J_K9 @ Linux

HOW TO: Setup a Web-based BitTorrent Client

How many times have you been stuck at work when the latest episode of a podcast such as LugRadio has become available for download, or the latest version of your favourite Linux distribution has been released? Wouldn’t it be really useful if you could access a server at home through your web browser and order it to download that file, so that it’s waiting for you when you get there? Or, if you like to sleep in peace with your desktop off, wouldn’t it be great if you could remotely access a BitTorrent client on the home server in your attic and tell it to run the downloads while you sleep?

The simple answer? Yes, it would: and I’m going to show you exactly how to set it up.

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Mini-Tut: An Introduction to Jobs

No, sorry, I’m not introducing you to Steve Jobs (even if you really want to meet him, don’t bother contacting me for his details - I’ve never spoken to him in my life ;)).

Rather, this is a short introduction to running multiple jobs on Linux. Have you ever been working in the console and had to wait for the current command to finish before running the next one? Or, have you had to open multiple terminal emulator windows to get around this (if you did this from the GUI)? Well, there’s an even easier way to get around this - put a job into the background, and just let it tell you when it’s done. Clean, simple, and extremely useful - and while this is merely a comment on a blog post, it deserves to be given the name “Mini-Tut” on its own merit: click here to read this outstanding mini-tutorial!

Tutorial: Spiffing Up Ubuntu

I have written a Ubuntu tutorial to help new users get up and running, with instructions to set up your graphics card, install all the apps you need to turn Ubuntu into a desktop distribution, and even get the swanking graphical effects offered by XGL and Compiz working properly! Read the tutorial on TAZForum.

I would post it here, but I’m trying to help attract more members to the forum - so why not pop over to TAZForum? You’re more than welcome to join and post to your heart’s content

And don’t forget to leave a comment on my tutorial if you join!

Please Digg It as well

HOW TO: Record Videos Of Your Desktop

Have you ever wanted to take a video of your sleek desktop, with your customised icons, window manager, GKrellM, and whatnot? Or make a video of cool XGL effects? Or a video tutorial to teach a few friends how to use a certain application? If you have, then this tutorial is for you.

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HOW TO: Setup A CS:Source Dedicated Server

The purpose of this tutorial is to teach you how to set up a dedicated server (using Steam) for a game or mod based on the Source engine, like Half-Life 2 (HL2) or Counter-Strike:Source (CS:S). I personally prefer Counter-Strike:Source, as it is a realistic and enjoyable First Person Shooter (FPS), so I will focus on setting it up.

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HOW TO: Setup DVD And Video Playback

Many Linux distributions don’t bring full support for movies and DVD’s due to legal issues, and this can be a serious bummer if you want to play your new copy of ‘Fight Club’. So, here’s how to set up the necessary files so that you’ll be watching it in no time!

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HOW TO: Secure Your Box With Bastille

Bastille is a hardening tool which is very effective at locking down your system, and all it requires is a few minutes of your time! It is currently available for the major Linux distributions: SUSE, Mandrake (the available RPM should work with Mandriva), Fedora Core, Red Hat, Debian, and Gentoo, and it is also available for HP-UX and Mac OS X, as well as the source code which can be compiled on most *nix systems. In this tutorial I shall take you through the steps of installing it and setting it up properly in order to secure your system better than before. Please note that this tutorial is designed for users new to Linux, and so may be slightly cumbersome for the more advanced users out there.

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HOW TO: Linux For Primers

Welcome to the world of Linux. Correctly referred to as GNU/Linux, it is a full Open Source Operating System with its kernel, and there are many different distributions of it. Each of those distributions (or ‘distros’) are different flavours of Linux - some bring a different GUI desktop environment (so that it looks completely different on-screen - see KDE and Gnome), others have certain applications which others do not (for example: some bring the Instant Messaging application Kopete while others bring Gaim), the choice of package manager varies between them (like APT or Yum), and many other configurations. You can find more information on Linux at Wikipedia.

Today, we shall be using a distro called Mandriva, and its 2006 release. I have chosen it as this tutorial’s distro because it is very easy to use, brings a wide range of applications, and works brilliantly out of the box (or the ISO, in this case!) - all in all, it is highly suitable for those trying Linux for the first time. Click here to download Mandriva-Linux-Free-2006-DVD.i586.iso. This ISO is a DVD image file, and once it has finished downloading, burn it using one of the methods described on LinuxISO.com - although if you do not want to wade through all that information, just download the free BurnAtOnce to burn it to a DVD+R/DVD-R.

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Quick HOW TO: Decrease OpenOffice.org’s Loading Time

OpenOffice.org is a renowned international Open Source office suite, which aims to compete with Microsoft Office (and indeed, many users have switched to it). Yet, there is one visible annoyance associated with it - that it takes a long time to load. But, this loading time can be decreased by up to three times by disabling Java in the suite.

To do this, open up any OpenOffice.org application (like Writer) and go to:

Tools -> Options -> OpenOffice.org (expand this menu) -> Java, and deselect the “Use a Java Runtime” tickbox. This will stop Java support in OpenOffice.org, and while it can inhibit the use of some features, they are probably features which you will never use.

This information was gathered from the comments on digg.com

Quick HOW TO: Increase Firefox’s Page Rendering Speed

For some, this hack works miracles and decreases page loading time vastly, but for others only a slight difference is noticed: I shall leave the verdict up to you. What this simple tweak does is disable IPv6 support in Firefox, and as the vast majority of the internet still uses IPv4, this will not pose a problem for the near future. Plus, you will get a free speed upgrade!

Go into Firefox and type the following into the address bar: about:config
Then, when the page loads, scroll down to network.dns.disableIPv6, right-click on it and select “Toggle”. Its value will now become “True”.

Now visit your favourite websites - you should see a decrease in its loading time.