1. Install Media Codecs:

Since not all types of Media formats are “completely” free and open source, Ubuntu does not provide them by default with the installation. For example if you want to listen to Mp3, watch flash videos or play an avi file, you have to install these media codecs. Ubuntu has bundeled the codecs for most common type of media formats in what it calls “ubuntu-restricted-extras”. Use the following command in terminal to install this package:

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

2. Install Additional Drivers:

Some propriety drivers such as Broadcom wireless drivers or nVidia graphics drivers are not installed by default in Ubuntu. Ubuntu has now moved the “Additional Drivers” to Software Sources. Previously it was available in Unity Dash. To install additional drivers, open software sources:

And then go to Additional Drivers tab to find the available additional drivers for your computer:

3. Install GIMP

Previously, GIMP was dropped from Ubuntu so as to keep the final ISO image size less than 700MB. Though Ubuntu 12.10 has dropped the 700 MB CD version, GIMP is still not included in it. Install GIMP in terminal:

sudo apt-get install gimp

4. Install Cloud Storage:

Ubuntu comes pre-installed with its default cloud storage service Ubuntu One that offers 5 GB of free storage. You just need to login (or create an account for it). I am not sure if many people use Ubuntu One but Dropbox is definitely used by a huge number of people. Undoubtedly it is the king when it comes to cloud storage and sync services. You can install Dropbox in terminal:

sudo apt-get install nautilus-dropbox

Alternatively, you can install it from its website.

5. Install VLC media player:

Ubuntu’s default video player Totem is pretty good in itself but VLC media player is by far the best player to play video files. It plays “almost” all type of video formats. Handles subtitles effectively and the best part is that you can enhance the volume up to 400% of the maximum you can get from your computer. Believe me, it helps a lot when you have a video/movie with really low audio. Install the VLC media player in terminal:

sudo apt-get install vlc

6. Set a Backup:

Most people just skip this step deeming it complicated or feeling lazy about it. Though the truth is, it is ridiculously easy to setup a backup. Trust me on this, having a backup saves your behind in unfortunate events. Ubuntu’s default backup program Deja Dup is really easy to configure. Just locate all your important files and/or directories and save it (preferably) to a remote location such as external storage or Dropbox/Ubuntu One.

7. Tweak Ubuntu Unity:

Though Ubuntu 12.10 has stunning looks yet it does not mean you should not customize it to your own preference. There are a number of tools available to customize desktop settings like themes, icons, fonts, login-settings, unity launcher, unity lens behavior, graphics effects, startup applications etc. Two popular tools to tweak the settings in Ubuntu are MyUnity and Ubuntu Tweak.

Install Ubuntu Unity:

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

Install Ubuntu Tweak:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tualatrix/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-tweak

8. Install Chromium or Google Chrome Web Browser:

Some people will just swear by Mozilla Firefox. But as an experienced computer user you may agree that it is better to have two web browsers instead of one for a number of reason and ease of use is one of them. The best alternate to the default Mozilla Web Browser is Chromium Web Browser. Chromium is an open source project and the popular web browser Google Chrome is based on it. You can install either of the two. Chromium can be found in Ubuntu Software Center while Chrome can be downloaded from its homepage. If for some (unknown) reason you do not like Chrome, then Opera is a worthy opponent of Firefox.

9. Install Useful Indicator Applets:

There are a number of indicator applets that will greatly enhanced your desktop experience. These app indicators lie on the top panel and the users can use these applets to control and/or access the application without even opening it. Some of the basic but necessary applets are weather indicator, performance indicator etc. Check the complete list of must have applet indicators for Ubuntu for more information.

10. Turn Off Amazon Shopping Suggestions [Optional]:

You might have heard of the recent monetizing effort from Canonical which has triggered heated discussion across the Linux world. Canonical partnered with Amazon to show shopping results in suggestions each time you searched for anything in Unity dash (and believe me, the suggestions are mostly irrelevant and outright stupid). The huge uproar forced Ubuntu to provide a way to turn off these online shopping suggestions. This is more of a work around than a solution as it turns off all internet based searches for all the lenses and not just Amazon. So you will no longer be able to use your favorite Unity lens. In case, you really cannot withstand these sponsored search suggestions, turn it off using the following command:

sudo apt-get remove unity-lens-shopping

This was from the top of my to do list after installing Ubuntu. What do you do after installing Ubuntu? Do share your experience with us.

The post 10 Things To Do After Installing Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

1. Web Apps

Ubuntu’s Web App feature integrates your favorite website with your Ubuntu desktop. This means you can now receive new email alerts, Facebook notifications etc. via the Ubuntu’s desktop notification. You can control several music streaming sites from Ubuntu sound menu. You can see the headlines from top news sites in Ubuntu’s native notification. This new feature will significantly change the way you used your favorite sites.

Read more about Web Apps.

2. Remote Login

Ubuntu 12.10 includes the option of remote login to your Ubuntu machine at the start up. It also means that you no longer needs to login in to the local Ubuntu system. You need to set up Ubuntu Remote Login Account on the desired remote machine to use this feature.

3. Sponsored Amazon and Ubuntu One suggestions in Unity Dash

From Ubuntu 12.10 onward, if you search for anything, be it music files, documents, applications in Unity Dash, it will show you sponsored search results from Amazon and Ubuntu One. Canonical earns revenue on every hit (or purchase) made through these suggestions. A lot has been discussed about this sponsored Amazon suggestions in recent days. It has angered many Ubuntu lovers and some have gone on to the extent of accusing Mark Shuttleworth (founder of Canonical) of commercializing Linux. Talks are going on to make these sponsored suggestions optional but nothing has been cemented for now.

4. Unity Preview

One of the main attraction of the new Unity 6.6 is the Preview feature of Dash. Earlier when you searched for anything in Ubuntu Unity Dash, it had only one option – open with the default application. With Unity Preview, you can “preview” searched results in the Dash itself rather than opening it. When you right-click on any file/folder in Unity Dash, it will give you some information either from web or from Ubuntu Software Center (if it’s an application). This adds a new degree of freedom and comfort.

5. Update Manger revamped as Software Updater

The famed Ubuntu Update Manager has been given the pink slip in the new Ubuntu 12.10. It is bound to be replaced by new and fresh looking Software Updater. Functioning similar to Update Manager, it has a little different UI than its predecessor. It checks for the new updates in the following manner:

Once it is done checking, it informs you about the new updates available in similar fashion to Update Manager:

The Software Updater is not available in the system settings any more. It is just another application in Ubuntu 12.10. The name change is a positive step as it will be more clear for new Ubuntu users what the Software Updater does while it was (a bit) ambiguous with Update Manager.

6. Additional Driver

The propriety additional drivers are no longer available as a s separate entity. In previous versions, you could just search for additional drivers in Unity Dash but it has been moved to Software Sources in Ubuntu 12.10. There is a new Additional Drivers tab in Software Sources. It lists all the propriety drivers available for your system. Propriety drivers are provided by the hardware manufacturers and Ubuntu developers cannot tweak it to work with Ubuntu.

7. Full Disk Encryption

Finally full disk encryption arrives in Ubuntu desktop. While installing Ubuntu 12.10, it now gives you the option of full disk encryption and LVM (Logical Volume Manager). These two features did not have native support in Ubuntu Desktop until now.

Lets discuss a little about what is full disk encryption and what benefits does it have. Lets say your computer got stolen. It was password protected of course but it takes less than 2 minutes to crack Ubuntu root password. What now? Your data is at the mercy of the thief. Disk encryption is your savior in this case. When your disk is encrypted, it can only be accessed with the encryption key and thus it gives your data a military like protection.

8. System Settings Options

The System Settings menu (on the top right corner, gear symbol) has been changed as well. It no longer hosts the update information, monitor options or start up application information. On the other hand, it now gives the option “About This Computer” to see the configuration of the system. A new Ubuntu Help link is added to the Settings.

9. RIP Ubuntu CD

Ubuntu 12.10 bode farewell to the various CD image options to download and install Ubuntu. All these CD/DVDs are consolidated in to a single image of 800 MB. It also means that one cannot install it from a CD (that has maximum capacity of 700 MB) anymore. Ubutnu has been struggling for sometime to keep all the essential applications packaged in 700 MB and finally it decides to say au revoir to the CD.

10. New Updated Packages

Lastly, Ubuntu 12.10 comes with lots of updated versions of popular applications such as Libre Office 3.6, Gimp 2.8, Gnome 3.5.90, Python 3, Linux Kernel 3.5 etc. It also includes Ubuntu One with improved interface that include the option of “share links” for easier sharing of file and folders.

There are definitely more than these 10 features in Ubuntu 12.10. Still in beta, the list of awesomeness may increase by the time the final version comes out. What you think of the upcoming Ubuntu 12.10? What you like or dislike about it the most? Do you feel any feature that is always missing in Ubuntu and should be included in upcoming releases? Do let us know of your views.

Ubuntu 12.10 will be released on October 18th, 2012

The post 10 Things To Look For In Ubuntu 12.10 appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

The tutorial was performed with Galaxy S2 and Ubuntu 12.04 but it should be valid with any Android Phone and Linux combination.

Install AndroMouse server on Ubuntu:

Go to the AndroMouse website and download the AdroMouse application for your desktop. It used to be a exe file for Winodws, but has been rewritten in Java to ensure cross platform compatibility. The downloaded file is a zip file which can be easily extracted. After extracting, you will see a .jar file (namely, AndroMouse Desktop 2.5.jar).

To run the .jar file, you must have Java installed on your computer. You can follow the instructions here to install Java if it has not been installed. It will work fine with either the Sun JDK or OpenJDK version.

Once you have Java installed, you can right click the .jar file and select the option of “Open With OpenJDK…” or something similar to it.

If that option is missing, open a terminal and type the following:

java -jar /path/to/AndroMouse\ Desktop 2.5.jar

When you successfully run the .jar files you will be greeted with the following screen:

The GUI of the AndroMouse server is ugly and really lame, but it works. Do not be bothered about the “Bluetooth device” tag or server status. We are done on the desktop side. Lets got to Android.

Install AndroMouse client on Android:

Go to Google Play on your Android device and search for AndroMouse Lite version. You can opt for Pro version for an ad-free experience. Once installed, launch the application. It will bring you to the home screen with different options to connect. Select “WiFi” here.

After this, you will be brought to a screen asking for server’s IP address. If you remember in the AndroMouse desktop application, it had shown an IP address. You should enter that. And if you are feeling lazy, then just click on “Detect Server”. That should work as well:

Nothing more needs to be done. If you check in Ubuntu, you can see that the server status has been changed to “connected”.

Back on the Android app, you can use the device as a mouse, keyboard, number pad and function keys. You can switch between them by pressing the square button on the top tight corner:

Some other functionalists are available in Pro version such as media remote, presentation remote etc, but if you don’t want to spend a dollar or so, free version works just fine.

How good is AndroMouse?

First thing first, it is not a replacement of an actual wireless mouse, but it works pretty well. At least the general touchpad works good. The two-finger scroll is sloppy and does not work properly. The keyboard usage is fine. There is also an option of voice controlled input which did not work for me (Indian accent, you see). AndrMouse Lite is quite suitable for some minor usage as wireless remote. Works satisfactory with Ubuntu.

Image Courtesy: AndroMouse.com

The post Setting Up AndroMouse For Android In Ubuntu (Android As A Wireless Mouse) appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

If you want to manage your wallpapers without any special effort, you have the option of using dedicated apps. These apps provides you greater flexibility in wallpaper handling with ease. You can use your favorite pictures individually, in a slideshow that changes picture in user defined time interval. I have sorted out three of such easy-to-use wallpaper apps that will the change the way your desktop looks.

1. Wallch

Wallch lets you create a slideshow of wallpapers of your choice from a set of pictures. These pictures can be stored in multiple directories. You can set the time interval for background change.

Option available to configure it to start at boot time. It is advisable to choose this option otherwise you will have to manually start the application each time you boot in Ubuntu.

Use the following commands in terminal (ctrl+alt+T) to install Wallch in Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install wallch

To remove Wallch in Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get remove wallch

2. Variety

Variety is an applet indicator that lets you create wallpaper slideshow from pictures stored at various location as well as from several different online sources such as Picasa and Flickr. Apart from setting the time interval for the slideshow, you can also apply various filters for blur or oil paint effect on the wallpapers. Since Variety sits in the top panel, you can use it for a quick change in the background image or deleting a wallpaper. To change the settings or configuration select Preference from the drop down:

You can see the different configuration options here. As advised before, select the option to start Variety at start up to enjoy the wallpaper slideshow painlessly.

Use the following commands to install Variety in Ubuntu:

sudo pat-get install variety

Use the following command to remove Variety:

sudo apt-get remove variety

Slidewall:

Slidewall is a complete wallpaper application that provides all the functionalities of Wallch and Variety. In addition, it also provides the option of using Android-style live wallpapers in Ubuntu. It comes with bunch of live wallpaper with option of adding more live wallpapers from different sources. You can select the type of wallpaper you prefer from the settings.

So if you want some good live desktop background (like the one in picture below) and are not feeling comfortable with Conky, Slidewall is the perfect suite for your need.

Use the following command in terminal to install Slidewall:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:fioan89/slidewall
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install slidewall

Use the following command to uninstall slidewall:

sudo apt-get remove slidewall

Hope it helps you in making your Ubuntu desktop look better. What is your favorite way of managing wallpapers? Do you know some better tips for wallpaper management? Do share with us as well.

Image credit: Super Mario Wallpaper

The post 3 Awesome Ubuntu Apps For Wallpaper Slideshow appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

1. Reduce application start up time with Preload:

Preload is a daemon that runs in background and analyzes the user behavior and tracks what applications are being used frequently. Based on these analysis, it predicts what application the user might run next and fetches those binaries and their dependencies into memory and thus increases the startup time of the application.

Install Preload in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) using the following command:

sudo apt-get install preload

At next boot, it will start running automatically. There are no known side effects of Preload, so you can use it without any hesitation.

2. Clean unused temp and log files with BleachBit:

BleachBit is the Linux counterpart of the famed PC optimization and cleaning tool CCleaner. It frees disk space by freeing cache, deleting cookies, removing Internet history, shredding temporary files, deleting logs and removing many such things you never knew about. It also has advance feature that completely removes the files to prevent recovery.

Install BleachBit using in following manner:

sudo apt-get install bleachbit

3. Improve speed with zRam:

zRam is a tool that mimics the swap disk by creating a block in memory which functions as swap space. Since this “virtual swap” is created in RAM, it is much faster than the actual swap disk. If you have poor system configuration with low RAM, ZRAM will work really well. A must have tool for systems with less than 2 GB RAM.

You can install it from the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:shnatsel/zram
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install zramswap-enabler

Or you can simple download the .deb file from here.

4. Speed up boot time by decreasing Grub timeout:

By default, the Grub timeout is set to 10 seconds. Which means that you have to either wait for 10 seconds or press Enter. You can reduce this timeout to, say 2 seconds. This gives you enough time to boot in to Windows (in case of dual boot) or go to Recovery. To change the Grub time out use the following command in terminal:

sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

In this configuration file look for the line: GRUB_TIMEOUT=10. Change the value 10 to any number you want. This signifies the timeout in seconds. Save the file. Run the following command to update the grub file:

sudo update-grub

and see the effect after a reboot.

There are many more ways to get better performance in Ubuntu. Few other things include removing unnecessary application from start up, disabling visual effects, cleaning up apt-cache, using system RAM for /tmp folder to increase I/O interaction speed. What is your favorite trick. Do you have some trick up your sleeve? Do let us know.

The post Four Ways to Speed Up Ubuntu appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

1. Poseidon Linux

Poseidon Linux is an Ubuntu variant for scientists. It is developed and maintained by a group of young scientists from Brazil and Germany. Poseidon comes pre-installed with many software related to GIS, Mapping, CAd, 2D/3D modelling, statistics, genetics etc that are frequently used by Professors, students and scientists. The inclusion of many academics related software and the ease of use have made it a popular Linux distribution among academicians, who usually prefer to stay away from Linux.

2. Vinux

Vinux is an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution for visually impaired people. It is developed by Tony Sales who teaches at National College for the Blind in Hereford, United Kingdom. Tony was frustrated with the default accessibility support provided by mainstream Linux distributions and this is when decided to develop a Linux distribution solely for blinds and partially sighted users.

Vinux provides a screen-reader, full-screen magnification and support for Braille displays out of the box. It can be used alongside Windows or as the sole operating system. It has been developed in such a way that a visually impaired person can install it on his/her own without much effort. A great OS, I would say.

3. Mathbuntu

Now, don’t run away from this Ubuntu just because you saw Math in its name. Mathbuntu is an Ubuntu based Linux distribution exclusively for maths lovers (yes! this species exists and I am one of them). Mathbuntu comes with bunch of free and open source Mathematics software. It also comes with lots of free textbooks. It has two variants available – one based on Ubuntu and other based on Kubuntu. Some of the pre-installed software include Sage (Mathematics Software System), Maxima (Computer Algebra System), R (Statistical Computing), Octave and Scilab (Numerical Computation), GeoGebra (Interactive Geometry and Algebra).

4. Peppermint Linux OS

Peppermint Linux OS is a web application / cloud focused Linux distribution based on Ubuntu. Being a lightweight Linux distribution, it consists of mostly web applications instead of native desktop application for e.g., it uses Google Docs instead of a regular office product. It is pretty fast to boot-up and can be (loosely) termed as a competitor to Google’s Chrome OS.

5. Sabily

If you thought Linux has nothing to do with religion, you were wrong. Sabily is an Ubuntu distribution for Muslims. It is not like that it is some sort of “halal Linux” but it comes with applications useful for practicing Muslims such as prayer time tool, Koran study tool etc. It has great support for Arabic language.

There are many more Ubuntu variants. I have deliberately not included popular ones like Backtrack, Bodhi Linux, Elementary Linux etc. What do you think of these weirdo Ubuntu variants? Do let us know your views.

Image Credits: Wikipedia

The post 5 Lesser Known Ubuntu Based Distro You Have Not Heard Of appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

What is Drawers?

Drawers is a an application which allows a user to group a bunch of application shortcuts together in one folder and hence free up the space from the main launcher. Drawers, as the name suggests like a table drawer, keeps files (read apps shortcuts) in it. And you can open the drawer to find the file (read launch the app).

Install Drawers in Ubuntu:

There is a PPA available from the developers to install Drawer in Ubuntu. Open the terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and type the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ian-berke/ppa-drawers 
sudo apt-get update 
sudo apt-get install drawers

How to use Drawers?

Once you have Drawers installed, go to Unity dash and launch Drawers.

As soon as it is opened, it will prompt you to create a new group/drawer. I named it “Browser” to keep all my web browsers in it.

It creates a new drawer by the name of “Browsers”, in my case, in the location”~/.local/share/applications“. Go to this location and drag and drop this newly created drawer in the launcher.

Now we need to add applications by drag and drop in the drawer. Few things to note here:

1. Make sure that you have opened the newly created drawer.

2. You cannot drag and drop applications from launcher itself. You have to look in to the dash first and then drag and drop the application into drawer.

Once you have successfully dragged and dropped apps (or files or folders) in the drawer, you will be able to see them by left clicking on the drawer:

3. Right click on the drawer shows the apps in text columns instead of icons:

You can also rearrange the apps in the drawer by dragging them. Clicking on the settings button gives you a wide variety of configuration option such as renaming the drawer, using a custom icon, changing the font size, transparency etc.

What do you think of Drawers?

What are your views on Drawers? Do you think it is worth giving a try or you would stick to the way you were using the launcher previously. If you liked it, do you think it deserves a place in Ubuntu Software Centre? Do let us know of your views.

The post How to Group Apps Together In Ubuntu Unity Launcher with Drawer appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

We have talked about some of the useful Unity lenses. Here are some of latest offerings. Please note that these might not be the most useful ones but these are the new arrivals in the arena.

Unity Academic Lens:

This geeky lens lets you search for scholarly articles that could be helpful from an academic point of view. The sources for these articles are taken from Pubmed and Google Scholar, two highly rated academic data online resources.

Use the following commands in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) to install this lens:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:markjtully/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install unity-lens-academic unity-scope-zotero

Unity Shopping Lens:

Do you like to shop and visit Amazon very often? Here we have what is called as the “shopping lens” in Unity. All you need to do is to type the name of the stuff you are looking for. It will search the Amazon database and return the most relevant results. The prices are shown in the local currency depending upon your geographical location. Clicking on the item opens it in the default web browser.

Use the following command to install it:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:unity-lens-shopping-team/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install unity-lens-shopping

Movie Review Lens:

A movie buff you are. This Unity lens gives a quick glimpse of the average rating (based on users vote) from Rotten Tomatoes. Though this does not provide the “freshness” of the movie but it still comes handy in quick look at the rating. Just type the name of the movie in the Unity dash and it will show you the list. Install it using the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:scopes-packagers/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install unity-lens-utilities unity-scope-rottentomatoes

Wikipedia Lens:

If you have done your assignments, projects and/or thesis without using Wikipedia even once, then either you are a born genius or you were born in 70s. Ubuntu has off icily ported Wikipedia lens in Ubuntu Software Center (available for 12.04). You can perform a handy search in the Unity dash for the information you are looking for in Wikipedia by typing the search keywords. The lens provides the result from Wikipedia. Clicking on the search result opens the link in the default web browser.

The lens is available in Software Center. Search for Wikipedia Lens in Software Center to install it.

Unity Radio Lens:

This lens lets you search for a variety of radio stations. It has a broad range of genres available that can help you narrow down your search. It also has the “stream locations near you” feature based on your geographical location. When you click on a station result, Rhythmbox starts up to play the selected radio station. The radio lens had landed in Software Center in Ubuntu 12.10. The lens is NOT available in Ubuntu 12.04 when this post is published.

Note: Some of these lenses require a restart. Unity Shopping lens has limited access to its PPA, you might have to retry after sometime to get the access.

What are your favorite Unity lenses? And what would you like to see in the upcoming Unity lenses? Do let us know in the comment section.

image credit: By martinak15

The post Five Latest Unity Lenses For Ubuntu appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

You can also get native Ubuntu notification bubble for news alerts from your favourite news site or access Google Docs from dash itself.

While using the Web App feature, you can use “Alt + Tab” to switch between these webapps/sites similar to what you use for regular Ubuntu apps. Initially, this feature will support only Firefox and Chromium but we can definitely expect it for other popular web browser soon. The official video from Ubuntu explains it better:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7vF-AB7SF4

How to install the Web App feature in Ubuntu 12.04:

If you are eager to get your hands on this exciting new feature, you can install it using a PPA as it is not yet available in Ubuntu Software Center (not even in Ubuntu 12.10 development build). Use the following commands to install it:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webapps/preview
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install unity-webapps-preview

It is approximately of 105 MB in size. If you want to speed up the installation process, use apt-fast instead of apt-get.

How to use Ubuntu Web Apps:

Now when you open Firefox or Chromium and open a website that is supported by Ubuntu Web App feature, it will ask for your permission to integrate it in Ubuntu. For example, when you open Gmail, it will ask for whether you want Gmail to be integrated:

Once you integrate it, you can see all your Gmail activities in the messaging menu like this:

As you can see, you can change the Gmail chat status, see the number of unread mails in different folders. You can also compose new mails.

Similarly, you can integrate music streaming services in to Ubuntu and control them directly in to the Ubuntu sound menu. Take a look at Grooveshark inegration:

Note: You need to be logged in the respective website otherwise you will not be asked for the integration. Also note that not all the websites are supported (as of yet). Though list of websites currently supported by Ubuntu Web App are available on the web.

The Web App option will NOT be coming to Ubuntu 12.04 LTS any time. It will be released with Ubuntu 12.10, thought it will be optional and will be available for download in the software centre.

What do you think of Ubuntu Web Apps? Is it something which you were missing in Ubuntu and will be happy to have it or you will avoid it and prefer to have a clean desktop rather than one cluttered with so many webapps?

The post How to Get The New Web App Feature in Ubuntu Precise 12.04 appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

Hits and Misses:

0 A. D. is currently in final alpha stages and will soon go in beta. Latest alpha version “0 A.D. Alpha 10 Jhelum” has been released couple of weeks ago. Since it is not even in beta, it is not surprising to find several missing features. I do expect the game to be more fully developed completely in the near future.

0 A. D. has almost all the features (or there is a scope for it) what you would expect in an ancient warfare RTS game. Any new game starts with simple “how to play” tutorials and unfortunately 0 A. D. has just one page with some instructions and control keys. Since I already have considerable experience with AOE, I did not need that but it is a must for beginners. Neither does it have Campaign mode enabled though they have displayed it in the main menu which gives a hint that it will be available by final release. I hope it will have great campaigns similar on the lines of AOE.

I tried the single player mode to get the feel of the game. Apart from occasional bugs (it crashed once as well), the playing experience was satisfactory. Game’s graphics are not as great as of other games available but it is pretty decent for a RTS game. The game has six civilization to choose from, with each civilization having their own special units. There are a number of maps/scenario available. There is also scenario editor to create your own custom maps.

One of the major drawback is that 0 AD takes too much of resources. I can feel that while playing it on my Ubuntu 12.04 powered by core i3 laptop and 4 GB RAM (not a powerhouse but pretty decent, I would say). The developers are aware of this issue and trying to fix it in future releases. To get a glimpse of the game, you can watch a gameplay video uploaded by the developers:

How to install 0 A.D.:

If you want to try the alpha version in Ubuntu and other Debian based distributions, try this in terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:wfg/0ad 
sudo apt-get update 
sudo apt-get install 0ad

And then search for 0ad in Unity dash (or Application Menu).

For instructions regarding installing it in other Linux systems, please visit this page. One more thing, 0 A.D. is a cross platform game and is also available for Windows and Mac as well.

Download link for 0 A. D. Windows.
Download link for 0 A. D. Mac.

An appeal from the game developers:

As 0 A. D. is a completely free and open source game (it doesn’t even have a freemium option), it relies heavily on contributors across the world. Wildfire is seeking contributors in sound contribution management, documentation, and in programming, art, sound, taking YouTube videos and more. If you are willing to contribute to free and open source culture, please get in touch with the Wildfire team.

How do you like 0 A. D.? Would you like to try it now or will you wait for the final release? Moreover, how excited you are about it? Do let us know your views in the comment section.

The post Game For Linux: 0A.D Review appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

What is apt-fast?

apt-fast is a shellscript wrapper for “apt-get” and “aptitude” that can drastically improve APT download times by downloading packages with multiple connections per package. To verify this claim of “increasing package downloading speed” I ran a simple test by installing the web browser Midori using both apt-get and apt-fast.

The result for Apt-get is shown below:

Get:1 http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/main libunique-1.0-0 i386 1.1.6-4 [25.2 kB]
Get:2 http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/universe midori i386 0.4.3-1ubuntu1 [1,131 kB]
Fetched 1,156 kB in 1s (659 kB/s)

while apt-fastresulted in:

Initializing download: http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/universe/m/midori/midori_0.4.3-1ubuntu1_i386.deb
File size: 1130792 bytes
Opening output file midori_0.4.3-1ubuntu1_i386.deb
Starting download

Connection 2 finished                                                          ]
Connection 0 finished                                                          ]
Connection 3 finished                                                          ]
Connection 1 finished                                                          ]
Connection 5 finished                                                          ]
Connection 6 finished                                                          ]
Connection 7 finished                                                          ]
Connection 8 finished                                                          ]
Connection 4 finished                                                          ]
[100%] [..................................................] [1022.6KB/s] [00:00]

Downloaded 1104.3 kilobytes in 1 second. (1022.64 KB/s)

As you can see, it increased the downloading from to 1022.64 kB/s in comparison to 659 kB/s. This (almost) two-fold increase in the downloading speed can be very significant while installing a large package.

How to install apt-fast?

apt-fast can be installed from its official ppa by using the following commands in terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:apt-fast/stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install apt-fast axel

While using the last command to install “apt-fast axel”, a window will appear for you to configure apt-fast.

Note: if you do not know it already, to move between options here use tab and enter instead of click. To go to next page, use tab and enter to select Ok. In the first of 5 configuration pages, choose apt-get

In next page, choose axel:

Now choose the maximum number of simultaneous connections. The default value is 5. I have increased it to 10. You can decide what you want to place here. While the more the merrier, you won’t want to use too large a value that it jammed your network connection. A reasonable value would be between 5 – 15.

For the next 3 configuration pages, you don’t need to make any change. You can just select OK and proceed with the configuration:

Thats it. You are done with installation. If you need to configure apt-fast later sometime, you can do it by editing the “/etc/apt-fast.conf” file.

How to use apt-fast?

The answer is very simple, the same way as you use apt-get. All you need to do is to replace get by fast in all apt-get commands. Some useful commands would be:

• To install: sudo apt-fast install package_name
• To remove: sudo apt-fast remove package_name
• To update: sudo apt-fast update
• To upgrade: sudo apt-fast upgrade

apt-fast has almost all the apt-get features including tab auto competition. And you can also use apt-get along with apt-fast without any troubles.

Pretty cool eh? What do you think of apt-fast? Should it be available by default along with apt-get in official Ubuntu releases? Do let us know in the comments.

The post Use Apt-Fast to Speed Up Your Package Download In Ubuntu appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

Software updates may be available for your computer.
The Package information was last updated X days ago.
Press the ‘check’ button below to check for new software updates.

This was interesting as clicking on the Check button did nothing but the same message was displayed again. Couple of days later I saw some updates available but after installing the updates I saw the same message again:

Reason:

What is causing this error? After researching a bit, I found out that there were “sources” other than Canonical (Ubuntu’s official sources) which I had added over the time to install some great indicator applets from private PPAs on my Ubuntu 12.04. Some of these PPAs were old and was meant for earlier version of Ubuntu or they were simply broken. This was the main reason why it showed that there are some updates available even after the recent update.

Now, the next task is to find out which are these “unoffcial troublesome sources” in the list. To find this out run this command and wait for the command to end:

sudo apt-get update

The last few lines of the output of the last command were following:

W: Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/fredp/ppa/ubuntu/dists/precise/main/source/Sources  404  Not Found
W: Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/fredp/ppa/ubuntu/dists/precise/main/binary-i386/Packages  404  Not Found
W: Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/hel-sheep/pastie/ubuntu/dists/precise/main/source/Sources  404  Not Found
W: Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/hel-sheep/pastie/ubuntu/dists/precise/main/binary-i386/Packages  404  Not Found
W: Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/lookit/ppa/ubuntu/dists/precise/main/source/Sources  404  Not Found
W: Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/lookit/ppa/ubuntu/dists/precise/main/binary-i386/Packages  404  Not Found
E: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

As you can see in the output, these were the PPAs (name in bold letters) causing trouble.

Solution:

Once we have the list of the culprits, it’s time to remove them i.e. delete them from the sources list. This can be done in both GUI (Graphical User Interface) and CLI (Command Line Interface). You can opt for any of these 3 ways to do it:

1. Open the terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and use the following command:

sudo ls /etc/apt/sources.list.d

In this directory you can see all the sources listed as “.list” file. Remove those which were causing error:

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/The_PPA_Name.list

2. Alternatively, apt can be used to remove the PPA repository in the following way:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:The_PPA_Name/ppa

3. If you are not comfortable with the command line ways, no worries. We have GUI option as well.

Open the Update Manager (Search for it in Unity Dash) and click on Settings:

In here, go for the Other Software tab and here you can see all the additional software sources listed which are included in the update list. Uncheck the box against the troublesome PPAs/sources:

Now when you go to the Update Manager, it should be neat and clean like this:

If not try running the “sudo apt-get update” command again to ensure that everything is smooth there.

The post Fix “The Package Information was Last Updated Days Ago” Error in Ubuntu appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

1. Weather Indicator

Weather Indicator is one of the few indicator applets which can be found in Ubuntu Software Centre. This small applet provides the temperature and weather information about your (chosen) location. It notifies when there is a weather change.

It can be installed from the Ubuntu Software Centre or by using the following commands in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T):

sudo apt-get install indicator-weather

2. Jupiter (Performance Indicator)

Jupiter is an fabulous applet that helps your notebook from overheating. It shows the CPU temperature and also gives you option of choosing the performance mode to control the temperature and save battery.

To install Jupiter:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/jupiter
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install jupiter

3. System Load Indicator:

This applet shows the status of your CPU, Network, Memory and Disk in graphical manner. It also has various options to configure it. This applet can be found in Ubuntu Software Centre.

To install in Terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:indicator-multiload/stable-daily
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install indicator-multiload

4. Ubuntu One Indicator:

Ubuntu One is the default cloud service provider in Ubuntu that gives you 5 GB of free space. The one thing that is missing is that it doesn’t come with a default appindicator as Dropbox (Why?). An applet is available in private PPA that works as it is expected of it.

To install:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:rye/ubuntuone-extras 
sudo apt-get update 
sudo apt-get install indicator-ubuntuone

Your computer needs a restart to reflect the changes.

5. Key Lock Indicator :

Not all laptops come with a Caps lock or Num lock indicator or even button and this is why this indicator becomes necessary to know whether or not caps lock is on or not. It notifies every time there is a change in the state of the key. By default, it pops in panel when the locks are turned on but it can be configured to always stay in panel even when locks are off. This applet needs a restart to reflect the changes for the first time.

To install Key Lock:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tsbarnes/indicator-keylock
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install indicator-keylock

6. Touchpad Indicator:

A tiny applet that lets you enable/disable the touchpad of course for your notebook. It also gives option for configuring a shortcut for the same.

To install:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:atareao/atareao 
sudo apt-get update 
sudo apt-get install touchpad-indicator

7. ClassicMenu Indicator:

Aw! You miss the good old classic Gnome2 menu which stayed with Ubuntu till version 10.10 but bid farewell since Ubuntu switched to Unity/Gnome 3. Here is a good news fellas! We have this tiny little applet that gives you (to an extent) same classic menu feel.

The .deb file is available to be downloaded from here.

8. Window-List Indicator:

This small indicator applet shows the list of open windows in panel. In case you don’t feel at ease with Alt+Tab (to see the open windows and to navigate between them), then it is perfectly suited for you.

To install:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jwigley/window-list 
sudo apt-get update 
sudo apt-get install window-list

9. Feed Indicator:

This applet lets you add feeds from your favourite websites in to the Unity panel. Configuration options include refresh rate, notification preferences etc.

It can be downloaded from its official website.

10. Radio Tray Indicator:

This applet is actually a tiny radio player that lets you play different internet radio station directly from the panel. It is highly integrated with Ubuntu and also gives notifications about song change etc (depending upon radio channel). Configuration option allows you to add your favourite radio stations along with the ones which come by default with it.

To install:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:eugenesan/ppa 
sudo apt-get update 
sudo apt-get install radiotray

If the applet doesn’t appear automatically in the panel then search for it in Unity dash and launch it. Some applet might require a restart.

Do you have any favourite applet that we missed out here? Do let us know. The Comments section is all yours.

The post 10 Must Have Indicator Applets for Ubuntu 12.04 appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

1. Clementine

This one is my favorite (not for the reason that I like to eat Clementine) and this is why it is first in the list. Inspired by Amarok, it is a good looking and yet a feature-rich music player. Available for Windows, Linux and Mac, it seamlessly integrates with Ubuntu. Its main features include good iPod (and other portable music device) support, dynamic playlists, lyrics and artist information, album art discovery. It has a strong support for Internet Radio including big names like Last.fm, Spotify, Grooveshark, Jamendo, Magnatune among numerous others.

Clementine

2. Nightingale

Remember Songbird, the loved music player which ditched Linux 2 years back? Well, the legacy of Songbird has been continued by a fork of it: Nightingale. It carries forward the awesomeness of Songbird. Features include great support for synchronization, song and artist info, easy playlists and definitely good looks. Shoutcast Radio and Last.fm comes integrated with it. Last.fm album art can be used to fetch album arts. The list of extension and add-ons is growing with continuous community support.

Nightingale

3. Audacious

For all those Winamp MP3 player lovers, here is Winamp for Linux – Audacious. A light weight music players which has uncanny similarities to the famed Winamp audio player (reason being that it is descendant of legacy Linux player XMMS which itself was modeled after Winamp). Unlike other players like Clementine or Banshee which focus more on managing the music library, Audacious focus more on music. Motto is simple, drag and drop the files to create a playlist, sit back and enjoy the music. No fancy stuff, Last.fm is the only luxury it has got. Oh yes! it has great customization options as it supports Winamp skins.

Audacious

4. DeaDBeef

DeaDBeef is a simple, light on CPU yet feature rich audio player for Linux. Unlike its name, it is definitely not dead but very much alive. It plays (almost) all major and minor type of music formats with album art display capability. Last.fm is supported along with several other plugins at disposal. Recently it has arrived on Android so people using both Linux and Android can enjoy the homogeneity on different platform.

DeaDBeef

5. Quod Libet

Good things come in small package. Quod Libet is one such small package. It tries to answer “Boy, I wish I could grep my music“. Yes, it has a really strong search features. Written in Python and based on GTK+, it provide you with all the basic features of an audio player apart from the fact that it can handle a large library. Features also include Internet radio and podcast. To an extent it resembles Rythmbox but only less complex.

Quod Libet

All these music players can be downloaded form their respective official websites, links are provided in headings. I would like to know your views on this list and your favorite music player. What do you say?

Image credit: Abstract music background by BigStockPhoto and Wikimedia

The post The Lesser Known Music Players For Linux appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

Open the terminal ( Ctrl+Alt+T ) and use the following command to install the tool:

sudo apt-get install ntfs-config

Alternatively, you can install it from Ubuntu Software Center.

Before using, we need to tweak the tool a bit as there is a known bug which stops the tool from working properly. It looks for a directory which needs to be created. In the terminal, use the following command to create the mentioned directory:

sudo mkdir -p /etc/hal/fdi/policy

Now we are ready to use the ntfs-config tool. Launch ntfs-config. Remember, it needs administrative rights to run the tool. When you start the tool, it lists all the partitions that are available on your computer. The interface looks like this:

As shown in the picture above, there are three NTFS drives present on my computer. Check the box adjacent to the drive you want to automount. In the place for <Enter a mount point> you can put the name which you want to use for that particular drive for e.g., windows1.

If you want all of your NTFS partition to be automounted, just click on “Auto Configure” and it will take care of the rest of the stuff.

By the way, in case you do not know which drive is numbered what (i.e. /dev/sdaX which is not similar to Windows naming convention of drives), you can use the following command in terminal to find it out.

sudo fdisk -l

which outputs (for my computer) like this:

Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048      206847      102400    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2          206848   215541759   107667456    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3       215544166   625141759   204798797    f  W95 Ext (LBA)
/dev/sda5       215544168   420340724   102398278+   7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda6       420340788   504296414    41977813+   7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda7       535547904   545062911     4757504   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda8       545064960   625141759    40038400   83  Linux
/dev/sda9       504297472   529539071    12620800   83  Linux
/dev/sda10      529541120   535543807     3001344   82  Linux swap / Solaris

In the output, look for the column Blocks. This gives the size of the partition in bytes. In the example above, 102398278 bytes can roughly be estimated as 102 GB.

Once you select the mount point, it gives you option of enabling write support for the drives. Its up to you if you want this feature.

Save and close and you are done with a reboot. You will find your drive(s) automatically mounted at the start-up.

Your questions and suggestions are always welcomed. Do not forget to subscribe to the site for more helpful article to make your tech-life easier. Cheers :)

Image credit: Hard Disk Drive by Big Stock Photo

The post How to Easily Automount Windows NTFS partition in Ubuntu appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

Improve battery life by using Jupiter

Jupiter is a Linux applet for display, power, and device control. It can be used to change screen resolution, screen orientation, disabling WiFi, bluetooth and touchpad, and above all, battery performance. Jupiter has 3 Performance Modes: Maximum Performance, Performance on demand and Power Saver (the one we are interested in). In Power Saver mode it underclocks the processor and hence improves the battery life.

Unfortunately, Jupiter doesn’t work by default with Ubuntu 11.10, but thanks to WebUpd8 team, we have a work around for it. Open your terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and type the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/jupiter
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install jupiter

After installing it, you need to log out and login again. You can see Jupiter in your system tray on the top. You can select Power Saver mode from there. This picture could be helpful:

After you put it on power saver mode, the icon turns green. It help you in remembering what mode you are using. You can see a considerable improvement in both battery performance and over heating.

Changing the Grub configuration to improve the battery performance:

If you are not satisfied with Jupiter, you may want to use the other work around which is a Kernel tweak. It was found that battery and over heating issue is related the Linux kernel. Let’s see how to use this trick:

Open your terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and open the Grub config file by using the following command:

sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

Now here search for this line:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

Replace the above line with this one and save the file:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash pcie_aspm=force"

Update the Grub by using this command:

sudo update-grub

This fix was mainly meant for Linux Kernel 2.6.38 and the issue was “supposed” to be solved in later versions of Linux Kernel but that, unfortunately, never happened.

PowerTop can also be used instead of Jupiter but personally, I preferred Jupiter over PowerTop. I hope these tips increase the battery life and solve the overheating problem of your laptop. I sincerely hope that things will be better with Ubuntu 12.04 which is bound to release in April’12. Your questions and suggestion are always welcomed. Cheers :)

Image credit: Orange warning low battery signal by Big Stock Photo.

The post How to Fix Low Battery Power And Overheating Issue In Ubuntu 11.10 appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

The new Ubuntu, Fedora and all other major Linux distributions relies heavily on upgraded hardware. Gnome 3 and Unity both used 3D hardware acceleration. It seems that with time the major Linux distributions will focus more on utilizing the best of hardware capabilities and running these OS will require good hardware configuration. But what about your good old computer that is low on RAM, disk space, cache memory? Is it time to dispose them because you do not have good operating system to run on it? No, not at all. The beauty of Linux is that it has something for everyone. And in this post we will see some really lightweight Linux operating System that can be run on your grandma’s computer (pun intended, no offense to your grandma and her computer).

1. Puppy Linux:

Like the name suggests, it is a cute little adorable puppy. This highly popular Linux distro is equally lightweight as well. It is available in various sizes with maximum up to 100 MB in total. It can be easily installed on CD and USB drive. It can be run on a computer with as low as Pentium II processor and with 128 MB ram. Amazing isn’t it? Despite of that it has most of the functionalities of a major Linux distro.

 2. SliTaz:

SliTaz perfectly fits the proverb “good things come in small packages”. With a total download size of less than 30 MB, it provides the basic functionalities of not only desktop but a server as well. A growing community is always there to provide support. The lightweight has different variants that can even ran from a computer with a memory as low as 16 MB. The maximum RAM requirement for any version is less than 200 MB. With its full features, it is ideal for low-end netbooks.

 3. Damn Small Linux:

Damn Small Linux is a mini Linux variant with a size of less less than 50 MB. Starting from a RAM size of as low as 16 MB it can be run at its full capacity on a 128 MB RAM with blazing fast speed. It can be run from a live CD, USB drive and from inside Windows (wow). It also has server capabilities with SSH/FTP and HTTPD and can be run from live CD. It comes with a decent number of application that can be needed in basic OS. When installed on hard disk, it can be used as a Debian OS.

4. Zenix:

A beautiful Debian based Linux OS Zenix requires RAM as little as 60 MB and runs flawlessly with a RAM of 128 MB. It comes with quite decent application package and its stunning killer looks give it an edge over others. Like others, it can also be run in live environment from a CD drive or a USB.

5. The Floppy Linux:

There is no Linux distro with the name “Floppy Linux”. What? Then why did I put it here? Well, Floppy Linux a category of Linux distributions that can be run from, hold your heart, a floppy drive. Yes, the same obsolete floppy drive which you saw years back and the children of this generation have seen only in books and these are the Linux OS which can be used on your grandma’s computer (literally). Providing really basic functions of an operating system, even wireless connectivity, these OS rely heavily on command line while being low on GUI part. The main “floppy linux” are:

• Mu Linux
• Fd Linux
• Basic Linux

These floppy Linux are boon for dying computer with old-age hardware and give you a reason not to throw away the decades old computer.

What do you think? Are these  Linux OS reason good enough not to throw your old-box in trash? Do let us know. Please do subscribe to the newsletter to stay updated with latest tips and tricks. Cheers :)

The post Best Lightweight Linux Distribution for Older Computers appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

How to use it?

First of all, get the AirDroid app from the Android market. You do not need to install anything on your computer. Once you have installed it on your phone, go to the app. On the main screen of the app, you will have few options, namely, a web address (with port number), a password and a start/stop button.

All you have to do is open any web browser (like Firefox, Chrome or Internet Explorer) and type the displayed web address (192.168.40.54:8888) in your browser’s address bar and press enter. You will find yourself with a welcome screen asking for password like this:

Type the password which is shown on your smartphone and you are connected to your phone. Your phone notifies you when you connect to the computer. It will show you the memory used, the files you have on your Android, messages, contacts, battery status, installed apps, basically everything. You will see a screen like this:

What are the things I can do with AirDroid?

This awesome apps frees you from the likes of a dedicated suite application. All you need is your Android phone and a computer with a web browser in it. You can then do all the stuff you want to. Here are a lists of thing which you can do with it:

• Import/Export pictures
• Import/Export music
• Import/Export all types of files
• See Messages and Call logs
• Send new messages by using your computer keyboard (my favorite)
• Check memory status of your device
• See Installed apps, delete them
• See and edit contacts

Conclusion:

Despite using the WiFi interface, it is not noticeably slow. It works flawlessly with any operating system and with all the major web browsers. It gives options enough to make it one of the best free app available in the Android market. My verdict, you won’t regret downloading this app.

What are your views on AirDroid? Do you use some other app/suite to manage and transfer data between your Android phone and computer? Do share your ideas with us. Cheers.

The post Airdroid: Connect Your Android Phone to A Linux Computer appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

catdoc (in C)

The first command line tool we are going to talk about is catdoc. The tool is written in C by V.B. Vagner.

1.1 How to install it:

Download the tool from here.  Go to your downloads directory and untar it. You can use the following commands (in case you are facing problem):

gunzip catdoc-0.94.2.tar.gz tar xvf catdoc-0.94.2.tar

Now we have a catdoc-0.94.2 directory. Go inside this directory and run the following commands to install it:

./configure 
make 
make install

The installation is an easy process and you should not face any problem here.

1.2 How to use it:

There are several option to run the command. I’ll tell the options that works best for the Microsoft Excel conversion:

xls2csv -x "Path_of_Your_XLS_File" -s cp1252 -d 8859-1 > "Path_of_Your_CSV_File"

Note the option “-s” and “-d” (stands for source and destination). These options are used to specify which character encoding is used in the source file and what would be the character encoding for the destination file. Here I have used cpl1252 which is Microsoft character encoding and 8859-1 which is used for Western European character encoding. You can use what other options are available by using the help command.

xls2csv --help

1.3 Pros and Cons:

Pros: Straight forward installation

Cons: No selective conversion in multiple sheet scenario, it coverts all the sheets present in the xls file (one workaround would be to explicitly specify a footer in each sheet and then use option -b in the command), problems with few European characters, problem with date fields (the date fields are messed up big times), messes with quotes.

xls2csv (in Perl)

The second tool we are going to talk about is a Perl script xls2csv written by Ken Prows in Perl.

2.1 How to install it:

Download the script here. Gunzip and tar it like we did in previous section and go the extracted directory and use the following commands to install it:

perl Makefile.PL 
make 
make test 
make install

Remember this Perl script uses a number of other Perl modules:

Locale::Recode Unicode::Map Spreadsheet::ParseExcel Text::CSV_XS

While installing xls2csv, it will give error that the mentioned perl modules have not been installed. It will ask you to download the modules. Download and install these modules when asked. All these module installation requires root privileges. If you do not have root access, then you should follow the instruction given here to install a Perl module.

2.2 How to use it:

The following command can be used to convert Microsoft excel to csv:

xls2csv -x "Path_of_Your_XLS_File" -b cp1252 -w WorkSheetName -c "Path_of_Your_CSV_File" -a 8859-1

Option x and c (means xls and csv) are used to specify the input and output files where as b and a (means before and after) are used to specify the respective character encoding. We have use the same character encoding as in previous tool.

2.3 Pros and cons:

Pros: Good with western European character conversion and date fields, supports selective multiple sheet conversion,

Cons: Several Perl modules need to be installed, first cell should not be empty (otherwise it skips the whole row), messes with quotes

There are couple of other ways as well. Some scripts in Python and Java are also available to use but they are not as good as these two discussed here. I hope the article solves your problem. Question and suggestions are always welcomed. Cheers :)

The post How to convert XLS file to CSV in Command Line [Linux] appeared first on Make Tech Easier.

First Step

Before we proceed, let’s make a few things clear. First of all, I am assuming that you have Perl installed on your system. Apart from that, I’ll be using the following directories to install the Perl module:

/home/perl_modules/bin
/home/perl_modules/man
/home/perl_modules/man/man1
/home/perl_modules/lib

You can create these directories (bin, man, man/man3 and lib) anywhere you want. We will use that path in the Perl configuration. You should replace the path used in the tutorial to your own directory path.

Second Step

Now we need to define some variables to configure Perl locally. These configuration will be used to tell the Perl module where it should be installed. To do that, I would suggest that we write all those variables in one file and then use it while installing. It will save us time and effort in writing the lengthy commands and will be good for future use.

Let’s say we create a file “perl_local_config” in /home directory (the file can be created wherever you want):

touch perl_local_config

Now let’s edit this file to set the configuration variables. Write the following variables in it:

PREFIX=/home/perl_modules \
INSTALLSCRIPT=/home/perl_modules/bin \
INSTALLBIN=/home/perl_modules/bin \
INSTALLMAN1DIR=/home/perl_modules/man1 \
INSTALLSITELIB=/home/perl_modules/lib

Third Step

Download the Perl module from the CPAN (or from wherever you want). Unzip it. Go into the module directory. Now, the standard steps of installing a Perl module is:

perl Makefile.PL
make
make test
make install (if all tests are successful)

Since you do not have root access, the perl Makefile.PL will give error. And here comes the local configuration file to our rescue. Run these commands one by one:

perl Makefile.PL `cat /home/perl_local_config`

If the Perl module depends upon other Perl module then the above command will generate error. In that case, download and install the modules on which it is dependent. Same procedure, which we are discussing here, would be followed.

make 
make test

All tests should pass successfully.

make install

Further troubleshooting

When running the Perl module may generate error like this:

Can't locate Locale/Recode.pm in @INC (@INC contains: XXXXX......XXXXX) at /home/bin/your_perl_module line XX.

That means that Perl is looking for your module in standard lib directory and not the one where you have installed it. To solve this error, add the locally created lib directory (/home/perl_modules/lib in the example) to the library path like this:

export PERL5LIB=/home/perl_modules/lib/perl5/:/home/perl_modules/lib/perl5/site_perl:

Do change the paths with your own directory path.

I hope that the tutorial was easy to understand and simple to follow. I also hope that you are now able to install Perl modules locally, without super user privileges, like a champ now. I would appreciate your feedback. Do subscribe to newsletter if you found the tutorial helpful and want to stay in touch for more updates. Enjoy :)

The post How to Install A Perl Module In Linux Without Root Permission appeared first on Make Tech Easier.