Category: Linux

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Recovering Grub (menu.lst) after Windows Re-install

Reference: link

  • Boot the Desktop/Live CD. (Use Ubuntu 8.04 or later)
  • Open a terminal (Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal)
  • Start grub as root with the following command
    • sudo grub
  • You will get a grub prompt which we will use to find the root partition and install grub to the MBR (hd0)
    grub>
  • Type the following and press enter:
    find /boot/grub/stage1
  • If you get "Error 15: File not found", try the following:
    find /grub/stage1
  • Using this information, set the root device (fill in X,Y with whatever the find command returned):
    grub> root (hdX,Y)
  • Install Grub:
    grub> setup (hd0)
  • (In case you want to install GRUB to another drive (like hdX) use the above command as 'setup (hdX)' and then continue)
  • Exit Grub:
    grub> quit
  • Reboot (to hard drive). Grub should be installed and both Ubuntu and Windows should have been automatically detected.
  • 6. If, after installing grub, Windows will not boot you may need to edit /boot/grub/menu.lst
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Uninstall GRUB fix MBR for Windows

Boot your computer using FreeDOS on CD-ROM, and run the following command from a command prompt.

fdisk /mbr

This restores your master boot record, and effectively eliminates GRUB.  You now have orphaned Linux partitions on your hard drive you will either need to use windows to delete and reformat as additional partitions or use a 3rd party utility to reclaim the space.

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Komodo Edit

Komodo Edit 5 has been successfully installed to:
/home/mruckman/Komodo-Edit-5

You might want to add 'komodo' to your PATH by adding the
install dir to you PATH. Bash users can add the following
to their ~/.bashrc file:

export PATH="/home/mruckman/Komodo-Edit-5/bin:$PATH"

Or you could create a symbolic link to 'komodo', e.g.:

ln -s "/home/mruckman/Komodo-Edit-5/bin/komodo" /usr/local/bin/komodo

Documentation is available in Komodo or on the web here:
http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/docs/Komodo

Please send us any feedback you might have or log bugs here:
komodo-feedback@ActiveState.com
http://bugs.activestate.com/

Thank you for using Komodo.

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Install/uninstall .deb files

These files are Debian packages. The package files associated with Ubuntu have the .deb suffix because of Ubuntu's close relations with the Debian GNU/Linux distribution. You will need administrative privileges to install a .deb file (see the section called "Root And Sudo").

To install a .deb file, simply double click on it, and then select Install Package

Alternatively, you can also install a .deb file by opening a terminal and typing:
sudo dpkg -i package_file.deb

To uninstall a .deb file, deselect it in your package manager, or type:
sudo dpkg -r package_name

To list you packages or to look for a specific one
sudo dpkg -l | grep -i packagename

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Background Image Disappears in Ubuntu

Synopsis: gnome settings were corrupted
Fix with the following:

  • rm -R .gconf/desktop/gnome/background
  • Logout / Login

 
There was really only one file that was deleted from the fix:
.gconf/desktop/gnome/background/%gconf.xml

Details from original post:

When the picture_opacity value from the gnome background image is set to 200 the background image disappears and never comes back until the config files are removed.
Steps:
causes the problem: gconftool-2 -t str --set /desktop/gnome/background/picture_opacity "200"
solved the problem: rm -R .gconf/desktop/gnome/background (and restart gnome)

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How to Install JDK 1.6 in Ubuntu, also how to run a bin file

Try this first just to get the jdk installed through apt-get
sudo apt-get install sun-java6-bin sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin

In order to change which JRE Ubuntu uses, run the following command from the terminal. I found this in the general Ubuntu help under programming.
sudo update-alternatives --config java

The Long Way, Good Learning Excersize

  • Download bin file to a temp folder on your Desktop
  • sudo su
  • chmod a+x filename.bin
  • ./filename.bin
  • You can then cleanup the temp folder

 
As you will see, it's a little long process, but thanks to my curiosity I noticed that Ubuntu has a package ready to install using your package manager.

The java command to install it:

$sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jdk

The good thing is that Ubuntu has packages for things like flash and other softwares that are not easy to install on other distributions.

For some who want to try the long way here it is:

1. Download the Java JDK 1.6 from Sun's site. http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp

2. Select the Java SE Development Kit (JDK)

3. This leads to a page allowing us to select the Operating System, usually I just choose Linux :).

4. Then we came to a page which shows the available packages. I click on jdk-6u13-linux-i586.bin because this version is a package resembling to a tar.gz

5. Once the newly downloaded file is here, we need to extract it to a folder named jdk1.6.0_13 (for example).

6. It's better then to move Jdk1.6.0_13 folder to /usr/local which is the standard folder for programs or GUI console. if you have problems copying the JDK, you can call with the command nautilus

$sudo nautilus

This way you can access the folder /usr/local.

7. We will proceed to add the JAVA_HOME variable to the system. To do this, open bash.bashrc file with the following command:

$sudo vi /etc/bash.bashrc

At the end of the file put the following instructions.

export JAVA_HOME=/usr/local/jdk1.6.0_13
export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH

This makes sure that the JAVA_HOME variable is always available in the system.

8. Open a new console and run the command:

$java -version

To which we assume the following result:

java version "1.6.0_13"
Java (TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_13-b04)
Java HotSpot (TM) Server VM (build 11.2-b01, mixed mode)

If it does not work: (good time to dig into Linux privileges). Here is the script you may need to use.

sudo chmod 777 /usr/local/jdk1.6.0_13
sudo chmod -R 666 /usr/local/jdk1.6.0_13
sudo chmod 777 /usr/local/jdk1.6.0_13/bin
sudo chmod 777 /usr/local/jdk1.6.0_13/db
sudo chmod 777 /usr/local/jdk1.6.0_13/demo
sudo chmod 777 /usr/local/jdk1.6.0_13/include
sudo chmod 777 /usr/local/jdk1.6.0_13/jre
sudo chmod 777 /usr/local/jdk1.6.0_13/lib
sudo chmod 777 /usr/local/jdk1.6.0_13/man
sudo chmod 777 /usr/local/jdk1.6.0_13/sample
sudo chmod 777 /usr/local/jdk1.6.0_13/bin/*