First Look At Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal Alpha 1

This Week In Linux, takes a great look at the upcoming Ubuntu release. Enjoy.

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Broadcom Wireless Driver Fix In Maverick

For yet another release, Ubuntu 's Driver Manager is unable to properly install the Broadcom Wireless driver. When is Ubuntu going to get this right?

Some users are getting a SystemError:installArchives () failed message. When trying to install the Broadcom STA wireless driver via Additional Drivers.


The Broadcom wireless card that came with the Dell Mini 9/10 or Vostro A90 does work in Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meekrat. You just have to manually install it via the command line.

First you have to physically connect the Mini/Vostro to a wired internet connection. This step is a must.

Then pull up a command line terminal prompt.
You can find the terminal under Applications>Accessories>Terminal




In the Terminal type:

sudo apt-get update

- to update your repositories and tell you system where to get the driver from.

sudo apt-get --reinstall install bcmwl-kernel-source

- to install the driver.

Reboot the machine. Check to see if the driver installed correctly. You can find Additional Drivers in System>Administration>Additional Drivers.

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Gmail Video Chat Now Available for Linux

The wait is over, Linux users can now video chat right from Gmail, iGoogle, and orkut.

Check out the video to see in action:


All you have to do is download the Google Video Chat plugin. Available for Ubuntu/Debian.

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64-Bit Flash Fix

THIS GUIDE IS NOT FOR MINI 9/10v & VOSTRO A90 Users
These machines are 32-bit only and the following is not needed.

This guide is for other 64-bit users (my desktop run Ubuntu 9.10 64-bit) who are running into problems playing/clicking YouTube Videos using the nspluginwrapper and 32-bit Flash plugin.

In a terminal type:

sudo gedit /usr/lib/nspluginwrapper/i386/linux/npviewer

add the following before the last line of the text:

export GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS=1

- then Save


- You can use this picture as a reference, the needed line is highlighted in grey.

Now when you click a YouTube video it will actually play.
- Enjoy!

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Set Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo or ZoHo Mail As Default Mail Application In Ubuntu 10.04

Evolution is a great full featured email client, but I don't want to use it on my netbook. It's really frustrating clicking on email links and seeing the Evolution configuration wizard pop up.

In an earlier post I wrote a guide about setting Gmail/Yahoo! as your default mail client in Firefox, but it only worked in Firefox and the settings were not used system wide. This guide will show you how to set Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo! or SoHo Mail as your system wide default mail application using an awesome program called Desktop Webmail.

To install desktop-webmail, in a terminal type:

sudo apt-get install desktop-webmail

Once installed you can find Desktop-Webmail configuration editor under Applications>Internet. Use the pull down menu to select Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail Classic UI, Yahoo! Mail Default or ZoHo Mail.

After setting your webmail prover go to System>Settings>Preferred Applications



and select Desktop Webmail as your Mail Reader.

Feeling left out because you're running an older version of Ubuntu? Gnome Gmail offers the same service for older versions of Ubuntu, only catch is that it only works for Gmail. You can download an all architecture .deb from the Gnome Gmail sourceforge site.

Gmail>Yahoo!

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Remove Mono From Your Ubuntu Install

Mono is a free and open source project led by Novell and backed by Microsoft to create an Ecma standard compliant, .NET-compatible set of tools. I have written previously about my opposition of Microsoft's involvement with the free software community.

Mono is the Trojan horse Microsoft will use to embrace, extend and extinguish free software. Removing Mono and it components is the first thing I do after a new install.

To remove Mono from your Ubuntu install, in a terminal:

sudo apt-get purge libmono* libgdiplus cli-common libglitz-glx1 libglitz1

The above command removes:

cli-common* f-spot* gbrainy* libart2.0-cil* libflickrnet2.2-cil*
libgconf2.0-cil* libgdiplus* libglade2.0-cil* libglib2.0-cil* libglitz-glx1*
libglitz1* libgmime2.4-cil* libgnome-keyring1.0-cil* libgnome-vfs2.0-cil*
libgnome2.24-cil* libgnomepanel2.24-cil* libgtk2.0-cil*
liblaunchpad-integration1.0-cil* libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil*
libmono-addins0.2-cil* libmono-cairo2.0-cil* libmono-corlib2.0-cil*
libmono-data-tds2.0-cil* libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil* libmono-posix2.0-cil*
libmono-security2.0-cil* libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil* libmono-sqlite2.0-cil*
libmono-system-data2.0-cil* libmono-system-runtime2.0-cil*
libmono-system-web2.0-cil* libmono-system2.0-cil* libmono2.0-cil*
libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil* libndesk-dbus1.0-cil* libnunit2.4-cil*
mono-2.0-gac* mono-gac* mono-runtime* tomboy*

This completely removes f-spot, gbrainy and Tomboy. Tomboy has a mono-free replacement, Gnote and f-spot is being replaced by the mono-free Shotwell in future Ubuntu releases.

To install Gnote, in a terminal type:

sudo apt-get install gnote

To install Shotwell, in a terminal type:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yorba/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install shotwell

I don't have a decent replacement for gbrainy.

Removing Mono will also remove any 3rd party programs you have installed that rely on Mono like Banshee, Gnome-Do and Docky.

Kupfer is an excellent replacement for Gnome-do and Avant Window Manager for Docky. Both are available in the official repositories, but I would recommend using their PPAs to get the latest updated versions.

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