Creating a usb based installer for Windows

After being used to using Liveusb for Ubuntu, I was looking for a similar solution for Windows. Not only are ubs installers faster than cd/dvd based ones but they are the only option for people with PCs whose cd drives are messed up and need to do this make the setups work :( .

Well, I finally got it to work following this easy to use guide. It does a very good , almost automatic job of creating a usb based setup.

Creating a usb based installer for Windows

Ubuntu 9.04 Beta :: Impressions

The next Ubuntu release is quite close now. So how is the Jaunty Jackalope shaping up?

As far as the features go, this is what has been added since 8.10 --

• Linux kernel 2.6.28
• GNOME 2.26
• X.Org server 1.6
• New style for notifications and notification preferences
• Boot performance
• Ext4 filesystem support
• And other stuff

A complete list along with download links can be found here.

The most noticeable among these I think is the boot performance. Ubutnu 9.04 still uses ext3 as default root but provides the option to use ext4. I decided to go for ext4. I dont know whether it is ext4 or the boot performance improvements, but startup and shutdown are noticeably faster than 8.10.

The new style for notifications and notification preferences is also a good addition, but it proves to be more of annoyance in certain cases ( pidgin and empathy). Moreover the options for enabling and disabling this aren't very well maintained. In pidgin you need to disable a plugin to get it to stop -- not good for the new user. Basically, this system needs to be polished a bit more.

As far as the performance goes, well this Phoronix article compares Fedora 11 beta and Ubuntu 9.04 beta (with ext3) and Ubuntu beats Fedora with ease ( atleast in the beta stage). So I am guessing performance is not much of an issue. I have now been using the beta for 5/6 days now and there has been no crash, lockup etc. So stability does not seem to be an issue either. Good.

However, there are a few annoyances that I noticed ::

• Amarok 2
  

For some reason or the other Amarok 2 has been included as the default amorok version. This is not good. Amarok 2 might be _the_ player of the future but it still lacks many features that 1.4 had. As far as I am concerned this was a bad choice. But I guess installing an older version of amarok isnt much of a chore. A PPA for Amarok 1.4 for Jaunty can be found here.

• pulseaudio

pulseaudio has been wreaking havok across all linux distros for some time now. It will eventually get much better. Jaunty has a much polished version of pulseaudio but it still needs to be worked on.

But I guess a software version and pulseaudio are the only real problems that I found with this beta. With the final release only about 2 weeks away, I think this is going to be another good and solied Ubuntu release.

PS :: The new GDM login screen is coool...Screenshots of the same and more can be found here.

Ubuntu 9.04 Beta :: Impressions

PPA keys, PPAs, Pidgin Smileys and more..

• PPA keys and PPAs
  

Its been a long time since I wrote an article. In the mean time it seems that Launchpad decided to add OpenPGP keys to each PPA. Suddenly synaptic is giving me hell lotta errors. Well, to fix the problem just go to each ppa page and add the key in the Software Sources - > Authentication. A short howto can be found here.

• Pidgin Smileys
  

Always wanted pidgin to have native smileys for each account?? Well, they have been around for a long time. Funny how I never posted them here. Well its just drag and drop and you will have all the smileys that you always loved. Check here for the tar.

Continuing with pidgin, if you want to add the song tracking feature for your account you can install the music tracker plugin. Go here for all the packages. A PPA for it is also available here.

PPA keys, PPAs, Pidgin Smileys and more..

Notes with Zim!

I recently decided to get a bit more organized..(you have no idea how messy things had become..:D). One of the things that i did was to install a good note taking app..it's really handy u know- when i am browsing random stuff and i come across something interesting..or some thoughts that i wanted to put down in an as-they-come manner..i googled a bit and came across a few notable ones viz. BasKet (yeah..you guessed it right! it's 'K'de app), Zim, Tomboy.. BasKet was out of question for now.. i decided to try out the other two.

Tomboy looks decent. You have decent formatting capabilities, linking, a handy table of contents and some plugins to extend the functionality. But what is missing is the ability to embed images.This lead me to Zim.

Zim tries to bring wiki-style to the desktop.Which means you can can use wiki-style syntax [1] in your notes to full effect. It really is handy when you can use those underlines and TODOs..plus all the other things-formatting, links, plugins are there as well. Images can be embedded as well.There is a takeSnapshot plugin which i liked a lot! it directly embeds a snapshot in your note..very handy at times!



Snapshots are useful when i want some part of webpage and put some relevant notes alongwith it.

The install instructions [2] given on the site suffice. Some plugins need additional libraries, etc which is mentioned wherever applicable. The notes are stored as simple text file with .txt extensions. For now, i m finding Zim to be really good. Images, snapshot and wiki-syntax is where it scores over tomboy. Anyone with any better alternatives?

[1]more about wiki syntax here
[2] follow the install instructions from the website.

P.S. I am not good at writing technical posts. This is a feeble attempt after a long time! Hope you find the app useful!

Notes with Zim!