Tag: debian

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How to find fastest Debian apt-get mirrors with netselect-apt

Using the nearest server to your location does not guarantee that you will get faster connection speed, other factors such as network congestions, faulty routers and bandwidth may affect the speed of your software installations.

Thus it is best to update the sources.lst file from time to time to keep updated with the fastest mirror to you, to ensure faster software installation and updates on your computer.

Generally there are two ways to do this, one is by using Synaptic to check for the fastest mirror (works for Ubuntu too!) and secondly by using netselect-apt (currently does not work for Ubuntu).

How to get fastest apt-get mirror with netselect-apt (Debian)

Firstly you need to install netselect-apt. then just run the command by typing “netselect-apt distribution name” to get the fastest mirror. Append -n switch, if you want to include the non-free repository too

Example :
# netselect-apt lenny

Example (non-free repos) :
# netselect-apt -n lenny

The application will test each apt-get mirrors it could find on debian.org site and perform some connection to estimate its speed. At the end of the test, the fastest mirror will be selected and used in the /etc/apt/sources.lst file.

Nice, but does it work on Ubuntu?
Note that although Ubuntu has netselect-apt, the application is currently broken under Ubuntu
( as of Gutsy Gibbon ). Ubuntu users should try the Synaptic method instead.

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Squeezing size out of zip and gzip files in Ubuntu Linux

Here is how you can squeeze out few more kilobytes from your zip or gz files by using advzip or advdef from AdvanceCOMP package (installable from Ubuntu respository) :

advpng -z4 example.zip

Output
[code]
mypapit:$ advzip -z4 example.zip
761604 655677 86% example.zip
761604 655677 86%
[/code]
Saves you almost 6KB per file.

Similarly gzip files can be recompressed the same way to save more space.

advdef -z4 *.gz

[code]
mypapit:$ advdef -z4 *.gz
214451 207312 96% coolplayer.tar.gz
21523 20800 96% phex-pkg1.00.tar.gz
26527 25516 96% png2ico-src-2002-12-08.tar.gz
262501 253628 96%
[/code]
Saves you almost 11KB total.

The differences may be small for most of you, but it means a lot in situation where space is at premium and every little bit of Kilobytes count.

p/s: w00t, this is the first post for 2008!

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Should Ubuntu prevent “sudo rm -rf /” command ?

There have been talks over the ubuntuforums, regarding a user posts “sudo rm -rf /” command on “Absolute Beginner Talk” board, which results in deletion of the whole root directory of a Linux operating system (Ubuntu included).

Was the user out of his line when he’s posted such command on a beginners forum? Absolutely.

Exercise Caution When Running sudo
Users should exercise caution when running command with root privilege (sudo) . I pity to those who unknowingly execute the command and completely destroy their operating system. Its a truly lame attempt to humor oneself at the expense of others losing their precious data.

It is not a bug in coreutils, it is not a bug at all
But the lamest part is, somebody took the time to file a bug report regarding “sudo rm -rf /” on Launchpad.

There’s nothing wrong with that command, it did what it supposed to do, and that is the behavior expected from a Unix/Linux based system, there’s nothing wrong with that command at all.

Besides, if somebody compromised your system and got into your root accout, you are screwed anyway as there are a lot of other command which has the same (if not worse) devastating effect as “sudo rm -rf”, a fact that has been acknowledge on the same bug report

What do you think ?
I don’t know about you, but I felt more comfortable educating newbie users to be more careful when running command with root privilege than supporting an act which seems to ‘cripple’ the operating system itself. Trust me, this is not going to help newbie users.

p/s: I’m in complete agreement with this guy, this is not a bug, stop pampering newbies or else you’d ruin each and every of them!

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Ubuntu Alternative : Get Linux Mint

Linux Mint – a yet another Linux distro based on Ubuntu has made a fourth release last month, Daryna.

Originally started as no more than Ubuntu-distro preinstalled with proprietary multimedia codecs, Linux Mint now focussed on providing user-friendly Linux distribution complete with customizable desktop which achieved through its unique configuration tools.

linuxmint.png

The latest release Daryna, is based on Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon, and compatible with Gutsy repositories, meaning that you can receive (security) updates release from Ubuntu team for your installation.

Another Linux Mint area of focus is making everything works out from the box including Wifi and various multimedia file format which uses proprietary codecs.

Currently Linux Mint Daryna is available on 3 different download version :- Main, Light and KDE Community Edition. Linux Mint is only currently available for 32bit PC platform only.

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Contribute to Ubuntu by becoming MOTU!

Ubuntu MOTU (Masters Of the Universe) is a continous effort to contribute by adding, maintaining and supporting software packages in Ubuntu Universe repository.

Generally to become a MOTU, you would have to work with software developers helping them in making their software available in Ubuntu Universe repository, knowledge of how to build *.deb packages is required at this stage.

One can apply to become a MOTU once he/she has made a significant amount of contribution to distro and forwarded his/her application to the MOTU council.

Advantages of Becoming a MOTU
MOTU has the advantage of joining the Ubuntu core developers group, which in turn can play a leading role in introducing and developing new features for Ubuntu operating system.

Interested in becoming a MOTU? Join the MOTU class in #ubuntu-classroom in irc.freenode.net. The Packaging 101 classroom would be held on 13 December 16.00 – 17.30 (UTC time).

Reference: Ubuntu MOTU website

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Download Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon DVD Repository

It is a well known fact that Ubuntu Linux distribution has a comprehensive application collection from its repositories which can be installed at anytime provided the users have a relatively fast internet connection.

However there are still places in the world which do not have access to such connection which may prevent users from installing new applications on their Ubuntu operating system. Luckily somebody took the time to put Ubuntu Gutsy software repository into a collection of DVDs which may be handy if you are going to introduce Ubuntu to your friends which does not have an internet connection at his home.

The repository DVDs are available for i386 and 64bit platform and are divided to 5 DVDs. The DVD images (size up to 4.0GB) are downloadable for free from ftp://tuma.ui.edu/pub/ubuntu-repository/gutsy/.

Please refer to the Jigdo tutorial from Debian website on how to download the DVD using Jigdo.

Instructions on how to add the DVD repository to your Ubuntu operating system is detailed here : Add CD/DVD apt Repository.

An Indonesian version of the instruction is also available from : http://wiki.ubuntu-id.org/DistribusiDvdReposUbuntu