CONTENTS

Editor's Desk Pre-Installation Decisions Check Wifi, Part I: Off the live CD Check Wifi, Part II: Troubleshooting Installing Ubuntu Your New Ubuntu Installation Including Nonfree Software Install "Must Have" Nonfree Apps Play Quicktime via Mplayer in Mozilla THAT'S IT! Power Users Activate Root User Install Custom Software Fire Up Your Firewall Wifi the Ubuntu Way Optional: Install Custom Usernames Custom Keystrokes The Politics of Free Software: Free Software Fanaticism The Politics of Free Software: Pet Predjudices Life After Windows: When the Revolution Ends GNU/Linux, open source and free software Letters to the Editor How to Submit an Article Trademarks URLs Mentioned in this Issue

Editor's Desk

By Steve Litt

Steve Litt is the author of Troubleshooting Techniques of the Successful Technologist.   Steve can be reached at his email address.

Pre-Installation Decisions

By Steve Litt

1. Syncing of user id numbers
2. Quick installation of software you want
3. Wifi

Syncing of user id numbers

Quick installation of software you want

Getting that "It Just Works" feeling

• acroread
• flashplugin-installer
• flashplugin-nonfree
• flashplugin-nonfree-extrasound

Wifi

Steve Litt is the author of the Universal Troubleshooting Process Courseware. Steve can be reached at his email address.

Check Wifi, Part I: Off the live CD

By Steve Litt

1. You're in range of a known good, open, non-encrypted wifi access point. You should know the SSID of the access point. A library's a great place to do this.
2. Your computer's physical wireless networking switch is set to enable wireless if it's the kind of switch that persists between reboots. If it's a toggle switch that doesn't persist (my Asus laptop ALWAYS starts up with the wifi hardware enabled, and then you can depress the toggle switch to turn it off), then you can ignore this prerequisite.

Network State		Icon
No networking		No icon
Networking, but no connection
Networking, wired connection
Networking, wireless only, wireless not associated
Networking, wireless only, wireless is associated

This screen shows all wired interfaces and all wireless access points. In this case the wireless access point is called "piano", and it's the access point to which I'm connected. I did this at home, so piano is my home wifi access point, and it's locked down with WPA2 encryption, which acounts for the little lock symbol between the name and the strength meter.

Steve Litt is the author of the Troubleshooting: Just the Facts. Steve can be reached at his email address.

Check Wifi, Part II: Troubleshooting

By Steve Litt

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ lspci | grep -i netw
03:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN (rev 01)
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ lspci | grep -i eth
00:14.0 Bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP51 Ethernet Controller (rev a3)
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ 

Steve Litt is the author of the Rapid Learning for the 21st Century. Steve can be reached at his email address.

Installing Ubuntu

By Steve Litt

Steve Litt is the author of the Universal Troubleshooting Process Courseware. Steve can be reached at his email address.

Your New Ubuntu Installation

By Steve Litt

Accessories
 Calculator
 CD/DVD Creator
 Character Map
 Disk Usage Analyzer
 Manage Print Jobs
 Passwords and Encryption Keys
 Take Screenshot
 Terminal
 Text Editor
 Tomboy Notes
Games
 Not of interest in this document
Graphics
 F-Spot Photo Manager
 GIMP Image Editor
 OpenOffice.org Drawing
 XSane Image scanning program
Internet
 Ekiga Softphone
 Evolution Mail
 Firefox Web Browser
 Pidgin Internet Messenger
 Remote Desktop Viewer
 Terminal Server Client
 Transmission BitTorrent Client
Office
 Dictionary
 Evolution Mail and Calendar
 OpenOffice.org Presentation
 OpenOffice.org Spreadsheet
 OpenOffice.org Word Processor
Sound and Video
 Brasero Disc Burner
 Movie Player
 Rhythmbox Music Player
 Sound Recorder
Add/Remove
 Pulls up an applet to add and remove

Places
Home Folder
Desktop
Documents
Music
Pictures
Videos
Computer
Network
Connect to Server
Search for Files
Recent Documents

Preferences
 About Me
 Appearance
 Assistive Technologies
 Bluetooth
 Default Printer
 Display
 Encryption and Keyrings
 Keyboard
 Keyboard Shortcuts
 Main Menu
 Mouse
 Network Connections
 Network Proxy
 PalmOS Devices
 Power Management
 Preferred Applications
 Remote Desktop
 SCIM Input Method Setup
 Screensaver
 Sound
 Startup Applications
 Windows
Administration
 Authorizations
 Computer Janitor
 Hardware Drivers
 Language Support
 Log File Viewer
 Login Window
 Network Tools
 Printing
 Services
 Software Sources
 Synaptic Package Manager
 System Monitor
 System Testing
 Time and Date
 Update Manager
 USB Startup Disk Creator
 Users and Groups
Help and Support
About GNOME
About Ubuntu

Steve Litt is the author of the Manager's Guide to Technical Troubleshooting. Steve can be reached at his email address.

Including Nonfree Software

By Steve Litt

1. System->Administration->Software_Sources
2. Enter your password. The Software Sources app appears
3. Click Third-Party software tab
4. Check both of these:
1. http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu jaunty partner
2. http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu jaunty partner (Source Code)
3. NOTE: Different Ubuntu versions might have different URLs
5. Click the Close Button
6. You are presented with a dialog box saying your available software is out of date.
7. Click Reload. 
8. Wait for downloads to register. There could be a lot of them and it could take some time.
9. The Update Manager appears
10. Click the Install Updates button
11. Wait for updates to execute. This could take up to an hour. Find something else to do.
12. You are presented with windows that tell you your system is up to date and asking you to restart your computer. Make sure no apps are open, then click the Restart Now button.

Steve Litt is the author of Twenty Eight Tales of Troubleshooting.   Steve can be reached at his email address.

Install "Must Have" Nonfree Apps

By Steve Litt

1. System->Administration->Synaptic_Package_manager
2. Type your password
3. Type "flash" without the quotes into the Quick Search field
4. Place a checkmark in the following:
1. flashplugin-nonfree-extrasound
2. flashplugin-nonfree
3. flashplugin-installer
5. Click Apply and confirm
6. From the command prompt type the following:
• sudo apt-get install acroread

Steve Litt is the author of the Troubleshooting Techniques of the Successful Technologist. Steve can be reached at his email address.

Play Quicktime via Mplayer in Mozilla

By Steve Litt

1. Within Mozilla, Edit->Preferences
2. Click the Applications tab
3. Scroll down to the Quicktime video line
4. Click the "Action" side of the line
5. Use Other...
6. Navigate to /usr/bin/mplayer
7. Click the Close button

Steve Litt is the author of the Rapid Learning for the 21st Century. Steve can be reached at his email address.

THAT'S IT!

By Steve Litt

• You did a standard install of Ubuntu.
• You've set the software sources to include nonfree software.
• You've installed "Must Have" Nonfree Apps.
• You've set up Mozilla to play Quicktime movies with mplayer.

Steve Litt is the author of the Troubleshooting: Just the Facts. Steve can be reached at his email address.

Power Users

By Steve Litt

• Author Troubleshooters.Com content
• Author courseware
• Author books
• Personalize courseware
• Personalize eBooks
• Ship print books
• Account for book orders
• Think
• Plan
• Research
• Communicate
• Program computers
• Backup

Steve Litt is the author of the Universal Troubleshooting Process Courseware. Steve can be reached at his email address.

Activate Root User

By Steve Litt

• System->Administration->Users_and_Groups
• Click the (grayed out) line that says "root"
• Click the Unlock button
• Enter your user password when asked for it
• Re-click the root line
• Click the Properties button
• Enter and confirm the desired root password

Security vs. Convenience

Steve Litt is the author of Twenty Eight Tales of Troubleshooting.   Steve can be reached at his email address.

Install Custom Software

By Steve Litt

Shellscripts to Make Installation Easier

#!/bin/bash
while true; do
   read myline || break
   ./check1.sh $myline
done

#!/bin/bash
returncode=1
foundpackages=$(aptitude --disable-columns -F %p search $1)
for i in $foundpackages; do
   if test "$1" == "$i"; then
      returncode=0
      break
   fi
done
if test $returncode == 1; then
   echo -n 'Package >' 
   echo -n $1 
   echo '< not found, investigate'
fi
exit $returncode

cat mypackagelist.txt | ./checkall.sh > mymistakes.txt

aptitude search --disable-columns packagename       #### finds packages with name containing packagename
aptitude search --disable-columns ^pack             #### finds packages with name starting with "pack"
aptitude search --disable-columns . | grep regex    #### finds packages whose names or descriptions contain "regex"

#!/bin/bash
echo '#!/bin/bash'
echo
while true; do
   read myline || break
   echo -n "apt-get install "
   echo $myline
done

cat mypackagelist.txt | ./make_installscript.sh > myinstall.sh

Checking What Got Installed

#!/bin/bash

###############################
# $dashcol is the 1's based column in which the dash preceding
# the package description occurs, when running this command:
#       aptitude search .
#
# Note that your version of aptitude might format differently,
# in which case you'll need to change the value of dashcol for
# this script to work correctly.
#
# To verify correctness, look at file insts_temp.txt,
# and use an editor to find the 1's based column number
# of the dash.
###############################
let dashcol=37
let b4dashcol=$dashcol-1

###############################
# Get sorted version of installation list
###############################
cat $1 | sort >temp.txt

###############################
# Record separator
###############################
echo '%%%sep%%%' >> temp.txt

###############################
# Get sorted list of installed packages
###############################
aptitude search . | grep ^i > insts_temp.txt
cat insts_temp.txt | cut -b5-$b4dashcol | sed -e "s/ *$//" | sort >> temp.txt

###############################
# Send the whole thing to perl to match
###############################
cat temp.txt | ./verify_installs.pl

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use warnings;

##########################################################
# LOAD THE @DESIRED AND @ INSTALLED ARRAYS
##########################################################
my @desired = ();
my @installed = ();
my $state = 0;
while(<>){
   my $line = $_;
   chomp $line;
   if($line eq "%%%sep%%%"){
      $state = 1;
      next;
   }
   push(@desired,($line)) if $state == 0;
   push(@installed, ($line)) if $state == 1;
}

##########################################################
# REPORT ANY @DESIRED PACKAGES THAT ARE NOT IN @INSTALLED
##########################################################
my $installedss = 0;
my $installed_rec = shift(@installed);
foreach my $desired_rec (@desired){
   while($desired_rec gt $installed_rec){
      $installed_rec = shift(@installed);
   }
   if(!defined($installed_rec) || $desired_rec ne $installed_rec){
      printf("%s NOT installed.\n", $desired_rec);
   }else{
      #printf("%s successfully installed.\n", $desired_rec);
   }

}

slitt@mydesk:~$ cat mypackagelist.txt | ./verify_installs.sh
alsa-oss NOT installed.
alsa-tools NOT installed.
alsa-tools-gui NOT installed.
alsa-utils NOT installed.
perl-tk NOT installed.
python-tk NOT installed.
ttf-freefont NOT installed.
slitt@mydesk:~$

Summary

1. The install script method takes less time and MUCH less human intervention.
2. Your install list can be kept to ease your next reinstallation or new installation.

Steve Litt is the author of Twenty Eight Tales of Troubleshooting.   Steve can be reached at his email address.

Fire Up Your Firewall

By Steve Litt

As you can see, Ubuntu ships with the firewall disabled, so your ports are hanging out in the breeze for anyone to access. Now of course, if your LAN has a firewall at its gateway, like it should, this possibility is lessened, but desktop computer firewalls are still desireable. Also, a gateway based firewall does nothing to protect you against hostility or fun and games on your own LAN. You need a firewall! The first thing you need to do is enable the firewall by clicking the "Firewall enabled" clickbox. Then, click the "Deny incoming traffic" radio button. A firewall whose default rule is "allow" isn't much better than no firewall at all.

Once your firewall is running, click the "preconfigured" tab, so gufw looks like the image at the right. This is for quick and dirty pinholing of major well known services such as ftp, ssh, pop3, smtp, ipp and the like. The first dropdown lets you choose allow or deny. Given the fact that the default is deny, you'll leave all of these at allow. The service dropdown, which is marked "ftp" in the image on the right lists a choice of several common and well known services.

Click on the service dropdown and select a service to allow. Then click the "Add " button to add it to the list of rules.

The screen on the left shows an allowance for ssh (port 22) and the ipp print sharing protocol (port 631). Now click on the "Advanced" tab...

Here we enabled this computer to be a DNS server. It will handle queries from anywhere on the 192.168.100 subnet and reject queries from anywhere else. It opens both (tcp and udp) port 53, the DNS port, for queries coming in through interface 192.168.100.1. Finally the "Add" button is clicked, and the rule is formed.

Steve Litt is the author of the Manager's Guide to Technical Troubleshooting. Steve can be reached at his email address.

Wifi the Ubuntu Way

By Steve Litt

Steve Litt is the author of the Rapid Learning for the 21st Century. Steve can be reached at his email address.

Optional: Install Custom Usernames

By Steve Litt

1. /etc/login.defs: Change value of UID_MIN from 1000 to 500.
2. /etc/gnome-system-tools/users/profiles changing: Change every uid-min=1000 to uid-min=500.
3. /etc/adduser.conf: Change LAST_SYSTEM_UID=999 to 499 and  FIRST_UID=1000 to 500.
4. Just for fun, reboot.

   Steve Litt is the author of the Troubleshooting: Just the Facts. Steve can be reached at his email address.

Custom Keystrokes

By Steve Litt

1. System->Preferences->Keyboard_shortcuts.
2. Click the Add button. The Custom Shortcut dialog box appears.
3. Insert "mykey" (minus the quotes) in the name, and "xterm" (minus the quotes) in the command.
4. Click the Apply button. A new row whose action is "mykey" appears in the keyboard shortcuts list.
5. Click on the Shortcut column of the mykey row. That column changes to "New shortcut..."
6. With the keyboard, hit the keyboard combo that you want to invoke the new command. In this case we'll use Ctrl+1, so hit the Ctrl+1 keystroke combination.
7. Test the new shortcut by hitting the Ctrl+1 keystroke combination. A copy of xterm should appear on the screen.

   Steve Litt is the author of Troubleshooting Techniques of the Successful Technologist.   Steve can be reached at his email address.

The Politics of Free Software: Free Software Fanaticism

By Steve Litt

1. Buy one of those farcically overpriced Linux Preload laptops
2. Buy the Costco laptop and wait several months for Linux drivers to catch up
3. Buy a Linksys wifi dongle and hope you can get THAT to work under Linux
4. Stick with Windows

The Twentieth Century is Gone

This is the Twenty First Century

Achieving "It Just Works"

Steve Litt is the author of the Troubleshooting: Just the Facts. Steve can be reached at his email address.

The Politics of Free Software: Pet Predjudices

By Steve Litt

Steve Litt is the author of the Universal Troubleshooting Process Courseware. Steve can be reached at his email address.

Life After Windows: When the Revolution Ends

By Steve Litt

Life After Windows is a regular Linux Productivity Magazine column, by Steve Litt, bringing you observations and tips subsequent to Troubleshooters.Com's Windows to Linux conversion.

Steve Litt is the founder and acting president of Greater Orlando Linux User Group (GoLUG).   Steve can be reached at his email address.

GNU/Linux, open source and free software

By Steve Litt

"GNU/Linux" is probably the most accurate moniker one can give to this operating system. Please be aware that in all of Troubleshooters.Com, when I say "Linux" I really mean "GNU/Linux". I completely believe that without the GNU project, without the GNU Manifesto and the GNU/GPL license it spawned, the operating system the press calls "Linux" never would have happened.

I'm part of the press and there are times when it's easier to say "Linux" than explain to certain audiences that "GNU/Linux" is the same as what the press calls "Linux". So I abbreviate. Additionally, I abbreviate in the same way one might abbreviate the name of a multi-partner law firm. But make no mistake about it. In any article in Troubleshooting Professional Magazine, in the whole of Troubleshooters.Com, and even in the technical books I write, when I say "Linux", I mean "GNU/Linux".

Steve Litt has used GNU/Linux since 1998, and written about it since 1999. Steve can be reached at his email address.

Letters to the Editor

All letters become the property of the publisher (Steve Litt), and may be edited for clarity or brevity. We especially welcome additions, clarifications, corrections or flames from vendors whose products have been reviewed in this magazine. We reserve the right to not publish letters we deem in bad taste (bad language, obscenity, hate, lewd, violence, etc.).

Submit letters to the editor to Steve Litt's email address, and be sure the subject reads "Letter to the Editor". We regret that we cannot return your letter, so please make a copy of it for future reference.

How to Submit an Article

Any article submitted to Linux Productivity Magazine must be licensed with the Open Publication License, which you can view at http://opencontent.org/openpub/. At your option you may elect the option to prohibit substantive modifications. However, in order to publish your article in Linux Productivity Magazine, you must decline the option to prohibit commercial use, because Linux Productivity Magazine is a commercial publication.

Obviously, you must be the copyright holder and must be legally able to so license the article. We do not currently pay for articles.

Troubleshooters.Com reserves the right to edit any submission for clarity or brevity, within the scope of the Open Publication License. If you elect to prohibit substantive modifications, we may elect to place editors notes outside of your material, or reject the submission, or send it back for modification. Any published article will include a two sentence description of the author, a hypertext link to his or her email, and a phone number if desired. Upon request, we will include a hypertext link, at the end of the magazine issue, to the author's website, providing that website meets the Troubleshooters.Com criteria for links and that the author's website first links to Troubleshooters.Com. Authors: please understand we can't place hyperlinks inside articles. If we did, only the first article would be read, and we can't place every article first.

Submissions should be emailed to Steve Litt's email address, with subject line Article Submission. The first paragraph of your message should read as follows (unless other arrangements are previously made in writing):

Copyright (c) 2003 by <your name>. This material may be distributed only subject to the terms and conditions set forth in the Open Publication License, version  Draft v1.0, 8 June 1999 (Available at http://www.troubleshooters.com/openpub04.txt/ (wordwrapped for readability at http://www.troubleshooters.com/openpub04_wrapped.txt). The latest version is presently available at  http://www.opencontent.org/openpub/).

Open Publication License Option A [ is | is not] elected, so this document [may | may not] be modified. Option B is not elected, so this material may be published for commercial purposes.

After that paragraph, write the title, text of the article, and a two sentence description of the author.

Why not Draft v1.0, 8 June 1999 OR LATER

Trademarks

URLs Mentioned in this Issue

• http://www.troubleshooters.com: Steve Litt's Troubleshooting website.
• http://www.troubleshooters.com/bookstore: Home of Steve Litt's books.
• http://www.troubleshooters.com/lpm/200212/200212.htm#_lifeAfterWindows: Source of the "Linux is a Wishing Well" quote.
• http://www.troubleshooters.com/codecorn/sockets/index.htm: My 2001 intro to socket programming, which is pretty much rendered obsolete by this document.
• http://www.troubleshooters.com/codecorn/primenumbers/primenumbers.htm,: The Troubleshooters.Com prime number generator page, which could have benefitted from sockets.
• http://www.golug.org: The Greater Orlando Linux User Group (GoLUG) website.
• x
• http://kerneltrap.org/Linux/NDISwrapper_and_the_GPL: Linus' take on NDISwrapper
• https://help.ubuntu.com/community/NetworkManager

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