Ubuntu Unleashed

[updated] Upgraded nodoka engine to fedore core 9's and added echo-icon-set from git

I really dont like fedora, but its theme is nice and crisp, check it out, if you dont like it rm -rf :)

1. Install build-essential and libgtk2.0-dev packages:
   sudo apt-get install build-essential libgtk2.0-dev
2. Download Nodoka GTK+ engine 0.6 from here

3. dpkg -i gtk-nodoka-engine_0.6-1_i386.deb

   Install theme
4. Get Nodoka theme 0.3.90 from here. Then execute command in terminal:
   tar zxvf nodoka-theme-gnome-0.3.90.tar.gz
5. copy the Nodoka folder to themes folder:
   
cd nodoka-theme-gnome-0.3.90/
sudo cp -r Nodoka/ /usr/share/themes/
   
6. Grab the echo icon set & install it
   wget http://ubuntu-debs.googlecode.com/files/echoicons.tar.gz
tar zxvf echoicons.tar.gz
sudo cp -R Echo /usr/share/icons/

   

   Use theme

   Click System → Preferences → Theme menu command. In Theme Preferences dialog, choose Nodoka item. Also click on the customize tab then click on icons and select "Echo"

Enjoy
-defcon

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Wow, I was just experimenting with wine and I found out the new adobe air works flawlessly in Ubuntu with wine, it will probably work with other distro's but lets take a look how I set this up with Ubuntu w/Wine. Adobe Air applications are pretty sweet!

Xdrive® Desktop Lite install file (http://xdrive.com/downloads/)
Windows Beta3 installer for Adobe Air (http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/air.html)
WINE (I used 0.9.54)
Cant find adobe air?
wget http://ubuntu-debs.googlecode.com/files/air_b3_win_121207.exe
OK. Go to your command line, get to the directory of the executable downloaded and do:
"wine air_b3_win_121207.exe" (This is the filename that I downloaded off of the Adobe Labs site)





This will bring up the installer. Go through the prompts and it will say that it installed fine.





Now, we need to install the Xdrive® Desktop Lite client. To do this, we have to run the install air application executable located in the Adobe Air folder in your "C Drive"
/home//.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Common Files/Adobe AIR/Versions/

In this directory run the command:
wine "Adobe\ AIR\ Application\ Installer.exe"





A dialog box will pop up letting you browse to select the xdrive .air install file.












Now you will be asked a few questions, simply click install!







Next you will be asked where to install and it will ask you if you want to save an icon on the desktop, select yes and then uncheck run after installer finishes.

Once it is installed you can double-click the "Xdrive Desktop Lite" icon on the desktop with a wine glass.






Once you run it this is how it will appear!














After you Login you can upload/download and copy/paste, add/remove folders in Xdrive :)







Here is more information on Xdrive® Desktop Lite from the official Xdrive Website
If you like this baby, check out these applications:
Google Analytics Air application here
Twitter App: Here
Here is hundreds more!
P.S. Please let me know how everything installed, and if you experimented with any other adobe air apps!

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Just switch from redhat/fedora to Ubuntu and your used to rpm's? Or did you find an rpm that isnt available as a .deb file? I sure have so I thought I would share the easy process of converting rpm to deb, check it out.

To do this, install Alien using:

sudo apt-get install alien

And convert using:


sudo alien -k name-of-rpm-file.rpm

To install .deb packages, double click the file and click Install Package or simply:

sudo dpkg -i name-of-created-deb-file.deb

Alternatively you can simply install rpm files, This command converts rpm to deb then installs the deb file, after it will delete the temporary .deb created
sudo alien -i name-of-rpm-file.rpm

enjoy
defcon

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If you already dont know about getdeb.net, it is a great site to download the latest software, not many people know this but you can use getdeb's mirrors as repositories to sync your GetDeb packages with the update manager and Synaptic.

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Previously I posted a tutorial on setting up wipe with Nautilus, It has come to my attention that since ext3 is a journaling file system that wipe isn't enough to securely delete files from people that have the tools/hardware to recover files, today I will show you how to delete a file that is unrecoverable to the best of my knowledge.. Read on if you like :)
WARNING: DO NOT RUN THESE POSIX COMMANDS UNLESS YOU ARE EXTREMELY CAREFUL

Issue these commands carefully
dd if=/dev/zero of="file you want shreded"
sync
shred -u -v -n 5 "file you want shreded"
sync

Breaking it down, the commands say this:

* dd: "move data around"
* if=: "the input file is..."
* /dev/zero: "not a file at all, but a device that outputs an unending stream of zeros"
* of=: "and the output file is..."

* sync writes any data buffered in memory out to disk. This can include (but is not limited to) modified super blocks, modified inodes, and delayed reads and writes. This must be implemented by the kernel; The sync program does nothing but exercise the sync(2) system call.

* shred Overwrites the specified FILE(s) repeatedly, in order to make it harder for even very expensive hardware probing to recover the data.

If you have any other suggestions please share your knowledge, security & privacy should be common knowledge in todays world
defcon

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I ran across another slick theme, its called SlickNess, It is actually pretty slick, reminds me of the Ubuntu Studio theme with a few nice improvements, let me know what you think.
This baby is easy to install, here are the directions:

To install:
1.Download the file to your desktop from here
2.Right click the file and select extract here
3.open a terminal and run these commands:

sudo cp -r $HOME/Desktop/SlicknesS /usr/share/themes

sudo chmod 777 /usr/share/themes/SlicknesS/Slickness.jpg

Third (this one fixes firefox, This fix is made by user twrock, so if he wants me to delete it i will)
cp /usr/share/themes/SlicknesS/userChrome.css $HOME/.mozilla/firefox/*.default/chrome

Open the theme manager, you can now see the Slickness theme as a theme when you click on it , it suggests a wallpaper, click apply to apply the wallpaper!

the icon theme it suggests is this one:
black-white 2 Style big
Save the file in ~/.icons and extract the archive and go into System->Prefs->Appearance and Customize the Slickness theme and select icons and then black-white_style big and your done :)
Enjoy

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The 2WIRE USB Adapter comes with 2Wire home portals, it has long plagued Ubuntu and Linux users alike, I have had one for quite a while(got it with my 2WIRE Home Portal) and it has been collecting dust, to get this running on Ubuntu I had tried everything, I searched the web and didnt find a thing, just complaints that it doesnt work and people having problems. If you have the same card as me and use TKIP encryption, this will definately work for you, enjoy!

Ok first lets see if you have the same card as me:
open up a terminal and type:

lsusb

If you see 1630:0005 you have the same exact card, and if yours looks like the picture above like mine does this should help you :)

Now what we must do is grab The drivers that are located in the root directory of the 2WIRE installation cdrom or wget them from my hosting:

wget http://www.users.qwest.net/~choice240662796/WlanUIG.inf
wget http://www.users.qwest.net/~choice240662796/WlanUIG.sys

Then what we must do is load the driver:

sudo ndiswrapper -i WlanUIG.inf

Lets see if it loaded properly shall we?
type:

$ ndiswrapper -l
wlanuig : driver installed
device (1630:0005) present

Sweet! Its loaded now we are half way finished!

Then lets write module alias configuration for all devices:
sudo ndiswrapper -ma

Now lets write module install configuration for all devices so its starts on boot!
sudo ndiswraper -mi

Ok then finally lets load up ndiswrapper kernel module to see if it works!
sudo modprobe ndiswrapper
Now lets type:

sudo iwconfig

Now you should see a new wireless adaptor listed "wlan0, if not your fuqd and you need to ask for help!

Now that the driver is loaded we can move to the next step, installing wpa_supplicant:

sudo apt-get install wpasupplicant

Now lets configure Wpa Supplicant!

Now that wpa supplicant is installed we need to grab some basic information:

Wireless SSID
Wireless psk passphrase

Once you have these we need to issue this command:

wpa_passphrase
usage: wpa_passphrase [passphrase]

Ok you see whats above? Great now Lets follow the usage instructions above

wpa_passphrase 2WIRE31337 mysecurepassword

Here is the output:

network={
ssid="2WIRE31337"
#psk="mysecurepassword"
psk=1a2043835852349c1c8288323f8899324259ce3845c1ee44fab7f3ee4ee8eb20
}

Ok now lets open up wpa supplicants config file
sudo gedit /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

Now you need to edit your config file like so

ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ap_scan=2

network={
ssid="2WIRE31337" <-- your ssid of course
psk=1a2043835852349c1c8288323f8899324259ce3845c1ee44fab7f3ee4ee8eb20 <-- generated psk above
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
proto=WPA
pairwise=TKIP
}

Ok Save the file with ctrl-s and exit gedit.

Now we have to make wpa_supplicant load when system boots, so go back to the terminal window and type:

sudo gedit /etc/network/interfaces

Here is the static network configuration, make sure it is setup properly according to your router/network settings:

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet static
address 192.168.1.66
netmask 255.255.255.0
wireless-essid 2WIRE31337
gateway 192.168.1.254
pre-up wpa_supplicant -Bw -Dwext -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
post-down killall -q wpa_supplicant

Alternately Here is the Dynamic Configuration, uncomment to use:

#auto wlan0
#iface wlan0 inet dhcp
#pre-up wpa_supplicant -Bw -Dwext -iwlan0 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
#post-down killall -q wpa_supplicant

Now once /etc/network/interfaces is properly configured lets ctrl-s to save then exit.

Now if all goes well you should be connected, lets find out!

sudo /etc/network/interfaces restart
ping www.yahoo.com :)

Lost your 2wire USB Install CD? I got you covered, here is the full CD that came with my 2WIRE USB Dongle, drivers, docs and all!

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