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Have you mounted your Home directory to a separate partition from the root? If you have not, then I strongly recommend you to do that because if you happen to format you Linux or change to a different Linux distro, then you can keep all your files in Home without formatting it. It is similar to creating a separate partition in Windows just for storing your data. When you format your C: drive, the data in your D: drive can be saved.

If you already have a separate partition for your Home folder, then there is a trick you can do before switching distro. This will avoid messing up the settings in your new Linux such as the position of the task bar, the theme, desktop icons, and so on. This is especially necessary when switching from a Gnome distro to a KDE distro.

The Trick

Before installing a different Linux on your computer, you should go to your Home directory. Then you need to be able to see the hidden files and folders. To do this in Gnome, click on “View”, then click on “Show Hidden Files” in your file browser. You will then see files and folders with names that begin with a period. Those are the hidden files and folders in Linux. You will need to delete them all except for the ones that you need. For example, I know I want to keep my Tomboy Notes, so I will not delete the “.tomboy” folder. Also, I want to keep my virtual machines that I have created in VirtualBox, so I will keep the folder “.VirtualBox”. After you have deleted all those hidden folders and files, you can restart your computer and install your new Linux distro. This way, your new Linux distro will not be messed up.

My Linux Mint was messed up the first time I installed it over my Ubuntu. Linux Mint has its own customized theme with a single task bar at the bottom of the screen. But it turned out to have top and bottom task bars, just like Ubuntu. After deleting the hidden files and folder in Home and reinstalling Linux Mint, the customized theme is back.

Recently, I have been trying out the Linux Mint operating system which caught my attention in DistroWatch.com. It currently ranks 5^th in the Page Hit Ranking, trailing Fedora by a very small margin. My first impression with Linux Mint is that it is for those who want to play MP3 songs and DVD movies out of the box. Those are two common missing functions most wanted by most users. A lot of the big name distro, such as Ubuntu and Fedora, do not include those functionality by default.

Linux Mint is a variant of Ubuntu with integrated media codecs. After using Linux Mint for a few hours, I can immediately see that it is trying to get the good things all together in one place. First, it has a very flexible application menu, very similar to the one in OpenSUSE. You can drag applications to the “Favourites” section of the menu so that you can find them easily. You can also hide certain sections of the menu, which is divided into Places, System, and Applications.

Another thing it has is what it calls the Software Portal (or mintinstall). The Software Portal is very similar to OpenSUSE’s One-Click-Install system which I have described in here. By just clicking the install button on the Software Portal site, you can install some popular software such as Google Earth, VirtualBox, Second Life, Microsoft Fonts and more. One point worth mentioning is that when I installed VirtualBox, I didn’t have to go through all the steps that I went through in Ubuntu (steps here). It just works. However, I am finding the number of software you can install through the portal site is still limited.

Another thing that surprised me is the Ndiswrapper driver installation tool which they called it “Windows Wireless Drivers”. I used a D-Link DWL-G132 Wireless USB Adapter to test it. I downloaded the Windows driver and found the .inf file. I used the Ndiswrapper driver installation tool to install the .inf file. Right away, Linux Mint detected my wireless USB adapter and I am able to connect to my wireless network.

If you are looking for a Linux distro that fills the gap of missing codecs out-of-the-box, then you may want to give Linux Mint a try. I will be testing Linux Mint on my MSI S262 Megabook to see if the compatibility is any better. Results will be coming soon.

Today, I am going to show you how to install VirtualBox on Ubuntu. VirtualBox is an open source virtualization product that works very similar to VMware Server. It allows you to run an operating system on top of another operating system. This allows you to have access to multiple operating systems at the same time. For computer technicians, virtualization gives you the flexibility to provide support for different platforms.

I am using Ubuntu 7.10 as my host OS. You can use other Linux, Windows, Macintosh and OpenSolaris operating systems as your host OS. For supported guest operating systems, you may want to check out the list in this link - http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Guest_OSes.

It is quite easy to install VirtualBox on Ubuntu. All you need to do is use the Add/Remove program.

1. Click on Applications in the top bar.
2. Click on Add/Remove…
3. Enter “Virtualbox” in the search bar.
4. You should see “InnoTek VirtualBox” in the search results. Click the check box.
5. Click the “Apply changes” button at the lower right hand corner and wait for the installation to complete.

After the installation, you should find “InnoTek VirtualBox” listed under “System Tools” in the Applications menu. However, if you launch it and start creating a virtual machine, you will soon realize some errors when booting the virtual machine. Before you work with your VirtualBox, you should also complete the following steps.

1. In a terminal, type “gksudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst” without the quotes. Enter your password. A text editor will open up.
2. Add “nmi_watchdog=0″ to the “kernel” line. Save the change and exit gedit.
3. Reboot your computer.
4. In a terminal, type “sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup” without the quotes. Enter your password and let it build the module.
5. Then go to “System” -> “Administration” -> “Users and Groups”.
6. Click on “Manage Groups”.
7. Select “vboxusers” and click “Properties”.
8. Check your username and click “OK”. Then click “Close”.
9. Logout and login again.

Basically, the steps above were to build the kernel module required by VirtualBox and give your user account the permissions to access the module. You should now be able to use VirtualBox without problems. Next week, I will be show you how to install a guest operating system with VirtualBox. If you have any questions, feel free to let me know.

I just got myself a new laptop a few days ago and was busy transferring my data from my old system to this new one. It was time to retire the old one as I have been using it for 3 years. The new laptop is the MSI S262 Mega Book in black. I picked this laptop because of its size (12.1″ comparing to 15.1″ of my previous one) and at the same time it is only $700 as I got it from my supplier. I want to be able to blog anywhere so 12″ size is perfect for me. The retail price should be around $899 CAD with Windows Vista Premium pre-installed. The following is the specification:

• Intel Pentium Dual Core T2080 1.73Ghz processor
• 1GB DDR2 memory
• 120GB 5400rpm SATA hard drive
• Intel 945GM + ICH7-M chipset
• 12.1″ WXGA super glare TFT display
• Dual layer capable DVD burner
• Gigabit LAN and modem
• 4-in-1 card reader
• 802.11G wireless
• Bluetooth
• 3 x USB ports, 1 x VGA, 1 x Express Card slot
• Li-Ion 8 cells battery
• MSI 12″ carrying case included

What’s Working

I bought this MSI S262 Mega Book without the operating system as I was going to install Ubuntu Linux on it. I am very surprise with its compatibility with Ubuntu 7.10. A lot of the built-in functions are working in Ubuntu without the need of entering commands, including the graphic card, wireless G, and gigabit LAN. More importantly, it is able to suspend and hibernate in Ubuntu and can wake up successfully. Desktop 3D effects worked like a charm without the need to install extra drivers. The hot buttons (email, web browser, wireless, except for the search button) worked out of the box.

What’s Not Working

Unfortunately, the card reader doesn’t seem to be detected and I didn’t have an Express Card to test. I will need to do some research to see if there are ways to get them working. Also, the speakers are not up to par as I can here the buzz noise when turning the volume over 80%. (But sound is not that important to me as I have it muted most of the time.)

The general performance of this laptop is better than I expected. The 3D desktop effects are very smooth even though it is only Intel’s on-board graphic. I have also setup Virtualbox to run Windows XP as a guest machine. Everything in the guest OS is running faster than my old Pentium M 1.6Ghz laptop. The responsiveness is much better.

I will keep you updated after I have experienced more on my new laptop. Hopefully I can get the card reader working too.

In the Linux world, it is very easy to install a software or driver that is already included in the software repositories of the specific distro. However, if you want to install a program that is not already in the default repositories, then you will have to add the source yourself. This maybe a headache for the new Linux users. In the latest version of openSUSE, it has improved its package manager a lot. One nice feature I really like is its “1-click-install” system that helps openSUSE users to install software more easily.

Easy Installation

If you go to opensuse.org and search for a software or driver that you want to install, you maybe presented with a one-click-install icon contained in the tutorial in the search result. If you get this icon, then all you need to do is to click on it and it will automatically add the required repositories to the package manager and download the necessary packages. The software package manager will then install the software for you. It eliminates the step to manually add the source repositories and import the GnuPG keys.

For example, if you go to http://en.opensuse.org/Nvidia, you are presented with a tutorial on how to install the Nvidia graphic driver. If you are using the latest version of openSUSE which is 10.3, then you are given the option to use the “1-Click-Install” method. Comparing to the steps for installing the driver in version 10.2, it would have taken you 5 to 6 steps to install the driver when there is no “1-click-install” and you would need to type commands in a terminal window. This is not user friendly for the new Linux users.

A Better Future

I think the “1-Click-Install” system is still in its premature stage as there are very few software and drivers that can be installed through this method. I hope the developers will use this function more on other software installation. In the long run, I think we will see more of “1-Click-Install” or similar methods provided by openSUSE and other distro. This should be the way to help users to install the software that can not be included in the default software repositories due to whatever reasons.