Tag: ubuntu

How to erase (or clean) a disk using Ubuntu

Sometimes you just want to clean a USB stick, SD Card or USB disk, and the only thing you’ve got is Ubuntu running on your system.

Well that is no problem, I’ll explain how simple it is…

Cleaning, erasing, wiping a USB stick, SD Card or USB disk can be done in just 3 simple steps:

  • Connect your disk
  • Identify the disk on your system
  • Clean / wipe your disk

Step 1 – Connect your disk
Connect your USB stick, SD Card or USB disk to your computer and mount your disk (you can do that by double clicking its icon on your desktop).

 

Step 2 – Identify the disk on your system
Open a terminal:

df -h

or, you can use

sudo fdisk -l

Identify your disk (you can look at it’s size or partition scheme)

 

Step 3 – Clean / wipe your disk
The following command is a simple example to understand the use of dd. Do not simply copy it and use it in a terminal !!! Remember the order of the options “input file (if=)“ and “output file (of=)” , DO NOT reverse them !!!

In my case (the example below), I identified my disk that I wanted to clean as /dev/sdg.
So my output file (or of) will be /dev/sdg this will result in of=/dev/sdg

Open a terminal:

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdg

 

When the dd command is issued and ready, make sure all data is written to disk by typing the folowing in your terminal:

sync

 

Suggestions for improving this article are welcome, please let me know and drop me a line .

How to install SoftSqueeze on Ubuntu

Softsqueeze is a software music player developed in Java (allowing it to work on most operating systems) that works with the Squeezebox Server software. Softsqueeze emulates most of the Boom, Duet, Transporter, Squeezebox and Slimp3 hardware music players. It uses a TCP based protocol, allowing it to use across the Internet and through firewalls/NAT routers using ssh tunneling. The software music player supports synchronization with hardware players.

Prerequisites (what you need to get it working):

  • Hardware
    • Computer running Ubuntu
    • SqueezeCenter Server
    • Network connection
  • Software
    • SoftSqueeze

 

Let’s get started:

Download the java version of SoftSqueeze (the .zip file) from your favourite browser.

Create a folder called SoftSqueeze in your home folder by opening a terminal window (Applications \ Accessories \ Terminal).

mkdir SoftSqueeze
cd SoftSqueeze

 

Now unzip the zip file:

unzip ~/Downloads/softsqueeze_3.8.zip

 

Make the JAR file executable:

sudo chmod +x SoftSqueeze.jar

 

Install Sun Java 6 Runtime:

sudo add-apt-repository “deb http://archive.canonical.com/ lucid partner”
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre sun-java6-fonts

 

Make JAR file open with Java:

java -jar ~/SoftSqueeze/SoftSqueeze.jar

 

The only thing left to do in Softsqueeze is to point it to the SqueezeCenter Server and redirect the audio output to “Java Sound Audio Engine”.

 

Suggestions for improving this article are welcome, please let me know and drop me a line.

Ubuntu upgrade resulting in a no sound situation

After working happily a couple of months with Ubuntu 10.04 I installed a new kernel with the update feature. This resulted in not having any sound or volume controls. After reading a lot on internet articles  I found the following article… Comprehensive Sound Problem Solutions Guide v0.5e I followed the following commands that brought back sound to my notebook.

Getting the ALSA drivers from a *fresh* kernel

Sometimes, sound might be configured correctly, but for some reason or another (tinkering) it stops working. One way to go back to the old setup is to reinstall Ubuntu. However, this step is actually quite unnecessary since you are reinstalling everything because of one thing.

A faster way, is to just remove the problematic packages and reinstall them cleanly.

Step – 1: Remove these packages

Code:

sudo apt-get –purge remove linux-sound-base alsa-base alsa-utils

Step – 2: Reinstall those same packages

Code:

sudo apt-get install linux-sound-base alsa-base alsa-utils

[LIST][*]

VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: Ubuntu (GNOME) users have reported that packages ‘gdm’ and ‘ubuntu-desktop’ are removed after removing the linux-sound-base packages. If this happens, then do the following

Code:

sudo apt-get install gdm ubuntu-desktop

Step – 3: Reboot

Getting Broadcom STA to work on Ubuntu Studio 13.04 or Xubuntu

As I upgraded Ubuntu Studio 12.10 to Ubuntu Studio 13.04 on my Mac Book 5.1 my wireless stopped working… After surfing the internet for a couple of days I’ve found the following solution to enable the Broadcom STA on my Mac Book 5.1.

Check whether Ubuntu sees your Broadcom STA device by running the lspci command from a terminal:

lspci | grep Network

 

After using the the lspci command you should get something like this:

03:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4322 802.11a/b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller (rev 01)

 

Next up is, installing the drivers. To install the drivers run the following command using the terminal:

sudo apt-get install firmware-b43-installer

 

The broadcom-sta-common package, blacklists the b43 driver.

To fix this you need to edit the file: /etc/modprobe.d/broadcom-sta-dkms.conf

 

You can do that by using the following command in the terminal:

sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/broadcom-sta-dkms.conf

 

Delete or comment out with a “#” the line “blacklist b43”, my file looks like this:

# wl module from Broadcom conflicts with the following modules:
# blacklist b43
blacklist b43legacy
blacklist b44
blacklist bcma
blacklist brcm80211
blacklist brcmsmac
blacklist ssb

 

Then to force the module to load during boot by using the following command in the terminal:

sudo nano /etc/modules

 

Then add a line with “b43”, my /etc/modules file looks like this:

# /etc/modules: kernel modules to load at boot time.
#
# This file contains the names of kernel modules that should be loaded
# at boot time, one per line. Lines beginning with “#” are ignored.
lp
rtc
b43

 

You don’t need to reboot your computer as you can load the module manually by entering the following command in the terminal:

sudo modprobe b43

 

Suggestions for improving this article are welcome, please let me know and drop me a line.

Backing up and restoring software installations in Ubuntu

Sometimes you just want to restore (or clone) your favorite (studio ;-)) installation, to a clean installed, freshly formatted machine, without having to  install manually all your favorite applications again.

This can be done, by exporting the list of all your installed applications to a text file and reinstall all your applications listed in the text file to your freshly formatted machine (as Hannibal would have said “I love it when a plan comes together“).

First create a text file in your ‘Home’ folder containing a list of all your applications of your favorite (studio ;-)) installation. Open a terminal window:

sudo dpkg –get-selections > app-backup-list.txt

 

Next copy the file “app-backup-list.txt” from your ‘Home’ folder to your freshly formatted machine (your ‘Home’ folder will do ;-). Now to restore your applications, open a terminal window:

sudo dpkg –get-selections < app-backup-list.txt
sudo apt-get -y update
sudo apt-get dselect-upgrade

 

Suggestions for improving this article are welcome, please let me know and drop me a line .