Widgets with Compiz on Ubuntu

I have being using compiz recently with ubuntu, a really nice desktop control environment.

One of the things I had wanted from the start were Desktop Widgets (aka Desklets or Screenlets)

There is in the Compiz configuration settings, under the “Desktop” section, a “Widget Layer” feature.

I have just gotten this to work with arbitrary widgets, indeed one can make any application behave like a widget, through unique identification of the window for that application.

I have installed MacSlow’s Cairo-Clock and gDesklets. I use the Éphémeride Calendar, SideCandy Network, Disk IO and Binary Clock gDesklets. I also run Mutt Mail Client in a gnome-terminal window and would like that to behave as a widget also.

So, I enable the “Widget Layer”, and set the following for the “Widget Windows” field on the “Behaviour” tab :

name=cairo-clock | (name=gnome-terminal & title=mutt) | name=gdesklets-daemon

I got the details of the windows via the xprop command. Just open a terminal, run xprop and then click the window you want information for, and it will be dumped out to screen.

Be warned, the output of xprop doesn’t look pretty, but you are looking for the values of variables like WM_CLASS or WM_NAME in order to identify your application.

One set, your specified applications will be hidden. When you press F9 they appear as an overlayed layer, and the rest of the desktop fades out.

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

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

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.

Address Book with Mutt on Ubuntu

I have been using Mutt MUA for a little while now and it is apparent that I need some kind of address book. The solution outlined here saves address automatically when you send email.

This solution is better for me than saving received addresses. Think spam etc.

The addressbook used os lbdb, little brother database.

My lbdb is installed and setup with the following in ~/.lbdbrc


# my lbdb config file

# methods to search [www.spinnaker.de/lbdb/]
METHODS=”m_inmail”
#m_muttalias m_palm m_gpg m_ldap

To save addresses when sending, I replace the mutt sendmail option which was using esmtp to now point to a custom script.
The script uses the tee command to send a copy of the mail to lbdb for address harvesting, and another copy to esmtp as before. I also added an option to tell mutt to use lbdb for address queries.

The changed and new options in ~/.muttrc are


set sendmail=”~/esmtp-lbdb.sh”
set envelope_from=yes

# use lbdb for email address querying
set query_command=”/usr/bin/lbdbq ‘%s’”

The script esmtp-lbdb.sh is as follows


#!/bin/bash
#
# Script must run with Bash so keep above
# send mail with esmtp but send a copy to lbdb-fecthaddr to harvest address
#
echo -e \\n \\n MARK \\n \\n >> /tmp/test.log
echo “$@” >> /tmp/test.log

# harvest mail (stdin) and major to address
# tee the stdin,
# tee splits input into two copies, one to named file, one to stdout
# instead of named file, we redirect to command, and the other copy to stdout is piped to a second command
#
# the first command harvests email addresses from the input email
# the second command sends the input e-mail, and takes the parameters via “$@” which are the from and to/cc/etc addresses
tee >(lbdb-fetchaddr -a) | /usr/bin/esmtp -v -X /tmp/esmtp.log “$@”

When sending an email in mutt, I can press CTRL-T to get the list of addresses from lbdb and choose one for inclusion.

Setting up Email with Mutt on Ubuntu

I have been using the Mutt email client for a short while now. By no means an expert, but have found a few little gems.

Firstly, I am using external POP and SMTP for sending and collecting email, with no local email server.

I use the following basic mutt settings in ~/.muttrc


set mbox_type=Maildir
set folder=”~/email/mailbox”
set mask=”!^\\.[^.]”
set mbox=”~/email/mailbox/kept
set record=”+.Sent”
set postponed=”+.Drafts”
set spoolfile=”~/email/mailbox/in-default
set realname=”me”
set from=”me@domain.tld”
set use_from=yes


As you can see, the mailbox are all in a folder in my home directory, no use of spool etc as I am not running an email server.

For sending email I use esmtp with this option in .muttrc


set sendmail=”/usr/bin/esmtp -v -X /tmp/esmtp.log”
set envelope_from=yes


For receiving email, I use getmail via cron every 15 mins.
The cron is :


crontab -l
# m h dom mon dow command
*/15 * * * * getmail –getmaildir /home/me/email/getmail/ –rcfile getmail.me.rc

The retriever in the getmail config is SimplePOP3SSLRetriever, and the destination is to procmail, which then does filtering based on rules and filters i set up and drops the email into the various maildir folders in ~/email/mailbox/

Viewing images with Mutt on Ubuntu, via mailcap configuration

When viewing various mime attachments, Mutt uses mailcap [/etc/mailcap] to decide which applications to use.

I was suprised to find that gif and other images are not supported ‘out of the box’.

However, creating a file called ~/.mailcap with the following text solved it quickly.

###############################################################################
#
# MIME types and programs that process those types
#
###############################################################################
image/*; /usr/bin/gthumb ‘%s’; test=test -n “$DISPLAY”

‘/usr/bin/gthumb‘ refers to the application I want images to be opened with from Mutt, when I get image attachments in my email.

Thats pretty much it!

Updating Ubuntu on a Dell Inspiron 9400 with ATI graphics

I installed Ubuntu 6 on my Dell the other day, its out of date but I had the cd to hand.

Lastnight I upgraded to Ubuntu 7.04 and X (the graphics server) stopped working.

I logged in and ran the following to get it going again :

sudo aptitude install xorg-driver-fglrx

sudo aticonfig –initial

sudo modprobe fglrx

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart

This

1. installs the required graphics driver
2. updates the graphics config
3. loads the required driver
4. restarts the graphics server with the new settings

It’s a pity 7.04 couldn’t degrade nicely and use the same driver 6 was able to work with. The resolution was poor but at least it was usable in graphical mode until you managed to figure out a solution.

Not everybody has an alternative PC to search for help online, or is comfortable with web browsing from the command console.

Disabling the PC speaker in Ubuntu

Temporarily :

sudo modprobe -r pcspkr

Permanently (for the life of the OS)

append this

# disable pc speaker beeps
blacklist pcspkr

to

/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

perhaps via

sudo vim /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

or

gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist