Debian Linux infographic

This morning I was catching up with new posts on the Linux Mint Forums and saw that user Vincent Vermeulen posted a comment in the LMDE FAQ thread about an infographic  someone created to show the history of Debian Linux, the basis for Ubuntu Linux, Linux Mint (actually the main Mint is built on Ubuntu) and Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE). Claudio F. Filho created what could be the best visual overview of Debian Linux available anywhere. It shows the different versions of Debian Linux, along with the Toy Story characters they were named after. It also shows the difference between Wheezy, the current testing version that’s the basis of LMDE, and Sid, the bleeding edge version some of us like to use to test the absolute latest versions of apps.

Even if you’re not a direct user of Debian Linux, or even a Linux user at all, you should check out Claudio’s infographic. And if you can help with translations (the main version is in English) please get his translation sheet so he can create a version of the infographic in more languages. Yooouge thanks to Vincent Vermeulen for mentioning it on the Linux Mint Forums. I owe both of you a brew.

Update: After I published this post I checked out more of Claudio’s blog and realized it’s a gold mine of great information. His latest post is a Migration Guide for Open Source and has another infographic, but it’s not available in English yet. The good news is that while he writes in Português if you use Google Chrome (or Chromium, of course) you can use the built-in translation tool to get an English translation of anything on his blog other than his graphics.

[HOWTO] Fixing Samba sharing in LMDE

With all the goodness in Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) there are some problems, like the fact that sharing files and folders with Samba doesn’t work. Had I checked the Linux Mint Forums sooner I would have seen the fix for the problem in the Tutorials section, and since I’ve finally found it I wanted to share it here to help everyone else find it. The tutorial is written with GNOME’s Nautilus file manager in mind but it works just as well for KDE users like myself. I’m going to give both the GNOME and KDE versions of the first step but the rest of the steps work beautifully regardless which desktop environment you prefer. Please note that if you use Xfce as your DE I have no idea if the steps need to be changed to work with it.

1. Enable “Guest Access” in Samba
For some reason this is disabled by default in LMDE but it’s an easy fix for it. Open the Samba configuration file as root in your preferred text editor. If you use GNOME run this command in your terminal

gksu gedit /etc/samba/smb.conf

If you’re a KDE user like me run this command in either your terminal or in the Run Command Interface

kdesudo kate /etc/samba/smb.conf

Once the file is open in your text editor add these two lines to the [global] section

usershare allow guests = yes
map to guest = Bad user

It doesn’t matter where within [global] you put those two lines. I put them at the bottom of the Misc. section (line 231) but you can put them right below the [global] section header around line 34. Once you have put the lines into the file save it and close it, then restart Samba by running this command in your terminal

sudo service samba restart

2. Add yourself to the correct usergroup
As things stand you won’t be able to create shared files and folders because you don’t have the right permissions. This is an easy fix by running this command in your terminal

sudo gpasswd -a your_user_name sambashare

Replace your_user_name with the name you use when logging into LMDE. Keep the terminal open because you’re not finished with it.

3. Install samba client packages
There are four packages you will need to install  on your system before you can set Samba to share files on your system. Run each line one line at a time in your terminal

sudo apt-get install gvfs-fuse
sudo apt-get install libsmbclient
sudo apt-get install smbclient
sudo apt-get install python-smbc

Now add yourself to the fuse group to make sure you have the permissions needed for actually using these packages

sudo gpasswd -a your_user_name fuse

again replacing your_user_name with your user name on the system.

4. Log out and back in for the group changes to take effect
That’s right, it’s that simple. If you’re running GNOME you may find that the “Create Share” button in Nautilus abruptly closes and your desktop will disappear but there’s no need to fear because it will return. There’s probably a bug filed with Debian about it but I haven’t seen it or a workaround for it yet. If you’re running KDE you don’t need to even worry about it because I didn’t see the glitch on my laptop.

Thanks to Linux Mint Forums user altair4 for writing the tutorial I found. You can find it, and other posts on the matter in the thread How To – Simple File Sharing in Mint on the Mint Forums.

[HOWTO] Fixing Chromium on Linux Mint Debian Edition with KDE SC 4.7.2

Yesterday I wrote about updating to KDE SC 4.7.2 and the fact that Chromium broke thanks to a long known issue in Debian testing repos. My original fix was to install Google Chrome, but that wasn’t that great of a fix because I really want to run Chromium, not Chrome. Although running Chrome seems to fix the problem of missing the first character of Facebook status updates, which is a royal PITA. Today wayne128 shared a fix he uses to get past the “Aw snap!” messages.

NOTE: Please note that this fix uses an unusual source for getting the updated Chromium packages. If you add this source to your sources.list please disable it once you get Chromium installed to prevent other breakages.

The fix is to use a repository for aptosid. Before we add the repo let’s make a backup of your sources.list.

kdesudo cp /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.backup

Now open sources.list by running this command in your terminal

sudo kate /etc/apt/sources.list

Here’s the repo to add at the bottom of the list:

deb http://oscar.aptosid.com/debian/ sid main fix.main
#deb-src http://oscar.aptosid.com/debian/ sid main fix.main

You can leave the source code entry commented out or you can enable it by removing the “#” at the start of the line. Save and close the file and let’s get your package list updated.

sudo apt-get update

Let’s check to make sure your system can see the right version by running apt-cache policy chromium in your terminal. No sudo is needed for this command. You can ignore the version listed for Installed but the Candidate version should match this

~$ apt-cache policy chromium
chromium:
Installed: 15.0.874.106~r107270-1+c0.aptosid.1
Candidate: 15.0.874.106~r107270-1+c0.aptosid.1
Version table:
*** 15.0.874.106~r107270-1+c0.aptosid.1 0
500 http://oscar.aptosid.com/debian/ sid/fix.main amd64 Packages
500 ftp://ftp.spline.de/pub/aptosid/debian/ sid/fix.main amd64 Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
15.0.874.106~r107270-1 0
500 http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ unstable/main amd64 Packages
14.0.835.202~r103287-1 0
500 http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ testing/main amd64 Packages
~$

If the candidate version matches you’re ready to take the next step. If you already have Chromium (the browser) installed run sudo apt-get upgrade and make sure chromium is available to be upgraded.  Otherwise run sudo pat-get install chromium in your terminal. Either way you get Chromium 15.0.874.106~r107270-1+c0.aptosid.1 you can now launch it and be able to use the browser instead of being greeted with “Aw snap!” on every tab you open.

You’re almost done with the task. Before you go back to your web surfing open sources.list again and comment the lines you’ve added out by putting “#” at the start of each line. That way you won’t have to worry about getting prompted about updates you don’t need.  When Chromium gets fixed in Debian it should make the aptosid repos unnecessary, and if Debian updates it and you end up with the error messages again it will be an easy process of uncommenting the lines, getting aptosid’s newest packages and commenting them out again.

You can see wayne1287′s post itself on the Linux Mint Forums.

On a side note, you’ll see a number of packages being held back, and I wouldn’t worry about it. I’m not sure why the packages are being held back but I haven’t missed any held back package since I’ve done these updates. (If someone knows why they’re held back please leave it in the comments so we can get the info.) Updating and upgrading in the terminal will keep some packages held back but if you select all the updates in Synaptic they’ll be installed so I wouldn’t update with Synaptic if you’re running KDE SC 4.7.2 on Linux Mint.

[HOWTO] Get KDE SC 4.7.2 on Linux Mint Debian Edition, and a fix to the LMDE Chromium issue

[Updated 5 December to include an additional pair of apps  the broke with the upgrade. - Peng]

I love being able to run KDE on Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE), even if it is just KDE 4.6.5. I was able to install it without jumping through any hoops or using any repositories not counted among in the default Linux Mint software repos. Boo had been working on getting Linux Mint 11 KDE ready for release, but before we could get to a release candidate The Powers That Be realized that a ton of work would be needed to get Mint 11 KDE, based on Kubuntu, ready for release, and that rather than fix the problems they’d move Mint KDE to the LMDE base. Before that could start clem, the founder of Linux Mint, had to get LMDE Update Pack 3 released to the user base, and he needed to get Mint 12 out. Unfortunately before Mint 12 was released boo found that he couldn’t continue being the lead maintainer of Mint KDE any longer, so now all the work of getting LMDE KDE ready falls on clem’s plate, along with everything else he has to do.

But back in August I noticed a thread on the Linux Mint Forums called “KDE SC 4.7.2 enters Debian (only amd64).” Since Kathryn runs the amd64 version LMDE I was eager to get KDE 4.7.2, and all I needed to do first was get some other work out of the way and have some time to make sure the updates I would get wouldn’t break my system. This is especially important since the first step is to upgrade to the Debian Testing repos rather than using the Linux Mint Incoming repos and I was already seeing posts in a thread about broken apps in Testing upgrades. This wasn’t that big of a problem to me because I’ve run nightly and testing builds of software before and knew how to be careful. But there was a huge issue in the fact that I couldn’t find the information I needed to switch to the testing repos, the first step in getting ready to get KDE 4.7.2. Luckily GeneC gave me the information I was looking for, and since it was so hard to find I’m going to list the steps you need if you want to get KDE 4.7.2, or even just get packages from Debian Testing rather than even LMDE incoming.

Important: Please read the entire post and make sure you understand what you’ll be doing and have backed up your system before performing any of the steps I lay out. I’d hate to get you partway to the new KDE and have you stuck with something you don’t understand. Also, the KDE 4.7.2 update is a semi-official Debian-kde build so you’ll be using different repositories to get it. All the information on this release of KDE 4.7.2 is available on the qt-kde Debian site.

Disclaimer: These steps are not to be taken lightly. There is a very good chance that you may get an upgrade that breaks your system, leaving you to hunt for a fix (if there is one) or even having to reinstall LMDE all over again. If you’re not not comfortable with the risk of completely wrecking your computer don’t perform these steps. And even if you are willing to take that very real risk, check the latest posts in this thread on the Linux Mint Forums to see what problems are cropping up lately. Even if the coast looks clear think long and hard about taking these steps on the computer you use on a daily basis. And of course don’t forget the most important step: Back up your system before doing any of this.

You’re still here? You must be a glutton for punishment, and I’m not even going to make too many puns. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.) After you’ve backed up your system (I’m not kidding about that step), start by making sure your system is up to date by running this in your terminal:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

When you have made sure your system is up to date you need to back up your sources.list file before you start changing anything there. An easy way to backup the file is by running this command in a terminal

kdesudo cp /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.backup

Now open sources.list by running this command in your terminal

sudo kate /etc/apt/sources.list

Your current sources.list should contain entries very close to this:

deb http://packages.linuxmint.com/ debian main upstream import
deb http://debian.linuxmint.com/incoming testing main contrib non-free
deb http://debian.linuxmint.com/incoming/security testing/updates main contrib non-free
deb http://debian.linuxmint.com/incoming/multimedia testing main non-free

Comment out those lines, except for the very first line, by putting “#” as the very first character in each line (except the one for packages.linuxmint.com). Before you can snag the new KDE 4.7.2 packages you need to upgrade your system to use the Linux Mint Sid (testing) repos. First let’s get you updated to the Linux Mint Incoming repos. To do that add these lines at the bottom of your sources.list.

deb http://debian.linuxmint.com/incoming testing main contrib non-free
deb-src http://debian.linuxmint.com/incoming testing main contrib non-free

Save the file and update your package list and software again, and let’s apply the first batch of updates if you don’t have them already. Run this command in your terminal

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

The upgrade could take some time, so have some coffee or a soda, and a smoke if you are part of the wonderful group of folks on the planet that smoke. Don’t go too far though because the process will have some questions about the upgrades for you to answer. When it’s done you will probably need to apply more updates after rebooting your system. Why reboot your system? You may be getting updates that can only be applied with a system reboot, the only kind of updates and installs in Linux that require a reboot, unlike Windows’ insistence on reboots after installing anything. You may also have other updates waiting for you after the reboot, and apply them with

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Make sure you’re happy with your system after the updates, and don’t apply any more updates from this post until you’re happy with how your system is operating. Did something break already? It’s time to hunt down what got broken and how to fix it. Once you are completely up to date with incoming and happy with your system you need to update your system to Mint Sid (unstable testing). Here’s where you can really hose your system, so don’t do the steps below unless you’re willing to risk making your system completely unusable. Ready to take the risk? Comment out the lines for the Testing repo and add these lines at the bottom of your sources.list

deb http://packages.linuxmint.com/ debian main upstream import backport
deb http://security.debian.org/ testing/updates main contrib non-free
deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org sid main non-free
deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ unstable main contrib non-free

Update and upgrade again, and again this could take some time and it could have some questions for you to answer again. Reboot your system after it’s done because once again you’ve got updates that can’t be applied and used until you reboot your system. Again, make sure you’re happy with how your system operates, and if you’re not bookmark this page and come back to it after you’ve resolved the problems you’ve discovered.

/me fires up the David Wax Museum and enjoys their tunes while you take care of your new issues

Welcome back. Everything copacetic now? Cool. Let’s get you KDE 4.7.2. Backup your sources list again, and if you’ve done other things since you got Sid installed backup your system again, just to be on the safe side. Like I said at the top of the post, this update isn’t coming from the standard Debian repos, so you’ll need to add the appropriate repos to your sources.list file. Open the file and see if you have the following lines, and if so remove them.

deb http://qt-kde.debian.net/debian experimental-snapshots main
deb-src http://qt-kde.debian.net/debian experimental-snapshots main

deb http://qt-kde2.debian.net/debian experimental-snapshots main
deb-src http://qt-kde2.debian.net/debian experimental-snapshots main

Update your system again with

sudo apt-get update

and let’s tell your system that the packages from those repos are trusted. Run this line in your terminal

sudo apt-get install pkg-kde-archive-keyring

Once it’s installed update your package list and make sure your system is updated one more time with

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Everything green? Let’s get you upgraded to KDE 4.7.2. This update is different from most upgrades you run, including dist-upgrades. This time you want to run

sudo apt-get -t experimental-snapshots dist-upgrade

This upgrade could be the longest of the bunch, and you’ll definitely need to stay close by to answer some questions the upgrade process will ask you. When it’s all done go ahead and do one more reboot to apply the last set of upgrades. When you log back in your desktop may not look all that different, but checking About KDE in System Settings will have a new version number for you to see. Here are a pair of screenshots of my system after the upgrade.

Clean

Dirty

Updated 5 December: It turns out two other apps died with this upgrade. Electric Sheep broke because I had to reinstall xscreensaver. The wallpaper finder and changer app Webilder also broke, but this is due to the fact that python-appindicator is not available in my current repos. Unfortunately I don’t see a way to fix it

What the hell happened to my Chromium???

There’s one big casualty in the upgrade process to KDE 4.7.2, and that’s the fact that the Chromium browser is borked. Every time you launch chromium-browser all your pages show the “Snap!” error, even the preferences page. It’s a known issue and to fix it you’ll have to install Google Chrome instead. The Google Linux repos are borked so you’ll have to install the it manually. Go to the Google Chrome website and download the package. Open the directory you downloaded it into and run this command in Terminal

sudo dpkg-i google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb

You can also install the package from Dolphin by double-clicking it, but if it opens in Ark you need to install a package.

sudo apt-get install gdebi-kde

That package will let you install packages with a graphical installer. Many Linux hate using graphical package installers like this, but it’s a matter of personal preference. I love being able to use Gdebi and had to do some searching to find it when I installed KDE on top of LMDE.

There’s one more thing to to before you launch Chrome for the first time. You’ll want to import your Chromium settings into Chrome, but there’s no settings import option that I was able to find. Luckily it’s easy to do. Just copy everything from ~/.config/chromium/ into ~/.config/google-chrome and all of your settings from Chromium will be available in Chrome, including your passwords, cookies, extensions and search engine settings.

Potentially excellent news for Linux Mint KDE users

I’m afraid I’ve fallen behind with reading posts on the Linux Mint Forums, but I see Boo, the (lead) developer behind the KDE version of Linux Mint, has shared why it’s taking so long to get Linux Mint 11 KDE. As he posted on the Mint 11 KDE development thread a couple of weeks ago there’s a very good reason we haven’t seen any updates in the Testing ISO page at the Mint Community site.

News people!!
Good and bad as it turns out, due to all the Ubuntu problems I am swapping the base from Kubuntu to Debian.
What does this mean? A bit more of a wait but it is DEBIAN!
Hopefully this wont take too long as I have the packages built and the ISO build process is very similar.

It’s not being met with unanimous cheers, though, because some people, with older hardware or other issues, aren’t able to run any of the Debian-based versions of Mint. It’s unfortunate because it seems the Ubuntu devs are definitely not making everyone happy with their delay or lack of interest in fixing bugs introduced with the release of Ubuntu 11.04. As a result KDE users will have to decide between either not upgrading their Linux Mint 10 KDE install or switching to Kubuntu or another KDE release of Linux. It’s unfortunate because Linux Mint gets so many things right, especially with their implementation of KDE, but the change will also make Mint KDE a rolling release and a bit easier to update in the future.

You can find the announcement and user responses over on the Linux Mint KDE development thread at the Linux Mint Forums.

Looking for some great new Minty art?

As many of our readers know by now I love finding new desktop wallpaper images. In addition to the Ubuntu monthly desktop screenshot threads for new images to use I also check the National Geographic photo of the day to see what images they post that I want to have on my desktop. I also use Webshots and Webilder to get new images every day, and I used to use Webilder to change my desktop wallpaper on a regular basis. Unfortunately while I can still use Webilder to help find new images it can’t change my wallpaper images on KDE like it can for GNOME, but KDE has a wallpaper slideshow option to automatically change images on a regular basis for me. KDE also has a Photo of the Day plasmoid to help me check other sites for possible new wallpaper images. (Please note that one of the sites that Photo of the Day uses is Bonjour Madame, which is definitely Not Safe For work, and I don’t see a way to not show images from that site.)

Today while perusing the Naughty November 2010 Screnshots thread (“Naughty” is just a name, the thread is always SFW) and a user shared a link to some great wallpapers that use the concept of electronic circuitry and a Linux distribution’s logo to make some incredible images. As I was looking at the images on deviantArt I noticed a button for a group called the #LinuxMint-Club. The group has not only some killer Mint wallpapers, but also some wallpaper and other images for other distros as well. One thing that can be found there is artwork for your burned Mint CDs and DVDs, including art for the case for the disk. They also have some good GNOME-, KDE-, and Debian-related artwork.

If you’re on the lookout for some pretty incredible wallpaper art, regardless of what flavor of Linux you run, as well as some other good promotional artwork, surf on over to deviantArt and check out the work of the members of the #LinuxMint-Club.I think you’ll really like what you find there.

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Peng’s links for Thursday, 3 December

I know I promised to try to do a links post each week but last week I was only able to post a few specific articles so since I actually have a little time this afternoon (I will not ask how that happened) and thought I’d post some of the links I’ve found in the last couple of weeks.

• Melissa Draper: How people get involved. A great little piece on getting involved in the Linux and open source community.
• Bodi.Zazen: Firewall Ubuntu Desktops. Windows users have gotten use to the idea that they should always use a firewall on their system (at least I hope they have). While it isn’t quite as vital on a GNU/Linux system due to the better inherent security some users still want to use a firewall, but it can be a bit of a pain in the posterior. Bodi has a nice, easy to follow article on using a firewall on Ubuntu.
• Danny Piccirillo: Can Ubuntu reach over 16,000 anime lovers in April? Danny and the Ubuntu Massachusetts LoCo Team have been busy getting ready to make sure people at next April’s Anime Boston know not only about Ubuntu but also about the Ubunchu! manga. If you haven’t been enjoying Ubunchu! yet the third episode has just come out so it’s a great time to get caught up. You can also check out Martin Owens’ interview on BBC Radio for info on Ubuntu, Ubunchu mange and Anime Boston.
• Roderick B. Greening: Copy playlist files to your Media player in Amarok. How is it that Amarok 2 doesn’t have a way to create a playlist and move it to your favorite digital media player? Actually that’s not true anymore, because Roderick has found a way to do it via Amarok scripting. I do believe Amarok may have just gotten even better, but I haven’t been able to get it running on my Ubuntu box since I moved to 9.10. I may have to look to see if the issue preventing me from using Amarok 2 has been resolved yet.
• Panji Nushantara: Guide to Karmic Koala (PDF). Panji has yet another great post for us as he tells us about a free PDF book with “almost everything you should know about Ubuntu, from partitioning to tweaking Ubuntu.” He’s right, it is a must have, and you don’t even need to shell out hard-earned money to get a dead tree edition of this great resource.
• Julian Andres Klode: Ubuntu Software Center coming to Debian. While it’s not universally loved, enough people love the graphical Software Center that it has been added to Debian unstable. I have to admit that while I usually use Synaptic for adding new apps I do use the USC now and then. I use it often enough, in fact,that I set up an alias for it in Gnome Do so I can launch it even more easily.
• Christopher Blizzard: why open video? Some people wonder what the big deal is about open video and why it’s important. Christopher has found a video that answers these questions quite nicely.
• Artem Nosulchik: 13 Linux lethal commands. There are commands that you should never, ever run in GNU/Linux. Artiomix has compiled a list of what they are and why you should avoid them like the plague. This article deserves to be added to your bookmarks so you can include them in your permanent reference collection.

Before I close out this post I have one more thing to share with you. A number of users of GNOME’s Evolution email client have been bitten by Launchpad Bug 27014: Summary and folder mismatch, even after a sync. You know you’re affected by it if you switch folders and get an error saying something like

Error while Storing folder ‘Inbox’.

Summary and folder mismatch, even after a sync

Zoran Mijanovic posted a possible fix for the problem.

Just delete file “folders.db” from ~/.evolution/mail/local and start “evolution”. In the first time the evolution needs more time to rebuild folders.db. After that, everything works fine.

If you have this problem you should try his solution to see if it resolves the issue for you.

Peng’s links for Sunday, 22 November

• Sense Hofstede: Ubuntu Bug Control starts mentoring. Reporting bugs is an important part of using open source software so they can get squashed and in time others won’t have to deal with them. Of course there are already a lot of bugs reported, with many of them unconfirmed. Any user can help simply by triaging bugs to confirm the bug and the package it’s in. Sense has some very easy info on how to help with triaging.
• Stefano Forenza: Ubuntu One Music Store. You read that right, Canonical wants to include a way to buy music within next spring’s Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Linx. Stefano also has a follow-up post with answers to some questions that came up in his original post. Welcome back, Stefano!
• Aaron Toponce: Debian – The Universal Operating System. While Debian (the foundation for the Ubuntu family of GNU/Linux operating systems) isn’t perfect, is is pretty powerful, not to mention flexible as hell. Aaron gives us a great overview of Debian. Even I didn’t realize Debian was so good.
• Stefano Forenza: No more Gimp for you little Joe. Stefano mentioned it before, but it’s been confirmed. Gimp will no longer be part of the default installation of Ubuntu, although they are keeping F-Spot for image editing. In all honesty I have to admit that the Gimp doesn’t have the best UI, but I use it regularly. I tried F-Spot before, and with some versions I couldn’t get the damned thing open, while in others I was just so overwhelmed trying to figure out how to use it I shut it down and opened my image up in the Gimp. Luckily you can install Gimp easily, so you won’t have to jump through too many hoops. We’ll have to wait and see if in-place upgrading to 10.04 deletes Gimp. If it does I’m going to be one ticked off penguin.
• Danielle Madeley: Why Telepathy is not like libpurple. Some people think Telepathy, Ubuntu 9.10′s default messaging client, is like Pidgin, the client so many of us have come to love over the years. Danielle shows that they are two very different apps. Thanks for the clarification, Danielle, even though I still prefer to use Pidgin.
• Maia Kozheva: UI Rant: Computer Janitor. Thank the diety I’m not the only one who thinks Computer Janitor has one of the fugliest interfaces I’ve ever seen. Dude, we’ve gotta get this fixed and soon if we want people to use it.
• Anirudh Acharya: Chrome OS: First Impressions… Artem Nosulchik and Stefano Forenza have both written nice articles on the newly announced Google ChromeOS, but the developer of Mac4Lin gave it a spin and shares his thoughts, as well as some screenshots.
• Christoph Langher: Secure and unique passwords with PwdHash for Chromium. I asked for help with an add-on for Chrom[e|ium], but Christoph has found a Chrom[e|ium] version of a Firefox add-on that he is damned glad to find.

To those who live in the States I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving. But be careful when selecting your bird. I hear they’re fighting back this year.

Like GetDeb? Now you can get their packages from a repo

One of the best ways to get updated software for Ubuntu Linux, as well as other Debian-based distros, is from GetDeb.net. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve used their packages to get an update that isn’t available from official Ubuntu repositories or PPA’s.

They’ve recently launched an updated site for users of Ubuntu 9.04 and newer,  and one of the great new benefits is that they now have a repository you can add to your sources.list. You can either manually add their repo and key, or you can do it even more easily by downloading their getdeb package which will automatically add their repo and repo’s PGP signing key.

If you’re needing software for older versions of Ubuntu, or want to use the familiar website interface you already know and love, you can use their legacy website that remembers all of the users who signed up with them.

Unfortunately, if you have a free account with their old site you’ll need to create a new account to use their new site. I used their contact form to email the devs about not being able to log in, and Vadim Peretokin informed me that he doesn’t believe the user database was migrated to the new site. It may be a pain to have to create a new account, but it is free, and it only takes a few minutes to create the account and validate it from the email they’ll send you.

Either way, you’ll definitely want to check out the new GetDeb website and repository. It will make your life easier as you try to use newer versions of software than is in the official repositories and you won’t have to compile any code to use them, either.

[UPDATED] Peng’s links for Friday, 27 March

Updated to include note about the PHP version of the Ubuntu 9.04 [countdown. -Peng]

I tried to post some links yesterday but as soon as I hit the save button to lock in some tage and my text I was rewarded with a 100% blank post. Hopefully this post will last long enough to publish it.

• Pavel Rojtberg: Giving Google Earth a native look & feel. One of the biggest complaints about Google apps on Linux (other than some apps actually not being native Linux apps because they shove an extra installation of WINE down our throats) is how butt ugly they are. Pavel walks us through what we need to do to get them looking like the theme we have selected.
• Jonathan Carter: The correct way to file bugs in Ubuntu. Filing bugs is important when you help test new releases, but I found out yesterday I was doing it wrong because I went straight to Launchpad to file my bug. Jonathan lets us know not only how do to it properly but also why the way I was doing it is a bad idea.
• Steven Harms: Thank You. Steven writes a wonderful post to the people who help make Ubuntu Linux such a wonderful distribution. As for me, I’m just going to say, “What Steven wrote.”
• Tiago Vaz: Some cool audio stuff for Debian. Usually when people write about cool audio tools for GNU/Linux they’re referring to media player apps like Amarok, MPD and Totem. But Tiago has good news for musicians, especiallt guitar players, as he tells us about some virtual processing gear.
• Steve Langasek: Ubuntu 9.04 Beta released. I know this should probably get a post of it’s own, but I’m tight on time since I needed to reclaim yesterday’s links from Google Reader. The first beta release of Ubuntu 9.04 “Jaunty Jackelope” is now available for downloading. I’ll snag it this weekend and post my thoughts about it.
• Nick Ali: Ubuntu 9.04 Countdown Banner. If you have your own blog or website you may want to snag the countdown banner to help countdown the says until Ubuntu 9.04 is released. Stefano Forenza also has the code on his site, as well as tips for people like Nanci and I who aren’t allowed to use any JavaScript on their blog. That was a pain in the rear the last two releases (Thanks, WP.com) and we’re glad the devs thought of us this time around. Updated 29 March: If you can’t use JavaScript grab the PHP code from Stefano’s post. It’s working fine on our blog!
• Daniel T. Chen: Lessons Learned at Jaunty Beta. Not everything went 100%smoothly with the alpha versions of Ubuntu 9.04, and Daniel clues us in on some of the things the dev team had to deal with.

That’s it for today. I may have some links to share tomorrow, but look for our report on how Jaunty behaves on our hardware this weekend. Until then, enjoy the weekend!