Category: Linux Stuff

Modify Screensaver Picture Path in Ubuntu

Post author By George
Post date January 27, 2011
1 Comment on Modify Screensaver Picture Path in Ubuntu

Gnome-screensaver on Ubuntu 8.04 — Image via Wikipedia

On my Ubuntu PCs I use the Pictures Folder screensaver. It’s a nice screensaver that cycles through all your pictures. At work I run dual monitors and the screensaver displays different pictures.

What I don’t like about this screensaver, no way to configure which pictures I want to use. My Pictures folder contains a bunch of sub-folders like misc, Whos Who (which hold different avatars I use on different social media sites), Camera (pictures of the kids), funnies (stuff i find to be very funny but appropriate for work), Wallpaper, and so on. So I started searching Google and found a quick solution on page 2 of the following link:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=230576&page=2

The post wiredsoul submitted works great! Open gedit and modify file /home/.config/user-dirs.dir. I wanted just my Wallpaper folder for the screensaver. Below is the test from my file:

# This file is written by xdg-user-dirs-update# If you want to change or add directories, just edit the line you’re# interested in. All local changes will be retained on the next run# Format is XDG_xxx_DIR=”$HOME/yyy”, where yyy is a shell-escaped# homedir-relative path, or XDG_xxx_DIR=”/yyy”, where /yyy is an# absolute path. No other format is supported.

XDG_DESKTOP_DIR=”$HOME/Desktop”

XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR=”$HOME/Downloads”

XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR=”$HOME/Templates”

XDG_PUBLICSHARE_DIR=”$HOME/Public”

XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR=”$HOME/Documents”

XDG_MUSIC_DIR=”$HOME/Music”

XDG_PICTURES_DIR=”$HOME/Pictures/Wallpaper”

XDG_VIDEOS_DIR=”$HOME/Videos”

The next to the last line I added Wallpaper. Now the screensaver only displays all the files and files in sub-folder of Wallpaper.

Thanks wiredsoul!

Tags Home PC, Linux Stuff, Sager, Ubuntu

Geek Stuff Home PC Sager Software Ubuntu Virtual Machine VMware Player

Playing a Game from 1988 on VM in 2011

Post author By George
Post date January 21, 2011
No Comments on Playing a Game from 1988 on VM in 2011

Tonight I read a post on Howtogeek.com about the Apple IIe. The Apple IIe was our family’s second computer my dad purchased back in 1984 or 1985. I remember the night my brothers and I drove out to the Apple dealer on the far side of Pittsburgh, PA. If I remember correctly, it was past Green Tree Hill. The post on Howtogeek.com started reminding me of all the great times I had with that Apple IIe. Here are the specs:

CPU: 65C02 @ 1.02MHz
128k RAM
Mouse single button
Duodisk 5 1/4″ floppy disk drive
Apple Color Dot Matrix printer (unknown model)
1200 bps modem (unknown model purchased about 2 years later)
Green mono-color monitor with tilt action

So I went to Google and searched for Ultima V Warriors of Destiny, and found some pictures of the game. And I thought to myself, “Oh, so that’s what it would have looked like in color.” One of my children came over and saw the screen and asked what I was looking at. So I explained to him about the game I used to play back in 1988 and I wished I could play it again. We did find a video of Ultima III Exodus and while the video was playing he said it looked cool and he wanted to try it too. So I sent him off to bed and I started reading on how I was going to play this game again.

I knew that VMware Player was going to be the tool of choice. I just needed a few things like MSDOS 6.22 in a preferred ISO format, a way for VMware Player to see the files, oh and the game itself. Well finding the game, manuals, maps, and scanned copies of the front and back of the box, and MSDOS 6.22 was easy. So I created a VM with 1GB HDD, 16MB RAM and a single processor (all over kill but who cares, it is a VM.) I set the MSDOS 6.22 ISO as the CD-ROM and booted from it. I was able to fdisk and create a C: drive and rebooted. I formatted the C: with the /s parameter copied over all the files from the CD-ROM, and rebooted into the VM BIOS. I changed the boot order to so the HDD would boot first instead of the CD-ROM. So now I have a VM of MSDOS 6.22.

But I could not figure out how to get the seperate files from the game into the VM. Remember this is MSDOS6.22 without any network support, just a base OS. A little more research brought me to a blog on WordPress which explained to me how to create a .IMG file. The part of that post which helped was was Creating the image:. Now I have a .IMG file of Ultima V Warriors of Destiny. That IMG file can be mounted as a floppy drive in VMware Player. From within the VM, just change to drive A: and run ultima.

Here are a few screen shots of the VM with the game when it first starts.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Tags Apple IIe, Disk image, Virtual Machine, VMware Player

American Holidays Christmas Motorola Droid Sager Skype Ubuntu Video Windows 7

Merry Christmas 2010

Merry Christmas everyone! And for those who do not celebrate Christmas, Season’s Greetings and Happy Holidays!

As I write this,I am watching my son play with his Stealth Flyer II Micro wireless helicopter and my daughter playing with the Leapster Explorer. The kids had a great Christmas. They got up about 6:30 AM, which is not too bad. I remember getting up at 5:00 AM and trying to get my parents out of bed to open gifts Santa Claus brought. One disappointment was the Leapster game we bought, no game cartridge was inside. Not to happy with the LeapFrog company right now. I wonder how my return experience at Best Buy will be?

I also have been using using Skype video to talk with my in-laws. For some reason I had the wrong sound card set for Ubuntu which cause the internal mic not to work. No problems, I rebooted into Windows 7 and ran Skype for our call. After the call, I rebooted back into Ubuntu and researched the problem. That’s when I found out I had the wrong profile. I switched to Analog Stereo Duplex enabled me to select the internal mic. I tested using the Droid with my account and Ubuntu with my wife’s account. Audio and texting worked, now I’m ready for my next call.

Tonight we’ll have spiral cut ham, scalloped potatoes, and green beans for dinner. Maybe we’ll drive around the neighborhood to see all the lights one the houses, watch some movies, and play some more games. Either way I am enjoying my days off with the family.

UPDATE:

On December 26th I waited in line at Best Buy to return the LeapFrog game and explain the situation. After listening to the manager tell me he will do me the favor since I bought the game at another Best Buy store, he exchanged it for me. He made it seem like it was a huge inconvenience. Now my daughter can enjoy the Leapster Explorer.

Tags American Holidays, Christmas, Motorola Droid, Sager, Skype, Ubuntu, Video, Windows 7

Linux Stuff LinuxMint Software Windows 7

Linux Mint 10 Julia

Linux Mint 10 is here! I installed the DVD version onto my 16GB Flash drive using the updates Universal USB installer 1.8.1.2. I had to increase the primary partition to 1024MB (1GB) to accommodate the full DVD install. I also created a new casper-rw partition on the remain space, plus modified the Shutdown Policy from USB. I installed Adobe Acrobat Reader 9.4 and chntpw (both of which can be installed from Software Manager), and I still need to install a few other apps like Google Chrome and Filezilla.

I forgot to copy the DVD ISO to my drive last night so I am downloading while writing this post. I plan on updating my production PC this week so I can run Windows 7 in a VM to provide support to my customers. I don’t expect any problems with installing the new OS. Just remember, always backup your data before installing a new OS.

Tags Linux Mint, Software

Linux Stuff Ubuntu Video

Ubuntu – The Movie

I originally saw this on Planet Ubuntu. Clicking the post on Planet Ubuntu will send you to Canonical Design. I liked the video so I posted a link from Youtube.

Tags Linux, Ubuntu, Video

Home PC Linux Stuff Sager Ubuntu

Bootchart Maverick Meerkat

Post author By George
Post date October 26, 2010
No Comments on Bootchart Maverick Meerkat

However, here is my latest bootchart (located on the right under Box.net plug-in titled Orinoco-maverick-20101025-.png) from my Sager notebook.

Tags Home PC, Linux, Sager, Ubuntu

Home PC Linux Stuff LinuxMint Sager Ubuntu Windows 7

Ubuntu 10.10 on my PC

On October 10th at 10:10:10 AM, I took a screenshot of the date/time of my PC running Ubuntu 10.04 using Shutter before installing Ubuntu 10.10. I used Vuze to download the BT files for x32 and x64 versions within 15 minutes. Since I’ve had problems in the past with running Update to install the new OS over the old, I chose to backup my home directory with the rsync command to my external USB HDD. I’ve read, some people had problems installing Ubuntu 10.10 over 10.04. So I was glad I backed up and installed from scratch.

My installation went smooth. I liked the check box to install third party apps (multimedia codeces except for the DVD player). Because of this one feature, I can no longer tell people to install Linux Mint to get all the multimedia stuff running right after install. Please don’t misunderstand, I like Linux Mint a lot. I installed Linux Mint 10 RC1 as a VM on my Ubuntu system. But that’s a post for another time.

I like the purple color theme better than the orange/brown theme of the past, but I still customized my desktop. Using Crebs (Create Background Slideshow) I created a nice 15+ Star Trek rotating wallpaper theme. I also created a Halloween theme too. Plus with Ubuntu Tweak I changed the GDM wallpaper to a nice artist rendition nebula and changed the Ubuntu logo to a Star Fleet one. I didn’t bother to change the window colors, icons and sound effects yet, I’m still looking for something that will work well and easy to install or customize. I also found one thing that has helped me out over the years for reinstalling Ubuntu and Windows, keep a text document of favorite apps and other commands that make installation easy. For me this includes anything that I need to run at the CLI. After all was said and done, I had everything installed, configured and data files restored within 4 hours. No need to go back and install an application or look for a special command that enabled the Ubuntu Menu when pressing the Super key. Its all right there. Plus I add to this text file if i make a change or find a new application that is a must have for me.

Is this a perfect 10 for Ubuntu 10.10? No, but it feel like 9.95. My only grip is the mouse pad stays enabled no matter if I use a USB wired or wireless mouse. I search several posts about this issue. And although some people had some terrific answers, none worked for me. I can’t disable the touchpad in the BIOS either. With Windows 7, the touchpad can be disabled using Logitech’s application. Kind of wish Logitech would develop their software apps for Linux. But I can’t fault Ubuntu for this.

If you haven’t tried Ubuntu 10.10, download a Live CD and try it on your PC. I think you will be surprised with this OS. Now if only Battlefield Heroes would work on Ubuntu.

Tags Home PC, Linux Mint, Sager, Ubuntu, Windows 7

Geek Stuff LinuxMint Windows Stuff Work

Used Linux Mint Bootable USB to Fix Windows Server 2003

Post author By George
Post date July 28, 2010
No Comments on Used Linux Mint Bootable USB to Fix Windows Server 2003

Image via Wikipedia

Today I was asked by one of our server administrators who was off site, if I knew how to reset the local administrator account on a Windows 2003 Server that was not communicating with the domain. I said yes, “let me get my Linux Mint USB stick and I can reset the password.”

The server was an old HP ML370 with a RAID configuration and 4GB of RAM. Once I was in Linux Mint 9, I mounted the local hard drive and navigated to the %systemroot%\System32\config folder. I right click that folder and selected Open Terminal here. Here is the reference document I use:

Open Nautilus and mount Windows HDD.
Right click Windows folder and select Open in Terminal.
Type cd System32/config and press Enter.
If account is Administrator enter sudo chntpw SAM.
If any other account enter sudo chntpw -u <account> SAM.
From menu select function.
Write hive files.

After rebooting the server I was able to log in as the local administrator and complete the repairs. Another justification for every IT Technician (server administrator or on-site workstation support) should have multiple tools to repair any computer on-site.

Tags Geek Stuff, Linux Mint, Windows Stuff, Work