Addbutton. Under category, findLibreOffice Macros and navigatethrough the tree to find yourmacro. Select the Closing macroand click the add button. Themacro is added to the menu. Clickon the Close button. Click OK onthe Customize dialog box. You willnow have a menu item namedMacros, and, under it, the Closingmacro. Now, you can select it fromthe menu when you need it, whichis faster than having to navigate toRun Macro.

This has been a very shortintroduction to macros. Beforedeciding to use a macro, make surethere isn't a better way toaccomplish what you are trying todo, but for often repeated action,

macros might just be the solutionyou are looking for. There is aLibreOffice Basic scriptinglanguage, and perhaps we willcover it in the future. You can alsodownload macros from the webthat you can import and use inLibreOffice.

Next time, we are back toImpress and working with slides.

Elmer Perry's history of working,and programming, computersinvolves an Apple IIE, adding someAmiga, a generous helping of DOSand Windows, a dash of Unix, andblend well with Linux and Ubuntu.


HHOOWW--TTOOWritten by Jan Mussche DDaavvMMaaiill

There are different ways toopen and read your mail.You can use web-mail,where you read your mail

on a web page belonging to thewebsite of your provider or of athird party, you can use an e-mailprogram such as Thunderbird,Evolution or one of many others.With an e-mail program you cansometimes choose between POPand IMAP.

Sometimes, however, using oneof these possibilities is notenough. There are other ways –like, for example, the Microsoft(who else?) Exchange server usingOWA (Outlook Web Access). This isused just by Microsoft because

well, let's be gentle, they want tobe different.

For those who use Evolution asan E-mail program, there is goodnews. Evolution has the EvolutionExchange Connector, which can beinstalled from the standardrepositories. For Thunderbird, andmany other programs, there is notsuch an easy way to connect to anExchange server.

Happily there is DavMail. Thelatest version (since 2012-07-10) is3.9.9. For Debian/Ubuntu/Mintthey have a deb-file present onhttp://davmail.sourceforge.net/where you can get more info aboutthe program, and where you can

download it.

After installation, you start theprogram and you are greeted bysettings windows (below). In here,there are just a few things whichyou need to set up.

In the Main Tab, the only item isthe OWA URL. I have my addresshidden to prevent troubles. Whatyou can still see is the extension/exchange/

For the server I use, this is

mandatory; no idea if this applieswith other Exchange servers,probably the same.

On the last tab, calledAdvanced, there is also just onesetting which is important (below)it's the one next to the mousepointer in the screenshot. Untickthis box otherwise you will end upwith double mail messages in yoursent items folder.

I did not change any othersetting and it works great.

http://davmail.sourceforge.net/


HOWTO - DAVMAIL

In your mail program (and I useThunderbird, but I guess settingslike these are very common), I hadto set up the connection like this:

When setting up the account,you start by choosing an IMAP Mailserver. The name is calledlocalhost. Here, you do not enterthe real name of the mail server.

This is done in DavMail.

The two are connected throughport 1143. When you look at the1st DavMail screenshot, you alsosee port 1143 used for IMAP mail.The numbers used here are 1000larger than the real numbers( 1143-143, 1025 – 25, 1110 – 110).

As User Name, I had to usedomain\username but this issomething your local IT guy can tellyou. For the company I work for Ihave to do it like this.

Setup a new SMTP server withthe settings shown below.

Also here you see the changedport number (1025) and also here I

had to use the formatdomain\username in the UserName field.

That's it. When you have set upDavMail this way (and added anaccount in, for example,Thunderbird – like I explained), youshould be seeing your company'smail in a few seconds.

Question remains: do you wantto see these mail messages athome? That's something you haveto answer for yourself.

To make sure DavMail is alwaysrunning when you need it, add it tothe list of programs which startwhen the system boots.


HHOOWW--TTOOWritten by Ronnie Tucker VViiddeeoo EEddiittiinngg WWiitthh KKddeennlliivvee -- PPaarrtt 11

In this series of tutorials, I’dlike to show you the basics ofvideo editing using the KDEapplication Kdenlive. Many

people seem to think there are nogood video editing apps on Linux,Kdenlive (I think) proves themwrong.

There is a Kdenlive in theofficial repositories, but it is nowold and I’d recommend that youinstall the latest version (0.9 as Iwrite this) by loading up yoursoftware center/package managerand adding the PPA to yoursoftware sources:

ppa:sunab/kdenliverelease

Reload your list of packages,and then install the kdenlivepackage.

If you prefer the terminal, use:

sudo addaptrepository

ppa:sunab/kdenliverelease &&

sudo aptget update && sudo

aptget install kdenlive

Here’s Kdenlive when you firstload it up:

Top left of the window is thearea where all your clips will bestored; every clip that you willpossibly use in the current projectwill be loaded into here. In themiddle is your stack of effects andtheir properties. Top right is themonitor area. It’s here that youview clips or preview your project.The bottom half of the window hasthree video tracks (horizontal

rows) and two audio tracks. At thevery bottom right of the windoware some controls, but the oneyou’ll use here is the slider to zoomin/out of your previews.

Essentially, you drag your clipsfrom the top left to one of theaudio/video tracks and arrangethem in their preferred playingorder. There’s more to it than that,

but we’ll come to that in later partsof the tutorial. Let’s do a quickimport and arrangement to getyou used to Kdenlive.

First thing you want to do ismake sure that your new project(which is currently open) is set tothe right video size, and so on. So,in the Kdenlive menu, click Project> Project Settings.

Kdenlive comes with ‘Profiles’which you can see in the dropdown menu below ‘Video Profile’.These profiles are a group ofsettings which you can use ifyou’re making a DVD, (S)VCD, HD


HOWTO - KDENLIVE Pt 1and so on. I’m just tinkering here,so I’m going to choose DV/DVDPAL (PAL since I’m in the UK). Youchoose what works best for you oryour clips. When you choose aprofile, you’ll see the informationbelow the drop-down change toshow what your project will be insize, frame rate, and so on. ClickOK to return to the main screen.

Now, go to the menu and clickProject > Add Clip, and selecthowever many audio/video clipsthat you’d like to use in yourproject.

You may see a windowappearing to tell you that someclips are not the correct size foryour project. If your clips are toosmall they’ll be enlarged and framerates adjusted. This could causeproblems later, but for now I’mclicking OK to continue.

Now is a good time to go to themenu and click File > Save, and giveyour project a name.

Here I have two clips, both withsound. What I’ll do is drag the firstclip down to the ‘Video 1’ track,and then drag the second clipdown to the ‘Video 2’ track – butplace it at the end of the first clip(shown below right)

If you click in the timeline (justabove the ‘Video 1’ track), you’ll beable to jump/scroll through thevideo. Or, if you like, you can watchby clicking the play button belowthe monitor (top right). Thesquiggly line below the videopreview in each video track is agraph showing the sound volumeof each clip.

Having one video finish and

abruptly start the next isn’t alwayspleasant, so before we wrap upthis part, let’s add a quick fadeeffect where we’ll fade from theVideo 1 track to the Video 2 track.

OK, zoom in to your previewswhich are showing on the videotracks. Either use the slider at thebottom right of the window, or the+ and - buttons at either side of theslider (next page, top right).

What we need to do here isoverlap the two tracks. The

amount of overlap is how long thefade will take (next page, middleright).

This fade should take about twoseconds.

Right click on the Video 1 clipand choose Add Transition >Dissolve. You’ll see a boxoverlaying both tracks (next page,bottom right). Click it and you’llsee some properties showing upbeside your list of clips.


Ronnie is the founder, and editor, ofFull Circle, an official Ubuntumember, and part-time artist whosework can be seen at:http://ronnietucker.co.uk

HOWTO - KDENLIVE Pt 1In the properties, tick the

‘Reverse’ box.

Scrub through the video (click,hold, and drag through thetimeline), or play the video, andyou’ll see the fade from Video 1 toVideo 2.

To create a final video – withyour clips joined and the fadeeffect – go to Project > Render.

In the left panel you choosewhich type of video you’d like toexport as, and, on the right, thesize and so on. Above that you givethe file a name; the other stuffwe’ll leave as is. Click ‘Render to

File’ (at the bottom left of thewindow) and off it’ll go.

If there’s anything you’d like tosee covered in this series, pleasedrop me an email at:[email protected].

Next month we’ll talk abouteffects, and more on adding clips.

http://ronnietucker.co.uk



HHOOWW--TTOOWritten by Mark Crutch IInnkkssccaappee -- PPtt44

This month, we're going tolook at setting colors forour objects. So far we'veapplied colors to the fill

and stroke of our objects byclicking and SHIFT-clicking on thepalette at the bottom of thescreen. You can also set either totransparent by using the leftmostpalette entry – the one with across through it. You've probablyalready discovered the scroll barthat usually lives between thepalette and the status bar, andwhich lets you scroll through thefull collection of colors in thepalette, but have you noticed thetiny little button to the right of thepalette area – the one that lookslike a small “<” character? Clickingon that presents you with a pop-upmenu of palette options (far right).

Most of this menu is taken upby a list of palettes you can use.Try switching between a few ofthem to see how they look. Thenplay with the Size and Width sub-menus to find a swatch size thatyou're comfortable with. Finally,try the Wrap checkbox to seewhether you prefer to see all of

your palette at once (even if ittakes up more vertical space), orare happy to use the scrollbarwhen you need to access the moredistant colors.

If you want to use your ownpalette – perhaps to fit in with acorporate color scheme or tointegrate with other icons in anapplication – you can drop a GIMPpalette file (.gpl) into your.inkscape/palettes directory, orinto /usr/share/inkscape/palettesif you want it to be available to allusers on your computer.

The palette is greatfor quickly selecting acolor for your fill or

stroke, but what if you want acolor that's not present in thepalette? That's where the Fill &Stroke dialog comes in. There arevarious ways to open the dialog,including the button on theCommands toolbar, selecting anobject then picking 'Fill and Stroke'from the right-click context menu,pressing CTRL-SHIFT-F, or simplyclicking on the current fill andstroke swatches at the bottom-left

of the window. You may dock thedialog to the right-hand side of theInkscape window, or move it into awindow of its own, by dragging itusing the grey title bar at the top.

At the top of the dialog arethree tabs for setting the Fill, theStroke Paint, and the Stroke Style.The first two offer almost identicaloptions, so we'll just discuss theFill tab and you can extrapolatefrom there.


HOWTO - INKSCAPE Pt4Immediately below the tab is a

row of buttons which are used todetermine what type of paint isused for the fill or stroke. At theleft is a button for 'No Paint' whichlooks like a cross and has the sameeffect as using the crossed swatchat the left of the palette in themain drawing window. If both thefill and stroke are set to No Paint,then your object will be completelyinvisible.

The second button lets youchoose a single color for your fill orstroke. In that respect, it's thesame as selecting from the palette,except that you have much finercontrol over the color. Choosingthis button presents you with yetmore tabs offering a few differentmethods for picking your color.Don't be fooled though: Inkscapeuses RGB (Red, Green, Blue) valuesin its files even if you select a colorvia the HSL or CMYK tabs. This isone example of Inkscape beingrestricted by the capabilities of theSVG format. The CMS tab is only ofuse if you set up a colormanagement system on yourcomputer, and is outside the scopeof this series.

Whichever color picker youchoose, you'll find a slider at the

bottom labelled with an 'A'. This isthe 'alpha channel', which is justanother term for opacity. If thisslider is moved to the far left, thenyour fill or stroke will becompletely transparent. To the farright, it's completely opaque.Anywhere in between will make itpartially transparent. This imagedemonstrates the same twoobjects with the stroke fullyopaque, but the top object's fillalpha being set at the 0, 128 and255 levels (above).

As with the No Paint option,setting the alpha channel for boththe fill and stroke to zero willrender your object completelyinvisible. If the fill or stroke ispartially transparent, the colorswatches in the bottom-left cornerof the status bar in the mainwindow will show a two-partarrangement: the left half showsthe color with the alpha appliedover a checkerboard effect, whilethe right half shows an opaqueversion of the same color. You can

easily make a translucent fill orstroke completely opaque via thecontext menu on the swatch.

The third and fourth buttons letyou use a gradient for your fill orstroke. Gradients will be thesubject of next month's article, soremember that these buttonsexist, but we'll skip over them fornow.

The next button lets you paintyour fill or stroke using a pattern.Inkscape ships with a variety ofstripes and polka dots which areavailable via a pop-up menu whenyou select this option. Mostpatterns are black or white, withjust one color pattern(Camouflage) and three grayscalebitmap images that can be used aspatterns, right at the bottom ofthe list. It is possible to create yourown patterns and to adjust the sizeand scale of the built-in patterns,but those are subjects for anotherday.

Also being put off for laterarticles are the Unset Paint buttonthat looks like a question mark andthe two splodges on the right ofthe Fill tab.

The third main tab on the Filland Stroke dialog is labelled asStroke Style. While the StrokePaint tab is used to set the color,gradient or pattern that is used forthe stroke, this tab lets youmanage all the other parameters.Most of these settings can beadjusted only by using this dialog,so it's worth becoming familiarwith it.


HOWTO - INKSCAPE Pt4

At the top is a spin-box forsetting the width of the stroke,and an associated pop-up menu forpicking the units that the width ismeasured in. These duplicate thefunctionality available from theright-click menu on the status bar,but offer a greater choice of unitsand finer control over the width.SVG currently allows the stroke toonly straddle the outline of theobject, half inside and half outsideit. You can see this clearly byreducing the alpha channel on athick stroke – notice that the fillshows through the inner half ofthe stroke. It's worthremembering, as Inkscape novicesoften wonder why increasing thestroke also reduces the area insidetheir shapes.

Next are three radio buttonslabelled as Join. These determinehow the corners of your objectsare drawn – either as sharp(mitred), rounded or bevelled

corners. The difference betweenthem can easily be seen by drawinga star (above left).

When a mitred corner isparticularly sharp, the point of thejoin may extend quite some way. Inthis case Inkscape will switch todrawing a bevelled corner instead.The length that the point isallowed to grow to, before thisswitch occurs, is set by the MitreLimit spin-box.

The Cap buttons affect the endsof your lines. Most of the objectswe've drawn so far are continuousloops, so the ends aren't reallyclear, but if you use the circlehandles to turn an ellipse into anarc then you'll have an object withobvious ends. The middle option,

Round Cap, finishes your lines witha semicircular smooth extension tothe end. The other two options,Butt Cap and Square Cap, both givea squared-off end to your line, anddiffer only in whether the squareextends beyond the nominal endof the line (Square Cap), or stopsprecisely at that point (Butt Cap).

The stroke doesn't have to be asingle continuous line, it canconsist of a repeating pattern ofdashes. Anyone who has spenttime with technical drawings willbe familiar with the dash-dot-dashof a center line, and a series ofdashes can be used to give astitched effect for artisticpurposes. The Dashes pop-up letsyou choose from a variety of dashpatterns built into Inkscape, with

the adjacent spinbox letting youadjust the relative start position ofyour pattern. The Cap buttons alsoplay a big part when it comes todash patterns – this image showsour star with a thick dashed strokeusing each of the three capsettings (above right).

The three pop-up menus forStart, Mid and End Markers allowyou to select arrowheads, circles,squares and other shapes whichwill be positioned on your stroke.Once again, the Start and Endoptions make most sense on anunclosed line, such as an arc. On aclosed line, you'll probably want touse only one or the other. The MidMarkers appear wherever there is acorner or a transition to a differentline segment – which includes thetransition from straight to curvedsegments on a rounded rectangle.This image shows just threeexamples of markers and dashpatterns in use (bottom).


Mark has been using Linux since1994, and uses Inkscape to createtwo webcomics, 'The Greys' and'Monsters, Inked' which can both befound at:http://www.peppertop.com/

HOWTO - INKSCAPE Pt4One big caveat with markers is

that they will appear in black,regardless of the color of yourstroke. Fortunately Inkscape doesship with an extension that tweaksthe necessary SVG internals foryou, so making the colors match isas simple as selecting your marker-laden object, and then heading upto the menu bar to chooseExtensions > Modify Path > ColorMarkers to Match Stroke. Evenusing this extension, however,markers are always opaque,regardless of the alpha setting ofyour stroke.

The last part of the Fill andStroke dialog to explain is the pairof sliders at the bottom – to adjustthe Blur and Opacity. The former isa convenient shortcut for addingthe Gaussian Blur filter to anobject. SVG filters are a major topicof their own that we'll look at in alater article, but, for now, it'senough to know that increasingthis slider will cause your object tobecome blurred. The more youincrease it, the more blurred yourobject will be. Don't go toooverboard: usually a small valuewill give you a good effect, whilstlarger values just dissipate yourobject into mist. Be aware thatusing filters will slow the speed at

which Inkscape redraws the screen,especially if you're zoomed inclosely.

The opacity slider has the sameeffect as the 'O' spin-box andcontext menu on the status bar,but with more fine-grained control.Changing this value affects theopacity of the entire object – boththe fill and the stroke. Effectively,the object is drawn in memoryusing the fill and stroke alphavalues, then that whole image isdrawn to the screen using theobject opacity. This cumulativeeffect makes it possible to

combine transparency values incomplex ways that wouldn't bepossible with just alpha or justopacity. In this rather garishexample the squares have 100%opacity and alpha throughout, butthe circles have the fill, stroke andopacity values indicated:

The opacity slider is one way tomake some use out of thosecolorless fill patterns. Byduplicating an object (Edit >Duplicate), and then filling thecopy with a pattern and reducingits opacity, you can let the originalobject's color show through.

Why not use that trick on yoursnowman image to give a littlegraininess to the covering of snowon the ground with the addition ofthe Sand texture at a low opacity.Add in some color tweaks, a bit ofblurring, and some translucency onthe shadows, and you should findthat, with your new found masteryof the Fill and Stroke dialog, yourimage is starting to look a littleless flat.

http://www.peppertop.com/


HHOOWW--TTOOWritten by Michael R. Youngblood WWeebb DDeevv -- PPtt22

Last month, we installedApache2 and did a little bitof configuration. Thismonth we will be installing

and configuring MySQL, PHP, andCouchDB. MySQL is a relationaldatabase, and CouchDB is a non-relational database. We will getfamiliar with both types ofdatabases over the life of thisarticle. PHP is a server-sidelanguage that allows us to do allsorts of amazing things.

CouchDB is the starting point ofthis article. Even though it is nottraditionally part of the LAMPstack, installing it now and learningit will be beneficial to your skills asa web developer. We are not goingto go over any configurations forthis until it is time to start using it.This way, you will know whichsettings you want to change, andwhat you want to change thevalues to. Start by updating andupgrading your software and thenapt-get couchdb:

sudo aptget update

sudo aptget upgrade

sudo aptget install couchdb

Yes, it really is that simple toinstall a lot of things. The nextinstallation is just as easy, and itprompts you only to set a “root”password. Please note, that justbecause it says root password, thisis not referring to the server’s rootpassword. Make a note of thispassword, as this will identify theuser with the ultimate power in thedatabases. Ok, let’s get to theinstalling:

sudo aptget install mysql

server

The next part asks you a fewquestions regarding the security ofyour database. I suggest answeringwith “Y” to all of them. Thequestion specifically asks aboutremote access with the root user.This disallows any access to MySQLunless you are on the same server(SSH to the server, and thenlogging in is still allowed in thisscenario).

mysql_secure_installation

Now that you are all done withthe installation and basicconfiguration of MySQL, you needto test it to make sure everythingis working fine. To login, simplytype in “mysql -u root -p” into theterminal. It will prompt you for thepassword you just set, and, uponsuccessful entry, you will begreeted with the mysql promptthat usually looks like this:“mysql>”.

aliendev@server:~$ mysql u

root p

Enter password:

Welcome to the MySQL monitor.

Commands end with ; or \g.

Your MySQL connection id is

310

Server version: 5.1.61

0ubuntu0.10.10.1 (Ubuntu)

Copyright (c) 2000, 2011,

Oracle and/or its affiliates.

All rights reserved.

Oracle is a registered

trademark of Oracle

Corporation and/or its

affiliates. Other names may

be trademarks of their

respective

owners.

Type 'help;' or '\h' for

help. Type '\c' to clear the

current input statement.

mysql>

We are almost done, with justone last thing to get set-up. PHP5is a widely used server-sidelanguage that will help you in thelong run (even if you don’t use it).To install it is very simple:

sudo aptget install php5

phppear

Going forward, you will want tomake sure the following values areset in the php.ini (PHP’sconfiguration file), and relevantlines are uncommented (thecommented lines start with asemicolon, uncommenting them isas easy as removing thesemicolon). So, open up the php.inifile with vi (“sudo vi/etc/php5/apache2/php.ini”), andlook for these lines – hint: you cantype “/” (forward slash) and a termand press enter to search in vi):

max_execution_time = 30

memory_limit = 64M


WEB DEVerror_reporting =

E_COMPILE_ERROR|E_RECOVERABLE

_ERROR|E_ERROR|E_CORE_ERROR

display_errors = Off

log_errors = On

error_log = /var/log/php.log

register_globals = Off

Any time you make changes tothe php.ini file, you will need torestart Apache. You can do thissimply by using one of thefollowing commands:

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2

restart

sudo service apache2 restart

The very last thing we are goingto do is add MySQL support forPHP, and install a PHP packagethat will add some additionalsecurity. Also note, because we arechanging something that Apachewill need to know, we need to

restart it again. We could havewaited, but I wanted to point outthat there are a few ways to do thisand that it needs to become ahabit when making changes toApache.

sudo aptget install php5

mysql php5suhosin

sudo service apache2 restart

Congratulations, you officiallyhave a LAMP stack, and we canstart developing next month.Cheers!

Michael Youngblood has been in theindustry of web design anddevelopment for 13 years. He hasbeen working for a world widewireless tech corp for six years and isworking on his bachelor’s of sciencein mobile development.

BBRRIIDDGGEESS

Solutions are on the second last page.

An island is shown by a circle with a number in it. Drawbridges between islands so that each island has thenumber of bridges indicated. There can be no more thantwo bridges between the same two islands. Bridges canonly be drawn horizontally or vertically.

puzzles are copyright, and kindly provided by,The Puzzle Club - www.thepuzzleclub.com

http://www.thepuzzleclub.com


HHOOWW--TTOOWritten by Ronnie Tucker WWrriittee FFoorr FFuullll CCiirrccllee MMaaggaazziinnee

Guidelines

The single rule for anarticle is that it mustsomehow be linked toUbuntu or one of the

many derivatives of Ubuntu(Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, etc).

Write your article in whicheversoftware you choose. I wouldrecommend LibreOffice, butPLEASE SPELL AND GRAMMARCHECK IT!

Writing

There is no word limit forarticles, but be advised that longarticles may be split across severalissues. In your article, please placewhere you would like a particularimage to be. Please do not use anyformatting in your document.

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When you are ready to submityour article please email it to:[email protected]

If you can't write articles, buthang out in Ubuntu Forums, sendus interesting forum threads thatwe could print.

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If your native language isn'tEnglish, don't worry. Write yourarticle, and the proof-readers willread it for you and correct anygrammatical or spelling errors. Notonly are you helping the magazineand the community, but we'll helpyou with your English!

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Games/ApplicationsWhen reviewing games/applications please state clearly:

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• make and model of the hardware• what category would you put this hardware into?• any glitches that you may have had while using the hardware?• easy to get the hardware working in Linux?• did you have to use Windows drivers?• marks out of five• a summary with positive and negative points

You don't need to be an expert to write anarticle - write about the games, applicationsand hardware that you use every day.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuMagazine/Style

[email protected]


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AASSKK TTHHEE NNEEWW GGUUYYWritten by Copil Yáňez

Hi, everyone! Welcomeback to Ask the NewGuy! If you’re new toUbuntu, thinking about

switching to Linux, or needsomething explained to you likeyou’re five, look no further. I amhere to answer your very basicquestions from the perspective ofsomeone who knows he shouldcare about the epic battle betweenvi and Emacs, but has a soufflé inthe oven, so, yeah, no.

This month, I heard from abrave gentleman named JohnHughes. Presumably not the iconicdirector of The Breakfast Clubbecause not only is Director JohnHughes dead, I have it on goodauthority he was a BSD freak allthe way.

Ubuntu John asks:

I'm a 71 yearoldwannabe

geek, with a question. I'm

runningUbuntu 12.04, and

have downloadedandinstalled

Rainlender2 calendar. Program is

great. Does justwhat Iwant.

HoweverIdon'tknowhowtomake

itautostartat login andshowup on

mydesktop. Can you help?

In a word, John, no. Butignorance has never kept me fromflailing about like I lit myself on fire– so here goes.

First of all, John was kindenough to include the version ofUbuntu he’s working with. This isvery helpful to savvy Linux users.But since I’m not one of those, thatinformation is completely wastedon me. He might as well have askedhis question and then told me heslurps canned sardines from the

tin. The information would be justas useful as knowing his operatingsystem, but would have the addedadvantage of letting me knowwhat kind of person asks forcomputing advice from a completemoron like me. Seriously, John, it’slike getting arrested for B.A.S.E.jumping, and then asking the guywho did your caricature portrait atthe county fair to represent you incourt.

You see, John, I’m runningLubuntu – which is based onUbuntu but runs a bit better on anold IBM Thinkpad I inherited from

my wife. And by “inherited” I mean“wiped the hard drive and installeda new operating system while sheslept.” You would think that if Ifigured out your problem inLubuntu, you could simply applythe solution to Ubuntu and be onyour merry way, checking yourcalendar with reckless abandon.

But I cannot count the numberof times I’ve found a solution on aforum and then copy/pastedstrings of unintelligible charactersinto a terminal (because no onewho knows the answer to yourquestion has ever heard of amouse, much less graphical menus)– only to find they were meant fora different Linux flavor than mineresulting in unintended computingbehaviors. Like whenever I go toshutdown my machine now, Iautomatically post a webcampicture of myself to Facebook.

The best I can do is explain howI got Rainlendar to autoload onLubuntu. Maybe the process onyour machine will be similar. Butthen again, maybe it’ll be likeeating a porcupine. Dunno. Think

“


of my guidance as a mere outlineof what your eventual solution willbe, a ghost image of the correctsolution, which I killed with acandlestick in the conservatory.

Right. So the first thing I didwas type the following intoGoogle:

Lubuntu autostart program

Here’s the top result:http://askubuntu.com/questions/81383/how-can-i-add-new-autostart-programs-in-lubuntu

Now, I know this magazine’sreaders are going to give acollective gasp, but I use menusquite a bit. The cool thing (cool asin “neato!” – not cool as in, youknow, actually cool) about Linux isthat you can do most things byclicking on menus or by typingstuff into a terminal (which justsounds so final and scary, like aserial killer with a grudge). I haveno doubt my solution can beconverted to a string of charactersthat would make this whole thing asimple cut-and-paste job. Andsomeday, I hope to be moreproficient and knowledgeable atthe command line because whenyou understand the command line,

you understand Linux. But I don’tunderstand either just yet.Seriously, I barely understandtoothpaste. So we’re learningtogether here, John. Do whatworks for you, I’m just telling youwhat worked for me. And, sincethis is Ask the New Guy and notAsk a Smart Guy or even Ask aMarginally Literate Guy, I’m gonnause the mouse.

So the first thing I do is click onthe File Manager and type/usr/share/applications.

I find exactly what I was told Iwould, a folder with icons for allthe programs installed on mysystem. Maybe it’s more accurateto say I’ve found a bunch ofshortcuts to the programs on mysystem. Dunno, I’m New Guy,remember? Anyway, the point is, I

have a place where I can find allthe programs on my system in away that’s easy to copy from. Also,I haven’t borked my system so I’mputting this one in the win column.

Next, I scroll through the iconsand find Rainlendar2, right click onit and select Copy. I’ve got a copyof the program (or a copy of a linkto a program or a symbolicrepresentation of a file orwhatever--look I have what I need,let’s break out the glow sticks andkeep this rave going!). Now I needa place to put it.

So I type ~/.config/autostart

Wait a sec. I typed~/.config/autostart but it takes meto /home/copil/.config/autostart?WTH?! I want my money back!

I suspect it has something to dowith that pesky tilde (~) symbol.I’ve only understood it in thecontext of my own name (where,Lord knows, it’s given me enoughgrief). I have no clue what it’sdoing here. Well, turns out thetilde is the Linux word for/home/username (where“username” is whatever you callyour home folder). So, when I type~/.config/autostart, it takes me to/home/copil/.config/autostart.Huh, neat trick, Linux. You can stay.. . FOR NOW. . .

As promised, the autostartfolder is where I find. . . wait for it. .. A LIST OF ALL THE PROGRAMSTHAT ARE SUPPOSED TOAUTOSTART!

John, I am so excited at thispoint, I shave my legs! Hey, we alldeal with success in different ways.Don’t judge me, John.

Now that I’m in the autostartfolder, I simply right-click andselect Paste. I’m done! Time to

ASK THE NEW GUY

http://askubuntu.com/questions/81383/how-can-i-add-new-autostart-programs-in-lubuntu


crack open a freshie and celebrateanother milestone! Then, after atwo-day celebratory bender, Idouble-check that the solutionworks. I restart my Lubuntu laptopand, sure enough, Rainlendar2starts up without my having to findit in a menu, run it from thecommand line, or ask Swithins, mybutler, to do it. Swithins has otherthings to do with his valuable time,like heat up a tubful of Evian formy daily bath.

John, I know what you’rethinking. You’re thinking, “Wheredo I find a decent Linux butler?”Well, I found Swithins on Craigslistin the M4P (Male for Penguin) sub-category. But you’re probably alsowondering how this can help YOUsince you’re not running Lubuntu.Well, you’ve been such a goodsport until now, I’m going to seewhat I can do for you underUbuntu 12.04.

I visit Google.com and type:

Ubuntu autostart programs

Here’s the first search result:http://www.liberiangeek.net/2012/05/windows-7-vs-ubuntu-12-04-how-to-automatically-start-programs/

Holy baloney, John! It’s eveneasier in Ubuntu! I could havesaved myself 1,500 words (andyou’d have five minutes of your lifeback).

Fasten your jockstrap, John,here we go!

1. Click on the gear icon in theupper right corner of your desktop2. Select startup applications3. In the new window, click Add4. In the new window, click Browse5. In the new window, click FileSystem along the left and thendouble-click the usr folder6. Now double-click the bin folder7. Scroll down until you findRainlendar2 (or just start typing itand it will find YOU)8. Click Open at the bottom rightof the window9. In the new window, click Add10. Now click “I just made Ubuntumy bey-otch” because you’reDONE!

Yes, I know I buried the lead. Icould have just started with theUbuntu solution. But we’ve bothlearned a little something abouttildes, filepaths and autostartfolders. Sometimes the search ismore revealing than the solution

(got that from a fortune cookie).The biggest benefit, of course, isthat you and I got to spend qualitytime together, John.

Pardon? Oh, you don’t agree.Well then, I’ll just be on my way.

On other pages in thismagazine, you’ll find command linesolutions to your problems. Butthe command line is the deep endof the pool. I’m here to hand outfloaties and water wings untilwe’re all ready to use the divingboard. If you can use Ubuntu, thenyou’ll continue to use Ubuntu (alsogot that in a fortune cookie - thecook was a sys admin).

Hopefully I’ve shown you thatstuff like this is totally doable. If Ican do it then a bag of hammerscan do it. Not that I’m calling you abag of hammers, John. My answershere are designed to instill trustand confidence in users like youand me who may not think we’recapable of doing this stuff, but,turns out, we totally are!

In all seriousness, John, weappreciate your question andhopefully you’ve been able to playalong at home and get yourRainlendar calendar to autostart. If

not, let me know (I’ll have Swithinsgive you a call).

Best of luck, John!

Am I alone? Anyone else outthere know how to summon thecommand line but fear its voodoo?Or maybe you get tired ofanswering the same questions overand over for new users. If so,contact me [email protected]. I’ll try toanswer simple questions, or pointout helpful beginner advice fromthe perspective of someone wholoves Linux and Ubuntu but doesn’tspeak source code.

ASK THE NEW GUY

Copil is an Aztec name that roughlytranslates to “you need my heart forwhat again?” His love of women’sshoes is chronicled atyaconfidential.blogspot.com. Youcan also watch him embarrasshimself on Twitter (@copil).

http://yaconfidential.blogspot.com


http://www.liberiangeek.net/2012/05/windows-7-vs-ubuntu-12-04-how-to-automatically-start-programs/


LLIINNUUXX LLAABBWritten by Charles McColm

TTwweeeett SSccrreeeenn -- PPaarrtt 22

In issue #62, we looked at thesoftware side of creating theTweet Screen, this month welook at the hardware side.

WARNING - this will definitely voidyour notebook’s warranty! Beforestarting, a few words on some ofthe objectives:• keep the cost down• use only available tools andmaterials if possible• it has to be stable and sturdy

Materials:IBM Thinkpad R31 (when I wrotethis I saw a R31 for £40 onebay.co.uk)• Lenovo 3000 C100 notebook(approximately £38 - see below)• Black 11” x 14” frame(approximately £9.51 from an artstore) with 1 inch depth• Electrical tape

Tools:• small technician's screwdriver set• junior hacksaw• dremel• round and square files• grounding strap• safety glasses

Just after issue #62, I ran intovideo issues with the ThinkpadR31. Since I’d already pre-testedTweet Screen on my own agingnotebook, a Lenovo 3000 C100,and I found it several times onebay with better specifications forless money than the Thinkpad R31.I used the 3000 as the basis forpart 2 of our Tweet Screen article.

The Lenovo 3000 C100 comes in2 models, one with a Celeron1.5GHz CPU and Broadcomwireless chipset, and one with aPentium 4 1.7GHz CPU and Intelwireless chipset. The model usedin this article is the Celeron-basedmodel. Both models have identical15” LCD screens.

In part one of this article, wecovered the software side ofsetting up the Tweet Screen. Inpart two, we’ll cover disassemblingand installation of the notebook inan 11” x 14” picture frame. I foundthe picture frame after visiting acouple of art stores. Havingcreated a notebook picture frameseveral years ago, I knew it wasimportant to have as much depth

as possible to hold the notebook.Most art stores had frames withmore than 1 inch depth, but theglass was often set almost at theback of the frame, rendering ituseless. The frame I chose was 1inch thick with the glass a fewmillimeters from the front.

A number of years ago when Ibuilt the notebook picture frame, Imade a couple of related mistakes:1) I didn’t buy/build a frame bigenough to hold the components ofthe notebook. 2) In furtherattempting to reduce the amountof parts in the notebook, I did not

test the notebook enough duringthe second disassembly process.

This time, before disassembly,the notebook stuck out about ¼”inch. This time I tested often anddecided not to attempt to removeeverything from the notebook,keeping the disassembly as simpleas possible. Additionally, I installedSSH, set up the notebook’swireless, and gave the notebook’swireless a DHCP reservation on ourrouter in case I needed to remotelyshut down the machine (whichturned out to be a great step).


LINUX LAB - TWEET SCREEN Pt2Ideally, disassembly should be

done on an anti-static mat. I didn’thave one handy so I used an anti-static strap connected to a metalground. I had a large motherboardanti-static bag handy, but since Ionly ever exposed the screen andthe front bezel above thenotebook keyboard, it really wasn’tnecessary.

Disassembly started with takingout the battery and DVD-RW, thentesting to make sure the notebookpowered on. The Lenovo 3000C100 has a slide switch thatconveniently pops out the battery.Removing the battery eliminatesheat and lessens the weight of theentire unit. The DVD-RW is held inby a small, F3, single screw.

Most of the screws on thebottom of the unit are either of

the F3 (short type used to securethe memory lid, hard drive, screen,and DVD-RW). or F6 (longer typeused to keep the case together).Only two other longer screwssecuring the screen base to thenotebook were removed at a laterstage. I kept the screws organizedon a couple of long stickersmarked F6 and F3, and laterdeposited these in an inexpensiveplastic sorting box I bought at adollar store.

Next, I bent the screenbackwards so it was almost levelwith the notebook. The plasticbezel on the front of the notebook(where the buttons and LEDs are)is a long strip of plastic, about aninch thick, and can be removed byprying up the left side and gentlypulling up the rest of the strip. Iused the small slot head of the

notebook screwdriver to do this.With the bezel off, I markedaround the power switch using afelt marker.

At this point I tested thenotebook using the plastic end ofthe screwdriver to power on theunit. Because the unit boots rightto the Visible Tweets screen, eachtime I shut down I needed to hitthe F11 key to show the Chromiumbrowser minimize/maximize/closebuttons (alternatively, I could haveprobably just hit Ctrl+Alt+Del tobring up the shutdown menu, but Idid things the hard way).

The next job was to remove thecasing from the screen. While thisis one of the thinnest parts of thenotebook, the latch at the topwhich secures the screen to the

notebook when closed wouldmake it impossible to lie the screenflat on the glass. Most laptopshave stiff round plastic covering anumber of screws. In the case ofthe 3000 C100, there were 6 smallF3 screws hiding behind the plasticcylinders. I used the smallest slothead to pry up the plastic cylindersthen used a small Phillipsscrewdriver to remove the screws.

After removing the front panelplastic from the screen, I noticed acouple more screws securing thewireless antennas to the top of thescreen. At the bottom of thescreen lay the screen inverter. Icarefully removed the tapesecuring the inverter to the back ofthe case, then unscrewed theantennas and removed the plasticLCD backing.


LINUX LAB - TWEET SCREEN Pt2

Removing the backing revealsthat the LCD is secured to thenotebook by a couple of thin metalrods with several small screws oneach side. These rods are securedto the base of the notebook by acouple of long screws. Initially Iremoved these screws, but foundworking with the screenunmanageable, so I secured themback in until I removed the screwssecuring the LCD to the rods.

Just after removing the backplastic portion of the LCD case,

look at the back of the LCD. On theback of the Lenovo 3000 C100screen is tape cautioning not totouch the backlight portion nearthe top of the LCD. Of course I hadalready touched it withoutrealizing, so at this point I poweredon the notebook and tested again -thankfully it booted. Note that thebacklight electronics were coveredby a thin film of plastic, but theymight not be on all notebooks.

With the screen detached fromthe metal rods, the next job was tosecure it on the back/bottom of

the notebook. But beforeattaching the screen, I peeled athin film of tinfoil-like metal offthe back plastic LCD panel. Thismetal film acts as an anti-staticshield. I carefully removed themetal foil and attached it to thebottom of the notebook, takingcare to cut out a small square tovent the memory area. Much of thestickiness of the foil had stuck tothe back plastic panel no longer inuse, so I used electrical tape tosecure the foil to the bottom. I alsoused electrical tape to secure thescreen to the plastic base of thenotebook, taking care not to covertoo much of the screen or leavemetal exposed.

With the screen on the oppositeside of the keyboard I now testedthe unit once again. This timeshutting the unit down viakeyboard and trackpad provedquite difficult, even with a mirror.Happily I had already set up a staticDHCP reservation for the machine,and installed SSH so I remotelyshut it down over SSH.

sudo /sbin/shutdown h now

At this point, I had a bit of theinverter wire inconveniently placedat the top. Normally this wire ischanneled into the LCD screen, butit proved to be quite helpful in theend adding a few extra millimetersso that the top and bottom fit


LINUX LAB - TWEET SCREEN Pt2snugly inside the picture frame.This left a gap just shy of 1centimeter on each side of theframe.

With the notebook in the frameI marked off an area of ventilationat the bottom and the area thepower core was to plug into thesystem. With this done I removedthe notebook and cut out themarked off areas. I’d love to claimthat I did this expertly, but thetruth is I used what I had at mydisposal, a junior hacksaw and adremel.

To smooth out the roughnessleft by my cutting I used a coupleof files to file down the cut out

areas so they were nice andsmooth. Surprisingly, it turned outwell enough that I was able toreuse the wood block from theventilation cut out. This block I cutin half and filed down. I put one ofeach block in the 1 centimeter gapbetween the notebook and frame.These small blocks kept thenotebook from moving within theframe.

At this point the Tweetscreenwas finished, it could stand on itsown without falling out the back. Itwas time to fire it up again for onelast shot.

With a bit more time I wouldhave filled in the sides and used a

wooden bracket to secure thesystem further. I also would haverigged up a button on the side so Iwouldn’t have to power the systemon from the back. As the Tweetscreen sits now it works well, andcould be hung except for thepower button detail. Set on a deskit looks great and feeds us all thetweets about refurbishing,

Kwartzlab, and different Ubuntutopics.

Next month, a look at our localHacker Space Kwartzlab. Kwartzlabis the host of a number ofinteresting projects from theoriginal Twitter screen I mentionedin Issue 62 to hosting Ubuntu codeand bug sprints.


CCLLOOSSIINNGG WWIINNDDOOWWSS WWaallllppaappeerr && TThheemmeess

Written by:Ronnie Tucker (KDE)Jan Mussche (Gnome)Elizabeth Krumbach (XFCE)Mark Boyajian (LXDE)

Right clicking on your WindowsXP desktop and choosingProperties will take you to theDisplay Properties window, andit’s from here you can change yourdesktop theme and wallpaper.

Kubuntu

Kubuntu (and KDE in general)works in a very similar way. Rightclicking on the desktop andchoosing Desktop Settings will giveyou a window from which you caneither change your desktop to apreinstalled image, or add adesktop wallpaper using the‘Open...’ button.

As well as getting the usualoptions to scale/resize/crop yourwallpaper image, you can alsochoose to either have yourwallpaper as an image, a slideshowor a colour gradient.

As for a theme, this is whereKDE differs slightly. Open theSystem Settings, then open theWorkspace Appearance. Here you’llsee two main things: WindowDecorations and Desktop Theme.

Window Decorations is used tochange the appearance of yourwindows, or window borders if youlike.

Desktop Theme is where youchange the look of everything else,such as your taskbar, widgets, etc.


Clicking the Details tab will let youfine tune the desktop themeshould you want to mix and match.

Gnome-Shell

Changing wallpapers in Gnomeis very easy. Just right-click on anempty part of the desktop andchoose the last entry in the drop-down menu called Change DesktopBackground. Some standarddesktop pictures are supplied. Ifthe right one is not in the list youcan always choose to downloadmore from the net. To do that,choose: Get more backgroundsonline.

Opening the window to changethe desktop background is alsopossible by using the menustructure: System > Preferences >Appearance.

When you look at the top of thewindow, you’ll notice the first tabis called Theme. Here you canchange the complete theme – inother words change the way yourdesktop looks. Just as with thebackground pictures, a number ofpredefined themes have beenincluded in the installation. Alsohere, when you have a different

taste, you can download morethemes online. Another possibilityis to select the theme that’s asclose as possible to your wishes,and then adjust it so it will becomeyour theme.

Select a theme and click on thebutton Customize. A windowappears in which you can do almosteverything to set the theme theway you want it to be. Justexperiment with it. Even when youdon’t manage to get it exactly asyou want it, you might stumble onanother one which is even better.

It’s all very straightforward. Thenice thing is you can’t do anythingwrong, so just go ahead and try it.

Lubuntu

Unlike the other desktopsdiscussed here, Lubuntu goes togreat lengths to keep all aspects ofthe desktop and managementthereof as lean as possible bydefault. And “lean” is whatLubuntu is all about, so we’ll limitthis discussion to the defaultoptions since, as has beenmentioned in previous installmentsof this series, you can access therepositories and customize

Lubuntu to be as “heavy” as youwant.

To manage the most basicdesktop settings, right-click anyunoccupied area of the desktopand select Desktop Preferencesfrom the pop-up menu to open thewindow of the same name. Bydefault, the Appearance tab has

focus on which you can setBackground options for thedesktop as well as specify textoptions for text that displays withobjects placed on the desktop (e.g.icons).

The two options forselecting/setting wallpaper don’tget much simpler than this!

CLOSING WINDOWS


Clicking the Wallpaper “field”opens the file manager, and thisallows you navigate to the imageyou want to use as your wallpaper.The Wallpaper mode option opensa pop-up menu that allows you tospecify how you want the imagedisplayed on the desktop (e.g.stretched, centered, etc.). The Textoptions determine how textassociated with desktop objects(e.g. icons) is displayed.

To select Themes, controlwindow appearance and behavior,and configure other desktopoptions, open the OpenboxConfiguration Manager (from themain menu, select Preferences >Openbox Configuration Manager).

By default, the Theme categoryis selected. As you can see,Lubuntu comes with severalThemes (12) by default, and youcan add new themes at any time.To change a theme, simply click onthe theme example displayed; thiswill immediately apply the themethroughout the system, even towindows that are already open.Clicking on other categoriesreveals their respectiveconfiguration options. (Note: TheMouse category actuallydetermines the behavior ofwindows based on mousemovement/actions.)

For even more control over thedisplay of your desktop, from the

main menu select Preferences >Customize Look and Feel, whichopens the window of the samename.

The options available in thiswindow allow for considerablecustomization and “tweaking” ofmany different parametersincluding custom foreground andbackground colors for windows,tooltips, etc, changing iconthemes, mouse cursor themes(Note: none are installed bydefault), window borders, andmore. There is some overlap infunctions between this windowand the Openbox ConfigurationManager, but the information isdisplayed [in their respective

windows] differently.

Lastly, you can also control theappearance of the Panel on thedesktop. Right-click on anyunoccupied area of the Panel and,from the pop-up menu, selectPanel Settings; this opens thePanel Preferences window.

Click on the Appearance tab toconfigure the look of the panel bychanging its background and font.By default, “image” is selected asthe background for the panel. Clickon the “field” to the right of the“image” radio button, and the filebrowser will open to the panelimages directory where there aremany (>20) images from which to

CLOSING WINDOWS


choose by default. Obviously, youcan add more if you want.

Xubuntu

In Xubuntu, like many otherdesktops, launching the settingsdialog to change the backgroundcan be done by right-clicking onthe desktop and selecting“Desktop Settings...” from themenu. The dialog will give youseveral default options, as well asthe option to upload your owndesktop background and definehow you want it placed on yourscreen (centered, tiled, stretched,etc), and, if it doesn’t fill yourwhole screen, what backgroundcolor to use and how that shouldbe styled (solid, horizontal orvertical gradient).

You can also launch this menuby clicking on the Mouse icon >Settings > Settings Manager >Desktop.

Like KDE, Xfce has the desktopappearance split into two differentcomponents, the GTK Theme(called Appearance Style) and aWindow Manager Theme.

The Appearance Style dialog is

opened via Mouse icon > Settings >Settings Manager > Appearance,and here you select what style youwish to use to determine desktopcolor pallet, including contrast.Several options come withXubuntu by default, and, byselecting them, they will beapplied immediately – so you cansee what it looks like. The fullAppearance settings menu alsoallows you to change what icons,fonts and some other settings touse.

The Window Manager Themedialog is opened via Mouse icon >Settings > Settings Manager >Window Manager, and this is usedto change the theme of the actualwindow borders. Just like with theAppearance Style dialog, selectingon one of the many options thatcomes with Xubuntu by default willimmediately apply that theme soyou can check it. In addition toStyle settings, the WindowManager dialog has options tochange keyboard shortcuts,window focus behavior, and more.

By default, Xubuntu uses theGreybird style for both Appearanceand Window Manager themes.

CLOSING WINDOWS


MMYY SSTTOORRYYWritten by Nathan Peek

There I am, keyboard on mylap, feet propped up,energy drink at the ready,and a mass of Hot Pockets

in the freezer singing their alluringsiren song. I agree with the HotPockets that yes, I will meanderover there and select one of youfor consumption as soon as I finishone more paragraph; I’m writing aresearch paper at the time. When,suddenly, staring deeply into mydisposition is the lovely bluescreen of death. Yet again,Windows had managed toperfectly time a system crash whenI’m in the zone. My cat, Penelope,jumps up onto the computer desk,blinks softly, and meows as if tosay, “You know what to do.”

Now, I’m a systems engineerwho manages a few persistentlyconnected network segments ofwhich all servers run a flavor ofLinux. I’m a fanatic. I’ve oftenwondered why is it that my ownhouse is run by Windows? It’s somesort of paradox. I opine that itmust be because I share outfolders to stream to my Xbox. Ithen decide folder streaming is a

weak excuse – I pet Penelope, sipmy energy drink, and get to work.

It goes like this: bounce PC,backup files, select Hot Pocket, putHot Pocket into microwave,download Ubuntu 12.04, burn todisk, retrieve Hot Pocket, retrieveextra Fire Sauce packets, bouncePC, boot to CD, squirt sauce intohalved pocket, bite into still-too-hot Hot Pocket and chew from oneside of my mouth to the other. Iget to the partition manager of theUbuntu installation and nefariouslysay to the Windows partition,“Goodbye Windows, I want to say itwas a good run, but no, you ruinedmy life.” It is at that point I partways with Windows and gleefullybegin upon, as the AmericanConstitution iterates I’m allowedto do, my pursuit of happiness.

What follows is: installproprietary drivers, install Guake,finish Hot Pocket, install Wine,install Foxit Reader, installVirtualBox, pet Penelope, installChrome, install Opera, configureUbuntu One, pull down Hotot ppa,configure AskUbuntu lens, finish

energy drink, synchronizebrowsers, marvel at my shiny newinstallation while quoting Dr.Frankenstein, “It’s alive! Alive!”

To solve the issue of Xboxstreaming, I snatch my XP Pro diskand say to it, “We meet again”. Ireluctantly install a Windowsvirtual machine. The idea here isthat, when I need it, I’ll detach myexternal drive from Ubuntu andattach it to the virtual Windowsmachine. Streaming conundrumsolved. However, there was oneissue I did not previously consider;my wife.

My wife lugs around herWindows laptop all over the house,sometimes settling on the couch tohave tea, read the news, surf theweb for cosmetics, and uploadpictures. Seemingly she is happywith Windows apart from theoccasional, “This thing seems toget slower by the day.” Though shehas a laptop, our central desktop iswhat she uses for Xbox streamingwhen she is in the mood to watchanime on the big screen (which isoften). She certainly has never

seen any version of Linux norwould she understand how to dealwith virtual machines.

About the time I realize this,she is walking down the stairs,freshly awake from our previousnight’s anime marathon, laptop inhand. The conversation goessomething like this:“Goodmorning.”

“Goodmorning.”

“Whatcha doing?”

“Fixing the computer.”

“Whathappened?”

“I suspectmemorycrash maybe.”

“Idon’tknowwhat thatmeans but

okay. Howdidyou fix it?”

“InstallUbuntu.”

“Uhboontu, that’s a funnyword.

What is that?”

“A miracle on a disk.”

“Can I see?”

“Yep.”

Silence. I’m nervous. She says, “Idon’tget it.”

I say, “It fixedthe computer,remember.”

“It’s different than mine.”

“Correction, betterthan yours. May I

showyouwhy?”

“I’ll neverunderstandwhyyou just


MY STORYcan’t leave things alone.”

“But it fixedthe computer,”andnow I’m ready for a beat-down.She’s moving the mouse aroundand asks, “Can I surfthe Internet?”“Yes. It hasFirefox.” (That’s herfavorite browser).“Can Iuploadpictures?”

“Yes.” I hit the super-key, typeShotwell, show her, and lock it tothe launcher.“Can I listen to mymusic?”

“Yes” I hit the super-key, typeRhythmbox, show her, and lock itto the launcher.“Then I trustyou.”

Relief.“Wait, onemore question.”

Nervousness.“Can I stream anime?”

I say, “Yeah, about that,” andbegin scratching my head inthought about how to best explaina virtual machine – when I have anepiphany. Her laptop is STILLWindows! I continue, “Give me afew minutes and I’ll show youhow.” Install Samba, create share.“Let me see your laptop honey.”Permanently mount network drive,configure Windows Media Centerto point to network share. “See,now you can just download andstream from your laptop!”

“That’s cool!Howdidyou do

that?”

To which I deviously reply, “Ididn’t, Ubuntu did. Toldyou it’s

better.”

About a week goes by andeverything is working great; I’mwalking down the stairs post-animemarathon when I notice my wife onthe couch staring inquisitively intothe screen of her laptop. To mydelicious surprise I notice herWindows taskbar had been movedfrom the bottom of the screen tothe left side of the screen. Elationwarmed over me. She wasattempting to mimic Unity on aWindows machine. She looks atme, “Goodmorning.”

“Goodmorning.”

“I have a question.”

“I have an answer.”

She closes her laptop and givesit to me, “Can youmake thisUbuntu?”

Eureka!!! I say, “Uh, what, Idon’tthink I...whatdidyou just say?”

“Ubuntu, I’ve been reading about

itandusing yours, andyou’re right,

it is better.”

Double Eureka!!! I say, “Wellabsolutely, my love.”And I go to

work liberating her laptop fromthe clutches of the empire.

Moral of the story: given sometime, even the most novice userwill come to find Linux is a muchmore pleasurable experience. Ittakes the vigilance and willingnesson the part of us Linux aficionadosto take the time to show itscapability instead of arguing withpeople who just want to “keep itsimple”, read news, surf the web,look at pictures, and stream amarathon’s worth of cute anime.

The Ubuntu Podcast covers allthe latest news and issues facingUbuntu Linux users and FreeSoftware fans in general. Theshow appeals to the newest userand the oldest coder. Ourdiscussions cover thedevelopment of Ubuntu butaren’t overly technical. We arelucky enough to have somegreat guests on the show, tellingus first hand about the latestexciting developments they areworking on, in a way that we canall understand! We also talkabout the Ubuntu communityand what it gets up to.

The show is presented bymembers of the UK’s UbuntuLinux community. Because it iscovered by the Ubuntu Code ofConduct it is suitable for all.

The show is broadcast live everyfortnight on a Tuesday evening(British time) and is available fordownload the following day.

podcast.ubuntu-uk.org

http://podcast.ubuntu-uk.org/


MMYY OOPPIINNIIOONNWritten by Ronnie Tucker

We used Facebook andGoogle+ to letreaders know aboutthe emerging story

of how Richard Stallman doesn'tapprove of Steam for Linux. Anexcept from the BBC News articleis below:

"Non-free game programs (like

othernon-free programs) are

unethical because theydeny

freedom to theirusers,"hewrote on

his blog.

"Ifyouwantfreedom, one requisite

forit is nothaving non-free

programson yourcomputer.

"However, ifyou're going to use

these games, you're betteroffusing

them on GNU/Linuxratherthan on

MicrosoftWindows."

Mr. Stallman saidthatbasedon this,

Valve'smovewas likely to domore

goodthan harm, buthe notedthere

wasanotherfactor.

"AnyGNU/Linuxdistro [distribution]

thatcomeswith software to offer

these gameswill teach users that

the point is notfreedom.

"Non-free software in GNU/Linux

distros alreadyworks against the

goal offreedom. Adding these

games to a distro wouldaugment

thateffect."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19065082

YOUR COMMENTS

Luis Carvalho:DRM is a cancer. Content with DRMisn't sold, only rented, it's neveryours. Sooner or later, you'll loseaccess to it. Bringing it to Linux isan infection.

David White:He had a point when it came tooperating systems and file utilities.But not for this.

Davo Batty:Bring it on, I use Steam to playciv5, and playing games stops mefrom migrating 100% to Linux.

Joan Trabal:I'm pro F/OSS and against DRM,

but everyone should be free to usewhatever software suits theirneeds. People just need moreeducation about these matters.

Rey Angeles:The creator of the Linux kernelpretty much gave it the greenlight, yes, sure DRM is bad, how doyou expect them to make money ifthey just give away their sourcecode. Guys, it’s not a Utopia and itwill never be. So, let’s try to workwith these companies to somedegree. I agree FOSS is best butsometimes this model does notwork for everything.

Jeremy Davis:It's a personal choice, but I have togo along with anything that bringsmore users to Linux, and gameswill. Besides, I can stop dualbooting then.

Md. Rezaur Rahman:I second Ray Angeles. In the realworld, we have to consider manythings. Gaming in Linux is stillpathetic. And GNU philosophydoesn't work very well in the gameindustry.

Robin James Banfield:Stallman is a dinosaur. Using Linuxis a choice that everybody canmake. Choosing to purchase gamesto play is also another. Whatdifference does it make if thegame you play is on an open-source platform or if it’s on one ofthe other 2. A lot more people willswitch to Linux if they could playtheir favourite games on it. Kudosto Valve for trying to make thishappen. Who [cares] about thechoice to modify the games. Timefor Stallman to crawl back in hisfossil.

Hassan Naderi:Definitely against letting non-freeprograms into GNU Linux.Companies might have difficultiesmaking viable business models torelease software on Linux withexclusively free code, but If youstart allowing non-free programs,in a few years we end up having amajority of programs with non-free code.

Robin James Banfield:Have to disagree with Hassan(above), we already have open-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19065082


IT HAS RETURNED!

The Full CirclePodcast Returns!

It may be a new team ofpodcasters, but the formatwill be the same.

We'll be talking about FullCircle Magazine, news,reviews and interviews.

Your new team is:• Les Pounder• Tony Hughes• Jon Chamberlain• Oliver Clark

All are members of theBlackpool (UK) LUGhttp://blackpool.lug.org.uk

Debut episode isavailable from theFCM homepage.

MY OPINIONsource code being used on closedsourced operating systems andvice versa. I couldn't care lessabout having the choice to modifygame code, I just want to play it.What does modifying code for agame really matter to the enduser? It seems that the point ofchoosing an open-source OS hasbeen lost in the noble, butimpossible "crusade" to make allcode free. As much as I dislikeRedmond's OS, I still use it to playgames because I have to use it toplay games I like, and truth be told,it has gotten a lot better since thedays of XP and before. With thatsaid, I wouldn't buy it if gameswere created for use on Linux. Itseems the crusade itself is what isactually holding the crusade backfrom actual progress. You want asuccessful OS? Have games thatare well supported from softwarecompanies without the hassle. It'sworked for Redmond andCupertino. Why not Linux? While Iapplaud people who create,support, and maintain open-sourcegames, they are not that good. Itjust isn't the same demographicthat big game companies areaiming at. I have to agree withAndy for the most part, but theone thing I disagree on is that weowe Stallman anything. It's his

crusade keeping Linux third in themarket-share by fighting to keepgaming companies on the outside.Linux is more than just free codeand open-source. It still is anoperating system that morepeople would use if majorcompanies were allowed tosupport their closed source(games) on it.

Magne Djupvik:Personally, I don't think allowingusers the freedom to use Steam iswrong, and I might end up using itmyself. But at the same time, Ithink people should support theFree Software games that exist.Shameless plug: SuperTuxKart(which I'm somewhat involved in)has its forums at theFreeGameDev.net forums, and wedefinitely would like any help wecould get in making the gamebetter, be it donations, artwork,code, or other things. Or just someconstructive feedback. TheFreeGameDev forums are reallynice, and an important place tohelp out various developers whoaren't raking in lots of cash makingtheir games. And, unlikecommercial games, those gameswill always be able to work and beimproved on due to them beingopen source and DRM free.

Andy Gait:As Linux users we owe Stallman adebt, but time and computing hasmoved on. Stallman is so blinkeredin his beliefs that anyone whodoesn't follow his way to the letter,is wrong. No debate. No reasoning.Just wrong. He's no longer an opensource guru, he's a dictator.

Brook Smith:Open source, closed source? Whocares if they are wanted by theuser and they work. We, the users,matter more than any one’scrusade for open source software.Do I prefer open source solutionswhere possible? Certainly! But it'snot always possible. Realistically,programmers need to becompensated at some point, manymake their living writing computercode. This means that the softwaretheir employer sells goes towardpaying their wage, this puts foodon their table, a roof over theirhead, and helps support theirfamily.

http://blackpool.lug.org.uk



http://www.ubuntu-user.com/subscribe-now/

http://www.ubuntu-user.com/subscribe-now/


RREEVVIIEEWWWritten by Vince Du Beau

I have Ubuntu 12.04 installedon a separate drive on myMacBook. One of the mainuses of the MacBook has been

as a media center using XBMC,which works very nicely with theApple remote control. Thisunfortunately is not the case withUbuntu, or most distributions.

If you've tried to get lircworking with a remote control, youknow it's a daunting task andprobably didn't work. Flirc comesto the rescue.

Flirc (http://www.flirc.tv/) is ahardware/software combinationthat makes setting up your remotecontrol as simple as getting cash

from an ATM.

The hardware is a small USBdongle that you just plug into anyUSB port.

Flirc doesn't use lirc but insteadacts as a secondary keyboard sothat you are actually sendingkeystrokes to XBMC.

Programming the donglerequires getting the software fromthe website. It is available forLinux, OS X, and Windows. ForLinux there are only instructionsfor installing on Ubuntu:

InstallationInstructions For Ubuntui386:1. Add:deb

http://apt.flirc.tv/arch/i386

binary/

to /etc/apt/sources.list2. apt-get update3. apt-get install flirc

InstallationInstructions For Ubuntu

x64:1. Add:deb

http://apt.flirc.tv/arch/x64

binary/

to /etc/apt/sources.list2. apt-get update3. apt-get install flirc

Once you have the appropriateversion installed, plug the donglein, click on the Dash Home icon,and type “Flirc” into the search boxand just click on the Flirc icon.

The screenshot below showsthe initial screen. You can programyour basic remote functions here. I

thought this to be ideal for usingthe Apple remote since it was theexact number of buttons on theremote. There was a downside tothe way Flirc acts as a keyboard.On the Mac (and probably a properlirc setup on Linux), XBMC knowswhere it is in terms of screens. Ifyou are browsing a list of movies,the up/down buttons navigate thelist; if you are watching a movie,they control the volume. Since Flircjust sends keystrokes, the up anddown buttons would jump backand forth through the movie. Ibought a cheap universal remotewhich would give me more keys toutilize.

FFlliirrcc

http://www.flirc.tv/


REVIEW

Flirc has a built-in configurationeditor for XBMC. To access it, onthe main menu click onControllers->XBMC, and you willbe presented with the followingscreen.

As you can see, when you selecta function it prompts you to pushthe corresponding button on theremote. To ensure that all remotefunctions were active, I selectedthe DVD option on the remote. Atfirst this didn't work 100%. I had toplay with the programming of theremote until I had the proper DVDplayer selected. Once I got thatright, I had remote control nirvana.

If you find you need even finerprogramming of your remote, Flircalso provides a full keyboard

configuration accessed by going toControllers->Full Keyboard. Thiswill bring up the following screenwhere you tweak as much as youlike. Go tohttp://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Keyboard to find a list of thekeyboard controls available.

Pros: A quick and easy way to setup XBMC on Ubuntu to use as aMedia Center. At $24.95 plusshipping, it's a bargain!

Cons: The only real downside Icame across is getting the rightDVD player set on the remote. Idon't consider this a big issue asyou can have the same problemswith any remote and whateverhardware you may be using in yourhome entertainment center.

1166xx1166 SSUUDDOOKKUU


Numbers 0 to 9 and letters A to F are to be filled into the16x16 grid so that every row, every column, and every4x4 box contains 0 to 9 and A - F.

Puzzles are copyright, and kindly provided by,The Puzzle Club - www.thepuzzleclub.com

http://gpodder.org/

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Keyboard



LLEETTTTEERRSSEvery month we like to publish some of the emails we receive. If you would like tosubmit a letter for publication, compliment or complaint, please email it to:[email protected]. PLEASE NOTE: some letters may be edited for space.

The Fastest LittleLaptop

I thought of this after readingthe column entitled “Making*buntu 12.04 Boot Faster” inissue #63. The fastest little

laptop computer I ever saw was aDell Inspiron 11z. This laptop hasbeen discontinued. If you can findone and you are looking for asuper-fast cheap laptop, this is oneto consider. Here's what you haveto do to make it boot and run fast.

This little baby came with 2 GBof RAM, so what you want to do isget two 4 GB sticks of RAM andreplace the 2 GB with 8 GB. Veryeasy to do. Remove power cordand battery, and just remove theplate on the bottom of the laptop(one screw) and pop out the 2 gigand replace it with one of the 4 gigsticks, and install the other righton top of it. There are two memoryslots. Replace the plate and thescrew. You’re Done.

Next, watch for a good deal ona Solid State Drive (SSD) andreplace the Hard Drive. This is a

little tricky. You need to againunplug the power cord and removethe battery, and remove threescrews from the bottom of thelaptop, turn the laptop right-sideup, and pop the keyboard outusing a credit card – working thekeyboard out without breaking it.Be careful with a small wireconnection. The hard drive is underthe keyboard. Remove one screwthat holds the hard drive in, andreplace it with the SSD. Pop thekeyboard back in and put the threescrews back in the bottom.Reinstall the battery. Done.

Now, install Ubuntu 12.04 froma USB drive. When you are doneyou will have a little 11.6” i3 Intelprocessor with 8 GB memory and aSSD laptop that boots up in lessthan 15 seconds, and where theapps just load almost instantly. Thebattery life is good on this littleunit. The mini-laptops andNetbooks are all just a little toosmall, but this one seems to be justthe right size.

Now, the good news is this: Ifyou look, you can find this little

jewel for under $300. I found onefor $289. I found an SSD, 180 GB,for $149, and the 8 GB of RAM for$39, so the total price for all was$477. I thought this was a verygood deal and if you are lookingfor a very fast full-blown Ubuntu12.04 carry-around computer thatwill keep you Ubuntuing no matterwhere you are, here is one. Youcan't go wrong.

In closing, let me also add, ifyou have an older laptop and youwant to really speed it up, you canjust add more memory and a SSD,and you can make your olderlaptop run like new. I have a DellInspiron 1521, and I have thememory maxed out at 4gig andadded a 180gig SSD, and it runs asfast the the 11z – but it’s a littlebigger to carry around, and withshorter battery life. I believe the11z is about 3 lbs, whereas the1521 with a 9-cell battery is about7 lbs. I am only guessing on theweight.

Irv Risch

UEFI Horror

I was shocked to learn aboutUEFI and Microsoft's (notsurprising) anti-competitivebehavior on the latest Full

Circle Podcast.

Ever since I have been a nerd(the open source type), I revelledand delighted in the fact that Icould buy a PC or laptop, formatthe hard drive to get rid of theresident Windows OS, and then, ina matter of minutes, install anopen source operating systemsuch as Ubuntu or other Linux

Join us on:

facebook.com/fullcirclemagazine

twitter.com/#!/fullcirclemag

linkedin.com/company/full-circle-magazine

ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=270

goo.gl/FRTMl


http://facebook.com/fullcirclemagazine

https://twitter.com/#!/fullcirclemag

http://linkedin.com/company/full-circle-magazine

http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=270

http://goo.gl/FRTMl


LETTERSdistro.

But a new boot system calledUEFI Secure Boot is beingprepared to exclusively lock theforthcoming Windows 8 tohardware, at best obliging users topay a fee to obtain a new key inorder to enable them to install analternative OS.

Reading around the subject, Iseem to find a kind of consensusthat even if this new developmentis a bother, it nevertheless solves alegitimate issue, and that somesort of collaboration withMicrosoft and hardware vendors isthe only solution to the problem.

I am completely baffled thatwhat to me is blatant anti-competitive behaviour is beingapparently accepted by a largeportion of the tech community.How can we have this on the onehand, and anti-trust laws obligingMicrosoft to offer alternatives toits IE web browser on its Windows7 OS? In the latter case, even if MSwere not to offer these options,the user would still be free toinstall the other browsers, or,failing that, install another OSaltogether which comes withalternative browsers already

installed. But in the case of UEFISecure Boot, the user is effectivelybarred from freely installingalternative software of his choice.

Personally, I think this abusiveapproach by Microsoft will backfirelike many recent strategies carriedout by the software giant. It is alsoa sign that MS is worried aboutalternative free OSs (such asUbuntu 12.04) which are almostcertainly far superior to its still-to-be-launched Windows 8.

There is a considerablecommunity of open sourcesoftware users out there, and Ithink that they have a weight thatwill make itself felt in this newenvironment. A smart hardwaremanufacturer that publishes arange of non-UEFI Secure Bootmachines could well see its salesskyrocket as the open sourcecommunity rushes to its doors.

But what about antitrustbodies? What are they sayingabout the impact of UEFI SecureBoot on free competition? What dofellow geeks feel? What are theygoing to do about it?

I have a feeling that, in the end,the threat will fizzle out, it's just

too far fetched a scenario to be ofany substance.

Anybody out there share myviews?

Yan Volking

Ronnie says: I’’ve sentan email tothe spokesperson forthe antitrust

commission forEurope to seewhat

theyknow(ifanything) andwhat

they intendto do (ifanything) about

UEFI. I’ll reportback ifI hear

anything.

Gord adds: UEFI is pure progress,the only issue is Secure Boot.

Microsoftwants to require Secure

BootonWindows8Arm processors,

which is laughable, since a vast

majorityofArm processors run

Androidorsome otherform ofLinux.

On x86(Intel orAMD) processors,

you shouldbe able to disable Secure

Boot.

A Quick Tip

Some people complain aboutUnity. It is different, there is nodoubt about it. I have found it

useful. Quick access from theSuper key and the Alt-F2combination for those commandline interface software that justneeds one quick line. As anexample, I use pdftk(http://www.pdflabs.com/tools/pdftk-the-pdf-toolkit/) to extractpages from pdf documents. I usedthis command to perform a quicktwo-page extraction withoutopening a terminal.

pdftk MCI.pdf cat 2829

output MCI2.pdf

For this to work, I placed theMCI.pdf at my home folder and theMCI2.pdf was created in the homefolder too. You will have to knowthe commands to use, and for thatyou will most likely open a terminalto get to the pdftk man page. Onceyou get to know your most usedcommands, it will be a preciseshortcut.

Jesse Avilés

http://www.pdflabs.com/tools/pdftk-the-pdf-toolkit/


Register Now & Save 20% with code FULLCIR

http://velocityconf.com


QQ&&AACompiled by Gord Campbell

If you have Ubuntu-related questions, email them to:[email protected], and Gord will answer them in a futureissue. Please include as much information as you can about your problem.

Q My computer boots to ablack screen, what can Ido?

A I've dealt with thisbefore, but not this well:

http://askubuntu.com/questions/162075/my-computer-boots-to-a-black-screen-what-options-do-i-have-to-fix-it

Q I have audio issues. UsingGoogle produces far toomany "fixes," and most ofthem are obsolete.

Ahttp://voices.canonical.com/david.henningsson/2012/07/13/top-five-

wrong-ways-to-fix-your-audio

The author providesalternatives to the obsoleteapproaches. My favorite:"model=auto".

Q I installed Ubuntu on asmall hard drive, and nowit's out of space. Imanaged to add a

somewhat larger hard drive, whatcan I do now?

A (Thanks to OM55 in theUbuntu Forums) You canclone the existinginstallation to the larger

hard drive, using Image for Linux.http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/image-for-linux.htm

When done, you can mount theold (smaller) drive as additionalavailable disk space for your newdrive.

Q When you have twomonitors, and youenable: System Settings >Appearance > Behavior >

Auto-hide the Launcher, yourmouse will stick within the Unityhot spot region until you wiggleyour mouse free.

A (Thanks to ResQue inthe Ubuntu forums) Gointo System Settings >Displays and set the

following:

Launcher placement = Laptop (thiswill stop the unity bar appearingon both screens)

Sticky edges = Off (this will stopthe mouse cursor getting stuckbetween screens.)

Q How do you convertAVCHD video file (MTS)to MP4 or WMV?

A Install Winff and run it.You will probably wantto do some readingabout quality settings; if

you get carried away, you canproduce enormous files.

Q Where can I find an Intel64-bit distro?

A Distros labelled as"AMD 64" are 64-bitdistros for both AMDand Intel processors.

Q How do you crop a videoin openshot?

Ahttp://www.openshotusers.com/help/1.3/en/ar01s15.html

Q I currently have a dualboot set-up withWindows Vista Businessand Ubuntu 10.04. The

Windows Vista OS is now crashingpretty well every time I use it. Ihave decided to re-install theWindows Vista (which I need formy work) using 2 Recovery DVDdisks that I created back in 2009when I got the (Toshiba Satellite


http://askubuntu.com/questions/162075/my-computer-boots-to-a-black-screen-what-options-do-i-have-to-fix-it

http://voices.canonical.com/david.henningsson/2012/07/13/top-five-wrong-ways-to-fix-your-audio

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/image-for-linux.htm

http://www.openshotusers.com/help/1.3/en/ar01s15.html


Q & APro) laptop. When I do that, I'vebeen led to believe that the laptopwill stop recognising the Linux OS?

A (Thanks to darkod inthe Ubuntu Forums)Installing Windows willdelete the grub2

bootloader from the MBR and theWindows bootloader can't bootLinux. If the recovery process onlyinstalls Vista on the currentpartition, not touching the Ubuntupartitions, you can simply use the10.04 Ubuntu cd in live mode andreturn grub2 to the MBR withthese instructions:http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1014708

Q I have an annoying issuewith 12.04, it keepschanging my BIOS time. Ihave the clock set in

Ubuntu to the correct time butwhen I shut it down and boot backup, the BIOS clock is set a fewhours off again every time. I alsouse Windows 7 (separate drive)and that's how I realized the BIOStime was wrong. In Windows itgoes by the BIOS time.

A (Thanks to mcduck inthe Ubuntu Forums)Your problem is causedby both Windows and

Linux using the system clock fromBIOS, but while Windows assumesthe system clock is running in yourlocal time, Linux (like most Unix-like operating systems) assumesthe system clock to run in UTC timeinstead. To change this behaviour:https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuTime#Multiple_Boot_Systems_Time_Conflicts

Q I set up an old desktopcomputer with UbuntuServer 11.10. I have two 1TB drives set up with LVM

(Logical Volume Manager, whichlets you treat the two drives as asingle drive), and an 8GB USB driveset up with the OS. Found outtoday that the USB drive failed.How can I restore the LVM?

A (Thanks again to darkodin the Ubuntu Forums)Install Ubuntu Server ona new flash drive. After

installing the OS, or duringinstallation, you can activate andmount the LVM easily. If you do itduring OS installation, make sure

you don't delete it. Or, simplyignore it (leave it as not used)during OS install, and create anentry in /etc/fstab after that.

Tips and TechniquesCleaning Windows

One of the things Linux usersgloat about is freedom frommalware. At the same time, manyLinux users dual-boot in order torun Windows games. Therein liesthe problem: what to do whenmalware invades your Windowspartition?

I didn't have any malware, but Iset out to answer the question.

My laptop triple-boots Windows7, Linux Mint 13 and Ubuntu 12.04.All of them are 64-bit versions.

When I searched on the web, itappeared that the preferredmethod of cleaning a Windowspartition was the Linux version ofAvast!. When I tried to run 32-bitAvast! under Ubuntu 12.04, 64-bitversion, it disgraced itself, saying,"An error occured in Avast! engine:Invalid argument".

OK, let's try 32-bit Ubuntu. Idownloaded the ISO, then installedMultisystem, which has proven tobe a reliable way to make a"persistent" flash drive.("Persistent" means that when youinstall something and reboot, it'sstill installed.) Creating the flashdrive took a few minutes, andcreating 4 GB of persistent spacetook many minutes. Fortunately,my flash drive has a blinkingactivity light, so I could see thatsomething was happening.

Boot from the flash drive,beauty! Then my personalpreferences came into play, whichreally slowed things down. First, Iran Software Center and installedSynaptic Package Manager. RanSystem Settings, selectedBrightness and Lock, and selected"Never" for "Turn screen off wheninactive for:". Ran Synaptic, andadded Multiverse to theRepositories. Reloaded. Installedconky, lm-sensors and hddtemp,because I always want to see howhot things are. Then I made my bigmistake, and installed all theupdates. Running from a flashdrive, that can take hours. Then:

sudo aptget clean

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1014708

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuTime#Multiple_Boot_Systems_Time_Conflicts


CCOODDEEWWOORRDD


Every number in the grid is 'code' for a letter of the alphabet.Thus the number '2' may correspond to the letter 'L', for instance.All - except the difficult codeword puzzles - come with a fewletters to start you off

Puzzles are copyright, and kindly provided by,The Puzzle Club - www.thepuzzleclub.com

After a long career in the computerindustry, including a stint as editor ofComputing Canada and ComputerDealer News, Gord is now more-or-less retired.

Q & A

to free up the space used by thedownloaded updates.

Now I can install the previouslydownloaded Avast! .deb file.There's an error message which Iignore. Run it, and copy in theregistration key which I obtainedpreviously. Update the database,and here comes the same errormessage. Argh!

This can't be right. I Google:

avast invalid argument solved

and get to this page, which has thesolution:http://crunchedd.com/2012/03/26/solved-an-error-occured-in-avast-engine-invalid-argument/

I applied that solution to theUbuntu on my hard drive. NowAvast! ran, and I got to the tricky(!!!) part. I ran the file manager, andselected the Windows partition

("164 GB Filesystem" on mycomputer) which mounted it. InAvast! I selected to scan SelectedFolders. From Root (right at thebottom of the selection screen) Iselected media, and there was justone item within it: the Windowspartition. I selected it, and away wewent.

As expected, no malware wasidentified. But it shouldn't be thishard.


http://crunchedd.com/2012/03/26/solved-an-error-occured-in-avast-engine-invalid-argument/


UUBBUUNNTTUU GGAAMMEESSWritten by Jennifer Roger

The first half of 2012 hasseen an explosion of newindie games – thanks tocrowd funding websites

and a very generous gamingcommunity. Luckily, there has alsobeen an increase of games that willbe released natively for Linux.Here are my picks of the top fiveupcoming Linux games to watchfor.

Bacillus(Milky Joe Games)http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/534715294/bacillus?ref=liveRelease Date: August 2012

Bacillus is a science lover’s dream.Your goal is to survive bycontrolling a population ofbacteria as you multiply andexplore your environment. CreatorJohn Halter has gone to greatlengths to accurately capture theworld of microbial life, and make itavailable for gamers to experience.The game incorporates biological

concepts such as genetics,enzymes, and evolution. Bacillus isextremely detailed and complex,but that’s part of what makes it sointriguing. It is currently in beta forWindows; however the Linux andMac versions are still in the alphastage.

Nekro(Darkforge)http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/343838885/nekroRelease Date: June 2013If you have always wanted to take a

stab at playing the bad guy, Nekrois the game for you. In this darktop-down action game, you controla necromancer who uses spells tosummon evil creatures andminions. You are part of the Nekro– one of the three factions vyingfor control in the world. Theobjective is to defeat the humansand the neutrals, conquer as many

regions as possible, and reach thefinal battle with the King.Darkforge has just added amultiplayer mode, so players willalso be able to take on theopposing factions with friends.Nekro’s unique art style andgraphics, as well as its innovativegameplay, offer players a newaction game experience.

Super Retro Squad(Exploding Rabbit)http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/explodingrabbit/super-retro-squadRelease Date: March 2013A few years ago, Jay Pavlina (leadprogramer at Exploding Rabbit)released Super Mario Crossover, a

mashup of various Nintendogames. Thanks to a successfullyfunded Kickstarter and theaddition of a full crew, ExplodingRabbit is working on its own

original 2D platformer, SuperRetro Squad. The game will have40+ levels within eight differentworlds that are based on each ofthe characters. The characters area tongue-in-cheek ode to wellknown Nintendo characters. Forexample, Manni and Lanzo areGerman miners who findthemselves in the AsparagusKingdom on a quest to savePrincess Apricot. Super RetroSquad is more than just a gamewith 8-bit graphics and a chiptunesoundtrack - it’s a clever take onmany of the classics we all loved toplay as kids.

Auro(Dinofarm Games)http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dinofarmgames/auroRelease Date: December 2012Auro is a gorgeous game that

TToopp 55

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/534715294/bacillus?ref=live

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/343838885/nekro

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/explodingrabbit/super-retro-squad

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dinofarmgames/auro


Jennifer is a fine arts student fromthe Chicagoland area. You can follow@missjendie on Twitter or visit herblog at missjendie.com.

UBUNTU GAMEScombines turn-based strategy anddungeon crawling goodness. Youplay as the spoiled Prince Aurowho sets out on a quest to protectthe sewers, but accidentallyawakens an ancient evil power.Auro has many spells and abilitiesat his disposal, but players mustreally consider their strategy asthere are significant pros and conswith every action. The monstersalso have special abilities that canaffect how Auro chooses to defeatthem. The dungeons are randomlygenerated, so you get a slightlydifferent experience each time youplay. Dinofarm Games has hadprevious success with iOS, and,thanks to Kickstarter, are nowgoing multi-platform, including aLinux release this December.

Legends of Eisenwald(Aterdux Entertainment)http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1684781151/legends-of-eisenwaldRelease Date: Early 2013Legends of Eisenwald is a

beautifully polished 3D strategyRPG. The world of Eisenwald isunique in that it steers clear of thecommon RPG themes such as elvesand orcs. In lieu of typical fantasyinfluences, Aterdux borrowed reallife concepts from the medievalera, which is refreshing to see. Theturn-based combat focuses onefficiency. Players must choosewisely as every move and decisioncan greatly affect the outcome of abattle. The variety of choices forunit, weapon, and spell upgradeslooks quite promising. Visually,there is incredible detail in theenvironments and characters.Although they met their fundinggoal, Aterdux was unable to reachthe 100K Kickstarter stretch goalfor Linux, but you can still donatevia PayPal to help them reach anearly 2013 release for Linux.

Ubuntu One & KDE

Although Ubuntu One can be installed in KDE to give you theUbuntu One folder. What you don't get is the ability to rightclick on a file, in your Ubuntu One folder, publish it, and getthe share URL. Normally, you'd need to do the sharing part

via the Ubuntu One web site. Thankfully, ShaneQful(www.softwareontheside.info) has come to the rescue with a fantasticlittle Ruby script that will give us the missing right click functionality.

First, install Ubuntu One:

sudo aptget install ubuntuonecontrolpanelqt

Now, run the Ubuntu One app and go through the setup wizard.Next, we need to install ShaneQful's script and its dependencies:

sudo aptget install ruby && sudo aptget install git

cd ~/.kde/share/kde4/services/ServiceMenus/

rm rf Ubuntu\ One/

git clone https://github.com/ShaneQful/u1dolphin.git

mv u1dolphin/ UbuntuOne

Drag a file to yourUbuntu One folder andit'll be uploaded to thecloud. Right click on it andyou'll see the option forUbuntu One > Publish andCopy Web Link. There'salso an option to stop thesharing of a shared file.

http://missjendie.com

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1684781151/legends-of-eisenwald

http://www.softwareontheside.info


MMYY DDEESSKKTTOOPP

I am from Sri Lanka, and this is my desktop. I am a Ubuntu usersince 2010. I started using Ubuntu from version 10.04. Mydesktop is a very simple one. I've used compiz to get thetransparent look in the top panel, as a launcher, and to reducethe icon size of the launcher.

OS: Ubuntu 11.10, Icons: Faezna Darker, GTK+ Theme: Aldabra,Window Theme: Shiny, CPU: Intel Pentium Dual Core 2.0GHz,RAM: 3GB, HDD: 160GB+500GB

Sumith Kumara

Your chance to show the world your desktop or PC. Email your screenshots andphotos to: [email protected] and include a brief paragraph about yourdesktop, your PC's specs and any other interesting tidbits about your setup.

I started using Linux in 2007 and am currently experimentingwith Mint 12 (Lisa). “Hot-babe” on the right lower corner startsstripping as my rig gets more and more active. Sticky notes ontop right help me in keeping track of important things. Thetheme and wallpaper are preloaded.

System Specs: Core 2 Duo, 3 GHz, 2GB RAM, 250GB HDD, 17”TFT Monitor @1280 X 1024 Resolution, Keyboardconfiguration DVORAK

HM Chandrasekhar



MY DESKTOP

I'm from Russia and recently switched to Ubuntu and am verypleased.

This is my desktop. I work in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. My computeris a Toshiba Satellite L 500 1Q6.

Specs:Processor: Pentium (R) Dual-Core CPU [email protected] × 2RAM: 2.8 GB memoryGraphics: Mobile Intel ® GM45 Express Chipset64-bit OS

Themes Gtk and windows: LucidityThemes icon: faenza-darkerThemes cursor: handhelds

Dmitry

So here is my desktop, using combination cairo-dock anddocky. In the top is cairo-dock, and bottom is docky. Mywallpaper is "persija" a football group from my town,Jakarta, Indonesia. I installed ubuntu 11.10 on my laptopAcer Aspire 4740G and the spec is: core i5 430M, nVidiaGeForce 310M, 2GB RAM. I love simplicity – that's why I useonly this two-dock approach. "Viva Linux World".

Ashwin Dexter Winongo


PUZZLE SOLUTIONS

BR

IDG

ES

CO

DE

WO

RD

Codeword and 16x16 Suduko puzzles arecopyright, and kindly provided by, The PuzzleClub - www.thepuzzleclub.com

SU

DO

KU



HHOOWW TTOO CCOONNTTRRIIBBUUTTEE

We are always looking for new articles to include in Full Circle. For articleguidelines, ideas, and for issue translation, please see our wiki:http://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuMagazinePlease email your articles to: [email protected]

Full Circle Team

Editor - Ronnie [email protected] - Rob [email protected] Mgr - Robert [email protected] - Les Pounder & [email protected]

Editing & Proofreading

Mike KennedyLucas WestermannGord CampbellRobert OrsinoJosh HertelBert Jerred

Our thanks go to Canonical, the manytranslation teams around the worldand Thorsten Wilms for the FCM logo.

If you would like to submit news, email it to: [email protected]

Send your comments or Linux experiences to: [email protected]

Hardware/software reviews should be sent to: [email protected]

Questions for Q&A should go to: [email protected]

Desktop screens should be emailed to: [email protected]

... or you can visit our forum via: www.fullcirclemagazine.org

Deadline for FCM#65:Sunday 09th Sept. 2012.

Release date for FCM#65:Friday 28th Sept. 2012.FULL CIRCLE NEEDS YOU!

A magazine isn't a magazine without articles and Full Circle is no exception. We needyour Opinions, Desktops and Stories. We also need Reviews (games, apps &hardware), How-To articles (on any K/X/Ubuntu subject) and any questions, orsuggestions, you may have.Send them to: [email protected]

http://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuMagazine

http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=270












Full Circle Magazine - Issue #64

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Transcript of Full Circle Magazine - Issue #64