Friday, July 31, 2009

Chromium, Now with Real Flash Support

Chromium now has "official" support for 3rd party plugins.

Chromium is the open source project behind the Google Chrome web browser. While still in development, it is shaping up to be a feature rich browser. Last time we wrote about it, there was a short lived work around to get Flash working. Updates to the browser quickly broke the hacked Flash support. This morning, I updated Chromium and noticed this in the start screen.

Screenshot-1
- Click to enlarge

Plug-ins (e.g. Flash) are part-way implemented and will cause frequent crashes. Use --enable-plug-ins to turn them on if you're okay with that; the browser is otherwise quite stable.

To install Chromium use this guide.

To Enable Plugins (e.g. Flash)
In a terminal type:
alacarte
-This will bring up Ubuntu's menu editor

edit_chromium_launcher
- In the editor, navigate to the Applications>Internet>Chrominum Web Browser
- Right click the entry for Chromium and select Properties

chrome_launcher_properties
- In a Launcher Properties box, add --enable-plugins in the command box
- The command to launch Chromium should now read: chromium-browser --enable plugins
- Click close

Enjoy!

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Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Medibuntu for Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala

Medibuntu (Multimedia, Entertainment & Distractions In Ubuntu) is a repository of packages that cannot be included into the Ubuntu distribution for legal reasons like copyright, license or patent restrictions. It also includes many popular .debs for w32codes, Skype and Google earth in both i386 and lpia architectures. You can find the full list of available software here.

Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala can not play encrypted DVDs or use certain Windows codecs out of the box. This guide will show you how to install the Medibuntu repository and these codecs.

To add the Medibuntu Repository:
In a terminal type:
sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/karmic.list --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list
- This will show ubuntu where to download the packages from

To add the Medibuntu keyring:
In a terminal type:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get update
- You may be asked to accept this package even though it cannot be authenticated. This is normal; typing "Yes" means you trust Medibuntu.

Download the encrypted DVD playback codecs
In a terminal type:
sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2

Download the Window codecs
In a terminal type:
sudo apt-get install w32codecs

Have a question or problem that this article doesn't cover?
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Saturday, July 25, 2009

You Did It!

Thank You! In less than 72 hours pHreaksYcle received the hundred dollars he needed to buy a new Mini 9 screen. The screen should be on it's way shortly. pHreak will also be working on his first solo article, comprehensive guide to installing a new screen.

We would like to thank everyone who donated:
  • Ron Swartzendruber
  • Thomas Trinh
  • Richard Brent
  • Lee Ball
  • Giorgio Ottolina
  • Brian McEwen
  • Gregory Ramey (extra thanks buddy!)
All of our readers are awesome, you guys are just awesome plus 1.

If you missed your chance to send us some financial love and would still like to donate, feel free to use the paypal link below.


Thursday, July 23, 2009

Help pHreaksYcle Buy A New Mini 9 Screen

Some jerk kicked pHreaksYcle's bag at his school and busted up his screen pretty bad. It was rumoured the perpetrator was a Microsoft mole, trying to stop the spread of Linux. While the identity of this delinquent is unknown (sadly many of these OS hate crimes go unsolved), one thing is certain: pHreak needs a new screen.

busted mini 9 screen in color
- It hurts just to look at this.

If you like the work we do around here and want to help, please donate via the ChipIn widget below. Every little bit counts.



All donations go directly to my young editor, who is broke as he is saving money for college. As always, those who contribute will have their names emblazoned on the Ubuntu Mini philanthropist list on the main page and have the eternal thanks of this sad 16 year old boy. First four donations gets their name in bold or a star, your choosing.


poor sad dan
- He sucks at doing sad.

Have a question or problem that this article doesn't cover?
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Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Nautilus User Interface Tweaks

Canonical's Design and User Experience team has launched the One Hundred Paper Cuts project to improve Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala. A paper cut is a trivially and fixable usability bug that the average user would encounter on their first day of using a brand new installation of Ubuntu Desktop Edition. They have identified 100 paper cuts, and are going doing their best to fix them.

One of the paper cuts discussed this week was Nautilus' user interface. Users identified Nautilus complexity and inefficiently of the windows used screen space. David Siegal's blog discussed some proposed changes that were impressive but ultimately rejected upstream.

I agree that Nautilus' user interface is overwhelming (especially on a netbook's small screen) and it's use of screen icons, labels and space excessive.

nautilus_defualt
- Notice the icons have labels. Explanations of the icons is unneeded. The icons themselves do a great job defining their actions.
- The top nautilus bar takes up almost 20% of the Mini 9's screen space.

Below is a pic of the rejected changes to Nautilus that were outlined in David Siegel's blog. Even though they were rejected they show were Nautilus should be headed.
new_nautilus
- Notice the streamlined icons without labels
- The redundant home and computer icons just appear in the left plane.
- Location bar bar moved to the navigation icons.
- Space is efficiently used.

Hopefully we will see some of these proposed changes end up used in Nautilus. Until then we can save space by changing Nautilus settings in Appearances.

To get there go to System>Preferences>Appearance
Under the Interface Tab you can save space by turning the icons in the left plane off, and change the appearance of the icon layout with the pull down menu.
Appearance Preferences

Icons Only
nautilus_icon_only

Text Only
nautilus_text_only

It's not a perfect solution but it does make Nautilus easier to look at and use.

Have a question or problem that this article doesn't cover?
Ask our Ubuntu Mini 9 Google Group for help.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Install Chromium

Chromium is the open source project behind the Google Chrome web browser. While Chromium is still in development, it is shaping up to be a feature rich browser. It's already fast, has native theming support for Linux, flash support, and extensions.

Like the installing Firefox 3.5 guide, this how-to will use a Personal Package Achieve (PPA) to install and update Chromium as development continues.

chrome - with flash

Step 1: Add The PPA
- Go to the PPA for Ubuntu Chromium Daily Builds Webpage
-Select your distro, the PPA has builds for Hardy (8.04), Intrepid (8.10), Jaunty (9.04) and Karmic (9.10).
chrome - distro select

- Add the Chromium daily build repository for your distro to your source list
in a terminal:
sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list
chrome- add the PPA
- Paste, save and exit

Step 2: Add The Repository Key:
- Copy the key from this public key server page (use the 1024R Link)

- Paste it into a text file
chrome - key
- paste, save and exit

- Go to Software Sources (System->Administration->Software Sources)
import the key
- Under the Authentication Tab select "+ Import Key File..."
- Navigate to where you have saved the PPA key.
This will leave you in the root area of your hard disk, if you saved the key in your Home folder you will have to navigate to it. (File System->Home->user folder)
- Import the key

- Update your Repositories
in a terminal type:
sudo apt-get update

Install Chromium
in a terminal type:
sudo apt-get install chromium-browser

I watched an episode of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicals on Hulu and a couple of YouTube videos. Playback is decent, but I'd really like to know what you think of it.

Have a question or problem that this article doesn't cover?
Ask our Ubuntu Mini 9 Google Group for help.