Graphics driver problems with Ubuntu

Graphics driver problem is not new to Linux users. The graphics card manufacturers does not provide information about their hardware, so open source community can not develop drivers for graphics hardware. Some open source driver may be available but most of the cases they are full of bugs. Here comes proprietary drivers. These drivers are closed source and provided by the manufacturers.

In my Dell Inspiron I have a ATI graphics card. After I installed ubuntu on my laptop, I could not enable graphics effects. So, I had to install proprietary fglrx driver. It is very easy in ubuntu. Go to System > Administration > Hardware Drivers/Additional Drivers. In 10.10 and above the option is called Additional Drivers. Here you will find available proprietary drives for your computer. In my laptop it looks like this:

After installing you may have to reboot your computer. Now, you can enable different graphics property like animations, effects etc.

There is also a ppa for latest graphics updates which may not be available on standard ubuntu repository. To enable the ppa go here.

Swap basics for ubuntu users....

What is swap?
Swap space is the area on a hard disk which is part of the Virtual
Memory of your machine, which is a combination of accessible physical
memory (RAM) and the swap space. Swap space temporarily holds memory
pages that are inactive.

How much swap do you need?
it's highly recommended that the swap space should be equal to the
amount of physical memory (RAM). Also, it's recommended that the swap
space is twice the amount of physical memory (RAM) depending upon the
amount of hard disk space available for the system.

Creating swap
At the time of installing ubuntu we can specify how much swap we will use. But it is also possible to add more swap without partitioning any of the HD space. We can create a swap file and allow the os to use that as virtual memory. This is possible because Linux treats everything as a file (like - directory). Now, lets create a swap file and tell our UBUNTU to use that-

First of all we will create a 512MB .swap file

Code:

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/mnt/512Mb.swap bs=1M count=512

Formatting that file to create a swapping device

Code:

sudo mkswap /mnt/512Mb.swap

Adding the swap to the running system:

Code:

sudo swapon /mnt/512Mb.swap

The additional swap is now available and can be seen by

Code:

cat /proc/meminfo

To make the change permanent -

Code:

gksudo gedit /etc/fstab

and add this line at the end of the file

Code:

/mnt/512Mb.swap  none  swap  sw  0 0   

Find out best server for you to download repo applications

Ubuntu provides a very rich repository to download and install softwares. We can find and install these applications from Software Center under Applications tab. If we install a software, first it is downloaded from a server and then it is installed. Sometimes the download speed is not good. To increase your download speed from the repository follow the steps below -

1. Go to System > Administration > Software Sources
2. Under the Ununtu Software tab you will find an option Download from.
3. Click on that and select Other...
4. A new window will open click on Select Best Server.
5. This will perform several tests and select best server for you.
6. Now, close the window clicking close and click yes to update the repository.....

And you have successfully selected Best Server For you...

Play video in terminal

Terminal is used frequently in ubuntu. it is a powerful and useful tool for ubuntu. too many things can be done with it. even you can play a video in terminal....:|:|:|

yes! you can do that. all you have to do is install mplayer using the command below-

 sudo apt-get install mplayer

now, to play video execute this command-

mplayer -vo caca name_of_the_video

and see the magic. to view the video in black and white format-

mplayer -vo aa name_of_the_video

 the video quality is not so good. but, still you can show your friends the power of ubuntu terminal....

Install microsoft fonts in ubuntu 10.04

you can install ms fonts in ubuntu very easily. just give this command in your terminal-

sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts

it will automatically download and install ms fonts. the same process works for previous versions of ubuntu. but, you better not try it in previous versions of ubuntu. because, there are some serious bugs.

by the way enjoy Lucid users.........

Make new GrameenPhone modems(Huawei E1550) working in ubutnu

New gp modem does not work with ubuntu 10.04. but it was works ok with windows. this is a bug of ubuntu 10.04. this modem has a card reader with it. ubuntu recognizes the card reader but it cant recognize huawei wireless broadband devices. all you have to do is install the package below

sudo apt-get install usb-modeswitch
sudo modprobe option

this package helps ubuntu recognize the modem.
if you are interested see this (post number 32).

Evolution - email client for Ubuntu

well,
almost all of us uses email for different purposes. to send and receive email we have to goto the mail website and receive or send email. how about a desktop application to send and receive email which will check for new mail every 10 minutes and notify you of new messages received???

Evolution is the ultimate solution, which comes with ubuntu by default. here i will tell you how to configure evolution for gmail. other mail clients are supported and the configuration process should be the same as gmail. if you face any problem, please post it here.

Go to Applications > office > Evolution Mail and calender.
a window will open press forward. now, fill the identity form. optional informations can be left blank. press forward. A new window will appear named receiving email. Change the security to ssl encryption. press forword. in the next window check the following options-
check for new message every 10 munites
check for new message in all folders
check for new message in subscribed folders
check new messages for junk contents
automatically syncronize remote mail locally

now press forward. in the next window check the option server requires authentication. change security to ssl encryption.

now, press forword twice and you are ready to use you desktop mail client. there are some other mail clients like thunderbird. but, i think evolution is the best.

Use your mobile phone as modem via bluetooth in ubuntu

hello ubuntu users. today i will tell you how to use your mobile phone as a modem via bluetooth. you can do that in windows using the application provided by your cell phone vendor, but what about ubuntu linux. i will tell you how. just follow the steps below.

1. turn on your mobiles bluetooth(bt) and insert ur bt device in ur pc.

2. open a terminal and type this comman.

hcitool scan

this will show ur phones mac address and name.

3. now execute this command

sudo hcitool cc your-phone-mac-address

4. again execute this command

sudo hcitool auth your-phone-mac-address

step 3 and 4 will pair ur mobile with ur pc. you can do that using bt manager. it will appear in the upper right corner in the screen. click on it and click Set up new device.

5. you need to find out ur phones channel number. execute

sudo sdptool browse your-phone-mac-address

6. Under "Protocol Descriptor List:" and "RFCOMM", there should be a number after "Channel:". Remember that number; you'll need it for the rfcomm configuration.

7. execute

gksudo gedit /etc/bluetooth/rfcomm.conf

8. Paste the following into the file, replacing your-phone-mac-address and your-phone-rfcomm-channel with appropriate values-

rfcomm0 {
bind yes;
device your-phone-mac-address;
channel your-phone-rfcomm-channel;
comment "Bluetooth PPP Connection";
}

9. you have to bind the phone with ur pc. execute this command -

sudo rfcomm bind 0 your-phone-mac-address your-phone-rfcomm-channel

If you get the wrong channel (or if the wrong channel was bound at startup as a result of rfcomm.conf) then you need to release it before you can bind it again:

sudo rfcomm release 0

10. Run the following -

gksudo gedit /etc/ppp/peers/BluetoothDialup

11. Paste the following into the file -

debug
noauth
connect "/usr/sbin/chat -v -f /etc/chatscripts/BluetoothDialup"
usepeerdns
/dev/rfcomm0 115200
defaultroute
crtscts
lcp-echo-failure 0

12. Run the following -

gksudo gedit /etc/chatscripts/BluetoothDialup

13. Paste the following into the file replacing your-apn-here and your-data-profile-number-here with correct value-

TIMEOUT 35
ECHO ON
ABORT '\nBUSY\r'
ABORT '\nERROR\r'
ABORT '\nNO ANSWER\r'
ABORT '\nNO CARRIER\r'
ABORT '\nNO DIALTONE\r'
ABORT '\nRINGING\r\n\r\nRINGING\r'
'' \rAT
OK 'AT+CGDCONT=2,"IP","your-apn-here"'
OK ATD*99***your-data-profile-number-here#
CONNECT ""

for me they are gpinternet and 1 respectively.

14. now to connect ur phone as modem execute -

sudo pon BluetoothDialup

15. you will find a new mobile broadband connection in the notification area. if you had any connection previously configured you will see that connection there.you can create a new profile or use existiong profile to connect. just click on the profile.

the configuration process is not easy, specially for new users. it is very much possible to have problem. feel free to tell me about ur problem. i will try my best to solve. enjoy ubuntu......