Archive for the ‘Ubuntu’ Category

Sync Host and Guest Folders in VirtualBox

As a follow up to our seamless Ubuntu in Windows tutorials, we’re going to show you how to sync a Windows (host) folder to a folder in the Ubuntu (guest). You’ll need to have guest additions installed on the guest OS for this one.

For this tutorial we’ll be syncing the H: drive on Windows (yours will probably be C:) with /home/jason/windows in Ubuntu. (more…)

Configuring Synergy Server on Linux

In this tutorial we’re going to explain the setup of the Synergy server on Ubuntu. If you haven’t already installed it, open Terminal and type the following:

sudo apt-get install synergy (more...)

		

Installing Entertainer Media Center on Ubuntu

Entertainer is a relatively new media center for Gnome and XFCE desktops, currently at version 0.1 as of this writing. This tutorial will focus on the installation of Entertainer on Ubuntu with as little command line use as possible. If you’re comfortable with the command line, this tutorial should suffice. We’ll assume you’ve downloaded the tar.gz from the Entertainer website. (more…)

Enable Auto Login For Ubuntu

Single user on a desktop and local security isn’t a concern? Enable autologin for Ubuntu to avoid having to type in your details at boot.

Hit System, Administration, then Login Window.

Go to the Security tab, check the Enable Automatic Login, and select your user name from the list. That’s it. When your system loads up it should head automatically to the desktop.

Wallpaper Tagging in Vista

Everyone knows about the Windows Wallpaper section in Vista, which is categorized by tags, unlike the rest of the sections presented in the Wallpaper dialog. This tutorial will go over how to add your own wallpaper to the Windows Wallpaper dialog, and tag it so that it appears under a category. Here’s a YouTube explaining the steps from downloading the wallpaper to adding it to Vista’s wallpaper dialog.

Regular boring tutorial with pictures follows ahead. (more…)

Speech Recognition for XP

One of the features included with Windows Vista was speech recognition, a supposed feature that would revolutionize how we use computers:

We totally believe speech recognition will go mainstream somewhere over the next decade.

- Bill Gates, Sept. 2005 (view more quotes here)

This tutorial will show you how to install speech recognition for XP using the Microsoft Speech SDK. If you’ve got a copy of Office XP or 2003 handy, please follow this tutorial on Microsoft’s website.

For everyone else, please download the Microsoft Speech SDK here (see picture above for correct file). (more…)

Installing Ubuntu 8.04

This is a follow up to our first tutorial on creating a virtual machine for Ubuntu (See part 3 here if you know how to install Ubuntu). It can also be used as a tutorial to install Ubuntu 8.04, but you’ll need to know more in depth about partitioning (as use entire disk would wipe out everything and install Ubuntu on it)

Click into the screen so that VirtualBox tells you that you’re now controlling it. Select your language. (We’re assuming English)

Select Install Ubuntu, unless you’d like to try it inside a tiny window. You’ll be shown a little progress bar, and it’ll load up to an orange/brown desktop with a bird on it.

Select the language again. Yes, it’s redundant. Click Forward.

Select your location for timezone purposes. I live on the Pacific coast, so I choose Los Angeles. Click Forward.

Pick a keyboard layout. I’m fine with the defaults. Click Forward once you’re done.

Ubuntu will prepare a partitioner. Since this is a virtual machine, and you’re using an empty virtual disk, just use the entire disk.

If you’re not using a virtual machine, we recommend learning what you’re doing before taking action.

Click Forward when you’re done.

Ubuntu will prompt you for some details (your name, username for logging in, password, and name of the computer). Once you’re done, press Forward.

At the end, Ubuntu will show you everything and ask for confirmation before installing. Satisfied? Click Install.

Ubuntu will proceed to install. This will take some time, so get up and do something. At the end, Ubuntu will prompt to restart. Follow all onscreen directives and the virtual machine will reboot. At this point, you can move on to part 3, where we tell you how to make it seamless with Windows.

Run Ubuntu and Windows Seamlessly - Part 3

Now that we’ve setup Ubuntu on our virtual machine (see here if you missed setting up the virtual machine), we can go ahead and configure it to become seamless.

Login to Ubuntu

Login to Ubuntu as soon as it starts.

Setup Guest Additions

In the window with Ubuntu in it, click Devices → Install Guest Additions…

These guest additions will allow you to select seamless mode. A window should popup with the CD contents. If not, check that the correct CD is mounted in Places. (If it’s the Ubuntu CD, shut down, and reconfigure the mounted CD to use the Guest Additions.)

Open Terminal (Applications → Accessories → Terminal). It’s a command line interface, but it’ll be easy.

We’ll need to switch to the CD directory. Type the following:

cd /media/cdrom0

Then type the following to install Guest additions:

sudo sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run

Ubuntu will prompt you for your password. It will not show up (no asterisks, no plain text). Hit Enter after that, and the installation should run.

You should see a screen like the above. Restart, as directed.

Once you login again and it loads up the desktop, click Machine → Seamless Mode. You’re done! If you want, you can reconfigure the panels (taskbars) to complement your Windows desktop. There’s a few quirks here and there, but for the most part it works well.

Note: After we updated, we had to reconfigure the guest additions.

Run Ubuntu and Windows Seamlessly

We’re going to show you how to install Ubuntu on a virtual machine using Sun’s VirtualBox, and then setup seamless mode to allow running Windows and Ubuntu applications within the same environment (see the picture to the left). Why is this useful? You can run both operating systems within the same environment. We think it beats using Wubi, configuring your computer to install Ubuntu, and running Windows inside Ubuntu.

For this tutorial, we suggest you have at least 8GB free space and at least 1GB of RAM. You’ll need to have downloaded the Ubuntu ISO file and VirtualBox. We assume you have installed VirtualBox.

This is going to be a long tutorial, but we hope we’re positive we’ve made it easy to follow with an abundance of screenshots. However, some settings may need to be changed to reflect your computer setup.

Oh, and as a big huge tutorial, we’ve split it into 3 parts: this current part, which describes setup of the virtual machine, part 2 for installing Ubuntu, and part 3 for configuring it to become seamless. (more…)