Firefox and Ubuntu

The question is: “How can I install Firefox 4 on Ubuntu 10.10? I tried doing the usual update but it was just a minor update of 3.6, so what gives?”

The answer is: Ubuntu 11.04 will come packaged with Firefox 4 by default, but because of the way Ubuntu does things (I’m trying to keep it simple here), they try to stick with the same version of most programs and only do updates for that. Newer versions will be included in newer releases of Ubuntu. They do this to make sure they have time to test everything and make sure there are no conflicts. It may be frustrating, but you have the option to work around it, and if you’re honest with yourself you’ll admit it is fair and reasonable for them to do as they do.

Now, if you want to have the latest and greatest versions of your favorite programs/applications (like Firefox), then you might want to become familiar with PPA’s. I know I’ve posted some things about them in the past, but never really mentioned anything specific about the PPA part of it. PPA’s are basically an alternate source of applications that are managed by the developers. You can add PPA’s to your sources list just like you would repositories (as they are just that, repositories) and have more frequent updates for your favorite programs, and even programs that are not included in the official repositories by Ubuntu. Note: a word of caution: if you are willing to add a bunch of PPA’s, be prepared as you may encounter bugs from time to time as the newest versions of various programs/applications are not necessarily tested as thoroughly as Ubuntu developers would do when preparing for a new OS release.

OK here’s what you need to do:
Open Terminal (are you getting used to this yet? Applications->Accessories->Terminal) and enter the following code:

or if you prefer, you can do it all in one line of code:

Update: Forgot to mention that you will need to restart Firefox to notice the changes, and it will likely ask you to update/upgrade your addons at that time.

If for some reason you are running into a problem, let me know and I’ll try to help you out, but you really should be all set with the above.

On Friday I was downloading some files on my Netbook (running Ubuntu Remix 10.04) and was not planning to stick around for the downloads to finish (it was already close to 7pm, I needed to get home for the weekend). I didn’t want to leave it running all weekend and I still had another hour to go before my downloads finished…
What to do?

Well I decided to initiate a delayed shutdown of my system. Since the downloads had about 1hr and 15 minutes left, I decided to be extra safe and set the shutdown for an extra 30 minutes after that… Here’s how I did it:

In your terminal, run the following command:

sudo shutdown -h 20:45 "See you on Monday!"

you can change the time to fit your needs and change the message (between the quotes) to whatever you like or leave it out as the message is optional.

You could also set it to shutdown by using a slightly different format, like this:

sudo shutdown -h +120 "Shutting down in 2hrs -- or 120 minutes"

This works on Linux and Mac. If you want to do this on Windows you could try something like this (if you are an admin):

at 20:45 shutdown /l /r /y /c

But I cannot vouch for how effective this will be (on Windows I mean) as it may only shutdown the OS not the machine/computer…

I have an old Lexmark 3-in-one scanner/copier/printer and it’s been sitting on my desk collecting dust. I finally had a use for it today as I needed to scan something. I know that Lexmark printers are notorious for being unfriendly to Linux, so I did some searching before plugging the printer in.

Everywhere I looked showed that there is no scanning support for the Lexmark as they refuse to release any source code for their print drivers, and the only binaries they offer are for print functionality only.

Well I remembered that I had previously installed XSane (though for some reason I cannot remember why), so I figured I’d just mess around and see what happens.

I plugged in the Lexmark X1240 to my USB port and right away XSane kicked into gear! It gave me two options: eithe I just plugged in a camera or a scanner. Obviously it was the latter. I clicked scanner and bingo! I was in business! I hit scan and like magic it was done in no time!

The default file format is pnm so I just converted to png and I was done!

I’ll try to put pics up later.

The first Ubuntu user day is scheduled for January 23rd!

Check it out!

It is geared toward new/beginner users, but anyone is welcome to participate.

So my mom told me today that her Internet hasn’t been working since my sister was in town and disconnected her Ethernet cable and setup a wireless router and then put it all back to “normal”.

I’m not quite sure what caused the problem, but I went through the usual troubleshooting steps, including disconnecting the power from the cable modem, waiting 30-60 seconds, then powering it up to re-cycle it.

Once I booted up into Ubuntu 9.10 (yeah my mom is cool enough to run Linux) and tested out the connection. It appeared that network manager (nm) was somehow set to not manage networks by default anymore. So I did the following:


gksudo gedit /etc/NetworkManager/nm-system-settings.conf


Then I changed the settings to look like this:


[main]
plugins=ifupdown,keyfile

[ifupdown]
managed=true


(I changed managed from false to true… Then I restarted nm and tada! Worked just as good as before.

It still puzzles me how that got changed in the first place as my mom’s user account does not have admin permissions (I usually login remotely or stop by to visit to do any updates for her).

4yr old Logitech mouse (by Alex)

So I was looking for a book that I needed for a class (an old APA Manual) and came across my old (about 4 years old) Logitech Wireless Mouse. I do all of my school work upstairs in my “office” on my 17″ Acer laptop (running Ubuntu of course).

I plugged in the USB receiver and pushed the power button on the bottom of the mouse. The mouse worked just fine – as expected.

What surprised me (just a little bit) was that the extra buttons (it’s a 5 button mouse) worked instantly (no special setup needed). Click one and the browser page goes back one, click the other button and it goes forward… nice!

I also noticed that the side-scroll (tap the scroll wheel to the left or right) works not only in Firefox (tested by adjusting the window dimensions to force side scrolling necessity), but it also adjusts the volume on VLC  media player! I wonder what else this little baby can do!

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Ok now back to homework…

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(p.s. beat that windows haha)

If one of your goals/resolutions for this year is to finally give Ubuntu a try…
Or, if you’ve been using Ubuntu for a while, but still not getting the hang of it…
Or, if you just like free stuff…

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Check out the Ubuntu Pocket Guide and Reference by Keir Thomas, it’s Free (pdf download full version)!

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Or buy the hard copy for about $13 from Amazon.

Ubuntu Stickers (by System76 Inc)

I highly recommend checking this out: http://system76.com/article_info.php?articles_id=9

These stickers are provided to you by System76 Inc. who also sells netbooks, notebooks, desktops, and serversthat are preinstalled with Ubuntu, in case you’re interested….

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*Edit*: I got my stickers months ago, they are just as awesome as I had expected and still holding strong!

If you’re looking forward to testing out Ubuntu 9.10 and can’t wait for the official release, the Beta is now available…

For more info read here: http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/karmic/beta

To Download and Test: http://releases.ubuntu.com/releases/9.10/

I may even put together a tutorial on how to get the beta on a Live USB with persistence…

OK I know it’s been a long time coming, but I’ve posted a quick guide to fixing the nasty Jaunty System Crash that seems to happen to users with NVIDIA and some Intel video cards…

I need to update the guide with some screen captures of how to add the X-Updates repository and its key, but I figured most people experiencing this problem would prefer to have something rather than nothing!

You can find the page here: http://alexsantidote.com/ubuntu/fix-ubuntu-9-04-jaunty-crash-problems/

More updates are coming soon, including a new Firefox section (you may already see it in the menu) which will offer some nice guides to making Firefox even more useful to your individual needs!

As always, if there’s something you’d like to see, please let me know (see the request an antidote page in the menu)…. Some have already made some requests which I am working on and hope to have antidotes posted soon!

Take care,
…Alex