Chankey Pathak - Founder of Linux Stall

Backup Ubuntu 11.10 using Deja Dup Backup Tool

Do you want to backup your Ubuntu machine? Well, Ubuntu 11.10 comes with a pre-installed backup software which is Déjà Dup Backup Tool. Today I will show how can you take a backup of your system and restore it using this tool.

Follow the procedure given below:

Click on the power icon and then select system settings.

On the system settings window click on the backup icon.

That bring us to the backup window which has four different areas:

1. Overview – shows us general overview and options as well as the Back Up Now and Restore buttons.

2. Storage – lets us choose our backup location and folder. I’m going to choose a local folder and for Folder I’m going to choose desktop. So this is where the backup will be saved to.

3. Folders – Here we can choose which folders are backed up. So we’ll be backing up the Home folder in this situation. You can use the plus and minus at the bottom to add and remove folders. On the other side we can add some folders to ignore during backup.

4. Schedule – Here we can choose how often we wanna do a backup and how long do you want to keep the backup that you saved.

Note: You can turn on automatic backups from the Overview area.

Taking a backup

To start backing up, go to the overview area and click on back up now button.

Now you need to choose an encryption password for a backup. Just type that in and click on Continue.

And after waiting for a while you can see a message that Backup has been completed and you can also see the backup files on the desktop.

Restoring from backup file

To restore your Ubuntu go to the Overview area and click on Restore button, this allows us to restore any backup that we have created. After clicking a Restore window will appear which asks for 2 things, first is the Backup location and the second one is the Folder where the backup file is located.

After selecting the locations click on Forward button, you will find a dialog box which will give you an option of selecting the date (in case you have created more than 1 backup).

Click on the Forward button and you’ll see two options:

1) Restore files to original locations
2) Restore to specific folder

Click Forward and it will ask for the encryption password, this is the password that you’ve set while creating the backup. Enter the password and you have successfully restored our backup.

Thanks for reading this quick tutorial on backup Ubuntu using Deja Dup, I would love to see in the comment section down below what everyone else is using for backup and restoration program. Let me know down below, thanks for reading the article, have a great day!

Backup your Linux remotely using rsync command

rsync is a command in Linux which stands for remote sync. It is used for backing up the data. It synchronizes the directories and files from one location to another in a good way. The backup destination could be either on local or on remote server.

Features

Speed: rsync replicates all the data from source to destination and then it transfers only the changed blocks/bytes to the destination. This makes the transfer fast.
Security: It uses encryption using ssh technique.
Bandwidth: It compresses the block at source and then at the receiving end it decompresses the block. It transfers the data block by block using compression and decompression at source and destination side respectively. Hence uses less bandwidth.
Privileges: No extra privileges are required to use rsync.

Syntax

$ rsync options source destination

Case 1: Synchronize two directories in local server

use rsync -zvr command (z to enable compression, v for verbose, r for recursive)

$ rsync -zvr /var/opt/installation/inventory/ /root/temp

The above command does not preserves the timestamp.

Case 2: Preserve timestamps using rsync -a

The -a options preserves symbolic links, permissions, timestamp, owner and group.

$ rsync -azv /var/opt/installation/inventory/ /root/temp/

Case 3: Synchronize only a single file

Specify the file name to the rsync command

$ rsync -v /var/lib/rpm/Pubkeys /root/temp/

Case 4: Synchronize files Local->Remote

$ rsync -avz /root/temp/ [email protected]:/home/chankey/temp/

Case 5: Synchronize files Remote->Local

$ rsync -avz [email protected]:/var/lib/rpm /root/temp

Case 6: Select remote shell

$ rsync -avz -e ssh [email protected]:/var/lib/rpm /root/temp

rsync -e ssh => uses the ssh shell for remote sync

Case 7: Do not overwrite modified file at destination

If the file at the destination is modified and if we don’t want to change it back to the old one again then using rsync -u option.

$ rsync -avzu [email protected]:/var/lib/rpm /root/temp

Case 8: Synchronize only the directory Tree structure (not files)

use rsync -d option for this purpose.

$ rsync -v -d [email protected]:/var/lib/ .

Case 9: Do not create new file at destination, just update existing files

use --existing option

$ rsync -avz --existing [email protected]:/var/lib/rpm/ .

Case 10: Transfer the entire file

use rsync -W option

#  rsync -avzW  [email protected]:/var/lib/rpm/ /root/temp

How to view contents of a file in Linux

You can use any of the method given below to view contents of a file in Linux. Let us say the file name is “filename”. Then you can view its content…

1. using cat command

cat filename

or

cat < filename

2. using head command

head filename

3. using tail command

tail filename

4. using pg command

pg filename

5. using more command

more filename

6. using paste command

paste filename

7. using grep command

grep '.*' filename

8. using cut command

cut -c 1- filename

9. using while loop

while read line
>do
>echo $line
>done < filename

10. using xargs command

xargs -L1 < filename

11. using sed

sed '' filename

or

sed -n 'p' filename

or

sed -n '1, $p' filename

12. using awk

awk '1' filename

or

awk '{print;}' filename

or

awk '{print $0;}' filename

13. using perl

perl -pne '' filename

or

perl -ne 'print;' filename

or

perl -ne 'print $_;' filename

If you know some more ways then share them in comments.

Linux Mint 12 LXDE RC is out and available for download

No more waiting fellas! Linux Mint team has just announced that Linux Mint 12 LXDE RC has been released and is available for download.

New features of Linux Mint 12 LXDE RC

♦ LXDE– Linux Mint 12 uses LXDE (Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment) as the default desktop environment.

♦ Hybrid ISO images– This is considered to be the first release which uses Hybrid ISO images. With the help of it you can install Linux Mint easily using the “dd command” and there is no need to use tools like “Startup Disk Creator” or “UNetbootin” to install Linux Mint using a USB device. The main advantage of it is that your USB device will work same as a liveCD (in fact faster than it). Thing to note is that using this method will delete all the files from the USB drive.

♦ DuckDuckGo – DuckDuckGo is the default search engine in Linux Mint 12 LXDE RC. DuckDuckGo is a great search engine which is getting more popular day by day, recently it achieved the success in getting 1 million direct searches in 1 day.

♦ Upstream components – The upstream components which Linux Mint 12 LXDE RC is featuring are: Linux 3.0, LXDE 0.5.0 and Linux 3.0.

System requirements

To be able to install Linux Mint 12 LXDE RC your system must meet the requirements given below:

x86 processor
at least 256 MB RAM
Free disk space of 3 GB or more
Either a CD/DVD drive or a USB port

Download

You can download Linux Mint 12 LXDE RC from the links given below.

Download torrent file
Direct download

Bugs and issues

Some issues have been detected in this new release which will be solved in the next stable release. Refer this link for the list of all detected bugs and issues.

A complete ffmpeg tutorial

Introduction

ffmpeg is a very fast video and audio converter that can also grab from a live audio/video source. It can also convert between arbitrary sample rates and resize video on the fly with a high quality polyphase filter.

Installing ffmpeg

sudo apt-get install ffmpeg

Uses

Below are some tasks which you can perform using ffmpeg.

Getting information of a video

To get information of a video file use -i option as:

ffmpeg -i /path/videofile.avi

Making video from images

You can combine the images to make a video (like movie maker in windows) using ffmpeg as:

ffmpeg -f image2 -i image%d.jpg videofile.mpg

The above command will take all the images from the current directory (image1.jpg, image2.jpg, etc) and will join them to make a video file videofile.mpg.

Making images from video file

This is just opposite of the last step. This will take a video and will generate images from it.

ffmpeg -i videofile.mpg image%d.jpg

Encoding video for iPod/iPhone

Source file: s_videofile.avi
Audio codec: aac
Audio bitrate: 128 kb/s
Video codec: mpeg4
Video bitrate: 1200 kb/s
Video size: 320×180
Generated video: f_videofile.mp4

ffpmeg -i s_videofile.avi input -acodec aac -ab 128kb -vcodec mpeg4 -b 1200 kb -mbd 2 -flags +4mv+trell -aic 2 -cmp 2 -subcmp 2 -s 320*180 -title X f_videofile.mp4

Encoding video for PSP

Source : s_videofile.avi
Audio codec : aac
Audio bitrate : 32 kb/s
Video codec : xvid
Video bitrate : 1200 kb/s
Video size : 320×180
Generated video : f_videofile.mp4

ffmpeg -i s_videofile.avi -b 300 -s 320x240 -vcodec xvid -ab 32 -ar 24000 -acodec aac f_videofile.mp4

Video to Audio

You can extract the audio from a video file and save it as mp3 format.

ffmpeg -i s_videofile.avi -vn -ar 44100 -ac 2 -ab 192 -f mp3 soundfile.mp3

Source video : s_video.avi
Audio bitrate : 192kb/s
output format : mp3
Generated sound : soundfile.mp3

wav to mp3

ffmpeg -i s_audiofile.wav -acodec mp3 -ab 192k f_audiofile.mp3

avi to mpg

ffmpeg -i s_videofile.avi f_videofile.mpg

mpg to avi

ffmpeg -i s_videofile.mpg f_videofile.avi

avi to flv

ffmpeg -i s_videofile.avi -ab 56 -ar 44100 -b 200 -r 15 -s 320x240 -f flv f_videofile.flv

avi to dv

ffmpeg -i s_videofile.avi -s pal -r pal -aspect 4:3 -ar 48000 -ac 2 f_videofile.dv

avi to gif

ffmpeg -i s_videofile.avi f_giffile.gif

Mixing video with a sound file

ffmpeg -i s_audiofile.wav -i s_videofile.avi f_videofile.mpg

avi to mpeg (for dvd players)

ffmpeg -i s_videofile.avi -target pal-dvd -ps 2000000000 -aspect 16:9 f_videofile.mpeg

ps 2000000000 is the maximum size for the output file in bits hence it is 2 GB here.

Compress avi to divx

ffmpeg -i s_videofile.avi -s 320x240 -vcodec msmpeg4v2 f_videofile.avi

Compress Ogg Theora to mpeg dvd

ffmpeg -i s_videofile.ogm -s 720x576 -vcodec mpeg2video -acodec mp3 f_videofile.mpg

Compress avi to SVCD mpeg2

NTSC format:

ffmpeg -i s_videofile.avi -target ntsc-svcd f_videofile.mpg

PAL format:

ffmpeg -i s_videofile.avi -target pal-svcd f_videofile.mpg

Compress avi to VCD mpeg2

NTSC format:

ffmpeg -i s_videofile.avi -target ntsc-vcd f_videofile.mpg

PAL format:

ffmpeg -i s_videofile.avi -target pal-vcd f_videofile.mpg

Multipass encoding

ffmpeg -i fichierentree -pass 2 -passlogfile ffmpeg2pass fichiersortie-2

Ubuntu for Android

Now you can install Ubuntu on your Android phone. Canonical has announced Ubuntu for Android which will provide a full Ubuntu desktop experience on the Android phones. It will work in the same way it works on your PC. Your Android phone will work same as other Android phones but when you connect it to a dock with a monitor, you can see the Ubuntu desktop on the attached monitor.

The user interface is same (Unity) and several free applications are available to access easily. The important thing and the main feature is the consistency of data and other services between Ubuntu and Android environments which includes unified contacts, messages and call through the desktop, synchronized calendars and social media integration.

Since both operating systems share the same kernel so there will be no such issues like “an Ubuntu application running atop Android or vice versa”. Both applications will run at the same time on the same device which gives a great performance.

Mark Shuttleworth said:

The desktop is the killer-app for quad-core phones in 2012. Ubuntu for Android transforms your high-end phone into your productive desktop, whenever you need it.

He also said that they are aiming about 200 Million Users in 4 years.

Summary of features

Complete desktop solution for full productivity on docked Android phones
Easy to integrate with existing Android phones in development
Certified apps for business users from Adobe, Citrix, VMWare and more
Drives sales of multi-core phones with faster CPUs, more cores, more RAM and high-end graphics
Drive adoption of 4G handsets since office apps shine with low latency and higher bandwidth
Canonical leads in ARM Linux support, co-creator of Linaro with ARM
Target the enterprise thin client, and emerging market first-PC markets
Ubuntu and Android share the same kernel, running at the same time, accessing data and applications
The world’s favourite free desktop fully integrated with the world’s favourite open phone

Requirements

If you want to install Ubuntu on your Android phone then your Android must have at least 1 GHz processor, dual-core CPU, 2 GB free space, shared kernel driver, X driver, HDMI support and 2 GB RAM.

How to install VLC 2.0 on Ubuntu or Linux Mint

VLC is an open-source media player whose latest version VLC 2.0 was released some days ago.

New features of VLC 2.0

This new version includes multi-threaded decoding for a variety of popular formats. New audio and video filters have been added in this update. Blu-ray support has also been added. MKV demuxer has been improved. Broadcom CrystalHD hardware decoding is now available and some minor changes have been done on the interface.

How to install VLC 2.0 on Ubuntu 12.04

Ubuntu 12.04 users can install VLC 2.0 directly from the Ubuntu Software Center.

How to install VLC 2.0 on Ubuntu 11.10 or Linux Mint 12

Ubuntu 11.10 users will have to use the commands given below to install VLC 2.0

 sudo add-apt-repository ppa:n-muench/vlc

 sudo apt-get update

 sudo apt-get install vlc

How to install VLC 2.0 on Ubuntu 10.10 or Linux Mint 10

 sudo add-apt-repository ppa:lucid-bleed/ppa

 sudo apt-get update

 sudo apt-get install vlc vlc-plugin-pulse mozilla-plugin-vlc

An overview of upcoming Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin)

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) is going to be the next long term support release after Ubuntu 10.04. Its final release is scheduled on April 26th.

What’s new in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS?

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) is going to be the next LTS (Long Term Support) release after the version 10.04. The previous LTS releases were supported for 3 years for the desktop version and 5 years for the server version but Ubuntu 12.04 will be supported for 5 years on both desktop and server version.

Feature Freeze on February 16th

On February 16th of this month Ubuntu development team hit Feature Freeze. Feature Freeze is a point where the developers stop introducing new features, packages, APIs. From this point they start concentrating on fixing bugs in the development release to solidify the included features and making the development release more stable and secure.

At the Ubuntu Developer Summit in November 2011 Canonical announced that the default download for Ubuntu 12.04 will be 64-bit (32-bit version will also be available as a user choice though).

Note: The Ubuntu 12.04 ISO image size is 750 MB, that means it cannot be burned on a CD (which can carry only 700 MB) hence you will have to go for either a DVD or USB drive.

New features and updates in Ubuntu 12.04

1. Much faster start up time for Ubuntu Software Center
2. Refinements in Unity
3. Replacement of Banshee with Rhythmbox
4. Tomboy note-taking application will be removed
5. Mono framework will also be removed
6. HUD feature

The main feature of Ubuntu 12.04 will be the HUD (Head-Up Display). By this HUD feature application menu items can be accessed right from your keyboard, without the need for using the mouse (hotkey searching).

Adding to the HUD feature Shuttleworth said:

HUD will ultimately replace menus in Unity applications but for Ubuntu 12.04 at least the menus will remain.

7. MyUnity

MyUnity is an independent configurator for Unity, a small system utility for Ubuntu, that can handle the customization of the Unity Launcher, Dash and Panel. Canonical accepted the MyUnity project in their default software repositories and it will be available to all users starting with the Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin).

Features of MyUnity 2.0.0

Ability to resize the Unity Launcher;
Ability to show devices on the Unity Launcher;
Ability to adjust the transparency of the Unity Launcher;
Ability to change behavior of the Unity Launcher;
Ability to change behavior of the Unity Launcher;
Ability to change the display method of the Unity Launcher;
Ability to change the Backlight settings of the Unity Launcher;
Ability to change the Unity Dash blur;
Ability to change the size of the Unity Dash;
Ability to adjust the transparency of the Unity Panel;
Ability to show “Home” icon on the desktop;
Ability to show “Networking” icon on the desktop;
Ability to show “Devices” icon on the desktop;
Ability to show “Trash” icon on the desktop;
Ability to change the system font;
Ability to change the document font;
Ability to change the Monospace font;
Ability to change font’s antialiasing settings;
Ability to change font’s hinting settings;
Ability to reset all settings to default;
Added translations for French, Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, and Deutsch languages.

Future releases

Mark Shuttleworth announced on 31 October 2011 that by Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu will support smartphones, tablets, TVs and smart screens. Yay!

Update

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) released! (This section of the article was updated on April 26, 2012)

DuckDuckGo received over 1 million direct searches for the first time ever

DuckDuckGo (a search engine in Perl) is climbing the mountain of success very fast. It has almost defeated its competetors on privacy issues. Last year Linux Mint declared DuckDuckGo to be its default search engine. Now the latest achievement is that DuckDuckGo grew from 500,000 direct searches in one day in November, to a new record of 1 million in one day (on 13 Feb 2012). It is really impressive! The announcement was made on Twitter on 15 Feb.

DuckDuckGo had 1,067,006 direct searches on 13 Feb according to its public traffic page.

Last year on Feb 13 DuckDuckGo had 176,000 direct searches. It achieved 500,000 searches on November 28, 2011 and reached to 1,067,006 on Feb 13. Growing fast! Isn’t it?

How to change Ubuntu logo in Enlightenment E17

Enlightenment is a window manager for Linux. It helps you creating beautiful user interfaces with less effort.

In this article we will see how to change Ubuntu logo in E17.

Open any text editor (I prefer gedit), copy paste the code given below and save it as filename logo_ubuntu.edc in the folder Downloads.

collections { 
group { 
name: "e / modules / start / main", 
max: 128 128; 
images { 
image: "logo_white_128.png" COMP; 
image: "logo_black_128.png" COMP; 
} 
parts { 
part { 
name: "base " 
description { 
state: "default" 0.0; 
aspect: 1.0 1.0; 
aspect_preference: BOTH; 
image.normal "logo_white_128.png"; 
} 
description { 
state: "active" 0.0; 
inherit "default" 0.0; 
visible: 0 ; 
color: 255 255 255 0; 
} 
} 
part { 
name: "over"; 
description { 
state: "default" 0.0; 
visible: 0; 
rel1.relative: -0.5 -0.5; 
rel2.relative: 1.5 1.5, 
Color: 255 255 255 0, 
aspect: 1.0 1.0; 
aspect_preference: BOTH; 
image.normal "logo_black_128.png"; 
} 
description { 
state: "active" 0.0; 
inherit "default" 0.0; 
rel1.relative: 0.0 0.0; 
rel2.relative : 1.0 1.0; 
visible: 1, 
color: 255 255 255 255; 
} 
} 
} 
programs { 
program { 
name: "on" 
signal "e, state, Focused" 
source "and" 
action: STATE_SET "active" 0.0, 
transition: LINEAR 0.2, 
target: "base" 
target "over"; 
} 
program { 
name: "off" 
signal "e, state, unfocused" 
source "and" 
action: STATE_SET "default" 0.0, 
transition: LINEAR 0.3, 
target: "base" 
target "over"; 
} 
} 
} 
}

The code gives following two images.

logo_white_128.png

logo_black_128.png

Now open up your terminal and type the commands given below

cd

 cd Downloads

 edje_cc logo_ubuntu.edc

 logo_ubuntu.edj $ mv $ Home / .e / e / themes

Above steps compile the program which we have written and generate a
logo_ubuntu.edj file which contains the images and moves it to themes folder.

Now go to Menu -> Preferences -> Theme and click ‘Advanced‘ button.

Look for modules/start under Categories. It will open a sub menu, search for logo_ubuntu there. Select it and click on apply.

You have successfully changed your Ubuntu logo in E17.