Installing Debian 6.0.1a in a VirtualBox

I've just installed Debian 6.0.1a in a VirtualBox. This post documents the installation process for later purpose.

1. Installer boot menu

2. Select a language

3. Select your location

4. Configure the keyboard

5. Load installer components from CD

6. Configure the network

7. Configure the network

8. Set up users and passwords

9. Set up users and passwords

10. Set up users and passwords

11. Set up users and passwords

12. Configure the clock

13. Partition disks

14. Partition disks

15. Partition disks

16. Partition disks

17. Partition disks

18. Install the base system

19. Configure the package manager

20. Configure the package manager

21. Select and install software

22. Configuring popularity-contest

23. Software selection

24. Select and install software

25. Configuring man-db

26. Finish the installation

Taking screenshots with Shutter in Ubuntu

Currently I'm taking a lot of screenshots and I was looking for a tool to speed up my workflow. After a little bit of testing I found that Shutter has all the features I need:

• You can capture a specific selection of the screen.
• You can configure a default selection of the screen.
• You can autosave screenshots in a specific directory.
• You can link Shutter to a keyboard shortcut.

Web search for Ubuntu mail server tutorials

I want to setup a mail server running under Ubuntu. I'm thinking about a configuration containing Dovecot IMAP or Courier IMAP, Postfix SMTP, Postgrey, and SpamAssassin. Currently, I'm searching and sorting tutorials on this topic. These are the most promising I found so far:

• http://www.howtoforge.com/virtual-users-and-domains-postfix-dovecot-mysql-centos4.5
• http://johnny.chadda.se/2007/04/15/mail-server-howto-postfix-and-dovecot-with-mysql-and-tlsssl-postgrey-and-dspam/
• http://www.debianadmin.com/how-to-filter-spam-with-spamassassin-and-postfix-in-debian.html
• http://www.debuntu.org/postfix-and-postgrey-a-proactive-approach-to-spam-filtering
• http://johnny.chadda.se/2007/04/15/mail-server-howto-postfix-and-dovecot-with-mysql-and-tlsssl-postgrey-and-dspam/
• http://piao-tech.blogspot.com/2007/03/add-encryption-to-smtp-and-pop-tlsssl.html
• http://theclimber.fritalk.com/post/2009/01/27/Tutorial-:-Setup-your-mail-server-(courier-imap-postfix-postgresql)

MS Paint alternative in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal

I was looking for a MS Paint alternative in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal. I've found GNU Paint...

... and I'm quite happy with it:

LaTeX in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal

I like to create PDF documents with LaTeX. Hence I was looking for a neat LaTeX environment for Ubuntu and I have decided to try the gedit LaTeX Plugin. In this post, I will describe how to install, configure, and use this plugin for the gedit text editor.

1. Install the gedit LaTeX Plugin via the Ubuntu Software Center. Type gedit-latex-plugin in the input box and click Install.

2. Open the gedit text editor. Type Text in the main menu and choose the first item.

3. Activate the plugin. Click Edit > Preference > Plugins and check Latex Plugin 0.2.

4. Save the document with a .tex extension and select the master document. Click Save and choose a location and file name, e.g. ~/test.tex. Then you will be prompt to select a master document, choose the file you have just created.

5. Enter some LaTeX code. You can use the following example:

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
    \title{Hello World}
    \author{John Natty}
    \maketitle
    This is a test sentence.
\end{document}

6. Compile the PDF document. Click the arrow on the right side of the LaTeX toolbar and choose LaTeX → PDF.

7. Congratulations! You have just created a PDF document using LaTeX in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal.

Please feel free to leave a comment or question.

How to fix Ubuntu Unity in VirtualBox

Currently I'm playing around with Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal in VirtualBox. However I stumbled accross the following error: Shortly after startup and sometimes during usage Unity falls back to a old fashioned classic theme. To restore the default look, run the following command in a terminal:

killall -9 gnome-settings-daemon && gnome-settings-daemon && nautilus -q

The following screenshots illustrate the situation before...

... and after running this command:

Thanks to webupd8.org for this solution.

How to fix flickering flash videos in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal

I've experienced flickering flash videos in Firefox 4 and Chromium 11 under Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal (amd64). Luckily I've found a solution for this problem at some other blog. You have to upgrade the flash player from version 10.1 to 10.3-beta. To do so, remove the Adobe Flash Player using the Ubuntu Software Center and then install the latest beta by entering the following commands in the terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:sevenmachines/flash
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install flashplugin64-installer

Thanks to danielj.se for this solution.

Web search for Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal installation tutorials

While researching on how to install Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, I came across the following useful sites:

• www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/installing
• www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/download
• www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuVOikrjvAk

I'm thinking about creating my own tutorial on this topic. Even though this issue is already adequately covered by many other site, I believe this is a great opportunity for me to learn something new and especially get to know VirtualBox better.

Launching my Ubuntu blog

I recently switched from Windows to Ubuntu and I will use this blog to share my experiences with Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal. I will refer to useful tutorials while providing my own summaries. If you like or dislike what you see here, please feel free to leave a comment. I'm also encouraged to answer any further questions.

Thank you for coming to visit my blog.