Tag: open source

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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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Tango Icons Theme on Nokia Symbian Phone

I know, I know. Tango icons has been done to the death on websites, documents, presentations and as Desktop icons. This is due to the popularity of Tango icons itself. and thanks to the liberal Creative Commons license, everybody is free to use the icons (without paying royalty) as long as they give credits (attribution) to the Tango icon project.

Checkout this cool Symbian Series 60 theme. It almost made your phone looks like its running a Linux based operating system, does it?

s60-tango-app-grid1.png

This theme can be downloaded from Tango Symbian60 Theme website and is available for Noka Symbian Series 60 2nd and 3rd Edition.

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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

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Minibuntu – the tiny, minimalist Ubuntu-based distribution

Ubuntu has gained enormous popularity, since Canonical first released Ubuntu back in 2004. There were a lot of Ubuntu spin-off along the way including Ubuntu Christian edition, Ubuntu studio, Embun, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Edubuntu, Ubuntu Muslim Edition, Linux Mint, gOS and many more. Some of it made its way as the officially supported Ubuntu version by Canonical.

ubuntu.png

Now comes yet another Ubuntu-based Linux distribution, named Minibuntu. What set itself apart from other distro is, it does not come with a window manager, instead it boots straight into command-line interface bash prompt.

This makes minibuntu suitable for acting as a rescue and emergency Linux boot CD, eventhough the main intention of minibuntu is to help others to create another Linux distribution based on Ubuntu using either UCK or Reconstructor.

To me, Miniubuntu is a nice distro as it provide a starting point for creating a new and customised Linux distribution based on Ubuntu.

Minibuntu can be downloaded from its official website, and is only available for i386 platform only (at this time of writing).

Ref :
Minibuntu Official Website
Minibuntu Launchpad Page