Firefox slowness on Ubuntu 10.04 and 10.10

I've been experiencing a very annoying slow browsing experience on my Firefox but I've found a fix for it. Type about:config in the address bar and hit enter.

from there you should see a list of configuration lines. Look for the following:

- network.dns.disableIPV6 

- network.http.pipelining

- network.http.proxy.pipelining

on all of these click with the right button and toggle them from false to true. Lastly look for

-network.http.proxy.pipelining.maxrequests

change this one from whatever is there (2 in my case) to 8

I hope this helps.

Vim - what's so special about this text editor?

I've heard about Vi and Vim a few hundred times since I've started my exploration of the Linux world. Up until today, I thought the only real reason people like using Vim is because of the ease of use when programming and features that apparently allow technical text editing at a different level. At this point I can't say I will ever understand what is so special about Vim, but I definitely found a use for it.

I have been looking for ways to safely store my passwords electronically. I have moved away from the basic text file with all the info for a while, but I do miss having that kind of accessibility. Well, I found out Vim may offer an interesting option for me, which is to read and edit encrypted text files. So I may be able to go back to my simple text password storage, and still be safe. If you are interested in this topic here is some more info for you:

Downloading Vim is pretty simple, especially if you are using ubuntu (or any other ?buntu). Vim is easily found in the Ubuntu Software Centre, you can get it through Synaptic Package Manager as well. As I'm not 100% familiar with Vim yet, I can't explain what the add-ons do yet. Getting Vim via the terminal is also pretty easy, and that's how I got it for my laptop:

$ sudo apt-get install vim

This however will only get you the terminal version of Vim, which is a bit tricky to get started with. There are some useful tutorials out there for anyone interested in how to work with Vim on a terminal. It certainly seems full featured, but the learning curve is there for new users. Alternatively there is also a GNOME GUI version of Vim that may interest you more (this is called gvim in Ubuntu). To install such application you may use the terminal by typing:

$ sudo apt-get install vim-gnome

The  interesting use I have been talking about for Vim, is the ability to encrypt files using Vim very easily. Just to get you started on how to work with Vim, you can use this URL to help you getting a grasp of the basics.

Once you know how to create, open and save a file, as well as how to insert text you can use the following command in the terminal to create an encrypted file, which will require a password to be opened. Very handy! If this file does end up in the wrong hands somehow, it can be opened with any text editor, but it will simply look like gibberish.

$ vim -x filename.txt

Once you create your file you will be prompted for a password, just make sure you don't forget this password of course. I'm not sure how you go about creating this encrypted file using the GUI version of Vim (gvim), however once you create this file using the terminal version of Vim, you can open and edit the file via the GUI Vim.

xfce4 application finder for Ubuntu

I've been running Ubuntu on both my laptop and desktop, however I'm not using Unity on my laptop just to conserve some resources. One of my favorite features of Unity however is the lens to look for applications by name, for anyone not familiar, it is basically a "search engine" for your PC. As you type the name of the program or file you are looking for, a list starts to populate, and if I'm not mistaken, this list takes into account how frequently you use those apps. Anyway, it's pretty great, but my laptop is just using the old GNOME interface and some of my apps apparently don't show up on the regular menu, so I was wondering how to open them as a Linux noobie. I found a great little tool to search for apps inside your HD, this is called xfce4, and it shows up in your Applications > Accessories menu if you are running GNOME and have it installed. You can use this on KDE and Xfce as well, I don't believe this comes installed with any of the Ubuntu distros, but it's worth checking it out if you don't have Unity running.

To get this little app just type:

$ sudo apt-get update

$ sudo apt-get install xfce4-appfinder

Configuring conky on ubuntu

Hello, so on a previous post I mentioned conky, this great and light system analysis tool for Linux. I mentioned how to get the thing, but I said nothing about how to use it. It turns out conky is not as foolproof as gkrellm2 which I use on my laptop, and since I'm a complete Linux noobie I figured I could write something here about how to get conky going if you are a complete Linux virgin.

So as I mentioned on the other post, downloading it is easy, you can use synaptic or the terminal typing:

$ sudo apt-get install conky

Now once you do that, configuring the thing can be done using gedit. At this point I know what gedit is, but in case you don't, it is just a text editor for GNOME, equivalent to kate from KDE or vi, among others. I use kate on BackTrack but on Ubuntu I've been using gedit. Anyway, to get that going type:

$ gedit ~/.conkyrc

Just to make this noobie proof, ~ is usually used to refer to your /home directory, if you noticed when you open the terminal you see a ~ and that indicates you are on your /home, if you type something like cd /, this will take you to the root directory and you won't see that ~ any longer. Another neat little trick is that you can use cd ~ (change directory) to go to your /home. That means ~/ is leading you to a directory directly under your home, and the period right after the slash indicates this folder is a hidden folder. Neat little fact, unlike windows, in Linux a hidden folder is indicated by it's nomenclature, meaning anything with a period in front of the file name indicates a hidden file/folder.

So as you open this file, if you haven't done this before, your configuration will be blank. This is where you can configure conky to look and do whatever you want, since you probably don't know what you want I will post my configuration so you can just copy that for the time being and change it if you wish, this will be at the bottom of this post, you might need to expand it. Note that I'm a noobie too, I'm still trying to figure out how to get my network info to show up. I will post what my conky looks like when I open it up. So once you finish adding the code you can save the file and close gedit. Go back to the terminal and in order to open conky just type :

conky

... and voilà.

here is what my conky looks like... later I'll post a pic of my two Ubuntu desktops, just cause they looks so sexy (my wife hates when I call things sexy :)

Linux img editor (gimp) and how to change the unity laucher bar on ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhall)... oh and conky

So I've finally installed Ubuntu on my main machine, and my slow transition to Linux has been coming along nicely. My first Linux install was the 11.04 (Natty) which was the first Ubuntu version to come with the unity shell interface. This has a lot of users kind of upset. Since I didn't really know much about the previous gnome interface I didn't find it too bad. The only problem I faced in my first install was the fact that unity was fairly resource intensive for my crappy laptop. Let me clarify this, it was more intense than the GNOME interface but it was still a major improvement from my Windows XP install in that same computer. After I discover I could easily change my laptop to the "classic interface" I decided to do that. This made my Ubuntu so much smoother on that computer that I am definitely happy to give up the interesting layout that comes with Unity. If you don't know how to do that, it's very easy... when you boot your Ubuntu and come to the login screen, select your user and you will notice a few things change in the bottom bar, and it should say "Ubuntu" there. Click on it and change it to the "Ubuntu Classic" option, that's all. If you need even more RAM it may even be better to pick the "no effects" option.

Anyhow, I have now installed Ubuntu on my desktop as well and on this one I will keep the unity interface, just cause it looks nice and I can afford the resources it will eat up. The only issue I have with it at this point is the fact that I think the bar is a bit too bulky, and I want a bigger looking workspace. So I just found out how to get around this issue.

First download and install the compizconfig-settings-manager
$ sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager

Then open the compizconfig-settings-manager by clicking on the Ubuntu button on the top left of your desktop and type:
compiz

At this point you should see the CompizConfig Settings Manager icon, click on that. A Screen similar to the system monitor will pop open. There will be some categories like General, Accessibility, Desktop and so forth (picture below). From there look for "Ubuntu Unity Plugin" which is under Desktop.

At this point look for the tab experimental and look for launcher icon size which should be set to 48 from default, I ended up picking 36 which made the icons to a nice size, but test it out and see what works for you.

Conky: I'm also trying out another system manager program called Conky. It's similar to the other one I've posted before but may be a bit more customizable and more lightweight, I'll try it out and let you guys know how it is. Here is a link to it and the command to get it from the terminal:

http://conky.sourceforge.net/documentation.html
$ sudo apt-get install conky

GIMP: On a completely different topic, I just wanted to mention GIMP Image Editor. It is a image editor like Adobe Photoshop. The beauty is that this is an open source project and it is cross platform, so I can easily use it on my windows and my linux without any hassle. To get this gem you can either use your Synaptic Package Manager and look for gimp or you can pick it up through the terminal (Ctrl + Alt + t) by typing:

These two just update your repo lists (not a bad idea to do that every now and then)

$ sudo apt-get update

$ sudo apt-get upgrade

Then to install GIMP

$ sudo apt-get install gimp

In general I do like using Synaptic cause I'm a Linux noobie, but I am trying to get into terminal use as much as I can. For some more brushes and plugins if you want you can also type:

$ sudo apt-get install gimp-data-extras

$ sudo apt-get install gimp-plugin-registy

Just as an extra here is a nice link with some suggestions for basic applications for fresh ubuntu installs, worth taking a look if you want more stuff on your linux. Also while writing this I've been listening to this great guy playing some music on youtube, his name is Viktor Cepeda. He does an awesome song for minecraft too, check it out.

Delving into Linux - wget, metasploit (Ubuntu) and searching for files

I've been spending a significant amount of time learning more about Ubuntu lately and I have to say, Linux impresses me more every day. I figured I should share some of my most recent finding with my readers.

wget - This command line tool comes on Ubuntu out of the box, and probably other linux distros as well I would imagine. It is great for downloading things, giving you the ability to resume unfinished downloads as well as being quite a persistent little app. Not only that, but it also allows you to download full websites through it, which I still haven't learned how to use. Anyway, here are some links to help you get started using this tool.

15 wget examples
Download an entire website (saved on your home folder by default)
http://www.go2linux.org/limit_rate_resume_downloads_wget

Metasploit - This is a popular pentesting framework that I first discovered in my BackTrack distro. I wanted to start learning how to use MSF on my Ubuntu distro and this guide helped me get it setup fairly easily

http://www.redspin.com/blog/2011/08/19/installing-metasploit-4-in-ubuntu-11-04/

Recoll - This great little tool allows you to search through your computer files. It is an open source application available for many different distros and it is not terribly bulky to run. I tried google desktop but that didn't quite work out for me.


http://www.lesbonscomptes.com/recoll/