So here is how I will show you how to install Newsbin on Ubuntu run a download and then switch to XP and carry on with the same download.

1. You need a ntfs partition, I call mine “rest” as in the rest of the hard disk, it is drive F in XP this is where the downloads will go and where the newsbin setup files end up.

2. In XP install newsbin, point the data files to F:\download\NewsBin, this is where the NewsBin.ini and all newsbin datafiles are stored. Setup the servers you want to use.

3. Restart PC. go into Ubuntu install Wine 1.1.22 (latest nbpro works with this)

4. Install newsbin, select the default choice for location of data files, we will fix that later, do not bother with setting the server info up again.

5. In Synaptic install sqlite3

6. You need to edit your etc/fstab (in terminal: sudo gedit /etc/fstab) and mount the ntfs partition automatically at boot-up I added the following line

/dev/sda3 /media/rest ntfs defaults,locale=en_US.UTF-8 0 1 at the end of the file. This is for my config!!!! Your ntfs partition (/dev/sda3) will be different!

You do this because newsbin resets the registry key info to the defaults if it cannot find the newsbin.ini file, so mount the hard disk automatically and if you run newsbin by mistake it doesn’t mean you have to redit the registry.

7. In terninal edit the registry, do this by: wine regedit

8. Change the following keys to the values indicated.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\DJI Interprises\Newsbin50\LastNBI]
“NBIFile”=”Z:\\media\\rest\\downloads\\NewsBin\\UbuntuNewsBin.nbi”

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\DJI Interprises\Newsbin50\Recent File List]
“File1″=”Z:\\media\\rest\\downloads\\NewsBin\\UbuntuNewsBin.nbi”

8. Now copy the Newsbin.ini file in your /media/rest/downloads/NewsBin directory to UbuntuNewsBin.nbi (in the same directory and edit it.

Change the line that reads “DataPath=F:\downloads\NewsBin\” to “DataPath=Z:\media\rest\downloads\NewsBin\” and

change the line that reads “DownloadPath=F:\\downloads\” to “DownloadPath=Z:\media\rest\downloads\”

9. Nearly there, now the last bit you need to create 3 shell scripts and copy them to your bin directory they are

a. nbxp.sh if you are going to go into XP run this, it changes your download folder to the F drive for all unfinished downloads.

#!/bin/bash
sqlite3 /media/rest/downloads/NewsBin/Downloads.db3 ‘update text_index_v3 set DL_PATH=replace(DL_Path, “Z:\media\rest\”,”F:\\”) where substr(DL_Path,1,3)=”Z:\”‘

b. nbu.sh if you are coming from XP run this, it changes your download folder to the Z drive for all unfinished downloads.

#!/bin/bash
sqlite3 /media/rest/downloads/NewsBin/Downloads.db3 ‘update text_index_v3 set DL_PATH=replace(DL_Path, “F:\\”,”Z:\media\rest\”) where substr(DL_Path,1,4)=”F:\\”‘

c. nbshow.sh this just lists the download path for all unfinished downloads no other info is shown, use it so you know what the current pending downoads will end up!

#!/bin/bash
sqlite3 Downloads.db3 ‘select DL_Path from text_index_v3′

Installation is simple and easy.

• Go to sourceforge to download the latest source.
• Once downloaded unpack the file into a directory
• Go into the shell and navigate to where you unpacked it.
• make – to make the compiled object files
• sudo make install – to make the executable

Once this is done just type in  lxsplit and it will tell you how to use it, easy.

Abiword. A powerful but yet lightweight Word Processor

Bulk Rename. Part of Thunar, a really good rename utility.

CHM Viewer. Viewer for compiled help files

Conduit Syncronizer. Helps you Sync folders, onine services info, data, notes

Comix, a comic book reader

GPar2, PAR2 Utility

GtkHash. Check MD5/SHA1 on files

Meld Diff Viewer. compare files visually

Picasa. Photo Manager, by Google

SubDownLoader. Download subtitle files

TrueCrypt. Power encryption software but easy to use.

Once this is done you have to configure the ports Deluge uses. Preferences->Edit->Network, you need to select two ports, one incoming and one outgoing. Use high port numbers and put them in, leave Deluge open.

Next you have to port forward your router. Use this guide.

Once this is done you need to add a rule to Firestarter. So start Firestarter with System->Administration->Firestarter.

To add a rule click on the policy tab. You now have to right click in allow service, select add rule, skip the name input, in the port input enter the incoming port number you allocated to Deluge, tick when the source is anyone and in the comments input type in Deluge. Go back to deluge and test the port, all should be ok.

You can also test your ports here

In System->Administration->Synaptic Package Manager mark the following for installation:

- apache2

- mysql-client-5.1

- mysql-admin

- mysql-server-5.1

- php5

- php5-mysql

- php5-curl

- php5-mcrypt

If you use mod_rewrite in you .htaccess file you need to enable this by doing the following:

sudo a2enmod rewrite this enables the rewrite module in apache 2

sudo gedit /etc/apache/sites-available/default edit the default settings and change AllowOverRide from None to All

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 reload restarts the apache 2 server so it will load the new settings.

Edit the PHP ini file sudo gedit /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini and change the 16M to 32M for the line below. 16mb memory is too low for scripts and 32mb is a more reasonable amount.

memory_limit = 16M      ; Maximum amount of memory a script may consume (16MB)

Again you will have to reload the apache 2 server for the changes to take effect.

You might have to do something similar with the mysql configuration file sudo gedit /etc/mysql/my.cnf and change the query_cache_size and change the size to 64M (mb)

This time you will have to reload the mysql server by doing sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 reload

Apart from the reload command you also have available stop, start and status.

Usually happens when you read or hear something, get the right idea for the wrong reason and Lose IT™  in a bizarre and embarassing way.

It just happened to me with firestarter.

HELP HELP HELP I am not protected, the firewall hasn’t started!

Well, after running the Wizard for Firestarter and restarting the PC I see on the bootup screen that firestarter is stopped then it fails to restart! Arghhh! No. I haven’t got any protection.

But a quick google search with the right keywords i.e jaunty firestarter boot not starting and I click on the first entry and read.

I try the example, and yes my firewall is working.

Oh well, it’s about time to bury my head in the sand!

So, to monitor both hard disks and my ATI Radeoh EAH 3850 I did this.

From the Synaptic Package Manager install the following:

- lm-sensors

- hddtemp

- sensors-applet

Now start a terminal session and run sensors-detect. Answer Y to all the prompts, it will detect all sensors and also update a config file for you. You should run via root i.e sudo sensors-detect and enter a password.

Once this is done, if you run sensors, it should output all the sensor data. If you look at the output you should see some for the w83791d-i2c-0-2c with lots of sensor data, with a lines reading temp1, temp2, temp3 (this is the Winbond 3d chip and has sensors on it.

Now, right click on an empty space on your Gnome Panel, I chose the panel at the top of the screen and choose Add to Panel. Select Hardware Sensors Monitor. Now right click on the recently added gnome panel applet and select preferences. Click on Sensors tab, expand hddtemp, click on the hard disks you wanter to monitor, expand libsensors, for the gpu temp tick on temp1, rename the label temp1 to gpu, then active the ticks on any other temperatures you want to monitor.

These are things I have tried →

1. Applications->Add/Remove->System Tools->Ati Xorg Driver->Apply Changes (does no’t work)

2.System-> Administration-> Synaptic Package Manager -> search for x-server and mark the  X.Org X server — ATI Radeon display driver to install -> apply (doesn’t work)

3. System->Hardware drivers->Active  (the ATI drivers) (doesn’t work)

4. Use EnvyNG, FAQ here (doesn’t work, screen flickered too much in certain aps, videos didn’t work occasionally.

Finally I found a solution, after reading everywhere on the forums and following many links.

This is the only guide that works. It saved my sanity!

Note, the guide says This may fail due to a missing dpmk. If so install this first. This should read dkms and not dpmk. Dkms (Dynamic Kernel Module Support Framework) should be installed already, but check in the Synaptic Package Manager to make sure.

And here is my xorg.conf file for the EAH 3850.

Section “ServerLayout”

Identifier     “Default Layout”
Screen      0  “Default Screen” 0 0
EndSection

Section “Files”
EndSection

Section “Module”
Load  “glx”
EndSection

Section “Monitor”
Identifier   “Configured Monitor”
VendorName   “Samsung”
ModelName    “Samsung SyncMaster 943NW”
HorizSync    31.5 – 100.0
VertRefresh  60.0 – 75.0
ModeLine     “1440×900@60.00″ 136.5 1440 1536 1688 1936 900 901 904 940 -hsync +vsync
Option        “PreferredMode” “1440×900@60.00″
Option        “DPMS” “true”
EndSection

Section “Device”
Identifier  “Radeon HD 3850″
Driver      “fglrx”
Option        “MigrationHeuristic” “greedy”
Option        “AccelMethod” “EXA”
Option        “TexturedVideo” “on”
Option        “VideoOverlay” “off”
Option        “OpenGLOverlay” “off”
Option        “UseFastTLS” “1″
BusID       “PCI:1:0:0″
EndSection

Section “Screen”
Identifier “Default Screen”
Device     “Radeon HD 3850″
Monitor    “Configured Monitor”
DefaultDepth     24
SubSection “Display”
Viewport   0 0
Depth     24
Modes    “1440×900″
EndSubSection
EndSection

This time, I decided on Ubuntu after a lot of reading. From what I saw it was supposed to be the easiest to install, was very well supported and was compatable with a lot of different hardware.

I decided to download the run of the mill, i386 livecd 9.04 version of Ubuntu. Here in Thailand, the mirrors where very slow. So I stopped the download , did a torrent search for the same iso and downloaded it, my previous incomeplete file wasn’t wasted as I just continued the downlaod via the torrent. After the download I did a md5 check to verify that the iso was bona fide, burnt the disk and rebooted, went into the bios, told the pc to boot from the cd, saved settings. PC rebooted and I went into the installtion.

I tried installtion 3 times. Because I have a triple-boot PC, on /dev/sdb (2nd hdd is the boot drive). First time, it put ubuntu on the /dev/sda (1st hdd), 2nd time round I used the partition manager, created the partion on 2nd hdd (/dev/sdb5) but for some reason didn’t put the bootloader on /dev/sdb1.

The right way to do it is

xp 1st partion

win7 2nd partion

then create a dummy partition of the space you don’t want to use i.e on 750gb hd xp 50gb, win7 50gb, 400gb on an empty ntfs partion and the rest for linux.

Choose option 1 for side by side in the partion manager and don’t forget to select the right hdd device, in my case /dev/sdb

Worked, and I was in Ubuntu.

Nope. I had made a mistake, instead of having 400gb empty ntfs partion it was 500gb.

Reboot, using the livecd. Choose option 1 to load ubuntu from the livecd. Go into the partition manager and shift the partition’s around, very easy compared to most I have used.

The amazing thing was it did originally load Ubuntu into a 2.5gb partion, with a 190mb swap partion. Don’t thing XP or Win7 can do, ever.