QuickSilver-esque shortcuts application on Ubuntu Debian GNU/Linux

Some of my colleagues have Apple Macs and use an application called ‘Quick Silver’ for managing frequently use application/scripts/text files/notes/ims/etc.

I was impressed with what one could do with it and began looking for something similar on Ubuntu.

There is a clone for Gnome called Gnome-Do [ http://www.gnomedo.com ] that lives up to the task pretty well from what I can gather so-far. There are some good updates in the ‘Intrepid Ibex’ release (8.10) that are not in the ‘Hardy Heron’ release (8.04), such as a more complete and useful preferences menu, more plugins and managing them individually through the applications preferences.

Try it out, after installing gnome-do, you need to set it up to launch at gnome login (easily done via the preferences in the intrepid version). Then you can invoke it with the SUPER+SPACEBAR short-cut.

Using MySql with Jahia on Debian GNU/Linux

After installing Jahia today, I wanted to use the MySql database instead of the default HyperSonic. I am currently using MySql for other purposes and want to have a look at accessing the Jahia database to re-use content.

Initially when I created the ‘jahia’ database in mysql and granted permissions to the Jahia user, Jahia reported:

"This database doesn't seem to support extended charsets."

Dropping the database and recreating it with a unicode dataset sorts this little niggle out.

mysql> create database jahia character set = utf8;

Synching you Palm Tungsten|T to J-Pilot over USB on Ubuntu Debian GNU/Linux

Ok, simple enough.

Install J-Pilot (I used apt, apt-get install jpilot !)

• Navigate the menu to File -> Preferences
• Select the “Settings’ tab”
• Enter usb: in the “Serial Port” field.
• Select “OK”
• Press the HotSync button on the cradle.
• Click the HotSync button on the left of the J-Pilot window.

Next for some plugins, watch this space!

Palm Pilot: Backing stuff up over USB on Ubuntu Debian GNU/Linux

Quite easy really. Once you have the usb connection validated (see earlier post), backing up is simply a matter of :

pilot-xfer -p usb: -b ~/my-new-palm-backup-dir

You can also do a local update (-u palm-backup-dir) or a sync (-s palm-backup-dir).

Further options are available with pilot-xfer --help

Now to have a look at J-Pilot, a GUI. (no, it’s not written in Java)

Palm Tungsten T, USB, Pilot-Link, Ubuntu Debian GNU/Linux

Couldn’t get my old Palm Tungsten T to work with pilot link. After reading around and trying various things with dev files, I eventually found this post about a bug in pilot link.

Sure enough, removing the visor module with

sudo modprobe -r visor

meant the Palm now responded to

pilot-xfer -p usb: -l

and I got a lot of output about files on the Palm when I hit the sync button on the USB cradle.

So, I have added

blacklist visor

to

/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

so that module won’t be loaded in the future.

Hopefully this bodes well for my attempts at seamless synchronisation of my Palm Tungsten|T on Ubuntu

Want to see the date and time in the Mutt mail client when reading e-mail ?

Then add the following to your ~/.muttrc

ignore *
unignore from date subject to cc
unignore organization organisation x-mailer: x-newsreader: x-mailing-list:
unignore posted-to:

Really, you just need to add unignore date. This snippet above firstly turns everything off, then selectively decides to show the headers as listed with unignore.

I have been slightly annoyed for a while now that my Mutt configuration wasn’t displaying the send-time when i was reading emails. I had the date in the e-mail list, but nothing in the actual email.

Finally I got to look it up

Linux on USB disks : Damn Small Linux

Today I tried out installing two separate, cut-down, versions of Linux onto a USB drive.

This post details my experience with damn small linux.

Damn Small Linux

I tried getting various files, including the embedded zip file, but failed to install to
a USB disk. The idea seemed pretty simple, unzip the files onto the USB
disk, run sys linux. Go. But it just wouldn’t work. Kept reporting
missing files early in boot.

The alternative, boot into the system form the iso and install from there, also failed.

Note, in both cases I am booting into a virtual machine, not natively.

http://ftp.heanet.ie/mirrors/damnsmalllinux.org/current/dsl-4.2.5.iso

Instead of burning a CDR I booted the cd image with Qemu, a free virtual machine emulator (available in Ubuntu Debian Gnu/Linux)

qemu -k en-gb -m 512 -localtime -boot d -cdrom dsl-4.2.5.iso /dev/sdb1

I provided the USB drive as the hard-drive to the virtual machine
(/dev/sdb1) and instructed the boot drive to be the cd (’-cdrom
cd-image.iso’) with the option ‘-boot d’.

DSL booted up into the GUI without issue.

Then
I selected the install option “USB-HDD Pendrive Install.” from the DSL Menu -> Apps -> Tools

I also tried HDD install.

Neither work. The filesystem has errors on creation. Might try again when booted native from the CD, instead of through the virtual macine.

Linux on USB disks : Puppy Linux

Today I tried out installing two separate, cut-down, versions of Linux onto a USB drive.

This post details my experience with puppy linux.

Puppy linux

I tried getting various files but ended up using the iso download file.

ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/puppylinux/puppy-3.01-seamonkey.iso

Instead of burning a CDR I booted the cd image with Qemu, a free virtual machine emulator (available in Ubuntu Debian Gnu/Linux)

qemu -k en-gb -m 512 -localtime -boot d -cdrom puppy-3.01-seamonkey.iso /dev/sdb1

I provided the USB drive as the hard-drive to the virtual machine (/dev/sdb1) and instructed the boot drive to be the cd (’-cdrom cd-image.iso) with the option ‘-boot d’.

I booted into XVESA, XORG didn’t work.
Then I selected the install option “Install to IDE flash drive.” from the puppy installer at Menu -> Setup -> Puppy Universal Installer

I shut down the virtual machine, and rebooted, this time from the newly set-up USB disk, with:

qemu -k en-gb -m 512 -localtime /dev/sdb1

Worked fine, no issues !

Previously I had tried downloading other puppy linux files from the download server, but failed to install to a USB disk (without too much trying I must admit though in fairness)

Creating labels for disks in Ubuntu Debian GNU/Linux

The ability to create or change the disk label of fat/fat32/vfat file systems/partitions doesn’t come with Parted; yet is quite simple to achieve with Ubuntu Debian GNU/Linux .

This comes in very handy when you have a number of fat devices (like USB, SD, etc) and want something more meaningful than just “disk” as its name.

Get mtools if you haven’t it already
sudo apt-get install mtools

Create a configuration file to avoid some error reporting
echo "mtools_skip_check=1" > ~/.mtoolsrc

Check where your disk is in the linux devices
mount

Label your disk
mlabel -i /dev/sdb1 -s ::my_disc

…and there you have it.

Disconnect the device and reconnect it and the label will show when it is auto mounted.

Undelete files on a vfat partition in Ubuntu Debian GNU/Linux

I have recently used the ‘photorec’ component of the ‘testdisk’ application for recovering files from FAT32 file systems.

I had used it before to recover files from general USB devices and others like Compact Flash/MMC/Secure Digital media with great success.

Then, I was focusing on recovery of photos and movies.

This time I was looking for various non-image files. Again I was suitably impressed by its coverage, and its simplicity in terms of use and speed.

They name may suggest only photos, but this is a great piece of software, regardless of what kind of file you are trying to recover.