How to make Your Ubuntu Linux Enegy Efficient using PowerTop

Since version 2.6.21, the Linux kernel has introduced a   feature called tickless. the kernel no longer has a fixed 1000Hz timer tick. This will give a dramatic  power savings because the CPU stays in low power mode for longer periods of time during system idle.

A Nice handy tool, PowerTop has been created for reducing the Power Usage of Linux.  This application will help to find  the software components that are preventing optimal usage of your hardware and give proper  suggestions for both hardware and software configurations to reduce power consumption of your system. So Now Your Ubuntu is energy Efficient.It is very useful for Laptop Users.

How To Install PowerTop in Ubuntu

Open a terminal and type the following

$ sudo apt-get install powertop

Or You can use Synaptic Package manager and select package powertop.

How to Access / Install Device Manager in Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic koala

         

         There is not an  application like Windows Device Manager Ubuntu. Gnome-Device-Manager is the Ubuntu equivalent for the Windows Device Manager application. it's not installed by default. Gnome Device Manager is a front-end, or GUI, to the HAL daemon service. HAL continuously polls the system message flow or "desktop bus," which is also known as "D-Bus.", D-Bus listen for messages about hardware events from the Linux kernel. Example , that a pendrive has been inserted.

How to Install Device Manager in Ubuntu


Open a Terminal andt type

$sudo apt-get install gnome-device-manager

or use synaptic package manager


Using Device Manager in Ubuntu

Gnome Device Manager is started by selecting
Applications → System Tools → Device Manager.

How to Install Firefix 3.6 (Namoraka) in Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala )

The Latest Version of Firefox is now available in launchpad. For Installing Firefox 3.6 in your machine, do the following steps
First  Add the ppa to ubuntu repository,   Then Add the GPG Key, update and install

Open a terminal and type the following

$ sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa/ubuntu karmic main' /etc/apt/sources.list"

$ sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 247510BE

$sudo apt-get update

$sudo apt-get install firefox-3.6


Now You can Start  firefox 3.6
Go to Applications --> Internet--> Namoroka Web Browser

Howto use Windows Shared HP printer in Ubuntu / Debian Linux (using samba)

Most of the Computer Labs in Industry and Education Institutions are equipped with Windows. So Printers are also connected to Windows machines. Here a Simple howto for sharing windows shared printers for Linux users. I have test with a HP1015 printer installed in an Windows XP machine and shared. My linux box is ubuntu 9.04 ( I also tested with ubuntu 8.04, 8.10 , debian 4.0 and 5.0).

First install samba

apt-get install samba

apt-get install smbfs

apt-get install cupsys

after this installations

open a browser and type

http://localhost:631/

you will get a cups administration page

select add printer

then type Name : anything
Location : anything
description : anything

now you will get a dropdown menu

select windows printer via samba

now there is text box Device URI

type smb://shibuscomputer/1015 ( see I have a shared hp 1015 printer at computer name called shibuscomupter and share name of printer is 1015 with permision to all)

after selecting uri u will get a page for selecting make

select your printer make in my case it is HP

next page select model HP Laserjet series PCL 4/5 CUPS v 1.2 (en)

now printer installation is over

you can make a test print now

Howto setup Second IP address or Virtual IP address to your Networkcard in ubuntu

If you are a Network Administrator some time you need to assign more than ONE ip address (second ipaddress) to your network card of Ubuntu machine. For this you need to edit the /etc/network/interfaces file by adding the following lines . See the example below and make change according to your ip address settings

#vi /etc/network/interfaces

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.0.5
netmask 255.255.255.0
network x.x.x.x
broadcast x.x.x.x
gateway x.x.x.x

auto eth0:1
iface eth0:1 inet static
address 192.168.0.50
netmask 255.255.255.0
network x.x.x.x
broadcast x.x.x.x
gateway x.x.x.x

after entering the values save this file and you need to restart networking services in ubuntu using the following command to take effect of our new ipaddress.

After entering all the details you need to restart networking services using the following command

#/etc/init.d/networking restart

How to Share Files quickly in Ubuntu / Debian Linux

In the very first day of my python study, I wondered!!!
Some time we need to share files to other systems in our computer center quickly with out any tools in hand. If you have a python installation in your system, file sharing is very simple by implementing a little http server, using a single line command.

Suppose If you want to share the folder /home/shibu/ and my IP address is 192.168.0.4

open a terminal then type following
$ cd /home/shibu

$ python -m SimpleHTTPServer

Now your http server will start in port 8000
( You will get a message - Serving HTTP on 0.0.0.0 port 8000 ... )

Now you can open a browser in the remote machine and type the following in the address bar

http://192.168.0.4:8000

If you are a network administrator it is very useful, normal users can also use this trick.

you can test it locally by using
http://127.0.0.1:8000

Howto Change Wallpapper Automaticaly in ubuntu Linux : Drapes

Desktop Drapes will change your wallpaper randomly. It will select wallpaper from a list, or you can point it to a directory.

$ sudo apt-get install drapes

HowTo find Duplicate files in Ubuntu Linux : Fslint

Finding Duplicate files in linux is a difficult job. FSlint is a very good utility for find and clean duplicate file in linux. FSlint can use for one click removal of duplicate files, empty folders, temporary files, check the packages installed, incorrect connections etc..

For Installing FSlint in Ubuntu
$ sudo apt-get install fslint ( it is version 2.26)

Install latest version
wget http://www.pixelbeat.org/fslint/fslint_2.40-1_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i fslint_2.40-1_all.deb

For Fedora and Readhat
wget http://www.pixelbeat.org/fslint/fslint-2.40-2.noarch.rpm
sudo rpm -Uvh fslint-2.40-2.noarch.rpm

Howto Find Maximum memory capacity of Your Computer

Before Upgrading your Computers Memory capacity, You have to check maximum memory capacity of your system supports.
see this also

How to check your maximum memory capacity

it is simple
$ sudo dmidecode | grep Maximum

output

Maximum Size: 32 KB
Maximum Size: 4096 KB
Maximum Size: 0 KB
Maximum Capacity: 8 GB

Web based (Http) Network Traffic / Bandwidth Monitoring Tool: Darkstat

DarkStat is a simple Packet Sniffing Network Traffic/Bandwidth monitoring Tool for Ubuntu and other Linux distributions. DarkStat gives simple web based output with nice graphs and statistics , it will automatically refreshed. Darkstat uses a very low footprint and the memory, CPU usage.

How to install darkstat in Ubuntu / debian
$ sudo apt-get install darkstat ( or use Synaptic package manager)

For Running darkstat
$ sudo darkstat -i eth0
or for wireless
$ sudo darkstat -i wlan0
Now darkstat will start and run in background (You will not get any output now!!!!!)

Open your Browser
type http://127.0.0.1:667 in address bar

Howto Disconnect a Network Sevice without Stopping Entire Network in Ubuntu / Debian : Cutter

Cutter is tool used for disconnecting an TCP/IP connection. Some time Network administrators want to stop some specific services like ssh, chat. Cutter is a very useful utility for network administrators for blocking high bandwidth consuming services, peer-to-peer Service etc. It is a firewall administrators tool, so use in firewall / router machines.

$ sudo apt-get install cutter (or use synaptic package Manager)

cutter ipaddress1 [ port1 [ ipaddress2 [ port2 ] ] ]

You can use netstat for finding the connection.

Stop all ssh connection between 192.168.0.1 and server
$ sudo cutter 192.168.0.1 22

Stop all ssh connection between 192.168.0.1 and 192.168.0.2
$ sudo cutter 192.168.0.1 192.168.0.2 22

Stop all connections between 192.168.0.1 and server
$ sudo cutter 192.168.0.1

official Site

Howto Check your webserver for vulnerabilities : Nikto a website scanner

Nikto is an Open Source (GPL) web server scanner which scans your webserver against more than 3500 dangerous files/CGIs, outdated version checking, It has a very good plugin support
Official site
To install in ubuntu / debian
$ sudo apt-get install nikto

Full installation of nikto will offer lot of options
$ nikto will give the list of options

For simple test

$ sudo nikto -h www.yoursite.com

output will we like this
abc@abc-desktop:~$ sudo nikto -h www.xxxx.com
- Nikto v2.03/2.04
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+ Target IP: 210.222.232.234 (fake value)
+ Target Hostname: www.xxxx.com
+ Target Port: 80
+ Start Time: 2009-07-17 22:06:29
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+ Server: Apache/2.2.9 (Debian) PHP/5.2.6-1+lenny3 with Suhosin-Patch mod_perl/2.0.4 Perl/v5.10.0
- Allowed HTTP Methods: GET, HEAD, POST, OPTIONS, TRACE
+ OSVDB-877: HTTP method ('Allow' Header): 'TRACE' is typically only used for debugging and should be disabled. This message does not mean it is vulnerable to XST.
+ OSVDB-0: ETag header found on server, inode: 3965147, size: 2857, mtime: 0x433a88acc26c0
+ PHP/5.2.6-1+lenny3 appears to be outdated (current is at least 5.2.6RC4)
+ mod_perl/2.0.4 appears to be outdated (current is at least 5.8)

How to Lock / Unlock User in ubuntu / Debian Linux

For Locking User from command Line

$ sudo usermod -L varkala This will Lock user account named varkala

For Locking User from command Line

$ sudo usermod -U varkala This will UnLock user account named varkala

How to Monitor Memory and Swap Usage in Ubuntu Linux

List Memory Usage in Kilobyte
$ free
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 2042788 839976 1202812 0 35992 399284
-/+ buffers/cache: 404700 1638088
Swap: 4462644 0 4462644

$ free -m for display usage in Megabyte
$ free -b for display in usage in Blocks

$ free -s 5 Ddisplay memory usage every 5 seconds continuously

How to Install Web Based System Administration Tool : Webmin in Ubuntu9.04 / Debian

Webmin is a web based magical Graphical front end for System administration in Unix and Linux. You can manage User accounts, Printers, servers like squid, apache, dhcp, DNS and a Lot More .
For Installing Webmin in Ubuntu / Debian do the following Steps.

First You have to install the following dependencies

$ sudo apt-get install perl libnet-ssleay-perl openssl libauthen-pam-perl libpam-runtime libio-pty-perl libmd5-perl

Now you can download deb Package and install it
deb package is available here

After down loading deb file you can install it using

$ sudo dpkg --install webmin_1.480_all.deb

After Installation webmin can be run using a Firefox

Open firefox and type the following in address bar
https://127.0.0.1:10000 (Not http:// it is https://)

Now it will ask for some Security certificate issues, You can blindly give anything if you are not in a critical system.

Now webmin ask for username and password you can use your Linux username and password.

Official Website of webmin

How to Rip DVD in Ubuntu Linux : Thoggen

Thoggen is DVD ripping utility for Linux based on GTK+

It has a very nice Graphical front end

• Supports title preview, picture cropping, and picture resizing.

• Language Selection for audio track (no subtitle support yet though)

• Encodes into Ogg/Theora video

• Can encode from local directory with video DVD files

• Based on the GStreamer multimedia framework, which makes it fairly easy to add additional encoding formats/codecs in future.

Thoggen supports opening DVD and DVD ISO images or reading a DVD directory which contains the VIDEO_TS folder. In the case of encrypted DVDs you may need libdvdcss2. Install this using help from here

To install thoggen in ubuntu

$ sudo apt-get install thoggen

Howto get your system specification in ubuntu

There is a simple way to find the Hardware specification of your computer.

open a terminal windows and type the following

$lshw this will give the full hardware details in an ugly text format

Now you can try the follwing

$lshw -html > abcd.html

open the abcd.html file in web browser (firefox)