Ubuntu - OpenSource is Better

Use Remmina to satisfy all your remote connection needs

Remmina is a remote desktop client that supports multiple network protocols — RDP, VNC, NX, XDMCP and SSH — in a nice and very user-friendly GUI.

In its basic usage, you only need to know the protocol, the server address, username and password.

Remmina basic connection tab

This works perfectly if you are in the same LAN. For connections over the internet, Remmina can tunnel through SSH, configured in the SSH tab:

Remmina SSH tunnel settings

It supports RDP for Windows machines, VNC for Linux desktops, and NX for remote sessions. All saved in a single, clean interface.

Enjoy!

Install NX server/client on Ubuntu Lucid

My favourite NX server is Freenx.
FreeNX is a GPL implementation of the NX server/client that allows you to graphically access your machine over the Internet.
FreeNX runs natively on SSH, it’s open source and, above all, fast.

So, first of all you need to add the free-nx repository:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:freenx-team

and then update and install freenx:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install freenx

The client I use instead, is from NoMachine.
The Linux version can be download from here.
If you use a different Ubuntu version you can follow the Freenx documentation.

Enjoy!

How to install Firefox 5 on Ubuntu Lucid

The Firefox version bundled with Ubuntu Lucid is still 3.6. It is stable but definitely not the fastest browser around, especially with Chrome and Chromium raising the bar on speed.

The best way to keep Firefox up to date is to let Mozilla do the work with their own repository.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/firefox-stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install firefox

This adds the Mozilla team PPA and installs the latest stable Firefox. After that, updates come through the regular apt-get upgrade cycle.

Enjoy!

How to fix GRUB 2 with Ubuntu live cd

When GRUB fails and your system won’t boot, the errors can be intimidating. But fixing it with a live CD is straightforward.

Boot from an Ubuntu live CD or USB. Once the desktop loads, open a terminal.

First, mount your root partition:

sudo mkdir /mnt/newroot
sudo mount /dev/sdxy /mnt/newroot

Bind the virtual filesystems:

sudo mount --bind /dev /mnt/newroot/dev
sudo mount --bind /proc /mnt/newroot/proc
sudo mount --bind /sys /mnt/newroot/sys

Chroot into your system:

sudo chroot /mnt/newroot

Reinstall GRUB:

sudo grub-install /dev/sdx
sudo update-grub

Exit the chroot, unmount everything, and reboot. Remove the live CD when prompted.

For UEFI systems, the command changes slightly:

sudo grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi

If you can still reach a grub rescue prompt, try booting manually:

set root=(hd0,msdos1)
set prefix=(hd0,msdos1)/boot/grub
insmod normal
normal

Enjoy!

Sharing Internet connection trough an ethernet card with Ubuntu

If you have more than one network card (wireless and ethernet, like in a normal laptop) you can share your Internet connection with another computer via the ethernet cable. “When should I need such a thing?” you say. I know, I know… let me explain. :-)

The other day I was working on a Linux laptop that doesn’t have an integrated wireless card and the USB one had not been recognised after a fresh install. I needed to install a package to make it work but had no Internet. Classic Linux chicken-and-egg problem, isn’t it? :-)

Here is how you do it. Go to System > Preferences > Network Connections, click on the “Wired” tab and add or edit an existing connection. In the IPv4 Settings tab, change the “Method” to “Shared to other computers”.

Network connections in Ubuntu Lucid

Editing network connection in Ubuntu Lucid

If the graphical tool is not available, you can also set this up from the command line:

sudo ifconfig eth0 10.42.0.1 netmask 255.255.255.0 up
sudo iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o wlan0 -j MASQUERADE
sudo sh -c "echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward"

This gives the connected machine an IP in the 10.42.0.x range and forwards traffic through your wireless interface.

Enjoy sharing!

Virtualbox USB devices not working on Ubuntu Lucid

There is a known problem between Ubuntu Lucid as host OS and Virtualbox 3.2 when it comes to USB devices. Everything works fine except the USB controller — the devices show up greyed out in the guest OS.

If you have the same symptoms, it is likely a permission problem. Check that your user is a member of the “vboxusers” group.

You can do this through the GUI: System > Administration > “Users and Groups”. Click on “Manage Groups”, scroll down to “vboxusers” and check if your user is listed. If not, add it. :-)

You can also check from the command line:

groups $USER

If “vboxusers” is not in the output, add your user to the group with:

sudo usermod -aG vboxusers $USER

You will need to log out and back in for the group change to take effect. In some cases a full restart is required.

That is it.

Open file graphically as administrator from Nautilus – Ubuntu

Working in the terminal is fine, but sometimes you’re browsing folders in Nautilus and you just want to right-click a config file and open it as root without typing commands. There used to be a package called nautilus-gksu for this, but it was deprecated years ago and removed from modern Ubuntu releases.

Here’s how to do it now.

Option 1: nautilus-admin (recommended)

The modern replacement is nautilus-admin, a Nautilus Python extension that adds “Open as Administrator” and “Edit as Administrator” to the right-click menu:

sudo apt install nautilus-admin

After installing, restart Nautilus:

nautilus -q

Now right-click any file or folder and you’ll see “Open as Administrator” in the menu. It’ll prompt for your password via pkexec and open a Nautilus window with root privileges.

Option 2: Use the admin:// URI

If you prefer not to install anything, you can type this directly into Nautilus’s location bar:

admin:///path/to/folder

Nautilus will prompt for your password and show the specified folder with root access. It’s not integrated into the right-click menu, but it works without any extra packages.

Enjoy!

How to install Miro 3.5 on Ubuntu 10.04

Miro 3.5 has been released. The major improvement, in my opinion, is the ability to convert video and audio files for other devices — Android OS for example.

Ubuntu 10.04 is bundled with Miro 3.0. To upgrade, add the repository:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pcf/miro-releases
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install miro

Miro 3.5 screenshot

Enjoy the file conversion! :-)

How to install the latest version of Shotwell under Ubuntu Lucid (10.04)

From Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat), Shotwell is the new default photo manager. I tried it under Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) but the latest version was not available in the standard repositories.

To install the latest version on Lucid, add the Shotwell PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:shotwell/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install shotwell

Shotwell screenshot

Give it a try and see if it suits your needs!

Web Developer Tools app Review

WDT (Web Developer Tools) is a suite of many different tools for web developers. Not all of them are useful to me but they might be to you… ;-)

It includes an HTTP header viewer, an HTML/CSS inspector, a JavaScript console, a cookie manager, and more. All packed into a single app.

Web Developer Tools screenshot

For instance, I find it useful how quickly you can inspect the HTTP headers of a page to debug redirects or caching issues. It is the kind of tool that saves you from opening Firebug or Chrome DevTools for quick checks.

Give it a try if you do any web development! :-)