issue #58 - february 2012 - full circledl.fullcirclemagazine.org/issue58_en.pdf · full circle...

full circle magazine #58 1 contents ^

Full CircleTHE INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE FOR THE UBUNTU LINUX COMMUNITY

ISSUE #58 - February 2012

ful l circle magazine is neither affi l iated with, nor endorsed by, Canonical Ltd.

LLIINNUUXX MMIINNTT 1122FULL REVIEW


The articles contained in this magazine are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Al ike 3.0 Unported l icense.This means you can adapt, copy, distribute and transmit the articles but only under the fol lowing conditions: you must attributethe work to the original author in some way (at least a name, emai l or URL) and to this magazine by name ('Ful l Circle Magazine')

and the URL www.ful lcirclemagazine.org (but not attribute the article(s) in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). I fyou alter, transform, or bui ld upon this work, you must distribute the resulting work under the same, simi lar or a compatible l icense.Full Circle magazine is entirely independent of Canonical, the sponsor of the Ubuntu projects, and the views and opinions in themagazine should in no way be assumed to have Canonical endorsement.

Full CircleTHE INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE FOR THE UBUNTU LINUX COMMUNITY

Backup Strategy Pt6 p.15

LibreOffice Pt12 p.12

Python - Part 30 p.08

Screencast Your Desktop p.17

HowTo Opinions

Q&A p.41

Ubuntu Games p.44

Ubuntu Women p.46

Command & Conquer p.05

The Paperless Office p.19

Columns

Linux Labs p.24 Review p.36

I Think... p.34

My Opinion p.33

My Story p.31

Letters p.38

My Desktop p.47Linux News p.04

Closing Windows p.28

BACK NEXT MONTH

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EEDDIITTOORRIIAALL

Welcome to another issue of Full Circle!

The shock of the month for me was a headline that read: ‘Canonical pulls the plug onKubuntu’. I almost had a heart attack and passed out! But, thankfully, it’s not as bad asit sounds. Canonical has withdrawn its funding for Kubuntu (if you haven’t heard aboutit, have a look at the news page), which just means that Canonical is not paying anyone

to work on Kubuntu, leaving it on the same level as the other family members (Xubuntu,Lubuntu, etc). No big deal.

Programmers around the world can rejoice with the return of the Python series. Gregexplains at the end of his article why he had to miss a couple of issues. Send all supportivemessages to Greg and his wife at: [email protected]. The LibreOffice and Backup seriescontinue, and, with them, we have one How-To on screencasting, and one on having a paperlessoffice.

As well as working on the Closing Windows series (with my co-authors), I’m drawing up plansfor an astronomy article for FCM. I recently bought a telescope (a Heritage 130P if you mustknow), and I’m going to write about Linux astronomy software. Yes, I’ll even include a couple ofWindows ones that run in Wine. If you’ve any suggestions (just not Stellarium or Celestia , I knowabout them), please email them to me. Image stacking, motorized telescope control, all thatfun stuff. Don’t worry - FCM won’t become Full Celestial Magazine.

All the best, and keep in touch!Ronnie

[email protected]

This magazine was created using :

Full Circle PodcastReleased monthly, each episodecovers all the latest Ubuntu news,opinions, reviews, interviews andlistener feedback. The Side-Pod isa new addition, it's an extra(irregular) short-form podcastwhich is intended to be a branchof the main podcast. It'ssomewhere to put all the generaltechnology and non-Ubuntu stuffthat doesn’t fit in the mainpodcast.

Hosts:Robin CatlingEd HewittDave Wilkins

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LLIINNUUXX NNEEWWSS

FC Notifier Update

The Full Circle Notifier is still at1.0.2, but the PPA has beenupdated for Oneiric. FCN is asmall application that sits in yoursystem tray and will announceissue/podcast releases, and canbe set to download them too! Formore info, see the FCN GoogleGroup: http://goo.gl/4Ob4

EPUB

Finally, we have mobile editionsof Full Circle on the downloadspage. At the moment there areonly a couple of issues online,but we're hoping to have backissues online shortly. If you'veany problems with the epubfile/formatting, you can drop anemail to Jens at:[email protected]

Big thanks to Jens, Oppih andthe beta testers for makingthem a reality.

Canonical StopsFunding Kubuntuby Ronnie Tucker

Jonathan Riddell, the onlypaid developer forKubuntu, wrote:

Today Ibring the disappointing

news thatCanonicalwill no longer

be fundingmyworkon Kubuntu

after12.04. Canonicalwants to

treatKubuntu in the samewayas

the othercommunityflavors such as

Edubuntu, Lubuntu, andXubuntu,

andsupport the projectswith

infrastructure. This is a big challenge

to Kubuntu ofcourse andKDEas

well.

It should be noted that Kubuntuwill still survive, but in the same(non-funded) way as Lubuntu andXubuntu are currently.

Source:http://lwn.net/Articles/479710/

Mint 12 KDE Released

L inux Mint 12 KDEhas finally beenreleased!

New features at a glance:KDE 4.7.4Hybrid ISO imagesSearch enginesUpstream components

Release notes:MoonlightUpstream issues

System requirements:x86 processor (Linux Mint 64-bitrequires a 64-bit processor. LinuxMint 32-bit works on both 32-bitand 64-bit processors).512 MB RAM (1GB recommendedfor a comfortable usage).5 GB of disk space.Graphics card capable of 800×600resolution.DVD-ROM drive or USB port.

Source:blog.linuxmint.com/?p=1927

Ubuntu for Androidby Robin Catling

Mark Shuttleworth isbringing Ubuntu to adevice near you. Yes,if you are designing

and manufacturing dual-core smart-phones, Canonical wants it runninga full-featured Ubuntu desktop.

Canonical has announced theavailability of Ubuntu for Androidas a working prototype. Under thesnappy tag-lines “...in every dual-core phone there's a PC trying toget out” and “Ubuntu is the killerapp for multi-core phones in 2012,”Canonical makes the case for thedocked corporate smart-phone tobecome the next desktop PC.

When you connect the phone toan external monitor with keyboardand mouse, Ubuntu boots and runsconcurrently with Android. Lookingat the images and the technicalspecification, the 2GB disk imagefor Ubuntu looks like 12.04 withUnity, sitting atop a hardwarecompatibility layer on ARMprocessors.

http://goo.gl/4Ob4


http://lwn.net/Articles/479710/

http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=1927


I realize that many of ourreaders are students (as am I).Depending on the country, anew semester has just started,

is about to start, or, in the case ofGermany, is nearly over. It’s often agood idea to keep a listing (aloneor in collaboration with yourcolleagues) of questions, and theiranswers, pertaining to the coursesyou’re taking.

If you are in the habit of doingso (or are resolved to start thishabit), then the following scriptwill help make your revisions mucheasier. This script was written by auniversity professor (and FCMreader) who likes to be called"Magic Banana". You can find it onhis website:http://dcc.ufmg.br/~lcerf/en/utilities.html#trivialibre

It aims to ask the questions,organized in categories, in arandom order, and lets you set afixed delay to answer each of thosequestions. It is named "Trivialibre" -because it was initially written toask the questions of an eponymousgame (see:

http://trivialibre.humanoidz.org),which is a variation of the famous"Trivial Pursuit" for free softwareenthusiasts. The script isinteresting in its various uses ofthe Shell tests, Zenity, the rathernew 'shuf' command, and of 'sed'.

I'll briefly discuss thefunctionality of the script, and thenexplain what each command isused for (including an explanationof the uses within the script).

What does it do?

This shell script takes thequestions from the files within thecategories folder, and poses them(at random) in a zenity-formed GUIwindow. It displays the question,waits, and then displays the correctanswer (much like flashcards work).

How does it work?

It uses shuf to take the filesfrom the categories folder, shufflethe contents, and then save it inthe $XDG_DATA_HOME/trivialibrefolder (so that the pending

questions can be recordedsomewhere without losing any).

Once this is taken care of, aZenity window will then ask theuser to choose a category (you canchoose a specific one, or have thescript choose a random one).

A zenity window asks the nextpending question in the chosencategory. This windows contains aprogress bar that reaches 100%after a delay chosen by the player(the only argument of the script),or 20secs by default. Once acategory has been exhausted, it isthen shuffled again and movedback into the$XDG_DATA_HOME/trivialibrefolder.

Conditionals:

Throughout the script,conditionals are used in order tonavigate the varying branches ofthe file. They are used in if-statements, while-statements, andfor-statements.

16. if [ n “$1” ]

This if-statement checkswhether the argument $1 is NOTempty (-n stands for “not zerolength”), so that the delay for theprogress bar can be set tosomething other than the default20secs.

23. if [ z "$XDG_DATA_HOME"

]

This is the exact opposite of line16, where you check if$XDG_DATA_HOME is empty (-zstands for “zero length”). In thiscase, you then set the variable to“$HOME/.local/share” (which is thevalue it should be).

28. if [ ! d

$XDG_DATA_HOME/trivialibre ]

This comparison checks to see ifthe directory doesn't exist, andthen creates the folder (and all thecategory files it will need).

39. while [ n

"$categoryName" ]

Here, we use the conditional weused in line 16, but in a while-

CCOOMMMMAANNDD && CCOONNQQUUEERRWritten by Lucas Westermann TTrriivviiaalliibbrree

http://dcc.ufmg.br/~lcerf/en/utilities.html#trivialibre

http://trivialibre.humanoidz.org


COMMAND & CONQUERstatement. This means the loop willkeep running until the variable isempty (which happens when theplayer clicks the “cancel” button).Once the variable is empty, theprogram effectively quits.

42. if [ "$categoryName" =

'Random!' ]

This is a simple Stringcomparison, where we check if theuser has selected Random! (as acategory) or not.

48. if [ ! s "$questionList"

]

Usually -s is used to check if afile exists and is not empty. Sincewe're negating it (the “!”), we areactually checking to see if the file isempty, i.e. if the questions withinthe category are exhausted. If it is,then the next step is to re-populatethe file.

Shuf:

Shuf is a program included inthe coreutils package, and createspermutations (variations) of thelines within a file. It's used in thefollowing ways in the script (thenumbers before the commands arethe line numbers):

33. shuf o

"$XDG_DATA_HOME/trivialibre/$

category" "$category"

In this instance, shuf takes thecontents of the file (whose name issaved in variable “category”),creates a permutation, and thensaves it in$XDG_DATA_HOME/trivialibreunder the same name. Thispermutation is then the one usedin the script.

44. `shuf n 1 e *`

In this case, shuf displays onlythe first line of the permutation (“-n 1”), and accepts the arguments asthe contents of the file (“-e”). Thismeans it takes the list ofcategories, creates a permutation,and selects the top one. This is thefunction used when “Random” ischosen as a category.

50. shuf o

"$XDG_DATA_HOME/trivialibre/$

categoryName" "$categoryName"

This is the same as in line 33, asit is simply replenishing theexhausted category.

Zenity:

“zenity is a program that willdisplay GTK+ dialogs, and return(either in the return code, or onstandard output) the user’s input.This allows you to presentinformation, and ask forinformation from the user, from allmanner of shell scripts.” (takenfrom the zenity manpage).

11. zenity list radiolist

windowicon=../token.png

height=247

title='Trivialibre'

text='Choose a category in

the list below or cancel to

quit\n(the same questions

will not be asked again next

time).' hideheader

column='' column=''

This creates a GTK window witha radio list, using the token.png fileas the window icon. It also includesthe window title, the text (outsideof the radio button), and offerssome configuration (such asgeometry). The radio buttons arepopulated by piping the output ofls -1 through sed and then zenity.Sed is used to format the ls outputso that Zenity can use it. It shouldbe noted that Zenity expects eachstring to be preceded by a TRUE orFALSE, where it denotes whichstring is the default choice (the linemarked TRUE).

51, zenity info window

icon=../token.png

title="Exhaustion of the

questions \"$categoryName\""

text="All questions in the

category \"$categoryName\"

having been asked, they are

reused (in a different

order)."

This is the window that notifiesthe user when a category has beencompleted.

60. zenity progress

windowicon=../token.png

title="In the category

\"$categoryName\""

text="Question of

$author:\n\n$question"

In this example, zenity creates aprogress bar (using a for loop torun through a percentage for thetime between the question and theanswer, defined earlier in thescript). The percentage for the


Lucas has learned all he knows fromrepeatedly breaking his system, thenhaving no other option but todiscover how to fix it. You can emailLucas at: [email protected].

progress bar is read in through thestandard input, which is adjustedevery second in this script.

64. zenity info window

icon=../token.png

title='Answer' text="The

answer is:\n\n$answer"

Once the progress bar hasreached 100% and the user hasclicked on the OK button, thiscommand is then called, providingthe answer to the question. It willalso be displayed if the user clicksthe “cancel” button, interruptingthe progress bar and displaying theanswer.

For a better introduction toZenity, you can check out my articlein FCM#46.

Sed:

Sed is a command that allowsyou to use regular expressions inorder to modify text that you caninput. I will be writing an article onboth sed and awk in the nearfuture.

11. sed iFALSE

This is used after the “ls -1”command, and inserts (hence the

“i”) the word “FALSE” before everyline, so that Zenity can correctlyformat the data into the radio list.

62. sed i 1d "$questionList"

Here, sed edits the list ofquestions in-place (“-i”) and simplyremoves the first line of the file,thereby effectively removing thequestion that was just asked.

How do I addcategories?

You can add categories usingLibreOffice Calc (or any otherprogram which can create CSV(comma separated values) files).Instead of commas, a tab should beused as the separator, and nothingto separate text. Be sure to givethe file the name of the categoryyou want it to represent.

I hope you've found this article

interesting (and the script useful). Iwould like to once again thankMagic Banana for supplying thescript and being extremely helpfulwhen organizing this article. Ifanyone has any questions,suggestions, or requests, feel freeto email me [email protected]. Be sure toinclude “C&C” or “FCM” in the title,so that I don't overlook it.

Further Reading:

• “Linux Shell Scripting with Bash” -Ken O. Burtch (Developer's Library)

• Corresponding manpages

• FCM#46 of FCM (for Zenity)

• info coreutils 'test invocation'

• info coreutils 'shuf'

• info sed

COMMAND & CONQUER




HHOOWW--TTOOWritten by Greg D. Walters BBeeggiinnnniinngg PPyytthhoonn -- PPaarrtt 3300

This month, we'll exploreyet another GUI designer,this time for Tkinter. Manypeople have an issue with

Tkinter because it doesn't offer abuilt-in designer. While I've shownyou how to easily design yourapplications without a designer, wewill examine one now. It's calledPage. Basically it's a version ofVisual TCL with Python support ontop. The current version is 3.2 andcan be found athttp://sourceforge.net/projects/page/files/latest/download.

Prerequisites

You need TCK/TK 8.5.4 or later,Python 2.6 or later, and pyttk -which you can get (if you don'talready have it) fromhttp://pypi.python.org/pypi/pyttk.You probably have all of these withthe possible exception of pyttk.

Installation

You can't really ask for an easierinstallation routine. Simply unpack

the distribution file into a folder ofyour choice. Run the script called“configure” from the folder whereyou just unpacked everything. Thiswill create your launch script called“page” which you use to geteverything going. That's it.

Learning Page

When you start Page, you'll getthree windows (forms). One is a“launch pad”, one is a toolbox, andone shows the Attribute Editor.

To start a new project, click onthe Toplevel button in the toolbox.

This creates your main form.You can move it wherever you wishon your screen. Next, and fromnow on, click on a widget in thetool box and then click where youwant it on the main form.

For now, let's do a button. Clickon the Button button on thetoolbox, and then click somewhereon the main form.

Next, in the launch pad form,click on Window and selectAttribute Editor (if it's not alreadyshowing). Your single buttonshould be highlighted already, somove it around the form and whenyou release the mouse button youshould see the position change inthe attribute editor form under 'xposition' and 'y position'.

Here we can set otherattributes such as the text on thebutton (or most any other widget),the alias for the widget (the namewe will refer to in our code), color,the name we will call it and more.Near the bottom of the attributeeditor is the text field. This is thetext that appears to the user for, inthis case, the button widget. Let'schange this from “button” to “Exit”.Notice that now the button says“Exit”. Now resize the form to justshow the button and recenter thebutton in the form.

Next click in the main formsomeplace where the button isn't.The attribute editor form nowshows the attributes for the mainform. Find the “title” field and

http://sourceforge.net/projects/page/files/latest/download

http://pypi.python.org/pypi/pyttk


HOWTO - BEGINNING PYTHON 30change this from “New Toplevel 1”to “Test Form”.

Now, before we save ourproject, we need to create a folderto hold our project files. Create afolder somewhere on your drivecalled “PageProjects”. Now, in thelaunch pad window, select File thenSave As. Navigate to yourPageProjects folder, and, in thedialog box, type TestForm.tcl andclick the Save button. Notice this issaved as a TCL file, not a Pythonfile. We'll create the python filenext.

In the launch pad, find theGen_Python menu item and click it.Select Generate Python and a newform appears.

Page has generated (as thename suggests) our python codefor us and placed it in a window for

us to view. At the bottom of thisform, are three buttons...Save, Run,and Close.

Click Save. If, at this point, youwere to look in your PageProjectsfolder, you will see the python file(TestForm.py). Now click on theRun button. In a few seconds, you'llsee the project start up. Thebutton is not connected toanything yet, so it won't doanything if you click on it. Simplyclose the form with the “X” in thecorner of the window. Now closethe Python Console window withthe close button at the bottomright.

Back at our main form, highlight

the Exit button and right click on it.Select “Bindings...”. Under themenu is a set of buttons.

The first on the left allows youto create a new binding. Click on“Button-1”. This allows us to enterthe binding for the left mousebutton. In the window on the right,type “Button1Click”.

Save and generate the pythoncode again. Scroll down in thePython Console to the bottom ofthe file. Above the “classTest_Form” code is the function wejust asked to be created. Noticethat at this point, it simply ispassed. Look further down andyou'll see the code that creates andcontrols our button. Everything isdone for us already. However, westill have to tell the button what todo. Close the Python Console andwe'll continue.

On the launch pad, click Windowthen select Function List. Here wewill write our method to close thewindow.

The first button on the left isthe Add button. Click it. In theFunction box, type“py:Button1Click” and, in theArguments box, type “p1”, and

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change the text in the lower boxto...

def Button1Click(p1):

sys.exit()

Click on the checkmark and weare done with this.

Next we have to bind thisroutine to the button. Select thebutton in the form, right click it,and select “Bindings...”. As before,click on the far left button on thetoolbar and select Button-1. This isthe event for the left mousebutton click. In the right text box,enter “Button1Click”. Make sureyou use the same case that you didfor the Function we just created.Click the checkmark on the rightside.

Now save and generate your

python code.

You should see the followingcode near the bottom, butOUTSIDE of the Test_Form class...

def Button1Click(p1) :

sys.exit()

And the last line of the classshould be...

self.Button1.bind('<Button

1>',Button1Click)

Now, if you run your code andclick on the Exit button, the formshould close properly.

Moving Forward

Now let's do something morecomplicated. We'll create a demoshowing some of the widgets thatare available. First close Page andrestart it. Next, create a newToplevel form. Add two frames,one above the other and expandthem to pretty much take up theentire width of the form. In the topframe, place a label, and, using theattributes editor, change the textto “Buttons:”. Next, add twobuttons along the horizontal plane.Change the text of the left one to

“Normal”, and the right one to“Sunken”. While the sunken buttonis selected, change the relief to“sunken” and name it btnSunken.Name the “Normal” button“btnNormal”. Save this project as“Demos.tcl”.

Next, place in the lower frame alabel saying “Radio Buttons” andfour radio buttons like in the imagebelow. Finally, place an Exit buttonbelow the bottom frame.

Before we work on the bindings,let's create our click functions.Open the Function List and createtwo functions. The first should becalled btnNormalClicked and theother btnSunkenClicked. Make sureyou set the arguments box toinclude p1. Here's the code youshould have for them...

def btnNormalClicked(p1):

print "Normal Button Clicked"

def btnSunkenClicked(p1) :

print "Sunken Button Clicked"

Let's add our button bindings.For each button, right click it,select “Bindings...”, and add, asbefore, a binding to the functionswe created. For the normal button,it would be “btnNormalClicked”,and for the sunken button it wouldbe btnSunkenClicked. Save andgenerate your code. Now, if youwere to test the program underthe “Run” option of the PythonConsole, and click any of thebuttons, you won't see anythinghappen. However, when you closethe application, you should see theprint responses. This is normal forPage and if you simply run it fromthe command line as you normallydo, things should work asexpected.

Now for our radio buttons. Wehave grouped them in two“clusters”. The first two (Radio 1and Radio 2) will be cluster 1 andthe other two will be cluster 2.Click on Radio1 and in theAttribute Editor, set the value to 0and the variable to “rbc1”. Set thevariable for Radio 2 to “rbc1” andthe value to 1. Do the same thing

HOWTO - BEGINNING PYTHON 30


Greg Walters is owner of RainyDaySolutions, LLC, a consulting companyin Colorado and has beenprogramming since 1972. He enjoyscooking, hiking, music, and spendingtime with his family. His website iswww.thedesignatedgeek.net.

for Radio 3 and Radio 4 but forboth of these set the variable to“rbc2”. If you want, you can dealwith the click of the radiobuttonsand print something to theterminal, but for now, theimportant thing is that the clusterswork. Clicking Radio1 will deselectRadio2 and not influence Radio3 orRadio4, and the same for Radio2and so on.

Finally, you should create afunction for the Exit button, andbind it to the button like we did inthe first example.

If you've been following alongas we have done our other Tkinterapplications, you should be able tounderstand the code shown aboveright. If not, please go back a fewissues for a full discussion of thiscode.

You can see that using Pagemakes the basic design processmuch easier than doing it yourself.We've only scratched the surface ofwhat Page can do, and we'll startdoing something much morerealistic next time.

The python code can be foundon pastebin athttp://pastebin.com/qq0YVgTb.

One note before we go for thismonth. You might have noticedthat I've missed a couple of issues.This is due to my wife beingdiagnosed with cancer last year. Ashard as I have tried to keep thingsfrom falling through the cracks, anumber of things have. One ofthese things is my old domain/website atwww.thedesignatedgeek.com. Iblew it and missed the renewal.Due to this, the domain was soldout from under me. I have set upwww.thedesignatedgeek.net withall the old stuff. I will be workinghard the next month to bring it allup to date.

See you next time.

HOWTO - BEGINNING PYTHON 30

def set_Tk_var():

# These are Tk variables passed to Tkinter and must

# be defined before the widgets using them are created.

global rbc1

rbc1 = StringVar()

global rbc2

rbc2 = StringVar()

def btnExitClicked(p1) :

sys.exit()

def btnNormalClicked(p1) :

print "Normal Button Clicked"

def btnSunkenClicked(p1) :

print "Sunken Button Clicked"

The Ubuntu Podcast covers allthe latest news and issues facingUbuntu Linux users and FreeSoftware fans in general. Theshow appeals to the newest userand the oldest coder. Ourdiscussions cover thedevelopment of Ubuntu butaren’t overly technical. We arelucky enough to have somegreat guests on the show, tellingus first hand about the latestexciting developments they areworking on, in a way that we canall understand! We also talkabout the Ubuntu communityand what it gets up to.

The show is presented bymembers of the UK’s UbuntuLinux community. Because it iscovered by the Ubuntu Code ofConduct it is suitable for all.

The show is broadcast live everyfortnight on a Tuesday evening(British time) and is available fordownload the following day.

podcast.ubuntu-uk.org

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http://pastebin.com/qq0YVgTb

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http://podcast.ubuntu-uk.org/


HHOOWW--TTOOWritten by Elmer Perry LLiibbrreeOOffffiiccee -- PPaarrtt 1122

In my last article, I discussedsetting up styles in LibreOfficeCalc. This month, I will showyou how to prepare, examine,

and print your spreadsheet. We willadd headers and footers to oursheet, use the Page Preview toexamine how our sheet will lookwhen we print it, and review theprint dialog and how it affects thefinal printed pages.

Renaming Sheets

When you first create a newspreadsheet file, the defaultworkbook starts with three sheetsnamed Sheet1, Sheet2, and Sheet3.You can use these names in otherplaces in your sheet, and we willuse them when we create theheader and footer for our budgetspreadsheet. However, the defaultnames are not very informative, sowe will rename them. The namesare located on tabs at the bottomprogram window. To rename asheet, right-click on the tab andselect Rename Sheet from the pop-up menu. The Rename Sheet dialogwill display. Type in a meaningfulname for the sheet, i.e. “February

24, 2012” and click OK.

Headers and Footers

Headers and footers allow us tocreate consistency between pages.Doing this on the sheet wouldmean shuffling cells as the sheetchanges and grows. Using the pagesettings, we can create the samelook for multiple pages.

Open the page settings dialog,Format > Page. Click on the Headertab. Here you can adjust themargins, width, and height of theheader area. I would recommendchecking the Autofit Heightcheckbox, otherwise your headermay get cut off. Click on the Editbutton to bring up the header areaformat dialog. You will notice theheader is divided into three areas,

left, center, and right. Along thebottom, you will notice a toolbar.The toolbar lets you insertplaceholders into the header andformat the text. For our budgetspreadsheet, we will placesomething in each of the areas. Inthe left area type “2012 Budget”.For the center area, we will placeour sheet name. To get the sheetname, click in the center area anddelete any content that alreadyexists, then click on the thirdbutton on the toolbar. This insertsthe name you gave the sheet. Forthe right area, we will insert thecurrent date. Click in the right areaand delete any content thatalready exists. The next-to-lastbutton on the toolbar inserts thecurrent date. To change the font,size, color, etc, of the text,highlight the text in any of the

areas and click on the first buttonon the toolbar. This brings up afont dialog, where you can changethe attributes of the text. Click theOK button when you are finishedediting your header.

We also might want to separateour header from the rest of thesheet with a border or backgroundcolor. We can do this by clicking onthe More button on the Header tabin the Page dialog. For mine, I justput a 0.50pt line at the bottom.

The Footer tab is the same asthe Header tab, but let’s put somedifferent information in the threeareas. On the Footer tab, click theEdit button. In the left area, placethe sheet name using the thirdbutton on the toolbar like we didwith the header's center area. Inthe center area, delete the contentthat is already there and type theword Page and a space. Click onthe fourth button in the toolbar.This creates a placeholder for thepage number. This placeholder willincrement for each page of thesheet. In the right area, click on thelast button on the toolbar to insert


HOWTO - LIBREOFFICE PART 12a current time placeholder. Thiswill print the time when you printthe sheet. Having the current dateand time on the sheet can come inhandy when you have to dorevisions and need to know whichone is the most current. As withthe header, we can edit theattributes of the text byhighlighting the text we want tochange and clicking on the firstbutton in the toolbar. Click OKwhen you are done editing.

To separate the footer from therest of the document, we can usethe More button to create a borderor background color. I used a0.50pt border on the top.

In our setup, we used all thebuttons in the header/footer editdialog except for two. The secondbutton inserts the filename of theworkbook, and the fifth inserts thetotal number of pages.

We are finished editing thepage setup. Click OK to close thepage-setup dialog.

Page Preview

The page preview allows us tomake final adjustments to our

sheet before printing. With thepreview, we can make sureeverything fits on the page the waywe want it, and the data shows aswe intended.

To open the page preview, go toFile > Page Preview. The currentwindow is replaced by the pagepreview window. You can makeseveral adjustments while in pagepreview mode.

The slider in the toolbar is thescaling factor. This allows you tomake the cells bigger or smaller sothey fit on the page the way youwant. You can increase the size byclicking on the plus (+) or reduce itby clicking on the minus (-). You canalso click and drag the adjustmenthandle.

The Format Page buttondisplays the Page Style dialog. Hereyou can change your overall page

margins and background color, andmake corrections and adjustmentsto your header and footer. Twothings we haven't mentioned yetare the table alignment and theprint order. Table alignment isfound on the Page tab. It allowsyou to center the tablehorizontally, vertically, or both. Onthe Sheet tab, the page ordercontrols how the cells are printedon the page. This allows you tomake your data layout in the orderand way you intended. If you havemore columns than can fit on apage, you can change it from thedefault to left-to-right, then down.You can also set the beginningpage number should you needsomething other than 1. You canalso specify what prints and whatdoes not. Finally, you can manuallyadjust the scaling here as well.

The page preview gives youbuttons to page forward and

backward, and jump to the firstpage or the last page. There arealso zoom in/out buttons for closerexamination of the page.

The Margins button gives youthe ability to adjust the page,header, footer, and columnmargins. Click the Margins buttonto activate margins mode. Thedotted lines let you manuallyadjust the page, header, and footermargins. The black markers at thetop allow you to adjust the widthsof the columns. Click the Marginsbutton again to exit margins mode.

Close Preview exits the previewmode.

Printing

Finally, we have completed allour preparation and it is time toprint our sheet. File > Print bringsup the print dialog. On the General


Elmer Perry's history of working, andprogramming, computers involves anApple IIE, adding some Amiga, agenerous helping of DOS andWindows, a dash of Unix, and blendwell with Linux and Ubuntu.

tab, you can select your printer.Click on the Properties button forsettings specific to your printer.You can choose to print just theselected sheets, all sheets, or justselected cells. You can also specifywhether to print all the pages orjust selected pages. If you don'tfeel like ordering your pages afteryou print, you can also choose toprint them in reverse order. Youhave an option to print multiplecopies, and whether or not tocollate them.

On the LibreOffice Calc tab, youcan choose to print or not printblank pages. The Page Layout tabgives you options for printing morethan one page on a sheet of paper,what order to print them, andwhether to put a border aroundthe page. On the Options tab, youcan choose to print to a postscriptfile, and, if you are printing

multiple copies, whether to do it asone print job or multiple.

Once you have everything set,click Print.

This may seem overkill for asingle document, but you need toalways consider how often you willuse and change the document. Ifyou use the sheet often, as in abudget, once the header andfooter is set, you will never have tochange them again. By consideringthe reusability, you decrease thesetup time the next time you use it.

Next month, we will look atsome quick tips and tricks forworking with spreadsheets inCalc.

HOWTO - LIBREOFFICE PART 12

Quick OpinionTune out, Drop Out, Get things Doneby Allan J Smithie

I turned off the Internet today. Idon’t mean the whole thing. I meanmy access to it. I unplugged therouter from the wall.

I also killed my music player and leftthe mobile phone in another room.

Something mystical then happened.Concentration.

I love the Internet. I’m probably addicted. It’s a hugeresource for information and an unparalleled research,educational and entertainment resource, but every so often Ihave to shut it all out just to Get Things Done.

Turn off the TV, radio, iPod, Xbox, PSP and Wii. Close thebrowsers (both of them), kill the chatroom, the IRC, AIM,Facepunch, Twiddle and anything else that’s running. The factchecking can wait. Contrary to contemporary systems of belief,your status doesn’t have to be updated in real time. It will allstill be there. After you get something DONE.


HHOOWW--TTOOWritten by Allan J. Smithie BBaacckkuupp SSttrraatteeggyy -- PPaarrtt 66 :: UUbbuunnttuu OOnnee

Not quite the 'elephant inthe room' - there is oneobvious service thatwe've avoided in this

series thus far: Ubuntu One.

Ubuntu One is Canonical's real-time cloud storage and syncingservice, promoted to Ubuntu usersright there during the installerslide-show, integrated andavailable out-of-the-box. Moreover,it's freely available to anyone andthis makes it an important productfor Canonical.

Early adopters grumbled aboutthe speed and reliability of theservice in its initial release, butwe're glad to say that Canonicalhas continued to make progresswith the service, to the extent thatthere's no discernible difference inperformance versus the other topnames such as DropBox orSpiderOak. It is now so wellintegrated in Ubuntu that I'vechallenged it by spending most ofthe effort for this article usingUbuntu One on Windows 8!

I know at this point I'm going

off-script by declaring thatCanonical has done a really smartthing with its cross-platformstrategy. Making Ubuntu Oneavailable on Windows, Android, andiOS, is certainly a major step fordiversifying the Ubuntu One usermarket. Last year, the servicepassed the milestone one millionuser mark, but how many of thoselie outside the Ubuntu faithful isunknown. You can download thefree Files app for your Android andiOS devices from Ubuntu or fromthe Apple App Store or the AndroidMarket.

Usage

When the Ubuntu Oneapplication is launched, you have

the choice to either login with anexisting Ubuntu One account or tocreate a new one. A new accountcan be created directly from theUbuntu One client as well as fromthe website, which is the moststraightforward of all the cloudstorage services to my mind.

Account creation is quitestandard; provide a name and avalid email address, verify using theconfirmation link that is emailedyou, and you get your 5GB of freestorage.

The Ubuntu One client has asimple, clean user interface on allthe platforms. Above the four tabs,the Get More Storage button sitsprominently next to the

connect/disconnect button. Youcan start uploading items byplacing them in the default UbuntuOne folder (just like DropBox). Forthe Windows client, Ubuntu Onealso suggests My Documents, MyPictures and My Music folders, andprovides a storage estimate foreach folder. You have the option ofselecting additional folders tosynchronize. The files added to thisdirectory syncs with your on-lineaccount and become available in allcomputers and connected devices(Android or iPhone) where UbuntuOne is installed. You can either addfiles or folders directly into thisfolder, or use the 'Add a folderfrom this computer' option fromthe Ubuntu One interface.

The Settings tab has options toplace a bandwidth limitation forthe content being synchronizedwith the Ubuntu One service(download and upload speed). Youcan enable options to initiateUbuntu One synchronization assoon as you login to Windows,device notifications and sync allshared files instantly as theybecome available. Interestingly,most of the management functions


HOWTO - BACKUP STRATEGY - PART 6– public and private sharing,devices - are carried out throughthe Ubuntu One website, not in theclient.

Since so many features dependon the web interface, any mobiledevice with a decent sized screenshould be able to access any of theweb interface's features. Forsmaller phones, for example, theAndroid and iOS clients will bemore useful.

Like DropBox, if you click onPublish file, Ubuntu creates aunique URL that you can share withanyone via email or on your socialnetworks. Syncing Notes andContacts isn't supported in theWindows version; the Ubuntu Onesite has tutorials for Notes and

Contacts only for various versionsof Ubuntu Linux distributions.

Currently, the File Sync inProgress doesn’t show thepercentage completion. One of theFAQ's on Ubuntu’s site indicatesthat a real-time progress indicatoris on the feature list for the future.

Security

As an on-line storage product,the lack of file encryption onUbuntu’s servers will be a deal-breaker for many. Whilst Ubuntuuses SSL for syncing data, Publicsharing links are HTTP links, notsecure HTTPS links and this iswhere Ubuntu One is at adisadvantage against DropBox andothers.

Pricing

Competitively, the Ubuntu Onefree service is in the same 5GB freeband as SugarSync, compared tothe DropBox 2GB free account;however, SugarSync and DropBoxalso offer bonus storage upgradesfor trying out features andreferring new customers.Additional paid storage is in 20GBblocks at $2.99 per month or

$29.99 per year. Up at the 100GBmark, you can clearly see thatUbuntuOne and SugarSync matchprices at $149 plus change andDropBox is more expensive at $199a year.

Music

This is where Ubuntu Onebecomes a more distinctiveproduct, because of its music storefor purchase and streaming.Ubuntu One will host your musiconline, just like the Amazon CloudPlayer. This is an additional paidservice, but, if you're an Ubuntuuser, then the music you buy fromthe Ubuntu Music Store is storedon your personal cloud and readyfor streaming on any registereddevice or smart phone, and, as it issynced, you can also listen off-line.There's currently a special offer on20GB of storage for all your data$3.99/month or $39.99/year - withtwo months free on musicstreaming and storage when yousign up for 12 months. The issuewith Ubuntu One music storeremains the range of titles and thebase price per track - whencompared with Amazon and iTunes.

Verdict

We're still looking for theperfect Cloud storage and backupsolution. Ubuntu One is a real-timesyncing service to compete withDropBox and SugarSync, not aBackup tool like Deja Dup orSpiderOak; there's no schedulingor versioning, either in versionnumber or intervals of days.Ubuntu One supports PrivateSharing, but not Share Groups.There's no Search of your UbuntuOne cloud as it relies on yousearching the synced copy of datalocal to your device. As a storagesolution, it is hard to fault UbuntuOne - it mostly makes sense, andCanonical has made reasonablecompromises in splitting thecontrols and managementbetween the various clients andthe web interface. Securityconcerns are all that's stopping megoing over to it full time.

Allan J. Smithie is a journalist andcommentator based in Dubai. Hisblog, 'No Expert,' is at:http://allanjsmithie.wordpress.com

http://allanjsmithie.wordpress.com


HHOOWW--TTOOWritten by Jayneil Dalal SSccrreeeennccaasstt YYoouurr DDeesskkttoopp

What is screencast? Itis actually the digitalrecording of thecomputer screen,

often with an associated audio.Why would we like to do this?Sounds like a good question. Well,often we need to record the screento make a tutorial, or record aproblem that we are having. Thereare many programs that can beused for this purpose such as gtk-recordmydesktop, recorditnow,xvidcap, etc. But, out of all theabove, my personal favorite is gtk-recordmydesktop. In this article Iwill explain how to use it to do ascreencast. I would also like topoint out that I currently useUbuntu 10.04 on a 64-bit machine.

Installing the Software

Recordmydesktop can bedownloaded from the Ubuntusoftware center.

Knowhow of theSoftware

Recordmydesktop can be found

in Applications>Accessories>Sound& Video. The layout of the softwareis quite plain. On the left-hand side,there is a screen which shows thecurrent area which will berecorded. On the right-hand side,we have options to control thevideo and sound quality. Therecording will take up more spaceif we use higher sound and videoquality. On the bottom left-handcorner, we have two options whichare 'Select window' and 'Record'.With the first, we can select thearea on the screen which we wantto record, while the second option

will start the recording. On thebottom right-hand side, we havetwo options, namely 'SaveAs' and'Quit' - to save our recording, andexit the software.

Now, let us explore the'Advanced' features of thissoftware by clicking on that tab.There are four tabs, and we willcover each one of them one by one:

FilesUnder this tab, the first option

controls the overwriting of existingfiles. By default, if we try to save a

file by a name that already exists,then the new file will be renamed.If we checkmark this box, then thisfunctionality will be disabled.Assume we don't want that, andhence we won't check the box. Thenext option specifies where theworking directory is, ie, where therecordings will be saved. We caneasily change this option if wewant.

PerformanceIn this tab, the first option

‘Frames per second’ is selfexplanatory. The second optionlets you encode the videosimultaneously while recording,but this will also require a lot moreprocessing power. The third optionis checkmarked by default - whichmeans that no compression is doneto our recording. The fourthoption, if enabled, will reduce theprocessing power required butmay make the recording a bitblurry. The last option should beenabled only while recording 3Dwindows.

SoundIn this tab, the first option lets


HOWTO - SCREENCAST YOUR DESKTOPus specify the number of audiochannels. The second option setsthe sound frequency. The third isset to 'default', which means thatthe device is discovered by thesoftware automatically. I would notrecommend tampering much withsettings in this tab.

MiscI would recommend once again

not to change the default optionsin this tab. But you may change thetype of mouse cursor. If the FollowMouse option is enabled, then therecording area will follow themouse.

Using the software

Run the software. Then click onthe 'Select Window', select theappropriate recording area, andthen start the recording. On theUbuntu top panel (one where thetime is displayed), you will see acircular red object - which you canclick to end the recording, or right-click it to pause the recording.Once you stop the recording, youwill see a window which is doingencoding as shown in figure-3;don't close it. Then you will beasked where you want to save thevideo. Hurray! Now go and enjoy

your first video recording orscreencast!

Jayneil is pursuing his major inElectrical Engineering from NirmaUniversity in India. His areas ofinterest include OpenCV, Python,Android, Linux, Arduino and otheropen source hardware platforms.

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HHOOWW--TTOOWritten by Dave Crook TThhee PPaappeerrlleessss OOffffiiccee

I am a dedicated and prouduser of linux, predominatelyUbuntu, and, for a long timeI’ve wanted to rid myself of

the last remaining occurrence ofWindows in my home. OnlyPaperPort was preventing me fromachieving my goal.

I have searched the internet fora few years, but have been unableto find a substitute for this, untilnow.

I am a dedicated user of thepaperless office.

So what is this all about, I hearyou ask?

Well, the title is somewhat self-explanatory. It's an office (home orsmall business) without paper.(Well, almost.)

Let me explain. Whether you area home user or a small businessuser, this is applicable to you.

Almost every day the letter box,and consequently the home orbusiness, is littered with letters or

bills or statements. What do you dowith them? I suppose most homeusers dump them in the bin;business users will need to storemost of them in increasingnumbers of filing cabinets I guess.

This is where the paperlessoffice comes into its own.

There is a windows applicationcalled PaperPort; this has changedownership in recent years, but theapplication still remains the “RollsRoyce” of the paperless office. Thewhole package has many, manyfeatures, more than I can recall, butI tend to use only a couple of these.The cost of this s/w is reasonable(for a Windows setup), but not anoption (at the current time) forLinux users.

In simplistic terms, theapplication contains a built-in filemanager and scanner application.

On running PaperPort, you usethe file manager application toselect the folder where you wantall your “scans” saved (the office ofno paper). It is simple to create

new folders and move thingsaround. Just remember to fileeverything in sensibly-namedfolders and filenames.

Each time you scan in adocument, it will be saved in the“selected” folder as a compressedpdf file type. If a document ismulti-page, it will be saved as acompressed multi-page pdf.

Once the documents have beenscanned (and backed up to anotherHDD), they can be “binned”,although I would recommend thatthey are shredded with a cross-cutshredder. Everything that is paper-based can be treated in the sameway. All bills, bank statements,receipts, etc., are stored in anappropriate folder, thus allowing itto be found easily in the future.Should a hard copy be required, adocument can be dropped onto theprinter icon and it will be printed.Fantastic! Think of the space youcan save!

I have recently foundPaperPort's Linux equivalent. It'snot something that has just been

created, it's been there quite awhile, but doesn't seem to havebeen documented or evenconsidered for this purpose.

I will now try my best to explainthe workings of this Windowsreplacement. BTW, I am nowecstatic, as I can now make my lastWindows PC redundant.

Installation

There are two applications thatyou will need to install to replacethe functionality of PaperPort:gscan2pdf and pdfsam.

Both are available in mostrepositories. Now, let me make itquite clear that I am no expert ineither of these applications, and Iam still learning the finer points ofboth of them, but I will try toexplain the elements that I knowwork, and which provide me withthe end result I need: “Thepaperless office”.

It matters not whether yourscanner is a stand-alone or all-in-one; gscan2pdf should be able todetect it. I accept that there will be


HOWTO - THE PAPERLESS OFFICEsome issues here, especially thethe newest printers/scanners, but Iwill state that I purchased an EpsonPX810 over 12 months ago, when itwas quite new to the market, andUbuntu detected it straight away,even though I use it over my localnetwork with Wi-Fi. I also have a HPOfficeJet 4500, connected withUSB, and have no issues with thateither.

Now, let’s get down to action.

Scan and save

Let me now summarise the useof each of the applicationsmentioned above.

gscan2pdf provides thefunctionality needed to scan yourdocuments and save them to disk.

Pdfsam (pdf split and merge)provides the functionality to mergemultiple single pdf scans into asingle 'stacked' pdf document, and,if required, it can unstack themback to single pdf's.

Ensure that your scanner isconnected to the Laptop or PC orto your Network, and switched onat the mains. Select and run the

application gscan2pdf, and, once itopens, click the “scan” icon; theapplication will now search for anyconnected scanners and placethem in a selection list. The nextwindow that opens allows you toselect the appropriate scanner ifyou have more than oneconnected.

There are 4 tabs:Page Options: here you can

select to scan single pages ormultiple pages. Obviously, multiplepages can be handled only with anADF (Automatic DocumentFeeder). I have found that “Cleanup images” and “OCR scannedpages” are best left un-ticked forthe purposes of this tutorial.

Scan Mode: here you canchoose between 'colour', 'line art',and 'grey'. The scan resolution canalso be changed here. I find thatfor normal “paperless office” uses,150 is a good choice.

Advanced: here you can alterthe 'compression', 'factor', and

'scan source'. I tend to setCompression at JPEG, factor at 10,and Scan Source at either 'Flatbed'or 'ADF' - as appropriate. I use ADFmostly, as you can scan many pageswith ease. NOTE: ADF will be anoption only if the scanner supportsthis.

Geometry: I leave measurementas default, and paper size as A4 (Iam in the UK).

Now, assuming you have placedthe docs to scan in either theflatbed or the ADF, click 'Scan'.

The scanned pages will nowappear as thumbnails in the 'main'gscan2pdf window.

If you have scanned multipledocuments, you have the option toselect one or more in the left pane.You can now click the 'save' icon(looks like an HDD with greenarrow). The save window will nowappear. You have the followingoptions:

Page Range, select either All or

Selected as appropriate.Image Type, for normal

Paperless Office uses, select PDF.Date, click this and choose the

appropriate date. If you arescanning, say, bank statements,select the date of the statement asthis will be used for the filename.Other data can be added asrequired.

For Compression, I normallyselect Automatic. Click Save.

You will now be offered a filemanager window to select thetarget destination.

Browse to where you wish tosave the scan.

To make the next “save”somewhat easier, you can chooseto click the + sign (to save as ashortcut for next time), before youclick the Save button.

That's it, your scans will havebeen saved to your HDD.


A PLEA ON BEHALF OF THEPODCAST PARTY

As you often hear in the podcast, we're callingfor opinion topics for that section of the show.

Instead of us having a rant about whateverstrikes us, why not prompt us with a topic andwatch for the mushroom clouds over thehorizon! It's highly unlikely that the three of uswill agree.

Or, an even more radical thought, send us anopinion by way of a contribution!

You can post comments and opinions on thepodcast page at fullcirclemagazine.org, in ourUbuntu Forums section, or [email protected]. You can alsosend us a comment by recording an audio clip ofno more than 30 seconds and sending it to thesame address. Comments and audio may beedited for length. Please remember this is afamily-friendly show.

It would be great to have contributors come onthe show and express anopinion in person.

Robin

HOWTO - THE PAPERLESS OFFICE

Merge and/or Split

If you subsequently need tomerge (stack) multiple single scanstogether, or extract (split) a pagefrom a merged set, then you needto open pdfsam.

This is quite simple to use:select the Merge/Extract option inthe left-hand window, then clickthe ADD button, and select thePDFs you want to merge into one.In the selection window thatreturns listing all the PDFs that youpreviously selected, you get theoption of re-ordering them, thenyou can choose the target locationand filename, and then click RUN.

Conversely, if you wish to split apage from a merged/stacked set,select the split option in the leftwindow, then click the ADD button,and select the PDF you want toextract from. The normal splitoption would be Burst; then youcan choose the target location andfilename, and then click RUN.

I hope you have found thisuseful, because I now use this atweekly intervals, to reduce the“paper” collecting in my office.

Many thanks to the author(s) ofboth the applications describedabove.




HHOOWW--TTOOWritten by Ronnie Tucker WWrriittee FFoorr FFuullll CCiirrccllee MMaaggaazziinnee

Guidelines

The single rule for anarticle is that it mustsomehow be linked toUbuntu or one of the

many derivatives of Ubuntu(Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, etc).

Write your article in whicheversoftware you choose. I wouldrecommend LibreOffice, butPLEASE SPELL AND GRAMMARCHECK IT!

Writing

There is no word limit forarticles, but be advised that longarticles may be split across severalissues. In your article, please placewhere you would like a particularimage to be. Please do not use anyformatting in your document.

Images

Images should be no wider than800 pixels, in JPG format, and uselow compression.

If you are writing a review,please follow the guidelines shownhere.

For a more detailed list of thestyle rules and common pitfallsplease refer to:https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuMagazine/Style - in short: US spelling,no l33t speak and no smilies.

When you are ready to submityour article please email it to:[email protected]

If you can't write articles, buthang out in Ubuntu Forums, sendus interesting forum threads thatwe could print.

Non-English Writers

If your native language is notEnglish, don't worry. Write yourarticle, and one of the proof-readers will read it for you andcorrect any grammatical or spellingerrors. Not only are you helping themagazine and the community, butwe'll help you with your English!

REVIEWS

Games/ApplicationsWhen reviewing games/applications please state clearly:

• title of the game• who makes the game• is it free, or a paid download?• where to get it from (give download/homepage URL)• is it Linux native, or did you use Wine?• your marks out of five• a summary with positive and negative points

HardwareWhen reviewing hardware please state clearly:

• make and model of the hardware• what category would you put this hardware into?• any glitches that you may have had while using the hardware?• easy to get the hardware working in Linux?• did you have to use Windows drivers?• marks out of five• a summary with positive and negative points

You don't need to be an expert to write anarticle - write about the games, applicationsand hardware that you use every day.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuMagazine/Style

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https://spideroak.com



https://spideroak.com/mobile



LLIINNUUXX LLAABBWritten by Charles McColm UUsseeffuull LLiinnuuxx IInnvveessttiiggaattiivvee TToooollss

Whether you need tofigure out if yoursystem supports acertain mode, or just

want to get to know more about asystem, Ubuntu has a good numberof useful tools. Most of the toolsdescribed here can be run from astandard Live CD, so, if you arelooking for the systemspecifications for dozens ofdifferent systems, these can behandy tools.

As with a lot of Linux software,there are both graphical and non-graphical tools. The first couple oftools (hardinfo and lshw-gtk), arenot a part of the standardinstallation or Live CD, but they arein the Ubuntu universe repositores.As long as you have the Ubuntuuniverse repositories enabled, theninstalling them is a simple matter:

sudo aptget install hardinfo

lshwgtk

While most of the systeminformation tools can run as astandard user, they will notnecessarily detect as much as when

run as the root user. It’s best to runeach tool using gksudo in the caseof graphical tools, or sudo forcommand line tools.

hardinfo

Of all the tools, this is perhapsthe most visual, and it has a coupleof benchmarking features that arenot in lshw-gtk. Run hardinfo byeither pressing Alt+F2 and typing:

gksudo hardinfo

or typing the same commandinto a terminal window.

Hardinfo has a nice graphicalrepresentation of each systemcomponent. Clicking on acomponent reveals its attributes.

For example, clicking on theSummary icon gives a quickoverview of processor, memory,operating system, and someinformation about the sound andvideo devices. What differentiateshardinfo from lshw-gtk is that itshows some operating systeminformation, such as which kernelmodules are in use (which can behandy if you are trying to problem-solve why a particular device is notworking), environment variables,and even boot times. Hardinfo canalso do a number of benchmarks:CPU Blowfish, CPU CryptoHash,CPU Fibonacci, CPU-N-Queens, FPUFFT, and FPU Raytracing. Bythemselves, the benchmarks arenot much to look at, but if you arebuilding a variety of differentsystems, or slightly differentsystems, these benchmarks are aninteresting way to see thedifference between equipment.

Perhaps the best feature ofhardinfo is the fact that it cangenerate reports about any or allof the system information orbenchmarks. Those reports arestored as a html file, and can be

opened by the browser of yourchoice.

The downside to hardinfo isthat some of the information israther sparse. For example, itshows the model of the hard drivein my notebook, but not the actualsize. If you’re trying to spec abunch of machines, this is onemore detail you would have to lookup.

If you do a little more searchingfor information about hardinfo, itis worth noting that while thehome page for hardinfo suggeststhe last active version was createdin 2009, the bug tracker showsrecent active bug squashing andenhancements.

lshw-gtk


LINUX LAB - INVESTIGATIVE TOOLS

This product can fill in many ofthe details hardinfo leaves out.lshw-gtk is a graphical front end tothe command line tool lshw. As youwill see, a number of these toolsare related, so do not be surprisedto see how similar some of thetools appear. Like hardinfo, lshw-gtk is not installed in the defaultinstallation of Ubuntu (thecommand line version, lshw, is).Run lshw-gtk the same manner youwould hardinfo:

gksudo lshwgtk

lshw-gtk normally shows a fewtop-level items that can beexpanded for more information.Where most of the other toolsshow reams and reams ofinformation, lshw-gtk streamlinesthe information into somewhatdigestible separate windows. lshw-gtk is a bit less friendly thanhardinfo. In order to get to some ofthe results (hard drive size, forexample), you have to “drill down”into sub-menus. For example, inorder to determine the hard drivesize, you have to clickMotherboard, host bridge, IDEinterface, then ATA disk, notexactly intuitive if you’re nothardware savvy.

The amount of informationlshw-gtk shows is very useful, andit’s a bit more friendly than itscommand line brother lshw. It cansave system information just likehardinfo, but saves information inan XML format (better forprocessing, but not pretty whenloaded in Firefox). The mainadvantage of lshw-gtk overhardinfo is that lshw-gtk displayssome information (hard drive size)which hardinfo currently doesn’tshow.

lshw

This is the command linebrother to lshw-gtk. Being acommand line tool, lshw has all thetypical advantages of manycommand line tools: it’s part of thedefault Ubuntu install, it can bepiped to a text file and processed

using other tools, and it hasswitches that allow for some veryspecific information. For example:

sudo lshw class disk class

storage short | grep sda

Displays the following result onmy notebook:/0/100/1f.2/0.0.0

/dev/sda disk

80GB HDS728080PLA380

Run without any switches, lshwdisplays literally pages ofinformation. lshw-gtk savesinformation only in XML format,but the command line lshw cansave information in XML, HTML, orjson (Javascript object notation)format.

sudo lshw html >

hardware.html

After running lshw with the-html switch, just open the file(hardware.html in this case), with aweb browser.

While lshw can display systeminformation in html format, wefound it didn’t work so wellcombined with other switches - theinformation was there but theformatting was completely lost.The information is so extensive

that it can be a bit overwhelming.The -class and -short switchescome in handy parsing down theinformation to something moremanageable. The classes availableare: system, bus, memory,processor, bridge, display, network,multimedia, disk, storage, volume,and power. For example:

sudo lshw class memory

short

lspci

lspci lists PCI devices in asystem. Like lshw, lspci can displaya lot of information about asystem. Run on its own withoutswitches, lspci displays a fairamount of information about PCIdevices within a system, but youcan add more verbosity by addingup to 3 v switches:

sudo lspci vvv


LINUX LAB - INVESTIGATIVE TOOLS

One practical use of lspci is tofigure out which wireless chipset asystem has in order to install thecorrect wireless driver. Likehardinfo, lspci can display kernelmodule information about pcidevices (using the -k switch).

dmidecode

This reads a system’s DMI tablefor information. One of the greatthings about dmidecode is that itcan display information about themaximum supported configurationof the system. For example:dmidecode displays both thecurrent amount and maximumamount of RAM a system canhandle. It is also possible to limitthe information dmidecodedisplays using the -t switch to limitthe type of information displayed(such as processor, memory, or

cache). Additional information canbe displayed with a commabetween information types. Forexample:

sudo dmidecode t 4,22

The first type 4 is the processor,and the second type 22 is thebattery. Of course not all the typeswill necessarily display for allsystems. Battery information, forexample, is primarily fornotebooks. Note: be sure not toinclude a space after the comma ordmidecode will not interpret thesecond type.

cat /proc

The sixth tool is not really aspecific tool for queryinghardware, but the combination ofcat and the /proc (process)information in the Linux filesystem. The two processes I querymost on systems are /proc/cpuinfoand /proc/meminfo. I typically usegrep to limit information (thoughwith cpu information it can behandy to see other informationsuch as cpu family to help sortbetween different processors):

cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep

'model name'

On my notebook displays:

model name : Intel(R)

Celeron(R) M processor

1.50GHz

Checking meminfo using catshows a lot more detail aboutactive memory including both mainmemory free and swap memoryfree. Unlike other tools, sudo isn’trequired to query the procfilesystem.

df

This one is specific to displayingdisk information. As with cat, youdo not need to execute df withroot permission, you just run dffrom a command prompt. Runningdf by itself displays diskinformation in 1K-blocks, not veryhuman-readable. Use the -hHswitches to make the df outputhuman-readable, and using powersof 1000 (which is closer to whathard drives are marketed as). I alsolike to limit information to thedrive I’m working with, again usinggrep:

df hH | grep ‘sda’

On my notebook results in:

df: /dev/sda1

77G 5.6G 68G 8% /

`/root/.gvfs': Permission

denied

The second line ending inPermission denied can beeliminated by running df with sudo.

Baobab / Disk UsageAnalyzer

The last investigative product isalso a disk usage tool. You can findDisk Usage Analyzer under theAccessories menu. Disk UsageAnalyzer (like the du command linetool which I do not cover here) isreally handy for tracking downwhich files and directories aretaking up the most space on yourfile system. Disk Usage Analyzer isreally easy to use. Click the ScanHome button to get an overview of


Charles is a step-father, husband, andLinux fan who runs a not-for-profitcomputer refurbishing project. Whennot breaking hardware/servers hemaintains a blog athttp://www.charlesmccolm.com/.

LINUX LAB - INVESTIGATIVE TOOLSdisk usage in your home directory.

The Analyzer menu allows youto scan your home directory, entirefile system, or a remote file systemthrough SSH, FTP (with login),Public FTP, SAMBA share, WebDAVand Secure WebDAV, or CustomURI.

Disk Usage Analyzer can also berun from the command line usingthe baobab command, but it’s still agraphical tool. The advantage ofrunning baobab from the commandline is that you can specify aparticular directory without theneed of drilling down to thatdirectory from the home or rootfilesystem.

We’ve looked at 8 useful systeminvestigation tools. Linux has manymore tools, a number of which arereferenced by the manual (man)pages of the tools we’ve looked athere. Whether you’re a systembuilder or just supporting Linux,these are all useful tools.

Helpful Links:

Hardinfo homepage:http://hardinfo.berlios.de/HomePage

Lshw wiki:http://ezix.org/project/wiki/HardwareLiSter

Nognu dmidecode page:http://www.nongnu.org/dmidecode/

CCOODDEEWWOORRDD

Solutions are on the second last page.

Every number in the codewords grid is 'code' for a letter of thealphabet. At the end you should have a different letter in eachnumbered box, and a word in English in each of the horizontaland vertical runs on the codeword grid.

puzzles are copyright, and kindly provided by,The Puzzle Club - www.thepuzzleclub.com

http://www.charlesmccolm.com/

http://hardinfo.berlios.de/HomePage

http://ezix.org/project/wiki/HardwareLiSter

http://www.nongnu.org/dmidecode/

http://www.thepuzzleclub.com


CCLLOOSSIINNGG WWIINNDDOOWWSS FFoorrmmaattttiinngg AA UUSSBB DDeevviiccee

Written by:Ronnie Tucker (KDE)Jan Mussche (Gnome)Elizabeth Krumbach (XFCE)Mark Boyajian (LXDE)David Tigue (Unity)

Formatting (or erasing) astorage device in Windowsis relatively easy. You rightclick the drive you wish to

format, and you’ll be presentedwith a window which details thesteps to take in erasing allinformation from your device.

Linux is slightly different in thisregard as it’s almost impossible toformat a device without seeing amention of partitions. And thatalways bothers people. Think ofpartitions as being drives within adrive. If you want to only format aUSB/SD storage device, then you’llmore than likely not bother withpartitions.

WARNING: Be very careful withformatting storage devices. If youchoose the wrong device, and clickOK, you could be in big trouble.Make 200% sure you’ve got theright device before clicking thatfinal OK button!

Kubuntu:

Kubuntu comes with anapplication in K > Appllications >System called KDE PartitionManager.

On first loading the application,you’ll see a list of your storagedevices at the top left, and adiagram of your devices space atthe top. The middle section lists

partitions, types, labels, and so on.While the bottom panel showsoperations pending. Sometimes, itcan be difficult to tell which deviceis which. In the list above, one ofthem is a USB device, but whichone? Well, I can narrow it down byknowing that the others are toolarge to be my USB device. Clickingthe name /dev/sde tells me (middlepanel) that it’s a KingstonDataTraveler and is 8GB - whichconfirms what is physically writtenon my device.

Right clicking on the top ormiddle panels will get me almostno options other than ‘Unmount’,so do that first. Now we have

access (via right clicking, or thebuttons at the top of the window)to more options, and the main one(for now) is ‘Delete’. This willremove the current partitionsbefore letting us choose ‘New’.

This window will let you assign afile system, a label (if applicable),and how big to make this new


partition. I’ll call it ‘My USB’, usethe ext4 file system, and use thefull capacity of the USB.

After clicking OK, the last thingto do is to click ‘Apply’. It’sabsolutely critical that you doublecheck you’ve got the right devicebefore clicking apply - as you’ll getonly one more sanity check!

Once KDE Partition Managertells you it’s done, your USB deviceis shiny and new! To begin using it,you need to remove the device (it’ssafe as it’s still unmounted) andplug it back in again.

Lubuntu:

By default, Lubuntu comes witha program called Disk Utility thateasily handles all standard diskmanagement tasks. The programcan be opened from the main menuby selecting System Tools > DiskUtility.

Disk Utility is simple butpowerful. As mentioned earlier inthis article: you need to exercisecaution before committing anaction or you could find yourselfreformatting the wrong drive! Asyou can see (below), Disk Utility

“sees” all the drives attached toyour system, which it displays inthe “left pane” under the titleStorage Devices; I have selectedthe USB drive. Disk Utility providesa lot of information about theselected drive, and segregates theresults into two categories: Diskand Volumes. The former providesdisk-level information andfunctionality. In this example, thereare three functions you canperform at the disk level: FormatDrive, Benchmark, and Safe

Removal. To invoke a function,hover your mouse over thefunction until it becomeshighlighted, then click it. (Note:Depending on the type of driveselected in the left pane, theavailable functions will change.)

The Volumes section (lower halfof right pane) analyzes and displaysattributes and functions related tothe volumes (partitions) on thedrive. In this example, there is onlyone partition and it is represented

graphically by the blue rectangle. Ifwe wanted to reformat thispartition, you would simply click onFormat Volume. A simple pop-upmenu will prompt you for the typeof file system you want, and aname for the volume - then youwould click the Format button.(Note: doing this will destroy anydata you have stored on thispartition; however, if you had morethan one partition on the selecteddrive, the other partitions wouldremain unaffected.) In thisexample, to delete the entirepartition and leave the diskunallocated, you would click DeletePartition. Once the partition isdeleted, you can create a newpartition(s) - specifying the type,size, and volume name.

From the Drive section (upperhalf of right pane) of Disk Utility,you can select Format Drive todelete all the partitions on a drivewith a single action. Disk Utility isvery easy to use, but it assumesyou understand the consequencesof your actions. At most, DiskUtility will warn you once beforeyou execute a destructive action(e.g. delete a partition, format adrive, etc.); however, it is simple tooperate and easy to learn.

CLOSING WINDOWS


Gnome-Shell:

In this version of Ubuntu, youcan find the program Disk Utility(System > Administration > DiskUtility). Once started, you will seean overview of all disks connected,or built into your computer.

Since it is the same program ashas been described above in theLubuntu section, I will explain onlysome of the features of thisprogram that have not beendescribed already.

Top right, you see the sectionDrive. Here you see a lot ofinformation about the drive. Justhave a look at some drives in yourcomputer, see if you can recognizethem. In this Drive section, you see3 buttons: Format drive, SMARTData, and Benchmark. ClickingSMART Data, you will see thisscreen which tells you about thecondition of your drive.

The Benchmark button tells youabout what the drive can doregarding read and write speed.

Unity:

In Unity, the default applicationis ‘Disk Utilty’. Click on the Dashicon, start typing ‘Disk Utility’, andthen click the icon when it appears.The usage for this tool has alreadybeen mentioned before, so I won’tgo into details here. I would justlike to emphasise that youunmount the volume beforeformatting, and also make sure youare 100% certain this is what youwant to do before you click thefinal button. This will cause you tolose all data on the drive, so makesure that formatting the drive iswhat you want to do. Good luck.

Xubuntu:

Xubuntu 11.10 does not shipwith a default graphical applicationfor formatting a storage device. Ifyou don’t want to install software,

you have the option of using thecommand line tool “parted” whichdoes ship with Xubuntu - you canfind documentation for this tool onthe parted website:http://www.gnu.org/software/parted/

However, it is insteadrecommended that you use thesame tool already recommendedfor Lubuntu and Gnome, “DiskUtility” - which you can install from

the Ubuntu Software Center bysimply searching for “Disk Utility”and clicking Install. Once installed,you can access it via Xubuntumouse menu > Settings > DiskUtility.

Usage has already beencovered, so I will quickly mentionthat, in Xubuntu, USB Flash Drivesare automatically mounted wheninserted - so they will show upwhen you load up the the DiskUtility application. You can go toXubuntu mouse menu > Settings >Settings Manager, and select“Removable Drives and Media” tomake modifications to thisbehavior.

Next month, we’ll be lookinginto *buntu equivalents to theWindows Task Manager.

CLOSING WINDOWS

http://www.gnu.org/software/parted/


MMYY SSTTOORRYYWritten by Chandra

In 2008, I was still using a 20-year-old DOS computer (!!)when it became obvious Icouldn’t go on without

connecting to the web. I boughtone of the very first netbooksbecause it was funny and cheap.Linux was one of the reasons forthe low price, and I knew nothingabout this strange thing. But Idiscovered that it was possible tobuy a computer without payingwhat I call the “Microsoft tax”, soto speak. I added an externalCD/DVD writer.

The original distro was Xandros,not a very good one in fact. Thepossibilities were very limited, andI rapidly looked for something else.The problem was to find a distroworking out-of-the box on anEeePC, and it was not easy in thosedays. I started with ubuntu-eee (anUbuntu 8.04 fork which becameeasypeasy). The main problem wasthe kernel: ubuntu-eee was using aspecific kernel, and it was notpossible to easily upgrade it whena new ubuntu version wasavailable. I tried live sessions ofeeedora, eeedebian and Linux

Mint, and I finally switched toUbuntu 8.10 on my netbook and onmy new desktop computer too (Ibought a “naked” Nyos 50 to avoidpaying the “tax”).

In the meantime, I was graduallydiscovering Linux, thanks toforums, magazines, and onlinedocumentation. Everything was notyet working out-of-the box: e.g. thewifi LED or the volume control onthe netbook - but I succeeded infixing those little problems. Withina year and a half, I definitelydropped out everything that wascoming from Microsoft, and myconfiguration was OK regardingwhat I wanted to do with it.

Then, Unity arrived! I’ll just saytwo things about that. To me, Unityis a real nightmare. It is also asolution for which there was noproblem. So, I switched to Xubuntu.It is very simple, very intuitive,faster, and very easy to configure.Since it uses gtk libraries, gnomeapplications are welcome. Xubuntuis now the only distro I use.

Oh, by the way, what do I use?

Very simple but powerful things:Firefox and Thunderbird, Abiword,and Gnumeric. On a second level,eog as an image-viewer, epdf as apdf-viewer, Xsane for scanning,GIMP, MPlayer, devede, brasero (ifyou want to know more aboutthese packages, please refer to theubuntu online documentation). Ialso use things as gparted, baobab,mousepad, gnome-disk-utility,hardinfo, ntp, wipe, clonezilla...

And now, what is important tome? First of all, I do not have toadapt myself to the distro. Thedistro must be able to adapt itselfto me. I must be able to controlprecisely what I need, and toremove all that is not necessary tome. That is why I don’t use UbuntuSoftware Center - which is just apleasant catalogue to look at. It’snot precise enough. It does notallow me to completely removeunused packages, that is to say toalso remove configuration files. Iadded deborphan in synaptic,which allows the removal of orphanpackages. I also removed aboutforty or fifty useless things. Forexample, dummy packages or

things like splx - since my printer isnot a Samsung printer. This isimportant because my netbook hasonly a 4 GB SSD.

I must be able to completelypersonalise the desktop so thateverything is located where it hasto be and behaves the way I want.Fortunately, Linux allows any userto modify little things inconfiguration files. For example, Ichanged the 3600 seconds randomsleep time to 10 seconds in/etc/cron.daily/apt. Otherwise,when I start my computer, it maytake more than half an hour beforeI am told about available updates.

Upgrading to new versions is areal problem which bothers me.

- First, upgrading should be assimple as updating. And it’s not.During the very long upgradingprocess, I am generally asked tochoose either the new version ofan unknown configuration file or tokeep the old one. I don’t knoweverything about ubuntu, so I knownothing about the consequences ofthe choice, and I don’t know what


MY STORYto do. I generally choose atrandom. After the process, Idiscover applications have beenadded. For example, I chosemousepad and eog. Why installleafpad, pidgin (which I don’t use),and ristretto that I had previouslyremoved ?

- Second, all that was workingbefore should work after. And allmy personal choices in thedifferent preferences andconfiguration files should stayunchanged. After upgrading, thingshave disappeared such as certainicons. Other things simply don’twork anymore. For example ADSLconnection (from Jaunty toKarmic). I had to add sun-java-plugin after upgrading to Lucidbecause icedtea-plugin was nolonger able to display websiteswhich it did before.

- Third, depending on how I doit, I don’t exactly get the samething. I use a single ext4 partition,and no swap, and I have tried fourdifferent ways to switch to a newversion:• I use the very long upgradingprocess. It generally takes at leastfour hours to upgrade, fix whatdoesn’t work any more, andremove the useless things which

have been added. There is alsoanother problem in this process.Some new features are notavailable. For example, I had tomanually switch from grub-legacyto grub-pc in karmic.• I make a fresh install, which is thebest way to get the real newversion. But I have to re-personalise everything, and it takesa very, very long time.• I make a fresh install WITHOUTformatting the old ext4 partition,which keeps my /home directory.But the result is not exactly thesame as the one I get with theprevious option. Pieces of the oldversion are not completelyremoved.• I use two partitions: / and aseparate /home partition, and Ithen make a complete fresh installwhich keeps my home directory.But I still have to remove what isnot useful to me. That’s what I’ll dowith Xubuntu 12.04 LTS.

So, the ideal upgrading processdoesn’t exist. Anyway, the goodnew is that facing problems is anopportunity to learn somethingand to grow up. And of course, I goon with Xubuntu -- the best distrofor me.

1166xx1166 SSUUDDOOKKUU

Solutions are on the second last page.

Numbers 1 to 9 and letters A to F are to be filled into the16x16 grid so that every row, every column, and every4x4 box contains 1 to 9 and A - F.




MMYY OOPPIINNIIOONNWritten by John Kerr

It has been over ten years nowsince I installed and used Linuxfor the first time. I wanted totinker with computers, but, at

the same time, I did not want tospend money on software, and I didnot want to break any EULA. And Ialso wanted to make use ofdiscarded hardware. It was Red Hat5 that gave me the ability to dothis, and I have been hooked eversince.

I have tried many distros overthe years - from Red Hat, Fedora,Puppy, SCO (yes, even them),Mandriva, but at one point Idecided that I should quit distrohopping and stick with one, forbetter or worse. I chose Fedora.That went well - except for onething - to me, Fedora was veryunstable from one release to theother, and, often, things that Ispent time fixing got broken againsix to twelve months later. I camevery close to going back to thedark side - yes, that meantWindows.

Then, I heard about UbuntuWarty Warthog, and I decided to

give Linux one last try. Ubuntu didsolve one more problem - as I wasalso tired of downloading 4 CD'sfor each install. The one-CDdownload was a godsend.

By this time I had become quitethe software freedom evangelist; Iwas just disappointed that thesoftware “free as in freedom”movement was too connected tothe technocrat elite, and not reallyconnected to everyday end users.

So, I tried Ubuntu, and I couldsee that Ubuntu was trying to dowhat the other distros have notdone, and that is be easy to installfor people who were far and awayless computer geeky than I.Needless to say, I have been wonover by Ubuntu.

However, as a person whobelieves in software freedom onreligious, political, economic, andenvironmental grounds, I amdisappointed on one front. I am notalone in my efforts to promotesoftware freedom; many Linuxusers do the same. But, over theyears, I would have liked to see

some support from the likes of IBMand Red Hat. Don't get me wrong, Iknow that they have put moneyand resources back into Linux forwhich I am thankful. What I wouldlike to see is Linux advocacy insome kind of major advertisingbudget. We need a “desktop”advertisement with “punch” in it.

It would be great if all of thecorporations that benefit fromLinux contributed to an advertisingfund. I would love to see Linuxdecals on Formula 1 cars of theteams using Linux. I know that aFormula 1 car is probably the mostexpensive piece of advertising real-estate on the planet, but all wewant is a few square inches thatnobody else wants.

What I am saying is this: anylarge corporation that getsbenefits from free software shouldbe helping out in the promotion ofLinux.

This brings me to MarkShuttleworth. I believe that Mr.Shuttleworth has been a majorcontributor in the effort to

promote the use of Linux by theeveryday user. I do not believethere is anyone in the past,present, or near future with hiskind of commitment or resources.

When I first tried Unity, I hadsome misgivings about it. However,for me it was not rocket science tosee what Unity wanted to achieveand why. A single user interface fordesktops, phones, and everythingin-between. For people who runless than ten applications, Unity isall they need, and the good news isthat Unity is going to get better.

Unity is what the softwarefreedom movement needs to takefree software to the next level. It istime to quit all of the “year of theLinux desktop” navel gazing, andget behind something that hassome real potential to yield somegood results.

So, lets stop nitpicking, andsupport Mark Shuttleworth andCanonical. Because, for all that heand his company has done for us, itis the least we can do.


II TTHHIINNKK...... If you have a mobile/cell phone,which OS does it use?

Last month's question was:

If you have amobile/cell phone,which OS does it use?

I have no idea. 1 1%iOS (Apple) 7 6%Android 97 79%webOS 0 0%Windows 3 2%BlackBerry 2 2%Symbian 7 6%Other 6 5%

Comments:

Android:

Apple didn't make it;works well with linux

computers.

Flexibilty, geek factor.Previous phone wasSymbian, but that’s dyingnow. Android was the best

option.

I prefer not to be closedin.

Android can be rooted.Linux in my pocket.

Open source - I useCyanogenmod

Initially a friend'srecommendation (andsome research). Nokia hadlost its way, and I refuse

to pay Apple prices or be told whatI can or cannot do with my device(iTunes, no Flash, etc). Now on mysecond Android smartphone.

I love integration ofGoogle mail, calendar, nicefree Google navigation,

free handy apps, etc.

iOS (Apple):

It's the most "polished"mobile OS.

GPS & topo maps apps.

Symbian:

Reliable, and I won't paythe Microsoft tax to buyan Android phone.

Windows:

low price + large display +fast hardware.

This month I'd like to pose the question:

What turns you away from adistro, and what turns you to a distro?

To give your tuppence worth go to: http://goo.gl/gXDZP

Closing date for this question is Sunday 11th March 2012.

http://goo.gl/gXDZP


http://www.ubuntu-user.com/subscribe-now/

http://www.ubuntu-user.com/subscribe-now/


RREEVVIIEEWWWritten by Robin Catling

It's that time already, as Clemand the team gear up to pushthe next version of Linux Mintthrough the gate, the rest of

us wonder if Mint can maintain itsmomentum in gaining a largershare of the Linux user base. Minthas built a reputation as thealternative to Ubuntu, variouslycatching the defectors fromUbuntu Unity and at times evenovertaking Ubuntu in the distrodownload charts. Given the factthat Mint is dependent on theupstream efforts of Debian, Gnomeand Ubuntu, this release is going tobe far from plain sailing.

Linux Mint 12 is based onGnome 3.0 atop the Ubuntu 11.10base. More on that shortly. Asusual, I've got Mint in twoconfigurations; in a virtual machineon VirtualBox, and on physicalhardware in the shape of the oldCeleron test box with 1GB memoryand GeForce 440MX graphics card.

The graphical installer is thecurrent standard forDebian/Ubuntu 11.10, and, innormal operation, hides everything

that’s going on. Not that peeringunder the covers helped when thething crashed on me three times onthe Celeron. I think it has troublewith the collection of USBadapters, cards, ports, and twoelderly wireless adapters - one ofwhich is PCI and the other a USBdongle, both based on RaLink chip-sets... yes, I know, glutton forpunishment.

Gnome 3.0 ups the specificationfor graphics adapters. Neither theVirtualBox Guest Additions adapternor the old GeForce AGP card candeliver 3D. Gnome 3.0 with theMint extensions just hangs partway into populating the desktop.

If you can get 3D running, Mintrelies on MSG or GCSE's or somesuch; at least it’s not Gnome Shellor Unity. Actually, "MGSE" (MintGnome Shell Extensions) is adesktop layer on top of Gnome 3.0that makes it possible for you touse Gnome 3.0 in a traditional way.You can disable all componentswithin MGSE to get a pure Gnome3.0 experience, or you can enableall of them to get a Gnome 3.0desktop that is similar to whatyou’ve been using under 2.x. In thedefault configuration, you get MintMenu but with a Gnome Shell/Unitystyle sidebar launcher panel withinit. You can also access the Activitiesbutton to get the Gnome Shellpanel launcher. That's three ways

to launch programs, two of whichdon't work for me on two differentset-ups. This Gnome 3.0 with MGSEis already taking flak elsewhere asa 'Frankenstein' creation and 'as biga piece of *rap as Unity.' Harsh,chaps, truly harsh.

If you get the DVD edition orupgrade via the mint-meta-matepackage (all 105MB of it), you canget the MATE version of thefaithful Mint Menu; it's a fork ofGnome 2 which preservescompatibility with Gnome 3. Toquote the Mint team, <em>"MATEis brand new, it's not completelystable yet, and it's missing a fewparts... Eventually, MATE will be inevery way identical to Gnome 2 andrepresent the future of traditionaldesktops within Linux."</em> Sofar, I've had it working once in sixinstalls, and, even then, MATEstopped working after a reboot,never to be seen again.

So MATE doesn't work on eitherof my test boxes. Instead of theMint Menu with sidebar, all I get isa conventional Windows-style startmenu. All the fonts render

LLiinnuuxx MMiinntt 1122


REVIEW: LINUX MINT 12abysmally. Go into the Appearancecontrols, under themes, and almosteverything declares "this themewill not look as intended becausethe required GKT+ theme engine[name] is not installed." Eventhough all the referenced GTK+theme engines ARE installed. It's amess.

The fall-back 'Gnome Classic'option provides a top panel withthe application menu and notifierswith visible system tray icons, abottom panel containing thewindow list and workspaceswitcher, and retains the idea of atask-centric desktop, wherein youswitch between windows, notapplications. It's all locked-down,non-configurable à là GnomeShell/Unity, with no way to additems or customise the panels.

For the current menu set-up,which is fairly sparse and notalways logical, Mint dumps most ofthe control-type programs(everything not in System Settings)into the 'Other' category. When Isay sparse, there are many thingsmissing, presumably becausethey've not been engineered forGnome 3.0 yet, or left off the CDrelease to make space for all theGnome 3.0 tat; for example, thereis a User account tool, but no

facility to maintain grouppermissions - you have to drop intoa terminal session. That'll go downwell with the Mint user base.

Artistically, Linux Mint 12 uses anew theme called Mint-Z which isbased on Mint-X and Zukitwo, thedefault background is the 3D Mintlogo updated to version 12. Thewindow controls and bordersfeature a frankly ugly look calledAdwaito, which I can't wait to getrid of. Depending on whether I runGnome, Gnome Classic 2D, orMATE, the desktop rendering offonts is as ugly as sin, which is a bigstep backward given that Mintalways looked stunning.

Interestingly, for a distro insearch of a business model, the

default search engine isDuckDuckGo. Ethically, I like thelook of this; it doesn't showdifferent results depending onwho's running the search, it doesn'ttrack or record user information,and it's built on, and contributes to,Open Source software. It's one of asmall number of search engineswhich will share revenue generatedby Linux Mint users with the Mintteam to provide funding. Althoughyou can easily switch searchengines in Linux Mint 12, thanks tothe clear instructions, you mightwant to stick with those that fundthe distro.

For now, web browsers browse,media plays, documents can bewritten, and even the USB wirelessconnection on the Celeron works

fine after a couple of hiccups; I'mrunning it in preference to the PCIwireless card because the aerial onthat one is a piece of junk thatcan't pick up the attenuated signalin my building. I'm probably beingunfair as even the thumping greatHawking antenna on my routerbarely penetrates the steel in mybuilding.

And that, dear friends, is as faras we go with Mint 12 'Lisa'. Thestack of new and forked softwareisn't working properly, so while Icould upgrade to the DVD versionto pull in the full release, I'm notsure it's worth the bandwidth. Thisis a disruptive release, the wholething a transitional step from Mint11, in need of a lot of damagelimitation. I hope they can get itfixed soon, I really do.

The Gnome Classic 2D desktopof Linux Mint 12 is stable andquicker than expected, but it can'tcompensate for the fact that theoverall release is drowning in allthat desktop re-engineering.


LLEETTTTEERRSSEvery month we like to publish some of the emails we receive. If you would like tosubmit a letter for publication, compliment or complaint, please email it to:[email protected]. PLEASE NOTE: some letters may be edited for space.

Sims 2 Crisis

I'm a long-time geek from backin the ‘70s. I loved Unix backthen; however I made the badchoice of switching to the

newest and greatest thing (DOS).Then mistake two: trying windows.And I kept making that mistakethrough to Windows XP. Then afriend pointed me to Ubuntu.Heaven! Well, almost. I have a dual-boot system that spends 85% of itstime in Ubuntu. Unfortunately, thishouse is addicted to TheSims2. I'vestudied up on Wine andplayonlinux. I've begged and re-begged for help. I know it'spossible, but, so far, no one hasshared how to run Sim2 in Ubuntu.Please post a how-to on importinggames from Windows.

Rodney J Miller PCA

Head In The Clouds

I discovered your magazineover the Christmas vacationwhile setting up a dual-bootWindows/Mint machine. I have

spent many mornings over the lastcouple of weeks happily riflingthrough back issues, and coming upto speed on where the UbuntuLinux community is at after a longbreak.

Reading your article onSpiderOak in FCM#56 prodded myconscience about backups. Wehave a blended family (Mint 11 / OSX Lion / Windows 7, Vista, XP), soany cloud solution needed tosupport a mixed homeenvironment.

Setting up the SpiderOak clienton Mint and OS X was straight-foward. Having the ability to accessthe backup from anywhere is ahuge bonus.

Sean Hodges

William and Kate

New to Ubuntu Linuxabout a year ago, Icannot understand thefuss about desktops,

GUI nuances, and distributioncontent choices. Why shouldanyone object to Unity, since theuser can so easily replace it? Whyshould I care which music player orcontact manager comes standardin the distribution, or whether thedistribution includes them at all,since I have the Software Centerand Synaptic at my finger tips?

My befuddlement is notconfined to FCM. Distro dyspepsiaand GUI griping dominate reviewsof Ubuntu releases from anynumber of sources.

How about some meaningfuldiscussion for a change, such asciting kernel improvements forstability, or better employment ofmulti-core processors? What's newamongst the underlying libraries,and what difference does thatmake? What effect might the latestrelease have upon the browser warand HTML5? Who is providingsuperior documentation andsupport for all of this toothsomeFLOSS? Are Prince William and Katesettled in and truly happy together,or are they miserable and merely

posing before Britain'sexpectations?

No wait, scratch that last bit.That's what happens when I listento the FCM Podcast from here onthe left side of the pond. PerhapsUbuntu banality is good. Perhaps itreflects maturity and utility. Beatsbroken or missing device drivers,for sure.

Halfnium (in America)

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LETTERS

WiFi USB Adapter

I recently added a USB wifiadapter to an old desktop PCthat has been running Ubuntusince I first scrapped its native

WIndows 2000 system when I tookownership of it, used, 5 years ago.It's not a state-of-the-art system,but has been a dependable devicefor basics, and, until now, wasattached to the web via ethernetcable. I decided to try to run itwireless and realized that althoughthere are lots of wonderfulmachines with wifi or wifi cardsinstalled, that the leap fromethernet to wifi is a challenge,depending on the vintage of thehardware, software, and so forth. Ipurchased a C. Crane Versa II WifiUSB adapter as it was pricedcompetitively with various USP wifiadapters from many mainstreamretail outlets and online vendorswhose products are not Linux-friendly. To my surprise, I didn'tneed to use Wine and theWindows/Mac installationinstructions and installation discincluded with the adapter. I wasable to go wifi after a few falsestarts (mainly to Ubuntu apps), andeliminating confusion in theconfiguration files. Apart from the

slightly constrained speed of itsCPU, this old desktop now works asflawlessly as a three-year oldlaptop I had screaming along withnative wifi and Ubuntu Linux untilits motherboard died a few monthsback.

Long live Linux. Long liveUbuntu. I'm neither a programmernor a code-monkey/geek. Ubuntuconnects yesterday's hardwarewith today's software in ways thatyou can only dream of - if thatwould be useful to you and if youare more savvy than myself in theappropriate areas ofhardware/software/code/network,etc, then the sky's the limit.

modyl

More KDE Love

Surely Canonical knows bynow that not all users havestuck to Gnome as theirDesktop of choice, and in

fact hadn't done so long beforeUnity came along. So isn't it abouttime that they put a bit intohelping with the development ofthe alternatives?

Kubuntu, which I currently useas my own desktop, is still a bitdocile, and could do with a bit of ajiggle to get things moving. It is arelatively stable desktop thesedays, and full credit to themaintainers of it as otherwisewhere would we be? Theunfortunate thing I find withKubuntu is that it tends to be a bitsluggish in comparison to some ofthe other KDE distributions.

Unity is too much like Windows,or, for that matter, Apple, in that itis basically "You will do things theCanonical way!" I can see wherethere will be people who think it iswonderful and mimics theirsmartphones, whereas everyday PCusers don't all want to fit the specof Smartphone operators.

KDE is one of the alternativeoptions, and the reason I useKubuntu is that it offers thefeatures of KDE plus it also offersthe advantages of a huge Ubuntubase to work with. That is Ubuntu'sstrength - its huge base of usersand software in its repositories.KDE is an excellent desktop, andtends to be overlooked by manynew users because of the

concerted push for Unity/Gnome.

I am surprised that there hasn'tbeen a concerted push byEnlightment users to design a goodUbuntu-based desktop - just asthey have Lubuntu and Xubuntu.Enlightenment is a nice desktop,with a smart modern appearance,but without the quite cumbersomeoverheads of KDE. I have tried afew different Enlightenmentdesktops, but the thing that theylack is the Ubuntu repositories andthe Ubuntu Forums and the like. Itis the forums and repositories thatmake Ubuntu what it is today.

I have noted that a lot of theprevious Ubuntu Gnome users havedeserted to Linux Mint - as theylike the classical Gnome 2 look andfeel. It is the users like myself, wholike to be able to tinker just thatlittle bit more, who feel left out.

So how about it, Canonical - howabout actively encouragingdevelopment of KDE, E17, LDE, infact, any of the other desktops?

Phil


PPUUZZZZLLEESSIf you would like to submit a puzzle for publication, pleaseemail it to: [email protected]. Solutions are onthe second last page of this issue. No peeking!

The solutions to all the puzzles are on thesecond last page of this issue. No peeking!


The 3 x 3 grid below must contain thenumbers from 1 - 9 exactly once. There aresymbols between the numbers... they are: +for addition, - for subtraction, x formultiplication and the / sign for divide.

Please note that the sums run from left toright or top to bottom,




QQ&&AACompiled by Gord Campbell

If you have Ubuntu-related questions, email them to:[email protected], and Gord will answer them in a futureissue. Please include as much information as you can about your problem.

Q I recently installed anAsus EN210 Silent videocard in my Home TheatrePC (HTPC). Sometimes

when I run VLC Media Player, thesystem becomes unstable andshuts down, perhaps due tooverheating.

A (Thanks to inobe in theUbuntu Forums) Installmplayer2 and smplayer.In smplayer, go into

options> preferences> video>output driver, select vdpau. Itshould reduce the CPU usagedramatically.

Q I have Ubuntu 11.10 onan Asus k53e. When I tryto suspend or hibernatethe laptop, I get a black

screen until I turn off the computermanually.

A This web page has acouple of possible fixes.Despite the name, it iscurrent:

http://thecodecentral.com/2011/01/18/fix-ubuntu-10-10-suspendhibernate-not-working-bug

Q I'd like to configure myPC to run two monitors. Ihave an ATI RV370 videoadaptor.

A (Thanks to tomski in theUbuntu Forums) ManyATI cards which use thiscore (ATI RV370) have 2

sockets, 1 DVI and 1 VGA. If youwant to use two VGA monitors, Iwould recommend an 'adaptorcable,' essentially it is an adaptorand cable combined into one. Thisshould ensure that the cardrecognizes the monitor, which isoften an issue when you use a DVIto VGA adaptor.

Q I`ve been trying to getused to Unity, but I wantthe icon sidebar gone,and top and bottom

panels back, as in Gnome 2. I can't

seem to get the desktop cube incompiz fusion to work well withUnity either, this is a necessity forme.

A Sorry, theunderpinnings of Gnome2 were ultimatelylimited, so it's gone and

it's not coming back.

You could try Kubuntu, althoughthat also has significant changesfrom what you are used to.Another option would be LinuxMint, which uses Gnome 3, butlooks more familiar than Unity. I'venever understood the attraction ofthe desktop cube, so I have noadvice on that front.

Q I want to change theorder of the icons in theUnity launcher.

A You can "grab" an iconwith the mouse andmove it up or down.

Q I have noted that thenew Firefox (v9.0.x) isavailable for Linux. If Ichoose to download and

install the upgraded package, willit affect how the package manageroperates?

A I ran an update today onUbuntu 11.10, andFirefox 9 arrived. Myprimary system runs

Ubuntu 10.10, with Firefox 3.6.24up until recently. I have not noticeda difference between the twoversions; Mozilla has beenchanging the major version numberfor minor updates.

If you download and install aprogram, you will not getautomatic updates. In myexperience, you're just asking forpain if you do it.

Q My laptop has an ATI9100 video adapter. I amusing Ubuntu 10.10. Howcan I install the right

video driver?


http://thecodecentral.com/2011/01/18/fix-ubuntu-10-10-suspendhibernate-not-working-bug


Q & A

A (Thanks to Mark Phelpsin the Ubuntu Forums.)ATI dropped Linux driversupport for this card,

which was introduced in mid 2003,years ago. The only working driversare already installed by default,otherwise, you would not be seeinga desktop.

Q I would like to stop thelauncher from appearingwhen I move my mouse tothe left.

A (Thanks tograhammechanical inthe Ubuntu Forums.) Youcan use the Ubuntu

Software Centre to installCompizConfig Settings Manager.You will then find it in the Dash bytyping Compiz. Look under theDesktop heading for Ubuntu UnityPlugin. Make sure there is a tickmark against it to enable it, andthen click on the name.

You will see an option under theBehaviour tab to Hide Launcher.You have four options 1) Never -the Launcher will always be visible.

2) Autohide - the standard setting.3) Dodge windows - the launchermoves out of the way as a windowcomes near. 4) Dodge activewindow. My preference is number3.

Q I just installed Ubuntu11.10 a day ago. I used tohave access to a SunMicrosystems

workstation with gnu gcc installedand I have some C/C++ programsthat I want to recompile and run inUbuntu. What do I need to do?

A Open Software Centreand install build-essential.

Q I want to protect myUbuntu server againstattacks. It has SSH,PhpMyAdmin, and Drupal

installed.

A (Thanks to Lars Nooden,e79 and others in theUbuntu Forums.) Useonly key-based

authentication for SSH. RemovePhpMyAdmin and use the shell. Ifyou must keep PhpMyAdmin,change the default URL. There arealso hardware authenticationtokens and intrusion detectionsoftware.

Q I just installed EboardChess, and I can't figureout how to make thepieces stay on the square

I move them to.

A It's a GUI, not a chessgame. Gnuchess is one ofthe actual games. Afterinstalling Gnuchess, run

Eboard, click on "peer," select "playagainst," choose gnuchess, andmake a move by grabbing a piecewith your mouse.

Tips and TechniquesGet Rid of Duplicate Files

I have a lot of duplicate files onmy computer. Part of theproblem is that I usually save acopy of an entire web site

before I begin a major update, part

of it is that I do the same thingwith video editing projects, andpart of it is a result of other "save acopy to a different place" habits.

A recent post in the UbuntuForums reminded me that I reallyshould do something about it. Themessage thread began in 2007, andpointed out a couple of helpfulprograms you can install from theUbuntu repositories.

If you have hundreds ofduplicate files, there's a GUI-basedprogram called fslint which worksvery nicely. By default, it will lookat all the user files on your system.I found it most useful to removethat option, then "Add" a smallerportion of my files, such aseverything under "Music". Son of agun, it found 150 files, totalling agigabyte! Turns out that I tried toget my Karaoke files organized afew years ago, and gave it upbefore finishing. The best part was,it found duplicates with differentnames, so I won't be puzzled byclicking on "Don't be Cruel," only tofind that it plays, "AmericanTrilogy."

Using Fslint is a little slow. Youhighlight a file, then click on


"Delete." Or you can Ctrl-click tohighlight multiple files, then deletethem. With 150 duplicates, youmight spend a dozen minutes toclear things up, assuming you don'thave to think very much aboutwhich location to delete.

There's a command-lineprogram which speeds things up.To try it, install "fdupes" from therepositories. I have found twouseful options. To use the first,enter this command:

fdupes r d Music

This will go through everythingin your Music folder and sub-folders, and prompt you aboutwhich version to keep when it findsduplicates. You could use the sameapproach with Documents, Videos,etc.

Before running the next option,I suggest you clear the cache of anyInternet Browsers you use. InFirefox 3, it'sEdit/Preferences/Advanced andclick on the Network tab, then"Clear Now." In Chrome, begin withTools, Clear Browsing Data. All youwant to do is clear the cache. Thenrun this command:

fdupes r ~ > dupes.txt

I have one file of 44 GB on mysystem, and when Fdupescalculates a checksum for this file,it appears to stall. However, it onlytake a few minutes to go through55,000 files, totalling 300 GB on mysystem.

If you double-click on dupes.txt,it will open in your text editor. Youcan browse through the file, andtry to find whole folders which areduplicates of other folders.Otherwise, you need to run the filemanager, and go to the folderswhere duplicate files reside. It'snot a quick process, but it'scomplete.

Fdupes will also find duplicatefiles with the same content butdifferent names.

Is all this worthwhile? Only youcan be the judge. Hard drives arecheap these days, so it might notbe worth your time to click on a fileto free up 100 KB of space. I thinkit makes it easier to find what youhave if you remove the duplicates,but you might not agree.

There's one special case whichmight apply. The floods in Thailand

tripled the price of hard drives, soif you are thinking of adding a drivenow, and deleting the duplicateslets you defer that decision untilprices have returned to normal, theeffort might be especiallyworthwhile.

Q & A

After a long career in the computerindustry, including a stint as editor ofComputing Canada and ComputerDealer News, Gord is now more-or-less retired.


UUBBUUNNTTUU GGAAMMEESSWritten by Riku Järvinen AAnnoommaallyy:: WWaarrzzoonnee EEaarrtthh

The year is 2018. Two alienspaceships, mistaken formeteors, collide withEarth - hitting Baghdad

and Tokyo, causing massivecasualties and creating powerful,almost impenetrable, energy fieldsaround these cities. The armedforces, namely “Platoon 14”, arecommissioned to take actionagainst the invaders.

So begins Anomaly: WarzoneEarth by 11 Bit Studios. You are asquad leader, guiding a convoy ofarmored vehicles through ruined,war-torn streets while battlingvisitors from outer space. We’retalking about a “tower defence inreverse” game, primarily targetedfor mobile gamers on the Androidplatform. This aside, the mostcompelling feature is the naturalbalance between strategicplanning and ruthless fighting,compounded by the possibility ofavoiding meaningless fightsaltogether. There is no obligationto follow a given route as a meansto an end, since you create yourown instead.

Gameplay & Features

Acting as something like a co-ordinator, you can distract theenemy with smoke, divert theirfiring using dummy targets, andheal your units. You don’t directlyfire at enemy turrets: members ofyour convoy (APCs, missile

launchers, force-field generatorsand so on) can take care of them.Once you have enough resources,these war machines can beupgraded, multiple times ifnecessary, to increase theirfirepower and durability.

Convoy units must be taken care

of, and the same weight should begiven to route planning. Someturrets, such as “Behemoths”, canbe difficult to beat if you confrontthem head-on, but present only aminor threat if you attack themfrom the side. Some distractionswork better than others againstcertain types of turrets: you just


Riku Järvinen (rierjarv) is a CS majorstudent from Finland who delves intothe Linux and Open Source gamingworld once in a while.

UBUNTU GAMES - ANOMALY: WARZONE EARTHhave to try them to figure it out!There is also the order of yourvehicles, which greatly determineshow swiftly you can inflict criticaldamage. The downside for puttingall firepower up front is that thesevehicles don’t hold very gooddefensive capabilities, and arepossibly wiped out in a matter ofseconds.

I’m a big fan of computerusability and especially

keyboarding. I was intrigued when Idiscovered that Anomaly is fullyplayable using only simple controlson the keyboard. In addition, thegame requires no training to getstarted. This is something themajority of today’s games don’thave; here it is well thought out.

How to get it

Anomaly: Warzone Earth wasoriginally released in February

2011, and re-released as a part ofthe Humble Bundle for Android onFebruary 1st, 2012. As usual, thebundle included Linux, Mac, andWindows ports, as well as threeother games. As of February 2nd,the list price in the Android market(for the Android version only) is 3euros. The game is also availableon Steam for Mac and Windows for10 euros, but, unfortunately, I sawno mention of Linux there.

I tested Anomaly on Ubuntu11.10 (32-bit; 2.7 GHz core i7, 8GBDDR 3, Radeon 6470 1 GB, 128 GBSSD). With medium specs and thehighest resolution, there were noproblems at all. Installation wastrivial with the Debian dpkgcommand:

sudo dpkg -i package_name.deb

Conclusions

Anomaly is one of the best outthere in its genre. Graphics are verygood, gameplay is solid, and themusic fits the theme. However,there could be more enemy types,and perhaps scenarios with a littlemore freedom than just simpleroutes. I know this is a lot to ask,especially because the price was abargain when put in comparisonwith the quality.


Dead Cyborg(deadcyborg.com) is a 3-episode game, in whichits main goal involves

exploration and solving puzzles. Ifyou like the first-person shooter’sexploration experience - withoutthe violence - this is the game foryou. The game itself is free, but thedeveloper suggests that, if you likeit, you donate.

The game is currently availablefor Linux and Windows users. The

game is very well rendered, thework done by Endre Barath (a one-man project if you can believe it),on both the characters and thescenery, is incredible.

The controls are very basic;W,A,S,D (A,Z,E,R,T,Y) keys to move,and the mouse to point. There is acertain grittiness felt through thegame, similar to many top rankinggames available. The story itself isalso great because it is set after anapocalyptic catastrophe. Oh, and if

you get stuck (and you will), youcan visit the official page(http://deadcyborg.com/walkthrough.html) to check out thewalkthrough.

Good:• Great detail on both thecharacters and backgrounds,• Grittiness will give you chillsalongside the awesome music,• Controls are easy.

Bad:• Puzzles are sometimesridiculously difficult if you are notwatchful,• It will run slowly on olderhardware,• No voice actors/voices in game,just text.

UUBBUUNNTTUU GGAAMMEESSWritten by Petescan321 DDeeaadd CCyybboorrgg

http://deadcyborg.com

http://deadcyborg.com/walkthrough.html


MMYY DDEESSKKTTOOPP

This is my desktop::

theme :clearlooksDock: Cairo-dockwallpaper: a picture of my sonSystem: AMD ATHLON II X2 250RAM :2 GBGRAPHICS: NVIDA G-FORCE 8400GSOS: COMFUSION 3 (BASED ON UBUNTU 10.04 LTS)

Vicente Mera

Your chance to show the world your desktop or PC. Email your screenshots andphotos to: [email protected] and include a brief paragraph about yourdesktop, your PC's specs and any other interesting tidbits about your setup.

Hi everyone. This is my laptop desktop.

I use Ubuntu 11.04 and love trying different distros.Who knows, perhaps I wi l l turn to another onetomorrow. My wal lpaper is the Predator, which I lovevery much, and also docky, which is productive, and sovaluable to me that no money can buy. it There’sUnetbootin, Brasero, Shutter, and LibreOffice on thedock.

The system works wel l on my Atom d510 1.66 GHz CPU,160GB HDD with 2GB of RAM. I hope you enjoy yourUbuntu. Thank you!

kazak_boy



MY DESKTOP

Hi, I am an Ubuntu user from Indonesia. This is my latestdesktop, I'm using Ubuntu 11.10 with Gnome Shell as aDesktop Environment. And I'm very comfortable with it.

Wallpaper and shell theme are default. Using AwOken icons.Added some shell extensions and some custom conky. The topconky displays "dmesg" output, the right conky for monitoringdisk space, network, and processes. The down-left corner isMetro Clock Conky, and some reminder/greeting messagebelow it.

System Specs:Ubuntu 11.10 @ Acer Aspire 473632-bit Intel® Core™2 Duo CPU T6500 @ 2.10GHz × 21GB RAM, 320GB DiskConky Metro by satya164.deviantart.comAwoken icon by alecive.deviantart.com

Ghozy Arif Fajri

I run Ubuntu 11.10 on a Lenovo/ThinkPad X200s (1.86 GHz C2D4 G RAM, 1440x900 12", 256 GB SSD). Nothing fancy on mydesktop, I am afraid. If it wasn't for the screenshot, even theLauncher would be hidden. The theme is Radiance, icons areFaenza's (they're so nice).

Besides browsing the web, emails, RSS and Twitter, I write,read a lot, listen to music & podcasts, and watch movies. I'vebeen using GNU/Linux distro since 2000, and almost everyversion of Ubuntu since 2005. I love GNU/Linux's openness,and the idea that users have the right to build it and share itand change it. I also like the fact that Ubuntu just works: onedoesn't have to tweak it to make it run. And I absolutely loveUnity, even with its current lack of options: let's give it achance to grow.

David Bosman


PUZZLE SOLUTIONS

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HHOOWW TTOO CCOONNTTRRIIBBUUTTEE

We are always looking for new articles to include in Full Circle. For articleguidelines, ideas, and for issue translation, please see our wiki:http://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuMagazinePlease email your articles to: [email protected]

Full Circle Team

Editor - Ronnie [email protected] - Rob [email protected] Mgr - Robert [email protected] - Robin [email protected]

Editing & Proofreading

Mike KennedyLucas WestermannGord Campbell

Our thanks go out to Canonical, themany translation teams around theworld and to Thorsten Wilms for thecurrent Full Circle logo.

If you would like to submit news, email it to: [email protected]

Send your comments or Linux experiences to: [email protected]

Hardware/software reviews should be sent to: [email protected]

Questions for Q&A should go to: [email protected]

Desktop screens should be emailed to: [email protected]

... or you can visit our forum via: www.fullcirclemagazine.org

Deadline for FCM#58:Sunday 11th March. 2012.

Release date for FCM#58:Friday 30th March. 2012.FULL CIRCLE NEEDS YOU!

A magazine isn't a magazine without articles and Full Circle is no exception. We needyour Opinions, Desktops and Stories. We also need Reviews (games, apps &hardware), How-To articles (on any K/X/Ubuntu subject) and any questions, orsuggestions, you may have.Send them to: [email protected]

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