Archive for the ‘General Linux’ Category

In the past I have described how to make Dropbox work with Thunar for XFCE users, now I am going to see If I can achieve the same goal for KDE. Dropbox is a great utility which remotely stores documents and other files, and can sync them across multiple computers over the Internet. what I did was to follow the instructions provided by Dread Knight. Afterwards, I figured out that this method could be used for any Linux desktop environment or windows manager and is preferable to the Thunar method mentioned above. If you need, create a Dropbox account here.

I have made a package for this and added it to the Oojah!Repo for public use on Debian based systems.

Upon a fresh install of KDE on Debian Squeeze I found that all of my readings where in metric units and 24 hour unites. Which is fine, however I am a lazy American who likes things in the obscure and outdated imperial units and despite my time in the military, I prefer my clock in 12 hour time.

In the System Settings go to Regional & Language under the Locale I add US English. Under Time & Date I change Time format: to pH:MM:SS AMPM. Then I hope over to the Other tab and set Measure system: to Imperial.

Restart KDE.

Here is a neat trick if you want to mount secured ftp mounted on your filesystem. SSH FTP, Secure FTP or SFTP, if I understand correctly, is FTP secured with SSH but is a little more complicated then I will go into right now. The bottom line is you can use SFTP like FTP but with the added encryption of SSH.

make sure sshfs, gvfs-fuse, and fuse are installed

via Debian as root:

aptitude install sshfs, gvfs-fuse, and fuse are installed

now add your desired user to the fuse group as root:

gpasswd -a username fuse

(if that is your current user log out and back in for change to take effect)

to mount make the desired directory, change the owner with the chown command, and use the sshfs command:

sudo mkdir /mnt/sftp
sudo chown username:fuse /mnt/sftp
sshfs username@example.com:/path/to/mount /mnt/sftp

now you can change directory via comandline or your file manager and make changes. Be sure to unmount properly for those changes to take effect.

fusermount -u /mnt/sftp

to set this up to be available on boot edit /etc/fstab

sshfs#usernames@example.com:/path/to/mount /mnt/sftp fuse rw,noauto,user,sync,noexec 0 0

NOTE: this will ask for a password each time, but you can set up ssh with a keyring to bypass the password. I currently do not have a tutorial on this, but you can do a search for “ssh passwordless” to learn how.

if you want it to mount automatically replace noauto with auto
(not advices, unless you are dealing with a computer on your local network)

if you have a regular ftp account you would like to mount thisway install curlftpfs instead of or in addition to sshfs.

to mount:

curlftpfs username:password@ftp.example.com /mnt/ftp

for availibilty upon boot your /etc/fstab should look something like this:

curlftpfs#usernames@example.com:/path/to/mount /mnt/ftp fuse rw,noauto,user,sync,noexec 0 0

This is handy if there is an ftp or sftp account you use regularly and you get tired of constantly login in via ssh or ftp.

NOTE: if you get the error “mount disagrees with fstab” try adding allow_other,uid=1000,gid=1000,fsname=sshfs#user@example.com:/path/to/mount to your fstab too look something like this (all one string):

sshfs#user@example.com:/path/to/mount /media/sftp fuse rw,noauto,user,sync,noexec,allow_other,uid=1000,gid=1000,fsname=sshfs#user@example.com:/path/to/mount 0 0

and uncomment allow_other in /etc/fuse.conf

ANOTHER NOTE:A handy gtk based gui for managing these kind of mounts is gigolo which require gvfs gvfs-backends gvs-fuse (in debian)

If every you find your self needed to connect to a wireless network with command line only, this is how you do it (all commands are done with root permissions).

First identify your wifi adapter:

ifconfig

you should get a read out of network adapters. Wireless is generally wlan0, but sometimes might be eth1. You can tell it is wireless with a top line readout that looks like this:

wland0 IEEE 802.11bgn ESSID:”"

now you have identified your wifi adapter lets scan for wireless devices.

iwlist wlan0 scan

Now if there are any wireless devices in range you will have a print out of them. What you are looking for is to see if access is encrypted and the ESSID which identifies the network apart from the others. The read outs will look like this:

Encryption Key”on
ESSID: “MyNetwork”

now that you are armed with the information you need:

iwconfig wlan0 essid MyNetwork
ifconfig wlan0 up
dhclient wlan0

Alternatevely, you can use dhcpd inplace of dhclient. this is for an open network. I have yet to figure out how to access an encrypted network with the command line.

I am lousy at math, thus defying the misconception that you have to be good at math to be good with computers. Therefore, managing my personal finances have always been a challenge to me. Living on a limited budget has given me an appreciation for simplistic and frugal lifestyles, which means I have been learning how to be more accountable for the little money I have. Over the past year I have been using an online checkbook utility called ClearCheckBook.com for keeping an eye on my expenses. This is a simple checkbook format which allows you to manage your finances anywhere you have an internet connection. You can export and import from common formats such as Quicken. This has been a valuable tool during times, when I didn’t always have a home computer, and I would jump from many systems.

Now that I have a reliable home computer I have tested out a few home financial applications availible for Linux. The first one I tried is HomeBank. It has a nice simple interface and is very simple for bassic home accounts. I would have perfered this application, If I wasn’t encountering regular crashes on my Debian XFCE Lenny system. So I looked at GNUcash, which I remember playing with back in my early induction into the Linux community. GNUcash is much more complex then HomeBank and would be an excellent alternative to proprietary paid financial managers. The default formatting you have to choose from is quite elaborate and complex, and since I have little to no understanding of this kind of Software I decided to start with a blank page, and categorize my accounts to make sense to me.  With that said, it took me some tinkering, to figure out how to get expenses, bank accounts, account payable (for bills), and money I own. Once I sat down and configured it to my specifications and learned how to read and input transactions. I was happy with it, and I will see how I like it in the next few months.