Archives par mot-clé : Trucs & astuces

Ubuntu, Ubuntu Planet, Trucs & astuces, GNU/Linux

(Almost) risk-free Karmic testing

4 commentaires

Every time there’s a new Ubuntu version coming up it’s interesting to test it using the Desktop edition live CD. This however requires burning a CD, rebooting from it, but doesn’t include the « full » test experience – your personal files and customization are not there.

Putting a full working Ubuntu install on a USB key and linking to an existing home directory may be the closest to an actual full-upgrade: it doesn’t touch your hard disk (so no need to reverse any changes). Well, mostly. For example if you use Firefox, a new version will upgrade extensions, etc.

One of my colleagues, Shang Wu, has put together a little script to automate this setup, and a basic document on how to install Ubuntu on a stick to test Karmic as I described, see: Testing Ubuntu Beta Releases off a USB stick. Please do read the code before executing it in one of your systems 🙂

If anyone has comments or suggestions for this script or if you have better recipes to let existing Ubuntu users test/try future releases, I’d like to hear about it.

 
Trucs & astuces, Communautaire

New discussion group for Android users in Canada

If anyone’s using an Android phone in Canada and wanting to get some help or just share their experience, come by to this new group:

Google Groups
Android users in Canada
Visit this group

I’ve found it surprisingly hard to find any information specific to the Canadian launch of Android phones by Rogers, other than Android in Canada, and most discussion elsewhere deals with the U.S. models or marketplace.

I just started the group so it’s mostly empty, but I’ll be sharing some of the trouble i am having, as well as some of the blog posts about new features, etc.

 
Ubuntu, Ubuntu Planet, Conférences, GNU/Linux

Canonical AllHands meeting rocked

I am just a few hours from flying back to Montreal, after spending an amazing week with Canonical in Barcelona, at our AllHands meeting.

Open this post on my blog to see image captions.

Imagine a few hundred people gathered in a big conference were presentations go from Android on Ubuntu to Making Ubuntu family-friendly to Ubuntu One development to Mastering Unicode to project updates … well you get the point. Oh, and everyone of them is a colleague. The challenge here was to go beyond shaking as many hands as possible and trying to find out what we all had in common to best push Ubuntu forward, while looking at our best shots without losing sight on things to improve and innovate on.

Pfew! If that sounded like an intense few days, it was. I am glad I planned on sleeping very little.

I hope this gives a small insight into how great this big Canonical-family meeting was.

Now UDS follows, although I won’t be attending I trust my many mates will drive this one home too.

Cheers to all and see you soon, somewhere 🙂

 
Ubuntu Planet, Ubuntu, Trucs & astuces, GNU/Linux

The single most important thing you should know about Ubuntu…

3 commentaires

… if you’re new around or if you’re introducing someone else to Ubuntu for the first time, I think a critical read is the following link:

Painfully obvious ? Rightfully so.

Many new (and old) « converts » ask questions about how to compile applications, manually install .deb packages… those should be the last one needs to do when installing applications in Ubuntu (or any Linux for that matter), at least when you want to keep the system as close as possible to regular, supported security/feature updates and upgrades as possible.

I am still a bit surprised when I get a comment like « I’ve been trying to compile/install XYZ for a few days/hours » and there almost always is a solution using packages part of the regular repositories! For those special cases when there isn’t I have a million suggestions, but compiling is far from the top of my list.

Another friendly advice, also consider asking on the Launchpad « Answers » system or showing your new converts how to do that, many times you may find things in Ubuntu are done in a slightly different way – not always obvious, most of the time easier. Don’t take my word for it 😉 Asking where or how to get help is OK too.

Last but not least, http://www.ubuntu.com/support provides links to official docs, free community support and even commercial options. Chances are there is a Local Community Team in your area, know it, promote it, join it, use it!

There’s only one better thing than discovering Ubuntu, and that is knowing where its community is and how to tackle into it and even participate in it. I’ve found when new users are empowered to do this, they don’t have to depend on me at all for future support! Well, unless they want 24/7 immediate phone support, that is 😉

 
Ubuntu Planet, Ubuntu, Trucs & astuces, GNU/Linux

Become a router port forwarding guru in 5 minutes

Un commentaire

If you’ve ever helped someone over the phone change any router configuration, you know it’s a bit of a challenge to guide anyone through the mazes of menus and options each different router has just to enable port forwarding for any given application.

Fear not, you can now become your local neighborhood router guru, just bookmarkhttp://www.portforward.com and have it handy when someone requests you mighty knowledge. If you feel like letting anyone else in to this carefully guarded secret, do so at your own risk 🙂

Thanks for the tip, David!