Rachel's Blog » Linux

HOWTO reconfigure timezone on ubuntu

Rachel — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 07:28:23 +0000

sudo dpkg-reconfigure tzdata

MBR problem solved

Rachel — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 17:36:56 +0000

I’ve got one machine with a totally screwed MBR.

Booted into Ubuntu LiveCD, mounted main partition. Reinstalled grub. Working. Phew.

mount /dev/sda7 /media/maverick grub-install --root-directory=/media/maverick /dev/sda reboot

rpm: which package provides that file?

Rachel — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 10:13:59 +0000

rpm -q –whatprovides /full/path/to/file

“host not found” on nxclient connect to nxserver

Rachel — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 08:51:35 +0000

Cause: my user couldn’t read /etc/hosts

2 essential rescue CDs…

Rachel — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 12:03:29 +0000

For when you need to resize the partition you usually work in

GParted LiveCD

And for when you’ve muffed up your grub installation, and can’t work out how to use grub-install

Super Grub Disk

Minimal Ubuntu install

Rachel — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 16:19:25 +0000

From http ://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=207847,

$ sudo aptitude install x-window-system-core gnome-core gdm firefox synaptic xubuntu-system-tools gnome-app-install

Q: Why can’t I open a window on another Linux machine?

Rachel — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 15:29:48 +0000

… even though the firewall is configured correctly…

A: Ubuntu/Gnome sets TCP off by default in gdm.conf. So if its a new installation, or you’ve upgraded without saving the changes you made previously, edit gdm.conf…

CoLinux for Ubuntu

Rachel — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 10:39:03 +0000

To install from scratch, follow instructions for installing Debian Sid here

Now upgrade Debian Sid to Ubuntu Hoary

Edit /etc/apt/sources.list, comment out Debian references, insert Hoary ones
apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade

Alternatively, if you already have Ubuntu installed on a separate partition, then you can follow the the instructions for running a dual-boot CoLinux setup

Installing CoLinux on WindowsXP

Rachel — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 10:36:33 +0000

This assumes that you don’t already have a Linux installation on a dual-boot machine that you want to use, and are going to install Linux from scratch. If you do already have a working Linux setup, then you can use it. The CoLinux FAQ explains how to configure coLinux on a dual-boot machine

Get a 2nd IP address assigned that you can use on your Windows machine for the colinux interface (assuming you’ve already got one assigned to the main interface)
Download colinux-0.6.2.exe from sourceforge onto the Windows machine.
Run colinux-0.6.2.exe on the Windows machine
By default, this will install into c:\Program Files\coLinux. I prefer it to be in c:\coLinux.
The setup program claims it needs 7.6MB for a complete install including root filesystem.
You’ll be offered a choice of distributions – choose Debian
Decompress the Debian filesystem. You’ll need bunzip2, I used the version from cygwin, but you can, I think, also use the Tugzip Windows program
Edit the default.config.xml, and change root_fs to be your unzipped debian filesystem. (If you don’t do this, you’ll get “Device index not specified” when you try to start colinux.
I also increase “memory size”.
You should now be able to run “colinux-daemon -c default.config.xml” and get a live colinux process.
Login as root and change the default root password from “root”
Edit /etc/network/interfaces and /etc/resolv.conf to set the interface’s IP address, router and default nameserver.
Halt colinux
Setup networking. I used a bridge network between my ethernet and the TAP interface created at the time of colinux install, using the native Windows bridging. (You can also use the WinPCAP option)
Look for new interface in Control Panel. Mine was called “Local Area Connection”, since I’d renamed the original Ethernet to “Ethernet LAN”.
Bridge between this and the external interface
Bring up colinux and login as root.
Once you know it works, install it as a service.

So now you’ve got a running CoLinux installation running Debian Woody.

Now upgrade Debian Woody to Debian Sid

Edit /etc/apt/sources.list and change stable to unstable
apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade

Printing to Windows XP printer from Ubuntu

Rachel — Tue, 24 May 2005 12:00:51 +0000

Enable “Print Services for Unix” on Windows XP machine and share printer. (I’m not actually sure that this is necessary, it might be a red herring…)

When you add the printer in Ubuntu,

Choose “Network Printer” and “Windows Printer (SMB)”
put your Workgroup in the Host field
Put “guest@/” in the Printer field (replacing and with your host & printer names)

So, for example, if your Windows machine was called “Dozer” and your printer was called “LaserPrinter”, you would put “guest@Dozer/LaserPrinter”.

You should not need a name and password for the Windows machine for this to work.

Note: please note that case-sensitivity is important.. e.g. If you think your machine name is “DOMINO”, it should be “Domino” in the config above.