Over the last couple of months, I’ve received more and more of these type of questions. I remember when I first started this blog, I think I was using Ubuntu 7.04 and had just reinstalled Ubuntu 8.04. Today I’m using Ubuntu 10.04, with the following hardware (also changed since I first started using a Linux based OS):

Asus VH242H 23.6 1920×1080 LCD
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Socket AM2 CPU
Kingston 4096MB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz
Seagate 750GB Serial ATA HD 7200/16MB/SATA-3G
Shuttle SA76G2 Socket AM2+ Barebone
LG 22X DVDRW SATA
ASUS VH242H 23.6in Wide 1920×1080 5ms LCD Monitor
SB Audigy 2ZS 24-Bit Surround 5.1*
Logitech Quickcam Fusion
Creative Inspire 5200 5.1 Speakers

*The Shuttle board already has integrated sound, but I preferred to use the Audigy soundcard that was on one of my old systems.

While this is by no means the most powerful desktop, it gets the job done for me. Needless to say, the following is a list of applications I use on this hardware. Because I do a lot of web and design work (as well as networking and technical support) the list leans towards such related applications (but I have included some “fun” ones).  Hopefully this resource will help new Ubuntu users. If I missed something you think should be included, please let me know in the comments below, thanks. I worked hard to put this post together, so if you like it, please bookmark it or link to it from your site, or social favourites, and let me know. – Thanks!

Here are the Applications:

OpenShot | apt:openshot | http://www.gimp.org/

Terminal:
sudo aptitude install openshot openshot-doc

I use it as a quick way to join video segments together, to create transitions and effects. It also allows me to slice out specific segments of existing video and use them to create a new one. I like it because it’s simple fast and useful.

GIMP | apt:gimp | http://www.gimp.org/

Terminal:
sudo aptitude install gimp gimp-data-extras

I use this for quick editing (as well as advanced) or to open TIFF, JPG, PNG, PSD files. It is NOT a replacement for Photoshop, but after I got used to the interface, it became easier to use. Main uses (for me), photo editing and enhancement, photo retouching, graphic creation, logo creation, etc. I do not use this application for vector graphics work. There is a plugin registry at http://registry.gimp.org/

Inkscape | apt:inkscape | http://www.inkscape.org/

Terminal:
sudo aptitude install inkscape

I use this for vector graphic creation. It is not a replacement for Illustrator, however it’s a great alternative. Main uses (for me), vector editing and manipulation, graphic creation, logo creation, etc. I do not commonly use this application for raster graphics work. Inkscape does provide some tutorials, which greatly help users become familiar with the interface and tools: http://inkscapetutorials.wordpress.com/

Dia | apt:dia | http://projects.gnome.org/dia/

Terminal:
sudo aptitude install dia dia-libs dia-common

I use this for Dia to document network layouts in a visual manner. I do this when I create or change a network for my clients. There are all kind of icons (Server, Desktop, Database, Router, etc.) that make it easier for clients to understand their network documentation – Again, they key being that it’s a visible diagram. This application reminds me a lot of Visio, which I used when I worked in a predominately Windows based environment. Personally, I’m not too happy with the interface (same issue with GIMP), but the application gets the job done for me.

Fonty Python | apt:fontypython | https://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/fontypython

Terminal:
sudo aptitude install fontypython

In terms of design and graphic work, this application is a gem! All my fonts are stored in one large directory. Fonty Python helps me gather different fonts and structure them into collections, specific to each project. I don’t have to copy fonts, I still leave them in the large directory! If I remember correctly, I think Mac and Windows users have something similar called “Suitcase”? Bottom line, when I’m ready to work on a specific project, I activate the font collection for that project, start up my application and work.

Hugin | apt:hugin | http://hugin.sourceforge.net/

Terminal:
sudo aptitude install hugin hugin-data

I use this simply to stitch photos together for “panoramic” views. Several tutorials are available at http://hugin.sourceforge.net/tutorials/index.shtml

PDFmod | apt:pdfmod | http://live.gnome.org/PdfMod

Terminal:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pdfmod-team/ppa
sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install pdfmod

I use this to edit PDF documents. Reorganize them, add or remove pages, and so on. Very useful when you’re in a pinch!

RawTherapee | apt:rawtherapee | http://www.rawtherapee.com

Terminal:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:rawtherapee/ppa
sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install rawtherapee

A package for editing RAW images as well as a RAW converter and digital photo processing application. Again, very useful; when a camera is plugged in and the images are in RAW format.

Skype | apt:skype | http://skype.com

Terminal:
sudo aptitude install skype

Video conferencing and calling. One thing I did experience – No video? Try this: Install v4l2ucp and change the preview program via v4l2ucp to skype instead of mplayer. Start preview, Skype loads, and video works.

HandBrake | apt:handbrake-gtk | http://handbrake.fr/

Terminal:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:stebbins/handbrake-snapshots
sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install handbrake-gtk

Video transcoder / decoder. A handy tool to have when you’re working with video files. One thing I like about it is that it works with almost any media as it uses libavformat to read and libavcodec to decode – And it’s cross-platform!

Transmission | apt:transmission | http://www.transmissionbt.com/

Terminal:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:transmissionbt/ppa
sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install transmission

A great tool to download Ubuntu or other Open Source related CDs. Select and set the download to run and it just works. Easy!

Chrome | apt:chrome-browser | http://www.chromium.org/

Terminal:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:chromium-daily/ppa
sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install chromium-browser

I’ll be honest – I don’t like this web browser. Personally I find the interface “old fashioned” in appearance, I find it assumes too much, in terms of what I want to see in a browser, and so on (I’m a Firefox user). However, others may not agree. This is a good alternative browser and it’s also fast.

ISO Master | apt:isomaster | http://www.littlesvr.ca/isomaster/

Terminal:
sudo aptitude install isomaster

If you need to update or otherwise edit ISO files, this application will provide the features you need. This means you can add, remove or deleted files from an ISO. Additionally, other formats are also accessible, such as NRG, IMG, etc.

Trimage | apt:trimage | http://trimage.org/

Terminal:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kilian/trimage
sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install trimage

I use this to compress image file sizes – Lossless!  It supports PNG and JPG. And again, one feature I like is that it’s cross-platform friendly.

Gmount-iso | apt:gmountiso | https://launchpad.net/gmount-iso

Terminal:
sudo aptitude install gmountiso

Sometimes I don’t want to install a CD. This application allows me to easily mount a CD image.

RecordMyDesktop | apt:gtk-recordmydesktop | http://recordmydesktop.sourceforge.net/

Terminal:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/gtk-recordmydesktop
sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install gtk-recordmydesktop

Need to create a screencast? This tool does a good job for me. I like that I can record the whole screen, or just one area. The ability to tweak the video and sound quality is also a nice feature. Output files are in .ogv format, but they can be converted to other formats.

DropBox | apt:nautilus-dropbox| http://www.dropbox.com/

Terminal:
sudo apt-key adv –keyserver pgp.mit.edu –recv-keys 5044912E
sudo aptitude install nautilus-dropbox

A great tool for online backup, file sync, and sharing. For me at least, it’s the easiest way to store, sync, and, share files online. All I have to do is drag and drop files right from my desktop or folder. Also, they have a rewards system to get more space: Automatically sync a folder across computers with Dropbox! Use the following link to receive an extra 250MB for free as I’ll also get extra space too! We both win!

Clonezilla | Download | http://clonezilla.org

While I don’t normally use applications that have no repository (actually this is the only one I made an allowance for). I found this application to be very worthwhile. Why? Once I install Ubuntu and then install all my applications (and configure their settings), I can use Clonezilla to create an image of the disk. This way, if disaster strikes, I can simply restore the image. One caveat – MAKE SURE you have regular backups of all your important files (as you’ll probably not be recreating disk images all of the time). Again there’s no repository (that I’m aware of), but this application is useful.

More applications, etc. will be uploaded when I have extra time. I’ve been very busy on many projects, for the last several months, so it’s good to come back and find a bit of time to blog about Ubuntu related things; something I enjoy!

What applications would you include, what apps do your enjoy, which ones deserve your mention? Feel free to include them in the comments below!

For Ubuntu 8.04 users, please try the instructions below. (I’m not in front of a Hardy, 8.04, box right now, so please comment below if you find I’ve made a mistake; and I will correct it – Thanks). If I recall correctly, these packages are not in the “regular” Ubuntu repositories. To get them installed, we can create the appropriate entries in our sources/list, add the GPG keys and then use Aptitude to complete the installation.

For Google Chrome, try the following steps.

Add the chromium-daily PPA to your sources list:

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

Append the following:

# Chrome Source
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/chromium-daily/ppa/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/chromium-daily/ppa/ubuntu hardy main

Next add the GPG key with this command:

sudo apt-key adv –keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com –recv-keys 4E5E17B5

Update with this command:

sudo aptitude update

Then try to install Chrome withthe following command:

sudo aptitude install chromium-browser

As for Google Earth, I’m sure it’s in the Medibuntu repository. Here are the steps:

Add the Medibuntu source:

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

Append the following:

# Medibuntu Source
deb http://packages.medibuntu.org/ hardy free non-free
deb-src http://packages.medibuntu.org/ hardy free non-free

Next add the GPG key with this command:

wget -q http://packages.medibuntu.org/medibuntu-key.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add

Update with this command:

sudo aptitude update

Now try this install command:

sudo aptitude install googleearth-4.3

Have any suggestions, changes or know another way to do this? Feel free to say so, in the commonts section below.

Many of these commands can increase productivity, etc. by making things (for me at least), easier to do. My system desktop has a transparent terminal integrated into it. This makes it easy for me to run commands as I never have to open a terminal – my desktop in effect, is the terminal.

These are useful commands! Ones that will actually help you do something! Other more common commands (chmod, chown, ls, cd, etc.) can be found elsewhere on the Internet. I tried to stay away from such basic commands, unless they were really useful (like rebooting).

Hopefully, the following will help out some of my readers. If you’ve some good commands, feel free to comment!

1) To find out the processes running that use the most memory. When things are running slower than I want, and am looking for which processes I can kill:

ps aux | sort -nrk 4 | head

2) To see the version of the installed package, when I’m considering an application upgrade:

apt-cache policy xxxxxx (where xxxxxx is the name of the package).

3) To mount an ISO image, so that I don’t have to burn it if I don’t want the ISO after review:

mount /xxx/image-file.iso /mnt/cdrom -o loop (where xxx is the path).

4) Find out where that newly installed package went. This happens to me a lot… I just installed it, where did it go?

whereis xxxxxx (where xxxxxx is the package name).

5) Ever reinstalled an app to find the old configuration still working? This will purge the config files of Ubuntu packages:

sudo aptitude purge `dpkg –get-selections | grep deinstall | awk ‘{print $1}’`

6) Go back and look at the commands I ran, when I’m to lazy:

history

7) Remove a .deb package (obviously not installed via aptitude), this way I was not afraid to download and use .deb files if the package was not available within Ubuntu or launchpad repositories:

sudo dpkg -r xxxxxx (where xxxxxx is the name of the package).

8) Create an image (.iso) of a CD or DVD – For me this is the easiest:

mkisofs -r -o xxxxxx.iso /cdrom/ (where xxxxxx is the name for the file).

9) Make a backup of a file before editing (such as sources.list). I learned the hard way, ALWAYS backup a file (that’s a .bak file for me) before making changes to it:

sudo cp /xxxxxx/sources.list /xxxxxx/sources.list.bak

10) Add (append) entry to sources.list – For me it’s a simple easy way to do this than clicking my way through the GUI:

sudo echo “xxxxxx” >> /etc/apt/sources.list (where xxxxxx is the address you want to add).

11) Erase a re-writable CD (CDRW), for me at least, musch faster than using a GUI:

cdrecord -v dev=/dev/cdrom blank=fast

12) Reboot a system or server, when I’m installing or making changes via SSH, that require a reboot:

sudo shutdown -r now

13) Get a fast text list (called “installed-packages”) of what’s installed on my system:

dpkg –get-selections > installed-packages

14) Simple way to kill a process, I’m too often lazy to find the process ID:

killall xxxxxx (where xxxxxx is the name of the process)

15) Quickly remove downloaded package manager updates, when no longer needed:

sudo aptitude autoclean

16) Easily add a downloaded key to the repository sources (for aptitude/apt-get):

sudo apt-key add xxxxxx.gpg (where xxxxxx is the name of the key file).

17) Force CD to eject the disk:

sudo umount /media/cdrom0/ -l

18) Security… leave the terminal open, but remove sudo passwords so there are no “issues”:

sudo -k

19) Sometimes I need to change a bit of text in several files. Instead of opening each one to edit, I do this instead:

grep -lr -e ‘xxxxxx’ * | xargs sed -i ‘s/xxxxxx/yyyyyy/g’

Note: xxxxxx is the word you want to change (replace) and yyyyyy is the new word you want used.

20) Fast way to convert .ps (postscript – print to file format) to PDF:

ps2pdf xxxxxx.ps xxxxxx.pdf (where xxxxxx is the name of the file).

Don’t have the command ps2pdf? sudo aptitude install ghostscript or apt:ghostscript

As usual, I hope some of these help someone – Let me know! Don’t forget to add your comments below.

“I restored ubuntu 8.04 and it wanted to do 188 updates and then 294 updates. The problem is it takes up all disc space and then the system is unstable. What can be done to fix this problem? Thanks”

There is a way you can approach  this…

1) Only select a few updates at a time (that way the package manager will not download all 188 or 294 updates). Doing so gives you the opportunity to remove some of those used package updates (saving disk space) before you begin the next update session.

2) After each (edited) update session has completed, you can remove the downloaded update packages by issuing the following terminal command:

sudo aptitude autoclean

The above command will remove the incomplete (and I think, already installed) updates.

3) You can also “clean” your hard drive to remove locale file that you don’t need on your computer. To do this, you can install localepurge (apt:localepurge) via the command:

sudo aptitude install localepurge

4) Finally, remove orphaned packages and files using deborphan (apt:deborphan). You can install via the command

sudo aptitude install deborphan

5) Also, you can remove purge any application packages off your hard drive removing files, directories, etc. (that you don’t need). The syntax for a terminal command would be:

sudo aptitude purge xxx (where xxx is the name of the package).

Example to remove mono and its library; would be sudo aptitude purge mono-common libmono0 (Side note: removing Mono, will remove some of your applications).

I hope the above information helps you.

Update June 16, 2009: Steven and Coder’s Wasteland has taken this post even further! In my opinion, he’s done a great job in providing a bash script that implements all the changes described in this post. Way to go Steven! You can read more about that (and get the script) at: Initial Ubuntu Install Items Script.

Update June 19, 2009: Steven and Coder’s Wasteland has migrated the script from a CLI to a GUI based one! Check it out at: Install Initial Ubuntu Items GUI.

1) sudo aptitude install sbackup

Nothing is worse that losing all your important data (pictures, email messages, music, documents, etc.) The above command will install Simple Backup Suite (more details found on Sourceforge). For me at least it’s a great desktop backup solution. I can select which directories I want backed up (full and incremental), then have backups automatically transfered to my external network storage. I play a lot with my computer, I often break something as a result. With sbackup, I can be more confident as it’s easy to restore data (in the event I have to reinstall an application or even worse… the OS itself). You can also install via:

apt:sbackup

2) sudo aptitude install ubuntu-restricted-extras && sudo aptitude install w64codecs

If you enjoy music, videos, and so forth, you’ll want to install the extra media codecs and packages that will allow you to play almost any desktop media format (mov, mpg, avi, wmv, mp3 and so on). I wrote a detailed post:  “Build a Web Developer PC and Enable Most Media Playback Using Ubuntu Linux“, which provides a bit more of an in depth explanation of the above command (including editing the sources.list to include mediabuntu). Note: If you have a 32 Bit system, change the the “w64codec” part of the command to say “w32codecs” instead. You can also install these packages via:

apt:ubuntu-restricted-extras

apt:w64codecs

3) sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts && sudo fc-cache -fv

I like having the same fonts used by Windows users. People often send me .doc files, so I want to ensure I have at least the core fonts they use. The above command installes the Microsoft core fonts and then reloads the font cache. I’ve posted about this before at “How to Install TTF and CTF Fonts in Ubuntu“, which contains far more detail. You can also install the core fonts via:

apt:msttcorefonts

4) sudo aptitude install vlc

I prefer not to try juggling with the use of different applications to play different media types. VLC plays all the media types I access. For me at least, it’s the singular application I use to play everything from an MP3 file to a DVD video (and incidentally, vlc can stream your media to other computers, even to the television!). Of course you can click the apt link and install via:

apt:vlc

5) sudo aptitude install k3b

Even though I use gnome, I still install k3b, which is (in my opinion) among the best DVD/CD burners around. I find the interface  intuitive and easy to use. There’s a post containing more applications at “Top 100 of the Best (Useful) OpenSource Applications“. Using apt links, we can also install k3b via:

apt:k3b

6) Enable surround sound right away. I’ve an earlier post at Enable 5.1 Surround Sound on Linux – Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy, but the jist of the instructions is to edit

sudo gedit /etc/pulse/daemon.conf and change the line that says:

; default-sample-channels = 2

to say

default-sample-channels = 6

7) Use the “Windows” Key.

I prefer using keyboard shortcuts instead of the point and click mouse. Thankfully, there’s an easy way to turn your keyboards “Windows key” into an Ubuntu key.

Go to: System -> Preferences -> Keyboard Shortcuts

Scroll down to the action “Show panel menu” and click on it. (The phrase “New accelerator menu…” will appear).

Now simply press your Windows key once. (You’ll see the accelerator now says “Super L”). Select the “Close” option and you’ll see that your Windows key now works. Note: If you ever want to change it back to the default (for Hardy 8.04), the original setting is Alt f1.

8) Make gedit remember more documents.

I often use gedit to quickly edit files in a GUI environment. I often wish gedit would remember more of the documents I edit. That way I don’t have to surf through the file system. There’s a simple way to ensure gedit remembers more of the files you edit:

sudo gconf-editor

In the window that appears (using the above command), select

apps -> gedit2 -> preferences -> ui -> recent

Select the “max_recents” key and change the default of 5 to 10

9) Increase the start speed of multi-core CPU systems.

This will slow down systems that  have a single CPU. For multi core CPUs, we can change the services to all start together (in parallel) during boot time. The command to do this is;

sudo perl -i -pe ‘s/CONCURRENCY=none/CONCURRENCY=shell/’ /etc/init.d/rc

and then reboot with

sudo shutdown -r now

10) Finally, I sometimes need to run application that are for another OS (not Ubuntu Linux). Virtualization is the answer and allows me to run the other application without using Wine ore rebooting into another OS. You can install Virtualbox:

sudo aptitude install virtualbox

If you’re interested, more information about VirtualBox can be found by visiting the about VirtualBox page. Again, here’s the apt link to install virtualbox:

apt:virtualbox

A bonus tip!

I’m often asked how to uninstall a .deb package. The command to facilitate that is:

sudo dpkg -r package_name

I hope these tips help some of you out there! How strong is your Kung Fu? -> If you’ve any tips or tweaks you think should be here, please feel free to drop them in your comments below!

First off, there some other applications I use, namely:

xVidCap. This facilitates screen capturing video so that I can create tutorial videos. After which ffmpeg can be used to convert the captured video to flv format for web streaming.  If you’re interested, they have a couple instructional videos: Video 1 and Video 2. To install it, the command is:

sudo aptitude install xvidcap

Also, to be able to quickly find the differences between file versions I use TkDiff File Comparison and Meld. Both allow me to open different versions and display where files differ. These are particularly helpful if you access files from different locations and then need to troubleshoot changes. To install:

sudo aptitude install tkdiff

sudo aptitude install meld

In my personal case, this became more useful when I tried out Unison. As explained on the Unison web site:

“…Unison is a file-synchronization tool for Unix and Windows. It allows two replicas of a collection of files and directories to be stored on different hosts (or different disks on the same host), modified separately, and then brought up to date by propagating the changes in each replica to the other…“

While I’m mentioning Unison, I should point out that I had a horrible experience with it (Note: I did not read the manual). In my opinion it’s a great idea, and I am truly waiting for the latest versions, however I did have issues (which I have not been able to resolve yet):

It advertises that synchronization can also occur between Linux and Windows systems (or Linux to Linux systems).

My reality with regards to Windows :

• Linux can connect to Windows, but then the connection is lost with an error message after supplying the correct password.
• Window can connect to Linux and does begin searching for changes, but then the application freezes, becomes unresponsive, network traffic is almost zero and CPU load shoots to 100% if you try to stop.
• For it to work the same version needs to be installed on both machines.
• Compiling from source did not work on Ubuntu 8.04 as it indicated there were errors in the make file (yet the sudo aptitude install unison-gtk command does succeed – So I know all dependencies and libraries are already available)
• Currently it does not work. (However other solutions like rsync etc. work without any issues or much hair pulling).
• There is no option to delete a profile.
• Importantly, the FTP synchronization option is not available.

I really hope I can get this going – But it’s slow as it’s taken me almost 5 hours to try and get it working – to no avail. I wish there would be the same updated versions for all platforms available as packaged binaries (I think this would make things easier).

imgSeek is another useful tool that manages graphic collection and has the unique search capability where you can provide a rough sketch of the image you are looking for – And the results will be returned. No more having to use tags! In my opinion that is a great feature. You can view the screenshot of the search feature.

Many of the other web design and development related tools are also Firefox extensions:

Codetch allows me to edit files right inside Firefox. It’s a little bit like Bluefish.

Copy Plain Text gives you the ability to copy and paste text without all the formatting.

W3C CSS Validator does exactly that – validate that your CSS is formatted to the correct standards.

CSSViewer allows you to hover your mouse around a web page and see a small box that clearly shows all the CSS element in effect for any object or area.

EditCSS allows you to edit the CSS of any web page in real time and see the immediate changes, then you can simply copy and paste the change into your final style.css file.

Firebug is a robust extension that allows you to live debug and monitor CSS, HTML, JavaScript, etc. actions and results. It’s a good tool for troubleshooting issues.

Web Developer provides a tool bar with lots (and lots…) of development tools! If you’re only going to check one of these extensions, this is the one to look at!

Side note: I’ve often been asked what the “Ubuntu Firefox Modifications” extension does (as there is no ability to edit the preferences for it). It’s function is to allow installation of Firefox add ons via the Ubuntu package manager, however I’ve not played with that yet.

Finally, one issue I’ve found very helpful is to tweak how Firefox operates, in other words making it function faster. The video below provides a good guide to tweaking Firefox for speed improvements:

Hopefully the revisit of this topic helps answer questions as well as improving the web developer and designer productivity in an Ubuntu Linux environment.

For those who need it, here’s a quick fix when you get an error message like this:

“W: Failed to fetch http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/f/ffmpeg/libpostproc1d_0.cvs20070307-5ubuntu7.2_amd64.deb Size mismatch”

It’s an error I received when the auto update feature was working in Ubuntu Linux. I double checked my sources.list file, but it was okay.

After a bit of tinkering, here’s how to fix that.

Open a terminal and enter the following command:

sudo aptitude  clean

And then:

sudo aptitude update

After this the updates re-downloaded and everything worked. If you prefer “apt-get” you can substitute it in place of the “aptitude” command.

The logic behind this was that perhaps the downloaded files themselves, were corrupt. If they are already in the local repository, they will not download again. Hence the “clean” option. “Clean” empties the local repository of downloaded packages (but it does not delete the lock file). Using the clean option occasionally can be helpful in conserving disk space.

The second command that featured the “update” option, resynchronized the package files from their sources. This means that the .gz files (at the source) were scanned for new and updated information – if any is available. When making changes to the sources.list file, this command (update) should be run before doing any upgrading.

Hope this helps some of you out there! :)

In some ways I was bothered about this. Why? I work best with Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effects, Dreamweaver, WinSCP, Flash and so on. I felt like I was going to lose all the productivity these applications provided. I enjoy being able to double click media and play it automatically, same goes with DVD movies, etc. In Linux, I’ve often encountered problems with media playback as the media usually includes restricted formats, MP3 for example. On the developer/designer side, I was not looking forward (nor do I have time) to a steep learning curve.

This post (hopefully) will show the desktop user how to enable all the restricted media playbacks (movie DVD, music MP3, etc.)

It will also show web developers and designers some of the issues, applications and work arounds – Or at least the current state of them.

First off, let’s deal with the media issues. I built this PC using Ubuntu 8.04 LTS 64Bit (Hardy). I did try installing 8.10 64Bit but found that the network cards did not properly work. After much investigation, I also discovered out that I would benefit best using a release with LTS “Long Term Support”, as apparently there was better hardware support – So I’m waiting for 9.04 (still in alpha 6 release as of this post).

One of my favourite tools is aptitude. I used to prefer apt-get, however I found out that aptitude does a better job in removing applications. Aptitude will also remove the dependencies when a package is removed. apt-get will not do that (and I don’t think synaptic will either – someone please correct me if I’m wrong). I almost always use aptitude, this way my system (and hard drive space) is keep cleaner whenever I use aptitude to remove packages.

In order to install some of the applications and enable some of the media formats, we’ll need to edit your sources.list file. You can use nano, gedit, etc. An example terminal command is below:

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

The above command will open a window with the gedit application containing your sources.list file. MAKE SURE that you have no mistakes (syntax or otherwise) in the file. If you do, you’ll get an error message when using aptitude and will have to edit the file. Therefore, make a BACKUP of the /etc/apt/sources.list file that you can later revert back to BEFORE editing it.

Below is a copy of my sources.list file – As you may see, I’ve added some addresses (sources) to it:

# Main and Restricted
deb http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy main restricted
deb http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-security main restricted
deb http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates main restricted
deb-src http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy main restricted
deb-src http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-security main restricted
deb-src http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates main restricted

# Universe
deb http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy universe
deb http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-security universe
deb-src http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy universe
deb-src http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-security universe

# Multiverse
deb http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy multiverse
deb http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-security multiverse
deb-src http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy multiverse
deb-src http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-security multiverse

# Canonical
deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ hardy partner

# Medibuntu
deb http://packages.medibuntu.org/ hardy free non-free
deb-src http://packages.medibuntu.org/ hardy free non-free

# Third Parties
deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian hardy non-free

If you have a repository in your sources.list file (that I do not, remember to make sure that you include it!

A couple things about the above edit:

I use ca. within the URL because I’m in Canada. Change the ca. to whatever your country is. Also, Ubuntu Linux 8.04 is called “Hardy”, if you are using 8.10 “Intrepid” (or earlier versions) then change “Hardy” to the name of your distribution.

As seen above, we added the mediabuntu repository source, but we still have to add the public key. If we don’t we’ll get a message from aptitude that indicates the source cannot be verified. Here’s how to add the public key via terminal commands:

Download the key:

wget http://packages.medibuntu.org/medibuntu-key.gpg

Add the key:

sudo apt-key add medibuntu-key.gpg

Now let’s make sure that we update the repositories with this command:

sudo aptitude update

And then let’s upgrade everything:

aptitude full-upgrade

The above command can also be issued as aptitude dist-upgrade (the old name – which still works).

***Warning***
This command will attempt to upgrade packages. It is aggressive with solving dependency problems. It will install and remove packages until all dependencies are satisfied. Because of this, it is possible that undesirable things may happen to your system and/or application. Therefore you should be careful when using it! Back up FIRST.

Now we’re ready to start installing some media playback and file sharing capabilities. Particularly:

• Multimedia Codecs.
• DVD playback.
• Java plugin.
• DVD (and CD) burning.
• Some Compilers.
• File/Printer sharing.

All the following commands are using aptitude via terminal commands.

Let’s start with the codecs:

sudo aptitude install ubuntu-restricted-extras && sudo aptitude install w64codecs

For 32 Bit users, use substitute this codec command:  sudo aptitude install w32codecs

Don’t forget to install the restricted extras:

sudo aptitude install ubuntu-restricted-extras

Now let’s get that DVD movie playing capability working:

sudo aptitude install libdvdcss2 && sudo aptitude install libdvdnav4 && sudo aptitude install gxine && sudo aptitude install libxine-main1 && sudo aptitude install libxine-extracodecs && sudo aptitude install libxine-ffmpeg && sudo aptitude install vlc && sudo aptitude install mplayer

And some DVD/CD burning software. I prefer K3B – But you can substitute any other one you prefer:

sudo aptitude install k3b

Let’s enable compiling:

sudo aptitude install build-essential

(If you want documentation, install it too: sudo aptitude install manpages-dev glibc-doc).

Let’s install a couple extra things like NFS (Network File Sharing), NTP (Network Time Protocol) and NIS (Network Information System) like so:

sudo aptitude install nfs-common && sudo aptitude install ntp && sudo aptitude install nis

Were pretty much done with the multimedia, but there are a couple application related things we’re going to install:

Flash player for Firefox can be obtained from Adobe by  downloading the .deb version (Adobe Flash Player version 10.0.22.87 as of this post). This will allow you to save a file called “install_flash_player_10_linux.deb”. Simply double click the file to begin installation.

While we’re working with Firefox, let’s turn it into a web developer tool with the following extensions:

Installing the Web Developer Toolbar, allows for the inclusion of some productive tools, such as:

• Editing CSS.
• Disabling CSS.
• Outlining images or finding broken ones.
• Displaying ID and Class details.
• View response headers.
• Edit HTML.
• Outline tables, elements, etc.
• And tons more!

Let’s also install Firebug so that you can edit, monitor and debug various web site scripting.

The use of MeasureIt helps in that you use it to  obtain width and height form any element you draw in your browser screen. It’s like a drag and stop (width/height)  ruler.

When developing or editing files displayed in my browser screen, I often copy and paste content. Unfortunately, Firefox will also copy the formating that’s been applied to the text. The extension, Copy Plain Text fixes this for me, now I get exactly what I want – Text only.

I do like using Shutter to capture full web page screen shots, so here’s how we install it according to the Shutter web site like this:

Include the repository and key:

wget -q http://shutter-project.org/shutter-ppa.key -O- | sudo apt-key add -

The above is for the stable releases. For more installation information or other methods you can visit Shutter Downloads.

In terms of development tools, many of them have already been listed in our Top 100 of the Best (Useful) OpenSource Applications post. However, there are a few that I’d particularly mention below.

Blender, Gimp and Inkspace. I’m not suggesting that Gimp or Inkspace are substitutes for Photoshop or Illustrator, rather they are an option. While they can produce the same resulting artwork, I find they require a steeper learning curve. Particularly steep in that the keyboard shortcuts are different, the names of many of the interface tools are different and/or they function in a different way. I’ve found several site with some great tutorials for both Gimp and Inkscape, however I don’t have the time (or motivation) to learn new applications. In my personal opinion, the GIMP interface is a horrid mess, but that is probably because I am used to the Photoshop interface. I think GIMP would be adopted much more readily if they improved the interface to be more intuitive and similar to Photoshop – But that’s simply what I think, I’m not the GIMP expert here.

One tool I use to enable continued use of Photoshop, etc. is VirtualBox. VirtualBox provides a virtual environment in which I can install a Windows based environment and any applications I wish (including Flash, etc.) – Hopefully Adobe will soon release Linux versions of their software as I think it is a huge market for them to tap into. After I’ve configured that environment, I can take a snapshot. If the virtual Windows installation or applications ever fail or become corrupted, I can simply restore the snapshot to bring the environment back to a working state – Voilà a quick 2 minute fix instead of reinstalling everything. Also, the virtual environment facilitates an optional shared directory on the host OS (that’s the Ubuntu Linux installation), so that I can access and store input and output files. If the virtually installed OS crashes, I still have that data within the Linux host installation.

To install VirtualBox, please follow the guide posted here: Installing VirtualBox 2.0.0 On Ubuntu 8.04 Desktop. Or use sudo aptitude install virtualbox as the repository is already in your sources.list file (above).

As web development is no longer simple HTML pages, but rather full multimedia, below are more of the development tools I’d suggest exploring:

• Bluefish Editor – Script editor – apt:bluefish
• Meld Diff Viewer – apt:meld
• Ardour – Audio editor – apt:ardour
• Audacity – Audio editor – apt:audacity
• Avidmux -Video editor – apt:avidmux
• Kino -Video editor – apt:kino
• Gftp – FTP client – apt:gftp
• Kompozer – Script editor – apt:kompozer
• puTTY – SSH client – apt:putty

The above applications are all available via aptitude or getdeb.net or by clicking the “apt” links above.

Finally, in order to have fonts consistent with Windows (and other) users, we may want to install some of the Windows based fonts like this:

sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts

This will install the True Type Fonts (TTF).

Now simply update the shared font  directories with this command:

sudo fc-cache -f -v

If you’d like CTF (Clear Type Fonts) the How to Install TTF and CTF Fonts in Ubuntu post will help you with that.

This just about covers most everything. These further resources can help you:

Medibuntu.

Converting MP3s to Ogg-Vorbis.

Enabling 5.1 Surround Sound.

Playing Blu-Ray and HD DVD Video.

If you think I’ve missed anything or you’ve an idea, feel free to comment about it! – cheers! :)