Ubuntu 10.10 – Slow Internet

Fresh install of Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat), internet browsing, apt-get was very slow in Firefox, Chrome, I had to disable IPV6 at boot level and now browsing and apt-get update has improved, follow the steps below :

gksu gedit /etc/default/grub

Change the following line :

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

TO the following (Disabling IPV6)

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash ipv6.disable=1"

On a Terminal, update grub by :

sudo update-grub

Install Firefox4 – Ubuntu 10.10

Firefox 4 has been released and downloaded by Millions on its debut – as reported by BBC, to download the latest Fox and update it via apt-get update, type the following command in your ubuntu terminal :

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/firefox-stable && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install firefox

Read the full story of download stats @ BBC

Apache Mod_Rewrite-WP Permalinks

Setup WordPress Permalinks (Pretty / Clean URLS) on Apache under Linux (Ubuntu):

Check for Apache Mod_ReWrite – Following lists all the loaded modules

sudo apache2ctl -M

Enable Mod_Rewrite

sudo ln -s /etc/apache2/mods-available/rewrite.load /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/rewrite.load

Restart Apache

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Setup Permalinks in WordPress

/%monthnum%/%postname%

VirtualBox Guest Additions on CentOS 5.5

Install VirtualBox Additions in CentOS 5.5 x86

In your CentOS Terminal, do a “su” and then follow the steps :
1. Attach the Gues Additions ISO to your CentOS 5.5 X86 VM
2. Install the required packages to install VBOX Additions
3. After Installation, change to the directory where you mounted VBOX Additions.iso
4. Execute the Script VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run (for 32BIT Virtual Machines)

mount -r /dev/cdrom /media/
yum install gcc kernel-devel kernel-headers
cd /media/
./VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run

For X64 (64BIT) Systems, run

./VBoxLinuxAdditions-x64.run

Setup VNC in Ubuntu 10.10

Install VNC4Server

sudo apt-get install vnc4server

nano /home/yourusername/.vnc/xstartup

#!/bin/sh

# Uncomment the following two lines for normal desktop:
# unset SESSION_MANAGER
# exec /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

#[ -x /etc/vnc/xstartup ] && exec /etc/vnc/xstartup
#[ -r $HOME/.Xresources ] && xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
#xsetroot -solid grey
#vncconfig -iconic &
#xterm -geometry 80x24+10+10 -ls -title "$VNCDESKTOP Desktop" &

unset SESSION_MANAGER
sh /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

Start VNC Server

vncserver :1

Kill VNC Server

vncserver  -kill  :1

Got the Idea of setting up the $HOME/.vnc/xstartup file from TechTopia

Putty | Export Settings to different computers

Putty settings can be exported as a registry file – which can then be imported onto other windows based computers, saving you time for re-entering access details, your preferences for different terminal sessions etc.

Here’s how to export the settings :

• Open Regedit
• Start > Run > regedit
• Navigate / browse to “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SimonTatham”
• Right-click SimonTatham and choose Export
• Copy the file to a new machine and then right-click and “Merge”

Ubuntu 10.0.4 | Slow Internet Browsing

Just installed Ubuntu 10.0.4 on a new Dell System and was experiencing slow browsing speeds with firefox on a 10Mb cable connection, a google search revealed the following (Have yet to try though – I have disabled ipv6 in firefox as per the article, will see if that helps after a restart of firefox).

Article Source | SAZEIT | UbuntuTweaks

In some cases disabling IPv6 can make a big difference in Firefox’s performance.
The Simplest way to turn off IPv6 protocols is to type: about:config in Firefox’s url address bar, then, in the filter type:IPv6.
The first line will read:network.dns.disableIPv6...default...boolean....false
Double-click the line to toggle it to true instead of false

Doing the above and restarting Firefox has definitely improved the browsing experience and sites are loading as normal, I will have a look on how to disable IPV6 System wide and will report back on that too, but so far I think just disabling in Firefox has done the trick – Thanks Sazeit

To disable IPv6 for the entire system, open a terminal and type:

sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

Now find the line that reads:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

and change it to:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="ipv6.disable=1"

Save, exit and restart.
You might want to time the loading of a couple of different sites before making the changes so you can gauge the effectiveness of the tweak.
In my case Firefox beat Google Chrome hands down with this tweak, but results will vary depending on your hardware.

Net Install CentOS

Cent OS “net install” Tutorial / HowTo

CentOS in Vmware

So, I was trying to install CentOS 5.3 in Vmware and once it will execute the setup process and after a few clicks I was presented with the Disk Partitioning Page, clicking “Next” would reveal an error that

No Drives Found An error has occurred – no valid devices were found on which to create new file systems. Please check your hardware for the cause of this problem

Selecting and IDE Disk resolved the issue as when we create a VM in Vmware with default settings it uses SCSI.

In future always select “custom” when creating a new vm and select IDE instead of SCSI as your Hard Disk type.

CentOS : Installing Firefox 3.5.2

Source : WilliamNix Blog @ Blogspot

cd /tmp
wget "http://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-3.5.2&os=linux&lang=en-US"
tar xvjf firefox-*.bz2
sudo cp -r firefox /usr/lib/firefox-3.5.2
sudo mv /usr/bin/firefox /usr/bin/firefox.old
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/firefox-3.5.2/firefox /usr/bin/firefox-3.5.2
sudo ln -s /usr/bin/firefox-3.5.2 /usr/bin/firefox

Close Firefox and then reopen

If for whatever reason you’d like to switch back to your previous version of Firefox, simply run the following commands from Terminal:

sudo mv /usr/bin/firefox /usr/bin/firefox.bak
sudo mv /usr/bin/firefox.old /usr/bin/firefox

Notes from the Blog Editor :
I am using this blog to log my *NIX Travels