Tips, tricks and tutorials» Ubuntu

Howto Install Vietnamese Input Method ibus-unikey in Ubuntu

admin — Fri, 07 May 2010 16:17:49 +0000

IBus (Intelligent Input Bus for Linux/Unix OS) become the main Language Input Method manager since Ubuntu 9.10. For Vietnamese people and ones who want to learn and type Vietnamese language, unikey is usually the best choice in Windows and Linux as well. This article is going to guide to install ibus-unikey in Ubuntu.

Ibus-Unikey package is maintained by Ubuntu-VN community, so ibus-unikey or scim-unikey is always in their PPAs. So we can easily install and get package update whenever the new version is released.

Add Ubuntu-VN repository

For Ubuntu from 9.10, Ubuntu 10.04, just open Terminal and type this command:

$sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-vn/ppa

Update system and install ibus-unikey

Next, just update your system:

$ sudo apt-get update

And insall ibus-unikey package:

sudo apt-get install ibus-unikey

DONE. Now you can choose to add Unikey in the Vietnamese language selection of IBus Preferences.

Rating: 8.0/10 (6 votes cast)

How to fix libdc1394 error: Failed to initialize libdc1394

admin — Fri, 07 May 2010 05:39:37 +0000

I am doing a project about Mobile Robot Teleoperation which uses OpenCV for Computer Vision, but I always get error: libdc1394 error: Failed to initialize libdc1394

The reason is: There is no file /dev/raw1394 since the raw1394 driver is not loaded. So you need to insert that driver:

$ sudo modprobe raw1394

Check your permission access to that dev file:

$ ls -la /dev/raw1394

If you don’t have rw access right, need to change that permissons:

$ sudo chmod a+rw /dev/raw1394

Credit for Viktors Petrovs from this bug

Rating: 10.0/10 (1 vote cast)

The best CHM Viewer in Ubuntu Linux

admin — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 15:52:32 +0000

What is CHM ?

Let’s have a look at Wikipedia:

Microsoft Compiled HTML Help is a proprietary format for online help files, developed by Microsoft and first released in 1997 as a successor to the Microsoft WinHelp format. It was first introduced with the release of Windows 98, and is still supported and distributed through Windows XP and Vista platforms.

“.chm” is one kind of headache for Linux users so let’s find the best useful CHM viewer for Ubuntu/Linux. I have some great eBooks but in CHM format, so I have been always finding a good and useful CHM Viewer for my system.

My requirements of a CHM Viewer program include:

Be able to read .chm file (of course)
Good looking
Support non-English language
Still under development since by time new Ubuntu version releases, so it may have some bugs when we upgrades our systems.

Let’s go to Applications, Ubuntu Software Center and type chm you could see there are 5 available CHM viewer apps in Ubuntu server:

They are all active projects, but I did have a look at all features and tried all but only KchmViewer can satisfy me. Let’s have a look at its features

Kchmviewer is a free, open-source chm (MS HTML help file format) viewer written in C++ for Unix, Mac and Windows systems. Unlike most existing CHM viewers for Unix, it uses Trolltech Qt widget library, and could optionally be compiled for better KDE integration. It does not require KDE, but may be compiled with full KDE support, including KDE widgets and KIO/KHTML.

The main advantage of kchmviewer is the best support for non-English languages. Unlike other viewers, kchmviewer in most cases is able to correctly detect the chm file encoding and show it. It correctly shows the index and table of context in Russian, Spanish, Romanian, Korean, Chinese and Arabic help files, and with new search engine is able to search in any chm file no matter what language it is written.

kchmviewer is written by George Yunaev (see the contacts page for details), and is licensed under GNU GPL license. It uses chmlib, and some ideas and code from xchm.

You can have a look at here in more detail. I can give you some reasons why I love this app more than others:

Written by using QT Library which is the best cross-platform library. You will feel that each button and edges are very smooth and clean.
Support non-English languages
Can view .chm files in tabs. I am always tired of managing a lot of opened files in desktop, so this feature helps me a lot then

How to install KChmViewer

Just open Terminal:

sudo aptitude install kchmviewer

and type your super user password, and enjoy the program by going to Applications >> Office

Rating: 7.4/10 (5 votes cast)

How to setup Video calls in Skype on 64-bit Ubuntu system

admin — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 14:48:20 +0000

Skype is a software to make free video and voice calls, send instant messages and share files with other Skype users. You can use Skype in almost famous platforms: Windows, Linux, Mac OS and for your mobiles as well. For Linux users, you can easily download and install Skype binary package from here.

With the 32-bit Ubuntu box, you simply just plug Webcam or use build-in webcam, turn Skype and enjoy chatting with your girlfriend, however with the 64-bit counterpart, you have to do some tricks to make it works. Otherwise, you can’t see anything even you still can see camera file in /dev/video0

1. You have to locate v4l1compat.so library in your system. User Terminal and type this:

$ find / -name v4l1compat.so 2>/dev/null
/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so
/usr/lib32/libv4l/v4l1compat.so

Use /dev/null to ignore errors can appear during searching for that lib.

2. You then have to load that library before other Skype libs by using LD_PRELOAD. You can read this article to see how LD_PRELOAD works: Modifying a Dynamic Library Without Changing the Source Code

So now create a file in anywhere you like with this folowing content:

#!/bin/bash
LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so /usr/bin/skype

And don’t forget to set execute permission to that file (chmod u+x ./yourfile).

Rating: 10.0/10 (1 vote cast)

How to solve: Maximum number of clients reached: Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display in Ubuntu 9.10 64 bit

admin — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 08:06:35 +0000

I am currently running Ubuntu 9.10 AMD64 bit in my Desktop and there are some issues with the warning:

Maximum number of clients reached

Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display in Ubuntu 9.10 64 bit

After several mins running my OS, I can’t open any program like gedit, VLC, .. even the Terminal. Luckily I still had one terminal left, so I tried to see what the message if I open gedit:

$gedit

And that message come out. Actually I didn’t know what is wrong with my system even I had a fresh installation of Ubuntu. And this one has never happened before with 32-bit Ubuntu.

I had to spend a lot of time on searching Google and found out that there are a lot of people have the same problems, but it seems to be happened only in 64-bit system. And I never got good answer how to solve at all.

Yesterday, I found one thread mention about Maximum number of clients reached on Ubuntu forums and finally I got the way to solve it.

Causes

It happens only when you install Lastpass extension for Google Chrome browser in Ubuntu 9.10 64 bits. If you remove that extensions and close all Chrome tabs, everything runs again.

Lastpass is one of my best favorite plugins in Firefox and Chrome as well. Read more: LastPass – the best password manager for IE, Firefox, Safari, Google Chrome

How to solve

You can fix that problem by 2 ways:

If you don’t wanna use Lastpass extension, just remove it from Google Chrome and close all tabs. That’s all
If you still wanna use Lastpass extension, don’t install from Google Chrome page, just install it from Lastpass page: https://lastpass.com/lpchrome_bin.crx (Thanks Bob from Lastpass)

Have fun with Google Chrome and Lastpass.

Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

How to install packages from GetDeb

admin — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:56:33 +0000

Homepage: http://www.getdeb.net

Today, I went to the GetDeb website just because I wanted to download the latest Filezilla FTP application for my Ubuntu 9.10, and I was really surprised that now they have a very great website and also their own Repository. Before it was so difficult to access this website, even couldn’t see anything, I thought just because it is so famous among websites for very huge Ubuntu fans, and now they change to the new server and also technical supports. Thank GetDeb people so much for their efforts to bring a lot of benefits to Ubuntu fans. In here, you can easily find some famous applications such that Pidgin, Filezilla, …

As you know that, there are 2 ways to install a package: compile from the source or install from Ubuntu repositories. So GetDeb people just compile every new sources into ready install .deb files, so everyone can just download them and install. Therefore, it take just little time for everyone.

There are 2 ways you can download packages from GetDeb website:

Go directly to GetDeb and download the latest .deb files and install manually but you will not know whenever there is a update package without always checking this website.
Install GetDeb repository. This post almost covers the second method.

Install repository

Use the following instructions:

Install the getdeb package.
Or configure the repository manually:Go to System-Administration-Software Sources, Third-Party Software tab, Add:
```
deb http://archive.getdeb.net/ubuntu karmic-getdeb apps
```

Add the repository GPG key, open a terminal window and type:

wget -q -O- http://archive.getdeb.net/getdeb-archive.key | sudo apt-key add -

Click the “Install this now” button below the screenshot of the desired application.

Have fun with your always update packages.

Rating: 10.0/10 (1 vote cast)

Ubuntu 9.10 runs very fast and stable on Notebook MSI VX600

admin — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 08:25:44 +0000

As in the post How to install Ubuntu 9.04 on notebook MSI VX600, I had to disable ACPI, … to make Ubuntu 9.04 work in my notebook, but the CPU always went height when I open the Firefox browse, especially some flash sites. So at that time, I couldn’t enjoy Ubuntu system in my notebook.

But now, after near one month already, I move to use Ubuntu as the primary OS in my notebook. Ubuntu 9.10 makes a lot of changes, so it runs so stable, smoothly.

Another interesting thing in Ubuntu 9.10 is Ubuntu One, which can automatically sync the personal data in secure with many computers which have same Ubuntu One account. But for me, I still choose Dropbox, instead of Ubuntu One, because it can sync faster and more stable than Ubuntu One.

Life is free !

Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

How to upgrade Pidgin and fix Yahoo problem in Ubuntu 9.04

admin — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 03:06:27 +0000

Some days ago, I couldn’t even sign in my Yahoo account in Pidgin. At that time, I guessed that having some problems and was waiting for upgrade version of Pidgin. Finally, the new version 2.5.7 has been released on 20th June wih new bug fix.

Version 2.5.7 (06/20/2009)

Yahoo Protocol 16 support, including new HTTPS login method; this should fix a number of login problems that have recently cropped up. (Sulabh Mahajan, Mike “Maiku” Ruprecht)
Only display the AIM “Unable to Retrieve Buddy List” message once per connection. (Rob Taft)
Blocking MSN users not on your buddy list no longer disconnects you.
When performing operations on MSN, assume users are on the MSN/Passport network if we don’t get network ID’s for them.

In my option, I always want to get newest packages from their repositories instead of default Ubuntu’s repositories, so we need to update PPA.

Step 1: Setup PPA

To setup the PPA, copy-and-paste these commands into a terminal:

sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com \
     67265eb522bdd6b1c69e66ed7fb8bee0a1f196a8

and

echo deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/pidgin-developers/ppa/ubuntu \
    `lsb_release --short --codename` main | \
 sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pidgin-ppa.list

Step 2: Update pidgin

Update repositories by typing command:

sudo apt-get update

Now you will be able to get new Pidgin version.

Have fun and enjoy your Pidgin messenger.

Please have a look at http://www.pidgin.im for more information.

Rating: 10.0/10 (1 vote cast)

How to setup Dual Monitor in Ubuntu 9.04 with ATI Driver

admin — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 08:07:16 +0000

I am working in my Lab with 2 19′ LCD Monitors. I have search Google about this issue when I finished installing Ubuntu 9.04 and I was unable to configure to use 2 monitors.

My desktop computer’s configuration:

Intel(R) Core(M) 2 Quad CPU Q6600
DDR3 4GB
ATI Radeon HD2600XT

After I try to install ATI Drivers supported from ATI website I have figured out how to configure Ubuntu 9.04 to work with 2 monitors and I found some intersting thing as well. In this case, I am using 2 digital ports of those monitors.

Step 1: Install driver

Install ATI Driver from ATI website instead of driver from Synaptic: How to install ATI Graphic driver for Ubuntu 9.04

If you used ATI driver from synaptic, you should disable this by going to menu System -> Administration -> Hardware drivers, and install the driver again.

Step 2: Configure

Firstly, open the Catalyst Control Center by going to Applications menu and choose ATI Catalyst Control Center (super – user) or type this command in the Terminal: amdxdg-su -c amdcccle

In the tab Display Manager, you will be able to config 2 monitors to work Independently by choosing Single (Independent display)

Note that, now you can reboot your system and see what will happend, because you can face the resolution issue that you can’t configure again in the next step. If you got the lower resolution you can change by going to the properties tab on above figure. Don’t worry about that, you can do it.

The interesting thing is you can have 2 monitors work independently. 2 monitors seem to be separate from each other and you can’t drag a application from this monitor to other monitor. If you like this option, you can keep it and don’t need to follow next step.

If you want to drag windows from this monitors to other, you can enable Xinerame feature in the Display Option tab:

Important notice

If you upgrade the new Linux kernel, you might have a display problem, you can fix it by using root terminal at bootup screen to install ATI Driver again based on step 1.

I have success to configure dual monitorss on my system, and enjoy my time hehe.

Have fun.

Rating: 8.5/10 (2 votes cast)

How to backup and restore the Ubuntu system

admin — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:48:30 +0000

In this post, I would like to introduce the easiest way to backup and restore the Ubuntu system from my experiences.For more information about backup and restore you can see this post

I am usually doing crazy with my system so it is really necessary to backup the system file before dong such things

Backup

The basic idea is using Tar command. I recommend to backup your system and your personal data separately to avoid the very big backup files and the system file is more important than anything else.

The basic command is:

sudo tar cvpjf backup.tar.bz2  --exclude=/sys  /

We should exclude some directories because of some reasons:

I usually mount other partions under /media directory, but someone they usually mount under /mnt directory. So we should exclude /media and /mn.
Folder: /var/cache/apt/archives we should remove from backup file because it stores the cache apt files, we don’t need to make the backup file smaller. After several days, if you forget to delete those files, your backup file will get bigger.
Folder: /home we should exclude because we will store the personal data separately.
Foder /tmp we can exclude because it stores the temp files only.
Of course, the backup file before: backup.tar.bz2

Finally, we get the backup commands are: ( I include all necessary commands also)

cd /

sudo tar cvpjf backup.tar.bz2 --exclude=/proc --exclude=/lost+found \
--exclude=/backup.tar.bz2 --exclude=/var/cache/apt/archives \
--exclude=/mnt --exclude=/media --exclude=/home --exclude=/tmp  --exclude=/sys /

So just copy those commands and paste on your terminal by using the hotkey: Ctr + Alt + V

For backuping your home data, you can do the same way without or with exclude some directories like:

- Browse to the user directory, let’s assume /home/ngohaibac

cd /home/ngohaibac

- Backup by using tar command and exclude some folders I don’t want to backup

sudo tar cvpjf backup_home.tar.bz2  --exclude=~/store  --exclude=~/backup_home.tar.bz2  .

Store

To get backme the system at the backup time, I recommend you a good way to do:

Step 1

Boot your system using Live Ubuntu CD and delete all directories: /usr, /var, /etc, /bin in the Ubuntu partion. You can use the command like: sudo rm -fr /media/ubuntu_mout_point/usr

Step 2

Restore all files by using tar command:

- Browse to that partion: let’s assume /media/disk

cd /media/disk

- Restore all data:

sudo tar xvpfj backup.tar.bz2 -C  .

Wait for a moment, and reboot your system, now you can get your system again.

Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)