Posts Tagged ‘ Ubuntu

Announcing: Ubuntu User Days!

Ubuntu User Days was created to be a set of courses offered during a one day period to teach the beginning or intermediate Ubuntu user the basics to get them started with Ubuntu.  This will be held on Saturday, January 23rd, 2010.  There will be both an English and Spanish version of this, and perhaps more languages to come.

Here’s a list of the topics that will be covered:

  • Introduction
  • Switching to Ubuntu & Installation
  • Command Line Basics
  • Finding Helpful Resources
  • Restricted Drivers
  • Using Launchpad
  • Seahorse and GnuPG
  • Chosing Hardware That Works With Ubuntu
  • Partitioning 101
  • Ubuntu Equivalent Programs
  • Getting Involved in the Ubuntu Community
  • Trusted Software, Where to Find it, and Why
  • Package Management Basics
  • Using Ubuntu One
  • Using IRC

Excited already?  Here’s how you can participate!

If you don’t have an IRC client installed, or don’t even know what an IRC client is, then you might want to try connecting to the channels using a web browser.  Click here to join in the discussion directly in your browser.

Use your IRC client (such as xchat, irssi or mIRC) to connect to the Freenode IRC network at irc.freenode.net. You can do this manually by typing:

/server irc.freenode.net

Then join #ubuntu-classroom for the time and date of the session you want to attend. You can manually join the channel by typing:

/join #ubuntu-classroom

To quiet various noise that happens in the IRC channels during the talk use this command (in supported clients only):

/ignore #ubuntu-classroom CRAP NOTICES SNOTES CTCPS JOINS PARTS QUITS KICKS MODES WALLOPS NICKS DCC DCCMSGS CLIENTNOTICES CLIENTCRAP CLIENTERRORS HILIGHTS

For more information, visit https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UserDays.

Upgrade Ubuntu Karmic Koala from 32bit to 64bit with encrypted /home

I was deciding if I wanted to take advantage of running on a 64bit kernel on Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala, and I really had no reason to stick with 32bit. 64bit allows better performance, and has been reported to be as stable as 32bit while being faster.

I have been hesitant about upgrading in the past to 64bit for a number of reasons:  application support, driver support, flash support, etc.  Doing some reading lately (here, and here), I decided it’s time to leave 32bit in the dust and jump on the 64bit bandwagon.  If my hardware supports it, why not?

The next question I had was with my encrypted /home partition.  Is it as easy as reinstalling with the same options (read on, you’ll find out!)?  Will I have to copy my data elsewhere and copy back over when I’m done?  Can I upgrade in-place or do I have to reinstall entirely?  Is my laptop going to asplode?

My partitioning is as follows:

Screenshot--dev-sda - GParted

Screenshot--dev-sda - GParted

I was concerned about not having 64bit Karmic Koala pick-up/use my encrypted home directory automatically on login.  I decided to throw up a virtual machine of Karmic with the /home on a separate partition and used the encryption option on the user-creation box.  I then reinstalled the 64bit version on top of that using the same /home mountpoint, formatting the / mountpoint, installed with the same encryption option selected, and checked to see that a document that I had created on the Desktop was still there.  Lo-and-behold (where did that saying come from, anyway?) I had success!  The only thing left to do was the actual upgrade.

Before you start, make sure you have a proper backup of your data.  There’s the steps I used:

  • Downloaded the 64bit ISO and installed that to my USB drive
  • Booted from the USB drive
  • Formatted /dev/sda1 as ext4 and set mountpoint as /, used /dev/sda5 as ext4 and set mountpoint /home (do not format this)
  • Used the same username, password, checked the “automatically decrypt” option on the user creation form
  • Install!

I logged in and all of my settings and data were there as expected.  I only had to reinstall some programs that aren’t installed by default that I use, (chromium-browser, skype, etc).   Also, I am a good boy and have a backup of my home directory (which I can discuss in a later post) just in case it went bad.

I can now ride the wave of the future (with style) on 64bit Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala! I hope this may be of use for some people.

Release Party: Success!

I’m going to call the Wisconsin LoCo Release Party a big success!  We ended up filling the tables with 16 participants from two states ranging in location from Minocqua, WI to the Twin Cities, MN, amateur users to professionals, and developers to enthusiasts.

A few people started off ordering some appetizers and beverages to drink.  I had a tri-fold brochure (upload link to come) with some information about what a LoCo is, what is new in Ubuntu 9.10, and what Ubuntu really means waiting at each seat.  Along with the brochure, I had a small pad of paper, a pen, a Powered by Ubuntu sticker from system76, and a sticker for the super (usually looks like the Windows logo) key.

Tony Yarusso drove over from the Twin Cities and brought interest surveys, name tags, and some shiny/metalic Powered by Ubuntu stickers.  Brian from Computer Renaissance brought over a few door prizes:  Microsoft Wireless Desktop keyboard and mouse, two USB keyboard lights, and a fitted hat.  Along with the door prizes, he brought some mousepads.

After people conversed for a while, we did introductions around the table, followed by door prizes.  ripps was quite elated to win the wireless desktop.

ripps won!

A few more pictures of the event:

DSC04421 DSC04417 DSC04413 DSC04416

Or you can see them all here.

Thanks again to all those who attended, I hope we can have more activity in the future.