How to Install a New Hard Disk With an Anuto Mount Point

             Hi guys, The reason why I'm writing this post is to pit all the parts together in a one place so any one can find it and follow the steps with ease. Why thought to do this because I recently got a new 160GB Samsung Hard Disk which I installed in to my desktop which was running Ubuntu Lucid Lynx (10.04 LTS). As every one knows un-like windows which gives a disk management which will let any user to format and use the drive in two or three clicks where in Linux that part still have some caching up to do. So after installing I ran in to the problem where I wanted to format this and create a mount point which will mount it at the boot time automatically and also I didn't want to use the conventional /media folder to create a mount point I wanted it to act just like the partitions created at the system installation. From that thought my big adventure began to find a way to get this done with out using the /media folder. What happens when some one user the /media is the it acts like a external drive all the data the user transfer on to that particular partition get stored inside /media folders mount point and after word get transfered on to the corresponding drive thats why I didn't want to do that.

            To find an answer I turned my self to the best friend I now "GOOGLE" well all the answer turned out was the conventional ways to go through the /media folder now I was getting frustrated. At that point I decided to find a solution my self by using my knowledge which I've gained through out these years I started to experiment which eventually ended up in a success now I'm giving it to you step by step so you want face the same difficulty which I faced.

Step - 1

We need to install a disk management software which can be handled by any user my best choice is Gparted to install this open the terminal and type the below code.



Step - 2

After installing Gparted you need to create a partition and need to format it in a file system which the system supports.

• Open Gparted follow this path System > Administration > Gparted
• After that Select your drive which you want to partition as an Ex: sdb (This is SATA drive) hdb(This is IDE drive).
• Right click on the empty space.
• Click New
• Give the amount of space you want to use and the file type as an Ex: ext4 also select the partition type is it primary partition or a extended.
• Now click on the "Apply" button but this want apply the changes straight away if your absolutely sure about the partition click the green colored apply button to apply the changes permanently.

We have created a partition and also formated it let's move forward.

Note: Other wise you can use $ sudo fdisk -l to get you existing partition list.

Step - 3

Now we're ready to mount our new had drive let's proceed open the terminal and follow the below steps.

• Create a mount point in /root.

             

• Make a backup of /etc/fstab file.

             

• Use sudo to edit the fstab file this will allow us to add new partition to the file

             

• Now you need to get UUID of your new partition to do that use the command below. This command will list all your UUID's remember to get the one matters to the new partition.
  

             

• Enter this line in to your fstab file.

             

• Just in case you fail to get the UUID you can use format shown below as well.

             

• Now save everything and close gedit. Pass the below command in the terminal to remount the drives.

             

Step - 4

Let assign proper user rights to the new drive so you can use it with out any trouble.

•  Run the this to assign the owner and the user group. Ex. sudo chown -R test:test /test2
  

             

• Also Run this as well.

             

Step - 5

Almost done now we need to create a symlink to the drive you just created.

• Use this command to create your symlink in any destination you wan the link to be.

             
NOTE:You can't use hard links to do cross drive linking only symlinks work like that

Alright we're all done now you can use your drive just like you're using all your other partitions which was made during the installation.

Enjoy ;-)

Getting Mint Repositories In To Ubuntu 10.04

          I was just wondering if Linux Mint was based on Ubuntu then the softwares that they use in there distirbution. I've used both distros and found that liux mint have some good in house softwares that might be very use full to the daiehard Ubuntu users as well.

          So I started a small experiment with PROLiNK TA009 netbook which has a Intel N270 1.60GHz, 1Gb RAM, 160 Gb HDD, Wi-Fi and LAN. I searched my brains out find the repository addres and after getting to that I'd find the GPG keyring for the mint repository. So I'm writing this blog entry to help others who wants to add the linux mint reos in to there package soruces list. So here we go,

• Open the Terminal and typ "sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list" and press enter.
• Now enter this line in to your sources.list

              " deb http://packages.linuxmint.com/ isadora main upstram import backport"

• Now save and close the gedit.
• In the terminal type "sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install linuxmint-keyring" and pres enter.
• Now you're redy to install any software in mint on to your Ubuntu 10.04.

Thats it enjoy.

Creating a xorg.conf file in LXDE environment.

                   I came across this new distro today named as pepperminOS It's based on Ubuntu and it's main target is to create a light weight, high mobile and easy to use type OS ahh and to be lightning fast. And also it looks like they're trying to follow the foots of LinuxMint which is also Ubuntu based distribution but it has some of it's own technologies as well unlike Ubuntu which doesn't support propitiatory packages out of the box LinuxMint installs with all the needed stuff.

                   Coming back on to the topic after I installed peppermint I couldn't set the resolution I could use the provided tool but when I reboot every thing goes back to 800 x 600 with out giving me a clue why this is happening. So I decided to do the good old xorg.conf editing but the Ubuntu environment doesn't have a xorg.conf file I had to create one. Thats when I ran in to trouble being a Ubuntu user for a long time I've come accustomed to the GNOME commands so as usual I wanted to stop the X server but theres no gdm service running in peppermint. How the hell I'm going to find that service in a LXDE surrounding. I'd to do a lot of digging around to get to the rock solid bottom and I managed to find a way to create the xorg.conf file as the same way we do it in GNOME.

Here are the steps,

• Pres CTRL + ALT + F1 to go to CLI.
• Type "sudo service lxdm stop" to stop the x serve.
• Now type "sudo Xorg -configure".
• You'll get new xorg.conf file created in your home folder.
• Let's move it to the X11 directory "sudo mv /home/user/xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf"
• OK, start the GUI "sudo service lxdm start"
• Now restart.

To see your new xorg.conf file type "cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf" in the terminal.

How to remove the Evolution notification icon from the Notification Area

                     When I installed Lucid Lynx for the first time I loved the new theme and glad that Ubuntu finally decided to brake out of there brown colored box. This looks and feels a little bit like the Mac OS and I don't know if Shuttle Worth is trying to mimic Mac but what ever I personally love the new change.

                     But this is not a review on new Ubuntu look or the functions that I leave for another day today it's about a notification icon that I hated from the bigging it's the evolutions email notification icon on the notification area I personally don't use evolution and I don't like the icon taking up space so I wanted to remove it but I was unable to find a way to do it.

                     So asked it in the forum and a grate guy by the name germanix came to my rescue and these are the steps he told me to do.

• Open the terminal.
• Type "sudo aptitude purge indicator-messages".
• Press Enter.
• When asked for the root password please type it in.
• Then it'll ask to continue answer it as yes "Press letter Y".
• Now reboot no more icon.

This worked for me and now my icons is gone.

Thank you germanix.

How to get the RTL8187B working in Ubuntu and LinuxMint

        In most distributions of Linux some problems with the hardware that comes in-built with laptops in most cases it was the wireless cards. I ran across smiler kind of a scenario when I got my PROLiNK Netbook which has a RTL8187B based wireless card. My problems started when I installed Ubuntu as my primary OS my wireless card ran in to lot of troubles the native driver that comes with the distribution doesn't work that efficiently. The Linux driver for Realtek 8187B is not exactly the driver that comes from relatek company it's a tweaked rtl8187 driver that tend to work with 8187B wireless cards. But the thing is it doesn't work properly the driver cant resolve IP's from the AP and cannot connect to the network if the receiver isn't right next to the signal transmitter.

       So I went searching through forums googled till it can't provide me with an answer any more. In forums no one was able to answer my problem there was no replies at least not even one. At that point I thought I need to find solution or a work around my self so I went on journey in search of a answer for this question. That was the time I came across "ndiswrapper" which is a wrapping program that let you use the windows XP driver in your Linux environment.

      I downloaded this and installed it also I followed the instruction to the tooth it started to work without any problems with the 9.04 and 9.10. Along came the change Lucid Lynx 10.04 LTS from canonical I did the usual just like I did in the earlier distributions I installed wrapper and give the drivers from realtek but alas nothing I got the same usual problem I was so cross with my self I could kick my netbook but I didn'r held my nerve and started to dig deeper in to the problem then I came across a bug report in Ubuntu official bug squad which said stated that we might have to black list rtl8187 driver as well so this is what I did to solve my problem.

Step 1. Installed ndiswrapper in to my system (Before you install ndiswrapper you need to enable the universe and multiverse repository)

Code: sudo apt-get install ndisgtk

Step 2. Black listing the default driver.

Code: echo -e "blacklist bcm43xx\nblacklist b43\nblacklist b43legacy\nblacklist rtl8187" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

Strep 3. Download the WindowsXP driver from Realtek.

Code: Click here to get the new driver

Step 3. Installed the driver using the ndsiwrapper.

Step 4. Now run this command to see if the driver is installed correctly.

Code: ndiswrapper -l

This will list something like this,

Code: {name of driver} : driver installed        device ({Chipset ID}) present

Step 5. Restart.

Code: sudo init 6

After the reboot you'll see all your wireless network connections and when you select one you'll get connected with out any problem.

If you're using some kind of security to secure your wireless signal you better install WICD which is little better when it comes to encrypted signals. You can install it from the Ubuntu repository.

Code: sudo apt-get install wicd -y

after installing reboot the system to get the icon in the notification area.

This article has been written based on my experiences in hoping that this might help some in the future. I wish you guys good luck and please let me know if you find a better solution than this.