Dave’s Tech Blog
A Third Eye on Technology

Just wait for the very end. 

Hey, Ubuntu freaks!  I’m going to have another Terminal tutorial coming out on Wednesday with an introduction to creating bash scripts.  Sit tight!

Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) was officially released yesterday.  Boosh!!  Often with each new release comes a spike in the number of people who are trying it out for the very first time.  So to help the new users out, I’ve written this guide to introduce you to this popular Linux-based operating system and some of the cool software you can install on it.

Here’s what we’re going to go over:

1. Customize the appearance of Ubuntu (wallpaper, theme, fonts, dockbars, etc.)
2. Run Update Manager.
3. Install Flash, Java, Windows Media Codecs and MS fonts with just 4 clicks!
4. Install Compiz Fusion Advanced Settings Manager with one more click.
5. Install WINE with one more click and use it to run Windows based software.
6. Reveal Archive Manager in the Accessories menu and use it to create zip archives.
7. Install the libdvdcss2 decoder so you can watch DVD’s.
8. Install Skype from a *.deb file.
9. Install Google Earth using Terminal.
10. Install Virtualbox.

1.) Customize Your Ubuntu Desktop
Difficultly: Very Easy

The first thing anybody should want to do with their own computer is make it look the way they want it to look.  Who wants an OS that forces its users to conform to one particular layout over another?  With Ubuntu, you have a lot of flexability.  You even have the option to use a different desktop environment.  GNOME is the default environment for Ubuntu; KDE (which looks very similar to Windows XP/Vista/7) is the default environment for Kubuntu;  xfce is the default for the lightweight Xubuntu.  There are others, such as Fluxbox and IceWM, that are geared towards being minimalistic in resource usage and makes them perfect for older, slower machines.  These alternate environments are beyond the scope of this guide so we won’t be taking a look at them for now.

Below is a screenshot I took of my own desktop shortly after upgrading my computer from 8.04 to 8.10.

You may or may not like the looks of the default desktop.  If you don’t, that’s okay because you can modify the interface in so many different ways the possibilities are endless.  Check out this small gallery of Ubuntu screenshots I put together to see some examples of what you can do to your own Ubuntu desktop.

The best way to explain how to customize your desktop is to show you a video (albeit, from an older version of Ubuntu) that demonstrates how you can modify the following things:

• Changing Wallpapers
• Changing Screensavers
• Panel Properties (Location/Auto-hide/Background)
• Changing/Adding Desktop Themes
• Adding/Moving Launcher Shortcuts to your Panel/Desktop
• Modifying Menu Layouts
• Adding Applets to your Panels
• Modifying your About Me user info
• Customizing your Login screen layouts/themes
• Using Multiple Workspaces

The video makes use of http://art.gnome.org/ during it’s demonstration of changing wallpapers and themes, but another noteworthy site you should check for such things is http://www.gnome-look.org/. My personal favorite website for wallpapers is InterfaceLift Wallpapers.  You should also check this site out for wallpapers, too.

You might have noticed in some screenshots of Ubuntu that some people have added a dockbar (similar to the one used in Mac OS X) to their Ubuntu installation.  Below is a picture of one in action.

Check out this guide I’ve written about adding Cairo-Dock to your Ubuntu install as it is one of the best available for Ubuntu (in my opinion).

2.) Run Update Manager
Difficultly: Very Easy

Typically, Ubuntu ISO images are a tad bit older than the current status of the distribution. So often times after a fresh install, your Linux Kernel might be out of date along with a lot of other software. Running Update manager manually after installing can bring your system up to date with the latest security and software patches.  While Update Manager does check for updates automatically, it often doesn’t do it immediately after you login.  So after a fresh install it is a good idea to force it to check for updates.  To do this:

• Click System>Administration>Update Manager
• Click on the “Check” button to check for updates

If there are updates available, you simply click “Install” to install them. Piece of cake.

*Note: If you’re having hardware issues (e.g., 3D video acceleration not working, wireless adapter not in use, etc.) after installing all available updates, you should check in System>Administration>Hardware Drivers to see if there are any proprietary drivers that need to be enabled.

3.) Install Flash, Java and Win32 Video Codecs in just four clicks!
Difficultly: Very Easy

In order to get the best multimedia experience out of our computer, we need to install a few programs and plugins.  Most of you out there are familiar with Flash, Java and multimedia file formats like Divx, Xvid, MP3, ASF, Apple Quicktime, etc. Installing decoders to open these types of files has been made simple by bundling them all together into one package.  And installing it is very easy.  To get started, do the following:

• Click Applications>Add/Remove.  A new window will appear (see below)
• Change the “Show:” drop menu in the upper right corner to “All Available Applications”
• Search for the word “restricted”

• Once the search returns its results, check off the box next to “Ubuntu Restricted Extras”
• Sit tight. Don’t click the Apply Changes button just yet.  We’re going to check off a few more things

4.) Install Compiz Fusion Advanced Settings Manager
Difficultly: Very Easy

Compiz Fusion (the program responsible for the dazzling eye-candy on Ubuntu) is included by default, but its advanced control panel is not. Need of this advanced control panel comes up if you are a power user who wants to use the 3D window management features to the MAX, which means turning your desktop into a rotating cube, among other nerdy things. You can also greatly customize your special effect animations and window behaviors using this control panel. So let install it!

• After you’ve checked off Ubuntu Restricted Extras in the above step, do another search for the word “compiz”

• Check off “Advanced Desktop Effects Settings” (shown above)
• Sit tight, and don’t click apply just yet.  There’s more we’re going to search for and check off.

Once the control panel applet is installed, it can be found in System>Preferences>Advanced Desktop Effects Settings.

*Notice: You will want to make sure you have Compiz enabled in System>Preferences>Appearence>Visual Effects before using the above control panel you’ve installed.  Otherwise changes you make with it will not be seen.

5.) Install WINE for running Windows-based software in Ubuntu
Difficultly: Very Easy

WINE is a program that acts as a sort of emulator for Windows programs to run on top of.  Instead of needing to use Windows for running that favorite application or game, you can run the program right in Ubuntu with the help of WINE.  The only catch is that not all Windows program run on WINE yet.  So you should search the WINE applications database to see if a program you’re wanting to use works with WINE.  Below is a screenshot of Half-Life 2 running in Ubuntu, thanks to WINE!

To install WINE:

• In the Add/Remove Applications applet (should still be open from the previous step), search for “wine” and then check off the box next to WINE in the results window.
• Click Apply in the lower right corner to install WINE, as well as the other programs you’ve already checked off in Add/Remove.

To run a windows program with WINE, simply double-click on the executable (typically something like setup.exe) and it should run just as it would in Windows (provided the WINE AppDB shows that the program you are trying to use works with WINE).  Shortcuts created by software installers are typically added to the Applications>Wine>Programs menu.  You can read more about using WINE here.

6.) Enable (reveal) your Archive Manager and create zip files
Difficultly: Very Easy

Some of you might be wondering: How can I create a zip file? The answer is with the included Archive Manager. This tool (for some weird reason) isn’t shown in the Applications>Accessories menu by default. But we can reveal it very easily by doing the following:

• Click System>Preferences>Main Menu
• Click on the Accessories menu in the left panel, then check off the Archive Manager (see below). Then click Close.

That it! Now when you open your accessories menu, you’ll be presented with a new shortcut to your Archive Manager. You can use this utility to create zip files. Keep in mind that it can also create other types of archives, such as tar.gz, so you should specify your desired file type when you create a new archive.

The included archive manager can create zip and tar.gz archives, and a few others (not RAR).  To explore the possibilities, click Applications>Accessories>Archive Manager.  Once open, click New in the upper left corner and take a look at the bottom of the window where you can specify archive file type, password locking and spliting.  After you create a new archive, you simply drag and drop files into the archive manager and it will add them to the new archive.

7.) Install the libdvdcss2 decoder for DVD playback
Difficultly: Medium

Click Applications>Accessories>Terminal.  This will open a new terminal window.  (If you would like to know more about Terminal, check out my Terminal for Beginners guide). Copy the following command and paste it into the Terminal window:

• sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/intrepid.list –output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list

This will add the Medibuntu repositories to your 3rd party software sources (in other words, this tells Update manager to check one additional server when it looks for system updates).  Next, paste this command into Terminal:

• sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get update

This will add the GPG encryption keys to your system so you are able to accept encrypted downloads from the medibuntu servers.  Finally, type this into terminal:

• sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2 && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

This will install the libdvdcss2 package, check for updates again and install them.  Once all the updates are installed, you should be able to watch a DVD simply by inserting a disc into the computer.  Also, you may have heard a rumor that installing this decoder is illegal. If you live in the US and someone tells you this, refer them to 17 U.S.C. Sec. 1201(f). The binaries to crack the DVD video stream encryption are not illegal if you have a license to the content.  In other words, if you have purchased your own legal/legit DVD, then that means you have license to watch it.  After all, the content must be decrypted in order to make the content usable.  However, the law is not the same in all countries so you should check your local laws to see.

8.) Install Skype
Difficultly: Very Easy

Skype is a very popular Voice Over IP application that allows you to make cheap phone calls from your computer.  They ask you for 10 bucks for your first set of calls and send special offers your way from time to time.  I happened to get in on a great deal paying 30 bucks for one year of unlimited calls to anywhere in the United States, so that’s a pretty good deal if you ask me.  It also features webcam capabilities and conference calling.

Installing Skype is easy.  All you have to do is download the deb file from Skype.com.  Here is a direct link:

http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-linux-ubuntu

Once the deb file is finished downloading, double-click on it.  An installer window will appear with a “Install Package” button in the upper right corner of the window.  Click that button, and when it’s finished, you’ll find Skype in Applications>Internet.

9.) Install Google Earth
Difficultly: Medium

First thing you have to do is download Google Earth. To do that, visit this link: http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html

After you agree to the license, you’ll be taken to a new page where an automatic download will begin and ask you what you want to do with a file called GoogleEarthLinux.bin. Simply save this file to your Desktop for now.

Next we’ll need to open up a terminal window. To open Terminal:

• Click Applications>Accessories>Terminal

When you first open terminal you’ll be given a prompt where you can enter commands. You also will be sitting in your Home Folder. If you type in the letters “ls” (That’s ls, short for the word “list”, in lowercase), you’ll be shown the files and folders in your home folder. Notice that one of them is called “Desktop”. We need to change our directory so we can run our GoogleEarthLinux.bin file. To do this:

• Type “cd Desktop” (no quotes) and hit enter.

In the world of Linux, everything is case-sensitive, so be sure to capitalize the word “Desktop” in the above command. This command will bring you to your Desktop folder. If you type “ls” again and hit enter, you’ll see the files which reside on your desktop right now. Listed in it somewhere should be the bin file you just downloaded.

Now for the magic!

• In terminal, type: “sh GoogleEarthLinux.bin” (no quotes) and hit enter.

After you press enter, the following window will appear, and begin to install Google Earth for you:

Shortly after the above screen appears, you’ll get another one that says the program successfully installed. You’ll then be given the option to run Google Earth right away. If you don’t want to, you can just click Quit, and start it later by going to Applications>Internet>Google Earth.

Note:  Google Earth runs best on PCs that are equiped with 3D graphics acceleration cards/chipsets.  Some video cards require you to have their proprietary drivers enabled in order for them to be utilized by the system.  You can check to see if you need to enable any such drivers by clicking System>Administration>Hardware Drivers.

10.) Install Virtualbox
Difficultly: Medium

Virtualbox is a popular application used on many different operating systems that allows you to create Virtual Machines, upon which you can install any number of operating system.  So, for instance, you could be running Windows XP inside of a window on top of Ubuntu.  This is good for users who are trying to migrate from Windows to Ubuntu but are not quite ready to take the big leap or are being held back by one or two applications that won’t run in Ubuntu.

So here’s what you need to do:

 

1. Download the Virtualbox deb file for your particular processor architecture (i386 or AMD64) from here.
2. Double-click on the the deb file you downloaded to start the installer.  Click “Install Package” to install Virtualbox.
3. Once that is finished, you will need to add yourself to the vboxusers group.  To do this quickly, open up a Terminal window (Applications>Accessories>Terminal).  Once Terminal is open, paste in the exact text and press the enter key:  sudo adduser $USER vboxusers
4. Reboot the PC.

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Well, that wraps up this list of things to do. There are plenty of other very cool applications out there worth installing, such as Audacity, Avidemux, VLC, Amarok, DeVeDe and many more. Most of these programs can be installed using the Add/Remove applet which we used to install our Ubuntu Restricted Extras package. Simply searching for the program name will produce a result that you can check off install with a couple clicks, and that sure beats the hell out of looking through a filing cabnet for a software CD or a serial number.

 

Another cool thing you can do is add scripts to your Nautilus file browser that will give you new abilities when you right-click on something.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy your new Ubuntu Linux operating system!

Seemingly by surprise to most Internet users, Google has launched a release of a new Internet web browser dubbed Google Chrome.  I have been using it for about five minutes on my super slow computer at work (it only has 256 megs of ram in the damn thing) and the first thing I’ve noticed with Chrome is that it is freaking FAST!  No joke.  My first instinct was to take a look at the task manager in Windows to see how much memory Chrome was actually using, and what I found was a little puzzling.  There was only one web browser window open, but 4 seperate instances of the Chrome.exe process running.  Interesting… So I decided to start digging into why it’s so fast, and what the deal was with these multiple instances.  Here’s what I learned:

If you do a search for Google Chrome, you’ll discover a little comic book that was put together by Google to help illustrate what they had in mind when they first started designing this browser and how it should function differently from other popular browsers like Firefox and Internet Explorer.  The most telling is on page 3:  ”When we started this project, the Gears Guys were saying that one of the problems with browsers is that they’re inherently single-threaded.  For example, once you have Javascript executing, it’s going to keep going, and the browser can’t do anything else until Javascript returns control to the browser.  So developers write APIs that are asyncronous — and every now and then the browser locks up because Javascript is hung up on something.”

In plain english, the way other browsers currently function is about as efficient as an HR department in a hospital.  The chain of programs (or people, if you continue the hospital analogy) is long and weak in that if one link fails, the whole thing snaps and everybody puts their arms in the air to say, “Not my fault.  Tough shit.”   The way Chrome funtions instead is to create multiple processes for all the different tabs as well as additional processes (such as Javascript, or other web plugins) that run seperately, and basicly decentralize everything.  This adds a great deal of speed and stability to loading web pages and running web applications.  It will also help reduce memory bloat that comes from lots of long term use of a web browser, because you can allocate different processes their own memory space.

One of my favorite features is probably something you’ll grow to take for granted: the New Tab Page, seen above.  When ever you open a new tab, it is an intential act persuant to going some place on the Internet.  The tab page is dynamically created based upon your browsing behavior.  Your 9 favorite websites appear with thumbnail previews of each one, for instance.  So after a while, it really becomes YOUR browser.  Which might not sound great to someone who’s trying to keep their birthday gift shopping or porn addiction a secret.  That’s why there’s Incognito Mode!

Another cool feature is the way pop-ups are managed and blocked.  If something is trying to pop-up, you’ll only see a little notification at the bottom of the window, and if it’s something you want, you just drag it up and out.

Anyway, I’d love to write more about this but I’m waiting for an important call that’s going to take me a while and wanted to get something written about this exciting new web browser.  I think it’s going to have a big impact on the way web browser function and we’ll likely see Firefox and eventually Internet Explorer.  The only drawback about this browser that I’ve found so far (other than the fact that they can’t “sandbox” plugins to a lower security level…nobody can yet) is the fact that it’s for Windows only.  There are also some websites with minor functionalities that don’t seem to work just yet (Java, not Javascript, comes to mind).  I am sure that will change rapidly though, as the browser is open-source…which means it will likely be ported over to just about every OS you can imagine.  Until then, I highly recommend this browser to Windows users.

After browsing the web for a little bit today, I stumbled across a something that I think many will find interesting.  It is a copy of an e-mail Bill Gates sent out to many of his developers complaining about his frustrating experiences with Windows itself.  The e-mail was salvaged from a stack of documents that were exhibit items in an anti-trust lawsuit Microsoft was battling at the time.  Here is an excerpt of Bill Gates:

I tried scoping to Media stuff. Still no moviemaker. I typed in movie. Nothing. I typed in movie maker. Nothing.

So I gave up and sent mail to Amir saying - where is this Moviemaker download? Does it exist?

So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated.

They told me to go to the main page search button and type movie maker (not moviemaker!).

I tried that. The site was pathetically slow but after 6 seconds of waiting up it came.

I thought for sure now I would see a button to just go do the download.

In fact it is more like a puzzle that you get to solve. It told me to go to Windows Update and do a bunch of incantations.

You can read the entire text of this e-mail by following this link.

I came across a funny screenshot today that provides a pretty clear example of how social engineering is used to con people (in this case, Windows users) while browsing the Internet (click for full size):

Clearly, this user is not running Windows XP but Ubuntu Linux.  Yet with their pop-up blocker disabled in Firefox 3, a malicious website presents a window that mimics a “real” warning.  But it’s actually a trap.  This is probably the most common reason viruses find their way into Windows systems — by exploiting a users lack of expertise and susceptibility to intimidation on a technical level.  So fair warning to you Windows users out there.  Fortunately for our Linux user, he’ll just laugh and close this window.  If you’re a Windows user and you see an alert like this, you should close it too (but run a virus scan using something like AVG immediately afterwords).

I just came across a neat little article on PC Magazine’s website called Vista’s 11 Pillars of Failure.  Give it a look!  It’s very short and to the point.  Now, bringing this stuff to your attention doesn’t make me a hater of Microsoft…. just a hater of Microsoft’s propaganda machine.  I just feel better about myself when I help share the truth about things like this with people who may not be aware of the reality of it all.  The saddest part of all is that Windows XP will not be available for purchase after June 18th of this year, and the only way you’ll be able to get yourself a fresh copy is if you can find a computer manufacture who has downgraded a Vista machine for you.  Dell is one such company that is going to be doing this, but due to a loophole in the paperwork, Microsoft is planing to legally pretend that Dell is actually selling Vista machines.  You can read about that shaddy little plan here.

A good quote to go along with this might be:  Statistics are like a bikini.  What they reveal is suggestive, what they conceal is vital.

Because sharing is caring.

Installing Ubuntu along side an already existing installation of Windows is pretty easy, thanks to the auto partitioning tool and the Grub boot manager that is included with the Ubuntu Install CD. But what if you wanted to install Windows on a computer after you’ve installed Ubuntu? Today you’re going to learn how to do that.

What you’ll need:

• A blank CD to burn an ISO file onto.
• A copy of your Ubuntu Live Installation CD.
• Plenty of free time and a sandwich.

Captain Obvious Waring: “Backup your Data before doing this!!”

First, download a copy of the Gparted Live CD ISO and burn it to a CD. The ISO image can be found here (scroll down and select the latest version. The latest version as of this writing is dated December 17, 2007. Here is a directly download link). To burn an ISO file with Ubuntu, simply right click on it and click “Open with CD/DVD creator”, then click Burn. After burning the ISO to a CD, restart your computer with the CD in the drive. If you have your BIOS boot order configured to boot from CD, the CD should load a menu presenting you with many options, as seen below (if not, do some googling to find out how to change your booting device order within your bios or via a hotkey during POST so it will boot from your CD-Rom drive first):

When the CD boots, you’ll be given a menu like the one shown above. You should go ahead and select the default option that is highlighted at the top of the menu. The other options in the list are for use if you have problems with the your video card, and need to use legacy drivers (try to Force VESA first if you have a video driver problem later). After selecting a menu item and pressing enter, Gparted will begin to load. At some point, this screen will appear:

Simply hit the Enter key to select US English default. Another screen will show up:

If you’re speaking English, then hitting the Enter key at this point will select it for you. Otherwise you’ll need to type the corresponding number to your language first, then press enter.

Once it’s finished loading, you’ll either be looking at a GUI (below), or be stuck at a command prompt with a complaint about your video card. If the latter happens, try again by selecting the Force VESA option from the main Gparted boot menu as mentioned earlier.

The GUI looks like this:

You’ll see the main Gparted application already loaded with a hard drive selected (Note: The hard drive it has selected may not be the one you want selected, if your system has more than one hard drive in it. Fortunately, hard drive size is shown in the hard drive selection button in the upper-right corner, and you can use it to tell different hard drives apart if you know which has what on it).

In the above example, the wide blue border box that contains the device name “/dev/sda1″ is the primary Linux ext3 partition, and all partitions present on the drive are graphically represented here. So we can see that we have a primary ext3 partition which contains Ubuntu, along with an extended swap partition that Ubuntu also needs to keep intact (highlighted with a red border). What we want to do is shrink the size of the primary ext3 partition, and then insert a new NTFS partition in place of the newly unallocated space. There will be cake at the end

Start by clicking on the ext3 partition (either the dark-blue box in this example, or from the partitions table listing just below it), and then click the “Resize/Move” button at the top. A new window will appear:

We see the entire ext3 partition here represented as a box, and in the background, you can see just behind the bottom edge of this new window that the partition we’re dealing with is also highlighted in gray. The used portion of this partition is represented by the yellow area in the box, and the available free space is represented by the white. What we want to do is free some of this white space up. Start by clicking on the arrow-looking handle on the right hand side of the box, and drag it toward the center, like this:

You’ll want to leave a little white left for Ubuntu to use, otherwise you may have free hard drive space problems next time you run it and be required to delete files. The gray area that is revealed on the right is going to become un-allocated space, which we’ll use for a new NTFS partition in just a moment. At this point, click the “Resize/Move” button in the lower right corner. You’ll see the changes you’ve made represented immediately, but this is just for visual reference. A “to-do list” will also appear at the bottom, queuing up changes as you go. They will not actually take effect until you click the Apply button at the top, which we don’t want to do just yet…

Next, we’ll click on the unallocated gray space which we created by shrinking our ext3 partition, and then click the “New” button.

This will show us the unallocated space represented in white. What we need to do here is tell Gparted that we want to create an NTFS partition here, and we can do that by clicking on the Filesystem drop-down menu, and selecting “ntfs” from the list (as shown above). Once this is done, you can click the “Add” button….

…and then click the Apply button at the top of the main Gparted window. It will probably take several minutes for the changes to apply and take effect (go eat a sandwich and watch some TV). Once finished, the system will need to be rebooted. Upon reboot, you’ll not see any difference in your startup on your Ubuntu system, other than your free hard drive space being reduced. Grub will load normally, and you’ll boot into your login screen as usual.

Now that we have an NTFS partition on the hard drive, we can begin to install Windows XP as you normally would by inserting the XP install CD and booting from it. (Here is a guide for installing XP, just for quick reference. Read the rest of this first).

At some point during the Windows XP install, you’ll get to a screen that is somewhat similar to this one:

I need to stress that your screen will look a little different (I couldn’t find a good enough screen shot online so I had to Gimp the one above to be somewhat more accurate to what we’re doing here. I’ll replace it with a better one tonight). This screen appears during the Windows XP install when it’s asking you to select a location for Windows XP to install itself. Chances are, you’ll see one partition on your screen that has the letters “NTFS” next to it. THAT partition is the one you just created after resizing one of the others and it’s where we want to install Windows. The ext3 partitions will also be listed here, but likely be listed as “Unknown” because Windows XP is incapable of reading ext3. DO NOT SELECT ANY OTHER PARTITION than the NTFS partition (there should only be one NTFS partition listed anyway).

You will want to select this NTFS partition and press enter. It will then ask you if you want to format it to FAT32 or NTFS, or make no changes to the partition. Select “Leave file system intact (no changes)”. Proceed with the rest of the install as usual.

After the installation is complete, your system will reboot and you’ll notice that your Grub menu is missing. In fact, you’ll notice you can’t access your Ubuntu system at all. “Oh crap!” you might say. Don’t worry. We’re about to repair the Grub menu, and then modify it so it will have an entry for your newly installed Windows partition as well.

Insert your Ubuntu Live CD and them immediately restart your computer (so as to boot from the Ubuntu CD). Once the Ubuntu Live environment is up and loaded, click Applications>Accessories>Terminal. At the prompt type:

• sudo grub

This will take you to a grub prompt that looks like this:

• grub>

At grub>. enter these commands:

• grub> find /boot/grub/stage1

This will return a location output, that will look something like “(hd0,1)”. Next, THIS IS IMPORTANT, whatever was returned for the find command use it in the next line (you are still at grub>. when you enter the next 3 commands…also be sure to include the parenthesis).

• grub> root (hd0,1)
• grub> setup (hd0)
• grub> quit

What we’ve basically done here is restored grub. Unfortunately, the grub menu doesn’t have a Windows entry in it. You’ll find that when you reboot your computer, Ubuntu will load normally, but grub will not present you with an option to boot into Windows. We have to add that entry manually.

Now in Ubuntu, open another Terminal window like we did before. Now type:

• sudo fdisk -lu

You’ll get some output that looks like this:

username@username-laptop:~$ sudo fdisk -lu

Disk /dev/sda: 60.0 GB, 60011642880 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7296 cylinders, total 117210240 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x994a994a

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1              63    89048294    44524116   83  Linux
/dev/sda2        89048295    92952089     1951897+   5  Extended
/dev/sda3   *    92952090   117210239    12129075    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda5        89048358    92952089     1951866   82  Linux swap / Solaris
username@username-laptop:~$

In the above example, the third partition in the list is the one containing our NTFS partition, and thus, Windows XP. We need to add an entry based upon this information to the grub menu so we can select it for booting. Still within Terminal, type the following:

• sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

This will open up your Grub configuration file. Scroll down to the bottom of it, and paste in the following text:

# This entry was added by username for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda3
title        Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
root        (hd0,2)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader    +1

In the above text, note the “(hd0,2)“. This statement is based upon the NTFS partition being listed as the third on this hard drive. It says “Hard Drive 0, Partition 2″ which in human speak actually means “First hard drive, third partition.” If the fdisk -lu output had shown the NTFS partition listed as the second partition (for example) the notation would be “(hd0,1)”. If you had installed Windows XP on a separate hard drive, say a slave hard drive on the primary IDE/SATA channel, it would be listed as (hd1,0), which means “Second hard drive, first partition” in human speak. Modify your entry in the additional text above accordingly, paste it to the bottom of your menu.lst file in Gnome Text Editor, and then save the file.

When you reboot, Grub should now have a new entry which will list Windows XP as an option. Note that the text displayed for this option is based upon what you typed in the above text. You can modify it if you need to (for example, if you have the Professional version of XP, instead of the Home edition and you want it to say that).

And that’s it! Now get some sleep, we’ve had a long day.

On June 30th this year, you will suddenly find it very difficult to buy a fresh copy of Microsoft Windows XP off the shelf at your local software dealer. That’s because Microsoft is ending the sale of this soon to be considered “obsolete” operating system, priming Microsoft fan boys for their annual upgrade bum rush. Yes, that grim day coming in the middle of April 2009 when you will suddenly stop receiving all security updates for Windows XP and be cornered by Microsoft with an expensive proposition. You’ll soon be facing a tough decision, made up of the following possible choices:

1. Buy Windows Vista for a couple hundred dollars — more after hardware upgrades to support Vista’s heaving girth and blubber — so you can continue to sit down to do exactly what you used to do with Windows XP: Browse the web, play games, write novels, download videos and other common tasks like scanning for viruses and spyware.
2. Buy a Mac, participating in an even more frequent (costlier) upgrade pow-wow… but you’ll look trendy while doing it. You’ll get to browse the web, play (a few) games, write haiku’s for your legacy-sounding text-to-speech software, listen to iTunes and other common tasks like reminiscing over I’m a Mac commercials and standing in line for 24 hours to buy a freggin’ cell phone.
3. Decide not to upgrade to Vista at all, eventually exposing your XP system to new security exploits that will never, ever, ever see a repair patch written for them. The lease is up… Perhaps you need something new but you don’t wanna pay anything for it?
4. Switch to Linux, forget about viruses, spyware, bloat-ware or software costing you time and money.

And so comes the question: What the f— is Linux? Linux is open-source software. It is a product that is the sum total of decades of volunteer collaboration made by millions of computer programmers world wide, and is one of the most refined, stable operating systems in existence today. Because it’s open-source, it’s considered public domain. You practically already own your own copy. It can be downloaded, burned, shared, installed on as many PCs as you wish for free.

Is Linux Right For You?

Well, it was right for me. I switched over just a year ago, and it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. Here are the applications I use regularly on my installation of Ubuntu Linux:

Firefox - Web Browsing
Evolution - E-mail
Audacity - Sound editing
Avidemux - Video editing
DeVeDe - Convert AVI to DVD
Gimp - Edit photos; similar to Photoshop
Open Office - Microsoft Office Replacement (can open and save in Microsoft format too)
VMware - Run a Windows XP virtual machine inside a window
Google Earth - View maps of the world and of outer space!
Pidgin - Allows me to chat on Yahoo IM, and about 15 others like AOL or MSN
Skype - Make phone calls around the world
Photoshop - Just kidding, I haven’t installed it, but I could and so could you.
Games - I don’t play games too much, but I recently installed Quake 4 and it runs like a charm. Though I could throw in some Warcraft 3 or WoW if I wanted to. More classic Windows games are on the way.
Much more…

The bottom line is that Linux is an available option to you that is free of charge and of obligation. And switching over to it will afford you the advantage of never having to feel chained to Microsoft’s vendor lock-in (or Mac’s vendor lock-in). You’ll also find yourself not upgrading your PC’s hardware for a few more years, as the use of system resources is much more efficient than Vista’s. And when support for your version of Linux is expired, you can just upgrade to the next version free of charge. So now if you actually need a hardware upgrade, you’ll have the extra dough to do so.

I come from a long streak of usage of Microsoft Windows. From 3.1 to XP and Vista, I’ve used Windows for pretty much my entire computer based life. (Though in the last year I’ve switched from Windows to Ubuntu Linux).

So with the aim of providing you with something practical, I’ve come up with a short list of things for you to check and consider when it comes to computer performance on a Windows system.

1. If your copy of Norton Internet Security/Antivirus is expired, DON’T RENEW IT! In fact, uninstall it as soon as possible. While Norton is a well known name, it has also become well known for not doing what it’s supposed to do at times, and more importantly, it slows your system down greatly. Instead of using Norton Anti-Virus, try AVG Free. It doesn’t cost anything, and CNET gave it 5 stars. It is a lightweight software that won’t bog your computer down when you first turn it on. For a firewall, consider using Zone Alarm, or the firewall that is built into Windows itself.

2. Skip Vista:

If you own XP, and are considering upgrading to Vista, DON’T DO IT! Vista, for lack of a better word, sucks. It is LITERALLY the slowest operating system on the planet, and you’ll find yourself wondering what you spent 200 dollars or more for in the first place. If you were looking for eye candy, consider switching to Ubuntu Linux. Otherwise, stick with Windows XP. Compared to Vista, it’s everything Vista said it could be, but a lot faster. XP is in line to get a 3rd service pack released shortly, and will be supported for a few more years to come. Get your money’s worth, and don’t spend more on a product you want but don’t need.

3. Switch to FireFox: I suggest this mostly because Firefox has a better reputation for being the web browser that is more stable as well as more secure. Tabbed browsing, pop-up blocking, RSS management, and version 3 right around the corner. You don’t have to replace Internet Explorer, but it would be good to expose yourself to an alternative once in a while so you know what is available out there.

4. Disable any programs that you don’t need at boot time: If you’re the kind of person who has Yahoo Messenger, the Weatherbug, third-party task bars (”toolbars”) that you almost never use or need, or any number of other such software loading when you first start Windows, seek a way to disable it. For users who are a little better than Novice, try running “msconfig”. In it, you’ll find a “startup” tab, which you can sort through and uncheck any application you don’t want to have load right off the bat. You aren’t uninstalling anything doing this, just disabling it from loading at first boot. This will help your system start faster. Another thing you can try is opening your control panel and using the Add/Remove Programs applet to uninstall software you don’t use.

5. Consider upgrading your system memory: If you’ve done all of the above, and your system still runs sluggishly, perhaps you need a memory upgrade. If you’re running XP, I would recommend no less than 512 megs of ram, or at least a 1 gigabyte if your a hardcore gamer. This will help your system boot faster and run more smoothly over all. The less ram you have, the more work your hard drive has to do, and that extra waiting time can really add up.

To attest to how efficient I keep my own Windows machines, I have a 366 Mhz laptop with less than 200 megabytes of ram running XP. Sticking with AVG as my virus scanner from day one has always kept me protected and my system running smoothly. Albeit, not the fastest machine in the world, but it is still plenty capable of browsing most Internet websites, doing word processing, and a few other common tasks. If XP can run “acceptably” on a system that old, your should be able to do the same or better with the 5 tips listed here.